Curse of the Mummy?

June 14, 2005 — -- For five years, British archaeologist Howard Carter combed the sands of the Valley of the Kings to no avail, and his financial backer, Lord Carnavon, was tired of getting no results. Carter's time was running out.

But on Nov. 22, 1922, the relentless archaeologist finally found what he had been after -- the hidden tomb of King Tutankhamun.

News of the extraordinary find circled the world; Carter appeared like a hero on all counts.

But that very day, Carter's pet canary was killed by a snake, the first in a string of bad incidents.

Lord Carnavon was dead within six months of the tomb's discovery, succumbing to an infected mosquito bite. It is said the lights in Cairo, Egypt, went out at the very moment of his death. The following morning, Carnavon's dog howled mournfully and he, too, fell dead to the floor.

Could it be that the tomb was cursed?

The possibility has fueled popular imagination with newspapers, books and movies all picking up the story.

Most Egyptologists say there is no such thing as a curse.

"If you close this tomb for 3,000 years and there's a mummy inside this tomb, and you open and you enter, the room will contain germs that you cannot see," said Zahi Hawass. "It can hit people."

Microbes or the curse of the mummy? The world may never know.