16. King Tut Was Malarial and Crippled
Pop cultural depictions of King Tut often portray a healthy, virile teenage boy who loved nothing more than a good chariot race. This oversight can probably be forgiven, given that the ancient Egyptians also depicted him with grandeur on his golden death mask and in art commemorating him. The fact is that because he was a product of an incestuous relationship between his father and sister (or possibly his cousin who was so inbred that she might have also been his sister), he had many deformities. Additionally, he probably had severe malaria, which exacerbated his physical problems.
The fact is that King Tut probably never rode in a chariot; he was perhaps unable to. He had scoliosis and a disfigured foot, which probably kept him from being able to walk on his own and put him in immense pain. He probably also had very slim hips, an overbite, and pretty bad epilepsy. While the ancient Egyptians characterized King Tut as the grandiose son of a god, in real life, he probably wasn’t handsome. He probably spent most of his short life in incredible pain, due to the deformities that he inherited as a result of his family’s inbreeding.