What Egyptian Crocodile Mummies Tell us ...

In August 1863, as Lee's army retreated from Gettysburg and Vicksburg fell to Grant, the Union's Anaconda Plan deployed hundreds of ships to strangle 3,500 miles of Confederate coastline, triggering hyperinflation and economic collapse as the South lost its ability to export King ... Show More

Pompeii's story is usually told through the lens of catastrophe—perfectly preserved bodies frozen in ash, a civilization erased in hours, sort of like a Roman version of the Chicxulub impactor that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago —but the real tragedy isn't just that Mo ... Show More

When St. Francis of Assisi was near death in 1226, he joked with companions that his corpse would be practically as valuable as gold. And he was right: In medieval Europe, relics, or the physical remains of saints, weren't just symbols, they were the center of an entire economy. ... Show More

When asked what he saw after reverently peering into the freshly opened tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, Egyptologist Howard Carter could only find the words the say “Wonderful Things.” These words have become legend in Egyptology; whether they were actually spoken by Carter or were ... Show More

January 3, 1924. Archeologists crowd into an ancient Egyptian tomb to uncover what awaits them in the unopened burial chamber. The world is waiting to find out. That’s because two years before, the discovery of the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun revealed antiquities so dazzling ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the text and context of The Book of the Dead, also known as the Book of Coming Forth by Day, the ancient Egyptian collections of spells which were intended to help the recently deceased navigate the underworld. They flourished under the New Kingdom ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the text and context of The Book of the Dead, also known as the Book of Coming Forth by Day, the ancient Egyptian collections of spells which were intended to help the recently deceased navigate the underworld. They flourished under the New Kingdom ... Show More

Ancient Egyptians did lots of amazing things, from building pyramids to inventing a form of writing called hieroglyphics. They also mummified important people after they died. In this episode, we’ll explain how that process was done and why. We’ll also meet a museum curator who t ... Show More

For more than 3,000 years, the ancient Egyptians adhered to a rich and complex system of beliefs, worshipping a vast pantheon of mighty – and often animal-headed – gods and goddesses. But how did this dynamic religion emerge? What was the pharaoh’s role in rituals? And what did t ... Show More

<p>In its final centuries, Ancient Egypt was conquered by the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, beginning with the invasion of Alexander the Great in 332 BC. But these new arrivals didn't squash the Egyptian way of life - the invaders blended their customs, practices and style ... Show More

For millennia, Egypt’s mighty pyramids have acted as emblems of the vibrant ancient civilisation that once straddled the Nile Valley. From mysteries surrounding their design and construction and the discovery of new passageways, to the enigma of the Great Sphinx, the pyramids con ... Show More