Tutankhamun's tomb: the discovery that amazed the world
History · Key Stage 2 · The School
A young king, a short reign
TUTANKHAMUN became pharaoh around the age of nine. He died only about ten years later. His reign was short and, at the time, not thought important. That is exactly why his tomb survived. Bigger, more famous pharaohs got bigger, more tempting tombs — and those were robbed long ago.
Nearly every tomb had already been emptied
By the 1900s, almost every known pharaoh's tomb in the Valley of the Kings had been robbed, most within a few centuries of burial. Archaeologists had almost given up hope of finding one still full of treasure. Every dig seemed to end the same way.
A step, found by accident
HOWARD CARTER had searched for years, funded by Lord Carnarvon. In November 1922, his workers found a stone step cut into the rock. It led down to a sealed doorway. Carter later wrote that, peering through a small hole by candlelight, he saw "wonderful things".
The tomb held over five thousand objects. A golden death mask. Chariots. Thrones. Jars of food for the afterlife. It took Carter's team ten years just to record and remove everything safely. Tutankhamun, a minor king in life, became the most famous pharaoh in the world simply because his tomb was the one that survived.