What the Numbers Show

When researchers actually counted, the curse fell apart. Most of the Westerners present at the tomb's opening went on to live ordinary lifespans, and the few early deaths were the kind any group of older travellers would expect.

A 2002 British Medical Journal study tracked the people exposed to Tutankhamun's tomb against those who were not. It found no significant difference in how long either group lived. Whatever killed Carnarvon, it was not aimed at anyone who entered.

The Real Story

While headlines chased ghosts, the actual work was staggering. Carter spent a decade carefully recording and removing the tomb's thousands of objects, one by one — a feat of patience the press barely covered.

That was the true marvel: an intact royal burial, documented with care no looter ever showed. The "curse" was a Fleet Street invention, a tidy myth pasted over years of unglamorous science.