THE television series Egypt, and its accompanying book by Liverpool academic Joyce Tyldesley, show the colourful characters who rediscovered the ancient world.
IT IS hard to believe the world of ancient Egypt lay mostly hidden and almost forgotten for 2,000 years after the last Pharaoh ruled.
"Nobody went south of Cairo as it was regarded as highly dangerous to do so," says Dr Joyce Tyldesley, of Liverpool University's School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology.
"Then Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 opened western eyes and sparked a huge interest in the country's ancient civilisations.
"Stories of lost treasure and mummies gripped the public's imagination and the world became obsessed with everything Egyptian. Explorers and collectors, the 'Indiana Joneses' of their day, searching for Egyptian artefacts produced some of the first Egyptologists and a new area of scientific study."
Having spent her working life studying Egyptology, Dr Tyldesley, a Liverpool graduate, became increasingly fascinated by the men and women who rediscovered and defined ancient Egypt for us.
"I was intrigued more and more by the history of Egyptology and the fascinating characters and their motivations who brought the subject to the modern world's attention."
Her book, Egypt, How a Lost Civilisation was Rediscovered, accompanies the BBC television drama documentary series. It covers 3,000 years of the history of Egyptology, from the end of the Dynastic age to the present.
The book begins with little known Egyptians who investigated their country's ancient monuments and includes famous archaeologists such as Howard Carter (sponsored by Lord Carnarvon), who uncovered the resting place of the boy pharaoh, Tutankhamun.
