Egypt

This BBC documentary on ancient Egypt is both educational & hugely interesting. Narrated by Andrew Sachs (Manuel in Fawlty Towers), it focuses on the achievements of three great Egyptologists Howard Carter, Giovanni Belzoni & Jean Francois Champollion. Most people know of Carter's discovery of the virtually intact tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922. Nearly all of the Pharaohs tombs had been plundered in antiquity by grave-robbers, even those in the so-called Valley Of The Kings where Tut was discovered. Not so many know of the Frenchman Champollion's obsessive quest to crack the code of the Egyptian hieroglyphs using the Rosetta Stone. His obsession to understand this ancient civilisation eventually caused to him to leave his wife and child & travel to Egypt. He read as much as he possibly could of the hieroglyphs on its tombs & monuments until his health failed him & he died there. Fewer people still know that the Italian adventurer Belzoni opened up Ramesses The Great's fantastic monument at Nubia in southern-most Egypt. Named Abu Simbel, the entrance had been blocked up by centuries of wind-blown sand. Hewn out of the sandstone rock & fronted by four 60 feet high statues of Ramesses it is, unquestionably, one of the greatest & most beautiful archaeological monuments anywhere in the world. Belzoni (very well acted by Matthew Kelly) also discovered the tomb of Ramesses The Great's father Seti 1st, the largest & most lavishly decorated tomb of any Egyptian Pharoah. Belzoni knew that most Pharaohs tombs had been robbed & asked himself where would be the best place for a Pharoah to be buried where his tomb & its treasure wouldn't be found & robbed. He decided, quite brilliantly, that the place in the desert now known as The Valley Of The Kings was it. Unfortunately for those ancient Egyptian Pharoahs, Tutankhamen aside, they all were. The acting by all of the participants in this documentary & its filming is great. Abu Simbel is a very impressive ruin & using computer graphics it is shown as it may have looked more than 3000 years ago. It would have been a jaw-droppingly magnificent sight!. You do not necessarily need to have any interest in ancient Egyptian history to enjoy this documentary & I would recommend it to anyone.

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.

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 concur with the user reviews that this is a nicely filmed and well acted series. The location shooting makes it even more of a delight. I notice, as of this writing, that the set is still available on DVD from the UK and includes an extra disc about the pyramids. For those who are not used to buying European manufactured DVDs, be advised that you must be able to paly PAL region 2 discs on your machine.