On October 28, 1925, Egyptologist Howard Carter and his assistants removed the golden nails securing the coffin and lifted the lid. Before them appeared the well-preserved mummy of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Almost three years—less one week—had passed since the tomb had been discovered. Archaeologists had had to traverse three rooms to reach the one containing the remains. And there they had to open not one coffin, but three. Through a complex game of Russian nesting dolls, they were finally able to access the mummy of the third-to-last pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, who had ruled for almost 3,350 years.