Synopsis
Tintin and his dog Snowy are on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea when they meet Dr Sarcophagus, an Egyptologist who owns a papyrus that he believes will lead him to the undiscovered tomb of the Pharaoh Kih-Oskh (a pun on kiosk, a stand for the sale of petty merchandises such as newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, beverages and/or street foods). He invites Tintin to accompany him. Tintin also has an unpleasant encounter with Roberto Rastapopoulos, a wealthy businessman.
Later on the cruise, Tintin first meets Thomson and Thompson, who accuse him of smuggling opium and cocaine they have found in his cabin. Locked in the hold of the ship, Tintin craftily escapes and meets Sarcophagus in Port Said, Egypt.
Tintin and Sarcophagus set off and discover the tomb of Kih-Oskh. On a nearby sand dune, Tintin finds a cigar bearing the symbol of Kih-Oskh: a circle with a wavy line through it and two dots on it, rather like a yin-yang symbol. But when he returns to the tomb, Sarcophagus has disappeared.
Entering the tomb, Tintin and Snowy are startled several times by doors closing behind them. They come to a room where rows of Egyptologists are mummified. At the end of the row are empty sarcophagi with notices to indicate that they are intended for Tintin, Snowy (and Sarcophagus too in the later edition). Following items of Sarcophagus' clothing which have been left lying about, Tintin enters another room where opium vapor puts him to sleep.
That night drug smugglers embark some sarcophagi aboard a ship but they are later cast overboard. The sarcophagi contain Tintin and Snowy who therefore escape mummification. They are rescued from a gigantic wave by the crew of a sailing ship. On it they meet Senhor Oliveira de Figueira, a Portuguese salesman who travels the Middle East selling to local Arabs. He persuades Tintin to buy a top hat, ski equipment, a bow tie, an alarm clock, suspenders, a parrot, a water tin, a wooden golf club, a doghouse on wheels, and a lead for Snowy, and the overloaded Tintin walks away saying "Just as well I didn't fall for his patter; you can end up with all sorts of useless stuff if you're not careful".
Tintin then sets out across the desert and is captured by the men of Sheik Patrash Pasha. He hates Westerners but is then delighted to discover that his captive is Tintin, whose exploits he has read of for years, and even shows one of the Tintin books that he has read (the exact book is different depending on the version, but it is always the most recent to have been published; in the first black and white strip, it is Tintin in the Congo; in the second it is Tintin in America; and in the colour version, it is Destination Moon).
Resuming his journey Tintin sees a woman being beaten by two men and rushes to her aid. The woman turns out to be an actress filming a movie that Rastapopoulos is making. The director is furious but Rastapopoulos is much calmer. He and Tintin apologize to each other over the incidents on the cruise ship and the filming and become friends.
When Tintin returns to the boat, he discovers that it has been smuggling guns. There is a lengthy comic sequence involving Thomson and Thompson who accuse him of being the smuggler. They hurry off when they think a grenade is due to explode, allowing Tintin to get away.
In Arabia, Tintin is walking in the desert when his water bottle is shot at and pierced by an anonymous gunman. Desperate for water he sets off only to meet Thomson and Thompson who give chase. Later they hit an Arab on the head, mistaking him for Tintin. When Tintin reaches a local city he finds a procession of armed Arabs who claim that one of their sheiks was attacked by two members of a rival tribe, thus providing a pretext for war. Tintin is enlisted by force into the army.
While cleaning the local colonel's office, he finds a cigar label with Kih-Oskh's sign. He searches the office for a box of cigars hoping that they will provide a clue but is caught in the act by the colonel and charged with spying. He is shot by firing squad, but does not actually die: the firing squad's rifles had been loaded with blanks. Placed in a ventilated grave, Tintin is later dug up by a pair of mysterious allies dressed as veiled women. These 'allies' are actually Thomson and Thompson again, who were determined to capture him alive and arranged for his death to be faked.
Tintin flees the city in a military airplane pursued by others. To save himself he takes a dive and lands in India. There Tintin finds Sarcophagus who is painting the sign of Kih-Oskh on the trees. He has gone completely insane and thinks that he is another Pharaoh, Ramesses II.
Tintin and Sarcophagus are taken by an elephant to a local colonial outpost. Later, the mad Sarcophagus escapes and tries to kill Tintin with a knife. It is soon revealed that he was hypnotised by a local Fakir who wants Tintin dead. Some remarks by the Fakir lead Tintin to Zloty, a Hungarian writer, who explains that an international gang of drug smugglers is out to get rid of Tintin. At gunpoint, Tintin orders Zloty to give him the name of the gang's leader but, before he can, the Fakir, from outside the window, blows a dart tipped with Rajaijah juice at Zloty, causing Zloty to go mad.
Tintin takes Sarcophagus and Zloty to the asylum with a letter from a local doctor, but the Fakir has substituted the letter and through a misunderstanding Tintin ends up imprisoned. He escapes by jumping on an obese inmate and over the wall. Snowy is unable to keep up with Tintin and is almost sacrificed by angry Indians for frightening their holy cow. The little dog is saved by Thomson and Thompson, acting as Nataraja. They then use Snowy to track down his master, whom they are still determined to arrest.
Tintin's escape from the asylum is reported and he is recaptured at a train station. The ambulance taking him back to the asylum crashes into the car driven by Sarcophagus and Zloty. Tintin escapes and later meets the Maharajah of Gaipajama. Over dinner they hear music which the Maharajah believes is a warning that he will be driven insane like his father and brother were after the music was heard, due to their opposition to the drug cartel and its oppression of the local farmers.
Tintin arranges for a dummy to be put in the Maharajah's bed. That night the dummy is hit by a dart fired by the fakir. Tintin follows the fakir to the cartel's hideout which the Fakir enters using a hollow tree. The members within dress up in outfits that bear the symbol of Kih-Oskh and make them look rather like the Ku Klux Klan (as Tintin comments in the English edition). He manages to capture the gang which includes the Fakir, the Arab colonel and several others he met in the course of the adventure. He is later joined by the Maharajah, Snowy, and Thomson and Thompson who tell Tintin that all charges have been dropped: the tomb of Kih-Oskh was found by the Egyptian police and contained evidence of Tintin's innocence and a map showing them to the hideout.
The Fakir manages to escape, however, and later he and the cartel's Grand Master kidnap the Maharajah's young son. Tintin chases them into the Himalayas, but they send their car of a cliff, hoping Tintin will climb down and they can steal his car. While the leader takes the bound and gagged crown prince, the Fakir tries to delay Tintin. However the leader accidentally knocks a rock loose which knocks out the Fakir. Tintin recovers the prince, ties up the Fakir, and drives back with them. But the cartel leader falls off a cliff when the cliff edge he is on breaks. His body is not found.
Later on, the Maharajah informs Tintin that one of the captured members of the cartel was a servant of his. In examining cigars found in his room, Tintin discovers that cigars bearing the "Kih-Oskh" label contain heroin, revealing the means by which the cartel smuggled drugs.
The story is continued in The Blue Lotus.
Read more about this topic: Cigars Of The Pharaoh