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00:03Saqqara, Egypt, an ancient royal necropolis, over 5,000 years old.
00:14Eleven royal pyramids are buried in the sands here, more than any other site in Egypt, including the first pyramid
00:26ever built.
00:28Saqqara is where everything started for us.
00:31It is a site so huge, only a tiny fraction has been explored. Most of its secrets remain hidden.
00:41For investigators, it is a treasure trove.
00:44Wherever you uncover something in the sand, you find new evidence.
00:48Now, archaeologists dig deep underground to uncover tombs that have not seen the light of day in over four millennia.
00:57You never imagined that you would find a tomb so rich like this.
01:02Revealing how Egypt rises to be the greatest power of the ancient world.
01:09It was not only building a king's tomb, but building a society.
01:14To solve the mysteries of Saqqara, we'll blow open the oldest ever pyramid.
01:21We'll dive deep into the royal tomb hidden below it.
01:25And explore an extraordinary animal catacomb to unearth the secrets of this ancient city of the dead.
01:37And explore an ancient city of the dead.
01:45Twenty miles south of Cairo lies Saqqara.
01:50An ancient burial site.
01:54Under its sandy landscape lie the remains of Egypt's first pharaohs.
02:00Egyptian tombs allow us to reconstruct it for society, Egyptian history, Egyptian beliefs.
02:08Today, it is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.
02:182,500 acres of sand preserve the remains of funerary monuments spanning 3,000 years of Egyptian history.
02:29Mastabas, huge rectangular mud brick structures, are the giant tombstones of high officials.
02:37Alongside them are pyramids.
02:40The final resting place of the early kings and queens of Egypt.
02:45And towering over them all is the first pyramid ever built.
02:50The immense steppe pyramid of Joseph.
02:54What do these gigantic monuments reveal about the formation of the greatest civilization in the ancient world?
03:04Egyptologist Aidan Dodson has been working at Saqqara for over 30 years.
03:12He wants to know if the earliest monuments here provide clues to how Egypt first becomes a nation.
03:21The leap in size and quality of royal tombs is a reflection of what's going on in Egypt at that
03:28time.
03:30Aidan begins his investigation with Egypt's first pyramid, the Steppe Pyramid of Djoser.
03:38It's four and a half thousand years old and the first large scale building to be made entirely of stone.
03:47It is a prototype later used by pharaohs for millennia, forever changing Egypt's landscape.
03:56It's clearly a marker of and a monument to the glory of the king.
04:04Aidan wants to know who orders this massive construction.
04:14He examines this small temple in front of the pyramid in the search for an answer.
04:20In here we've got a statue of Djoser, the builder of the pyramid.
04:28Djoser's reign was regarded as something special.
04:32A game changer in what it means to be a pharaoh of Egypt.
04:37In ancient Egyptian belief, the spirit of the pharaoh lives on after death.
04:43But it needs a home.
04:47Aidan believes that King Djoser builds this mammoth construction so that his eternal soul can live in it forever.
04:57But why does he build it on such a colossal scale?
05:02A clue lies with one of Saqqara's earliest structures.
05:10What we've got here actually is the last remains of the mastaba of Queen Hernit, who dates from 28, 2900
05:20BC.
05:22In its full glory, Hernit's mastaba is 125 feet long, 53 feet wide, and 10 feet tall.
05:32If a queen of two, 300 years earlier could have something like this, a king is going to want something
05:38really, really special.
05:40Before the reign of Djoser, Egypt is divided and rife with social unrest.
05:45But when he takes the throne in the 27th century BC, Egypt is at peace, prosperous, and united into one
05:54nation.
05:55So a powerful pharaoh must have a magnificent monument.
06:00Djoser needs to make a step change in size and technology to be able to mark himself out as the
06:08beginning of a great new era.
06:16But the decision to build a structure of this size comes with many challenges.
06:22You've got a whole range of new skill sets which are required.
06:27A hold of people who probably haven't worked together at that kind of level.
06:36The entire society is mobilized to build the pyramid.
06:41Djoser forges a nation state.
06:45To satisfy his personal ambition.
06:50How does he build it?
06:53This 200 foot tall pyramid preserves its history within, like an immense Russian doll.
07:01First, Djoser builds a square mastaba.
07:05200 feet long and 26 feet tall.
07:08But he wants more.
07:10He extends on all sides.
07:13But it's still not enough.
07:15So instead, it becomes the base for the first ever pyramid.
07:19Four stacked mastabas.
07:21Towering 140 feet above the ground.
07:25He builds around it.
07:27And adds two more levels.
07:29Completing the iconic six-step pyramid.
07:33How does Djoser ensure that it survives forever?
07:40Today, Aiden has a rare opportunity.
07:44He has been given unique access to examine the oldest section of the pyramid.
07:51Aiden notices that from the earliest stages of construction, each layer of stone tilts towards the center of the monument.
08:00If you do a spot check pretty well everywhere, that basic angle seems to be constant throughout.
08:08Aiden believes that the pyramid is built with tilted stones because of the unevenness of the landscape at Saqqara.
08:16How does this method of building ensure its long-term stability?
08:27The pyramids at nearby Giza stand on flat ground.
08:32And horizontal blocks transmit the pyramid's weight straight down.
08:37But the site for Djoser's pyramid is rocky and uneven.
08:42So blocks placed on the ground would follow its curvature, creating weaknesses.
08:50Instead, Djoser tilts the stones inwards.
08:53So they support the weight of the pyramid.
09:01You've got a building which is fundamentally holding itself up.
09:05And the very fact it has stood like this for 4,500 years is a tribute to the fact that
09:12is the case.
09:14Djoser's pyramid still stands as the centerpiece of Saqqara.
09:19Its colossal size, a testament to Egypt's might.
09:24In the scale of his ambition, Djoser wanted not only to build himself a monument, but also a monument to
09:34the newly unified Egypt as a way of showing what Egypt could do.
09:45Deep beneath his pyramid, Djoser carves a massive maze of tunnels snaking for almost 4 miles.
09:53What can new clues inside this huge subterranean structure reveal about the pharaoh's boundless ambition?
10:02And three miles away, a newly discovered tomb shows a cataclysmic revolution is already stirring.
10:11What happens to this mighty ancient civilization?
10:31Djoser mobilizes the whole population of Egypt to build his pyramid.
10:41Djoser mobilizes the whole population of Egypt to build his pyramid.
10:44But the pyramid is only the beginning of the story.
10:54The pyramid itself is solid.
10:57But beneath it, a massive network of tunnels runs through the bedrock.
11:03A central shaft leads to the pharaoh's tomb.
11:08But around it, are more than three and a half miles of hallways, chambers and galleries.
11:16This is Djoser's underground palace.
11:21In total there are over 400 rooms, full of goods for the pharaoh's afterlife.
11:28What can these huge tunnels reveal about Djoser's extraordinary ambition?
11:38It's not only digging, it's a problem.
11:41To keep the tunnels from collapsing, that is also something very important.
11:48Archaeologist Adel Kaleni has spent decades investigating the ancient burial sites of Egypt.
11:56He has special access to explore deep inside this extraordinary labyrinth of tunnels.
12:06That is extremely impressive.
12:10That is amazing.
12:13Adel believes these tunnels hold vital clues about how Djoser's engineers excavate.
12:20If you look carefully, you see that this is solid and hard layers.
12:27Adel discovers this underground structure is carved through the hardest layers of limestone.
12:35This ensures the tunnels will not collapse.
12:39But it takes a lot of time to dig through.
12:44So Djoser's men work around the clock.
12:47They need to finish before the pharaoh dies.
12:52But they can only go as fast as the tools they are using.
12:57Adel closely scours the walls for traces of these ancient tools.
13:03If you look carefully, you can see it here, here and here.
13:15These ancient marks are evidence of the pharaoh's grand plan.
13:21But it demands enormous resources from his kingdom.
13:29At a limestone quarry, Adel and his team of masons investigate how long it takes to carve through the hardest
13:36layers of rock.
13:38Their tools are made of copper, like in ancient times.
13:41We have two chisels for working today.
13:44We have the flat one and we have the pointed one.
13:48The masons begin to carve.
13:52In the heat, the work is hard and slow.
14:01The outline of the entrance starts to be more clear.
14:07You can see it's more than one inch.
14:09Adel discovers that his workmen carve just over one inch per hour.
14:15But Djoser's tunnels are almost four miles long.
14:19And carved by a small specialized team of a few dozen masons.
14:25If we calculate it, we can find that they finish it in 20 years.
14:35Djoser's huge underground structure takes an astonishing two decades to complete.
14:43For the work to carry on without interruption,
14:47the pharaoh requires a constant supply of copper for the chisels.
14:51Copper that Egypt doesn't have.
14:55To solve his problem, Djoser turns his kingdom into a military powerhouse.
15:04Djoser conquers neighboring Sinai, rich in copper ore.
15:10He sends mining expeditions to the mountains there and starts extracting.
15:17His workers build a vast complex of furnaces to smelt the ore.
15:22And cast it into huge ingots ready for transport to the Red Sea.
15:28Boats take the ingots to Egypt.
15:30Then donkeys haul them 150 miles across the desert to Saqqara.
15:37Here the Egyptians melt and recast the ingots into small chisels.
15:44Millions and millions of them.
15:49To send so many workmen far away to get a lot of raw materials, to build a big pyramid, that's
15:57something amazing.
15:59This is a proof of Djoser's powers.
16:01He is one of the greatest kings.
16:05To build his underground palace and gigantic pyramid, Djoser expands his kingdom into one of the world's greatest powers.
16:16By the time he dies, both the pyramid and the tunnels are complete.
16:24But can the tomb of the Pharaoh reveal what happens to his powerful new nation-state?
16:31Only 3,000 feet away, new clues buried deep inside an extraordinary catacomb tell of cataclysmic changes sweeping across Egypt.
16:42What can they reveal about this powerhouse of the ancient world?
17:02The giant step pyramid of Saqqara.
17:05Towering 200 feet, when it's built 4500 years ago, it is the tallest building in the world.
17:14It's built by the Pharaoh Djoser as a final resting place for his eternal soul.
17:25The Pharaoh's tomb is placed deep beneath the pyramid, at the bottom of a 90-foot vertical shaft, sealed by
17:35a huge 3-ton granite plug.
17:39Inside, lies Djoser's mummified body.
17:46The ceiling of his funerary chamber is made from limestone blocks with five-pointed stars in relief.
17:57So even deep underground, Djoser could see the night sky, where his soul is free to fly.
18:10Archaeologist Adol Kaleni investigates the tunnels under the steppe pyramid.
18:16He hunts for its deepest point, the burial chamber of King Djoser.
18:25He wants to find out what becomes of the mighty Pharaoh after he dies.
18:32We are quite close to the burial chamber of the king.
18:36If you carefully look at this wall, the type of limestone is different than the other around.
18:42They brought very fine limestone from outside through all of these tunnels, very long distance to here.
18:50When it's finished, this antechamber is filled with precious objects for the Pharaoh's use in the afterlife.
19:02Adol arrives at the burial chamber.
19:05He inspects the granite slabs that are part of Djoser's huge sarcophagus.
19:10To quarry and transport such blocks like that, you need quite a long time to do that.
19:16It's a massive work.
19:20The granite is badly damaged.
19:25If you look carefully for the surface here, it's completely different colors because you can see black spots here.
19:32It's covered part of the blocks and continue in this edge here.
19:38The black spots are traces of fire.
19:43All this destruction points to one thing.
19:49Tomb Raiders.
19:53But the sarcophagus is at the bottom of a 90 foot shaft.
19:58Under a huge pyramid.
20:00How do robbers get here?
20:06Teams of workers lay the body inside the tomb.
20:10And then carefully lever in the heavy granite plug that seals it.
20:17They drop over 2,500 tons of rubble into the shaft.
20:23And seal all other entrances with rocks.
20:28But the pyramid is a beacon for looters.
20:32They spend months digging tunnels of their own to reach the tomb.
20:38They light fires to weaken the granite sarcophagus and plug that seals it.
20:44They break in and steal everything they can.
20:50The ancient Egyptian kings, they keep making very complicated systems for protecting their burial chambers.
20:59But they never have success.
21:03Robbers find a way to avoid the security system that's made by the ancient Egyptian engineer.
21:12Djoser's mummified body is gone.
21:15But amazingly, archaeologists recover...
21:20A foot.
21:22Robbers tear apart the pharaoh's mummy looking for jewels.
21:26Only this left foot is found intact.
21:30This desecration of Djoser means Egypt is at a crisis point.
21:36The pharaohs are losing their power.
21:41At Saqqara, a striking new archaeological discovery reveals a dramatic revolution taking hold of ancient Egypt.
21:51Can this mighty civilization survive?
22:03To be continued...
22:05To be continued...
22:05To be continued...
22:09To be continued...
22:11Saqqara.
22:14Where Egypt's pharaohs are buried for centuries.
22:20Today their many tombs lie hidden under the sands.
22:26Spread over 4 square miles, this huge site remains mostly unexplored.
22:40Now experts are trying to find out how the building of these royal monuments transforms
22:46Egypt forever.
22:54In May 2019, archaeologists working at Saqqara make a groundbreaking discovery.
23:03Working as an Egyptologist, we are like detectives.
23:07Our main task is to collect information.
23:11The team digs beneath the sunken ruins of a huge stone mastaba.
23:18What they find reveals the beginning of a cataclysmic revolution that will shatter the kingdom.
23:29Beneath a stone mastaba, archaeologists uncover a spectacular burial complex.
23:35Its passageways are intricately decorated.
23:40At the end, a storage room, full of jars containing food to nourish the spirit of the deceased.
23:50And next door, an impressive limestone sarcophagus fills the chamber wall to wall.
23:58This tomb is fit for a pharaoh, but there's no royal pyramid above it.
24:06Why is the owner of this tomb buried like a king?
24:14Archaeologist Mohamed Magahed leads the team who uncovers this astonishing tomb.
24:21For the first time, cameras follow him inside.
24:27Amazingly, everything remains just as it was when the tomb was sealed almost 4500 years ago.
24:36On the walls, there is a wealth of previously unknown information about Egypt.
24:43It's really unusual to come to one place and to have all of this information.
24:48We are in a very unique tomb.
24:52Mohammed's incredible discovery reveals a dramatic battle for power within Egypt's ruling elite.
25:02The first thing we realized when we entered this tomb is the space.
25:07We have three rooms.
25:10It's very big.
25:11It's very huge.
25:13This tomb is a copy of the pharaoh's architecture.
25:18It's also filled with inscriptions and decorations usually reserved for royal tombs.
25:27Mohammed investigates what they represent.
25:31It is the offering list that the owner of the tomb wished to have in the afterlife.
25:37It is 95 items of food, drinks, cakes.
25:44Close to the ceiling, Mohammed discovers an extraordinary detail.
25:53This is the owner of the tomb sitting in front of the offering table.
25:59Above the figure we have his name and his name was Khoui.
26:06The hieroglyphs show that Khoui is a powerful court official.
26:12A close advisor to the pharaoh Jedkar-e-Sessi who reigns in 2400 BC.
26:20300 years have passed since Djoser and the building of his gigantic pyramid.
26:27Now, the pharaoh's officials are buried like kings.
26:34If he was living under the reign of King Djoser, he will never be able to build such a wonderful
26:40tomb.
26:42What can this tomb reveal about the officials' rise in power?
26:50Mohammed decodes more clues.
26:54Two colors in this tomb are very important for us.
26:57The green and the blue.
27:01These colors are made from gemstones imported from all over the ancient world.
27:06And locked away in the pharaoh's storerooms so only his artists can use them.
27:12This fingerprint must be of a royal artist working in the royal workshop of the king at the time.
27:19Perhaps he was leaning on the wall before the colors dried.
27:23So he left for us a very important piece of information here on this wall.
27:30Mohammed believes this ancient mark is made by a royal artist.
27:35Only they are allowed to paint with these colors.
27:39The mighty pharaoh is helping his official create a tomb as lavish as his.
27:45These people helped the king to control the country.
27:49And in return, the king allowed them to use things and materials that were only kept for the royal family.
27:57The power balance between the pharaoh and his high officials is shifting.
28:03Once the supreme ruler of the kingdom.
28:07The builder of majestic pyramids.
28:10Worshipped as a god.
28:14The pharaoh is now dependent on officials.
28:21He cannot govern without them.
28:26But Mohammed makes an even more striking discovery inside the tomb.
28:36This is Khoui and it's very clear that he has been mummified.
28:41It's obvious from the raisins and the linen on his remains.
28:46It's an extraordinary find.
28:48One that reveals that the right to be mummified no longer is exclusively for pharaohs.
28:54Finding this mummy tells us that Khoui was not only powerful during his life,
28:59but he was also powerful after his death.
29:03Khoui is part of a new social class of officials that are now extremely wealthy and powerful.
29:13Before 2200 BC, Egypt enjoys a golden age of peace and prosperity.
29:19Under the rule of pharaohs like Joseph.
29:23But gradually, officials like Khoui claim more power for themselves.
29:29And rule over their own provinces directly.
29:35Then, droughts hit.
29:37And the Nile floods fail.
29:39Bringing famine and poverty.
29:44The pharaohs lose all control.
29:47The age of the great pyramid builders is over.
29:51And Egypt falls into a dark age.
29:56In the centuries after Djoser and the building of the Steppe Pyramid,
30:01the pharaoh's officials gain unprecedented wealth and power,
30:05leading to the fall of Egypt's first great kingdom.
30:10So what happens to a royal necropolis like Saqqara?
30:16Strange discoveries reveal how the site becomes the home to one of Egypt's most mysterious cults.
30:25Does this huge burial site for bulls hold clues about Egypt's later kingdoms?
30:49As the rest of the pharaohs?
30:58SACQARES
31:00ceases to be a royal burial place however it remains the place of one of the most crucial
31:07cults in egypt a mysterious cult now takes center stage in egyptian society
31:17clues to the cult lie buried beneath the desert sand
31:25almost 3 000 feet from the pyramid of joseph beneath the ground
31:29lies the serapium a vast gallery of finely carved tunnels with huge vaulted
31:37chambers on either side each chamber holds a gigantic sarcophagus as big as
31:44two family cars stacked together inside each sarcophagus are the intricately
31:51mummified remains of a bull almost 30 bulls are buried in these vaults
32:00what can this strange cult reveal about dramatic changes in egypt's history
32:11egyptologist aiden dodson investigates inside the serapium
32:19today he has a rare opportunity he's been given access to its oldest part built in 1400 bc
32:29it is here that the first bulls are buried
32:37oh wow that is interesting you've got the prince there his name quite clearly next to him
32:46that huge foot is his father rameses the second rameses the second is the most powerful pharaoh in egyptian history
32:57inscriptions here reveal that he and his son extend the serapium
33:02that royal patronage of the cult is probably the legitimization of the whole egyptian monarchy
33:14rameses is devoted to the cult of the bull
33:19it's a way of identifying with his subjects
33:26it is also a way of establishing his control over them
33:37egyptians revere the bulls buried here as incarnations of patah
33:41the god of creation each bull is identified by very specific features
33:48he must be black and white with a triangular mark on the forehead
33:52a crescent moon on the side and a long-haired tail parted in two
33:59the sacred animal is taken to memphis the capital of early ancient egypt
34:05where worshipers visit him for good luck and to learn their fortunes
34:10when the bull dies it is brought to saqqara for burial
34:14and egyptians search for a new bull as the incarnation of patah
34:21aden investigates another part of the serapium to see what it can reveal about egypt's turbulent history
34:29he's got access to a restricted area built 400 years after rameses
34:37and here's a huge granite sarcophagus
34:45high up on its lid aden finds evidence that egypt and its pharaohs have been conquered
34:50it's very very rough hieroglyphs very very difficult to read but what it is is the epitaph
34:58of a bull that died and was buried under the persian king cambyses
35:07in the sixth century bc egypt falls to a new imperial superpower
35:16the persians the foreign rulers maintain the cult the sacred bulls are mummified and buried
35:26intact in giant granite sarcophagi
35:30every time a bull died the vaults were extended by another one of these great niches
35:39and this then continued on generation after generation
35:46in the newest part of the serapium aden discovers another key inscription on a sarcophagus
35:55it reveals the egyptians are fighting back against the persians what i'm seeing here is another part of
36:02the persian story the king who installed this bull's burial here was a native egyptian ruler
36:13when this bull is buried an egyptian king is sitting on the throne
36:19this inscription tells us something we don't really know from any other source
36:23that egyptians were still fighting back against the persian invaders
36:29the egyptians take back control over their lands but it doesn't last
36:39aden heads towards the end of the serapium
36:46the tomb of the last bull shows that after the persians the greeks now control egypt
36:54this great stone box here will have had a bull interred in it some point during the reign of the
37:02great cleopatra
37:05cleopatra is a pharaoh of greek origin she reigns from 51 to 30 bc
37:13when she is defeated by the roman emperor augustus
37:18her defeat means the end of egyptian nationhood
37:23and the end of the cult of the sacred bull
37:29augustus despised the idea of sacred animals and therefore from this point onwards the serapium is
37:37closed and finished
37:43the 3 000 year old cult comes to an end under roman rule
37:53it mirrors the fall of the great kingdom of egypt
37:58but saqqara carries on as a necropolis
38:25the royal necropolis of saqqara
38:31spans the entire history of ancient egypt
38:35from its rise into a mighty nation in 3000 bc until roman times
38:42but what happens to egypt after the fall of the pharaohs
38:48history doesn't end here on the contrary it starts here because from the time of the
38:54burial of the kings and their queens the site was much alive
39:00archaeologist hannah vimazalova has spent almost a decade digging at saqqara
39:07she is looking for clues to the last age of ancient egypt
39:12next to the collapsed pyramids of early royals
39:16and unearths a simple burial pit
39:19this is one of the pits that was hewn in the floor of the area between the kings and the
39:25queen's permit complexes
39:29next to it there are hundreds more
39:33who are these people
39:36why are they buried on the same site as egypt's pharaohs
39:43hannah analyzes one of the bodies removed from these pits
39:47this is one of the later burials though not the latest one
39:53this particular individual was buried about 1500 years after the queen herself
40:01many clues remain on the preserved tissue we have here still some bones with body tissues we have
40:09parts of the skin preserved but there is no mummy wrappings this confirms that the people from this
40:17community were poor they did not have access to modification procedures
40:24hannah believes these people come from humble backgrounds they are probably local villagers
40:36after the fall of the pharaohs egyptians are living under foreign rule
40:42so they choose to be buried near their greatest kings
40:47at the site of their first pyramid and glorious past the site actually became not only the king's place
40:56but the place of everybody
41:00sakara
41:03once a royal necropolis
41:08becomes a burial site accessible to all
41:13commoners are buried alongside ancient rulers
41:19hoping for an afterlife that is uniquely egyptian
41:26sakara stands as a monument to the entire history of ancient egypt
41:32it begins as a necropolis of mud brick mastabas
41:36but the ambition of one pharaoh to build bigger and bigger
41:39means the world's first pyramid emerges from its sands
41:46now sakara bears the scars of kingdoms falling rising changing
41:53and holds the secrets of a mighty ancient civilization
42:10this the the
42:11the
42:11the
42:11the
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