The Mummy Retorts

Egyptian authorities closed the Great Pyramids after receiving reports that Jews or Freemasons might attempt to harness the untold powers inherent in them by performing a mysterious ceremony “at 11:11 A.M. on Nov. 11, 2011.” Fortunately, they were thwarted. When the danger had passed the Egyptians spoke out with relief.

Speaking by phone from the pyramids after 11:11 had passed, al-Asfar said he’d seen nothing out of the ordinary. “Everything is normal,” he said. “The only thing different is the closure of the Khufu pyramid.”

The Egyptian authorities were making the wrong associations. It is to the name “Carter” that these mysterious monuments must forever be linked. There is for example, Howard Carter, discoverer of Tutankhamun’s tomb. It is said that the British archaeologist brought upon himself the curse of the pharoahs for daring to defile the ancient burial place. Many of those associated with the Tutankhamun expedition died in strange circumstances shortly thereafter.

The belief in a curse was brought to many people’s attention due to the deaths of the members of the team of Howard Carter, who opened the tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) in 1922, launching the modern era of Egyptology.

The famous Egyptologist James Henry Breasted worked with Carter soon after the first opening of the tomb. He reported how Carter sent a messenger on an errand to his house. On approaching his home he thought he heard a “faint, almost human cry”. On reaching the entrance he saw the bird cage occupied by a cobra, the symbol of Egyptian monarchy. Carter’s canary had died in its mouth and this fueled local rumors of a curse. Arthur Weigall, a previous Inspector-General of Antiquities to the Egyptian Government, reported that this was interpreted as Carter’s house being broken into by the Royal Cobra, the same as that worn on the King’s head to strike enemies (see Uraeus), on the very day the King’s tomb was being broken into. An account of the incident was reported by the New York Times on the 22nd December 1922.

The death of Lord Carnarvon six weeks after the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb resulted in many curse stories in the press.

The first of the “mysterious” deaths was that of Lord Carnarvon. He had been bitten by a mosquito, and later slashed the bite accidentally while shaving. It became infected and blood poisoning resulted. Two weeks before Carnarvon died Marie Corelli wrote an imaginative letter which was published in the New York World magazine in which she quoted an obscure book that confidently asserted that “dire punishment” would follow an intrusion into a sealed tomb. A media frenzy followed with reports that a curse had been found in the King’s tomb, but this was untrue.

Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, suggested at the time that Lord Carnarvon’s death had been caused by “elementals” created by Tutankhamun’s priests to guard the royal tomb and this further fueled the media interest.

Arthur Weigall reported that six weeks before Carnarvon’s death he had watched the Earl laughing and joking as he entered the King’s tomb and his saying to a nearby reporter (H. V. Morton), “I give him six weeks to live.” The first autopsy carried out on the body of Tutankhamun by Dr Derry found a healed lesion on the left cheek, but as Carnarvon had been buried six months previously it was not possible to determine if the location of the wound on the King corresponded with the location of the fatal mosquito bite on Carnarvon.

In 1925, the anthropologist Henry Field, accompanied by Breasted, visited the tomb and recalled the kindness and friendliness of Carter. He also reported how a paperweight given to Carter’s friend Sir Bruce Ingham was composed of a mummified hand with its wrist adorned with a scarab bracelet marked with, “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, followed by a flood when it was rebuilt.

And if these portents were not enough consider the diplomatic disaster which befell another Carter, Jimmy Carter to be exact through his Chief of Staff, Hamilton Jordan. At a diplomatic reception in Washington DC, Jordan was said to have stared at the bosom of the Egyptian ambassador’s wife, declaring “I have always wanted to see the Pyramids”.

These proofs alone should have convinced the Egyptians that the 11:11 11/11/2011 lead was too weak to be worth pursuing. It is “Carter” that is the key. Of course if all of this sounds like crazy talk, it might be. But it’s only coming from this one addled blogger. Whereas the idea that the Jews and Masons were planning on tapping the supernatural power of the pyramids — well that remarkable idea came from responsible people who should know better.

But then again, maybe they know something we don’t.