Ancient Egypt Life and Death in the Valley of the Kings - Dr Joann Fletcher - As Seen on BBC2

Egypt captivates us like few other ancient civilizations but what was it like to actually live there as an ordinary person, 3500 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 place, creating a remarkable way of life and an extraordinary way of death. Joann explores their homes, workplaces and temples and she climbs down into their tombs to discover the remarkable world of these Ancient Egyptians, both in life and the afterlife. At the heart of this series (originally aired on BBC) are 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; their extraordinary tomb, full of objects from their lives and deaths - 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 to travel into the remarkable world of these Ancient Egyptians, both in life and the afterlife. In this first episode we explore life in Ancient Egypt; the tightly packed houses where ordinary people lived, the village that was their home, how they dressed and what they ate. Joann discovers their love poetry, their enthusiasm for interior design and what it was like to work in the most famous cemetery on earth, the Valley of the Kings. In the second episode we discover 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.