All language subtitles for Ch5.Opening.Egypts.Tombs.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

There's always been one part
of human history

that's really captured my
imagination.

I'm talking about Ancient Egypt.

Almost 100 years ago,

Howard Carter and his discovery
of Tutankhamun

crowned a golden age
of tomb exploration.

But, right now,

the archaeologists are back...

It's going down very deep.

..and the world of Egyptian tombs...

It's full of snake holes!

..is more exciting than ever.

Now, I'm joining them...

I've got a bone here!

..on the hunt for new tombs...

Oh, yes, there's hieroglyphics here!

..and awesome discoveries.

It's the blood of the mummy!

If there's one thing
we know about the Ancient Egyptians,

it's that they did death better
than anyone else.

From mighty pyramids,

to tombs cut in hillsides,

they come in all shapes and sizes,

and give us an intriguing glimpse

into their extraordinary world.

I'm heading across to Egypt...

Oh, God!

..on a tomb adventure...

CRUMBLING, HE YELLS

..which has been 4,000 years
in the making.

This is just like the movies,
isn't it?

Welcome to a magical land,

one that contains more treasures
and mysteries

than anywhere else on Earth.

This is Egypt.

And I'm heading to a beautiful,
but remote, spot

where the rocky hills
on both sides of the Nile

squeeze the river
to its narrowest point.

The secrets of what went on here
are now finally being revealed

in some remarkable tomb discoveries

which I'm about to join.

Whatever happens,

I'm in for an adventure.

I'm meeting an archaeological
double act.

For several months a year,

this place is both their home
and their office.

This is really hot.

I wish you could feel heat on the
telly, but, believe me, this is hot.

Maria?

John, hello. Tony!

Welcome to the site.

Thank you for letting me...

Dr Maria Nilsson is from Sweden.

Her husband, John Ward,
is from Hereford.

And, together, they've been living
and breathing this site since 2012.

Can you show me some tombs?

Can I show you some tombs?!
Come on this way. Great.

Among the rocks and sand,
just yards from the Nile,

John and Maria had been
systematically revealing

a large burial ground known
as a Necropolis,

quite literally,
a "City Of The Dead".

Cor, you weren't kidding about a lot
of tombs, were you?! Just a few!

But the first stop is their very
latest discovery.

On the edge of the site,

Maria and the team are excavating
a small area of sand and rock.

Why are you cutting
this section back?

We're hoping to lead the way
to what's behind it.

Which is...? Oh!

How interesting!

When did you discover that there
was actually a slot here? Yesterday.

And that's true? You're not just
saying that for the telly?

That's actually honest truth.

This was dug yesterday.

This small crack
in the rock is man-made.

Some more work by the team should
reveal the doorway to my first tomb.

The roof is literally here.
You can feel it. Feel this.

Can you feel the chisel marks
where my hand is? Yeah. Yeah.

So, no-one's been in here?
No-one has got a clue what's in it?

We've got to take this
doorway down at least a metre

so you can be, possibly,
the first in the last 2,000,

3,500 years, to be inside that tomb.

HE GASPS

But why are so many Ancient
Egyptians buried here

on this remote bank of the Nile?

You've got to imagine the landscape.

There would be men, women and
children, all working in this area.

The local name for this
place is Gebel el-Silsila.

It was once the engine room
of Ancient Egypt.

Thousands of workers
would have been here,

quarrying and sculpting the stones

that built a great civilisation.

Look at that! Look at that, John!

That's a wondrous sight!

Welcome to the galleries.

In the hills above the tombs

are the greatest quarry sites of
the ancient world,

where sandstone was
cut from the bedrock

to build temples,
monuments and statues.

It's mercifully cooler than outside.
BIRDS CHIRP

Imagine what it must have
been like in here?

You've got the dust, you've got
the banging, the chiselling.

And look at the height.

You've got another ten metres
beneath your feet.

You've got to take
all this sand out.

So, there's ten more metres
of quarried stone under our feet?

All the way down. Whoa!

There are dozens of quarries
like this here at Silsila

and hundreds of people would have
worked in each and every one.

Somewhere, at some point,

the owner of our new tomb must
have been involved.

See that niche just there?
Yeah. That's one block.

They're taken systematically,

block by block, by block,
by block, by block. I see.

So, they start working from the top,

and the steps also provide access
as you go further down. Exactly.

They're creating a transportation
route all the way down to the Nile.

Many of the workers here served
under Egypt's greatest pharaoh,

Ramses II.

1,200 years before Cleopatra,

he ruled Egypt at the very
peak of its powers

and pushed Egyptian building
to new heights.

But every great pharaoh needed
a highly skilled workforce.

What's the news?

Well, just five minutes ago,

down here, on the floor area,
we found this little chap.

Oh...!
Can I put him in my hand? Hang on.

That's a shabti.

And what is a shabti?

A shabti was the embodiment
of a worker or a slave

that would have been buried with the
dead to help them in the afterlife.

Just like the pharaohs,

Egypt's workers liked to be buried
with their possessions

and ensure they would be well
looked after for eternity.

He would have brought in food,
he would have tended to his land,

this guy would have been buried
with the owner.

But to find that owner, we're
going to have to do some digging.

Right. Let's go in.

The sand itself
comes away very easily.

It's just all the vegetation,
isn't it?

What do you think the entrance would
have looked like in its glory days,

when it was brand-new?

Basically, a slab would
have slid all the way in front,

and that would have actually
sealed this tomb.

The Nile was infested
with crocodiles.

Oh, yeah, it never occurred
to me that a crocodile

might lumber up here and eat a
mummy.

Now, I'm going to move this
blockwork here.

And that is quite a big block.
One, two, three.

HE STRAINS

But beyond the block,

there's still a load of debris

between me and being able
to explore this tomb.

It's one of those archaeological
highs and lows,

I come here, we get a find,

we've got a gap which will lead
into the tomb,

but then we try and open up
the tomb... # Da-da! #

..it's got loads of sand inside it.

But with a bit of help
from John's team... OK, guys.

..our small crack in the rock

is beginning to
look like a proper entrance.

Tony, after you.

Here I go.

There really isn't
very much room at all here.

I'm absolutely flat on my stomach,
now. Tummy...

What are you seeing, Tony?

There's a lot of horizontal
cut marks.

I can see, like, the shape of what
appears to be picks in the ceiling.

Yeah, that's chisel marks.

I'm just going to crawl in
a bit more.

Will you bear with me?

This is a sizeable chamber,

cut out of the solid rock,

most likely, 3,500 years ago.

But it's almost entirely filled
with sand.

Just do be mindful
of any critters, though.

If I saw a snake,

I'd just have to pretend
I was another snake.

Whoa!

Interestingly,
there is a hole in the rock,

and I can see light through.

I guess, what you're seeing is
the tomb next door. I see.

Yeah, that would make sense.

But if this is going to make
any more sense,

I'm going to have to get out
so the expert can get in.

Because, quite frankly,

I don't think the two of us
can get in there together.

OK, I see what's happening here.

It's full of snake holes!

Oh, really(!)

Actually, it's a beautiful tomb.
It's a lovely chamber. Yeah.

It's been squared off. I can see
the chisel marks to the ceiling.

I can see the dress marks
to the wall.

What can you tell me
about the extent of the tomb?

It's about 3½ to 4 metres square.

And it's a fairly classy tomb?

It's not just a load of old
rubbish? Given its size,

it's definitely a worker of some
kind of status within the community.

Can we do any more here now?

To be honest with you, not really.

We've got two metres of sand
further beneath me to remove.

OK.

Removing this amount of sand
slowly and carefully

will take several weeks to complete.

But this isn't the first rock-cut
tomb John and Maria have found.

What are we looking for, John?

Whoa!
Come and have a look at this!

Wow!

200 yards away
is a tomb of similar size

and it shows what might be hidden...
Go on, you go first.

..beneath all that sad.

I'll just take my stuff off.

Now, watch your head as you go in,
OK? Yeah.

Oh! I thought I was just
going to see an empty room,

but there's a couple of
sarcophaguses here, aren't there?

That's it! Wow!

Now, this feels like a real tomb,

complete with stone sarcophagi

that once contained mummified
bodies.

Why is there more
than one sarcophagus here?

This was a family tomb. Oh...

So, we actually had 12 people
in here. 12!

However,
they've been looted in antiquity.

It appears the mummies
had been burned

and what remained left
scattered around the tomb.

Why did they burn them?

Basically, to remove the amulets.

Any gold, bronze,
they burnt the mummy

so they could actually
take them away.

So, it wasn't because they were
scared of them? No.

It was purely just robbery.

Come on. Let's go.

So, in just one day,
I've entered two tombs.

It took Indiana Jones
about half a movie to see a tomb!

And around here,

they come in all shapes and sizes.

Wow, this is huge!

Coming up... You could fit
a London Underground train in here.

..there's the vast tomb
of an Egyptian prime minister,

I'll see what Ramses
and his workers achieved...

This doesn't disappoint, does it?

..and find what happens
when mummification goes wrong.

I am holding a 4,000-year-old heart.

Welcome back to
the colourful world of Egypt.

I've been looking for tombs of the
men and women

who once built a great civilisation.

But, now, I've come to Luxor.

More than 3,000 years ago,

this was Egypt's capital,

the seat of Ramses The Great.

So, if you want to find big tombs
and temples built of stone,

Luxor is the place to come.

CAR HORN BEEPS

And there's one temple
that stands above all others.

Karnak.

Built with sandstone from Silsila,

it became the biggest religious
complex in the world...

..and the signs of one pharaoh's
involvement are everywhere.

It's that man again.

Rameses II, Rameses The Builder.

Look at his face, there.
Absolutely brilliant.

Rameses had more than 60 years
on the throne

and left us with more statues
and images of himself

than any other pharaoh.

He's credited with finishing
Karnak's most impressive feature,

its gigantic hall of 134 pillars,

some almost 80 feet high.

This doesn't disappoint, does it?

It's absolutely sensational.

Imagine, when this whole thing
had got a sandstone roof

to keep out the sun,
which was supported

by all the sandstone pillars,

quarried and prepared at
Gebel el-Silsila.

Mind you, I'm not here just
to look at temples.

I'm on the hunt for big tombs.

Just across the river from Luxor

lies the famous Valley Of The Kings
where Ramses himself was buried.

His mummy was discovered in 1881.

One of the few pharaohs whose body
has survived largely intact.

But the valley next door is also
chock full of big tombs.

One of which is being explored
for the first time since 1921.

Oh, Antonio!

It's quite a walk to your office!

How are you doing? Nice to see you.

Antonio Morales heads
an international team

working on the tomb of Ipi.

Some 700 years before the time of
Ramses,

Ipi held the exotic
title of Vizier To The Pharaoh.

What is a vizier? A vizier is
actually like a prime minister.

He was the most powerful man
in Egypt under the Pharaoh.

As prime minister,

Ipi's tomb reflects his status.

This is huge.
Welcome to the tomb of Ipi.

You could put a London Underground
train in here, couldn't you?

The last time archaeologists were
here was nearly 100 years ago.

They spent just a few
days in this tomb,

and there's plenty they didn't find.

Hello, what's going on down here?

This is a surprise!

Suddenly, it plunges away!

The tomb extends 40 metres into
the mountain and 20 metres down.

Imagine if you were having to carry
a mummy down here?!

It is so steep!

After the day of Ipi's funeral,

no-one was ever meant to
go where we're now going -

his burial chamber.

Oh, wow!

That's fantastic!

Imagine being buried
somewhere this isolated?

This giant stone sarcophagus

would once have contained
Ipi's mummy.

It's so beautiful.

I love these grey colours.

Thousands of years of dust and dirt

are now carefully being removed

to reveal the decorations
and hieroglyphs.

How heavy do you reckon
that sarcophagus is?

This is a huge block
of seven tonnes and a half.

So, the amount of work that
went into bringing this here

was absolutely staggering. Yeah.

And yet, we know very little
about Ipi

beyond his name and important role.

What we do know is that robbers
had smashed their way

into this chamber long before the
first archaeologists made it here.

He couldn't find the corpse,
he couldn't find the coffin,

and, actually, we know that most
of the tombs in Ancient Egypt

were stolen some weeks or months
after the burial.

That's really interesting, cos
I always think of tomb robbing

as having taken place in the Middle
Ages or in the 17th or 18th century.

But it could easily have been

the mates of the guys
who originally put this in...

Exactly. ..who came back a
few weeks later... You're right.

..and nicked all the stuff.

So, Ipi's mummy may have gone
missing a full 4,000 years ago.

THEY CHATTER

But while we may not have his mummy,

the story of Ipi is far from over.

In fact, there has been the most
grisly of discoveries.

Towards the end of last season,

the archaeologists had a great find

in this discreet little pit where,

as it happens on most
archaeological sites,

it was right next to the tent

where the archaeologists
have their breakfast.

If I hold this up,
then maybe you can get through

and I can show you
some more about it.

Mummification is
a really complex process,

particularly if you're someone
like Ipi who's very grand.

Now, with a bit of luck,

the camera's going to be able
to adjust to the darkness

while I show you these 56 pots

which are all the waste
material from Ipi's body,

all the cloths, all the gore,

all the blood from
when he was mummified.

Nothing tinged with Ipi's bodily
fluids or tissues

could be thrown away.

So, stained bandages
and embalming materials

were chucked in these pots

and stored just outside the tomb.

Until now.

One of the big tasks this season

is to scour through these 56 pots
and, already,

they've had what is my favourite
find since I've been in Egypt.

OK, so, these are some of the finds
out of the big jars.

Oh, thanks. Cheers.

Now, that was the bandage
that went round Ipi's mummy.

This, what looks like
a white tablecloth,

was the wrapping around the mummy,

and this...! Yes, Ipi's blood!

Ipi's bloodstains. It is like
a horror film, isn't it?

But the creme de la creme...

Antonio, tell us what this is.

Well, this is the heart
of the Vizier Ipi.

Can I just say that again?

It's the heart of the Vizier Ipi.

How did you find that?
Well, it was a surprising discovery.

It was found within one of the jars.

Can I hold it? Yeah, sure.

It is a bit creepy, touching this.

THEY CHUCKLE

It feels almost like stone,
doesn't it?

It feels as though it's been carved.

Am I right in saying that

even the aorta has been packed
with linen, too? Yeah.

Did they know much about the heart?

In Ancient Egyptian thought,

the heart is where is resided
the intelligence.

That's why,
in the process of mummification,

they don't mind,
basically, removing the brain.

But his heart should never have
been separated from Ipi's body.

It's a very strange case,
because, usually,

what they did was remove the heart
from the chest of the mummy,

mummify it, and then put it back
into the chest of the mummy.

Oh, right.

It seems that a mummified heart

looks a lot like one of the salt
bags used to dry out Ipi's body.

So, they saw something
that looked like one of those

and chucked it away, too? Exactly.

So, they messed up? Yeah, probably.

I am holding a 4,000-year-old heart.

Coming up...

This is a funny-looking old thing,
isn't it?

..I find an abandoned
Egyptian treasure...

It's a sphinx!

..I'm on the trail of modern tomb
robbers...

Welcome, Tony.

..and, back at Silsila, there's
a mysterious discovery.

Look down there. That is scary!

Do we have any idea what it is?

Welcome back to the Nile.

I've moved to the southern
city of Aswan.

On the west bank, I'm meeting
the Egyptian Government's

Director Of Antiquities
here in the city.

Abd el-Monem has agreed to show me

some new and unexpected tomb
discoveries.

How many tombs? One, two, three?

So far, nine tombs. Nine?!
Nine. Wow.

Archaeologists had no idea
these tombs existed

but people living close by did.

In 2011, while violent uprisings
caused chaos across to Egypt,

some locals shifted sand and smashed
their way inside the tombs.

So, how did the guys move
all that earth?

By using mechanical digging
loaders and this was

maybe more than 25,
30 people per night.

So, a whole gang? Yes.

And they weren't doing it
subtly and with care,

they were just busting open
to see if there was anything gold?

Of course, because the main point
for them, to steal treasures.

You can still see signs
of the robbers' work.

A mechanical digger smashed
the stone roof of the tomb here.

Tomb doorways have been damaged
and broken.

It's possible these tombs lay
undisturbed until a few years ago

and this is the first time anyone
has been allowed to film them.

Welcome, Tony.

How beautifully carved this is!

Who's this guy?

The owner of the tomb, Imhotep,

the ruler of this local area.

Imhotep controlled Aswan
around 1450 BC,

just a few generations before
Tutankhamun and Ramses The Great.

But it's not painted.
It's not finished.

That's why this tomb is very,
very important and interesting.

When you see a tomb like that,

it means that it
hadn't been finished yet.

Imhotep almost certainly died before
work on his tomb was complete.

His builders and craftsmen stopped
what they were doing

so the tomb could be occupied.

But there is one bit of painting,

and that's Imhotep's eye.

Oh, fantastic, you have good eyes,
Mr Tony.

It really is quite spooky.

Suddenly, 3,500 years doesn't seem
quite such a long time.

The robbers may have stolen
treasures and artefacts...

It's a bit of a struggle,
isn't it? Yeah.

..but they couldn't remove
the beautiful artwork on the walls.

Ah!

Now, this is interesting.

Look at that colour.

The next-door tomb belonged
to User...

..ruler of this area during the
reign of Tutankhamen's grandfather.

Have you done anything
to this painting

since you first excavated it?
Nothing. Everything is as it was.

And it survive like that?

The paintings show User, his wife,
and his sister-in-law.

All of whom are believed to have
been buried here.

This is such a privilege.
How many people have seen this?

Not more than 20 people.
Including the archaeologists?

Including the archaeologists.
Oh, wow!

In a few months, a team will return
to examine anything not

taken by the robbers,
and explore further chambers...

..which might yet contain a mummy.

What happens to the tomb?

We hope to be opening for visitors
in the future. Oh, fantastic. Yes.

We'd never have found it
if it hadn't been for the robbers?

Although, don't thank them too much.
No, not too much!

50 miles downstream, I'm heading
back to Silsila

and the extraordinary world
of Maria Nilsson and John Ward.

There's one that Daddy's got.

When they're not busy with daughter
Freya and baby Jonathan,

they're systematically revealing
the resting places of the men

and women who built ancient Egypt.

Nice.

They've now found 70 rock-cut tombs.

What have we got here, then?

But one recent discovery is
something quite different.

And they've promised me
we can tackle it together.

Look down there! That is scary!
Do we have any idea what it is?

No, it's unique. All of our tombs
are surface tombs. This is a shaft.

Now, I do know it goes for
five metres straight down.

Yeah. Because we dug that out.

But as soon as we started moving
the sand, the water came.

What I don't understand is,
we are in the middle of the desert.

All around us there are tombs
which are absolutely dry.

Here, suddenly, we've got water
like it's an oasis. What's going on?

It could be one of many,
many things. It could be the Nile,

it could be just ground water,

it could be surface water from
the desert irrigation filling

through the fissures,
and here we have it here.

What I can tell you is the water is
warm, it's salty to taste,

and it's clear.
Do you think we can pump it out?

I want to get Shahad and the boys,
I want to get the pumps in,

get them going and hopefully we'll
be able to see at least

the bottom of the shaft.
That's great. Come on, boys.

John's got two petrol-driven pumps -
both with long hoses.

Let's get both these pumps going.

They should be able to suck water
from the shaft

and dump it into the Nile.

How good are these pumps?
Er...yeah.

That means "er...no"?

But if the pumps can pump quicker
than the water is seeping in,

then we SHOULD find out

if this ancient theatre of heavy
industry is about to get a new tomb.

LOUD WHIRRING

I reckon this is the intensity
of sound that would have been

going on here 3,500 years ago,

beautifully recreated by a petrol
pump.

Let's hope the pump holds out.

While the water level slowly
drops...

..there is a chance for me

to find out a bit more
about the people who worked here.

On the edge of the old quarries...
Maria!

..there's a unique piece of art.

Commissioned by Ramses the Great,
it proves how important

the people who worked and are now
buried here were to him.

So, it's like a cartoon,
and ancient type of cartoon,

that puts us
in the footsteps of the ancients.

These are the masons with
the mallet hitting the chisel.

You see the rectangle in the middle?

That's a sandstone block that's just
been extracted from the quarry face.

You've got, on the right side,
a doctor.

He's attending an injured worker,
who's stretching out his leg.

I can see that leg really,
really clearly, yes. Yes.

These are well-looked-after,
skilled masons and craftsmen.

Why do you think it was so
significant for Ramses to show this?

He wants to show that he's
the great builder,

he's the greatest king of them all.

The fact that he had this many men
that could be involved

in the process of extracting blocks
and build all these temples.

So, would it be fair to say
that these are the people whose

tombs that you have been finding?

It appears so, yes.

These skilled workers really were
the engine room of Egypt.

But we are only just
getting to know them.

This is a funny-looking old thing,
isn't it?

Oh, I see what it is now!

There's a beard here,

then there would have been a big
head on top of it.

It's a sphinx! Exactly.

But what's it doing here?
It sort of...

It's not just famous
for its quarries, it was a

workshop of anything that was
made of sandstone.

Why didn't they finish this off
and transport it?

This poor old girl, unfortunately,
due to the cracking, was abandoned.

Oh, yes,
I can see a big crack along there.

Oh, imagine if you had been the
mason doing that.

"Oh, dear. Start again."

Nevertheless, you can't help

but have immense respect for the
skilled workers of Silsila.

Good boy.
BARKING

And just maybe the tomb
of one or more of them

lies hidden in our mysterious shaft.

Coming up... Right, let's go down.

..John and I brave water and mud...

I think I'll need a new pair
of trousers when I get out of here.

..to see
if we really do have a new tomb.

Oh, Tony, this is a huge chamber.

Welcome back to Gebel el-Silsila.

Over there are the remains
of ancient Egypt's biggest ever

stone quarries.

A little bit further on down there
are the tombs of some

of the people who worked in those
quarries 3,500 years ago.

These people built
Egypt into the greatest

civilisation of the ancient world.

But on their trail are Maria Nilsson
and John Ward.

This is the dream team.

They are tackling one of their most
intriguing discoveries yet.

Are they going over to the canal?

A large vertical shaft
which, despite being in the desert,

is full of water.

But with John's pumps
just about holding out...

It's going down quick.

..he has promised that he and I
can be the first to find out

if this shaft leads to a new tomb.

PUMPS STOP

Oh, that's better!
Oh, what a relief.

With the water gone, we are faced
with a very deep man-made pit.

It's remarkably perpendicular,
isn't it?

But at the bottom, there is already
what looks like an opening.

An entrance, maybe, that could lead
to something else.

We're going down?

Let's make it slow, shall we?
Yes.

I'll go first.
I can guide you down then.

But now the pumps are off...

..the water's seeping back in.

OK. Right, let's go down.

It's just this initial bit
that's so scary, isn't it?

It's almost 20 feet
to get to the bottom of the pit.

And what's down there,
we don't know.

I've got my diving boots on
because John said he didn't want me

to wear my ordinary shoes
cos, in the mud,

he doesn't want me crushing
anything.

You're doing really well there,
Tony. Thanks, mate.

There's still a load of water
in here. And it's rising. Oh!

I think I'll need a new pair
of trousers when I get out of here.

I might have anyway
cos I'm so scared!

Wherever this water is coming from,

it's flowing in quickly
through the mysterious opening.

Wow. That is astonishing, isn't it?

Now we are down here, it's clear
this really is an entrance.

Even a doorway.

Portcullis closure - look at it.
Oh, yes.

The slab would have gone all
the way through. This is just like

the recess for a medieval portcullis
in a castle.

That's it, exactly. It would have
come straight down over here,

protected the front of the door,
so that nobody could get in...

This is a proper tomb, isn't it?
Exactly.

It's pretty dark, though,
we'll need some lights. Yes, please.

Can we have some lights down here,
please?

The lengths that the
ancient Egyptians went to to plan

and build this inaccessible space
are staggering.

Right. Lights. Yes. OK.

Shall we put these in there
together? Yep.

Wow!

This is a huge chamber. Look at it.

See round the back? Oh, yes!

Is that a door, is that a niche?
What is that?

Let's get in.
I'll try and stick this light...

Is that pottery next to you?

In Egyptian tombs,

broken pottery is perhaps
the most common of all finds...

It's a beer jug.

..but there's a few things here
that aren't pottery.

Skeleton remains.

This is just like the movies,
isn't it?

THEY CHUCKLE

Look at this.

What do you reckon
would be in there?

I really don't know.

It's totally different to any of our
tombs that we've found.

If that secondary chamber is
another burial...

..we're not talking about just
a family, we are talking about...

50, 60 people, plus?

And all their bits and pieces are
mixed in beneath our knees. Yeah.

Human soup.

The idea that so many workers might
have been buried down here is

pretty eerie. And someone at least
must have been of real status.

This chamber has been
carefully chiselled out,

and this doorway
beautifully finished.

What's intriguing me
is that the ceiling is vaulted.

What do you mean by vaulted?

It's got an arch to it.

But I'm not seeing any paintings,
I'm not seeing any names,

I'm not seeing any writing.

What else can you see?

Are you seeing that? Yes, yes.

It's a central painted line
down the entire alignment.

What do you think it's function is?

It's basically to allow
the stone workers,

the guys who were actually hewing
this chamber out...

To do it equally each side!

Exactly, to give them
a central line from the doorway,

and that goes all the way...
I mean, let's follow it,

it's going all the way to the centre
of that doorway.

There seems no doubt there is
another key part of this

tomb beyond this second doorway.

That's completely flooded. Do you
think we could get that pumped out?

If we can get the pumps
further in here,

we could probably take
that water level down.
JOHN SHOUTS

Can you try
and get the other pump in here? Yes.

If the hose is long enough...

..we may just get to see
what's beyond the door.

If anything flooded, it's warm
water -

it can't be coming from the Nile,

so therefore it has to be some
kind of natural reservoir under

the mountain, or it's coming
from the desert, from irrigation,

just naturally filtering through.

And as the water level inside this
chamber goes down...

Ooh, yeah! What is it?

..there's a discovery
in the very far corner.

Looks like a handle. It's a pot,
it's a big, big, big pot.

There's a huge pot here.

You want to hold the little camera
for a moment? Yes.

Look at how far it goes!

This is massive, it goes right down.

I'm fairly sure
we've discovered a large amphora.

I can even feel the rounded bottom
of the great jar.

I'm right on the end of it,
and the top is here, isn't it? Yes.

It must be at least two foot tall,
mustn't it?

In all my years of finding pottery,
I've never found anything like this.

It's like a huge whale.

What do you reckon it was used for?

It would have held some kind of
food substance that was buried

with the dead.

What I love is that it's actually
intact, that is beautiful.

But unfortunately it's lying on its
side, and stuck fast in the mud.

We wouldn't be able to get it out,
now? No.

Without having to really remove
all of this mud and silt...

That's stuck in there.

But that alone was worth coming
to Egypt.

But now there's a fresh problem.

INDISTINCT
What's happened?

The pump's broken.

With one motor out of action,
there is

no way we can keep the water level
down inside the tomb.

This is actually going to start
rising any moment.

What I want to do is get as close
to that doorway as possible,

let's have a good peek in it, and
then we should get back out. OK.

If I wasn't wet and muddy already...

HE GROANS

..I am now!

What do you think, Tony?

Well... It just goes on and on,
doesn't it?

I mean, this is fantastic.

It is a vaulted ceiling again.

I mean, that's a good, what -
four, five metres?

We don't know where the walls are.
All we are seeing is ceiling.

That means this chamber
could be huge.

Whatever is in front of us,
this is a first for me.

Elbow-deep in silt and water,
five metres underground,

in a tomb built 3,500 years ago.

This is about all we are going to be
able to do, isn't it? I think so.

I think we need to get out of here

before this water
really starts to rise. OK.

Entering a space like this is
a real adrenaline rush.

But for this tomb,
this is just the beginning.

Until a way can be found to hold
back the water, we get the feeling

this place, its occupants and my pot

will hold on to their secrets.

What an amazing adventure.

We know where these people worked,

we know what their achievements
were, we know where they died,

but there is still so much about
them that we don't know.

So many mysteries.

From the giant tomb
of a prime minister...

..to the mysterious burials

of people who built
a great civilisation,

this has been a window into Egypt
at the peak of its powers.

And for John and Maria,

the rest of their working lives is
here, under their noses.

It's work that most archaeologists
can only dream of.

4,000 years ago,

this was ancient Aswan's
most-important burial ground.

It might look like any other
old rocky,

sandy slope rolling down to the
river, but this is much, much more.

This is a necropolis,
a City of the Dead.

And today it's a hive of activity
once more,

with archaeologists
coming from all over the world

and making the most amazing
tomb discoveries.

And one of them
has said that I can join him.

Archaeologist Dr Martin Bommas
has been digging in southern Egypt

for nearly 30 years.

More than anyone,
he knows that beneath the sand

and rubble here,
there are still many tombs to find.

This is your first day here? It is.
Congratulations.

Martin's starting
a new three-week dig season,

and he has brought his biggest team
ever -

including archaeology students,

trainee lecturers...

..a leading pottery expert

and 22 all-important diggers.

You've got hundreds of tonnes
of sand in a great arc round here.

How on Earth did you decide
where you wanted to

put your energy
for the next few weeks?

So, our focus for our excavation
period this time is just

here in front of us,
you know, the big mound of rubble.

High up this slope are some of the
biggest tombs in southern Egypt.

Many were found over a century ago
with the help of a young

Howard Carter, long before he found
fame discovering Tutankhamen.

But there are large parts of the
site that have never been touched.

So, here's the River Nile here,

which is down in that direction.

Yes. We are
currently standing here. Right.

Looking up the hill
which, from the Nile,

looks like a massive sand dune
falling into the Nile.

So, have all these been discovered,
then? Yes.

So these are the tombs
that have already been excavated.

And where is your site on this map?

So this is the area
we are going to work on.

Martin's team will now be working
a six-day week to try

and prove that there are
undiscovered tombs here.

But they've only got three weeks
to do it.

After that, the temperature will get
so ridiculously hot that the

whole digging season in Egypt
comes to an end.

And in addition, this year,
they've got me

and a camera team to contend with.

So, no pressure.

While they get started,
I've been given special access to

a tomb that's already been excavated
here at the City of the Dead.

But it's a heck of a climb
to get there.

A necropolis is tied together by
a series of causeways like this one.

This sort of ancient staircase
that ascend from the river.

The dead would have been processed
up here as part of their funeral.

At least,
if they weren't dead at the bottom,

they would have been
by the time they got to the top.

To be fair, though, climbing the
causeways is well worth the effort.

Who wouldn't want to be buried
up here?

For at least 500 years, the most
important people in southern

Egypt were buried at this
necropolis.

The Pharaoh himself gave permission
for new tombs to be built.

And right now, I'm looking
for one of the very grandest.

This extraordinary courtyard
dominates the whole

of the side of the cliff, swinging
all the way round here as well.

Imagine what this would have
looked like originally,

when it was beautifully polished
and sanded.

And this was just the place
where people gossiped about you

after you died.
The tomb itself is in here.

Wow!

Isn't this magnificent?

It's a privilege just to stand here.

This is the tomb of a guy
called Sarenput II,

who was governor here
a mere 3,860-odd years ago.

And look at these stone columns. All
of them hewn out of the solid rock.

They haven't been painted.

This, what appears to be decoration,

is just the lines
in the rock itself.

The governor Sarenput was one of
Egypt's local rulers controlling

regions on behalf of the Pharaoh.

Here on the southern border,

Sarenput protected the gateway
to the rest of Africa.

And now we come to a corridor,

where there's a statue of him.

He's lost his head,
but apart from that, he's great.

Here's one with its head
still intact.

And I think, yep, another one here.

So we've got one, two, three, four,
five, six statues.

Look at the eyes on that one -
staring at us across time.

So, where's Sarenput?

Well, I'm told that his mummy was
never found,

it was robbed, I suppose, hundreds,
even thousands of years ago

because of all the jewels that would
have probably been on it.

So, as for the man himself,

all that's left now is
a painting in a little cupboard.

Back outside, the team are
looking for the next big tomb.

But already, Martin's discovered
something else -

the sort of find
that could only happen in Egypt.

There's your first mummy.

What? Look at that.

This is a mummy?

Well, that's the upper part
of a mummy only. How extraordinary.

Because the pelvis is just
around your back. Oh!

Look at that.

That's the pelvis.
Tapping me on the shoulder. Yes!

This remarkable find, a headless
mummy, simply appeared this morning

as the wind blew just enough
sand away to reveal it.

Do you think that this would
originally have been a stone tomb?

Yes, but perhaps
the dogs pulled it out.

Is there anything that we can
say about this mummified body?

So what we're looking at here
is just the torso.

The legs are missing.

It's lying on its tummy.
You can see the arm here.

This is his arm? Exactly, yes.

This seems to be the elbow...
Just here, yes.

..leading up to the shoulder where
your finger is. The shoulder.

And it must have been burnt as well
because it's rather black here

but look at the mummy bindings.
There's such a good quality.

Look at the quality
of the linen here.

That's really nicely done indeed.

Such a wonderful quality,
it's just great stuff.

Must have been a very rich person.

Am I allowed to touch it?
Yes, of course.

It's quite snakelike,
isn't it? Oh, right!

And although it's hard,
it's not solid.

You feel as doubt you could push it
in. Yeah, well, it's hollow inside.

Why's that? Because they
took out the internal organs,

which were preserved separately,
according to Egyptian custom.

How old do you think it is?

Well, I believe it's a Roman mummy.

I didn't know there were
such things as Roman mummies.

Well, they adopted it, you know.

The Romans had a very strong
presence here in Aswan.

So this mummy is about
2,000 years old. It is.

And the tombs we're looking for
are about 4,500 years old,

so there's more time between
our tombs and this mummy

than there is between this mummy
and us. That's correct, yes.

My first mummy discovery is proof

of how much waits to be discovered
here just beneath the surface.

Elsewhere around the dig,

the finds are less grisly but
more likely to point to new tombs.

The sandy slopes of Martin's
dig site are littered with

ancient bricks made out of mud.

That is not rock, is it?

It's clearly man-made.

But at the end of day one,
the most definite find so far...

So one, two, three levels
and perhaps a fourth level.

..is what's running
straight up the hill.

Look, can you see how here,
this is all loose sand.

Well, that's what this whole area
was like at the beginning of the day

but now, since
they've done all the work,

can you see how hard that is,
how impacted?

All of this is a man-made surface

and what we think it is

is the pavement of a causeway
that once went from here...

Whoosh! ..right the way up to there.

And at this City of the Dead,

previous causeway discoveries
have led the way to big tombs.

If Martin's right, and
he is digging in the right place,

then we could be about to
reveal a brand-new chapter

in the story of
the City of the Dead.

How cool would that be,
to be the first people to uncover

and enter a great Egyptian tomb?

Which reminds me that

when Howard Carter was excavating
the tomb of Tutankhamen,

he chiselled a little hole
in the door of the tomb

and he peered in, and behind him
was his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon,

and Carnarvon was going,
"Carter, can you see anything?"

And Howard Carter said,

"Yes... Wonderful things."

Coming up, I'm on the trail
of a missing pharaoh...

Oh, wow!

But among the pyramids,
there's an unexpected turn.

You don't see something like this
every day.

And it leads to my deepest tomb yet.

This does feel a bit
Indiana Jo... Oh, yes!

I've been looking for tombs

at ancient Aswan's greatest
burial ground.

This site rose to prominence
over 4,000 years ago,

whilst elsewhere in Egypt,
the pharaohs were busy...

building pyramids.

I've travelled over 400 miles
north of as Aswan.

Oh, God!

But this is no sightseeing tour.

I thought we were going to go
over the edge there.

Dr Vasko Dobrev has been working
in the desert outside Cairo

for the past 30 years

and he's on the hunt
for a new pyramid.

What is a pyramid? A pyramid?

The pyramid is the tomb of the king

but there is something more.
In the pyramid he will resurrect.

He can go up to the sky.

Pyramid points towards the heavens,

helping a deceased pharaoh to
take their place amongst the gods.

How many of these pyramids
are there?

About 120. Wow!

About 120 all around Egypt.

Often we only think of

the famous pyramids of Giza,

but this site, called Saqqara,

boasts the first pyramid
and a great many more.

Why Saqqara, Vasko? Why did so many
pharaohs built their pyramids here?

Well, for a very simple reason.

Saqqara is exactly in front
of the capital of Egypt, Memphis.

And where's Memphis now?
Just behind there, behind the hill.

You see the green palm trees? Yeah.

This is Memphis
from the time of the pyramids.

Pyramids here spanned six
centuries of Egyptian history,

but one dynasty of pharaohs
in particular chose to

build their magnificent tombs
in Saqqara.

You see this small pyramid?
This is Pepi II.

His father's here,

his great-grandfather is just
behind, all the family's around.

Some of the pyramids
are in a sorry state.

Over centuries, their beautiful
outer layer of stone

has been stolen.

But the key to Vasko's thinking

is that some pyramids may
never have been completed.

We're coming up the plateau.

I have to accelerate a little bit
not to get stuck.

I have a feeling you really enjoy
driving this thing. Yeah.

We're heading to a flat plateau top.

The site, Vasko believes,
of an undiscovered pyramid.

Which pharaoh do we think
we're talking about here?

So maybe we have here
the Pharaoh Userkare.

And how long did he last?

That's the problem,
he didn't reign for a long time,

maybe three, four years.

He could not finish a 52-metre-high
pyramid in three years.

Userkare may only have had time
to create his pyramid's base

and construct
his burial chambers beneath it.

OK, so this is the big question.

We've got activity
all over the place,

so why do you think
the pyramid is right here?

First of all,
we are on the good height. Yeah.

We discovered that all these
pyramids that are in Saqqara,

they are on the same level,

so there was a kind of
pyramid level, and here

we have his father to the north,

his son is just there,
his grandson, Pepi II, is behind,

so we see from north to south,

this family is following
one after the other,

and we have something else -

new technology. Geophysics.

Geophys! Electromagnetic waves.

We have something with right angles.

This is not naturally made.

We have a kind of square here,
80 by 80 metres, which is

exactly the size of
the pyramid of that period.

But Vasko's most
telling evidence by far

is just 50 yards from where
he believes the pyramid to be.

Here we are.

Oh, wow!

You don't see something like this
every day, do you?

Wow!

Look at all this.

Over the last few years, Vasko
has unearthed tomb after tomb.

We have more than 60 tombs
on the surface already.

And these are sizeable tombs
for important Egyptians.

They must have had
good reason to be here.

If you have people here,
they don't come just by chance,

it's because there is
somebody important just behind.

So this isn't only fantastic
archaeology in its own right -

this is cast-iron evidence
that people came here

because there's a king buried
somewhere around here. Exactly.

And Vasko's keen to show me
his latest discovery.

On the edge of his site is
an unusual chessboard-like structure

dating from just after
the time of our missing pharaoh.

This is huge, this area here,
isn't it?

Yeah, it's an enormous structure,
12 by 12 metres,

and you have 23 shafts.

Each of these shafts
should lead to a tomb.

And there's one that
Vasko's started to explore.

Look at it. Oh, my goodness, yeah.

That is deep!

And there's no way Vasko's
letting me leave without joining him

on a little adventure.

Right,
just popping back 4,000 years.

Not more than a handful of people
have ever been down this shaft.

At least, not for
a few thousand years.

Just catch the handle.

Yeah, I'm holding on
to the handle like crazy.

That's it.

At 15 metres, this shaft is deeper

than three
double-decker buses are tall.

What are these depressions
in the side of it here?

That's how the Egyptians
are all going down.

They didn't use, like us, ropes.

They were going
attached to the mountain itself.

Oh, no! That's extraordinary.

These little rudimentary steps? Yes,
yes, with bare feet, you can do it.

That would be absolutely
terrifying, wouldn't it?

When you started digging,

had you any idea that you would
go down as far as you actually did?

Absolutely not. I was expecting to
go not more than four, six metres.

Yeah. And what happened
when you got down that far?

I was expecting to find a chamber,
the funerary chamber. Yeah.

Nothing, so I had to continue seven,
eight, nine, ten. Nothing. Yeah.

So I didn't know where to go.

Have we got any idea
what the name was

of the man who was buried down here?

His name is Ankh-Ti,
which means, "I am alive."

I hope he's not alive now.

THEY LAUGH

Welcome to the bottom of the shaft.
Thank you.

OK, I'm down!

Like many of his neighbours here,

our tomb owner, Ankh-Ti,
was a priest.

Let's take out the lights.
Here we go.

A priest laid to rest
over 4,200 years ago.

So, Tony, you can go first. OK.

This does feel a bit Indiana Jo...
Oh, yes, there's hieroglyphics here!

Do you know, I thought it would
just be a little empty grave.

I didn't realise
it would be decorated like this.

This is beautiful.

These are the oldest paintings
and hieroglyphics I've ever seen.

Was it filled with sand when you
came? It was filled with sand

until here, you see the trace,
you see? Just down there?

Yes, like this.
Not completely filled,

and down there we found
the body of the priest. Down here?

Exactly, on this place.
Where I am now?

The body of Ankh-Ti
was not in a good state.

At this time,
over 2,000 years before Cleopatra,

mummification wasn't far advanced.

The body tissue had rotted away

and Ankh-Ti's bones
are about all that survive.

They've been removed and will be
studied and X-rayed in due course.

Still here, though, are
the fantastic images of offerings

to sustain Ankh-Ti in the afterlife.

Here, the food offerings,
the best choices of meat...

..some salads, also to drink
maybe milk or even wine.

In the antiquity
they had a lot of nice wine.

And you've got this big sand line
again down here. Exactly the same.

Then you've got this red
rectangle at the bottom.

And yes, yes, here we're coming to
the most important part of the tomb,

the door. This is a door.

Because when he will resurrect,
he has to go out.

He wouldn't stay here.

That's not the way
he imagined his life after death.

Through this door
he will go out to the light.

This beautiful art was painted
over 4,000 years ago

and 15 metres underground.

Tomb decoration like this was
fashionable during the reign

of Ankh-Ti's pharaoh, Pepi II,

whose name appears inside the tomb.

So perhaps Ankh-Ti's job as
a priest was to service

the tomb of Pepi's grandfather,
the missing pharaoh, Userkare.

I'm coming up, lads.
Hold on to that rope.

But is Userkare's tomb
hiding in the sand just yards away?

It's a spine-tingling thought.

And between here and there,

there's already
a great many more tombs to find.

Oh, it's extraordinary to get
out into the fresh air again.

You know...

Down there,
what we saw was so stunning,

and up here, there must be...

the possibility of 50, 60,
100 more shafts, just like that one.

Now, if we found that down there,

imagine what people might find
at some time in the future.

Sorry I'm so out of breath.

Coming up...

I thought you and I could take
a little trip down the Nile.

I'm back in Aswan, where the dangers
of tomb hunting become clear.

Ah!

But the hard work
does finally pay off.

A tomb! Yes! Yay! We've got a tomb!

Welcome back to Egypt,

where I'm returning to
Aswan's ancient City of the Dead.

Looks pretty good in
the morning light, doesn't it?

Dr Martin Bommas and his team
are on the hunt for new tombs.

And while I've been away,
there's been some progress.

Archaeology student Dominica Chopp

is busy revealing a whole new
structure.

Dominica. Oh, hello.

Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you

but this is looking really
promising, isn't it? Yes, yes.

What do you think it is?

It's a tomb. A tomb! Yes!

Yay, we've got a tomb! This is
what we came here to find. I know.

It's a very little tomb,
or at least it looks it from here.

Oh, it's not the entrance to it.
There is an entrance there.

That does look more like something
you'd see in a movie

if you were looking for a tomb.

Wow, so why aren't you ploughing
ahead with this straightaway?

We're very keen to. However, we
have to first assess how big it is.

So with a bit of patience,

our City of the Dead
is going to have a new tomb.

What's more,
there appears to be more than one.

If I look behind me,
I can see some little blocks here.

Yes, and right behind you. Just
here, this is another one? Yes, yes.

Wow, so there's a whole
load of them here.

It looks like there
might be streets of them.

And do you think they would go
right up the hill? Yes.

But to properly reveal
even one of them,

there's a heck of a lot of sand
to be shifted.

So before I get roped
into any serious work...

I thought you and I could take
a little trip down the Nile.

Hello, Mohammed.

Thank you very much. You're welcome.

If Martin does find a mummy,

the question, of course,
is going to be whose was it

and what did they do before
they ended up on the hillside?

Well, I'm told there are some clues
which might answer that

just on the far end of that island.

4,000 years ago, just like today,

the vast majority of Egyptians
lived very close to the Nile.

And you don't get much closer
than Elephantine Island,

where are the people buried
at the City of the Dead once lived.

For centuries,

the town here at Elephantine Island
was the hub of southern Egypt.

It was so well protected
with the Nile on all sides.

This was a street with
a lot of houses along here

and houses on this side, too.

Some of these buildings have been
reconstructed in recent years.

But there's one
that definitely hasn't.

This is like going into the back
room of a really big museum.

Oop!

And in theory, it should be
the grandest building in town.

This, believe it or not,
is the governor's palace,

the place where the elite
of Elephantine Island lived

and when they died there'd have been
a funeral procession starting here,

and then they would have gone down
to the Nile, sailed all the way

around, and then been buried
in their beautifully carved tombs.

But what really gets me
is this wall. Look at it.

Frankly, it's rubbish, isn't it?

It's mud brick, it's dotted with
little chips and bits of shell.

They appear to have spent
far more money

on what happened when they were dead
than when they were alive,

which I suppose does make sense
in a strange kind of way.

After all, you are a long time dead.

On the other side of the river,
at the City of the Dead,

the governors of Elephantine picked
the very best spots for their tombs

and built grand causeways
to access them from the river.

But at the top of
his newly discovered causeway,

Martin hasn't found a tomb

but a mysterious stone wall.

What we have here now is
perhaps the end of the causeway,

so we want to find out more
by digging deeper with the trowel.

The end of the causeway should point
the way to a large tomb.

But excavating anything
this old on such a steep slope

is a dangerous operation.

Cannot go too far,
so the whole thing doesn't crumble.

Ah!

BLEEP

The whole thing's moving!

The whole thing's moving. Yeah.

I really suggest you get
out of the path of that.

Sand is coming out from behind. OK.

One of the giant blocks
holding up the wall

has shifted a good six inches.

The rest of the wall
hasn't budged yet.

But there's a real risk
it could collapse.

We cannot go any further.

The tombs must be
behind the retention wall.

We have to think very carefully
whether next year or so

we will remove the wall
in order to follow the causeway,

but not this year, otherwise
we risk the lives of our workmen.

The hunt for tombs
is rarely straightforward.

And here in particular,
there are risks and dangers.

But luckily, Martin and the team

have already found
at least one new tomb.

So a few days later,

I'm returning to the lower part of
the causeway to check on progress.

Martin. Oh, hello, Tony. This has
come on fantastically, hasn't it?

Yeah. What a lot of work you've
put in. You can really see that

it is a proper road now.

Yes, exactly, it's three metres wide

and 92 metres long.

And of course, where there
are causeways, there are tombs.

How's that panned out?

Well, just look behind you.

Hey! It looks very different, right?
That's come on too, hasn't it?

Goodness.

That really is an entrance.
Yes, it is. That's great.

So what's this bit here?

Well, we believe
this is the offering niche.

Sorry, "offering niche" is not
a phrase I've ever heard before.

Well, a tomb in ancient Egypt

needs to have two things
in order to be operational -

a burial chamber

and a place where the living can
donate offerings to the deceased.

And that's that thing here? Exactly.

Have you got any idea yet
how old this tomb is?

Oh, we were so lucky, Tony.

The offering niche
I was just talking about, we found

an intact pot that people left
there for the deceased, untouched.

Oh, result, perfect dating evidence.

Exactly. The pot dates to 2430 BC.

We can date it rather precisely.

So that is around
about 4,500 years old.

It's also the oldest tomb
that we have found so far.

It's almost a little bit older
than the pyramids in Giza,

so it's the pyramid age, just the
beginning of it. Really, really old.

So what happens here now
at the big money end?

Actually, we are looking for
someone who is going to volunteer

to go down that shaft
and look into the burial chamber.

So this is the same kind of age as
the pyramid at Giza. It is indeed.

And I'm going in it.
Yes, if you want to.

That's so cool!

Coming up... Do we have a problem?

The dangers of
this steep site return...

How did it appear?
Did it just slump in?

..before I'm finally
allowed to peek inside the tomb.

This might be the last time
you'll ever see me.

4,000 years ago,
this hillside of rock and sand

overlooking the River Nile

was the most important
burial ground in southern Egypt.

In the past fortnight, it's been
the focus of attention once again.

Dr Bommas and his team are in
the last week of their dig season.

They've already discovered a tomb

which has lain hidden
for thousands of years.

It may be the only oldest tomb found
so far in the City of the Dead.

And Martin has invited me
to be the first person to go inside.

But, as soon as I arrive on site...

..it's clear
things aren't going to plan.

THEY SPEAK THE LOCAL LANGUAGE

Martin. Hey, Tony. Do we have
a problem? I don't know as yet.

There seems to be a hole, and
through this hole sand trickles in.

How did it appear?
Did it just slump in?

Yeah, it just slumped in. There
must be some void underneath here.

There might be another tomb

or it's part of the tomb
we are currently working on.

It's so difficult excavating
in sand. If we were in English clay,

everything would stay where
it was for 24 hours. Exactly.

Here, you dig something,
five minutes later it's just gone.

Yes, it seems that
there's something underneath that

sucks all the sand into one place,

which we have to assess first.

Perhaps the entire area is too weak.

Events like this show just
how unpredictable and dangerous

Egyptian archaeology can be.

But while Martin decides if
it's safe to enter, I'm going to see

a remarkable discovery
made by the dig team...

..the beautifully preserved pot left
as an offering for our tomb's owner.

It's now being examined by
pottery expert Dr Eman Khalifa.

It is actually the sort of find that
archaeologists dream of, isn't it?

It is. We don't come across
complete pots here very easily.

It's in situ, which means that
it was exactly where they left it.

What's so special about it is
the way it was manufactured.

The top part is wheel thrown

and you can see the marks
in the lines of the wheel

but the bottom part is made by hand

and you can see the fingers
of the potter who modelled it.

Can I touch it?
I've got my gloves on.

Yes, please. Thanks.

So what does that tell you
about the dating of it?

It tells us that this was actually
made at a certain period

when they were using two techniques.

So what is the date that
you're pretty confident of?

4,430 years.

4,430 years...

That is massively old, isn't it?

Yeah.

Look at this.

Over the years I must have held up
hundreds of pots towards the camera

but I don't think I've ever held one

there's been such clear dating
evidence, from so long ago.

Give it back before I squeeze it
too hard. Oh, please don't!

500 feet away, the mysterious
landslip has stabilised.

And Martin has agreed to let me

be the first person
to look inside our tomb.

I don't think Howard Carter had
to cope with all this rubbish.

I'm ready, Martin. Hi, Tony.

I'll just turn everything on.

You look very prepared,
so let's get inside.

You first.

It's very steep
and it feels quite precarious.

There is something rather eerie

about going into
a 4,000-year-old tomb. That's true.

This might be the last time
you'll ever see me. Take care.

Be sure that you only do what you're
really comfortable with. Sure, sure.

All right? Yeah.

Well...

The first thing that I can see

is that the ground itself
at the bottom of the slope

appears to be hard rock

and the actual tomb
is hacked out of that,

so that it's not
mud brick or anything.

Hold on...

To my left,

there's a niche, a little recess.

Oh, that's good news.
That's what we would expect.

A space like this
would have stored pots,

plates and food offerings to help
our owner reach the afterlife.

Is there anything left there?

No. Were you hoping
it would be full of something?

It might be the case that
someone's been in there

but it doesn't mean that
they went any further.

All right, well,
I'll go on a bit now.

Can you tell me whether you're
facing a corridor right now? I am.

And does it go left or right?
That's important for me to know.

It certainly doesn't go right.

It's curving round to the left,

but there's a load of sand here.

Yeah, there's definitely
a tunnel to the left, but it's...

It's completely blocked off.

Perhaps the sand comes from
the hole that emerged today morning.

Well, I'm no sand expert but
some of it does seem quite fresh,

I must admit.

I can't really go
any further than this.

Well, then don't, you know, you have
to be safe, most of all. Yeah.

If it's indeed connected
with the hole,

then even more sand could
come down on you. Yeah.

But you see, the left turn would
have led us to the burial chamber.

So the burial chamber's there but
we just can't get at it right now.

Yes, I'm afraid so.

Hey! In the sand I've got a bone.

Just above it,
there's some pottery.

Oh, good.

And just below it,
there is not only some pottery

but I've got a bead! Yay!

I've got two beads!

Oh, that's great, Tony. I'll come
and join you. OK. Just hang on.

Oh, it's nicely cool down here.

It is.

All right. Come over here.

There's the bone. Yeah,
I'll show you the bone, here we go.

That's great.

Seems to be the end of a pelvis.

Yeah. And what about the beads
you were promising?

OK. One...

Two...

Oh, look at that. Look at that.
There we are. Wonderful.

Like little eggs, aren't they?
Two round faience beads.

What does faience mean?

Faience, that's a certain
kind of quartzite-made jewellery,

glazed with cover that turns blue.

The colour
Egyptian blue comes from that.

And you reckon it would have been
a necklace? Yes, absolutely, yes.

It must have been a necklace.

These are expensive.

And what a privilege it is

to hold something
so personal to our tomb's owner.

Welcome this clearly hasn't got
all the shiny pillars

and statues associated
with the tomb of a governor

but there's a lot of work here,
isn't there?

Well, you know, he was probably
the second man in line.

He had access to
a fantastic burial site

and engineers excavating
out of this standing rock.

This may not be the grandest
tomb of the City of the Dead,

but it might be one of the oldest.

It could mark the moment almost
4,500 years ago when this important

burial ground was established
on Egypt's southern border.

Given what we've found here,
what might you expect to find

when you eventually do manage
to shift all that sand?

Well, we probably have
two metres of work here

and then we might face a burial
chamber that includes a sarcophagus,

a wooden sarcophagus, hopefully,
or perhaps two sarcophagi.

We still have to solve the question
of whether these beads belong to

a man or a woman, or a man AND a
woman being buried here. Oh, I see.

But unfortunately,
that work will have to wait

until Martin's next digging season.

Thanks.

Right, here we go. One, two, three.

Yay! Up we go. Good.

Well done. I'd like to see these
in the clear light of day now.

Oh, wonderful, look at those.
Oh, beautiful. Yes.

Great find.
Well, thanks for all that.

We now know where
the tomb chamber is.

We've got our lovely find.

To be continued.

Hopefully see you next year.

See you. See you, mate.
Bye, Tony. Thanks for coming.

For me, the fascination of Egypt
lies in its unending mysteries.

We're still looking for
a pharaoh's missing pyramid.

We're just beginning to know the
thousands who built ancient Egypt.

And tombs we've known for a century
are still throwing up surprises.

It's the blood of the mummy!

But what really strikes me

is the sheer scale of
what's still left to be found.

Aswan's City of the Dead certainly
hasn't given up all of its tombs -

not by a long chalk,

and for archaeologists like Martin,
it's a real privilege

and just plain exciting
to be uncovering new tombs,

unveiling new secrets

and adding just a small chapter to
the story of this incredible land.

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