The discovery by the famous English archaeologist Howard Carter in 1926 of the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty Tutankhamun was one of the greatest archaeological achievements since the discovery of the legendary Troy by another great explorer Heinrich Schliemann. But, unlike the excavations of the ancient Greek polis, the find in the Valley of the Kings was accompanied by numerous mysterious signs, which scientists, historians and journalists have been trying to unravel for almost a century.
Until the beginning of the twentieth century, little was known about Tutankhamun, since from his reign (1351–1342 BC) only a few amulets with the image of the king and an inscription on one of the ancient Egyptian steles survived. Judging by these relics, Tutankhamun received the throne thanks to his wife Ankhes-en-Amun, whom he married at a very early age (this was, if the portraits do not flatter the original, a charming woman). He died at the age of eighteen and was buried in the famous necropolis called the Valley of the Kings.
For many centuries, archaeologists have repeatedly tried to find the tomb of the mysterious ruler. Alas, these investigations did not produce tangible results until the beginning of the twentieth century, and only in 1926 Howard Carter had the good fortune to discover the miraculously not looted tomb that belonged to Tutankhamun. Truly countless treasures were discovered in it. The mummy alone was decorated with 143 gold objects, while it itself was kept in three sarcophagi inserted into each other, the last of which, weighing more than 100 kg and a length of 1.85 m, was made of pure gold. In addition, in the tomb were found the royal throne, decorated with relief images, statuettes of the king and his wife, many ritual vessels, jewelry, weapons, clothes and, finally, the magnificent golden burial mask of Tutankhamun, which accurately conveys the facial features of the young pharaoh. In total, Carter discovered more than five thousand priceless items.
Perhaps there was not a single major European newspaper or magazine that did not pay attention to the amazing discovery in the Valley of the Kings. However, soon the enthusiastic articles were replaced by disturbing messages, in which the mystical and mysterious phrase first appeared: "the curse of the pharaoh" … It excited the minds and chilled the blood of superstitious inhabitants.
It all started with two inscriptions discovered by Carter during excavations. The first, found in the front room of the tomb, was an inconspicuous clay tablet with a short hieroglyphic inscription: "Death with rapid steps overtakes the one who disturbs the peace of the pharaoh." Carter hid this sign so as not to frighten the workers. A second threatening text was found on an amulet removed from the mummy's bandages. It read: “I am the one who, with the call of the desert, puts the defilers of the graves to flight. I am the one who stands guard over the tomb of Tutankhamun."
This was followed by almost incredible events. After spending several days with Carter in Luxor, Lord Carnarvon, an associate of the archaeologist and patron of the expedition, unexpectedly returned to Cairo. The swift departure was like a panic: the lord was noticeably weighed down by the proximity to the tomb. It seems no coincidence that Carter wrote: “No one wanted to break seals. As soon as the doors opened, we felt like uninvited guests."
At first, Lord Carnarvon felt a slight indisposition, then the temperature rose, the fever was accompanied by severe chills. A few minutes before his death, Carnarvon began to delirium. He called the name of Tutankhamun every now and then. In the last moment of his life, the dying lord said, addressing his wife: “Well, everything is finally over. I heard the call, it attracts me. This was his last phrase.
An avid traveler, athlete, physically strong man, 57-year-old Lord Carnarvon died a few days after the opening of the tomb. The doctors' diagnosis sounded completely implausible: "from a mosquito bite."
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Lord Carnarvon was the first victim of the pharaoh, but far from the last. A few months later, two more participants in the autopsy of Tutankhamun's grave, Arthur Mays and George J. Gold, died one after another.
Archaeologist Mace Carter asked to open the tomb. It was Mace who moved the last stone blocking the entrance to the main chamber. Soon after the death of Lord Carnarvon, he began to complain of extreme fatigue. More and more often severe attacks of weakness and apathy came, then - loss of consciousness, which never returned to him. Mace died in the Continental, in the same Cairo hotel where Lord Carnarvon spent his last days.
The American George J. Gold, a multimillionaire and archeological enthusiast, was an old friend of Carnarvon's. Upon receiving the news of his friend's death, Jay-Gold immediately went to Luxor. Taking Carter himself as a guide, he carefully researched the last refuge of Tutankhamun. All discovered finds were in his hands. Moreover, the unexpected guest managed to do this work in just one day. By nightfall, already at the hotel, he was overwhelmed by a sudden chill. He lost consciousness and died the next evening.
Death followed death. Joel Wolfe, an English industrialist, never had a passion for archeology. But it was also irresistibly entailed by the opening of the century. When he paid Carter a visit, Wolfe snatched his permission to inspect the crypt. He stayed there for a long time. Came back home. And … he died suddenly, not having time to share his impressions of the trip with anyone. The symptoms were already familiar - fever, chills, unconsciousness, the doctors were unable to make a diagnosis.
Radiologist Archibald Douglas Reed was entrusted with cutting the bandages holding the pharaoh's mummy. He also did fluoroscopy. The work done by him received the highest marks from specialists. Having barely set foot on his native land, Douglas Reed was unable to suppress an attack of rolling vomiting. Instant weakness, dizziness, death.
Thus, in a matter of years, twenty-two people died. Some of them visited the crypt of Tutankhamun, others had a chance to examine his mummy.
"Fear gripped England," wrote one newspaper after Douglas Reed passed away. The panic began. Week after week, the names of new victims appeared on the pages of the press. The death overtook well-known in those years archaeologists and doctors, historians and linguists, such as Fokart, La Flor, Winlock, Estori, Callender. Everyone died alone, but death was the same for everyone - incomprehensible and quick.
In 1929, Lord Carnarvon's widow died. At the same time, Richard Battell, secretary of Howard Carter, a young man of enviable health, died in Cairo. As soon as news of Battell's death reached London from Cairo, his father, Lord Westbury, threw himself out of a seventh-floor hotel window.
In Cairo, Lord Carnarvon's brother and the nurse who looked after him died. Death lurking in the house overtook everyone who dared to visit the sick in those days.
Several years later, of those people who in one way or another came into contact with the tomb, only Howard Carter survived. He died in 1939. But before his death, the archaeologist more than once complained of bouts of weakness, frequent headaches, hallucinations (this resembled a full set of symptoms of the action of a plant poison). It is believed that he escaped the curse of the pharaoh because he practically did not leave the Valley of the Kings from the first day of excavation. Day after day he received his dose of the poison, until eventually the body developed a stable immunity.
Thirty-five years have passed since the death of Lord Carnarvon, when a doctor at a hospital in South Africa, Joffrey Dean, discovered that the symptoms of a strange disease were very reminiscent of the "cave disease" known to doctors. It is carried by microscopic fungi. He suggested that those who first broke the seal inhaled them and then infected others.
In parallel with Joffrey Dean, research was carried out by a medical biologist at Cairo University Ezzeddin Taha. For months he watched archaeologists and museum staff in Cairo. In the body of each of them, Taha discovered a fungus that provokes fever and severe inflammation of the respiratory tract. The fungi themselves were a host of disease-causing agents that inhabit mummies, pyramids and crypts. At one of the press conferences, Taha assured those present that all these afterlife sacraments are no longer terrible, for they are completely curable with antibiotics.
Undoubtedly, the scientist's research would eventually acquire more concrete outlines, if not for one circumstance. Several days after that memorable conference, Dr. Taha himself fell victim to the curse he had exposed. On the way to Suez, the car in which he was at that moment, for some unknown reason, turned sharply to the left and crashed into the side of a limousine rushing towards. Death was instantaneous.
It should be noted that the Egyptians were great masters of extracting poisonous toxins from animal and plant organisms. Many of these poisons, finding themselves in an environment close to the conditions of their habitual habitation, retain their deadly qualities for as long as desired - time has no power over them.
There are poisons that act from just one light touch. It is enough to saturate the fabric with them or, for example, to smear the wall - after the wall dries out, they do not lose their qualities for thousands of years. In ancient times, it was not difficult to depict a sign bearing death on the tomb.
Here is what the Italian archaeologist Belzoni wrote at the end of the last century, a man who fully experienced the horror of Pharaoh's curses: “There is no place on earth more damned than the Valley of the Kings. Too many of my colleagues were unable to work in the crypts. Every now and then people lose consciousness, their lungs cannot withstand the loads, inhaling suffocating fumes. The Egyptians, as a rule, walled up their tombs tightly. Over time, the poisonous odors persisted and thickened, but did not evaporate at all. Having opened the door of the burial chamber, the robbers literally went to the grave. Truly, there is no better trap than a walled up tomb.
But there was also another terrible force that protected the mummy and everything that was with it in the burial chamber. Simplifying the philosophical teaching of the ancient Egyptians about their own "I", we can say that it was reduced to three human essences - Hut, or physical; Ba - spiritual; Ka is the union of Hut and Ba.
Ka is a living projection of a human being, embodying each individuality in the smallest detail. It is an energetic body protected by a multicolored aura. One of its missions is to combine the spiritual and physical principles. Ka is a powerful force. Leaving a dead body, Ka goes blind, becomes uncontrollable and dangerous. Hence the rituals of offering food to the dead, prayers for the dead, exhortations addressed to them. Among the Egyptians were sorcerers who knew how to release the monstrous Ka energy and use it quite purposefully, so to speak, as a "hired killer." And if you also supply him with a set of poisonous smells, then the pharaoh who disturbed the peace has no chance of salvation. Ka, full of hatred, torment and despair, concentrated in an underground crypt and it was impossible for a mere mortal to escape from his irrepressible rage.
But it seems that modern science is still far from solving this magical version. So, recently, a downright "sensational" message appeared in the press, in which it was argued that Carter's discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun was nothing more than a falsification. And as if all the items found in the burial were made by Egyptian craftsmen on the instructions of the government. And Carter only made a "discovery" by loading Tutankhamun's cameras with fakes. Only a small fraction of the "treasures of Tutankhamun" are kept in Cairo, and most of them were sold for fabulous money to the most famous museums in the world, bringing Egypt millions. And if you add to this the crowds of tourists attracted to the banks of the Nile by the desire to see the tomb of Tutankhamun, then Carter's "scam" could well become an example of a super-profitable investment of capital.
In parallel with this absolutely incredible statement (it is difficult to assume that the manufacture of such a number of objects - five thousand copies - remained unnoticed by specialists), other versions are being put forward, now by atomic scientists. For example, Professor Luis Bulgarini suggested that the ancient Egyptians may have used radioactive materials to protect sacred burials. He stated: “It is possible that the Egyptians used atomic radiation to protect their holy sites. They could cover the floors of tombs with uranium or decorate the graves with radioactive stones.
Such reasoning only adds to the mystery of the "greatest discovery of the twentieth century," which allows us to draw only one irrefutable conclusion: the tomb of Tutankhamun left us and our descendants no less mysteries (including tragic ones) than the rulers who reigned during this greatest world civilization.
From the book: Famous mysteries of history. Author: Sklyarenko Valentina Markovna