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00:00in Egypt's western desert it's very difficult now to excavate because of the
00:08wind archaeologists battle a swirling sandstorm to uncover the remains of a
00:16mysterious abandoned settlement we found a strange building or structure or
00:21monuments built by some of Egypt's most treacherous pharaohs
00:44ancient Egypt a land ruled by mighty pharaohs for over 3,000 years
00:52in all that time one dynasty more than any other is notorious for their murderous family feuds
01:00the Ptolemies this family's lust for power led to some of Egypt's most enduring monuments
01:08and the rise of a legendary metropolis Alexandria their bitter sibling rivalries brought endless
01:16bloodshed and their most famous queen Cleopatra would be the last person to hold the crown of ancient
01:24Egypt today archaeologists are searching for evidence of what happened to the Ptolemy's lost
01:32temples how they used religion to bolster their power and how their cutthroat feuds led to their
01:41downfall in the heart of upper Egypt in the ancient city of Atribis
01:50Egyptologist Marcus Muller and his team live just 300 yards from a unique dig site
02:01the ruins of a vast temple now lost and buried under centuries of earth and sand
02:16the only part still visible
02:18visible is the bottom of the stone wall that formed the once grand temple entrance called a pylon
02:25this is probably the last big stone pylon in Egypt to be excavated
02:30the ruins here are the lower part of two 60 foot tall towers that once formed a monumental temple gateway
02:48but the unfinished stones and lack of decoration indicate this project was never completed
02:55marcus believes the structure was built during the 275 year reign of the ptolemies it could hold clues
03:09about how this dynasty clung onto power during the tumultuous rule
03:15the team has started its excavations inside one of the towers right behind me is the northern tower and in
03:24this northern tower we have chambers the walls of these cavernous chambers have so far turned out to be bare
03:32but marcus has one final corridor to excavate he's looking for any inscriptions or decorations that might
03:40tell him more about the temple's origins we're now starting to excavate the corridor down there which is
03:49the entrance corridor we don't know what's underneath the sand
03:55ah yeah that's clear but as the workers excavate the sand
04:02they hit a fallen stone block that obstructs their way
04:09now we have a large stone awaiting to be lifted
04:12i think it weighs probably a ton or something
04:20so we need strong men
04:28marcus will have to rely on the raw strength of his men
04:32if he is to have any chance of completing his mission
04:35one hundred and thirty miles south of atribis on the west bank of the nile
04:48sits the temple of edfu
04:53this is one of the best preserved monuments of ancient egypt constructed over the course of nearly 200 years
05:01by successive ptolemaic kings
05:05egyptologist meredith brand is here to investigate the origins of this powerful dynasty
05:11that ruled for longer than any other family in ancient egypt
05:16this temple is amazing it's absolutely gorgeous it's massive and so beautifully carved it's clearly
05:24built in a time of prosperity by pharaohs who wanted to show their power and their wealth
05:30carved on the walls are scenes that depict the foundation and construction of the temple
05:43the king here is offering to the god a set of plaques made out of gold and precious stones
05:50these are foundation deposits they would be placed in the foundations to make this a sacred space
05:55and it shows the wealth that the king had every pharaoh since the first dynasty used scenes like this
06:04to show how they had divine assent to construct their temples and permission from the gods to rule
06:13this meant temples were a powerful political tool for a pharaoh to assert their right to the throne
06:19and immortalize their own name and story in stone high on the enclosure wall meredith finds a clue about
06:28the ptolemaic dynasty's origins which would have made this temple critical in their rise to power
06:35there's a remarkable text up here that has a god recounting the myth of the creation of this temple
06:41and then there's an image of a king and above his name is a cartouche that says ptolemy alexander
06:48his name is ptolemy and he added the second name alexander he is hearkening back to the great founder of a new era alexander the great
06:58in 332 bce alexander the great took control of egypt becoming the first greek ruler of the country
07:06his general ptolemy became pharaoh in 305 bce founding what became known as the ptolemaic dynasty
07:20the family ruled egypt for almost 300 years from the legendary metropolis of alexandria which they built
07:28on the mediterranean coast and it would be a ptolemy who became egypt's last pharaoh the iconic cleopatra
07:41the ptolemies were essentially foreign they were greek macedonian and they were trying to rule a
07:47population in egypt with its own long rich cultural history edfu temple is evidence of how the ptolemies
07:54openly celebrated their greek origins but through egyptian traditions now meredith wants to find out
08:02how the ptolemies won over the egyptian population and kept the throne for almost three centuries
08:08340 miles north of edfu is ancient soknapayu nessos on the north shore of lake carun are the vast remains
08:24of an ancient settlement built during the ptolemaic dynasty and inhabited by egyptians and greek settlers
08:32for more than 20 years paula devoli has led teams of archaeologists to these ruins this season paula wants
08:43to uncover what she believes to be a temple to find out who was using it and what gods they worshipped
08:53we are excavating the season in this small building unfortunately it was dug and quite demolished by the
09:00looters searching for treasure in the past so the area was completely covered by debris and also
09:07sand of course over the last five weeks paula's 30-person team has removed centuries of wind-blown
09:16sand from the rooms and has now reached the layers where any artifacts from the ptolemaic era will be
09:25hidden now we are about one meter from the floor so in a week i think we can reach the floor and see
09:34what was left by the looters and hopefully discover to which god it was dedicated
09:44the upper parts of the mud brick walls have suffered centuries of erosion destroying any decoration there may
09:50have been but as the workers expose more of the lower walls paula makes out some text you can see that
10:05it's not easy to read there is a name of athena the greek goddess and also zeus over here and then
10:12jonesos it's quite interesting to have names of god and goddesses from the greek pantheon instead of the
10:22local pantheon
10:25the poor condition of the text means it will take time to record and decipher fully
10:30for now paula and her workers continue picking through the sand looking for more evidence
10:43even the most unlikely remnants could be a vital clue
10:49what did you find there
10:50yes i think it's going to be one of the teeth of the crocodile
11:01lake karun was once home to a thriving population of crocodiles but the water's edge is two miles away
11:09further than a crocodile would tend to stray how would a tooth end up inside this temple
11:20in the ancient city of atribis marcus is excavating a mysterious abandoned pylon built during the
11:29ptolemaic era he hopes the entrance corridor might bear inscriptions that could tell him more about the
11:37temple but first the workers need to lift the fallen stone block that obstructs it
11:50that was really tough it was close to the limit
12:03with the block now removed marcus can inspect the corridor properly
12:10if we look at the top part it's so badly destroyed over there no remains of the original surface
12:20it's a disappointing result
12:28with the inside of the northern tower now completely excavated
12:32marcus shifts his focus to the south tower
12:35doctor
12:49look ah look look
12:53the two cartouches appearing and the titles of the king on top
12:58the cartouches hieroglyphs of the king's name encased in an oval of rope tell marcus exactly who
13:07authorized this structure and these are the upper halves of the cartouches the right one already
13:14shows the name of ptolemy and the left name is the throne name and according to the top bits
13:24one can see that it is ptolemy the eighth that's uh fantastic yeah very happy with this
13:33as most of the walls exposed so far have been undecorated this inscription is key in linking the temple
13:41pylon to ptolemy the eighth ah look wonderful really beautiful and so well preserved so that gives hope
13:49hope for everything underneath this possibly is the biggest reward i can imagine at the moment
13:58marcus now digs deeper hoping the decoration continues below the sand
14:04any further inscriptions could be vital to understanding why ptolemy the eighth built this temple
14:10in the ancient ptolemy in the ancient ptolemy settlement of soc napaiu nessos
14:20paula is searching for an explanation for the crocodile tooth which the team found in one of
14:26the rooms of the temple but the weather is making work difficult for the team today is very windy so we
14:35have a lot of sand in the in the air and so it's difficult especially for the workmen because dealing
14:40with the sand all the time paula only has a week of her season left so she needs to keep working against
14:48the elements to reach the temple floor otherwise the rooms will quickly fill with sand and next season
14:56she will have to start all over again i want in the largest room one of the workers finds something buried in
15:05the sand oh it's a joe of a crocodile this is the mouth so it's the
15:33right part of the of the jaw and you see that the feet are really really big
15:41it cannot it cannot be a cat
15:48just beside the jaw paula makes another strange discovery
15:52i don't know if it's the shrouds or maybe bandages you can see that there are these sort of
15:59burned parts but these are raisins of the mummy
16:06paulo wants to know if there is any connection between these mummy wrappings and the crocodile remains
16:14she takes them to egyptologist francesca to analyze
16:18this is from probably the outer layer of the mummy wrapping this piece is really impregnated with oils
16:31and raisins used during the mummification process as well and as you see there are many many layers of
16:40different textiles which are stuck together probably these pieces were the closest textiles to the mummy itself
16:54on these solid inner layers francesca finds something incredible preserved in the resin here
17:01we have the inner part of the textile which was applied on the skin and here you can clearly see
17:10the skin remains of the crocodile
17:16the bandages aren't the remains of mummified humans but mummified crocodiles
17:21it's evidence that the crocodiles were brought here intentionally paula now needs to work out why
17:37at edfu meredith is exploring the ptolemaic temple to learn more about the rise and fall of egypt's last
17:46dynasty of pharaohs edfu temple is one of the most significant architectural and cultural sites in the ptolemaic period
17:54it can help us unravel the story of this family of pharaohs
17:59meredith wants to understand how this greek family successfully took on the role of pharaoh
18:06she scours the enormous enclosure walls that surround the temple for clues
18:10and finds vast decorations that retell a central myth of egyptian kingship
18:18this is an epic battle between horus and seth we have horus here and he's connected with goodness
18:25order and stability and then there's seth shown as a hippo a very dangerous animal connected to chaos
18:30and destruction seth murdered horus's father osiris and tried to steal the throne of egypt
18:36horus had to fight to regain his throne and in the end horus was victorious and he regained his crown
18:46as king of egypt the ptolemies chose to celebrate this myth on their temple to promote the idea that
18:53order and stability depended on power remaining in their family line and anything else was chaos
19:01these are more than just decorations they record a real celebration and a performance of this myth
19:10that took place at the temple the sacred drama of horus and seth would have been a huge event at this
19:18temple we have women singing and dancing banging on drums
19:25priests would have been dressed as these gods wearing masks and there would have been an epic battle
19:30of boats between horus and seth whilst the ptolemies came from a culture with its own long established
19:37pantheon of gods and traditions they knew that adapting to egyptian beliefs rather than imposing
19:43their own was key to successful rule what's so remarkable is that the ptolemaic kings took on
19:51ancient egyptian mythology that justifies kingship and they embraced it fully meredith now wants to see
19:59how the ptolemies took keeping power in the family to the extreme and how this brought chaos and bloodshed
20:13in sokna payu nessos
20:18strong winds continue to batter paula's team as they excavate a small ptolemaic temple
20:24amongst the rubble the team has uncovered evidence of multiple crocodile mummies paula wants to
20:33understand who was mummifying these crocodiles and why
20:40we are not yet on the floor but we are going very well and we found this in the inner part of this
20:47uh temple a strange structure or monument in stone it's very unusual i cannot find any other place like
20:56this but all around we found many pieces of the mummies of the crocodiles so maybe the crocodiles were buried there
21:08paula believes that the crocodile mummies could have originally been buried inside this stone platform
21:14but as workers clear more sand from the top of the platform they discover looters have been here first
21:23the platform is covered by slabs but some of them are missing we still don't know how many
21:30but this place is abandoned since 2 000 years and so you can imagine how many people came to find treasures
21:39the missing slabs the missing slabs mean the platform has now filled with sand and any small clues left in
21:45it by the looters are now mixed with sand and debris from outside
21:51paula's most eagle-eyed workers will have to pick through it carefully
21:56but the continuing sandstorm makes it a painful task it's very difficult now to excavate because of the wind
22:04but our workmen are very expert and they can find everything even in such a wind
22:16just as the sandstorm threatens to close the dig
22:23one of the workers pulls out a fragment of clay inscribed with hieroglyphs
22:27oh wow
22:39in ancient sokna pionessos
22:43the worsening sandstorm forces work to stop
22:49in the shelter of the dig tent paula analyzes the clay fragment
22:55as it may shed light on the mystery of the crocodile mummies we found this very small piece of
23:02an object very exciting for me it is a small seal in clay with the stems of some hieroglyphs
23:12the hieroglyphs mentioned the god and he was the lord of the island so probably sobek lord of the island
23:21sobek was an egyptian god in the form of a crocodile particularly revered in this area
23:29and the site of the temple is thought to have once been an island
23:34the clay seal is a remnant of the temple priests daily routine
23:42every morning priests came to the temple to worship a small statue of the god sobek
23:48kept in a shrine
23:51at the end of the day they secured the shrine not with a lock and key
24:00but with rope they sealed the knotted rope with clay stamped with the name of the temple owner
24:08when they returned the following morning to repeat their daily sacred duties
24:17they broke the seal to open the shrine
24:20paula deciphers more of the text
24:30beside we have the two cartouche the two names of the king and one for sure is ptolemy
24:38finally we have a name and a name of one of the the king of the ptolemaic dynasty so that's why it's so
24:47exciting because we already know that this building was used during the ptolemaic period but having a name
24:52is something else the seal proves that one of the ptolemaic pharaohs commissioned this temple in honor of
25:00the egyptian crocodile god sobek it's evidence that the greek settlers who lived here may have been encouraged
25:07to worship local egyptian gods it explains the connection of crocodiles to this site
25:15but what was the reason for mummifying the crocodiles and keeping them in the temple
25:20in ancient atribus at the ruins of a temple built by ptolemy the eighth marcus's team is clearing sand
25:35from the pylon's southern tower very nicely preserved searching for any clues that could reveal which god
25:43ptolemy dedicated this temple to and why the pylon was abandoned beneath the cartouche of the pharaoh
25:52more decorations emerge i haven't seen anything like this here a fully preserved figure of the king
26:04with the name and image of king ptolemy the eighth preserved marcus hopes the stone will bear further
26:10clues about the pharaoh's influence here look now the goddess is appearing
26:19because he is offering this vase here to a god on the left hand side and this is a bull a god with a bull's
26:29head there are several gods in the shape of a bull
26:34the most famous one is apis who was revered in all over egypt actually
26:45when alexander the great took control of egypt he appealed to the masses by worshiping the apis bull
26:51a major god associated with fertility his successor ptolemy the first promoted a cult that fused
26:59the apis bull with osiris into a hybrid god named serapis but he gave the deity a greek appearance
27:08the ptolemies built a temple to the new serapis in alexandria to bring together their greek and egyptian
27:14subjects under one roof
27:20as marcus decodes the images emerging on the stone
27:24he realizes something extraordinary about this bullheaded god the name is written in the right one of
27:32these three columns of hieroglyphs on the top it's possible that his name is some something like heri kach
27:41i don't recognize it it's a totally unknown god
27:46so we can actually say that we discovered a new god
27:58has never happened to me before
28:02that's really nice
28:05it's an amazing discovery uncovering a new god is incredibly rare
28:10whether this was a local god important to this city or a new god of ptolemy the eighth's own invention
28:20is unclear
28:26the answers may lie deeper in the ruins marcus is heading to the area behind the entrance gateway
28:32to learn more about the temple's purpose and what became of it
28:44meredith has traveled 35 miles south of edfu to the temple of kom ombo she is on the trail of the
28:51ptolemaic pharaohs to uncover how the family's power bred betrayal and bloodshed this is a really cool temple
29:00it's unique for egypt because the south side is dedicated to the crocodile god sobek and the north
29:05is dedicated to the god horus most of this beautiful temple was built by the ptolemies
29:12traditional egyptian temples were dedicated to a single god
29:16but kamombo is split in half with each side dedicated to a different egyptian deity
29:22it's evidence of how the ptolemies adopted egyptian traditions and made them their own
29:32amongst the pillars of the hyperstyle hall meredith finds evidence of another common practice of past
29:38egyptian royal families which the ptolemies copied and took to an extreme okay this is interesting
29:46okay so this is ptolemy the eighth and then over here we have cleopatra but this can't be the famous
29:56cleopatra because she ruled more than a hundred years after ptolemy the eighth so this has to be
30:01a completely different cleopatra cleopatra was a popular name for noble women in the mythology of
30:07the ptolemy's greek homeland one of alexander the great sisters was a cleopatra and many of the
30:15women of the ptolemaic dynasty took this name as a mark of power and dynastic continuity
30:20so here's another one cleopatra there's two cleopatras in the same scene with ptolemy the eighth
30:30but here we have sister and ruler for this cleopatra and then over here we have wife
30:39and ruler for the second one of these cleopatras the inscriptions show that ptolemy the eighth was
30:46married to both his own sister and his stepdaughter and they were all ruling the country together
30:54this sets the scene for an amazing amount of personal drama as anyone could imagine and also
31:00political drama in 170 bce ptolemy the sixth ruled egypt with his wife and sister cleopatra ii and his
31:11younger brother ptolemy the eighth known as potbelly when ptolemy the sixth died his son was next in line
31:20but potbelly killed him and married his own widowed sister only to later marry her daughter cleopatra ii
31:29the family drama turned into war when cleopatra ii took alexandria and drove potbelly and her own
31:37daughter into exile the sibling rivalry fractured their power and dragged egypt into a spiral of
31:44civil unrest and economic ruin the ptolemies spent so much time and money building temples fighting
31:55neighbors in different wars and enmeshed in their own complicated family dramas that by the time of 30 bc
32:02the time of cleopatra the seventh yes that famous cleopatra the ptolemies were in trouble the ptolemies
32:09had kept power in the family for nearly 300 years but time and again family feuds spilled beyond the palace
32:18walls and divided the country meanwhile other empires were rising to power across the mediterranean
32:27meredith wants to investigate how the ptolemaic dynasty finally met its end
32:39in sopna pionessus
32:44paula's team has restarted its excavation despite the harsh winds as only days of the season remain
32:52they're searching for evidence to explain the purpose of the crocodile mummies for the ancient
32:57inhabitants paula's investigating a hollow stone platform that she thinks
33:02might hold the answer there is something coming out from there
33:10we are brushing very slowly so there must be something important or delicate
33:16oh wow
33:28it's a big piece of a crocodile again
33:34i think this is the the left part of the jaw that we already found
33:39paula thinks the crocodile mummy remains were scattered around the room by looters who ripped
33:46them apart hunting for treasure but originally they were placed inside this stone platform
33:57paula believes this temple was central to a unique ritual that celebrated the death and rebirth of the
34:05the crocodile god sobek
34:10once every year priests would mummify a crocodile
34:17and bring it here to be buried in the stone sarcophagus
34:23through a small opening on the side
34:26they removed the previous year's mummy
34:29and replaced it with the new mummy
34:32and replaced it with the new mummy signifying the rebirth of the god
34:35and renewal of the king's power
34:41paula believes this temple is an example of the ptolemy's political strategy
34:46by adopting the local religious traditions and developing and popularizing new ceremonies and rituals
34:53they created something that egyptians recognized but that the greeks could also take part in
35:00and make their own so they didn't want to be against the local religion or the local way of life so they
35:08tried to be mixed with the population in here we can see that the the pantheon was the local pantheon
35:16the egyptian pantheon but at the same time these gods were combined with the greek ones it's a multicultural society
35:24in the real sense
35:27paula's excavations here show how the ptolemaic pharaohs manipulated religious traditions to integrate
35:34the greek settlers and egyptians winning popular support and securing the dynasty's power
35:40but the internal feuds amongst the family would ultimately undermine this strategy
35:54200 miles south in ancient atribis
35:59marcus has begun his search for the temple's inner sanctuary
36:04looking for any clues that could tell him what happened after it was abandoned
36:08we're here at about 15 meters behind the pylon so we're inside the temple area underneath us should be
36:18the temple court
36:21the ruins of mud brick buildings built on top of the temple are a sign of later use of the site
36:27marcus will need to excavate them to find the temple below
36:31as the workers clear the sand they uncover something totally unexpected
36:43look at that beautifully preserved paintings on the mud brick walls
36:48left by the people who came here after the ptolemies
36:52at the temple of comombo
37:03meredith is searching for clues that reveal how the great ptolemaic dynasty met its bloody end
37:12the columns in front of the temple look typically egyptian
37:16but they were built after the fall of the last ptolemy their decorations tell the fate of the dynasty
37:23and of pharaonic egypt this cartouche says ti ba re wa which is egyptian for tiberius
37:37so this is the roman emperor tiberius the second roman emperor after augustus
37:42in 30 bce augustus then known as octavian seized alexandria to depose cleopatra and her lover
37:54the roman general mark antony
37:59with his army outnumbered the defeated mark antony took his own life rather than surrender to octavian
38:05to avoid the humiliation of losing the throne cleopatra legend says poisoned herself with a snake bite
38:14ending the ptolemaic dynasty octavian later crowned emperor augustus became the successor to the pharaohs
38:24and annexed egypt as a roman province
38:26rome's power had been rising for some time and perhaps their conquest of egypt would have been
38:35inevitable but the ptolemaic infighting the economic instability and public revolt left a situation where
38:42the ptolemies were weak and vulnerable when the romans attacked whilst the romans had taken advantage of
38:49the ptolemy family drama they had also witnessed the great successes of their rule they knew that the
38:57only way to hold power in egypt was for the emperor to become a pharaoh tiberius he's dressed as an egyptian
39:07king he's got a crown the kilt everything if you just saw this image you would think it's an ancient
39:13egyptian egyptian tiberius takes the ptolemaic practice of using egyptian kingship to rule a country
39:22with an egyptian population but unlike the ptolemies who made egypt their home and seat of power the roman
39:31adoption of egyptian kingship was only skin deep tiberius and the emperors who followed him ruled from
39:38rome egypt egypt was just another outpost of their empire
39:47a hundred and sixty miles north along the river nile in the ancient city of atribis
39:54marcus's team has uncovered beautifully painted plaster walls
39:59which reveals something astonishing about the people who built on top of the temple
40:08look at that it looks as if this is a a warrior and he's lifting his left arm and holding a shield
40:20and in the central part we see this yellowish bit that could be part of a body armor
40:27the style of the armor and weapons tells marcus these are paintings of roman soldiers
40:33that's really unbelievable it's the head of another warrior i think underneath so we have two rows
40:43as a one above the other really amazing
40:50wow and you can see the shield and the spear this is really fantastic super and there is an inscription
40:59in front of the head as well marcus believes these buildings constructed right on top of the original
41:11temple must have been a roman garrison they are names of people so i guess name of the warriors and where
41:22they are from so from cities or villages probably in this province here
41:32it's evidence that the temple and the god it was dedicated to had been abandoned
41:38under the control of the roman empire ancient egyptian religion would disappear forever
41:46marcus will have to wait until next season to uncover more about this lost temple
41:50but the vibrant 1500 year old murals are an incredible parting gift i would never have expected such a
42:00wonderful painting here rows of warriors look from here absolutely fantastic it's evidence that the roman
42:10empire would ultimately rely on military might to maintain power rather than the traditions of ancient egypt
42:18the age of the pharaohs was over today archaeologists are uncovering the temples treasures and legacy of the
42:29ptolemaic kings and queens piecing together the remarkable story of a family wrecked by brutal feuds that
42:37weakened their power and the country while opening the door to the legions of rome
42:44but for nearly 300 years the ptolemies presided over an extraordinary period of ancient egypt intertwining greek
42:52and egyptian culture building some of its best-known temples and forging new gods
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