Valley of the Kings

On this day, in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, three weeks after discovering the top of the entrance staircase, the archaeologist Howard Carter and his patron George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, finally reached the antechamber of the tomb of the Pharoah Tutankhamun. What they found inside exceeded all expectations and provided unprecedented insight into the true nature of a royal burial. The contents of the tomb are, in fact, by far the most complete example of a royal set of burial goods in the Valley of the Kings, numbered at 5,398 objects. The spectacular nature of the tomb goods inspired a media frenzy, dubbed “Tutmania”, that made Tutankhamun into one of the most famous pharaohs, often known by the nickname “King Tut”. Most of the tomb’s goods were sent to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and are now on display in the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.