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DISPATCH
Looking
for secrets
Will the
mysteries of the Pyramids finally be revealed -- live on TV?
(cairolive.com,
September 4, 2002)
Politically, Egypt is never far
from the international spotlight, of course, but next month, all eyes
around the world will be focused on the Great Pyramid of Khufu.
Why, you ask?
Because the National Geographic
Channel is set to host one of those occasionally cheesy, but exciting
all the same, brand-new live-archaeology events from deep within the
pyramid itself...
 This
time the concept is quite intriguing. There is a shaft, it seems, that
penetrates deep within the heart of the pyramid. At the end of the shaft
there is a door of sorts. For the first time ever, a robot will be sent
down the shaft in order to discover what lies behind that hidden door.
All this will take place live and will be beamed worldwide to millions
of anxious viewers. The selling point, for the special's producers, is
that whatever is behind that door may finally reveal some of the
mysteries of the pyramids themselves.
Archaeologist Zahi Hawass, the
head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, will be leading the
expedition, along with Mark Lehner, a prominent archaeologist who has
been busy exploring various sites near the pyramids. As an added treat,
they will also be opening up, for the first time (and again, live for
the cameras) a recently discovered sarcophagus belonging to the
"Overseer of the Administrative District", someone who quite
clearly was running the whole pyramid building operation back in the
day.
According to John Bredar, one of
the show's producers, the goal of the event is to "feed people's
imagination..." -- and that it will certainly do.
Kim McKay, the communications
manager at the National Geographic Channel, said she has always been
fascinated with the pyramids. She clearly remembers seeing them for the
first time on a hot day in July when she was just five years old, so you
can just imagine how happy she is now to be part of "history in the
making", as she described the show.
Photos courtesy National
Geographic.
"Egypt: Secret
Chambers Revealed" is set to air live in the US and Canada on
Monday, September 16, and elsewhere around the world from 17-21
September. Check your local TV listings for specific broadcast details.
FROM THE
ARCHIVES:
Mummy's
the word
It was hocus-pocus
time in tiny Bawiti, as a major American network purported to discover a
golden mummy, live!
By Tarek Atia, May 2000
A lot of people might consider the events that culminated in
Bahariya Oasis early Wednesday morning as a farce. Any live TV programme
purporting to discover a mummy, live on screen, was bound to be clichéd
and an outrageous set-up. And in many ways it was. Opening the Tombs of
the Golden Mummies Live! was "the second time in recent years that
Fox has mined ancient Egyptian history for compelling subject
matter..." says the web-site. Mined it for money is more like it.
Read
more
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