Original subtitles

♪

[ Dramatic music plays ]

[ Thundering and lightning ]

Narrator: Thousands of years ago,

ancient powers ruled our world--

Egypt, China, India, Greece, and Rome,

players in a high-stakes game of strategy and luck.

Success will bring them wealth and immortality...

failure, oblivion and death.

In their battle for survival, each civilisation

will face the same challenges.

How they respond will shape their destiny.

♪

In this episode, "Building Your Empire,"

in an unpredictable world, our ancient powers

must lay down the foundations of their societies

to show their strength and protect their people.

Who will build their way to glory?

♪

Across the globe, our ancient powers

have founded their civilisations.

They'’ve tamed the land,

allowing their people to settle and thrive.

Now, they face their next challenge,

and in the East, they start by building big.

♪

Over 2,000 years ago,

China is ruled by the Han dynasty.

They'’ve successfully cultivated the land

around the fertile Yangtze and Yellow River basins.

They are growing wealthy, but are threatened.

Their northern borders are under attack

by the Xiongnu...

[ Men yell, horses whinny ]

...nomadic horsemen who roamed the desert plains.

They possess few resources of their own,

but are fast-moving and aggressive

and repeatedly loot the Han'’s riches.

This ancient power needs to defend itself

against these violent, opportunistic raiders.

But how can they protect their long, exposed desert border?

The Han come up with a remarkable solution.

♪

In 121 BCE, they begin building a huge wall

nearly three metres high, made of pounded earth

and strengthened with layers of gravel and reeds.

This wall will end up

an amazing 3,500 kilometres long,

but will it be enough to stop the rampaging Xiongnu?

♪

The answer is recorded on delicate wooden strips,

the notepaper of ancient China.

♪

♪

A staggering 2,500 towers

and forts punctuate the length of the wall,

one every five kilometres,

allowing the Han soldiers to keep an eye

on their arch enemy.

♪

♪

These towers aren'’t simply for observation,

but something far more strategic.

The Han soldiers are able to warn other forts

of incoming attacks.

Using carefully-choreographed signals,

they can say when and where the Xiongnu are attacking

and how many of them there are.

♪

The wall is more than a physical barrier.

It'’s a communication system.

Signals travel at over 30 kilometres an hour,

more than 600 kilometres in a day.

This allows Han troops to rapidly organise

counter attacks

and stop the Xiongnu invaders in their tracks.

♪

The Han can now defend their territory

and even expand it.

♪

At their peak, around 10 BCE, their lands stretch

a remarkable six million square kilometres

and are home to 60 million people.

♪

The Han'’s mastery of defensive construction

secures their dynasty.

♪

To the west,

another ancient power is also building,

not to fend off attack,

but to take advantage of an opportunity.

♪

Over a millennium, small, isolated communities

across the Greek mainland and islands

have grown into city-states, almost 1,000 of them.

Each one runs its own affairs

and battles with its neighbours for supremacy.

But by the turn of the 5th century BCE,

Athens is one of the front runners.

♪

Wealth is the thing that will keep them

ahead of their competition.

But where can they find a ready source of cash?

Could the answer be buried deep in the rolling hills,

south of their city?

♪

This mine can be dangerous, first of all,

because you have to protect your head

from the overhanging rocks,

and then there are shafts that suddenly appear

in front of your feet.

If you don'’t pay attention,

you may fall down to 200 metres in depth.

Across 5,000 hectares of this arid landscape,

the Athenians have been hard at work,

but they are not building homes or temples...

they are excavating beneath the ground.

♪

The Athenians dig over 300 mines

that snake more than 50 kilometres

deep into solid rock.

We can see here all around a labyrinth of galleries

going up, down, left, right, everywhere.

And, um, you can see how hard work they dig

because you can see the tool marks.

The mines of Lavrion are delivering rich sources

of lead,

metal the Athenians use to forge weapons and tools.

But digging it out comes at a terrible human cost.

We can see how very intense it would be work and dig

and dig again and again and work this very small space.

[ Miners coughing ]

People working naked and then carrying stuff,

err, miles up to the shafts

so that they would take the ore out.

Manual work, hard work,

and very, very, very hard conditions.

And the harsh conditions of this human labour

was only undertaken by slaves.

♪

As you can see these, err, galleries are very small

and not feasible for adults to go in and out so it--

it'’s most probable that children were used for these tasks.

♪

These mines are key to Athens'’s success,

but in 483 BCE,

they hit a rich seam of an even more precious metal.

♪

The Athenians discovered a huge amount

of ore-producing silver.

This is galena, and you would need half a mountain of ore

to produce just a kilo of, err, silver.

♪

This discovery is one of the largest sources

of this valuable metal in the ancient world,

and it promises untold wealth.

But first, the Athenians need to extract the silver

from the ore,

so they start building on the surface.

♪

The scale of this enterprise,

which is 5,000 hectares of mining works

and metalogical workshops and all, err, extended over

the mountains and the valleys of the area.

In the following years,

this ancient industrial complex produces

over 3,500 tonnes of silver,

worth roughly $2 billion in today'’s money.

It is more than enough to cement Athens

as Greece'’s leading light.

This large scale exploitation of the underground world

and these, again, large scale metalogical works

were the material basis of the Athenians'’ power.

♪

The wealth of the Greeks' mines

consolidates their strength and funds their ambitions.

♪

But another ancient power is building,

not for riches, but for conquest.

♪

Four centuries after its birth, Rome is growing.

♪

No longer a city-state,

it is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Controlling almost a third of the Italian peninsula,

its pushed its borders south to Capua,

home of the Samnite tribe, near modern day Naples,

but they are resisting Roman expansion

and aren'’t going down without a fight.

Roman legionaries will be more than a match

for these untrained rabble, if they can get there.

But there'’s a problem--

the state of ancient tracks.

♪

Mueller: They would'’ve been dirt, muddy in the wintertime.

Um, they would'’ve been very windy.

It would'’ve taken a much greater time to reach the destination.

To stop the legionaries getting bogged down,

Roman engineers come up with a revolutionary new design--

a layered road.

It'’s built by placing rocks and clay

on top of compacted earth,

followed by crushed stone and lime,

then a layer of gravel and sand,

and finally, polished stones with a slightly curved surface,

allowing rain and mud to drain away.

In 312 BCE,

work begins on this massive construction project,

driving a route south from Rome towards Capua.

♪

This is the Via Appia Antica, the queen of Roman roads,

one of the great technological achievements of Rome.

The radical layered design

isn'’t this road'’s only innovation.

Well the Romans were very pragmatic and practical,

and they decided that the shortest distance

between two points is a straight line.

Keeping the line of the road straight is a challenge

so Roman engineers make use

of a precision surveying tool...

the groma.

I would stand here with my groma.

I would sight down this line. The weights have to align here.

The plumb lines have to align.

I will give instructions to someone down the road

to plant a pole on exactly that line,

and I'’ll say a little left, a little to the right, plant it.

And repeat and repeat for hundreds

and sometimes thousands of miles.

Now the Romans can create strong,

straight roads, they fire the Via Applia

like an arrow through hills, marshes, and forests.

For 200 kilometres, nothing stands in its way.

Now the armies could get through on time and in scale,

so it was a huge success.

But laying down an absolutely straight road,

which cut through hills and went over valleys,

it'’s not only an effective way to get from point "A"

to point "B," but it'’s also a demonstration

of the Roman mastery over nature.

♪

Fresh legionaries march south at speed

and crush the rebellion,

making Capua Roman.

♪

The Via Appia becomes a keystone

of Rome'’s military ambition.

In the centuries that follow, they build

a massive network of roads, over 80,000 kilometres in all,

radiating out from the eternal city,

a vast grid connecting this ancient empire.

The roads were a symbol of dominion, and it'’s a message--

"We own this place and we can come here whenever we want."

For anyone who sees them, Roman roads are a reminder,

a mark in the landscape of just who is in charge.

♪

Rome builds a military route to consolidate its status

as an ancient power.

To the south, Egypt is also looking to the future,

but taking on a more spiritual challenge.

♪

After years of bloody wars, Egypt is unified.

This ancient power is ruled by pharaohs anointed by the Gods.

♪

On the banks of the Nile, its people are blessed

with fertile land and plenty of food.

With few enemies threatening their kingdom,

they are thriving.

But kings and commoners alike are all anxious

about their future.

♪

Ismail: For an ancient Egyptian, this life that we'’re living

was just a temporary stage.

It was not the eternity.

They wanted to live an eternal life.

Making it to the afterlife is every Egyptian'’s dream.

They believe if your body isn'’t properly entombed,

you'’ve no hope of making the journey

and risk being stuck in limbo forever.

For an ancient Egyptian, it was really important

to spend your life preparing for your afterlife,

and the more power you had,

the bigger and grander your tomb.

To house their mortal remains, wealthy nobles build mastabas.

These huge, single-storey tombs are highly decorated

and multi-chambered.

♪

This is one impressive mastaba.

You know this person was wealthy.

This person had influence, and you can see it.

When rich men like Mereruka are entombed,

elaborate funeral processions deliver everything they need

for the afterlife--

jars of food and wine,

chests of gold and fine jewellery,

and even boats for their final journey.

♪

For ancient Egyptians, the next life was similar to this life,

except it was much better.

So if you had one or two servants in this life,

you were gonna have 100 in the next life.

If you had a couple of ducks and a cow,

you were gonna have 100 cows.

♪

The decoration in Mereruka'’s tomb reflects his rich life--

hunting, fishing,

and collecting his pharaoh'’s taxes.

Mereruka was very close to the king.

This is what makes him a powerful man,

and probably, his afterlife

would'’ve been very powerful as well.

But his single-storey tomb has a major flaw.

Over time, it will disappear beneath the desert sands,

and Mereruka'’s name will be forgotten.

For the pharaohs, this isn'’t good enough.

They want their names to be known forever.

They want immortality.

If you wanted to be remembered, you would have to stand out,

therefore, Egyptians had to think, "What next?"

♪

One pharaoh wonders if he can build a tomb

that won'’t just stand out from the crowd,

but will also last for eternity.

He is Djoser, and what he comes up with

is both bold and brilliant.

♪

He wanted something that looked like a stairway to the heavens,

and what more was than to stack up a few mastabas

on top of each other?

So rather than having one, how about having six?

Djoser'’s builder invent

an entirely new architectural form,

something never seen before.

It is the tallest manmade structure in the world...

♪

...the very first pyramid.

And it is revolutionary in more ways than one.

♪

Djoser changes everything in Egypt.

He sets the new rules and he puts his foot down

and says, "We'’re not using mudbrick anymore.

Mudbrick is for the living people,

but the dead are gonna live in stones.

They'’re gonna be eternal."

No matter how many layers of time are covering the earth,

he was gonna still be there, strong, powerful,

and magnificent.

♪

Djoser'’s tomb is visible for miles across the desert,

a massive symbol of this pharaoh'’s power,

and inside, it is equally impressive.

♪

It'’s so incredible, endless tunnels,

and you go on and on and on,

and you'’re so squashed to the point where you're like,

you feel like, "Oh, my God, where am I going?"

30 metres underground lies Djoser'’s burial chamber....

♪

Wow.

...and the giant granite sarcophagus

that holds his mortal remains.

So beautiful.

This place is magic.

These were not just tombs, they were a transition.

He came to resurrect himself, and this is what the kings do,

they became Gods.

♪

For Djoser, this pyramid is his pathway to everlasting life.

♪

A peaceful kingdom, vast wealth,

and their religious beliefs

dictate what the pharaohs choose to build.

♪

In India, there is a new ruler,

and he is building to try and secure stability.

[ Elephant trumpets ]

♪

For the very first time, after years of fighting,

almost the entire subcontinent is unified.

♪

A vast kingdom of 20 million people...

♪

...all ruled by Ashoka the Great,

a ferocious warrior who keeps control with violence,

cruelty, and mass executions,

and when his brothers threaten his throne,

he murders them.

♪

But after his brutal wars and savage behaviour,

this king is stricken with guilt.

♪

Barve: Ashoka writes about the pain he felt.

Thousands of people were killed and displaced or imprisoned,

and that made him feel intense, intense remorse.

After that, it is said that he wanted to change his ways.

In the brutal ancient world where violence equals power,

for Ashoka, this is a risk,

but he is determined to change,

and for answers turns to a new philosophy.

♪

Sakyaputta: Buddha says that each of us,

we are travellers on this path, every living being.

He says that if you want a prosperous and peaceful kingdom,

you have to be generous,

you have to invest back in your society

and cultivate qualities of loving kindness and compassion.

Buddha'’s message entrances the repentant king...

[ Monks chanting ]

...so he adopts it, and in an unusual move,

asks his people to do the same.

Barve: It'’s surprising because not only is it

a complete change of heart from a warrior

to someone who wants to practice non-violence,

but also to ask all of his people not to convert,

but to follow the new rules of Buddhism, and that,

I think, is the biggest shock, is asking people to change

and adopt more non-violent means of living.

♪

If Ashoka is to keep his throne by peaceful means,

he needs to spread this new idea

across his enormous realm.

In the beginning, he sent his ministers to spread his message,

but then of course, he also wanted to make sure

that those messages are heard, are seen, are followed,

so he also chose to write them down,

not on paper, but on stone.

To ensure his message is getting through,

Ashoka embarks on a grand tour

of his kingdom, erecting stone pillars

everywhere he goes,

including one in modern-day Nepal,

at the most sacred Buddhist site.

♪

What we have here is the Lumbini Pillar.

It is here to indicate that it is the birthplace

of Gautama Buddha,

so of course, it'’s a very important site in Buddhism,

and that is one of the reasons why we find this pillar here.

But these pillars aren'’t just built at religious locations.

Ashoka built them on key spots

throughout the Indian subcontinent--

some of them were on important trade routes--

and because it was a new phenomena,

it must'’ve attracted a lot of people to them

to see what it is.

These intriguing structures announce

Ashoka'’s ownership of the land,

but it is the writing on them

that carries his vision of peace,

words that are read out to his subjects.

♪

The pillar we have here and similar pillars

that are found all over the Indian subcontinent

are engraved with inscriptions left behind by King Ashoka.

He mentions the code of conduct

he would like his people to follow.

The messages were mainly to do with being kind to one another.

He goes on to say how you should always treat your subordinates,

your co-workers, everyone with equality and of course,

the most important message is to practice non-violence.

The pillars broadcast Ashoka'’s Buddhist ideals,

and they are effective.

It is fair to say that the message

that he was trying to get across to people

actually made an impact,

because we see a relatively peaceful rule for Ashoka

until the day he dies.

These stone pillars are built to last,

and many are still standing, a visible legacy

of Ashoka'’s successful and peaceful empire.

He really wanted to make sure that his message

would always resonate for future generations to come,

which is why, I think, he also wrote it down on stone,

because that was the best way he could do that.

♪

In ancient India, the king builds monuments

to promote peace.

But in Greece, war is coming.

They need a way to protect themselves and fast.

♪

The discovery of a rich seam of silver makes Athens

the most powerful force in Greece,

but to the east lies a vast, threatening superpower--

the Persians, a constant adversary.

They lust greedily after Greek land

and the precious metal

the Athenians are digging from their mines,

and they are now poised to invade.

The Greeks must defend themselves

and with their seafaring heritage,

they build what they know best-- ships--

the fastest, most manoeuvrable warships

of the ancient world.

Fotakis: This ship is a trireme,

the trireme has a length of 36.8 metres,

it has a width of about six metres.

it is the most expensive boat, warship

of the classical antiquity.

It cost a lot-- one talent.

One talent is a huge amount of money.

It's about 26 kilograms of silver.

Triremes are so called because of the three decks of oarsman

that power them.

And with a treasury full of mined silver,

Athens' pockets are deep enough to construct a fleet

of more than 200 of them.

They are manned by free born Athenian men,

most of them experienced sailors.

These ships were pretty manoeuvrable.

They were 30% faster than enemy triremes

because their crews were much more trained.

♪

The Greeks are ready,

but when the Persians finally attack Athens...

they don'’t come by sea,

but by land.

In just a few short days, they ransack the city,

destroying homes, plundering temples,

and burning it to the ground.

The Athenian warships are used as rescue boats,

evacuating people from their devastated homes.

But the Athenians aren'’t backing down from this fight.

♪

The great thing about Athens

is that they were not fighting about their city.

Their city was already destroyed.

It was already occupied.

Instead of fighting for their particular city,

they fought for their liberty because the idea of Greece

was a very important one at that time.

Athens is battling for its life.

♪

In open water, the Persian ships outnumber the Greeks

almost three to one,

making a full-frontal attack impossible,

but the Greeks have a plan.

In a narrow stretch of water

15 kilometres west of their burning city,

they gamble on a risky strategy.

♪

The battle began at about nine o'’clock in the morning.

Shortly after the beginning of the battle,

the Greek fleet withdrew towards the coast of Salamis.

The Persians were encouraged by this,

and they pursued the Greek fleet towards the coast of Salamis.

After the Greeks lured the Persians,

they counter-attacked.

With the Persians trapped in the narrow straits,

the Greeks row forward,

using their triremes as weapons,

driving the warships'’ bronze rams hard

below the enemy'’s waterline to sink them.

The Greeks quickly gained the upper hand.

♪

The result is disastrous.

200 Persian triremes are lost within a day,

whereas only 40 Greek triremes are lost during that battle.

Against the odds, it is a stunning victory

that sends the Persians packing.

Without the victory at the Battle of Salamis,

the Greeks would have not avoided

enslavement to the Persians.

Salamis gave Athens security, freedom, confidence,

and the ability to preserve its democratic constitution.

But if the Athenians are to stay ahead of the game,

they will need to defend their city and their ships.

They finally turn from building in wood to building in stone.

They construct two massive walls

over eight metres tall and three metres wide.

They encircle their port and precious warships,

creating a protected corridor to their city.

♪

They also raise a wall around their natural citadel,

the acropolis, turning it into a fortress,

and inside, they construct the Parthenon.

Part treasury, part temple, this architectural wonder

is the city'’s crowning glory.

For the next century, Athens is ascendant,

all thanks to their unconventional

building project.

It was a wise decision to spend all the silver from Lavrion

to constructing this great fleet that fought and won

at Salamis.

This decision made Athens rich.

This decision gave Athens an empire.

Greece stares death in the face

and emerges victorious, stronger than ever.

♪

To the south, in Egypt,

they are focused on marking their territory

with ever-grander statements.

♪

King Djoser'’s stepped pyramid is a monumental success,

a symbol of wealth, power, and immortality.

But a generation after his death,

when another God-like pharaoh, Sneferu, takes control,

his ego demands something even bigger.

Can he go one better than his predecessor?

♪

Ismail: Dahshur is the first true pyramid site,

so coming here, you see the transition,

what happened next after the stepper.

Sneferu'’s pyramid is new and improved,

adding smooth sides to Djoser'’s stepped design.

But his builders make a terrible error.

♪

If this pyramid was carried on on the original angle,

it was going to collapse

because this angle was too steep for that design.

♪

Realising their mistake,

the builders simply finished the job with a shallower angle,

a drastic change that gives rise to its modern name,

the Bent Pyramid.

♪

But this botched job isn'’t good enough for Sneferu,

so he insists his builders try again,

and just two kilometres away, they construct this.

♪

And here we are seeing the testimony

of Sneferu'’s success, the first true pyramid.

And once they got the correct angle,

everything was just perfect from that.

♪

It'’s precisely engineered on the outside

and the inside, too.

The vaulted ceiling in Sneferu'’s burial chamber

is more than just decoration.

♪

That have not only worked out how the pyramid works

from the outside, but coming in here,

you can see that they have worked out the inner structure,

and you can see the weight distribution is equal.

♪

You are actually in the pyramid. You can feel the space.

So it'’s really beautiful to be here.

Sneferu is delighted with his pyramid,

but for his son, Khufu, even this isn'’t big enough.

This point in time, here,

is where the Great Pyramid comes from.

If it wasn'’t for this pyramid,

we wouldn'’t have the Great Pyramid.

♪

In 2570 BCE, construction starts on Khufu'’s pyramid.

♪

It will take 23 years

and 2.3 million stone blocks to complete.

Towering over 146 metres,

it will be the tallest manmade structure on Earth

for thousands of years.

Covered in brilliant white polished limestone

and capped in gold, it passes into legend

as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

♪

A pyramid showed what a king of Egypt is capable of doing.

♪

These massive structures

are Egypt'’s great national building project,

houses of eternity that broadcast

the pharaoh'’s belief in the afterlife.

♪

Each ancient power has overcome their second challenge,

responding to the threats they face

and the beliefs they hold,

cementing their power and creating icons for the future.

Egypt and India construct elaborate monuments,

driven by the desires of their powerful rulers.

Greece and China build vastly different defences

to counter threats to their existence,

whilst Rome marches on,

using their engineering expertise

to consolidate an expanding empire.

Each ancient power has succeeded

in building foundations for their civilisations,

but to continue growing,

they need to make some money.

♪