A Curse Made of Ink

The legend started with a headline, not a hieroglyph. When Howard Carter unsealed Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, he uncovered the richest find in Egyptology. No warning was carved on the walls. The "curse" arrived later, written by reporters who needed a reason for one famous man's death.

The Death That Sold Papers

Lord Carnarvon, who funded the dig, died five months after the tomb opened. The cause was ordinary: he nicked an infected mosquito bite while shaving, and blood poisoning set in. But a wealthy aristocrat dying soon after touching a pharaoh's tomb was too good a story to check. Newspapers ran the curse instead of the autopsy.