All language subtitles for Secrets Unlocked Series 1 Part 18 The Pharaoh in the Suburbs 1080p TR & EN

Mastrelli: It was one of
the most remarkable finds

In modern archeology.

The giant statue of a pharaoh

Buried deep beneath
a cairo suburb.

Experts believe they've
found the colossus

Of a forgotten king.

And this discovery could
change our entire understanding

Of more than a century of
ancient egyptian history.

For centuries,

The mysteries of the past
have kept their secrets.

But there are
clues cast in gold,

Etched in stone,

Written in blood.

We can unlock them.

Cairo, a city built in the
shadows of the pyramids,

And on the remains of
millennia of history.

On the outskirts of this
congested metropolis

Once stood the ancient
city of heliopolis,

A vast religious center
dedicated to the sun god ra,

Filled with temples,
statues, and obelisks.

Frustratingly for archeologists,

The remains of this
city are now buried

Under dense city blocks
and residential buildings.

But every so often,

Urban development offers
a rare opportunity

To peer into the
suburbs' rich past.

And shockingly, the
most recent excavation

Has revealed an almost
unknown pharaoh,

Whose remarkable
reign and legacy

Had been forgotten...
Until now.

March 2017, the culmination
of a five-year dig

In the working class
district of matariya.

Archeologists are
completing their investigation

In one area of a vast
3,000-year-old temple complex.

Yeah, we were finishing,

And when we're
about to move from the site,

We didn't expect
any great discoveries.

Mastrelli: Then,
at the far end of the site,

A shovel strikes
something solid.

Raue: Suddenly the workman told
us there was a big stone.

Mastrelli: As the
team clears the mud,

Something remarkable
begins to emerge.

Raue: And suddenly we realize

That our workmen are
standing on top of a chest.

Mastrelli: Slowly,
a giant torso is revealed,

And it's made of quartzite,

One of the most prized
stones in ancient times.

Within minutes, a giant
head is discovered

Buried upside down in the mud.

Raue: When we got the idea that
this was of colossal shape,

Whatever we had found, it was
sure it's a human depiction,

But, for example, is it
a god or is it a king?

Mastrelli: The only
way to find out

Is to carefully lift the
head out from the ground

And clear the mud.

Only then is a distinctive
cone shape revealed.

Raue: For egyptologists,
it was immediately clear

This is a crown,
upper egypt.

Mastrelli: The
archeologists realize

They've just made the find
of a lifetime.

They've uncovered a giant
statue of a pharaoh.

It was a very exciting moment,

You know, that you are now
in a very big discovery.

Mastrelli: So far the team only
has the top half

Of the faceless statue.

But its size, the
quartzite stone,

And the intricate
detail of the carving

All suggest this was a
monument of huge importance.

For egyptologist chris naunton,

It's the location that
confirms the pharaoh

They've discovered
was one of the greats.

2,500 years ago, this
suburb was the site

Of one of the most sacred
cities of ancient egypt.

Naunton: Just at first glance,

You might think a sort of
an unassuming-looking suburb

Of cairo like this would
not be the kind of place

You'd expect to find a
colossal statue of a pharaoh.

But this was the
site of heliopolis,

The cult center
of the sun god ra,

One of the most important
places in ancient egypt.

Mastrelli: Archeologists
estimate heliopolis

Spread over three square miles

And remained a center of
worship for 2,500 years.

In that time it's been linked

To many of egypt's
most famous pharaohs,

So which one was this statue of?

The only way to find out

Was to remove the eight-ton
fragment from the mud

For closer examination.

After two days of
careful digging,

The statue was out of the ground

And moved to its new home
at the egyptian museum

Where archeologists could
finally get a closer look.

Incredibly, when
the mud was cleared,

A series of hieroglyphs
were exposed

Cut into the super hard
quartzite rock.

Raue: We found four hieroglyphs.

The quality of the
inscriptions is amazing,

I mean, it looks as if you
cut in a piece of butter,

But you are dealing with
one of the hardest materials

Ancient egypt has to offer.

Mastrelli: To the
archeologists' disbelief,

The hieroglyphs revealed
the identity of the pharaoh.

But this wasn't the name
experts were expecting.

Naunton: These are the all-
important hieroglyphic signs,

And although this
inscription is broken,

The signs give us one
of the names of pharaoh.

It's one of the names of
a pharaoh we know today

As psamtik the first,

This is a name
that's almost unknown,

Except to egyptologists,

And to find it on the
back of this statue

Was a huge surprise.

Mastrelli: Despite one of the
longest reigns in ancient egypt,

Psamtik the first
was not thought

To have been immortalized
in such monumental fashion.

Naunton:
The identification of this

As a statue of psamtik
the first surprised everyone

Because we just
don't have evidence

For colossal statuary
like this from this time.

Mastrelli: Historical accounts
tell us that psamtick the first

Ruled egypt for 54 years

From 664 b.C.E.

At this time,

Egypt was no longer the
mighty superpower of old,

And experts had
thought that psamtik ruled

When the country
was on its knees.

Naunton: This was not the
glory days anymore.

Egypt wasn't as
wealthy as it had been,

It didn't control
the same territory,

It didn't have the same empire.

And we had thought up
until now that pharaoh

Just didn't really
have the means

To build statues on this scale,

And this statue
changes all of that.

Mastrelli: The experts
were mystified.

How could a pharaoh in charge
of a country in decline

Had been commemorated
in a statue on a scale

Only ever seen for the
greatest rulers of egypt?

Naunton: This is a discovery
that simply is without parallel.

It's a revelation

And it raises so many
questions about ancient egypt.

Mastrelli: The archeologists

Had stumbled upon an
ancient masterpiece

Of a forgotten pharaoh.

Its discovery is now
revealing the secrets

Of a lost egyptian history.

The scale of egypt's ancient
buildings is legendary.

Enormous pyramids,

Jaw-dropping temples,
and colossal statues.

Experts had thought the era of
extravagant monument building

Ended in the 11th century b.C.E.

But the discovery of a
colossus of a pharaoh

Forgotten by history,
created 400 years later,

Now suggests the
scholars were wrong.

Naunton: The years before
psamtik the first

Have been called
something of a dark age,

And certainly it was
a confusing period

Of turmoil and fragmentation.

And there just wasn't
as much big stuff,

Monumental building
and grandeur,

As there had been
in previous periods,

And that's because there
wasn't the wealth and power

And influence needed to
create such monuments.

Mastrelli: The egypt that
psamtik was born into

Was a war-torn country,

Ruled by foreign superpowers.

So how did he end up as a figure

Worthy of a 36-foot-high
colossus?

Evidence of the nearly

Insurmountable
challenges he faced

Can be found
2,000 miles away from egypt

In berlin, germany.

This is the victory stele
of esarhaddon.

It's a pictorial representation

That reveals how far
egypt's pharaoh had fallen

When psamtik was born into
his pharaonic dynasty.

This one stone proclaims the age

Of the mighty pharaoh was over.

Egypt had been conquered,
and the assyrians,

Led by the king esarhaddon,
now ruled the north.

Centered around nineveh
in modern-day iraq,

Their empire spread
across the middle east

And deep into egypt.

With esarhaddon in charge,

The stele clearly illustrates
how the egyptian pharaoh

Was seen as nothing
more than a slave.

Kirschbaum: What you see here
is a supplicating,

Mournful person,

Subjugated by the assyrian
king who is represented

By this huge monumental
figure to the left.

He is kept on a leash
by the assyrian king,

A leash which is
sort of attached

To either his nose or his cheek.

He is enslaved by
the assyrian king.

Mastrelli: Just like the
carving on the stele,

Psamtik grew up
seeing his father

Subjugated by the assyrians.

For the heir to
this puppet kingdom,

The future looked bleak.

Kirschbaum: Psamtik is nothing.

He is a prince,

But he has no
position and no power at all.

Mastrelli: But the assyrians'
desperate need for power

Was to be their downfall...

And psamtik's gain.

While the assyrians
ruled the north,

The south had been
conquered by the kushites.

Both wanted total control of
egypt, and both eyed thebes,

Now modern day luxor, as
their capital city of choice.

The kushites surge north.

In the ensuing battle,

Psamtik's father is
one of hundreds killed.

But the assyrians
refuse to give in

And soon launch
a counterattack.

The assyrian assault on
thebes was merciless--

The kushites were powerless
against the savage onslaught.

With psamtik's father dead,

The assyrians pick the young
prince to govern egypt.

Naunton: The assyrians
perhaps thought

That he was just another
local small-time ruler

That they could keep on a
leash, but they were wrong.

Mastrelli: What psamtik did next

Changed the course of history.

And it's documented in
an ancient manuscript

Held by cambridge
university in England.

This is a copy of the world's
very first history book,

Written in 440 b.C.E. By
the greek author herodotus.

Cartledge: Herodotus is very
interested in psamtik;

He appears in several
bits of herodotus's text.

Mastrelli: Herodotus records
how the conquest of egypt

Took its toll on the assyrians.

Exhausted and now overstretched,

They were soon forced

To withdraw from egypt to
protect their own borders.

It was a move that played

Right into the young
pharaoh's hands.

According to herodotus,

The key to psamtik's early
success were mercenaries--

Or hired muscle.

But these weren't
just any soldiers,

They were elite warriors
brought in from ancient greece.

Cartledge: The greek soldiers
were the prime soldiers

Of their day in the
eastern mediterranean,

They would have been therefore
the most fearsome warriors

That anybody would be
likely to encounter.

Mastrelli: Psamtik had a deadly
foreign army at his disposal.

He put it to work conquering
the neighboring city-states.

By 651 b.C.E., they'd
achieved their objective

And psamtik was in total
control of the north.

In just over a decade,
the puppet ruler

Had become the genuine
pharaoh of lower egypt.

Psamtik chose his home city
of sais to be his new capital.

Having settled his
mercenary army close by,

He took aim at conquering
the rebellious south.

Here he had to win over
the powerful priesthood

Based in thebes.

A tablet, kept at the
egyptian museum in cairo,

Reveals how psamtik used his
own daughter to reunite egypt.

Naunton: This is a
historical document;

A text carved in stone.

And it's the story, in fact,
of psamtik's daughter,

The princess nitocris,

Whose name is written
in the text here.

Mastrelli: The
ancient text records

How psamtik's only daughter
was escorted to thebes

And presented as the next
wife of the god amun.

If accepted,

They'd hold the two most
powerful positions in egypt.

To ensure she was accepted,

Psamtik dispatched
an intimidating navy

Down the river nile to thebes.

Naunton: Psamtik's plan worked,

And the thebans
welcomed nitocris

As the heir to this
incredibly important position.

And in this act, psamtik made
himself the ruler of thebes,

The ruler of southern egypt,

And by extension, the ruler
of the entire country.

Mastrelli: Psamtik had
worked a miracle.

He'd brought southern
egypt under his control

Without a single drop
of blood being spilt.

An egyptian pharaoh was at last

Back in control of all of egypt.

To mark the occasion, a
giant statue was commissioned

In a style and size
that hearkened back

To the glory days of
earlier dynasties.

So how did the greatest
symbol of this revered leader

End up discarded
in a muddy hole,

Shattered into
thousands of pieces?

The discovery of a colossus

Of the pharaoh
psamtik the first

Is helping experts paint a
picture of a supreme strategist,

Diplomat, and leader.

His greek mercenary army

Helped reunite egypt after
years of foreign occupation.

The evidence suggests
that psamtik's statues

Stood as a legacy to
his incredible reign.

So what can explain how such
an important work of art

Ended up in a muddy
hole in a cairo suburb?

The largest pieces of
the colossal statue

Of pharaoh psamtik the first

Are today on display
at the egyptian museum.

But 6,500 other fragments
recovered from the site

Are being pieced together

At the state-of-the-art
grand egyptian museum.

It's also home to
some of the best

Archeological laboratories
on the planet.

Naunton: This is the next step
in egyptian archeology.

It's where all the
priceless artifacts

From the tomb of tutankhamun
are being analyzed

Before they go on display in
the new grand egyptian museum,

And its where
thousands and thousands

Of egypt's most
valuable treasures

Are being investigated.

These are some of the
more than 1,900 fragments

Of this statue that were
found on site in matariya,

And as you can
see, this fragment

Has a kind of grayish
appearance in some places

And to the touch seems a
little bit sort of granular,

Almost kind of sandy,

And actually this
is cracked as well,

And that's significant.

This, the geologists think,

Is evidence that the
statue had been subjected

To very high temperatures,
it had been burnt.

And we know that
this was a technique

That was used deliberately

To destroy large stone
objects like this.

They would burn
them first of all

And then pour cold
water over them,

And this causes
the stone to crack,

Which then makes it
possible to break it apart.

Mastrelli: The evidence
indicates the colossus

Was deliberately destroyed.

No one knows who did it,

But they seemed intent on
erasing relics of the past.

But somehow, large fragments
of the statue survived.

Naunton: This is a
miraculous survival

And it's a miraculous
discovery and it allows us

To return a great pharaoh
to the center stage.

Mastrelli: This
colossus was created

To remember a remarkable pharaoh

Who transformed the fortunes
of a broken country.

On the foundations
of psamtik's dynasty,

Egypt would enjoy 139 years
of peace and prosperity.

Cartledge: What made
psamtik a success

Was a combination of tradition

And innovation,
in particular,

A willingness to look outside
egypt for key personnel,

Which is not something
we normally associate

Perhaps with the
egyptian monarchy.

Naunton: By any measure,

Psamtik's egypt was a
tremendous success:

Military might,

A booming economy and
a flourishing culture.

This was a seriously
successful leader

And one who deserves
to be celebrated.

Mastrelli: The discovery of
the colossus of psamtik

Is making experts revaluate
the forgotten pharaoh's reign.

His name had become little more
than a footnote in history.

But now, thanks to this
remarkable discovery,

Psamtik's reputation
has been restored.

And for egyptologists eager
for the next opportunity

To excavate this cairo suburb,

The tantalizing
wait begins anew.