Secrets of the Dead (2000–…): Season 13, Episode 4 - The Lost Gardens of Babylon - full transcript

ANNOUNCER: Coming up
on "Secrets of the Dead,"

one of the ancient wonders
of the world.

This is one of the engineering
jewels of the Syrian empire.

ANNOUNCER: No one has ever found
the hanging gardens of Babylon.

No evidence for it in
the archaeological record.

ANNOUNCER: Was the garden
even in Babylon?

WOMAN: We simply had
the wrong place,

the wrong king.

He says, "It was a marvel
for all peoples,

a wonder of the world."

ANNOUNCER: "The Lost
Gardens of Babylon,"



on "Secrets of the Dead."

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.

"Secre"Secrets of the Dead"
was made possible in part

by the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting

and by contributions
to your PBS station from...

NARRATOR: Dr. Stephanie Dalley
of Oxford University

is preparing for a journey
that could rewrite history.

DALLEY: There's always
a bit of nervousness about.

But that keeps you on
the qui vive, doesn't it?

So it's an adventure.

NARRATOR: She's come up with
a controversial new theory that,

if right, will solve one
of the world's last great

archaeological mysteries:
the exact location of one

of the seven wonders
of the ancient world.



DALLEY: We have to reassess
everything we thought we knew

about the hanging
garden of Babylon.

NARRATOR: In the 3,000 years

since it was built,
no one has found

a single trace of
the spectacular garden.

Well, I'm glad I've got
a good pair of shoes on.

[Laughs]

NARRATOR: Now Stephanie thinks
she has tracked it down.

It all begins here.

NARRATOR: But to prove
her theory, she will

have to go to one of
the most dangerous places

on the planet.

[Explosion]

DALLEY: We'll have
good advice on it.

We'll have good security.

I mean, riding a bicycle
in Oxford is quite dangerous.

[Laughs]

NARRATOR: The seven wonders
of the ancient world...

among them,
the pyramids of Giza...

the lighthouse that once
stood at Alexandria...

the mighty
colossus of Rhodes.

Today, only traces of these
magnificent monuments remain,

but we know the
location of them all...

all except one.

What little evidence does
exist comes from

just a few accounts
written hundreds of years

after the gardens were built--

by people
who never saw them.

They say it was a garden where
trees appeared to be suspended

in the air and where water
flowed against gravity.

These accounts place it in
Babylon, just south of what is

now modern-day Baghdad.

MAN: All our sources say that
the hanging gardens of Babylon

were there at Babylon, and so
it's been assumed that's where

they must have been.

We have lots of records from
the time of Nebuchadnezzar--

his own inscriptions deposited
in the foundations

of his buildings.

NARRATOR: The leader
of the kingdom of Babylon,

King Nebuchadnezzar's texts
have all been searched.

COLLINS: He talks about building
temples, refurbishing temples,

restructuring the ancient
cults, but also he focuses

on his great palaces he
constructs at Babylon.

But in the hundreds of
documents which record his

building works, there's no
mention of gardens at all.

NARRATOR: Hundreds of texts

and not a single
mention of a garden.

And despite dozens of
excavations in Babylon, no one

has ever found archaeological
evidence of a garden--

not a single trace.

COLLINS: Nowhere in his texts
or in the ground any evidence

for the gardens.

No evidence for it in
the archaeological record.

NARRATOR: Many scholars question
whether the garden even

existed at all.

But now, a new idea has turned
everything we thought we knew

on its head.

DALLEY: Well, it began
to look as if we simply had
the wrong place,

the wrong king, the wrong
story altogether,

so why was this?

And that was the big question.

If we couldn't find the garden
in Babylon when we excavated

all around the palaces of
Nebuchadnezzar and if we

couldn't find them in
the inscriptions

of Nebuchadnezzar, which were
complete, either the whole

story, the whole legend, was
a complete fiction, or the

gardens were somewhere else.

NARRATOR: Stephanie Dalley
is a code breaker,

one of a handful

of people in the world who can
read ancient cuneiform texts--

a script so obscure,
researchers are only just

beginning to reveal
its secrets.

DALLEY: Cuneiform writing was
a marvelous script, but it's

very, very complicated.

It started around 3000 B.C.

and comes to an end
around the time of Christ.

NARRATOR: Metaphors are at
the heart of this writing.

DALLEY: It's not alphabic,
it's got hundreds
of signs, and every

sign has several
different possible readings.

When you excavate these
things, you have

the opportunity of reading
literature and other things

that haven't been read before
since at least the time

of Christ.

NARRATOR: For more
than 2,000 years, these
ancient voices were lost;

no one was able
to read their words.

Things started to change when
Stephanie began studying

the cuneiform on a prism at
the British Museum.

The prism described the
life of another king named

Sennacherib, who lived
a hundred years

before Nebuchadnezzar.

DALLEY: We're looking at an
8-sided prism from the palace

of Sennacherib.

The beginning of this
inscription tells you he's

king of Assyria, he's king of
the world, he's conquered many

lands, and he gives you a
rundown of his main conquests.

NARRATOR: Sennacherib
lived 700 years before Christ

and reigned over
an empire that stretched
from southern Turkey to

modern-day Israel.

The prism comes
from the very heart

of Sennacherib's capital.

DALLEY: The whole thing would
have been hidden in the wall

of the palace or the
foundations of the palace

so that when the palace fell
down eventually, people could

still see what a great
king Sennacherib was.

It tells you about this
wonderful palace that he

built, and then it tells you
about the garden that he built

alongside the palace.

NARRATOR: But what
the prism describes
sounds like something other

than a typical garden.

DALLEY: On this prism
Sennacherib says,
"I raise the height

"of the surroundings of
the palace to be a wonder

for all peoples."

I think his description
refers both to the palace

and to the garden--
the two go together.

NARRATOR: Translations from
the prism even suggest

what Sennacherib's garden
might have looked like.

DALLEY: One part of this says
that "the high garden imitating

"the Amanus Mountains I laid out
next to the palace with all

"kinds of aromatic plants,
orchard fruit trees, trees

"that sustained the mountains
and Babylonia as well as trees

that bear wool
planted within it."

Well, that's almost certainly
a form of the cotton plant.

NARRATOR: The writing suggests
that Sennacherib built

an extravagant garden which he
then filled with exotic fruit

trees and plants from
across his empire.

Stephanie begins to look
more closely at other clues.

She's returned to the museum
to see a notebook dating from

the 1850s, a golden age of
archeological discovery.

DALLEY: I've never seen this
in the original before.

I've only seen small-scale
reproductions of it, and it's

wonderful to see it.

It's wonderful.

NARRATOR: This drawing
is an exact representation
of a stone wall

carving from Sennacherib's
palace.

It appears to show
a great garden.

And you can see here the water
draining down into little

streams, from that height,
and ending up in a lake

at the bottom of the garden,

with various sporting events
going on here--the man who is

swinging from a swing
of some sort.

NARRATOR: But there's one detail
in particular that stands out.

DALLEY: The really unusual
feature in this,
in these pictures, is

the pillared walkway with
the layers of roofing on top

of the pillars and then the
trees growing with their roots

in those layers of roofing.

They had to have a way of
sustaining big trees in this

garden, right up on the
citadel, and that is, I think,

one of the things that
makes it a really

extraordinary garden.

NARRATOR: And Stephanie
goes further.

She begins to look at other
museum exhibits that had

previously been dismissed.

Sennacherib and other great
Assyrian kings lined their

palace walls with bas-reliefs,
huge carvings that described

the world around them.

This panel, known as the
garden relief, was removed

from Sennacherib's capital
city and brought to

the British Museum.

It shows his palace complex
and a garden--

trees hanging
in the air on terraces...

and plants
suspended on arches.

But because it wasn't from
Babylon, it was ignored.

DALLEY: The garden relief

shows water coming
along halfway up the

garden on arches, and they
look as if they're stone

arches the way
that they're shown.

And that is, I think, one
of the things that makes it

a really extraordinary
garden--a hanging garden.

NARRATOR: It was a revelation.

The prism and relief
both placed the garden

in Sennacherib's capital,
and Sennacherib's capital was

nowhere near Babylon.

It was at Nineveh, more
than 250 miles to the north.

Nineveh is now part of
modern-day Mosul,

one of the most dangerous
places on earth.

No western archaeologist
has been there since the war

in Iraq began.

On average 3 to 5 terrorist
attacks occur every day during

Stephanie's trip.

Despite this, she
thinks she has a way
to gather evidence

to support her theory.

She heads to Erbil
in Iraqi Kurdistan,

just 50 miles from Nineveh.

Compared to the rest of
the country, it's a safe

and stable place,

and it's an area
she knows well.

DALLEY: I first
came here in 1967.

We were digging
in northern Iraq.

There'd been a certain amount
of trouble there, as there

often is, but we
got through easily.

That's me there,

and that one's the man
who became my husband.

MAN: Your romance
blossomed on this trip?

Ah, eventually.

NARRATOR: Tomorrow,
from her base here in Erbil,

Stephanie will begin
to test her theory.

[Man chanting]

NARRATOR: Conditions in Iraq
make her work difficult.

In high summer, temperatures
reach nearly 104 degrees.

An early start is critical.

The first step is to prove
that Sennacherib had the

expertise to get water to
a garden in the heart of this

arid country.

When Stephanie was here nearly
50 years ago, she saw the

beginnings of a canal system
in the mountains of Khinis.

She decides to head
back to this site.

Well, we're off to see where
the water starts, at the head

of Sennacherib's
great canal scheme.

When I came before,
I thought there were many more

people around.

You would see a lot of
children in the villages,

you'd see a lot of fruit
trees, a lot of chickens,

and I think now when you go
through the villages, there's

much less sort of
family life going on.

NARRATOR: When Stephanie
finally reaches
the site, the sheer scale

of Sennacherib's building
project is revealed.

DALLEY: And there's
Sennacherib.

Sennacherib is recording,
in a very visual form,

the greatness of what he did.

He is showing that he has
inaugurated this wonderful

system of water management,
bringing the water all the way

to Nineveh and to his hanging
garden, and he's showing

himself together with the
great gods and that the gods

support him because that's
the important thing.

If the gods stop supporting
the king, he's on his way out.

NARRATOR: These reliefs survived
centuries, until hermits

moved into the area
and destroyed them.

The enormous holes became
caves used as shelters,

and Sennacherib has left
his mark everywhere...

Proud, powerful, celestial.

DALLEY: It's evident
that this is his work
because of this monument,

and not just this one,
but there are small niches

with a picture of the king
all the way along here.

I find it very moving that it
is still here--you can still

come and see it,
you can go up and touch it
if you wanted.

You could kiss
Sennacherib's feet.

I know it's ruined.

Perhaps that adds to the
romance of it, in fact.

It's a very impressive
monument, and thank God
it's still here.

NARRATOR: But scrambling
over the site at Khinis,
Stephanie stumbles

onto something she's
never seen before.

DALLEY: Well, it looks as if
here we've got some kind

of a fountain, and you
can just see, very eroded,
the tail of this

lion, here, coming round there,

and his back legs, from
which he's springing off,

roughly there.

4 paws, I think,
there and there.

Well, the lion is the royal
animal of the king, that's

for a start; it's also the
animal of the great goddess

of Nineveh.

So on both counts it's
appropriate to have this here.

NARRATOR: But she thinks
this fountain was more
than just ornamental.

DALLEY: Sennacherib
was very concerned to
look after his workmen well,

and I'd just like to
imagine them heaving their

blocks of rock from the quarry
up there and coming here to

fill their water skins
when they needed a rest

and a drink.

A place like this is full of
surprises, and if you walk

around, you'll see things
you haven't seen before.

Water from this river was
taken and routed into a vast

network of canals.

DALLEY: This is
the huge rock where the
water was divided in two.

We've got the mountain river
coming down through the gorge

over there, and it's circling
round here, and at this point

it's diverted half of it into
the canal, and you can't see

the line of the canal now
because they've made
a car park there.

But it would have continued
past our vehicle towards

the flagpole and on
towards Nineveh.

Well, we're standing in
a sort of key point

for the whole project.

It all begins here.

NARRATOR: 2,700 years ago, this
giant rock would have split the

river and diverted
half the water into
Sennacherib's system.

The canal was perfectly
engineered,

dropping exactly one
meter for every kilometer,

to control the flow of runoff

from the mountains
to distant Nineveh.

This system, built
hundreds of years before the

Roman Empire even existed,
was a staggering achievement.

DALLEY: There would have been a
most enormous ceremony here when

the whole system was opened
up for the first time.

They would have had tremendous
ceremony, and the king would

have been here, and probably
a great feast took place.

MAN: You sound like
you you wish you
would have been there.

Oh, yes.
I'm hoping to meet
Sennacherib one day.

[Laughs]

Well, it's nice to imagine
it here because you have

the scenery for it and
you have the occasion.

NARRATOR: 125 miles
from Sennacherib's carving,
the canal reemerges.

DALLEY: Well, we're
coming along here
to see where the canal goes.

We saw that it was covered
by the car park, and now we're

picking it up.

It's just come out of a
tunnel, and there we see where

this lovely reed bed is,
where we see the extent

of the canal at this point.

And now, of course,
it's got reeds growing in it

because the soil and dust
and so on would have settled

in the bottom, giving
something for the reeds to

grow out of, but in
Sennacherib's time, we imagine

clear water going along
a rock-cut bottom, or maybe

a pebble bottom, and then out
from the source of the water.

NARRATOR: While the site
at Khinis demonstrates
Sennacherib's ambition,

it doesn't show the scale
of his canals

or how it relates to Nineveh.

To see whether this canal
system could be connected

with Nineveh, Stephanie
returns to Erbil.

Studying the canals is
difficult because much

of the evidence for the
ancient network has been lost

to modern life.

She's come here to find out
about a new project that

promises to reveal secrets
of Sennacherib's great work.

[Speaking foreign language]

DALLEY: A bit later today,
we're off to see
my colleague Jason Ur

from Harvard, who studies
in a quite different way from

myself the landscape that
Sennacherib inhabited, changed

for forever, really.

NARRATOR: Jason Ur uses highly
classified spy material to

study ancient landscapes,
including the area once ruled

by Sennacherib.

DALLEY: We have to sort of peel
back the landscape that is

currently available, that we
can see nowadays, and look

at how it must have been in
the time of Sennacherib.

UR: Well, I've used a Corona
program, this American spy

satellite program that
started in the 1960s.

It's been declassified since
the mid-nineties, and now it's

available for literally
anybody to use, including

the people that the
Americans were spying on.

It reveals fantastic
details of the ancient world.

NARRATOR: This early satellite
took snapshots of landscapes as

they were before modern cities
were built, before modern roads.

And in this part of Iraq,
the landscapes have not changed

for thousands of years.

UR: The inscriptions
can tell us a lot.

They can tell us the thoughts
of the people that wrote them,

but we never must forget that
those people had an agenda.

So here's where the satellite
imagery comes in.

It shows us the landscape
in a very objective way.

It doesn't lie.

This is an image of Nimrud.

This is one of the capital
cities of the ancestors

of Sennacherib.

We can see a lot of
interesting things here.

This is a big, high mound
that had an important palace,

and then we've got the wall
stretching around the city,

which is very clear,
can be easily seen.

But we knew about
all these places.

You know, the satellite
imagery here isn't telling
us anything we didn't

already know.

But it's in the center of the
city that we learn new things.

We've known nothing about
the insides of this city,

but with this corona image,
we can see processional ways

leading from the gates
into the city.

It's these dark lines
going through the city,
like this here.

These are ancient streets,
and they are massive

ancient streets.

They are 15 to 20 meters wide.

So these aren't just streets,
these are processional ways.

You can imagine that there
could have been 3 chariots

wide going through
the streets here.

It would have been very
dramatic to see the king

in his retinue, moving through
these spaces, say, on their way

into the citadel or from
the citadel out to the parade

grounds near the arsenal here.

This really shows the power
and scope of this technique.

We wouldn't have seen any of
this on the ground.

Just, it's not there.
It's underneath fields.

But under the right
conditions, it emerges as

clear as a bell.

[Knock on door]

Stephanie, how are you?

Jason, very good to
see you again.

Come on in.

NARRATOR: Jason's work reveals

just how big Sennacherib's
canal system was.

Stretching from the Zagros
Mountains that border Iran,

it ran across the plains of
northern Iraq all the way

to Nineveh.

UR: So we're looking here at
a canal that leads fm the

Zagros up to the north, and
it directs the entire flow

of this river across this
watershed into this other

river system.

This is not necessarily
easy to see from the ground,

but this image gives you a
fantastic idea of just how

screamingly obvious it is
from a vertical perspective.

DALLEY: So
on the ground,

how wide would that
canal be?

From top to top,
it's a hundred
meters wide, and it's

probably about 20
meter deep.

NARRATOR: In parts,
Sennacherib's
waterways were the width

of the Panama Canal, and they
ran downhill at a precise

angle across 60 miles
of parched terrain.

What have you got here
to get the canal from
there to there?

This is one of the
engineering jewels
of the Assyrian empire,

this canal that you
can faintly trace here.

It has to go around this
entire valley, but to get

there, it has to cross this
stream, and that's where this

feature comes in.

It's a little ambiguous
on the imagery, but
this is an aqueduct.

This is a two-million-block
stone aqueduct.

This feature carries the water
from this side of the plain

across this water course
and then carrying on

around the head of the valley,
ultimately to the capital

and Nineveh, and it really
is a masterpiece

of Assyrian engineering.

Well, it's astonishing,
isn't it?

To imagine
Sennacherib and his

engineers seeing that
whole picture without
the sort

of maps that we have.

DALLEY: So what we can see on
those photographs is that

Sennacherib and his engineers
were phenomenal, that it was

something quite out the
ordinary, quite magnificent

in scope, design,
and execution.

NARRATOR: It is clear
that Sennacherib
had the technology to build

a huge canal network.

But did he have the
engineering skills to build

a terraced garden?

Stephanie decides to vit
the aqueduct Jason pointed out

on his satellite map.

The Jerwan aqueduct

is one of the earliest known
aqueducts in history.

It pre-dates anything the
Romans built by 500 years.

DALLEY: Well, I'm glad I've got
a good pair of shoes on.

[Laughs]

It's so solid.

I mean, look at the size
of those pieces of stone.

You could almost imagine
a giant having to compose this.

NARRATOR: Sennachrib
was so proud of his
achievements, he wanted to

tell the world about his work.

DALLEY: We know who built
this because he wrote
his name, his title,

his father's name on
these stones here.

It's written in cuneiform.

It goes from left to
right, just like English.

He says, "Mr. Sennacherib,
the king of the world, king

of the land of Assyria."

There's no doubt at
all who built this.

Not modest at all.

He wanted to make sure that
his legacy lasted forever.

And it has done quite well,
2,700 years or so.

NARRATOR: But while
the aqueduct has survived
for nearly 3 millennia,

the area around it has been
too turbulent and dangerous

for archaeologists to work in.

DALLEY: Well, although it's
much prettier to be here

in the spring, because of the
spring flowers and the crops

growing and so on, it's
actually not very safe then

because there are unexploded
ordnance around on the fields

just occasionally, and in this
particular area there were

landmines until they were
cleared extremely recently,

and of course those are buried
mines, so there's a danger.

But I gather it's
perfectly safe now, and we

think it is, but over there,
that was the area where there

was a place with ldmines,
but a lot of people have been

here in the last few years,
actually, so sticking to this

area is perfectly safe.

NARRATOR: On the other side
of the aqueduct,

there's a clue that sheds
light on the Hanging Gardens.

DALLEY: What we've
got here is the remains
of an arch in this

aqueduct, and I think you
can see that the stones are

gradually shaped in towards
the center at the top, which

is no longer preserved.

NARRATOR: There were
5 arches built from

two million perfectly
carved stone blocks.

This extraordinary structure
would have supported

Sennacherib's canal at a
height of 30 feet above

ground, and it would
have been 72 feet wide.

But for Stephanie,
there's something even more

significant about
the aqueduct...

something that reminds her
of the garden relief

at the British Museum.

DALLEY: If we look
on the drawing of it
where the the thing is

a bit clearer, we can see
the shape of the top of those

arches on the drawing.

And it's quite interesting
that on this we can see that

they've drawn in the stones.

NARRATOR: The arches
shown on the stone panel
match the design

of the arches supporting
the aqueduct at Jerwan.

DALLEY: We can see
that this is real,
and it helps us to understand

that what we see here is not
a bit of make-believe; they're

showing what the king did in
detail, and they're not

fairy tale imaginary
pictures at all.

They're trying very hard
in two dimensions to represent

something enormous that the
king did in 3 dimensions.

NARRATOR: For Stephanie,
the aqueduct proves
the garden relief is

more than just
a piece of art that

once decorated
a palace wall at Nineveh.

It's a piece of
documentary evidence.

DALLEY: We've seen
the rock sculptures

and the canal leading out
from the mountains at Khinis,

and now we've found the place

where an aqueduct solves the
problem of crossing the major

tributary, and then we think
of this whole network making

its way very carefully
all the way to Nineveh.

The thing is, it's not
just a garden, is it?

It's a world wonder on
several different counts.

This whole water works is a
part of what makes the hanging

garden a world wonder,

and it shows the
character of Sennacherib.

He's not afraid of a big
project, and he has the

expertise to carry it out,
and it works when he's done it.

NARRATOR: Returning to
Erbil, Stephanie considers
what she's learned:

Sennacherib did build a huge
canal system that could have

provided water for
a large garden in Nineveh.

Now, using old archaeological
surveys, she also believes

she's pinpointed the location
of the fabled hanging garden.

DALLEY: What we've got here is
a map that was made in 1904.

We know that's a part of
the palace of Sennacherib.

Now, some people think that's
just about all there was,

but other people think that
it was much bigger than that

and that it extended
all the way along here.

If we think it does come along
this far, that would be a good

place there for the garden.

NARRATOR: Sennacherib's
palace complex

stretched 1,300
feet in length.

To the rear was a huge open
space that Stephanie believes

was the site for his garden.

DALLEY: Sennacherib's
own inscription says
that he raised the level

of the earth beside the palace
to make a garden.

NARRATOR: But there are

critical details
Sennacherib failed to provide.

He didn't tell us how the
garden was laid out or how

large it was.

Other writers living hundreds
of years later claimed

they knew.

DALLEY: We only know
about the size of
the gardens from what the

Greek writers say, but one of
the Greek authors,

Diodorus Siculus, tells us just
what the dimensions were.

He says the park extended 4
plethra on each side, and then

says that it sloped
downwards on these terraces

and resembled a Greek theater.

NARRATOR: A plethra is
an ancient measurement.

4 plethra equals
about 400 feet.

DALLEY: The way I think you can
interpret this is we've got

essentially a rectangle and
we've got 123 meters along

the top, and 123 meters along
the side, and that's

the dimensions
that Diodorus gives.

NARRATOR: This size and shape

would fit the available
space alongside the palace.

DALLEY: And then he says that it
resembles a theater because

of these terraces rising up,
so we envisage it coming like

this and then the lake
down at the bottom there.

So that's roughly--what
it would have looked like is

a large Greek or Roman
amphitheatre, with a lake

at the bottom.

NARRATOR: An immense, thirsty
amphitheater of plants

nourished by
a vast canal system.

But the question remains:
how did Sennacherib get water to

the upper tiers of his garden,
where these giant trees grew?

DALLEY: Scholars have
estimated that this
particular hanging garden

would have needed about
300 tons of water a day,

and that's an
enormous amount of water.

NARRATOR: Without
modern technology,

lifting 300 tons
of water per day by hand would

have been an extremely
difficult task.

DALLEY: So how are we going to
get the water up there?

It's a phenomenal question as
to how it was done.

NARRATOR: Stephanie
was working through
Sennacherib's writing

when she came across a word that
didn't make sense to her.

DALLEY: He says, "In order to
draw water up all day long,

"I had ropes, bronze wires, and
bronze chains made, and I set

up the great cylinders
and alemitu over cisterns."

He's drawing up
water all day long.

This is not a bucket and
chain job from a well.

But what on Earth did he
mean by the alemitu?

NARRATOR: It seemed
Sennacherib did find
a solution to bringing water

to the garden's highest tiers,
but it was hidden behind

the word "alemitu."

Stephanie was able to decipher
the meaning of the word.

[Knocks on door]

It's a partular type
of date palm.

But what did a date palm have
to do with lifting water?

...very kind of you.
We saw that you had
a palm tree.

NARRATOR: When she sees a date
palm tree, she understands

what Sennacherib
was describing.

DALLEY: This tree is significant

because you can see where the
fronds have been cut off as

the trunk has gone up.

You can see the scars from the
fronds making a spiral pattern

around the whole
of the trunk.

NARRATOR:
The spiral pattern

around the trunk of the tree...

resembles the shape
of a screw...

the kind of screw used
for drawing water uphill.

Silent and able to keep
a constant amount of water

flowing against gravity,
it would have been

an engineering breakthrough.

Sennacherib was using
the shape of a date palm to

describe an Archimedes screw.

DALLEY: When you invent
something,

you've got to find
words for it.

Like on your computer you have
this mouse--well, you know,

that could be quite perplexing
in the future for people who

talk about mice on desks.

Here we've got something that
maybe they've already invented

and they know what it looks
like, but how are they going

to find a word for it?

They look in nature for
something that has it, too,

and this is what provides them
with a word that they can use

for it that everybody
will understand.

NARRATOR: The Archimedes screw
is named after the Greek who

is believed to have
invented it.

But it seems Sennacherib was
using it 400 years before

Archimedes was even born.

DALLEY: I looked at what
various writers had said

about Archimedes and the
water-raising screw, and they

thought the screw itself was
older than Archimedes, so I

felt some relief at that

because you don't want to
go out too much on a limb.

Sennacherib solved this
enormous problem of raising

water from that aqueduct
halfway up the garden

and getting it right up to
the top above the pillared

walkway, and he does
it with these screws.

And that is a stroke
of genius, really.

NARRATOR: The focus
of her investigation
turns to getting

access to the site at Nineveh.

Nineveh and the neighboring
city of Mosul are effectively

closed to westerners.

[Explosion]

During Stephanie's visit,
a car bomb exploded at a book

market, and 47 people
were killed or injured,

and on average, 100 people
were killed every month.

But 4 days into the trip,
Stephanie and her team have

found a way to see the site.

DALLEY: We've come
up with a plan to
send local security people

with cameras, and they're
going to the bit of the mound

at Nineveh that
we're interested in.

[Knock on door]

Hello.
Hello.

Do come in, please.

DALLEY: Two local men arrive
and receive their instructions

from Stephanie.

Shall we get
straight to our map?

NARRATOR: Locals can work in
Nineveh without attracting

any attention.

So you'll be starting
here with the roofed area.

NARRATOR: Watching
footage they bring back
will be Stephanie's first

opportunity to
study the site.

We want to look
at this bit here.

NARRATOR: They will
only have an hour
to film at the location.

After that, using
cameras around the
site will make them

too conspicuous, and it
will become too dangerous.

You'll be coming
out here.

you may have to come
through a fence.

NARRATOR: They must get
to the possible
garden location quickly.

MAN: From the palace to this
area--what do you think,

I mean, about the distance
from here to here?

About 400 meters.
400 meters.

Roughly.

And this--this is
the area that we
really want you to focus

on, here, as much as
you can of that.

DALLEY: We'll see
how the land lies
in the bit of Sennacherib's

palace that is still
recognizable, and then, above

all, the bit that I'm most
interested in, those contours

which correspond to what we
know about the hanging garden.

NARRATOR: The men
set off on their
two-hour drive to Nineveh.

They must pass through 4
checkpoints which are often

targeted by terrorists.

They've each been given a
camera and will call Stephanie

when they get to the site.

MAN: How are you feeling?

DALLEY: Well, nervous.

Nervous.

I do hate waiting.

I'm quite an impatient
person, I suppose,

and also from the West,
I've got in the habit

of being punctual
for things,

so when there's any
delay, I chomp
at the bit, rather.

NARRATOR: Stephanie must
wait anxiously for news.

She's unaware that the men
have passed dangerously close

to attacks on the
outskirts of Nineveh.

Then, after nearly 4 hours,
she receives some good news

from her security advisor.

MAN: They're OK.
They're inside.

Good.

MAN: So they're
just waiting to start

the process of filming.

OK, thanks. Good.

NARRATOR: But
the clock is ticking
as the two men race to film

the site before
they're told to lea.

[Man chanting]

Eventually, they return
with the footage they shot

in Nineveh.

[Knock on door]

So nice to see you again.

NARRATOR: Stephanie is
grateful for their courage.

I thank you so
much for what you've done.

MAN: We thank God
that we are safe.

Well, we
thank God, too.

NARRATOR: The area
is an archaeological site
in the center of Nineveh

under the control of the
Department of Antiquities.

The men enter the
excavated part of the palace.

Despite millennia of damage,
there's no disguising the scale.

So here we are
in Sennacherib's
palace.

Yes.

So what's
this relic?

I think that's a bit
of a winged bull.

That's a hind leg,
the bottom, the back
of the bull.

It's quite interesting
to see the stone
and how--oh, yes.

Oh, there's some
wonderful shell
in the stone there.

Oh, look at it. Oh.

Oh, yes, these
are the trees,

like the ones in
Sennacherib's

garden according to the
sculpture that we have.

NARRATOR: It shows Sennacherib's
fascination with plant life

and the natural world
just like the carvings

on the garden relief.

DALLEY: It's a mountain
landscape.

When they have these sort of
diamond kinds of background,

that shows you're
in the mountains.

So I think these might be
fruit trees, but I'm not sure.

NARRATOR: The images
show an ancient
city in a terrible state

of disrepair.

Nineveh is on the Global
Heritage Fund's list of sites

in danger of irreparable
destruction and loss.

DALLEY: It is
in a sad state,
but it's still

very exciting.

Those slabs that
you see there--
we've lost

the sculpture on the
outside of them.

But still it gives
you a feel for
the scale of it all,

doesn't it?

MAN: Yes.

DALLEY: You feel how
impressive it was.

Yes, exactly.

Of course it would
have been perfect.

When I went over there,
I felt that I am living

in another world.

DALLEY: Yes, yes.

NARRATOR: With time ticking
away, they must keep moving,

as there's a lot
of ground to cover.

The men head toward the rear
of Sennacherib's palace,

getting closer to the area
Stephanie thinks is

the location of the garden.

It becomes quickly apparent
that much of the old city is

now used as farmland.

DALLEY: And they're
plowing right up to the edge.

That's...Yes, well...

How much is lost every year,
you imagine thousands of years

when this site has been
eroded, damaged, looted.

People come up for picnics,
they find, "Ah, look what I've

found," and they take it home.

And you can't
blame them.

Ah, but look how
difficult it
is to see any

sort of--

to interpret
any of the land.

It is so eroded.

Can you just show us

where we are on
the map at this moment?

Exactly there.

Exactly there?

Yeah.
Great.

So you're walking
towards the area

that has the red circle
around it.

Yes.

NARRATOR: Watching as they
arrive at the spot circled

on the map, Stephanie is
initially downhearted.

DALLEY: We know for certain
he had a palace garden.

It must be somewhere here.

This seemed to me a very
likely spot, but now we're

here, of course, we don't
see a garden--that's

for sure--and we don't see ay
trace of what we hoped might

be visible.

NARRATOR: Then she spots
something that gives
her hope...

the extraordinary view
from the citadel overlooking

the plains of northern Iraq.

It's a perfect place for a
garden looking over the river.

Sennacherib tells us so in his
inscription, and he says it

was a marvel for all peoples--

a wonder of the world,

in his own words.

NARRATOR: Stephanie
can search no further.

She's seen evidence of the
enormous engineering feat that

brought water from
the mountains...

through huge canals...

to a garden resembling
an amphitheater nearly 70

miles away.

Stone arches carried 300
tons of water...

while screws worked
silently to lift the water up

to the highest terraces of
gardens that were built
by a king to

demonstrate his
mastery of nature.

To Stephanie's frustration,
any detailed archaeological

study of this site remains
impossible as long as

the conflict continues.

It's just too dangerous.

For the moment, she has
gotten as close as anyone can.

We have seen Sennacherib at
work in his canals, in his

sculptures, in his palace.

We've seen the sight
of the garden...

and we have seen Sennacherib
had the brilliance

and the expertise to make
a wonder of the world.

It's been wonderful.

ANNOUNCER: The iconic moments
that have shaped our world...

MAN: It stretches human
history way back.

ANNOUNCER: The fine line between
fiction and fact.

WOMAN: That legend just doesn't
stand up against reality.

ANNOUNCER: Discoveries that
bring the dead back to life.

Forensics that create clarity
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The past gets rewritten when
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"Secrets of the Dead"
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