6. King Tut’s Tomb May Be Cursed
Stories about murderous mummies coming back to life and going on murderous rampages are as intriguing and popular as stories about mummies’ tombs being cursed. Following the opening of King Tut’s tomb in 1922, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, helped popularize the idea that a curse lay over any who disturbed the tomb of the boy king. A few months after the tomb was opened, the financier of the expedition, Lord Carnarvon, died somewhat suddenly. Other members of the team also died mysterious deaths, thereby lending credence to the idea that the tomb had, indeed, been cursed.
What Sir Arthur Conan Doyle failed to report is that Lord Carnarvon died of a mosquito-borne illness and had suffered from poor health for the past two decades. Other members of the expedition collectively lived an average of one year longer than the average life expectancy for their social class. Doyle was a notorious trickster, having previously written a book explaining why faeries are real. Howard Carter played into the idea of the curse, probably to keep people away from the tomb so that he could continue excavating it without disturbance. The public ate the story up, and the idea that the monument is cursed persists today.