Hi everyone.

Since my last blog post Off To Egypt (Not Literally) I have uncovered some interesting items about Howard Carter’s house which I thought I would share with you. (Yes I know. Two blog posts in one week. I’m spoiling you.)

As I mentioned in that post, I am now typing up and researching the letters and postcards that Ethel wrote to my grandmother from Egpyt when she and Lady Burghclere visited there in 1928. It seems that the main purpose of their visit was to meet up with and support archaeologist Howard Carter following his discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb six years earlier.

This is an extract from one of the postcards that Ethel wrote from Egypt:

“Had lunch with Mr Carter at his little house and then spent the rest of the time in the Valley of the Kings and most of that in the tomb of Tutankhamun and the laboratory where the things are being fixed up. Hope to have time for a detailed letter soon.”

This “little house” was built for Howard Carter at Thebes, now the modern city of Luxor, by his patron and friend Lord Carnarvon (Lady Burghclere’s brother) in 1910 and used bricks sent over from England. Carter designed the house himself and it was always known as “Carter’s Castle” which was an ironic reference to Lord Carnarvon’s home, Highclere Castle. I have it on very good authority that it was Lady Almina (Lord Carnarvon’s wife) who was responsible for the ideas behind the wiring of the house.

Howard Carter’s House at Luxor Photo credit: Przemyslaw Idzkiewicz

The house was reopened as a museum in 2009 and there is an extremely interesting blog post by renowned Egyptologist and author Jane Akshar about her involvement in the grand opening ceremony which was attended by several dignitaries including the present Lord and Lady Carnarvon, as well as members of the Carter family. Jane has posted some great photos that she took at the event which really give you an insight into what the house was like when Carter lived there.

http://luxor-news.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/opening-of-carter-dig-house-luxor-egypt.html

I also came across a post by Lady Carnarvon herself about the Carter house which is well worth a look. She tells us that Lord Carnarvon (the 5th Earl) often stayed at the house rather than at his hotel as it was nearer to the dig sites. He even built a darkroom at the back of the house so that he could process his photographs. Some of these photographs may be some of the ones that Lady Carnarvon has kindly shared in this post.

https://www.ladycarnarvon.com/tutankhamun/

Finally, just to make sure that the house was still in existence today, I did a bit more research and found a post on Egypt Today, the news website of the nation’s oldest and bestselling English-language social affairs magazine. Again there are some excellent photos including ones of Howard Carter’s original tools and his typewriter. Even more interesting was finding out from this post that work is being done to corroborate a new theory that there may be more to discover behind the walls of the burial chamber and treasury of the tomb of Tutankhamun than was first thought. The plot thickens!

http://www.egypttoday.com/Article/9/3090/In-The-Footsteps-Of-Egyptologist-Howard-Carter

Lord Carnarvon at Howard Carter’s house Photo credit: Harry Burton