Documentary, Quest for the Lost Pharaoh, Discovery Channel
#Documentary #LostPharaoh #Discovery #Egypt #AncientEgypt
#Documentary #LostPharaoh #Discovery #Egypt #AncientEgypt
Category
đź“š
LearningTranscript
00:00In the land of the pharaohs, a man seeks answers to a mystery 4,000 years old.
00:11Here on this barren site, a mission is underway to bring a vanished kingdom back to life,
00:17and with it, a pharaoh lost to history.
00:30For French archaeologist, Vassil Dobrev, it's the dream of coming face-to-face with the architects of another age.
00:45If you have here untouched saithic burials, so we could have something untouched under.
01:00Unraveling the tale of a priest and his family, this Egyptologist will try to reconstruct the past.
01:08From now, we start to learn about his life.
01:12This is a story of family intrigue, of political conspiracy, and the pursuit of eternal life.
01:23His wife, she's priestess at Khator.
01:30Following the few clues left to us by the ancients,
01:44this man will attempt to fill the gaps of history, in his quest for the lost pharaoh.
01:51Near Cairo, the most celebrated of Egypt's pyramids stand at Giza, on the west bank of the Nile.
02:07Thirteen miles from Giza, the world's first pyramid of the pharaoh Jozeur rises from the plateau of Saqqara.
02:13On a two and a half mile stretch, further south, by other pyramids, they are part of the site, known as South Saqqara.
02:23During the period known as the Old Kingdom, other pharaohs were buried here.
02:27But four of the six dynasty rulers have never been found.
02:31Between the first king, Teti, and the third, Pepi, a pharaoh named Userkari rose to power under questionable circumstances.
02:39To find signs of this missing pharaoh is one scientist's dream.
02:46So, we're going to take a small point here.
02:49Here, it's a point of level.
02:538,514 points of level.
03:02Treasures from the past lie hidden at Saqqara, but the only way to find them is with the most modern tools.
03:07Two researchers from the French Archaeological Institute of Cairo,
03:11Archaeologist Vassil Dobrev, and topographer Damien Lenné are mapping the site.
03:18A GPS system will capture the signals of eight satellites.
03:21The goal is to document all signs of ancient civilization and perhaps to find new pharaonic tombs.
03:28While scouting the site, Vassil pictures what it must have been like here ages ago.
03:334,200 years ago, the funerary complex of the king dominated by the pyramid was at the hub of the economy.
03:49Daily life unfolded in the valley bordering the necropolis.
03:53The fertile land of Egypt ensured an ample harvest.
04:12The entire population served the pharaoh.
04:15People from all walks of life contributed to the monarch's well-being.
04:26Among them, high dignitaries and their servants,
04:29who accessed the mortuary temple and the pyramid via a covered causeway.
04:34Today, these monuments are in ruins, but what remains is a kind of roadway to the past.
04:40Archaeologists have noticed that pharaohs built their pyramids on the plateau of Saqqara in precise geographic order.
04:50All the tombs are aligned chronologically from the first to the last king of a given dynasty.
05:02For 15 years, Vassil has been dreaming about digging here.
05:06He thinks this site is large enough to contain the foundation of a pyramid that had never been finished.
05:12And if his hunch is correct, it would belong to the mysterious Usserkare, the second pharaoh of the 6th dynasty.
05:21This simple hypothesis sparks his imagination.
05:29The pharaoh's architects check to see that this site is favorable for the construction of the royal tomb.
05:34They want to make sure that the monument fits along the axis formed by the other pyramids.
05:40The pharaoh Usserkare arrives from Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, with his consort and royal entourage.
05:43The pharaoh Usserkare arrives from Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, with his consort and royal entourage.
05:45The pharaoh Usserkare arrives from Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, with his consort and royal entourage.
05:52The pharaoh Usserkare arrives from Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, with his consort and royal entourage.
05:58The pharaoh Usserkare arrives from Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, with his consort and royal entourage.
06:05The pharaoh Usserkare arrives from Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, with his consort and royal entourage.
06:10He is here to oversee the placement of his future pyramid.
06:20The building of this monument will be the single most important accomplishment of his reign.
06:25For Usserkare, the pyramid is the only road to eternal life.
06:46His consort will assist him in his bid for eternity.
06:55Transformed into the goddess Sishat, she will immortalize the ceremony inaugurating the construction of the royal tomb.
07:08As he inhales her divine breath, the pharaoh taps her everlasting power.
07:14The city of Tabith el-Geshe is far too late to meet the infrastructure.
07:244200 years later, the site of Tabith el-Geshe may prove to be fertile grounds for an archaeological dig.
07:31dig.
07:51Vasil decides to begin excavating some ten feet below the site's highest point. He will
07:56dig layer by layer, moving deeper into history.
08:00This method seems to work. A few weeks later, the Earth yields its first important files.
08:30Less than two feet below the surface, ancient remains begin to emerge from the sand. Skeletons
08:37and a wooden sarcophagus. Near the sarcophagus of an adult, the archaeologists find a child's
08:44coffin.
08:51Here we see the nose.
08:58Here we see the nose.
09:05Here we see the nose.
09:12Here we see the nose.
09:19The sarcophagi are intact and have not been opened since their burial.
09:26It looks like a woman.
09:27It's a woman and her child.
09:33Only a single exquisitely preserved offering basket is found next to the coffins. The archaeologists
09:40prepare to move the sarcophagi to a safer place.
09:45But at the site, excitement gives way to a more disquieting mood.
09:52.
10:06.
10:08.
10:13A little bit.
10:15A little bit.
10:17A little bit.
10:19A little bit.
10:21One, two, three.
10:23Take it.
10:25Come on, who's behind you?
10:27What's behind you?
10:29What's behind you?
10:31What's behind you?
10:33You can see a bit.
10:35Yeah.
10:37A little bit.
10:39Good.
10:41Good.
10:43Good.
10:45Good.
10:47Good.
10:49Good.
10:51Good.
10:53Good.
10:55Good.
10:57Good.
10:59Good.
12:01We know from Saqqara that generally the Saitic burials of important persons are over, immediately
12:08over the Old Kingdom necropolis.
12:10So if you have here untouched Saitic burials, so we could have something untouched under.
12:16The first discoveries spur Vassil to travel further back in time.
12:21These mud brick structures were built some 2,500 years ago.
12:25The sarcophagi date from the same epoch, the late period.
12:28Other graves begin to appear.
12:44When one of them is opened, wisps of mold float away from the mummy's bandages.
12:49Across the dig site, archaeologists continue to unearth skeletons and mummies.
13:05The wealth of remains confirms the extent of this late period necropolis.
13:11A fresh clue emerges from amidst the sand and stone, shards of pottery.
13:16From their shape and composition, Laurent Bavé dates these funerary vessels to the Old Kingdom.
13:22After several days of work, a rectangular structure 20 by 30 feet emerges from the earth.
13:44It looks like a funerary pit at another site at Saqqara.
13:48This one from the late period was dug in the temple of Unas, one of the Old Kingdom pharaohs.
13:55Not far from his pyramid is a shaft that descends to a staggering depth of nearly 100 feet.
14:01This pit leads to the tomb of somebody important.
14:05Because Saits like this are sacred, dignitaries of the late period were often buried alongside their ancestors from the Old Kingdom.
14:14At Tabat al-Gersh, Vasil now hopes to find tombs from the Old Kingdom.
14:44But when there is pure sand, there is something below. It's clear.
14:56A pit cut into the rock intrigues the archaeologists.
15:03There is something here.
15:06Vasil holds his breath.
15:09His intuition has proved to be correct.
15:11He's in the right place.
15:14Listen to the wall.
15:30I can read something here.
15:35It's written the great god.
15:36It's something to do with the great god.
15:38He was a privileged person, close to the great God.
15:45Now we really have to go down to see if there is something.
15:55It's really untouched. It looks exactly as it was built.
16:02This is his head. And here we have his name.
16:06Just here.
16:11We shouldn't touch the stones too much.
16:14Now I can read his name.
16:17It's Haon Efere.
16:20For the moment I see one of his titles.
16:24Semerwati, close friend of the king.
16:35Who was Haon Efere? He may have served more than one pharaoh. This is what Vasil hopes to find out.
16:52Little by little, a limestone wall emerges before his eyes.
17:00It's full of hieroglyphs which Vasil begins to decipher.
17:03Merire Mem Nefer. This is King Pepe from the end of the old kingdom.
17:13En Tishe. Haon Efere was clearly a priest who performed ceremonies and rites in Pepe's mortuary temple.
17:34This is King Pepe's mortuary temple.
18:04This is King Pepe's mortuary temple.
18:05Today, two new figures from the distant past emerge from history after more than four millennia.
18:17Haon Efere and his consort.
18:19From now we start to learn about his life.
18:34So for the moment what we know is that he is a priest of Pepe the first.
18:39Who is actually the third king of the sixth dynasty.
18:44Pepe the first is just behind.
18:45So I have served him in the temple there.
18:49On the other side I will expect to have the title with some other king.
18:53If he served two kings or three kings.
18:56This will be now interesting to find out.
18:59Might the pharaoh Usir Kare be one of them?
19:04Vasil has just discovered a rock tomb of a dignitary and his consort from the end of the old kingdom.
19:09To protect his discoveries from the ravages of sand and thieves, Vasil seals the tomb with a metal cover.
19:21This, half a mile further south, is all that remains of the pyramid built by the pharaoh Pepi the first.
19:29It was his vehicle for reaching the heavens.
19:34To live eternally, he had to eat and drink.
19:38Even after his death, his subjects brought offerings to his temple adjoining the pyramid.
19:43It was like a factory, constantly generating energy for the pharaoh.
19:47Vasil imagines that Pepi's temple may have looked like this.
19:52Pepi-Manifer.
20:12PEPI-Manifer.
20:14Pepi Men Nefer.
20:22Pepi is enduring and perfect.
20:25This is the name of the king's funerary complex.
20:30The pyramid and its temple, the place where the priests that serve Pepi officiate.
20:42Things from all across Egypt arrive for the pharaoh Pepi.
21:06Under the supervision of scribes, everything is accounted for on papyrus and deposited
21:12in the temple archives.
21:15Pao Nefer performs the purification rituals.
21:19Now he is ready to enter the most sacred space of the temple.
21:23Behind this door is the hall of the five chapels of the pharaoh.
21:27The common part has been established in the temple archives.
21:31The second part was on the temple archives of Liverpool, the temple archives,
21:36which became chapter 1,educated by the temple archives,
21:38which is a temple!
21:40It is a temple, a Spitfire of theque, which is called the temple archives.
21:42Let's take a look at the temple archives!
21:43The temple archives of the temple archives and the temple archives.
21:46He unveils the central statue of Pepi, depicted as Osiris.
22:09In his role as lector-priest, keeper of the ceremonial rituals, Haunifer invokes the names of the pharaoh.
22:20May he live forever and always.
22:39Meanwhile, the adjoining rooms and corridors of the temple hum with activity.
23:08It's time to prepare the offerings for the king.
23:29In yet another sanctuary of the temple, Haunifer's wife, Huti, worships Hator, the goddess of peace and love.
23:38Back at Tabet al-Gash, the dig continues.
23:53The goal, to locate the entrance to the tomb.
24:08Vasil has noticed that a few selected stones from the doorway of Haunifer's tomb are missing.
24:23They appear to have been removed.
24:25It's possible that these missing stones contained the cartouche of the pharaoh Ousser-Carré.
24:32They appear to have been removed.
24:41Bernard Mathieu, director of the French Archaeological Institute of Cairo, comes to record and study the tomb's hieroglyphs.
24:51Here, there is another name.
24:56It's here, Hoti.
24:58He had maybe two wives.
25:00But here, it's not written, his wife.
25:03It's a concubine.
25:06Look, somebody removed her eyes.
25:18By scratching out her eyes, nose and mouth, someone has deprived this woman of resurrection in the afterlife.
25:25Vasil has found the tomb of a priest and his consort, and now a second woman.
25:32But this is not the only surprise awaiting him.
25:41In the middle of the limestone façade, a new passageway has just come to light.
25:52There is a mild brick vault, but completely collapsed.
25:57Intrigued by the tomb's strange layout, Vasil removes sand from around the fresco.
26:07Little by little, the image of a child appears, facing Haounnefer.
26:12It's a boy.
26:14Here is a little girl.
26:27Between the priest and his wife, Hoti, the figure of a girl emerges.
26:32It's their eldest daughter, the beauty.
26:35Strangely, her head has been rubbed out.
26:38Behind the couple, there's another child.
26:56It's a boy.
27:01His name is Hau, like his father.
27:04Outside the tomb, the dig goes on.
27:22Vasil now has proof of the long-awaited necropolis.
27:31The archaeologists and workers have just unearthed several rock tombs,
27:36suggesting that more could lie hidden at Thabet el-Gaish.
27:41At the time of the old kingdom, pyramids, like those at Giza,
27:54were surrounded by tombs of dignitaries, priests, scribes, architects,
27:59honored to be near the pharaoh.
28:04This could be the case at Thabet el-Gaish.
28:07It's possible that a bigger monument stood next to these tombs,
28:10and that Userkari chose this site to build his pyramid.
28:25Vasil is perplexed, but it's still too early for answers.
28:29He hopes the priest's tomb will lead him to the pharaoh.
28:52It was customary at the time for dignitaries to oversee the construction of their own tombs.
28:57In so doing, they ensured the quality of the workmanship on sculptures and paintings.
29:06Today, Hau checks to see that all of his priestly functions and those of his consort
29:11are accurately immortalized in stone.
29:14Here we see that he knows the secrets of the king.
29:32For the moment, this is the official family here.
29:37This is with his wife, Huti.
29:39The other, we don't know.
29:41And she had another name.
29:42She is something else.
29:44We don't know.
29:47Vasil takes measures to protect the tombs.
29:50A newly constructed wall prevents access to the so-called street of tombs,
29:54which has been sealed with metal covers.
29:56Vasil and Bernard noticed that the name of one of Hounifer's daughters is identical to the name of the woman by his side on the door.
30:08She was definitely not a concubine.
30:26What really happened here, 4,200 years ago?
30:35The priestess of Hathor, Huti, was probably assisted by her daughter in the sanctuary.
30:59The one who was born with her daughter in the sanctuary.
31:10The vernacular.
31:11I don't know.
31:41I don't know.
32:11I don't know.
32:41It's he who would have officiated at Hau's death.
32:47The frescoes have also revealed that there were 13 children.
32:52Why was the daughter's face erased?
32:55The culprit was probably her older brother.
33:02With the mother now gone, perhaps his sister had assumed too important a role in the family.
33:29Maybe the role of Hau Nefer's consort.
33:32And the brother couldn't accept it.
33:36These walls have revealed many unexpected details to Vasil.
33:40Insight into family intrigues of the priest.
33:43But not a single trace of the lost pharaoh.
33:46Inside Hau Nefer's tomb, the vaulted room is now completely cleared.
33:56A funerary pit emerges at its far end.
34:03It should lead to the priest's burial chamber.
34:07And perhaps reveal his link to the lost pharaoh.
34:10It is impressive in size and might be several stories deep.
34:22But only three feet down, a small cavity appears to the west.
34:40So I was thinking that the pit will go very deep.
34:56It can still go deeply.
34:58But very quickly, after one meter, one meter twenty, there is a small passage here on the west wall.
35:03So we shall see what it is.
35:07I'm still surprised.
35:08It could be, if the pit is not very deep, it could be the passage for the funerary chamber.
35:12It is a possibility.
35:13But we shall see.
35:16I don't know.
35:17I'm surprised.
35:23Vasil might just have found the entrance to Hau Nefer's burial chamber.
35:28But as night falls, he must call it quits and lock down the tomb until morning.
35:35Even in the desert, news travels fast.
35:58To protect what lies below, Vasil has decided to reinforce security.
36:20Today, the workers arrive earlier than usual.
36:24This is a day unlike any other.
36:28It is the day that the burial chamber will be opened.
36:46If all goes well, Vasil is only hours away from his long-awaited encounter with Hau Nefer.
36:53He hopes the priest will help him solve the mystery of the lost pharaoh.
36:58The room they discovered the day before is not the passage to the burial chamber.
37:06Vasil and Bernard think it was a workroom used during the tomb's construction.
37:12In only a few hours, Vasil has progressed another 15 feet.
37:17The pit descends deeper and deeper into the earth.
37:19It becomes narrow, and here on the north side, we have a passage or a small room, maneuvering room or something like this.
37:43And we don't enter for the moment there, but the pit really becomes smaller now.
37:49I hope maybe soon it will be the end.
37:52I think soon we shall arrive.
38:03I hope.
38:05Relying on intuition, Vasil tries to get an idea of what happened here ages ago.
38:28Like all dignitaries, the priest Haunifer was buried with offerings and funerary objects.
38:34Some were inscribed with the names of the dead and reveal their function in the courts of the pharaohs they served.
38:55In the tomb, a priest prepares statuettes of the dead to be placed in the burial chamber.
39:01How Nefer's son checks the offerings to see that nothing is amiss for the ceremony.
39:19Back in the pit, Vasil is now some 20 feet below the surface.
39:34It sounds empty behind. It's strange, this. It's really strange.
39:45Maybe there is a feeling here. Maybe this is a feeling. I cannot see very well with this light.
39:55He can't possibly be far from the burial chamber.
40:00The funeral procession has just reached the passageway that leads to the tomb.
40:12How Nefer will at last occupy his final resting place?
40:28A man is retarded.
40:29A man will be run by his final resting place.
40:31A man will be a and a bear in a poem now.
40:33So, he will be 일부러 to find his final resting place.
42:35It's a big room.
42:45Oh, we got bones here.
43:05The bones are scattered, the wooden coffin completely decomposed, and not a single funerary
43:26object remains.
43:27It's a terrible disappointment.
43:29So maybe this is the mummy or the skeleton of Hounifair.
43:34Apparently it was moved, so we shall see if it was moved to something full from the floor,
43:42from the ceiling.
43:43We still have at least one meter, one meter fifty to go down here to get a better access
43:52to this room, room that has approximately five meters to two meters, that is vaulted, but
43:59it is cut in the rock as a unvaulted way.
44:02It looks like Hounifair's tomb was disturbed at the end of the old kingdom, perhaps for political
44:18reasons.
44:19He may have been involved in conspiracies that led to the demise of the first sixth dynasty
44:25pharaohs, Teti, Usarkari and Pepi.
44:28The dig must continue.
44:43In the tomb, other funerary pits have been cleared, some almost twenty feet deep, but with
44:48the same disappointing results.
45:02To pursue his search for the missing king, Vasyl opens a neighboring tomb.
45:07There are still surprises in store.
45:10New discoveries come to light.
45:12Several statuettes that belong to the same dignitary, the owner of the tomb.
45:17He is a lector-priest and turns out to be Hounifair's father-in-law.
45:34On the back we have his name, Khnumhotep.
45:38A generation before Hounifair, could Nuhhotep have served the pharaoh Teti or even Usarkari?
45:47Fragments of engravings scattered inside the tomb come from the lintel of the door.
45:53These beautiful stones were left here by men who were clearly on a mission.
45:58They didn't come to steal the stones, just to remove whatever was written on some of them.
46:04So what is missing here are the doorjams, here and here, because we have the lintel completely
46:12preserved in pieces.
46:14So apparently somebody had removed especially these doorjams here and here, and the lintel
46:19fell and was broken in five pieces.
46:22We found them.
46:23Here we have similar problem.
46:25It's missing all this wall.
46:27When they constructed this wall, these were courses.
46:29One stone, one stone.
46:31Then somebody came and kept and removed what is here on this wall.
46:36Why?
46:37Here we have the beginning of what was written here.
46:40It is written, I am.
46:41This is the beginning of what we call an autobiography.
46:45So he was just describing what he was, what he was doing for whom.
46:50He was doing this and this, whom he was serving.
46:53Maybe there was the name of a king.
46:56So here, Khaled, can you...
46:59Today, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, comes
47:05to see the new finds at Tibet el-Gesh.
47:07He too finds it somewhat peculiar that only selected stones are missing.
47:12It's quite weak, so we don't touch it for the moment.
47:15The first part of Dynasty 6 is not clear to us, and we need really more to understand.
47:22We did not find the pyramid complex of a king of this dynasty.
47:26We have not really known a lot about the family,
47:29and therefore we depend completely on the study of the tombs.
47:33The missing texts may have been removed on purpose
47:36to banish Userkari from the historical record.
47:39He had succeeded the pharaoh Teti under compromising circumstances.
47:44The king Teti was killed by his bodyguards.
47:52So there was a kind of a conspiration against the king, Teti.
47:58And then came the king Ulrich Carey for a short time, maybe one, two or three years.
48:03So during that period, maybe these people served this king because it was the king.
48:07But then when Pepi came on power, maybe at that time,
48:13everybody that served the king was removed.
48:16Maybe their biographies, what was written about this king was removed
48:20because he was maybe considered as somebody that took the power by force.
48:24After the death of Userkari, Pepi came to power, and work on his pyramid began.
48:30How Nefer was able to adapt to these new circumstances.
48:34He became the chief of the priests at Pepi's temple.
48:37Although he had witnessed disturbing events,
48:40he was now promoted to a more important position.
48:48The missing information shows that there was information that was so important,
48:53and maybe compromising for the next rule.
49:00The dig at Tabat al-Gersh has confirmed the existence of one part of the lost city of the dead from the old kingdom.
49:13The destruction of selective hieroglyphics texts in the tombs of Haunefer and his father-in-law
49:18proves that someone intended to eliminate all signs of the pharaoh Userkari.
49:23Vassil vows to continue his quest to prove that this is in fact a royal necropolis.
49:32His hope is that this new site will yield dozens, even hundreds of tombs,
49:36of those dignitaries who once served the Egyptian king.
49:42And if luck prevails, there will arise through these shifting sands the tomb of the lost pharaoh.
49:48.
50:03.
50:08I'll see you next time.
Recommended
50:23
|
Up next
1:04
29:04
0:21
8:03
49:55
46:43
57:57
46:21
25:25
46:04
25:36
21:27
46:04
59:02
Be the first to comment