CAIRO - Australia is getting ready to give Ancient Egyptian King Tutankhamun, due in Melbourne next month, a royal welcome. During his visit to Australia, King Tut will be escorted by a number of members of the royal family and their entourage in the form of 140 artefacts, including, for the first time, a statue of Tutankhamun's father, King Akhenaton. According to Zahi Hawas, the Secretary- General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, DNA testing has proved that King Akhenaton was indeed Tutankhamun's biological father. Hawas also disclosed that Akhenaton was the son of King Amenhotep. Meanwhile, King Tut's exhibits in Japan will include his two gold-coated wooden statues, one of which is surmounted with the crown of Upper Egypt and the other with the crown of Lower Egypt. The exhibits also include a gold crown, surmounted with the royal cobra and eagle's head, as well as the King's gold pendant, studded with precious stones. The pendant also contains a scarab-like talisman, made of green stone. Like the Americans, the Australians will also get the chance to admire the King's gilded wooden fan inscribed with illustrations of him riding his chariot while hunting. Around one million fans of Egypt's ancient history in Australia are preparing to welcome the young King, who is currently on a five-year global tour to help raise funds for the construction of the Grand Museum near the Giza Pyramids. Tutankhamun is currently visiting the US, while there are suggestions that the youthful monarch should continue his global tour to Japan, before coming home to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo for a well-earned rest. More than eight million people across the world have so far lined up to welcome the popular King. According to Egyptian archaeological officials, Tutankhamun's escorts (the artefacts) have been insured for more than $650 million. Informed of the value of the young King's insurance policy, officials at New York's internationally famous Metropolitan Museum were compelled to withdraw an offer they had previously made to entertain the Egyptian King there, during his stay in the Big Apple. Informed of the financial problems of the Metropolitan Museum, officials working for the National Geographic magazine quickly stepped in, offering to sponsor the royal visit to the US. Accordingly, Tutankhamun flew to Los Angeles instead of New York, where the director of LA's art museum confidently predicted that more than one million people would come and pay their respects to King Tut and his entourage. After spending 3,000 years in Egypt, it was 30 years ago that Tutankhamun decided that he would benefit from a short holiday abroad. He firstly flew to cooler climes, in the Swiss city of Basel, where officials in the city's museum entertained him at a cost of about five million Swiss francs. According to Hawas, around 750,000 Swiss people welcomed the respected monarch. The spectacular treasures of Tutankhamun, which include his gold mask, were unearthed in his ancient tomb in Luxor on November 4, 1922, by Howard Carter. The British archaeologist's discovery was the world's greatest find of the 20th century.
