National Geographic: Mysteries of Egypt Page #5

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Giza pyramids has revealed

the brilliance of

ancient architects

whose sophisticated

designs prevented

the collapse of these

inner chambers and passageways.

DNA analysis is helping to

identify family ties of the royal

mummies

and to give us clues about

how they lived and died.

New excavations are uncovering

the support system of settlements

and facilities for the workers

who built the Giza pyramids.

These new discoveries

and many more-owe themselves

at least in part,

to one discovery

not quite as modern

of the tomb of a

teenage pharaoh.

On November 26, 1922,

Howard Carter reached the wall

outside the first chamber

of Tutankhamen's tomb.

What can you see?

Carter, please,

can you see anything?

Yes.

Yes.

Wonderful things

Wonderful things

And they were wonderful things...

kept hidden for over

in four chambers carved

from solid rock.

They entered to find the only

intact king's tomb

ever discovered in modern times.

And in the burial chamber,

four golden shrines.

Inside the fourth shrine,

three golden coffins,

one inside the other,

and at the center...

the mummy of the boy

king Tutankhamen.

This was the greatest treasure

ever found in Egypt

well over 2,000 objects of gold

alabaster

lapis and precious jewels

made thousands of years ago

by master craftsmen.

They gave us a personal

glimpse of a royal life

in ancient Egypt-and fueled

our drive to continue searching

to continue learning.

So through discoveries

like Howard Carter's

and those of modern archeologists,

the ruins of ancient Egypt

means something to us.

The stone creations

that still loom up

from the desert are

mute testaments of humanity's

great stride forward

from hunters and gatherers...

to builders of

majestic structures,

to dreamers of grand dreams.

These stone wonders are

the shape of our beginnings

towering symbols of our

rise to become thinkers

artists,

poets... and builders.

These great monuments

keep us humble, too.

After all, they managed to survive

for nearly 5,000 years.

How long has our modern

civilization been around in comparison?

Not very long.

Not very long.

Now as to the matter

of the-the curse:

Lord Canarvon died from

an infected mosquito bite

five months after King

Tut's tomb was opened.

So it is true, after all.

Well, Lord Canarvon did

die an untimely death,

but Howard Carter lived to be 65

and the little waterboy

who was one of the first into

the tomb because of his size

lived to a ripe old age,

as did most of the workers.

Clearly,

there was no curse of death.

But beyond all of that,

a curse, you see,

flies in the face of

everything the Egyptians believed in.

You mean life.

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