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00:03On the west bank of the Nile, a pharaonic construction of unprecedented refinement in
00:09the history of ancient Egypt dominates Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, the temple of Hatshepsut.
00:16Built 3,500 years ago, it fascinates both Egyptologists and tourists who come from all over the world.
00:24C'est tellement hors norme, quelque chose qu'on ne voit pas ailleurs.
00:27On a un temple qui est tout en longueur et qui après est creusé dans la roche.
00:31C'est quelque chose d'impressionnant visuellement.
00:33C'est une réussite architectural exceptionnelle.
00:36But nothing could have predicted the extraordinary destiny of Hatshepsut, a queen who became king.
00:41Hatshepsut est clairement un personnage hors norme.
00:43I think Hatshepsut is a fascinating king.
00:45She is quite unique.
00:47Il est évident qu'elle a eu un destin tout à fait exceptionnel, hors du commun.
00:52At the dawn of the new kingdom, following a period of unrest and war, Pharaoh Hatshepsut
00:58has a duty to re-establish Egypt's greatness.
01:01She instigates a massive construction programme, building monuments that still stand today.
01:07She innovates throughout her reign, from the first prefabricated building in history to the creation of the Valley of the
01:13Kings.
01:18She builds extensively, more than almost any other king before.
01:24But her most stunning achievement remains her temple of millions of years, the Jezer Jezeru, the Holy of Holies.
01:31This architectural gem is much more than a mortuary temple.
01:34It provides the people with proof of Hatshepsut's divine birth,
01:38and affirms her legitimacy as the sole ruler of Egypt.
01:42The kingdom of Hatshepsut is a kingdom of common, because it's a woman, because she took the power.
01:47She had to use all the forces of the country and show that she was able to federate her forces
01:51to accomplish extraordinary exploits.
01:54And it's the only woman in 3,000 years of history who has exercised the power for so long.
01:58Mobilising all the expertise of ancient Egypt, the Temple of Hatshepsut is testament to the incredible engineering skills of the
02:04Egyptian people.
02:07But today's Egyptologists may be on the verge of providing a completely different interpretation of this temple's place in Egypt's
02:13history.
02:14A temple located at the foot of a superstructure.
02:33Egypt, the 15th century BCE.
02:37To the west of the Nile, at the foot of some imposing cliffs, stands one of the most beautiful constructions
02:43of ancient Egypt, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut.
02:47Dominating the Nile, this majestic temple reflects the power of the kingdom of Egypt, only recently regained after two centuries
02:54of upheaval and invasions.
02:58It's the beginning of a period that modern Egyptologists will call the New Kingdom.
03:07Beginning in 1550 and ending in 1085 BCE, the New Kingdom marks a period of great prosperity.
03:16It's during this period that great pharaohs such as Tutankhamen and Ramesses II will reign.
03:22Egypt expands its borders, now extending from the kingdom of Kush in the south to Byblos in the northeast, thanks
03:29to the numerous military campaigns carried out in Nubia and the Middle East.
03:34The New Empire Egyptian Empire is a period of Egyptian history where pharaohs Thébans took power and unified Egypt.
03:42It follows a period of instability where foreign peoples dominated Egypt.
03:47Hatshepsut inherits a throne which has an important function to keep Egypt safe. There is recent memory of invasions of
03:56people like the Hexos from the Eastern Mediterranean.
04:00Egypt regains its might and becomes rich and powerful again.
04:04It is important for the pharaohs of the new empire, and particularly from the 18th dynasty, the dynasty of Hatshepsut,
04:10to affirm their power and to affirm the power of Egypt in its environment, in its geopolitical context, to avoid
04:17being invaded and dominated by a foreign people.
04:21But it isn't until the 19th century and the rediscovery of this temple, buried beneath the sand, that it finally
04:28becomes possible to understand the place it holds in the history of Egypt and the secrets hidden within its walls.
04:36To begin with, Egyptologists realize, to their great astonishment, that the pharaoh who had it built is actually a woman.
04:49There has been nothing beforehand to hint at the existence of a queen who had become king.
04:58It's in the 19th century that a large number of discoveries would bring the story of Hatshepsut and her temple
05:04to light.
05:16Born probably in Thebes between 1508 and 1495 BCE, Hatshepsut, whose somewhat prophetic name means the first of the noble
05:25ladies, is the fifth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt.
05:30Hatshepsut is the daughter of King Thutmose I and Amos.
05:35At the time, pharaohs have several wives, and it's from a second union that Thutmose I fathers a son, Thutmose
05:42II.
05:45To preserve the royal blood, Hatshepsut marries her half-brother and has a daughter, Neferurei.
05:53Like his father before him, from a second union, Thutmose II then fathers a son, Thutmose III, Hatshepsut's nephew, and
06:02destined by royal tradition to one day become pharaoh.
06:08History has been written, at least in theory.
06:12Hatshepsut has what it takes to become a powerful queen, but her ambition is greater, so great that it will
06:18turn Egyptian traditions completely upside down.
06:21What if Hatshepsut was to seize power from her nephew, Thutmose III, the legitimate heir to the throne of Egypt?
06:30Before Thutmose III is old enough to rule, Hatshepsut will arrange her own coronation in front of all the people
06:37of Egypt.
06:38She had a completely different vision for her rule. She took an opportunity and a chance.
06:43The regents of Egypt have always known as a regent who became pharaoh.
06:47However, this is something that is completely exceptional and beyond the norm.
06:50So, unfortunately, there must have been reticence, so she needed support.
06:54To pull off this political feat, Hatshepsut needs some powerful backing from a very influential caste, the priests of Amun
07:02in Karnak.
07:03Hatshepsut has led to support Hatshepsut, which contributes to expand her ideology.
07:11And, in return, we find texts that the priests have received the favor of the queen.
07:19Hatshepsut becomes pharaoh, king of Egypt. The sheath dress is replaced by a loincloth.
07:25Some monuments will even show her with the famous false beard.
07:49Hatshepsut, the pharaoh, pursues her ambitious destiny and launches a vast building program on both banks of the Nile.
07:57And one of the first large-scale projects that she will embark upon is the construction of her mortuary temple.
08:02The one that will enable her to reach eternity.
08:05The sublime of sublimes, the holy of holies, the temple of millions of years.
08:15Like the kings before her, Hatshepsut builds a mortuary temple.
08:19A massive construction with ambitious and innovative architecture.
08:24It's within the rocky amphitheatre of Deir el-Bahri, across the Nile from Thebes, today's Luxor and the capital of
08:30ancient Egypt, that Hatshepsut builds her temple.
08:34It's a highly symbolic setting.
08:37The river of the Nile, it's the west coast.
08:39It's the place where the sun is located.
08:42And they conceived the future of the pharaoh as a voyage.
08:46The pharaoh identifies the sun, the sun is located west.
08:51And it will travel the southern world during the night to be born from the east east to the south.
09:07The temple is a pedestal for the Theban mountain.
09:11Built shortly after 1479 BCE, this colossal monument, constructed over 15 years, has a dual function.
09:21It would allow Hatshepsut and her people to honor the gods during major religious ceremonies and be the medium upon
09:27which the extraordinary life of the queen would be depicted.
09:30The story of her accession to the throne of Egypt.
09:36Oriented east-west, aligned with the path of the sun, the temple was the culmination of a processional causeway one
09:43kilometer long, linking it on the other side of the Nile with the temple of Amun in Karnak.
09:48The temple is of an extraordinary size, 275 meters in length by 105 meters wide.
09:54Three terraces allow the building to reach a total height of 24.5 meters.
10:00Ramps, 30 meters long, gradually ascend towards the highest point of the temple, the most sacred place carved out of
10:08the cliff.
10:08The sanctuary of Amun, the king of the gods of ancient Egypt.
10:23The temple of Hatshepsut stands out from the other constructions of the new kingdom.
10:29It dispenses with the pylons, the edifices that flank the entrances to temples as in Karnak.
10:36The predominant elements in this temple are two terraces, which we accesses with large ramps, and portiques, which are in
10:46front of these terraces.
10:47The temple of Hatshepsut is dictated by the nature of the place.
10:51At Derebari, the soil rises little by little.
10:54So we have to understand that the portiques and the walls behind them are the equivalent of the pylons in
10:59a temple like Karnak.
11:01The porticos, an unusual feature, are colonnades, marking the entrances to the different chapels dedicated to the gods.
11:09The famous Egyptologist August Mariette would say of Hatshepsut's temple that nothing could possibly look less like an Egyptian temple.
11:17We really have the impression of not being in a typically Egyptian temple because we have no columns with floral
11:22chapters.
11:23We really have the impression that we have a kind of composition with horizontal, horizontal and vertical lines.
11:28It's very modern.
11:33Designed by the architect Senenmut, the temple known as Jezer Jezeru, meaning the Holy of Holies, takes its inspiration from
11:44a temple in the immediate vicinity of Hatshepsut, built five centuries earlier, during the Middle Empire.
11:50The place is not chosen at all. It is located next to the temple of Montotep II.
11:57Hatshepsut is inspired by the Middle Kingdom.
12:00She built her very famous mortuary temple at Darabahri, right next to Montotep II.
12:05And she used his innovative design as a template for her own terraced structure.
12:17The site is therefore a mortuary complex.
12:20Hatshepsut's temple isn't the only one sitting in front of the cliffs.
12:23The site of Deir el-Bahri accommodates three mortuary temples.
12:27That of Mentotep II from the XI dynasty.
12:32Hatshepsut's.
12:35And finally that of Thutmose III, the Queen's nephew.
12:42Built mainly of limestone from local quarries such as Guna, the temple contains structural elements in granite and sandstone, brought
12:50in from quarries several hundred kilometers away.
12:57Hatshepsut's temple is highly innovative and its astonishing architecture still fascinates Egyptologists from all around the world.
13:04The site is grandiose.
13:06It's a specific place, you know, full of magnetic power, there is something like this for sure.
13:15Architecturally, it's a splendor.
13:17The brightness remains intact, we are always impressed.
13:20The splendor is the frame, this big circle.
13:22This cooperation between the natural landscape and the building.
13:28And then this building on the terrace with these portiques which irritate the façades, it's absolutely fabulous.
13:34It hits because it's totally different from the other things that we can see in Egypt.
13:37How could such an original building emerge onto the Egyptian landscape?
13:52Hatshepsut's mortuary temple is what's known as a mansion of millions of years.
13:58It's a type of monument that existed already since the old empire, for example at the time of the pyramids.
14:05So this type of temple evolves to the new empire and takes the name of a chateau of millions of
14:10years.
14:14The pharaohs are honored in these temples.
14:17God is living, but also after their death, the temple continues to work.
14:20And in fact, we are going to give them a funeral.
14:23Unlike the kings who were buried in mortuary complexes at the foot of a pyramid,
14:27the pharaohs of the new kingdom built their tombs separately from their mortuary temple, mainly to combat pillaging.
14:35Another particularity of the west bank mortuary temples is that they are meant to be built during the pharaoh's lifetime,
14:41which is not the case with the temples on the east bank,
14:43where the temples are the product of the cumulative work of several generations of pharaohs.
14:52The architecture of the temples of the new kingdom finds new forms.
14:56When we enter the new empire, the architecture has evolved considerably.
15:00Because from the funeral point of view, we abandon the pyramids.
15:03In the religious architecture, the temples will become more and more vast.
15:07Every kingdom will bring its contribution to, for example, the temple of Karnak,
15:11to grow considerably. We will have the biggest temples ever built in Egypt.
15:16The work takes from 10 to 15 years, from the plans to the extraction of the stone, cutting, transportation, assembly
15:23and decoration.
15:24It begins in year 7 of Hatshepsut's reign.
15:26The temple is arranged into terraces and porticos, made up of columns, opening onto five chapels dedicated to the gods
15:33and the royal family,
15:34and four rooms whose walls illustrate the major events in Hatshepsut's life.
15:40A processional causeway allowed access to the temple and was lined with sphinxes with the body of a lion and
15:46the head of Queen Hatshepsut,
15:47wearing the nemes, a headcloth worn by pharaohs.
15:51We forgot that this temple of millions of years was connected by a hill, a hill of 2,000 feet,
15:56that is 1,053 meters, that is absolutely huge,
15:59to another temple, called the Temple of the Valley, which is located today at the level of the fields.
16:15The majority of the temple is built in limestone, abundant in the region, from the Gurna quarry, just a few
16:20kilometers from the site, unknown as Hatshepsut's quarry.
16:24During the joint reigns of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, the facing of the temples was made either of limestone or
16:31sandstone.
16:38Some open-air quarries allow us to understand the methods used by the Egyptians.
17:00Some open-air quarries allow us to understand the methods used by the Egyptians.
17:07The Jebel El-Silsela site, 160 kilometers from the Deir El-Bahri Temple, is one of the quarries used by
17:15Hatshepsut.
17:16Covering 38 square kilometers, it's the largest sandstone quarry in Egypt.
17:21Its location is ideal. Upstream of Thebes, the current was used to facilitate the transport of heavy loads.
17:32Already known during prehistory, it was used for centuries in the construction of Egyptian temples, and in particular those of
17:39the Middle and New Kingdoms.
17:40Sandstone was used both as a building material and in the creation of ornamental elements.
17:45Unfinished sculptures are still visible on the east bank.
17:48Hatshepsut will extract hundreds of thousands of tons from the Jebel El-Silsela quarry to supply her numerous constructions.
17:57The now abandoned site is a mine of information for archaeologists and modern architects interested in the methods used by
18:04the ancient Egyptians.
18:06When quarrying, the first step was to remove the block, which was the hardest and required the most people.
18:12So once the block was removed, they did want to shave off some of the weight and some of the
18:17bulkiness of the rock before they transported it.
18:19So probably, miners would have done some chopping and finishing to even out the sides, and if they can remove
18:26some kilos from the rock before they transported it, that would be ideal.
18:29So certainly there was some degree of processing of the rocks in the quarry on site before it was transferred.
18:40The quarrymen used rudimentary tools, such as copper or bronze chisels, with which they cut trenches in order to detach
18:47the blocks from the wall.
18:49By studying the remains of the quarrying site, by looking at all the chisel marks, the way the stones are
18:55cut, we can tell and get a good idea of what the ancient Egyptians did to mine the stones.
19:00And they would cut a line across and a line here to mark out the area of the block.
19:08And then they would cut with their chisels tons of tiny holes to free those spaces.
19:13And then they get to the bottom, where the bottom is still stuck to the rock.
19:17You've got the back and the sides free.
19:19So then they would start to take their chisel and they would cut into the rock to undercut it and
19:24remove the actual stone as a block.
19:31It's nice to see these ancient traces of the mining process and to see someone's tool marks from thousands of
19:37years ago.
19:49One of the things that I find remarkable is that ancient Egyptians were able to do stuff with fewer people
19:55than we would think.
19:55And much faster than we would think.
20:00We think of these mining expeditions as being vast with thousands upon thousands of people.
20:06But archaeological excavations of mining sites show really small settlement areas where miners would have lived.
20:12So we think it would have been in the hundreds, not in the thousands.
20:16So it was probably a combination of a skilled workforce in small numbers plus other people that were there as
20:23just, you know, manpower, pulling and dragging and smashing and things like that.
20:29But to support certain loads or to create entrances to sacred places or even for voluminous sculptures made from single
20:36blocks such as obelisks, the Egyptians used a much more resistant material, granite.
20:45The granite is more resistant and more noble, in the Egyptian thinking, than the calcaire. It will last, it will
20:52last forever.
20:53So red granite was usually used on the axis of the Egyptian temples because the red granite had a very
21:01straight solar connotation.
21:03So the location red granite portals on the axis of the temple let the solar god Ra enter to every
21:11single temple.
21:14Cutting granite presents different challenges to working with sandstone and limestone.
21:18It's thanks to a massive stone monument found in another quarry in Aswan that Egyptologists have unlocked the secret.
21:25The unfinished obelisk is colossal in size.
21:30A dizzying 42 meters tall and weighing 1,200 tons, it unfortunately split when workers tried to separate it from
21:38the quarry.
21:38We discovered the dolirite. The dolirite is a much harder stone than the granite.
21:43The dolirite was used as a large mass mass mass that we left on the granite to be able to
21:51cast it by percussion.
21:52It was a very long and laborious work, but at the end of a day, we could already heighten several
21:56cubic centimeters of granite.
21:58But to cut these granite giants in a reasonable time, the Egyptians also used another particularly effective method which allowed
22:06them to complete an obelisk in less than a year.
22:08We discovered, at the end of this obelisk, there are traces of carbon, of carbon steel and of carbon steel.
22:15These traces show us a little common technique. It's that of heating the stone to fragilize it.
22:21We went 26 times faster to cast the granite.
22:24The great Egyptian temples present a series of technical challenges throughout the construction process, and stone quarrying and cutting are
22:32just the first.
22:33A new problem soon arises, transporting these blocks weighing several tons by boat to the construction sites.
22:48Hatshepsut reigned 1200 years before the discovery of the Archimedes principle.
22:53However, for centuries, the Egyptians managed to build boats capable of transporting several hundred tons on the Nile.
23:03One of Queen Hatshepsut's most remarkable monumental projects in the 15th year of her reign was the construction of the
23:09two largest obelisks in Karnak, one of which still stands, the tallest in the whole of Egypt.
23:18Hatshepsut's temple and the obelisk's portico give us valuable information about the methods the Egyptians used to transport these colossi
23:26to Karnak.
23:35It's a massive project. Measuring 28.52 meters in height and weighing 325 tons each, the two granite obelisks were
23:52dedicated to the god Amun.
23:55Topped with a pyramidium made of electrum, an alloy composed of 75% gold and 25% silver, they could
24:02be seen from both banks of the Nile and reflected the first rays of the sun.
24:11The fresco shows a boat made of sycamore wood, resembling a flat bottomed river barge, 63 meters long and 21
24:19meters wide, upon which the obelisks are placed one behind the other.
24:24So the ancient Egyptians found ways to displace the weight so that they could place a wide layer of sandstone
24:33onto these boats and transport it.
24:36At the stern, two pairs of steering oars help combat the wind and currents.
24:41On board the boat, the obelisks remain on their sleds, which have been used to bring them from the quarry.
24:53Hatshepsut, the ambitious Queen Pharaoh, will continue to count on the ingenuity of her people and her best architects and
24:59craftsmen to carry out her vast building program.
25:08The temple of millions of years is not the only sign of her innovative architectural ambition.
25:15Throughout her reign, Hatshepsut will continue to break with tradition.
25:19Such is the case with the Red Chapel in Karnak, made of quartz diorite and originally located between the two
25:25obelisks.
25:25It's considered to be the first stone prefabricated building in history.
25:29The monument, built towards the end of Hatshepsut's reign, serves as an official resting place for Aman's sacred bark.
25:53The Red Chapel was made as a kit. Each block was cut to a uniform height of 59 cm and
25:59decorated before assembly.
26:05The blocks, now ready for use, were then placed according to a predefined plan.
26:10The engraved scenes fitted together perfectly to tell their stories.
26:15Thanks to this technique, the Red Chapel was completed at record speed.
26:21It was a completely new process for the time, which for unknown reasons were subsequently abandoned.
26:31But another innovation will mark the reign of Hatshepsut and all the pharaohs of the new kingdom.
26:41The famous Valley of the Kings.
26:44Located on the other side of Deir el-Bakhri and Hatshepsut's temple,
26:48the Valley of the Kings will become the burial site of the pharaohs.
26:53And according to some Egyptologists, it's Hatshepsut herself who inaugurated it.
27:00Was she the first king to have been buried in this valley, known today worldwide?
27:08The sovereigns of the New Empire are known to have made their tomb in the famous Valley of the Kings,
27:13which is located on the eastern valley of Thèbes.
27:16We call it the Valley of the Kings, but in reality, the first Egyptian sovereign to have made his tomb
27:21in the Valley of the Kings,
27:22is a queen, since Hatshepsut.
27:27She maybe doesn't invent the Valley of the Kings as the royal burial place,
27:32but she certainly confirms the importance of the Valley of the Kings
27:37as the cemetery of pharaohs throughout the new kingdom.
27:42The Valley of the Kings is a dry watercourse.
27:46A lost gorge, which ends at the foot of a mountain topped by a natural pyramid called El Khurn, the
27:54peak.
28:00We're going to enter the very first tomb dug in the Valley of the Kings,
28:04a tunnel that's still difficult to navigate.
28:09The royal tomb of Hatshepsut and her father, Thutmose I, is identified by the number KV20.
28:21It's a single descending corridor, 210 metres long.
28:32Undecorated, it's a tunnel with an uneven floor, which descends deep into the heart of the mountain.
28:50At the end is Hatshepsut's burial chamber, nearly 100 metres below the surface.
29:10And it's at the end of this corridor that was hidden in the chamber funeraires,
29:14with the treasure royal treasure, and above all, the sarcophage of the sovereign.
29:36The architecture and construction process of the temple in Deir el-Bakhri will not escape Hatshepsut's remarkable ambitions.
29:43The architecture and construction process of the temple in Deir el-Bakhri will not escape Hatshepsut's remarkable ambitions.
29:46the temple is built in several stages the marking out of a final plan the establishment of terraces
29:53and ramps the erection of the porticoes cutting out of chapels and finally the wall decoration
30:00several of these works are carried out simultaneously
30:08the tomb of reqamir now open to the public this tomb built for the eternal rest of reqamir one
30:15of tutmos the third's viziers is in the valley of the nobles it provides egyptologists with
30:20valuable information about the techniques used by the egyptians
30:25afran de parvenir à réaliser les constructions monumentales comme par exemple temple d'achepsut
30:30a derel bahari mais aussi le transport le déplacement des obélisques ou encore les
30:35pylônes que nous retrouvons à karnak les egyptiens ont mis en place un système de
30:40rampes qui est construite par un empinement de briques crues cette rampe permet de
30:46poser un traîneau qui va glisser tout le long et venir transporter le bloc jusqu'à
30:51la destination choisie pour empiler en fait ces blocs et créer l'édifice en question
30:56plus la construction va être élevée plus la rampe va être grande plus le poids de la
31:03statue ou de l'obélisque ou du bloc est lourd plus la construction va être solide et va
31:09solliciter un nombre de briques crues important the structural work was carried out by conscripted
31:16laborers farmers made available for work each year when the nile flooded their fields il faut
31:21bien imaginer que le chantier de derel bahari va mobiliser beaucoup de monde et les ouvriers en
31:26fait on les recrute au titre de la corvée comme c'était déjà le cas au temps des pyramides ils
31:31sont
31:31nourris logés on leur donne des pagnes des sandales et l'administration pharaonique aussi fournit les
31:37outils tout ce qui est nécessaire pour qu'ils puissent faire leur travail l'egypte avait des moyens pour
31:42construire ce type de temple des monuments importants mais elle devait s'aligner sur le cycle de
31:47l'agriculture pour pouvoir mobiliser les forces humaines ensuite après il y a des ouvriers plus
31:51spécialisés qui là vont rentrer dans le cadre de l'artisanat et là ce sont des employés qui sont
31:57rémunérés par le par le pharaon it was to the north of the temple that the workers transported the
32:04calibrated limestone blocks they slid the most precious parts of the temple along on sleds the
32:10uprights the lintel of the granite doors for the upper terrace and the statues once the structural work
32:16was completed an edicule a small temple was built beside a man-made canal to allow boats to dock
32:22la construction d'un temple égyptien tel que celui de de rel barry a dû nécessiter l'emploi de plusieurs
32:27milliers de personnes certains sont employés accruzé la roche du cirque pour pouvoir aménager
32:33l'emplacement du temps d'autres amène des blocs d'autres remblaient certain certaine terrasse voilà
32:39on a eu une sorte de fournitement comme ça within the foundation deposits of the temple Egyptologists
32:45have also discovered miniature replicas of the rudimentary tools used by the builders such
32:50as picks mallets chisels brick molds and even knotted ropes on va trouver aussi alors très
32:57particulièrement dans le temple de de rel barry ce qu'on appelle des des sortes de berceaux en
33:01bois dont la fonction est enigmatique certains imaginent que ce sont des sortes d'ascenseurs aussi
33:06c'est-à-dire qu'on pose le bloc sur le berceau en bois et le bloc on va le
33:10faire coulisser comme ça on va
33:12insérer une cale et ensuite on va essayer de le faire coulisser dans l'autre sens et insérer
33:15notre cal et comme ça on pourrait au fur et à mesure monter le bloc
33:19alors on vaîtier la luc nghĩa on va se faire passer les Вilles حils de l'autre sensibles
33:35these temples ont Mikéry ont commencé à 36 ans
33:35les temples à l'Egypte
33:36broughtle-vous on se pas ensemble durant large
33:38religious ceremonies
33:43The traditional, beautiful festival of the valley, one of the most important in the New
33:47Kingdom, was a remembrance of the dead that lasted for several days.
33:56This fête had for but the funerals of the west coast of Nile.
34:01There were tambourins, songs, dances, so we know there were a lot of animation around
34:06these festivities.
34:07This would be a major national event. There would be music, there would be dancing, there
34:14would be drunkenness, because only through drunkenness would you experience the ecstasy
34:19of seeing the gods. It would be a crazy party, and Hatshepsut probably was the one leading
34:26that ritual, that celebration in Thebes.
34:31It was a union of the people around his sovereign, and for Hatshepsut, it was the opportunity to
34:35reaffirm his legitimacy and his link to the divinity.
34:39It will really make a marker, an incontourable fête.
34:42The festival was a symbolic journey. Armand's sacred bark left the temple of Karnak and was
34:48transported from the east bank of the Nile, the world of the living, where the sun rises,
34:52to the west bank, the world of the dead and the setting sun. The boat ended its journey
34:56in its sanctuary in the temple of Hatshepsut.
35:08The processional route, which brought the bark to the Queen Pharaoh's temple, is one kilometer
35:13long and starts at the temple of the valley. A dromos, an imposing avenue lined every 15 meters
35:22with majestic pink sandstone sphinxes, connects the dock to the temple.
35:27There was a long discussion about the number of sphinxes that stood there originally.
35:32It was suggested that there were over 100 sphinxes in total on both sides of this causeway.
35:41The excavation conducted by the Egyptian expedition from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1930s revealed
35:49especially the distance between the bases of the sphinxes, which was about 15,5 meters
35:55between every single pair of sphinxes, which gave us between 72 to 76 sphinxes in total.
36:04Amun's bark, measuring 4.5 meters, was a reduced version of a real boat.
36:09There was a certain number of rites that wanted to renew the forces of the Pharaon,
36:16to also renew his divinity.
36:18Long poles allowed six priests to carry the bark to the sanctuary at the top of the temple.
36:23The stern and bow featured the head of a ram, the sacred animal of the god.
36:27A statue of Amun, richly adorned with jewels, was placed in the center of the boat,
36:32housed in a naos, a miniature temple.
36:35This naos protects a statue, probably from an echiphalic statue,
36:39a statue of an echiphalic statue, a statue of an echiphalic statue,
36:42and the naos itself is voiled to not be seen by the public.
36:47Once it arrived at the temple gate, the procession continued its ascent up the long ramps
36:52until it finally reached the sanctuary, carved into the mountain.
36:57The bark and the statue spent a whole night there, before returning to Karnak.
37:12The Temple of Hatshepsut was designed as the end of a processional route,
37:16but it remains above all an open book, engraved in the rock.
37:21The three levels of the temple represent an ascent from terrace to terrace
37:25towards the god Amun, whose sanctuary is located at the highest point in the cliff.
37:32The lower terrace, which is 120 meters long, is surrounded by a high wall
37:37with a single gate, two meters wide, providing the main access to the temple.
37:44Two ponds planted with papyrus and flowers greet the visitor.
37:49At the bottom, two porticos with 22 columns, 25 meters tall,
37:54divided into two rows depict two episodes from Hatshepsut's life.
38:00A hunting and fishing scene to the north.
38:05And to the south, the transportation of two obelisks to the Temple of Amun in Karnak.
38:11The two porticos on the first terrace depict events witnessed by the people.
38:18Two imposing statues of reclining lions flank the base of the first ramp,
38:2330 meters long, leading to the second terrace.
38:26The middle terrace is similar to the lower one,
38:29with a double portico of 22 columns, pillars and a ramp.
38:34But instead of lions, this time there are two majestic falcons.
38:38The major difference, however, two additional chapels,
38:42dedicated to the gods Anubis and the goddess Hathor,
38:45have been added to the central porticos.
38:51The cult of the goddess Hathor at Deir el-Bahri greatly predates Hatshepsut's reign.
38:58A place of worship existed long before the temple,
39:01and modern Egyptologists think that during Hatshepsut's reign,
39:05the chapel had its own access ramp so that people could enter it freely.
39:09The El-Bahri was the temple of the state, so the god Amun Ra was worshipped there.
39:16But on the other side we have the Hathor shrine,
39:18where the common people could come and pray and leave the votive offerings to her.
39:23So we have this combination of these two types of religion in Egypt.
39:29We don't have many temples where we can find both of them together.
39:35But celebrating the cult of Amun isn't the only objective of the temple.
39:39Within its walls one ambition is clear,
39:41to prevent anyone from questioning the legitimacy of Pharaoh Hatshepsut.
39:46Egyptologists view the two porticos of the second terrace as an ensemble
39:49a temple designed to convince the Egyptian people of her rightful place as Pharaoh, chosen by the gods.
39:54The north and the south are linked by their representation,
39:58since one represents the expedition in the country,
40:00the other represents the Théogamie of Hatshepsut.
40:04The Théogamie is the union of the dieu Amun with the mother of Hatshepsut,
40:07who gave birth to Hatshepsut.
40:09It will mobilize the theologians to react to the ancient rites,
40:13especially a very important rite which is the rite of the birth,
40:15which means that Pharaoh was engendered by the gods,
40:21and which is the queen, the daughter of the dieu Amun.
40:27So this idea of a female member of the royal family,
40:31being married at once to a king,
40:35but also married to the god is very important for rituals.
40:41Hatshepsut is therefore born of the god Amun, but to leave no room for doubt,
40:45for the south portico on the other side of the ramp, to the left of the Théogamie text,
40:49she recounts the successes of her trade policy through the story of the expedition
40:53in the eighth year of her reign to the land of Punt, God's Land.
40:59The land of Punt, or Tan at Jair, is a trading place for precious resources.
41:04Somewhere between myth and legend, it's regarded as a land of plenty.
41:08It's most often situated on the African coast of the Red Sea.
41:13One of the most defining parts of the reign of Hatshepsut is her expedition,
41:18or expeditions, to a mysterious place called God's Land, or a place called Punt.
41:26And in this exchange, this trade network, the Egyptians get hold of incense trees,
41:33and they love incense trees because when you burn incense, it's the smell of the gods.
41:37But the incense is also an important product because it tells us that this incense has a divine power.
41:45And as we know, because it tells us that regularly she will take care of the body with this incense.
41:49And so by doing that, in fact, by this act, she is supposed to be more divine.
41:54All of this is evidenced in her temple, her mansion of millions of years at Deir el-Bakri,
42:00where she's really boasting to the gods about what an effective king she was,
42:06how she outdoes great kings from the past.
42:10Not only does the trip to the land of Punt bring material wealth to the Egyptian people,
42:14it becomes a powerful anchor for Hatshepsut's divine reality.
42:21At the end of the second ramp, twenty-six columns and twenty-six Osiric statues,
42:26combining both Osiris and Hatshepsut, five point two meters high greet the visitor.
42:31These colossi guard the entrance to the festival courtyard.
42:35Thirteen in the north wear the desheret, representing Lower Egypt,
42:38and thirteen more the hetjet, the headdress of Upper Egypt.
42:41On this statue, Hatshepsut is represented in Osiris.
42:46She has four attributes, two royals, two divins,
42:50and it is important to know that Osiris is the dieu of the défunts.
42:53But beyond that, it is one of the rare dieu to have governed on earth, like Pharaon.
42:58It brings up a supplementary legitimation to Hatshepsut,
43:01which is not only attached to Amon, but also attached to his father,
43:04but also attached to the first roi of the Egyptian line, Osiris.
43:14Access to the third and final level is through an imposing granite portal.
43:20This gate led to the festival courtyard.
43:25The rectangular courtyard, surrounded by columns, leads to the solar cult complex to the north,
43:30the mortuary cult complex to the south, and finally, the sanctuary of Amon, cut into the mountain.
43:37Large granite statues of Hatshepsut kneeling and offering wine dominated the central isle,
43:43which was lined with smaller statues of the queen pharaoh.
43:50The temple of Hatshepsut is a hemispios.
43:54These are temples in which the most sacred rooms are partially cut into the rock,
43:59while the reception areas are built outside in the open air.
44:13The main sanctuary of Amon is the ultimate point of the site.
44:17It received Amon's bark each year during the beautiful festival of the valley.
44:21The main sanctuary of Amon was constructed of two main parts.
44:26The first one, when we entered this part of the temple, was the bark hall.
44:31Then, the last and the most sacred space in the temple of Hatshepsut was the so-called statue room,
44:38but probably the statue of Amon stood in one of the niches curved in the walls of this room.
44:44And this piece would have been logically consacred to Hatshepsut.
44:49We are still in the temple.
44:50And she preferred to give her place to Amon.
44:52And this is a pretty genius.
44:56Because in the fusion of the ensemble,
44:59it shows the very important reports that she entretied with Amon.
45:29Hatshepsut had two openings made at the entrance to the chapel.
45:34Although archaeo-astronomers and contemporary Egyptologists still don't know the exact date,
45:38although it's probably around the winter solstice,
45:41two skylights on either side of the first room would allow the sun's rays to shine directly into the sanctuary
45:46and illuminate a small statue of the god Amon.
45:51Usually it was very dark and we can only imagine how remarkable was even this moment.
45:58We could see a very shining statue thanks to these two small windows.
46:03In the spios of Hatshepsut's temple, Amon reaches the end of his journey before being reborn.
46:10But many mysteries remain concealed within the mountain.
46:14Hatshepsut may still have some secrets in store for us.
46:17What if the Egyptologists of the 21st century were about to reconsider this temple's place
46:22in the geomorphology of the Deir el-Bahri site?
46:30For the ancient Egyptians, death is not an end.
46:34By linking her temple to that of Karnak on an east-west axis,
46:38on a course similar to the path of the sun,
46:41Hatshepsut brought the dynastic god Amon back to life.
46:44It's Hathor, the goddess of the sky, depicted as a cow,
46:48who swallowed the setting sun in the west every evening
46:51and gave birth to it again each morning.
46:57Hathor's shrine has a special significance in Hatshepsut's temple.
47:02Hathor plays a regenerative role,
47:04meaning that Hatshepsut could be reborn in this cycle for eternity,
47:08from her tomb in the valley of the kings on the other side of the cliff.
47:16Amazingly, the burial chamber of KV-20 is perfectly orientated towards Hatshepsut's mortuary temple.
47:25Hatshepsut's tomb is located on the other side of the mountain Thébène,
47:31the other side occupied by the temple of Deir el-Bahri.
47:35Certains say that Hatshepsut would have an ambition to create a corridor
47:37between his temple and his tomb.
47:39It is difficult to say whether it is true or not,
47:41but symbolically, in all cases, the great proximity between the two
47:44allowed, from the point of view purely religious and ritual,
47:48that the offerings of the sovereigns
47:50can allow Hatshepsut's survival more easily.
47:53His vital energy can easily pass from one place to another
47:58to communicate between the tomb and the temple.
48:02In this way, Hatshepsut symbolically connected her tomb to her temple.
48:07We should therefore see the Valley of the Kings as part of a more general plan.
48:13But according to recent discoveries, that plan may have been even more ambitious.
48:19In the Theban Mountains, a remarkable mountain peak has long intrigued Egyptologists.
48:25Culminating at 463 meters, El Khun, the peak, is a natural pyramid,
48:31which is said to have inspired the Egyptians to dig their tombs nearby.
48:35What if El Khun was more than just an inspiration?
48:39Recent studies raise the idea that the Temple of Hatshepsut
48:42adopts a plan well known to Egyptologists,
48:45that used by the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom.
48:48A high or mortuary temple, a processional path,
48:53and finally, a valley temple where boats docked,
48:55all oriented on an east-west axis.
48:59With one major difference, Hatshepsut did not have a pyramid built to house her tomb.
49:05Unless, the pyramid is not quite what we're expecting.
49:10It was suggested a few years ago that she even copied the whole arrangement of the pyramid complexes to Del
49:18Bahri.
49:20And the suggestion was that the top of the pyramid known in the Theban necropolis as El Khun,
49:27it was only the top of the pyramid known Pyramidian,
49:31while the other walls of the pyramid were the whole mountain.
49:36So that's why, when we copied it to the complexes of the Old Kingdom, we have the same example.
49:43The mortuary temple was located on the eastern side, next to the eastern wall of the pyramid,
49:50as we had in the pyramid complexes of the Old Kingdom.
49:54El Khun is therefore the pyramidion of a geological superstructure,
49:59against which the funerary temple of Hatshepsut stands,
50:02like the mortuary temples of the pyramids of Giza.
50:07A mountain pyramid, an idea which may reveal the true meaning of the Valley of the Kings,
50:13not only to deter looters, but a place in which to be buried,
50:16like the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom, in the very heart of the pyramid.
50:21She copied also the place of her tomb.
50:24During the Old Kingdom, the royal tombs were located under the pyramid or in the pyramid.
50:30In the same case, we have the explanation why Hatshepsut located her tomb
50:36in the later called Valley of the Kings.
50:39She curled her tomb under the pyramid, which was the whole mountain.
50:45But Hatshepsut may not be the first pharaoh to have devised this system.
50:51The Temple of Montuhotep II.
50:54Hatshepsut adopts part of its design.
50:57She revives the beautiful festival of the valley, initiated by this same pharaoh.
51:03Unlike Hatshepsut, Mentuhotep II was buried in his temple,
51:07but at the end of a 152-meter-long tunnel,
51:11which placed his tomb directly under the mountain.
51:15Five centuries before Hatshepsut, could he have been the first pharaoh of the future Valley of the Kings?
51:21We are suggesting that the first person who curved the tomb in the Valley of the Kings was Hatshepsut.
51:26But the first person who we can say that copied, or was inspired by the Old Kingdom traditions locating the
51:34royal tomb under the pyramid,
51:36was actually Mentuhotep II, whose tomb is exactly curved under the mountain.
51:45The rocky amphitheatre of Deir el-Bahri and Queen Hatshepsut's Temple of Millions of Years still have some secrets left
51:53in store.
51:57Today, the Temple of Hatshepsut remains one of the most beautiful constructions of ancient Egypt.
52:04Thanks to the work of Egyptologists, the chapels, porticos and frescoes have regained their symbolic dimensions,
52:12bringing the flamboyance of Hatshepsut's extraordinary reign back to life.
52:17Three and a half thousand years after its construction, the originality, audacity and architectural ambition of Queen Hatshepsut's Temple
52:25have elevated her to the ranks of the greatest pharaohs of Egypt for eternity.
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