It is I who hinder the sand from choking the secret chamber. I am for the protection of the deceased.
Translation of the inscription on the tomb of Tutankhamun
Long before she met her second husband Max Mallowan, it is evident that Agatha Christie was conversant with the science of archaeology. Her many works on the subject first introduced an archaeologist into her collection of characters in The Man in the Brown Suit (1924). The novel featured Hempsley Cavern, which was based on the author’s knowledge of one of her hometown’s top attractions, Kents Cavern. Her father, Frederick Miller, had been a fellow of the Torquay Natural History Society which financed the excavation of the magnificent show-cave, uncovering outstanding examples of stalagmites, stalactites and evidence of prehistoric animals and human inhabitants. The author quickly followed up the archaeological theme in the collection of short stories Poirot Investigates (1924), drawing on a real-life mystery for ‘The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb’, which concerns a strange series of deaths of the people who were involved in the discovery and opening of the tomb of King Men-her-Ra, an event we are told followed hard on the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings by Lord Carnarvon in 1922.
Agatha Christie had become fascinated by Egypt and its history during a three-month trip when she was accompanied by her mother for her ‘coming out’ season in Cairo. The experience inspired her to write her first novel, entitled Snow upon the Desert. The storyline featured characters based on people she had encountered in Cairo, with the exception of a deaf heroine. Although the work was submitted to several publishers under the pseudonym ‘Monosyllaba’, it was rejected and remained unpublished. When she finally established herself as a successful author, Agatha’s interest in the Land of the Pharaohs was further stimulated by news coverage generated by sensational reports of the ‘Curse of King Tut’.
During a landmark excavation, the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun was opened by a team led by archaeologist Howard Carter and his patron, Lord Carnarvon. Among the treasures unearthed in the sarcophagus was the king’s mummified body lying within a coffin of solid gold. The boy king was wearing a magnificent gold portrait mask, while fabulous jewels and amulets adorned the wrappings of the corpse. However, rumours spread that the tomb was cursed when Lord Carnarvon died a few months later from septicaemia, having nicked a mosquito bite whilst shaving. According to an oversimplified translation by the press, an inscription above the tomb pointedly warned of the fate awaiting the plunderers, ‘Death shall come on swift wings to him that touches the tomb of Pharaoh’.
When the mummy was later unwrapped, a wound was found on the cheek of the pharaoh in the same position as Carnarvon’s mosquito bite. It was also claimed that at the precise time of Lord Carnarvon’s death, the lights in Cairo blacked out for twenty minutes, while back in England his lordship’s dog, Susie, howled and dropped dead at Highclere Castle. Author of The Hound of the Baskervilles Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a fervent believer of spiritualism, believed that the tragic events revolved around ‘elemental’ beings created by the priests of King Tut to guard the tomb. A more practical and scientific solution to the ‘curse’ involved a theory that deadly fungus had either been deliberately placed as a ‘booby trap’, or that spores of ‘mummy- dust’ had produced a harmful bacteria that was released on the unwary interlopers when the tomb was opened some 3,000 years later.
In all, since the excavation, there have been claims that forty people have been victims of the curse, notably Carnarvon’s half-brother Aubrey Herbert. He died in September 1923 from blood poisoning following a dental operation to remove all his teeth. In 1930, the ‘curse’ hit the headlines again when Lord Westbury committed suicide following the sudden death of his son, Richard, who had been Carter’s assistant in Cairo. Furthermore, a young boy was run over by Lord Westbury’s hearse en route to the cemetery – a fatal accident attributed to the evil power of King Tut. Although Howard Carter’s pet canary was an early casualty of the curse when it was swallowed by a cobra on the day the tomb was opened – an event interpreted as retribution for violation of the tomb, particularly as a cobra was depicted on the brow of the pharaoh from where it would spit fire at the king’s enemies – the archaeologist did not become a victim of the so-called curse and poured scorn on the intense media speculation, saying that ‘all sane people should dismiss such inventions with contempt’. However, the resultant publicity raised the profile of Tutankhamun, who attracted far greater fame in a preserved state of death than he had achieved in his short life, having died of a sudden illness aged about eighteen.
In Agatha Christie’s spin-off adventure, a similar series of supposedly supernatural deaths occur. Within a month of uncovering the tomb of King Men-her-Ra near Cairo, the head archaeologist and a wealthy supporter die of seemingly natural causes, a third member of the team shoots himself and a museum curator dies from tetanus poisoning. Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings are called upon to investigate the strange affair and despite the clues pointing to the existence of an evil curse, the deaths turn out to be the work of a very real, modern-day murderer.