Posted: 27 October, 2011
CELEBRATE THE 1922 TOMB DISCOVERY OF TUTANKHAMUN
FIRST 100 TICKETS SOLD ON 4 NOVEMBER 2011 PRICED AT $19.22
EXHIBITION MUST CLOSE 4 DECEMBER!
24 October, 2011: In 1922 on 4 November, British archaeologist Howard Carter first discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun – the best preserved and most in-tact pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings and one that Melbourne has been given the opportunity to explore first hand via the tomb's exquisite artefacts.
To celebrate this anniversary, on Friday 4 November 2011, the first 100 tickets sold on site at the Melbourne Museum for entry to the exhibition that day will only cost $19.22. After 100 tickets are sold, pricing will resume to normal. This is a saving of over $10 for adults and does not include child tickets, which are less than $19.22.
Tutankhamun's tomb almost wasn't discovered! Howard Carter was employed by Lord Carnarvon to supervise his excavations from 1907. After several years of fruitless searching, Carnarvon became dissatisfied with the lack of results and, in 1922, he gave Carter one last season of funding to find the tomb for which he was searching. On November 4, 1922, late in the season, Carter's water carrier dropped a bottle of water which dripped into a crack, revealing the steps leading to Tutankhamun's tomb.
Over the coming month there are several significant milestones for the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb:
- On 4 November Carter immediately wired Lord Carnarvon to come to the Valley of the Kings after finding the stairs.
- On 5 November Cater writes in his diary "It took the whole of the preceding day and most of this day to free this excavation before the upper margins of the staircase could be demarcated on its four sides…"
- On 23 November Lord Carnarvon arrived and they started to open the tomb.
- On 26 November, with Carnarvon, Carnarvon's daughter, and others in attendance, Carter made the famous "tiny breach in the top left hand corner" of the doorway, and was able to peer in by the light of a candle and see the many gold treasures still in place.
- It wasn't until 16 February 1923, that Carter fully opened the sealed doorway, and found that it did indeed lead to a burial chamber, and he got his first glimpse of the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun.
Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs had previously set a record when it opened to the public on 8 April with 150,000 tickets pre-sold. Four months into its run, the exhibition exceeded attendance figures for all Australian exhibitions that have come before it by reaching 500,000 visitors. It now sits at a remarkable 700,000 tickets sold. Due to popular demand, the exhibition has extended its season until 4 December 2011, when it must leave the country.
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