The inscription on the wall of Tutankhamun’s tomb read: “Death will soon overtake the one who dares to disturb the peace of the dead ruler!” It is interesting that over the next ten years, the death of thirteen participants in archaeological excavations and nine people closely communicating with them could not help but attract the attention of the public, especially journalists, who were able to make a real sensation out of this event.

They did not care about the fact that the age of most of the deceased scientists was significantly over seventy years, and one of the organizers of the expedition, Lord Carnarvon, suffered from asthma, and the air of the musty tomb did not do him any good. But the press did not pay much attention to the fact that Carnarvon’s daughter, Lady Evelyn, who was present at the opening of the tomb and sarcophagus, lived for decades, dying at the age of eighty.

One of the most famous tombs in the world, the tomb of Tutankhamun, or as archaeologists call it, KV 62, is located in the center of the Valley of the Kings on the west coast of the Nile, near the modern city of Luxor (in ancient times - Thebe). On a geographical map this territory can be found at the following coordinates: 25° 44′ 27″ N. latitude, 32° 36′ 7″ e. d.

More than sixty graves of deceased Egyptian rulers and high-ranking officials were discovered on the territory, and it consists of two valleys - the eastern, where most of the tombs are located, and the western. Archaeologists have been combing the Valley of the Kings back and forth for two centuries, sorting through every pebble and, it would seem, no new finds should be found on its territory.

However, in 2006, another intact tomb with five mummies was found. This discovery was the first since 1922, when Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun, filled with gold, precious stones, dishes, figurines and other unique works of art created in the 14th century. BC.

Tutankhamun, ruler of Egypt

Until the tomb of Tutankhamun, the pharaoh who reigned from 1332 to 1323 BC, was discovered, many Egyptologists doubted the very existence of this ruler - he left too little of a mark on the history of his country. Which, however, is not surprising: he began to rule Egypt at the age of nine, and died before reaching twenty. He only managed to resume the cult of the god Amun, which his father, Pharaoh Akhenaten, replaced with Aten.

Scientists have not come to a consensus on who exactly his father was. Most Egyptologists, taking into account recent DNA tests and radiological studies of the pharaoh's remains, agree that the pharaoh's parents were Akhenaten and his sister. Among the rulers of ancient Egypt, consanguineous marriages were not uncommon, so it is not surprising that Tutankhamun’s wife also turned out to be his sister, Ankhesenamun, with whom he had two stillborn children (their remains were discovered in his tomb).

One of the most intriguing mysteries of Tutankhamun is the question: why did the ruler die before he even reached the age of twenty (even at that time, death at the age of nineteen was considered early). There are several versions on this matter:

1. Tutankhamun died due to a sudden illness;
2. The young man had incurable hereditary diseases that occur from consanguineous marriages;
3. The young ruler was killed;
4. The pharaoh died after falling from his chariot and receiving injuries incompatible with life.

Modern research has shown that the young pharaoh did not suffer from hereditary diseases, so he did not have any genetic diseases, severe scoliosis or a disease that gave his skeleton an effeminate figure, etc. The only diseases that scientists identified were the so-called “cleft palate” and clubfoot. They also refuted the hypothesis that he died due to an injury incompatible with life, since no similar fractures were found in the pharaoh (a crack in the skull, apparently, appeared when the priests embalmed the body).

Recent studies have shown that Tutankhamun's death was caused by a severe form of malaria, as evidenced by the medicines found in the tomb to treat this disease. Since wreaths of blooming cornflowers and daisies were found in the sarcophagus, it was possible to establish that he was buried in the first half of spring. Mummification takes about seventy days, therefore the young ruler had to die at the beginning of winter (at this time in Ancient Egypt it was just the height of the hunting season, which is why it was assumed that he fell from his chariot).

Finding the Lost Tomb

Archaeologist Carter and Lord Carnavon began searching for Tatankhamun's tomb in 1916. The idea initially seemed utopian, since in those years this territory was dug up and down and it was believed that it was impossible to find any significant finds here.

Archaeologists spent more than six years searching for the tomb, and found it where they least expected to find it: having dug up all the surroundings, they left only a small area where the huts of the ancient tomb builders were located (interestingly, it was from here that they began the excavations).

A step leading down was discovered by Egyptologists under the first shack. Having cleared the stairs, archaeologists saw a walled door below - the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb had taken place! It happened on November 3, 1922. At this stage, work on the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun was suspended: it was at this time that Lord Carnarvon was in London. Carter, deciding to wait for him, sending a telegram that he had found what he was looking for, patiently waited for his friend for three weeks. He arrived with his daughter, Lady Evelyn - and on November 25, 1922, archaeologists went down to the tomb.

First room

Even before reaching the door, Egyptologists realized that tomb robbers had already been here (the entrance was not only opened, but also walled up and sealed back). This was also confirmed by the fact that, having unwalled the door, broken shards, whole and broken jugs, vases and other fragments of objects were found in the corridor - the robbers were clearly already carrying away the loot when they were stopped, possibly by guards.

Why the treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb were not looted is one of the mysteries that has haunted scientists for about a century. Interestingly, as a result of research by Egyptologists, it was precisely established that not only professional tomb robbers, but also people close to the throne were involved in robbing tombs. When Egypt was going through times of crisis, they did not hesitate to replenish the treasury by opening the tombs of long-dead pharaohs. The fact that the first discovered seal, which was used to seal the tomb of the young pharaoh, was only an ordinary royal signet, and the name of Tutankhamun was on the seal located on the untouched part of the door, speaks for itself.

The surprise of archaeologists knew no bounds. After numerous works, they managed to reach a room filled with various objects: there was a golden throne, vases, caskets, lamps, writing instruments, and a golden chariot. And opposite each other stood two black sculptures of the pharaoh, in golden aprons and sandals, with maces, staffs and a sacred cobra on their forehead.

A hole was also discovered, made by robbers, leading to a side room, which was completely filled with gold jewelry, precious stones, household items, and even several sawn ships, on one of which the ruler was supposed to go to the afterlife after death.

Having recovered from the abundance of treasures they saw, the archaeologists realized that there was no sarcophagus in these rooms, therefore, there must be another burial room. A third sealed chamber was discovered between two sculptures. And here the research was stopped: Carter decided to close the tomb and left for Cairo for organizational work (having seen so many jewelry and valuable exhibits, he decided to negotiate with the Egyptian government).

He returned in mid-December, after which a railway was built to the pier. And near the shore there was a steamer, specially rented in order to take out the treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb. The first find was removed from the tomb on December 27, and the first batch of jewelry was delivered to the ship in mid-March (just at this time Lord Carnarvon fell ill and died of pneumonia).

It was not easy to pull out the finds, while some of the things were in perfect condition, others were almost decayed (this applies to woven, leather and wooden objects). As an example, Carter points to a pair of beaded sandals he found: one sandal literally fell apart at the slightest touch, and it took a lot of effort to somehow put it back together, but the second one turned out to be quite strong. This situation arose due to moisture penetrating through the limestone wall, due to which many objects in the room became covered with a yellowish coating, and leather items became very soft.

Tomb

The burial room, in which a huge case covered with gold plates and decorated with blue mosaics was installed, was opened in mid-February. The fact that the thieves did not get here became clear when Carter discovered that the seals on the sarcophagus were intact. The dimensions of the case where the sarcophagus was located were amazing:

• Length – 5.11 m;
• Width – 3.35 m;
• Height – 2.74 m.

The case occupied almost the entire tomb (interestingly, from this room one could get into another one, which was filled with treasures). On one side of the case there were hinged doors, closed with a bolt, without a seal. Behind them was another case, smaller, without mosaic, but with the seal of Tutankhamun. Hanging above it was a sequined cover of linen cloth attached to the wooden cornices (unfortunately, time had not been kind to it: it had turned brown and was torn in many places due to the gilded bronze daisies on it).

Work was stopped once again. It was necessary to remove the wall that separated the tomb from the first room and dismantle four gilded funeral cases, between which maces, arrows, bows, gold and silver staffs, decorated with figurines of Tutankhamun, were discovered. This work took archaeologists about 84 days.

Having disassembled the last case, the Egyptologists were faced with the lid of a huge sarcophagus made of yellow quartzite, the length of which exceeded 2.5 meters, and the lid weighed more than a ton. Having opened the sarcophagus, scientists discovered a huge gilded relief portrait of Tutankhamun, which in fact turned out to be the lid of a two-meter coffin, repeating the contours of a male figure. On the forehead of the portrait lid were the symbols of Lower and Upper Egypt - Cobra and Hawk - entwined with a garland of dried flowers.

The first sarcophagus housed the second, where the main golden coffin was installed and there was the petrified and darkened mummy of Tutankhamun, whose face and chest were covered with a golden mask (the thickness of the sarcophagus wall was about 3.5 mm).

Interestingly, the statues of the Egyptian ruler found in the first room, as well as the golden masks found on the mummy and the faces on the three coffins, turned out to be exact copies of the young ruler. This made it possible to establish that some statues of Tutankhamun were appropriated by some pharaohs, for example, Horemheb erased his name on the sculpture and wrote his own.

Curse of the Tomb

Excavations and research into the tomb of the young pharaoh lasted about five years, and after a year the phrase “Tutankhamun’s curse of the tomb” became almost inseparable from each other. It all started after Lord Carnarvon died of pneumonia a year after the opening of the tomb, and then, over the course of several years, about ten more participants in the excavations passed away.

One of the most popular ideas of fans of the theory of “Tutankhamun’s curse of the tomb” (among them was Arthur Conan Doyle) were hypotheses about a harmful fungus, radioactive elements or poisons placed in the tomb. The picture of deaths itself looks like this:

• Carnarvon dies in March 1923 (it is said that at the time of his death, electricity suddenly disappeared in Cairo);
• The second victim of the curse is Douglas-Reid, who took an x-ray of the mummy;
• A.K. dies. Mace. He and Carter opened the burial chamber;
• In the same year, Carnarvon's brother, Colonel Aubrey Herbert, dies due to blood poisoning;
• The Egyptian prince, who was at the excavation site during the opening of the tomb, is killed by his own wife;
• The following year, in the capital of Egypt, the Governor-General of Sudan, Sir Lee Stack, is killed by an assassin's shot;
• In 1928, Richard Bartel, Carter's secretary, suddenly dies, and his father jumps out of a window two years later;
• In 1930, Lord Carnarvon's half-brother committed suicide.

There were reports in the press about the death of such famous expedition members as Brasted, Gardiner, Davis (they actually died at this time, but at the time of death their age exceeded 70 years, and Gardiner was 84). The story of “Tutankhamun’s curse of the tomb” also included Carnarvon’s wife, Almina, who was said to have died at the age of 61 from an insect bite, but the rumors turned out to be false; she died much later, at the age of 93.

But the death of the main member of the expedition, Carter, could not be attributed to the mysterious deaths, no matter how hard the journalists tried: he died sixteen years after the opening of the tomb - the period turned out to be too long for it to be tied to such a popular topic as “ Tutankhamun curse of the tomb."

7 years ago I wrote about the faked tomb of Tutankhamun, but since then a lot of interesting material has appeared that was not included in the work. This article has been completely revised and practically written from scratch.

How it was

One of the first to express doubts about the authenticity of the famous tomb was Konstantin Smirnov, who published the article “Will it be necessary to close the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun?” in the journal “Technology of Youth?” (No. 4, April 1998). This article is available on the Internet, there is also a “scan” of it in PDF format. Dedicated to the same topic. This work will mainly focus on those facts that were not noted earlier or were not sufficiently disclosed.

Let us take a critical look at the available information about the history of this find and its further research. Let's take as a basis a section of the book by V. Batsalev and A. Varakin ("Secrets of Archeology. The Joy and Curse of Great Discoveries").

By the beginning of the First World War, almost the entire Valley of the Kings had been dug up far and wide, but Howard Carter, driven by an inexplicable desire to find the tomb of Tutankhamun (T) at all costs, persuaded Lord Carnarvon to sponsor new excavations, despite the assurances of famous archaeologists T. Davis and G. Maspero about the futility of such attempts.

“The sight of the Valley of the Kings made a depressing impression on Lord Carnarvon. The bottom of the pit was littered with gigantic piles of rubble and debris and gaped with black gaps of opened and robbed graves carved into the foothills of the rocks. Where to start work? Is it really possible to stir up all this rubble?..

But Carter knew where to start. He drew three lines along the plan of the pit, connecting the points of the three finds, and thus designated the triangle of searches. It turned out to be not very large and was located between three graves - Seti II, Mernepta and Ramses VI. The archaeologist turned out to be so accurate that the first blow of the pickaxe landed just above the place where the first step of the stairs leading to the tomb of Tutankhamun was located! But Howard Carter learned about this only after six long years - or rather, six archaeological seasons, during which the rubble was cleared."

Carter explained the miraculous coincidence as follows:

"At the risk of being accused of being prescient in hindsight, I nevertheless feel obliged to state that we firmly hoped to find a very specific tomb, namely that of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun."

Thus, Carter, poking his finger into the first pile of rubble he came across, found what he was looking for - practically a needle in a haystack. This is the first unique feature of the GT, which will subsequently become countless. Carter understood that this could not be, but his explanation was nothing more than demagoguery. It must be borne in mind that nothing was known about Tutankhamun before Carter. There is no pharaoh with this name in any royal list, i.e. the ancient Egyptians did not consider it necessary to preserve the memory of his reign.

The opening of the tomb, however, was delayed under all sorts of pretexts:

“For the first time in the history of excavations, Howard Carter was faced with the possibility of discovering an intact royal tomb. The temptation was great to immediately open the sealed second door, but the archaeologist acted according to his scientific duty: he announced that he would begin to remove objects from the tomb only after all measures had been taken to preserve them! The preparatory work lasted two months."

As a result, the opening of a small tomb lasted for 6 years - a unique case in world practice.

Simultaneously with the excavations, a railway is being built directly to the GT, and in Cairo they began to add a separate wing to the Egyptian Museum to store a new exhibition. A very valuable foresight, especially considering that the volume of exhibits is still unknown.

“Finally, Carter cleared the Front Room and was ready to unwall the entrance to the Golden Chamber. Of all those who wished to be present at this event, only the Times correspondent was allowed inside.”

Carter had an agreement with The Times for exclusive coverage of the excavation, so the exploration of the tomb was melodramatically depicted step by step, although without reporters, Carter and Carnarvon examined it in one go. Meanwhile, the GT study continued to drag on:

“Carter pulled back the bolt and opened these doors, so that we could see inside a large outer ark, which reached 12 feet in length and 11 in width, another, inner ark with the same double doors, with the seals still intact. Only later did we find out , that there were four gilded arks, inserted one into the other, like in a set of Chinese carved boxes, and only the last, fourth, contained a sarcophagus, but we were able to see it only a year later.

Here's how Howard Carter himself talked about it:

At that moment we lost all desire to open these seals, for we suddenly felt that we were invading forbidden possessions; this oppressive feeling was further intensified by the linen coverings that fell from the inner ark. It seemed to us that the ghost of the deceased pharaoh had appeared before us, and we must bow before him."

Carter is not original here either - he was stalling for time, slyly making excuses for “lost desire” and “oppressive feeling.” The exploration of the tomb was once again postponed.

Alan Gardiner's take on the significance of Howard Carter's discovery:

“This discovery added a little to our knowledge about this historical period. The tomb disappointed philologists, because it did not contain[new - author] written evidence. We know nothing about Tutankhamun himself, except that he inherited the throne after the death of his stepfather Akhenaten, that he ruled for only a few years and died at a young age."

Quite an interesting conclusion. GT is unparalleled in many respects, and Egyptologists do not find anything in it that would attract their attention. Therefore, the collection of objects from the GT is practically not studied in subsequent years, and the entire historical background accompanying Tutankhamun and the circumstances of his burial are entirely invented by Carter himself. If we separate the factual material associated with GT from Carter’s myth-making, we will get a continuous set of suspicious coincidences and absurdities. For example, Egyptologists know that 80% of GT artifacts have nothing to do with Tutankhamun, including one of the sarcophagi, which by all indications was intended for a woman.

British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves, one of the few who became interested in the contents of the GT, writes:

"We have found evidence that the inscriptions on sarcophagus cartouches and many other objects have changed. On the outer sarcophagus of Tutankhamun, for example, a face is painted very similar to the image of Akhenaten on his huge statue at Karnak; and the middle coffin of the sarcophagus is decorated with designs typical of a female burial.

...I looked inside [Tutankhamun's mask] and couldn't believe what I saw there! On the inside of the mask there was a thin seam, as if the image of the face was soldered to the headdress of the mask, and such a technique was extremely rare...”

Reeves is amazed by the unique soldering, but hundreds of kilograms of gold in the tomb of an unknown young pharaoh is an equally unique fact! Recently, it turned out by chance that a beard was also soldered to the mask, which in Ancient Egypt was traditionally attached with pins:

Place where the beard is soldered to the mask.

Soldering can be found in other places:

Soldered seams on the inner sarcophagus, made of gold 2.5-3 cm thick.

And again, the unique technology for making the mask and sarcophagus of Tutankhamun has not received a proper explanation! Let's take a closer look at other unprecedented features of the GT.

Pharaoh Tutankhamun had a unique female attribute of the mother goddess

If we pay attention to the headdresses of Tutankhamun’s masks, we will find two protomes on them - a cobra and a vulture:

The vulture is the totem of the goddess Mut (Nekhbet), who personified the mother goddess. One example of its use as a headdress:

A fragment of the painting in the tomb of Nefertari: on the left is the goddess Hathor (mother of the god Horus), on the right is Queen Nefertari with offerings to the goddess Hathor.

The cobra (uraeus) on the headdress of the pharaohs symbolizes belonging to the royal House of sun-like gods, which was considered the rulers of Ancient Egypt, therefore the uraeus does not carry gender characteristics - it was worn on headdresses by both kings and queens:

Uraeus on the headdresses of the queen of the XVIII dynasty and the kings of the XXI dynasty.

However, the queens had a richer choice of symbolism, thus expressing the statuses of royalty and motherhood:

Head of a statue of Queen Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III, XVIII dynasty.

One of the excellent illustrations of the difference in royal symbolism is a sketch made by French artists in Thebes during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. It depicts the queen mother Ahmose-Nefertari on the left, and her son Amenhotep I on the right:

The headdress of Ahmose-Nefertari includes the mother goddess Mut-Nekhbet in the form of a vulture covering the queen's head, on which stands a modius, which again depicts Mut-Nekhbet with two uraei. The headdress of Amenhotep I is more laconic: a khepresh crown with a uraeus as a solar symbol.

The only pharaoh who had a female symbol on his head in the form of a vulture is Tutankhamun:

Bust from the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Tutankhamun's tomb has a unique layout

In the book "Ancient Egyptian Masters" V.S. Bogoslovsky described the order of construction of the tombs of the pharaohs:

“The carefully studied plans and measurements of the royal tombs that have reached us show that before the work began, the following were carefully thought out and fixed in the plan:

1) the overall size of the tomb as a whole, the dimensions of the rooms and the corridors connecting them;
2) the purpose of individual rooms and corridors, their name and, in accordance with this, the shape of the premises;
3) subjects of images and, consequently, their compositions.

Corridors: “First Divine Passage”, “Second Divine Passage” (option “God’s Passage of the Sun”), Third Divine Passage (with niches called “sanctuary containing the gods of the East” and “sanctuary containing the gods of the West”), "God's fourth passage" (at the end there are two niches of gatekeepers). The last corridor led to the burial chamber.
Halls: the first hall is the “waiting hall”, the second hall is the “chariot hall” (a variant of the “hall of oppressing enemies, in which there are 4 columns”), the third hall is the “house of gold” (funeral “room in which they rest”).
Small transitions: “God’s transition, which is in the place of ushebti” (in the same place “Place of rest of the gods,” i.e., figurines of deities); on the sides of this passage there are “treasuries”; "God's second passage, which is behind the house of gold."
Elements of architectural decoration: “lintel”, “door frame”, “portal”, “thickness of the portal”, “wooden door”.

Thus, the plan of the tomb was drawn up in advance - without any haste, with which Howard Carter explains all the absurdities of GT (H. Carter, “The Tomb of Tutankhamun”):

"...many signs indicate great haste in the construction and interior design of it[Tutatnkhamon - author] tombs."

Moreover, construction of the tomb began immediately at the beginning of the pharaoh’s reign, and not after his death, including sudden death. Tutankhamun, according to various estimates, ruled from 9 to 10 years (1332-1323 BC), during which time, according to G. Carter, he managed to build a miniature tomb:

Plan of Tutankhamun's tomb. Its length is 30.79 m, area - 109.83 m², volume - 277.01 m³

To see how imperfect it is, let's compare it with the tombs of the rulers of Ancient Egypt of the same era, taking into account Carter's words:

"...however, in the era of the XVIII dynasty, they began to decorate only the funeral room, covering the walls with texts that were considered especially necessary for the deceased[M. - i.e. exactly like in the tomb of Tutankhamun] ".

Thutmose III(1479-1425 BC). The total length of the tomb is 76.11 m, area - 310.92 m², volume - 792.71 m³. Not only the burial chamber, but also the rest of the rooms were painted:

Amenhotep II(1427-1400 BC) - layout like Thutmose III. The walls are painted with hieratic texts from the Book of Amduat. The total length of the tomb is 91.87 m, area - 362.85 m², volume - 852.21 m³.

The hall and adjacent rooms are richly decorated:

Thutmose IV(1400-1390 BC) - ruled as long as Tutankhamun, which did not stop him from building a tomb with a length of 105.73 meters, an area of ​​407.7 m² and a volume of 1062.36 m³. The layout of the tomb is similar to the tombs of its predecessors, but differs from them in innovations in decoration. Instead of muted shades and imitation of hieratic, the entrance well and the front chamber are decorated with images of the pharaoh and the deities of the underworld. The burial chamber is not decorated! Probably they were going to, but didn’t have time.

Amenhotep III(1390-1336 BC) - some of the most grandiose buildings of Ancient Egypt are associated with the name of this pharaoh: temples, palaces, the colossi of Memnon and a grandiose tomb with a length of 126.68 meters, an area of ​​554.92 m² and a volume of 1485.88 m³. The tomb, including the burial chamber, is decorated with scenes from the Book of Amduat and frescoes depicting Amenhotep with the gods:

Fragment of the painting of the tomb of Amenhotep III.

Hey(1327-1323 BC) - despite the fact that he ruled only 4 years after Tutankhamun, he managed to build himself a large tomb, 60.16 meters long, 212.22 m² in area and 618.26 m³ in volume. Belzoni was discovered in 1816, but for some reason was not cleared until 1972. A peculiarity of the texts of the tomb is that they continue to venerate the god Aten, but it is most famous for the fact that the painting of the burial chamber is surprisingly similar to GT. Moreover, time has not been kind to the frescoes of the Ey tomb, and supposedly the older ones in the GT do not have mechanical damage:

Intact frescoes in the GT - on the left, on the right - crumbling frescoes of the Ey tomb.

The unique state of preservation of GT paintings has no analogues.

Horemheb(1323-1295 BC). The tomb of Horemheb is striking in its size: total length - 127.88 m, area - 472.61 m², volume - 1328.17 m³. The frescoes of the tomb are considered one of the pearls of ancient Egyptian art:

Frescoes in the well (at the beginning) of Horemheb's tomb.

However, the burial chamber is not finished and was left as is at the time of the pharaoh's death:

Horemheb's burial chamber.

Examples of tombs of pharaohs who lived before and after Tutankhamun demonstrate that GT in no way fits into ancient Egyptian funerary standards - neither in size nor in layout. The obligatory corridors were not only not cut through, they were not even planned: instead of the sacred underground world, where the deceased pharaoh was supposed to go, ordinary warehouses were built. In addition, the decoration of the tombs contradicts Carter's statement about the decoration of only the burial room - apparently, it was generally painted last, because in a number of cases, the Book of the Dead (Amduat) was left partially or completely without decoration and texts.

The tomb of Tutankhamun is affected by unique fungi, found nowhere else

The first to talk about mysterious fungi, of course, was Howard Carter himself (H. Carter, “The Tomb of Tutankhamun”):

“The surface of the walls is covered with small brown mushroom-shaped growths, the germs of which may have been carried along with the plaster or paint. A breeding ground for them was created by the prevailing dampness, released from the plaster after the room was sealed.”

Fungi have been lamented for almost a hundred years: in 2009, Zahi Hawass again complained to the media:

“Every time I look at the tomb of the pharaoh, I am surprised by these stains, the origin of which no scientist can explain.”

A fragment of a fresco from the tomb of Tutankhamun, where the stains are clearly visible.

In the same year, the GT was closed for restoration, the main goal of which was to clarify the nature of the origin of the stains. The contractor was the Paul Getty Conservation Institute. After about 2 years:

Questions were forwarded to microbiologist Ralph Mitchell of Harvard University, who finally sorted out the stains. His team's researchers took samples of plaster and paint from the tomb's walls and analyzed them microbiologically and chemically. It turned out that melanin, metabolic products of fungi and some bacteria give the brown color to the spots, but no living bacteria were found in the samples. According to scientists, they are all dead or, scientifically speaking, inactive.

Moreover, after studying photographs of the walls taken 89 years ago, the researchers saw that the spots had not changed in size since then. And although scientists were unable to identify ancient microorganisms, they were convinced that the spots did not change over time and appeared shortly after the burial of the famous boy pharaoh.

These stains indicate, says Mitchell, that the burial was carried out in great haste.

It was not possible to find living organisms in the spots, therefore the spots did not grow, and there were no fungal growths that Carter talked about. But how did the spots themselves appear?

Until recently, high-resolution color photographs of the GT frescoes were absent or inaccessible, and photographs from the Howard Carter catalog were unsuitable for research purposes. But the beautifully executed photo album “Treasures of the Pharaohs” (Delia Pemberton), released in 2008, resolved this problem - its high-quality photographs allow for a detailed study of the GT frescoes. Their enlarged fragments revealed characteristic defects: the black paint had spread in many places:

Fragments of frescoes from the tomb of Tutankhamun. In the profile on the left, black paint floated along the contour of the face and around the eyes.

This happened due to the wrong selection of colors. The Egyptians, who had been perfecting the technology for making frescoes for thousands of years, did not allow such mistakes - stains occur in a single place, in the GT. And Howard Carter, talking about fungal growths that in reality did not exist, thus let slip: “the germs were brought in with the paint.” This paint is known - it is an extract of the chaga mushroom, which is a thick dark brown liquid. Carter hoped that the extract contained fungal germs, but they were not there, which became known only after a study by the Paul Getty Institute. The main component of the extract, which gives it its characteristic color, is melanin. It was needed to hide the defects of black paint spreading on the GT paintings - chaga extract was simply splashed on the walls. And this technique really worked - scientists still justify all the absurdities encountered in GT, including melanin stains on the walls, by the extraordinary haste invented by Carter. In addition, the stains create the appearance of aging, without which the frescoes would look like new.

The mummy of Tutankhamun is unique in its own way and has no analogues among the mummies of Egyptian kings

The two levels of resin in the skull mean that the mummy was embalmed twice. This, of course, answers the question about how the “mummy of Tutankhamun” appeared: it was made from another mummy of a mere mortal (not of royal origin), which was stuffed with treasures and placed in a golden sarcophagus, wearing a golden mask. The mummy's sarcophagus was then filled with embalming resin and heated to high temperatures to harden the resin, creating the appearance of aging. Howard Carter says again in his book:

“At one time, about two full buckets of fragrant liquid were poured onto the golden sarcophagus, and the same amount was poured onto the dead body lying inside.”

How can one find out about the consistency of the embalming composition, its viscosity, the number of evaporated fractions, unless he personally poured out 4 full buckets of incense?! At the same time, Carter overdid it with the heating - perhaps he was in a hurry - and burned the mummy, so in the book he had to complain about the inept Egyptians:

“The more our work progressed, the more obvious it became that both the cover and the mummy itself were in a deplorable state. They were completely charred as a result of exposure to fatty acids contained in the incense with which they were impregnated.”

View of the mummy burned by Howard Carter.

The charring of "Tutankhamun's mummy" should be added to the above list of anomalies under No. 7. Surprisingly, however, Egyptologists accepted Carter's version at face value and even subsequently developed it into the phantasmagoric theory of spontaneous combustion. They are not at all embarrassed by the uniqueness of this phenomenon:

“An amazing - almost supernatural - discovery was made by British scientists: anthropologist Dr Robert Connolly from the University of Liverpool - the same one who was the first to x-ray the mummy of Tutankhamun in 1968 - and his colleague Dr Matthew Ponting ) They studied a sample extracted from the pharaoh's body and came to the conclusion that it was the body, already in the sarcophagus, was exposed to high temperature. More than 200 degrees. ...Where did the high temperature come from in the sarcophagus? It is unlikely that it was heated on purpose. Scientists have never encountered such a practice before. Most likely, in their opinion, the “culinary” heat was generated by a chemical reaction, which included embalming substances, cloth coverings and fatty tissues of the body itself - during his lifetime the pharaoh was a very well-fed young man. ... Connolly and Ponting believe that the chemical reaction was the result of some error in embalming. But which one? There is not even any speculation on this matter. Scientists, by the way, do not exclude that the pharaoh became a victim of the so-called spontaneous human combustion (Spontaneous Human Combustion - SHC) or the devil's flame - a mysterious phenomenon, the causes of which are not entirely clear even today."(emphasis mine).

In connection with the tragic events that befell the “mummy of Tutankhamun” at the behest of G. Carter, in particular thermal carbonization, it should be noted that there cannot be genetic material in it, because DNA denaturation begins at a temperature of about 70°C, and at a temperature of about 90°C the DNA completely dissociates, not to mention the temperature of over 200°C to which the sarcophagus was heated along with the mummy. Therefore, DNA tests are obviously doomed to either an erroneous result or its absence. Thus, a group of geneticists from the Swiss research center iGENEA, having studied DNA samples extracted from the mummified remains of Tutankhamun, found out that he allegedly belonged to the R1b1a2 haplogroup - the most typical for Western Europe. In fact, geneticists discovered genetic material on the mummy that was brought in by the Europeans themselves. Such contamination of samples is most typical for this kind of research: results were obtained on the genetic material of the contamination, but the DNA of the “mummy of Tutankhamun” could not be detected, therefore the currently popular stories about the genetic relationship of someone with Tutankhamun are without any basis.

The tomb of Tutankhamun has a unique satellite tomb that served as a utility room

In 2005, a group of American archaeologists led by Otto Schaden made an unexpected discovery: five meters from the GT there is a shaft going into the rock mass. In February 2006, it turned out that it leads to a room located at a depth of 10 meters, which was immediately called a tomb and assigned the number KV63, next to the GT.

Otto Schaden before passing into KV63.

However, upon first inspection, it became clear that the chamber, measuring 4 by 5 meters, was not intended for burial, but was used as a storage room and workshop. Seven sarcophagi filled with linen bandages and pillows were randomly stacked in it; vessels with natron, resins, broken ceramics, and the remains of animals and people were placed nearby. Scientists have concluded that only one mummy was embalmed in this chamber, and they directly point to the mummy in the GT:

"Given the location of the chamber, as well as the fact that its entrance was sealed with the same alluvium as the GT, it seems most likely that KV63 was the main hiding place for the embalming of Tutankhamun."(ibid.).

One of the evidence of such a connection was sarcophagus No. 1 with the image of a young woman:

Let's try to retouch the face and compare it with the conditional Tutankhamun:

On the left is the face on sarcophagus No. 1 from KV63, on the right is the “mask of Tutankhamun”.

The striking similarity did not escape the eyes of the researchers, but they immediately came up with an explanation: this is supposedly Ankhesenamun, the sister and at the same time the wife of Tutankhamun, i.e. queen mother. However, there was no explanation for the fact that on the female sarcophagus No. 1 there were no symbols of belonging to the royal House. As we now understand, this phenomenon is in close connection with the previously indicated unique features of the conventional Tutankhamun: his mummy was also not of royal origin, accordingly, the royal symbolism discovered in the GT did not refer to the pharaoh, but to the mother goddess.

Speaking about KV63 as a cache in which the remains of the embalming of Tutankhamun are preserved, scientists forget how the epic search for Tutankhamun began. Howard Carter talks about this in detail:

"Shortly before finishing his work in the Valley, he[Theodore Davis - author] discovered in a hiding place under a rock a faience cup on which the name of Tutankhamun was inscribed. Not far from this place, he came across a small shaft burial, where there was an unnamed alabaster figurine, ... as well as a broken wooden box, which contained fragments of a gold plate with the image and names of Pharaoh Tutankhamun and his wife. Based on these pieces of the gold record, Davis announced that they Tutankhamun's burial discovered. ... A little east of this grave, in the first years of his work, Davis found, in an irregularly shaped recess carved into the rock, a warehouse of sealed clay vessels with hieratic inscriptions on the shoulders. When their contents were quickly examined, it turned out that it consisted mainly of shards of crockery, strips of linen cloth and other refuse. ... There were clay seals here, some with the name of Tutankhamun, and others with impressions of the seal of the royal necropolis; fragments of clay vases with magnificent paintings; linen headbands, one of which is inscribed with the latest known date of Tutankhamun's reign; a floral wreath of the kind that mourners wore around their necks during funerals, and a host of other varied items. All these items apparently remained from the funeral of Tutankhamun: when the funeral ceremony was over, they were collected, placed in vessels and hidden. "(emphasis mine).

From the cache found by Davis.

Thus, a cache of items left over from Tutankhamun’s funeral was found by Theodore Davis at the beginning of the 20th century, therefore KV63, discovered 100 years later, cannot be considered a repository of Tutankhamun’s funerary utensils - the mummy that Carter gave away was obviously made there for the royal mummy of Tutankhamun, making her the most famous pharaoh.

Interesting features of KV63 include the 42-centimeter sarcophagus made of red gold (gold with a high copper content - over 50%) that was located there:

The arms crossed on the chest speak of the royal origin of the baby girl, who, however, was not inside. Apparently she was placed in GT and named the daughter of Tutankhamun.

(there were two in total).

Conclusion

If we count how many times the words “unique,” ​​“unprecedented,” and “anomalous” were used in this work, we can conclude that the tomb of Tutankhamun is one complete misunderstanding. In reality, they are euphemisms to cover up Howard Carter's faked tomb in the Valley of the Kings. His only magic wand, which has a hypnotic effect on scientists - Tutankhamun was buried in a hurry - was invented by him. Carter, of course, could not act alone - he carried out his criminal enterprise under the auspices of the Egyptian authorities, who, in the wake of increased interest in Egypt in the world, had whetted their appetite. They managed to create a bright, vulgar show that attracted millions of undemanding ordinary people with the magical shine of gold and the sparkle of precious stones.

But sooner or later, someone must call a spade a spade, because all of the listed absurdities of GT are nothing more than evidence of the most ambitious falsification in the entire history of mankind.

Tutankhamun (Tutankhaten) - pharaoh of Ancient Egypt from the XVIII dynasty of the New Kingdom, reign, approximately 1332-1323. BC e.

According to the general custom in ancient times, the deceased was put into the grave everything that was considered most valuable to him during his lifetime: for kings and nobles - signs of their dignity, for a warrior - his weapons, etc. But they all “took” with them almost everything collected during your life gold and other items that do not rot. There were such kings and rulers who took the entire state treasury with them to the tombs, and the people, mourning the king, also mourned the loss of all their property.

So the ancient tombs were treasuries in which untold riches were hidden. To protect them from theft, the builders built entrances inaccessible to outsiders; they arranged doors with secret locks that were closed and opened with the help of a magical talisman.

No matter how hard the pharaohs made to protect their tombs from plunder, no matter how sophisticated they were in trying to resist the all-destroying time, all their efforts were in vain. The genius of their architects was unable to defeat the evil will of man, his greed and indifference to ancient civilizations. The countless riches that were provided to deceased rulers, members of their families and important dignitaries have long attracted greedy robbers. Neither terrible spells, nor careful security, nor the cunning tricks of architects (camouflaged traps, walled-up chambers, false passages, secret staircases, etc.) helped against them.

Due to a happy coincidence, only the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun remained the only one that was preserved almost completely intact, although it was plundered twice in ancient times. The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb is associated with the names of the English Lord Carnarvon and archaeologist Howard Carter.

Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter

Lord Carnarvon, heir to a huge fortune, was also one of the first motorists. He barely survived one of the car accidents, and after that he had to give up his dreams of sports. In order to improve his health, the bored lord visited Egypt and became interested in the great past of this country. For his own entertainment, he decided to take up excavations himself, but his independent attempts in this field were unsuccessful. Money alone was not enough for this, and Lord Carnarvon did not have enough knowledge and experience. And then he was given advice to seek help from archaeologist Howard Carter.

1914 - Lord Carnarvon saw the name of Tutankhamun on one of the earthenware cups discovered during excavations in the Valley of the Kings. He came across the same name on a gold plate from a small cache. These finds prompted the lord to obtain permission from the Egyptian government to search for Tutankhamun's tomb. The same material evidence also supported G. Carter when he was overcome by despondency from a lengthy but unsuccessful search.

Tutankhamun's tomb found

Archaeologists searched for the tomb of the pharaoh for 7 long years, but in the end happiness smiled on them. Sensational news spread around the world at the beginning of 1923. In those days, crowds of reporters, photographers and radio commentators flocked to the small and usually quiet town of Luxor. Every hour from the Valley of the Kings, reports, messages, notes, essays, reports, reports, articles were carried by telephone and telegraph...

For more than 80 days, archaeologists reached the golden coffin of Tutankhamun - through four external arks, a stone sarcophagus and three internal coffins, until they finally saw the one who for a long time was only a ghostly name for historians. But first, archaeologists and workers discovered steps that led deeper into the rock and ended at the walled-up entrance. When the entrance was cleared, behind it there was a descending corridor, covered with fragments of limestone, and at the end of the corridor there was another entrance, which was also walled up. This entrance led to a front chamber with a side storage room, a burial chamber and a treasury.

Having made a hole in the masonry, G. Carter stuck his hand in with a candle and clung to the hole. “At first I didn’t see anything,” he later wrote in his book. - Warm air rushed out of the chamber, and the candle flame began to flicker. But gradually, when the eyes became accustomed to the twilight, the details of the room began to slowly emerge from the darkness. There were strange figures of animals, statues and gold - gold shimmered everywhere.

In the tomb

Tutankhamun's tomb was actually one of the richest. When Lord Carnarvon and G. Carter entered the first room, they were stunned by the number and variety of objects filling it. There were chariots covered with gold, bows, quivers of arrows and shooting gloves; beds, also upholstered in gold; armchairs covered with the smallest inserts of ivory, gold, silver and gems; magnificent stone vessels, richly decorated caskets with clothes and jewelry. There were also boxes of food and vessels of long-dried wine. The first room was followed by others, and what was discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun exceeded the wildest expectations of the expedition members.

Golden sarcophagus of Tutankhamun weighing 110 kg

The fact that the tomb was found at all was in itself an incomparable success. But fate smiled at G. Carter once again; in those days he wrote: “We saw something that no person of our time was awarded.” From the front chamber of the tomb alone, the English expedition removed 34 containers full of priceless jewelry, gold, precious stones and magnificent works of ancient Egyptian art. And when the members of the expedition entered the funeral chambers of the pharaoh, they found here a wooden gilded ark, in it another - an oak ark, in the second - a third gilded ark, and then a fourth. The latter contained a sarcophagus made from a single piece of the rarest crystalline quartzite, and in it there were two more sarcophagi.

The northern wall of the hall of sarcophagi in the tomb of Tutankhamun is painted with three scenes. On the right is the opening of the mouth of the pharaoh's mummy by his successor Ey. Until the moment of opening his lips, the deceased pharaoh was depicted as a mummy, and after this ceremony he already appeared in his usual earthly image. The central part of the painting is occupied by the scene of the meeting of the revived pharaoh with the goddess Nut: Tutankhamun is depicted in the robe and headdress of an earthly king, in his hands he holds a mace and a staff. In the last scene, the pharaoh is embraced by Osiris, with his “ka” standing behind Tutankhamun.

The ancient Egyptians believed in the existence of several souls in humans. Tutankhamun had two "ka" statues, which were carried in a row of honor during the funeral procession. In the funerary chambers of the pharaoh, these statues stood on the sides of the sealed door leading to the golden sarcophagus. "Ka" Tutankhamun has a youthfully handsome face with wide-set eyes looking with the impassive stillness of death.

Ancient sculptors and artists repeated it many times on chests, chests and arks. The dimensions of the statue of the spirit-double helped scientists determine the height of the pharaoh himself, since, according to the funeral traditions of the ancient Egyptians, these dimensions corresponded to the height of the deceased.

“Ba” of Tutankhamun was guarded by a wooden sculpture depicting the pharaoh on the funeral bed, and on the other side a falcon overshadowed the sacred mummy with its wing. On the figurine of the pharaoh, archaeologists saw carved words with which the pharaoh addressed the goddess of the sky: “Come down, Mother Nut, bend over me and turn me into one of the immortal stars that are all in you!” This sculpture was among those sacrifices that the courtiers presented to the now deceased pharaoh as a promise to serve him and.

Pharaoh mummy

In order to get to the sacred mummy of the pharaoh, archaeologists had to open several sarcophagi. “The mummy lay in a coffin,” writes G. Carter, “to which she was tightly stuck, since, having been lowered into the coffin, she was poured with aromatic oils. The head and shoulders, right down to the chest, were covered with a beautiful golden mask, reproducing the features of the royal face, with a headband and necklace. It could not be removed, since it was also stuck to the coffin with a layer of resin, which thickened into a mass as hard as stone.”

The coffin, which contained the mummy of Tutankhamun, depicted in the image of Osiris, was entirely made of massive gold sheet with a thickness of 2.5 to 3.5 millimeters. In its form it repeated the previous two, but its decor was more complex. The pharaoh's body was protected by the wings of the goddesses Isis and Nephthys; chest and shoulders - kite and cobra (goddesses - patroness of the North and South). These figurines were placed on top of the coffin, with each kite feather filled with pieces of gems or colored glass.

The mummy lying in the coffin was wrapped in many shrouds. On the top of them were sewn hands holding a whip and a staff; underneath them there was also a golden image of a “ba” in the form of a bird with a human head. At the places of the belts there were longitudinal and transverse stripes with the texts of prayers. When G. Carter unwrapped the mummy, he discovered a lot more jewelry, the inventory of which is divided into 101 groups.

Treasures from the Tomb

Throne of Tutankhamun

So, for example, on the body of the pharaoh, archaeologists discovered two daggers - bronze and silver. The handle of one of them is decorated with gold grain and framed with interlocking ribbons of cloisonné enamel. At the bottom, the decorations end with a chain of scrolls made of gold wire and a rope design. The blade, made of hardened gold, has two longitudinal grooves in the middle, topped with a palmette, above which there is a geometric pattern in a narrow frieze.

The forged mask that covered Tutankhamun's face was made of a thick sheet of gold and richly decorated: the stripes of the scarf, eyebrows and eyelids were made of dark blue glass, the wide necklace shone with numerous inserts of gems. The pharaoh's throne was made of wood, covered with gold leaf and richly decorated with inlays of multi-colored faience, gems and glass. The legs of the throne in the shape of lion paws are topped with lion heads made of beaten gold; the handles represent winged snakes coiled in a ring, supporting the pharaoh's cartouches with their wings. Between the supports behind the back of the throne there are six uraei wearing crowns and solar disks. All of them are made of gilded wood and inlaid: the heads of the uraei are of purple faience, the crowns are of gold and silver, and the sun discs are of gilded wood.

On the back of the throne there is a relief image of papyri and water birds, in front there is a one-of-a-kind inlaid image of the pharaoh and his wife. The lost gold decorations that connected the seat with the lower frame were an ornament of lotus and papyrus, united by a central image - the hieroglyph “sema”, symbolizing the unity of Upper and Lower Egypt.

In Ancient Egypt there was also a custom of decorating the bodies of the deceased with wreaths of flowers. The wreaths that were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun did not reach us in very good condition, and two or three flowers completely crumbled into powder at the first touch. The leaves also turned out to be very brittle, and scientists kept them in lukewarm water for several hours before starting their research.

The necklace found on the lid of the third coffin was composed of leaves, flowers, berries and fruits, various plants mixed with blue glass beads. The plants were arranged in nine rows, tied to semicircular strips cut from the core of papyrus. As a result of analyzing flowers and fruits, scientists were able to establish the approximate time of burial of Pharaoh Tutankhamun - it happened between mid-March and the end of April. It was then that cornflowers bloomed in Egypt, and the fruits of mandrake and nightshade, woven into a wreath, ripened.

In beautiful stone vessels, scientists also discovered fragrant ointments with which the pharaoh was supposed to anoint himself in the afterlife, as he did in earthly life. Even after 3,000 years, these perfumes emitted a strong aroma...

Now the treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun are exhibited in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and occupy 10 halls there, the area of ​​which is equal to a football field. With the permission of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, studies were carried out on the mummies of famous pharaohs. The most modern technology was used during the work; forensic doctors and even experts from Scotland Yard were involved in the case, who took x-rays of Tutankhamun’s skull and found traces of a deep wound on the back of his head. And the English detectives came to the conclusion that the matter here was criminal, and 3,000 years ago, the 18-year-old ruler of Egypt became the victim of a palace coup and died instantly from a strong blow.

Gods of the New Millennium [with illustrations] Alford Alan

TOMBS OF THE PHARAOHS?

TOMBS OF THE PHARAOHS?

There were supposed to be three tombs in this amazing Great Pyramid in case the pharaoh died during construction. And the textbooks say this quite seriously! Experts at the British Museum explain the "features of the internal configuration of the pyramid by changes in plans during construction." This is directly related to the traditional version that each of the chambers was intended to be a tomb, and that the builders therefore changed their plans during construction.

Is there any evidence to support the still-current idea that the Great Pyramid was indeed intended to serve as a tomb? This assumption - that the king's (or queen's) chamber in the Great Pyramid served as a tomb - falls apart in the face of the evidence we have. To the surprise of many who accepted the tomb theory at face value, no remains, no mummies, or anything related to a burial or tomb were ever found in the Great Pyramid.

Arab historians who described Mamun's entry into the pyramid claim that there were no traces of burial there, nor any traces of robbers, since the upper part of the pyramid was very carefully sealed and disguised. It is clear that grave robbers would not seal the robbed tomb - they would try to get out as quickly as possible! The obvious conclusion from these considerations is that the pyramid was intended to remain empty.

Moreover, the very idea that the upper chambers of the Great Pyramid were intended for burial is in no way compatible with the fact that the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs were never placed high above ground level. Moreover, when examining many other pyramids in Egypt, no evidence was found that at least one of them was used as a tomb.

According to the traditional view, the pyramid-building mania began with one of the first pharaohs of the Third Dynasty, Djoser, around 2630 BC, a few years after the beginning of Egyptian civilization. For some reasons unclear to us, the pharaoh decided to abandon the simple tombs made of clay bricks, which were used by his predecessors, and built the first stone pyramid in Saqqara. This was a very ambitious project, apparently unique and unprecedented in Egypt (although similar ziggurats had been built in Mesopotamia several centuries earlier). In this construction, Djoser was assisted by an architect named Imhotep, a mysterious person about whom we know little. The Pyramid of Djoser was built at an angle of approximately 43.5 degrees.

At the beginning of the 19th century, two “funeral chambers” were found under the pyramid of Djoser, and during further excavations underground galleries with two empty sarcophagi. Since then, it has been believed that this pyramid served as the tomb of Djoser and his family members, but in fact his remains were never found, and there is no hard evidence that Djoser was actually buried in this pyramid. On the contrary, many prominent Egyptologists are now convinced that Djoser was buried in a majestic, richly decorated tomb found in 1928, located south of the pyramid. They could only conclude that the pyramid itself was not intended to serve as a tomb, but was either a symbolic tomb or a clever way to distract the attention of grave robbers.

Pharaoh Sekhemkhet is considered to be Djoser's successor. His pyramid also has a “burial chamber”, and in it - again empty sarcophagus. The official version says that the tomb was robbed, but in fact, the archaeologist who discovered the chamber, Zakaria Ghoneim, saw that the sarcophagus was closed by a vertical sliding door, sealed cement. And, again, there is no evidence that this pyramid was intended as a tomb.

In other, less well-known pyramids of the III dynasty, the picture is the same: the step pyramid of Khaba turned out to be completely empty; next to it, another unfinished pyramid was found with a mysterious oval - like a bathroom - room - sealed and empty; as well as three more small pyramids in which no traces of burials were found.

The first pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, around 2575 BC, was Snofru. The pyramid-tomb theory has been dealt another blow, as it is believed that Sneferu built not one, but three pyramids! His first pyramid in Medum turned out to be too steep and collapsed. Nothing was found in the burial chamber except the fragments of a wooden coffin, which is believed to represent a later burial. Snefru's second and third pyramids were built at Dashur. The second pyramid, known as the Pyramid of Bent, is believed to have been built at the same time as the pyramid at Meidum, since the angle of the walls was suddenly changed mid-construction from 52 degrees to a safer 43.5 degrees. The walls of the third pyramid, called Red - after the color of the local pink limestone from which it is built, were built at a safe angle of approximately 43.5 degrees. These pyramids contain two and three "burial chambers" respectively, but all of them turned out to be completely empty.

Why did Pharaoh Snefru need two pyramids standing next to each other and what were these empty chambers supposed to mean? If such efforts were already expended, then why was he buried in another place? Surely one fake tomb would be enough to confuse tomb robbers?!

But it is believed that Khufu was the son of Sneferu, and therefore we can establish the supposed date of construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza without having the slightest evidence that any of the pyramids were intended for burial at all. Meanwhile, in all the books, in all the guidebooks and television documentaries, it is categorically stated that the pyramids of Giza, like all the pyramids in Egypt, were tombs!

In general, we see in this an excellent example of how any, even the most ridiculous theory, can take over people’s thoughts. And then scientists are forced to defend the accepted theory, inventing more and more ingenious arguments, such as, for example, the fact that the builders of the pyramids at Giza “changed their plans.” These scientists are too arrogant to honestly tell us “we don’t know” and too hesitant to challenge prevailing opinion. Well, and we - will we continue to blindly believe what these scientists instill in us?

From the book Heavenly Teachers [Ancient Cosmic Code] author Däniken Erich von

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From the author's book

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Tombs and mummies of the Ukok plateau We will talk about an archaeological sensation in the most direct and purely scientific sense of the word. After excavations of Roman cities (Stabium, Herculaneum and Pompeii), destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. BC, and the discovery of the untouched tomb of Tutankhamun

From the author's book

Inkwell in the newfangled “pharaonic style” The country of gray pyramids has long attracted Europeans. Even the ancient Greeks considered it the cradle of art. And later, both the strange Egyptian gods Osiris, Isis and Serapis, as well as their priests, were invariably attracted by their mystery.

Tutankhamun's name in hieroglyphs

Tutankhamun's tomb.
At one time and to this day, the tomb of Tutankhamun is an outstanding archaeological find, a sensation on a global scale. Archaeologist Howard Carter has forever written his name - he is the first and only archaeologist who managed to find and open an unlooted tomb.

Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun (Tutankhaten) - pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, who reigned approximately 1333-1323 BC. e., from the XVIII dynasty, the husband of one of the daughters of Akhenaten, the famous reformer pharaoh.

It is not known exactly who his parents were, but most likely he was the grandson of Amenhotep III. His right to the throne was determined by his marriage to Ankhesenpaaton (later called Ankhesenamun), daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. At the time of Akhenaten's death, Tutankhamun was only nine years old, so he was strongly influenced by the elderly "Father of God" - Aye, who became his co-ruler, survived him and became his successor on the throne. Little known as a pharaoh, Tutankhamun became famous thanks to the sensational discovery in 1922 of his largely intact tomb. Thousands of different objects were found in it, including a gilded chariot, seats, a box, lamps, precious jewelry, clothing, writing instruments, and even a tuft of his grandmother’s hair. This discovery gave the world the most complete picture yet of the splendor of the ancient Egyptian court.

During the reign of Tutankhamun, Egypt gradually restored its international influence, which had been shaken during the reign of the reformer pharaoh. Thanks to the commander Horemheb, who later became the last pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, Tutankhamun strengthened Egypt's position in Ethiopia and Syria. A brilliant future could have awaited him, but he died unexpectedly, leaving behind no heir-son.
Due to his sudden death, the pharaoh did not have time to prepare a worthy tomb, and therefore Tutankhamun was buried in a modest crypt, the entrance to which was eventually hidden under the huts of Egyptian workers who were building a nearby tomb for the 20th dynasty pharaoh Ramesses VI (d. 1137 BC .). It was thanks to this circumstance that the tomb of Tutankhamun was forgotten and stood untouched for more than three thousand years, until in 1922 it was discovered by a British archaeological expedition led by Howard Carter and Lord Cornarvon, the richest English aristocrat who financed the excavations.

The tomb of Tutankhamun became one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. The eighteen-year-old pharaoh was buried with fantastic luxury: his swaddled mummy alone contained 143 gold objects, and the mummy itself was kept in three sarcophagi inserted into each other, the last of which, 1.85 m long, was made of pure gold. In addition, a royal throne decorated with relief images, figurines of the king and his wife, many ritual vessels, jewelry, weapons, clothing and, finally, a magnificent golden funeral mask of Tutankhamun, accurately depicting the facial features of the young pharaoh, were found in the tomb.

Tutankhamun with his wife Ankhesenamun
Despite the scale of this discovery, the value of such a discovery, of course, far exceeds the value of the gold found in the tomb: thanks to Carter’s excavations, we were able to verify the splendor and complexity of the ancient Egyptian funeral rite, and our understanding of the Egyptian funeral ritual and the scale of the state cult of the pharaoh was significantly expanded. Thanks to the findings, one can judge the fantastic level of artistic craft achieved in Egypt.

Tomb
The tomb of Tutankhamun is located in the Valley of the Kings, and this is the only almost unplundered tomb that has reached scientists in its original form, although it was opened twice by tomb thieves. It was discovered in 1922 by two Englishmen - Egyptologist Howard Carter and amateur archaeologist Lord Carnarvon. Numerous decorations were preserved in the tomb, as well as a turquoise-decorated sarcophagus weighing 110.4 kg made of pure gold with the mummified body of the pharaoh.

The king's mummy rested in three sarcophagi, the third of which, the inner one, was made of gold, the other two were made of wood with gilding. Everything together was in an external sarcophagus made of quartzite.

The second, wooden, sarcophagus of Pharaoh Tutankhamun

Third, inner, sarcophagus of Pharaoh Tutankhamun made of gold

Fragment of the third sarcophagus

The world-famous mask of the young king’s mummy is made of gold sheets with inlaid stones. “Gold is the flesh of the gods” - perhaps no other Egyptian monument better conveys this identification.

Miniature sarcophagus for embalmed entrails

In the eyes of historians, Tutankhamun remained a little-known minor pharaoh until the beginning of the 20th century. Moreover, doubts were even expressed about the reality of its existence. Therefore, the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb is considered the greatest event in the history of archaeology. However, Tutankhamun's reign was not really distinguished by anything significant other than the rejection of atonism. Howard Carter said the following about the young pharaoh: “In the present state of our knowledge, we can say with certainty only one thing: the only remarkable event in his life was that he died and was buried.”

On November 4, 1922, the entrance to the tomb was cleared, and the seals on the doors were intact, which gave serious hope for the possibility of making the largest archaeological discovery of the century. At the entrance to the tomb of Ramesses VI (the builders of the tomb of this Ramesside apparently covered the path to the tomb of Tutankhamun, which explains its relative safety) November 26, 1922 Carter and Carnarvon became the first people in three millennia to descend into the tomb (robbers who could have visited the tomb , obviously, they descended into it during the 20th dynasty). After lengthy excavations, on February 16, 1923, Carter finally descended into the burial chamber of the tomb (“Golden Chamber”), where the pharaoh’s sarcophagus itself was located. Among the utensils and other objects buried with the pharaoh, many examples of art were discovered bearing the stamp of influence from the art of the Amarna period. The owner of the discovered treasure, then a practically unknown young ruler of Egypt, immediately became an object of increased attention, and the phenomenal discovery not only made his name well known, but also caused another surge of renewed interest in all traces of Egyptian civilization in the modern world.

Lord George Carnarvon, who financed the excavations, died on April 5, 1923 at the Continental Hotel in Cairo from pneumonia, but almost immediately hoaxes arose around his death (there was even talk of “blood poisoning due to a razor wound” or a “mysterious mosquito bite”). In subsequent years, the press fueled rumors of a “curse of the pharaohs” that allegedly led to the death of the discoverers of the tomb, counting up to 22 “victims of the curse,” 13 of whom were directly present at the opening of the tomb. Among them were such prominent specialists as the leading American Egyptologist Professor James Henry Brasted, the author of the grammar of the Egyptian language Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner, Professor Norman De Harris Davis.

However, the facts indicate that the evidence of the “curse” was adjusted to achieve a newspaper sensation: the vast majority of the participants in the Carter expedition reached old age, and their average life expectancy is 74.4 years. So, J. G. Brasted was already 70 years old, N. G. Davis was 71, and A. Gardiner was 84 years old. Howard Carter, who directly supervised all the work in the tomb, seemed to be the first victim of the “curse of the pharaoh,” but he died last - in 1939 at the age of 66. One of the popular theories trying to analyze the death of the expedition members connects it with a fungus or other microorganism located in the tomb, which explains, in particular, the fact that the asthmatic Lord Carnarvon died first.