The Curse of the Pharaohs

The curse of the Pharaohs is considered to be the most controversial idea in the ancient Egyptian civilization, especially with its mythology and mysteries. The curse of the pharaohs has captured the minds of all those interested in ancient Egypt all over the world. It has became a profitable business and a means of promoting hundreds of books, novels, studies and movies.

The curse of the pharaohs is the condition that affected most of the people who opened or investigated Pharaonic monuments or tombs. These people lived a mysterious fate, and suffered from a strange fever that lasted for several days, and usually ended with death.

The interest in the ancient Egyptian civilization began after the results of the excavations and trips that were published in the 17th and 18th centuries. This interest increased after Francois Champlion translated the Egyptian language on the Rosetta stone, and published the results in 1824. Champollion became the greatest Egyptian scientist after his great discovery. He was only thirty-two years old. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, Champollion was infected with a mysterious fever. He trembled and soon died a few days later.

The “curse of the pharaohs” was not known until after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. The tomb was discovered by an English team financed by Lord Carnavon, and was led by Lord Howard Carter, to find the mummy of Pharaonic King Tutankhamun. Shortly thereafter, Carter smuggled a few pieces of the tomb of Tutankhamun into London, but he could not move some of the heavy monuments, some of which read the frightening phrase “Death to everyone who disturb the King.”

It was possible to ignore the phrase, but a series of strange events began to occur, where all those who participated in the excavation, including scientists, English and Egyptian, died in a tragic end either mysteriously or as a result of unknown illness.

“I feel the hell” that was the last words of Lord Carnavon, the English lord, who financed the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, after suffering a severe illness, where he reached a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius. His body was trembling from the impact of the fever and he died after this fever. By 1929, twenty-two men had died of unclear reasons. In the same year, Lord Carnavon’s wife declared that she did not believe in the curse of the pharaohs, and did not believe that the dead could kill the living by any means. Her statement could have been taken into account but a sudden development has changed the thoughts on the curse of the pharaohs completely. Before the week was over, Carmavon’s wife suffered the same mysterious fever, and was screaming for about two days, before uttering her last breath in her bed, leaving behind the greatest wave of terror that modern history had known until then.

At that time, Dr. Jamal Mehrez was the general director of the Antiquities Authority of the Egyptian Museum, who denied the curse of the pharaohs and said, “I simply do not believe in this, look at me. I have been working in the tombs of the pharaohs throughout my life, yet I am a living proof that all these curses are Accident”. Dr. Jamal Mehrez died a few days later. “Doctors attributed the cause of his death to a breakdown in the circulatory system in his body” Said Philip Vandenberg, the author of the Curse of the Pharaohs.

Some scholars believe that the death of these people is due to the ancient pharaohs’ tombs and monuments, had fungi and poisonous toxins in their graves to protect them from the intervention of strangers and thieves. Another explanation could be bacteria that may have caused the sudden fever that resulted in fatalities and the air in these tombs is usually contaminated with fatal fungi due to the lack of ventilation for hundreds of years.

It should be noted that Carter, the first person to enter Tutankhamun’s tomb, and the first to monitor what was inside, had no symptoms. Carter wrote a large number of articles, gave hundreds of lectures, and participated in dozens of seminars, to attack the idea, and claimed that “it is a bunch of ridiculous coincidences”. Until 1939, Carter lived in good health until he died in his bed. He continued to deny the idea of ​​the curse of the Pharaohs.

At present, science is still trying to explain the phenomenon, and provide a true scientific explanation for the main causes that have destroyed the lives of many who have explored the sites of pharaonic monuments or tombs.