National Geographic Documentaries

Nefertiti's Odyssey (2007x26)

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There are two strands to this intriguing documentary about the famous bust of the Egyptian queen, which was discovered in 1912 by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt. The first is about Borchardt and how he pulled a bit of a swiftie on the Egyptians to get the thing back to Berlin, while the second is about what Nefertiti has been up to lately - being X-rayed and so on in a bid to dispel doubts about her authenticity. The man who connects the strands is Adolf Hitler, who fell in love with the spectacular limestone bust, left, and wanted it to be the centrepiece of a new Egyptian museum in Berlin. The Egyptian government, having realised what it had lost, had been clamouring for the piece's return but Hitler refused, eventually having it hidden away in a salt mine for protection from Allied bombing raids. Rumours have persisted, however, that the bust was swapped for a fake en route to the mine - hence the high-tech examinations. Under the X-ray everything looks OK, but curiously the face beneath the colourful make-up looks older and more wrinkled than the glamorous beauty the world has come to know. Looks like somebody got a makeover.