Original subtitles

Narrator: An undiscovered void deep inside the great pyramid.

Tantalizing new evidence of lost tombs

in the valley of the kings.

Egypt's greatest monuments conceal many unsolved mysteries.

Today, investigators use pioneering 3-d modeling...

The feat of engineering here is just astronomical.

You can see the size of it.

Narrator: ...Forensic analysis...

Lehner: There's no smoking gun.

There's no signature left on the sphinx.

But there are clues.

Narrator: ...And sheer brute force

to make new discoveries about egypt's seven greatest wonders.

Man: The ancient egyptians took what they had

and used it ingeniously.

Narrator: These seven iconic megastructures

set the benchmark for human ingenuity.

How do the pharaohs of egypt build these superstructures

without the tools and machines we take for granted today?

What drives them to build on a scale never seen before?

Now we reveal how the powerful kings

kick-start humanity's obsession with colossal engineering...

...To build the seven wonders of ancient egypt.

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

the seven wonders of the ancient world.

The must-see most spectacular monuments in antiquity.

One structure on the list stands out.

The great pyramid of giza,

the oldest and most colossal.

Created by an extraordinary civilization,

the ancient egyptians.

The great pyramid is the extraordinary legacy

of the powerful pharaoh khufu.

Even today, khufu's monster tomb keeps giving up its secrets.

Advanced scanning using subatomic particles

reveals a huge void in the heart of the pyramid,

right next to the pharaoh's burial chamber...

Undiscovered for 4,500 years.

♪

a secret room longer than four city busses

is testament to the enduring mystery

and massive scale of khufu's great pyramid

and a stunning new discovery.

The mighty pharaohs of egypt and their engineers

are the masters of building big.

But why do the pharaohs commit

the resources of an entire empire to these monuments?

Rising out of the desert on the edge of cairo,

the great pyramid of giza stands at over 450 feet tall.

Built around 2,500 b.C., it is the tallest structure on earth

for more than three and a half thousand years.

Khufu hopes his colossal tomb protects his mummified body

until the very end of time.

The ancient egyptians believe the body is needed for the soul

to reach the underworld and gain eternal life.

Archeologist mark lehner has studied this monument

for over 40 years.

Well, the whole pyramid was about this place

and this sarcophagus.

Narrator: The intricately carved sarcophagus holds khufu's mummy.

The rest of the king's chamber is filled

with treasures of unimaginable wealth,

placed alongside everyday objects like chairs,

bread, and beer --

everything a pharaoh needs to live in the afterlife.

But this instantly makes it a target for grave robbers

from the moment the pharaoh is sealed inside.

How do khufu's engineers protect the pharaoh and his treasure?

♪

solid walls 260 feet thick surround the chambers,

leaving the passageways as the weak link.

So at the king's chamber,

workers carve out a set of grooves

just outside the entrance

and fit three massive granite slabs

which workers drop down

once the king's mummy is safely inside.

To block the entrance to the passageways below,

they fit three even bigger granite blocks

and cut off access to the inner sanctum.

Then they completely conceal the entrance

under a seamless layer of limestone.

The builders hope that these three layers of defense

will keep robbers out.

Outside the king's chamber,

the granite slabs are missing today.

But mark finds grooves which once held ropes

to lower the blocks.

So the ropes came up and down

through these semicircular grooves.

The portcullis slab slid down through these panels.

So the whole thing was like a primitive machine

that the builders who closed the pyramid

could put into action from the other side after they got out.

Narrator: Khufu hopes when he dies,

his mummified body will lie undisturbed for eternity,

allowing it to reunite with his soul,

giving him immortality in the afterlife.

His pyramid is the ultimate resurrection machine.

A structure made from over two million solid stone blocks

assembled with breathtaking precision,

many weighing more than a car.

Narrow hidden tunnels lead to two massive chambers...

Designed to withstand huge weights from above.

The ultimate resting place for a pharaoh's body.

How do the ancients build

this six-million ton immortal monument

in the sands of the egyptian desert?

♪

mark knows that when the pharaoh khufu orders engineers

to build the largest pyramid ever,

he sets the ultimate deadline.

They have to finish before the death of the king.

The engineer had his life and reputation on the line

in order to complete the pyramid within the king's lifetime.

It was long thought that khufu ruled for 23 years.

Recently, new findings of dates suggest

khufu might have reigned maybe 30-some years, maybe 35.

So it gives them a little more leeway.

Narrator: Khufu sets the challenge and the deadline.

The big mystery is how do builders ensure

that the massive monument is complete in time?

Quarrying expert adel kelany and a team of master stonemasons

is trying to answer this question.

They need to square off a limestone block

to restore a wall near the pyramid.

First, they must split a rough limestone block in half

using modern steel tools.

Striking the rock in the right place

should make it crack.

Man: Oops.

The rock is split,

but it's tough going for the tools.

Seeing how hard it is to square off a block

with modern tools highlights the challenges.

Experts think it might take five workers up to half a day

to square off and shape each block

so it fits perfectly next to another.

Making every single block in the pyramid

this accurate in the time they have seems impossible.

So how do the egyptians do it?

Mark lehner believes the pyramid builders

find a shortcut to speed up construction.

Lehner: I think it would have been well nigh impossible

to build the whole pyramid with regular, squared,

nicely fitted blocks.

Narrator: The blocks inside the pyramid look very different

from those that make up the outside.

Higher up in the pyramid and deeper in,

look at this joint between two stones.

Now it's a good six inches to eight inches wide

and just stuffed with big globs of mortar

and smaller limestone pieces.

Narrator: Mark thinks that the pyramid builders

used this technique deliberately.

The only way the egyptians build something so large

so quick is to cheat.

Using rough blocks significantly speeds up the process.

Khufu hopes his great pyramid will ensure his eternal life.

It's a wonder that is still giving up its mysteries

and is so spectacular,

it remains unmatched to this day.

This monster tomb is an incredible feat

of ancient engineering.

How do the king's builders get the hastily carved stones

450 feet in the air using no lifting equipment?

And later,

new research is revealing how the valley of the kings

could be concealing the next great archeological discovery.

Narrator: The great pyramid of giza,

the most celebrated wonder of the ancient world.

An attempt at immortality by the powerful pharaoh khufu.

A tomb so large no other building surpasses it in scale

for over 3,000 years.

To build on such an unprecedented scale,

the engineers cut and lay more than 200 blocks a day.

The blocks on the exterior are cut with such precision

you can barely fit a hair in between them.

But just a few layers further in, things change.

Here, the builders cut corners,

leaving huge gaps between stones.

Every block of this monster building requires

an army of workers to set it in place --

evidence of khufu's incredible power.

♪

how does the pharaoh's workforce

raise the tallest building in the world

using no machines at all?

Experts think that ancient egyptians haul stones

using wooden sledges and rope.

But the big riddle is how they drag tons of stone

and sledge all the way up the pyramid.

Just 76 yards from the pyramid,

mark lehner finds evidence that points to a solution.

Lehner: So here, just off the southwest corner

of the khufu pyramid,

we have the foundations of a ramp that still remains

that the egyptians used to make this large stone tomb.

Narrator: Dragging a large block of a shallow ramp

like this isn't a problem.

But then turn your imagination to a straight-on ramp

that's sloped all the way up

to the top of the great pyramid of khufu.

Narrator: Could ancient builders use ramps

soaring up to this height?

A ramp works well for the lower levels.

But as the pyramid rises, the slope gets too steep.

To keep the ramp shallow,

it would need to be over half a mile long

and have as much building material as the pyramid itself.

So one theory is the egyptians use a shallow ramp

until two-thirds of all blocks are in the base.

Then they build a narrow spiral ramp

up around the edge of the pyramid

to lift blocks all the way to the top

without making their ramp too steep.

Lehner: How do you build a ramp?

This ancient ramp shows us.

You build two retaining walls of larger stones

and then infill with the material

that must have been everywhere at giza --

debris of stonecutting and quarrying.

Narrator: 20,000 workers build khufu's massive tomb

to protect the mighty pharaoh's mummy

and give him hope of eternal life.

♪

unfortunately for the king,

his formidable defenses aren't enough.

No mummy or treasures have ever been found in the great pyramid.

So tomb raiders must have broken in.

The mystery is where?

Mark and engineer glen dash investigate

how the robbers carry out the heist.

So, glen, if you're gonna get into the pyramid

when it was complete,

and you want to get in from the original entrance,

this is it.

The casing stones that once hid this entrance are long gone.

And today, a metal grille secures it.

The pyramid builders' efforts to hide

and perhaps fortify this entrance seem to work.

Because robbers instead begin tunneling in

from a little lower down.

Lehner: So the story goes that they started on the center axis

of the pyramid

thinking that's where the passages would be.

And they heated the rock, the limestone,

and then poured cold water or even vinegar,

the story goes, to crack it

and gradually force their way into the pyramid

along this tunnel.

Narrator: Only 30 feet below the concealed entrance,

the raiders break through the casing stone

and start tunneling.

After carving through

almost 100 feet of limestone blocks,

they hit the first granite blocking slabs

and dig around them to reach the ascending passage.

Then they have a clean run to the king's chamber,

only to face the final hurdle --

the second set of granite slabs

the pharaoh's engineers have dropped in.

The evidence suggests they break through the barrier

to reach the jackpot.

♪

mark thinks the accuracy of the robbers' tunnel

is almost too good to be just a lucky break.

It always seemed to me that somebody,

whoever made this tunnel,

knew exactly where to turn to get around the blocks,

the granite plugging blocks.

Whoever did this almost knew where to turn.

Narrator: This inside information may help the raiders

crack the defenses of the great pyramid.

But the real treasure is impossible to steal --

the building itself.

Khufu's immense ambition and power

means the oldest and largest wonder of ancient egypt

still stands today.

The great pyramid might be the most iconic structure

of this extraordinary civilization.

The second wonder, the sphinx, is equally as recognizable.

And later, is egypt's most beguiling queen

hidden in the valley of the kings?

♪

narrator: The seven wonders of ancient egypt

are colossal symbols of the power

and wealth of the pharaohs.

Their obsession with attaining eternal life

creates monuments rising out of the harsh landscape

on a scale never witnessed before.

Standing a short distance from khufu's enormous tomb

is ancient egypt's second wonder,

the sphinx.

One of the largest sculptures ever created.

Built around 4,500 years ago,

an instantly identifiable icon of this celebrated civilization.

Ancient stonemasons carved the wonder directly

from the limestone bedrock.

But the enigmatic sphinx is still shrouded in mystery.

Unlike almost every other egyptian monument,

there are no hieroglyphic inscriptions

proclaiming the name of the pharaoh who builds it.

♪

the head of the sphinx is bigger

than the head of the statue of liberty.

It's carved from layers of ancient limestone

and towers 65 feet above the desert sand.

It has a massive body

as long as a jumbo jet.

And under hundreds of protective limestone tiles...

♪

its gigantic paws stretch out longer than a dumper truck.

♪

the identity of who carves this masterpiece

is one of the most enduring debates in egyptology.

Whose face tops the most recognizable statue

in ancient egypt?

Surprisingly, the steep-sided hollow

that the sphinx sits in offers the best clue.

Egyptologist mark lehner

believes the egyptians dig down to create the sphinx,

removing thousands of tons of stone

to shape the statue's massive body.

Today, the steep-sided pit walls that surround the sphinx

still bear the ancient scars of this mammoth excavation.

Lehner: You have to imagine what it looked like.

This entire volume of quarry was being worked.

Blocks were being taken away in the form of massive stones

100 tons in weight.

Narrator: Mark believes finding these quarried stones

is the key to revealing who builds the sphinx.

He suspects the blocks don't go far.

These ruins that sit at the paws of the sphinx

are once-lavish temples built by the great pharaoh khafra.

Mark is convinced the same pharaoh creates both the sphinx

and the temples at the same time.

I think they must have taken the stones from the quarry

that made the sphinx and moved them directly to the front

for making the temple.

Narrator: Mark works with fossil expert richard redding

to search for geological signatures

hidden within the stone blocks.

The thickness of the different-colored layers

and the types of fossils they contain

give each block a unique fingerprint.

What do you see in there, richard,

in this yellow marly band?

Redding: Well, there's a lot of fossils.

You do have a number here, here, right here.

That's a spiny oyster shell right there.

And we've got a bunch of nummulites,

these coin-shaped things.

Narrator: After years of work,

mark now has a unique fingerprint

for every block in this temple.

To show the temple and the sphinx

are built at the same time by the same pharaoh,

he hopes to match the temple stones back to the locations

they are cut from around the sphinx.

First, mark compares the thickness of the layers to see

if he can find a perfect match with any of the temple blocks.

Just a little further on, I'm getting...

Yeah, 15.75.

The layers are a good match.

But to seal the deal, richard looks to see

if the fossils match too.

Redding: That is another spiny oyster.

The spiny oyster which matches perfectly our block down there.

You've got a lot of these small nummulites.

Hardly any of the large nummulites.

So, yeah, this fossil community is very, very similar

to what we were looking at down at the sphinx temple.

So it's a good match.

There is still work to do,

but these findings suggest that mark's theory is correct.

Every stone in the temple is originally quarried

from the sides of the sphinx.

Using this methodical approach,

mark believes he can match each and every block in the temple

to their original position inside the sphinx enclosure.

Two blocks from the front wall of the temple

match the mid-chest of the sphinx.

The geological layers and the fossils inside them

are the same.

More blocks from the temple perfectly align

with the floor of the sphinx enclosure.

And the matches keep on coming --

layer after layer of stone...

Completely filling the quarry.

Identifying the source of these temple blocks

provides irrefutable evidence

of which pharaoh built this monument.

Lehner: So if khafra built the sphinx temple,

it had to have been khafra who made the sphinx,

because they were part of the same process.

Narrator: Mark believes he's finally ended the debate

about the builder of this egyptian wonder.

Khafra tops his mega sphinx

with a colossal carving of his own face.

He is the son of the mighty pharaoh khufu,

the builder of the great pyramid.

Khafra creates a projection of power

like no other to rival his own father's towering tomb.

Why does khafra carve a giant human-headed lion?

What inspires this unusual sculpture?

Are there clues to be found lying at the paws of the sphinx?

Also, does new scanning in the valley of the kings

reveal a missing tomb beneath the desolate gorge?

All along the nile, the pharaoh's master

egypt's unforgiving wilderness to create seven wonders

as statements of their supreme authority

and their desire to live and rule forever.

The sphinx standing in front of the giza pyramids

is no different.

Lehner: Never before had anything like this

been seen in egypt.

No colossal statue this size,

this scale existed.

Narrator: This unique sculpture of a human-headed lion

is carved during the reign of the pharaoh khafra.

Historians believe the human features of the sphinx

are once a direct likeness of the pharaoh himself.

But over thousands of years, the harsh desert winds

sandblast khafra's carved features away,

leaving just a few tantalizing clues

to how the sculpture originally looks.

The deep cuts in the face are chisel marks left by vandals

who chop off the nose.

Based on other statues of the time,

this is what the nose may have looked like.

Stone fragments found between the paws are clues

that the sphinx once has a beard.

Traces of paint behind the ears

could mean that it once wears heavy makeup

and what looks like painted hair

is actually a regal headdress...

Framing the immortal face

of the god-king khafra himself.

But why does khafra create a gigantic statue of a lion

with a huge image of his own face?

Mark lehner believes the temple

built directly in front of the sphinx is a vital clue.

Lehner: The curious thing is that the axis to the temple

does not aim directly at the sphinx.

It's as though the sphinx is shoved to the north

and the axis to the temple points

past it up the western horizon.

Narrator: One other feature of the temple layout

might be a clue to what the ancient egyptians

are aiming the axis towards.

Lehner: These two sanctuaries,

which are in the form of recessed bays

and small niches, define the temple axis.

It's very compelling to think that that's for the rising sun

on the east, the setting sun on the west.

Narrator: Mark believes the egyptian master builders

do not do this accidentally.

He thinks they deliberately point the temple axis

at the spot on the horizon where the sun sets

at a special time of the year.

The sphinx temple is oriented on this axis

so that it is aligned to the setting of the sun

and the rising of the sun at the equinoxes.

♪

narrator: As the sun sets on the equinox,

it drops directly behind the shoulder of the sphinx

and the south side of khafra's pyramid.

The shapes of khafra's pyramid and his sphinx merge

to become one perfect silhouette.

Lehner: Khafra and his builders were trying

to harness the power of the sun.

And after khafra died, he hoped that this alignment

would be a kind of resurrection machine.

He was, in effect, hitching himself

to the eternal cycle of the sun

so that he, too, would rise in the afterlife.

Narrator: Mark believes the temple and sphinx

are part of khafra's master plan

to harness the power of the sun to achieve resurrection.

This ideology is set to dominate egyptian religion

for the next 2,000 years.

Lehner: With this monumental architecture,

they were trying to hitch themselves

to the power of the sun.

Why? Because they believed

the king was literally the son of the sun.

And he needed the power of the sun for effective rule

over all of egypt and all its inhabitants.

Narrator: Khafra changes the face of egyptian history.

In building the sphinx and the temple at its feet,

he helps advance an era of sun worship in egypt.

♪

the devotion to the sun god

inspire many of the seven wonders of ancient egypt.

Successive pharaohs use their control of a sun cult

to produce the third wonder

and a place of worship on a scale unmatched

in the ancient world.

And how did the king's engineers

raise the towering 100-feet obelisks

using nothing but pure human power?

♪

narrator: Ancient egypt, where pharaohs ruled supreme,

determined to live and reign for eternity.

The pharaohs' devotion to the gods propels them

to construct the third astonishing wonder of egypt,

the temple of karnak on the nile in modern luxor.

It's the largest religious complex ever created,

a vast site covering 200 acres,

and the epicenter of egyptian worship.

At its heart stand the colossal columns

of the hypostyle hall rising 70 feet.

Massive granite obelisks

guard the entrance to the most sacred inner sanctum.

It's from here that the powerful kings rule over their empire

in splendor and privilege.

Karnak is like the white house,

buckingham palace, and vatican rolled into one.

This giant temple is continually expanded

and reconstructed for 2,000 years,

with successive pharaohs attempting to outdo the last.

The elite allowed to enter karnak

are greeted by the massive hypostyle hall.

Here, foreign dignitaries are received

and mighty pharaohs rest under the shaded columns.

Behind it, the festival hall obelisks

mark an exclusive gateway only priests and pharaohs

can pass through to the inner temples.

At the heart of this secret inner sanctum

lies the most ancient known temple.

But experts suspect that this site is revered for so long

that even older temples may be hiding in the ruins.

The remains of this giant temple

are slowly being rebuilt,

a super-sized jigsaw puzzle for the restorers.

Piece by piece, this temple reveals its mysteries.

The spectacular hypostyle hall,

the largest covered space ever built by the ancient egyptians.

These towering columns still hold at least

one unsolved mystery.

Who constructs the crowning glory of karnak temple?

Inscriptions cover every inch of this massive room.

One name dominates the central passageway --

ramesses ii.

Ramesses ii is believed to have ruled for 66 years

from 1279 b.C.

Pharaoh of egypt at the height of its wealth and power,

he reportedly constructs more major monuments in egypt

than any other king,

gaining him the nickname "the builder."

but although his mark covers the hypostyle hall,

erika feleg suspects that ramesses could be taking credit

for the work of one of his predecessors.

Today, erika uses new technology to record the carvings

and search for clues.

This is a task that previous generations of archeologists

are unable to pull off.

Feleg: The columns have never been recorded in detail,

and that's also because of their enormous size.

Traditional methods would involve

using transparent plastic sheets to trace over the the figures.

Because of the heat, the light, and the gravity,

all that plastic sheeting would have sagged.

So we would have had distortions.

Narrator: Instead of tracing the images,

erika uses photography and special software

to reveal the smallest details hidden inside the carvings.

She directs photographer owen murray to take the images.

Owen takes hundreds of photos of the shaded column

with an overhead light.

This technique helps him to capture every detail

of the carved stone surface.

Erika then uses advanced 3-d modeling

to stitch owen's photographs together.

She then unrolls the curves into a single flat image.

Feleg: If you look closely, you can see traces

of what used to be the outlines of some of the hieroglyphs

that were part of that initial decoration.

Narrator: Erika believes these faint scratches

hidden beneath the main inscription

are the scrubbed-out remains of another pharaoh's mark.

Once erika identifies the overwritten text,

she checks it out in real life.

She uses mirrors to manipulate the daylight

to help the faint carved lines stand out.

Two large ovals you can see contain the names

of ramesses ii.

And behind them, you can still see the outline

traces of seti I.

Narrator: At key points in the hall,

especially along the grandest

and most visible central walkway,

ramesses' name overwrites that of his own father,

seti I.

And you can still see the faint traces

towards the left side of the ramesses ii.

Narrator: Ramesses is desperate

to replace his father's name with his own,

a desire to be seen as

the greatest-ever pharaoh of ancient egypt.

He ultimately fails to remove

all the evidence of his deception.

And erika is certain seti I is responsible

for this feat of ancient engineering.

But how do seti's builders

get multiple-ton roof beams 70 feet into the air?

First, the egyptians build the columns layer by layer,

placing rough blocks in a checkerboard pattern

across the hall.

Then they fill the entire area with dirt

and drag another layer of blocks into place for 20 layers.

When all the blocks are in position,

the mammoth roof beams are carefully placed

on top of the solid mass of soil 70 feet high.

Finally, the dirt is removed

and the pillars are carved smooth

to create the largest covered space in ancient egypt.

♪

sandstone blocks allow one pharaoh

to construct a hall big enough to be worthy of the gods.

♪

seti and his great hypostyle hall

are never matched by any future pharaoh,

despite construction at karnak

continuing for another thousand years.

His power and wealth rivals

that of the great pyramid builder khufu.

♪

but no pyramid is ever built for seti.

Why do the pharaohs stop building monumental pyramids?

The next wonder of ancient egypt provides clues.

And how is a giant cliff side

reconstructed to create egypt's fifth spectacular wonder?

♪

narrator: The seven wonders of ancient egypt are the biggest,

tallest, and most awe-inspiring monuments of the ancient world.

These seven superstructures

display the mighty pharaoh's power and divine status.

All except the fourth wonder.

The valley of the kings.

This wonder is built to remain hidden from sight forever.

This steep gorge, sitting across the nile

from the temple of karnak in the modern city of luxor,

is the exclusive burial ground of pharaohs for 500 years.

The first tomb is carved around 1500 b.C.

During a period known as the new kingdom,

hundreds of years and several dynasties

after the great pyramid is finished.

The powerful kings buried here abandon giant pyramids.

They take up vast resources

and have become a magnet for grave robbers.

♪

the tombs descend for almost 450 feet,

covered in intricate hieroglyphs with spells to protect

and transport the royal mummies to the underworld.

The pharaohs go to incredible lengths

to tunnel this subterranean maze in a remote desert valley.

♪

beneath this valley lie more than 60 hidden tombs

carved deep into the rock.

Most are similar in design.

They're snaking tunnels

descending towards the underworld,

creating a rabbit warren of hundreds of painted chambers

filled with hieroglyphs and paintings of the afterlife.

Hidden in the heart of the valley

lies the tomb of the most famous pharaoh of all,

king tutankhamun.

This mysterious chamber is stuffed

with priceless treasures,

unimaginable to those that find them.

Tutankhamun's tomb is discovered in 1922

by british archeologist howard carter.

Its discovery and the remarkable amount

of gold and jewels packed inside astonishes the world.

The most spectacular treasure --

a 24-pound solid-gold death mask

adorning tutankhamun's mummy.

No other pharaoh's tomb evades ancient thieves

in the valley of the kings.

Why is tutankhamun's the only one

to remain hidden for 3,000 years?

Egyptologist kent weeks is hunting for answers.

He believes there could be clues in the original photos

from howard carter's excavations.

Weeks: This is a photograph of carter's workmen.

It was here, eventually,

they would uncover the tomb of tutankhamun.

It was in an area where nobody had expected anything.

But that's because so much material

had obscured the entrance

to what turned out to be the most exciting discovery

in the valley of the kings.

Look at the size of these boulders --

the size of basketballs.

Some of them weighing 50, 60 kilos each.

Narrator: Kent suspects these boulders

aren't put there by the egyptians.

Today, he's looking for evidence of a natural event

that may have buried tutankhamun's tomb

much deeper than its neighbors.

Kent thinks a clue lies in the graffiti

on this towering cliff face.

Weeks: We know of about 2,000 graffiti

here on the hillsides

in the valley of the kings,

and they record little bits of everything.

And these are brief glimpses of what life

might have been like back in ancient days.

Narrator: Kent scours the cliff for the faint inscription.

My god, it's difficult.

Yeah, this is it.

It looks like nothing,

but it is, in fact, a proper inscription.

This is the record of a scribe

who brought three of his sons here

to observe the results of a flash flood.

Narrator: Kent thinks that a desert storm

may have triggered a flash flood,

cascading water into the valley and over tutankhamun's tomb.

The river dumps layers of rocks and sediment

over the closed entrance.

When the hot egyptian sun bakes the mud,

it sets like concrete, sealing the tomb beneath.

Years later, tomb builders unwittingly cover the area

with stone chippings and build work huts on top.

Over 3,000 years, more earth piles over,

making tutankhamun's tomb the safest in egypt's history.

Buried beneath so much rubble,

tutankhamun's tomb is almost impossible to find.

Weeks: When howard carter came along to excavate that area,

he saw the workmen's huts,

he saw flood debris below it,

until finally he discovered the tomb

he really had been looking for all along.

Narrator: When carter's men unearth the tomb,

they find it's crammed with earthly treasure

and items the king would need in the afterlife --

six dismantled chariots,

his childhood throne,

and provisions of food and wine.

Two statues of the boy king stand guard

by his burial chamber.

Beyond the false wall, a massive shrine fills the room

from wall to wall with the glimmer of gold.

Hidden in the treasury,

the king's internal organs lay mummified in a golden shrine.

This trove of grave goods barely fits

inside the 1,000-square-feet chambers.

The tomb is much smaller

than the other royal burials in the valley.

Why?

Kent believes the decoration in the tomb

could provide clues to its abnormal size.

Kent works with a team

carefully conserving the delicate decoration.

Lori wong finds mysterious anomalies

in the way the ancient walls are painted.

If we notice here at the very base of the wall,

you can see that there's drips running down.

Throughout this tomb, we have drip marks.

So it suggests this very fast fluid action

in terms of the application of the painting materials.

Narrator: Kent has a rare opportunity

to study the religious texts up close

inside tutankhamun's burial chamber.

He finds something else strange about the imagery in the tomb.

Weeks: In other tombs, long corridors were filled

with column after column after column of religious texts.

Here we have just a few highly abbreviated scenes.

Narrator: The key scenes are all there,

but the artwork is nowhere near as elaborate

as the carvings found in other tombs.

Weeks: The absence of detail in the religious texts

is unusual by any standard.

Narrator: Kent believes the drip marks

and abbreviated religious decoration

can only mean one thing.

People were operating under a time constraint here,

and that accounts for a lot of the painting,

the absence of detail in the religious texts on the wall,

the highly abbreviated form of the book of the dead.

Time was of the essence.

For whatever reasons, political or religious or what have you,

they did want to get it done quickly.

Narrator: The famous pharaoh dies at 18.

Young, even by ancient egyptian standards.

His untimely death may have put pressure

on the tomb builders to quickly finish an incomplete job.

♪

the discovery of tutankhamun's burial

in the inhospitable valley of the kings

only highlights the astonishing achievement

to construct this wonder of ancient egypt.

But some suspect the unusual nature of the boy king's tomb

may hide further secrets --

the missing tomb of a mysterious egyptian,

the powerful queen nefertiti.

New evidence indicates a huge cavity lies behind

the decorated walls of tutankhamun's tomb.

Is this the lost tomb of the enigmatic queen?

And what can an underwater discovery tell us

about the legendary lighthouse of alexandria?

Narrator: Egypt's seven ancient wonders.

Extraordinary feats of engineering

built out of a desire for immortality.

The powerful pharaohs are determined

the superstructures will please their gods

and secure an afterlife.

The valley of the kings is no different.

An astonishing maze of tombs carved deep underground

for the pharaohs of egypt's new kingdom.

But mystery still surrounds this royal burial site.

One tomb remains unaccounted for --

a chamber for the great queen nefertiti.

She is known for her beauty, but also holds great power

ruling alongside tutankhamun's father,

akhenaten.

Archeologists are still trying to understand

the life of this enigmatic queen,

and the discovery of her tomb

would be the greatest archeological find in egypt

since the hundred-year-old discovery of her stepson,

tutankhamun.

Tutankhamun's premature death could have forced tomb builders

to repurpose someone else's tomb,

leaving many to suspect that the lost tomb of nefertiti

could be found behind these chamber walls.

Previous investigations inside the tomb

produced conflicting and disputed results.

Now, in 2020, stunning new evidence

from ground-penetrating radar detects hidden cavities

beyond the walls.

A tantalizing new lead,

but why would the body of a queen be here

in the valley of the kings?

Archeologist anna stevens hunts for evidence

of the final whereabouts of queen nefertiti.

She explores nefertiti's husband's tomb for clues,

150 miles from the valley of the kings

in the ancient city of amarna.

Akhenaten is the only pharaoh

who decides not to be buried in the valley.

A tomb is carved for him overlooking amarna,

a vast new capital he establishes.

Akhenaten's tomb is designed like those of other pharaohs,

extending deep underground with multiple chambers.

But one thing stands out to anna as highly unusual.

Nefertiti is shown to be almost as powerful as her husband.

Stevens: The key figure here is obviously akhenaten.

He's the largest figure.

He's the one who is closest to the aten.

And he, of course, is the head of the family.

He's the head of the city.

And, of course, he's leading egypt as well.

But you can see also that nefertiti's represented

a really quite a large scale.

She, like her husband, akhenaten, is semi-divine.

Narrator: Anna believes the pharaoh wishes

for his beloved nefertiti

to be buried alongside him in amarna.

Most pharaohs tombs of the new kingdom

were cut just for the king himself.

The royal tomb at amarna is a little bit more unusual,

and there's a really prominent suite of secondary chambers

that look as though they were intended

for nefertiti's burial as queen.

Narrator: But the chambers carved for her

appear to have never contained a mummy.

Stevens: The suite of chambers that seems to have been

cut for her is unfinished.

So it's unlikely that her body was actually interred here.

Narrator: No burial has ever been discovered in amarna

for nefertiti.

If she isn't buried alongside her husband,

could the newly discovered chamber

in the valley of the kings be hers?

Egyptologist aidan dobson hunts for further clues

to where nefertiti could be buried along the nile

near luxor's western bank.

Here, a range of rocky mountains

close to the valley of the kings

houses the tombs of ancient thebes' nobles.

One small tomb remains closed off.

Aidan has gained special permission to unlock the tomb.

Once inside,

he decodes the artwork that covers its chambers.

Dobson: Well, this is the tomb chapel

of a priest called paheri.

Narrator: Graffiti dates the tomb to just after

akhenaten's death.

It reveals that another ruler seizes power

before his son tutankhamun.

Aidan believes it is nefertiti

who shockingly claims the throne.

Dobson: It's dated to year three of king neferneferuaten,

who we are almost certain

is none other than the former queen nefertiti,

the wife of akhenaten.

Narrator: Nefertiti seizes power following her husband's death,

perhaps acting as regent until tutankhamun comes of age.

If nefertiti is now a pharaoh,

it makes her burial in a lost tomb

in the valley of the kings much more likely.

The tantalizing new void

revealed next to tutankhamun's tomb

could be her more extensive chambers.

But what would a royal tomb for nefertiti look like?

The grandest tomb in the valley of the kings

belongs to seti I.

This tomb is a polished masterpiece.

Its chambers are incredibly precise,

with perfectly aligned pillared halls

and raised relief paintings

carved onto the walls.

Hidden beneath king seti's burial chamber,

a rocky corridor extends over 300 feet down into the bedrock,

as deep as the great pyramid is high.

With 17 immaculately decorated chambers,

this vast burial is six times larger

than the tomb of tutankhamun.

♪

today, a team of archeologists

excavates the valley searching for nefertiti.

The discovery of the lost queen will only add to its reputation

as a wonder of ancient egypt.

The extraordinary craftsmanship of the ancient egyptians

carves the labyrinth of tombs in the valley of the kings

deep underground.

These very same skills are harnessed

by another powerful pharaoh

to sculpt the next wonder of ancient egypt,

the rock-hewn temple of abu simbel.

Narrator: The seven wonders of ancient egypt

are the creation of mighty pharaohs

determined to honor the gods

and mark out their own place in history.

The fifth wonder is

an extraordinary taming of the landscape

by one king who takes this further than any other,

abu simbel.

Constructed by ramesses ii,

he doesn't build on top of the terrain

but carves directly into it.

This remarkable temple is cut deep into a huge cliff face

rather than being built from traditional stone blocks.

It is ramesses' attempt to be known

as the greatest pharaoh of all time.

♪

the monument is built so precisely that twice a year,

the rising sun illuminates the inner sanctum

that houses the gods.

Many believe the display marks

ramesses' birthday and coronation.

How does ramesses execute a meticulous design

on such a huge scale?

The statues of ramesses are 15 times

the height of the average man.

Each mighty head is 13 feet wide

and adorned with the double crown

symbolizing power over egypt.

At his feet stand ramesses' children,

wife, and mother,

a royal guard for the sun god ra.

At the summit sit 22 sacred baboons

whose cry the egyptians believe welcomed the rising sun.

How do ramesses' masons sculpt this entire cliff face?

Workers first need to cut away the surface rock

to prepare it for carving.

They then precisely cut designs

personally approved by ramesses onto the rock.

But shaping the four 65-foot-high statues

is no simple task.

Getting the measurements wrong

could jeopardize the whole project.

So how do the stonemasons

ensure all the statues are identical?

Archeologist and explorer john ward

believes they scale up an ingenious technique

traditionally used to paint tombs.

What I'm holding here is a picture of an unfinished relief

in a tomb in thebes.

But what it shows is the grid technique

that the artisan applied to the wall prior to painting.

Narrator: The grid breaks a complex picture

down into lots of smaller, easier to draw images.

This grid allows them to transfer any image

from a scale drawing onto a much larger surface.

Narrator: To build this wonder,

the master masons use scaffolding to mark out

giant rows of horizontal lines.

Then from the top of the cliff face,

it's likely they hang weighted ropes

and draw vertical lines to complete their grid.

Using this system, they scale up smaller drawings

to produce outlines of ramesses on the rock face.

Only after marking out the facade and the entranceway

do workers begin to cut their pharaoh

and the chambers of his temple into the cliff.

♪

the skill of ramesses' master masons enables the king

to create a monument that satisfies his ego.

But there's another mystery.

The workers pay attention to every detail,

so why is this wonder covered in deep cracks?

This one clearly cuts through just above the ankle

and continues all the way

into the pillar behind this great statue.

Narrator: Abu simbel is hewn from solid rock.

So where do these cracks come from?

The clue lies in their age.

These cracks aren't made in antiquity.

They're made just 60 years ago.

In 1960, the government of egypt builds a new dam

across the nile.

It transforms two and a half million acres

of desert into farmland.

But the dam also creates a giant lake.

To prevent abu simbel being submerged,

international engineers mount an unprecedented rescue mission.

They cut the temple into pieces

and rebuild it on higher ground, away from the rising waters.

They cut the monument into individual blocks.

And I'm standing right next one here.

This cut line descends all the way down

and then continues all the way along here to this corner

and then descends here.

This huge megalithic block once laid down there

in this original position.

And each block was actually hoisted by crane

to this location, creating the new abu simbel.

Narrator: Rescued from destruction,

this stunning temple is not just a wonder of ancient egypt,

but also a wonder of modern engineering.

Why does ramesses go to great lengths

to build this cliff-face marvel?

Is it another temple for the gods

like many along the nile?

Decoding hidden messages could reveal the answer.

And how do the pharaoh's engineers

create egypt's sixth wonder?

These soaring obelisks.

♪

narrator: Abu simbel's spectacular carved cliff face

stands alongside the greatest monuments of ancient egypt

as one of its seven wonders.

Built to revere the gods,

it's a colossal statement of power

by a status-hungry pharaoh.

But is ramesses ii's rock-hewn wonder

just another temple for worshiping the sun?

Abu simbel is a spectacle

in stone carved from the cliff face.

Four colossal statues of ramesses adorn the front.

Hidden behind the magnificent facade

runs a giant 30-foot high hypostyle hall

flanked by eight imposing statues of the pharaoh.

160 feet inside the cliff

sits a sanctuary to the great gods of egypt.

But is abu simbel really just a temple to these deities?

♪

decoding its hidden messages

could unlock the secrets of ramesses' ambition.

John ward is convinced that if he can discover

the identities of the figures inside the temple,

he can reveal its true purpose.

Three statues represent the old gods of egypt --

ptah, lord of truth,

amun, lord of the sky,

and on the far right, the sun god ra.

But who is the fourth figure?

John discovers a clue hidden in plain sight --

an encrypted message carved on the temple facade.

Ward: Standing above the entrance here is the sun god ra,

but ramesses has done something pretty ingenious.

He's hidden a message within the statue itself

that reveals the true function of this temple complex.

Narrator: With his falcon's head and sun disc,

at first glance, the statue looks like ra,

the most important egyptian god,

creator of the earth and of life itself.

But his hands hold clues to a different identity.

The right one grasps an user,

a symbol denoting the word strength.

And in his left hand, he holds the symbol ma'at,

meaning truth and justice on earth,

order and harmony in the cosmos.

But joined together,

these three symbols spell another word --

usermaatre,

a name that reveals the temple's true purpose.

Ward: Usermaatre was the throne name of ramesses ii,

and it was the name that he was known by

throughout the whole land of egypt.

The symbolism that surrounds us proves that he built

and dedicated this temple to himself.

Narrator: The statue above the temple's entrance,

the fourth figure in the sanctuary --

they both represent ramesses not as a man, but as a god.

♪

all pharaohs are considered divine,

but secondary to the old gods of egypt.

Ramesses goes one step further.

He dares to claim he is their equal.

By depicting himself as a giant-sized living god,

ramesses takes the first step to securing his status

as the greatest.

The next spectacular monuments on the list of egypt's wonders

are earlier attempts by mighty pharaohs to project their power.

These soaring obelisks are the largest stones

ever worked by the egyptians.

How they create these monoliths is still unsolved.

Can new investigations unearth the answers?

And can pioneering excavations reveal the truth

about egypt's final wonder,

the legendary lighthouse of alexandria?

♪

narrator: Seven wonders

constructed by all-powerful pharaohs

to revered gods defined the ancient egyptians.

The sixth wonder,

the obelisks of ancient egypt,

are no different.

These soaring monoliths are the tallest sculptures

ever created by the king's engineers.

Cut from one single piece of super-hard pink granite,

the tallest stands at over 100 feet

and weighs 450 tons --

an unmissable show of power by a pharaoh.

These enigmatic stones fascinate all those

that see them for millennia.

Starting with the romans in 335 a.D.,

they are transported around the world.

And more now stand in places like new york,

london, paris, and istanbul

than remain in egypt.

♪

they are taken from karnak, the largest temple ever built.

Its imposing gateways hide this holy site from view.

The enormous covered halls are dedicated to egypt's chief god,

amun-ra.

At its center stand spectacular giant obelisks,

guarding the most sacred inner sanctuary

and topped with pure gold.

But these massive monoliths still confound archeologists.

How do ancient engineers transport

and erect these giants

almost 100 miles to karnak

using no crane or lifting equipment?

Historians believe the egyptians dig canals

deep into the landscape

so water from the nile flows towards the quarries.

The obelisk is suspended over the water.

Then a boat is weighed down with tons of stone

so that when it is empty, it picks up the obelisk

and carries it down the nile to karnak.

At karnak, hundreds of construction workers

then gradually dig away the earth with great precision

to tilt the giant stone upright.

Lastly, they slot the base of the obelisk into a groove

and attach ropes to haul it into its final position.

Researchers have yet to prove the theory.

In aswan, archeologist adel kelany

conducts a dangerous and pioneering experiment

to do just that.

He hopes to finally show

how the egyptians raised these stunning sculptures.

Adel and his team construct 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 a serious injury

if the experiment goes wrong.

Adel calculates that he will need 30 people

to pull the obelisk up the slope.

♪

♪

little by little, they pull it up the slope.

It's a titanic battle to haul the obelisk

to the top of the ramp.

Adel believes that to move a full-size

320-ton obelisk the same way

would require about 1,000 workers.

At last, they reach the top.

The first stage is complete.

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

Adel fills the room with sand

and begins the raising operation.

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 is 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 carefully onto the plinth below.

Little by little,

the workers remove the sand from the sandbox.

It takes three hours to maneuver the obelisk

within one foot of the plinth.

To raise the 97-foot obelisks

still standing at karnak the same way,

adel believes ancient workers

would have needed a mud brick room 98 feet high

and around a month to take away the sand.

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.

[ cheers and applause ]

after a nerve jangling wobble,

the obelisk settles on its base.

Adel and the team have successfully shown

that the sandbox method works.

Adel believes he's finally unraveled the secret

of the pharaohs' mystifying giant status symbols,

spectacular monoliths seen by millions around the world.

The final wonder of ancient egypt

is equally shrouded in myth and intrigue,

but is now lost from sight.

Are any of the legends of the lighthouse of alexandria true?

Narrator: The last of egypt's wonders

dazzles the ancient world.

The lighthouse of alexandria.

It is the final wonder on the original greek list

of seven wonders of the ancient world.

A soaring stone tower built at the port entrance

to this ancient city,

said to be the tallest building in the world.

A burning light shone out to sea to guide ships into egypt's

spectacular new capital.

At the very top, a giant golden statue

to the greek conqueror of egypt,

alexander the great, depicted as a shining sun god.

Built from super-strong pink granite and limestone blocks,

it is an ancient skyscraper.

Halfway, immense bronze tritons, greek gods,

are a sign of merging of the old and new religions...

While mirrors beam a blazing light across the sea,

making alexandria visible to ships

still a day's sail away.

Rumors even tell of a deadly weapon at the tower's summit.

This is one of many legends that surround this giant.

The lighthouse no longer stands in alexandria,

so separating fact from fiction

about this incredible wonder isn't easy.

How tall is this supersized structure?

Archeologist emad khalil

believes alexandria's eastern harbor

holds the answer.

In 1303, an earthquake destroys most of the lighthouse,

but its fallen remains still rest on the sea floor.

♪

what do we have here is 13,000 square meters

of remains underwater.

Narrator: Emad hopes the remains hidden from view for 700 years

could finally allow him to determine the true height

of the lighthouse and put an end to some outlandish myths.

Some say the huge tower is so tall

that a stone falling from its summit

would take two days to hit the ground.

Others that sailors could see the lighthouse beacon

up to 300 miles out to sea.

♪

khalil: It's a huge puzzle, basically.

And you want to put it back together without reference,

without a picture to base your reconstruction on.

And this is the main challenge of the site.

Narrator: This mammoth block is a crucial piece of the puzzle.

It was hauled from the harbor

and will help emad calculate the lighthouse height.

This huge object, which is about 70 tons in weight,

is the right side of the main entrance of the lighthouse.

The right side of the doorway of the lighthouse.

The the angle here is where the wooden door would have fit.

Narrator: Working out the height of the lighthouse

from its broken pieces is tough.

Luckily, an arab writer from the 14th century

offers a helping hand.

He records some of the only reliable measurements

of the lighthouse.

He measures the dimensions of its base

and the width of the door frame

in an ancient unit called the span.

Khalil: Looking at the doorway,

of the side of the doorway, we have 6'10."

and now we can vertically relate the actual evidence

to the literary sources, which mention

that the measurement would be 10 spans.

Narrator: This recovered block allows emad to establish

that one alexandrian span equals eight inches.

We can start rebuilding

not just the dimensions of the lighthouse

but the entire complex of the lighthouse.

Narrator: Translating the ancient measurements reveals

that the lighthouse stands on a 100-foot-square base.

This gives emad a starting point

to estimate the building's height.

He combines greek principles of proportion

and imagery from ancient coins to finally get his result.

We think that it was 300 feet in height.

And so basically it was an ancient skyscraper.

Nothing like this in the ancient world.

Narrator: The lighthouse of alexandria

soars higher than any other stone tower

in the ancient world,

and even the first 20th-century skyscrapers.

A greek wonder equal to all produced

by the extraordinary ancient egyptians.

With nothing more than sheer human power and raw ambition,

the great pharaohs of egypt

conquered the extreme desert landscape

to build monuments that cement their legacy for eternity.

Their astonishing monuments are taller,

bigger, and more elaborate than ever before,

creating seven national wonders

unmatched by any in the ancient world.

♪

♪

♪

♪