Victorians' Sickening Obsession With Ancient Egypt!

The Victorians had a lot of twisted fascinations, but their fixation on Ancient Egypt might be the darkest of the lot. From 'mummy unwrapping parties' (yes, really), to gothic stories of romances with mummified bodies and beetles that came to life. Was this a desire to connect with the past? Something darker? Or maybe both. Joining Anthony and Maddy today is historian and author Dr Jay Sullivan, to help us uncover the truth. 0:00 The Victorians’ Darkest Fixation 1:10 Napoleon and the Spark of Egyptomania 3:30 Travelling the Nile: 19th Century Travellogs 5:15 Decoding Hieroglyphs and the Rosetta Stone 7:40 Imperial Might and the Egyptian Court 9:20 Occult Rituals: The Golden Dawn Magic Club 11:00 The Underground Trade in Ancient Bodies 12:55 Egyptian Gothic: Bestsellers That Outsold Dracula 15:50 The Bizarre Trope of "Mummy Romance" 23:55 Inside a Victorian Mummy Unwrapping Party 31:00 Tutankhamun and the Birth of the Curse This episode was edited by Anna Brant. Produced by Stuart Beckwith and McKenna Fernandez. The senior producer was Freddy Chick. After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. All music from Epidemic Sounds. #HistoryHitPodcast #AfterDark #AncientEgypt