Ancient Eygptian gold pharaoh tomb against a backdrop of hieroglyphics

Fedor Selivanov/Shutterstock.com (background); Business Wire via Getty Images (sarcophagus)

Ancient History

Secrets of the Mummy’s Tomb

The worldwide fascination with King Tut began with the discovery of his tomb of treasures 100 years ago.

October 31, 2022

By Lisa M. Herrington

As You Read, Think About: Why are people around the world so interested in King Tut?

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

Time was running out. British archaeologist Howard Carter and his crew had spent years digging in the blistering desert heat. They were searching for the lost underground tomb of the ancient Egyptian boy king Tutankhamen (too-tahn-KAH-muhn).

Lord Carnarvon, a wealthy Englishman, was paying for the project. After years without success, he had given Carter just a few more months to find the tomb.

Finally, on November 4, 1922, Carter’s crew made a promising discovery. They unearthed the first step of a stone staircase leading to a door.

Carter couldn’t have imagined what he would find on the other side—and what the discovery would mean for history. It would spark a new fascination with ancient Egypt and make King Tut a worldwide celebrity.

Clickable slideshow cover: How Mummies are Made

Watch a slideshow to learn how mummies were made.

Life After Death

Ancient Egyptians believed in life after death. They thought people would need their bodies in the afterlife.

Thousands of years ago, they started turning people into mummies to preserve their bodies.

Pictured: The mummies of many ancient Egyptian rulers were buried in an area called the Valley of the Kings.

Previous: Ben Curtis/AP Images (King Tut); Anton Belo/Shutterstock (Valley of the Kings); Jim McMahon/Mapman® (map)

Not for Everyone

The Egyptians mummified their rulers, including the famous boy king, Tutankhamen. Wealthy or important people, and even animals, got the mummy treatment too.

Pictured: Visitors to the Valley of the Kings can go inside King Tut’s tomb.

Art Images via Getty Images

Step 1: Remove the Organs

It took about 70 days for ancient Egyptians to turn a body into a mummy.

First, workers removed the lungs, liver, stomach, intestines, and brain. They usually left the heart inside the body, believing that the person would need it in the afterlife.

Illustration by Kimberly Schamber

Step 2: Add Salt

After washing out the body, workers used a type of salt called natron to fill and cover it. They left the salt for 40 days and then removed it.

Illustration by Kimberly Schamber

Step 3: Finishing Touches

Workers rubbed scented oils all over the body to soften the skin. Then they packed the inside of the body with linen, sawdust, and other materials to give it shape.

Illustration by Kimberly Schamber

Step 4: Wrap It Up

Last, workers wrapped the body in layers of linen bandages and placed it inside a coffin called a sarcophagus.

Some mummies were so well preserved that they’ve lasted for thousands of years. Today, they offer us a glimpse into an ancient past.

Illustration by Kimberly Schamber

Meeting the Boy King

Enlargeable image of a golden tomb of Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh

Business Wire via Getty Images

This small golden coffin held one of Tut’s internal organs.

Before Carter’s discovery, few people knew anything about the boy king who ruled Egypt more than 3,300 years ago. Following his father’s death, Tut became when he was just 8 or 9 years old. He reigned for about a decade before he died mysteriously around 1323 B.C.

Ancient Egyptians believed in life after death. They preserved the bodies of their rulers as mummies and buried them with items they thought the dead would need in the afterlife.

Carter found Tut’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings, a royal burial ground near the Nile River. Dozens of other pharaohs were buried in the area. But looters had raided many of the tombs in ancient times and stolen the treasures that lay inside. Had Tut’s hidden tomb been spared?

With Lord Carnarvon by his side, Carter would find out on November 26, 1922. His hand trembled as he entered the tomb through a dark passageway. Carter held up a candle to peer through a hole he had made in a second sealed door. The room glittered with gold! Inside he found golden chariots, jeweled chests, and dazzling statues. The tomb appeared to be completely intact. No one in modern times had seen anything like it.

Tut Mania

Deeper inside the tomb, the greatest find of all awaited Carter: the burial chamber. A stone coffin called a sarcophagus held three smaller coffins. The innermost one, made of solid gold, held Tut’s mummy. He wore a magnificent golden mask.

News of the amazing discovery created a global sensation.

“For the first time, the world had an idea of the fantastic treasures that the kings of Egypt took with them to the next world,” explains Bob Brier, an expert on ancient Egypt.

Carter and his team spent 10 years carefully logging and removing more than 5,000 from the tomb. Many have been showcased in museums around the globe.

Each year, more than a million visitors flock to the Valley of the Kings to explore Tut’s final resting place. That interest helps the boy king live on—thousands of years after his death.

The Pharaoh’s Curse

Ancient Egyptian pharaoh carved from stone with an underlight

Kristof Degreef/Shutterstock.com

According to legend, anyone who dared to disturb the tomb of a pharaoh would be punished. So when Lord Carnarvon died less than five months after entering Tut’s tomb, rumors spread that he was a victim of a strange curse.

In the months and years that followed, several other people who had visited the tomb died. Each death fueled the rumor of the pharaoh’s curse.

The curse is only a myth, of course. Carnarvon was already in poor health when he entered the tomb, and he died from an infected mosquito bite. Also, Howard Carter lived for more than 16 years after unsealing the tomb. Even so, the legend of the curse continues.