The Vanished City of the Pharaoh

A journey to discover the legendary lost city of Piramesse. This magnificent ancient capital was built 3000 years ago by the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses the Great, but long ago the whole city disappeared. When it was finally rediscovered by early archaeologists, it opened up a bizarre puzzle — because when Piramesse was finally found, it was in the wrong place — somewhere Ramesses the Great could not possibly have built it. Recreating the stories of both the early archaeologists and the ancient Egyptians, this film enters a lost world, recounting the strange tale of the quest for Piramesse, and following the intriguing detective work of modern archaeologists Manfred Bietak and Edgar Pusch as they solve the baffling mystery of how this great lost city could vanish, only to reappear thousands of years later — in the wrong place.

Lost Cities of the Ancients, BBC2, UK, Monday September 04, 2006, 21:00 - 22:00.