British archaeologist Howard Carter had located a sealed staircase in the Valley of the Kings weeks earlier but held off breaking through until his patron, Lord Carnarvon, could travel from England. Carnarvon's arrival in Luxor on this day set in motion the final push toward the tomb's opening in November, a discovery that would captivate the world with its intact treasures and fuel decades of 'mummy's curse' legend.
Carter had spent nearly a decade searching the Valley of the Kings, funded by Carnarvon's considerable fortune, with disappointingly little to show for it. By 1922, Carnarvon was ready to cut off funding for one final season. Then, in early November, Carter's workers uncovered a step cut into the bedrock — the top of a staircase that had eluded looters and archaeologists alike for over three thousand years.
Rather than proceed alone, Carter sent an urgent telegram to Carnarvon in England: he had found a tomb with seals intact, and he was covering it back up until his patron could arrive to witness the opening in person. Carnarvon and his daughter Lady Evelyn Herbert made the long voyage to Egypt, arriving in Luxor around this date, both men aware they might be standing at the threshold of something extraordinary or, just as easily, another looted, empty chamber.
Within days of Carnarvon's arrival, Carter's team broke through a sealed doorway and, by candlelight, saw gold glinting in the darkness — the undisturbed treasures of Tutankhamun. The find became the archaeological sensation of the century, and Carnarvon's death from an infected mosquito bite the following spring fed a media frenzy over an alleged 'pharaoh's curse' that persists in popular imagination a century later.
Key people: Howard Carter, George Herbert (Lord Carnarvon)