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LATEST UPDATE: PHARAOH DID NOT DIE OF BLOW TO
HEAD!
BY JM
 The
charm of the occult is a little irresistible,
especially when it comes from respected
professionals who can do well without the
publicity. Three-thousand and five hundred years
after his mysterious, untimely death, Pharaoh
Tutankhamun looks across the generations and into
our souls. The curse seems to be back. I am
tempted to be drawn to the metaphor that the Mummy
has returned, but then again, I decide against it.
The mist fails to lift on
Pharaoh Tutankhamun, the boy king who ruled Egypt
for a short nine years from 1336 - 1327 BC.
Tutankhamun was all of 18 years old when he died
mysteriously. Pharaoh Tutankhamun succeeded his
heretic father Akhenaten to the throne. Akhenaten
had attempted to create a new forced religion,
with the surname Aten, whereas the usual surname
is 'Amun'. His son Tutankhaten promptly changed
his own surname to Tutankhamun, and his
child-wife's name was changed to Ankhsunamun.
No one knows how Pharaoh
Tutankhamun died. It has been speculated for long
that King Tutankhamun was assassinated and records
of his existence wiped out. His early death and
absence of records fuelled this school of thought.
One of the most important
archeological finds of all time, King
Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered in 1923 by
Howard Carter, a British Egyptologist, who was
convinced that King Tutankhamun's grave lay
undiscovered somewhere in the Valley of Kings in
Luxor, Egypt. He was financed in his expedition by
Lord Carnarvon, himself and ailing gentleman keen
on Egyptology. After five years of unsuccessful
digging, Carnarvon almost gave up on his hopes,
and returned to London. At the same time, Howard
Carter's digging team stumbled on to a step cut
into a rock beneath the debris of an ancient
structure. On excavation, it was found that the
states led down to the long-hidden tomb of the
Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The news was immediately
communicated to Carnarvon, who quickly returned to
Cairo.
According
to legend which has been strongly contested, the
tomb raiders broke the long sleep of the Pharaoh,
setting a deadly curse in motion. The day he hit
upon the tomb, Howard carter returned home to fund
that his canary was swallowed by a cobra. His
servant wailed at the Pharaoh's Curse, since the
canary was supposed to have led the explorer to
the tomb, and a cobra and a vulture were supposed
to be Tutankhamun's protectors. (Tutankhamun's
headgear sports statuettes of both). The cobra was
supposed to be the protector of the tomb.
The tomb was intact and
contained an amazing collection of treasures
including a stone sarcophagus. The sarcophagus
contained three gold coffins nested within each
other. Inside the final one was the mummy of the
boy-king, Pharaoh Tutankhamen.
It was reported that Carter's
native diggers saw hieroglyphics inside the tomb,
above Tutankhaun's body, which warned of death to
the intruders. Apparently, Howard Carter had a
tough time keeping the scared grave diggers
together. But these reports are believed to have
been significantly embellished by the newspapers
of the day who cooked up stories to sell the
paper.
Be that as it may, the fact
remains that Lord Carnarvon died soon thereafter.
He died of an infected mosquito bite, which later
became pneumonia and claimed his life. When he
died, the lights went out in Cairo. This is agreed
to even by hose who contest the Curse of
Tutankhamun. At the moment of his death, his pet
dog howled pitifully and turned over and died, in
faraway London. This is also reported, but there
is no actual confirmation or denial of this event.
Death of Carnarvon was only
the start. A string of deaths followed. Many of
those associated with the grave-digging succumbed
to unnatural causes, giving currency to the Curse
Theory. The newspapers of the day speculated that
such eerie events were caused by the curse, an
evil which Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter had
unleashed. Two days after Carnarvon's death, the
mummy of Pharaoh Tutankhamun was examined and a
blemish was found on his left cheek exactly in the
position of the mosquito bite on Carnarvon's face.
Soon after, archaeologist
Arthur Mace who was part of the expedition, went
into a coma and died soon afterwards, baffling
everyone. The deaths continued. Carnarvon's
friend, George Gould, trekked to Egypt when he
learned of Carnarvon's fate. Before leaving, he
looked in at the tomb. The next day, he collapsed
with a high fever; twelve hours later he was dead.
Radiologist Archibald Reid, a man who used X-ray
techniques to determine the age and possible cause
of death of Tutankhamun, was sent back to England
after complaining of exhaustion. He died soon
after landing.
Carnarvon's secretary
Richard Bethell died of heart failure four months
after the tomb was opened. The chain of deaths
continued. Joel Wool, a leading British
industrialist visited the tomb and was dead a few
months later from a fever which doctors could not
comprehend.
BY JM
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