Removal of the gilt shrine from the Tomb of Tutankhamun, Valley of the Kings, Egypt, 1922-1923. Archaeologist Howard Carter walks alongside the bearers. The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 by 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.