The curse of King Tutankhamun, Valley of the kings

 

Valley of the Kings: The entrance to Abu Simbel is the most amazing part, with four giant statues of Rameses II. Look at the scale of the statues! just grasp the size of them compared to the people walking by. How long did these take to make and how many slaves/workers did they use? nothing it seemed was beyond the realms of possibility when it came to the Egyptians and their tombs.

 In the late 1800's Howard Carter like many others went to Egypt to discover lost tombs and treasures from the past. With the backing of wealthy folk from back home we was able to spend years (literally 30+) searching for undiscovered tombs. In 1922 he hit the jackpot when he found King Tutankhamun's tomb. The amazing thing was it was completely intact, not robbed at all. The only tomb that has been discovered that had not been robbed.

As we can see inside Tut's tomb the lavish untouched chambers. The condition of the walls and artifacts were pristine. But the discovery of the tomb did come at a price. There was talk of a curse hitting the party involved in the expedition. Many died soon after but Howard Carter bucked the trend and lived to the ripe old age of 62. We don't get to see many photo's of inside tombs in the Valley of the Kings as it is forbidden, color on the walls would fade with people using camera's so only the official photos are available. Even more reason to go visit and see inside them yourself.

WW1 Officers Wat Wat!

Officers prepare to depart for the Channel coast and Dear Old Blighty. Looks like they wont see much trench action, although they have enough warm clothes on them to be OK in the trenches! I like the fact their trousers had enough tape around them to protect them from anything. As least they seem happy.

WW1 Injured Soliders, BoardWalk Empire

One of my Favorite shows is Boardwalk Empire, a story shot in America just after WW1. One of the leading characters had half his face blown off in the War. He wears a protective mask to hide his disfigured face. WW1 was the first time for many they had to deal with mass amounts of men, troops coming back injured, wounded, badly scared etc.

Wounded Canadians en route to Blighty (England). Just look at the poor chaps, covered with bandages around the face, left with a life or pain and suffering.

WW1: Mealtime in the trenchs, Sunday prayers

 

 Mass is held in the ruins of a church at Cambrai, France, October 1918. Oh yeah churches and all places or worship were not spared in the bombings and War zones.

Either Scottish or Canadian Troops in the Chilly weather. Did he want to wear something warmer? long trousers with padded socks are in order me thinks. This is taken from the winter of 1916.

WW2 Passchendaele 1917: Canadian Troops, Mud!

Men of a Canadian machine-gun company huddle in shell holes at Passchendaele, November 1917. Now I really like this photo. It looks nothing more than a muddy hell hole, its hard to even see their are people in the picture! They had to stay in those holes for days on end, firing at the enemy and keeping guard. No wonder they ended up with so many horrid alignments, trench foot etc. As far as the eye can see the landscape looks the same, muddy, holes no trees, wildlife.

This photo also from Passchendaele shows the problems that the troops had. Guns wedged, stuck in mud, wooden slats trying to save it from sinking. Moving these blighters must have been a right bugger. They would use horses for this.

American Civil War: Big Cannon, Barges

 

The American Civil War brought the first use of large weaponry on the battle field. These included large cannons! We can see from the photo that it took 4-5 men to operate and fire these things. The effects of these and the improved guns the soldiers used would often lead to battlefields with a large amount of casualties on both sides.

African-American refugees on a barge which contains their household belongings.
1865.

WW2 Propaganda Poster: Rising Sun

Not only is this WW2 Poster clever it has a lot of instructions/guidelines for Americans. Taking care of the rising sun is a reference to Japan in WW2. Fighting in the Pacific is an often overlooked element to WW2 but none the less crucial in how the War panned out. Did people really stop and read all the different lines? Each one being a 'Key' to Victory. We it worked in the end I guess.