1 00:00:01,776 --> 00:00:03,918 (gentle instrumental music) 2 00:00:03,918 --> 00:00:06,229 - Camel, get up. - Woo. 3 00:00:06,229 --> 00:00:08,479 (laughing) 4 00:00:09,694 --> 00:00:11,876 This is brilliant. 5 00:00:11,876 --> 00:00:14,348 This is obviously an iconic image, 6 00:00:14,348 --> 00:00:16,929 taking a camel ride by the pyramids. 7 00:00:16,929 --> 00:00:21,156 Surely, it encapsulates the spirit of Egypt. 8 00:00:21,156 --> 00:00:24,902 But such an image is completely misleading, 9 00:00:24,902 --> 00:00:26,507 because there weren't any camels here 10 00:00:26,507 --> 00:00:30,257 when the pyramids were built 4,500 years ago. 11 00:00:31,369 --> 00:00:33,236 And that's the thing. 12 00:00:33,236 --> 00:00:36,694 Ancient Egypt is instantly recognizable 13 00:00:36,694 --> 00:00:40,277 but all too often completely misunderstood. 14 00:00:41,620 --> 00:00:44,703 So, I'm going to try and change that. 15 00:00:45,604 --> 00:00:50,522 - Good luck! (speaks in foreign language) 16 00:00:50,522 --> 00:00:52,601 - The Great Pyramid of Giza, 17 00:00:52,601 --> 00:00:55,188 the final resting place of King Khufu, 18 00:00:55,188 --> 00:00:58,105 over 140 meters from bottom to top. 19 00:01:01,098 --> 00:01:02,900 No wonder it still pulls in the crowds 20 00:01:02,900 --> 00:01:05,567 and the occasional Egyptologist. 21 00:01:13,868 --> 00:01:17,562 (speaking in foreign language) 22 00:01:17,562 --> 00:01:19,309 It's hard to really get it into words, 23 00:01:19,309 --> 00:01:21,992 but we are now entering into the depths 24 00:01:21,992 --> 00:01:26,062 of this iconic monument of ancient Egypt. 25 00:01:26,062 --> 00:01:27,620 (speaks in foreign language) 26 00:01:27,620 --> 00:01:31,037 It's a very busy iconic monument, though. 27 00:01:31,898 --> 00:01:34,092 (speaking in foreign language) 28 00:01:34,092 --> 00:01:36,678 And as we set foot on this journey upwards, 29 00:01:36,678 --> 00:01:38,806 it's a brilliant metaphor for the way 30 00:01:38,806 --> 00:01:42,482 that the ancient Egyptian civilization literally rose up 31 00:01:42,482 --> 00:01:45,787 from the Earth to a real zenith. 32 00:01:45,787 --> 00:01:46,982 So, come with me 33 00:01:46,982 --> 00:01:49,754 and I'll show you something really brilliant. 34 00:01:49,754 --> 00:01:53,921 Because the pyramids are really only the tip of the iceberg. 35 00:01:55,718 --> 00:01:58,078 (tense instrumental music) 36 00:01:58,078 --> 00:01:59,110 Oh! 37 00:01:59,110 --> 00:02:00,610 Oh, flipping heck. 38 00:02:03,642 --> 00:02:07,809 - So all this was a big city. - Overwhelming in size. 39 00:02:08,975 --> 00:02:11,142 That is absolutely superb. 40 00:02:12,488 --> 00:02:14,972 In this series, I am going to explore the story 41 00:02:14,972 --> 00:02:19,564 of what I consider to be the world's greatest civilization, 42 00:02:19,564 --> 00:02:23,439 more than 4,000 years of history that has shaped our world 43 00:02:23,439 --> 00:02:27,606 and left unmistakable marks that can still be read today. 44 00:02:30,086 --> 00:02:33,661 I'll be looking into every nook and cranny, 45 00:02:33,661 --> 00:02:35,835 from little-known tombs... 46 00:02:35,835 --> 00:02:36,759 It's staggering. 47 00:02:36,759 --> 00:02:40,172 I've never ever been into a tomb quite like this before. 48 00:02:40,172 --> 00:02:42,977 To the hidden corners of vast monuments. 49 00:02:42,977 --> 00:02:44,632 It's like being on top of the world, isn't it? 50 00:02:44,632 --> 00:02:48,299 - [Woman] Yeah, we are on the top of Karnak. 51 00:02:51,142 --> 00:02:52,143 - So it's really no surprise 52 00:02:52,143 --> 00:02:53,810 that weird and wonderful theories 53 00:02:53,810 --> 00:02:57,227 about ancient Egypt crop up all the time. 54 00:02:59,086 --> 00:03:00,851 But what I find so amazing 55 00:03:00,851 --> 00:03:03,582 is that this most intriguing civilization 56 00:03:03,582 --> 00:03:05,897 was actually created by people 57 00:03:05,897 --> 00:03:08,965 not so very different from you and me. 58 00:03:08,965 --> 00:03:11,965 And that's the story I want to tell. 59 00:03:13,513 --> 00:03:17,346 The story full of secret treasures, dark deeds 60 00:03:19,519 --> 00:03:22,741 and sometimes controversial theories. 61 00:03:22,741 --> 00:03:26,658 This mask was originally made for someone else. 62 00:03:27,737 --> 00:03:32,358 And for the first time, I'll be piecing it all together 63 00:03:32,358 --> 00:03:36,901 from the earliest Egyptians to the last of the pharaohs. 64 00:03:36,901 --> 00:03:37,734 Wow! 65 00:03:37,734 --> 00:03:39,130 Look at that, look at that! 66 00:03:39,130 --> 00:03:41,213 Oh, that is so beautiful. 67 00:03:44,007 --> 00:03:47,090 Welcome to my story of ancient Egypt. 68 00:03:57,954 --> 00:04:01,621 (lively instrumental music) 69 00:04:04,257 --> 00:04:08,340 The big question is, how did ancient Egypt begin? 70 00:04:09,802 --> 00:04:10,992 Where did the first Egyptians 71 00:04:10,992 --> 00:04:14,492 and their extraordinary culture come from? 72 00:04:17,866 --> 00:04:19,617 This immortal civilization 73 00:04:19,617 --> 00:04:22,311 was thousands of years in the making, 74 00:04:22,311 --> 00:04:26,124 so to pull it all together is a daunting task. 75 00:04:26,124 --> 00:04:29,957 But bear with me, as it's utterly fascinating. 76 00:04:36,660 --> 00:04:38,950 But we won't begin with massive monuments 77 00:04:38,950 --> 00:04:43,117 but with some enigmatic clues you could easily miss. 78 00:04:49,767 --> 00:04:53,934 This is Qurta, around 100 kilometers south of Luxor. 79 00:04:56,429 --> 00:04:57,829 Unless you're an archaeologist, 80 00:04:57,829 --> 00:05:01,742 you almost certainly won't have heard of it, 81 00:05:01,742 --> 00:05:03,368 because there aren't any great temples 82 00:05:03,368 --> 00:05:05,451 or royal tombs to admire. 83 00:05:07,214 --> 00:05:08,446 But high in the cliffs, 84 00:05:08,446 --> 00:05:12,113 you can see real signs of ancient life here. 85 00:05:15,819 --> 00:05:19,314 Thousands of years before the pyramids, 86 00:05:19,314 --> 00:05:22,499 and this is where our story begins. 87 00:05:22,499 --> 00:05:24,043 - [Dirk] Welcome to Qurta, Joann. 88 00:05:24,043 --> 00:05:26,164 - Thank you so much for letting me come here. 89 00:05:26,164 --> 00:05:28,247 It's incredibly exciting. 90 00:05:29,903 --> 00:05:31,453 - It's the first time you're here, I suppose? 91 00:05:31,453 --> 00:05:32,286 - Yes. 92 00:05:32,286 --> 00:05:35,025 Nothing escapes the sharp eye of Dr. Dirk Huyge, 93 00:05:35,025 --> 00:05:38,135 and he's got something very special to show me. 94 00:05:38,135 --> 00:05:39,915 - [Dirk] Not many people have been here before you 95 00:05:39,915 --> 00:05:43,082 because it's a quite recent discovery. 96 00:05:46,569 --> 00:05:50,266 - [Joann] These carvings in the rock reveal an amazing story 97 00:05:50,266 --> 00:05:53,433 about the beginnings of Egyptian life. 98 00:05:55,745 --> 00:05:58,995 It's a 19,000-year-old picture gallery. 99 00:06:02,322 --> 00:06:04,655 Complete with its own hippo. 100 00:06:08,352 --> 00:06:11,614 - Back line, very short tail, hind legs, 101 00:06:11,614 --> 00:06:13,531 belly line, front legs. 102 00:06:14,472 --> 00:06:16,388 And the mouth is shown. 103 00:06:16,388 --> 00:06:17,221 The hippo was smiling. 104 00:06:17,221 --> 00:06:21,156 But then again, a hippo is always smiling. 105 00:06:21,156 --> 00:06:25,890 - But another type of animal is by far the most common here. 106 00:06:25,890 --> 00:06:27,445 That's cattle. 107 00:06:27,445 --> 00:06:29,576 - Ah, it's not just cattle, 108 00:06:29,576 --> 00:06:33,743 this is the mighty aurochs, the wild bovid, wild cattle. 109 00:06:35,218 --> 00:06:38,913 And extremely powerful images that seem to be in movement. 110 00:06:38,913 --> 00:06:43,080 - They are, they're charging down towards us, aren't they? 111 00:06:44,502 --> 00:06:49,082 These wild aurochs were ancestors of the domestic cow. 112 00:06:49,082 --> 00:06:51,122 And nearly 20,000 years ago, 113 00:06:51,122 --> 00:06:54,122 beef was the main thing on the menu. 114 00:06:55,651 --> 00:06:59,818 - About maybe 50% of their diet was composed of aurochs. 115 00:07:02,837 --> 00:07:05,045 So they were experts and masters 116 00:07:05,045 --> 00:07:07,684 in representing this animal. 117 00:07:07,684 --> 00:07:11,977 (gentle instrumental music) 118 00:07:11,977 --> 00:07:14,778 It's always high on the cliff, very prominent positions 119 00:07:14,778 --> 00:07:16,793 that give an excellent panorama 120 00:07:16,793 --> 00:07:19,324 over what must have been in the Paleolithic, 121 00:07:19,324 --> 00:07:22,157 the hunting grounds of the people. 122 00:07:26,807 --> 00:07:28,933 - It's easy to picture these early hunters here 123 00:07:28,933 --> 00:07:31,183 as they tracked their prey. 124 00:07:33,945 --> 00:07:37,745 But the landscape would've looked very different from today. 125 00:07:37,745 --> 00:07:40,818 Because back then, this was savanna grassland, 126 00:07:40,818 --> 00:07:43,068 a green and fertile region. 127 00:07:47,621 --> 00:07:51,391 Do we have any idea why these creatures 128 00:07:51,391 --> 00:07:54,201 were engraved on these rocks here? 129 00:07:54,201 --> 00:07:57,422 - We can guess, Joann, but we don't know. 130 00:07:57,422 --> 00:08:01,224 Maybe they wanted to influence the hunting, 131 00:08:01,224 --> 00:08:04,641 maybe this is some sort of hunting magic. 132 00:08:14,879 --> 00:08:17,294 - It really is magical to sit here 133 00:08:17,294 --> 00:08:19,916 and imagine Egypt's earliest nomadic people 134 00:08:19,916 --> 00:08:21,757 passing right through this spot 135 00:08:21,757 --> 00:08:23,762 and portraying on these very rocks 136 00:08:23,762 --> 00:08:27,262 the animals that they saw all around them. 137 00:08:30,591 --> 00:08:33,091 Human figures and boats joined the animals 138 00:08:33,091 --> 00:08:37,646 as the carvings became stranger and stranger. 139 00:08:37,646 --> 00:08:40,380 But these carvings are also the earliest glimpse 140 00:08:40,380 --> 00:08:43,521 of the amazing things to come. 141 00:08:43,521 --> 00:08:47,271 (gentle instrumental music) 142 00:08:49,556 --> 00:08:52,567 These are the first signs of what makes ancient Egypt, 143 00:08:52,567 --> 00:08:54,234 well, ancient Egypt. 144 00:09:01,483 --> 00:09:04,039 As for its ancient landscape, 145 00:09:04,039 --> 00:09:07,539 this evolved under dramatic circumstances. 146 00:09:08,517 --> 00:09:11,759 10,000 years ago, gravity tilted the entire Earth 147 00:09:11,759 --> 00:09:15,055 off its axis by about half a degree, 148 00:09:15,055 --> 00:09:18,574 and this had a profound effect on climate. 149 00:09:18,574 --> 00:09:20,219 And as the world began to change, 150 00:09:20,219 --> 00:09:23,219 Egypt would never be the same again. 151 00:09:24,085 --> 00:09:26,561 Now, these early people were nomads, 152 00:09:26,561 --> 00:09:28,895 seasonally mobile pastoralists 153 00:09:28,895 --> 00:09:32,645 who moved around, following the summer rains. 154 00:09:37,710 --> 00:09:41,030 And these rains really were the vital, life-bringing force 155 00:09:41,030 --> 00:09:45,163 which created the greenery on which wild animals depended. 156 00:09:45,163 --> 00:09:46,780 But of course, with climate change, 157 00:09:46,780 --> 00:09:49,635 these rains began to dry up. 158 00:09:49,635 --> 00:09:51,885 Okay, you can cut the rain. 159 00:09:58,426 --> 00:10:01,689 The diminishing rainfall forced both animals and people 160 00:10:01,689 --> 00:10:05,856 towards large lakes, which formed during the rainy season. 161 00:10:07,967 --> 00:10:10,030 One such area is Nabta Playa, 162 00:10:10,030 --> 00:10:13,473 100 kilometers southwest of Aswan. 163 00:10:13,473 --> 00:10:15,059 And here, these nomadic hunters 164 00:10:15,059 --> 00:10:17,889 began to settle into communities. 165 00:10:17,889 --> 00:10:20,175 But still reliant on the annual summer rains, 166 00:10:20,175 --> 00:10:24,096 they needed to predict exactly when these would return. 167 00:10:24,096 --> 00:10:27,506 And so they turned to the night sky. 168 00:10:27,506 --> 00:10:30,640 Welcome to the beginning of time. 169 00:10:30,640 --> 00:10:34,807 Quite literally, because this is Egypt's oldest calendar. 170 00:10:36,184 --> 00:10:38,730 It's around 7,000 years old. 171 00:10:38,730 --> 00:10:42,426 This stone circle from Nabta Playa is the earliest evidence 172 00:10:42,426 --> 00:10:46,593 of how Egyptian weather forecasters became astronomers. 173 00:10:48,005 --> 00:10:52,193 They aligned its central stones to the circumpolar stars, 174 00:10:52,193 --> 00:10:55,526 visible in the night sky all year round. 175 00:10:57,469 --> 00:10:59,789 When the sun appeared directly overhead, 176 00:10:59,789 --> 00:11:01,956 the stones cast no shadow. 177 00:11:03,104 --> 00:11:06,271 The mid-summer rains were approaching. 178 00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:10,911 This meant that the animals would drink, 179 00:11:10,911 --> 00:11:12,452 the plants would grow 180 00:11:12,452 --> 00:11:15,924 and the world would survive for another year. 181 00:11:15,924 --> 00:11:19,375 So in many ways, this circle represents the solution 182 00:11:19,375 --> 00:11:22,458 to the very real problem of survival. 183 00:11:23,540 --> 00:11:27,159 But the Egyptians would take this a step further. 184 00:11:27,159 --> 00:11:28,478 I think the really great thing 185 00:11:28,478 --> 00:11:30,788 about these mini monumental markers 186 00:11:30,788 --> 00:11:33,619 is that this is the earliest example 187 00:11:33,619 --> 00:11:35,447 we have of the way in which the Egyptians 188 00:11:35,447 --> 00:11:38,795 are aligning their monuments to various things, 189 00:11:38,795 --> 00:11:41,362 to the sky, to the cardinal points. 190 00:11:41,362 --> 00:11:45,453 And from now on, every tomb, every temple, every monument 191 00:11:45,453 --> 00:11:49,620 will be aligned to the heavens, to the very gods themselves. 192 00:11:54,916 --> 00:11:58,573 If the stars and the rain were this closely linked, 193 00:11:58,573 --> 00:12:02,740 then this world and the next must be one and the same. 194 00:12:04,871 --> 00:12:07,889 Now, this has been described as Egypt's earliest 195 00:12:07,889 --> 00:12:12,056 sculpted stone monument and dates from around 5000 BC. 196 00:12:14,692 --> 00:12:18,081 This chunk of sandstone was quarried over a mile away 197 00:12:18,081 --> 00:12:21,219 from where it was eventually discovered. 198 00:12:21,219 --> 00:12:24,777 This certainly suggests a kind of sense of community 199 00:12:24,777 --> 00:12:27,279 where people were already working together 200 00:12:27,279 --> 00:12:29,665 to achieve a desired aim. 201 00:12:29,665 --> 00:12:32,704 In this case, the stone was hauled into place, 202 00:12:32,704 --> 00:12:34,828 and then there are clear signs 203 00:12:34,828 --> 00:12:39,637 that it has been sculpted into a specific shape. 204 00:12:39,637 --> 00:12:41,459 Now, you might have to go with me on this, 205 00:12:41,459 --> 00:12:45,042 but some believe that this is in fact a cow 206 00:12:47,222 --> 00:12:51,389 with its large hind quarters and this sculpted head. 207 00:12:54,504 --> 00:12:56,961 Now, the cow was a vital part of everyday life 208 00:12:56,961 --> 00:12:57,977 for these people. 209 00:12:57,977 --> 00:13:00,947 It was a source of meat, of milk and of blood, 210 00:13:00,947 --> 00:13:03,819 key sources of protein they needed to keep them healthy. 211 00:13:03,819 --> 00:13:06,038 And yet so important was the cow, 212 00:13:06,038 --> 00:13:09,937 they chose to take it through into the afterlife with them, 213 00:13:09,937 --> 00:13:12,540 to sustain them on a spiritual level. 214 00:13:12,540 --> 00:13:14,429 And this is the very beginnings 215 00:13:14,429 --> 00:13:17,179 of the great cow goddess, Hathor. 216 00:13:22,049 --> 00:13:25,850 Hathor may have started off as a source of milk and meat, 217 00:13:25,850 --> 00:13:28,706 but eventually she would be loved and idolized 218 00:13:28,706 --> 00:13:31,287 by millions of Egyptians, 219 00:13:31,287 --> 00:13:35,454 since she represented love, joy, beauty and motherhood. 220 00:13:38,919 --> 00:13:42,108 And although her image develops from a lifelike animal 221 00:13:42,108 --> 00:13:44,858 to a female face with cow's ears, 222 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:49,797 this may be Hathor's very earliest incarnation. 223 00:13:53,431 --> 00:13:58,225 Yet Hathor is only one of a multitude of gods and goddesses. 224 00:13:58,225 --> 00:14:01,711 The Egyptians just couldn't get enough of them. 225 00:14:01,711 --> 00:14:03,452 Over the centuries, emerged hundreds, 226 00:14:03,452 --> 00:14:06,151 if not thousands, of deities, 227 00:14:06,151 --> 00:14:09,818 each with a specific purpose and appearance. 228 00:14:10,695 --> 00:14:13,502 Some came in human form. 229 00:14:13,502 --> 00:14:15,335 Some had animal heads. 230 00:14:16,811 --> 00:14:20,561 They could be male, female, even androgynous. 231 00:14:23,121 --> 00:14:25,102 It seems that there were few aspects of life 232 00:14:25,102 --> 00:14:27,769 that didn't have their own gods. 233 00:14:30,852 --> 00:14:32,783 We know that in the very earliest times, 234 00:14:32,783 --> 00:14:35,708 their gods resembled familiar things, 235 00:14:35,708 --> 00:14:37,612 the world around them, elements of nature 236 00:14:37,612 --> 00:14:39,888 and certainly animals. 237 00:14:39,888 --> 00:14:43,545 And over time, the animals, their forms, their shapes, 238 00:14:43,545 --> 00:14:46,875 their characteristics were distilled down 239 00:14:46,875 --> 00:14:49,342 into this sort of divine figure, 240 00:14:49,342 --> 00:14:51,904 each one worshiped for a different quality. 241 00:14:51,904 --> 00:14:53,203 In the case of the ram, 242 00:14:53,203 --> 00:14:57,298 they were worshiped for their procreative powers. 243 00:14:57,298 --> 00:14:58,371 In the case of the cow, 244 00:14:58,371 --> 00:15:01,704 for their nurturing, motherly instincts. 245 00:15:02,932 --> 00:15:05,206 And of course, you've got rather different creatures, 246 00:15:05,206 --> 00:15:08,269 the dangerous creatures, the ones that lived on the edges 247 00:15:08,269 --> 00:15:09,743 of the Egyptian world, 248 00:15:09,743 --> 00:15:12,993 the lions, the crocodiles, the jackals. 249 00:15:16,242 --> 00:15:19,823 But it wasn't just about finding the appropriate divinity, 250 00:15:19,823 --> 00:15:23,119 it was about gaining power over them. 251 00:15:23,119 --> 00:15:26,411 The goddess Sekhmet was a ferocious lioness 252 00:15:26,411 --> 00:15:29,328 and the bringer of death to humans. 253 00:15:30,830 --> 00:15:34,022 So the Egyptians transformed her into a deity 254 00:15:34,022 --> 00:15:37,473 as a way of controlling her destructive powers. 255 00:15:37,473 --> 00:15:40,700 By worshiping Sekhmet, it was believed that she could be 256 00:15:40,700 --> 00:15:44,867 placated and transformed into a more benign deity. 257 00:15:47,153 --> 00:15:48,356 On so many levels, 258 00:15:48,356 --> 00:15:50,495 the Egyptians were trying to tap into nature 259 00:15:50,495 --> 00:15:54,662 to affect the way that nature then in turn affected them. 260 00:15:59,944 --> 00:16:03,125 In many ways, Egypt's unique religion was the glue 261 00:16:03,125 --> 00:16:07,162 that held society together, uniting the population 262 00:16:07,162 --> 00:16:11,424 and underpinning almost every aspect of life. 263 00:16:11,424 --> 00:16:16,192 It's everywhere, in tombs and temples, in everyday life. 264 00:16:16,192 --> 00:16:20,881 And yet, there is another, even more fundamental element 265 00:16:20,881 --> 00:16:25,048 without which ancient Egypt never would have existed at all. 266 00:16:37,461 --> 00:16:40,334 Later, Greek historians famously observed 267 00:16:40,334 --> 00:16:44,082 that Egypt was the gift of the Nile. 268 00:16:44,082 --> 00:16:45,858 And how right they were. 269 00:16:45,858 --> 00:16:48,178 Because as the climate continued to change, 270 00:16:48,178 --> 00:16:51,422 the desert lakes eventually dried up, 271 00:16:51,422 --> 00:16:55,589 leaving the Egyptians with just one source of water. 272 00:17:09,570 --> 00:17:12,294 This is an incredibly special place. 273 00:17:12,294 --> 00:17:13,780 Located in modern Sudan, 274 00:17:13,780 --> 00:17:17,858 it nonetheless forms the very source of Egypt, 275 00:17:17,858 --> 00:17:21,317 for it's the place where two great rivers meet, 276 00:17:21,317 --> 00:17:23,766 the White Nile and the Blue Nile, 277 00:17:23,766 --> 00:17:27,113 which combine here to form the world's longest river, 278 00:17:27,113 --> 00:17:28,728 flowing from the heart of Africa 279 00:17:28,728 --> 00:17:31,645 and out into the Mediterranean Sea. 280 00:17:32,888 --> 00:17:36,057 (gentle instrumental music) 281 00:17:36,057 --> 00:17:38,880 For much of the year, the wide, lazy White Nile 282 00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:41,258 is the main source of water, 283 00:17:41,258 --> 00:17:44,237 until annual rainfall in the Ethiopian highlands 284 00:17:44,237 --> 00:17:48,001 swells the faster-flowing Blue Nile. 285 00:17:48,001 --> 00:17:52,692 Today, the modern Aswan dams hold back these floodwaters. 286 00:17:52,692 --> 00:17:54,421 But until the 20th century, 287 00:17:54,421 --> 00:17:57,826 huge volumes of water and fertile silt 288 00:17:57,826 --> 00:18:01,826 surge downriver to flood the entire Nile valley, 289 00:18:03,994 --> 00:18:08,161 bringing life and fertility to the desert that is Egypt. 290 00:18:17,408 --> 00:18:21,242 This annual Nile flood was the single most important event 291 00:18:21,242 --> 00:18:23,377 in the lives of every ancient Egyptian, 292 00:18:23,377 --> 00:18:25,441 for its life-giving waters 293 00:18:25,441 --> 00:18:27,549 brought the nutrients and minerals 294 00:18:27,549 --> 00:18:30,659 which enriched the soil all along its banks, 295 00:18:30,659 --> 00:18:34,076 and this allowed agriculture to flourish. 296 00:18:36,877 --> 00:18:39,617 Egypt is blessed with some of the most fertile land 297 00:18:39,617 --> 00:18:43,569 in the world, where farmers can grow everything 298 00:18:43,569 --> 00:18:45,238 from sweet corn and garlic 299 00:18:45,238 --> 00:18:48,071 to bananas, sugar cane and cotton. 300 00:18:55,121 --> 00:18:58,430 Badaway, it's quite intensive farming, isn't it? 301 00:18:58,430 --> 00:19:02,000 The land gives the people a lot, doesn't it? 302 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:04,987 - Yes, but we need to give the land also a rest. 303 00:19:04,987 --> 00:19:09,201 We grow one time and we leave it for one month. 304 00:19:09,201 --> 00:19:12,662 Then after, we use the land again to grow again. 305 00:19:12,662 --> 00:19:16,151 - That's amazing that it only needs one month rest time 306 00:19:16,151 --> 00:19:17,947 and then it can be planted again. 307 00:19:17,947 --> 00:19:20,475 - Yes, sometimes 15 days, sometimes one month. 308 00:19:20,475 --> 00:19:21,336 - Wow. 309 00:19:21,336 --> 00:19:24,171 But it really does emphasize that this land of Egypt 310 00:19:24,171 --> 00:19:27,662 has always been so rich and so giving to the people. 311 00:19:27,662 --> 00:19:31,829 It's always given the people everything they need. 312 00:19:37,015 --> 00:19:39,283 And it's the Nile that turned this desert land 313 00:19:39,283 --> 00:19:40,616 into a paradise. 314 00:19:41,791 --> 00:19:45,541 (gentle instrumental music) 315 00:19:49,096 --> 00:19:52,783 And 7,000 years ago, the people who could no longer survive 316 00:19:52,783 --> 00:19:56,397 in an increasingly desert landscape were forced to migrate 317 00:19:56,397 --> 00:20:00,420 towards it as their only source of water. 318 00:20:00,420 --> 00:20:04,294 So ancient Egypt took shape as these people came together 319 00:20:04,294 --> 00:20:06,627 along the banks of the Nile. 320 00:20:08,148 --> 00:20:11,126 In the north, settlements clustered around the delta 321 00:20:11,126 --> 00:20:12,376 and the Faiyum. 322 00:20:13,608 --> 00:20:16,858 And in the south, around the Qena Bend. 323 00:20:18,613 --> 00:20:22,113 This was the beginning of Egypt's so-called two lands, 324 00:20:22,113 --> 00:20:24,112 Upper and Lower Egypt, 325 00:20:24,112 --> 00:20:27,695 which developed into two distinct cultures. 326 00:20:33,044 --> 00:20:34,647 But what they both had in common 327 00:20:34,647 --> 00:20:36,953 was the astonishing fertility, 328 00:20:36,953 --> 00:20:41,120 replenished every year by the miracle of the Nile. 329 00:20:45,048 --> 00:20:47,904 El Kab, located to the south of the Qena Bend, 330 00:20:47,904 --> 00:20:51,654 is one of Upper Egypt's earliest settlements. 331 00:20:53,917 --> 00:20:56,611 And while it may lack the wow factor of the pyramids, 332 00:20:56,611 --> 00:20:58,954 it's actually far more revealing 333 00:20:58,954 --> 00:21:02,287 to see traces of this amazing evolution. 334 00:21:03,744 --> 00:21:06,831 Because here, we can see how a nomadic lifestyle 335 00:21:06,831 --> 00:21:10,914 was soon replaced by a settled, social structure. 336 00:21:13,297 --> 00:21:16,066 And although it was a slow and gradual process, 337 00:21:16,066 --> 00:21:18,113 archaeologist Elizabeth Hart 338 00:21:18,113 --> 00:21:22,030 can identify each stage of this transformation. 339 00:21:23,989 --> 00:21:26,447 Descending into small pits. - That's the place. 340 00:21:26,447 --> 00:21:29,003 - Yes, wow, you do work in an enclosed space. 341 00:21:29,003 --> 00:21:30,440 - But it's much cooler down here. 342 00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:32,440 - It's lovely, actually. 343 00:21:33,887 --> 00:21:35,163 - So down at this level, 344 00:21:35,163 --> 00:21:37,811 we have sterile soil where nobody lived. 345 00:21:37,811 --> 00:21:40,163 And then starting around 4200 BC, 346 00:21:40,163 --> 00:21:43,059 are layers of silt from the Nile flood, 347 00:21:43,059 --> 00:21:45,827 followed by wind-accumulated sand, 348 00:21:45,827 --> 00:21:48,599 and then another layer of silt and then more sand. 349 00:21:48,599 --> 00:21:49,848 And here you can see it really well, 350 00:21:49,848 --> 00:21:51,783 a thin silt layer from the Nile 351 00:21:51,783 --> 00:21:53,988 coming up and flooding, and then the sand. 352 00:21:53,988 --> 00:21:58,133 And over here, we have a hearth feature. 353 00:21:58,133 --> 00:22:01,500 So this tells us that humans were actually living on these 354 00:22:01,500 --> 00:22:04,552 and coming into the Nile valley and then moving back out. 355 00:22:04,552 --> 00:22:06,570 And we also found lots of pot shards 356 00:22:06,570 --> 00:22:09,157 and stone tools in these layers. 357 00:22:09,157 --> 00:22:10,334 - [Joann] You know, it might be a small space, 358 00:22:10,334 --> 00:22:11,912 but you've got people's real lives 359 00:22:11,912 --> 00:22:13,631 unfolding within it, haven't you? 360 00:22:13,631 --> 00:22:15,878 - And we have thousands of years of it here. 361 00:22:15,878 --> 00:22:17,642 When we started, people were just moving 362 00:22:17,642 --> 00:22:20,388 into the Nile valley, they were just starting to farm. 363 00:22:20,388 --> 00:22:21,758 And by the end here, 364 00:22:21,758 --> 00:22:25,106 we have pharaohs and a whole united Egypt. 365 00:22:25,106 --> 00:22:27,091 It's really impressive when you think about all the change 366 00:22:27,091 --> 00:22:30,258 that happened over this chunk of sand. 367 00:22:33,797 --> 00:22:35,777 - Although we are still centuries away 368 00:22:35,777 --> 00:22:37,854 from the grand pharaonic monuments, 369 00:22:37,854 --> 00:22:39,743 you can still find traces of the lives 370 00:22:39,743 --> 00:22:44,482 these ancient people lived, if you look hard enough, 371 00:22:44,482 --> 00:22:48,649 for very little has survived, except for tons of pottery. 372 00:22:50,621 --> 00:22:52,198 - Yeah, this one is, yeah. 373 00:22:52,198 --> 00:22:54,683 - So it's 5,000 years old? - So it's 5,000 years old. 374 00:22:54,683 --> 00:22:58,839 - Still so tactile, these things, aren't they? 375 00:22:58,839 --> 00:23:00,507 These pots help us to identify 376 00:23:00,507 --> 00:23:05,252 when this early society began to produce a food surplus, 377 00:23:05,252 --> 00:23:09,018 a pivotal transition which required robust pottery 378 00:23:09,018 --> 00:23:13,185 for the storage of large-scale food and drink production. 379 00:23:15,581 --> 00:23:17,611 These bread molds, from slightly later, 380 00:23:17,611 --> 00:23:20,448 are one of the most common finds. 381 00:23:20,448 --> 00:23:23,808 - So, you heat the mold, then the dough gets into it. 382 00:23:23,808 --> 00:23:26,969 And by the heat of the mold, the bread will be baked. 383 00:23:26,969 --> 00:23:27,969 - Brilliant! 384 00:23:28,810 --> 00:23:32,250 - But this comes in massive amounts. 385 00:23:32,250 --> 00:23:34,744 These are the beer jars. - Ah, bread and beer. 386 00:23:34,744 --> 00:23:36,873 - Bread and beer. - The Egyptian staples. 387 00:23:36,873 --> 00:23:39,469 Oh, nice size for a beer jar. 388 00:23:39,469 --> 00:23:42,178 This is the nuts and bolts of how Egyptian chronology 389 00:23:42,178 --> 00:23:43,502 all came together in the early days, isn't it? 390 00:23:43,502 --> 00:23:44,800 - Yes, yes. 391 00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:46,441 The pottery is especially fundamental 392 00:23:46,441 --> 00:23:49,349 to understand how people were living. 393 00:23:49,349 --> 00:23:53,016 (tense instrumental music) 394 00:23:57,074 --> 00:24:01,738 - Yet in Egypt, living was only half the story. 395 00:24:01,738 --> 00:24:04,648 Because what really sets the ancient Egyptians apart 396 00:24:04,648 --> 00:24:06,535 is their view of death. 397 00:24:06,535 --> 00:24:08,952 (drum music) 398 00:24:12,463 --> 00:24:16,630 To them, death wasn't the end of life but a new beginning. 399 00:24:18,479 --> 00:24:20,730 A transformation from the world of the living 400 00:24:20,730 --> 00:24:23,230 into an everlasting afterlife. 401 00:24:24,641 --> 00:24:26,100 And such a belief 402 00:24:26,100 --> 00:24:29,658 would shape Egypt's most mysterious practice, 403 00:24:29,658 --> 00:24:32,908 and my favorite subject, mummification. 404 00:24:39,554 --> 00:24:42,088 Although the origins of this enigmatic tradition 405 00:24:42,088 --> 00:24:44,781 are only now becoming clearer, 406 00:24:44,781 --> 00:24:48,045 the burial of their dead had a strong significance 407 00:24:48,045 --> 00:24:50,462 from the very earliest times. 408 00:24:53,985 --> 00:24:57,735 This is a typical burial from around 3400 BC. 409 00:24:59,670 --> 00:25:02,266 The body is curled into the fetal position 410 00:25:02,266 --> 00:25:05,728 and here placed within a reconstructed pit grave, 411 00:25:05,728 --> 00:25:06,845 surrounded by the belongings 412 00:25:06,845 --> 00:25:09,428 he might have had in his earthly life, 413 00:25:09,428 --> 00:25:13,595 like pottery, jewelry and a palette for preparing cosmetics. 414 00:25:16,463 --> 00:25:18,555 Everything that was important to him in life 415 00:25:18,555 --> 00:25:21,488 accompanied him into death. 416 00:25:21,488 --> 00:25:23,333 And I think that's quite significant 417 00:25:23,333 --> 00:25:27,476 because it shows that already, 5,500 years ago, 418 00:25:27,476 --> 00:25:30,749 the Egyptians wanted to take it all with them. 419 00:25:30,749 --> 00:25:34,114 They clearly believed that something happened beyond death. 420 00:25:34,114 --> 00:25:35,988 Death was simply a transition 421 00:25:35,988 --> 00:25:38,555 into another state of existence, 422 00:25:38,555 --> 00:25:39,920 when you continued to live 423 00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:42,415 and it was assumed you would need everything 424 00:25:42,415 --> 00:25:45,332 you'd needed in your life on Earth. 425 00:25:46,495 --> 00:25:50,137 His body was naturally mummified in the hot desert sand, 426 00:25:50,137 --> 00:25:54,304 but its placement here may not have been accidental. 427 00:25:55,698 --> 00:25:59,525 Because even when dead, the body had to be preserved 428 00:25:59,525 --> 00:26:02,858 in order to house the soul for eternity. 429 00:26:05,133 --> 00:26:07,663 A skeleton simply wasn't good enough. 430 00:26:07,663 --> 00:26:11,198 Skeletons, bones, they are very, very anonymous. 431 00:26:11,198 --> 00:26:13,522 And yet, when the soft tissue, the skin, 432 00:26:13,522 --> 00:26:16,847 the hair is all present, we are ourselves. 433 00:26:16,847 --> 00:26:21,014 And that's exactly what this individual represents. 434 00:26:23,780 --> 00:26:27,090 Being face to face with one of the very earliest Egyptians 435 00:26:27,090 --> 00:26:30,269 gives us insight into the development of their ideas 436 00:26:30,269 --> 00:26:31,936 about the afterlife. 437 00:26:32,985 --> 00:26:35,012 It started off as a practical thing, 438 00:26:35,012 --> 00:26:39,209 burying the dead in a relatively small space, bundled up, 439 00:26:39,209 --> 00:26:41,690 and then it developed these layers 440 00:26:41,690 --> 00:26:43,731 of kind of like the symbolism. 441 00:26:43,731 --> 00:26:45,135 The fetal position, 442 00:26:45,135 --> 00:26:48,893 this idea in rebirth into the next world. 443 00:26:48,893 --> 00:26:50,702 It's almost like the seed 444 00:26:50,702 --> 00:26:55,166 from which the Egyptian funerary belief system evolved. 445 00:26:55,166 --> 00:26:56,668 This is the very beginning of a process 446 00:26:56,668 --> 00:26:59,511 which would be repeated a million fold, 447 00:26:59,511 --> 00:27:02,275 throughout Egyptian history. 448 00:27:02,275 --> 00:27:05,669 It's this combination of the esoteric 449 00:27:05,669 --> 00:27:07,733 underpinned by the practical 450 00:27:07,733 --> 00:27:11,900 which really does sum up the Egyptians in a nutshell. 451 00:27:15,094 --> 00:27:17,588 From the very beginning, the Egyptians were masters 452 00:27:17,588 --> 00:27:20,086 of making sense of their world, 453 00:27:20,086 --> 00:27:24,253 no matter how complex and mystifying it might seem to us. 454 00:27:28,082 --> 00:27:31,314 And this same ability to bring order is also found 455 00:27:31,314 --> 00:27:34,356 in the way they structured their early society, 456 00:27:34,356 --> 00:27:38,523 adopting levels of bureaucracy that border on the obsessive. 457 00:27:39,997 --> 00:27:41,778 In the ancient city of Abydos, 458 00:27:41,778 --> 00:27:45,110 the site of Egypt's first royal burial ground, 459 00:27:45,110 --> 00:27:48,551 archaeologists found the origins of a system 460 00:27:48,551 --> 00:27:51,884 that we still have to put up with today. 461 00:27:53,293 --> 00:27:57,478 It's most fitting that this city of death was the find spot 462 00:27:57,478 --> 00:27:59,612 of the earliest means of calculating 463 00:27:59,612 --> 00:28:02,445 that other great certainty, taxes. 464 00:28:07,912 --> 00:28:10,837 The evidence comes from small bone and ivory labels 465 00:28:10,837 --> 00:28:15,004 like these, which have been dated to around 3250 BC. 466 00:28:17,470 --> 00:28:21,520 The originals are probably the size of a postage stamp, 467 00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:22,931 and you can see that each one 468 00:28:22,931 --> 00:28:25,619 is engraved with images of animals, 469 00:28:25,619 --> 00:28:27,971 of birds, of plants, and so forth. 470 00:28:27,971 --> 00:28:30,951 And each one is pierced for suspension 471 00:28:30,951 --> 00:28:33,062 to a chest or pottery vessel, 472 00:28:33,062 --> 00:28:35,919 which would have contained oil, linen, grain. 473 00:28:35,919 --> 00:28:37,648 And it's thought that these symbols 474 00:28:37,648 --> 00:28:40,280 represent the regions that produced these commodities, 475 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:43,936 which were then brought here to Abydos. 476 00:28:43,936 --> 00:28:46,152 Thought to have been sent as tax payments, 477 00:28:46,152 --> 00:28:49,271 these tiny labels show how these early people 478 00:28:49,271 --> 00:28:51,794 were already capable of collecting duties 479 00:28:51,794 --> 00:28:54,294 from a vast geographical area. 480 00:28:55,288 --> 00:28:59,575 Some experts even believe these symbols can be vocalized. 481 00:28:59,575 --> 00:29:01,998 By turning the simple drawings into sounds 482 00:29:01,998 --> 00:29:05,831 makes this the world's earliest known writing. 483 00:29:12,846 --> 00:29:16,231 Now, isn't it interesting that the world's earliest writing 484 00:29:16,231 --> 00:29:20,320 wasn't developed to express some great outpouring of emotion 485 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:22,254 or express grand passion? 486 00:29:22,254 --> 00:29:25,837 It was simply a means of calculating taxes. 487 00:29:28,712 --> 00:29:32,639 These symbols soon became a sophisticated writing system 488 00:29:32,639 --> 00:29:35,415 of elegant signs we call hieroglyphs, 489 00:29:35,415 --> 00:29:37,748 which means sacred carvings. 490 00:29:40,070 --> 00:29:42,385 And these signs represented every aspect 491 00:29:42,385 --> 00:29:46,801 of the Egyptian world, which were only translated in 1822 492 00:29:46,801 --> 00:29:50,149 with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. 493 00:29:50,149 --> 00:29:53,899 (hopeful instrumental music) 494 00:29:54,784 --> 00:29:58,009 And a common language was needed, as goods were transported 495 00:29:58,009 --> 00:30:01,826 between the two lands of Upper and Lower Egypt. 496 00:30:01,826 --> 00:30:04,410 The people of Lower Egypt had also developed trade links 497 00:30:04,410 --> 00:30:06,938 with the rest of the ancient world. 498 00:30:06,938 --> 00:30:10,571 But as more war-like regions began to emerge in Upper Egypt, 499 00:30:10,571 --> 00:30:12,886 it soon became clear that the Nile 500 00:30:12,886 --> 00:30:17,053 had spawned two very different and distinctive cultures. 501 00:30:20,408 --> 00:30:23,226 And in many ways, the only thing they really had in common 502 00:30:23,226 --> 00:30:24,976 was this great river. 503 00:30:32,745 --> 00:30:34,985 The inevitable clash between these cultures 504 00:30:34,985 --> 00:30:37,649 is recorded on what many consider to be 505 00:30:37,649 --> 00:30:40,482 ancient Egypt's founding document. 506 00:30:44,646 --> 00:30:47,992 Taking the form of a giant ceremonial cosmetic palette, 507 00:30:47,992 --> 00:30:52,746 this is an exact copy of the original Narmer Palette. 508 00:30:52,746 --> 00:30:54,729 And however idealized and embellished, 509 00:30:54,729 --> 00:30:58,638 it depicts the pivotal moment when the southern king Narmer 510 00:30:58,638 --> 00:31:01,300 defeated his northern enemy. 511 00:31:01,300 --> 00:31:03,335 A split second after this mace comes down 512 00:31:03,335 --> 00:31:05,666 onto this northern enemy's head, 513 00:31:05,666 --> 00:31:08,298 and he's executed, he's killed, he's no more, 514 00:31:08,298 --> 00:31:12,465 Narmer himself remains, the first king of a united Egypt. 515 00:31:14,588 --> 00:31:17,806 And what this means is that the whole of the country 516 00:31:17,806 --> 00:31:20,723 is now united under one man's rule. 517 00:31:22,564 --> 00:31:25,914 He is setting himself up quite literally as the god-king, 518 00:31:25,914 --> 00:31:29,722 as the one central figure at the very pinnacle 519 00:31:29,722 --> 00:31:33,156 of the pyramid that forms Egyptian society. 520 00:31:33,156 --> 00:31:36,156 And from him, everything else flows. 521 00:31:37,097 --> 00:31:40,764 Egypt is now the world's first nation-state. 522 00:31:49,469 --> 00:31:53,782 What made ancient Egypt ancient Egypt is all here. 523 00:31:53,782 --> 00:31:56,938 The art forms, their forms of religion 524 00:31:56,938 --> 00:32:01,743 and even the world's first writing, hieroglyphic script. 525 00:32:01,743 --> 00:32:04,623 And this is the name of Narmer. 526 00:32:04,623 --> 00:32:07,790 The catfish, Nar, and the chisel, Mer. 527 00:32:08,897 --> 00:32:11,971 Narmer, the striking catfish. 528 00:32:11,971 --> 00:32:13,782 As the first king of Egypt, 529 00:32:13,782 --> 00:32:16,860 Narmer is protected by the cow goddess, Hathor, 530 00:32:16,860 --> 00:32:20,202 stands beside Horus, the falcon god of kingship, 531 00:32:20,202 --> 00:32:23,153 and is dressed in all the same paraphernalia 532 00:32:23,153 --> 00:32:26,095 as every king who succeeds him. 533 00:32:26,095 --> 00:32:27,997 He has the tie-on false beard 534 00:32:27,997 --> 00:32:31,543 to emphasize his virility and his strength. 535 00:32:31,543 --> 00:32:34,488 And this is matched, of course, by the tie-on bull's tail. 536 00:32:34,488 --> 00:32:35,880 It's a wonderful feature, 537 00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:37,139 this idea you could just tie 538 00:32:37,139 --> 00:32:39,994 a little tail onto the back of the belt, 539 00:32:39,994 --> 00:32:44,403 and then take into yourself the power of a bull. 540 00:32:44,403 --> 00:32:48,570 This palette is Egypt's earliest historical document. 541 00:32:50,451 --> 00:32:53,641 It's the blueprint of how every future pharaoh 542 00:32:53,641 --> 00:32:57,474 will be portrayed, in the company of the gods. 543 00:32:59,418 --> 00:33:03,813 Yet perhaps most significant is Narmer's smiting pose. 544 00:33:03,813 --> 00:33:07,015 This powerful image with the mace held high 545 00:33:07,015 --> 00:33:11,182 will be endlessly repeated throughout Egypt's long history. 546 00:33:13,564 --> 00:33:15,255 This is a horrible way to die, 547 00:33:15,255 --> 00:33:17,596 to have your brains bludgeoned out. 548 00:33:17,596 --> 00:33:20,743 And yet, even this the Egyptian artists can show 549 00:33:20,743 --> 00:33:23,243 in an almost ballet-like pose. 550 00:33:24,190 --> 00:33:28,479 It's been sanitized, it's been elevated to a piece of art, 551 00:33:28,479 --> 00:33:31,729 and yet the message still gets through. 552 00:33:40,281 --> 00:33:42,073 For the next 3,000 years, 553 00:33:42,073 --> 00:33:44,697 every one of Egypt's subsequent rulers 554 00:33:44,697 --> 00:33:49,150 would try and link themselves to Egypt's first pharaoh. 555 00:33:49,150 --> 00:33:51,787 To rule legitimately and successfully, 556 00:33:51,787 --> 00:33:54,220 they had to be absorbed into the complexities 557 00:33:54,220 --> 00:33:59,083 of the Egyptian hierarchy, both in this world and the next. 558 00:33:59,083 --> 00:34:02,473 So their names were recorded on a series of king lists, 559 00:34:02,473 --> 00:34:04,926 a kind of royal family tree. 560 00:34:04,926 --> 00:34:07,390 And the best preserved of these is here, 561 00:34:07,390 --> 00:34:10,796 in the temple of Seti I at Abydos. 562 00:34:10,796 --> 00:34:15,058 It lists himself and 75 of his royal predecessors, 563 00:34:15,058 --> 00:34:18,149 going right back to the very dawn of Egyptian history, 564 00:34:18,149 --> 00:34:20,539 with the very first king up there, King Narmer. 565 00:34:20,539 --> 00:34:23,144 And the other important detail about this 566 00:34:23,144 --> 00:34:27,377 is that it's essentially emphasizing that royal continuity 567 00:34:27,377 --> 00:34:30,345 because Seti has his own young son, 568 00:34:30,345 --> 00:34:32,137 Ramses, the crowned prince, 569 00:34:32,137 --> 00:34:34,601 actually reading out these names 570 00:34:34,601 --> 00:34:37,111 on a piece of papyrus paper. 571 00:34:37,111 --> 00:34:39,587 So it's as if Seti is saying to the gods, 572 00:34:39,587 --> 00:34:44,240 look, I'm now pharaoh, and this is my son who'll succeed me 573 00:34:44,240 --> 00:34:48,407 to become yet another name on this remarkable list. 574 00:34:49,862 --> 00:34:53,128 In all, Egypt had over 300 pharaohs, 575 00:34:53,128 --> 00:34:55,461 organized into 30 dynasties. 576 00:34:58,851 --> 00:35:01,080 But in the case of Egypt's earliest kings, 577 00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:03,960 being merely mortal was not enough. 578 00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:05,905 They needed to prove their divinity 579 00:35:05,905 --> 00:35:10,072 by exercising absolute control over their subjects. 580 00:35:11,071 --> 00:35:14,821 (gentle instrumental music) 581 00:35:20,439 --> 00:35:23,724 And the evidence for this was found in the desolate desert 582 00:35:23,724 --> 00:35:26,974 surrounding the ancient city of Abydos. 583 00:35:33,927 --> 00:35:37,296 This was Egypt's first royal burial ground, 584 00:35:37,296 --> 00:35:41,296 the original version of the Valley of the Kings. 585 00:35:48,795 --> 00:35:50,864 Now, being here, you get a real sense 586 00:35:50,864 --> 00:35:54,174 of the importance of this place for the ancient Egyptians, 587 00:35:54,174 --> 00:35:56,689 for as the wind funnels down this valley 588 00:35:56,689 --> 00:35:58,700 and swirls around the sand, 589 00:35:58,700 --> 00:36:00,201 if you listen very carefully, 590 00:36:00,201 --> 00:36:02,868 you can hear a whispering sound. 591 00:36:04,258 --> 00:36:07,841 (eerie instrumental music) 592 00:36:10,516 --> 00:36:12,603 A whispering once thought to be the voices 593 00:36:12,603 --> 00:36:14,936 of the very dead themselves. 594 00:36:22,567 --> 00:36:25,720 And here, Egypt's earliest kings were laid to rest 595 00:36:25,720 --> 00:36:29,677 within huge subterranean burial chambers. 596 00:36:29,677 --> 00:36:32,811 Like this, the location of the final resting place 597 00:36:32,811 --> 00:36:35,811 of Egypt's third pharaoh, King Djer, 598 00:36:36,784 --> 00:36:39,195 one of the largest and most complex tombs 599 00:36:39,195 --> 00:36:41,577 of the first dynasty. 600 00:36:41,577 --> 00:36:43,668 And although it's been recovered in sand, 601 00:36:43,668 --> 00:36:46,175 it clearly demonstrates the power 602 00:36:46,175 --> 00:36:49,342 that Djer still wielded even in death. 603 00:36:52,997 --> 00:36:56,898 Djer himself was buried here, in the central chamber. 604 00:36:56,898 --> 00:37:01,065 But all around, are 318 subsidiary graves of his courtiers. 605 00:37:01,926 --> 00:37:04,693 Not only that, a little way beyond, 606 00:37:04,693 --> 00:37:07,441 many others were also buried. 607 00:37:07,441 --> 00:37:11,917 In total, 587 individuals accompanied this man 608 00:37:11,917 --> 00:37:13,584 into the next world. 609 00:37:14,420 --> 00:37:16,953 Which is incredible enough, but there is evidence 610 00:37:16,953 --> 00:37:19,027 of a more sinister twist. 611 00:37:19,027 --> 00:37:23,050 The fact that this tomb was all sealed over at the same time 612 00:37:23,050 --> 00:37:26,055 suggests these people may have been victims 613 00:37:26,055 --> 00:37:29,413 of ritual sacrifice, perhaps even ritual stabbing, 614 00:37:29,413 --> 00:37:31,690 as portrayed in art of the time. 615 00:37:31,690 --> 00:37:34,181 And certainly, that power over life and death 616 00:37:34,181 --> 00:37:37,348 would give any king a god-like status. 617 00:37:40,307 --> 00:37:43,974 (somber instrumental music) 618 00:37:50,013 --> 00:37:52,620 Now, later kings seemed to have realized that killing 619 00:37:52,620 --> 00:37:54,283 all their courtiers in one go 620 00:37:54,283 --> 00:37:56,395 was not the best use of people, 621 00:37:56,395 --> 00:37:58,668 who were a precious state resource. 622 00:37:58,668 --> 00:37:59,829 After all, who'd be around 623 00:37:59,829 --> 00:38:02,912 to make the next king his cup of tea? 624 00:38:04,869 --> 00:38:07,063 Although this cruel and short-sighted practice 625 00:38:07,063 --> 00:38:10,299 of ritual killing soon died out, it had, nonetheless, 626 00:38:10,299 --> 00:38:12,591 demonstrated that Egypt's rulers 627 00:38:12,591 --> 00:38:16,020 had complete control over their subjects, 628 00:38:16,020 --> 00:38:17,833 an essential step along the route 629 00:38:17,833 --> 00:38:22,000 towards building the pyramids and indeed Egypt itself. 630 00:38:24,944 --> 00:38:27,194 - Hello. - Welcome, welcome. 631 00:38:31,126 --> 00:38:33,536 - Yet the Egyptian people were not slaves. 632 00:38:33,536 --> 00:38:36,953 By this time, Egypt was a land of plenty, 633 00:38:37,835 --> 00:38:42,002 where all could enjoy its bounty, both in life and in death. 634 00:38:48,999 --> 00:38:53,130 This is the later tomb of an official called Irukaptah. 635 00:38:53,130 --> 00:38:55,735 And here he is, greeting as he's coming to the door 636 00:38:55,735 --> 00:38:58,363 of his own tomb, emerging from the walls, 637 00:38:58,363 --> 00:39:01,454 captured in all his splendor with his finery on, 638 00:39:01,454 --> 00:39:04,198 his jeweled belt and his white linen kilt. 639 00:39:04,198 --> 00:39:07,982 Even details down to his little sort of pencil mustache. 640 00:39:07,982 --> 00:39:12,149 Looks a little bit like Clark Gable, to be honest. 641 00:39:13,565 --> 00:39:17,400 The scenes in his colorful tomb depict a refined life 642 00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:21,567 that's a world away from Egypt's earliest farmers. 643 00:39:25,135 --> 00:39:28,337 We have Irukaptah seated in front of a table 644 00:39:28,337 --> 00:39:29,891 of food offerings. 645 00:39:29,891 --> 00:39:33,447 There is fruit, vegetables, wine and so forth. 646 00:39:33,447 --> 00:39:34,679 The bearers are coming forward 647 00:39:34,679 --> 00:39:37,674 with offerings to sustain his soul. 648 00:39:37,674 --> 00:39:41,341 (lively instrumental music) 649 00:39:42,510 --> 00:39:44,919 Irukaptah was the royal butcher, 650 00:39:44,919 --> 00:39:47,344 an important member of court. 651 00:39:47,344 --> 00:39:48,503 And with royal courtiers 652 00:39:48,503 --> 00:39:51,084 no longer sacrificed for burial with their king, 653 00:39:51,084 --> 00:39:53,795 they could now make their own elaborate preparations 654 00:39:53,795 --> 00:39:55,811 for the afterlife. 655 00:39:55,811 --> 00:39:57,282 There are a couple of scenes up here 656 00:39:57,282 --> 00:40:01,858 of the household servants making the beds of Irukaptah 657 00:40:01,858 --> 00:40:05,355 and his family there, stretching out the linen sheets. 658 00:40:05,355 --> 00:40:07,391 They're bringing even a little fly whisk 659 00:40:07,391 --> 00:40:10,579 and the ancient Egyptian pillow, the headrest there. 660 00:40:10,579 --> 00:40:14,746 So even in the afterlife, Irukaptah will be comfortable. 661 00:40:19,652 --> 00:40:24,146 Irukaptah's tomb is in Saqqara, a sprawling city of the dead 662 00:40:24,146 --> 00:40:27,063 for Egypt's first capital, Memphis. 663 00:40:30,775 --> 00:40:33,738 Yet Saqqara wasn't just the burial site of courtiers, 664 00:40:33,738 --> 00:40:35,274 but of kings, 665 00:40:35,274 --> 00:40:39,441 and the site of a revolution in royal tomb-building. 666 00:40:43,052 --> 00:40:46,333 And whereas previously the dead had tended to be buried away 667 00:40:46,333 --> 00:40:48,855 in the desert, hidden away almost, 668 00:40:48,855 --> 00:40:51,879 here at Saqqara, high on the desert escarpment, 669 00:40:51,879 --> 00:40:55,586 the dead were literally placed on display. 670 00:40:55,586 --> 00:40:58,646 (speaks in foreign language) 671 00:40:58,646 --> 00:41:00,449 Up to this point, the Egyptians had tended 672 00:41:00,449 --> 00:41:03,415 to build their tombs and temples, like their houses, 673 00:41:03,415 --> 00:41:07,382 from organic materials, from the mud-brick, 674 00:41:07,382 --> 00:41:10,382 wood and reeds which rarely survive. 675 00:41:12,236 --> 00:41:15,991 But in the third dynasty, the great innovator King Djoser 676 00:41:15,991 --> 00:41:20,074 built his legacy in something far more permanent. 677 00:41:21,811 --> 00:41:25,978 For he built in stone, which could potentially last forever. 678 00:41:28,076 --> 00:41:29,956 Djoser built this huge stone wall 679 00:41:29,956 --> 00:41:33,055 to surround his tomb complex, 680 00:41:33,055 --> 00:41:34,353 although his architects and workmen 681 00:41:34,353 --> 00:41:39,326 still drew their inspiration from the natural world. 682 00:41:39,326 --> 00:41:40,159 You can see that the masons 683 00:41:40,159 --> 00:41:41,730 are just trying to get their head around 684 00:41:41,730 --> 00:41:43,894 how to actually work with this stuff, 685 00:41:43,894 --> 00:41:45,637 what forms to put it in. 686 00:41:45,637 --> 00:41:49,230 So we have Egypt's first hypostyle hall of columns, sure. 687 00:41:49,230 --> 00:41:52,413 But it's taking the form of reeds bound together 688 00:41:52,413 --> 00:41:54,951 to make the kind of columns that would have been 689 00:41:54,951 --> 00:41:57,951 in Djoser's palace down by the Nile. 690 00:42:01,078 --> 00:42:03,214 But this, of course, is a house for death. 691 00:42:03,214 --> 00:42:04,894 This is a palace of eternity 692 00:42:04,894 --> 00:42:09,460 and must be built in something as solid as stone. 693 00:42:09,460 --> 00:42:13,210 (gentle instrumental music) 694 00:42:17,456 --> 00:42:21,441 At the rear of his complex is an intriguing stone shrine, 695 00:42:21,441 --> 00:42:25,608 where I can come face to face with King Djoser himself. 696 00:42:28,817 --> 00:42:29,784 The shrine looks like 697 00:42:29,784 --> 00:42:32,572 it's suffering a severe case of subsidence. 698 00:42:32,572 --> 00:42:34,917 And yet, the Egyptians purposefully built it 699 00:42:34,917 --> 00:42:37,167 on this very definite tilt. 700 00:42:41,924 --> 00:42:43,983 And it has these two holes here 701 00:42:43,983 --> 00:42:47,066 where modern tourists can see Djoser. 702 00:42:48,764 --> 00:42:50,476 But Djoser can see them. 703 00:42:50,476 --> 00:42:51,820 He can actually see beyond them, 704 00:42:51,820 --> 00:42:54,276 'cause this faces true north. 705 00:42:54,276 --> 00:42:55,816 It faces the northern stars, 706 00:42:55,816 --> 00:42:59,310 which the Egyptians called the Imperishable Ones. 707 00:42:59,310 --> 00:43:00,391 And so at death, 708 00:43:00,391 --> 00:43:04,439 Djoser's soul could rise up and merge with these stars, 709 00:43:04,439 --> 00:43:08,795 so he too would be imperishable and he too would never die. 710 00:43:08,795 --> 00:43:12,462 (gentle instrumental music) 711 00:43:13,716 --> 00:43:16,260 In order to ensure that his soul could live on, 712 00:43:16,260 --> 00:43:19,994 Djoser's body needed somewhere safe to rest, 713 00:43:19,994 --> 00:43:22,911 within a tomb truly fit for a king. 714 00:43:23,802 --> 00:43:27,325 Most burials were topped by a simple, single-story building 715 00:43:27,325 --> 00:43:30,540 called a mastaba, meaning bench. 716 00:43:30,540 --> 00:43:33,290 But Djoser did something radical. 717 00:43:34,825 --> 00:43:38,220 Djoser really wanted to impress with his funerary monument, 718 00:43:38,220 --> 00:43:40,970 so another step was built on top. 719 00:43:42,952 --> 00:43:45,016 And I think Djoser must have quite liked the effect 720 00:43:45,016 --> 00:43:48,433 that this gave and so built a third step, 721 00:43:49,646 --> 00:43:53,146 a fourth step, a fifth step, a sixth step. 722 00:43:56,475 --> 00:43:58,397 And when they stood back and looked, 723 00:43:58,397 --> 00:44:02,187 they realized, they'd built Egypt's first pyramid. 724 00:44:02,187 --> 00:44:03,687 Pretty impressive. 725 00:44:07,524 --> 00:44:10,780 The step pyramid stands over 60 meters tall 726 00:44:10,780 --> 00:44:14,125 and still dominates the Saqqara landscape. 727 00:44:14,125 --> 00:44:17,389 At the time, it was the largest building on Earth, 728 00:44:17,389 --> 00:44:20,846 reinforcing Djoser's status as a living god 729 00:44:20,846 --> 00:44:22,846 in the grandest of ways. 730 00:44:27,230 --> 00:44:30,365 It certainly secured his place in Egyptian history, 731 00:44:30,365 --> 00:44:32,250 with ancient visitors flocking here 732 00:44:32,250 --> 00:44:34,750 to marvel at his achievements. 733 00:44:35,928 --> 00:44:38,242 Now, Djoser had created a true landmark, 734 00:44:38,242 --> 00:44:41,472 but he'd also created Egypt's first tourist attraction. 735 00:44:41,472 --> 00:44:45,639 And if you come with me, I'll show you the evidence. 736 00:44:47,075 --> 00:44:47,988 Because in here, 737 00:44:47,988 --> 00:44:50,575 we have what many tourists still leave today, 738 00:44:50,575 --> 00:44:52,734 appreciative graffiti. 739 00:44:52,734 --> 00:44:55,523 And this is the original handwriting 740 00:44:55,523 --> 00:44:59,199 of a couple of ancient visitors from around 1300 BC 741 00:44:59,199 --> 00:45:02,111 who were so impressed by what they saw, 742 00:45:02,111 --> 00:45:06,143 they described Djoser's pyramid as if heaven were in it. 743 00:45:06,143 --> 00:45:10,053 And they credit Djoser with being the inventor of stone. 744 00:45:10,053 --> 00:45:13,886 (dramatic instrumental music) 745 00:45:24,956 --> 00:45:27,660 But why did Djoser build this? 746 00:45:27,660 --> 00:45:31,489 Was it just an ego trip or an exercise in personal vanity? 747 00:45:31,489 --> 00:45:33,070 Or was it designed to show the world 748 00:45:33,070 --> 00:45:35,927 just how far Egypt had come? 749 00:45:35,927 --> 00:45:37,476 Because in only a few centuries, 750 00:45:37,476 --> 00:45:39,688 these disparate people had come together 751 00:45:39,688 --> 00:45:43,105 to create the world's first nation-state. 752 00:45:49,137 --> 00:45:52,840 Egypt was now an unstoppable powerhouse, 753 00:45:52,840 --> 00:45:56,697 a nation unified both politically and culturally 754 00:45:56,697 --> 00:46:01,668 under a single ruler, whose authority was limitless. 755 00:46:01,668 --> 00:46:04,774 Yet it wasn't just the king who could achieve immortality, 756 00:46:04,774 --> 00:46:07,446 for the man who designed and built Djoser's pyramid 757 00:46:07,446 --> 00:46:10,297 was destined to become even more famous 758 00:46:10,297 --> 00:46:12,880 than the pharaoh he had served. 759 00:46:18,621 --> 00:46:21,889 This statue base once held a full-sized figure 760 00:46:21,889 --> 00:46:23,545 of King Djoser. 761 00:46:23,545 --> 00:46:28,471 But carved into the base is also the name of his architect. 762 00:46:28,471 --> 00:46:30,870 And here we can see it, with this reed, 763 00:46:30,870 --> 00:46:35,037 the owl and then the little mat with a little bread loaf on, 764 00:46:35,945 --> 00:46:37,612 which reads Imhotep. 765 00:46:40,553 --> 00:46:42,886 And here is the man himself. 766 00:46:45,012 --> 00:46:47,327 Although most likely a commoner by birth, 767 00:46:47,327 --> 00:46:49,372 Imhotep rose through the ranks 768 00:46:49,372 --> 00:46:53,047 to become one of Egypt's most powerful officials. 769 00:46:53,047 --> 00:46:56,546 He was made the royal chancellor, the prime minister, 770 00:46:56,546 --> 00:46:59,397 he was even made high priest of the sun god. 771 00:46:59,397 --> 00:47:02,035 He was the ultimate local boy made good 772 00:47:02,035 --> 00:47:03,954 because he then gained a reputation 773 00:47:03,954 --> 00:47:06,932 as an academic, as a great healer 774 00:47:06,932 --> 00:47:09,909 and he was famous the length and breadth of Egypt. 775 00:47:09,909 --> 00:47:12,992 He was ultimately worshiped as a god. 776 00:47:14,463 --> 00:47:18,045 Imhotep represents the ultimate in social mobility, 777 00:47:18,045 --> 00:47:20,022 a kind which was certainly possible 778 00:47:20,022 --> 00:47:22,672 within Egypt's unique society. 779 00:47:22,672 --> 00:47:26,505 (hopeful instrumental music) 780 00:47:29,049 --> 00:47:30,462 This was a society 781 00:47:30,462 --> 00:47:33,686 in which ideas were often taken to extremes. 782 00:47:33,686 --> 00:47:37,992 With 1.5 million people united by an absolute belief 783 00:47:37,992 --> 00:47:39,458 in the power of their king 784 00:47:39,458 --> 00:47:42,110 and in the certainty of the afterlife, 785 00:47:42,110 --> 00:47:45,693 Egypt enters its most ambitious era so far, 786 00:47:49,387 --> 00:47:50,720 the pyramid age. 787 00:47:54,132 --> 00:47:56,129 (gentle instrumental music) 788 00:47:56,129 --> 00:48:00,174 Over 130 pyramids would be built across Egypt, 789 00:48:00,174 --> 00:48:04,709 and they represent the zenith in royal tomb-building, 790 00:48:04,709 --> 00:48:08,064 huge state-sponsored civil engineering projects 791 00:48:08,064 --> 00:48:12,231 that used vast resources of materials, manpower and time. 792 00:48:20,605 --> 00:48:23,966 The largest of all, the Great Pyramid of King Khufu, 793 00:48:23,966 --> 00:48:26,799 which took over 20 years to build. 794 00:48:33,404 --> 00:48:36,089 And in order to build something so ambitious, 795 00:48:36,089 --> 00:48:38,336 an entire city was created 796 00:48:38,336 --> 00:48:41,651 specifically to house the construction workers, 797 00:48:41,651 --> 00:48:44,819 just beyond this monumental wall. 798 00:48:44,819 --> 00:48:46,796 It's known as the Wall of the Crow 799 00:48:46,796 --> 00:48:50,582 and it separated the silent, sacred space of the dead 800 00:48:50,582 --> 00:48:54,749 from the busy, bustling city of the pyramid builders. 801 00:49:00,983 --> 00:49:04,650 (gentle instrumental music) 802 00:49:09,805 --> 00:49:13,667 This five-hectare site once housed workshops, bakeries, 803 00:49:13,667 --> 00:49:17,690 a tool-making facility and a fish-processing area, 804 00:49:17,690 --> 00:49:21,238 for this was an integrated, self-sufficient community 805 00:49:21,238 --> 00:49:25,945 of over 8,000 people, who even had their own medical care. 806 00:49:25,945 --> 00:49:29,612 (gentle instrumental music) 807 00:49:35,015 --> 00:49:38,315 Anthropological archaeologist Dr. Richard Redding 808 00:49:38,315 --> 00:49:42,378 has been excavating the site since 1991. 809 00:49:42,378 --> 00:49:44,346 - Where we are now, this is kind of a big workshop, 810 00:49:44,346 --> 00:49:45,472 a big industrial park 811 00:49:45,472 --> 00:49:48,164 where there's lots of activity going on. 812 00:49:48,164 --> 00:49:51,080 Out here, they were probably producing granite statues, 813 00:49:51,080 --> 00:49:52,599 maybe granite columns. 814 00:49:52,599 --> 00:49:56,651 We find tools out here for polishing the granite. 815 00:49:56,651 --> 00:49:59,732 We find tools out here for chipping at the granite. 816 00:49:59,732 --> 00:50:01,445 It's very well planned. 817 00:50:01,445 --> 00:50:02,278 We have three streets. 818 00:50:02,278 --> 00:50:04,282 We have North Street, Main Street we're on, 819 00:50:04,282 --> 00:50:06,469 and we have South Street down there. 820 00:50:06,469 --> 00:50:07,900 - So we are walking down Main Street? 821 00:50:07,900 --> 00:50:10,793 - You're walking down Main Street. 822 00:50:10,793 --> 00:50:12,878 - [Joann] The pyramid workers lived cheek by jowl 823 00:50:12,878 --> 00:50:14,711 in two-story barracks. 824 00:50:16,973 --> 00:50:18,639 - You would've walked in and you would've been 825 00:50:18,639 --> 00:50:22,804 in a very quiet, dark, long, narrow room. 826 00:50:22,804 --> 00:50:25,352 This is where they would have slept. 827 00:50:25,352 --> 00:50:27,385 There would've been a higher bed 828 00:50:27,385 --> 00:50:29,086 for the overseer at each end. 829 00:50:29,086 --> 00:50:31,859 And then everybody would have laid down, 830 00:50:31,859 --> 00:50:35,358 probably with their head in this direction 831 00:50:35,358 --> 00:50:37,284 or the other direction, exactly like this. 832 00:50:37,284 --> 00:50:38,399 You'd be lying here like this, 833 00:50:38,399 --> 00:50:40,718 and this would be your night-time position. 834 00:50:40,718 --> 00:50:41,551 - Very comfortable. 835 00:50:41,551 --> 00:50:43,385 Can I try out the overseer's bed? 836 00:50:43,385 --> 00:50:44,218 - Sure. - Is that okay? 837 00:50:44,218 --> 00:50:45,680 - You want to try out the overseer's bed there? 838 00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:46,626 - Delusions of grandeur. 839 00:50:46,626 --> 00:50:47,880 Is it this one or that one? 840 00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:50,647 - Yeah, that's the wall, so right where you are. 841 00:50:50,647 --> 00:50:51,775 - Oh, so this is all right. 842 00:50:51,775 --> 00:50:53,241 So if I sat down here-- 843 00:50:53,241 --> 00:50:54,413 - Yeah, the overseer's bed is actually buried 844 00:50:54,413 --> 00:50:57,430 under a few centimeters of sand, and the floor here 845 00:50:57,430 --> 00:50:59,682 is probably under about a half meter of sand. 846 00:50:59,682 --> 00:51:01,537 - No, this is nice. - Yeah. 847 00:51:01,537 --> 00:51:02,528 - I can keep my eye on you now. 848 00:51:02,528 --> 00:51:04,396 - That's right, you can see me. 849 00:51:04,396 --> 00:51:05,879 If I got up in the night and I tried to sneak out 850 00:51:05,879 --> 00:51:08,578 to go someplace, you would see me. 851 00:51:08,578 --> 00:51:12,013 - [Joann] Everything the workers needed was here, on site. 852 00:51:12,013 --> 00:51:13,950 The team have recovered data that shows 853 00:51:13,950 --> 00:51:16,300 that workers consumed 74 cattle 854 00:51:16,300 --> 00:51:19,133 and 257 sheep and goats each week. 855 00:51:20,772 --> 00:51:23,808 This corral area could hold a week's supply of cattle, 856 00:51:23,808 --> 00:51:27,297 before more were shipped in from Egypt's grasslands. 857 00:51:27,297 --> 00:51:29,576 - You could have almost just-in-time delivery, 858 00:51:29,576 --> 00:51:32,705 another small heard coming down from Kom el-Hisn, 859 00:51:32,705 --> 00:51:34,974 or the delta, coming down and in. 860 00:51:34,974 --> 00:51:36,443 - Well, it's a really well-oiled machine. 861 00:51:36,443 --> 00:51:39,411 You can see now how efficient the Egyptians were 862 00:51:39,411 --> 00:51:42,563 at obtaining their food, bringing it to the right place 863 00:51:42,563 --> 00:51:44,543 at the right time for the right people. 864 00:51:44,543 --> 00:51:45,501 It's brilliant, absolutely. 865 00:51:45,501 --> 00:51:48,186 - It wasn't just simply the food, it was everything. 866 00:51:48,186 --> 00:51:50,583 There was the copper to make tools, 867 00:51:50,583 --> 00:51:52,902 there was the stone being brought in here 868 00:51:52,902 --> 00:51:54,588 from Aswan and other areas. 869 00:51:54,588 --> 00:51:56,129 So a lot of things were coming into here. 870 00:51:56,129 --> 00:51:57,989 These were government workers. 871 00:51:57,989 --> 00:52:01,322 They got everything from the government. 872 00:52:03,135 --> 00:52:07,521 - In many ways, this settlement is Egypt in microcosm, 873 00:52:07,521 --> 00:52:11,604 a highly ordered social structure with job specialization 874 00:52:11,604 --> 00:52:13,354 and mass cooperation. 875 00:52:14,759 --> 00:52:16,170 It's hard to believe that 876 00:52:16,170 --> 00:52:18,422 in a relatively short period of time 877 00:52:18,422 --> 00:52:20,589 Egypt had been transformed 878 00:52:22,351 --> 00:52:25,937 from simple subsistence into a united state 879 00:52:25,937 --> 00:52:30,104 which could provide for everyone who worked on its behalf. 880 00:52:33,454 --> 00:52:34,757 What we are seeing here 881 00:52:34,757 --> 00:52:38,592 is the final building block in Egyptian culture 882 00:52:38,592 --> 00:52:41,102 but not just for the pyramid age. 883 00:52:41,102 --> 00:52:43,314 For once this infrastructure was in place, 884 00:52:43,314 --> 00:52:45,576 it would never change. 885 00:52:45,576 --> 00:52:47,232 So whether they are building a pyramid 886 00:52:47,232 --> 00:52:51,106 or setting up a colossal statue, the level of organization 887 00:52:51,106 --> 00:52:54,469 and cooperation would remain the same, 888 00:52:54,469 --> 00:52:58,775 for this was the foundation stone of Egypt. 889 00:52:58,775 --> 00:53:02,442 (gentle instrumental music) 890 00:53:03,485 --> 00:53:05,581 The pyramids are eternal testament 891 00:53:05,581 --> 00:53:09,532 to just how powerful Egypt had now become. 892 00:53:09,532 --> 00:53:12,574 And in many ways, they are Egypt at this time, 893 00:53:12,574 --> 00:53:17,124 dominating everything around them on a gigantic scale. 894 00:53:17,124 --> 00:53:21,041 (dramatic instrumental music) 895 00:53:22,074 --> 00:53:26,241 And towering above the Giza landscape is the Great Pyramid. 896 00:53:34,239 --> 00:53:36,688 It took around 20,000 people 897 00:53:36,688 --> 00:53:40,885 to set in place the 2.3 million blocks of limestone. 898 00:53:40,885 --> 00:53:43,513 It remained the tallest structure anywhere in the world 899 00:53:43,513 --> 00:53:45,480 for 3,800 years, 900 00:53:45,480 --> 00:53:49,215 until the building of Lincoln Cathedral spire in 1300 AD. 901 00:53:49,215 --> 00:53:51,052 It's a phenomenal achievement 902 00:53:51,052 --> 00:53:53,802 for any civilization at any time. 903 00:53:55,506 --> 00:53:58,544 But for me, its exterior can't compare 904 00:53:58,544 --> 00:54:02,461 to the sense of wonder once you venture inside. 905 00:54:05,612 --> 00:54:07,964 The roof of the Grand Gallery passageway is built 906 00:54:07,964 --> 00:54:11,577 of multiple layers of enormous limestone slabs 907 00:54:11,577 --> 00:54:14,077 rising over eight meters high. 908 00:54:15,465 --> 00:54:17,277 Massive, massive blocks of masonry 909 00:54:17,277 --> 00:54:21,444 built on a god-like scale, that is surely what Khufu wanted. 910 00:54:25,646 --> 00:54:28,611 I sincerely hope Khufu's eternal resting place 911 00:54:28,611 --> 00:54:31,620 was rather less congested than it is today. 912 00:54:31,620 --> 00:54:33,908 But it still gives a real atmosphere of the busyness 913 00:54:33,908 --> 00:54:37,408 that must have been here on a daily basis. 914 00:54:41,717 --> 00:54:45,795 These guys were hauling massive blocks hundreds of feet up, 915 00:54:45,795 --> 00:54:47,322 literally, into the air. 916 00:54:47,322 --> 00:54:49,489 These guys were magicians. 917 00:54:53,471 --> 00:54:57,631 Just look how brilliantly these courses have been laid. 918 00:54:57,631 --> 00:54:59,312 These are perfect. 919 00:54:59,312 --> 00:55:00,935 I defy any modern architect to be able 920 00:55:00,935 --> 00:55:03,508 to replicate this using the tools 921 00:55:03,508 --> 00:55:06,841 that the ancients had at their disposal. 922 00:55:17,116 --> 00:55:18,383 Wow. 923 00:55:18,383 --> 00:55:20,063 Here we are at the zenith. 924 00:55:20,063 --> 00:55:21,666 We are at the heart of the pyramid now, 925 00:55:21,666 --> 00:55:23,467 King Khufu's burial chamber. 926 00:55:23,467 --> 00:55:26,226 And we've hit it at exactly the right moment, 927 00:55:26,226 --> 00:55:29,046 because the pyramid is closed for lunch! 928 00:55:29,046 --> 00:55:31,314 So we've got the whole place to ourselves. 929 00:55:31,314 --> 00:55:33,723 And you really get a sense of the sanctity 930 00:55:33,723 --> 00:55:35,806 of this divine mausoleum. 931 00:55:42,731 --> 00:55:44,866 The walls and roof of the burial chamber 932 00:55:44,866 --> 00:55:47,914 are lined entirely in granite. 933 00:55:47,914 --> 00:55:49,119 And it was within here 934 00:55:49,119 --> 00:55:52,431 that the body of the great King Khufu was sealed, 935 00:55:52,431 --> 00:55:56,348 ready for his final journey into the afterlife. 936 00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:01,037 We are at the heart of the pyramid 937 00:56:01,037 --> 00:56:03,364 in terms of its architecture, 938 00:56:03,364 --> 00:56:07,531 but we are literally in the heart of ancient Egypt. 939 00:56:08,963 --> 00:56:11,861 I feel like I should be speaking in a whisper 940 00:56:11,861 --> 00:56:15,615 'cause the acoustics are so extraordinary. 941 00:56:15,615 --> 00:56:18,448 It's a sterile, plain, stark room. 942 00:56:21,404 --> 00:56:23,770 It's pretty much like a bank vault. 943 00:56:23,770 --> 00:56:25,997 And when you think about it, that's exactly what it is 944 00:56:25,997 --> 00:56:30,647 because it once contained Egypt's greatest treasure, 945 00:56:30,647 --> 00:56:32,978 the mummified body of the god-king, 946 00:56:32,978 --> 00:56:36,817 which contained the soul not only of Khufu 947 00:56:36,817 --> 00:56:39,351 but of all the generations of pharaohs, 948 00:56:39,351 --> 00:56:42,268 stretching way back to King Narmer. 949 00:56:46,730 --> 00:56:49,028 Forget the jewels, forget the gold, 950 00:56:49,028 --> 00:56:51,861 Egypt's real treasure was in here. 951 00:56:52,997 --> 00:56:55,241 And it's the first time I've ever been in here 952 00:56:55,241 --> 00:56:59,056 without crowds and crowds of other people. 953 00:56:59,056 --> 00:57:00,354 And speaking now, 954 00:57:00,354 --> 00:57:04,078 the sound of the voice reverberating around, 955 00:57:04,078 --> 00:57:06,979 immediately takes you back 4,500 years 956 00:57:06,979 --> 00:57:08,278 to the day of the funeral, 957 00:57:08,278 --> 00:57:12,110 to the sacred words the priest would've chanted 958 00:57:12,110 --> 00:57:15,027 to revive the soul of the god-king. 959 00:57:16,531 --> 00:57:17,550 It's miraculous. 960 00:57:17,550 --> 00:57:19,443 It's a wonderful, spectacular place 961 00:57:19,443 --> 00:57:23,110 that affects every sense, visually, audibly. 962 00:57:25,708 --> 00:57:29,208 In every sense, it's beyond words, really. 963 00:57:30,584 --> 00:57:33,836 I think I'd probably better stop talking now. 964 00:57:33,836 --> 00:57:37,503 (gentle instrumental music) 965 00:57:41,601 --> 00:57:42,961 So now all the elements 966 00:57:42,961 --> 00:57:46,117 that made up ancient Egypt were in place, 967 00:57:46,117 --> 00:57:48,818 a well-fed, highly organized population 968 00:57:48,818 --> 00:57:51,801 that unswervingly followed their god-king, 969 00:57:51,801 --> 00:57:55,968 and all of whom shared this fervent belief in an afterlife. 970 00:57:57,513 --> 00:57:59,430 Life in Egypt was good. 971 00:58:01,885 --> 00:58:05,552 (gentle instrumental music) 972 00:58:07,639 --> 00:58:10,933 Now, of course, none of this could last. 973 00:58:10,933 --> 00:58:15,582 Economic disaster and famine plunged Egypt into chaos. 974 00:58:15,582 --> 00:58:19,253 This is ancient Egypt beginning to suffer. 975 00:58:19,253 --> 00:58:21,922 With the pharaoh's power melting away, 976 00:58:21,922 --> 00:58:25,839 local warlords ransacked its most sacred sites. 977 00:58:29,094 --> 00:58:32,118 Egypt's dark age was coming. 978 00:58:32,118 --> 00:58:35,671 Make no mistake, this is the home of the dead. 979 00:58:35,671 --> 00:58:39,421 (lively instrumental music)