I’m watching the Egypt Live broadcast but I have to get up and do something else every ten minutes because the breathless exclamations are just too much for me to stand. STOP SAYING WOW, JOSH. And especially stop talking over people who have something substantive to say just to exclaim “Wow! Amazing!”

8:30 lol did Zahi Hawass just call him fat? Okay, I’m getting into this now.

Note: Hawass is just shy of his 72nd birthday. Look at him haul himself through these tight passages without breaking a sweat.

Hmm… Split screen with ads on the right and the live action on the left. I don’t hate it. In fact, if you’re going to do breakouts to pre-recorded explanatory bits, then keep the live thumbnail going with that too.

Ugh. Jokey food segment. The goat in the beginning was bad enough. The falafel punsterism is so much worse.

Oh hey, I didn’t know canopic jars were named after a type site! Beautiful examples in this tomb.

Zahi, no. Please. Not the curse.

I find Waziri’s calm descriptions and handling of the artifacts rather a relief after the extraness of Hawass and Gates.

I’ll tell you what, this gives you a good idea of what a hard job it really is to excavate sites like this. I’m not claustrophobic at all, and I can’t help but feel uneasy at the tight spaces and oppressively close rock walls deep underground.

“The adventure in archaeology makes me completely forget the pain. [moans in pain]” — Zahi Hawass

And we have reached the big limestone sarcophagus that will be opened live. They didn’t announce in the press materials that they’d open two less important ones before they even got to this one.

Mahmoud is the unsung hero of this broadcast.

I’m going to have to find out more about the wax heads and their revival in the New Kingdom.

That is the most perfectly wrapped mummy I’ve ever seen. I’ll say it: Wow. Amazing.