The Pharoah and the Showman

Den mest bemærkelsesværdige af datidens eventyrere var den italiensk/engelske Giovanni Belzoni, der skulle blive kendt som historiens største opdagelsesrejsende i Ægypten. Belzoni var i 1814 strandet i Cairo, da han fik tilbudt et job af den britiske generalguvernør. Belzoni skulle rejse til Theben og hente en syv ton tung granitbuste af den store farao Ramses den Anden. Belzoni måtte i skarp konkurrence med den skruppelløse franskmand Drovetti bruge al sin stædighed, snilde og ingeniørviden for at fuldføre projektet.

Belzoni fails to please Pasha Ali of Egypt and his new career in 'water mechanics' fails. He is penniless and stranded in Cairo without work. Just 16 years after the invasion by Napoleon, the enthusiasm of Europeans for all things Egyptian is growing and there is intense rivalry between explorers and collectors - the rivalry is particularly intense between the French and the British. In Cairo, Belzoni meets two men who will change his life for ever. The first is John Lewis Burkhardt, who, disguised as an Arab, has travelled to unknown Egyptian temples that have remained lost from the world for centuries. The other is Henry Salt, the British Counsel General, keen to make his name as a collector. Inspired by the tales of Burkhardt, Salt offers Belzoni a job: to travel down the Nile to Thebes to collect a giant seven-ton granite bust named the 'Younger Memnon' from an Egyptian temple. The French have tried and failed to lift it, so Anglophile Belzoni rises to the challenge in order to bring it back for the British Museum. At the time, nobody can yet read hieroglyphics but the 'Youger Memon' is, in fact, the likeness of Ramesses II, the greatest of all Pharaohs. Belzoni discovers he has the perfect skills for the job: vast strength, engineering knowledge, maverick intelligence and wit combined with bravery and cunning, and the head of Ramesses II is soon on its way to Henry Salt back in Cairo. Flushed with success, Belzoni and his crew decide to travel further down the Nile to search for more collectable artefacts for Salt. Near the border with modern-day Sudan, they arrive at an amazing temple carved directly out of the mountain – unbeknown to them, they have found Ramesses the Great's Temple at Abu Simbel. However, to Belzoni's frustration, he cannot find the entrance as most of the temple is covered in tons of sand. Intrigued and fascinated, Belzoni vows to return… In parallel with Belzoni's story, the programme tells that of