Mummy Murder Cover-Up
55:32 Share

In the winter of 1923, Arthur Mace struck career gold. As a conservator for the Metropolitan Museum, he was stationed in Luxor, Egypt, looking for new pieces. So you can imagine the rush he felt when he heard archaeologist Howard Carter had unearthed a tomb filled with ancient treasure and perhaps a mummy. Even better, Carter was hiring help.

Arthur Mace signed right up and got to work photographing the lost treasure. A solid gold throne, a bed shaped like two leopards, vessels filled with wine. Vintage 1323 BCE. The tomb belonged to a then unknown pharaoh named Tutankhamun. And thanks to the grave's incredible preservation,

King Tut quickly skyrocketed from a forgotten figure to the world's most famous mummy. But as Mace studied the grave, he noticed something odd. King Tut wasn't in the existing historical record. One of archeology's most incredible finds didn't fit in the known timeline. And once Mace saw the mummy, he came to a new conclusion. Whoever buried King Tut

killed him first and then tried to erase him from history. Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You can find us here every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod and we would love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts.

For the Halloween season, we're examining classic monsters and the conspiracy theories around them. How do the most famous monsters connect to our biggest real-world fears? Tune in all October to find out. Today, we're looking at one of the world's most famous mummies, King Tut.

Theories include a faked grave robbing, an ancient curse, and a 3,000-year-old murder cover-up. Stay with us.

This episode is brought to you by Buzz Balls. Every time I see these guys in the store, I have to smile. They are hilarious and so cute. My favorite flavor is watermelon smash. Thanks to Buzz Balls, you can get delicious cocktails in these cute, ready-to-drink ball cans. They're made with real fruit juices and creams, plus they're kosher certified and gluten-free. There's a Buzz Balls for every cocktail taste. Find a Buzz Balls near you.

BuzzBalls, 15% ABV, Carrollton, Texas. Please enjoy responsibly.

This episode is brought to you by Coca-Cola Creations. You love the taste of Coca-Cola and love the cookie crunch of Oreos. But what happens when the best drink and the best cookie in the world get together? The best becomes besties. Try the new Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Oreo Limited Edition. Besties for a limited time. Taste it while it lasts. Copyright 2024. The Coca-Cola Company. Copyright 2024. Mondelez International Group.

This episode is brought to you by Opel, the first over-the-counter daily birth control pill available in the U.S. Opel is FDA approved, full prescription strength and estrogen free. Plus, there's no prescription needed. Finally, the days of needing a prescription for birth control are over. Opel is available online and at most major retailers. Take control of your health and reproductive journey with Opel. Birth control in your control. Use code birth control for 25% off your first month of Opel at opel.com.

In early 1923, Howard Carter and Arthur Mace were among the first to see King Tut's tomb in roughly 3,000 years. Finding it was a stroke of luck. The tomb was hidden under sand, with no visible above-ground markers like pyramids or statues. Unlike other pharaohs' graves, it didn't seem to be missing any treasure from grave robbers. It was untouched.

pristine, but something was definitely missing. There was no documentation of the king's parents or his reign. The grave goods showed the pharaoh was married, but his wife wasn't featured on any of the murals and she wasn't buried with him as if someone wanted them separated in the afterlife, even stranger.

The information in the tomb revealed that Tut died very young, at around 19 years old. Something must have gone very wrong for him. Or Egypt. For Mason Carter's team, the only way to find out what happened was to dig through Tut's stuff. So for the next three months, the team carefully documented each item before removing it from the tomb.

By February 1923, they had cleared a path to the second chamber, which typically held the sarcophagus. They opened the door and found another door, and then another, and another. The burial chamber held four concentric shrines, each almost as big as the room itself. All were gilded with real gold, and at the very center, a granite sarcophagus.

The top lid showed a crack that had been hastily patched, and perhaps evidence that touched tomb was a rush job. After the lid cracked, they speculated there wasn't time to get a new one. The archaeologists knew they'd have to take extra care opening the sarcophagus, so they arranged to lift the granite lid with a pulley system. However, it would take time to set up, and the archaeological dig season was almost over.

Egypt's summers are notoriously unforgiving and no one wanted to be working outside in 110 degree heat. So they packed up the tomb and made plans to unwrap the mummy at a later date. Then bureaucracy entered the picture. The Egyptians made a few laws about opening up tombs. Archaeologists could only remove items from tombs that had already been targeted by grave robbers.

Carter had an answer for this. He claimed the tomb had been entered before. They'd just taken so little it was nearly unnoticeable. Cue back and forth. A year dragged on before the archaeologists received financing and permission to open the coffin again, where they immediately faced another challenge. Targ.

King Tut's main sarcophagus held three smaller coffins, packed inside each other like Russian nesting dolls, and layered with a sticky, resinous material. It coated the mummy, too. There was no melting it. They'd have to autopsy the body while it was still stuck inside its coffin. British doctor Douglas Derry and Egyptian doctor Saleh Bey Hamdi were chosen to do the honors.

Both were experienced anatomists, but even they felt overwhelmed. Especially when they removed the layers of linen and revealed the body inside. It didn't match any other known mummy. It had an erect penis and no heart. The ancient Egyptians believed a person's essence rested in their heart, not their brain.

So while all other organs were preserved outside the corpse, the heart always stayed inside the mummy's chest. It was crucial to entering the afterlife. The removal implied whoever buried Tut didn't want him in the afterlife. And as for the erect penis, it's not normal for mummies. It suggested someone had taken liberties with Tut's body.

Maybe because of that, Drs. Derry and Hamdi couldn't come to any firm conclusions as to how Tut died. The inquest ended, and in 1926, Howard Carter's team resealed the tomb. They laid the boy king back to rest, though it wouldn't be in peace.

His treasures were flown off to museums around the world, and his chopped-up mummy eventually became a tourist attraction. Pretty soon, King Tut became one of the world's most famous mummies. And not because of anything he'd done in life. He reigned for less than a decade, and any achievements were lost to history. He only became famous in our time because his grave was so well-preserved.

Which brings us to our first conspiracy theory. That when Howard Carter and his team found King Tut's grave, it was completely untouched. The break-in he told the Egyptian authorities about? Faked. According to Egyptologist Bob Breyer in his book, The Murder of Tutankhamen, when Howard Carter found King Tut's tomb, he was on a last-ditch effort.

Carter hadn't found anything in six years of searching the desert. So his financier, Lord Carnarvon, made it clear. Find something now or find someone else to finance the expeditions. Carnarvon had actually tried to cut his funding before this trip, but Howard Carter begged him to give him one more chance. So he had a lot riding on opening up King Tut's grave.

There's one crucial piece of evidence to support this. The telegram Carter sent Lord Carnarvon about the discovery. He wrote, quote, at last have made wonderful discovery in valley, a magnificent tomb with seals intact. Seals intact. Meaning the grave robber Carter reported to the Egyptian authorities that

might have been Carter himself. This only adds more fuel to the fire for the next theory, the rumored Mummy's Curse. Over the next decade, nearly a dozen men involved with the excavation met early deaths. And we covered this conspiracy theory on a previous episode called The Mummy's Curse, so we'll just hit the highlights here.

First, Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition, died before he could even see King Tut's mummy. On the initial visit to the tomb, a mosquito bit his face. The infection killed him within a few weeks. His sudden death felt even eerier when it came out that multiple psychics had reportedly warned Lord Carnarvon to avoid Egypt. They foresaw that a trip would bring his untimely death.

and those who visited a tomb would be punished. And in some people's opinions, they were. After Lord Carnarvon died, fellow excavator George J. Gould got pneumonia. Sir Archibald Douglas Reid died of sudden illness. Prince Ali Kamal Fahmy Bey was shot by his wife.

Sir Lee Stack was assassinated. Hugh Evelyn White died by suicide. Aaron Ember perished in a house fire. And Arthur Mace, the first person to suggest King Tut was murdered, is said to have died of arsenic poisoning. The message was clear. Don't go digging up old secrets.

The Legend of the Curse became so popular, it inspired a 1932 film, a 1940 reimagining with four sequels, and a 1959 reboot. By the 1960s, King Tut was a household name, though much about his actual life and death remained a mystery. That we know about King Tut at all could be the result of conspiracies, and as time went on,

More conspiracy theories arose that kept Tut in the public consciousness. In 1968, the time was right to reopen the case with X-ray technology. That year, anatomist Ronald Harrison led a team of British and Egyptian scientists in the first scientific examination of the mummy since the 1920s.

Determined to find answers, he lugged bulky equipment into the desert and underground into the tomb. The curse sure wouldn't stop him, and the determination paid off. In a BBC documentary, Dr. Harrison showed off the x-rays he'd taken on King Tut's skull. He pointed to an unusually thin section of bone and said, quote,

It could have been caused by a hemorrhage under the membranes overlying the brain in this region. And this could have been caused by a blow to the back of the head. And this, in turn, could have been responsible for death. As it turned out, the second examination of King Tut's mummy uncovered another hint of foul play. It looked like King Tut did die following a head injury.

The x-rays showed small fragments of bone loose inside the skull. Harrison's team thought these might have chipped off as a result of the head trauma. Now, the injury could have been an accident, and it's important to note that Dr. Harrison didn't directly say King Tut was murdered. So even though it felt like groundbreaking evidence, the case went cold for another 30 years.

But King Tut? Well, he only grew more famous. Though little was known about his life, the artifacts from his tomb continued their world tour. They were deemed so important, they actually made it into the peace agreement that ended the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Per the provision, the King Tut artifacts that had been in the Soviet Union would take a trip to the USA.

So, Americans had some familiarity with Tut when the murder mystery surfaced again. In the late 1990s, Egyptologist Bob Breyer appeared in a TLC documentary. He outlined the oddities of Tut's mummy on screen. But unlike Harrison, Breyer believed that King Tut might have been murdered. This time, the theory took off.

Breyer is widely renowned and considered one of the leading experts on mummies. When he spoke, people listened. Major international news outlets reported that Breyer had reignited a 3,000-year-old murder case. Now, even Breyer agreed there wasn't enough evidence yet to say whether King Tut was killed or died of other causes. But with the theory going viral, the investigation was on.

Breyer began work on a book about his observations. Meanwhile, another archaeologist made moves to examine King Tut's mummy. And for the first time, the person leading the charge was Egyptian: Zahi Hawass. In 2002, Hawass took over as head of Egypt's Antiquities Department. He wanted to re-examine every known royal mummy with the latest technology.

starting with King Tut. In January 2005, Hawass authorized removing the mummy from the tomb for the first time since 1926. His team set up a tech trailer in the Valley of the Kings where they subjected the mummy to CT scans. As they moved the mummy out of the tomb and into the trailer that held the CT scan machine, ominous clouds gathered above.

The mummy entered the scanner and a sandstorm broke loose. The machine stopped working. Once again, it felt like the investigation was cursed. Luckily, Hawass' team got the machine back up and running later that day. By nightfall, they had new conclusions about King Tut's head injury. There wasn't one. The thin spot that Harrison found in the x-ray was just a technical issue.

He'd been forced to take the x-ray from an odd angle in the crypt, which threw off the results. And the pieces of bone inside the skull weren't coated in resin, which suggested they'd broken off after his brain was removed and his skull was preserved. Maybe even when Dr. Derry and Hamdi chiseled and sliced the body during the first autopsy. Either way, the results were conclusive.

King Tut wasn't killed by a blow to the head. But with the missing records and the missing heart, they couldn't rule out that he hadn't been murdered by other means. Around 2010, University of Chicago professor Ray Johnson discovered ancient Egyptian masonry that had been recycled. Though the bricks were found in Luxor's medieval buildings, Johnson realized they were covered in ancient carvings.

He traced them back to an old city gate from around 1300 BCE, but the carvings still didn't line up. Before the gate, they'd been taken from somewhere else. Johnson ran images of the bricks through a computerized puzzle solver, connecting lines to create an image. The pixels resembled King Tut, leading his armies into battle.

Johnson concluded that the bricks were made for the Pharaoh's mortuary temple, a place where the living could honor their king after he died. But within two decades of his death, someone destroyed the young king's temple, as if someone who witnessed Tut's reign wanted him forgotten. With this new information, Bobbryer proposed a fresh theory. King Tut's murder wouldn't be solved by examining his body.

but by digging up the history of the Pharaohs before and after him.

This episode is brought to you by SimpliSafe. We talk about a lot of complex mysteries and theories on this podcast, so let's take a moment and discuss something simpler. If you want to secure your home, you need SimpliSafe. There's a lot of home security systems on the market. SimpliSafe is one of the best, and they make it so easy to protect what matters most to you.

And I speak from personal experience. I had a break in about three years ago. Somebody pried open a window, climbed in and robbed me while I slept. It is one of the worst feelings in the world, the feeling of vulnerability and violation. I needed to feel safe.

I got Simply Safe and I cannot express to you enough the difference it's made me feel. And it was so easy. You could hire someone to set it up, but I did it myself in under an hour. If you're going to trust anyone with you and your family's safety, trust Simply Safe.

They've been named best home security system by U.S. News & World Report for five years running. And right now, you can get an exclusive 50% discount on a new system, plus a free indoor security camera with fast protect monitoring. Just visit simplisafe.com slash conspiracy.com.

This offer is available for a limited time only, so be sure to order today. That's simplisafe.com slash conspiracy. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. It's the new Ghost Burger from Carl's Jr. It's a juicy char-boiled Angus beef burger. Yeah.

I don't have any teeth.

So, let's go back in time to ancient Egypt, before King Tut was mummified and struck from the historical record. I'll start at the beginning and relay the story Bob Breyer and other Egyptologists and archaeologists have pieced together. First, I want to clear up a common misconception. When you hear "ancient Egyptian mummy," most people imagine them buried in massive pyramids that jut up into the sky.

But that's all thanks to Hollywood. Most later period Egyptian mummies were actually interred in underground tombs, including King Tut. By his era, the pyramids were already hundreds of years old, and building new ones wasn't really a priority. At that point in history, Egypt was a superpower, flush with tax money.

It maintained the strongest army in the Middle East and fed its soldiers with wheat and barley grown on the banks of the Nile. The pharaoh maintained order, and a pantheon of gods and goddesses watched from above. Life was good until around 1353 BCE, when King Tut's father took the throne, Amenhotep IV.

Unlike his predecessors, he had no interest in military conquest. He refused to lead his army into battle and mostly kept his soldiers at home. He let his advisors do the actual work of running a country, and they were more than happy to grasp power. In his mind, Amenhotep IV had something more important to focus on: religion.

You see, the ancient Egyptians believed the pharaohs were descended from gods, and that made them the closest connections to the gods on earth. Kind of like the Roman Catholic Pope, if he was also every member of the Italian parliament. So it wasn't shocking when the pharaoh reported religious visions from Aten, the sun god. What was shocking was what he said Aten told him. Egyptians should worship Aten,

And Aten alone, the pharaoh was all in. He even changed his name, calling himself Pharaoh Akin Aten. His new name honored the god he served. Then he decreed that the entire country was changing their religion, effective immediately.

This was a massive deal, because up to this point Egyptians were polytheistic with many gods. Now they had to be monotheistic, an idea they'd never considered before. Priests who'd spent their entire lives serving multiple Egyptian gods were told to forget all they knew and worship Aten alone. If they didn't, they'd lose everything.

Meanwhile, Akhenaten moved the capital city about 200 miles up the Nile. He married the famous Nefertiti, and though she received the title, the king's great wife, Nefertiti wasn't the only wife. Akhenaten likely also married his own sister, and they had two sons, Smenkare and Tutankhaten.

Because the Egyptian royal family believed they were descended from gods, they were careful not to dilute their bloodline. They couldn't have third cousins popping up claiming to be gods too, so they often married their own brothers, sisters, and by some accounts, children. But back then, no one was worrying about incest. For one, they didn't know the dangers, and two, they had much, much bigger problems.

Because under Akhenaten, Egypt was falling into chaos. In the 1340s BCE, there were no conquests and hundreds of priests who didn't know what to do. Egypt had prospered for so long, and Akhenaten was screwing it all up. If he wanted to stay in power, he'd have to hold onto it tightly.

Perhaps that's why it's widely believed he elevated his older son, Smenkhare, to co-regent. This was a common practice in ancient Egypt. Co-regents prevented a succession crisis when a pharaoh died young, which wasn't uncommon. It's estimated that Akhenaten himself died in his 40s, following his wife Nefertiti and several of his daughters.

As far as we can tell, Nefertiti and the girls died of natural causes. As for Akhenaten, we'll come back to that. As planned, Pharaoh Smenkhare took over after Akhenaten, but shortly after, he died too. The throne passed to his younger brother, Tutankhaten. There was just one problem. Tutankhaten was a child. Historians place him between 8 and 10 years old.

nowhere near ready to rule an empire especially an empire in turmoil enter the grand vizier i was practically an institution he had served under two generations of pharaohs and acted as akhenaten and smankare's number two when smankare died grand vizier i saw opportunity

He held secret meetings with a young military general named Horemheb and they planned their next steps. First, to make sure they were the only bugs in the young king's ear. And second, to return to the Egypt of their youth, back before Akhenaten sent the country into disarray. Part one happened quickly.

Soon after Smenkhare's death, Grand Vizier Ai was the only royal advisor left standing. But his path to power wasn't secure yet. He still had to deal with Akhenaten's other living child, a little girl named Anka Senpaten. Now, according to Egyptologist Bob Breyer, Egyptian succession laws included a practice called "eris theory."

Essentially, if the pharaoh was unable to produce a male heir, or if that heir died, then his eldest daughter's husband would become pharaoh. Anca Senpaten was a pharaoh's daughter, so if Tutankhaten died childless, her husband would take the throne. At the time, she was unmarried. So, not long after Smenkhare's death, Grand Vizier Ai sat both children down in the Amarna Palace.

and presented a plan that would change their lives forever. Tutankhaten and Ankhasenpaten would both get married to each other. They'd all move back to Ai's hometown, Thebes. It had been home base for centuries of pharaohs before Akhenaten's revolution. And they'd also change their names back to traditional ones. Now they'd be Tutankhamun and Ankhasenamun.

We'll side with archaeologists and just call him Tut and her Anka from here on out. To his credit, Grand Vizier Ai made vast improvements to Egypt. People were happy to have the old gods, festivals, and wars back. Early in Tut's reign, Egypt won a war against Nubia and gained access to land and precious stones. The country was wealthy again.

The generals had something to do, and so did the priests. In one religious ceremony, Pharaoh Tut and Queen Anka acted out the mythical love story of Isis and Osiris. The performance was complete with a boat journey down the Nile. The goal was to ensure its annual life-sustaining floods. And Isis and Osiris weren't the only gods brought back.

Tut was identified with Horus in other ceremonies, and of course, the new names for him and his wife honored Amun-Re, the chief god of Thebes. Notably, Amun means hidden and Re means the divine son. Considering their father's favorite god, Aten was also a divine son god, the message couldn't be clearer. Akhenaten's influence was over.

Those two decades of monotheism were just a fluke, and the Aten was hidden from the public. But change is never easy for everyone. As the royal teenagers came of age, they began thinking for themselves. Like most people, they considered where they came from and revisited their parents' teachings. It's impossible to know exactly what Tut and Anka believed in,

But it's telling that on King Tut's throne, the royal couple is engraved side by side under the rays of the Aten. The throne doesn't feature any other gods. Though it does feature Anka's hand on Tut's shoulder. They're posed like two people who care for each other. And this isn't the only relic of a couple in love. Other artifacts show Anka's adoring gaze as Tut shoots an arrow...

Her smile as he catches birds, both of them feeding each other. They seem inseparable, like the arranged marriage should turn into a love story. Now, some might say that could all be PR, but many of these items were documented as gifts from Anka to Tut. They weren't made for public display. They were just for Tut. Though it probably felt like everything was just for him.

All of Egyptian culture revolved around him, from religious ceremonies to wars to the very passage of time. Each new year was marked by how long the latest pharaoh had reigned. It's like how some people refer to years as AD and BC. But each pharaoh was a new Jesus Christ. Since time restarted with each new ruler, it was much easier for past pharaohs to be forgotten.

All that mattered was the person in charge now. This probably went to Tut's head, and it would for most people. And even if it didn't, perhaps teen rebellion set in once he realized that other people were making all the decisions for him. Namely, Grand Vizier I, who effectively functioned as a regent, and General Horemheb, who led the military.

By the time Tut was a teenager, it had been decades since a pharaoh had taken any interest in politics or war. It's likely that during this time, I got used to being in charge. So if Tut wanted to truly take power, he'd have to work for it. We don't know exactly how this played out, but we do know one way he tried to secure his throne.

by creating a line of succession. During Tut's reign, Queen Anca got pregnant at least twice. However, it appears that both children were stillborn. Each was mummified so they could ascend to the afterlife through their father's tomb once its construction was complete. But the promise of an afterlife together couldn't quell the royal family's devastation.

A nation without an heir was an open door for invasion from enemies. Not having any kids didn't just spell the end of a dynasty, it could mean the end of Egypt as they knew it. Though it's likely the stillbirths were a result of generations of incest, Tut and Anka didn't know that. The deaths might have felt like a curse, and the only way to break a curse was to please the gods. Or maybe just one god.

At this time, it's possible Tut and Anka's interest in the Aten sun god grew beyond home decor. It's possible they began considering drastic changes, like a return to monotheism. And as we saw with Akhenaten, when the pharaoh changes his mind, all of Egypt has to follow him, for better or worse.

However, Tut didn't have a chance to change everyone's religion because around 1323 BCE, 19-year-old Pharaoh Tutankhamun turned up dead.

We all have plans in life, maybe to take a cross-country road trip or simply get through this workout without any back pain. Whether our plans are big, small, spontaneous, or years in the making, good health helps us accomplish them. At Banner Health, we're here to provide more than health care. Whatever you're planning, wherever you're going, we're here to help you get there. Banner Health. Exhale.

When Pharaoh Tutankhamen died around 1323 BCE, shockwaves coursed through the Egyptian royal court. There's no record of his final moments or how his body was found, but it's clear that people weren't expecting him to die because he hadn't appointed an heir.

Egypt needed a new leader, and fast. You see, traditionally, the new pharaoh completed certain rituals as part of his predecessor's burial to ensure a smooth transition of power. So if they didn't pick a new king soon, Tut wouldn't get a complete funeral.

There was one saving grace: the 70-day mummification process. It gave them about two months to find a pharaoh. And, as always, Grand Vizier I had a plan to save Egypt. Remember the so-called heiress theory I mentioned earlier? The backup plan said that when no heir remained, a pharaoh's daughter's husband could become the new pharaoh.

Tut and Anka didn't have children, but Anka herself was the daughter of a pharaoh, Pharaoh Akhenaten. And Grand Vizier Ai did want to give over his power to a new pharaoh. You can see where this is going. Anka certainly did. This next part of the story doesn't come from Egyptian records, but from writings of their long-time enemies, the Hittites.

According to the Hittite scribes, Anka composed a secret letter to Seppi Luli Uma I, the king of the Hittites. It read in part, My husband is dead. I have no son, yet I am told that you have many sons. If you would give me one of your sons, he would become my husband. Never shall I pick out a servant of mine and make him my husband. I am afraid."

Anka was clearly desperate. A Hittite alliance would be very unpopular. She needed to marry in secret and ensure it was a done deal before she proclaimed a foreigner as the new pharaoh. Luckily for Anka, Tut's court advisors had suddenly grown very busy deciding where they'd bury Tut. You see, when 19-year-old Tut died, his tomb still needed years of work.

So the Egyptian royal court buried him in a different grave altogether, one for an older man that was nearly complete. Even though it was located in the prestigious Valley of the Kings, it was meant for someone like a royal cousin or a high-level advisor like Grand Vizier I. It's unclear if this move was merely practical or part of a plan.

Other than the grave change, King Tut's mummification seems to have proceeded largely as usual, with many, many prayers. Priests removed his internal organs and preserved them in a canopic jar. Then they coated the body in salt and left it to dry for 70 days. Each day must have felt like an eternity for Queen Anka, who frantically tried to strike an alliance with the Hittites.

who were understandably wary. The letter essentially offered the rule of Egypt on a silver platter. After years of on and off warfare, it felt like a trap. So instead of sending a prince, they sent an envoy. Anka likely met the Hittite visitors in secrecy, which probably didn't help their nerves, but she was serious about the offer.

She reassured the Hittites that if they sent a prince, she'd marry him and make him pharaoh. Once they returned home, the servants convinced the Hittite king that the offer was genuine. So he chose his fourth son, Xenanza, to be the new king of Egypt. For a fourth son in the ancient world, Xenanza had hit the lottery.

His older brothers had already claimed the future throne and the best viceroy ships. But now, Zinanza would go from being a minor royal in one country to absolute ruler in another. Who cared if the woman he was about to marry didn't even know his name yet? She was a queen, and she'd be thrilled when he arrived. So Zinanza's party hit the road from Hatti to Egypt and sent a letter ahead of them. But...

He never arrived. There was a skirmish at the border. Unknown men killed a small party of Hittites attempting to cross into Egypt. It wouldn't be noteworthy, except one among the party was a Hittite prince, Zinanza. When the king of the Hittites got wind of the news, he was told there were no suspects. His son's killers would not be punished.

The king might have suspected these killers were being protected by the Egyptians, and he couldn't stand for that. So he turned to the justice system of the ancient world: war. Since the king couldn't punish his son's killer, he'd punish all of Egypt. He launched a vicious attack on Egyptian colonies in Syria.

The Hittite armies ousted the Egyptians, took control of Syrian cities, and captured dozens of prisoners. They brought their captives to Hatti as slaves. For the king, that was the best justice he could expect. He was never going to get answers. And to this day, Senanza's murder remains unsolved. But there's a pretty obvious suspect.

Centuries later, archaeologists turned up a ring engraved with two cartouches, that is, two sets of hieroglyphs indicating royal names. It was a wedding favor, commemorating the union of the new pharaoh. The wife was Akhansan Amun, and the pharaoh? Per tradition, the new pharaoh needed to be selected before the last pharaoh's burial.

With Zinanza dead and days to go before they had to seal Tut's tomb, Queen Anka likely realized she had one choice if she wanted to live. Marry Grand Vizier Ai. And this explains why Anka wasn't buried with Tut or featured in his tomb paintings. When Tut's grave was sealed, the plan was to bury her with her second husband.

The murals on the walls of King Tut's tomb show the next part of the story. Ai, dressed as a pharaoh, performs the rituals to send Tut into the afterlife. This is what set off red flags for art conservator Arthur Mace all the way back in 1923. Usually, a priest is depicted in these murals, not the next pharaoh. But Ai decided to insert himself in the holy man's place.

And while he was at it, I covered King Tut's tomb in symbols of Egypt's traditional polytheistic religion. King Tut's burial chamber wall shows him in an Osiris costume. He was mummified with his arms crossed over his stomach, just like traditional representations of the fertility god. Which brings us back to the other big question from the autopsy.

Tut is the only known Egyptian to be mummified with an erect penis. According to National Geographic, this is another possible nod to Osiris, though it also might have been a screw you to the boy king since Tut died childless. Either way, the position of the organ is intentional, especially paired with the missing heart.

It's not clear when in the mummification process Tut's heart disappeared, but it is clear that Pharaoh Ai wanted to humble his predecessor. After all, once Tut's tomb was sealed, the power behind the throne became the power on the throne. Ai commanded his scribes and artisans to remove mentions of Tut.

scratching his name off of buildings, statues, and records inscribing Pharaoh Ai's name in its place. Ai even took over the tomb originally commissioned for King Tut. He was buried there just a few years after becoming Pharaoh. In life, Ai ruthlessly erased Akhenaten and his children from Egyptian memory. But once he became a mummy, he got a taste of his own medicine.

He had no documented sons, so the crown went to King Tut's other former advisor, General Horemheb. And like I, Pharaoh Horemheb rewrote history. He demolished old temples, relabeled I statues with his own name, and struck through the record books.

Horemheb was seemingly ashamed of his predecessors. He sanded off the rough patches of recent history until almost no trace of chaos remained. He established strict laws, bringing Egypt back to military greatness. He acted as if he'd taken power directly after Amenhotep III, Akhenaten's father and Thoth's grandfather. And for over 3,000 years,

Horemheb got away with it. Akhenaten, his first son Smenkhare, King Tut, and I disappeared from the timeline. Whether or not anyone was murdered, there was a confirmed millennia-long cover-up of King Tut's reign. Thanks to diligent work by archaeologists over the past few decades,

We've uncovered some of what Pharaoh's eye and Horemheb tried to hide, but not all questions have been answered. To this day, we don't know Queen Anka's fate. Not long after she marries Ai, she vanishes. We do know she wasn't buried with Ai, her mummy isn't in his tomb, and she's not featured in his murals or grave goods. It's easy to wonder if Horemheb married the queen to secure his own power,

But she wasn't buried with him either. Horemheb is buried with two different wives. Queen Anka's mummy has yet to be found. And until it is, questions will swirl about who might have been killed in the name of restoring Egypt to its former glory.

But we can see how Pharaoh Ai could have arranged the premature death of Tut's father, Rakanatan, and brother, Sminkare, in order to take power as Tut's regent. Then, when he realized the teen Pharaoh wouldn't stay his puppet forever, he might have poisoned him, arranged a so-called accident, or ordered someone else to rip out the Pharaoh's heart. After all, once Ai was the Pharaoh,

He was one of the gods. He couldn't be punished for any crime, including murder. And perhaps, perhaps, Horemheb was ashamed of the murderous pharaoh who came before him. In order to move past Ai's crimes, he had to erase his victims as well. He decided to keep the dark secrets of the past buried. And it may be best to follow his lead in case...

There really is a mummy's curse. Thank you for listening to Conspiracy Theories. We're here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. If you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts or email us at conspiracystories at spotify.com.

For more information on King Tut, amongst the many sources we used, we found three books especially helpful to our research. These were The Shadow King: The Bizarre Afterlife of King Tut's Mummy by Joe Marchant, The Murder of Tutankhamun by Bob Breyer, and Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East: The Royal Correspondence of the Late Bronze Age by Trevor Brice.

Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story. And the official story isn't always the truth. This episode was written by Maggie Admire, edited by Kylie Harrington, Tara Wells, and Chelsea Wood, researched by Mickey Taylor, fact-checked by Catherine Barner and Laurie Siegel, and sound designed by Kelly Geary. Our head of programming is Julian Boirot.

Our head of production is Nick Johnson, and Spencer Howard is our post-production supervisor. I'm your host, Carter Roy. This episode is brought to you by Buzz Balls. Every time I see these guys in the store, I have to smile. They are hilarious and so cute. My favorite flavor is Watermelon Smash. Thanks to Buzz Balls, you can get delicious cocktails in these cute, ready-to-drink ball cans. They're made with real fruit juices and creams, plus they're kosher-certified and

This episode is brought to you by Hills Pet Nutrition. When you feed your pet Hills, you help feed a shelter pet, providing dogs and cats in need with science-led nutrition that helps make them happy, healthy, and ready to be adopted.

It's an initiative that Hills has supported since 2002. And since then, the Food, Shelter and Love program has helped more than 14 million pets find new homes, changing their life forever so they can change yours. Science did that. Learn more at hillspet.com slash podcast.