Throughout history no culture has garnered the fascination of the world quite like that of Ancient Egypt. The days of pyramids, pharaohs, sphinxes and deities is often romanticized as a mystic and spectacular time that buried many of its treasures away. Many tombs have been discovered and the biggest finds have undoubtedly been located in a little place known as the Valley of the Kings. Several pharaohs have been unearthed from their resting places there; the most notable of which was Tutankhamun.

Tutankhamun was a name that captured the attention of the world back in 1923. The king that died over 3,000 years earlier found himself gracing covers of newspapers across the globe. This was mostly due to the fact that the tomb and the riches inside were basically left unscathed prior to their excavation. Many beautiful artifacts were discovered and the most easily recognized and most stunning was the gold mask that adorned his face. The discovery of his tomb was easily the single most prolific discovery of modern archaeology and stands as the flagship of Egyptian treasures.

Over the years there have been several articles, documentaries, and stories regarding the young pharaoh. In 1996 A&E produced a documentary regarding the discovery, seventy years prior, by British Egyptologist Howard Carter. The contents in this feature are most likely nothing that you didn't learn back in grade school, but even so ancient Egypt is a culture that has always fascinated me so I thought it would be worth checking out the DVD.

As you could probably deduce from the title "The Mystery Unsealed", this documentary has more to do with the excavation of his tomb rather than the pharaoh himself. Some of the material here does talk about various aspects of what is known about Tutankhamun's life, but for the most part it has to do with Carter, a man named Carnarvon, and the Curse. You see Carnarvon was the man that actually financed Carter's expedition and the two had worked closely in the past for other digs. He was also the man that died under strange circumstances after the tomb was discovered. His death was attributed to Tutankhamun's Curse but in reality it had to do with him shaving a mosquito bite that became infected. The bizarre events alluding to his death helped spread the flames of the king's popularity around the world.

Apart from the statues, the mask and the various other trinkets that were unearthed; analysts that had examined the tomb made several notifications. The most prominent being due to the nature of the arrangement of objects, it appeared as if the pharaoh's death had been sudden and unexpected. Another piece of evidence that supports this has to do with the cartouche and several inscriptions that appear to have been intended for someone else.

This documentary is more informational than other ones that I have seen but it really comes across as very dry. The simple fact that I find the subject matter fascinating is just about the only thing that kept me going since there is next to no personality in the feature. There also isn't really anything here that you wouldn't have been able to learn from an encyclopedia or text book. In the end this film does what it set out to do and will be most appreciated by lovers of Egyptology or people with children that are learning about it in school.

Originally produced in 1996 with a variety of material the image quality in this feature is decent, all things considered. The documentary is presented with a full frame aspect ratio that includes a fair amount of grain and edge enhancement in the more recent footage. Otherwise the bulk of the material is the collection of photographs from the 1920s and recreations of historical events. If you've seen documentaries like this broadcast on the History Channel then you basically know the type of quality that you can expect to see. It's not bad by any stretch of the imagination; it's just not as good as the standard that we've come to accept for DVDs.

The only audio available on the disc is a 2.0 Dolby Digital English language track. There are no other language or subtitle options present so in that regard the content is very barebones. As far as the quality is concerned the disc features decent sound for what is offered. Everything comes from the front channel with very little to no directionality, though considering that everything here is dialogue with some light music you can't really expect much. I didn't encounter any distortion or flaw while viewing the feature.

There are two bonus "features" on this release, but for the most part they are basically more documentaries. The running time on the case's packaging states that the feature is 142 minutes. The "main" content itself is actually 49:33 and the extra material here fleshes out the play time.

"Investigating History: The Curse of King Tut" (44:36) is a documentary that talks about the scientific research surrounding the possibility of a real curse. It contains roughly all of the same information as the main film on the disc but obviously slants the focus somewhat. There are a variety of "experts" that are given the stage to promote their theories, but neither is really more correct than the other. There is quite a bit of factual stuff in this feature but it comes across as borderline campy in nature compared to the dryness of the discs main content.

"Biography: Howard Carter: Triumph & Treasure" (46:16) follows the life of Carter from his childhood and beyond. I found this one interesting because while other accounts of the discovery of Tutankhamun talk about him and his role, few discuss him as a person. This feature goes in depth as to his personality quirks and what he did in between the initial dig in 1922 and the completion in 1923. All in all having both of these extra documentaries really helps round out the package for anybody who is interested in Egyptology.

My initial impression with King Tutankhamun: The Mystery Unsealed was that it wasn't anything I hadn't seen before. After I finished watching the main feature and took a look at the bonus ones included the entire package came together. These documentaries may have aired at different points and most of the information here isn't anything new, but I really enjoyed watching them. There's just something about the history and mysticism involved that really catches my attention and the stuff on this disc was very entertaining. Anybody with an interest in Tutankhamun and the land of pharaohs can't really go wrong by picking up this release. Recommended

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