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00:00On this episode of Expedition Unknown,
00:04the epic conclusion of my mission to tackle the mysteries
00:08of Egypt's Great Pyramid.
00:13On the shores of the Red Sea, a long-lost cave
00:16contains the secrets of the pyramid builders
00:19in their own words.
00:21This document is the oldest writing on paper ever found.
00:25Here's somebody telling us how the pyramids are built.
00:28And a daring experiment could answer once and for all
00:31how massive two-ton blocks were moved by hand
00:35to construct a world wonder.
00:38If this works, you can build the pyramids.
00:41Then, the stunning secret
00:43behind the pyramid's perfect alignment.
00:46This is their survey system to build the Great Pyramid.
00:49And the groundbreaking results of a 3D scan
00:53to map the inside of the Great Pyramid.
00:55I've never seen anything like this.
00:57Could it rewrite history and reveal the hidden tomb of a pharaoh?
01:02Well, where is it?
01:03It should be right here behind this rock.
01:04Yeah.
01:05Find out right now on Expedition Unknown.
01:10Oh, my God. That's writing.
01:12Whoa!
01:14It's working!
01:15Wait a minute. What is that?
01:17We could be looking at a lost passage from the Great Pyramid.
01:19It is a lost passage.
01:25The past is all around us.
01:27Oh, my God!
01:29It goes on forever!
01:30A world of mystery.
01:33Come on!
01:35Look at that!
01:36Danger.
01:37Hang on!
01:40And adventure.
01:41It's just straight down!
01:43I got to get a new job.
01:45I travel to the far corners of the earth to uncover where legends end.
01:52I got it!
01:53Yes!
01:54And history begins.
01:55Woo-hoo!
01:56Here we go!
01:57I'm Josh Gates, and this is Expedition Unknown.
02:16It may not look like it, but I'm in Egypt, on a mission to solve the mysteries of the Great
02:21Pyramid, the last standing of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
02:25It's a monumental quest that's led me far from the deserts of Giza, all the way here to the
02:30shores of the Red Sea.
02:32Dr. Mohammed Abed Al-Mageed has promised me that the secrets to the pyramid's construction
02:38can be found here, underwater.
02:40Josh, look at this!
02:44Huge piles of stones!
02:46Is that man-made?
02:47Is this a wall?
02:49Yes, it's a part of a harbor.
02:52This was a harbor!
02:53Not just any harbor.
02:55This is the oldest man-made harbor ever discovered.
02:59It's built by Khufu, 4,500 years ago.
03:05The man I've been chasing, the Pharaoh Khufu, was the second ruler of Egypt's Fourth Dynasty.
03:12He reigned for 30 years, and when he was done, he was to be interred in the grandest tomb in history,
03:18the most enigmatic building on Earth.
03:21And that's where our mystery begins.
03:23When the pyramid was first broken into by tomb raiders in the ninth century, they couldn't find Khufu or his riches.
03:30There's no shortage of debate and wild conspiracy theories about this ancient wonder.
03:36Everything from alien intervention to lost advanced civilizations.
03:41After all, people continue to wonder, how on Earth was this 45-story skyscraper constructed without modern tools or even the wheel?
03:51How is it so perfectly aligned? And could there be hidden chambers inside that might even conceal Khufu's lost, treasure-filled tomb?
04:00To learn the truth, I met with renowned Egyptologist Dr. Mark Lehner.
04:06Acquiring exclusive access to the pyramid, we entered through the so-called robber's tunnel.
04:12Look at this. Wow.
04:14From here, we tracked our position in real time, as we mapped every inch of the labyrinth of interior passages.
04:21So this is where things get weird, right? We've got two passages, original passages, moving in two different directions in the pyramid.
04:28We made our way into the so-called king's chamber.
04:34Look at this room. It is beyond impressive.
04:38But as for the king himself...
04:40So one glaring problem here, no Khufu.
04:43Right.
04:46From there, we explored areas of the interior closed off to the public,
04:50descending almost 100 feet through the Egyptian bedrock to an unfinished subterranean chamber.
04:56What the hell is this room for?
04:58I don't know. Really, nobody knows.
05:01The room here was clearly abandoned by the builders.
05:04But is there more to find?
05:06Could there be other chambers inside the Great Pyramid?
05:09You know, Josh, there was a time when I would have said,
05:12that's doubtful, but now I'm not so sure.
05:15Really?
05:17Several years ago,
05:18cutting-edge technology appeared to image a strange void above a chamber known as the Grand Gallery.
05:24But short of dynamiting the top off the Great Pyramid, there's no way to prove it.
05:28Or is there?
05:30Right next to the pyramid, I met up with my old friend, Danish archaeologist,
05:34Soren Sinbeck, at a strange set of tunnels to nowhere.
05:38Does it look familiar?
05:39Look what you're standing and what we're standing on.
05:41Wait a minute, you're right. This is like being in the Great Pyramid.
05:44The ancient builders appeared to have constructed a model of the pyramid's tunnels here,
05:49before carving the real thing.
05:51This is just like being inside the pyramid, it's incredible.
05:54To determine if these so-called trial passages actually match the ones in the pyramid,
05:59we performed the first ever 3D digital scan inside.
06:03Look at that, that's amazing.
06:05A scan we hope might also reveal hidden passages or chambers within the pyramid itself.
06:11We need a few days to process it. Once we've done that, we can go and compare it to the Great Pyramid.
06:16Amazing.
06:18While we wait for the results of the scan, I've driven 150 miles to the Red Sea
06:23to tackle the mystery of how the architects of the pyramid carved and moved more than 2 million
06:29two-ton blocks into the sky. And now, the first puzzle piece is right in front of me.
06:34Unbelievable! Oldest harbor in the world! Incredible!
06:42This harbor wall is more than 500 feet long, and once stood more than 10 feet high.
06:48I follow Dr. El Magid inside the wall, where we find more evidence of an ancient port.
06:53Look! Oh, right there! What is that? Huge piece of stone here, and look, it has a circular opening.
07:05This is an anchor. Oh, this is a ship's anchor!
07:10We get to work cleaning the growth off this stone,
07:13and soon we can make out features from when it was last used.
07:16Look at that, you can really get a sense of it now.
07:21You can see where the rope crossed here.
07:24And here, and there! Look at that! Almost like tying up a package.
07:30You can see the indentations from the rope. That is crazy!
07:34Based on its design, archaeologists have dated the anchor, along with more than a hundred others
07:40that have been found here, to the time of Khufu.
07:42When we think of the pyramids, we think of Giza. We don't think of being all the way out here on the Red Sea.
07:49So why do we have boats and a harbor here during the time of Khufu?
07:55This is where it all starts. Without this harbor, there is no green pyramids.
08:00Why?
08:01The answers are on land.
08:03Back on land?
08:04You have to meet a colleague of mine, nearby.
08:07Got it!
08:09What we found here is just the tip of the iceberg.
08:12Anxious to meet Muhammad's colleague, I return to shore and dry off.
08:19Then jump into my 4x4 for a short trip back into the desert.
08:24Okay, GPS says it should be up on the right.
08:27I don't exactly see a road. It's fine. Roads are overrated.
08:31This might get bumpy. Hang on.
08:46After only a few minutes in the heat, I glimpse what appears to be a mirage.
08:51Look at this. Tent city.
08:56More than 50 of them, dotting the otherwise barren landscape.
09:04And at the heart of this compound, a familiar face.
09:08Hey, Josh.
09:09The chair of the Egyptology department at the Sorbonne University in Paris, Dr. Pierre Tallet.
09:15Thanks to meet you again.
09:16Great to see you.
09:17Thanks to you.
09:18Last time I saw you, we were in the desert in the Sinai.
09:21Yes.
09:21He and I first met exploring caves in the Sinai when I was investigating the story of Moses.
09:28And here we are again, at a site where Pierre is leading a team of nearly 100 people in another desert.
09:34At the Sorbonne, my colleague called me the man of the desert.
09:37You are the man of the desert.
09:39Okay, so I have just come from this ancient harbor, Khufu's harbor.
09:43Where are we now?
09:44We are still in Khufu's harbor.
09:47This is part of the harbor complex?
09:48Yeah, it's part of the harbor, even if it's three miles from the coast.
09:50Wow.
09:51Yeah.
09:51Okay, so what's it doing here?
09:53They were going to Sinai to extract copper.
09:56They needed copper to be able to cut the stone for the pyramid.
10:02Copper mines across the Red Sea were essential to making the tools
10:06used to build the Great Pyramid.
10:08So Khufu would send boats from here at Wadi al-Jarif across the Red Sea to the coast of
10:13the Sinai Peninsula, where mined copper was then ferried all the way back.
10:17It would then be loaded onto mules for the 150-mile trip north to the pyramid at Giza.
10:23At the end of the expedition, they didn't want to bring back the boat,
10:27so they let them here in caves, and they closed the caves to protect them.
10:32To hide them.
10:33Since the boats themselves were valuable commodities,
10:36between trips, the Egyptians stored and hid them inland here to keep them from being stolen.
10:43And I know that after you started working here,
10:45my understanding is that you found something very special.
10:49We found something that totally transformed what we know about the pyramids.
10:53Something extraordinary.
10:55Can you show me?
10:56Yeah, of course.
11:00We walk out into the sweltering desert.
11:02In fact, it's so hot, I half expect to see two suns.
11:06It's like Star Wars out here.
11:09Pierre leads me over to a row of hand-carved caves,
11:13which, when he first found them, were sealed tightly by immense blocks of cut limestone,
11:18curiously similar to the blocks of the Great Pyramid.
11:21Immediately after the beginning of the excavation, we find small pieces of papyrus.
11:27And for people who don't know, papyrus is basically ancient paper made of plant material.
11:31Yeah, it's made of plant material.
11:33And where did you make the find?
11:34In this pit, right there.
11:35Right here?
11:36Between the two blocks.
11:37Okay.
11:37It was the last place to excavate.
11:39What did you find?
11:40I brought a copy of what we found to show you.
11:42Oh, my word.
11:47Look at this.
11:48You found a complete roll of papyrus.
11:50Yes.
11:51And actually, we have found about 50 rolls of papyri inside this pit.
11:56Five-zero, 50?
11:56Five-zero, 50, which was really incredible.
12:00And so, what is it?
12:02We have here the diary of a man whose name is Merer.
12:07And so, who is Merer?
12:09Merer is a small official, probably a sailor, and the head of about 40 men.
12:15And this papyrus is giving information about the building of the Great Pyramid of Ufu.
12:21These documents tell us about the construction of the pyramid.
12:24Yeah.
12:24Do you want to know what it says?
12:25I'm dying to know what it says.
12:29You can see this small pyramid, which is a symbol which is put at the end of the name.
12:33This is the symbol for the Great Pyramid?
12:35Yeah, this is the pyramid.
12:36The world's first pyramid emoji.
12:38Yeah, of course.
12:40Awesome.
12:40Awesome.
12:41So, that means that this is being written during the life of Khufu.
12:45Yeah, it is at the end of the ring.
12:49But it means that...
12:50So, wait a minute.
12:51Wait a minute.
12:51That means that this document is...
12:54The oldest writing on paper ever found.
12:56This is...
12:57Sorry.
12:58This is the oldest written document on earth?
13:01Yes, it is.
13:02So, this is 2,500 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls?
13:07Yes, and it is the Red Sea Scrolls.
13:09The Red Sea Scrolls?
13:10Yes, the Sea Scrolls.
13:11This is extraordinary, Pierre.
13:14And what these scrolls reveal is historic.
13:18For centuries, one of the great debates about the pyramid's construction was how the building's outer
13:23blocks were transported to Giza from a remote quarry in a place called Tura.
13:28For example, here, the team is sailing from the pyramid of Khufu.
13:33And then it is sailing upstream to go to the quarry of Tura, spending the night.
13:40And here you have the symbol for sleeping.
13:42It literally tells us what they're doing, where they're working, where they're sleeping.
13:46Yeah.
13:46And the kicker?
13:48Merer's diary solves the mystery of how these blocks made it to Giza,
13:53by revealing that the limestone was transported there by boat,
13:56where workers re-channeled the Nile to build artificial lakes,
14:00allowing them to float the blocks right up to the edge of the construction site.
14:04This is sailing to this place, and you have this whole boat.
14:09I mean, that's it? You have everything?
14:11You have everything.
14:12I mean, we know that they're cutting blocks.
14:14They're putting them on boats.
14:16Yeah.
14:16They're moving them down the Nile.
14:18They're even moving them right up next to the pyramid.
14:21Everything is here.
14:22Including the nature of the workers themselves.
14:25There's long been a myth that enslaved people built the pyramids.
14:29But the diary tells the true story.
14:31It mentions the food allotted to the workers, including portions of dates and honey,
14:37rare commodities in ancient Egypt.
14:39It tells us that those people were not slaves.
14:43They were free workers, and they were really skilled people.
14:46It's so extraordinary, because so many people like to say,
14:53we don't know how the pyramids were built.
14:55We don't understand how they were built.
14:57It's such a mystery.
14:58Here's somebody telling us how the pyramids are built.
15:02It's clear that the pyramids were made by Egyptians, not aliens or lost civilizations.
15:07That's right.
15:08In fact, there are no mysteries of ancient Egypt, just missing pieces of the puzzle.
15:13That's right.
15:14Now, Pierre and his team are looking for more puzzle pieces.
15:18In the surrounding hills, they've completely excavated 31 caves,
15:22a feat that has taken them over a decade.
15:25Teams of workers carefully excavate and brush sand into baskets and wheelbarrows
15:31to be removed from the cave and sifted.
15:35Along the way, they've discovered pottery made by Khufu's workers,
15:39museum-quality flint knives, and even rope from the ancient boats
15:43that looks like it could still be used today.
15:45Pierre leads me over to meet archaeologist Severin Marquis,
15:51who assists as a research engineer here at the site,
15:54investigating another critical clue to the pyramid's construction.
15:57Okay, so we have caves here, yeah?
16:00Yes, and now we are excavating the ramp, connecting the quarry to the entrance of these caves.
16:07Okay, so they built actually a ramp system up to the caves.
16:10Yeah, they needed ramp to place those big blocks of limestone in front of the caves
16:15to perfectly close them.
16:17This is a big deal. These ramps were built by the same people who constructed the pyramids.
16:23Hell, the blocks they carved and moved here are identical to what we see in Giza.
16:27Soaring nearly 500 feet, the Great Pyramid was the tallest skyscraper on Earth for thousands of years.
16:34And for much of that time, people have been arguing how the ancients elevated all those blocks.
16:40Well, here's your answer. They built ramps. We see them here,
16:44and there are remains of ramps discovered in Giza.
16:47The design of the pyramid ramp is still up for debate.
16:50Theories range from big old ramp, to zigzag, to corkscrew, to whatever you call this.
16:58And while we don't know the ramp's exact layout, here at Wadi al-Jarif,
17:02we can see firsthand that the actual pyramid workers themselves absolutely built and used them.
17:08So you're actually excavating, this is what, like the core of the ramp?
17:11Yeah, this is the core of the ramp. They place those blocks inside to make it stronger.
17:16But what is really interesting is that when we are cleaning those blocks,
17:20we are finding inscriptions that are identifying the teams that are doing the work.
17:25Incredible. Okay. All right, let's see what's here.
17:27Okay.
17:30We begin examining the ruined ramp to see what it might be able to tell us about the construction of
17:35the Great Pyramid. And I do mean, tell us.
17:43What is that? Oh my god, that's writing. Are you kidding me?
17:47Most of the time we have no writing.
18:01These are actual hieroglyphs in what, charcoal?
18:04Yeah, it's charcoal.
18:05We're excavating an ancient ramp at an Egyptian work site that was once used by the builders of
18:10the Great Pyramid of Khufu. And we just stumbled on a handwritten note they left behind.
18:16And it's a miracle it's still there because it's been written about 4,500 years ago.
18:22Come on.
18:23This is a Neb sign. It's Tawi. Neb Tawi, which means the lord of the two lands.
18:29It's clearly a designation of Khufu. And then to finish with,
18:34you have this cross to designate the Great One, which is part of workers.
18:39This cross signifies a group of workers?
18:41The group of workers.
18:42Called the Great Ones.
18:43The Great Ones, yeah.
18:44So, 4,500 years ago, a worker right here etched on this for the king, for Khufu.
18:53Yeah.
18:53That is really amazing. It really is. It blows my mind.
18:57To search for more writing, we leave no stone unturned. Literally.
19:01Empty block. Yeah.
19:07One cannot win every time.
19:10Right. You know.
19:11I feel like we're doing scratch cards at the liquor store or something.
19:14Nothing. Zero. I got nothing on that one.
19:16But eventually, we get lucky.
19:28Uh-huh.
19:28Hey.
19:29Yeah.
19:30Yeah.
19:30Winner.
19:31Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:36Oh, my gosh.
19:37You will stay with us, I think.
19:41I'm hired?
19:41Hey.
19:43I think it's a symbol of a group of 10 workers.
19:46Maybe three flowers.
19:47They're taking the time to mark even these small blocks.
19:51I don't know why, but they seem to feel necessary to sign the work, to show that they were doing something.
19:59Why does anyone sign anything, really? It's to leave their mark behind.
20:03By the way, it worked.
20:04Yeah, it worked.
20:05Right?
20:05They left their mark, they left their signature, and we now found it.
20:09Yeah, yeah.
20:10We don't have any royal inscriptions of Khufu, but the workers that built the pyramid, their mark remains.
20:16The team of the flower is there.
20:18Wow.
20:20Team of the flower.
20:21Nice work, guys.
20:24Here, we have the signatures of the pyramid builders themselves, on ramps exactly like the ones they built at Giza.
20:32But one huge, heavy question remains. How the hell did they carve and move millions of two-ton blocks
20:38up ramps like these, without even the use of the wheel? One expert on Pierre's team believes he's
20:45discovered the answer, using only the tools available to the ancient Egyptians.
20:50Hello.
20:50Bonjour.
20:51Hello.
20:52I'm Josh.
20:52Claire.
20:53Claire, nice to meet you.
20:54I'm Frank.
20:54Frank, a pleasure.
20:56In a nearby quarry, I meet Frank Burgos and his colleague, Dr. Claire Newton.
21:02Okay, you are a stonemason, correct?
21:04Yes.
21:04Okay, so I have a lot of questions for you.
21:06Because people are mystified by the construction of the pyramids.
21:11And that really begins with the question of how all of these millions of blocks were cut and moved.
21:17Let's start with tools.
21:18We know that people were coming to this part of the world trying to find copper.
21:22What were they doing with this copper?
21:24They are coming out here to get copper to make this.
21:29So this is a copper chisel that Frank made.
21:34And what were they hitting this with?
21:36They were hitting it with wood mallets like this.
21:41So when you came up here with these tools to try to replicate this, how did it go?
21:46Not good at all.
21:48Not good?
21:49Every day, the wood mallet would explode.
21:54Okay.
21:54I estimated it would take 80 mallets to carve a single block.
22:00That's not good.
22:02That's a lot of trips to Home Depot.
22:03That's a problem, yes.
22:06Okay, so clearly they must have been doing something different.
22:09Yes.
22:10To figure out the answer, Frank didn't have to look far.
22:13We're standing in an ancient quarry where workers carved limestone blocks identical to
22:19those that the Great Pyramid was built from.
22:21Some of them are still hanging out of the walls, ready to be popped out like ice cubes.
22:26This is an unfinished block.
22:31Yes, they started extracting it, but they never finished.
22:34It's really something to see this in situ.
22:36You can imagine people right here.
22:38Yes.
22:39And along the bottom of the block, Frank noticed strange stone trenches.
22:45Okay, so what are these little reservoirs for?
22:48The reservoirs here gave me the idea to use water.
22:51Limestone is water soluble, meaning water makes it softer.
22:55So what happened when you added water and then chiseled?
22:58Once I added water, I was able to chisel down five inches in 10 minutes,
23:03and the mallet was fine.
23:04It took you 10 minutes?
23:08Unbelievable.
23:09So, just add water. That's the secret.
23:13Using this method, Frank was able to work like an Egyptian.
23:17And further down the hill is the fruit of his labor.
23:21Frank, what have you done?
23:24Did you carve this?
23:25Yes.
23:25This weighs how much?
23:27It weighs two tons.
23:29Two tons.
23:30You carved a 4,000-pound block.
23:32And that weight is about the average weight of the blocks inside the Great Pyramid, right?
23:37Exactly.
23:37It took Frank four days with four men to carve the limestone,
23:42but now they had a building block of the pyramid.
23:45However, he still didn't know how the Egyptians could move two million of these by hand,
23:50up the steep incline of a ramp without use of a wheel.
23:54After several failed attempts, the possible answer presented itself from where else but the
24:00ancients themselves, whispering to Frank through a famous tomb painting, which depicts workers
24:06moving a giant statue across the sand using something called a sledge.
24:10With this much weight on top, a sledge will easily sink
24:28into sand and get stuck.
24:30But Frank believed that by placing wooden slats, which would have been easily made by the Egyptians,
24:35ahead of the sledge, that should allow it to move across the sand without sinking.
24:40But even that wasn't enough to keep this huge weight moving uphill.
24:45Fortunately, Frank has a new plan.
24:48He noticed this detail in the tomb drawing.
24:51A man on the statue pouring water on the ground ahead of the sledge.
24:57By wetting down the slats, Frank hopes it will further reduce friction that would slow the block down.
25:02So you're saying that if we wet these slats down, that a group of people can pull a 4,000-pound block up a hill?
25:11I'm confident, 100%.
25:13I mean, look, if this works, you can build the pyramids.
25:17Do you want to try it?
25:18Let's do it.
25:21Time for this experiment to go from being theoretical to back-achingly real.
25:26We're about to try to build a pyramid, or at least a tiny part of one.
25:30Hold here. Uh-huh. Okay.
25:33We begin by securing the block to the sledge with rope.
25:36Like this? Okay.
25:38Next, we attach two parallel ropes that we'll use to drag the two tons uphill
25:43on a more than 10-degree angle to mimic ramps at the pyramid.
25:48Yeah, we're going to need a little help.
25:50This gentleman will be directing the team.
26:10Our ragtag 30-man team lines up into place, a far cry from the hundreds of men that likely populated ancient Egyptian work gangs.
26:19Now, before the starting gun goes off, we need to apply our secret ingredient.
26:23Water is poured over the slats and the runners on the sledge.
26:27Finally, beams are brought in to lift the sledge out of the sand as we make our first pull.
26:32This seems improbable. It's a pretty steep grade.
26:42Okay, Frank, are we ready?
26:43Yeah.
26:46We establish a finish line hundreds of feet away at the top of the ramp.
26:50But in my mind, there's every chance this block isn't going to move an inch.
26:55Time to find out.
26:56Oh!
27:02Okay, here we go!
27:03There goes nothing.
27:10Oh my god.
27:24It's moving!
27:26Oh!
27:28We're on our way to glory at the Egyptian dig site of Wadi al-Jarraf, where French
27:38stonemason Frank Burgos and 30 of his colleagues have been wondering how thousands of two-ton
27:44limestone blocks could have been moved uphill to build the Great Pyramid.
27:49This is us finding out.
28:19Against all common sense, 30 untrained men have been able to run with a 4,000-pound stone,
28:30several hundred feet up a 10-degree ramp, thanks to ingenious ancient engineering.
28:46What we did here at Wadi al-Jarraf was a big victory.
28:50Using the oldest papyrus ever found, the crew here has been able to show that even just
28:55a hundred teams like ours could have been enough to move the 350 stones a day necessary to build
29:02the Great Pyramid in the 30 years of Khufu's reign.
29:11But before I can start scouting sites for the Great Pyramid of Gates, I'm called back to the
29:16genuine article.
29:17A few days ago back at Giza, I was working with archaeologist Soren Sinbeck to perform the first
29:23ever 3D scan of a mysterious set of subterranean passages just steps from the base of the Great Pyramid.
29:30And I just received word from Soren's team that they are almost done processing the data.
29:37In the meantime, there's one more mystery to unravel.
29:40We now know how the Egyptians carved and moved the stones.
29:44How on earth did they align them by hand to create the mathematical perfection that is the Great Pyramid?
29:50It's time to find out.
29:52Let's punch it.
29:58From Wadi al-Jarraf, I drive 150 dusty miles north to Giza.
30:02And reconnect with archaeologist Mark Lehner and Soren Sinbeck in the shadow of the Great Pyramid.
30:10Okay, so we've talked a lot about the who, Khufu.
30:13Yep.
30:13And we've talked a lot about the what, what's going on inside this pyramid.
30:17And hopefully we'll get some more answers to that as the data comes in.
30:20But now we've got to turn to the other huge mystery that dominates this pyramid.
30:24We've just learned how they cut and moved the blocks.
30:27But how did the ancient Egyptians arrange them so perfectly?
30:30Because there are people who would say it's impossible.
30:34The alignment is too perfect.
30:35There's no way we could do that today.
30:36That's right.
30:36There's no way we could even do it today.
30:37The alignment is too perfect.
30:40I mean, just look at this thing.
30:42The Great Pyramid looms 45 stories above Giza's desert floor.
30:46And yet the whole thing is oriented to the cardinal directions of north,
30:50south, east, and west within one-fifteenth of one degree.
30:54The four sides at the base are the same length within two inches.
30:58The vertical alignment from the center of the base to the tip is nearly perfect,
31:03with almost no deviation.
31:05Oh, and the whole thing sits on a foundation the size of 10 football fields
31:09that is level from one end to the other within about one inch.
31:14Did I mention the Egyptians didn't have algebra, calculus, or, you know, the wheel?
31:19It is so impressive that many people simply aren't willing to believe that ancient engineers pulled
31:25this off without alien assistance or some lost advanced civilization.
31:30But the truth, the real truth, isn't out there.
31:34It's down here.
31:34The building site is right at your feet here.
31:37And that's where many of the biggest clues to how the work was processed.
31:41There's all these things going on here on the floor.
31:44Like this?
31:44Like this, yeah.
31:45Strange things.
31:46Something was once there.
31:47Okay.
31:48So once the pyramid was done, these would have been buried under a pavement?
31:52Yes.
31:53Never meant to be seen.
31:55Without the floor that was once covering all of this,
31:57we're seeing evidence of the pyramid's construction everywhere.
32:01Dozens of mysterious square and round holes dotting the perimeter.
32:06The long, hidden fingerprints of the builders who toiled here.
32:09It is a gold mine of information.
32:12So the question is, what were they used for?
32:15They must have something to do with the layout of the pyramid.
32:18Thanks to scanners like the one we deployed in the tunnels,
32:21Mark and Sorin may be close to learning exactly how.
32:25By building the first ever 3D map of the Great Pyramid's full foundation.
32:30Revealing a complete digital look at the long ignored marks of the pyramid builders
32:35for the first time.
32:36Okay, I'm dying to see it.
32:38Should we look at it?
32:38Let's go.
32:39Okay, what do we got?
32:40Here we go.
32:40Moment of truth.
32:43Whoa!
32:43Ooh, look at that.
32:44Look at that!
32:46The detail is extraordinary.
32:49So this scanning didn't just hit the ground.
32:52You actually scanned the faces of the pyramid as well.
32:54Yeah, we scanned the entire pyramid.
32:56It's amazing.
32:57Really powerful.
32:58That's incredible.
33:00But it's the scans of the post holes that we're here to see.
33:04Take a look at this.
33:05You barely notice them when you're out there on the ground.
33:08But here they send out very clearly.
33:09Oh, look at how they jump out on the scan.
33:12You can see that's where we are now.
33:14Yeah.
33:15And we have the holes coming in dot, dot, dot, dot.
33:18Look at that.
33:18They are in an almost perfect line there.
33:21Yeah.
33:21Yeah.
33:21Yeah.
33:22So we didn't know for sure until we're seeing this.
33:25Yeah, it's a post hole.
33:26So it was carved to hold a post presumably.
33:29So this is evidence of how they did a survey.
33:33Yeah.
33:33This is their survey system.
33:35They're inventing a survey system to build the Great Pyramid.
33:43It's a post hole.
33:45This is evidence of how they did a survey.
33:48Yeah.
33:48This is their survey system.
33:50They're inventing a survey system to build the Great Pyramid.
33:53At the Great Pyramid of Giza, archaeologists Soren Sinbeck and Mark Lehner are deciphering
34:00a network of post holes around the perimeter that appear to reveal the secret of its remarkable
34:06precision.
34:07What Soren is recording is the very final layout of the pyramid.
34:12The stake holes, the lines, when they wanted to get it just right.
34:16The ancient builders would place posts beyond the corners of the pyramid,
34:20then use ropes to connect them, pulling the lines taut and using simple measuring tools
34:25to create a perfect right angle.
34:28The other post holes along the sides are there to help that guideline delineate the entire outline
34:33of the pyramid.
34:34This grid of posts and ropes were used with other tools available to the ancients,
34:39like plum bobs, chisels, and saws, to perfectly square, align, and level the pyramid's base
34:46to within fractions of an inch.
34:47When they got it exactly right, they put a line there, that's where they want the corner to be.
34:53The answer to all the debate about how the pyramids were built
34:57has been sitting, quite literally, under our feet.
35:00What we are seeing here, in a sense, is somebody framing a house.
35:05Exactly. And to do it more accurately than anybody had ever done it, any other pharaoh,
35:10or his workers, nobody had done it this precisely.
35:15Even Khufu's heirs had trouble repeating his feat.
35:18Next door, his son Khafre's pyramid exhibits twisting on the edges as it approaches its apex.
35:26And as to how Khufu's builders perfectly leveled the massive half a million square foot plaza
35:32under and around the Great Pyramid, the answer is, they didn't.
35:37Examinations reveal they left a huge, raised core of natural bedrock for the pyramid to be
35:43built on top of, the way a dentist might prep a tooth for a crown.
35:47It probably is a way of locking the pyramid down onto the bedrock plateau.
35:52All they had to do was level the walkway around it.
35:56So the Great Pyramid is no gift from outer space or the work of Atlanteans,
36:00just ancient Egyptian ingenuity.
36:06And nowhere is the Egyptians' precision more apparent than in the so-called trial passages
36:11that Soren and I explored earlier. Constructed at the same time as the pyramid itself,
36:16they're believed to be a test model for the tomb's interior. We scanned them to learn if the tunnels
36:22match, and more importantly, to see if any deviations could point us toward possible hidden passages
36:28or chambers within the pyramid, such as the pharaoh's treasure-filled tomb.
36:38Early the next morning, I receive word that Soren has finished processing the scan data,
36:43so I rush to see what we've uncovered.
36:47Soren has also brought along Joe Steele, a specialist in the cutting-edge field of augmented imaging.
36:54Last time I saw you, we were in the bowels of the British Museum.
36:57And here we are today.
36:58Joe and I worked together to identify a sarcophagus that might have once held the body of Alexander
37:04the Great.
37:05Just perfect.
37:06We're meeting in the best places.
37:08Absolutely.
37:09Soren, a few days ago, we scanned this so-called trial passage.
37:12So the million-dollar question, tell me you have great data.
37:15We've got great data.
37:16Yes.
37:17So I processed and cleaned what we had, and then I handed over to Joe,
37:21who did fantastic augmented reality visuals that we can take into the Great Pyramid
37:27and compare directly to what we see.
37:29Okay, so we're going to be able to compare those passages to what's inside the pyramid.
37:32Well, we haven't been in there yet, so I'm excited to see if it works.
37:36Let's go in and see what we got.
37:37Let's go.
37:37Come on.
37:41We quickly make our way to the robber's tunnel to re-enter the pyramid.
37:45All right.
37:46Okay, here we go.
37:47Moment of truth.
38:02Okay, here we are at the main intersection inside the Great Pyramid of Giza.
38:06We've got our descending passage that starts at the main entrance, and this is where it meets
38:11the ascending passage that goes all the way up to that king's chamber.
38:14Exactly.
38:14And with those big granite blocks there.
38:16With those terrifying granite plug blocks, yes.
38:19So is this where we should check the scan data?
38:21Yeah.
38:21Yeah?
38:21It's the trial passage.
38:22It's a model of something.
38:23This is what it models.
38:24For sure.
38:25Okay, let's see if it's a match.
38:26Here we go.
38:31All right, is this our spa?
38:33Okay, first of all, everybody comfortable?
38:36Sure.
38:36I've been comfier.
38:37A little tight in here.
38:38Okay.
38:39All right, Joe?
38:41Yeah.
38:41So I'm going to load in Soren's data from the trial passage so you both scan together.
38:45Right.
38:45Yeah, why is it Soren's data?
38:47I mean, I was there.
38:48I helped, didn't I?
38:49I like to think of it as our data, Joe.
38:51Okay, fair enough.
38:52I'm going to load in your data.
38:54Thank you, thank you, Joe.
38:55You're going to overlay.
38:56Overlay, exactly.
38:57And we're going to see if it matches up.
38:58I haven't done this before, so I hope this works.
39:00Yeah, well, I do too.
39:01Believe me.
39:02Let's see.
39:02Let's go.
39:04Wow.
39:04Oh my god.
39:06Wait, are you kidding me?
39:07So it's lining up perfectly.
39:08Wait a minute.
39:09This wireframe is the data we collected in the trial passage?
39:12Correct.
39:12You sure?
39:13Yeah.
39:13I mean, it's just like what we're seeing.
39:15It looks perfect.
39:17Wait, what?
39:18When you look at it, it's actually hard to tell that it's two different data sets because
39:22they are directly on top of each other.
39:24It's literally the blueprint.
39:26It is.
39:26Yeah.
39:27It is the blueprint of what we are looking at.
39:30This is huge.
39:31Explicit proof that the trial passages outside were the model for the pyramid's interior construction.
39:38They aren't just similar.
39:39They're clones.
39:41I've never seen anything like this.
39:43If builders today attempted to do something like this, to build two identical sets of passages
39:49that were this exactly aligned, it would be hard, even with machinery and computers.
39:53Yeah.
39:54And 4,600 years ago, they just did it.
39:56They just did it.
39:58It is a 100% perfect match.
40:00It's a 100% perfect match, except for one difference.
40:04There's a difference.
40:05There is a difference.
40:06There's something different in the data.
40:08Absolutely.
40:09We've got to look up to see that.
40:11We have to look up.
40:12Okay.
40:13Wait a minute.
40:14What is that?
40:20Egypt may be famous for the pyramids, but there is another feat of balance and
40:24engineering that takes place on the streets of Cairo every morning.
40:31How hard could that be?
40:32I'll find out soon, but the bread starts its journey over here.
40:36Ready?
40:38How do you say oven mitt in Arabic?
40:41Then I decide to put it as close to my scalp as possible.
40:44Just like riding a bike, but with 200 loaves of bread on your head.
40:48Okay, here we go.
40:48I'm sorry.
40:50I'm sorry.
40:51I'm sorry.
40:52Get out of the streets.
40:54I got it.
40:55I got it.
40:56How are you?
40:57Good to see you.
40:57Fresh bread, everybody.
40:58You want some bread?
40:59Good.
41:00It's for you as much as you want.
41:01Let's get out of some falafel.
41:05Oh, yeah.
41:05That was a good trade.
41:07Oh, God.
41:07A speed bump?
41:08A speed bump?
41:14Saved it.
41:15Mostly.
41:18I'm inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, where augmented reality has just shown us that a tunnel
41:32system dug in the bedrock outside is a perfect match for the interior passages.
41:38And that one thing that doesn't line up?
41:40It could be the key to finding hidden chambers within the pyramid.
41:44There's a vertical tunnel in the trial passage scan.
41:47So this vertical shaft was there in the darkness of the trial passage.
41:51Oh, yes, it was.
41:52But it's not here.
41:54So wait a minute.
41:55Where is it?
41:56It should be right here behind this rock.
41:58We now know that the trial passage is a model for this pyramid.
42:01Yeah.
42:02And yet there's a missing passage.
42:04They model something which is not here.
42:07Or which is not visible.
42:08Which is not visible.
42:09Right.
42:10Exactly.
42:10We could be looking at a lost passage in the Great Pyramid.
42:13It is a lost passage in a sense.
42:15It was either one that was never built or one that we can't see.
42:18I've got another way of showing you guys how perfectly matching the trial passage data is
42:26with the tunnel system we're in.
42:27Okay.
42:27I extrapolated the measurements that Soren gave me into a 3D model.
42:31And let's have a look.
42:33So there it's coming in.
42:33Wow.
42:34It snaps.
42:35So a trial passage in blue, Great Pyramid in gold.
42:38Correct.
42:38Yeah.
42:39It is a 100% match apart from this one section.
42:44Missing the tunnel.
42:45So what the hell is that?
42:47What the hell is that?
42:48Maybe it was a planned escape tunnel.
42:50Yeah.
42:51Or it's something that was changed.
42:52If the trial passage is like a key to the Great Pyramid,
42:56that key is telling us about something that we don't see.
43:01We know that several years ago, a non-invasive scan may have detected a void within the Great Pyramid,
43:07roughly the size of a bus, somewhere above the Grand Gallery.
43:11And here, we have a mysterious vertical shaft that heads in that exact same direction.
43:16Given what we've learned about the Egyptians' exacting precision, this hardly feels accidental.
43:23If this does lead somewhere, it leads up.
43:26Yeah.
43:26Is it possible this is pointing us to that void?
43:29Yeah, that's very intriguing, Josh.
43:31Somewhere, amidst the six million tons of stone above us, is a potentially immense find.
43:38A possible passage into the unknown.
43:41But the cutting edge technology that revealed this, as well as the potential void above,
43:46can't yet show us the full story.
43:48It will have to be the next technological breakthrough that will finally tell us what's inside,
43:55and possibly unmask the location of a lost chamber.
43:59It's incredible. I've never seen anything like this.
44:02I've processed thousands of scans, and they could never ever match up as precisely as this.
44:07And that is emblematic of this entire building project.
44:10Yes.
44:11It is all about precision.
44:13This is innovation, if ever there was.
44:16Yeah. Unbelievable.
44:17We've answered one big question here, and directly above our heads, we have a new mystery.
44:22That's how it always is with this pyramid.
44:25Exactly.
44:25The Great Pyramid of Giza.
44:27Answers and mysteries.
44:29Well done, Josh.
44:30Amazing.
44:30Well done, Simon.
44:31Amazing job.
44:32This is incredible.
44:35Can I get out of here now?
44:36Yeah.
44:37Let's get some fresh air.
44:38Come on.
44:38The Great Pyramid is the closest thing to eternity that humanity has ever created,
44:47bridging the sun and the earth in a monument which has endured for millennia.
44:53To move within its passages, to be humbled in its grand gallery,
44:58to stand within the king's chamber is to join for a moment with that eternity.
45:03The structure seems to radiate mystery and invite conspiracy.
45:09But thanks to the hard work of passionate archaeologists, answers are now within our grasp.
45:15We've mapped its interior top to bottom, learned firsthand how its blocks were carved, moved, and aligned.
45:23Cutting-edge scans have hinted at the possibility of unseen voids and hidden passages within the pyramid,
45:30tantalizing possibilities for future explorers.
45:34And thanks to the discovery of the world's oldest diary and some long-forgotten graffiti,
45:40we can now reach across time to meet the builders themselves.
45:45Not aliens or Atlanteans or some lost advanced civilization, but Egyptians.
45:51After 5,000 years, it's time to give them the credit they so richly deserve.
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