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Short filmTranscript
00:00Conclusion of my mission to tackle the mysteries of Egypt's Great Pyramid.
00:05Okay, here we go!
00:08On the shores of the Red Sea, a long-lost cave contains the secrets of the pyramid builders in their own words.
00:16This document is...
00:18The oldest writing on paper ever found.
00:20Here's somebody telling us how the pyramids are built.
00:23And a daring experiment could answer once and for all how massive two-ton blocks were moved by hand to construct a world wonder.
00:33If this works, you can build the pyramids.
00:36Then, the stunning secret behind the pyramid's perfect alignment.
00:41This is their survey system to build the Great Pyramid.
00:44And the groundbreaking results of a 3D scan to map the inside of the Great Pyramid.
00:50I've never seen anything like this.
00:52Could it rewrite history and reveal the hidden tomb of a pharaoh?
00:57Where is it? It should be right here behind this rock.
01:01Find out right now on Expedition Unknown.
01:05Oh, my God, that's writing.
01:08Oh! It's working!
01:10Wait a minute. What is that?
01:12We could be looking at a lost passage from the Great Pyramid.
01:15It is a lost passage.
01:16The past is all around us.
01:23Oh, my God!
01:24It goes on forever!
01:26A world of mystery.
01:28Come on! Look at that!
01:31Danger.
01:32Hang on!
01:35And adventure.
01:36It's just straight down!
01:38I gotta get a new job.
01:43I travel to the far corners of the earth to uncover where legends end.
01:48We got it!
01:50Yes!
01:50And history begins.
01:52Woo-hoo!
01:53Here we go!
01:54I'm Josh Gates, and this is Expedition Unknown.
02:02It's very shallow here.
02:04Yes.
02:05Only a few feet deep.
02:08Follow me.
02:09Right behind you.
02:10It may not look like it, but I'm in Egypt, on a mission to solve the mysteries of the Great Pyramid,
02:16the last standing of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
02:20It's a monumental quest that's led me far from the deserts of Giza, all the way here to the shores of the Red Sea.
02:27Dr. Muhammad Abed al-Mageed has promised me that the secrets to the pyramid's construction can be found here, underwater.
02:36Josh, look at this.
02:37Huge piles of stones!
02:41Is that man-made?
02:42Is this a wall?
02:44Yes.
02:45It's a part of a harbor.
02:47This was a harbor!
02:48Not just any harbor.
02:50This is the oldest man-made harbor ever discovered.
02:54It's built by Khufu 4,500 years ago.
03:00The man I've been chasing, the pharaoh Khufu, was the second ruler of Egypt's fourth dynasty.
03:06He reigned for 30 years, and when he was done, he was to be interred in the grandest tomb in history, the most enigmatic building on Earth.
03:16And that's where our mystery begins.
03:19When the pyramid was first broken into by tomb raiders in the 9th century, they couldn't find Khufu or his riches.
03:25There's no shortage of debate and wild conspiracy theories about this ancient wonder.
03:32Everything from alien intervention to lost advanced civilizations.
03:37After all, people continue to wonder, how on Earth was this 45-story skyscraper constructed without modern tools or even the wheel?
03:46How is it so perfectly aligned?
03:49And could there be hidden chambers inside that might even conceal Khufu's lost, treasure-filled tomb?
03:56To learn the truth, I met with renowned Egyptologist Dr. Mark Lehner.
04:02Acquiring exclusive access to the pyramid, we entered through the so-called Robber's Tunnel.
04:07Look at this. Wow.
04:10From here, we tracked our position in real time as we mapped every inch of the labyrinth of interior passages.
04:16So this is where things get weird, right?
04:18We've got two passages, original passages, moving in two different directions in the pyramid.
04:24We made our way into the so-called King's Chamber.
04:29Look at this room.
04:31It is beyond impressive.
04:32But as for the king himself...
04:35So one glaring problem here.
04:38No Khufu.
04:39Right.
04:40From there, we explored areas of the interior closed off to the public.
04:46Descending almost 100 feet through the Egyptian bedrock to an unfinished subterranean chamber.
04:51What the hell is this room for?
04:53I don't know.
04:54Really, nobody knows.
04:56The room here was clearly abandoned by the builders.
04:59But is there more to find?
05:01Could there be other chambers inside the Great Pyramid?
05:05You know, Josh, there was a time when I would have said, that's doubtful.
05:08But now I'm not so sure.
05:10Really?
05:12Several years ago, cutting-edge technology appeared to image a strange void above a chamber known as the Grand Gallery.
05:19But short of dynamiting the top off the Great Pyramid, there's no way to prove it.
05:24Or is there?
05:24Right next to the pyramid, I met up with my old friend, Danish archaeologist, Soren Sinbeck, at a strange set of tunnels to nowhere.
05:33Does it look familiar?
05:34Look what you're standing and what we're standing on.
05:36Wait a minute, you're right.
05:37This is like being in the Great Pyramid.
05:39The ancient builders appeared to have constructed a model of the pyramid's tunnels here, before carving the real thing.
05:46This is just like being inside the pyramid. It's incredible.
05:50To determine if these so-called trial passages actually match the ones in the pyramid, we performed the first ever 3D digital scan inside.
05:59Look at that. That's amazing.
06:00A scan we hope might also reveal hidden passages or chambers within the pyramid itself.
06:07We need a few days to process it. Once we've done that, we can go and compare it to the Great Pyramid.
06:11Amazing.
06:13While we wait for the results of the scan, I've driven 150 miles to the Red Sea to tackle the mystery of how the architects of the pyramid carved and moved more than 2 million 2-ton blocks into the sky.
06:26And now, the first puzzle piece is right in front of me.
06:30Unbelievable.
06:32Oldest harbor in the world. Incredible.
06:37This harbor wall is more than 500 feet long and once stood more than 10 feet high.
06:43I follow Dr. El-Maguid inside the wall, where we find more evidence of an ancient port.
06:50Look.
06:52Oh, right there. What is that?
06:56Huge piece of stone here.
06:58And look. It has a circular opening.
07:01This is an anchor.
07:03Oh, this is a ship's anchor.
07:05We get to work cleaning the growth off this stone, and soon we can make out features from when it was last used.
07:12Look at that. You can really get a sense of it now.
07:17You can see where the rope crossed here.
07:19Based on its design, archaeologists have dated the anchor, along with more than a hundred others that have been found here, to the time of Khufu.
07:37When we think of the pyramids, we think of Giza. We don't think of being all the way out here on the Red Sea.
07:44So why do we have boats and a harbor here during the time of Khufu?
07:50This is where it all starts. Without this harbor, there is no great pyramids.
07:56Why?
07:57The answers are on land.
07:59Back on land?
08:00You have to meet a colleague of mine, hereby.
08:03Got it!
08:04What we found here is just the tip of the iceberg.
08:07Anxious to meet Muhammad's colleague, I return to shore and dry off.
08:14Then jump into my 4x4 for a short trip back into the desert.
08:19Okay, GPS says it should be up on the right.
08:22I don't exactly see a road.
08:24It's fine. Roads are overrated.
08:34This might get bumpy. Hang on.
08:37After only a few minutes in the heat, I glimpse what appears to be a mirage.
08:47Look at this. Tent city.
08:51More than 50 of them, dotting the otherwise barren landscape.
08:59And at the heart of this compound, a familiar face.
09:03Hey, Josh.
09:04The chair of the Egyptology department at the Sorbonne University in Paris, Dr. Pierre Tallet.
09:10Nice to meet you again.
09:12Great to see you.
09:12Thanks to you.
09:13Last time I saw you, we were in the desert in the Sinai.
09:16Yes.
09:17He and I first met exploring caves in the Sinai when I was investigating the story of Moses.
09:23And here we are again, at a site where Pierre is leading a team of nearly 100 people in another desert.
09:29At the Sorbonne, my colleague called me the man of the desert.
09:32You are the man of the desert.
09:34Okay, so I have just come from this ancient harbor, Khufu's harbor.
09:38Where are we now?
09:40We are still in Khufu's harbor.
09:42This is part of the harbor complex?
09:43Yeah, it's part of the harbor, even if it's three miles from the coast.
09:46Wow.
09:46Yeah.
09:46Okay, so what's it doing here?
09:48They were going to Sinai to extract copper.
09:51They needed copper to be able to cut the stone for the pyramid.
09:56Copper mines across the Red Sea were essential to making the tools used to build the Great Pyramid.
10:03So Khufu would send boats from here at Wadi al-Jarif across the Red Sea to the coast of the Sinai Peninsula,
10:09where mined copper was then ferried all the way back.
10:12It would then be loaded onto mules for the 150-mile trip north to the pyramid at Giza.
10:19At the end of the expedition, they didn't want to bring back the boat,
10:22so they let them here in caves, and they closed the cave to protect them.
10:27To hide them.
10:28Since the boats themselves were valuable commodities,
10:31between trips, the Egyptians stored and hid them inland here to keep them from being stolen.
10:38And I know that after you started working here,
10:40my understanding is that you found something very special.
10:43We found something that totally transformed what we know about the pyramids.
10:48Something extraordinary.
10:50Can you show me?
10:51Yeah, of course.
10:55We walk out into the sweltering desert.
10:58In fact, it's so hot, I half expect to see two suns.
11:01It's like Star Wars out here.
11:03Pierre leads me over to a row of hand-carved caves,
11:08which, when he first found them, were sealed tightly by immense blocks of cut limestone,
11:13curiously similar to the blocks of the Great Pyramid.
11:16Immediately after the beginning of the excavation, we find small pieces of papyrus.
11:22And for people who don't know, papyrus is basically ancient paper made of plant material.
11:26Yeah, it's made of plant material.
11:28And where did you make the find?
11:29In this pit, right there.
11:31Right here?
11:31Between the two blocks.
11:32Okay.
11:33It was the last place to excavate.
11:34What did you find?
11:35I brought a copy of what we found to show you.
11:40Oh my word.
11:42Look at this.
11:43You found a complete roll of papyrus.
11:46Yes, and actually, we have found about 50 rolls of papyrus inside this pit.
11:51Five-zero, 50?
11:51Five-zero, 50, which was really incredible.
11:55And so, what is it?
11:57We have here the diary of a man whose name is Merer.
12:02And so, who is Merer?
12:04Merer is a small official, probably a sailor, and the head of about 40 men.
12:10And this papyrus is giving information about the building of the Great Pyramid of Rufu.
12:16These documents tell us about the construction of the pyramid.
12:19Yeah.
12:19Do you want to know what it says?
12:21I'm dying to know what it says.
12:23You can see this small pyramid, which is a symbol which is put at the end of the name.
12:29This is the symbol for the Great Pyramid?
12:30Yeah, this is the pyramid.
12:31The world's first pyramid emoji?
12:33Yeah.
12:34Okay, of course.
12:35Awesome.
12:36Awesome.
12:36So, that means that this is being written during the life of Khufu?
12:40Yeah, it is at the end of the ring.
12:44But it means that...
12:45So, wait a minute.
12:46Wait a minute.
12:46That means that this document is...
12:49The oldest writing on paper ever found.
12:52This is...
12:52Sorry.
12:53This is the oldest written document on Earth?
12:56Yes, it is.
12:57So, this is 2,500 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls?
13:02Yes, and it is the Red Sea Scrolls.
13:04The Red Sea Scrolls?
13:05Yes, the Sea Scrolls.
13:06This is extraordinary, Pierre.
13:09And what these scrolls reveal is historic.
13:13For centuries, one of the great debates about the pyramid's construction
13:16was how the building's outer blocks were transported to Giza
13:20from a remote quarry in a place called Tura.
13:23For example, here, the team is sailing from the Pyramid of Khufu,
13:28and then it is sailing upstream to go to the quarry of Tura,
13:34spending the night, and here you have a symbol for sleeping.
13:38It literally tells us what they're doing, where they're working,
13:40where they're sleeping.
13:41Yeah.
13:42And the kicker?
13:43Merer's diary solves the mystery of how these blocks made it to Giza
13:47by revealing that the limestone was transported there by boat,
13:51where workers re-channeled the Nile to build artificial lakes,
13:55allowing them to float the blocks right up to the edge of the construction site.
14:00He's sailing to this place, and you have these whole boats.
14:05I mean, that's it?
14:06You have everything?
14:07You have everything.
14:07I mean, we know that they're cutting blocks,
14:10they're putting them on boats,
14:11they're moving them down the Nile,
14:13they're even moving them right up next to the pyramid.
14:16Everything is here.
14:16Including the nature of the workers themselves.
14:20There's long been a myth that enslaved people built the pyramids, but the diary tells the true story.
14:27It mentions the food allotted to the workers, including portions of dates and honey, rare commodities in ancient Egypt.
14:34It tells us, those people were not slaves.
14:37They were free workers, and they were really skilled people.
14:42It's so extraordinary, because so many people like to say,
14:47we don't know how the pyramids were built.
14:50We don't understand how they were built.
14:52It's such a mystery.
14:53Here's somebody telling us how the pyramids are built.
14:57It's clear that the pyramids were made by Egyptians, not aliens or lost civilization.
15:02In fact, there are no mysteries of ancient Egypt, just missing pieces of the puzzle.
15:07That's right.
15:09Now, Pierre and his team are looking for more puzzle pieces.
15:13In the surrounding hills, they've completely excavated 31 caves, a feat that has taken them over a decade.
15:21Teams of workers carefully excavate and brush sand into baskets and wheelbarrows,
15:26to be removed from the cave and sifted.
15:28Along the way, they've discovered pottery made by Khufu's workers, museum-quality flint knives,
15:36and even rope from the ancient boats that looks like it could still be used today.
15:42Pierre leads me over to meet archaeologist Severin Marquis,
15:45who assists as a research engineer here at the site,
15:49investigating another critical clue to the pyramids' construction.
15:53Okay, so we have caves here, yeah?
15:56Yes, and now we are excavating the ramp, connecting the quarry to the entrance of these caves.
16:02Okay, so they built actually a ramp system up to the caves?
16:06Yeah, they needed ramps to place those big blocks of limestone in front of the caves to perfectly close them.
16:12This is a big deal.
16:14These ramps were built by the same people who constructed the pyramids.
16:18Hell, the blocks they carved and moved here are identical to what we see in Giza.
16:22Soaring nearly 500 feet, the Great Pyramid was the tallest skyscraper on Earth for thousands of years.
16:29And for much of that time, people have been arguing how the ancients elevated all those blocks.
16:35Well, here's your answer.
16:37They built ramps.
16:38We see them here, and there are remains of ramps discovered in Giza.
16:42The design of the pyramid ramp is still up for debate.
16:45Theories range from big old ramp, to zigzag, to corkscrew, to whatever you call this.
16:53And while we don't know the ramp's exact layout, here at Wadi Al-Jarif, we can see firsthand that the actual pyramid workers themselves absolutely built and used them.
17:03So you're actually excavating, this is what, like the core of the ramp?
17:06Yeah, this is the core of the ramp.
17:08They place those blocks inside to make it stronger.
17:12But what is really interesting is that when we are cleaning those blocks, we are finding inscriptions that are identifying the teams that are doing the work.
17:20Incredible.
17:20Okay.
17:21All right, let's see what's here.
17:22Okay.
17:25We begin examining the ruined ramp to see what it might be able to tell us about the construction of the Great Pyramid.
17:31And I do mean, tell us.
17:33What is that?
17:39Oh, my God, that's writing.
17:41Are you kidding me?
17:49What is that?
17:50Oh, my God, that's writing.
17:52Are you kidding me?
17:54Most of the time, we have no writing.
17:56These are actual hieroglyphs in what, charcoal?
17:59Yeah, it's charcoal.
18:00We're excavating an ancient ramp at an Egyptian work site that was once used by the builders of the Great Pyramid of Khufu.
18:08And we just stumbled on a handwritten note they left behind.
18:11And it's a miracle it's still there because it's been written about 4,500 years ago.
18:17Come on.
18:18This is a Neb sign.
18:20It's Tawi.
18:21Neb Tawi, which means the lord of the two lands.
18:25It's clearly a designation of Khufu.
18:27And then, to finish with, you have this cross to designate the Great One, which is part of workers.
18:34This cross signifies a group of workers?
18:36The group of workers.
18:37Called the Great Ones.
18:38The Great Ones, yeah.
18:39So, 4,500 years ago, a worker right here etched on this for the king, for Khufu.
18:48Yeah.
18:48That is really amazing.
18:50It really is.
18:50It blows my mind.
18:51To search for more writing, we leave no stone unturned.
18:55Literally.
18:58Empty block.
18:59Yeah.
19:01No.
19:02One cannot win every time.
19:05Right.
19:05You know?
19:06I feel like we're doing scratch cards at the liquor store or something.
19:09Nothing.
19:10Zero.
19:11I got nothing on that one.
19:18But eventually, we get lucky.
19:21Oh, my gosh.
19:33You will stay with us, I think.
19:36I'm hired?
19:37Hey.
19:38I think it's a tumble of a group of 10 workers.
19:41Maybe three flowers.
19:43They're taking the time to mark even these small blocks.
19:46I don't know why, but they seem to feel necessary to sign the work, to show that they were doing something.
19:54Why does anyone sign anything, really?
19:56It's to leave their mark behind.
19:58By the way, it worked.
19:59It worked.
20:00Right?
20:00They left their mark.
20:02They left their signature.
20:03And we now found it.
20:04Yeah, yeah.
20:05We don't have any royal inscriptions of Khufu, but the workers that built the pyramid, their mark remains.
20:11The team of the flower is there.
20:13Wow.
20:15Team of the flower.
20:16Nice work, guys.
20:16Here, we have the signatures of the pyramid builders themselves, on ramps exactly like the ones they built at Giza.
20:27But one huge, heavy question remains.
20:30How the hell did they carve and move millions of two-ton blocks up ramps like these without even the use of the wheel?
20:37One expert on Pierre's team believes he's discovered the answer, using only the tools available to the ancient Egyptians.
20:45Hello.
20:46I'm Josh.
20:48Claire.
20:48Claire, nice to meet you.
20:49I'm Frank.
20:50Frank, a pleasure.
20:51In a nearby quarry, I meet Frank Burgos and his colleague, Dr. Claire Newton.
20:57Okay, you are a stonemason, correct?
20:59Yes.
21:00Okay, so I have a lot of questions for you.
21:01Because people are mystified by the construction of the pyramids.
21:06And that really begins with the question of how all of these millions of blocks were cut and moved.
21:12Let's start with tools.
21:13We know that people were coming to this part of the world trying to find copper.
21:17What were they doing with this copper?
21:22They are coming out here to get copper to make this.
21:25So this is a copper chisel that Frank made.
21:29And what were they hitting this with?
21:32They were hitting it with wood mallets like this.
21:36So when you came up here with these tools to try to replicate this, how did it go?
21:42Not good at all.
21:44Not good?
21:46Every day, the wood mallet would explode.
21:49Okay.
21:50I estimated it would take 80 mallets to carve a single block.
21:55That's not good.
21:57That's a lot of trips to Home Depot.
21:59That's a problem, yes.
22:01Okay, so clearly they must have been doing something different.
22:05To figure out the answer, Frank didn't have to look far.
22:09We're standing in an ancient quarry where workers carved limestone blocks identical to those that the Great Pyramid was built from.
22:16Some of them are still hanging out of the walls, ready to be popped out like ice cubes.
22:21This is an unfinished block.
22:26Yes, they started extracting it, but they never finished.
22:29It's really something to see this in situ.
22:32You can imagine people right here.
22:33Yes.
22:34And along the bottom of the block, Frank noticed strange stone trenches.
22:40Okay, so what are these little reservoirs for?
22:43The reservoirs here gave me the idea to use water.
22:46Limestone is water soluble, meaning water makes it softer.
22:49So what happened when you added water and then chiseled?
22:54Once I added water, I was able to chisel down five inches in ten minutes, and the mallet was fine.
22:59It took you ten minutes?
23:01Exactement.
23:03Unbelievable.
23:04So, just add water.
23:06That's the secret.
23:08Using this method, Frank was able to work like an Egyptian.
23:12And further down the hill is the fruit of his labor.
23:16Frank, what have you done?
23:18Did you carve this?
23:20Yes.
23:21This weighs how much?
23:23It weighs two tons.
23:24Two tons?
23:25You carved a 4,000-pound block, and that weight is about the average weight of the blocks inside the Great Pyramid, right?
23:32Exactly.
23:32It took Frank four days with four men to carve the limestone, but now they had a building block of the pyramid.
23:39However, he still didn't know how the Egyptians could move two million of these by hand up the steep incline of a ramp without use of a wheel.
23:49After several failed attempts, the possible answer presented itself from where else but the ancients themselves, whispering to Frank through a famous tomb painting, which depicts workers moving a giant statue across the sand using something called a sledge.
24:06And this is our sledge?
24:09Oui.
24:09Okay, so now the block is on a sledge.
24:12Now how do you move it?
24:13I had the idea of pulling the block on the sledge using slats on the ground.
24:18With this much weight on top, a sledge will easily sink into sand and get stuck.
24:25But Frank believed that by placing wooden slats, which would have been easily made by the Egyptians, ahead of the sledge, that should allow it to move across the sand without sinking.
24:35But even that wasn't enough to keep this huge weight moving uphill.
24:40Fortunately, Frank has a new plan.
24:42He noticed this detail in the tomb drawing, a man on the statue pouring water on the ground ahead of the sledge.
24:51By wetting down the slats, Frank hopes it will further reduce friction that would slow the block down.
24:58So 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?
25:06I'm confident, 100%.
25:08I mean, look, if this works, you can build the pyramids.
25:12Do you want to tie it?
25:14Let's do it.
25:16Time for this experiment to go from being theoretical to back-achingly real.
25:21We're about to try to build a pyramid, or at least a tiny part of one.
25:26Hold here.
25:27Uh-huh, okay.
25:27We begin by securing the block to the sledge with rope.
25:32Like this, okay.
25:33Next, we attach two parallel ropes that we'll use to drag the two tons uphill on a more than 10-degree angle to mimic ramps at the pyramid.
25:43Yeah, we're going to need a little help.
25:45Hello, y'all are good.
25:47Okay.
25:52High five.
25:53Come on, we got this.
25:55We got this.
25:55Here we go.
25:57We got it.
25:58Come on.
26:00This gentleman will be directing the team.
26:02He's setting the pace.
26:03Okay.
26:05Our ragtag 30-man team lines up into place, a far cry from the hundreds of men that likely populated ancient Egyptian work gangs.
26:13Now, before the starting gun goes off, we need to apply our secret ingredient.
26:18Water is poured over the slats and the runners on the sledge.
26:23Finally, beams are brought in to lift the sledge out of the sand as we make our first pull.
26:27This seems improbable.
26:30It's a pretty steep grade.
26:36Okay, Frank, are we ready?
26:38Yeah.
26:39We establish a finish line, hundreds of feet away at the top of the ramp.
26:45But in my mind, there's every chance this block isn't going to move an inch.
26:50Time to find out.
26:51Okay, here we go.
27:01Here goes nothing.
27:05We're on our way to glory at the Egyptian dig site of Wadi Al-Jarraf,
27:32where French stonemason Frank Burgos and 30 of his colleagues
27:36have been wondering how thousands of two-ton limestone blocks
27:40could have been moved uphill to build the Great Pyramid.
27:43This is us finding out.
27:48Pull!
27:49Pull!
27:51I'm in love!
27:54Ah!
27:55I'm in love!
27:57It's working!
27:58Pull!
27:59Pull!
28:00Pull!
28:01Ah!
28:02Pull!
28:03Pull!
28:04Pull!
28:05Pull!
28:06Pull!
28:09Hey!
28:10Woo!
28:11Woo!
28:12Yes!
28:13Amazing!
28:14Woo!
28:15Yes!
28:16Woo!
28:17Woo!
28:18Yes!
28:19Against all common sense, 30 untrained men have been able to run
28:23with a 4,000-pound stone several hundred feet up a 10-degree ramp,
28:28thanks to ingenious ancient engineering.
28:30Frank!
28:31Rick!
28:33Amazing!
28:34Okay, guys!
28:35Two million more blocks to go!
28:41What we did here at Wadi Al-Jarraf was a big victory.
28:44Using the oldest papyrus ever found, the crew here has been able to show that even just a hundred teams like ours could have been enough to move the 350 stones a day necessary to build the Great Pyramid in the 30 years of Khufu's reign.
29:01But before I can start scouting sites for the Great Pyramid of Gates, I'm called back to the genuine article.
29:11A few days ago back at Giza, I was working with archaeologist Soren Sinbeck to perform the first-ever 3D scan of a mysterious set of subterranean passages just steps from the base of the Great Pyramid.
29:26And I just received word from Soren's team that they are almost done processing the data.
29:31In the meantime, there's one more mystery to unravel.
29:34We now know how the Egyptians carved and moved the stones.
29:38But how on earth did they align them by hand to create the mathematical perfection that is the Great Pyramid?
29:45It's time to find out.
29:47Let's punch it.
29:53From Wadi Al-Jarraf, I drive 150 dusty miles north to Giza.
29:58And reconnect with archaeologist Mark Lehner and Soren Sinbeck in the shadow of the Great Pyramid.
30:04Okay, so we've talked a lot about the who, Khufu.
30:08Yep.
30:09And we've talked a lot about the what.
30:10What's going on inside this pyramid?
30:12And hopefully we'll get some more answers to that as the data comes in.
30:15But now we've got to turn to the other huge mystery that dominates this pyramid.
30:19We've just learned how they cut and moved the blocks.
30:22But how did the ancient Egyptians arrange them so perfectly?
30:25Because there are people who would say it's impossible.
30:29The alignment is too perfect.
30:30There's no way we could do that today.
30:31That's right.
30:32We could even do it today.
30:33The alignment is too perfect.
30:34I mean, just look at this thing.
30:37The Great Pyramid looms 45 stories above Giza's desert floor.
30:41And yet, the whole thing is oriented to the cardinal directions of north, south, east, and west within one-fifteenth of one degree.
30:49The four sides at the base are the same length within two inches.
30:53The vertical alignment from the center of the base to the tip is nearly perfect with almost no deviation.
31:00Oh, and the whole thing sits on a foundation the size of ten football fields that is level from one end to the other within about one inch.
31:10Did I mention the Egyptians didn't have algebra, calculus, or the wheel?
31:15It is so impressive that many people simply aren't willing to believe that ancient engineers pulled this off without alien assistance or some lost advanced civilization.
31:25But the truth, the real truth, isn't out there. It's down here.
31:30The building site is right at your feet here, and that's where many of the biggest clues to how the work was processed.
31:36There's all these things going on here on the floor.
31:38Like this?
31:39Like this, yeah. Strange things. Something was once there.
31:42Okay. So once the pyramid was done, these would have been buried under a pavement?
31:46Yes. Never meant to be seen.
31:49Without the floor that was once covering all of this, we're seeing evidence of the pyramid's construction everywhere.
31:56Dozens of mysterious square and round holes dotting the perimeter.
32:00The long, hidden fingerprints of the builders who toiled here.
32:04It is a goldmine of information.
32:07So the question is, what were they used for?
32:09They must have something to do with the layout of the pyramid.
32:13Thanks to scanners like the one we deployed in the tunnels, Mark and Soren may be close to learning exactly how.
32:20By building the first ever 3D map of the Great Pyramid's full foundation.
32:25Revealing a complete digital look at the long ignored marks of the pyramid builders for the first time.
32:31Okay. I'm dying to see it. Should we look at it?
32:33Let's go.
32:34Okay. What do we got? Here we go. Moment of truth.
32:36Whoa.
32:38Ooh, look at that.
32:39Look at that.
32:40The detail is extraordinary.
32:43So this scanning didn't just hit the ground. You actually scanned the faces of the pyramid as well.
32:48Yeah, we scanned the entire pyramid. It's amazing. Really powerful.
32:52That's incredible.
32:54But it's the scans of the post holes that we're here to see.
32:59Take a look at this.
33:00You barely notice them when you're out there on the ground, but here they stand out very clearly.
33:04Oh, look at how they jump out on the scan.
33:07You can see that's where we are now.
33:09Yeah.
33:10And we have the holes coming in dot, dot, dot, dot.
33:13Look at that. They are in an almost perfect line there.
33:16Yeah.
33:17So we didn't know for sure until we're seeing this.
33:20It's a post hole. So it was carved to hold a post presumably.
33:24So this is evidence of how they did a survey. Yeah.
33:28This is their survey system. They're inventing a survey system to build the Great Pyramid.
33:38It's a post hole.
33:40This is evidence of how they did a survey. Yeah.
33:43This is their survey system. They're inventing a survey system to build the Great Pyramid.
33:49At the Great Pyramid of Giza, archaeologists Soren Sinbeck and Mark Lehner are deciphering a network of post holes around the perimeter
33:58that appear to reveal the secret of its remarkable precision.
34:02What Soren is recording is the very final layout of the pyramid.
34:07The stake holes, the lines, when they wanted to get it just right.
34:11The ancient builders would place posts beyond the corners of the pyramid, then use ropes to connect them,
34:17pulling the lines taut and using simple measuring tools to create a perfect right angle.
34:22The other post holes along the sides are there to help that guideline delineate the entire outline of the pyramid.
34:29This grid of posts and ropes were used with other tools available to the ancients, like plumb bobs, chisels and saws,
34:36to perfectly square, align and level the pyramid's base to within fractions of an inch.
34:42When they got it exactly right, they put a line there, that's where they want the corner to be.
34:48The answer to all the debate about how the pyramids were built has been sitting, quite literally, under our feet.
34:55What we are seeing here, in a sense, is somebody framing a house.
35:00Exactly. And to do it more accurately than anybody had ever done it, any other pharaoh or his workers, nobody had done it this precisely.
35:09Even Khufu's heirs had trouble repeating his feet.
35:13Next door, his son Khafre's pyramid exhibits twisting on the edges as it approaches its apex.
35:21And as to how Khufu's builders perfectly leveled the massive half a million square foot plaza under and around the Great Pyramid,
35:29the answer is, they didn't.
35:31Examinations reveal they left a huge, raised core of natural bedrock for the pyramid to be built on top of,
35:38the way a dentist might prep a tooth for a crown.
35:42It probably is a way of locking the pyramid down onto the bedrock plateau.
35:47All they had to do was level the walkway around it.
35:50So the Great Pyramid is no gift from outer space or the work of Atlanteans, just ancient Egyptian ingenuity.
35:58And nowhere is the Egyptians' precision more apparent than in the so-called trial passages that Sorin and I explored earlier.
36:08Constructed at the same time as the pyramid itself, they're believed to be a test model for the tomb's interior.
36:14We scanned them to learn if the tunnels match.
36:17And more importantly, to see if any deviations could point us toward possible hidden passages or chambers within the pyramid.
36:25Such as the pharaoh's treasure-filled tomb.
36:33Early the next morning, I receive word that Sorin has finished processing the scan data.
36:38So I rush to see what we've uncovered.
36:41Sorin has also brought along Joe Steele, a specialist in the cutting-edge field of augmented imaging.
36:48Last time I saw you, we were in the bowels of the British Museum.
36:51And here we are today.
36:53Joe and I worked together to identify a sarcophagus that might have once held the body of Alexander the Great.
37:00Just perfect.
37:01We're meeting in the best places.
37:03Absolutely.
37:04Sorin, a few days ago, we scanned this so-called trial passage.
37:07So the million-dollar question, tell me you have great data.
37:10We've got great data.
37:11Yes.
37:12So I processed and cleaned what we had, and then I handed over to Joe, who did fantastic augmented reality visuals that we can take into the Great Pyramid and compare it directly to what we see.
37:23Okay, so we're going to be able to compare those passages to what's inside the pyramid.
37:27Well, we haven't been in there yet, so I'm excited to see if it works.
37:30Let's go in and see what we got.
37:31Let's go.
37:32Come on.
37:33Okay.
37:36We quickly make our way to the robber's tunnel to re-enter the pyramid.
37:41Okay, here we go.
37:42Moment of truth.
37:57Okay, here we are at the main intersection inside the Great Pyramid of Giza.
38:01We've got our descending passage that starts at the main entrance, and this is where it meets the ascending passage that goes all the way up to that king's chamber.
38:08Exactly.
38:09And with those big granite blocks there.
38:11With those terrifying granite plug blocks, yes.
38:14So is this where we should check the scan data?
38:16Yeah.
38:17If the trial passage is a model of something, this is what it models.
38:19For sure.
38:20Okay, let's see if it's a match.
38:21Here we go.
38:26All right, is this our spot?
38:28Okay, first of all, everybody comfortable?
38:30Sure.
38:31I've been comfier.
38:32A little tight in here.
38:33Okay.
38:34All right, Joe?
38:35Yeah.
38:36So I'm going to load in Soren's data from the trial passage that you both scan together.
38:40Right.
38:41Yeah, why is it Soren's data?
38:42I mean, I was there.
38:43I helped, didn't I?
38:44I like to think of it as our data, Joe.
38:46Okay, fair enough.
38:47I'm going to load in your data.
38:50Thank you, Joe.
38:51You're going to overlay it.
38:52Overlay, exactly.
38:53And we're going to see if it matches up.
38:54I haven't done this before, so I hope this works.
38:55Yeah.
38:56Well, I do too.
38:57Believe me.
38:58Yeah.
38:59Wow.
39:00Oh, my God.
39:01Wait, are you kidding me?
39:02So it's lining up perfectly.
39:03Wait a minute.
39:04This wireframe is the data we collected in the trial passage?
39:07Correct.
39:08You sure?
39:09Yeah.
39:10It looks perfect.
39:11It looks perfect.
39:12Wait, what?
39:13When you look at it, it's actually hard to tell that it's two different data sets because
39:17they are directly on top of each other.
39:19It's literally the blueprint.
39:21It is.
39:22It is the blueprint of what we are looking at.
39:24Yeah.
39:25This is huge.
39:26Explicit proof that the trial passages outside were the model for the pyramid's interior construction.
39:33They aren't just similar.
39:34They're clones.
39:35I've never seen anything like this.
39:38If builders today attempted to do something like this, to build two identical sets of passages
39:44that were this exactly aligned, it would be hard, even with machinery and computers.
39:48Yeah.
39:49And 4,600 years ago, they just did it.
39:51They just did it.
39:52It is a 100% perfect match.
39:55It's a 100% perfect match, except for one difference.
39:59There's a difference.
40:00There is a difference.
40:01There's something different in the data.
40:03Absolutely.
40:04We've got to look up.
40:05Wait.
40:06To see that.
40:07We have to look up.
40:08Okay.
40:09Wait a minute.
40:10What is that?
40:11Egypt may be famous for the pyramids, but there is another feat of balance and engineering
40:19that takes place on the streets of Cairo every morning.
40:26How hard could that be?
40:27I'll find out soon, but the bread starts its journey over here.
40:31Yellow.
40:32Ready?
40:33How do you say oven mitt in Arabic?
40:36Then I decide to put it as close to my scalp as possible.
40:39Just like riding a bike, but with 200 loaves of bread on your head.
40:42Ha!
40:43Okay, here we go.
40:44Ha!
40:45Ha!
40:46Ha!
40:47Sir, I'm sorry.
40:48I'm sorry.
40:49Get out of the streets!
40:50Ha!
40:51I got it!
40:52I got it!
40:53How are ya?
40:54Good to see you.
40:55Fresh bread, everybody.
40:56You want some bread?
40:57It's for you as much as you want.
40:58Can I have some falafel?
40:59Thank you!
41:00Oh, yeah.
41:01That was a good trade.
41:02Oh, God.
41:03A speed bump?
41:04A speed bump?
41:05Good!
41:06Ha!
41:07Saved it!
41:08Mostly!
41:09We have to look up.
41:10Okay?
41:11What is that?
41:12I'm inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, where augmented reality has just shown us that a
41:27tunnel system dug in the bedrock outside is a perfect match for the interior passages.
41:33And that one thing that doesn't line up, it could be the key to finding hidden chambers
41:38within the pyramid.
41:39There's a vertical tunnel in the trial passage, Scan.
41:42So this vertical shaft was there in the darkness of the trial passage.
41:46Oh, yes, it was.
41:47But it's not here.
41:48So, wait a minute.
41:50Where is it?
41:51It should be right here, behind this rock.
41:52Yeah.
41:53We now know that the trial passage is a model for this pyramid.
41:56Yeah.
41:57And yet, there's a missing passage.
41:59They model something which is not here.
42:01Or which is not visible.
42:02Or which is not visible.
42:03Or which is not visible.
42:04Right.
42:05Exactly.
42:06We could be looking at a lost passage in the Great Pyramid.
42:08It is a lost passage in a sense.
42:10It was either one that was never built, or one that we can't see.
42:14Okay.
42:15I've got another way of showing you guys how perfectly matching the trial passage data is
42:21with the tunnel system we're in.
42:22Okay.
42:23I extrapolated the measurements that Soren gave me into a 3D model, and let's have a look.
42:27So there it's coming in.
42:29Wow.
42:30It snapped.
42:31So trial passage in blue, Great Pyramid in gold.
42:33Correct.
42:34Yeah.
42:35It is a 100% match, apart from this one section.
42:39Missing the tunnel.
42:40Okay.
42:41So what the hell is that?
42:42What the hell is that?
42:43Maybe it was a planned escape tunnel.
42:45Yeah.
42:46Or it's something that was changed.
42:48If the trial passage is like a key to the Great Pyramid, that key is telling us about
42:53something that we don't see.
42:56We know that several years ago, a non-invasive scan may have detected a void within the Great
43:02Pyramid, roughly the size of a bus, somewhere above the Grand Gallery.
43:06And here, we have a mysterious vertical shaft that heads in that exact same direction.
43:12Given what we've learned about the Egyptians' exacting precision, this hardly feels accidental.
43:18If this does lead somewhere, it leads up.
43:21Yeah.
43:22Is it possible this is pointing us to that void?
43:24Yeah, that's very intriguing, Josh.
43:27Somewhere, amidst the 6 million tons of stone above us, is a potentially immense find, a possible passage into the unknown.
43:36But the cutting edge technology that revealed this, as well as the potential void above, can't yet show us the full story.
43:44It will have to be the next technological breakthrough that will finally tell us what's inside, and possibly unmask the location of a lost chamber.
43:54It's incredible.
43:55I've never seen anything like this.
43:57I've processed thousands of scans, and they could never, ever match up as precisely as this.
44:02And that is emblematic of this entire building project.
44:05Yes.
44:06It is all about precision.
44:08This is innovation, if ever there was.
44:11Yeah.
44:12Unbelievable.
44:13We've answered one big question here, and directly above our heads, we have a new mystery.
44:17That's how it always is with this pyramid.
44:19Exactly.
44:20The Great Pyramid of Giza.
44:22Answers and mysteries.
44:24Well done, Josh.
44:25Amazing.
44:26Amazing job.
44:27This is incredible.
44:29Woo!
44:30Can I get out of here now?
44:31Yeah.
44:32Let's get some fresh air.
44:33Come on.
44:34The Great Pyramid is the closest thing to eternity that humanity has ever created, bridging the sun and the earth in a monument which has endured for millennia.
44:47To move within its passages, to be humbled in its grand gallery, to stand within the king's chamber is to join for a moment with that eternity.
44:59The structure seems to radiate mystery and invite conspiracy.
45:04But thanks to the hard work of passionate archaeologists, answers are now within our grasp.
45:10We've mapped its interior top to bottom, learned firsthand how its blocks were carved, moved, and aligned.
45:18Cutting edge scans have hinted at the possibility of unseen voids and hidden passages within the pyramid, tantalizing possibilities for future explorers.
45:29And thanks to the discovery of the world's oldest diary and some long forgotten graffiti, we can now reach across time to meet the builders themselves.
45:39Not aliens or Atlanteans or some lost advanced civilization, but Egyptians.
45:46After 5,000 years, it's time to give them the credit they so richly deserve.
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