A new book tells the little-known story of the British earl whose devotion to Egyptian archaeology led to one of the most important discoveries in history: Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Earl’s-Eye View

By Robin Olson

The Earl and the Pharaoh: From the Real Downton Abbey to the Discovery of Tutankhamun by the Countess of Carnarvon

The Earl and the Pharaoh: From the Real Downton Abbey to the Discovery of Tutankhamun may seem like an unwieldy title, but not for the Countess of Carnarvon. She has made a cottage industry of her castle home, Highclere, the filming location for Downton Abbey. Her published oeuvre includes At Home at Highclere: Entertaining at the Real Downton Abbey; Christmas at Highclere: Recipes and Traditions from the Real Downton Abbey; Lady Almina: the Lost Legacy of the Real Downton Abbey; and Lady Catherine and the Real Downton Abbey. Now we find that a mere 3,000 years separates King Tut and the real Downton Abbey.

There is a great deal more of the earl than of the pharaoh in this book. Indeed, Tutankhamun doesn’t appear until the last few chapters. But we know he’s waiting patiently, as we must, too, through this exhaustive account of the fifth Earl of Carnarvon’s boyhood (happy), school days (painful), health (terrible), travels, cars, racehorses, and, at last, his passion for Egyptology.