All language subtitles for Secrets Series 6 Part 1 Tuts Last Mission 1080p

Narrator: The
tomb of tutankhamun,

Filled with treasures from
the life of the boy king.

Naunton: Over 5,000 items
were found in the tomb.

It was a real treasure trove.

Narrator: The riches are
perplexing from gold chariots,

To plant seeds, weapons of war,

(sword clangs)

To the mysterious mummies
of two stillborn children.

Ikram: To find them in
their own little

Beautifully decorated coffins
must have been quite a shock.

Narrator: But now experts
suspect tutankhamun's hoard

Was actually his secret weapon

For a special mission
after his death.

Tyldesley: There must be a
purpose for every single item

That was put inside that tomb.

Narrator: For
ancient egyptians,

This was the true destiny
of their beloved pharaoh.

Naunton: This is going to be a
real odyssey and epic journey.

Narrator: It would
be a supernatural fight

Through the afterlife.

Ikram: There is quicksand,
there are lakes of fire.

Naunton: The possibility
is always there

That he might not make it.

Narrator: If tutankhamun won,

(sword clangs)

Egypt would flourish.

If he failed, the
earth faced oblivion.

Ikram: We would be plunged
into eternal darkness.

Narrator: But could
tutankhamun's treasure trove

Guarantee him victory in
his ultimate challenge?

Naunton: If this danger
can't be overcome,

That's the end of it all.

(dramatic music)

Narrator: The relics
of the past hold secrets

Written in gold,

Stone,

And blood.

We can unlock them.

These are the secrets of
history's greatest treasures.

(reserved music)

The treasures of tutankhamun.

For almost a century,

Experts have studied this
unique collection of riches

To piece together the mysterious
life of the young pharaoh.

Tyldesley: It's quite often seen

As a sort of snapshot
of tutankhamun's life.

He's got games in there,

He's got chariots,
he's got sandals.

Narrator: But now,

Egyptologists believe
these treasures

Have another story to tell,

Not of the young
king's life on earth,

But of his life after death.

Naunton: It's a story that
hasn't really been told,

But it's such a wonderful story

That I think it really
deserves to be told.

It's a tale that can
only now be deciphered

Because for the first time

Since tutankhamun's
tomb was discovered,

His treasures are finally
being brought together

In one place, cairo's brand
new grand egyptian museum.

In their entirety, this
priceless treasure trove

Is now revealing that
tutankhamun's most important

And vital task as pharaoh
was after he died.

Naunton: For the egyptians,
death was very much not the end.

One of the great
pre-occupations of their time

On this earth would be
preparation for the next life.

(captivating music)

Narrator: The full collection

Of tutankhamun's
grave goods seem

To be a perplexing mix of the
luxurious and the everyday.

There are spectacular
golden chariots

And over a hundred
simple loincloths,

Baskets of fruit, fine
wines and mummified meat,

And most shocking of all, the
bodies of two infant girls.

But egyptologists suspect
each item would have had

A very specific use in
the pharaoh's afterlife.

Tyldesley: These aren't in
there randomly,

They've been chosen to be
in there for some reason.

There must be a purpose
for every single item

That was put inside that tomb.

Narrator: When decoded, this
unique ancient hoard reveals

The perilous supernatural
mission tutankhamun had

To undertake in the underworld,

A mission against the forces
of evil that he had to win,

Because failure would mean the
end of egypt and the world.

(mellow music)

The story of tutankhamun's
journey into the underworld

Starts 300 miles south of cairo

In the valley of the kings.

Here, on the morning
of November 5th 1922,

British archeologist
howard carter peered

Through a chink in the door
of a long-forgotten tomb

To make the greatest
archeological discovery

Of all time.

Naunton: This was a
sensational discovery,

Over 5,000 items were
found in the tomb.

Just about all of them made
to the very finest standards

Of the very finest materials.

It was a real treasure trove.

Narrator: Carter hadn't just
discovered an ancient king,

He had unearthed a
unique collection

Unlike anything ever
seen before or since,

The only egyptian royal tomb
to remain virtually untouched

Since the day it was sealed.

Naunton: There are many kinds
of objects in the tomb

Which we don't
have anywhere else.

So it's very, very
difficult to overstate

How important that
collection is.

It's absolutely unique in
being as complete as it is.

Narrator: There's one object,
one clue above all others

That offers egyptologists
an insight into the story

Of tutankhamun's
life after death,

And it's still in his tomb,

Tutankhamun's mummified body.

The pharaoh died over a
thousand years before christ,

But his body remains intact
and his features individual.

Naunton: I find it very moving
really to think that along

With all of this
abundance of treasure,

We have the man himself,

And we can still
look upon his face.

Narrator: It's clear
the ancient embalmers went

To extraordinary
lengths to preserve

The young pharaoh for eternity.

Naunton: The body has
to be purified,

It has to be washed,

It has to be dried
out using salts,

And then certain organs
have to be removed.

So for example, the brain
is removed through the nose,

A rather kind of gory process,

But it all helps to
ensure that the individual

Can be preserved as
closely as possible

To how they were in life.

Narrator: Egyptologists
think this complex

Mummification process
lay at the heart

Of ancient egyptian
religious belief

That if the dead could
preserve their human likeness,

They could then be
brought back to life

As actual, physical beings.

Tyldesley: I think it's worth
stressing that to them

This wasn't a theoretical thing,

This was a very real thing.

It's not something
strange or mysterious

Or something that we might
read in a fantasy book,

It was a fact.

Narrator: The ancient
egyptians' many religious texts

And inscriptions
reveal a complex

And elaborate set of beliefs.

To achieve eternal life,

The dead needed the
help of a colorful cast

Of shape-shifting gods
and supernatural beings.

And the paintings on the walls
of tutankhamun's tomb show

That the boy king was hoping
for all the heavenly help

He could get to
reach the afterlife.

Naunton: At the left hand-end of
the north wall is osiris,

The lord of the
underworld, the afterlife,

In white, with green-colored
skin symbolizing fertility,

And this idea of birth, rebirth.

He's embracing and being
embraced by tutankhamun.

(mysterious music)

Narrator: Behind tutankhamun
stands a second figure.

The hieroglyph above
his head reveals

He's tutankhamun's spirit or ka.

Naunton: The ka
separates from the corpse

Of tutankhamun at
the point of death.

Narrator: It was
tutankhamun's ka

That would undertake

The perilous journey
to the next life.

If it arrived safely,
it could then return

To the pharaoh's mummified
body, reanimate it,

And allow tutankhamun
to rise from the dead.

Naunton: The ka is kind of the
king's double, his shadow.

So he's here, partly
embracing tutankhamun,

Helping usher him
through to the next life.

Narrator: The ancient
egyptians believed

That every person,
rich or poor, had a ka.

And to enter the
afterlife every ka had

To face interrogation by
the lord of the underworld.

But archeologists
have discovered that,

Even before he could
face his interrogation,

Tutankhamun had a problem.

Sealed inside his coffin
and hidden beneath bandages,

His mummified body
concealed a shocking secret.

A secret that threatened to
condemn tutankhamun to oblivion.

(engaging music)

For almost a century,
tutankhamun's dazzling treasures

Displayed in the cairo museum,

Have told the story of
the boy king's short life.

But now, as all of
his 5,000 treasures

Are being brought together at
the new grand egyptian museum,

Another, far stranger,
tale is emerging,

Not of tutankhamun's life,

But of his supernatural
experiences after death.

Tyldesley: The ancient egyptians
weren't obsessed with death,

They were obsessed with living,

And they wanted to live
the best life they could.

And they wanted that to continue
if they could after death.

Narrator: Egyptologists
believe this is

Why tutankhamun's tomb was
crammed full of everything

From golden statues
to simple loincloths.

His tomb was a colossal,
supernatural suitcase,

Packed with everything he'd
need to help him navigate

The afterlife and
live there forever.

But what did tutankhamun
expect to find when,

Or if, he got there?

For egyptologist salima
ikram, the answer lies

In some of the smallest
items discovered in his tomb.

Ikram: You needed to eat
in the afterlife,

And tutankhamun
was a teenage boy,

So clearly he wanted
to be well supplied.

And so he had bread, he had
wine, he had pomegranates,

Little green onions and garlic

So he could flavor his food
or munch on a green onion.

And there are dates, there
are piles of dates here.

But what's really amazing
about tutankhamun's dates is

That they were pitted,

So he wouldn't have to chew
around and throw out the pit,

So these are really posh
dates for the afterlife.

Narrator: And these
were just the appetizers,

For the entree
tutankhamun could choose

From an all-you-can-eat buffet
of egypt's finest meats.

Ikram: He had ribs, he had
large joints of meat,

Coming from the
full leg of cattle,

And there are all these
boxes of mummified poultry.

Often the containers
are made in the shape

Of what they are
supposed to contain.

Narrator: It was a
feast fit for a pharaoh,

Pre-cooked, pre-packed,
and preserved for eternity.

Ikram: It was sort of like
going to a grocery store

Where you could always
just pop off the top

And munch on something
whenever you were hungry.

Narrator: But where
did tutankhamun hope

To eat these eternal picnics?

And what, apart from eating,
did he expect to do there?

A clue can be found
across the hills

From the valley of the kings

In the ancient village
of deir el-medina.

Here, thanks to an
extraordinary discovery,

It's possible to glimpse
the kind of afterlife

Tutankhamun may
have believed in.

The village was
home to the workers

Who built the nearby royal
tombs, including tutankhamun's.

(singing in foreign language)

Here, they spent their
spare time and money

Constructing their
own burial vaults

And this is one of the finest.

It belonged to a mason
called sennedjem.

And it contains a rare,
detailed depiction

Of the egyptian afterlife.

Naunton: Sennedjem chose to
decorate the east wall

Of this vaulted chamber
with a very elaborate

And beautiful scene
of the field of reeds.

Narrator: The field
of reeds was the name

The ancient egyptians
gave to the afterlife,

And it would have been

Instantly recognizable
to tutankhamun.

Naunton: It's the place that
they hoped to be in,

In the afterlife forever,

And it's a kind of
agricultural idyll.

Narrator: In the field
of reeds crops flourish,

Water flows freely,

And the trees are
laden with fruit.

Naunton: Everything is
kind of abundant.

It's like this life,

It's just a sort of
souped-up, perfect version.

Narrator: So when any food
buried in the tomb ran out,

There was a plentiful
and infinite supply,

As long as you were
willing to work for it.

Naunton: As in life, lush fields
don't simply farm themselves,

There is still work to be done.

So sennedjem and his
wife are shown here,

And threshing corn, underneath
they're working flax,

They're driving cattle
here, plowing the fields.

Narrator: But a
hoard of hundreds

Of doll-like
figurines discovered

In tutankhamun's tomb suggest
the pharaoh had no intention

Of getting his hands dirty.

Instead he took his own
supernatural workforce

With him to the grave.

Ikram: The idea of the afterlife

With field of reeds
is that it's wonderful,

But actually you were
expected to do some work.

And of course, because he
really didn't want to do that,

The ancient egyptians
invented the shabti.

Narrator: In the afterlife,

The ancient egyptians
believed these models would be

Magically transformed into
fully operational servants.

Ikram: So if you have to do
something unpleasant,

Like work, in the afterlife,
the shabti will do it for you.

Narrator: Tutankhamun
was buried with 413 shabtis,

Some designed for farming,
others for ruling.

Ikram: You really don't
have to do anything,

Your ka can have a good time,

And these poor
shabtis do the work.

(tranquil music)

Narrator: But admission
to the field of reeds

Wasn't guaranteed.

Ancient egyptian
religion demanded

That even a pharaoh had to
win his place in paradise.

And that meant his spirit, or
ka, must face interrogation

By the lord of the
underworld, osiris.

Tyldesley: We know from the
texts that you don't actually

So much as had to do good,
as to have not done wrong,

Because you will recite
the negative confession

And you will say "I
haven't done this,

"I haven't been a bad person,

"I haven't stolen,"

And that is what
gets you through.

Narrator: But the next
test was far tougher.

Ikram: You would have
your heart weighed

Against the feather of truth.

So in this balance, you
have your heart on one side,

The feather on the other.

Narrator: The ancient
egyptians believed the heart,

Not the brain, was
the center of thought,

And its weight determined
whether the deceased had lived

A good or bad life.

Ikram: If they were in balance,

You could go and be
received by osiris,

Lord of the underworld.

Once he received you, you
could enter into eternal life.

Narrator: But if
the scales tipped

In the wrong direction,

A terrifying fate awaited,
even for a pharaoh.

Ikram: If your heart
was heavier,

The demonic goddess, ammit,

Made of a crocodile, a
hippopotamus and a lion,

Would devour you entirely.

Then you're done for,
you don't exist anymore.

Narrator: According to
ancient egyptian religion,

Every soul, whether
farmer or pharaoh,

Would be banished to
this eternal abyss,

Unless their heart
could pass the test,

And for tutankhamun
that was a problem.

For this vital task,

Tutankhamun's heart
should have been left

Inside his body after death,

But archaeologists
discovered it was missing.

(tense music)
(heart thumps)

Tyldesley: Maybe he died as a
result of an accident,

Too far away from an
expert at mummification,

So that by the time they did
come to preserve his body,

The heart had already decayed
and couldn't be saved.

We'll never know,

But that seems to be probably

The most likely reason
for it being missing.

Narrator: Without
a heart to weigh,

Tutankhamun faced an
eternity of nothingness.

Unless there was a
way of replacing it.

And incredibly, egyptologist
salima ikram believes

That's exactly what happened,

Thanks to an intriguing
beetle-shaped object found

On tutankhamun's chest,

Close to where his
heart should have been.

Ikram: We have in this case

A lot of the scarabs
of tutankhamun,

But one of the
most important ones

Is this one with a
bird carved on it.

Narrator: To the
ancient egyptians,

The heron and the scarab
beetle were symbols

Of the sun, creation,
and rebirth.

And they believed
these qualities

Could be magically transferred

From the object to the wearer.

Ikram: The text on the back,
it's also supposed to evoke

All the things that
the heart knows,

And the heart is supposed to do.

Narrator: So when
the scarab was placed

On the dead pharaoh's chest,

It became a magical,
substitute heart.

Ikram: Should the heart be lost,

As tutankhamun's heart was,

This heart scarab is
absolutely crucial

Because without it the king
cannot achieve eternal life.

(intriguing music)

Narrator: By
ingenuity and cunning,

The people who prepared
tutankhamun's body had solved

The problem of the
pharaoh's missing heart.

The scales would tip
in tutankhamun's favor.

And his spirit could finally
enter the field of reeds,

The reward that awaited
every virtuous egyptian.

But tutankhmun was
more than that,

He was a pharaoh,

And that meant he had
another duty to fulfill.

It was a duty that
would take tutankhamun

Into a terrifying underworld,

And bring him face to face
with the forces of darkness

In an epic battle for the
survival of the world.

(captivating music)

At the new grand
egyptian museum,

Tutankhamun's 5,000
treasures are revealing

An extraordinary,
supernatural story

Of a pharaoh prepared for a
peaceful eternity in paradise.

But alongside luxury
items and fine foods,

Tutankhamun was also
buried with weapons of war,

And the ancient equivalent
of a kevlar vest.

So what were they for?

The answer lies in what
the ancient egyptians

Thought happened to
a pharaoh's soul,

Or ka, after his death.

Ikram: We think he had
basically two afterlives,

One was like everyone else,

You go off and you live
in the field of reeds

And have a wonderful time.

But the other one

Was much more complex and
not nearly as pleasant.

(haunting music)

Narrator: The ancient
egyptians believed

That as a pharaoh, tutankhamun
had not one but two kas,

A personal ka and a royal ka.

Both left his body at
the moment of death.

But while his personal
ka went to paradise,

His royal ka took a
very different path,

A path followed by the pharaohs
that had gone before him.

Ikram: His royal ka would join
up with the other royal kas

Because there was
something else he had do,

There was a much greater,

Far more important mission
that he had to accomplish.

Narrator: But what
was this mission?

The storage rooms of the
grand egyptian museum

Are now full of the
pharaoh's grave goods,

And for egyptologists
they provide clues

To the nature of
tutankhamun's royal task.

Ikram: Tutankhamun's tomb
contained a lot of model boats,

And there were all
kinds, some with rigging

Like you have over
there and there.

We have papyrus skiffs,

We have boats with cabins,

Things that could be
pulled like barges.

And what is really
extraordinary is that the bows

Of all of them were
pointing to the west.

(gentle music)

Narrator: By facing
west, the boats were poised

To set sail towards the sunset.

And for the ancient egyptians,

The sunset was an event steeped
in spiritual significance.

Naunton: The egyptians
understood natural phenomena

In terms of belief in gods
and goddesses and divine acts.

So to the egyptians the
sun is a god, the god ra.

When the sun sets every day,

It doesn't just then do
nothing until reappearing.

(tense music)

Narrator: The egyptians
believed at sunset,

The sun god ra died.

In order to be
reborn at sunrise,

Ra had to travel through
a dark, watery underworld,

And that journey was
far from plain sailing.

Naunton: The journey is
fraught with danger.

The underworld was inhabited

By gods, goddesses,
demons, beasties.

The possibility is always there
that he might not make it.

Narrator: And ancient
egyptians believed

That would mean the
end of everything.

Ikram: There would be no light

And we would be plunged
into eternal darkness.

Narrator: This would be
tutankhamun's royal mission,

To make sure the
sun would rise again

By supporting ra
during his treacherous

Nightly journey
through the underworld.

Tyldesley: When he was alive,

Tutankhamun would have been
responsible for making sure

That the priests of the sun
god ra worshiped every hour

And helped the sun
across the sky.

But that responsibility didn't
end when tutankhamun died.

He was then sailing
through the underworld

Helping the sun god to fight
off all sorts of dangers

Which might have
obstructed the sun

And prevented the sun from
being reborn in the morning.

And this was of vital
importance to the egyptians.

Ikram: If the king were
not doing his job,

There was always the
fear that at night,

The evil powers would win,

And there would be no daylight,

There would be no good,

And the world would
simply collapse.

(entrancing music)

Narrator: This
critically important mission

Would require a vessel of
exceptional power and beauty,

A boat fit for a god.

And salima believes this is it,

A boat specially
designed for the sun god,

And known as a solar
boat or barque.

Ikram: Tutankhamun and all kings
had to have a solar barque

In their tomb so they
could join with the sun god

To carry out this very,
very vital battle.

Narrator: A clue to what
lay ahead for tutankhamun

And his solar boat can be
found in another royal tomb

At the other end of
the valley of the kings

Because tutankhamun
wasn't the first,

Or the only pharaoh to
undertake this journey.

He would be joining
generations of past pharaohs,

Including pharaoh thutmose iii,

Who ruled and died around
a hundred years earlier.

Naunton: It's here in the text
and scenes decorating the walls

Of thutmose iii's burial chamber

That we get to see
that journey in full.

This scene represents
the first of the 12 hours

Of the night according
to the book of amduat,

What is in the netherworld.

Narrator: A cast of gods,
goddesses, and dead pharaohs

Join ra in his boat.

Naunton: He needs to assemble
this huge crew,

All of whom he's going
to need to help him

To ward off his enemies

And make this journey through
the night successfully.

Narrator: When
tutankhamun died,

He would have expected
to join this divine crew,

And set sail into
the underworld.

(riveting music)

Naunton: We get a sense
from this scene very clearly

That this is not going
to be an easy journey,

This is going to be a real
odyssey, an epic journey.

Narrator: For three hours,

Ra and his army of gods and
pharaohs fight their way

Through treacherous waters
and sinister swamps.

Naunton: As we move in to the
fourth hour of the night,

The landscape changes.

(wind howls)

It's become a kind of
a sandy desert landscape,

And the journey at
this point takes

A strange sort of
zigzagging route

Across the scene here.

You very much get a
sense of a real world,

A landscape which is changing
as the boat makes its progress

Through the night, and
of this constant threat.

Ikram: There is quicksand.

There are pathways
that don't match up.

The sun god and the
king have to face

All kinds of demonic creatures.

(uneasy music)

Tyldesley: There are snakes that
take very strange forms.

He's fighting off demons.

(unsettling music)

Ikram: There are lakes of fire.

All kinds of things
are happening.

Narrator: The
attacks are relentless,

The attackers nightmarish.

But using all their
experience as rulers,

The crew of dead pharaohs
and gods had the expertise

To survive the first six
hours of their journey

Through the underworld.

(dreary music)

Now, in the deepest,
darkest hour of the night,

The sun is reborn.

And the ancient
egyptians believed

That just as the sun
was reborn at midnight,

So was the pharaoh.

Tutankhamun's spirit and senses
would return to his body,

And together the pharaoh
and the sun could begin

The journey to sunrise and the
continued survival of egypt.

But the greatest threat
was still to come.

In the hours between
midnight and dawn,

The sun's deadliest
enemy lay in wait.

Naunton: The fate of the
sun god is at stake,

But also the fate
of every egyptian.

If this danger can't
be overcome,

That's the end of it all.

Narrator: Defeating
this demonic force

Would take more than
tutankhamun's magic spells

And an arsenal of
bows and arrows.

It would take a
supernatural secret weapon.

(dramatic music)

In a 21st century museum

And a three and a half
thousand-year-old tomb,

Egyptologists are piecing
together the supernatural story

Of tutankhamun's
life after death,

Of a pharaoh on a mission
through the underworld

Fighting against the
forces of darkness

To save the sun and the
earth from annihilation.

With the highest
possible stakes,

The people who packed

Tutankhamun's tomb
did everything

In their power to ensure

He was prepared for
the mission ahead.

Ikram: The ancient egyptians
were very big on insurance,

So they had lots of safety nets

In case one thing didn't work,

One spell didn't work,

There was a back-up spell.

If this got destroyed,

There was another
back-up object.

So you always had things
that would help you get

To where you wanted to.

Narrator: Egyptologists
now believe

This is why tutankhamun took
5,000 objects to the afterlife.

The more he took,

The more chance he had
of defeating the demons

And overcoming the
obstacles that lay ahead.

But one shocking find has
always perplexed archaeologists,

The mummified bodies
of two baby girls.

Today, their fragile
remains are being conserved

At the grand egyptian museum.

Ikram: Although tutankhamun's
tomb was filled with marvels,

One of the most
extraordinary finds

Were these two fetuses
that carter found.

(somber music)

There was really nothing
to lead him to think

That he would find
three burials in a tomb,

And certainly not ones of
these tiny individuals.

So to find them in the tomb,

In their own little coffins,

Beautifully decorated
and mummified,

Must have been quite a shock.

Narrator: Dna analysis
reveals these two tiny girls

Were most likely
tutankhamun's daughters.

But tragically both
had been stillborn,

One girl at around four months,

And the other at
nearly full term.

Ikram: There was such a
high mortality rate

For infants and
stillborn children

In the ancient world
that it's not surprising.

But it is extraordinary to
have them carefully mummified,

Wrapped up, cocooned,
put in these coffins,

And placed in their
father's tomb.

Narrator: These
tiny mummies are

An incredibly rare discovery.

But egyptologist joyce
tyldesley believes

There is an explanation
for their burial

Alongside the pharaoh.

She suspects they were
the ultimate insurance policy.

Tyldesley: Tutankhamun
was very wealthy,

He could have dug a grave

For his daughters any
time he wanted to.

So the fact that their
bodies have been saved

To be buried with him suggests

That, perhaps, it's not
just a practical reason,

But there's a ritual reason
for them being there as well.

Narrator: In
ancient egyptian art,

Women and girls were
often cast as protectors,

Standing alongside their
fathers or the gods.

Tyldesley: It seems that
daughters can have

A very protective function.

So I think it's not surprising

That tutankhamun's
baby daughters

Are buried with him in the tomb.

They will give their
feminine support to him.

They will back him up.

Narrator: And for joyce,

They were more than
simply good luck charms,

They were active participants

In tutankhamun's journey
through the underworld.

Tyldesley: By being
either physically

In the boat with tutankhamun

Or just having their
spirits supporting him

While he's in the boat,

Tutankhamun will be protected
by these two daughters

Who he has in the tomb with him.

Narrator: But
why was it necessary

To go to such extreme lengths?

On their journey
through the underworld,

The sun god ra and the
pharaohs had already survived

The first six
hours of the night.

But now, in the seventh hour,

The forces of
darkness were about

To unleash their
deadliest weapon,

Ra's immortal enemy,

The monstrous serpent apep.

Naunton: He is the
greatest threat

That the sun god will face

In the entire journey
through the night.

He represents the forces
of chaos and destruction.

(serpent growls)

Narrator: The
serpent is poised,

Ready to wrap its colossal
coils around the solar boat,

And drag the sun god
to a watery death.

(gloomy music)

Protected by his
infant daughters

And armed to the teeth,

Would tutankhamun's
precautions be enough

To save him from the
serpent's deadly embrace?

The fate of the
pharaoh, the sun,

And all egypt rests
on this one moment.

Ikram: If apep were to win,

Then that would be
the end of the world.

There would be no light

And we would be plunged
into eternal darkness.

(tense music)

Narrator: The
serpent strikes,

The gods raise their knives,

And spear the snake along
the length of its body.

The sun's worst enemy
has been defeated,

Good triumphs over evil,

And tutankhamun's
journey can continue.

Naunton: Beyond the
seventh hour,

There are more
obstacles to overcome,

More threats to be neutralized

By the sun god and his helpers,

But the sun is well on his
way towards resurrection.

Tutankhamun by extension

Is also well on his
way to eternal life.

(subdued music)

Narrator: By the 12th hour,

All the forces of darkness
have been defeated,

And the sun could rise again.

Ra and the pharaohs can
be reborn into the sky.

Naunton: Tutankhamun can
then join the spirits

Of the other deceased kings
in the afterlife for eternity.

Narrator: Egypt was saved,

But only until sunset.

Ikram: Tutankhamun had
to do this night,

After night, after night.

Narrator: This was

Tutankhamun's destiny
and his duty,

To save the world every
night, for all eternity.

(dramatic music)

But outside his sealed tomb,

The wheels of
treachery were turning,

And plans were underway
to wipe the young king

From the face of history.

(captivating music)

The treasure trove found
in tutankhamun's tomb

Reveals he wanted, and
expected, to live forever.

Armed with everything
he'd need to triumph

In his mission through
the underworld,

The boy king had every
reason to believe

He'd join the list of
dead pharaohs celebrated

For saving the world.

And for the young
pharaoh it was vital

That his name would live
on long after his death.

Because to truly live forever,

Tutankhamun's name
needed to be remembered.

Ikram: "may your name
live forever,"

Is something the ancient
egyptians frequently said,

And in their tombs
you write the name

Here and there and everywhere

Because you want your
name to live forever

Because that's how you survive.

Narrator: But that's
not what happened.

For three and a
half thousand years,

Tutankhamun was forgotten.

His name is barely
mentioned in ancient texts

And scarcely appears
on monuments.

And for a pharaoh, that was
a fate worse than death.

Tyldesley: To be forgotten is
possibly the worst thing

That can happen to you.

If you can make sure
you were remembered,

Then the hope is that you'll
be able to live forever.

But once you're forgotten

There's no coming
back from that.

Narrator: A shocking
piece of evidence

In the cairo museum suggests

That not only was
tutankhamun forgotten,

He was deliberately
erased from history.

(tense music)

Ikram: This is a king list,

And basically, as
the name suggests,

It lists kings in
sequential order.

Narrator: This
official document

Records 58 of egypt's pharaohs,

And covers the period
of tutankhamun's reign.

Ikram: This one dates to the
reign of rameses ii,

And he had a lot of king lists
scattered all over egypt.

Tutankhamun has been left
out of almost all of them.

Narrator: The line
of pharaohs stops

With tutankhamun's
grandfather amenhotep iii

And starts again with
the next pharaoh but one.

Tutankhamun, his father,
and his immediate successor

Have been deliberately omitted.

(gripping music)

But why would his
successors want tutankhamun

To be forgotten?

What had the boy king done

To deserve an
eternity in oblivion?

A clue lies with the king list,

And in the name that should
have appeared immediately

Before tutankhamun's, akhenaten.

He was tutankhamun's father,

And one of the most infamous
of all egypt's pharaohs.

Driven by religious fanaticism,

Akhenaten banned the
worship of egypt's many gods

And replaced them with just one.

He closed the temples and
uprooted the capital city.

And he pushed the country
to the brink of collapse,

With thousands dying during
the turmoil of his reign.

Ikram: The egyptians really
couldn't stand it,

They felt that the idea
of order, or ma'at,

Was being violated

And that the gods were going
to get angry with them.

So everyone was very upset

Because it turned
things topsy-turvy.

(tense music)

Narrator: After
akhenaten's death,

Tutankhamun set out to
undo his father's works

In a bid to get the
country back on track.

Ikram: He did everything
in his power

To restore the old order
and all the old gods,

But it wasn't enough.

(somber music)

Narrator: Tutankhamun
couldn't escape

The sins of his father.

So from the moment he
died, his successors set

About wiping tutankhamun's
name from history,

Starting with his tomb.

Ikram: Tutankhamun was given
a relatively small tomb,

It was so low in the valley,
people forgot it was there.

It was tiny, and it got
covered over by chippings

From other people's tombs.

Narrator: Next, came
his many monuments.

Ikram: His major
successor, horemheb,

Wanted to take the credit

For bringing back
the old religion.

So, when tutankhamun
erected monuments saying,

"I brought back the old gods.

"I brought the temple
of amun to life again,"

Horemheb erases tutankhamun's
name and puts in horemheb.

So he gets credit for
everything unjustly.

Narrator: By
erasing his name,

Usurping his legacy,
and sidelining his tomb,

Tutankhamun's
successors believed

They'd condemned
him to be forgotten.

But in a bizarre twist of fate,

These acts of sabotage
set tutankhamun

On the road to immortality.

Tyldesley: Tutankhamun's
tomb was covered

In rubble and debris,

And hidden and forgotten.

And when people came back later
to look for all the kings,

Because he'd been erased
from the king list,

They forgot about him.

Narrator: Tutankhamun's
treasures were safe

From the attention
of the robbers

Who ransacked the other tombs
in the valley of the kings.

Ikram: Obviously, even
though the memory

Of tutankhamun was erased,

He himself and
his different kas,

Managed to survive
into the afterlife

Because everything in
his tomb was intact.

Narrator: For three
and a half thousand years,

The pharaoh lay
surrounded by treasures,

Waiting to be remembered

Until November 4th, 1922.

Ikram: When tutankhamun's tomb
was found, it was madness.

Everyone went totally berserk.

Tutankhamun became, sort of,

Star of stage,
screen, newspaper.

(entrancing music)

Because, of course,
there had been no intact

Royal egyptian tomb
found ever, ever, ever.

Narrator: Almost overnight,
the little-known king

Became the most
famous pharaoh of all.

Naunton: Thanks to the survival

Of the tomb and
tutankhamun's grave goods,

His name and his face are
celebrated everywhere.

His journey from earthly life

To immortal afterlife is
complete, he's succeeded.

Narrator: Today,
tutankhamun's 5,000 treasures

Simply tell the story
of that journey.

But for the ancient egyptians,

It was the treasures
that made it possible.

An artificial heart,

Mountains of food,

And a supernatural workforce

Allowed tutankhamun to live
a life of luxury in paradise.

While in his solar boat,

Armed with weapons and
protected by his daughters,

He could save the
world from destruction.

Now thanks to his scheming
successors' attempts

To erase him from history,

Tutankhamun's immortal
journey continues.

Tyldesley: Since we
rediscovered him,

We keep saying the name of
tutankhamun over and over again.

And in so doing, we enable
him to carry on sailing

In the solar boat of the sun
god until the end of time

Which I think is what
he would have hoped for.

Ikram: So tutankhamun,
to this day,

Is fighting to make sure
that the world survives.