“In the desert sands of Saqqara, the latest hotspot of Egyptian archaeology, two of the world’s most famous Egyptologists seek to unearth ancient treasures. The legendary Dr Zahi Hawass hunts for the long-lost pyramid of a forgotten Egyptian king while his protege and rival, Dr Mostafa Waziry, searches for an unlooted tomb in an ancient necropolis. Both teams race against the clock to see who will make the bigger discovery and make their mark in history.”
With such an introduction, this documentary is surely a must-see as you will on July 3, courtesy of Netflix. To whet your appetite for the ancient world, the trailer has been showing since June 20.
The Unknown: The Lost Pyramid is produced by Story Syndicate and directed by Max Salomon.
“The documentary was filmed two years ago. It will be screened in 129 countries,” Waziry, told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview.
“The discoveries made by Egyptian missions in the last five years dazzled the world. These discoveries were covered by international media which spread the word about Egyptian-made discoveries in all of Egypt,” Waziry, Secretary General of Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said.
He added that in 2019 when the Egyptian mission led by the SCA discovered the Assasif cache near Luxor, many international TV programmes including the NBC Nightly News covered the event and interviewed with the team.
The Assasif cache of 30 wooden coffins in excellent condition with the paint intact is described as the biggest and most important discovery since the end of the 19th century.
In 2020, the American Discovery Channel covered the discovery of ancient tombs with sarcophagi in al-Ghuraifa area near Tuna el-Gebel necropolis of Upper Egypt’s Minya.
“Covering these discoveries in international media let the world know about the Egyptian missions, who worked during Covid pandemic,” he said.
Wahtye Tomb, which had been untouched for 4,400 years in Saqqara, is also another discovery made by his team.
“It was filmed on Netflix in 2020 titled “Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb”, tackling the life of workers and inspectors of the Egyptian mission working in Saqqara,” Waziry said.
“Following screening of that documentary, the number of tourists to Saqqara increased three times,” Waziry added.
The latest documentary will be free promotion for tourism in Egypt, especially Saqqara, he said.
“Saqqara is not just the Djoser Pyramid. The recent discoveries add more new places to be visited.”
The film shows the announcement made on 30 May 2022 when the Waziry-led mission unearthed a cache of 150 bronze statues of gods and goddesses in the Bubasteion cemetery in Saqqara dating back to the Late Period (c. 664 BC–c. 332 BC), plus 250 sealed wooden coffins, rich in detail and containing mummies.
Inside one of these coffins was a 16-metre-long papyrus in good condition with chapters from the ‘Book of the Dead’, which is now on display at the Cairo Museum and named after Waziry. It is the first complete papyrus discovered by Egyptians in about 120 years.
The film shows a scene when the team exclaimed by finding this complete papyrus, describing it as “a discovery of a lifetime”.
“During the discoveries of hundreds of sarcophagi, we opened one of them and found the papyrus. We jumped for joy like children and we hugged each other,” Waziry said.
“When we announced that discovery, the film crew was keen to shoot this announcement which was attended by dozens of international media,” he added.
The film crew also shot sequences of the Egyptian mission at work in the desert. There are scenes of sand storms and heavy rains.
In May this year, the Waziry team uncovered two large embalming workshops for humans and animals.
“In the documentary during the announcement of last year’s discovery we said that there must be embalming workshops nearby. At that time, the place was just debris. A year later, we finally found it.”
Scenes of Hawass-Waziry missions in action working in the hot weather or even behind the scenes while eating together give viewers a closer look to the nature of their work.
Salomon, the director, wrote on his Instagram account, “Get ready to embark on an adventure like no other as the world’s most famous Egyptologist sets out to uncover the discovery of a lifetime.”
