Unknown: La piramide perduta

Unfortunately this 'documentary' suffers the same fate as many Netflix funded so-called 'documentaries'.

The actual real content relating to the title is scant, and superfluous fillers are aplenty.

Relatively little substance is said of the "lost pyramid" and the pharaoh Huni linked to this pyramid.

A lot is made of unimportant visuals and scenes and people related to the 'project' including some really tenuous ones. I won't be surprised if it included interviews of Dr Hawass tea lady or driver - thankfully at least that didn't happen.

Compared to the many solid documentaries made of Egyptian pharaonic history, this one is empty and light as a helium party balloon that has no pop.

You can tell who paid for the documentary. A little Cheesy with the head archaeologists but good overall. They keep talking about how amazing they are and how they had a feeling that they're about to find some thing, little silly but it's fine. We got to see some cool tombs, opened and discovered, but you could tell those guys had huge egos like it was just all about them, and how awesome and special they are to find these tombs. And how it's all because of them that they were found. Yes I'm over exaggerating and repeating just like they did in the documentary. The video specifically not sure who edited it,. But it looks like they let the archaeologists be part of the editing process and that made it a little cheesy, but still enjoyable.

Overall, it's great getting to see pieces of history.

This isn't about Egypt and her historical mysteries. It's about her extremely egotistical head of antiquities Dr Zahi Hawass. He's absolutely insufferable. I understand having pride in your nations history however his way of going about it is more about him and his love for himself than the good of Egyptian archaeology. He is the extreme opposite of early archaeology, the era of foreign excavators. He hogs everything for himself and refuses to work with others. He needs to find a middle ground and stop making it the Hawass show. Egypt deserves better than him. The world deserves better.

Besides Hawaas and the obviously staged aspects of the show it does let you glimpse into the beauty that is and was Egypt. For that it gets 4 stars.

To answer some other reviewers questions

1. Yes most of the finds are partly staged, ie they will find a peek hole into a tomb, and then cover it up , and ring the film crew. Im sort of okay with that, as it does give a feeling of discovery, which is partly true.

2. The arrogance of Hawas, and even his learned protégé , though i respect their expertise, their arrogance, and Egypt centric nationalism are more annoying than awe inspiring. Good that they have local Egyptologists but they dont have to exclusively block or insult foreigners, when the history of Egypt is a global treasure.

3. Nothing of the greatest finds was really gone into by the time it wrapped up. Thats because Netflix will for sure have a deal to unfold these in their next Egypt piece. But they should have named it differently and called the next one The Lost Pyramid

Besides that it was a good watch with some inspiring moments, but the previous Netflix Saqqara one was way better.

The title is a bit misleading and was not really aspecting to spend time in following the whole excavation. Worth watching if you do not have much expectation based on the title. Very Americanized. I loved watching the Saqqara documentary. Intriguing the part in which some items are really discovered at the end of the documentary.

I hope that will be a sequel and some more items and history will be discovered/revealed. I admire the tenacity of all the archeologist that took part on the excavations and the perseverance of the people that helped.

I would have rather seen more of the actual discoveries.