Tutankhamun's tomb (KV62) — the curse of the pharaohs

OVERVIEW

The curse of the pharaohs is a curse alleged to fall on anyone who disturbs an Egyptian mummy, especially a pharaoh's. Genuine tomb curses exist but are rare, mostly in Old Kingdom private tombs (Ankhtifi, Khentika Ikhekhi) and once in the Pyramid of Pepi I, and seem aimed at priests and robbers. No curse was found inscribed in Tutankhamun's tomb; Donald B. Redford called the evidence for one 'unadulterated claptrap'.

HISTORY

Howard Carter's team opened the tomb (KV62) on 29 November 1922. When Carter's canary was found in the mouth of a cobra — the symbol of the monarchy — local rumour spoke of a curse (The New York Times, 22 December 1922). Lord Carnarvon, who paid for the dig, cut an infected mosquito bite while shaving and died of blood poisoning on 5 April 1923. Two weeks earlier the novelist Marie Corelli had published a letter quoting an obscure book on 'dire punishment' for entering a sealed tomb; the press then reported, untruly, that a curse had been found. Arthur Conan Doyle blamed 'elementals' set by the priests. Mussolini had a gifted mummy removed from his office. Later deaths — George Jay Gould, the radiologist Douglas-Reid, Arthur Mace, Richard Bethell — were added to the toll.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Carter dismissed it as 'tommy-rot'. Of 58 people present when the tomb and sarcophagus were opened, only eight died within a dozen years; Carter lived to 1939, Carnarvon's daughter Lady Evelyn, among the first inside, to 1980. The Lancet found it unlikely Carnarvon's death had anything to do with the tomb, and rejected the toxic-fungus theory for him; the Aspergillus flavus idea for other deaths remains disputed. The article concludes the curse is a cultural phenomenon, grown from 19th-century mummy fiction (Loudon 1827, the stories of 1862–1869) rather than anything found in Egypt.

VISITING

KV62 is in the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank at Luxor, with the king's mummy still in it. Flooding and tourist traffic have damaged it, and a replica of the burial chamber was installed in 2012 next to Carter House, near the valley's entrance.