The most famous of all the kings found in the Valley of the Kings was Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut. He died in mid-January, 1343 B.C. It is thought that he was murdered by an official because his skull was bashed in and only a person of great importance could get near enough to harm him. He is so famous because his tomb was in almost perfect condition. His tomb had been robbed once very soon after he was put in, but everything lost was replaced as soon as possible.
The mummy of King Tut was found in 1922 by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. Lord Carnarvon was a rich man who owned the right to dig in the Valley of the Kings where Tutankhamun was found. Lord Carnarvon was letting Carter dig for a king named Tutankhamun whose name Carter had read on some stone walls. Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon searched for five years for Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings yet they found nothing. Lord Carnarvon was giving up hope after five years, so Carter offered to pay for the workers, and Lord Carnarvon agreed to this. After four days of work under Carter's pay they found the steps leading to the entrance to the tomb.
Lord Carnarvon, who had funded the search for King Tut's tomb, and archaeologist Howard Carter, entered the king's burial chamber on February 17, 1923. On March 6, Lord Carnarvon was bitten by a mosquito on his cheek and became ill. Reported in the media, this event caused many people to jump to the conclusion that King Tut's tomb was cursed. The mosquito bite became infected, he contracted pneumonia, and on April 5, he died. The legend of the curse became fact and was enhanced by many rumors. Here are five of the most famous rumors:
Rumor 1: On the day of the tomb opening, Carter's pet canary was eaten by a cobra (a symbol of the ancient pharaohs).
Rumor 2: At the moment that Carnarvon died in Cairo Hospital , the lights across Cairo went out for five minutes.
Rumor 3: Carnarvon's dog dropped dead at exactly two o'clock in the morning, the same time that Carnarvon died.
Rumor 4: Over the door to King Tut's tomb was an inscription that read "Death shall come on swift wings to him that enters the tomb of the Pharaoh."
Rumor 5: Most of the people present at the opening of the tomb met untimely deaths.