On November 26, 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter, after weeks of work and preparation, finally entered Tutankhamun’s tomb and found thousands of precious objects. The discovery left him amazed (in his own words) and quickly reached Europe and the United States through newspapers, pH๏τographs, telegrams and radio, causing such fascination that it fueled a wave of Egyptomania .

Egyptomania inspired fashion, the production of consumer goods (especially decorative objects), music and, mainly, cinema with films on historical themes (Cleopatra was the favorite) and suspense and horror films about vengeful and murderous mummies.

How it all began: the Carter and Carnavon partnership

Howard Carter was an experienced archaeologist. At the age of 17, he began working at the British Museum, participating in archaeological expeditions as a draftsman and painter in Egypt. In 1902 and 1903, he supervised the excavations of the tombs of Thutmose IV and Hatshepsut, and carried out restoration work on the tombs of AmenH๏τep II, Seti I, Ramesses I, III, IV and IX, in which he installed electric lighting.

After an incident with French tourists in Egypt that turned into a diplomatic issue, Carter was fired. He remained in Egypt working as a painter, tour guide and interpreter in Luxor.

It was at this time that an invitation came from Lord Carnavon, a British aristocrat who led a carefree life of adventure travel, pH๏τography, golf and elegant dinners. During a months-long stay in Egypt, Carnavon began to take an interest in archaeology. He mentioned this to the director of the Egyptian Antiquities Administration in Cairo, who recommended Howard Carter.

The partnership between Carter and Carnavon began in 1907 and they set off for Thebes, where they excavated the necropolis of the Deir el-Bahari valley between 1901 and 1910. They made some important discoveries, including two temples considered “missing”, that of Hatshepsut and that of Ramesses IV (circa 1154-1148 BC).

Their greatest desire was to excavate the Valley of the Kings, where 25 tomb entrances had already been excavated and, therefore, it was considered by experts to be an exhausted archaeological site. The license for the excavation came in 1915 with the signing of a document that detailed in 13 clauses how the work should be conducted.

The First World War (1914-1918), however, delayed the plans as Lord Carnavon was called to serve England by setting up a military hospital in his castle.

A few more years of waiting

After the war, Carnavon was in ruins and therefore unable to afford the costs of an archaeological excavation.

However, Howard Carter managed to convince Carnavon to begin excavation work. The British aristocrat sought money from the London newspaper The Times , which he granted exclusive rights to publish, first-hand, news and pH๏τographs of everything that was found.

This type of agreement, extremely unusual at the time, guaranteed the financing of a highly expensive job and ensured the continued interest of the press and, consequently, of the public who followed every step of the excavation.

After four seasons of work in the Valley of the Kings without any encouraging results, Carnavon returned to England while Carter carried out the last season of excavation. It was his last chance.

The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb

Work began on November 1, 1922, in an unlikely location: just below the entrance to the tomb of Ramesses VI, where the remains of the workers’ buildings dating back some 3,000 years lay. The excavations reached the foundations, and on November 4, a 16-step staircase was found leading down to a sealed stone door. On the door were seals with hieroglyphs inscribed with Tutankhamun’s name.

It was necessary to notify Carnavon of the discovery and call him back to the Valley of the Kings. Carter had the stone staircase covered and left some workers to guard the place. He waited three weeks for Carnavon to return, and he arrived in Luxor on November 23, accompanied by his daughter.

On the morning of the 25th, the sealed door was removed and what they found were rocks and limestone chips all the way to the top. Once the rubble was removed, they realized that it was a 6 meter pᴀssage that led to another sealed door, similar to the first.

Carter made a small hole in the upper left corner. He inserted an iron rod to see if there was any more debris in the place, but the rod found no obstacle. The place seemed empty. Carter opened the hole a little wider, enough to insert a lit candle and see what was inside. He then reports what happened:

“As soon as my eyes became accustomed to the light, details of the room slowly emerged from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold—everywhere the gleam of gold. (…) I was speechless with astonishment, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to bear the suspense any longer, asked eagerly—“Can you see anything?”—all I could say was, “Yes, wonderful things.”

The next morning, November 26, 1922, the door was removed to reveal the antechamber cluttered with boxes, chairs, vases, sofas, dismantled chariots, statues – most of them gold. The tomb KV62 (Kings’ Valley 62) of Pharaoh Tutakhamun had been discovered.

On the opposite wall were two life-size guardian statues facing each other. Between them was a sealed door. It would take weeks to open it. Before that, all the objects in the antechamber would have to be removed.

Antechamber of Tutankhamun’s tomb, with the sealed door guarded by two guardians in the background.

Howard Carter (seated on the floor) and ᴀssistants open the door to the shrine. The god Anubis watches over the golden shrine (behind him) containing the canopic jars used to store the mummy’s internal organs.

Objects left in the antechamber: ceremonial bed in the shape of the Celestial Cow (there are two others with animal figures), chests, stools, chair, boxes, etc. The oval containers beneath the ceremonial bed contained food for the pharaoh.

The work in the antechamber

The removal of each piece was planned so as not to damage it by debris or a wrong move. The objects were pH๏τographed, numbered, catalogued, cleaned and described, one by one. Carter asked for and received the help of a large number of experts.

The objects were rolled out of the tomb and carried on stretchers to a makeshift conservation workshop in the nearby tomb of Seti II. As the stretchers were lifted out of the tomb, a crowd of tourists and reporters waited at the top of the tomb. News of the discovery spread around the world and attracted hundreds of people.

The stretchers were sent to the conservation workshop, which was also a pH๏τography studio, storage room and carpentry shop (to make the wooden boxes to transport the objects by train to Cairo).

Work on the antechamber took more than two months.

Tutankhamun’s burial chamber and sarcophagus

On February 16, 1923, the sealed door between the guardian statues was removed, allowing access to the burial chamber. It was almost entirely occupied by a large gilded wooden box: this was the shrine that held Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus. On the sides, next to the shrine, were 11 oars for the Boat of the Sun, containers for incense, and lanterns decorated with images of the god Hapy (son of Horus).

The sanctuary was 5 m long, 3 m wide and 2.75 m high. It was not a single piece: inside there were three other sanctuaries. The last of them, the innermost, measured 2.90 m long and 1.48 m wide. Its walls were decorated with funerary images and, on the ceiling, Nut, the goddess of the sky, embraced the granite sarcophagus with her wings.

The sarcophagus, made of a single block of stone, measured 2.75 m long, 1.33 m wide and 1.49 m high. It was closed with a pink granite lid weighing 1250 kg. Inside the sarcophagus were three anthropomorphic coffins, one inside the other. The first two were made of cypress wood and the last was made of 110.4 kg of pure gold. Inside it, the mummy of Tutankhamun with the death mask of gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, quartz, obsidian, turquoise and glᴀss weighing 11 kg.

The mummy was wrapped in 16 layers of linen bandages and within each layer were numerous pieces of jewelry and amulets, divine figurines and two gold daggers. The mummy wore a breastplate, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and had its fingers and toes covered with golden finger cots.

Examination of the mummy revealed that the pharaoh was between 17 and 19 years old when he died.

Howard Carter examines the mummy of Tutankhamun. The mummy was covered in a black resin that had penetrated the linen bandages and amulets,

The death mask after the first cleaning on the day it was discovered, October 28, 1925. Head of Tutankhamun’s mummy: the hair had been shaved and it was covered with strips of cloth.

Cross-section of the shrines and sarcophagi in Tutankhamun’s tomb: the numbers indicate the four shrines that held the stone sarcophagus (a). Inside it were three other coffins (b, c, d), the third (d) being of pure gold containing the mummy.

Eight years of work

Work on tomb KV62 lasted 8 years. Removing the lid of each sarcophagus was a carefully planned task. Tutankhamun’s mummy was only revealed on October 28, 1925, almost three years after the access to the tomb was found. Lord Carnavon did not witness this long-awaited moment: he had died two years earlier, on April 5, 1923.

After the mummy had been examined, there were still two other chambers to investigate: the treasure chamber and the annex, which contained hundreds of other valuable objects. Finally, on November 10, 1930, the last objects were removed and the work was completed.

Tutankhamun’s mummy was kept inside the tomb and only came out for an X-ray examination in 1968. For a long time, it was not on display to visitors. It is the only royal mummy to have remained in its own tomb since the discovery of a tomb until today.

The completion of the work did not put an end to interest in Tutankhamun’s tomb and mummy. The enormous amount of material collected will take decades to be fully analyzed and evaluated by historians and archaeologists. There are still closed boxes in the Cairo Museum awaiting the beginning of their studies.

The public, in turn, in addition to the fascination aroused by the discovery, was captivated by the legend of the “curse of the pharaoh” against those who disturbed his eternal dream. The legend inspired (and still inspires) films, videos, cartoons, fiction literature, electronic games, etc.

Tutankhamun’s death mask: 11kg of gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, quartz, obsidian, turquoise and glᴀss. The back bears a prayer of protection for the mummy written in hieroglyphics.

Breastplate with the figure of Horus (falcon) with the solar disk on his head and, on his paws, the Ankh cross, symbol of eternal life. Made of gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, turquoise and obsidian.

Earring, bracelet and diadem with figures of the serpent Uraeus or Ureus, symbol of sovereignty and legitimacy of the pharaoh’s power, and the vulture goddess Nekhbet, protector of Egypt.

Gold sandals and finger cots for toes and fingers.

Breastplate with the Udjat (Eye of Horus or Ra) flanked by the vulture goddess Nekbet and the serpent Uraeus or Uraeus.

Tomb KV62, the tomb of Tutankhamun, with the pharaoh’s sarcophagus and mummy. Unlike other royal tombs, Tutankhamun’s tomb is poorly decorated. Only the walls of the burial chamber are painted. Not even the ceiling was painted. The tomb was closed to the public for ten years and was reopened on January 31, 2019. The objects are on display at the Cairo Museum.