Howard Carter and Discovery of King Tut | Ancient Egypt's Tutankhamen

Close your eyes and imagine you're standing in a sandy plain in Egypt. It's hot outside. The sun is beating down on your head from above. You look down a flight of steps leading deep into the earth. Your team has been digging for days after discovering the steps. You wonder what's at the end of them. As you walk down with the candle in hand, you see the name of an Egyptian pharaoh, or king, above the doorway. Tutankhamun. The boy king of Egypt's history. You walk through the doorway into a dark room with your candle high, excited to see what's inside. It's dark and dusty. Light from the candle reflects off objects in the room. They are shining. It's gold. The tomb is filled with brilliant treasures. After years of searching for the tomb of King Tut, you can hardly believe your eyes. This is the story of artist and archaeologist Howard Carter and his quest to discover the lost tomb of King Tut. Howard Carter was born on May 9, 1874 in Kensington, England. He was the youngest child to Samuel John Carter and Martha Joyce Carter. He had 11 older siblings. His father Samuel was an artist and illustrator who shared his drawing skills with Howard and the other children. With lots of practice, Howard proved to be a talented artist. One day he visited the huge mansion of a nearby family named the Amherst. As he toured the mansion, he walked into one of the halls to find a huge collection of Egyptian antiques. Antiques are objects from history. Howard was fascinated by the objects of this ancient civilization. Statues, jewelry, mummies. He wondered what it would be like to visit Egypt himself and learn more about this fascinating culture and civilization. Lady Amherst, who lived in the mansion and owned the antiques, noticed Howard's interest. She also heard that he was an excellent artist. Lady Amherst asked Howard if he'd like to help draw antiques in Egypt. Of course, Howard was ecstatic and a few years later in 1891, when he was 17, Howard traveled to Egypt with a crew of archaeologists. They were taking notes and making drawings of antiques from the Middle Kingdom at Beni Hassan. The team also explored Amenhotep's city of Amarna, which we learned about in the last episode. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, be sure to check it out. Howard's job was to draw the antiques in ancient ruins which could be studied by archaeologists and Egyptian historians. An archaeologist is someone who digs for and studies ancient people. Howard also sold some of his artwork to tourists. He lived in Egypt 17 years drawing artifacts. As you can imagine, he got very good and learned a lot about the Egyptian culture. While in Egypt, Howard was fascinated by the pyramids and tombs. He hoped he'd find a tomb that hadn't been looted by grave robbers yet. Sadly, most of them already had been. Even tourists were part of the grave robbing. They'd climb into tombs without permission and take objects and sometimes sell what they'd found, including the mummies. Howard believed there had to be tombs that were still untouched by human hands and hoped he might find one. Howard and the other archaeologists knew there had been a king named Tutankhamen, but they didn't know whether his tomb had been discovered yet. They had found small items, cups, a jar, a piece of cloth with his name on it, but that was all. An area of Egypt called the Valley of the Kings is where they believed he would have been buried, but most people thought all of the tombs had been discovered there or had been robbed. In 1917, Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon decided to search the Valley of the Kings for Tut's tomb. Lord Carnarvon was wealthy and British and was interested in Egyptian archaeology just like Howard. He also had money to hire people to do the digging that was required to find a tomb. They started digging all over in the sand in the Valley of the Kings. They did this for many years with no luck. Lord Carnarvon was ready to give up, but Howard asked for just a few more months. Three days into the search, they dug into something that looked like a step. They kept digging and uncovering the steps and the sand around it until they found more steps leading down into the earth. After much more digging, they found a doorway with the words Tutankhamun printed above it. They had found the lost tomb of King Tut. When Howard crawled inside the tomb using a candle to light the way, he was surprised to find a small room full of all of Tut's artifacts that had been sent with him into his burial for his afterlife. A couch, a bed, a chariot, games, a throne, statues, and in the glinting of light, the reflection for many gold objects. All of these antiques were more than 3,000 years old. Howard and the team spent the next several months removing the items and taking note of them. They realized that grave robbers had found the tomb many years ago, but someone must have stopped them because all of the items had been placed back into the tomb and sealed up. Of all the discoveries, the greatest was the burial chamber. Inside the room was a large golden box that took up most of the space. Inside it was a stone sarcophagus, three other shrines, three golden coffins, and finally the body of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, the mummy of King Tut. The team found two more rooms, one full of treasures, and an annex which was filled with 2,000 items. For the next 10 years, the team continued to remove and make note of all of the items, which helped them to learn much about Egypt and the life of King Tut. One reason King Tut's tomb has become so popular is because it was the most preserved tomb ever found. This means it looked much like it did 3,000 years ago, and most of the items were safe and hadn't been stolen or damaged. After all the items were removed, many of them were moved to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Later, some of the most beautiful items, including King Tut's golden mask, were put on a tour around the world for millions to see. Visitors looked through the glass cases in awe at the golden antiques and the beautiful mask of the boy king. When the treasures toured the United States in the 1920s, popular songs were written about Tutankhamun, and the president, Herbert Hoover, even named his dog King Tut after the world-famous pharaoh. Today, Tutankhamun's body and many gold treasures rest in the Great Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Would you like to see them someday? I know I would. If you'd like to learn more about King Tut, be sure to look up some videos about his life and his discoveries by Howard Carter. We also did an episode about Egypt, King Tut, and also one about the pyramids, which you should be sure to check out. Thanks to Howard's curiosity, we are now able to appreciate the treasures of King Tut. Think about the importance of being curious and of perseverance. Perseverance means sticking with something, even when it's tough. Think about what would have happened if they'd given up instead of just trying a few more months. Think about how you can stick with hard things in your own life, just like Howard Carter.