NARRATOR: Egypt...
the richest source of archaeological treasures
on the planet.
MAN: Oh, whoa, look at that.
NARRATOR: Hidden beneath this desert landscape
lie the secrets of this ancient civilization.
MAN: I'’ve never seen something like this.
NARRATOR: Now for a full season of excavations,
our cameras have been given unprecedented access
to follow teams on the front line of archaeology.
WOMAN: This is the most critical moment.
[men grunting]
NARRATOR: Revealing buried treasures...
WOMAN: Oh!
MAN: We were lucky today.
MAN: Wow, lots of mummies.
WOMAN: The smell is horrible.
NARRATOR: And making discoveries
that could rewrite ancient history...
MAN: We'’ve never had the proof until now.
WOMAN: This is where it all started.
MAN: My goodness, I never expected this.
[clapping]
NARRATOR: This time...
KATHLEEN MARTINEZ: We'’re going to start from here.
NARRATOR: Kathleen is in search of the lost tomb of Cleopatra.
KATHLEEN: I have to go down and see.
NARRATOR: Calliope digs up a city center
in the hunt for the queen'’s capital...
CALLIOPE LIMNEOS-PAPAKOSTA: Look how big it is.
NARRATOR: ...uncovering heroes and kings.
CALLIOPE: Amazing.
Helmet and weapon means a warrior.
NARRATOR: And in the ancient Egyptian land of the dead...
BAHAA GABER: You feel that something here.
NARRATOR: Bahaa and his team move mountains...
BAHAA: It seems it'’s still alive.
NARRATOR: ...in search of lost pharaohs.
♪
The floodplains of the River Nile,
home to one of the longest-lived civilizations
of the ancient world,
and the burial ground of pharaohs for over 3,000 years.
But not all of Egypt'’s rulers built giant monuments
to mark their final resting place.
Some tombs remain lost,
and there is one that the world is desperate to find.
The last resting place of Cleopatra.
Last year, Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martinez
discovered traces of a large void beneath the ruins
of the northern Egyptian temple of Taposiris Magna.
KATHLEEN: Wow. I'’m gonna cry, I'’m so happy.
NARRATOR: She believes it could hold clues to,
or perhaps even be, the lost tomb of Egypt'’s final pharaoh.
KATHLEEN: We have this temple
which was dedicated to Osiris and Isis.
It could be the final resting place of Queen Cleopatra,
because she was the human representation of goddess Isis.
It fit perfect with Cleopatra'’s story.
NARRATOR: At the time of Cleopatra'’s death,
Taposiris Magna had been a religious sanctuary
for more than two centuries.
Thick walls protected an area the size of a city block.
Egyptians would come to the temple complex
to worship Isis and Osiris.
Here archaeologists unearthed broken statues of Isis,
the goddess Cleopatra most admired.
They also discovered an alabaster bust
of the legendary queen,
and a broken mask resembling portraits of her lover,
the Roman general, Mark Antony.
Could this mean the Taposiris Magna
is Cleopatra'’s final resting place?
It'’s a theory Kathleen has been meticulously building
for more than a decade.
KATHLEEN: The last queen of Egypt
was an extraordinary woman.
She was a goddess, she was a warrior, she was a queen,
she was a mother, and she fascinates me.
NARRATOR: To excavate down to the void beneath the temple
would mean destroying
2,000-year-old Egyptian heritage.
But Kathleen believes there may be a better route.
KATHLEEN: One of the main objective
when I came to Taposiris Magna
was to discover possible tunnels, passages underground
that might lead me to the tombs.
Right now I have 14 tunnels discovered and seven chambers.
I believe one of those tunnels
will lead me to the tomb of Queen Cleopatra.
NARRATOR: Only a few sections of the 14 underground tunnels
have been explored;
any of them could lead Kathleen to her target.
But she can only access the subterranean network
via precipitous shafts.
With a potential drop as deep as an eight-story building,
she can'’t take any risks.
KATHLEEN: There is a big problem
because the way they'’ve placed the ladder, it'’s crazy.
This is like committing suicide.
We risk our lives every day,
trying to solve the secrets of Taposiris Magna.
NARRATOR: Without a long enough ladder,
Kathleen'’s team can'’t get to the tunnel
she hopes to explore.
She needs to extend the ladder, but that requires a blacksmith.
KATHLEEN: I say I need it in one hour,
they say, "Well, maybe two, we are discussing."
MAN: One hour.
KATHLEEN: One hour, but.
[laughs]
When we go down, we'’ll find Cleopatra.
[laughing]
NARRATOR: If she can'’t get a longer ladder,
the secrets below ground will remain out of reach.
30 miles to the east is one of Egypt'’s busiest cities:
Alexandria.
This was Cleopatra'’s capital,
the center of power for her family line,
known as the Ptolemies.
Calliope Limneos-Papakosta has been unearthing the treasures
of Ptolemaic Egypt for more than 10 years.
Among them, an incredible statue
of the legendary conqueror of the ancient world,
Alexander the Great.
CALLIOPE: This is the most important moment of my life,
the discovery of this statue.
When I took the soil out of his face,
I was sure I faced Alexander the Great,
the founder of the city of Alexandria.
The hero of the Greeks, the hero of the Egyptians after that.
The hero of all the nations that he conquered.
NARRATOR: Alexander'’s city was a Mediterranean powerhouse.
It flourished for almost 300 years under the Ptolemies
until rule passed to the dynasty'’s final queen.
Born in 69 BC,
Cleopatra was the daughter of King Ptolemy XII.
Her father died when she was 18,
and Cleopatra became queen.
But she had to share the throne with her 12-year-old brother,
and also marry him.
He sent her into exile,
but she smuggled herself
into the company of Roman dictator Julius Caesar
and persuaded him to help reinstate her as queen.
Educated in the famous library of Alexandria,
Cleopatra spoke several languages
and became known for her intelligence
and political skill.
She led Egypt'’s forces into battle
and kept the country independent
right up to her death.
Cleopatra'’s capital once boasted unimaginable wealth.
Today its remains are buried.
Calliope'’s mission is not to dig up Cleopatra'’s body,
but to uncover her life.
Her target is Cleopatra'’s home, the ancient royal quarter.
It could hold long-forgotten secrets of the Egyptian queen
as well as her ancestors.
CALLIOPE: In the area of the royal quarter,
Ptolemy IV constructed a huge mausoleum.
All the Ptolemies were buried in this mausoleum,
except one: the Queen Cleopatra.
NARRATOR: Calliope hunts in Alexandria'’s equivalent
of Central Park, Shallalat Gardens.
It'’s here that she discovered
her marble statue of Alexander the Great.
But this dig is no walk in the park;
it'’s a fight against nature.
CALLIOPE: Our target is the Ptolemaic level,
and this level is lower than the water table.
It'’s a huge project, pumping the water now 24 hours per day.
But we believe that this area
has a lot of secrets to be revealed.
NARRATOR: If the pumps fail, the site will be drowned,
destroying an entire season'’s progress in a matter of hours.
400 miles south of Alexandria is Luxor,
site of the ancient capital of Thebes.
This was the heart of the ancient Egyptian culture
that Cleopatra inherited and ruled over.
The city was the seat of Egypt'’s pharaohs.
Their tombs are scattered
throughout the nearby Valley of the Kings.
But like the tomb of Cleopatra, many have never been found.
BAHAA: We can remove this debris from here.
NARRATOR: Bahaa Gaber and his team are here to scour
the mouth of the valley
on the mountain site of Dra Abu el-Naga.
BAHAA: Oh, wow, this is linen!
It means that we should have a mummy!
NARRATOR: And he has a particular
lost pharaoh in mind.
BAHAA: We are missing one of the tombs in Valley of the Kings,
the tomb of a king called Amenhotep I.
We are thinking that this king had been buried here
in Dra Abu el-Naga.
NARRATOR: Amenhotep I was among the early kings
of the famous 18th dynasty.
His successors, including Tutankhamun,
were buried nearby.
It means this mountain could be a prized burial ground.
BAHAA: The ancient people carved the tomb on the bedrock,
that'’s why we are cleaning the mountain.
We divided the area into three different sites,
each one of those groups, they are looking for a tomb.
NARRATOR: After three years of digging,
his team may be closer than ever
to their dream of finding a king.
Archaeologist Ahmed El-Taayeb investigates
a corner of the site where workers are uncovering a wall.
In the dust they find clues that it might enclose a tomb.
NARRATOR: On this desolate mountain,
at the base of a rock wall,
this shard of wood can only be one thing.
NARRATOR: It'’s barely 8:00 AM on the mountain
at Dra Abu el-Naga, but Ahmed'’s crew is buzzing.
A coffin could be the clue
that leads him and fellow archaeologist Mohamed Beabesh
to a lost pharaoh'’s tomb.
They pick up the pace.
NARRATOR: What at first looked like a fallen piece of wall
could be a woman'’s gravestone.
NARRATOR: If the tomb marker and the coffin fragments
go together, it'’s a good sign.
This could be a noble'’s burial.
The king might not be far away.
BAHAA: Oh, Mohamed, I think you feel there'’s something here.
MOHAMED: I feel it, I just feel it, I just feel it.
BAHAA: We keep going, we keep going and see.
MOHAMED: Okay.
NARRATOR: At the temple complex of Taposiris Magna,
Kathleen Martinez and her team have moved tons of earth
in search of Cleopatra.
The result of all that labor
is a breathtaking network of ancient chambers.
Underneath the beautiful temple,
there'’s a labyrinth of tunnels holding many secrets.
In one shaft, Kathleen found the remains
of a pregnant Greek woman,
clutching a bust of Alexander the Great.
In another shaft, 80 feet below the ground,
she found two people, thought to be priests,
buried in the fetal position and adorned with jewelry.
These burials build Kathleen'’s case
the Taposiris Magna was a very important site,
with plenty of places for Cleopatra to lie hidden.
But this season, unprecedented storms have hit the site.
The rains have taken days off her dig schedule,
throwing her plans into chaos
and threatening all her work.
Kathleen'’s team has been using tomb two for storage,
but rain dripping through the rock
has entirely submerged the lower chamber,
putting her carefully excavated ancient remains underwater.
KATHLEEN: This is a rescue archaeology.
We are trying to rescue the human remains
that has been flooded.
And we need to do something.
NARRATOR: While the team bails out the storage area,
Archaeologist Linda Chapon turns her attention
to an unexcavated corner of the tomb that escaped the flood.
The burials here could hold clues
to other secrets hidden at the site
and help steer Kathleen'’s search for Cleopatra.
LINDA CHAPON: I think that it has been disturbed
because the skulls are not placed
in their original position.
NARRATOR: The bones are scattered.
Whoever they were, these bodies had something worth looting.
But even though robbers have ransacked the corpses,
clues still remain.
KATHLEEN: This one is very well preserved.
LINDA: Yeah.
KATHLEEN: It looks like a woman.
She has beautiful teeth.
Only people which were very rich would take care of themselves,
and they had beautiful teeth.
NARRATOR: Wealthy burials strengthened Kathleen'’s case
that the site could hide royalty,
and they date to the end of the Ptolemaic period:
Cleopatra'’s dynasty.
LINDA: Sometimes I wonder, did these people meet her?
Were they friends?
If these people are from the time of Queen Cleopatra,
that'’s a very important discovery for us.
NARRATOR: Kathleen has built up six seasons'’ worth
of precious human remains backing up her hunch.
But too long underwater, and her evidence will fall apart.
In the center of Alexandria,
Calliope has been holding back floodwaters
for more than a decade.
CALLIOPE: If we stop pumping,
this area is like a lake, becomes a swimming pool.
NARRATOR: She'’s searching for the royal quarter of the city
and clues to Cleopatra'’s life.
Exactly where she discovered Alexander the Great'’s statue,
her team uncovers a further tantalizing clue.
CALLIOPE: Amazing.
You recognize this?
[laughs]
The right hand holds a weapon;
helmet and weapon means a warrior.
This is the third head of Alexander we find.
NARRATOR: Alexander the Great was revered
right up to Cleopatra'’s time, almost 300 years later.
The royal quarter would have been filled with artworks
and monuments to the city'’s founding hero.
MAN: Go ahead, one meter.
NARRATOR: But Calliope also uncovers evidence
at a much greater scale.
CALLIOPE: Look how big it is,
and we have not arrived to the end.
So, I believe this is the external wall of this building.
NARRATOR: The foundations of the newly unearthed building
are laid on bedrock.
It means Calliope can date the structure
right back to the founding of the city.
The building'’s sheer size
means it can'’t be a workshop or ordinary dwelling.
CALLIOPE: We have an enormous building
that possibly was one of the famous public buildings
of the royal quarter of Ptolemaic Alexandria.
NARRATOR: It'’s evidence she'’s digging
in the right part of town.
In 365 AD, a huge earthquake hit ancient Alexandria
and leveled most of its buildings.
As people rebuilt the city,
all traces of Cleopatra'’s royal quarter disappeared.
But the geographer Strabo had written
a detailed first-hand account
of Alexandria'’s original layout before the quake.
Strabo states that Cleopatra'’s palaces and temples
were all gathered around Alexandria'’s main crossroads.
Calliope believes the ancient layouts Strabo described
is the basis for the modern city plan.
If so, the foundations she has discovered
are in the right place.
CALLIOPE: We are very close to the main street
of modern Alexandria.
This is a good sign, because the monuments, the buildings,
the royal cemetery, supposed to be around here.
NARRATOR: But she needs to find evidence
of the ancient crossroads,
if she'’s to pin down
Cleopatra'’s palaces and temples.
It'’s the final few days of the field season
at Taposiris Magna.
Kathleen is running out of time
to find a route to the cavity beneath the temple
that she hopes is Cleopatra'’s tomb.
But news has come in
from the team working on access to the tunnels.
KATHLEEN: They told me the ladder arrived,
and I'’m going to look in the shaft now
to see if it'’s possible to go down.
NARRATOR: Lashed together with some rope,
she decides the ladder system should hold.
But the greater risk may await in the shaft itself.
KATHLEEN: I have a very shaky ladder,
and down in the shaft, it'’s full of snakes.
This is the situation I have right now.
NARRATOR: Kathleen hopes bags of Bedouin herbs
will ward off the venomous reptiles.
But all this preparation might still be in vain
if her team'’s suggestions
of chest-high floodwaters are true.
KATHLEEN: The water is more than one meter,
and so they think it will cover me completely.
I have to go down and see anyway.
NARRATOR: Kathleen'’s high-risk game of snakes and ladders
is finally underway.
KATHLEEN: Oh.
NARRATOR: This could be the shaft
that leads her to Cleopatra'’s tomb.
Her tallest worker, Saber, is already down,
testing the floodwaters
and hanging the Bedouin anti-snake herbs.
But he returns with an entirely unexpected problem.
KATHLEEN: Huh? A mouse? SABER: Yeah.
NARRATOR: The rotting rodents are unpleasant,
but the unusually deep water is dangerous.
One slip in the darkness could be fatal.
NARRATOR: Until the floodwater subsides,
Kathleen won'’t be able to follow the passage.
KATHLEEN: I could not stand up even in the tunnel.
The rats that live there die, and they are decomposing.
It smells horrible.
NARRATOR: There'’s no way the tunnel will dry out
before Kathleen has to close the site.
KATHLEEN: That'’s it for the tunnel this year,
there'’s nothing else we can do.
NARRATOR: With the underground route flooded,
Kathleen needs to find another way to the underground void
she hopes holds Cleopatra.
In the city of Alexandria'’s Shallalat Gardens,
Calliope has dug down 30 feet
in the hunt for Cleopatra'’s royal quarter.
CALLIOPE: If we find the crossroads,
it will make us become closer to the location
of the burial place of the Ptolemies.
NARRATOR: But she faces a problem.
CALLIOPE: The death of Cleopatra
is the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty,
and also it'’s the end of a whole era, historical era.
Romans come after that, and things change in Alexandria.
NARRATOR: The conquering Romans built over Cleopatra'’s capital.
20 feet down, Calliope discovers
what seems to be a highway running across her dig.
CALLIOPE: So, these black stones are not just stones,
they'’re precious stones,
and when we see black stones, we know we have a Roman road.
NARRATOR: The Romans may have leveled the city,
but Calliope believes their engineering
could be a blessing in disguise.
CALLIOPE: Most of the Roman streets we find in Alexandria
have earlier Ptolemaic streets underneath.
NARRATOR: Calliope thinks the Roman road network
mirrors the road layout of ancient Alexandria
at the time of Cleopatra.
Calliope'’s plan is to excavate her small Roman road
until she finds the main road that cuts across it,
which might then lead her to the ancient city center
where Cleopatra'’s royal quarter once stood.
CALLIOPE: We are in the right location.
We are near the crossroad,
but, for sure, there is a lot of work to be done.
NARRATOR: The trouble is
there is still 2,000 years'’ worth of debris
between Calliope and the ancient road network,
and her route to Cleopatra'’s royal quarter.
At Dra Abu el-Naga,
near the mouth of Luxor'’s the Valley of the Kings,
Bahaa'’s team is searching for the pharaoh Amenhotep I.
They'’ve discovered a grave marker and coffin fragments.
This could be a collapsed tomb.
AHMED EL-TAAYEB: Call to the director, the chief.
[yells]
BAHAA: They are calling us.
NARRATOR: A flash of color in the dry desert sand
could confirm this as a burial place.
BAHAA: It'’s good news, oh, wow.
NARRATOR: The faces on male coffins
nearly always had facial hair.
This casket almost certainly belongs to a woman.
BAHAA: Look at the eyes, it seems it'’s still alive.
NARRATOR: This is Bahaa'’s first opportunity
to pin a date on the tomb.
BAHAA: The stone that we found this morning,
and then we found the face, the wooden face.
MOHAMED: Wonderful work.
BAHAA: This is the style of the late Egyptian period.
NARRATOR: The find dates to hundreds of years
after Amenhotep.
Their discovery proves this was a cemetery then.
Now Bahaa is on the hunt for proof it was a burial ground
in the time of the pharaoh himself.
BAHAA: When you find some stuff like that,
it'’s a sign that you are going to find something!
So we are very close to an amazing tomb.
NARRATOR: At the northern Egyptian temple
of Taposiris Magna,
Kathleen needs every piece of evidence the site can provide
to back up her theory
that this is the last resting place of Cleopatra.
The human remains she'’s unearthed this season
provide crucial data,
but the catastrophic flood in the storage tomb
threatens her dream.
KATHLEEN: In that tomb, in one niche,
we have 10 human remains, we have so much.
LINDA: We are trying to dry them with a hair dryer.
Better than to leave them in the sun,
the sun has very bad effect on bones.
And it'’s working, so.
NARRATOR: Linda now has the thankless task
of assessing the damage and sorting the remains
for the second time.
LINDA: This one, part of a mandible.
This is part of the foot.
This is part of the pelvis.
Vertebras.
NARRATOR: With some gentle blow drying,
the bones will survive their immersion.
It'’s a much-needed boost for Kathleen.
KATHLEEN: The thing that keeps me very optimistic
is that these human remains
are from the time of Queen Cleopatra,
and this keeps my theory together.
NARRATOR: With just one day left of the field season,
it'’s now too late to excavate the void beneath the temple.
So Kathleen brings forward
plans to use an experimental technology.
KATHLEEN: We'’re going to start from here.
NARRATOR: And prove the cavity is a tomb,
without even breaking ground.
In the city center of nearby Alexandria,
Calliope is working on a new area of excavation,
in line with the Roman street.
She'’s following the road
towards Cleopatra'’s royal quarter
and the tombs of the queen'’s ancestors.
But with the ancient structures hidden
below 30 feet of mud and stone, it'’s heavy work.
CALLIOPE: We have arrived one meter and a half
from the surface of the ground.
We are still very high,
our target is maybe another eight meters.
NARRATOR: 2,000 years of destruction and rebuilding
have jumbled the archaeological record.
Any of these stones could have been
part of Cleopatra'’s palace or temples.
The team must document every single one.
CALLIOPE: We go slowly, slowly,
and we hope the result will award us.
Be careful if it'’s black.
Give me the brush.
All these quantity of big stones is debris,
but the fact that we find black stones among them
is a very good sign.
NARRATOR: The rock'’s color and texture show
it'’s not from the local area.
It could be the black stone the Romans used for their roads.
If this proves to be a continuation of the Roman road,
it could lead her to the ancient royal quarter,
the epicenter of power in Cleopatra'’s Egypt.
♪
Just over a mile
from the famous tombs of the Valley of the Kings,
Bahaa'’s hunt for the pharaoh Amenhotep I
at Dra Abu el-Naga is producing tantalizing clues.
But he needs to determine whether the necropolis
was already in use by the time Amenhotep'’s reign began,
at the start of Egypt'’s 18th dynasty of pharaohs.
Further down the mountain,
the team'’s foreman reports a cluster of intact pots
emerging from the sand.
For ceramic specialist Mohamed, it'’s an exciting prospect.
It'’s a clue that could date the site
to a time before Amenhotep I.
NARRATOR: The pot suggests that
by the time of Amenhotep'’s 18th dynasty,
people already came here to commemorate the dead.
[cow moos]
Each year after the harvest,
the people of Thebes held a celebration of the dead
called the Beautiful Festival of the Valley.
They carried statues of Thebes'’ three main gods
in a grand procession out of Karnak Temple
east of the river.
They crossed the Nile on ceremonial boats,
following the sun'’s journey from the east bank,
the land of the living,
to the west, the land of the dead.
The procession ended at the tombs and temples
on the west bank, where people had laid offerings,
including pots of food, at the graves of the deceased.
The ritual ensured the dead had provisions for eternity.
These pots mean a tomb should be very close.
NARRATOR: The roughly carved casket
appears to be buried in a miniature tomb.
This is clearly no king,
but it'’s a vital clue that he might be near.
NARRATOR: If the burial does predate Amenhotep I,
it proves Dra Abu el-Naga was a cemetery by the time he died.
So he could be buried here.
But there'’s no way to tell
until this coffin is out of the ground.
NARRATOR: Mohamed and Ahmed have mobilized
a whole team of workers to excavate the coffin.
It'’s their best lead yet
in the hunt for the missing pharaoh, Amenhotep I.
MOHAMED: Now we have a coffin, for a child, from one piece.
AHMED: One tree.
MOHAMED: And it'’s a sycamore tree.
[speaking native language]
NARRATOR: A single dug-out trunk is a key clue
that this burial predates Amenhotep'’s reign;
a boost to their hopes
that the pharaoh was buried in this cemetery.
But the proof will lie inside the coffin.
It looks like the coffin of a tiny infant,
but mummies of the time
were often stuffed into ill-fitting tree trunks,
not stretched out comfortably like later mummies.
NARRATOR: Opening a coffin that has been closed
for thousands of years is a delicate operation.
Any wrong move and they could damage the body inside.
MAN: Slowly. Ease.
Yes.
NARRATOR: This is evidence that the necropolis was in use
by the time Amenhotep I died.
NARRATOR: The hunt for royalty at Dra Abu el-Naga goes on.
But Bahaa and his team have confirmed
the cemetery'’s great age.
They'’re inching ever closer
to their goal of finding the missing king.
♪
At the temple complex of Taposiris Magna,
it'’s the last day of the field season.
Kathleen is in a race to show
the cavity beneath her feet is a tomb.
If she can, it will help persuade
the Ministry of Antiquities to allow her to dig for Cleopatra.
MOHAMED GAMAL: Can you start from here?
NARRATOR: She'’s thrown caution to the wind and put her faith
in a promising but experimental technology.
Mohamed Gamal sounds out hidden cavities in the rock
with a network of geophones.
KATHLEEN: I want to check all these rooms.
MOHAMED: I'’m very excited to see are we going to be able
to succeed to see what'’s hidden from us or not.
This is a challenge to us.
NARRATOR: The technique relies on acoustic imaging.
Mohamed'’s ultra-sensitive equipment records sound
caused by micro-tremors in the earth'’s crust.
He can analyze the signal to create a subterranean map,
including every crack in the rock, every void,
or any tomb that might conceal a lost pharaoh
or a hiding queen.
But with the team deep into their work,
Kathleen spots a problem.
The scan has begun, but she has no way of mapping the results.
KATHLEEN: Whenever they are doing the profile,
I need the beginning and the end.
I need to know where are we doing the profile.
If not, it'’s not gonna work for me.
They were not putting any marks.
MOHAMED: Let them do it, let them do it.
NARRATOR: If she'’s to prove to the Egyptian authorities
that it'’s worth damaging the ancient structure,
she needs to know exactly where the geophones are placed.
She needs to know where to dig down to the nearest inch.
KATHLEEN: This is the only day I have,
it'’s the last day of the season,
and we lost a couple of hours.
NARRATOR: Kathleen is within touching distance
of a discovery that could eclipse
even that of Tutankhamun.
But it will be some time before Mohamed has fully mapped
the temple'’s underground labyrinth.
She faces an anxious wait for the survey results.
NARRATOR: In Alexandria'’s Shallalat Gardens,
Calliope'’s team has discovered
a black stone in a newly opened excavation.
It could be the clue that points her in the direction
of Cleopatra'’s royal quarter.
CALLIOPE: Let'’s start removing the debris.
NARRATOR: To get there, she needs to find
the main crossroads of ancient Alexandria.
BILAL: This is three pieces, this one.
CALLIOPE: It'’s black, yes.
And what about this one?
We have four black stones here, so maybe we are in
a part of the continuation of the Roman street.
NARRATOR: The stones are covered in a layer
of white mineral after centuries buried in the soil.
But they were once smooth, dark Roman street cobbles.
CALLIOPE: Also, Bilal, this way, clean also this way. Yes.
We found another one, so I don'’t believe it is random.
You don'’t understand how a person can be happy,
finding just a black stone; this is archaeology.
NARRATOR: As the workers haul the stones out of the ground,
Calliope spots a potentially crucial clue.
They'’re much larger than the cobbles
on the Roman road she'’s following.
CALLIOPE: These black stones are very big,
so maybe they belong to the big street, not to this one.
I'’m very excited by the fact that these stones could belong
to the main latitudinal street of Alexandria.
And this will be great, because this is our goal.
NARRATOR: If this is really one of Alexandria'’s
two Roman main highways,
Calliope just needs to trace it
to where it meets the other one.
And she will find the crossroads
where the ancient royal quarter once stood.
Calliope will have to wait for next season
to open another excavation.
CALLIOPE: And this is black, too.
NARRATOR: But for now, she'’s one more step
along the road to Cleopatra'’s royal home.
CALLIOPE: It'’s a stone, but it'’s not just a stone.
Everything has a meaning.
I think this is the beauty of archaeology.
♪
NARRATOR: At his laboratory in Cairo,
Mohamed has has finished processing the acoustic survey
of Taposiris Magna.
With the dig season over and the site closed,
Kathleen has returned home.
But the subterranean map of the temple is finally ready.
MOHAMED: Kathleen.
KATHLEEN: Hello!
MOHAMED: How do you do? Hello.
KATHLEEN: How are you?
MOHAMED: Fine, thank you. I have good news for you.
KATHLEEN: Really? MOHAMED: Yes.
KATHLEEN: I'’ve been waiting, I'’m dying to hear from you.
MOHAMED: We found something at Taposiris.
KATHLEEN: Where?
MOHAMED: At the guard room, room number two,
is making like a very big resonance to us.
NARRATOR: Mohamed'’s geophones have confirmed the presence
of a large chamber-sized void beneath the temple.
But there'’s more.
MOHAMED: You can see my finger?
KATHLEEN: Yes. That is the one.
MOHAMED: This is the place which is most promising to us.
It looks like this small place is a hidden entrance.
There is very big resonance, like it'’s a connected place to
under a subsurface room or an entrance
or a corridor or something like this.
KATHLEEN: This is exactly what I'’ve been looking for.
I am thrilled. I am...
This is one of the happiest days of my life.
This is something that I believe,
and now we have this scientific evidence.
Thank you so much.
NARRATOR: Not only does Kathleen have a hidden void,
she has a secret entrance,
and now she knows exactly where to excavate.
MOHAMED: If we found the mummy of Cleopatra,
it would be a great discovery in this century.
KATHLEEN: My heart is beating so hard now.
So strongly.
I don'’t know how I'’m going to control myself
during this month, until I get the permission.
I'’m so excited.
NARRATOR: Cleopatra has bewitched historians
and archaeologists ever since her death
and the Roman conquest of Egypt.
Now the centuries-long hunt for the last pharaoh'’s tomb
may have entered its final stage.
When she gets back on site,
Kathleen could be just a day'’s digging away
from the greatest discovery
since Tutankhamun 100 years ago.
Captioned by Side Door Media Services