Death on the Nile
Professor Fekri Hassan attempts to determine why the Egyptian Old Kingdom, the civilisation of the great pyramids, collapsed around 2200 BC. Can science show that terrible forces of nature were to blame – even driving people to cannibalism? Clues come from the remote deserts of southern Egypt, the glaciers of Iceland and a dramatic and unique archaeological find in the Nile delta. Scientists gather for a new series attempting to explain the dis-appearance of ancient civilisations. This first investigates the abrupt end of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, 4,200 years ago. Conventional wisdom cites a political struggle. Professor Fekri Hassan demurs. He has found hieroglyphics stating that 'The entire country has become like a starved grasshopper... everyone has taken to eating their children'. Another expert calls this 'typical Egyptian rhetoric'. However, in 1996, the remains of 9,000 bodies were discovered in the Nile Delta, with evidence suggesting a famine. Old Kingdom of E