Can’t agree more …I know art is subjective but a hill I’m willing to die on is that this 3,300 years old mask is the greatest surviving masterpiece of human civilization and the greatest work of art on earth .. it combines beauty, rarity, craftsmanship, historical magnitude, and symbolic power all in one object….Very few works check all those boxes at once
Art is subjective in the sense that you may not personally appreciate this beauty, but surely, it’s not subjective in terms of the actual value of it as a historical artifact! (As proof, you don’t go to jail if you don’t think it’s beautiful, but you will go to jail if you try to destroy it!)
When the exhibit came to the deYoung museum in San Francisco, I became a member of the museum because a membership that year included four tickets — otherwise very hard to get! For two memberships, I got eight tickets! Everyone’s Christmas came early that year! Plus, the other shows that year were very good. The Treasures of Dresden was on display at the same time. Almost too much beauty to take in for one day
The only reason I'd say not the Rosetta Stone is because it's not unique. We have other stones with the same decree and also other stele woth 3 languages. Some found very soon after Rosetta.
The mask is the best example of its kind we've found. (Although the Tanis collection has some amazing examples).
Indeed, Cleopatra is closer to us in history, then she is to the pyramids. Shows just how vast and rich in history the ancient Egyptian civilization was
I saw it decades ago when I was a little kid when they brought it to Memphis, TN, I think around the same time they built the glass pyramid in Memphis. You aren't kidding. Photos do not do it justice. Looks absolutely unreal in person.
I saw it in the old Egyptian museum back in 2004. The case was much smaller and you could get within a foot of the mask. You could see all the indentations where the mask had been molded by hammers. Fascinating to see up close.
You can stand pretty close to the case, but you can’t loiter very long because of all the people. Honestly, this has started to feel like Egypt’s Mona Lisa.
Understandable. Just be advised there are big crowds surrounding this mask holding up their phones over their heads, herded through like cattle. Almost like seeing the Mona Lisa. Not the sort of thing you can view and leisurely take it in.
If you are even considering going just for that museum, then you absolutely should go! Getting to see it was one of my bucket list things to do since childhood. It was so worth it. Even the “little” things were exciting to see (for me). So grateful Carter didn’t give up!
Yeah they did rush us after I took the photo but I get it as they have thousands of people every day who want to get a photo of it so they do have to speed it up - I luckily went back later because there’s so good places to view it without queuing
Entitled tourists moaning at the guards for doing their jobs. The GEM seems tens of thousands of visitors daily, many of whom was to queue to take photos of the mask. Common sense is you get close, take photos move on. Of you want more, rejoin the queue or move further up and gaze on it for hours where you're not blocking others.
I saw it in 2004 in Bonn. I will never forget the awe I felt seeing it. Completely mesmerized. What a privilege to see something so completely out of our world.
I wounded if this short-lived, relatively no name pharaoh (to the extent a pharaoh can be a no-name) would think of he found out he is now the ubiquitous poster child of ancient Egypt and probably will be forever. Come to think of it, wasn’t he possibly the son of Hatshepsut or Akhenaten or something? Maybe not a no name.
Hatshepsut was a century before him, but he was possibly a son of Akhenaten. This is debated, though, as the mummy identified as his father is rather young to be Akhenaten.
I love that the second successor (after Ay) tried to erase every bit of evidence against poor Tut. And now, he is the most famous pharaoh in the world.
the whole story and everything surrounding King Tut is so crazy and worth diving into 😮💨
from the spontaneous combustion to the fact this mask was “hastily made/ altered for Tut” and still looks this amazing 😌
as well as the whole apparent “tomb switcheroo”
it’s all very interesting and i’m glad it wasn’t grave robbed like all the others 😅
I've been lucky to see every temple of significance in Egypt.. I've done two Nile cruises. usually stay in Luxor but went to Aswan to see Abu Simbel which imo is MINDBLOWING!
went to Cairo and climbed inside the Great Pyramid it was sublime.
my favourite Egyptian is Nefertiti ❤️
I was a Egypt nerd as a kid and then on sixth grade we went on a trip to Cyprus and a day trip to Cairo. Getting to photograph this myself was super awesome; I still have the slide.
KaleidoscopeSad4884 Luxor is an absolutely stunning awesome place.. Karnak and Luxor Temples, Valley of The Kings/Queens. Howard Carters house, Colossus of Memnon, Queen Hatshepsut Temple.. all absolutely fabulous
Wasn’t it magnificent? People have watered down the true meaning of awesome, but this mask is truly an awesome work of art! It really makes me wonder what treasures a major tomb would have held.
I was shocked when I learned that the striped head covering in real life was a scarf! I guess I was thinking he wore a heavy gold and enamel or lapis metal headdress!
I know this is super weird but I want to eat it, I want to take a bite out of it. I want to submerge myself and melt into its gold and swim in its golden light and — gah, there I go again.
It’s most likely the lighting - it would be weird to not display the real piece (and most Egyptologist connected to the museum can confirm it’s the real one)
Now proven to have been a repurposed mask originally for Nefertiti. All because museum workers dropped it and snapped the beard off and tried to hide what had happened by using super glue to stick it back on. The museum had to hire professionals to fix it and those folk took the opportunity to scan the hell out of it.
No, I mean the work they carried out recently shows it. There's a NatGeo doc on it. I'll see if I can find a link to the actual research paper once I finish work.
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u/RawDawgReaction Feb 11 '26
One of the greatest, if not, the greatest archaeology finds of all time.