• Do the children already know about Belzoni?

Discuss and record how they know what they know, or why they know so little or nothing at all.

Whilst viewing

Divide the children into pairs or small groups to answer questions such as:

• What did Belzoni do before he married Sarah?
• What motivated Sara and Belzoni to travel to Egypt?
• How did the Egyptian farmers irrigate their land?
• How did Belzoni transport the stone head?
• What are the dangers of working in intense heat?

Remind children that their note taking is to be used as an aide-mémoire to inform future discussion and writing. Rewind the programme if they need to check the information they’ve gathered.

After viewing

Divide the children into groups and use their notes as the basis for discussing the following:

• How would they describe Great Aunt Sarah and her current situation?
• Burckhardt suggested that the farmers didn’t want Belzoni’s water wheel to work because they feared for their jobs. How accurate do you think he was?
• Why do they think the Ancient Egyptian statues are rough at the base but so smooth at the top?
• What was Belzoni’s method for moving the stone head?
• Was Belzoni’s protection against the sun different from that of the Pharaoh’s men whilst they were building the pyramids?

Discuss how historians must at times hypothesise to make sense of the information they are given.