Was Old King Tut's Tomb Really Cursed?

© 2012 VVeasey Publishing

11/13/12

Is there a curse on anyone who opens the tomb of an Egyptian Pharaoh?

Well let’s take a look at that subject.

The curse was supposed to preserve the sanctity of the Pharaohs tombs and to keep away grave robbers.

The idea of a curse befalling anyone who opened a Pharaoh’s tomb gained worldwide popularity in 1922, when British Archeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered and opened the tomb of the ancient Egyptian, Pharaoh Tutankhamen, also known as King Tut.

Howard Carter was a late comer to tomb-hunting.

Most Egyptologist thought that all the tombs of the major Pharaohs had been discovered.

Carter thought there was still one tomb to be found.

He spent five years searching for it before he finally found it.

The magnificent tomb of Tutankhamun

There was a curse engraved on the outside of the Tutankhamun’s coffin that said “Death Shall Come On Swift Wings To Him Who Disturbs The Peace of the King”.

The curse wasn’t taken seriously until those who were present or connected to the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb started mysteriously dying.

A cobra killed Howard Carter’s pet canary.

Those who believed in the curse said this happened because the king cobra was the symbol of the Pharaohs and this was a sign that Tutankhamun was taking revenge against those who disturbed his tomb.

Lord Carnarvon, the English lord, who sponsored Carter’s expedition to find Tutankhamun’s tomb, died after being bitten by a mosquito.

He cut the bite while shaving. It became infected and he died of blood poisoning.

Lord Carnarvon was present at the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb, so

his death was seen as having occurred as a result of the curse.

It was reported that when Lord Carnarvon died, all the lights went out throughout Cairo.

Lord Carnarvon’s son, who was at Carnarvon’s estate in England, said that at the exact time his father died, his father’s favorite dog howled and suddenly dropped dead.

Carter’s friend, Sir Bruce Ingham, house burned down, not once, but on two separate occasions.

Ingham had been given a paperweight made out of a mummified hand, as a gift, on which was written, “Cursed be he who moves my body. To him shall come fire, water and pestilence.”

This was said to be the cause of Ingham’s house burning down twice.

Carter didn’t believe in the curse and lived to be 64 years old before dying of lymphoma in 1939. (Could of have still been the curse, maybe he would have lived to an older age)

That would have been the end of the story, but newspapers in the United States and elsewhere ran with the story, made it popular around the world, and sold a lot papers in the process.

Not to be out done,

The movie makers got in on the money making and produced a slew of mummy movies

The Mummy (1932) starring the great Boris Karloff, The Mummy’ Hand (1940, The Mummy’s Tomb (1942), The Mummy’s Ghost (1944), The Mummy’s Curse (1944), Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy (1955)

Recently, historian, Mark Beynon, put forth a new theory about the deaths attributed to the Mummy’s curse .

He says that deaths were actually ritualistic murders masterminded, by Occultist and Satanist Aleister Crowley, called “the wickedest man in the world", and the “Great Beast”

Beynon says Crowley was obsessed with Egyptian religion and Jack The Ripper.

He thinks Crowley killed some of those involved in Tutankhamen’s tomb opening because he saw it as desecration of the Egyptian religion and he wanted to emulate the killings of his hero, Jack The Ripper.

Beynon says that some of Crowley’s victims were.

Victim 1.Raoul Loveday, who was an associate of Crowley, died the same day and at the same hour that Carter broke the seal on Tutankhamun’s burial chamber.

He died after attending one of Crowley’s Egyptian rituals, where he drank the blood of a cat that was sacrificed during the ceremony.

Beynon thinks Crowley poisoned Loveday.

Victim 2, Sir Ernest Wallis Budge, who was the head of the British Museum's Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, and a friend of Lord Carnarvon, was found dead in bed, after putting the artifacts from the tomb on display to the public.

Beynon thinks Crowley killed Budge for doing that and had the opportunity to so, because he and Crowley hung-out together in the London occult scene.

Victim 3. Captain Richard Bethell, Carter’s personal secretary who was supposedly, in good health, was found dead in his bed at and exclusive Bath Club.

The initial cause of death was ruled a heart attack, but Beynon thinks that he may have been smothered to death by Crowley, because Crowley was in London and may have been a guest at Bath Club at the time Bethell died.

Victim 4. Edgar Steele, who was responsible for taking care of the artifacts, died after a minor stomach operation. Beynon suspects that Crowley was the culprit in his death too.

Victim 5. Prince Ali Kamel Fahmy Bey, an Egyptian prince, who was killed by his wife, after he was photographed visiting the tomb.

Beynon says that Crowley and Bey’s wife were romantically involved and that Crowley convinced her to kill Bey.

Or could it be that,

Tut’s curse was working through Crowley, carrying out his revenge against those who disturbed and robbed his tomb.

What do you think?

Never the less, it was quite a tale wasn't it!