Königreich der Mumien

Professor Salima Ikram uses a light wand to illuminate a mummy in a 2,600 year old burial complex. Painted cartonnage and dozens of beads can be seen, indicating this was a high class burial.

Saqqara was a cemetery for over 3000 years. The core of the team's dig site is a 100 foot deep shaft known as K24, now topped with a manual winch. Its location represents 'prime real estate' for a sacred site of mummification, as the great Step Pyramid of Saqqara watches over the tombs and shafts. (National Geographic/Piers Leigh)

In the conservation laboratories of the Egyptian museum, Ramadan Hussein is reunited with the gilded silver mummy mask he discovered in the tombs of Saqqara. It's the first found in Egypt since 1939. In Ancient Egypt silver was double the value of gold and thought to represent the bones of the gods.

Saqqara, Egypt - Dr. Ramadan Hussein stands in a burial chamber housing a single sarcophagus. The lid alone weighs five tons. It's been lifted a few inches and now it needs to be slid out of the chamber to reveal the mummy within. (National Geographic/Piers Leigh)

Saqqara, Egypt - The mummy of a woman called Didi Bastet was found with an unprecedented six canopic jars. The two extra jars are distinctive - one bears a falcon head, the other the head of a jackal - both are carved from stunning calcite and show little sign of their age. (National Geographic/Piers Leigh)