Curse of Tutankhamun
By Spooky | December 21, 2007
In November of 1922, Howard Carter discovered the Tomb of Tutankhamun. Located in the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank at Luxor, the tomb revealed a fantastic wealth of artefact’s and treasure. Because of the uniqueness and quantity of treasure, the world’s media was stirred into frenzy and the whole world was looking at Carter and Tutankhamun.
Rumors of the curse originated on the day Carter opened the tomb, when a cobra swallowed his pet canary. Cobras, as the goddess Wadjet, were the protectors of the Pharaoh.
Maybe because of this event, novelist Mari Corelli published a warning stating that there would be dire consequences for anyone who had entered the sealed tomb.
A few weeks after the publication, Lord Carnarvon, an Egyptologist and the source of Howard Carters finance, died of pneumonia in Cairo on April 5th 1923, although the media was quick to claim it was an infected mosquito bite. With the media in a frenzy, even Conan Doyle announced that Lord Carnarvon’s death could have been the result of a “Pharaoh’s curse”. At the same time it is reported that all the lights in Cairo went out and that in London Lord Carnarvon’s dog howled and died at the same time as Lord Carnarvon himself.
Shortly after Carnavon’s death, an archaeologist, Arthur Mace, a leading member of the expedition, went into a coma and died soon afterwards.
On hearing of Carnarvon’s demise his friend, George Gould, made the voyage to Egypt. Before leaving the port to travel to Cairo he looked in at the tomb. The following day he collapsed with a high fever; twelve hours later he was dead.
Radiologist Archibald Reid, Joel Wool an industrialist, and Carnarvons personal secretary Richard Bethell also died a mysterious unnatural death.
Newspaper accounts show that around 26 of the people surrounding the tomb’s discovery died within a decade of its discovery.
Media Circus
In reality, and a fact withheld by the papers, Lord Carnarvon had been suffering poor health since an accident 20 years previous. As for the 26 people who mysteriously died after the tombs discovery, only 6 died within the decade. Many of the workers lived long healthy lives. As for the man himself, Howard Carter spent more time in the tomb than anybody else, so surely he should have born the brunt of the curse? He spent over a decade inside the tomb, and lived for another 17 years, dying just short of his 65th birthday in 1939.
Origin of the Curse
Everybody knows that a corpse is a soup of disease and infections that are very bad for the living, especially in a closed environment such as a tomb. It is possible that ancient grave robbers, entering tombs shortly after the pharaoh’s death, may have been exposed to diseases, and died. The pharaohs went to great lengths to protect their tombs so it is likely they also spread rumours of the curse.
In 1999 a German microbiologist from the University of Leipzip, studied nearly 40 different mummies and identified several potentially dangerous mould spores. When tombs were first opened, fresh air would have disturbed these spores, blowing them into the air, and possibly created health problems.
It is also documented that the ancient Egyptians placed booby traps inside the tombs, some even believe they were the first to use biological weapons, with vessels carrying diseased meat or fungal spores, which where broken upon opening the tomb. According to atomic scientist Louis Bulgarini in 1949 the floors of the tomb could have been lined with uranium. Rock containing uranium and gold was mined in Egypt.
“It is definatly possible that the ancient Egyptians used atomic radiation to protect their holy places. The floors of the tombs could have been covered with uranium.”
Louis Bulgarini
However this theory does not explain some of the more recent deaths.
In 1966 Egypts director of antiquities, Mohammed Ibrahim, argued with the government against letting the treasure leave Egypt for an exhibition in Paris. In a final meeting with the officials Ibrahim walked out the meeting and stepped out into the road and was killed by a passing car.
A bizarre string of coincidences or is the curse real? I’ll leave that for you to decide.
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Topics: Enigma's |
