Go See an Ancient Corpse With Buck Teeth!

By Alicia Dorr in Arts & Entertainment on May 11, 2006 6:00PM

More than two and a half weeks before the exhibit is set to open, the Field Museum has already reported it has sold 170,000 tickets to see King Tutankhamun. No, we didn’t add too many zero’s on that.

While the exhibit will be in Chicago until New Year’s Day next year, the idea is, basically, don’t dilly dally, lollygag or tarry at all if you want to see the ancient Egyptian boy wonder. It will certainly be worth it. The traveling exhibit, which opens May 26, has not been to Chicago since the late 70s, when 1.3 million visitors saw crazy ‘ol Tut.

Speaking of crazy ‘ol Tut, this time around you should come packing some knowledge so you can wow the hordes and hordes and hordes and hordes of other visitors. For one thing, the king died at 19. Oh yeah, and don’t be fooled by his boyish good looks: The wooden box they stuck him in is what he may have wished he looked like when he saw himself reflected in the Nile as an awkward post-pubescent kid with buck teeth and a “recessed chin.”

Anyway, museum workers have started setting out all the artifacts that accompanied King Tutankhamun from his last temporary home in Ft. Lauderdale, where nearly 710,000 visitors went to see him. Pshhh, we can beat that.

Image via maceachern.carleton.ca.