The curse of Tutankhamun

January 17, 2022. No. 130

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There is a legend that dates back more than 3,000 years, of a king who died young and the fate of those who desecrated his tomb. It is a story that has all the mystery of a dramatic novel and the number of victims of a horror movie.

Tutankhamun left no heirs, he was forgotten by his people and disappeared for thousands of years, but he has become the most famous Pharaoh of all. It is known throughout the world, for the treasures found in its tomb and for the mysterious deaths of those who participated in its discovery. This is one of the most enduring legends of our times: The Curse of Tutankhamun.

Cairo, Egypt is an ancient city that is sometimes referred to as "The Mother of the World." It was founded more than 1000 years ago and although time has brought some changes, history is still evident. Tutankhamun lived in the very curious and turbulent times of ancient Egypt.

When Tutankhamun died, his body was moved across the Nile River, and his tomb was hidden. As time passed, the place was forgotten and the tomb was lost. It remained that way for more than 3,000 years. It was not until 1922 that the tomb would be found, something that meant a triumph in bringing to light all the treasures buried with it. Archaeologists were intrigued as to who this Pharaoh was, how he had died, and how long he had ruled.

A little later a new question arose: "Because the people who were associated with the discovery suffered an unusual and early death." Sudden illnesses, suicides, murders. It was not known if it was a simple coincidence or something else existed there.

Many were clear about it and attributed his death to the fact that Tutankhamun's tomb had a deadly curse that would trap all those who were present at the time of opening his tomb. During all this time, the speculations about these deaths have been many, and everyone has something to say about it.

The Valley of the Kings

It is a necropolis of ancient Egypt, near Luxor, where the tombs of most of the pharaohs of the New Kingdom (18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties), as well as Queen Hatshepsut and some animals, are found.

After centuries of searching by archaeologists, whenever they found a tomb, the treasures had already been stolen by tomb robbers. But they were sure that Tutankhamun was still there. So they looked at a small piece that had not yet been excavated and that was where they decided to use their forces until it happened.

It was in 1922 when the Valley of the Kings revealed its best-kept secret, the famous tomb of Tutankhamun, the boy-king of the 18th dynasty. Full of treasures never dreamed of, it is, without a possible competitor, the most important archaeological find of the 20th century, and the beginning of the Egyptomania that is still felt in society.

Howard Carter was the one who, due to his perseverance, after everyone had given up years of searching, wanted to continue one more year and then he found the tuba, this being probably the greatest discovery in all of archaeology.

On November 4, 1922, the team's water carrier tripped over a stone and it turned out to be a step. The team began excavating a total of 16 steps until they reached a plastered door. Through the door to a tunnel full of rocks. After removing the rocks, a second door.

He discovered that the entrance plate bore the name of Tutankhamun, the last monarch of the royal family of the 18th dynasty, between 1334 and 1325 BC. Carter made a small hole in the top and held a candle close, to check for dangerous gases. He increased the hole and went closer to look inside. Behind Carter, 3 people were waiting: Lord Carnarvon (who had financed the excavation), his daughter, and an assistant. When asked by Carnarvon if he saw anything, Carter could only reply, "Yes, wonderful things."

The treasures found there were impressive. Gold statues, gold-plated war chariots. It took years to catalog and preserve everything. It was estimated that the tomb contained more than 5,000 objects.

On February 17, 1023, the team formally entered the burial chamber, to relieve a magnificent tomb. A solid gold coffin in which Tutankhamun's gold would later be found. It took 8 years to empty it and move everything to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, including here the solid gold Tutankhamen funerary mask.

Curse

Carter and Carnarvon would become world celebrities, but the joy would be short-lived.

• Exactly 7 weeks after Tutankhamun's burial chamber was officially opened, Carnarvon was dead. His death was possibly due to septicemia caused by the bite of a mosquito infected with erysipelas. With this death, the legend of The Curse of Tutankhamun would be born. This would be the first of the deaths. It is said that the night Carnarvon died, all the lights in Cairo went out and that his dog also began to moan and drop dead. More mysterious things around his death and the press did not wait. I went from a discovery to a curse by grave robbers. It was news all over the planet.

• Just 6 months after his death, his brother Aubrey Herbert died after an infection from minor surgery.

• A little later, Sir Archibald Douglas Reid, who had been in charge of X-raying the mummy, died.

• Shortly after, Arthur Mace, one of those who opened the royal chamber with Howard Carter, died under unexplained circumstances.

• Later, railroad tycoon George Jay Gould, also present at the opening of the tomb, died of pneumonia.

• Richard Bethell, Carter's secretary, died a strange death in 1929. To make matters worse, his father and Bethell's wife committed suicide.

• Alby Lythgoe, of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, died of a heart attack.

• George Bennedite died of a fall in the Valley of the Kings.

• To close the circle of deaths, the directors of the Department of Antiquities of the Cairo Museum, who intervened in the exhibitions of the remains of the pharaoh in Paris and London, died of brain hemorrhages.

Howard Carter always rejected the curse theory, and to anyone who hinted at it he replied: "All intelligent spirit of understanding is absent from such stupid ideas."

The truth is that subsequent studies revealed that of the 58 people who were present during the opening of the tomb and the sarcophagus, only eight died and that they did so within a period of 12 years.

Killer mushrooms

Perhaps the most accurate theory is that the graves after that number of years, develop a type of fungus that can be lethal. At that moment in which they stand out, they are free and disperse throughout the place and the people who are there. This brings a set of diseases that manifest in later months.

On April 13, 1973, the opening of the tomb of the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, Casimir IV, led to the fact that, of the 12 scientists present, 10 died shortly after. Years later, the presence of Aspergilllus-type fungi on objects present in the room was demonstrated.

The Teenage Pharaoh

Tutankhamun was about 1.67 meters tall, had scoliosis, necrosis in his left foot and suffered from malaria. He was the result of an incestuous relationship that could cause diseases and malformations. Multiple investigations have tried to shed light on his life and death. It has been suggested that he died of wounds to his foot, combined with malaria, that he was murdered, or that he was run over by a car. Others have presented evidence of multiple genetic diseases.

Today, the mummy of Tutankhamun rests in the Valley of the Kings, in a sealed glass sarcophagus subjected to a controlled environment, under the watchful eye of hundreds of tourists, perhaps still intrigued by the mystery that surrounds it.

If the pharaoh, who reigned from the age of nine to 18, is so famous, it is not because he was a great king, but because his tomb is among the best-preserved and cursed, as the writer Jon Manchip wrote: "The pharaoh who in life he was one of the least appreciated in Egypt, in death he became the most famous».

Is all for today. I hope you liked the story. I was interested in it for several years now that I had listened to it. Today while researching for this article, I was even more surprised. All the details of the story are impressive.

What do you think? Is the curse real, or did the deaths just happen naturally?

Many authors deny that there was a written curse, but others assure that Carter would have found in the antechamber of the tomb a clay ostracon whose inscription read: «Death will strike with its wings whoever disturbs the rest of the pharaoh».

Howard Carter, the main "involved" in the alleged curse, meanwhile, died in 1939 at the age of 64, a natural death, 17 years after the tomb was opened.

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