This legend is false
The princess Amen-Ra, who lived over 3,000 years ago, died and was laid in a coffin and buried deep in the vault at Lexur, on the banks of the Nile.
In the late 1890s, a group of foodlish young rich people bought the coffin, with the mummy inside. They each suffered strange fates not long after this. One was seen wondering off into the desert - he never came back - another lost all his money and his job, the third got shot and had his arm amputated and the last one suffered a severe illness and died.
The mummy was therefore taken eventually to the British Museum. While being unloaded from the truck, the truck began to reverse and crushed a man to death. One of the two people carrying it up the stairs fell and broke his leg. The other man died of mysterious causes two days later.
The mummy was put in the Egyption room where the night watchmen reported hearing terrible moaning and scratching coming from the inside of the coffin. One of the night watchment then died on duty, prompting the other one to quit.
A amn from a local newspaper took a photograph and when it developed, it shows a horrible human face, writhing in pain, on the coffin, rather than the regular face painted on it. It was then moved to the basement to avoid any further injury.
Eventually, the mummy ended up being bought and sold around a bit until, in 1912, it ended up in the possession of an American man who claimed the incidents were mere coincidences. He wished to take the mummy to New York and so he loaded it on to a ship heading from Ireland to New York on April 12, 1912.
Two day's later, on April 14, 1912, the mummy accompanied 1,500 other souls to the bottom of the ocean when the ship sank.
The ship was called the 'HMS Titanic'.
~ ~ ~
This legend is completely false, of course. There are some inconstistancies throughout more detailed versions of the story above that suggest it was made up. Also, the princes of Amen-Ra mentioned in this tale takes her name from an egyptian god, Amen-Ra who was seen as the creator of all things. The mummy the story actually refers to is the preistess Amun, who is still at the British Museum.
However, according to Dr Carol Andrews, it is true that part of a 'cursed' coffin was on board - a sort of lid that laid on top of the mummy but beneath the actual lid. She says that is was onboard the Titanic and that it didn't sink with the rest of the victims, but it survived and made it off in a lifeboat where it got to America and continued to wreak havoc as it was sold between America and Canada. She then claims that the British Museum got hold of it once more until 1990 when it was loaned to Australia for an exhibit.
Is it still in australia?
Last Update: May 18 2007, BB
Sources: Urban Legends Reference Pages, Snopes
Discovery Herald
