History Daily - Discovering Tutankhamun

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

November 4, 1922. British archeologist Howard Carter discovers the tomb of the 18th Dynasty pharaoh, Tutankhamun. This episode originally aired in 2021. Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more.History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.

It's late October 1922 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. On the surface, this ancient burial site is a desert wasteland, a harsh, lifeless landscape. But looks can be deceiving. Underneath the earth, this valley contains untold treasures. Sweaty and thirsty diggers hack their way through limestone and moor. Wheelbarrows of dirt are dumped to one side. Most employed here are local Egyptians, but there are some foreigners too, and all are searching for signs of the long-lost tombs of the ancient pharaohs. This site nestled amidst the Thebes Hills as filled with the buried royals of the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties of ancient Egypt,

which reign from 1550 BCE to 1077 BCE. Regular excavations have been undertaken in the valley since the 1820s, but with valuable discoveries becoming increasingly rare, today in the 1920s, many believe the site has no more treasures to reveal. So the English financier of this dig, George Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, has declared that this will be his final venture. He will not be funding any further projects. And given this, Howard Carter, the British archaeologist in charge of the excavation,

is under significant pressure. He's desperate for a discovery. But each day, as the season approaches its ends, his hopes are dwindling. Archaeologist Howard Carter's dig will continue on for days and weeks without any significant discovery. He will be driven to the brink of disdeworthy. despair, fearing for his career and reputation, until a lowly water boy will come to his rescue, uncovering the best preserved tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings on November 4, 1922. From Noisor and Airship, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is November 4th, 1922, the discovery of Tutankham's tomb. It's November 4th, 1922 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. A 12-year-old water boy, Hussein Abdul Razul, leads a donkey into camp with jugs of water strapped to the saddle. Hussein wears a dusty turban and a once-white jolly baya, a long cotton shirt now flecked with dirt and sand from his journey. Hussein unloads the jugs for the thirsty workmen and plants them firmly in the ground. But as he does so, his hand brushes over a smooth stone just beneath the surface, quickly scooping and brushing the sand away, he uncoveres what appears to be a step. British archaeologist Howard Carter

darts over to see the water boy's discovery, the top of a staircase, a staircase to a lost tomb. The diggers clear sand off the steps, and Carter and his team descend, carefully and tentatively their hearts racing. They stop at a sealed entrance. The tomb's door displays a cartouche, a nameplate. It clearly states the identity of the pharaoh interred inside, Tutankhamun. It is sometimes said that every person dies twice, when they cease to breathe, and when the last person who remembers them dies. In 1922, Hussein Abdul-Razul and his boss, Howard Carter, resurrect a pharaoh whose name and memory have been forgotten for 3,000 years. But despite their feverish excitement, they cannot enter the tomb. Not yet. Carter insists on waiting for the arrival of his employer, George Herbert, the

Fifth Earl of Carnarvan. Finally, after two long weeks of waiting, the Earl arrives in Egypt, clutching flickering lanterns, Carter, Lord Carnarvan, and the Earl's daughter, Evelyn, descend the steep limestone stairs to the dark tomb below. The air's muggy. As Carter begins to chisel a hole in the door, sweat drips off the end of Carter's nose. Lord Carnarvan dabs his dripping brow. Evelyn chews on her lip and grips her father's arm. Finally, Carter breaks through. The hole is big enough that he can pass through a lamp and poke his head through to the other side. Carnarvon asks, can you see anything?

And Carter replies, yes, wonderful things. It truly is an incredible sight. The light from Carter's lantern casts long shadows and reflects against ornate objects. There are golden beds and couches, statues, phases, baskets for food, intricately designed. boxes, shrines, chairs, an alabaster cup, and much more. Carter orders the excavation to begin immediately. It will take him years to clear the site. Some 5,000 objects will be meticulously documented and removed from the tomb. Pharaoh's tombs have been uncovered before, but nothing on this scale. It's the kind of horde every archaeologist's dreams of discovering.

But then, news reaches Carter of an unexpected death, one that threatens the progress of his project. On April 5th, 1923, less than six months after the discovery of the tomb, Lord Carnarvon lies in a bed at the Continental Savoy Hotel in Cairo. He suffers from a mosquito bite that gave him blood poisoning, and now he has pneumonia. He's weak, feverish, and pale, and there's nothing to be done. Lord Carnarvon succumbs to the illness and dies just months after entering the tomb of Tutankhamun. To Carter's relief, the rights to the dig are retained by Lord Carnarv's wife, Almena Herbert, which allows the excavation to continue without disruption. Still, Lord Carnarvon's death is sensationalized in the tabloids, with speculation rife that he died

because of the curse of Tutankhamun. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, an outspoken spiritualist, believes in the curse, stating, it is neither decent nor safe to take from their resting places the bodies of old kings. The Egyptians knew much more about the occult than we do today. This must have been a peculiar element of an Egyptian curse. Three years pass. But despite all the jewels and trinkets unearthed, Carter and his team still have not laid eyes on the pharaoh himself. The tomb is a layered construction.

Everything that has been retrieved so far has come from the outermost sanctum. By October, 1925, this antechamber has been cleared. But more walls stand between the archiefts. and the inner burial chamber itself. Their doors are held shut by ebony bolts and silver-coated copper staples. It's long, painstaking work to dismantle the shrine walls, which are coated in gold leaf. But finally, they reached the treasure within. Behind all the many layers of gilded wall, at the heart of this opulent burial chamber,

is a stone sarcophagus, perfectly intact. Carter's eyes light up. When the heavy stone lid is finally removed, Carter leans in for a closer look. Crammed inside the stone box is a large wooden coffin. It too is covered in gold and bears the image of the king himself. After wrenching open the lid, they discover yet another coffin, also made of wood. And inside this, like a Russian nesting doll, is a third and final coffin.

This one, however, is made of solid gold, inlaid with jewels and modeled in the shape of the human body inside. With a groan of effort, the diggers pry open this final casket. And here they find the mummy, Tutankhamen's body, wrapped in linen and adorned with precious stones and metals, including an iconic death mask. In the decades following Carter's discovery, historians and archaeologists will attempt to piece together the life of this boy king. They will try to understand why he is almost entirely absent from the historical records. And gradually, a clearer picture will start. start to emerge. Tutankhamun's rule in ancient Egypt begins in 1333 BCE and ends in 1323 BCE, 3,245 years before his tomb is discovered. Historical records this far back are sparse,

but from the fragments that do exist, one can put together an image of his life and reign. His ascension to the divine kingship at just eight or nine years old comes at a time of social and political turmoil in Egypt. He begins, his sovereignty in the long shadow of Pharaoh Akinotan, who ruled for 17 years, exercising an iron grip over his people. It's not certain, but it may well be that Akanatenaten was Tutankhamen's father. Throughout the 18th dynasty, as this period of history is known, the religious capital of Egypt is Thebes, a thriving city on the Nile River. The political center is Memphis, 20 kilometers or 12 miles south of Egypt's modern capital Cairo. The spiritual beliefs of the

ancient Egyptian people are polytheistic. The many different gods they worship are somewhat similar to the gods of ancient Greece, embodying different aspects of the natural world. They are sometimes benevolent, but often capricious. They are extremely powerful, but not all powerful. Under Pharaoh Akhenaten, all that changes. On orders of their leader, the Egyptian people are forced to abandon their polytheistic traditions. Instead, they are told to focus their spiritual tension on one single god, Aten, the Sun Disc. To enforce this radical and unwelcome change, Egyptian soldiers marched through the dusty streets of Thebes.

They enter the grand temples of Karnak and Luxor. Priests and worshippers are forced out. The holy places of other deities, Osiris, Horus, Rha, and Anubis are closed, repurposed or destroyed. Akanaten, the divine king, the supposed spokesman of Aten, has spoken and the people must obey. An Akanaten is not finished yet. In an act of destructive megalomania,

he abandons the former capital city of Thebes and orders the construction of a new city named Akanaten after himself. Construction of this new metropolis takes place in the middle of a scorching desert. There, a young boy with dry, cracked lips, labors beneath a blazing sun. His hands are bruised.

He struggles to push a cart loaded with rock out of the busy construction site, Overworked and malnourished, the boy collapses and dies face first in burning sand. His body is chucked into an open grave with other dead children, mostly between the ages of 10 and 15. Akinaten's labor force includes boys as young as six. Many are worked to death in the name of Aten. Despite the inhumane conditions, an entirely new city is eventually constructed. When Akanaten hardly gets to enjoy it, he does.

dies at the age of 40, after 16 years on the throne, leaving power to his son, Tutankhamun. After the upheaval and the neglect of the old gods under his predecessor, the new pharaoh puts an end to Achnotan's heresy. Not only is the construction site deserted, but there is also an initiative to restore the political center of Memphis and the religious capital of Thebes. The sun god is abandoned, while the other old gods are restored. These are dramatic changes for a young king to make. But then, as Howard Carter will discover, Tutankhamun is no ordinary king. In 1925, Howard Carter continues his examination of Tutankhammon's mummified body. He spots an abnormality with the boy king's left foot. It's clubbed. The discovery of over 100 walking sticks

and canes in his tomb will give rise to the image of Tutankhamun as a frail boy. But another discovery seems to contradict this idea. His tomb is crammed with weapons and depictions of him in battle. Perhaps this pharaoh was not entirely constrained by his physical limitations. And indeed, thousands of years prior to the discovery of his tomb,

Tutankhamen's military prowess was put to the test. During Tutankhamans' reign, Nubian colonies threatened Egypt's southern borders. At the same time, Libyan tribes make incursions from the northwest. Whether or not Tutankhamun is a mighty warrior in his time, he certainly needs to project the image of one to keep his enemies at bay.

It's believed that Tutankhamen passed away in 1324 BCE, but he likely did not die on the field of battle. Thousands of years later, scientists will use digital imaging and DNA testing to suggest that King Tut, as he's often called, most likely died of an infection, possibly malaria. With no children to carry on the lineage, the Pharaoh's death marks the end of the 18th dynasty of ancient. Egypt, but its premature nature also means that preparations for Tutankham's burial are nowhere near

complete. Time is precious. The job must be finished while the body can still be preserved, and his tomb needs to be stocked with items that the pharaoh will require in the afterlife. There's no other option but to repurpose pieces from another royal family member, Queen Nefertiti, the wife of Akintotan. Contemporary examinations of the death mask will reveal that Tutankhamun's name is actually inscribed over the old queen's name. With the tomb finally prepared, Tutankhamen's mummified body is placed within. The death mask is the final layer covering his visage. The lids are placed on top.

The shrines shut and locked. And so they shall remain for another 3,000 years. With his fall into obscurity and the loss of his tomb to the ages, Tutankhamen dies two deaths, until Howard Carter unearths and immortalizes him. Following this discovery, Carter becomes a global celebrity. He embarks on a sold-out speaking toward the United States, writes up his account of the uncovering of the tomb and plays host to celebrities and royals.

He ushers in Tutton Mania, a cultural obsession with a young pharaoh that continues to this day. What is known of Tutankham's life will always be limited. But in death, he has achieved a fame far beyond that of any other pharaoh, all thanks to the discovery of his remarkable tomb on November 4th, 1921. Next on History Daily, November 5, 1881, British Armed Forces march on a Maori settlement in New Zealand, evicting 2,000 residents and destroying the village. From Noisor and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham, audio editing by Molly Bond, sound designed by Derek Barron's and Molly Bond, music by Thrum.

This episode is written and research by Joe Viner. Executive producers are Stephen Walters and William Simpson for Airship. and Pascal Hughes for Noisor.