Gold washed down the hills and mountains was probably the 1st metal with which humans experimented. It was sufficiently soft and pure to be fashioned easily into objects of beauty for adornment and trade. The value of gold remained high as populations increased because of demand for it continued to exceed supply. Because of this value, the trail of gold was followed back to the source of the alluvial nuggets. Gold mining was developed to obtain ore from which the pure metal could be extracted. Many of the most beautiful objects that survive from antiquity are made of gold, including hundreds of items from the Egyptian Pharaoh, Tutankhamen's tomb.