All language subtitles for Lost.Treasures.of.Egypt.S04E06.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH.Eng-Hi

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR: Deep in the Egyptian desert...

in a necropolis from the age of
Alexander the Great.

DR. GEHAD: Disturbed tomb.

NARRATOR: A mysterious burial chamber...

DR. GEHAD: Amazing.

NARRATOR: ...contains hidden riches.

DR. GEHAD: It's just amazing.
Gold is everywhere here.

NARRATOR: Revealing the rise of one of the
world's greatest warrior kings.

(dramatic music continues)

NARRATOR: In the 3000 years of ancient
Egyptian civilization,

many Pharaohs led their
armies into battle.

But one Pharaoh stands out for
his unparalleled military success.

One of the most famous names in
human history: Alexander the Great.

NARRATOR: He ruled Egypt from 332 BCE
until his death nine years later.

He spent his entire adult life at war.

Alexander was already a successful
military leader, aged just 18.

(dramatic music throughout)

By the age of 30, he ruled one of the
largest empires of the ancient world.

Today, archaeologists across
Egypt are investigating...

Wow. It looks like Alexander.

NARRATOR: ...how this brutal warrior king
became revered as a great pharaoh,

how he transformed ancient Egypt forever,

and they will try to solve one
of the biggest mysteries of all,

the location of Alexander's lost tomb.

(suspenseful music)

NARRATOR: In Alexandria, a city founded
by Alexander the Great,

British Egyptologist, Chris Naunton,

investigates the rise to power of one of
Egypt's most famous pharaohs.

DR. NAUNTON: Alexander the Great really
interests me,

and I kind of feel like if you want to
know about Alexander the Great,

you need to be here.
You need to know Alexandria.

NARRATOR: Alexander founded Alexandria on
the coast of the Mediterranean in 331 BCE.

It became Egypt's capital and grew into
one of the biggest cities of its time.

Wide avenues set on an urban grid
plan, connected royal palaces,

temples, theaters,
and sporting arenas,

all protected by a
ten-mile-long defensive wall.

A causeway from the mainland
to the island of Pharos

created separate harbors for
commercial and military fleets.

Towering more than 350 feet
above it all, a majestic lighthouse,

one of the Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World.

(suspenseful music continues)

NARRATOR: Chris visits the Alexandria
National Museum

to see what treasures remain
from ancient Alexandria

that could reveal more about
Alexander the Great's rise.

Amongst the many statues of
ancient Egyptian pharaohs,

Chris finds one that
looks strangely out of place.

This is really exciting for me,

because this was found quite
recently, and very near here as well.

It's a statue in marble
of Alexander the Great.

In his right hand was probably,
originally part of a spear,

or some other kind of weapon.

And that, of course, speaks to Alexander's
great prowess as a military leader.

DR. NAUNTON: But what's really
striking about it is that,

even though he was pharaoh of Egypt,
and this was found here,

it's a very un-Egyptian
statue in lots of ways.

NARRATOR: Egyptian pharaohs
were depicted clothed,

wearing items that
symbolized their royalty.

They were standing or seated
in formal poses,

and their statues were less
lifelike than Alexander's.

DR. NAUNTON: It's full of movement, which
is a real contrast

to the very rigid statues
we're used to seeing of Egyptian kings.

And that's because this
is a Greek-style statue.

The reason for that is that
Alexander himself was Greek.

NARRATOR: Born in 356 BCE,

Alexander grew up in the northern Greek
kingdom of Macedonia

and was tutored by the great
philosopher Aristotle.

After his father, Philip II
was assassinated,

Alexander took the throne
at just 20 years of age.

(dramatic music)

His military ambitions led
him on huge campaigns

to conquer territory south
and east of Greece.

(dramatic music continues)

Then, at the tender age of 24, he entered
Egypt and was made Pharaoh.

NARRATOR: At its height, Egypt's armies
could be up to 100,000 strong.

But ancient records bear no
mention of a deadly battle.

DR. NAUNTON: So how could it be that this
young Greek king and military warrior

came to be Pharaoh of Egypt?

(suspenseful music)

NARRATOR: At the ancient site of
Philadelphia,

Egyptian archaeologist, Basem Gehad
is excavating in an enormous necropolis.

The city was established shortly
after Alexander came to Egypt.

Basem has been working at
Philadelphia for six years.

Last year, he investigated
several unexplored tombs

and found a stunning mummy from the
period following Alexander the Great.

(suspenseful music continues)

NARRATOR: He wants to find out how
the arrival of Alexander

transformed the lives
of people in Egypt.

And he thinks the tombs of
Philadelphia could hold the answer.

DR. GEHAD: Now the question is, could we
still see the impression of these people?

Could we track these people?
Could we identify how they lived?

NARRATOR: Basem and a core of workers live
out in the desert during their dig season.

DR. GEHAD: This is the
family of the dig.

We are staying here the whole
two months together

and there are people from different
places, hopefully from Egypt.

But we understand each other very
well and we know what we are looking for

and how we could obtain a
good conclusion and result.

NARRATOR: His team has already
made an unusual find;

the top of a circular tomb that
extends below ground.

This is something unique and new
for us, to find something like this.

Most of the structure is rectangular,

but this one is the first one we have here
in this area in a circular shape.

NARRATOR: The structure is one of the
biggest

Basem has ever excavated in this
necropolis.

It could be an intact burial with a mummy
and a collection of grave goods.

The team get to work, carefully
removing the surrounding earth

and taking measurements as they go.

DR. GEHAD: The width of the wall is 70 cm.
You got that Abdullah?

NARRATOR: The thick walls and
the precision of the structure

suggest a lot of money
was spent on this tomb.

It's amazing because
it's quite a perfect circle.

The radius is always the same measurement
at any point that you measure.

NARRATOR:The shape alone is a strong
indication

that Basem is on the right track

in his search for Alexander
the Great's impact on Egypt.

DR. GEHAD: These kinds of tombs were
invented just after

Alexander the Great came to Egypt.

We don't have any older examples,
earlier than the third century B.C.

NARRATOR: There could be a
treasure trove of information

waiting for Basem beneath the sand.

After hours of digging, the
team has uncovered a way in,

and Basem climbs down
to get a first glimpse.

DR. GEHAD: It is just amazing. Amazing.

(dramatic music throughout)

NARRATOR: At Taposiris Magna,
to the west of Alexandria,

Kathleen Martinez is exploring
a huge temple complex

that goes back to the era
of Alexander the Great.

KATHLEEN: This season
is going to be amazing.

NARRATOR: 17 years ago,
Kathleen gave up a career

as a criminal lawyer in the Dominican
Republic to begin excavating here.

(dramatic music continues)

KATHLEEN: Since the moment
I enter Taposiris Magna the first time,

I knew it was an important archaeological
site, and it means everything to me.

NARRATOR: The temple was built just 50
years after Alexander's death.

The huge complex is the
size of a city block.

Dedicated to Osiris and Isis,
the king and queen of the gods.

In past years, Kathleen has scanned
and crawled through hidden spaces

in every corner of the site.

This season, she is focused
on a tower outside the temple walls

that was built
around the same time.

Its design resembles one of the most
famous structures in ancient Alexandria.

The Greek historian Strabo described
in detail the lighthouse of Alexandria

and we found here the
same features in miniature.

NARRATOR: The purpose of this smaller
lighthouse

at Taposiris Magna has long been a
mystery.

KATHLEEN: It doesn't have all the
structures that

the lighthouse used to have in Alexandria.

Then the Mediterranean Sea over there
and this is in the wrong side of the hill,

and then it's surrounded by tombs.
So, what could it be?

NARRATOR: Kathleen's team are excavating
around the base of the tower

and have made a huge discovery beneath
a mound of rocks on the south side.

KATHLEEN: Right now, I'm standing just
beneath the lighthouse structure.

It looks like a cave, but after cleaning
up outside all those big blocks

we realized it was not a cave, it was not
a hole, it was a tomb. A magnificent tomb.

NARRATOR: Among the rubble and debris,
Kathleen discovered a large sarcophagus.

KATHLEEN: So, we discovered through
excavations

pieces of marble covering all the walls.

Once we discovered this area,

we realized that maybe the lighthouse
was not a real lighthouse, but symbolic.

It was a temple tomb, and it has a replica
of the lighthouse of Alexandria on top.

This was a rich, rich tomb,
but who could afford this?

NARRATOR: Pottery finds around the tomb
indicate

it was visited long after it was first
built.

We have a lot of
ceramics covered in 300 years,

so we know for 300 years,
something was happening here.

NARRATOR: One possibility is that people
were coming here in an act of worship.

We believe it was
a pilgrimage area

and people used to come here to visit
whoever was the owner of the tomb.

And this is what we
need to find out.

NARRATOR: The person buried in this lavish
tomb from the age of Alexander

was revered for centuries.

If Kathleen can find more
clues around the tomb's entrance,

she could reveal who it was.

This area has 2000 years and
nobody has ever touched it.

We don't know what
we will find beneath.

(suspenseful music)

NARRATOR: In Saqqara, on the outskirts of
Cairo,

Chris is retracing the footsteps
of Alexander the Great

to try to understand how he
managed to conquer the mighty Egypt.

(suspenseful music continues)

NARRATOR: In the shadow of the step
pyramid, Egypt's first ever pyramid,

the catacombs at Saqqara were
an important religious site,

in use both before and after
the time of Alexander.

DR. NAUNTON: I really love this place.

It's a very special place for the ancient
Egyptians,

and very special place for me
as an archaeologist as well.

And it's the kind of place Alexander the
Great would have been aware of, for sure.

And he might even have
visited as well. And it's huge.

NARRATOR: One catacomb is
full of giant sarcophagi,

inscribed with the names of
dozens of pharaohs.

They chart the rise and fall of Egyptian
royalty for more than 1,000 years.

One of them might shed
light on Alexander's conquest.

(dramatic music)

So this here, if you can believe it,
looming up in front of me,

is a massive sarcophagus
and sarcophagus lid.

And what I would love to find
here if I can, is an inscription.

And I cannot see any.

(suspenseful music)

NARRATOR: This sarcophagus dates to 200
years before Alexander the Great.

Chris searches for a name.

On top of this massive sarcophagus lid,

there is a band column of hieroglyphic
signs running down the center.

Car-Anh-Bi-Chet.
Something like that.

And that's really interesting because that
is the closest the Egyptians could get

in their hieroglyphs to the name we
might know better as Cambyses.

Cambyses was not Egyptian.

NARRATOR: Cambyses was the Persian
Emperor. This isn't his tomb,

but this huge sarcophagus
commemorates his rule over Egypt.

What this tells us is that he was
recognized here as king

because at this point in history, Egypt
had become a part of the Persian Empire.

NARRATOR: Before Alexander, Ancient Egypt,
one of the mightiest

civilizations in history,
had already been conquered.

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR: The Persian Empire, based
in what is today Iran,

took over Egypt in the
sixth century BCE.

(dramatic music continues)

Alexander's tiny kingdom, Macedonia,

sat beyond the western
edge of the Persian Empire.

In 334 BCE, he led
his Army east,

tearing through the Persian forces in Asia
Minor before setting his sights on Egypt.

NARRATOR: Alexander arrived in the
Egyptian capital,

Memphis, and met no esistance.

The Persian forces had already left Egypt,

and the Egyptians welcomed
him as a liberator.

The Persian governor surrendered,

handed over a vast quantity
of gold from the treasury

and gave Alexander control of Egypt.

Taking control was one thing,

keeping control of the country
was going to be just as difficult

because these were turbulent times for
Egypt.

NARRATOR: Successive Persian emperors had
treated the country poorly.

The Egyptians had attempted
multiple rebellions

in the century before Alexander.

As another foreign ruler,
Alexander needed to find a way

to win the support of the Egyptian
people and cement his power.

NARRATOR: At Taposiris Magna, Kathleen
and her team

are excavating beside the grand tomb site
to discover who its revered owner was,

and what it can tell them about
Alexander the Great's impact on Egypt.

KATHLEEN: We're excavating right here, and
we're expecting we have still a meter

and a half and maybe we can discover
who was the owner of this tomb.

NARRATOR: The area they need to dig is
covered by a firepit they think dates back

to the Muslim conquest of Egypt
in the seventh century C.E..

This fire pit, which
is from the Muslim occupation,

it may have nothing to do with the Greek
period, but it has to be preserved.

NARRATOR: It's Kathleen's duty
to make sure no information is lost,

regardless of what period it's from.

The team must carefully
excavate and record

anything they find in these later layers

before digging down to reach the Greek
period of ancient Egypt beneath.

We believe that maybe beneath the
fire pit, we might find something

that has more information to find
out who built this temple tomb.

NARRATOR: The team start sifting through
the layers of ancient charcoal.

Almost straight away, they
make a tantalizing find:

an unusual shard of pink stone.

KATHLEEN: This is a good sign
because it's a piece of statue

that has been broken and
maybe other parts are here.

So, it's good, it's pink granite,

and usually important statues
were made out of it.

NARRATOR: This pink granite, a small
fragment of an opulent statue,

could be a sign
of bigger finds to come.

The team are still working their way down
through layers of sand, charcoal,

and animal bones, when
they make another discovery.

-KATHLEEN: Wow.
-NARRATOR: Ancient coins.

NARRATOR: In Philadelphia, Basem is
excavating the mysterious circular tomb

from around the time of Alexander the
Great that he has just discovered.

-He peers inside for the first time.
-DR. GEHAD: It's a catacomb.

You just open a very
small window from the...

that we could look
inside with a torch.

NARRATOR: A catacomb isn't a single tomb.

It's a large underground
chamber with multiple alcoves,

each one containing a body.

This incredibly rare discovery
could contain an entire family.

We still have to go deeper in order
to be able to descend inside it.

NARRATOR: Basem hopes this catacomb will
help reveal Alexander the Great's impact

on Egyptian life and death.

He doesn't want to miss a single clue,

so workers carefully sift through
every bucket of sand.

They shift over a ton
in the next five hours.

Finally, they
clear a path inside.

(dramatic music throughout)

DR. GEHAD: Disturbed tomb.

NARRATOR: It looks like someone else has
been in here

since the catacomb was first used.

Now, since we are finding now,
remains of textiles and very fine sand,

it seems that this might have been looted,
I would say, 100 years ago.

NARRATOR: But Basem is undeterred.

Because he is on a treasure
hunt of a different kind.

DR. GEHAD: It's not only finding objects,
but also trying to write history

by reading information
from the materials inside.

This is the main objective,
finding good things,

but also finding
wonderful information.

NARRATOR: The team continues to remove
the sand and debris from the tomb.

Once it's clear, Basem calls down
archaeologist, Mahmoud Ibrahim,

to begin picking through the piled up
material discarded by the looters.

The remains of as many as 20 people
could be buried in this catacomb

a potential treasure trove of information.

NARRATOR: It isn't long before they
find a decorated fragment.

This is a clue for us. A key.

NARRATOR: At the temple of Taposiris
Magna,

Kathleen's team are digging for clues
to the owner of the lavish tomb

built underneath the replica of the
famous lighthouse of Alexandria.

They are hoping to find out more
about the era of Alexander the Great,

and they've discovered coins in the
remains

of what they believe to be a
seventh century fire pit.

KATHLEEN: Wow. I'm so excited.
It's starting to give us information.

We were not expected
to have coins here.

The coins could be a
sign of something beneath.

I'm very, very, very excited.

NARRATOR: When Kathleen takes a closer
look, she makes a surprising discovery.

This is a Roman coin.
We can see the horses.

And this powerful man
leading the horses.

And the other side, is the head
and it says T-R-A-J-A-N.

Here is very clear. Trajan...

Emperor Trajan.

NARRATOR: Roman emperor, Trajan ruled
Egypt in the second century C.E.

Finding these coins dates the
firepit to the same period.

At the beginning we
thought it was Islamic,

but we're always full
of surprises here.

NARRATOR: This means the material
they're digging through

is much closer in time to the building
of the temple and the tomb

and they could be much closer to
discovering who this tomb was for.

Kathleen heads to the replica
lighthouse above the tomb

as her team carefully excavates
the final layers of the firepit.

NARRATOR: They are hoping for
Alexander-era artifacts

as they work their way down
through the sand to bedrock.

What? A discovery? I have to go!

We have a head.

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR: In Saqqara, Chris is exploring
a giant royal catacomb

in use before and after
the time of Alexander the Great.

He's investigating whether
it holds any clues

to how Alexander cemented
his power in Egypt.

DR. NAUNTON: This is not an ordinary
sarcophagus.

It's much, much bigger than the ones
we would normally see in a tomb.

NARRATOR: Some of the sarcophagi here
are nearly eight feet high,

well beyond what's needed for a human
body, even for a mighty pharaoh.

DR. NAUNTON: These three
hieroglyphic signs here

at the beginning of the
sequence read "Hep",

which is the name we
know better as Apis.

It's the name of the Apis Bull,
a God living on Earth

manifest in a real-life living bull.

NARRATOR: This catacomb stretches over 600
feet beneath the Saqqara Desert.

Branching off an extended
network of galleries,

dozens of chambers that hold 24
gigantic granite sarcophagi,

each weighing up to 70 tons.

Inside, Egyptians placed a
sacred mummified bull, Apis,

that they believed was an incarnation
of the creator God, Ptah.

NARRATOR: Each subsequent reincarnation
of Apis, over 50 bulls in total,

was buried in a vault here,
in a long-established cult

that was popular throughout Egypt

as far back as the first
dynasty of Egyptian kings.

NARRATOR: When the Persians ruled Egypt,
traditions like this began to suffer.

Later Persian rulers looted Egyptian
temples and their treasuries,

and drastically cut their income,
making it harder to maintain the cult.

Evidence suggests no Apis Bull was
mummified for an entire century.

When Alexander became pharaoh,

he had to decide whether he would
allow the Apis cult to continue.

DR. NAUNTON: So what happens
when Alexander comes along?

How does that affect things?
How does that change things?

Well, in fact, one of
Alexander's great strengths

was his capacity to
embrace local tradition.

NARRATOR: The hieroglyphs reveal
that many of these bulls

were installed
after Alexander's arrival.

He allowed the Apis
Bull cult to continue,

and that makes him a very popular
ruler with the ancient Egyptians.

NARRATOR: Ancient sources reveal that one
of the first things Alexander did

on arrival in Egypt was pay his
respects to the Apis Bull.

DR. NAUNTON: It's all a part of his way of
winning over people and territories.

It's very canny, and that puts
him in a very strong position

to rule the country
as a popular leader.

NARRATOR: While the Apis Bull
tombs were important,

Egyptian pharaohs were more concerned with
the scale and grandeur of their own tomb.

Chris wants to find the still
undiscovered tomb of Alexander.

NARRATOR: In Philadelphia, Basem is
investigating the rare rotunda catacomb.

He's searching for clues
to help him understand

how Alexander the Great transformed
the lives of the people buried here.

Mahmud just found
here a very important thing.

This is made out of
textile and then gold sheets.

Real gold sheets.

NARRATOR: As their excavation continues,

Basem and the team collect
more signs of a wealthy family.

From luxurious amounts of fine
quality mummy wrappings

to fragments of
shimmering gold leaf.

DR. GEHAD: Amazing.

You can see the gold
is everywhere here.

NARRATOR: It's evidence that
Philadelphia was a wealthy city,

home to people rich enough to afford the
grandest of Egyptian burial practices.

People here were prospering
after Alexander's arrival.

I could see
amazing stuff here.

(suspenseful music)

This is a kind
of complete pot.

NARRATOR: This beautiful piece of ancient
pottery

is a clue to when the tomb was built.

There is a complete profile here that we
could use for dating of these tombs.

It seems that this is end
of Ptolemaic, early Roman.

NARRATOR: The Ptolemaic dynasty, the Greek
pharaohs that followed Alexander,

lasted for three centuries,

meaning this tomb dates to 300 years
after Alexander came to Egypt.

NARRATOR: And yet the people here were
still building their tombs

in the style he imported.

DR. GEHAD: This kind of circular structure
that is on top of this burial chamber

is copied from burial
examples in Alexandria.

NARRATOR: The catacomb and
its circular superstructure

are proof the city founded
by Alexander the Great

was seen as an example to follow.

The architect at that time

wanted to simulate the buildings that they
loved at Alexandria here in Philadelphia.

NARRATOR: Alexander's Greek culture had
spread from

Alexandria to other parts of
the country.

DR. GEHAD: Philadelphia was established
from scratch on basis of the Greek style,

which came to
Egypt by Alexander the Great.

NARRATOR: Alexander's lasting impact on
Egypt is becoming clearer.

But the catacomb hasn't
given up all its secrets yet.

MAN: Doctor! Doctor!

NARRATOR: Basem heads back to the tomb to
see what his team has discovered.

-DR. GEHAD: Did you find something?
-MAN: Yes.

-DR. GEHAD: Honestly?
-MAN: I swear by the name of Allah!

(dramatic music)

NARRATOR: Two near-perfectly preserved
panels of a mummy portrait.

Rare works of funeral art not
seen in Egypt before Alexander.

These wax paint portraits preserved a
person's likeness after death

in the hope their soul could find
their body in the afterlife.

DR. GEHAD: Omar found one part
that was stuck to the floor,

and it fits perfectly to the first part
to complete the face of the man,

including the rest of his neck,

his right eye and a big
portion of his face.

NARRATOR: These rare and precious
portraits allow Basem

to look into the eyes of the people
that lived here some 2000 yearsago.

Together, the finds here paint
a picture of Philadelphia

as a city with a
thriving economy.

You wouldn't have this quality of tomb
unless you have a good architect.

You wouldn't also have
this kind of portrait

unless you have the high-class artist.

Which means that Philadelphia
was really important,

and it was attracting people
from the capital to come here

and to live here or to work here.

NARRATOR: Philadelphia was booming,

and the mummy portrait stands
out as the perfect illustration

of how the arrival of
Alexander the Great in Egypt

transformed the
lives of people here.

DR. GEHAD: The mix technique of painting
is Greek.

Preserving the face for the afterlife:
it's purely Egyptian culture.

NARRATOR: Persian rulers had
suppressed Egyptian traditions,

looting temple treasuries and stifling
practices like the Apis Bull cult.

Basem's discoveries
reveal that under Alexander,

Philadelphia and Egypt flourished with the
melding of Greek and Egyptian culture.

DR. GEHAD: Philadelphia was a big melting
pot,

starting a new era where people
from different backgrounds,

different civilization, different
culture, were mixed together.

So, a multicultural place.

NARRATOR: Chris has come to Alexandria to
search for evidence of

Alexander the Great's tomb.

(dramatic music)

I've been looking for ancient tombs
in Egypt for most of my career,

and the tomb of Alexander the Great
is pretty close to the top of my list.

NARRATOR: The search for his final
resting place is difficult,

because Alexander moved around almost
as much in death as he did in life.

NARRATOR: After a banquet in Babylon,
far to the east of Egypt,

Alexander suddenly fell
ill and died, aged just 32.

His body was on the way back
to Macedonia, escorted by an entourage,

when his bodyguard and lifelong
friend, Ptolemy, stopped them.

Ptolemy took Alexander's body to Egypt to
bury him in the city of Memphis instead.

Ptolemy became Pharaoh and then built
a new tomb for Alexander in Alexandria.

But its exact location remains a mystery.

It's difficult to think of a tomb that
would be a greater sensation

if it was discovered than the
tomb of Alexander the Great.

There are little scraps of
evidence, clues, if you like,

that could help
us to get close.

DR. NAUNTON: We have good reasons to think
that the tomb of Alexander

was located in the royal quarter.
So that's the part of Alexandria

where there would have been the royal
palaces, all the great buildings of state,

including a monumental tomb
for a great leader like Alexander.

NARRATOR: Digging beneath modern
Alexandria is difficult

so there is little
direct evidence of exactly

where the ancient
royal quarter once was.

But Chris has a clever technique
that could point the way.

DR. NAUNTON: I have a photo here showing
one of the obelisks,

called Cleopatra's Needle,
at the time it was being moved.

NARRATOR: Two obelisks, tall, monumental
pillars,

are believed to have marked the
entrance of a former temple

in the ancient royal quarter.

NARRATOR: But they were removed and taken
to Britain and America in 1877,

the same year the building in
the background was constructed.

The over 200 ton red granite obelisks
were shipped to London and New York,

but the building behind
them might still be here.

DR. NAUNTON: If we can find that building,

then we could be getting close
to the tomb of Alexander the Great.

(suspenseful music)

NARRATOR: Chris hits the streets of
Alexandria

searching for the building
in this photograph

in his quest to find the last
resting place of Alexander.

Okay. So, I think this might be the one.

So, we've got, the full
windows across the center,

a little shape in
the center as well.

So, if this is the spot, then
more or less exactly where I'm standing

is where Cleopatra's needles were,
where the temple was built.

NARRATOR: Now that Chris knows where
he is in ancient Alexandria,

he can use an historic map of the
original city to continue his search.

The method of city planning
in Alexander's time

could help Chris identify the most
likely location of his tomb.

In ancient times, cities like this were
designed around a main kind of crossroads,

and that's where often the main buildings
of state, the most important buildings,

would have been constructed.

NARRATOR: Chris matches the main streets
of modern Alexandria

with what he thinks could be the
central crossroads of ancient Alexandria.

DR. NAUNTON: So this amazingly busy
spot might actually correspond

to the very center of
ancient Alexandria.

And if that's right, and if
we are in the area of the crossroads,

then the tomb
could be here somewhere.

NARRATOR: Chris could be
standing directly over the remains

of the tomb of
Alexander the Great.

But it's almost impossible to
set up a huge archaeological dig

in such a busy
part of the modern city.

At the moment, even if we can be
pretty confident that it might be here,

we can't verify it.

NARRATOR: Whatever grand monument holds
Alexander's remains

is tantalizingly out of reach.

NARRATOR: At Taposiris Magna, Kathleen
is still on the hunt

for the owner of the grand
Alexander-era temple tomb.

She hurries down from outside
the tower to the dig site

to see what her team has found
underneath the remains of the fire pit.

Wow.

(dramatic music)

KATHLEEN: Oh, my God.
He's so beautiful.

NARRATOR: A perfectly preserved
head of a stone statue.

KATHLEEN: We reached the
bedrock, and he's telling me,

when they were just removing
the sand with no hope,

in the very bottom, we found this head.
You never lose hope in archaeology.

Bravo!

Be free!

You're going to buy us dinner, right?

NARRATOR: This head's position,
beneath the Roman firepit,

indicates that it's from the period
of the temple tomb's construction.

Kathleen examines the head itself
to see what more she can learn.

KATHLEEN: Wow.

It has all these details.
It has a helmet and the hair.

KATHLEEN: Its style...

...and all the details, so you can see
the nose and the eyes, the ear.

The work in the hair.

But it's so beautiful. And this
is what our work is about.

It's so rewarding when we get and recover
these pieces that were lost forever.

I'm so excited.

It looks like Alexander.

NARRATOR: If the team can identify the
figure,

it might help them identify the
tomb's owner.

KATHLEEN: Wow.

Look at the eyes.
It looks like it's alive.

(inspiring music throughout)

We know it's Greek.

The carved helmet
appears to be a Greek design.

-Yes, it could be a god? Or a goddess?
-Yes.

-It's a woman.
-Woman.

-Woman?
-With a helmet?

Pallas Athena. Athena.

NARRATOR: The statue head could be that of
Athena, the Greek goddess of war.

In other temples of Egypt,
you see Egyptian gods.

But in this specific place and in this
temple tomb, you see Greek gods.

And that means that at the
very highest level of society,

Egypt was taken over by the Greeks.

NARRATOR: Kathleen still needs to find out
who the owner of the tomb was.

KATHLEEN:This is not conclusive.

But if it is Athena and it's confirmed by
the expert,

the owner of the tomb
was a warrior and was Greek.

NARRATOR: Because of the
tomb's special location

next to the temple and under
the replica lighthouse,

Kathleen believes it could belong

to one of the Greek pharaohs that
followed Alexander the Great,

the Ptolemies.

KATHLEEN: We're putting all these pieces
together

and there's very few historical names
would stand to have a tomb like this.

NARRATOR: Not one of the Greek pharaohs'
tombs have ever been found in Egypt.

This could be a truly
momentous discovery.

The head itself needs careful conservation
before it can be assessed properly.

See you soon.

NARRATOR: In the weeks to come, Kathleen
will continue digging for more clues.

KATHLEEN: There's a lot
of new information here.

We're still searching for the owner,
but it gave us a very important clue.

Okay, let's continue working.

NARRATOR: Alexander the Great was renowned
for his military conquests,

yet his conquest of Egypt was of a
completely different kind.

Capturing the kingdom
with almost no bloodshed,

he established Greek culture and
religion at the top of Egyptian society.

But he also supported local traditions,

eventually creating an inclusive Egypt

that was a hybrid of
Greek and local beliefs.

KATHLEEN: This is the legacy of Alexander
the Great.

NARRATOR: An Egypt that prospered for
hundreds of years after his death.

TRANSLATOR CREDIT