Ancient Egyptians

Each of the four separate episodes -rather independent chapters- presents some of the findings of Egyptology, largely in the form of realistically presented docudrama, a splendid spectacle by peplum-standards, yet unusually true and hence surprising for non-specialist viewers in various details. Remarkable is the revealed contrast between the image-building clichés presented by the official, mostly monumental sources, glorifying deified pharaohs' glorious reign and triumphs and 'celestial' deities, and the more mundane reality, deduced largely from other archaeological findings, showing more human vices, misery, crime

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Created By

Status

Ended

Original Name

Ancient Egyptians

First Air Date

November 13, 2003

Last Air Date

January 9, 2009

Seasons

Episodes

Language

English

Production Companies

Networks

Channel 4

S01E04

The Twins

Murder, betrayal and decadence in Egypt's dying days. Egypt, 164 BC. A bull that is worshipped as a God dies. Two children, twin girls, are plucked from poverty to become virgin priestesses of the Apis Bull cult. Their mother has abandoned them, and their father has been murdered. As handmaidens to the dead bull, they may be saved from a life of poverty and prostitution - but not if their mother has her way. The true story of the sacred twins is told in a letter they wrote to the Pharaoh over two thousand years ago. It's a tragic tale of greed and betrayal that unfolds in the shadowy underworld of the great temple city of Saqqara in the last decades of the Egyptian empire.

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