The Curse of Tutankhamun

I am delighted the people of London are going to have the chance of seeing some of the treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun again later this year, even if the spectacular golden funeral mask is being kept firmly in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, for conservation reasons. The London Tutankhamun exhibition of 1973 (complete with mask) aroused my interest in the civilization of this remarkable part of the world, as it did with countless others. Subsequently I have been to Egypt countless times, not as an Egyptologist probing the secrets of the various ancient dynasties, but researching, writing and lecturing about much more recent events — including the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the Tutankhamun tomb by Harold Carter in 1923, just at the time when the Egyptians were starting to try to get the British colonialists out. Terrible things happened to Lord Carnarvon, sponsor of the Carter excavations, and many other people after the tomb was opened, giving rise to the legend of the Curse of Tutankhamun, which some locals say persists today. 

The last time I went to Luxor, in February this year, I joined a convoy of tourist coaches travelling up from the Red Sea port of Safaga. We had a police escort and at every road junction along the route, the other traffic was held back by police, soldiers and a Dads Army of retired service personnel, all armed with rifles, while the convoy roared past. Since militant members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic extremists attacked several tourist groups a few years ago, security has been extra-tight.

The earliest attacks caused a sharp drop in tourism to Egypt, which was catastrophic for an economy in which tourism is out-performed only by oil and cotton. But it is an interesting reflection of the way that the travelling public — not least the Brits — have evolved that these days people realise that they are just as likely to be killed in a terrorist attack in London as they are in Egypt, so they might as well not worry about it. In July 2005, there was a series of horrific blasts here in Sharm El Sheikh, where I am at the moment, but you would never know it from the crowds of British, German and Russian holiday-makers milling around.

But there is a downside to the heightened sense of security. The War on Terror is sometimes being used as a pretext — including here in Egypt — for a clampdown on freedom of expression and other human rights. The security services here have a pretty dire record anyway when it comes to the treatment of people after arrest, so it behoves the international community, not least the European Union, to apply pressure as appropriate.

Link> www.kingtut.org