The Curse of the Pharaohs' Tombs

by Harrison Paul

  On the day when the tomb was finally opened there were many visitors who had gathered to witness the event. Instead of an air of great excitement about what was to be uncovered, there seemed to be an air of anticipation of what might be unleashed when the inside of the tomb was exposed. Nobody openly discussed the fact that we were disturbing the dead, which in any religion is not a good or proper thing to do, but this is what we were doing, this was Tutankhamun’s final resting place, and here was assembled an audience of the wealthy and fortunate from around the globe, treating such sacrilege as though it were a form of entertainment. That was the first time I felt sadness in my heart, I felt I had betrayed Tutankhamun himself. After all it was through our efforts that the body of the dead king had been made so vulnerable, an object of curiosity. In my opinion it was anything but dignified, I understood the need to unveil our history, but this to many of us didn’t feel as though history was of any importance, it was the valuables and the treasures that might be found within that brought such an attendance. I know those with genuine interest, such as Carter and Lord Carnarvon, were good decent people, and some of their fellows did care, it was those who came for a rare visit or to claim they had been inside the tomb. Those people were not all kindly or respectful of us or of the history. Some of those were as bad as the tomb robbers, they stole valuable artifacts from the sands as souvenirs, they treated workers with no respect, making unnecessary demands of them, many of them treated animals with more kindliness than Egyptian people. A good many of the original visitors who visited the tomb were ill prepared for the desert conditions, with clothing and attire that was better suited to Western cities, not the hot dry desert sun. Some suffered from the dangers of the exposure to such heat, exhaustion and fainting was common, as was sickness with the change of diet aiding the suffering. Many workers saw this as a warning from the gods and on more than one occasion tried to explain this to tomb visitors, but the language barrier prevented the accurate conveying of the workers real fear to Westerners.

  While Egyptian workers were allowed access to the tomb under the strict supervision of archaeologists, the original workforce was slowly reduced in numbers as greater focus was upon the content of the tomb rather than external excavations. Three further deaths occurred to local Egyptians during this period, one was accepted as death through heart failure and over exertion, the man in question had been feeling unwell for several days, so this is hardly suspicious. However, the other two deaths were decidedly more sinister and had unnatural causes attached to them. Both victims (men) died independently of one another and, at different times, both had a madness forced upon them that wasn’t previously known and therefore because of the spontaneity of its onset, was undeniably frightening to the men, and those who witnessed the onset of the madness. A situation occurred when some of the treasures were being removed from the tomb, the objects were carried by Egyptian workers out of the chambers, along the corridor and up the staircase into the daylight sun. Almost everything was recorded in registers and logs by Howard Carter, it was known that many smaller items were not recorded, such items were gifted (in some cases sold) to selected visitors, the handing over or sale was never conducted by Carter himself, but by some of his team.

  A foreman of a workforce team that was helping to remove the artifacts observed such trading and dared to voice his concerns that dishonorable dealings were occurring in the Valley of the Kings. He warned Carter that he was disobeying the rules of Egypt and would arouse the displeasure of the gods that ruled the region. He accused Carter of being little better than a tomb robber. Naturally, Carter was agitated by such a suggestion and dismissed the man’s opinion as being of no consequence, and further added that there were no gods ruling the Valley of the Kings, they were ancient inventions of the scribes, storytellers and writers that had been handed down from generation to generation, he told him they were nothing but fables, stories! He instructed the man to forget such nonsense and suggested that he was wrong in his idea that any artifact was leaving the tomb immorally. This wasn’t a denial that objects were being sold, or given as gifts, it was more of a suggestion that those carrying out this trade had no morals, nor had those accepting or paying for the items. Carter added that nothing of any value had been lost throughout the excavations and that the workers witnessing any such trade must be working too hard, have exhaustion and misinterpreted matters. The worker advised him that the gods would be the judge of what was happening at the tomb and the stealing he (Carter) was allowing to happen at the tomb was wrong.

  There was much discontent among the workforce, it had never been a happy one and the dialogue between the archaeologists and much of the workforce was never more distant than it was at this time. We knew that Carter had recruited new workers himself, these people had been placed within our fold as communicators, conveying back to the archaeologists details of any dissent they uncovered. Some of the workforce were dismissed by the archaeologists, accused of stealing. This was wrong, most of the Egyptian workers would not steal from the pharaohs, they understood the consequences of doing so, not only would they suffer from the laws of the land but also from the vengeance of the dead. The dismissed workers were merely scapegoats, an effort by the dig team to show the Egyptian governing bodies that they were honest and would not accept any immoral activity at the dig site. It also kept any ill-feeling at bay; workers became reluctant to speak out about anything. Carter maintained an aloofness from workforce issues, leaving his juniors to deal with things like that, yet he would often stop to talk to Egyptians and praise them for their endeavours in supporting the hard work created through the dig. On the day the tomb of Tutankhamun was opened, they discovered fabulous treasures within. At the end of the entrance passageway and to the right was a wall and doorway, standing guard on each side of this were two life-size figures of King Tutankhamun, they had been placed there during the funerary ritual, they faced each other so that between them no one could pass through the doorway they protected, unnoticed. On the forehead of each statue was a depiction of Weret Hekau (the royal cobra). Uraeus, it was claimed, could spit poison and fire at an enemy to protect the king. The goddess Isis used Uraeus to acquire the throne of Egypt for her husband Osiris. Anubis, the jackal dog-headed man, was the son of Osiris and Isis, therefore, despite Carter’s belief, links do exist throughout the history of the pharaohs and life and death. The Uraeus set on the brow of the two statues inside the tomb were threatening and menacing in their presence; many Egyptian workers who entered the tomb bowed their heads and dared not look at them. Carter, on inspecting them, touched the effigies and flicked them with his fingers to see what substance they were made from. On doing so it is said he went into a seizure of coughing, this was said to be nothing more than dust contamination.

  Later that day, at Carter’s house on the edge of the Valley of the Kings, a canary bird he had with him in a cage, as a pet, suffered a ghastly and unusual fate. Carter and a few colleagues, it was said, were dining when a commotion outside his house caused all who heard it to rush out to see from where it emanated. It was the distressed calls of a bird. As they came out, there before them sat a serpent, similar to that in the crown of the sentinels guarding the inner tomb of Tutankhamun, and in its mouth lay the canary; it was dead. It was said by Carter to have died not from any injuries, but the fright of the affair. The serpent was angered by the delay in devouring its prey and was at once distracted and killed, its head severed from its body. Staff were instructed to clear the mess away, however, they regarded the matter as a warning from the spirit of the dead king against further intrusion into the tomb and were themselves in fear. Carter dismissed it as a natural occurrence and told the staff to get on with the task he had asked of them. He was clearly upset by the incident and angry at his staff for questioning his directions. What is not commonly known is that he later questioned each member of his household staff about why the cage was left insecure and open, thus allowing the serpent access to the bird. He himself examined th
e cage; it was closed and the door secure. Yet no one had touched it. Carter remained curious how the bird had got out or the serpent in! He believed someone had let the bird out and deliberately brought the serpent to kill it and lost much trust in his staff because of the matter. He demanded complete silence and refused to discuss what had happened with anyone, it was his guests who went on to discuss it with journalists, the Egyptians remained loyal because they were too frightened to utter anything about the underworld. Carter is said to have expressed his worries that someone or something was attempting to frighten him off the site, he believed it was nothing supernatural but of the more physical kind, seeking the rewards of the contents of the tomb.

  To cover news of the incident, Carter replaced the canary. A short time later, one of the workers in the Valley was attacked and savaged by a desert dog, it was at night and the dog had been seen watching the various camps where some of the treasures removed from the tomb were first moved to. The superstitious workers claimed that the animal, jet black in colour and thin, lay in the exact pose of the figure of Anubis that had been found within the tomb. The animal sat for hours and was causing some alarm and distress among certain workers. So the worker approached it and tried to move it away. The man was seen walking away with the dog, out of sight behind rocks, at the time there was not a sound of any confrontation or attack taking place. Several hours passed and the man hadn’t returned, so several of the group went to look for him. Behind some large rocks they found his dead body, the torso was in a disgusting state, incisions like wounds had been made to the chest and abdomen and his heart had been removed from his internal organs and wasn’t to be found anywhere. His face seemed untouched, his eyes were wide open and had the appearance of an insane stare, part of his brain had been pulled down through his nose and lay over his mouth, there were no other marks on his head. The archaeologists were informed of the find and after inspection of the body, were told to bury the man without delay because of the negative publicity such an incident would arouse. The man had no family and his remains were buried under the cover of darkness, there and then in the Valley of the Kings without any formal notification being given to the Egyptian authorities. The dog was never again seen in the area.

  Another death occurred through madness when an illiterate worker awoke in the middle of the night screaming in terror, he claimed to have been visited by the boy king, Tutankhamun, who warned him to tell other Egyptian workers who had invaded his tomb and disturbed his peace, not to trust Lord Carnarvon or Howard Carter because they sought fame, wealth and riches that belonged to the Egyptian people, they were sacrificing Egyptian people to the god of the Duat. The man could not be silenced and the madness ensued throughout the night, eventually he was bound to some wooden planks, laid on his back, his head fastened by rope wrapped across the forehead and under the wooden planks to prevent any movement. Finally, after several hours, to the pleasure of his fellow workers he finally fell silent and slept. The following morning when workers checked his condition he was found dead, his tongue had been crudely cut from his mouth and lay by his body, wire had been inserted into and twisted through his lips to seal them closed. Unable to scream or shout, he had suffered an agonising end to his life. Being unable to move he drowned in his blood!

  The letter by Asim provides some insightful cultural detail into local superstitions that were held by the Egyptian workforce at the time and gives an altogether different, more sinister angle on the history of the curse of King Tutankhamun. It certainly isn’t something one might find in a textbook covering the search and excavations to locate and reveal the tomb and its contents.

  There exists another mysterious tale, this time involving an infamous psychic healer and occult figure of the twentieth century, Irish-born Count Louis Hamon. As a result of his exceptional skills, he was often bestowed with exotic gifts passed on by grateful clients whom he had helped or cured. According to the legend, the strangest gift of all brought him nothing but trouble. On a visit to Luxor in 1890, Hamon cured a powerful sheik of malaria. To reward him the sheik gave him an unusual gift, the mummified hand of a long-deceased Egyptian princess. The story behind the hand dates back to the time of King Akhenaton, who was in the seventeenth year of his reign of Egypt. Akhenaton quarreled with his daughter over religious matters, and the king did not like her attitude, as she displayed a clear lack of respect for him and his leadership. He ordered priests to disfigure and kill her. This they did and afterwards cut off her right hand and buried it separately and secretly in the Valley of the Kings. The authorities did their best to keep the murder quiet, but her sudden disappearance and the gossip among the courtiers soon revealed what had happened. The death of the princess was viewed with some horror by the people of Egypt, since it was a requirement for the body of the dead to remain intact so that it could enter the afterlife and paradise. Her own father had made sure she could not do this and therefore she was damned for eternity.

  Count Hamon’s wife disliked the dried-up hand from the first time she saw it, and told her husband to lock it away in an empty wall safe in their London home. In October 1922, Hamon and his wife had reason to reopen the safe – and on doing so, they stood back in terror. There before them was the hand of the murdered princess, but it had altogether changed in its appearance. Mummified for 3,200 years, it had suddenly begun to soften and the flesh was once again growing, looking almost like a healthy hand. The horror of the situation caused Hamon’s wife to scream, and she demanded that it must be instantly destroyed. Hamon, by virtue of the fact that he was able to contact the spirits had never before been afraid of anything, but the image of the regrown hand had shocked him. He accepted his wife’s request, but told her that he wished to give the hand the best funeral that was possible, since its original owner had been a princess.

  On the night of 31 October 1922, Halloween, the burial preparations were complete. The Count later described in a letter to one of his friends, the archaeologist Lord Carnarvon, the format of the burial and how he had laid the hand gently in the fireplace, before reading aloud a passage from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. As he closed the book there was a sudden clap of thunder and the sharp flash of a lightning bolt momentarily illuminated the room, which then fell into total darkness which overcame the entire house. Moments later, the door to the room flew open with a sudden ferocious gust of wind. Hamon’s wife fell to the floor in fright, Hamon joined her and together the pair lay there, gripped by the tentacles of ice-cold air. For a few minutes the room was quiet and still. Hamon then raised his eyes to look around and saw, just a few feet from him, the figure of a woman. The apparition was adorned in the royal clothes of ancient Egypt, with the serpent of the Pharaoh’s House on her head. Looking more closely he saw that the woman’s right arm abruptly ended in a stump. The figure glided across the floor of the room to the roaring fireplace on which the hand had been placed by Hamon. There, it bent forward towards the fire and then, as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. The second it disappeared power was returned to the house and the room once again lit up. A shocked Hamon helped his wife to her feet, but the pair were speechless and still struck by fear. As he looked into the fire he saw that the hand was gone. The couple never saw it again.

  Due to the after effects of the ghostly encounter, the Count and his wife were admitted to hospital, where, four days later, Hamon read in the pages of a newspaper that the expedition funded by Lord Carnarvon had discovered the tomb of the ancient pharaoh Tutankhamen, and that they would shortly enter it. Hamon wrote his old friend a letter, pleading with him to think twice before opening the tomb. He wrote: ‘I know now that the ancient Egyptians had powers which we do not understand. In the name of our God and father, I ask you not to desecrate that tomb and to take the utmost care if you do.’ The rest, as they say, is history! The unnatural deaths in the desert sands of the Valley of the Kings don’t end there, as will be seen: they span the globe. However, one further, altogether more infamous death occurred in Egypt, shor
tly after the tomb was opened...

  Chapter 2

  Death Has Wings

  Off the A34 near Burghclere, north Hampshire, lies Beacon Hill, a place one would hardly associate with ancient Egypt or the curse of the pharaoh’s tomb. Yet here, at the top of the hill, lie the mortal remains of the one individual around whom the Western belief in Egyptian curses is based. For this is the final resting place of George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon (Lord Carnarvon). From such an elevated position, the grave overlooks the ancestral family seat of Highclere Castle and much of the Hampshire/Berkshire region. I first happened upon the grave by accident back in 1981, when, after climbing the hill with my dog Sam, I saw the black rusty railings that surrounded the grave and wandered over to examine it more closely. To my surprise I read Carnarvon’s name on the decaying stone that covered the tomb. It is a wonderfully peaceful, yet powerful location, befitting of a man of his stature who, in death, has possibly become as infamous as King Tutankhamun himself, although unlike King Tutankhamun, Lord Carnarvon will be allowed to rest in peace for eternity. I will always remember the feeling I had when I stood beside Carnarvon’s grave alone on that hill: to think that his eyes first gazed upon the wonderful treasures found within the tomb! He smelt and breathed stale Egyptian air that undoubtedly filled the tomb, and he was one of the first to look upon the final remains of a powerful pharaoh. I somehow felt privileged to be there alone with Carnarvon, and again I wondered about his untimely death and all that surrounded it. I tried to envisage his funeral, held at 11am on Saturday 28 April 1923. Immediate family only attended, plus a few loyal household servants. There was no special ceremony for this great man; it was a quiet, peaceful send-off. Beacon Hill was alive with the song of birds. Now, here I was, stood at that very same site, just me and the remains of Lord Carnarvon. It was a special and personal moment for me indeed. I don’t believe in coincidence; to me it’s little more than an easy way to justify or write off something that is improbable or unlikely. ‘Coincidences’ are invoked to explain anomalies about Lord Carnarvon’s death in Cairo.