by Betty Carew

Created on: January 14, 2009   Last Updated: February 20, 2009

Tutankhamen is more famous today than when he ruled Egypt. It is assumed he was born at Akhetaten which was the capital of Egypt. He was born in 1346 BC. He became pharaoh at the age of nine and died at the age of 19. He would have probably rested in his tomb without anyone being aware of the legacy he left behind. The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen was made in 1922 by Howard Carter. This event came close to not becoming a reality, due to the finances of the expedition but with the financial backing of Lord Carnarvon, Carter finally did make the discovery.

Howard Carter,

Howard Carter was an archaeologist that came from England and with him he brought a thirst for finding out as much as he could about ancient Egypt. By 1922 all archaeologist thought that the Valley of the Kings had been exploited to the point that there were no more tombs left there to find but this was not the thought of Carter. He knew from studies and working in Egypt for 31 years that there was one tomb left to find, and that was the tomb of Tutankhamen.

Lord Carnarvon,

Lord Carnarvon was Carter's employer for quite some years. He was a wealthy Englishman and backed all of Carters ventures. The search for Tutankhamen did not come easy, after five years of searching Carnarvon was ready to give up the search, thinking that this was one tomb that would never be found and he had sunk millions of pounds into it up to then. In 1922 Carter pleaded with Lord Carnarvon to let him search for just one more year before they stopped the search and Carnarvon agreed. Carter began his search in the autumn of 1922.

Carters search for the tomb,

Carter was determined that Tutankhamen's tomb was in the Valley of the Kings due to earlier finds, but where? Carter had a map of the Valley of the Kings and had marked on it all the findings and marks made by previous excavations. Some of these excavations had left piles of cuttings behind and Carter was smart enough to notice a small triangle of the valley that had been covered with the cuttings from other tombs. He was almost sure the tomb could be under these cuttings and was very determined to find out.

Removing rubble from Rames VI tomb,

The first thing that Carter did was have his workers remove the pile of rubble from workman's huts that sat at the bottom of the tomb of Ramses VI. These were not just ordinary workman's huts they had been there when Ramses' tomb was built. Carter knew that under these huts was ground that had never been touched. His workers started

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