Tutankhamun would remain an insignificant pharaoh in the history of Ancient Egypt, because he died at the age of 18 and ruled the state for only nine years. But on November 4, 1922, the British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of this pharaoh, and this discovery caused a sensation and also created the myth of the pharaoh’s curses.

Most of the tombs of the pharaohs were ransacked in antiquity and the Middle Ages, and the discovery of the tomb, called KV 62, in the fall of 1922 caused a sensation because it was almost untouched and could be seen to contain thousands of objects that had been created over 3,200 years therefore for many years.

Carter dug in the Valley of the Kings for five years and found nothing of note, and his financial backer, Lord Carnarvon, was ready to give up, but Carter insisted on one more try. He arrived in Cairo on October 28, 1922, and a week later he would make a discovery that would mark 20th-century archeology and help establish Egypt’s booming tourism industry.

Then, on November 4th, Carter could not have imagined what he would find in the ancient tomb: on November 4th, only one step had been opened.

Carter and his men began digging on November 1. and on November 4, one of the workers discovered a step cut into the bottom of the valley. By the evening of November 5, the team had uncovered the twelve steps, revealing the top of the door with the seal of the royal necropolis still in place. It was clear that there was a pharaoh’s tomb. The tomb was to be opened three weeks later in the presence of Lord Carnarvon.

The tomb had only four rooms, small for a pharaoh of that time, but four were filled with valuable objects that, three millennia ago, were believed to be necessary for him in the “afterlife”. A total of 5,400 objects are cataloged.

Tutankhamun, or “King Tutan” as he is fondly called in English, lived 33 centuries ago, between 1341 and 1323 BC. Historians attribute it to the 18th dynasty of Ancient Egypt, which ruled between the 16th and 13th centuries BC. (more precisely, between 1550/1549 and 1292 BC).

Sources: National Geographic, Agerpres, Encyclopedia Britannica

Photo source: Dreamstime.com