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00:03From the dense jungles of Central America, across the globe to the arid deserts of Sudan,
00:09pyramids stand as mysterious monuments to ancient civilizations. People have gazed in wonder at the
00:16precision and the effort and the scale of this and they've asked questions. As we will ask
00:22questions, how do they build them? Why do they build them? It's a resurrection machine. Right.
00:27The entire pyramid is essentially a capstone on top of the hole. What do we still not know? And what
00:35are some of the crazier theories we've come up to explain those gaps? There is a line of thought
00:41that the very structure, the shape of a pyramid is somehow divine and can channel energy. It really
00:47is beyond what the ancients should have been capable of. I'm going to explore the mysteries
00:53behind these astonishing structures. Oh, that's incredible. There are over 5,000 pyramids
00:59on our planet that have intrigued us for millennia. But what better place on earth to start than
01:05Egypt? Oh my God. Helping me solve these mysteries will be archaeologist Raksha Dave.
01:11Why wouldn't they pimp up their graves? I would. And Egyptologist Chris Naunton. In the Egyptian
01:19mindset, there's something much bigger going on here. Was there any sense that for Pharaoh,
01:23that they would become a star? Absolutely. So join me as we explore the mysteries of the pyramid.
01:36Behold, the magnificence of the pyramids of Giza, built more than four and a half thousand years
01:43ago at a time when Stonehenge was merely a ditch. I'm starting at the biggest and most puzzling
01:52pyramid of them all. The last surviving ancient wonder of the world, the Great Pyramid of Giza.
02:00This building has stood for more than four and a half thousand years. And for most of that
02:05time, people have been clambering over it, digging underneath it, have been inside it.
02:09And yet even now, in this age where we have all the world's information at our fingertips,
02:13this building asks more questions than it answers.
02:19The Great Pyramid's imposing exterior hides a puzzling interior of narrow passageways and hidden
02:26chambers. This is the entrance tunnel to the Great Pyramid
02:32at Giza. All of this stone was put in place for one man. This path should lead to the burial
02:39site of the Pharaoh Khufu. Around 2600 BCE, it's believed that Khufu reigned for about 30 years.
02:50He left seven sons, including two future pharaohs, as well as this astonishing builder.
02:56Oh, my God. Oh, that's incredible. Huge gallery, three stories high.
03:05After navigating a series of hot, claustrophobic tunnels, I've emerged into the cavernous atrium
03:12called the Grand Gallery. And this isn't even where they buried the king. This is just the entrance
03:17hall.
03:19What an enormous space.
03:21I mean, you could really do something with a space like this. I mean, obviously this wouldn't
03:25just be the living area. You could knock through. Oh, no, wait. You couldn't knock through.
03:31It's an absolutely astonishing place. Intended as a final resting place for Khufu, the pyramid
03:38draws me ever closer to its central chamber.
03:45Oh, it's amazing. Wow. The burial chamber of the king. What a huge room to be in the middle
03:56of such a massive building. And that's a big sarcophagus. Imagine being the first to come
04:05in here and then find nothing. Yes, the remains of Khufu aren't here. No one knows who the remains
04:14of Khufu are. That's just one of the many mysteries of these pyramids. Fortunately, I have Egyptologist
04:21who puts Chris Naughton on hand to enlighten us. And looks like he is also feeling the heat.
04:26Chris, how are you?
04:28Hi, Dara. I'm good. Thank you. How are you?
04:30Overdressed, is how I am.
04:31Because this is hotter work than expected.
04:33It is a little warm.
04:34This is the burial chamber.
04:36We think it is, yes.
04:38Except that there's nothing in it.
04:40Yeah. So there's a bit of a problem there. There is no mummified body of the king.
04:45But then we've found almost no human remains in any of these pyramids. These were all,
04:52we think, robbed a very, very long time ago.
04:55Is there also talk that there might be another burial chamber?
04:58Well, yes.
04:59So if you look closely up at these massive granite ceiling pieces, there are cracks along
05:06the sides. And these seem to have been repaired perhaps at the time the pyramid was being constructed.
05:13So what's probably happening is that this vast weight of stone above us here, intimidatingly,
05:19was causing these cracks. And there are people that have suggested that if this burial chamber
05:24was on the brink of failing, there's no way that they would have buried the king here.
05:29They must have buried him somewhere else.
05:31And there are other chambers in the pyramid we know about.
05:35There are also potentially other chambers, or there's hints of other chambers, which we
05:42don't know so much about. So there is still this thought that maybe the king actually is
05:46still in the pyramid, just in the chamber we haven't found yet.
05:49And how do we possibly know that? How would we...
05:53Well, there are hints here and there that there could be cavities behind what we have
06:02thought more or less up to now to be entirely solid walls.
06:07But of course, until we can prove it one way or another, imaginations can run wild.
06:13So even with the journey just beginning, we have mysteries aplenty.
06:17And clambering through the innards of this building, feeling the sheer scale of it,
06:23does make you wonder, why did they go to so much effort to build a tomb?
06:29It's remarkable. It's an incredible space.
06:31Yeah, I mean, incredible achievement.
06:34But in the end, it's difficult not to ask yourself, you know, so why are they doing this?
06:39In the Egyptian mindset, there's something much bigger going on here.
06:43The reality is that Pharaoh is a god.
06:45And if you want things to continue and everything to be okay and Egypt to be the greatest,
06:50then you have to build these enormous monuments.
06:53It does seem inefficient.
06:56It's majestic and fantastic.
06:57Because what we saw, there's not like another West Wing, not like there's a lot of other stuff.
07:03Not that we know for certain, no.
07:07And because there's so much we don't know for certain,
07:10people have rushed to fill the gap with all sorts of outlandish ideas.
07:14The alternative, perhaps more spiritual or paranormal way of thinking
07:18about the pyramids and the Great Pyramids as this exceptional structure
07:23would point towards ancient Atlantis.
07:26An ancient race of people who had knowledge far in excess of what we have in the modern day.
07:35That they had technology that enabled them to build the Great Pyramid,
07:40to build things that no other civilizations had been able to achieve.
07:46Look, you know me.
07:48I have no truck with this stuff.
07:49But I can see how wild theories can spread when the pyramid itself offers so few clues.
07:58I mean, it is also the most enigmatic of pyramids in as much as there's no detail in there.
08:03Yeah, and so one of the reasons why we're so perplexed by so much of this
08:08is that, unlike for other monuments elsewhere,
08:12there's no inscriptions here at all.
08:14But if we were to look elsewhere, we might be able to get more of an insight
08:19and then maybe that will allow us to reflect more.
08:21So we should go see other pyramids
08:23which will explain the whole role of pyramids better?
08:25I think that would be a good idea.
08:26Let's do that.
08:30So I'm travelling, 34 kilometres south of Cairo,
08:35to find a more illuminating pyramid.
08:41I've come to Saqqara to meet Salima Ikram,
08:44who I hope is going to enlighten me
08:46about what these pyramids were actually for.
08:50Salima.
08:51Hello, Dad.
08:51How are you?
08:54I'm doing very well, but I have many questions.
08:56Well, we hope we can answer them.
08:58Salima is an Egyptologist
09:00who specialises in ancient Egyptian funereal customs.
09:04And this pyramid,
09:05built 100 years after the Great Pyramid,
09:08is of special interest.
09:10Mind your head.
09:11I will, yeah.
09:12You're a bit tall.
09:13They weren't built for the large man, were they?
09:14It's for a pharaoh called Unas
09:16and the first pyramid to have any inscriptions.
09:20These are our first hieroglyphics.
09:23Yep, this is it.
09:26Oh, well, this is very much what I was expecting.
09:29And what, it's conspicuous in his absence
09:31in the Great Pyramid.
09:32But these weren't, presumably, just for decoration.
09:34No, no.
09:34These are actually a way for the king
09:37to become one with the eternal stars.
09:39This is really the texts, the magic that get him
09:42from this world to the next.
09:44It's essentially a machine to get the king to the afterlife.
09:48It's a resurrection machine.
09:49Right.
09:50But that's what it is.
09:51It is to protect the king,
09:53but it is the whole sort of infrastructure
09:55to go into the afterworld.
10:01And so the idea was that at some point,
10:04a quiet point after the king had been laid to rest here,
10:06that he would rise and read from this the instructions
10:10as left by the priests, sir.
10:12Yeah.
10:13The legends go that before entering the afterlife,
10:16Osiris, god of the underworld,
10:18presides over the judgment of the dead pharaoh's soul
10:22among 42 terrifying gods,
10:25including the bone breaker and the eater of entrails.
10:28If we go into his burial chamber,
10:31I can show you how it's laid out.
10:33It's a bit like a bedroom.
10:34Please do.
10:36Mind your head again.
10:37I will.
10:39Every plea for innocence held immense significance.
10:43Failure resulted in an agonizing second death.
10:47This trial not only determined
10:49if the pharaoh would be allowed into the afterlife,
10:52but also the future of all Egypt.
11:03This is absolutely gorgeous.
11:05Isn't it fabulous?
11:06If I rise from the dead,
11:09where am I supposed to start reading this?
11:11Okay.
11:11So you've got the sarcophagus here
11:14and the king is lying down
11:15and then the king sort of is supposed to rise
11:17out of his bedroom
11:18and suddenly see the first spell
11:21and it says,
11:21O-ho, o-unas, arise.
11:23And then he reads it spell by spell
11:26and it gives him explicit instructions
11:28And that's kind of the point, is it?
11:31This is why this was all done.
11:33Because he had to rise up,
11:36become one with the eternal stars
11:38and live forever.
11:39And of course also part of his job
11:41was to make sure the cosmos was in balance
11:43and the sun rose and Egypt was safe.
11:46And so his resurrection was key to that process.
11:50To ask a very fundamental question,
11:51does it go left to right, down, up to down?
11:54Yes, it goes up to down.
11:55The easiest thing to do
11:56is look at the way the animals are facing
11:58and read into them.
11:59Fine.
12:00Here, this is his name
12:01and the bunny is a very nice way
12:04of finding him.
12:05Okay, fine, okay.
12:07The great thing about the afterlife
12:09is that you could take a whole load
12:11of worldly goods with you.
12:14The things they brought with them,
12:16were they to guarantee a safe passage
12:18or were they things they would enjoy
12:21in the afterlife?
12:22You would have stuff that you wanted.
12:25Because, I mean, if you're going to live
12:26in the afterworld,
12:27you want to live comfortably.
12:28So you better take it with you
12:30because you don't know what's at the other end.
12:32It might be a holiday inn
12:33rather than the Ritz.
12:34Yes, absolutely.
12:38It's fascinating that in Egypt
12:39the pyramid was a kind of machine
12:41to protect the pharaoh
12:43and allow him to take useful things
12:45for the afterlife.
12:47Over 2,000 years later,
12:4911,000 kilometers away in China,
12:52something similar happened.
12:54The Chinese pyramids of the Han Dynasty
12:57are burial mounds
12:58built for powerful rulers.
13:01In the tomb of Emperor Wu Di,
13:04swords and crossbows were concealed
13:06to protect the emperor in the afterlife.
13:08That was nothing.
13:101,200 kilometers away,
13:12Emperor Xinxi Huang's tomb
13:14housed a terracotta army
13:16of 8,000 life-sized soldiers
13:19to protect him in the afterlife
13:20only unearthed in 1974.
13:25Back in Egypt,
13:26the pyramid of Unas
13:27that I'm exploring with Salima
13:29has also recently revealed
13:31a hidden secret.
13:33So we could,
13:34if we get the lights off...
13:36OK, we can do that.
13:37Can we get the lights off?
13:38WHISTLE BLOWS
13:39Ooh, well done.
13:41OK.
13:41OK, let's see if we can...
13:42Oh, my God.
13:43Did you see that?
13:45I didn't see that at all.
13:48This ghostly figure
13:49was uncovered
13:50as recently as 2007.
13:53A closer look reveals a king
13:55wearing the crown of Lower Egypt,
13:57a harpoon in his right hand
13:59hunting a hippopotamus.
14:01No, it's hidden.
14:03The hieroglyphs
14:04only divulge
14:05the beginning of his name,
14:06but many Egyptologists
14:08believe this to be
14:09none other than Khufu.
14:10But that is absolutely stunning.
14:13Was this stone
14:14recycled from one
14:16of Khufu's tombs
14:17or temples?
14:17Or was it intended
14:19to honor this
14:20long-dead legendary king
14:21who built the greatest pyramid ever?
14:24So these places
14:25really are magic.
14:27Pretty cool.
14:29Next, I go deeper
14:31into Khufu's mysterious
14:33journey into the afterlife.
14:34Was there any sense
14:35that, like,
14:36if a pharaoh ascended,
14:37that they would become a star?
14:39Absolutely!
14:54I'm here exploring
14:56the mystery
14:56of these magnificent wonders
14:58of the ancient world.
15:00Oh!
15:01Welcome to Egypt!
15:03And as a bit of a numbers guy,
15:05I find some of the figures
15:07behind the pyramid's
15:08construction
15:08truly mind-boggling.
15:12Perhaps the most incredible wonder
15:14about these pyramids
15:15is the sheer feat
15:16of engineering.
15:17In that first 100-year
15:19burst of pyramid-making,
15:20they moved
15:2115 million tonnes of rock
15:23from quarries to here.
15:25There is a piece of granite
15:26inside this pyramid
15:27which weighs 80 tonnes.
15:29And even these
15:30standard rocks here
15:31were being brought here
15:32at a rate of 200-300
15:34every day,
15:35which meant that
15:36these rocks were being
15:37put into place
15:38one after another
15:39after another
15:40every two to three minutes.
15:44And as if that formidable
15:46work rate isn't
15:47astonishing enough,
15:48archaeologist Raksha Dave
15:50has promised to show me
15:51something even more
15:52extraordinary.
15:54Raksha,
15:55of all the amazing
15:56things about the pyramids,
15:57what's the most
15:57incredible thing to you?
15:58Well, I think
15:59the thing that's
15:59the most mind-blowing
16:01is just how accurate
16:03they are,
16:04how the structure
16:04was built.
16:06So, for example,
16:07if I get my phone out,
16:09I can show you
16:10on my compass
16:11if we're actually
16:12stood properly.
16:13It actually points
16:14to north.
16:15So, in order to get
16:16to north,
16:17they would essentially
16:17use the stars.
16:19That's presuming
16:20what they lined it up with.
16:21Well, there's another
16:21method that you can use,
16:22using the sun.
16:24So, you can actually get
16:26a stake, put it in the ground
16:28during the summer solstice,
16:29and then you track its
16:31shadow.
16:31And obviously, they didn't
16:33have telly back then,
16:34so, you know, somebody
16:34could stand there
16:35the whole day,
16:37watch the shadow,
16:38track around,
16:38and mark its track.
16:39Once you've got that,
16:40you can then get a piece
16:41of string and walk around
16:42and create an east-to-west axis.
16:45And then, you could then
16:47get your 90-degree angle
16:48off that,
16:49and then point
16:50to true north.
16:52With just a stick,
16:53some string,
16:54and a good knowledge
16:55of the solar system,
16:56the ancient Egyptians
16:57achieved alignment
16:58maybe 40 times more accurate
17:00than you can get
17:01on the compass on your phone.
17:04So, perhaps the ancient
17:05Egyptians just wanted
17:06to build something
17:06that was really precise
17:08and aligned perfectly
17:09with the heavens,
17:10maybe to honour
17:10their dead king.
17:11And because they knew
17:13their stuff,
17:13they could do it.
17:14However,
17:15the perfection of the pyramids
17:16has baffled and intrigued
17:18all that have seen them,
17:20including one famous
17:21little Frenchman.
17:23Napoleon.
17:24Yes?
17:25When he came here
17:26for his little campaign
17:28to take over Egypt
17:29and Syria
17:30in 1798,
17:31it was kind of like
17:33a bit of propaganda.
17:34He obviously
17:35wanted to control
17:36trade routes,
17:37the Red Sea,
17:38so he brought
17:39all of these scientists
17:40over to kind of
17:41survey
17:42what happened
17:43in ancient Egypt,
17:44Egypt,
17:44and there was a young
17:45chap called
17:46Jomard,
17:47who was 19 years old,
17:48and he was absolutely
17:50fascinated and taken
17:51with the pyramids.
17:52He set about
17:53to measure them.
17:55He got the height,
17:56the length,
17:57got really excited about it,
17:59and then started extrapolating
18:01wildly.
18:03Jomard concluded
18:04that the length
18:05from the midpoint
18:06of the base
18:06of the pyramid
18:07to its tip
18:08was exactly a staid,
18:10an old Greek measurement
18:12that was based
18:12in the circumference
18:13of the earth.
18:14But he got carried away
18:16and made a critical oversight.
18:19the height,
18:20was it right?
18:20Not really,
18:21because he forgot
18:23one thing.
18:24Oh yeah,
18:25this stuff,
18:25which we're only seeing
18:26a small section of here.
18:27Yeah.
18:28Which is,
18:29is cladding the wrong word to use?
18:31I would like to call it
18:32outer casing.
18:33There we go.
18:33That's my archaeological term.
18:35Okay, fine.
18:35Then what's that then,
18:36archaeologically?
18:37So,
18:37that's what we call
18:39the core.
18:40Right.
18:40They are blocks,
18:41they're put together
18:41really nicely,
18:42but then you want
18:43your building to look
18:44beautiful and pretty.
18:45So they had white limestone
18:47then put on the front
18:49and it's smooth.
18:51So you would have had
18:52just smooth,
18:53triangular sides.
18:54And they would have
18:55looked spectacular.
18:56I mean,
18:57can you imagine
18:57just these pyramids?
18:59Yes.
18:59The remains were still
19:00at the top of the second pyramid,
19:01the Khafreys pyramid.
19:02And that would have been
19:03all the way down.
19:04All the way down.
19:05Now they've been removed
19:06over the years
19:07for other building work.
19:09Yeah.
19:09But Jamard forgot about it.
19:11So his measurements
19:12were inaccurate anyway.
19:14A later,
19:15more precise survey
19:16that revealed
19:17different dimensions
19:18didn't dampen
19:19Jamard's enthusiasm.
19:20He spent the next
19:21three decades
19:22writing a book
19:23which continued
19:24to throw up
19:24speculative theories
19:26about the pyramids.
19:28So Jamard
19:29mis-measured
19:30the pyramids,
19:31got obsessed with them,
19:32wrote a book about them.
19:33And in many ways,
19:34his crazy extrapolations,
19:37his leaping to conclusions,
19:39has been the path
19:40ever since
19:41that a lot of people
19:42have taken his work
19:43and other people's work
19:44and gone,
19:44aha!
19:45Well therefore,
19:46this is of greater significance
19:47than probably it is.
19:48But wow,
19:49people really run with it.
19:50They do.
19:50They do.
19:53The precision and accuracy
19:54of the pyramids
19:55has strangely made them
19:56even more intriguing.
20:00The precision was outrageous
20:02for what was needed
20:03if it was a tomb,
20:04if it was a temple.
20:06You don't even get that today
20:07in some construction.
20:09This is like better
20:10than you get
20:11in the modern era.
20:12So why would they go
20:13into these extremes?
20:15Other people have actually suggested
20:16it's all about water
20:18and there's like
20:19a water pump theory
20:20and they would pump water
20:22in and out of it
20:23and this would create
20:23an energy system as well.
20:25And so,
20:26when you go inside
20:27the Great Pyramid,
20:29it doesn't feel like
20:30it's a temple.
20:31It doesn't feel like
20:32it's a tomb.
20:32It doesn't feel like
20:33it's kind of a sacred space.
20:35It feels like
20:36you're in a machine.
20:37Of course,
20:38there's no scientific evidence
20:39to back that up.
20:40But that level
20:41of obsession
20:42with the pyramids
20:43is nothing new.
20:47Little wonder
20:48subsequent societies
20:49were obsessed
20:50with pyramids
20:51and all things Egyptian.
20:56In 30 BCE,
20:58the Romans came to conquer.
21:00Anthony and Cleopatra
21:01had been doing their thing
21:02and the style,
21:04elegance
21:04and architecture
21:05of Egypt
21:05became wildly fashionable.
21:09So much so
21:10that several pyramids
21:11were built in ancient Rome.
21:13The pyramid of Cestius
21:15was built in 12 BCE
21:16using cutting edge
21:18Roman building materials
21:19of the age,
21:20a brick-faced concrete core
21:22with a marble veneer.
21:25Standing at a height
21:26of 36 metres,
21:27it is just 1 600th
21:29the volume
21:30of the Great Pyramid
21:31and still straddles
21:32the ancient Roman city walls.
21:37The Great Pyramids of Egypt
21:39are 4,500 years old.
21:41Their size,
21:41precision and design
21:43has led to people
21:44speculating wildly
21:45on who built them.
21:48Look,
21:49I'm a science nerd
21:50so I'm left cold
21:51by a lot of these theories.
21:53But I do wonder
21:54why are they so prevalent?
21:57I'm going to talk to Nick Pope,
21:59who worked for 20 years
22:00on the MOD's
22:01UFO desk.
22:04Nick,
22:05have the pyramids
22:06always been
22:08so attractive
22:09to alternative theories
22:10or is that a very modern thing?
22:11No,
22:12I think they've always
22:13held this fascination
22:15for people
22:16and I think people
22:17forget just how old
22:18they are
22:19that even by the time
22:20of the Romans,
22:20they were already
22:22thousands of years old
22:24and then in the Middle Ages
22:25there was
22:26religious speculation.
22:28People were theorising,
22:29for example,
22:30that maybe the devil
22:31had constructed them
22:32or maybe
22:33some of the
22:33biblical figures.
22:35So I think
22:36there's been
22:37an enduring mystery.
22:38So describe to me
22:40some of the
22:41more commonly
22:42expressed theories.
22:43Well, I think
22:44they fall into
22:45two categories.
22:46Number one
22:47is that there was
22:48a mysterious
22:49lost race
22:51of
22:52pyramid builders,
22:54people with
22:55ancient wisdom
22:56that
22:57spread that knowledge
22:59all around the world
23:00and
23:01many
23:02indigenous
23:03cultures
23:04and other
23:05ancient civilisations
23:06have this
23:07narrative.
23:08of people coming
23:09as teachers.
23:10The related theory,
23:12which is
23:12ancient
23:13astronaut
23:14theory,
23:15which essentially
23:16says that
23:17humanity had
23:18teachers
23:18and those teachers
23:20were actually
23:21extraterrestrials
23:22who came here,
23:23were worshipped
23:25as gods
23:26and then
23:27we
23:28constructed
23:29great
23:30monuments,
23:32structures
23:32in honour
23:33of them
23:34to commemorate
23:35this visit.
23:36perhaps even
23:38with their help
23:39or with
23:40technologies,
23:41techniques
23:42which they
23:43had shared with us.
23:44These are fun,
23:45I find,
23:46the alien stuff,
23:46but I just feel it
23:48always gets in the way
23:48of what is a genuinely
23:49astonishing human achievement.
23:51whatever the truth
23:52of this,
23:53I think the ancient
23:54Egyptians clearly
23:55did know
23:56much more about
23:57astronomy,
23:58mathematics,
23:59geometry
24:00and architecture
24:01than we perhaps
24:02give them
24:03credit for.
24:04Nick,
24:05an absolute pleasure
24:06to talk to you,
24:06thank you very much.
24:10Pyramids globally appear
24:11to be catnip for
24:12alternative theories
24:13and speculation
24:14around extraterrestrial
24:16involvement
24:16is not confined
24:17to Egypt.
24:21Over 2,000 years ago
24:22in Mexico,
24:23the Mayans established
24:24the city of Palenque
24:25and built the Temple
24:27of the Inscriptions
24:28which has been called
24:29the greatest Mayan
24:30funerary pyramid
24:31on earth.
24:34King Pakal is buried
24:36directly below the pyramid
24:37and on the lid
24:38of his sarcophagus
24:39is a carving
24:40which again
24:41in some people's minds
24:42resembles an astronaut
24:43in a spaceship.
24:47The position of his tomb
24:49is significant,
24:50hovering between
24:51the living and the dead,
24:52the world below
24:53and the cosmos above.
25:01Now with the heavens in mind,
25:03I decide to take
25:04in the night sky
25:04in Cairo
25:05with Egyptologist
25:06Artho Balochdanian
25:08to explore the relationship
25:10the ancient Egyptians
25:11had with the cosmos.
25:13While this would have
25:14been an incredible vista
25:15back in the days
25:15of the pharaohs,
25:16there is now a city
25:17of 22 million
25:17surrounding Giza
25:19and the glow of that
25:20means that Jupiter
25:21and there's Sirius
25:23and there's Orion.
25:24That's literally
25:25all we can see.
25:27But Orion is a good one
25:28to see at least
25:29because the belt of Orion
25:31for a long time
25:32people felt this
25:33was a very significant thing.
25:34Yes.
25:35It's called the Orion
25:36correlation theory.
25:38Right.
25:38And basically
25:39the idea is
25:41that the three pyramids
25:42of Giza
25:43are aligned,
25:44their positions
25:45relative to one another
25:46sort of mirrors
25:47the configuration
25:48of the stars
25:48in Orion's belt.
25:50Right.
25:50But there's really
25:53nothing to indicate
25:54that that's actually
25:55true though.
25:56This theory
25:57gained popularity
25:58after publication
25:59in 1995
26:00of the book
26:00The Orion Mystery.
26:02While the pyramids
26:03are roughly aligned
26:04like the three stars
26:05of Orion's belt,
26:06there seems to be
26:07little evidence
26:07to prove this
26:08was intentional.
26:10I mean,
26:11there's just three dots
26:12in a line.
26:12OK.
26:13I mean, that is
26:13a nice coincidence.
26:15The other thing
26:15that's mentioned sometimes
26:16is that there are two
26:17vents, let's say,
26:19going out of the chambers
26:20in the Great Pyramid.
26:22Yes.
26:23And people have thought,
26:24oh, maybe they point
26:25to a particular point
26:26to the sky.
26:27In this case,
26:27we're actually on
26:28much firmer ground
26:29because these,
26:31they're sometimes
26:32called vents,
26:33sometimes called air shafts,
26:34but in fact,
26:35they seem to be passages
26:36from the underworld
26:38out into the celestial realm
26:40with the king's ancestors.
26:42So they're sort of like
26:43guiding you.
26:44They're pointing
26:44in that direction.
26:46These shafts
26:48pointing to the cosmos
26:49have always created
26:50great debate.
26:52In 2020,
26:54a robot designed
26:55by a team
26:56from Leeds University
26:57was sent into
26:58one of the shafts
26:59coming from
26:59the Queen's Chamber.
27:00The shaft is just
27:0120 centimeters square
27:03and points upwards
27:04at 45 degrees.
27:06Breaking through
27:07a blocking stone,
27:08a small painted chamber
27:10was discovered
27:11which has unusual markings.
27:22Deeper into the shaft,
27:24the robot encountered
27:25yet another blocking stone.
27:27Frustratingly,
27:27this obstacle proved
27:28insurmountable,
27:30leaving the mystery
27:31unsolved.
27:33But that aside,
27:35the whole purpose
27:35of these pyramids
27:36was the notion
27:37of sending the pharaoh
27:37into the afterlife.
27:38And the afterlife
27:39was in the sky,
27:40wasn't it?
27:41Yes, certainly.
27:42We know through text
27:43that that is what
27:43the ancient Egyptians
27:44believed.
27:46The king upon death
27:48and ascending
27:49into the sky,
27:50he would become
27:51one of the stars.
27:52And was there any sense
27:54that if a pharaoh ascended
27:57that they would become
27:58a star?
27:59Absolutely!
28:00But at no point
28:02did they go,
28:02that new star
28:04hasn't appeared yet.
28:05Where's that new star gone?
28:07Promises were made
28:08of new stars
28:09and the promises
28:10weren't kept
28:11from the Egyptians
28:11of constellations.
28:12Oh yeah!
28:13And they all had
28:14so many associations
28:16with different divinities.
28:18In fact,
28:19they had a rollicking
28:20good creation myth
28:21set in the heavens
28:23and starring
28:24the Big Dipper,
28:25constellation of Orion
28:26and their favourite
28:27god king, Osiris.
28:31Osiris was a kind
28:32and wise ruler.
28:33He did marry his sister
28:34but you know,
28:35things were different back then.
28:36His brother Seth
28:37was strong but unruly
28:39and envious of Osiris.
28:40So he turned himself
28:41into an ox
28:42and kicked Osiris to death,
28:44therefore becoming king.
28:46But never fear,
28:48Osiris was resurrected
28:49by the magic
28:49of his wife slash sister.
28:51Just long enough
28:52to impregnate her
28:53with a golden phallus,
28:54don't ask,
28:55she then gives birth
28:56to a son Horus
28:57who would later
28:58avenge his father
28:59and recapture
29:00the throne of Egypt.
29:03I love the stars
29:04because I love
29:05these big balls of helium
29:07that are exploding
29:07in the sky.
29:08But I also love the fact
29:09that they are basically
29:10a map of the human imagination.
29:12And every culture
29:13attached different stories
29:15and different myths
29:16and legends to them.
29:17It's wonderful.
29:18And the Egyptians
29:19are no different than that.
29:20No they weren't.
29:21Very nice.
29:22Glorious.
29:23I mean I wish we could
29:24see a star or two.
29:27Next, Raksha demands
29:29that I use my imagination
29:30for her latest revelation.
29:32That there was the harbour
29:34at the time
29:35that those pyramids
29:37were being built.
29:38But we're miles from water.
29:50It goes without saying
29:51that most pyramids
29:52around the world
29:53took a phenomenal amount
29:54of human effort
29:55to construct.
29:56The Egyptian pyramids
29:58however,
29:58really have people
29:59scratching their heads.
30:02They're so old
30:03and so precise
30:03and so gigantic
30:05that the big question
30:06still remains.
30:07How were they actually built?
30:11Well, we've seen
30:11how massive the pyramids are.
30:13We've also seen
30:13in conversation with Raksha
30:14just how precisely built
30:16they were.
30:17Yep.
30:17But the stone itself,
30:19what was that cut with?
30:20Well, we think
30:21that they were using
30:22harder stone pounders
30:23and then in terms
30:24of the final parts
30:25of the cutting
30:25they were using
30:27chisels made of copper.
30:31Copper is a soft metal.
30:32Yeah, exactly.
30:33So it's all in the technique.
30:35I mean, to be fair,
30:36the lads are making
30:36a pretty good job of this.
30:38They're denting it
30:39pretty well.
30:40Yep.
30:42The majority of the stone
30:43used to build
30:44the Giza pyramids
30:45is limestone
30:46quarried locally like this.
30:48But crucial structural components
30:50were made from granite.
30:52The limestone
30:53isn't as difficult
30:54to cut and shape
30:56and transport
30:56as the granite
30:57because it's much
30:58further distance.
30:59It's a much harder stone.
31:01It's got a higher level
31:02of quartz in it.
31:03But they did it.
31:04And they did it abundantly
31:05in ancient Egypt.
31:06And so they had
31:07some technique to do that.
31:09And if you look at it
31:10from a modern perspective,
31:11we have engineers
31:12who've looked at this
31:13and tried to recreate
31:15how they did it.
31:16And they believe
31:17they must have
31:18had electricity
31:19and power tools
31:20because you'd need
31:21diamond-tipped metal
31:23kind of saws
31:24to go through the granite.
31:26But when you look
31:27at some of the detail
31:28and some of the precision
31:29you find in Egypt,
31:31it really is beyond
31:32what the ancients
31:33should have been capable of.
31:37Well, they did it.
31:39even without power tools
31:404,000 years before man
31:42harnessed electricity.
31:46The estimated workforce
31:47of between 30,000 and 40,000 men
31:49must have known
31:50what they were doing.
31:52Can I try?
31:53Yeah.
31:55OK, so I'm treating it
31:57how...
31:57That or that?
31:58Go on.
32:01The accuracy is the biggest problem.
32:03This is good.
32:04If civilisation is ever
32:05going to recover,
32:06then we're going to need
32:06to relearn these skills.
32:07Look, I mean,
32:08this is...
32:08I've got no transferable skills.
32:10No, I'd be the guy
32:11telling jokes in the camp
32:12at night.
32:12Hey, what about that limestone, eh?
32:17That limestone
32:18that I've been hacking away at
32:20was clearly popular stuff
32:22when it came to building pyramids.
32:253,000 years
32:26after the Egyptian pyramids
32:28were built,
32:28limestone was also used
32:30as the primary building material
32:32in the Yucatan Peninsula
32:34in Mexico
32:34for the great Mayan pyramids
32:36at Chichen Itza.
32:38Using chisels made
32:39from much harder stone
32:41like flint and obsidian,
32:42they cut grooves
32:43that wooden wedges
32:44were then driven into,
32:46splitting the stone cleanly.
32:48The Mayans employed
32:50advanced engineering techniques
32:51such as arches
32:52and stepped construction
32:53to build tall, steep-sided pyramids,
32:57a bit like what I'm doing.
33:00Yep, you're nearly there.
33:01Only 7,000 more of these to go.
33:04How long have they been doing it?
33:06How long have I been doing it?
33:07Yeah? Yeah?
33:09Perfect.
33:10It's done.
33:12Thank you very much.
33:23Hang on, hang on.
33:25Stop it there.
33:25Jesus!
33:28You're kidding me!
33:31God!
33:32Whoop, whoop, whoop!
33:33That's so clever.
33:35Right, and then they just square it off
33:36and then Bob's your uncle.
33:40It's sort of reassuring as well,
33:41when so much speculation is done over these.
33:44How do they do it?
33:46Yeah, yeah, yeah.
33:47Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
33:48There's six guys doing it.
33:50Bunch of guys with the right knowledge,
33:52the right tools.
33:54Yeah.
33:55And presumably, as with these guys,
33:57years and years of skills and experience.
33:59Yeah, yeah, yeah.
34:02We've witnessed the evidence of what can be achieved
34:04with the simplest of hand tools.
34:06But what about the immense quantities of stone
34:09transported from hundreds of kilometres away?
34:12Apparently, Raksha has some revelations in store.
34:16Now, Raksha, in all her archaeological wisdom,
34:20said to me,
34:20why didn't you meet me at the edge of the pyramid site
34:22at Khufu's Harbour?
34:25This is very much the bit where the pyramids meet the city.
34:28I don't see any harbour here.
34:29In fact, the only water here is the Nile,
34:32which is about two miles that way.
34:35So, what's going on?
34:39Where are we now?
34:41What do you think we're looking at?
34:43We're looking at Cairo.
34:46Well, I can tell you that that there was the harbour
34:49that used to service the Giza construction site.
34:53Wow.
34:54You can actually see the harbour wall there.
34:56Yeah.
34:56But we're miles from water.
34:58Well, you say that.
34:59If you actually look at the site,
35:01can you see the little damp patches everywhere?
35:04Is that groundwater?
35:06That's groundwater.
35:07From doing a lot of excavations and things like pollen analysis,
35:11and they found that there was freshwater plants that were growing
35:15in the bottom of an extinct branch of the Nile
35:18that ran all the way up here at the time that those pyramids were being built.
35:264,500 years ago, Giza would have appeared very different.
35:31The climate would have been wetter and the vegetation more lush.
35:38The river Nile flooded every year.
35:40A harbour was dug out and the water would have flowed right to the base of the pyramids.
35:48Barges and boats from Egypt and beyond arrived here laden with granite,
35:53limestone, wood and all the materials needed for pyramid construction.
35:58So it was so close by.
36:00And then people would unload, take the blocks to the construction site just there and shape them.
36:06Wow, that's incredible.
36:08Archaeologists long suspected the use of boats to transport stone to Giza,
36:13but lacked any solid proof.
36:14However, in 2013, one of the most important archaeological finds of the century
36:20provided the smoking gun.
36:23Ancient fragments of papyrus found near the Red Sea
36:25finally confirmed the transportation of white limestone to Khufu's pyramid
36:30in a kind of shopping list.
36:33It had lots of kind of quite boring inventories in there.
36:37Feathers for this, leopard hide for this.
36:40But in this, he does actually mention this harbour.
36:45So he does mention some blocks coming to the harbour here.
36:50The archive is a diary of Merer, an overseer in charge of 160 men,
36:55and it details journeys from quarries 10 miles away to the Great Pyramid.
37:01What have now become known as the Red Sea Scrolls
37:04appear to be hard evidence that confirms that the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids.
37:10But for some, it is not enough.
37:13Just because we have proof that people were ordering limestone to be taken to a pyramid,
37:20I don't think that invalidates the idea of there being a spiritual dimension to that construction.
37:27Was there an outside influence in the construction of the pyramids?
37:32You could, if you were so inclined, go down the ancient astronaut extraterrestrial road.
37:38Is it a within thing, a human thing, to have had these great visions and ideas about how to construct
37:45something?
37:46Or did it come from without?
37:50This sort of speculation must be frustrating for academics like Chris,
37:54who spent their whole careers doing careful and precise scientific research on the subject.
38:02So, despite the fact that all the evidence we have suggests that these are monumental tombs,
38:08there are people that want to see them as being much older, not tombs at all.
38:14You know, why would they build something so big? You know, they were only, you know, relatively short.
38:19It must have been giants. It must have been something else. It must have been alien technology, possibly.
38:23And are they even tombs? I mean, for some people, even that's not very plausible.
38:27They must have some other purpose. Why not an electrical hydraulic power station?
38:33That's a serious suggestion that people have made.
38:36I think people want a rapt mummy, you know, almost ready to sort of rise up out of the coffin
38:40and say,
38:41no, it is me, it's Khufu.
38:42Until we have that sort of amount of evidence, the door seems to be open for people to reinterpret these
38:48things as whatever they want.
38:49I know. But the thing on Brass Eye about how actually these are giant ears for a massive cat statue
38:55under the ground?
38:56That's the one I believe. There's something in that.
38:57I believe that one.
38:59Next, I unravel one of the great mysteries of the pyramids.
39:03I'd have done it exactly like this.
39:05Yeah. Problem solved.
39:06There we go. I mean, this Egyptology is adorable, isn't it?
39:19Step by step, we're unraveling the great pyramid puzzle.
39:23But we still haven't got to the bottom of how on earth the ancient Egyptians got over two million heavy
39:29stone blocks up into place.
39:32We know where the blocks came from.
39:33We know how huge these were.
39:35Yes. And I know how they did the first layer.
39:38Yes. But do we know how they did the second layer, the third layer and all the way up?
39:42Well, the short answer is no, we don't.
39:44We know the Egyptians used ramps and that ramp has either got to be ludicrously steep or it's got to
39:50be enormously long.
39:52Can they really have built a ramp that's a kilometre and more long out of mud?
39:57For some people, that's just not good enough.
40:01Experts have been debating the mechanics of how these huge blocks were raised hundreds of metres into the air for
40:07centuries now.
40:08And it appears no one can agree.
40:12Over the past decade, French architect Jean-Pierre Roudin has been working on an intriguing theory.
40:18Central to his idea is an internal ramp system with a grand gallery playing a key role.
40:27This is a grand gallery we've been in before.
40:30Yes.
40:30Still is hot.
40:31Yes, it is. Sorry.
40:34And still is both astonishing but also perplexing.
40:37It is just a fantastic, beautiful, mightily impressive space.
40:42Why go to the trouble of building this enormous, extremely high passageway?
40:48It's an unnecessarily grand chamber given that no one is supposed to ever see it.
40:51And it's not going to help him on his way to the afterlife.
40:55Not as far as anything in here tells us, no.
40:59And actually, if you look closely again, there are a few clues here and there that might provide something of
41:06an explanation.
41:07The blocks at the side at this level, there are what appear perhaps to be little linear scratch marks,
41:15almost as though something has been sort of pulled along in this direction very, very close to the wall,
41:20kind of banging up against it.
41:21Yeah.
41:22A little video here, which has been put together.
41:28Houdin's theory suggests that the grand gallery was constructed to accommodate a massive counterweight system.
41:35This involved a wooden carriage carrying some of the heaviest granite blocks along rails and rollers to get them up
41:41to higher elevations.
41:45So we're kind of descending back through it now.
41:48The theory is that, in fact, this is the means by which some, at least of the very heaviest blocks,
41:55the granite blocks that are casing the burial chamber and the ones that are placed along the top forming the
42:00ceiling,
42:01perhaps came this way and were dragged up here using counterweights and ropes.
42:07So, like, a cable car system.
42:10Almost, you might say.
42:11Actually, I was wrong to say a cable car. I meant funicular.
42:15Ah, now, if you'd said funicular to start with...
42:17Then you know exactly what I mean.
42:18It's a counterweighted system.
42:21It's a counterweighted system that would allow you, there, to use one weight to draw the other weights up
42:25and then you have to lift that other weight again and pull another weight up.
42:28It could work.
42:29That's the way I'd do it.
42:30I'd do it exactly like this.
42:32There you go.
42:33Yeah.
42:33Problem solved.
42:34There we go. I mean, this Egyptology is total, isn't it?
42:41With all that sorted, I feel we can move on to King Khufu, who is still missing, but there have
42:46been recent revelations.
42:50An international team of scientists using cutting-edge Muon technology have been scanning the Great Pyramid and have on Earth
42:58not one, but two previously unknown voids within the pyramid.
43:03When the first chamber they found was finally revealed with an endoscopic camera, it was found to be empty.
43:08But there's another, high above the grand gallery, that is still to be explored.
43:15It's tantalising the idea of there being more empty spaces.
43:18Yeah.
43:19Egyptology and, you know, the world of Egyptophiles loves a hidden chamber.
43:23You know, and we know these chambers are often filled with treasure, so, you know, what could be here?
43:29Of course, the next thing is, we've got to get there, we've got to get inside.
43:32What would it take for somebody to actually take a drill to the inside of the Great Pyramid?
43:38Well, the authorities need to be really, really clear that there's a good, very valid, very strong reason.
43:46It dangles enigmatically.
43:48It does, doesn't it?
43:49Oh, this is why the show isn't called Stuff We Know About the Pyramids.
43:52Right, exactly. There you go.
43:54This is why the show is called Mysteries of the Pyramids.
44:00When I came to Egypt, my head was filled with questions about these maddening, enigmatic buildings.
44:05And my heart was filled with the desire to live like Indiana Jones for a while.
44:09Well, a lot of clambering later, I have a lot of answers I'm very happy with about how they built
44:14the pyramids,
44:15indeed why they built the pyramids.
44:16Of course, now I'm wondering where Khufu's body is and what that cavity is that turns up in all the
44:22scans.
44:22That's the problem with these, they keep offering more questions.
44:25So in the next episode, we'll try to address two of the hugest questions.
44:29Firstly, why do they stop building pyramids?
44:32And also, what is the final score in the eternal battle between pharaohs and tomb raiders?
44:41Next time, I meet the boy king who dodged the tomb raiders without a pyramid to become the most famous
44:48pharaoh of all.
44:50Hello, Tut. You're the most popular. That's the way history works sometimes. You're the one everyone knows.
44:57And Dara is back with more mysteries of the pyramids next Monday at 9.
45:01He also has some celestial secrets to share which will change the way you stare up at the sky forever,
45:06catch wonders of the moon on My5.
45:09We're very much on planet Earth next, facing up to the realities of life inside the Force.
45:14That's new just at Mo.
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