Little was known of Tutankhamun prior to Howard Carters methodical detective work, but the discovery of his tomb and the amazing contents it held ultimately ensured this boy king of the Immortality he sought.

It is believed that Akhenaten and a lesser wife named Kiya were the parents of Tutankhaten, as Tutankhamun was known at first.

Soon after the deaths of Akhenaten and Smenkhkare, Tutankhaten became a Boy King at the age of about nine. He married a slightly older Ankhesenpaaten, one of the daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti.

After the ousting of the Aten power base they changed their names to Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun to reflect the return to favour of the Amun hierarchy.

Due to his young age, Tutankhamun would not have been responsible for the real decision making. This would have been handled by two high officials, Ay (possibly the father of Nefertiti) and Horemheb, commander-in-chief of the army.

Sometime around the ninth year of Tutankhamun's reign, possibly 1325 B.C., he died. There is evidence of an injury to the skull that had time to partly heal. He may have suffered an accident, such as falling from his horse-drawn chariot, or perhaps he was murdered. No one knows. Ay oversaw Tutankhamun's burial arrangements which lasted 70 days.

Due to Tutankhamun having no heirs, Ay became Pharaoh and took Ankhesenamun as his queen to legitimise his rule. What happened to her after that is not known. Ay ruled for only four years and after his death Horemheb grabbed power. He soon obliterated evidence of the reigns of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ay and substituted his own name on many monuments.