Archaeologist reveals the real reason behind the ‘curse of the pharaohs’

Scores of people have died over the years after opening ancient Egyptian tombs, leading some to believe in the so-called curse of the pharaohs.

The curse has long been thought to affect anyone who dares disturb the final resting place of the ancient kings, including the people who cracked open the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Lord Carnarvon, the person who paid for the Tutankhamun search, died five months after opening the tomb in 1923 from a seemingly innocuous cause – an infected mosquito bite that he cut while shaving.

American financier George Jay Gould also died of pneumonia after seeing the tomb that same year, while Sir Archibald Douglass Reid died after X-raying the mummy in London.

However, a top archaeologist has explained that it has nothing to do with ancient magic – duh – and instead is a case of ancient germs.

Zahi Hawass, a former Egyptian minister of state of antiques affairs, told The Sun: “When you have a mummy inside a tomb, this mummy has germs that you cannot see.

“Archaeologists in the past, they were in a hurry and they entered inside the tombs and they were hit by germs and they died.”

“Only two weeks ago I found a sealed sarcophagus, 25 tonnes in weight about 60 feet under the ground.

“The lid of the sarcophagus was about six tonnes. Two workmen began to open it for me, to raise the lid, then I can put my head in and see what’s inside.

“When they opened it I left it open for half an hour until the bad air would go out and the fresh air would go in and I put my head and nothing. That’s the curse of the pharaohs.”

Hawass added that when Tutankhamun’s tomb was found, the exclusive rights were given toThe Times newspaper, leaving other reporters to let speculation run rampant.

“Then the rest of the reporters cannot write anything. But when Lord Carnarvon died five months after the discovery, they created many stories about the curse that were not true.”

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