Egypt's Unexplained Files (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Curse of the Crocodile Queen - full transcript

Narrator: Pyramids, temples, tombs...

These ancient wonders
promise even greater secrets

still to be found under the sands of egypt.

Now, cutting-edge science finally decodes

the mysterious land of the pharaohs.

With modern technology,
we are gaining an insight

into the way the ancient egyptians lived

and the manner in which they died.

Narrator: This time,
unraveling the mysteries

of ancient egypt's elite.

Can cutting-edge
technology locate the lost tomb



of the legendary priest imhotep.

It's quite difficult to separate
the man from the myth.

Narrator: Will a strange,
fragmented statue finally shed light

on the mysterious crocodile queen?

What was she? Who was she?

How did she achieve what she did?

Narrator: And can
modern dna analysis reveal

how a pharaoh saves
his people from extinction?

Surviving 100 years-worth old drought,

how's that even possible?

Narrator: Ancient clues unearthed,
long-lost evidence re-examined,

precious artifacts brought
into the light of the 21st century.

These are egypt's unexplained files.

Imhotep, the famous
ancient-egyptian priest,



has eluded experts for centuries.

The location of the tomb of imhotep

is perhaps one of
egyptology's biggest mysteries.

It's quite difficult to separate
the man from the myth.

Narrator: Can archaeologists,
using new technology,

finally make a breakthrough?

Cutting-edge science may have
found something very exciting.

Narrator: 170 different
pharaohs rule over ancient egypt,

yet, surprisingly, one
of the most revered elites

never sits on the throne...
The mighty priest imhotep.

Imhotep is massively famous.

In the modern world,

he pops up as a
character in popular culture.

In "the mummy" movies,
he's the ultimate villain.

Narrator: Despite his hollywood infamy,

egyptologists know
little about the real man,

and what they do know
is largely based on myth.

Legend even has it that
imhotep started off as a priest.

He's credited with being the designer

of the first step-pyramid,

a healer, developing the calendar.

Narrator: Hieroglyphs in temples
are the only concrete evidence

that experts have to go on.

And they seem to suggest that
imhotep is worshipped as a god.

Reliefs and text talk
about the god imhotep,

the god imhotep.

So we know he's someone very important,

and entire temples are built in his honor,

especially at the site of saqqara.

Narrator: Yet, details of imhotep's
life are nowhere to be found.

Over the course of 4,000 years,

the real man behind the legend is lost.

If imhotep is to be found
anywhere, it's at saqqara,

where he's believed to
have built the step-pyramid.

And it's here in the 1920s
that the first evidence emerges.

A british archaeologist called cecil firth

is excavating buildings
around the step-pyramid,

and he uncovers the
base of a statue of joseph.

Very unusually for such a monument,

it mentions the name of a non-royal person,

and that is imhotep.

This is showing him to have been

a very high-ranking individual...

A high priest of the sun god
ra, chancellor of the king...

And powerful and important enough

to have had his name
inscribed on a statue of the king.

The statue base makes
archaeologists realize

that the divine imhotep is
also actually a historical person.

Narrator: Archaeologists
hope to find imhotep's tomb

because they believe it could
provide an invaluable insight

into ancient egyptian medical practices.

Imhotep is a man of
writing and scholarship,

connected with medicine and healing.

But there's a problem.

What's strange is that
nowadays we do not know

for sure where he was buried.

We assume it was somewhere in saqqara,

the site he's associated with,
but otherwise, it's a mystery.

Narrator: For decades, egyptologists
scour the ancient cemetery at saqqara.

British archaeologist walter bryan

emery becomes obsessed with finding imhotep

and makes it his life's
work to solve the mystery.

He referred to it as the quest
for imhotep and committed to it.

In his scientific reports,

he was looking for this tomb in particular.

Narrator: Emery goes out to saqqara.

And in 1964, his team
uncovers mysterious clues

buried beneath the sand.

He also discovers a number
of strange models of body parts.

Narrator: At first, emery is
puzzled by the macabre objects.

When he examines them closely,

he makes an exciting connection to imhotep.

These aren't parts of statues,
but they're donated by pilgrims

hoping for healing of ears or eyes or arms.

Because imhotep is a god of healing,

emery then thinks, "well, hang on a minute.

This may be his tomb."

narrator: When emery begins to
dig into the sand beneath the models,

what he uncovers defies belief.

Emery finds the beginning
of a labyrinth of catacombs.

A vast, underground network of tunnels

filled to the brim with
different animal mummies.

Room after room after
room of sacred animals...

Baboons, cats, falcons, bulls.

Put in these galleries
as offerings to the gods.

Narrator: Among thousands
of animal mummies,

emery finds a vital clue
in the hunt for imhotep.

Hundreds of pots containing
sacred mummified ibis birds.

This is a smoking gun for emery because

imhotep is known to have the title

"chief one of the ibis."

emery's team excavate this ibis shaft.

He finds another clue.

He finds a box, which is
inscribed with the name

imhotep, the great.

Narrator: Emery believes
he's hit the jackpot.

This inscription is a really
important clue that implies that

imhotep's tomb could be nearby.

Emery must be thinking he's getting close.

Narrator: Yet seven years pass,
and emery finds nothing more.

Then tragedy strikes.

Emery suffers a stroke.

He's found collapsed in
the dig house at saqqara.

He's taken to a hospital in cairo nearby,

and a few days later, he dies
never having found the tomb

that he spent the last few
years of his life looking for.

Narrator: In 2007, an international team

of archaeologists picks up the trail

in the hunt for imhotep's tomb.

This time, they take an
entirely different approach.

They apply revolutionary
ground-penetrating radar

to the entire desert

and create a map of everything
unseen below the sand.

On the geo-physical plan,

we can see up to five meters
into the surface of the ground.

Narrator: What they find is astonishing.

We discover two very large structures.

One... 90 meters in length.

One next door... 70 meters in length.

Narrator: To experts, this
can only mean one thing.

The size and position of
these features in the map

indicate strongly that they're tombs.

Narrator: Researchers realize
the large size of these tombs

means they are important burials.

And when they date the tombs,

an extraordinary connection
to imhotep materializes.

They may belong to the
third dynasty, when he lived.

Could these be the
evidence that we are looking

for of the tomb of imhotep?

Narrator: Experts are hopeful,
but there's still a long way to go.

Only once they get permission to dig

can they identify the tombs.

We still don't have that clinching evidence

that allows us to say, "this
is where he was buried.

This is his tomb."

only active digging would show
if they do belong to imhotep.

Narrator: This cutting-edge
technology takes us closer to finding

imhotep than ever before.

But until we dig beneath
the sands of saqqara,

the precise location of his
tomb remains a mystery.

♪

One pharaoh's genius guides his people

through a biblical catastrophe.

Exactly how remains unknown.

Surviving 100 years-worth old drought,

how's that even possible?

Now, dna evidence from
cattle bones is finally revealing

how ancient egypt prepares for disaster

while other civilizations fall apart.

Ancient egyptians battled climate change...

Something we can't even do today.

Narrator: Egypt, 1250 bce...

The ancient world is
on the brink of collapse.

An extreme drought ravages the land.

Multiple civilizations face extinction.

The drought, as far as
we know, lasts 150 years.

It brings once-great empires to their knees

because of the lack of food.

Narrator: Experts know
about this dark period of history

from the discovery of an
extraordinary clay table.

Written by a nation called the hittites,

rivals to the ancient
egyptians 3,000 years ago.

It's an s.O.S. Letter to
the great egyptian pharaoh

ramesses the second begging for help.

The queen of the hittites rights and says,

"there are no grains in my country."

"we're basically starving.

There's a famine. There's a drought."

"please, can you help?

We're facing a humanitarian crisis."

narrator: Researchers believe
the drought the desperate queen

describes must be severe.

Why would a queen of the hittites reach out

in their time of need to
ramesses the second,

who was, in principal, an enemy?

The drought has made that
even old enemies have to pair up

and help each other out.

Narrator: Experts believe
this letter reveals that

during the reign of ramesses the second,

egyptians are unaffected by the drought.

They begin to question,

"do the egyptians know
these droughts are coming?"

and how do they survive
when so many others perish?

The egyptians were able to actually help

their arch-enemies by sending grain.

They were actually able
to sustain their empire

for a long period of time
in the face of drought.

Was it adaptability on the
part of the ancient egyptians,

or was it survival
through great leadership?

Narrator: Egyptologists
begin to search for evidence

of how the great pharaoh guides
his people to overcome a century

and a half of drought.

Many believe clues lie
in what the egyptians eat.

Could it have been the nature
of the ancient egyptian diet

that helped the egyptians survive so long?

We understand that the elites
had a more protein-rich diet,

but what are the commoners eating?

The answer remains a mystery until 2013,

when scientists uncover critical evidence.

Carbon from food is preserved

within the tissues of
ancient egyptian mummies.

Different levels of carbon
are stored in the body

by different foodstuffs.

So by analyzing these levels
in the evidence of the mummies,

we can work out what people ate.

Narrator: Scientists analyze the carbon

within the mummified
remains of common people

from the time of the drought.

The results reveal that ordinary egyptians

have a radically different
diet to that of their rulers.

New carbon-isotope data
tells us that actually fish

and meat were not a large
part of the ancient egyptian diet.

They're mostly harvesting
and eating wheat and barley.

The ancient egyptians, by and large,

seem to have been vegetarian.

Narrator: Experts believe a vegetarian diet

gives the ancient egyptians
a critical advantage

through even the most severe drought,

because crops require far less water.

Meat-based diets require more land,

more irrigation, more resources.

A plant/vegetable-based
diet is easier to sustain

in a drought.

Narrator: But a question remains...

Exactly how they consistently grow crops

in over a century of
drought remains unclear.

Clues emerge from an usual source.

In 2013, scientists
working at the sea of galilee

collect fossilized pollen samples.

They date the pollen to
the time of the new kingdom.

When they analyze it further,

the samples reveal something revolutionary.

The ancients are genetic engineers.

Pollen samples show
that crops are being bred,

which are more resistant.

Maca: They were experimenting
with new types of grains

that could survive really long droughts.

Narrator: And it doesn't stop there.

During the reign of ramesses
the second, ancient egyptians

take their preparation to another level.

Researchers now believe
that they track the extent

of the droughts, year on year,

using a device called a nilometer.

A simple device, very akin
to a kind of climate science

for ancient egypt.

Narrator: The nilometer
is a stone structure

with a series of lines
carved into its wall,

which measures the depth of
the nile during the annual floods.

They measure the nile
and know whether a harvest

can be expected to be good or bad.

16 stripes, it was ideal.

14 stripes, not all the
land can be flooded.

12 stripes, hunger.

Narrator: But something
still puzzles experts.

If the egyptians are preparing for droughts

by tracking water levels and
using heat-resistant grains,

then they still need cattle to plow fields

in extreme temperatures.

And the cattle the
egyptians traditionally use

are not adapted to these conditions.

In 2017, at the sight of
megiddo in the far reaches

of the ancient egyptian empire,

archaeologists make a breakthrough.

At the site of megiddo,

archaeologists find
evidence of cattle bones.

Narrator: To shed light
on the precise breed

of cattle the ancients use,

scientists sequence dna
from the 3,000-year-old bones.

The results reveal something astonishing.

They were breeding
cattle that could basically

survive a drought.

Narrator: The cattle are
not a pure, domestic breed

but a cross-breed, with a cow called a zebu

that have evolved to tolerate extreme heat.

If you are preparing for a drought,

you will want to breed in more
of these arid-living cattle dna

into your common stock,

and this is exactly what
the egyptians were doing.

It's one of the first really great examples

of kind of bio-genetic engineering.

Narrator: To experts, it's now clear
how the ancient egyptians survive

the drought while civilizations
around them fall apart.

And egyptologists have an explanation

for the hittite queen's s.O.S. Letter

to the great egyptian
pharaoh, ramesses the second.

She's asking for help
from the only civilization

that has mastered their environment.

Maca: The ancient egyptians'
preparation in the face

of a widespread drought
allowed the egyptian empire

to continue well beyond
many of these other societies

and civilizations.

Narrator: The egyptians conquer
the drought for over a century,

but the extreme conditions intensify.

Eventually, they become too severe

for any civilization to survive.

It wasn't enough.

Ultimately, the new kingdom falls.

Narrator: Yet, it's their
resilience in the face of disaster

that endures.

The new kingdom is still thought of

as a great golden age of egyptian history.

The egyptians' response
can teach us lessons.

Climate change can have a
huge impact on civilization,

on society, but we can prepare for it.

♪

Out of 170 ancient egyptian
rulers, only four are women.

And yet, the first recorded
female pharaoh sobeknefru

is a figure shrouded in mystery.

People know the names
of cleopatra and hatshepsut,

but they don't know the name of sobeknefru.

Why not?

Narrator: Now, can the
discovery of a fragmented statue

finally shed light on the forgotten female

pioneer strangely known
as the crocodile queen?

Who was she? How did
she achieve what she did?

This discovery is telling us

about what happened thousands of years ago.

Narrator: The 200-year quest
to uncover the true identity

of egypt's first female ruler,

the crocodile queen,
starts at luxor in 1820.

An italian antiquities
collector bernardino drovetti

makes a remarkable discovery.

An ancient papyrus known as the turin canon

which contains the most
extensive list of egyptian kinds

ever discovered.

Yet, among the famous pharaohs
is a name no one recognizes...

Sobeknefru.

She's the daughter of a very important

pharaoh of the middle
kingdom, amenemhat the third.

The last living family member
of the great dynasty 12.

Narrator: Researchers analyze the king list

and realize that sobeknefru
is more than just royalty.

She's a female pioneer.

Sobeknefru is very significant

because not only is she in the turin canon,

but she is the first
recorded female pharaoh.

Narrator: Sobeknefru is the
first female pharaoh in history,

so experts begin to wonder,

could this mean she's the most powerful?

The first step for researchers

is to explore the turin
canon for more clues

as to how, against the
odds, she comes to power.

It reveals that sobeknefru's brother

amenemhat the fourth
inherits the throne before her.

She remains in his shadow.

10 years later, amenemhat the fourth dies

without a male heir to the throne.

The ancient egyptians would
rather allow a woman to rule

than have warlords duke it out
and destroy egypt from within.

Narrator: Sobeknefru
becomes the first woman

to ascend the throne of egypt.

But the turin canon reveals
that sobeknefru's reign lasts

just four years.

And beyond that,
there is little information.

Egyptologists have long known

that some pharaohs adopt new
names under which they rule.

So they turn to analyzing
her name for clues

as to what kind of pharaoh she is.

Sobeknefru's name is very unusual.

Sobek is the crocodile god,
and nefru means beautiful.

So she is the beauty of the crocodile god.

Narrator: But why would sobeknefru
rename herself after the crocodile god?

Experts believe it could
be a strategic move.

In ancient egypt, crocodiles
are greatly revered.

They're big, they're
strong, they're fierce.

So sobeknefru may well want to
be named after the crocodile god

because it really does give
an aura of power and of might.

Narrator: Her strategy not only
pays off, it leaves a lasting legacy.

After sobeknefru's death,
the next dynasty starts up.

But what's interesting
is they keep her name.

Many of them adopt sobek,
the name of the crocodile god.

They're not only showing
respect to the god,

but also to the queen.

Narrator: Yet, for
researchers, the trail goes cold.

The turin canon yields no further clues

to the real woman behind
the crocodile queen.

Then, archaeologists
digging at the ancient city

of avaris unearth something remarkable...

A detailed sculpture
of the crocodile queen.

And experts notice something
unusual about her depiction.

She doesn't adopt the same strategy

that other female pharaohs
use to rule in a man's world.

The later female pharaohs,
they're shown flat chested,

almost as pseudo-men.

Ikram: Hatshepsut, who reigned
much later than sobeknefru,

turned into showing herself as a man.

Narrator: But the crocodile queen

looks very different from her successors.

Cooney: She's dressed as a woman.

She has a dress with straps
that go over her breasts.

She has a trim waist, full hips.

She doesn't morph into
a male-looking pharaoh.

Narrator: This ground-breaking
find reveals that far

from hiding her gender,
this female pharaoh flaunts it.

She was able to blend female clothing

with the standard regalia
of a traditional pharaoh.

The wrap-around kilt, the
dagger tucked into the belt.

She didn't give up her female persona.

She probably had the army behind her,

her advisors to support her,

and it was no different for her
than it was for a male pharaoh.

Narrator: After decades of research,

this statue reflects the
crocodile queen's true power.

Unlike hatshepsut, who
conceals her femininity,

or cleopatra, who dies because of it,

the crocodile queen manages
to create a feminine image

so powerful that she's
revered for centuries.

♪

Experts know how ancient
egypt's elite prepare for the afterlife,

but the burial practices of the
common man remain a mystery.

How did the ordinary
people prepare for death?

Are they buried straight
into the sand or in a tomb?

We simply don't know.

Narrator: Now, at an
ancient egyptian quarry,

can new evidence
finally reveal the afterlife

is more than just a rich man's club?

A cemetery consisting of families,

including adults and children.

The items buried beneath the sand tell us

an entirely different story.

Narrator: Nearly all mummies
belong to the ancient egyptian elite.

What most people don't realize
when they see egyptian mummies

is that, for the most part,

those people are the
wealthy, the rich people.

Narrator: It means almost
everything we know about death

and the preparations for the afterlife

comes from the tombs of the elite.

And this poses a significant problem.

Because it was the elite that
could afford good mummification,

we have a much better understanding of them

than we do of the ordinary people.

Narrator: Experts are puzzled.

In a society of millions

obsessed with preparing for death,

why are the remains of ordinary
egyptians nowhere to be found?

For most of ancient egyptian times,

the population fluctuated

between one and two million people,

which begs the question,
what happened to the millions

of other less-wealthy poor people?

How did these ordinary
people prepare for their death?

Narrator: The search for answers
triggers a century-long quest

to find the graves of egypt's common man

and uncover their secret burial practices.

Researchers' first step is to analyze

the egyptians' belief in the afterlife

for clues as to how poor,
working egyptians are buried.

In the first place,

the afterlife was like an exclusive club

for egyptian royalty only.

The status that you occupied in society

was reflected in the position
in which you were buried.

Narrator: Experts believe
that the working poor

simply didn't have the
means to be buried in a way

which gives them access to the afterlife.

Do they have simple tombs?

Are they pit tombs? Are they mass burials?

We tend to think
everyone is equal in death,

but this is not the case.

Narrator: The graves of the
working poor remain a mystery,

but egyptologists do have a few examples

of non-elite burials to study.

In the early 1900s, at deir el-medina,

a perfectly preserved village
near the valley of the kings,

archaeologists find
something extraordinary...

A series of tombs dating
to the new kingdom.

When they go inside, they
find elaborate cave paintings,

valuable grave goods,
but the chambers are small.

Narrator: For experts, the
modest size of these tombs

means only one thing.

This is not a burial site of the elite.

These small chambers tell us

that the owners are fine artisans

that produced the tombs of the royals.

Narrator: It's clear these are
not burials of ordinary workers.

But egyptologists analyzing the tombs

believe they reveal something critical.

Over time, the afterlife seems
to have become less exclusive.

We can see a tomb gets constructed,

and then perhaps someone gets a promotion,

and suddenly there are
new titles being carved

in hieroglyphs on the walls.

There is some upward mobility
in ancient egyptian society.

It's a question of resources.

Narrator: If the skilled works
at deir el-medina built tombs,

then experts begin to wonder

if the very poorest in society do the same.

Then, in 2015, near the
ancient egyptian stone quarry

of gebel el-silsila,

a swedish archaeology team
uncovers a stone doorway

cut into the rock face.

As they excavate the entrance,

they find something entirely unexpected.

They discover a complex series of tombs

consisting of over 40 chambers.

The tombs are modest.

They're cut very simply.

The decorations are not ornate.

Narrator: The simple appearance
of the tombs excites archaeologists.

They begin to wonder if this
could be the workers' cemetery

they've been searching for

and whether they'll
find evidence of the poor

preparing for the afterlife.

As they begin removing sand from the tombs,

what they discover is astonishing.

Price: A cemetery consisting of families,

including adults and children.

These are not simply mass burials.

These are families put together.

You find some that are
even in wooden coffins.

Narrator: Archaeologists
examine the bones in detail,

looking for clues to confirm
who these people are,

and they notice a pattern.

Rose: The bones are
covered in a very similar

set of fractures... all of them.

This pattern tells us these
are not fluke accidents.

This is what happened to
everybody during their life.

These people have done hard labor.

Narrator: The proximity
of the tombs to the quarry

and the signs of hard labor

on the bones leads
experts to one conclusion.

These graves belong to the quarry workers

of gebel el-silsila.

They've actually found the
bones of ordinary egyptians.

Narrator: Archaeologists turn
their attention back to the tombs

and uncover something unexpected.

They find all kinds of grave
goods, like painted pottery,

textiles, magical amulets, even jewelry.

Narrator: The find points to
an extraordinary conclusion.

The poorest in society

are preparing for life beyond the grave.

Rose: There's no doubt these
items were place in these graves

for life after death.

So it must mean that these
works believe they, too,

could reach the afterlife.

Narrator: Finally, the burial
practices of egypt's working poor

are no longer a mystery.

Despite being significantly
more modest than elite burials,

these tombs and grave goods are proof

that even the poorest
egyptians are trying to give

their families a chance
of reaching the afterlife.

Workers weren't just shoved
into a mass grave when they died.

They, too, could aspire
to have their own tomb.

This just goes to show
that all ancient egyptians

had a pretty good shot at salvation.

♪

Narrator: Karnak, one of the
largest religious sites in the world.

But few visitors realize

that three-quarters of
its temples lie in ruins.

Every time I go there, I'm speechless.

It's 200 acres of rubble.

Narrator: The spiritual events
that take place in these temples

for over 2,000 years remain a mystery.

Now, one archaeologist is on a mission

to digitally reconstruct karnak

and finally understand the mysteries

hidden deep in the heart
of ancient egyptian culture.

What was the purpose
of all these buildings?

Narrator: Around 2000 bce, mighty pharaoh

senwosret the first orders

the laying of the first stone at karnak

to build a temple devoted to the god amun,

but it doesn't stop there.

Every pharaoh after him adds to the site.

The temple of karnak
grew up over a millennium,

and there was no boundaries
set out in the very beginning.

Bianchi: Every pharaoh
wanted to curry favor of the gods,

and so building a monument in karnak

ingratiated them with the deities

to whom the temples were dedicated.

Narrator: Around 130 pharaohs
later, after 1,500 years of worship,

karnak becomes the largest religious site

in the ancient world.

Karnak is a magical place.

The ancient egyptians called it ipet-isut,

the most select of places.

Narrator: And experts believe
karnak's temples could hold clues

to how the pharaohs change
religious beliefs over time.

Karnak was the religious center of egypt.

It's a witness to how people feel religion,

how they do religion.

Narrator: Thousands of
years since its construction,

large parts of karnak now lie in ruins,

which poses a problem for experts

trying to study its religious past.

When professor wileke wendrich from ucla

visits karnak for the
first time, she's puzzled.

I visited karnak, and I got so confused.

You see an enormous field of stone rubble

with huge walls sticking out.

A lot of it is still very unclear.

Narrator: This experience
sparks a lifelong quest for wendrich

to make sense of karnak's
ruins and uncover how pharaohs

changed the religious
practices within its walls.

She begins by studying karnak's
most spectacular building...

The hypostyle hall.

Covered in hundreds of religious scenes,

it's the largest and most
richly-decorated hall in egypt.

You have this enormous complex that

is the heart of the religious
life of ancient egypt.

Narrator: Wendrich can see from
the hypostyle hall's hieroglyphs

that it dates to the new kingdom
and the reign of seti the first.

And what's clear from the
number of diverse hieroglyphs

is that the hall has been
added to by countless pharaohs,

resulting in a vast, sprawling structure.

It is this massive forest of 132 pillars.

It is immense.

Narrator: Yet, a crucial part
of the building once lay in ruins.

In 1899, french
archaeologist georges legrain

begins the gargantuan task

of rebuilding 11 of its collapsed pillars.

The reconstruction is
really focused on this area

of the temples because
it's so awe-inspiring.

Narrator: Legrain's team
have to meticulously relay

the foundations for each pillar
and rebuild them peace by peace.

It's a pain-staking process
that takes years to complete.

Now, at last, egyptologists, like wendrich,

can study the hall in more detail

and unlock its spiritual significance.

The hypostyle hall represents the cosmos.

You have the earth, you have the sky,

and then you have the
papyrus thicket in between.

Narrator: The columns are built by
seti the first to mimic papyrus reeds

and represent the primeval swamp

from which the egyptian
world is said to have been born.

Experts believe this hall
is the pharaoh's tribute

to the egyptian gods
who created the universe.

If you were an egyptian visiting
karnak and just looking at that,

words would not explain the awe.

Narrator: In her quest to uncover
more of karnak's religious secrets,

wendrich runs into a fundamental problem.

Some of karnak's temples
have been removed from history

by subsequent pharaohs.

It was extremely political, this building.

Sometimes, they took entire sections away

to erase the memory
of a particular pharaoh.

Narrator: In the 1920s,
archaeologists rebuilding a wall

at karnak notice something strange.

It contains hundreds of red granite blocks.

On each stone are mysterious hieroglyphs.

Translations of the writings
reveal something astonishing.

The blocks do not
belong in this wall at all.

They are part of a chapel built

by 18th dynasty pharaoh, hatshepsut.

Sometimes, monuments are
dismantled because a pharaoh,

like hatshepsut, would fall out of favor.

Narrator: Having studied
karnak for decades,

wendrich realizes that to
fully uncover its religious past,

it's not enough to
reconstruct small sections

with bricks and mortar.

So in 2007, she applies
cutting-edge digital techniques

to bring the whole of
karnak to life virtually.

It's based on excavations,

on things we know, things we can measure.

What we tried to do with
this model is make something

that represents our state of knowledge.

Narrator: The challenge is not
simply to reconstruct karnak's temples,

but to show how pharaohs
change them over time.

We can trace what happened
to all those different buildings.

We have created a time slider,

where you can slide through
the development of karnak.

Narrator: Using this 3-d model,
wendrich can see how pharaohs

begin to worship different gods at karnak.

It's enables us to see that
there are changes in religion.

And even though this is a
temple to amun-re, through time,

we got osiris, who was
the god of the underwold.

He has his own buildings in karnak

and becomes more and more important.

Narrator: This is just the beginning,

and creating a full picture
of karnak's religious past

won't be easy.

Now, this digital model is revolutionizing

how experts study karnak's temples

to finally shed more light

on the religious beliefs of the pharaohs.

♪

How the pharaohs
create an entire civilization

from scratch mystifies experts,

but they believe the great
pyramid could hold vital clue.

The level of the materials

manipulating to create this project

is a massive, massive undertaking.

I think it impacted
upon all areas of society.

Everyone believed they were
pulling in the same direction.

Narrator: Now, can modern
analysis of the materials used at giza

reveal how building the great pyramid

actually builds ancient egypt?

Narrator: On the outskirts of
cairo stands the last wonder

of the ancient world...
The great pyramid of giza.

Built for the fourth
dynasty pharaoh, khufu,

it has endured for 4,500 years.

It's still the largest structure on earth.

Dash: It's an immense monument.

It covers 13 acres, it's 140 meters tall,

and it's built of three million stones.

Narrator: Building the
world's first mega monument

is a daunting proposition.

So experts consider, what
challenges do the ancients face?

What ingenious solutions
do they come up with?

And in building this stone giant,

are they shaping their own civilization?

It's a project manager's nightmare,

and yet the egyptians
seemed to pull it off.

Narrator: Investigators
begin considering how,

in a time before people
know how to smelt iron,

the ancients carve out
the pyramid's estimated

2.3 million stone blocks.

The egyptians are capable
of working metals at this point,

but the use of metal for things like tools

revolves around copper.

Narrator: Copper is
a relatively soft metal,

so copper chisels regular
blunt or break when carving rock.

And experts believe this poses

a significant logistical problem.

Rose: They're using so much copper,

but where's all that copper coming from?

There is no copper in the nile valley.

Narrator: Now, scientists in
europe are trying to find the origin

of the ancient stonemasons' copper.

Using isotope analysis on copper artifacts,

they get a match and
pinpoint a potential supply.

Hundreds of miles from
the great pyramid at giza,

across the red sea in the land of sinai.

The copper is actually
in the sinai peninsula,

so they would send all their miners

there and import all that
copper back into the empire.

Narrator: This kickstarts
a mining enterprise

that not only supplies tools

to build pharaoh khufu's great pyramid,

but also the tombs in the
valley of the kings centuries later.

By demanding elaborate
monuments, egypt's elite,

perhaps inadvertently, spark
a from of industrialization

that allows this growing
society to flourish.

Experts begin to think,

"do the great pyramid's
other building problems

spark different technological advances?"

investigators consider the
problem the egyptians face

in transporting huge quantities of stone

from quarries hundreds
of miles from the pyramids.

It must have been torture
to move these giant blocks.

A few hundred feet is bad enough,

let alone a thousand miles.

Narrator: Ancient records confirm

that there is only one feasible method

to transport the stone...
On boats along the nile.

Naunton: The nile is absolutely
critical to pyramid building.

It was the way that the stone blocks

were conveyed to the site.

Narrator: Experts now know the
ancient egyptians transformed the nile

into a sophisticated transport network,

one that allows egypt's
civilization to thrive.

The nile couldn't have been more important.

It was a communication artery.

It was a transportation artery.

There was a very elaborate
system of ports and harbors.

Maca: The egyptians,
for thousands of years,

they were mastered pilers of waterways.

Narrator: From khufu's
pyramid project managers,

what emerges from this vast network

is a large and nation-wide workforce.

The great pyramid took
about 20 years to build,

tens of thousands of
workers over that time.

Der manuelian: This
wasn't a localized building.

The great pyramid reached out

and effected all parts of the country.

Even though people
may have been living away

from the actual construction
sites, they were involved.

Narrator: Experts believe
that in bringing together

this diverse work force of
every corner of his lands,

king khufu creates the type of society

that supports ancient
egypt's enduring civilization.

Everyone believed they were
pulling in the same direction.

If you have a united work force
working towards a common goal,

you can achieve anything,

and that's what the ancient egyptians did.

Narrator: It's now clear that by
mining in sinai, mastering the nile,

and uniting a national work force,

king khufu creates a lasting legacy.

He builds more than the great pyramid.

He builds the infrastructure
that allows ancient egypt

to thrive for more than two millennia.