Can the dead take revenge on the living for disturbing their ashes? "Of course not!" - the skeptic will immediately exclaim. Okay, we'd better ask this question at the end of the article. Perhaps then some will not be so sure of the answer.
22 victims of Tutankhamun
Perhaps, you need to start with the most famous and mysterious case of revenge of the dead by the living - with the curse of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The tomb of this young Egyptian ruler was discovered on November 26, 1922 by an English expedition led by Egyptologist Howard Carter and amateur archaeologist Lord Carnarvon. It turned out to be one of the few non-plundered graves found in the Valley of the Kings. Inside the tomb, researchers discovered countless treasures of Ancient Egypt, as well as a golden sarcophagus with the Pharaoh himself.
The researchers entered the burial chamber of Tutankhamun on February 13, 1923. On this day, a symbolic event took place: Carter's canary was swallowed by a cobra (as you know, this snake was a symbol of power among the Egyptians and even crowned the headdresses of the pharaohs themselves). It was also said that the members of the expedition received another warning not to touch the remains of the ancient Egyptian ruler - allegedly over the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun, they saw the inscription: "Death will not hesitate to overshadow with its wings anyone who enters this sacred tomb." True, since then this inscription has not caught the eye of anyone and it is impossible to say for sure whether it really was. But the series of troubles that befell archaeologists is a historical fact.
Less than two months have passed since then. how the tomb of Tutankhamun was opened, and the first mysterious death occurred - on April 5, Lord Carnarvon suddenly died at the Continental Hotel in Cairo. According to one of the versions, death came from pneumonia, according to the other - from a mosquito bite, according to the third - from blood poisoning. It is noteworthy that at the time of the death of the lord, the lights went out throughout Cairo (for inexplicable reasons, there was a power failure). It was also rumored that Carnarvon's dog howled and died on the same day in England. Upon learning of the death of the Lord, his American friend George Gold hurried to the Valley of the Kings and carefully examined the tomb, apparently hoping to find some explanation for the tragedy, but by nightfall he himself suddenly had a fever, and by the evening of the next day he also died.
The tabloid press immediately spread the news of the curse of the pharaoh, which overtakes everyone in one way or another involved in the desecration of the ancient grave. This news was fueled by more and more cases: Arthur Mace fell into a coma and died - the archaeologist who participated in the opening of the tomb; Archibald Reed died, who made an X-ray of the mummy; In 1929, the widow of Lord Carnarvon, as well as Carter's personal secretary, Richard Battell, died from a mosquito bite. Over the course of 15 years, 22 people became victims of the curse, and 13 of them were directly present at the opening of the tomb. True, for unknown reasons, the curse did not touch Howard Carter, who was the first to step into the ill-fated tomb.
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The priestess who drowned the Titanic
And this is not the only time when disturbed dead people killed people. In the same Egypt, 32 years before the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, the German professor Soren Rezden found the burial place of a certain temple scribe Sennar in the Valley of the Kings. The scientist in the tomb was greeted with a warning that the disturbed ashes "will be swallowed up forever by the sand before the Moon changes its face twice." Despite this, the professor made excavations. But soon after Rezden sailed from Egypt, he was found dead in the ship's cabin. As the ship's doctor stated, death came from suffocation. And no signs of violence were found. A handful of sand was clutched in the dead archaeologist's fist.
Around the same years, five Arabs found in Thebes the tomb of the priestess Amun Ra, who lived about four thousand years ago. And at once events began that cannot be explained by anything other than a curse. The Arabs sold the sarcophagus with the mummy to the British, but could not share the profit, fought and died of wounds. Not spared the troubles and buyers of the remains of the priestess. The new owner accidentally scratched himself on the sarcophagus, after which he developed blood poisoning, and his arm had to be amputated. His assistants were completely overtaken by death: the first soon shot himself, the second died of a fever, the third fell under a cart. Troubles happened to everyone who somehow dealt with the mummy: with researchers, journalists, photographers, even with loaders transporting the sarcophagus. In 1889, the ill-fated remains ended up in the Egyptian halls of the British Museum,and immediately a flurry of letters from indignant visitors fell upon his administration. People fainted in front of the sarcophagus; after visiting the Egyptian halls, various troubles began to haunt them. Even the guards of the museum rebelled - they refused to enter the hall because they were afraid to look at the sarcophagus. In 1912, the museum finally decided to get rid of the mummy and sold it to some American billionaire. But on the way to America, the steamer carrying the remains of the Egyptian priestess sank. But on the way to America, the steamer carrying the remains of the Egyptian priestess sank. But on the way to America, the steamer carrying the remains of the Egyptian priestess sank.
And the mummy is accused of the death of the famous "Titanic", which crashed on April 14, 1912. The fact is that on board the "unsinkable" they decided to transport the embalmed remains of the Egyptian soothsayer of the times of Amenophis IV. Of course, no one attached importance to the phrase engraved on the figure of Osiris lying under the head of the mummy: "Rise from the dust, and your gaze will crush all who stand in your way." The cargo was so valuable that they decided not to put it into the hold, but placed it right behind the captain's bridge. Everyone knows perfectly well how the first and only flight of the Titanic ended.
Ice Man
But not only the Egyptian mummies became famous for their ability to take revenge on those who disturb their peace. For example, in 1973 in Krakow, scientists examined the tomb of the Polish king Casimir IV Jagiellonchik, who ruled in the 15th century. And soon after the opening of the tomb, 12 of the 14 scientists who examined it mysteriously died.
On September 19, 1991, German climbers - the spouses Helmut and Erica Simon - while climbing the Alpine glacier Similuan (border of Italy and Austria) stumbled upon a man's corpse frozen into the ice. At first they decided that in front of them were the remains of a professor from Verona who disappeared in those places in 1938. But when scientists examined the find, it turned out that in fact it is a mummy of a Bronze Age warrior, perfectly preserved in the ice, who died about five thousand years ago. Soon after the body of the Ice Man (or Otzi, as scientists called him) was taken out of his ice grave, a series of inexplicable deaths began. First, the plane crashed on which the forensic scientist Rainer Henn, who was examining the ancient warrior, was flying. Shortly thereafter, lifeguard Kurt Fritz was killed in an avalanche while helping to remove Otzi's body from the ice. Journalist dies of brain tumorwho wrote an article about Ice Man. And finally, Helmut Simon, who discovered the remains of Helmut Simon, fell off a 100-meter cliff.
Princess Ukok
And here's another case. In 1993, on the Altai Ukok plateau, a mummy of a woman was found, buried about two and a half thousand years ago. Scientists gave her the codename Princess Ukok, although judging by her clothes and tattoos, the woman was more likely a shaman. The find was transported to Novosibirsk for study. For a long time, no troubles happened. The mystical events began exactly 10 years after the ancient grave was disturbed. In September 2003, Altai was shaken by a terrible earthquake, the epicenter of which coincided with the very place where the ashes of a shaman woman once rested. The earthquake was so strong that the nearby village of Beltir was destroyed to the ground. After that, new troubles swept the republic: there were many floods, the number of suicides increased sharply. Altaians are surethat all these misfortunes will end only after the shaman's mummy returns to its homeland.
Well, since, can the dead take revenge on the living for disturbing their ashes? “There is a scientific explanation for everything,” the same skeptic will exclaim. May be so. If you have something to object, we will be happy to hear your opinion.
Oleg Torosov. Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" № 16 2011