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00:01Abu Simbel, Egypt's largest rock-cut temple, carved into a 100-foot-high cliff.
00:11Inside, a mysterious sanctuary to honor strange gods.
00:16This is an extreme feat of engineering.
00:19And in my opinion, it is one of the wonders of the ancient world.
00:24This colossal structure was built 3,000 years ago by the pharaoh Ramses II.
00:31He was braver, mightier, and more powerful than any other Egyptian king.
00:37Ramses transformed himself into the greatest ruler in Egypt's history.
00:42How did he do it?
00:45Could the secrets of his meteoric rise be locked inside this magnificent temple?
00:50To solve these mysteries, we'll deconstruct Abu Simbel's giant statues and open its sacred chambers
01:01to uncover the truth behind how Ramses became Egypt's greatest ever pharaoh.
01:13Egypt, land of the pharaohs.
01:17They were fearless warriors.
01:21Master builders.
01:23Leaders of a powerful ancient religion.
01:27Then came Ramses II.
01:32His ambition?
01:33To surpass the achievements of all his predecessors and go down in history as the greatest pharaoh of all time.
01:42The crowning glory of his reign?
01:46His great temple at Abu Simbel.
01:50Ramesses II was a mighty pharaoh.
01:53And he built this temple to show people exactly that.
01:57Intimidating, powerful, and proud.
02:02Overlooking the river Nile in southern Egypt, this mighty stone structure is one of the largest rock-cut temples in
02:09the world.
02:10Could decoding its secrets unlock how Ramses became Egypt's greatest pharaoh?
02:20Abu Simbel is a spectacle in stone carved from the cliff face.
02:26Four colossal statues of Ramses adorn the front.
02:32Hidden behind the magnificent facade, runs a giant 30-foot-high hippostyle hall, flanked by eight imposing statues of the
02:42pharaoh.
02:45One hundred sixty feet inside the cliff sits a sanctuary to the great gods of Egypt.
02:52But is Abu Simbel really just a temple to these deities?
02:56Can decoding its hidden messages unlock the secrets of Ramses' success?
03:05At first glance, it looks as if Ramses II had built this temple to celebrate and worship the sun god
03:12Ra, in Egyptian religion, the source of all life and the creator of the universe.
03:17But actually, I think there's more to it than that.
03:22Archaeologist and explorer John Ward is an expert in ancient Egyptian engineering.
03:28There are many features here.
03:30Falcons, symbols one expects of a temple dedicated to sun worship that adorn the front terrace.
03:37Above us, Ra himself.
03:40John investigates a theory that this great monument is no ordinary temple.
03:45He thinks it contains an encoded message.
03:50And that solving it will reveal the first step Ramses took to achieve greatness.
03:58When the sun's rays strike the temple, they flood the outer chambers with light.
04:04One hundred sixty feet deep into the cliff, the sanctuary remains in darkness.
04:10But two days a year, something extraordinary happens.
04:14On February 22nd and October 22nd, the rising sun aligns perfectly with the temple entrance.
04:22Its rays penetrate the holy sanctuary and bathe the gods in light.
04:29How did Ramses align his temple with the sunrise on just two dates each year?
04:35And why?
04:37John believes a clue lies at the most famous of all archaeological sites in ancient Egypt.
04:45The Great Pyramids.
04:48I'm holding a map of the Giza Plateau and I'm looking at the pyramids and the Sphinx and all of
04:54the surrounding monuments.
04:55And one thing that is striking straight away is its north and south access aligned to both north and south
05:03compass points.
05:06A priesthood of surveyors achieved this feat by applying a deep knowledge of the night sky.
05:14How they did so remains a mystery.
05:17Some experts think they tracked the path of two bright stars to find the direction of true north.
05:24And they were astonishingly accurate.
05:27Archaeologists have determined that all of the monuments on the Giza Plateau have been aligned within one tenth of a
05:33degree.
05:35So if surveyor priests used their knowledge of the stars to align the pyramids, how did they align Abu's symbol
05:44with our star, the sun?
05:47John believes they used a simple but ingenious technique.
05:51The priest would stand behind this rod which would be anchored to the ground in front of where the temple
05:58is going to be.
05:59The morning sunrise would cast a shadow across the ground.
06:04Now I need my helper.
06:05Abdu!
06:06There she?
06:07Shukran.
06:08Shukran.
06:09So the shadows cast all the way, right to the very end, to here, by placing a marker in the
06:18sand at the end of the shadow.
06:20And repeating this process day after day over a period of a year, the ancient surveyors were able to create
06:27an arc.
06:29Basically, a record of every morning sunrise.
06:34Once the priests had recorded a whole year's worth of solar observations, they could align the temple with the rising
06:41sun on any date they chose.
06:45So, why did they pick two dates in February and October?
06:50Some believe that the February date marks Ramses' birthday, while October marks his ascension to the throne.
06:59But there's more to this mystery than special dates.
07:05John's convinced that if he can decode the identities of the figures inside the temple, he can unlock its true
07:11purpose.
07:13Three statues represent the old gods of Egypt.
07:18Ptah, Lord of Truth.
07:21Amun, Lord of the Sky.
07:24And on the far right, the sun god Ra.
07:29But who is the fourth figure?
07:35John discovers a clue hidden in plain sight.
07:39An encrypted message, carved on the temple facade.
07:45Standing above the entrance here is the sun god Ra.
07:49But Ramses has done something pretty ingenious.
07:52He's hidden a message within the statue itself that reveals the true function of this temple complex.
08:00With his falcon's head and sun disc, at first glance, the statue looks like Ra.
08:06The most important Egyptian god, creator of the earth and of life itself.
08:12But his hands hold clues to a different identity.
08:16The right one grasps an Usur, a symbol denoting the word strength.
08:23And in his left hand, he holds the symbol Maat, meaning truth and justice on earth, order and harmony in
08:31the cosmos.
08:33But joined together, these three symbols spell another word.
08:37Usumat Ra, a name that reveals the temple's true purpose.
08:46Usumat Ra was the throne name of Ramses II.
08:48And it was the name that he was known by throughout the whole land of Egypt.
08:52The symbolism that surrounds us proves that he built and dedicated this temple to himself.
08:59The statue above the temple's entrance, the fourth figure in the sanctuary.
09:05They both represent Ramses.
09:08Not as a man.
09:11But as a god.
09:16All pharaohs were considered divine.
09:20But secondary to the old gods of Egypt.
09:25Ramses went one step further.
09:29He dared to show he was their equal.
09:32By depicting himself as a giant-sized living god.
09:37Ramses had taken the first step to securing his status as the greatest.
09:43But cutting this huge statement of power from an entire cliff face was an unprecedented challenge.
09:50How did Ramses do it?
09:53And was this just one part of a far bigger plan?
09:57To win Ramses the title of Egypt's greatest ever pharaoh?
10:05The first step of the temple of Egypt.
10:16The second temple of Egypt.
10:20The second temple of Egypt's temple of Egypt's greatest.
10:21The second temple of Egypt built this mighty temple in a bid to make himself a living god.
10:26and become the greatest of all Egypt's pharaohs.
10:31Inside, two giant chambers stretch 160 feet into the cliff.
10:37Skilled quarrymen carve them from the solid rock.
10:43Workers who applied knowledge gained over many centuries from excavating deep tombs.
10:48Like those in the Valley of the Kings,
10:52they used bronze tools to hollow out huge chambers and tunnels.
10:59The interior may have been Abu Simbel's most dangerous construction job,
11:07but it's the temple's exterior that is the greatest puzzle.
11:12105 feet tall and 125 feet wide,
11:18this is the largest facade of any rock-cut temple in Egypt.
11:23How did Ramses execute a design on such a huge scale?
11:30The statues on the facade are 15 times the height of the average male.
11:36Each mighty head is 13 feet wide,
11:39and adorned with the double crown, symbolizing power over Egypt.
11:45At his feet stand Ramses' children, wife, and mother,
11:51a royal guard for the sun god, Ra.
11:56At the summit sit 22 sacred baboons,
12:02whose cry the Egyptians believed welcomed the rising sun.
12:07How did Ramses' masons cut back this entire cliff face?
12:15When Ramses was pharaoh,
12:18the ancient Egyptians had been master builders for more than a thousand years.
12:25They'd engineered the great pyramids of Giza,
12:29and turned stone blocks into works of art.
12:34But archaeologist John Ward knows that to build Abu Simbel,
12:39Ramses' workforce had to overcome a challenge they'd never faced before.
12:43Ramses II's building plan was unprecedented in both size, scale, and ambition.
12:50He wanted nothing less than the largest rock-cut temple Egypt had ever seen.
12:57Some scholars estimate that quarrymen had to remove 13,000 tons of rock
13:03to cut the temple from the cliff face.
13:06Chipping away piece by piece would have taken far too long.
13:11So how did they do it?
13:14Adel Kalani is an expert in ancient Egyptian building technologies.
13:22He believes that Abu Simbel's masons remove stones systematically, block by block.
13:30The masons start with making a line of holes.
13:34This line of holes, they need to splitting the blocks from the bedrock.
13:43Masons pack palm tree skin inside the holes to hold the chisel in place.
13:50Then they strike them one by one,
13:53until the rock starts to split.
13:59Adel times how long his men need to cut a single sandstone block,
14:04weighing two and a half tons.
14:11The base of our experiments here,
14:14two workmen can do two and a half tons in 20 hours.
14:18So, how long did it take the workmen to cut back the rock face at Abu Simbel?
14:24I think a Roman 20 workmen can remove 13,000 tons from the face of Abu Simbel
14:30in a Roman or less than two years.
14:38But reducing the cliff face was just the beginning.
14:42The quarrymen had merely created a blank canvas.
14:46Now the craftsmen faced a second set of challenges
14:49to cut back and carve the statues of the great temple.
14:55Sculpting the temple facade with four 65-foot-high statues was no simple task.
15:03Getting the measurements wrong could jeopardize the whole project.
15:07So how did the stonemasons ensure all the statues were identical?
15:13John thinks they scaled up an ingenious technique traditionally used to paint tombs.
15:20What I'm holding here is a picture of an unfinished relief in a tomb in Phoebes.
15:28But what it shows is the grid technique that the artist applied to the wall prior to painting.
15:34The grid breaks a complex picture down into lots of smaller, easier-to-draw images.
15:40This grid allows them to transfer any image from a scale drawing onto a much larger surface.
15:49John is convinced that Ramsey's surveyors used this same technique at Abu Simbel.
15:55But how did they mark out a grid on a rock face 100 feet high?
16:02John believes that the surveyors developed their own innovative solution.
16:07This is the square level, a most ingenious device invented by the ancient Egyptians.
16:13Basically, it allowed the surveying of a straight horizontal line,
16:17accurate within one centimeter over a whole span of 100 meters.
16:22To investigate how it worked,
16:25Adele's team stretches a cord soaked in red paint between two square levels.
16:33And snap it against the rock face to mark a horizontal line.
16:42Ancient builders may have supersized this technique at Abu Simbel.
16:47They would have used scaffolding to mark out giant rows of horizontal lines.
16:54Then, from the top of the cliff face,
16:56it's likely they hung weighted ropes
16:59and drew vertical lines to complete their grid.
17:04Using this system, they scaled up smaller drawings
17:08to produce outlines of Ramsey's on the rock face.
17:13Only after marking out the façade and the entranceway
17:17could workers begin to cut their pharaoh
17:20and the chambers of his temple out of solid rock.
17:25This building project was overseen by Ramesses himself,
17:30but managed and executed to meticulous detail
17:33by the quarrymen and the master masons.
17:37Ramesses built Egypt's greatest rock-cut temple
17:40as part of his plan to become Egypt's greatest-ever pharaoh.
17:46But if Ramesses built Abu Simbel to glorify himself,
17:50why did he construct a second temple next door?
17:54And why is it dedicated to someone else?
18:12The great temple at Abu Simbel.
18:16A monument Pharaoh Ramesses II built
18:18to transform himself from a king into a living god.
18:24But this isn't the only temple here.
18:28Beside it stands another.
18:31And it's a clue to a tactic used by Ramesses
18:34to secure absolute power and realize his dream
18:38to become Egypt's greatest-ever pharaoh.
18:45To the north of the great temple
18:47stands a second smaller temple
18:49cut from the same cliff face.
18:52Four colossal statues of the pharaoh himself
18:55and two of a woman stand guard at the entrance.
19:05Inside, carvings show her praying to the gods,
19:10making them offerings,
19:12while goddesses anoint her with a sacred crown.
19:17But this rock-cut chapel is a puzzle.
19:21Why did Ramesses build a temple to this woman?
19:24And how did this help to magnify his own reputation?
19:30Maria Nielsen investigates this mystery.
19:35She decodes an ancient inscription on the temple's facade
19:38to reveal the woman's identity.
19:43Nefertari, Ramesses' first wife.
19:47This temple is curious.
19:49We know that the pharaohs built tombs
19:52for their great royal wives.
19:54But they didn't build temples to them.
19:58The statues indicate just how highly Ramesses regarded his wife.
20:03To the left, we got Queen Nefertari.
20:06To the right, King Ramses.
20:08Now they're equal in size,
20:11which means that he treated her as his equal.
20:16No other king in Egyptian history treated his queen with such respect.
20:24Ramesses had built Abu Simbel's large temple
20:27to proclaim himself the greatest of Egypt's pharaohs.
20:31So why did he allow Nefertari to share in his glory?
20:39Maria believes the answer lies in a forgotten temple 200 miles north of Abu Simbel.
20:47One of its shrines contains an ancient inscription
20:50that Maria thinks reveals why Ramesses believed Nefertari deserved her own temple.
21:01Here we have Queen Nefertari herself standing in front of the hippopotamus goddess Tawirit,
21:11the goddess of childbirth.
21:15Beside the inscription is a message unlike any other in Egypt.
21:20She who satisfies the gods.
21:23Now that's a title usually connected to the king
21:27as a high priest of the gods.
21:30To my knowledge, Queen Nefertari was the only queen
21:35who was honored with this grand title.
21:40The inscription reveals
21:43Ramesses elevated his wife to joint supreme head
21:46of ancient Egypt's state religion.
21:50Why did he promote Nefertari to this level?
21:54What did she have that Ramesses needed so badly?
22:00At Abu Simbel, Maria finds an intriguing clue.
22:04Inscriptions that reveal Nefertari's ancestry.
22:08So what we got here are the titles of Queen Nefertari.
22:13Starting with hereditary noblewoman,
22:16followed by a great of praise.
22:19Now the first title is what's really important
22:22because it established her as a daughter of a noblewoman,
22:26which is obviously an important clue.
22:31Ramesses' origins were far humbler.
22:34His grandfather was a soldier who had been given the throne.
22:39Ramesses' family had ruled Egypt for little more than a decade.
22:43His grandfather was a commoner.
22:46There is a family secret.
22:48Ramses did not come from a long line of royalty.
22:52Nefertari gave Ramesses the single most important thing he needed
22:56to become Egypt's greatest pharaoh.
22:59Legitimacy.
23:01The family was very well aware
23:04that his right to rule could be challenged.
23:07So by marrying Nefertari, the noblewoman,
23:11he could secure his right to rule.
23:15Queen Nefertari was Ramesses' wife for 24 years,
23:20bearing him four sons,
23:22who became high priests and commanders of his army.
23:26Of all the pharaoh's wives,
23:28Nefertari was the most important.
23:31She organized the royal household
23:33and the lives of Ramesses' other wives and children.
23:37As priestess, Nefertari conducted sacred rituals with the pharaoh
23:41and held a unique position
23:44as joint supreme head of Egypt's state religion.
23:48Nefertari even engaged in diplomacy.
23:51She sent letters and gifts to foreign queens
23:54to maintain peace between nations.
24:00Ramses was Egypt's most powerful man,
24:03but he also made Nefertari the most powerful woman.
24:13Decoding Abu Simbel reveals the vital role
24:16Ramses' chief wife played in his plan
24:19to become the greatest pharaoh of all time.
24:24But does Ramses' account of a famous chariot battle
24:27prove he was also Egypt's greatest warrior
24:31or its greatest self-publicist?
24:49Abu Simbel.
24:52A masterpiece of ancient Egyptian engineering.
24:56A masterpiece of ancient Egypt.
24:57Cut by hand into a sheer cliff face.
25:01Built by Ramses II to proclaim
25:04his transformation from king
25:06into a living god.
25:10But does this temple contain other clues
25:13that reveal Ramses' next steps
25:15to fulfill his ambition
25:17to become Egypt's greatest ever pharaoh?
25:23Inside the temple's central chamber,
25:25religious carvings cover the walls.
25:29The divine Ramses burns incense
25:31before Isis, goddess of magic.
25:34He offers bread and wine
25:36to the gods of creation
25:38and kneels before Ra,
25:41god of the rising sun.
25:43But not all the carvings
25:45inside the temple are religious.
25:47There are also scenes of violence.
25:51Ramses at war,
25:53crushing the enemy
25:56and beheading prisoners.
26:00Why are there battle scenes
26:02on the walls of a temple?
26:08Maria Nielsen searches for clues
26:11chiseled into Abu Simbel's wall carvings.
26:13One of the most important responsibilities
26:18of the pharaoh
26:19was to show the gods and his people
26:23that he could maintain the country
26:25in peace by defeating his enemies.
26:32All Egyptian pharaohs
26:34depicted themselves as military strongmen.
26:38Obsessed with being the greatest,
26:40Ramses proclaimed his victories
26:42louder than any pharaoh before him.
26:45His most spectacular
26:47was against the rival Hittite Empire
26:49at the Battle of Kadesh.
26:53Ramses carved in stone
26:54an account of what was
26:55the greatest chariot battle in history.
26:58He claims that the Hittites
27:01attacked and he had to rush
27:03to the defense of his forces.
27:05And with these chariots and horses,
27:10he came to the rescue
27:11and he crushes the enemies
27:14like crocodiles falling into the river.
27:19What was it about the Egyptian war chariot
27:22that gave Ramses such an advantage
27:24on the battlefield?
27:30Egyptologist Yosra Ibrahim
27:32investigates this mystery.
27:34She puts a replica chariot
27:36through its paces
27:37to test the technology Ramses
27:40claimed he used
27:41to win his great victory.
27:46She discovers that the chariot
27:48is a fast and stable
27:50fighting platform.
27:52The Egyptians revolutionized
27:54the manufacture of the chariots.
27:55They introduced the six spokes
27:57for the wheel,
27:58which made it move much faster.
28:00The two wheels are far apart,
28:02which made it very difficult
28:04to tip over.
28:06But it's clear the Egyptian chariot
28:09also had serious drawbacks.
28:12The problem with the semicircular body
28:14is that it's very low,
28:16so it doesn't really protect you.
28:18You can easily get shots.
28:20Another disadvantage
28:21is that it takes a lot of time
28:23to turn around.
28:25And some experts believe
28:26Hittite chariots were more robust
28:28and better protected.
28:32So if it wasn't technology
28:35that delivered Ramses
28:36the crushing victory he claims,
28:38what did?
28:41Yosra investigates at Karnak,
28:44a huge temple complex
28:45300 miles north of Abu Simbel.
28:50Here she discovers a clue
28:52locked inside a poem
28:54that recounts the battle.
28:56So according to the poem,
28:59Ramses found himself alone
29:00on the battlefield,
29:01abandoned by his army.
29:03So he turned to his father,
29:05the god Amun,
29:06who made him invincible.
29:07After that,
29:09Ramses claims to single-handedly
29:11defeated
29:122,500 enemies.
29:15Ramses' account of the battle
29:17is pure fantasy.
29:19And when Yosra ignores his claims
29:21of divine intervention
29:22and sudden miraculous powers,
29:25a very different version of events
29:27begins to emerge.
29:31In his war against the Hittites,
29:34Ramses split his army
29:35and led half his chariots north
29:37to seize the enemy fort of Kadesh,
29:40which he thought was unguarded.
29:44But Ramses was tricked
29:46by Hittite spies.
29:48East of Kadesh,
29:503,000 Hittite chariots
29:51launched a surprise attack.
29:57Ramses rallied his troops.
30:00Helped by reinforcements,
30:02he engaged his enemy.
30:04But the result was a standoff.
30:07Ramses failed to take Kadesh.
30:10Humiliated,
30:11he was forced to withdraw.
30:15So why did Ramses lie
30:17about the battle in his temple
30:18at Abu Simbel?
30:20To Ramses,
30:22truth was not important.
30:25The only thing that mattered
30:27was to establish himself
30:30as the greatest warrior of Egypt.
30:35Ramses used Abu Simbel
30:37as a weapon of political propaganda
30:39and rewrote history
30:41to promote the myth
30:42that he was an invincible
30:44military leader.
30:45But Ramses wanted to guarantee
30:48his achievements
30:49would surpass
30:50those of all his predecessors.
30:53Was this temple
30:54just one of many buildings
30:56he erected
30:57to make that dream a reality?
31:00And if Abu Simbel
31:01was hewn from a solid rock face,
31:05why is it crisscrossed
31:07with deep, straight cracks?
31:23Abu Simbel
31:25is a great temple
31:26to turn himself into a living god
31:31and exaggerate his skill
31:33as a mighty military hero.
31:37part of an ambitious plan
31:39to win the title of Ramses the Great.
31:42But it's what's missing
31:44from this site
31:45that could unlock the mystery
31:47of how Ramses completed
31:48his transformation
31:49into the greatest
31:51of all Egypt's pharaohs.
31:55Abu Simbel
31:56was a construction project
31:57of epic proportions.
31:59Guided by a massive grid,
32:01quarrymen removed stone
32:03from the cliff
32:04in giant blocks
32:05to shape the beginnings
32:07of the facade.
32:10Masons then honed
32:11the rough blocks
32:12into human shapes,
32:14one statue at a time.
32:15And skilled sculptors
32:17finally carved
32:18the intricate details
32:19before the entire temple
32:21was brightly painted.
32:24Its construction
32:25left 13,000 tons
32:27of stone blocks
32:28cast aside.
32:29So what did Ramses
32:31do with them?
32:32And does the answer
32:33reveal his plans
32:34for greatness
32:35extended far beyond
32:37Abu Simbel?
32:41To find out,
32:43Yassra Ibrahim
32:44travels to Luxor,
32:45the ancient capital
32:46of Upper Egypt.
32:49Here, Ramses created
32:51this architectural wonder
32:53to rival Abu Simbel.
32:55It's called
32:57the Rameseum.
32:59Like Abu Simbel,
33:00it was designed
33:01to encourage
33:02the people of Egypt
33:03to worship Ramses
33:04as a god
33:05for all eternity.
33:07The Rameseum
33:08is the mortuary temple
33:09of Ramses II.
33:10Ramses built this temple
33:12to preserve his name
33:14and promote his cult.
33:18Yassra believes
33:19decoding its true purpose
33:21could unlock
33:22how Ramses finally realized
33:23his lifelong ambition
33:26to be the greatest
33:27of Egypt's pharaohs.
33:30Beside the temple
33:31is a series
33:32of strange arched chambers
33:34that look completely
33:36different from the rest
33:37of the complex.
33:38These chambers
33:39were used to hold
33:40grain, wheat,
33:41and barley.
33:42People would bring
33:43the grain
33:44and climb up to the roof
33:46and pour it through
33:47holes in the ceiling.
33:48Then grain would be stored
33:50here in huge amounts.
33:52In ancient Egypt,
33:54grain was currency.
33:56So how much money
33:58did these granaries hold?
34:01Yassra measures
34:03their combined floor area
34:05to calculate
34:07the wealth
34:07Ramses amassed.
34:09I have measured
34:11every single chamber
34:12on this site
34:13and I calculated
34:15the total floor area
34:16of all chambers
34:17and it comes up
34:18to 8,261 square meters
34:22which would total
34:23to 16.5 million liters
34:26of grain.
34:28That's almost
34:2910,000 tons,
34:30more than the weight
34:32of the Eiffel Tower.
34:34Enough to pay
34:35a workforce
34:36equivalent to
34:37the population
34:38of a medium-sized city.
34:41But why did Ramses
34:42store so much wealth
34:44inside his
34:45mortuary temple?
34:47Yassra believes
34:48it's because
34:48the Ramiseum
34:49served more
34:50than one purpose.
34:53It was a temple
34:55dedicated to Ramses,
34:57a cult center
34:58for his worship,
34:59built to preserve
35:01the pharaoh's name
35:02forever.
35:04But Ramses
35:05also added
35:06a school
35:07to educate
35:08generations
35:09of administrators
35:11paid for
35:12by the stores
35:13of grain.
35:16Ramses grouped
35:17religion,
35:18central bank
35:18and state department
35:20under one roof.
35:22But why did he do it?
35:27Yassra thinks
35:28Ramses used
35:29this vast complex
35:31as the control center
35:32for a project
35:33unprecedented
35:34in Egyptian history.
35:37A nationwide
35:39building program,
35:40more ambitious
35:41in scale
35:42than any pharaoh
35:43had ever attempted
35:44before.
35:46They wanted to make
35:47his name more famous
35:48and his achievement
35:50more glorious
35:50than any of his
35:51predecessors.
35:52he launched
35:53he launched
35:53nothing less
35:54than his own
35:54building program
35:55across all of Egypt.
35:58From the Mediterranean
36:00coast to the southern desert,
36:03Ramses built huge statues,
36:05giant temples
36:06and towering obelisks.
36:11Ramses believed
36:13that becoming Egypt's
36:14greatest ever builder
36:17was the final step
36:18to becoming
36:19its greatest ever pharaoh.
36:23This could explain
36:24what happened
36:25to the leftover stone quarry
36:27during Abu Simbel's
36:28construction.
36:30Ramses' administrators
36:32may have ensured
36:33it was reused
36:34for another
36:35of the pharaoh's
36:35great projects.
36:41Ramses' building program
36:43was the greatest
36:44in all ancient
36:45Egyptian history.
36:47To this day,
36:48more monuments
36:49bear his name
36:50than any other pharaoh,
36:52including his mighty
36:53temple at Abu Simbel.
36:58But this soaring monument
37:00has one final enigma.
37:04This megastructure
37:05is covered by a grid
37:06of deep, straight cracks.
37:09How did they get here?
37:11And what secret
37:13Egyptian building technique
37:15do they reveal
37:15that's been hidden
37:17for more than
37:173,000 years?
37:34Abu Simbel.
37:35The largest rock-cut temple
37:38in all Egypt.
37:40woven into its mighty
37:41structure are clues
37:42that reveal the steps
37:44Ramses took to become
37:45the greatest pharaoh
37:46of all time.
37:49But it conceals
37:50one final mystery.
37:52The entire monument
37:54is criss-crossed
37:55by a grid of deep cracks.
37:59This one clearly
38:01cuts through
38:02just above the ankle
38:03and continues
38:05all the way
38:06into the pillar
38:07behind this great statue.
38:13Abu's symbol
38:14was hewn
38:15from solid rock.
38:17So where did
38:18these cracks come from?
38:21The clue lies
38:22in their age.
38:24These cracks
38:25weren't made
38:26in antiquity.
38:29But just
38:30six decades ago.
38:35in 1960,
38:37the government of Egypt
38:38built a new dam
38:39across the Nile.
38:41It transformed
38:42two and a half million acres
38:44of desert
38:44into farmland.
38:47But the dam
38:48also created
38:49a giant lake.
38:51To prevent Abu Simbel
38:53from being submerged,
38:58international engineers
38:59mounted an unprecedented
39:00rescue mission.
39:02They cut the temple
39:04into pieces
39:04and rebuilt it
39:06on higher ground
39:07away from the rising waters.
39:09They cut the monument
39:10into individual blocks
39:12and I'm standing
39:13right next to one here.
39:14This cut line
39:15descends all the way down
39:17and then continues
39:18all the way along here
39:21to this corner
39:22and then descends here.
39:23This huge,
39:25megalithic block
39:26once laid down there
39:27in this original position.
39:29And each block
39:30was actually hoisted
39:31by crane
39:32to this location,
39:34creating
39:34the new Abu Simbel.
39:40Engineers raced
39:41to transport Abu's
39:43symbol piece by piece,
39:44130 feet up
39:46to the top of the cliff.
39:50One can't even begin
39:51to conceptualize
39:52what would have happened
39:54if one of the cranes
39:55had thwarted,
39:56if one of the legs
39:58of Ramesses
39:59had fallen to the ground
40:00and smashed.
40:01Thousands of years
40:02of archaeology
40:03just lost in a second.
40:07Rescued from destruction,
40:09moving Ramesses' great temple
40:11revealed the last
40:12of its secrets.
40:15Evidence of engineering
40:17expertise that lay hidden
40:18for 3,000 years.
40:21Those clear lines
40:22of stratification
40:23in the upper legs
40:24of Ramesses there
40:25clearly show us
40:27that the ancient Egyptians
40:28had an understanding
40:29of the geology
40:30and the makeup
40:31of this mountain.
40:33Abu Simbel's builders
40:35selected the hardest
40:36layers of rock
40:37to carve out load-bearing
40:39walls strong enough
40:40to support the weight
40:41of the cliff above.
40:43John Ward believes
40:44this was a deliberate
40:45design feature
40:46incorporated to ensure
40:48Ramesses' mighty temple
40:50lasted for millennia.
40:53It was only when
40:55the modern engineers
40:56had actually reassembled
40:57this temple
40:58that they appreciated
41:00the art,
41:01the science,
41:02and the engineering
41:03that had gone in
41:04to actually creating
41:06this great monument.
41:08The largest rock-cut temple
41:11in Egyptian history
41:12with four colossal statues
41:15of the pharaoh
41:17and a sacred inner chamber
41:19aligned with the sunrise.
41:21Abu Simbel proclaimed
41:23an idealized version
41:24of Ramesses
41:26and immortalized him
41:27as a living god.
41:31But the temple
41:32also reveals
41:33how Ramesses II
41:34made himself
41:35Egypt's greatest pharaoh.
41:38He secured his grip
41:39on power
41:40through marriage,
41:42built more monuments
41:43than any of his ancestors,
41:45and rewrote history
41:47to glorify his achievements.
41:50Ramesses the great
41:51transformed Egypt
41:53and won a glittering reputation
41:56that has lasted
41:573,000 years.
42:14of the forest
42:14in the dark.
42:17He is a tough
42:18wife,
42:18but he is a great
42:18man.
42:18The End
42:22is not
42:23He is a tough
42:23man.
42:23We are
42:24dead.
42:25We are
42:25You
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