Original subtitles

Narrator: A mysterious ruined citadel.

Could this be the home of The legendary king midas?

The story of midas And the golden touch is

One of the most famous In greek mythology.

Narrator: It's said that everything

King midas touches Turns to gold.

But where does this outlandish Claim originate?

Most myths have got Some kind of basis in truth.

Narrator: Is midas a real person?

And is this his tomb?

This monument is one of The most spectacular

Discoveries of The 20th century.

Narrator: today, experts peel Back the layers of

A lost kingdom to reveal The surprising truth

Behind the myth

And travel deep inside Strange ancient mounds

To discover whether these Ruins really do run with gold.

On the quest for clues, We reconstruct a lavish city.

We explore its dark tombs,

Come face to face With a long-dead king,

And investigate glittering Treasures to unearth

What really lies behind

The story of king midas And his golden touch.

♪♪

In central turkey lie The ruins of a powerful,

Fortified city -- Gordion.

It's nearly 3,000 years old But only recently discovered.

Just over 100 years ago,

Workers building a new Railroad stumble across

An enormous mound Of ancient pottery.

When the archaeologists Began excavating here,

Even though they didn't know It on the first day,

They were about To discover one of

The major power centers Of the ancient world.

Narrator: gordion is a city Of over 10,000 people

And the heart Of a powerful kingdom.

Towering over the city is A fortified citadel

Protected by a stone wall Over 16 feet high.

According to greek myth,

The city's most famous ruler Is midas,

A king who wishes for Everything he touches

To turn to gold.

It's an incredible story.

Can it be based in truth?

♪♪

The story of midas And the golden touch

Is one of the most famous In greek mythology.

Narrator: today, brian rose Leads investigations at gordion.

He's been working here For 15 years,

Uncovering why the city Rises to prominence.

When visitors came to gordion,

They would have passed through A giant citadel gate,

One of the largest citadel Gates anywhere in the near east.

Narrator: the huge gateway Is over 30 feet high,

And the walls more than 20 feet thick.

Inside, there's an area For workers and another

For the palaces and public Buildings of the elite.

Gordion is the capital city of The ancient kingdom of phrygia,

Which covers much of Modern-day turkey.

It's an hour's drive from The turkish capital, ankara.

So why did gordion Become so important?

One of the reasons Is that it's right in

The middle of the eastern World and the western world.

All the trade routes between

East and west pass Through gordion.

Narrator: unlike the greeks And egyptians,

The people of gordion leave Very few written records.

Their lives are still Shrouded in mystery.

Yet one story is passed down For generations.

When midas does a favor For the greek god dionysus,

He is granted a wish.

Midas asks for a magic power,

To turn everything He touches to gold,

Making him rich Beyond measure.

But when he tries to eat, His food turns to gold.

When he hugs his daughter,

She turns Into a golden statue.

Dionysus has mercy and tells Midas to wash in the river,

Which runs gold As the wish drains away.

I do believe that most Myths probably

Almost have got Some kind of basis in truth.

Narrator: julian bennett Searches for evidence

In the hills outside gordion.

First, he needs to find out If midas is a real person.

An astonishing monument Cut into

The cliff face May offer clues.

It's nearly 60 feet tall And covered with

An intricate geometric design Of squares and crosses.

Bennett: they represent Buildings or temples,

Wooden buildings Or wooden temples.

Narrator: julian thinks The monument could prove

That midas is real.

Bennett: from the style of This monument, we can

Date it to about The eighth century b.C.

Gordion reaches its peak Round about

The eighth century b.C.,

Which we are told Was ruled by a midas,

So the dates match.

Narrator: an inscription At the top of

The monument provides A further clue.

It's written in phrygian, the Ancient language of the area.

Phrygian is not fully known,

But its similarity to Languages like ancient greek

Means it can be understood.

Bennett: What we have is

A declaration of a ruler

Called midas Who's obviously in command

Of this area Called phrygia.

Narrator: this giant Monument proves that

Midas is not A mythological figure.

He's real flesh and blood.

♪♪

Brian rose believes Further clues to establishing

The truth behind the tale

May lie in An intriguing connection

Between the monument

And midas's Capital city, gordion.

Rose: the facade of The midas monument

Is covered by Geometric decoration.

We think that it's A reproduction of what

The monumental buildings on

The citadel of gordion would Have looked like during

The reign of midas.

Narrator: the fortified citadel Covers an area

The size of 20 football fields.

Behind its huge gates Are the city's most

Dazzling buildings.

They stand Over 50 feet high.

Striking patterns cover The roofs of the buildings,

♪♪

And stunning geometric designs Decorate their fronts.

It's a lavish display Of status,

A way for midas to show off His wealth for all to see.

Under the rule of midas, The kingdom of phrygia

Is successful, Innovative, powerful.

Phrygia features in The greatest epic of the era.

The kingdom is An ally of troy

In the trojan war.

During the reign of midas, Gordion would have been

A truly dazzling city, Built to impress

Any diplomat Or tourists who came here.

Narrator: can gordion's Extraordinary wealth be

The origin of the story Of the golden touch?

Do dozens of colossal mounds Outside the city walls

Reveal more about the truth Behind the midas myth?

Narrator: Gordion, a wealthy city

Ruled by king midas 3,000 years ago.

Gareth darbyshire has been Working at gordion for 20 years,

Searching for The evidence behind

The myth of the man with The golden touch.

He investigates just outside The city walls.

Here, dozens of strange mounds Of earth seem to stand guard.

Surrounding the city on The high ground and along

Ancient routeways are over 120 of these mounds.

They're obviously man-made Because of their shape.

Narrator: They are burial mounds,

The tombs of the elite of Gordion society.

One mound, Visible for miles around,

Dominates all the others.

Darbyshire: This monument is one of

The largest burial mounds In the world.

It's one of The most spectacular discoveries

Of the 20th century.

Narrator: the mound is built By piling high

Hundreds of thousands Of tons of earth.

Experts estimate It takes around 1,000 people

A year and a half to build.

The mound may conceal Important clues about midas,

But excavating it presents A major challenge.

You can't simply just dig into The side of it or on the top.

You need to do it Very carefully.

There's the risk of the entire Mound collapsing in on you.

These kinds of excavations Can kill people.

Narrator: There's another challenge.

The tomb could be anywhere Inside the huge mound,

A strategy to fool Ancient grave robbers.

For archaeologists, It's like trying to

Find a needle in a haystack.

They turn to modern technology For a solution.

Darbyshire: we decided to get An oil prospecting drill,

Which is a very long drillbit, From texas,

Because that instrument Can reach straight from

The top of the mound right Down to the bottom.

Narrator: the drill bores dozens Of holes, probing for the tomb.

On the 96th attempt, It hits something solid.

Drilling stops.

Now they have their target, And they start to dig.

Local miners tunnel in From the side.

Excavating from the top Will destroy the mound.

What they find is astonishing.

Hidden beneath the mound,

Under thousands Of tons of earth,

Is a thick clay core Shaped like a dome.

Digging through this layer

Reveals a mysterious Wooden chamber.

Inside, archaeologists come Face-to-face

With the skeleton of a man.

Around him, lavish grave goods Litter the floor.

Who is this man, and why is He surrounded by treasures?

Can this be the tomb Of king midas?

The tomb chamber Lies at the end

Of the 100-foot-long Excavation tunnel.

It's so fragile that It's off limits to visitors.

But gareth is given Rare access.

The tomb is enclosed by A barrier constructed of

Juniper logs.

Darbyshire: the reason There are these enormous,

Very hard juniper logs is To protect the tomb

And its contents From robbing.

This protection and the massive Scale of the mound,

It's very similar to The pyramids

Of the egyptian kings Or pharaohs.

[ vocalizing ]

Narrator: sealed inside An airtight mound for nearly

3,000 years, the tomb is Perfectly preserved.

[ vocalizing ]

But is it the right date For midas?

Archaeologists turn to tree Ring dating for an answer.

If they can date The wood in the tomb,

It will provide vital evidence Of who this man is.

Every year, a tree produces A growth ring, a tree ring.

If you still have the bark Preserved, as we do here with

The juniper logs in This tomb,

Then you can calculate The felling date,

The date at which that tree Was cut down and killed.

Taking several samples From these juniper logs,

We counted the tree rings, And they all date

To the same time.

Narrator: the tests allow The archaeologists to date

The construction of the tomb

To the year 740 b.C.,

Making this the oldest Standing wooden structure

In the world.

But this date means It cannot be midas.

With the dating about 740 b.C., It's too early to be

King midas -- we know From a syrian record that

Midas was still operational In 709 b.C.

So this tomb cannot Belong to midas.

Narrator: king midas Succeeds to the throne

After the tomb is sealed.

He rules for another 40 years.

So whose skeleton Is it in this tomb?

Brian rose investigates.

Experts use The dead man's skull to

Recreate his appearance In plaster and clay.

Brian thinks it can help Identify the man.

Rose: this is The reconstructed face of

The man who was buried In the tomb.

We've analyzed the bones,

And we've determined that The man died between the ages of

60 and 65, which is quite old For the eighth century b.C.

Narrator: on close examination, Brian discovers

There's something unusual

About the shape of The man's skull.

It's been Deliberately elongated,

Probably when He was an infant.

Narrator: the gordion elite bind The heads of their babies so

That the bone permanently Hardens into an unusual shape.

The man's Oddly-shaped skull

And the enormous size Of his burial mound

Enables brian To identify the body.

Our conclusion is that it's Likely the father of midas,

A man whose name was gordias.

Narrator: gordias rules in The mid-eighth century b.C.

His story also enters Into legend.

When an earlier ruler dies Without an heir,

The people Consult the oracle,

Who declares that The next man driving

An ox cart into the city Should be made king.

At that moment,

A peasant steers his ox cart Through the gates.

He is gordias.

The people choose him As their king,

And in his honor, they rename Their city gordion.

When gordias died, his son, Midas, would have

Become king, And even though midas

Wasn't buried in the tomb,

It is very much a midas mound, Because it was the first major

Building project of his reign.

Narrator: So far, only 46

Of the 125 burial mounds

In gordion have Been excavated.

Midas's final resting place Remains to be discovered.

Do further clues To the legend of

King midas still lie In his father's tomb?

Can the remains of A burial shroud unearthed

With his body help separate Fact from fiction?

Narrator: gordion --

Once the capital of The kingdom of

Phrygia and the home of King midas.

Archaeologists want to know if

The myth of midas's golden touch Is grounded in truth.

♪♪

Answers may lie hidden in

The burial mound of Midas's father, gordias.

Locked in the tomb is A treasure trove

Of burial goods that,

When polished, Shine like gold.

Over 150 exquisite objects

Surround the king's body,

And right next to him are Small pieces of fabric,

The fragments Of a burial shroud

That, in its prime, glitters With golden threads.

What can these treasures Tell us about

The origin of the story Of midas's golden touch?

Experts face A daunting challenge

Analyzing what little remains Of the burial shroud.

Darbyshire: just as the body In the burial mound

Had decayed down to just The skeleton,

It turns out that the textile Itself had decayed,

And so what our scientific Team analyzed

Wasn't the textile itself, It was the hardened coating.

Narrator: tests on this coating Reveal the shroud

Is colored by a mineral Called goethite.

Today, it's used to Create yellow

Paint colors like Ochre and sienna.

Darbyshire: So this is goethite.

It's an iron oxide, And you can see

That it has this lovely Golden-yellow color.

We know from analysis of The textiles that the bedding

And probably the shroud on The king's body

Was coated with this pigment.

Narrator: gareth believes that The manufacture of pigment from

This raw iron oxide Is a vital clue

To help explain the origin Of the golden touch.

You heat the ore with formic Acid and urea to

A temperature of about 90 degrees celsius,

And that creates your pigment.

But even just raw, it's still Very hard to get it off

My hands -- It's still not going.

Wow.

It's possible, then, that you Could recognize those who are

Involved in the manufacture of

The high-status cloth of The high-status clothing,

Because they're walking around With yellow hands,

And perhaps it is this That gave rise

To the legend of The golden touch.

Narrator: it's one explanation For the myth.

Darbyshire: this wonderful Golden yellow color --

You can imagine the phrygian Royalty and nobles,

The elite wearing These golden-colored garments.

Narrator: They dress richly

In decorative weaving And embroidery.

The evidence from Ancient texts is

That the phrygians invent Both techniques.

Darbyshire: we're told this By the roman writer,

Pliny the elder,

And also the latin word for Embroiderer is phrygio.

Narrator: King midas and his courtiers

Are enviably rich,

And the funeral of the king is

When that wealth Is most on show.

When the king dies, he lies In state for all to see,

Covered in his golden shroud.

The city's elite,

Colorfully And extravagantly dressed,

Gather for a gala Funerary banquet.

They dine on spicy goat stew

And drink barley beer And honey mead.

Then the king And the remains of

The feast are carefully laid Out inside the wooden tomb.

The tomb is sealed And the body left

To rest for eternity.

Gordion's funeral feasts And the city itself

Are ablaze With gold and color.

Darbyshire: of course, Midas didn't really

Turn things to gold By touching them,

But perhaps this story of The golden touch is really

A metaphor for the fabulous Wealth of the phrygian kings.

Narrator: But could the story be about

More than just gold And untold riches?

Can strange discoveries Beneath the city

Reveal that it's about power And politics, too?

Narrator: gordion,

Once a dazzling city Of golden color.

Now researchers want to know If its king,

Midas, is as greedy As the story says.

Mythology depicts midas

As a -- kind of a nasty, Scary, unpleasant person.

The question is, Was he really like that?

Narrator: what is it about midas That inspires this myth?

Could the story conceal A deeper truth

About the king And his rule?

Hidden beneath the ruins of Midas's city

Lie the remains of another That is decades older.

Its layout is almost a carbon Copy of the city above.

In between the two lies A 15-foot-thick layer of clay.

But discoveries in this layer Puzzle archaeologists.

Fragments of pottery, Which date to the bronze age,

Hundreds of years older Than either city.

Why are these ancient shards

Sandwiched between The ruined cities?

And what can they reveal About midas

And the violent world He lives in?

Elif denel has been Studying the ancient

History of the region For two decades.

She believes the pottery Belongs to

A much earlier people,

The hittites, who rule The area centuries before.

They couldn't understand Why the hittite pottery,

Which is several hundred years Earlier than the ninth century

City, over which this Was constructed,

How did it get there?

So archaeologists were like,

Wow, what's going on?

Narrator: elif searches for Answers in the ruins of gordion.

Solving the mystery May shed more light on

The legend of midas And his golden touch.

A destruction layer Provides a clue,

The mark of an enormous Disaster that befalls the city.

We found evidence for A huge, massive fire.

There was burnt bricks, Evidence of burnt beams,

Roofs collapsed, Burnt pottery.

Narrator: In around 800 b.C.,

A devastating fire rips Through gordion.

Residents flee For their lives,

Abandoning their homes And belongings.

At first, Archaeologists believe

It's caused by an enemy army Attacking gordion.

They, interestingly,

Didn't find Any deceased human beings,

Any remains of people.

Narrator: there's no proof Of fighting in the area.

We know that this wasn't Caused by any conflict now,

Because if there was any Conflict, we would have

Evidence of military activity.

But we don't have any -- any Evidence for that in this area.

Narrator: but in a world of Constant warfare, the city

And its defensive walls Must be rebuilt, and quickly.

The hasty rebuild explains The mystery pottery.

It was most probably That the workers brought

The clay from an area where There were remains of

Hittite people, Hittite settlements.

They scooped up the clay And brought it here

And dumped it on top of The ninth-century settlement.

Narrator: as a result, Gordion stands nearly

20 feet higher Than before the fire.

Denel: they did not just Rebuild the city.

They raised the whole city On top of

A platform of 4 to 5 meters high.

Whoever came to the city Could probably

See the city from kilometers, Miles away.

Narrator: gordion is now An immense citadel.

Its defenses are among

The most formidable In the ancient world.

But when midas takes The throne,

The city is under threat.

A rival power threatens Midas's kingdom.

To survive, He needs a golden touch.

To fight the mighty Assyrian empire

To his east, midas forms An alliance with local kings.

But then he signs a peace Treaty with the assyrian ruler

When he becomes Too powerful to oppose.

He reaches out To the greek kingdoms

In the west and marries A greek princess,

An alliance that gives Midas's landlocked

Kingdom invaluable access To the sea.

♪♪

Elif believes the myth is A metaphor for midas's

Diplomatic skills and his Ability to defend his city.

Denel: if we look at the history Of king midas,

He probably had the golden Touch, because he was building

Up this monumental,

Substantial, amazing city.

Narrator: Gordion reaches the height of

Its power and prestige Under midas.

Legend says he washes away The golden touch in the river.

Could a discovery in The citadel at gordion show

This part of the myth Is also based in truth?

Narrator: King midas's golden touch

May be a metaphor for The wealth of gordion

And his diplomatic skills.

But one final part of the myth Needs more examination.

Grieving because he has turned His daughter to gold,

Midas begs dionysus to relieve Him of the golden curse.

The god tells him to wash In the river pactolus,

And the river runs with gold As the wish flows away.

Clues found in gordion May shine a new light

On this final piece of The legend.

Kerem oguz is An expert in gold.

He wants to see if the river

Pactolus really does Flow with gold

As the myth says.

If the legend is true, Midas washed his hands

Into this river,

Then there should be some gold In this water.

Narrator: kerem needs To collect river sediment

And sift it to look For tiny gold flakes.

In the time of king midas, To retrieve gold,

They used sheepskins.

They put the sheepskin Into the river.

Narrator: the idea is To trap any grains

Of gold that flow Down the river.

After a few months, The sheepskin is taken

Out of the water.

Oguz: they used to put The sheepskin in the sun,

Let it dry, and comb it and Shake it to get the gold out.

Narrator: there's no pure gold In the sheepskin today,

But gold can be found In a different form.

The gold actually is found

In two different combinations In nature.

One is pure gold, And one is called electrum.

Narrator: electrum is A naturally occurring alloy

Of gold and silver,

Known as white gold To the ancient greeks.

Can electrum explain The myth of

Midas ridding himself of The golden touch?

♪♪

Answers may lie 200 miles from gordion

In a city through which The river pactolus flows,

Sardis.

Cahill: sardis one of The biggest cities in

The ancient world.

It was famous in greece, For instance,

As the place where you would Go to buy perfumes

And exotic textiles.

Narrator: nick cahill Has studied sardis,

The capital of the kingdom of Lydia, for over 40 years.

Nick believes a world-changing Technology develops here

That explains the final part Of the midas myth.

He uncovers evidence in this Unusual building in sardis.

When this was excavated, We found furnaces,

And in those furnaces Were, uh,

Pieces of cooking pots.

Narrator: ancient people use Carefully measured amounts of

Precious metals to pay for Goods and services.

But nick thinks That using electrum

Gives the lydians a problem.

Cahill: If you're a lydian trader,

It's hard to use This silver-rich gold.

You might get ripped off, Because you don't know how much

Gold and how much silver There is in the metal

You're using to trade For your sheep.

Narrator: a discovery In this building gives clues

To how the lydians Solve the problem.

We found traces of gold foil And other equipment

That makes us think That this area

Was a workshop For separating electrum into

Pure gold and pure silver.

Narrator: lydian metal workers Take raw electrum

And heat it to separate it Into gold and silver.

And from this ancient alchemy,

They create the first known Coins in the western world.

Cahill: this is a replica Of a lydian coin.

It's got a design stamped On the front of it.

And on the back, it's got A couple of punches.

It's got about 55% gold And 45% silver,

And that stamp on it Guarantees to the user

That it has this proportion

Of gold and has A certain value you can

Guarantee by the state.

Narrator: the invention of Coinage with a standard purity

Of gold revolutionizes How we do business.

Lydian people can rely on These hallmarked gold coins,

And so their economy booms.

The invention of coinage And currency

Makes the lydians And their king rich.

You might have heard The expression, rich as croesus,

And croesus was the king Of lydia and becomes synonymous

With just fabulous wealth.

Narrator: another spectacular Discovery in gordion,

Midas's city,

Reveals the impact of This invention of money.

Archaeologists unearth A horde of 45 gold coins.

Their telltale design,

A lion's head, Reveals they are lydian.

Can these coins shed light on

The final part Of the midas myth?

The coins are evidence that The lydians now control gordion.

Cahill: we see the rise of lydia And a new dynasty of kings.

This is what allows them to Conquer western turkey

And also gordion, where we find Those lydian coins.

Narrator: nick believes The story of midas washing away

The golden touch Is really that

Of wealth draining away From gordion to sardis.

Cahill: we have this myth that Midas came to rid himself of

The golden touch, And that he washed

The golden touch Into the river,

Which from then on Ran with gold,

And this might be Something like

A metaphor for the transfer Of power

From gordion to sardis.

Narrator: people once believed The story of midas to be a myth.

Now, new archaeological Evidence shows

That much of it Is grounded in fact.

Can investigators Throw light on another

Ancient myth,

The legend of The gordian knot?

And can it reveal the fate of Midas's capital city?

Narrator: The ancient city of gordion --

3,000 years ago,

This is the home of King midas.

It is a region plagued By constant war,

Fought over by powerful kings And mighty empires.

Now investigators want to know What happens to gordion

After midas.

Scattered among The ruins of gordion,

Archaeologists discover Dozens of bronze arrowheads.

Some of them are embedded In the walls,

And inside the fortress,

The skeletons of soldiers.

Is this evidence of Gordion's destruction?

Brian rose returns To gordion to find out.

A huge construction by The city walls may

Provide answers.

In addition to the many Arrowheads and skeletons of

Soldiers that were found in The excavations of the fort,

We have a giant siege mound Leading up into the fort.

Narrator: a siege mound or ramp Is built by ancient armies

So they can storm their Enemies' city walls.

We have to remember that The fort that you see

Behind me was originally Positioned on

A 12-meter-high platform.

Then you have to restore four Stories above that.

In order to destroy

A fort this high and this Monumental, an enormous

Siege mound would have Been necessary.

Narrator: the mound is about 150 yards in length.

It's built of stones and logs And topped with clay.

Brian wants to know who are

The powerful mystery attackers Building it,

And if their identity Can reveal

The fate of midas's one-time Capital, gordion.

♪♪

Rose: when we studied The arrowheads,

We found that they were of A distinctive design,

A distinctive type.

We can associate them With the persians,

And we know that the persians Swept through this area in

The middle of the sixth century B.C., building siege ramps to

Destroy the cities That stood in their path.

Narrator: The persian empire is one of

The most powerful in The ancient world.

In the sixth century b.C., Under cyrus the great,

Its army sweeps across central And western asia,

Taking everything in its path.

Gordion,

Once king midas's Golden city, falls.

Yet gordion's story doesn't end With the persian conquest.

200 years after that, Another army attacks the city.

This army is greek.

It's led by one of the most Famous warriors in history,

Alexander the great.

It will be alexander Who writes

The final chapter In this story.

When midas's father, Gordias, is crowned,

His ox cart is placed In a temple

And tied with A complicated knot.

It's said That whoever unties it

Will rule asia.

Many come to try, But all fail.

Then, in the third Century b.C.,

Alexander arrives in the city,

Intent on conquering The persian empire.

Faced with gordian's knot,

Alexander simply draws His sword

And cuts right through it.

He could not unravel it, So he took out his sword

And sliced through it,

Thereby giving rise to The expression cutting

The gordian knot, Finding a fast

And efficient solution To an intractable problem.

Narrator: alexander goes on to Conquer vast swaths of asia,

Just as the prophecy foretold.

People often ask if the story

Of the gordian knot could Be true.

It's told by a number of Ancient greek historians.

The stories are More or less identical,

So we have no reason to doubt That alexander came here,

Found a gordian knot,

Was intent on fulfilling the Prophecy, and cut through it.

Narrator: today, here in turkey, Archaeologists uncover

New evidence that brings

The legends of The past to light.

King midas, A ruler who wishes for

Everything he touches To turn to gold.

Now experts have found His capital city,

The huge tomb he builds For his father,

And evidence of His vast wealth.

The story of midas Is more than a myth.

It's based on the true story Of a king with a golden touch.

♪♪

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