All language subtitles for The Lost Tomb Of Alexander The Great (2019)

The Lost Tomb Of Alexander The Great

NARRATOR:
Alexandria, Egypt.

A sprawling metropolis
home to five million people...

The Lost Tomb Of Alexander The Great

and one archaeologist
on the quest of a lifetime.

Pepi Papakosta is hunting
for the lost tomb of Alexander the Great.

PEPI: Finding the tomb of Alexander is
the dream of every archaeologist.

It's the holy grail.

NARRATOR: Alexander led
an army 12,000 miles,

conquered the known world,
and became a living god.

Pepi is combining ancient manuscripts
and modern technology

to identify the exact location
of his lost city.

She's unearthing stunning clues:
Greek treasures...

PEPI: She's beautiful.

NARRATOR:
Hidden tunnels...

And even a magnificent marble statue
thought to be of Alexander himself.

Each find leads her closer
to the ultimate prize in archaeology.

FRED: Pepi might just be
the closest archaeologist yet

to uncovering the lost tomb
of Alexander the Great.

PEPI: If my theory is correct,
I think there is a big possibility

to find the tomb of Alexander.

♪ ♪

FRED:
I'm heading to the city of Alexandria

founded by Alexander himself
almost 2300 years ago.

NARRATOR:
Over the last 20 years,

National Geographic archaeologist
Fred Hiebert

has been involved in archaeological
discoveries across the world.

FRED: Pepi Papakosta is doing
some very innovative excavations.

She's finding lots of artifacts
from the time of Alexander the Great.

It's pretty exciting.

NARRATOR:
Pepi has already discovered a treasure

that caught the world's attention.

PEPI: It was the last day
of the excavation.

(Pepi gasps)

(speaking in foreign language)

I was about to give up.

They showed me a small white marble
in the side wall of the trench.

NARRATOR: Over 20 feet below the surface,
her team finds

gleaming Greek marble in the muddy soil.

(applause)

PEPI: There was a possibility to be
only a small part of a marble.

But the knee appeared,

the leg, the second leg,

then the body.

It was something unbelievable.

And then I saw a face
very familiar to me.

I saw the face of Alexander the Great.

It was an amazing moment.

Maybe the most important moment
of my life.

I brought him into light again
after 2300 years.

NARRATOR: Pepi's discovery of the statue
creates a buzz around the world,

drawing the President of Greece
to visit her dig site.

PEPI: All Greeks are
interested about Alexander.

All Greeks admire him.

Even today, he's alive
in the soul of the Greeks.

Alexander was the reason
to become an archaeologist.

Alexander is the reason I am here.

It's something I cannot control.

It comes out of my soul.

NARRATOR:
Alexander the Great is considered

one of the finest military leaders
of all time.

He became a king aged just 20,

after his father, Phillip II of Macedon,
was brutally murdered.

In 12 years, he marched his army
12,000 miles, creating a vast empire

that spread from Egypt
to modern day Pakistan.

In 332 BC, Alexander invaded Egypt,
becoming Pharaoh and a living god.

But at the age of just 32, he died
under mysterious circumstances in Babylon.

FRED: After he died, he was mummified,
buried in Memphis.

Then when the capital moved
to the new capital of Alexandria,

they dug Alexander up and they created
a new tomb for him

right in the center of ancient Alexandria.

Then around 350 AD, the history
of Alexandria starts to go silent.

There's earthquakes, tsunamis,
riots in the street.

There are no more descriptions
of this beautiful royal city.

Alexander's tomb goes missing.

NARRATOR: There have been
more than 140 recognized searches

for the tomb of Alexander.

Archaeologist Howard Carter;

Heinrich Schliemann, the man
who discovered the ancient city of Troy;

and even Napoleon Bonaparte
have all been seduced by its mystery.

PEPI: There are ancient references
about more or less where he was buried.

NARRATOR: Pepi is studying the Greek
and Roman ancient sources for clues

to the location of Alexander's
final burial place in Egypt,

but all were written
a few hundred years after his death.

PEPI:
We have to rely on these sources.

This is the only thing we have.

Strabo, the Greek geographer who visited
Alexandria the first century BC,

mentions clearly that
the tomb of Alexander is

here in the city he founded.

And also he describes that
Alexander was buried

in the enclosure of the royal quarter.

NARRATOR: The ancient city
with a royal quarter that Strabo mentions

has long since vanished
under modern day Alexandria.

To find Alexander's tomb,
Pepi must first find his lost city.

Alexandria is Egypt's
premier Mediterranean city

at the edge of the Nile delta.

Today it covers over 100 square miles,
about five times the size of Manhattan.

Concealed beneath its streets is
the ancient Greek city Alexander founded.

PEPI: It was a great city
founded by a great personality.

But Alexandria is
a difficult place to excavate.

NARRATOR:
Pepi is digging in a public park

the size of 17 football fields,

one of the few places not covered
by the dense, urban sprawl.

PEPI:
Shallalat Gardens is a huge area.

It's about one million square feet.

No one before explored
Shallalat properly.

NARRATOR:
Since finding the statue,

her team has removed
around 20,000 tons of earth,

almost twice the weight
of the Eiffel Tower.

PEPI (off screen): Just be careful, eh?

NARRATOR:
Each layer Pepi excavates

holds a sealed record
of the city's history.

She's digging down over 30 feet

through modern...

Byzantine...

and Roman layers...

in her hunt for the Greek level
from the time of Alexander.

Pepi is looking for fragments
of Greek influence,

clues to help her locate
the original ancient city.

PEPI: Be careful now.

Nice. It's a pot shard.

But you can see the design,
the color, the black glaze.

Be careful.
Maybe we find the rest.

Try this way, this side.

Oh! Very good.

Oh, amazing.

It's a female figure.

She has wings and gold in the wings.

She must be a goddess.

I believe it's not from Alexandria.
Maybe it is imported from Greece,

because it is a high level
and very early.

She's beautiful,
even 2300 years older.

But she's beautiful.

NARRATOR: To help Pepi
in her search for the ancient city,

Archaeologist Fred Hiebert
arrives on site.

PEPI: How nice to see you.
Thank you for coming.

FRED: It's great to be here.

NARRATOR: He brings years
of international dig experience.

FRED: It's just amazing.
It's a massive, massive excavation.

PEPI: Yes. It's very difficult,
just to be honest,

because of the huge quantity of debris

and also the problem
of water we have here.

We have to pump continuously
in order to be able to excavate.

Let's go to have a look.

WORKER: Papakosta!
We have stuff!

PEPI: Oh good, Mabruk.
I'm coming.

You see it's a handle,
an amphora handle.

Can you clean it? Yes?

NARRATOR: Amphoras were large clay vessels
with handles containing wine.

PEPI: These amphoras,
they used to come imported

from Rhodes and Greek Islands
bringing wine to Alexandria.

FRED: It would have been
at least a meter tall right?

-PEPI: Yes.
-FRED: That's a lot of wine.

-PEPI: Good quality of wine.
-FRED: Good quality of wine.

PEPI: For sure Alexandrians were
very cheerful, very happy people.

They used to drink a lot of wine.
(chuckling)

NARRATOR:
Each amphora handle is stamped

with the maker's name
and date of production.

-PEPI: You see the Greek letters on it.
-FRED (off screen): Fantastic.

PEPI: We find Greek names
in the land of Egypt.

It's like a message in a bottle.

FRED: Looks like you've dug right down
to the very foundation of the city,

the very streets
that Alexander had walked in.

NARRATOR:
Below this layer is soil and bedrock

on which the original city was built.

Alexander is said to have marked

the outlines
of the first buildings himself.

PEPI: Here it was built
the first Alexandria we know.

FRED: The city that was decreed
by Alexander the Great himself.

PEPI (off screen): Exactly.

NARRATOR:
Pepi has identified his city.

Now, she can focus her search
for the Royal Quarter.

But the ancient city doesn't give up
its secrets easily.

WORKER: Mahmood!

PEPI: It's a matter of minutes to have
a destruction here.

NARRATOR:
Alexandria, Egypt.

Archaeologist Pepi Papakosta
and her team are digging deep underground

beneath the water table.

Pumps are running 24/7

to manage the constant up-flow
of water out of the ground.

WORKER: Mahmood!

PEPI: The pipe broke.

Tell Sochi to call Mahmood.

WORKER: Mahmood!

PEPI: He's there and...

It's a matter of minutes to have
a destruction here, you know.

NARRATOR: The silt laden water clogs
the pumps and pipes,

building up the pressure.

Each time they fail,

within two hours, the site is flooded
with nearly 10 feet of water,

delaying her dig by weeks.

PEPI:
I'm so exhausted of this problem.

NARRATOR: Pepi has uncovered traces
of Alexander's lost city.

But until the flooding is under control,

her hunt for the Royal Quarter
is on hold.

FRED: We know about the Royal Quarter
of Alexandria

from the writings
of Greek geographer Strabo.

It had palaces,
it had a library, a museum.

It also had the royal burial quarter
called the Sema.

So, our expectations are to find
a beautiful and massive road system

and a crossroads right in the center
would be the epicenter of the city.

It would have been the area
of the Royal Quarter.

That Royal Quarter has never been found.

PEPI:
The quantity of water is unbelievable.

When the pumps stop,
we have a kind of a lake here.

I always think
that water should be a nice thing.

It's a blessing in our life.

In my life, it's a disaster.

But now, we've managed
to decrease the water table.

We pump the water 24 hours per day

with 16 pumps, eight wells.

Look, it's one of them.
We have many.

I've defeated the Nile maybe.

NARRATOR: With the water under control,
her team can continue excavating.

PEPI:
We are uncovering black stones.

Even a small piece of a black stone
is very important

for the archaeology of Alexandria,

because we all know
that black stones is the material

that the Roman streets were made of.

Fantastic.
It's fantastic beautiful stones.

The part we uncovered is about 25 meters.

Can you imagine
how many people have walked on this?

How many chariots, how many horses...

Everything happened in this street.

We have to understand
what is the relation between this road

with the rest of our discoveries.

NARRATOR: Roman roads were often rebuilt
on top of earlier Greek streets.

Pepi returns to one
of her key historical guides,

a plan of the ancient city.

PEPI: This map was made
by Egyptian astronomer

Mahmood Bey el Falaki in 1866.

At that time the streets
and a lot of buildings--

ancient buildings-- were obvious.

NARRATOR: The map shows
Alexandria had two main streets.

The Canopic Way, nearly 100 feet across,
running east-west...

transected by another main street, R1,
running north-south.

PEPI: This is a satellite map
of modern Alexandria.

And we are exactly here.

These are the Shallalat Gardens.

We made a transparency version
of the map of Mahmood Bey.

NARRATOR: The maps are lined up
using the coastline as a guide.

PEPI: When we line the old map
with a modern one,

the result for me is fantastic!

We see clearly that the cross roads
of the two broad streets

of ancient Alexandria are very close
to the area we are excavating.

NARRATOR:
From interpreting Strabo's writings,

she knows the Royal Quarter
containing the tomb of Alexander was

to the North of the central crossroads.

Pepi now has proof the crossroads are

within a few feet
of the Shallalat Gardens.

PEPI:
I believe that the road we uncovered

is the first parallel road
to the main Canopic street.

NARRATOR: Pepi's road 'L2' runs through
the north side of the Shallalat Gardens.

FRED: Pepi's road is a game changer
in the study of Alexandria,

because Pepi has actually found

one of the main roads
described by Strabo.

That puts the whole description
of classical Alexandria

in a frame of reference
where we can now say

we are sitting in the Royal Quarters
of Alexandria.

NARRATOR: Pepi has excavated deeper
in this part of Alexandria than anyone.

She has revealed
Alexander's ancient city.

Now, she has rediscovered
the royal quarter.

She believes hidden within it lies
the tomb of Alexander the Great.

And that's not all...

After Alexander died, his empire was split
between his trusted generals.

Ptolemy became the ruler
and Pharaoh of Egypt.

Ptolemy's dynasty lasted 275 years
and more than 10 generations.

Each ruler buried themselves
around Alexander in a vast cemetery

within the Royal Quarter.

They wanted to be close
to a god for eternity.

FRED: Inside of Strabo's royal precinct is
a literal valley of the kings.

Not a single Ptolemaic King
has been found yet.

PEPI: The tomb of Alexander is
the holy grail of archaeology.

It's the dream of all the archaeologists
of the world.

NARRATOR: In her hunt
for the tomb of Alexander,

archaeologist Pepi Papakosta
has made a discovery

greater than she could
have ever imagined.

She has rediscovered
the Royal Quarter of ancient Alexandria,

within which lies the Royal Cemetery.

Classical sources tell us
that Alexander is buried here,

surrounded by the last Pharaohs of Egypt.

PEPI:
I'm very happy because I believe

that there are a lot of possibilities
that we are in the right site.

NARRATOR: Pepi has exclusive permission
to excavate anywhere

across the million square feet
of the Shallalat Gardens.

It's an enormous undertaking.

PEPI: An archaeologist needs a lifetime
to dig at Shallalat gardens.

We need the support of technology.

National Geographic is going to support us
and help us to use new technology.

NARRATOR:
A cutting-edge geophysical method

called Electrical Resistivity Tomography

will produce a detailed picture

of what lies
beneath the Shallalat Gardens.

The findings will help guide
where to dig next.

Cables are laid across the gardens,
and the method passes electricity

deep into the ground.

By taking hundreds of readings,
the relative solidity of the Earth below

is plotted onto digital maps.

Looser areas of sand or soil contrast
with dense areas like solid stone,

the outlined remains of a building,
or even a tomb.

PEPI: In the end,
we can have an idea if it is big,

if it is small, how deep it is.

NARRATOR: The survey will take
the specialist team ten days to complete.

FRED: Lucan's Pharsalia is the only
detailed description of Alexander's tomb

that survives from the ancient world,
a visit by Julius Caesar.

"In eager haste he went down
into the grotto, hewn out for a tomb.

There lies the mad son
of Phillip of Pella, Alexander."

So, his tomb was likely
to have a subterranean chamber

to maintain a cool and constant
temperature all year.

MARIA: So, we're now entering
the great tomb of Kom el Shoqafa.

FRED:
It really is incredible here.

NARRATOR:
With the Royal Quarter identified,

Fred wants to find out
what Alexander's tomb,

and those of the Pharaohs
buried around him, might look like.

MARIA: Can you imagine what it was like
when they carried their dead down here?

FRED:
It's at least 60 feet down.

I can't imagine trying
to bring a body down here.

NARRATOR: Archaeologist Maria Nilsson
is showing Fred the tombs

of the Greek citizens who lived
in ancient Alexandria.

It's a subterranean city of the dead.

MARIA: It reminds very much
of a Greek temple, doesn't it?

-FRED: It really does.
-MARIA: It's typical for Alexandria,

uh, these rock cut tombs.

So, here you have some great examples

of how Egyptian art meets the newcomers.

Here on the frieze you've got
the winged sun disc,

which is traditional for Egyptian art.

But if we enter a little bit closer...

here you can clearly see
the Greek elements.

FRED (off screen): Yes, the Medusa.
Incredible.

MARIA: So, let's now enter
into the main sanctuary itself.

FRED: Wow.

MARIA:
And we've got a unique scene.

FRED: Well, it looks like
a traditional mummification scene.

-MARIA (off screen): Indeed.
-FRED: Yes.

MARIA: What we have here is
a depiction of Osiris,

which is a representation
of the dead himself, of course.

You've got Anubis who is performing
the mummification.

And to just support
the entire mummification process,

you've got the canopic jars underneath.

FRED (off screen): Ah, where they would
put the kidneys and the liver and-- yes.

NARRATOR: The writing of historian
Quintus Curtius Rufus tells us

that Alexander the Great was mummified
like the Egyptian Pharaohs before him.

FRED: It's not Alexander the Great's tomb,
but surely his tomb must share

some connections with this type
of tomb: subterranean, carved,

with a number of different styles.

MARIA: Something like it, yes.

I'm certain that he will have included
elements of the Egyptian culture too.

We know from the sources
that there was a main chamber

in which Alexander was placed
in a sarcophagus.

FRED: This is the legacy,
putting Egyptian and Greek art together.

This is the legacy
of Alexander the Great.

MARIA: It is.

NARRATOR:
Like the catacombs here,

an elaborate underground labyrinth
with passageways and tunnels

would have formed part
of Alexander's tomb complex.

Back at the Shallalat Gardens,
Pepi's team has discovered

something hidden in the subsurface.

PEPI:
We just found this construction,

and we realized that
there is a tunnel inside.

It is interesting to have a look.

Oh!

It's man-made!

Oh, very interesting.

I would like to be inside,
but I forgot my bathing suit.

Oh my god.

New adventures in this excavation.

We have to go inside,
but it's very difficult.

We will ask for volunteers I think.

We don't know how long it is,
how deep it is,

so it's better to have some precautions.

And Ramadan if you feel afraid,
you come out, okay?

Be careful please.

RAMADAN (off screen):
Inshallah.

PEPI: Maybe it leads to something else,
something interesting.

We'll see.

NARRATOR: There is only a shallow pocket
of air for her team to breathe.

Hundreds of tons of earth
lie above the passage

that could collapse at any moment.

(speaking Arabic)

PEPI: Everything okay?

PEPI: You have to speak to us,
to talk to us.

Everything okay?

I wish it could lead
to a secret door, to a chamber.

It's very long.

It stops or it goes on?

RAMADAN: Oh Papakosta,
there's something like a wall.

NARRATOR: After 25 feet,
there is major problem.

The tunnel has collapsed.

PEPI:
There is a lot of debris.

NARRATOR:
It's blocked with a pile of rubble

covered in mysterious scorch marks.

There are also fragments of burnt rope.

It looks like this passageway has been
sealed for hundreds of years.

PEPI: It's not safe to excavate it more
due to the tons of soil, the street,

and also a huge modern building.

NARRATOR:
After 12 years of work on the site,

it's a frustrating setback for Pepi.

PEPI: Very difficult day.

But I'm not ready to say that
there is nothing here or something big.

I'm optimist.
We keep going.

I cannot stop.
I have to go on.

FRED: Alexander wasn't born
with the title "Great,"

but he had a strong lineage.

He was the son of a powerful king,
Philip II of Macedon.

Philip was buried in a town called Vergina
with incredible finds.

This is one of the most amazing
archaeological finds of the 1970s.

His skeleton was found
in an opulent golden coffin.

There were wreaths
made out of solid gold.

Simply masterpieces of art.

If these stunning items were found
in his father's tomb,

what might Alexander's own burial hold?

NARRATOR: The Greek geophysical team
deliver Pepi the final results

of the survey in the Shallalat Gardens.

PEPI: The report shows about 14 anomalies,
that means archaeological targets.

Out of the 14 points
that the geophysical survey suggested,

I decided to start from the biggest one.

We call it E3B.

NARRATOR:
The largest of the 14 anomalies, E3B,

is 800 feet from Pepi's current site.

Before assigning a dig team,
some preliminary exploration is needed.

PEPI:
The next step would be drillings

in order to be sure
that the suggested points were correct.

FRED:
This is the National Geographic Borescope.

We are going to put it down
into one of the boreholes here,

so we will have a chance to look
down inside at what Pepi is finding.

It's a very fine high-resolution camera
on a long fiber optic.

It's actually developed
to inspect 747 airplane engines,

and our engineers have adapted it
for archaeological investigation.

It has this incredible robotic end here
that can look in every direction.

Oh boy!

-We'll start looking around.
-PEPI (off screen): Okay.

-Uh, can you go up...
-FRED: You want up?

PEPI: ...and go to the side?

Here, there are white signs
of limestone,

but I'm not sure if it is a construction

or small random stones.

NARRATOR:
Limestone is not naturally found here.

Prized for its aesthetic quality
by the Greeks,

it came from mines
around 30 miles outside the city.

They may be seeing fragments

of the original building stones
of Alexandria.

FRED:
We can look around

and have a pretty good idea
that there is stones down there,

but it's not enough, is it?

PEPI:
No, of course we have to excavate!

-FRED: Absolutely.
-PEPI: But for sure, we know

that we have to dig here.

NARRATOR: While work
at her main dig site continues,

Pepi splits her team and begins
to excavate the large anomaly, E3B.

FRED: This is actually a culmination
of Pepi's obsession here in Alexandria.

She started nearly 23 years ago,

and here we are in the Royal Quarter
of the city of Alexandria.

2300 years ago-- she knows that.
She has X marks the spot

with a Roman road
right in her other excavations.

We know she's going to find something.
We don't know what it is.

NARRATOR: Pepi Papakosta is hunting
for the lost tomb of Alexander the Great.

She's identified the site
of his ancient city

and confirmed the Royal Quarter within it.

A team works at the main site,
while 800 feet to the east,

a second team digs down
to reach the largest anomaly, E3B.

They are already finding intriguing clues.

PEPI: Ah, bravo!

Good. See, it's a plaster,
but there is color!

FRED: Ah, let's see.

Beautiful!

PEPI: Blue, red. Yes.

FRED: Great, great.

PEPI:
Yeah. This is the type

of the Macedonian tomb's decoration,
you know that.

NARRATOR:
Plaster with this intense blue color

is thought to be the world's
first artificial pigment,

created by a calcium,
copper, silicate mix.

The same pigment is used
to decorate Alexander's father's tomb.

PEPI: It is interesting because we find
a lot of small things, of course.

WORKER: Papakosta!

PEPI:
Yes? Oh. Give it to me.

Ibrahim, can you bring water?

-FRED: More marble.
-PEPI: This is white marble.

-FRED: This is real marble.
-PEPI: Greek white marble.

FRED: Well, it's really unusual
to see this here in Egypt,

especially in the delta of the Nile.

There's no stone and there's especially
no Aegean marble like this.

PEPI:
It's very rare to find a Greek marble--

a white marble in Alexandria.

It's just a good sign.

Just an encouraging sign.

FRED:
It's a great, great sign.

NARRATOR:
Even with a large team of workers,

removing around 400 tons
of soil, sand, and mud will take weeks.

Fred travels back to the US
while work continues.

It's the end of the dig season,
and unseasonal tropical thunderstorms

are drenching the site.

PEPI: It is the beginning of December,
so the weather is getting worse now.

Most of the time this is a problem for us
because it can create a danger.

Soil can collapse,
workers can slip on the soil.

So, it is not easy
to work under the rain.

But we wait for the rain
to stop, and we continue.

NARRATOR:
Once the rain clears, the team realize

the E3B excavation site
is under four feet of water.

PEPI: The work was very difficult
this time, because we had to fight

with water above and water below.

We went very deep.

The soil is very fragile, and I was afraid
that it could collapse.

And also the water level,
that is always a problem.

NARRATOR: A powerful pump is lowered
into the flooded dig.

PEPI:
This anomaly could be many things.

It could be a building,
it could be a monument.

It could be even a tomb.

I feel excited but also very nervous.

Maybe it will be something great,
maybe it will be nothing.

NARRATOR: Fred is back in Egypt
and heading to the E3B dig site.

Pepi and her team are inches away
from uncovering the large anomaly

25 feet below the modern-day surface.

-PEPI: Welcome back.
-FRED: Pepi, it's great to see you.

PEPI: Nice to see you.

FRED:
Oh my goodness, look at this.

PEPI:
Yes. Hard work this time.

FRED:
Wow, Pepi, that's so huge.

-PEPI: Yeah.
-FRED: How deep are you now?

PEPI:
23 feet, 25 feet, yes.

FRED:
Pepi, it's an enormous amount of work.

PEPI: The most difficult issue is
the water level, as all the time.

-FRED: As always, yeah.
-PEPI: As always.

FRED: That's going to be very exciting
to see what's underneath there.

Shall we go take a look?

-PEPI: Yes, of course.
-FRED: Great.

Look at this.

Finally, we can see the bottom
of this incredible trench.

♪ ♪

PEPI: Look. Sandstone.

FRED: Yeah.

PEPI: Which is the natural bedrock
of Alexandria.

FRED: So, that's the natural bedrock
of Alexandria?

-PEPI: Exactly.
-FRED: Wow!

PEPI:
But there is a human activity here.

FRED:
This is a constructed layer, right Pepi?

PEPI: It is exactly.
It is a constructed.

NARRATOR: The large anomaly picked up
by the electrical survey,

is not the underground tunnel or chamber
that Pepi hoped to find.

FRED:
What do you think it is Pepi?

PEPI: According to my opinion,
this should be a kind of a defensive ditch

for the Islamic walls of east Alexandria.

FRED:
Incredible, incredible.

So, the city of Alexandria,
founded by Alexander the Great,

has changed and changed
through the centuries.

And here, it's clear 1000 years later,
they dug a giant moat

to go around another wall of the city.

NARRATOR: In this section
of the Shallalat gardens,

the Greek-Ptolemaic layer is missing.

It appears that this part
of the Royal Quarter

was totally destroyed
as later inhabitants remodeled the city.

PEPI: I hoped, of course,
that it was something different.

A construction or another material.

FRED: Do you still believe that the tomb
of Alexander the Great is here?

PEPI: The only logical place to be buried
at that time was in this area.

NARRATOR: Dig site E3B has not yielded
Alexander the Great's tomb

as Pepi had hoped.

But 800 feet to the west,

her second team has continued
excavating the original site.

And 30 feet below the modern-day city,

she discovers
the most extraordinary find of all.

PEPI:
So you see these big stones?

FRED: They're massive!

PEPI: Yes.

We took out two of them,
something very difficult,

and we realized that, under,
there is nothing more.

It's the bedrock of Alexandria.

So, let me show you
how big this foundation is.

It's a huge-- all this line.

FRED: It keeps going
and going and going.

Do you have any idea or thought
how much further it's going to go?

PEPI: We are about 200 feet,
more or less, without arriving to the end.

-FRED: Of a single building?
-PEPI: Yes, and it goes on.

FRED: Clearly, these are
very large foundation stones

for what would have been
a very large building.

What do you think it was?

PEPI:
Yes, this is a good question.

In the Royal Quarter there were the most
important public buildings of Alexandria.

So, I'm sure that this building should be

one of these famous buildings of the past.

NARRATOR: The vast foundation serves
as a guide to recreate

what this giant Greek building
may have looked like.

Constructed in ice-white marble
and limestone,

this would have been one of many
temples, palaces, and tombs

filling the Royal Quarter of Alexandria.

Alexander's city became one of the most
breathtaking sights of the ancient world.

FRED:
The search for the tomb

of Alexander the Great is
particularly special.

It's a great mystery.

But it's also great working with a scholar
who really is persistent,

who really follows the story
and doesn't take no for an answer.

And she's made incredible discoveries,

Ptolemaic foundation walls
that nobody has ever seen before.

She's correlated that
with a Roman road system

that was described in the 1860s

and then sort of lost to history.

She's excavated deeper in Alexandria
than just about anybody.

NARRATOR:
Pepi's statue, now fully restored,

has pride of place
in the Alexandria National Museum.

PEPI:
This statue changed my life.

I never could imagine
that I could find a statue of Alexander.

I'm very proud.

I've uncovered his city,
I've confirmed the Royal Quarter,

and now I'm going to continue my search.

NARRATOR: Pepi has another
13 anomalies to dig up,

scattered throughout
the Shallalat Gardens.

FRED: If there's anything
I've learned from Pepi,

it's you have to keep trying.

You have to keep going.

Has she found it yet?

Not yet, but I don't think there is
anybody who has gotten closer.

PEPI: It's an amazing feeling
for an archaeologist.

This is a gift.

So, I don't have the right now to stop.

I have to continue.

Captioned by Point.360