Parents' Guide to Unknown: The Lost Pyramid

This documentary provides an up-close look at the process and methods of archeology in Egypt. There are many claustrophobic moments in Unknown: The Lost Pyramid, and most of these scenes are genuinely thrilling as workers painstakingly dig away rock, sand, and stone, by hand, basket, and wheelbarrow. These operations are clearly incredibly slow and tedious, oftentimes making the smallest amount of progress in a day. But the diligence, patience, and perseverance of everyone involved is truly amazing, which all the more makes past, present, and future discoveries that much more impressive.

The title suggests that this documentary mainly focuses on a lost pyramid, but for better or worse, this focus gets a little usurped by Dr. Waziri's excavation at Saqqara and especially when he finds an incredible book of the dead papyrus scroll that is 52 feet long and in incredible shape. Consisting of at least 113 chapters of clearly readable text, the scroll will likely provide immense information about ancient Egyptian culture and practice. Dr. Waziri's excavation also reveals other previously unknown discoveries, like various objects and artifacts left inside tombs (like clay fingers, see-through small box squares, and other oddities) that had never been found alongside buried or mummified bodies before. But just to make sure that the lead isn't entirely buried, Dr. Hawass does find the first long step of the base of what very likely could be a new pyramid that has never been known before. In the next few years, the entirety of the location will continue to be excavated, and his team will eventually find the entrance to the structure.