The first reign of Tutankhamen, as Pharaoh of Egypt, lasted just seven years. Crowned Pharaoh at age 10, he was dead at 18. Then, 3,000 years later, Tutankhamen reigned over the hopes of twentieth century archaeologists. The Valley of the Kings had been plundered for 30 centuries and stripped of most artifacts. But some Egyptologists suspected that one tomb, that of Tutankhamen, had not yet been discovered. Howard Carter waited 12 years for permission to search the Valley, then hunted for another seven years, before he stunned the world with the greatest find any Egyptologist has ever made.