Never before has the self-love of Mankind endured such a deafening fiasco as it was in the 1920s. Then our young civilization experienced an unprecedented spiritual upsurge, just that people invented a car, managed to conquer the airspace with the help of airplanes, it seemed, there were no barriers to human genius. Forty years later, this euphoria was repeated (in the 1960s we entered the Cosmos, visited the Moon, almost flew to Mars). But then, at the dawn of the century, everything was for the first time, it seemed to scientists that all or almost all of the laws of nature were already open, and it's only a matter of trying to get a little tidy, everything in the world will be decomposed, and a golden age of knowledge will come.
On the way to triumph there were several annoying obstacles, among which, as a sick tooth, historians have mysterious Egyptian pyramids. Who and for what erected these colossal structures - these questions required answers. November 4, 1922 Howard CARTER found the tomb of Tutunhamun. It was luck, but the most interesting course was ahead. "Millennial mystery defies humanity," "Archaeologists have accepted the challenge of Eternity!" - these headlines in newspapers can be used to judge the moods of those years. Passion of passion reached its peak when other headings began to sound: "The excavations began!", "The denouement is near!", February 16, 1923: "The human genius conquers time!", "A premise from the distant past!", "In honor of his triumph archaeologists promise to give a concert in the tomb of the pharaoh! "," The thousand-year secret fell under the onslaught of scientists! ".
Sobering came very quickly. Expedition, which was spent huge funds, took from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun priceless treasures (which in itself is more like looting than scientific search), but did not remove the veil of secrecy from the pyramid. Eternity resisted the onslaught of presumptuous scientists and, as if in retaliation for human pride, brutally punished those who encroached on it. One by one the gravediggers began to retreat into another world.
The sad list was initiated by the organizer of the entire expedition, Lord Carnarvon, who died on April 5, 1923 (the official version was an insect bite), followed by his closest assistant, AS Mays. The press felt the imminent sensation leading its terrible countdown: "The fifth victim", .. "Tenth Death!", "Twenty-first!" G. Winloku was then 66, J. Breased died at the age of 70, N. Davis died on 71-m year, J. Fukart - on the 81st, A. Gardiner - on the 84th, why the lives of these old people were cut off - still could be understood. But why all the others died one by one: Carnarvon's half-brother (suicide as a result of insanity), Lady Carnarvon (again an insect bite), Weigal (an unknown fever to science).
Versions explaining the reason for the strange series of deaths have been put forward abound. Killers were called microorganisms living in the litter of bats, but there were never any mice in the tomb. Then the main culprit was called the ancient "chemical or bacteriological weapons," but before all the work Carter scrupulously checked the composition of the air. Under suspicion were unknown viruses that sometimes live in ancient graves (for this reason, the Polish scientists who broke the tomb of King Casimir Jagiellonchik in Krakow died), but how then to explain the sudden death of scientists who did not descend into the dungeon: A.Lukas, J. Bradsted, A. Gardiner?
Of course, in such a situation we could not help recalling the unambiguous warnings that came to the editorial offices of newspapers, which pointed to the possible "revenge of the pharaohs" who would never forgive their abuses over their last refuge. Dozens of people warned of the near death of Carnarvon, including the well-known clairvoyants of Ceyro and Velma, but by that time preparations for the expedition had gone too far, and the lord decided - these were his words - "to challenge the dark forces of the ages." Until his own deadly illness, he was recklessly gay, joking and mocking the "master" of the pyramid. "If he goes down there in such a mood," Weigal once remarked, "I personally give him no more than six weeks of life!" Four weeks later, when Lord Carnarvon fell ill, on his estate near Newbury (Hampshire, England) noticed a wild naked a man whom they could not catch. Superstitious Englishmen took an elusive savage (looking like an ancient Egyptian?) For a bad omen, and it is true that two weeks later the naked man left the Lord's estate, on the same day the master was gone. Six weeks.
And the "curse of the pharaohs" really broke free and began to cruelly take revenge not only directly to gravediggers, but also to ordinary owners of stolen jewelry. The lid of the sarcophagus, found, by the way, long before the ill-fated expedition received a notorious fame. After 1860, she got into trouble, Mr. Douglas Murray. The steamboat on which the lid was transported almost sank, transporting it from the port of the cab was damaged in the accident, immediately after that Murray lost his hand because of an accidental explosion of his gun, to top it all, the whole house where the find was burned. The photographer who filmed the sarcophagus shot himself, and the specialist who examined the lid drowned. Most relatives of these people also died under very strange circumstances. The chain of deaths continued until the lid was given to the British Museum.
Since then, it's been seven decades now, from a scientific sensation the pyramids have turned into an ordinary tourist object. Has the "curse of the pharaohs" disappeared from the musty corridors? Of course, out of thousands of visitors, hundreds felt worse, some died, but these cases, if desired, can be explained quite materially: Is not the oppressive silence of gloomy stone crossings putting pressure on your nerves? But there is something besides a purely psychological factor. And some of this is well known. During the visit of the Soviet delegation to Egypt, Khrushchev was invited to visit the pyramids, the KGB immediately reacted to this, and a security guard with a categorical telegram from Moscow waited near the entrance of Nikita Sergeyevich. The visit was canceled under a plausible excuse!