[Josh Gates] This place is unreal.
What was the Kingdom of Kush?
[man] A civilization that lived here
for almost 3,000 years.
We don't understand, I would say, most of it.
[Josh] Kush goes from being
under the thumb of the Egyptians
to ruling this entire region.
What's in the third chamber?
So, it should be the king.
[Josh] It's completely flooded.
We decided to dive it. You interested?
[Josh] This is, like, the most dangerous diving that you could do.
[over radio] I'm making my way through.
All the dangers of going into an unstable, crumbling ruin.
Look at this place! Are you kidding me?
I'm nervous.
That's not true. I'm scared.
Dive team, it's topside, you only got five minutes left.
[Josh over radio] I think I can see the slab.
What is that?
Wait, what is this?
Okay, pop quiz.
Name a country that was once ruled by pharaohs,
has a capital on the Nile,
and is home to more pyramids than any other.
Well, if you said Egypt,
then you are absolutely wrong.
The answer is their southern neighbor,
modern-day Sudan.
which was once home to the Kingdom of Kush.
A mysterious civilization so powerful
that it once conquered the ancient Egyptians.
For centuries,
the pyramids and cities of the Kushites
were buried beneath the sands of the Sahara.
Once they were rediscovered in the early 20th century,
archeologists unearthed glittering treasures
that rivaled those of King Tut.
But they wrongly attributed the Kushites' accomplishments
to the neighboring Egyptians.
And before history could be corrected,
many of those early finds
were swallowed up by the elements.
Now, a new generation of scientists
is attempting to learn
the real history of the Kingdom of Kush.
At a holy site deep in the desert,
explorers are unlocking the secrets
of what made Kush so powerful.
And at an ancient burial ground,
a daring archeologist is attempting something
that many would call 'insane'.
Beneath the crumbling ruins of a Kushite pyramid,
he's planning to dive
into the pitch-black flooded tomb of a king,
seeking the remains of his long-lost mummy.
And I've been invited to join him.
This is, by far,
the most dangerous expedition
I've ever considered.
But also the most exciting.
A chance to perhaps discover
a Kush king in his pyramid,
something that has never been documented before.
So, join me on a quest
to a real-world Wakanda,
and the greatest empire
that you maybe have never heard of.
It's time to hunt for the treasures
and the truth
behind the Kingdom of Kush.
[theme song playing]
[Josh] My name is Josh Gates.
Hello!
Explorer...
Here goes nothing.
...adventurer...
[whooping]
Oh, it's a long way down.
...and a guy who ends up
in some very strange situations.
[screaming]
I'm alive! For now.
With a degree in archaeology
and a passion for the unexplained,
I travel to the ends of the Earth,
investigating the greatest legends in History.
Let's rock and roll.
This is Expedition Unknown.
[all chanting]
[Josh] I begin my investigation
into the ancient and mysterious
Kingdom of Kush,
in the capital of modern Sudan,
Khartoum.
To us in the West,
the name has an almost mythic quality,
like some fabled African city
or maybe something out of The Arabian Nights.
But in reality,
this place is not an ancient treasure.
In fact, relatively speaking,
Khartoum is, well, kind of new.
Established only 200 years ago,
this is a bustling town.
The beating heart of a country, which,
after years of fierce fighting
and political upheaval
seemed to be changing for the better.
[crowd clamoring]
[Josh] Hopes were high when a brutal civil war
that devastated the country ended in 2011.
And in just the last few years,
Sudan has had a revolution,
tossed out an Islamic dictator,
and is no longer designated
a US State Sponsor of Terrorism.
So, that's a good thing.
But sadly,
Sudan has once again
been rocked by violence
as rival military factions
battle for control.
The fighting began only weeks
after my crew and I left the country.
What you're seeing
are some of the last quiet moments
Khartoum would have for some time.
But while modern Sudan
tries to build a peaceful future,
I'm here to delve into its past.
Right here, smack-dab in the middle of Khartoum
is one of the world's great geologic features.
On my left is the White Nile,
which has been flowing north all the way from East Africa.
On my right, the Blue Nile,
which flows here from Lake Tana in Ethiopia.
And this is the spot where they meet.
It's called "the confluence."
And together, they form... the Nile!
It's considered the longest river in the world.
And it's the life-giving force
that made ancient Egypt's success possible.
But they weren't the river's only beneficiary.
Directly south of modern Egypt,
Sudan and South Sudan
occupy over a million square miles,
and take up nearly 10% of the African continent.
Thousands of years ago,
this was the land referred to as Nubia.
A vast area that gave rise to the Kushites,
who flourished between here and Egypt's southern border.
The earliest references to people in this region
are found in Egyptian hieroglyphs,
thousands of years old,
where they are portrayed as warriors...
and wrestlers.
Khartoum Stadium.
Within its walls, a crowd has gathered
to watch an ancient art.
Part fight, part ritual,
part dance.
And full contact.
[cheering]
[Josh] Weekly matches here draw huge crowds.
Including my new friend, Biggy.
This is very old as tradition, yes?
[Biggy] Yes, and it goes back to the ancient Nubian kingdom.
[Josh] All the way back?
And has it changed much?
Yes, I mean, back in the day, they used to, uh...
the used to wrestle naked.
-Fully naked? -Fully naked.
[Josh] Okay.
[crowd exclaiming]
[Biggy] Do you wanna wrestle?
-Do I wanna wrestle? -Yes.
You look like a big guy.
I am a big guy.
[Biggy] I know a few people that can...
[Josh] Oh, you can get me in the ring?
Yeah, unfortunately, I only wrestle naked.
-[Biggy laughs] -I'm a traditionalist.
-Oh, okay. -It would be against...
it would be against my ways.
I like to do it the old way.
-I like that. -Thank you.
Thank you.
[crowd cheering]
[Josh] The matches end
in the light of the setting sun.
This modern tradition echoes the modern Kushites,
who were clearly proud warriors.
But how did they take on
a force as formidable as ancient Egypt?
I grab some shut-eye while I can.
Because tomorrow,
I'm embarking on a major expedition
to find out.
Good morning.
It is dawn here in Khartoum
and we are getting ready to load out.
We've got a fleet of 4X4s
and the equipment truck.
And we are gonna be heading deep into the desert
to go back in time
to the ancient kingdom of Kush.
All right, boys, how we doing?
Doing good, about five minutes out.
[Josh] We're about to embark on a drive
through Saharan Africa's most unforgiving terrain
to the once massive city known as Kerma.
Okay, let's roll.
I pull out ahead of the convoy
and out of Khartoum.
Well, out there is the Nubian Desert.
Part of the larger Sahara
that stretches nearly four million square miles
from western Africa all the way to the Red Sea.
It is vast, it is beautiful.
And it is not the place that you wanna run out of gas.
I have three-quarters of a tank, though, so...
we should be fine.
Probably.
Most likely.
It takes about eight hours
to traverse nearly 400 miles of desert,
to the mysterious place
where the Kingdom of Kush got its start.
I arrive at Kerma.
At first glance,
the landscape looks empty.
But from above,
a complicated pattern comes into view.
Joining me to explain what all of this once was
is archeologist and former director
of Sudan's Department of Antiquities,
Abdelrahman Ali.
[Abdelrahman] Josh, welcome to Kerma.
The first great city of the Kingdom of Kush.
When is all of this built?
2500 B.C.
[Josh] Wow, so this is... this is an old city.
Yeah, that that time, it was the largest city in Africa.
This was the largest city on the continent?
-Yes, of course. -Wow!
[Josh] In every direction,
a blueprint to the past.
The ghostly foundations of hundreds of structures.
Five thousand years ago,
this was an advanced society.
This is like when they're building
the pyramids in Egypt, yeah?
[Abdelrahman] Yes, at that time,
they are building the Great Pyramids in Egypt.
And in Sudan, they are building this.
[Josh] Whoa.
[Abdelrahman] At the time,
it was the largest structure
in the sub-Saharan Africa.
[Josh] Wow, incredible.
This mud brick temple,
known as the Deffufa,
stands 65 feet tall
and was once honeycombed with an intricate network
of chambers and corridors.
Wow.
I'd like to say, this building is so impressive.
Yeah, it is so impressive
that the famous American archaeologist,
George Reisner,
came here in the 19th century.
He was convinced
that it was built by the Egyptians.
[Josh] Harvard-trained American archaeologist George Reisner
is considered the father of Sudanese archaeology.
From 1916 to 1923,
Reisner was the first to unearth
almost every significant location
in Kushite history.
His legacy, however,
is more than a little complicated.
For one thing,
he robbed the country blind,
shipping all of the best finds out of Sudan
to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.
And also, he got a lot wrong.
Reisner thought this is so sophisticated,
this temple is so huge,
it could not have been built by the people of Kush.
Yeah, yes, of course.
Because he came with the colonial perception
of the early archaeologists.
This is obviously a really successful, powerful civilization.
So, what's making Kush so wealthy?
Mineral resources.
When you said "mineral resources," what did you mean?
I mean the gold.
-Gold. -Yes.
'Cause most of the Egyptian gold
came from Kush.
[Josh] This is incredible,
because when we think of ancient Egypt,
we think of gold.
We think about, you know,
these glittering death masks.
But you're telling me
most of that's not Egyptian?
Most of the gold of ancient Egypt
came from Kush.
[Josh] And if there's one thing we know
about resources like gold
is that many people want them.
Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush
view each other as both trading partner
and military rival.
The relationship officially turns toxic
in 1500 B.C.,
when the New Kingdom Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose I
invades Kush territory.
The result?
Mighty Kerma
is burnt to the ground.
[flames crackling]
[distant screams]
You know, once the Egyptians have a foothold here,
how long do they stay?
The Egyptians stay for about 500 years.
Ho...! They really stay.
With Kerma razed,
Egypt controls the Kingdom of Kush
and all its resources.
The Kushites become completely Egyptianized,
adopting their neighbor's religion and traditions.
But after five centuries,
something unexpected happens.
The Egyptians,
dealing with political turmoil at home, withdraw.
So, what ends up happening?
After the Egyptians withdraw,
the Kush kingdom rebuilt itself
and became a superpower.
[Josh] It is a remarkable turn of the historical tide.
The once subjugated Kushites
even the score
and successfully invade Egypt.
But instead of exacting revenge,
five successive Kush kings
rule as the pharaohs of the 25th dynasty,
bringing about a renaissance
in classic Egyptian arts and architecture,
and rejuvenating Egyptian culture.
To find out how they pulled it off,
I need to leave Kerma
and drive to the second center of Kush power.
A place known as Nuri.
The road from Kerma to Nuri will take us further south,
following the course of the Nile.
And deeper into the lands of Kush.
The trip takes me southeast
into an even emptier expanse of the Sahara,
if that's even possible.
Finally, from behind the dunes,
I see it.
Not a mirage,
but almost as unbelievable.
Whoa.
[Josh] This majestic city is Nuri.
The great necropolis
of the mysterious Kingdom of Kush.
Here, in the sands of modern Sudan,
rows of grand pyramids
loom over a desolate landscape.
To learn the secrets of the Kushites,
one archaeologist has been making headlines
with his daring,
first-of-its-kind investigation
underneath one of these pyramids.
And I'm getting unprecedented access to his site.
Which is why I'm so excited
to meet Pearce Paul Creasman.
-I'm guessing you're Pearce Paul. -Josh.
[Josh] You're gonna have to give me a minute,
'cause I actually am kind of in a state of shock.
Yeah.
This is just a mind-blowing collection
of ancient structures.
It's awe-inspiring to be here at Nuri.
So, here we're at the home of about two dozen kings
of the second Kingdom of Kush.
I think if you blindfolded a lot of people
and showed them this, they'd say,
-"Oh, it must be in Egypt." -Yes.
So, little known fact,
there are more pyramids in Sudan than Egypt.
How many pyramids in Sudan total?
Hundreds.
At this site alone,
there were probably 80.
-Yeah. -80 pyramids in one site?
For comparison,
in all of ancient Egypt,
we know of only 118 pyramids.
So, in this respect,
the Kush beat the Egyptians again.
Among the pyramids of Nuri is this one.
The first pyramid built at this site.
Big pyramid over there.
So, the big pyramid, the largest pyramid in Sudan,
this is the pyramid of Taharqa.
[Josh] King Taharqa is the most celebrated
of the five Kushite kings
who ruled over Egypt.
He reigns over a time of great prosperity
and controls as much territory, if not more,
than of any Egyptian pharaoh ever.
He even gets a shout-out in the Old Testament.
Taharqa is a major player
in the story of Kush.
Why does he choose to build a pyramid here?
We have no idea.
-[laughing] Okay. -And that's part of why we're here.
We're trying to start addressing
some of these questions,
because they're really important
-to understanding the people. -Right.
I mean, they used this place
for centuries.
[Josh] After Taharqa,
and clearly because of his stature,
nearly 20 future kings
will erect their pyramids here as well.
And what are the biggest mysteries
about the Kingdom of Kush?
We don't understand, I would say, most of it.
Wow.
It's in part because of where it is.
It's in a part of the world
that has been less accessible,
to Western scholars, at least,
for a very, very long time.
[Josh] Yeah.
Like at Kerma,
George Reisner was the first Western archaeologist
to explore Nuri.
And again, he underestimated the Kushites.
As he excavated his way through the necropolis,
Reisner credited these pyramids
to the Egyptians.
Were there any of these pyramids
he didn't get into?
Well, they didn't get into
more than a dozen parts of these pyramids,
and including one entirely.
Wow. Right.
And so, we know that at this site,
for a variety of reasons,
no one's worked at it for 100 years.
Right!
For us, intellectually,
that's a goldmine.
Yeah!
It might also be an actual goldmine.
Since several chambers of these pyramids
have never been entered,
it's anyone's guess what's inside.
So, easy-peasy, right?
You just walk into the pyramids
and, uh, get a whole bunch of knowledge.
Um... I wish it was that easy.
-It's not? -No, it's not.
[Josh] To see exactly how not easy it is,
Pearce Paul brings me over to the tomb
that he's targeted for exploration.
[Josh exclaims]
Pretty amazing, isn't it?
It's pretty intimidating.
Welcome to the pyramid
and tomb of the King Nastasen.
[Josh] Nastasen was the king of Kush
from roughly 335 B.C. to 310 B.C.
During his reign, he was celebrated
for having repelled another invasion from Egypt.
And when he died,
he became the final Kushite king
to be buried at Nuri.
So, from the first king,
-Taharqa... -Mmm-hmm.
...to the last, Nastasen.
Yes.
I can't help but notice
some very murky-looking water there.
I'm guessing that wasn't here 2,300 years ago.
[Pearce Paul] It wasn't.
So, in the Ancient Era, when they built this,
they would have walked down,
their feet would have been dry,
they'd have gone into a door,
and then it would have led to the first chamber.
Had another doorway to a second chamber,
and another doorway to a third chamber.
And the third chamber's where you bury the king.
When Reisner got here to excavate,
what were the conditions of these three chambers?
So, 100 years ago, he showed up,
and there were bricks in front of the front door.
It was in pretty good shape.
And then, he gets in,
excavates the first chamber.
And then sees that the second chamber
is totally and utterly collapsed.
The second chamber's collapsed?
There were thousands of pounds of bedrock just crushed down.
You can't tell that there is a second chamber in there.
[Josh] Reisner was understandably wary
about trying to clear the rubble.
While excavating in another pyramid
here at Nuri,
a collapse on the outer staircase
took the lives of five of his crew.
So, the fallen ceiling protected Nastasen's tomb,
in a third chamber, from Reisner,
leaving it entirely intact.
This is a big deal.
Because no mummy of a king of Kush
has ever been confirmed
to be recovered from his own tomb.
And Nastasen could still be in that pyramid,
along with untold treasures and gold.
In the past century, though,
ground water from the Nile,
only a mile away,
has steadily risen,
And now, all three chambers of the pyramid
are completely flooded.
I see a lot of people back there with hoses.
and equipment.
So, tell me what you've been doing here since then.
Okay, so, we decided to dive in.
-What's wrong with you? -Lots of things.
I'm so afraid to ask this question.
What's the visibility in that water?
Zero.
-Nothing? -Nothing.
The instant you go inside,
you stir up thousands of years of dust and sediment.
You're literally in the dark,
like, blindfolded dark down there.
On the list of reasons why diving the tomb
is a bad idea,
the dark is only the beginning.
There is also the very real possibility
of being trapped underwater in a stone room
that could collapse at any moment.
And if you're thinking it would be safer
to just pump the water out of the tomb,
think again.
The water in there is the only thing
keeping the walls standing.
But there is one very good reason
for Pearce Paul to risk his life.
What's in the third chamber?
So, theoretically, it should be the king.
In the middle of the room, there is a giant slab.
Like, a pancake-flat piece of rock.
So, it's worked stone.
It is worked stone, there is no question of it.
[Josh] A slab like this could be one of two things.
Either a burial platform
for Nastasen's body to be laid out upon,
or the lid of a sarcophagus,
inside of which he would be sealed.
But here's the rub.
In this time period,
kings were known to have been entombed
using both methods.
So, our first order of business
is to try to learn the purpose of the slab.
And, if it turns out to be a coffin lid,
we have a chance at finding Nastasen himself.
What would it mean
to find any piece of this guy?
Intellectually, this would be really powerful.
One of the big issues we run into
is that there are very few of these kings
who are known from anywhere else
outside of this region.
Right.
Nastasen is.
He's referenced in a couple of other places.
For us, he is an historical anchor.
If we can start with him,
and start getting pieces of him,
for example, to do DNA studies,
we can start to rebuild some of these major pieces
from the history here.
Okay.
Well, I wish you the best of luck.
You interested?
Huh.
This is no joke.
I mean, if you don't have hesitations,
you can't come.
Look, believe me,
I would love to see what's in there.
You think that's possible?
I think it's possible.
-You bring a suit? -Always.
I have a weird job, you never know.
Come meet the team.
Let's do it.
[Josh] One does not simply dive
into the sunken pyramid of Nastasen.
To learn how I'm going to survive
one of the most lethal environments on Earth,
Pearce Paul brings me to meet
his ace technical team.
Justin Schneider, Fred Fidler, and David Dunn.
-What's going on, guys? -Hey, there.
I see a lot of hoses, but no scuba tanks.
We don't like tanks inside the tomb.
If you bang that big steel or aluminum tank
against the walls,
those walls are fragile,
and it could possibly cause a collapse.
So, we like to use the hookah system.
Right, so, hookah system, we're talking, like,
-surface-supplied air. -Correct.
And that air's being pushed down how?
[Fred] On the power generator over here,
that's enough to supply air
for all four of us at a time.
Okay, so, if this goes down,
what's the contingency?
What's the back-up?
We have a compressed air canister
that's basically a mini scuba tank
with a built-on regulator on the top
that you can breathe from.
Got it. Whew.
-You ready? -No, but...
-Are you gonna do it anyway? -Yeah.
Then, let's get to it.
Let's get to it, come on.
Now that I know how
we're going to pull of the dive,
I gear up,
and have to convince myself
to actually do it.
[producer] How you feeling?
Huh.
Uh, I am stressed, dude.
I mean, this is...
this is, like, the most dangerous diving
that you could do, I think.
I mean, it's all the dangers of cave diving
with all the dangers
of going into an unstable, crumbling ruin.
With no visibility. In the dark.
I don't have a scuba tank.
All the air's coming from the surface.
All those lines can get tangled and caught, so...
I'm nervous.
That's not true. I'm scared.
That's more accurate.
If I was gonna think of an excuse
to get out of this gig,
that time has passed.
[Josh] This is it.
We're about to dive into a flooded pyramid tomb with one mission,
to meet the Kush king Nastasen.
Okay, this just got real.
-So, take your last good look at daylight for a while. -[Josh] Yeah.
[Josh] In the deserts of Sudan,
I'm about to dive into a sunken, partially collapsed pyramid tomb
from the ancient Kushite kingdom.
We're going in today to examine the burial slab of the king Nastasen
and determine if it's a solid platform
or the lid of a royal sarcophagus.
I'm trying to steady my nerves
as I prepare for the single most dangerous dive of my career.
Okay, tell me how this is gonna work.
I'm assuming at the end of this passage here there's some sort of entrance.
So, you get all the way down here,
get down the wall, drop down on to your knees,
and you get down onto your arms
because you're gonna have to army crawl
-through the chute. -The chute.
[Josh] To enter the tomb,
we must descend down
the now crumbling and flooded staircase,
and then pass through the chute,
a 2ft by 3ft metal sleeve
designed to keep the front door from collapsing while we're inside.
Then, it's into the first chamber of the tomb,
a larger offering room that's easy to get lost in.
To prevent that, the team has placed a guide wire
to be our lifeline to the second chamber
which has completely collapsed.
Once at the threshold, one needs to let go of the guideline
and swim forward to find a cinderblock placed by the team,
which leads up to a barely breathable air pocket
in which to regroup.
Back at the bottom of the second chamber,
another section of guideline leads over
to the submerged door to chamber three, the tomb of Nastasen.
In the center is an immense slab of stone
that is either Nastasen's burial platform
or the lid of his sarcophagus.
Three room that have had as many visitors as the surface of the moon,
and each has the potential to be a deathtrap.
Any uh, any words of wisdom for a first timer here?
-Don't let go of the line and don't freak out. -Yep, don't panic.
Let's go dive a tomb.
[divers breathing]
So, Pearce, you're going in first.
[Pearce] I'm going.
On the way.
Okay.
[Josh] So, as soon as I get in here,
my first observation is the visibility is just gone.
I can see a shade of light but that's about it.
[Pearce] Yeah, you can probably see your fingers
once they get about six inches from your mask...
-...but not much more than that. -[Josh] Yeah.
Dive team, this is topside. Out, copy.
[Josh] This is Josh. I read you loud and clear, topside.
Pearce, out, copy.
[Pearce] I'm fine, I hear you.
Outstanding. All comms good.
[Josh] Okay, we're headed in.
[Josh] I'm inches beneath the surface,
but already the silt in the water
has rendered direction meaningless.
My only guide is Pearce Paul's voice.
[Pearce] All right, I'm entering the chute.
[Josh] I am working to the chute.
-[Josh] Stand by. -[Pearce] All right.
[Josh] Ah, I'm in the chute now.
It is tight. I can feel the sides and the ceiling above me.
I'm just slowly pulling myself through.
[Josh] I edge my way forward. I couldn't change my mind now if I wanted to.
It's too narrow in here to turn around.
[Josh] Wow, this is intense.
Uh, okay, here we go. Calm breath.
[Josh] A few more feet and I feel the tube open up.
[Josh] I'm in the interior opening of chamber one.
-[Pearce] Yeah. -[Josh] I can feel sand in front of me
at the end of the chute.
[Josh] As an experiment,
I decide to turn off the light on the side of my helmet.
[Josh] Oh, [bleep] it is pitch black.
[Josh] At this point, I kick my light back on
but I also close my eyes,
relying on my fingers to explore the open water in front of me
which is its own form of terrifying.
[Pearce] Find the nylon cable.
[Josh] I'm sweeping up to find the cave line.
Hold on. Trying to find it.
[Josh] Miss this line while entering chamber one,
and your chance of finding chamber two,
or your way back out, are not great.
[Josh] I have it in my hand.
I feel it, I feel the cave guide, yeah.
[Pearce] All right, head on in.
This chamber is about 15, 20ft long.
[Josh] I can reach my arms out on either side of the line,
but I'm not feeling anything and nothing above.
It's just a big void. It's like I'm floating in space.
[Josh] This large chamber was once used to house offerings,
and I'm trying desperately to avoid becoming one of them.
[Josh] This room just goes and goes.
[Pearce] How you doing? You still on the line?
[Josh] Still on the line, but believe me, I'm not letting go of it,
and I'm making my way through.
[Pearce] Make sure to give yourself a little slack...
-pull your air hose in. -[Josh] Yep.
[Josh] Ah, yes, my air supply.
If the hose gets pulled too tight
it can get yanked from my mask.
[Josh] So, topside,
I can feel a little bit of tension on my air supply here.
I'll need a little slack.
[David on radio] Wait a minute,
we'll try to get you some more slack.
[Josh] Thank you, sir.
[Josh] Okay, so this is chamber two
-I think I'm passing into. -[Pearce] Yep.
[Josh] I cross the threshold into the second chamber.
[Josh] My hand just reached sand here.
The guideline is going into the sand it feels like.
[Pearce] Yep, so go another body length in.
You'll feel the majorly different temperature to the water.
[Josh] Got it.
[Josh] Now, the leap of faith.
I release the cable and push forward to touch a block in the sand
that will mark the entrance to the air pocket above.
[Josh] Reaching forward.
I'm not feeling anything yet. It's just sand and silt.
There, wait, there's something. I got it.
Okay, I'm feeling the cinderblock underneath me here.
-[Pearce] Once you hit that cinderblock... -[Josh] Yeah.
...you'll find a little hill.
That hill is the collapse of the second chamber.
-[Josh] And I'm gonna make my way uphill -[Pearce] Yep.
-into the air pocket. -[Pearce] Excellent...
-...and I'll meet you in our cathedral here. -[Josh] Okay.
[Josh] Coming up.
-[Pearce] All right. -[Josh] Now surfacing.
[Pearce chuckles]
-[Josh] Oh, my word. -[chuckles]
Look at this place.
-[Josh chuckling] Oh, my word. -[Pearce chuckles]
[Josh] Look at this place. Are you kidding me?
[Pearce] It's pretty intense, right?
Welcome to the collapsed second chamber of Nastasen's tomb.
[Josh] Inside the flooded pyramid tomb of the Kush king Nastasen
is a precious pocket of air,
which archaeologist Pearce Paul Creasman and I are visiting,
on our way to excavate Nastasen's burial chamber.
-Is the air breathable in here? -Yes.
Okay. Just taking this mask off.
[gasps]
Oh, my word.
This is absolutely unbelievable. This is insane.
First of all, this room shouldn't be here, right?
[Pearce] This is not a room, this is an accident.
We are standing in an air pocket that should not exist.
-So I'm standing on... -Rubble.
-Yes.
-And directly above us? -Pyramid.
-[Josh] We're under it? -Yes.
Okay. Now, it doesn't look overly brittle.
[Pearce] Um, looks can be deceiving.
-Okay, it's totally brittle. -[laughs]
-[bleep] -[chuckles]
Now, it's this third chamber where this slab is.
-That's where from here? -Yeah, so third chamber's that way.
So, we have to answer one big question first.
Is this slab actually sitting on top of some space?
Is this a lid, or is it just a big block in the middle of a room?
-So, it could be either. -If it is hollow
then there's a chance that some part of him might still be here.
Well, anything in there that can tell us who he was,
about the world he lived in, his family,
that's, I mean, that's adding that knowledge that we need.
-Shall we go deeper? -I think we should.
-Let's do it. -Are you ready?
-I'm ready. I... -Are you sure?
-No, but I've come this far and I'm gonna keep going. -[chuckles] All right.
[Josh] The tomb of Nastasen awaits.
Now, it's time to inspect the stone structure in the chamber
and see if he's still here.
[Josh on radio] All right, topside, we're heading down
and we are going into chamber three.
Roger, y'all are heading into chamber three.
-You ready? -Pearce Paul, I'm right behind you.
[Josh] I plunge back into darkness
and find the guideline to follow Pearce Paul down another 6ft.
[Josh] Okay, I'm making my way toward chamber three.
[Pearce] When the cable runs out
fix your hands to the left and the right,
and you can touch the edges of the doorway.
Just touch them delicately.
[Josh] Why's that?
[Pearce] The walls in this tomb
are not firm and as secure as one would hope.
[Josh] Got it. Careful what you grab onto down here.
-I've reached the end of the line. -[Pearce] All right...
[Pearce] ...so come towards the light.
-[Josh] Maybe use a different expression. -[Pearce laughs]
[Josh] Okay, I'm coming towards you.
[Josh] In moments, I'm laying inside the doorway to the tomb of King Nastasen.
[Josh] I think I can see the slab.
[Josh] But this view of it will be our last.
[Josh] Ah, that silt just kicks up as soon as we come in.
God, I can't see anything now. Can't see my hand in front of my face.
[Pearce] What I want you to do is I want you to come around this corner where I am.
-[Josh] Over to the clockwise around it, yeah? -[Pearce] Yeah...
-...clockwise around it. -[Josh] Okay.
[Pearce] Let me get your left hand and put it down here
on the bottom left corner of this slab.
[Josh] Oh, my gosh.
It just feels smooth as can be.
[Josh] But as we run our hands over the slab,
Pearce Paul notices something has changed
since his last visit to the tomb.
[Pearce] Hold on a second. Give me your hand and feel this.
[Josh] Is this a crack?
[Pearce] I just don't understand.
[Josh] It's not just a crack.
It feels like the corner itself isn't here.
So is it a part of this cave-in
-that cracked the top of this slab? -[Pearce] That's...
[Pearce] That's really what it feels like.
[Josh] This is disconcerting.
Sometime recently, a piece of the ceiling likely collapsed onto the slab
with enough force to crack a large section of it off.
On the other hand, we now have an unforeseen opportunity.
[Josh] Is it possible for you to get your hands
-under that slab in that cracked area? -[Pearce] Let me try.
[Pearce] Josh, give me your hand.
Put your hand under here and feel this.
[Josh] Hold on.
-Okay, I'm at the corner of the crack. -[Pearce] Yeah.
[Josh] Oh, my, this goes down. You can go inside of it.
This is 100% hollow. This is not just a platform on the floor.
There is open space under this.
[Josh] Stop the presses.
This slab is not a burial platform at all.
It is the lid of a sarcophagus that has remained unopened for thousands of years,
until now.
The downside?
Well, at any moment,
this entire tomb is in danger of collapse.
We decide to resurface in the air pocket of chamber two
to plan our next steps.
So, that thing's definitely hollow in there.
This is huge. We now know that the slab is the top of a container of some kind.
Yes, you can get your arm in there a ways so it's definitely materials.
So, what's the move now?
So now, we need to actually get some of it out of here.
[Josh] Having reached into what appears to be a sarcophagus,
Pearce Paul doesn't want to waste any time.
Excited at the possibilities, he intends to begin excavating immediately.
Fred just went in the water and he's got an empty bucket in hand.
[Josh] The topside team sends down plastic buckets
which Pearce Paul will fill by hand with silt from inside the sarcophagus.
-So, I'm gonna fill a bucket. -And how are those buckets
getting from here out to daylight?
-This is why we need you in the tomb. -[chuckles]
-We're doing a daisy chain? -We're doing a daisy chain.
[Josh] We're running an old fashioned bucket brigade.
You know, just like when you were a kid
in your sunken pyramid back home.
[Pearce] Well, now I'm in the third chamber.
[Josh] Okay, I'm on the line. I am in the doorway.
[Josh] Pearce Paul fills a bucket with silt from the third chamber,
then passes it to me at the threshold of the second chamber.
[Josh] I'm holding on to the bucket.
-[Pearce] Take it away. -[Josh] Oh, this is heavy.
[Josh] I ferry it across chamber two to team member Justin,
who carries it to Fred at the entrance to the first chamber.
Then Fred brings the bucket out through the chute...
...where it's handed off and rushed to a sifting tent nearby.
There, a team of researchers runs the silt through a screen
to see what archaeological treasures might be inside.
-[Pearce] So, there's another bucket. -[Josh] I have it.
-[Pearce] Take away. -[Josh] Okay.
[Josh] And then, we do it all over again for hours,
intense work in the dark
with no idea if we're finding anything.
Well, actually, that's not quite true.
-[Pearce] Ohh. -[Josh] Find something?
[Pearce] Give me your hand.
[Josh] I'm holding... is that pottery?
[Pearce] That is most of a pot.
[Josh] Wow, a 2,500-year-old piece of pottery. That's amazing.
-[Pearce] So, I'm gonna put this in the bucket. -[Josh] Okay.
[Josh] All right, making my way back to him now.
Okay, been handed off.
Special bucket.
[Josh] The bucket with the pottery heads to the tent,
when we get a reminder that the generator pumping our air
has a finite amount of fuel.
Dive team, this is topside. You only got five minutes left.
-[Pearce] All right. -[Josh] Copy that.
[Josh] Turning around. Heading back out the chambers.
Okay, I'm at the end of the line.
-I'm getting into the chute. -[Pearce] All right.
[Pearce] Just nudge your way forward.
[Josh] Okay, I'm coming out of the chute.
We got bubbles.
Whoo!
All right, Pearce Paul should be right behind me.
[Pearce] I'm in the chute now.
All divers out, all divers out.
-Dude, unbelievable. -Nice!
unbelievable, unbelievable, That was insane.
Man, seriously, that was crazy, what an experience
-to be inside a pyramid. Underwater. -Yeah.
Rinse and repeat a couple 100 times, you got an excavation.
Let's go see our reward on the other end.
Yeah, let's see what we got in those buckets.
Whoo, that was crazy!
Pearce Paul and I immediately head to the sifting tent
to see what, if anything, we pulled up in all those buckets.
Okay. Hello, hello.
-[archeologist 1] Hello! -So, this is everything I couldn't see down there.
-This is what you could not see. -Okay.
So, let's see what... what it all adds up to.
Look what we got coming out here.
-[Josh] Right away, gold, look at that. And here. -[archologist 1] Here.
-That's gold. -May I?
Are you kidding me? That's astounding. Look at that.
-[archeologist 1] Oh, oh! -[Josh] May I?
So what you can see here, it's all wrapped over itself.
[Josh] That's astounding. Look at that.
My first dive into the flooded Tomb of King Nastasen
revealed a crack sarcophagus lid that could lead to the first remains
of a Kush king ever found in his own tomb.
But as we learned in the dig sifting tent,
It also revealed gold.
This may be commonplace for you, but just the fact that we've gotten
into this tomb once,
and we're coming out and there's there's gold in this tomb... I just...
And it shines as gold does just like it did 1000s of years ago.
At one time, this thin gold foil likely covered everything in these chambers,
pottery, offerings, even the huge slab in the tomb.
In fact, the entire room may have been literally covered in gold, pounds of it
that will be recovered one flake at a time.
I'll be very carefully bringing this back to you.
Look what we got coming out here.
[Josh]I felt you hand this to me and I was like, What is this?
Incredible.
This kind of thing makes Tracy's day.
-It does. This is my version of gold. -[Josh] Yes.
Yes, this is more than 2000-year-old pottery from Nastasen's Tomb,
it likely held an offering that Nastasen would have used in his afterlife.
Making it literally fit for a king.
And just to think that's been sitting down there in complete darkness...
-[Pearce] Yeah. -for 1000s of years.
-Beautiful. -Absolutely.
This is the part of archaeology you don't see, the real work the hard,
meticulous, slow work.
The sifting team will spend hours working through the buckets
from our first dive.
But the most important takeaway from today is the confirmation that
the large stone slab inside the tomb is a sarcophagus lid.
To help figure out how we're going to attack this new development
and see if we can maybe even move the slab,
I need to actually see the chamber.
So my first dive into Nastasen's tomb was thrilling,
it was terrifying. And frankly, it was confusing.
That's because, with no visibility, my mental picture
of this place is jumbled.
It's less of an architectural blueprint and more Picasso.
So to fix that, I'm gonna seek out a tomb that has a similar layout.
And to find one, we're traveling about 250 miles south
to a place known as Meroe, which was the third and final
of the great cities of Kush.
Near the entrance to the city, I meet the site's lead archaeologist Mahmoud Bashir.
Mahmoud, hello!
-I'm Josh, nice to meet you. -[indistinct] Nice to meet you.
-Welcome to Meroe. -Thank you very much.
Where is Meroe? I see a lot of dunes.
It's such a big site... kinds of mountains.
-We drive? -No...
-Another way? -Yeah.
-Okay, -Let's show you.
Another way?
[grunting]
Camels, why did it have to be camels?
Longtime viewers of Expedition Unknown will remember
how little I enjoy the company of camels.
In fairness, he hasn't bit, spit or thrown me yet.
Yet. [whispers] I'm watching you.
Our caravan crossed an empty expansive desert,
but then I noticed something ahead on the horizon.
-Josh, this is Meroe. -Incredible
[dramatic music playing]
Meroe is pure, uncut pharmaceutical grade. Wow.
I savor the ride through one of the most stunning sights I have ever beheld.
It is the biggest collection of pyramids in the world.
[Josh] Oh!
[Mahmoud] Okay, Josh. We are here.
[Josh] This place is unreal. You know. it's like a fantasy.
You've got pyramids trapped in the dunes.
And, like, no tourists anywhere.
Yes, you will feel very alone here.
But this place should be crawling with visitors
because this is as impressive as the Pyramids of Giza.
[Mahmoud] Yes, or more.
[Josh] You're right. We're not completely alone.
-Who are these guys? -Those are my team.
-Uh-huh. -They are reopening one of the pyramids.
Oh, wow.
The tomb being reopened is that of the Kush King ArHalamani,
who ruled 100 years or so after Nastasen.
-Can we have a look? -Yes.
[Josh] This tomb shares a common layout with Nastasen's,
which means what I learned here should help me navigate my next dive
beneath the pyramid.
So, we will be underwater here.
At Nuri, this door is not this big
So, we swim through a very small opening right here.
So, we come through the chute, we come into chamber one.
It's huge. In Nastasen's tomb, this room is completely flooded.
And there's a guide wire, a cave wire that goes all the way to the door...
-into chamber two, -Mm-hmm.
and when you hold on to that line, and you reach out,
you don't feel anything.
-You let go of this cave line, you're just lost in this room. -[Mahmoud] Yeah.
This gives me a real spatial awareness of that room.
Yes, here we don't need it because we're thankfully not underwater.
I follow an imaginary guide wire into the second chamber.
One notable improvement over its Nuri counterpart,
we're not standing on the ceiling.
Several posts have been constructed to keep it over our heads
where it belongs.
Without the benefit of structural supports like these,
-Nastasen's second chamber collapsed, -Mm-hmm.
which is kind of interesting considering how many support poles we see here.
-Exactly. -You were worried about the same thing.
-Exactly. This way. -Yeah.
[Josh] But then, Mahmoud brings me back into the pyramids third chamber
and the tomb of ArHalamani.
-[Mahmoud] Welcome to chamber three. -[Josh] Wow.
This is beautiful. And look at this.
So we have this incredibly ornate platform here.
-That's the king. -This is our King who's there here...
-This is our king, yes. -I don't know if this makes sense, but this room looks...
like chamber three feels over at Nuri, if that makes sense.
Yeah.
So in this type of a burial, the body will be placed on the bench.
On the bench, yes.
One of the things that's really interesting is that this is effectively
a solid piece.
This design feels very much like what's in the third chamber in Nastasen's burial.
But we've determined there that in fact, it's two pieces.
It's a lid sitting on top of some sort of container,
but see how big this is in person,
I don't think there's gonna be any way we can move this thing.
-Yeah. -There is a crack in it, so we may have
to just go under it. This is so helpful.
This really is like X-ray vision.
-Should we get out of here before chamber two collapses? -[laughs]
Seriously though, let's go
The next morning, I hop into my four by four for the journey back to Nuri.
Now that I have a clear mental picture of the sunken tomb,
I'm ready to dive back in.
At the site I find Pearce Paul already preparing for today's mission.
[Pearce] How do you want this setting, breathable or not?
-[Josh] Breathable. -Okay, breathable. Breathable.
Yeah, exactly. Just working on that, it's good.
[horns honking]
What's with the convoy?
That's the Ambassador.
-That what? -The US Ambassador to Sudan.
-Wait, what? -Yeah.
You ever wondered what it would be like if every item on Amazon
was available in one physical place?
May I recommend an African market?
If you can't find it here, odds are, you don't need it.
What do we use this for?
This is for cigarettes.
Oh, this is an ashtray, right. Beautiful. I am trying to scale back on smoking.
Is this what happens when you dye easter eggs?
Are they feeding them Skittles?
These are real. These are made out of real chickens.
-[chirping] -Taste the rainbow.
[Josh] I'm preparing to make my second dive under the burial pyramid
of the Kush King Nastasen.
And it turns out archaeologists Pearce Paul Creaseman has invited
a special guest to the dig today.
-That's the ambassador. -Wait, what?
The United States Ambassador to the Republic of Sudan, John T. Godfrey.
-Morning. How are you? -Good morning.
Mr. Godfrey is a hardcore Foreign Service vet who has been stationed
in Libya, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and now, Sudan.
He also happens to be the State Department's Actin Coordinator
of counterterrorism.
Accompanying the ambassador is his regional security officer Ryan Renuart.
Well, this place is full of surprises. I was not expecting to meet
a US Ambassador today. What do you do out this way?
I'm here to check in on a $500,000 grant for Community Engagement
conservation and it is designed to help support efforts to preserve culture
and history in places around the world. And here in Sudan, we're particularly focused
on trying to help efforts to preserve remnants of the Kush civilization,
-Yeah. -which you all are here working on as well.
And so we're really delighted to have a chance to come and spend
a little bit of time with you here today. Thank you.
Yeah, and I should... I should warn you that I've learned firsthand,
but that Pearce Paul will put you to work if you stay too long.
-So if you've been given fair warning. -[laughs]
We're happy to serve.
-Ambassador after you. -Thank you.
Something I never thought I'd say.
Security Officer Ryan is an experienced diver.
So he'll be joining us in the tomb.
The ambassador, ever the public servant is eager to help as well,
gamely volunteering to haul heavy waterlogged buckets up to the sifting tent.
Our mission on day two is simple, excavating Nastasen's burial chamber,
collect samples from his sarcophagus and hopefully find some remains of a king.
-[man] All right, done, so, we ready? -Ready as we gonna be.
Good hunting down there.
[Josh] Now that I've been to Meroe, my mental picture of the tomb
is strong enough for me to orient myself.
Still in zero visibility, it's hard to stay that way,
[Ryan] I feel metal, so this is the edge of the chute.
I feel like I'm in the chute now,
making my way through.
Dive team, this is Nate, how's the water?
[Pearce] Murky, zero visibility, but it's a nice day at the beach.
[Ryan] Pretty much blackout in here.
[Josh] Okay, I am into the first chamber, looking for the guide wire now.
Okay, going through, making my way to the second chamber
I carefully enter the collapsed second chamber of Nastasen's tomb.
Somewhere ahead of me is a partially submerged block marking the area
I'll need to swim to reach the safety of an air pocket.
To find it, I'm going to have to release the guide cable and take that leap of faith.
Okay, I'm letting go.
Moving forward.
I'm not feeling that block this time.
That block is gone.
I'm gonna turn around and try to reacquire the line.
I'm off the line, I don't know where I am near chamber two.
All right Josh, did you repeat that you're off the line?
[Josh] I lost the line in chamber two.
It should be in front of me but I can't feel it.
Josh is off the line, repeat.
[Josh] I can't get my bearings.
Okay, just don't panic. Start looking for the line. You got to find a line.
What do you mean he's off the line?
He doesn't have any kind of tactile reference, so he has no idea where he is...
[Josh] I can't see a [bleep] thing.
Guys, I need some help here.
Get ready for adventure because Expedition Unknown is back.
And this season, we're not just investigating the world's greatest mysteries...
This is an endless cave.
...we're solving them.
-Dude, unbelievable. -Wow!
From a treacherous hunt for a pirate that ends in treasure...
Right there, that's a coin. That's a beauty.
...to a historic quest across the Holy Land,
that unearths a biblical bombshell.
This is the first time the world has seen this in 1400 years.
We're diving deep to find sunken relics from World War Two.
This is an airplane, amazing!
And braving the wilderness...
Ooh. [bleep]
-Back up, back up, back up. -...where a long lost temple will be found.
[exclaims] We have an inscription!
And inside a collapsing pyramid, a headline-making find...
Wait, what is this?
It's all part of an all-new season of Expedition Unknown.