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There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad free. Listen with Wondry plus in the Wondery app as a member of Noiser plus at noiser.com or in Apple Podcasts. Or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts@intohristory.com It's November 4, 1922. The temperature is 107 degrees Fahrenheit 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, because under the earth, this valley contains untold treasures. Sweaty and thirsty diggers hack their way through limestone and marl. Wheelbarrows of dirt are dumped to one side. Most employed here are local Egyptians. All are searching for signs of the long lost tombs of the ancient pharaohs. This site, nestled amidst the Thebes Hills, is filled with the buried royals of the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties of ancient Egypt, reigning from 1550 to 1077 BCE Regular excavations have been undertaken in the valley since the 1820s, but with valuable discoveries becoming increasingly rare by the 1920s, many believe the site has no more treasures to reveal. 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. 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 end, his hopes are dwindling. Little does Carter know that a junior member of his team, a water boy no less, is about to unearth something that will change Carter's life forever. The tomb of the most famous ancient Egyptian in history. From Noiser and Airship I'm Lindsey 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, the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. A 12 year old water boy, Hussein Abdul Rasool, leads a donkey into camp with jugs of water strapped to the saddle. Hussein wears a dusty turban and a once white jalibaya, a long cotton shirt now flecked with dirt and sand from his journey. Hussein unloads the jugs for the thirsty workman and plants them firmly on the ground. But as he does so, his hand brushes over a smooth stone just beneath the surface. Scooping and brushing the sand away, he uncovers what appears to be a step. Howard Carter darts over to see the waterboy's discovery. It's the top of a staircase. A staircase to a lost tomb. The diggers clear sand off the steps. Carter and his team descend carefully, tentatively, their hearts racing, they stop at a sealed entrance. The tomb's door displays a cartouche, a nameplate. It states clearly 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 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Finally, after two long weeks of waiting, the Earl arrives in Egypt. Clutching flickering lanterns, Carter, Lord Carnarvon and the Earl's daughter, Evelyn, descend the steep limestone stairs to the dark tomb below. The air is muggy as Carter begins to chisel a hole in the door. Sweat drips off the end of Carter's nose. Lord Carnarvon 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, vases, 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 hoard every archaeologist dreams of discovering. But then news reaches Carter of an unexpected death, one that threatens the progress of his project. On April 5, 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. They 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 Carnarvon's wife, Almina 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 archaeologists 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 reach 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, Tutankhamun'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 to emerge. Tutankhamun's rule in ancient Egypt begins in 1333 BCE and ends in 1323 BCE, 3245 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 8 or 9 years old comes at a time of social and political turmoil in Egypt. He begins his sovereignty in the long shadow of Pharaoh Akhenaten, who ruled for 17 years, exercising an iron grip over his people. It's not certain, but it may well be that Akhenaten was Tutankhamun'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 attention on one single God. Aten, the Sun Disk. To enforce this radical and unwelcome change, Egyptian soldiers march through the dusty streets of Thebes. They enter the grand temples of Karnak and Luxor. Priests and worshipers are forced out. The holy places of other deities. Osiris, Horus, Ra, and Anubis are closed, repurposed, or destroyed. Akhenaten, the divine king, the supposed spokesman of Aten, has spoken, and the people must obey. And Akhenaten 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 Akhenaten 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 low, 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. Akhenaten's labor force includes boys as young as 6. Many are worked to death in the name of Aten. Despite the inhumane conditions, an entirely new city is eventually constructed. But Akhenaten hardly gets to enjoy it. He 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 Akhenaten'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 Tutankhamun'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, Tutankhamun's military prowess was put to the test. During Tutankhamun's reign, Nubian colonies threaten Egypt's southern borders. At the same time, Libyan tribes make incursions from the northwest. Whether or not Tutankham 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 Tutankhamun 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 eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt. But its premature nature also means that preparations for Tutankhamun's burial are nowhere near complete. And 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 Akhenaten. 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, Tutankhamun'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, Tutankhamun dies two deaths. Until Howard Carter unearths and immortalizes him. Following the discovery, Carter becomes a global celebrity. He embarks on a sold out speaking tour in the United States, writes up his account of the discovery of the tomb, and plays host to celebrities and royals. He ushers in Tutmania, a cultural obsession with the young pharaoh that continues to this day. What is known of Tutankhamun's life will always be limited, but clearly in death he has achieved a fame far beyond that of any other pharaoh, at least of any pharaoh yet discovered. Next on History Daily, November 5, 1872. American suffragette Susan B. Anthony is arrested for voting as a woman from noser and heirship. This is History Daily Hosted, edited and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham Audio editing by Molly Bach Sound design by Derek Barrett Music by Lindsey Graham this episode is written and researched by Joe Viner. Executive executive producers are Steven Walters for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.