Lifting the curse of King Tut

Above: One of the fifth Earl's photographs of the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb

Above: Howard Carter (left) and the 5th Earl of Carnarvon

Above: Carnarvon and Carter: The Story of the Two Englishmen who Discovered the Tomb of Tutankhamun

Above: Lady Carnarvon with a portrait of the fifth Earl

It was – and still remains – the most famous and fascinating archaeological find of all time: the tomb of a boy pharaoh, filled with gold and unimaginable riches that had remained untouched for more than 2,000 years.

The story of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb also had all the ingredients of a Hollywood blockbuster – a dashing English aristocrat teaming up with a driven draftsman to make the archaeological find of the century, only to have a curse put upon themselves and their families for disturbing the dead.

Many of us have been brought up on the intriguing story of the Carter and Carnarvon find and the legend of the curse of King Tut. But then, in 1987, just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, more incredible Egyptian objects were found hidden in secret cabinets at the ancestral home of the Earls of Carnarvon – Highclere Castle in Hampshire.
In the sunny boudoir of the Castle, Lady Carnarvon, who is married to the current Earl, has become an expert on the fifth Earl and his Egyptian exploits and has written a book to accompany the current Tutankhamun exhibition at the O2 in London.
“The discovery here made the front page of The Times again,” she recalls, although she wasn’t living at the Castle at the time. “It’s extraordinary how the whole story grabs people.”
The discovery of the hidden treasures at Highclere came as just as much of a shock to the present Earl’s father as they did to everyone else. Lady Carnarvon explains: “After the fifth Earl’s death, his son really didn’t want anything to do with Egypt. He threw himself into establishing Highclere Stud instead.”

Legend has it, that the power failed completely in Cairo the night the fifth Earl died and his little dog, Rosie, let out a howl and died the same night, at home in Highclere. Little wonder that the story of the ‘Curse of the Pharaohs’ took hold.
Both Lady Carnarvon and her husband are keen to point out that although the fifth Earl died after cutting a mosquito bite while shaving and succumbed to septicaemia in Egypt, Howard Carter lived on until 1939, after having cleared the tomb out completely.
Several people who were at the famous excavation also lived for many years after, including the present Earl’s great aunt, who was one of the first people to go inside the tomb.
The Countess continues: “It wasn’t because of the curse but because the sixth Earl felt that the excavation was responsible for his father’s death. All his hard work finally killed him, so Egypt was never mentioned and the room where his father kept many artefacts was blocked off. Furniture was put across the doorway and stayed there until he died.”

As with all good English melodramas, however, it was the faithful butler who saw everything and remained discreet. On his master’s death, he said he believed there were Egyptian artefacts stored in the drawing room, so a writing desk was rolled away from the door and for the first time in decades the room saw the light of day.
The present Earl takes up the story. “It was amazing. We found all these things in very good condition. It was incredible to think they had been hidden here for 64 years, let alone in Egypt for more than 2,000.”
The doors were separated by a three-foot thickness of the wall, into which were set two cupboards. Inside were metal objects and beads that had been carefully packed in old cigarette tins and boxes, labelled in Carter’s handwriting; larger pieces were individually wrapped in cotton and tissue paper.
 “After that my husband’s father and his family went on a treasure hunt,” says Lady Carnarvon. And what an exciting exercise it turned out to be. Cupboards, drawers and the cellars were searched to reveal several more Egyptian pieces. Lord Carnarvon’s old darkroom turned out to be full of treasures – on the window sill, a bronze model axe head and under the radiator, a cartouche of Tuthmosis IV, while the housekeeper’s room yielded a stone fragment with hieroglyphs.
The present Earl continues: “The key finds were the canopic jars found in 1919, dug up by great grandmother in the Valley of the Kings. They were hidden at the back of cupboards. Luckily the area they were in had not been touched, so they were intact. No one had touched them and they were not in the light.”

Not surprisingly the current Lady Carnarvon developed an interest in her husband’s illustrious ancestor and decided to write a biography of him. She had begun her research in 2006 after a riding accident forced her to rest for several weeks.
She recalls: “I’d started researching in bits and pieces and I’d read a lot. I’d seen some original papers, but I hadn’t looked at the archives. I’d always thought ‘I wonder what’s upstairs?’ but I’d never looked properly. I’d skimmed through the visitor’s book but I didn’t know what I was looking for. It was a case of the more you know the more you’ll find.”
Then just over a year ago, in February 2007, a visit from the organisers of the spectacular Tutankhamun exhibition at the O2 in London galvanised her efforts and concentrated her mind wonderfully.
“They came here and saw us because Howard Carter had no children and the Carnarvon line is still going. They’d heard on the grapevine that I was writing a biography of the fifth Earl, which was true, and they asked if it would be finished in time for the exhibition. I said there wasn’t a hope but would they be interested in a short illustrated book? I had a pretty good knowledge of the period and had already spent time in archives away from here, like the Newbury Weekly News and in Winchester,” recalls Lady Carnarvon.

Five months of frenzied activity followed, with excited forays into the dozens of archive boxes, piled high in an upstairs room.
The fifth Earl was a keen photographer and had taken hundreds upon hundreds of photographs during his many excavations in Egypt. “They’d been collected together but no one had ever done anything with them,” says Lady Carnarvon. “It’s like having an old letter but simply not reading it. If you take it out and put it in context then suddenly it can be a fabulous bit of historical documentation. There is much more up there that I haven’t done,” she says, although archivist Jennifer Thorpe is doing her best one day a week. “It’s a herculean task, which we haven’t even touched,” she adds.

When, however, she came across some of the extraordinary photographic plates that the fifth Earl had taken during his Egyptian travels, Lady Carnarvon felt she, too, had made an incredible discovery.
“I thought I was really lucky. The quality is amazing and the scenes are so very atmospheric. What I find so astounding is that he climbed up to the top of steep cliffs in his three piece tweed suit in incredible temperatures to take some of these shots. I could not do that wearing shorts and a T-shirt and my goodness his photos are spot on. There are about 600 of them and they are a wonderful record.”

Some of the hither-to unseen photographs have been published in Lady Carnarvon’s book Carnarvon and Carter: The Story of the Two Englishmen who Discovered the Tomb of Tutankhamun.
It’s hoped that, inspired by the O2 exhibition, more visitors will come to Highclere this summer. Around 3,500 pupils already visit on school trips to the Castle and this year they’ll be able to see even more exhibits carefully displayed in a room three times bigger than the original exhibition hall.

Next year there are plans to open another, much bigger, ‘Egyptian experience’, as Lady Carnarvon calls it, with even more exhibits on show in the redeveloped cellars, enhanced by more visuals and audio commentaries.
The Egyptian collection is also constantly being added to. The present Earl recently bought a fine coffin mask, for example, at auction from Bonham’s.
 “We’ve added to the collection little by little,” says Lady Carnarvon. “We think the whole Indiana Jones story is what sets us apart from other stately homes. It’s our unique selling point if you like and we want to build on that. It is exciting and I think it will be amazing.”
As for so-called ‘Curse of the Pharaohs’, the Countess smiles. “I have enormous respect for Egyptian culture and respect their attitudes towards death and that is a very important part of our relationship with Egypt today. We have a huge regard for Egypt and the Egyptians. In that respect Geordie (the present Earl) has inherited his great grandfather’s passion for Egypt and its people. We are very happy to go down into the tombs and we’ve been into Tutankamun’s. They closed it off for us so that we could take our own photographs.”
Indeed the first time the present Earl went to Egypt was in 1998 for a Channel 4 film in which he retraced his great grandfather’s footsteps. It was feared that the curse may have manifested itself when he fell down a tomb shaft designed to fox grave-robbers, but luckily no harm was done!

The couple have forged very close links with the country and its officials and are well-known in Luxor where the name Carnarvon is still highly respected. The discovery of the tomb has brought a huge number of tourists to the area and the local economy has benefited enormously. Lord and Lady Carnarvon have even even decided to help a children’s charity in Luxor.
“Luxor has been kind to us because of Tutankhamun and we do what we can to help. We love the place and can’t wait to go back.”

Just as in the days of the fifth Earl, Egyptian officials were regular visitors to Highclere, the current Earl and Countess have hosted the Egyptian Ambassador and his wife, and have even met Mrs Mubarak, the wife of the President. There is also talk of an exhibition featuring the fifth Earl’s life and times at the Egyptian Embassy in London.
Meanwhile, the Castle just keeps throwing up reminders of its Egyptian links. Says the Countess: “Only recently I was moving some furniture and found an album of the 5th Earl’s photographs of Egypt at the back of the drawer, with captions in his handwriting.” It seems the Egyptian legend – and the reality – live on.

Highclere Castle
For other opening times and for more information visit the website www.highclerecastle.co.uk