Hey it’s Carter here. I’m looking for king Tut’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. But before I talk about King Tut, let me tell you a little about me.
My name is Howard Carter. I was born in London in 1874. I am the youngest son of eight and my father was an artist. I had no formal education but my father taught me how to draw and paint. He wanted me to become a painter but I had other plans. I had the opportunity to go to Egypt when I was 17. I was a tracer (person who copies drawings and inscriptions on paper). I loved Egypt and liked recording and copying scenes from the walls of tombs. I worked all day and at night, I slept in the tombs with the bats. I became an archaeologist. When I was 25, I was offered the job of chief inspector which included supervising and controlling archaeology along the Nile Valley. After a few years I became Supervisor of Excavations for Lord Carnarvon. With my help Lord Carnarvon has several valuable collections of Egyptian artifacts. I really wanted to find the tomb of a pharaoh named Tutankhamun, and for many years I have been searching for his tomb.
Now you might be wondering who is King Tut. Tutankhamun (also known as King Tut) lived over 3,300 years ago during the period known as the New Kingdom. His father, Akhenaten, had changed the old beliefs that had been used for hundreds of years. This change angered many citizens and priests. When his father died, Tutankhamun became pharaoh of Egypt at the age of 9. Most of his life as pharaoh he didn’t really rule. His advisors Ay and Horemheb ruled the kingdom for him. When he became pharaoh he had to marry his half-sister Ankhensenpaaton, the daughter of Nefertiti and Akhenaten. When Tutankhamun was eighteen years old, he died suddenly. How he died remains a mystery. It’s believed he was murdered by either Ay or Horemheb. That’s one mystery that I, Howard Carter hopes to solve one day.
Currently I am fiercely looking for King Tut’s tomb. This is my last chance. Lord Carnavon will stop funding me for anymore digs.
Guess what, I think I may have found King Tut’s tomb!!! One of the water boys found an entrance to what appears to be a big dark passageway. I sent for Lord Carnavon. We went through the passageway which led us down a staircase to a big plaster block.
My lucky canary, the natives had given for good luck was squawking loudly. We made a small hole in the block just big enough for us to look through. I held up my candle to the hole and looked in. What I saw amazed me so much that I will never forget it. There was gold everywhere! We broke down all of the blocks and walked in. The canary went into a frenzy so I let him out of the cage. All of the sudden a snake came out of nowhere and plucked my canary out of the air. We stood there stunned. One of the workers killed the snake with a shovel.
Carnavon and I both stood in wonder at King Tutankhamun’s tomb. As we were walking we came across Tut’s coffin. It was extraordinary! The coffin was made of what looked like pure gold!
We started excavating but what happened to the canary made some of the workers nervous about working in the tomb. While I was examining Tut’s coffin I realized that this tomb was the only tomb that wasn’t broken into, and had all of its artifacts still in it. I learned many things that day. I learned that king Tut might have been a disabled child because there were many walking sticks in his tomb.
A few days after our discovery,Lord Carnavon had died from a mosquito bite. At that exact moment of his death, Cairo had a power shortage and his dog, Susie, howled in England and dropped dead. People are now thinking that it’s some “curse” and saying that I’ll be next. I personally don’t know what to think. It’s weird that so many coincidences happened at the same time but it doesn’t seem logical that it’s a curse.
Howard Carter died at the age of 65 on March 2nd 1939.
Does that mean that there is no curse? I don’t think so. I truly think that there is a curse, but for some reason it didn’t affect Carter. Maybe Carter’s lucky canary was more lucky then he thought.
