Original subtitles

Bettany: The ancient egyptians.

They built great pyramids, temples and tombs in life.

In a bid to become immortal after death.

I am professor bettany hughes.

I'm a historian and I spend my life traveling the world to

Investigate the stories of the cultures and civilizations of the past

And I love having the chance to share what I found with you.

I'm counting down our top ten egyptian mummies.

At number 10 we met ramesses the great,

The man who created one of the world's first peace treaties.

At number 9, seti the first revealed that ancient

Egyptians had skills in cosmetic surgery.

At number 8, we found shoshenq the second,

The lost pharaoh of tanis.

And at number 7 we got under the skin of some of the oldest

Mummies in the world, gebelein man and woman.

At number 6, a baby disguised as a bird.

For number 5, we're at karnak, the vast temple complex where

Pharaohs celebrated their achievements,

But also where there's a conundrum.

Now what you should be looking at here is an image of my next

Mummy, but instead of a great pharaoh,

You've just got this ghostly presence.

Someone has gone to a huge amount of effort to hack out

The face and body that was once on these walls.

And there's a reason for that.

My next choice is so controversial,

Ancient egypt wanted to wipe their memory from the face of the earth.

Number 5 in our list was an enlightened ruler,

A skilled negotiator, a winning diplomat and

Crucially, a woman in a man's world.

This is one of my all-time heroines of history,

Hatshepsut.

I'm incredibly lucky to be close to this mummy,

Only identified as hatshepsut in 2007.

And the tale behind her discovery is worthy of agatha christie.

The first clues are found here,

In one of ancient egypt's most iconic buildings.

This is hatshepsut's mortuary temple,

Built so that priests could worship her during her life,

In preparation for her death.

And even by ancient egyptian standards,

It is vast.

Hatshepsut is a rare female pharaoh,

And the truth is she wasn't even officially in line for the throne.

When her husband, thutmose the second,

Died his direct heir was her step-son,

Thutmose the third.

He was too young to rule, so hatshepsut was put in charge

Until he came of age.

But then, hatshepsut pronounced herself pharaoh

Instead, and reigned for over 15 years.

So this is one of my very favorite images in the temple.

It is hatshepsut, but looking like a man.

She's got this stick-on beard, which most pharaohs would

Actually have used, so that's not unusual.

But look at how she's dressed.

I'm sure she's doing this on purpose.

I'm sure that this is hatshepsut saying,

'I am your female king, and I can do the job of any man'.

But hatshepsut ruled her way.

And, she often asked for the people's blessing in all that

She did which was really unusual for the time.

So in many ways she was styling herself a kind of

Bronze age people's princess.

She also brought wealth, trade and stability to egypt,

So why try to erase her from history?

Out here, in the valley of the kings,

Her mummy seemed to vanish too.

Some of her belongings were found,

But her body was nowhere to be seen.

Then, in 1903, archaeologists discovered a tomb which

Was a real enigma.

Ok, oh, shukraan, shukraan.

So I was warned that this tomb was difficult to get into,

Er wish me luck.

This doesn't look like a royal tomb,

There are no decorations here, so what lay inside the chamber

Was a complete mystery.

Wow, it's great to get down here,

Cos I've read a lot about this place,

But I've never made it in.

And when it was first discovered,

Frankly, what was in here was a bit odd.

So there were mummified geese, and a coffin with the name of

Hatshepsut's wet nurse on, and then a single female mummy

Just propped up against the bare rock.

Hatshepsut's wet nurse's mummy was removed and taken to cairo.

But the unidentified female mummy was left alone for

100 years until archaeologists came to fetch her in 2006.

Back in cairo, the female mummy found in the mystery

Tomb was scanned in the hope of revealing her secrets.

My colleague, egyptologist salima ikram, has the details.

Salima, hi. Oh, how are you? How are you?

Salima: I am so glad you made it.

Bettany: I know.

There's an intriguing thing about her identification isn't

There, there's something about a missing tooth?

Salima: Oh, the story of how she was identified is amazing.

When they were being scanned, they found that there was a molar missing.

You know, fine, whatever, that's sort of normal.

But there is a box that was found and that box has...

Bettany: It's this one?

Salima: Yes, that is the very box.

And it's inscribed with the name of hatshepsut.

Now it had a package in it which they thought was

Probably her liver and when they scanned it,

They found embedded in the resin a molar, broken off,

And they think, because when they did the scan,

That one of the roots is still here and the root is broken off.

And they thought that they matched and as a result they

Thought must be hatshepsut.

Bettany: So just to get the story straight,

When hatshepsut was mummified, it seems her liver and tooth

Were put in a personalized box.

The box became separated from the mummy.

Now this mummy is also missing a tooth.

Reuniting the two has led us to the remains of a once great queen.

I mean, it's really interesting this tooth,

Has that randomly ended up in that box,

Or do you think it dropped out during the mummification process?

Salima: A lot of things get loose when you're being dried

With natron, so maybe she had just lost a tooth or

Something, someone noticed it because it was cracked or

Broken, and then during the course of mummification,

It fell out.

And they thought, 'oh, bloody hell.

We have already wrapped up her face'.

And so they might have stuffed it into that.

And so you know, 4,000 years later or something,

Here we are trying to put it together.

Bettany: And also in the process of her mummification,

Hatshepsut appears to have been given what may very well

Be the world's first tummy tuck.

Salima: You know when you see her in her relief,

She looks rather slender and very elegant.

This lady is quite plump.

Bettany: She doesn't look plump.

Salima: Well, what they did is,

When they use the natron, what it does is it desiccates but

It also de-fats, so it sucks it all out,

Which is great for your diet.

And then all the loose flesh after it's been desiccated was

Taken, stretched out and then tucked underneath and kept in

Place with resin.

Bettany: So they are literally pinning it back?

Pinning back the kind of excess flesh? Gosh

Salima: And so she looks a bit more as she did in her youth.

Bettany: Hatshepsut is one of the most remarkable women in

The story of the world.

She should be a household name, shouldn't she?

Salima: Absolutely.

I mean, how often do you get a female pharaoh ruling egypt,

Sending people to all kinds of places on expeditions and

Creating some of the world's most exquisite monuments?

Bettany: Incredible. Oh, I wish she could talk.

I wish she could tell us why she ended up being so...

What a woman, what a woman!

Well, kudos and respect to her.

Salima: Absolutely.

Bettany: And who tried to obliterate her from history?

Well, almost certainly her jealous stepson,

Thutmoses the third.

Although it now looks like he was foiled in his mission.

The mummy of hatshepsut deserves to be celebrated,

Not just because it involves an incredible detective story,

But more importantly, because it helps us understand one of

The greatest and most powerful women of all time.

G and

Buying mummies from across egypt.

Mummies became 'big business'.

Many ended up in private collections and in museums

Across the world.

The british museum in london is now home to no fewer than

140 egyptian mummies.

In a corner of the museum's storeroom hides my next mummy,

Number 4 on my countdown.

And this mummy isn't a mighty pharaoh but more a man of the street.

The reason that he makes it onto my list is because he

Shows us just how much we can learn about the ancient

Egyptians from investigating a body that is close on 3,000 years old.

Curator john taylor is on hand to show what we can piece together.

Starting from the outside.

John: This is what I wanted to show you.

Bettany: So beautiful, look at those colors,

They're amazing.

John: It's incredible, yes.

Bettany: But it's not a coffin we're looking at, is it?

John: We would call this a cartonnage case.

It's a kind of papier mache shell that fits around the mummy.

It's made from layers of linen.

Bettany: And his mummy is still inside here?

John: Yes. Completely sealed up inside.

Bettany: And do we know from the decoration,

Who it is?

John: We do, because his name is inscribed above this figure here.

Padiamenet.

And this figure represents him.

Bettany: Is this a kind of portrait of him?

John: This is how he wants to look in the next life.

Young, perfect.

No kinds of illness and no physical defect.

Bettany: Plump as well.

John: A little plump. Bettany: Well fed, okay.

So I've noticed there's a sort of slightly rubbish bit tacked

On at the end?

What's going on with that?

John: Yes, it looks as though the people who were making the

Cartonnage didn't make it quite long enough.

So when it came to putting him inside,

His feet were sticking out at the end.

And all they could do was just quickly cover up his feet with

A bit of extra linen.

Bettany: Great.

But do we get any other clues to his life from this?

John: We know that he was the chief doorkeeper of the temple

Of ra at karnak.

That's written in the inscriptions just here.

He's a kind of security guard, because the temple contains

Lots of valuable objects.

He's also there to watch who comes through the doors.

Bettany: So the first thing we learn is that padiamenet was a

Kind of temple bouncer!

And this is where he once worked,

The staggering temple of amun in karnak, just outside luxor.

A number of areas in the temple were reserved

Exclusively for the elite and elite priests.

And so there were hundreds of doormen here.

Padiamenet's job was to make it very clear where was off limits.

So as you can imagine, doormen were often rather unpopular.

There are these brilliant depictions from the time of

Them falling asleep on the job and being described as corrupt and lazy.

It was a role that was passed down from father to son,

So padiamenet was in a privileged position:

Probably good food, great pay and decent hours.

But the job also came with another,

Curious responsibility.

Padiamenet also acted as the local barber at the temple.

Egyptian priests were completely shaved from head to toe.

So that would have meant there'd have been a lot of

Rummaging around in men's underarms and private parts.

I want to see what else we can learn about padiamenet

From his mummy.

But there's a challenge.

For the last 200 years, the british museum hasn't

Unwrapped any of their mummies out of respect and fear of damage.

Now the very latest 3d technology allows us to peer

Beneath the bandages without touching a hair on these

Mummies' heads.

A pioneering team, led by daniel antoine,

Is giving our ancient egyptian bouncer-cum-barber a 21st century post mortem.

Daniel: So what's extraordinary about ct

Scanning is that you can virtually remove layer by

Layer and reveal their remains for the first time since they

Were embalmed.

And here you can see padiamenet's face.

Bettany: But that's so impressive.

You haven't touched the cartonnage you haven't touched

The linen wrappings.

But look at this, we're beginning to see the man inside.

So what does it tell you about how he was embalmed and mummified?

Daniel: So his brain was removed through his nose.

Minimal damage, removing quite a three dimensional organ

Through a very small aperture.

They've also added packing in his mouth.

And then they've reconstructed the nose and added some lips,

So that his facial features are preserved and recognizable

In the afterlife.

Bettany: What about him as a person, his lifestyle.

Could you tell any of that from the scan?

Daniel: We discovered that he had terrible dental health.

If I virtually remove all the soft tissue and this is what

You have here, is you've got these lesions,

These periapical lesions and here you can see the bone is

Really moved away from the molar.

And these are probably abscesses or cysts,

And he might've died from these infections.

He might've died for two complications,

Either because he had a lot of pus going down his mouth...

Bettany: Pus? Nice.

Daniel: And the throat closes up,

Or, if the infection enters the bloodstream,

You die from septicaemia.

Bettany: Gosh.

I mean do you think that's anything to do with the fact

That he's working in a temple so he'd have had access to

Kind of pretty rich foods, you know,

Because it's the centre of activity and where all the

Treasures and wealth is kept.

Daniel: Absolutely.

He would have had a very rich diet and that appears to have

Had other consequences.

If we look at some of the arteries in the leg,

So here we've got the femoral artery.

You can see inside the femoral artery you've got

This large plaque deposit.

It's the same density as bone, it's calcified,

And this is basically hardened fat, hardened cholesterol,

And he suffered from a cardiovascular disease, basically.

He would have been at high risk of a heart attack or a stroke.

Bettany: Wow, wow.

Daniel: And we think of this as a modern disease,

But actually the more mummies we study,

The more we realize it was very common in ancient egypt,

In these mummified individuals.

Bettany: But the scans also revealed something rather unexpected.

Daniel: You can see these two giant poles that were inserted

To hold and reattach his head.

You can see them highlighted in green here.

Bettany: Yeah.

Daniel: There were no signs of trauma in the neck so it's

Likely that as the body dried, because the skull is very

Heavy, the head detached and they had to reattach it as

Part of the embalming process.

Bettany: Wow.

I mean, that's not good practice, is it?

Daniel: No, absolutely not.

But the embalmers still achieved a lot of what

Padiamenet would have wanted.

Bettany: No, incredible.

What he wanted was immortality,

And 2,700 years on, we're looking at him, face to face.

Daniel: Exactly.

Bettany: Padiamenet is still here with us.

And it's amazing, isn't it, how much we can learn about

Him and his life story without disturbing his body.

But I tell you what I really love about this mummy.

He reminds us that mummification wasn't just for

Pharaohs and their queens, but for many ancient egyptians,

Even the ancient egyptian equivalent of a bouncer.

Coming up, I continue my countdown of the top ten

Egyptian mummies with a terrible tale of a

Pharaoh's family at war.

This shows his enemies' hands and penises having been cut off.

Has been hiding a gruesome secret for thousands of years.

At number 3 on my countdown, it's ramesses the third,

A man who had enemies everywhere.

So this is the mummy of ramesses the third and on the

Face of it he looks really typical,

But you've got to have a look at this bandages wrapped round

His neck which really, really unusual.

When this mummy was scanned, it was discovered that he has

A massive gash on his neck, so it seems as though

Ramesses the third has had his throat slit.

The story behind ramesses' horrendous death is a royal

Scandal worthy of game of thrones.

Let me take you to a possible crime scene on the west bank

Of the nile, a temple where mummies were prepared and

Perhaps a fatal plot was prepared too...

This is the mortuary temple of ramesses the third,

Built so that ordinary people could worship him during his lifetime.

As well as being a temple, there was a palace here.

So, we can learn not just about ramesses' death,

But the events that led up to it.

This palace would have been a beating heart of royal power,

Possibly for women as well as men.

Now, in many of the royal palaces,

There was a harem where all the royal women of real

Influence lived and we're told that in the harem of ramesses the third,

A plot was hatched to kill the king.

Archaeologist kimberley watt has been studying what really

Went down with ramesses the third over 3,000 years ago.

When we use the word harem, in relation to egypt,

What does that actually mean?

What does an ancient egyptian harem look like?

Kimberley: It's a royal household dedicated to royal women.

Bettany: We're talking about substantial numbers here, hundreds?

Kimberley: Yes. Definitely more than that.

Bettany: And if you've got that many royal women in a

Tight space together,

You can imagine them plotting and planning.

There really could have been this harem conspiracy,

There could have been a plot to kill the king.

Kimberley: Yes definitely. We have the evidence for that.

We have a papyrus that actually records in very

Detailed manner that there was a plot to overthrow and

Kill the king during ramesses the third's reign.

Bettany: Written, not in hieroglyphs,

But in an egyptian script that any literate egyptian could

Read, it's an extraordinary record of the trial of the

Conspirators in a plot hatched by a woman called tiye.

Now, tiye was a secondary wife of ramesses the third and she

Was clearly furious with him and we know this because of

This amazing bit of evidence that survived over 3,000 years

And it tells us that a plot was hatched to kill the king

And put tiye's son, prince pentawere,

On the throne instead.

I can tell you that conspirators in a court

Intrigue like this would be encouraged to commit suicide

And would almost certainly be horribly mutilated before they died.

And when I say horribly mutilated, I mean it.

This shows his enemies' hands and penises having been cut off.

Ramesses the third's slit throat may be proof that

Queen tiye's plot to assassinate him succeeded.

And further research has revealed a curious thing.

Ramesses' big toe appears to have been hacked off.

Most probably at the same time his throat was cut.

During his mummification, a loyal subject made him a new

Toe out of linen and resin to ensure the king could walk

Proud in his afterlife.

The story ramses the third tells us of the power and

Influence of the harem in ancient egyptian politics.

But it also reminds us that even the greatest aren't

Immune to the twists and turns of fate.

And that egyptian women were also players in ancient

Politics, not just the men.

Our next mummy is one of egypt's most controversial rulers.

This is an extraordinary man with a problem.

The issue with this notorious pharaoh is that physically

There's not much of him left.

He was a pioneer and an out and out rebel and that is one

Of the reasons there's a mystery that surrounds his

Mummy and it's this dramatic life story that makes him

Our next choice.

At number 2 on our countdown, it's the pharaoh akhenaten.

For years the fate of his mummy lay shrouded in mystery.

And when a tomb was discovered in 1907 the plot only thickened...

I'm really lucky to get access to this tomb,

Because we've actually got the break the seal in order to get

In, and that's amazing for me because the first reports of

This being excavated at the beginning of the 20th century

Talked about having to break one of the original seals to enter.

Shukraan.

(speaking arabic).

What was discovered here just didn't add up.

Grave goods scattered across the floor and a dumped,

Beaten up coffin apparently containing the decomposed body

Of akhenaten himself.

He wasn't being treated like a royal mummy.

To understand why, and what happened to this once great

Pharaoh, I'm going right back to the beginning of his story.

I'm heading out deep into the desert.

I'm looking for clues to help unlock the puzzle of

Akhenaten's mummy.

Our first stop is this remote tomb deep in the egyptian desert.

So this is actually the tomb of a high priest and here,

With his face scratched out, is akhenaten,

Driving a beautiful chariot.

But, why was his face scratched out?

Well, five years into his reign,

Akhenaten makes a series of extraordinary decisions.

First the pharaoh announces that egyptians should stop

Worshipping their traditional gods.

He declared all egyptians should now worship one god

Alone, the great sun god aten.

Akhenaten does everything in his power to ban the practice

Of the old religion.

As the living incarnation of the great sun god,

Everyone now had to worship the uber-pharaoh akhenaten.

And if that wasn't enough...

He decides to move his entire court and community to the desert.

The pharaoh's court had once been at luxurious luxor,

A beautiful site on the banks of the life-giving nile.

But his brand new city amarna, 200 miles away,

Would have to be built entirely from scratch,

In the most punishing environment.

Archaeologist anna stevens and her team have made a shocking discovery.

They've given me access to their remarkable finds and I'm

Hoping to find more clues to help me understand akhenaten's

Controversial life-story.

So what is it exactly you're digging here?

Anna: It's an ancient cemetery.

So a cemetery for like the ordinary people.

Bettany: Ok.

Oh look here cause you can see the human remains everywhere.

That's really, what do you think these ones are?

Anna: You can see bits of ribs popping up.

And if you actually look very closely you can just see some

Teeth popping out of the sand.

So this is part of a jaw or the lower part of the skull

Bettany: Oh god, you can. And how many are there here?

Anna: Probably in this one cemetery there's something

Like 4 to 5,000 people buried here.

It's enormous.

Bettany: That's enormous anna: So that's not just a few hundred people,

Bettany: What can you tell so far from the

Human remains here?

Anna: What we find from the study of the skeletons is that

They were undertaking very heavy, very hard labour.

So there's lots of signs of degenerative joint disease,

So arthritis on their skeletons,

In a way, in patterns that would suggest that they were

Doing things like heavy lifting especially.

Bettany: Right, right.

Anna: And various other signs generally of difficult lives,

Difficult work conditions.

What we think is that this was probably a cemetery of laborers.

Bettany: Mm-hmm.

Anna: And they were very young.

So most of the people buried here,

They are aged between seven and 24 years of age.

Bettany: No. So, it's child laborers?

Anna: Yeah, exactly.

Bettany: So do you think there's a possibility

They're being drafted in or brought in to try to help

Build this city in a hurry?

Anna: It does seem likely that they're actually involved in

Building the city for the king.

Bettany: Right.

Armana was built using child labour.

The skeleton of this 12 year old, only just discovered,

Bears witness to the huge loads they were carrying.

Limestone slabs up to 70 kilos caused shocking injuries.

This skeleton reveals crushed neck vertebrae,

Fused spinal bones and skull deformities.

You see, this is the truth.

You get the official version of history when what's being

Described is this kind of brilliant,

Glittering experiment.

And then, you know, this is the harsh reality of what's going on.

Anna: The people's history.

Bettany: Yeah.

The great tragedy is that all that pain and suffering was pointless.

Within just 20 years, the egyptians had turned back

To their old beliefs and decided to abandon

Akhenaten's crazy new city.

En became one of the most hated pharaohs of all time.

His successors destroyed statues and struck him from

The list of kings.

His own son, the world famous tutankhamun,

Immediately reversed his father's radical ideas and

Returned the royal court to luxor.

Akhenaten's coffin and his mummy were left abandoned.

The story goes that priests scratched out his face so that

He wouldn't be recognized in the afterlife by the gods.

I have to say, I think that is actually a bit fanciful,

But what is certain is that after his death,

Akhenaten was unmourned and unloved.

Amarna was conceived as a kind of utopian experiment,

But for many it ended up a living hell.

So akhenaten reminds us to know when to stop.

It's been an epic journey as we count down our top ten

Egyptian mummies.

And my heroine, hatshepsut, was number five,

The woman who properly rocked in a man's world.

At number four, padiamenet the bouncer was digitally unwrapped.

At number three, it was ramesses the third and the

Revenge of the royal harem.

And at number two, was the religious radical akhenaten,

Who broke his people's backs building his dream city.

Now it's time to reveal number one in our top ten countdown

Of astonishing egyptian mummies.

The final mummy in our top ten is the most famous pharaoh in the world.

His solid gold death mask and over 5,000 of the treasures

Buried with him have given us an incredible insight into the

Lives of the ancient egyptians,

And the world of the teenage king, tutankhamun.

We've all heard of tutankhamun,

Not because he was a great pharaoh in life,

But because his almost-intact tomb treasures were found

3,300 years after his death.

But, dazzled by all this gold the mummy of the teenage king

Himself is often overlooked.

So I want you to meet him, in his tomb,

In the valley of the kings.

Here he is, the mummy of tutankhamun.

When you come up close to him, I think you realize that he is

Just a vulnerable, fragile teenager.

Originally you could have seen his lovely eyelashes and the

Fact that he had pierced ears,

And his arms were very peacefully folded,

But he hasn't been treated so well, across the years.

It was November 1922 when british archaeologist

Howard carter discovered tutankhamun's tomb.

Incredible treasures were captured on camera.

Breaking through into tutankhamun's burial chamber

Carter discovered, inside a stone sarcophagus,

The ancient egyptian equivalent of a russian doll.

Three coffins, each smaller than the last;

The first, gold-plated wood.

The second, the same, decorated with semi-precious stones.

But the third, the smallest coffin,

Is made of solid gold.

Inside lay the mummy of tutankhamun,

His face covered by the now famous golden death mask.

Eager to see inside, carter unwrapped tutankhamun's mummy,

Leaving his tiny body exposed.

He then had to ease tutankhamun's body out of the coffin,

With difficulty, using heated knives.

The young pharaoh's body was left in this outer wooden coffin.

Tutankhamun lay there for 40 years.

When he was removed for examination,

An awful truth was revealed.

Over time tut's hands had come off,

His legs were detached from his pelvis and when the famous

Death mask was removed, his neck was severed.

So now, instead of an intact royal mummy,

All we have is this fragile body,

With tiny remnants of his mummification bandages

Clinging to his toes.

I'm glad to say that now, at last,

We treat mummies, including tut's remains,

With a great deal more reverence and expertise.

And the egyptian authorities have launched a

Multi-million-pound program to restore and preserve tut's

Legacy for future generations.

The lid's been put back on tutankhamun's sarcophagus for

The first time in years, but I've been promised I can have

A special look at what was hidden inside.

Opportunity, behind the scenes at the grand egyptian museum.

The labs here have dedicated teams of specialists,

Carrying out incredibly delicate work to restore

Priceless treasures.

A high-tech operation to save one of tutankhamun's most

Prized pieces, the final resting place of his mummy.

I know this place seems a bit austere,

But frankly, I think it is one of the most exciting places on

Earth because this is where tutankhamun's treasures are

Being lovingly cared for and restored.

The restoration work is extraordinary.

It's worth remembering that, just like tut's mummy,

This coffin is over 3,300 years old.

So this is the lid of the coffin.

It's kind of the most famous bit,

It's the bit that you could see in the tomb.

And the workmanship on it is totally remarkable.

So you can see every single detail on the feathers.

And this is tutankhamun being represented as the god,

Osiris, the mighty god of the underworld.

It's massive, it's over seven-foot long.

I've met ahmed before. Hi, nice to see you again.

Ahmed: Hi. Nice to see you too.

Bettany: Ahmed is one of the restorers here.

When you're doing this restoration work,

Does it make you feel even more impressed by the egyptians?

Ahmed: Yeah, of course. Of course, of course.

Bettany: The tomb also contained another,

Totally unexpected find, one that gives us a moving insight

Into what mattered to this young pharaoh.

Bettany: These two babies died in the womb at around

25 and 37 weeks old.

Gosh. It's so poignant to see them.

They are so perfect, aren't they?

You can see their fingers on their hands and you know, the shape of their legs.

Amazing.

And do we have any more information of who they are?

Bettany: So they were born prematurely or stillborn?

Because that's an important part of his story,

That he died when he was just a teenager and he died without any heirs.

So it can change history a bit if we think these could be his daughters.

These poor little girls.

Isn't it amazing to think that we're still investigating

Their story over 3,000 years after they died.

Stillborn, these two tiny baby girls were still lovingly

Preserved, showing us that for the ancient egyptians

Mummification was the ultimate act of reverence;

An approach that, thankfully, is now being matched by their

Careful preservation and the dignity of their treatment today.

I wonder if he feels he's getting the right kind of

Immortality, thanks to being a celebrity.

Certainly, we are saying the name of tutankhamun

Again and again and again.

And the incredible survival of this mummy has given us an

Enduring fascination with ancient egypt and

With mummification in particular.

In our top ten we've spanned 4,000 years of egyptian history,

From a couple mummified by nothing more than

The hot sands of egypt, to mighty pharaohs,

Buried in the grandeur of the valley of the kings.

We've seen cutting-edge research shining a new light

On the ancient dead, and remembered that mummies are

The bodies of real people who deserve to be honored,

And that's why we should treasure tutankhamun,

My number one egyptian mummy.

Mummification is a remarkable, frankly quite miraculous

Process that allows us to come face to face with women and

Men from ancient egypt and to understand their stories,

Their hopes and their fears.

It also allows us to be eternally fascinated by them

And in fact to do what mummification was originally

Intended to do: To remember their names with respect and

Awe across thousands of years.

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