A face only a mummy could love

King Tut’s mummified face was unveiled for the first time in public -- more than 3,000 years after the Egyptian pharaoh was shrouded in linen and buried.

Archeologists carefully lifted the fragile mummy out of a quartz sarcophagus decorated with stone-carved protective goddesses in his tomb in Luxor, momentarily pulling aside a beige covering to reveal a leathery black body.

The linen was then replaced over Tut’s narrow body so only his face and tiny feet were exposed, and the king, who died at 19, was moved to a simple glass climate-controlled case to keep his body from turning to dust.

Egypt’s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said scientists began restoring the badly damaged mummy more than two years ago. The body was broken 85 years ago, when archeologists moved it and tried to pull off its golden mask, Hawass said.

Thousands of tourists visit the underground chamber every month, and Hawass said the heat and humidity they bring could dissolve the mummy to dust within 50 years.