In Thebes, Egypt, 1290 BC, high priest Imhotep has a love affair with Anck-su-Namun, the mistress of Pharaoh Seti I. Imhotep and Anck-su-Namun kill Pharaoh after he discovers their affair. Imhotep flees, while Anck-su-Namun kills herself, believing that Imhotep would be able to resurrect her. Imhotep and his priests steal her corpse and travel to Hamunaptra, the city of the dead, but the resurrection ritual is stopped by Seti's bodyguards, the Medjai. Imhotep's priests are all mummified alive, while Imhotep is sentenced to suffer the Hom Dai, the worst of Egyptian curses: his tongue is cut out, and he is buried alive with flesh-eating scarab beetles. He is sealed away in a sarcophagus at the feet of a statue of the Egyptian god Anubis and kept under strict surveillance by the Medjai to prevent Imhotep's return.