Se supone que la “maldición de los faraones” recae sobre cualquiera que perturbe la momia de un antiguo egipcio, especialmente un faraón. Esta maldición, que no distingue entre ladrones y arqueólogos, puede provocar mala suerte, enfermedades o incluso la muerte.

La famosa Maldición de la Momia había desconcertado a las mejores mentes científicas desde 1923, cuando Lord Carnarvon y Howard Carter descubrieron la tumba del rey Tutankamón en Egipto.

La maldición del rey Tutankamón

Aunque no se había encontrado ninguna maldición en la tumba de Tutankamón, las muertes en los años siguientes de varios miembros del equipo de Carter y de visitantes reales o supuestos del sitio mantuvieron viva la historia, especialmente en casos de muerte por violencia o en circunstancias extrañas:

Canario

James Henry Breasted era un famoso egiptólogo que trabajaba con Carter cuando se abrió la tumba. Los trabajadores egipcios estaban seguros de que el descubrimiento de la tumba se debía al canario mascota de Breasted, que murió cuando una cobra se deslizó dentro de su jaula. La cobra era el símbolo del poder del faraón.

Señor Carnarvon

The second victim of the Mummy’s Curse was 53-year old Lord Carnarvon himself, who accidentally tore open a mosquito bite while shaving and ended up dying of blood poisoning shortly after that. This occurred a few months after the tomb was opened. He died at 2:00 AM on April 5, 1923. At the exact instant of his death, all the lights in Cairo mysteriously went out. Two thousand long miles away in England, Carnarvon’s dog howled and dropped ᴅᴇᴀᴅ at the exact moment.

Sir Bruce Ingham

Howard Carter gave a paperweight to his friend Sir Bruce Ingham as a gift. The paperweight appropriately consisted of a mummified hand wearing a bracelet that was supposedly inscribed with the phrase, “cursed be he who moves my body.” Ingham’s house burned to the ground not long after receiving the gift, and when he tried to rebuild, it was hit with a flood.

George Jay Gould

George Jay Gould was a wealthy American financier and railroad executive who visited the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1923 and fell sick almost immediately afterward. He never really recovered and died of pneumonia a few months later.

Evelyn White

Evelyn-White, a British archaeologist, visited Tut’s tomb and may have helped excavate the site. After seeing death sweep over about two dozen of his fellow excavators by 1924, Evelyn-White hung himself—but not before writing, allegedly in his blood, “I have succumbed to a curse which forces me to disappear.”

Aubrey Herbert

It’s said that Lord Carnarvon’s half-brother, Aubrey Herbert, suffered from King Tut’s curse merely by being related to him. Herbert was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 with a degenerative eye condition and became blind late in life. A doctor suggested that his rotten, infected teeth somehow interfere with his vision, and Herbert had every tooth pulled from his head to regain his sight. It didn’t work. He did, however, die of sepsis as a result of the surgery, just five months after the death of his supposedly cursed brother.

Aaron Ember

American Egyptologist Aaron Ember was friends with many of the people present when the tomb was opened, including Lord Carnarvon. Ember died in 1926 when his house in Baltimore burned down less than an hour after he and his wife hosted a dinner party. He could have exited safely, but his wife encouraged him to save a manuscript he had been working on while she fetched their son. Sadly, they and the family’s maid died in the catastrophe. The name of Ember’s manuscript? The Egyptian Book of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

Sir Archibald Douglas Reid

Proving that you didn’t have to be one of the excavators or expedition backers to fall victim to the curse, Sir Archibald Douglas Reid, a radiologist, merely X-Rayed Tut before the Mummy was given to museum authorities. He got sick the next day and was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ three days later.

Mohammed Ibrahim

Unos 43 años después, la maldición cayó sobre un tal Mohammed Ibrahim, quien aceptó oficialmente que los tesoros de Tutankamón fueran enviados a París para una exposición. Su hija resultó gravemente herida en un accidente automovilístico e Ibrahim soñó que correría la misma suerte y trató de detener la exportación del tesoro. Falló y fue atropellado por un coche. Murió dos días después.

¿Estas extrañas muertes ocurrieron debido a la maldición de la Momia? ¿O todo esto sucedió por coincidencia? ¿Cuál es tu pensamiento?