STILL IN DE NILE

When Howard Carter and his crew opened the fabled tomb of King Tut in 1922, there were centuries of dust covering all of the amazing artifacts inside. It's little wonder then that the teams working inside to document the ancient tomb began to experience some breathing problems. Although they were all wearing dust masks, many of the crew were still sneezing, wheezing and hacking all the while. The sounds of all of this respiratory discomfort echoed though the hollow chambers and created quite a spooky din of background noise for the workers. When curious representatives of the news media ventured into the dig to record the historic finds, they were naturally curious about the strange noises emanating from the opening. Eager to play up the idea of a "curse" one interviewer asked Carter if he thought these eerie sounds might be some manifestation of Tut's haunting presence. "I really don't think so," replied Carter. "Even though these sounds are coming from the burial chamber. What your hearing is just our cough, I guess."

Gary Hallock