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00:01On the Giza Plateau, Khufu and Khafre loom almost 80 meters over their little sister, the Pyramid of Menkor.
00:11There's something unique about this pyramid. He had a different vision than his ancestors.
00:17He preferred to concentrate on what was inside, on his apartments.
00:23Menkor, Giza's third builder, stands out from his predecessors by his architectural innovations.
00:35Superb. A chamber entirely carved out of granite.
00:39The most discreet of these three Egyptian marvels may yet be the one with the most to reveal.
00:49The Menkor, a pyramid complex, is a little bit like a movie script.
00:54The history and ultimate fate of Menkor are breathtaking.
00:57Two hundred years ago, his sarcophagus sank in the Mediterranean.
01:02And it's never been recovered. So, something of a mystery hides out in the ocean.
01:10Menkor, the grandson of Khufu, has entered into legend.
01:15And the construction of his tomb still remains a puzzle today.
01:20To shed light on these mysteries, our scientists were granted permission to venture inside Egypt's most iconic pyramids with a
01:28latest generation laser scanner.
01:31It's quite tight in here.
01:34I'll try and worm my way through it.
01:38Using this procedure, they're able to create a very precise digital copy of the inside of the structure.
01:44With a few clicks, we can do measurements that would be very complicated to carry out in situ.
01:48These tools will let our experts discover new clues in this ongoing scientific investigation, which began two hundred years ago.
02:24We'll see you next time.
02:28We head to the Giza Plateau, only a few kilometers as the crow flies from Cairo, to discover the Pyramid
02:35of Menkor.
02:38The Sphinx seems to be watching over these three marvels of Egypt.
02:46The first is the Pyramid of Khufu, the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that is
02:52still standing.
02:53Then, in the middle, is the Pyramid of Khufu's son, Khafre.
02:56And the last, built by Khufu's grandson, Menkor.
03:07The first thing that differentiates this pyramid from its two big sisters is its size.
03:12Why did the third king of the Giza Plateau have a pyramid built that was much smaller than those of
03:17his father and grandfather?
03:21The reasons for this is unknown.
03:23But some people say there wasn't enough space on the Giza Plateau for Menkor to build just as large of
03:31a pyramid as his predecessors.
03:36Khufu's pyramid is composed of between 2.5 and 3 million blocks.
03:41A lot fewer make up his grandsons.
03:47It's something like one-tenth the volume of Khufu's pyramid.
03:52That would sound tiny.
03:54In fact, Menkor's pyramid is pretty massive.
03:59One-tenth the volume of the Great Pyramid.
04:03And yet the sides are still 105 meters long, and it is 63 meters tall, 10 meters higher than the
04:09Arc de Triomphe.
04:13The experts have put forward another possible reason for this pyramid's dimensions.
04:19Economic resources were more scarce.
04:22It was seen as a bit more wasteful to make a massive pyramid.
04:25Well, there's some logic to that.
04:27For three generations, they've been creating monuments of massive size.
04:33Were Egypt's resources enough to keep this up?
04:41The resources of the country had been stretched to their limit under Khufu, and then pushed even further for Khafre's
04:48pyramid.
04:51His grandfather had built Egypt's largest pyramid.
04:55Khufu had expended so many resources that the country had done left for the next generations.
05:01They must have had to put a crazy amount of energy into it, concentrating all the kingdom's resources into a
05:06national project that wouldn't yield any profit.
05:09Such projects clearly had their limits, and there came a point when enough was enough.
05:16With Menkaure, the age of excess came to an end.
05:20The old kingdom was going through a transitional period.
05:23At the same time as this, there was probably an elite with increased powers, which meant that the pharaoh was
05:30no longer omnipotent in the way that Khafre and Khufu were.
05:35I think Menkaure's reign marks a turning point in that kind of decision-making regarding what matters about a pyramid.
05:45And yet, Menkaure's pyramid is an architectural gem, the most delicate of the three pyramids on the Giza Plateau when
05:53you study it in detail.
06:03The Egyptologist, Vassil Dobrev, has been studying Menkaure's pyramid for years.
06:11Unlike Khafre's and Khufu's pyramids, which were built of blocks of white limestone, Menkaure's stands out for its reddish hue.
06:23There are lots of blocks of granite here, and they were all originally on the outside of the pyramid.
06:30These tons and tons of scattered blocks of granite were part of the pyramid's facing, which was wrecked by looters.
06:39Granite was a special rock for several reasons.
06:43First, it had to come a very long way.
06:46This red stone was brought from the quarries of Aswan, in the south of the country.
06:51It was transported by boat 800 kilometers down the Nile to Giza.
06:58Also, it is much harder to work with than the limestone used by Khufu and Khafre.
07:04Their techniques had developed.
07:06Things got passed on from one generation to the next, each generation coming up with its own innovations.
07:12Such is one particularly effective tool.
07:15They use so-called sand saws.
07:17When you saw two blocks next to each other, you make them even.
07:21So when you put them together, they stick.
07:23There's no need for cement.
07:26The Egyptians used copper saws.
07:30These famous saws are a bit difficult to imagine.
07:33But they had to have existed, because we can see their traces on the rocks.
07:38As the saw passed, it didn't just go in one line.
07:41One time it'd go like this, and the next it'd go like this.
07:46By using granite, Menkor went for the difficult option.
07:52But he was able to draw on the experience of his ancestors.
07:57What you have to realize is that by this time, they've been building large pyramids for almost a hundred years.
08:02Well, that's quite a bit of experience, a lot of experience.
08:06Egyptologists have questions about Menkor's surprising choice for the facing of his pyramid.
08:12Did he want to make a totally red pyramid?
08:14Here we have just one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight rows, more or less, that are still intact.
08:22Menkor's pyramid has nine blocks, nine rows of granite facing.
08:29And some people think that maybe he intended to cover his entire pyramid in granite
08:34to make up for the fact that it was smaller in size.
08:38A clue in the middle of the blocks of limestone steers us towards another, more probable hypothesis.
08:46A bit higher up there by the gap, to the left of the gap,
08:48we can still see a block of granite in place, apparently a block of the facing.
08:53This block of granite, on about the 15th row, provides crucial information about the original facing.
09:00It's cased with 16 courses at the bottom of granite.
09:04So it would have had a different appearance when it was finished.
09:08And in fact, the whole thing was probably never completed to the very end.
09:13The facing of this pyramid consisted of two colors.
09:16At the base, it was granite, a dark pink, grayish-pink color.
09:20And then the rest of the pyramid was fine limestone from Tura.
09:24So what you saw was a radiant pyramid standing on a much darker base.
09:28It would have been white, gleaming white limestone on the top,
09:31and beautiful red-black granite on the bottom.
09:35So the pharaoh decided that he wanted a two-color pyramid.
09:40The remaining blocks of granite provide us with more information.
09:44The blocks were first of all put perfectly in place next to each other.
09:47And then they were smoothed off.
09:50Unfortunately, this job wasn't finished across the whole pyramid.
09:54Some of the blocks were polished.
09:56Others were left in their raw state.
09:58It's a vital clue for understanding King Mencore's personal history.
10:03What we do know for certain is that Mencore died.
10:07And we know with a high degree of probability that he died before completing his pyramid.
10:13Because his pyramid shows all the different stages of work.
10:16The complex was left incompleted.
10:21So King Mencore died before the construction was complete.
10:25And the pyramid was finished in a hurry.
10:28The incomplete nature of the structure provides us with clues 4,500 years later.
10:33The building of a royal tomb in Egypt only took place during the lifespan of the king himself.
10:40Any work after his death was very much down to a bit of some finishing off of things which are
10:45absolutely essential.
10:55So King Mencore's Pyramid is an expert who studies the construction and workings of the pyramids of ancient Egypt.
11:10With the aid of a high-tech miniature scanner, he'll help us come to grips with the mysteries of Mencore's
11:16Pyramid.
11:22This year I'm drawing in a very diagrammatic way the funeral apartments of Mencore's Pyramid.
11:28It'd be really interesting to do a scan first of all of the anti-chamber, this abandoned chamber here and
11:33all its characteristics.
11:35And then of the burial chamber itself.
11:37If we carry out a very precise study then maybe we'll learn a lot about the way in which the
11:41Egyptians built this burial chamber.
11:49We obtained special permission to enter this pyramid, which is closed to the general public, and entrusted this mission to
11:55Alban Brice Pampot.
11:57The internal structure of Mencore's Pyramid has a very special feature.
12:02The funeral apartments are totally underground.
12:05Alban Brice Pampot is employing the latest technology in the service of archaeology.
12:10Equipped with a cutting-edge scanner of millimetric precision, he'll be able to scan the most inaccessible underground parts of
12:17the pyramid, revealing them as never before.
12:19Going into the pyramid with the scanner, I'll be able to capture a huge number of points, the 3D coordinates
12:25of the tomb's walls.
12:26This will create a complete 3D plan.
12:28The idea is to get into all the spaces that are accessible to me in order to document the entire
12:33funeral space.
12:36With the help of the high-precision LiDAR scanner, for the first time in history, Mencore's Pyramid may reveal to
12:42us new clues about its construction.
12:53keen as a crucial but to look at the
13:19We've just come down the sloping corridor, reaching the first chamber, which is decorated
13:23with bas-reliefs.
13:24Then we go past the portcullis stones, another short corridor, and we come out into this
13:29great room, which is a large excavation in the rock.
13:38The scanner can capture 420,000 points per second.
13:44The data are then analyzed in Paris, and the results of the scans will be ready in a few
13:48weeks.
14:04What do we know about the man who ordered this pyramid to be built?
14:07Who was this man Menkor, the grandson of King Khufu?
14:13More than 4,000 years since he died, we have few sources regarding the sixth sovereign of
14:18the fourth dynasty.
14:21The Greek historian Herodotus was the first to write about the kings of the Giza plateau.
14:28Herodotus recounts that Khufu was a tyrant, that the people hated him, that he imposed
14:34harsh conditions on his workers.
14:36The priest here told Herodotus that Khufu had pimped his own daughter to get each block
14:43of his pyramid.
14:45Just imagine how many blocks you need to make a pyramid, even a small one.
14:51In contrast, Menkare is viewed as more kind and benevolent and a good leader.
15:00It's interesting that the tradition in the Greco-Roman period was that whereas Khufu and Khafre's memories,
15:09that they were despised by many of the people, the Egyptians, somehow Menkare was loved.
15:17Herodotus also relates another anecdote.
15:20The king may have decided to build a smaller pyramid because of a warning from the gods.
15:27The oracle of Butoh told him that he would die within the next six years.
15:31Menkare wasn't very happy about this.
15:32He had to get a move on.
15:37We don't know if what Herodotus tells us is true.
15:40He was passing on what he'd been told.
15:43It is hard to trust these old legends.
15:47In an effort to piece together Menkare's story, we have to look for clues over a wider area.
15:55What you have to realize is that it's not just a pyramid that we have here.
15:59It's an entire funeral complex of which the pyramid is a part.
16:02We have a funeral temple on the eastern side, a major thoroughfare which goes east, and in
16:07the valley there's a temple.
16:10The view from above is important here.
16:13The temple in the valley is a key to understanding Menkare.
16:17This is where archaeologists made extraordinary discoveries which gave us crucial information
16:22about the pharaoh.
16:24important.
16:25Importantly, this is where the American Egyptologist George Reisner in 1908 discovered stunning
16:31statuary.
16:33He found some of the most fabulous pieces in the history of ancient Egyptian art.
16:37The statues of Menkare, the dyad of Menkare and a queen.
16:41These are some of the masterpieces in art worldwide.
16:46You have to go to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, just a few kilometers from the Giza Plateau, to admire
16:52these marbles.
16:54Meredith Brand knows the place well and guides us through the maze to discover the triad of Menkare.
17:03These statues are pure works of art.
17:06There is a beauty and a realism to the faces of the king and to the goddesses.
17:12They almost become emblematic of the old kingdom.
17:15You have this time of great pyramids, vast architecture, that sometimes it's easy to overlook the true artistic qualities of
17:25the craftsmen of the era.
17:26Really, we know that during this time, masterpieces were being produced in a very prolific manner.
17:34This shows the advances that are made not only in architecture, but in art and portraiture.
17:42This treasure of the old kingdom shows stunning realism.
17:48And one detail on the pharaoh's head tells us more about this king and his power.
17:55He's wearing the white crown of southern Egypt.
17:57And the known gods and goddesses are all connected to the southern part of the country.
18:03So these statues can also read that Menkare was in control of the entire country,
18:09and he was using the economic resources from all over Egypt to develop his pyramid and his pyramid cult.
18:16This way you see the king Menkare showing himself both as human and divine,
18:22and being ruler and legitimized ruler of all of Egypt.
18:29To find out more about the life of Menkare, we have to look to the south of his pyramid.
18:36Three even smaller pyramids here give us more information about the life of the pharaoh.
18:42Egyptologist Xavier Hinaf is an expert on the fragmentary genealogies of the pharaohs.
18:47The problem with this period is that we don't necessarily have the names of the occupants.
18:53But we can be sure that these pyramids were most probably intended as the final resting places of the pharaoh's
18:59wives.
19:01Menkare had several wives.
19:05Basically, we know of two.
19:07There was Cameronepti, and we also know of a woman called Renkaus.
19:14But we can't attribute a wife's name to any of the tombs here
19:17because we have nothing written down that specifically names them.
19:23Polygamy was commonplace in ancient Egypt.
19:25All the pharaohs had several wives, some as many as seven,
19:29and they did not look very far afield to find them.
19:33At the time of Menkare, it was still the fourth dynasty,
19:36and the royal family was quite a restricted group.
19:39What I mean is that it included brothers, sisters, cousins,
19:42but in general, it didn't go any further than that.
19:45Also, there was a practice which we would condemn today,
19:49in that there were marriages between brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister to produce heirs.
19:57As was the case with Menkare.
20:00Menkare married one of his sisters,
20:03and maybe one of his other wives was a half-sister.
20:06Either that or a close relative, but we don't know all the details.
20:13In the meantime, in Paris,
20:16Frank Meunier has the results of the scanning mission.
20:18We discover with him what the scan of the pyramid has revealed.
20:29The scan lets us take a virtual tour of the inside of the pyramid.
20:34The scan reveals the base of the pyramid, which we see here.
20:38This is at ground level here, and there's the entrance to the funeral apartments.
20:43And then we go down the sloping corridor,
20:45which reaches a small vestibule.
20:49This three-dimensional view shows that the apartments were actually hollowed out of the Giza Plateau.
20:55Here we see a more or less horizontal corridor,
20:58which leads to a first large chamber.
21:01And from the floor, there's a sort of sloping corridor,
21:05which leads down to the burial chamber that we're familiar with today.
21:18After analyzing the digital representation,
21:21our expert travels to the Giza Plateau
21:24to observe the pyramid he's been studying for so long.
21:34A particularity of this pyramid is the gaping hole in the northern face.
21:37If you compare it to the two other great pyramids,
21:39the two giants next to it, it really looks scarred.
21:44This slash, many meters high,
21:47is the distinctive mark of the Menkor pyramid.
21:51But it was not done at the time of its construction.
21:55This hole was made by Egyptians in the 18th century,
21:57maybe even before.
21:59We know that they were quite eager at the time
22:01to dismantle these ungodly monuments,
22:04but they probably also wanted to exploit all the limestone.
22:08Yet the quarrymen failed to get very far against the colossus.
22:12They soon realized that demolishing it
22:14would be an enormous, colossal task,
22:17and they gave up.
22:18In fact, it's a lot easier to build a pyramid
22:20than it is to destroy one.
22:24Despite such affronts done to it through the ages,
22:27this pyramid, built almost 45 centuries ago,
22:30has remained indestructible.
22:32They attacked it,
22:33wanting to destroy it
22:34and exploit the limestone and the granite,
22:36but despite all that,
22:37the pyramid still looks proud and beautiful.
22:44While this slash disfigures the edifice,
22:47it does help us better understand
22:49the internal construction of the pyramid.
22:53The monument's structure
22:55is in fact similar to human morphology.
22:59The human body is made up of a skeleton,
23:02the bones, the muscles,
23:03and then the skin.
23:05Well, the pyramid is sort of the same thing.
23:08The skeleton is the stepped pyramid,
23:10the base of the monument.
23:13Then come the muscles,
23:14the support blocks filling up the steps
23:16and forming the straight sides.
23:19Then finally, the facing was the skin
23:22and the Egyptians got this right.
23:24It was a perfect covering.
23:27The pyramid of Menkor was looted in ancient times
23:30and over the centuries,
23:32its entrance was gradually covered up by sand
23:34until it disappeared completely.
23:41It was only in the 19th century
23:44that Europeans took an interest in the pyramids
23:46and began major exploration campaigns.
23:50Howard Weiss was a British military officer
23:54and a very wealthy man.
23:55He was particularly enamored by the pyramids.
23:58He found out that no one
24:00had identified an entrance
24:02into the Menkari pyramid.
24:03So what was inside was a mystery.
24:05He became obsessed
24:07and he was determined
24:08to figure out what was inside this pyramid.
24:12Colonel Howard Weiss
24:14called on the British engineer John Pering
24:16to help him in his quest.
24:18The two of them decided
24:20they would spare nothing
24:22to get inside this pyramid.
24:23Some of that story
24:25is a little shocking
24:26because in fact
24:27in order to penetrate
24:29inside the pyramid
24:30in the 1830s
24:31they used dynamite
24:32and I think today
24:34we can't even imagine
24:35people setting
24:37charges of dynamite
24:38to explode
24:39to reveal passageways.
24:42American Egyptologist
24:43Meredith Brand
24:44is going inside Menkari's pyramid
24:46for the first time
24:47on the trail
24:48of the two British explorers.
24:51So up here
24:52is where
24:53Howard Weiss
24:54had to blast through
24:56this hole
24:57that existed
24:58from the 12th century
24:59and he tunneled
25:00with dynamite
25:01all the way through
25:02and then down.
25:03Despite the damage
25:04they caused
25:04the two partners in crime
25:06found nothing.
25:07After thinking about it
25:08for a while
25:09they cleared away the sand
25:10at the foot of the pyramid
25:11and finally found the opening
25:13through which Meredith Brand
25:14will now enter.
25:15The entrance is just right here.
25:25By means of these 3D scans
25:27done by our team
25:28the Egyptologist
25:30Mark Lennar
25:30will for the first time
25:32get a complete view
25:33of the inside
25:33of the pyramid.
25:37It's very nice
25:38to see it
25:38in the photogrammetry
25:39because we can twirl it around
25:42and look at it
25:43from different points
25:44of view.
25:45With this software
25:46it's possible
25:47to take measurements
25:48that would be very difficult
25:49to carry out
25:49in the real world.
25:51We can measure here
25:52off the photogrammetric
25:53image
25:53the descending passage
25:55let's see
25:56how long would that be?
25:59Perfect.
26:00According to this
26:01it is
26:02almost 33 meters.
26:0533 meters
26:07that's the distance
26:08Meredith Brand
26:09must descend
26:10into the depths
26:10of the pyramid
26:13where she will behold
26:14a stunning spectacle.
26:22Oh, this is so beautiful.
26:25These are gorgeous.
26:27The niche paneled facade
26:28is really stunning.
26:30This is carved
26:31in the original limestone.
26:33This all represents
26:34the palace facade
26:36and it's something so special
26:37to see this in Giza
26:39in a fourth dynasty pyramid
26:41to have decoration like this
26:42it's completely unique.
26:44Menkor was the first king
26:46to innovate in this way
26:47differentiating him
26:48from his grandfather Khufu
26:50who had neither antechamber
26:51nor carved walls
26:53inside his pyramid.
26:54This is the first place
26:55that the sarcophagus
26:56that the king
26:57would go through.
26:58This was the entrance
26:59to the entirety
27:00of the subterranean
27:02pyramid structure.
27:06After the antechamber
27:07Meredith must make her way
27:09through a long corridor
27:10to this first chamber
27:11completely hollowed out
27:12of the rock.
27:16Oh, wow.
27:22This is incredible.
27:24This must have been
27:25really something
27:26for any explorer,
27:28Howard Weiss,
27:29anybody that came before them.
27:30and this entire passage
27:32I went through
27:32would have been covered
27:33with debris
27:34and they would have
27:35to really crawl
27:35to get through it
27:36and then they enter
27:38into this chamber
27:39and it opens up
27:40and it's such a beautiful space.
27:43The room is exceptional
27:45for its dimensions alone
27:46but looking a little more closely
27:48some details are puzzling.
27:50This chamber is unfinished.
27:53It has this rough limestone.
27:56So what was this chamber used for
27:58if it wasn't finished?
28:01With her expert eye
28:02Meredith Brand
28:03can discover some of the clues.
28:05Here, there's a niche
28:08there's a flattened part
28:10I mean this is the ideal place
28:13to put a sarcophagus
28:15this would be a wonderful place
28:16to have the burial.
28:19Indeed, it would have been
28:21a perfect spot
28:21for our sarcophagus.
28:24It would make sense
28:26that in Menkare's first vision
28:29that he wanted to make this
28:32his burial chamber
28:33but clearly it wasn't
28:35properly finished off
28:36it's all very rough
28:40and this is not where they found
28:42the sarcophagus.
28:43Egyptologists have put forward
28:45various hypotheses.
28:46Could it have been a construction error
28:48or was it a deliberate choice
28:50of the king himself?
28:51Today, it seems that the mystery
28:53of the abandoned chamber
28:53may have been solved.
28:55Menkare had a new idea
28:56a different idea
28:57and he wanted to
28:59make another burial chamber.
29:01The construction of a pyramid
29:03began when a pharaoh
29:04took the throne
29:05and continued all through his reign.
29:07It's not uncommon
29:08for a king to change his mind
29:11develop his plans
29:12shift things
29:14move forward
29:15and make a different vision
29:17because the architecture
29:18was evolving constantly
29:20so changing his mind
29:23and starting a new path
29:24is pretty common in pyramids.
29:27So Menkare decided
29:28that this wasn't the chamber
29:29in which he wished to be buried.
29:33Generations of men
29:34worked on constructing
29:35this masterpiece
29:36of Menkare's reign.
29:37of men.
29:39Frank Meunier gives us an idea
29:41of what the worksite was like.
29:43This is a classic facing block
29:45which was removed
29:45from the pyramid
29:46by the quarrymen
29:47wanting to exploit the resource.
29:52To try to imagine
29:53the task faced by the Egyptians
29:55we have to do a bit of math.
29:59The dimensions of this block
30:00are about 2 cubic meters
30:02and 2 cubic meters of granite
30:03weigh about 5 tons.
30:04so what we have here
30:05is about 4 or 5 tons.
30:08In this era
30:09when the Egyptians
30:10had not yet invented the wheel
30:11how did they shift such blocks?
30:14We know that the Egyptians
30:15used sledges
30:16to move large blocks of stone
30:18we have lots of representations
30:19of this
30:20of writings describing sledges
30:22so they put the blocks
30:23on the sledges
30:24and dragged them with ropes.
30:27To move blocks
30:29weighing several tons
30:30a considerable labor force
30:31was needed.
30:33It required roughly
30:35one man to drag
30:36from 3 to 400 kilos
30:37here we have a big block
30:38of 4 to 5 tons
30:39so that would have needed
30:4010 to 15 men to pull it.
30:46Pulling a block
30:47along a flat surface
30:48was already quite a feat.
30:50The particularity
30:51of this pyramid
30:52is that everything
30:52is underground.
30:54The Egyptians
30:54had a real puzzle
30:55to solve here.
30:58Imagine the difficulty
30:59inside the pyramid
31:00there's that really
31:01narrow sloping corridor
31:02so they'd have to
31:03maneuver these blocks
31:04weighing 7 or 8 tons
31:05down that.
31:06For the first time
31:07Franck Meunier
31:08is going inside
31:09the pyramid
31:09where he will be able
31:11to see how well
31:11his explanation holds up.
31:19This is really awe-inspiring.
31:22When you see how tiny
31:24this corridor is
31:24the really narrow
31:26confines of this slope
31:28it makes you wonder
31:29what techniques they used
31:30to control the descent
31:31of such huge masses.
31:34After studying the structure
31:35at length
31:36Franck Meunier
31:37has an explanation
31:38for how these huge blocks
31:39of stone were maneuvered
31:41down this narrow passageway.
31:43They used the slope
31:44and the extremely slippery
31:45floor
31:46which was specially treated
31:48to slide the blocks down.
31:50So what he had
31:50was a block weighing
31:517 or 8 tons
31:52which had to be controlled
31:54by dozens of workers
31:56on the outside
31:56holding the ropes
31:57and letting it slide
31:58very gradually
31:59down the slope
31:59until it reached
32:01the horizontal corridor.
32:02And it had to be
32:03controlled for 33 meters.
32:06So it was a challenge
32:07which they met.
32:09What a fantastic exploit.
32:13And that was not
32:14the end of the challenge.
32:15The workers had
32:16to be particularly clever
32:17to get the blocks
32:18even further down.
32:20The ancient Egyptians
32:21were ingenious.
32:23They didn't balk
32:24at any challenge.
32:25They always found
32:26a solution
32:27maybe a simple one
32:28but they always found
32:29a way to meet the challenge.
32:31In this first
32:32abandoned chamber
32:33Franck Meunier
32:34can see for himself
32:35the traces
32:35the clues
32:36left by the pyramid's
32:37builders.
32:39The completely
32:40unique character
32:41of this chamber
32:42comes from
32:42the big notches
32:43that we see in the walls.
32:45Opposing pairs of them
32:46there's one in this wall
32:47and a corresponding one
32:49opposite.
32:52This abandoned chamber
32:53was a crucial working
32:54space for constructing
32:55the king's funeral
32:56apartments.
32:58There are these notches
33:00all over this room.
33:01Large circular holes.
33:02See?
33:03I can put my arm in it.
33:04They're pretty deep.
33:06The diameters
33:06are 30 to 40 centimeters.
33:09These holes
33:10hollowed out of the rock
33:11had a particular function.
33:13These are quite simply
33:14the traces of the
33:15builder's construction
33:16methods.
33:17It's absolutely unique.
33:18you won't find this
33:19anywhere else.
33:22Using the 3D scans
33:24carried out
33:25by our team
33:25Franck Meunier
33:26can analyze
33:27these notches
33:28from his computer.
33:30This scan very clearly
33:32shows the presence
33:32of these circular notches.
33:35If I turn it like this
33:36the holes hollowed out
33:37on the sides
33:38of this abandoned chamber
33:39you can see them
33:40opposite each other.
33:42One there
33:42and there
33:43and their counterparts
33:44on the other side.
33:48The software gives
33:49an overall view
33:50of the inside
33:51of the room
33:51and helps us understand
33:53what these notches
33:54were used for.
33:56These notches
33:57were used for housing
33:58the famous maneuvering
33:59beams
33:59the logs that were used
34:00along with the ropes
34:01to maneuver the blocks
34:02of granite
34:03but also to lower
34:04the sarcophagus.
34:06These beams
34:07must have been used
34:08as the fulcrums
34:09for ropes to lift
34:10the blocks of stone
34:11and move them towards
34:12the master chamber
34:13of the pyramid
34:14the one which received
34:15the remains of the pharaoh.
34:19Meredith Brand discovers
34:20this chamber
34:20for the first time.
34:25Oh this is so beautiful.
34:28This is the final
34:30burial chamber.
34:31This is where
34:32the sarcophagus
34:34would have been
34:35and this room
34:36is finished
34:37so nicely
34:38with granite
34:40and when I shine
34:41the light
34:42you can see
34:43that it sort of
34:44sparkles a little bit.
34:45This is
34:46a stone that has
34:47special significance
34:48for the sun.
34:50There is also
34:51graffiti left behind
34:52by former explorers.
34:54And this dome
34:56it's
34:56really lovely
34:58and very rare
34:58in a pyramid
34:59to have
35:00a dome carved
35:01out of a piece
35:02of granite.
35:06The work
35:07accomplished here
35:08by the ancient
35:08Egyptians
35:09is exceptional.
35:10Even more so
35:11when you imagine
35:12the conditions
35:13in which they had
35:14to work.
35:15This is really
35:16a small
35:17tight space.
35:19I can't imagine
35:20what it's like
35:20for workers
35:21to come down
35:23all the way
35:24down into this space.
35:25It's tight,
35:26it's narrow,
35:27there's not any air,
35:28there's no circulation,
35:29there would have been
35:30no light other
35:31than some candles,
35:32that's it.
35:33Using the 3D scans,
35:35Franck Monnier
35:35can assess the
35:36exploit achieved
35:37by the teams
35:38of the Royal Worksite.
35:39We can measure
35:40the depth
35:41of the subterranean
35:41construction.
35:42If we can take
35:43as a starting point
35:44the base of the pyramid
35:45at ground level
35:46and then find
35:47the lowest point,
35:47these alcoves down here
35:49were at a depth
35:50of about 17 or 18 meters.
35:52They dug down
35:53to a depth
35:54of 18 meters underground.
35:55That's the height
35:56of a five-story building.
35:58So the Egyptians
35:59dug these funeral apartments
36:01really deep underground,
36:0217 to 18 meters
36:03below ground level
36:04and then maneuvered
36:05huge blocks of stone
36:06through very tight spaces.
36:08They were piling
36:09difficulties
36:09on top of difficulties.
36:11Already,
36:11as just a visitor,
36:12it's hard to make
36:13your way around
36:13the funeral apartments.
36:15Imagine what it was
36:15like for these workers
36:16having to get these blocks
36:17weighing several tons
36:18into place.
36:19Must have been hell.
36:23To be carving
36:24and hammering out
36:25the stones,
36:26pulling,
36:27dragging,
36:28and removing,
36:28it would have been
36:30so hard,
36:31so tough,
36:32both for the people
36:33that built this space
36:35and for the robbers
36:36that came to loot
36:37afterwards,
36:38to tunnel their way through
36:39and then all the explorers
36:41to come in as well.
36:42This is a place
36:43where people really
36:44needed back-breaking labor.
36:48Contrary to common
36:49preconceptions,
36:50the workers
36:50who built the pyramids
36:51of Giza
36:52by the sweat of their brow
36:53were not slaves.
37:00The archaeologist
37:02Mark Lennar
37:02has been carrying out digs
37:04on the Giza Plateau
37:05for decades,
37:06seeking clues
37:07to help him understand
37:08how the ancient Egyptians
37:09managed to build
37:10such enormous structures.
37:12At the foot of the Giza Plateau
37:14was a whole city.
37:16Even now,
37:16today,
37:17the modern city
37:18has come back to Giza
37:20and is lapping up right at the shores
37:23of the Giza Plateau.
37:25Cities started here
37:26because of the pyramids.
37:29In this city slumbering
37:30under the sand,
37:32Mark Lennar has been able
37:33to piece together
37:33what the living conditions
37:35for the workers
37:35must have been like.
37:37We know that the workers
37:38who were rotating
37:39in and out of our barracks,
37:40working on the pyramid,
37:42had really high protein
37:44and high carbohydrate diets
37:46because we have found
37:47dozens of bakeries
37:48for making huge conical loaves
37:51of bread in special pots.
37:55This excavation has shown
37:57that these people
37:58were supplied
37:59with considerable amounts
38:00of food,
38:01lots of meat protein,
38:03a ton of cattle.
38:04They had fish.
38:05They had bread,
38:07beer.
38:07They had many, many things.
38:08And they were living
38:09quite a comfortable existence.
38:11It didn't seem forced labor
38:14or anything terrible.
38:15But even with good food
38:17and with medical attention,
38:19the labor must have been
38:21exhausting and difficult.
38:24In fact,
38:26the structure of society
38:27in ancient Egypt
38:28was not so different
38:29from that of our own history
38:30in Western Europe.
38:31In the pre-modern world,
38:33not just in ancient Egypt,
38:35labor was obligatory.
38:37In the medieval times,
38:39in any times,
38:40in medieval France,
38:41England,
38:42you owed labor to your lord.
38:44This organization of labor,
38:46so strictly regimented
38:48to build the marvels of Egypt,
38:50shows how well
38:50the Egyptian state functioned.
38:51We think that the royal administration
38:55actually evolved very rapidly
38:58because of the projects
39:00to build giant pyramids.
39:02The pyramids are stunning monuments,
39:06but they're also monuments
39:08to the Egyptian state,
39:10to the development of an administration,
39:12a bureaucracy,
39:14in an economic and political system
39:15that could build these monuments.
39:18That bureaucracy stayed
39:20to govern Egypt
39:21even after the pyramids
39:23started shrinking
39:24already here behind me
39:26from Khufu to Menkare.
39:28So that's why we can say
39:30it's not just how the Egyptians
39:31built the pyramids,
39:33it's how the pyramids
39:34actually helped to build Egypt,
39:35including the Egyptian
39:37government administration.
39:39The artisans of these masterpieces
39:41were not slaves
39:42and they never balked
39:44at a challenge.
39:49Franck Moenier wants to show us
39:51some of their architectural prowess
39:52deep in the heart of the pyramid.
40:00Superb!
40:01An entire chamber
40:02finished in granite,
40:02such as hadn't been seen
40:04since the reign of Khufu.
40:06This chamber is a long way underground,
40:08and all the blocks you see
40:10were brought down
40:11the sloping corridor.
40:12They were brought down here,
40:13moved through really narrow,
40:15tight spaces,
40:16and finally put into place
40:17with great care.
40:18You can see how magnificent
40:19the joints are.
40:21As always with ancient
40:23Egyptian civilization,
40:24the work shows
40:25remarkable precision.
40:28Look at the finesse,
40:30the incredible finesse
40:31of the joints.
40:32Here we have
40:33two separate blocks,
40:34and the joint
40:35is barely perceptible.
40:37Look at the work,
40:38how the stone has been polished.
40:40It's such meticulous work
40:42you struggle to see
40:43the joints between the stones.
40:46They were placed into position
40:48and then smoothed
40:49with extreme care.
40:51To see the most exceptional
40:53feature of the pyramid,
40:54you have to look up.
40:56The barrel vault is constructed
40:58entirely of blocks of granite.
41:00The largest of them
41:01must weigh around
41:02seven or eight tons.
41:03Just think,
41:04the weight of an average car
41:05is about a ton and a half,
41:07so we have a block
41:08of seven or eight tons
41:09just for one piece of the vault
41:11and there are 18 of them in all.
41:14It's really amazing
41:15that with what little means
41:17they had,
41:17they could achieve such perfection.
41:20The blocks are held up simply
41:22by leaning against each other.
41:24And the total weight
41:25of the blocks
41:26that made up the vault
41:27is around 80 tons.
41:30To try to understand
41:31how the Egyptians
41:32managed to shape
41:33and position them
41:34in this arch shape,
41:35the explanation
41:36may be found above the vault.
41:40Our team decides
41:41to scan the room
41:42above the king's chamber.
41:44There is just one little problem.
41:46It is inaccessible.
41:48Albonbris Pampot's idea
41:50is to use his extension.
41:52There's enough space
41:53between the bars
41:54for me to slip the scanner through
41:55on the extension,
41:57then hold it as far as I can
41:58and give the scanner
41:59enough time
42:00to gather sufficient data.
42:02This space is known
42:03as the maneuver chamber
42:04and is sort of
42:06the pyramid's attic.
42:07There are plenty of dark areas
42:09so we can just glimpse
42:10a bit from here,
42:11but I think we should be able
42:12to get something on the computer.
42:13We'll get some of the vault blocks
42:14for sure.
42:15It's already pretty interesting
42:16as it is.
42:19Visualizing this restricted space
42:20on the 3D model
42:21will give us
42:22a better understanding
42:23of the work done
42:24by the ancient Egyptians.
42:33No more than five or six men
42:34could work at the same time
42:35in the maneuver chamber,
42:36so clearly brains
42:37had to take priority
42:38over bronze.
42:40The height of the maneuver chamber
42:42varies between 70 centimeters
42:43and 1 meter 30,
42:45a tiny space
42:46in which to manhandle blocks
42:48weighing several tons.
42:51They really had to come up
42:53with ingenious solutions
42:54for moving them around
42:55and positioning them.
42:57It was probably a system
42:59of levers and scaffolding
43:00so they could lower the blocks
43:02into position
43:03in the simplest way.
43:05And yet, while the vault
43:07is an exceptional achievement
43:08from a technical point of view,
43:10architecturally,
43:11it is a different story.
43:13What's the vault actually doing?
43:15Structurally,
43:15it's not doing anything at all.
43:17It's not supporting any weight
43:18from above.
43:19The chamber is entirely underground.
43:22So why did the Egyptians
43:23make life so difficult
43:24for themselves,
43:25constructing such a vaulted ceiling?
43:28The answer is surprising.
43:30To understand,
43:31let's step back for a moment.
43:33Ancient Egyptian civilization
43:34was based on two fundamental factors.
43:37One was the Nile,
43:38flowing from south to north,
43:40which symbolized fertility.
43:42And the other,
43:43more important,
43:43was the sun.
43:45The sun rises in the east,
43:47the land of the living,
43:48and sets in the west,
43:50the land of the dead.
43:51The sun was God the creator
43:53who gave life.
43:54And of course,
43:55the Egyptians believed
43:56in life after death.
43:57That was the guiding principle
43:58of their entire civilization.
44:02All the pharaohs
44:03had their burial chambers
44:04oriented in relation
44:05to the course of the sun,
44:06east to west.
44:08His grandfather,
44:09his father,
44:10his great-grandfather,
44:11and the pharaohs
44:12that came after him.
44:13Their chambers were oriented
44:14east to west.
44:17Using the 3D views
44:18obtained in the scanning mission,
44:20Vassil Dobrev can observe,
44:22in detail,
44:23one of the particularities
44:24of Menkor's burial chamber.
44:26The burial chamber
44:27is oriented
44:28exactly north-south.
44:30Menkor was the only king
44:31to choose that orientation.
44:34Why did he make
44:35such a surprising choice?
44:37The reason
44:38is related to the vault.
44:39He turns his chamber
44:41so as to represent
44:42the vault of heaven.
44:46That's how you see
44:46the vault of heaven,
44:47because the sun rises
44:48in the east and sets
44:50in the west.
44:50So there you get it,
44:52the vault of heaven,
44:52going from east to west.
44:54This is exactly
44:55what Menkor wanted
44:56to represent.
44:57The reason then
44:58was symbolic.
45:00Menkor wanted to be
45:01laid to rest
45:02with a representation
45:03of the sky above his head.
45:05After this,
45:06the kings even started
45:07representing stars,
45:08the stars of the north,
45:10which are indefatigable,
45:11indestructible,
45:12and eternal.
45:13And Menkor, of course,
45:14would become one such star
45:15himself,
45:16once he ascended to heaven.
45:19Menkor's choice
45:19was groundbreaking,
45:20the precursor
45:21of a new trend
45:22which would inspire later
45:23kings like Pepi II.
45:27Menkor's is the only pyramid
45:28that we know of
45:28from that period,
45:29the Old Kingdom,
45:30the Fourth Dynasty,
45:31to have that celestial vault.
45:33Later,
45:33during the Middle Kingdom
45:34they started imitating it.
45:40It was in this burial chamber
45:42in the 19th century
45:43that John Pering
45:45and Howard Weiss
45:46came face to face
45:47with Menkor's sarcophagus.
45:50Having discovered
45:51this treasure,
45:52they decided to take
45:53the sarcophagus with them.
45:55But things did not
45:56turn out as planned.
46:03It was put on a ship
46:05called the Beatrice
46:06to be sent
46:07to the British Museum.
46:10From Giza,
46:11the ship sailed
46:11down the Nile Delta
46:12to the mouth of the river
46:13and out into
46:14the Mediterranean.
46:16Then she undertook
46:17a long sea voyage
46:18along the coast
46:19of present-day Libya,
46:21then Tunisia,
46:22Algeria,
46:23and Morocco.
46:25At last she came
46:26to the Strait of Gibraltar
46:27where she would pass
46:28into the Atlantic.
46:29But all of a sudden...
46:33The ship sank
46:34in a storm
46:35and the sarcophagus
46:36went down to the bottom
46:37of the sea with the ship.
46:42So Menkor's sarcophagus
46:44is right now somewhere
46:45at the bottom of the sea.
46:46And it's never been recovered.
46:48So something of a mystery
46:51hides out in the ocean.
46:53The story of Menkor
46:54is full of twists
46:55and turns
46:56worthy of a screenplay
46:57for a film.
46:58It's almost like a movie.
47:00It's almost like a movie.
47:01You have these sort of
47:02hero villains
47:03of vice and pairing
47:05that on the one hand
47:07have this quest
47:08for scientific investigation,
47:10yet on the other hand
47:12partially destroyed
47:13the pyramid
47:14to find what they wanted.
47:16And you have the twists
47:17and turns
47:18and the eventual loss
47:20of the sarcophagus.
47:21It's rather dramatic.
47:25The sarcophagus
47:27is now lost.
47:30But there remain
47:31traces in Menkor's
47:32burial chamber.
47:37Here
47:39is where robbers
47:41dug up the ground
47:42trying to look
47:43for gold and treasure.
47:46This is the original
47:48floor level.
47:49And then down here
47:50is where they
47:52dug as much
47:53as they could.
47:54And you can even
47:55see the spot
47:56where the original
47:58limestone floor
47:59meets the
48:02granite wall casing.
48:05Another sarcophagus
48:06from the 4th dynasty
48:07found on the Giza plateau
48:09is similar to Menkor's.
48:12The particularity
48:13of this sarcophagus
48:14is that it's decorated,
48:15much more elaborately
48:17decorated
48:17than we've seen
48:18in other pyramids
48:18of that period.
48:21It's entirely decorated
48:22like a surrounding
48:23wall, so that's
48:24an added protection.
48:27Menkor's sarcophagus
48:28went down
48:28with its secrets.
48:31But there's one last clue
48:32in a secret room
48:33of the pyramid.
48:34Almond Brice Pimpot
48:36is going to carry out
48:37one last scan.
48:38We can go further down
48:39to reach what was
48:40probably a storage space.
48:42But it's a space
48:43to which we have
48:44no access.
48:45Fortunately, though,
48:46the scanner enables us
48:47to get information
48:48through locked gates,
48:49through barriers,
48:51so we can get an idea
48:52of the volumes.
48:55This small room,
48:56adjacent to Menkor's
48:57burial chamber,
48:58contains plenty
48:59of its own mysteries,
49:00which even the top
49:01experts cannot answer.
49:04Menkor has six niches.
49:07Now, why he has six,
49:08which is not a usual
49:09number to have.
49:11What was in them?
49:12We are not sure.
49:13Presumably,
49:14these were grave goods.
49:15His treasures
49:16would be placed there.
49:17There's also niches
49:18that can hold
49:19canopic jars.
49:21During mummification,
49:22the deceased's organs
49:24were removed
49:24and placed in four
49:25separate receptacles,
49:27the canopic jars.
49:29there was one
49:30for the stomach,
49:31one for the lungs,
49:33one for the intestines,
49:34and one for the liver.
49:36Perhaps Menkor chose
49:37to be buried with all
49:38the funerary trappings
49:39next to him.
49:46Once the king was in
49:47his final resting place,
49:48the last stage consisted
49:50of protecting his remains
49:51from thieves.
49:52The Egyptian engineers
49:53came up with the idea
49:54of using granite stones,
49:56a system called
49:57Portcullis stones.
49:59The Portcullis stones
50:00of Menkor's pyramid
50:02are no longer there,
50:03but we can still
50:04see their traces.
50:05It's really,
50:07really cool.
50:09This is an entire area,
50:11a passage,
50:12that's designed
50:13to cut off anyone
50:15who would want to break
50:16into the king's chamber.
50:17This is the niche
50:18where these stones
50:20would fit and slide through
50:22and come to block
50:23this passage,
50:24and there were three
50:25of them.
50:27So any thief would have
50:28to bust through one,
50:29two, three sliding doors
50:30of stone.
50:31And this was so important
50:32because Menkor wanted
50:33his mummy to be protected.
50:35He didn't want
50:35anyone coming in here.
50:37This procedure was one
50:39that Menkor had copied.
50:41his grandfather had already
50:43employed the
50:44three Portcullis stone system.
50:50Looking at the pyramids
50:51of the Giza Plateau
50:52with their apparent
50:53differences,
50:54we can all the same
50:55recognize certain
50:56similarities.
50:57And there certainly
50:58must have been some
50:59kind of architectural
51:00knowledge and tradition
51:02that was shared
51:02and passed on
51:03from generation to generation
51:04because we see innovations
51:06in one king
51:07that continued to the next.
51:09Which begs another question.
51:12Did these architects
51:13adopt these innovations
51:14for practical
51:15or symbolic reasons?
51:17How and why
51:19that was the case
51:20is hard to say.
51:20But it's clear
51:21that in the progress
51:23of building pyramids,
51:24things were learned.
51:26And they learned
51:27from mistakes,
51:28they learned
51:29from what didn't work,
51:30but they also learned
51:30from what seemed to work.
51:33And yet,
51:34despite the talent
51:34of their builders,
51:35all the pyramids
51:36of the old kingdom
51:37were robbed.
51:39However,
51:40unlike other pharaohs,
51:41Menkor,
51:42now resting
51:42in his sarcophagus
51:43at the bottom
51:44of the Mediterranean,
51:45still holds
51:46some secrets from us.
51:47It's a submerged treasure.
51:49We can always hope
51:50we'll find it someday.
51:51But it's like
51:52looking for a needle
51:52in a haystack.
51:55Maybe one day
51:56there will be
51:56a mission to find it.
51:58And provide us
51:59with more clues
51:59to understand
52:00the third pharaoh
52:01of the Giza Plateau.
52:04A canoe
52:05of the U.S.
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