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Monday, June 7, 2010

A Curse Long Dead: The Discovery of King Tutankhamun’s Tomb

By Caleb F.

Lord Carnarvon did not actually discover the tomb of King Tut, but an Egyptologist/archeologist and long time friend of Carnarvon’s did: Howard Carter.

The two started the dig in 1914, but had to abandon it due to the war. After the war died down, the dig was restarted but turned out to be fruitless (or more like tomb-less) and Lord Carnarvon ran out of money. He said that the dig would have to stop. Carter whined, cried, and groveled for Carnarvon to fund him one last expedition, and if it failed Carter promised he would pay for it himself. They started digging near the tomb of King Ramses I, and they found a step that led down, and then another, and another, and then a wall! Carter immediately called Lord Carnarvon, who was in England, and had him come over to Egypt. The date was November 1, 1922.

At last they had found some promising evidence of the royal tomb: a sealed door with the royal necropolis (whatever that is), so they decided to bust through the door. They came into the greatest intact Egyptian treasure room that has ever been found in history. It contained chariots and other burial furniture in that room.
To protect this find, Carter filled in the steps and had his most trusted workmen stand guard on the site.

This was not the only thing about the tomb that was intriguing. There supposedly was also a curse inscribed on the tomb that basically said, “All who disrupt the king will die a horrible death.” After uncovering the tomb, Carnarvon died of an infected mosquito bite on his cheek, and a short time later, his dog died as well. The media went wild, coming up with all sorts of stories about his death. Strange thing though: Howard Carter, the first to enter the tomb, survived a decade after the tomb discovery and spent the rest of his life logging every inch of visible space in that tomb.

Nobody really knows what killed Carnarvon. Maybe it was a curse, or maybe it was just some natural phenomenon that killed him. Either way, now a curse that was long dead and unknown is now circulating among the scientific world and unfortunately also the media.

Resources:
http://www.kingtutone.com/tutankhamun/information/
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/kingtut.htm
http://www.kingtutone.com/tutankhamun/curse/

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