Television Reveiws : Great Pyramid Makes for Good Television

How a structure the height of a 40-story office tower was built some 4,500 years ago--using 30 million tons of stone that were sculpted into a pure geometric form from a base covering the equivalent of seven square city blocks--is explored on PBS tonight in “Pyramid” (8 p.m., Channels 28 and 15, 9 p.m. on Channel 50).

The documentary, combining scenes filmed on location in Egypt with animation, is based on the prize-winning young-adult book “Pyramid,” written and illustrated by David Macaulay (Houghton Mifflin), who also serves as narrator.

Happily, Macaulay is not on camera very often, as the story focuses less on the architectural process and more on the animated story of Egyptian King Khufu’s life and times, which prompted and paralleled the construction of the pyramid that would serve as his tomb.

In this respect, the architecture of the tomb, known as the Great Pyramid of Giza, is properly presented as a response to the culture of the times, principally a belief that the world of the living depended very much on a proper burial and the protection of the dead, especially a king. The program notes how the plans of tombs had to be redesigned to protect them from being robbed, apparently a problem then as now.

The question of the pyramid’s shape is examined, as are the elaborate burial rituals, in a somewhat simplistic style that at times becomes ponderous, not unlike the heavy stones that were excruciatingly cut, chiseled and polished to fit together to form the pyramids.

Voices for the very effective animated sequences, directed by Tony White, are provided by such British actors as Derek Jacobi and John Hurt.

Produced by Unicorn Projects and written by Mark Olshaker, “Pyramid” should appeal to both children and the curious adult.