Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank - Season 1

Historian Dan Cruickshank explores some of the most intriguing stories from ancient Egypt. Secrets of the Tomb Builders. An investigation into the lives of the gifted artisans who built the tombs of the Egyptian Pharaohs takes Dan Cruickshank into the 150-room necropolis created for the sons of Ramesses II, the unfinished tomb of Thutmose III and on to a village where the tomb builders lived.

The twists and mysteries in the life of Howard Carter - the archaeologist who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun - are traced by Dan Cruickshank. Despite his success, Carter was never honoured in this country, and received no official recognition from the British. Dan travels through Egypt, looking for clues to this mystery.

Dan Cruickshank charts the story of radical ruler Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti. Following a personal religious conversion, the pharaoh turned his back on centuries of traditional beliefs and built a sacred city in the desert dedicated to the god of his own new religion - the Sun. But the royal couple's sumptuous lives there were destined to come to a tragic end.

Driven by their obsession with magic and the afterlife, the ancient Egyptians developed techniques to preserve their bodies, their possessions and the monumental tombs in which they were laid to rest. Dan visits the pyramids at Saqqara and Giza, the huge stone temple at Dendera and also examines the process of mummification.

The dark side of the court of Ramesses III revealed, exposing the Pharaoh as having little control over his harem and tracing the conspiracy that led to rebellion and possibly to his death.

Travelling the length of the country, Dan traces the key events that marked the brutal decline in the Ancient Egyptians and profiles the rich cast of characters - from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra - who featured in the death of this 3,000-year-old civilisation.