The curse of "Tutankhamen"

Death fell on those who dared disturb the sleep of the Pharaohs.

La Maldicion de la Pirámide de Tutankamon Leyenda Egipcia Faraon EgiptoSuddenly, in the middle of the night, a dog began to howl at that House decampo England. The constant, plaintive howl ended up awakening the family occupied the House. Despite the efforts of the family, the dog could not be calm: the unfortunate animal followed howling until without encourage, exhausted, fell dead.
This strange event took place in Hampshire, in the House that had lord Carnarvon, a 57-year-old amateur archaeologist, belonging to the nobility. At the time when the dog began to howl, the own lord Carnarvon was dying, thousands of miles from his home, in a room of the hotel Continental, Cairo. The curse of the child King, the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, charged to their two first victims, it would still be many more.
The Pharaonic curse was something that lord Carnarvon knew well; not only because the aristocrat was an enthusiastic Egyptologist, but because someone remembered it when still he was in England preparing the last and most ambitious of his expeditions to Egypt: which should bring it to the fabulous Tutankhamen's Tomb, filled with priceless treasures. Lord Carnarvon received a mysterious warning, made by a famous Mystic of that time, count Hamon. His message said: «Lord Carnarvon. Do not enter Tomb. Dangerous to disobey. If you ignore the warning you get sick without recovery. Death claim him in Egypt.» Aristocrat took seriously this warning twice consulted a fortune teller. Both times, the Seer predicted you that he would die very soon and in mysterious circumstances.

Nevertheless, Lord Carnarvon went ahead with the expedition; It is that it was reality an ambition that absorbed speaks it for many years. When he arrived in Egypt, was bravely brave, downplaying the Pharaonic curse; at the same time, the curse of Tutankhamun had terrified workers native, used in the excavation of Luxor. Arthur Weigall, one of the most important partners of expedition, felt compelled to declare: 'if Carnarvon falls to the tomb with the carefree humor, I do not give him long life.'
On February 17, 1923, Carnarvon and his team made their way ever! the burial chamber of the Egyptian boy King. In it, his American colleague, Howard Carter and lord Carnarvon found treasures that had not even been dreamed up: gold, stones and precious gems, as well as the coffin of solid gold that contained Tutankhamun mummified Horn. On the Tomb, there was an inscription, which the members of the expedition managed to translate. It read: «death will come to those who disturb the dream of the Pharaohs. "
Two months later, the now famous lord Carnarvon woke up in his room at the hotel Continental and said: "I feel very bad." When his son went to see him, Carnarvon was unconscious. He died that same night. The son of the aristocrat was resting in the adjoining room at the time when Carnarvon died. Later, the boy recalled that "the lights went out in the entire city of Cairo; We lit candles and prayed.
Carnarvon's death was attributed to the infection that sent him a mosquito; infection, said, weakened it and caused the beginning of a pneumonia. Added a strange fact: the mummified body of the Egyptian Pharaoh had a small stain on the left cheek, exactly in the same place where the mosquito had bitten to lord Carnarvon.
Soon after came another death in the Continental hotel. American archaeologist Arthur Mace, one of the more notable two of Carnarvon expedition, began to complain of fatigue and sudden mind went into a coma; He died before doctors could diagnose the evil he suffered.
Egyptologists began to die one after another. A close friend of lord Carnarvon, George Gould, hastily traveled to Egypt as soon as he learned of the death of the English Aristocrat. Gould visited the tomb of the Pharaoh and the next day suffered a collapse, characterized by high fever. He died twelve hours later.
The radiologist Archibald Reid, who examined with x-ray the body of Tutankhamun, was sent to his home in England, soon began to complain of exhaustion. He died shortly after. Richard Eethell, who, during the expedition, acted as personal Secretary of Carnarvon, It was found dead in bed, victim of a heart attack.
The British industrial Joel Wool was one of the first official guests see the tomb of the Pharaoh; died shortly after, victim of a mysterious fever. In a span of six years - which lasted the excavation of the Tomb d, Tutankhamun-, died twelve archaeologists present at the time of the discovery. And, after seven years, only two of the members of the original team of excavators were still with life. Not less than twenty-two others linked to the expedition were killed including prematurely include lady Carnavon and the half-brother of the aristocrat archaeologist latter committed suicide, apparently in the midst of a crisis of sudden insanity.
One of the fortunate survivors was the Co-Director of the expedition, Howard Carter. The archaeologist continued taunting of the legendary Pharaoh curse and died of natural causes in 1939.
But the curse of the Pharaohs continued to claim its toll in victims. many years after the demise of Carter. In 1966, the Government of Cairo commissioned to Mohammed lbrahan, director of Antiquities in Egypt which will organize an exhibition of the treasures of Tutankhamun in Paris. lbraham opposed that decision and had a premonitory dream, according to which should face personally to a danger of death silos treasures of the Pharaoh out of Egypt.
When lbraham came out of the last meeting, which had tried unsuccessfully to persuade officials to Government, he was hit and killed by a car. Three years later, the sole survivor of the Carnarvon expedition to the Pharaonic Tomb, Richard Adamson, of 70 years of age, gave British television an interview. She proposed 'demolish the myth of the Egyptian curse'.
Adamson, who speaks acted as security guard of loo Carnarvon, told viewers: "I do not believe and I have not believed in this myth, nor for a moment." Later, when she was leaving television studios, the taxi carrying it crashed; Adamson was thrown on the highway a truck, which was at that time, was a few inches of crush your head.
It was the third time that Adamson spoke in public to dispel the Pharaonic legend. First he explained frankly his disbelief, his wife died twenty-four hours later. The second time, his son broke the spine in a plane crash.
After their clash in the road, Adamson, resettling of its cranial wounds in a hospital, confessed: «"so far I have refused to believe that my family misfortunes had something to do with the curse of the" Pharaohs. " But I am not so sure."
The fear of the curse of the Pharaohs returned to emerge in 1972, while the gold mask of Tutankhamun was packed before traveling to London, don's was to be exhibited in the British Museum. The man who was in charge in Cairo the transfer operation was Dr. Gamal Mehrez, who replaced the ill-fated Mohammed lbraham in the position of director of thousand Antiquities of Egypt.
The doctor Mehrez didn't believe in the Pharaonic curse. He said: «I, more that any other person in the world, have been in contact with the tombs and mummies of the Pharaohs;» However, I am still alive. I am living proof that all the tragedies associated with the Pharaohs have been a mere coincidence. For the moment, at least, don't believe in the curse.»
The doctor Mehrez was in the Cairo Museum, organizing the last details of the move, the day that exporters came to install the invaluable loading on trucks. That evening, after having observed the operation of loading, Mehrez died. He was 52 years old; the causes of his death were attributed to circulatory collapse.
Undisturbed, the organizers of the exhibition continued with the preparations. A plane of the command transport the Real force air, aimed at the task of taking the relics to Great Britain. In the five years that followed the day of the flight, six members of the crew of the aircraft were victims of misfortune or were visited by death.
The official Rail Laude, head of the Britanniaaircraft pilot, and flight engineer enjoyed an excellent health. But both were destined to die very soon. Parkinson's wife reported that, from the flight, flier speaks suffered an annual heart attack, always at the same time of year they had transpor­tado the Egyptian relics. The latest attack ended with him, in 1978; age between 45.
Laurie Commander had died two years earlier also victim of a heart attack. When Laude died, his wife said: «Curse of Tutankhamen, the curse has killed him.» Laude had 40 years.
During the flight of the Britannia, the officer instructing technicians, Ian Landsdowne, kicked, jokingly, the box containing the death mask of Tutankhamun. He said, laughing: «I just kick the object most of the world.» The leg that gave the coup was plaster for months: he suffered serious fractures when, inexplicable way, a stairway which had climbed collapsed under their weight.
The officer of navigation, Aviator Lieutenant Jim Webb, lost all their belongings when his house was destroyed by a fire. A young man who traveled aboard the Britannia aircraft on that flight had to leave the RAF after suffering one and operation.
A Britonnia, Sergeant Brian Rounsfallwaiter, revealed, on the flight back to London, we play cards using the coffin as a table. In turn, we sat on the box containing the death mask, do and joking about it. "We were not disrespectful: just had a bit of fun." At the time of the flight, Rounfall was 35 years old. In the following years she suffered two heart attacks.
Is there a logical way to explain these mysterious deaths and that accumulation of misfortunes on so many people linked to the Tutankhamun relics?
Journalist Phillip Vandenburg studied, for years, the legend of the curse of the Pharaohs and brought two interesting suggestions. In his book The Curse of Pharaohs, pull shows that the tombs inside pyramids, were enabling environments for the survival of bacteria; over the centuries, says the author, they could have developed new and desco­cidas species whose power had been maintained to the present day.
Vandenburg also pointed out that the ancient Egyptians were skilled in the o of poisons; and some drugs do not need to be ingested to kill: can be deadly on contact, by skin penetration. It thus suggests that the Egyptians could have mixed poisonous substances with the painting of the networks inside the tombs, which were then sealed and converted in sealed redoubts.
For this reason, former thieves of graves, who raided, practiced a small hole in the wall of the Chamber, so the fresh air circulase, before daring to force the camera.
But the most extraordinary explanation about the curse of the Pharaohs was proposed in 1949. Its author was Professor Louis Bulgarini, who said: "It is definitely possible that the ancient Egyptians used atomic radiation to protect sacred sites."
