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A scene from The Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb. (Photo: Netflix)
OUR RATING:
4/5 stars
WHAT IS IT ABOUT:
The documentary follows the decoding of the tomb of an Old Kingdom priest, Wahtye, unopened for 4,400 years, and the excavation of five wells to uncover an astonishing ancient mystery.
WHAT WE THINK:
Since my childhood I have always had an instinctive curiosity.
Never satisfied with a simple “yes” or “no”, I would tirelessly ask my parents about everything. I needed in-depth explanations on why church was held every week on Sunday specifically, or why an ostrich cannot fly when it is clearly a bird.
Later, my mother affectionately called me “professor”, believing that my natural curiosity would surely make me something of an academic. My father, on the other hand, completely gave up on answering all the curious questions I asked. Or maybe, I just didn’t have all the answers to my sometimes absurd reflection: “Why is it called a banana?”
Then there was another phase in which I frequently buried treasure in my mother’s manicured backyard. I lost many action figures and toy cars among the perfectly pruned, but thorny rose bushes. The archaeologist in me was constantly disappointed in my lack of keeping track of where I buried what.
Perhaps the strangest of my funeral expeditions happened the day after I turned 13. Princess Diana had just died in a tragic car accident and I remember seeing my mother crying in bed as if she had lost her best friend. Determined to pay homage to the princess, I filled an empty mayonnaise jar with magazine clippings from Lady Di and a handwritten note that I buried in the ground near the pool with so much melodrama that you would have been excused for thinking it was a scene from a movie inspired by the Hallmark card.
There was also a time when my grandmother helped me throw a glass bottle with a note in it into the ocean. I had drawn a map of a treasure that was not a treasure at all, but rather a drawing of how to get to my grandmother’s house. As far as I know, there were never strangers who knocked on his door to collect his loot.
When Netflix suggested that I watch Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb it was this childish curiosity and this archaeological spirit that made me fit in. I was not disappointed.
The one hour and 53 minute documentary is a treasure trove of surprises, shocking revelations, and hidden secrets. Directed by James Tovell, known for Cradle to the grave (2017); Size Matters (2018); Y The lizard boy (2010), the well-made film slowly reveals information while working against a clock. Will they find more treasure in time to secure government funding to dig further? What is hidden in the 4,400-year-old Wahtye tomb that they are slowly excavating in their sandy resting place?
The local team working to unearth fragments of Egypt’s ancient history are masters at what they do and it is fascinating to watch them slowly and delicately put the puzzle pieces together. Imagine a ceramic jug falling onto a concrete floor breaking into hundreds of pieces and then covered in a giant mound of desert sand. Now imagine having to find every part of that jar with a brush.
I shared Professor Salima Ikram’s childhood excitement when a large feline mummy is found in a grave. Since it is so much larger than any of the cats they have encountered before, the mummy could be a never-before-seen discovery. What have they found?
As a viewer, you quickly focus on finding answers and supporting the site director, Mohammad Mohammad Yousef, as he leads the team alongside other experts and foreman Mustafa Also Sadek Mahmoud and Ghareeb Ali Mohammed Abushousha, who is tasked with collecting from safely the treasures of the past. Time is running out. Surely there must be more secrets hidden near the foot of the towering pyramids that stand firm in the desert sun. What clues do the hieroglyphs on Wahtye’s tomb reveal, or was he trying to cover up a lie that would put an unexpected twist on the historical discovery?
After watching the movie, I find myself thinking back to my days of burying treasure in our backyard and then laughing at the thought of a future archaeologist or unsuspecting gardener digging up my vial of Diana or finding what’s left of my He-Man figure. The time capsules from my childhood were left for someone else to find. What was Wahtye leaving for us to find out?
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
WATCH IT NOW ON NETFLIX
