In 1871 three Egyptian brothers ... came across a secret that had remained hidden for three thousand years ... dozens of ... animal mummies. 70 Million Animal Mummies, BBC 2015
Every mummy is unique. ibid.
It’s 1922 ... Howard Carter is about to make the most amazing archaeological discovery of all time. Days that Shook the World: Tutankhamun/Rosetta Stone, BBC 2003
Crammed from floor to ceiling an awesome array of funeral furniture and ritual objects. ibid.
The hieroglyphics that adorn the pyramids and temples of Egypt have mystified the greatest minds of the age. ibid.
The Rosetta Stone: a monumental tablet carved in the Egyptian city of Memphis. ibid.
The Rosetta Stone arrived in London in 1802. The race to translate it was on. ibid.
Hieroglyphs represent sounds. Which work together to make words. Which can be spoken. ibid.
The year is 49 B.C. Civil war rages across the Roman Empire. The violence spills into nearby Egypt where a teenage girl is thrust on to the throne of this mystical kingdom. She’ll go on to become one of the key power players of ancient history. Military might is not the only secret of her success. Mystery Files: Cleopatra, National Geographic 2010
Perhaps the key component of her legend as a magical Eastern temptress – is it possible the Romans like the Egyptians believe that a pharaoh is a god in human form? ibid.
In an age of deep religious conviction Romans would have been in awe of Egypt’s mystical past, and of the bizarre gods that watch over Cleopatra. To the Romans, Egypt is mysterious, exotic and frightening. ibid.
Fatale monstrum. Horace, re Cleopatra
Egypt is progressively being brought in to the Roman sphere of influence. Professor Valerie Higgins, American University of Rome
This is fascinating and very difficult to explain. It can’t just be a pretty face. There must have been more than just a physical charm. Mei Trow, author Spartacus: The Myth and Man, re Cleopatra
This has been in the British Museum for a few years ... There’s a difference between a sharp object and something as fast as a bullet ... The round hole in this man’s skull is by forensic experts declared with certainty of having been made by a fast-moving object akin to our bullet. Jonathan Gray, interview Coast to Coast Hidden Discoveries
They found themselves breaking into an ancient tunnel system. Now in this tunnel system there were big clay pots about five feet tall, and inside of these were bodies. And these were so huge – the shinbone was double the size of mine; in fact all the bones were double in size. We’re looking at people here who must have been twelve feet tall. ibid.
Archaeologists of course have often looked at the pictures from King Tut’s tomb and the various artefacts that were brought out and one of the artefacts contained pictures ... a flying vehicle. And the structure of it actually flew. ibid.
If you didn’t know that was thousands of years old you would swear it was a model of one of our own flying craft. ibid.
By means of a projector that actually projected an image: and the projector was moved on wheels through the darkness. ibid.
Why did the Hebrew authors of the Bible omit all of the important historical names of Egyptian pharaohs? Why did they mix up historical fact with myths and legends? The big question is, What did they have to hide? Researchers of both Bible and Egyptian history have concluded that the Hebrew authors of the Bible covered up the fact that the Hebrews and Egyptians shared the same royal blood-line. But why? Why the cover up? Ring of Power, 2008
The idea of spending one’s afterlife with your loved ones in a pleasant place where you could do what you like is the same in both Christianity and the Egyptian religion. Tamara L Siuda, Egyptologist
Written in 1280 B.C. the Egyptian Book of the Dead describes a god Horus. Horus is the son of the god Osiris. Born to a virgin mother. He was baptised in a river by Anup the Baptiser. Who was later beheaded. Like Jesus, Horus was tempted while alone in the desert. Healed the sick. The blind. Cast out demons. And walked on water. He raised Asar from the dead (Asar translates to Lazarus). Oh yeah, he also had twelve disciples. Yes, Horus was crucified first. And after three days, two women announced Horus, the saviour of humanity, had been resurrected. Bill Maher, Religulous, 2008
The Egyptians believed in an intricate and vast afterlife. Each mummified corpse was expected to resurrect in another world for which there was only one guide: the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The name given to scrolls entombed with the mummified dead in ancient Egypt. Egyptian Book of the Dead, History 2006
Archaeologists have uncovered more than twenty-five thousand copies of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The oldest text dating from 1,500 B.C. The latest from the 4th century A.D. But it is here at the British Museum in the heart of twenty-first century London that the famous Scroll of Ani, the finest example of the Egyptian Book of the Dead ever preserved, can be seen. ibid.
The Scroll was brought from Egypt in 1887 by a Museum curator, Doctor Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge. He was a prolific author ... Yet there are those who say Budge was a second-rate scholar, a poor archaeologist and a cultural thief acquiring antiquities by any means possible. ibid.
In the autumn of 1887 the Museum sent him to Egypt on an artefact collecting expedition. ibid.
When Wallis Budge arrived in Egypt in 1887 the country was controlled by a European coalition. Following a nationalist rebellion in 1882 Great Britain and France shared control of the country and the vital Suez Canal. Their coalition would control the politics and economy of Egypt for decades. But it was an uncomfortable union. And men like Budge didn’t make the alliance any easier. ibid.
Whether Budge was a scholar, an adventurer or even a thief the Scroll of Ani was his greatest contribution to the world of Egyptology. He never made a greater find. Nor has anyone ever discovered any other scrolls as artistic or complete as Ani’s Book of the Dead. ibid.
Ultimately, the Egyptian Book of the Dead is a guide to living, a guide as to how one should live life on Earth. A life of morals. And ethics. In order to obtain an afterlife. ibid.
We all die. And we all wonder what happens after our heart stops beating. Few have imagined a more terrifying and elaborate afterlife than the ancient Egyptians. Their vision of death required an arduous journey. A struggle to make it through a dangerous underworld. Their only guide – collections of powerful spells called the Book of the Dead. ibid.
The idea of being challenged by demons in the afterlife is very old. It represented the belief that there would be a final reckoning after death. It’s an idea that still resonates down the centuries. ibid.
Many believe it is the only example of religious writing in the world. ibid.
There’s even a case to be made that the Egyptian Book of the Dead influenced New Testament and Christian imagery. ibid.
Most of the Ten Commandments can be found in the Negative Confessions. ibid.
Of all the wonders of ancient Egypt Ramesses-the-Great’s capital – the city of Pi-Ramesses – was one of the most spectacular. Lost Cities of the Ancients I: The Vanished Capital of the Pharaoh, BBC 2006
Ramesses II was born a commoner but became one of the greatest kings of the ancient world. ibid.
At the centre of the city Ramesses built an enormous army garrison. ibid.
Ramesses had built his city on the easternmost branch of the Nile in the Delta. ibid.
The city was also at the mercy of the river. ibid.
They moved their city – and they moved it to where the new branch of the Nile now flowed. ibid.
Tanis too one day crumbled and faded into history. ibid.
The Hittites now threatened Egypt itself ... War between the world’s two great superpowers was inevitable. Lost Cities of the Ancients: The Dark Side of Hattusha, BBC 2006
Napoleon was only twenty-nine and had just amazed the world with his military victories in Italy. He intended to establish his fame and glory by conquering Egypt. But why Egypt? France was at war with Britain, and by conquering Egypt, Napoleon imagined that he would block the overland trade route to Britain’s most valuable possession – India. There was another motive as well: Bonaparte was keen for a new challenge. Napoleon’s Obsession: The Quest for Egypt, Discovery 2000
By the time the pharaohs were being buried here [Valley of the Kings] the pyramids were a thousand years old. The kings of Egypt selected a spot topped by a natural pyramid to look over their tombs. ibid.
Napoleon was becoming increasingly dictatorial. Bonaparte had been in Egypt a mere four months but much had happened. He had defeated the Mamluks, established a scientific institute, lost an entire naval fleet, crushed a revolt and discovered that his wife Josephine was unfaithful to him. ibid.
As the soldiers were shoring the foundations of the fort at Rosetta they came upon ancient blocks inscribed with hieroglyphs. One, a large stone, bore the same inscription written in ancient Egyptian and Greek. They felt they had stumbled upon something very important. The British took the Rosetta Stone back to England where it can still be seen in the British Museum. Twenty years later the French scholar Champollion cracked the code and read Egyptian hieroglyphs for the first time in two thousand years. ibid.