Google Doodles for real life 'Tomb Raider' Howard Carter

Now who doesn’t love the ancient Egyptians. Some of us might have jumped on the bandwagon after the release of the Mummy movies but Egypt’s monuments with their mysterious ‘mummies’, have fascinated mankind from generations. From Alexander to Victorian explorers to Hollywood film-makers, the obsession doesn’t seem to end. Perhaps it is in that spirit that Google today is celebrating the 138th birth anniversary of noted English archaeologist Howard Carter, who was one of the main explorers of the Egyptian tomb of Tutankhamun. Howard Carter was born in London on 9 May, 1874. In today’s Doodle the pharaoh Tutankhamun stands right at the centre with the Google logo in the background in grey. [caption id=“attachment_303358” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Google Doodle screengrab.”] [/caption] The tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered by Carter in 4 November 1922. It came to be known as KV62, by far the best preserved and the most intact tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings. Now like all old tombs, Tutakhamun’s was believed to be cursed and it was rumoured that all the excavators would suffer and die due to it as they had desecrated the tomb. Egyptians believed in the after-life and often Pharaoh’s (the kings)were buried with servants, etc, to help them in after-life. Carter incidentally died of cancer on 2 March 1939 at the age of 64 of cancer and his natural death is used as evidence that the rumours of a curse were baseless. PS: Hey guess what its our birthday too. To know more about our journey, (which has been relatively curse free) click here.