The fabrication of forged antiquities has become one of the most profitable industries of modern Egypt. Every year more and more wealthy American and European tourists go to the sunny and salubrious land of the Pharaohs. Practically every one of these tourists wishes to take away some relic of the ancient Pharaohs as a souvenir. To supply this demand the modern Egyptians are working night and day making very attractive articles in the ancient style. The Egyptian law now requires that every person finding antiquities shall report the fact to the government, which reserves the right to purchase them. This law really favors the antiquity forgers, for they represent to their customers that they are offering them contraband goods, which offer usually has the effect of whetting the appetite to buy.

Thousands of Tourists Make the Egyptian Trip Since Howard Carter Discovered the Tomb of King Tut Ankh-Amon. Scene of the Carnarvon Expedition. Riches of the Tombs.

BY GIDEON A. LYON

Photographs by the Author.

It would be interesting,” said a fellow traveler to me at our hotel in Cairo on the evening of our arrival at the Egyptian capital, “to know how many thousands of tourists have been drawn to Egypt since 1922 as a result of the discovery of the tomb of King Tut Ankh-Amon by Howard Carter. It would be even more interesting to know how great a treasure has been brought to this country through tourist expenditures here in consequence of the finding of that tomb and its rich contents.”

That thought recurred to me a few mornings later when I stood in front of the tomb of Tut Ankh-Amon and saw Howard Carter descend the steps leading down to the entrance. The tomb was closed to visitors, for Mr. Carter was engaged in superintending the removal of the remaining treasures. So all I got of King Tut’s last resting place was this glimpse of the back of the man who restored him to fame. Yet it was with a lively sense of the service Mr. Carter has rendered to Egypt that I saw him go down into the depths to carry on the work begun by him eight years ago.

Unquestionably many thousands of people have been attracted to Egypt by the discovery of this tomb. And practically all of them make the journey up to Luxor and across the Nile to the west bank and through the rocky defiles of the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings to the scene of the work of the Carnarvon expedition. They have, with few exceptions, seen nothing of the tomb itself. But they have had the satisfaction of glimpsing the forbidding area chosen by the monarchs of many centuries ago for the reposal of their mummies and the riches of their burial equipment.