Did King Tutankhamun have to travel with a passport?

August 17, 2007 11:23 AM

Did King Tutankhamun have to travel with a passport?

I read once that the body/mummy of King Tut had to travel with an Egyptian passport, as he is a dead person and dead people get special treatment when being transported internationally. But I cannot find a reference for this anywhere. Does anyone have any idea whether this is true or not?

posted by GuyZero to law & government (12 comments total)

Googling 'King Tutankhamun passport' returned this hit about passport wielding pharoahs.
posted by dance at 11:31 AM on August 17, 2007

I don't think that King Tut has ever left Egypt.
posted by amro at 11:37 AM on August 17, 2007

Wikipedia says it's Ramesses II, but of course there is no source, so take from that what you will.
posted by grouse at 11:48 AM on August 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

ah-ha. Having the wrong Pharaoh would explain why all my googling was for naught.
posted by GuyZero at 12:05 PM on August 17, 2007

I don't think that King Tut has ever left Egypt.

I saw him, or at least his stuff, in Koln in the late 70s.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:42 PM on August 17, 2007

Hi stuff, not him.
posted by amro at 12:55 PM on August 17, 2007

Oops, his stuff.
posted by amro at 12:55 PM on August 17, 2007

I don't think that King Tut has ever left Egypt.

He's been to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) at least twice.
posted by sharkfu at 12:56 PM on August 17, 2007

No, it's just his stuff. Really.
posted by amro at 1:12 PM on August 17, 2007

They did not have passports back then.
posted by nomad at 3:15 PM on August 17, 2007

They did not have passports back then.

Well, even if they did, a living Head of State wouldn't need one.
posted by grouse at 3:55 PM on August 17, 2007

If the LA exhibit in 2005 (linked to above) is the same as the Chicago 2006 exhibit (very likely), it was just King Tut's stuff, as well as possessions of other pharoahs, minus the famous golden mask. A very disappointing exhibit as well, I must say. (Most of the stuff "may have belonged to someone thought to be Tut's aunt," for example.)
posted by IndigoRain at 5:44 PM on August 18, 2007