Original subtitles

Narrator: Egypt.

A land where magnificent ancient monuments live side-by-side

With a dynamic, modern society.

This spectacular aerial journey...

With unprecedented access to the nation's incredible sights will show how archaeologists

Are rediscovering ancient treasures and how the engineers building new

Mega-projects are transforming the nation.

From a billion-dollar plan to construct the world's biggest ever museum...

To a brand-new capital city rising from the desert sands.

Our incredible bird's eye view reveals how this nation is embracing its past,

To forge its future.

♪ ♪

Egypt.

Covering almost 400,000 square miles,

It's home to the world's largest arab population.

97% of egypt is desert.

This forces 95% of its inhabitants to live on a narrow,

Fertile strip of land irrigated by the mighty river nile.

With egypt's population predicted to grow 30% to almost 130 million by

The year 2030...

The country's transport infrastructure, housing and energy resources will be

Stretched to breaking point.

The city under the greatest pressure to evolve is egypt's capital, cairo.

Home to 10 million people,

This is one of the most congested cities on earth.

Over 25 million car journeys are made every day in the capital

Causing rush hour gridlock and pushing pollution to dangerous levels.

Cairo's chaotic footprint makes wholesale urban renewal too complex and disruptive.

So planners have devised a radical solution to fix the city's problems.

One that breaks free from the constraints of egypt's challenging geography.

Their bold plan is to relieve the pressure on cairo by building a new

City in the desert, 30 miles to the east.

An aerial view reveals the vast scale of africa's largest building site.

Costing an estimated $300 billion...

Once finished, the as yet unnamed 'new capital' will have enough homes

For 6.5 million people.

Transport infrastructure is at the heart of the city's design.

Two new metro lines and hundreds of miles of highways will ease congestion.

A 25-mile-long subterranean pipeline will supply the city with water diverted

From the nile.

The city will cover 270 square miles...

30% larger than modern-day cairo.

The new capital will serve as egypt's administrative center,

And the egyptian government has invested $30 billion

Into the project to move its 36 ministries here.

Some of that money will subsidize the relocation of government workers from cairo.

But critics worry the new capital's homes will be unaffordable

For most egyptians.

It's 8:00 am.

The night shift is heading home.

But engineer ahmed refaat's day is just beginning.

Ahmed: When I started working here, it was just a pile of sand.

Narrator: Ahmed is helping to build the city's centerpiece...

Egypt's new parliament building.

This is where the nation's 596 representatives will sit.

Ahmed is one of 1,000 men on site working around the clock to keep

Construction on schedule.

Today he and his team must use eleven cranes to maneuver thousands of tons

Of materials into place.

To reach the building's ambitious opening deadline, each crane driver must

Complete a lift in just 15 minutes.

Ahmed: I worry that something will happen that will put us behind schedule.

Lift up the load to zone 2 on the 7th floor.

Do it straight away please, mohamed.

Narrator: The team needs to erect two tons of steel scaffolding on top

Of the building's 115-foot high roof.

The scaffolding must be in place in time for a concrete pour later this afternoon.

With the delivery made,

Ahmed loses no time preparing for the next lift,

To keep the massive build on track.

Ahmed: I think about how the new capital will look 20 or 30 years from now and

Telling my children about my part in building the city.

Narrator: This won't be the first time egypt's capital has moved.

Before cairo's 1,000-year incumbency, many cities had been home to egypt's rulers.

The most powerful of the country's ancient capitals was undoubtedly thebes.

The ruins of this 4000-year-old city lie beneath modern-day luxor,

400 miles to the south of cairo.

At its heart stands karnak,

The largest temple complex the ancient egyptians ever built.

It's only from above that the scale of this majestic site becomes clear...

Added to by 30 pharaohs,

It stretches across an area larger than 140 soccer pitches...

At its center soar the 134 massive sandstone columns of the hypostyle hall.

For french archaeologist,

Benjamin durand, working here is a boyhood dream come true...

Benjamin: I visit karnak when I was a child and I really had this first impression

Of being in a place where you can really touch ancient history.

And what is amazing is that of course I had no idea I would work here.

Narrator: Benjamin wants to discover what happened at karnak after the pharaohs

Rule came to an end.

Benjamin: Karnak is the longest architectural project in egypt,

It lasts for about 2000 years.

We have here a concentration of almost all the history of egypt.

Narrator: Egypt's last pharaoh, cleopatra, was deposed by the roman emperor,

Octavian, in 30 bce.

This marked the beginning of more than 600 years of roman rule.

When rome converted to christianity in the fourth century ce,

The religion of ancient egypt quickly fell from favor.

Did this shift end karnak's role as a sacred site?

Were its buildings abandoned for hundreds or even thousands of years?

Or were they used for worship even when the era of the pharaohs and

Their gods was over?

Narrator: Karnak is one of the largest ancient temples in the world.

Archaeologist benjamin durand wants to find out how it was used after the

Fall of egypt's pharaohs.

He's digging deposits from the 4th century ce,

When egypt was under roman rule.

His team has now made an extraordinary discovery.

One that supports the theory that a part of the temple became a place

Of christian worship.

Benjamin: The most important, uh, object we found here in,

In this excavation is a jar stand, dating from the 4th century, so after christ.

It was like in a movie you know.

We were just brushing the surface of the floor, and we first appear the

Christian cross in, uh, on the, on the floor.

Narrator: Benjamin's discovery shows that after pharaohs fell,

Karnak became a center for another faith and god.

New finds are filling in previously unknown portions of karnak's long history and

Hint the temple has many more secrets to reveal.

Benjamin: In fact very, very little is known, uh, of what is beneath

The temple of karnak.

There is still hundreds of years of work for archaeologists in karnak

To know precisely, what was happening here.

Narrator: Many of karnak's treasures are displayed here at the

Egyptian museum in cairo.

This is home to the largest number of ancient egyptian artifacts on the planet,

More than 120,000.

Unfortunately, this old museum is today too small to display the entire collection and

Lacks the technology to conserve it in ideal conditions.

So egypt's ministry of antiquities is building a huge,

New showcase for these priceless treasures equipped with state-of-the-art

Conservation techniques.

One and a half miles from the famous giza plateau,

A museum like no other is taking shape.

Only from the air does the scale of this 5.2 million square foot

Project become clear.

Construction of the mammoth, $1-billion enterprise began in 2002.

When it finally opens...

The grand egyptian museum will house state of the art

Climate-controlled galleries to display the country's greatest ancient artifacts.

Engineer shady ahmed's team face a formidable challenge.

They must erect the giant triangular grid that will form the museum's colossal facade.

Shady: The grand egyptian museum project is one of the most complex projects

In the world.

Narrator: Looking at the site from high up reveals the inspiration behind

The structure's shape...

Shady: We're just over a mile from the pyramids so we're trying to do

Something great here, as great as the pyramids.

Narrator: The museum's design echoes the form of egypt's most famous ancient monuments.

From the triangular panes in each glass façade...

To the building's triangular footprint.

Shady: The museum is full of triangles to remind you of the pyramids.

Wherever you go, you will see ancient egypt in a new way.

Narrator: The finished museum will exhibit treasures from 7,000 years

Of egyptian history.

It's conservation center is already open.

Experts here are working to preserve these unique artifacts for future

Generations to study and enjoy.

Shady: That is genuinely a great thing and something the whole world can appreciate.

Narrator: While workers race to complete a 21st century engineering marvel...

Nearby, archaeologists are investigating one of ancient egypt's most iconic monuments.

They're close to unlocking the last secrets of the mysterious great sphinx

On the giza plateau.

The ancient statue is 240 feet long and more than 65 feet tall.

Looking at it from the air reveals it's not built from stone blocks...

It's cut out from the plateau's bedrock.

The ancient egyptians depicted most of their gods with the body of a human and

The head of an animal.

The beast defined the god's characteristics.

Sekhmet had a lion's head to emphasize his role as god of war.

For the first time in ancient egypt, the sphinx flipped this convention.

The head of a pharaoh was placed on the body of a lion,

So a living ruler became a god.

Archaeologist mark lehner believes the logic behind this switch was clear

To the ruler who ordered the sphinx's construction.

Mark: When you put the human head on the lion body,

It represents human intelligence in control of a very powerful force.

Narrator: For centuries mystery has surrounded which pharaoh had the

Sphinx carved in his image.

Now, mark believes he has an answer.

Narrator: The identity of the pharaoh who built the sphinx is fiercely debated.

Now, by comparing the sphinx's face to statues of egypt's rulers,

Mark lehner believes he can answer the riddle.

Mark: The sphinx face does bear a resemblance in terms of the spacing of

The eyes and the eyebrows

And the nose and the lips, although the nose is missing,

To statues of khafre.

Narrator: Khafre ruled egypt four and a half thousand years ago.

He built the second largest pyramid of the giza complex,

And mark thinks the archaeological evidence

Suggests this pharaoh ordered the sphinx's construction too.

Mark: What does speak very powerfully that khafre built the sphinx is the sequence of

Quarrying and construction that tells you that the sphinx was one of the last things

That khafre was doing as part of his great pyramid complex.

Narrator: Today the sphinx and the giza pyramids are egypt's

Number one tourist destination.

On the country's stunning red sea coast, 21st century engineers are transforming

The landscape to create a brand-new tourist hotspot.

30 years ago, el gouna was an empty stretch of desert coastline.

Now it is the site of one of the country's most ambitious building programs...

A luxury resort offering year-round sunshine is rising from the desert.

Over the past decades,

The town has attracted rich egyptians seeking a riviera lifestyle.

The project involves completely re-modeling the coastline by creating

Man made inlets,

Lakes and islands that will eventually accommodate 25,000 residents.

George elia is the developer charged with making this remarkable

Transformation happen.

George: El gouna currently spreads over almost 14 square miles,

It's constantly under construction and development.

Narrator: George's team is building 108 villas across 3 newly

Constructed artificial islands...

It's just one of twelve developments currently being built at el gouna.

Powerful pumps suck up thousands of cubic feet of wet sand from the bottom

Of the new lake.

The pumps deposit this sand on the shoreline where excavators use it to

Reshape the landscape.

Some critics believe el gouna is a huge financial gamble given

Egypt's recent political turmoil.

Tourist numbers collapsed after the 2011 revolution.

They are now slowly recovering, but further unrest could see them

Dwindle once again.

The uncertainty piles the pressure on george to deliver the villas

On time and on budget.

George: If we don't deliver or we are late, it's a big problem.

The company loses a lot of revenue.

Narrator: For today at least,

Pumping sand from this lagoon is on schedule and remodeling this section

Of coast should be finished before the deadline.

Soon, egyptians will move into this new quarter of the ever-expanding town

Of el gouna.

Coastal development projects face criticism because of the damage they can

Cause to fragile ecosystems.

The red sea is home to world renowned sea life.

And groups of environmentalists and volunteers are pioneering

Initiatives to protect its fragile coral reef.

One of the red sea's most spectacular marine environments lies off the

Coast of the sinai peninsula.

Seen from above, the arid mountainous interior is clearly barren.

But where these slopes drop into the deep blue sea,

They meet one of the planet's most extraordinary ecosystems.

Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the ocean floor,

But they support over 25% of marine life.

The red sea's warm, and especially salty waters are home to over

300 species of coral and 1,200 species of fish.

Khaled: Dahab is a very precious place and there are things here that

Don't exist anywhere else in the world.

Narrator: 20 years ago, local boy khaled hamed was fascinated by the

Divers he saw swimming in the water.

Khaled: I learned to dive after someone lost their fins in the current.

I jumped in and swam to retrieve them and so they told me 'you have to be a diver'.

Narrator: Khaled trained in dahab as a dive instructor and since those early days in the

1990s the town's population has boomed to 15,000.

Now the plastic waste visitors leave behind threatens to destroy the

Fragile marine environment they've come here to see.

So, khaled and his fellow divers have made it their mission to save the reef.

Narrator: On egypt's red sea coast,

Dive instructor khaled hamed is leading a campaign to save coral reefs.

60 feet from the shore, his team finds one of the greatest threats

Facing this environment.

Plastic.

It wraps around coral polyps, starving them of oxygen,

So they suffocate and die.

And once the coral has gone,

The entire ecosystem it supports will collapse.

After just one hour in the water the divers have filled their bags and

Head back to shore.

They've pulled three garbage bags full of plastic away from just a tiny section

Of dahab's reef.

Khaled hopes the team's work will eradicate a little of the estimated

12.7 million tons of plastic adrift in the world's

Oceans and protect egypt's reefs for future generations.

Khaled: I am really happy.

It is a good thing when we remove the plastic from the sea.

We do this with love.

This is our environment, we must look after it.

Narrator: Away from the fragile coastal ecosystems, researchers are uncovering

The secrets of another, far more ancient, marine environment.

Surprisingly, it is situated more than 100 miles from

The nearest coastline in a stretch of desert named wadi al-hitan.

Seen from above, the area looks like an alien world.

Giant, smoothed rocks blasted by storms over hundreds of millennia rise from the sands.

40 million years ago,

This desert was at the bottom of the now vanished tethys sea.

When 20th century explorers dug here, they uncovered not ancient temples

But the remains of giant sea creatures.

Paleontologist mohammed sameh has been excavating this site since the year 2000.

Mohamed: This place is full of secrets and everyday it reveals another.

The layers are like an open book that we can read to learn its history.

Narrator: Mohamed brushes away dust from the fossilized skeleton of a

60-foot long prehistoric animal that swam the ocean millions of years ago.

Mohamed: It's an indescribable feeling to study a creature that's 40 million years old

And has been discovered after all that time.

Narrator: The hundreds of skeletons like this, give the site its name.

In arabic, wadi al-hitan means valley of the whales.

This is the skeleton of a basilosaurus, one of the earliest

Whales to live on earth.

After decades of research mohamed can put flesh onto the creature's bones

To reveal it had a muscular body and large,

Powerful jaws that allowed it to hunt like a killer whale.

These fossils form the most important collection of whale bones on earth.

They offer a unique insight into how modern marine mammals evolved from

Their prehistoric ancestors.

Mohamed: We tell all our visitors,

'when you come to the valley of the whales,

Close your eyes and listen to the sound of the ocean'.

It's a marine world in the desert.

Narrator: For millennia, egypt's deserts constrained the country's urban and

Economic development.

Now, 21st century technology is turning these wastelands into prime

Energy-producing real estate.

Just inland from the red sea coast,

The hot desert air creates strong winds that the egyptians

Are harnessing for power.

Here wind speeds regularly top 70 miles per hour.

It's the perfect place to build the largest wind farm in the middle east.

An aerial view reveals the scale of the epic project.

It covers an area of 40 square miles.

290 giant turbines, fitted with 128-foot long blades

Combine to generate 580 megawatts of electricity.

Enough energy to power almost half a million homes.

This windy desert is the ideal environment for generating renewable energy,

But it also delivers a daily blast of sand to the turbines.

That's bad news for emad hamdy, a maintenance engineer at the site.

Today, he's on an emergency call out.

The wind farm's control center has received an alert.

A turbine's wind meter is broken.

It can't run until the meter is fixed.

Man: Turbine 55 has a wind gauge failure.

Clear damage, send me confirmation when the job's done.

Narrator: The meter is at the top of the 196-foot turbine.

Emad must now scale this goliath to fix it.

Narrator: Engineer emad hamdy stands atop a 196-foot turbine

In egypt's largest wind farm.

He must repair its broken wind meter.

70 mile per hour gusts make this one of the best spots for a wind farm in north africa.

On the few occasions the wind does drop, the pressure is on to complete

Repairs as quickly as possible.

After 30 minutes watching his every step, emad's work is finished and

He retreats to the safety of the turbine's interior.

With the wind meter fixed,

The 7-ton, 128 foot long blades start to spin,

And feed electricity straight into the egyptian power grid.

Here in egypt the ancient and modern live side by side.

As the country moves forward,

And lifestyles, jobs and industries change,

Many communities are determined to not lose sight of their culture and history.

Located deep in the western desert,

Just 30 miles from the libyan border,

People in siwa have been the producing dates for thousands of years.

From above, a burst of green spreads across the arid desert.

350 miles from the river nile,

More than 700,000 date palm trees blanket the oasis.

This is one of the most fertile areas of egypt outside the nile valley.

Mohamed admy picks dates using a technique unchanged for generations.

Mohamed: I harvest dates by spreading a sheet on the ground around the palm tree.

Then I climb up, tie myself to the tree and start to pick.

We throw the dates on the ground,

Then we sort out the good ones

From the ones that are infested with bugs.

Narrator: After 8 hours harvesting, it's time for mohamed to sell his dates.

This is where the ancient crop meets the 21st century.

Unlike his ancestors,

Mohamed doesn't rely on an uncertain price at the local market.

He takes his dates to the town center factories instead.

Mohamed: When the quality is good the dates end up being exported abroad and

Sold for a good price.

Then when the next season comes around and someone asks for my dates again,

I can demand a higher price.

Narrator: This system means mohamed can now rely on a predictable income.

Mohamed: Before, date farmers had to wait for their payments because the merchant

Had to sell the harvest before he could pay us.

Today, I deliver my harvest to the factory and get paid on the spot.

Narrator: The industry may be changing but the local traditions remain strong.

As evening falls mohamed joins his fellow farmers in a ceremony of song and dance.

They remain as proud of their history and heritage as ever.

From siwa to magnificent ancient monuments, the past constantly colors the

Lives of modern egyptians.

In 1977, archaeologists deciphered hieroglyphics that described an epic

Contest in the desert.

An ancient pharaoh put his soldiers to the test by challenging them to a

62-mile race around egypt's first pyramids.

Inspired by the tale,

Modern egyptians resurrected the event that starts

Outside the city of faiyum.

It's 4:00am and a group of athletes are warming up,

Ready to bring the legacy of the pharaohs into the 21st century.

47-year-old mahmoud dehis is an ultra-marathon runner.

He has won this race a record 10 times.

-Three, two, one, go!

Can he win it again today?

Narrator: The grand pharaonic race is a 62-mile ultra-marathon

Through egypt's western desert.

It's an ancient event reinvented for the 21st century.

The athletes race through history: Past five of the first pyramids

Built by the ancient egyptians.

Mahmoud dehis not only wants to win today, he wants to once again

Beat the 8- hour time of the ancient runners recorded on hieroglyphics.

Mahmoud: When I think about our ancestors who ran the same route,

I start hearing the rhythm of their footsteps.

Narrator: 18 miles into the race the runners pass the 4600-year-old meidum pyramid.

This is the ancient egyptians' second attempt at such a monument,

Built around 50 years before the great pyramid of giza.

From up above, the miles still left to run stretch away to the horizon.

The non-stop ultra-marathon,

Through often sweltering temperatures,

Plays havoc with both body and mind.

Mahmoud: Very often runners,

Myself included, feel despair and fatigue.

Narrator: 40 miles into the race and mahmoud has left the other competitors behind.

He'll complete its grueling final stages alone.

The effort to break away from the pack takes a toll on mahmoud's legs.

A support medic massages his aching muscles...

To help mahmoud push on through the heat of the midday sun.

Cheering crowds boost mahmoud's moral.

He thanks them by throwing candy to excited children.

Now, he's ready to face the final 6 miles.

A daunting uphill climb past the stepped pyramid of dioser, the first ever built in egypt.

Pushing through the pain,

Mahmoud chases down the finish line with the

Other competitors still out of sight.

Shattered but triumphant mahmoud finishes in first place...

Mahmoud: It feels great, I feel like everyone is happy when I win.

It's a really great joy.

Narrator: His time of seven hours forty-two minutes is

Just 12 minutes behind his personal best.

Again, the 47-year-old beats the 8-hour time recorded by the ancients...

Mahmoud: Everyone should appreciate persistence, determination,

And overcoming challenges.

You need this spirit no matter your age.

Narrator: This hardcore endurance event proves that even in the 21st century the

Spirit of the pharaohs has not been forgotten.

Flying over egypt, our birds' eye view reveals a nation moving

Forward while embracing its unique history.

Engineering mega-projects in the desert are powering the country to a bright future.

A state-of-the-art museum will showcase priceless ancient treasures

For the whole world to understand and enjoy.

This is a land where the achievements of the past are still inspiring

The egyptians of today.

Captioned by cotter captioning services.