The curse of the pharaohs, also called the mummy's curse or the Curse of King Tut, is a belief that people who disturb the mummy of an ancient Egyptian, especially a pharaoh, may face bad luck, illness, or death. This curse is said to affect both thieves and archaeologists equally. Since the middle of the 20th century, some books and documentaries have suggested that the curse might have scientific causes, such as harmful bacteria, fungi, or radiation. However, the origins of these stories are tied to European cultures, not ancient Egypt. Over time, explanations for the curse shifted from magic to science, and the stories changed from warnings about disturbing the dead to being used in horror movies. This suggests that Egyptian curses are more about culture than science.

Some ancient tombs, like the mastaba of Khentika Ikhekhi from the 6th Dynasty at Saqqara, have real curses written inside or on the outside. These messages were meant to protect the tomb and ensure its ritual purity, not to warn robbers. Stories about curses existed before the 19th century but became more common after Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. However, no actual curse was found written in Tutankhamun’s tomb. The evidence for curses related to Tutankhamun is very limited, and Donald B. Redford called it "unadulterated claptrap."

Tomb curses

Curses connected to tombs are very rare. This may be because people thought breaking into or damaging tombs was hard to imagine and even dangerous to write about. They often appear in private tombs from the Old Kingdom period. The tomb of Ankhtifi (9th–10th dynasty) has a warning: "If any ruler does evil or harmful things to this coffin, the god Hemen will not accept any gifts he gives, and his heir will not inherit anything." The tomb of Khentika Ikhekhi (6th dynasty) has an inscription: "For anyone who enters this tomb and is not clean or respectful, there will be judgment. Their life will end. I will grab their neck like a bird and make them feel my fear."

The only known curse from a pharaoh's tomb in the Old Kingdom is in the Pyramid of Pepi I. A passage in the Pyramid Texts warns: "Anyone who harms this pyramid or the sacred area of Pepi and his ka has harmed Horus’s Enclosure in the Cool Waters. Nephthys will take him to every place of Geb, his father. The Ennead of gods has heard his case, and he has nothing, no home. He is cursed and will eat his own body."

Curses after the Old Kingdom are less common but more serious. They sometimes call on the anger of Thoth or the destruction caused by Sekhemet. Zahi Hawass mentions a later curse: "Cursed are those who disturb a pharaoh’s rest. Anyone who breaks the seal of this tomb will die from a disease no doctor can treat."

Modern accounts

Hieroglyphs were not understood until the early 19th century, so stories about curses before this time were likely seen as bad luck connected to handling mummies and other items from tombs. In 1699, Louis Penicher wrote about a Polish traveler who bought two mummies in Alexandria and took them on a sea voyage. The traveler saw two ghostly figures repeatedly and faced rough seas until the mummies were thrown overboard.

Zahi Hawass, an archaeologist, remembered transporting artifacts from an ancient site called Kom Abu Billo. He noted that his cousin died the same day, his uncle died one year later, and his aunt died three years after that. Later, while working at the pyramids of Giza, he found a curse written in a tomb: "Anyone who harms this tomb or destroys it may face danger from crocodiles in water, snakes on land, hippos in water, or scorpions on land." Though Hawass said he was not superstitious, he chose not to disturb the mummies. However, he later helped move two child mummies from Bahariya Oasis to a museum and claimed he dreamed about them until the mummy of the children’s father was placed with them in the museum.

The idea of a mummy coming back to life, a common theme in stories about curses, first appeared in The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century, a book written by Jane C. Loudon and published anonymously in 1827. This work combined science fiction and horror. Later, in 1869, Louisa May Alcott was believed to have created the first full "mummy curse" story in Lost in a Pyramid, or The Mummy's Curse. However, two earlier stories—The Mummy’s Soul (1862) and After Three Thousand Years (1868)—were discovered later and share similar plots where a female mummy seeks revenge on a man who disturbed her tomb. Jasmine Day suggests that these stories may reflect early feminist ideas, comparing tomb desecration to a violation. Since these stories are older than Alcott’s, it is possible other forgotten stories about mummy curses may still exist.

Opening of Tutankhamun's tomb

The belief in a curse gained attention after several people died following the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter's team in 1922. This event began the modern study of Egyptology.

James Henry Breasted, an Egyptologist, worked with Carter soon after the tomb was opened. He described how Carter sent a messenger to his home. As the messenger approached, he heard a faint, almost human cry. When he arrived, he saw a cobra in a birdcage. The cobra, a symbol of the Egyptian monarchy, had killed Carter's canary. This event led to rumors of a curse. Arthur Weigall, a former Egyptian government official, noted that people believed the cobra represented the royal symbol worn by the king to strike enemies. The New York Times reported this incident on December 22, 1922.

The first death linked to the tomb was Lord Carnarvon, who funded the excavation. He was bitten by a mosquito and accidentally cut the bite while shaving. The wound became infected, leading to blood poisoning. Two weeks before Carnarvon's death, Marie Corelli wrote a letter in the New York World magazine, quoting an obscure book that warned of punishment for entering a sealed tomb. This caused media attention, though no curse was found in the tomb. Benito Mussolini, an Italian leader, ordered an Egyptian mummy removed from his home due to superstition.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes and a spiritualist, claimed Carnarvon's death was caused by "elementals" created by Tutankhamun's priests to guard the tomb. This idea increased media interest. Arthur Weigall reported that six weeks before Carnarvon's death, he saw the Earl laughing and joking as he entered the tomb, saying to a reporter, "I give him six weeks to live." An autopsy of Tutankhamun's body found a healed wound on his cheek, but it was unclear if it matched the mosquito bite that caused Carnarvon's death.

A study by The Lancet concluded that Carnarvon's death was unrelated to the tomb, refuting claims that toxic fungi contributed to his death. The report noted that many others entered the tomb without harm. Carnarvon's death was caused by pneumonia following a skin infection called erysipelas. He had a history of lung infections, making his immune system weak.

In 1925, Henry Field, an anthropologist, visited the tomb with Breasted and recalled Carter's kindness. He also described a paperweight given to Carter's friend, Sir Bruce Ingram, which was made from a mummified hand with a scarab bracelet. The bracelet had a warning: "Cursed be he who moves my body. To him shall come fire, water, and pestilence." Soon after receiving the gift, Ingram's house burned down, and a flood damaged it when it was rebuilt.

Howard Carter dismissed curses as "tommy-rot" and believed Egyptologists should feel respect, not fear. In 1926, he saw a jackal, similar to Anubis, the guardian of the dead, but did not think it was supernatural.

Skeptics noted that many people who visited the tomb lived long, healthy lives. A study showed that of 58 people present at the tomb's opening, only eight died within a dozen years. Howard Carter, who died of lymphoma in 1939, was still alive 16 years after the tomb opened. Others, like Lady Evelyn Herbert, who entered the tomb in 1922, lived for decades.

Some researchers suggested that toxic spores from the fungus Aspergillus flavus might have caused deaths linked to the tomb, including Carnarvon's, though this remains disputed.

The tomb was opened on November 29, 1922.

• George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon: Died on April 5, 1923, four months and seven days after the tomb opened, from an infected mosquito bite.
• George Jay Gould I: Died on May 16, 1923, in the French Riviera after developing a fever.
• Sir Archibald Douglas-Reid: Died on January 15, 1924, in Switzerland from complications of skin cancer.
• A. C. Mace: Died in April 1928 from pleurisy and pneumonia.
• The Hon. Mervyn Herbert: Died on May 26, 1929, from malarial pneumonia.
• Captain The Hon. Richard Bethell: Died on November 15, 1929, from a suspected smothering.
• Howard Carter: Opened the tomb on February 16, 1923, and died on March 2, 1939, 16 years later. Some still linked his death to the curse.

Popular culture

The Universal horror films The Mummy (1932), The Mummy's Hand (1940), and the sequels to The Mummy's Hand have stories about a curse that predicts death for people who enter tombs.

• Pharaoh's Curse (1957 film)
• The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964 film)
• The Curse of King Tut's Tomb (1980 film)