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00:02The destiny of Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt, is inextricably tied to the fascinating city of Alexandria.
00:10It was there, in the heart of the city, that her fate would be played out alongside the most powerful
00:16man in Rome, Julius Caesar.
00:19Caesar didn't have a single rival to stand in his way.
00:22Roman propaganda cast Cleopatra as a seductress, prepared to do anything to get her way.
00:28But was she as beautiful as they say?
00:30Using brand new technology, we reconstructed her face.
00:34It's not until you finish that you really begin to see Cleopatra's face.
00:38Fascinated by Cleopatra's aura, the archaeologist-explorer Kathleen Martinez set herself a massive challenge almost 15 years ago,
00:46to look for clues to retrace Cleopatra's history and eventually locate her tomb.
00:51There's no other tomb like this in all over Egypt.
00:56Cleopatra's death would change the face of Egypt and the known world by closing a chapter of 3,000 years
01:03of Varyonic dynasties.
01:05Cleopatra is the greatest female myth in all of history.
01:09Between myth and historical truth, what did Cleopatra's reign truly consist of?
01:15Whether it's underwater or in the desert, locating her tomb would be the key to unlocking the last secrets of
01:21her incredible history.
01:24Decade by decade, archaeologists have been getting closer and closer to their goal and ultimately the truth.
01:30To find Cleopatra's tomb, not only would it be a great discovery that would probably go down in history as
01:37one of the most amazing finds,
01:39but it would answer so many questions.
01:42She's a magical queen because Cleopatra made unique things.
01:47In the last episode, Cleopatra seduced Julius Caesar and is now under his protection.
01:54She governs Egypt from Alexandria, the largest city in the ancient world,
01:59the one which would reveal Cleopatra to the world.
02:42Cleopatra was always one step ahead.
02:46During her reign, nothing was left to chance.
02:49So it's unthinkable that the queen would not choose the ideal spot for her burial.
02:54The whereabouts of Cleopatra's tomb haunts archaeologists.
02:58Each of them has his or her own theory.
03:01Some have even dedicated their life to this quest, like Kathleen Martinez.
03:06We will go in this direction.
03:08The explorer has recently made some amazing discoveries, which, according to her, are probably linked to Cleopatra.
03:15Oh, it's beautiful.
03:20She has just unearthed some intriguing and, as yet, unexplained things.
03:26The lighthouse in Alexandria was one of the ancient wonders of the world.
03:31Now we found a lighthouse replica here at Taposilis Magna.
03:36So it's also related to her.
03:39On the site, she has also discovered an incredible tunnel, several kilometers in length.
03:45An amazing revelation.
03:47When I found these discoveries, it confirmed that I'm in the right path.
03:53All these new discoveries plunge us once again into the astonishing history of the last queen of Egypt.
04:0447 years before the common era, Cleopatra has reigned over Egypt for four years.
04:11She has kept her country independent from Rome by signing a surprising pact, a love affair.
04:18She and Julius Caesar formed the most powerful couple in the world.
04:22Their agreement was simple.
04:25Egypt supplies wheat to Rome, and in exchange, Rome provides military protection to Egypt.
04:32She wanted to perfectly integrate the Roman world and be respected within it through her very close relations.
04:43As for Caesar, he felt he was untouchable.
04:46At 53 years old, he had appointed himself dictator for life, the highest title in Rome, and he no longer
04:53had enemies.
04:54At least, that's what he believed.
04:56Because history tells us that his relationship with the queen would prove to be his downfall.
05:01Caesar simply went a bit too far, because while Cleopatra was a queen and a goddess during her lifetime, that
05:09didn't pose a problem.
05:11Everybody recognized that.
05:13Whereas for Caesar, naming himself dictator for life created tensions within Rome,
05:18because it was the first time someone with the title was also the head of the Roman state.
05:25Cleopatra had seemingly given Caesar ideas above his station.
05:31She sought her own inspiration in a man she had never known,
05:34and who would also influence Julius Caesar, the founder of Alexandria.
05:42His name, Alexander the Great.
05:47We go back to 300 BCE and the time of Alexander the Great.
05:52He gave rise to the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt until Cleopatra.
05:57Having marched thousands of miles with his army, he conquered Egypt and became its first pharaoh of Macedonian origin.
06:07He was the conqueror who dominated the world.
06:10All the most important territories in the Mediterranean were under Alexander's control.
06:16His land stretched from Macedonia to India via Mesopotamia and Persia.
06:24The greatest conqueror in ancient history possessed almost 4 million square kilometers.
06:32When he arrived in a land with a history that went back thousands of years,
06:36he wanted to leave his mark on it.
06:39So what did he do?
06:40He founded a city in his name, a new capital.
06:46Alexander's plan was to construct a sumptuous city to match the image of his empire.
06:51The site he chose was, according to him,
06:54ideal for building what he hoped would become the largest city in the Mediterranean.
06:59He wanted it to be a great port city for trade, but also for the military strategy as well.
07:07The city opened down to the Mediterranean Sea thanks to its port.
07:13Alexandria thus found itself at the crossroads of the great trade routes.
07:17Everything in antiquity had to come through Alexandria, basically.
07:21Either coming from the east, from eastern Africa or India, through the Red Sea, or coming from Egypt itself.
07:28This privileged location would rapidly turn Alexandria into the new center of the known world.
07:36The city was meant to become the new model for cities of the time.
07:39And it was, so much so, that even Rome itself set out to imitate the Alexandria of the Greeks.
07:51So naturally, it was in Alexandria that almost three centuries later, Cleopatra decided to construct her royal quarters.
08:00The site of the luxury quarters is known.
08:03They were here, to the east of the bay of Alexandria, where this seawall now stands.
08:12Today, the sprawling modern city has claimed the whole area.
08:19But are there any existing traces of the old royal quarters?
08:25A team of archaeologists will help us go back in time to try to find the ancient streets of Alexandria.
08:42This is the neighborhood of Kalm Eldeka, where for the past 40 years, archaeologists have been working on a site
08:49that's off-limits to the public.
08:56We'll go down into the city's subsoil to look for traces of homes from Cleopatra's day.
09:03An underground journey going back 23 centuries, just a stone's throw from the old royal quarters.
09:12It is quite close to the royal quarter. It's a distance of several hundred meters.
09:16The modern Alexandria is a living city, so everything is built over.
09:20Ancient Alexandria is built over with high scrapers, with many buildings, so this was the only chance.
09:29Gregor Marsharek and his team have excavated thousands of tons of earth and reconstructed stone by stone this 2,000
09:37square meter neighborhood to finally reveal a city within a city.
09:43All these walls and streets date from the Roman period.
09:47They nonetheless allow us to go back to Cleopatra's day.
09:53Coming back to the first century BC, that one that is most interested for us, the time of the reign
09:59of Cleopatra,
10:00we should go at least three to four meters below the early Roman period,
10:04so it's simply not possible for us to reach that deep because of the water.
10:09So the Hellenistic Alexandria is still buried underneath, under the water.
10:14The buildings from the Ptolemaic period are today below sea level.
10:19They are covered by 2,300 years of construction,
10:24so Cleopatra's palace is buried eight meters beneath today's street level.
10:33These Roman houses, discovered by the archaeologists, are the oldest accessible buildings.
10:40They provide precious clues to understanding the layout of the ancient city.
10:46The most interesting point is that the Roman house, to the very large extent,
10:51followed exactly the line of the walls of the Ptolemaic period.
10:56So the Roman house was simply built on top of the other walls.
11:02The digs in the city center have already revealed a number of secrets.
11:09But these recently unearthed ancient stones will be important keys to unraveling the mysteries of Alexandria.
11:28Cleopatra was reigning over Egypt with the support of Julius Caesar.
11:33But the couple couldn't marry,
11:35because according to the rules of the dynasty, she had to marry a brother.
11:42She had already gotten rid of one, but the last one was still around.
11:49Cleopatra married Ptolemy XIV in a show wedding,
11:52while continuing her relationship with Caesar.
11:57The Roman dictator genuinely appeared to be enamored with the queen,
12:01along with her power and knowledge.
12:06Because Cleopatra was one of the most cultivated monarchs,
12:09that Egypt had ever had.
12:13She had been perfecting her knowledge from a young age,
12:16on the benches in the greatest intellectual center in the world,
12:20the legendary Library of Alexandria.
12:24The Library of Alexandria was quite significant,
12:28because there was nothing like it before.
12:30It was not a conventional library of what I understand, you know,
12:34just going and picking up books and looking at it.
12:36But it was more like a research center,
12:38a source of attraction to the outside world,
12:40to come and see what this is.
12:44Alexandria was a city that drew all the great cultural figures of the time.
12:50Both Egyptian and Greek thinkers gathered in the Library of Alexandria,
12:54where there were hundreds of thousands of papyrus scrolls,
12:59containing pretty much all the knowledge of the time.
13:05Gathering knowledge was the objective of the Ptolemaic dynasty,
13:09because they were desperate to make Alexandria the intellectual capital of the world.
13:15And to do so,
13:17they would take advantage of the city's ideal location and employ a radical strategy.
13:47Cleopatra had access to almost a half a million papyrus and parchment scrolls.
13:52She would immerse herself in all this knowledge and spend her days studying the sciences and learning languages.
14:02Cleopatra's education was really very special.
14:05As a little girl, she literally grew up inside the Library of Alexandria.
14:11So she benefited from all the intellectuals there, who would open her eyes to the world,
14:16provide her with an extraordinary general knowledge, and teach her foreign languages.
14:20She became multilingual and was able to talk with almost anyone in their own language.
14:28Cleopatra knew the history of the pharaohs and queens that preceded her,
14:33but also the sciences and Greek philosophy.
14:38This culture gave her an aura and earned her the respect of the great men who ruled the ancient world.
14:47She grew up as a young girl, and as a smart lady, she was not normal.
14:53She was dressed like a man to go in the streets, to learn, and she taught herself seven languages.
15:10In 300 years, 13 successive Macedonian pharaohs ruled from Alexandria.
15:16They all spoke Greek.
15:18None of them could speak Egyptian.
15:22Only Cleopatra was capable of talking to her entire people.
15:28The library wasn't the only emblematic construction of Cleopatra's day.
15:32It stood opposite another symbol of the city, the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria.
15:38These days, a 15th century fort stands on its site.
15:42As with Cleopatra's tomb, the Lighthouse of Alexandria is another holy grail for archaeologists,
15:47who have been trying to find its remains for the past 60 years.
15:56Mohammed al-Sayed is an underwater archaeologist.
16:03Today, we're following him on his exciting quest.
16:07He'll be diving to live for traces of the huge Lighthouse of Alexandria.
16:15Its size belies understanding.
16:18135 meters tall, only 4 meters shorter than the Great Pyramid of Giza.
16:27The Lighthouse of Alexandria became such a symbol for the Ptolemies, it was even featured on coins.
16:35It's a welcome sign.
16:36It's an interesting thing that boats will see from outside the sea that they haven't seen anything like this before.
16:42It's not a mountain.
16:44It's not a hill.
16:45It's a man-made structure, which is so huge that you can see it from afar.
16:51From the sea, the Egyptian coast looks like a vast horizontal strip with no cliffs or mountains.
17:01When out at sea, Cleopatra could therefore see the Lighthouse standing at a distance of more than 60 kilometers,
17:09half a day of sailing at the time.
17:16Mohammed al-Sayed is looking for the exact spot to dive.
17:24Whatever we do, the wind will push us this way.
17:29Then we'll dive over there.
17:31See that reef?
17:32Just in front of it.
17:35Got it?
17:39Every dive I make here is so exciting.
17:42It's always like I'm diving here for the very first time.
17:47Mohammed's aim is to find precious clues and maybe actually touch one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
17:55Bluos is one of the largest archaeological sites in the world.
17:58We've identified about 3,500 objects.
18:01Among these is part of the monumental gate of the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
18:05There are also granite columns and some sphinxes that are still whole.
18:09There are lots more remains underwater, so we're still discovering things.
18:14Mohammed is trying to work out what the lighthouse looked like.
18:24The scientists and his team will take thousands of photos to produce a 3D model of the complex.
18:36Today, Mohammed and his assistant will explore the site's most emblematic zone.
18:54Underwater, symbols begin to appear.
19:02Treasures of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world lie before our eyes.
19:07The divers swim through this maze, making markers so they don't lose their way.
19:14Today, they're focusing on one particular zone.
19:18We'll limit our work to 200 square meters.
19:22This zone contains some of the structural parts of the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
19:28Mohammed covers the entire zone, photographing every centimeter of the seabed.
19:34To capture all of the 200 square meters, he'll need to take thousands of photos.
19:39He's extremely methodical, because underwater conditions can change fast.
19:44We can only see two meters in front of us.
19:49And once we start swimming a bit, we kick up all the silt.
20:02The captured images will enable the team to create a 3D model.
20:11The effect is breathtaking.
20:14The lighthouse is here in the form of an assembly kit.
20:18They just need to identify each part so it can be gradually put back together.
20:24Isabelle Herry scours the 3D model in search of clues.
20:30She studies the edges of each block of stone, hoping to see how the 4,000 different parts fit together.
20:38With astonishing perseverance, she has managed to identify seven parts that make up one of the main parts of the
20:45lighthouse.
20:47Here, in Mauve, we have all the fragments that belong to the monumental gate.
20:52We have nearly all the parts, we're just missing the end part of the lintel, otherwise it's all here.
20:57The key element that will enable us to get to the lighthouse itself is this monumental gate.
21:02And we've almost totally reconstructed it.
21:08The gate is the keystone from which it will be possible to reconstruct the entire monument as it once was.
21:17The gate is exceptional, firstly for its size at more than 30 meters high,
21:22and secondly because it was composed of granite columns in one piece, each weighing 70 tons.
21:28So it clearly took a great state-financed effort to bring the columns to Alexandria and erect them on site
21:37facing the sea.
21:41The lighthouse could have weighed up to tens of thousands of tons.
21:47If so, how could a complex of such size been totally destroyed 17 centuries after its construction?
21:55The answer was found after a series of recent studies.
22:00The main reason that the lighthouse is underwater today is the breaking up and eventual collapse of the dry land
22:08it stood on.
22:08So the weight of the lighthouse was the cause of its own downfall.
22:15The gigantic lighthouse of Alexandria symbolized the radiance of the city across the known world.
22:24Cleopatra loved her home city of Alexandria.
22:29But to diplomatically ensure its protection and to be with her lover,
22:34she left and went to live 2,000 kilometers away in Rome.
22:42It was 45 BCE.
22:45Caesar made a triumphant return to Rome with a guarantee of Egyptian wheat.
22:50Romans would not go hungry.
22:53Julius Caesar was the absolute master.
23:01Caesar didn't have a single rival to stand in his way.
23:04He was alone in power, at least from a military point of view.
23:08Cleopatra also felt untouchable.
23:10She was in Rome, alongside the city's most powerful man,
23:13and she counted on using her status on friendly shores.
23:17This stay in Rome was surely a source of pleasure and discovery for Cleopatra.
23:23But it would also strengthen her ties with Caesar,
23:28and help her shape the future geopolitical map of the eastern Mediterranean.
23:34But Cleopatra was also in Rome because she had another thing on her mind.
23:39To regain the island of Cyprus, which had once belonged to Egypt.
23:48The queen would soon understand that some Romans disapproved of her presence in the city.
23:53They thought her influence over Caesar might give him a desire to be named king.
24:01There's the statement by Cicero, who explicitly wrote,
24:06I hate, I hate the queen.
24:08So she was subjected to severe hostility,
24:11because some elder statesmen were wondering what the political future of the union between Caesar and Cleopatra would lead to
24:19on an international level.
24:21Let's go.
24:22Let's go.
24:24Cleopatra didn't know it yet, but a new page was about to be written in ancient history.
24:33Caesar had named himself dictator for life.
24:37This gave rise to great concern among a number of senators.
24:41They feared that Caesar might abuse his new powers.
24:46Two of Caesar's opponents, Cassius and Brutus, along with 21 magistrates, began to hatch a plot to kill him.
24:56After much thinking, they thought that the best place to kill Caesar would probably be in the Curia,
25:03where the senators were due to meet.
25:07March 15th of the year 44 BCE, the Ides of March, would be a pathetic day for Julius Caesar.
25:15On that day, he planned to inform the Senate that he would be leaving Rome to fight.
25:20He woke up after a short night's sleep following a heavy drinking session with friends.
25:26He almost didn't go, because he was hungover.
25:29He'd had a very heavy night, and thought about postponing the meeting.
25:35But one of the plotters came to fetch him,
25:39insisting that Caesar could not adjourn a meeting of the Senate.
25:45Julius Caesar finally made his way to the Curia.
25:48He knew he had a number of detractors, but he was far from imagining what was about to happen.
25:54The plotters had formulated a plan in which every detail was anticipated.
26:01They knew that Caesar would enter the Curia unarmed, and without his bodyguards,
26:08they had even foreseen Caesar being accompanied by another well-known senator, Mark Antony.
26:17Mark Antony was clearly a big, strong man, and seeing Caesar about to be stabbed could easily have tried to
26:24defend him.
26:28So the plotters saw to it that, as Caesar entered the Curia unarmed,
26:33someone would distract Mark Antony's attention by discussing some matter or another,
26:40to separate him from Julius Caesar.
26:44Julius Caesar was rapidly encircled by a group of senators,
26:48and one of them drew his dagger.
26:54The first assassin stabbed him,
26:58which was the signal for the others to begin,
27:00what I can only describe as a bloodbath.
27:02Because each of the 20 other senators then plunged his dagger into the body of Julius Caesar.
27:12A powerless Caesar covered his face as blades pierced his body from all angles.
27:19And Cleopatra's lover was dead.
27:23It was a disaster for Cleopatra.
27:26She had lost her protector, so she quickly made up her mind and left.
27:30She knew her situation would be untenable and returned to Egypt.
27:34Cleopatra sought refuge in the royal quarters in Alexandria.
27:39Her fate, and that of all Egypt,
27:41now depended on the new strong man of Rome.
27:47Would the war be resumed?
27:49Or would the Romans leave the last independent kingdom in peace?
27:53Tranquille.
27:55Caesar's death completely changed Cleopatra's destiny.
28:02But the queen could not afford to let herself be overcome by emotions.
28:07She had to govern her country.
28:10And it was in adversity that she would reveal her true face,
28:14that of a political strategist.
28:23Recent studies show just what a brilliant politician Cleopatra was.
28:29Researchers like the expert in coinage, Julien Olivier,
28:33have studied the coin struck during her reign.
28:36Here's one that dates from the year she returned to Alexandria, 44 BCE.
28:42The queen had decided to redesign the only object that passed through every hand in her realm,
28:48whatever the social class.
28:51The coins of the time were far from mundane.
28:53They were more than objects used for transactions.
28:56They could also be what numismatists would call,
28:59those who study currencies, messages in metal.
29:02Each coin carried a political message worth more than its commercial value.
29:09Coins were the main media of the time.
29:12There were no newspapers, TV or radio back then.
29:16The only things that everybody had in their hands were coins.
29:19And that meant they could all see Cleopatra's face.
29:23Cleopatra was fully intent on using political messages to influence minds.
29:28So, unlike her predecessors, she would break the codes.
29:37Ptolemy I chose to put the gods on bronze coins and all his successors did pretty much the same thing.
29:44Whereas Cleopatra decided to put her own face on a certain number of silver and bronze coins,
29:50and this was something new.
29:53Cleopatra also wanted to bring Egypt into the international currency mechanism.
29:59To achieve that, she was once again ahead of her time.
30:05Until then, bronze coins for everyday purchases didn't display numbers representing their financial value.
30:15People simply knew.
30:17Someone had told them what value such and such a coin had.
30:23But the decision makers under Cleopatra's authority decided to add the value, which was rare in the ancient Greek world.
30:31Here are two different values.
30:33The big coin has the Greek letter pi, representing 80.
30:37So this coin is worth 80 units.
30:39And the small coin is marked with a mu, the Greek letter representing 40.
30:50Indicating the worth of a coin may seem only natural to us.
30:53But back then, Cleopatra's decision had a direct implication.
30:57Cleopatra's decision had a direct impact on her population.
31:01A political act which shows just how concerned the Queen was with her subjects' needs.
31:07She wanted to fix prices by indicating the value of bronze coins.
31:13The referential metal of the time was silver, except that Egypt was cruelly lacking in silver.
31:21So Cleopatra had a number of different bronze coins struck
31:25to meet the needs of the peasants, who often got ripped off by traders.
31:31Traders wanted silver coins, so they tended to raise prices a little when they were paid in bronze.
31:39By giving each coin an official value, she was able to fix prices of commodities,
31:46which obviously had a social impact.
31:51The study of these coins bears witness to Cleopatra's political genius,
31:56but it also unveils another of the mysteries surrounding the Queen.
32:00Her face.
32:02This portrait is very close to the reality,
32:05with her famous, slightly aquiline nose and prominent chin.
32:10A face with strong character.
32:16So Cleopatra wasn't in incontestable beauty.
32:21Why then her image as a femme fatale?
32:26According to the ancient texts that have survived,
32:29she wasn't considered to be very beautiful, but she was extremely charming.
32:33When she walked into a room, heads turned, people knew she was there.
32:37She was incredibly charismatic and seductive, not in a sexual way.
32:42But she had a way of talking to you, of cajoling you, and of changing her voice too,
32:47which these texts insist on, which was totally irresistible.
32:52But many of these texts also paint her as a femme fatale, a seductress, a manipulator, who bewitched men.
33:00To the Romans, she was the Egyptian witch.
33:05The Romans detested everything that Cleopatra stood for, as a queen and woman of power.
33:10And that's why they created this terrible reputation of her as a whore.
33:14In Rome, they called her Meritrix Regina, the whore queen.
33:18A whole host of objects were manufactured.
33:21We'd probably call them derivatives these days.
33:24Like oil lamps showing Cleopatra sleeping with crocodiles.
33:29So they wanted to dirty her reputation by depicting her as a whore.
33:33Today, we'd call it slut-shaming.
33:35It was all anti-Cleopatra propaganda.
33:40The disinformation campaign led by the Romans still has repercussions today.
33:46From 19th century paintings to Hollywood, Cleopatra has always been idealized and sexualized.
33:54But what is the real face of the queen?
34:03To answer this question, we need to look at depictions of her from her own lifetime.
34:11Coins give us the detail of her profile.
34:14But statues of the queen can also give us precious clues.
34:20Today, only seven sculptures have been authenticated.
34:24One of them is still intact.
34:26It's kept at the Altes Museum in Berlin.
34:30We know that the Berlin bust is definitely Cleopatra VII because it perfectly matches her image on her coinage.
34:37It has the exact same stylistic features.
34:41The diadem, the same tight curls in the hair, the hair in a bun.
34:46All of these traits are identical to those of the bust, which allows us to categorically confirm that it's Cleopatra
34:52VII.
34:54These busts were originally colored.
34:57But the paint has disappeared over time, along with clues to Cleopatra's skin color.
35:03So for this, we must rely on genealogical clues.
35:10We can imagine Cleopatra's skin color from her ancestry.
35:14She was the daughter of the Greek Ptolemy XII, but her mother was Egyptian, so she was of mixed blood.
35:21Her skin must have been of a tan hue, and due to her mixed blood, there's a very good chance
35:25of her hair being brown.
35:28All of this historical and archaeological data could allow us to reconstruct the Queen's face.
35:37We approached a team of scientists and asked them if they would carry out an unprecedented experiment for us
35:43to recreate the face of Cleopatra.
35:46These researchers usually use police forensics techniques to reconstruct faces.
35:52Using the most recent anthropological studies, they can take a skull, and by adding the 50 muscles that cover it,
36:00reconstruct the face.
36:07Cleopatra's skull has never been found, so they face a big challenge.
36:12They start by making a 3D model of the Queen's bust on their computer.
36:19With information taken from the coins, they then adapt the 3D model to get closer to reality.
36:28On the coins, we've got a slightly more convex, so downturned shape to the bridge of the nose,
36:38and we've got a slightly more prominent fleshy chin than we're seeing on the bust.
36:43We've also got more flesh underneath the jawline.
36:48Just like a sculptor, Caroline Wilkinson models Cleopatra's bust,
36:54slightly modifying the nose, the chin, and the neck.
36:59But to turn the digital image into a real human face, it needs to be brought to life.
37:04For this, the anthropologist calls on Mark Ruffley, a 3D animator who specializes in medical art.
37:13Basically, first things first are to put some physical textures in place, you know, wrinkles around the eyes, forehead,
37:20a little bit on the neck, eyebrow pattern, hair pattern around the hairline, that kind of thing.
37:25And we can add, like, individual hair strands, things that make it seem more realistic than carved hair also.
37:33Mark Ruffley's job is to give life to digital models.
37:38For this, he recreates the skin from seemingly insignificant details.
37:44But these are indispensable for turning a marble bust into a flesh-and-blood human face.
37:51And here, he needs to know what Cleopatra's habits and environment were like.
37:56We know Cleopatra is not a farmer, for example, so is not outside all the time,
38:01hasn't or will not have lots of sun damage on their skin, or it's less likely that is the case.
38:07So she probably lived a very pampered lifestyle.
38:09Therefore, we'd less likely expect to see things that are age-related due to weather exposure.
38:15So it's not until you've finished that you really begin to see Cleopatra's face.
38:24Cleopatra's face appears.
38:26This is what the queen may have looked like.
38:35Cleopatra, political animal and strategic thinker.
38:39That's what history retains of the last queen of Egypt.
38:43And for good reason.
38:45On her return from Rome, she would once again show what she was capable of.
38:53It's impossible to know what went through Cleopatra's mind when she learned of Julius Caesar's death.
39:00What is certain is that she lost a powerful protector in Rome.
39:05She therefore had to rethink her political strategy and make sure that nobody could take advantage of the situation to
39:12dethrone her.
39:15Caesar's presence had been enough to quash the desires of her younger brother Ptolemy XIV to accede to the throne.
39:23But now, Cleopatra didn't waste a second.
39:27To ensure that she ruled alone, her brother had to die.
39:31Ptolemy XIV was about to come of age, so she feared that he would then be advised and encouraged to
39:40seek greater power from Cleopatra.
39:44So, Ptolemy's assassination was most likely due to her own wish to maintain her power to eliminate all opposition and
39:54thus to avoid another civil war.
39:58Ptolemy's tradition had it that Cleopatra should reign alongside a man.
40:02The queen knew this.
40:04But she also knew that the man's age didn't matter.
40:09She looked to her three-year-old son, fathered by Julius Caesar.
40:15His name?
40:16Caesarian.
40:20Caesarian was raised by his mother to become her heir.
40:22After having her last brother, Ptolemy XIV, killed, she named her son co-ruler.
40:30He was a child, a toddler, so he was even less capable of ruling than his uncles, Ptolemy XIII and
40:37Ptolemy XIV.
40:38But he was co-ruler.
40:41Cleopatra left nothing to chance.
40:45Strategy lay behind everything she did, including the two names she gave to her son, Caesarion and Ptolemy XV.
40:54She associated her son with her power by naming him Ptolemy XV.
40:59Caesarion thus became the true heir to the Egyptian throne, but also a strong link to Rome.
41:05This made him an extremely dangerous figure in Rome's eyes, because once he was king of Egypt,
41:11he could go to Rome and use his descent from Julius Caesar to have himself accepted in the senatorial class,
41:16and thus enjoy certain privileges.
41:20With the arrival of Caesarian, Cleopatra confirmed her political strategy established at the start of her reign
41:29to unite the Roman and Egyptian armies in one place under one commander.
41:35The queen had therefore seriously considered her succession,
41:38and as her predecessors, this implied her presence in the afterlife,
41:43and thus the strategic choice of her burial place.
41:54Discovering Cleopatra's mausoleum is Kathleen Martinez's dream.
41:59We return to the archaeologist-explorer's digs in Taposiris Magna, 50 kilometers from Alexandria.
42:06For 15 years, Kathleen Martinez has been tirelessly looking for Cleopatra's tomb.
42:11One of her recent clues is this construction, which strangely resembles the lighthouse of Alexandria,
42:18the city dear to Cleopatra's heart.
42:20The lighthouse that we have here is the replica, of course, in the scale.
42:23It's the smallest, but it's the same shape.
42:26It has the three bodies that the lighthouse of Alexandria had,
42:31the square shape in the base, the octagonal shape in the middle, and the round shape on top.
42:42Cleopatra was particularly fond of the lighthouse because it was a symbol of the Ptolemaic dynasty,
42:48which she saw every day in Alexandria.
42:51It was just in front of the royal quarters of Queen Cleopatra.
42:56So she was used to a lighthouse, and now we found a lighthouse, a replica, here at Taposiris Magna.
43:03So it's also related to her, and that's why it's important for us to find out more information about it.
43:12The explorer has removed meter upon meter of stones, which blocked the entrance.
43:19After ten years of digging, she discovered a tomb beneath the monument.
43:27Very few could afford a tomb like this, and it's unique.
43:32There's no other tomb like this in all over Egypt.
43:37Kathleen Martinez is convinced that the temple was an important pilgrimage destination
43:42because she discovered a wide track leading to the lighthouse.
43:46It might have been in use in Cleopatra's day until several centuries after her death,
43:51a mystery that Kathleen is intent on unraveling.
43:54We will go in this direction.
43:58We will excavate as much as we can.
44:01The entrance to the lighthouse overflows with ancient objects, as if time had stopped still here.
44:08Oh, it's beautiful.
44:15This perfume flask dates from the Roman era.
44:18It testifies to rituals being performed on the site until a late period, proof of its importance in the region.
44:25It is a fantastic piece.
44:26The lighthouse of Tapasiris Magna is yet to reveal all of its secrets, but Kathleen is determined.
44:35Many people came to Tapasiris Magna only to visit this tomb.
44:41Who were they? And who were they visiting?
44:44This is one of the questions that I want to address and answer during the upcoming excavations.
44:53To link Cleopatra's tomb to Tapasiris Magna, Kathleen needs to understand how the five-hectare site is organized,
45:01but also to excavate 30 meters of subsoil.
45:09Kathleen organizes an expedition into the bowels of the temple.
45:15She's counting on the expertise of archaeologist Zahi Awas to forge ahead with the digs.
45:21He also hopes to make new discoveries and extract from the sand the treasures of Tapasiris Magna.
45:27It is deep.
45:29Yes.
45:30Nine meters?
45:31Yes.
45:32We are excavating in this direction.
45:34We haven't reached yet.
45:36We are in the middle, but I suspect it will go to the temple.
45:42The most important thing is not what you see there.
45:45It's the underworld.
45:47It's what we can find down there.
45:48This is the key.
45:49Two thousand years ago, laborers toiled away digging this vast two-kilometer-long tunnel.
45:58Zahi Awas has discovered some of the greatest riches of Egypt.
46:02But this underground construction fascinates him.
46:06This is an incredible tunnel.
46:09Yes, it's amazing.
46:11How could they do this?
46:14The excavation crew has already removed sand from part of the tunnel.
46:19But there are still hundreds of meters to go.
46:22Zahi and Kathleen head south.
46:26Kathy, are we approaching the end of the tunnel?
46:29No, it's not the end.
46:30We need to continue the excavation.
46:32We still have to excavate here.
46:34Yes.
46:35The tunnel is still blocked.
46:38Zahi Awas starts to dig.
46:40And immediately, a piece of stone arouses his curiosity.
46:44Look, there is something here.
46:45Oh, we are making a discovery.
46:53It looks like a Sphinx.
46:55Huh?
46:57Wow.
46:58The Sphinx.
46:59Half man, half lion.
47:01A symbol of the Pharaoh's sovereign power that protected temples.
47:07I always believe this temple was the most important religious temple for Isis in the north.
47:13And it had in the past all the important structures and statues that represent all of that I believe.
47:21And when I found these discoveries, it confirmed that I'm in the right path.
47:28You need an expert eye to make out the head of a Sphinx.
47:32But the archaeologists have no doubt.
47:35Look.
47:36Incredible.
47:37It's a complete head of a Sphinx.
47:41This mythical creature is found on all of the most beautiful sites in Egypt.
47:46For Kathleen, this tunnel is the key to discovering Cleopatra's tomb.
47:54According to her calculations, it will continue several kilometers until it's under the sea.
48:06I believe that we are standing right now as part of Taposiris Magna 2,000 years ago.
48:12And this temple is linked to Queen Cleopatra.
48:17We've been exploring and excavating Taposiris Magna, but what we didn't know is that part of Taposiris Magna is sunken
48:25underwater today.
48:28The excavation season will end in a few days.
48:32Kathleen Martinez will have to wait until next year in the hope of discovering Cleopatra's tomb.
48:44In Alexandria, too, a whole part of the city was submerged.
48:50At the time of Cleopatra, there were villas, islands crowned with temples and perhaps even the mausoleum of the Queen.
49:02What if the body of Cleopatra were resting beneath the waves with the remains of ancient Alexandria?
49:09And how come part of the city was submerged?
49:15Archaeologist Gregor Marscherec believes the answer lies in natural disasters that struck the city.
49:21Well, what we see here is very deep cracks, vertical cracks, that are normally a result of an earthquake, a
49:29seismic event of great magnitude.
49:32And such earthquakes happened in the history of Alexandria quite often.
49:37And these earthquakes are responsible for most of the destruction that we can see all over here.
49:44One of these earthquakes was especially destructive.
49:48On July 21st, in the year 365 of our era.
49:52The earthquake took place near Crete, but what happened here in Alexandria was an enormous large tsunami that killed thousands
50:01of people, as we know from historical sources.
50:04Some of the ships even landed on the rooftops of the houses.
50:07So the wave must have been at least a dozen of meters high.
50:11And it inflicted destruction all over the city.
50:14Recurrent earthquakes have caused severe subsidence in the ground.
50:19Ahmad Khalil is an underwater archaeologist.
50:22He has closely studied the seismic mechanisms that caused the submersion of the ancient city.
50:27The land of the eastern harbor subsided for about six meters.
50:31And this happened basically as consequences of earthquakes.
50:37Added to the subsidence of the ground is the rising sea level.
50:41In 2000 years, the level of the Mediterranean Sea has risen by two meters.
50:48Six meters the seabed subsided and two meters the water level raised.
50:53So that's why the entire structure, the entire reefs and the island that existed in the eastern harbor are now
51:00below water.
51:02The ancient city is therefore thought to lie eight meters under the sea.
51:09The royal quarters where Cleopatra lived stood on the edge of this promontory.
51:15If her tomb was nearby, it was certainly swallowed up by one of the disasters and covered with several meters
51:22of sediment just here.
51:24In the next episode, we will continue our quest.
51:28We will discover how Cleopatra was able to deploy new strategies after the death of Julius Caesar.
51:34The queen will begin a new love affair with the powerful Mark Antony, the new strongman in Rome.
51:40Together, they will enjoy a decadent life in Alexandria and tie their fates together forever until death.
51:55To be continued...
52:14Transcription by CastingWords