TUT II

They say you can't take it with you, but Tutankhamun sure tried.

Sent to the afterlife in a solid-gold sarcophagus, the boy king was accompanied by a burial treasure trove so extravagant it included a second sarcophagus, fashioned of gold and semiprecious stones, just to hold his mummified liver.

On Saturday, the glittering liver coffin and 130 other artifacts go on display at the Franklin Institute, as the traveling exhibition "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" begins what promises to be a blockbuster seven-month Philadelphia run. Advance ticket sales have already reached 400,000, the largest presale in the museum's history.

In the late '70s, the first traveling exhibition of King Tut's treasures sparked "Tut-mania." All that gold drew eight million visitors on a seven-city U.S. tour and essentially started the ongoing trend of museum "blockbusters" in this country.

The 2007 show is larger still, and tells a larger story.

Curators have doubled the number of artifacts, with 50 from Tut's tomb and 70 items from the tombs of other royalty and commoners, all of them between 3,300 and 3,500 years old. Tut's royal diadem, taken off his mummified head, and his golden dagger, found wrapped in his death shroud, are joined by the elaborate coffin of his great-grandmother, Tjuya.

The show also delves deeper into Tut's century and the legacy of his likely father, the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, who revolutionized Egyptian religion and society, only to be repudiated by all Egypt, including his son.

"This show is Tut's historical generation," explains national curator David P. Silverman of the University of Pennsylvania. "It's a century of time in Egypt when the empire takes shape, and the first time in history that a single god is worshiped."

And there are new revelations about the boy king. Recent CT scans of his mummy have allowed computer reconstruction of his face; turns out he was slightly bucktoothed, and he did not - as had been suspected - die from a blow to the back of the head, but rather from a broken leg.

Tut's North American tour has drawn 2.8 million viewers in Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Chicago, officials said. Organizers hope 1.3 million will see Tut in Philadelphia before the show closes Sept. 30 and heads overseas to London. If that happens, the economic impact to the region could top $150 million, organizers estimate.

It was no accident that Philadelphia got the exhibition. Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said he had spent seven years living at 43d and Walnut Streets during the 1980s, adding with a smile, "I cannot forget a single day of it."

"I said that if I send King Tut to the States, it has to go to Philadelphia," Hawass told reporters.

And Philadelphia may offer the deepest education of the entire tour, with a simultaneous exhibition at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology called "Amarna: Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun." Also curated by Silverman, it chronicles the rise and fall of Tut's hometown and the man who built it, Tut's probable father, Akhenaten.

In some ways, Akhenaten was the bigger star of Tut's century, and the father's legacy would prove a major bummer for the boy king.

Described as the first revolutionary, Akhenaten rejected the traditional Egyptian gods and decreed that all would worship a single god, Aten the sun-disk, whose living embodiment on earth would be none other than Akhenaten himself.

What's more, Akhenaten abandoned the traditional capitals, Memphis and Thebes, and impelled 20,000 followers to construct a new capital at what is now Amarna. Like an ancient Mao Tse-tung, Akhenaten transformed politics, belief, architecture and even grammar with his so-called Amarna revolution.

Akhenaten's motive may have been madness. Or maybe it was the influence of his wife, Nefertiti. But his heresy also restrained the cult of Amun, whose powerful priesthood threatened the pharaoh's rule.

"Was he a madman? Was he Stalinesque?" asks Silverman. "There's probably a little truth in all of it. But you can't forget the political situation. He was aware that the priesthood of Amun was growing in wealth, and could shift the balance of power at any time."

By the time Tut took the throne in 1333 B.C. at age 9, his father was dead and his policies in disgrace. Closely advised by followers of Amun, the young Tut embraced the old gods, changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun and abandoned Amarna for the old capital cities. His successors would try to erase all memory of the heresy.

Did Tut really hate his father that much? There's no way to know.

"You have to figure he was 9 years old, and may not have been calling all the shots," Silverman said.

Restorer or reactionary, prince or puppet, Tut was dead by age 19. He was short on accomplishments, and his modern fame is built on his treasure, which miraculously survived centuries of grave robbing before archaeologist Howard Carter broke through in 1922.

Tickets to the current exhibition are pricey: Adults pay $32.50 on Fridays and the weekends, $27.50 on weekdays.

But it's a minor miracle the tour is happening at all. It took an act of the Egyptian parliament to reverse a travel ban set by that body in the 1980s after artifacts were damaged while abroad.

Much of the tour proceeds - an estimated $40 million - will go directly to historic sites in Egypt, where officials are working on 13 regional museums to preserve Egypt's unrivaled heritage, as well as a vast new museum near Giza.

"Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" opens Saturday and runs until Sept. 30 at the Franklin Institute, 20th Street and the Parkway. Tutankhamun was one of the last kings of Egypt's 18th Dynasty. This is the first U.S. tour of the treasures of Tutankhamun in 26 years.

Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. (timed tickets)

Tickets: $27.50 Mondays through Thursdays and $32.50 Fridays through Sundays for adults; $24 Mondays through Thursdays and $30 Fridays through Sundays for seniors, students and military; and $17.50 for children ages 4-11. Call 877-888-8587. Audio guide: $7 for adults and $6 for children. IMAX movie: $5.

Tut Trolley: Sheathed in black and stamped with the golden visage of the pharaoh, the Tut Trolley will shuttle visitors between the Franklin Institute and the complementary exhibition "Amarna: Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun" at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Eat Like an Egyptian: By some cosmic coincidence there's an interesting Egyptian restaurant just three blocks from the Franklin Institute. Aya's Cafe, run by a former member of the Egyptian national crew team, Tarek Al Basti, is open for lunch on weekdays and dinner nightly. Aya's serves a variety of Mediterranean dishes: lentil soup, shwarma, kofta sandwiches, and, for dessert, Egyptian pudding. 2129 Arch St., 215-567-1555, www.ayascafe.net.

After dinner: The Four Seasons hotel offers Pharaoh's Indulgence, a dessert of pomegranates, figs, almonds and dates that the golden boy himself would recognize. Elsewhere, Old City's Tangerine restaurant is preparing a Tut-inspired menu, and for those with an iron gullet, McGillin's Olde Ale House is offering the King-Tut-Tini, a martini made with vodka and Goldschlager liqueur, in a glass rimmed with gold sugar.

Trip planning: Go to www.gophila.com/TUT

Information: 215-448-1200, www.KingTut.org, www.fi.edu. For groups of 15 or more, call 888-600-5888.

Ongoing: "Amarna: Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun," an exhibition at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology through October. University of Pennsylvania, 3260 South St. Open 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 1-5 p.m. Sunday with free admission; closed Mondays. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for children, seniors and students. Information: 215-898-4000, www.museum.upenn.edu

Saturday-May 13: Winterthur Museum and Country Estate will feature "Ancient Egypt and the Egyptian Revival, 1725-1825," a display of rare books from the Winterthur Library collection. Route 52, Winterthur, Del. Information: 800-448-3883, 302-888-4600, www.winterthur.org

Wednesday: "Akhenaten and Tutankhamun: The Amarna Period in Ancient Egypt" with Jennifer Wegner of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 7 p.m. at Camden Community College, Blackwood campus, Dennis Flyer Theatre; free. Information: 856-227-7200, Ext. 4432.

Feb. 21: "Amarna Art: Evolution or Revolution?" with Rita Freed of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, 7 p.m. at Camden Community College, Blackwood campus, Dennis Flyer Theatre; free. Information: 856-227-7200, Ext. 4432.

March 7: "Hatshepsut," the female pharaoh, with Catherine Roehrig of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, 7 p.m. at Camden Community College, Blackwood campus, Dennis Flyer

Theatre; free. Information: 856-227-7200, Ext. 4432.

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