Original subtitles

Narrator: Egypt.

Birthplace of one of the oldest, most powerful and

Longest lasting civilizations on earth.

This spectacular aerial journey with privileged access

To incredible sites...

Will show how the magnificent achievements of the ancients...

Helped shape the egypt of today.

Flying over this country's vast and varied landscapes...

Our bird's eye view reveals how generations of egyptians...

Battled harsh terrain and scorching temperatures...

To build a nation like no other.

Egypt.

Covering nearly 400,000 square miles and home to almost 100 million people.

It's the biggest and most populous country in the arab world.

Life here has always been a challenge.

97% of the terrain is harsh, arid desert.

So how did the ancient egyptians build such a

Powerful civilization?

A bird's eye view of the country reveals the answer...

The mighty river nile.

At over 4,000 miles it's the longest river in the world.

Without it, the ancient egyptians may never have

Founded an empire or built magnificent monuments.

The most iconic of these ancient wonders,

Lies 8 miles from the center of egypt's capital, cairo.

From the air the scale of the engineering is incredible.

Made of an estimated 10 million tons of stone, these

Are some of the largest pyramids ever built.

The oldest and biggest is the great pyramid of giza.

Completed over four and a half thousand years ago,

It's formed from more than 2 million sandstone blocks.

Each block weighs more than a car.

Created as a tomb for the pharaoh khufu, it's the only

One of the 7 wonders of the ancient world to survive to the present day.

At 480 feet high, it remained the tallest structure on earth for

Three and a half thousand years.

The pyramids of giza fascinate american archaeologist

Mark lehner so much,

He's dedicated four decades of his career to unlocking their secrets.

Mark: Well from that very first sight of the great pyramid of khufu,

The giza pyramids have basically been my life.

I spent 46 years actually studying the pyramids.

Who are the people who built them?

What do we know about them?

What do we know about how they did it?

Narrator: People from all over the world come to marvel at

The pyramids majesty.

Yet it's the remains of more modest structures nearby that

Unlock how the ancients built these mighty tombs.

Mark: In order to create pyramids on such a gigantic scale,

They had to create a whole infrastructure.

We have found the footprint of that infrastructure.

Narrator: An aerial view reveals a huge labor force was

Once brought here for construction.

Mark: So what we have found is the so-called "lost city of the pyramids,"

Sometimes called the worker's village,

It's about 13 hectares.

We have found their bakeries and their workshops, their houses,

Their grain silos for feeding the people.

But it's only part of a much vaster city that existed at

The foot of the pyramids' plateau.

Narrator: Mark thinks 20,000 workers once lived here.

They quarried the 5.7 million tons of sandstone needed to

Build the great pyramid alone.

From the air, the view of the neighboring pyramid of khafre

Reveals there is another enigma to solve.

Its summit is capped with smooth stones that once

Encased the entire structure.

It's evidence that the great pyramid once looked very different.

Mark: The great pyramid of khufu stood complete covered,

With polished white limestone, that must have been blinding

When it reflected the sun.

Narrator: The nearest source for the brilliant limestone was in tura,

8 miles away on the other side of the nile.

So how did the ancients transport tons of this stone

Across miles of desert and a mighty river?

Mark believes the sloping ground in front of this temple

Unlocks the mystery.

It's a basin...

The remains of a huge harbor and canal complex filled by

Floodwater that the ancients used to ferry stone

To the construction site.

Mark: We have evidence that the pyramid builders used the

Seven meter rise annually of the nile flood as a huge

Hydraulic lift to bring blocks as high as they could and as

Close as they could to the pyramid plateau.

It's almost what you don't see here that is even more impressive

Than the pyramids themselves.

Narrator: The nile made ancient egyptian civilization possible.

It wasn't just essential for transport, but for food too.

And many egyptians still depend on it today to survive.

It's early morning on the island of elephantine

In southern egypt.

Father and son youssef and karim mohamed are preparing to go fishing,

As they do every day.

Youseff: My family has been here on the nile for more than 100 years.

My father was a fisherman,

And my father's father was a fisherman.

He taught him and then my father taught me.

Now I'm teaching my son karim like my father taught me.

Narrator: Youssef and karim are part of the nubian community.

They're descendants of some of the first people to settle in this area of

The nile valley over 7,000 years ago.

Youseff: For nubians, the nile is their life, they've always lived around the nile.

Narrator: Flooding caused by the building of a dam further

South at aswan displaced many nubians from their land.

So, for youssef it's important to pass the old traditions onto his son.

Like how to catch fish the nubian way.

Youseff knows the big fish are in deep water on

The other side of the river.

To get there, father and son must cross a mile of choppy

And congested waters in their tiny row boat.

All the while dodging ferries and fast,

White-sailed felucca.

A collision here would spell disaster.

Useff and his 6-year-old son, karim,

Must cross one of the most congested points on the nile...

Their livelihood depends on catching the bigger fish

In the deeper water.

With perfect timing, youseff drives the boat

Through gaps in the traffic.

Safely on the other side,

6-year-old karim must keep the rowboat steady against the strong current.

His father uses an ancient technique to maximize his catch.

(splash)

Youseff: When you hit the water once or twice,

The fish swim deeper and flee into the net.

Fish don't like sound.

Narrator: These fish are tilapia,

A staple of the egyptian diet since the time of the pharaohs.

After an hour, youseff and karim have caught all

The fish they need for tonight's supper.

They row the mile back to their village on elephantine island.

Cooks dust the fish with flour and fry them as part of a traditional

Nubian recipe.

Youseff: The nile means everything because it's where I fish.

It makes here possible. The nile is my whole life.

Narrator: For thousands of years, egyptian civilizations

Have relied on the river nile for survival.

As well as providing food,

The rich silt from its waters allowed farmers to grow crops in the desert.

German archaeologist johanna sigl is also heading

To elephantine island.

Her work as excavation field director here is revealing

The nile's importance to the ancient egyptians.

A bird's eye view of the island's southern tip shows

The layout of a 5,000-year-old town

This was one of the first settlements on this part of the nile.

Johanna: The nile represented a life source for ancient egyptians

It was one of the most important things in their life they

Got food and water, fertile soil, trade connections;

They got everything from the nile.

Narrator: Before dams controlled the river's height,

Monsoon rains over ethiopia to the south of egypt caused annual floods.

As the rising waters burst their banks, fertile silt was deposited

Across the flood plains.

The further the waters' spread,

The more farmland could be cultivated.

The ancient egyptians developed a system to

Forecast the perfect flood.

The instrument they invented became known as a nileometer.

The chiseled markings on this passageway gauged

The height of the flood and foretold if crops would flourish or fail.

Johanna: Here at elephantine the flood arrived first,

So to measure here would be a prediction for measuring

The height all along the nile,

At least the ancient egyptians hoped so.

Narrator: When the nileometer recorded the optimal water level,

The fields would be covered with enough silt to produce

A bountiful harvest.

Thousands of years later and the nile remains the lifeblood of egypt.

Johanna: The nile provides still drinking water,

It provides energy, it still provides fertile soil,

And so supports agriculture.

Without the nile there would be no living here.

Narrator: Today 96% of the population lives on the 3% of cultivated

Land irrigated by the nile...

Away from these areas,

The landscape is very different.

Almost 375,000 square miles of egypt is inhospitable desert.

Some of the harshest terrain lies in the sinai peninsula in the

East of the country...

Rainfall in this part of egypt can be as little as 1 inch a year.

From the air, it's clear the region's dry rocky soil makes

Intensive agriculture almost impossible.

Yet there's group of people who have made the sinai their

Home for millennia.

Khadraa eid mourzid has lived in this remote village her entire life.

Khadraa: It's very difficult to find food.

There's little rain and little vegetation for the animals to eat.

Narrator: Khadraa is bedouin.

The majority of this ancient people migrated here from the arabian peninsula

Almost 2,000 years ago.

In recent decades, government policies aimed to increase security

And promote tourism in sinai have denied some bedouin

Access to services and eroded their nomadic traditions.

Many have left to find work in egypt's cities.

Khadraa embraces life here in the desert, as her ancestors did before her.

Khadraa: This desert teaches you to exercise.

Coming, going, collecting wood,

Fetching water, keeping moving.

If you stay inside, your body ages.

You must walk, be active and stay healthy.

Narrator: Khadraa is a widow.

To keep herself and her goats alive,

She must find vegetation in one of the most arid places on earth.

Narrator: High up on egypt's arid sinai peninsula,

Bedouin shepherdess khadraa eid mourzid is taking her goats deep

Into the desert on a quest for grass.

Khadraa relies on wisdom passed down through

Generations of bedouin nomads to read the landscape.

A bird's eye view reveals gullies snaking across the

Mountainous terrain.

Khadraa knows scarce rainwater channeled just beneath the surface

Is enough to sustain plant life.

Khadraa: There's a lot of grazing here.

If they're happy, I'm happy.

Narrator: While the goats eat,

Khadraa exploits another of the desert's scant resources.

Khadraa: This desert plant is called ajram.

You pick it, crush it and add water to it.

You can wash your hands and clothes with it.

It's soap. A nice, smelling soap.

Narrator: It's enough grazing for today.

Tomorrow khadraa will have to find other plants.

Khadraa: I do all this work every day.

I've been here since the day I got married.

I've never lived anywhere else.

The desert is my life.

Narrator: The bedouin have made the desert their home.

Yet, the ancients used these wastelands for a very different purpose.

The western desert was where the pharaohs were buried in preparation

For the afterlife.

Royal tombs like the step pyramid of djoser built up to 4,700 years ago,

Would be filled with priceless treasures.

Despite the pharaohs believing their pyramids were impregnable,

These structures became a magnet for ancient grave robbers.

So three and a half thousand years ago,

The pharaohs created a giant secret tomb within a remote desert valley.

From the 16th century bce, at least 63 royal tombs were

Built here over a period of 500 years.

The valley of the kings is located beneath a symbolic

Pyramid shaped mountain.

The pharaoh's hoped this inconspicuous site would be

Safe from grave robbers.

Originally, the entrances to the tombs were sealed and

Hidden under sand and rocks.

Now a network of paths leads the way in.

Conservator lori wong is responsible for the

Preservation of the site's most famous attraction.

The tomb of tutankhamen.

Lori: Tutankhamun, it's fame is due to the fact that it was a tomb

That was discovered with its grave goods,

Almost completely intact,

And that's rare because almost every other tomb had been looted.

Narrator: Tutankhamun was just 9 years old when he became ruler of egypt.

The boy king's tomb was discovered in 1922 by british egyptologist,

Howard carter.

Inside he found treasures including

Tutankhamun's gold death mask...

His gold and silver throne,

Encrusted with precious stones.

And more than 5,000 other priceless artefacts.

One and a half million people a year come to the valley of the kings.

Now the huge volume of visitors is taking its toll.

Lori: Visitors have dust on their clothing, on their shoes

And if they come into the tomb and that dust can actually

Cement itself onto the painting making it very

Difficult to remove in a safe manner.

Narrator: Lori's team has installed a ventilation system

To help reduce dust levels inside the tomb.

The cleaner air will ensure the preservation of the boy king's resting place

For generations to come.

Lori: We want other people to be able to be to appreciate the tomb

As much as much as we have.

To have worked in a tomb like tutankhamun has been just a wonderful experience.

Narrator: Egypt's mighty pharaohs left their mark

Throughout the country.

Yet not all monuments visible from the air are shrines to past rulers.

These are towers for domesticated pigeons.

The birds have been farmed in egypt for thousands of years.

Ancient sources suggest they were consumed on important feast days.

Today, pigeons are not only bred to eat, they're bred to compete.

In cairo's neighborhood of gamaleya,

Dozens of passionate pigeon breeders are in constant competition

With one another.

Visible from the air, precarious wooden structures

Like this rise high above the rooftops.

These are called gheyas and they're the inner city's

Answer to pigeon towers.

Some are large enough to house over 300 birds.

Hassan mohamed hussein calls himself the

'pigeon ruler of gamaliya'.

Hussein: I built my first gheya 23 years ago.

I built a small one, 9x9 foot,

Out of straw on the roof.

It was a long process.

Then I made the gheya higher and bigger until I built the one I have now.

Narrator: Hassan is one of 2 million pigeon fanciers in egypt.

In competitions, breeders take their best birds to a central location

And release them together.

The goal is to both guide their own birds home and lure

As many of their rival's pigeons as they can.

The breeder with the most birds at the end of

The event is the winner.

Hassan: Every competition is different like a football match,

Catching pigeons is the equivalent of scoring goals.

Narrator: Hassan meets his opponent here in the middle of old cairo.

He must win today if he wants to retain his title,

'pigeon ruler of gamiliya'.

Hassan mohamed hussein is taking on rival, kuto adam, in a pigeon race

Across the capital.

Both competitors are ready to release their birds.

40 pigeons climb high above cairo...

In just a few minutes, they'll be within range their coops.

Both competitors must try and guide home all their pigeons,

And as many of their rival's, as possible.

Whoever captures the most birds wins.

Soon after arriving back at his tower, hassan spots the pigeons.

Hassan: I'm going to call them in and raise a

Flag to see which are the competitor's pigeons.

(whistling)

Narrator: Hassan waves and whistles to entice them to his coop.

(whistling)

As the pigeons land, he reads their tags to check who they belong to.

All hassan's pigeons have returned home.

His competitor kuto adam hasn't lured any away...

Hassan: I think that black one is one of kuto's birds.

Narrator: But hassan has.

With another victory to his name, hassan retains his title...

Until the next contest.

Hassan: I'm so happy.

I'm so pleased that I won.

Narrator: The egyptians' relationship with pigeons is

Just one legacy from the time of the pharaohs.

The ancient rulers' vast monuments stand testament to

Their immense power.

These were no ordinary kings.

They proclaimed themselves gods.

And they expected their subjects to worship them...

Even after they died.

Nowhere is this more visible than on the west bank of the nile,

Across the river from luxor.

Over 2,000 years, pharaohs built mortuary temples here to

Commemorate their reigns and as center's for their eternal veneration.

Their true scale only becomes evident from the air.

It's dawn and setting a course for the mortuary temples is

Bahaa ahmed an experienced hot air balloon pilot.

Bahaa flies at first light when the air is cool and wind

Currents are most predictable.

Knowing wind patterns here is critical,

Because the temples are located directly beneath jagged mountains.

Bahaa: The bggest challenge flying balloons here,

Is the wind shear and turbulence close to the mountains.

So we take that into consideration and try to keep

Far away so there is no danger to the balloon or passengers.

Narrator: As bahaa tracks a course away from the mountains,

He guides his balloon towards egypt's most

Famous mortuary structure.

The temple of hatshepsut is carved into the side of a mountain.

It was built by one of egypt's very few female pharaohs.

To gain acceptance as ruler,

She ordered her temple to be bigger and grander than those of all

The male pharaohs before her.

Bahaa: This temple is one of the most beautiful things to see from the balloon,

Looking at the design of this temple it is

More than I can describe.

From the balloon it looks very beautiful.

Narrator: As the air warms up, bahaa must now negotiate the

Potentially treacherous winds...

To visit a shrine to the greatest pharaoh ever to rule egypt.

Narrator: Above the west bank of luxor,

Bahaa ahmed's balloon approaches a 50,000 square foot temple complex

Dedicated to egypt's greatest pharaoh.

This is the ramesseum,

The mortuary temple of egypt's most prolific monument builder,

Ramses the second.

Constructed in the 13th century bce and covering the

Area of 47 tennis courts...

In its day it was one of the largest mortuary temples in egypt.

It took 20 years to complete.

Bahaa: Beautiful! This is amazing!

Look at this, ramses the second!

Narrator: Within the ramesseum lie the fallen remains of a giant statue

Of ramses himself.

Originally it would have risen to the height of a 6-story building

And weighed around 1,000 tons.

It reminded everyone he was more than a man.

He was a god.

As the desert monuments give way to lush farmland below,

It's time for bahaa to find a field to touch down.

Bahaa: When the balloon goes up you don't know where

You are going to land, and it's a challenge to land

Somewhere safe for the passengers.

Flying balloons, every day is a new day.

Narrator: The pharaohs may have declared themselves gods,

But their powers were not eternal.

After ruling egypt for 3,000 years,

They were conquered by the romans.

In time, belief in their many pagan gods gave way to one christian god.

Almost 10 million christians live in egypt today.

One of their most important sites is mount sinai.

According to the bible,

This mountain was where god appeared as a burning bush.

And where moses received the ten commandments.

In the 6th century ce, roman emperor justinian the first

Ordered a place of worship to be built marking this most sacred of sites.

The result was st. Catherine's monastery.

The oldest continuously inhabited monastery

In the world.

Resident monk father makarios left his home in

Denver, colorado to live and work here.

Father macarius: Historically, there are very few places in

The world today that reflect the life of the empire which

Created this monastery.

Nowhere else in the world can anybody find or see an

Institution like this.

Narrator: The centerpiece of st catherine's monastery is

The great basilica.

This is where daily prayers have been held for 1,500 years.

Today, father makarios must make sure that everything is ready

For the morning service.

Father macarius: There has been an uninterrupted succession

Of prayers here since the mid 6th century.

Nowhere in the world can claim that anywhere except here.

Narrator: Life here means following strict rules and turning your back

On modern comforts to live in the wilderness.

With the chapel now ready,

The monks can commence 8 hours of daily prayers in a monastery

That is uniquely connected to their faith.

Father macarius: Moses came here and god himself came.

To be able to be here and look at one face of this mountain from here

And say to yourself, this is really important I need

To be here for this.

Narrator: Preserving thousands of years of history has made egypt the

Country it is today.

Beside the giza pyramids,

It's a race against time to fill a new $1 billion-dollar museum with

The country's greatest treasures.

That means transporting fragile and priceless

Artefacts across one of the world's most congested cities.

Narrator: In egypt' s capital,

Cairo, plans are underway to bring thousands

Of years of history under one roof.

For more than a century, the world's largest collection

Of ancient egyptian treasures has been housed in cairo,

Here at the egyptian museum.

It's the home of the world-famous relics from the

Tomb of tutankhamun.

Today the neo-classical building is outdated...

And too small to display many of its items.

So engineers are building a brand new museum to

Accommodate 5 million tourists who visit each year.

Its scale is epic.

When it's finished, the grand egyptian museum will cover an area

Of over 5.2 million square feet.

This will be the largest museum devoted to one civilization

On the planet.

Before it opens,

Thousands of artefacts must be transported by road

On an 11-mile journey to their new home on the outskirts of cairo.

And that's a problem.

Cairo is one of the world's most congested cities.

Tens of thousands of road traffic accidents are reported

Every year and congestion costs the country

An estimated $50 billion.

Hitting the road today is this 3,000-year-old statue of

Ramses the second and the goddess anat.

Ramses is known as 'the great' due partly to

His huge building projects.

Director of restoration and transporting antiquities,

Eissa zidan, must ensure safe passage.

Eissa: It's impossible to put a value on this statue,

For egyptians it means civilization, culture, heritage and honor,

Ancient egyptian civilization is priceless.

Narrator: Eissa's team painstakingly wraps the

Monument in a protective material before its journey.

Ramses will be transported across cairo to his new home by driver,

Zakriya mohamed.

Zakriya: I feel proud to be transporting such important pieces.

I also feel afraid, because if anything were to happen to any

Of these artefacts, I would be devastated.

Narrator: To ensure ramses' safe delivery,

Zakriya has called in help.

Four police cars, and a special forces unit,

Will escort the mighty pharaoh.

To prevent the statue toppling off his truck,

Zakriya must try and maintain a constant speed of 12 miles per hour

Towards the grand egyptian museum.

After a tense 60-minute journey...

Zakriya and ramses arrive unscathed.

Zakriya: I always feel nervous while driving.

I feel especially stressed carrying something of such

Value to egyptians.

When I arrive at the grand egyptian museum I feel relieved

That it has got here safely.

Narrator: The statue will soon be unpacked...

And installed on the new museum's grand staircase.

Eissa: I will feel extremely proud to see the grand egyptian

Museum finally open, and visitors coming to see all

The antiquities that we have transported so carefully.

I hope we have done something that will be remembered.

Narrator: Flying over egypt,

Our birds eye view reveals how this proud nation continues to embrace

Its unique past.

From the air, it's clear how the ancients stamped their

Mark across this harsh and inhospitable landscape.

And how some lifestyles here have barely changed for

Thousands of years.

In this land of the pharaohs the ancient and modern

Continue to live side by side.

Captioned by cotter captioning services.