Top 10: The Best Zahi Hawass Videos to Watch Free Online
As well as being the second most famous brown fedora-sporting archaeologist of all time, Dr Zahi Hawass could also run Indiana Jones close in the screen-time stakes. The Director General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities is yet to star in his own movie (although we suspect he would like to), but on the web at least, his appearances are prolific, and always informative and entertaining.
Here we pick out ten of our favourite online video clips starring Dr Hawass. They range from tours of the Great Pyramid together with the leader of the free world, to revelations on the life and death of King Tut, and nostalgic tales of early archaeological digs way back in the days when denim shirts were actually fashionable. If you like these, you can find loads more films featuring Indy – ahem, sorry, Zahi – on the Heritage Key videos page.
1. The Discovery of an Intact Tomb at Saqqara
(Click here to read a transcript of this video)
Location: A tomb in the royal necropolis of Saqqara, Egypt.
Synopsis: Dr Hawass gives us an insight into the investigation of a sealed ancient Egyptian tomb, and the opening of an immaculate sarcophagus untouched by human hands for 2,600 years. It’s one of his most revealing interviews of all, as he explains the “passion” that he has for archaeology.
Highlight: 0.07 – Zahi sliding down a rope. Not a stuntman in sight!
Choice Quote: “When I saw the mummy, in that beautiful condition, I was soooo happy!”
2. US President Barack Obama tours the Pyramids
Location: The Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt.
Synopsis: President of the United States Barack Obama becomes good pals with Dr Hawass, as the head of Egyptian antiquities shows the American Commander in Chief around the Giza pyramids in this ArchaeoVideo. Obama asked many “smart questions” and “made jokes all the time”, reports Zahi afterwards – clearly he likes the cut of that man’s jib.
Highlight: 0.08 – cripes, Obama’s chopper’s on a collision course with the Great Pyramid.
Choice Quote: “He wanted to try a camel, but he said he was worried the press would take a photo and put it everywhere.”
3. Drilling Under the Sphinx
Location: The Great Sphinx, Giza, Egypt.
Synopsis: The Great Sphinx is sinking! Dr Zahi – and his trusty sidekick Dr Mark Lehner – come to the rescue, as drilling equipment is used to bury under the big old cat’s left paw, and extract water from the ground beneath. A bonus of such conservation work is putting paid to the myriad stories about secret chambers existing beneath the monument, although Hawass explains that he doesn’t think the crackpot Sphinx theorists will ever be dissuaded.
Highlight: 3.36 – Dr Lehner gets all nostalgic remembering when he and Hawass were but young bucks researching the Sphinx way back in 1978.
Choice Quote: “I believe that the myth and the mystery of the Sphinx will always continue.”
4. Archaeologist Zahi Hawass Unlocks the Secrets of Egypt
Location: The Entertainment Gathering 2008, California, United States.
Synopsis: Having made a 22-hour journey from Cairo to give this lecture in California, Dr Hawass gets understandably peeved as his slideshow is all messed up. After figuring out which button to press, he gets back on track and gives a wide-ranging insight into everything from the mysteries of the Sphinx and the secret doors in the Great Pyramid, to theories on King Tut’s family and details of recent finds in the Valley of the Kings.
Highlight: 0.22-3.19 – the epic intro, featuring a Hollywood-style voiceover.
Choice Quote: “What’s happening? We’re having a curse here.”
5. The Riddle of KV63
Location: KV63, Valley of the Kings, Egypt.
Synopsis: Just who was buried in KV63, the most recently opened tomb in the Valley of the Kings? Dr Hawass – who lends us a rare glimpse of the mysterious contents of the burial chamber in this video – has a theory: Kiya, King Tut’s mother. The tomb was plundered of its original contents, he suggests, then later – sometime after the 19th Dynasty – used as an embalming cachet.
Highlight: 1.24 – tempers flare as an ancient sarcophagus is almost clattered off the floor.
Choice Quote: “It’s a theory… but in archaeology you have to build theories.”
6. Mummification Featuring Dr Zahi Hawass
Location: Cairo, Egypt.
Synopsis: Dr Hawass hovers above a freshly-discovered mummy, as he explains some of the grizzly techniques employed by Egyptian embalmers in the process of preparing a corpse for eternal preservation – all from extracting the deceased’s internal viscera to yanking its brain out through the nose. Not one for watching while you eat your tea.
Highlight: 1.54 – “they close everything open in the body… like areas inside here,” says Zahi, sparing us the details as he gestures vaguely at the mummy’s nether-regions.
Choice Quote: “Mummification built ancient Egypt.”
7. King Tut Revealed: How He Died
Location: Cairo, Egypt.
Synopsis: The question of Tutankhamun’s untimely expiry is one of the great mysteries of ancient history, but Dr Hawass has some of the answers. In this interview, he explains how recent CT scans of the boy king’s mummy have revealed that he suffered a fracture in his leg – possibly in a hunting accident or a fight – one day before his death. The theory is that he contracted a fatal infection from this injury.
Highlight: 0.54 – a still shows Hawass gazing lovingly into Tut’s eyes as his withered mummy waits to be fed into the CT scanner.
Choice Quote: “At least we can know now the cause of his death for the first time.”
8. Dr Zahi Hawass: The Fascination of King Tut
Location: Dallas Museum of Art, United States.
Synopsis: Ahead of the opening of the exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Dallas Museum of Art in 2009, Dr Hawass gave this interview in which he shared some of his thoughts on why the public have become so fascinated by the boy king and the contents of his spectacular burial chamber.
Highlight: 0.21-0.33 – some rare grainy black and white footage of the exploration of King Tut’s tomb flashes up as Dr Hawass talks.
Choice Quote: “Gold and silver and all these precious stones captured the hearts of everyone.”
9. The Basement of the Cairo Museum
Location: Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt.
Synopsis: Dr Hawass encounters a blast from the past in this video, as he rummages around the basement of the Egyptian Museum – a place that looks even more labyrinth than the government storage depot at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark – and opens boxes containing artefacts from his first ever excavation, at Kom Abu Bellou. It was upon finding a statue of Aphrodite there, he claims, that he discovered his calling in life.
Highlight: 0.35 – a black and white photo of Zahi when he was a young man. In the background, work begins on the Great Pyramid. Arf.
Choice Quote: “That’s when I found my love: archaeology.”
10. Zahi Hawass on Archaeology
Location: Unknown location, Egypt.
Synopsis: It’s a shortie but a goodie: in a short 29 seconds, Dr Hawass waxes lyrical about the wonder of archaeology – “the most exciting job on earth” – with trademark drama and passion. We’re digging out our trowels right now, frankly.
Highlight: 0.29 – and the Academy Award for Best Emotive Monologue About Archaeology Delivered Inside a Dingy Cave in Egypt goes to…
Choice Quote: “Archaeology is adventure.”
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Ha ha - I love the fact that Zahi blames the curse of the pharoahs for the audio-visuals not working: “What’s happening? We’re having a curse here.” !
the Seti 1 video is also pretty good, but I guess they haven't found anything useful there. Wonder if they will? http://heritage-key.com/blogs/ann/zahi-about-tunnel-sety-i-kv17
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