The ‘curse of the pharaohs’ is alleged to be cast upon anyone who disturbs the mummy of an Ancient Egyptian, especially a pharaoh. This curse, which does not differentiate between thieves and archaeologists, can cause bad luck, illness, or even death!The famous Mummy’s Curse had baffled the best scientific minds since 1923 when Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter discovered King Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt.
The Curse Of King Tutankhamun
Though no curse had been found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, deaths in succeeding years of various members of Carter’s team and real or supposed visitors to the site kept the story alive, especially in cases of death by violence or in odd circumstances:
Canary
James Henry Breasted was a famous Egyptologist who was working with Carter when the tomb was opened. The Egyptian workers were sure the tomb’s discovery was due to Breasted’s pet Canary, killed when a cobra slithered into its cage. The cobra was the symbol of the pharaoh’s power.
Lord Carnarvon
The second victim of the Mummy’s Curse was 53-year old Lord Carnarvon himself, who accidentally tore open a mosquito bite while shaving and ended up dying of blood poisoning shortly after that. This occurred a few months after the tomb was opened. He died at 2:00 AM on April 5, 1923. At the exact instant of his death, all the lights in Cairo mysteriously went out. Two thousand long miles away in England, Carnarvon’s dog howled and dropped ᴅᴇᴀᴅ at the exact moment.
Sir Bruce Ingham
Howard Carter gave a paperweight to his friend Sir Bruce Ingham as a gift. The paperweight appropriately consisted of a mummified hand wearing a bracelet that was supposedly inscribed with the phrase, “cursed be he who moves my body.” Ingham’s house burned to the ground not long after receiving the gift, and when he tried to rebuild, it was hit with a flood.
George Jay Gould
George Jay Gould was a wealthy American financier and railroad executive who visited the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1923 and fell sick almost immediately afterward. He never really recovered and died of pneumonia a few months later.
Evelyn White
Evelyn-White, a British archaeologist, visited Tut’s tomb and may have helped excavate the site. After seeing death sweep over about two dozen of his fellow excavators by 1924, Evelyn-White hung himself—but not before writing, allegedly in his blood, “I have succumbed to a curse which forces me to disappear.”
Aubrey Herbert
It’s said that Lord Carnarvon’s half-brother, Aubrey Herbert, suffered from King Tut’s curse merely by being related to him. Herbert was born with a degenerative eye condition and became blind late in life. A doctor suggested that his rotten, infected teeth somehow interfere with his vision, and Herbert had every tooth pulled from his head to regain his sight. It didn’t work. He did, however, die of sepsis as a result of the surgery, just five months after the death of his supposedly cursed brother.
VIDEO: