Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-04-13

A BOUT o'clock on the morning
, ~ of November 4, 1922, Howard
~ Carter, who was superintend-
= ing the exploration concession
Of the late Lord Carnarvon in the
Valley of the Tonbs of the Kings, told
his Egyptian foreman, Ibrahim Has
, sin, to dig toward the north while
he went back to his villa to rest
1t was just five days since work
! had been resumed on this concession,
! following the long summer vacation,
and as the diggers and basket boys
| were merely clearing the ground near
| the entrance to the tomb of Rameses
VI, Mr.. Carter felt he could take a
little rest.
Since the end of the war Howard
/ Carter had been carrying on explora-
ton work in the Valley of the Tombs
of the Kings for the late Lord Car
narvon without finding anything. In
fact, Lord Carnarvon had practically
decided to try his luck elsewhere,
when he consented to make one moro
search-for two months only-in the
/ grim valley.
The thirty or forty diggers and
| basket boys who were at work on
that particular morning were not
searching for the tomb of King Tut
| ankh-Amen, nor did the late Lord
Carnarvon or Howard Carter expect
to find It in that location. AS a mat
ter of fact, they were hoping to find
the burial shaft Of the tomb of Vizier
Rekhmara-
Theodore NJ. Davis of Newport,
/ R. l.. who had spent a small fortune
excavating in the Valley of the
Tombs of the Kings, and whose vari-
Gus expeditions found more tombs OF
real Importance than any other re-
cent excavator. believed he had found
the tomb OF Tut-ankh-Amen. From
which il will be seen that the discov-
cry of the tomb OF King Tut was
purely accidental.
The workingmen OF the late Lord
| Carnarvon's expedition had begun to
! clear the ground in the center of the
valley In the most systematic fashion
when they resumed operations on the
| last day OF October, 1922. 1t was
slow, discouraging work, for the val
ley is of solid limestone rock, and
the native diggers are VIGOROUSLY
lazy In addition, they take great
delight in disobeying instructions. So
| Il is not surprising that when How
ard Carter left them with irstruc-
lions to dig northward they did ex-
actly the opposite, and began clearing
away the masses of rubble toward
the south.
- = + i
4 il happened, it was . lucky thing
4 for Mr.. Carter that they did So
otherwise the tomb Of King Tut
| might never have been discovered,
and Howard Carter would not have
won the fame and fortune that are
his today. For throughout the world
his name is almost synonymous with
King Tut. He is regarded as the
real discoverer Of the famous tomb,
and in addition he is said to have re-
eeived a large sum from the London
Times for the exclusive information
about the discovery and its subse-
ouent developments. What his share
of the tomb's loot will prove TO be is
problematical-the Egyptian govern
ment may take It all.
As a matter of fact. thirteen
year-old Egyptian boy, Mohamed
Gorgar by name, was the real dis
coverer of the tomb. While digging
in a southerly direction, in direct vio-
lation OF Mr.. Carter's instructions, at
$50 on the morning of November 4,
1922, Mohamed Gorgar found step
cut in the rock. Instinctiyely he
knew he had stumbled across some
thing of great Importance, and he
set up a shout that brought Ibrahim