History Main / CurseOfThePharaoh

** Some years after, a similar thing happened after the opening of the tomb of Casimir IV Jagiellon. Sudden deaths of several archaeologists were later explained as caused by Aspergillus flavus spores (which are hepatotoxic, carcinogenic and generally noxious) present in the tomb.

* ''QuantumLeap'': In "[[QuantumLeapS4E20TheCurseOfPtahHotep The Curse of Ptah Hotep]]", Sam finds himself in Southern Egypt during the excavation of the tomb of a pharaoh, but strange occurrences ensue. Is it the result of the mummy's curse?

* ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'': In [["Recap/YoungIndianaJonesAndTheCurseOfTheJackal Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal]]", Kha was a high-ranking official rather than a Pharaoh, but there's still a curse on his tomb. Indy is for a time convinced that this is why Rashid was killed -- until Lawrence admits he overdid it when telling him late-night ghost stories about cursed tombs and the spirits of the dead.

* ''TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse'' implements this, of course. Each mummy has a Tomb; while it's not necessarily a pyramid, it is a geomantic construct that allows them to draw on [[LifeEnergy Sekhem]] and refresh the Pillars of their souls. Raiding a mummy's Tomb and stealing one of the Relics of Irem they're meant to safeguard is one of the most common ways for mummies to awaken from death-sleep outside of a [[WhenThePlanetsAlign Sothic Turn]] or the Judges of Irem tasking them with some duty.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1579730806046623300
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

[[quoteright:317:[[TabletopGame/ClashOfTheDragons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/curse_of_the_pyramids.png]]]]

* Played with in ''ComicBook/TheGoon'' with Seti the South Side Mummy. In life he was a brutal and insane pharaoh (mostly as a result of [[InbredAndEvil inbreeding]]) but [[TheBrute not smart]]. After an archaeologist disturbs his tomb, he returns to torment him by destroying everything the archaeologist loves. When the archaeologist winds up in trouble with the mob, he proposes to pay off his debt by other means: tricking the dim-witted mummy into being a hitman by telling it that the target is a close friend of his.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/BubbaHoTep''. The only times the titular mummy talks, it's full of profanity. [[StealthPun The mummy's cursing.]]

* In the satirical work ''Literature/MotelOfTheMysteries'' two archeologists from the future mistake a motel room with two bodies inside for a tomb. After the archeologists and other people who helped excavate the room die in strange ways the tomb is believed to be cursed, and closed to public forever.

* The ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' short story "The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb" is set at the excavation of the fictional Pharaoh Men-her-Ra. Poirot is employed by the widow of the curse's first victim to protect her son, who has joined the expedition. [[spoiler: Poirot quickly realises the "curse" is a combination of natural causes and murder, and the story ends with him saying that anyone who believes in the Curse of the Pharaoh doesn't understand the Ancient Egyptian belief system at all. (Creator/AgathaChristie was married to an archaeologist.)]]
* ''Literature/DiogenesClub'':
** The imagery around this is invoked in "Egyptian Avenue", but it's subverted in multiple ways. The tomb is neither ancient nor Egyptian, but a Victorian crypt in the heart of London which was mocked up to ''look'' like one. The interred isn't a Pharaoh (except possibly in his own mind), just a rich eccentric who was caught up in 19th century Egyptmania. [[spoiler:And the curse isn't his, but that of his servants, trapped in the tomb when he took his Pharaonic pretensions a bit too far, and trying to warn people that his descendent is about to do the same thing with ''everyone who works for him''.]]
** The plot of ''Literature/SevenStars'' kicks off when an ancient Egyptian tomb is excavated by Victorian Egyptologists, who return home with the tomb's contents, a trail of death following them. [[spoiler:The deaths are caused by the mummy, which has reanimated in an attempt to reacquire the Jewel of Seven Stars that was buried with him. However, it's not a case of the tomb being cursed: the jewel itself is an ArtifactOfDoom, and was buried to keep it from causing any more trouble; the mummy is ultimately trying to help in the only way it can]].

* ''Literature/MagicMetahumansMartiansAndMushroomCloudsAnAlternateColdWar'': In 1950, an archaeological dig accidentally frees Ramses XI from his tomb, allowing his army of mummies and animated statues to conquer Egypt... though to his credit, once he catches up with the times he's a decent leader and better to the people than the military dictatorship they were dealing with beforehand. After cutting deals with America and Israel, he's able to solidify his rule.

* {{Invoked|Trope}} in ''Series/{{Leverage}}''. One member of the team gets a museum director who has recently studied a mummy to think that there's a curse (using drugs and technology to fake symptoms). Then another member of the team gets him to believe that the "curse" is just a superstition to explain away the effects of a fungus. The whole thing is designed to trick him into moving the sarcophagus.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/{{Pharaoh}}'', where not only do tomb robbers face no consequences for getting into a tomb unopposed (they steal the grave goods stocked inside), ''you'' get penalized for it via a hit to the Kingdom rating. Fortunately, as there's only one access point to the tombs, you can line a chokepoint with police stations to ensure the thief gets caught before getting to the tomb.

* The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/MummiesAlive'' starts with a sealed tomb being opened by an archaeologist, despite his partner claiming it's cursed. When the archaelogist enters, it turns out that he's actually just freed [[BigBad Scarab]], an evil mummified sorcerer who's been tallying the days to his freedom.
* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' in the episode with the mummy. The mummy's curse ''seems'' to be supernatural, but it turns out that [[spoiler: the curse of the mummy is actually just a figure of speech; the real curse of the mummy is that [[RoyalBrat he is socially inept, devoid of all manners, gold-digging, manipulative, and a selfish brat.]]]] Naturally, the Aqua Teens leave him on the curb once they discover this.

SubTrope of {{Curse}}. May have been set by a NephariousPharaoh and/or involve a {{Mummy}}. The pyramid itself is an AncientTomb, and may be a TempleOfDoom full of {{Death Trap}}s.

* The first episode of ''Radio/{{Ectoplasm}}'' ("The Curse of the Mummy's Curse") has Lord Zimbabwe try to lift a Pharaoh's curse from the AdventurerArchaeologist who disturbs his tomb.

* Seems to be happening in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'' in the "Curse of the Pharaohs" DLC where deceased pharaohs seem to be coming back to life to attack the people of Thebes in response to the amount of grave robbing that's was occuring in the area. [[spoiler: subverted though as the Pharaohs were brought back due to a priestess named Isidora who used an ancient artifact called the Apple of Eden. Her motive involves punishing grave robbers but it is more because they murdered her mother rather than a curse the pharaohs themselves placed in their tombs.]]

* Invoked on {{Series/Leverage}}. One member of the team got a museum director who had recently studied a mummy to think that there was a curse (using drugs and technology to fake symptoms). Then another member of the team got him to believe that the "curse" was just a superstition to explain away the effects of a fungus. The whole thing was designed to trick him into moving the sarcophagus.

* The other "Curse of the Pharaoh" is a euphemism for the sort of "tummy trouble" people get in hot places which only have a sketchy grasp of good food hygiene and water purity: also known as Delhi Belly and Pharaoh's Revenge.

* In Chapter [[UnusualChapterNumbers .3]]/Episode 3 of ''Manga/SoulEater'', the necromancer witch Samantha tries to create an army of mummies for her own bid at world conquest. However, when she tries this with the mummy of the Pharaoh Anubis, he is resurrected as an UndeadAbomination that devours her, proclaiming that anyone who dares violate the sanctity of his tomb will share her fate.

* After the tomb of King {{UsefulNotes/Tutankhamun}} was discovered in the early 1920s, rumor quickly spread that it was cursed, with things like the strange death of the British nobleman who sponsored Howard Carter's expedition to find it. Carter himself, however, remained unscathed by any hypothetical curse.

* The imagery around this is invoked in the ''Literature/DiogenesClub'' story "Egyptian Avenue", but it's subverted in multiple ways. The tomb is neither ancient nor Egyptian, but a Victorian crypt in the heart of London which was mocked up to ''look'' like one. The interred isn't a Pharaoh (except possibly in his own mind), just a rich eccentric who was caught up in 19th century Egyptmania. [[spoiler: And the curse isn't his, but that of his servants, trapped in the tomb when he took his Pharaonic pretensions a bit too far, and trying to warn people that his descendent is about to do the same thing with ''everyone who works for him''.]]