this channel is part of the history hit
Network
[Laughter]
this is brilliant
this is obviously an iconic image taking
a camel ride by the pyramids surely it
encapsulates the spirit of Egypt
but such an image is completely
misleading
because there weren't any camels here
when the pyramids were built four and a
half thousand years ago
and that's the thing
ancient Egypt is instantly recognizable
but all too often completely
misunderstood
so I'm gonna try and change that
a Great Pyramid of Giza final resting
place of King Khufu over 140 meters from
bottom to top
no wonder it still pulls in the crowds
and the occasional egyptologist
thank you
it's hard to really get it into words
but we are now entering into the depths
of this iconic Monument of ancient Egypt
it's about here it's a very busy iconic
Monument though
it's about here
and as we set foot on this journey
upwards it's a brilliant metaphor for
the way that the ancient Egyptian
civilization literally rose up from the
Earth to a real Zenith so come with me
and I'll show you something really
brilliant
because the pyramids are really only the
tip of the iceberg
[Music]
since all this was a big city how
overwhelming inside
[Music]
in this series I'm going to explore the
story of what I consider to be the
world's greatest civilization more than
4 000 years of history that has shaped
our world and left unmistakable marks
that can still be read today
I'll be looking into every nook and
cranny
from little known tombs
he's staggering I've never ever been
into a tomb quite like this before to
the hidden corners of vast monuments
it's like being on top of the world
isn't it yeah we are in the top of
[Music]
so it's really no surprise that weird
and wonderful theories about ancient
Egypt crop up all the time
but what I find so amazing is that this
most intriguing civilization was
actually created by people not so very
different from you and me
and that's the story I want to tell
Story full of secret treasures dark
deeds
and sometimes controversial theories
this mask was originally made for
someone else
and for the first time I'll be piecing
it all together
[Music]
from the earliest Egyptians
to the last of the Pharaohs wow look at
that look at that oh that is oh that is
so beautiful
welcome to my story of ancient Egypt
[Music]
the big question is how did ancient
Egypt begin
where did the first Egyptians and their
extraordinary culture come from
foreign
this Immortal civilization was thousands
of years in the making so to pull it all
together is a daunting task
but bear with me as it's utterly
fascinating
but we won't begin with massive
monuments but with some enigmatic Clues
you could easily Miss
[Music]
is curta around 100 kilometers south of
Luxor
unless you're an archaeologist you
almost certainly won't have heard of it
because there aren't any great temples
or Royal tombs to admire
but high in the cliffs you can see real
signs of ancient life here
[Music]
of years before the pyramids
and this is where our Story begins
welcome to Fruita thank you so much for
letting me come here it's incredibly
exciting
it's the first time you're here I
suppose nothing escapes the sharp eye of
Dr Dirk heiger and he's got something
very special to show me not many people
have been here before you because it's
it's a quite recent discovery
these carvings in the Rock reveal an
amazing story about the beginnings of
Egyptian life
it's a 19
000 year old picture gallery
[Music]
complete with its own hippo
backline very short tail hind legs belly
line
front legs and the mouth is shown if I
was smiling but then again an hippo is
always smiling
but another type of animal is by far the
most common here
that's that's cattle not just cattle
there's the Mighty aurochs the wild
Buffett wild cattle
and the extremely powerful images that
seem to be in movement they are the
challenging down towards aren't they
these wild aurochs were ancestors of the
domestic cow
and nearly 20 000 years ago beef was the
main thing on the menu
about maybe 50 of their diet was
composed of or rocks
so they were experts and Masters in
representing this animal
[Music]
it's always high on the cliff very
prominent positions that give an
excellent Panorama over what must have
been in the Paleolithic the hunting
grounds of the people
it's easy to picture these early hunters
here as they track their prey
[Music]
but the landscape would have looked very
different from today
because back then this was Savannah
grassland a green and fertile region
[Music]
do we have any idea why these creatures
were engraved on these rocks here
we can guess Joanne but we don't know
maybe they wanted to
influence the hunting maybe this is some
sort of hunting Magic
[Music]
it really is magical to sit here and
imagine Egypt's earliest nomadic people
passing right through this spot and
portraying on these very rocks the
animals that they saw all around them
thank you
human figures and boats join the animals
as the carvings became stranger and
stranger
but these carvings are also the earliest
glimpse of the amazing things to come
the first signs of what makes ancient
Egypt well ancient Egypt
it's for its ancient landscape
this evolved under dramatic
circumstances
ten thousand years ago gravity tilted
the entire Earth off its axis by about
half a degree
and this had a profound effect on
climate and as the world began to change
Egypt would never be the same again
these early people were Nomads
seasonally mobile pastoralists who moved
around following the summer rains
and these range really were the vital
life-bringing force which created The
Greenery on which wild animals depended
but of course with climate change these
rains began to dry up okay you can cut
the rain
the diminishing rainfall forced both
animals and people towards large lakes
which formed during the rainy season
one such area is nabta Playa 100
kilometers Southwest of a swamp
here these nomadic Hunters began to
settle into communities but still
reliant on the annual summer rains they
needed to predict exactly when these
would return and so they turned to the
night sky welcome to the beginning of
time
quite literally because this is Egypt's
oldest calendar
at around 7 000 years old this Stone
Circle from nabta Playa is the earliest
evidence of how Egyptian weather
forecasters became astronomers
they aligned its Central stones to the
circumpolar Stars visible in the night
sky all year round
when the sun appeared directly overhead
the stones cast no shadow
the midsummer rains were approaching
this meant that the animals would drink
the plants would grow and the world
would survive for another year
so in many ways this circle represents
the solution to the very real problem of
survival
but the Egyptians would take this a step
further
I think the really great thing about
these mini Monumental markers is that
this is the earliest example we have of
the way in which the Egyptians are
aligning their monuments to various
things to the sky to the cardinal points
and from now on every tomb every Temple
every monument will be aligned to the
Heavens to the very Gods themselves
[Music]
services
if the stars in the rain were this
closely linked
then this world and the next must be one
and the same
[Music]
and this has been described as Egypt's
earliest sculpted stole monument and
dates from around 5000 BC
[Music]
this chunk of sandstone was quarried
over a mile away from where it was
eventually discovered
this certainly suggests a kind of sense
of community where people were already
working together to achieve a desired
aim in this case the stone was hauled
into place and then there are clear
signs that it's been sculpted into a
specific shape
now you might have to go with me on this
but but some believe that this is in
fact a cow
with its large hindquarters
and this sculpted head
now the cow was a vital part of everyday
life for these people it was a source of
meat of milk and of blood key sources of
protein they needed to keep them healthy
and yet so important was the cow they
chose to take it through into the
Afterlife with them to sustain them on a
spiritual level and this is the very
beginnings of the great cow goddess
hathor
Hatha may have started off as a source
of milk and meat
but eventually she would be loved and
idolized by millions of Egyptians since
she represented love joy Beauty and
motherhood
and although Her Image develops from a
lifelike animal to a female face with
cow's ears
this may be hatho's very earliest
incarnation
[Music]
yet athor is only one of a multitude of
gods and goddesses
the Egyptians just couldn't get enough
of them
over the centuries emerged hundreds if
not thousands of deities each with a
specific purpose and appearance
some came in human form
some had animal heads
they could be male
female
even androgynous
it seems that there were few aspects of
life that didn't have their own Gods
we know that in the very earliest times
their gods resembled familiar things the
world around them elements of nature and
certainly animals
and over time the animals their forms
their shapes their characteristics
were distilled down into this sort of
divine figure each one worshiped for a
different quality in the case of the ram
they were worshiped for their
procreative powers
in the case of the cow they're nurturing
motherly instincts
then of course you've got rather
different creatures the dangerous
creatures the ones that lived on the
edges of the Egyptian world the Lions
the crocodiles the jackals
[Music]
but it wasn't just about finding the
appropriate Divinity it was about
gaining power over them
the goddess segment was a ferocious
lioness and the bringer of death to
humans
so the Egyptians transformed her into a
deity as a way of controlling her
destructive Powers by worshiping segment
it was believed that she could be
placated and transformed into a more
benign deity
on so many levels the Egyptians were
trying to tap into nature to affect the
way that nature then in turn affected
them
[Music]
in many ways Egypt's unique religion was
the glue that held Society together
uniting the population and underpinning
almost every aspect of life
it's everywhere in tombs in temples in
everyday life
and yet there is another
even more fundamental element without
which ancient Egypt would never have
existed at all
[Music]
later Greek historians famously observed
that Egypt was the gift of the Nile and
how right they were because as the
climate continued to change the desert
Lakes eventually dried up leaving the
Egyptians with just one source of water
[Music]
foreign
ly special place located in modern Sudan
it nonetheless forms the very source of
Egypt but it's the place where two great
rivers meet the White Nile and the Blue
Nile which combine here to form the
world's longest river flowing from the
heart of Africa and out into the
Mediterranean Sea
for much of the year the wide lazy White
Nile is the main source of water until
annual rainfall in the Ethiopian
Highlands swells the faster flowing Blue
Nile
today the modern Aswan dams hold back
these flood waters
but until the 20th century huge volumes
of water and fertile silt surged down
river to flood the entire Nile Valley
bringing life and fertility to the
desert that is Egypt
[Music]
this annual Nile flood was the single
most important event in the lives of
every ancient Egyptian for its
life-giving Waters brought the nutrients
and minerals which enriched the soil all
along its banks and this allowed
agriculture to flourish
Egypt is blessed with some of the most
fertile land in the world
where farmers can grow everything from
sweet corn and garlic to bananas sugar
cane and cotton
it's quite intensive farming isn't it
the land gives the people a lot doesn't
it yes but we need to give the land also
rest
we grow one time and we leave it for one
month then after we use the land again
to grow again that's amazing that it
only needs one month rest time and then
it can be planted again yeah sometime 15
days sometime you know one month yeah
but it really does emphasize that this
land of Egypt has always been so rich
and so giving to the people it's always
given the people everything they need
and it's the Nile that turned this
desert land into a paradise
[Music]
and seven thousand years ago the people
who could no longer survive in an
increasingly desert landscape were
forced to migrate towards it as their
only source of water
so ancient Egypt took shape as these
people came together along the banks of
the Nile
in the north settlements clustered
around the Delta and the fayum
and in the South around the Kenner Bend
this was the beginning of Egypt's
so-called two lands Upper and Lower
Egypt which developed into two distinct
cultures
[Music]
but what they both had in common was the
astonishing fertility replenished every
year by the miracle of the Nile
El cab located to the south of the
cannabend is one of upper Egypt's
earliest settlements
[Music]
and while it may lack the wow factor of
the pyramids it's actually far more
revealing to see traces of this amazing
evolution
because here we can see how a nomadic
lifestyle was soon replaced by a settled
social structure
and although it was a slow and gradual
process archaeologist Elizabeth Hart can
identify each stage of this
transformation
wow you do work in an enclosure but it's
much cooler down here it's lovely
actually
foreign so down at this level we have
sterile soil where nobody lived and then
starting around 4200 BC are layers of
silt from the Nile flood followed by
wind accumulated sand and then another
layer of silt and then more sand and
here you can see it really well a thin
silt layer from the Nile coming up and
flooding and then the sand and over here
we have a hearth feature
so this tells us that humans were
actually living on these and coming into
the Nile Valley and then moving back out
and we also found lots of pot shards and
stone tools in these layers you know it
might be a small space but you've got
people's real lives unfolding within it
aren't you and we have thousands of
years of it here when we started people
were just moving into the Nile Valley
they were just starting to farm and by
the end here we have pharaohs and a
whole United Egypt it's really
impressive when you think about all the
change that happened over this chunk of
sand
although we are still centuries away
from the grand varoni monuments you can
still find traces of the lives these
ancient people lived if you look hard
enough
for very little has survived it except
for tons of pottery
yeah this one is uh yeah so it's 5 000
years old so we're 5000 years old
these pots help us to identify when this
early Society began to produce a food
surplus
pivotal transition which required robust
Pottery for the storage of large-scale
food and drink production
these bread molds from slightly later
are one of the most common finds so your
heat the molds then the dog gets into
into it and by the heat of the mold the
the bake the bread will be will be baked
but this comes in massive amounts
these are the beer jars ah bread and
beer Egyptian Staples
oh nice slicer repair jar this is the
nuts and bolts of how Egyptian
chronology all came together in the
early days isn't it yes the pottery is
especially fundamental to understand how
people were living
[Music]
yet in Egypt living was only half the
story
because what really sets the ancient
Egyptians apart is their view of death
foreign
to them death wasn't the end of life but
a new beginning
a transformation from the world of the
living into an everlasting afterlife
and such a belief would shape Egypt's
most mysterious practice and my favorite
subject
[Music]
mummification
although the origins of this enigmatic
tradition are only now becoming clearer
the burial of their dead had a strong
significance from the very earliest
times
this is a typical burial from around
3400 BC
the body is curled into the fetal
position and here placed within a
reconstructed pit grave surrounded by
the belongings he might have had in his
Earthly life
like Pottery jewelry and a pallet for
preparing cosmetics
everything that was important to him in
life accompanied him into death
and I think that's quite significant
because it shows that already
five and a half thousand years ago the
Egyptians wanted to take it all with
them they clearly believed that
something happened beyond death death
was simply a transition into another
state of existence when you continued to
live and it was assumed you would need
everything you'd needed in your life on
Earth
his body was naturally mummified in the
hot desert sand but its placement here
may not have been accidental
because even when dead the body had to
be preserved in order to house the soul
for eternity
a skeleton simply wasn't good enough
skeletons bones they are very very
Anonymous And yet when the soft tissue
the skin the hair is all present we are
ourselves and that's exactly what this
individual represents
being face to face with one of the very
earliest Egyptians gives us insight into
the development of their ideas about the
afterlife
it started off as a practical thing
burying the dead in a relatively small
space bundled up and then it developed
these layers of kind of like the
symbolism the fecal position this idea
in rebirth into the next world
it's almost like the seed from which the
Egyptian funerary belief system evolved
this is the very beginning of a process
which would be repeated a million fold
throughout Egyptian history
it's his combination of the esoteric
underpinned by the Practical which
really does sum up the Egyptians in a
nutshell
from the very beginning the Egyptians
were masters of making sense of their
world no matter how complex and
mystifying it might seem to us
[Applause]
and this same ability to bring order is
also found in the way they structured
their early Society adopting levels of
bureaucracy that border on the obsessive
in the ancient city of abidos the site
of Egypt's first Royal burial ground
archaeologists found the origins of a
system that we still have to put up with
today
[Music]
it's most fitting that this city of
death was the fine spot of the earliest
means of calculating that other great
certainty
taxes
the evidence comes from small bone and
ivory labels like these which have been
dated to around 3250 BC
the originals are probably the size of a
postage stamp and you can see that each
one is engraved with images of animals
of birds of plants and so forth and each
one is pierced for suspension to a chest
on Pottery vessel which would have
contained oil linen grain and it's
thought that these symbols represent the
regions that produce these Commodities
which were then brought here to abados
thought to have been sent as tax
payments these tiny labels show how
these early people were already capable
of collecting duties from a vast
geographical area
some experts even believe these symbols
can be vocalized
by turning the simple drawings into
sound makes this the world's earliest
known writing
Now isn't it interesting that the
world's earliest writing wasn't
developed to express some great
outpouring of emotion or Express Grand
Passion it was simply a means of
calculating taxes
these symbols soon became a
sophisticated writing system of elegant
signs we call hieroglyphs which means
sacred carvings
and these signs represented every aspect
of the Egyptian World which were only
translated in 1822 with the discovery of
the Rosetta Stone
[Music]
and a common language was needed as
goods were transported between the two
lands of Upper and Lower Egypt
the people of Lower Egypt had also
developed trade links with the rest of
the ancient world but as more warlike
regions began to emerge in Upper Egypt
it soon became clear that the Nile had
spawned two very different and
distinctive cultures
and in many ways the only thing they
really had in common was this Great
River
[Music]
the inevitable clash between these
cultures is recorded on what many
consider to be ancient Egypt's founding
document
taking the form of a giant ceremonial
cosmetic palette this is an exact copy
of the original Nama palette
and however idealized and embellished it
depicts the pivotal moment when the
southern King Nama defeated his Northern
enemy a split second after this mace
comes down onto this Northern enemy's
head and he's executed he's killed he is
no more
Nama himself remains the first king of a
United Egypt
and what this means is that the whole of
the country is now United under one
man's rule
he is setting himself up quite literally
as the god king as the one central
figure at the very Pinnacle of the
pyramid that forms Egyptian society and
from him everything else flows
Egypt is now the world's first nation
state
foreign
what made ancient Egypt ancient Egypt is
all here
the art forms the forms of religion and
even
the world's first writing hieroglyphic
script
this is the name of Nama the catfish no
and the Chisel
striking catfish
as the first king of Egypt Nama is
protected by the cow goddess hathor
stands beside Horus the Falcon God of
kingship and is dressed in all the same
paraphernalia as every King who succeeds
him he has the tie on false beard to
emphasize his virility and his strength
and this is matched of course by the
tion Bull's tale It's a Wonderful
feature this idea you could just tie a
little tail onto the back of the belt
and then take into yourself the power of
a bull
this palette is Egypt's earliest
historical document
the blueprint of how every future
Pharaoh will be portrayed in the company
of the Gods
[Music]
yet Perhaps most significant is narma's
smiting poles this powerful image with
the mace held high will be endlessly
repeated throughout Egypt's long history
this is a horrible way to die to have
your brains bludgeoned out and yet even
this the Egyptian artist can show in an
almost ballet-like pearls
it's been sanitized it's been elevated
to a piece of art and yet the message
still gets through
for the next 3 000 years every one of
Egypt's subsequent rulers would try and
Link themselves to Egypt's first pharaoh
to rule legitimately and successfully
they had to be absorbed into the
complexities of the Egyptian hierarchy
both in this world and the next so their
names were recorded on a series of King
lists a kind of royal family tree and
the best preserved of these is here in
the temple of seti the first at abidos
it lists himself and 75 of his Royal
predecessors going right back to the
very dawn of Egyptian history with the
very first king up there King Nama and
the other important detail about this is
that it's essentially emphasizing that
Royal continuity because seti has his
own young son Ramses the Crown Prince
actually reading out these names on a
piece of Papyrus paper so it's as if
seti is saying to the gods look I'm now
pharaoh and this is my son who'll
succeed me to become yet another name on
this remarkable list
in all Egypt had over 300 pharaohs
organized into 30 dynasties
but in the case of Egypt's earliest
Kings being male Immortal was not enough
they needed to prove their Divinity by
exercising absolute control over their
subjects
and the evidence for this was found in
the desolate desert surrounding the
ancient city of abidos
foreign
this was Egypt's first Royal burial
ground the original version of the
Valley of the Kings
now being here you get a real sense of
the importance of this place for the
ancient Egyptians for as the wind
funnels down this Valley and swirls
around the sand if you listen very
carefully you can hear a whispering
sound
foreign
one thought to be the voices of the very
dead themselves
and here Egypt's earliest kings were
laid to rest within huge Subterranean
burial Chambers
like this the location of the final
resting place of Egypt's third Pharaoh
King juror
one of the largest and most complex
tombs of the first dynasty
and although it's been recovered in sand
it clearly demonstrates the power that
jur still wielded
even in death
himself was buried here in the central
chamber but all around the 318
subsidiary Graves of his courtiers
not only that a little Way Beyond many
others were also buried in total
587 individuals accompanied this man
into the next world
which is incredible enough but there is
evidence of a more Sinister twist
the fact that this tomb was all sealed
over at the same time suggests these
people may have been victims of ritual
sacrifice perhaps even ritual stabbing
as part trading out of the time and
certainly that power over life and death
would give any King a Godlike status
now later Kings seem to have realized
that killing all their court is in one
go was not the best use of people who
were a precious State resource
after all we'll be around to make the
next king's cup of tea
although these cruel and short-sighted
practice of ritual killing soon died out
it had nonetheless demonstrated that
Egypt's rulers had complete control over
their subjects an essential step along
the Route towards building the pyramids
and indeed Egypt itself
welcome welcome
yet the Egyptian people were not Slaves
by this time Egypt was a Land of Plenty
where all could enjoy its Bounty both in
life
and in death
this is the later tomb of an official
and here he is greeting as he's coming
to the door of his own tomb emerging
from the worlds captured in Ollie's
Splendor with his finery on his Jewel
bells and his Whiteland and Kilt even
details down to his little sort of
pencil mustache looks a little bit like
Clark Gable to be honest
the scenes in his colorful tomb depict a
refined life that's a world away from
Egypt's earliest farmers
we have erukata seated in front of a
table of food offerings as fruit
vegetables wine and so forth the berries
are coming forward with offerings to
sustain his soul
erukata was the royal butcher an
important member of court and with Royal
Court he is no longer sacrificed for
burial with their King they could now
make their own elaborate preparations
for the afterlife there are a couple of
scenes up here of the household servants
making the beds of iraqatar and his
family there stretching out the linen
sheets they're bringing even a little
fly whisk in the ancient Egyptian pillow
the headrest there so even in the
afterlife
will be comfortable
irukota's tomb is in Sakara a sprawling
City of the Dead for Egypt's First
Capital Memphis
yet zakara wasn't just the burial site
of courtiers but of Kings and the sight
of a revolution in Royal tomb building
[Music]
and whereas previously the dead had
tended to be buried away in the desert
hidden away almost here at Sakara high
on the desert escarpment the dead were
literally placed on display
every
where up to this point the Egyptians
attended to build their tombs and
temples like their houses from organic
materials
from the mud break wood and Reeds which
rarely survive
but in the third Dynasty the great
innovator King Jose built his legacy in
something far more permanent
for he built in stone which could
potentially last forever
Jose built this huge stone wall to
surround his tomb complex
although his Architects and workmen
still Drew their inspiration from the
natural world
you can see that the Masons are just
trying to get the head around how to
actually work with this stuff what forms
to put it in so we have Egypt's first
hyper-style Hall of columns sure but
it's taking the form of reeds bound
together to make the kind of columns
that would have been in Joseph's Palace
down by the Nile
but this of course is a house for death
this is a palace of Eternity and must be
built in something as solid as Stone
at the rear of his complex is an
Intriguing Stone Shrine where I can come
face to face with King Jose himself
the shrine looks like it's suffering a
severe case of subsidence and yet the
Egyptians purposefully built it on this
very definite tilt
it has these two holes here where Modern
tourists can see Jose
but Jose can see them they can actually
see beyond them because this face is
True North it faces the northern Stars
which the Egyptians call the
imperishable ones and so at death Jose's
Soul could rise up and merge with these
Stars so he too would be imperishable
and he too would never die
in order to ensure that a soul could
live on Jose's body needed somewhere
safe to rest within a tomb truly Fit For
A King
most burials were topped by a simple
single-story building called him a staba
meaning bench
but Joseph did something radical
chosen really wanted to impress with his
funery Monument so another step was
built on top
and I think Joseph must have quite liked
the effect that this gave and so
about the third step
fourth step
a fifth step
sixth step
when they stood back and looked
they realized they'd built Egypt's first
pyramid
pretty impressive
step pyramid stands over 60 meters tall
and still dominates the Sakara landscape
at the time it was the largest building
on earth reinforcing Jose's status as a
living God in the grandest of ways
it certainly secured his place in
Egyptian history with ancient visitors
flocking here to Marvel at his
achievements
now Jose had created a true Landmark but
it also created Egypt's first tourist
attraction if you come with me I'll show
you the evidence
because in here we have what many
tourists still leave today appreciative
graffiti
and this is the original handwriting of
a couple of ancient visitors from around
1300 BC who were so impressed by what
they saw they described Joseph's pyramid
as If Heaven were in it and they credit
Jose with being the inventor of stone
foreign
[Music]
why did Joseph build this
was it just an ego trip or an exercise
in personal vanity or was it designed to
show the world just how far Egypt had
come
because in only a few centuries these
disparate people had come together to
create the world's first nation state
foreign
[Music]
Egypt was now an Unstoppable Powerhouse
a nation unified both politically and
culturally under a single ruler whose
authority was Limitless
yet it wasn't just the king who could
achieve immortality for the man who
designed and built Joseph's pyramid was
destined to become even more famous than
the Pharaoh he had served
foreign
this statue base once held a full-sized
figure of King Jose but carved into its
base is also the name of his architect
and here we can see it with this Reed
The Owl and then the little mat or the
little bread loaf on which reads IM
hotep
and here he is the man himself
although most likely a commoner by birth
Imhotep Rose through the ranks to become
one of Egypt's most powerful officials
he was made the Royal Chancellor the
Prime Minister he was even made high
priest of the sun god
he was the ultimate local Boy made good
because he then gained a reputation as
an academic as a great healer and he was
famous the length and breadth of Egypt
it was ultimately worshiped as a god
Imhotep represents the ultimate in
Social Mobility a kind which was
certainly possible within Egypt's unique
Society
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in which ideas were often taken to
extremes with one and a half million
people United by an absolute belief in
the power of their King and in the
certainty of the afterlife Egypt enters
its most ambitious era so far
the pyramid age
over 130 pyramids would be built across
Egypt
and they represent the Zenith in Royal
tomb building
huge state-sponsored civil engineering
projects that used vast resources of
materials Manpower and time
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the largest of all the Great Pyramid of
King Khufu which took over 20 years to
build
and in order to build something so
ambitious an entire city was created
specifically to house the construction
workers just beyond this Monumental wall
it's known as the wall of The Crow and
it separated the silent Sacred Space of
the Dead from the busy bustling city of
the pyramid builders
foreign
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hectare site once housed workshops
bakeries a tool making facility and a
fish processing area
for this was an integrated
self-sufficient community of over 8 000
people who even had their own Medical
Care
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anthropological archaeologist Dr Richard
Redding has been Excavating the site
since 1991. where we are now this is
kind of a big Workshop a big industrial
park where there's lots of activity
going on out here they're probably
producing Granite statues maybe Granite
column we find tools out here for
polishing the granite we find tool out
here for chipping at the granite it's
very well planned we have three streets
we have North Street Main Street we're
on and we have South Street down there
so we're walking down you're walking
down Main Street
the pyramid workers lived cheap by jowl
in two-story barracks
he would have walked in you would have
been in a very quiet dark long narrow
room
this is where they would have slept
there would have been a a higher bed for
the overseer at each end and then
everybody would have laid down probably
with their head
in this direction or the other direction
exactly like this it would be lying here
like this and this would be your your
nighttime position very comfortable can
I can I try out the obviously sure the
overseer's bed Solutions the Grandeur is
it this one or that one yeah it's that's
the that's the wall you're the way right
where you are oh so this is all right so
if I sat down here yeah the obviously is
better is actually buried under a few
centimeters of sand and the floor here
is probably under about a half a meter
of sand
oh this is nice yeah I'm keeping my eye
on you now no it's right you can see me
if I got up in the night and I tried to
sneak out to go someplace you would see
me
everything the way
the work of a data that shows that
workers consumed 74 cattle and 257 sheep
and goats each week
this Corral area could hold a weak
supply of cattle before more were
shipped in from Egypt's grasslands you
could have almost just in time delivery
coming down another small herd coming
down from komal hessen or the Delta
coming down and in it's
a little machine you can see now how
efficient the Egyptians were obtaining
their food bringing it to the right
place at the right time for the right
people it's brilliant absolutely it
wasn't just simply the food it was
everything there was the copper to make
tools there was the stone being brought
in here from US1 and other areas so a
lot of things were coming into here
these were government workers they got
everything from the government
in many ways this settlement is Egypt in
microcosm a highly ordered social
structure with job specialization and
mass cooperation
it's hard to believe that in a
relatively short period of time Egypt
had been transformed
from simple subsistence into a United
State which could provide for everyone
who worked on its behalf
what we're seeing here is a final
building block in Egyptian culture but
not just for the pyramid age for once
this infrastructure was in place it
would never change so whether they're
building a pyramid or setting up a
colossal statue the level of
organization and cooperation would
remain the same but this was the
foundation stone of Egypt
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pyramids are Eternal Testament to just
how powerful Egypt had now become and in
many ways they are Egypt at this time
dominating everything around them on a
gigantic scale
and towering above the Giza landscape is
the Great Pyramid
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it took around 20 000 people to set in
place the 2.3 million blocks of
limestone
it remained the tallest structure
anywhere in the world for 3 800 years
until the building of Lincoln Cathedral
Spire in 1300 A.D it's a phenomenal
achievement for any civilization at any
time
but for me its exterior can't compare to
the sense of wonder once you venture
inside
the roof of the grand Gallery passageway
is built of multiple layers of enormous
Limestone slabs rising over eight meters
high
massive massive blocks of masonry built
on a god-like scale that's surely what
kufu wanted
I sincerely hope Kung Fu's Eternal
resting place was rather less congested
than it is today but it still gives a
real atmosphere of the busyness that
must have been here on a daily basis
foreign
massive massive blocks hundreds of feet
up literally into the air these guys
were magicians
just look how brilliantly these courses
have been LED these are perfect and if I
any modern architect to be able to
replicate this using the tools that the
Ancients had at their disposal
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oh
wow
wow here we are at the Zenith we're at
the heart of the pyramid now Kinko Falls
burial chamber and we've hit it exactly
the right moment because the pyramid is
classed for lunch
so we've got the whole place to
ourselves and you really get a sense of
the sanctity of this
Divine mausoleum
the walls and roof of the burial chamber
are lined entirely in Granite and it was
within here that the body of the great
king Khufu was sealed ready for his
final journey into the Afterlife
at the heart of the pyramid in terms of
its architecture
but were literally in the heart of
ancient Egypt
I feel like I should be speaking in a
whisper
Acoustics are so extraordinary
it's a
sterile
plain Stark room
it's pretty much like a bank vault and
when you think about it that's exactly
what it is because it was contained
Egypt's greatest treasure the mummified
body of the god king which contained the
soul not only of coolful but of all the
generations of pharaohs stretching way
back to King nama
forget the jewels forget the gold he's
just real treasure was in here
and it's the first time I've ever been
in here without crowds and crowds of
other people
and speaking now the sound of the voice
reverberating around
immediately takes you back four and a
half thousand years to the day of the
funeral to the sacred words the priests
would have chanted
to revive the soul of the god king
it's miraculous It's a Wonderful
spectacular place that affects every
sense visually
audibly
in every sense it it's it's beyond words
really
I think I probably better stop talking
now
so now all the elements that made up
ancient Egypt were in place a well-fed
highly organized population that
unswervingly followed their god king and
all of whom shed this fervent belief in
an afterlife
life in Egypt was good
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now of course none of this could last
economic disaster and famine plunged
Egypt into chaos this is ancient Egypt
beginning to suffer with the Pharaoh's
power melting away local Warlords
ransacked its most sacred sites
Egypt's Dark Age was coming
make no mistake this is the home of the
Dead
with its Mighty pharaohs multiple gods
and magnificent art it's easy to think
that ancient Egypt was always powerful
and successful
but there were also darker times
conflict Civil War famine and an overall
feeling of catastrophe
and the only way it could survive was
through its own resilience and the
strongest of leadership
now this
sosterous III who ruled Egypt almost 4
000 years ago
he's strong and he's muscular everything
of pharaoh should be and yet looked at
his face
his scowling features have been
interpreted to suggest his harsh Rule
and his large ears his ability to hear
any plots against him
embodies the way Egypt's monarchs ruled
during its turbulent times
this King controlled his enemies through
a series of military fortresses and
through magical curses
but this is a new era in Egypt's history
not only ruled by military power but by
fear and suspicion
and Egypt's darkest times threatened to
destroy its entire civilization
foreign
I've already explored how Egypt's
ancient culture began thousands of years
earlier
blessed by the River Nile and a rich
natural environment
and a society United by a complex
ideology
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but in this episode we'll see how the
massive self-confidence of the pyramid
age was not to last
is a Dark Age brought this civilization
to the brink of annihilation
make no mistake this is the home of the
dead and we're in amongst them
these were times of famine
Civil War and Anarchy
Kings have been reduced to something on
a minuscule level
but this collapse triggered one of the
greatest revivals of ancient times
with Egypt re-emerging more powerful and
Wealthy than ever before
foreign
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of ancient Egypt
Sakara where Egypt's Great Pyramid age
began
but among its glories there's also
evidence of a far less well-known side
to Egypt's story
its descent into a Dark Age
the Zenith of Egypt's Old Kingdom was
the great pyramid at Giza and only 200
years later King unas Causeway was
created
it might not look much today but it's
the highlight of unas pyramid complex a
750 meter Long Causeway which
symbolically connected life and death
[Music]
foreign
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Valley all the way up onto the high
desert Plateau right to the foot of the
Pyramid of unas so it would have been
used for his funeral procession but it
would also have drawn up that
life-giving force from the valley below
up to the city of the dead here at
zakara
a narrow slit in the roof once allowed
enough lighting but the extraordinary
thing is that this Causeway was designed
for a sole purpose
King's funeral procession
carved upon its walls are scenes
revealing both sides of life
the forces of order and of Chaos
it first portrays an idealized version
of Egypt a time of plenty
here we can see typical scenes within an
Egyptian temple or funeral context
scenes of the rich Bounty of Egypt all
the fruit the vegetables the crops the
meat the fish
all the wealth of the natural
environment of Egypt which was all
obviously brought to the land through
the good offices of the king the bringer
of all Bounty the intermediary with the
Gods
but also this Causeway contained
something rather more disturbing
evidence that dark Forces were at work
further on down the causeway emerged a
counterpart image
the flip side of bounty
an image so unusual it's now displayed
in sakara's museum and it really is one
of ancient Egypt's most haunting and
revealing works of art
here we see these dark Forces at work
what we have are two rows of emaciated
victims of famine
these poor people they're weak with
Hunger they're falling down they're
suffering and this is basically ancient
Egypt coming face to face with reality
because these are believed to be the
Bedouins who inhabited the desert
fringes of Egypt so it's as if this kind
of idea of suffering the forces of chaos
are on the periphery of Egypt but
they're getting ever closer to the Nile
Valley Egypt is starting to waking up to
the fact that chaos isn't all that far
away this is ancient Egypt beginning to
suffer
such gritty realism had rarely been
portrayed before
chaos depicted as the suffering of real
people
this isn't happening in some esoteric
Realm of the Gods where chaos is sort of
portrayed as some sort of disparate
Magical Force
very detached from reality this is
reality
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through such realistic images the
Egyptians were expressing their fears to
the gods appealing to them to keep these
forces of chaos at Bay
instead the darving famine victims would
turn out to be a chilling omen
up until now Egypt's Prosperity had
flowed from its one source of water
the River Nile whose annual floods
enriched the soil allowing life and
agriculture to flourish
its Natural Abundance was the very
Bedrock on which Egypt and its Perpetual
world order was able to thrive
but this lifeblood was about to run dry
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evidence shows that at the end of the
third millennium BC the Nile flood
levels fell dramatically
as the very thing that brought them life
began to diminish the Egyptians believed
that their gods had begun to abandon
them
and for the next Century the ancient
texts talk of suffering starvation and
even cannibalism
traditionally Egyptian Society had been
built on the belief in the divine power
of its Kings without this belief the
pyramid age would never have been
possible
but now in its time of need Egypt's King
seemed increasingly powerless in the
face of such natural disaster
and this would come to a head with a
ruler who was well past his prime
foreign
to have lived for a hundred years he was
Egypt's longest lived monarch
King Pepe II
and this space was once a ceremonial
running track the type of place where
Pepe would have to display his physical
prowess to prove himself to his people
now when any Pharaoh had celebrated 30
years Reign they had to perform the
Jubilee ceremonies and this involved
running the ceremonial Jubilee race four
times around this circuit as King of the
North four times around the circuit as
King of the South it was the ultimate
public display of their Fitness to rule
and their strength it really showed who
was in charge of Egypt
but that's where Pepe's advancing age
would eventually let him down
of course when Pharaoh was relatively
young and fit this would have been a
great celebration but in the case of
poor Pepe then in his 90s it became all
too clear that Pharaoh was no living God
and this really undermined the whole
concept of what it was to be a pharaoh
clearly as mortal as his subjects any
natural disaster must have seemed the
fault of this less than superhuman King
and this combination of a weakening
pharaoh and failing harvests led to
Rapid decline
ancient Egypt now faced its first major
political crisis for the power and
apparent Divinity of the Pharaoh that
had been so very important in the
pyramid age that now banished
everything that bound Egyptian Society
together had begun to fall away
and Egypt was plunged into a Dark Age
I'm of growing uncertainty
when the Egyptians had lost faith in
both the monarchy and state-run religion
they increasingly turned to the power of
magic
this
is a rather unsettling thing
it's an ancient Egyptian mask it's
almost 4 000 years old and it's made of
linen covered in a thin layer of plaster
and then painted predominantly black
with colors picked out on various
features
of course the Egyptians are well known
for making elaborate arrangements for
their afterlife
the death mask placed over the mummified
body recreated the features of the Dead
to make them recognizable to the Gods
but this mask is different it was made
to be worn by the living
and we know this because of the very
distinctive eye holes
which you can see there and this would
allow the wearer to see around them
you can imagine when this was applied to
the face fastened on tied on behind the
head it would transform that individual
into a completely different entity
traces of paint on the linen reveal how
it might have helped the wearer embody
some form of magical being
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whoever wore this
was going to some effort to transform
their appearance to try and tap into the
hidden forces of the Gods and to control
the world in which they lived it's as if
the Egyptian individual that wore this
was trying to take charge of their own
destiny
but the mask isn't the only evidence of
magic
for in their Dark Ages the Egyptians
increasingly began to write out curses
and spells on pots and figurines
scrolled across one was the curse
die Henry son of intest
a form of magic sufficiently small scale
to be performed within their own homes
one of the most graphic ways they did
this was to take a piece of clay or a
simple pot like this one and write upon
it the thing or the person that they
wanted to control
they often used red ocher because red
was associated with powers of
Destruction
so if I was doing this I'd put on it the
thing I'd want to stop which early
morning calls and alarm clocks
so you've got to imagine Egyptians from
all walks of life doing this the priest
wanting to protect the Pharaoh the
soldier in battle against an enemy or
simply a hated love rival
so all sorts of Egyptians could be on
the receiving end of something like this
then to activate the curse they smashed
the pot
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it was a symbolic act to annihilate the
name of the enemy and therefore to
control that enemy oh that does feel
better
not unlike Voodoo such practices are
found in many ancient cultures and Egypt
was no exception
but it's far from the way we imagine the
formal time-honored rituals of the
temple led by the king at the head of
the religious hierarchy
this is an Egypt that's becoming more
suspicious more fearful and more aware
of the threats to their world natural
disasters political breakdown and
foreign powers
and this little wax figurine is a means
to control anyone that threatens the
balanced order of Egyptian life
welcome to the age of fear
time when every element of Egypt's world
view was in doubt
their faith in their King in their land
and even in their gods had all faltered
this is one of the lowest points in
Egypt's long story and its effect
reverberated throughout the Nile Valley
the king traditionally based in the
north was no longer the source of wealth
so Royal officials abandoned court and
relocated back to their home towns
throughout the country
disunited Egypt reverted back to how it
had been a thousand years earlier
breaking up into a series of local
regions called gnomes
and now a new kind of leader emerges to
dominate the Dark Ages
no longer a single King but multiple
Warlords
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and we know much about one of them
because he left his detailed
autobiography in his Rock Cut Tomb at
moala well away from the usual tourist
sites
his name was antifi
now ankatifi is a small time official
who's worked his way up through the
ranks to become the regional governor on
no Mark as it's known
and in the decline in central government
the power vacuum that opens up is now
filled by the antifis of this world
tomb is quite modest by ancient Egyptian
standards but its interior walls
television rise to power
and egyptologist Gary Shaw is going to
help me unravel antifa's story
you can see the man himself The Gray Man
the great man carved stunning there he's
got a great hairstyle he does that is
lovely I'm liking him already
Sophie has a great tumor as well
the hieroglyphs and images that fill the
walls reveal how Aunt Tiffy exploited
the power vacuum at the end of the
pyramid age reducing the king to nothing
more than a footnote
the only time you see the name of a king
in the entire tomb is right here
this tiny little Cartouche it couldn't
be any smaller look at the size of that
it's a significare and that's it is that
it in the Little Tone the old tune the
one mention of a king and I think that
really emphasizes just how important he
thought he was alone he didn't need to
mention the Pharaoh he didn't need to
say that the king told me to do this so
I did this because of the king's favors
just did it himself that is
extraordinary I think that Cartouche
alone of everything in the Tomb
encapsulates this whole period Kings
have been reduced to something on a mini
skill level and the local rollers are
shown on a huge scale and it's all about
them isn't it Hank Tiffy had enhanced
his own political career and wanted to
ensure the gods were in no doubt as to
his importance
so the elaborate language once exclusive
to the King was now part of antifa's own
boastful propaganda this warlord was an
ego maniac
he also says that he's a hero without
equal without peer and you get that here
I'm a hero without peer and pretty much
almost every uh inscription in this tomb
ends or includes this statement at some
point inside and what did he do to kind
of justify these claims he emphasizes
all the good things he did for the
people uh This was meant to be a time of
drought and famine so we're told in the
texts and he tried to guide them through
this he was managing it by feeding
everybody and doing all sorts of good
things giving bread to the hungry and
ointment to those without ointment
and sandals for those who were Barefoot
and wives for those without wives so
it's basically telling us about a time
of turmoil yeah but it's probably just
over exaggerating because the more he
exaggerates just how awful it is the
more great he looks when he says well
these are the nice things I did for
everybody and you get this here he talks
about the entire South uh dying from
Hunger look at that that that's a really
graphic hieroglyph I love that the guy
falling over yeah he's dead body he's
definitely dead
and but then it gets even worse though
it says that every single man is eating
his children he didn't allow this to
happen in his Norm of course where he
lived everything was fine and at the
same time he's also a fantastic Warrior
we're told over inevitably
no that was coming yeah absolutely yeah
these texts on this particular column
talk about his abilities as a warrior in
his biggest boast of all Ang Tiffy The
Local Hero almost claims the status of a
god
I am the beginning and the end of
mankind since nobody like myself existed
before nor will he exist
Egypt's Dark Age Warlords like Tiffy had
replaced the real kings of Egypt
and active is delusions of grandeur so
vividly expressed inside his tomb are
even more emphasized on the outside
because he chose burial inside a rock
shaped like a natural pyramid he wanted
to be the local pharaoh
he was
whoever fed and protected the
Pig also led the people
but as the power of Warlords like antifi
grew so did the conflicts between them
foreign and over time as they either
defeated their neighbors or formed
alliances with them two separate
dynasties of warlord Kings emerged
one in the north at heracleopolis where
they wore the Red Crown of Lower Egypt
and one in the south at Thebes
symbolized by the White Crown of Upper
Egypt Egypt was a divided Kingdom of two
lands
and between them lay a war zone
foreign
situated at its Center lay Egypt's most
sacred site
its earliest Royal burial ground
still today an evocative and Atmospheric
place
this was the resting place of Egypt's
First Kings whose mummified bodies were
buried in elaborate burial Chambers
beneath the desert floor
safe place for their souls or so they
thought
[Music]
but hostilities between the two warring
factions were about to plumb new depths
of Horror
with an assault so Blasphemous it would
change the face of Egypt forever
one of the most violent acts was
recorded in later texts is the vile deed
for the northern warlord Kings fighting
their southern opponents here actually
desecrated these Royal tombs
for their troops Set Fire to the tombs
and destroyed the Royal mummies
at a stroke Egypt's physical link to its
ancient past was severed such an act of
desecration was completely unimaginable
and the Egyptian people were rightly
appalled
although the northern Kings deeply
regretted what their troops had done
the destruction was irreversible
and the origins of Egypt's Royal past
lost forever
of course the problem with such times of
Destruction is that there's very little
left of them for us egyptologists to
find
but clothes do remain if you know what
you're looking for
today what's left of the violation of
this Royal burial ground is surprising
thousands upon thousands of broken pots
although most are not part of the
destruction itself they represent
centuries of atonement for the loss of
Egypt's physical connection with its
past
now not long after the desecration this
became a place of pilgrimage where
people came with little pots like this
one filled with food drink incense which
they offered up to the souls of the Dead
Kings once buried here
it was believed that that death these
Souls of the Kings had joined with the
soul of Osiris god of the dead and as
this place became a site of pilgrimage
it's as if the people of Egypt were
trying to make amends for the
desecration of the past
Egypt's spiritual connection to its
Royal ancestors was all it had left
after the northern Warlords had
destroyed their physical remains
and the desecration soon provoked
violent retaliation
directly across the desert from a bidos
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lay Thebes
stronghold of the Southern Warlords
and they would soon rise up against
their Northern Rivals and attempt to
resurrect Egypt as a United land
[Music]
back in 2000 BC thieves was a one donkey
town and yet its Warlords had two
distinct advantages over other leaders
they lived on a bend in the Nile called
the Kenner bend a strategic control
point of Rich farmland
and their local God was Montu the God of
War
[Music]
the Warlords of Thebes would reunite
Egypt and one in particular came to the
form
his images were carved into the walls of
his theban tomb complex
and his name tells us much
this is the theban warlord montehotep
and there's a real clue as to what was
happening at this part of Egyptian
history because his name montehotep
means the local war god Montu is content
because hotep simply means content and
happy so if the war God was happy with
montehotep this means that he was a very
powerful military figure and this is a
wonderful scene
there are a lot of little Clues here to
tell us what's going on and if you look
really closely you can see Hands
embracing him flanking him at his back
at his front around his middle he's been
embraced by the gods Chief amongst whom
his monster himself and there he is his
nose to nose with the King he's giving
him the breath of life and infusing him
with his own divine power
it was the power of Victory one that
finally brought an end to Egypt's first
Dark Age
Montreal Tech really did live up to his
name as a true son of the war God
because he took his armies North he
conquered the North and he reunited
Egypt
best of all he's got the Red Crown on
and this is the Red Crown of the north
because montehotep is declaring to the
world I might be a southerner I might be
from Thebes I should be wearing the
White Crown but look at me now I have
the Red Crown I am the king of the North
and the King of the South and I have
reunited Egypt
as Egypt's new king he became montehotep
II
but his victory came at a high price
the Grim details of what his soldiers
went through can be found on thieves
West Bank at dear El bahri
it was inside one of the tombs here that
the remains of montehotep's warriors
were uncovered in 1923
[Music]
their bodies silent witnesses to Egypt's
Civil War of 4 000 years ago
which careful analysis revealed in
fascinating detail
now the archaeologists found around 60
bodies in the tool and these are the
original excavation photographs
all of them had been naturally preserved
naturally mummified in the hot dry
climate so you've still got the skin and
the hair
and crucially evidence of how these men
had fought and died
some of these bodies have been pierced
by arrows this one goes right into the
left side of the chest
others had actually been buried with
these leather wrist guards that archers
use
ten of the Warriors had been killed with
ebony tipped arrows
but in others the wounds are even more
brutal
you can see here somebody's hit this man
on the head with a real whack and you
can see this very very graphic area of
damage there
and after this series of furious blows
have been rained down on these poor guys
they lay helpless on the field of battle
their bodies picked up by vultures you
can see here the Dreadful damage it's
such a profound image
the bodies reveal evidence of the
weapons used against them as they fought
for control of Egypt
arrows slingshot and even rocks had been
hurled at the Warriors from above
eventually their bodies were collected
from the battlefield and carefully
wrapped in linen
this linen bar the Insignia of the
theban Tomb complex belonging to their
leader montehotep
but just as significant as the bodies
themselves was where montehotep chose to
bury his fallen heroes
today the Warrior's resting place is a
little-known sealed tomb
but four thousand years ago Monta hotep
honored his dead soldiers with a burial
amongst the graves of His Highest
officials making them part of his
Monument to Victory
the new king had created what could well
be the world's first known War Cemetery
now I'm lucky enough to have been given
special permission to see montehotep
soldiers for the first time these guys
are going to be taking down the tomb
wall for me allowing me to actually meet
the very people who fought in Egypt's
Civil War around 2000 BC so I am very
very excited
and it was the same curiosity which
drove a team of American archaeologists
to excavate their original Mass grave in
the first place
foreign
[Music]
the bodies of montehotep soldiers have
rarely seen the light of day since their
Discovery over 90 years ago
now this is really really super
frustrating but in the interest of
health and safety I can't go in there
immediately much as I really want to
because all the stale air is built up as
the walls being sealed and we've really
got to let this out with all the fungal
spores and the bacteria and everything
else that's so detrimental to health
early egyptologists tended to rush
straight in and risk the so-called
Pharaoh's curse so a little waiting is
essential
I can't believe we've actually gone into
this tomb now it's it's one of those
rare moments you get in a egyptological
career into a tomb that's hardly ever
visited the wall had to come down and
who knows what we're going to find
inside because I certainly have never
seen this before so it's a very a
special moment
this literally wasn't until I expected
nobody knew what to expect
staggering I've never ever been into a
tomb quite like this before
the mask is a very good idea because
there's all sorts of things floating
around in the atmosphere in here not
just the dust of Ages but the dust of
human beings
and as such we have to be very very
respectful
it's a large Rock Cut too and although
its walls are unfinished it's typical of
those created for courtiers and
officials throughout these Cliffs
wow someone with my body
it's absolutely incredible oh that's
that's quite something
and if you look along the length
of this very long tomb look at the floor
this isn't Stone
these are human remains and mummy
wrappings
and there are chambers some corridors
leading off again full of wrappings the
linen of Ages
some of it is claimed to be the very
linen that bound the bodies of
montehotep's Warriors to help preserve
them for eternity
but at first glance it's hard to get a
clear picture
for this particular tomb seems to have
been reused many times during Egypt's
long history
part of a shoulder
you see the way the skins
folded
dried out
partial human body still with much of
its soft tissue intact it hits you
immediately in the face and you
confronted with what a tomb is all about
make no mistake this is the home of the
dead and we're in amongst them
it's a very very emotive and Powerful
place to be
but what's striking is how little is
left of their bodies
like many other tombs up and down the
Nile they've been subjected to centuries
of looting and damage
and amongst all these linen wrappings
and debris and human remains themselves
are the tangible remains of these men
who died so bravely in their efforts to
reunify Egypt from onto hotep their
leader
having just come out of that tomb a very
very mixed emotions
I don't really know what I was expecting
to see certainly some of Monte holtep's
soldiers
perhaps some of them were it's highly
likely
essentially
what we're looking at are the ancient
Egyptians themselves these are the
ancient Egyptians temples tombs pyramids
this wonderful culture it's all well and
good studying these esoteric aspects
that are distinct and marvelous and
Grand but when it comes down to it
things we should really be interested in
are these people
montohotep's reunification of Egypt
marked A New Beginning the dawn of what
would become known as the Middle Kingdom
[Music]
and the rise of Thebes
montehotep made it the new spiritual
heart of Egypt
and it would stay that way for the next
two thousand years
but whereas the war god Montu had
dominated the previous Century of
Egypt's story
the deity that now took Center Stage was
hathor the goddess of love joy Beauty
and motherhood the goddess whose Origins
can be traced right back to the earliest
of times
and believing that hathor dwelt in the
Cliffs of Daryl bakri montrehotep chose
this site not only for his War Cemetery
but for his own tomb complex
it was montehotep that first built here
in this dramatic place where the cliffs
meet the desert believed to be the home
of the Goddess hathor herself it was a
fast track to the afterlife and for
montehotep and his men who'd lived and
died by the war god Montu they all now
rest in the Eternal Embrace of hathor
[Music]
thank you
the first build at Darrell bakri was
montohote the founder of a reunified
Egypt
he was so influential that almost 600
years later female pharaoh had shepsut
built her own funery Temple right next
door
to tap into the religious and political
power of her illustrious predecessor
[Music]
in the Middle Kingdom Life for ordinary
people was on the up
food was plentiful
wealth and trade flourished
[Music]
farming was revitalized with new
irrigation systems
[Music]
yet the Dark Age had nonetheless left
its mark on the Egyptian mindset as
revealed in the way they prepared for
the afterlife
in the Old Kingdom tomb walls were often
covered in elaborate scenes and texts
replicating an idealized version of the
Egyptian world
but in the Dark Ages people had seen
their sacred sites ripped apart
so instead of such Toolmart many in the
Middle Kingdom opted for its cheaper
equivalent
smaller much more intimate
[Music]
while these may look like children's
toys they were in fact made nearly 4 000
years ago to be placed inside Egyptian
burials
now these wooden models were designed to
provide the deceased with an eternal
supply of food and drink in the next
world
and so we have all the basics here the
Egyptian Staples of bread beer and beef
so we have the Bakers at this end and
they're grinding the grain to make flour
which will then be made into the bread
loaves that are cooked in this fire and
the baker is in front there
the arms are quite damaged but
presumably shielding his face from the
heat as we know from other examples move
to the middle and we have the butcher
here and he's cutting the throat of this
ox and the legs are bound here to keep
the animal in situ while the deed is
done and then we move on to the end
and we have the Brewer this is a
fabulous fabulous example because he's
pushing the mash through a sieve and the
sieve's even being drawn on there on the
top
actually in proportion with the rest of
it this individual's ordered rather more
beer than either bread or beef because
this section of the model is almost half
its length but you can see the Vats of
beer carefully laid on their side it's a
wonderfully evocative piece these people
have been working for 4 000 years
they're still at it look at them
the key elements of Egyptian culture
were back and they look little different
from times of Plenty in the previous
millennium
[Music]
look at this busy crew grappling with
the sail poles ready to launch the boat
off the Niles Banks
and this Granary silo
inside workers Hall sacks of Bali
while a scribe counts the crop
and of course there are also female
figures
in Egypt women enjoyed much the same
status as men unlike their sisters in
many other parts of the ancient world
they're also producing one of the
Egyptian Staples but linen the cloth
which was used to make pretty much every
Egyptian garment when you see this
standing woman here she's spinning the
thread with this spindle
and the thread that she's busy making
she'll learn hand on to her two
companions here the Weavers and they're
using this horizontal Loom that's pegged
to the ground to produce the bolts of
cloth which will be fashioned into the
wraparound dresses the Kilts the loin
cloths as worn by pretty much every
ancient Egyptian man woman and child
the lives depicted in these busy little
scenes that are comfortable and the
familiar representing the Egyptian idea
of security
this isn't Tutankhamun's death mask this
isn't the finest piece of art you'll
ever see but that isn't the point these
are real people doing real jobs
this is ancient Egypt up close and
personal
order had been restored within Egypt
is that wands tore Egypt apart hadn't
disappeared entirely
for now they were projected outwards to
the world Beyond its borders
so Middle Kingdom monarchs like Stern
old cesostris III focused on National
Security and wealth creation
cesostris is Infamous for his
devastating military campaigns South
into gold Rich Nubia
but he also opted for a more permanent
kind of control by building castles
now this is a map of Southern Egypt and
Nubia which is modern-day Sudan and
where Aswan is that was the border
between the two and Egypt maintained its
control over Nubia through a series of
forts
with around eight of these built by
cesostris himself
these Middle Kingdom thoughts were
within signaling distance of one another
along the southern Nile down into Nubia
they were all part of a massive State
Building program designed to subjugate
the local population and maintain the
flow of goods and people up into Egypt
particularly Nubian gold
very few of these forts still survive
the sum of the last images ever recorded
of the largest at buhen
it was filmed in 1962 during its
excavation
and after the creation of the Aswan Dam
these massive mud brick walls
disappeared forever beneath the Waters
of the new Lake NASA
but boo hen isn't completely lost to us
because the excavation records are kept
here at the Egypt exploration society
and they reveal an unexpected aspect of
Middle Kingdom Egypt as well as
photographs
they hold architectural plans of the
fort drawn up during the excavations
giving a real insight into the immense
scale of the Egyptian Crackdown in Nubia
hi Chris hi Joe how are you I'm well
thank you yeah this looks like an
amazing photograph yeah what does it
actually show well this is an aerial
photograph Joe so what we can see here
along the bottom this strip is actually
the River Nile and then right on the
banks of the Nile emerging from the sand
here we see this Square outline of the
massive fortification of the site of
buhen but once the excavators began to
um uncover at the full extent of what we
could see
this was what they came across that just
looks like a medieval castle doesn't it
very rarely do you think ancient Egypt
oh yeah castles and yeah here is the
evidence in front of them absolutely
designed to keep the enemy out bohen
chess features with the castles of
Europe but all constructed 3 000 years
earlier
[Music]
most astonishing of all is its sheer
size
there's a little scale on this map it
gives you an idea this is roughly 100
meters so just the Nile facing wall here
is well over 400 meters long if you
think about the Great Pyramid of Khufu
at Giza that's 200 meters along the base
so we're talking about the length of two
Great Pyramids along here the total
circumference of this wall is well over
a mile and the walls these outer walls
are 11 meters high
inside which you could fit around 20
football pitches
because as well as controlling the
Nubian gold Supply Egypt intended to
rule by intimidation
[Music]
it is the Middle Kingdom's great
Monumental architectural statement
pyramids Monumental tombs were not
really the kinds of buildings they
needed what they very much needed were
these heavily fortified Fortress towns
to guard the frontier of their territory
when this Fortress arrives in the barren
empty desert landscape in the Middle
Kingdom this would have been a massive
statement
something very very big powerful strong
scary has suddenly arrived in the desert
so anybody traveling from new beer North
into Egypt has to sail past this and
this would have taken quite a while to
sail pass wouldn't it absolutely yeah
imagine looking up you're in a little
boat on the Nile and you're looking open
up and you can see all these Arrow slits
people training the arrows perhaps on
you just you know you're being watched
it's that big brother mentality isn't it
exactly
thank you
foreign
was a gleaming Citadel of power
but most of all it was an early warning
system the eyes and ears of a Nation
defined by suspicion and fear
but Egypt's Southern border wasn't the
only one to be fortified
the northeastern border with Palestine
was also secured with such defenses to
monitor the large number of foreign
Traders regularly traveling to sell
their goods in super wealthy Egypt
and the visit of one such group is
portrayed here on a tomb wall
a caravan of wealthy merchants and their
families
clearly not Egyptian with their
distinctive hairstyles and brightly
colored clothes
known as the armo people they traded in
such Goods as the black leather vital
for Egypt's production of eye makeup
and their distinctive Pottery has been
found across the Nile Delta where many
of them settled to live and work among
the Egyptians
but within a century some of these armo
had infiltrated high office and
eventually took over Egypt itself now
these nomadic armor people who came in
and out of Egypt on a regular basis to
trade are portrayed here in this
wonderful tomb scene and yet the most
important part of the entire scenario
are three small hieroglyphs right in the
middle
they reveal one of the other terms the
Egyptians used to name the armo
it's basically a crook a scepter
not written with two symbols and that's
pronounced hecka it means ruler
and then the third of the three symbols
is kind of undulating Uplands which
means desert or Hill Country basically
the Egyptians use this symbol to denote
a foreign land so you put these signs
together ruler of foreign lands
and this really is the clue to what
happened next because these
ammo of Palestinian origin eventually
became the hexas the hecka suit other
hexas and they ruled Egypt from the
north between 1650 and 1550 BC
but his tension between the foreign
rulers and their Egyptian subjects
gradually escalated Egypt entered a
second Dark Age
the hexos made an alliance with the
Nubians to the South
and the Egyptians found themselves
trapped between two enemies
although we know little of this
difficult time some fascinating texts do
survive perhaps the most compelling are
the words of a royal letter sent by the
hexos king south of Thebes
its message would prove so explosive
that it galvanized the thebans to once
more regain control of their land
now this letter was either a colossal
diplomatic faux pas or simply downright
rudeness and it involved the Egyptian
goddess Tower where it the pugnacious
blade-wielding hippo
tawaret may have been a protective deity
but she was also a ferocious creature
with features borrowed from the hippo
and the crocodile animals the Egyptians
feared
so it seems that hexost King a pearl
face set out deliberately to insult the
thebans
now the letter takes the form of a
complaint in which a pulpis is basically
complaining that the bellowing of the
Sacred hippos in Thebes is keeping him
awake at night
expel the hippopotami from the lake they
do not allow me to sleep day or night
because their noise is in my ear
now many have taken this to be a rather
eccentric comment but I think it
actually alludes to the powerful women
of Thebes it seems that a pulpis is
actually comparing the wife of the
theban leader with the feisty hippo
goddess herself
and soon it will be the thebans who will
decide that the hexas had had their day
they had to go
and soon this war of words had escalated
into armed conflict between the two
powers
foreign
but the Egyptians of Thebes had also
gained the means to launch their attack
with something developed by the hexos
themselves
state-of-the-art weaponry
particular a new kind of bow
known today as the composite bow
it would revolutionize Egyptian Warfare
wasn't it a lovely shade it's a
beautiful thing
this may look like a bowl made of solid
wood similar to those the Egyptians had
always used
but the secret of the composite bow
is all down to the elements within
it's composite because it's made out of
different materials all joined together
so there's a wooden core from the center
of the bow but inside the curve on the
belly of the bow is horn glued onto the
wood which forms a really powerful
spring so the heart the cow arm will go
there yeah that's right on the inside of
the curve and then on the outside of the
curve an even more unpromising material
which horrid looks like something the
cat would enjoy and that's all covered
over with birch bark to protect the blue
from the elements
before the hexas occupation the
Egyptians had shut arrows from bowls
carved from solid wood
they were quite large and wieldy and
only effective at fairly close range
but in the composite bow animal horn
added flexibility and the sinew strength
it's a clever combination of ingredients
isn't it making it the ultimate in
ancient archery
it just asks you to to do that doesn't
it it's fabulous there's a real sense of
power behind this isn't there
it's a beautiful thing let me show you
so this is why it's such a game changer
really because it's a bow that you can
use it's quite short you can use it in a
chariot and yet
the composite bow was easier to handle
and shot faster Arrows with much greater
accuracy
the Egyptians had little choice but to
adapt or remain an occupied Nation
so by copying the new military
technology they were eventually able to
push the hexos out of Egypt
all the way back to Palestine
securing Egypt's Northern Frontier once
again
[Music]
and when the new bow was used in
conjunction with the other hiksos
introductions the horse and chariot
the three combined to express the power
and supremacy of Egypt's new Egyptian
rulers
this marked the start of the New Kingdom
which began when the powerful theban
leaders took the throne
this dramatic rebirth in royal power was
mirrored by the rise of Thieves local
God a moon
based at his cult Center the Temple of
Karnak
and it would be a moon who now protected
Egypt and its Kings
[Music]
so the hexos Legacy these were a new
kind of King
and it's on this Temple's walls we can
clearly see the effect of the hexas
occupation for his Pharaoh smites his
enemies this is Egypt reborn a fully
armed fully charged superpower whose
Kings shown on a Monumental scale are
superheroes
foreign
[Music]
800 years since the pyramid age Egypt's
story had been one of upheaval collapsed
finally rebirth
the Egyptians had reclaimed their
culture and entered a truly golden age
[Music]
hundreds of tons of stone to portray a
mighty pharaoh
colossal Testament to Egypt's golden age
[Music]
I think it's probably here at the feet
of the Colossians we get a real sense of
who amenota III was
in my opinion I'm an Otep III was
ancient Egypt's greatest pharaoh
it resided over the the Zenith of
Egyptian culture and civilization he is
the Golden Age he is the epitome of
everything that made ancient Egypt
brilliant
foreign
the rise of this great civilization was
powered by its extraordinary belief
system
[Music]
where the pursuit of the perfect
afterlife was everything
capable of withstanding disasters and
Dark Ages
[Music]
to then re-emerge as the most powerful
Empire in the ancient world
[Music]
in this episode I'm going to enter what
I regard as Egypt's greatest era the New
Kingdom
[Music]
an amazing gem
of luxury Grand designs and unparalleled
splendor
blend
isn't this absolutely beautiful
but like all good things it couldn't
last forever
Egypt's powerful religion would prove to
be its greatest weakness and I'll
discover how the priests became so rich
very unique
Egypt
it was this very conflict that would
transform this Golden Age into one of
decadence and Corruption
and would eventually tear Egypt apart
and by looking again at Egypt's greatest
superstars I'm going to investigate what
really happened during the glittering
New Kingdom
welcome to my story of ancient Egypt
[Applause]
the New Kingdom nearly three and a half
thousand years ago and the time of
aminotep III
when Egypt's expression of power and
belief reached new heights of enormity
joined an international team of
archaeologists
for Excavating just one of the vast
monuments amanotep created his funary
Temple
now being here you really get a sense of
what it must have been like three and a
half thousand years ago when this place
was a building site much as it is today
all these statues all around I'm an Otep
III's image coming up in their hundreds
and yet as the archaeologists today
assemble all these pieces this is
literally history coming out of the
ground Peace by peace
in the pyramid age Royal tombs and
funerary temples were a single complex
but 1300 years later the two were built
separately reflecting a new era of
opulence epitomizing the greatest
dynasty of all the 18th the time of
aminotep III
centuries pretty much the only visible
remains of aminotep's funery Temple were
his two colossal statues
now archaeologist Dr horig cerusian and
her team are finally uncovering the full
Splendor of this once Mighty Monument
you touch and it's it's
a glass yeah covering over 86 Acres this
was not a tomb like the pyramids but a
huge complex the largest funary temple
ever created
it's a massive it's unbelievable you
have to imagine this is only the major
Temple the main Temple you have to
imagine other temples processional ways
Sphinx Avenues magazines workshops
Treasures pools Gardens priest house
administrative houses all this was a big
city in the uh in in the campus
overwhelming Society
this Grand Design was built as the place
where his soul could be worshiped for
eternity while his mummified body was
buried in the Valley of the Kings nearby
but during his lifetime inside the
temple a permanent priesthood was
employed all ruled over by the pharaoh
amanotep's massive statues flanked the
Temple's main entrance
[Music]
Beyond them lay a second pair
and then a third
Amino tap's image repeated throughout
the temple complex
I wish one day they they find the time
machine I go back can I come I'll come
with you
we may not have a time machine but 15
years of work have begun to reveal some
of the Temple's former glories normally
these would have been meters up in the
air but to actually engage
so very tactile so very intimate holding
hands with the pharaoh
this is Colossus from the Temple's
second Gateway is flanked by one of the
best preserved statues of aminotep's
principal consort Queen Tai is great
Royal wife
here standing and by Miracle having been
saved by all the catastrophes which
struck this Temple so he's protected her
for centuries really hasn't he
carved to be no bigger than aminotep's
lower leg Queen Tie size serve to
exaggerate the pharaoh's superhuman
status
these massive statues were more than a
memorial each worship to guarantee the
immortality of the king's Soul the
Pharaoh as God this is made
great surprise to you
and Turek has saved the very best till
last
holy dress
oh oh flipping out
it's amanotep's head at three meters
tall carved from the finest white
Alabaster
oh
what to say
over the years I've seen many of his
portraits but rarely want as stunning as
this
look at it look at his nose yeah
this is
an absolutely amazing
the portrait sculpted face of Aminata
himself never seen anything like it
with hundreds of statues like this
amanotep was multiplying the image of
himself as Egypt's most powerful God
bringing light and life to the world
[Music]
because whoever controlled Egypt's
religion controlled Egypt
and with it a vast amount of wealth
now I'm an Otep wore gold from top to
toe and he handed it out to his
courtiers as gifts but he also used it
as a diplomatic weapon
aminotep's clever use of Egyptian gold
is recorded on Stone scarabs like this
one
they served as the pharaoh's news
bulletins which he circulated around his
Empire with updates inscribed on their
base
in this case it was a new marriage of
the king it effectively records his
marriage to a Syrian princess a princess
from the land of mitani and it recounts
how having sent gold to the princess's
father he then sent out one of his
daughters for the pharaoh to marry so a
kind of mail-order bride if you like
[Music]
it reports that her name was killer
heapa
foreign
in Syria
with no fewer than 317 ladies in waiting
clearly impressed amanotep added the
comment
it's a Marvel
with this diplomatic marriage only one
of many
they were an effective way of securing
peace and prosperity
amanotep was able to utilize his key
resource his gold
kind of get everything he wanted to
maintain his status as a supreme Monarch
in the ancient world at that time
[Music]
gold bought Egypt peace with its
neighbors
with amanota the third Empire stretching
from what is now Syria the as far as
modern sedan
within Egypt itself gold had a different
use
and could even guarantee a fast track to
the afterlife
emphatically expressed by a great
treasure in the museum in Wigan
[Music]
stunning golden face
[Music]
originally part of a woman's coffin her
lifelike features were preserved to
allow her soul to recognize her in the
afterlife
isn't this absolutely beautiful
clearly the gold suggests to us that
this was someone a very special very
high status very wealthy
although we can never know her name she
had clearly spent a fortune in preparing
for her perfect afterlife
covered in Gold Leaf she stares out at
us with eyes of alabaster and black
obsidian
we can really see into the world into
the thought patterns of the Egyptians
themselves because a stunning as this
face is it was simply buried in a tomb
literally buried in a hole in the ground
not for human eyes but to be seen by the
gods and the spirits of the Dead with
whom this woman wanted to join and
that's why her skin is gold because the
gods had golden skin and she wanted to
be recognized by them as one of their
own taken into their Eternal care
for the Egyptians it was a special pact
between themselves
and the gods that made their country
made their empire so very powerful so
very special
in the Golden Age this special packed
shanmar brightly than ever before
with Egypt's wealth poured into their
faith in the afterlife
with increasing amounts of gold
accompanying the Royal mummies their
tombs needed to be kept secure at all
costs
so a secret burial place was established
for Egypt's pharaohs on Thebes West Bank
[Music]
the Valley of the Kings
[Music]
it was essential that each Royal mummy
was buried safely in their tomb in a
custom dating back to the beginning of
time because each one became a royal
ancestor whose cumulative Souls from the
very essence of Egypt
[Music]
the Royal tombs had been desecrated once
before breaking Egypt's spiritual link
to its ancestors
[Music]
so to prevent this happening again the
Pharaohs of the New Kingdom chose burial
deep in this remote Valley
where they could lie undisturbed in Rock
Cut tombs
and this became Egypt's most sacred
place
such elaborate preparations for the
afterlife also fueled a growing economy
and just as in the pyramid age the
industry of death shaped the lives of
many ordinary Egyptians
for not only were there tombs to cut and
temples to build but statues shrines
coffins sarcophagi and all the
paraphernalia of the afterlife
and with this came all the Ingenuity of
sourcing everything from Alabaster to
Granite to gold
this is a copy of the world's earliest
surviving geological map dating from
around 1150 BC and the reign of Ramses
IV
this map is a guide to the stone
quarries and gold mines of the 15
kilometer stretch of Egypt's Eastern
desert
it's almost as detailed as a modern
geological map with different colors for
the different rock types
so over here these large areas of black
are the sedimentary rocks
care where it turns pink these are the
igneous rocks like granite
other little features include areas of
gold mining
and then throughout you have this very
subtle speckling these are the areas of
gravel
known to be very accurate the map was
made for one specific quarrying
Expedition
when 8 000 men were sent into a Desert
Valley
130 kilometers from Thebes to mine stone
for Royal monuments
but what's special about this map is
that it leads us to the ordinary people
who were employed by the pharaoh to
build the tombs in the Valley of the
Kings
[Music]
it was discovered by archaeologists at
the workers Village of Daryl Medina a
purpose-built settlement to house the
tomb Builders Architects artists and
scribes together with their families
this would have been a bustling Place
its streets full of children playing
deliveries being made and all the colors
sounds and smells of everyday life
it's one of the workers who lived here
who made the map
now we even know the identity of the map
maker the Scribe amanact his distinctive
handwriting is well known from a range
of other literary works from poems to
prayers maps to tomb plants and it's
thanks to one particular little
inscription with his name on that we
even know where he lived I'm an act
lived here
this is the scribe's house
Hammond Nacht was one of the many
skilled workers that Rose through the
ranks of society in the generations
following the reign of aminotep III
he became the head scribe of this entire
Village so a very very important man
and yet it's a very sad tale as well
because as he gets older we know that
his eyesight started to fail because a
prayer of his has survived in which he
makes this very personal address to the
local goddess Merit Sega who lived at
the top of the mountain up there and his
implore in the goddesses saying my
eyesight is failing I see darkness by
day and for a scribe for a consummate
draftsman like I'm an act how sad that
would have been
foreign
both of them symbolically portrayed
without their eyes
it's hard not to resist this image that
as he got older and more infirm he would
have gone up the steps to the flat roof
with failing eyesight try to focus on
the job
in hand trying to mix his paints apply
the the lines and the words and so forth
and needing the full sun on a day like
this
just to get through the Working Day
but just like his predecessors who built
the pyramids Amin knacked would have
felt a sense of Greater purpose
we can imagine him and his neighbors in
dear El Medina working towards a single
aim creating the Royal tomb
the New Kingdom pharaohs had created a
new image for themselves elaborate
building schemes requiring New Towns
full of workers a strong economy
supporting an Ever grander Vision both
for this world and the next
[Music]
but the spiritual convictions that had
brought Egypt to its seneth had also
created a serious threat
on Thebes
while its West Bank was mainly dedicated
to its City of the Dead
the East Bank was where most people
lived and the site of Egypt's main State
Temple
Karnak
as karnat was rapidly becoming the
largest religious complex of the ancient
world its influence grew exponentially
and likewise the power of its priests
to get a real sense of what's going on
we need to go behind the scenes
I'm being allowed through an ancient
passageway once only accessible to
carnax clergy
wonderful time
leads to the top of the Temple's main
gateway and gives a view of Karnak not
many get to see
you could fit Notre Dame and Saint
Paul's cathedrals
in here and still have acres to spare it
is immense
thank you
within Karnak a series of chapels
shrines and sacred precincts covered a
total area of more than 250 Acres
[Music]
this was Egypt's religious heart for
almost 2 000 years
the reason why Karnak is so vast is that
every Pharaoh pods so much of their
wealth into this Temple
their gold and their Spoils of War all
filled the Temple's coffers and each
Pharaoh also wanted to build their own
Halls shrines and obelisks in an attempt
to outdo their predecessors and yet all
to the greater glory of karnak's Chief
God ammu
over the course of centuries a moon had
risen from a local theban God to Egypt's
State deity
and his worship was the engine that
fueled the nation
so every Pharaoh had to keep a moon
content offering him their wealth
intending to his every need
[Music]
and this privilege fell to karnak's high
priest
and was performed in the Temple's inner
Sanctum
secret ceremonies at which the only
others permitted were the Royals
here we are in the very heart of Karnak
Temple this is where the god lived
the God himself lived inside
sacred statue the original wouldn't have
been much bigger than this would have
been solid gold it would have lived
inside a little golden Shrine sealed by
a pair of small doors
[Music]
each morning the high priest would come
in he would awaken the god spirit
he would greet him he would wash him
anoint him with perfume
plays eye makeup and then dressing in
various linen outfits apply the small
pieces of jewelry to the god statue and
then the God would proceed to enjoy his
day
a moon received daily meals of the
finest Foods roast Meats bread fruit and
vegetables accompanied by wine and beer
clouds of incense would drive away evil
forces
and musicians and dancers entertained
him
and by keeping their most important
deity content it was believed that a
moon would in turn make the Nile flood
each year
make the sun rise each morning
and maintain Egypt's Supreme status
the high priest's direct access to a
moon made them the greatest
beneficiaries of karnak's growing
prosperity
this tranquil lake is where the male and
female clergy base twice each day and
night to maintain their ritual Purity
before the Gods
known as the pure ones they set
themselves apart from the rest of
society with their distinctive
appearance achieved through their own
set of daily rituals
part of this process of ritual Purity
involved using an array of implements on
a daily basis to transform their
appearance
and one of the most important things
they did they had to remove all body
hair male and female clergy using razors
like this so every day having to shave
their heads and their entire bodies keep
them free from lice and all these kind
of things which would have inhibited
their sense of cleanliness
it was essential that they also had a
very clean mouth because they'd be
speaking the words before the god
and so they used something which is
quite a modern thing
basically Natron salt a kind of
bicarbonate rather like a modern
bicarbonate toothpaste which would get
that teeth nice and clean
scrupulous not only with dental hygiene
they will read woven sandals and Robes
of pure white linen
[Music]
and having transformed themselves in
this wonderful way they also had access
to these polished metal mirrors
they could then
admire their transformed appearance
because it was important to distance
themselves from the great unwashed for
the ancient priest's cleanliness really
was Next to Godliness and they were the
God's chosen people
[Music]
as the wealth and power of karnak's
priests grew their authority over Egypt
began to rival that of the king
karnak's priests had far-reaching
influence
executive not only by day but also by
night
one of these priests was called knacked
he was a priest of the hours of a moon
which basically means he was an
astronomer and he would sit by night on
the flat Temple roof which was
effectively an ancient Observatory and
he'd be able to chart the progress of
the stars and planets in the sky watch
the movement of the heavens
and by doing so the priests of Egypt
were able to work out when to celebrate
specific events
but of course what this meant is that
Karnak never closed it was a 24-hour a
day concern
it meant the priests were always there
it meant the priests were always
watching
[Music]
fully aware of the potential threat
posed by the Karnak clergy I'm a note at
the third employed his own relatives in
the temple to guarantee their loyalty
but such subtle means of control were
about to evaporate
enter a new pharaoh
sun and air of amanotep
[Music]
but unlike his father akkenaten was no
diplomat
zealous Ambitions would soon plunge
Egypt into an age of political and
religious extremism
foreign
found a swift way to stamp his authority
on the priests by building a
controversial new Temple complex at
Karnak
[Music]
now what we're looking at here is
something very very unusual it's part of
a wall from Karnak Temple but not the
traditional part of Karnak Temple it's a
section that was built a little Way
Beyond and it was a new revolutionary
building it wasn't built like the old
style car knocking huge big monolithic
blocks of stone but these small easier
to handle blocks which meant of course
it could almost spring up overnight
but most shocking of all were the images
that this new Temple portrayed
akanatan had begun to dismantle Egypt's
traditional religion and replace its
many deities with a single God
if you look very carefully
the images
are very different to what went before
a moon is nowhere present the god of
Karnak himself isn't represented in his
own Temple because the god shown here is
a form of the sun god called the art
and you can see the multiple Rays coming
down ending in human hands giving their
blessings to the main figure here and it
isn't the high priest of a moon
pheramun's priests were no longer in
control at Karnak
and the moon himself was now replaced by
the art and sun god
in fact life in Egypt was turned on its
head
and whereas previously courtiers would
bow very low before their Monarch now
times had changed these people had their
faces in the dirt before Pharaoh they're
lying prostrate before him this marked
the beginning of a new age
[Music]
it was an age when the only way to reach
God was through his intermediaries twin
monarchs Akhenaten and his wife and
co-ruler Nefertiti
[Music]
and when the priests objected the royal
couple closed Karnak sacked its priests
and seized its Treasury
[Music]
they then moved their whole Court 400
kilometers Down River from Thebes and in
less than 10 years built a brand new
city
[Music]
known today as Amana its palaces temples
and tombs were filled with images of the
arten the sundisk god
gone with a multiplicity of gods to
worship
now it was the son that was celebrated
each day with hymns prayers and
offerings presented on a truly lavish
scale
[Music]
but the couple's vision of Utopia came
at a price
and when akanatan died after a 17-year
Reign Egypt was bankrupt
his son became king of Egypt
and although he reigned for less than 10
years he still became the most famous
Pharaoh from the whole of Egyptian
history
Tutankhamun
his treasure discovered by Howard Carter
in 1922 was the most famous
archaeological find of all time
Tutankhamun's mask is the epitome of
ancient Egypt
so very familiar yet like so many of his
treasures holding a long-standing secret
I've come to Oxford University's
Griffith Institute to examine the most
detailed records of his burial
so in this first stack
these are all Carter's notes Diaries
journals and then right at the bottom
down here we've got all Harry Burton's
original glass negatives
captured on delicate glass slides these
are the original negatives taken by
Howard Carter's photographer at every
stage of the 10-year excavation
so this shows the very first view they
had of The Mummy
they revealed Tutankhamun's burial in a
way not usually seen for this is the
linen shroud over his third innermost
coffin
this is as if the bombers have just
finished the family have laid there
right some floral tributes would be
fatherlin finally went on
what a privilege to actually see this in
black and white
wow
that's pretty
for all his fabled wealth Tutankhamun
was in life a fairly insignificant
pharaoh
but his premature death after only a
decade as king offered karnak's priests
the perfect opportunity to obliterate
all trace of akkenaten Nefertiti and the
Amana period
and these wonderful photos of his burial
treasure reveal how they did it
on his famous Golden Throne tooten
Carmen and his wife on kasena moon are
depicted together
but all is not what it seems as Recent
research has discovered
we look at the back of the Queen's head
where her wig originally was it's been
slightly cut down there same with
Tutankhamun's Crown a new Crown has been
added here so it's little things like
this because headgear regalia was
crucial in identifying these Royal
individuals
by altering the images the throne had
been customized for Tutankhamun
but the biggest giveaway as to whom this
once belonged is in the deity that looms
large above the king and queen
so although a moon is also named on this
Throne it's the art and sundisk that
does take center stage and really does
cement this piece as a royal Throne from
the Amana age so it seems that the two
figures once believed to be too uncommon
and his wife were originally Akhenaten
and Nefertiti
know
another clue comes from the most famous
artifact from ancient history the golden
mask of Tutankhamun
or is it
Recent research is zoned in on One Long
overlooked feature and that is the
decidedly pierced ears because it's been
suggested
that this mask was originally made for
someone else the research suggests that
Tilton Carmen wouldn't have worn
earrings Beyond childhood so by the age
of 20 when he died he would not have
been portrayed with psds
this mask was not made for an adult male
Pharaoh indeed when the gold has been
compared the face is made of completely
different gold to the rest
evidence of soldering is clearly visible
on the mask
it now seems as if Tutankhamun's own
face was effectively grafted on to the
mask of a previous ruler a previous
ruler who had pierced ears for earrings
a previous ruler who may well have been
a woman who may well have been Nefertiti
in fact it's estimated that around 80
percent of the objects found in
Tutankhamun's tomb originally belonged
to either Akhenaten or Nefertiti
and with all of it dumped together like
this it was a kind of spiritual
decluttering
as far as the priests were concerned all
this was tainted gold and so the burial
of two and Carmen was the perfect
opportunity to bury The Unwanted past
forever
while the city of Amana had been
abandoned then demolished the memory of
everything it represented was likewise
being erased
Egypt's State religion was restored
karnak's priests were back in business
and Thebes was once again the seat of
sacred power
[Music]
and now the next dynasty of the New
Kingdom was in control
having died without an heir Tutankhamun
was succeeded by a line of militaristic
rulers
the 19th Dynasty
with no direct Royal ancestry the new
Dynasty needed to reconnect with Egypt's
illustrious past so it reinstated
traditional beliefs in a Renaissance led
by one of its most influential rulers
seti the first
his tomb in the Valley of the Kings is
the largest Pharaoh's tomb ever created
here
currently close to the public I've been
given special permission to explore this
labyrinthine treasure
[Music]
inviting us down further down into the
underworld and it's just drawing us into
the darkness it's a really really deep
Thomas
it's 174 meters of corridors and
Chambers all chiseled out by hand
and covered from floor to ceiling in
some truly spectacular scenes
whoa
what an amazing chamber
absolutely filled with little golden
twinkly Stars
but the walls of seti's Tomb carry a
clear message
demonstrating the return of Egypt's
traditional deities in full force
foreign
with the Gods
[Music]
[Applause]
this is a brilliant chamber it's
repeated images of the fair elsetti with
the gods the gods are back and he's Keen
to show that and so we see him here
with Anubis
the elegant black Jackal God of
embalming and the dead
here seti is making offerings to hathor
the maternal goddess of love who takes
all dead Souls into her care
and Horus the god of kingship wearing
the joint crowns of Upper and Lower
Egypt
then seti makes the strongest connection
with Egypt's past in the portrayal of
the ultimate deity in the Tomb
Osiris god of the underworld
he represents every single Pharaoh that
gone before seti he represents the
accumulated powers of the royal
ancestors and seti is Keen to show
himself in the company of Osiris he's
tapping in to that greatness that made
Egypt such a strong Nation
[Music]
every image every hieroglyph in set is
Tomb harks back to the Golden Age of
aminotep III
and continuing with this golden Legacy
set his Reign was a true Renaissance of
art and culture with the ultimate Jewel
in his tomb his burial chamber
that is absolutely superb
[Music]
this is really incredible it's taking
that nighttime sky Motif and really
really running with it
this is the night sky I've seen Through
The Eyes of the astronomer priests
[Music]
and this is where the Royal mummy would
have laying in its Alabaster sarcophagus
allowing seti's mummy set his soul to
look up at this spectacular ceiling
[Music]
Egypt's traditional belief system is
here writ large covering every surface
[Music]
Egypt was back
seti had brought back the days of Glory
it's as if the Amana period had never
been and for the average man and woman
in the street that was a wonderful thing
because order had been restored
chaos had been brushed away
and everything was all right with their
world
the Golden Age had been restored
but not just for the larger than life
pharaohs with their glorious tombs and
vast monuments
but for the majority of Egypt's
population too
this included the inhabitants of Daryl
Medina The tombuilders Village near the
Valley of the Kings
at the edge of the village was a great
pit the community dump
inside which were discovered tens of
thousands of pieces of pottery and Stone
covered in pictures and words
[Music]
written in higher attic script a kind of
hieroglyphic shorthand these are the
ancient Egyptian equivalent of Post-it
notes shopping lists and text messages
this is uh the kind of stuff that speaks
to Everyday Life what's going on
underneath the surface
with the help of hieratic expert Dr
Glenn goddenhoe we can catch a glimpse
of this intimate World far away from
Kings and gods
which is your favorite amongst these
ones I always go to this one this is
really nice because this one's uh
basically a list of stuff you take to a
party what you've got is tabulated
information so you've got vertical and
horizontal lines and in each of those
spaces you've got a name and the stuff
they brought to that particular event I
mean this person here the name's missing
from this but this person bought the
most stuff about 11 items we've got
bread for example being brought along
next down we've got some beer so one jug
of beer
as well as beer and bread it lists a
veritable Feast fruit 20 pieces
beans One Jar full
fish meat
and even a cake
the thing I like about this is the idea
of a community coming together it really
does make the ancient Egyptians that
more real because we can relate then we
all lack a good party
but of course life isn't always a party
and people fall on Hard Times
this fragment begins with a story of a
breakup hesis divorced the lady hell
[Music]
and then it goes on to record a
heartwarming story of support from its
Anonymous author
he seems to have wanted to look after
this lady hell and so the text goes on
and it says that the the author of this
spent three years
giving one measure of Emma wheat to hell
every month but it doesn't in there so
she gives to the author here um a sash
so a piece of clothing and she says in
this line here to offer it at the
riverbank
um the riverbank is where the market was
right and she says that um she'd like
one measure of Emma wheat for it
but no one wanted it no so yeah the text
goes on to say uh that um the author
tried to offer it down at the riverbank
but uh he gives the customer review it's
right here
one word Bean which means bad yeah yeah
so it wasn't even worth one measure of
Emma so that is sad but the author's
such a good egg that that um he says
that he buys it off of her for well over
the market value of this thing that
wasn't even worth one measuring the
first place anyway Nice Guy Peter we
don't know his name yeah it's a real
shame it's a real shame
but at least we have his words one of
the many voices from dear El Medina
which still speak to us across three
thousand years of History
telling us of the highs and lows of
lives familiar to us even today
for most people the New Kingdom had been
an age of plenty
but it wasn't to last
the Golden Era of wealthy pharaohs was
becoming ever more superficial
seti's son Ramses II was Egypt's most
prolific Builder
overspending on ever more ostentatious
monuments the best known of which was
his Temple at Abu symbol
but such over-the-top building projects
emptied the Royal coffers as did a
series of costly Foreign Wars
so by the time of Ramses III the cracks
had certainly begun to appear
as inflation increased supplies in the
state granaries ran low
foreign
so the grain which formed the monthly
wage rations of state employees like
tomb Builders and Artisans was no longer
paid when due
and it sparked the first recorded labor
strike in history
it happened in 1155 BC when the tomb
Builders began to complain that Their
Food Supplies hadn't been delivered and
when it happened again the following
month they simply down tools marched to
the nearest Temple and shouted we are
hungry
to make sure their grievances were heard
they staged a sitting at the temple
State's response only added insult to
injury
local officials could only hand round a
delivery of pastries not much use to
anyone
the indifference of the authorities
provoked many more weeks of protest
[Music]
grievances only increased and soon the
Striking workers had taken to shouting
out of passing authority figures
including the mayor
the workers were finally fobbed off with
enough supplies to shut them up in time
for the pharaoh's Jubilee celebration to
pass by unhindered by trouble
but the Striking workers had highlighted
the waning power of the monarchy
with the Pharaoh now served by an
increasingly inefficient and corrupt
bureaucracy
the Glorious bubble of Royal
extravagance finally burst
[Music]
and the pharaoh's Rivals were waiting in
the wings
the priests of Karnak
having grown powerful through the
revenues given to the gods they served
the writing for the Royals was quite
literally on the wall
and you can see what I mean in this
little known part of Karnak Temple
where the high priest is making a very
bold statement
but only if you know how to read the
footnotes
we have the Arrow Ramses IX and he's
facing his high priest shown here
but there's something extraordinary
about this scene because For the First
Time The Pharaoh and the priest are
shown on exactly the same scale they are
the same height that's why the priest is
looking so pleased he has his arms rise
as if in Triumph because these guys are
so clever they've actually got the
Pharaoh standing on a box so he's a
fraction higher and yet in reality
they're the same height
this really shows that the priests are
in power they're basically saying to the
king we are the same size as you
therefore we are as important as you are
[Music]
priests have become full-time
politicians
vying with the throne for power they
destabilize the balance between church
and state the relationship on which
Egypt's entire culture depended
so great with their Ambitions that by
the end of the New Kingdom the priests
took control of the entire South
and with the Pharaoh ruling only the
north the country was split into its two
ancient halves
but even worse was to come
it's at Medina Habu Ramsey's III's
funary Temple
that we can find out just how little
interest these politician priests now
had in the Royal afterlife
they were only concerned with their own
status and their own wealth
now this next disturbing part of Egypt's
story not only spelled disaster for its
core belief in the Royal afterlife it
left a tortuous puzzle for egyptologists
which we are still trying to piece
together
[Music]
it's an extraordinary story that begins
not in the temple but in a small house
built later within the grounds
because the priests corrupt Ambitions
will be put into practice by the man who
lived here foreign
[Music]
scribe he worked in the nearby Valley of
the Kings
this is the man himself Buddha armor
with his shaven head his starch Kilt his
arms raised in prayer he's praying to
the great God of Thebes a moon himself
although both arm and story doesn't
quite live up to this image of piety
because it was here that he received a
letter of instruction from his boss the
high priest of Karnak
this is a copy of that letter and its
contents are mind-blowing because the
high priest is telling Buddha Armand go
and perform for me a task on which
you've never before embarked uncover a
tomb among the ancient tombs and
preserve its sealed door until I return
and although this language is quite
euphemistic and cryptic both the sender
and recipient knew exactly what it meant
and it would have a profound impact on
Egypt
butter amen had been promoted
his new title was opener of the gates of
the necropolis
[Music]
so he and his men set out for the Valley
of the Kings taking with them tools and
bundles of linen
their mission nothing less than the
systematic dismantling of the royal
Cemetery in search of gold
it was an order to accumulate wealth
[Music]
tomb robbing itself was nothing new in
ancient Egypt but what's different about
this looting is that it's an order from
the ruler of Upper Egypt the high priest
himself this is looting sanctioned by
the state
[Applause]
[Music]
knowing the secret location of the royal
tombs Buddha Armand began what was
euphemistically referred to as
restoration work
the final taboo was about to be broken
so
booty breakout in the Seal of every
Royal tomb they move the lid of the
sarcophagus take out the Royal mummy in
its nest of gold coffins and proceed to
unwrap each one
next they strip them of anything of
value gold masks jewelry and amulets all
taken for the temple Treasury
[Music]
as for the moment they are re-wrapped in
Fresh Linen and all buried together
for the cash-strapped priests these
Royal tombs were no longer inviable
but little more than a series of dead
bodies resting amidst the goals they
needed to achieve their political aims
so for 20 years this very tomb became
one of Buddha almonds re-wrapping
workshops
where archaeologists found fragments of
the gold prized from Royal coffins
traces of the Lost Treasures of numerous
pharaohs
and Buddha Armand's handwriting was
discovered on the re-wrapped mummy of
Ramses III
with no regard for the sacred even the
great Pharaoh amanotep III ended up
repackaged in the coffin of Ramses III
covered with the ill-fitting lid of seti
II
only one tomb hidden by Rubble escaped
the wholesale plunder
[Music]
yet the ultimate violation of ancient
Egypt's Soul was now complete
clearly the priest Kings of Karnak had
got what they'd always wanted absolute
power no longer interested in the Royal
ancestors who were simply a source of
Revenue to be robbed and discarded The
Devout had become cynical in the Royal
afterlife nothing more than an illusion
[Music]
from now on Egypt's story would be
written by Invaders from Far Beyond the
Valley of the Nile come by Seas was
sending a very clear message to the
Egyptians I am now in charge
but Egypt's secret weapon was its
captivating culture
wow look at that look at
look at seducing its new rulers from
far-flung parts of the ancient world
and ancient Egypt's final flowering lay
in the hands of another great Empire
enter the Macedonian Superman enter
Alexander the Great
foreign
off in Egypt as it's possible to get
because out there is the Mediterranean
to my West is Libya to my East Palestine
and Arabia while Egypt itself lies down
there to the South a thousand kilometers
of desert cut right through the center
by the mighty River Nile and at its top
lies this the great port city of
Alexandria foreign
it was ancient Egypt's last and most
influential Capital it was a city of
great power wealth and luxury
the greatest in the world
Alexandria was also home of one of
Egypt's most famous pharaohs Cleopatra
the final ruler of a Greek Dynasty and
the last in a long line of foreign
Invaders would each claimed Egypt for
themselves seduced by its legendary
splendors
thank you
by now the pyramids were already
thousands of years old they were the
beginning of a seemingly indestructible
core belief that had survived chaos
famine and War it's as if they're being
picked clean
I believe that would shine even more
brightly in its fabled golden age
whose temples tombs and glittering
Treasures had made Egypt an irresistible
temptation
as jealous foreign rulers either
weakened Egypt how could it survive
successive waves of foreign attack
but Egypt had a secret weapon a culture
so strong and deep rooted that it
seduced
and then absorbed all who would claim it
as their own
welcome to my story of ancient Egypt
foreign
throughout the first millennium BC Egypt
faced wave after wave of foreign
Invaders
[Music]
but in the face of such a strong and
long-lived culture all who would try to
take over Egypt would themselves be
taken over
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
Egypt had entered its third intermediate
period a time of political Decline and
vulnerability
[Music]
for it's the beginning of the 22nd
Dynasty around 945 BC
priests are in charge of the South but
in the north the vultures have started
to Circle waiting for their chance to
swoop as a group of Libyan generals
seize power to rule as pharaohs of a
divided land
in many ways Egypt's waning power had
been triggered by a loss of faith when
the authority of the New Kingdom
pharaohs had begun to crumble Egypt's
once Pious priests had helped loot the
Royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings
systematically dismantling Egypt's
previously unshakable belief in the
afterlife
[Music]
with the decline in power of the New
Kingdom pharaohs the libyans who would
fought for the Egyptians as mercenary
generals gradually infiltrated Egypt's
power structure and eventually took
power as the 22nd Dynasty
[Music]
the first king of the 22nd Dynasty
Shashank had a number of sons who helped
him keep control of Egypt one of whom
was called nimlot and these are the
bracelets of Prince nimlot
Egypt's Libyan rulers understood that
looking and acting Egyptian would help
to keep the country under their control
these beautiful bracelets are just a
tiny fraction of the golden Treasures
created for Egypt's Libyan Royals
who on the surface at least upheld many
of Egypt's most sacred traditions
they are portraying a very small figure
of the god Horus who symbolized Egyptian
kingship shown as a young child emerging
from a Lotus Blossom and on either side
is protected by the rearing cobras the
Royal urea symbol
yet in some ways these images are simply
window dressing lip service to ancient
Egyptian traditions in order to claim a
greater prize
for the libyans had organized nothing
less than the state-sponsored plundering
of Egypt's Royal tombs
they were so transfixed by the wealth by
the gold by The Bling of ancient Egypt
they wanted it for themselves and over
their several centuries rule while they
appeared to look like pharaohs and to
rule as pharaohs Egypt never feels to
have been a cohesive United Kingdom
there weren't Egyptians at heart and
that's really what mattered
in many ways Libyan rule was destined to
fail because even if they were
militarily Superior their adoption of
Egyptian culture was at best superficial
and was insufficient to unite the
country in the north the squabbling
Libyan Elite fought amongst themselves
while in the South the Egyptian
priesthood including yet more Libyan
princes still clung to power a
fragmented Egypt was easy pickings for
any would-be Invader Egypt needed a
regime that could reconnect with its
most powerful asset its history and by
747 BC that's what happened when the
cushite rulers of Nubia made a direct
spiritual connection with Egypt's
glorious past
now the cushites were Egypt's Southern
Neighbors in Nubia
and from time immemorial
they and the Egyptians had kind of
battled around the sort of Southern
border of Egypt by the 8th Century BC
however the cushites had the upper hand
they were fervent Believers in Egypt's
traditional gods in some ways making
them more Egyptian than the Egyptians
foreign
the kingdom of kush in Nubia was at the
very edge of the Egyptian world
having been repeatedly conquered by
Egypt the cushites have been hugely
influenced by Egyptian beliefs
believes that centered on this great
Sandstone Mountain Jebel barkle
[Music]
for centuries it had been regarded as
the mythical mound of creation
[Music]
the mound from which Egypt's great
Creator God a moon was born
[Music]
here is the Holy Mountain this is where
the god lived in his primeval form
Dr Tim Kendall has spent almost 30 years
working at the site being at the
southern limit of the empire was where
where the Nile began where fertility
began and so it had to be the place
where
creation began so this was the they
imagine this is the birthplace of the
God Amen
and so this was the Primeval Karnak
when the New Kingdom pharaohs had
arrived here in 1500 BC they built this
Temple and dedicated it to a moon and
his wife the goddess moot
and when the Egyptians withdrew from
Nubia some 400 years later
the native cushites continued to honor
the sacred mountain and Egypt's
spiritual traditions
as the cushite Kings gained increasing
military power they also claimed Egypt
for themselves
so when King pilot a kushite invasion of
Egypt in 747 BC he didn't plunder or
destroy but restored and rebuilt
and founded Egypt's 25th Dynasty
the irony is to these conquering Egypt
to put everything right I suppose so
it's all such a cycle of rebirth
regrowth Redevelopment and the cushite
kings are really kind of tapping into
that ancient power source yeah and just
sort of giving it back to the Egyptians
starting time all over again yeah and
doing it right so they had that same
sense of history and continuity as the
Egyptians they are the natural successes
of the 18th Dynasty Kings
fueled by a genuine desire to make their
own Mark in Egypt long story The
cushites began to rebuild Egypt here in
their Nubian Heartland
King pie expanded the existing Temple of
a moon at jebelbarkle to balance the
original Great temple of Karnak in
Egyptian Thebes
but while the cushites had absorbed the
culture of Egypt they still had their
Roots here in Africa
this cultural Fusion is quite clearly
expressed in this extraordinary
representation of the Egyptian goddess
moot
the face of the Goddess moot has tribal
scars and look
we'll see if it shows with this light
you see the three lines of her face so
this is an Egyptian goddess with a new
BM makeover yeah she was a goddess of
Nubia and it was appropriate for Nubians
to have Tribal scars so this is a very
very graphic version of the way in which
local Nubians were making the
traditional deities of Egypt their own
physically marking them it's as if she's
been stamped as a Nubian yep
oh incredible this is such a land of
surprises that is beautiful
foreign
[Music]
yet this land of surprises has something
else in store too
gale force winds whip up the worst
Sandstorm in years
it's a powerful reminder that the
Ancients would also have had to deal
with such dramatic natural phenomena
we certainly taste the grapes in your
teeth
the Ancients would have tackled this
using spells rituals
there would also have made extra
offerings to specific deities most
notably Osiris's brother God Seth the
god of turbulence the god of storms the
god of red-headed individuals who were
seen as somewhat turbulent tool Cutting
Edge why
I'm seeking shelter in this Shrine cut
into the mountain by pie sun to Harker
which is currently undergoing major
restoration by an Italian mission
it apparently reveals graphic evidence
of Egypt's continuing powerful influence
never been here before I have no idea
what's going on in here so this will be
as new to me as it is to you
oh flipping out
it's a real privilege to see the time
blackened walls finally giving up their
secrets wow look at that look at that oh
that is oh that is so beautiful
they're bringing out not just the goals
but the blues these two colors the
bright blue of the sky and the Nile and
the gold this sort of really powerful
color of this sun god this is tahaka the
cushite's most powerful and important
pharaoh
in classic Egyptian style he's shown
offering to the god a moon and his wife
the goddess moot
it's raised relief this is old school
this is old school technique this is
skill and they're all overlaid in this
yellow gold
and you can even see the little
scales on this car select that a moon's
wearing every details here
is fabulous it's like Christmas morning
this this is just extraordinary just
look for yourselves just look look at
their faces look at their eyes
this world truly exemplifies Egypt's
ancient Magic
as those who try to conquer it end up
being seduced by it and then become a
part of it
it's a sincere attempt by tahaka to
connect his kingship to the achievements
of the Pharaohs of Egypt's past in
particular to the rulers of the New
Kingdom
[Music]
so although history records that tahaka
conquered Egypt
this scene reveals it's actually Egypt
that conquered tahaka it's as if the
Egyptian identity will always win out no
matter what so much so that tahaka is
even shown with the Ram's horns of a
moon identifying him as the son of
Egypt's God of Gods
these were worn by amanotep III in Luxor
temple in the 18th Dynasty they were
later worn by the great Alexander to
show he too was the son of a moon and
here we have tahaka in all his finery in
all his splendor
[Applause]
[Music]
who knew that they were here hidden away
in this special special rock we've come
to the heart of Jebel barkle now we've
come to the heart of Egyptian religion
because this is a very birthplace of a
moon himself and here he is just for us
right now emerging from the world very
few people have ever seen this
[Music]
here inside the temple where only the
most Pious were allowed to Harker is
shown in deference to Egypt's most
powerful God
[Music]
and outside on the mountain he exhibits
his devotion on a truly Monumental scale
by embellishing the very top of its
pinnacle
180 meters tall and 11 meters from The
Cliff face it seems completely
inaccessible
but tahaka pulled off an incredible
technical achievement he built a crane
arm and elaborate Scaffolding in order
to make his own permanent mark on the
mountain
what he did was he made a an inscription
for himself commemorating his victories
east and west and then underneath his
men set a small statue of the king and
they covered the inscription with gold
today you can hardly see it but in those
days it would have been the most
conspicuous feature of the mountain I
mean that's meant to be seen by the gods
seen by the Gods
of course no mortal eye could read this
from the ground but that wasn't the
point
this was a message to the gods carved on
a Monument built to impress
completely covered in Gold it reflected
the sun's rays and it acted like a giant
billboard as it telegraphed to Harker's
message for miles around
and this again harked back to Egypt's
past when previous pharaohs had placed
gilded capstones on their pyramids and
obelisks to harness the potent powers of
the Sun
just to the east of Jebel barkle lies
the necropolis of Newry where the
cushite king's transformation into
Egyptian pharaohs was finally completed
for the dynasty who'd invaded Egypt were
now copying Egypt's ultimate symbol and
for the first time in over a thousand
years the Kings who ruled Egypt were
buried in pyramids
when the Kings made their Capital at
Memphis they were living right across
the river from the Great Pyramids the
taco spent most of his life there and
was familiar with the Great Pyramids and
so when he died he needed a pyramid of
commensurate scale and uh and this he
sort of established this new type and it
was followed by all of his successors
the cushites eventually built more
pyramids here in their Nubian Homeland
than the Egyptians had built in Egypt
and just as at Giza tahaka's Pyramid is
precisely aligned to its environment
for on the exact day when the Nile flood
begins to recede the sun sets just like
this directly behind the Jebel barkle
pinnacle
yet only on this specific day and only
when viewed from the top of tahaka's
pyramid
that is totally impressive not just a
skill a feat of engineering but but such
Devotion to the gods God's observing
nature I mean it would take a huge
amount of observation to get the
position just right to get the day just
right
surrounded by these pyramids the images
of a moon and Moot and their Monumental
temples it's easy to forget that the
cushites were actually a foreign power
who'll take need it by force
yet it's almost as if Egypt was taunting
its Invaders while you may try and
dominate our land our culture will
ultimately dominate you
and as such the cushites left a legacy
of renewal and Resurrection
but like all Egypt's conquerors the
cushites moment in the sun was fleeting
for their 25th Dynasty lasted but a
century as a far more ruthless and
ambitious power now invaded
[Music]
7 4 BC the Fearsome Assyrian army
marched into Egypt
as ruthless expansionists they had
little interest in Egyptian culture
they graphically demonstrated their
contempt by sucking the Sacred City of
Thebes
[Music]
the Assyrians unlike the Egyptians are
interested in expanding their empire and
really taking over other parts of the
world and they do that by violence
this very unegyptian bronze helmet was
discovered in Thebes it is one of the
very few objects that reveal the
Assyrian takeover of Egypt
possessing equally powerful iconography
of their own the Assyrians had little
time to leave their Mark they Simply
Stamped their Authority upon Egypt by
trying to rip out its religious heart
[Applause]
holy complex this really huge Sacred
Space had never been attacked in
Egyptian history and so for a mob to
damage the temple to damage statues
perhaps to damage precious things would
really have been absolute anathema to
the Egyptians what's really striking is
it's obvious Anon Egyptian item but the
Egyptians didn't even wear helmets did
they relied on their thick hair didn't
they sell for me it really evokes a
completely Alien image I mean the
Assyrians I mean war was their business
wasn't it
foreign
[Music]
with their sophisticated weapons and
armor the Assyrians were a war machine
whose Unstoppable progress seemed to
spell disaster for Egypt
after little more than 20 years the
Assyrians returned East to tackle
problems at home leaving vassals in
charge of Egypt
based at the Delta city of SASE these
were the seiite Kings shrewd Egyptian
politicians who first appeared to serve
their Assyrian Masters but soon became
strong enough to declare their
independence
Egypt was now back in Egyptian hands the
seiites instigated a spectacular
Renaissance in Native culture at the
heart of which lay Egypt's most powerful
symbol of national identity
mummification
but no longer limited to humans there
was an explosion of animal mummification
everything from dogs cats crocodiles
Ibis and even tiny shrews
the ancient Egyptians had always
mummified their dead both human and
animal
and with the say eyes we can almost see
it as a way of the seiite Kings trying
to declare we are Egypt we are important
this is what makes us special no one
else in the ancient world could mummify
like the Egyptians and so they rolled it
out a million fold
with animals specifically bread for
mummification and then sold as offerings
at temples the seiites had reinvigorated
Egypt's oldest industry
death was once again big business
[Music]
now this might look pretty silly but
around 2 000 years ago here at Sakara
this would have been a very common sight
this place would have been packed with
pilgrims with priests making animal
mummies and they'd be trundling the
mummies across the Landscaping carts
like this one so we must get out of our
minds this idea of Egyptian priests as
these Pious quiet figures wafting
through the landscape and by this time
it was all carried out in great numbers
and it was Egypt's endless ability to
reinterpret its core beliefs that was
the key to its longevity
for Millennia the Egyptians had believed
that the Pharaoh was a living God who
embodied the soul of Egypt
when the king died their soul lived on
in their mummified body which must be
kept safe to guarantee the continuity of
Egypt so they'd always buried their
rulers in the safety of pyramids or
elaborate Rock Cut tombs
but in times of increasing unrest and
foreign rule the Egyptians could no
longer rely on even having a pharaoh to
bury and so they turned to another
centuries-old practice
the seraphim at Sakara is a huge
Subterranean tomb complex in which the
concepts of kingship and animal
mummification were fused together
for each of these giant Granite
sarcophagi ones contained an animal
believed to embody all the qualities of
kingship
this is the burial site of the Sacred
apis bull
these were the bodies of mummified Bulls
of such importance to the Egyptian
mindset they extended all this effort
and cost to create a suitably impressive
burial site and they've done this in
Spades as one bull dies and is mummified
and buried the other one is then
worshiped in life and at death mummified
and buried again and so there's a real
progression
The Cult of the apis bulb dates right
back to the beginning of Egyptian
history and it's closely linked to the
Pharaoh it was believed that when the
sacred bull died it became one with
Osiris the god of the afterlife and so
became an Osiris apis or therapist for
short
and these sacred Bulls became hugely
important under the seites
during times of foreign occupation when
Egypt was increasingly being ruled by
pharaohs In Absentia be it in Persia or
wherever else for the Egyptians they
needed a physical presence and the apis
bull provided this presence because they
could see it with their own eyes they
could celebrate rituals in its company
and at death it will be mummified and
then buried in the manner of pharaohs
going back for Millennia so it was
crucial to have this creature here
each one successively buried in a
sarcophagus just like this one we're
looking at some serious Devotion to this
sacred creature and everything it
represented for Egypt
in many ways the serapim is Egypt writ
large in which its core beliefs are
taken to extremes
being down here really makes you feel
miniskill you realize you're now walking
amongst the gods words fail me frankly
because of the enormity of it all but
that was the thing that was the skill of
the Egyptians they battle you over the
head with this idea of the Colossal the
Monumental the spectacular
yet the Egyptians Devotion to the apis
bull had left them vulnerable
by embodying the power of Egypt within a
single living animal they had created an
easy target
given the apis Bull's Divine status
harming it would have been completely
Unthinkable but when the Persian king
kambiasis invaded Egypt he had other
plans
[Music]
Persian Empire is swept West taking all
before it and then into Egypt itself the
Persian king canberises entered Egypt in
525 BC and destroyed the seiite dynasty
much like the Assyrians the Persians
were ruthless expansionists chiefly
interested in enlarging their empire
and convices seem to have trampled all
over Egypt's ancient traditions
having taken Egypt by force kambisis
burnt the mummy of the previous site
pharaoh before stabbing the apis bull
which slowly bled to death
by doing this come by Seas were sending
a very clear message to the Egyptians I
am now in charge
[Music]
foreign
for the next 200 years the Egyptians
were little more than the heavily taxed
Servants of the Persian Empire and with
all attempts at Rebellion met with
extreme retaliation Egypt needed a
savior an outsider who could be
transformed by Egypt's powerful ideology
and in return could transform Egypt
enter the Macedonian Superman enter
Alexander the Great
[Music]
Alexander was one of the world's
greatest military leaders and during his
short life a master an Empire that
stretched across three continents
founding over 70 cities that bore his
name
after his initial defeat of the Persian
king Alexander marched unopposed into
Egypt in 332 BC
the world's most successful Empire
Builder had arrived not only
transforming Egypt's future but
preserving its ancient past
it really is no exaggeration to say that
Alexander the Great is one of the most
remarkable people who ever lived he
really was the superhero of the ancient
world so you'd think that Egypt would be
filled with his images after all he had
saved them from the hated Persians and
yet other than the great city of
Alexandria that bears his name he is
remarkably hard to find within Egypt's
traditional temples except here in this
modest little Shrine at the heart of
Luxor Temple
Alexander was not only a brilliant
Soldier but a master politician
marching into Egypt's ancient Capital
Memphis amid rumors he was the son of
Egypt's last native pharaoh
this instantly plugged him into Egypt's
long native history and he was crowned
as a traditional pharaoh
here is the great man repeatedly across
the walls of this Limestone Shrine and
yet you'd never know it was Alexander
simply by looking because he looks like
every other Egyptian pharaoh but he knew
their secret that to rule Egypt you had
to appear to be an Egyptian and he did
this brilliantly to the extent that he
had his name his Greek name alexandros
written in the Egyptian tradition even
in a Royal Cartouche and it's the only
giveaway that this is Alexander the
Great because there is his name
alexandros written in typical Egyptian
style and there he's even wearing the
red the white dual crown of a United
land and so he's encapsulating
everything that it was to be an Egyptian
pharaoh
just like the cushite king tahaka at
Jebel barkel Alexander is shown offering
incense to the king of the Gods a moon
but simply connecting with the gods
wasn't enough
Alexander understood that real power
came from becoming a god
so he undertook a perilous journey
across the Libyan Desert to the remote
Oasis Shrine of siwa where he could
commune with the Oracle of a moon
himself
and it's said in this legendary story
that the god actually said to him you
are my son and from then on something
clicked in Alexander's mind and it went
off to conquer the rest of the ancient
world truly believing he was divine and
he had the full blessing and support of
Amun himself the king of the Gods of
Egypt
Alexander would only stay in Egypt for
six short months
[Music]
but during his time here he founded a
city that would be his lasting Legacy
the great city of Alexandria
built on the Mediterranean Coast to
create trading links with the rest of
the ancient world the later historian
Aryan recorded that Alexander had laid
out the city's General plan himself but
lacking chalk or other means he resorted
to marking it out with grain
when a flock of birds began eating the
grain Alexander regarded this as a bad
Omen yet his religious advisor quickly
spun bad news into good and interpreted
this as a sign that the new city would
soon prosper and would one day feed the
whole world
a remarkably accurate prophecy
but within a very few years Alexandria
would not only be Egypt's New Capital
but the greatest city on earth
although Alexander himself would never
see it
yet despite his Pious nature Alexander
was essentially a soldier and his quest
to conquer the Persian Empire he left
Egypt in 331 BC never to return alive
moving as far east as India he conquered
an Empire of 2 million square miles
before dying in Babylon aged only 32 but
still undefeated and still the pharaoh
of Egypt
at death Alexander was mummified and his
body became the focus of a power
struggle some of his officers wanted him
buried in his Greek Homeland
but for others he had to return to Egypt
and be buried as a pharaoh thereby
preserving Egypt's long traditions
but it obviously meant that anyone who
possessed his mummified body could also
claim the Throne of Egypt
and clues to this drama can be found
here in the Windswept desert of Sakara
10 years after he'd left Egypt alive
Alexander returned here for his body had
been mummified Egyptian style and it
became a hugely powerful Talisman for
whoever held the body of Alexander the
Great held Egypt
while on route to Greece his Cortez was
diverted and his mummified body brought
here to Egypt's ancient necropolis of
Sakara
exactly where his tomb itself was
remains a mystery although situated just
meters from the serapium is this
collection of very own Egyptian looking
statues
and it's these somewhat sandblasted
statues that give us a real clue that
Alexander May initially have been buried
somewhere close by
because these are the sculpted images of
some of the greatest Scholars and
artists of ancient Greece although
exactly who is who was kept academic
scratching their heads for years their
likely identities reveal a direct link
to the world in which Alexander grew up
and was educated
[Laughter]
take Homer for example his great warrior
hero Achilles was Alexander's lifelong
role model
Plato who had tutored Aristotle who in
turn had tutored Alexander
and Pinder whose poetry had praised
Alexander's Macedonian ancestors
as for who placed these statues here the
most likely candidate is Alexander's
General and probable half brother
Ptolemy for by burying Alexander here
close to Egypt's ancient Capital Memphis
Ptolemy could legitimize his own
takeover of Egypt
and by laying claim to Alexander's body
and to Egypt he founded the dynasty
named after himself their fabulous and
outrageous ptolemies
ruling Egypt for the last three
centuries BC the ptolemaic dynasty would
be Egypt's final flowering fifteen male
Kings all named Ptolemy with their
female co-rulers half of whom were
called Cleopatra
Macedonian Greek by descent their
Dynasty would bring Greek style culture
knowledge and fabulous wealth into Egypt
while at the same time immersing
themselves in Egypt's irresistible
religion and customs
they were very very sensitive to the
cultural practices and the religious
sensibilities of the Egyptians they knew
that to control this ancient land of
Egypt they had to tap into what made
Egypt powerful what made Egypt special
they wore the right clothes the right
crowns they built the right temples they
worshiped the right gods
and the ptolemies relocated Egypt's
capital from Memphis to their new super
city Alexandria
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
plan it was one of the most lavish
construction projects on Earth
the historian strabo would later comment
that the city had magnificent public
precincts and Royal palaces that covered
a fourth or even a third of the entire
area
the colonnaded marble streets were over
10 meters wide there were public baths a
huge gymnasium and one of the greatest
wonders of the ancient world
the 135 meter tall farros Lighthouse
that guided ships safely into port
center of the city Alexander himself
whose mummified body had been exhumed
from Sakara and brought here
[Music]
ptolemies had built a capital unlike
anything Egypt had ever seen before
in Alexandria A New Egypt was being born
the creation of Alexandria and the great
influx of immigrants gave it a freshness
of evacity and really kind of
transformed the ancient culture whereas
previously Egyptian civilization had
developed along the nylon in many ways
was quite inward looking quite insular I
think the fact that Alexandria was open
to so many diverse influences
religiously culturally and this gave it
a real air of Tolerance
I think kind of felt very at home here
there's a real sense of culture and
learning and appreciation of life
today Alexandria is the largest city on
the Mediterranean stretching for over 20
miles along the coast
as Egypt's largest seaport it caters for
over 80 percent of the country's imports
and exports a legacy that reaches
directly back to the ptolemies
having improved Egyptian agriculture by
reclaiming new Farmland through
increased irrigation they supplemented
the Egyptian Staples with new crops such
as cotton and better grapes for wine
production
and today the markets of Alexandria
still Buzz with some of the early cities
Lively Cosmopolitan Style
I'm going to try and find the nearest
equivalent to ancient Egyptian
Delicacies and these are dates and the
ancient Egyptians used to make pastries
and bread from them because they had a
very sweet tooth I think I might have to
taste one just for quality control you
understand see how authentic they are
they are very nice this is incense in
its raw State and of course this was
burnt in temples and in funery rights
the port city of Alexandria became a
huge Hub of international trade
establishing routes with Greece the
Middle East India and even Britain and
his native Egyptian gods like Papyrus
and perfume flowed out of the country
new exotic luxuries like spices silks
and wines poured in
the Greeks loved olives and so these
were imported and the Egyptians started
to grow them I'll definitely have some
of these delicious
black pepper we've got to get some black
pepper this is one of the really really
popular things certainly in ptolemaic
times because markets had opened up and
certainly as as far east as India and
the Greeks went crazy for this stuff
um
[Music]
certainly Lively shopping in Egypt never
a dull moment
with Alexandria now at the heart of the
ancient world the rest of Egypt
benefited too
for determined to honor their adopted
country's long history the ptolemies
undertook a massive Temple rebuilding
and restoration program
indeed modern visitors can often fail to
realize that many of the places they
visit were either built or restored by
the ptolemies
all of these are tolerate buildings that
tourists and Scholars admire so much and
yet they really don't give sufficient
credit to the people whose Vision
created them
the most impressive of all such temples
lies the farthest from Alexandria
deep into Upper Egypt close to Aswan is
the stunning Temple of feli which an
Egyptian meant the end since it was
located at the very Southern edge of
Egypt
much of the temple was built by Ptolemy
II and his co-ruler and sister are sin
away
there was a law passed by her husband
Ptolemy to say a statue of our sinner
had to be erected in every single temple
in Egypt she had to become its resident
goddess
our Sino it was a powerful female
pharaoh associated with a Goddess Isis a
role of famous Cleopatra would adopt two
centuries later and under the ptolemies
felai became a major center of the Isis
cult and here in the heart
felai Temple our sinner is golden statue
would have stood side by side with that
of Isis so the walls are full of images
of Isis and her fellow Gods according to
myth Isis was responsible for the vital
Nile flood swelling the river as she
wept tears of Sorrow for her murdered
husband Osiris who she then resurrected
and with its spectacular location Felice
still retains it's hugely spiritual
atmosphere
in case that sense of continuity you
really feel when you're up here you feel
like you're at the center of the world I
suppose for the ancient Egyptians you
were the center of their religious world
and at this point which
was the heart of ancient Egyptian
religion weighed to the Christian era
way into the 6th Century A.D kind of
messes with your head
it's a very very holy place this
but while feel I was becoming an
increasingly important center of
Egyptian religion its new capital
Alexandria had become the leading Center
of knowledge for the ptolemies created
some of the first scholarships
attracting academics from across the
world to study a wide range of subjects
biology theology astronomy geometry
Anatomy philosophy and of course my own
personal favorite history
and at the center of this intellectual
hot house was the famous Royal Library
up to half a million Works were once
housed within to compete with the famous
schools of Plato and Aristotle in Athens
and today that Legacy lives on with
Alexandria's striking new library
ptolemies really did appreciate that
knowledge was power and they wanted that
power
so they brought together in this one
single place some of the greatest works
in human history
the plays of Easter esophagles and
euripides the works of Aristotle the
philosopher the Old Testament scriptures
and all the accumulated Knowledge from
the temples of ancient Egypt all brought
into this one single building
The Great Library also contained The
Works of Herodotus
a Greek historian who traveled the
length of Egypt over a century before
the ptolemies had come to power his
accounts sum up the Greek fascination
with Egyptian Society
[Music]
not only is the climate different from
that of the rest of the world and the
river unlike any other River but the
people also in most of their manners and
Customs exactly reverse the common
practice of mankind
for the women attend the markets and
trade while the men sit at home and do
the weaving
indeed the level of equality of Egypt's
women shocked Herodotus something he
vividly records when he witnessed a
group of men and women traveling
together by boat to the Delta city of
bubastus
some of the women make a noise with
clappers others play the oboe while the
rest of the women and men sing and clap
their hands
[Music]
some of the women shout mockery to the
women of that town they are passing
whilst others dance and others stand up
and expose their private parts
foreign
[Music]
the length of Egypt the ptolemis ensured
they were portrayed as Egyptian pharaohs
making them almost indistinguishable
from their native Egyptian predecessors
yet in Alexandria the blend of Greek and
Egyptian could sometimes create a hybrid
of rather strange results
Hi how are you the main Sami is a local
historian who spent years studying this
remarkable tomb complex built just after
the ptolemaic period and here we come to
the unique barrier me Imperial chamber
that's mad that is fabulous
guarded by Greek Doric columns the
entrance is covered in images of
Egyptian gods who would ensure a safe
passage into the Afterlife it's it's
like a tomb but it's also like a temple
a facade of a temple but a typical
Egyptian style yeah yeah
protecting the entrance yeah yeah you
know why corporates choosing to be
presented in the tombs because the Cobra
has no eyelashes it keeps her eyes open
24 hours which means it's awake to
protect the team for 24 hours a day and
night
I love these snakes
that's a very great looking snake but
it's wearing a very little ancient
Egyptian crown
crazy exactly
they literally are throwing everything
they've got at this too I mean Medusa
Horus sundisk
to guarantee safety this is the best
Garden doorway I've seen in Egypt it's
got everything here and this statues
they represent the inhabitants of the
Tomb a single wealthy family
these two exhibit an odd mix of the
Greek and Egyptian
I think the bodies are ancient Egyptian
The Stance is ancient Egyptian the man's
kilt is Egyptian
from the neck down they're Egyptian but
from the neck up they're European
it's clear the tomb owners had done
everything they could to ensure a safe
passage into the Egyptian afterlife
oh look is the epistle even if they
didn't quite understand how it all
worked
[Music]
today you've got stuff with you know
presenting the oils and a new bits doing
the same mummifying the dead you've even
got good jazz underneath kind of big
jars and feather of mites the goddess of
Justice without her approval you were
never cross the other side
he didn't forget to add a grid touch in
a lower part two depictions of dinosaurs
Dionysus was the Greek god of wine and
fertility clearly these two moccupants
intended to continue the lives they
lived in Alexandria into the Beyond
I wanted all what I enjoy in life to be
with the other side especially the wine
a great place to spend eternity
[Music]
despite its rather cartoon-like quality
the apparent opulence of this tomb
demonstrates the desire of the
alexandrian elite to integrate into
Egyptian culture
yet in many ways it was little more than
a veneer hiding the real force that
would ultimately destroy Egypt
for where the external Invaders had
largely tried and failed Egypt's real
Nemesis would be the ptolemy's famous
love of luxury and excess much of this
luxury was just a facade for the Royals
of Alexandria notorious for their love
of display were like actors on a stage
as one ancient commentator observed
everything in Egypt is simply play
acting and painted scenery a comment
which cuts to the heart of this
melodramatic monarchy for home image was
everything
because while the ruling elite were
living it up in Alexandria other parts
of Egypt were far from content
by the end of the 3rd Century BC Egypt
was once more Riven with Civil War
Upper Egypt began to rebel and it fell
to Ptolemy V to try and fight the fires
of Anarchy
so not only did he portray himself as an
Egyptian he went even further in his
support for Egypt's ancient beliefs
in doing so he left the world one of its
most famous ancient artifacts
the Rosetta Stone
best known as the means by which the
French scholar champollion was first
able to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs in
1822 and we can tell that the
inscription on the stone was of huge
importance because it was written out in
three types of script Greek demotic and
hieroglyphic in a way you could almost
describe it as a kind of News Bulletin
it's the priests of Memphis issuing this
decree to let as many people know
exactly what the religious and the
political policy was of crown and clergy
and it particularly focuses on Ptolemy
V's generous patronage the priests are
praising him because he's the one that
gives wealth to the temple and gives due
honor and respect to the sacred animals
which were such an integral part of
Egyptian religion the priests really are
grateful to their ptolemaic pharaoh who
they see as wanting to sort of tap in to
the ancient Egyptian culture and ancient
Egyptian religion much like Alexander
had much like the seiites had and the
cushites had they knew that to attain
true power true control in Egypt you had
to do things the Egyptian way
yet Ptolemy V philanthropy came at a
price keeping the peace in Egypt proved
cripplingly expensive so the second half
of the ptolemaic dynasty was Riven by
debt corruption and vicious Civil War
soon the expanding Roman Empire bore
down on a divided Egypt
only the famous Cleopatra stood in their
way
in the mold of great uncle Alexander she
believed herself Divine and managed to
hold the Romans at Bay for over 20 years
but not even the great Cleopatra could
prevent the inevitable
and so it was
in August 30 BC Cleopatra's famous
suicide brought an end to ancient Egypt
as we know it
this epic culture which had lasted for 3
000 years came to an end in a matter of
days when on the 31st of August Egypt
was formally annexed by Rome
this was Egypt's point of no return
slow painful decline of Egyptian beliefs
and culture until the arrival of
Christianity
with its numerous temples abandoned
built over or simply destroyed Egypt's
glories began to fade from memory
[Music]
it's back twenty thousand years to the
very origins of its magical culture
which had evolved from its unique
environment creating a series of
sophisticated beliefs able to unite a
country to build great monuments
it had survived chaos and famine only to
rise again in a glorious Zenith of
rebirth and Resurrection
even waves of foreign invasions were
ultimately assimilated by Egypt's
powerful traditions
and despite being eventually absorbed
into the Roman Empire the ancient
culture had continued until the arrival
of Christianity it has the Egyptians had
always believed there would be a life
after death
foreign
's needle on London's embankment had
Lane forgotten in Egypt until the 19th
century but as pioneering egyptologists
began a 200-year process of rediscovery
ancient Egypt was reborn and this time
it went global
[Music]
privileged photos today to be able to
see such wonderful things and capture
just a glimpse of this fascinating
ancient culture
the culture of a people at one with
their environment and who captured
through their Timeless monuments their
own unique view of the world
in fact the story of Egypt is far from
over for its rediscovery means that it
is only just beginning
and it's the things that made the
Egyptians so very special have ensured
that they're now known right across the
world and they've achieved their
ultimate goal to live forever
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