The tomb of Tutankhamun was found in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 by archaeologists led by Egyptologist Howard Carter, more than 3,300 years after Tutankhamun died and was buried. Most pharaohs’ tombs were stolen by thieves in ancient times, but Tutankhamun’s tomb was hidden by debris for much of its history and remained mostly untouched. This made it the only nearly complete royal burial known from ancient Egypt.
The tomb was opened on November 4, 1922, during an excavation by Carter and his patron, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Inside, more than 5,000 objects were found, many of which were very fragile. Preserving these items for removal required a great deal of care. The richness of the items caused widespread media attention and inspired many Western people to adopt designs inspired by ancient Egypt. To Egyptians, who had recently gained some independence from British rule, the tomb became a symbol of pride and strengthened Pharaonism, a movement that connected modern Egypt to its ancient past. This caused disagreements between Egyptians and the British-led team.
More attention grew after Carnarvon died from an infection, leading some to believe his death and other problems were caused by an ancient curse. After Carnarvon’s death, Carter and the Egyptian government argued over who should control access to the tomb. In early 1924, Carter stopped work to protest, starting a dispute that lasted until the end of the year. The agreement that ended the conflict stated that the tomb’s artifacts would not be divided between the government and the sponsors, as was common before. Most items were sent to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Interest in the tomb decreased over time, except for coverage of moving Tutankhamun’s mummy from its coffin in 1925. The last items were preserved and sent to Cairo in 1932. While the discovery did not reveal as much about Tutankhamun’s time as hoped, it helped determine how long he ruled and provided clues about the end of the Amarna Period, which came before his reign. The tomb showed what a complete royal burial looked like and gave information about the lives of wealthy Egyptians and how tomb robbers acted. The discovery also encouraged training Egyptians in Egyptology. Since then, the Egyptian government has used exhibitions of the tomb’s items to raise money and improve relations with other countries. Tutankhamun has become a lasting symbol of ancient Egypt.
Background
Pharaoh Tutankhamun ruled during the Eighteenth Dynasty, which was part of the New Kingdom. He died around 1323 BC and was buried in the Valley of the Kings, near Thebes (modern Luxor), like most New Kingdom rulers. Instead of a large royal tomb carved into the valley slopes, he was placed in a small tomb dug into the valley floor. This tomb was likely a private one that was later modified to hold the many goods that came with a royal burial.
The tomb was robbed twice shortly after it was built. Officials repaired and sealed it again, using pieces of limestone to block the entrance. About two hundred years after Tutankhamun’s death, during the reigns of Ramesses V and Ramesses VI, his tomb was covered by debris from the construction of their tomb, KV9. This helped hide Tutankhamun’s tomb from later robbers, so it kept most of its burial goods intact.
In the early 1900s, Egypt was effectively a British colony, even though it was ruled by Egyptian monarchs from the Muhammad Ali dynasty. A British official, the consul-general, managed the country, working with Egyptian officials but under British control. The study of ancient Egypt, called Egyptology, was managed by the Antiquities Service, an Egyptian government department. Excavations of ancient sites often relied on a system called “partage,” where museums or collectors funded digs in exchange for a share of the artifacts found.
Many tombs in the Valley of the Kings had been open since ancient times. Others were discovered in the 1800s after their entrances were buried by builders or hidden by flood debris. Some tombs contained royal mummies and burial goods, but none had a complete set of royal burial items.
A time of many discoveries in the valley began when Howard Carter became the Antiquities Service’s inspector for Upper Egypt, including the Valley of the Kings, in 1900. Carter had come to Egypt as an artist and later became an archaeologist. As inspector, he restored and protected open tombs and searched for undiscovered ones. He found a wealthy American, Theodore M. Davis, to fund his work. With Davis’s support, Carter discovered several small finds and cleared three previously unexplored tombs. After 1904, Davis continued excavating the valley for ten years, hiring five archaeologists. His work quickly uncovered many tombs, but the discoveries were often poorly handled and not well documented. One example was KV55, a tomb of a royal family member from Tutankhamun’s time, whose occupant’s identity remains uncertain.
Little was known about Tutankhamun in Davis’s time, though it was known he restored traditional practices after a brief period of radical change called the Amarna Period. This made it likely he was buried in the Valley of the Kings, the traditional site for royal burials. Davis never found Tutankhamun’s tomb, assuming it would not be cut into the valley floor. However, he found clues, such as a pit called KV54, which had items with Tutankhamun’s name, and an uninscribed tomb called KV58, which had parts of a chariot harness with Tutankhamun’s and his successor Ay’s names. Davis believed KV58 was all that remained of Tutankhamun’s burial, suggesting most royal tombs in the valley had already been found. By 1912, Davis said the valley had little left to discover.
Carter left the Antiquities Service in 1905 after ordering Egyptian guards to remove French tourists who entered a closed site at Saqqara. This caused a scandal and led to his resignation. He later worked for George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, an Egyptian artifact collector. Carnarvon bought the excavation rights to the Valley of the Kings in 1914. Despite World War I, Carter began clearing the valley in 1917, sifting through debris from earlier digs and natural soil. At the time, neither Carter nor Carnarvon said they were looking for Tutankhamun’s tomb, but clues like those in KV54 and KV58 suggested it might still be in the valley.
In 1919, the Egyptian Revolution led Britain to declare Egypt independent in 1922, though Britain kept influence over military and foreign affairs. Antiquities policy was handed to Egyptians, and the Antiquities Service’s director, Pierre Lacau, now answered to an Egyptian minister.
Discovery and clearance
To reduce the interference with tourists, Carter and his Egyptian workers started on November 1, 1922, earlier than usual for the season. On November 4, a worker found a step in the rock. According to Carter's published report, the workers discovered the step while digging beneath the remains of huts; other accounts say a boy found it outside the assigned work area. The step was the start of a tomb entrance staircase. At the bottom was a doorway sealed with limestone and plaster. Carter cut a small hole to check if the passage beyond was filled with rubble. He sent a telegram to Carnarvon, who was in England, and had the workers refill the pit to protect the tomb until Carnarvon arrived. While waiting, Carter asked his friend Arthur Callender to help with the upcoming excavation.
Excavation continued after November 23, when Carnarvon arrived in Luxor with his daughter, Lady Evelyn Herbert. Closer inspection showed the doorway seal had the name of Tutankhamun, suggesting it was his tomb. The debris in the passage had objects with other kings' names, possibly a collection of items buried during his reign. The doorway had been partially broken and resealed, showing signs of ancient theft. On November 26, the workers found another sealed doorway. Carter's book, written with Arthur Cruttenden Mace, described the moment they broke the seal:
With shaking hands, I made a tiny hole in the upper left corner. Darkness and empty space showed that the area beyond was empty, unlike the passage we had just cleared. We tested for dangerous gases with candles, then widened the hole slightly and looked inside. Lord Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn, and Callender stood nearby, waiting for my report. At first, I saw nothing, but as my eyes adjusted, I saw strange animals, statues, and gold—gold everywhere.
Carnarvon asked if I saw anything. Accounts differ about how Carter answered, but in his book, he said, "Yes, wonderful things."
The gilded furniture and statues Carter saw were in a room later called the antechamber. This room had more burial goods than the workers had ever expected. Some items were familiar from past discoveries, others were very elaborate, and some were completely new. Two doorways led from the antechamber, both blocked with plaster and broken by ancient robbers. One was left open, revealing a chaotic mix of objects in the chamber beyond, called the annexe. The other had been resealed. Many items had Tutankhamun's name, confirming the tomb was his.
After examining the antechamber, the workers broke the plaster of the blocked doorway. Carter, Carnarvon, and Lady Evelyn squeezed through to find the burial chamber, mostly filled with gilded shrines around Tutankhamun's sarcophagus. Robbers had not gone further than the outermost shrine. Carter may have wanted to confirm this, as he had once opened a tomb he thought was undisturbed, only to find it nearly empty.
The workers resealed the hole with new plaster, though their actions became an open secret in the Egyptology community. Later experts had differing opinions about whether entering the burial chamber before official inspections was allowed. T. G. H. James, Carter's biographer, said it did not break the rules of the time. Joyce Tyldesley argued it did and noted that moving some artifacts changed their original positions, making records harder to keep.
Clearing the tomb required a huge effort. Moisture from floods in the valley above had damaged wood, dissolved glue, and decayed leather and textiles over centuries. Surfaces were covered in a pink film. Carter estimated that without restoration, only one-tenth of the items would survive being moved to Cairo. He asked Albert Lythgoe, head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Egyptian Expedition, for help. Lythgoe sent Mace, a conservation expert; Harry Burton, a top photographer; and others. Experts like Alfred Lucas, James Henry Breasted, Alan Gardiner, and Percy Newberry also helped. They used nearby tombs as storage, labs, and workspaces. Four Egyptian foremen and unnamed porters helped move items to KV15.
On December 16, the workers began clearing the antechamber, starting with objects near the entrance and moving counterclockwise. Items were labeled and photographed before being moved. Carter described the crowded room as extremely difficult to navigate without damaging objects. Some items were tangled and required special supports to remove. Objects were cleaned and treated with solutions like celluloid or paraffin wax. Urgent items were treated on-site, while most were taken to KV15 for care.
The discovery sparked a public fascination known as "Tutmania," a specific example of the long-standing Western interest in ancient Egypt. As Breasted's son Charles noted, the news came at a time when the world was tired of post-World War I meetings and needed something exciting.
Legacy
When the tomb was discovered, Egyptologists hoped it might contain documents that would help understand the history of the time Tutankhamun lived. No such documents were found, but the items inside provided clues. Dates on wine jars from the tomb showed that Tutankhamun had ruled for no more than nine years. Egyptologists had previously thought his only claim to the throne was through his marriage to his queen, Ankhesenamun, and that he might have been an older court official. However, examining the mummy revealed he was between 17 and 22 years old when he died. His skull shape was similar to that of an unidentified royal mummy from the KV55 tomb, suggesting he was related to it and had royal blood. Some artworks in the tomb matched the art style of the Amarna Period, and others mentioned the Aten, a god worshipped during that time, showing that the return to traditional religion during Tutankhamun’s reign happened slowly.
The tomb’s historical value came from its burial goods, which included beautiful examples of ancient Egyptian art and helped people learn more about how royalty lived during the New Kingdom. Many of the clothes found in the tomb were more varied and decorated than those shown in art from Tutankhamun’s time. The tomb also provided clear evidence about tomb robbery and efforts to restore stolen items, as the presence of most burial goods allowed experts to partly guess what was taken and what was later returned.
The discovery changed the history of the Valley of the Kings. After the tomb was cleared, many Egyptologists stopped working in the valley, believing nothing else remained to be found. Little archaeological work happened there for decades, mostly focusing on recording what had already been discovered. No new tombs were found in the valley until 2006, when KV63 was discovered.
The discovery also changed Egyptology in another way: along with Egypt’s growing independence, the excitement about Tutankhamun helped Egyptian Egyptology grow. At the time, few Egyptians studied archaeology, and those who did were not respected by European Egyptologists. Hamdi was the only Egyptian among the experts who worked on the tomb. The first Egyptian university program for Egyptology began in 1924, and over the next decade, a new generation of Egyptian Egyptologists was trained.
Although Western interest in Tutankhamun declined for more than thirty years, it returned when the Egyptian government sent the burial goods on international museum tours. These tours started in the 1960s to gain Western support for moving ancient Egyptian monuments threatened by the Aswan High Dam. The tours were very popular, with one in the 1970s in the United States attracting over eight million visitors. This changed how American museums operated, focusing on large, profitable exhibitions. Money from the tours helped move the monuments and improve the Egyptian Museum. The exhibitions also helped improve Egypt’s relationships with Britain and France after the Suez Crisis in 1956 and with the United States after the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
Today, the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb remains the most famous find in the Valley of the Kings, and Tutankhamun is the best-known ruler of ancient Egypt. The tomb and its treasures are major attractions for Egypt’s tourism industry and a source of pride for Egyptians. Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves wrote that because of his fame, Tutankhamun “has been reborn as Egypt’s most famous son, to achieve true immortality at last.”