Secrets of the Dead (2000–…): Season 17, Episode 4 - Egypt's Darkest Hour - full transcript

- High in the cliffs near Luxor
lies a mysterious mass grave.

- Filled with bodies.
Wow.

What a nice foot.

- Who were these people?

- Generally, you don't get
mass graves in Ancient Egypt.

It's a very rare thing.

- And how did they end up here?

- Something like a mace struck
him on the side of the head.

These people have died
bloody fearsome deaths.

- Now, archaeologists and
scientists from around the world

scour through the sands



in search of clues
to solve this mystery.

- It's great. For me, it's great
because it's the first time

for me to get
inside this pyramid.

Really exciting.

- From the Great Pyramids at Giza

to the glaciers

of Mount Kilimanjaro...

- The fact that the pyramid
was robbed

means the government
was losing control.

- a series
of political crises...

- Setting fire to a temple,
a sacred place

belonging to the king shows
a direct attack against Pharaoh.

- and environmental
catastrophes...

- This represents
a major drought.



- plunged Egypt and its people
into anarchy...

- If anything goes wrong
with the Nile,

then it would be
famine and chaos.

- and triggered
a dramatic civil war

which would last
almost 150 years.

Were these mysterious bodies
casualties of this war?

If so, who were they
fighting for?

"Egypt's Darkest Hour."

♪♪

This program was made
possible in part by

the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting

and by contributions
to your PBS station

from viewers like you.
Thank you.

♪♪

- The desert cliffs of Luxor,
in Southern Egypt...

As-salamu alaykum.

- are home
to an exceptional tomb.

♪♪

Dating back more
than 4,000 years,

long before Cleopatra,
before Tutankhamun and Ramses,

it's a rare mass grave.

First discovered in 1923,
it was sealed off

and very few people
have entered since.

But, today, this unique grave
is being opened

for archaeologist Salima Ikram.

- It's amazing to be able
to go into this tomb.

It's a huge privilege.

No one's been allowed
to go in for a long time

and I've always wanted to go in
since I was a baby Egyptologist,

so this is a real treat.

♪♪

- Little is known
about this burial site

and Salima wants to find out
who is inside, and why.

- Door's open,
but we have to wait

for the air to clear a bit.

There's still a lot of dust
and there's still a lot of

dead stuff.

♪♪

♪♪

- After half an hour,
it's safe for Salima to enter.

- Light saber.

Finally, we can really go in

and see this tomb
for the first time.

♪♪

Shukran.

Wow!

- Carved out of rock by hand,

the tomb consists of 200 feet
of branching tunnels

that reach back deep
into the cliff.

- It's like a labyrinth in here.

It keeps on going.

There are rooms and twists
and turns and tunnels.

It's fantastic!

♪♪

And it's filled with bodies.

Wow!

And lots of bandages.

♪♪

Here's a shoulder.

You can see the scapula,

a little bit of scapula here,
and here's a humerus.

So, so, it'd sorta be like this.

You can see whoever it was
was taller than I am,

quite robust, probably male.

♪♪

Here, you can see
all the folds of flesh.

♪♪

And over here,
we have someone's leg.

♪♪

All these bandages would've
been wrapped around the bodies,

protecting them,
allegedly, for eternity.

- The tunnels contain the remains
of least 60 people.

♪♪

- Just keeps on going.

♪♪

Oh!

What a nice foot.

Left foot with his
big toe intact.

Small toes have fallen off.

Quite a large foot.

It's probably male.

- To add to the mystery,
all the bodies seem to be male.

- And here's its mate.

They're all intact.

♪♪

- This grave is extremely
unusual for Ancient Egypt.

- There are huge numbers
of bodies in here

and, generally, you don't get
mass graves in Ancient Egypt.

- Normally, Egyptians were buried
alone, or with their family.

- But it's only when you have
plagues or battles,

where you might have
a mass grave, like this one.

It's a very rare thing.

- Can science provide
the identities of these bodies?

♪♪

French archaeologist
Audran Labrousse

is an expert on this period
of Egyptian history,

known as the Old Kingdom.

To find out
who these people were,

he begins with an ancient text.

Written by the poet Ipuwer,
it's thought to describe Egypt

at the time leading up
to the mass burial.

And Ipuwer's poem suggests

something terrible happened
to Egyptian civilization.

- See now, the land
is deprived of kingship.

The king has been robbed,
deposed by beggars.

Every town says,
"Let's expel our rulers."

The people of the land weep
because their enemies

have entered the temple
and burned the images.

Upper Egypt becomes a wasteland.

♪♪

- According to the text,
Egypt was in total chaos,

which could help explain
the dead in the mass grave.

Some historians doubt
the veracity of Ipuwer's text,

rejecting it as exaggeration
or pure fiction.

However, Audran thinks
there may be some truth

to what the ancient poet wrote.

♪♪

Together with his colleague
Philippe Collombert,

he's come to Saqqara,
where the pharaohs were buried

in their pyramids,
just south of Cairo.

♪♪

Between them,
Audran and Philippe

have spent more than 50 years
studying the pyramids.

Today, they've been
given permission

to open a very special pyramid
they believe contains evidence

explaining why the bodies
were interred in the mass grave.

- We're going now to the pyramid,

the last pyramid,
of the Old Kingdom

and we're quite excited
because we'd like to open it

and to see exactly
what is inside.

♪♪

- It will be very interesting
to get inside the pyramid.

It has been closed for years.

And we have the luck,
the chance, the privilege,

to get to the sarcophagus

and make a complete study
of the monument.

♪♪

- It's just over there.

You can see it
in the background.

♪♪

And here we are.

- Yes, the pyramid.

♪♪

- So here it is and it belongs
to the Pharaoh Pepi II.

- The story of the bones
in the tomb

starts with the end
of Pepi's reign.

Who was Pepi II?

Pepi II came to the throne
around 4,300 years ago,

at the age of just six,

250 years
after the Great Pyramids

and the Sphinx were built.

By this time, the pharaohs had
ruled Egypt for about 700 years.

This great civilization extended

from the Mediterranean to Aswan.

As pharaoh, Pepi was believed
to be the son of a god

and he ruled for at least 60,
some say even 90, years,

the longest reign
in Egyptian history.

♪♪

His long reign gave him
plenty of time

to build a magnificent pyramid.

Its grandeur demonstrates the
extent of his wealth and power.

- The main masonry of the pyramid

is made of small stones
cemented with mud,

as to form a huge staircase
toward the sky.

Against these small stones,
you had a thickness

of about 5 meters
of huge limestones blocks.

- And, finally, on top of this,
the outer layer of the pyramid,

made of the finest, whitest,
limestone in all of Egypt.

- This casing covered the pyramid
on 50 meters high

and a golden top was added.

It must have been
a very impressive monument.

♪♪

- The funerary complex
had a temple dedicated to Pepi

and included small, satellite
pyramids for his spirit

and three medium-sized pyramids
where his wives were entombed.

But this magnificent pyramid
was to be the last

of this golden era.

After Pepi's death,
around 4,200 years ago,

traces of the Old Kingdom
disappear into the sand.

Perhaps the turmoil written
about in Ipuwer's ancient poem

was real.

♪♪

Audran and Philippe
are entering the pyramid

to find out what was happening
in Egypt at this time.

Audran mudir!

- But the pyramid isn't giving up
its secrets easily.

- So we're in it now.

We're approaching the entrance
of the Pharaoh Pepi II.

♪♪

- It's taken the workers
more than four days

to dig down through nearly
15 feet of sand.

♪♪

- We are nearly coming
to the end of the work.

We still have some bit of sand
to take out of the entrance

and we will be in it.

- Finally, the sealed entrance
to the pyramid is revealed.

- So, now, we're ready to start.

We're gonna break the cement.

♪♪

- The pyramid was last
studied in the 1930s

and hardly anyone has had the
privilege of entering it since.

♪♪

It is an amazing opportunity
for Audran and Philippe.

♪♪

- It's great. For me, it's great
because it's the first time

for me to get
inside this pyramid.

Really exciting.

♪♪

- The passageway descends steeply

and then levels off,
continuing for about 85 feet

directly into the heart
of the pyramid.

- Well, now, we're in the passage

and just leading
to the burial chamber.

- At the very center,
they reach the antechamber,

which then leads
to the burial chamber,

where the pharaoh
was laid to rest.

Ooh la la la.

Pssh!

This is really amazing, amazing.

♪♪

I'm really amazed by the state
of preservation of this pyramid,

with all these marvelous
texts all around.

It look like the painter
just left yesterday

and we're just
coming afterwards.

You see the green color
and the white surface;

even the line here, the black
line, are still present.

♪♪

And, here,
we have the sarcophagus

with the inscription
with the name of Pepi II.

This sarcophagus
is the master piece

of the Old Kingdom.

It's really huge and
magnificent, really nicely done.

- This massive stone sarcophagus
weighs 11 tons.

- The sarcophagus is made
of a black stone

but you have to imagine
that it was covered of gold.

The inscription was in gold

and inside it was a thick,
gold leaf.

And you have also to imagine
in front of the sarcophagus,

filling the room,
all the golden furniture,

the vases, everything that the
king needed in his afterlife.

- And the walls of the chamber
are covered in hieroglyphs

of ancient Egyptian
religious texts.

♪♪

- All these texts are
ritual texts

for the rebirth of the king
in the afterlife.

- For Audran and Philippe,
the interior of the pyramid

reveals the state of the country
during Pepi's reign

and the events leading
to the mass grave.

- When you see the sarcophagus,

with all these marvelous texts
all around, that shows that,

at the beginning
of the reign of Pepi II,

the state is still
really powerful.

- Egypt is triumphant.

- But Philippe and Audran
have spotted signs

that things changed.

For one, the pyramid was looted.

- As you can see, the sarcophagus
has been opened up

and all that was inside
has been robbed and taken out.

- Including Pepi II's mummy,
which has never been found.

- When the robbers arrived,

they pushed the lid
of the sarcophagus,

opened the coffin, took the
royal mummy, throw it away.

And, of course, all this
gold, it was fabulous.

They took everything out
and the archaeologists

found absolutely nothing
in this room, unfortunately.

- Back at the entrance tunnel,
Audran is studying evidence

which shows that the pyramid
must've been robbed

shortly after Pepi's death.

After Pepi was buried,

the original passage was sealed
with massive stone blocks,

but the looters
found a way around them.

- Here, we see the evidence
of the pillaging of the pyramid.

The looters break the façade.

- They then dug through the
limestone brickwork,

until they bypassed
the stone blocks.

- The looters cut the lintels

and went into the
descending passage.

- Farther on, they dug a second
tunnel above the main passage.

It's now been filled, but Audran
has found traces of it.

- The looters arrived
to this lintel.

They break it.

You can see some traces above.

- Why did they dig
this second tunnel?

- The passage was blocked

by three unpenetrable
granite portcullis.

- Today, they are raised,
but, at the time,

these massive, granite blocks
barred the way.

The looters had to dig
through the softer limestone

to get around them.

♪♪

- They came down here,
after the third portcullis,

and then, their passage was
clear to the funerary chamber.

- The efficiency of the looters'
route belies when they broke in.

- It means that the looters
knew perfectly

the plans of the pyramid.

They had in their crew somebody
who had built the monument

and it shows that
this must have happened

shortly after the death
of Pepi II.

- Looting the pyramid so soon
after Pepi's death

is a sure sign
the country was in turmoil.

- When they took out
the mummy of Pepi II,

first, of all,
it was a very big sacrilege.

- Ancient Egyptians believed
they needed their body

to live again in the afterlife,

which is why mummification
was so important to them.

- Destroying his body means
that Pepi II

will never be able
to live again.

That's real death
for the pharaoh.

- Protecting the pharaoh's
mummy was a critical task.

- The pyramid was closed
after the burial of the king

and it was guarded by a lot
of people around the pyramid,

so nobody could approach.

The fact that the pyramid was
robbed means that the state,

the government, was not
controlling anything here.

- And that's not all.

Nearby, next
to Pepi's father's pyramid,

Audran has found more evidence

that the country was in trouble
shortly after Pepi II died.

- We are here in one
of the storerooms

of the temple of Pepi I.

And you can see that the stones
are black, they are burned,

and it shows a very violent
and destructive fire.

The fire, of course,
was deliberate.

- Crucially, Audran's team
was able to date this fire.

- We were able to date
the fire by radiocarbon

and it dates from the end
of the Old Kingdom.

- The date of the fire
supports Audran's theory:

that Pepi II's pyramid

was pillaged
not long after his death.

- Setting fire to a temple,
a sacred place,

belonging to the king,
shows a direct attack

against power, against royalty,
against Pharaoh.

- Shortly after he died,

law and order broke down
to such an extent,

his pyramid,
and those of his family,

were robbed and desecrated.

More evidence to suggest

Ipuwer may have been
telling the truth.

- The king has been robbed.

The people of the land weep
because their enemies

have entered the temple
and burned the images.

♪♪

- What happened?

How and why did
the pharaohs lose control

and how did this lead
to the dead in the mass grave?

All over Egypt, archaeologists
are finding signs

of the growing
political problems

that were festering
before Pepi II's death.

♪♪

As Pepi's reign continued
and he grew older,

he began ceding more
and more power

to his provincial governors.

♪♪

500 miles south of Saqqara,
on the banks of the Nile,

lies the necropolis
of Qubbet el-Hawa.

It's here that the governors
of Southern Egypt are buried

and, with them,

striking evidence
of their growing influence.

Archaeologist Martin Bommas
- As-salamu alaykum.

- has been digging here
for three years.

Comparing the tombs of governors

from the start and end
of Pepi's reign,

he points out signs
that their authority

was increasing over time.

- Here we are,
right at the entrance

into the Tomb of Harkhuf,
the governor of Upper Egypt,

at roughly the time
when Pepi II was a child

and, as part of his role,
he went to Nubia four times,

to bring back exotic goods,
like leopard skin,

elephant tusks, and so on.

♪♪

♪♪

He was sent out
by the king, obviously.

The king financed
all these expeditions.

What is really
interesting is that,

although Harkhuf was one
of the most important men

in the region, really
running the business here,

he still had to ask Pepi II

for permission
to build his tomb.

- At the start of his reign,

Pepi II was very much
in control of the country.

- When we look into the political
situation of Egypt

at this point in time,

we see that the king
is still very strong.

- But during the course of his
long reign, things changed

and those changes
are reflected in the style

and construction
of the governors' tombs.

Because, as grand
as this grave is,

it's nothing compared
to the tombs of two governors

from the latter part
of Pepi's life,

which are at the far end
of the necropolis.

The first one belonged
to a governor of Elephantine.

- Look at the size of this tomb

and look at the columns,
how high they are.

That gives us an idea
about the importance

of the governor of Elephantine.

Eighteen columns here.

It's almost like
a forest of columns.

- The majesty of this tomb

illustrates Pepi II's
weakened authority,

while the regional governors

were becoming
increasingly important.

And the adjoining tomb,
belonging to his son,

is even more elaborate.

- Now, look at this lavish
painting here,

that shows Sabni on a boat,

on a river,
but not during this life.

It's the next life.
It's the beyond.

- The painting, together with
the sheer size of the tomb,

tells a story of wealth
and influence.

- If we relate what we see here

to the beginning
of the reign of Pepi II,

like what we've seen
in the tomb of Harkhuf,

this clearly points out that,
by the end of Pepi II's reign,

when he was an old man,
local governors had more power.

♪♪

- And this situation was
replicated across Egypt.

Pepi II gradually relinquished

more power and control
to the local governors.

- Suddenly, local governors
had too much power,

compared to the power that
was decreasing in the capital.

- A political crisis was brewing.

Then, at the age of 94,

Pepi II died,

and the fragile political
situation finally unraveled

and so began a series of events

that led to the remains
in the mass grave.

There are hardly any traces
of Pepi II's successors.

Audran has been searching
for these kings for years.

One of his few sources
of information

provides insight into the
leaders who followed Pepi.

- We are lucky enough to have
the list of Abydos.

It is a list engraved
on a temple,

giving the names of all
the kings of Ancient Egypt.

And we have the names
of five sons of Pepi II.

- None of Pepi II's five sons
reigned for very long.

- The first successor of Pepi II
was called Merenre Il

and we know, according to the
Greek historian Herodotus,

he was murdered after a very
short reign of two years.

♪♪

- And his brothers
didn't last much longer.

- We know that Pepi II
has a very long reign,

between 60 and 90 years.

So, his sons were very old
when they arrived at the throne.

Perhaps they just die
because they were too old.

- After his five sons,
the crisis worsened

and the Abydos list shows

13 more kings
in quick succession.

That's 18 kings
in roughly 50 years.

The Old Kingdom
was clearly in freefall.

♪♪

To this day, archaeologists
have not been able to find

any physical evidence
related to these kings.

With the exception of one.

It might not look like it,

but this uninspiring
pile of rubble

is actually the remains
of a pyramid.

It belonged to Qakare Ibi,

the fifteenth king
after Pepi II.

♪♪

And it's tiny: less than half
the height of Pepi's pyramid.

♪♪

The small size of Ibi's pyramid
illustrates how weak

the royal authority had become
following Pepi II's reign.

And, after Ibi's,

it seems, no pyramids were built
for about 200 years.

♪♪

What was happening in the rest
of the country,

while the power of the
pharaoh was waning?

400 miles to the south

lies El Mo'alla.

♪♪

Once again,
the style of a tomb signifies

how the local
governors responded

to this succession
of ephemeral kings.

Archaeologist
Antonio Morales explains.

- This is Ankhtifi,
the owner of this tomb,

the local ruler of Hefat,

the third province
in Upper Egypt.

- Ankhtifi governed
in the tumultuous years

between Pepi II's death

and the creation
of the mass grave.

- These inscriptions tell us
a lot about social disruption,

civil war, conflict,

lack of order or control
by the central administration.

There was a big gap
of royal control of the country.

- Most tomb walls are covered
with references

to the ruling king,
but not here.

- This is the only place
in the whole tomb

where Ankhtifi mentioned
the name of a king.

The rest of the tomb

does not have a single
mention to any king,

which probably means that,
with the passing of time,

the central government
lost control of the country

and Ankhtifi felt that

he was the single power
in his province.

- And, on his tomb walls,

he's portrayed himself as king
and ruler of his province.

- He used kinds of phraseology,
expressions,

and even iconography
that usually was used

during the Old Kingdom,
only by the kings.

This section
of the inscription says

"I am taking care of the orphan.

I am giving a boat to the one
who cannot cross the Nile."

By doing this, he was somehow
comparing himself to the king,

since these kinds of expressions

referred to the capacity
of the king

to provide for his people
and his country.

- It seems that,
after Pepi's death,

rather than submitting
to a rapid succession

of weak pharaohs,

the local governors,
like Ankhtifi,

decided to rule for themselves.

The regional governors
began jockeying for power

and the inevitable consequence
was civil war.

- Some of the inscriptions
in the tomb of Ankhtifi

talk a lot about civil war.

Here, for example, we have the
verb "to attack, to fight,"

and includes the determinative
of man with a stick

and he's expressing how

he was going to attack
the Theban province.

♪♪

So, we have a situation
of social disruption,

civil war, conflict.

♪♪

- All of this supports

what the ancient poet
Ipuwer's work described.

- The land is deprived
of kingship.

- Pepi II's heirs lost their
grip on the country.

Egypt split apart
and plunged into chaos and war.

Salima thinks it's possible
that the bodies found

in the mass grave near Luxor

perished in the civil war.

- I've got some photos of men
who were inside the tomb

and a lot of them
had horrible trauma.

You can see, over here,

there's a hole here
and he's probably hit by,

you know,
a rock from a slingshot.

This one's even worse,
'cause you can really see

that there've been attacks
here, on both sides.

So, this is quite possibly
something like a mace

struck him
on the side of the head

and blew it out and killed
him rather viciously.

So, this was not someone
who died in bed.

This was someone who died
in battle.

And some of them

actually had arrows going
through their bodies.

So, here's the arrow
and so he was pierced through

and he would've been lying,
bleeding, on the battlefield,

probably waiting to be rescued

or slowly dying and having
birds pecking at him.

These people have died
bloody fearsome deaths.

- In addition to the brutal
manner of their deaths,

there are other clues
to their identities.

- They were buried
with their bows and arrows.

So, we have those.

And this is really the clincher.

♪♪

This one's got a wrist guard
that goes all the way up

and that's what archers wore

to protect themselves
from the bow's recoil.

So, these people
were archers themselves.

So, all the evidence
points to the fact

that these were soldiers
who died in battle.

♪♪

- But who were these soldiers
fighting for, and why?

♪♪

♪♪

The hieroglyphs
on Ankhtifi's tomb

reveal a catastrophic event
that might explain.

- Here, it says the whole
southern country

was dying of hunger,

so that every man
was eating his own children.

♪♪

Also, in this section
of the inscription, it says,

the whole country has become
like a starving locust.

That is a clear way
for Ancient Egyptians to express

that there was a dramatic famine
in this section of the country.

♪♪

- Already politically weakened
by the rise of the governors

and the succession crisis
after Pepi's death,

a famine could have been
the final blow

that brought down
the Old Kingdom.

♪♪

There is mounting evidence
from all over the world

that planetary forces
could have caused such a famine.

♪♪

Scientists are discovering
that, long before Pepi,

Egypt wasn't the desert
it is today.

♪♪

Back in Saqqara, Audran
has found something revealing

on the pathway leading
to another pyramid,

that of Unas, Pepi II's
great-great-grandfather.

- The wall of the causeway
were covered with reliefs.

Among them,
one is especially interesting.

What do we see?

We see various animals.

We see antelopes,

oryx,

gazelle, and among them
there are small bushes

and we see, for instance,
here a very small gazelle,

more or less sleeping
among bushes.

In fact, it's the
representation of a savanna.

- Audran believes these carvings
show that Egypt once had

a very different climate
than it does today.

- It means that, at the time
of the Old Kingdom,

the pyramids were not
surrounded by a desert.

They were surrounded
by a savanna,

very close to what we
found now in Kenya.

The necropolis was not
a place of death.

It was a place of life.

- But are these decorations
enough to prove

these animals lived nearby

and that the climate
was so different?

Or are these carvings simply
fanciful illustrations

of animals seen while
on expedition?

There should be
scientific evidence,

if Egypt's environment
was radically different

in the past.

That evidence comes
from a very unlikely source:

crocodiles.

♪♪

To find out more, Salima has
come here, to Kom Ombo Temple,

where Ancient Egyptians
worshipped the god Sobek,

who had the head of a crocodile.

She's here to examine

an altogether different
type of mummy.

- One of the most important
gods in Ancient Egypt

was the crocodile god Sobek

and, as a result, priests
actually raised crocodiles,

so you have places where you
have hatcheries for the eggs

and then they also would have

nurseries for the
baby crocodiles

and sometimes these
were killed deliberately,

with their heads being bashed in

so that they could
then be mummified

and be given to Sobek
as an offering.

♪♪

The ones that were recognized
by the priests

as having the divine spirit
in them

were allowed to grow to their
full length, 5, 6 meters,

and, during the lifetime
of that animal,

he would be fed and revered

and looked after
and spoilt rotten, in general.

Some of them, according
to the Greek writers,

had earrings of gold

and bracelets made of gold
put on them,

so someone had to be very brave
to go and do this to the god.

♪♪

- And, after their death,

the crocodiles
were carefully mummified.

♪♪

Surprisingly, these sacred
crocs can provide details

on Ancient Egypt's climate.

In 2003, zoologists studied
crocodiles living

in isolated pools
in Mauretania and Chad.

These West African crocs
are smaller and more docile

than the more familiar
Nile crocodiles

found in East Africa today.

And DNA analysis has revealed
these smaller animals

are, in fact,
a separate species,

called Crocodylus suchus.

The DNA analysis also revealed
they're the exact same species

as the sacred
Ancient Egyptian crocodiles.

- Recently, we've been doing DNA
on mummified crocodiles

and the results have been
truly spectacular

because we did a huge
crocodile from Kom Ombo

and it turned out to be
Crocodylus suchus,

which is a desert crocodile.

In a way, it makes sense

that these nicer,
kinder, gentler ones

were allowed to grow

and sort of co-habit with humans

and be the benign version
of the crocodile god.

- How did the pharaohs'
sacred crocodiles end up

on the other side
of the African continent

and what does that mean
for Ancient Egypt's climate?

- So we know that we have
mummified suchus in Egypt

and we know that we have
living suchus,

quite a few of them, in fact,
in the deserts of Mauritania,

as well as in Chad.

So here we've got
these populations

that are quite far apart,
but they're the same animal.

So what was going on here?

We started to look for fossils,

to see if we could find any
other evidence that could link

these different populations
of crocodiles together.

And, throughout the Sahara,
we've, in fact, found lots

of fossils of crocodiles,

in Libya,

Niger,

in Mali,

throughout Algeria,

and also in Morocco.

So that means that,
in ancient times,

all of the space
must've been connected

by a series of waterways,

for the crocodiles
to move to and fro,

and it wasn't always
the desert that it is today.

♪♪

- 5,000 years ago,

the Sahara Desert
was actually a savanna,

crisscrossed by a network
of interconnected waterways,

which allowed crocodiles to move
freely throughout North Africa.

The carvings on Unas's
causeway reflected reality.

When the pyramids were built,

they were surrounded by savanna.

But, when did Egypt dry out
and become a desert

and could this
have played a part

in the demise of the Old Kingdom
and led to the mass grave?

♪♪

Elephantine,
in the middle of the Nile,

between Qubbet el-Hawa
and Aswan,

can shed some light.

♪♪

The ruins here show what was
happening to Egypt's climate.

♪♪

Archaeologist Miroslav Barta
describes the changes.

♪♪

- This is a fortress
dating back to 3,000 BC.

At the time, the island
of Elephantine consisted

of two separated islands:

the eastern one

and then the western island.

♪♪

The fortress is located in here,
on the eastern island.

- The fortress was built
on the highest ground,

315 feet above sea level.

- The reason was
that the Nile flood

at the beginning
of the Old Kingdom

was very high.

♪♪

- But the buildings
surrounding the fortress

show that the level
of the Nile began to fall.

And, as the water level fell,
the city expanded

over the rest
of the eastern island,

which had been
partially submerged.

And there are even ruins
from the lowest part

of the island,
where the Nile once flowed,

that date from after Pepi II.

♪♪

- Now, we stand in the middle
of the original depression

that was separating the eastern

and western island
of Elephantine.

And, as we can see here,
the ancient Egyptians

were able to use up
the original depression

to construct
their houses over it.

- After Pepi II's death,

the level of the Nile
had dropped so significantly

that the two islands
merged into one

and the city expanded
onto what had previously been

the marshes in between.

Here is evidence that Egypt's
climate was gradually changing

and becoming drier
during the Old Kingdom.

But things would get worse,
much worse.

The key to understanding the
collapse of the Old Kingdom,

and the reasons
for the mass grave,

lies almost 2,000 miles away,

in the glaciers
of Mount Kilimanjaro.

In 2000, an expedition
of American glaciologists,

led by Professor
Lonnie Thompson,

discovered proof of a global
climate catastrophe.

♪♪

An ice cap is built

of layers and layers of snow
gradually piling up

that are then compressed
into ice.

By extracting cores
from the ice,

Lonnie is able to look
back in time.

The ice captures a record
of what was in the air

at the time it was laid down.

Studying this ice back
in the lab,

Lonnie can reconstruct
the past climate.

These precious cores
are preserved

in Lonnie's freezer
at Ohio State University.

- We have over 7,000 meters
of ice cores

collected from around the world.

We have,
on this particular rack,

those cores which we recovered
from Kilimanjaro in 2000.

It dates back 11,700 years

and, in that record,

about the depth of 33 meters,

we would find the time
that corresponds

to the Old Kingdom in Egypt,

so we'll take this out and
examine it on the light table.

- This piece of ice holds
a unique record of the climate

around the time
the Old Kingdom fell apart.

- This is what's left
after all the measurements

have been made on the core, so.

And this record starts about
5,000 years before present,

so we're coming forward in time

and you see this
very distinct band.

♪♪

And it was really amazing,
in the field,

when this thing showed up, yeah.

There's a lot of excitement

because you know
you have something.

It's gonna take you a while
to figure out.

No, it's very exciting.

- This ominous, dark layer

is the result of the
dramatic climate change

that led to the collapse
of the Old Kingdom.

- This black line that you
see here in the core

is a layer of dust,
windblown dust,

that accumulated
on the ice field.

This is the largest dust event
we've found in an ice core,

so it's very,
very highly concentrated.

It would suggest that there was

a massive drought
throughout this region.

- And Lonnie has found more
physical signs of this drought,

on the other side of the world.

- In the same time period,
we have found a similar layer

in the Huascarán ice cores
in the Andes, in Peru.

We also see it
over in the Himalayas,

which suggests that there was

a major drought
throughout the tropics.

♪♪

- Crucially, he was able
to date this drought.

- Based on our
Kilimanjaro timescale,

we estimate the event occurs
around 4,200 years ago,

the time of the collapse
of the Old Kingdom.

♪♪

- Could this massive global
drought have been

what brought the Old Kingdom
to its knees

and led to the death of the
soldiers in the mass grave?

Over the course
of the Old Kingdom,

Egypt was gradually turning
from savannah into desert.

Agriculture was
entirely dependent

on the annual flooding
of the Nile.

Each summer, the rains falling
on the highlands of Ethiopia

flow into the Nile, causing it
to overflow its banks,

flooding the fields

and depositing rich soil
which fertilizes the crops.

If Lonnie is right,
this climate spike

would have had a disastrous
impact on the Nile floods

and the people
of the Old Kingdom.

Back in Egypt, geologist-
turned-archaeologist

Professor Fekri Hassan

has been looking for proof
that this global calamity

did, indeed, hit the land
of the pharaohs.

- There were indications
that there are problems

in other parts of the world
at that time,

caused by climate change.

It was tempting to think

that this might be the case
in Egypt as well.

- But, in Egypt, there is no ice.

He's had to find another way
of seeing into the past:

mud.

He takes cores from the
bottom of Lake Qarun,

just south of Cairo.

The lake is fed by the Nile,
which deposits layers

of sediment on the bottom,
and, just like ice,

these layers hold a record
of the past climate.

Back in the lab in Cairo,
Fekri has analyzed the cores.

- These were the cores we got.

It consisted of a sequence

from the bottom of the lake
that spans 10,000 years.

These are the oldest ones,

that were before the rise
of civilization,

where the lake was quite deep
and, as we move

to this way,

this part it the Old Kingdom.

This is the whole history
of the Nile floodplain

over the last 10,000 years.

It's never been
available before.

- The core reveals that,
during the Old Kingdom,

the lake was much larger
and deeper than today...

♪♪

Its depth fluctuating
around 200 feet.

- This part of the core here
is the part

that represents the Old Kingdom.

What is amazing in this part
is this break,

where we had the presence

of a thick layer of gypsum,
the whitish material.

This is a mineral, which forms
under shallow water conditions

and evaporative conditions.

Mixed with the gypsum, we have
the deposits of the iron oxide,

the reddish material.

Iron oxide usually form under
very shallow water conditions,

where oxygen is present,

either very, very shallow water
or almost no water.

That would mean that
the lake was almost dry;

if not bone-dry,
just extremely shallow pools.

- The layer of gypsum and iron
ore shows that this deep,

freshwater lake dried up,

leaving behind just a few
ephemeral pools of water.

- You know, maybe 60, 70 meters
of water disappeared.

♪♪

From the different radio carbon
age determinations of the core,

we were able to determine
that this layer here

represents time
around 4,200 years ago,

which correlates to the end
of the Old Kingdom.

♪♪

- Fekri's discovery confirms
that the global drought seen

in the ice cores
also hit Egypt hard,

just at the time
the Old Kingdom collapsed.

- We were able to find
the smoking gun.

This is the hard evidence
for this event,

this catastrophic event.

The thickness of this layer
and the fact

that the very deep lake
had to dry up,

it would indicate that we
are dealing with no less

than 20 years
of reduced Nile floods.

- This disastrous drought

was the knockout punch
which pushed Egypt into chaos.

- I think climate change leading
to a reduction of Nile floods

is the cause of the collapse
of the Old Kingdom.

Egypt depends on the Nile.

If anything goes wrong
with the Nile,

then it would be
famine and chaos.

If the Nile is low
for 20 years or even more,

it means that agriculture
production would stop.

- Ankhtifi, the local
governor, was right:

the whole of Egypt would've
been like a starving locust.

- That means that the king
does not have enough revenues,

not even for his own household,

not to mention for the
viziers and the managers

and people engaged
in the governments,

so, the whole civilization
comes to a stop.

It's a great lesson

about how abrupt
climate change can be

and how civilizations,
no matter how mighty they are,

can really suffer
from events like that.

- This terrible climate crisis,

combined with the underlying
political problems,

created the perfect storm,
which destroyed the Old Kingdom

and ultimately set the stage
for the mass grave.

In the face of famine
and economic crisis,

Pepi II's politically
weak successors

lost control of the country.

Egypt fractured
into city-states.

But the turmoil and violence

would last far longer
than the drought itself.

Even as the 20-year drought
ended and the Nile level rose,

Egypt remained divided
and vulnerable.

As prosperity
gradually returned,

it wasn't long before the
regional governors,

like Ankhtifi,
developed ambitions

to conquer the whole country.

The consequence was war
for 130 years.

The soldiers in the
mass grave likely died,

not in the initial chaos
caused by the famine,

but right at the end

of the protracted civil war
that followed.

Roughly 40 years
after the drought ended,

the rulers of Thebes,
modern-day Luxor,

took control of the South

and the location of the mass
grave near Luxor

suggests the soldiers
were Thebans.

Meanwhile, another family
of local rulers,

from a town called
Heracleopolis,

had taken control of the North.

Egypt was split in two

and both sides wanted control
of the entire country.

In 2040 BC, the Thebans
captured most of the North

and they reached
Heracleopolis itself.

They were led by a king
named Mentuhotep Il.

He was a great general.

His name even means "Montu
the god of war is satisfied,"

and he finally conquered
Heracleopolis,

in a bloody siege.

Salima believes it's possible

that these soldiers,
now more than 4,000 years old,

took part in this final battle.

- Amongst these bodies,
there was a lot of linen

and some of the linen
had marks on it.

And these are
actually associated

with the temple
of Mentuhotep Il.

This, together with the fact
that the temple is right there,

underneath his tomb,

means that the soldiers were
fighting for Mentuhotep Il.

- And that's not all.

Close analysis of the injuries

provides more details
about what caused them.

- Looking at these arrows

that went into the necks
of these soldiers,

you can see that the
trajectory is from above

and it's the same thing
with all of these head wounds.

It's like someone
was hitting them from above.

So, clearly, it would seem
that these soldiers were

up against an enemy
that was higher than they were,

as if they were in a fortress,

as if there were some sort
of siege situation,

and that these soldiers
of Mentuhotep

were attacking some kind of fort

and people were
hitting them from above,

raining down arrows,
throwing rocks.

And, maybe,
when they came too close,

hitting them hard
with clubs and maces.

- It would seem these soldiers
were fighting for Mentuhotep

in the deciding battle
of the civil war.

- All of this put together
makes us think that

these soldiers were fighting
at the siege of Heracleopolis.

- After the battle was won,
Mentuhotep Il

declared himself king
of the entire country,

reunifying Egypt at last,

and he is believed to have had
the soldiers buried

above his own mortuary temple
as a sign of honor.

- It's a huge honor
for anyone to be buried

that close to the king,
so, clearly, he valued them

and he, himself, must have
paid for the funeral,

with all of these
temple linens being used.

So, obviously, he valued
their work and their loyalty

and their bravery
and kept them near him

so that they would be
united for eternity.

This program was made
possible in part by

the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting

and by contributions
to your PBS station

from viewers like you.
Thank you.