Ancient Egypt: Chronicles of an Empire

This visually stunning eight-part series covers the entire arc of ancient Egyptian history. It illuminates the stories of the pyramids, pharaohs, and priests, highlighting decisive battles and fearless women leaders. It also goes beyond the familiar to explore ordinary people's lives and thoughts - the civil servant, the doctor, or the farmer. How did they build their houses, how did they make a living, and what did they believe in?

For more than 3000 years, godlike kings and queens ruled the ancient Egyptian empire until it perished with Cleopatra's death. Yet, Ancient Egypt leaves behind much more than magnificent temples and impressive pyramids. Some inventions or ideas are cornerstones of state and society today even today. About 5000 years ago, the Egyptians created the first state in history. A great empire on the Nile, which could only be held together by the just rule of the Pharaoh and the belief in a common world of gods.

In the realm of the pharaohs, some of mankind's oldest and largest cities are emerging. For unlike the impressive stone temples, most traces of settlement have disappeared today. Yet, research is gaining ever deeper insights into the urban life and residential culture of the ancient Egyptians. The first major metropolis, Hierakonpolis, the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, emerges around 3500 years B.C., when several villages coalesce into the oldest known urban settlement in Egypt.

Ancient Egypt is famous for its cult of the dead. Tomb complexes, mummies and fabulous treasures fire people's imagination to this day. Back then, it played a central role for the Egyptians. Long before King Narmer united Upper and Lower Egypt for the first time around 3100 BC, the people along the Nile are burying their dead in the desert sand. As they observe that the corpses do not decompose, they come to believe that eternal life in the hereafter is only possible via a preserved body in this world.

Nothing represents the unique advanced civilisation of ancient Egypt more than the pyramids. Much about them is still a mystery to researchers. This episode traces the history of Egyptian tomb architecture. We show how Egyptian tomb architecture evolved over the millennia. The journey begins about 5,000 years ago with the royal tombs in Abydos, where the first rulers of Egypt were buried in underground complexes. They are covered by a mound of earth, from which mastabas developed.

Women in ancient Egypt held a special fascination, even for their contemporaries. They enjoy a form of equality unparalleled in the ancient world. For over 3000 years, women influenced the fate of Ancient Egypt. This episode tells their story. Women already played an important role in the pantheon of gods - like the goddesses Hathor and Isis, whose legacy reaches into Christianity. We also learn about famous women such as Nefertiti and Cleopatra.