Tutankhamun the son of Akhenaten?

In El Ashmunein, during the last century, a limestone block that was broken into two pieces was found. The first piece of the block has an inscription that reads: the king’s son of his body Tutankhaton. On the other piece of the block the inscription reads: the daughter of the king, of his body, his great desire of the king of Two Lands, Ankhesenpaaton. Scholars suggest that this inscription is not only one of the few pieces of evidence showing Tut is from Tell El Amarna but also showing Akhenaton is the father of Tut because Tut is mentioned as the son along with the well-known daughter of Akhenaton, Ankhesenpaaton. Ankhesenpaaton was the third daughter of Akhenaton and Nefertiti and she was the wife of Tut.

When I began to study the family of king Tut and investigate the identity of his biological father and mother, I knew that it was important to find this block. The block is not registered in the registry book for the magazine in El Ashmunein. Therefore, I started to ask scholars who had discussed this block in their work about the location of the block – and no one knew where it was! I called Adel Hassan, the director of Minya, and asked him to search for the block. After a few days, he informed me that they had found it. I went to El Ashmunein and entered the storeroom and learned that they only had the side of the block that mentioned Tut’s name but not his wife, Ankhesenpaaton. We immediately started to search, among the numerous stones from the Aton Temple that were reused by Ramesses II in a temple at El Ashmunein in hopes of finding the other half of the block. And we were happily surprised when we located it. Brando Quilici, who is shooting a documentary about the family of Tut and accompanied me to the storeroom, was surprised and thrilled that we rediscovered this important piece of evidence.

These days it would seem that most my time is spent denying rumors about the Supreme Council of Antiquities and Egypt’s Pharaonic, Coptic, and Islamic monuments. I do not know why some people create this misinformation and give it to newspaper reporters to publish without them even trying to find out the veracity of the statement. Most of what is published in a few newspapers is not true at all. It is quite amazing in my mind how they make up these stories. I once gave a talk at the Smithsonian Institute about the Sphinx. There was a reporter there from the Washington Post listening to the lecture. After the lecture, he came to me saying that he was very interested in what I had said about the Sphinx but that he would first like to read all the written information about the Sphinx and then he could come and talk to me. I respected this man very much. This is how news reporters should do their jobs.

What happened in Damaitta can be a lesson that all of us (governors, government officials – all Egyptians) can learn from. As we all know, a Canadian company – Agrium - was pursuing construction of a fertilizer factory on the island of Ras El Bar and because of the recent controversy parliament appointed a committee to study the case and they decided to move this factory away from Ras El Bar. First I would like to say that I am from Damaitta and I have always been proud of my origin. When the National Geographic made a film about my life story and work, I took them to Ras El Bar, the seashore where I spent my childhood. I took them to a unique place where the red water (from the fertile land) of the Nile used to join the Mediterranean Sea, the beautiful setting called El Lessan (tongue).