Ernest Budge, a curator at the British Museum, dismissed the theory as вЂbunkumвЂ™. Once the curse story took off, they began running daily updates, roping in scholars to debate whether evil spirits were to blame for CarnarvonвЂ™s demise. The whole situation was a gift for journalists who, four months after the tombвЂ™s discovery, were desperate for more Tutankhamun-related news. There were reports of a clay tablet, allegedly found over the tombвЂ™s entrance, that read: вЂDeath shall come on swift wings to whoever toucheth the tomb of Pharaoh.вЂ™ According to the stories, Carter buried it in the sand in case it scared his labourers into stopping their work. Rumours quickly spread that Carter had found warnings in the tomb itself. The idea of the mummyвЂ™s curse was already a popular story, but CarnarvonвЂ™s demise (and CorelliвЂ™s apparent prediction of it) turned it into one of the great legends of the age. Corelli wrote in response to reports that Carnarvon was languishing in a Cairo hotel room suffering the effects of an infected mosquito bite. But with the find of a lifetime had come the ultimate misfortune. A particular source of excitement was the prospect of revealing the mummy of the king himself, which was still hidden within its huge granite sarcophagus. The spectacular discovery of this 18th-dynasty pharaohвЂ™s intact resting place was a press sensation, and journalists camped out around the tombвЂ™s entrance to glimpse the glittering finds, from delicate jewellery to thrones and chariots, as they were carried out on wooden stretchers. Along with the British archaeologist Howard Carter, Carnarvon had recently discovered the treasure-filled tomb of Tutankhamun. The target of her admonition was George Herbert, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon. It didnвЂ™t matter that the book she quoted, An Egyptian History of the Pyramids, was seen by scholars as a mundane collection of fairytales. She had sold more novels than her contemporaries H G Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling put together. CorelliвЂ™s fantastical tales of reincarnation and astral projection had been a favourite with Queen Victoria.

вЂAccording to a rare book I possess,вЂ™ wrote Marie Corelli, an elderly romantic novelist with supernatural leanings, вЂthe most dire punishment follows any rash intruder into a sealed tomb.вЂ™ She went on to quote the bookвЂ™s description of вЂdivers secret poisons enclosed in boxes in such wise that they who touch them shall not know how they come to sufferвЂ™. On 24 March 1923, an ominous warning circulated in the British press.

Curse of egypt