10 Historical Coincidences So Unlikely They Sound Like Fiction

7. The Curse of the Pharaohs and Lord Carnarvon

The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon was followed by a series of deaths among those connected to the excavation that seemed to validate ancient warnings about disturbing the pharaoh's eternal rest. Lord Carnarvon, the expedition's financial backer, died just five months after the tomb's opening from an infected mosquito bite that became septic, and according to his son, all the lights in Cairo went out at the moment of his death, while his dog back in England howled and died simultaneously. The "curse" appeared to claim other victims: Arthur Mace, Carter's assistant, died from arsenic poisoning; George Jay Gould, an American financier who visited the tomb, died of pneumonia shortly after; and Archibald Douglas Reid, who X-rayed the mummy, became ill and died. Within seven years of the tomb's discovery, twelve people connected to the excavation had died under unusual circumstances, leading newspapers to sensationalize the "Curse of the Pharaohs" and creating a media phenomenon that persists today. Statisticians and medical experts have attempted to debunk the curse by pointing out that many expedition members lived long lives and that the deaths could be attributed to the harsh conditions of 1920s Egypt, exposure to toxic materials, or simple coincidence. However, the clustering of deaths among a relatively small group of people within such a short timeframe, combined with the dramatic circumstances surrounding some of the fatalities, creates a pattern that continues to challenge rational explanation and has made the Tutankhamun curse one of the most enduring mysteries in archaeological history.