The Complete Tutankhamun: The King, The Tomb, The Royal Treasure

Nicholas Reeves

At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold everywhere the glint of gold. Howard Carter The tomb of Tutankhamun, with its breathtaking treasures, has exerted a unique hold on the popular imagination ever since its discovery in 1922. It remains the greatest tomb-find ever made. The story of the boy-king, buried in splendor at the height of Egyptian civilization, the determined quest for his tomb by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, the unforeseen riches eventually revealedthese are ingredients unparalleled in the annals of archaelogy. Yet for all the publicity at the time of the discovery and sincegiven added spice by the linking of Carnarvons early death with the legend of pharaohs curseit remains a story but partly told. Carter never produced a complete account of his excavations. The Tutankhamun exhibitions of the 1960s and 1970s generated a spate of popular books but none added significantly to what Carter had already published about the tomb. Only now can the whole story be told.