NARRATOR: Egypt.
The richest source of archaeological treasures on the planet.
MALE: Oh wow, look at that.
NARRATOR: Hidden beneath this desert landscape lie the secrets
of this ancient civilization.
MALE: [Foreign dialogue].
ALEJANDRO: 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.
MYRIAM: This is the most critical moment.
[all grunting]
NARRATOR: Revealing buried treasures.
SALIMA: Oh! AHMED: We were lucky today.
NOZUMO: Wow! Lots of mummies.
KATHLEEN: The smell is horrible.
NARRATOR: And making discoveries that could rewrite ancient history.
JOHN: We'’ve never had the proof, until now.
COLLEEN: This is where it all started.
ALEJANDRO: My goodness, I never expected this.
[applause]
NARRATOR: This time, new secrets of Ancient Egypt'’s greatest structures,
the Pyramids.
Chris explores the origins of the first pyramid ever built.
CHRIS: It'’s an incredible achievement architecturally.
NARRATOR: Miroslav hunts for the lost tomb
of the mastermind of Egypt'’s pyramid era.
MIROSLAV: Evidence for an entrance.
HAMED: Move, move, move, move, move.
NARRATOR: Kamil unearths new skeletons inside
Egypt'’s oldest pyramid complex.
KAMIL: We actually find the remains of the next mummy.
WORKER: Looks like we have an eyeball here.
NARRATOR: And Christelle decodes ancient texts,
to investigate the mysterious beliefs
that gave rise to these structures.
CHRISTELLE: Oh wow! It'’s incredible.
NARRATOR: The Pyramids of Egypt.
Across the last three hundred years, explorers have found
over one hundred and thirty of these iconic ancient structures.
But mysteries of these monuments
and the pharaohs buried inside remain unsolved.
To unlock the secrets of these structures each year teams of archaeologists
investigate the birthplace of this revolutionary ancient architecture.
Ten miles south of the great pyramids of Giza...
lies the necropolis of Saqqara.
Today Egyptologist Chris Naunton travels here to investigate what triggered
over a thousand years of pyramid building.
He'’s been granted rare access
to explore restricted areas of this necropolis.
CHRIS: This is a pretty exciting moment for me
because I'’ve never been inside before.
NARRATOR: This ancient cemetery is home to eleven pyramids
and hundreds of tombs,
but one structure dominates all others, the first pyramid ever built.
CHRIS: This is where it all began.
It is the first monumental building in stone
anywhere in the world.
NARRATOR: Constructed more than 4,500 years ago,
this is the Step Pyramid tomb of pharaoh Djoser,
a king of Egypt'’s third dynasty.
It'’s a revolutionary masterpiece designed
by Egypt'’s pioneer architect, Imhotep.
CHRIS: His achievement was massive, not just for the Egyptians,
but for humankind.
NARRATOR: Born as a commoner, Imhotep rose
to become pharaoh Djoser'’s trusted advisor,
and eventually his chief architect.
He invented the stepped pyramid, using stone blocks instead of mud bricks,
allowing him to build ever bigger.
More than two thousand years after Imhotep'’s death, he was worshipped
as a god, all the way up to Greek and Roman times.
Chris wants to discover for himself what inspired Imhotep
to design his ground-breaking step pyramid.
He climbs to higher ground to examine the shape
of older burial structures that surround it.
CHRIS: They'’re called mastabas, and they are
these sort of squat square platforms,
slightly sloping, inwardly inclining walls.
NARRATOR: Chris can make out traces of these simple structures
within Imhotep'’s design.
CHRIS: Now that we'’re getting closer to the pyramid,
you can really see this series of platforms, one on top of another.
So the bottom one, in some sense, is a mastaba.
It'’s just the addition of these successive layers that make it into a pyramid
and it'’s an incredible achievement architecturally.
NARRATOR: Built from over five hundred thousand tons of limestone,
constructed in mastaba-style layers,
the Step Pyramid stands over two hundred feet high,
then the tallest building in the world.
Its impact on the Ancient Egyptian landscape was huge.
Ten more kings replicated Imhotep'’s design,
determined to attain the same status as the pharaoh of the first pyramid.
Their tombs became some of the most iconic sacred buildings on the planet,
each growing the necropolis until it stretched five miles across the desert,
to create a sprawling city of the dead.
Today Imhotep'’s masterpiece still dominates the Egyptian desert.
But while his structures survive,
no trace of the man himself has ever been found.
Half a mile north of the Step Pyramid,
a team digs an unexcavated area they hope could lead to a tomb.
NARRATOR: Project leader Miroslav Barta
has spent thirty years searching Saqqara
for Imhotep'’s final resting place.
Finding his burial chamber could help reveal the origins
of Egypt'’s greatest structures.
MIROSLAV: This is the very heart of Saqqara.
Full of treasures, scientifically speaking.
NARRATOR: It'’s two weeks into the dig,
and site inspector Hamada Shehata
is keen to explore a new lead.
HAMED: I am very excited to see what is happening down,
because if this, I need to.
NARRATOR: A shaft filled with sand
that leads straight down into the bedrock.
MIROSLAV: Who knows where it will lead us to.
Maybe to the tomb of Imhotep.
We will see what happens in the next few hours.
NARRATOR: Moments into the day'’s dig, a team clearing dirt next to the shaft
makes an intriguing discovery.
MIROSLAV: We just came across a large group of beer jars.
Wonderful. We are lucky again.
NARRATOR: It'’s a good sign.
Pottery of this style dates to the same era as Imhotep.
The team dig further down into the shaft, hoping to hit the burial chamber.
NARRATOR: This may be the desert,
but groundwater still exists deep below the sand.
Many Egyptian tombs have been destroyed by flooding.
MIROSLAV: I don'’t want a deep shaft.
NARRATOR: If Imhotep'’s tomb lies below, Miroslav'’s team needs to hit an entrance
in the next few baskets of sand.
HAMED: Move, move, move, move, move!
NARRATOR: At the edge of Djoser'’s pyramid complex,
a team investigates another mysterious structure,
just one hundred and fifty yards from the Stepped Pyramid.
Archaeologist Kamil Kuraszkiewicz heads up the project.
This is his twenty-third dig season investigating ancient Saqqara.
KAMIL: We actually find the remains of a huge trench enclosing
the Stepped Pyramid complex,
like a moat around a medieval castle.
NARRATOR: The trench stretches over a hundred and thirty feet wide
and sixty-five feet deep.
It'’s likely Imhotep used the extracted stone
to build his revolutionary pyramid.
But huge man-made walls begin to emerge from the dirt,
suggesting Kamil'’s team dig more than a simple stone quarry.
Discovering the true purpose of the structure could change what we know
about Imhotep'’s pioneering design.
After nineteen days digging,
bio-archaeologist Iwona Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin
unearths more than just sand and stone.
She finds human remains.
IWONA: We just accidentally come across it.
As you would.
So, yeah, it'’s quite interesting. It'’s a young individual, a teenager.
I reckon probably around fourteen.
NARRATOR: Could these bones hold clues to why Imhotep dug the trench?
Within moments, the team finds a second entire skeleton.
KAMIL: Where is the new one?
IWONA: This one.
KAMIL: The next burial is not yet visible,
but you have to believe us, it is here.
IWONA: Looks like we might have
an actual eyeball preserved here.
NARRATOR: A burial this close to the Step Pyramid could reveal
a hidden chapter in the history of this revolutionary structure.
But first, Kamil needs to find out why the skeletons were buried here.
IWONA: This one looks suspicious.
NARRATOR: Iwona carefully removes dirt
from the ancient skeletons buried in the trench.
She wants to find out why the bodies were buried here.
Can they explain Imhotep'’s decision to carve this huge structure
surrounding the world'’s first pyramid?
As she gradually unearths the skulls, vital clues
to the burial practices used begin to appear.
IWONA: We can see a hole made into the cranium
through the nasal passages, to remove the brain.
And I think they used some linen scrubs
to clean the inside of the cavity.
NARRATOR: Traces of linen and evidence of brain extraction are both
signs of mummification, a form of body preservation
practiced during the time of Imhotep.
But as the team clears more sand Kamil doesn'’t see a link
between the skeletons and the trench.
KAMIL: Without equipment like coffins, the graves are very simple.
NARRATOR: The simple burials are a sign that they date to a time
long after Imhotep.
KAMIL: At the time of Imhotep,
it was absolutely impossible for mortals
to be buried close to the king.
NARRATOR: But they are evidence that this is a highly sacred site,
where people wanted to be buried.
KAMIL: They knew about the cemetery close to the Step Pyramid complex.
To be buried close to the creation of Imhotep
was the best thing they could expect.
NARRATOR: Convinced more clues to the trench'’s purpose lie beneath
the dirt, Kamil instructs his team to ramp up the excavation.
Just a hundred and fifty yards away at Djoser'’s Step Pyramid,
Chris is keen to explore the gigantic structure.
He thinks it might reveal Imhotep'’s incredible innovations
that inspired over a thousand years of pyramid tombs.
Djoser'’s burial complex is a restricted area,
but Chris secures rare access through archaeologist
Ragab Dawood.
NARRATOR: They follow tunnels that take them into the burial shaft
deep beneath the pharaoh'’s pyramid.
CHRIS: My god, wow, that is amazing. It'’s huge.
RAGAB: Yeah.
CHRIS: And so the pyramid is... RAGAB: Yeah.
CHRIS: Above us now. RAGAB: Yeah.
CHRIS: Wow.
And what we'’re looking at, at the bottom of the shaft,
so that'’s where he was buried?
That'’s where Djoser was buried?
RAGAB: Yes... CHRIS: Amazing.
NARRATOR: To create one of the largest burial chambers in Egypt,
Imhotep'’s workers dug out thousands of tons of limestone.
CHRIS: It'’s amazing to think that this is all cut from the bedrock.
RAGAB: Be careful. CHRIS: Thanks. RAGAB: Yeah.
Watch your steps please, and to the left, yeah.
CHRIS: Go this way? RAGAB: Yeah, come this way.
NARRATOR: Ninety feet below ground, Ragab spots a hidden carving.
RAGAB: Have a look.
We found inside shaft blocks and stars.
CHRIS: Yeah, wow.
NARRATOR: The original tomb builders left these blocks behind.
CHRIS: It'’s amazing to see here examples of these stars,
'’cause you find them on the ceilings of temples and tombs in many places,
but this is the first instance of this motif ever being used.
This is where it all began.
It'’s another innovation of this pyramid.
NARRATOR: Originally painted gold on a blue background,
Imhotep'’s stars decorate tombs built over a thousand years later.
They offer a glimpse into his vision for this trailblazing tomb.
CHRIS: These evoke the night sky, so the idea is
that even though Djoser is laid to rest underground,
in pitch darkness, he can see, symbolically, this stone-cut night sky,
and in that way he would have been able to make the journey to the stars,
which is how Imhotep conceived of the journey to the afterlife.
NARRATOR: Imhotep'’s underground labyrinth
was a pioneering architectural experiment,
one that became the blueprint for Egypt'’s pyramids
for hundreds of years.
Two miles south of Djoser'’s monument is a site where the pyramid
of Pharaoh Ibi once stood.
CHRISTELLE: Oh! Oh!
NARRATOR: Built five hundred years after the time of Imhotep,
the structure was ransacked for stone, to build ancient Cairo.
But archaeologist Christelle Alvarez thinks fragments of hieroglyphs
here could reveal more about the ancient beliefs that inspired Imhotep
and later Egyptians to build pyramids.
CHRISTELLE: Just in the middle we have the burial chamber,
which has preserved some of the text that were inscribed
4,000 years ago.
NARRATOR: They'’re known as pyramid texts.
Christelle wants to decipher these ancient codes,
but first she must complete the damaged inscriptions.
CHRISTELLE: It actually really fits, and for this one we can tell that it holds.
So one fragment has found his home.
NARRATOR: But this is a puzzle with many missing pieces.
CHRISTELLE: It'’s not easy. [laughs]
And I need some other hands.
This one is supposed to be here somewhere. MALE: This one in here?
CHRISTELLE: Maybe we need to find more fragments.
NARRATOR: Finding lost sections of hieroglyphs
will help Christelle decode the ancient writing.
CHRISTELLE: Now if we want to really have a look at this whole area,
we need to remove these two big blocks.
NARRATOR: She thinks mystic texts, unseen for over four thousand years,
lie undiscovered in the corner of the tomb.
CHRISTELLE: Maybe there will be some elements that we will find.
NARRATOR: Two miles north, at Miroslav'’s tomb excavation,
it'’s week three of the dig, and he finally gets news of a breakthrough.
MIROSLAV: Evidence for an entrance.
So we are on time.
NARRATOR: At the bottom of the shaft the team finds
what they think is the entrance to an ancient burial chamber.
NARRATOR: But the excitement is put on hold.
Reports from the bottom of the shaft are not what Miroslav is hoping for.
MIROSLAV: It'’s open. They say it'’s open.
NARRATOR: Tombs are always sealed after burial.
An open tomb is evidence of ancient looters.
MIROSLAV: We basically follow in the footsteps of the ancient robbers.
NARRATOR: But crucial discoveries may still be inside.
HAMED: Let'’s do it. Hurry up.
NARRATOR: Beneath Saqqara'’s towering Step Pyramid,
Chris and Ragab navigate the labyrinth
of tunnels inside pharaoh Djoser'’s tomb.
They want to investigate why Imhotep dug out thousands of tons of rock
to bury his master so far underground.
CHRIS: Can we go this way? RAGAB: Yeah.
CHRIS: It'’s very confusing.
NARRATOR: At ninety feet below ground level, they emerge into a chamber
dominated by a huge stone structure.
CHRIS: Wow! Oh my god! That'’s immense.
So this is a giant sarcophagus for Djoser,
and he would have been buried inside,
and it'’s made of these massive pieces of granite.
There'’s no way in.
Exactly as Imhotep would have intended,
but of course Imhotep didn'’t have any idea that after his time robbers,
somehow, did manage to find a way in.
NARRATOR: When archaeologists discovered Djoser'’s sarcophagus,
his body and treasure were missing.
Imhotep'’s underground burial couldn'’t protect his master'’s corpse,
but it wasn'’t dug just for security.
CHRIS: The ancients were bringing the body of Djoser a long way underground,
so that'’s partly about placing him physically underneath the world
and in the kind of underworld.
NARRATOR: This pioneering pyramid tomb was built as a grand gateway
for the deceased king to pass into life after death.
Beneath the pyramid'’s thousands of blocks of limestone
lies Djoser'’s underground palace.
A central shaft descends to the pharaoh'’s tomb,
a granite vault in which Djoser'’s mummy once lay.
Almost four miles of tunnels, with over four hundred chambers,
branch out around it.
Some full of riches,
to make sure the pharaoh had all he needed in the afterlife.
Crowned with a vast pyramid, the tomb of King Djoser was a beacon
for early archaeologists.
Just over eight hundred yards from the Step Pyramid Miroslav'’s team search
for the tomb of its mastermind, the great Imhotep.
It'’s twenty-four days into the dig, and they'’ve caught a glimpse of an opening
at the bottom of the shaft.
We are going down now, to see the entrance.
Cross the fingers.
NARRATOR: This is the moment Miroslav has been waiting for.
MIROSLAV: The excitement is rising right now.
NARRATOR: He could be on the brink of an historic discovery.
MIROSLAV: So here we are.
Oh! Oh there is a wonderful limestone sarcophagus,
untouched for more than four thousand years.
NARRATOR: But up close, Miroslav discovers evidence of destruction.
MIROSLAV: That'’s sad. That'’s very sad.
The mummy is completely disarticulated.
There is a very sad pile of bones in the northern part of the sarcophagus.
So it'’s not a very nice end for this gentleman.
NARRATOR: The ancient thieves who first opened the tomb
have broken into the sarcophagus.
MIROSLAV: It was torn apart in antiquity because the most important
target for the tomb robbers was his personal jewelry.
NARRATOR: With this level of devastation, identifying the body seems impossible.
But could evidence survive to reveal if this is the great Imhotep?
MIROSLAV: I think most parts of the burial equipment survived,
which is quite a valuable source of information for us.
NARRATOR: Further inside, Miroslav discovers vital clues
to the tomb owner'’s status.
MIROSLAV: So here we are. This is called "canopic jars."
They were used to contain mummified organs of the deceased.
NARRATOR: Only very high-status people were mummified,
Imhotep included.
But to be sure of the identity of the body, the team hauls up
the evidence for closer inspection.
MIROSLAV: Oh! Thirteen meters up.
It'’s okay, we finished.
NARRATOR: Two miles south, at Pharaoh Ibi'’s pyramid,
Christelle needs to move
two huge stone blocks that she thinks hide
fragments of pyramid texts lost for thousands of years.
They could help decipher the hieroglyphic codes
and reveal the vision of the pyramid builders.
CHRISTELLE: That will take a little bit of time because they need
the wood and ropes to drag them away.
NARRATOR: Her team sets to work moving the blocks,
slowly exposing a section of wall she hopes
will reveal inscriptions unseen for millennia.
CHRISTELLE: We hope that maybe we will find some extra fragments.
NARRATOR: But if Christelle is to decode the pyramid texts,
she'’ll need the fragments intact.
CHRISTELLE: I hope they haven'’t damaged too much the text that was going
all the way down, '’cause it'’s very easy for the hieroglyph
at the base of the block to disappear in dust.
NARRATOR: Each stone weighs almost a ton.
Any sudden move could shatter the fragile
4,000-year-old inscription.
CHRISTELLE: I think the far one is going away here.
No, I give it, I can take it. No, it broke!
NARRATOR: Inside the ruins of pharaoh Ibi'’s tomb,
Christelle has removed two obstructing stone blocks
and continues her hunt for sections of ancient writing
unseen for thousands of years.
She'’s convinced they can shed light on the belief
systems that compelled the Egyptians,
starting with Imhotep, to build the pyramids.
CHRISTELLE: This is the corner where we were never able to actually look at,
because it was behind those big blocks.
NARRATOR: As she digs away the sand, Christelle makes her first discovery.
CHRISTELLE: There is one fragment that they just found in this corner.
It'’s the bottom of the Cartouche of Ibi,
so we'’ll just have a look if there is some more.
NARRATOR: This royal hieroglyphic sign...
CHRISTELLE: Oh, yes, here there is one.
NARRATOR: ...is a clue that the texts were written to reinforce
the pyramid'’s sacred function,
to transport the king into the afterlife.
CHRISTELLE: There is another one.
NARRATOR: Among the hieroglyphs, Christelle recognizes a figure known
to all Egypt and much of the ancient world.
CHRISTELLE: You can see the Cartouche, looks like the sign of the god Osiris.
NARRATOR: This is one of the earliest ever descriptions of Osiris.
A god of resurrection and the underworld,
who features in later Greek and Roman religion.
The hieroglyphs here reveal the rise of belief systems
that lasted for thousands of years.
They pyramid texts are the oldest copies of religious texts.
Found in eleven pyramids across Saqqara, these pyramid texts record
the spiritual beliefs of the pyramid builders.
With her time at Ibi'’s pyramid running out,
Christelle still has hundreds of pieces missing.
To help fill the gaps she wants to explore another
major discovery of pyramid texts.
CHRISTELLE: When we'’re able to compare from one version
to another, we can sometimes get a better sense.
NARRATOR: Christelle sets off to find hieroglyphs inside a tomb
that has lain untouched for almost fifty years.
CHRISTELLE: And it'’s exciting to see what'’s awaiting us.
NARRATOR: In the center of the Saqqara necropolis, Kamil'’s team works hard
to excavate Imhotep'’s vast, moat-shaped trench
surrounding Djoser'’s pyramid.
KAMIL: We are looking for any structures that could have been
the parts of the original design.
NARRATOR: As they dig, chambers begin to appear,
cut into the sides of the ancient structure.
KAMIL: We uncovered the entrance to this room,
which is hewn in the back of the moat.
NARRATOR: The rock surrounding the chamber is weak.
Cracks mean it'’s too dangerous for Kamil to explore,
but he is keen to investigate a tunnel that has been secured.
KAMIL: The first thing we saw, it was the beginning of the corridor,
was quite unusual, and during the exploration,
as we progressed deeper and deeper towards the pyramid,
it became more and more strange.
NARRATOR: Kamil thinks it could hold clues to the true function
of the giant trench.
KAMIL: It'’s really impressive piece of work, of ancient stonecutters.
So the pyramid is ahead of us.
The corridor points almost exactly its middle.
NARRATOR: The shaft seems to lead directly towards the pyramid,
but Kamil'’s team has dirt to dig before they can discover
what lies at the end of this mysterious tunnel.
Half a mile north of the Step Pyramid, Miroslav
and his team are hunting for the identity of the body in the newly discovered tomb.
To search for clues, they excavate a separate structure,
constructed next to the opening of the burial shaft.
Miroslav has found part of the original mastaba,
a large chamber 50 feet above where he found the body.
It'’s the tomb'’s chapel, where visitors would have come to leave offerings.
A wall with a small peephole
seals off a tiny cell that would have contained a statue of the deceased
and may have preserved clues to his or her identity.
MIROSLAV: We have two workers inside that are about to clean the floor,
but we must be extremely careful, as you can see.
NARRATOR: It'’s a big job.
Keeping the desert sand out of the chamber is an endless task.
MIROSLAV: So far, so good, but still we have to mind especially
when the windblown sand starts to flow,
it'’s like a flood coming in.
I'’m just going down to check out what is there.
NARRATOR: This is Miroslav'’s last chance to figure out the identity
of the body in the tomb.
Just as he reaches the chamber'’s entrance, the workers
at the dig surface discover something intriguing.
NARRATOR: Miroslav is keen to climb down to examine the find.
MIROSLAV: Now comes the moment when we go down
and inspect the walls for any possible inscriptions,
which may tell us more about the owner.
Let'’s hope for some surprises.
NARRATOR: In search of clues to the identity of the body discovered
in the Saqqara tomb, Miroslav scours the walls
of the newly excavated mastaba chamber.
MIROSLAV: See, oh! It'’s a red-painted graffito.
It starts here, I guess.
Oh, here'’s one, here'’s another one.
NARRATOR: The 4,500-year-old paint has faded,
but Miroslav recognizes sections of the graffiti.
MIROSLAV: I'’m not sure about the proper reading at the moment though,
we can discern some,
it'’s double I, and '’ha'’, B T perhaps.
NARRATOR: These symbols represent the sounds '’huh'’, '’tuh'’ and '’puh'’.
Could it be part of the name Imhotep?
MIROSLAV: We are coming up to the total of four red-painted graffiti
which seem to be all the same, and turned upside down,
so I would say it'’s the name of the owner.
NARRATOR: Why are some of the inscriptions upside down?
The key lies in how the Egyptians built this tomb.
Before construction, the builders would mark
some stones with the name of the tomb owner,
and then didn'’t care which way round they installed the blocks,
explaining why some of the inscriptions Miroslav has found are upside down.
But until Miroslav can decode the hieroglyphs,
he can'’t be sure whose tomb this is.
Just over seven hundred yards from Miroslav'’s site,
Kamil'’s team has excavate the entire rock cut corridor.
It doesn'’t lead to the pyramid,
but Kamil thinks a strange object discovered inside this tunnel
can finally reveal why Imhotep built the giant trench.
Kamil climbs inside to investigate further.
KAMIL: At the end of this corridor, in a small room to the right,
we found a huge wooden harpoon placed
in a special cylindrical container.
It'’s really impressive.
NARRATOR: Carved from a solid piece of wood from the juniper tree,
the harpoon is a precious object,
and a snake motif dates it to the time of Imhotep.
KAMIL: It was a ritual device.
It could not be used for an actual fight or hunting,
because it was too large and too heavy.
NARRATOR: The position of the harpoon,
tucked into a chamber set inside the trench,
could be a clue to the function of the trench
surrounding Imhotep'’s revolutionary pyramid.
KAMIL: It was a three-dimensional model of the road into the afterlife.
It was a path intended for the king to ascend to heaven,
so the harpoon was a weapon prepared for the king, for his afterlife.
NARRATOR: The king was buried deep below ground,
taking him close to the underworld, and the path to resurrection.
The Egyptians believed the king'’s spirit was fortified
with offerings left inside the tunnels.
And with weapons stashed inside the trench walls
he'’d defeat his foes,
until he finally reached the afterlife,
to complete his transformation into a god.
The trench may be Imhotep'’s idea of the sacred journey
that awaited the king after he died.
If Kamil is right he has exposed the true scale
of Imhotep'’s ambition for the world'’s first pyramid.
KAMIL: The Step Pyramid complex was completely experimental because
Imhotep tried to integrate religious
and ideological concepts and he translated it into stone.
NARRATOR: In the desert two miles south
is the pyramid of pharaoh Pepi II.
Built centuries after Imhotep'’s pioneering monument,
Christelle thinks it hides ancient pyramid texts
that can shed light on the missing inscriptions back at Ibi'’s pyramid.
CHRISTELLE: This is the first time since the 1930'’s that some work
is happening again in the pyramid of Pepi II.
NARRATOR: Unlike Ibi'’s destroyed monument Pepi'’s pyramid survives intact,
preserving many of its archaeological treasures.
It'’s been locked up for decades, but Christelle has the keys to go inside.
CHRISTELLE: It'’s incredible. Wow!
NARRATOR: At the pyramid tomb of Pepi II, Christelle comes face to face
with the largest display of pyramid texts ever discovered--
inscriptions that could offer a glimpse into the beliefs that inspired
the building of these enigmatic structures.
CHRISTELLE: Oh wow! So much was preserved in this pyramid.
It'’s really cool.
I really wanna have a look at the West Wall.
Oh yeah.
Oh, the text goes all the way down.
That'’s pretty impressive.
I can see the white paint, the green.
Even the line at the end, these are all things
that I cannot see in the pyramid of Ibi.
NARRATOR: Christelle hunts for sections that match up with the inscriptions
she found inside Ibi'’s tomb.
CHRISTELLE: You can really see the very similar arrangement between a line,
where you have some times a text written horizontally,
and then you have the columns.
NARRATOR: Christelle uses a database of inscriptions,
to track down and decode familiar sections of the ancient hieroglyphics.
CHRISTELLE: It tells me that it'’s in the antechamber, west wall, column eleven.
The beginning starts just here.
So the title of the spell is invoking the ferryman and doorkeeper.
NARRATOR: This is one of the oldest carvings of the ferryman spell in existence.
In later myths he is known as Nemty, the falcon-headed god,
who ferries the souls of the dead through the afterlife.
The deceased pharaoh must summon the ferryman to help him navigate
the treacherous waters of the underworld.
And deliver him safely to the realm of the Sun God Ra.
Carving the hieroglyph of the ferryman inside a pyramid
was meant to guarantee protection for the dead.
Complete spells written on the walls of Pepi'’s pyramid give Christelle a clue
to the meaning of the texts back inside Ibi'’s tomb.
CHRISTELLE: Perhaps the fact of carving them inside the burial chamber
tells us that the pyramid complex had really a ritual function.
It was a place of remembrance of the king.
It was a place to perform the ritual activities,
to be sure that the king would actually
be able to maintain his status as a spirit in the afterlife.
NARRATOR: Like the structures themselves the ancient hieroglyphs
inside Egypt'’s pyramids served deeply sacred functions.
They carved out a smooth passage into the underworld, for the pharaoh,
and ensured he was still king when he got there.
At Miroslav'’s Saqqara base.
He examines records of ancient inscriptions,
hoping to find a match for the graffiti,
and discover the identity of the 4,500-year-old body.
MIROSLAV: This now, it is exciting.
NARRATOR: Hieroglyphic markings discovered at another pyramid complex
appear similar to the mason'’s graffiti on the walls of the tomb.
MIROSLAV: There is the same name,
referring to a particular official from the same period.
Basically from the same context.
NARRATOR: A figure sits next to the symbols.
MIROSLAV: This could be the tomb owner.
NARRATOR: Miroslav is able to fully translate the hieroglyphic name.
MIROSLAV: This part of the scene, the reading is ptah, wer.
So that was him.
Ptah Wer.
NARRATOR: Incredibly he has tracked down the owner of the ancient tomb.
It'’s not Imhotep, but another high ranking Egyptian official
known as Ptah Wer.
MIROSLAV: Imagine that you have someone who lived more than
four thousand four hundred years ago and you have his tomb.
You also have pictorial evidence for him.
It'’s quite an exceptional case I think.
NARRATOR: But who is Ptah Wer?
And why does he merit a tomb so close to Djoser'’s Step Pyramid?
The clues could lie hidden in the rest of this ancient inscription,
at the other end of the Saqqara plateau.
The pyramid complex of Sahure,
ruler of Egypt a hundred years after the time of Imhotep.
Miroslav'’s colleague, Mohamed Ismail Khaled,
comes here to investigate the inscription.
It is hidden behind this protective modern wall and could reveal more clues
about Ptah Wer'’s life and work.
MOHAMED: This is the moment that I'’m waiting for,
to see actually the relief.
Wow, if you begin like to clean little bit of the dust, it'’s really amazing,
to see how the artisan was really carving every single detail.
NARRATOR: Mohamed'’s restorer gets to work cleaning the stone,
and glimpses of the ancient scene begin to emerge.
MOHAMED: This is really a kind of detective work.
NARRATOR: As they clear the dust the ancient original image of Ptah Wer
is revealed, along with the symbols that spell out his name.
MOHAMED: This is his title and this is his name, Ptah Wer,
and his title is written above him, as the sculptor
and also the one who'’s in charge of the stone vessels.
NARRATOR: A century after the great Imhotep built the first pyramid,
this inscription reveals Ptah Wer is another master craftsman of pyramids.
His work honored by the pharaoh Sahure.
The carving shows Ptah Wer feasting at a royal banquet,
a reward for his services to the pharaoh.
Ptah Wer had led an expedition to the lands east of Egypt,
and brought back precious stones, ivory and minerals--
materials he used to revolutionize pyramid decoration.
Commanding hundreds of skilled craftsman, he continued Imhotep'’s legacy
and built in honor of his king.
In return for his groundbreaking work,
he was buried near Imhotep'’s great pyramid,
at Saqqara, the most sacred burial ground in Egypt.
MOHAMED: It'’s something extraordinary for Ptah Wer,
to be depicted in such scenes like this,
that he'’s only just sitting, eating and relaxing.
We are now sure that Ptah Wer was really a high official
and that'’s why the king was able to reward him for what he has done.
NARRATOR: Miroslav and his team have found Ptah Wer,
a key figure in the rise of Egypt'’s incredible pyramid landscape,
but the hunt for Imhotep continues.
Thousands of years after Imhotep built the first pyramid,
his revolutionary tomb design is a spectacular success.
Kings who sought immortality live on
through these incredible structures.
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