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00:01All across the globe, pyramids represent the power of ancient civilizations.
00:07That's a big sarcophagus.
00:09I'm on a journey to explore the mysteries behind these jaw-dropping megaliths,
00:13and you find me in the realm of the pyramid, Egypt.
00:18This incredible structure is the Great Pyramid at Giza,
00:23the zenith of all pyramid-making,
00:25and people have gazed for thousands of years in awe
00:27and its precision and effort at the sheer scale of it.
00:31But this, like all pyramids, failed.
00:34They failed in the one task they were set to achieve.
00:38I call this episode, Pyramids, You Had One Job.
00:42Oh, that's incredible.
00:45We're exploring an arms race that raged around the pyramids.
00:49You've got as much innovation on the robber's side as you have on the builder's side.
00:53It's one of the biggest ironies of history.
00:56That.
00:57In the glass case.
00:58Yes.
00:59And as usual, speculation is rife.
01:02It's not what the Sphinx is.
01:04It's what's underneath the Sphinx that has me interested.
01:08They just carved it into the ground.
01:09Exactly.
01:10It's completely cut from the bedrock.
01:13This is incredible.
01:14This feels like a substantial build.
01:17I have archaeologist Raksha Dave.
01:19If somebody catches you, you're gonna die.
01:23Oh, wow.
01:24This is majestic.
01:25And Egyptologist Dr. Chris Norton alongside me.
01:28At a certain point in the construction, cracks start to appear.
01:32We'll explore the secret passageways designed to keep the dead pharaohs safe.
01:36And we'll come face to face with the most famous pharaoh of all.
01:40So join me as we explore the mysteries of the pyramids.
01:57I'm starting my investigation not in some dusty ancient tomb.
02:02But here at Khan el Khalili.
02:04Cairo's famous vibrant bazaar.
02:08Boasting some of the most expensive, expertly crafted and gilded treasures,
02:14Egyptian tomb artefacts have long been sought after
02:17from the moment they were placed in the sealed chambers.
02:21Of course, the ancient Egyptians believed that not only did the pharaoh go into the afterlife,
02:25but things he had with them could go into the afterlife as well.
02:28And so they'd be buried with treasures like you'd see here in the market.
02:32But the problem is, if you're going to do that, people know about it.
02:35And that makes it very tempting for people who want to steal those treasures.
02:42I'm with Egyptologist Chris Norton, who's arranged for us to go and explore the mystery
02:46of how the ancient Egyptians began to tackle the problem that plagued the pharaohs, tomb raiding.
02:54So Chris, we're going to Saqqara now.
02:56Yes, we are. And Saqqara is the site of the first pyramid.
03:01Will we also get a better sense of how to break into a pyramid?
03:05Yeah. So the only thing that's as old as monumental tomb construction in Egypt is tomb robbery.
03:11So you've got more or less as much innovation on the robber's side as you have on the builder's side.
03:18Before pyramids were even thought of, the ancient Egyptians used simpler structures,
03:22known as mastabas, to entomb their nobility.
03:25These flat roof stone buildings found here at Saqqara incorporated basic anti-theft measures.
03:32However, they proved wholly inadequate in thwarting tomb raiders.
03:37In response, the ancient Egyptians devised a new solution.
03:44Enter the pyramid.
03:47This is the very first pyramid built by Pharaoh Joseph as his tomb.
03:57King Joseph ruled around 2,660 years BCE, which makes this pyramid nearly 5,000 years old.
04:08So they used to be buried under, like a platform, a large flat building.
04:14And then it was this particular pharaoh who said,
04:17why don't we put another platform on top of that and another platform on top of that?
04:20Because it does seem to be as if it is just a series of smaller and smaller platforms.
04:25Yes. And of course, eventually, you know, you're reaching up to the sky.
04:28Hey, presto, you have a pyramid.
04:31Djoser's step pyramid would have not only been the final resting place of the king,
04:36but also all his worldly possessions, and more importantly for the tomb raiders, his treasures.
04:43Anywhere a pharaoh was laid to rest, gilded coffins and amulets of precious stones
04:49all proved too tempting for the thieves.
04:52When embalmers began to include amulets of gold or silver within the mummy wrappings,
04:57even the king's corpse came under threat.
05:02If you were caught tomb raiding, you could be dismembered as a punishment,
05:05losing your nose or your ears, or you could be impaled, you know, to death.
05:14Nowadays, the illicit antiquities market is the third largest black market in the world
05:19after narcotics and guns.
05:22And the punishment these days in Egypt for tomb raiding?
05:25A lifetime in prison and a million dollar fine.
05:29But hey, at least you don't get impaled.
05:33But despite the high risks, the allure of treasure kept drawing tomb raiders in.
05:39So it's no wonder the ancient Egyptians went to such lengths to fortify their pyramids.
05:46So, I mean, it's going to be dark presumably.
05:49It will be darker than out here, yeah.
05:51The step pyramid owes its creation to the ingenuity of Imhotep,
05:56the king's esteemed advisor who is widely regarded as the first ever architect.
06:02Imhotep, who also served as a priest and physician,
06:05later achieved divine status among the Greeks
06:08and even found his place in Hollywood Spotlight.
06:12Chris has managed to secure special government permission for us to explore his masterpiece
06:17via a passageway that most tourists don't ever get to see.
06:23Absolutely labyrinthine.
06:24And I'm not even completely confident I'm going to be able to navigate our way
06:28directly to the burial chamber.
06:29We'll have some fun on the way.
06:30Oh good, I want a maze.
06:33And it doesn't take long before we encounter some of Imhotep's anti-tomb raider devices.
06:39Imagine doing this in the pitch darkness with just the light of a candle or two.
06:45If you put blind corridors, dummy chambers, the more complex you can make it,
06:49the harder it is going to be for the robbers to get around.
06:54Can I pause to say how much I'm enjoying this?
06:57How much fun this is.
06:59Yeah.
06:59Just absolutely, I know, mmm, history, mmm, history, I'm learning.
07:02But this is just great fun.
07:07There's a fork.
07:09Yeah.
07:10Interesting.
07:11Dilemma for the Egyptologist.
07:13Are we going left or right?
07:14I think we're going left.
07:16OK.
07:17Left it is.
07:19Oh my God, yeah.
07:21This is vast.
07:23Steep steps.
07:24OK.
07:28OK, we've got another decision to make here.
07:31I think we're going this way.
07:34I don't know about the tomb raiders, but Imhotep has certainly outfoxed me and Chris.
07:39Are we going to go this way?
07:40We're going to go this way and left and then hopefully come back round.
07:47This way, do you think?
07:48Yeah, let's go for it.
07:49Let's try it.
07:49I have played too many first-person video games.
07:53Yeah, right.
07:55Believe it or not, 7,500 miles away at roughly the same time,
08:00Steppe pyramids were also being built, this time by ancient Peruvians.
08:05The largest of these, known as Pyramid Mayor, stands nearly 30 metres tall,
08:10with a base that covers an area of roughly three football fields.
08:14The purpose of this pyramid is hard to determine.
08:18Though knotted ropes, known as Quipu, an early Andean method for recording numerical information,
08:24have been found here, suggesting a highly structured society with complex mathematical understanding.
08:31Radiocarbon dating on organic matter throughout the site has revealed it to be roughly the same age as the Great
08:37Pyramid of Giza.
08:45Two advanced civilisations building pyramids at sort of the same time is a coincidence that has blown the mind of
08:52some people,
08:53leading to wild speculation.
08:56I'm going to talk to Nick Pope, who worked for 20 years on the MOD's UFO desk.
09:02The idea that they did this repeatedly at different points around the planet at the same time,
09:08is the idea that rather than this being just a sign that humans like to assemble, humans like to build,
09:14that somehow it's proof of an outside force?
09:19Yes, I think the alternative belief theorists here say that these are often cultures that had no direct contact with
09:28each other.
09:28So they theorised that there must have been a common link, either a mysterious lost civilisation,
09:35or its extraterrestrials coming down and, of course, easily able to visit people all around the world
09:42at a time when those cultures were not in contact with each other.
09:46And that's how they say all these structures that look remarkably similar have cropped up independently.
09:54While I enjoy the ideas that some of these have, and I enjoy the fun of this sort of setting
09:58sound,
09:59does it not obscure a more interesting sort of human fact that, you know, even at a primitive level,
10:05we enjoyed building and stacking and pyramids are a very fundamental shape?
10:11Yeah, this is what the mainstream scientists and academics say,
10:16that if you wanted to build something, this is really the fundamental shape that you would choose.
10:22And then there are simply people who say, well, we couldn't build the pyramids now.
10:27It seems like it's too much of a happy coincidence, but to back it up requires a fantastic universe of
10:33invention.
10:36Back at the Steppe Pyramid, and we've still not found the burial place of the Pharaoh.
10:42At some point you're going to have to be right about this.
10:44Yeah, no, eventually, yeah. I mean, that's the nature of labyrinths, right?
10:48I mean, everybody knows that in the end you get to the right place.
10:51You appear eventually.
10:51Yeah.
10:52Oh, wow, this is majestic.
10:55Oh, my God.
10:57Right?
10:58Oh, I wasn't expecting that.
11:07That's astonishing.
11:09And within the pyramid?
11:11No, that's the level of the ground above us.
11:13Oh, really?
11:14Have we come down that far?
11:14Yeah, we've come down that far.
11:15Yeah, exactly.
11:16This is entirely cut into the bedrock.
11:19So this whole shaft is underground.
11:21And what's at the top of the shaft?
11:22That's the mass of the pyramid.
11:24Whoa.
11:25That is incredible.
11:28So they've built this hole.
11:29Yeah.
11:30They've put his burial chamber within the hole.
11:31Yeah.
11:32And the entire pyramid is essentially a capstone on top of the hole.
11:36Yeah, it's to provide an enormous kind of barrier between would-be robbers and the good stuff inside.
11:43There was a circular hole in the top of the burial chamber cut into these blocks.
11:49That's where all the burial equipment and the body of the king are introduced into the chamber.
11:54And then that hole is sealed with this massive six-ton block.
11:59So it should have been impenetrable.
12:03And turn it to be as penetrable as anything else.
12:12I cannot recommend that enough, by the way.
12:14A morning spent scrabbling around in tunnels underneath the pyramid.
12:18It is the most fun.
12:20But also learning.
12:21Learning about why they built those labyrinths down there and why they put his burial chamber at the bottom of
12:26an incredibly deep hole and put a pyramid on top of it.
12:28All to stop the grave robbers.
12:31But it didn't work.
12:32But the important thing is this.
12:33King Djoser had fired the starting gun on the greatest period of building the planet had ever seen.
12:40After this came Giza, came a whole era of giant stone pyramids.
12:45All of which started because of this.
12:48The Step Pyramid in Saqqara.
12:51Next.
12:52What about the workers?
12:53What about the lads who are out in the midday sun pulling the ropes and moving the bricks and shifting
12:59the stones?
12:59What's in it for them?
13:14I mean, I like it, but I feel it's not what they were aiming for.
13:19Yeah.
13:20Yeah, I think it's fair to say that this probably wasn't how the pyramid designers originally intended this pyramid to
13:28look.
13:29But I think this is pyramid design innovation in progress.
13:35Chris has brought me one hour south of Cairo to a place called Dushur to see how the early pyramids
13:42evolved to counter the threat from Tomb Raiders.
13:44From Step Pyramids to the iconic shape we know today.
13:49But it wasn't all plain sailing.
13:52At a certain point in the construction, cracks start to appear in the burial chamber.
13:58Underneath, we think, the huge weight of the pyramids.
14:02So rather than carrying on skywards, they decide we'd better cut a corner here.
14:10It should have been a super sleek sided pyramid with the steepest possible angle moving beyond the function of tomb
14:17protection and aspiring for mathematical perfection.
14:22This was built by Pharaoh Sneferu.
14:24He was also the builder of at least two other pyramids.
14:28One a long way south at Maidoum.
14:30The other one is also here, the red pyramid just behind us.
14:35So, in fact, this one does go wrong.
14:37But we think that eventually he gets it right.
14:41And he gets it very right. I mean, the red pyramid is, I would say, like, it's a chef's kiss
14:46pyramid.
14:46It's perfect. It's absolutely ideal.
14:48Absolutely. He's really the great innovator. And if you look at the evolution of these three pyramids, the Maidoum pyramid
14:55is the stepped monument that has been kind of made into a true sided pyramid.
15:00Yeah.
15:01The bent pyramid, had they succeeded, probably would have nailed the true pyramid design.
15:06But he has another go.
15:08And in the case of the red pyramid, he does nail it.
15:10Things go wrong. I mean, you know, bad preview, great show.
15:14This is the dodgy preview. This is the one that didn't quite work out.
15:18Right.
15:20The Egyptian pyramids evolved in an explosion of building and design over a very short period of time.
15:25But it wasn't like that everywhere.
15:29Two millennia later and 12,000 kilometres away, it was quite the opposite.
15:35The Great Pyramid of Cholula in Mexico holds the title of being the biggest pyramid in the world.
15:42But you wouldn't know to look at it.
15:45It's actually four times larger and twice the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
15:52However, its largely subterranean structure obscures its monumental scale.
15:57And unlike the Egyptian pyramids, this one took a thousand years to build.
16:02And reflects the different ethnic groups that controlled it over this time.
16:08Using adobe bricks, it became known as the Handmade Mountain.
16:12And at one time was a centrepiece of a city of 50,000 people.
16:17Although a church now sits at its peak, Cholula was once the centre of worship for Quetzalcoatl, one of the
16:24Mayans' most important gods.
16:30Over 2,000 years before this, in Egypt, a pyramid revolution was underway, spearheaded by a single man.
16:39Pharaoh Sneferu, the visionary genius of ancient Egypt, achieved his ambition of constructing the true pyramid within just 30 years.
16:49And once the blueprint was in place, his descendants ran with the idea.
16:55In a period of around 120 years, they cut, moved and built with 35 million tonnes of limestone, granite and
17:05a bit of basalt.
17:07The achievements of the ancient Egyptians are truly astounding.
17:11So I find it frustrating when credit for their work is attributed to aliens.
17:16Paranormal researcher Laura Roden takes a different view.
17:19I think the ancient alien theory that a lot of people subscribe to about structures like the Great Pyramid, whilst
17:29at first glance, may be laughable.
17:32I think once you start to dig a little bit deeper and think about these so-called entities in terms
17:39of a broader tapestry of belief, particularly religious belief, and how people have believed in deities of all sorts across
17:46all time, it starts to look less silly.
17:51If people can believe in the Christian God, then why not in extraterrestrials?
17:56It's a similar sort of concept that we as human beings are looking outside of ourselves for enlightenment as to
18:03our purpose and origin.
18:06Well, let's agree to disagree.
18:08The facts are that for thousands of years, the Great Pyramid stood as the tallest man-made structure in the
18:14world.
18:15And the pyramid's white cladding and golden capstones must have appeared magnificent, elevating the kings they were constructed for to
18:22godlike status.
18:26It's easy to see why the pharaoh enjoyed the idea of these grand schemes or his architect.
18:31But what about the workers? What about the lads?
18:34What about the lads who are out in the midday sun pulling the ropes and moving the bricks and shifting
18:40the stones? What's in it for them?
18:41It's hard to imagine this is how they imagined their lives to be, especially given that history for a long
18:47time told us that they were doing this at the business end of a whip.
18:52After all, in the centuries-long battle of Pharaoh versus Tomb Raider, these workers were the army without which the
18:59pharaoh was powerless to get safely into the afterlife.
19:04For further insight, I have been summoned back to Giza.
19:09Hello, Raksha.
19:10You took your time.
19:12I know, I'm so sorry. But what a lovely place you found to waste.
19:16Just by the pyramids, Raksha has some extraordinary excavations to show me.
19:22It's the people who built the pyramids. Were they slaves or not?
19:26No, they weren't. And that's a common misconception. They weren't at all. And I think we get this notion of
19:33slaves building the pyramids because of Hollywood. But I can tell you, there's not a single Charlton Heston in sight
19:41here.
19:43In recent decades, archaeologists have uncovered a village where the 30,000 workers who built the pyramids lived. This settlement
19:51was home to three generations of artisans and their families four and a half thousand years ago.
19:57And they buried their dead in tombs near the royal pyramids of Giza.
20:02This cemetery and the bones that are found in here kind of show us the real life of the workers
20:08that worked here and how much they were revered and looked after.
20:14This is incredible. I mean, this feels like a substantial build.
20:20Well, it is.
20:21By our standards, our modern standards, this is quite extravagant as a mausoleum. This is just for the artisans.
20:29Yeah, you're right. You know, this is basically made in the image of how the pharaohs were being buried.
20:35The burial chambers, yes.
20:36Yeah, absolutely. And why wouldn't they? They were the artisans of the pharaohs. Why wouldn't they pimp up their graves?
20:43I would.
20:46I'm still staggered by the huge explosion of pyramid building that happened here four and a half thousand years ago
20:51over an astonishingly short period of time, just 120 years.
20:55And visiting the tombs of the people whose skill, ingenuity and hard work made that happen is quite an experience.
21:06So this is the ordinary lives of the workers. What do we know about just the day to day of
21:12their lives?
21:12I think there was quite a lot of banter and camaraderie amongst them because we do find graffiti in and
21:19around Giza.
21:20And there's a famous one, a gang calling themselves the drunkards of Menkari. So they're having a good time.
21:29In the pyramid itself?
21:30In the pyramids itself. History books are about the winners and the survivors, but archaeology is about the normal people
21:38like me and you.
21:42All this huge communal effort to get the pharaohs safely to the afterlife. But you can't help wondering if the
21:49building of the pyramids achieved more than the structures themselves.
21:53I have a theory I want to try out on Chris. Can I ask what I call the Teflon question?
22:00Sure. I mean, I don't know what you mean, but...
22:02I'll explain. If I think of a large national effort to do something, I think of the space race.
22:08OK, yeah.
22:08Now, the space race got humans to the moon, but it also gave us better frying pans.
22:14OK, OK.
22:15So did this have the same effect? Did this accelerate Egyptian science, Egyptian architecture, Egyptian art?
22:22We know that they're innovating constantly in terms of, you know, architecture and design.
22:26This is something that they would then continue to do for the next 2,000 years and more.
22:32The other thing, which is kind of admin and bureaucracy, I'm going to have to go to the quarry man
22:37and say, I'm going to need how many blocks?
22:40You know, and somebody's got to then go, OK, look, so it's 100 there times 100, multiply that up by...
22:46This has all got to be written down, right? Hang on, do we have a system of writing that's sophisticated
22:50enough?
22:51Well, if we haven't, then we'd better have one, right? That then endures.
22:54That sets ancient Egypt up to be this huge, successful, high-functioning, enduring society.
23:06It's reassuring to know that, despite myths, those things were not built by slaves.
23:11That, in fact, the people who built them were well-fed, were well-looked-after and had a sense of
23:16camaraderie with their co-workers.
23:17But still, they knew they were building a burial chamber filled with riches beyond their wildest imaginations.
23:25That must have been tempting.
23:29Next, I explore the ancient world's most iconic sculpture and ask whether it was designed to deter tomb raiders.
23:36They just carved it into the ground.
23:38Exactly, yeah. It's completely cut from the bedroom.
24:02Now, of course, clambering over the pyramids is a great deal of fun.
24:06But it does tend to make the culture look a little desolate because they're all empty.
24:11When, of course, at the same time as the pyramids were being built, there was a huge explosion in arts
24:16and crafts and sculpture.
24:17Now, we've come to the Egyptian Museum to see some of that, but also, hopefully, to put a face to
24:23some of those pharaohs.
24:27To make sure I know who and what I'm looking at, I've arranged to meet Egyptologist Arto Belactanian.
24:35Arto, thank you for bringing us into the legendary Egyptian Museum.
24:38I'm delighted to see so many treasures here.
24:41Oh, this place is full to the brim. There's just so much here that there's barely any room for more.
24:48Which is one of the things about the pyramids, because the pyramids themselves are so bare that everything is out
24:53of the pyramids, and they're here.
24:58This is none other than Djoser.
25:02Oh, of the steppe pyramid.
25:04Exactly. Hey, good memory.
25:06Thank you very much.
25:08Inside the pyramid, in the substructure, you had all kinds of things in there.
25:13Pottery vessels full of things the king wanted to have in the afterlife as well.
25:17I mean, is it general rule that stuff that was inside was intended to, that they would bring it with
25:24them to the afterlife?
25:25Exactly.
25:26Yeah.
25:27In spiritual form, they would actually have access to these things.
25:31These tomb raiders may have desecrated sacred sites, but the guilty truth is, we might never have seen these amazing
25:38items had they not.
25:40Oh my God, that's incredible.
25:42It is.
25:43That's very beautiful.
25:44That statue over there, in my opinion, is not only one of the finest pieces of sculpture made in Egyptian
25:51culture, but in human culture ever.
25:57This is King Chafre, the builder of the second pyramid on the Giza plateau.
26:03The one that still has some of the limestone at the very top.
26:05Yes.
26:05Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:06Son of Khufu, who built the Great Pyramids.
26:09Yeah.
26:09The three large pyramids at Giza were built for three generations of Egyptian kings.
26:16Khufu, his son Chafre, and his grandson Menkaure.
26:21If you just look at this statue, the way his confident features are just emanating power, the way he gazes
26:29off into the distance, almost looking into the hereafter.
26:34The idea is, this is a representation of you, an anchor for your soul forever.
26:38Yes.
26:39And for obvious reasons, you want to show yourself in the prime of life.
26:43I want to leave a good looking corpse.
26:45And for those of you who have passed that point, you know, you know.
26:48You're not there yet.
26:48No, I think, I still think I'd go for the statue of me at 25, rather than this.
26:52But, yeah.
26:54Okay, so we've seen builders of two of the pyramids, but not builders of the greatest pyramid of Giza.
27:00So this, are we building up something amazing here?
27:02Yes, we are.
27:02Yeah.
27:03Absolutely amazing, but not necessarily impressive.
27:05How so?
27:07Because that statuette right there is Khufu.
27:11That tiny thing.
27:12That, in the glass case.
27:14Mm-hmm.
27:14That minuscule thing.
27:15Yes.
27:16Khufu, who built the greatest of all the pyramids.
27:19It's one of the biggest ironies of history that the only confirmed three-dimensional representation of Khufu that has survived
27:28to this day is this tiny 7.2 centimeter tall statuette.
27:33That is astonishing.
27:36I'm sorry, just as a sign of how small it is for the first time in this show?
27:42Wow.
27:47But Khufu wasn't the only one in the region building pyramids.
27:51In nearby modern Iraq, the Sumerians built the great ziggurat of Ur just 400 years later.
27:58But unlike the Egyptian pyramids, the ziggurat functioned as both an administrative center and a shrine, dedicated to the moon
28:05god Nana, patron deity of the city-state of Ur.
28:09The structure, whose base is built from three-quarters of a million mud bricks, has undergone cycles of ruin and
28:16restoration.
28:17Initially rebuilt in the 6th century BCE by King Nabonidus, it was then lost and later rediscovered by British archaeologist
28:25William Loftus in 1850.
28:29Restored by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, it then suffered damage during the Gulf War of 1991.
28:39Back in Giza, there's another famous monument that has been reassessed in modern times.
28:46The Sphinx.
28:49This half-man, half-lion giant sculpture spent an age almost lost beneath those sands, only to be reborn in
28:56the late 18th century.
28:57But its very presence seems to entice speculation.
29:02The Sphinx is one of the most intriguing aspects of the Giza play.
29:06It was really the symbol, you know, along with the Great Pyramid of the whole of Egypt.
29:10Obviously, the head doesn't appear to have been original.
29:13There's lots of different theories about, you know, how it was created.
29:16But some people have suggested that water kind of created the erosion around the Sphinx area.
29:23And that wouldn't have happened until around 10,000 years ago.
29:29One of the ideas that I kind of find intriguing is the fact that he's facing east,
29:35watching Leo rise at the time of the equinox sunrise towards the east.
29:40And when Leo was rising there, that would have been 10,500 or so years ago.
29:48It's just incredibly majestic.
29:50Yeah.
29:51It's brilliantly serene.
29:52Yeah.
29:53It's utterly unique as well.
29:56Yes, it is. That's important.
29:58And yet there's loads of it missing.
30:00Yeah, there are parts missing.
30:02Having said that though, you know, it's been here for 4,500 years.
30:06I think it's survived pretty well.
30:10Importantly, human activity of any kind always leaves behind traces, detritus of one kind or another.
30:17Typically pottery.
30:19And the ceramic evidence, the inscription on evidence where we have it,
30:24the evidence of the other buildings we have,
30:26it's all confined to the period the conventional view says it should be.
30:31I mean, it's supposed to look like one of the pharaohs, isn't it?
30:34Yeah, no, exactly.
30:35So you can tell it's the pharaoh from the headgear.
30:39There's no question this is meant to be the king.
30:44The most iconic emblem of ancient Egypt, the Great Sphinx has become as famous as the pyramids themselves.
30:51But its purpose is unknown, adding to its mystery.
30:56It wasn't to scare off Roberts, was it?
31:00Well, in some sense, you know, it does look kind of like a guardian animal.
31:06But honestly, I think when you think that we know about all the elaborate engineering innovations
31:12that the Egyptians built into pyramids to deter robbers,
31:16the idea that somebody thought if you just put a big statue in front,
31:19then the robbers are going to be like,
31:21whoa, let's definitely not rob this, there's a scary statue here.
31:24The big cat will get you.
31:25The truth is, you know, this is another one of these monuments,
31:28incredibly well scrutinised and studied, about which we still don't know very much.
31:33Here's the thing that's amazing about it.
31:35When you visit here, you hardly see it, because it's really low.
31:39Because it's not rock, not like they are, not rocks brought in.
31:43Nope.
31:43They just carved it into the ground.
31:44Exactly, yeah.
31:45It's completely cut from the bedrock.
31:48We think that this was being used as a quarry for building the pyramids or the temples here.
31:52But it's not impossible that actually somebody sort of notices,
31:56well, hang on guys, whoa, stop.
31:57It looks a bit like a sphinx.
31:57It looks a bit like a sphinx.
31:58You know, if we just cut it here and there a little bit,
32:01we could create a giant image of the king as the sun god.
32:06It's all speculation.
32:08But the lack of solid information about the sphinx has given rise,
32:11yet again, to a host of colourful theories.
32:15It's not so much what the sphinx is,
32:18it's quite possibly what's underneath the sphinx that has me interested.
32:21So for a very long time, people have spoke about the sphinx guarding something,
32:27acting as a gateway to something else.
32:32Various people have suggested that there are tunnels, possibly chambers,
32:37below the sphinx underneath the Giza Plateau.
32:40They use ground penetrating radar, which revealed suggestions of hitherto unknown tunnels and chambers,
32:47particularly beneath the pores of the sphinx.
32:50And it was never excavated, but they claimed that there was something there.
32:57It was an American clairvoyant, called Casey in the 1930s,
33:01who announced that underneath the sphinx there was a hall of records,
33:05a sacred library containing ancient knowledge from the survivors of Atlantis.
33:09In 1978, an international team of archaeologists mapped the bedrock surrounding the sphinx
33:15and detected no secret chamber.
33:18People have looked and looked and looked and looked and looked.
33:20And there's nothing there?
33:21There's nothing.
33:26I find the pyramids jaw-dropping,
33:28because of the sheer scale of the building project
33:30and also the communal human will required to create them.
33:35Can you imagine living at that time, standing next to them,
33:38and that mixture of pride and insignificance marvelling at their size?
33:44So it's particularly sad that suddenly there was a time when they were consigned to history.
33:52These buildings are undoubtedly magnificent, but they didn't work.
33:57And it didn't matter whether you put the burial chambers underneath the pyramid
34:01or built them into the pyramid or whether you built a half-man, half-cat to protect the pyramid,
34:07the robbers still got in.
34:09It had to change.
34:10And it changed completely.
34:15Next, I head to the most famous valley in Egypt
34:18and meet the one pharaoh who managed to evade the Tomb Raiders for 3,000 years.
34:23He turned round and he said,
34:26Inside, I see beautiful things.
34:40After over a thousand years of losing the battle between Tomb Raider and Pyramid Builder,
34:47the powers that be finally got the message.
34:50Pyramids were out.
34:53Instead, this remote hidden valley over 600 kilometres from Giza
34:57became the preferred spot to lay their dead pharaohs to rest.
35:02I'm in the Valley of the Kings
35:03and there isn't a statue or a temple or a pyramid to be seen.
35:08I mean, they're burial chambers, but they're stashed deep underground.
35:12Because after a thousand years of having all the burial chambers looted,
35:17the elders in Egypt must have realised,
35:18Hang on, we're not really helping the pharaohs here on their final journey.
35:22If anything, we're advertising where the loot is by building a big triangle above it.
35:27So the plan was changed to something far more stealthy.
35:30They came here to a valley hundreds of miles from prying eyes.
35:34And they built a secret cemetery for deceased pharaohs
35:38for their journey to the afterlife.
35:40I'm heading into the tomb of Seti I,
35:43a pharaoh who ruled Egypt some 3,000 years ago.
35:47It's one of the deepest and most lavish in the Valley of the Kings.
35:51So, did it escape the clutches of the Tomb Raiders?
35:57Sadly, it did not.
35:58Tomb Raiders broke in and stole everything.
36:01Even the mummy, which in their haste they managed to decapitate.
36:04The mummy was however later recovered and hidden away again.
36:07And then finally rediscovered in 1881.
36:11Reunited with its head and Seti's final resting place is in a museum in Cairo.
36:16The one thing the Raiders couldn't steal however, were these incredible interiors.
36:26Walking through yet another empty tomb.
36:29I can't help but think that something is going on.
36:33So, this is an ongoing pattern here.
36:37Which makes you think that all these robberies, I mean, were the inside job.
36:43You're bang on the money there.
36:45It was completely an inside job.
36:48Now we have to remember, as with the pyramids, you had workers.
36:53These workers in the Valley of the Kings were secret.
36:56So, this whole complex was secret.
37:00Guarded day and night.
37:02Now, when the Pharaoh died and there was a new king, they needed money.
37:07So, what they would do is they would ask some of the workmen who knew exactly where the tunnels were
37:13and the tombs,
37:14to go in and do the robbing for them.
37:17So, it was state sponsored.
37:18So, we shouldn't be as quick to judge the grave robbers as history might have been.
37:23So, basically, they would recirculate the wealth back into the economy again.
37:28Exactly.
37:29They're like, well, he's dead now.
37:31He doesn't need all of that bling, does he?
37:32I'm going to have it for myself because I need to go and have a war with the Persians over
37:37there.
37:39But, there is a danger element to it.
37:41Because, if somebody catches you and they're not in on the job, you're going to die.
37:50This looks incredible now.
37:53Imagine how much more incredible it would have looked when it was filled to the brim with gold and jewels
37:59and chariots.
38:00But, all of that is gone.
38:03All of that is always gone.
38:07But, there's one notable exception.
38:10A pharaoh whose humble status might have consigned him to obscurity.
38:15Yet, a twist of fate has transformed him into an icon.
38:20He's the only pharaoh buried in the Valley of the Kings to have evaded tomb raiders until the 20th century.
38:29The boy king, Tutankhamun.
38:39He was a lesser known pharaoh because he had such a short reign.
38:44His father was disgraced and he lived a really short life.
38:50Tutankhamun's name was nearly erased from historical record by the Egyptians who came after.
38:56Over time, his short reign was all but forgotten.
38:59With another pharaoh's tomb being constructed almost directly on top of his.
39:04This fortunate turn of events kept Tutankhamun's tomb and all its treasures undisturbed for thousands of years.
39:11Making its eventual discovery the find of the 20th century.
39:16Everybody goes nuts for Tutankhamun.
39:20Absolutely bonkers.
39:21So much so, it influences the Art Deco movement.
39:25So, the Chrysler building itself has Egyptian motifs on it.
39:30People are just like completely taken with it, aren't they?
39:32This boy king, all of these treasures, all of these goods.
39:35Because there is nothing else in the world like it.
39:40British archaeologist Howard Carter gave an exclusive to the Times newspaper,
39:45leaving the rest of the press feeling pretty frustrated and not getting their scoop.
39:49So much so, that they needed to create something else to sell their papers.
39:53The Pharaoh's Curse was born and became a worldwide press sensation.
39:59Stories spread about a curse on anyone who dared to break into a pharaoh's tomb.
40:04When Lord Carnarvon, who paid for the dig, died a few months later, the rumor mill went into overdrive.
40:11And the idea of a curse still persists to this day.
40:16This whole tunnel, completely full of rubble.
40:21So they had to unpick their way through here.
40:24They got to this door.
40:26And he chipped away.
40:28He had a candle and he peered through.
40:30He turned round and he said,
40:33Inside, I see beautiful things.
40:39The famous Tutankhamen's tomb.
40:41Yes.
40:42And markedly different to Seti's tomb.
40:44Isn't it smaller?
40:45Is it much, much smaller?
40:46Well, the idea is that he died before his time.
40:50There's no carving into the walls.
40:53Oh, there's no reliefs.
40:54There's no reliefs.
40:55Just straight on, slapped a bit of paint on the walls,
40:58and then put him in here and shut the door.
41:01So it's all very mysterious.
41:03Why the rush?
41:04Why the hurry?
41:05Well, this is the eternal mystery of Tutankhamen.
41:08Nobody knows.
41:09And because it was fairly, pretty much untouched,
41:12we got a real sense of how much riches the fairs were being buried with.
41:17Yeah.
41:18I mean, can you imagine when Howard Carter came down these stairs?
41:24This was full of beds, chariots, clothes, baby chairs,
41:30because people didn't know when you were reborn into the afterlife,
41:35how you would be born.
41:36Would you be a child?
41:37Would you need food?
41:39So they packed everything inside,
41:42and that's why we know about the pharaohs and their afterlife,
41:47is because of the items inside this tomb.
41:51We actually know quite a bit about this boy king.
41:54He had a large overbite,
41:56and the fact that he was buried with lots of walking sticks
41:59suggests he may have had a limp of some kind as well.
42:03We even know he was married to his sister,
42:05and lost two babies who had been buried here with him.
42:08The boy king who became pharaoh at 10,
42:12and died suspiciously at 19, lived a short and difficult life.
42:19Ultimately, it's just a very sad story,
42:21because in the end, his tomb did get desecrated by Howard Carter.
42:27His coffins were prized open.
42:30His body was unravelled.
42:33Do you think it's right that the body has been returned to here,
42:35so the body still rests in the tomb?
42:38Yeah, absolutely.
42:40Don't you think that's, like, a fitting thing to happen to somebody,
42:43to be reunited with their final resting place?
42:59Hello, Tut.
43:01You're the most popular.
43:03Do you know that?
43:04Oh, yeah.
43:05That's the way history works sometimes.
43:07You're the one everyone knows.
43:13We would all like to think that our final resting place
43:16will be peaceful.
43:17But for some, it was also their route to immortality.
43:23Now, one could do individual fingers wrapping.
43:27Yeah.
43:28But today, we're going to do a mitten.
43:29Oh, that's nice.
43:31Yeah.
43:32The most important thing?
43:33Of course.
43:33Is the head.
43:34Yes.
43:36Can you breathe?
43:37Yeah, I can.
43:37I don't wish to be responsible for your death.
43:39No, no, no.
43:40I mean, then I'd have to modify you properly.
43:42Yeah.
43:42That's it.
43:43Good.
43:43Okay.
43:44And take you to the tomb for the final rites.
43:46Okay.
43:46Really?
43:46You're still there, aren't you?
43:48I'm still there.
43:48I'm still there.
43:50I'm still there.
43:51I'm still there.
44:04I'm still there.
44:19I'm still there.
44:25I'm still there.
44:28I'm still there.
44:31I'm still there.
44:33I'm still there.
44:41I'm still there.
44:46I'm still there.
44:56Dose.
44:56We're following the case inside the force.
44:59New next.
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