100,000 Tut Tickets Sold!

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The "boy king's" re-visit to Chicago promises to be a thrilling trip

CHICAGO, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicago is abuzz with excitement for The Field Museum's highly anticipated exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs. The Field Museum announces it has sold 100,000 tickets to this blockbuster exhibition! More than 3,000 years after his reign, Tutankhamun, the celebrated "boy-king," has proven to be a cultural phenomenon in Chicago and around the world.

The 100,000 tickets sold to Tut include more than 565 groups of people from 32 different states. Visitors will travel to see Tut from as far away as Alaska, California, Florida and Pennsylvania. Memberships have also been selling at a record rate. The Museum has sold 17,461 memberships, including its popular premium memberships, Tut at Twilight and Royal Tut. Both Tut at Twilight and Royal Tut memberships include benefits such as discounted tickets, priority admission and exclusive member viewings.

The spectacular new exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, opens May 26, 2006. In 1977, The Field Museum broke attendance records when more than 1.3 million people bought long-awaited tickets for the first King Tut exhibition. With 100,000 Tut tickets sold and ticket sales soaring, The Field Museum anticipates similar excitement surrounding the 2006 exhibition.

Visitors to the exhibition -- twice the size of the original 1977 exhibition -- will view stunning artifacts that portray the splendors of life and death in the 18th Dynasty, the era in which Tutankhamun and his family ruled. This "Golden Age of the Pharaohs" produced some of Egypt's most famous rulers and most exquisite works of art.

A special section of the exhibition explores the mystery of Tutankhamun's death using the marvels of modern CT scanning technology. Images made from these scans lets visitors look into the face of the young pharaoh for the first time. The scanning of Tut's mummy is part of a landmark, five-year Egyptian research and conservation project, partially funded by National Geographic, that will CT-scan the ancient mummies of Egypt. The portable CT scanner used was donated by Siemens AG and National Geographic.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs is organized by National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International and AEG Exhibitions in association with the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt and The Field Museum. The tour is sponsored by Northern Trust. Its Chicago sponsor is Exelon, proud parent of ComEd. Chicago is the exhibition's third stop on a tour that includes Los Angeles, Ft. Lauderdale and Philadelphia.

Tickets cost $25 for adults, $22 for seniors and students with ID, $16 for children aged 4-11 and includes general admission into the Museum. For tickets, call 866-FIELD-03 or visit http://www.fieldmuseum.org/tut .

To purchase Royal Tut and Tut at Twilight memberships, call (312) 665-7929. For further information, call The Field Museum at (312) 922-9410 or visit http://www.fieldmuseum.org/tut .

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