06b: The Diary of Merer

In the Cretaceous Period (c.100 million years ago) Egypt and North Africa were radically different environments. With vast tidal flats and mangroves, and a shallow sea, the continent fostered numerous animal and plant species. Creatures like Paralititan (sauropods); the sprinting ...  Show more

The New Kingdom "Book of Gates" explores Ra's journey through the Duat (Underworld). Passing the western horizon at sunset, Ra sails through the land of the dead. His journey is beset by dangerous creatures, and Ra himself experiences a kind of death at the darkest time of night. ...  Show more

Sakkara, Egypt, 2,630BC. A man stands atop a structure of dizzying height as the final block grinds into place. For Imhotep, it is the culmination of his life’s work: a mountain made by man. He checks the joint while his workers wait in silence. Then, he gives a barely perceptibl ...  Show more

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode, we took you on a tour of the Great Pyramid of Giza: perhaps the greatest of all the Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one that still exists today. We explored the outside of the Pyramid, the ...  Show more

When we think of Ancient Egypt, we think of the pyramids: vast, eternal monuments to the glory of long-dead pharaohs. But we shouldn’t take them for granted: They belong to a specific place and time, and the people who built them had their reasons for doing so. The world that ...

Built by Pharaoh Khufu some 4,500 years ago, the Great Pyramid was the first ancient wonder to be built and is the only one still standing. Towering above the Giza Plateau, this stone behemoth was to be Khufu's tomb, the place from which he would travel to the afterlife.