LUXOR, Egypt -- Tutankhamen, lord of all Egypt 3,000 years ago, died at an early age, experts who viewed the pharaoh's sarcophagus believed tonight.
Mural decorations in the inner tomb to which Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter penetrated yesterday were found upon examination today to be unfinished. This leads to the belief that the catacomb the king picked out for himself was in course of preparation -- which required many years -- when Tutankhamen died prematurely.
Magnificent jewels are among the additional discoveries reported by those who entered the inner chamber this afternoon.
Tomorrow with ceremony the official opening of the tomb takes place. Officials of the Egyptian government will take part in the formal entry to the shrine of their king of thirty centuries ago.
The queen of the Belgians, here incognito; Lord Allenby and persons prominent in European and American society will go out to the Valley of the Kings for the occasion.
They will enter the inner room where he lies within the innermost of a series of concentric boxes, just as he was locked away by his followers after elaborate funeral ceremonies more than 3,000 years ago. Tutankhamen lies undisturbed by the excavators. It may be some time still before the mummy can be brought out for the priceless shrines, invaluable to science, that cover the inner case must be treated with extreme care.
The heat that will make work impossible until autumn comes in a few weeks.
Relief of the excavators at finding evidence that the sepulcher of the ancient monarch had escaped violation at the hands of Nile robbers who pillaged the outer tomb, knew no bounds. Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter, although confident that the mummy of Tutankhamen was undisturbed within the inner tomb into which they broke, had suffered some qualms upon discovering evidences that thieves had ravaged the outer chamber.
The bolted doors and locks on the concentric shrines gave evidence that none had entered the final room that holds the sarcophagus.
Treasures of inestimable value were added to the almost embarrassing store gathered by the excavators when the funeral furniture and outfits placed about the sarcophagus by the pharaoh's mourners were discovered. When an Egyptian ruled died his followers believed he would need many things in heaven, such as tables, couches, food, clothing, oars with which to row on the celestial waters -- everything, in fact, of which he made use on earth. Naturally the objects selected to go along to the next world with Tutankhamen were the finest procurable 3,000 years ago. Their splendor is unsurpassed; many of the funeral trappings defy duplication, representing artisans whose secrets are no longer known.
The arrangements within the inner tomb are such that the visitors, including the queen of the Belgians, who will be invited to take a look at Tutankhamen's sarcophagus, will be greatly cramped for space and will only be able to proceed single file around the gorgeous blue and gold canopy that extends nearly to each wall. They will see little of the inner shrines, but a further chamber, hewn out of sold rock and without doors, lies exposed and in this are heaped unimaginable hoards of treasure -- jars, jewels, images of the pharaoh and goddesses in bas relief.
