In one of the most famous tales of archaeological history, on 4 November 1922 British Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered the entrance to the tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen.
The quest for the tomb of the Boy King
It was Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign of 1798 that ignited a European interest in ancient Egypt and its mysteries. When his troops faced an army of Mamelukes under the shadow of the pyramids, he famously called out to them; “from the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.”
In 1882, the British seized the country from Napoleon’s grip and the craze for Egyptology intensified. The discovery of a well-preserved royal tomb became an obsession. Ancient Pharaohs were famous for their lavish tombs. Inevitably tales of vast wealth drew grave robbers, who emptied many tombs of their treasure and even their corpses. By the 20th century, only a handful of tombs remained undiscovered, and presumably intact, including that of the little known Tutankhamen.
