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00:11This week, join me as I explore the life and legacy of the man who may have been Egypt's greatest
00:17pharaoh, Ramses II.
00:20He was the only Egyptian king who dared declare himself a living god.
00:24His soaring statues, grand temples, and hieroglyphic inscriptions are everywhere, yet the man behind the legend remains a mystery.
00:34What drove him to become Egypt's greatest pharaoh, and how did he do it?
00:39To find out, I'll try my hand at ancient stonemasonry, decode the propaganda of the pharaohs, and get high-tech
00:47to see how Ramses amassed incredible wealth.
00:51We're digging for the truth.
00:53Get it back, folks.
00:55And we're going to extremes to do it.
01:10The mighty pharaohs of ancient Egypt all left their mark on history.
01:14From the massive pyramid of Fufu to the golden face of Tutankhamun, these icons of Egypt remain larger than life
01:22to this day.
01:23Yet of all the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, one name stands apart from the rest, one king who even today
01:30is called Egypt's greatest pharaoh.
01:33Hi, I'm Josh Bernstein.
01:35I've come here to Egypt to learn more about the king we call Ramses the Great.
01:41At the time of Ramses in the 13th century BC, Cairo didn't exist yet.
01:47But as the modern city grew, much of it came to be built directly on top of the ancient Egyptian
01:52site of Heliopolis.
01:55I've heard about a new Ramses discovery in that part of town, so I decide to check it out.
02:02So, in most countries, archaeology is kind of random.
02:06You make discoveries whenever you do.
02:07But here in Egypt, it's almost an everyday affair.
02:10And a recent discovery, which relates to Ramses II, was just made.
02:14And to get a look at it, I'm going to go see my friend, Dr. Zahi Hawass.
02:23Hi Josh, how are you? Good to see you.
02:26Then you are after Ramses II now.
02:28Ramses II, yep.
02:29He's an amazing king.
02:31In my career as an archaeologist, I almost everywhere discover something with this man.
02:37But really what's important about this temple first, if you come and follow me.
02:41This site is an exciting find.
02:43Zahi tells me that this was a massive temple complex that was very important to Ramses II.
02:49Discovered during the construction of a new supermarket, this site was announced in 2006.
02:55Zahi tells me the scale of this temple is enormous.
03:00From just his early excavations, he's determined that it extends for several blocks in each direction,
03:07underneath a significant portion of the neighborhood.
03:12In front of one of the stones that made up the entrance to the main temple, I ask him why
03:16Ramses is so celebrated.
03:19What do you think was so appealing about Ramses II?
03:21I think, you know, his life is full of action.
03:25Everywhere, he built unique temples or tombs or statues.
03:29Zahi tells me that Ramses was a king who lived in superlatives.
03:35He ruled for over 66 years, living into his 90s, almost three times as long as the average Egyptian of
03:42his day.
03:43He had over 200 wives and concubines, with whom he had nearly 100 children.
03:49And he built more temples and statues than any other pharaoh.
03:53And this is why I have to tell you that if you talk about Egypt, if you talk about ancient
04:00Egypt,
04:00if you talk about kings and their mystery and their magic, you say Ramses II.
04:07Ramses II.
04:08Zahi expects to find new information here that will reveal more about the life and reign of Ramses II.
04:14But really, the dig has only just begun.
04:18And to conduct full excavations, all the surrounding buildings will have to be knocked down.
04:24This excavation will continue for years.
04:27And look at this shopping mall.
04:29Yeah.
04:29That's what we will going to demolish completely.
04:32Because it could continue. This temple could continue that way.
04:34Yes.
04:34The Egyptian government is now making plans to compensate and relocate the residents of this neighborhood.
04:40It's a pretty incredible man who can inspire such a huge undertaking even 3,300 years after his death.
04:48But is Ramses' fame the stuff of legend? Or was he really the greatest pharaoh in Egyptian history?
04:54This temple has years of work ahead of it before all it has to tell is revealed.
05:00But the amazing thing about Egypt is that so much has already been found.
05:05Ramses' mummy was discovered in the late 1800s.
05:09Now it's in the Egyptian museum.
05:12I've been given permission to come after hours.
05:14It's a rare privilege to get a personal audience with a pharaoh.
05:19Wow.
05:20Welcome to the Royal Mummy Room, where almost a dozen of Egypt's royals are on display for you to see.
05:26And many of them are related to Ramses II.
05:28This is his son, Merimta.
05:31And over here, his father, Seti I.
05:35And over here, the man you and I came to see, perhaps the greatest pharaoh of them all,
05:40is Royal Highness, Pharaoh Ramses II himself.
05:45Isn't that incredible?
05:493,300 years later, Ramses is still as prominent of pharaoh as ever.
05:54Looking at his strong cheekbones and signature hooked nose, one can almost sense his ambition and drive.
06:02Fortunately, his body is not the only thing preserved over the millennia.
06:07I travel 450 miles south of Cairo to the famous Valley of the Kings.
06:15I've come to Ramses' dramatic funerary temple called the Rameseum.
06:21I'm meeting Egyptologist Peter Brand of the University of Memphis to learn why Ramses came to be known as the
06:27Great.
06:27This is it?
06:28This is the Rameseum where the cult of Ramses happened.
06:31And all these statues here, Ramses, Ramses, Ramses.
06:33Everywhere you see his name and his image is stamped everywhere.
06:37Peter explains that the Rameseum was originally built as Ramses' main temple here in the Valley of the Kings.
06:45In ancient times, it was called the House of Millions of Years.
06:49In its heyday, it could hold as many as 20,000 people for ritual events.
06:54It was used to honor and worship Ramses, whose image appears everywhere.
06:59How is it that Ramses became Ramses the Great?
07:02Well, he built more monuments than just about any other king.
07:06And he put his own name on the monuments of other kings.
07:09Every temple, every statue, every obelisk that he could find.
07:12And that's why we find his name anywhere you go in Egypt.
07:15Ambitious.
07:18Peter, like Zahi, says that a lot of Ramses' fame comes from his prolific building.
07:24But this wasn't just a love of architecture.
07:28Ramses was actively constructing not just temples and statues, but more importantly, his own legend.
07:37He paid very close attention to his building projects, making sure they were exactly to his liking.
07:43Like every pharaoh, he took a great interest in his building projects, oversaw it, kept tabs on it.
07:49Okay, so he was instrumental in the design of this place.
07:51Oh, absolutely.
07:52And his efforts to be remembered forever worked.
07:56Even the ancient Greeks knew about Ramses, and that's how Egyptologists knew that there was a Ramses before they could
08:01read his name in hieroglyphs.
08:03Peter explains that it's the sheer ubiquity of Ramses' image that made him so synonymous with ancient Egypt, especially to
08:09early visitors.
08:10Peter, like Zahi.
08:12Farther into the Ramsesium, we reach an enormous statue that really brings the point home.
08:17What is that?
08:19That's the Ozymandias.
08:21The name of this is Ozymandias, or this is Ramses?
08:23Well, Ozymandias is the Greek version of Usermontre, the coronation name of Ramses II.
08:28This colossal statue of Ramses, weighing over 100 tons, was carved from a single piece of granite.
08:36It's now fallen down onto its back, but it once stood over six stories high.
08:40And so this, maybe what, 30-foot model?
08:44Oh yeah, this is the economy model.
08:45This wasn't enough, you know?
08:46No, no.
08:47Ramses likes the statues big, and he liked a lot of them.
08:50Peter says that Ramses' building projects were focused on one thing.
08:55Ramses.
08:57He was going out of his way to be sure he'd be remembered for all time.
09:02I've come to Egypt to learn more about Ramses II, and find out if he really was as great as
09:07his reputation says.
09:09I've seen what remains of the man himself in the Egyptian museum, and visited his personal temple in the famous
09:16Valley of the Kings.
09:18I'm now heading south, to the city of Aswan and the granite quarries of the pharaohs, to learn just how
09:25he left his mark.
09:27Expert stonemason Danny Roy meets me at the Aswan quarry to show me how Ramses' craftsmen shaped his statues through
09:34solid granite blocks.
09:36Aswan's granite was prized throughout the ages for its quality and color.
09:41The pharaohs got most of their granite here, to build their great statues and obelisks.
09:46So Ramses himself took stone from here?
09:50Yes, he did. And a lot of it.
09:53Danny takes me to see one of the most impressive pieces of sculpture in all of Egypt.
09:59Only this one was never finished.
10:03This obelisk would have been even larger than the Ozymandias.
10:07It stretches over 130 feet long, and would have weighed almost 1,300 tons.
10:13But it was abandoned due to a flaw in the stone that was only revealed well into the carving process.
10:20Ramses didn't commission it, but the process of creating it would have been exactly the same for his monuments.
10:25What a shame. They got all this work done.
10:28Yes, and you can imagine the work it represents.
10:31But imagining isn't enough for me. I want to find out for myself.
10:35Go break some rock.
10:39Danny brings me to a modern quarry not far from the unfinished obelisk.
10:49He set up a comparison test for me so that I can see just how much work we're really talking
10:54about.
10:55First, we start with the modern methods.
10:59Danny has a collection of tools laid out that are used for modern consumer work like carved mantelpieces or kitchen
11:05countertops.
11:08We start with the bush hammer, which creates smooth surfaces like I saw on the obelisk and the Ozymandias.
11:29It really does change the surface.
11:31It does. It flattens everything out.
11:33Can I try it?
11:34Sure. Go ahead.
11:37Get it back, folks.
11:38Beware of the bush hammer.
11:51That really takes the surface down quickly.
11:53It certainly does. It makes granite carving a lot easier, doesn't it?
11:57Yeah.
11:58So obviously, Ramses did not have air compressors and tungsten tools.
12:02But they had dolerite balls, which in fact does the same work, but it takes a little more time and
12:09more work.
12:10That's the only difference.
12:11And more work is what Danny has in mind.
12:14We go to another part of the quarry to a fresh bed of virgin granite.
12:19These are balls of dolerite, a type of basalt that's harder than granite.
12:24They were found here at the site, meaning it's possible they were actually used by Ramses' work groups.
12:29Ancient Egyptians would have used those balls to pound away the granite the way we did with the bush hammer.
12:36Can you show me how it's done?
12:37Absolutely.
12:38Let's try it right here.
12:39Right here, right below us?
12:40Yes.
12:42We start at a natural seam in the rock.
12:46Foreman and Ramses' quarries would have looked for seams like this as a place to begin separating a colossal statue
12:52or obelisk from the bedrock.
12:57After 20 hard minutes of working with the heavy dolerite balls, we've managed to chip away only a few ounces
13:03of granite from the seam.
13:05Ramses built hundreds of granite monuments, many of them weighing hundreds of tons.
13:10How could he possibly have built statues like Ozymandias using these methods?
13:15And how long did it take?
13:17Here I am making some damage.
13:21But for me to make an obelisk or a pillar or a sphinx or anything huge and mighty,
13:28the pharaoh's not going to be happy with the work I'm doing.
13:30Actually, Danny tells me that the work went faster than I would have expected.
13:35The 18th dynasty pharaoh Hatshepsut claimed to have built and erected an obelisk in only seven months.
13:42The answer, Danny says, was a lot of people.
13:47These quarries were filled with hundreds of workers, all working in a line along the same seam.
13:54And with the heavy work under the blazing sun of Upper Egypt, the crews were rotated throughout the day.
14:01Meaning thousands of people toiled in the quarries of the pharaoh.
14:06How does the work of Ramses II compare to other pharaohs?
14:10Well, what's impressive with the work of Ramses II is the sheer volume of the monuments he produced.
14:17Because the organization of the work and the accomplishment of the work makes it remarkable.
14:24Danny explains that other pharaohs built impressive monuments.
14:28But the amount that Ramses produced went way beyond the norm.
14:31And to leave the mark on Egypt he's famous for, he didn't need just a massive workforce.
14:37He needed a massive fortune, too.
14:40Both the quantity and quality of stonework produced under Ramses point to his significant influence.
14:46But where did his wealth and power come from?
14:48Well, whether it's during the Pharaonic era or the modern era, the economy of Egypt has been based primarily on
14:55one thing.
14:56The River Nile.
15:00I decide to go check out the Nile myself, just down the hill from the quarries.
15:06These local fishermen are kind enough to lend me their rowboat.
15:10Getting out on the water is a welcome break from the blazing heat of the quarries.
15:15But I'm not just rowing for exercise.
15:19I'm going to an island in the middle of the river.
15:23It's called Elephantine Island.
15:26It gets its name because the rocks along the shoreline naturally resemble a herd of elephants.
15:35Considered sacred to the Egyptian god of floods, it even has a back door.
15:39Hello in there.
15:40Hi, how are you?
15:41To learn more about Ramses' wealth, I'm meeting Gary Robbins of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
15:47Hi, Josh. Nice to meet you. Welcome to you.
15:49Nice to meet you.
15:49He can help me explore how Ramses got the resources he needed to support his building program.
15:55The tunnel we're standing in was a simple but critical tool called, aptly, a nilometer.
16:01It measured the flood levels as the rising waters first crossed the traditional border of Egypt here in Aswan.
16:08Gary explains that Egypt's prosperity depended on the regular flooding of the Nile.
16:14Sediment carried from the river's headwaters in Ethiopia would replenish the agricultural fields each year as the river overflowed its
16:22banks.
16:23So they would use these hash marks to measure the water level at different times of the year?
16:28Yeah, they would measure when the floods were coming and they would be able to determine how big the floods
16:32were going to be.
16:33Gary tells me the water could rise as much as 35 feet, leaving behind tons of fertile new soil when
16:40it receded.
16:41The nilometer allowed the Egyptians to very accurately predict how productive their growing season would be from one year to
16:48the next.
16:49And the variation between good and bad years was profound.
16:54A difference of just a few feet in flood heights spread along the length of the Nile meant a difference
16:59of tens of thousands of acres of farmable land.
17:03So that Ramses ruled over a very bountiful time and he was able to have quite a good crop production
17:09during his reign.
17:11According to Gary, Ramses was blessed with a long period of prime floods during his reign.
17:16And by using the nilometer to gauge the flood levels, Ramses also had a very precise taxation system.
17:22And then once that was predicted, they could use that to set the tax rate for the year.
17:26If it was going to be a very good year of crop production, they could tax up to 20%.
17:30If it was going to be either a drought year or a flood year, they could reduce that down to
17:35the 10% to 15% range.
17:36So better floods meant better crops. Better crops meant higher taxes.
17:40That's right. It was a very progressive system.
17:42With his tax revenue based on excellent floods, Ramses would have had a lot of money flowing into his treasury.
17:48But Gary says there was more to Ramses' command of agriculture than just an efficient taxation system.
17:53He also benefited from new innovations that would revolutionize the bounty of the river Nile.
18:01I'm on the trail of the man many people call Egypt's greatest pharaoh, Ramses II.
18:08To learn how he became so celebrated, I visited a newly discovered temple in the heart of Cairo.
18:14And saw the grandeur of one of Egypt's masterpieces in the Valley of the Kings.
18:20In Aswan, I examined the Nilometer and learned how regular floods fueled Egypt's economy.
18:29Now I'm heading to the Nile Valley to find out how Ramses turned all that water into wealth.
18:38Gary Robbins of the U.S. Agency for International Development has brought me to some agricultural land just outside Aswan.
18:46Gary says that in a lot of ways, life in the fields of Upper Egypt really hasn't changed that much
18:51over the centuries.
18:53Farmers still make their living off the land.
18:57Technologies introduced thousands of years ago are still used today, like this animal-powered waterwheel.
19:05As we walk through the fields, Gary tells me that the importance of the Nile floods to Egyptian civilization can't
19:12be overstated.
19:14With the regular flood cycles constantly replenishing the fields, ancient Egypt developed a thriving agricultural system
19:21that could easily support its people, as well as a very grandiose pharaoh.
19:29During the flood season in late summer, these fields would have been inundated by several feet of water.
19:36The Egyptians created basins by building low berms around their plots with mud,
19:41allowing the ground to become saturated with the silt-rich water.
19:45After the water receded, they planted their crops in the newly rejuvenated soil.
19:50Yes, the water would come in, they would inundate the fields, it would soak the ground, saturate the ground.
19:55Then they would open up the sluice gates, drain the water off, and then they'd plant the crops.
19:59And so when the field here is flooded, what did the farmers do?
20:03Well, that's the time when they would go and provide their labor as part of their tax to the pharaoh.
20:07So this is the time when all the building projects take place?
20:09That's when a lot of the building projects occurred, yes.
20:11The agricultural system was perfectly suited to Ramsey's needs.
20:16With farmers unable to work their fields, they were free to devote themselves to his building projects,
20:21which also satisfied part of their tax obligation.
20:24And then they would come back, waters receded, plant their crops.
20:27How would they water their crops now that the Nile and all the water was down here?
20:31Well, during the New Kingdom, they introduced a new technology called the Shaduf,
20:34that allowed them to lift the water from the river up to where the crops were.
20:38And this is during the time that Ramsey's lived?
20:40It was during the New Kingdom, yes, during Ramsey's time.
20:42What kind of contraption or technology was this that could get the water?
20:45Well, I'm going to take you over and show one to you and give you a chance to work it.
20:48Let's go check it out.
20:49All right.
20:50Gary says the most basic of innovations can often spark the biggest changes.
20:55The introduction of the simple Shaduf allowed the Egyptians to move water without relying solely on the floods,
21:02an agricultural revolution that Ramsey's took full advantage of.
21:06Basically, it's a counterweight that assists with the raising of the water.
21:09That's right. You've got a bucket on this end that's filled with mud in this case to cause the weight.
21:13The bucket's about the same size as the bucket on the other end that's used to bring the water up
21:17and put it into the canal.
21:18And once the water gets into this basin, then gravity just takes it wherever it needs to go.
21:22Right. There's canals all over the place and they can direct it in any way they want to.
21:26Today, Shadufs are used only where water pumps aren't available.
21:30But even into the 20th century, they were used on an industrial scale, allowing farmers to irrigate their fields independently
21:37of the floods.
21:38I decide to give it a try.
21:41The result of this innovation? More food was produced with a lot less labor, creating instant surpluses in money and
21:48manpower that Ramsey's could draw upon.
21:50That's pretty easy.
21:51And given the ease of use, Ramsey's people were essentially self-sufficient.
21:57So I can see how this would benefit the farmers. How did it benefit the Farrell?
22:03Because irrigation was managed locally by the local administration, the Farrell didn't have to put either manpower or money into
22:10maintaining the system.
22:12So basically, he could focus on governing other areas?
22:15He could govern other areas. And what he did was, he redistributed the land that belonged to some of the
22:19temples to people in the area so that they were more indebted to him as a ruler.
22:25Ah, very smart there, Ramsey's.
22:28I think I've mastered the Shaduf.
22:30You've done a very good job.
22:32Can I help you out?
22:34Can I go back to doing its thing? Yeah, please.
22:37So the Egyptian economy during Ramsey's reign was thriving.
22:42Excellent floods and recent technological innovations meant that he ruled during a time of plenty.
22:48Higher tax revenues and a more prosperous people with less reliance on the central government gave Ramsey's the resources he
22:55needed to devote to his own projects.
22:59But how do we really know that Ramsey's lived during a time of consistent flooding?
23:05Other than ancient records, is there any way to verify today that he really did benefit from ideal farming conditions
23:11year after year?
23:13I know just the man to help me answer this question.
23:18Dr. Miroslav Barta of the Czech Archaeological Institute has a unique way of tracking the environmental conditions of ancient Egypt.
23:27We've come back to Cairo to his dig site at Abu Sir, near the pyramids of Saqqara.
23:33It's right on the edge of the Nile's floodplain, where the lush agricultural land watered by the river hits the
23:39desert sands.
23:40What do we have here?
23:42A wall. It's just a simple wall, but it's not so simple in this specific case.
23:48Miroslav Barta says this mud brick is over 4,500 years old.
23:53By looking at the straw that's still trapped in the dried mud, he can determine what the environmental conditions were
23:59like when the bricks were made.
24:01Basically, these mud bricks are environmental time capsules.
24:04Exactly.
24:04But Miroslav Barta has developed a more dynamic method to track the environment over time, and it's something I never
24:11would have expected.
24:13We head to the dried-up basin of Abu Sir Lake, on the very edge of the Nile River Valley.
24:19In ancient times, it filled with water during the seasonal floods, only to empty again as the flood waters receded.
24:26As we walk towards the lakebed, Miroslav Barta says that in science, it's often one tiny piece of data that
24:31reveals the whole story.
24:32Now we have to come to the most fascinating part of the whole story. We have to start to hunt.
24:38For what? For frogs? No, beetles.
24:41For beetles? For beetles.
24:42Okay, so how do you hunt for beetles?
24:44You have to look for small holes about an inch wide.
24:47Okay, let's go hunt for beetles.
24:52Studying something as small as a dung beetle allows Mirok to reconstruct the big picture of what the climatic conditions
24:58of Egypt were like during the time of the pharaohs.
25:01We're very quiet.
25:12I've got one over here.
25:14Yeah?
25:14Yeah.
25:16You see, this is a typical hole opening.
25:21Oh, something's moving.
25:24That's what we want?
25:25Exactly, it's one of those keys.
25:28What kind of beetle is this?
25:29Scarab, dunk beetle.
25:31It's one species and by looking at different species that we discovered here over the past few years, we can
25:37determine different sorts of environment that existed here.
25:41So the same way that archaeologists use straw in the mud brick to determine the environment, you can do that
25:46with the beetles too.
25:47Yeah, but to show you details, we have to get back to our lab.
25:51Okay.
25:52I'll put this guy back and go to the lab.
25:55Goodbye, little friend.
25:57So now this is who we're going to...
25:59Merrick brings me to his lab, where he has samples of beetles he's found in tombs at Abu Sir.
26:04Since the tombs were sealed when he discovered them, the conditions inside remained the same for thousands of years.
26:11From each tomb, fragments of the collected beetles were placed on microscope slides.
26:16Under magnification, each sample provides invaluable data about environmental conditions in the past.
26:23So what am I looking at? I'm looking at the wing.
26:26Yeah, fragment of the wing.
26:28So this to me looks like a wing, right? Just a piece of wing. I couldn't tell you any more
26:35than that.
26:36But to a specialist, he or she could come in here and say, that's not just a wing, that's a
26:40piece of this beetle.
26:42And then you could come in and say, well, if that species was in this site, then we know these
26:46environmental conditions must have existed there.
26:49That's the conclusion.
26:50That's pretty cool.
26:53Merrick explains that some species of beetles appear in wet environments, while others show up in dry, salty conditions.
27:00For example, the scarab we found in the dried-up Abu Sir Lake wouldn't have been there during the time
27:06it was flooding.
27:08As for my question about Ramses, Merrick's research shows that the appearance of the different species of beetles coincides exactly
27:15with records of flood conditions kept by the ancient Egyptians.
27:19Hard science is backing up the history of the pharaohs.
27:23It also gives full support to Gary's position that excellent flood conditions made Ramses a very wealthy king.
27:31This wealth gave him the resources, both in money and in labor, to build himself into a legendary pharaoh, to
27:39be remembered for all time.
27:42But now that I've gotten a good understanding of how he did it, my next question is why.
27:48What motivated Ramses II to become the greatest pharaoh of all time?
27:54Wow!
27:55That's pretty bold, isn't it?
27:58My quest to find out if Ramses II was Egypt's greatest pharaoh has taken me from a dig in Cairo,
28:04to the granite quarries of Aswan, to the lush fields of the Nile Valley.
28:10I've learned how he built hundreds of monuments all over the country.
28:14And with the help of some beetles and a shadoof, how Ramses used the Nile floods to amass great wealth.
28:21That's pretty easy.
28:23But what was it that drove Ramses seemingly endless ambition?
28:29I traveled to the town of Abydos, 300 miles south of Cairo in Middle Egypt.
28:34In ancient times, this was one of the most sacred sites in the country.
28:39It's home to a temple built by Ramses' father, Seti I, that gives some very interesting clues as to what
28:45may have motivated Ramses to leave so great a legacy.
28:49I meet up again with Peter Brand of the University of Memphis, who shows me around.
28:55As it turns out, Ramses' dynasty has a backstory that could have been written by Shakespeare.
29:00The thing you have to understand about the 19th dynasty is that they were of non-royal blood, that they
29:05were family military men who came to the throne with Seti's father.
29:09Peter tells me that Ramses and his father Seti were actually born commoners.
29:14Their young dynasty came to the throne from the military, not the palace or temple.
29:20As head of a new ruling family that didn't have the instant status of royal blood, Seti had a lot
29:25to prove.
29:27To show that he was a legitimate pharaoh, Seti embarked on the massive building program that Ramses would later take
29:33to an extreme.
29:35So Seti is placing himself with the gods here in order to bolster his own image.
29:39Well, the purpose here is to show that Seti is a legitimate king of Egypt, that he is doing service
29:44for the gods, he is building the monuments,
29:46and that they in turn are confirming him as the proper king of Egypt.
29:51And Seti was grooming Ramses to follow directly in his footsteps.
29:57He took him along on military expeditions, training him in tactics and strategy,
30:02and made him a general in charge of his own divisions while he was still in his teens.
30:11This room contains a relief that shows Seti ritually paying homage to all the legitimate kings of Egypt before him,
30:17all the way back to the mythical founder of Egyptian civilization.
30:21What's unique is that Seti made sure to insert Ramses into the relief,
30:26giving his son a status never before granted to a crown prince.
30:29And here are his titles. He's heir apparent, the king's eldest son of his body, his beloved, Ramses.
30:36So he's not just any prince, he's the prince.
30:38So again, we're seeing how Seti is using these walls to communicate a very clear political message of power.
30:44Yes. The political message is, of course, is that Seti is part of this continuum of kings.
30:49Now his son Ramses is not yet king, but he's going to be.
30:52He's the official crown prince, and you better get ready because he's coming next.
30:56Ramses took this message and ran with it.
31:00When he became pharaoh after Seti's death, he immediately set out to build upon his father's ambitions,
31:05but made sure to keep all the focus on himself.
31:09On an exterior wall of the temple, Peter shows me a huge inscription where Ramses started the process of building
31:15his own cult of personality.
31:17So what we saw inside with Seti telling the story, here we have it outside, but it's Ramses now telling
31:22what happened.
31:23Yes, this is what happened next.
31:25Ramses' taste for self-promotion definitely started early.
31:29Ramses even claims that his father made him king and put the crown on his head while Seti himself was
31:35still alive.
31:36So is that normal for the pharaoh to take his crown and place it on the prince while he's still
31:40alive?
31:40I think it's likely that Ramses is exaggerating a bit, that he in fact remained crown prince.
31:46So again, we're seeing the retelling of the story for political gain.
31:49Yes, Ramses wants to put his own spin on things, but nobody is the master of propaganda quite like Ramses.
31:57Ramses' massive building projects and colossal statues are all starting to make sense.
32:03He was clearly obsessed with image control, seemingly all in an effort to compensate for a humble birth.
32:09But Peter tells me this temple is only the beginning.
32:12I'd like to show you somewhere else where we can see this in action.
32:15All right, let's go there.
32:18Peter takes me to the famous Temple of Karnak.
32:21I've been here before.
32:23It was the main building site for generations of pharaohs, all of whom left their mark here.
32:29I've got to say, Peter, I love this hall.
32:31Well, this is my favorite place in Egypt, the great Hypostol Hall of Karnak Temple.
32:35It's amazing.
32:35The hall was begun by Seti, but Ramses completed the job and he made sure that everybody knew it.
32:42Peter points to one of the massive pillars of the hall and explains the concept of usurpation.
32:47It was standard practice for pharaohs to take credit for the work of earlier kings by replacing older cartouches with
32:54their own.
32:55But Ramses took it to the next level.
32:58He instituted a new artistic style, engineered to better sing his own praises and ensure that he'd never be forgotten.
33:05And in fact, if you look up here, you can see this really deep carving of Ramses II's name.
33:11And this deep carving that would be very hard to erase.
33:13And this is no accident because if you look over here, the smaller cartouches were originally done by Seti I.
33:19What Ramses did is he sliced Seti's name off and in that blank space, he now carved in sunk relief.
33:25It was deeper and harder to erase his own name.
33:28Ramses has made his cartouche so large and carved it so deep
33:32that removing it would irreparably damage the supporting column,
33:36thereby ensuring his permanent presence.
33:41Peter takes me outside the temple so I can see just how easy the process actually was.
33:47He set up a limestone block inscribed with Ramses' cartouche.
33:51I'm going to try my hand at altering history the same way Ramses did.
33:55You want to shave it off, you don't want to damage the background.
34:01That's pretty easy.
34:02Yeah, the sandstone and limestone are both fairly soft stones, so he didn't actually have to work very hard to
34:08do this.
34:09So we'll never know if Ramses was there if you do a really good job.
34:13Now what's making your job easy here and would have made Ramses' job easy when he has raised relief
34:18is that it's much easier to carve away than sunk relief.
34:21You can just slice it off and you have a nice pristine surface.
34:25Peter explains that the tradition before Ramses' was for temple interiors to be decorated using raised relief,
34:31where the surrounding material was removed to leave raised figures, like what I saw in Abydos.
34:38Ramses' artisans, however, switched to sunken relief, carving directly into the stone.
34:45This style was much easier and faster to produce, allowing Ramses to mount a massive usurpation campaign across Egypt.
34:53Now you can just see how quickly you can go through that.
34:55Peter tells me that Ramses usurped hundreds if not thousands of cartouches
35:00in his efforts to be forever remembered as the greatest pharaoh of Egypt.
35:04By one estimate, half the temples discovered in Egypt bear his name, mostly thanks to usurpation.
35:13Sorry, Ramses.
35:16After erasing Ramses from this limestone block, I decide to leave a little history of my own.
35:29I've removed the hieroglyph, and now, Ramses, you're history.
35:38Now that I've seen how the process works, Peter takes me to the exterior wall of the Hypostyle Hall
35:43to show me how Ramses even usurped himself.
35:47He tells me that at one point, it was covered by a huge panorama that told the story of Ramses'
35:53military exploits.
35:55Most of it's now worn away, in no small part because of Ramses himself.
36:00It was about message control, spin control, getting the best photo op, if you will.
36:04Huh, okay.
36:07Ramses redecorated this wall again and again, constantly updating the official history of his reign as he closely managed his
36:15image.
36:15That's one thing that I'm wondering.
36:16All this gets me wondering what was going through Ramses' mind as he literally manufactured his own legend.
36:22So he lived three times as long as the average person.
36:26Exactly.
36:26And he ruled for what, 66, 67 years?
36:28Exactly.
36:29So at a certain point in his reign, he's just like, I'm the only one who knows how things really
36:33happen.
36:34And if he wants to write history as this way, there's no one else around who can speak any differently.
36:39Exactly. And his monument stood even longer than he did.
36:43And therefore, his version of events is what has shaped us, even modern historians.
36:47It would also seem, based on what I've learned so far, is that he was groomed to be someone who
36:53wouldn't question himself.
36:55Absolutely.
36:56He was raised under the guidance of a man who created this dynasty.
37:00Well, I always like to say Ramses was a palace brat.
37:02He wasn't born in the palace, but he was raised in the palace.
37:05And just like every other Egyptian king, he was led to believe that he was chosen by the gods to
37:10be the most powerful ruler in the world.
37:12Wow.
37:12How could you not believe that you were special?
37:16Ramses' obsession with his own greatness and his tireless efforts to ensure it are incredible.
37:24But Peter says it goes even beyond that.
37:28He tells me to really see the crowning achievement of Ramses' glory, I should travel to the southernmost border of
37:34Egypt,
37:34to the place he ceased being just a pharaoh and became a god.
37:40I've been investigating how Ramses II has come to be known as Egypt's greatest pharaoh.
37:46I've learned that he ruled for 66 years, and that he was known throughout antiquity for building temples and colossi
37:53that inspire awe even today.
37:57Along the banks of the Nile, I examined how he used new technologies and nature to maximize the agricultural bounty
38:05provided by the river.
38:07At Abydos, I learned that Ramses' upbringing and his dynasty's place in history compelled him to surpass the achievements of
38:14all other pharaohs before him.
38:17And in the famous Temple of Karnak, I saw how the sheer force of his will made it happen.
38:24I've now come to the desolate south of the country, just 30 miles from the border with Sudan, to see
38:31Ramses' grandest masterpiece and discover what made him the greatest pharaoh of them all.
38:37This region doesn't get a lot of attention today, but during the time of Ramses, this province was integral to
38:44his success.
38:45So it was here he decided to make the ultimate political statement, building what many believe was his masterpiece.
38:53This is the Temple of Abu Simbel.
38:57It's the place where all of Ramses' ambitions are on full display, an expression of ego in stone.
39:05Dr. Melinda Hartwig of the American University in Cairo and Georgia State University has agreed to meet me here to
39:12show me around.
39:13This is it.
39:13This is it.
39:14This is Abu Simbel.
39:16And we're looking at four colossal statues of Ramses II.
39:20That's incredible.
39:21Isn't it amazing?
39:22This magnificent temple was carved directly into the mountainside, extending deep into the rock face.
39:28Four colossal statues of Ramses frame the entrance, each tower 67 feet high.
39:36It's an unforgettable sight.
39:39It's hard to imagine anyone seeing Abu Simbel and not believing its builder was one of the greatest kings the
39:45world has ever known.
39:47And this was a significant sight for Ramses.
39:50It is a perfect sight to look at Ramses because it encapsulates everything Ramses was about.
39:55You have Ramses as a monumental builder.
39:58You have Ramses as a family man.
40:01And then inside we'll see the Battle of Kadesh, which shows him as a mighty warrior.
40:06Can we take a look?
40:07Let's do it.
40:14Inside the temple, the grandeur continues.
40:17Melinda tells me that Abu Simbel is the fullest expression of Ramses' ambitions.
40:22The grand building, the legitimizing of his dynasty, the political propaganda, all of it is on display.
40:29And we also have some other scenes decorating the wall of this first hall that are very emblematic of what
40:35Ramses II is all about.
40:37Melinda gives me a tour.
40:40So here are some scenes of Ramses that are pretty emblematic of his military might.
40:46Here, the image of Ramses up here.
40:48On these panels, Ramses continues the pattern I saw at Karnak.
40:52Inscriptions tell of mighty battles and humiliated enemies crushed beneath his feet.
40:58Ramses, the mighty warrior, keeping Egypt safe and secure.
41:08Just below the scenes of his military prowess, he continues the motif his father Seti I displayed in Abydos.
41:15Ramses lists several of his sons, complete with honorific titles.
41:19As his father did before him, Ramses is setting up his descendants in the eyes of the people and the
41:25priesthood as his legitimate heirs, positioning them to continue the rule of the dynasty.
41:30So outside coming in, you see Ramses the pharaoh, and here, Ramses the warrior.
41:34Absolutely.
41:35So far, what Melinda has shown me is more of the same from Ramses' propaganda machine.
41:40Where she brings me next, though, puts Ramses in a whole new light.
41:45A divine light, to be exact.
41:47This is the end point of the temple.
41:51We enter an alcove in the back of the temple.
41:54Statues of the principal gods of Egypt are seated in a row to be worshipped.
41:58We have, starting from the left, the god Ta.
42:01We have Amun.
42:03And then, over here on the far right, we have Raharakti.
42:06But if you notice, the figure that's inserted between Amun and Raharakti is Ramses II.
42:12Wow.
42:13Ramses has physically inserted himself into the pantheon of gods while he's alive.
42:17It's part of this plan that he started developing of divinizing himself and then showing it in this temple.
42:26Melinda explains that this act was Ramses' ultimate statement.
42:31Egyptian religion, for thousands of years, had taught that pharaohs became gods after they died.
42:37But here at Abu Simbel, Ramses was claiming to have made the transition while he was still alive.
42:43He was calling himself a living god.
42:47Maybe at a certain point in his life or in his reign, he did make that transition in his mind
42:53from,
42:53I was born as a human, but now I'm a god.
42:57One wonders if maybe he even believed his own myth.
43:01And you think that the people were willing to do this for Ramses because he had such a great reign.
43:05He lived, he reigned for so long, the Nile was flowing every year and flooding and they had food and
43:10everyone was happy.
43:11And he's building these colossal structures everywhere and at a certain point they're just like, he is a god.
43:15He's so good to us, how could he not be?
43:17He really, truly was the greatest.
43:25Zahi Hawass told me that Ramses II is the mystery and the glory of ancient Egypt.
43:32I now see what he meant.
43:34Ramses was raised to be a great pharaoh.
43:37And thanks to his longevity, his political skill, a fair amount of luck and a very healthy ego, he succeeded.
43:45So much so that he called himself a living god.
43:49By the standards of his time and by the awe he still inspires today, it's tempting to say that he
43:55became one.
43:55At the very least, he's earned the title of Egypt's greatest pharaoh.
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