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00:02At the dawn of ancient Egypt, while the great pharaohs have already transformed the country with their pyramids, their temples,
00:09and their tombs, a mysterious queen was about to change history.
00:15Her name was Cleopatra, and it soon became one of the most famous in the world.
00:24Cleopatra is the greatest queen of antiquity, and she is also one of the greatest women of power in human
00:30history.
00:31There were seven Cleopatras. Of course, the most famous one was Cleopatra number seven.
00:38The only woman who stood up to the Roman Empire and its generals.
00:42A true strategist with an iron fist and a silk glove, Cleopatra was the one who wrote the final pages
00:48of the 32nd dynasty.
00:49The one of the Ptolemies. The final period of ancient Egypt and the pharaohs.
00:56Cleopatra would have grown up hearing about all the different Cleopatra ancestors.
01:01Cleopatra's childhood is an enigma for researchers, because nothing predestined the last queen of Egypt to accede to the throne.
01:09But since Alexandria, the city founded by Alexander the Great three centuries earlier, she soon earned the trust of Egyptians.
01:16Then Rome, by eliminating all those who overshadowed her.
01:20I think she was a queen who loved her country, and she tried to do as much as she could
01:26for the country.
01:28She understood that in her family, killing each other was normal.
01:34How did a young girl that nothing predestined her to power become one of the greatest queens of Egypt?
01:41What happened in the first years of her life?
01:44Who was her family?
01:46Did she really kill to accede to the throne?
01:50With the help of the greatest specialists, we will discover in Egypt the most incredible archaeological remains of her passage,
01:57and the traces left by her family.
02:00They built great temples we can still visit nowadays in the south of Egypt.
02:06This is the story of a unique fate.
02:08From her glory to her brutal downfall, Cleopatra VII remains the greatest queen the country of pharaohs has ever known.
02:16This quarry is in use during the late Ptolemaic period, so during the time of Cleopatra, and also during Augustus.
02:24This image is really special.
02:28From her enigmatic teenage face to the roads she took.
02:32We discovered many masterpieces.
02:36Here are finally the last secrets of the true story of Cleopatra VII and her incredible family, the Ptolemies.
02:53Ancient Egypt
02:54More than 3,000 years of history, and names of pharaohs who became icons.
03:00Cheser
03:02Khufu
03:02Tutankhamun
03:03Ramses II
03:05This list of over 300 kings ends with a woman who has sparked fantasies for over two millennia.
03:13Cleopatra
03:13Cleopatra, seventh of the name.
03:17The last queen of Egypt whose fate is one of the oldest cold cases in history.
03:24Her death alone rises so many mysteries that no historian has managed to agree with another.
03:30It's one of those mysteries that everyone wants to dwell into, especially now.
03:37The date is September of the year 31 before our time, a year before Cleopatra's death.
03:43The Egyptian queen just lost the war opposing her to one of her biggest nemeses, Octavius.
03:49The future Roman emperor, Augustus, had the upper hand.
03:52He then occupied Alexandria with his army.
03:57Rather than abdicating, Cleopatra resisted, in her own way.
04:02She accomplished something that made her famous for centuries.
04:07Then the queen allegedly sought refuge in her mausoleum.
04:11She understood there would be no agreement, meaning keeping her kingdom with a certain independence from Rome, which was a
04:17lost cause.
04:19Cleopatra knew that she only had a few days to live.
04:23Prisoner with no other option, the captive chose to die.
04:28She killed herself.
04:30But it's difficult to determine precisely what method she used for her coup de grace.
04:35How did she kill herself?
04:37With poison?
04:38All right.
04:39Which one?
04:39The first theory is the one of a hollow hairpin in which there could have been poison.
04:44It's highly possible.
04:48Second theory, she would have asked for a fig-filled basket with asps hidden underneath it, which are snakes with
04:56lethal venom.
05:00Cleopatra died and the mystery already thickened.
05:04This farewell with her head held high says a lot on the sovereign's personality.
05:10To understand her gesture, we must trace back to her origins and visit the city that forged Cleopatra, Alexandria.
05:23It's here in the north of Egypt, where the Nile flows into the Mediterranean Sea, that the story of the
05:29young girl began.
05:31She was born in one of the city's palaces in 69 before our time.
05:35She was privileged.
05:37We know nothing specific about her childhood, but it's clear that Cleopatra benefited from this high-level cultural environment.
05:46She was raised among the other royal children, her two sisters and her two younger brothers.
05:52Cherished by nannies, the best preceptors educated them.
05:57From then on, facts are getting blurry for historians.
06:02One thing is certain.
06:03Without Alexandria's cultural richness, Cleopatra would probably have never become queen.
06:09It's in this city that lie the secrets of her fate.
06:12For Alexandria is the legacy of another major antiquity character, without whom the queen would never exist.
06:21Alexander the Great is the one who brought one of Cleopatra's ancestors to power.
06:29If it wasn't for Alexander the Great, the Ptolemies wouldn't have ruled, and the entire political system that the Ptolemies
06:35were dealing with might not have even existed.
06:37The Ptolemies would not be in Egypt if it wasn't for Alexander.
06:41His stance, his expeditions, his Hellenistic viewpoint is something that most people today look at with pride almost.
06:51In 332 before our time, Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, arrived in Egypt halfway through a journey that meant
06:59to bring him to the ends of the world.
07:02Alexander the Great, who was from Macedonia, so in the north of Greece, was a truly major figure in the
07:08history of antiquity.
07:09He was obviously known for the huge empire he built from Greece to India, obviously spreading to Egypt in a
07:15very few years and when he was very young.
07:19When he arrived in the Nile Valley, the country was merely the shadow of itself.
07:24The wonderful kingdom of pharaohs was not as powerful nor as rich as it once was.
07:30For more than a century of occupation, Persians enslaved the people, ransacked tombs, temples, and stole resources.
07:40It was a country that had lost its greatness because it had been attacked by the Hittites, then the Persians
07:46for a few centuries.
07:47And it was challenged by basically all the nearby kingdoms that wanted to take these riches.
07:54Greeted as a hero, Alexander the Great only settled in Egypt for a few months.
07:59But he changed everything.
08:01The Greek general first got proclaimed pharaoh.
08:06In 331, before our time, he even founded that very city that soon became the country's capital city, Alexandria.
08:16Alexandria was truly a cosmopolitan, beautiful city.
08:22Writers from the Mediterranean world would come and visit and speak of its beauty and this elegance to the city,
08:27a very modern city at that time.
08:29And it fit in with a lot of concepts of city architecture in the Mediterranean world.
08:36When we look at current Alexandria, there are practically no remains of Cleopatra's city.
08:42What could this great city, founded by Alexander the Great, in which she grew up, look like?
08:49At the time, Alexandria stretched far beyond the current port.
08:54On the map, there's this area that juts out into the sea.
08:58And this is much larger than what I can see here.
09:01And this is the remains of the area I can see on the map.
09:05The royal harbor that was reserved just for the kings and queens like Cleopatra was right over there.
09:12And it was located a short walk to the royal palace over here.
09:18A city oriented towards the sea, allowing to join Greece and Egypt, Alexandria was the beating heart of the country.
09:25All the wonders of the ancient world were located there.
09:29It was also a great intellectual center.
09:31There were Greeks, Jews, Egyptians.
09:35A perfect place for Cleopatra's family, who wished to spread its power to the eyes of the Mediterranean world.
09:42The royal quarter was huge in Alexandria.
09:44It could have taken up to a quarter of the city or even more.
09:47And next to this area was the famous Library of Alexandria that could have held 500, 700,000 volumes of
09:55books.
09:56This was a place that would have interest Cleopatra immensely.
10:00Since its founding by Alexander and up to Cleopatra's time, the city grew.
10:05It had wonderful buildings, thousands of houses, palaces.
10:10Nearly half a million people lived there.
10:13But today, it doesn't come nearly as close as it once was.
10:17To find the streets and the ancient buildings, archaeologists must dig.
10:22For the former Egyptian capital is located a few feet below the ground, under the modern constructions.
10:30We have found the answer to our question, because we have found here the remains of the Ptolemaic building, of
10:36the building which was erected here in the 2nd century BC.
10:40That is some, at least 200 years before the Roman house was built on it.
10:44The most interesting point is that the Roman house was, to a large extent, following the plan of the Ptolemaic
10:50houses.
10:52A rare remain dating from Cleopatra and her family's time.
10:56These houses are among the only ones we were able to find.
11:03In the history of Alexandria, we have at least hundreds of earthquakes of different magnitudes.
11:09Some are smaller, but some are really great, like this catastrophe that happened in the 4th century in 365,
11:15which was also accompanied by the large tsunami that destroyed a lot of houses, many houses here in Alexandria.
11:23To that extent, the historians say that even some ships landed on the rooftops of the houses.
11:31With these dramatic events and the city built on top of it, we must then imagine the beauty of this
11:37capital of antiquity.
11:39A mix of Greek, Oriental, Roman and Egyptian influences.
11:44A city that weighed on the whole Mediterranean world.
11:50Thanks to his genius, Alexander the Great re-gilded the coat of arms of the pharaoh country,
11:55which regained its past greatness.
11:57And the great Greek general unknowingly opened the way to Cleopatra's ancestors.
12:06When Alexander died, Egypt lost its pharaoh.
12:10But the conqueror's remains were in Babylon, 900 miles away from Alexandria.
12:16One of Alexander the Great's loyal companions then accomplished a strategic move.
12:20He took Alexander's tomb to repatriate it in Egypt and thus claim power.
12:26This was not just any man.
12:28He was a Greek military and noble man.
12:31Cleopatra's direct ancestor.
12:33His name was Ptolemy.
12:36The Egyptians, of course, they had the Persians before.
12:40And Alexander was greeted as a great savior.
12:43So it was easy then to accept Ptolemy as the savior, which he took on as an epithet.
12:51The Ptolemies evidently were Alexander's heirs.
12:54And what they inherited from his conquest was this globalization, this huge globalization.
13:02It was the first Ptolemy, known as the savior, who benefited from Alexander the Great's legacy
13:08and then founded the last dynasty of pharaohs, the one Cleopatra belonged to.
13:14Called the Lagids, their name was rather unflattering.
13:19Lagid comes from the name Lagos.
13:21Lagos was a noble Macedonian.
13:23He was the father of Ptolemy I, the founder of the dynasty.
13:27But the word is rather ridiculous in Greek.
13:30It means rabbit or hare, which led to the Ptolemies calling themselves Ptolemy because Ptolemy means warrior.
13:38Fourteen Ptolemies succeeded each other on the throne of Egypt for nearly 300 years.
13:43Among them, Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra's father.
13:47Like his daughter, Ptolemy XII was not meant to reign.
13:51He is said to be the son of a mistress of Ptolemy IX, his father.
13:56He was put on the throne upon his older brother's death and did not look fit for the job.
14:01According to Alexandrians, the man was more interested in music and banquets than managing the kingdom.
14:08Ptolemy XII, known as the flute player, carried his name well because he would have been a better historian than
14:14politician.
14:15He wanted to give the illusion of his great power by showing himself in a huge format.
14:20He wanted to prove in front of all of them that he was still strong.
14:25He was a very famous military one.
14:26He could defend on the throne of Egypt again.
14:30He was then found engraved in gigantic figures on different Egyptian temples.
14:36Here in Edfu or in Philae, on the first entrance pillar, his posture is indeed impressive.
14:45We recognize that this is Ptolemy XII because we got his throne name and his birth name, giving him the
14:52full title of a pharaoh.
14:54He's got the mazel and he's holding his enemy by their hair.
14:58And this is a very strong role for the pharaoh to show that he keeps his country safe from all
15:04the enemy and any threat.
15:07The image of a powerful and protective pharaoh.
15:10The best propaganda possible for Ptolemy XII.
15:14But it was not enough.
15:15He needed even more credit.
15:18He used one more move to validate his reign in Komombo.
15:24The site is located on the Nile's Oriental Bank, in the very south of Egypt.
15:31It's a unique construction.
15:34Here we are inside the third main part of the temple, the high-wastile hall, or the outer high-wastile
15:39hall,
15:40which was totally built during the reign of the king of Ptolemy XII.
15:43In the first half of his reign in Egypt, with nice ten columns, with Greek-style capitals completely,
15:53with a nice ceiling, with some remains of all original colors.
15:56The temple was dedicated not to one, but two distinct deities.
16:02Horus, the falcon god, and Sobek, the crocodile god.
16:06Two figures that Ptolemy XII exploited to his advantage.
16:10Here, Cleopatra's father chose to underline his divine aura.
16:15Like the other great pharaohs before him, he is represented in between the two gods themselves.
16:21The most interesting relief, we can see it inside it here,
16:24a very nice representation of the king of Ptolemy XII
16:28among a group of very famous gods and goddesses,
16:33Isis and her son Horus, Hathur, and the god Khinsu.
16:39An effective way to make his power undisputable.
16:42But it didn't work, and the pharaoh learned this at his expense.
16:52Around the year 65 before our time,
16:55one power took even more space in the Mediterranean basin.
16:59Rome.
17:00But Ptolemy XII was weak.
17:02Rather than imposing himself to the Romans who wanted to annex Egypt,
17:06he chose to befriend this republic located on the other side of the sea.
17:12Cleopatra's father, Ptolemy XII, was not an independent sovereign.
17:17At the time, Egypt was under Roman protectorate.
17:20The king, Ptolemy XII, was a very wealthy sovereign,
17:24but he had no real political power.
17:26He was completely submissive to his Roman master's authority.
17:30He was a sort of puppet in the hands of the Romans.
17:35His daughter, Cleopatra VII, watched her father's moves.
17:39She started to develop her grudge against Rome.
17:45Her father bought the friendship of great Roman generals to ensure his throne.
17:50But the local population completely disapproved this practice
17:54because Egypt was losing its independence.
17:57The capital inhabitants rose.
18:00In 58, Alexandrians chased Ptolemy XII out of the throne.
18:06He was a king with a challenged legitimacy
18:09who got thrown out of Alexandria and forced to seek refuge in Rome.
18:16Cleopatra had no other choice but to follow her father in exile.
18:20She then lived complicated teenage years away from Egypt for three years.
18:26Berenice, Cleopatra's older sister,
18:28was named head of the country to replace Ptolemy XII.
18:31Berenice IV was ruling.
18:33It seems she quite enjoyed ruling.
18:35And then Ptolemy XII, he wanted to come back.
18:40At some point, Ptolemy XII got the help of Roman generals
18:44to take back the power in Egypt.
18:47Her father only got back in power because Rome supported him,
18:51of course, at a very high cost, and he was in debt to them.
18:54In 55 before our time, Ptolemy XII was therefore back.
18:58But he was even weakened.
19:00He had to tolerate the Roman troops on his territory.
19:04Nearly 2,000 soldiers were stationed in Alexandria.
19:07Rome made or broke Egyptian kings.
19:12He was therefore the king chosen by the Romans.
19:16Cleopatra lived through all this as well as her father's humiliation during her youth.
19:21She was fully conscious that one couldn't reign over Egypt without Rome's support.
19:27A lesson for the young Cleopatra, who understood that in order to reign, she would have to deal with the
19:33Romans.
19:34But before that, she had to learn another immutable family rule.
19:40When Cleopatra was still young, around 14 years old, she saw that her father did another coup against his daughter,
19:47and the latter was sentenced to death for absorbing the throne.
19:52So, she understood that in her family, killing each other was normal.
19:59Berenice was sentenced to die by Ptolemy XII.
20:03Cleopatra observed the maneuver and understood that she would have to use this every-man-for-himself tactic if she
20:09wanted to succeed.
20:13These family murders are as old as ancient Egypt.
20:17They're a particular reminder of a legend, the one on which the Egyptian religion is based on,
20:22which enthralled Cleopatra to the point of absolute devotion.
20:28Isis and Osiris, the magician and the resurrected god.
20:32The cult of Osiris and child god was very important to the Ptolemaic kings.
20:40Ancient Egyptian kings and queens modeled themselves after Isis and Osiris.
20:45And this myth was central to many concepts in ancient Egyptian religion.
20:50History recounts that Osiris, king of Egypt, was good, generous, and that he perfectly managed the kingdom.
20:57His brother, Seth, jealous, killed him.
21:00He cut his body and threw him in the Nile.
21:05Osiris' wife, the magician Isis, managed to gather his remains.
21:11She then conceived the first mummy in Egypt history.
21:15Having found her husband, she got pregnant with a son, Horus.
21:20A child king who had to struggle to keep his throne.
21:23The parallel with Cleopatra's family is quite obvious.
21:28In fact, this battle between Horus, the son, and Seth, the uncle, is engraved in the temple of Edfu,
21:36a building restored by Cleopatra's family.
21:40He tried to control and fight his uncle, Seth, who had been taking the ship of the hippo, the symbol
21:46of the evil.
21:47So he threw his spear to hit his back, and he threw his chain to tie his legs to be
21:54easy for him to control him.
21:57The falcon, representing Horus, and Seth, the hippopotamus, fought to determine who would rule over the kingdom.
22:04He controlled his uncle, Seth, and he dragged him outside of the water.
22:07That's why Seth got bigger.
22:09And also we can see that he tied his feet and his legs by chain.
22:13Also, he controlled him, and he wanted to kill him.
22:16But Isis told him, in hieroglyphic and writing, from top to bottom,
22:20Oh, please, don't kill him. Don't forget that he's my brother also.
22:25Unlike Seth, Cleopatra's older sister was not lucky enough to be saved.
22:30Her assassination confirmed to the future queen that everything was allowed to keep the power.
22:37A principle that was used for several generations among the Ptolemies.
22:40This model is quite clearly connected to some of the Ptolemaic concepts of kingship,
22:47where you have the very complicated family relationships that involve marriages and offspring,
22:53and the children of the different relatives fighting each other,
22:56and hoping that somehow the victorious party is the good and righteous one.
23:01We know that there were periods of tension in this dynamic succession, but never that much tension.
23:06I mean, there were always short episodes, while these were situations that sometimes lasted more than ten years.
23:13The problem with the Ptolemies was that every member was very ambitious.
23:19Everyone dreamed of being a pharaoh.
23:23Conflicts for more than three centuries between aunts and nieces,
23:27brothers and sisters, father and daughter.
23:29Why did the Ptolemies struggle so hard to get along?
23:33One practice confused the card of power.
23:35However, it brought chaos to their succession.
23:38Incest.
23:39We have, out of all the Ptolemies, there are several of them that marries their uncles,
23:46their fathers, their brothers, or vice versa with the female side.
23:51And when you haven't got a clear line of succession,
23:55and with all these family members marrying each other incestuously,
24:00then you will create this turmoil.
24:05How can one explain this type of alliance?
24:08Intrafamilial weddings were yet strictly forbidden in other cultures of their time.
24:13As seen from Rome, it was disgusting.
24:17Incest was an absolute taboo.
24:19Now let's get in the mind of the Egyptians of antiquity.
24:22Why did pharaohs commit incest?
24:24They were divine, so they didn't mix.
24:27You would look for someone with a birth as divine as yours.
24:31And these people were your sisters, even your daughters, or cousins at most.
24:35So there was this religious aspect.
24:39Like every pharaoh before them, the Ptolemies thought of themselves as gods.
24:44It even was the basis of their religion.
24:47Kings and queens were divinized upon stepping on the throne.
24:51Cleopatra particularly liked that notion.
24:53Even more so that she didn't know it yet, but one decision launched her on the throne more easily than
24:59planned.
25:01In 55 BC, when Berenice IV died, Cleopatra was the oldest of the royal children.
25:08She started to dream of power.
25:10But she was a woman.
25:12And according to Ptolemaic customs, she knew she wouldn't be able to rule alone.
25:17Yet a few months before his death, Ptolemy XII appointed her as his successor.
25:22He explained the secrets of power to her and wrote it on his will,
25:26along with her youngest brother, Ptolemy XIII.
25:30Cleopatra was around 17 years old when her father associated her with his power.
25:35He visibly considered her the most talented child, which was probably true.
25:41Cleopatra had big ambitions because she knew there were many examples of strong women among her Ptolemaic ancestors.
25:48Not only did she imitate them, but she also tried to surpass them.
25:52The link between all these Ptolemaic queens was already established by their name, always the same one.
25:59There were three names for queens, Arsenault, Berenice, and Cleopatra.
26:05Arsenault means who has virile thoughts.
26:08Berenice means who carries victory.
26:10And Cleopatra means her father's glory.
26:14So many people so far have no idea that there were seven Cleopatras during the Greek period or Ptolemaic period
26:22in Egypt.
26:23Of course, the most famous one was Cleopatra number seven.
26:26The first of her name was Ptolemy V's spouse.
26:30She also was the first one in power when her husband died, more than a century before the last queen
26:36of Egypt.
26:37She reigned on behalf of her underage son.
26:40And the young king's name left no doubt, Philometor, the one who loves his mother.
26:45The Ptolemaic women themselves, they had a degree of power that was highly unusual in the ancient world as well.
26:55Ptolemaic women, they ruled often as co-ruler with either their spouse, who was most often their brother, or with
27:04their sons or their fathers.
27:06And so they were in positions of authority.
27:10They were known to negotiate.
27:12They were depicting themselves in temples, giving offerings.
27:16They were highly respected leaders.
27:19And they took on some of the ancient Egyptian concepts of female agency and ability to do things for their
27:27own lives.
27:29The second Cleopatra present here on the Karnak temple walls also ruled on behalf of her son.
27:35Same went for her niece, Cleopatra III.
27:39So Cleopatra would have grown up hearing about all the different Cleopatra ancestors.
27:44She would have heard of these women and would have maybe been inspired by some of their great achievements.
27:51Cleopatra VII, the last Egyptian sovereign, was thus the fruit of dynastic history.
27:57Among the Ptolemies, women learned how to like power like men do.
28:02They became unavoidable in political decision making.
28:06And the last of the Cleopatras is the very example of this hunger to rule.
28:10All of the people are very concentrated on Cleopatra's difference because of the movies.
28:15But all of Cleopatra's were very famous.
28:18What differentiated the last Cleopatra from all the other queens?
28:22Why does history only remember her?
28:25One clue might be found in her true name.
28:29Cleopatra Theophilobator.
28:31Which means Cleopatra, the goddess glorifying her father.
28:36So, her tutelary figure was Ptolemy XII, and not her mother.
28:41We know very little about Cleopatra's childhood.
28:44For instance, we don't know who her mother was.
28:46We know her father was Ptolemy XII.
28:49Who was her mother?
28:50Probably a Greek.
28:51A Greek Macedonian woman.
28:52But that's all we know.
28:54This unknown kinship adds spice to her story.
28:59Daughter of a Greek king and pharaoh of Egypt,
29:02she represented the mix of northern and southern Mediterranean basin cultures.
29:08Cleopatra was incredibly savvy,
29:10and she knew in an almost sort of modern sense issues of cultural identity.
29:15She was able to trade cultures, move them around,
29:18and present herself in entirely different ways to different audiences
29:21to suit whatever purpose she might have had.
29:24There are images of Cleopatra in an ancient Greek style.
29:27We know she spoke ancient Greek as her first language.
29:30She was immersed in the Greek life of Alexandria.
29:33And in many ways, she was ancient Macedonian, ancient Greek.
29:39Cleopatra was one of the last Ptolemies,
29:41but she had something more.
29:43Maybe her mother, who didn't belong to the dynasty,
29:46allowed her to instill new blood in this incest-practicing family.
29:50I think she had to be really smart and look after the Egyptian people,
29:55which is why she went through the education,
29:59to understand all the religious side, the language.
30:03She really understood what it meant to hold the power as a queen
30:08or even a female pharaoh of Egypt.
30:13In fact, she chose to learn the Egyptian language,
30:16while in 300 years of reign,
30:18her family of Greek origin did not go through this effort.
30:22Cleopatra was a very cultured woman.
30:24Some say she spoke a dozen languages.
30:27She obviously spoke Greek, she spoke Latin,
30:30but she also was the first of her family and her dynasty
30:34to currently speak Egyptian.
30:37Which, from the Roman point of view, was not a compliment at all.
30:40Since for the Romans, there were only two languages,
30:43Latin and Greek.
30:44The rest were barbaric languages.
30:46So if Cleopatra was an expert in barbaric languages,
30:49it was because she was one.
30:51What displeased them was her wish of independence
30:54that appeared at a very early age.
30:56Cleopatra emancipated through education.
30:58She was interested in science and the power of poison.
31:01She allegedly wrote medical treaties herself.
31:04Her strength of character and intelligence annoyed Rome a lot.
31:08This feminine power was considered an aberration for the Romans.
31:13Roman society was patriarchal.
31:15They thought women were eternal minors.
31:18They were children.
31:21With their eyes set on the Mediterranean Sea,
31:24the Ptolemies feared Rome
31:25and preferred submissive politics rather than war-filled politics.
31:29Cleopatra had another strategy.
31:32Rather than bending her back to the Romans,
31:34she tried to manipulate them into being her allies.
31:39Cleopatra's absolute goal
31:41was to make sure Egypt did not become a Roman province.
31:45But she had to form an alliance with Rome.
31:50Cleopatra did have allies.
31:52I mean, the most obvious ones are Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
31:56For Cleopatra deeply loved Egypt.
31:59Under no circumstances would she sell it like her father did.
32:02This tactical finesse wrote her name down in history.
32:12Her eventful comeback after her father's exile from 58 to 55 BC taught her a lot.
32:20Cleopatra already knew that the country's unity was fragile
32:23when she was barely a teenager.
32:25The kingdom spread over 600 miles from north to south along the Nile.
32:31How did one rule from Alexandria, the Ptolemaic capital,
32:35when the territory stretched to the borders of Nubia?
32:40Uprisings regularly burst under the Ptolemies
32:43and notably in the former capital, Thebes,
32:46where the immense Karnak sanctuary is now located.
32:50This is where the population first refused the Ptolemaic power
32:54150 years before Cleopatra.
32:58To prevent further uprisings,
33:00Ptolemy I's heirs then imitated the greatest pharaohs
33:03by erecting dozens of temples and associating them with gods.
33:12There was a true rebirth of Egyptian pharaonic culture
33:16under the Ptolemies' impulsion.
33:18The Ptolemies were Greek-Macedonian origin,
33:21but they also claimed the pharaonic legacy.
33:26The ancient Egyptian word
33:28and the Greek word for temple was
33:31means the house of the god.
33:34So that was like mosque or like a church.
33:37That was the place where they used it to worship their gods,
33:41present offerings.
33:42So those were religious places for rituals
33:45and the cult to be performed inside them.
33:49Places that mostly touched the most important cast of the population.
33:53Priests.
33:54The key to stability.
33:58The Egyptian kings,
33:59and particularly in the Ptolemaic period,
34:01needed to keep the priesthood happy.
34:03And the priesthood in Upper Egypt was particularly important.
34:06The Ptolemies ruled from Alexandria.
34:09They were far in the north.
34:10They were often quite separate from the events
34:12that were happening in Upper Egypt.
34:14So to come to Upper Egypt,
34:16to build temples,
34:18to build up the priesthood,
34:19to increase the economic power of the priesthood
34:22and the economic power of the temples
34:23was a smart political move.
34:28Cleopatra's family measured well
34:29the importance of Upper Egypt,
34:31in other words, the south of Egypt,
34:33for the Ptolemies were great masterminds.
34:37To understand Cleopatra's incredible ascension
34:40and her tragic fate,
34:41we must trace back to this Ptolemaic legacy
34:44built on propaganda, manipulation,
34:46and multiple strategies.
34:53Archaeologists study the buildings in Upper Egypt
34:55that are still remarkably preserved,
34:57built, or modified by the Ptolemies.
35:00They perfectly illustrate the renewal of Egyptian civilization
35:04by these Greek kings.
35:07Alexandria was considered a seat of the Greeks
35:10and it had its own traditions.
35:12It wasn't really assimilated.
35:14So if you want to look at the real richness
35:18and the assimilation between Egyptian and Macedonian or Greek,
35:24you need to go to the southern part of Egypt.
35:26So here where we are at Phila is a perfect example
35:30of just how well that merge was.
35:35Philae, one of the most iconic sites
35:38located in the far south of the country.
35:43Egyptologists have found some typical Ptolemy elements
35:46by scrutinizing some of the details.
35:49When we look at the color here,
35:51it looks quite beige today.
35:54But during the antiquity,
35:55this would have looked almost golden.
35:58That's what it looks like when they quarry it
35:59and when they built the temples.
36:01So what we have here
36:02is the rough cut version of the sandstone.
36:06It comes like this from the quarries.
36:08It's to allow them to transport it
36:10without damaging the precious surface
36:13that later became smooth
36:15and then to be inserted with hieroglyphs
36:18and iconographic program.
36:21The Ptolemies thus were part of the tradition
36:23by engraving their mark in the stone
36:25like Achepsut or Ramses II did.
36:28It was propaganda.
36:30But in order to build these monuments,
36:33they needed a precious resource, stone.
36:36Egypt had the stone to build these kind of monuments
36:39and they built them in such a beautiful way
36:41that it had to have been impressive.
36:44It's something that Cleopatra
36:45and any kind of Roman visitor
36:47would have wanted to emulate in some way
36:50as kind of an exotic style.
36:53But the south of Egypt
36:54had an exceptional site for Pharaoh,
36:57the country's biggest sandstone reserve
37:00that was used to build
37:01almost every temple in Upper Egypt.
37:05Karnak, Luxor, Medinet Abu,
37:09the Ramuseum, or even Dendera,
37:12the temple Cleopatra decorated during her reign.
37:17She and her whole family thus copied their predecessors.
37:22They exploited this gigantic quarry to its maximum
37:25to erect their greatness in the whole country.
37:34We leave for the far south of Egypt,
37:36some 40 miles north of the city of Aswan.
37:40This magnificent site facing us
37:42is Gebel el-Silsila.
37:44Here is the infamous stone quarry
37:46exploited even after Cleopatra's death
37:48by her sworn enemy, Emperor Augustus.
37:52It's best to say that this site
37:53welcomed ancient Egypt's greatest moments.
37:56Silsila was and is still
37:58one of the most important
38:02archaeological sites all over of Egypt,
38:04not just here in Aswan.
38:05In my opinion, it is the motherland
38:07for all of the ancient temples,
38:09especially during the New Kingdom.
38:12Maria Nielsen is an archaeologist.
38:14With her team,
38:15she's been trying since 2012
38:17to make the secrets contained
38:18in these stone blocks talk.
38:20The site is unknown to the public
38:22because it's hard to access.
38:24To reach it,
38:26you need to cross a small arm of the Nile
38:27and support temperatures
38:29that often exceed 104 degrees Fahrenheit
38:31as early as May.
38:33This quarry is special
38:35because it was in use
38:36during the late Ptolemaic period,
38:38so during the time of Cleopatra
38:39and also during Augustus.
38:41So we know that,
38:43based on what we found,
38:44the archaeology and the inscriptions
38:46and everything,
38:47we know that stone was taken from there
38:49to feed the temple,
38:51build the temples of Edfer and Dendera.
38:55A few hundred feet separate the shore
38:57from the heart of the scaping hole.
39:00It's necessary to cross a giant corridor
39:02dug in the sandstone
39:04before coming across a colossal...
39:07And you can imagine the noise.
39:10I mean, for today,
39:11this is a serene,
39:13untouched, beautiful place.
39:15But during antiquity,
39:16it would have been
39:18so busy with noises.
39:20We would have had the shizzles,
39:22the mullets,
39:24constant hacking on the rocks.
39:27And there would be people
39:29moving up and down
39:30and it would be full of dust.
39:33So it would have been
39:35a very vivid landscape
39:37to be part of
39:38and to experience.
39:40In this extraordinary quarry,
39:43ancient Egyptians had learned
39:44how to carefully choose each stone.
39:47There were no slaves,
39:48but highly qualified workers
39:50and architects
39:51to answer to the pharaoh's
39:52specific demands.
39:54We got wedge marks,
39:56we got the tool marks,
39:58so it's prepared for extraction.
40:00And then it would be divided
40:02in probably two smaller blocks
40:04here in the middle
40:04to make it a nice size
40:08to be able then to transport
40:09to become the architectural features
40:12of the temple.
40:13So in just one block,
40:16you can see details
40:18of the entire history,
40:19how they did it,
40:20where it was going,
40:22and understand also
40:22the social economic situation
40:24of Egypt.
40:29Cleopatra and the Greek-Macedonian kings
40:31did not master the secret
40:32of the majestic buildings
40:34left by their predecessors,
40:35who were used to working the stone
40:37ever since pharaoh Jocer,
40:402600 years earlier.
40:41These Greeks thus relied
40:43on Egyptian engineers
40:44and their millennial techniques
40:45to embellish and build their temples
40:47according to the ancient tradition.
40:50In Cleopatra's family,
40:52building got so important
40:54that the construction level
40:55was similar to the one
40:56of the new kingdom of Egypt
40:57and its great pharaohs.
41:00Seti I, Ramses II,
41:02or even Thutmose I.
41:06In Gebel al-Sylsila,
41:08archaeologists managed to find traces
41:10left by workers of the time.
41:13If we look above here,
41:16there are little squares
41:19and each one was for the hands and feet
41:22for the ancient parliament
41:24to actually climb
41:25and take each step down
41:27to a different level.
41:29The horizontal lines
41:31all indicate that large block
41:34were extracted
41:35and we know
41:36that they were meant
41:37for small obelisks
41:39because above the ledge
41:40we have the depiction
41:42of two obelisks.
41:46Highly present
41:47during the new kingdom of Egypt
41:48and erected in honor
41:49of the god Ra,
41:50the obelisks represented
41:52the link between
41:52the terrestrial world
41:53and the celestial world.
41:55A very few subsist in Egypt.
41:57They were either destroyed
41:58or transported
41:59in other countries.
42:01The last one dates
42:02to Ptolemy IX's reign
42:04who ordered the construction
42:05of this monument
42:06for a temple dedicated
42:07to the goddess Isis
42:09on Philae Island
42:10around 50 years
42:11before Cleopatra.
42:13Then,
42:14history gets foggy
42:15and no sign of obelisks
42:17subsist in Egypt.
42:19Did Cleopatra initiate
42:21the construction
42:21of such monuments?
42:22Were they robbed
42:23or destroyed
42:24by the Romans
42:25who considered them
42:26as war booties
42:27thus asserting
42:28their domination?
42:30Maria Nilsson
42:31is convinced
42:32that this type
42:33of monument
42:33existed during
42:34Cleopatra's time.
42:36We can still see
42:37traces of stonework.
42:39Here,
42:40we got a rope hole
42:41connected to the
42:43physical rope hole.
42:45We got two lines.
42:47We got one coming up here
42:48and another one here.
42:51In the middle,
42:52we got a small depiction
42:54of an obelisk.
42:56and following this line
42:59gets us to a counter lever
43:03and different ropes
43:04and different ways
43:05how to move this around.
43:08So what this is actually
43:10depicting is the process
43:12of how to lower an obelisk
43:15down from above us
43:18and get it safe to the ground
43:20by using the physical rope hole
43:22that we have preserved
43:23still today.
43:26All these traces
43:27left by ancient Egyptians
43:29allow a better understanding
43:30of the Ptolemaic dynasty,
43:32their buildings,
43:33their ambitions.
43:35These buildings,
43:36renovated by Ptolemy I's
43:37successors up to Cleopatra,
43:40allowed them to assert
43:41their power.
43:43The country young
43:45Cleopatra inherited
43:46was completely acquired
43:47by her family.
43:48For eight generations,
43:50they combined Greek
43:51and Egyptian principles
43:52in their politics
43:53and ruled without
43:55too many incidents.
43:57When the last queen of Egypt
43:59stepped on the throne
44:00at 18 years old,
44:01she therefore could focus
44:02on her double objective,
44:05improve Egypt's economy
44:06and seduce Rome
44:08while keeping an autonomy.
44:14In Dendera,
44:15we can see an unusual element
44:17that few people know about,
44:18the representation
44:19of what young Cleopatra's face
44:21could have looked like.
44:24An engraving
44:25ordered by her father,
44:27Ptolemy XII.
44:29In an exceptional manner,
44:31we were able to enter
44:32one of the hidden crypts
44:33in the foundations
44:34and thick walls.
44:38Dendera has hundreds of feet
44:39of secret hallways.
44:42In one of them,
44:43there is a very precious
44:45and unique representation.
44:48This image is really special.
44:51This entire chamber
44:52is dedicated to the goddess Hathor.
44:54And this is Hathor.
44:55This is what she looks like.
44:56She has a vulture headdress.
44:58And in every single image
44:59in this chamber,
44:59she's wearing a vulture headdress.
45:01But then when I come to the end
45:02of this crypt,
45:03this chamber,
45:04I see a woman
45:06who doesn't have this headdress.
45:08Her head is completely bare.
45:10This is clearly a royal woman
45:12and not a goddess.
45:14But we look up here
45:15and there's a cartouche.
45:17And this cartouche is empty,
45:18so we don't know
45:19who this queen is.
45:21Could this be the only representation
45:23of young Cleopatra?
45:25The only one is a teenager.
45:28At that time,
45:29her father was at the end
45:30of his reign.
45:31This entire chamber
45:33was built
45:34during the reign
45:35of Cleopatra's father,
45:36Ptolemy XII.
45:37And it was done
45:38when he came back to Egypt
45:39during his second reign.
45:41But Ptolemy XII's wife
45:43was long dead.
45:44And so was his other daughters.
45:45There were only two daughters
45:46left at this time.
45:48And the oldest of which,
45:49who was also the co-ruler
45:51with Ptolemy XII,
45:52was Cleopatra.
45:54So she was most probably
45:56the person depicted
45:57in this image.
45:58So this could be
45:59an image of teenage Cleopatra.
46:02It's really quite remarkable.
46:05Some rare relief
46:06that raises debates
46:07among specialists.
46:09It's impossible
46:10to authenticate
46:11the future queen of Egypt
46:12with certainty.
46:14Yet this representation
46:15could mark a huge turning point
46:17in Cleopatra's life.
46:19For three years later,
46:20in 51 B.C.,
46:22her father passed away.
46:24Cleopatra was only 18.
46:26She had to take over
46:27the kingdom's reigns.
46:30Cleopatra was the greatest
46:32queen of antiquity
46:33and also one of the greatest
46:35women of power
46:36in human history.
46:37Women who truly held
46:38political power
46:39are rare.
46:41Cleopatra was a very nice queen,
46:43very close to
46:44the local people.
46:46That's why she could
46:47control the whole country,
46:48although she was a woman.
46:51Though a woman cannot rule alone,
46:54officially.
46:55In his will,
46:57her father forced her
46:57to marry her younger brother,
46:59Ptolemy XIII,
47:00then 11 years old.
47:03Cleopatra then had to
47:04manage a kingdom
47:05with her brother's spouse,
47:06seven years her junior.
47:08He was the boy.
47:10He could pretend to be
47:11the first sovereign
47:12out of the two.
47:13This didn't please
47:14Cleopatra at all.
47:15Her ideas were more fixed
47:17and her sense for politics
47:18was sharper.
47:20Cleopatra spent her whole youth
47:21observing her father.
47:23She saw him dethroned.
47:26She followed him into exile.
47:28She was self-taught.
47:30She knew of the work
47:31accomplished by
47:32eight generations of Ptolemies
47:34from south to north of Egypt.
47:36She felt ready.
47:38Why bother with a husband,
47:40a minor who had no idea
47:41of how to rule over a kingdom?
47:44Cleopatra wanted to use
47:45the throne to lead her reforms.
47:48She wished to be remembered
47:49in Egyptian history.
47:52I think she was a queen
47:54who loved her country
47:55and she tried to do
47:57as much as she could
47:58for the country.
47:59Cleopatra was a highly
48:01educated person.
48:02She had tutors,
48:04she had access to the library,
48:05and she had herself
48:07a vast amount of knowledge.
48:08And so she would have been able
48:10to access that knowledge
48:11to create her current
48:14political reality.
48:16But her brother's spouse
48:17quickly reacted to a queen
48:19who took up a lot of space.
48:22Cleopatra also had to struggle
48:23with Rome,
48:24whose hunger for conquest
48:26was insatiable.
48:27But she soon met
48:28her Roman lovers
48:29who turned her life
48:30upside down.
48:32Caesar and Mark Antony.
48:36Political calculations
48:37are true love.
48:39She was fully conscious
48:41that one couldn't rule over Egypt
48:43without Rome's approval.
48:44That actually dictated
48:46her whole politics
48:47of alliance,
48:48partnership with powerful Romans
48:50at that time.
48:50First,
48:51Julius Caesar,
48:52then Mark Antony.
48:55Young Cleopatra lived
48:56in eventful adolescence.
48:59Unknown mother,
49:01a father whose reign
49:02was disputed.
49:03Exile.
49:04Then a nemesis sister.
49:06Big challenges awaited her.
49:09Under her reign,
49:10the capital got wealthier
49:11and reclaimed the reputation
49:13of a cultural
49:13and cosmopolitan city
49:15in which all civilizations
49:16gathered up,
49:17even the farthest ones
49:19in Arabia or India.
49:22Cleopatra,
49:23she managed somehow
49:24to unify the people
49:26once again.
49:27And I think that
49:28she had the benefit
49:30of the legacy
49:31of Alexander the Great
49:32as well as
49:33the early Ptolemies,
49:35looking at them
49:36as role models
49:37and how to be
49:38and how to act.
49:40Upper Egypt
49:41already had the most
49:42beautiful temples
49:43of the region,
49:44something to impress
49:45civilizations
49:46they did business with.
49:49There was some
49:50true architectural
49:51politics going on
49:52that had not been seen
49:53in Egypt in centuries
49:54since the last
49:55of the remesses.
49:57They built big temples
49:58we can still see nowadays
50:00in the south of Egypt.
50:02Actually,
50:03they're part of
50:04the most visited temples,
50:06Comombo,
50:07Philae,
50:08Edfu,
50:08and of course
50:10the temple
50:10Cleopatra dedicated
50:11to the goddess
50:12of Hathor
50:13in Dendera.
50:18The Ptolemies
50:19understood the importance
50:20of adding their mark
50:21to already existing
50:22monuments,
50:22as well as following
50:24the great pharaoh's
50:25rituals that once
50:26took place
50:26within these sacred walls.
50:29This is how Cleopatra
50:30observed and learned
50:31what made the population
50:32tick.
50:35She wanted to be
50:36adulated in the same
50:37way her ancestors were.
50:39For instance,
50:41religious celebrations
50:42were crucial
50:42to write herself down
50:43in the logic line
50:44of Egyptian pharaohs,
50:46but also to stay
50:47close to the people.
50:49All throughout
50:50their dynasty,
50:51the Ptolemies took part
50:52in extraordinary
50:53processions where
50:54thousands of Egyptians
50:55of all social
50:56backgrounds attended.
50:58To picture such events,
51:00we need to understand
51:01the ceremonial aspects
51:02surrounding these places.
51:05The more remote rooms
51:07and the shrines
51:08were, for example,
51:09reserved to the clergy
51:10and royalty.
51:12This is one of these
51:13monumental doors
51:14you had to cross
51:15to follow the temple's
51:16axis.
51:17Several rooms followed
51:19each other on a single
51:20axis.
51:21You then arrived
51:22at the heart of the
51:23rite with the divine
51:24bark and the divine
51:26statue enclosed
51:27in their granite neos.
51:29The point of the pilgrimage
51:31was to embark on a journey
51:33to take a glimpse
51:34at the deity,
51:35maybe talk to them,
51:36ask them questions,
51:38interrogate them
51:39on your fate
51:40or engagements.
51:41So oracle barks
51:43had an extremely
51:44important function.
51:48We were able to recreate
51:50this bark festival
51:51for the first time.
51:53An unseen version
51:55and very well
51:56exceptional
51:56of these celebrations
51:57transposed in the
51:58Philae temple
51:59with the colors
52:00of that time.
52:04Queen Cleopatra
52:05must have attended
52:05them
52:06and she most likely
52:08officiated them
52:09as high priestess
52:10once on the throne.
52:13What would be nice
52:15to imagine
52:15is that Cleopatra
52:16visited this temple
52:17as part of the main
52:19temples in Upper Egypt
52:20seeing how the cult
52:22statue of the
52:23mother goddess
52:23was taken out
52:24on the barge
52:26out in the water
52:27to celebrate
52:28one of the local
52:29festivals.
52:31To finally understand
52:33in detail
52:33the back story
52:34of this exceptional
52:35queen and her
52:36ancestors,
52:37Egyptologists
52:38keep digging
52:39and looking for
52:40anything that could
52:41hint at their
52:41passage in Egypt.
52:44Cleopatra's life
52:45was unusual
52:45punctuated with
52:47deaths,
52:47alliances,
52:48and disappointments
52:49which made her
52:50story a true
52:51romance worthy
52:53of Greek epic
52:53poetry.
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