Egypt

I have come here before fisnishing the whole series. Just to say to the maker.. that i salute you..you have open a whole new world to me..i cant explaine the trip it is giving to me..

Matthew Kelly is proving to be quite a versatile actor. A serial killer in "Cold Blood", Mr Turveydrop in "Bleak House" and now he gives another riveting performance in the role of Italian showman turned explorer/archaeologist Belzoni in "Egypt".

This series of beautifully filmed docu-dramas included nicely-controlled acting, and is centred around the hitherto undiscovered antiquities of Ancient Egypt and the men who brought them, and their meanings, to the attentions of the world.

The series couldn't fail to arouse interest, even to those who are not particularly enthusiastic on the subject, and each episode is simply portrayed, without getting over-bogged down with archaeological science.

If you have missed this series the first time round, make sure you catch the repeats, if or when there may be any. You won't be disappointed.

I cam here second time beause i forgot just to tell you that this is my 1st ever review on imbd..other than that i m one of biggest fan of imbd around padt 10 years. My favorite passtime is to read reveiws on differnt sections of different people,origin.

Many of us are familiar with the story of the discovery of Tutenkhamun's tomb but Egypt goes into it in much greater detail. Egypt presents the events that led to the story of the curse of Tutenkhamun in a level headed way. I wonder though, how true is the story about Howard Carter having a thing for Lady Evelyn Carnarvon? Mind you, when she's played by the lovely, slightly Keira Knightley-ish Alexandra Weaver who can blame him? Giovanni Belzoni was a colourful larger than life character whose priceless contributions to Egyptology are not well known to the general public. Thanks to him, marvellous Egyptian treasures such as the Head of the Younger Memnon are now in the British Museum. Thanks to CGI, Egypt shows us Abu Simbel exactly as it was found by Belzoni, half buried by the sandstorms of three millenia. CGI also shows us what these monuments looked like when they were newly built and it's very strange as hitherto it was hard to conceive of them as anything other than ruins. Although the discovery of the Rosetta Stone is well known this series tells us about another name not known to many people, Jean Francois Champollion. I used to think that with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone translating the hieroglyphs would have been as straightforward as looking up a language dictionary. Egypt shows us that it wasn't as easy as that. Champollion deciphered their meaning and enabled the reason for the construction of the Great Pyramid at Gizeh to be discovered. I recommend buying the DVD very strongly. As another reviewer says, it can be watched over and over again. It's great.

I came across 'Egypt' almost by accident on the PBS channel and have to say that it was a wonderful surprise. My initial reaction was to think it would be nothing more than a hyped-up and romanticised version of history but how wrong I was.

The series turned out to be genuinely interesting and educational as well as being an excellent docu-drama. While I'd known something about Howard Carter and his discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, my knowledge of Champollion was much less and I don't think I'd even so much as heard of Belzoni; by the end of the 6 episodes, I was far more knowledgeable as well as having been truly entertained.

Throughout, the series kept my attention. The episodes were well constructed and the characterisations and acting excellent, in particular Matthew Kelly was outstanding as Giovanni Belzoni, a circus performer turned Egyptologist who must be credited with being the first to really explore ancient Egypt. Discovering that finding Tutankhamun's tomb was not a 'one-off' but the culmination of more than 20 years of painstaking work, and learning of the battle to decipher the hieroglyphs and just how it was done, were both fascinating stories.

There was no intrusive soundtrack and no superfluous scenes. This was a really excellent series, one of the very best and I'd happily watch it again. I'd recommend anyone who has a desire to know more about the story of Egyptology to watch it.