Ancient Egypt: this land of the Pharaohs has captured our imaginations for thousands of years. It’s one of the greatest civilisations the world has ever known, and it’s left us with some truly astounding treasures. Egypt’s Greatest Treasures with Bettany Hughes aka Top Ten Treasures of Egypt, Channel 5 2019
10) A gruesome tale of a 3,000 year old cold case, a royal assassination … The mummified body of a mighty Egyptian king … Ramesses III: Ramesses was a man with lots of enemies. ibid.
9) A brilliant discovery that brought a dead language back to life and helped us to decode the secrets of this ancient civilisation: The Rosetta Stone … It ended up at the British museum … Arguably the most important. ibid.
8) Queen Cleopatra’s Gateway: The Temple of Edfu … absolutely vast … beautifully well preserved. ibid.
7) Part lion, part man it radiates mystery: The Great Sphinx at Giza. ibid.
6) Built not once but twice: Temple of Abu Simbel … This is Ramesses’ ego built in stone … There are two temples. ibid.
5) An Egyptian city of the dead: Saqqara … Egypt’s biggest city of the dead … eight million mummified dogs in one mass grave. ibid.
4) The Temple of Luxor: the complex was huge. ibid.
3) The Place of Truth: the Valley of the Kings. ibid.
2) Tutankhamun: This tomb’s treasures had been kept safe from thieves. ibid.
1) The Great Pyramid at Giza: Rising almost one hundreds and fifty metres out of the ground. ibid.
The ancient Egyptians: they built great pyramids, temples and tombs in life in a bid to become immortal after death. Along with magnificent monuments this civilisation is best known for giving the world the Egyptian mummy. Wonders of preservation, these mummies have left us a truly astonishing legacy. Egypt’s Great Mummies Unwrapped with Bettany Hughes, Channel 5 2021
10) Someone who died over 3,200 years ago and who lived as the most powerful man on Earth: Ramesses II, or Ramesses the Great, still holds court in Cairo. ibid.
This is the Great Temple of Karnak, and you’ve have made your way in through these massive pylons, which are kind of monumental gateways. ibid.
9) One of the most beautiful Egyptians in existence: Seti I … He was a hugely successful pharaoh … some of the finest mummification work in all of history … Typically, you’re brain is pulled out through your nostrils with an iron hook. Next, all of your major organs are removed apart from the heart: ancient Egyptians believed this was the centre of the beings … ibid.
The priests masterminded a high-risk mission: to rescue the mummies of great pharaohs, so what you have here is a roll-call of Egyptian power … bringing them here in secret and lowering them down into that shaft, where they stayed undisturbed for 3,000 years. ibid.
8) A long-forgotten pharaoh hidden deep in the desert … deep into the Nile delta … the lost city of Tanis … a new capital city and harbour in the north … It’s tombs and mummies were abandoned to the sands … Right in the centre of this room was a solid silver coffin … A gold mask and breathtaking jewellery fit for a king … A forgotten pharaoh: Shoshenq II. ibid.
7) The Magnificent Great Pyramid of Giza: it’s over 4,500 years old and built as a giant tomb for a pharaoh. But my next mummy pre-dates the Great Pyramid by 1,000 years … I’m heading to the British museum in London, home to one of the largest collections of ancient Egyptian mummies in the world. Let me introduce you to Gebelein Man … takes us right back to the start of Egyptian mummification … The searingly hot conditions in the desert dried out and mummified Gebelein Man’s body, making him a natural mummy. ibid.
6) The ancient Egyptians didn’t just mummify humans but animals too … the Hawk Mummy … ‘We found that it’s a mammal, possibly a primate … a human baby … most probably male.’ ibid.
5) Karnak, a vast temple complex … Someone has gone to a huge amount of effort to hack out the face and the body that was once on these walls … A woman in a man’s world … Hatshepsut … identified in 2007 … a rare female pharaoh. ibid.
4) The British Museum in London is now home to no fewer than 140 Egyptian mummies. In a corner of the museum’s storeroom hides my next mummy … Padiamenet. ibid.
3) Ramesses III has had his throat slit … There really could have been a harem conspiracy. ibid.
2) One of Egypt’s most controversial leaders … He was a pioneer and an out and out rebel … Akhenaten. When a tomb was discovered in 1907 the plot only thickened. What was discovered here just didn’t add up: grave goods scattered across the floor and a dumped beaten-up coffin apparently containing the decomposed body of Akhenaten himself. He wasn’t being treated like a royal mummy. ibid.
Tutankhamun immediately reversed his father’s ideas and returned the royal court to Luxor. Akhenaten’s coffin and his mummy were left abandoned … After his death, Akhenaten was unmourned and unloved. ibid.
1) The most famous pharaoh in the world. His solid gold death-mask and over 5,000 of the treasures buried with him have given us an incredible insight into the lives of the ancient Egyptians. ibid.
Tutankhamun: the most famous pharaoh of them all. His tomb was discovered teeming with fabulous treasures making this boy king an overnight sensation. Tutankhamun: Waking the Dead aka Forensic Secrets, Channel 5 2022
The scans reveal that Tutankhamun’s mummy received some of the best facial care of the pharaohs being studied. ibid.
During a turbulent time in Egyptian history around 1,300 B.C. Tutankhamun came to the throne; he was aged just nine … As soon as he took the throne, Tutankhamun’s life was all about survival. ibid.
The resting place of Tutankhamun, pharaoh of Egypt … There were reports of another warning on a tablet that has since vanished: ‘Death will slay with his wings whoever disturbs the rest of the pharaoh’. In Search of … Mummy’s Curse s1e8, 1977
Lord Carnarvan was only the first of many who would die shortly after visiting the tomb of Tutankhamun. ibid.
In this wasteland stands a wondrous enigma – the great pyramids of ancient Egypt. Some call them tombs, others say they were beacons to ancient spacemen. Still others believe they are generators of energy. The secret of the pyramids has eluded men for thousands of years. If they were merely tombs to the pharaohs, why has no mummy ever been found in one? In Search of s2e9 … Pyramid Secrets, 1978
3,000 years ago a 9-year-old boy was crowned King of Egypt, an empire which was one of the most powerful in the ancient world. He would become a relatively unimportant pharaoh, involved more with the passions of life than the details of state. Yet in death Tutankhamun would play a role in history far more significant than anyone could have imagined. In Search of s3e24 … King Tut, 1979
It was one of the most remarkable finds in modern archaeology: the giant statue of a pharaoh buried deep beneath a Cairo suburb. But this was a king unlike any other. Experts believe they have found the colossus of a game-changing Egyptian pharaoh. He was a Pharaoh that rescued his crumbling country from vicious invaders, brought a new golden era to ancient Egypt and left a legacy that shaped Western civilisation for millennia. The Pharaoh in the Suburbs, Channel 5 2019
Ramesses the Great: In the 13th century B.C. he ruled Egypt for 66 years … and left vast monuments to himself throughout the land. ibid.
Moved to its new home at the Cairo museum where archaeologists could finally get a closer look … But a series of hieroglyphs revealed a name almost erased from history. ibid.
‘A pharaoh we know today as Psamtik I. This is a name almost unknown except to Egyptologists.’ ibid. archaeologist
The pharaoh had become an international statesman … Psamtik was now trading with his Mediterranean neighbours and Egypt had a wealth of assets to export … Once again Egypt was the most powerful country in the Mediterranean. So how did the greatest symbol of this revered leader end up discarded in a muddy hole, shattered in a thousand pieces? ibid.
The glory days of ancient Egypt lasted for over 3,000 years. During that time a love of gold consumed its Pharaohs. While its military might dominated neighbouring kingdoms, a proud people from the south rose up to conquer their overlords and became the black pharaohs of Egypt. Little is known of their 75-year reign. But now fresh clues are being explored about the Nubians who used gold, gods and grit to conquer all of Egypt. Black Pharaohs: Empire of Gold, National Geographic 2019
Egyptian mummies: relics of an ancient civilisation. Wrapped tight for 5,000 years. Tutankhamun died at 19 without leaving an heir. Now some of his most personal items suggest a pharaoh plagued by illness. And mysterious remains buried alongside him expose the dark secrets of his downfall. The Last Pharaoh, National Geographic 2019
It took Carter and his team ten years to remove the treasures and transport them across the desert to Cairo. ibid.
Inside these coffins were two tiny mummified skeletons. ibid.