When the stone door was opened, what lay beyond was a path full of rocks and pebbles. At the end was another door. Howard Carter knocked a hole in it. When he looked through, he held up a flickering candle in the darkness.
What did he see?
Here is how he described “the day of days, the most wonderful I have ever lived through”:
“At first I could see nothing . . . but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues and gold—everywhere the glint of gold. . . . I was struck dumb with amazement.”
Lord Carnarvon was there with his daughter. So was a friend of Carter’s. They all were in the dark corridor. Lord Carnarvon called to Howard Carter, “Can you see anything?”
Howard Carter said, “Yes, wonderful things.”
Howard Carter’s dream had come true. He had found exactly what he was looking for: the tomb of King Tut.
What were some of the wonderful things he first saw?
There were two overturned chariots. A throne. Three big couches whose sides were carved in the shape of beasts. A bed with a linen mattress. There were life-size statues of kings. Things were piled every which way. Vases and staffs of different shapes and sizes. One box was for the king’s shaving equipment. Other boxes contained meat for Tut to eat.
And to the right of the jumble of treasure, Howard Carter saw another door. What did that mean? There were more rooms! There was more treasure!
This first room was the antechamber. The following day, Carter and Carnarvon and Carnarvon’s daughter returned. They came with electric lamps this time. They wanted to get a better look around.
There was a hole in one wall. Peering through it, Carter could see into another room. It became known as the Annex. There was far more stuff in the Annex than in the antechamber. Smaller things like vases and game boards. And everything had been thrown about, all over the floor. Howard Carter realized that, long ago, robbers had definitely found their way in. But there was no way to tell what had been taken.
All told there were four rooms in the tomb. This is how they were laid out:
Another small room was called the Treasury. Among the things inside was the chest that contained jars with Tut’s internal organs and the two small coffins with baby mummies. The most important room of all was the Burial Chamber. This was where Tut’s mummy had been placed. But no one knew if the robbers had broken into the Burial Chamber, too. |