ObservanceThursday, November 4, 2027
King Tut Day
- Date
- Recurs
- Every year on November 4
- Category
- Celebration
King Tut Day falls on November 4, the date in 1922 when workmen clearing ground in the Valley of the Kings uncovered the first step of a staircase leading down to the tomb of Tutankhamun. No founder, founding year or sponsoring organization for the observance appears in any reliable record — it marks the discovery rather than any decision to commemorate it.
History
Howard Carter had been digging in the Valley of the Kings on Lord Carnarvon's money for years and was close to being cut off. His pocket diary entry for November 4, 1922 is four words: "First steps of tomb found." His own published account, in the 1923 book written with Arthur Mace, says he arrived that morning to an unusual silence and "was greeted by the announcement that a step cut in the rock had been discovered underneath the very first hut to be attacked" — his workmen found it and told him. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which lent Carter much of his expedition staff, credits "a team of Egyptian workers led by Howard Carter and financed by Lord Carnarvon." Carter's accounts differ on whether he was present, and none of them names who struck the step. The popular story of a water boy digging a hole for his jar has no source in the 1922–24 record; the historian Christina Riggs traces it to a book published in 1978.
By sunset on November 5 the staircase had been cleared to a plastered doorway with its seals intact. Carnarvon reached Luxor on November 23, and on November 26 Carter widened a breach in the inner doorway and looked through by candlelight. In the 1923 book, asked whether he could see anything, he answers "Yes, wonderful things." His handwritten journal of the same moment gives the plainer "Yes, it is wonderful." The line everyone knows comes from the book, not the notebook.
Tutankhamun was a minor king of the New Kingdom who reigned about nine years, roughly 1336 to 1327 BC. The British Museum puts him on the throne at around nine and dead at around nineteen, and notes that he was "struck from the official record" soon after his death for his association with the discredited Akhenaten. That erasure is most of why the tomb survived nearly intact.
Timeline
- November 4, 1922 — The first step of the tomb staircase is found beneath the first of the ancient workmen's huts to be cleared. Carter's pocket diary: "First steps of tomb found."
- November 5, 1922 — The staircase is cleared to a sealed, plastered doorway. Carter cables Carnarvon in England.
- November 26, 1922 — Carter looks into the antechamber by candlelight, with Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn Herbert and Arthur Callender present.
- February 16, 1923 — The sealed doorway to the burial chamber is opened before named Egyptian and British officials; the ceremonial opening follows on February 18.
- April 5, 1923 — Lord Carnarvon dies in Cairo. Carter's journal records erysipelas, blood poisoning and then pneumonia.
- October 28, 1925 — The third coffin is opened and the gold mask uncovered: "a very neatly wrapped mummy of the young king, with golden mask of sad but tranquil expression."
How to observe
Read the excavation records. The Griffith Institute at Oxford has digitized Carter's journals and diaries, the object cards and Harry Burton's photographs, with page scans beside the transcripts, free to anyone; the November 1922 journal is the most interesting document in the story. Burton was the Met's expedition photographer, lent to Carter for the clearance, and produced more than 14,000 glass negatives between 1914 and his death in 1940 — many are catalogued online, including the unwrapping of the mummy. The 1923 book is public domain and readable in full at the Internet Archive.
If you are going to Egypt, the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza held its opening ceremony on November 1, 2025 and opened to the public on November 4, the 103rd anniversary of the first step. Tutankhamun's collection is displayed together there for the first time since the excavation. The mummy stays in the Valley of the Kings.
Frequently asked questions
When was Tutankhamun's tomb discovered?
The first step was found on November 4, 1922 and the sealed doorway the next day, but the antechamber was not entered until November 26, the burial chamber not until February 16, 1923, and the coffins and gold mask not until October 1925.
How old was Tutankhamun when he died?
Around nineteen, according to the British Museum, having become king at around nine. A 2010 study of the royal mummies published in JAMA proposed bone necrosis combined with malaria as the most likely cause.
Is the curse of the pharaohs real?
No. A 2002 study in the BMJ followed the 44 Westerners Carter recorded as present at the key dates and found no significant difference in survival, concluding there was "no evidence to support the existence of a mummy's curse" — though its author notes the small numbers and that he excluded Egyptians from the cohort. The curse was largely a press creation of 1923.
Where is the gold mask now?
At the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza. It had been at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square since 1934.
Who founded King Tut Day?
Unknown. No founder, year or sponsoring organization appears in any reliable source.
When is King Tut Day?
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | November 4 | Thursday |
| 2028 | November 4 | Saturday |
| 2029 | November 4 | Sunday |
| 2030 | November 4 | Monday |
| 2031 | November 4 | Tuesday |
Sources
- Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation — Howard Carter's diaries and journals, 1922 season — https://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringTut/journals-and-diaries/season-1/diary.html → the pocket diary entry "First steps of tomb found" for November 4, 1922
- Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, Howard Carter's excavation journal, 1st season — https://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringTut/journals-and-diaries/season-1/journal.html → November 5 sealed doorway and the cable to Carnarvon; the journal wording "Yes, it is wonderful"; Carnarvon's arrival November 23; the February 16, 1923 opening before officials and the February 18 ceremonial opening; Carnarvon's illness and death April 5, 1923 (erysipelas, blood poisoning, pneumonia)
- Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, Howard Carter's excavation journal, 4th season — https://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/4sea4not.html → October 28, 1925, the third coffin opened and the gold mask uncovered
- Howard Carter and A. C. Mace, The Tomb of Tut.ankh.Amen, Vol. I (1923), public domain, via the Internet Archive — https://archive.org/stream/tomboftutankhame01cart/tomboftutankhame01cart_djvu.txt → Carter's published account of the morning of November 4, 1922; "Yes, wonderful things"; the "property-room of an opera-house of a vanished civilization"
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tutankhamun 100 — https://www.metmuseum.org/hubs/tutankhamun-100 → "a team of Egyptian workers led by Howard Carter and financed by Lord Carnarvon"; reign dates ca. 1336–1327 BC
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harry Burton (1879–1940): The Pharaoh's Photographer — https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/harry-burton-18791940-the-pharaohs-photographer → Burton lent to Carter; more than 14,000 glass negatives between 1914 and 1940; negatives held in the Department of Egyptian Art
- The British Museum, Tutankhamun: ancient and modern perspectives — https://www.britishmuseum.org/visit/object-trails/tutankhamun-ancient-and-modern-perspectives → reign about 1336–1327 BC; king at around nine, died at around nineteen; "struck from the official record"
- Hawass et al., Ancestry and Pathology in King Tutankhamun's Family, JAMA 2010;303(7):638–647 — https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/185393 → death in the ninth year of the reign at age nineteen; avascular bone necrosis with malaria proposed as the most likely cause of death
- Mark R. Nelson, The mummy's curse: historical cohort study, BMJ 2002;325(7378):1482–1484 — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC139048/ → 44 Westerners recorded present, 25 exposed; mean age at death 70 vs 75; "no evidence to support the existence of a mummy's curse"; the author's own caveats on sample size and the exclusion of Egyptians
- University of Manchester, 90th anniversary of the curse of Tutankhamen: how a modern myth was born — https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/90th-anniversary-of-the-curse-of-tutankhamen--how-a-modern-myth-was-born/ → the curse as a press artifact of 1923 and the role of Carnarvon's exclusive agreement with The Times
- Christina Riggs (Professor of History of Visual Culture, Durham University; author of Photographing Tutankhamun and Treasured), The water boy who wasn't — https://christinariggs.com/2020/06/20/the-water-boy-who-wasnt/ → the water-boy story has no 1922–24 source and traces to a 1978 book. Author's own blog rather than a peer-reviewed venue; her books are the citable form, and the page presents the story as undocumented tradition rather than as disproven.
- UNESCO, The Grand Egyptian Museum — https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/grand-egyptian-museum → official opening of the GEM on November 1, 2025; Tutankhamun's collection displayed together for the first time since its discovery
- Al Jazeera, A look inside Egypt's newly unveiled Grand Egyptian Museum (November 4, 2025) — https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/4/a-look-inside-egypts-newly-unveiled-grand-egyptian-museum → the museum opened to the public on November 4, 2025, after the November 1 ceremony
- Smithsonian Magazine, Tutankhamun's Iconic Gold Death Mask Is Getting a New Home — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tutankhamuns-iconic-gold-death-mask-is-getting-a-new-home-180986801/ → the mask had been at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir since 1934; the mummy remains in the Valley of the Kings
Notes on sourcing. The precise identity of whoever struck the first step is not recorded anywhere; Carter's diary, journal and book differ, and the page says so rather than choosing the tidier version. Scholarly chronologies for the end of the reign vary by a few years (the JAMA paper gives ca. 1324 BC against the two museums' 1327 BC); the museums agree with each other and are followed, and the figures are not averaged. The eighteenth-dynasty attribution, though standard, is not asserted here because neither museum page states it; "New Kingdom" is what the British Museum says. Rejected as sources: nationaltoday, nationaldaycalendar, checkiday, timeanddate, holidayinsights and all other daily-holiday aggregators, content farms, fan wikis, and 4november1922.com (a personal site that uses Griffith Institute images and reads as institutional but is not).
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