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00:00:00MUSIC
00:00:04I'm almost four months into my quest
00:00:07to find 80 of the world's greatest man-made treasures.
00:00:16I'm now in Africa, the most beguiling and enchanting of continents.
00:00:23Here, I'm looking for ancient traditions which are alive and well.
00:00:30I'm going to see works of art with a raw and elemental beauty
00:00:35and a lost Roman city on the coast of Libya.
00:00:40I'll grapple with the mysteries of perhaps the greatest civilisation
00:00:43the world has ever known.
00:01:00So far, I've travelled through the Americas, Australia, Asia and the Middle East.
00:01:18From Ethiopia, I've just flowed across the continent to the very heart of Africa.
00:01:23I'm in Mali, West Africa, where 700 years ago, or so,
00:01:26I'm in Mali, West Africa,
00:01:28I'm in Mali, West Africa, where 700 years ago or so, different worlds met.
00:01:43And the link came through trade, much of it river-borne, in boats, craft like this.
00:02:02From the north came architecture, ideas, Islam, as well as products such as salt and silk.
00:02:14And from the south, and from round here, came gold, ivory.
00:02:20By the 13th century, Mali had become a mighty trading empire,
00:02:32which extended across West Africa as far as the Atlantic coast.
00:02:36To find my first treasure, I've come to Jene.
00:02:53This is the oldest known city in this part of Africa.
00:02:57Inhabited since 250 BC,
00:03:00it went on to become one of the most vibrant and prosperous in the empire.
00:03:06It was also a centre of Islamic learning and pilgrimage.
00:03:19What's most astonishing about Jene is that all the buildings are made of mud.
00:03:24Glorious mud.
00:03:30This ancient and noble building tradition
00:03:33has been passed down the generations from father to son.
00:03:45This house is being repaired.
00:03:47And we can get an idea of how the mud building system works.
00:03:52Here are the sun-dry bricks.
00:03:56And these are protected with a layer of mud render,
00:04:01which is renewed every year after the rainy season.
00:04:06And we can see this mud render going on now.
00:04:08But I say mud, but like the bricks.
00:04:10In fact, it's a special clay mixed with some straw.
00:04:15And, um, ooh, cow dung.
00:04:19Excellent stuff, actually.
00:04:21Very strong, very resilient, and very beautifully gooey.
00:04:25And, um, yeah, beautifully smelly.
00:04:28Let's have a go.
00:04:29Let's put this on.
00:04:30My contribution.
00:04:34Find things correctly.
00:04:40So what is my treasure?
00:04:43Well, it's the miracle of Jene.
00:04:45It is, quite simply, the largest mud building in the world.
00:04:49There's been a mosque on this site since the late 13th century,
00:05:02though this mosque really completed in 1907.
00:05:06It may look pretty humble as a construction,
00:05:10but it's incredibly sophisticated.
00:05:12I mean, the mud bricks are very appropriate for the climate.
00:05:15And also these lovely sort of posts that stick out.
00:05:19Those sort of stabilise the structure in extreme climate.
00:05:24And also they act as a permanent scaffolding
00:05:27to allow people to hang off the building
00:05:30to carry out this very necessary and regular maintenance.
00:05:40Wow.
00:05:42Amazingly thick earthen wall.
00:05:45Three feet or so.
00:05:47All to do, of course, with controlling the temperature.
00:05:50The wall absorbs.
00:05:52The heat of the day, the sun.
00:05:54Incredible this to be inside.
00:05:57There are these huge piers which hold the roof up.
00:06:02Lights flooding in.
00:06:04So we have this wonderful sense of an organic, elemental building.
00:06:08These abstract forms.
00:06:10Lovely details.
00:06:11These pointed arches.
00:06:14Rising.
00:06:16And being supported by the great, almost natural forms of the piers.
00:06:22The people sitting around, praying.
00:06:26Reading the Qur'an.
00:06:29Fantastic atmosphere.
00:06:31I say a place of meditation.
00:06:35And communion with God.
00:06:39It's five o'clock towards the end of a very hot day.
00:06:44But inside here, it's cool.
00:06:46Oh.
00:06:52So how does this work?
00:06:54The answer is a very ingenious ventilation system.
00:06:58And this is how the ventilation system works.
00:07:09The thick walls of the mosque absorb the heat during the day.
00:07:14The earthen walls.
00:07:15And at night, they release heat.
00:07:18So, in the evening, these ceramic tops are taken off these ventilation holes.
00:07:23And the heat rises and keeps the interior cool.
00:07:28There are, on the roof, 104 of them.
00:07:31And here, in front of me, are three towers.
00:07:34The minarets, really.
00:07:36And on the top is an ostrich egg.
00:07:38Love it. Can you see it?
00:07:39These ostrich eggs represent fertility sitting on top of a minaret,
00:07:44which is quite obviously rather phallic.
00:07:46So we have the male and the female combined.
00:07:54It's built and designed by people who've put their heart and soul into the building.
00:08:01It's an amazingly powerful creation.
00:08:05It is, in its way, as great as any of the great buildings of the world.
00:08:11It is the largest mud-built mosque in the world.
00:08:14And looking at it now, with the sun setting behind the minarets,
00:08:17it is almost overwhelming.
00:08:35Next, I'll be driving west, leaving behind the Islamic world of Jene.
00:08:53I'm going back further in time, to an even older tradition.
00:08:57My destination is the remote region of Bandiagara.
00:09:10For centuries, this has been the land of the Dogon people.
00:09:14Until the 1930s, one of Africa's most isolated tribes.
00:09:18Dogon is one of the few tribes who have clung to its traditional way of life and ancient beliefs.
00:09:37At the centre of Dogon religion is a fantastical account of the creation of the universe.
00:09:43The Dogon people are the most fond of the universe.
00:09:48The people are the most fond of the universe.
00:09:49The world is the most fond of the universe.
00:09:55The people are the most fond of the universe.
00:09:58According to Dogon beliefs, there's one god, Amma, who lives in heaven.
00:10:03Amma, who lives in heaven, and one day Amma took a great ball of clay and threw it down
00:10:11and it spun and it formed a square, each corner marking the cardinal points, and this square
00:10:20formed itself gradually into the body of a woman, Mother Earth.
00:10:33Central to the doggone religion has been the rite of circumcision. The government of Mali now discourages female circumcision,
00:10:42but the male ritual is still practised and has inspired some of the finest doggone art.
00:10:49The circumcision ceremony takes place here, in front of, indeed below, these incredible paintings.
00:11:09Some people say these date from the 13th century, certainly though they are refreshed on a regular basis
00:11:16because the ceremony takes place every three years. So the boys, aged about 10, walk the route I've just walked
00:11:23and sit here in this circle, the surgeon on this stone, the young fellow over there.
00:11:30The boys are up here for about a month during this initiation into adulthood, into manhood,
00:11:36and during that time they are told stories of their ancestors, of their gods, and they make or indeed repaint these images in front of me.
00:11:47They are an amazing collection. Many are tribal images, little medicine bags containing sort of talismans and potent things.
00:11:58And most spectacular is a snake, and that's Lebe, one of the great ancestor spirits, the ancestor responsible for creation of the earth,
00:12:11for crops and for plenty, and there this great serpent writhing and twisting on the rock.
00:12:19This art is fantastic. It has to do with the origins of art. It's art without ego. It's not self-serving.
00:12:31It's art which deals with the real things of life, with religious beliefs, with the continuity of the community.
00:12:38One could call these naive. They're not naive, of course. They're simple. They're powerful.
00:12:43They're painted with love, with feeling, with commitment. They are really very, very moving images.
00:12:51I'm fascinated by the myths and legends of the Dogon.
00:13:07So I head for the village of Sangha to seek out a powerful work of art, the symbol of Africa.
00:13:14Everywhere you look, there are sacred images carved on the doors, the windows and the walls of houses and granaries.
00:13:27These are clues which will lead me to my next treasure.
00:13:35Ah, now, an image that's very familiar.
00:13:40This rather abstract image here, two horizontal bars connected by a vertical.
00:13:45This represents the heavens, the great male creator, Amar.
00:13:50And this, pointing down the earth, this being the bridge between the two worlds.
00:13:57And all around this little town are creations of this quality which tell ancient and powerful stories
00:14:05so central to life of the Dogon people.
00:14:10But all of this is not just part of some dead, dusty myth.
00:14:20Because there's one event, the most important event in the Dogon world,
00:14:24that brings all these images to life, that makes them part of our modern world.
00:14:30This dance is the bridge between the world of the dead and the world of the living.
00:14:47Most importantly, it allows the Dogon people to communicate with their ancestors.
00:14:52My treasure is the key to the dance and opens a door to the realm of the spirits.
00:14:58These Dogon masks aren't symbolic or representative.
00:15:16They contain the life force that they show.
00:15:22During the dance, they are alive.
00:15:26The dancers in the mask are one being.
00:15:30These masks are sacred objects, too powerful for ordinary mortals to hold or even to know where they're kept.
00:15:42That chap I know, I recognise that mask. That's heaven on earth, isn't it? The one with the crossbars.
00:15:52And these are the same? Yeah, these are the same.
00:15:54This is called the Kanagam mask and represents the spirit of man.
00:15:59Spirit of man? Yeah, yeah, yeah, man.
00:16:01And these chaps are fantastic.
00:16:03This mask represents levels of knowledge.
00:16:07Levels of knowledge, yes.
00:16:09Of course.
00:16:10And this is a spirit or an animal?
00:16:12Here, this is...
00:16:14Oh, that's Ian.
00:16:16That's Ian.
00:16:18And the last two are females, are they not? They have breasts. They have breasts, these chaps.
00:16:23Yeah, yeah.
00:16:24So again, two females.
00:16:25Females riding high above the earth?
00:16:27Yeah, this mask represents women.
00:16:29Woman?
00:16:30And the fact they are up, that means the situation the Dogon people want women to be.
00:16:34To be raised up?
00:16:35Yeah, yeah, to be up. So they give a high status to women.
00:16:38Very good.
00:16:39And these legs symbolise the leg of a bird.
00:16:42Okay.
00:16:43But yet women can't be in the dance, can they?
00:16:46No, no, they can't.
00:16:47They can't.
00:16:48Yeah, they can't participate to the dance, but they have given the most important mask.
00:16:52Okay.
00:16:53And the most important status.
00:16:55And now, after this, they will go back to their place of safety.
00:17:00In fact, they've danced around me once, and now they're leaving and going into mist.
00:17:06African masks were a great source of inspiration for European artists like Picasso, who recognise their emotional and primal power.
00:17:34Marley's developed a thriving industry, producing masks to sell to visitors.
00:17:39Most on sale here have, I trust, been made for tourists, and are not genuine sacred masks.
00:17:45It's amazing to see so many masks for sale, they're hibernating, the power is dormant
00:17:57and apparently it forms very sensitive and the mask is very powerful.
00:18:04Even to touch one of these masks, even when dormant, it can burn on the fingers.
00:18:11Have a go.
00:18:12Well, I'm not very sensitive, but I'm sure the power is there.
00:18:20So these are Dogen masks.
00:18:21This is Kanaga, this is Satemi.
00:18:25This is Kanaga?
00:18:26Kanaga, yeah.
00:18:27Kanaga mask.
00:18:28And this one too?
00:18:29Yeah, this one is Dogen.
00:18:30So this one is an animal spirit?
00:18:32Yeah.
00:18:33This one is an old one, isn't it?
00:18:35Yeah, this is Dogen.
00:18:36Oh, that's water or the sea, isn't it?
00:18:37This is the lion's figure.
00:18:40The lion?
00:18:41OK.
00:18:42The power.
00:18:43It's a power mask.
00:18:44Power mask indeed.
00:18:45How much are you asking for this one?
00:18:47This one is 25,000.
00:18:48Oh, that's too much.
00:18:49That's too much.
00:18:50I have the money.
00:18:51I have the money.
00:18:52Much too much.
00:18:53Lovely thing, but I know it's not worth.
00:18:55This one is selling for the 7,500.
00:18:57I don't want that one.
00:18:58That's not very nice.
00:18:59Yeah, this is the 10,000.
00:19:00This is the cheaper one.
00:19:01This is the...
00:19:02No, that's horrible.
00:19:03It's horrible.
00:19:04OK.
00:19:05Your best price is how much for this one?
00:19:06Well, I'm saying 10, you're saying 20, so I suppose you have to go down the middle
00:19:10and say 12, 12, 12, 12, 12.
00:19:15No, 12 is no good, I tell you.
00:19:1612 is no good.
00:19:1712 is no good.
00:19:1812 is no good.
00:19:19If 12 is good...
00:19:20Let's split the difference and I'll say 15.
00:19:22That's it.
00:19:2315.
00:19:2415.
00:19:25No.
00:19:26OK, now you give me 17.
00:19:27It's OK.
00:19:2817, you are stuck there.
00:19:29OK?
00:19:3016.
00:19:31Oh, for God's sake, 17.
00:19:32OK, let's...
00:19:3317.
00:19:34OK, OK, no problem.
00:19:35I think that, but I don't care.
00:19:3617?
00:19:37Yeah.
00:19:38Yeah.
00:19:39Yeah.
00:19:40Yeah.
00:19:41Yeah.
00:19:42Yeah.
00:19:43Yeah.
00:19:44Yeah.
00:19:45Yeah.
00:19:46Yeah.
00:19:47Yeah.
00:19:48Yeah.
00:19:49Yeah.
00:19:50Yeah.
00:19:51It's with regret that I leave Mali.
00:19:53A land of ancient and mystical faith.
00:20:09From West Africa, I travel north to Libya,
00:20:13on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
00:20:23I'm in Tripoli.
00:20:24Until recently, it would have been almost impossible to visit Libya.
00:20:38Under the hardline regime of Colonel Gaddafi, the country was closed to most Western visitors.
00:20:44But now, relations have thawed, and I can visit two treasures that have haunted my imagination for decades.
00:20:5775 miles east along the coast from Tripoli lies my next treasure.
00:21:16Libya was an important outpost of the Roman Empire, and trade flourished along this coast.
00:21:22I've come to see one of the greatest Roman cities.
00:21:26A miraculous survival of the classical world.
00:21:30The city of Leptis Magna was a gateway for trade between Africa and Europe during Roman times.
00:21:49Under the rule of Emperor Septimus Severus in the third century AD, the city enjoyed its golden age.
00:22:00It was one of the largest and most magnificent in Africa.
00:22:04No where else in the world could get such a good idea of what it was like to be a citizen living in a great Roman period city.
00:22:20And I'm going to be a citizen of Leptis Magna, a citizen for the day, going to the marketplace.
00:22:28Here would be sold fruit and fish, but I'm a merchant of fabrics, cotton.
00:22:35And here is a lovely little arch with ships here bringing goods to Leptis from afar.
00:22:45Certainly my cotton comes from Egypt.
00:22:48Now through here is where I did my business selling my cotton and perhaps silk.
00:22:55And in front of me is a very important thing.
00:22:58It's a unit of measurements.
00:23:01Incredible.
00:23:02The Punic measurement is what's called a cubit.
00:23:05A cubit being ancient measure from the elbow to this finger.
00:23:09Exactly a cubit of length.
00:23:11So I'd offer up my cloth like this and set it on to the retailer.
00:23:16And here are measures for liquids, wine or olive oil.
00:23:23The liquids poured into the top of this container, four different sizes.
00:23:28And then there's a plug system, I guess, here.
00:23:31And the liquid would then go from here into a pot and carry it away.
00:23:38After a hectic morning of business, I make my way to the Forum.
00:23:53This is the heart of the city.
00:23:56Here, the citizens could celebrate the god-emperor in the temple standing there.
00:24:03What a great space this is.
00:24:07Remains there of a colonnade supporting sculpture.
00:24:12Heads of Medusa, some of which survive.
00:24:16Incredible place.
00:24:17Shops over there facing a temple.
00:24:23And behind the shops, the most important public building in the city really, the great basilica.
00:24:33dispensed law and order to the citizens of Leptis Magna.
00:24:57It's the end of a busy day and I need a bath and a massage.
00:25:01So I come to this magnificent public bath.
00:25:04This is one of the greatest bath houses outside Rome itself.
00:25:08And, taking my clothes off as I go along, putting my garments in a locker room, I go through these rooms.
00:25:16And here, stripped naked by this time, I enter this great chamber here, which is the hot room.
00:25:28This is steaming hardy sea as I make my way over here.
00:25:33Great furnaces creating intense heat over here.
00:25:38So I sweat, I sweat.
00:25:40I'm here with steam coming out of pipes.
00:25:44After pipes, I lie down and I'm massaged with olive oil.
00:25:48My body worked thoroughly by a muscular fellow.
00:25:52Feels fantastic.
00:25:55Above me, a great vault, keeping the heat in.
00:26:00If I'm taken short and need to go to the lavatory, there are these public latrines.
00:26:06Well, very public actually.
00:26:08Multi-seaters.
00:26:09They are a really beautiful, elegant, minimal design.
00:26:14I sit here above this little hole and go about my business.
00:26:21When completed, take a brush, put it in this canal of water.
00:26:26Get the brush and insert it through this hole and cleanse my person.
00:26:32And then, off I go.
00:26:35Much of the city that once housed 70,000 people is yet to be unearthed.
00:26:55By the 11th century, it had been abandoned and covered by sand.
00:27:00The ruins lost.
00:27:01Excavation has taken place and the centre revealed.
00:27:05But what I'm standing now is still covered.
00:27:08This is where people lived.
00:27:10Below my feet are the houses of this once thriving population.
00:27:15Everywhere one looks, one sees evidence of the people,
00:27:19their occupation of this site.
00:27:21Bits of pot everywhere.
00:27:23Lovely bit of ceramic here.
00:27:26Ancient glass.
00:27:28And even here, fragments of bronze coins.
00:27:33Look at that.
00:27:35It's very moving to think that below my feet
00:27:41is so much evidence yet to be revealed
00:27:44what life was really like here on this coast,
00:27:48this great trading city 2,000 years ago.
00:27:51The city of Leptis Magna fell prey to its enemies.
00:28:01It was violently sacked by Berber raiders from the desert.
00:28:06I'm going to a Berber village to find my next treasure.
00:28:19I head south towards the El Azizia desert,
00:28:33or the hottest places on earth.
00:28:36Temperatures here can reach a baking 136 degrees Fahrenheit.
00:28:42This arid land was the home of the Berbers,
00:28:50the original inhabitants of North Africa.
00:28:58My treasure was created by the Berber people nearly 1,000 years ago.
00:29:03It's a building created for the most basic of reasons,
00:29:08the storage and preservation of food.
00:29:12In this inhospitable region,
00:29:15there was a difference between life and death.
00:29:18It's built from local materials.
00:29:36Stone, gypsum, plaster.
00:29:40Incredibly organic in feel.
00:29:43A perfect, oh, a perfect circle.
00:29:46It was created to store the community's most precious thing.
00:29:54Not just cereals are stored here.
00:29:56Dates, olives, wine, olive oil, figs.
00:30:01Each window is a little cell belonging to a different family.
00:30:06Each one a little vaulted space
00:30:08in which really the thing of life itself,
00:30:11their food was preserved and guarded.
00:30:15I'll try and get into one of the storage cells.
00:30:25Each one is a little independent room.
00:30:29This ladder, gosh, seem better days. Wow.
00:30:33OK, so I say each of these little cells would belong to one family.
00:30:41And on the floor is the remains of the family's barley store.
00:30:49I'm going to walk on it because these rooms have now generally abandoned.
00:30:53This food will no longer be eaten.
00:30:55Oh, gosh, I'm sinking in barley.
00:30:58Wow.
00:30:59It's more in it than I thought.
00:31:00Wow.
00:31:01Excellent.
00:31:02Incredible.
00:31:03It's so beautiful.
00:31:04It's so lovely.
00:31:05Look.
00:31:06Mmm.
00:31:07Fresh, actually.
00:31:08Good quality.
00:31:09Now, look at this room.
00:31:12Amazing.
00:31:13Look at the thickness of the wall of this granary.
00:31:17It's hot outside, but cool in here, that's the point.
00:31:21And very, very dry.
00:31:23One end of this room, a little window.
00:31:26So it's ventilated, very important.
00:31:29What intrigues me as I stand here is what's carved on the wall.
00:31:35Like a little checkerboard here, or perhaps the way of marking off time.
00:31:39Obviously, at some point, what's inhabited, or partly inhabited.
00:31:59This whole structure, this granary, also operates very effectively as a fortification.
00:32:06It's a way of protecting the community of Berbers in time of invasion.
00:32:14In the courtyard below, they would camp and, I think, to a degree, occupy these rooms.
00:32:21Because some of these cells, the doors, can be secured only from within.
00:32:27So clearly, these were to be occupied, I suppose, maybe, if the enemy penetrated the fortress.
00:32:47The Berber village lying outside the granary is in ruins.
00:32:53The granary itself is largely abandoned.
00:33:00And until recently, they lived here much as they would have lived 2,000 years ago.
00:33:07With their own language, their own customs, their own culture.
00:33:12But things have changed, times have changed.
00:33:16They are now succumbing to the modern world.
00:33:20Their culture is disappearing.
00:33:22So this fortress failed, in the end, to save the Berbers.
00:33:27It's a tragedy to see here, the end of thousands of years of Berber life.
00:33:42It's time to leave Libya, and I head towards Egypt.
00:33:59Being in this evocative desert landscape, I can't resist trying a traditional means of transport.
00:34:05I have to be troubled.
00:34:06OK, do you have a camel?
00:34:07Yes.
00:34:08Can I see?
00:34:09Yeah.
00:34:10Riding, a camel.
00:34:11You have a camel.
00:34:12Can't see many.
00:34:13Do you have a camel?
00:34:14No camel.
00:34:16No camel.
00:34:17Do you have a camel?
00:34:19No camel.
00:34:20No camel?
00:34:21Horse.
00:34:22Horse, no.
00:34:23I'd rather wanted a mountain camel.
00:34:24There's a camel.
00:34:26There's a camel.
00:34:27It's a camel here.
00:34:28Yes.
00:34:29Ah, camel.
00:34:30Oh, it looks like a very pleasing camel.
00:34:35A reluctant camel.
00:34:37They're brutish beast camels, from my experience.
00:34:40They have a temper, a bit unpredictable.
00:34:42Sounds are already a bad temper.
00:34:49Um, okay.
00:34:50Well, let's see how this goes.
00:34:52Morning.
00:34:53Morning.
00:34:54Morning.
00:34:55Very well.
00:34:56Say hello to the camel.
00:34:57Good to meet you.
00:34:58Nice to meet you.
00:34:59How's the camel?
00:35:00What's the camel's name?
00:35:03Whiskey.
00:35:04Whiskey?
00:35:05I can live with that, okay.
00:35:07I know camels getting up is always a bit...
00:35:11Lean back and hold on.
00:35:14Yeah.
00:35:17Ah!
00:35:18Lovely moment.
00:35:20I always love the, uh...
00:35:23Nothing like getting on a camel in the morning.
00:35:26What?
00:35:27Okay.
00:35:28Okay, let's go for a walk.
00:35:31Okay.
00:35:32Now, Whiskey, what you don't do, Whiskey, is you don't suddenly sit down, okay?
00:35:36I know that's what you want to do.
00:35:39I'm in search of a great civilisation, a mighty land ruled by divine kings, the Pharaohs.
00:35:51They created one of the most brilliant empires the world has ever seen.
00:35:57For all our attempts to understand it, ancient Egypt remains shrouded in mystery.
00:36:08My first stop is on the outskirts of the largest city of Africa.
00:36:12Being in Cairo, you can probably guess what my first Egyptian treasure's going to be.
00:36:29How is he doing?
00:36:47Pure, ideal, elemental forms as if exploding from the desert.
00:36:55The power comes from the combination of the huge scale
00:37:02and the perfection of the geometry.
00:37:06Incredible experience.
00:37:08One can see these as a work of nature, really,
00:37:11the force of nature, the work of the gods.
00:37:17The pyramids remain an enigma.
00:37:22We still don't know for sure when they were built, by whom,
00:37:26or indeed how they were built.
00:37:29The Great Pyramid is the largest of the three.
00:37:34It's believed to have been made over 4,500 years ago
00:37:38by Pharaoh Cheops to house his tomb.
00:37:47It was constructed with incredible accuracy.
00:37:52If we accept the conventional view
00:37:54about the limited technology available at the time,
00:37:57then, quite simply, the Great Pyramid would have been unbuildable.
00:38:05It's made out of 2.5 million blocks of stone,
00:38:08laid in 203 courses, rising to 481 feet.
00:38:15It's an amazing sight,
00:38:18the only survivor of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
00:38:23But the reason for choosing the Great Pyramid as my treasure lies inside it.
00:38:36This entrance route, I mean, was quarried into the pyramid in the ninth century by the caliph that ruled Cairo.
00:39:00He couldn't find the secret hidden entrance, so he cut this passageway.
00:39:05Amazing, I'm walking through the body of the pyramid.
00:39:11It's absolutely wonderful.
00:39:14Oh, now here we are, connecting with the original entrance passage,
00:39:19the ascending passage, still blocked by these great stones,
00:39:26put there to seal the interior, stop people penetrating.
00:39:30And this passage, I'm about to go up, leads to the chamber in which the Pharaoh Cheops said to have been buried.
00:39:42It's incredibly low, this passage.
00:39:50I have to go up on my hands and knees,
00:39:52or at least this loads an attitude of prayer with my head bowed.
00:39:57The gallery is beautifully constructed.
00:40:07A huge weight above the stone, the solid body of the pyramid is being carried by these stones above my head.
00:40:18It's quite an alarming idea actually, walking through this little passage.
00:40:25Oh.
00:40:51well another obstacle this passage is even lower than the ascending passage
00:40:59oh gosh walking through the granite wall and good Lord what a space what a room
00:41:18this is called the king's chamber because it is thought in here the pharaoh Cheops was entombed and here it's a great sarcophagus
00:41:33and in this sarcophagus one supposes was once the body of the great pharaoh Cheops
00:41:48certainly this sarcophagus had to be built into this room and there's no other way this could have
00:41:56got in here apart from being lowered from above but just look at this space
00:42:04the room is formed by great granite slabs some of gigantic size the one there weighing
00:42:16it is thought about 80 tons look at the size of it and look at the joints they are so precise
00:42:26cutting granite how 4,500 years ago with that primitive technology it almost defies
00:42:37belief defies understanding
00:42:43nothing about a room like this is a mistake or a chance and the proportion this becomes a central
00:42:55proportion of classical architecture Greece and Rome the Italian Renaissance a double cube
00:43:01is always a volume created by man he wants to create a powerful sacred space a space connecting
00:43:07with the gods and the higher worlds and it starts here in this room 4,500 years ago this is in a way
00:43:15this room the beginning of time the beginning of civilization the beginning certainly of architecture
00:43:21incredible but more ones to answer the details are phenomenal for example this room where we believe the dead pharaoh would reside is connected to the outside world by two air shafts incredible these creations to allow the pharaoh's soul
00:43:42as i mentioned the word soul the lights go out scary yes incredible incredible perhaps it's time to leave
00:43:57the survival of the pyramids it's threatened by the ever-expanding suburbs and air pollution
00:44:12with a growing population of 10 million people cairo is one of the most densely populated cities in the world
00:44:34and in the middle of its urban chaos it's a tranquility and inspiration of the cairo museum
00:44:42I'm here to see the most exciting archaeological find of the 20th century
00:45:06in 1922 a british excavation team discovered the tomb of tutankhamun
00:45:12the boy pharaoh from over 3000 years ago
00:45:23pharaohs were buried with objects and spells to aid them in their journey through the underworld to rebirth
00:45:33tutankhamun's tomb was a remarkable find
00:45:36it was one of the few royal tombs to have escaped the grave robbers
00:45:45within the tomb was a vast gilded box
00:45:49covered with hieroglyphs a great casket and within that box was another box slightly smaller also covered with hieroglyphs
00:45:58hieroglyphs within that a third box within that a third box and within the third box a fourth box
00:46:05within the fourth box was a great stone sarcophagus within that three coffins and
00:46:11only having got through all of that would you have found my treasure
00:46:25and here it is tutankhamun's mask an object that since it was discovered 80 years ago has captured the imagination of the world
00:46:46the boy pharaoh who died some say murdered over three thousand three hundred years ago
00:46:58it shows the pharaoh reborn life after death but he's reborn as a divine being his flesh replaced by gold
00:47:09and other precious objects there i mean lapis cornelian turquoise
00:47:17an incredible piece of work beautiful in detail beautiful in form
00:47:22and the color and the meaning of it power is here on the front we see the image of the vulture
00:47:30and the cobra so worldly power spiritual power people are attracted to it and i find myself
00:47:36strange attracted to it i look into the eyes of the pharaoh he stands back at me
00:47:47it is an astonishing experience
00:47:51well
00:48:06my train's just arrived it's late exhausting end to an exhausting day so plan is to leave the
00:48:14the turmoil bustle of cairo and to get the overnight sleeper nine hour journey running beside the nile
00:48:27to the relative peace i hope of bed crew
00:48:32right
00:48:35okay let's see how it goes i don't feel like any trouble
00:48:40i got a saloon um what's this widescreen television uh no actually it's fine and uh
00:49:02uh i'm gonna go to bed so good night
00:49:15i travel south beside the nile the river is the lifeblood of this land
00:49:21city's cluster along it crops flourish beside it and beyond is only desert
00:49:40without the nile there would have been no great ancient egyptian civilization
00:49:45and certainly not my next treasure
00:49:59this temple is the best preserved in egypt completed around 60 bc it is dedicated to horus
00:50:08the falcon-headed god god god of the sky and god of light
00:50:13the pharaohs were believed to be the embodiment of horus on earth
00:50:27temples like this are organized in a very particular way they go from large light open public areas like
00:50:34this to increasingly dark intimate enclosed areas where only the elite of the land priests and the royal family can penetrate
00:50:48these walls tell the story of egyptian theology of many gods each one representing a different aspect
00:50:55of daily and spiritual life
00:51:10this sort of sliver of a room is where offerings
00:51:14to the gods were made it's incredible the way these stones speak they're sort of living stones is
00:51:20incredible space to enter and somewhere here on this wall among the hieroglyphs should be an image of min
00:51:33the god of fertility with his huge erect penis phallus symbolizing the power
00:51:42given to mankind to recreate to create life to sexual act and the phallus removed this is appalling
00:51:54removed over there as well i see nothing else has been vandalized i suspect
00:52:00this is some frightful souvenir hunter in the 19th century commissioning the removal of his member
00:52:06the chamber are now you see higher up where people couldn't reach the members intact protruding
00:52:15showing the world the power of fertility
00:52:22now beyond this
00:52:26i get to the shrine itself in front of me but now there's another division
00:52:31in front of me marked by this threshold only the high priest of the land and the pharaoh
00:52:39in his capacity as supreme high priest can make this step
00:52:53now the space is constrained more darker tighter space
00:52:58and altar here and here the shrine in which would have stood an image of the great god horus
00:53:17this is the very epicenter it is in sense birthplace and the powerhouse of egyptian religion
00:53:28is
00:53:41i traveled to the one time spiritual capital of ancient egypt even today it still has the energy of a great
00:53:48city
00:53:56oh fish it's the catfish from the nile alive and kicking breathing
00:54:10i'd love a bit of pigeon
00:54:15popular egyptian food takeaway just like that
00:54:28the last of my egyptian treasures is for me one of pure romance
00:54:38i'm pursuing a woman said to be one of the most beautiful in history
00:54:49she was married to the great and powerful pharaoh ramesses ii
00:54:53i've come to luxor temple for my first glimpse of her will i be disappointed
00:55:01queen nefertari last we meet here she is crouching below her husband's gigantic knee
00:55:18incredible image look at her beautiful to touch to run one's hands over her amazing but her face
00:55:28is gone destroyed in ancient times incredibly frustrating to find out more about her i must go to her tomb
00:55:38there i'll discover about her life her death her life after death and more important i hope i'll find out
00:55:47out exactly what she looked like
00:55:58that's what she looks like
00:56:03tired of cars and trains i fancy a ride in the open air
00:56:07i head towards the valley of the queens where nefertari was buried
00:56:14nefertari means the lovely one and even over 3000 years later she still has the power to arouse
00:56:26nefertari's tomb is closed to the public
00:56:38inside it are the most beautiful and best preserved wall paintings ever discovered in egypt
00:56:56incredible the images here telling the story of nefertari's journey after death
00:57:03to the underworld and then to rebirth and here we see her perfect and complete the beautiful queen look at her
00:57:12what a fantastic face
00:57:14so calm in death and she's being escorted by horus the falcon headed god he's taking her
00:57:21on this journey to meet all the other gods where she can ask their protection and their help in her journey
00:57:30this is a rare survival of the golden age of egyptian painting
00:57:41the colors are fresh and vivid figures are stylized and follow egyptian conventions for sacred images
00:57:48faces are seen in profile while the eyes are shown front on
00:57:52the bodies are elongated beautiful and clad in tight revealing garments
00:58:08now i'm descending into tomb proper going down into the rock and here on each side of me
00:58:16is anubius the jackal now in the form of the guardian of tombs is here to welcome nefertari to the kingdom of the dead
00:58:32now i can see the ordeal of nefertari there she is and she's appealing to the guardians of the seven
00:58:40the gates to the underworld the world of osiris she must pass through these gates to get to the underworld
00:58:46or she stands no chance of being reborn here's one of the terrifying guardians with his two big knives
00:58:55like an alien
00:58:58and here the goddess isis offering nefertari on the left the ankh the symbol of eternal life
00:59:10this is the key space in the tomb defined by these four square columns here the queen would have been reborn
00:59:20as a finer creature ascending to the heavens i've got to lie down here where the tomb would have been
00:59:28to see the view she would have had as a mummy as a corpse also at the moment of rebirth
00:59:36as a finer spirit this is an incredible experience my goodness me when was this last done looking up
00:59:43and of course the ceiling is the starry sky the stars representing the world she came from
00:59:52and the world the heavens to which she hoped to return amazing to see this
01:00:06the sky is the starry sky my journey around africa ends just like it started on a river
01:00:22it's a great experience on the nile like all the great rivers of africa it brings life to arid land
01:00:30it carries trade and it carries travelers and i'm traveling traveling back to europe home to europe
01:00:41i haven't been for just over four months and um i must admit i'm sad to leave i'm sad to leave this land
01:00:50and i feel almost nervous about returning to my home continent
01:01:05uh
01:01:23you
01:01:26you
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