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Only then did Carter’s focus return, allowing him to ask himself the most obvious question: If this is a tomb, then where is the mummy?
Chapter 89
Valley of the Kings
November 26, 1922
UNFORTUNATELY, THERE WOULD BE a major problem in looking for the mummy.
The wording of Lord Carnarvon’s concession to dig in the valley implied that a tomb’s discoverer had the right to enter first. However, as Trout Engelbach had made abundantly clear two days earlier, the Antiquities Service’s understanding of the wording was quite different.
Acting under orders from his boss-a Frenchman named Pierre Lacau-Engelbach now demanded that a member of his staff be on hand for the opening of any chamber. The penalty for ignoring that order was severe-Carter and Carnarvon could forfeit much of their claim to the treasure inside.
After all those years of searching, impatience now could mean they’d end up with nothing.
And though Engelbach had left Carter’s dig site, he had designated his Egyptian deputy, Ibrahim Effendi, to carry out that task in his absence. But as Carter and his group stood before the second doorway, Effendi too was no longer in the valley. He had returned to Luxor, awaiting news from Carter.
Now Carter and his group were faced with a dilemma: send for Effendi, or break on through to the other side without him.
Carter did both.
Swearing everyone in the tu
Next, he again turned his attention to the wall. He enlarged the hole even more.
He was going inside to find the mummy.
Chapter 90
Valley of the Kings
November 26, 1922
LADY EVELYN WAS the smallest of the bunch and was the first to wriggle through the opening. She found herself transfixed by ghostly alabaster vases, and Carter enlarged the hole so Lord Carnarvon and Arthur Callender could also squeeze through. Then he entered what would become known as the antechamber.
The room was a small rectangle, twelve feet deep by twenty-six feet wide. The ceilings were low to the point of claustrophobia, and the walls undecorated, which was odd, Carter thought. Why hadn’t the chamber been properly finished?
The air smelled not just of dust and time but also of perfumes and exotic woods. “The very air you breathe, unchanged through the centuries,” marveled Carter.
The group was jumpy now, as if the chamber were haunted.
Carter was surprised to find himself humbled by the timelessness of the moment. There were footprints in the dust from thousands of years earlier, and a container still held the mortar used to build the door. “The blackened lamp, the finger mark upon the freshly painted surface, the farewell garland dropped upon the threshold-you feel it might have been just yesterday,” Carter mused.
The four modern-day intruders shone the flashlight about the room, setting aside all historical propriety to hold the golden relics in their bare hands.
Carter opened a small casket painted with images of a pharaoh-Tut?-slaying his enemies in battle. Inside were a pair of ancient sandals and a robe festooned with brightly colored beads.
Lady Evelyn gasped with delight as she came across a golden throne with images of a pharaoh and his queen depicted in lapis lazuli. The pair were obviously very much in love, as demonstrated by the tender way the queen seemed to be touching her king.
To Carter’s eyes, it was “the most beautiful thing that has ever been found in Egypt.”
Outside, darkness fell. The workers and any remaining spectators had finally left for home. Inside the antechamber, Carter’s group continued to revel in discovery after discovery.
But Carter was still not satisfied. A great mystery remained unsolved. He probed the walls, searching for signs of other chambers.
At one point he came upon a tiny hole and pointed his flashlight through the opening. On the other side lay a very small room, also overflowing with treasure.
There was no sign of a mummy, so Carter resisted the urge to tear down the doorway.
He continued searching, ru
The statues were apparently sentinels, standing guard over the opening, as they had for centuries. “We were but on the threshold of discovery,” he would write, still trying to wrap his mind around the stu
Once again, Carter was faced with the dilemma of whether or not to wait before making a hole in the wall.
Once again, Carter chose to ignore the possible political consequences and see what was on the other side. He only hoped his decision wouldn’t prove disastrous at some future time.
But of course, it would.
Chapter 91
Valley of the Kings
November 26, 1922
AT THE BOTTOM right corner of the hidden doorway, Carter found a three-foot-tall hole that had been plastered over at some time in antiquity. This was a sign that tomb robbers had preceded him.
For the third time that day, Carter chipped away at some thief’s ancient plasterwork, pulled back the stones that had been used to build an impromptu wall, and shone his light through.
At first it didn’t look like much. A narrow hallway?
Carter slid through ahead of the others. He went feetfirst, dropping down into a sunken room.
He sca
At first it appeared that the light was playing a trick on him.
Then he realized that one of the walls was not a wall at all. He was inside a stu
The low wall that confused him was actually a shrine. It was decorated in blue faience and gold.
He had found the burial chamber.
Chapter 92
Valley of the Kings
November 26, 1922
AS LADY EVELYN and Lord Carnarvon hurried to join him-Callender was too portly to squeeze through-Carter examined the shrine.
He was facing a pair of mighty wooden doors secured with an ebony bolt. Inside, as Carter well knew, would be several smaller shrines like this one. Only after each shrine had been opened would he be able to see the sarcophagus, coffins-and the mummy itself.
At this thought, Carter’s heartbeat quickened. There was definitely a mummy here. There was no way tomb robbers could have stolen the body without destroying the shrines, and these shrines were in pristine condition.
With Carnarvon’s help, Carter slowly and carefully slid back the bolt. The doors swung on their hinges. A linen shroud decorated with gold rosettes was draped over the next shrine. One rosette fell away as the door was opened. Carter slipped it into his pocket without a second thought.
Now he lifted the shroud and saw further evidence that the mummy had not been disturbed: on the bolts of yet another opening, to yet another shrine, was a royal seal. It was the royal necropolis stamp, with a jackal and nine bound captives, signifying that a pharaoh lay within.