| In late March of 1923, a novelist named Mari
Corelli (Mary Mackay) published a warning that there would be
dire consequences for anyone who had entered the sealed tomb.
This may have been inspired by the fact that on the day Howard
Carter opened the tomb, a cobra swallowed his pet canary. Cobras,
as the goddess Wadjet, were the protectors of the Pharaoh.
Obviously the media picked up on this and sensationalised
any event that might be interpreted as being part of any curse.
Lord Carnarvon, who financed Howard Carter's explorations,
had been in poor health for over 20 years following a motoring
accident. When he died of pneumonia in Cairo on April 5th,
1923, only a few weeks after Mari Corelli's warnings, newspapers
and other media throughout the world simply went crazy. As
often as not, they made up the facts as they went along
It was said that at the moment of Lord Carnarvon's death,
the lights went out in Cairo (an event that is still not uncommon
today), and that back in England his dog, Susie, howled and
died in the same instant. These events cannot be proved or
disproved.
Many 'curse' facts were simply invented by the press. One
newspaper printed a curse reportedly found in the tomb:
"They who enter this sacred tomb shall swift be visited
by wings of death."
There is no such inscription in the tomb.There is an inscription
in the tomb which was reported correctly which says:
"It is I who hinder the sand from choking the secret
chamber. I am for the protection of the deceased".
However, one reported added an embellishment of his own design
to the end of the inscription which read
"and I will kill all those who cross this threshold
into the sacred precincts of the Royal King who lives forever."
The media also exaggerated the number of deaths of people
involved in the discovery of the tomb. According to one list,
26 people associated with the find died within a decade of
its discovery. In reality, only six people died during this
first decade and many others lived to an old age, including
Howard Carter who lived 17 years after the tomb discovery
of the tomb and died just prior to his 65th birthday.
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