By Dr. Zahi Hawass
It was known throughout the world that Howard Carter, an Englishman, discovered tomb of King Tutankhamun. He promoted that he found contents of the tomb sound in November 4, 1922. Lord Carnarvon funded the diggings.
Carnarvon died five months only after the discovery of the tomb following bad omens.
He granted rights of publishing to the London Times, an English newspaper printed and circulated in the UK in the first half of the 20th century.
The Egyptian and foreign press got furious at Carnarvon’s decision because they were enforced to quote the English newspaper. The newsmen fabricated rumors about circumstances of the death of Carnarvon. Legend of the curse of the Pharaohs has been spread since then.
Carter got funds from Carnarvon for four years despite the diggings led by Carter went nowhere. Carter did not find the royal tomb of King Tutankhamun.
Carnarvon refused to offer more financial assistance to Carter. But he yielded later when he found that Carter insists on completing the diggings even with his own resources.
Carnarvon set out conditions to fund the diggings during the fifth year to be the last time. Carter came to the valley dreaming to discover the royal tomb. Hundreds of workmen assisted Carter in the site.
He started searching the royal tomb again because he was assured that the tomb was located in the valley.
He sat most hours of the day in the shadow of a tent. He tasked a lad, 12-year old, named Hussein Abdel Rassul, to bring water to the site.
The Egyptian minor belongs to a known family which found a cache of mummies Luxor in 1881. The lad put huge jars of water on the back of a donkey. The workmen helped him put down those jars ( named as zeer in the Egyptian dialect ) and dag holes to support those jars.
During digging, Hussein found the entrance leads to the tomb. He ran toward the tent to tell Carter. He ordered the laborers to dig where the lad indicated. The Englishman found the evidence that is the entrance of the tomb which spent four years to find it. That day was November 4, 1922.
When Carter dug the burial chamber, he snatched a necklace and put it around the neck of Hussein.
He asked the photographer of the mission to take a photo of the Egyptian lad.
He handed the photo to Hussein who never worked with the workmen in the site. Hussein used to stand in front of the Ramesseum holding the picture to tell the tourists that he who discovered the royal tomb.
He still did that until he became 80- year old.
His son did so to tell the tourists that his father Hussein Abdel Rassul discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun. That is another secret of many secrets of the Valley of the Kings in western bank of the Nile River.
Contributed by Ahmed Moamar
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