Original subtitles

male narrator: This week on "Ancient Top Ten"...

The secrets of the Sphinx unveiled.

- Sometimes what you think you know is called into question,

and the Sphinx is a perfect example of that.

narrator: The spine-chilling secrets of mummification.

- They created over 70 million mummies.

Absolutely amazing.

narrator: An ancient scroll so controversial

it's been called the first porn magazine in history.

- This sordid scroll has given us more insight

into the ancient Egyptians than any other discovery

I can think of.

narrator: And the most incredible ancient treasure

of all time.

- In terms of history,

in terms of civilization,

this is priceless.

narrator: Where will they be ranked

on the only top ten list

thousands of years in the making?

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

narrator: For 3,000 years,

until Alexander the Great's armies

conquered it in the 4th century B.C.,

ancient Egypt was the most

important civilization in the world.

♪ ♪

- When you hear ancient Egypt, you rightfully think of

the pyramids, the Sphinx, the Nile river,

Cleopatra, King Tut's tomb.

But with all that body of knowledge we have,

there are secrets we know nothing about.

narrator: This week's "Ancient Top Ten."

♪ ♪

The list is ranked by how each entry

has shaped our understanding of ancient Egypt.

♪ ♪

At number 10, the Great Sphinx.

- One of the most iconic and yet mysterious figures

from ancient Egypt is the Sphinx of the Giza Plateau.

narrator: The Great Sphinx sits at the foot

of the pyramids near Cairo.

Some Egyptologists believe it was carved

during the reign of King Khafre in 2,500 B.C.

and in his likeness.

♪ ♪

One of the pyramids to its rear is his tomb.

♪ ♪

With the head of a king and the body of a lion,

the role of the Sphinx may have been

to guard the pharaoh's final resting place.

It is the largest statue ever carved out of

a single piece of stone,

240 feet long, 60 feet high,

and wrapped in riddles.

For one thing, the true size of the Sphinx

was a mystery for millennia.

- Up to a century ago, the Great Sphinx

was buried up to its neck in sand.

narrator: These photos show how the Sphinx looked

circa the 1920s,

its head and upper body visible.

In 1925, an effort began to see more.

- Then archaeologists decided to dig and dig

and excavate until the entire body was revealed.

♪ ♪

narrator: There are smaller sphinxes all over Egypt,

and in the Temple of Luxor alone,

there are over 1,300 statues of them,

underscoring how important they were

to ancient Egyptian culture.

Beyond size, there is a second, bigger mystery.

- If you look closely at the surface of the Sphinx,

you'll see tiny traces of paint

where 3,500 years ago,

King Thutmose had the surface restored.

Now, if you think about it,

3,500 years ago

it was in need of restoration.

Just how old is this thing?

♪ ♪

narrator: In the 1950s, new evidence

further put into question the age of the Sphinx.

- There are water erosion marks on the body

of the Sphinx caused by rain.

But that level of rain hasn't been around Egypt

for over 9,000 years.

♪ ♪

narrator: If these erosion marks were made

9,000 years ago, long before

this part of Africa was a desert,

then Egyptian civilization is far older

than previously thought.

Or perhaps the civilization of the Pharaohs

was born from an even older long lost civilization.

That would be the biggest secret of them all.

♪ ♪

Number nine on our countdown

can't match the wise Sphinx in age,

but in height, there was no contest.

♪ ♪

It's the Pharos lighthouse.

- The Pharos lighthouse of Alexandria

is one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

People would come from all over the globe

to wonder at its splendor.

narrator: This is Alexandria, Egypt.

In the third century B.C.,

it was one of the greatest cities

of the ancient world.

It was built around a deep natural harbor

where the Nile enters the sea.

On an island in the harbor,

at the end of a manmade causeway

3/4 of a mile long,

an incredible lighthouse was constructed,

to guide ships safely in.

- Twice the height of America's tallest lighthouse today.

The mighty Pharos. Alexandria's great lighthouse.

♪ ♪

- The Pharos was 400 feet high.

That is the height of a 40-story building.

Incredible.

♪ ♪

narrator: At 400 feet high,

the Pharos may have been taller

than the Statue of Liberty,

and just like its modern counterpart,

it was designed to welcome people and make a statement.

narrator: The Pharos stood for over 1,500 years.

For all that time, there was nothing like it.

- The architectural sophistication

of this thing would just take your breath away.

narrator: The Pharos had a huge square base

of granite blocks,

sealed together with molten lead.

- Some of the blocks used to build the Pharos lighthouse

were among the largest used in ancient construction.

They were 20 feet by 8 feet.

They were massive.

The size of shipping containers.

At night, a fire was lit to act as a beacon for shipping.

- As a lighthouse, it's incredibly effective.

That light could be seen over 35 miles.

narrator: Amazingly, the light from the Pharos

could be seen just as far in the daytime.

This would have been impossible with just the light of a fire.

- How did the Pharos lighthouse

possibly generate that much light?

I mean, modern lighthouses can generate light

to extend about 20 miles, and that's because

they have these super powerful electric bulbs.

The Pharos lighthouse is essentially a mystery.

There must have been some advanced engineering involved.

♪ ♪

- Well, this is one of the things that's so mysterious

and amazing about this site.

What was making that light 2,000 years ago?

- We are told that the lighthouse of Alexandria

had these specially designed mirrors attached to the top,

and the purpose of these mirrors was to

focus the rays of the sun.

narrator: Could there have been one giant mirror

catching the sun's rays and bouncing them

to another that was the beacon?

They would each have had to rotate and be aligned

and move together.

That's the kind of sophistication we find today

in modern solar power plants.

Astonishingly, the lighthouse holds an even greater secret.

The mysterious mirrors may have been much more

than a beacon for ships at sea.

- There are actually ancient sources

that say the lighthouse could focus

a lethal beam of light and aim it at enemy ships,

burning them.

- This is the ancient equivalent of a laser beam,

and considering this was thousands of years ago,

it is a phenomenal achievement.

narrator: And why did the people of Alexandria

need such a super weapon?

Because they had the greatest library,

and their enemies would do anything to get a hold

of all the scientific knowledge it contained.

♪ ♪

- Everything that was written down was stored

in the Great Library of Alexandria.

It was like a kind of living Internet of its day.

♪ ♪

There were 550,000 volumes,

and if you read a new one every day,

you would be sitting in that library for over 1,500 years.

narrator: Alexandria would want to stop anyone

from attacking its precious library.

A super weapon would certainly discourage any attempts.

- Stories of this ancient laser beam may not be true,

but if your enemy believes that it is,

then that is enough of a deterrent.

♪ ♪

narrator: Just the idea of a death ray

and complicated, revolving mirrors

is enough to change our view of the ancient Egyptians.

- It's incredible to think

that the mighty Pharos stood at the harbor

in Alexandria for 1,500 years.

It was so well built that it actually took

a massive earthquake to finally finish it off.

♪ ♪

- There's never been anything like the Pharos before

or since, for that matter.

2,000 years later, it's still

the greatest lighthouse ever built,

so much so, the word "pharos" in many languages,

still means lighthouse.

narrator: The secrets of the Pharos

may never be fully understood.

But there are even bigger secrets,

including the raunchiest papyrus ever unearthed,

and an extraordinary monument

that puts one of the great American icons to shame.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

narrator: This is "Ancient Top Ten's"

top ten secrets of Egypt,

ranked by experts, according to how

they've shaped our view of this civilization.

♪ ♪

The fertile Nile valley was a vibrant place,

teaming with life.

Egyptian society was rich and colorful

and apparently, not afraid to express itself.

Coming in at number eight

is a scandalous find.

♪ ♪

The Turin Erotic Papyrus.

♪ ♪

At the beginning of the 19th century,

a local farmer near the Valley of the Kings

stumbled across an intriguing earthenware vessel.

It was on the site of where the laborers lived

who worked on the tombs.

There was something hidden inside.

♪ ♪

It was an ancient papyrus,

which shook the world of Egyptology to the core.

- When it was uncovered, it was described

as an image of monstrous obscenity.

♪ ♪

narrator: The papyrus was covered

in the most graphic, intimate pictures.

♪ ♪

- The Turin Erotic Papyrus

was discovered in a workman's village, Deir el-Medina.

Now, it's possible that these men were all

passing this thing around to each other,

so it could have been one of the first men's magazines.

♪ ♪

narrator: And this is it.

These fragments of ancient scroll,

over eight feet long,

are 3,000 years old.

It's called The Turin Erotic Papyrus

because it's kept here in a museum in Turin in Italy.

♪ ♪

And it's recommended for adults only.

♪ ♪

Sex was often represented by the Egyptians in art,

but in a very different way than the papyrus.

- In ancient Egypt, we see sex depicted

at the level of the gods in private spaces like temples,

but these are more symbolic.

When we're talking about the papyrus,

this much more closely resembles human pornography.

♪ ♪

narrator: So if it wasn't for religious purposes,

it really may have been created

for much more erotic uses.

- The papyrus shows 12 raunchy scenes.

We're talking older men with younger women.

Sex of all sorts.

It's quite shocking, actually.

♪ ♪

narrator: This material is considered so vulgar

that we can only show snippets.

- I've seen quite a lot of ancient erotic art

in my time, but for me,

the Turin Erotic Papyrus

is quite frankly jaw-dropping.

Basically anything that can happen

is happening.

narrator: And this is why it makes it

to the "Ancient Top Ten" list.

It changes and humanizes our view of ancient Egypt.

♪ ♪

narrator: At number seven,

a more G-rated secret.

♪ ♪

The unfinished obelisk,

one of the most amazing engineering feats

from ancient Egypt.

- Obelisks were huge stone structures.

They were monoliths found all over Egypt.

They were absolutely incredible.

♪ ♪

- In London, Paris and in Rome,

we find these incredible ancient Egyptian obelisks,

and each of them is a testament

to the cult of the sun.

They are absolutely mesmerizing,

and we remain in awe of them and for very good reason.

narrator: Obelisks were giant pillars

pointing upwards towards the sun god, Ra.

♪ ♪

In a quarry here in Aswan, in southern Egypt,

is the biggest obelisk of all,

but it's still attached to the bedrock.

If it had been finished and erected,

it would have been nearly as high as Niagara Falls.

♪ ♪

- The unfinished obelisk is huge.

If it were finished, it would have been over 140 feet tall.

This thing would have surpassed any other obelisk made

in ancient Egypt to this point.

♪ ♪

- It would have weighed in

at around 1,200 tons.

That's almost six times the weight

of the Statue of Liberty.

♪ ♪

narrator: The modern world has its own obelisk

inspired by ancient Egypt:

the Washington Monument.

It was built in the 19th century,

but modern building techniques were unable

to match those of the ancient Egyptians.

- The Washington Monument is bigger, but it cheats.

It's made with a steel frame and 30,000 separate bricks.

But this--this is the real deal.

It's made out of one solid piece of granite.

narrator: And there were no metal tools back then.

This was the 15th century B.C.

They were hitting rock with rock.

- 130 men in cramped conditions,

all trying to carve this thing out of the ground

with only a slighter harder rock to cut it.

narrator: But the unfinished obelisk was left in place.

Why was it abandoned after so much work?

- Chipping it away, day after day, week after week,

month after month, possibly even for years.

Then they find the flaw.

A crack in the obelisk.

narrator: In their efforts to separate it

from the bedrock, the obelisk had split.

- All of that work, all of that effort for nothing.

narrator: It earns its place on the "Ancient Top Ten" list

because it would have been the greatest

solid obelisk in history,

reinforcing our view of ancient Egyptians

as master builders.

narrator: Coming up, an incredible boat

buried in the desert,

unearthed after thousands of years,

and how could the ancient Egyptians

have carved statues bigger than Mount Rushmore

out of a mountain?

♪ ♪

narrator: This is Giza,

the site of the pyramids near Cairo.

The pyramids themselves were plundered in ancient times,

all their treasures stolen.

But in 1954 there was an amazing find here.

An entire ship, buried in the desert.

And it's our number six secret.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

The Khufu Ship.

- A ship buried in the desert outside the pyramid.

And this was a huge vessel, bigger than the Mayflower,

and over 4,000 years ago.

Incredible.

narrator: The ancient ship was buried around 2,500 B.C.,

in a pit carved out of the solid bedrock.

♪ ♪

143 feet long, and just under 20 feet wide,

now in a specially built museum on the site at Giza,

it's the world's oldest intact ship.

- The Khufu ship is one of the largest

and best-preserved boats from antiquity.

It's incredible to think that this boat made of wood

has survived 4,500 years.

narrator: The entire ship had been dismantled.

Its wooden parts were stacked neatly in the pit.

♪ ♪

In re-assembling the ship,

ancient techniques came to light.

- What was particularly amazing about it

was how this ship was built.

There were no fixtures or fittings.

It was all held together

with beautifully crafted joints

and tied together with rope.

♪ ♪

narrator: The rope was made from grass.

In total, there was over a mile of it.

- Before this, we believe the Egyptians used reed boats.

But this is the first significant wooden boat,

and it's also the first construction of its kind

to be built without nails.

narrator: It was a sleek, beautiful design,

and completely sea-worthy.

But why was it buried in the middle of the desert?

What was it for?

- The Khufu ship never actually went to sea,

because it was a funeral barge.

narrator: The ship was meant to transport the dead pharaoh

up to his place in the heavens.

- Clearly, assembling the boat in the afterlife

wouldn't have been such a great task for a pharaoh.

In fact, maybe he killed a handyman or two

to go along with him.

narrator: The ship tells us about the Egyptians'

deepest beliefs and is a landmark in engineering.

It's so sophisticated,

this knowledge and skill must have come

from many centuries of ship building,

which means Egypt must have been

a great seafaring nation much earlier

than previously thought.

- It absolutely transformed our understanding

of seafaring 4,500 years ago,

and that's why it's in my top ten.

♪ ♪

narrator: Another buried ship has now been found at the site.

And it's thought there might have been

up to seven in total at Giza.

All for the benefit of the afterlife of the pharaohs.

♪ ♪

But at number five on our list

is something that was an underground secret

the size of a mountain.

♪ ♪

Early in the 19th century,

a young Egyptian boy guided some archaeologists

to a rock-face near his village.

He had found some unusual carvings,

exposed by the moving sands.

♪ ♪

The archaeologists returned and began to dig.

♪ ♪

What emerged was one of the most

amazing buildings in the world.

It was carved straight into the rock-face,

and it was the height of a ten-story building.

♪ ♪

narrator: Abu Simbel.

A huge temple from the 13th century B.C.

- One of the greatest buildings in ancient Egypt.

One of the greatest buildings in the world, surely.

narrator: It faced the River Nile

and was built to amaze and intimidate

Egypt's southern neighbors,

and to show the authority of the pharaoh.

♪ ♪

- Suitably, it's one of the greatest

monuments in ancient Egypt,

because it's dedicated to one of the greatest pharaohs.

narrator: The pharaoh was Ramesses II,

also known as Ramesses the Great.

He was the most powerful pharaoh ever

and reigned for over 70 years.

And at the front of the temple,

giant statues of Ramesses

a colossal 67 feet high.

- These figures at Abu Simbel are absolutely enormous.

Each statue is taller than the faces at Mount Rushmore.

♪ ♪

narrator: All the Egyptian workers had

were small copper chisels

to carve something the size of a mountain.

Each workman would wear through them

at the rate of about three a day.

These weren't slaves, but they weren't

paid workers either.

This was well before the days of money.

In return for their work,

they received something refreshing

and thirst-quenching.

- Construction workers in ancient Egypt

were compensated with food,

but also with beer, possibly even

a gallon and a half a day.

So can you imagine hauling rocks around

in the hot sun all day?

Beer would definitely lighten the load.

narrator: Once the construction was finished,

the painting started.

- We see them only as they are now,

as a dusty brown color.

But they would have been brightly colored.

So when we look at surviving Egyptian buildings,

they are nothing like they used to have been.

narrator: They would have looked like this.

♪ ♪

And inside: a fabulous pillared hall.

With wall carvings to show the glory of Ramesses.

But amazingly, none of this is where it used to be.

- In the 1960s, the Aswan Dam project

flooded a lot of southern Egypt,

and all the magnificent temples

that were in the way of the dam had to be moved.

Some of these were sold off to foreign governments

and museums.

But Abu Simbel, the work of Ramesses II,

was so important that it was just moved

690 feet away and 200 feet up,

where it stands majestically to this day.

narrator: Abu Simbel earns its place on the list

for revealing the power of ancient Egypt

and the power of the pharaohs.

narrator: Still to come on "Ancient Top Ten"...

Blood-curdling horror! [woman screaming]

It's the secrets of the living dead.

♪ ♪

narrator: We're counting down the greatest secrets

of ancient Egypt,

judged by historians and experts

according to how they've shaped our view

of this great civilization.

At number ten, we saw the Great Sphinx,

and at number nine, the Pharos lighthouse.

Number eight was the Turin Erotic Papyrus.

At number seven, the amazing unfinished obelisk.

At number six, we saw the incredible Khufu Ship.

And at number five, the remarkable

temple of Abu Simbel.

[dramatic music]

Now we're into the top four,

and it's time for a shocking secret

that's become a symbol of ancient Egypt

and a staple of horror films. [woman screams]

♪ ♪

- Ask anyone what comes to mind when you say "ancient Egypt,"

and I would bet you that they say "mummies."

narrator: Mummies are the preserved bodies of the dead.

The ancient Egyptians believed that preserving the body

meant it would live on in the afterlife.

This was true of everyone, not just pharaohs.

So everyone wanted to be mummified after death.

- The ancient Egyptians seemed to believe

that their physical body would be reunited

with their soul in the afterlife.

narrator: Mummies are evidence of this.

And it sets ancient Egypt apart from other civilizations.

They believed that after death,

the soul left the body,

but that at night it would return to it

to receive new life.

That's why the body had to be preserved.

- For the ancient Egyptians, life after death

is just as if not more important

than life before death, and that's why mummies

are a vital part of our countdown.

♪ ♪

- The ancient Egyptians were obsessed with mummification.

In fact, some estimates suggest that they created

over 70 million mummies.

Absolutely amazing.

- There were so many mummies

being produced in ancient Egypt,

they got it down to an absolute art form.

It must have been like a production line.

A modern factory.

A mummy factory.

narrator: In the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,

you can see the mummies of the pharaohs.

♪ ♪

The warrior king, Amenhotep II.

♪ ♪

The great monument builder Ramesses II.

♪ ♪

And his father, Seti I.

- Mummification was an incredibly intricate procedure.

All of the organs were removed with surgical precision,

including the brain, which was extracted

through the nose.

- They would soak the bodies in vats of chemicals

to dry them out and preserve the flesh.

narrator: And the body was packed with salt.

This was a key to preserving it.

- Next, the Egyptians would apply

layer and layer of bandages.

And this is what allowed the body to be perfectly preserved

for thousands of years.

narrator: And the Egyptians didn't let

any part of themselves go to waste.

- There's evidence that the pharaohs and the queens

even had their sex organs dried and wrapped.

♪ ♪

narrator: These incredibly preserved mummies

have survived for millennia.

Of course, the pharaohs were mummified

better than anyone else.

♪ ♪

The Egyptians believed that all living things had souls,

so they wanted their pets mummified too.

Then they could be together in the afterlife.

Across Egypt, there were vast cemeteries

filled with the mummified bodies

of family cats and dogs.

And even the crocodiles kept to guard the temples

around ancient Egypt were mummified.

♪ ♪

Mummies have shaped our view of Egyptian belief.

Because of mummies, we know that the Egyptians

thought the afterlife was a physical place,

as much for ordinary people and even animals,

as for the pharaohs.

And as an icon of ancient Egypt,

they've thrilled generations

and kept Egyptology very much alive and kicking.

- It's absolutely iconic. The idea of these dead bodies

preserved forever, wrapped in bandages.

All the gruesome stories are true.

narrator: While mummies have shaped our view

of how Egyptians looked at the afterlife,

our next secret helped to decode everything

about the land of the living in ancient Egypt.

♪ ♪

The key that unlocked ancient Egypt.

The Rosetta Stone.

- In the late 1700s, Napoleon and his troops

are invading Egypt.

Now they stumble across the Rosetta Stone

while digging up fortifications.

Luckily for us, they realize

that this stone was going to be

incredibly important.

narrator: A piece of granite just three feet high,

it's now the most visited exhibit

inside the British Museum in London.

- The importance of the Rosetta Stone can't be understated.

Its discovery was the turning point in Egyptology.

This unlikely chunk of rock changed everything.

narrator: It was because of this rock

that experts were able to understand hieroglyphics.

Before the Rosetta Stone, no one could understand them.

They were just strange shapes and symbols.

The Rosetta Stone has three bands of writing,

one above the other.

- The key thing about it is that it has information

written in three languages:

ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs,

Greek, and another ancient language called Demotic.

narrator: When it was found, classical scholars

could read the ancient Greek.

It translated as a list of good works done by the pharaoh.

And it was the name of the Pharaoh, Ptolemy,

that eventually provided the breakthrough needed,

because his name was uncovered in the hieroglyphs.

- The fact that the same information is written

in all three languages means that we could

work out what the hieroglyphs say.

And from that, you can understand

the whole of ancient Egyptian history.

narrator: Suddenly, all the hieroglyphs

in Egypt became readable.

- Imagine you can't read hieroglyphs and suddenly

you can look at a temple wall and say, "That's Ramesses II,"

or "That's Amenhotep III."

Now as an Egyptologist, I can't even imagine

how we would have understood

the Egyptian civilization without this.

narrator: The Rosetta Stone revealed a huge amount,

despite being small in stature.

But coming up are colossal constructions

of the ancient world, which would culminate

in the tallest building on Earth for nearly 4,000 years,

and the greatest archaeological find of all time.

♪ ♪

narrator: A list thousands of years

in the making.

This is "Ancient Top Ten's"

list of ancient Egyptian secrets.

Just missing out on the top slot

is one of the greatest building projects of all time.

Coming in at number two...

[dramatic music]

It's pyramids.

♪ ♪

Pyramids have defined our view

of ancient Egypt.

They are symbols of a civilization.

- The pyramids embody everything

we love about ancient Egypt.

The mystery, the lost technology,

the unfathomable effort that must have

gone into their creation.

This is why they have to be on our list.

♪ ♪

narrator: Ancient pyramids are found all over the globe.

From Central and South America,

to the Middle East,

even all the way to Asia.

♪ ♪

But no one built them on the same scale

or sophistication as the Egyptians.

As this map shows,

there's a lot more pyramids in Egypt

than the three famous ones at Giza.

In fact, there are over a hundred ancient pyramids

still standing, all over Egypt.

- These pyramids have enough material in them to build a wall

ten feet high and five feet wide

all the way from New York to LA.

Just incredible.

[men shouting together]

narrator: Pyramid building started over 4,500 years ago,

and they may have built as huge tombs for the pharaohs.

The pharaohs believed they lived on after death,

and it could be that the pyramids

were lavish homes for them.

But it's also thought that they might have been built to help

the dead pharaohs up to the heavens.

- The earliest pyramids are over 4,500 years old,

and they're stepped, supposedly, so that the soul

of the pharaoh could rise up to heaven.

narrator: The ancient Egyptians were building with stone

when other civilizations were just using mud bricks.

The oldest?

Here at Saqqara, 19 miles south of Cairo.

Building started around 2,660 B.C.

It's the world's first stone superstructure

and was originally over 200 feet high.

- It may have started out as a flat-roofed tomb,

and then another smaller tomb

built on top of that,

until hey, presto, you've got a pyramid.

♪ ♪

narrator: The first pyramids were built like this.

Layer upon layer.

But the pyramid builders went underground, too.

Beneath the Saqqara pyramid, shafts 100 feet deep,

and two tombs carved from the rock.

One for the body and one for the cleaned,

dried organs, carefully removed and stacked in boxes.

♪ ♪

These were just part of an amazing network of tunnels

that stretched out for three and a half miles.

The original pyramid architect, Imhotep,

was so important to the Egyptians

they made him into a god.

♪ ♪

Later pyramids had the stepped sides

filled in and smoothed over,

then coated with polished limestone

and capped with solid gold.

These pyramids shone brightly, beacons for miles around,

perhaps linking the dead pharaoh

with the mighty sun god.

- Or were they ritual centers, used to project

the pharaoh's soul into the constellation of Orion?

As you can probably tell, we're not entirely sure.

narrator: But building the perfect pyramid

didn't come right away.

First, came the collapsed pyramid,

abandoned halfway through,

but still over 200 feet high,

and at the time the tallest structure in the world.

♪ ♪

The Bent Pyramid.

344 feet high.

Then the Red Pyramid.

Copper chisels were being used now and bigger blocks.

The base? The size of

ten football fields.

- And of course the greatest pyramid of all,

The Great Pyramid of Giza.

Pyramid perfection.

♪ ♪

narrator: The tallest structure in the world

for nearly 4,000 years.

This was the pinnacle of pyramid building in Egypt.

To get to this point took six generations

and six pharaohs.

- The remarkable thing is, when the ancient Egyptians

were building the pyramids, they were adding

one or two stone blocks every few minutes.

I mean, that's incredible.

narrator: These amazing structures

have stood the test of time

like nothing else on Earth.

The question is, why did the Egyptians stop building them?

- The ancient pyramids of Egypt were plundered in antiquity,

and that's why it's theorized that

later pharaohs buried themselves and their treasures

in the Valley of the Kings in hidden tombs.

narrator: By 600 B.C., pyramid building in Egypt

was coming to an end.

The power and prestige of the pharaohs was waning.

The Pyramids were a truly incredible achievement

and the most iconic symbol of ancient Egypt.

Even today, pyramids are everywhere,

even on the dollar bill.

- The ancient Egyptians' engineering prowess

was just astonishing

and way ahead of its time.

narrator: The pyramids have stood as a clear testament

to just how advanced Egypt was for millennia.

But the next item on our countdown

had its glory hidden for over 3,000 years.

The most magnificent, the greatest,

most extraordinary secret of all.

- It should come as no surprise.

The number one?

Well, what else can it be?

♪ ♪

narrator: This is "Ancient Top Ten's"

list of the top secrets of ancient Egypt,

ranked by historians, based on how

they've shaped our view of this civilization.

At number ten in the countdown,

we saw the great Sphinx.

At number nine, the Pharos Lighthouse.

At number eight, we took a peek

at the sordid Turin Erotic Papyrus.

Number seven was was the incredible unfinished obelisk.

Number six was the astonishing Khufu boat.

Number five, the breathtaking temple of Abu Simbel.

At number four, mummies.

The groundbreaking Rosetta Stone was number three.

Number two--immense, phenomenal--it was pyramids.

But what is our number one top secret treasure of Egypt?

Buried in the mysterious Valley of the Kings,

laid hidden and undiscovered for 3,000 years

is the incredible treasure

of the most famous pharaoh in history.

- Coming in at number one are some of the treasures

discovered in one of the most amazing

archaeological discoveries in history.

It's the treasures of the tomb of Tutankhamun.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- The treasures of King Tutankhamun are the single most

sensational find in Egyptology.

That's why it just had to be our number one.

♪ ♪

narrator: In the 1920s, the British archaeologist

Howard Carter began one of the most

incredible explorations of ancient Egypt.

After years of searching

and on the verge of giving up,

he discovered a secret hidden tomb

which would change history.

When he finally broke open the tomb in 1922,

the world for the first time saw the real secrets of Egypt.

- For me, it doesn't get any more exciting than this.

And Carter is the only Egyptologist to have done this,

discovered the last resting place of a pharaoh intact.

narrator: It was brimming with treasure

and priceless artifacts.

- The Egyptians buried 5,000 treasures in this tomb,

many of which are pure gold.

- Gold wasn't all about just showing off your wealth.

To the ancient Egyptians, it was the key to immortality.

- Life and death in ancient Egypt

were really closely intertwined,

so the pharaohs would take with them

things from life into death.

♪ ♪

narrator: The treasure was beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

Jewelry,

two thrones,

six war chariots.

Everything the young pharaoh would need

in the next life... and even more.

- It had spare pairs of underwear,

new clothes, it even had a linen condom so that he could

enjoy safe sex in the afterlife.

narrator: And for even more protection,

King Tut's outer coffin was covered in gold.

- Tutankhamun was buried in a series of coffins,

one inside of another, like a Russian doll.

And the last one, the most precious one,

the amazing one was made of solid gold,

weighing over 250 pounds.

narrator: Inside this golden coffin

was an even greater treasure.

It was the face of a 3,000-year-old pharaoh.

It was an amazing secret of Egypt, now revealed.

The incredible golden death mask of Tutankhamun.

- It's rare that there's genuine perfection in art,

but if anything comes close, it's gotta be

the death mask of Tutankhamun.

♪ ♪

- Even by modern standards,

this is an extraordinary piece of sculpture.

As a piece of portraiture, it is a beautiful portrait

of a young, Egyptian boy.

narrator: Tut's death mask was surrounded

by precious stone.

The stunning blue is lapis lazuli from Afghanistan.

Quartz and obsidian in the eyes

that came across the Mediterranean.

It weighs 24 pounds

and is an ancient masterpiece.

♪ ♪

- Can you imagine what it must have been like

to hold up that mask for the first time

and stare King Tutankhamun square in the eyes?

- The moment I laid eyes

on King Tut's golden death mask,

I fell in love with the treasure of ancient Egypt.

- In terms of history, in terms of civilization,

this is priceless.

narrator: Imagine what the tombs

of the other, greater pharaohs

might have contained before they were robbed.

- It just makes the mind boggle

when you think this was what was left for the dead.

So just imagine what wealth there was

in the land of the living.

♪ ♪

- Tutankhamun had vanished from history.

Now, thanks to this treasure, his face is immortal.

♪ ♪

narrator: A fantastic treasure,

and a worthy and undisputed number one.

Because of this undreamt of secret find,

we can get a true feeling for the might

of the pharaohs and the power and the glory of ancient Egypt.

There has been no civilization like Egypt before or since.

Its incredible buildings and treasures can't be matched.

It's a land of mystery and a land of secrets,

and it will continue to amaze and astonish

for millennia to come.