Tutankhamen's tombIn 1922, the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered in Egypt in the Valley of the Kings where the English archaeologist Howard Carter had been making extended excavations. One of Carter's labourers stumbled upon a stone step, the first step in a sunken stairway that ran down into the rock. Later in the month, Carter opened the virtually intact tomb of the largely unknown child-king Tutankhamen, who became pharaoh at age 9 and died at 19. Carter's association with Egyptology began in 1891, as a commercial artist hired by Egyptologist Percy Newberry to finish a series of drawings of reliefs. In 1907, Lord Carnarvon, a wealthy English aristocrat with a passion for archaeology, hired Carter and financed their various excavations. |
