News

The Egyptian "boy king" Tutankhamun may well have died of malaria after the disease ravaged a body crippled by a rare bone disorder, experts say.

The findings could lay to rest conspiracy theories of murder.

The scientists in Egypt spent the last two years scrutinising the mummified remains of the 19-year old pharaoh to extract his blood and DNA.

This revealed traces of the malaria parasite in his blood, the Journal of the American Medical Association says.