Out of Africa (with my family)
A itinerary form Cape Town to Garden Route and Port Elizabeth. A stop at a Grootbos for whale watching and a safari at Madikwe Game Reserve
Evelyn Herbert, a Lady in Tutankhamun's tomb
"I see wonderful things". This is the answer that archaeologist Howard Carter gave Lord Carnarvon on November 4, 1922 when, upon opening the tomb of Tutankhamun, the British aristocrat and patron of the arts asked him what he saw...
Lord Carnarvon, an enthusiast of Egyptology, financed the excavations of Valley of the Kings in Egypt directed by Carter between 1908 and 1914 and, after an enforced hiatus because of World War I, the archaeological work continued between 1917 and 1922, the year in which the intact tomb of the infant pharaoh was uncovered.
In 1907, Howard Carter began working for Lord Carnarvon, a nobleman and keen archaeological enthusiast, as supervisor of the excavations at Deir el-Bahari, near Thebes.
Howard Carter was always characterized as a solitary, serious, persevering and intuitive person.
The day of the opening of the tomb, which would mark a before and after in the history of Egyptology, along with Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, was a young woman of 21 years. It was Lady Evelyn, the daughter of the British aristocrat who would become the first and only woman to enter the tomb of Tutankhamun and access the secrets kept by the pharaoh for more than 3,000 years.
Lady Evelyn Leonora Almina Herbert was born on August 15, 1901, at the family mansion in Highclere, England. The young lady had known Howard Carter since she was a child, as he often visited the Carnarvon homes in London and Hampshire. In the winters of 1921 and 1922, Lady Evelyn accompanied her parents to Cairo, who always spent a few months each year in Egypt in order to purchase antiquities for their private collection.
Evelyn Herbert accompanied her parents every winter during their stay in Egypt.
Lady Evelyn, Carter and Carnarvon were the first people to enter Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922.
Lady Evelyn Herbert, daughter of Lord Carnarvon, would become the first and only woman to enter Tutankhamun's tomb when it was discovered in November 1922
In the early 20th century, Egypt was an attractive destination for British aristocrats who traveled to the country in search of antiquities with which to decorate their mansions. Photo: Getty Museum.
For years, Carnarvon had been financing excavations in the Valley of the Kings under the direction of archaeologist Howard Carter but, in the absence of significant finds, the English aristocrat had decided that 1922 would be the last year in which he would continue to invest money in Egypt.
However, on November 4, 1922, Carter sent a telegram to Lord Carnarvon, who was in England at the time, stating:"At last we have made a wonderful discovery in the Valley: a magnificent tomb with intact seals. Congratulations."
Lady Evelyn accompanied her father and on November 24, 1922 both had arrived in Egypt and were present when the entire tomb staircase was cleared and a seal containing the cartouche of Pharaoh Tutankhamun was found above the door. This door was opened and the debris-filled corridor cleared, revealing the door to the main tomb. The main tomb was to be officially opened under the supervision of the Supreme Council of Antiquities on November 29. However, on the 26th and 27th, Carter, Lord Carnarvon and Lady Evelyn made one or more unauthorized visits inside the tomb.
Howard Carter spent ten years cataloging the thousands of objects in the tomb of the infant pharaoh.
Once the meticulous cataloguing work was completed, Carter retired from archaeology. He continued to live between his home near Luxor and London, where he died in 1939.
There they were able to see a mixture of objects, including gilded couches, chests, thrones, and reliquaries. They also found two other sealed doors, one of them an entrance to the inner burial chamber, guarded by two life-size statues of Tutankhamun. At this door, through a hole, Carter, Carnarvon, and Lady Evelyn crawled into the inner burial chamber. It seems that Lady Evelyn, being the smallest of the group, was the first person to enter the burial chamber
Much has been written about the mutual admiration between Lady Evelyn and Howard Carter, which may have developed into a kind of romantic attraction of the platonic kind.
Against the relationship, was the fact that Carter was still a worker in the service of Lady Evelyn's father, that the Egyptologist was 25 years older, and that he was also known to be an introverted and reclusive person.
Lady Evelyn was the only woman to enter both the tomb and burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
Lady Evelyn and her father returned to England in December 1922 and returned to Egypt in January 1923 to be present at the official opening of the inner burial chamber on February 16. Shortly thereafter, Lord Carnarvon fell ill and died in Cairo on April 5, 1923, in what some referred to as the "curse of the Pharaohs" although the official cause of death was a generalized infection most likely caused by a mosquito bite.
A mosquito bite was probably the cause of Lord Carnarvon's septicemia and death, only 6 months after his great discovery.
Lord Carnarvon was an enthusiast of Egyptology, becoming in 1907 the patron of Howard Carter for the excavation of royal tombs in the Theban necropolis.
Five months after discovering Tutankhamun's tomb, Lord Carnarvon fell ill and died in Cairo on April 5, 1923, in what some referred to as the "curse of the Pharaohs." After her father's death, Lady Evelyn returned to England and never again traveled to Egypt.
Lady Evelyn left Egypt to return to England with her brother who forbade the whole family to talk about Egypt from that moment on. This was Lady Evelyn's last visit to the land of the pharaohs. However, she kept in touch with Howard Carter and was present at the archaeologist's funeral, which took place in the London cemetery of Putney Vale, in 1939. Lady Evelyn died in 1980 and, interestingly, she is buried in the same cemetery as Carter.
Eight years later, a former butler discovered in an inventory at Highclere Castle more than 300 objects from the time of the pharaohs that had been hidden in false walls and locked rooms and whose existence was unknown even to Lord Carnarvon's grandson. Today, the eighth Lord Carnarvon inhabits this English mansion, which is also the setting for the famous television series "Downton Abbey".
The Carnarvon family has lived in Highclere Castle since 1847. Today, some of its more than 300 rooms can be visited and it is the filming location for the series "Downton Abbey".
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