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Private Notes
Seventy years ago, with the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun, the greatest archaeological story of all time began to unfold.
The richness of the treasures found in the tomb of Tutankhamun created a bitter conflict between Carter and the Egyptian authorities. With the sudden and dramatic death of Lord Carnarvon, Carter was left alone, without his sponsor, to deal with an increasingly tense political situation as Egyptian nationalists struggled to free themselves from British colonial rule. It was to take ten years for Carter and his team to clear the fantastic funerary objects from the tomb and to reveal the mortal remains of the king.
A wave of "Tut mania" spread across Europe and America following the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. From the latest art deco designs and fashions to exotic picture palaces, everything was influenced by the "wonderful things" buried with the boy pharaoh 3,500 years before. Half-a-century later the world tours of the "Treasures of Tutankhamun" reintroduced these spectacular Egyptian antiquities into the west's visual bloodstream.
Was a curse placed on the boy king's tomb? Certainly, within a month of its opening, Lord Carnarvon, one of the first to enter the tomb, lay dead. Eight others followed as the myth seemed to become reality. Today, as Christopher Frayling discovers, scientists seek a more rational explanation.
In this last film in the series, Christopher Frayling looks at what can be done to save Egypt's past for succeeding generations. Tutankhamun's tomb now has mould spreading over the 3,000-year-old paintings and the plastered walls are crumbling away. The temples along the Nile valley are being eroded by pollution, as is the museum in Cairo which houses the world's greatest collection of Egyptian antiquities.
