--- title: King Tutankhamen Tomb Opening Anniversary: History of Curse Legend description: Nov. 26, 1922: Archaeologists enter King Tut’s tomb for the first time canonical: https://time.com/3594676/king-tut/ author: Jennifer Latson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-26T16:30:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:32:31.389Z article:section: History og:title: King Tutankhamen Tomb Opening Anniversary: History of Curse Legend og:description: Nov. 26, 1922: Archaeologists enter King Tut’s tomb for the first time og:url: https://time.com/3594676/king-tut/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf954e185ade23839/6987699e2dce0184b49dbdf0/king-tut.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Howard Carter and King Tut og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: King Tutankhamen Tomb Opening Anniversary: History of Curse Legend twitter:description: Nov. 26, 1922: Archaeologists enter King Tut’s tomb for the first time twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf954e185ade23839/6987699e2dce0184b49dbdf0/king-tut.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Origins of the 'Pharaoh's Curse' Legend > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Nov 26, 2014 4:30 PM UTC  Howard Carter, English Egyptologist, near golden sarcophagus of Tutankhamon in Egypt in 1922 Howard Carter, English Egyptologist, near golden sarcophagus of Tutankhamon in Egypt in 1922 Rue des Archive / Getty Images by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Nov 26, 2014 4:30 PM UTC To those who entered King Tut’s tomb — the first people to see inside since the teenaged pharaoh was buried there 3,300 years earlier — the experience inspired either awe or terror. For British archaeologist Howard Carter, it was a career-defining discovery and the culmination of years of searching for the lost tomb. The hunt had seemed hopeless after months spent sifting through [70,000 tons of sand and gravel](http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0509.html), according to Carter’s obituary in the New York _Times_. But when a workman found a step cut into a chunk of bedrock buried in the sand, the stairway it revealed led to the door of the tomb. Carter opened it on this day, Nov. 26, in 1922. Tutankhamen was only [about 8 or 9 when he came to power](http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic%5Ffigures/tutankhamun.shtml) in 1332 BC. His decade-long rule was relatively unremarkable in Egyptian history; the discovery of his tomb was significant instead because it was the first such tomb to be found almost entirely intact. Inside, according to a 1922 New York _Times_ account, stood two [life-size statues of the pharaoh](http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A00EFD91F30E433A25751C2A9649D946395D6CF) wearing solid gold sandals and gold crowns adorned with stylized cobras. The cobras gave local workmen pause, especially after [a grim omen later that day](http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A00EFD91F30E433A25751C2A9649D946395D6CF). According to the _Times_, Carter kept a canary as a pet, but that night it was killed by a snake. “The incident made an impression on the native staff, who regard it as a warning from the spirit of the departed King against further intrusion on the privacy of his tomb,” the _Times_ noted. Newspapers began reporting [the legend of a “Pharoah’s Curse,”](http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0509.html) which would mean death for anyone who disturbed the ancient rulers’ slumber. The wealthy Brit who financed Carter’s excavation, and who joined him inside the tomb on this day 92 years ago, was dead by April — although, as the _Times_ noted, “he had been in bad health.” Eleven other people in the group that entered the tomb with Carter were dead within seven years. In his 1939 obituary, the _Times_ points out that Carter, despite being fairly sickly himself, lived long enough to be “the best refutation of the curse.” He may have been too dazzled by the tomb’s gilded treasures to give superstition a second thought — after all, Tut was not, in fact, [buried in his jammies](https://screen.yahoo.com/king-tut-000000724.html). Instead, as TIME reported when his coffin was finally opened three years after the tomb was, he wore golden sandals, a gold-inlaid royal apron, a golden star in the place where his heart had been and “[innumerable amulets of beauty and ghostly merit, as well as two swords, jewel-studded](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,736593,00.html).” Over his head and shoulders, Tut wore his now-iconic solid-gold death mask, inlaid with lapis lazuli and precious stones. On his forehead were [representations of the deities tasked with protecting him](http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ptop/plain/A19877845) in death: one in the form of a vulture, the other a cobra meant to spit poison at his enemies. The cobra may have taken revenge on Carter’s canary, but it did little to keep the archaeologist from disturbing the pharaoh’s eternal rest. After Carter opened Tut’s sarcophagus, he and his workers “[wrenched the golden mask away from the royal mummy](http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ptop/plain/A19877845),” the BBC reported — and decapitated the Boy King in the process. **_Read TIME’s 1934 report on rumors that a prominent Egyptologist had fallen prey to King Tut’s curse_**: [A Curse on a Curse](http://time.com/vault/issue/1934-02-05/page/43/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3594676/king-tut/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3594676/king-tut/"},"headline":"The Origins of the 'Pharaoh's Curse' Legend","datePublished":"2014-11-26T16:30:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:32:31.389Z","description":"Nov. 26, 1922: Archaeologists enter King Tut’s tomb for the first time","url":"https://time.com/3594676/king-tut/","keywords":["Bizarre","Egypt"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf954e185ade23839/6987699e2dce0184b49dbdf0/king-tut.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Latson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf954e185ade23839/6987699e2dce0184b49dbdf0/king-tut.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Howard Carter and King Tut","caption":"Howard Carter and King Tut","creditText":"Rue des Archive / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/bizarre/","name":"Bizarre"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3594676/king-tut/","name":"The Origins of the 'Pharaoh's Curse' Legend"}}]}] ```