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Exploring Ancient Egypt's Greatest Mysteries | Lost Treasure of Egypt MEGA Episode | Nat Geo

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Summary

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This content explores ongoing archaeological investigations in Egypt, focusing on uncovering the secrets of ancient Egyptian life, death, and burial practices, with a particular emphasis on the mysteries surrounding Tutankhamun's death and the enduring legacy of pharaohs like Ramses the Great.

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OLA: Every year, this is what I, I wait for.

NARRATOR: Hidden 23 feet underground,

the tomb of an ancient Egyptian noble

from the era following Tutankhamun's death.

OLA: Oh. What's that?

NARRATOR: The chambers look undisturbed for thousands of years.

OLA: What are we going to find here?

NARRATOR: Buried inside, an archaeologists dream discovery.

OLA: Oh, my God. Wow.

I think I found something. It's amazing. Ooh.

NARRATOR: The Valley of the Kings,

the final resting place of some of Egypt's greatest pharaohs.

Here, in November 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter

discovered the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun.

His discovery was a global sensation

and the biggest archaeological find of the century.

Tutankhamun became Pharaoh in 1333 BCE.

He died in mysterious circumstances, aged just 19.

His tomb and its stunning golden treasures

offer a window into how the pharaoh lived, ruled and died.

Today, our experts across Egypt investigate Tutankhamun

to unlock the secrets of his reign.

(Foreign language dialogue)

They search for evidence the boy king may have been murdered,

of who may have had a motive to kill him,

and look for clues in the Egypt he left behind.

Near the city of Luxor, in the Valley of the Kings,

Egyptologist, Aliaa Ismail investigates a mystery

surrounding Tutankhamun's death.

ALIAA: Did Tutankhamun die of natural causes?

Or was his death a murder?

NARRATOR: For six years, Aliaa has led an Egyptian team

which has scrutinized every inch of Tutankhamun's tomb.

The team is digitally scanning and mapping the valley's tombs

to recreate them in high definition;

an aid for researchers and restorers.

Now she is returning to the Boy King's burial chamber,

hunting for clues to his death.

ALIAA: It's amazing to be here by myself

and so close to the walls and the paintings.

NARRATOR: Aliaa searches the tomb for anything unusual

that could reveal suspicious circumstances

around Tutankhamun's burial.

She soon spots a clue on the walls.

ALIAA: Looking at the tomb, I could tell that this was a rushed job

and that is because of these black marks that you see all over the wall,

which were developed when the paint was painted

directly on the wet plaster.

NARRATOR: The black marks are spots of ancient microbial growth.

They're evidence that the tombs paint was still drying

when the chamber was quickly sealed after the king's burial.

ALIAA: The reason that everything was hurried

was that Tutankhamun died very young and unexpectedly.

NARRATOR: Tutankhamun died around 1324 BCE after only a decade on the throne.

He was buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings

that was so small it could barely contain

all his lavish gold and grave goods.

He had no son and his stillborn twin daughters were buried

in small coffins alongside him in the tomb.

His royal bloodline ended, leaving his widow, Queen Ankhesenamun,

in need of a new husband and Egypt in need of a king.

Aliaa wants to examine Tutankhamun's mummy

to find out if there is any evidence to explain

why he died so unexpectedly.

Today, it remains on display in his tomb inside a special climate-controlled case .

ALIAA: This mummy is thousands of years old.

NARRATOR: At first sight, the mummy contains few clues

to the cause of the young Pharaoh's death.

ALIAA: His mummy overall is not in a very good condition.

It's really hard to tell how he would have died.

But then I found that early archaeologists have done some X-ray scans.

NARRATOR: In 1968, British anatomist, Professor Ronald Harrison,

conducted an X-ray examination of the mummy.

Inside Tutankhamun's skull, Harrison discovered loose bones.

It appears his skull was fractured.

Perhaps a sign that the young pharaoh was bludgeoned on the head.

Part of his sternum and ribs were missing.

And unlike most mummies, his heart had been removed.

Later scans revealed a fracture at the base of his left femur.

The cause of the broken leg is unknown.

But the scans suggest it's possible that Tutankhamun died

as a result of foul play.

Harrison's X-rays caused a global sensation.

ALIAA: This is what led people to think that Tutankhamun was murdered.

NARRATOR: Tutankhamun's death had become a murder enquiry,

Ancient Egypt's greatest murder mystery.

To find out if Tutankhamun was murdered,

Aliaa wants to investigate the people closest to the doomed pharaoh.

ALIAA: I want to find out who would have benefited

the most from Tutankhamun's murder.

NARRATOR: In Saqqara, 20 miles south of Cairo,

archaeologist Ola El Aguizy and her team are excavating an ancient necropolis.

It contains the tombs of the Egyptians

who seized control of the country after Tutankhamun's reign ended

with no heir on the throne.

OLA: Tutankhamun, who died very early, it was very dangerous for the country.

NARRATOR: Ola has been an archaeologist for five decades

and has been digging at this site since 2005.

OLA: Working in Saqqara and discovering and working on these tombs

is very, very exciting for me.

I like it because I feel I'm alive here.

I feel that I am in the heart of archaeology.

NARRATOR: Ola's interest in Egyptology began with her love of ancient languages.

She can decipher and translate hieroglyphs fluently.

OLA: I am now a full professor of ancient Egyptian language.

NARRATOR: Last season, Ola uncovered the upper parts of a tomb

belonging to a man called Ptah Mwia.

OLA: Oh, I can see hieroglyphic decks here.

The name of the deceased, Ptah Mwia.

NARRATOR: This season, Ola and her team hope to find

Ptah Mwia's intact burial chamber.

Intact chambers are incredibly rare

and may contain stunning grave goods, including a coffin or a mummy.

OLA: Hopefully, yes.

Maybe the coffin on the lower level.

NARRATOR: Ancient Egyptians were buried with things they thought

they needed in the afterlife.

Any artifacts that remain would hold clues to Ptah Mwia

and reveal more about those who ruled Egypt after Tutankhamun

and may have benefited from his death.

Ola's team has located the top of the shaft filled with sand

at the center of the courtyard in Ptah Mwia's tomb.

Its position suggests the shaft will lead to his burial chamber .

OLA: We have begun to dig the shaft,

which is always in the middle of the pillared hall.

NARRATOR: The shaft is likely to be more than 20 feet deep.

It could take the team a week to remove all the sand.

Site director Tarek Tawfik oversees the operation.

NARRATOR: The team quickly dig out the top layers of sand,

but now seven feet down, they are too deep to pass

the heavy bucket to the surface by hand .

OLA: Now they're putting the winch that they were using

to lower the buckets for the sand.

They will not be able to go down without it.

NARRATOR: The giant hand-operated rope winch

should help the workers lift full buckets of sand

and speed up the excavation.

TAREK: It might look primitive, but it's very effective and quick.

NARRATOR: But it's not long before they hit a problem.

OLA: We are finding the block in the shaft.

NARRATOR: Workers discover large pieces of limestone blocking their way.

TAREK: We have to remove these huge blocks from inside.

NARRATOR: The shaft is now almost ten feet deep.

They need to work out a way to remove the heavy limestone blocks

if they are to reach the bottom

and find out if there's a burial chamber below.

(Foreign language dialogue)

In the cliffs near the southern city of Aswan.

Italian archaeologist Patrizia Piacentini

is investigating a vast necropolis.

PATRIZIA: I am here because I want to know something

about the history of the past and to know the people.

It's the beautiful part of our work, really, to not only to study the pharaohs,

but also the normal people and the child.

NARRATOR: This season, her efforts are focused on a tomb filled

with the bodies of young adults and children.

Tutankhamun died a young man and Patrizia wants to know if the bodies here

can offer clues to why Egyptians, from Pharaoh to farmer, died so young.

PATRIZIA: We have still a lot to do here.

We are just, I'd say, at the beginning of a great adventure, I hope.

NARRATOR: Patrizia found the rock-cut tomb buried beneath the sand

during an earlier season.

It has burial recesses carved into the walls.

Patrizia's team uncovered dozens of mummies inside,

and she's convinced there are more to be found.

PATRIZIA: My friends are still here.

NARRATOR: Human remains and objects that they catalogued last season

still line the floor.

PATRIZIA: Ah, yes. Still good.

Still, all the bones are still here.

NARRATOR: They've already made one key discovery.

PATRIZIA: We found wood, and at some point,

some hieroglyphic inscription came out,

and we discovered that the name of the first owner of the tomb.

The name is Pah-meh-ich, Pah-meh-ich, and he was the chief of the army of Aswan.

NARRATOR: Pamehich was a standout figure in his lifetime,

but he was just the first of many who used this tomb over the centuries.

PATRIZIA: We found more than 40 mummies.

NARRATOR: But Patrizia's most shocking find was several mummified children.

PATRIZIA: We had a very incredible discovery because just here,

there is the child in between the father and the mother.

NARRATOR: Patrizia wants to know if the bodies here can offer clues

to why ancient Egyptians like Tutankhamun died so young.

There is one uncleared recess left to investigate.

PATRIZIA: This is the last part.

We didn't touch this because it was too late last season.

NARRATOR: Patrizia must remove the mummies

from the recess to analyze the remains properly.

(foreign dialogue)

But this is too delicate a job for Patrizia to do on her own.

PATRIZIA: The workers. Thanks.

NARRATOR: The remains are thousands of years old.

Patrizia's team must carefully remove them, one by one.

PATRIZIA: Slowly slowly... (foreign dialogue)

NARRATOR: It's a painstaking process.

Each mummy is incredibly fragile and could easily break.

PATRIZIA: Very careful.

(foreign dialogue)

Very, very careful, it's fragile.

NARRATOR: At Luxor Temple on the Nile's East Bank.

Aliaa is investigating Tutankhamun's death.

After more than 3000 years, direct proof

of who might have murdered the Boy King no longer exists.

Instead, Aliaa wants to scrutinize those closest to Tutankhamun

to work out how they may have benefited from his death,

and therefore had motive to murder the young pharaoh.

ALIAA: Wow. Here we have the statue of Tutankhamun

hiding away behind the column.

I can tell it is him because of the soft skin, round face.

And all this is like features of youth.

And he's presented in here with his queen and wife, Ankhesenamun.

NARRATOR: Ankhesenamun wasn't just Tutankhamun's wife.

She was also either his sister or his half-sister.

It was common for Egyptian royals to marry their siblings.

They believed it would maintain their family's sacred bloodline

and seemed unconcerned by the health problems inbreeding causes.

ALIAA: We see it in a lot of representations

that they were quite close together.

NARRATOR: Ankhesenamun would have had ample means

and opportunity to murder Tutankhamun.

But Aliaa wants to know if the Queen had the motive to kill him.

In an ancient tablet likely written by Ankhesenamun,

Aliaa has found evidence of the impact

Tutankhamun's death had on the young queen.

ALIAA: This clay tablet, it was written in cuneiform,

and that was used by the Hittites.

NARRATOR: The Hittites and Egyptians were fierce rivals at this time .

ALIAA: In the letter here, it says that Queen Ankhesenamun

wanted to ask King Suppiluliuma the First to send her one of his sons

for her to marry because her husband died.

NARRATOR: The plea hints that after Tutankhamun's death,

Ankhesenamun was worried about who she might be forced to marry

and that her new husband, crowned Pharaoh by their marriage,

would not have royal blood .

ALIAA: She could not bear the thought of marrying

somebody who was not of royal descent,

and therefore she asked for help externally.

NARRATOR: Marrying a non-royal seems an unlikely prospect for a queen.

Purity of the royal bloodline was vital to ancient Egyptians.

ALIAA: Her sending this letter shows to us that she was scared.

NARRATOR: Suppiluliuma, the Hittite King, and enemy of Egypt,

was suspicious of this unconventional marriage request

and summoned his counsel for advice.

After verifying the letter was genuine, he sent one of his sons,

Prince Zannanza, to marry the Egyptian Queen.

But the prince died before he reached Egypt, and his young bride to be.

So Ankhesenamun was left with two potential husbands:

Tutankhamun's chief adviser, Ay, or the head of his military, Horemheb.

The marriage would hand either of them the throne.

Reaching out to Egypt's enemy was an act of desperation.

It suggests to Aliaa that Ankhesenamun did not benefit

from the death of her husband

and that she did not have a motive to kill Tutankhamun.

ALIAA: There's no way that Ankhesenamun would have killed Tutankhamun

because his death was a devastating disaster in her life.

NARRATOR: Now, Aliaa wants to continue her investigation

to uncover if there's any evidence

that either Ay or Horemheb murdered Tutankhamun.

At the Saqqara Necropolis, Ola's team is trying

to remove large limestone blocks from a deep shaft.

Ola wants to find out if the shaft will lead

to the burial chamber of a man called Ptah Mwia,

who lived in the era following Tutankhamun's death.

OLA: It's a block, a very big block.

It might be still part of the lining of the shaft.

NARRATOR: Ola hopes that the burial chamber

could reveal more about Ptah Mwia.

TAREK: We would have hoped to be down further two meters at least by now.

NARRATOR: The first block comes out easily,

but the next is larger and heavier.

It will put the wooden winch to the test.

(foreign dialogue)

It takes the strength of six men to lift the block.

(laughs)

(foreign dialogue)

Opa!

NARRATOR: The team find no more blocks,

so they can now make faster progress.

Finally they reach the bottom of the shaft.

OLA: I'm excited to see what's going to be found.

NARRATOR: To see what lies at the bottom,

workers must carefully lower Ola down in a large metal bucket.

OLA: It's, it's an adventure (laughs)

(foreign dialogue)

NARRATOR: But the team must take care.

The shaft is now 23 feet deep.

(foreign dialogue)

A fall here could be fatal.

(foreign dialogue)

NARRATOR: At Luxor Temple, Aliaa investigates Tutankhamun's death.

She wants to find out if the two most powerful men under Tutankhamun;

his trusted advisor Ay, or his military general,

Horemheb, had motive enough to kill the Boy King.

Aliaa searches a part of the temple built by Tutankhamun.

Carved into a wall, she spots an intriguing clue.

ALIAA: Here we can see an image of Tutankhamun,

and he's burning incense for the gods.

He's doing this for the Opet Festival ceremony.

NARRATOR: During the Opet Festival, statues of ancient gods

were paraded from Karnak to the temple here at Luxor.

ALIAA: What is very surprising are these two of cartouches,

because they are the cartouches of Horemheb.

Why is Tutankhamen standing next to the cartouche of Horemheb?

NARRATOR: The image of Tutankhamen appears elsewhere across the walls,

but his official name, written in an oval box or cartouche, is missing.

ALIAA: This is where Tutankhamun's birth name

and throne name would have been.

So probably these cartouches were usurped.

Horemheb chiseled them out and put his own name,

and that way he was erasing Tutankhamun altogether.

This name here in this temple,

this is eternity for a pharaoh.

And when the pharaohs name is erased,

you are taking away this eternity from him.

And to take that away from Tutankhamun,

Horemheb has done him a great wrong.

NARRATOR: The altered images suggest that Horemheb

tried to wipe Tutankhamun's name from history.

ALIAA: Horemheb wanted to erase Tutankhamun.

NARRATOR: Next, Aliaa plans to investigate Horemheb's tomb,

to find out more about this suspicious military general

and uncover whether he had motive to murder the young pharaoh.

In Aswan, Patrizia and her team are removing mummies

from a recess at the back of the tomb.

NARRATOR: This tomb was filled with the mummified remains of children.

NARRATOR: Patrizia's work could offer clues to why ancient

Egyptians like Tutankhamun often died so young.

NARRATOR: To Patrizia's trained eye, even a mummy

in this condition ca n contain useful information.

PATRIZIA: Oh my God. Okay. So, aye aye aye.

NARRATOR: They begin to remove the second mummy from the recess.

(foreign dialogue)

NARRATOR: This mummy is in better condition.

NARRATOR: The recess now looks clear.

NARRATOR: Patrizia wants to check that they haven't missed anything.

NARRATOR: It's yet another child mummy.

NARRATOR: Patrizia plans to examine all the remains collected from the tomb.

NARRATOR: In Saqqara, Ola descends a narrow shaft

to search for Ptah Mwia's burial chamber.

She hopes an intact grave and grave goods might reveal more

about him and those in power after Tutankhamun's death.

OLA: Oh. What's that?

NARRATOR: The shaft leads to a chamber with several connected rooms .

OLA: It's quite big.

This is probably for the offerings.

NARRATOR: The rooms have been looted.

The tomb raiders have left only scraps.

OLA: There is some pottery here.

This is something part of the tomb,

part of the architecture of the tomb,

because it has a shape here and rounded from here.

Part of a column, maybe.

NARRATOR: As Ola investigates, she realizes

the room needs work to make it safe .

OLA: Enough. Enough here, because it's dangerous.

You see here, clearly you see this?

I just put my hand here and it's going.

See?

I'll go out.

NARRATOR: Chunks of ceiling lying across the chamber's floor

are a worrying sign it could collapse.

OLA: All this has fallen from the ceiling and from the rock all around.

Of course, it is dangerous.

If we don't do anything to support these walls, they might fall anytime.

NARRATOR: But near the exit, Ola spots what could be another shaft in the floor.

OLA: If we remove this sand, we might find the staircase

that leads to where we find the burial itself.

But of course, it will need some time to remove all that.

NARRATOR: Another shaft could lead to a lower level in the tomb.

It's a promising sign the tomb raiders may have missed the burial chamber.

OLA: The lower shaft that's still full of sand,

we don't know how deep it will go because it is quite wide.

Till now, there are no clues until we remove this sand.

A lot of work still to be done.

NARRATOR: In the Valley of the Kings near Luxor,

Aliaa heads to the tomb of Tutankhamun's military general, Horemheb.

She wants to find out if he had a strong motive to murder the young pharaoh.

ALIAA: I'm really excited to be here; I've never been here before.

NARRATOR: The tomb is remarkably well-preserved.

Intricately decorated scenes cover the walls from floor to ceiling.

ALIAA: It is so beautiful to be here.

The colors are vivid and the carving is strong.

You can see it.

I think this is one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen.

This was not a normal individuals tomb, it's huge.

NARRATOR: At the center of the burial chamber lies Horemheb's sarcophagus.

His name and titles are inscribed on its sides.

ALIAA: Here you can see his royal name.

It says Heb-er-ru-ra setib-en-ra.

NARRATOR: The huge stone sarcophagus inscribed with royal titles reveals

that Horemheb ruled as a pharaoh after Tutankhamun's death.

He clearly had something to gain from the boy king's demise.

ALIAA: Horemheb had the means and the opportunity to kill Tutankhamun

if he wanted, because he had the command of the military

and he could have easily directed anybody to do the job for him.

Horemheb is definitely a suspect.

NARRATOR: Horemheb was a soldier of humble origin.

He worked his way up the ranks to become head of the military.

When Tutankhamun died, Horemheb was leading Egypt's army in the north.

But one of his soldiers at the royal court

could have easily assassinated the boy king.

Following Tutankhamun's death, it was the Pharaoh's top advisor, Ay,

who seized the chance to be crowned King.

He may even have married the widowed Queen Ankhesenamun.

Ay is a suspect, too.

He ruled as pharaoh for four years before he died

and was replaced by Horemheb.

Last season, Aliaa investigated the tomb of Ay and revealed

that he was probably responsible for Tutankhamun's rushed burial.

ALIAA: Ay buried Tutankhamun in the smaller tomb

so he could have the bigger tomb for himself.

NARRATOR: Ay's actions are also highly suspicious.

ALIAA: If Tutankhamun was murdered, right now there are

two prime suspects, Ay and Horemheb.

NARRATOR: Both Ay and Horemheb had powerful motives to murder Tutankhamun.

But there's another possible killer.

Now Aliaa, wants to re-examine the young Pharaoh's injuries

in greater forensic detail.

NARRATOR: At the Necropolis at Saqqara,

Ola's team has secured the tomb's unstable ceiling

and cleared the sand from the mysterious staircase in the floor.

OLA: It is exciting and that's why I come back every year.

NARRATOR: Ola hopes the staircase might lead

to the intact burial chamber of a man called Ptah Mwia.

OLA: If we find his burial chamber,

it would also lead us to what person he is.

NARRATOR: The workers prepare the bucket

for Ola to descend into the tomb again,

and investigate what lies at the bottom of the stairs.

OLA: Every year, this is what I wait for.

NARRATOR: If there's a chamber containing Ptah Mwia's burial treasures,

it would be a monumental discovery.

(foreign dialogue)

OLA: Oh. What are we going to find here?

Oh, my God.

Look, look,

it's amazing.

Ooh, this, it looks like a sarcophagus, you see here.

NARRATOR: Ola spots the faint outline of a giant

sarcophagus buried beneath the sand.

OLA: I just want to remove all the sand over it.

It is a nose, it is a head.

And ah, it has also the beard.

NARRATOR: The sarcophagus confirms this is the tomb's burial chamber.

It is a hugely significant find for Ola and her team.

OLA: The scenes are very nicely carved.

The face is so nice; the smile.

He seems to have been a nice guy. (laughs)

NARRATOR: Ola notices that a piece of the lid has broken off.

The damage indicates the sarcophagus was broken into

by the ancient tomb robbers.

But the hole gives her an opportunity to peek inside to see what's left.

OLA: It's empty. It's only some rubble, some bones.

NARRATOR: Although the sarcophagus is empty,

it's almost complete and Ola can reassemble it.

OLA: The part that is missing, we're going to put it back

where it's supposed to be, and when we empty all the sand around,

we will be able to understand the texts written

on top on the surface of the lid.

NARRATOR: Now, Ola needs to find inscriptions and a name

to confirm this is Ptah Mwia's sarcophagus.

OLA: Ah, it's a big one, you see.

All the texts on the... Ipu, the god Anubis.

Now let's see the name, because all these are gods,

these are the four sons of Horus.

Ah yes, here you have the same title, it is Ptah Mwia,

it is the owner of the tomb.

NARRATOR: Finding a complete sarcophagus

in its original tomb is incredibly rare.

OLA: It's the most important discovery for us.

It's the first time we find the sarcophagus

of the owner as it is complete like this.

NARRATOR: Studying the carvings and inscriptions

reveals more about Ptah Mwia's life.

OLA: The texts are very important and very clear.

It tells me that he is a very important person.

NARRATOR: The inscriptions show Ptah Mwia was born

into a military family and educated as a scribe,

around 50 years after Tutankhamun's death.

He started his career overseeing the cattle

and other resources of the King's temples.

He rose to become chief treasurer to the reigning pharaoh,

managing the wealth of the state.

When he died, he was buried in a lavish tomb in Saqqara,

alongside members of the ruling military elite

who controlled Egypt after Tutankhamun's death.

Ptah Mwia and his grand burial provide an insight

into a tumultuous period of Egyptian history.

NARRATOR: Less than five years after Tutankhamun's death,

a new breed of military pharaoh took over.

Men like Horemheb, not of royal blood, who relied on officials

like Ptah Mwia to support their position as pharaoh.

Ola's team now have a lot of work ahead of them.

They need to remove the rest of the sand and carefully study

the remarkable sarcophagus to uncover

the full story of Ptah Mwia's life.

OLA: This is the great discovery of the season.

The greatest of the season.

NARRATOR: In Aswan, Patrizia is investigating a tomb filled

with the mummified remains of children,

to find out why Egyptians like Tutankhamun died young.

Her team moves the mummies recovered from the recess

outside into the daylight for closer examination.

She believes the three bodies might be a family.

PATRIZIA: So let's see my family outside. Okay.

So because of the height, it's of course, a man.

This is the woman, let's say the mother.

And of course, this is the child.

To discover, who were these people and this family,

I mean, I think it would be just great.

NARRATOR: At the team's dig tent.

Patrizia's colleague, Carmelo Messina, is analysing the rest

of the tomb's remains to identify how the people died.

CARMELO: From looking at bones, we can obtain a lot of information like age,

sex, the ethnicity, possible disorder, possible disease

and possible, maybe cause of death.

These are all bones of a child.

You see how small the bones are, this is, for example, a tibia.

PATRIZIA: Oh, okay, Carmelo, so what's new here?

NARRATOR: Carmelo spots a clue to a probable cause of death.

CARMELO: I found some interesting things.

For example, look at this vertebra.

It's completely deranged.

Inside we have these holes.

I think it's more like to be infected disease, it may be even tuberculosis.

And in a late stage of tuberculosis, so probably this could be even

a person with the with a systemic severe disease.

NARRATOR: Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection

that can affect all areas of the body.

Left untreated, it can kill.

In ancient Egypt, over one in three children

did not survive beyond the age of five.

Many died from infectious diseases.

Malaria was spread by mosquitoes in areas close to the Nile.

And tuberculosis thrived in the cramped housing of the poor.

With no recourse to modern medicine, such as vaccinations,

even the children of Kings died young.

But the ancient Egyptians believed death could be overcome

and that mummification could help their lost children rejoin them

in the afterlife .

PATRIZIA: This to me is very interesting because

we are discovering many children inside.

In the past, children were found, of course, inside tombs.

But here it is a kind of concentration.

So this is one thing that we will study.

NARRATOR: It's still unclear whether illness,

famine or some other tragedy is the reason

so many child mummies were found in this tomb.

But the remains discovered here prove that disease was rife in ancient Egypt.

Analysis of Tutankhamun's mummy could reveal

if disease played a role in his death, too.

Four miles from Luxor at the Valley of the Kings,

inside the world famous tomb of Tutankhamun,

Aliaa investigates the latest scientific study

that sheds light on the mystery of how the Boy King died.

ALIAA: I found the CT scan and it allows us to see the bones

in greater detail. And there's DNA testing

that was done to help understand

if Tutankhamen had any infections.

NARRATOR: Computerized Tomography Scanning produces detailed images

of internal organs, blood vessels and bones.

The CT scan of Tutankhamun revealed that he was not a healthy King

to begin with.

Ancestral inbreeding led to a weak immune system and a club foot.

Scientific examination of the fracture in his femur suggests a bad leg injury

became seriously infected just before he died.

DNA analysis, coupled with mosquito bites on his neck and cheek,

indicate that he also suffered from persistent malaria.

Most experts now believe that Tutankhamun's weakened natural

defenses couldn't cope and the infection in his neck likely led to his death.

ALIAA: Early archaeologists thought that Tutankhamun was murdered,

and that is because of the fracture at the back of his head.

The scans further show the dents, it's very evident.

NARRATOR: But the latest scans suggest that the damage

to Tutankhamun's skull was likely caused when

the embalmers removed his brain during the mummification process.

The studies help clarify the decades-old debate around Tutankhamun's death.

ALIAA: Ay and Horemheb had the motive,

means and opportunity to kill Tutankhamen.

However, archaeologists nowadays think

that Tutankhamen died of natural causes.

NARRATOR: Despite a wealth of resources at his disposal,

Tutankhamun's death shows that no one in ancient Egypt,

not even a pharaoh, was safe from the brutal ravages of disease.

Tutankhamun died young and left no heir.

But he lives on for eternity.

Not because of a resurrection in the afterlife,

but thanks to his remarkable discovery 100 years ago.

His tomb and its beguiling golden treasures

remain one of the most captivating archaeological discoveries ever made,

offering a unique insight into one of history's greatest civilizations.

NARRATOR: In a 4000 year old tomb.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: Definitely it's something very strange.

We have the mortar sealing the tiles and then, here the sound is different.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists search for a grand burial chamber.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: If we have here something below. Wow!

That would be a fantastic moment.

NARRATOR: And treasures fit for one of the most powerful men in Ancient Egypt,

who lived and died on the banks of the River Nile.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: This could be the most important find of my career.

NARRATOR: The Nile. The longest river in the world.

It cuts through the Egyptian desert, running south to north,

through Africa, up to the Mediterranean.

Its waters sustain life wherever it flows.

Along its banks, Ancient Egyptians built remarkable temples,

tombs and monuments.

Today, archaeologists search for the secrets of the Nile,

how it powered every aspect of life

and death in Ancient Egypt, and transformed it

into one of the greatest civilizations of the ancient world.

In Aswan,

Spanish archaeologist Alejandro Jiménez-Serrano

is on his way to the tombs of Qubbet el-Hawa,

cut high in the cliffs above the west bank of the Nile.

The tombs Alejandro is excavating there,

were used by nobles who ruled from a fortified city

on Elephantine Island in the middle of the river.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: The west bank was the necropolis, the city of the dead.

Although in this area, the population was mainly settled on an island,

it continued having the same meaning:

the east is for the life, the west was for the dead.

NARRATOR: Five seasons ago, Alejandro

and his team uncovered a lavish tomb here,

dating back to 1800 BCE,

in between the golden age of the pyramids

and the time of Tutankhamun.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: It is a magnificent tomb with marvelous decoration,

reliefs and paintings.

NARRATOR: Alejandro identified the tomb's owner,

Sarenput, and discovered the key details about his life.

Sarenput was appointed governor of Elephantine

by the pharaoh Senusret the First.

He commanded the Egyptian army against Nubia, its enemy in the south.

From the island of Elephantine, he controlled trade on the Nile,

importing great wealth for the pharaoh,

including gold, ebony and ivory.

Sarenput was all powerful in the South, second only to the pharaoh,

he was the ruler of the Southern Nile.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: I've been working with Sarenput and other members of

his family during the last 20 years.

In reality, I know his family, better perhaps than mine.

NARRATOR: But Sarenput's tomb is missing one key feature a burial chamber.

This season, Alejandro wants to try and track it down

and perhaps find the body of the man himself.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: We are going to continue the excavation of the shaft

of Sarenput, perhaps his burial chamber is still intact.

NARRATOR: The tomb is made up of a network of at least nine shafts,

stretching 50 feet below ground.

Alejandro's team has made a promising discovery

at the bottom of a 30 foot deep shaft.

(Foreign language)

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: Bilal has just begun the excavation of what we consider,

by now, the antechamber.

He's excavating in that side because if there is a burial chamber,

we should find in this part.

NARRATOR: He believes that this antechamber

could lead him to the entrance of Sarenput's burial chamber.

Alejandro's team has to carefully sift through the sand

and debris, looking for clues.

They collect any fragments of pottery

and human remains for further examination.

The heat and dust is taking its toll.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: You can see the working conditions here are very hot.

We call, joking, the sauna to this place because there is a lot of humidity

and we do not have fresh air.

WORKER: Nice sauna.

Yeah, (laughs)

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: We are going to try and breathe a bit.

NARRATOR: The team works in one and a half hour shifts,

winching the spoil to the surface, bucket by bucket.

It's painstaking work, but finding Sarenput here

would be a dream come true for Alejandro.

And the fact Sarenput had such a deep shaft here is a promising sign.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: So much effort has to have a reason,

and the reason might be an intact burial chamber.

NARRATOR: At the island of Philae,

American Egyptologist, Colleen Darnell is travelling the Nile.

She wants to unlock its secrets, starting with

why the Ancient Egyptians so venerated its annual flood.

Her first stop is Philae Temple,

one of the most sacred sites in Ancient Egypt.

DR DARNELL: This was the border between Egypt and Nubia,

where the Nile in Egypt really began.

This is such a beautiful area of the Nile,

particularly when we get close to the temple, if you like.

You get a sense of what it would have looked like in antiquity.

NARRATOR: The temple, known as the Pearl of Egypt,

was built up over hundreds of years with each ruler making their own additions.

It's dedicated to ancient Egypt's most revered gods and goddesses.

In its prime, this island on the Nile was hallowed ground.

On the southern side, a courtyard lined with columns,

led to an imposing gate carved with huge

reliefs of Egyptian kings and gods.

Beyond it, a small chapel honoring the birth of the god Horus.

And the gate to the temple of his mother, the goddess Isis.

Amongst Egyptian shrines, a temple built by the Romans centuries later.

Egyptian pharaohs and Roman emperors alike

were drawn here to build monuments by the Nile.

Vintage clothing fan Colleen is an expert in hieroglyphs

and has spent her career decoding them

to discover the secrets of life in ancient Egypt.

She wants to explore the temple here to find out

why this Nile island was so important to the ancients.

She searches for clues to help piece together the puzzle.

DR DARNELL: It's really so exciting to see this inscription

because it's unique.

It lays out on a single wall the foundational myth of the Nile flood.

NARRATOR: Every year, the Nile broke its banks

and flooded the land nearby, fertilizing it with rich river mud.

The ancient Egyptians conceived the story

to explain how this annual flood was created.

DR DARNELL: What we have is a serpent that forms the shape of a cavern.

That cavern is the burial of Osiris on an island very close to Philae.

NARRATOR: Ancient Egyptians believed the Nile flood

was created from the death of their god Osiris,

husband of Isis, father of Horus.

DR DARNELL: On this other side, we see the boulders of the first cataract

of the island where the body of Osiris is buried.

There is a crocodile, in fact, a falcon headed crocodile

that represents the god Horus,

Osiris's son, and he is carrying on his back,

the mummy of his father, Osiris.

NARRATOR: Egyptians believed Osiris,

god of regeneration and the underworld,

was responsible for the yearly flood cycle of the Nile.

In their myth, his brother Seth, the god of chaos,

murdered Osiris in a fight for the throne.

Seth dismembered Osiris and scattered his body parts across Egypt.

The bodily fluids seeping from Osiris caused the Nile River to flood,

giving the Nile its divine power to make plants grow.

The Nile flood was worshipped by ancient Egyptians.

And Philae was where they believed the river began.

DR DARNELL: This is a really special area because

the Egyptians could assign this as the origin of the floodwaters.

Symbolically and in their religious beliefs,

this was the source of the Nile.

NARRATOR: The Nile had great mythological importance

for the ancient Egyptians.

Now Colleen wants to unlock more of the secrets of the great river

and how it helped create Egyptian civilization.

In Deir el-Bahari, Polish archaeologist Patryk Chudzik is at a revered site

on the west bank of the Nile.

NARRATOR: Patryk has been excavating the tombs

in this important section of the Nile for five years.

His love for archaeology started when he was just eight years old.

He promised himself that one day he would become an archaeologist.

NARRATOR: He made one of the most unusual discoveries

of his career on the hillside below the tombs.

Several crocodile skulls.

NARRATOR: Crocodiles are sometimes found in ancient Egyptian tombs,

but finding disembodied skulls in this way is unique.

NARRATOR: This season, he wants to try and find out who brought

the mystery crocodile skulls here and why.

And what it reveals about ancient Egyptians attitudes towards

the deadly creatures who thrived in their sacred river Nile.

NARRATOR: Patryk and his team face an unusual challenge.

Early archaeologists first discovered

and excavated these tombs 100 years ago.

They took the treasures, but piled the rest of the contents

onto huge spoil heaps on the hillside below.

Patryk thinks that the skulls came from one of the tombs,

but he needs to find out which one and who it belonged to.

He and his team must painstakingly work their way through all the spoil.

NARRATOR: The discovery of an engraving or inscription

could reveal the name of a tomb owner

and tell Patryk which tomb the crocodile skulls originally came from.

But the combination of steep slope

and loose rubble makes work here hazardous.

NARRATOR: In Cairo, in the Egyptian Museum,

Egyptian Conservator Eid Mertah is investigating

an enigmatic statue of Osiris.

Eid is a specialist in ancient metals who has been restoring

some of Egypt's finest treasures for the last ten years.

He wants to find out when the statue was made

and what role these statues played in the worship

of the powerful god associated with the Nile floods.

The museum has dozens of Osiris statues on display,

but hundreds more like this one, are held in storage.

NARRATOR: Most are unlabeled, and any clues

to their origins have long since disappeared.

Eid and French archaeologist Simon Connor,

have been working through the statues in the museum's stores.

NARRATOR: To date the statues, they have to restore them

and examine their distinct features in their former glory.

NARRATOR: Some of the statues like this one are bronze, gilded in gold.

Many are heavily corroded, having spent millennia

buried in damp soil and sand.

NARRATOR: Eid has his work cut out.

One slip could damage the precious statue forever.

In Aswan, Alejandro is looking for the burial chamber of Sarenput,

who ruled over the Southern Nile and the land surrounding it

4000 years ago.

It could help him unlock the secret of the Nile's role in the lives

and deaths of ancient Egyptians.

After weeks of hard work, the team has successfully

cleared several tons of debris from the antechamber.

They've revealed a very unusual floor.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: It's the first time that we find a pavement

in all the necropolis.

Definitely is something very strange.

NARRATOR: Paving slabs like these aren't found in any nearby tombs.

Alejandro thinks they could be a clue to where Sarenput was buried.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: It is very exciting because as you can see,

we have the mortar sealing the tiles and then,

here the sound,

it's different.

NARRATOR: The sound suggests an open chamber beneath,

perhaps an entrance to the burial chamber itself.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: So, if we have here something below,

we will have an intact chamber. So wow.

NARRATOR: Before Alejandro can begin to remove the paving stones,

he needs to agree on a plan with the team.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: The first thing that we can do is

to remove some stones just to test what we have below.

NARRATOR: The team needs to be careful.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: I should begin lifting this stone.

We check what we have underneath.

NARRATOR: If there is a burial chamber underneath,

removing the wrong paving stone could collapse

the structure below, destroying priceless artefacts.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: The main idea would be to remove

the stones that are on the edges of the chamber

and hopefully find something so.

(laughs)

NARRATOR: The following morning, the team head back down the shaft

to put their plan into action.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: What we are going to do

is to begin the lifting of these stones in order.

NARRATOR: Colleen leaves the island of Philae and heads up the Nile.

She is on her way to Elephantine Island.

DR DARNELL: This is Elephantine Island in the middle of the Nile River.

This island has been inhabited for thousands and thousands of years.

NARRATOR: She's travelled just five miles north from the temple of Philae.

DR DARNELL: This is the gateway between Egypt and Nubia.

And here, more than almost any other place in Egypt,

we can see the drama of the Nile.

NARRATOR: Colleen wants to investigate

how ancient Egyptians used the power of the Nile.

She believes a mysterious structure carved into

the riverbank here may hold the answers.

DR DARNELL: This is an ancient staircase

that leads all the way down to the Nile River.

So every few steps there are these strange markings

as we go down the staircase.

NARRATOR: Colleen notices an intriguing feature.

DR DARNELL: One thing that I can see here

is that they're all very consistent.

These markings are to measure the height of the Nile flood,

and we can see the river, here the water would come up

and then each individual measurement they could take.

NARRATOR: This monument is a Nilometer,

and it was crucial to understanding the patterns of the river.

DR DARNELL: This Nilometer, this measuring device,

and others on the island of Elephantine would have been the first place

where the flood was measured every year.

This was one of the most significant events

that happened in ancient Egypt every year.

NARRATOR: The Nile couldn't be tamed.

But ancient Egyptians developed a sophisticated irrigation system

of dikes and channels to harness its immense power.

During the yearly summer flood, they siphoned water into enormous basins.

Here, it sat for about a month, soaking into the earth

and leaving behind rich deposits.

Crops thrived in this fertile soil, leading to bountiful harvests.

This life giving cycle sustained the Egyptians

and allowed their grand civilization to flourish.

DR DARNELL: The Nile flood began in late July or early August of our calendar.

For the ancient Egyptians, that was the new year, when the flood began.

As the flood waters started to rise,

they continued to do that through October.

Then would be the planting season and finally harvest.

NARRATOR: The Nilometer meant the Egyptians

could forecast the size of the harvest, food supply,

and the amount the pharaoh could raise in tax.

DR DARNELL: This Nilometer is monumental and it shows us how important it was

to measure the Nile flood here at Elephantine.

If you knew the height of the waters here,

you could essentially predict where it would be

in the rest of the Nile Valley.

NARRATOR: The ingenious invention of the Nilometer meant the ancient Egyptians

could fully harness the power of the Nile .

DR DARNELL: What made the Nile so special

was that it had a predictable annual flood.

That was the magic, that was the secret to the Nile

that enabled ancient Egypt to flourish for thousands of years.

NARRATOR: Colleen's mission to unlock the secrets of the great river

doesn't stop here.

Next, she wants to explore how Egyptians used the Nile

to help them build their mighty monuments,

the hallmarks of their civilization.

On the west bank of the Nile, at Deir el-Bahari,

Patryk is trying to solve the mystery of the nine crocodile skulls

found in a spoil heap below a series of tombs

next to the temple of Hatshepsut.

He is looking for clues that might lead him to the tomb

the crocodile skulls likely came from.

But his team faces a problem.

NARRATOR: Patryk thinks the crocodile skulls were once in the tombs above.

He wants to find out who might have left them in a tomb and why.

(foreign dialogue)

And what that reveals about how the ancient Egyptians perceived

the dangerous animals that shared their sacred river.

As the team carefully works through the dust and debris, Patryk notices something .

NARRATOR: This crocodile jaw looks smaller than those he's already found.

It must have come from a different crocodile

and suggests that more than nine crocodile skulls were placed in the tomb.

NARRATOR: Patryk also uncovers evidence to confirm

this heap of rubble and the skulls, do come from a tomb.

NARRATOR: Now, to work out why the crocodile skulls are here,

they need to identify the tomb they came from and its owner.

NARRATOR: In Aswan, Alejandro's team are searching for the entrance

to the burial chamber of Sarenput.

An intact chamber could contain a treasure trove

of information about ancient life and death on the Nile.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: It is bedrock. It is the bedrock.

NARRATOR: The first stone slab they lift

sits on a bed of sand with only bedrock underneath.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: Okay, let's try this one.

(foreign dialogue)

-This one? -Yes.

(foreign dialogue)

We have more sand here.

There is no ramp. There is nothing.

NARRATOR: Alejandro has left the most promising stone until the very end.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: This tile has a different sound from the others.

Might be something behind this.

We will see if the last chance is here.

(foreign dialogue)

We have the bedrock again, we have the bedrock.

So this is archaeology.

You never find what you're expecting to find.

We have just removed four tiles and it is always the same.

We have sand and immediately after we have the bedrock.

I feel quite frustrated because it seems clear now that

we are not going to have the burial chamber.

NARRATOR: But Alejandro has been rewarded with something else.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: We are taking samples of sand.

The sand from the Nile is more of a pale color compared

to the one of the desert sand.

NARRATOR: Alejandro believes that the sand beneath the slabs

was specifically brought from the banks of the Nile to this chamber.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: Probably this special sand

was chosen because it was coming from the Nile.

The Nile means the life for Egypt.

So basically it was easily related to the sacred world

and can be used in the funerary spaces.

So anything that could help the deceased to gain the afterlife was used.

NARRATOR: In the minds of the ancient Egyptians,

the Nile would help them reach their ultimate destination.

JIMENEZ-SERRANO: Most of the people of this region

were living in the East bank or on the island.

So when someone died, they have to make not only a physical trip,

but also a symbolic trip over the Nile

to take the deceased to the West bank, to the land of the dead.

The Nile connects these two worlds, the worlds of the living,

the Nile is alive and with the world of the dead.

NARRATOR: The Nile was as important to Sarenput in death, as it was in life.

Alejandro will continue the search for his burial chamber.

He is convinced it's somewhere overlooking this all powerful river.

In Cairo at the Egyptian Museum,

Eid is removing centuries of dirt and corrosion from a statue of Osiris,

the powerful god associated with the Nile floods.

He's hoping to uncover distinct facial features that will help him find out

when the statue was made.

A date will shed light on how long Osiris statues

were important objects of worship.

NARRATOR: Eid uses an ultrasonic pen.

It generates high energy sound waves to blast through tough layers of corrosion.

It's the best tool for the task,

but he must work carefully not to damage the statue itself.

NARRATOR: Eid's work on this statue alone will take months.

NARRATOR: Eid can only properly analyze a statue

when it's completely clean of dirt and other corrosion like this one.

Clues to this stunning statue's origin lie in the metal itself.

NARRATOR: Bronze is an alloy, a mixture of different metals.

Eid will compare the bronze in this statue to a database of statues

whose dates they do know.

He has a high tech scanner that will tell him the exact alloy composition

without damaging the statue.

NARRATOR: The scanner blasts the bronze surface with X-rays

and records the energy released by the atoms.

The metallic fingerprint could help Eid and Simon match the statue

with one whose date is known and solve

the mystery of the statue's age.

NARRATOR: On the west bank of the Nile, at Deir el-Bahari,

Patryk inspects pieces of sarcophagus he's found in the hillside spoil.

They originally came from one of the tombs high above.

NARRATOR: He's hoping fragments of sarcophagus will reveal the identity

of its owner and lead him to the exact tomb that the skulls came from.

Finally, a large section of sarcophagus gives him the hieroglyphic clue

he's been searching for.

NARRATOR: Khety was an important high official in the royal court.

He lived about 700 years before Tutankhamun

and served a pharaoh called Mentuhotep the Second.

NARRATOR: It's the final proof the crocodile skulls did come from Khety's tomb

in the cliffs above the spoil heap where Patryk was searching.

Now he can investigate why Khety would have wanted them there,

and he knows precisely where to look.

Khety's tomb was first excavated by American archaeologist

Herbert Winlock, 100 years ago.

Winlock and his team must have removed the crocodile skulls

and left them in the spoil heaps below

while searching for more valuable treasure.

NARRATOR: Tombs containing whole crocodile mummies are rare enough,

but a tomb with just crocodile skulls is unique.

NARRATOR: Patryk's theory is that Khety believed he needed the crocodile heads

in his tomb for his journey to the afterlife.

At death, his spirit would navigate through the underworld

and the crocodile heads would give it the strength of this fearsome reptile.

With this enhanced power, Khety believed he could overcome enemies

and demons facing him along the way,

so that he could travel safely to the Field of Reeds,

to live on in eternity.

NARRATOR: The ancient Egyptians both feared and venerated the crocodile.

They considered it a living symbol of the Nile's fertility.

NARRATOR: In Cairo, Eid and Simon have finished scanning the statue of Osiris,

the powerful god associated with the Nile floods.

They are hoping the exact composition

of its bronze alloy might be a clue to its date.

NARRATOR: Simon and Eid search a global database to find any other Osiris

statues with the same distinct alloy composition.

They find a match with a statue known to date from the 21st dynasty.

It's evidence that their statue dates to around a thousand BCE,

between the reigns of Tutankhamun and Cleopatra,

1500 years after Osiris first appeared in Egyptian mythology.

To confirm this date, Simon and Eid will cross-check their findings

using a very different technique: studying Osiris's face.

In ancient Egyptian art, statues of gods were modelled on the reigning pharaoh.

So a statue's face contains clues to when it was made.

NARRATOR: And the face of this statue is also characteristic

of depictions of gods and pharaohs during the 21st dynasty.

NARRATOR: Eid and Simon have solved the mystery of when this statue was made.

They have shown that Osiris had a firm and continued hold on ancient Egypt,

1500 years after he first appeared in Egyptian myth.

Their analysis of the remaining statues in the museum

could reveal more about how Osiris, the god of death and the renewal of life,

and the god associated with the annual Nile flood,

was worshipped in ancient Egypt.

Near Aswan,

Colleen's investigation of how the Nile powered ancient Egyptian

civilization brings her to a mysterious,

colossal structure carved into the riverbank.

DR DARNELL: I've seen a lot of monuments in Egypt,

but this is one of the most impressive.

I mean, the pyramids are huge, but as a single block of stone, this beats all.

NARRATOR: In all her years exploring Egypt,

Colleen has never properly examined this strange structure.

DR DARNELL: This is the first time I've ever been this close.

It's huge. I can't even see the top from here.

NARRATOR: Up close, Colleen can trace its outline and understand what it is.

DR DARNELL: This would have been the biggest Obelisk ever attempted.

NARRATOR: This colossal obelisk has been partially cut

from the granite bedrock and left unfinished.

These monuments were carved as a pyramid shaped pillar.

Pharaohs would erect obelisks adorned with inscriptions,

glorifying their name and their rule to stamp their authority across Egypt.

This obelisk would have stood 140 feet high,

nearly 40 feet taller than any other.

DR DARNELL: What's most astounding to me is that it's a monolith.

We're talking about a single, uninterrupted piece of stone from the tippy top

all the way to the bottom.

NARRATOR: It was commissioned by the female pharaoh, Hatshepsut,

who ruled 150 years before Tutankhamun,

and was intended for a massive temple in Karnak 150 miles downriver.

DR DARNELL: This is absolutely extraordinary.

There is nothing else like this.

NARRATOR: Obelisks were vital for the pharaohs,

but they needed the Nile to get them to their pyramids and temples.

DR DARNELL: Egypt was incredibly lucky to have this sort of stone wealth,

but without the Nile River, they couldn't have taken it very far.

NARRATOR: The river was a conduit between south and north,

acting as an ancient highway.

Egyptians relied on the Nile for transportation,

using prevailing winds to sail south and the current to help them row north.

To carry light loads, Egyptians used small boats of papyrus reeds.

For heavier loads, they used strong wooden ships.

During the annual flooding of the Nile,

they moved around 8000 tons of granite from the quarries in the south

to the pyramids they were building hundreds of miles north.

They even designed huge cargo ships to transport giant 160 ton obelisks

from Aswan to their temples further north.

DR DARNELL: All of ancient Egypt's monuments from obelisks and temples,

to the pyramids themselves, would not have been possible without the Nile River.

Think about how different ancient Egypt would look

if they couldn't have used the river to transport

these massive monuments.

NARRATOR: Colleen investigates why Hatshepsut's

colossal obelisk, the greatest ever commissioned, was left abandoned.

She spots a clue left right under her nose.

DR DARNELL: This is really neat.

This is one of the pounding stones.

This diorite pounder is actually one of the stones they used

to carve this obelisk.

NARRATOR: This stone was used to pound the rock into its obelisk shape.

DR DARNELL: These depressions show us the process

that they used to carve bit by bit by bit.

It was manpower and just chipping away piece by piece

that this giant obelisk was carved.

NARRATOR: Colleen spots a problem caused by the carving.

DR DARNELL: Here are some very large cracks that developed in the obelisk.

NARRATOR: This was a problem that could not be fixed.

The obelisk would have split into pieces as soon as it was moved.

DR DARNELL: These large cracks is why this massive project was abandoned.

NARRATOR: The pharaoh's project proved too ambitious.

Hatshepsut's colossal obelisk was doomed to stay stuck in the bedrock.

It never made the journey downriver, to adorn Karnak, Egypt's greatest temple.

The ancient Egyptians relied on the mighty River Nile

for every aspect of their lives.

It allowed them to build the pyramids,

temples and monuments that came to define them.

It fertilized their crops and enabled their cities

to flourish in the dry desert landscape.

In ancient Egypt, the Nile was life itself.

Its annual flood, worshipped as a god.

DR DARNELL: It's impossible to think of Egypt without thinking of the Nile.

We know that civilization started here because of the Nile River that enabled

ancient Egypt to flourish for thousands of years.

(music)

NARRATOR: At the bottom of a narrow shaft.

Lies a mysterious and unexplored ancient tomb.

OLA: This is full of skeletons.

NARRATOR: Half buried in the deep sand, lies incredible evidence

linked to Egypt's greatest pharaoh, Ramses the Second.

OLA: That's very nice. What is this?

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

Oh, wow.

NARRATOR: Throughout Egyptian history,

no other pharaoh had a greater impact

on the ancient civilization than Ramses the Second.

He came to power in 1279 BCE, 44 years after Tutankhamun,

and ruled for almost 70 years.

Known as Ramses the Great, he transformed Egypt

over the course of his reign.

He expanded the country's borders and built colossal

monuments like Abu Simbel and the Ramasseum mortuary temple.

Ramses was so revered that nine further pharaohs took his name.

Today, archaeologists across Egypt are attempting

to unlock the secrets of this iconic leader's reign.

(speaking foreign language)

How he maintained complete power over Egypt throughout his long life

and how he made sure his fame endured long after his death.

At Saqqara, in front of Egypt's oldest pyramid, the step pyramid of Djoser,

Egyptian archaeologist Ola El Aguizy is excavating

a necropolis filled with the tombs of Ramses' generals.

These powerful figures played a key role

in Ramses' extraordinary reign.

Ola searches for evidence that could shed light on how he kept them loyal.

OLA: Every year, it's getting more and more exciting.

NARRATOR: Ola fell in love with Egyptology 50 years ago.

And she has been exploring the burials at this site for nearly two decades.

OLA: The area proves to be very important, very interesting.

It leads to lots of new information about

the people during the Ramesside period.

NARRATOR: Ola's team scours the Necropolis for signs of unexplored buried tombs.

She's found some strange holes cut into an ancient mud brick wall.

OLA: I noticed there were openings here that the workers,

when they go down and come up, they put their feet.

So that means that this is a shaft.

NARRATOR: Ola believes these holes form part of ancient steps

that workers used to climb in and out of a shaft

during construction of the tombs here.

OLA: We have a piece of stone here, a fragment.

So it is really built especially for a shaft.

NARRATOR: A shaft could lead to an undiscovered tomb.

Her team start to excavate.

OLA: It's very, very exciting because

we don't know exactly what we'll find.

We hope to find a sarcophagus, we hope to find a statue, maybe.

NARRATOR: Last season's finds show this site is full

of ancient treasures from the reign of Ramses.

OLA: Ohhh, ohhh! Beautiful.

NARRATOR: And Ola thinks there are more beneath her feet.

OLA: It's not very deep yet, but we are sure that it is a shaft.

NARRATOR: The shaft is not the only discovery to emerge from the sand.

NARRATOR: Demotic script came into use around 600 years after Ramses reign.

Its discovery here could mean this shaft

wasn't built during the time of Ramses,

like the others in the Necropolis.

OLA: This one, this finding is a proof of a later burial.

NARRATOR: It could be a major setback in Ola's hunt for tombs

from the time of Ramses the Great.

In the ancient city of Abydos, Egyptian archaeologist

Sameh Iskander leads a team excavating

at the first temple ever built by Ramses the Second.

This season, Sameh plans to dig in the areas surrounding the temple

to uncover what it can reveal about Ramses'

long lasting influence over the country.

SAMEH: We've been working here for the past 15 years

and I feel so lucky to be in charge of this project.

NARRATOR: Abydos was one of the Ancient Egyptians' most sacred sites.

They believed Osiris, god of the afterlife, was buried here.

SAMEH: It was the hope of every Egyptian to come here

at least once in lifetime for prayers.

NARRATOR: Sameh originally trained as a civil engineer,

but as a child he always dreamt of excavating in Egypt.

SAMEH: I did not forget my dream.

I went to New York University, I studied

archaeology, Egyptology, my dream.

And then my dream is coming true here.

NARRATOR: During an earlier season, Sameh unearthed Ramses' temple palace

to the south of the main temple he built here. SAMEH: We were shocked.

We really did not expect this here.

NARRATOR: Like other pharaohs before him,

Ramses the Second, built a temple here

dedicated to the god Osiris.

In a courtyard, he placed 26 statues in honor of the deity.

On the south side, he built the temple palace,

where he prepared for his duties as a spiritual leader

and kept provisions for the temple in 10 store rooms.

Surrounding the complex, he built a 25 foot tall wall

with an imposing granite gate.

But the temple and its palace only occupied half of the enclosed space.

Sameh's goal is to excavate the remainder of the temple complex.

SAMEH: Every day is a special day.

Every day there's something new.

Every day there's a new theory.

And every day, a lot of questions.

NARRATOR: Sameh and his team dig deep trenches on the hunt for lost buildings.

Clearing away the layers of sand covering an ancient walkway,

they make a surprising discovery.

SAMEH: All of a sudden, we find here there's a cut in the floor.

You can see the cut all around.

Somebody cut in here and built an enclosure wall.

And inside there is a vaulted structure that's built

starts from here from this enclosure wall here, all the way there.

NARRATOR: The vaulted structure appears to be the roof

of a building that's buried deep beneath the sand.

Sameh wants to find out if the structure was built

during or after Ramses' reign.

SAMEH: We're going to start to excavate now to see

if this is still intact, this wasn't disturbed.

NARRATOR: To uncover what this structure is doing here

and what it might reveal about Egypt's greatest pharaoh

and his enduring influence over the country,

Sameh needs to unearth a way in.

SAMEH: For us it's very exciting.

NARRATOR: At Deir El-Medina,

in an Acropolis high up in the hillside,

French Egyptologist Cedric Larcher

leads a team investigating several high status tombs.

Cedric has studied Ancient Egyptian civilization for 19 years

and now lives and works in Egypt.

This season, Cedric is focusing on the necropolis's most impressive tomb.

It belongs to Ramses' architect Neferhotep.

Cedric wants to investigate Neferhotep's partially excavated tomb

to see what it can reveal about Ramses' reign

and the pharaoh's enduring appeal to the Ancient Egyptians.

Next to it, a rare depiction of Ramses

reveals Neferhotep's strong personal connection to the pharaoh.

The tomb reveals Neferhotep's work for Ramses in amazing detail.

During Ramses' reign, Neferhotep was an architect

and foreman in charge of a team tasked

with building the tombs of the Valley of the Kings.

He oversaw their work, their materials and supplies.

And lived with them in the nearby workers' village.

He succeeded his father and grandfather in building tombs

and monuments for the pharaoh.

But Neferhotep had no direct descendant to follow in his footsteps.

When he died, he was buried in his ornate tomb

at the highest point in the necropolis.

In the tombs' courtyard, Cedric's team has uncovered the openings

to two intriguing vertical shafts filled with debris.

The team gets to work removing debris from the first shaft.

Cedric hopes it will lead to a burial chamber.

In the Valley of the Kings, Aliaa Ismail is hunting for clues

that could shed light on the dynasty of Ramses the Great.

ALIAA: Being here in the Valley of the King,

it's one of the most beautiful feelings you'd ever have.

NARRATOR: Aliaa has worked in the valley since 2016.

She leads a team, digitally recording

the tomb of Ramses' father Seti the First.

Ramses wasn't the first king of his dynasty.

His father's lavish tomb shows he was born

into a powerful and wealthy family.

Aliaa wants to know how he built on this inheritance.

ALIAA: I want to know how Ramses the Great

has ensured such an incredible dynasty.

NARRATOR: First, Aliaa explores the tomb Ramses built for his sons.

It might hold clues that reveal

how the Pharaoh crafted his dynasty.

ALIAA: Wow.

I've never been to this tomb before.

It's really exciting to be here.

NARRATOR: At the end of the furthest corridor, a stunning rock-cut

statue is evidence that Ramses built this tomb.

ALIAA: Wow. This is an Osiris statue.

He has the crook and the flail on his arm.

It's very beautiful, very intricate.

It would have been painted, there are traces of paint on it.

NARRATOR: The Osiris statue once bore the face of Ramses the Great.

All depictions of gods were made to look like the reigning pharaoh.

The statue helped guide the deceased into the afterlife.

It stands at the heart of a highly unusual tomb.

With over 120 near identical chambers stretching 150 feet across

and more than 270 feet deep into the rock,

it's the largest in the Valley of the Kings.

Aliaa wants to know why Ramses built such an enormous tomb.

ALIAA: There are a total of 16 pillars in here.

This is the biggest pillar chamber in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

This is a very long corridor and there are rooms on each side of the wall.

There's so much debris in them.

NARRATOR: To uncover why Ramses made his sons' tomb so big,

Aliaa needs to head deeper into the maze of dark corridors.

In Abydos at Ramses' temple complex,

Sameh and his team excavate the mysterious structure

they have just discovered and search for an entrance.

SAMEH: You can see the marks of the hands of those masons

that built it and it runs this way.

We don't know how long it's going to go further west.

Hopefully still intact.

Hopefully it wasn't disturbed.

NARRATOR: Sameh wants to know whether it can help reveal

more about Ramses' hold over Ancient Egypt.

Clearing away the sandy debris,

they begin to discover fragments of pottery.

SAMEH: What we have inside here is plaster.

Plaster was used in building the structure of the temple.

NARRATOR: One fragment in particular catches Sameh's expert eye.

SAMEH: We just came across this piece, which is interesting.

It's a piece of pottery.

And inside the remains of burnt incense.

NARRATOR: Burning incense was common practice during cult rituals.

In Ancient Egypt, cults were formed to worship a chosen god or goddess.

Cults were a popular and everyday part of Egyptian life.

SAMEH: The fact that we found this piece here gives us a clue

that there's some cult activity down here.

NARRATOR: If the team can find further evidence of cult activity,

it could reveal how the temple was used.

Crucially, the discovery helped Sameh to date the structure.

NARRATOR: Ptolemy, the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty,

which ended with Cleopatra, became Pharaoh

almost a thousand years after Ramses the Second.

The pottery is a significant discovery.

It reveals that someone a millennium later burrowed beneath

this walkway to build their structure

as close to Ramses' Temple as possible.

Sameh hopes to find out why.

After hours of digging, the team uncovers an opening

at the end of the mysterious building.

SAMEH: Now we're coming finally to the door.

This is the entrance.

We opened this for the first time after 2000 years. Oh, wow.

NARRATOR: In the Valley of the Kings, Aliaa wants to understand

why Ramses built such a huge tomb for his sons

and what that reveals about how he crafted his powerful dynasty.

ALIAA: Oh, there's stairs here.

Where do they lead to?

NARRATOR: Along the dark corridors, faint remnants of ancient carvings

adorn the walls, but they are badly eroded.

ALIAA: You can see that the salt crystals all over the place.

And you can see this is definitely water damage.

It appears that a flash flood could have taken place here.

NARRATOR: The carved scenes could contain

vital information about the tomb, but the erosion

makes them almost impossible to decipher.

ALIAA: This bumpiness is all due to the water damage.

NARRATOR: Aliaa finds a surviving section.

ALIAA: From what we can see here, there's a large figure

and it is followed by a smaller figure.

This is for sure Ramses'

and right next to him here would be his child.

NARRATOR: This tomb isn't just for a few of Ramses sons.

It's for a great number of them.

The tomb contains dozens of rooms.

Many are burial chambers for sons of the King.

During his life, Ramses had over a hundred children,

more than any other Egyptian king.

He had an unusually high number of wives and consorts,

over 200 in total.

Some he married to seal foreign alliances, others to produce sons.

He fathered 52 and secured a healthy male bloodline

to succeed him on the throne.

He built the vast tomb in the Valley of the Kings to bury them together

so they could be close to their father in the afterlife.

ALIAA: Ramses the Second was always planning to have a big family,

and that's why he built such a huge tomb.

This seems to be his goal.

NARRATOR: Having a tomb in the Valley of the Kings was a huge honor.

By building his son's tomb here, Ramses hoped

to give them a long and prosperous afterlife.

He looked after them in this life, too.

On the wall, Aliaa can make out the role of one son.

ALIAA: The kind of dress that this character

is wearing seems like priests robes.

So this would have been maybe the son of Ramses

as one of the high priests.

This was a title that would have made him

an important individual in the royal court.

NARRATOR: Ramses gave his many sons important positions

across the country to ensure their loyalty.

These are the actions of an astute father and leader.

Next, Aliaa wants to find out how Ramses used his loyal sons

to further his reign and build his powerful dynasty.

At the Saqqara necropolis,

Ola's team has dug down 23 feet inside the new shaft,

but they are yet to reach the bottom.

OLA: Good morning.

(speaking foreign language)

NARRATOR: Ola still hopes the shaft will lead

to one of Ramses' military general's tombs

and shed light on how he kept them loyal.

OLA: We begin to find bones.

It seems that we are on the verge of reaching the opening of the tomb.

We are going to find something interesting. That's sure.

NARRATOR: Bones are a promising indication that a burial chamber is nearby.

OLA: Yes.

And this is another.

This is an amulet.

They put it on the mummy for protection.

There is a burial.

(laughs)

(foreign dialogue)

NARRATOR: Digging further, the team reveals an opening to a chamber.

OLA: What we just found, it's an opening to the East.

NARRATOR: Workers clear the entrance and lash together two wooden ladders

for Ola to descend into the shaft and investigate.

OLA: I hope it is safe.

NARRATOR: Whilst the team installs the ladder, Ola takes a moment

to prepare herself for the long descent into the unknown.

OLA: This is the adrenaline that gives me the power to do that.

If it wasn't for adrenaline, I would have been.

I would have refused to go down.

NARRATOR: The narrow shaft now descends a total of 26 feet.

A fall here could be fatal.

OLA: This is the first time I go to this shaft.

Terribly (Laughs), terribly excited.

Oh!

NARRATOR: At Deir El-Medina, Cedric's team excavates a shaft

in the courtyard of the tomb of Ramses' architect: Neferhotep.

NARRATOR: Cedric wants to find out what lies at the bottom of it.

NARRATOR: Cedric hopes the shaft could reveal more

about Egypt's devotion to the great pharaoh.

But there's a problem.

The shaft's walls could collapse at any second.

NARRATOR: After hours of careful excavation,

they reach a layer with some promising signs.

NARRATOR: Cedric spots some intriguing clues scattered

around the base of the shaft.

NARRATOR: Fragments of linen and bones are evidence

that mummies could be buried close by.

NARRATOR: The draught suggests they might have found

the entrance to a chamber.

NARRATOR: The team needs to clear enough space

for Cedric to get in and explore.

It takes two more days of excavation.

They discover what could be the entrance to a burial chamber,

but it's blocked by big boulders.

The boulders are too heavy to remove by bucket.

After careful deliberation, the team decides to try lifting the boulders out

with a heavy duty pulley rigged to a large wooden frame.

(speaking foreign language)

Eventually they push the pulley into position.

Workers carefully secure rope around the largest boulder

and begin to hoist it out of the shaft.

If it falls, it could kill them.

(inaudible) Let's go

Well.

NARRATOR: More boulders still block his way in.

They are deep inside the entrance, so the team can't use

the rope and pulley to lift them.

Cedric needs yet another plan.

NARRATOR: In Abydos,

Sameh and his team race to excavate the mysterious building

buried beneath the walkway at Ramses Temple.

Sameh wants to know why someone a millennium after Ramses' reign,

chose to build a structure in this location and what that can reveal

about Ramses' influence over Ancient Egypt long after his death.

SAMEH: We have reached the... of the entrance, it's partially open.

NARRATOR: But the team faces a new challenge.

SAMEH: We have to go down very, very carefully.

Otherwise, we can disturb that wall that might actually collapse somehow.

Or who knows?

NARRATOR: Workers carefully remove the ancient mud bricks blocking the entrance.

SAMEH: I hope we can find something to tell us.

What is the mindset of this period?

A thousand years after Ramses.

NARRATOR: This vaulted structure isn't the only

curious discovery made by Sameh's team.

Elsewhere on the dig site, workers have uncovered a shocking scene.

SAMEH: We came across this storage area

and we found this extremely unusual find.

It's filled with these bones, mostly skulls of rams.

We counted more than 1200 ram heads.

Some of them are wrapped in fabric.

NARRATOR: But it isn't all gruesome skulls.

SAMEH: We came across this beautiful bell

with its clapper and in excellent condition.

And we have here four heads of animals that represents the gods.

This was hanging from the neck of the ram and making that sound.

It's extremely, extremely unusual to find

and we're very happy with this to find it.

NARRATOR: Sameh thinks these carcasses

are evidence of a specific cult.

SAMEH: It gives us an idea that this is a cult of the ram.

NARRATOR: Ancient Egyptians saw rams as sacred symbols of fertility

and as representations of their gods.

Ram worship was prominent in southern Egypt

where they mummified rams and gave them ritual burials.

The cult of the ram eventually spread right across Egypt,

including Abydos.

This huge collection could be evidence that cult practitioners

collected ram skulls from hundreds of previous rituals

and placed them all here in a grisly mass grave.

SAMEH: I have a feeling that this is a single event,

that they were all collected at some point

and at a certain time in history.

They decided that this huge amount of rams heads belonged

to the revered domain of Ramses the Second.

NARRATOR: Sameh believes the skulls were placed here

because of the temple's connection to Ramses.

Now Sameh wants to know if the vaulted structure

also contains evidence of this cult.

At the dig site, the team has safely removed

enough debris to reveal the entire entrance.

Sameh can finally enter the mysterious structure for the first time.

SAMEH: It's so dark in here.

NARRATOR: In Saqqara, Ola descends a narrow,

unstable 26 foot Deep shaft to explore the new tomb.

OLA: Finally. Quite an adventure.

NARRATOR: Ola wants to investigate whether

this tomb dates from Ramses' reign,

and if it can help reveal more about

how the king kept his generals loyal.

OLA: Ooh! Wow.

NARRATOR: The tomb contains pottery, once full of food

and drink for the deceased.

OLA: Quite different than what I expected, but interesting.

NARRATOR: Ola discovers several niches carved into the tomb walls.

OLA: We have lots of burials in every niche, in every one of them.

This is full of skeletons.

What is this?

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

These are the ribs here.

You have a wooden piece which proved that there was a wooden sarcophagus.

NARRATOR: These desecrated remains are evidence

that robbers broke into the tomb

looking for treasures buried with the mummies.

They took the precious objects but left behind other grave goods.

OLA: That's very nice.

(speaking foreign language)

This is part of a plate.

And that's another one.

Would you like a soup?

NARRATOR: Ola recognizes the style of pottery

and can use it to date these burials.

OLA: It might be dated to the later period, the 26th dynasty or so.

NARRATOR: The 26th dynasty began almost 600 years after Ramses' reign.

This could explain the pottery shard with Demotic

text Ola discovered near the top of the shaft.

It's beginning to look like this tomb doesn't have

anything to do with Ramses at all.

OLA: All this needs studying.

NARRATOR: But then Ola spots something

promising hidden amongst the buried jars.

OLA: That's interesting.

This is the beard of the sarcophagus.

That means that the person is an important one.

Usually it's a symbol of high rank.

One of the people who were around Ramses.

That's interesting.

NARRATOR: The carved wooden beard indicates a burial of someone of high status,

possibly from the time of Ramses.

The tomb could have been built during Ramses reign after all,

and the artefacts from the 26th dynasty were placed there centuries later.

OLA: It's the time when they reused the area for burials.

NARRATOR: It was common for Ancient Egyptians to reuse tombs

centuries after they were first built.

This makes it a challenge for Egyptologists to accurately date them.

The discovery of another tomb that could date from Ramses'

era is so tantalizing that Ola wants to dig deeper.

OLA: You know what we're going to do now?

We're going to take out the sand, which is in the niches

and take all the things that we found out and sift the sand.

NARRATOR: There's still a mammoth amount of work to do

to uncover the full story of this tomb.

OLA: (Laughing) What an adventure. Woo.

NARRATOR: But so far it suggests that Ramses rewarded

his generals with the hope of eternal life.

The promise of a lavish burial here in sacred Saqqara,

in the shadow of Egypt's first pyramid,

secured their loyalty and helped Ramses maintain his dynasty.

In Abydos, Sameh prepares to enter the 2000 year old

structure for the first time.

SAMEH: It is really dark and it's very difficult

to really understand what's inside.

We're going to get some light so that we can go inside.

NARRATOR: Sameh hopes the structure, which was built a thousand years

after Ramses' death, will provide more evidence

that a cult was active here next to his temple.

And reveal more about the enduring strength

of the Pharaoh's influence over Ancient Egypt.

SAMEH: It's large.

It's really surprising that the ceiling is plastered

with mud in a very careful way because of

the effort of plastering it here.

It's kind of unusual.

NARRATOR: Sameh searches for any inscriptions that might indicate

the structure's purpose, but the walls are bare.

Studying the structure's alignment, he believes the biggest clue

to the importance of this building lies in its position.

SAMEH: This structure was built right along

the northern wall of the temple itself, a very revered space.

So they came during the Ptolemaic period

and built this obviously for some cultic activity.

NARRATOR: Sameh thinks this structure was likely never used.

Its position right next to Ramses' Temple suggests

the cult was worshipping Ramses himself.

Even though the structure dates to long after Ramses' death.

SAMEH: Usually cults of other pharaohs last for two or three centuries.

This is a thousand years.

NARRATOR: The buried structure, the pottery and the rams' heads

are all evidence of the strength of Ramses' enduring appeal.

Sameh believes it shows the Pharaoh was being

worshipped a millennium after his death,

centuries longer than other pharaohs.

SAMEH: It says a lot about how important

this pharaoh was in the mindset of Egyptians.

NARRATOR: At Deir El-Medina.

Cedric's team are into their second day trying to enter

what appears to be a chamber.

It's located at the bottom of a shaft beside

the tomb of Ramses' architect Neferhotep.

But inside the chamber's entrance,

several unstable boulders still block their passage.

NARRATOR: The roof of the entrance tunnel blocks the team

from lifting the boulders with a pulley.

Instead, they use a makeshift ramp to slide them out of the way.

The entrance is finally clear and the smell is promising.

NARRATOR: Entering a new tomb containing mummies can be dangerous.

The ancient bodies can carry mold that is harmful to humans.

Cedric hopes the tomb will reveal more about the strength

of Ramses' influence over the ancient Egyptians.

Cedric: Whoa. Okay. Wow.

NARRATOR: It is a burial chamber.

The end of the room is piled high with ancient remains.

NARRATOR: A gruesome torso provides Cedric with a clue

that helps him to date some of the mummies.

NARRATOR: Cedric believes these later Egyptians

may have chosen to be buried beneath

Neferhotep's tomb because he was Ramses' architect.

NARRATOR: A burial here meant they too hoped to share

in Ramses' eternal glory, evidence of the enduring

strength of Ramses' godlike appeal.

Cedric: So exciting to be here.

NARRATOR: The burial chamber and these bodies are a remarkable discovery,

but one that leaves Cedric and his team with a mountain of work ahead of them.

NARRATOR: On the Nile's East bank, Aliaa has come

to investigate the vast Luxor Temple.

Ramses' richly rewarded his sons in death with a lavish tomb.

Now Aliaa wants to find out how they helped him build

his powerful dynasty while they were still alive.

ALIAA: Just standing here in front of those huge columns.

You feel so small in comparison to this huge culture.

NARRATOR: Large parts of the temple were built by Ramses

and he made sure everyone knew it.

ALIAA: Whenever you see the cartouches of Ramses the Great,

they're always great.

Great in size, great in scale.

And you can recognize them right away because

Ramses' cartouches can be seen from really far away.

Other peoples can't.

NARRATOR: Hidden behind a row of columns,

a remarkable relief depicts 17 of Ramses' children.

ALIAA: Here, the second child depicted is called Ramses

and the fourth one is called Khaemweset.

And here we are looking at Merenptah.

It's quite unusual to have his children here in the temple on the wall,

but doing so, he is putting them out there

and showing the whole of Egypt who his children are.

NARRATOR: Ramses didn't just publicly praise his children.

He gave them powerful jobs throughout his kingdom.

Ramses gave some of his sons high ranking positions in the Army

to fight alongside him in his military campaigns.

Together, they mounted attacks north of Egypt against the enemy,

Hittites, laying siege to several of their fortified cities.

He appointed other sons as high priests to lead cults

and secure his religious and political authority.

Ramses kept his sons close to him throughout his life to ensure control

over Egypt and establish his powerful dynasty.

After a 66 year long reign, Ramses died, leaving the throne

to his eldest living son, Merenptah.

Ramses ensured his dynasty would survive by conceiving more than

a hundred children and placing many of them in key positions.

ALIAA: He has taught those children to follow into his footsteps,

to do everything the way he envisioned.

I think that Ramses conceived as many children

as possible to make it impossible for someone

to take the throne from the Ramessides.

NARRATOR: The King's ingenious plan paid off.

After a powerful and long lasting reign, his bloodline

remained on the throne for a further three generations.

Ancient Egyptians may have worshipped him as a god

a millennium after his death.

And even to this day, we remember Ramses the Second

as Egypt's greatest pharaoh.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The hidden entrance of a huge underground shaft...

SALIMA: They did a lot of cutting.

NARRATOR: That leads almost 70 feet through rock...

SALIMA: Must have taken a couple of months to dig this

deeply and empty it out.

NARRATOR: To a mysterious 3,000 year old tomb once filled with

beautifully preserved mummies.

SALIMA: Wow.

NARRATOR: And a solution to one of Ancient Egypt's

greatest mysteries.

SALIMA: The roofs gone down and it's much warmer and very dark.

Oh wow.

NARRATOR: Ancient Egypt.

A civilization that began 5,000 years ago and beguiles

to this day.

Its great pyramids, temples, monuments and tombs have

endured for millennia.

But at human scale,

nothing has endured more than the Mummy.

The Ancient Egyptians mummified their dead for

around 3,000 years.

They began before the time of the Great Pyramids and

were still doing it at the very end of

Ancient Egyptian civilization.

Mummies are stunningly well-preserved,

silent witnesses to the mysteries of Ancient Egypt.

Archaeologists are hunting for more mummies.

To help them answer vital questions about the fate of the

mightiest pharaohs and the Ancient Egyptian way

of life and death.

In the ancient necropolis of Philadelphia,

Egyptian archaeologist Basem Gehad and his team have

returned for their ninth season.

BASEM: When I was a child,

in our house, there was a small library.

There was a lot of books about different things

from Ancient Egypt.

I got fascinated by this.

But then when you get adult,

you start to think about searching for

information and clues.

NARRATOR: Basem is investigating mummification

during the period at the end of Egyptian civilization

that started with the reign of Ptolemy the First.

The Ptolemaic dynasty was Greek.

Unlike native Egyptians,

Greek Egyptians did not believe their bodies had to be

preserved to ensure eternal life.

Many experts think that as a result,

the quality of mummification declined in

the Ptolemaic period.

Last season, Basem found several mummies in a

Ptolemaic tomb here.

One in particular was unusually well-preserved.

BASEM: This site is unbelievable for me.

I can see here at the end of the room there is

one complete mummy.

NARRATOR: Basem's discovery suggests that mummification had

not declined and that the Greeks still practiced the

Ancient Egyptian art to a very high standard.

Ancient Egyptians believed body and soul separated at death.

They could reunite to live on in the afterlife only if the

corpse was well preserved.

So priests removed internal organs and dried them and the

body with a salt, natron, to prevent decay.

After 40 days,

they wrapped the body in resin soaked linen to

keep moisture away and bind everything together.

They also wrapped up the organs and stored them in canopic jars

to be recovered in the afterlife,

but left the heart in the body for the soul to return to.

Basem is on the hunt for more mummies to help him prove the

Greek Egyptians didn't radically change this process.

BASEM: We have different types of tombs and graves here in Philadelphia,

but we are excavating one, two and three or four.

And perhaps most of these graves are intact, hopefully.

We hope that we could be lucky this season.

NARRATOR: But first Basem wants to examine the unusually

well-preserved Ptolemaic mummy he discovered last year.

NARRATOR: To find out if it was mummified in the traditional

Ancient Egyptian way.

BASEM: From the general appearance, for us, it looks quite

amazing in the style of the wrapping.

NARRATOR: The best way for Basem to understand how it was

mummified is to X-ray it.

BASEM: We want to check whether or not the mummification and

embalming process was still practiced in the same manner.

NARRATOR: Basem and his team wait anxiously to find out

the results of the X-ray.

NARRATOR: In Cairo, mummification expert

Salima Ikram is at the Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

She is investigating the finest and most famous

mummies ever found.

The Royal Mummies.

Many of the mightiest pharaohs of the past,

including Ramses the Great, Hatshepsut,

and the great Queen Ahmose-Nefetari,

all rest here in high tech, climate controlled cases to

protect them for posterity.

When these mummies were unwrapped,

archaeologists discovered that they were so well-preserved,

some still had their real hair.

SALIMA: It's such a pleasure to be here.

I love being with the royal mummies.

It's like being with old friends.

We've been together for so long.

And of course, these are kings.

And how often do you really get to hang out with a king?

NARRATOR: Salima wants to understand how these great

kings and queens have remained so well preserved for

thousands of years.

SALIMA: The best preserved Egyptian mummies are those of

new kingdom royalty.

NARRATOR: Egypt's New Kingdom,

the era of Tutankhamun,

stretched for nearly 500 years from 1539 to 1075 BCE.

One mummy in particular stands out:

Seti the First.

SALIMA: This is one of the most beautiful mummies ever made.

He looks as if he's sleeping.

I keep thinking he's going to open his mouth and

say something to me.

NARRATOR: Seti was the father of Ramses the Great and

one of the most influential rulers of the New Kingdom.

He died over 3,300 years ago.

SALIMA: He's really the most elegant, elegant man.

His skin is perfectly preserved.

He doesn't look all sunken and wizened,

and his nose also stands proud.

The embalmers went to great trouble and effort to give him

this wonderfully living appearance.

NARRATOR: When scientists scanned the body of Seti,

they discovered exactly how they achieved

this lifelike look.

Analysis of the skin revealed that embalmers painted his face

and body with a plant based resin.

They also packed bits of resin soaked linen under the skin of his face,

making it symmetrical.

They stuffed his eye sockets and the back of his

skull and neck.

Seti's post mortem cosmetic treatment prepared him

perfectly for his expected afterlife.

SALIMA: The idea, of course, for the Ancient Egyptians was

to have the body look as lifelike as possible so that

the spirit could go into it and animate it in the hereafter.

NARRATOR: Seti is miraculously preserved.

But his survival and the survival of many other royal

mummies is even more miraculous.

SALIMA: There are many challenges to mummies survivals

such as insects, changes in temperature,

the flooding of tombs and, worst of all, tomb robbers.

NARRATOR: Robbers looted almost all Ancient Egyptian tombs.

And mummies, particularly royal ones, were prime targets.

SALIMA: No sooner had someone been buried that shortly

thereafter someone would come and rob the tomb.

People would rip apart mummies to try and get to the gold that

was hidden within and they would even burn coffins and the

mummies inside because all that would be left would be the gold.

NARRATOR: Yet Seti's mummy survived,

preserved and intact for over 3,000 years.

Now Salima wants to investigate how it avoided environmental

decay and destruction by tomb robbers.

At Deir El-Bahari on the west bank of the Nile,

near the temple of Hatshepsut, archaeologist Fathi Yaseen is

exploring a sprawling tomb complex filled with thousands

of hidden underground chambers.

It was begun in Egypt's New Kingdom and constantly

used in later times.

Its scale suggests it was built for somebody important,

perhaps a high official.

NARRATOR: Last season, Fathi uncovered several huge new chambers.

NARRATOR: But nothing remained of the tomb's original owner.

This year, he's on the hunt for the tomb owner's mummy.

Fathi wants to find out who was in this unexplored tomb when

they were buried here.

And what their mummy might reveal about changes in

Egyptian belief and the art of mummification.

NARRATOR: Fathi has worked as an archaeologist here for 30 years.

His love for Ancient Egypt started when he was just

a young boy.

NARRATOR: The dusty, dry environment makes it

perfect for finding well-preserved mummies.

Great for a mummy hunter like Fathi.

His team has already excavated a huge area buried beneath the

accumulated compacted sand and deep into the bedrock.

NARRATOR: They have opened a new chamber,

but it's filled with tons of debris and fragments of bone.

NARRATOR: It will need to be cleared before Fathi can

uncover what is hidden beneath.

NARRATOR: The team begins to dig.

Straight away, they find something extraordinary buried

beneath the debris.

FATHI: Oh, wow.

NARRATOR: In the necropolis of the ancient city of Philadelphia,

Basem and his team are examining the results

of the X-ray scan of the Ptolemaic mummy he discovered.

BASEM: The mummy is for an adult male more than 50 years,

55 years.

There is a broken part on the back side of the skull.

Most probably the brain was taken out from this hole.

The stomach and all the internal organs were removed

through a surgical operation.

Hands lay down in a crossed way over the chest,

touching the two shoulders in an Egyptian way.

NARRATOR: High quality mummies from this period are rare.

The X-ray scans provide new evidence to support Basem's

hunch that during the Ptolemaic period,

the Greeks in Philadelphia were more skilled at mummifying

their dead than first thought.

BASEM: This is a quite amazing example of the mummification

process during the Ptolemaic period.

It is quite complicated and very well made.

NARRATOR: Old Kingdom priests in the third millennium BCE,

dried the body with salt and wrapped it in linen

to prevent decay.

But the mummy's face would shrivel.

Later in the Middle Kingdom,

a mask was placed on the mummy;

painted to look like the deceased,

so the soul might recognize its body.

In the first millennium BCE after the New Kingdom,

mummification was even more sophisticated.

The priests inserted linen under the skin and added false

eyes to make the dead look more lifelike.

But in the Ptolemaic period, the mummy's appearance was less

important than an elaborately decorated coffin.

Now Basem wants to see if his amazing Ptolemaic mummy was

just a one off or whether this level of sophisticated

mummification was more common in Ptolemaic Egypt

than experts believed.

His team has been working hard,

excavating the vast Ptolemaic graveyard here.

They have discovered a layer of mud bricks,

usually a sign there is a coffin underneath.

BASEM: We might find in this grave wooden coffin that

one of the people who were living during

the Ptolemaic period were buried inside.

NARRATOR: Working alongside Basem is Mahmoud Ibrahim.

He's managed to remove a couple of the mud bricks.

NARRATOR: It is a wooden coffin.

It's an incredible find.

But they still need to get past the protective layer of

mud bricks that are covering it.

BASEM: The situation is crucial because part of the roof of the

mud bricks were already collapsing.

So it broke one side of the coffin,

which means that we have to do it very carefully and

slowly in order to get the coffin out in good state

without damaging it.

NARRATOR: They have to work with great caution.

One wrong move could further damage the 2,000 year old

coffin and harm any mummy hidden inside.

BASEM: There is a lot of risk in dealing with such a

fragile wooden coffin.

It's made of the very thin plates of wood.

It needs a proper excavation methodology to clean

up the grave.

NARRATOR: The team meticulously and carefully remove

the layer of mud bricks.

Basem waits anxiously for a report.

Finally, Mahmoud can get a good look at the coffin.

NARRATOR: At Deir El-Bahari on the west bank of the Nile,

Fathi and his team are excavating a tomb,

searching for the mummy it may contain and any evidence of

when it was buried.

They have found some pottery.

NARRATOR: It's a good sign there may be a mummy here,

but they will have to clear the sand carefully to make sure

that they remove the jar without any damage.

NARRATOR: Ancient Egyptians believed they could take

funerary offerings like this into an afterlife.

NARRATOR: The jar is great evidence that the mummy Fathi

is looking for could be close,

but there is still a lot more rubble to get through.

NARRATOR: Bones and linen are further indications that

there might be a mummy.

And there's more.

NARRATOR: Fathi bags the wood,

linen and bones separately so they can be

taken for closer examination.

NARRATOR: It looks like the face of a mummy.

NARRATOR: In the Valley of the Kings,

Salima is investigating how Seti's mummy escaped natural

hazards and tomb robbers for over 3,000 years.

SALIMA: This is the most sacred and secret spot

of Ancient Egypt because this is where the kings of Egypt in

the New Kingdom came to be buried.

The hope was that the kings would come and rest here for

all of eternity.

NARRATOR: Seti, an important king and father of

Ramses the Great

has one of the biggest and most ornate tombs

in the Valley.

SALIMA: This is such a beautiful tomb.

The painting and the quality of carving are

absolutely exquisite.

It's really the most glorious tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

NARRATOR: The tomb's ten chambers extend deep

into the bedrock.

SALIMA: You can see that we are getting this crescendo of

scenes and texts that tell us that we are approaching

the place where Seti was buried.

And this is Seti's burial chamber.

This is where the King's sarcophagus would have been

and his coffin.

He was supposed to rest here for all of eternity.

NARRATOR: Seti built himself a beautiful tomb and chose the

perfect place for his mummy.

SALIMA: Seti really had a spectacular burial.

And what was extra good was because it was so deep,

the temperature remained constant and this was excellent

for the preservation of Seti's Mummy.

NARRATOR: Seti died in 1279 BCE.

A long and peaceful incarceration here would

explain his mummy's survival.

But when 3,000 years later, an Italian archaeologist

discovered the tomb, he was in for a shock.

SALIMA: When Belzoni entered the tomb in 1817

and came into the burial chamber,

he found that Seti's sarcophagus had been

broken open and the mummy had vanished.

So the alabaster coffin would have been right here,

just in front of me.

But when Belzoni found it,

it clearly shows in the picture that it was empty.

NARRATOR: Salima wants to follow the trail

of Seti's mummy.

Incredibly, archaeologists discovered it wasn't just

Seti's mummy that was missing from his tomb.

Many of the pharaohs buried in the Valley of the Kings

were also missing.

In the ancient necropolis of Philadelphia,

Basem and his team are excavating a grave,

removing mud bricks that have been weighing heavily

on the wooden coffin they've just discovered.

BASEM: We are all excited because you can't just find an

intact grave every day.

So for us, this is a day to celebrate.

NARRATOR: They are making progress and beginning

to see what's inside.

Basem hopes this discovery can prove that the Greeks here

still practiced the Ancient Egyptian art of mummification

to a very high standard.

BASEM: Now we are standing on a wooden coffin,

which is one of the most important things that you could

find here in the Ptolemaic cemetery.

NARRATOR: But the mud bricks have caused some damage.

BASEM: The heavy weight of the mud bricks

collapsed on the roof,

and then the roof of the coffin took a deformed shape.

NARRATOR: Mahmoud needs to determine if it's safe

to begin the nerve wracking task of lifting it.

MAHMOUD: We will see if we need to remove the other row

of the mud brick blocks.

If the coffin will be okay to lift up.

NARRATOR: But the delicate operation is threatened by a

sudden change in the weather.

BASEM: It seems that it might rain and if it rains,

the situation become alarming because of the state of

preservation of the wood.

The priority is to lift up this coffin as fast as possible,

and then we move it to the study room.

NARRATOR: A heavy downpour at this critical moment

could be catastrophic for keeping this coffin intact.

NARRATOR: Everyone on site must act quickly.

They don't have ropes, so they have to improvise.

Cautiously, they wrap their scarves tightly

around the coffin.

BASEM: So excited.

It's unbelievable, we did it.

It was so difficult, so sensitive.

NARRATOR: But the hard work isn't over.

The team still has to get the coffin to the tent before they

can open it and find out if it contains a mummy.

NARRATOR: At Deir El-Bahari,

in a tomb near the Temple of Hatshepsut,

Fathi is carefully uncovering a mummy he's

found in the rubble.

NARRATOR: It's an incredible find for Fathi.

If the rest of the mummy is intact,

he might be able to determine who this person was and

when they died.

The mummy might also reveal changes in Egyptian belief and

the process of mummification.

But first, Fathi and his team must carefully free the mummy

and any artifacts nearby from the ancient grave.

Slowly the intact torso of the mummy emerges.

And next to the mummy, a key discovery.

FATHI: Ah.

NARRATOR: It's small and broken,

but Fathi can immediately recognize its importance.

NARRATOR: The canopic jar is a crucial piece of evidence.

Their use changed throughout Ancient Egypt,

depending on the traditions of the time.

In the Old Kingdom,

Egyptians used plain canopic jars to store the

mummies internal organs, ready for the afterlife.

In the Middle Kingdom,

they wrote protective spells on the jars and

carved the lids to look like the deceased.

In the New Kingdom,

the lids featured the heads of a human,

a jackal, a baboon and a falcon.

Each represented one of the sons of the god Horus.

In later periods, embalmers placed the mummified organs

back inside the mummy, but left empty canopic jars in the tomb

as part of the burial ritual.

Fathi will need to find more pieces of the canopic jar to

help him determine its state.

But it's good evidence that this mummy had

its organs removed,

a sign of a high status burial.

Fathi works his way down the mummy's body

towards the chest.

NARRATOR: It's a rare find.

And if Fathi can determine a date of burial,

it could signify an important change in the mummification

process and Ancient Egyptian beliefs.

Expertly working down the torso,

Fathi discovers the mummy is male.

It has an individually wrapped penis.

And he also discovers the legs below the knees are missing.

It's likely they were damaged and discarded by tomb robbers

as they moved the body searching for treasure.

NARRATOR: Near Luxor, in the Valley of the Kings,

Salima is investigating how Seti's mummy survived for

over 3,000 years.

Clues left in the tombs here, long after Seti's death might

explain the mysterious disappearance of his mummy

from his tomb.

SALIMA: Many of the royal tombs have graffiti that

tell us that a scribe called Butehamun and some few others,

went around and were collecting the bodies of the

Kings of Egypt.

NARRATOR: Around 200 years after Seti died,

Egypt suffered an economic crisis that led to civil unrest.

For 50 years, tomb looting surged.

Robbers desecrated mummies and stole their hidden valuables.

In response, pharaohs ordered officials such as Butehamun to

remove treasures from the royal tombs and keep them

for the state.

But it was crucial they kept the royal body safe, too.

They moved the mummies and hid them in a more secure

and secret location for these ancient rulers to

rest in eternity.

SALIMA: We know that this was a state sponsored project and

on one level it was basically legalized theft,

but on another,

it was also a way of keeping the dead kings of Egypt,

the gods of Egypt,

safe and secure in a secret hidden place.

NARRATOR: The ancient graffiti does not say which

royal mummies were moved and where they went.

Salima wants to track down their secret location

to find out if Seti's mummy was there.

And if it can explain its remarkable survival from

environmental decay and tomb robbers.

NARRATOR: At Deir El-Bahari,

Fathi is excavating the area around the mummy

he has just discovered,

looking for clues that could help him date the period

of this man's burial.

NARRATOR: It is a fragment of a stylized portrait of the deceased,

its color beautifully preserved for thousands of years.

It would have been painted on the lid of the coffin in the

hope that the man's soul would recognize it and find

his body in the afterlife.

It gives Fathi a tantalizing glimpse of the face of

the man buried here.

NARRATOR: This stylized portrait suggests the mummy

could date to the late period of Egyptian history just before

the arrival of the Greeks.

Fathi now needs to move the mummy so he can study

it in greater detail.

It is extremely delicate.

Fathi hopes to X-ray the mummy next.

That will reveal whether its organs and brain were removed

and tell him more about how mummification developed in the

course of Ancient Egyptian history.

But already it's a remarkable find.

A high status, late period male.

NARRATOR: Another discovery to add to Fathi's record of

incredible mummy finds.

In Deir El-Bahari, Salima is on a mission to find the hidden

resting place of the royal mummies moved from the

Valley of the Kings.

She hopes it might reveal the fate of Seti's mummy and

how it escaped the tomb raiders for over 3,000 years.

SALIMA: Hatshepsut's temple of Deir El-Bahari is over there

and beyond that is the Valley of the Kings.

But I'm not going there. I'm going up there.

NARRATOR: Hidden halfway up a cliff is a concealed entrance

to a huge underground shaft.

SALIMA: It's really fabulous to actually be here and to be able

to go down this incredibly long, deep shaft.

NARRATOR: But Salima is taking no chances.

The shaft is almost 70 feet deep.

A fall from this height could be fatal.

SALIMA: It's really such a wide thing.

They did a lot of cutting.

Must have taken a couple of months to dig this

deeply and empty it out.

Pretty amazing to have carved all of this.

Wow. It's fantastic. It's really amazing.

NARRATOR: At the base of the shaft,

a long tunnel stretches deep into the bedrock.

SALIMA: It certainly is narrower than the shaft coming down.

And you can feel it getting warmer as you go in.

Gosh.

And now the roof's gone down and it's much warmer and very dark.

NARRATOR: The sides of the shaft are lined with niches

in the rock.

SALIMA: Wow.

NARRATOR: These small hollows were the final resting places

for dozens of mummies, including some of the most

famous kings and queens of Egypt.

SALIMA: It's amazing to think that this is where Egypt's

greatest pharaohs used to rest.

It's unbelievable that so many bodies would have been put into

the space and their coffins.

NARRATOR: Salima explores further to see if this deep

underground tomb could lead her to the spot where

Seti was hidden.

SALIMA: Oh wow.

NARRATOR: In the ancient necropolis of Philadelphia.

Basem and his team get the newly discovered coffin

into the examination tent.

BASEM: It seems that it is not the local wood that

is found in Egypt.

This is expensive imported wood,

which gave us the impression that this was

someone who was elite.

NARRATOR: He searches for more clues.

BASEM Which indicates the Hellenistic influence,

or maybe a Greek person.

NARRATOR: Basem is hoping that the body will be

mummified in the Egyptian way.

To prove his hunch that Greek Egyptians in the Ptolemaic period

still practiced the ancient art of mummification to

a very high standard.

BASEM: This is the moment that we were waiting for.

NARRATOR: It's an incredible mummy, unseen for 2,000 years.

BASEM: I can see here something unique inside the coffin.

A floral crown over the head here.

This is basil that you can find on the bank of the river

or the canals.

Greek word Basilicas photon or the Royal Plant which

indicate that it was important plant during the

Ptolemaic and Roman period.

NARRATOR: It's further confirmation that the mummy

dates from Ptolemaic Egypt.

The team gets to work recording the details of their find.

They need to X-ray the mummy to determine the level of

mummification it had.

BASEM: If removing of internal organs took place within this

embalming process as we can see it...

Which means that this was a high quality mummification.

NARRATOR: The mummy is extremely fragile.

They will have to do the X-ray while it's still inside the coffin.

Basem examines the scans.

BASEM: This guy survived for more than 60 years in a period

that the range of life is between the 30's and the 40's.

We can see he's very well-preserved.

He could have a good, expensive kind of food.

And then also, we can't see any kind of bone inflammation,

which means that he was not doing hard work.

NARRATOR: The forensic detail gives Basem an

incredible insight into this 2,000 year old man.

BASEM: So for this case, we have someone who lived a very

wealthy and good life and also a good after life treatment

with this wealthy coffin.

So we are talking about elite person.

NARRATOR: A wealthy man like this could afford

the best mummification.

Basem looks for evidence his organs were removed

and stored separately.

BASEM: We can see the internal organs were not fully removed.

NARRATOR: The discovery that the mummifiers did not remove

the organs intensifies the mystery of mummification in

this period for Basem.

But every new find is precious to him.

He will continue to examine this mummy and

reveal all its secrets.

BASEM: All in all, the whole information helps us in writing

new history of the mummification process in Egypt.

NARRATOR: And he'll continue searching for evidence that the

art of mummification was still alive and well in the Ptolemaic

period at the end of Egyptian civilization.

Deep in a cave in Deir El-Bahari,

above Hatshepsut's Temple,

Salima is on a mission to find the secret resting place

of Seti the First and other royal mummies

moved from their tombs.

She hopes to reveal how Seti survived in such good condition

and avoided tomb raiders for over 3,000 years.

SALIMA: This is where Seti was laid to rest for so long and

stayed here for almost 3,000 years.

NARRATOR: A hidden location near the tomb entrance kept

Seti safe from harm until his discovery just over

140 years ago.

SALIMA: It's really quite remarkable to be in

the same space.

NARRATOR: In the late 19th century,

archaeologists discovered this tomb and followed it

180 feet into the mountain.

In the burial chamber they found six coffins and over 40 coffins,

some from the New Kingdom, lined the corridors.

Amongst them, some of Egypt's most famous pharaohs,

including the coffin of Seti the First.

An inscription on the front describes the mummy's move

from his tomb in the Valley of the Kings

to this secret spot.

Inside, his beautifully preserved body.

SALIMA: It says that he was moved twice,

to the tomb of Amenhotep the Second,

and then to the tomb of a royal woman.

And then finally to this place here.

NARRATOR: The royal officials who moved Seti chose

this location well.

It's deep, cool and dry, preserving his mummy.

And it's secret, keeping it safe from tomb robbers.

SALIMA: It certainly is hidden and very secret.

So no wonder it was thought to be a safe place to keep

the New Kingdom pharaohs safe for eternity.

It certainly worked because it preserved them

beautifully as it did.

NARRATOR: Seti's mummy and the entire cache of

royal mummies have survived in pristine condition for over 3,000 years,

thanks to the skill of those who first embalmed them and

those who hacked deep into the bedrock to build a tomb to

preserve and keep them safe.

They are the embodiment of the most beguiling

civilization of antiquity.

Today, archaeologists continue to hunt for more mummies,

to help them solve the many remaining mysteries of

Ancient Egypt's fascinating way of life, and death.

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