Descent Into a Mummy’s Tomb: 100 Years of King Tut

Summary: A visit to King Tut’s tomb on the 100th anniversary of his discovery provided an epic adventure and opportunity to evaluate ancient Egypt’s worldview first hand. 

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. – Romans 8:20-22 (ESV)

Arrival at the Tomb

This week saw the official opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, the largest museum in the world devoted to a single civilization. Located near the Great Pyramids of Giza, one of its featured displays includes the thousands of magnificent articles found within the tomb of Egypt’s most famous pharaoh. Articles intended to accompany the deceased pharaoh into the afterlife. However, the mummified body of this pharaoh remains on display in his tomb more than 300 miles to the south, where he was buried in the Valley of the Kings outside modern-day Luxor. 

In 1923, the newly discovered tomb of famed Pharaoh Tutankhamen (King Tut) was unsealed revealing the pharaoh to the world for the first time in millennia. To observe the 100th anniversary of this epic event and the way it changed Egyptian archaeology, in May of 2023 my wife and I journeyed to see the Egyptian pharaoh in his tomb for ourselves.

Our arrival at tomb KV 62 was early in the morning. We were definitely going to beat the heat as well as the groups of tourists that would be arriving imminently. We had journeyed to the ancient Theban Necropolis in modern Luxor to retrace the steps made a century earlier by archaeologist Howard Carter and his patron Lord Carnarvon with daughter Lady Evelyn Herbert. On that occasion, 100 years earlier, the trio opened the tomb of King Tutankhamen, discovering his mummy and becoming the first people in the modern era to enter the burial chamber. The breakthrough would introduce the world to a new era of interest in ancient Egyptian culture and lore. 

History of the Discovery

The original discovery almost had a completely different story. The site was initially identified on November 4, 1922, however Carnarvon was granted dig permission in 1914. Eight frustrating years had elapsed producing little of anything significant. After the better part of a decade had yielded inconsequential results, in disappointment, Lord Carnarvon had decided the project would be discontinued at the end of the ’22 dig season. 

With the new time frame, and desperate for results, Carter decided to redirect excavations to an obstructed area concealed beneath a number of huts. He took a chance, had the structures removed, and his risk was rewarded. Soon after initiating the dig process, a discovery was made, a single object – a single step – tracking downward into the floor of the desert.

More digging revealed a series of steps descending at a steep angle. As the excavation team tracked the staircase 15.42 feet into the desert floor, they reached bottom and found a doorway marked with Tutankhamun’s cartouche. It was clear that the door concealed entry to a corridor. As the presiding archaeologist on site, Howard Carter hurriedly refilled the area and immediately sent word to expedition financier, Lord Carnarvon in London.

Upon receiving the telegram, Carnarvon along with his daughter Lady Evelyn Herbert expeditiously made their way to Egypt arriving at Luxor on November 23, just 19 days after receiving the telegram. The next day, they were all at the dig site. After they re-cleared the staircase, they opened the sealed door and advanced into a rubble-filled corridor 25 feet long. Clearing the debris, they then advanced into the tomb’s antechamber which revealed thousands of artifacts, the cataloguing of which took months even with assistance from many supporters. 

Finally, months later on February 16, 1923, the sealed doorway to the burial chamber housing the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun was opened. And to this day, the tomb is considered to be the best preserved of all the pharaonic tombs unearthed in the Valley of the Kings. The significance of the discovery is now the stuff of lore. And so, a hundred years later in 2023, in advance of a course I would teach on related matters, the time was right for my own encounter with the legendary pharaoh.

Descent into the Mummy’s Tomb

In commemoration of this epic discovery, my wife and I traveled to the Valley of the Kings in the spring. Our itinerary included time at the historic Cairo Museum where we examined the pharaoh’s treasure horde including his famous gold burial mask and immaculate golden throne. We then flew to Luxor and on the next day made full exploration of the entire Necropolis. We had selected the month of May for our excursion to avoid interrupting the academic year (and missing graduation ceremony), and to experience ideal weather for our tastes.

Finally, we were here and about to retrace the steps that the original excavation team made 100 years earlier. As we stepped through the gate at the tomb entrance, equipped with cameras and in silence, we immediately began the steep descent into the desert floor via the staircase leading to doorway number 1. Once we cleared the door, we began our jaunt through the 26-foot-long corridor and finally into the antechamber. The total distance to this point is 55 feet. Once the antechamber (26 feet north to south) is accessed, a right turn is made toward the burial chamber lying behind another door at the north. We finally cleared the 3rd doorway, and to my surprise, the mummy of King Tut was present and fully viewable inside of a transparent vacuum-sealed Lucite-type case. 

Somehow, I had missed that he would actually be there – today – over 3300 years after his interment in this exact place. His death and mummification are thought to have been in 1323 BC; he was subsequently discovered in the modern era in 1923, and we were here with him a century after that in 2023. The Egyptian mummification from all of those millennia ago had worked – spectacularly, but what was it all for? 

Time and Worldview Implications

The primary goal of ancient Egyptian funerary practice was an elaborate effort at defeating time, and more importantly death – the inevitable conclusion of the law of entropy for living organisms. They mummified everything: cats, crocodiles, oxen, birds, dogs, ibex, etc. They especially mummified humans – thousands of human mummies from ancient Egypt have been recovered. You can spend a whole day looking at nothing but mummies in the Egyptian Museum. This illustrates the point: the law of entropy has never made an exception for anyone, despite the position, power, or prestige of those limitless numbers who have tried. And the ancient Egyptians made a really good effort at slowing down decay – after death had already set in.

Einstein taught us that the fundamental property of the universe is not time, as many have theorized. Rather, it is change, specifically change from order to disorder, hot to cold, charged to discharged, as described by the laws of entropy and thermodynamics. This is what we actually measure with our timepieces – the process of change. The spinning of an escapement is the releasing of tension (stored energy) in a controlled way that patterns nature. Likewise, the vibration of a tuning fork, or oscillation of a quartz crystal are the controlled release of energy paralleling what is happening in the cosmos. What we are measuring and describing as time is a description of the ongoing, never ceasing process of entropy. 

Genesis 3 describes the fall, the ensuing curse, along with the introduction of death and its accompanying sting. The ancient Egyptians were attempting to find a workaround to transcend these realities. Even today, modern technologies are often developed and employed in an attempt to circumvent this principle of entropy. However, history shows us that no one can escape death and the Scriptures provide the explanation. Yet, there is a key historical event that gives believers hope. Old Testament believers looked forward; New Testament believers look backward. Here’s how Paul put it.

Therefore he says also in another psalm, “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’ For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. – Acts 13:35-39

Conclusion

New Testament believers understand that not only did Christ accomplish victory over death, but has moved us to an expectation and hope of a new, future, glorified body.

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Corinthians 15:53-57

Keep Thinking!

Note: Course registration at Brookes Bible College is now open for Spring 2026 featuring Beginning Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Aramaic, Ancient History, Worldview Analysis and more. Contact Jordan Mitchell (JMitchell@brookes.edu) to enroll and study with some of our favorite and most trusted professors. 2.) Interested in returning to Cairo, Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, the Great Pyramids of Giza, and more with Professors Brian and Janet Rickett? We’re in the planning stages of developing an excursion in either May of 2026 or 2027. Groups are limited to around 36 and Brookes College students get first selection. Consider either enrolling in a Brookes course or contacting our offices to be placed on an interest list. To be placed on a list, contact Paul Stoecklein at pstoecklein@brookes.edu. Hope to see you in the Valley of the Kings soon!

TOP PHOTO: Wall paintings in King Tut’s tomb. (credit: Brian Rickett)

R. Brian Rickett is Professor of Bible and Apologetics at Brookes Bible College. He is also the CEO, Principal Researcher, and lecturer for the MIKRA Research Laboratory, a limited liability research conservancy engaging in textual artifact analysis, education, research technologies development, and public exhibitions of artifacts. Brian appeared in Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy.