Was Tutankhamun's foot the reason for his distinction?.. The ancient Egyptians considered disability a divine gift

Archaeologists and researchers have been tracking the pharaohs of ancient Egypt for more than a century, and Tutankhamun may be the most famous pharaoh of Egypt, as he was the last member of his royal family who ruled during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

The life and death of Tutankhamun is being explored in a new Channel 5 documentary this evening as 'Tutankhamun: Awakening the Dead' with Bettany Hughes sheds new light on how the pharaoh died.


According to the British Daily Express, Tutankhamun was nine years old when he ascended the throne around 1300 BC, however, within a decade, the king was dead, and his death remained a mystery to experts for a long time.

The new documentary takes a new look at the king and whether he suffers from disabilities and the impact of his disability, which may have been passed on to him due to inbreeding in his family, where his father Akhenaten married his sister.

In the documentary, Bettany Hughes reveals how in ancient Egyptian society there was no stigma attached to people with special needs as is sometimes the case today when people saw the disabled as endowed with a divine gift and learned from an early age to respect them.

Dr. Sophia Aziz, a pioneering Egyptologist and researcher in ancient Egyptian medicine, says: "The ancient Egyptians were very enlightened. Disability was a distinctive characteristic of God, so Tutankhamun was not to be stigmatized if he had a disabled foot, but was in fact seen as special." .

Sophia Aziz added: "I have already found some wisdom texts already written for children and in these wisdom texts, they say do not make fun of dwarves, and there are also tips and warnings from them: Do not harass the blind and treat people with disabilities with respect and dignity."

In addition to obstructing Tutankhamun in his foot, the analysis of the features of Tutankhamun's face shows, according to the documentary film, which the Daily Express reported details that the pharaoh had an excessive overbite in the mouth, which is a defect in the application of the upper jaw to the lower jaw.