There is a travelling Tutankhamun exhibition in town, with replicas of all the contents of his grave.

Beautiful and interesting, especially the parts where the treasures were presented in heaps and piles just as they were found in the burial chamber. But it was all so bright and shiny and clean that it truly felt as fake as it was. It definitely did not feel thousands of years old.

I knew that pharaohs were buried with all sorts of treasures for the afterlife, as well as figurines to act as their servants. And I guess almost everybody is familiar with Tutankhamun’s burial mask. I was not aware, though, of just how many layers of coffins and shrines there were protecting his mummified remains. Inside the tomb were four shrines inside each other, then a stone sarcophagus, and finally three nested coffins. The coffins are iconic and often photographed, but the shrines were new to me.