-Tutankhamun’s Curse-

Tutankhamun ( An Egyption Pharaoh )

Have you ever considered if the Egyptian tombs were actually cursed? 

Well, let me tell you about the Tutankhamun's Curse....

Tutankhamun was an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, who died in 1323 BC aged about 18. 

On November 4, 1922, a team of archeologists lead by Howard Carter discovered Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb, in the Valley of the Kings, across the Nile from Luxor in Egypt. One more interesting thing about the tomb was that it was not plundered from the early times like the other tombs. In fact it was the first tomb to be found almost entirely undisturbed.

The most significant point of the tutankhamun's tomb which created a sensational news and circulated all over the world, was the engraved plaque – “Death comes on swift wings to he who disturbs the tomb of the pharaoh”. 

Now, here comes the question 'Is Tutankhamun's curse real?'. 

No one knows the answer to this, but there are incidents where mysterious things happened to people who entered the tomb.

Tutankhamun's Tomb after restoration 

George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon was supposedly the first person to suffer the curse. He  financially supported  the excavation of Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb. Reportedly, he died four months and 7 days after the tomb was opened. The cause for his death was blood poisoning due to a mosquito bite. Legend says that when Lord Carnarvon died, all of the lights in his house mysteriously went out.

George Jay Gould was an American financier who visited the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1923 and fell ill almost immediately afterwards. He did not recover and died of pneumonia a few months later.

A more mysterious death was of Hugh Evelyn-White, who visited Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb to help excavate the site. It is said that Evelyn-White hung himself after writing, with his own blood, "I have succumbed to a curse which forces me to disappear".

Tutankhamun's Tomb 

An other peculiar death was of Richard Bethell , Lord Carnarvon's secretary and the second person to enter the tomb after Carter. He was found smothered in his room at an elite London gentlemen's club in 1929. An year earlier there were a series of mysterious fires at his home, where some priceless artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb were stored.

Sir Archibald Douglas Reid fell victim to the curse merely because of x-raying Tutankhamun before giving it to the museum authorities. He got sick the very next day and died three days later.

Howard Carter, the archaeologist who discovered the tomb, gave a paperweight as a gift to his friend Sir Bruce Ingram. It is said that the paperweight was composed of a mummified hand with a bracelet marked with, "Cursed be he Who moves my body. To him shall come fire, water and pestilence." Surprisingly soon after receiving the gift , Ingram's house burned down, followed by a flood when it was rebuilt.

Egyptian Pyramid 

Aaron Ember who was friends with many of the people who were present when the tomb was opened died in 1929. It is said that he could have survived but he wanted to save a manuscript titled ' The Egyptian Book of the Dead ' which he had been working on. By doing so he and his family died in the catastrophe.

Some other suspicious things that circulated about the curse was that it does not affect the native Egyptians.

We might never know the truth about the curse.....

Written by - Danvita 

Image Sources-

https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article14035174.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/0_Tutankhamun-And-The-Golden-Age-Of-The-Pharaohs-Exhibit-Opening.jpg

https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/king-tut-tomb-underground-chamber.jpg

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/EYDN2M/luxor-egypt-valley-of-the-kings-the-entrance-of-the-tomb-of-tutankhamon-EYDN2M.jpg

Information Sources-

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/tutankhamuns-curse

https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-egypt/howard-carter-discovery-tutankhamun-tomb-lord-carnarvon-pharaoh-curse/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_pharaohs

https://www.history.com/news/is-the-curse-of-king-tut-real

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/23321/victims-king-tuts-curse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun