King Tut’s Tomb

“Tut-Ankh-Amen’s Inner Tomb Is Opened, Revealing Undreamed of Splendors, Still Untouched After 3,400 Years.” This headline stretched across three lines on the front page of the The New York Times on Feb. 17, 1923.

“This has been, perhaps, the most extraordinary day in the whole history of Egyptian excavation. Whatever any one may have guessed or imagined of the secret of Tut-Ankh-Amen’s tomb, they surely cannot have dreamed the truth as now revealed.” The Times acquired exclusive U.S. rights to the story and gave the discovery in the Valley of the Kings generous space in the newspaper. Here, the Egyptologist Howard Carter is pictured opening the tomb’s innermost shrine.