A forgotten boy king who became the most famous pharaoh of all.
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Before we read, let's unlock the words you'll need. Each one comes with a short meaning you can reveal. Read the word aloud and say what you think it means first — then reveal it and see how close you were.
Read each part. After it, there's a quick comprehension check (try the questions from memory first), then one thing to discuss.
Around 3,300 years ago, in ancient Egypt, a boy became a god. His name was Tutankhamun, and he was made pharaoh while he was still a child — perhaps only eight or nine years old. We know little for certain about his short life. He ruled for only a handful of years and died while he was still a teenager, before he had the chance to do anything that history would long remember.
In his own time, Tutankhamun was a minor king. He left behind no great temples, no famous battles, no legend. Within a few generations his name had faded; later pharaohs left him off their lists of kings, and the desert quietly swallowed his memory. For more than three thousand years he was, to all the world, forgotten — one obscure name among hundreds, lost in the sand of the Valley of the Kings.
And yet today he is the most famous pharaoh who ever lived. Every detail of the story you are about to read happened not because of how he lived, but because of where he was buried — and because of the man who, thousands of years later, would refuse to stop looking for him.
1. What kind of king was Tutankhamun in his own lifetime?
2. Why was he forgotten for so long?
1. A minor, unimportant king who became pharaoh as a child and died as a teenager, having ruled for only a few years and left no great monuments or victories.
2. He achieved little that history recorded, later pharaohs left him off their king-lists, and over three thousand years his name and tomb were lost in the desert.
In November 1922, a British archaeologist named Howard Carter was running out of time. For years he had been searching the Valley of the Kings, funded by a wealthy patron, Lord Carnarvon, who was growing impatient and close to abandoning the whole project. Almost everyone believed the valley had given up all its secrets long ago. Then Carter's workers uncovered a stone step, then another, then a whole staircase descending to a sealed doorway. After all the years of searching, something untouched lay behind it.
On 26 November 1922, Carter made a small hole in the sealed door and held up a candle to look inside. Behind him, Lord Carnarvon asked, "Can you see anything?" For a long moment Carter could not speak. Then he answered: "Yes — wonderful things." The flickering candlelight had fallen on gold. Against all the odds, the tomb was almost intact: where nearly every other royal tomb had been emptied by robbers thousands of years before, this one had survived.
Inside lay over five thousand objects: golden treasures, chariots, statues, and great nested shrines and coffins, one inside another. At the centre was the mummy of the boy king himself, his face covered by a solid-gold mask that would become one of the most recognisable images on earth. It was the most complete ancient Egyptian tomb ever found — and as the news travelled, it became a global sensation.
1. Why was Carter almost out of chances when he made the discovery?
2. What made this tomb so extraordinary compared with other royal tombs?
1. He had searched the Valley of the Kings for years with little to show for it, and his backer, Lord Carnarvon, was impatient and close to ending the funding.
2. It was almost intact — barely touched — while nearly every other royal tomb had been robbed; it held over 5,000 objects, including the boy king's mummy and a solid-gold mask.
A few months after the discovery, in 1923, Lord Carnarvon died suddenly. The cause was an infected mosquito bite, but the timing was irresistible. Newspapers, hungry for an even bigger story, invented one: a "curse of the pharaohs," an ancient punishment said to strike down anyone who disturbed the king's rest. Every later illness or death connected, however loosely, to the tomb was added to the legend, and the world half-believed it.
The curse, of course, is a myth. There was no inscription threatening death, and most of those present at the opening lived long, ordinary lives — Howard Carter himself worked on for years and died of natural causes well over a decade later. What the story really shows is how easily superstition fills the space where mystery and money meet.
And yet the myth has never quite gone away. A hundred years later, the curse is still repeated in films, books and documentaries, travelling alongside the real wonder of the discovery. Tutankhamun, the forgotten boy king, is now immortal — remembered not only for his golden treasures, but for a spooky story that was never true.
1. How did the idea of a "curse" begin?
2. What evidence shows the curse is a myth?
1. When Lord Carnarvon died suddenly in 1923 (from an infected mosquito bite), newspapers invented the story of a "curse of the pharaohs" that punished those who disturbed the tomb.
2. There was no curse inscription, and most people present — including Howard Carter, who lived on for years and died naturally — were unharmed.
A pharaoh did almost nothing with his own hands. He had things made, built and prepared for him by other people — and that is exactly what the causative is for: when you arrange for someone else to do something, rather than doing it yourself.
Rewrite each sentence so the king (or Carter) arranges it, not does it himself. Use have + object + past participle.
1. Workers filled his tomb with treasure. → The king with treasure.
2. Priests mummified his body. → He .
3. Craftsmen made a solid-gold burial mask. → He .
1. had his tomb filled (object + past participle — the workers did it for him)
2. had his body mummified
3. had a burial mask made (get works too: "got a burial mask made")
Fill each gap with had + object + past participle, using the verb in brackets.
1. Carnarvon for years before anything was found. (the dig / fund)
2. Centuries later, Carter at last. (the burial chamber / open)
3. The king in jars beside him. (his organs / seal)
1. had the dig funded
2. had the burial chamber opened
3. had his organs sealed
Here you name the person who does the job. Use have + person + bare infinitive (no to).
1. He told his servants to prepare the tomb. → He the tomb. (his servants / prepare)
2. He told the priests to perform the rites. → He the rites. (the priests / perform)
3. Carter told his workers to clear the staircase. → Carter the staircase. (his workers / clear)
1. had his servants prepare (no "to" — bare infinitive)
2. had the priests perform
3. had his workers clear
This is the language of power and arrangement — describing everything a king (or a wealthy patron) had made, built and done for him by other hands. You'll put it straight to work in the Speak tab.
You've read the story and you have the words — so now the real thing is within reach. There's a full podcast episode that tells this story in much greater depth, in natural, real-speed English.
From the Noiser podcast network. Hosted by historians, roughly 50 minutes.
Listen on Spotify →This is the heart of the lesson — do all four out loud. The timer is there to keep you going: fill the time with detail rather than escaping it.
Tell the story of Tutankhamun in your own words, as if to someone who has never heard it. Move through the beats: the forgotten boy king → the long search → the discovery and "wonderful things" → the treasures → the curse myth.
Use the causative deliberately — say what the king had made, built and done for him (his tomb filled, his body mummified, his mask made) — and at least five key words from the lesson (pharaoh, tomb, sarcophagus, treasure, intact, excavate, archaeologist, sensation, curse, superstition).
The "curse" was invented by newspapers, and people half-believed it. Why do dramatic, spooky stories spread so much faster than the dull truth? Build an argument, using other examples you know — from the news, social media or history — of a good story beating the facts.
The pharaoh had everything arranged for him — a tomb filled, a mask made, a body prepared. First describe a powerful person, real or imagined, and everything they have done for them: "They have their meals cooked, their clothes made, their house cleaned…". Then turn to yourself: what do you have done for you, and what would you love to? Lean on the causative: "I have my hair cut…", "I had my car repaired last week…", "I'd love to have a house built…".
Stuck for an idea? Pick one of these and run with it: