Modern Era · Middle East · Exploration

1922

Tutankhamun's tomb opened

November 4, 1922

In the Valley of the Kings, Howard Carter chiseled through a sealed door, held up a candle, and saw, as he put it, wonderful things: gold couches, a chariot, the boy pharaoh's funeral mask. The world fell into a fit of Egyptomania that shaped fashion, architecture, and Hollywood sets for a decade.