Ancient Egypt: Life and Death in the Valley of the Kings

Egypt captivates us like few other ancient civilizations - but what was it like to actually live there as an ordinary person 3,500 years ago? Egyptologist Dr Joann Fletcher goes on a fascinating journey in search of people like us, not the great Pharaohs but the ordinary people who built and populated this incredible ancient civilization, creating a remarkable way of life and an extraordinary way of death. These questions are explored through the histories of Kha and Meryt, an architect and his wife who lived just outside the Valley of the Kings. They left behind a treasure trove of information in their extraordinary tomb, full of objects from their lives and death; everything from make-up to death masks, loaves of bread to life-like figurines, even the tools Kha used at work in the royal tombs. Joann Fletcher uses this trove to travel into the remarkable world of these ancient Egyptians, both in life and the afterlife. In the first part of the series, Joann explores how people lived during this time, from the tightly packed houses and villages of the common people, to the clothes they wore and the food they ate. She discovers the ordinary Egyptians' love of poetry and their enthusiasm for interior design, as well as what it was like working in the most famous cemetery on Earth.

What was it like to live and die in ancient Egypt, 3,500 years ago? Egyptologist Dr Joann Fletcher goes on a fascinating journey in search of people like us - not the great Pharaohs but the ordinary people who built and populated this incredible ancient civilization. This episode reveals a strange and mysterious world: the ancient Egyptian afterlife. To them life was just a dress rehearsal for the perfect afterlife they were trying to reach. Joann clambers into rarely visited tombs, explores a treasure trove of long-buried objects and examines spectacular mummies to discover just why the Egyptians spent a fortune preparing for death - and what they hoped to find when they got there.