Egypt from Above (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Egypt's Ancient Empire - full transcript
Egypt...
Birthplace of one
of the oldest, most powerful,
and longest lasting
civilizations on Earth.
This spectacular aerial journey
with privileged access
to incredible sites
will show how
the magnificent achievements
of the ancients
helped shape the Egypt of today.
Flying over this country's
vast and varied landscapes,
our bird's-eye view reveals
how generations of Egyptians
battled harsh terrain
and scorching temperatures
to build a nation like no other.
Egypt...
Covering nearly 400,000 square miles
and home
to almost 100 million people.
It's the biggest
and most populous country
in the Arab world.
Life here
has always been a challenge.
97% of the terrain
is harsh, arid desert.
So how did
the ancient Egyptians build
such a powerful civilization?
A bird's-eye view of the
country reveals the answer...
The mighty River Nile.
At over 4,000 miles, it's
the longest river in the world.
Without it,
the ancient Egyptians
may never have founded an empire
or built magnificent monuments.
The most iconic of
these ancient wonders lies
8 miles from the center
of Egypt's capital, Cairo.
From the air, the scale of
the engineering is incredible.
Made of an estimated
10 million tons of stone,
these are some of the largest
pyramids ever built.
The oldest and biggest is
the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Completed over 4,500 years ago,
it's formed from more than
2 million sandstone blocks.
Each block
weighs more than a car.
Created as a tomb
for the Pharaoh Khufu,
it's the only one of the 7
wonders of the ancient world
to survive to the present day.
At 480 feet high,
it remained
the tallest structure on earth
for 3,500 years.
The pyramids of Giza fascinate
American archaeologist
Mark Lehner so much,
he's dedicated
4 decades of his career
to unlocking their secrets.
Well,
from that very first sight
of the Great Pyramid of Khufu,
the Giza pyramids
have basically been my life.
I've spent 46 years, actually,
studying the pyramids.
Who are the people
who built them?
What do we know about them?
What do we know
about how they did it?
People from all
over the world come to marvel
at the pyramids' majesty...
Yet it's the remains of
more modest structures nearby
that unlock how the ancients
built these mighty tombs.
In order to create pyramids
on such a gigantic scale,
they had to create
a whole infrastructure.
We have found the footprint of
that infrastructure.
An aerial view
reveals a huge labor force
was once brought here
for construction.
So what we have found
in the so-called
Lost City of the Pyramids,
sometimes called the workers' village,
it's about 13 hectares.
We have found their bakeries and
their workshops, their houses,
their grain silos
for feeding the people,
but it's only part of
a much vaster city that existed
at the foot of
the pyramids' plateau.
Mark thinks
20,000 workers once lived here.
They quarried the 5.7 million
tons of sandstone needed
to build the Great Pyramid alone.
From the air, the view of the
neighboring Pyramid of Khafre
reveals there
is another enigma to solve.
Its summit is capped
with smooth stones
that once encased
the entire structure.
It's evidence
that the Great Pyramid
once looked very different.
The Great Pyramid of
Khufu stood complete,
covered with polished white limestone
that must have been blinding
when it reflected the sun.
The nearest source
for the brilliant limestone
was in Tura, 8 miles away
on the other side of the Nile.
So how did the ancients
transport tons of this stone
across miles of desert
and a mighty river?
Mark believes the sloping ground
in front of this temple
unlocks the mystery.
It's a basin...
the remains of a huge harbor
and canal complex filled by
floodwater that the ancients
used to ferry stone
to the construction site.
We have evidence
that the pyramid builders used
the seven-meter rise annually
of the Nile flood
as a huge hydraulic lift
to bring blocks
as high as they could
and as close as they could
to the pyramid plateau.
It's almost what you
don't see here
that is even more impressive
than the pyramids themselves.
The Nile made ancient
Egyptian civilization possible.
It wasn't just essential for
transport but for food, too.
And many Egyptians still
depend on it today to survive.
It's early morning
on the island of Elephantine
in southern Egypt.
Father and son
Youssef and Karim Mohamed
are preparing to go fishing,
as they do every day.
YOUSSEF, TRANSLATED: My family
has lived on the Nile
for more than 100 years.
My father was a fisherman,
and my father's father
was a fisherman.
He taught him,
and then my father taught me.
Now I'm teaching my son Karim
like my father taught me.
Youssef and Karim are
part of the Nubian community.
They're descendants of some of
the first people to settle
in this area of the Nile Valley
over 7,000 years ago.
For Nubians,
the Nile is their life.
They've always lived around
the Nile.
Flooding caused by
the building of a dam
further south at Aswan displaced
many Nubians from their land.
So, for Youssef,
it's important to pass the old
traditions on to his son,
like how to catch fish
the Nubian way.
Youssef knows the big fish
are in deep water
on the other side of the river.
To get there, father and son
must cross
a mile of choppy and congested
waters in their tiny rowboat,
all the while dodging ferries
and fast white-sailed felucca.
A collision here
would spell disaster.
Nubian fisherman Youssef
and his 6-year-old son Karim
must cross one of the most
congested points on the Nile.
Their livelihood depends
on catching the bigger fish
in the deeper water.
With perfect timing,
Youssef drives the boat
through the gaps in the traffic.
Safely on the other side,
6-year-old Karim must keep
the rowboat steady
against the strong current.
His father uses an ancient
technique to maximize his catch.
When you hit
the water once or twice,
the fish swim deeper
and flee into the net.
Fish don't like sound.
These fish are tilapia,
a staple of the Egyptian diet
since the time of the pharaohs.
After an hour,
Youssef and Karim have caught
all the fish they need
for tonight's supper.
They row the mile back to their
village on Elephantine Island.
Cooks dust the fish with flour
and fry them as part of
a traditional Nubian recipe.
The Nile means everything
because it's where I fish.
It makes life possible.
The Nile is my whole life.
For thousands of
years, Egyptian civilizations
have relied on
the River Nile for survival.
As well as providing food,
the rich silt from its waters
allowed farmers to grow crops
in the desert.
German archaeologist
Johanna Sigl is also heading
to Elephantine Island.
Her work as excavation
field director here is revealing
the Nile's importance
to the ancient Egyptians.
A bird's-eye view of
the island's southern tip shows
the layout
of a 5,000-year-old town.
This was one of
the first settlements
on this part of the Nile.
The Nile represented
a life source
for ancient Egyptians.
It was one of the most important
things in their life.
They got food and water,
fertile soil, trade connections.
They got everything
from the Nile.
Before dams
controlled the river's height,
monsoon rains over Ethiopia
to the south of Egypt
caused annual floods.
As the rising waters
burst their banks,
fertile silt was deposited
across the floodplains.
The further the waters spread,
the more farmland
could be cultivated.
The ancient Egyptians
developed a system
to forecast the perfect flood.
The instrument they invented
became known as a Nilometer.
The chiseled markings
on this passageway gauged
the height of the flood
and foretold if crops
would flourish or fail.
Here at Elephantine,
the flood arrived first,
so to measure here would
be a prediction for measuring
the height all along the Nile,
at least the ancient
Egyptians hoped so.
When the Nilometer recorded
the optimal water level,
the fields would be covered
with enough silt
to produce a bountiful harvest.
Thousands of years later,
and the Nile remains
the lifeblood of Egypt.
The Nile provides,
still, drinking water.
It provides energy.
It still provides fertile soil,
and so supports agriculture.
Without the Nile,
there would be no living here.
Today,
96% of the population lives
on the 3% of cultivated land
irrigated by the Nile.
Away from these areas,
the landscape is very different.
Almost 375,000 square miles of
Egypt is inhospitable desert.
Some of the harshest terrain lies
in the Sinai Peninsula
in the east of the country.
Rainfall in this part of Egypt
can be as little
as one inch a year.
From the air, it's clear the
region's dry, rocky soil makes
intensive agriculture
almost impossible,
yet there's a group of people
who have made the Sinai
their home for millennia.
Khadraa Eid Mourazid
has lived in this remote village
her entire life.
KHADRAA, TRANSLATED: It's very
difficult to find food.
There's little rain
and little vegetation
for the animals to eat.
Khadraa is Bedouin.
The majority of this
ancient people migrated here
from the Arabian Peninsula
almost 2,000 years ago.
In recent decades,
government policies
aimed to increase security
and promote tourism in Sinai
have denied some Bedouin access
to services
and eroded
their nomadic traditions.
Many have left to find work
in Egypt's cities.
Khadraa embraces life
here in the desert,
as her ancestors did before her.
This desert
teaches you to exercise.
Coming, going, collecting wood,
fetching water, keeping moving.
If you stay inside,
your body ages.
You must walk,
be active, and stay healthy.
Khadraa is a widow.
To keep herself
and her goats alive,
she must find vegetation
in one of the most arid
places on earth.
High up on
Egypt's arid Sinai Peninsula,
Bedouin shepherdess
Khadraa Eid Mourazid
is taking her goats deep into
the desert on a quest for grass.
Khadraa relies on wisdom
passed down through
generations of Bedouin nomads
to read the landscape.
A bird's-eye view reveals gullies
snaking across
the mountainous terrain.
Khadraa knows
scarce rainwater channeled
just beneath the surface is
enough to sustain plant life.
There's a lot of grazing here.
If they're happy, I'm happy.
While the goats eat,
Khadraa exploits another of
the desert's scant resources.
This desert plant is
called ajram.
You pick it, crush it,
and add water.
You can wash your
hands and clothes with it.
It's soap, a nice-smelling soap.
It's enough grazing for today.
Tomorrow, Khadraa
will have to find other plants.
I do this work every day.
I've been here
since the day I got married.
I've never lived anywhere else.
The desert is my life.
The Bedouin have
made the desert their home...
Yet the ancients used
these wastelands
for a very different purpose.
The western desert was where
the pharaohs were buried
in preparation
for the afterlife.
Royal tombs like
the step pyramid of Djoser,
built up to 4,700 years ago,
would be filled with
priceless treasures.
Despite the pharaohs believing
their pyramids were impregnable,
these structures became a magnet
for ancient grave robbers.
So 3,500 years ago,
the pharaohs created
a giant secret tomb
within a remote desert valley.
From the 16th century BCE,
at least 63 royal tombs
were built here
over a period of 500 years.
The Valley of the Kings is located
beneath a symbolic
pyramid-shaped mountain.
The pharaohs hoped this
inconspicuous site would be
safe from grave robbers.
Originally, the entrances
to the tombs were sealed
and hidden under sand and rocks.
Now a network of paths
leads the way in.
Conservator Lori Wong
is responsible
for the preservation of the
site's most famous attraction,
the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Tutankhamun,
its fame is due to the fact that
it was a tomb that was
discovered with its grave goods
almost completely intact...
And that's rare
because almost every other
tomb had been looted.
Tutankhamun was just 9 years old
when he became ruler of Egypt.
The boy king's tomb
was discovered in 1922
by British Egyptologist
Howard Carter.
Inside he found treasures,
including Tutankhamun's
gold death mask,
his gold and silver throne
encrusted with precious stones,
and more than 5,000
other priceless artifacts.
One and a half million
people a year
come to the Valley of the Kings.
Now the huge volume of
visitors is taking its toll.
Visitors have dust on
their clothing, on their shoes,
and they come into the tomb,
and that dust
can actually cement itself
onto the painting,
making it very difficult
to remove in a safe manner.
Lori's team has
installed a ventilation system
to help reduce
dust levels inside the tomb.
The cleaner air will ensure
the preservation
of the boy king's resting place
for generations to come.
We want other people
to be able to appreciate
the tomb as much as we have.
To have worked in a tomb
like Tutankhamun has been
just a wonderful experience.
Egypt's
mighty pharaohs left their mark
throughout the country,
yet not all monuments
visible from the air
are shrines to past rulers.
These are towers
for domesticated pigeons.
The birds have been farmed in
Egypt for thousands of years.
Ancient sources suggest
they were consumed
on important feast days.
Today, pigeons are not only bred
to eat, they're bred to compete.
In Cairo's neighborhood
of Gamaleya,
dozens of passionate
pigeon breeders
are in constant competition
with one another.
Visible from the air, precarious
wooden structures like this
rise high above the rooftops.
These are called gheyas,
and they're
the inner city's answer
to pigeon towers.
Some are large enough
to house over 300 birds.
Hassan Mohamed Hussein
calls himself
the "Pigeon Ruler of Gamaleya."
HASSAN, TRANSLATED: I built my
first gheya 23 years ago.
I built a small one,
9-by-9 foot,
out of straw on the roof.
It was a long process.
I made the gheya
higher and bigger
until I built
the one I have now.
Hassan is one of
2 million pigeon fanciers
in Egypt.
In competitions,
breeders take their best birds
to a central location
and release them together.
The goal is to both guide
their own birds home
and lure as many of their
rival's pigeons as they can.
The breeder with the most birds
at the end of the event
is the winner.
Every competition is different,
like a football match.
Catching pigeons is
the equivalent of scoring goals.
Hassan meets his opponent here
in the middle of old Cairo.
He must win today if he
wants to retain his title,
"Pigeon Ruler of Gamaleya."
In the historic heart of Cairo,
Hassan Mohamed Hussein
is taking on rival Kuto Adam
in a pigeon race
across the capital.
Both competitors are ready
to release their birds.
40 pigeons
climb high above Cairo.
In just a few minutes, they'll
be within range of their coops.
Both competitors must try and
guide home all their pigeons
and as many of
their rival's as possible.
Whoever captures
the most birds wins.
Soon after arriving
back at his tower,
Hassan spots the pigeons.
I'm going to
call them in and raise a flag
to see which are
the competitor's pigeons.
Hassan waves and whistles
to entice them to his coop.
As the pigeons land,
he reads their tags
to check who they belong to.
All Hassan's pigeons
have returned home.
His competitor, Kuto Adam,
hasn't lured any away.
I think that black one
is one of Kuto's birds.
But Hassan has.
With another victory to his
name, Hassan retains his title
until the next contest.
I'm so happy.
I'm so pleased that I won.
The Egyptians'
relationship with pigeons is
just one legacy
from the time of the pharaohs.
The ancient rulers'
vast monuments stand testament
to their immense power.
These were no ordinary kings.
They proclaimed themselves gods.
And they expected
their subjects to worship them,
even after they died.
Nowhere is this more visible
than on the west bank
of the Nile,
across the river from Luxor.
Over 2,000 years, pharaohs
built mortuary temples here
to commemorate their reigns
and as centers
for their eternal veneration.
Their true scale only
becomes evident from the air.
It's dawn, and setting a course
for the mortuary temples is
Bahaa Ahmed, an experienced
hot-air balloon pilot.
Bahaa flies at first light,
when the air is cool
and wind currents
are most predictable.
Knowing wind patterns
here is critical,
because the temples are located
directly beneath jagged mountains.
BAHAA, TRANSLATED: The biggest
challenge flying balloons here,
is the wind shear and turbulence
close to the mountains.
So we take that into consideration
and try to keep far away
so there is no danger
to the balloon
or the passengers.
As Bahaa tracks a
course away from the mountains,
he guides his balloon
towards Egypt's most famous
mortuary structure.
The temple of Hatshepsut
is carved
into the side of a mountain.
It was built by one of Egypt's
very few female Pharaohs.
To gain acceptance as ruler,
she ordered her temple
to be bigger and grander
than those of all
the male pharaohs before her.
This temple is
one of the most beautiful things
to see from the balloon.
Looking at the design of
this temple,
it is more than I can describe.
From the balloon,
it looks very beautiful.
As the air warms up,
Bahaa must now negotiate
the potentially
treacherous winds to visit
a shrine to the greatest pharaoh
ever to rule Egypt.
Above the west bank of Luxor,
Bahaa Ahmed's balloon approaches
a 50,000-square-foot
temple complex
dedicated to Egypt's
greatest pharaoh.
This is the Ramesseum,
the mortuary temple
of Egypt's most
prolific monument builder,
Ramesses II.
Constructed in
the 13th century BCE
and covering the area
of 47 tennis courts,
in its day,
it was one of the largest
mortuary temples in Egypt.
It took 20 years to complete.
Beautiful.
This is amazing!
Look at this. Ramesses II.
Within the Ramesseum lie
the fallen remains of a giant
statue of Ramesses himself.
Originally, it would have risen
to the height of
a 6-story building
and weighed around 1,000 tons.
It reminded everyone
he was more than a man,
he was a god.
As the desert monuments
give way to lush farmland below,
it's time for Bahaa
to find a field to touch down.
When the balloon
goes up, you don't know
where you are going to land,
and it's a challenge to land
somewhere safe
for the passengers.
Flying balloons,
every day is a new day.
The pharaohs may have
declared themselves gods,
but their powers
were not eternal.
After ruling Egypt
for 3,000 years,
they were conquered
by the Romans.
In time, belief
in their many pagan gods
gave way to one Christian god.
Almost 10 million Christians
live in Egypt today.
One of their most important
sites is Mount Sinai.
According to the Bible,
this mountain was where God
appeared as a burning bush
and where Moses received
the Ten Commandments.
In the 6th century CE,
Roman emperor Justinian I
ordered a place of worship
to be built
marking this most sacred of sites.
The result was
Saint Catherine's Monastery,
the oldest continuously
inhabited monastery
in the world.
Resident monk Father Makarios
left his home
in Denver, Colorado,
to live and work here.
Historically,
there are very few places
in the world today that
reflect the life of the empire
which created this monastery.
Nowhere else in the world
can anybody find or see
an institution like this.
The centerpiece of
Saint Catherine's Monastery is
the great basilica.
This is where daily prayers
have been held for 1,500 years.
Today, Father Makarios must make
sure that everything is ready
for the morning service.
There has been
an uninterrupted succession of
prayers here
since the mid-6th century.
No one in the world can claim
that anywhere except here.
Life here
means following strict rules
and turning your back
on modern comforts
to live in the wilderness.
With the chapel now ready,
the monks can commence
8 hours of daily prayers
in a monastery that is uniquely
connected to their faith.
Moses came here.
God himself came.
To be able to be here
and look at any one face of
this mountain from here
and say to yourself,
"This is really important.
I need to be here for this."
Preserving
thousands of years of history
has made Egypt
the country it is today.
Beside the Giza pyramids,
it's a race against time
to fill a new $1-billion museum
with the country's
greatest treasures.
That means transporting
fragile and priceless artifacts
across one of the world's
most congested cities.
In Egypt's capital, Cairo,
plans are underway to bring
thousands of years of history
under one roof.
For more than a century,
the world's largest collection
of ancient Egyptian treasures
has been housed in Cairo,
here at the Egyptian Museum.
It's the home of
the world-famous relics
from the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Today, the neoclassical
building is outdated
and too small to display
many of its items.
So engineers are building
a brand-new museum
to accommodate 5 million
tourists who visit each year.
Its scale is epic.
When it's finished,
the Grand Egyptian Museum
will cover an area of
over 5.2 million square feet.
This will be
the largest museum devoted
to one civilization
on the planet.
Before it opens,
thousands of artifacts
must be transported by road
on an 11-mile journey
to their new home
on the outskirts of Cairo.
And that's a problem.
Cairo is one of the world's
most congested cities.
Tens of thousands
of road traffic accidents
are reported every year,
and congestion costs the country
an estimated $50 billion.
Hitting the road today is
this 3,000-year-old statue of
Ramesses II
and the Goddess Anat.
Ramesses is known as
the Great due partly
to his huge building projects.
Director of restoration
and transporting antiquities
Eissa Zidan
must ensure safe passage.
EISSA, TRANSLATED:
It's impossible to put a value
on this statue.
For Egyptians, it means
civilization, culture,
heritage, and honor.
Ancient Egyptian
civilization is priceless.
Eissa's team
painstakingly wraps the monument
in a protective material
before its journey.
Ramesses will be transported
across Cairo
to his new home by
driver Zakariya Mohamed.
ZAKARIYA, TRANSLATED: I feel
proud to be transporting
such important pieces.
I also feel afraid, because
if anything were to happen
to any of these artifacts,
I would be devastated.
To ensure
Ramesses' safe delivery,
Zakariya has called in help.
Four police cars
and a special forces unit
will escort the mighty pharaoh.
To prevent the statue
toppling off his truck,
Zakariya must try and maintain
a constant speed
of 12 miles per hour
towards the Grand Egyptian Museum.
After a tense 60-minute journey,
Zakariya and Ramesses
arrive unscathed.
I always feel
nervous while driving.
I feel especially stressed
carrying something
of such value to Egyptians.
When I arrive at
the Grand Egyptian Museum,
I feel relieved that
it has got here safely.
The statue will soon be unpacked
and installed on the new
museum's grand staircase.
I will feel extremely
proud to see
the Grand Egyptian Museum
finally open
and visitors coming to see
all the antiquities
that we
have transported so carefully.
I hope we have done something
that will be remembered.
Flying over Egypt,
our birds-eye view reveals
how this proud nation continues
to embrace its unique past.
From the air, it's clear
how the ancients stamped
their mark across this harsh
and inhospitable landscape
and how some lifestyles here
have barely changed
for thousands of years.
In this land of the pharaohs,
the ancient and modern
continue to live side by side.
Captioned by National Captioning Institute
Birthplace of one
of the oldest, most powerful,
and longest lasting
civilizations on Earth.
This spectacular aerial journey
with privileged access
to incredible sites
will show how
the magnificent achievements
of the ancients
helped shape the Egypt of today.
Flying over this country's
vast and varied landscapes,
our bird's-eye view reveals
how generations of Egyptians
battled harsh terrain
and scorching temperatures
to build a nation like no other.
Egypt...
Covering nearly 400,000 square miles
and home
to almost 100 million people.
It's the biggest
and most populous country
in the Arab world.
Life here
has always been a challenge.
97% of the terrain
is harsh, arid desert.
So how did
the ancient Egyptians build
such a powerful civilization?
A bird's-eye view of the
country reveals the answer...
The mighty River Nile.
At over 4,000 miles, it's
the longest river in the world.
Without it,
the ancient Egyptians
may never have founded an empire
or built magnificent monuments.
The most iconic of
these ancient wonders lies
8 miles from the center
of Egypt's capital, Cairo.
From the air, the scale of
the engineering is incredible.
Made of an estimated
10 million tons of stone,
these are some of the largest
pyramids ever built.
The oldest and biggest is
the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Completed over 4,500 years ago,
it's formed from more than
2 million sandstone blocks.
Each block
weighs more than a car.
Created as a tomb
for the Pharaoh Khufu,
it's the only one of the 7
wonders of the ancient world
to survive to the present day.
At 480 feet high,
it remained
the tallest structure on earth
for 3,500 years.
The pyramids of Giza fascinate
American archaeologist
Mark Lehner so much,
he's dedicated
4 decades of his career
to unlocking their secrets.
Well,
from that very first sight
of the Great Pyramid of Khufu,
the Giza pyramids
have basically been my life.
I've spent 46 years, actually,
studying the pyramids.
Who are the people
who built them?
What do we know about them?
What do we know
about how they did it?
People from all
over the world come to marvel
at the pyramids' majesty...
Yet it's the remains of
more modest structures nearby
that unlock how the ancients
built these mighty tombs.
In order to create pyramids
on such a gigantic scale,
they had to create
a whole infrastructure.
We have found the footprint of
that infrastructure.
An aerial view
reveals a huge labor force
was once brought here
for construction.
So what we have found
in the so-called
Lost City of the Pyramids,
sometimes called the workers' village,
it's about 13 hectares.
We have found their bakeries and
their workshops, their houses,
their grain silos
for feeding the people,
but it's only part of
a much vaster city that existed
at the foot of
the pyramids' plateau.
Mark thinks
20,000 workers once lived here.
They quarried the 5.7 million
tons of sandstone needed
to build the Great Pyramid alone.
From the air, the view of the
neighboring Pyramid of Khafre
reveals there
is another enigma to solve.
Its summit is capped
with smooth stones
that once encased
the entire structure.
It's evidence
that the Great Pyramid
once looked very different.
The Great Pyramid of
Khufu stood complete,
covered with polished white limestone
that must have been blinding
when it reflected the sun.
The nearest source
for the brilliant limestone
was in Tura, 8 miles away
on the other side of the Nile.
So how did the ancients
transport tons of this stone
across miles of desert
and a mighty river?
Mark believes the sloping ground
in front of this temple
unlocks the mystery.
It's a basin...
the remains of a huge harbor
and canal complex filled by
floodwater that the ancients
used to ferry stone
to the construction site.
We have evidence
that the pyramid builders used
the seven-meter rise annually
of the Nile flood
as a huge hydraulic lift
to bring blocks
as high as they could
and as close as they could
to the pyramid plateau.
It's almost what you
don't see here
that is even more impressive
than the pyramids themselves.
The Nile made ancient
Egyptian civilization possible.
It wasn't just essential for
transport but for food, too.
And many Egyptians still
depend on it today to survive.
It's early morning
on the island of Elephantine
in southern Egypt.
Father and son
Youssef and Karim Mohamed
are preparing to go fishing,
as they do every day.
YOUSSEF, TRANSLATED: My family
has lived on the Nile
for more than 100 years.
My father was a fisherman,
and my father's father
was a fisherman.
He taught him,
and then my father taught me.
Now I'm teaching my son Karim
like my father taught me.
Youssef and Karim are
part of the Nubian community.
They're descendants of some of
the first people to settle
in this area of the Nile Valley
over 7,000 years ago.
For Nubians,
the Nile is their life.
They've always lived around
the Nile.
Flooding caused by
the building of a dam
further south at Aswan displaced
many Nubians from their land.
So, for Youssef,
it's important to pass the old
traditions on to his son,
like how to catch fish
the Nubian way.
Youssef knows the big fish
are in deep water
on the other side of the river.
To get there, father and son
must cross
a mile of choppy and congested
waters in their tiny rowboat,
all the while dodging ferries
and fast white-sailed felucca.
A collision here
would spell disaster.
Nubian fisherman Youssef
and his 6-year-old son Karim
must cross one of the most
congested points on the Nile.
Their livelihood depends
on catching the bigger fish
in the deeper water.
With perfect timing,
Youssef drives the boat
through the gaps in the traffic.
Safely on the other side,
6-year-old Karim must keep
the rowboat steady
against the strong current.
His father uses an ancient
technique to maximize his catch.
When you hit
the water once or twice,
the fish swim deeper
and flee into the net.
Fish don't like sound.
These fish are tilapia,
a staple of the Egyptian diet
since the time of the pharaohs.
After an hour,
Youssef and Karim have caught
all the fish they need
for tonight's supper.
They row the mile back to their
village on Elephantine Island.
Cooks dust the fish with flour
and fry them as part of
a traditional Nubian recipe.
The Nile means everything
because it's where I fish.
It makes life possible.
The Nile is my whole life.
For thousands of
years, Egyptian civilizations
have relied on
the River Nile for survival.
As well as providing food,
the rich silt from its waters
allowed farmers to grow crops
in the desert.
German archaeologist
Johanna Sigl is also heading
to Elephantine Island.
Her work as excavation
field director here is revealing
the Nile's importance
to the ancient Egyptians.
A bird's-eye view of
the island's southern tip shows
the layout
of a 5,000-year-old town.
This was one of
the first settlements
on this part of the Nile.
The Nile represented
a life source
for ancient Egyptians.
It was one of the most important
things in their life.
They got food and water,
fertile soil, trade connections.
They got everything
from the Nile.
Before dams
controlled the river's height,
monsoon rains over Ethiopia
to the south of Egypt
caused annual floods.
As the rising waters
burst their banks,
fertile silt was deposited
across the floodplains.
The further the waters spread,
the more farmland
could be cultivated.
The ancient Egyptians
developed a system
to forecast the perfect flood.
The instrument they invented
became known as a Nilometer.
The chiseled markings
on this passageway gauged
the height of the flood
and foretold if crops
would flourish or fail.
Here at Elephantine,
the flood arrived first,
so to measure here would
be a prediction for measuring
the height all along the Nile,
at least the ancient
Egyptians hoped so.
When the Nilometer recorded
the optimal water level,
the fields would be covered
with enough silt
to produce a bountiful harvest.
Thousands of years later,
and the Nile remains
the lifeblood of Egypt.
The Nile provides,
still, drinking water.
It provides energy.
It still provides fertile soil,
and so supports agriculture.
Without the Nile,
there would be no living here.
Today,
96% of the population lives
on the 3% of cultivated land
irrigated by the Nile.
Away from these areas,
the landscape is very different.
Almost 375,000 square miles of
Egypt is inhospitable desert.
Some of the harshest terrain lies
in the Sinai Peninsula
in the east of the country.
Rainfall in this part of Egypt
can be as little
as one inch a year.
From the air, it's clear the
region's dry, rocky soil makes
intensive agriculture
almost impossible,
yet there's a group of people
who have made the Sinai
their home for millennia.
Khadraa Eid Mourazid
has lived in this remote village
her entire life.
KHADRAA, TRANSLATED: It's very
difficult to find food.
There's little rain
and little vegetation
for the animals to eat.
Khadraa is Bedouin.
The majority of this
ancient people migrated here
from the Arabian Peninsula
almost 2,000 years ago.
In recent decades,
government policies
aimed to increase security
and promote tourism in Sinai
have denied some Bedouin access
to services
and eroded
their nomadic traditions.
Many have left to find work
in Egypt's cities.
Khadraa embraces life
here in the desert,
as her ancestors did before her.
This desert
teaches you to exercise.
Coming, going, collecting wood,
fetching water, keeping moving.
If you stay inside,
your body ages.
You must walk,
be active, and stay healthy.
Khadraa is a widow.
To keep herself
and her goats alive,
she must find vegetation
in one of the most arid
places on earth.
High up on
Egypt's arid Sinai Peninsula,
Bedouin shepherdess
Khadraa Eid Mourazid
is taking her goats deep into
the desert on a quest for grass.
Khadraa relies on wisdom
passed down through
generations of Bedouin nomads
to read the landscape.
A bird's-eye view reveals gullies
snaking across
the mountainous terrain.
Khadraa knows
scarce rainwater channeled
just beneath the surface is
enough to sustain plant life.
There's a lot of grazing here.
If they're happy, I'm happy.
While the goats eat,
Khadraa exploits another of
the desert's scant resources.
This desert plant is
called ajram.
You pick it, crush it,
and add water.
You can wash your
hands and clothes with it.
It's soap, a nice-smelling soap.
It's enough grazing for today.
Tomorrow, Khadraa
will have to find other plants.
I do this work every day.
I've been here
since the day I got married.
I've never lived anywhere else.
The desert is my life.
The Bedouin have
made the desert their home...
Yet the ancients used
these wastelands
for a very different purpose.
The western desert was where
the pharaohs were buried
in preparation
for the afterlife.
Royal tombs like
the step pyramid of Djoser,
built up to 4,700 years ago,
would be filled with
priceless treasures.
Despite the pharaohs believing
their pyramids were impregnable,
these structures became a magnet
for ancient grave robbers.
So 3,500 years ago,
the pharaohs created
a giant secret tomb
within a remote desert valley.
From the 16th century BCE,
at least 63 royal tombs
were built here
over a period of 500 years.
The Valley of the Kings is located
beneath a symbolic
pyramid-shaped mountain.
The pharaohs hoped this
inconspicuous site would be
safe from grave robbers.
Originally, the entrances
to the tombs were sealed
and hidden under sand and rocks.
Now a network of paths
leads the way in.
Conservator Lori Wong
is responsible
for the preservation of the
site's most famous attraction,
the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Tutankhamun,
its fame is due to the fact that
it was a tomb that was
discovered with its grave goods
almost completely intact...
And that's rare
because almost every other
tomb had been looted.
Tutankhamun was just 9 years old
when he became ruler of Egypt.
The boy king's tomb
was discovered in 1922
by British Egyptologist
Howard Carter.
Inside he found treasures,
including Tutankhamun's
gold death mask,
his gold and silver throne
encrusted with precious stones,
and more than 5,000
other priceless artifacts.
One and a half million
people a year
come to the Valley of the Kings.
Now the huge volume of
visitors is taking its toll.
Visitors have dust on
their clothing, on their shoes,
and they come into the tomb,
and that dust
can actually cement itself
onto the painting,
making it very difficult
to remove in a safe manner.
Lori's team has
installed a ventilation system
to help reduce
dust levels inside the tomb.
The cleaner air will ensure
the preservation
of the boy king's resting place
for generations to come.
We want other people
to be able to appreciate
the tomb as much as we have.
To have worked in a tomb
like Tutankhamun has been
just a wonderful experience.
Egypt's
mighty pharaohs left their mark
throughout the country,
yet not all monuments
visible from the air
are shrines to past rulers.
These are towers
for domesticated pigeons.
The birds have been farmed in
Egypt for thousands of years.
Ancient sources suggest
they were consumed
on important feast days.
Today, pigeons are not only bred
to eat, they're bred to compete.
In Cairo's neighborhood
of Gamaleya,
dozens of passionate
pigeon breeders
are in constant competition
with one another.
Visible from the air, precarious
wooden structures like this
rise high above the rooftops.
These are called gheyas,
and they're
the inner city's answer
to pigeon towers.
Some are large enough
to house over 300 birds.
Hassan Mohamed Hussein
calls himself
the "Pigeon Ruler of Gamaleya."
HASSAN, TRANSLATED: I built my
first gheya 23 years ago.
I built a small one,
9-by-9 foot,
out of straw on the roof.
It was a long process.
I made the gheya
higher and bigger
until I built
the one I have now.
Hassan is one of
2 million pigeon fanciers
in Egypt.
In competitions,
breeders take their best birds
to a central location
and release them together.
The goal is to both guide
their own birds home
and lure as many of their
rival's pigeons as they can.
The breeder with the most birds
at the end of the event
is the winner.
Every competition is different,
like a football match.
Catching pigeons is
the equivalent of scoring goals.
Hassan meets his opponent here
in the middle of old Cairo.
He must win today if he
wants to retain his title,
"Pigeon Ruler of Gamaleya."
In the historic heart of Cairo,
Hassan Mohamed Hussein
is taking on rival Kuto Adam
in a pigeon race
across the capital.
Both competitors are ready
to release their birds.
40 pigeons
climb high above Cairo.
In just a few minutes, they'll
be within range of their coops.
Both competitors must try and
guide home all their pigeons
and as many of
their rival's as possible.
Whoever captures
the most birds wins.
Soon after arriving
back at his tower,
Hassan spots the pigeons.
I'm going to
call them in and raise a flag
to see which are
the competitor's pigeons.
Hassan waves and whistles
to entice them to his coop.
As the pigeons land,
he reads their tags
to check who they belong to.
All Hassan's pigeons
have returned home.
His competitor, Kuto Adam,
hasn't lured any away.
I think that black one
is one of Kuto's birds.
But Hassan has.
With another victory to his
name, Hassan retains his title
until the next contest.
I'm so happy.
I'm so pleased that I won.
The Egyptians'
relationship with pigeons is
just one legacy
from the time of the pharaohs.
The ancient rulers'
vast monuments stand testament
to their immense power.
These were no ordinary kings.
They proclaimed themselves gods.
And they expected
their subjects to worship them,
even after they died.
Nowhere is this more visible
than on the west bank
of the Nile,
across the river from Luxor.
Over 2,000 years, pharaohs
built mortuary temples here
to commemorate their reigns
and as centers
for their eternal veneration.
Their true scale only
becomes evident from the air.
It's dawn, and setting a course
for the mortuary temples is
Bahaa Ahmed, an experienced
hot-air balloon pilot.
Bahaa flies at first light,
when the air is cool
and wind currents
are most predictable.
Knowing wind patterns
here is critical,
because the temples are located
directly beneath jagged mountains.
BAHAA, TRANSLATED: The biggest
challenge flying balloons here,
is the wind shear and turbulence
close to the mountains.
So we take that into consideration
and try to keep far away
so there is no danger
to the balloon
or the passengers.
As Bahaa tracks a
course away from the mountains,
he guides his balloon
towards Egypt's most famous
mortuary structure.
The temple of Hatshepsut
is carved
into the side of a mountain.
It was built by one of Egypt's
very few female Pharaohs.
To gain acceptance as ruler,
she ordered her temple
to be bigger and grander
than those of all
the male pharaohs before her.
This temple is
one of the most beautiful things
to see from the balloon.
Looking at the design of
this temple,
it is more than I can describe.
From the balloon,
it looks very beautiful.
As the air warms up,
Bahaa must now negotiate
the potentially
treacherous winds to visit
a shrine to the greatest pharaoh
ever to rule Egypt.
Above the west bank of Luxor,
Bahaa Ahmed's balloon approaches
a 50,000-square-foot
temple complex
dedicated to Egypt's
greatest pharaoh.
This is the Ramesseum,
the mortuary temple
of Egypt's most
prolific monument builder,
Ramesses II.
Constructed in
the 13th century BCE
and covering the area
of 47 tennis courts,
in its day,
it was one of the largest
mortuary temples in Egypt.
It took 20 years to complete.
Beautiful.
This is amazing!
Look at this. Ramesses II.
Within the Ramesseum lie
the fallen remains of a giant
statue of Ramesses himself.
Originally, it would have risen
to the height of
a 6-story building
and weighed around 1,000 tons.
It reminded everyone
he was more than a man,
he was a god.
As the desert monuments
give way to lush farmland below,
it's time for Bahaa
to find a field to touch down.
When the balloon
goes up, you don't know
where you are going to land,
and it's a challenge to land
somewhere safe
for the passengers.
Flying balloons,
every day is a new day.
The pharaohs may have
declared themselves gods,
but their powers
were not eternal.
After ruling Egypt
for 3,000 years,
they were conquered
by the Romans.
In time, belief
in their many pagan gods
gave way to one Christian god.
Almost 10 million Christians
live in Egypt today.
One of their most important
sites is Mount Sinai.
According to the Bible,
this mountain was where God
appeared as a burning bush
and where Moses received
the Ten Commandments.
In the 6th century CE,
Roman emperor Justinian I
ordered a place of worship
to be built
marking this most sacred of sites.
The result was
Saint Catherine's Monastery,
the oldest continuously
inhabited monastery
in the world.
Resident monk Father Makarios
left his home
in Denver, Colorado,
to live and work here.
Historically,
there are very few places
in the world today that
reflect the life of the empire
which created this monastery.
Nowhere else in the world
can anybody find or see
an institution like this.
The centerpiece of
Saint Catherine's Monastery is
the great basilica.
This is where daily prayers
have been held for 1,500 years.
Today, Father Makarios must make
sure that everything is ready
for the morning service.
There has been
an uninterrupted succession of
prayers here
since the mid-6th century.
No one in the world can claim
that anywhere except here.
Life here
means following strict rules
and turning your back
on modern comforts
to live in the wilderness.
With the chapel now ready,
the monks can commence
8 hours of daily prayers
in a monastery that is uniquely
connected to their faith.
Moses came here.
God himself came.
To be able to be here
and look at any one face of
this mountain from here
and say to yourself,
"This is really important.
I need to be here for this."
Preserving
thousands of years of history
has made Egypt
the country it is today.
Beside the Giza pyramids,
it's a race against time
to fill a new $1-billion museum
with the country's
greatest treasures.
That means transporting
fragile and priceless artifacts
across one of the world's
most congested cities.
In Egypt's capital, Cairo,
plans are underway to bring
thousands of years of history
under one roof.
For more than a century,
the world's largest collection
of ancient Egyptian treasures
has been housed in Cairo,
here at the Egyptian Museum.
It's the home of
the world-famous relics
from the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Today, the neoclassical
building is outdated
and too small to display
many of its items.
So engineers are building
a brand-new museum
to accommodate 5 million
tourists who visit each year.
Its scale is epic.
When it's finished,
the Grand Egyptian Museum
will cover an area of
over 5.2 million square feet.
This will be
the largest museum devoted
to one civilization
on the planet.
Before it opens,
thousands of artifacts
must be transported by road
on an 11-mile journey
to their new home
on the outskirts of Cairo.
And that's a problem.
Cairo is one of the world's
most congested cities.
Tens of thousands
of road traffic accidents
are reported every year,
and congestion costs the country
an estimated $50 billion.
Hitting the road today is
this 3,000-year-old statue of
Ramesses II
and the Goddess Anat.
Ramesses is known as
the Great due partly
to his huge building projects.
Director of restoration
and transporting antiquities
Eissa Zidan
must ensure safe passage.
EISSA, TRANSLATED:
It's impossible to put a value
on this statue.
For Egyptians, it means
civilization, culture,
heritage, and honor.
Ancient Egyptian
civilization is priceless.
Eissa's team
painstakingly wraps the monument
in a protective material
before its journey.
Ramesses will be transported
across Cairo
to his new home by
driver Zakariya Mohamed.
ZAKARIYA, TRANSLATED: I feel
proud to be transporting
such important pieces.
I also feel afraid, because
if anything were to happen
to any of these artifacts,
I would be devastated.
To ensure
Ramesses' safe delivery,
Zakariya has called in help.
Four police cars
and a special forces unit
will escort the mighty pharaoh.
To prevent the statue
toppling off his truck,
Zakariya must try and maintain
a constant speed
of 12 miles per hour
towards the Grand Egyptian Museum.
After a tense 60-minute journey,
Zakariya and Ramesses
arrive unscathed.
I always feel
nervous while driving.
I feel especially stressed
carrying something
of such value to Egyptians.
When I arrive at
the Grand Egyptian Museum,
I feel relieved that
it has got here safely.
The statue will soon be unpacked
and installed on the new
museum's grand staircase.
I will feel extremely
proud to see
the Grand Egyptian Museum
finally open
and visitors coming to see
all the antiquities
that we
have transported so carefully.
I hope we have done something
that will be remembered.
Flying over Egypt,
our birds-eye view reveals
how this proud nation continues
to embrace its unique past.
From the air, it's clear
how the ancients stamped
their mark across this harsh
and inhospitable landscape
and how some lifestyles here
have barely changed
for thousands of years.
In this land of the pharaohs,
the ancient and modern
continue to live side by side.
Captioned by National Captioning Institute