Though superficially plundered by thieves in antiquity, the burial remained intact, surrounded by a mass of funerary equipment arranged in three peripheral chambers. "The Tomb of Tut.ankh.Amen: The Burial Chamber" was originally published in 1927 as the second volume of Carter's trilogy. It records the work of the second and third seasons at the tomb: the opening of the four protective shrines; the discovery within of Tutankhamun's quartz-sandstone sarcophagus; the extraction of the king's three anthropoid coffins (the innermost of solid gold); and the final examination of the pharaoh's mummy.