Howard Carter was born in England in 1874. He was the son of an artist who made paintings of animals. Carter first went to Egypt when he was only seventeen years old. He was part of a group exploring Amenhotep’s city of Amarna. He drew pictures of the ruins. For a while, Carter also made money painting pictures of famous monuments to sell to tourists. Altogether he spent seventeen years living in Egypt.
The longer he was there, the more interested he became in archaeology. He grew certain that there was still an unopened tomb of a pharaoh. And he was determined to find it.
His search took place in the Valley of the Kings, which is on the western banks of the Nile near the modern city of Luxor.
The ancient tombs had been cut deep into the rock, with long hallways leading to the burial places.
It was going to take a lot of money and a large crew if Howard Carter hoped to uncover a hidden tomb.
At first, some Americans put up the money for a dig. (A dig is the name for this sort of exploration.) Then, in 1907, an English lord, Lord Carnarvon, agreed to help out Howard Carter.
Lord Carnarvon loved horses and cars. He first came to Egypt only because his doctors had told him to. He’d had an accident, and the hot, dry climate would be good for his health.
Once he was there, he became interested in the country’s long history. When Howard Carter came to him, Lord Carnarvon gave him enough money to keep digging in the Valley of the Kings for many years.
Howard Carter kept searching in one special area. He was sure Tut was buried there. He believed robbers had overlooked the tomb because it was in a low-lying part of the cemetery. A flood could have washed away all signs of the entrance.
But many other archaeologists thought it was a bad place to look. An empty tomb of another pharaoh had been found nearby. It seemed unlikely that two tombs of pharaohs would be so close to each other.
Still, Carter never lost faith that he was in the right place. Once, a cup turned up. Another time, the crew came upon some thin sheets of gold foil. They all had Tut’s name on them in hieroglyphs.
Year after year, Carter and his crew kept on digging. At one point they hit something. Something hard. Everyone got excited. But all they had found were workers’ huts.
After that, Lord Carnarvon was ready to call it quits. How much longer could the search go on? But Howard Carter pleaded to continue the dig just for a little while longer. Maybe, just maybe, there was something else under the stone huts.
In November of 1922, the crew started digging again. After a few days they found a step. That may not seem like something very important. But it was cut right into the rock. Pharaoh’s tombs were cut into the rock, too.
Even more amazing, under that step was another step, and another. Howard and his crew unearthed a secret staircase leading to a door.
What was behind it?
What everyone in the crew wanted to do was open the door right then and there. But Howard Carter did not think that was fair. Lord Carnarvon deserved to be there, too. But Lord Carnarvon was far away in England. Howard Carter told the crew that they’d just have to wait for Lord Carnarvon to get there.
Of course, as soon as he learned the exciting news, Lord Carnarvon set out for Egypt. Today, it would take about five hours to fly from London to Cairo. Back then there were not many planes. So how long did it take him to finally reach Carter and his crew? Two weeks!
But at last Lord Carnarvon arrived. His daughter came, too. And Howard Carter was about to learn what was on the other side of the door.
LORD CARNARVON
LORD CARNARVON’S FULL NAME WAS GEORGE EDWARD STANHOPE MOLYNEUX HERBERT, FIFTH EARL OF CARNARVON—THAT’S A MOUTHFUL! BORN IN 1866, HE WAS AN ENGLISH ARISTOCRAT WHO HAD A LOT OF MONEY. AND HE SPONSORED CARTER’S DIG UNTIL TUT’S TOMB WAS FOUND IN 1922. ONLY A FEW MONTHS LATER, LORD CARNARVON DIED SUDDENLY. THE LIKELY CAUSE WAS AN INFECTED MOSQUITO BITE, BUT MANY PEOPLE BELIEVED THAT LORD CARNARVON WAS A VICTIM OF THE “CURSE OF TUTANKHAMUN.” THEY WERE SURE THAT HE HAD DIED BECAUSE HE HAD DISTURBED THE PHARAOH’S TOMB. HIS DEATH LED TO MANY RUMORS OF OTHER “MUMMY CURSES.” |