The Earl and the Pharaoh

Just a small hole, punched in the rock, enabled archeologist and eminent Egyptologist Howard Carter to glimpse the treasures soon to be revealed. And treasures they were indeed, preserved in the tomb of the young king Tutankhamen. Buried for 3,000 years, they glittered still. With a breathless audience, Carter reached in, shone a torch and Lord Carnarvon stepped closer. Two men of different backgrounds, personalities, and even perspectives, introduced King Tut to the 20th century. Until that day in 1923, the modern world knew little beyond the legend of the teenage monarch entombed in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.

The Earl and the Pharoah. besides exploring a celebrated 20th-century discovery, focuses on the aristocratic British family and their home at Highclere Castle, the prototype of the television blockbuster, Downton Abbey. The Countess presents a memorable tribute to commemorate her father-in-law, the fifth Earl, who became an enthusiastic and successful horse breeder, sportsman, pioneer motorist, and aviator, as well as a hands-on participant and personal benefactor to Egyptian archeology. He unequivocally ‘managed to bridge two wholly different worlds.’

Specific dates are in short supply throughout, but the remarkable images more than adequately compensate.