The Pharaoh’s Curse.
Undisturbed for over 3,000 years, when the silence of Tutankhamun’s tomb was broken by Howard Carter and his wealthy patron, Lord Carnarvon, the public became enthralled overnight. As the diggers were breaking through the sacred seals of the royal necropolis stamped on the plaster wall securing the tomb’s entrance, a cobra (the pharaoh’s ancient emblem) entered Carter’s house overlooking the valley and killed his pet songbird. The sudden death of Lord Carnarvon following the discovery instantly gave rise to rumors of a curse. Complications resulting from an insect bite the he nicked while shaving killed him before he ever got to see Tutankhamun unveiled. The lights mysteriously went out in Cairo when he died. At the same moment, at Carnarvon’s estate in England, his terrier howled and dropped dead. A specialist en route to X-ray the mummy died suddenly. While visiting the tomb, an American railroad tycoon caught a cold and died. After suffering a breakdown, Carter’s chief assistant died before the excavation was completed, and a noted French Egyptologist fell to his death following a visit to the tomb. Carter’s death was not so swift; he lived to endure the shame and disappointment of being locked out of the tomb by the Egyptian government. Although he was later allowed to return and finish clearing the tomb (a task which took 10 years to complete), with his eminent patron gone Carter’s notoriety waned, along with his resources for remaining in Egypt. His embittered final days in England were spent in lonely obscurity.
