Distinguished visitors to the Tomb of Tutankhamun, Valley of the Kings, Egypt, 1923. The Queen of the Belgians (centre, leading), Lord Allenby (extreme left) and Lady Allenby approaching the entrance to the tomb. The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 by British archaeologist Howard Carter (1874-1939) was one of the most astounding discoveries in archaeology. Tutankhamun was a previously unknown pharaoh whose name had been eradicated from historical records by one of his successors because of his association with the heretical pharaoh Akhenaten, who was Tutankhamun's father-in-law. Consequently his tomb, uniquely, had remained undisturbed by grave robbers.