Egypt’s Lost Cities
There is a new BBC programme entitled “Egypt’s Lost Cities” that will air on Monday 30th of May that I think looks absolutely fascinating and might be something you might like to watch too. Especially if you are due to take a Nile Cruise shortly or if you have visited Egypt over the last few years.
It involves “satellite archaeology” to test the theory that stunning images of lost cities and tombs that can actually be seen from space using satellite technology and to date using the technology they have located more than 1,000 tombs and an incredible 3,100 ancient settlements.
The brief about the programme says:
“The technology works by combining infra-red imagery with high resolution photography to ’see’ beneath the sands, revealing hidden mud brick structures – the typical building materials of ancient Egypt – the ghostly outlines of which can be distinguished from different surrounding soil types.
And to date Dr Sarah Parcak estimates satellite archaeology has found the location of not just undiscovered pyramids – the last major pyramid find was made more than 20 years ago – but more than 1,000 tombs and an incredible 3,100 ancient settlements.”
Archaeologist Sarah Parcal says she has discovered “thousands of ancient sites in Egypt, from pyramids to a detailed street plane of the city of Tanis, an A-Z of the region’s northern capital”. All thanks to images from satellites orbiting 400 miles above the Earth. The infra-red pictures are capable of tracing structures buried deep in the sands.
There have been some wonderful programmes recently about Ancient Egypt but I think the idea of “satellite archaeology” to discover even more is a real breakthrough and promises to be a really interesting 60 minutes.
Egypt’s Lost Cities is on BBC One and BBC One HD on Monday 30 May at 8.30pm, and on BBC HD at 11pm.
