Unknown: The Lost Pyramid (2023) - full transcript
In the sands of Saqqara, two of the world's most famous Egyptologists, Dr. Zahi Hawass and his protege and rival, Dr. Mostafa Waziri race with their teams against the clock to see who will make the biggest discovery.
[ropes creaking]
[mysterious music playing]
[metal whining]
[Zahi Hawass] An intact tomb
is like a time capsule.
[air puffing]
Filled with spells and curses
that protect the dead.
Undisturbed for thousands of years,
we are the first people to go inside.
The past is sleeping in the darkness,
waiting to be found.
You are looking at a woman,
dated back 4,300 years ago.
Over 1,000 years older than King Tut.
Imagine if I could talk to the mummy.
And the mummy could talk to me.
[ghostly voices whispering]
- [dramatic music playing]
- [men shouting]
[ghostly voice whispers]
[Hawass] I'm hunting
for a pyramid lost to history.
[men talking indistinctly in Arabic]
- [speaks in Arabic]
- [tool clanks]
[Hawass] I am not immortal.
But my name will be remembered.
[music continues]
[whooshing]
- [man] Oh!
- [speaking in Arabic]
[reporter 1] Egypt has unveiled
a significant new archaeological discovery
at the Saqqara.
[reporter 2] At the famed necropolis
of Saqqara near Cairo.
[dramatic music building]
[music peaks, fades]
Beautiful.
[mysterious music playing]
[music fades]
[rumbling]
[intriguing music playing]
[Hawass] Saqqara, in my opinion,
is the most magical
and important site in Egypt.
It has been explored by many foreign
expeditions for the last two centuries.
They discovered pyramids and tombs.
The oldest pyramid.
The Step Pyramid.
[dramatic music building]
And there is more to be discovered.
There is one area at Saqqara
no one has ever excavated.
[mysterious music plays]
A patch of open desert,
Gisr el-Mudir.
Only 30% of the treasures
of ancient Egypt have been uncovered.
Tombs, temples, even pyramids.
More than 70%
are still hidden beneath the sand.
I have been thinking
about this place for decades.
I always come out here alone.
And I ask myself the question,
"What could be under this place
that we've never touched?"
[ominous music playing]
This is a place where
four and a half thousand years ago,
Egypt's earliest pharaohs
invented the pyramids.
- [wind gusting]
- [sand rasping]
[dramatic music playing]
The oldest is the Step Pyramid of Djoser.
All the pharaohs
of the Third Dynasty that followed
built their own.
But there is one early pyramid
that's never been found.
[mysterious music playing]
The missing Pyramid of Huni.
This is the year
I will find that missing pyramid.
[mysterious music continues]
All the big finds in the past
have always been made by foreigners.
They came. They took the objects
and the glory for themselves.
- Morning.
- [Tori Finlayson] Morning.
[Hawass] It's time that
Egypt takes back its history,
and that the next big find
is made by Egyptians.
As the head of the expedition,
I study the site very well.
[Tori] Do you have Art in the Pyramid Age?
Art in the Pyramid... Yes.
- Right...
- Complete Pyramids?
[Tori] One of my favorite parts
of this job is I get to see everything,
everything new that he's working on,
the instant that they're happening.
My name is Tori Finlayson.
I'm a PhD candidate
at Johns Hopkins University
and I work for Dr. Hawass.
[imperceptible]
[Hawass] Four and a half thousand
years ago at the end of the Third Dynasty,
there was a pharaoh named Huni.
He's lost to history.
[Tori] They just talk about
his missing pyramid.
[Hawass] All we have is his name
on some of the kings lists.
And there is a head of a statue
that some believe could be his.
He looks like a strong king.
Nearly all the kings of the Third Dynasty
before him built pyramids at Saqqara.
Then this area is mysterious to us.
We are hoping that this area could be
the area that
the new pyramid could be discovered.
Then we'll concentrate
the excavation here.
We will start working in this area.
I will direct Essam
to make some test trenches
that will lead us to something.
It will be good for us
if we make a square here in this area
- to test this pile of the sand.
- [Hawass] Perfect. Okay.
Now we hope, if we discover his pyramid,
we'll make him famous like Tutankhamun.
He's the last king of Dynasty III,
and therefore, his... the location
of his pyramid should be here.
[ominous music playing]
For three months out of the year,
the desert is inhospitable to the living.
Once the desert lets us in,
we will have just nine months
before she pushes us back out.
[intriguing music playing]
[Essam Shehab] We have a big valley here.
But this pile of debris is only here.
[in Arabic] Ah, right here.
We will start the excavation here,
a 10x10 grid,
here on this hill.
Ahmed, you start to document
your points and levels,
and bring the workers here.
- Let's do it.
- [men talking indistinctly]
- [beeps]
- [in English] I am Essam Shehab.
[beeping]
I started my career as an archeologist
under Dr. Zahi Hawass.
- [men talking indistinctly]
- [clanks]
[Sadeq in Arabic] Let's start the work.
Bring your tools, your wheelbarrows,
the baskets and come up here.
Come on, guys!
Come on, Mehanny, put all the baskets
in the wheelbarrow and come up.
[men talking excitedly]
[Shehab] When starting excavations,
there's an enthusiasm that drives you.
[men talking excitedly]
[Sadeq] Come on, guys.
[men shouting]
[Shehab] Egypt has a very long history.
To understand what we are,
we have to understand what we were.
[dramatic music playing]
[Waziry in English]
I've been very successful
the last four seasons at Saqqara.
The site that I'm leading
is where we found
the Tomb of Wahtye four years ago.
[reporters] It's the latest
in a series of big finds...
...tomb was found in the ancient necropolis
of Saqqara dates back to...
The discovery today...
It's one of the most important...
It's an ancient treasure chest...
[Waziry] This season
would be no different.
Hopefully, we'll make another discovery
that will drive the entire world crazy.
The tombs here
are incredibly well-preserved.
But there is one corner
that we have yet to excavate.
[men talking excitedly]
[Waziry] I cannot describe
what it feels like to be an archeologist.
When I do excavations,
I don't know what's beneath the ground.
[mysterious music playing]
Imagine, the last person to hold
this amulet lived thousands of years ago.
What was their world like?
What did they believe?
This is the one
which is located in the south,
and every day,
every day we have to look at the sketch.
[in Arabic] The Bubasteion is one of the
richest archeological sites at Saqqara.
Its history spans more than 2,500 years.
For over a year, we've been saying
that the site is finished,
but every day we discover something new.
[men talking indistinctly]
[Youssef] Hold on.
- [music fades]
- What is this? Is this a stone?
Okay, go on, but slowly.
Carefully.
It's a stone, yes.
[speaking in Arabic]
- Careful.
- [Hamada Mansour] There's a hole here.
- [man] A shaft.
- [Waziry] Hmm?
[man] Shaft.
[speaking in Arabic]
It looks like a shaft lid.
[Youssef] Ah.
Yes, that's a shaft.
A shaft lid.
[speaks in Arabic]
It's around 10 meters deep.
[suspenseful music playing]
[men talking indistinctly]
[ominous whooshing]
[men speaking in Arabic]
[Youssef] Hamada, hang on to the rock.
Careful! It could fall down!
[speaking in Arabic]
[eerie music playing]
[dramatic whoosh]
[men talking excitedly in Arabic]
[Mansour] I'm entrusted with
sensitive and dangerous work.
I must be able to handle that.
[clanks]
I'd quit if I couldn't handle it.
When I'm up there at the top of the shaft,
surrounded by my workers
and inspector colleagues,
I'm in the world of the living.
The natural world we all live in.
When I descend...
[rope creaking]
...I'm being transported
from the world of the living...
to the world of the dead.
[ominous music playing]
- [music fades]
- [metal whining]
The world of the dead is sacred,
full of hidden secrets.
[eerie music playing]
I'm always looking at the ceiling.
The tomb's walls are full of cracks.
Those cracks can cause the walls
to collapse at any moment.
[metal creaking]
[men talking indistinctly]
[Mansour] I always, always, always,
with every move I make,
recite the name of God.
[tool scraping on rock]
"In the name of God" will protect me
when I stumble upon something harmful...
a snake, a scorpion, or a harmful insect.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Mansour] God's mercy has protected me
until this very day.
[tool scraping on rock]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Mansour in English] Wow.
The Good Eye of Horus.
My God.
[speaking in Arabic]
[in English] It's usually put
with the mummies.
To protect them in the other world.
[in Arabic] I always find myself
drawn to a certain point.
I feel somehow drawn
to the people that are buried here.
I've mentally connected to them.
Where are you?
Is that it? Or is there more to uncover?
[dramatic music plays]
This is not a solid wall,
it leads to another area.
A bigger area, or an extension.
But the main area is on the other side.
Hopefully, it leads us to a large
burial chamber, full of sarcophagi.
Sarcophagi that hold
secrets, etchings, and writings
that would paint a picture
of the Late Period.
I really hope that the tunnel in the shaft
still goes further into the earth.
There are secrets
hidden deep within this site.
I'm the one to uncover them.
[mysterious music playing]
[men talking indistinctly]
[Tori in English] Gisr el-Mudir
is the next big thing.
A lot of money goes into an excavation,
but that also comes
with a huge investment in staff.
You're going to be out there
spending all this time,
and you need to find something.
Essam has been working on a sondage,
which is a test trench.
You analyze what you're finding in it,
as to whether you want to continue
in this area or move somewhere else.
[in Arabic] Welcome, doctor.
[Hawass in English] A test trench,
it's like a window through time.
Thousands of years into the past.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Hawass in Arabic] I'm telling you,
this is a quarry.
[in English] A quarry is a place
that has limestone.
Then the ancient Egyptian will go
and take this limestone
to build the pyramids.
You could see evidence that
the ancient Egyptian cut the stones,
shaped the stones.
And it gave me the idea
that the location of the Pyramid of Huni
will be discovered in Gisr el-Mudir.
[Tori] Ultimately,
you don't want to be hauling rock
over a huge amount of distance
if you don't have to.
So it's likely that this quarry could be
attached to a monument
that is somewhere in the area.
[Hawass] We still have to do more work
to find the missing Pyramid of Huni.
It has to be near the quarry.
This is the area that we need to work.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Afaf Wahba in Arabic]
This place is very promising.
No one has worked here yet.
So we have high hopes
of finding something important.
[Hawass in English]
This site, it's not easy.
It contains many big mounds of sand.
When you take it out, it will take time.
I'm looking for a strategy now.
[suspenseful music playing]
We need to increase
the number of the workmen.
I give orders
that the workmen has to be 100.
- [exciting music playing]
- [men talking excitedly]
[in Arabic] Issam,
sing and encourage the workers!
[speaks in Arabic]
[Shehab in English] It's very important
to be with the worker,
to feel the ax.
Because you don't expect
what the ax will hit.
[ax clangs]
We hit shaft mouths.
[dramatic music plays]
We found... We found tombs.
[in Arabic] We'll leave this side as is.
[speaking in Arabic]
[in English] Finding one shaft
means you're going to find
a series of burial shafts.
Another one.
[speaks in Arabic]
It's something big.
[in Arabic] Up to now,
we haven't even dug 10% of the area
we are planning to excavate.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Hawass in English] A pyramid is always
surrounded by other tombs of the elite,
from the pharaoh's inner circle.
But Saqqara is a massive city of the dead.
Not just for the elite,
but for all levels of Egyptian society.
And we need more information
about this cemetery
to determine if we are on the right path
or not.
[metal creaking]
[men speaking in Arabic]
- [tool clanks on stone]
- [Mansour] Ah!
Ah!
[grunts]
[man] Whoo!
[Mansour] Ah!
The entrance!
We got the entrance!
This plaster from mud and silt.
[tool scraping]
The ancient people made this.
But what is behind this?
[in Arabic] At that moment, I would want
to yell at the top of my lungs
that we've made a great discovery.
But I'm not allowed to.
We must call Dr. Waziry.
[Mansour] Immediately!
[laughs]
The boss.
The boss.
[dramatic music playing]
[Waziry in English] I had a phone call
from the director of the site.
"We are in front
of something very important."
"You've got to come."
[in Arabic] About 15 meters below ground...
[speaking in Arabic]
...we found a sealed entrance.
[suspenseful music playing]
[speaking in Arabic]
In the name of God. [grunts]
[speaking in Arabic]
[in English] Wow, wow, wow...
[Hawass] An intact tomb...
filled with coffins.
[air puffing]
[speaking in Arabic]
[Hawass in Arabic] In the middle
of darkness, I get a feeling...
[suspenseful music playing]
A feeling that takes me back
thousands of years ago.
[chuckles softly]
In the name of God, God is great.
I do many excavations.
Sometimes, I get this strong feeling...
[ghostly voice whispering]
...an additional feeling...
A feeling that
I will find something special.
[eerie music building]
- [panting]
- [music fades]
[groans softly]
[breathing heavily]
[in English] There is no oxygen here.
We should not stay longer here.
[men speaking in Arabic]
[Waziry] I'm in a hurry to go back,
to go down in the shaft
to start searching.
To find my explanation
for this feeling that I have.
[in Arabic] I don't mention
this feeling to anyone.
[both greeting in Arabic]
- [in English] But you're late.
- No, I'm not. I'm always on time.
[speaks in Arabic]
[in English] I know the big discovery
you're talking about.
- What?
- This one, it was 33 years ago,
when we... when you discovered me...
- How do you know that?
- ...the best Egyptologist in Egypt.
- How do you know that?
- [laughs] I see it in your eyes.
[Waziry] I love this man.
[both talking indistinctly]
Dr. Hawass, for me,
is like my spiritual father.
He's not my boss.
But he is my boss.
[in Arabic] I am the head of Antiquities.
[in English] I am the head of Antiquities.
I take both. I'm the boss.
- [Hawass chuckles]
- Alas, thank you.
[Waziry] When I'm doing something,
I'm calling him. "Hey."
[Hawass in Arabic] Show me!
- Tsk, tsk, tsk.
- Let me have a look.
Gold! Look at the gold!
When I came to Gisr El-Mudir, I told him
I'm searching for Huni's pyramid.
Professor! Bubasteion...
[in English] One day
I would like to be like him?
Almost. Almost.
Shall I discover something
for you, uh, prehistoric?
[laughing]
[Waziry] He is, for me,
he is everything in archaeology.
For me, he is Zahi Hawass.
[gentle music playing]
[reporters] From his signature fedora...
Mr. Egypt, or rather Dr. Egypt...
The Indiana Jones of Egypt's archaeology...
- To others, he's a swaggering showman...
- Egyptologist...
Dr. Zahi Hawass.
When I was a young man,
I hated archaeology.
When I go to any bookstore, all the books
written by foreign archeologists.
When I open the TV,
I see foreign archeologists.
[reporter] Over the years,
the search at Saqqara...
[Hawass] All the interviews,
never see an Egyptian.
And that also killed me.
Foreigners were ruling.
But I said,
"We to need to compete with them."
"We need to be good like them."
I wanted, I was planning.
"One day I'm going
to make a difference in Egyptology."
"And one day,
my name will be written in history."
[hopeful music playing]
And it happened.
From the beginning of my career
as Assistant Inspector,
going up in every stage.
Inspector, Chief Inspector,
Director, Director General,
First Secretary of the State,
Head of Antiquities Minister...
All my dreams, all my life, became true.
Archaeology in the past
was like Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Putting axes, taking sand,
put it away, we found a tomb!
But now archaeology
is completely different.
Archaeology is science.
It's not digging to find the tomb, no!
It's digging to find history,
and to rewrite history.
[rattling]
One of the biggest mysteries
is a time over 4,000 years ago.
A time that's perhaps
as important to ancient Egypt
as the Renaissance is to European history.
- The Old Kingdom.
- [dramatic music plays]
But that page of history has been lost.
After the Old Kingdom,
people began to rob pyramids and tombs.
Finding anything that survived
over 4,000 years of decay
and looting is difficult.
[men shouting indistinctly]
[exciting music playing]
[Shehab in Arabic] To this day,
we've uncovered 10 tombs.
[in English] Finding this number of tombs
means that this is the beginning for us.
[man speaks in Arabic]
[Shehab] We are expecting
to find and reveal
more and more of these tombs
here in this area.
[suspenseful music playing]
[man calls out in Arabic]
[speaks in Arabic]
[in Arabic] Oh God!
Oh my God!
What a beauty!
[Tori in English] We're getting
updates in the office
- via texts or calls.
- [phone ringing]
Suddenly there's...
"No, you really need to
come and see this."
[dramatic music playing]
[Hawass speaks in Arabic]
[both speaking in Arabic]
[Hawass in English] You found it
in the scene like this?
God!
This is beautiful!
Tori! Look at the color!
Leave your bag away.
You cannot come
to the excavation with a bag.
You look like
the Indiana Jones' girlfriend.
[chuckles]
Why can't I be Indiana Jones myself?
- Why the girlfriend?
- You can't. 'Cause I'm Indiana Jones.
- Okay, you can be Indiana Jones.
- [both chuckling]
[Tori] Wow, there's so many of them.
[Hawass] The limestone.
Dig this out.
- Ooh!
- [Tori] Wow.
Finding one intact Old Kingdom statue
would be a huge thing
in any regular Egyptologist's career.
- [Hawass grunting] Ah!
- [Shehab] God.
Oh my God.
[Tori] In that moment,
they pulled out nine statues.
[men speaking in Arabic]
[uplifting music playing]
[Tori] It's... It's crazy.
Wow.
- This is great.
- [man] Yeah.
[Hawass] The cachet of the statues
shows that the people were elite.
They were not workmen or artisans,
because for anyone to afford
to have beautiful statues like this,
it's very expensive.
I've never seen anything
in the Old Kingdom like this.
Really beautiful.
The people who are buried in this area
are likely high officials
or in the royal court, even.
[Hawass] Congratulations.
This is really fantastic.
[Shehab] Thank you, doctor.
And actually,
I want to tell you something important.
If you discover
a big, large cemetery like this,
it should be next to one pyramid.
No one will make a big cemetery like that
without having someone important
to be buried, which could be a king.
[exciting music building]
And this is why I really believe
we are at the beginning of the discovery,
- the beginning.
- Yeah.
Anyone who's buried
could be a target for thieves.
[Tori] The question of looted or unlooted...
It's a big deal.
[all talking excitedly in Arabic]
We have very few examples
of... the unlooted monuments.
But the cachet of statues
indicated something important
to me at the beginning.
[hopeful music playing]
It means that the thieves could not
find out the location of the statues.
[men talking excitedly in Arabic]
[Hawass] It proves that we are
in front of an intact cemetery.
And you never see in any Old Kingdom site,
any intact cemetery.
Imagine if Huni's pyramid
is also unlooted.
That would be the discovery of a lifetime.
- [music fading]
- [wind gusting]
It's very important for us
as an archeologist to have vision.
It is not really to come and just dig
in a site and discover a tomb.
That's nothing.
[reporter] ...over the vast stretch
of burning sand,
an English archaeological expedition,
headed by a man named Howard Carter,
began in 1922
to dig for the hoped-for prize
of an undisturbed pharaoh's tomb.
[Hawass] It was his vision, that he knew,
that the tomb of Tutankhamun
will be discovered completely intact.
Howard Carter was keen
to discover the tomb.
Anyone else, to work in the valley
for four years and never found anything,
he would leave.
Howard Carter was not lucky at all.
[reporter] Fighting the blazing
desert sun,
Carter ruled with an iron fist
and was hard-pressed
to keep the work going.
[Hawass] But Howard Carter
insisted to continue his work
because he knew
that he will discover the tomb.
[reporter] Then finally,
on February 16th, 1923,
King Tut's fabulous tomb was unearthed.
Carloads of relics, as well as
the young king's mummy, were removed.
Carter and Carnarvon had won the battle
against superstition and nature.
[Hawass] We are not in a hurry
to make a great discovery,
but if you follow
the steps of archaeology,
and you do your scientific excavation,
you will reveal great things in history.
The only thing I tell myself,
"Zahi, be patient."
Yeah, and I'm coming down.
[grunts softly]
[rope creaking]
[Hawass speaking in Arabic]
[metal squeaking]
This tomb dates
to about 600 years before Christ.
Near the end of ancient Egyptian history.
Every object and artifact in this shaft
has a single purpose.
[mysterious music playing]
They are layers of magical protection
designed to prevent
the dead from being disturbed.
In order to open the coffins,
we need to remove
the statues that surround them.
[Ashraf Mohi in Arabic] It's a great honor
to be the first person
to touch these artifacts
after 2,400 years.
[speaking in Arabic]
I don't want to touch them,
but I will have to, to restore them.
They call us "surgeons of civilizations."
[in English] It means
"surgeons of civilizations."
[speaking in Arabic]
[Mohi in Arabic] I have a patient
that needs intensive and quick care.
There's a statue of a falcon.
Part of it was gilded.
The gold is starting to peel off the face
to the extent that
my breath is moving the gold.
So this could fall at any moment.
[in English] It's very fragile.
So, it needs a lot of concentration.
[tense music playing]
[in Arabic] I take care of every move
and every breath.
If I feel something move,
I stop immediately. That's enough.
We apply first aid to make sure
that the statue's face stays intact.
[speaks in Arabic]
[speaking in Arabic]
True, it will take a long time.
But to take a long time,
whether two, three, or ten days,
or even a whole month,
for something that's 2,400 years old,
that's nothing.
Any artifact that is
partially damaged or destroyed...
means lost knowledge
of the ancient Egyptian history.
Ancient Egyptians
surrounded themselves with magic
for protection in the afterlife.
[ominous whooshing]
[men whispering in Arabic]
[Mohi] According to
the ancient Egyptian belief,
when we pass away,
we will need small cups...
because the soul is small.
[man speaking in Arabic]
[Mohi] So they put miniature cups,
glasses and trays in the tomb,
so it can protect and feed the soul
in the afterlife.
[speaking in Arabic]
But there's other items placed there
that don't have an explanation.
- [Mohi] It's a finger.
- [man] Hamada, it's a finger.
[Mohi] This is very unexpected!
A finger! How come?!
[man speaking in Arabic]
[camera shutter clicking]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Mohi] What does it mean?
These strange and puzzling artifacts.
There's very little
information about them.
Without writings,
we won't be able to understand anything.
The last person to leave the chamber,
the priest,
performs magical spells and rituals
that will keep the chamber hidden forever.
In the eyes of the ancient Egyptian,
we're here to ruin his rituals.
[mysterious music playing]
[speaking in Arabic]
[eerie music building]
[ghostly voice whispering]
[wind gusting]
[speaking in Arabic]
[pole rattling]
[speaking in Arabic]
[Mansour] The most important thing
to the ancient Egyptian
is that his body
has to stay in good shape,
because the soul will inhabit it...
then leave it to meet the god Osiris
in the day journey.
It's a long journey
that takes a whole day.
He'll swim with the god Osiris
around the sun disc...
and then come back in the evening.
The soul returns again to its tomb.
[Shehab in English] The ancient Egyptians,
they did everything
to protect their bodies
for having life after death.
[in Arabic] They did their best
to hide their tombs.
[in English] Because they believe
if their bodies
were destroyed for any reason...
then they will be deprived
from the life after death.
[men speaking indistinctly in Arabic]
[Shehab] Within four months,
we succeeded to uncover
about 153 shafts.
[suspenseful music playing]
And when we talk about shafts,
we are talking about burial chambers.
Before we go down,
we are removing the debris
blocking the mouth of the burial shaft.
The deposit that filled the shaft
can help me to know
if this tomb was robbed or not.
If I find only sand,
it means that this tomb was looted,
because sand came with the wind.
It means that this tomb
was opened for very long time.
But if the shaft of the tomb
is filled with crushed limestone
or fragments of mud brick...
it means that
this shaft was not opened before,
so we found it intact.
[men speaking in Arabic]
[Shehab in Arabic] Move it to the top!
- [men shouting excitedly]
- [intriguing music playing]
[dramatic music building]
Lord, be with me.
[man] Moving down.
Going down.
[metal and rope creaking]
[Shehab] Come on, darling,
get down. Good job.
[man] Stop.
Pray, guys. Good job.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Sadeq] This is a face.
We have located the wall.
We'll keep going down
until we get to the ground. Okay, doctor.
- [Waziry] Good job.
- Thanks, doctor.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Waziry] What do you see down there?
I see through this opening a sarcophagus.
Congratulations, guys! Good job.
[people applauding]
[Wahba] When we uncover
the remains from the Old Kingdom,
we're ecstatic as archeologists
because those are from so far in the past.
[Tori in English] Dr. Essam tell you
what we'll see?
Yes.
[Hawass] At the end
of Egyptian civilization,
mummification was popular.
And many people were being mummified.
But in the Old Kingdom, they were only
beginning to figure out mummification.
What we find in the tomb
may tell us the status of people
buried in this area of the cemetery.
[in Arabic] Hey, doctor.
[Hawass] Reis, why do you think
it's not been opened before?
Because it was completely sealed
from the entrance.
[Hawass in English] The sarcophagus
is very simple.
But still, it's sealed.
It's sealed since
more than 4,000 years ago.
And we are going to open it now,
and we'll see what could be hidden inside.
[Sadeq speaks in Arabic]
[in Arabic] Move the lever
from the front to the back.
Support your back.
In the name of God.
- [Hawass] Push from here.
- [stone sliding]
[straining, speaking in Arabic]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Hawass in English] It's a... a skeleton.
Mummified, but not really
excellent mummification,
because the part of the chest
is deteriorated.
[solemn music playing]
We are not going to take this mummy out.
I will leave it as it is.
I'd like to leave him in peace.
This man was important,
because he was mummified.
But after 4,000 years of decomposition,
this burial is too deteriorated
to give us any more clues
to this person's status in society.
[Wahba in Arabic] You get surprised
by results you didn't expect.
This is what archaeology is,
it's the beauty of it.
[in English] I am not looking for
just one burial.
I am looking to the whole cemetery.
Is this poor
or this more rich, or more elite?
[Hawass] That will be
the key to knowing for sure
if this cemetery is connected
to a royal tomb or not.
We have to keep excavating
to find more conclusive evidence
that there is a pyramid in this area.
[men talking indistinctly]
[Waziry in Arabic] One millimeter
at a time, please!
[metal whining]
Slowly!
[mysterious music playing]
[men speaking in Arabic]
[Waziry] Okay, that's it!
Thank God.
[man exhales]
[Mohi in English] The conservators
have finally finished their work.
The statues are now strong enough
that we can risk
transporting them out of the tomb.
[speaking in Arabic]
But now we're gonna start
to unlock the coffin.
[speaks in Arabic]
[in Arabic] Keep the masks on,
we are opening coffins.
God knows what condition
the mummies are in.
Come on! You guys ready?
[in English] This one, it's well-sealed,
as you can see the remains of this mortar.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Waziry in Arabic] Lift it up a little.
A little from your side.
Hamada, bring the one you're holding.
[suspenseful music playing]
[speaking in Arabic]
[tense music playing]
- [Mansour] There's a weird smell.
- You're right, Hamada. Youssef, stop.
Youssef, stop.
[Waziry in English] It's very smelly.
So we have to be very careful.
Maybe it's germs, maybe it's bacteria,
it's whatever... I don't know.
[Mansour in Arabic] When we were
opening the coffin,
I smelled something really strange.
The smell is that of a decomposed body.
The smell of a human being,
like you and I,
who was put in a coffin 2,600 years ago.
[Waziry] Come on, in the name of God.
Let's do it.
[speaking in Arabic]
[in English] This mummy,
it was well-sealed.
But something wrong happened,
maybe a long time ago.
But this mummy, it was not
really mummified in a perfect way.
So that's why it was deteriorated easily.
Maybe it's a mistake
of the ancient Egyptian embalmers.
No, no, no. The mummy is in really
very bad condition of preservation.
[Mansour in Arabic] The mummy
was completely oxidized.
The writings were all broken.
You can't understand one sentence of it.
Not even the name of the deceased.
So this is truly sad for any archeologist.
When you don't have any writings,
you can't do anything but sit clueless.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Mansour] After opening
the three stone coffins
and not being able to find
useful information about them...
all hopes depend on the wooden coffins
and finding any text,
object, or information inside them
that could tell us
something about the tomb.
[speaking in Arabic]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Waziry in English] On the lid,
there are inscriptions.
[speaking in Arabic]
[in Arabic] Osir, Ahmose...
[in English] His name.
[speaking in Arabic]
[in Arabic] This means it belongs to...
- [Youssef] So his name is Ahmose?
- [Waziry] Yes.
[Youssef] So the name
of the coffin's owner is Ahmose.
[Waziry] His mother is Nebut.
His mother.
No, because this means "born from."
So, what is our final conclusion?
[in English] His name is Ahmose.
He is the son of Sekhet.
[speaking in Arabic]
[all talking excitedly]
[Waziry] In the name of God.
Three, two, one, go!
Stay up there. Keep it high!
Move a little in there, Hamada.
- Right here, professor.
- [man] Down here.
[camera shutter clicking, beeping]
[Waziry in English] By his feet,
a bronze protector statue.
[in Arabic] This is a bronze cat.
A bronze cat.
[in English] Bronze?
Bronze.
On his chest, a tiny gold amulet.
[in Arabic] Look at that!
[in English] A bird with a human head.
The ba, his soul.
[in Arabic] Guys, I'm looking at something
that I'm not sure what it is.
Let me through.
Mm-hmm.
- What is that?
- [man] It's something round!
- I've never...
- Cylindrical shape.
[Waziry] It's wrapped up in linen.
[man] I've never seen something like it.
[Waziry] Professor Ashraf will tell us
if it's safe to touch it.
[Mohi in English] When Dr. Waziry
asked me to touch the object,
I was very afraid
because it may be very dry.
And if it's very dry,
it is, uh, like a powder.
[Mohi in Arabic] Let's do this.
God be with us.
- [tense music playing]
- [ghostly voices whispering]
What do you think is in there?
- I think it's something...
- [man] It's some kind of paper.
- It's a papyrus!
- [all cheering]
- [triumphant music playing]
- It's a papyrus inside a pocket.
[Waziry] Oh God!
[man] This is amazing!
This is amazing! This is a first.
- [Waziry] This is a first.
- [man] I've never seen such a thing!
A good thing that it's wrapped,
because this has protected it
from being damp.
It will definitely contain secrets
of the civilization of ancient Egypt.
There is Harris Papyrus and Ebers Papyrus
and other papyrus that was named
by its discoverer, and their team.
I see no problem in naming it...
- Waziry!
- [man] Waziry!
[all laughing]
- [Waziry] Waziry Papyrus!
- [man] Of course, congratulations!
- [Waziry] All agree?
- [men] We do, professor!
- [Waziry] Waziry Papyrus?
- [man] Congratulations!
[speaking in Arabic]
[Waziry in English] I've been working
in this field for more than 30 years.
Yeah, we used to... to find
little pieces of papyrus.
But to find untouched
scroll of papyrus like this?
This is something really very important.
[praying in Arabic]
[Mohi in English] A complete papyrus
is more valuable than gold.
[in Arabic] Because it contains
lost knowledge.
This might be the second or third ancient
Egyptian papyrus found in such shape.
[uplifting music playing]
[speaking in Arabic]
[laughing]
Congratulations, doctor.
[speaking in Arabic]
What's the direction of Mecca?
I swear, I'm thanking God.
The ancient Egyptians did not plan
to just keep their belongings,
to be hidden down there forever.
They believed that there's resurrection,
immortality and an afterlife.
Now, we will bring them
back to life after 2,500 years.
Today they will see the light
for the first time.
[intriguing music playing]
All this heritage is hidden underground,
it's invisible to everyone.
[metal creaking]
I believe it should be taken up...
[grunts softly]
[uplifting music playing]
...to be displayed in museums
for all humanity to see it.
[music fades]
[in English] A lot of questions,
they were running in my mind.
What kind of papyri is this one?
How big is it going to be?
You think it's going to be fragments like
the rest of the papyri that people found?
[in Arabic] Maybe, just maybe,
it's a complete one?
I don't know.
Could it have missing parts? I don't know.
[in English] I want to learn more.
But of course we have to protect it,
so it's inside the fumigation bag.
For how long? At least three weeks.
[in Arabic] And I can't wait
for those days to pass fast
until the sterilization.
Then humidification processes are done.
Then we open the papyrus.
[snaps fingers]
- [wind gusting]
- [tools scraping]
[suspenseful music playing]
[in English] After almost nine months,
we are still working.
And with every passing day,
the conditions out in the desert
become more difficult for the team.
- [Wahba in Arabic] We keep going?
- We'll continue to work normally.
But if it starts getting too windy?
If it gets too dusty and we can't see,
we can't keep going.
[Sadeq] We can tolerate
the heat and the sun,
but the storm is very hard.
When the storm hits you,
you cannot even close your mouth.
[Hawass in English] We suffer a lot.
But at the end, the discovery
makes you forget any difficulties.
[metal squeaking]
We found a shaft
with an unlooted burial chamber.
Ah, okay.
[in Arabic] Do you have a light?
[in English] It's huge.
There is a huge limestone sarcophagus,
perfectly sealed.
Imahu, "the honored one."
"Under"...
Nebet Hut.
The word "overseer," Imerah,
is only for high people.
This is the highest title.
Her name is Nebet Hut.
Inside here should be a lady.
[eerie music playing]
[men speaking in Arabic]
[Hawass] Push, push, push.
[metal and wood creaking]
[stone creaking]
Okay, silence! Silent!
[mysterious music plays]
I need more space.
You are looking at a woman
dated back 4,300 years ago.
Over 1,000 years older than King Tut.
[panting softly]
Beautiful.
[mysterious music playing]
Beautifully mummified.
[man in Arabic] Oh God!
[Hawass in English]
The color of the necklace,
green and blue.
Two pieces of a beautiful headrest.
Gold.
Gold.
I think this is maybe the best mummy
we found until now in this cemetery.
[sighs]
It's very rare that
you can make a discovery like this.
[pleasant music playing]
[men speaking in Arabic]
[Hawass in English] Most of the beautiful
mummies are dated 3,000 years ago.
But this mummy is maybe the oldest
beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt.
In the Old Kingdom,
mummification was extremely rare.
Only a pharaoh or someone in his court
would have access to that technology.
Now, the most exciting thing,
this is the work we're going to continue.
Examining the mummy.
[in Arabic] Of course,
it's something amazing.
It's a great feeling.
I took samples,
being as careful as possible
to not destroy the mummy that's under me.
For example, I took samples of the linen
and also from a black substance
on the head,
and around the skull.
I need to know what they're made of.
We have the use of resin
for the mummification of the face.
In the Old Kingdom,
the resin was used very rarely,
which means she could be
part of the royal palace.
[Mohi] The mummy
we're seeing in front of us
is not your everyday mummy in Saqqara.
We usually see a shaft,
a shaft with bones.
But to see a mummy that's almost whole,
from the Old Kingdom,
this is obviously something extraordinary
from this period of time.
I've been working in Saqqara a long time.
I saw different mummies.
But this is the first time for me
to see a gilded cane next to one.
This would mean that this person
is very important and should be respected.
No ordinary person will carry a cane
with them that's coated with gold.
So this is clearly
a unique mummy from this period.
Every time we stand in front of a mummy,
the first thing that comes to mind,
"Who was that person?"
Was that an eminent person in society?
Would I have been able
to stand in front of him,
during his existence? In his period?
[dramatic music building]
[Hawass in English] No one of the elite
will be buried in an isolated cemetery.
She cannot go alone to the afterlife.
She has to fly together
with a big soul, with a king.
And therefore,
I believe that we are going to discover
a big, large,
important pyramid for a king.
The Pyramid of Huni.
[wind gusting]
Maybe I will fail.
But maybe I will find it.
We're still working.
[men speaking indistinctly]
[speaks in Arabic]
Okay.
- [in Arabic] Is this completely closed?
- Yes.
We uncovered 83 meters from it.
You will also see a step on top.
You will see it.
It supports the idea
of this being a pyramid.
[Hawass] What else could it be?
[sighs]
[man] Eighty meters,
and this is the corner here.
[tense music playing]
[Hawass in English] I'm looking for
the Pyramid of Huni.
Now, if I discover this pyramid,
maybe intact, then my dream became true.
And this is why this Huni,
who is very little known in history,
he will come back to be famous
in the history of Egypt.
The angle here is clear.
[both speaking in Arabic]
[in Arabic] Great.
We will proceed with the work,
so all workers need to be here.
A team on this side here.
Clean and uncover this whole area here.
[man speaks in Arabic]
[in English] We'll work
completely in this area now.
No more tombs, but we will go
to discover the new pyramid.
[man shouting in Arabic]
Look at the size of this wall.
It's 83 meters long from here to there.
It's 100% the base of the pyramid,
or this could be
the enclosure wall of the pyramid.
Actually, we are going
to start the excavation
from this corner for about 20 meters,
until we can find
the length of the side also.
- [speaking in Arabic]
- [dramatic music playing]
[Hawass] We are looking
at the beginning of a discovery
of a new pyramid
for the first time at Saqqara.
- [speaking in Arabic]
- [men talking excitedly]
[dramatic music building]
[music fades]
[in Arabic] Until today,
we can't confirm that it is a pyramid,
so we are waiting to see
the other side of the wall,
- to see if it could be a pyramid or not.
- Mm.
[gentle music playing]
What are you planning to do
in the site of Bubasteion?
It is a good timing
for the end of the season.
[in English] Very good...
Very good discovery to announce!
- What's the discovery?
- No, I'm not going to tell you.
I'll keep it secret.
[puffs]
It's like...
[chuckles softly]
Like the old days. [laughing]
[speaks in Arabic]
[in Arabic] Ah, Dr. Zahi,
remember the good old days.
[Hawass in English]
Over the last four decades,
I have trained
an army of Egyptian archeologists.
They will go on even after I am long gone.
More than anything I have discovered,
that will be my legacy.
[music continues]
I taught all my assistants
how to be a good archeologist.
But I'll never be able
to teach them the passion.
But I hope that one of them can find it.
[car horns honking]
Wait. Step by step.
[intriguing music playing]
[man] This is the end.
Wow.
Finally!
[men speaking indistinctly]
[Waziry in Arabic] The layer
of the papyrus is very thin.
A third of a millimeter!
So dangerous to handle.
"These are the words of the god Osiris."
The god of death!
- [people clamoring excitedly]
- [uplifting music building]
[Waziry in English] This papyrus is
something like nine meters.
This papyri contains chapters
of The Book of Death.
It was found by Egyptian missions,
Egyptian hands,
so we're going to call it
with Egyptian name.
Waziry Papyri.
And we did register the papyri
with this name, Waziry Papyri.
[applause]
[in Arabic] Long live Egypt,
and congratulations.
[in English] This is my mission,
to show the entire world that Egyptians
are the future of archaeology in Egypt.
This papyrus is only the beginning.
The beauty of archaeology is that
the search to understand our past,
to uncover new knowledge,
is never over.
[music fades]
[Hawass] If you discover
a pyramid of a king,
it's something amazing.
I really believe that
when we excavate the site completely,
this will be the news all over the world.
Because hundreds of archeologists
searched for the Pyramid of Huni.
We need at least one year of excavation.
[uplifting music playing]
Archaeology is a process,
a journey into the unknown.
It took Howard Carter five years
to find the tomb of King Tut,
but he kept going
because he believed in his dream.
But if you don't have a dream,
you will never get to your destination.
Every morning when I wake up,
I begin to dream and wonder.
What will we find at the excavation today?
What's inside the pyramid?
Does it really belong to Huni?
Or to some other lost pharaoh
we have never heard of?
All my dreams are in it
because I know what's going to happen.
Everything I predicted,
it became true.
[sweeping music playing]
[music fades]
[mysterious music playing]
[gentle music playing]
[mysterious music playing]
[metal whining]
[Zahi Hawass] An intact tomb
is like a time capsule.
[air puffing]
Filled with spells and curses
that protect the dead.
Undisturbed for thousands of years,
we are the first people to go inside.
The past is sleeping in the darkness,
waiting to be found.
You are looking at a woman,
dated back 4,300 years ago.
Over 1,000 years older than King Tut.
Imagine if I could talk to the mummy.
And the mummy could talk to me.
[ghostly voices whispering]
- [dramatic music playing]
- [men shouting]
[ghostly voice whispers]
[Hawass] I'm hunting
for a pyramid lost to history.
[men talking indistinctly in Arabic]
- [speaks in Arabic]
- [tool clanks]
[Hawass] I am not immortal.
But my name will be remembered.
[music continues]
[whooshing]
- [man] Oh!
- [speaking in Arabic]
[reporter 1] Egypt has unveiled
a significant new archaeological discovery
at the Saqqara.
[reporter 2] At the famed necropolis
of Saqqara near Cairo.
[dramatic music building]
[music peaks, fades]
Beautiful.
[mysterious music playing]
[music fades]
[rumbling]
[intriguing music playing]
[Hawass] Saqqara, in my opinion,
is the most magical
and important site in Egypt.
It has been explored by many foreign
expeditions for the last two centuries.
They discovered pyramids and tombs.
The oldest pyramid.
The Step Pyramid.
[dramatic music building]
And there is more to be discovered.
There is one area at Saqqara
no one has ever excavated.
[mysterious music plays]
A patch of open desert,
Gisr el-Mudir.
Only 30% of the treasures
of ancient Egypt have been uncovered.
Tombs, temples, even pyramids.
More than 70%
are still hidden beneath the sand.
I have been thinking
about this place for decades.
I always come out here alone.
And I ask myself the question,
"What could be under this place
that we've never touched?"
[ominous music playing]
This is a place where
four and a half thousand years ago,
Egypt's earliest pharaohs
invented the pyramids.
- [wind gusting]
- [sand rasping]
[dramatic music playing]
The oldest is the Step Pyramid of Djoser.
All the pharaohs
of the Third Dynasty that followed
built their own.
But there is one early pyramid
that's never been found.
[mysterious music playing]
The missing Pyramid of Huni.
This is the year
I will find that missing pyramid.
[mysterious music continues]
All the big finds in the past
have always been made by foreigners.
They came. They took the objects
and the glory for themselves.
- Morning.
- [Tori Finlayson] Morning.
[Hawass] It's time that
Egypt takes back its history,
and that the next big find
is made by Egyptians.
As the head of the expedition,
I study the site very well.
[Tori] Do you have Art in the Pyramid Age?
Art in the Pyramid... Yes.
- Right...
- Complete Pyramids?
[Tori] One of my favorite parts
of this job is I get to see everything,
everything new that he's working on,
the instant that they're happening.
My name is Tori Finlayson.
I'm a PhD candidate
at Johns Hopkins University
and I work for Dr. Hawass.
[imperceptible]
[Hawass] Four and a half thousand
years ago at the end of the Third Dynasty,
there was a pharaoh named Huni.
He's lost to history.
[Tori] They just talk about
his missing pyramid.
[Hawass] All we have is his name
on some of the kings lists.
And there is a head of a statue
that some believe could be his.
He looks like a strong king.
Nearly all the kings of the Third Dynasty
before him built pyramids at Saqqara.
Then this area is mysterious to us.
We are hoping that this area could be
the area that
the new pyramid could be discovered.
Then we'll concentrate
the excavation here.
We will start working in this area.
I will direct Essam
to make some test trenches
that will lead us to something.
It will be good for us
if we make a square here in this area
- to test this pile of the sand.
- [Hawass] Perfect. Okay.
Now we hope, if we discover his pyramid,
we'll make him famous like Tutankhamun.
He's the last king of Dynasty III,
and therefore, his... the location
of his pyramid should be here.
[ominous music playing]
For three months out of the year,
the desert is inhospitable to the living.
Once the desert lets us in,
we will have just nine months
before she pushes us back out.
[intriguing music playing]
[Essam Shehab] We have a big valley here.
But this pile of debris is only here.
[in Arabic] Ah, right here.
We will start the excavation here,
a 10x10 grid,
here on this hill.
Ahmed, you start to document
your points and levels,
and bring the workers here.
- Let's do it.
- [men talking indistinctly]
- [beeps]
- [in English] I am Essam Shehab.
[beeping]
I started my career as an archeologist
under Dr. Zahi Hawass.
- [men talking indistinctly]
- [clanks]
[Sadeq in Arabic] Let's start the work.
Bring your tools, your wheelbarrows,
the baskets and come up here.
Come on, guys!
Come on, Mehanny, put all the baskets
in the wheelbarrow and come up.
[men talking excitedly]
[Shehab] When starting excavations,
there's an enthusiasm that drives you.
[men talking excitedly]
[Sadeq] Come on, guys.
[men shouting]
[Shehab] Egypt has a very long history.
To understand what we are,
we have to understand what we were.
[dramatic music playing]
[Waziry in English]
I've been very successful
the last four seasons at Saqqara.
The site that I'm leading
is where we found
the Tomb of Wahtye four years ago.
[reporters] It's the latest
in a series of big finds...
...tomb was found in the ancient necropolis
of Saqqara dates back to...
The discovery today...
It's one of the most important...
It's an ancient treasure chest...
[Waziry] This season
would be no different.
Hopefully, we'll make another discovery
that will drive the entire world crazy.
The tombs here
are incredibly well-preserved.
But there is one corner
that we have yet to excavate.
[men talking excitedly]
[Waziry] I cannot describe
what it feels like to be an archeologist.
When I do excavations,
I don't know what's beneath the ground.
[mysterious music playing]
Imagine, the last person to hold
this amulet lived thousands of years ago.
What was their world like?
What did they believe?
This is the one
which is located in the south,
and every day,
every day we have to look at the sketch.
[in Arabic] The Bubasteion is one of the
richest archeological sites at Saqqara.
Its history spans more than 2,500 years.
For over a year, we've been saying
that the site is finished,
but every day we discover something new.
[men talking indistinctly]
[Youssef] Hold on.
- [music fades]
- What is this? Is this a stone?
Okay, go on, but slowly.
Carefully.
It's a stone, yes.
[speaking in Arabic]
- Careful.
- [Hamada Mansour] There's a hole here.
- [man] A shaft.
- [Waziry] Hmm?
[man] Shaft.
[speaking in Arabic]
It looks like a shaft lid.
[Youssef] Ah.
Yes, that's a shaft.
A shaft lid.
[speaks in Arabic]
It's around 10 meters deep.
[suspenseful music playing]
[men talking indistinctly]
[ominous whooshing]
[men speaking in Arabic]
[Youssef] Hamada, hang on to the rock.
Careful! It could fall down!
[speaking in Arabic]
[eerie music playing]
[dramatic whoosh]
[men talking excitedly in Arabic]
[Mansour] I'm entrusted with
sensitive and dangerous work.
I must be able to handle that.
[clanks]
I'd quit if I couldn't handle it.
When I'm up there at the top of the shaft,
surrounded by my workers
and inspector colleagues,
I'm in the world of the living.
The natural world we all live in.
When I descend...
[rope creaking]
...I'm being transported
from the world of the living...
to the world of the dead.
[ominous music playing]
- [music fades]
- [metal whining]
The world of the dead is sacred,
full of hidden secrets.
[eerie music playing]
I'm always looking at the ceiling.
The tomb's walls are full of cracks.
Those cracks can cause the walls
to collapse at any moment.
[metal creaking]
[men talking indistinctly]
[Mansour] I always, always, always,
with every move I make,
recite the name of God.
[tool scraping on rock]
"In the name of God" will protect me
when I stumble upon something harmful...
a snake, a scorpion, or a harmful insect.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Mansour] God's mercy has protected me
until this very day.
[tool scraping on rock]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Mansour in English] Wow.
The Good Eye of Horus.
My God.
[speaking in Arabic]
[in English] It's usually put
with the mummies.
To protect them in the other world.
[in Arabic] I always find myself
drawn to a certain point.
I feel somehow drawn
to the people that are buried here.
I've mentally connected to them.
Where are you?
Is that it? Or is there more to uncover?
[dramatic music plays]
This is not a solid wall,
it leads to another area.
A bigger area, or an extension.
But the main area is on the other side.
Hopefully, it leads us to a large
burial chamber, full of sarcophagi.
Sarcophagi that hold
secrets, etchings, and writings
that would paint a picture
of the Late Period.
I really hope that the tunnel in the shaft
still goes further into the earth.
There are secrets
hidden deep within this site.
I'm the one to uncover them.
[mysterious music playing]
[men talking indistinctly]
[Tori in English] Gisr el-Mudir
is the next big thing.
A lot of money goes into an excavation,
but that also comes
with a huge investment in staff.
You're going to be out there
spending all this time,
and you need to find something.
Essam has been working on a sondage,
which is a test trench.
You analyze what you're finding in it,
as to whether you want to continue
in this area or move somewhere else.
[in Arabic] Welcome, doctor.
[Hawass in English] A test trench,
it's like a window through time.
Thousands of years into the past.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Hawass in Arabic] I'm telling you,
this is a quarry.
[in English] A quarry is a place
that has limestone.
Then the ancient Egyptian will go
and take this limestone
to build the pyramids.
You could see evidence that
the ancient Egyptian cut the stones,
shaped the stones.
And it gave me the idea
that the location of the Pyramid of Huni
will be discovered in Gisr el-Mudir.
[Tori] Ultimately,
you don't want to be hauling rock
over a huge amount of distance
if you don't have to.
So it's likely that this quarry could be
attached to a monument
that is somewhere in the area.
[Hawass] We still have to do more work
to find the missing Pyramid of Huni.
It has to be near the quarry.
This is the area that we need to work.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Afaf Wahba in Arabic]
This place is very promising.
No one has worked here yet.
So we have high hopes
of finding something important.
[Hawass in English]
This site, it's not easy.
It contains many big mounds of sand.
When you take it out, it will take time.
I'm looking for a strategy now.
[suspenseful music playing]
We need to increase
the number of the workmen.
I give orders
that the workmen has to be 100.
- [exciting music playing]
- [men talking excitedly]
[in Arabic] Issam,
sing and encourage the workers!
[speaks in Arabic]
[Shehab in English] It's very important
to be with the worker,
to feel the ax.
Because you don't expect
what the ax will hit.
[ax clangs]
We hit shaft mouths.
[dramatic music plays]
We found... We found tombs.
[in Arabic] We'll leave this side as is.
[speaking in Arabic]
[in English] Finding one shaft
means you're going to find
a series of burial shafts.
Another one.
[speaks in Arabic]
It's something big.
[in Arabic] Up to now,
we haven't even dug 10% of the area
we are planning to excavate.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Hawass in English] A pyramid is always
surrounded by other tombs of the elite,
from the pharaoh's inner circle.
But Saqqara is a massive city of the dead.
Not just for the elite,
but for all levels of Egyptian society.
And we need more information
about this cemetery
to determine if we are on the right path
or not.
[metal creaking]
[men speaking in Arabic]
- [tool clanks on stone]
- [Mansour] Ah!
Ah!
[grunts]
[man] Whoo!
[Mansour] Ah!
The entrance!
We got the entrance!
This plaster from mud and silt.
[tool scraping]
The ancient people made this.
But what is behind this?
[in Arabic] At that moment, I would want
to yell at the top of my lungs
that we've made a great discovery.
But I'm not allowed to.
We must call Dr. Waziry.
[Mansour] Immediately!
[laughs]
The boss.
The boss.
[dramatic music playing]
[Waziry in English] I had a phone call
from the director of the site.
"We are in front
of something very important."
"You've got to come."
[in Arabic] About 15 meters below ground...
[speaking in Arabic]
...we found a sealed entrance.
[suspenseful music playing]
[speaking in Arabic]
In the name of God. [grunts]
[speaking in Arabic]
[in English] Wow, wow, wow...
[Hawass] An intact tomb...
filled with coffins.
[air puffing]
[speaking in Arabic]
[Hawass in Arabic] In the middle
of darkness, I get a feeling...
[suspenseful music playing]
A feeling that takes me back
thousands of years ago.
[chuckles softly]
In the name of God, God is great.
I do many excavations.
Sometimes, I get this strong feeling...
[ghostly voice whispering]
...an additional feeling...
A feeling that
I will find something special.
[eerie music building]
- [panting]
- [music fades]
[groans softly]
[breathing heavily]
[in English] There is no oxygen here.
We should not stay longer here.
[men speaking in Arabic]
[Waziry] I'm in a hurry to go back,
to go down in the shaft
to start searching.
To find my explanation
for this feeling that I have.
[in Arabic] I don't mention
this feeling to anyone.
[both greeting in Arabic]
- [in English] But you're late.
- No, I'm not. I'm always on time.
[speaks in Arabic]
[in English] I know the big discovery
you're talking about.
- What?
- This one, it was 33 years ago,
when we... when you discovered me...
- How do you know that?
- ...the best Egyptologist in Egypt.
- How do you know that?
- [laughs] I see it in your eyes.
[Waziry] I love this man.
[both talking indistinctly]
Dr. Hawass, for me,
is like my spiritual father.
He's not my boss.
But he is my boss.
[in Arabic] I am the head of Antiquities.
[in English] I am the head of Antiquities.
I take both. I'm the boss.
- [Hawass chuckles]
- Alas, thank you.
[Waziry] When I'm doing something,
I'm calling him. "Hey."
[Hawass in Arabic] Show me!
- Tsk, tsk, tsk.
- Let me have a look.
Gold! Look at the gold!
When I came to Gisr El-Mudir, I told him
I'm searching for Huni's pyramid.
Professor! Bubasteion...
[in English] One day
I would like to be like him?
Almost. Almost.
Shall I discover something
for you, uh, prehistoric?
[laughing]
[Waziry] He is, for me,
he is everything in archaeology.
For me, he is Zahi Hawass.
[gentle music playing]
[reporters] From his signature fedora...
Mr. Egypt, or rather Dr. Egypt...
The Indiana Jones of Egypt's archaeology...
- To others, he's a swaggering showman...
- Egyptologist...
Dr. Zahi Hawass.
When I was a young man,
I hated archaeology.
When I go to any bookstore, all the books
written by foreign archeologists.
When I open the TV,
I see foreign archeologists.
[reporter] Over the years,
the search at Saqqara...
[Hawass] All the interviews,
never see an Egyptian.
And that also killed me.
Foreigners were ruling.
But I said,
"We to need to compete with them."
"We need to be good like them."
I wanted, I was planning.
"One day I'm going
to make a difference in Egyptology."
"And one day,
my name will be written in history."
[hopeful music playing]
And it happened.
From the beginning of my career
as Assistant Inspector,
going up in every stage.
Inspector, Chief Inspector,
Director, Director General,
First Secretary of the State,
Head of Antiquities Minister...
All my dreams, all my life, became true.
Archaeology in the past
was like Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Putting axes, taking sand,
put it away, we found a tomb!
But now archaeology
is completely different.
Archaeology is science.
It's not digging to find the tomb, no!
It's digging to find history,
and to rewrite history.
[rattling]
One of the biggest mysteries
is a time over 4,000 years ago.
A time that's perhaps
as important to ancient Egypt
as the Renaissance is to European history.
- The Old Kingdom.
- [dramatic music plays]
But that page of history has been lost.
After the Old Kingdom,
people began to rob pyramids and tombs.
Finding anything that survived
over 4,000 years of decay
and looting is difficult.
[men shouting indistinctly]
[exciting music playing]
[Shehab in Arabic] To this day,
we've uncovered 10 tombs.
[in English] Finding this number of tombs
means that this is the beginning for us.
[man speaks in Arabic]
[Shehab] We are expecting
to find and reveal
more and more of these tombs
here in this area.
[suspenseful music playing]
[man calls out in Arabic]
[speaks in Arabic]
[in Arabic] Oh God!
Oh my God!
What a beauty!
[Tori in English] We're getting
updates in the office
- via texts or calls.
- [phone ringing]
Suddenly there's...
"No, you really need to
come and see this."
[dramatic music playing]
[Hawass speaks in Arabic]
[both speaking in Arabic]
[Hawass in English] You found it
in the scene like this?
God!
This is beautiful!
Tori! Look at the color!
Leave your bag away.
You cannot come
to the excavation with a bag.
You look like
the Indiana Jones' girlfriend.
[chuckles]
Why can't I be Indiana Jones myself?
- Why the girlfriend?
- You can't. 'Cause I'm Indiana Jones.
- Okay, you can be Indiana Jones.
- [both chuckling]
[Tori] Wow, there's so many of them.
[Hawass] The limestone.
Dig this out.
- Ooh!
- [Tori] Wow.
Finding one intact Old Kingdom statue
would be a huge thing
in any regular Egyptologist's career.
- [Hawass grunting] Ah!
- [Shehab] God.
Oh my God.
[Tori] In that moment,
they pulled out nine statues.
[men speaking in Arabic]
[uplifting music playing]
[Tori] It's... It's crazy.
Wow.
- This is great.
- [man] Yeah.
[Hawass] The cachet of the statues
shows that the people were elite.
They were not workmen or artisans,
because for anyone to afford
to have beautiful statues like this,
it's very expensive.
I've never seen anything
in the Old Kingdom like this.
Really beautiful.
The people who are buried in this area
are likely high officials
or in the royal court, even.
[Hawass] Congratulations.
This is really fantastic.
[Shehab] Thank you, doctor.
And actually,
I want to tell you something important.
If you discover
a big, large cemetery like this,
it should be next to one pyramid.
No one will make a big cemetery like that
without having someone important
to be buried, which could be a king.
[exciting music building]
And this is why I really believe
we are at the beginning of the discovery,
- the beginning.
- Yeah.
Anyone who's buried
could be a target for thieves.
[Tori] The question of looted or unlooted...
It's a big deal.
[all talking excitedly in Arabic]
We have very few examples
of... the unlooted monuments.
But the cachet of statues
indicated something important
to me at the beginning.
[hopeful music playing]
It means that the thieves could not
find out the location of the statues.
[men talking excitedly in Arabic]
[Hawass] It proves that we are
in front of an intact cemetery.
And you never see in any Old Kingdom site,
any intact cemetery.
Imagine if Huni's pyramid
is also unlooted.
That would be the discovery of a lifetime.
- [music fading]
- [wind gusting]
It's very important for us
as an archeologist to have vision.
It is not really to come and just dig
in a site and discover a tomb.
That's nothing.
[reporter] ...over the vast stretch
of burning sand,
an English archaeological expedition,
headed by a man named Howard Carter,
began in 1922
to dig for the hoped-for prize
of an undisturbed pharaoh's tomb.
[Hawass] It was his vision, that he knew,
that the tomb of Tutankhamun
will be discovered completely intact.
Howard Carter was keen
to discover the tomb.
Anyone else, to work in the valley
for four years and never found anything,
he would leave.
Howard Carter was not lucky at all.
[reporter] Fighting the blazing
desert sun,
Carter ruled with an iron fist
and was hard-pressed
to keep the work going.
[Hawass] But Howard Carter
insisted to continue his work
because he knew
that he will discover the tomb.
[reporter] Then finally,
on February 16th, 1923,
King Tut's fabulous tomb was unearthed.
Carloads of relics, as well as
the young king's mummy, were removed.
Carter and Carnarvon had won the battle
against superstition and nature.
[Hawass] We are not in a hurry
to make a great discovery,
but if you follow
the steps of archaeology,
and you do your scientific excavation,
you will reveal great things in history.
The only thing I tell myself,
"Zahi, be patient."
Yeah, and I'm coming down.
[grunts softly]
[rope creaking]
[Hawass speaking in Arabic]
[metal squeaking]
This tomb dates
to about 600 years before Christ.
Near the end of ancient Egyptian history.
Every object and artifact in this shaft
has a single purpose.
[mysterious music playing]
They are layers of magical protection
designed to prevent
the dead from being disturbed.
In order to open the coffins,
we need to remove
the statues that surround them.
[Ashraf Mohi in Arabic] It's a great honor
to be the first person
to touch these artifacts
after 2,400 years.
[speaking in Arabic]
I don't want to touch them,
but I will have to, to restore them.
They call us "surgeons of civilizations."
[in English] It means
"surgeons of civilizations."
[speaking in Arabic]
[Mohi in Arabic] I have a patient
that needs intensive and quick care.
There's a statue of a falcon.
Part of it was gilded.
The gold is starting to peel off the face
to the extent that
my breath is moving the gold.
So this could fall at any moment.
[in English] It's very fragile.
So, it needs a lot of concentration.
[tense music playing]
[in Arabic] I take care of every move
and every breath.
If I feel something move,
I stop immediately. That's enough.
We apply first aid to make sure
that the statue's face stays intact.
[speaks in Arabic]
[speaking in Arabic]
True, it will take a long time.
But to take a long time,
whether two, three, or ten days,
or even a whole month,
for something that's 2,400 years old,
that's nothing.
Any artifact that is
partially damaged or destroyed...
means lost knowledge
of the ancient Egyptian history.
Ancient Egyptians
surrounded themselves with magic
for protection in the afterlife.
[ominous whooshing]
[men whispering in Arabic]
[Mohi] According to
the ancient Egyptian belief,
when we pass away,
we will need small cups...
because the soul is small.
[man speaking in Arabic]
[Mohi] So they put miniature cups,
glasses and trays in the tomb,
so it can protect and feed the soul
in the afterlife.
[speaking in Arabic]
But there's other items placed there
that don't have an explanation.
- [Mohi] It's a finger.
- [man] Hamada, it's a finger.
[Mohi] This is very unexpected!
A finger! How come?!
[man speaking in Arabic]
[camera shutter clicking]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Mohi] What does it mean?
These strange and puzzling artifacts.
There's very little
information about them.
Without writings,
we won't be able to understand anything.
The last person to leave the chamber,
the priest,
performs magical spells and rituals
that will keep the chamber hidden forever.
In the eyes of the ancient Egyptian,
we're here to ruin his rituals.
[mysterious music playing]
[speaking in Arabic]
[eerie music building]
[ghostly voice whispering]
[wind gusting]
[speaking in Arabic]
[pole rattling]
[speaking in Arabic]
[Mansour] The most important thing
to the ancient Egyptian
is that his body
has to stay in good shape,
because the soul will inhabit it...
then leave it to meet the god Osiris
in the day journey.
It's a long journey
that takes a whole day.
He'll swim with the god Osiris
around the sun disc...
and then come back in the evening.
The soul returns again to its tomb.
[Shehab in English] The ancient Egyptians,
they did everything
to protect their bodies
for having life after death.
[in Arabic] They did their best
to hide their tombs.
[in English] Because they believe
if their bodies
were destroyed for any reason...
then they will be deprived
from the life after death.
[men speaking indistinctly in Arabic]
[Shehab] Within four months,
we succeeded to uncover
about 153 shafts.
[suspenseful music playing]
And when we talk about shafts,
we are talking about burial chambers.
Before we go down,
we are removing the debris
blocking the mouth of the burial shaft.
The deposit that filled the shaft
can help me to know
if this tomb was robbed or not.
If I find only sand,
it means that this tomb was looted,
because sand came with the wind.
It means that this tomb
was opened for very long time.
But if the shaft of the tomb
is filled with crushed limestone
or fragments of mud brick...
it means that
this shaft was not opened before,
so we found it intact.
[men speaking in Arabic]
[Shehab in Arabic] Move it to the top!
- [men shouting excitedly]
- [intriguing music playing]
[dramatic music building]
Lord, be with me.
[man] Moving down.
Going down.
[metal and rope creaking]
[Shehab] Come on, darling,
get down. Good job.
[man] Stop.
Pray, guys. Good job.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Sadeq] This is a face.
We have located the wall.
We'll keep going down
until we get to the ground. Okay, doctor.
- [Waziry] Good job.
- Thanks, doctor.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Waziry] What do you see down there?
I see through this opening a sarcophagus.
Congratulations, guys! Good job.
[people applauding]
[Wahba] When we uncover
the remains from the Old Kingdom,
we're ecstatic as archeologists
because those are from so far in the past.
[Tori in English] Dr. Essam tell you
what we'll see?
Yes.
[Hawass] At the end
of Egyptian civilization,
mummification was popular.
And many people were being mummified.
But in the Old Kingdom, they were only
beginning to figure out mummification.
What we find in the tomb
may tell us the status of people
buried in this area of the cemetery.
[in Arabic] Hey, doctor.
[Hawass] Reis, why do you think
it's not been opened before?
Because it was completely sealed
from the entrance.
[Hawass in English] The sarcophagus
is very simple.
But still, it's sealed.
It's sealed since
more than 4,000 years ago.
And we are going to open it now,
and we'll see what could be hidden inside.
[Sadeq speaks in Arabic]
[in Arabic] Move the lever
from the front to the back.
Support your back.
In the name of God.
- [Hawass] Push from here.
- [stone sliding]
[straining, speaking in Arabic]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Hawass in English] It's a... a skeleton.
Mummified, but not really
excellent mummification,
because the part of the chest
is deteriorated.
[solemn music playing]
We are not going to take this mummy out.
I will leave it as it is.
I'd like to leave him in peace.
This man was important,
because he was mummified.
But after 4,000 years of decomposition,
this burial is too deteriorated
to give us any more clues
to this person's status in society.
[Wahba in Arabic] You get surprised
by results you didn't expect.
This is what archaeology is,
it's the beauty of it.
[in English] I am not looking for
just one burial.
I am looking to the whole cemetery.
Is this poor
or this more rich, or more elite?
[Hawass] That will be
the key to knowing for sure
if this cemetery is connected
to a royal tomb or not.
We have to keep excavating
to find more conclusive evidence
that there is a pyramid in this area.
[men talking indistinctly]
[Waziry in Arabic] One millimeter
at a time, please!
[metal whining]
Slowly!
[mysterious music playing]
[men speaking in Arabic]
[Waziry] Okay, that's it!
Thank God.
[man exhales]
[Mohi in English] The conservators
have finally finished their work.
The statues are now strong enough
that we can risk
transporting them out of the tomb.
[speaking in Arabic]
But now we're gonna start
to unlock the coffin.
[speaks in Arabic]
[in Arabic] Keep the masks on,
we are opening coffins.
God knows what condition
the mummies are in.
Come on! You guys ready?
[in English] This one, it's well-sealed,
as you can see the remains of this mortar.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Waziry in Arabic] Lift it up a little.
A little from your side.
Hamada, bring the one you're holding.
[suspenseful music playing]
[speaking in Arabic]
[tense music playing]
- [Mansour] There's a weird smell.
- You're right, Hamada. Youssef, stop.
Youssef, stop.
[Waziry in English] It's very smelly.
So we have to be very careful.
Maybe it's germs, maybe it's bacteria,
it's whatever... I don't know.
[Mansour in Arabic] When we were
opening the coffin,
I smelled something really strange.
The smell is that of a decomposed body.
The smell of a human being,
like you and I,
who was put in a coffin 2,600 years ago.
[Waziry] Come on, in the name of God.
Let's do it.
[speaking in Arabic]
[in English] This mummy,
it was well-sealed.
But something wrong happened,
maybe a long time ago.
But this mummy, it was not
really mummified in a perfect way.
So that's why it was deteriorated easily.
Maybe it's a mistake
of the ancient Egyptian embalmers.
No, no, no. The mummy is in really
very bad condition of preservation.
[Mansour in Arabic] The mummy
was completely oxidized.
The writings were all broken.
You can't understand one sentence of it.
Not even the name of the deceased.
So this is truly sad for any archeologist.
When you don't have any writings,
you can't do anything but sit clueless.
[speaking in Arabic]
[Mansour] After opening
the three stone coffins
and not being able to find
useful information about them...
all hopes depend on the wooden coffins
and finding any text,
object, or information inside them
that could tell us
something about the tomb.
[speaking in Arabic]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Waziry in English] On the lid,
there are inscriptions.
[speaking in Arabic]
[in Arabic] Osir, Ahmose...
[in English] His name.
[speaking in Arabic]
[in Arabic] This means it belongs to...
- [Youssef] So his name is Ahmose?
- [Waziry] Yes.
[Youssef] So the name
of the coffin's owner is Ahmose.
[Waziry] His mother is Nebut.
His mother.
No, because this means "born from."
So, what is our final conclusion?
[in English] His name is Ahmose.
He is the son of Sekhet.
[speaking in Arabic]
[all talking excitedly]
[Waziry] In the name of God.
Three, two, one, go!
Stay up there. Keep it high!
Move a little in there, Hamada.
- Right here, professor.
- [man] Down here.
[camera shutter clicking, beeping]
[Waziry in English] By his feet,
a bronze protector statue.
[in Arabic] This is a bronze cat.
A bronze cat.
[in English] Bronze?
Bronze.
On his chest, a tiny gold amulet.
[in Arabic] Look at that!
[in English] A bird with a human head.
The ba, his soul.
[in Arabic] Guys, I'm looking at something
that I'm not sure what it is.
Let me through.
Mm-hmm.
- What is that?
- [man] It's something round!
- I've never...
- Cylindrical shape.
[Waziry] It's wrapped up in linen.
[man] I've never seen something like it.
[Waziry] Professor Ashraf will tell us
if it's safe to touch it.
[Mohi in English] When Dr. Waziry
asked me to touch the object,
I was very afraid
because it may be very dry.
And if it's very dry,
it is, uh, like a powder.
[Mohi in Arabic] Let's do this.
God be with us.
- [tense music playing]
- [ghostly voices whispering]
What do you think is in there?
- I think it's something...
- [man] It's some kind of paper.
- It's a papyrus!
- [all cheering]
- [triumphant music playing]
- It's a papyrus inside a pocket.
[Waziry] Oh God!
[man] This is amazing!
This is amazing! This is a first.
- [Waziry] This is a first.
- [man] I've never seen such a thing!
A good thing that it's wrapped,
because this has protected it
from being damp.
It will definitely contain secrets
of the civilization of ancient Egypt.
There is Harris Papyrus and Ebers Papyrus
and other papyrus that was named
by its discoverer, and their team.
I see no problem in naming it...
- Waziry!
- [man] Waziry!
[all laughing]
- [Waziry] Waziry Papyrus!
- [man] Of course, congratulations!
- [Waziry] All agree?
- [men] We do, professor!
- [Waziry] Waziry Papyrus?
- [man] Congratulations!
[speaking in Arabic]
[Waziry in English] I've been working
in this field for more than 30 years.
Yeah, we used to... to find
little pieces of papyrus.
But to find untouched
scroll of papyrus like this?
This is something really very important.
[praying in Arabic]
[Mohi in English] A complete papyrus
is more valuable than gold.
[in Arabic] Because it contains
lost knowledge.
This might be the second or third ancient
Egyptian papyrus found in such shape.
[uplifting music playing]
[speaking in Arabic]
[laughing]
Congratulations, doctor.
[speaking in Arabic]
What's the direction of Mecca?
I swear, I'm thanking God.
The ancient Egyptians did not plan
to just keep their belongings,
to be hidden down there forever.
They believed that there's resurrection,
immortality and an afterlife.
Now, we will bring them
back to life after 2,500 years.
Today they will see the light
for the first time.
[intriguing music playing]
All this heritage is hidden underground,
it's invisible to everyone.
[metal creaking]
I believe it should be taken up...
[grunts softly]
[uplifting music playing]
...to be displayed in museums
for all humanity to see it.
[music fades]
[in English] A lot of questions,
they were running in my mind.
What kind of papyri is this one?
How big is it going to be?
You think it's going to be fragments like
the rest of the papyri that people found?
[in Arabic] Maybe, just maybe,
it's a complete one?
I don't know.
Could it have missing parts? I don't know.
[in English] I want to learn more.
But of course we have to protect it,
so it's inside the fumigation bag.
For how long? At least three weeks.
[in Arabic] And I can't wait
for those days to pass fast
until the sterilization.
Then humidification processes are done.
Then we open the papyrus.
[snaps fingers]
- [wind gusting]
- [tools scraping]
[suspenseful music playing]
[in English] After almost nine months,
we are still working.
And with every passing day,
the conditions out in the desert
become more difficult for the team.
- [Wahba in Arabic] We keep going?
- We'll continue to work normally.
But if it starts getting too windy?
If it gets too dusty and we can't see,
we can't keep going.
[Sadeq] We can tolerate
the heat and the sun,
but the storm is very hard.
When the storm hits you,
you cannot even close your mouth.
[Hawass in English] We suffer a lot.
But at the end, the discovery
makes you forget any difficulties.
[metal squeaking]
We found a shaft
with an unlooted burial chamber.
Ah, okay.
[in Arabic] Do you have a light?
[in English] It's huge.
There is a huge limestone sarcophagus,
perfectly sealed.
Imahu, "the honored one."
"Under"...
Nebet Hut.
The word "overseer," Imerah,
is only for high people.
This is the highest title.
Her name is Nebet Hut.
Inside here should be a lady.
[eerie music playing]
[men speaking in Arabic]
[Hawass] Push, push, push.
[metal and wood creaking]
[stone creaking]
Okay, silence! Silent!
[mysterious music plays]
I need more space.
You are looking at a woman
dated back 4,300 years ago.
Over 1,000 years older than King Tut.
[panting softly]
Beautiful.
[mysterious music playing]
Beautifully mummified.
[man in Arabic] Oh God!
[Hawass in English]
The color of the necklace,
green and blue.
Two pieces of a beautiful headrest.
Gold.
Gold.
I think this is maybe the best mummy
we found until now in this cemetery.
[sighs]
It's very rare that
you can make a discovery like this.
[pleasant music playing]
[men speaking in Arabic]
[Hawass in English] Most of the beautiful
mummies are dated 3,000 years ago.
But this mummy is maybe the oldest
beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt.
In the Old Kingdom,
mummification was extremely rare.
Only a pharaoh or someone in his court
would have access to that technology.
Now, the most exciting thing,
this is the work we're going to continue.
Examining the mummy.
[in Arabic] Of course,
it's something amazing.
It's a great feeling.
I took samples,
being as careful as possible
to not destroy the mummy that's under me.
For example, I took samples of the linen
and also from a black substance
on the head,
and around the skull.
I need to know what they're made of.
We have the use of resin
for the mummification of the face.
In the Old Kingdom,
the resin was used very rarely,
which means she could be
part of the royal palace.
[Mohi] The mummy
we're seeing in front of us
is not your everyday mummy in Saqqara.
We usually see a shaft,
a shaft with bones.
But to see a mummy that's almost whole,
from the Old Kingdom,
this is obviously something extraordinary
from this period of time.
I've been working in Saqqara a long time.
I saw different mummies.
But this is the first time for me
to see a gilded cane next to one.
This would mean that this person
is very important and should be respected.
No ordinary person will carry a cane
with them that's coated with gold.
So this is clearly
a unique mummy from this period.
Every time we stand in front of a mummy,
the first thing that comes to mind,
"Who was that person?"
Was that an eminent person in society?
Would I have been able
to stand in front of him,
during his existence? In his period?
[dramatic music building]
[Hawass in English] No one of the elite
will be buried in an isolated cemetery.
She cannot go alone to the afterlife.
She has to fly together
with a big soul, with a king.
And therefore,
I believe that we are going to discover
a big, large,
important pyramid for a king.
The Pyramid of Huni.
[wind gusting]
Maybe I will fail.
But maybe I will find it.
We're still working.
[men speaking indistinctly]
[speaks in Arabic]
Okay.
- [in Arabic] Is this completely closed?
- Yes.
We uncovered 83 meters from it.
You will also see a step on top.
You will see it.
It supports the idea
of this being a pyramid.
[Hawass] What else could it be?
[sighs]
[man] Eighty meters,
and this is the corner here.
[tense music playing]
[Hawass in English] I'm looking for
the Pyramid of Huni.
Now, if I discover this pyramid,
maybe intact, then my dream became true.
And this is why this Huni,
who is very little known in history,
he will come back to be famous
in the history of Egypt.
The angle here is clear.
[both speaking in Arabic]
[in Arabic] Great.
We will proceed with the work,
so all workers need to be here.
A team on this side here.
Clean and uncover this whole area here.
[man speaks in Arabic]
[in English] We'll work
completely in this area now.
No more tombs, but we will go
to discover the new pyramid.
[man shouting in Arabic]
Look at the size of this wall.
It's 83 meters long from here to there.
It's 100% the base of the pyramid,
or this could be
the enclosure wall of the pyramid.
Actually, we are going
to start the excavation
from this corner for about 20 meters,
until we can find
the length of the side also.
- [speaking in Arabic]
- [dramatic music playing]
[Hawass] We are looking
at the beginning of a discovery
of a new pyramid
for the first time at Saqqara.
- [speaking in Arabic]
- [men talking excitedly]
[dramatic music building]
[music fades]
[in Arabic] Until today,
we can't confirm that it is a pyramid,
so we are waiting to see
the other side of the wall,
- to see if it could be a pyramid or not.
- Mm.
[gentle music playing]
What are you planning to do
in the site of Bubasteion?
It is a good timing
for the end of the season.
[in English] Very good...
Very good discovery to announce!
- What's the discovery?
- No, I'm not going to tell you.
I'll keep it secret.
[puffs]
It's like...
[chuckles softly]
Like the old days. [laughing]
[speaks in Arabic]
[in Arabic] Ah, Dr. Zahi,
remember the good old days.
[Hawass in English]
Over the last four decades,
I have trained
an army of Egyptian archeologists.
They will go on even after I am long gone.
More than anything I have discovered,
that will be my legacy.
[music continues]
I taught all my assistants
how to be a good archeologist.
But I'll never be able
to teach them the passion.
But I hope that one of them can find it.
[car horns honking]
Wait. Step by step.
[intriguing music playing]
[man] This is the end.
Wow.
Finally!
[men speaking indistinctly]
[Waziry in Arabic] The layer
of the papyrus is very thin.
A third of a millimeter!
So dangerous to handle.
"These are the words of the god Osiris."
The god of death!
- [people clamoring excitedly]
- [uplifting music building]
[Waziry in English] This papyrus is
something like nine meters.
This papyri contains chapters
of The Book of Death.
It was found by Egyptian missions,
Egyptian hands,
so we're going to call it
with Egyptian name.
Waziry Papyri.
And we did register the papyri
with this name, Waziry Papyri.
[applause]
[in Arabic] Long live Egypt,
and congratulations.
[in English] This is my mission,
to show the entire world that Egyptians
are the future of archaeology in Egypt.
This papyrus is only the beginning.
The beauty of archaeology is that
the search to understand our past,
to uncover new knowledge,
is never over.
[music fades]
[Hawass] If you discover
a pyramid of a king,
it's something amazing.
I really believe that
when we excavate the site completely,
this will be the news all over the world.
Because hundreds of archeologists
searched for the Pyramid of Huni.
We need at least one year of excavation.
[uplifting music playing]
Archaeology is a process,
a journey into the unknown.
It took Howard Carter five years
to find the tomb of King Tut,
but he kept going
because he believed in his dream.
But if you don't have a dream,
you will never get to your destination.
Every morning when I wake up,
I begin to dream and wonder.
What will we find at the excavation today?
What's inside the pyramid?
Does it really belong to Huni?
Or to some other lost pharaoh
we have never heard of?
All my dreams are in it
because I know what's going to happen.
Everything I predicted,
it became true.
[sweeping music playing]
[music fades]
[mysterious music playing]
[gentle music playing]