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00:03Scattered around Egypt are some fantastic ancient ruins, the legacy of the pharaoh's
00:083,000-year history.
00:10The country's last great queen was Cleopatra.
00:14While her name is the stuff of legend, she left very few visible traces of her reign.
00:21In Alexandria, however, after 30 years of excavation campaigns, an archaeological team
00:26led by Frank Codio has just achieved the impossible.
00:30They have discovered a sunken monument beneath the Mediterranean.
00:35To find this sort of building is unique, we've never found one.
00:41This was a place of vital importance for Egypt's last queen.
00:45The ruins are her royal temple, built on an island that disappeared 2,000 years ago during
00:51a spate of destructive earthquakes in Alexandria.
00:53What we see at the Temple of Isis is really a little time capsule that doesn't get disturbed
00:59once the destruction has happened.
01:03Erected in honor of the god Osiris and the goddess Isis, the temple was an embodiment
01:08of the myth of Cleopatra in the eyes of all Egypt, and the treasure within it is priceless
01:13to historians.
01:15It's from the Temple of Isis, a very rare coin.
01:18The facial characteristics suggest Cleopatra VII.
01:23The temple would have been an important part of how she was presenting herself to her population.
01:29After three decades, archaeologists are only at the beginning of the scientific adventure.
01:35But they can already reveal to the public what this Atlantis hides about the fate of Cleopatra,
01:40her family, the Ptolemies, and the men who marked her life.
01:47Get ready for an exclusive glimpse into this extraordinary archaeological investigation,
01:53and the work of dedicated men and women.
01:55I think we have an interesting discovery here.
01:58Who can now call upon cutting-edge technology to produce a virtual reconstruction of one of
02:04the major monuments of antiquity?
02:10Theopatra's last temple.
02:18Alexandria, with its six million inhabitants, it is Egypt's second most populous city after Cairo.
02:272,000 years ago, this Mediterranean port was the capital of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, ruled by
02:33the pharaohs and home to their famous queen, the very last of their civilization.
02:40Cleopatra.
02:41People have always been fascinated with Cleopatra. She was never forgotten.
02:46In Egypt, she continued to be revered. She's seen as a strong, powerful queen.
02:52She's the last survivor of the dynasties who were established by Alexander the Great.
02:58Cleopatra was born in Alexandria in 69 BC, the daughter of pharaoh Ptolemy XII and an unknown mother.
03:07When she ascended to the throne on the death of her father, the country was prosperous,
03:12but under Roman rule. To ease tensions, the young queen chose to ally herself with two of its leaders.
03:19First, Julius Caesar. Then, Mark Antony. But it was not enough.
03:25Weakened by her defeat by Octavian at the Battle of Actium, after two decades of reign, Cleopatra
03:31committed suicide at the age of 39 on August 10th in the year 30 BC. Little remains of this
03:38mysterious queen, but her capital city, Alexandria, continues to inspire the world's leading explorers
03:45in search of buried treasures. It actually would have been the major international trading port of the
03:52eastern Mediterranean, one of the greatest harbors in the ancient world, if not the greatest.
03:57It's full of palaces and temples and an enormous teeming multicultural city.
04:03With its lighthouse, library, royal quarters and temples, Alexandria is a fascinating place,
04:10whose geographical location made it one of the most important trading ports in the Mediterranean world,
04:15and a city of great wealth. But Cleopatra's Alexandria was destroyed in the centuries following her reign.
04:24Firstly, there's the slow rise in sea level. There are earthquakes which also impact the area.
04:32There are tsunamis that hit it. Most notably, there's a tsunami that hits Alexandria in 365 AD,
04:41which is reported to have killed something like 10,000 people. And then there's also another big
04:46earthquake that happens sometime in the 7th, 8th century. And so what was a great classical city is
04:54slowly reduced to nothing. This has long since vanished underwater and we're not aware of that now.
05:04While modern Alexandria was built on the ruins of the ancient pharaoh capital,
05:09some of the jewels of Cleopatra city were submerged by the waters.
05:14Meaning this unexplored area around the port had a great deal to tell us about the history of this
05:19enigmatic queen. Over the last few decades, Alexandria has been rising from the ashes. Thanks to the work of
05:30archaeologists using cutting edge technology. Unearthing ancient Alexandria means digging beneath
05:38the modern city and sometimes venturing into a more complex world of exploration underwater.
05:45You can't see anything of ancient Alexandria on the land. But fortunately, parts of the harbor has
05:51preserved this and that's why we're so fortunate to be working there because you can actually excavate
05:57into deposits that have been untouched effectively and therefore are able to build up a picture of the
06:04harbor as it was from the archaeology itself. Stretching over an area of two square kilometers, Alexandria's harbor,
06:11Portus Magnus, once boasted an island, a few peninsulas, and some of the city's monuments,
06:18as described by Greek geographer and historian Strabo in his account of Alexandria, written around 20 BC.
06:27Thanks to Strabo, we have a fairly detailed description of the Portus Magnus, the great port of
06:32Alexandria. We know it was actually made up of several ports. He is fantastic because he provides an
06:40eyewitness account shortly after the conquest of Egypt by Rome.
06:47For over 30 years, following the descriptions of the ancient historian Strabo,
06:53the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology has been exploring the waters around the eastern part
06:58of Alexandria harbor. The man in charge of operations is French archaeologist, Frank Gaudiot.
07:07Better rinse the salt off right away.
07:11When he began probing the seabed, he had no idea of the discoveries that lay in store.
07:19There is Alexandria's eastern harbor with its cornice here, surrounded by two large modern dikes.
07:25The entire interior of the harbor is the excavation zone.
07:32This huge area covers 270 hectares, the size of almost 380 soccer pitches.
07:41Combining modern technology with traditional excavation methods,
07:45Frank Gaudiot has succeeded in establishing the contours of all the submerged land in this area.
07:51This is land that still exists, but which was swallowed up by the sea, along with the monuments.
07:58So the Great Pass was here. Everything to the east was the royal quarters, while to the west were the
08:05shipyards.
08:08Establishing the outlines of these now-vanished lands was quite an achievement.
08:13The archaeologists were transported back to the court of the great pharaohs of Egypt's 33rd and final dynasty,
08:20right up to the reign of Cleopatra.
08:24Right here, in the port of the ancient city, the last capital of Egypt's pharaohs would soon reveal its secrets
08:30to the world.
08:39It all began in 1992 in the port of Alexandria, when a mission boat equipped with a range of bathymetric
08:47instruments set out to explore the seabed.
08:51The science of bathymetry uses sonar and sensors to provide an overview of underwater topography.
08:58That's to say depth and relief, complemented by the observations of underwater archaeologists.
09:04Bathymetry is essential when identifying buried structures and mapping submerged areas invisible to the naked eye.
09:12Bathymetry was used right across the Alexandria Bay area, and it clearly showed blunted structures,
09:23which are actually the ghosts of an ancient topography.
09:30What could they be?
09:33Not until the second campaign of excavations four years later, in 1996, could a firm conclusion be drawn.
09:40This relief is a piece of the ancient city.
09:44From Roman times right through to the 14th century,
09:47the last capital of the pharaohs suffered a series of earthquakes, landslides and rising waters,
09:54which covered part of ancient Alexandria.
09:57It's beneath about five to six meters in certain places, and then it's obviously deeper towards the edges.
10:05In the beginning, we weren't really searching for anything at all.
10:09We just saw what was there, and gradually made some discoveries.
10:14An island began to take shape, but there was only one island in Alexandria's Portus Magnus,
10:21the royal island of Antirodos.
10:26It is mentioned in Strabo's texts as the site that greeted awestruck travelers arriving in Alexandria 2,000 years ago.
10:34Its miraculous discovery was potentially the source of countless revelations
10:38about Egypt's last pharaohs and its most famous queen, Cleopatra.
10:46We can see the island of Antirodos here, with two walls enclosing a beautifully preserved harbor,
10:53formerly the small royal port of the island of Antirodos.
10:58The discovery of the island's ruins was a major step forward for the archaeologist.
11:03He was aware of the importance of the island from ancient texts.
11:08Strabo says there is an island, the private property of kings,
11:14on which the great queen Cleopatra VII had a palace.
11:19So, right away, when excavations began, we tried to locate the palace.
11:27On the sunken island of Antirodos, the focus for Frank Goddio and his team of archaeologists
11:33was now to find traces of the queen's palace.
11:37But with the dig coming to an end, they had to wait a year before returning to explore the site.
11:44The pieces of the puzzle kept falling into place, year after year.
11:56It was now 1997, five years after the start of the dig.
12:02When they returned to probe the ruins of Antirodos,
12:05the archaeologists had no idea that they had embarked upon an adventure that would go on for decades.
12:11Antirodos is spread across an area of some 2.6 hectares, half the size of the Great Pyramid of Cheops
12:17at Giza.
12:23Being underwater, in conditions of poor visibility, meant it was a very delicate mission.
12:29Six meters down, the exploration began.
12:35Then suddenly, time seemed to stand still.
12:40In the center was an accumulation of ruins, alongside some kind of terrace leading down to the port.
12:49For the first time since their disappearance, ancient ruins had been located at the site of the sunken island of
12:55Antirodos.
12:57There were evidence that Frank Goddio was digging in the right place.
13:01The underwater archaeologists pressed on with their exploration of the site.
13:05Their next discovery was extraordinary.
13:08We saw several fluted pink granite columns scattered all along the island, a whole series of them, blocks of granite
13:18and limestone.
13:19Might these ruins be connected to Cleopatra's palace, the one described in the texts of the ancient author Strabo, located
13:26in the center of the island?
13:28The columns were among the first clues to be discovered.
13:32No attempt was made to move them because of their size, but 30 years on, scientists are still studying them,
13:38as recently as this morning.
13:42Hoisted onto the boat, this small column must have been part of a colonnade leading up to the monument.
13:47It is over 2,000 years old.
13:52We'll secure it and try to balance it.
13:55We did some preliminary cleaning underwater because it had about 30 centimeters of concretion.
14:01You could barely make out a column.
14:04It was obviously a massive object, and inside the shapeless rock we found this column.
14:11Such ruins are complex to analyze, with mud and shells covering much of the remains.
14:18It's long and painstaking work for archaeologists working underwater,
14:22but every clue must be studied to better understand the appearance of a building,
14:26whose only existing historical description suggests a palace dating back to Cleopatra.
14:33Even if you have a little bit of a column shaft, you can measure across it and get the diameter,
14:40and then from that you can reconstruct the height.
14:44This small column, part of a colonnade, marked out an access path.
14:49Other, more massive columns, a meter in diameter, supported the structure.
14:54They were eight meters high, the size of a three-story building.
14:58In all, archaeologists have identified more than 100 sections of granite columns on the site.
15:04A picture of the palace was slowly beginning to take shape,
15:08and given the elements so far discovered, the edifice appears to have been enormous.
15:13The size of the columns, the diameter of the columns, is larger than normal for Alexandria.
15:20When the granite columns are first found, it indicates that you are in a building that is substantial, it's important.
15:27It clearly had to be the palace, and it must have been something to behold.
15:46On the seabed scans, the dark spots show the location of these columns on the screen.
15:52Among them is the one that has just been hoisted up on deck.
15:56Which column have we brought up?
15:59From here.
16:01It's one of the last of the anti-Rhodos colonnade.
16:03They're over a meter in diameter.
16:06The whole line of them, but they're all spilled into the harbor.
16:13After sliding to the bottom of the sea following an earthquake,
16:16the columns were quickly covered by sediment.
16:21Interring them until today.
16:26Armed with this information, archaeologists can go back in time
16:30to map out the monument and better understand its destruction.
16:35You can see how it tumbled down towards the south and southeast.
16:41The funny thing is, it actually withstood the earthquake quite well.
16:48After being studied and cleaned, the last anti-Rhodos column is put back in position
16:53at the bottom of the harbor.
16:55We prefer to have them in situ, in the exact position and orientation they were found in.
17:01The idea being of maybe one day creating an underwater museum here,
17:07on the island of anti-Rhodos, with the colonnades, on the palace foundations.
17:15But Frank Goddio was not done with his discoveries.
17:18The ancient columns found on the seabed revealed something more mysterious than the remains of the palace.
17:30The archaeologist pursued his exploration of anti-Rhodos island around the site where the columns were found.
17:39There, once again, a vision from another age began to take shape in the divers' lights.
17:46A mysterious silhouette.
17:49There, intact, beneath six meters of water, an extraordinary scene emerged from the depths.
17:55A veritable treasure trove preserved from the natural disasters that ravaged the ancient city throughout its history.
18:01To the west of anti-Rhodos were two sphinxes, and 15 meters away, a statue.
18:18They're just so visually amazing.
18:21They're so redolent of Egypt, and for me that symbolizes everything that we're looking at.
18:26The statue represents a priest.
18:28It's a rare find amid the ruins of a palace.
18:31Such objects are usually associated with religious edifices.
18:34We were very surprised when we found the sphinxes and the priest.
18:40We assumed there was some kind of small sanctuary.
18:45Then, as the excavations progressed, we realized it was a temple.
18:51A temple not mentioned in Strabo's descriptions.
18:55For scientists, the conclusion was inescapable.
18:59These are not the ruins of a palace, rather those of a previously unknown monumental building.
19:04A temple that nobody expected to find here.
19:10Once you've got those three elements, really, you know that you're in a temple.
19:14You've got the twin sphinxes and the cult statue.
19:18You've got the architecture that you can work with.
19:21It's then a case of putting all the pieces together.
19:26The discovery of a temple on the remains of the pharaoh island of Antirodos was certainly a surprise.
19:32Archaeologists now had to determine who built it and which deity it was dedicated to.
19:39Would the ruins reveal valuable information about the famous Egyptian queen?
19:48The newly discovered pair of sphinxes and statue conjured up an image in Frank Godio's memory.
19:58The sculptures were strangely reminiscent of a fresco found in the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum,
20:04buried alongside Pompeii following the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
20:12This fresco depicts an Egyptian temple.
20:16We're sure about that.
20:18It shows palm trees and ibises, which symbolize Egypt.
20:22We see a priest emerging from a temple holding a vase.
20:27While sacrifices are being made at an altar.
20:32He's flanked by two sphinxes.
20:34There's an altar in front of him and there's a crowd on either side.
20:39We have all of these elements.
20:41We don't have the crowd, but we can imagine that.
20:46It looks like it could be our temple on Antirodos.
20:51Their resemblance is uncanny, especially as the pair of sphinxes in the painting
20:56display two striking similarities with those found by Frank Godio and his team.
21:02Strangely enough, the sphinxes are not the same size.
21:07One is small, one is larger.
21:10Which is rather unusual, because in Egyptian temples you most often see sphinxes aligned,
21:16always the same size, standing in pairs.
21:23As is the case, for example, at Luxor's Karnak temple.
21:27Experts believe that the scene painted at Herculaneum is a representation of the lost temple of Antirodos.
21:34But why would an Egyptian temple be depicted in Italy?
21:39It's that initial set of questions and responses that come from that, that enable you to start to go,
21:46well, actually, what does this mean?
21:48Let's try and piece together the story of this.
21:52At this stage, Frank had yet to realize that what he had discovered was an extraordinary temple.
21:58One of the first landmarks seen by ships arriving in the ancient port of Alexandria.
22:05In light of these discoveries and the Herculaneum fresco,
22:10archaeologists began to form an idea of the temple's dimensions.
22:14From the debris field and from the position of the columns,
22:16we can work out that the temple itself is probably about 50 meters long.
22:21So that's roughly the size of an Olympic swimming pool.
22:25It's about 20 meters, 15 to 20 meters wide.
22:29It's about half the width of an Olympic-sized swimming pool in that respect.
22:32So it's a major monument. It's very, very large as a temple.
22:37But one detail puzzled the archaeologist at the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology.
22:42An inconsistency between the size of the sphinxes relative to the building
22:46If you look at the Herculaneum image, it would suggest that the sphinxes are there outside the temple.
22:53But then when we put them outside the temple, they look tiny in relationship to the sheer scale of the
22:58temple.
22:58And then that resulted in Frank looking more closely the way in which the deposits flow
23:04from their original location into the debris field.
23:08And that's an evidence to say, well, actually, yeah, they were probably located in the sort of entrance room,
23:14rather than outside the front doors, because they had just been lost amongst the facade.
23:21Little by little, the pieces of the puzzle were being assembled.
23:25By late 1990, scientists had already located numerous limestone boulders, pink granite columns, and parts of the sanctuary.
23:33By 2002, they were finally able to draw up a detailed map of the island and its ruins.
23:39It was a journey back in time to ancient Alexandria, Cleopatra's capital, wiped off the map by the earthquakes that
23:46struck the city at the beginning of our era.
23:49When the earthquake came, the temple spilled into the royal port of Antirhodos.
23:55Like this, breaking apart, with some falling to the north, most to the south, everything just slid into the harbor.
24:05Those cataclysms turned out to be a blessing for scientists, as they have preserved the clues in sediment.
24:11To produce a virtual recreation of the temple, every detail counts.
24:16Some are no bigger than a sugar cube, and difficult to identify in the sea mud.
24:22As the temple slid into the harbor, all the objects were buried in the rubble.
24:27And before long, the mud at the bottom of the harbor covered everything, sealing it all in.
24:34So on the wall facings, for example, there's still some pigment left, like this dark red brown.
24:42Here, I find it moving to see the colors on the walls and the paving.
24:48It gives us a glimpse of the luxury of a temple that must have been quite extraordinary.
24:54It really was beautiful.
24:58The dream for Frank and his team now was to bring this colossal, architecturally rich monument back to life.
25:06The sunken temple continued to arouse excitement
25:11as its secrets were revealed, starting with its origins.
25:22New excavations unearthed part of the temple's structure.
25:27The revelation raised more questions than it answered, plunging experts into an archaeological conundrum.
25:34What was found nearby was a Corinthian column capital.
25:38It's a Greek form of architecture, and the columns themselves are not of an Egyptian style either.
25:44And then similarly, you could say, oh yeah, is it more of a Roman temple, or is it more of
25:48a Greek temple?
25:49And those initial questions are the things that suddenly then drive you on to ask further questions about it.
25:55On some columns, the style and legible inscriptions allude to Roman emperors,
26:00vestiges of Caesar's presence in Egypt.
26:05Alexandria was occupied at various times in its history by Egyptians, pharaohs of Greek origin, and Romans.
26:13This excavation is hugely important, I think, for throwing a light on this particular time period,
26:21the transition from Ptolemaic rule to the Roman Empire.
26:25And so what we're seeing at the Temple of Isis is the last gasp of the Hellenistic Kingdom,
26:32and the arrival of the power of Rome in Egypt.
26:37To further their investigation, the archaeologists re-examined all the clues collected during the dig.
26:46And that's when they had a revelation.
26:50For the cult statue found with the sphinxes is no ordinary statue.
26:55In his hands, the stone priest is holding a vital clue to the temple's history.
27:01A vase with a very special detail.
27:06This was the missing piece of the puzzle.
27:10It's a vase for carrying water with a lid in the form of a head of Osiris.
27:20He's the king of the underworld. He ensures fecundity and fertility to Egypt.
27:26Osiris was a key deity for the Egyptian monarchy.
27:31This temple can therefore only have been created under the reign of a pharaoh.
27:36Osiris is also inseparable from another divinity.
27:40A goddess of equal importance, honored as much as Osiris himself in the temples.
27:46The association of the priest with the sphinxes enabled us to say,
27:53without question, that this is a temple of Isis.
27:57Isis, the faithful wife and sister of Osiris and protector of children.
28:03One of the most important figures in the history of pharaoh's civilization.
28:10Isis and Osiris were inseparable, forming a powerful identity for the ancient Egyptians.
28:18The two of them are linked with a number of phenomena.
28:24One of which is the annual flooding of the river Nile.
28:30And it's that flooding which allows the wealth of Egypt.
28:37So the vase carrying water is an important reminder of that annual event.
28:47For the archaeologists, the unexpected discovery of a temple linked to Osiris and Isis,
28:52provided a glimpse into the ancient Egyptians' way of thinking.
28:59To find unique, in Alexandria there's textual references to the temples of Isis,
29:05but archaeologically we never found one.
29:09This new revelation was a vital clue regarding the identity of the person behind the temple.
29:18Isis and Osiris were the most important Egyptian deities for the Ptolemaic dynasty,
29:23and their famous queen, Cleopatra.
29:28The Ptolemies identified themselves with Osiris, and some with Isis.
29:39The Ptolemies were unlike the other pharaohs.
29:43Descendants of Ptolemy I, Alexander the Great's loyal general when he conquered Egypt in 332 BC.
29:49They are of Greek origin.
29:53While they retained their original identity through their architecture,
29:57they adopted Egyptian customs and beliefs.
30:01The Ptolemies were very keen to show some solidarity with Egyptian religious belief.
30:09They had to really demonstrate to the people of Egypt that their very venerable cults and rituals were respected.
30:21It was an unprecedented discovery.
30:25This temple was a favorite place of worship for the last Egyptian pharaohs.
30:31The temple actually became a shrine to the personal cult of the Ptolemies.
30:37This was the royal temple, where the Ptolemies honored the gods that they themselves were.
30:46Antirodos was off-limits to ordinary people.
30:50Strabo tells us that the island was the property of kings.
30:53Moreover, according to ancient texts, access to the temples was also reserved for the elite.
30:59Only pharaohs, members of the clergy and assistants were allowed to enter the sanctuary.
31:05Frank Godio's claim that it was erected to the personal cult of the Ptolemies
31:09is based on an inscription on a stella displayed in the British Museum.
31:15It recounts an event that took place in 76 BC between Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra's father,
31:21and the high priest of Ptah in Memphis, Peshirentah.
31:25They sailed together to a temple of Isis, which was in the harbor, so they had to take a boat.
31:34And as they left, the pharaoh gave him a crown of gold and jewels,
31:42and in front of the assembled court ordered him to create a cult,
31:47making him Ptolemy, the new Osiris, the new Dionysus.
31:53For the Greeks, Osiris was Dionysus.
31:59Following this event, Ptolemy XII added the designation New Dionysus to his royal title.
32:06He was now Osiris on Earth.
32:09So this absolutely has to be the temple of his consecration as the new Osiris.
32:16The temple was constructed during the reign of Ptolemy XII.
32:19We know this from the archaeological evidence.
32:21So suddenly there is pottery, which dates from the right sort of period.
32:27But crucially, there's lots of coins that date to the reign of Ptolemy XII.
32:32And the temple is part of a bigger set of buildings that he's doing around the harbor at this point.
32:38So it's a Ptolemaic foundation.
32:43The scientist's hypothesis was further confirmed by the identification of one of the two sphinxes
32:48found at the entrance to the temple.
32:51The small sphinx is in the effigy of Ptolemy XII, father of Cleopatra VII.
32:58The other probably represents another King Ptolemy, but we can't tell for sure which one.
33:04But we can identify Ptolemy XII with his little nose, so we have a sphinx representing the pharaoh.
33:18Like all Egyptian pharaohs, the Ptolemies were living gods.
33:24One of them made herself known in every corner of the kingdom.
33:30Cleopatra.
33:32Wherever she went, here for example at Dendera Temple of Hathor, near Luxor, she was depicted as the goddess Isis.
33:41Cleopatra sees herself as the living embodiment of the goddess.
33:44So the temple and the rites that are being enacted within the temple
33:49would have been an important part of how she was presenting herself to her population and to the population beyond.
33:58Cleopatra certainly wanted to be seen as a ruler of Egypt.
34:04And it's very interesting that even in modern Egypt, her reputation is of a highly effective and brilliant queen.
34:16The image of a seductive, disreputable woman spread by the Romans is misleading.
34:24The evidence left in the sands of Egypt testifies to a brilliant head of state,
34:30embodying a powerful goddess beloved by her people.
34:35And she was keen to make a strong impression.
34:39Cleopatra is one of the most famous women in ancient history and this temple is hers.
34:43She completed it. She would have used it to conduct business, to worship there.
34:50In 41 BC, Egypt's ruler Cleopatra added new Isis to her royal title.
34:58Just as her father had named himself the new Osiris, she now embodied a goddess.
35:04The temple on the island she owned was clearly a place for her to offer her devotions.
35:12As Cleopatra had publicly associated herself with Isis, the temple became an isium.
35:18It sits at the epicenter of the world of Cleopatra at that point and so it's ridiculously important.
35:27This temple became a political object.
35:32The temple is an expression not of military minds but of kind of soft power.
35:37It is a temple but it's, you know, it's not a fortress, but it's absolutely key to her vision of
35:42what she's trying to do.
35:45I think she's saying, you're entering the land of Cleopatra, don't mess with me.
35:53As the temple's architecture began to take shape, the on-site research turned up another discovery
35:58that was a shot of adrenaline for the archaeologists.
36:03An authentic treasure linking the temple more than ever to Queen Cleopatra.
36:09Not all of the temple treasury goes into the sea.
36:12Some of it does and has been preserved for us.
36:16Some of it remained on land and has been reburied underneath the kind of the reconstruction of the land on
36:21top of the temple.
36:22Nobody's been able to go in and ransack through it over the centuries since it went underwater.
36:28And that's a characteristic of a number of underwater sites across Egypt, is that they yield a very large number
36:35of coins.
36:40On the Princess Duda that morning, archaeologist diver Marine turned to the surface after two hours of digging.
36:48Among her artifacts was a small, seemingly insignificant coin that would turn out to be a veritable treasure.
37:07On-board experts carry out a preliminary examination of new discoveries on site.
37:15Héloïse, the numismatist, decodes the information still present on the coin to determine which major figure in the temple's history
37:22it refers to.
37:25It is very legible and thus easy to identify.
37:29Here we see the characteristic bun in the hair, and on the flip side is the Ptolemaic eagle,
37:35here associated with a double cornucopia and the sign of Pi, which signifies its value.
37:42That's to say 80 units.
37:45It's hard to read, but the legend says Cleopatra basilicis, meaning Queen Cleopatra.
37:53The famous Cleopatra.
37:56Héloïse is holding a 2,000-year-old coin bearing the effigy of the queen.
38:05Cleopatra is one of the most famous queens in the world, so it's always very moving to find coins from
38:13her reign.
38:17Very little does survive of Cleopatra.
38:19The main surviving evidence we have are the coins, and they are, you might say,
38:25the truest indicator of the character and nature of Cleopatra.
38:28The only things that survive from her own time to tell us about how
38:34she wanted to present herself and perhaps how others saw her.
38:39It's incredibly fortunate for a coin to survive underwater for so long.
38:44The Mediterranean Sea is a hostile world for metals.
38:47The mud protects the objects from the air, from oxygen, and from the sea water,
38:53so it creates just a nice enclosed environment around the coins that allows them to retain their original appearance.
39:03Since excavations began 30 years ago, 19 coins bearing the effigy of Queen Cleopatra
39:09have been found in the sediments surrounding the ruins of the Temple of Isis.
39:13Each find is meticulously recorded.
39:17Its position in the rubble and the depth it was found at are as revealing as the object itself.
39:22It's very important to keep track of where an object was found.
39:26The object itself is, of course, of interest, but beyond that,
39:30what matters is its position at the time of the discovery,
39:33specifically in relation to the other objects found around it.
39:38Antoine is responsible for referencing every item brought to the surface by the
39:42archaeological divers, like Marine.
39:45We determine the GPS coordinates, which allows us to situate it in relation to the whole dig.
39:50Each dot indicates an object found, which gives us a representation of the site
39:54and the position of the objects in relation to each other.
39:58Since excavations began 30 years ago, over 8,000 objects from the isaum have been recovered and mapped.
40:06As this was a royal temple, the objects discovered by scientists were deposited there by the pharaohs,
40:11their queens, or the elite of Egyptian society.
40:15These coins, for example, were donated by visitors to the temple, including Cleopatra.
40:22And they are very precise indicators of time.
40:26The coin's mintage tells archaeologists exactly which period it dates from.
40:32This enables them to draw up a chronology of the temple's existence.
40:36From the first pharaoh who passed through its gates to the very last emperor.
40:40The temple has an amazing collection of monetary evidence from it.
40:45And these can be dated to a whole, to its entire occupation, its entire life.
40:51The earliest coins that we have from the temple of Isis date to the reign of Ptolemy the 12th.
40:59And the latest coins date to the reign of the emperor Claudius.
41:04A century separates these two coins.
41:08It suggests that the temple of Isis stood for only a hundred years,
41:12before an earthquake caused it to collapse in the port of Alexandria.
41:19The discovery of these coins is remarkable.
41:24But once out of the water, a race against time begins.
41:30While sediment can preserve coins from destruction for thousands of years,
41:34air is a fearsome adversary.
41:40Olivier Berger is the team's restorer.
41:44He is in charge of preserving everything brought to the surface, including Cleopatra's coin.
41:50The objects were in a balanced environment on the seabed.
41:54So taking them out triggers a great deal of trauma.
41:56And if you leave them in the open air, they will deteriorate very quickly.
42:00So we begin with stabilization management, followed later by precise goldsmith's treatments,
42:06which allows us to clear surfaces, highlight reliefs, and gain a better understanding of the objects.
42:12In such precise and meticulous work, the slightest error can be fatal.
42:19After several days' effort, Olivier has finished restoring the coin.
42:25Some of it was visible. You could see part of the eagle on the reverse and make out a profile.
42:32After restoration, a face appeared that was barely visible at first.
42:36It turned out to be a female face with her hair in a bun.
42:41The facial features are characteristic of Cleopatra VII, so now it's legible and identifiable.
42:50These coins reflect the image that Cleopatra wanted to leave for posterity.
42:59When the queen decided to reform the currency, she chose to have her face on the coins.
43:06It was an act that says a lot about her desire to assert her credentials and her power.
43:12The kings are perhaps feeling a little more insecure about their nature and identity.
43:18So in that sense, we could almost read the arrival of Cleopatra's portrait on bronze,
43:22a sign of insecurity, a sign that she wanted to reassure everybody who was using these low-value coins that
43:31Cleopatra was in charge.
43:35After her father weakened Egypt by becoming dependent on the Romans,
43:39it may be that she wanted to reassert the power of her land and of her reign.
43:44If so, it's something she seems to have achieved convincingly.
43:53In the port of Alexandria, amid the ruins of the Temple of Isis, excavations also reveal
43:59precious relics that tell the story of a man whose name is inseparable from that of the famous Egyptian queen.
44:06A charismatic figure very close to Cleopatra, whose presence in the Temple is now confirmed by this
44:12absolutely incredible object. A rare crystal head discovered in the sediment.
44:21The crystal head is magnificent. You really don't find
44:26very many of these across the whole of the Roman Empire. So it's a very expensive,
44:31high-end gift that has been given to the Temple.
44:36This treasure is kept in the excavation storeroom in Alexandria,
44:40at a secret location where few cameras are allowed. Olivier has completed the cleaning and
44:46restoration of this precious object.
44:49The head is made of rock crystal, which is a very hard stone. Unfortunately, it has suffered the
44:55ravages of time and is now very eroded. Under strong light, the face appears more clearly.
45:02Sorry to say it's very eroded, but it's still an imperial head. The face is clearly visible,
45:09the hair well-defined, the profile eyes and nose are clearly visible. There's a strong presumption that
45:15this is indeed Marc Antony. Marc Antony was Cleopatra's Roman lover and the father of three of her
45:24children. Their legendary romance and dramatic ending has inspired the world's greatest tragedy writers.
45:36As the years go by, Frank Goddio's excavations continue to reveal precious new information
45:42about what we can now call Cleopatra's sunken treasure.
45:53Here, on the deck of the Princess Duda, the French archaeologist eagerly awaits his
45:58divers' latest discovery. They're just back from the Temple of Isis, with what I believe is an
46:03interesting discovery. Yes, at the corner of a wall 80 centimeters down, we came across a large beam,
46:10something like 25 by 20 in cross-section. It's not from a ship's wreckage.
46:17It's a piece of structural timber. A piece of framework? Well preserved? Very well preserved.
46:26It is an extraordinary discovery. Two thousand years after it was buried, this wooden beam has just
46:33resurfaced. What archaeologists are looking at is, without a doubt, part of the Temple's roof structure.
46:40But without any detailed plans, its shape remains a mystery.
46:51The team enjoys a stroke of luck when another initially innocuous clue pulled from the sediment
46:56provides an answer to the structure of the building.
47:02This relic, just a few millimeters long, depicts a temple, which might well be the isium.
47:09And its framework is quite unusual.
47:12Here, we have a small amulet, which is extremely interesting, because it's actually the temple.
47:19So we have a miniature representation of the isium, with the pink granite columns and the pediment here.
47:29We've found a couple of small lead tokens that seem to show the facade of our temple. And it has
47:35a curved
47:35roof on both of them. So that's quite direct evidence from our excavations.
47:42This tiny object gives us an idea of the temple's structure.
47:48Analysis shows that the wood could have been beech,
47:51whose flexibility would have made it possible to build a curved structure.
47:56This is valuable information. But for the archaeologists, even after three decades, there's still work to be done.
48:07The latest discoveries at the underwater site take us back 2,000 years, right inside the temple.
48:15From our excavations within the debris field, we've been able to find a whole range of material that
48:21enables us to reconstruct something, the decoration of the temple.
48:25Frank Goddio and his team have reassembled this element of the decor,
48:29which tells us a lot about what met Cleopatra's gaze when she walked inside.
48:34It's part of the temple, an interior room, and we know that this was the cella,
48:41the location of the temple's main statue, which we found, of a priest carrying a canopic urn.
48:50Nearby, at the same level, in the rubble, several elements like this with these rather
48:56lovely cornices were found, and they're quite well preserved.
49:05The archaeologists enjoyed more good fortune when they were able to bring to the surface
49:09elements of the interior decoration, including the remarkable mosaics that made up the temple floor.
49:15These treasures confirmed the immense wealth of the site.
49:20This is all from this year's excavations.
49:24Here we have pink marble, strips of pink marble that were set into the floor.
49:34This is a royal temple. So of course, these are extremely luxurious materials.
49:41Some very beautiful black marble flooring here too.
49:46So among the colors are pink, black, white. These mosaics were, without question,
49:53walked upon by great figures. From history, Ptolemy XII, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Antony, and Augustus.
50:04As this was a royal temple, it was open only to the royal family, the clergy, and certain members of
50:10the court. Here, they celebrated religious rituals and Dionysian feasts dedicated to Osiris. But
50:17Cleopatra's death led to it having a completely different function. After her defeat by the
50:23emperor Augustus in 30 BC, the queen committed suicide. Egypt came under Roman rule. The temple
50:31of Isis was still standing. It is a temple to Isis, and it's quite problematic as a temple to Isis
50:40in that
50:40way because of the associations of Isis with Cleopatra herself. Ancient texts mentioned that
50:47the fight of Augustus against the cult of Isis in Rome. This temple symbolized everything he hated.
50:54But to avoid clashing with the Egyptian priests, he developed a strategy.
50:58In order to have a smooth transition, he needs to be friends with the Egyptian priesthood.
51:04And we know that the gifts to the temple keep arriving. Donations continued under Roman rule
51:11because Augustus made the temple of Isis a place of protection for ships,
51:15leaving Egypt to supply Rome with grain.
51:19Isis is protecting the ships which are taking the grain to Rome. So within the Roman world,
51:25the temple gets reimagined to find a new place within this new society.
51:30By finding a symbolic use for the temple, Augustus spared its destruction.
51:36Scientific evidence of the temple's function after Cleopatra's death includes coins found in the rubble,
51:41dating to the period following the reign of the last Queen of Egypt.
51:47Gold coins donated by Augustus bear his effigy,
51:52demonstrating that it was he who protected and enriched the temple of Isis and Antirhodos.
51:59It is, of course, entirely possible that the emperor Augustus was the person behind these coins appearing in the temple
52:05of Isis.
52:06He was in Alexandria and at the time that the temple existed.
52:11The temple was maintained until the reign of Emperor Claudius in 52 A.D.
52:18Then, a terrible earthquake destroyed Queen Cleopatra's temple of Isis in the port of Alexandria.
52:26Thanks to all these clues collected over more than 30 years of excavations,
52:31the team from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology has finally been able to determine the structure of the temple
52:37in the age of Cleopatra.
52:39What we see at the temple of Isis is really a little time capsule that doesn't get disturbed once the
52:45destruction has happened.
52:48Arriving in the ancient port, the temple must have been a spectacular sight.
52:52You could see it from the city, but it was especially visible when arriving by sea, which is rather strange.
52:59The temple was built on an elevated base with steps right at the tip of the island,
53:05and it could be seen in all its magnificence rising above the waves alongside all the palaces built to the
53:11east of the temple.
53:16After three decades of excavation, archaeologists now believe that the temple consisted of three parts.
53:23At the front of it, next to the columned area, is basically what's called the proneos, so it's a sort
53:30of an entrance space.
53:32Interestingly, within this space, associated within the debris of this space, lots of lamps have been found.
53:38So it looks as if this is where you take your lamp and then you go into the temple.
53:43And then you have a major space where the cult statue is found, and this is the big kind of
53:50open space with the cult statue.
53:53And then at the back of the temple, there's another room that we think is the temple treasury.
53:58And it's within the remains of that that we found lots of amazing artefacts.
54:03So gold coin hoards and a crystal head, those kinds of things.
54:09That, then, is the incredible story of the Temple of Isis, found buried in the sediment of Alexandria Harbour,
54:15a monument steeped in history that witnessed the greatest leaders of its time pass through its doors.
54:21It's just mind-blowing to be able to put all of this information together
54:24and to kind of confront these figures from ancient history is a great privilege.
54:32The work is far from over.
54:35As each excavation campaign turns up new treasures from this unique temple,
54:39revealing more and more about Queen Cleopatra.
54:44I don't think we've found most of what this temple has to offer.
54:50Far from it.
54:51We excavate by sector, but the temple is immense.
54:56I think we've only covered 20% at most.
55:00There are lots of surprises in store for us.
55:03That is for sure.
55:09Two thousand years after her reign, Egypt's last queen remains one of the great mysteries
55:14in the history of pharaoh civilization.
55:18Who knows what else the team from the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology will discover
55:23about what can now be regarded as...
55:27...Cleopatra's sunken treasure.
55:28...
55:32...
55:33...
55:33...
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