Plagued by curse of the Pharaoh

Malaysia Star ^ | 6/8/05 | Malaysia Star

[wagglebee]

When a woman in Canada refused to return a valuable statue to the Cairo Museum, Dr Zahi Hawass, who was handling the negotiation, casually mentioned a curse said to be associated with the artifact. The next day the statue duly arrived at the Egyptian embassy in Canada.

The fear of the Pharaohs’ curse has long been the stuff of fiction and films. It is a subject that has stirred public imagination. There are those who believe that the pharaohs placed a curse on whoever disturbed their place of eternal rest.

When Lord Carnavon died on 5 April 1923, barely six months after the expedition’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, it appears that there was indeed a curse. The Times journalist who covered the discovery of the tomb was killed in a motor accident.

But in fact Lord Carnavon died as a result of cutting an infected mosquito bite while shaving with a razor.

He was 59 when he died in Cairo. A study done recently by a Monash scholar found that the average lifespan of the 25 people present at the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb in November 1922 was 70.

This should dispel the myth that they died prematurely.

Carter passed away in 1939 at the age of 66. The Times reporter’s accident took place in 1942. Still, all these deaths were lumped together and seen as the outcome of a pharaoh’s curse.

Even Dr Hawass, Secretary-General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, appeared to have a strange encounter with the Pharaoh’s curse while carrying out the CT Scan project at Tutankhamun’s tomb. He was asked during a recent interview on National Geographic Channel whether he had been worried about a curse.

“The idea of the curse was a joke to me but when the storm occurred in the Valley (of Kings at Luxor) on that day, and the husband of my sister died and the CT Scan machine was stopped for one hour. I began to worry? but now I laugh.” To Dr Hawass the chain of events he encountered was pure coincidence.

Still, those entering newly-excavated tombs in the Valley of the Kings could face other types of risks.

Dr Hawass explained that a likely danger to archaeologists was the exposure to air long trapped in the sealed tomb and probably carrying harmful elements.

Hence, Howard Carter took the precaution of inserting a candle through a small hole in the doorway to Tutankhamun’s tomb to test for noxious gases, before he entered.

Since then, the tombs in the Valley of the Kings at Luxor and the pyramids have been kept open and well-aired.

The hieroglyphs on the walls of King Tutankhamun’s tomb, Dr Hawass pointed out, make no reference to a curse. Still, the fear of dire consequences from the long-dead Pharaoh make good stories and has no doubt helped sustain wide interest in Tutankhamun.

[SunkenCiv]

this is the Amarna-related topic that the FR search engine refuses to find:

Smenkhkhare, the Hittite Pharaoh
BBC History | September 5, 2002 | Dr Marc Gabolde
Posted on 07/30/2004 9:42:36 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1181802/posts