Original subtitles

Narrator: the giant stone Obelisks of ancient egypt.

Majestic and mysterious Shards of granite

Rising from the heart Of its greatest temples.

Quarried from a single, Massive block of stone,

Some soar over 90 feet Into the air.

Narrator: what were these Mighty needles for?

-oh! -oh.

Narrator: and how did The ancient egyptians

Raise them into the sky?

Now, a team of archeologists Risks life and limb

To rediscover the lost Building techniques

Of the ancient egyptians.

And solve the mysteries of These enigmatic monuments.

♪♪

To unearth the answers,

We'll deconstruct these Towering stone goliaths

And reveal how ancient Workers raised them.

Why were egypt's Obelisks so important

To the mighty pharaohs?

--captions by vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Narrator: luxor, in the heart Of southern egypt.

Two towering obelisks Pierce the sky.

They have stood here For over 3,000 years.

Rare survivors of An ancient religion.

The pharaohs erected dozens

Of these mystifying monuments,

But many have fallen Or been moved overseas.

More now stand in distant Cities like paris,

London, and new york,

Than remain in egypt.

These ancient stones Are the most enigmatic

Of the pharaohs' monuments, But what were they for?

And how were they built?

3,400 years ago, These two obelisks

Stood in one of egypt's most Important religious sites.

♪♪

Karnak, a huge Temple complex built

By generations of pharaohs.

♪♪

Its imposing gateways, Called pylons,

And enormous covered halls

Were dedicated to egypt's Chief god, amun ra.

♪♪

At its center, stood Spectacular giant obelisks.

♪♪

How and why did The pharaohs build

These extraordinary Granite needles?

♪♪

This obelisk at Karnak is the tallest

Still standing in egypt.

The pharaoh hatshepsut Placed it here

During the era of The new kingdom.

It is carved from A single block of granite,

Weighs over 300 tons,

And soars 97 feet into the air.

♪♪

Adel kelaney is An egyptian archeologist.

He wants to find out why This obelisk was built

And how hatshepsut's Workers raised it.

Narrator: But why give a giant needle

As a present to a god?

Narrator: These towering columns

Were a reminder of The creation of the first land,

And the origins of The egyptian people.

They are among the most Ancient egyptian monuments.

The pharaohs erected Them in temples

Throughout their land, to Honor this idea of creation.

♪♪

They raised their largest And most impressive

Obelisks in karnak.

Six dominated the center Of the temple complex.

The tallest soared Over 118 feet high.

All were made from Super-tough granite

To prevent them from snapping.

The tips were covered in gold To reflect the sun's rays

And connect the earth And the heavens

Through the sun god, ra.

But what huge Resources did it take

To move these monster Blocks of stone?

And how were they erected?

♪♪

Adel kelaney is preparing For a dangerous experiment

That he hopes will finally Solve these mysteries.

He will use only the tools The ancient egyptians had,

To move and raise this Three ton replica obelisk.

He thinks this will Reveal how they erected

Full-sized ones Thousands of years ago.

His audacious plan Relies on sand.

Narrator: to remove the sand, Adel has installed

Two bricked-up windows On each side of the room.

Narrator: To strengthen the walls,

Adel applies a plaster Coating of mud.

The room will need to Hold 35 tons of sand,

And if the walls collapse When he pours it in,

The experiment will be over.

Adel's next challenge is To build the giant ramp

He will use to move the obelisk

To the top of The mud brick room.

A pharaoh's huge workforce

Would have done this With simple tools.

Narrator: To speed up the process,

Adel brings in some Heavy equipment.

♪♪

To build a ramp for A full-sized obelisk,

It's been calculated that The ancient egyptians

Would have needed over three Million cubic feet of sand.

♪♪

With the ramp and the mud brick Room complete,

Adel's next challenge will be To move the obelisk.

Narrator: the replica obelisk is Molded from concrete.

The originals were carved From super-tough granite.

How did the ancient Egyptians quarry

And shape these Extraordinary stones,

Using only primitive tools?

And how did egypt's Pharaohs move them

Hundreds of miles From the quarry

To temples all over the country?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: the oldest stone Monuments standing in london,

Paris,

New york,

And istanbul,

All started life over 3,000 years ago here,

In this quarry, At aswan, southern egypt.

♪♪

Its pink granite was perfect For building obelisks.

The pharaohs considered These stone needles

To be the ultimate Offering to the gods,

And placed them in temples Up and down the country.

A giant, unfinished Obelisk still remains

In the aswan quarry.

Ancient workers abandoned it When the stone cracked.

♪♪

It took extraordinary skill To create the perfect obelisk.

Craftsmen carved The base with great accuracy

To ensure it would Stand upright,

Without any cement.

Each face was ground smooth,

Inscribed with Intricate hieroglyphs,

And painted in dazzling colors.

Its pyramid-shaped tip Was capped in real gold.

It had to be perfect to Do justice to the gods,

But how did ancient Workers carve

These towering Columns so precisely?

♪♪

Master stonemason antoine garric

Wants to find out How the egyptians

Would have worked this Extremely hard stone.

Narrator: Egypt rulers usually erected

Obelisks in pairs.

Next to the pharaoh hatshepsut's Surviving obelisk,

Lies its twin.

Workers carved both From single blocks

Of aswan pink granite In about 1470 b.C.

♪♪

Antoine investigates How they got them

Out of the ground And carved them.

Narrator: How did ancient workers

Cut through this Tough granite rock?

♪♪

At that time, the egyptians Were unable to smelt iron.

They depended on bronze And copper tools.

These worked well on soft rocks,

Like sandstone and limestone.

But they couldn't cope With much harder granite.

Narrator: antoine thinks that Instead of chisels

They used a stone even harder Than granite, dolerite.

But would this have worked?

To find out, Antoine attempts to cut

A test area in a granite block.

Narrator: to work out how Long it would take

To extract an obelisk From a quarry,

Antoine pounds The granite for an hour.

♪♪

Narrator: one cubic meter is About 35 cubic feet.

At that rate, 500 workers Could extract an obelisk

In seven months.

Narrator: antoine has shown That dolerite stones

Are tough enough To carve granite.

But how did ancient workers make

The sides of The obelisk so smooth?

Antoine thinks They did it by grinding.

Narrator: But the abrasive sand

Is even more effective When mixed with water.

♪♪

Narrator: But the biggest mystery

Is how the egyptians Would have carved

The detailed inscriptions.

On the pharaoh Hatshepsut's obelisk,

The hieroglyphs Described how she made it

With a loving heart, For her father, the god amun ra.

The craftsmanship is sublime.

♪♪

Antoine is setting Up an experiment

To see if copper tools, Combined with sand,

Can grind away granite Precisely enough

To make such fine carvings.

[ speaks indistinctly ]

Narrator: Antoine thinks ancient workers

Would have carved These inscriptions

By first hammering The granite with stone punches

To make small grooves.

Then, they cut out The hieroglyphs

With copper tools And an abrasive.

Using resources They had in abundance,

Labor and sand, The ancient egyptians quarried,

Polished, and carved Their imposing obelisks,

Creating masterpieces That people

Would continue to Marvel at for centuries.

But this was just the beginning

Of a phenomenally expensive And dangerous operation.

Next, the pharaohs had to move

The obelisks to the temples,

Some hundreds of miles away.

This required Extraordinary ingenuity

And huge resources.

Investigators believe The egyptians dug canals

Deep into the landscape,

So water from the nile would Flow towards the quarry.

The obelisk was Suspended over the water,

Then a boat was weighed Down with stones,

So that when it was emptied, It would pick up the obelisk

And carry it down the nile.

♪♪

But egypt's great river would Only take it part of the way.

♪♪

To move the obelisk from The ship to the temple,

They needed to Carry it over land,

Without damaging The precious stone.

What was their Ingenious solution?

Any method of transporting It would have required

Vast amounts of labor.

How could the pharaohs Feed this huge workforce

In an arid desert that receives

Only a fraction of An inch of rain per year?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: For over a thousand years,

Egypt's pharaohs erected Extraordinary giant obelisks

Outside their temples.

These were the most precious Offerings to their gods.

The tallest tower Over 98 feet high

And are among the largest Stones ever quarried.

But how did ancient Workers move and raise

These giant monoliths?

In aswan, archeologist Adel kelaney is conducting

A dangerous and pioneering Experiment to find out.

[ indistinct conversations ]

Narrator: so far, he has Constructed a mud brick room

And a long ramp.

His plan is to haul the obelisk

To the top of the room, Fill the room with sand,

And then slowly release the sand

To tilt the obelisk Into position.

But first, he must Pull it up the ramp.

Weighing three tons, It is heavy enough

To cause serious injury if The experiment goes wrong.

♪♪

To reduce friction, Adel lays a wooden track

For rollers to Carry the obelisk.

It's a method based on Evidence from excavations.

Narrator: Because this is dangerous,

The team will use modern rope.

Ancient workers would have had

A similar hauling Line made from reeds.

Adel has calculated That he will need

30 people to pull The obelisk up the slope.

But first, he tests It on level ground.

Narrator: But there's a problem.

The team is soon Struggling to keep

The long, thin needle on course.

Narrator: the team shows

It can move the obelisk On level ground.

How will they fare on the ramp?

[ shouting in foreign language ]

♪♪

Narrator: little by little,

It rolls up the slope.

Narrator: It's a titanic battle

To haul the obelisk to The top of the ramp.

[ shouting indistinctly ]

Narrator: adel believes that To move a full-sized,

320 ton obelisk the same way,

Would require about 1,000 workers.

[ shouting in foreign language ]

Narrator: At last, they reach the top.

The first stage is complete,

But now they must try to move The obelisk into position.

So the next step is to Prepare the mud brick room.

Narrator: But will the room's thin walls

Be strong enough to Hold 35 tons of sand?

♪♪

As the level of sand Approaches the top,

Adel's carefully laid Plan starts to fall apart.

Narrator: It looks like the mud brick room

Could collapse.

Narrator: to prevent the walls Falling down,

Adel quickly orders the loader To pile sand on the outside.

♪♪

He improvises extra support.

Narrator: adel hopes this frame Will enable the walls to support

The extra weight of the obelisk.

He's about to find out.

[ shouting in foreign language ]

Narrator: the mud brick walls

Have taken the strain, For the moment.

But there's a problem.

The obelisk's weight Has created more cracks.

The safety engineer Is not happy.

Narrator: in a makeshift attempt

To prevent the mud brick room From collapsing,

Adel adds more timber To support its walls.

But will it be enough?

And in a desert country With almost no rain,

How did they grow the food To feed the vast army of men

It took to create These stone giants?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: the towering obelisks Of luxor, southern egypt.

♪♪

The pharaohs erected these Ancient granite skyscrapers

Nearly 3,500 years ago.

This was the era Of the new kingdom,

A golden age when The country prospered

After driving out invaders.

The greatest obelisks were Built during this time.

♪♪

These were taller, heavier, And more finely carved

Than any that had gone before.

To quarry and raise These mighty monoliths,

Thousands of people had To work for months on end.

♪♪

But most of egypt Is in the sahara,

Its climate is hostile,

Rainfall is less than A fraction of an inch per year.

So, how did the pharaohs feed This vast army of workers?

♪♪

Half a mile away from Karnak's obelisks,

At the temple of mut,

Excavators find new clues that Could reveal the source

Of ancient egypt's Vital food supply.

We have this layer of pottery,

You can hear it when I hit it,

And it's lying actually On this surface.

♪♪

Narrator: This circle of mud bricks

Shows that this Was once a granary,

A storage silo for grain.

During the harvest, Workers would fill it

With wheat or barley,

To provide food Throughout the year.

♪♪

It was accessed using steps That led up to a hatch.

But how many people could These granaries feed?

And where did this Grain come from?

♪♪

American archeologist Betsy bryan thinks

This excavation could Reveal the answers.

All of this area That we're working in

Is an industrial area,

And so, they were making bread, They were making beer.

Narrator: Granaries were essential

For running the economy.

There were no coins or money In the time of the new kingdom.

Instead, workers Were paid in grain.

So, how many workers could This granary support?

♪♪

Betsy takes measurements To find out.

So, these granaries, They're mostly

About 3.8 meters in diameter.

We've unearthed at least six

And we have indications That they actually have

The ability to have Supported up to 4,000 people

With the amount of Grain being stored.

Narrator: how could they Grow so much grain

In these arid conditions?

In egypt's desert climate, The amount of land available

For growing wheat And barley was limited.

Most of the fields of egypt

Were actually planted Within two miles

Of the nile river itself,

In an area that Was a flood plain,

More than 1,000 miles Of it along the nile.

And so, the grain Would be grown,

It would be harvested And put onto large barges,

And the barges would Be brought upstream

And then unloaded In large amounts

And stored in granaries.

Narrator: when the nile flooded,

It would fertilize The nearby land.

Meaning, egyptian Farmers could harvest

A rich crop of wheat and barley.

The state and religious Temples controlled the grain,

And used it to pay The obelisk workers.

♪♪

Thanks to the nile, The pharaohs had

Plenty of food to feed The huge workforce

Needed to erect the obelisks.

But how did ancient builders Tilt them into position?

♪♪

And why did so many of Egypt's sacred columns

End up in the major cities Of distant countries?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: 3,400 years ago, The pharaoh hatshepsut

Erected this 320-ton obelisk As a gift to the god amun ra.

♪♪

But how did ancient workers Raise it into position?

♪♪

In aswan, adel kelaney Is undertaking a huge

And dangerous Experiment to find out.

By releasing sand from Under a replica obelisk,

He plans to tilt it upright Inside a mud brick room.

But cracks in the walls

Threaten to Derail the operation.

Safety engineer Rami aransa is worried

The mud brick room Could collapse.

Narrator: with workers watching The walls to check that no more

Cracks appear, adel begins The raising operation.

Narrator: Workers pull out the bricks

From two of the windows

Of the mud brick room to Start removing the sand.

This should lower The base of the obelisk,

And pivot it until It's nearly upright.

From there, the team should Be able to pull it vertical.

♪♪

Adel must carefully control The release of the sand

To maneuver the obelisk Accurately

Onto the plinth below.

Narrator: little by little, The workers remove the sand

From the sand box.

Oops. Op.

Narrator: the obelisk is only Moving very slowly,

So adel decides to Speed up the process.

Narrator: the team pulls out More mud bricks

To create another two openings.

♪♪

The obelisk is moving faster, But there's a hitch.

It's not going in The right direction.

Narrator: instead of pivoting And dropping,

The obelisk is sliding Across the mud brick room.

Narrator: It's a serious set back.

If the obelisk continues to Slide, it will end up lying

At an angle that will make it Impossible to pull upright.

Narrator: to get the obelisk as Vertical as possible,

Adel shovels away the sand

From immediately Under the center of it.

But supported only at its base,

The obelisk makes a sudden move.

Narrator: safety engineer Rami calls a halt.

[ speaking foreign language ]

Narrator: from outside the room, The team carefully removes sand

Until the obelisk settles Into a stable position.

♪♪

It takes three hours to maneuver

The obelisk within one Foot of the plinth.

To raise hatshepsut's 97-foot-tall obelisk

The same way,

Adel believes ancient workers Would've needed a mud brick room

98 feet high

And around a month To take away the sand.

Narrator: now, adel and the team Must pull the obelisk upright.

♪♪

It's a tricky operation.

If they use too much force,

They could tip The obelisk right over.

[ men speaking Foreign language ]

♪♪

Narrator: After a nerve-jangling wobble,

The obelisk settles on its base.

♪♪

[ cheering ]

Narrator: adel and the team have Successfully shown

That the sand box method works.

Narrator: the obelisks were The crowning glory

Of the new kingdom pharaohs,

An astonishing achievement that Inspired awe and wonder.

♪♪

But of the dozens of Obelisks the pharaohs raised,

More now stand in cities Of other countries

Than remain in egypt's temples.

So how did so many obelisks End up in distant lands?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: from these quarries in Aswan, southern egypt,

The pharaohs extracted Dozens of granite obelisks

And erected them in Temples across the country.

♪♪

Today, fewer than 10 of these large, stone needles

Remain standing in egypt.

But elsewhere in the world, You can see over 20.

♪♪

How did so many obelisks End up overseas?

♪♪

The temple of karnak once Boasted at least 13 obelisks,

Including some of the most Impressive ever raised.

The tallest was Over 118 feet high.

Today, in the center of The temple, only two remain.

In their shadow, Archeologist benjamin durand

Unearths new evidence That could reveal

What happened to some Of the missing obelisks.

♪♪

At the temple of pata, Just 600 feet from

The remaining ones, Benjamin uncovers a clue.

Narrator: in the laboratory, Restoration expert lucy antoine

Attempts to reveal any Details in the coins

That will shed light on What happened to

The temple complex of karnak And its missing obelisks.

Narrator: this softens The outer corrosive layer,

Enabling lucy to clean it Away with a micro-motor.

♪♪

[ speaks indistinctly ]

Narrator: the cleaned surface Reveals this coin's origins.

Narrator: constantine's name on These coins shows that

The great temple And its obelisks

Had fallen to the romans.

In 30 b.C., the last pharaoh, Cleopatra, committed suicide

And the powerful roman empire Took control of egypt.

♪♪

In the center of karnak,

Antoine garik is only now Repairing the damage

The romans caused when They looted the temple complex.

Narrator: whenever the romans Invaded a country,

They liked to seize Its monuments

And re-erect them In their capital city

As a dramatic display of Their might and power.

♪♪

Around 335 a.D, Constantine I ordered

The removal of two Of karnak's obelisks.

The romans shipped one to Constantinople, now istanbul.

♪♪

They transported The other to rome.

At 105 feet tall,

It's the largest ancient Obelisk in the world.

The romans filled Their city with

Eight large and 42 small Egyptian obelisks.

♪♪

Much later, in the 1800s, After diplomatic requests,

Egypt's ottoman rulers Gave away three more of

These giants stones nicknamed Cleopatra's needles.

♪♪

The first was shipped to paris

And re-erected in The place de la concorde.

The second was placed in London beside the thames.

And the last was raised in New york's central park.

Here, they still stand, Majestic reminders

Of the extraordinary Society that built them.

♪♪

To the ancient egyptians, These sky-piercing columns

Played a vital role In their religion.

They connected The earth and the heavens

Through the sun god ra.

And now, through archeology And experiment,

They are revealing Their final secrets.

The great civilization That created these

Sublime spires of granite Has long since disappeared.

But through these Extraordinary monuments,

It will continue To be remembered.

♪♪

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