With their exciting new stories and the inclusion of local Egyptian talent, foreign demand for documentaries on Pharaonic history has never been higher. To sate this hunger, an increasing number of local and foreign production companies are cutting through miles of red tape to film in and around historic Egyptian monuments.
Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) - whose appearance in numerous foreign documentaries has made him a media star in the West - believes that highly engaging television produced in America is responsible for giving ancient history a makeover. "Arab networks also make documentaries, but they have a different style. US networks make more thrilling programming," he told Business Monthly.
In 1999, the prominent archaeologist was featured on a Fox TV special that was broadcast live to America from the Giza pyramids. The program, which dramatically portrayed Hawass opening a tomb for the first time, was a phenomenal success. "I know how to give sound bites," says Hawass. "And I know how to give information to the public, so when I talk about Egypt's ancient history, people not only hear it, they feel it. I'm not acting. My passion for history is genuine; it comes from my heart."
Phil Fairclough, senior vice president of production and acting general manager of the Discovery Channel, affirmed the demand for ancient Egyptian historical documentaries. "Discovery has always had, and continues to have, a very active interest in Egyptian and Pharaonic documentaries," he explains. "There's a great fascination with the mysteries of the Pharaohs."
Discovery has made numerous documentaries about Ancient Egypt, but recently the network has focused specifically "on some of the big names from Egypt's history." According to Fairclough, "Cleopatra's Palace," which first aired in March 1999, became Discovery's fifth-highest rated program ever. "Nefertiti," released in 2003, made the top 10 list for highest ratings, while "Assassination of King Tut," "Ramses: Wrath of God" and "Mysterious Death of Cleopatra" were also highly successful.
In March, Discovery Channel broadcast "Egypt Week" in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The week of Egypt-oriented program premieres coincided with a sponsorship deal between the company's European division and the Egyptian Tourist Authority (ETA) to promote Egypt and the Red Sea riviera as a holiday destination on Discovery's networks.
According to Fairclough, one reason for the popularity of these Egypt documentaries is the new story-telling techniques employed. "We've used forensic facial reconstruction techniques combined with graphic artistry, which allows us to rebuild the faces of long-dead Pharaohs and show what they would have really looked like," he explains.
Another reason is the intimate look at archaeology that allows viewers to share the excitement of discovery. In December 2004, Discovery broadcast live for four nights as a production team followed Egyptian archaeologists around an underground tomb in the Valley of the Golden Mummies. "We succeeded in showing the audience what kind of challenges archaeologists really face and the joy of discovering something completely new, but technically it was very tough," he admits. "We had a crew of nearly 100 people in the Western Desert, and some were underground in very difficult and dangerous conditions for four very long nights."
The work sometimes requires a production team to take things such as portable X-ray equipment deep inside the tombs, often in very high temperatures, which is very demanding, the producer says. "But the results are very rewarding."
The financial returns are just as rewarding, although producers prefer to keep the details under wrap. Discovery and other networks are rumored to incur million-dollar budgets in producing Ancient Egypt documentaries, but are also believed to recover these expenses, and then some, when the highly rated programs air.
Yet critics warn that the deluge of media on ancient Egypt is putting ratings and product sales ahead of science and reality. Even producers are wary. "A growing sensationalism risks undermining a true understanding of the complexity of archaeology," one producer told Business Monthly.
In recent years, several rows have developed between archaeologists on one side and television producers on the other. In 2003, a controversy erupted after British mummification expert Joanne Fletcher claimed to have identified the actual mummy of Queen Nefertiti, the wife of 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Akhenaten. Her assertion - released on Discovery Channel's website and accompanied by an artist's rendition - ran the network afoul with the SCA and Hawass, who vehemently refuted the claim as "pure fiction."
Hawass is once again working with Discovery, but admitted earlier this year that he was favoring cooperation with rival network National Geographic Channel. Discovery, which at one point had the market cornered on documentary and nature programs, is also facing stiff competition for viewers from the BBC, Fox and the History Channel.
"Egypt held appeal to most Americans even before television, and now with the growth of the non-fiction TV industry over the past 10 years, there's been a correlated jump in the demand for programming," explains John Bredar, executive producer of specials and event programming for National Geographic Television & Film. He attributes the consistent popularity of Pharaonic documentaries to peoples' seemingly endless capacity for Ancient Egyptian subject matter.
"Egyptians focused on the afterlife, an essential and eternal mystery, and their interpretation of death - that you can take it all with you - appeals to our consumer society."
It's a type of Egyptomania that the National Geographic Society (NGS) hopes to capitalize on. The organization has at least three major Pharaonic documentaries in the works and several more in development. NGS is also involved in a two-year exhibit entitled "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," which is currently touring US museums. The exhibit, which features more than 50 artifacts from King Tutankhamun's tomb, as well as artifacts from other 18th-Dynasty royal graves, will stop in Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Philadelphia and Chicago. The exhibit coincides with the release of two books on the "boy king" by NGS' publishing department.
"The National Geographic Society has long supported archaeologists from around the world in their pursuit of knowledge of ancient Egyptians," says Bredar. "As long as good science is being done, we'll keep telling stories about it."
Brooke Comer
© Business Monthly 2005
