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00:12It's one of ancient Egypt's greatest treasures, a site that ranks among the most impressive
00:18religious sanctuaries of the world in both its size and its splendor, Karnak.
00:28For more than a thousand years, pharaoh after pharaoh left their mark here, from the monumental
00:37to the minuscule.
00:41But why, of all places in ancient Egypt, was this temple complex so significant?
00:47Why was it so significant to so many of these ancient Egyptian rulers who came here sometimes
00:53building, sometimes demolishing, sometimes extending this key site?
00:59Well, today, we're going to find out.
01:16Walking through this great complex near the ancient city of Thebes, you can't help but
01:21be awed by the huge scale of these buildings and the rich detail you can still see on walls
01:26and columns all around you.
01:29As an ancient historian, I've always been intrigued by the many different gods and goddesses that
01:34were worshipped.
01:36This was certainly true for the ancient Egyptians, with a complicated polytheistic hierarchy of
01:41gods, with different roles for life, death and the afterlife.
01:48Karnak's story is closely entwined with one of the most important gods from this region,
01:53the god Amun.
01:55To understand Karnak, you first have to understand Amun.
01:59To help me, I've joined Tayyip, the director of Karnak temples.
02:04Actually, the god Amun, he was one of the most important gods in the Egyptian civilization.
02:12The first time mentioned this name of the god Amun, it was during the old kingdom.
02:21To start our investigation into Amun's connection with Karnak, Tayyip has brought me to the oldest
02:26building here.
02:30What is this we have in front of us?
02:33Because if I'm right, this is going back to the very early history of this great temple
02:39complex at Karnak.
02:41Yes, that's right.
02:42This is the white chapel.
02:44This is the most ancient part of Karnak temples, dated to the time of the king Sinusert the
02:53first.
02:54And can you see his name at all on here, Tayyip?
02:56Yes.
02:56This is the name of the king Sinusert.
02:58Ah, yes.
02:59The cartoonish.
03:00Yes.
03:00Usert.
03:01This is the old name.
03:02This is the hieroglyph's name of the king Sinusert around 1960 BC.
03:09Wow.
03:10During the 12th dynasty.
03:12And actually, there is no part of the temple older than this shrine.
03:17The white chapel was originally constructed for Sinusert some 4,000 years ago.
03:22It was dismantled by later pharaohs who wanted to make their own mark.
03:27But today, the remains of Pharaoh Sinusert's white chapel have been reconstructed to the
03:32side of Karnak.
03:33And it's in the detail, all over the walls, that you can discover evidence of the close
03:39relationship pharaohs wished to stress between themselves and the god Amun.
03:46Let's have a look.
03:47Yes.
03:47We can see here the depiction of the god Amun and we can read his name.
03:51Jed Midu and Emen Ka-Mu-Tef.
03:56Misoot Metiru.
03:57So Ka-Mu-Tef.
03:58Is this a particular version of Amun?
04:00Yes.
04:00Exactly.
04:01And in his name, like this, it was the ethyphalic Amun.
04:06Because actually, we have two forms of the god Amun.
04:10The first one as the king of the sky, as the god of the sky and the sun.
04:17On the other side, we have the other name, Amun-Ra Ka-Mu-Tef.
04:21And in this case, he is the ethyphalic Amun, the god of the fertility and the sexual life
04:28in ancient times.
04:29So fertility, this version of Amun is all to do with fertility.
04:31Exactly.
04:32Right.
04:32And we can see the image of the god Amun.
04:35Yes.
04:36And I guess, is that Senesret there on the right and that's Amun on the left?
04:40Exactly.
04:41This is the depiction of the king Sinusert.
04:44He has his name over his head.
04:46Yes.
04:46This is the cartouche, which had the name of the king Sinusert.
04:51Sinusert.
04:52Sinusert.
04:53And he's offered a bread as offering in front of the ethyphalic god Amun-Ra or Amun Ka-Mu-Tef.
05:02And you can see the headdress that he's wearing, crowns, with the serpent's little headdress there.
05:08Actually, in this form, the king Sinusert, he's wearing the white crown.
05:16The white crown.
05:16Yes.
05:17This is just the white crown, the crown of Upper Egypt.
05:20The crown of Upper Egypt.
05:21Yes.
05:22So was there a different crown if he was king of Lower Egypt?
05:25Exactly.
05:25We have the red crown and the red crown for Lower Egypt.
05:29And we can see it right here.
05:31Oh, this is the red crown.
05:33You can see how different it is.
05:34Yes.
05:35The other one.
05:35Exactly.
05:36So Lower Egypt, that's the end closer to the Nile Delta, to Memphis and that area.
05:41Yes.
05:41Exactly.
05:43Lower Egypt was the region to the north, and Upper Egypt later the south.
05:49And Thebes, with the mighty temple of Karnak, sat right at the heart.
05:56A key role of Karnak was as a home of the said festival, an official renewal ceremony of
06:02a pharaoh's power three decades into their reign.
06:07Some Egyptologists think that this shrine for the said festival, and the said festival,
06:17it was very important for the Egyptian king to renewing his life, to renewing his power.
06:25So he used to celebrate with this festival after 30 years of his reign, of his ruling for the country.
06:35And during this festival, he used to make many ceremonies, many rituals in front of the common people,
06:43to prove that he can control Egypt, he can rule for another 30 years.
06:51So that sometimes he used to control a bull.
06:59The bull was a symbol of strength and fertility in ancient Egypt.
07:04But the bull also had a strong link to the god Amun.
07:07In one of his forms, Amun obtained the epithet ka-mu-teh, or bull of his mother.
07:14It refers to the belief that Amun fathered himself with his mother.
07:20By controlling a bull at the said festival, the pharaoh aimed to portray himself as a divine figure,
07:26still capable of ruling after 30 years on the throne of Egypt.
07:33Here we can see the name of the said festival.
07:37After 30 years on the throne, this important festival, the renewal of your, the revival of your strength,
07:43of your power, it was incredibly significant and important for the pharaohs, for their people.
07:49Yeah, that's right.
07:50So actually, Taip, this altar here in the center, does this not date, therefore, to the time of Senesret I?
07:57Is this later? Was there originally something else in the center?
08:00Exactly. This is the point.
08:02Some Egyptologists think that this part of the shrine, the altar, the granite altar,
08:09added later to the time of the king Sinuser.
08:13But originally, we had a royal throne.
08:16Here, double royal throne for the two faces, the two entrances,
08:24and the king, he acting at that time himself as the king of lower Egypt
08:31and the king of upper Egypt during the said festival.
08:38Senesret's legacy at Karnak is clear, thanks to the preserved white chapel.
08:43This often overlooked building, full to the brim with invaluable hieroglyphs and imagery,
08:49emphasizes the importance of Karnak and Amun for pharaohs as early as 2000 BC.
08:57But this was only the beginning.
08:59As ancient Thebes' prominence increased over the following centuries,
09:03so too did Amun grow in importance.
09:05And so too did Karnak.
09:16Pharaoh after pharaoh added more to this temple complex,
09:20and by the time that the Egyptian New Kingdom dawned in the mid-2nd millennium BC,
09:25Karnak was evolving into the monumental complex you can still see today.
09:30One of the most striking constructions is this.
09:47This is the most iconic and one of the most beautiful buildings still standing at Karnak.
09:54It's the hypostyle hall.
09:56It's just, it's this forest of columns.
09:59More than 3,000 years old.
10:02It was constructed by the 19th dynasty pharaoh Seti I, who ruled in the early 13th century BC.
10:10Now Seti I, he was one of the first rulers of the 19th dynasty,
10:14and he was keen to secure their claim to the throne.
10:17And one of the ways he sought to do this from very early in his reign
10:20was by constructing monumental buildings.
10:24There are inscriptions which mention how Seti lay awake at night
10:27thinking about how he was going to improve sanctuaries,
10:31temple complexes such as here at Karnak,
10:33with a massive monumental construction in his name.
10:37But those sleepless nights evidently paid off because it resulted in this.
10:51There are 134 columns in total.
10:55In the centre, the central colonnade, there are 12 gigantic open papyrus columns,
11:01roughly 22 metres in height.
11:04The rest, the other 122, are roughly 15 metres in overall height.
11:10But they're equally impressive.
11:13Just looking at them now, you can see the reliefs, the hieroglyphs,
11:17the huge cartouches that are still visible today all around.
11:22They're absolutely incredible.
11:25It makes you feel quite small indeed.
11:33Weaving your way through the columns,
11:35you can't help but be awed by the hall's monumentality.
11:40But what was it used for?
11:43The function to build the Hypostile Hall was a kind of imitation for the myth and the legend of Horus.
11:52The legend of Horus.
11:53Exactly.
11:54When the god Osiris died, the legal heir, he was his son and his successor, the god Horus.
12:05Right.
12:05But his uncle, he refused this and he tried to kill him to take the throne of Egypt.
12:13The mother of the god Horus, the goddess Isis, tried to hide him in the marshes of El-Delta,
12:20which at that time was filling with papyrus flower and trees.
12:25So that they did the same here in the Hypostile Hall, which looks like a veritable forest in stone.
12:34Yes, because we've got these columns here at the end, you know, these closed papyrus columns.
12:39Exactly.
12:40Those gigantic open papyrus ones in the centre, that central colonnade.
12:43This is the point.
12:44That's the point.
12:45Exactly.
12:45So it represents the papyri of this myth, of this legend of Horus.
12:49Exactly.
12:53Why sometimes open, sometimes closed?
12:56We think this is, it depends on the sunlight.
13:00Why?
13:01Because originally this part of the temple was roofed.
13:05Right.
13:06So that the flowers on each side, it's completely under the shade.
13:11So it's not grown up easily.
13:13But in the middle, the larger columns, it comes the sun beams from the small windows up there.
13:22Ah, so those small slits.
13:24Exactly.
13:25So that, it depends on the light, it's the flower, grown up or not grown up.
13:32This part of the temple, the Hypostile Hall, it was for the most important people like the royal family,
13:38the people around the king, just to enter and to be in this part of the temple, to make kind
13:45of rituals and ceremonies.
13:47So completely unlike today, where anyone can come in, you know, it's such a popular attraction as we can see
13:52right now.
13:53Of course not.
13:54Back in ancient Egypt, no one would have been allowed in, no one of the common people, as you said.
13:58It was just, it was special access.
13:59No way.
14:01But perhaps the most striking aspect of the Hypostile Hall's gigantic central colonnade,
14:06is the colour.
14:09Tayav, the colour here is absolutely incredible.
14:13You'd be forgiven for thinking it's been painted on.
14:16But no.
14:17I mean, what's the story behind this beautiful colour?
14:19No way.
14:20All of these colours are original.
14:22They're original?
14:23Yes.
14:24Yes.
14:25The decoration of the Hypostile Hall was begun during the time of the king city,
14:32father of the king Ramses.
14:33And the king Ramses, the son of the king city and his successor, he finished the whole work and the
14:41decoration of the Hypostile Hall.
14:43You can see the remaining of the colours everywhere.
14:46It's amazing to see all of these colours after 3,000 years, which we just cleaned.
14:54We used to see it covered by dust and the smog.
14:58And now we can see it very clear after the project which we started about eight months ago.
15:08The Hypostile Hall's construction spanned several pharaohs.
15:12Amenhotep III may well have started the building of this central colonnade, but it was the second 19th dynasty ruler
15:19Seti I who extended the hall into how it looks today.
15:24Following Seti's death, his son and successor, the famous pharaoh Ramesses II, added the finishing touches, applying the final decorations
15:34to the hall's forest of columns.
15:39Amun and the pharaohs, they seem to be everywhere on these reliefs in the centre of Karnak.
15:42Actually, the scenes in the Hypostile Hall, it represents many things, like the daily rituals, the mythical topics, processional scenes,
15:54and all of this.
15:56We can see the king himself, the pharaoh, interacting in front of many gods.
16:03For example, this is irteth.
16:06Irteth, it means the milk.
16:08The milk? Okay, so this is milk here. Okay.
16:10So, different kinds of offerings, offer, given by the king in front of many gods and goddesses.
16:18But the main god is the god Amun-Ra or the god Amun-Kamut-Ef.
16:26They're absolutely everywhere, aren't they? It's absolutely stunning.
16:30And Taib, I can't help but notice that Amun and Ramesses, these depictions of them on these columns, their faces
16:35are removed. Do we know why?
16:36Yeah. Many Egyptologists think that. Actually, it's happened at the beginning of the Christian times.
16:44Ah, Christian. Okay, right.
16:46We think that at that time, the Christians' faces, it was forbidden at the beginning of the Christianity.
17:02But it wasn't just men who built at Karnak, who wanted to align themselves closely with Amun.
17:10Hatshepsut was an extraordinary female pharaoh who ruled in the early 15th century BC.
17:16She constructed grand monuments across her kingdom.
17:20On many of these, she associated herself as the child of Amun to help legitimize her rule.
17:26And Karnak was the best place to do this.
17:31Near the centre of the temple complex stands this obelisk, built for Hatshepsut.
17:37Quarried in faraway Aswan and brought down the river Nile to Karnak,
17:41it was partly covered in gold and linked Hatshepsut to Amun-Ra,
17:45a newly created version of Amun associated with the sun and creation.
17:53And she also built the Chapelle Rouge, originally situated right at the heart of Karnak.
18:01The building is filled with depictions of Hatshepsut and festivals associated with Amun.
18:08Wow, I've been tired of walking into this chapel.
18:10It's incredible, the seismic once again.
18:13And here we have depictions, representations of Hatshepsut herself.
18:17Yes, we can see the queen in the middle and between the two gods, Thoth and Horus.
18:25During the purification rituals.
18:28Right.
18:29She must to be cleaned by the sacred water before the coronation to be the pharaoh of Egypt.
18:38And after that, she must to make the coronation ceremonies after the blessing by the god Amun.
18:47Okay, so Amun is part of all of this again.
18:50And it seems, because we've got him down here as well.
18:53Amun is everywhere in this Hatshepsut temple.
18:56Yes, exactly.
18:56Here, we can see the god Amun-Ra.
18:59And this is his title in front of his face.
19:01Imen-Ra Nib Nisot-Tawi.
19:04Amun-Ra, the lord of all the throne of the two lands, Lower Egypt and Over Egypt.
19:11And the queen herself burned the incense in the presence of the god Amun-Ra.
19:18That represents incense.
19:19Incense, exactly.
19:20Ah, okay.
19:21This is the incense she must to burn in front of the god Amun-Ra.
19:27And we can see the name of the queen.
19:31And this is the personal name.
19:33Ah, so that's why this name of Hatshepsut is different to that one.
19:37It's different about this, exactly.
19:37Because it's different as a personal name of Hatshepsut.
19:47Yes, why?
19:48In this case, we can see the name of the queen.
19:50The personal name of the queen, Ghanimit Imen Hatshepsut.
19:55And it means the chosen one by the god Amun.
20:00And here, we can see the coronation name, Ma'it Ka Ra.
20:06And Hatshepsut, she seems to really want to stress this close divine link to Amun.
20:12Exactly.
20:13And about everything belongs to the pharaohs and the kings.
20:16Even the god Amun-Ra later, he became not a local god like he was in past.
20:24But he was the god who created the world, who created the cosmos.
20:32So he became an international god at the end of the new kingdom.
20:37And for 2000 years, he's still the main god and the most important god in the Egyptian civilization.
20:48And one of the most important objects linked to Amun-Ra at the time of Hatshepsut was the sacred bark.
20:55A wooden boat that housed the deity's holy statue.
20:59For most of the year, the bark would have remained within this all-important shrine right at the heart of
21:05Karnak.
21:06But a couple of times every year, Hatshepsut and the sacred bark would be involved in a great procession.
21:12The most important was the Opet festival, where Amun's bark processed from Karnak towards Luxor Temple along a processional route,
21:22the avenue of ram-headed sphinxes.
21:26If you know where to look in the Chapelle Rouge, you can still find a depiction of this celebration.
21:32It's a very important scene here where we can see the queen kneeling on her knees and she's giving offering.
21:45Oh, so these are offerings for Amun.
21:47This is the offering table, full of different kinds of offerings, like bread, fruits, vegetables, head of the bull and
21:57the goose.
21:59The goose?
21:59Yes.
22:00There's a goose there as well.
22:00Yes, you can see it right there.
22:02Oh, yes.
22:03Just on the right.
22:03Yes, yes, you're right.
22:04All of this giving to the sacred bark of the god Amun, which we can see on a base in
22:12the middle.
22:13This bark of Amun, as you've got a visual depiction of it here, is very curved, isn't it, in its
22:18design, as you say, with that central square in the middle of that boat?
22:22Because actually, it's a real boat.
22:24It looks like a boat made of wood and in the middle, we can see the nose or the box
22:31which had the golden statue of the god Amun Ra inside it.
22:36But it's invisible because actually the name of the god Amun, it's the invisible one or the hidden one.
22:43The hidden one.
22:44Exactly.
22:44Ah, so his actual statue is hidden from view.
22:47It was that idea that you couldn't actually see the representation of the god.
22:52Exactly, exactly.
22:53It's just the king.
22:54Just the king.
22:55Because he's the son of the god, he must open the lock to see the glory of his father.
23:04And after he's praying over the offerings, like here, the queen Hatshepsut, he covered and he closed the lock again.
23:14And they used to pray for three times per day, with the sun rising, and in the middle of the
23:20day, and at the end of the day with the sunset.
23:27From Senesret I to Hatshepsut, again and again, pharaohs would use Karnak to stress their close association with Amun.
23:35But as you explore more and more of the complex, and decipher the words and pictures on the walls, you
23:42start to realise that for several rulers, Karnak also served another purpose.
23:51Many pharaohs also used Karnak as this place to promote their own achievements, for instance, their military successes.
23:58This is the northern exterior wall of the great hypostyle hall.
24:02It was carved during the reign of Seti I to show some of his military achievements.
24:08For instance, over there at the top right, you have a depiction of the town of Kadesh in the Near
24:14East.
24:14You can see people on top of the walls, almost afraid in the advance, seeing the advance of Seti's Egyptian
24:20army.
24:21You can see other depictions too, you can see several chariots, you can see bows and arrows, and even further
24:27along, you can see crocodiles.
24:29You can see a river crossing, a depiction of Seti I and his armies crossing into Sinai.
24:38Here too, also right in front of me now, this must be the pharaoh Seti.
24:42You can see he's got the red crown of lower Egypt, and he's got, holding in his hand, these people,
24:48these prisoners, and he's about to smite them with his weapon.
24:51This classic sign, this classic depiction of ancient Egyptian art.
24:56It emphasises how Karnak, it was more than just a temple.
25:00This was, in some ways, it was a pharaonic notice board.
25:03A place where they could promote their military achievements to all who laid eyes upon it.
25:15But there was one pharaoh who took this idea to a whole new level.
25:19Rameses II, Seti's son and successor.
25:22On the southern exterior wall of the Hypostyle Hall, Rameses promoted his own martial achievements,
25:29centred around his major battle against the Hittites in the early 13th century BC at Kadesh.
25:37But alongside the regular military depictions of the pharaoh in his chariot,
25:42shooting arrows, smiting prisoners, and offering praise to Amun,
25:46this exterior wall has a remarkable addition that is easy to overlook.
25:51An account of the treaty that followed this battle, of what happened next.
25:58This is the Treaty of Peace, which concluded by the kings,
26:07Ramses II and the king Khattusili from Hittite, after the Battle of Kadesh.
26:14So this was the result of the battle of Kadesh, this peace treaty between these two great nations?
26:19Yes, one of these results, it was a treaty between both Egypt and Hittite at that time,
26:26in the year 21 of the reign of the king Ramses II.
26:31And he concluded, signed, this treaty between Egypt and Hittite to stop the war and all kinds of hostilities.
26:43And Tarif, it's absolutely remarkable when you think of it that Ramses II decided to put the whole treaty here,
26:49outside the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak.
26:52Yes, but he did something very intelligent, because he put the treaty just beside the scenes of his battle,
27:04and to prove his victory, which he claimed on the Hittites.
27:10Because actually this is the virgin, the Egyptian virgin.
27:15Right.
27:16Talked about the Hittites, that they came asking peace from the king Ramses II.
27:25Actually before 1916, we didn't have anything except the Egyptian virgin.
27:32Right.
27:32But later, in 1916, around this date, we discovered the Hittite virgin in Bogaskoy in Turkey.
27:41In the excavation of one of the scholars there, he found the Hittite virgin,
27:47who talks about something reverse of the Egyptian virgin.
27:53This treaty is the oldest recorded peace treaty in history,
27:57and you can still decipher key parts of it today.
28:02Well, let's have a look at some of the details of this treaty now,
28:04because I'd love to really delve into this.
28:06I mean, I see a cartouche right here.
28:08Yeah.
28:09What is this cartouche?
28:10For example, this is the cartouche of the king Ramses II.
28:13Oh, so this is Ramses II?
28:15Yes, that's right.
28:16Yeah, wow.
28:16Weser Ma'it Ra, sitib in Ra.
28:19Wow.
28:20The most power, king, chosen by the king, by the god Ra.
28:25Wow, fair enough.
28:26So, and here we can see something very important.
28:30This is the name of Khit or Khiti.
28:35This is the name of the Hittites.
28:38Of the Hittites?
28:39Exactly.
28:39Right, okay.
28:40Yeah.
28:40So you have Ramses here, you have the Hittites, his opponents there.
28:44Do we also have any mention here at all of the Hittite king,
28:49of the Hittite ruler?
28:50Up there at the beginning of the treaty, we can see in the third line from the top.
29:00On the left, we can see the name of the city, Hittite empire.
29:05Yes.
29:06And after that, we can see the remains of the name Khatoussiri.
29:10Khatoussiri.
29:11Khatoussiri or Khatoussia.
29:12Right.
29:12He was the king who concluded the treaty with the king Rameses II after they finished this war and all
29:22the kind of these hostilities between the two empires.
29:26And even later, after about 12 years, it was something very important to know that the king, Rameses, he married
29:36the daughter of Khatoussia or Khatoussili.
29:39And this action, it was the first political marriage in the history.
29:46A lot of firsts, a lot of real significance behind this, isn't there?
29:50Yeah.
29:50I mean, Taib, you mentioned the year 21 that this treaty was signed.
29:54How do we know that? How do we know it was the 21st year?
29:57Okay. We can see that at the beginning.
29:59And this is actually Egyptian tradition.
30:02At the beginning, he must, too, mention the date, the history, the date exactly, and the name of the king
30:11with his titles.
30:12So that at the beginning, on the right, we can see this sign.
30:17This sign, it's ten.
30:21Yes, I can see it.
30:22So we will see two ten.
30:23So it's like an upward-down, it's like a crescent shape.
30:26Exactly, exactly.
30:27It's U-shape, like U-shape.
30:30We will see two, like this, it means 20.
30:34And one.
30:36So this is, in his year, 21.
30:42This treaty, it's very important in the international relations.
30:48There is a replica of this treaty still exists, hangs in the headquarter of United Nations.
30:58No way.
31:00Wow.
31:00That's right.
31:00That's a great fact right there.
31:06But it wasn't just native Egyptian rulers who built this great sanctuary.
31:12This is the Taharqa kiosk.
31:15It looks quite lonely today in the courtyard near Karnak's great entrance, but it tells an important story.
31:23Taharqa was a pharaoh of the 25th dynasty, also known as the Nubian dynasty.
31:31This dynasty originated from the kingdom of Kush, further up the river Nile in what is now Sudan.
31:37It came to rule Egypt for almost a century.
31:41Taharqa was a devout worshipper of Amun and constructed several buildings at Karnak.
31:48This column is all that remains of one of these constructions, which originally had 10 columns topped with open papyrus
31:55almost 19 metres in height.
31:58The building doesn't seem to have been roofed, so it perhaps served as a colonnaded port to the Temple of
32:04Amun.
32:05It's a remarkable symbol of the power of Karnak for many pharaohs of Egypt, no matter their place of origin.
32:13But for me, there is the construction of one particular non-native Egyptian ruler that trumps all others.
32:21And it still stands just where it was first built, right at the very heart of Karnak.
32:31I'm here at the centre of Karnak in the holiest of holies, the central bark shrine of the god Amun.
32:39But this red granite bark shrine, what's so interesting about it is that it's not associated with a native Egyptian
32:46pharaoh, this one at least.
32:47No, it's associated with a Macedonian king, King Philip Aradaeus III, the half-brother, the elder half-brother of Alexander
32:58the Great.
33:00Philip Aradaeus' reign was relatively brief, ruling for just six years in the chaotic aftermath of Alexander the Great's death.
33:08He ventured into Egypt only once, trying to remove the governor of Egypt, Ptolemy.
33:14The invasion was a disaster, but Ptolemy was prepared to become an ally of Philip.
33:20What followed was a great reconciliation on the banks of the River Nile.
33:26But what's so interesting in that story is that Ptolemy met with King Philip Aradaeus III during this reconciliation.
33:33And it might have been one of Ptolemy's acts to show that he was loyal to the king, that he
33:38wasn't going to make Egypt this breakaway province.
33:40One thing that he might have done was to promise to erect this shrine in Philip Aradaeus' name at this
33:47beating heart of ancient Egyptian culture at Karnak.
33:51Could this red granite shrine here, dedicated, associated with King Philip Aradaeus III, actually all be to do with Ptolemy?
34:02Ptolemy's influence over the construction of this granite-spark shrine seems almost certain.
34:07But it's Philip Aradaeus, this often overlooked Macedonian king, who dominates this holiest of holies at Karnak.
34:17And here we are, just outside on the exterior wall of the granite-bark shrine.
34:22Here is a depiction of the man himself, of King Philip Aradaeus III, in the guise of an Egyptian pharaoh.
34:30And what's so astonishing about this? You can see his crown he is wearing.
34:33Just to the right of that crown you can see a cartouche.
34:37And that cartouche is that of King Philip Aradaeus III, the Macedonian king, the elder half-brother of Alexander the
34:45Great.
34:52From Semizret I to Philip Aradaeus more than a millennia and a half later,
34:58Karnak remained this great bastion of ancient Egyptian culture, with the god Amun right at its centre.
35:04And its importance remained down into Roman times, until the arrival of a new religion that not even Amun and
35:11his fluid character could contend with.
35:15There are clues to this new religion on the walls of one of Karnak's loveliest buildings.
35:20I've come here, to the eastern end of the Karnak complex, to the Achmenu, the festival hall of the pharaoh
35:27Thutmosis III.
35:29It was constructed very early in Thutmosis' reign, and it is an absolutely stunning structure.
35:36Thutmosis III, he was the stepson of Hatshepsut.
35:39This was meant to be a temple to Amun, the god Amun, Amun-Ra, but also to the pharaoh himself,
35:46to Thutmosis III himself.
35:48It came complete with its own priesthood.
35:51This is the central complex, filled with all of these columns.
35:54You have these square peg columns around the outside, 32 of them in total.
35:59And in the centre here, you have this colonnade of more rounded columns.
36:04It's one of the most stunning structures surviving at Karnak today.
36:08And it's also fascinating for looking at the afterlife of Karnak, when the worship of ancient Egyptian gods came to
36:16an end.
36:27If you look very closely here, you can see what happened when Christianity came to Egypt.
36:32Structures like this were taken over by Christians and transformed into churches.
36:36This complex became a church.
36:38And you can see the evidence of that, one piece of evidence, right up there.
36:43You can see a depiction of a Christian figure, of a Christian saint.
36:48You can notice the halo above the head.
36:50You might be able to pick out the beard, and you might be able to pick out that he has
36:54in his hands a book, the Bible.
36:56That is an image of John the Evangelist.
37:00It's a wonderful example.
37:02There are many examples on several of these columns.
37:04You can see Christian representations right here in this ancient Egyptian temple.
37:12Alongside the Christian depictions, you can't help but also see another, more recent inscription on one of these columns.
37:20Now, the story of this temple doesn't end with these Christian depictions.
37:24No, we've got something from even more recently in our history, on this column right here.
37:30Because if you look up once again, you can see a name etched into the column.
37:35The name of Champollion, the man who deciphered hieroglyphs, who deciphered the Rosetta Stone.
37:41Even Champollion decided to etch his name, his graffiti, into this ancient Egyptian temple.
37:48Etched onto a column that was erected some 3,000 years before he was even around.
38:02From Senesret I to Philip Aridaeus III.
38:06From Ramesses II to Champollion.
38:09Within this massive temple complex, you can discover evidence and remains that stretch 4,000 years.
38:15And at the heart of it all, was the worship of one of antiquity's most extraordinary deities.
38:22Amun.
38:25Thanks to the incredible amount of archaeology that has survived,
38:28the sensational feeling you get walking through Karnak is unparalleled.
38:33But away from the monumental, it's only by looking at the much smaller details
38:38that you really start to understand the importance of this temple complex.
38:43It's a site where every hieroglyph tells its own story.
38:48A place filled with often overlooked features that reveal what mattered most to these ancient Egyptian pharaohs.
38:56From religious ceremonies to military boasts.
39:00As the archaeological work here continues, and more and more artefacts are unearthed,
39:05it's a place that will continue to reveal its secrets in the years ahead.
39:10The legacy of Karnak lives on.
39:29Karnak lives on.
39:56Where is the
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