March 5, 2010

Famous Pharaohs and Mummy Mysteries Revealed as a Dual EGYPT WEEK Comes to Discovery Channel and Discovery Civilization, Beginning April 11

–Discovery Channel kicks off its all-new theme week by spilling King Tut’s family secrets in KING TUT UNWRAPPED –
– Discovery Civilization offers five nights of companion Egypt programming, featuring the premiere of OUT OF EGYPT –

Toronto, ON (March 5, 2010) – The life and death of King Tut continues to hold a special power and mystery for people all over the world. As Toronto prepares to bid farewell to Egypt’s most famous pharaoh after an extended exhibit at the AGO, Discovery Channel and Discovery Civilization celebrate the “who’s who” of the ancient world with a week-long look at some of the most famous – and infamous! – names in history with an all-new EGYPT WEEK. Launching Sunday, April 11 at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT with KING TUT UNWRAPPED, Discovery Channel presents six days and eight new hours of startling new discoveries about Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, Queen Hatshepsut, and the most famous boy-king of all, Tutankhamen. Then, starting Monday, April 11 at 10 p.m. ET/11 p.m. PT, Discovery Civilization adds to the Egyptian experience with five documentaries ranging from ancient architecture to the afterlife.

Discovery Channel’s EGYPT WEEK launches with a ground breaking two-part special, KING TUT UNWRAPPED. Airing Sunday, April 11 and Thursday April 15 at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT, the special follows world-renowned archeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass – Egypt’s Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities – as he leads an unprecedented forensic investigation into the life and times of King Tutankhamen that reveals for the first time the identity of Tut’s parents and grandparents, his cause of death and new details about his reign. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a report in February 2010 detailing the new painstaking medical and archeological research conducted by an international team of field experts.

When Howard Carter discovered the riches of King Tut’s tomb in 1922, who could have predicted that almost a century later the ancient chamber would be the site for cutting-edge of Egyptology? The road to understanding the Tut family tree begins with filling out his parents’ branches. Based on historical records and previous digs, Dr. Hawass determines Tut’s father could be one of three great Egyptian pharaohs: the successful and popular second king of the 18th Dynasty, Amenhotep III; the radical and controversial Akhenaton, who moved Egypt into the age of monotheism; or the little-known Smenkhare who reigned just prior to Tut’s rule. To effectively solve this mystery, the team will need to test Tut’s DNA against the mummies of these three paternal candidates. KING TUT UNWRAPPED details the edge-of-your-seat process as researchers hold their breath and delicately but successfully extract DNA for the first time from Tut’s mummy.

Specimens gathered, the expert team assembled at Discovery Channel’s DNA lab at the Cairo Museum faces challenge upon challenge in connecting the forensic dots. For definitive answers – and for the first time ever – the team performs microsatellite-based DNA-fingerprinting on familial Egyptian mummies. But this triumph in the lab is only the start of the Tut family odyssey. With successful DNA sequencing of Tut’s father, Hawass pursues leads that eventually point to Tut’s mother and grandparents. KING TUT UNWRAPPED is a juggernaut of science, history, national pride and professional drive. From the pristine interiors and precision work of the DNA lab to dusty, unpredictable dig sites in the field, Dr. Hawass leads an intense, deeply personal journey for the truth.

And KING TUT UNWRAPPED is just the start of Discovery Channel’s all-new EGYPT WEEK. Dramatic revelations and intriguing discoveries from the Valley of the Kings continue all week, Sunday, April 11 to Friday, April 16 at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT. The full schedule is as follows:

•KING TUT UNWRAPPED: “Royal Blood” (1 x 120 – Part One – ** NEW **)
Sunday, April 11 at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT on Discovery Channel
Dr. Zahi Hawas and his scientific team use state-of-the-art technology to unlock King Tutankhamen’s secrets. For the first time ever, they use DNA testing on Tut himself and the royal mummies of Egypt’s Golden Age. Combined with the latest CT scan technology and hands-on forensic anthropology, the team unravels all of the mysteries of the boy-king in this landmark investigation. Part One of KING TUT UNWRAPPED follows the delicate, first-ever DNA extraction from Tut’s mummy setting into motion a series of cross-reference studies to determine the king’s family.(Part Two airs Thurs., April 15 – details below).

•CLEOPATRA: PORTRAIT OF A KILLER (1 x 60 ** NEW **)
Monday, April 12 at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT on Discovery Channel
Cleopatra. One of the most famous women of all time. According to legend, she’s renowned as a great queen, a beautiful lover and a political schemer. But for 2,000 years, almost all evidence of her has disappeared. Until now. In an exciting new find, archeologists believe they have discovered the skeleton of her sister, murdered by Cleopatra and Mark Antony. From Egypt to Turkey, this one-hour special investigates the story of a ruthless queen who would kill her own siblings for power and draws the portrait of a killer.

•EGYPT UNWRAPPED: “Alexander the Great’s Lost Tomb” (1 x 60 ** NEW **)
Tuesday, April 13 at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT on Discovery Channel
In 332 B.C., Alexander the Great reached Egypt and was welcomed for ending Persian oppression and was accepted as pharaoh, a god incarnate. He died as Pharaoh of Egypt and his body was a powerful political tool that enabled anyone possessing it to receive honour and legitimacy as a potential ruler. In the 22 centuries since his death, people have searched for his tomb. Now, using evidence from Alexander’s own journey through Egypt, this new one-hour special tries to solve one of history’s most enduring mysteries.

•EGYPT UNWRAPPED: “Mystery Of The Screaming Man” (1 x 60 ** NEW **)
Wednesday, April 14 at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT on Discovery Channel
In 1881, a bizarre mummy was unwrapped by a team of Victorian Egyptologists. Known today as the Screaming Man, he was very different from previously discovered royal mummies: he was wrapped in sheepskin, his hands and feet were bound, and his position suggested that he was screaming when he died. The Screaming Man contradicts just about everything scholars know about how mummification was used to prepare Egyptians for their journeys into the afterlife. Follow an expert team of archeologists as they travel to Egypt, delve into Egyptian royal history and use modern medicine in their efforts to discover the identity of the Screaming Man.

•KING TUT UNWRAPPED: “Life and Death” (1 x 120 – Part Two – ** NEW **)
Thursday, April 15 at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT on Discovery Channel
This startling new documentary continues with Part Two, using never-before-examined evidence from Tut’s mummy to reveal what caused his death and how that information sheds new light on his reign as a military, religious and political leader.

•WHEN THE EGYPTIANS SAILED THE RED SEA (1 x 60** NEW **)
Friday, April 16 at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT on Discovery Channel
The most famous ancient Egyptian expedition to Punt was conducted during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut in the 15th century BC to obtain myrrh. A report of that voyage survives on a relief in Hatshepsut’s funerary temple at Deir el-Bahri. To the ancient Egyptians, the land of Punt with its reed, beehive-shaped houses raised on stilts above water was the most exotic and mysterious of places to visit and from which to receive visitors – more than once, the royalty of Punt came to the court of the pharaoh in Egypt. Egyptians considered Punt a most unique haven, an emporium of goods for both king and gods, and it gradually acquired an air of fantasy, like that of Eldorado or Atlantis.

The exploration of Egypt’s greatest mysteries – including the daily struggles of ancient life, fascinating funeral preparations and the enduring power of the pyramids – continue on Discovery Civilization with complimentary programming Monday, April 12 to Friday, April 16 at 10 p.m. ET/11 p.m. PT.

•WHAT THE ANCIENTS KNEW: “The Egyptians” (1 x 60)
Monday, April 12 at 10 p.m. ET/11 p.m. PT on Discovery Civilization
Discover the ancient Egyptian people’s obsession with making preparations for the afterlife, which led to the growth of an entire industry devoted to death.

•BONE DETECTIVES: “Violence Along the Nile” (1 x 60)
Tuesday, April 13 at 10 p.m. ET/11 p.m. PT on Discovery Civilization
Host Scotty Moore travels to a remote village along the Nile, where an ancient fortress once stood. Here, joined by archaeologists and world-renowned mummy experts, Moore unearths several mummies and attempts to reconstruct their lives and deaths from the evidence at hand.

•OUT OF EGYPT: “Flesh and Bone” (1 x 60 ** NEW **)
Wednesday, April 14 at 10 p.m. ET/11 p.m. PT on Discovery Civilization
In a new Discovery Civilization premiere, Egyptologist Dr. Kara Cooney visits sites of pilgrimage – both ancient and modern – to explain the reasons and motives behind the value we place on treasured flesh and bone.

•OUT OF EGYPT: “The Shape of the Gods” (1 x 60 ** NEW **)
Thursday, April 15 at 10 p.m. ET/11 p.m. PT on Discovery Civilization
In a new Discovery Civilization premiere, Dr. Kara Cooney travels from the very first pyramids in Egypt to the temples of Mexico, and even to round pyramids in Sri Lanka, demonstrating that the history of these buildings hides a long and twisted evolution of architecture and form.

•INTO THE UNKNOWN WITH JOSH BERNSTEIN: “Egypt’s Lost King” (1 x 60)
Friday, April 16 at 10 p.m. ET/11 p.m. PT on Discovery Civilization
Join Josh Bernstein as he investigates the most controversial pharaoh in history, Akhenaten, King Tut’s father. Because Akhenaten radically changed the course of Egyptian history, Bernstein discovers the motivation behind his revolutionary vision.

Want more King Tut or Cleopatra? Check out Daily Discovery on DiscoveryChannel.ca. during Egypt Week and dig up daily facts on all things Egypt. You can also download the Daily Discovery widget right to your desktop!

About Discovery Channel
Bold and leading edge, while informing and entertaining, Discovery Channel is Canada’s leading source for factual programming, as it puts a new spin on exploring adventure, science and technology. This award-winning channel covers the scientific beat, from animals to the animalistic side of humanity, from the sea to space, and the latest in innovation. TV Trends and Quality (TVQ) Survey consistently ranks Discovery Channel Canada first among all English-language Canadian specialty networks for overall quality of programming. Discovery Channel is one of the first Canadian specialty channels to offer programs in HDTV and its production house, Exploration Production Inc. (EPI), continues to be internationally recognized as a producer of cutting-edge programming with distribution to more than 150 countries. The channel's website may be found at DiscoveryChannel.ca.

About Discovery Civilization
Journey back through time with Discovery Civilization to revel in humanity’s defining moments. Meet the people, cultures and ideas that have shaped our common past, and those that will dictate our future. Discovery Civilization is about learning where we came from and knowing where we can go.

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For more information:
Jodi Cook, Discovery Channel, 416.384.4603 or jodi.cook@ctv.ca
Shannon Hall, Discovery Channel, 416.384.5903 or shannon.hall@ctv.ca

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