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00:00A few kilometers south of the Pyramid of Khufu, a lesser-known edifice covered in extraordinary
00:06texts sits imposingly in the Saqqara Desert, the Pyramid of King Pepi II, the longest reigning
00:14pharaoh in ancient Egypt, over 60 years in power. In its burial chambers, this pyramid
00:21houses the oldest religious text in the history of humanity.
00:24The pyramid texts are so important for understanding the afterlife beliefs.
00:30They allow us to have direct access to what Egyptians believed in about 5,000 years ago.
00:37These magic phrases accompanied the pharaoh in the afterlife. Closed to the public, this
00:44pyramid has been excavated and studied for several years by archaeologists.
00:48Wow. It's really immense. It's a huge space.
00:53Because it's the testimony of ancient Egypt's golden age, it represents a watershed in the
00:59construction of these stone monuments. Under Pepi II, the era of the Giants of the Sands
01:06comes to an end, after half a millennium of monumental constructions.
01:10This is a prelude to the end of the old kingdom.
01:14How did the architects who designed this majestic pyramid choose their predecessors' best technical
01:20achievements? What do these mysterious texts mean? What ingenious architectural systems have
01:28ensured the preservation of these magic phrases for 45 centuries? To solve all these mysteries,
01:35our scientists have been granted permission to enter ancient Egypt's most emblematic pyramids
01:40with a new generation laser scanner.
01:44It's quite tight in here. I'll try and worm my way through it.
01:49This technology will enable them to get a digital copy of the inside of the edifice with utmost
01:54precision. With a few clicks we can do measurements that would be very complicated to carry out in situ.
01:59These tools will provide our experts with new clues to further a scientific investigation that started 200 years ago.
02:37The most visible and grandest monuments of the Giza Plateau bear few indications about the pharaoh's lives and afterlife beliefs.
02:47To find them, we have to go further down south of Cairo, 30 kilometers away from those stone giants,
02:53to the location of the mysterious pyramid of Pepi II, the last pharaoh of the Old Kingdom.
02:59It conceals a treasure trove that enables archaeologists to better understand the first Egyptian dynasties,
03:05the oldest corpus of religious texts in the history of humanity.
03:12Frank Meunier is an engineer and Egyptologist. He is also a leading expert on the construction of pyramids.
03:21He has passionately dedicated his life to the architecture and the study of those giants of the sands.
03:28He is going to help us lift the veil on the last remaining secrets of the Pyramid of Pepi II,
03:33a monument to eternity which houses, in its heart, intriguing hieroglyphs engraved on the burial chamber walls 4,500 years
03:42ago.
03:45On this sheet of tracing paper, I have drawn the plan of the pyramid of Pepi II with its burial
03:50chambers.
03:51It would be really interesting to scan those burial chambers in order to get precise measurements of those spaces as
03:58they are now.
03:58We would be able to associate it to a photogrammetric view with all the texts engraved on the interior walls
04:04of the pyramid.
04:07This pyramid was the object of a photogrammetric survey we carried out in 2019.
04:13Now, the LiDAR technology will enable our teams to complete the 3D models and to better decipher the last remaining
04:20secrets of the pyramids with texts.
04:25Why was this tomb engraved with hieroglyphs?
04:29What inventive architectural systems have ensured the preservation of these mysterious texts for 4,500 years?
04:38What do these signs mean, which archaeologists are still decrypting with the aid of high-tech tools?
04:56In the heart of the Egyptian desert, in an area of the Sakharan necropolis complex that is forbidden to the
05:01public,
05:03archaeologist Albonbris Pimpot is going to scan the burial chambers of the pyramid of Pepi II.
05:08I'm going to use this scanner to record details that can't be captured through photogrammetry,
05:13particularly in the gaps between the stone blocks.
05:15The idea is to create a complete 3D model of the burial chambers.
05:20This scanner is one of the smallest LiDARs currently available.
05:24And in a world first, it's going to be used inside a pyramid.
05:28It weighs under 800 grams, which makes it easy to handle.
05:33There are places we can't reach, and so the scanner laser beam can squeeze in between, say, stone blocks.
05:39The photogrammetry technology, on the other hand, really focuses on the surface with its details, paintings and inscriptions.
05:45So the scanner is truly an ideal complement to the photogrammetry.
05:50The scanner works by using wavelengths of light.
05:54It emits a laser beam that helps calculate distances and volumes.
05:58In comparison, the model obtained through photogrammetry isn't as accurate.
06:04The scanner uses a small mirror to rotate the laser beam around itself,
06:09which allows it to quickly collect masses of information that would be stored in the machine.
06:16420,000 points are captured per second at 360 degrees.
06:21A scanner used to be a tool that you had to place on a fixed tripod.
06:25The technology has evolved, and now you can carry it around.
06:29So you hold the scanner as you would move with it.
06:31It simultaneously performs a 3D mapping of the space,
06:34so it allows you to collect masses of information very quickly.
06:38In very little time.
06:44Visitors are not allowed inside the pyramid of Pepi II,
06:47but we've been granted an exceptional permission to enter.
06:51The security guards are just about to unseal its door for us.
06:56This door has been walled up for several years
06:58because the place contains a priceless treasure trove
07:01that could spark the curiosity of robbers.
07:04The workers open the pyramid carefully so that Albonbriste can go inside.
07:11This is the very first time ever that the pyramid of Pepi II will be scanned.
07:24The laser beam has a range of 25 meters.
07:29I'm going to have to do another scanning session with a boom
07:32to collect more details at the top,
07:35because I can't reach them today.
07:40The scanner will provide something like a skeleton to which further data will be added,
07:45such as photogrammetric views.
07:51After working on a computer for several weeks,
07:54Albonbriste will produce a 3D model containing hundreds of millions of points
07:58which will then be analyzed by our experts.
08:01We'll be able to position all the pyramid texts situated in this particular pyramid.
08:06This will be an extraordinary study resource,
08:08both for Egyptologists and for the researchers who are analyzing those texts.
08:13Thanks to this 3D modeling technique,
08:15archaeologists will have a digital model of part of humanity's oldest compilation of religious texts,
08:21which date back to over 4,500 years ago.
08:31Philippe Colombert is the director of the Franco-Swiss team working in Saqqara.
08:36Since 2003, he's been studying these marvelous hieroglyphs
08:40and searching those eternal resting places for any clues they can deliver.
08:45In total, 11 pyramids with texts have been discovered so far.
08:49Their texts make up humanity's oldest corpus of religious texts.
08:56Under Philippe Colombert's supervision, 15 or so researchers work hard every year
09:01to better understand the meanings of those symbols and to decipher and restore them.
09:07Today, he's joined by the team's architect, Savier Henaf.
09:11Together, they're going to establish an overall picture of this pyramid with texts.
09:21These are actually the words of God, which were simply engraved on these walls.
09:26But they come to life virtually.
09:28They're floating in the air all around us.
09:30No need for anyone to come to recite them.
09:34Ancient Egyptians believed that the texts invested with magic power
09:38came alive all by themselves inside the burial chamber.
09:42The messages written with these hieroglyphs would then help the monarch along his journey after death.
09:49Those phrases would guide the king through the labyrinth afterlife.
09:52For instance, they would show him which direction to take,
09:55or inform him which deity would help him along the way.
10:01The Egyptians carved them directly onto the stone blocks.
10:04The pyramid texts are a series of spells, hymns, and a general guidebook for the soul of the deceased king.
10:17The pyramid texts basically are a way of guiding the king through the complexities of reaching the afterwards.
10:25They're his little notes for an exam, a cheat sheet.
10:29For the first time ever, through such texts, archaeologists can have direct access to the thoughts and beliefs of ancient
10:36Egyptians.
10:37Inside the pyramid of Pepi II there are hundreds of different phrases, some of which are entirely unknown and only
10:43appeared under Pepi II.
10:46These hieroglyphs tell us about the fears of ancient Egyptians.
10:51Some signs were banned from pyramid texts, including depictions of dangerous animals.
10:57If you drew, say, a lion, it could come to life inside the pyramid, which would obviously be very dangerous
11:03for the king.
11:06Ancient Egyptians developed some ingenious techniques to safeguard against the evil powers of hieroglyphs.
11:12To make sure it wouldn't move around inside the pyramid, the animal was split in two, and there's this small
11:19white line here that indicates that this animal can no longer move.
11:23Its ability to move was thus annihilated.
11:28Other animals were put through the same treatment.
11:31That way, the fire was protected from evil spells.
11:36Each one of these hieroglyphs is a clue to archaeologists in their quest for a better understanding of the golden
11:41age of the pyramids.
11:46The LiDAR will enable scientists to work on more precise data.
11:52Besides, they'll be able to analyze such data all year without having to be on the ground.
11:57This ideal research tool, therefore, saves a great deal of time.
12:01It allows us to take measurements in just a few clicks.
12:04If we measure the descending passage from its lowest point, that is, from the vestibule door to its current entrance,
12:10we get about 16 meters.
12:11So it's actually a short descending passage compared to those in the other great pyramids.
12:16The burial chambers can be reached quite quickly.
12:18In the pyramid of Khufu, the descending passage is 21 meters long.
12:23While we now need to walk down the long corridors in order to enter the king's tombs,
12:27those passages weren't originally meant to lead into those tombs.
12:31Inside the pyramid of Pepi II, there's evidence that they were actually the opposite.
12:37Even though we call it a descending passage, it was actually an ascending passage, if I may say so.
12:42It was built so that the king could walk up and out of the pyramid, and it's always oriented to
12:48the north.
12:50The north held a strong symbolic dimension for the Egyptian because that's where the polar stars are located,
12:55and those, according to the pharaohs, were the indestructibles.
12:59We've known for a long time that the king was supposed to use a descending passage to reach the polar
13:04stars.
13:04And here we have written proof of that, provided by the Egyptians themselves in 2300 BCE.
13:12Here we can read.
13:14The king must reach, here it is, Ikemu Sek, the stars that are never destroyed.
13:20Those stars are always visible in the sky.
13:23They never go over the horizon to the other side.
13:27For an Egyptian, going over the horizon meant dying.
13:33These hieroglyphs, for the first time in history, confirm the theories of the archaeologists.
13:43Pepe II was the last king of the Sixth Dynasty, and therefore the last pharaoh of the Old Kingdom.
13:49He ruled around the year 2022 BCE, over 300 years after the great king Khufu.
13:56Pepe II was the longest lived pharaoh of the Old Kingdom.
14:00He came to the throne when he was very young, about seven-ish, or six.
14:04He reigned for an incredibly long period of time.
14:07The number is roughly around 62 years, maybe even more.
14:11Towards the end of his reign, Egypt's different provinces began to gain independence.
14:16Unfortunately, because of the length of his reign, Egypt, from being quite powerful, wound up filled with internal problems by
14:25the end of Pepe's reign.
14:26And so we can see that this is a prelude to the end of the Old Kingdom.
14:31The governors of the different provinces in Egypt gained a lot of power.
14:36And this, after many, many years, was a threat to the crown, and ultimately led to the collapse of the
14:41Old Kingdom and the first intermediate period.
14:44The first intermediate period was marked by the weakening of the central power amid political troubles.
14:51New research shows that climate conditions also played a critical role in bringing about those major changes, by reducing the
14:58number of floods that were essential to the fertilization of the soil.
15:03Were there smaller Nile floods? Possibly.
15:06But besides that, droughts were probably greater and famines more frequent towards the end of his reign.
15:14The hieroglyphs in the pyramid of Pepe II are very well preserved, partly because the pyramid is not open to
15:20the public.
15:22Its walls have been protected against bad weather and the carbon dioxide often emitted by visitors.
15:29The most impressive texts were found inside this burial chamber several meters underground.
15:37American Egyptologist Stephen Harvey has come here all the way from New York to study this pyramid.
15:42Wow. This is exciting.
15:46He is thrilled as he's entering it for the first time.
15:53Oh, wow. Oh, this is incredible. The name of Pepe himself.
16:03Here you can see the cartouches of King Pepe. Pepe and Neferkare, his second name, both of them indicating his
16:11identity.
16:11Already at the entrance, in this big gallery that's an extension of the descending passage leading to the antechamber
16:17and then the burial chamber of Pepe II, the walls are decked with magnificent hieroglyphs.
16:22This is a pyramid of great fame, of great importance.
16:28And it's a pyramid that has a special place for archaeologists.
16:33We're entering into something that is a bit of a trip into the underworld.
16:40Their craftsmanship is so fine that it's hard for us to imagine these hieroglyphs weren't made to be seen by
16:45ordinary people.
16:49What it's like in here.
16:53Wow.
16:55It's really immense. It's a huge space.
17:01I knew to expect something impressive, but this is a little bit more impressive than I thought.
17:09Everything around us is symbolic.
17:11As we look up, a starry sky gazes back at us.
17:15The stars in big scale are reminding us that we're in eternal space.
17:20This isn't a human space. This isn't a space meant for coming and going.
17:24It's not a church, not a cathedral, not a place for worship of the public.
17:29The archaeologist spots construction marks on the ceiling dating back to 4,300 years ago.
17:36They put string into red ink and they stretch it out and they snap the lines.
17:41And you can even see the paint splatter on the ceiling in particular because I think they would have used
17:47younger people probably, interns, students, you could say, to do the ceilings and to do the stars.
17:56Through the 3D model, experts can explore the chamber in its three dimensions and they can find in it the
18:02answers to some of the great questions that have nagged at Egyptologists for centuries.
18:10One of those questions can be elucidated through the analysis of the walls of Pepe II's burial chamber.
18:16Why are pyramids triangular in shape?
18:20Several hypotheses and theories have been put forward by archaeologists.
18:25But the definitive explanation is presented to us by these hieroglyphs.
18:30One of those theories is provided by the Egyptians themselves.
18:35As we can see here, this inscription reads,
18:38We pay tribute to you, God sets ladder.
18:41That means that the pyramid itself was perhaps considered to be a ladder that would allow the king to climb
18:48up to the sky or to heaven for ancient Egyptians.
18:53That's why the pyramid texts are so fundamental to us.
18:58But these phrases that are so precious for us to understand the mentality of ancient Egyptians aren't easy to decode.
19:054,000 years later, we're able to read them and we're able to translate them.
19:09Understanding them, however, is a whole other story.
19:12All these hieroglyphs were transcribed by Philippe Colombert's team.
19:16They were then compared against each other in order to be translated.
19:20These inscriptions need to be read in a particular way.
19:23These texts have a specific reading direction, which is indicated by how the living beings turn their heads.
19:30They're all looking this way, to the left, to indicate that the text starts on the left.
19:35So these columns are meant to be read from left to right.
19:40They're meant to be read from the perspective first of someone in the burial chamber.
19:44So it is for the deceased king to emerge, read these texts, and navigate through and ascend up to these
19:53celestial bodies.
19:55It took years of research for scientists to be able to decode these phrases that carry tremendous wealth.
20:05Besides the magic spells, we can find here very mundane statements.
20:11On the north wall of the burial chamber, the Egyptologist has even been able to read what seems to be
20:16a menu for the pharaoh.
20:18This is what we call an offering table, with food and drinks for the king.
20:23He ordered the engraving on this wall of a number of offerings that would be at his disposal later.
20:29He has a loaf of bread, for instance, with four bars under it, which means he wanted four of them.
20:35And so he would have food and drink resources with him throughout eternity.
20:43There's some water here at the beginning, but the king also asked for a lot of beer.
20:49It was important for the Egyptians to live in the afterlife just as they had lived on earth.
20:56Therefore, the pyramid texts also provide information about their daily life.
21:03But research on the construction secrets of this pyramid with texts is only beginning.
21:09Four thousand years ago, the Egyptians did not have any colossal machines to erect such monuments.
21:16How, with rudimentary means, were they able to build this burial chamber so precisely?
21:26Under the sand lies concealed the treasure of Pepi II's burial chamber,
21:30which can now be analyzed with the latest scientific tools.
21:35Through our 3D model, archaeologists can rediscover the burial chambers from an entirely new perspective.
21:42This 3D model is really helpful to archaeologists to be able to completely envision the entirety of the burial chamber
21:51and all the different structures underneath the pyramid.
21:55This is so accurate, and I can take measurements.
21:59I can, in essence, see the pyramid like I could never do before.
22:06This tool allows the Egyptologist to measure the height of the burial chamber in a few seconds.
22:12On the ground, this operation would require considerable means.
22:16I could just click here and here, and I can see it's 4.75 meters tall.
22:23It's a great tool.
22:26How was this 120 cubic meter chamber built?
22:29In order to meet the challenge of building the king's resting place,
22:33Pepi II's architects employed a very specific method.
22:39We know that in the pyramid of Khufu, for instance, the burial chambers are arranged inside the pyramid itself.
22:44Here, on the other hand, it's a bit different.
22:46The burial chambers are arranged in built spaces, but those built spaces are situated below ground level.
22:52In other words, the visible part of the pyramid is filled with stones.
22:57The secret of this document lies further down.
23:01The floor of the burial chamber is situated 6 meters below ground level.
23:06In fact, they tended to build the burial chamber in the open air before covering it with the pyramid structure.
23:12The pyramid was built above it.
23:15When construction began, the workers dug a T-shaped trench in the sand of Saqqara.
23:21In that trench, they built the descending passage, the corridor leading to the antechamber, and then the sirdabs, which were
23:27small storage spaces.
23:29And then finally, they built the burial chamber.
23:32All the walls in the burial chamber have fine limestone facing.
23:38This limestone is very homogenous, solid and resistant, and it's placed there to counter the effects of the weight.
23:45You see, all the weight of the pyramid is pressing down on the burial chambers in the center.
23:52The sacred texts were engraved on that precious limestone facing.
23:57Only after the walls had been put up did the engravers carve those signs inside the pyramid,
24:04which they then painted with that magnificent green.
24:07The color was not chosen arbitrarily. Green was very symbolic for the Egyptians.
24:12It represents the new growth of plants and the fertility and rebirth that every deceased person hoped for in ancient
24:23Egypt.
24:24Just like the crops emerge from the soil and grow and are green,
24:28so too the deceased, they emerge from their life into the afterlife reborn again.
24:35It was only after the burial chambers were built that the pyramid itself was erected.
24:43How did the workers labor several meters below ground? What tools did they have?
24:50The orientation of the pyramid was carefully studied by the architects of the time.
24:56It helped to provide light for the worker who engraved the inscriptions.
25:00As the opening of the pyramid was on the east side, facing sunrise,
25:05they could make the most of the sunlight to dig and to engrave the walls.
25:10The workers also used the means of lighting available then.
25:14At the time when the pyramids were constructed, people used small oil lamps.
25:19It was very, very dark and that ceiling must have been totally black.
25:22So those white stars were set against that black background.
25:26It must have looked extremely striking.
25:30Contrary to popular belief, it was not slaves who built this monument to eternity
25:34and engraved its sacred texts.
25:38They were royal laborers who were probably employed, not punctually like slaves,
25:43but on a permanent basis, as specialists who fully mastered the different crafts
25:47required in the construction of a royal monument.
25:52They've put the best artists, the best scribes of their period onto the king's burial place.
26:00Archaeologists now know a bit more about the different steps required to engrave these inscriptions.
26:07First the texts were composed by people who could read the hieroglyphs, and by the painters, who made an initial
26:14painting on the walls.
26:17Then the engravers carved the texts.
26:20They didn't have to know the hieroglyphs.
26:22All they had to do was follow the model in front of them.
26:28It's hard to imagine that these magnificent texts were carved with very rudimentary tools.
26:34So the beautiful inscriptions are created on limestone walls by carving with copper tools, very fine-grained copper tools, but
26:44perhaps also with flint tools.
26:47Now flint seems like a very primitive material, but in fact it's very hard and it can be used to
26:52get a really effective crisp line in limestone, which is perfect for carving a hieroglyphic inscription.
26:58We just look back in our own history, the medieval cathedrals are built by people who had tools, probably the
27:06same tools they had in ancient Egypt.
27:094,000 years ago, the Egyptians made fantastic use of simple tools, which sculptures still use to this day.
27:19In total, several hundred phrases cover the burial chamber of Pharaoh Pepi II.
27:25How were these precious texts protected?
27:30This immense tomb was paradoxically the main danger from which the king's body and the inscriptions needed protecting.
27:37The weight of the pyramid above us is immense.
27:41Something like 107,000 cubic meters of stone, rubble and limestone over our heads.
27:47When the Egyptians built Pepi II's edifice, they already had some vast experience in pyramid construction.
27:55They knew, since the fourth dynasty, how to protect the sarcophagus against all the weight bearing on the burial chamber.
28:02They built a massive chevron vault so that the forces exerted by the weight of the pyramid would be deflected
28:08over to the sides.
28:09The builders employed pretty impressive techniques.
28:12Massive limestone blocks of seven meters each make up the chevron vault.
28:17This structure, which weighs thousands of tons, protects the tomb and distributes the forces outwards, dispersing them over to the
28:24sides.
28:25To better understand how it works, we've asked Alban Brice Pampot to scan the vault in order to complete the
28:31digital model.
28:32What we should do here is use the scanner to collect as much data as possible behind the stone blocks
28:38that reinforce the structure.
28:40There must be gaps that will allow us to go as far behind as possible in order to hopefully find
28:44out where the rafters end.
28:46While the builders' techniques no longer hold any secrets for archaeologists,
28:50the 3D model may provide some extra information to complement their knowledge of the feats pulled off over 4,000
28:57years ago.
28:57This is the very heart of the pyramid. We're inside the burial chamber.
29:02And we can clearly see both rafters of the chevron vault extending behind the walls.
29:10Those enormous stone beams weighing dozens of tons each can withstand the pressure of the thousands of tons of material
29:17above them.
29:20How can that be? How are the rafters laid?
29:25On either side there's a cross wall, which is called the gable wall.
29:30They go very high up. Then above them are the rafters that go all the way down to the base
29:34of the structure, outside the chamber.
29:37In fact, there are huge limestone blocks called abutments down there.
29:42A V-shaped groove was cut into each one of those abutments, and the rafters fit into those grooves at
29:48an oblique angle.
29:49So that's a perfectly stable wedging system. Plus, there's nothing hollow underneath the rafters, which ensures their stability.
29:57We can clearly see in this technical drawing made by Frank Monnier that the blocks are laid one on top
30:03of another, and are supported on the sides, much further behind the side walls of the burial chamber.
30:09The Egyptians tried to be as cautious as possible. There isn't only one layer of rafters, there are actually three
30:15of them, one on top of the other.
30:17The first one goes all the way down, the second one is a bit shorter, and doesn't reach the ground.
30:22And the third one above it is even shorter. Seen from outside, those rafters form steps, like this.
30:30The walls we see in the burial chamber are in fact like wallpaper. They're not load-bearing walls. The vault
30:37rafters aren't laid directly on top of them.
30:43By analyzing the 3D model obtained from our LIDAR survey, Frank Monnier has noticed a detail that helps us better
30:49understand this technical feat.
30:52They took care to leave a very small gap, just a few centimeters, which was enough. They laid the chevron
30:59vault, and when the pyramid was erected, it was supported by the vault, which could still budge a few centimeters
31:06under the weight of the pyramid.
31:08However, the side walls weren't affected and could then be decorated.
31:13It's a system that defies the passing of time, as the hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of stone surmounting
31:20the burial chamber haven't budged in 4,000 years, thus preserving Pepe II's soul and body.
31:28As we can clearly see in this digital model, there's not a single crack on the burial chamber walls, unlike
31:34other pyramids.
31:46In the back of the burial chamber, dominating the space with its imposing size is the massive sarcophagus of Pepe
31:54II, which was left open but empty.
31:58The sarcophagus is very personal. It's just his name and identity, nothing else. There is not the place for the
32:07pyramid text.
32:08The tank is 3 meters long and about 1.3 meters wide, with a height of 1.2 meters.
32:15The sarcophagus is made of greywack, a variety of sandstone that was much appreciated by the Egyptians.
32:21That schist came from the Wadi Hamamat quarries and was used as a noble material to preserve the king's body
32:28in that vessel.
32:30The Wadi Hamamat quarries bear the marks of the team sent there by Pepe I and Pepe II to extract
32:36stone blocks for the greywack sarcophagi, which they then transported to the pyramid.
32:43It's a single smooth and modestly sculpted block.
32:46I'm thinking 20, 30 tons just for the sarcophagus. So these are immensely heavy stones brought from great distances, partly
32:54by boat and partly over land, just dragged.
32:57The block used to make the sarcophagus was extracted up in the mountain, where it was cut and hollowed out.
33:03Then it was transported to the pyramid and placed inside it, and that's when it was decorated.
33:09How could such an imposing piece get to such narrow burial chambers?
33:15Very often the sarcophagus didn't get through the corridors that were later available to reach the burial chambers inside the
33:22pyramid.
33:25The Egyptians must have devised very ingenious means.
33:28The sarcophagus was lowered after the burial chamber walls were put up, but before the chevron vault was laid, sometimes
33:35with ropes only.
33:38Other systems have been suggested based on the use of sand.
33:42The pit was filled with sand, and the sarcophagus was laid on top of it.
33:47Then the workers gradually removed the sand and, due to its weight, the sarcophagus would descend to the bottom of
33:53the burial chamber, where it was meant to stay throughout eternity.
34:00Sometimes a sarcophagus suffered damage when it was lowered into the pyramid, but it couldn't be replaced, because it wasn't
34:07possible to move such a massive object through the access corridors.
34:11These were in fact reserved for the activities involved in the construction.
34:16Once the pharaoh had reached his eternal resting place inside his sarcophagus, he had to be protected from external aggressions.
34:26For over 60 years, a team of French and Swiss researchers have been excavating the Saqqara Desert to better understand
34:33these pyramids with texts.
34:36They are among the few archaeologists that have entered the lesser known pyramid.
34:42It was designed as a fortress to protect the pharaoh and its sacred texts.
34:48I never noticed this plastering practically everywhere. Is that ancient or is it modern?
34:53I don't think that's ancient, because a lot of restoration work was carried out all around the portcullises, which are
35:02precisely here.
35:03They're raised today so we can enter the pyramid.
35:08During their excavation, archaeologists discovered a clever system that was meant to prevent any intrusion attempt.
35:15Portcullises.
35:17They were initially blocks that would slide down to the ground and the portcullises themselves were framed by big granite
35:25blocks.
35:26So this is a security area.
35:28Those blocks were propped up, perhaps by big wooden logs, which kept them raised.
35:33Once the pharaoh was buried and no one needed to enter the pyramid again,
35:38those wooden logs were removed one by one and the stone blocks slid naturally to the ground.
35:47Those blocks closed the passage forever. There was no getting through them.
35:52The protection system is clearly visible in this 3D model.
35:57Inside the pyramid of Pippi II, there were three monolithic blocks of granite,
36:01which was one of the hardest rocks known to ancient Egyptians.
36:06The density of granite is much higher than that of limestone.
36:09Limestone has a density of 2.5 per cubic meter, which means a one cubic meter block weighs 2.5
36:15tons.
36:16On the other hand, a block of granite with the same dimension weighs 3.5 tons.
36:21Those blocks were extracted in Aswan, from quarries situated hundreds of kilometers south of Cairo.
36:28The blocks were transported on boats of the river.
36:31And then from the river until here, they had to be dragged on slaves by several men working in lines.
36:40And yet, the portcullises did not stop robbers from entering the pyramid of Pharaoh Pippi II.
36:47This pyramid, like all the others, was robbed.
36:52Robberies often took place right after the king's burial.
36:56Just like a lot of ingenuity went into building the pyramids,
37:00a lot of ingenuity went into breaking what the architects did to protect the pyramids.
37:05So the thieves were quite creative.
37:07The robbers knew it was difficult to break the granite blocks.
37:10So they dug into the surrounding stones, which were not as hard.
37:15We can see here that the limestone lintel system was completely broken.
37:19We can even see all the marks of the tools on the block.
37:23This is probably one of the passages that the robbers used to enter the pyramid.
37:28They went over the portcullises.
37:31What did they do to the mummy?
37:34Practically none of the bodies of the pharaohs has ever been found, but why?
37:39The mummies were bandaged and covered with small amulets and other golden objects.
37:44The robbers knew that, so they unbandaged the mummy and took the gold.
37:51They probably had to cut up the mummy and sometimes even burn it,
37:55in order to collect more easily the golden items they wanted.
38:00There also would have been semi-precious stones, all of which would have been saleable by the robbers.
38:08After the robberies, thousands of fragments of pyramid texts were left scattered on the ground.
38:14Back then no one was interested in those inscriptions of priceless value.
38:19It would take archaeologists centuries to bring them to light.
38:28At the end of the 19th century, guided by his intuition, an Egyptologist made that unprecedented discovery.
38:35The year is 1880.
38:38Going against the trend in Egyptology, young Gaston Maspero believes that some pyramids,
38:43which still remained unexplored, could house texts engraved in stone.
38:48Auguste Mariette, the father of archaeology, disagrees.
38:52Auguste Mariette had been inside the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre,
38:56and so he was convinced that there were no texts inside the pyramids.
39:01Maspero, however, persisted.
39:03And he eventually discovered the pyramid of Pepi I, predecessor of Pepi II.
39:08That pyramid revealed information so invaluable for archaeologists
39:12that it changed our understanding of ancient Egypt forever.
39:18They did find texts inside the pyramid of Pepi I,
39:22which proved that the young French archaeologist Maspero was right,
39:27and old Mariette was wrong.
39:32And then the pyramids of Pepi I and Pepi II were excavated by Gustave Géquier,
39:37from Switzerland, in the 1920s and 30s.
39:42Philippe Colombert is continuing the work of his illustrious predecessor
39:46to understand the pyramid texts.
39:49This is the final stage in the composition of the pyramid texts.
39:52It sort of wraps it all up.
39:56When were pyramid texts first created?
39:59The oldest one so far is in the Pyramid of Pharaonis.
40:06They first appear in the Pyramid of Unas, who is the last king of the 5th dynasty.
40:11What's fascinating, experts have found,
40:13is that even without any texts on the walls,
40:16pharaohs like the great Khufu were also protected, albeit differently.
40:21Those texts were probably composed over a very long period of time,
40:25before anyone thought to physically place them inside the pyramid, around the king.
40:30They might have been on papyrus that were buried with the king,
40:33and it was only later that it was decided that these should be put on the wall in a more
40:39permanent way.
40:40We're actually sure that those phrases, even before they were perhaps written on papyrus,
40:46were preserved and handed down orally,
40:49even before there was a writing system in Egypt.
40:54To bring the site back to life, archaeologists can now rely on cutting-edge technology,
41:00and by doing so, find out new clues that will lead to a better understanding of the building secrets around
41:06the pyramid of Pepe II.
41:09The burial chamber contains traces that Philippe Colombert's team have yet to find.
41:15This is the cover of a canopic jar.
41:18There were four canopic jars containing the viscera of the king.
41:24In order to ensure the preservation of the pharaoh's body, his remains were placed in a sarcophagus,
41:29but his viscera were removed from the corpse and stored in vases next to the sarcophagus.
41:34There were four jars representing the four sons of Horus, each one with a different head.
41:41The king's lungs, intestines, stomach and liver were placed inside those jars so that they wouldn't decay.
41:47The idea was to preserve those organs so that the king could use them when he came back to life,
41:52as the fundamental belief of the Egyptian religion was a resurrection.
41:58Underneath the concrete floor that was laid here during the excavation in the 1930s,
42:02Philippe Colombert's team hopes to find some items.
42:06This year we're going to break this concrete floor,
42:08which shouldn't be in an archaeological monument to begin with,
42:12to see what we can find under it.
42:13There may be fragments of this canopic jar or jars themselves.
42:17We don't know that yet.
42:19There may be remains of the canopic jars, as well as other fragments of pyramid texts scattered underground.
42:29We have a whole series of calcite fragments like those at our storage facility,
42:33so we should be able to piece them together.
42:38Absolutely. I have other fragments here.
42:42In the storage facility, there are hundreds of fragments of hieroglyphs that we were able to film many years ago.
42:50Season after season, the archaeologists gradually reconstruct this puzzle, 60% of which is still missing, experts say.
42:59The fragments of pyramid texts that we find will be drawn and photographed.
43:04Then we'll put all those pieces together digitally,
43:07and we may ultimately be able to reconstruct the walls inside the pyramid itself.
43:16Day after day, the scientists carry on doing their sterling work.
43:20Every new piece we find can shed new light, because these hieroglyphs are pictures,
43:25and a picture is worth a thousand words.
43:32The archaeologists can now use technological tools to reconstruct a more accurate version of the pyramid texts.
43:43A king's resting place is not limited to his pyramid, as imposing as it may be.
43:48In fact, it comprises an entire complex dedicated to the worship of the pharaoh.
43:54We're standing before the front facade of the burial temple,
43:57where ceremonies were held in worship of Pepi II, who was buried in his pyramid.
44:02Pepi II's burial complex is particularly large.
44:06Its temples, also of colossal dimensions, are very well decorated with noble materials.
44:11This, even though it looks very destroyed,
44:14is actually one of the better preserved temples that we have of Old Kingdom pyramids.
44:20And what we're looking at here is Pepi II, he's being embraced by a god.
44:25And we know it's a god, because he has an animal head and a human body.
44:29And that animal head is a falcon.
44:31The falcon represents the sun god, Ra.
44:35He receives the pharaoh, who will become a deity himself.
44:40The burial complex was used to hold rituals after the pharaoh's burial.
44:46Those rituals were supposed to go on throughout eternity.
44:49Only the priests were entitled to enter the complex.
44:53Every day afterwards, these rituals would be carried out, and perhaps on certain days, feast days, there would be a
45:01larger kind of ceremony, which would be more public.
45:05So more people would come and pray to the deceased king, and also benefit from him.
45:12This is a place of cult. It's a place where the priests came in to perform the offerings.
45:16And the carvings and the texts found within these pyramid complexes let us know that that cult, that ritual, was
45:23meant to go on for thousands of years.
45:27There could be about a hundred priests working there permanently.
45:32Pepi II's pyramid and its burial complex are somehow the pinnacle of the classic architecture of the Old Kingdom.
45:40The Sixth Dynasty represented a watershed, and that was no accident.
45:46From the reign of Unis onwards, the pyramids became smaller than those on the Giza Plateau, which were all different.
45:53Here, at the necropolis complex of Saqqara, there are about 60 meters in height.
45:59They all have about the same dimensions. The interior corridors were built in exactly the same shape.
46:05In the Sixth Dynasty, there was an established plan that everyone used, one after the other.
46:11So in the Sixth Dynasty, the pyramids were standardized.
46:15In that period, there were no more innovations or experimentations.
46:19They simply reproduced the tried and tested models.
46:23Egyptologist studies and the evolution of digital space modeling technologies
46:27help us to better understand that the end of the Old Kingdom ushered in a period of standardization of great
46:33monuments.
46:38That standardization entailed the simplification of the structures.
46:42The problem is they wanted to build very fast, so they tried to use as many different materials as possible
46:48that wouldn't make it difficult to build.
46:51As a result, those pyramids haven't survived as well as the Pyramid of Khufu or other Giza pyramids,
46:58which, even though they were older, were better structured.
47:03Why didn't Pepe II build his pyramid as well as his predecessors had?
47:09At some point, they probably couldn't afford to expend all that energy to build gigantic pyramids.
47:17Also, royal power probably grew weaker, while the power of the elites and the clergy grew stronger.
47:25During the reign of Pepe II, high-ranking dignitaries grew stronger and stronger in importance, to such an extent that
47:33the pharaoh's power was destabilized.
47:36Very soon, Egypt plunged into a period of political troubles that Egyptologists call the First Intermediate Period.
47:43In the First Intermediate Period, many provincial governors assumed power and proclaimed themselves kings of their provinces.
47:52So several competing dynasties emerged at the same time. It was the end of the central power.
48:00The burial complex of Pepe II reflects the very structure of the society at the time.
48:06The pyramid was smaller and the complex itself much bigger.
48:11So there was a balancing out of the tomb proper, in other words, the pyramid and the cult facilities that
48:19surrounded the tomb,
48:20with a sharp development of the temples associated to the royal pyramid.
48:26Hence, the temples of Pepe II's burial complex are carefully designed.
48:31They were adorned with great amounts of bas-reliefs, which, in a way, told the story of the reign and
48:37drew a picture of the king's activity in the country he ruled.
48:41So those temples were particularly greater in importance than the pyramid in the burial complex as a whole.
48:47The pyramid of Pepe II and its magnificent burial complex marked the culmination of the great age of the pyramids.
48:55As it happened, the pyramid of Pepe II dropped the curtain on the first great age of the pyramids.
49:01Pepe II's pyramid and pyramid complex was sort of the perfection of a process of refinement that led to this
49:10point at the end of the Old Kingdom.
49:12And it was forever after considered the model to follow.
49:16That model would later be used in the Middle Kingdom, and it served as inspiration particularly for the Black Pyramid
49:22of Dashur.
49:23Then, as of the New Kingdom, 1500 years BCE, the Egyptians stopped building those giants of the sands.
49:31Eventually, after the end of the Middle Kingdom, they realized that those pyramids were definitely too attractive for robbers.
49:37They were built to preserve the body.
49:40But it did not work.
49:42The pharaohs of the New Kingdom decided to be buried in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.
49:47They wanted a hidden secret tombs because they were worried about robbery.
49:51And so this valley was a very secret place.
49:55The tombs were cut in a very inaccessible area, and therefore we have this natural pyramid instead.
50:04The era of the giants of the sands thus came to an end after half a millennium.
50:09Those extraordinary pyramids marked the golden age of ancient Egypt,
50:13a period of great wealth that has left us humanity's oldest compilation of religious texts,
50:18hieroglyphs that, day after day, Egyptologists put back together like a huge puzzle.
50:25I think that there will be many more decades of pyramid text studies before we come to a proper understanding
50:33of what these texts meant to the Egyptians.
50:36The kings wanted those phrases to be pronounced.
50:39And when the Egyptologists now enter the pyramid, they pronounce those phrases.
50:43So the magic that the ancient Egyptians wanted is being accomplished 4,500 years later.
50:50Each one of these symbols is coming back to life and providing precious testimonies about the beliefs of ancient Egyptians.
50:57Out of the hundred or so pyramids built in ancient Egypt, only about a dozen of them contain texts.
51:04The pyramid of Pepi II is therefore a wonder the study of which, on the scale of history, has only
51:09just begun.
51:10is to begin.
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