NDR - The Sacred Animals of the Pharaohs (2006)

Pharaohs of ancient Egypt revered animals as gods, and had them immortalized in artwork. This fascinating film explores the ancient world of the pharaohs through the eyes of its animals, including crocodiles, hippos, various birds, and monkeys. Looking back from today's vantage point, their images supply important pieces in the story of Egypt and insights into how they saw the natural world..
The majestic pyramids in the desert, the Nile River - this is Egypt. The pharaohs and their legacy live on in our imagination. But under the well-known images hides another story.
At the heart of this famous era of human achievement were animals. And this was not at all limited to pets, the Egyptians believed that the power of the gods, both good and evil, was transmitted through animals. Gods in the guise of animals, stylised snakes as burial chamber guards. There's no doubt, the ancient Egyptians had a very special relationship to animals. They were feared and revered, you might think that the animals prospered, but did they have to pay their price for this?
A small bent bone from a bundle of mummies sheds light on the story: More than 2,000 years ago, a monkey was kept in a temple, without light and inadequately fed. Location: Egypt, the land of the pharaohs. For the Belgian zoo archaeologist Joris Peters from the University of Munich, this doesn't really fit into the image of the high culture on the Nile. No other ancient culture had such a diverse and intense relationship with the animal world as that of the ancient Egyptians. In the catacombs of Tuna el-Gebel in central Egypt, Joris Peters and his team come across millions of mummies of ibises, hawks and baboons.
Everything indicates that a veritable mummy industry developed here in the late centuries of the Egyptian Empire. Were the animals tortured, possibly even killed - in the service of the priests? Scientists are looking for answers in the narrow tunnels of Tuna el-Gebel, now in danger of collapsing.
Joris Peters' expertise is always sought when it comes to analysing new findings. He's a specialist in animal bones, and is capable of reconstructing history from just a small bone fragment. Together with other scientists belonging to the team, the Egyptologist, Dieter Kessler, he's now tracing the path of a unique discovery: animals in the surroundings of the animal necropolis were not only idolised, but also bred for use in religious ceremonies. Explore this ancient world through the eyes of its animals, including crocodiles, hippos, various birds, and monkeys.