Ancient Impossible (2014–…): Season 1, Episode 7 - Greatest Ships - full transcript

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How did the greeks
create one of the deadliest

warships of the ancient world?

Were the first armored
battleships built hundreds of

years before the industrial age?

It's the grandfather
of the modern warship.

And why did Rome's
most notorious emperor build his

famous pleasure ships?

The man who built this is clearly
the master of the universe.

Monuments more
colossal than our own, ancient

super weapons as mighty as
today's, technology so precise

it defies reinvention.



The ancient world
was not primitive.

Their marvels are so advanced,
we still use them now.

Travel to a world closer than
we imagine, an ancient age

where nothing was impossible.

2,000 years ago Caligula, Rome's
most insane and murderous

emperor, demanded
the impossible.

He commissioned two ships of
such size, luxury and technical

sophistication, that even
modern vessels can't compete.

How could terrified Roman
engineers turn his deranged

dreams into reality?

And did such impossibly large

and sophisticated
vessels even exist?

Here at lake Nemi, 19 miles
south of Rome, Italy, two

incredible ships, the biggest to
survive from the ancient world,



were recovered
from these waters.

Lake Nemi had revealed
its dark secret.

Behind me, lake Nemi.

It's full of muck and debris,
but there was discovered one of

the greatest discoveries from
antiquity, the ships of Nemi.

These incredible
vessels sat on the bottom of

this lake for nearly 2,000
years, but no-one knew that they

once belonged to Caligula, an
infamous Roman emperor who

reigned for just
four savage years.

It wasn't until the renaissance
that the exploration of these

amazing wrecks began.

For hundreds of years scholars
and treasure hunters were

obsessed with what lay beyond

their reach under lake Nemi.

Until in the 1920s, the
incredible challenge of raising

these sunken ships began.

The fascist dictator Benito
mussolini decided that he

wanted these Nemi
boats excavated...

Making an association between
himself, his regime and the

Roman emperors that
were before him.

He sets in motion this

extraordinary task to
raise the Nemi ships.

It takes five years, but finally
they come to the surface.

To expose the ships,
the waters of the lake

were lowered 75 feet using an
ancient drainage tunnel.

The 2,000-year-old ships were
the size of a football field.

And packed in airtight mud, they
were in incredible condition.

These were the greatest ancient
ships ever found.

What they then needed to do
was see where they were going to

put these boats, they're so
enormous, and so they actually

had to build a purpose-built
museum on the shores of the lake.

The Italians built
a wonder of the modern world to

house these two wonder ships of
the ancient world.

But today this museum
houses a mystery.

The ship museum of Nemi is
absolutely extraordinary.

This space is gigantic.

Now what you see here today is
largely an open space, but it

was originally entirely filled
with two massive ships.

But where are the ships today?

And how was the greatest
archaeological discovery since

tutankhamen lost
in a single night?

On the 31 may, 1944, during
the second world war, the allies

were bombing the area, and a
German artillery division was

nearby, and they knew
that the game was up.

And what they decided to do was
to get into this boat museum

and set fire to the two boats.

And I think probably because of
the way the Nazis were quite

indoctrinated with their history
and their archaeology, these

prize exhibits were something
that they didn't want to see

survive because they
weren't German.

Today what you see is a lot
of reconstructions, some models

of the ships themselves and a
lot of the technology that was

involved and used
in ancient times.

It was a technological wonder.

But the remaining
metal and wooden parts of the

Nemi ships reveal incredible
technology that matches modern

luxury ships.

They were the largest and
most elaborate surviving boats

in antiquity.

But how were these amazing
vessels linked to Caligula?

This surviving lead pipe found on
board has priceless information.

These Latin words cast into the
lead say "Gaius Caesar Augustus

Germanicus," the emperor known
as Caligula, best remembered

for his cruelty, sadism and the
wild excesses that almost

bankrupted the Roman empire.

The romans have got a
reputation for opulence and

ambition and megalomania.

And you could say that all those
characteristics are encapsulated

in the single character
of Caligula.

Now, Caligula is not the
emperor's proper name.

Caligula's father, Germanicus,
was Rome's greatest general.

On campaign he brought his son
with him, dressed as a mascot in

military uniform, complete with
little combat boots.

The Roman soldiers loved him,
and called him Caligula, meaning

"little boot," or "bootikins."

You always get the sense that

psychologically, this
really annoyed him.

He didn't think he was being
taken seriously enough.

Caligula was desperate
to prove himself a

mighty emperor, ruler
of the known world.

He would go to any extreme to
build objects of impossible

extravagance and opulence.

We're told that Caligula
delighted in things that were

believed to be impossible.

These two boats, they were quite
extraordinary creations.

Both these massive vessels
were nearly 250 feet long.

For size alone, the ships are
remarkable, but inside, they

were filled with extraordinary
features, previously thought

impossible on ancient ships.

One of them was a floating
palace, a huge thing decorated

with marble, with alabaster
bathrooms, with hot and cold

water, with underfloor heating,

with mosaics, and it seems like
this was really just a giant

floating party
palace for Caligula.

The other boat was really a
floating temple.

The construction of
these advanced ships would

enable the romans to build on an
impossible scale.

When we think of
shipbuilding, we think of planks

nailed onto a skeleton to form
the hull shape, but incredibly,

the romans started
with the hull itself.

The romans used
mortise and tenon joints to fix

the enormous hull together.

No modern ships use such a
precise technique.

It seems impossibly difficult
to form the hull shell first.

The ribs and frame
were added last.

This incredible
technique, which all but

vanished with the fall of Rome,

created an impossibly precise
and self-supporting hull.

Modern shipbuilders can

replicate this by using glass
fiber, but only the ancients

could build a self-supporting
hull on such a vast scale.

It is a testament
to Roman power.

But their sheer
size was just the beginning of

Caligula's ambition to create
the impossible.

Caligula's barges are a bit
like Disneyland.

They're designed to impress.

They're designed to say the man
who built this is clearly the

master of the universe.

It wasn't just ambition that made
Caligula demand the impossible.

Historians believe that during

his reign, he became
totally insane.

He considered himself a god.

He had an incestuous relationship
with hisister drusilla.

He made his sister pregnant.

He's thought to have ripped the
fetus from her womb, and when

she was dead, he gave her the
status of being a goddess herself.

All Roman leaders had pretty
exalted ideas of themselves, but

Caligula takes things
that bit further.

He seems to believe he has a
kind of divine power.

At lake Nemi, Caligula didn't
just build impossible ships.

He used them to fulfill the
impossible dream to be a god

himself, lover of the goddess
Diana, on his temple ship out in

the middle of lake Nemi.

At this floating luxury Summer
retreat, the emperor could

demand whatever he wanted from
his fearful guests.

You just have to imagine what
it would have been like to have

visited those boats.

You would be fearful of
Caligula, because people think

he's mad at this point.

You go into these boats, which
were absolute incarnations of

genius but also
incarnations of excess.

And we're told that he used to
sit in the rooms of these

floating party palaces, staring
around the halls, and pointing

his finger and saying, "I could
have you killed."

The impossible
ambition of the Roman emperor

Caligula created the greatest

ships to survive from
the ancient world.

But they weren't just
big and opulent.

Inside was incredible technology

that even modern luxury
yachts don't have.

The ships give us an insight

into Roman technology in the
1st century a.D.

Some of the technology on the
lake Nemi ships would not be

seen again for 1,500, 2,000
years.

2,000 years ago, the Roman emperor
Caligula commissioned two super yachts to

luxury standards that have never
been repeated.

Caligula's Nemi ships represent the
best technology of the ancient world.

What represents the
best of today?

This is the Galactica star, winner
of a world super-yacht award.

It's fitted out with all the latest
gadgetry that money can buy.

Surely the Nemi ships
can't rival this.

Or can they?

Behind the gold and the marble,

beneath the statues and even
trees was advanced Roman

technology thousands of years
ahead of its time.

Like this bronze tap, which
looks too modern to be in a

Roman ship, which precisely
controlled the flow of water to

the onboard baths
and heating system.

This exceptional discovery is
engineered to such high

tolerances, it is still
watertight after 2,000 years.

Beneath the exquisite mosaic
floors of Caligula's floating

palace was a sophisticated
heating system.

Hot air from a furnace passed
through this space and heated

the floor above.

Technological innovations like
this gave the Nemi ships levels

of luxury unmatched
even by modern ships.

One of the most vital components
of our modern machines was first

found on the Nemi ships 2,000
years ago- ball bearings.

An amazing find were the
platforms that were designed to

act like turntables on a series
of ball bearings to support the

statue of the goddess Diana so
that she could rotate around the

room as you walked in.

Now what's great about this
technology is that before the

discovery of the Nemi ships,
ball-bearings technology was

attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci
1,500 years later on.

So here I have one of these
marvels from the ships at Nemi.

This is a ball bearing.

Now the thing is when we think
about ball bearings today we

think of something
from the modern world.

But here it is 2,000 years ago.

This kind of discovery is what
tells us how sophisticated, how

innovative the ancients were.

Experimental model maker
Richard windley is

recreating this technology to
see just how unbelievable it is.

So I'm going to try and
replicate the original Roman

bronze bearings using a little
wooden form, which I've made.

Probably the romans
would have done this.

This becomes the pattern for
producing bronze castings.

They would have needed quite a few
of these on the original version.

We think there were 8 bearings

around the circumference of the
bearing plate.

So we're going to try
and replicate this.

Looking at the
evidence from the Nemi ships,

it's clear that making this
ancient technology will be an

enormous challenge.

This is a project which has
taxed even Richard windley's

considerable skill.

This is the final
reconstruction of the ball-

bearing turntable.

The whole thing is constructed
in oak, it's very heavy.

These metal retaining plates are
of iron, and we use copper nails.

In actual fact, this was more of

a challenge than I'd
really anticipated.

Even using some modern tools and
machinery, it was tough.

When one considers that all this
would have been done by hand-

planes, chisels, adzes, axes-
by the Roman engineers, I'm just

filled with incredulity that
they were capable of doing this.

What's really quite
fascinating about this project

is that we can't really consider
modern life and modern machines

without the use of these
kind of bearings.

One can only imagine the
astonishment of the onlookers

onboard the temple of Diana Nemi
ship, the statue of Diana

suddenly started to move.

And this was only really
achievable by the ability of

Roman engineers to overcome the
problems of friction.

And there's yet
another incredible innovation-

a mechanical chain pump developed
to unprecedented levels.

After the romans, this ingenious
method of removing bilge water

would not reappear for over a
thousand years.

Why is it on the
lake Nemi ships?

Because you're on the lake, and nobody
likes the smell of stale lake water.

So on a pleasure palace for an

emperor who was capable of
cutting your head off for very

little, you didn't want to run a
smelly boat.

So they come up with the best
possible pump.

When the romans created their
ship technology, it was the

sheer scale of their ambition,

their application and their

imagination, which just seems to
be impossible.

The Nemi ships
created by the emperor Caligula

were examples of the sheer

technological brilliance and
decadence of Rome.

But like their creator, they
would be short-lived.

It was a brief but very, very intense
reign that ended in a dark tragedy.

And either his relatives or the
praetorian guard, those who

were closest to him, ambushed
and assassinated him.

He died from many stab wounds.

We believe that the senators
in particular wanted to Grant

him the status of damnation
memoriae- condemnation of

memory- and that was something
where you got wiped off the face

of the earth.

And the Nemi ships
would be wiped off the face of

the earth for the next 2,000
years.

The Nemi ships end up at the

bottom of the lake
in the volcanic mud.

We don't quite know how they get
there, but the fact that

Caligula had so many eNemies

suggests at some point they were
scuppered, they were sunk.

These are technologies that
the romans mastered, they used

them, they used them even on
ships, and they disappeared.

At the end of the ancient world
those technologies simply

vanished and they had to be
reinvented all over again.

The Nemi ships encapsulate

something important about what
it is to be human.

In some ways they're a demonstration
of just what man can do.

But they also remind us of our

arrogance and that sometimes we
just don't know when to stop.

The ancient world
could create pleasure ships that

still amaze us today.

But they also created floating
super weapons in a desperate

ancient arms race.

We think the
development of these 100,000-ton

modern warships starts with the

first steel battleships of the
first world war.

But steel armor was used
hundreds of years before, on

the first ironclad the world
has ever known.

This mysterious ship utilized
armor plating at sea for the

first time and achieved
the impossible.

It saved a nation.

The turtle ships were
commissioned by a Korean admiral

in order to overcome the

aggressive military
might of the Japanese.

But they underestimated
Korean resilience.

In the late 16th century,

Korea was facing the threat of a
massive invasion from the

powerful Japanese Navy.

So in response, in 1591, admiral
Yi Sun-Sin commissioned a fleet

of modern warships unlike the
world had ever seen before.

The Japanese had an invasion
fleet of over 700 ships.

Admiral Yi Sun-Sin knew he
couldn't outfight them.

He would have to outthink them.

But how could he do this?

Ships can be weapons
in several ways.

You can simply pretend like they

are pieces of territory or real
estate where they come alongside

each other and soldiers fight
from one to another.

But those ships themselves can
be used to sink other ships.

The genius of admiral
Yi Sun-Sin created a

warship centuries
ahead of its time.

If you're going to take on
the powerful Japanese Navy, the

Korean admiral realized you
needed a game-changer.

It was called the kobukson or
the turtle ship.

It's impossible to
believe, but this ship would

triumph in battle at odds of
30 to one using impossibly

modern technology.

This ancient sea monster had to
survive what for other ships

would be a suicide mission.

There's an intriguing clue to
how the turtle ship was so

successful at this
Korean temple.

This wood, called red pine, is
hard and dense enough to resist

gunfire and Cannon fire.

So this incredible super weapon
was armored, just like a turtle.

Picture a turtle swimming
through the water with its

hardened shell. Arms and legs
out to the side.

Those would be the oars.

The men were
encapsulated inside.

Around the outside of the ship

was a ring of cannons that could
fire in any direction.

These 12 cannons could destroy
Japanese ships at long range.

These guns, small, bronze
muzzle-loading 6-pounders, were

about the best that could be had
in that period.

They proved to be stunningly
effective in battle.

But it wasn't just
impossibly modern firepower and

protection that made the turtle
ships so formidable.

The turtle ship was
full of surprises.

The invincible Japanese Navy
fought by using their

overwhelming superior numbers of

soldiers to board and
seize enemy ships.

But against the turtle ships,

this tactic would be impossible
because of these.

Why would you put iron spikes
on the deck of a ship?

Well, that would keep other
people from boarding.

In fact, it was said that they
would lay hay mats down on top

so those spikes were concealed,

then when the enemy would jump
on board, they found what was

waiting for them.

In this way, the Crew were
protected from Japanese missile

fire and from boarding actions
and were able to concentrate on

using their own weapons and
destroying the Japanese fleet.

Another incredible
parallel with the modern world

is what the 12 cannons on the
turtle ships fired.

These iron-tipped darts were

ship-to-ship missiles, a
20th-century innovation on a

16th-century warship, smashing into
enemy ships at 200 miles per hour.

For hundreds of years, they
remained the most powerful ships

ever built.

I've been on board some of
the most advanced naval vessels

in the entire world, and when
your ship has a strategic

advantage over the enemy, it
gives you that will to fight.

It gives you the confidence to
know that you can go into battle

and then return home to your
family and friends.

So imagine what this did to the
sailors of the turtle ship.

It gave them the ability to go

against a force that was more
formidable than their own

knowing that they
could come back.

In the 16th century,
Korea was faced with a

massive Japanese invasion fleet.

Korea would come up with one of
the greatest ships in history to

overcome this attack.

It was called the turtle ship.

On its bow was a
fearsome dragon's head.

The reason you'd put a dragon

on the bow of your ship- it's
about intimidation, power, a

symbol of strength.

You see that fierce face coming
towards you, and you're worried

about what's inside that ship.

But this death's head
wasn't just for show.

It concealed another deadly

weapon that you'd think
belongs to today.

It was capable of spitting
firebombs of gunpowder and iron

pellets, cannonballs and smoke
screens that would hide his

ship from the rest of the Navy.

Imagine being the enemy on the
other side of that, and all of a

sudden, this dragon's head comes
protruding out of that cloud.

That would have been
an awesome sight.

It seems impossible
that this dragon's head could

actually breathe fire hundreds of
years before modern flamethrowers.

But we do know that the use of
flame as a weapon at sea goes

back to the ancient greeks.

This image shows Greek fire, which
originated 1,500 years ago.

Early ships were potential
firebombs made from wood,

fabric, rope and tar.

So we know the ancients
used fire on ships.

But how did it work?

This reconstruction of a 2,500-
year-old weapon is from an

ancient mural of a flamethrower
mounted on a ship.

This right here is a working
model of the world's first

flamethrower, the fire raiser.

So, essentially, the way this
will work is we have two

hollowed-out beams that have
been re-connected, and you have

a hollow tube on the
inside of this.

The end has been capped so that

it's airtight, and from the end

protrudes a pipe that goes into

the cauldron right here.

And in the cauldron you have coal,
sulfur, pitch to create that flame.

This is then mounted on a

movable cart with a bellow at

one end where the user would be.

And you can move this forward to
your objective, activate the

bellow and from this cauldron

spits a directional flame right
onto your target.

This is the ultimate
psychological apon.

The fire raiser isn't
just terrifying.

It's lethal.

So that right there is what
it's like to be on the receiving

end of an ancient super weapon.

No wonder this
weapon was called a fire raiser.

We know that fire, explosive,

even smoke screens came from the
turtle ship's terrible mouth.

But there is evidence of what we

now think of as weapons of mass
destruction.

The turtle ships
used choking gas.

Could it be possible that
chemical warfare was first used

500 years before we think it
first appeared in world war I?

Even in the ancient world,

the idea of noxious fumes was
well understood.

Ancient Greek philosophers went
up mt. Etna and were overcome

by the fumes and wrote about it.

So the idea that you could kill
people with gas was known, but

it took the Koreans to come up
with an effective way of

projecting this in a particular
kind of battle.

Experts believe that
gas from a mixture of

burning sulfur and saltpeter

would have incapacitated
its victims.

Experimental model maker Richard
windley is investigating just

how effective this delivery
system might have been.

If we think about the use of
gas, say, in the first world

war, obviously it was a very,
very dangerous technique.

It only needed the wind to
change, and the gas could

actually affect the people who

were trying to deploy it rather

than the enemy.

So it is a risky strategy.

Right, I've got one of the
little charges here.

I'm going to light this, pop
him in the pot, put the lid

back on fairly quickly, and then

hopefully, we should
get some smoke.

But could this really have delivered
an ancient chemical weapon?

The assumption is with
something like this that it was

projecting smoke a
considerable distance.

Well, if you try blowing
anything in air, you can't blow

it more than probably about 10
feet at most.

So really it was just a way of
getting this stuff into the air

and dispersing it, but I think
that given the right kind of

maneuverability of these turtle

ships, it probably
was a viable option.

How did these
technological advances translate

into success in the struggle to
dominate the seas around Korea?

At the battle of myeongnyang,
admiral Yi Sun-Sin and 12 turtle

ships made a desperate last
stand against impossible odds-

a Japanese fleet of over 300
ships, including 133 warships.

How effective were
the turtle ships?

Well, their true power was
realized when the Korean admiral

led 12 turtle ships against a fleet
of 133 Japanese naval vessels.

He sank 31 Japanese ships before

the rest of the fleet
turned and ran away.

So by using this ancient
technology, Korea was safe, at

least for now.

In no battle in
naval history has such a small

force smashed an enemy fleet
that outnumbered them 30 to one.

In three battles, the turtle

ships completely
leveled the score.

They turned a defeated Korean
Navy into a winning force.

They smashed the Japanese fleet.

They prevented the invasion.

So they really were a
transformational weapon system.

They used technology brilliantly

to solve a fundamental
strategic problem.

And Korea remained independent
for the next 300 years.

Admiral Yi Sun-Sin is the national
hero of Korea to this day.

The turtle ships contained
impossibly sophisticated

technology that predated

20th-century warfare by 500
years.

And all over the ancient world,
oceans had become battlefields.

They fought Titanic battles,

but the winners of those battles
controlled the sea.

They controlled the money, and

they became the great
empires of history.

We've seen how the
genius of ancient Korea created

the world's first modern
battleship hundreds of years

before the mighty ironclad
fleets of the 20th century.

Just like today, man has
always been seeking an edge.

He's always been seeking to use
his skill, his innovation and

his craft to come up
with a killer system.

But the first
purpose-built warship appeared

2,500 years ago in
ancient Greece.

The ancients used massive ships

as floating battlefields
for their armies.

When the tiny city state of
Athens was outnumbered by an

overwhelming persian invasion.

They needed a game-changer.

The golden age of Greece is
an age of ingenuity and

invention but there's one
particular super craft that was

perfected at this time that
really changes world history.

To fight the mighty
persian empire, the greeks

perfected a ship that didn't
just carry men and weapons.

It was a weapon in itself, 120
feet of offensive power.

This is the trireme.

It seems impossible, but this
incredibly destructive weapon

was powered by muscle alone.

In the 1980s, naval experts set
out to build an exact replica of

this famous super weapon.

This was the first trireme in 1,500
years to row the mediterranean.

Research suggests the trireme

achieved speeds of up to 12
knots.

One ancient writer describes how
a trireme rowed 185 miles from

Athens to mytilene in just 24
hours.

That's an average speed of 8
knots.

For a ship of this size, that
seems beyond the capabilities of

any engineer, let alone oarsman,

but the trireme used a highly
sophisticated design that

belongs more to our century than
2,500 years ago.

The oarsmen are actually
packed in in an interlocking

Jigsaw fashion so you get the
most oarsmen in the most compact

space generating the greatest
amount of power.

It really is a very clever piece
of geometric engineering.

But an incredible
design was not enough.

It needed an incredible Crew.

We know that the men who
powered these boats must have

been really extraordinary
physical specimens, super,

super fit, because you don't
have moveable seats, so you're

doing everything with your arms
and your back.

The Greek rowers of
the triremes were free men,

united in their determination to
protect their homeland.

But could one ship really destroy
another without firepower?

This incredible discovery of a
bronze ram from athlit in modern

Israel may reveal the deadly
power of the trireme.

Maritime historian Andrew

lambert is putting
the ram to the test

what we're going to be able
to do today is see just what it

looks like when a ram like this
smashes into the side of a ship.

All right, everyone,
about to run the test.

Ready.

This devastating
demonstration shows how the

greeks were able to
sink the persian fleet.

But mishandled, the trireme
could be deadlier for its Crew

than for the enemy.

3D analyst James Dean is
investigating why it could be a

double-edged weapon.

If you ram too fast at 12
knots, you'll get stuck fast,

and you've attached yourself to
a sinking ship.

Ram slowly at under 9 knots and
the ship won't be damaged enough

to sink, and they'll board you.

The trireme travels its own
length in 6 seconds.

Timing is a matter
of life and death.

Arrive 4 seconds too early, and
the rammer gets rammed.

Some experts believe
the impact of the

trireme's ram didn't
just punch a hole.

It caused boats to explode,
just like a modern weapon.

The athlit ram does not look
like the kind of device on a bow

of a ship that's designed to
poke a hole into an adversary,

it seems that it was constructed
to actually deliver the maximum

amount of force to the entire
structure of the ship.

It has these three plates that
project forward.

It looks like it's supposed to
deliver shock over as wide an

area as possible.

It is believed that
to strengthen and protect the

hull, engineers used hypozomata, heavy
ropes tightened from fore to aft.

Hypozomata kept the hull under
13 1/2 tons of tension.

This made it highly vulnerable
to the type of blow the athlit

ram could deliver.

This whole ship is held in
compression, that that force is

locked into the
structure of the ship.

You can imagine the kind of
explosive force that could be

delivered, like releasing an
arrow from a bow.

The trireme is perfect.

It's lithe, elegant, aggressive,
and every inch of it says power.

This is a killing machine, a
truly decisive weapon.

It shifted the balance of power
from east to west.

They wrested control of the
aegean from the persians and

began an empire that would leave
a lasting legacy in history.

It's amazing to
think 2,000 years ago the romans

and greeks were building ships
of such high technology.

But it's even more impossible to
believe that 2,000 years

earlier, Egypt used advanced
ship-building techniques which

we have lost from history.

Their temples contain clues to how
important ships were to them.

I'm at this temple in
Southern Egypt, where there's

impressive artwork and
hieroglyphics on the wall.

You can see here a boat which
belonged to ramses ii.

Now boats were really important
to the ancient Egyptians because

of course the nile was their
Major trade route and a Major

way to get things
around the country.

Without the river nile, ancient
Egypt simply wouldn't have existed.

The river is both the lifeblood of the
nation but also the main highway.

Some of the longest ships ever
built plied up and down the

nile, carrying huge stones such
as obelisks from aswan in the

south up to the north
of the country.

But what other
mysterious boats did the ancient

Egyptians have?

The giza plateau, Egypt-
the great pyramid of Khufu is

one of the wonders of
the ancient world.

But a discovery next to this
great structure shows how highly

sophisticated the Egyptians had
become in building ships.

At the foot of the great
pyramid, archaeologists found a

buried boat, a very large wooden
boat, thousands of years old,

made of the most exquisite
mortise and tenon joints.

The boat had been
carefully built then taken apart

by the Egyptian boat builders.

Its wooden parts, which were in
almost perfect condition, had

been neatly stacked in the pit
all 1,224 of them.

When Egyptian experts
reconstructed the ship, it was

like piecing together
a huge Jigsaw puzzle.

Egyptologists were amazed how
intricate and advanced it was.

The Khufu ship is simply a
landmark in human technology.

It's the first great
vessel built of wood.

And this is the
extraordinary ship they created.

The Khufu boat was shell-built,
meaning the outer shell of

planks came first, then the
interior timbers and framing.

As an ancient-world ship it was

a large vessel, 140 feet long
and 19 feet wide.

As a famous equivalent, the
mayflower, used by the pilgrim

fathers 4,000 years later, was
about 30 feet shorter

these boats were constructed
in what may seem an odd way.

They were roped together.

They weren't nailed or pinned
as we might expect, or even

glued, as we would do
with modern boats.

The restorers had
expected the boat to be

constructed like a modern wooden
boat, but they discovered that

the planks were held or sewn
together with rope passing

through slots into the timbers
this construction technique

produced boats which were
flexible, quick to build, and

easy to maintain, and this meant
they could plow up and down

the nile carrying some
impossibly large loads.

Amazingly, one mile of rope
was required to assemble it.

It was a highly advanced piece
of ancient engineering.

It's a boat that tells us a
tremendous amount about Egyptian

technology, about the transition
from boats made of reeds into

boats made of wood and about
shipbuilding in an age before

metal fixings.

It is thought that
in order to keep the vessel

watertight, the holes would be
covered with beeswax.

It's the first example in
history where an intricate ship

with no nails was discovered.

We can all agree that the
great pyramid was a miracle of

stone construction.

The Khufu ship, now that was a
miracle of ancient ship building.

And finally, researchers
discovered that it

was assembled and disassembled
for one purpose only- for the

pharaoh to sail
to the afterlife.

It was never built to sail
down the river nile.

This is a ceremonial craft

designed for a purely
hereafter purpose.

So it tells us everything about
the Egyptians.

They're obsessed
with the afterlife.

It's more important to leave
this world in style than it is

to live in style.

Although the Khufu
boat might not have sailed on

water, it is still considered to

be one of the greatest ships
ever to be excavated.

Your grave goods says
everything about you, and Khufu

had the best grave goods.

The greatest ships
of the ancient world used highly

sophisticated technology,

thousands of years ahead of
their time, from the first

battleships to luxury yachts and
the super ship that beat the

tomb raiders, proving that the
ancients were able to achieve

the impossible, creating
astonishing vessels that are

still among the world's
greatest ships.