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00:01Just kilometres from the Great Pyramid of Giza, south of Cairo, at the heart of the
00:07Egyptian desert, a mysterious necropolis covering nine square kilometres, partly
00:13forbidden to the public, attracts the attention of researchers the world over,
00:17Saqqara. This unique site, with its pyramids and fascinating graves, is home
00:24to humanity's most ancient collection of religious texts. These priceless
00:31hieroglyphs are said to be magic spells that allow queens and pharaohs to survive
00:37in the afterlife. Living forever in the next world is an ambition of people in
00:44many of the world's societies. It's in no way confined to Egypt. These texts were
00:49engraved 4,300 years ago during the Old Kingdom, a millennium before the reigns
00:55of Rameses II and Tutankhamun. A golden age marked by these extraordinary
01:00constructions, 140 metres tall, which still influence modern day societies.
01:06Ancient Egypt, we shouldn't forget it, is one of the major chapters written in the
01:11history of mankind. Why were these graves engraved with hieroglyphs? What is the
01:18meaning of these mysterious texts that researchers must assemble, symbol by symbol?
01:24Scientists are using innovative procedures to answer these questions.
01:30Today we have new technologies like photogrammetry to support our imagination.
01:35We found a whole chunk of ancient Egypt that has totally disappeared, of which there was no trace.
01:41Guided by drones and radar, the team of Egyptologists, archaeologists and architects
01:48tarlessly sift the sands of Saqqara in the Egyptian desert. This year, their research promises to be challenging.
01:56Deciphering a grave that was inaccessible for almost 100 years, whose walls are covered in comparable
02:03horoglyphs.
02:06Their unprecedented discoveries will shed light on the myths and beliefs of the first dynasties of Egypt.
02:17Perryっていうふう Famous
02:32in the map of Egypt, the
03:05Just kilometres south of Cairo, at the gates to the desert,
03:10sit the majestic pyramids.
03:14Testimony to the golden age of ancient Egypt.
03:20All these amazing monuments were erected over a 500-year period, referred to by Egyptologists
03:28as the Old Kingdom of Egypt, 30 pharaohs from four successive dynasties.
03:38To understand this civilisation, archaeologists search the sands and decipher the vestiges
03:45of bygone days.
03:51This vast expanse is home to hundreds of open-air graves, the Memphite necropolis.
04:01The Memphite necropolis is several tens of kilometres long and has been densely occupied
04:06over its entire length.
04:09So there are thousands of graves, dozens of pyramids.
04:12I think there are 120 or 130 known pyramids to date.
04:18The Memphite necropolis alone includes several necropolises built over more than 3,000 years.
04:25From the Plateau of Giza in the north to the Fayyum oasis in the south, this desert territory
04:31of 1,300 square kilometres contains the famous Great Pyramid and the pyramids of Khafre and Menkore.
04:40These symbolic monuments are the most visible vestiges, but they contain few clues to the
04:46lives of the pharaohs and their belief in an afterlife.
04:51Further south, 20 kilometres from these iconic pyramids lies a treasure that's fundamental to
04:58understanding the first dynasties.
05:01In the vast Saqqara necropolis, one monumental construction in particular catches the eye.
05:09Its atypical architecture fascinates archaeologists, as it represents the cradle of ancient Egyptian construction.
05:20It is here that the Egyptians built the very first pyramid, to the north of the largest necropolis in Egypt.
05:31For close to 5,000 years, this monument, the oldest elevated construction in human history,
05:38has stood proud of the sand dunes.
05:42This step pyramid is the tomb of the pharaoh Joser, first king of the third Egyptian dynasty.
05:54This pyramid has a particular shape because it aims to express
05:58the pharaoh's divine, eternal dimension.
06:06One of the theories says it was a magnificent ladder leading to the sky,
06:12because Joser, after his physical death, was supposed to join the divine sphere that was located on the sky.
06:22This monumental construction was revolutionary for the time.
06:28Because initially, the pharaohs used to construct rectangular funerary buildings,
06:35some as big as 40 meters long and 12 meters tall.
06:41This parallel pipe-shaped structure is a mastaba.
06:45It covers the royal burial chamber for eternity.
06:50A mastaba is a tomb. The name comes from the Arabic for bench.
06:54So, in fact, it's something rectangular with slightly sloping faces.
06:59The main characteristic of mastabas is invisible from outside.
07:04It is a huge shaft hidden at the heart of the construction.
07:09The shaft can be up to 15, 20 meters deep, and at the bottom is a chamber that can be
07:14big or small,
07:15more or less developed, more or less complex, in which you find the sarcophagus of the deceased.
07:19Pharaoh Joser wanted to stand out from his predecessors and assert his authority.
07:29To that end, he called upon a visionary architect, the legendary Imhotep.
07:36The project he put forward would revolutionize the architecture of Egyptian civilization forever.
07:45The brilliant Imhotep had the idea of adding to this mastaba, to its rectangular base,
07:50a second rectangular base, and then a third, a fourth, etc., until it formed a pyramid.
07:55But a step pyramid, in fact. And that is how the idea of the pyramid was born.
08:04The dimensions of the first pyramid ever created are spectacular.
08:09It's base measures 109 meters across by 121 meters in length.
08:17Stacking six quadrilaterals raises the building's summit to 62 meters.
08:25Never before had a monument reached such a height.
08:31An unthinkable structure for its time.
08:34It's an enormous revolution because it must have constituted
08:37a multiple of the amount of resources that went into creating a royal monument.
08:43It's altogether larger than anything that went before,
08:46and it's built of stone and not of brick, as the earlier ones were.
08:53The first pyramid is really the step pyramid of Joser.
08:59Though archaeologists were able to unravel the mysteries of this millennial construction,
09:03they found no hieroglyphic engravings on the walls of the burial chamber.
09:09Nothing to send them back 5,000 years with keys to understanding this vanished civilization.
09:17But at the end of the 19th century, an Egyptologist's intuition led to an unprecedented discovery.
09:29The year was 1880.
09:32Contrary to other researchers, the young Gaston Mespero believed that the still unexplored pyramids
09:39housed texts carved in stone.
09:43Even Auguste Mariette, father of archaeology, didn't subscribe to that unlikely theory.
09:51His student, Gaston, dug in his heels and moved heaven and earth to organize an expedition.
09:59In 1880, Gaston Maspero, the Frenchman, became the director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service.
10:08And he wanted to increase knowledge about pyramids.
10:15He had the French government give a small amount of money to Auguste Mariette for his digs on the express
10:20condition
10:20for the explore of the pyramids of South Saqqara.
10:26Pyramids that were still buried under the sand.
10:30After that of Jose, built around 2650 BCE.
10:36After those of the plateau of Giza, erected around 2560 BCE.
10:42The pyramids of the necropolis of Pharaoh Pepi I, built some 300 years later, south of Saqqara,
10:50revealed information so precious to archaeologists as to forever change our understanding of ancient Egypt.
11:01In the winter of 1880, Heinrich Bruch, archaeologist and friend of Auguste Mariette, arrived.
11:11Heinrich Bruch explained that he wormed his way inside these pyramids,
11:15because everything inside had collapsed, the corridors, and there, at the end of the corridor,
11:20magnificent, he sees walls covered in hieroglyphs, practically all collapsed.
11:26Some of these pyramids had texts, and this was the first discovery of the pyramid texts.
11:35This major revelation in the history of Egyptology was a heads-up to researchers everywhere.
11:44For the first time, archaeologists, through these texts, had direct access to the thoughts and beliefs of the pharaohs of
11:52ancient Egypt.
11:58Today, close to 150 years after this amazing discovery, 15 researchers are still hard at work on Saqqara's southern site.
12:12In all, 11 pyramids with texts have been unearthed.
12:17Together, they constitute humanity's oldest corpus of religious texts.
12:24Religious texts that were found in the pyramids were unique and brand new to scholarship,
12:31and they remain the largest group that's known from that sort of period anywhere in the world.
12:39These are not the first texts found in Egypt. Other texts predate these.
12:42Even in Mesopotamia, we have much earlier texts, too.
12:46There are older texts, but they're bookkeeping accounts.
12:50Tablets saying so many sacks of wheat equals so much.
12:55The purpose of the sacred pyramid texts is to ensure the pharaoh's survival in the afterlife.
13:03Previously, they were inscribed on papyrus.
13:08But that didn't withstand the ravages of time.
13:13We had to wait until the ancient Egyptians engraved them in stone for them to reach us 4,300 years
13:21later.
13:24It means we have something solid to go on.
13:26Because these texts tell us about the religious world of the ancient Egyptians.
13:31It's absolutely breathtaking.
13:35The largest collection of texts was found in the pyramid of the powerful pharaoh, Pepe I.
13:44Pepe I was the second king of the 6th dynasty.
13:48He ruled about 2300 BCE for about 50 years.
13:54And he had the most complete pyramid complex of his period.
14:04So it was here, at the heart of what was once a majestic necropolis,
14:09that the first pyramid texts were found.
14:15Within the burial chamber of pharaoh Pepe I, to be precise.
14:22Since that amazing discovery made by the pioneers of archaeology,
14:26this site has become a formidable laboratory, bristling with high-tech tools.
14:32They help us to understand the constructions
14:35that protected the royal family and their precious sacred texts.
14:39But how, with simple resources, did the engineers of the time
14:44manage to build this complex with such a high degree of precision?
14:53So, almost a thousand years before the Iron Age,
14:56the Egyptians were already erecting extremely complex buildings.
15:03Compared to ourselves today when we have lots of tools available,
15:07back then the tools were fairly rudimentary.
15:10They had ropes, they had sticks, but they achieved such precision
15:14with a few tools at their disposal.
15:20The burial chamber is dug in a large pit.
15:25They had to make a box within the pit and seal the walls
15:28to prevent the upper elements from collapsing inside.
15:35Walls were raised to secure the structure.
15:39A key step that prevented sand from entering.
15:45Then the walls themselves are assembled by high-grade limestone slabs, such as tourer limestone.
15:51The sacred texts are engraved on these precious limestone slabs.
15:59To access them, you must walk along a 25-metre corridor
16:05before you come to the chamber, located eight metres underground.
16:14The only team of archaeologists authorised to enter these pyramids
16:18is headed by Philip Colombier.
16:22For almost 30 years, he has explored the myths and beliefs of ancient Egypt.
16:30The first time we entered, we came down this way.
16:33For the Egyptians, it was the opposite, because the king would take the opposite path from inside.
16:39He would leave his sarcophagus and take this path which would take him right up there.
16:47The orientation and the angle of the corridor were carefully thought out by the architects of the time.
16:55As in all the pyramids, the opening faces north towards the pole star.
17:03The pole star is a star that remains in the sky all the time.
17:07It never descends below the horizon.
17:10Then we also have a whole series of stars called circumpolar stars that remain around the pole star
17:16and never disappear below the horizon.
17:20For the Egyptians, to leave the horizon is to die.
17:23So what he wanted to do was join these stars that the Egyptians in fact refer to as the indestructibles.
17:31Ensuring the pharaoh's eternal life was the absolute priority for the Egyptians of the time.
17:40The structure of the pyramid and the scriptures it contained contributed to achieving that objective.
17:47From corridor to burial chamber, hieroglyphs cover the walls from floor to ceiling.
17:54So here we are in the king's burial chamber with a sarcophagus in which the king was to rest.
17:59And he is surrounded by all these texts, which are called the pyramid texts,
18:04because they were found in the pyramid and whose purpose is to help the king survive in the afterlife.
18:12These hieroglyphs were magic spells at the pharaoh's disposal to help him leave the sarcophagus
18:21and begin his journey.
18:24For example, here we address the king directly and say,
18:28Arise, O Pepe. Thus he will be able to start his journey to heaven.
18:33These spells are in fact a practical guide.
18:38They allow him to obtain the keys to other worlds, to feed himself and to endure ordeals.
18:47There are of course magic formulas to ward off scorpions, snakes, any pests that can stand in his way.
18:55In the cannibal spell, the king appears and he eats all the gods and goddesses.
19:03And there are very bits that seem almost humorous in this text, where it says he has
19:10the little ones for breakfast and the big ones for lunch and the old ones barbecued for dinner.
19:18In all, 651 spells cover the pharaoh's burial chamber.
19:25There are not evident at first glance, all the hieroglyphs are turned towards the sarcophagus,
19:31to favour their interaction with the sovereign.
19:36The common goal of all these spells was to provide the king with a sort of manual,
19:43how to reach the afterlife, how to merge with the divine sphere of the world,
19:49how to meet the gods of ancient Egypt.
19:51These ancestral formulas come from the various stories, tales and beliefs that Egyptians have
20:00passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years.
20:09Here we have almost direct access to what the ancient Egyptians thought around 2300 BC,
20:17but even more because these texts were engraved in the time of Pepe the First,
20:21but invented long before.
20:25So we even come to a time that reminds us of elements of Egyptian religion,
20:29before the time when writing even existed.
20:36Through these texts, the Egyptologists managed to immerse themselves in the thoughts of the time.
20:44But for that, we must observe the hieroglyphs more closely.
20:51All these signs are actually capable, according to beliefs, of coming to life.
20:56Some hieroglyphs are therefore mutilated so as not to endanger the king.
21:04For instance, here we have this little elephant.
21:07An elephant can become a dangerous animal.
21:10For when this hieroglyph magically attacking the king, they plastered it.
21:15You can see the elephant's hindquarters have been plastered to prevent it from moving around, in fact.
21:24They actually masked two parts of the elephant.
21:29Its hindquarters and also its trunk.
21:34Other animals suffered the same treatment.
21:40The pharaoh was thus protected from misfortune.
21:46But must also be protected from outside attacks.
21:57The pyramid was designed as a veritable fortress.
22:01To protect the pharaoh and his sacred texts.
22:03It's essential to the soul's survival in the beyond.
22:08During their excavations, archaeologists uncovered an ingenious system intended to repel any attempt at intrusions.
22:16Computer-based image analysis has confirmed the presence of harrows.
22:21A harrow is a dam system, often made of hard stone like granite.
22:25Granite was one of the hardest known rocks at that time.
22:29The harrow system weighed more than 14 tons, or the equivalent of three elephants.
22:35The architects had designed a passage with three granite harrows.
22:41These are granite walls, and just above are harrows that are raised up,
22:45but that should come down and block the passage for eternity.
22:51During construction, the harrows are held in place with the aid of stays.
22:57Once the pharaoh's grave is installed at the heart of the pyramid, the stays are withdrawn.
23:04The granite blocks then seal the corridor forever.
23:08It's impossible to drill through them.
23:10Yet the harrows didn't halt the progress of looters, the ones responsible for the destruction of the texts.
23:18Obviously, the thieves couldn't care less and went through the limestone walls from the outside.
23:24They made a detour around these granite walls.
23:33For researchers, working out how the looters got to the heart of the pyramid provided clues to the damage they
23:40caused.
23:44To revive the site, the archaeologists would rely on new tools at the cutting edge of technology.
23:53Before, we'd take a sheet of water paper and paint watercolors, etc.
23:58It had freezed the idea, but no more.
24:01Today, we have new technologies like photogrammetry to support our imagination.
24:08Photogrammetry can turn thousands of photos into a 3D model.
24:14For the first time, researchers will use this method over 40 hectares.
24:19It's a technique that can throw up new clues and unearth the secrets of the reign of Pepe I and
24:28his dynasty.
24:34The surface that the archaeologists wish to model in 3D is gigantic.
24:41The only way to cover such an expanse is to take a step backwards and upwards.
24:50Up to more than 300 metres altitude to finally take in the whole of the site.
25:00The researchers called upon an archaeologist specialised in photogrammetric reconstruction, along with a drone pilot.
25:13We'd like to cover this kind of area. It's like 24 hectares at 70 metres high, so it will be
25:21a relation of about 2 centimetres.
25:24To achieve such a degree of precision, the drone will need to take thousands of snaps.
25:31At a frantic rate.
25:35Every nook and cranny of the necropolis must be photographed.
25:41The drone will cover this surface, much like a farmer ploughing his field, progressing steadily and taking photos at regular
25:48intervals.
25:51In order to obtain the best possible results, flights and photographs are entirely automated.
25:59Maybe on that area, with a necropolis.
26:02After an initial sweep at 70 metres, the archaeologists decided to programme a second.
26:09This time the drone will fly closer to the ground, at an altitude of 30 metres, to boost the precision.
26:21It'll carry on its way and each time it moves like that, it'll take a photo.
26:25The photos will follow each other and have areas of overlap.
26:29This is how we create a digital model of the terrain, upon which we then reapply the photos to get
26:34an ortho image.
26:36Rather like a satellite picture, but with much greater resolution.
26:39Because at this height, 2 centimetres equals 1 pixel, whereas Google is at around 50 centimetres per pixel.
26:46This technology will allow archaeologists to access images 25 times as precise as those available on the internet.
26:56To achieve this, every spot in the necropolis is photographed over 60 times in different ways.
27:03Computer processing then synthesises all these photographs into just one.
27:09This image is an ortho image. It is totally flat, with no deformation.
27:17The file obtained is an ultra-high definition photograph, containing 650 million pixels.
27:24In just one click, it can pass from an overall view to the close-up of a pebble.
27:31The final stage is to assemble the thousands of photos, this time to form a three-dimensional model.
27:42Photogrammetry has now made such huge progress in terms of both algorithms and computing power,
27:47that once we have all the photos, we can inject them into a program, enter the parameters,
27:52and configure the software correctly to produce a model from these thousands of photos.
27:56So there are a few operations to do once you have a coherent set.
28:02Here, all the photos taken by the drone are materialised in space.
28:08The GPS coordinates, altitude, and shot angles of every snap are recorded.
28:17The necropolis is totally covered by 1715 photos. An advanced algorithm analyses these images,
28:27and the 3D model begins to take shape. The photos are laid out with pinpoint accuracy.
28:34To be sure of their location, a final check is carried out using reference points known to the archaeologists.
28:43In fact, we placed around 20 targets on the ground, and now the exercise is to find these targets
28:49in the photos and log them. The software will then tag all photos with the right coordinates.
28:59What's this one? It's 101. So this is a target we put on one of the walls of the store,
29:06and whose coordinates in space we know exactly.
29:10So now we log it manually with the software.
29:21Finally, the 3D model of the necropolis of Pepe I is taking shape.
29:28This modelling is a precious tool for archaeologists,
29:31as they can now see the site from their computer in a completely new way.
29:38They can inspect every nook and cranny, take measurements,
29:43and establish new theories about the history of the necropolis.
29:55In a single view, we have a map, a bird's eye view of all the excavations
29:59that have been carried out, or the areas still to be excavated.
30:05It's something quite extraordinary. A map cannot provide this detail.
30:09It means we can perhaps validate certain hypotheses and invalidate others.
30:16The three-dimensional modelling of the necropolis allows us to take measurements in just seconds,
30:22an operation that would take hours on the ground.
30:28With the help of this precious data, it will soon be possible to redraw the necropolis
30:34in its original splendour, but also to create the digital model of humanity's largest collection of religious texts.
30:42The next three-dimensional modelling of the necropolis is in the world's largest collection of the necropolis.
30:53The next step is at the end of the necropolis.
30:54Christelle Alvarez is part of the team.
30:57Her research focuses on a pyramid located south of the necropolis.
31:04The lengthy reconstruction of the texts begins.
31:09She scours the Egyptian desert relentlessly.
31:13The slightest fragment, however small, may be a key to understanding the sacred texts.
31:20Each stone is turned, analysed, back-breaking work under a blazing sun.
31:28You can pass a spot and not notice that there's a text, because everything depends on the light.
31:33But early in the morning, when the light is low-angled, the texts suddenly spring out.
31:40We can see a fragment that later we might miss under a strong light, like there is now.
31:47After a few hours of searching, three fragments appear.
31:53They will join the 576 elements already collected by the Egyptologist.
32:00These few square centimetres are a precious testimony of ancient Egypt.
32:07There could be a line from one of the columns, a bit of a sign.
32:12Maybe we'll find another piece that we can complete in the corner.
32:16And sometimes we may be surprised in one way or another.
32:21These fragments will eventually be returned to their original place.
32:25To achieve this, a meticulous classification process must take place.
32:32Work that the Egyptologists carry out in a secret place.
32:37A veritable fortress, within which is part of humanity's oldest corpus of texts.
32:43We were granted exceptional access.
32:50This bank vault of history is referred to by archaeologists as the store.
32:57Here, every priceless fragment is ordered, classified and documented.
33:03It's like our archaeological treasure.
33:06This is where most of the work is actually done for the mission.
33:10It's watched over by police, by guards.
33:14Nobody is supposed to know where it is or have access.
33:19Among all these stones, 1600 fragments come from a burial chamber to the west of Pepi I's pyramid.
33:31Though the vestiges are quite visible today, they were previously buried under five metres of sand.
33:42When Marie-Noëlle Fris and her team arrived in 2007, they were unaware that under their feet was a pyramid.
33:52Little by little, an impressive number of fragments have resurfaced.
33:58At the time, we gathered maybe two or three hundred pieces, which was quite a lot.
34:03We were all pretty excited at the thought of finding a new one.
34:08And as we progressed, in the study of these pieces, we ended up finding the name of the Queen.
34:16It was Queen Behenu, a young queen at the time, totally unknown to Egyptologists.
34:24To find out more, the team organised a dig.
34:37120 men worked relentlessly, manually extracting thousands of cubic metres of sand.
34:54We saw a small piece of wall emerge from the sand, just the top. The rest was buried in the
34:59sand.
35:00That was good, as it showed us there were texts here, that we'd find walls still in good shape, still
35:06legible.
35:07The painting was impeccable. It was all painted green, but we could only see this much.
35:14Then as we went down, we realised a good part of the walls was intact, and that's irreplaceable when working
35:21on pyramid texts.
35:22If you have texts in place at the bottom of the wall, it allows you to place everything above.
35:27As we know what comes before and after, you can put together 90% of the wall like that, just
35:33by having a strip at the bottom that allows you to link it up.
35:39These are the remains of the Queen's tomb, after six months' excavation.
35:47In all, 1,600 fragments are collected and transported to the store.
35:54The Egyptologists are faced with a huge 60 square metre puzzle to piece together.
36:02The aim is to restore in just a few years what has been destroyed over several centuries.
36:09You can give them a thumbs up, just here.
36:13The outlines and inscriptions are drawn with great precision, so as not to betray the words of the Egyptians from
36:22that time.
36:23The fact of working on them, drawing them, committing them to computer, then classifying them, reclassifying them and reclassifying them
36:32differently means we gradually learn what they mean.
36:35After the stone blocks are traced, the drawings are scanned and copied onto computer.
36:42Painstaking work for the epigraphists.
36:46Each stroke, each curve is meticulously executed.
36:51They thus convert hieroglyphics engraved in the rock 4,300 years ago into vector graphics.
36:58These files are 2,500 times smaller than a photo.
37:05A vector drawing weighs nothing.
37:07They're mathematical formulae, not pixels, so the file is tiny.
37:11And when you come to walls that are 6, 7, 8 metres long by 3 metres, 50 tall, we need
37:17lightweight files because otherwise we couldn't handle anything.
37:24Each digitized item has a technical card which contains all block information, size, origin, as well as the content of
37:35their inscriptions.
37:39We have keywords.
37:41If ever we try to reconstruct a swamp scene, we have a keyword, swamp.
37:45So if we just enter swamp in the database, it throws up all blocks linked to this type of scenery.
37:51It's an essential work tool for us.
37:55This database provides precious help to Egyptologists, as only the human brain can manage to put together the thousands of
38:03pieces of the puzzle.
38:07We don't yet have a computer system that can do the job itself.
38:11Only the human mind can remember that such and such sign or word is found in such a spell, which
38:18allows us to find roughly the location of this text.
38:26Impossible to know exactly the text that should appear on the walls.
38:32But by analogy with the inscriptions of the other pyramids, the Egyptologists managed to define the plans of the walls
38:39as they must have been at the time.
38:44Here is a part of the fragments virtually restored.
38:49On the north wall, shown here, almost 99% of the stones found could be replaced on a computer.
38:58We must now return them physically to Queen Benhu's burial chamber.
39:06We're almost at the end, so these are the last checks.
39:09It's my last chance to put things back in place.
39:12These circle blocks are the ones we'll try to put back.
39:15These three here, I'm sure it will work.
39:18This tiny one in the middle, I'm not sure.
39:22This is just to say that we've tried, but I'm not confident.
39:27If it works, the restorer will stick them on the right way.
39:31If it doesn't, we'll bring them back to the store and wait for better days.
39:37Twelve years after the discovery of her pyramid, Queen Benhu will perhaps have some of her magic spells restored to
39:46her.
39:47For Marie-Noëlle Fraisse, it's the culmination of a long task.
39:52The Egyptologist will finally be able to check whether her computer simulations can be transposed to the walls of the
40:00royal chamber.
40:04Let's start with the small pieces of the corridor's west wall. Tell me where we're going to put them.
40:09It depends. What's this one?
40:122-5-6.
40:142-5-6 is here.
40:18Okay. The continuation of the eye.
40:22Next. Is it that way or the other way? That way?
40:26Yes.
40:28That's good. We are right opposite. We'll be able to stick it on.
40:35Beli arrived. Four blocks immediately find their home.
40:39This one's perfect too.
40:42Yes, that's really good. There, exactly.
40:47That's good. It's a good fit.
40:49For other pieces of the puzzle, the task seems more difficult.
40:54That won't work. It won't fit.
40:57No, that won't fit. It's missing a bit there.
41:01Never mind. You can't win them all.
41:03A team of workers accompanies the Egyptologists.
41:07They alone are empowered to restore the precious texts.
41:12It's know-how that demands great accuracy because the slightest error could irretrievably knock you out of sync.
41:20Each tiny fragment must be placed with pinpoint precision.
41:27It's with little bits, tiny crumbs like that, that we can put things together.
41:32We end up with almost all the text, but there are 40 fragments here that have to be stuck on.
41:38Tiny bits, slightly bigger bits, but it's like a jigsaw puzzle.
41:44And you feel like this little bit has no real importance, but if it allows you to stick the next
41:49block on, then it's the missing link.
41:53Though sometimes you need to assemble dozens of pieces to decipher the texts.
41:58Some walls have fortunately been spared by looters.
42:04Like the north wall, on which the offering sign appears.
42:11An offering sign is in fact a dead man's menu.
42:14He's told, you'll have three loaves of this, three loaves of that, beer, wine.
42:20And all that is described on the column, with a gesture of offering underneath there, the outstretched hand with this
42:26little vase inside.
42:27That means four times, so you have to repeat it four times.
42:33And below, we have the description, the name of the offering, and the quantity.
42:37He is entitled to two.
42:42In order to decipher these millennial texts with precision, Egyptologists interpret these signs in two ways.
42:50Today, there are fewer than a thousand people worldwide capable of reading this forgotten language.
42:57What's difficult in writing hieroglyphics is that these are both sounds, but also ideas.
43:03So the same sign, for example, the sign of a house, will be used to say house.
43:08It will also be used, as in French, in a kind of rebus.
43:12That is, it will be used only for its phonetic value, the value of its sound.
43:17If there's one inscription that Egyptologists are certain to read in phonetic language,
43:23it's the name of the queen, who lines the walls.
43:27The leg is a B, that's a leg.
43:29You see?
43:31Next to it is an H.
43:33Underneath is the chick, which is an U sound.
43:36And the little vase here is Nou.
43:38So it's Behenou.
43:44Egyptologists thus succeeded in deciphering the meaning of more than 52,000 hieroglyphs found in the burial chamber.
43:56This room is one of the most precious places to Egyptians.
44:01Nobody is allowed within.
44:03The builders did everything to ensure its protection and built a pyramid as its bank vault.
44:13The burial chamber and its texts would be hidden by a colossal mass.
44:18The pyramid's main function is to protect this holy room, which accounts for just 1% of the total volume
44:24of the construction.
44:26But how did the architects manage to arrange 5,800 cubic meters of stones to achieve their goals, to preserve
44:34the pyramid, texts, and the royal remains?
44:42After a 40-year reign, Pepe I died around 2255 BC.
44:50Power reverted to his son, Merenre.
44:56As was possible at the time, the new pharaoh married his aunt, Ankesen Pepe II, who was also one of
45:04his father's former wives.
45:08Merenre reigned for almost 10 years.
45:13At his death, his son Pepe II was too young to govern.
45:19His mother, Ankesen Pepe II, took the regency of the kingdom and reigned for her son throughout Egypt.
45:27All the digs allowed us to paint a portrait of this queen, and to show that she was the major
45:32queen of the 6th dynasty, in fact.
45:34It was she who totally dominated the end of the 6th dynasty.
45:40From the start of her reign, Ankesen Pepe II initiated the construction of the pyramid of her son, Pepe II.
45:48It would be built two kilometers south of the necropolis of Pepe I, a little further into the desert.
45:57When the archaeologist Gustave Giacquier arrived in 1930, he discovered a burial chamber that was intact.
46:07Here, we're in front of Pepe I's pyramid, or what is left of it.
46:11And all of this area is, of course, currently forbidden to visitors.
46:16It has never been examined since 1930, since Giacquier.
46:20So we're really the first to come back here and study all of this.
46:27For Egyptologist Philippe Colembert, to penetrate inside a pyramid for the first time is to discover a new treasure.
46:36A whole section of ancient history reappears.
46:42The colors we see here are almost exactly the same as those we have seen at the time.
46:47It's as if it was painted yesterday. It's quite extraordinary.
46:52It's one of the rare pyramids to have kept all of these colors in such a state.
46:57The dry atmosphere of the desert and the absence of light have preserved this green copper powder,
47:04applied inside the hieroglyphs for more than 4,000 years.
47:10A symbolic color for Egyptians of the time.
47:14Green is the color of Aziris, and it's the color, as is black also, of resurrection.
47:20Because it's the color of plants.
47:23Plants are green and are reborn every year, in fact.
47:26They die at the end of the year and grow green again the following year.
47:29So green is really the idea of resurrection.
47:34Now that the burial chamber is open, the hieroglyphs must be preserved at all costs.
47:40The Egyptologists began with an inventory left by their predecessors some 90 years previously.
47:49We saw that here we had a cement floor that was left by Gécuier.
47:53In 1930 the Swiss archaeologist excavated here.
47:57He did a good job, or passed through a good job in 1930.
48:02For example, to level the floor he used cement.
48:05That is impossible for us.
48:07We can't keep cement.
48:09It's very bad for the stone.
48:10It brings diseases to the stone.
48:13So what do we do?
48:15We pull up the cement and replace it with gravel that will absorb the humidity etc.
48:21Natural things that are good for the environment.
48:26It would take days of work for the labourers to remove all the cement and finally preserve these thousands of
48:33hieroglyphs.
48:42The texts are a treasure trove of invaluable information for the mission's Egyptologists.
48:48These researchers are the first to analyse them with precision.
48:52It's a job that will take years before they are able to reveal anything to colleagues the world over.
48:58The amount of data to be analysed is colossal.
49:04We'll use a new technique.
49:06That is, we'll have a photogrammetric reproduction that will take into account the exact distance for hieroglyphs.
49:12There will be no deformation compared to the photo.
49:16To what end?
49:18If we have a complete transcription of the wall, we can return to France.
49:22It's as if we had the entire wall at our disposal in France and we can work all year round.
49:28The result obtained is unprecedented.
49:32For the first time, it is possible to move around the reconstructed burial chamber in three dimensions.
49:39This process allows archaeologists to observe the site from any position and analyze the writings from a computer.
49:48Today, these technologies even allow archaeologists to see through sand.
50:03During the reign of Pepi I, the high dignitaries were taking an increasingly important place in Egypt overall.
50:12So much so that it destabilised the organisation of the pharaoh that some thought omnipotent.
50:18The story of the rise and fall of the old kingdom empire is very similar to our own civilisation.
50:26All this was based on sufficient amount of energy.
50:31The major source of energy of wells of ancient Egypt was the Nile.
50:37Because annual Nile flood resulted in a very rich harvest.
50:43And from the harvest you could subtract your taxes.
50:47And using these taxes to pay for the construction of the complexes, to pay for the priests, etc.
50:54You maintained the social contract.
50:57From year to year, the organisation of the kingdom became more and more complex.
51:03Climatic disturbance disrupted crops.
51:06The taxes on agricultural production were no longer sufficient to drive the administration.
51:12Egypt was in dire straits.
51:14In the following two generations, during the reign of Pepi II, there's a clear decline in the importance of Memphis
51:23and in the size of elite tombs.
51:27It's the fragmentation of Egypt. In fact, a fragmentation of power.
51:32It's no longer a unified empire with a single pharaoh.
51:38The reign of the pharaohs in the old kingdom ended after half a millennium.
51:45These extraordinary pyramids mark the golden age of ancient Egypt.
51:50A period of splendour that, more than four millennia later, bequeathed us the oldest collection of religious texts.
52:00Thanks to the innovative techniques and the spirit of today's Egyptologists.
52:07Each stone, each symbol comes back to life and offers us a tremendous testimony of the first myths and beliefs
52:15of humanity.