Golden Tomb of King Tut of Egypt finally Opened

It is the first time the coffin of 'King Tut' has been removed from the 3,300-year-old tomb since it was discovered in 1922.

The crook and flail (pictured) were symbols of the king's right to rule.

The outer coffin of Tutankhamun has been removed from its sterilisation tent before it undergoes a painstaking eight-month restoration process.

The gilded sarcophagus of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh now lies in the restoration laboratory of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, which lies on the outskirts Cairo, Egypt.

Pictures reveal the intricate reliefs on the foot of the golden sarcophagus which were carved into the outer wood covering of the coffin.

Inside the box-like structure of the sarcophagus were three coffins to house the body of the king.

The innermost coffin is made of solid gold, while the middle coffin is made with gilded wood, inlaid with multi-coloured glass.

A closer look at the reliefs on the foot of the golden sarcophagus of the ancient Pharaoh.

Tutankhamun was buried in the Valley of the Kings and discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922.

The casket was removed in a tight security operation, and fumigated for seven days.

Restoration will now continue using non-invasive equipment to repair cracks to the golden layers and fix weakened areas

After mechanical and chemical engineering has taken place, any layers of plaster that have broken away will be replaced in their original location.

Restoration process of the tomb will last eight months as Egyptian archaeologists inspect the base of the coffin. Tutankhamun, known as the 'Golden Pharaoh', ruled from the age of eight to 19 and was known as the boy pharaoh

Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, and ruled between 1332 BC and 1323 BC.

He was the son of Akhenaten and took to the throne at the age of nine or ten.

When he became king, he married his half-sister, Ankhesenpaaten.

He died at around the age of 18 and his cause of death is unknown.

In 1907, Lord Carnarvon George Herbert asked English archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter to supervise excavations in the Valley of the Kings.

On 4 November 1922, Carter's group found steps that led to Tutankhamun's tomb.

He spent several months cataloguing the antechamber before opening the burial chamber and discovering the sarcophagus in February 1923.

When the tomb was discovered in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter, under the patronage of Lord Carnarvon, the media frenzy that followed was unprecedented.

Carter and his team took 10 years to clear the tomb of its treasure because of the multitude of objects found within it.

For many years, Tut embodies ancient Egypt's glory because his tomb was packed with the glittering wealth of the rich 18th Dynasty from 1569 to 1315 BC.