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Of all the mummies at the museum in Cairo, the sight of this one will make you shudder. Seqenenre Tao’s face, twisted from suffering excruciating pain, has been frozen in that state for almost three thousand years. The story of his death is not for the faint of heart.

When Ramses II built his new capital of Pi-Ramses in the northeast Delta, he filled it with luxurious palaces, temples and mansions. As the New Kingdom neared its end, and the local canal dried up, much of the stonework was transported northwards to the new capital city of Tanis. The modern visitor to Tanis will discover a random array of statues, disembodied stone limbs and royal tombs.

Akhenaten is for many Egyptians something of a hero, a rebel with a distinct religious vision. In his lifetime, however, he was reviled by many as a megalomaniac and troublemaker. We take a day trip to the king’s purpose-built capital city, Tell al-Amarna.