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AN OBSCURE FACE
OF THE FAMOUS KING

Saturday, October 22, 2022

In today’s newsletter, we glimpse at how our latest cover was made, dive into the legendary Tut discovery, reconsider health advice from TikTok, spin with famous high flyers in Mexico … and go courtside with playful pickleball portraits.

The cover of National Geographic magazine with a portrait of a statue of King Tut

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SANDRO VANNINI

The statue of Tutankhamun on the cover of our November issue is not the usual representation of the Egyptian boy king. It was one of two statues of Tut guarding his opulent tomb, which was discovered with great fanfare a century ago.

Photographer Sandro Vannini was fascinated by guardians, depicting Tut as Osiris, god of the underworld, its skin painted black as a symbol of death. He took 48 photos of a statue, then combined them for the cover image. His work sought to capture the emotion of the boy king, Vannini tells Nat Geo’s Sylvia Mphofe and Emily Martin.

“Taking a photo means nothing,” he says, “if others don’t see it.”

See the discovery of Tut here.

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Two statues guard a door

PHOTOGRAPH BY HARRY BURTON

A treasure is found: Life-size statues that guarded the burial chamber when it was found 100 years ago. The cover image was stitched together from about 48 photos of the guardian statue on the left. Read: How Tut was discovered

A golden necklace of an eagle

What did he carry to the afterlife? Tutankhamun died unexpectedly in his late teens. Much of the jewelry in his tomb was likely made for his burial, but this exquisite falcon-shaped pendant shows signs of wear and was likely his personal belonging. Read: Tut’s 5,000 treasures, by the numbers

A golden chair

The king’s seat: Tut’s throne features a tender scene. His queen, Ankhesenamun, rubs him with perfumed oil as they bask under the sun. See: Unwrapping the mummy

A life-size statue of Tut with adolescent features

Forever young: Tutankhamun was only eight or nine years old when he became pharaoh. This life-size wooden statue may capture his actual, youthful appearance. Read: The discovery that dazzled the world

Not enough Tut?
—10 key things to know about the discovery
—Who the heck was Tut?
—What would you take into the afterlife? Here’s what ancient Egyptians did.

STORIES WE'RE FOLLOWING

New psychedelics are emerging—without the bad trip

How Dante’s nightmarish—and enduring—Inferno came to be

Why does our body let cancer in?

A century ago, this dictator pioneered fascism—and wrecked a nation

A much more virulent monkeypox strain is spreading through Central Africa. Will it go elsewhere?

A billion people will be celebrating a triumph of good over evil

Lessons learned since superstorm Sandy

Why you shouldn’t make health choices based on TikTok

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Four people dangle by their feet while spinning around a pole

VIDEO BY VALERIA LUONGO

Dance of the Flyers: It’s an act of beauty and grace meant to inspire the gods to behave with similar kindness. The tradition of spinning upside-down from a high pole (pictured above) has been passed down through the generations and reserved only for men. However, a new era of women flyers is growing and opening the door for others to follow, Nat Geo reports.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

A snake holds a frog in its mouth

PHOTOGRAPH BY @JAVIER_AZNAR_PHOTOGRAPHY

Croaked: A yellow eyelash viper makes quick work of a masked tree frog in Chocó Forest, a threatened biodiversity hotspot in Ecuador. The viper earned its name from the long scales that extend over its eyes like eyelashes. And just below those split pupils? Heat-detecting pits that spelled a bad day for the frog. Want more animal news? New snake species are coming out of the ground in Ecuador.

LAST GLIMPSE

Colorful portraits of pickleball players

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KENDRICK BRINSON

Being distinctive: Photographer Kendrick Brinson tried to do something different for our story on America’s fastest-growing sport: pickleball. Above left, Clay Hess poses for a portrait between matches at Washington State’s biggest outdoor tournament. Above right, pickleball pro J. "Gizmo" Hall, who mentors at-risk youth, poses with his wife, Laine, and their two children—Evalyn, 11, and David, 9—on the court next to their home in Goldvein, Virginia.

This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, Heather Kim, and Sydney Combs. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Alec Egamov, Rita Spinks, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Have an idea? We’d love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for reading!

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