On October 28， 1922， Howard Carter summoned his reis， the foreman of his
excavating crew， to his house just outside the Valley of the Kings and told him
that he wanted to resume work without delay.
Arehaeologizts worked only a short season in the Valley in those days.
By April the pitiless s~， beating on its sheer rock walls， turned it into a furnace
until late October， and the kha~in， the searing wind from the south， swirled its
~ndy floor into choking stoma.
Carter had even Iem time than that. The tourists would begin arriving by
mid-December to visit the burial ground of the pharaohs. Since his dig would block
the entr~ce to the tomb of Rameses VI， one of the Vafley s most popular
attractions， he knew he would have to be finished by then.
And this short ~ason might well be Carter s last in the Valley. He had just
returned from a meeting in England with the Earl of Camarvon， who had been
bearing the cost of his excavations for the past fifteen years and sharing in the
infrequent glory of their finds. Camarvon， disappointed by yea~ of failure， told Carter
that he had decided not to apply for the renewal of his government concession to
ex~vate in the Vnlley. Only Carter s pleading， and his offer to pay the cost him~lf if
nothing were found， had induced Camarvon to agree to one final ~ason.
So Carter knew that he had less than two months to complete， in sueee~
or failme， the ~rch that had obse~ed him for ten years. The prize he sought was
the tomb of Tutankhamun， who had reigned more than 3，200 years before.
The Valley of the Kings， the royal necropolis， had been part of ancient Thebes，
the capital from which the Egyptian empire was ruled at the zenith of its power.
The Valley lay just a few miles away from the west bank of the Nile， whose unfailing
waters nurtured Egyptian civilization， opposite Karnak and Luxor and more than
fo~ hundred miles south of preaent-day Cairo.
With the end of the seemingly perpetual power of the pbaraohs， Thebes
had b~n po~e~d by the Persians， by the Gr~ks of Alexander the Great， by the
Romans， by tile Arabs， by the Ottoman Empire. Egypt had been invaded by file
French of Napoleon， who brought with him a group of ~holars: later Egypt became a
protectorate of Great Britain， although with its own ruling house.
For centuries the Valley and its surrounding desert， wild and inacce~ible，
had been the haunt of bandits. Only in the nineteenth century， as a measure of order
was imposed， did archaeologists dare to begin excavating there.
In all， about thizty-three royal tombs had been found in the bedrock of the
Valley or delved into its furrowed rock walls， but every one had been pillaged
long before by profe~innal thieves， some of whom struck witlfin a few years of the
royal b~ials. What bad been fo~d by Einopeans， wbih it included many beautiful
objects， was scarcely more th~ their I~vings. At that， few important discoveri~
had been made in the Valley since the start oi tile twentieth cent~y， and most experts
believed that the b~ial gro~d had yielded all its secrets.
Carter， who had spent more than thirty years in Egypt， di~greed. Three
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