The hunt for King Tut's Tomb started with an archaeologist called Howard Carter. He spent 20 years searching for the tomb of the boy-king, Tutankhamun. Convinced that it lay in Egypt's Valley of the King's, he persuaded Lord Carnarvon to pay for his many explorations, all of which were unsuccessful.

Finally, Carter dug in the last unexplored place, beneath the rubble from the looted tomb of Rameses VI. There, he found steps leading down to a sealed door. Carter, overjoyed, sent for Lord Carnarvon and 6th November 1922, they broke into King Tutankhamun's grave. It was filled with gold, jewels and priceless treasures. Lord Carnarvon's expensive gamble had finally paid off.

The Seal of Fate?
When the tomb's seal was broken after 3300 years, a strange chain of events began. Carter was said to have found a warning in the tomb: 'Death comes on swift wings to whoever disturbs the pharaoh's peace'. This referred to the deadly vulture goddess, Nekhbet. Just after the tomb was broken into, a hawk - the royal emblem of ancient Egypt - was seen circling above the tomb. Talk of Tutankhamun's curse began in earnest when one person after another, all connected with the tomb's opening, began to die in unnatural circumstances.

Cursed Lives?
Five months after the tomb's opening, a mosquito bit Lord Carnarvon's left cheek, which became infected. Weakened by blood poisoning, he developed pneumonia and died in a Cairo hotel. At that moment - 1.55am - all the lights in Cairo went out and, far away at his Hampshire home, Lord Carnarvon's dog gave a great howl and dropped dead!

Others who had visited the tomb died in 1923: Aubrey Herbert, Carnarvon's half brother, died of pneumonia; Ali Farmy Bey, an Egyptian prince claming decent from the pharaoh's, was murdered, then his brother killed himself; George Jay Gould, a railway tycoon, died of pnuemonia; Woolf Joel, a South African millionaire, fell to his death. Much later, in 1966, the director of the Cairo museum of antiquities was worried about letting King Tut's treasures leave Egypt for exhibitions in Paris. As he left a meeting where his objections had been ignored, he was run over by a car. He died two days later.

Plagues from the Past?
Some people think that deadly germs may have been deliberately planted in the tomb's treasures to infect anyone who removes them. Others say that the dormant germs of ancient plagues may have become active when the tomb was opened. But even if neither is true, the number of deaths makes it easy to believe that King Tutankhamun's curse did indeed fall upon those who entered the sacred tomb!

Chain of Death
Seven years after the tomb's opening, only two of the 13 Europeans who had been present were still alive. By the 1940's, 25 people connected with the tomb and its contents had died unnatural deaths.

Wolf Pit to Woolpit. In King Stephen's time, wolves still roamed the land and pits were often dug round villages to keep the wolves from the livestock. Woolpit village took its name from these pits, and is the setting for this strange tale. One version of the Green Children of Woolpit story, written by William of Newburgh, appeared in a 1618 book about Suffolk's history.

One day, Woolpit farm workers were amazed to see a young boy and girl climbing from the wolf pits. They had green hair and green skin. Their eyes were also green and they were dressed in unusual green clothes. No one could understand the language they spoke, so they were taken to the local squire, Sir Richard de Caine, who took them in.

They refused all food for so many days that it seemed they'd die of hunger. But when the cook offered the children some green beans, they ate them happily. For months they ate nothing but beans until they got used to bread.

Gradually the boy and girl lost their green colour. When they'd learnt to speak English, they were asked who they were and where they had come from.

The Mystery Deepens!
The children said that they came from a place called Saint Martin's land, where the sun never shone and everything was green. They had been watching their father's herds when they heard a great noise, which they followed into a tunnel. The next thing they remembered was standing, dazed, in the blinding sunlight of Woolpit!

What became of the children?
The boy died about a year later, but his sister lived on in Woolpit until she married a man from the nearby town of King's Lynn.

Possible Explanations.
A few miles from Woolpit is a village called Fornham St. Martin, which could be St. Martin's land. Further north is the dark and gloomy Thetford Forest. If the children had lived in the depths of this dense forest, it could explain their 'sunless' home.

The children may have reached Woolpit through the underground tunnels of old flint mines in the area. This dark and scary journey must have taken some time and could explain their dazed, hungry state.

The green children possibly spoke English with such a thick accent that Woolpit folks couldn't understand a word and thought that it must be a foreign language.

An illness called green chlorosis - a type of anaemia - can turn the skin green. This symptom is made worse by a bad diet. The children's green skin slowly lost its colour after they began to eat a normal diet. Maybe they were suffering from their illness.

Some people claim that the green children were the original Babes in the Wood of the fairy tale. Poisoned with arsenic by their wicked uncle, they were left in the forest to die. Arsenic poisoning can turn the skin green.