Record · Ancient world · Africa · 1922 · Mysteries & discoveries

What did Howard Carter see by candlelight in Tutankhamun's tomb?

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Published 2026-09-02 · Reviewed 2026-10-11 · 5 min read

two men examining objects inside a tomb chamber — Howard Carter and Arthur Callender in the tomb of Tutankhamun, photographed by Harry Burton. Harry Burton / Public domain. Source

TL;DR — On November 26, 1922, Carter looked into Tutankhamun’s tomb by candlelight; his journal that night records the answer “Yes, it is wonderful,” not the “wonderful things” of his book.

Howard Carter opened a small hole in the second sealed doorway of tomb KV62 in the Valley of the Kings on the afternoon of November 26, 1922, and looked in by candlelight. His journal for that day, now transcribed by the Griffith Institute at Oxford, records the exchange: “Lord Carnarvon said to me ‘Can you see anything’. I replied to him Yes, it is wonderful.” The words most people quote, “wonderful things,” come from the book Carter and A. C. Mace published the next year.

Quick facts

When: November 4, 1922 (first step found) to November 26, 1922 (second doorway opened by candlelight); first object removed December 27, 1922
Where: Tomb KV62, Valley of the Kings, Thebes
Who: Howard Carter (1874–1939); Lord Carnarvon (1866–1923); Arthur Callender
Outcome: Carter's own journal records the first look and the words "Yes, it is wonderful"; his 1923 book gave the phrase "wonderful things"

Sixteen steps, November 4 to 24, 1922

The first trace appeared three weeks earlier. “4 Nov. At about 10am I discovered beneath almost the first hut attacked the first traces of the entrance of the tomb,” Carter wrote. “This comprised the first step of the N.E. corner (of the sunken-staircase).”

By sunset the next day the workmen had “cleared down to the level of the 12th step,” and Carter could examine part of a sealed doorway. He did not yet know whose it was. “The only decipherable impressions of the seals were those of the well-known Royal Necropolis seal,” he wrote, “i.e., Anubis (symbolizing a king) over nine foes.”

The name came later. On November 24, Arthur Callender “reached as far as the first doorway. There proved to be sixteen steps. Now that the whole of the sealed doorway was laid bare various seal impressions bearing the cartouche of Tût-ankh-Amen were discernible.”

line diagram of the tomb of Tutankhamun showing its chambers and corridor — Plan of the tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62): stairway, corridor, antechamber, burial chamber, annex and treasury. Anuskafm / CC BY-SA 3.0. Source

The candle at the second door

The first doorway was opened on November 25 and the passage behind it cleared. On November 26 Carter reached a second sealed doorway, made a small opening and held up a candle. In the journal the moment takes one line of dialogue. In the 1923 book it becomes a longer scene that ends: “‘Can you see anything?’ it was all I could do to get out the words, ‘Yes, wonderful things.’”

Both are Carter’s own words. The journal is the record of the day, written as the work went on; the book is the account he wrote for the public a year later. The next day electric light was installed and the Antechamber examined, and on December 27 the first object, box number 21, was carried out.

Lord Carnarvon's death, 1923

Carter’s patron did not see the work finished. The Griffith Institute’s record of George Herbert, fifth Earl of Carnarvon, born June 26, 1866, says he “was in fact bitten by a mosquito while in the Valley of the Kings in March 1923. The bite became infected and he left for Cairo where erysipelas and blood-poisoning set in, followed by pneumonia.” He died in Cairo on April 5, 1923. The journal Nature, reporting his death that month, gave the same cause: “pneumonia, supervening on erysipelas and blood-poisoning, the result of a bite on the cheek by an insect, presumably a mosquito.”

Six of twenty-four

His death fed the story of a pharaoh’s curse. The numbers were tested early. In 1934 Herbert Winlock, as quoted by Mark Nelson in the BMJ, “pointed out that at the time (1934) only six of the original 24 people present when the tomb was opened had died.”

Nelson’s own study in 2002 compared 25 people exposed to the supposed curse with 11 who were not. “There was no significant association between exposure to the mummy’s curse and survival,” he concluded, “and thus no evidence to support the existence of a mummy’s curse.” Carter himself lived until 1939; the Griffith Institute’s archive of his papers records that he was born in London in 1874 and died there in 1939.

Key facts

Carter found the first step of the tomb’s staircase at about 10 a.m. on November 4, 1922 (Carter’s journal).
On November 5 only the Royal Necropolis seal was visible; on November 24, with all sixteen steps cleared, seals with Tutankhamun’s cartouche were seen (Carter’s journal).
On November 26 Carter answered Lord Carnarvon “Yes, it is wonderful,” according to his journal; the 1923 book gives “Yes, wonderful things” (Griffith Institute; Carter and Mace 1923).
The first object was removed from the tomb on December 27, 1922 (Carter’s journal).
Lord Carnarvon died in Cairo on April 5, 1923, of pneumonia following erysipelas and blood-poisoning from an infected mosquito bite (Griffith Institute; Nature).
In 1934 Herbert Winlock counted six deaths among the 24 people present at the opening (BMJ 2002).
A 2002 BMJ cohort study found no association between exposure to the “curse” and survival (Nelson 2002).

FAQ

What did Howard Carter say when he first saw inside Tutankhamun's tomb?

His journal for November 26, 1922 records: "Lord Carnarvon said to me 'Can you see anything'. I replied to him Yes, it is wonderful." The more famous "Yes, wonderful things" is from Carter and Mace's book of 1923.

When was Tutankhamun's tomb discovered?

Carter found the first step on November 4, 1922. Seals with Tutankhamun's name were seen on November 24, and Carter first looked inside on November 26.

How did Lord Carnarvon die?

A mosquito bite on his cheek, received in the Valley of the Kings in March 1923, became infected; erysipelas, blood-poisoning and then pneumonia followed, and he died in Cairo on April 5, 1923.

Is the curse of Tutankhamun real?

No evidence supports it. In 1934 Herbert Winlock noted that only six of the 24 people present at the opening had died, and a 2002 study in the BMJ found no link between exposure to the tomb and survival.

Sources

The whole world at about the same time: The world in AD 1900

Cite this article

APA: Song Letter. (2026, October 11). What did Howard Carter see by candlelight in Tutankhamun's tomb? Our Earth's History. https://ourearthshistory.com/africa/ancient/howard-carter-tutankhamun-tomb-wonderful-things/
Chicago: Song Letter. “What did Howard Carter see by candlelight in Tutankhamun's tomb?” Our Earth's History, October 11, 2026. https://ourearthshistory.com/africa/ancient/howard-carter-tutankhamun-tomb-wonderful-things/.
MLA: Song Letter. “What did Howard Carter see by candlelight in Tutankhamun's tomb?” Our Earth's History, 11 Oct. 2026, https://ourearthshistory.com/africa/ancient/howard-carter-tutankhamun-tomb-wonderful-things/.

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