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16. One of History’s Greatest Archaeological Finds Owes a Debt of Gratitude to the Low Regard in Which Ancient Egyptians Held King Tut
Ancient Egyptian royal architects were constantly on the lookout for spots in the Valley of the Kings that were suitable for new tombs. When architects of later eras excavated new burial tombs for other pharaohs higher up the hill where Tutankhamun was buried, they simply dumped the debris and detritus downhill. Fortuitously, the debris piled up at the entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb, and eventually covered it completely. The teenage pharaoh was apparently so little regarded that nobody bothered to clear the rubble from in front of his tomb, and it simply sat there until his burial site was forgotten.
In due course and over the centuries, the tombs of the more important and respected pharaohs were looted by robbers. That of Tutankhamun, forgotten and its entrance concealed by mounds of rubble, remained hidden until it was rediscovered intact millennia later in one of the greatest archaeological finds, ever. Sheer luck made Tutankhamun world-famous thousands of years later, despite the dearth of his accomplishments, while far more accomplished pharaohs were relegated to relative oblivion. As one Egyptologist put it: “The pharaoh who in life was one of the least esteemed of Egypt’s Pharoahs has become in death the most renowned“.