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Feature

King Tutankhamun and the Curse

By Rehmat Kaur

Volume 3 Issue 3

February 24, 2023

King Tutankhamun and the Curse

Image provided by The BBC

This is the tomb of King Tutankhamun, commonly known as King Tut, who became Pharaoh of Egypt at the age of nine in 1332 B.C. He was granted command of his civilizations during a time of conflict with neighboring kingdoms for territory. King subsequently married his half-sister because they had the same father. During his reign, he contributed to the restoration of traditional Egyptian religion and art. He died at the age of nineteen from a broken leg, according to scientists, but in 2010, evidence of malaria parasites were discovered in Tutankhamun's remains, indicating that malaria, potentially in combination with degenerative bone disease, may have been the reason. This has debunked the widely held belief that the Egyptian pharaoh was assassinated by a blow to the head over 3,300 years ago. 


A curse was placed over King Tut's tomb to keep robbers and political adversaries from desecrating the burial, and the curse was invoked against offenders. His mummy was found over 30,000 years after his death by British archeologist Howard Carter and others in 1922. Mr. Carter died unexpectedly a few months after the tomb was discovered igniting the legend of the mummy's curse. Another popular victim of the alleged curse was George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who funded the excavation of King Tut's tomb. Lord Carnarvon died of blood poisoning after accidentally tearing open a mosquito bite while shaving.  


There is still no evidence of whether the deaths were a cause of being exposed of the alleged "curse of the pharaohs", but the deaths were quite coincidental; it is still a mystery.  

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