There is a popular saying in Egypt: "Death follows those who enter the tomb of the Pharaoh." Many travelers in the world firmly believe in this saying, but some people do not believe it. In 1923, after an expedition team led by Lord Carnarvon and Carter entered the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, a series of bizarre deaths occurred. European newspapers publicized the magic word "Pharaoh's Curse", which made people panic for a while, making the already mysterious tomb of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh even more confusing.
Tutankhamun was the pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of ancient Egypt. After being the ruler for nine years, he died mysteriously in 1350 BC at the age of 18. People suspected that he was Political opponents were murdered. British archaeologist Carter and his sponsor, the famous explorer Sir Carnarvon, spent seven years in the mountains of the Valley of the Kings in Egypt to find the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, and finally found it on November 26, 1922. On the afternoon of the same day, the seal of Tutankhamun's tomb was found. From then on, the pharaoh who had been sleeping for thousands of years was awakened, and disaster followed.
When Carter was looking for the tomb, he brought a canary. When the construction foreman saw it, he was surprised and said: "This is the golden bird! It will lead us to the tomb!" This sentence really came true. In November of this year, the expedition team really discovered the stone steps on the rock. The steps lead to an unopened tomb door with Tutankhamun's name written on it. This incident had a hint of mystery from the beginning, and what happened next was even more bizarre.
That night, Carter's servant reported to him with a frightened expression: "The canary was eaten by a snake!" He held a yellow feather in his hand and said: "It was Pharaoh's snake that ate it. ! Because it takes you to the mausoleum, please do not open it!" Carter did not believe what he said and dismissed the servant. But what happened next proved that perhaps what the servant said was right.
After discovering the tomb, Carter sent a telegram to his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, who arrived soon after. The expedition team cut a hole in the door of the tomb, and Carter entered the tomb with a candle, followed by Carnarvon. After entering the tomb, they were stunned by the sight before them. This tomb is well preserved, and countless gold treasures can be seen through candlelight, including a sarcophagus with three gold coffins inside, and Tutankhamen's mummy is on the innermost layer. On the gold inner coffin is written the Pharaoh's famous saying: "I have seen yesterday, I know tomorrow." The Pharaoh's mummy was wrapped in a thin cloth, and the body was covered with collars, amulets, rings, gold and silver bracelets and various gems. . He wears a large gold mask on his head. X-ray examination confirmed that the mask is almost identical to his own appearance. Only the thickness of the scar on the mask is slightly different from the scar on my face. There are two daggers beside the Pharaoh, one is a golden sword, and the other is an extremely rare gold-handled iron-edged sword. The expression of this young pharaoh is sad and quiet, which makes people feel sorry for his untimely death
The major discovery in the pharaoh's tomb is undoubtedly a huge surprise for the entire expedition team. No one took the words on the tomb seriously, "Whoever disturbs the peace of the Pharaoh, death will fly to his head." There was no cursed elephant at that time. But a few months later, tragedy began to unfold. First, Lord Carnarvon fell ill and died soon after being sent back to Cairo. It is said that the cause of death was the bite of a poisonous mosquito. Sir Carnarvon was only 57 years old at the time and had always been in good health. However, due to the infection of this small wound, he contracted acute pneumonia, which even killed him. What’s even more bizarre is that the area where Jazz was bitten happened to be the same location as the scar on Tutankhamun’s face. His son recalled the scene on the day of his death and said: "At that time, all the lights in Cairo went out and we kept praying." His daughter also recalled: "Before he died, he opened his mouth wide and shouted: I heard it. I will follow his call." From then on, the curse about Pharaoh began to spread.
George Gould, a friend of Carnarvon, rushed to Cairo immediately after hearing about it. He also visited the Pharaoh's tomb in person. The next day, he developed a high fever and died 12 hours later.
The radiologist who performed X-rays on the Pharaoh's mummy also felt exhausted, so he returned to England to recuperate and soon passed away for no apparent reason.
Moser, an archaeologist who participated in the expedition team, was responsible for tearing down a wall in the tomb when excavating the tomb. He was the first person in the team to find the mummy of Tutankhamun. Not long after his work ended, he suffered from a strange mental illness and finally died painfully.
Lord Carnarvon's brother Herbert soon died of peritonitis.
Richard Bettel, who helped Carter compile the catalog of artifacts in the tomb, committed suicide at the end of 1929. In February 1930, his father, Lord Westbury, committed suicide by jumping off a building in London, reportedly because there was a vase taken from Tutankhamun's tomb in his bedroom.
Miguel Mehler, the director of the Cairo Museum, was once responsible for directing workers to remove cultural relics from Tutankhamen's tomb. He did not believe in the so-called "spell" at all, and once said to the people around him: " I have dealt with Egyptian tombs and mummies many times. Aren't I still fine?" Less than four weeks after saying these words, he died suddenly at the age of 52. According to the doctor's diagnosis, the cause of his death was a sudden heart attack.
Carter's assistant Max suffered from a strange illness with a high fever that would not go away. He gave up work in 1924 and died in 1926.
Archaeologist Messi, who was invited by Carter to participate in the excavation, fell into a coma for no apparent reason and finally died in the same hotel where Carnarvon stayed.
In 1929, Sir Carnarvon's wife died. The cause of death was the same as her husband's, and it was due to a mosquito bite. Even the bite site was the same on the left cheek.
Carter, who presided over the excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb, thought he was lucky enough to have escaped the disaster and lived a life of seclusion. Unexpectedly, he also died in March 1939, but the tragedy continued.
So far, 23 people directly or indirectly involved in the excavation of this tomb have died mysteriously, many of whom were in their prime. By 1930, only two members of the original expedition team were still alive. Such a high mortality rate seems difficult to explain by coincidence. Rumors that the Pharaoh's spells had magical effects spread like wildfire.
In 1966, France invited Egypt to transport cultural relics from Tutankhamen's tomb to Paris for an exhibition, and the Egyptian government agreed. Egyptian cultural relics supervisor Mohammed Abraham had a strange dream at night, dreaming that if he approved the transportation of these cultural relics out of Egypt, he would be in disaster. So he repeatedly tried to dissuade his superiors, but his efforts were ineffective, so he had to sign the agreement against his will. He was hit by a car after leaving the venue and died two days later.
In 2005, scientists wanted to do a CT scan on the mummy to try to solve the mystery of Tutankhamun's death. On the day of the scan, a sudden strong wind blew up in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, and the sky was filled with yellow sand. At the beginning of the work, the scanning computer suddenly failed for no reason, and the scientists studying the mummies almost encountered a car accident on the road. This made scientists feel very frightened and could not ignore the long-standing "Curse of the Pharaoh"
In 1821, Prussian General von Minutoli brought Italian engineers to Egypt with the purpose of exploring the Saqqara area. of pyramids.
On October 7, 1822, they found an unidentified mummy. At the end of the year, they packed the mummy into boxes and wanted to transport it back to Prussia. The king personally sent a ship to pick it up. At that time, Ali Nabulan of the Egyptian Government's Antiquities Bureau advised them not to transport the mummies, otherwise they would be in big trouble, but they did not believe these absurd legends.
On January 3, 1823, the king's ship set sail as planned, preparing to return to Prussia. On January 10, when the ship sailed into the waters of Malta, the ship and all the people and things on board disappeared without leaving any clues.
In 1912, tragedy happened again on the Titanic. On April 14 of this year, the Titanic was on its maiden voyage from London to New York, but accidentally hit an iceberg and sank in the waters of Newfoundland, Canada.
It is said that on the day of the accident, Captain Smith's behavior was very unusual. He chose a different route and moved the ship at high speed, rejecting well-intentioned warnings from other ships.
Afterwards, the radio room was even prohibited from sending out distress signals, and instructions to abandon ship were only issued at the last moment of the shipwreck, resulting in 1,675 people perishing at sea. There was also a mummy that sank into the sea with the people! This mummy belonged to the British Lord Kentwell and was intended to be transported to New York to participate in an Egyptian antiquities exhibition. It has such a spell written on it. If someone wakes you up from your sleep, you will open your eyes and sweep away these evil spirits. When boarding the ship, the mummy was placed in the captain's cabin at the bow. Some people say that it was this mummy that caused Captain Smith's mental disorder and triggered this shipwreck
Faced with so many strange things, people can't help but ask: What is the Pharaoh's curse? Does it really exist? ?
In 1963, Yitin Tahou, a professor of medicine at Cairo University, published an article saying that he believed that the people who entered the Pharaoh's tomb died because they were infected with a respiratory inflammatory virus, causing pneumonia.
In 1983, Philippe of France proposed that it is not viruses but molds that are deadly. Because there was a lot of food in the pharaoh's burial objects, it rotted over time, forming a lot of mold dust in the tomb. People entering the tomb inhaled this dust, causing lung infections and eventually death.
In addition, some people say that the pharaoh's spell is embedded in the structure of the tomb. They believe that the design of these tomb passages and tombs can generate and gather a special magnetic field or energy wave, which will be infected when people come into contact, thus killing people.
If it is a virus or mold, why can it survive in a closed space for four thousand years? If it is a magnetic field or energy wave, how could the ancient Egyptians master this technology more than three thousand years ago? The Pharaohs Whether the curse really exists, no one can answer it yet.