[man] 4,200 years ago, it was a beautiful pyramid.
[josh gates] this was a pyramid?
-[man] can you imagine? -[josh] not really.
These officials, they're not just getting more power.
-They're rewriting the playbook. -Josh, it's a revolution.
How many shafts have you found here, total?
More than 20.
-[josh] just in this one sit -[man] yeah.
[josh] so he discovered the mummy of merenre?
Maybe.
I'm ready.
-Okay. Yes. -[josh] you ready?
Everybody there ready?
We're all seeing this for the first time. Let's do this.
[chuckling] look at this.
This is outrageous.
And a huge sarcophagus!
Oh, this is crazy.
-Something there? Is that wood right there? -[man] yes, yes.
I think that is a coffin.
I will show you something
That you will never, ever gonna forget,
For the rest of your life.
[josh] are you kidding me?
Oh, my god!
It goes back!
It's a tomb!
Ancient egypt's old kingdom, the age of pyramids.
More than 4,000 years ago,
This was the apex of civilization,
As pharaohs acting as gods on earth
Commissioned works of engineering, art and architecture
That still dazzle us today.
But after centuries as the center of the world,
In about 2150 bce,
The old kingdom came to a catastrophic end,
Falling into bloody chaos.
The question is...
Why?
Groundbreaking new discoveri
Suggest that the secrets of the old kingdom,
The story of its rise and fall,
Are buried in an ancient necropolis called saqqara...
...A vast graveyard with ornate tombs,
Tombs that could hold precious artifacts
And priceless clues.
The country's leading archaeologists are excavating there right now,
And they've just discovered a massive new burial shaft
That may have belonged to a powerful elite.
And I've been given unrestricted, exclusive access
To join their dig.
Nearby, a museum holds a controversial mummy
Discovered in a collapsed pyramid,
That could be an old kingdom pharaoh.
If so, he'd be the only one ever found.
Now, using revolutionary scanning technology,
They plan to positively id the mummy
And solve the mystery once and for all.
This is a golden ticket,
An all-access pass
To unwrap the mysteries of ancient egypt,
And you're invited.
So, let's get digging for mummies and for mysteries.
Who knows what treasures lie just beneath the shifting sands?
My name is josh gates.
Hello!
Explorer, adventurer...
Amazing.
Oh!
...And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.
[bleep] whew! That was exciting.
With a degree in archaeolog
And a passion for the unexplained...
Yeah!
...I travel to the ends of the earth,
Investigating the greatest legends in history.
Yay, let's punch it.
This is expedition unkno.
When you think about egypt...
...This is probably what you picture.
The pyramids of giza,
And nearby, the enigmatic sphinx.
They have become the icons of one of the greatest civilizations in history.
They were built 4,500 years ago,
At the height of ancient egypt's old kingdom.
Let's get our bearings with a little time traveling
Can I get a graphic, please
Things kick off about 5,000 years ago,
When tribes in northern afri begin farming
Along the banks of the life-giving nile rive
Society takes root,
And with it, the worship of powerful gods...
Say hi to horus.
...And the emergence of godlike kings.
"worship these pharaohs, and you'll live forever."
And just like that, we're off to the races.
Civilization, baby!
3,000 years of it, divided into 3 main periods
The old, middle, and new kingdoms,
Each with their own powerful dynasties.
Whew! That's a lot of pharaohs.
Here in the old kingdom, things are pretty swell.
A lot of peace, a lot of prosperity,
And a major pyramid real estate boom.
The monuments of the old kingdom are symbols
Of pure political and religious power.
Built to honor pharaohs who were seen as gods on earth,
The great pyramid of khufu, here,
Took nearly 30 years to construct,
At the hands of untold thousands of workers.
It was the tallest manmade object on earth for more than 3,500 years.
Clearly, these pharaohs hav everything under control.
What could go wrong?
Well, it turns out, everything.
Around 2,200 bce,
The old kingdom rather suddenly collapses,
Leading to a dark, chaotic time known as...
Can I get a little reverb?
[echoing] ...The first intermediate period.
Thanks.
There's a bunch of rulers who don't last long,
Because everyone is fighting
And eventually, there is a total breakdown of centralized leadership.
Yeah, it's not good.
So, how does a civilization that built things like this,
One of the literal seven wonders of the world...
How did they descend into discord, chaos, and bloody civil war?
The answer, like all things in egypt, lies underground.
From the great pyramid of giza,
I travel 17 miles south of cairo
To a massive stretch of san known as saqqara.
Before giza, there was this,
Egypt's first pyramid, the step pyramid
Of the pharaoh djoser.
Its construction kicked off the old kingdom
And helped put the deserts of saqqara here on the map.
And after djoser stepped it up,
16 kings would build pyramids here.
But this isn't just a place for royalty.
A who's who of egyptians clamor to be buried
Near their divine pharaohs,
Turning saqqara into ancient egypt's great necropolis.
This cemetery offers archaeologists
The ability to investigate not just old kingdom pyramid
Built exclusively for pharaohs,
But also graves of the elite
Priests and high officials who worked under the pharaoh
It's their tombs that can hopefully unlock the story
Of why the old kingdom collapsed.
-The burials here became so jam-packed... -[car starting]
...They actually started piling up
Along the outer edge of the site.
Eventually, the cemetery expanded to the south,
And that's where a groundbreaking new excavation
Is currently underway.
That is, if I can find the road to get there.
Is this a road?
Hang on.
[chuckles]
Nice thing about this,
If you end up on the wrong road,
You just make a new one.
Whoo! Ha, ha!
I see people.
I see a workhouse.
We got a dig site.
I arrive amidst the buzz of activity,
And I'm greeted by dr. Mostafa waziri.
Dr. Waziri.
In the world of egyptology, he's a pharaoh.
As secretary general of the supreme council of antiquities,
Dr. Waziri oversees some of the most important archaeological work
On the planet.
I became friends with dr. Waziri
During a thrilling, live excavation of a mummy several years ago,
And now, he's invited me to this very off-limits dig site.
Do you know that you are the only foreigner
To come here, to my site?
Thank you for that.
That's incredible.
This is... Nobody's seen this yet?
No, no, no, no.
We just start working couple of months ago.
-This is a couple of months of work? -Yes, sir.
You work fast.
One of the reasons dr. Waziri and his team knew to dig in this area
Is that another egyptologis left them clues
When he came here nearly 150 years earlier.
-Of course, you know maspero. -[josh] maspero.
-Egyptologist. -Legendary egyptologist, yes.
French egyptologist gaston maspero
Was critical in shaping our understanding of egypt' enigmatic old kingdom.
He explored here in saqqara in the late 1800s,
On the very ground where we're now standing.
And he said that he found couple of tombs in this area.
-[josh] hmm. -But he didn't mention anything about it,
Except just the name "yaret," and that's it.
-"yaret." -[dr. Mostafa waziri] yeah.
-Yaret, yeah. -So that's the name of the gentleman's tomb.
Maspero's notes indicate that he found the tomb of a man named yaret,
A high-ranking egyptian official
Whose grave might shed ligh
On the mysteries of the old kingdom.
But the exact location of the burial was lost to history.
So, we decided...
...To find the tomb.
And then, suddenly,
While we were working,
We found shafts.
We found tombs.
We found, like this one, mastabas.
[josh] mastabas were flat-roofed houses for the dead
With a chapel for offerings inside,
And shafts leading to underground burial chambe
For the owner of the tomb and their family.
Today, the surface structure are long gone.
All that remains are the burial chambers hidden below ground.
How many shafts have you found here, total?
More than 20 shafts.
-20 burial shafts? -Yes, sir.
-Just in this one site? -Yep.
So the people buried here, they would have been elite people, nobles?
-You are absolutely right. -[man shouting]
-[man speaking arabic] -[dr. Waziri] eh?
[man speaking arabic]
[dr. Waziri] I don't know why he's calling me.
They find something?
[dr. Waziri] I believe so.
-Shall we go? -[josh] yeah.
Welcome to life at a dig sit
The team has found somethin in one of the pits,
And they want dr. Waziri to review it.
Good news.
Since we're his guests, we get to see it, too.
[dr. Waziri] come, come. Come, come, come.
-Watch out. -[josh] yeah, yeah, yeah.
A-ha!
Look at this. It's inscribed.
-[dr. Waziri] aiyah. -[josh] oh, come on.
[dr. Waziri] aiyah.
So this...
Of course, it's false door.
This is part of a false door. Right, so...
So in the tomb, there are sometimes a number of these,
What are called "false doors," that lead into the tomb.
When it came to tombs in ancient egypt,
The figurative was literal.
"false doors" were just that
A representation of a gatewa
Between this life and the afterlife
Where the soul could pass.
-[dr. Waziri] something, a bit weird. -[josh] okay.
[dr. Waziri] it should be facing east,
But this one is facing north.
Right, all of this is facing north.
It's little bit strange.
This is, this is awesome.
But there's much more to this site than the remain of a door in a shallow pit.
[dr. Waziri] I will show you something
That you will never, ever gonna forget
For the rest of your life.
What did you find?
I'll show you.
-[josh] come on. -Let's go. [groans]
[josh] the necropolis dig si has an immense footprint
Covering well over an acre of desert.
We cross over the excavatio
To a much larger hole in the ground.
-[dr. Waziri] a-ha, ha, ha. -Whoa!
-Huge burial shaft. -[dr. Waziri] look at this one.
[josh] oh, my word. Look at the architecture of this.
This is awesome.
This is the one that maspero was talking about.
This is it! This is the tomb of yaret.
[dr. Waziri] finally, we discovered a tomb.
[josh] here, on the ragged edge of the desert,
Waziri and his team have jus rediscovered the lost tomb
Of a powerful official from the old kingdom,
A tomb that may help explai how that kingdom came to fal
Nobody's seen this?
Nobody did see it.
No tv, no family, nothing!
No visitors.
Nobody?
Nobody.
-[josh] okay. -Ready to go there?
-I'm ready. You ready? -[dr. Waziri] okay. Yes.
Everybody there ready?
We're all seeing this for the first time. Let's do this.
World first. Here we go. Wow.
Into the darkness.
-Whoa, huge burial shaft. -Look at this one.
[josh] here in the necropoli of saqqara,
Newly-discovered tombs may help explain the rapid fall
Of egypt's old kingdom.
Now, dr. Mostafa waziri has given me and the world
Exclusive access to one such tomb,
First discovered by egyptologist gaston maspero.
Oh, my god.
Whoa!
This is unbelievable,
And we have people down here
-[josh chuckles] -[dr. Waziri] oh, yes, mohamed and mohammad.
[josh] for a dig this huge, dr. Waziri has brought mohamed to the mountain,
Two of them, in fact.
Renowned archaeologists dr. Mohamed el-saidy
And dr. Mohammad youssef.
This is off the charts.
Look at the colors of these paints!
[dr. Waziri] can you imagin that this is the color
Of almost 4,000 years old?
[josh] no, look at how bright it is.
This is the tomb of a man named yaret,
Who we know from inscription was a high official
Under one of the kings, or pharaohs,
Of the old kingdom.
What is the story?
The story is yaret, when he came here,
He decided to make a tomb even much better
And looks nicer than the king himself.
-Right. -Look at the ceiling.
It goes little bit down and down and down,
Exactly the same like...
[josh] ...Like the tunnel in a pyramid.
Like the tunnel of the pyramid.
-Right. -Exactly the same.
[josh] pyramids were reserved for the divine pharaohs
And featured tunnels which sloped down toward a burial chamber.
That seems to be copied here
And even the raw materials show strange features
That resemble the inside of a royal tomb.
Look at the limestone building.
-[josh] right. These are all slabs of limestone. -[dr. Waziri] well, yes.
-Look up here. -The ceiling.
-[dr. Waziri] yeah, look at this here. -[josh] it's pink.
[dr. Waziri] it gives you the feeling that you are looking at granite,
But in fact, it's not granite.
Oh, so this is all still limestone
-Made to look like granite? -Uh-huh.
[josh] wow.
Granite was often used to line the burial chambers of the pharaohs.
He had to paint it like granite.
Right. He wants to be like the pharaoh.
-[dr. Waziri] he wants to imitate the pharaoh. -[josh] yeah.
This bold decision to desig the tomb like a royal
Offers us a potential clue in our investigation
Into the fall of the old kingdom.
It seems that the upper classes at this ti
Are becoming more and more influential.
If we start looking at it here,
Look at the inscriptions everywhere here.
Those are very beautiful scenes.
Lots of, uh, ceremonial vessels.
[dr. Waziri] yes.
[josh] and food. This looks like thanksgiving dinner.
-Look at this. -[dr. Waziri laughs]
-He's got a big dinner here. -[laughs] oh, yes. Oh, yes.
[josh] so, this is all feasting and offerings and lots of food.
And then, what is this?
[dr. Mohamed el-saidy] facade of the palace.
[josh] a facade of the palac
And over here? More offering vessels?
[dr. Waziri] golden, golden necklaces, belts.
[josh] and now, the hieroglyphs. So, what is all this?
[dr. El-saidy] these are his title.
[speaking other language]
It mean, "the sole friend for the king in his palace."
"the sole friend of the king in his palace."
Okay, that sounds very important.
[dr. El-saidy speaking other language]
"the overseer of the work of the king."
"overseer of the work of the king," okay.
[dr. El-saidy speaking other language]
"the keeper of the king's secrets."
-"keeper of the king's secrets"? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
-Wow, okay. -It means that he was very trustful man, of course.
"in the place of his king."
-He can stand in for the king. He's that trustworthy. -Yes.
It's very bold, though, to say that you could stand in the place of the king.
-I mean... -[dr. El-saidy] mmm-hmm.
-[josh] it's big talk. -[dr. El-saidy] oh, yeah.
I mean, he would have to have been a very important person
-To be able to talk like that, right? -[dr. Waziri] right.
[josh] the king in yaret's time, roughly 2,800 bce,
Was the old kingdom's 6th dynasty pharaoh, merenre
These tombs sit in the shado of his ruined pyramid.
The fact that these burials are so near to the pyramid of a pharaoh, a god incarnat
Is evidence that we are excavating the graves of some powerful people,
And the decorations inside this tomb indicate that yaret, here,
Wanted to be seen as very powerful, indeed.
But there is one thing missing from this tomb
That might tell us more abou how it relates to the fall of the old kingdom.
Yaret himself.
So, he was buried down here.
-This is his burial chamber. -[dr. Waziri] it is.
[josh] when gaston maspero initially discovered this to over 100 years ago,
It had, like so many other tombs in egypt,
Been looted hundreds or thousands of years earlie
Did maspero find the body and the sarcophagus here, or we don't know?
He didn't mention anything about the body or his skeleton.
Now, do you think there are other tombs here like this?
[dr. Waziri] yes.
During this period, the nobles,
They became very strong.
So they made a lot of tombs.
I believe that we can find more tombs in this area,
And probably that we can find more objects inside the old tombs,
'cause this is the only tomb that it was mentioned by maspero.
-Right. -But the rest...
He didn't mention anything.
So, who knows what's here? Anything could be here.
Of course.
[josh] in fact, there's a burial shaft
That dr. Waziri's team is excavating
For the first time right now
And it's even closer to merenre's pyramid than yaret.
It's only a short walk across the dig site.
When we get there,
I find that the excavation is still very much a work in progress.
Okay, another big burial shaft, yeah?
Yes. [sighs]
Couple of days ago,
We started our excavations.
We found the top of this shaft.
This was all filled with sand?
-Yeah, of course. Debris, sand. -Right.
Then we found the collapse of this wall.
[josh] oh, look at this. It's all falling apart.
These walls, they look solid. But really, it's just this crumbly, mud-brick.
It's literally collapsing through to the next shaft.
So it's very risky to continue our digs down there.
If we keep digging,
This wall will collapse, for sure.
[josh] we're currently about 15 feet underground,
Surrounded by literally tons of sand.
The ancient mud-lined walls of these burial shafts
Can and do collapse on workers.
Okay, so what do we do?
[dr. Waziri] so, we have to support the wall,
And then, we're gonna continue our digs down there.
How much deeper do you think this goes?
At least 15, 16 feet.
-And what do you think is down there? -I believe...
...Down there, we're gonna find something very important.
And I'll tell you something.
Maspero, he did not mention anything about the shafts.
So you think there could be an elite burial down here, undisturbed?
For sure, I give you my word.
Well, let's fix the wall.
-[dr. Waziri] we'll do it. -Okay, come on.
-Okay, yeah. -Let's go.
We head top-side to make a plan.
Luckily, this is an egyptian dig,
Which means there is guaranteed to be an army of highly-skilled workers
Who can do, well, just about anything.
Step one, dig out the loose sand.
Step two, mortar goes down.
Step three, new bricks.
It would be easy to make the mistake
Of thinking of the workmen at these sites
As just manual labor,
But the fact is, they are the heart and soul
Of all excavations in egypt nothing happens without them
In fact these workers are some of the only people on earth who understand
The building techniques of ancient egypt.
They're able to expertly reproduce identical mud bric
To patch the walls in no tim
Last brick going in!
Meanwhile, I've been waiting six weeks to get a bid
On fixing a cracked tile in my bathroom at home.
I mean, these guys,
They're so good.
The day is getting late,
And the mortar will take time to set
Before it's safe enough to dig deeper.
While we wait, I'm going to continue my investigation
Into the mysteries of the old kingdom
By exploring the biggest tomb in the area,
The one that inspired all these other burials
To be put here in the first place.
This huge rise next to the dig site is no hill.
This was once a pyramid,
Tomb of the pharaoh, merenre
High up at the top of the ruins,
I meet renowned egyptologist dr. Mohamed megahed.
Dr. Megahed, I presume!
Josh gates!
-[josh] how are you, man? -Nice to see you.
-Dramatic spot. -[dr. Megahed] absolutely.
[josh] okay, so this was a pyramid?
-[dr. Megahed] can you imagine? -Not really.
-[dr. Megahed] yeah. -It looks more like a hill.
[dr. Megahed] but you have t imagine 4,200 years ago
It was a beautiful pyramid.
Originally, it was 170 feet tall,
Cased with beautiful, white limestone.
-[josh] so it would have been gleaming? -Exactly.
[josh] what happened?
I know, I feel like this pyramid
-A little bit. -Ah.
-So this was the pyramid of the pharaoh, merenre. -Merenre.
[josh] and this pyramid was rediscovered in modern times when?
1881.
-Maspero. -[dr. Megahed] when maspero was entering the pyramid,
In fact, every pyramid in saqqara.
And is this where he came in, this big slumped area?
-[dr. Megahed] yeah, from the north. -[josh] from the north?
Like yaret's tomb, which I saw earlier,
Merenre's pyramid was first explored
By the esteemed 19th-centur egyptologist, gaston maspero
What is important, what maspero found inside the pyramid.
The inside isn't collapsed?
It's still complete.
-[josh] really? -Yes.
-And what did he find? -A great mystery.
And is it open?
No one has been inside for 20 years.
Uh-huh.
You want?
-Can we? -Yes.
-Really? -You're here, I'm here.
-I knew I liked you. -[laughs]
-Come on, let's go. -[dr. Megahed] let's go.
[josh] we head to the collapsed edge of the pyramid.
There, the front door has been dug out from beneath the sands
And is being attended by a member of the saqqara archeological team.
-[josh] we have a door. [laughs] -[dr. Megahed] a wooden door.
[josh] I'm not sure which is more impressive,
That this has been closed for 20 years,
Or that the site's administrator hasn't lost the keys.
Now, we have another door.
[dr. Megahed] door behind a door.
[josh] and it has seals on it?
Here in egypt, when a tomb is closed,
The inspector of antiquitie puts his unique seal on the entrance.
It's a living chain of custody for the site.
This is a very special door
On this side, it's 2022,
But in there, it's 2800 bce
Let's do this.
Shall we?
-[dr. Megahed] let's go. -[josh] let's go.
[chuckling] look at this.
This is outrageous.
[josh] look at how perfectly cut this is.
This is outrageous.
In the desert necropolis of saqqara,
Dr. Mohamed megahed and I
Are the first people in decades
To explore the interior of the pyramid
Of one of the pharaohs of the old kingdom, merenre
Give me a little geography here.
Where are we? Other than inside a terrifying collapsed pyramid.
This is the second most important place in the pyramid after the burial chamber.
-Okay. -The blocking system of the pyramid.
-The block... Oh, these are doors? -Yes.
[josh] and that's why this is loose brick?
[dr. Megahed] they are lifted up, yes.
-[josh] this is holding this up? -Yes, and their solution.
And we're directly underneath it?
-[dr. Megahed] exactly, it's our history. -Why are we here?
-It's our history. -We could have been here, we could have been here.
The more I look at this, the more nerve-wracking it is.
There's, like, bits of wood holding it up,
And it's, like, this is the security system of the pyramid.
It is one of the security systems of the pyramid.
These huge granite slabs were positioned to fall
If the corridor was disturbe
Sealing off the pharaoh's to
And burying whoever was trying to enter.
They were already down when maspero entered the pyramid.
-So... -[josh] so maspero's team had to somehow
Lever these back up into the ceiling?
By hand,
They had no machines. They had to lift them up
To be able to enter the pyramid.
And in here, maspero's looking for something very important,
The so-called pyramid text.
[josh] pyramid texts are the oldest known
Religious writings of the ancient egyptians.
Funerary spells inscribed in the old kingdom
To help a spirit move from this world
To the world of the gods.
And until the 19th century, no one had ever seen any.
Maspero was opening all the pyramids in saqqara,
Searching for these pyramid texts.
[josh] because prior to opening all these pyramid
Nobody knew if these things existed, right?
Before maspero, nobody knew that the pyramid texts exist.
And did maspero find pyramid texts here?
I will show you inside.
-Into the darkness? -Into the darkness.
[josh] okay, come on.
We move deeper under the collapsed pyramid
Through the tiny corridor of almost certain death...
[whispering] unbelievable.
...Until it opens up to this
[laughs]
Unbelievable. Wow.
[dr. Megahed] hundreds of stars.
This is the sky of merenre.
[josh] look at this, hundreds of hand-painted stars
And text!
-[dr. Megahed] ah. -[josh] oh, so much text.
Absolutely beautiful.
Here, sprawling out across the upper walls of the tomb
Are the so-called pyramid texts.
So this is magic?
-[dr. Megahed] yes. -These are spells,
These are incantations, right?
Spells helping him to go to the afterlife
To join the gods, to be one of them actually.
The famous book of the dead from the new kingdom,
Here is where it starts.
[josh] unbelievable.
The inscriptions are a combination of offerin
And a kind of instruction manual
To help the spirit of the pharaoh
Move into their new eternal life.
So we've come to the end of this horizontal passage way.
So we are where now?
We are in the antechamber of merenre.
-I love that this is just the antechamber. -Yeah.
-And through here? -Burial chamber.
-Can we? -Yes, yes, sure.
[josh] oh, look at this, more stars.
Wow, and a huge sarcophagus
Look at this!
And again, we have these incredible inscriptions all over this.
This is the sarcophagus of merenre.
[dr. Megahed] this is the sarcophagus, and we know it
Because the name was inscribed on the shaft and the lid.
-Here, here, here. -[josh] over and over again.
-[dr. Megahed] yes. -[josh] so this is merenre.
-[dr. Megahed] yes. -[josh] and it is...
I'm scared to look. It is empty.
Well, it is empty today,
But when maspero was here, it was not empty.
Maspero found a mummy here.
Maspero found a mummy inside the sarcophagus here.
So he discovered the mummy of merenre.
Maybe.
Maybe? Why maybe?
Because there is still a great debate about the mummy.
What's the debate?
We don't know if it is the mummy of merenre or no
Because old pyramids' tombs were looted in the first intermediate period.
[josh] this is part of perha the most profound
And frustrating mystery of ancient egypt.
After the collapse of the old kingdom,
In the chaos of the first intermediate period,
All old kingdom pyramids were looted.
The step pyramid of djoser, empty.
The great pyramid of giza, tomb of the pharaoh khufu, robbed.
The pyramid of khafre, nothing.
Same with sneferu, menkaure, and on and on.
All of them looted, their mummies, gone,
Their precious artifacts, stolen.
So all of the treasures that merenre would have taken to the afterlife,
Maspero found none of that?
Except for the sarcophagus and the remains of jars.
-And a mummy? -And the mummy, maybe.
So if it wasn't the king then who was in the sarcophagus?
Well, maybe it was an intrusive burial.
An intrusive burial. This is a practice where
People will come and re-use a tomb, right?
It's a huge practice dated from middle kingdom
That people will come back to the pyramids,
To the old kingdom pyramids, and be buried here.
And it was seen as appropriate to do this.
It was a common practice for ancient egyptians.
So either this is
One of the pharaohs of egypt
Or just somebody using his sarcophagus.
Well, if it was merenre,
It would be the only royal mummy we have from the old kingdom.
That's right, none of the other pharaohs from the old kingdom,
-None of their mummies survived. -None of them. None of them.
Only merenre.
-Maybe. -Maybe.
So where is this mummy? Where did it go?
Maspero moved it from here,
First to cairo,
And later, it was moved from cairo back to saqqara in a museum.
Is it possible to see it?
It is possible to see it.
I wanna see it.
The mystery of whether the mummy discovered
In merenre's tomb is actually merenre
Is historic and could teach about the rulers
Who consolidated so much pow before the old kingdom collapsed.
Did maspero discover the only old kingdom mummy ever found
Or just an ambitious squatte
The answer may be found in saqqara's imhotep museum
Imhotep was ancient egypt's most celebrated thinker.
He was a doctor, sage, and the architect of the first pyramid.
In fact, imhotep was one of a select few non-pharaoh
Granted the status of a divine figure.
So what did we americans do for him?
We turned him into the villa from the mummy.
Speaking of mummies,
I'm here in these galleries to meet a very special one.
Dr. Megahed leads me past the impressive collection
To meet maspero's most mysterious discovery.
[dr. Megahed speaking]
[josh] I have to say I'm shocked
-Because it's so well-preserved. -[dr. Megahed] yes.
I mean, he looks like he's sleeping.
[dr. Megahed speaking]
[josh] right, because he's so well-preserved.
[dr. Megahed speaking]
[josh] in the old kingdom, the goal was for mummies to appear lifelike.
But like a funeral parlor today, it was purely cosmeti
The actual body wasn't being treated in a sophisticated way
To ensure that it would last over time.
And in the new kingdom, we see this.
-We see preservation that lasts. -[dr. Megahed] yes.
[dr. Megahed speaking]
And that's this dark material, right?
[dr. Megahed speaking]
This resin is made from the sap of trees
And actually preserves the body after death.
But it has long been considered a technology
That wasn't in use as early as the old kingdom
So there's no evidence of that kind of resin use in the old kingdom.
Right, so if the techniques are so advanced here?
Is it a closed case? It's not merenre?
Circumstantially, it seems like it should be him.
All right, so what do we do?
Is that possible to scan him?
We are?
Okay.
Not only are we gaining unprecedented access to scan this mummy,
But we're about to do it face to face.
Specialists from the museum come to open the mummy's cas
And they prepare to lift awa the protective glass.
They got the full mission: Impossible here.
-This is how you climb the building. -[dr. Megahed] yeah.
[josh] we dawn masks to prevent us
From inhaling any particles from the mummy,
And to protect the mummy from any moisture from us.
Incredible.
Nothing now stands between u
And what may be a 4,000-year-old pharaoh.
It is terrifying and exhilarating.
[dr. Megahed speaking]
[josh] nice to meet you.
Finally, dr. Megahed calls in his imaging team
To perform a scan of the mummy.
Okay, let us get out of your way here, and you can set up.
To get maximum resolution, they brought two magic bullets.
First, a state of the art artec leo laser scanner,
Which takes millions of individual images
That computer software will then stitch together.
Then to pick up every minut detail of his face and feet
They do a pass with this,
The artec space spider,
Capable of scanning down to 5/100 of a millimete
Just missing the very bottom of the back of the skull there.
This is amazing.
4,000 years ago, the techniques used
To create this mummy were cutting-edge technology
Now, the new state of the ar is being used to scan it.
Okay should we take a look?
Yeah. Yeah, we can.
[exclaims]
Look at this!
It's unbelievable. It's perfect.
Wow, it's all there.
It's incredible.
In egypt's imhotep museum, I've just helped to scan
What may be the oldest egyptian pharaoh ever discovered.
If so, it would be a historic find.
Since no old kingdom mummy has ever been found.
It's unbelievable. It's perfect.
We've got all the features here.
We can even see the teeth.
And this dark material, this is this resin.
[dr. Megahed speaking]
[josh] resin we shouldn't have in the old kingdom.
-[dr. Megahed] no. -[josh] right.
[dr. Megahed] no.
[josh] this resin either mea the mummy was made later
When preservation technique were more advanced...
...Or it means the old kingdom possessed mummification technology
That was way ahead of its time.
We will combine all the data to form one 3d model,
-And we will send it to you. -Amazing.
You guys are awesome.
-Great job. -Thank you, thank you.
-Thank you. -[josh] okay.
Our plan is to compare these scans
To mummies from different periods
To determine the true age of our mummy.
All right, mr. Maybe in 3d.
-That's right, we're gonna crack the case. -[dr. Megahed] yep.
[josh] okay.
While the imaging experts knit together
Our digital mummy for continued investigation
We race back to the dig site
I've received word that the mortar has set in the large burial shaft.
We hope it contains a prominent tomb
That might help unlock the secrets of the old kingdom's collaps
Okay, so what's under our feet here?
It is a mystery.
We don't know exactly what is underneath,
The only way to know, to move the sand.
Okay, well, looks like we have a lot of sand to move.
[dr. Youssef] yes.
[josh] in order to dig deepe the site has its own secret
A secret weapon that is. Meet mostafa.
[mostafa speaking arabic]
[josh] mostafa is the dig foreman
And one of the best in the business.
[speaking arabic]
[josh] he keeps the digging team motivated
Through a combination of comradery...
[speaking arabic]
[josh] ...Singing...
[all singing in arabic]
[josh] ...Screaming...
[mostafa shouting in arabic]
[josh] ...And whatever else it takes to shift the sand.
[mostafa speaking arabic]
[josh] see what I mean?
Okay, so what now?
[speaking arabic]
-We bring in the tambora? -Yeah.
Okay, let's bring in the tambora.
To explore deeper into the shaft
To see if it contains a tomb
They need to empty tons of sand.
To do that, the team assembl a basket and winch system called a tambora.
This technology is as old as the pharaohs.
It's possible that tamboras like this
Were even used in the construction of these tombs.
Tambora.
Once it's up and running, they need to test it.
Well, somebody does.
This is a proof?
Well, rehearsal.
-Rehearsal? -[all laughing]
[josh] okay.
I like that the rehearsal is just sending a human being...
-[dr. Youssef] yes, yes. -...Into it and seeing what happens.
Yeah, it's good. It's a good rehearsal.
-[dr. Youssef] yes. -Yeah.
[mostafa speaking arabic]
All right.
Okay, you're alive.
The tambora seems stable, so they nail the timber in place
[speaking arabic]
-Okay, you're ready for me? -[dr. Youssef] yes.
-How many baskets you got there for me? -[dr. Youssef] two baskets.
-[josh] two baskets? -[dr. Youssef] yes.
-Okay, we ready? --[dr. Youssef] yes.
Okay, here we go, guys.
Hoist it. You are very good.
[josh] I step into a basket that's just hooked onto an old rope.
Not exactly safety first,
But hey, nobody said exploration was gonna be dul
-I'm alive. -[dr. Youssef] good.
-[josh] here we go. -[dr. Youssef] good. Good.
Okay. Let's get to work.
Rule number one is if you're in the shaft, you're working.
Time to move some sand.
I'm working at what I think is a pretty good pace.
Others appear to disagree.
-Yallah, josh! Yallah! -Okay! Okay!
-Yallah! Yallah! -[josh] I'm getting yelled at.
[all shouting in arabic]
[josh] we dig...
[mostafa speaking in arabic]
...And dig.
[dr. Youssef] yallah, josh!
-[josh] yeah! -[dr. Youssef] yallah, josh!
-[josh] yallah! Yallha! Yallah! -Yallah!
When do we get a break?
No breaks, josh! No break!
-No break? -[dr. Youssef] no break until you come out of there.
No break? Great, okay. Who needs a break?
Oh, my word.
Basket-by-basket, we get deeper in the shaft.
[speaking arabic]
At first, I thought it was crazy
This dude's working in socks, but...
...My shoes are entirely filled with sand already.
He's the smart one.
-[dr. Youssef] josh! -[josh] what?
-Yallah! Yallah! -[josh] yallah! Yallah!
That's all you do is "yallah! Yallah!"
My dad always said that if you want to
Make a task fun, turn it into a game.
We didn't say start yet!
The other workmen and I decided to have a little race...
...Which I lose.
This is [bleep]!
That guys cheated, that was a false start.
So I go double or nothing.
Okay, wait!
You're trying to put stuff in before we start
'cause you're scared.
-[speaking arabic] -'cause you're nervous.
Ready? Go!
Oh, my god! No!
No! He still beat me!
I cheated and he still beat me!
I want him out of here. I want this guy out of here.
The work continues, less competitively than before.
The shaft gets deeper
And deeper and deeper...
...Until at long last,
We strike gold.
Oh, hey, hey, hey! Hey, hey, here!
Hold on! We might have something!
Yeah! It goes back!
Yes! We got an opening!
It goes back!
We got an opening!
Mohamed el-saidy!
-[dr. El-saidy] I will come. -Come down!
In the shadow of merenre's pyramid,
25 feet down a burial shaft
Archeologist mohamed el-said and I have discovered
What appears to be a burial vault
From the time of egypt's old kingdom.
Look at this! Can you see back?
[dr. El-saidy] it's the beginning of the vault.
The vault is in a good condition.
-The ceiling looks... -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
-[josh] ...Intact. -Yes, it seems intact.
And it's pretty deep.
-[dr. El-saidy] yes. -[josh] look how far back that goes.
Do you think this is like yaret's tomb,
Where this is just an upper chamber?
-Upper chamber. -Yes.
It's the same model as this.
So upper chamber, and there should be
-Limestone blocks at the bottom of this... -Yes.
[josh] ...And then the burial vault?
-Yes. -Then the burial chamber is started.
But this one seems intact.
[josh] you think this is intact?
Yes, see how soft the fill?
Yes, it's undisturbed, right?
[dr. El-saidy] yes, it's a good indication it's still intact.
-[josh laughs] -great starting.
-Great start? -Great start.
I'm been digging for [bleep] hours.
-[laughing] -start?
We need to get to dig deeper.
-Yes. -Yes.
Yes, we need to dig deeper! Come on, let's go!
Mohamed ascends to observe from above
And make room for the workers to continue clearing the shaft.
After finding the vault, however, the work feels a lot easier.
Wait! Hey, hey, hey! Ho! Ho!
This...
So here we have what might be part of a false door.
We have decoration here that's painted,
And you can see hieroglyphs right here.
Look at this.
Oh!
Whoa! Hey, hey, hey! Down here.
[dr. Youssef] this is amazing.
I can't believe my eyes.
[josh] hey, can we get a brush down here?
A brush?
Here, we have another one of these offering tables.
So this would have sat usually in a chapel outside of the tomb,
And family could come and bring oil or water
And fill these small channels here
As an offering to the deceased.
It shows you also that these tombs,
They're not just about the dead,
They're also about the living, right?
We have people coming to these tombs,
Making offerings, connecting
The world of the living to the world of the dead.
Amazing.
This is all so exciting, time seems to just fly by,
Which apparently it has.
I've missed a union break.
Wait a minute, where the hell did you guys get hot tea from?
How did I miss tea time?
Unbelievable.
[worker speaking arabic]
Are there scones?
Yeah, is there anything nice?
[worker speaking arabic]
It's too late now. All right.
[worker speaking arabic]
[josh] dozens of buckets of sand still need to be lifted out of the shaf
While the work continues, the archaeologist tells me
That across the dig site, a new section of the ancient cemetery
Has just yielded up another clue from the old kingdom.
I ascend to the surface, and then head over
To see what the workers have found.
[dr. El-saidy] we have some pottery here.
[josh] wow.
Look at that.
-It's quite close to the surface. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh] look at that.
Will you give me that trowel?
[dr. Youssef] here.
[josh] we delicately sift through the sand, and are quickly rewarded.
Another vessel right here.
-[dr. El-saidy] I have another piece here. -Oh, another one!
-[dr. El-saidy] yes. -Ha ha!
-So, it's like another piece of ceramic right here. -[dr. El-saidy] yes, yes.
[worker speaking arabic]
[josh] as the finds pile up dr. Mohammad youssef joins u to examine the pottery.
-[josh] another vessel. -[dr. El-saidy] another one.
-Oh, another one! -[josh] oh, another one!
[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh] more?
-[dr. El-saidy] oh, another one here. -[josh] right there.
[both] yes.
-[josh] right underneath you. -[dr. El-saidy] y'all, another one here.
-And here. Ha! -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
-Come on! -[dr. El-saidy laughing]
[josh] one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
-Eight vessels here. -[dr. El-saidy] until now.
-[josh] nine. -[dr. El-saidy] oh, nine!
[josh] this is a remarkable amount of ceramic vessels
Concentrated in such a small space.
So, like we saw on the walls...
...Of yaret's tomb, we have these...
...These ceremonial vessels, these offerings, so...
...These could've had all sorts of things in them, right?
Mmm. This side just only for beer.
-For beer? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
Aw, we found the beer reserves!
The ancient egyptians didn' invent beer,
That was the sumerians.
But, they may have perfected it.
In fact, it was often cleaner than local water.
It was also considered a gift from the gods, specifically osiris.
Because of this, it was a preferred offering to the dead.
[el-saidy] another one here.
[josh] more and more and more.
Another one!
So I count more than 40 vessels now.
Also, I think we still have more.
-Underneath? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh quietly] wow.
Okay, so this is...
This is an offering, but this is no simple offering.
This is... This is huge.
Big offering.
[josh] an offering of this size is almost ostentatious.
It shows that the elite officials buried here
Wanted to be seen by the god as extremely wealthy,
And therefore extremely powerful.
So, whoever's tomb this is for...
...This is someone who really liked beer.
[dr. El-saidy and dr. Youssef] yes.
-He's stocking up. -Yes.
-It's amazing! -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
The real question, though, is whether any of these are still cold.
I'm so thirsty.
The beer offering is a sensational find,
And in a beautiful state of preservation.
The team continues excavating around it as the sun begins to set.
By the time it rises once again,
I return, only to be amazed by how the site has changed overnight.
-Wow, look at this! -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
-[josh] things have changed here! -[dr. Youssef] sure.
-[josh] is this a shaft? Here? -[dr. Youssef] yes.
-[josh] and here? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
Okay, so hold on. Let's talk about this for a second.
'cause when we started talking, we were standing up here.
-[both] yes. -Right?
[dr. El-saidy] it's the progress of the work.
And so we have our big beer offering we found here,
That's right up against this shaft.
Do we think this offering is for this person?
-Yes, because it's very near to her. -[josh] right, okay.
[josh] right.
So, these... This could be a family.
-They could be connected. -Yes, yes.
-Sort of like a family plot here. -[dr. Youssef] yes.
[josh] this whole corner of the site would likely have been
Beneath a single family's mastaba, a mud brick structu above the tomb.
The beer vessels we uncovere yesterday would have been le as an offering,
Sitting above the burial shafts.
Based on what we've already found here,
The family who built this tomb was definitely well off.
This is prime real estate. Right next to merenre's pyramid.
-Yes. -[josh] okay.
Okay.
Wood?
-So, there's something wooden here. -[both] yes.
Also, against the burial shaft, like the beer.
-[dr. Youssef] yes. -[dr. El-saidy] yes, like the beer.
[josh] okay, interesting.
Interesting doesn't begin to cover it,
As we learn once we clear away the sand.
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
Something there? Is that wood, right there?
[dr. El-saidy] yes.
-[josh] that's wood? -[dr. El-saidy speaking]
[josh] what is it?
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
-It's up against the wall? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
Yeah.
-Is it a container? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[dr. Youssef] it could be a coffin.
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
Coffin?
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
[josh] look at that.
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
-Oh, it does! -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
I think that is a coffin.
[dr. El-saidy] yes.
This is insane.
Look at this.
Exploring near the surface of a newly discovered burial shaft,
We may have just found a coffin that's thousands of years old.
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
-Here. -You got the other edge?
-[dr. El-saidy] yes, another edge. -[josh] okay.
-And here's the back, here. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
-[josh] yes, it is. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[dr. El-saidy] it means it... The human remains.
It's well preserved.
It's small. Is it a... You think it's a baby coffin?
[dr. El-saidy] yes.
Later period than the burial shaft here?
-Someone added this, you think? -Yes, yes.
[josh] considering this coff is pushed up against
The outside of the rich, old kingdom burial shaft and beer offering,
This was likely added after the mysterious collapse of the old kingdom.
This child's family would'v wanted to have an afterlife for their offspring, though
So if they couldn't build a tomb,
They'd use the edge of someone else's.
-You wanna take those all the way down? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[dr. Youssef] okay.
-Be careful. -[josh] yeah.
The desert winds begin kicking up,
So the workers start to mov their operation into a nearby tent.
The rest of us, though, find good reasons to stay outside.
[dr. El-saidy] look. Look, josh. I think it's...
[josh] oh, my god. It's gold.
[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh] part of a necklace?
[dr. Youssef] necklace, yes.
[josh] inlaid with something.
Interesting.
-What is that? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[worker speaking arabic]
[josh] what's...
Something here!
Okay, hold on.
-Got it. -[dr. El-saidy] to move, yes.
Ready?
-It's yours, you got it? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh] okay.
Good, good, good.
-Good, good, good. -[dr. El-saidy sighing] get it.
-[josh] that... Look at the lines on it. -[dr. El-saidy] painted, yes.
-[josh] see that? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh] wow.
[worker speaking arabic]
-Unbelievable, look at these painted lines... -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
-[josh] ...On the side of this. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
Absolutely beautiful.
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
[josh] so this vase, hundreds of years newer than the burial shaft
Was probably meant to accompany
The child's coffin into the afterlife.
Something else...
[dr. El-saidy] basket, basket?
[josh] is it woven?
[worker speaking arabic]
-[dr. El-saidy] yes. -[josh] a basket.
-[dr. El-saidy] basket. -[josh] oh, my god!
Oh!
Incredible.
Something this delicate, handmade...
You can just see the craftsmanship of it.
-[dr. El-saidy] I think this is the top. -Still preserved.
-Yes. Should we get it inside? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
Let's get it inside out of the wind.
As you can hear, the wind is just howling now,
So it's a bit of a race to remove these objects
And get them out of the wind into the tent.
The team brings in straps and a stretcher
To quickly and carefully rai the coffin and carry it to the safety of the tent.
-You gonna do a third strap? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh] up, up, up, up!
-[josh] down. -[dr. El-saidy] good, good.
Good.
[worker speaking arabic]
Here, I'll take this.
-You go. -[dr. El-saidy speaking arabic]
[worker speaking arabic]
[josh] it's a bizarre feelin to be pallbearer for a chil
Who died thousands of years earlier.
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
All right.
-Out of the wind. -Yes.
[josh] out of the storm, we have a safe facility to examine the coffin.
We don masks to protect against inhaling ancient spores or dust.
Up, up, up.
Up.
-[dr. El-saidy] oh! -[josh] oh, my word.
[dr. El-saidy] careful.
Oh.
[josh] so here we have...
...An individual, looks like...
...A really bad state of preservation, yeah?
Moisture...
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
-[josh] yeah, water got in here, it looks like. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
-[josh] yes. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
Look at...
-It's... -[josh] what's that?
-[dr. El-saidy] oh! -[josh] what is that?
[dr. El-saidy] it's something.
-[josh] is it a bead? -[dr. El-saidy speaking]
-An earring? -[dr. El-saidy speaking]
-An earring. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[dr. Youssef speaking]
[dr. El-saidy] what... What kind of?
[dr. Youssef speaking]
[dr. El-saidy] ive... Ivory.
[dr. Youssef speaking]
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
[josh] the earrings suggest that the mummy is that of a young girl.
If I were superstitious, I'd say the wind raging outside suggests
She's feeling restless.
[wind blowing loudly]
[josh] I mean, right as we open this, it's like a storm is kicking up.
[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh] should I be worried?
[dr. El-saidy] no.
[josh] I've seen this movie before.
I know how this ends.
Fortunately, the tent seems to be holding.
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
[dr. Youssef] scarab, or necklace, or what is this...
-[josh] ooh, all these are beads. -[dr. El-saidy speaking]
-[josh] there's a whole necklace right there. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh] and see all these individual beads.
Here are these discs.
-All of this is a necklace that goes all the way around. -[dr. El-saidy] the beads.
[josh] so here we have...
...A big part of this necklace,
And you have these beautiful...
...Fineness, this kind of shiny, ceramic...
The beads are made from ceramic and quartz, and then glazed.
Even now, millennia later, the color shines like it was made yesterday.
We carefully gather the loose beads,
So the archaeologists can conserve,
And perhaps one day reconstruct the necklace.
-This is all linen, right? -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
[josh] so, she would have been mummified.
[dr. El-saidy] mummified, yes.
[josh] yes.
So, the condition here is really poor, but...
...This is a mummy.
You can see this brown material.
This is linen, here.
And she would've been completely wrapped in this.
So what do you think we can say about this?
This girl?
[dr. Youssef speaking]
[josh] for sure.
This is definitely someone who was loved and...
...Buried with care.
This is really humbling, you know?
Here we have...
...A girl, a young girl, who lived and died
And was buried in this cemetery during the new kingdom,
Which is still over 3,000 years ago.
This is an archaeological specimen, but it's also a person.
-[dr. El-saidy] yes. -[josh] she had a name,
-She had a family, she has a story. -[dr. El-saidy] yes, yes.
[josh] yeah.
[dr. El-saidy speaking]
[josh] right, with the earrings and the necklace,
And probably she was beautifully mummified,
And, uh, she would have looked proper for her next life.
-[dr. El-saidy] yeah, for her next life. -[josh] yes.
[dr. Youssef speaking]
[josh] yes.
Let her rest.
[dr. Youssef speaking]
[josh] with the wind dying down, we hear there's news
At the large burial shaft we've been excavating,
That we hope will help us understand the fall of the old kingdom.
We had previously found the top of the upper chamber
And now, a short time later the workers have widened the opening.
So, we're taking out another couple feet of sand,
And then we're going to explore the inside of this upper vault.
Oh!
What is this?
[josh] in the maze-like markets of old cairo,
I decide that maybe it's tim for me to upgrade my adventure hat.
[both speaking arabic]
[josh] I need a new hat.
We can make a beautiful tarboosh.
-Tarboosh? -[shopkeeper] tarboosh.
-What we would call a fez, yeah? -Fez.
Let's do it.
The first step toward my custom fez is to measure my head.
-Your size big head. -That's right.
Big head. That's my official size.
A sartorial go-to for egypt's elite.
Today, this is cairo's last fez shop.
A ninth generation business and they're gonna teach me the art of making a tarboosh
-[shopkeeper] press, very! -Press very hard.
[shopkeeper] yes.
[josh] first, we press it.
Measure it, cut it, sew it, form it, glue it, stick it,
Set it, seal it, and tassel it.
Oh.
Then, it's time to strut.
Yeah! What's that?
-Nice. -Thank you!
-Wow. -Nice tarboosh!
Thank you!
I'm a tarboosh king!
We got a vessel here!
We're excavating a large burial shaft in saqqara,
That we hope will give us insights into the collapse of egypt's old kingdom.
Okay, so we have this vessel here.
Do we think it was placed here, or maybe fell out of the vault?
-Maybe fall out of the vault. -Okay, got it.
We continue carefully removi sand from the chamber.
A tedious process, but one which quickly becomes rewarding.
Oh!
What is this?
-Another vessel? -[dr. Youssef] another, yes.
We've got another ceramic vessel here that might've fallen out,
Or might've been placed there, I don't know.
-[dr. El-saidy quietly] yes. -[josh] very nice.
-[dr. Youssef] hold it. -[dr. El-saidy] careful.
[josh] very nice, beautiful. Look at that.
-Complete vessel. -[dr. El-saidy] yes.
So this, this upper vault sits above
The main burial chamber below, you know.
Anything could be up here.
Offerings, anything could be tucked into this upper chamber.
Or, nothing at all.
-Do you think this is undisturbed? -Yes, it's undisturbed.
-For sure? -Sure.
Okay.
The main burial should be in a vault just below us.
But first, we have to contin exploring the upper chamber
Bone, here in the corner.
-Uh, linen. -[dr. El-saidy] linen.
[worker speaking arabic]
So, some linen here as well.
This is... Mummy wrap, right here in the corner.
The very corner just outside of this upper vault.
Why would that bone and linen be out here?
[dr. El-saidy] it's, uh, it's debris.
-Just fill up the shaft. -Uh-huh.
-It's disturb... You are in a cemetery, in a tomb place. -[josh] right, right.
-So it's just... -It's just a tomb.
[josh] uh-huh.
Oh, hold on.
Part of a basket?
-Yes. -Yeah.
[josh] so far, we've found intact pottery and a fine-woven basket,
Suggesting that the burial chamber below may be undisturbed.
Dr. Mustafa waziri, head of this excavation
And secretary-general of the supreme council of antiquities,
Is taking the elevator down to assess our next steps.
These guys have cleared a lot of sand out of here,
But still a lot left, yeah?
At least 15 cubic meters of debris.
A lot.
-[dr. Waziri] so it's a lot. -Yeah.
So, what are we planning to do right now?
We're gonna start digging here,
Because we believe...
...In a couple of minutes of working,
We can find the entrance of this tomb.
To the main vault.
-To the main one. -[josh] yeah.
Ready, guys?
[josh] we work furiously to move further down through the sand,
Hoping to find the burial that we assume must be very near.
So, we've got a layer of mud brick here,
And some limestone pieces, bones, there.
Long bone.
[dr. Youssef speaking arabic]
-[dr. Youssef] what, wait... -Oh, oh, oh!
Opening! We got a vault.
-[dr. El-saidy] oh, no, josh! -[josh laughing excitedly]
Oh, my god! Look at it!
-It's all decorated! -[dr. Youssef] what a tomb!
[josh] oh, my word. It's all painted.
Holy [bleep].
Ha, ha, ha!
It's a tomb!
[josh] on the next episode of expedition unknown...
My exclusive access to the dig site in saqqara continues.
Oh!
Look at this!
His foot is right in front of me.
And a lost tomb reveals answers about how egypt's old kingdom collapsed.
This is the first tomb to be decorated underground.
-Ever found in egypt? -[man] ever found.
[josh] my journey takes me to long forgotten sites,
With clues as to how the reign of the pharaohs fell into chaos.
We think of these tombs as such sacred places,
Yet, they were willing to come in and desecrate a tomb like this.
And we'll head up the nile to the ruins of luxor,
And a tomb that holds a shocking secret.
[reading] the entirety of upper egypt was dying of hunger,
And every man was eating his child.
Finally, our high-tech hunt for the identity
Of what might be the only old kingdom pharaoh ever found,
Leads us deep underground.
[quietly] okay.
Where we come face-to-face with the answers
We've been hunting for.
Underneath this glass is the man himself.
Look at this mummy!