When archaeologist Howard Carter held up a candle to peer inside on November 26, 1922, the light glinted on golden objects. This tomb, belonging to the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, would soon become the most famous ancient Egyptian discovery of all time.

The child king of the New Kingdom of the 18th Dynasty died in 1323 B.C. at the age of just 18 or 19. Examinations of the mummy indicate that Tutankhamun died in an accident, though this is not known for sure.

Apparently, however, the young pharaoh was quite frail during his lifetime.

Tut became pharaoh of Egypt in 1332 B.C. at the age of nine. He ruled the country at a time of conflict, when battles over land raged between Egypt and the neighboring kingdom of Nubia.

The results of a CT scan done on King Tutankhamun's mummy indicate the boy king was not murdered, but may have suffered a badly broken leg shortly before his death at age 19 - a wound that could have become infected, Egypt's top archaeologist said today.

Queen Ankhesenamun married King Tut at the tender age of 13. King Tut was even younger at just a few years shy of ten. The couple was married in 1334 BC.

Tutankhamun's tomb lies in the eastern branch of the Valley of the Kings, where most tombs in the valley are located. It is cut into the limestone bedrock in the valley floor, on the west side of the main path, and runs beneath a low foothill.

The results of a CT scan done on King Tutankhamun's mummy indicate the boy king was not murdered, but may have suffered a badly broken leg shortly before his death at age 19 - a wound that could have become infected, Egypt's top archaeologist said today.

Lord Carnarvon, Howard Carter's financier, cut open a mosquito bite on his cheek while shaving. The bite became infected and he contracted blood poisoning, dying not even two months after the burial chamber was open. If this was the supposed curse, it probably could have been cured by antibiotics.

The scan also uncovered his broken leg, which may have finally killed him if the injury became aggravated by severe brain malaria. "A sudden leg fracture possibly introduced by a fall might have resulted in a life threatening condition when a malaria infection occurred," the study found.

Tutankhamun was born and raised at the city of Akhetaten in Middle Egypt, 400km north of Thebes. It was here that his father, the king Akhenaten, founded a new royal city dedicated to the god Aten.