The Pharaoh’s Curse

The curse of the mummy began when many terrible events occurred after the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb(...) . Legend has it that anyone who dared to open the tomb would suffer the wrath(...) of the mummy. Due to the fact that mummies have been associated with many magical powers throughout history, some of the mummies in Egypt were ground into a fine powder and sold as mystical mummy powder. It was believed the powder had magical healing powers, but it wasn’t until the discovery of King Tut and the hype of the media that things would change forever. T he hype(...) began when Lord Carnarvon, the person who funded the dig of King Tut’s Tomb, died shortly after the discovery. The path to his death began in the spring of 1923, when he was bitten on the cheek by a mosquito. It soon became infected and Lord Carnarvon became very ill. He suffered a high fever and chills. A doctor was sent to examine him, but medical attention arrived too late and Lord Carnarvon died. At that exact moment, the lights in Cairo mysteriously went out. O nce Carnarvon died, the media went wild with stories of his death. They claimed King Tut wanted vengeance(...) and announced a mummy’s curse, which targeted those who had entered the tomb. Not only did the death of Carnarvon stir people into an uproar(...) but other stories began to surface as well. Of the stories that surfaced, two remain prominent(...) . One of the prominent stories is that a cobra killed Howard Carter’s (the explorer who discovered King Tut’s burial place) pet canary after the discovery of King Tut’s tomb. The other story is that Lord Carnarvon’s dog howled and dropped dead at two in the morning at the same moment when Carnarvon died. D id King Tut’s tomb really unleash(...) a curse? New findings suggest that bacteria on the wall of the tomb might have been the cause of the curse. The bacteria would release spores(...) into the air allowing them to be breathed in. This in turn caused people who came into contact with these spores to become ill. Could this be what killed Lord Carnarvon? Whether the mummy’s curse is fact or fiction, this story seems to interest people even today. The myth of the curse has remained with King Tut, and continues to make people question as to whether a curse was really unleashed. What is known is that when you mix propaganda, facts and hype, you get a story that can be exciting. It all really comes down to one question: Do you believe in the curse of the mummy? We will leave that for you to decide. (Reading text adapted fromkingtutone)