Ancient Egypt By Train is a unique travelogue that sees Professor Alice Roberts looking into the world’s oldest civilisation.
And she’s doing it by train. This four-part series starts at the very end of the Ancient Egyptian empire in Alexandria, where the Romans came to take control, and travels back in time, heading south, to Cairo, Luxor and Aswan. Roberts digs deep to look beyond the myths and legends to understand what it must have been like to have lived in this fascinating, brutal and complex ancient civilisation.
Series One, Episode Two: The Pyramids
Professor Alice Roberts arrives in Cairo by train carrying a book she first read as a youth, ‘A Thousand Miles Up The Nile’ by Victorian Egyptologist Amelia Edwards. Alice follows Edwards’ footsteps to the Great Pyramids and is allowed to climb deep inside to see the tomb and sarcophagus of the pharaoh Khufu. In the Great Museum Alice is besotted by Tutankhamun, in Saqqara she learns how and why the pyramids came about, and she even finds time for a spot of shopping in a Cairo souk.
Ancient Egypt By Train – New Episode/Sunday, 19 February at 7.30pm on SBS and SBS on Demand (4 Parts)
