When things go wrong in Egypt… blame the dead.
After Egypt announced it would move 22 mummies from their original resting grounds to a new site, well, all hell broke loose in the country.
In March alone, they had the Suez Canal blockage that disrupted global markets, two trains collided with each other, a garment factory went up in flames and a residential building collapsed — these instances are now fueling a century-old curse of the pharaohs mystery.
Residents are hearkening to an alleged inscription found on Tutankhamun‘s tomb that said “death will come swiftly to those who disturb the tomb of the king” — and that language is now under intense scrutiny if, indeed, Egypt ignited the wrath of the gods.
Still, celebrations to move the nearly two dozen mummies are full steam ahead.
On Saturday, Egypt will hold a “royal parade” preceded by a glitzy ceremony in the iconic Tahrir Square, from where the mummies will be taken to a newly inaugurated museum in Cairo’s old Islamic city of Fustat.
Organizers of the parade made light of the supposed curse.
“The curse is a myth, and the inscription they speak about is non-existent,” said famous Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, one of the organizers.
“Even if the curse exists, it won’t be activated on Saturday because the mummies know that they are going to a new place where they will be honored,” Hawass quipped.
The mystery has its origins in the earth-shattering discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, the boy king widely known as King Tut, in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings in 1922. The death of a few members of British Egyptologist Howard Carter‘s team in subsequent years and the alleged inscription reported by journalists at the time sparked frenzy.