By Charly SHELTON

The treasures of the boy king are on tour for the last time. As they await their new resting place in the currently-under-construction Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, the burial goods of King Tutankhamun are embarking on a farewell tour to the California Science Center in Los Angeles and then nine cities in Europe before returning to Egypt forever. To make this final tour bigger than ever, there are over 150 artifacts from Tut’s tomb, 60 of which have never left Egypt before. To put it in comparison, the traveling exhibition, which visited Los Angeles in 1978, had only 55 artifacts.

The mummy and the iconic death mask sarcophagus are not part of the current exhibit as it focuses more on what tools, weapons, ritual items and goods were interred with Tut to help him navigate his passage through the underworld. Above most of the display cases at the California Science Center are excerpts from the Egyptian Book of the Dead and translations of spells that are carved in the tomb, on the coffin and over various objects sent along with him to the afterlife.

Check CV Weekly’s Travel and Leisure section next week for full coverage of the exhibit, including comments from the show organizers, Mayor Eric Garcetti and a special interview with famed archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass.

  Charly Shelton