You used to get two kinds of Egyptology programmes on the TV - the old-school shows where archaeologists stood around in deserts pointing at rocks and telling you stuff, and the all-singing, all-dancing productions, light on facts but heavy on CGI, costume reconstructions, dramatic music and portentous commentaries. Now, it seems, you get just the one kind, an unhappy marriage of both styles, presumably designed to appeal to a broad audience but likely to please nobody.
The Lost Pyramid is a prime example of this genre, with a team of pukka Egyptologists from respected institutions drafted in to interpret the excavated remains of "the legendary lost pyramid" of Djedefra at Abu Rawash. Naturally this is presented as an exciting new discovery, despite the fact that the pyramid's location has been known since antiquity and has been excavated several times over the past century. (In fact, the only sense in which it could be described as "lost" is the fact that most of its stones have been nicked and sold as building material.)
So, in a misguided attempt to inject some drama into the proceedings, we are treated to a lengthy exploration of "a dark secret from Egypt's Golden Age" involving incest, murder and prostitution which is promptly debunked by the experts - but only after extensive footage of cringeworthy "reconstructions".
And that's a shame, because there is actually an interesting story here, one that sheds light on a little-known period of Egyptian history and writes a new chapter in the history of the Sphinx. Unfortunately, the incisive analysis and excellent CGI imagery end up fighting a losing battle against an incoherent narrative and layers of unnecessary hype. Someone should tell the History Channel that sometimes less really is more.
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