Back during our honeymoon, Ursula and I unexpectedly ran across the touring U.S. exhibit of the treasures discovered inside the tomb of Tutankhamun (a.k.a., “King Tut”). That tomb, now designated KV62, was discovered in 1922 by George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, and Howard Carter, with the latter receiving the bulk of the credit. Thus, since we’d both “been there; seen that”, so to speak, neither Ursula nor I felt the need to tempt fate by paying the extra fee to visit this cursed place, as we had already seen the treasures it once contained.
What do I mean by “cursed”? On 16 February 1923 Carter unsealed the tomb. George Herbert died mysteriously less than seven weeks later, reportedly from an infected mosquito bite. Yeah… riiight…. Within thirteen months, two more people associated with Tutankhamum died, and by 15 November 1929 three more joined them — fever, metatastic skin cancer, pleurisy leading to pneumonia, malarial pneumonia, and… wait for it… murder by smothering. For those keeping score, that’s three of five who died from some form of asphyxiation. Not a pleasant way to go. Carter lingered a bit longer, passing from Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1939. But well before the death of Howard Carter, the Mummy’s Curse had already made its way into popular culture thanks in no small part to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. So, why should I pay to take that kind of risk? Reminds me of an observation I made years ago in a novel I wrote: People flying first class pay extra for the privilege of being the first to arrive at the scene of the accident. Actually, I’m just kidding about being scared. Or am I? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! A very happy belated Boris Karloff Halloween, Mummy fans.
Besides, I got a lot of information for free just from perusing outside the entrance to the tomb:
So, hands in pocket, I whistled past this graveyard and went on to KV11 — the next, reportedly less risky, tomb of Ramesses III.
I’ll show you more images taken inside KV11 on Wednesday. But, until then, I’ll leave you with these two images:
Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)
Decisions — Murder in Paradise
The Globe — Murder in Luxury
R. Doug Wicker — Author 