Lost Treasures of Egypt (2019) s03e01 Episode Script

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NARRATOR: Buried
deep underground,
an ancient Egyptian tomb from the time of
Ramses the Great.
This bricked up entrance
has been undisturbed for
nearly 3,000 years, until now.
OLA (off-screen): Are we going
to be able to get in, yes?
Oh, my god.
It is dark.
It looks very, very deep.
NARRATOR: What's revealed
is a surprise to even
the most experienced archaeologist.
OLA: Oh, la, la. Yes.
Ooh, beautiful. My god.
NARRATOR: Ramses the Second,
known as Ramses the Great
was one of the most
powerful and successful
rulers of the ancient world.
He reigned for 66 years,
expanded Egypt's borders
and built more monuments and
temples than any other Pharaoh.
How did he become such a mighty king,
and build a legacy that
has lasted three millennia?
Today across Egypt,
archaeologists are digging up
evidence from his life,
and those that served him,
as they attempt to uncover
the secrets of Ramses
rise to power.
Most ancient Egyptians never saw
Ramses the Great in the flesh,
but his image was everywhere.
To investigate how
Ramses made his presence
felt across his Empire,
American hieroglyphs expert
and vintage clothes collector,
Colleen Darnell,
ventures to one of his
most impressive achievements,
Karnak Temple.
COLLEEN: The sheer
scale of this temple
is just overwhelming.
This is one of the most impressive spaces
in the world.
You can read all the numbers,
how high the columns are,
how many there are,
and I especially love
the color on the ceilings.
You have to stand here
in order to appreciate
its magnificence.
NARRATOR: When
Ramses came to power,
Karnak was already a
temple complex the size of
75 football fields,
and held a sacred lake larger than seven
Olympic swimming pools.
One temple, called the Temple of Amun-Re,
was big enough to hold
ten Gothic cathedrals
within its walls, but Ramses wanted more,
so he completed a masterpiece
begun by his father:
a vast building whose
roof rests on pillars,
a great Hypostyle hall.
It's one of the largest
religious rooms ever built.
So what can this sacred
temple reveal about what made
Ramses such a powerful
and memorable leader?
Around 30 different
Pharaohs helped build Karnak,
making modifications over one
and a half thousand years.
But the writing on the temple
walls tells a different story.
COLLEEN: There's one name
I see more than any other,
and that is Ramses.
This is the cartouche of Ramses II.
We see it again all around this column.
We see it on this column,
pretty confidently nearly
every column in this side
of the Hypo-style Hall has
multiple examples of
the name of Ramses II.
NARRATOR: 134 sandstone
columns tower up to
66 feet high.
Recent analysis shows every
single one is inscribed with
Ramses name and stories of his life.
He didn't just help build the
most iconic room in the temple,
he made sure everybody knew it.
But many of Egypt's kings
built big monuments.
Colleen wants to see what
else Ramses did to make
his reign so special.
Clues to his epic achievements are carved
into the temple walls.
COLLEEN:
This wall's just amazing.
It's filled with the military
victories of Ramses II.
We have him fighting in a chariot,
then he's bringing his
captives in and presenting
them to the god Amun, the
god here at Karnak temple.
And over here he's smiting foes from the
four corners of the world.
He truly wanted to be
known as a warrior Pharaoh.
NARRATOR: As a young Prince,
Ramses accompanied his
father Seti the First
on military campaigns,
gaining experience of leadership and war.
He became king while still a teenager,
and took command of the Egyptian military,
an army of 100,000 men.
He personally led them onto
the battlefield against the
Hittite Empire of Kadesh,
and returned home proclaiming victory.
But his campaigns continued throughout
his long reign,
as he expanded and
strengthened Egypt's control,
earning a fearsome reputation as a
mighty warrior king.
COLLEEN (off-screen):
This is an incredible scene.
We see Ramses in his chariot
and he's pulling an enemy off
of his own chariot,
and is about to pierce him with a spear.
And all this is taking place
outside of the Syrian city,
so this shows Ramses extending
the boundaries of Egypt.
Ramses, like other Pharaohs,
put his military
victories on temple walls,
because it was a way of
showing the triumph of Egypt,
the triumph of order over
chaos represented by foreigners.
NARRATOR: These scenes,
together with other ancient evidence,
suggest Ramses really did
fight alongside his men,
unlike many Pharaohs
who made similar boasts,
but never actually fought themselves.
His bravery and tactical
skill were central to his rise to power,
but is there more to Ramses rule than
just military might?
In Luxor's Deir El-Bahari,
where Ramses buried many of
his nobles at the sprawling
tomb complex of Asasif,
Egyptian archaeologist
Fathi Yaseen leads a team
excavating deep below the desert sand.
Fathi wants to find out why they chose this
specific location for their necropolis,
and what it can reveal
about Ramses long reign.
FATHI: We have here a lot
of temples, thousand of tombs.
NARRATOR: Fathi
doesn't just run this dig,
he oversees every antiquity
site on Luxor's west bank,
and has done for 30 years.
Born and bred just north of Luxor, it was
his childhood dream to work in Egyptology.
FATHI: My job is very busy, but
for us it is exciting work.
Why? Because maybe
what we find here
adds for Egyptology
more information for the ancient history.
NARRATOR: The location of
these burials is very
unusual and mysterious.
On Luxor's west bank,
ancient Egyptian elites mostly
buried their dead high up on hillsides,
so people would look up to them,
even in death.
But here at As-Asif, the tombs
are right on the valley floor.
FATHI: Why choose this area?
Why choose to locate
the tombs in this area?
What's importance of this area?
NARRATOR: Last season,
Fathi and his team discovered
the beautifully decorated
cartinage of an elite.
He thinks it's the tip of the iceberg,
and means there's an important
undiscovered tomb nearby.
It could contain priceless
treasure and inscriptions
with information about the tomb
owner that might help explain the tomb's
strange location.
Starting from a simple mud
brick wall in the sand,
Fathi's excavations reveal
the outline of a huge tomb.
Now Fathi and his team need to find the
tomb's underground doorway.
FATHI: It is very exciting for
us to see this entrance
but what's behind this entrance?
We don't know yet.
NARRATOR: Workers
painstakingly remove debris
from the tomb's mud-brick
outline on ground level.
FATHI: We are working under
nearly 40 degrees. It is hot.
NARRATOR: Despite the 104
degree Fahrenheit conditions,
they work quickly to reveal
a 65-foot long corridor,
but have no idea how deep it is.
It could take weeks to
reach bedrock and the tomb's
underground entrance.
FATHI: Our concentration now is to
recognize what is behind the debris.
It is very exciting moment for us.
NARRATOR: Fathi and his team
have many tons of sand to shift,
but they keep an eye out for
any clues hidden in the dust.
FATHI: Part of a ushabti.
It's a very good indication
because it means
we are working in the
right position to find the
entrance of the tomb.
NARRATOR: At the Saqqara
Necropolis on the outskirts
of Cairo, in front of
the world's oldest pyramid,
Egyptian archaeologist Ola El Aguizy,
is exploring the tombs of Ramses generals.
OLA: I love my work I'm doing.
I really love it.
NARRATOR: To rule
an expanding empire,
you need loyal soldiers and
Ola hopes to find out how
Ramses rewarded those who
supported his rise to power.
OLA (off-screen):
This is a family burial, the whole area.
It's clear that they're all related.
It's just a real puzzle.
NARRATOR: Grandmother
Ola came to archaeology
50 years ago through
her love of hieroglyphics.
She spent the last 15 years
exploring these ancient tombs,
mostly with the same
trusty team of workers.
OLA: Every day we come
here we have a surprise.
We have something new to find.
NARRATOR: This season
Ola's excavating an
impressive temple tomb.
It belongs to a senior
general called Iwrkhy.
OLA: Iwrkhy was known to
be a very important general
in the army of Ramses II.
That's why I'm very
keen on this excavation of
this tomb this year.
NARRATOR: Archaeologists believe
Iwrkhy and his family came from Syria,
traveling to Egypt for a better life.
Iwrkhy was quickly accepted
into Egyptian society,
serving as a general to
Ramses father Seti the First,
then later as right-hand
man to Ramses himself,
fighting at the Pharaoh's
side and leading the army.
When Iwrkhy died, he was
buried in a large tomb of
classically Egyptian design.
So how did Ramses reward
those who contributed most
to his success?
To find out, Ola's team
searches an area on the south
of the site in the hope of
uncovering more about Ramses
generals and the
mysterious foreigner Iwrkhy,
who Ramses trusted enough
to let him lead his army.
On the dig, Ola's hard
work eventually pays off.
As the team excavates Iwrkhy's tomb,
they discover a shaft carved
26-feet deep into the rocks.
It leads to a small
antechamber from which another
shaft drops 39-feet down to what must be
Iwrkhy's burial chamber.
The team finds it empty,
no sign of grave goods,
coffins or mummies.
But then, they
discover something extremely
promising higher up.
The wall of the first
antechamber looks like it's
been ripped up in ancient times.
What could lie hidden behind it?
OLA: I need to
know every part of the tomb
and if there are later
burials also, I need to know.
NARRATOR: Today, Ola will
go inside the antechamber
for the first time.
But to get there, she must descend
a perilous 26-foot deep shaft,
the old fashioned way,
with a wooden winch operated by hand.
OLA: See how strong they are?
NARRATOR: The workers
must carefully lower her down
in a bucket.
OLA: I'm, I'm used
to that and I like it.
Oh la la.
NARRATOR: Ola descends down
the long dark shaft into a
partly unexplored tomb.
If anything goes wrong with the
hand winch supporting the bucket,
the fall could kill her.
OLA: Oh la la.
(speaking in native language)
Fantastic.
NARRATOR: The tomb belongs to
one of Ramses most senior generals,
a man named Iwrkhy.
Ola wants to investigate
how this foreigner became
Ramses' head general.
She thinks this could reveal
how the generals helped Ramses
to become the most
powerful Pharaoh of all time,
and how Ramses rewarded them in return.
Today, she hopes to enter
a new part of the tomb
for the first time in
nearly three millennia,
but its entrance is blocked up.
Ola believes ancient workers
left the loose bricks simply
to hold up the fragile ceiling.
Her team must remove the blocks carefully.
The ancient ceiling above
them could easily collapse.
OLA (off-screen): Are we going
to be able to get in, yes?
NARRATOR: With a
small space clear,
Ola can finally look inside.
OLA: Oh, my God.
Oh la la.
There are lots and lots
of other galleries inside.
It's a maze.
It looks very, very deep.
NARRATOR:
Behind the wall is a tomb.
It's much bigger than they first thought,
and it's full of debris.
It's a potential treasure
trove of items that could
reveal vital information
about General Iwrkhy.
OLA (off-screen): With my
tabs on burials hidden inside,
I'm optimistic I will find lots of things.
OLA: No, no, no!
NARRATOR: But, it's pitch
black and dangerous shafts
could lie hidden below the sand.
OLA (off-screen):
They are getting the lamp,
which is in the other
shaft so that we can take
it with us inside.
That's Nadar my assistant.
He's just checking to see
because this the first time.
He, he wants to be sure
that we can go in safely.
Okay?
It is, it is safe, yeah, Nadar?
Okay.
So, I am going to enter now.
NARRATOR: Once inside,
Ola discovers an astonishing
number of funerary alabaster jars.
These contain mummified food
and wine for the deceased to
live on in the afterlife.
OLA: That's fantastic.
That shows that this
is a rich burial, yes.
(speaking in native language).
OLA: Oh, yes, show me.
NARRATOR: More tunnels lead
off from the main chamber.
OLA: Woo, you see,
look, look inside.
There is still another passage here.
NARRATOR:
It is not just a tomb.
It's a catacomb with half a
dozen tombs connected together.
OLA: Come, come, come.
NARRATOR:
A once in a decade find.
OLA: My God.
Remains of skeleton with a skull.
Oh my God.
NARRATOR: In Luxor's Deir
EL-Bahari at the Asasif Acropolis,
Fathi's excavating a 66-foot-long entrance
corridor of an ancient tomb.
The area is rich with the
burials of Ramses' nobles,
and Fathi wants to know
what these tombs reveal about
Ramses reign as Pharaoh.
To find out, Fathi hopes to
solve the mystery of why tomb
owners chose this site
on the valley floor.
They've now reached nearly
ten feet below ground level
at the end of the corridor.
As he searches for the tomb's entrance,
he uncovers clues in the debris.
(speaking in native language)
FATHI: Wow.
FATHI: This pottery is very
nice, we will keep this pottery
and will take it to the conservation area.
NARRATOR: As Fathi's team gets close
to what they hope is the tomb entrance,
they discover funerary
treasures that prove they
are on the right track.
FATHI: Yeah, wow, it's a
ushabti, mostly complete one
representing a man standing in
the same position, like this.
NARRATOR: Ancient Egyptians
believe these tiny figures,
called ushabtis would come
to life and serve the tomb's
occupant in the afterlife.
FATHI:
It is very good, nice one.
NARRATOR:
As the team excavates,
the sandy rock debris changes
to smooth white limestone.
FATHI: Wow.
NARRATOR: The top of
the tomb's entrance door.
FATHI: It's a very
exciting moment for us.
NARRATOR: Fathi hopes
the tomb will hold clues,
such as inscriptions that
reveal why the tomb owner
chose such a low-lying site,
when most tombs for the elite
are in the hillsides that
surround a necropolis.
The team must work quickly
in the scorching heat
to remove the rocks blocking the entrance.
FATHI: Very hot.
NARRATOR: In this
low-lying valley,
temperatures can reach up
to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Luckily for Fathi, there's not long to go.
FATHI: We will reach the
entrance for the first time.
So we are very proud now.
NARRATOR: With the first
limestone blocks removed,
Fathi can finally look inside.
FATHI: Wow.
NARRATOR:
In Luxor's Karnak temple,
Colleen is hunting for
clues that explain Ramses
rise to power.
Ramses was a mighty warrior
and general who fought in many
campaigns and expanded
Egypt's borders to the
east and south.
But the temple walls suggest
that's not the only reason he
became so powerful.
COLLEEN: This is a
remarkable document.
It's the actual text to a Peace Treaty.
NARRATOR: This 3,300 year
old wall holds 38 lines of
hieroglyphic inscriptions
that lay out in detail
the world's first Peace Treaty,
an unprecedented promise of
alliance between Ramses
and his mortal enemies,
the Hittites.
COLLEEN: It's amazing to see
the text of an actual Treaty.
This is the document that
two great powers signed.
Egypt on one hand and the
Hittites on the other.
NARRATOR: This proves that
Ramses didn't just fight wars,
he ended them too.
Peace allowed Egypt to
proper and for Ramses
to get richer and more powerful.
COLLEEN: This tells us how
neither the Hittites nor the
Egyptians could attack one another,
and if they were attacked
by a third party,
they would come to their allies' aid.
NARRATOR: The
Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty,
or the Treaty of Kadesh,
meant Ramses could finally
end his 20-year war with the Hittites.
COLLEEN: Wars are quite costly,
so by having peace,
Ramses is guaranteeing stability
and prosperity in his reign.
NARRATOR: This allowed Ramses
to focus on gathering wealth
and building temples and
monuments that celebrated his
mighty achievements.
COLLEEN (off-screen): A lot
of Pharaohs, including Ramses,
used propaganda, but in the
case of the Peace Treaty,
these are real terms
with a real foreign king,
so this shows Ramses wanted
everyone to know that he
was a great diplomat.
NARRATOR: Ramses demonstrated
himself to be the ultimate king,
and his choice of Karnak
to proclaim as such
was no accident.
COLLEEN (off-screen): I think
Ramses is showing the Peace Treaty here
at Karnak precisely to contrast with
his military exploits.
He does what he needs
to do to preserve order
on behalf of Egypt's gods.
NARRATOR: Ramses was a warrior
king and a diplomat who ruled
over an extraordinary period
of peace and prosperity.
But that still doesn't
explain how he became so
powerful that we're still repeating
his name 3,000 years later.
At the historic Egyptian museum in Cairo,
French archaeologist,
Simon Connor and Egyptian conservator,
Eid Mertah, are
investigating how he wielded
power across his kingdom,
using ancient propaganda.
SIMON: Here Ramses,
here also Ramses.
NARRATOR: Ramses built
thousands of statues and
placed them strategically across Egypt.
Most are now in museums,
and around 90 of them are
here in Cairo.
Some of them have never
been studied up close.
SIMON: Being able
to almost touch them
to be a few centimeters
away from their faces
it's quite emotional actually.
NARRATOR: Simon and Eid
think they might be hiding
secrets in plain sight.
By studying the details of the stone work,
they hope to discover how
Ramses used his statues to
increase his power.
Colossal statues of
Pharaohs were a common sight
for ancient Egyptians, with temples,
cities and palaces guarded by
these giant granite figures.
Master sculptors worked
on them for months with stone tools,
refining the detail with copper chisels,
and finally polishing them
to a smooth finish with sand.
They were more than just works of art.
They were magical avatars
that allowed the Pharaoh's
to connect with their subjects.
Once the Pharaoh's name
was carved onto it,
the statue was
activated and became a bearer
of the king's soul.
The team immediately spot
some surprising evidence
that this Ramses statue was altered after
it was first carved.
SIMON: So here, we
can see very quickly the
traces of modification.
You see it around the ears,
here under the arches of
the eyebrows and the eyes.
Here the mouth has been modified,
the corners have been dug.
The ears have been changed.
There is very clear traces
of modification or re-carving.
NARRATOR: Although the name
on the statue is Ramses the Second,
could it have started
out as someone else's name?
To find out Simon and Eid
need to compare the details
with an original unaltered Ramses statue,
to see what his statues
really looked like.
NARRATOR: Outside the
Egyptian museum in Cairo,
Simon and Eid spot a stunning
statue carved from granite.
They search for clues that
it's a genuine statue of
Ramses the Great.
EID: The way the King
holds two standards
completely started with Ramses.
EID (off-screen): Clearly this
statue was made during his
own reign for himself.
NARRATOR: This statue seems
to be looking right at them.
SIMON: The eyes
are looking down.
Ramses looked at the people.
NARRATOR: Unlike
Pharaohs gone before,
whose eyes looked to the horizon,
Ramses used his statues
to connect with his people.
His direct eye contact is a
powerful way to instill awe.
Simon and Eid return to inside
the museum to compare their
findings with the seemingly
modified Ramses statue.
Sure enough it has Ramses' eye-line.
SIMON: The sculptors
get under the eye,
they cut here on the eyelid.
The idea was to produce
a heavy upper eyelid.
NARRATOR: The eyelid
and downward eye-line is
a later modification.
Incredibly, an unmodified
version of this exact same
statue exists in another museum.
This clearly shows that
the eyes would have looked
straight ahead when first carved.
Simon and Eid spot more evidence.
SIMON: Here we see
traces of modification of
the feature of the eyebrows,
enough to create the
arches of the eyebrows.
So here the sculptor
wanted this part to protrude.
NARRATOR: Even the cobra
on the crown was re-cut
to the style of Ramses'
19th Dynasty snake.
SIMON: They wanted the snake
to have this double loop on
either side of the hook,
so when statues have to be
Ramesized, we have to produce
these little features.
NARRATOR: It's powerful
evidence that Ramses altered
an older statue to look like one of his.
SIMON: This statue clearly
was not Ramses originally.
It was another King.
NARRATOR: So if this
isn't Ramses, who is it?
SIMON: We have
an alternation between one
thick stripes and two thin.
One thick, two thin, one thick, two thin.
These detail is typical
of the 12th Dynasty,
so around 600 years before
the reign of Ramses.
NARRATOR: They can't tell
exactly which Pharaoh the
statue was for originally,
but it's clear evidence that
Ramses modified older statues
to proclaim his power
across Egypt quickly.
SIMON: The intention was really
to choose specific statues,
beautiful ones, big
ones of prestigious ancestors,
to re-embody them.
NARRATOR: Ramses deliberately
left evidence of the former
Kings in the statues.
He wasn't trying to
steal their identities.
He was using the reputation
of his most illustrious
ancestors to exert and
increase his own power.
SIMON: They had an aura,
they had a prestige,
and the idea was to show
that they were ancient,
but that he was the new them.
NARRATOR: Recent evidence
reveals that nearly
one-quarter of Ramses statues
throughout Egypt,
originally belonged to other Pharaohs.
Ramses simply re-carved them,
claiming them as his own.
But further investigation of
some statues proves tricky,
because of ancient damage done to them.
SIMON (off-screen):
Two things mostly missing.
The head of the uraeus and here the nose.
It has been completely erased,
really carefully chipped off.
So the statue is broken,
and it's 90% of cases in Egyptian statues,
all of them were intentionally
chipped off, cut off.
NARRATOR: Ramses used this
statue and others as his
magical avatar across his kingdom,
but once no longer ruler,
his statues needed to be deactivated.
SIMON: You need to remove the
magic from the objects by killing it.
So you remove the nose,
you remove the uraeus.
He's not real anymore,
he's just a piece of stone.
NARRATOR: Today Ramses'
statues help piece together
the mighty Pharaoh's rule,
and act as vital evidence
for how he used them to
become the greatest
ruler of ancient Egypt.
In Luxor's Deir El-Bahari,
in a vast necropolis full
of Ramses' nobles' tombs,
Fathi's on the brink of a new discovery:
an unopened tomb hidden for thousands
of years beneath the desert sands..
FATHI: Wow, here is
the top of the door.
It's quite dark, full of debris.
NARRATOR: Fathi believes
this tomb will provide clues
as to why tomb owners chose this site,
and reveal information
about Ramses' prosperous
reign as Pharaoh.
He needs to get inside,
but the debris is blocking the entrance.
FATHI: We can't
see any decorations
there's too much debris.
We have to arrive at the bedrock
of the door before we enter.
We have to follow the nature
of the debris, layer by layer.
At least two meters to go.
NARRATOR: For several days,
the team hauls tons of sand and soil
under the burning sun.
But finally, they
uncover the full entrance.
FATHI (off-screen): I'm
waiting one month to enter,
so it is a very special moment.
Now I can go inside.
Wow.
♪
FATHI (off-screen):
Wait, there's a huge tomb full of debris.
Okay, the ceiling is
not in good condition.
NARRATOR: In Luxor's
Deir El-Bahari,
in a necropolis used by Ramses' nobles,
Fathi enters a new tomb
for the first time.
He wants to know why elites
chose this low-lying site for
their necropolis,
and what that might reveal
about Ramses' reign.
He's looking for inscriptions,
but the room's 25 by
12-foot walls are bare.
FATHI: I cannot
see an inscription.
NARRATOR: Now he must
launch a painstaking search of the debris,
to look for other kinds of
evidence that could provide
clues as to why the
nobles of Ramses the Great
chose to bury their dead here.
FATHI: I see some pottery here
and some baskets also.
FATHI: Wow.
FATHI: It's so beautiful because
it is not common to find a complete jar.
Hopefully this kind of pottery
helps us also for information
why the tomb owner located his tomb here.
I see another thing here also.
FATHI: Wow.
FATHI: Looks like a nice basket
and it's great because
it's in good condition.
NARRATOR: The ancient items
are perfectly preserved,
but they will start to
degrade in the open air.
Fathi takes them straight
to the conservation lab for
further study.
(speaking in native language)
FATHI: He has to use the air
to be sure there isn't
any more dust inside it.
He'll try to strengthen it
with another liquid material
and we can open it.
NARRATOR: The stunning basket
and pot are in such great condition,
that it's unlikely these
are burial goods placed next
to the deceased in the burial chamber.
But rather offerings by family members,
placed in mourning at the tomb's entrance,
as part of an ancient festival
specific to this area.
FATHI: Could be for
the Beautiful Festival of the Valley.
This basket could be
used for food or fruits.
NARRATOR: Every year on
the first new moon of May,
crowds gathered at Karnak
temple with offerings of food
and masses of flowers.
They processed behind a
boat carrying the image of
the god, Amun, and crossed
the Nile to the west bank,
land of the dead.
The procession passed
the temples of the Kings,
and then they made their way
to the Temple of Hatshepsut.
Families broke away to visit
the tombs of their relatives,
where they made offerings
of food and flowers,
and feasted through the
night with the dead.
Fathi's finds suggest that nobles,
including those of Rameses the Great
chose this site for their burial
because of its excellent location
for the Beautiful Festival of the Valley.
These tombs would have been
the last stop before the
procession ended at
the nearby Hatshepstut Temple,
so prime real estate to receive offerings.
FATHI: In that case,
if their tomb is here,
it means they will get more offerings,
more flowers, more food, more drink.
The deceased, he will enjoy
and he will cheer for
the Beautiful Festival of the Valley.
I'm so happy because
now we know why they chose this area.
NARRATOR: Ramses' 66-year
reign was incredibly prosperous,
so he could afford to be
generous with his subjects.
He continues the Beautiful
Festival of the Valley,
along with dozens of other festivals,
even organizing an annual 24-day feast,
making him popular with the masses and
increasing his power.
For Fathi and his team,
it's been a very successful dig,
and they hope this will
just be the start of their
discoveries here.
FATHI: We will continue our work
for the rest of the tomb.
NARRATOR: In Saqqara,
Ola is exploring a hidden
chamber in the tomb of one of
Ramses military commanders,
General Iwrkhy.
She hopes to uncover how these
generals helped his rise to power,
and how he rewarded them in return.
But the tomb is a mess of
artifacts buried under rubble
with skeletons scattered throughout.
It's a clear sign to Ola
that robbers looted this tomb
thousands of years ago.
Ola makes a start on the
funerary items the robbers
left behind.
OLA: We have a
puzzle everywhere.
Sometimes you find many
fragments of the same jar,
we have to put them together.
NARRATOR: One jar in
particular stands out.
OLA: You see this here,
it's a crown with horns
and sun disk here.
This is a deity, maybe Hathor.
NARRATOR: The stunning
pot shows Hathor,
the goddess of love,
who takes the form of a cow,
but no information about Iwrkhy.
Hidden in the debris, something
else catches Ola's eye.
OLA: Oo-oo-oo-ooh.
Beautiful, my God!
NARRATOR: Ola has made
a major discovery.
She hopes it will provide
clues as to how Ramses'
generals helped his rise to power,
and how he rewarded them in return.
OLA: This is the first time
we have something so clear.
This is the head of one
of the canopic jars.
It's beautiful, you see the wig, the ears.
Oh my god.
NARRATOR: This canopic jar
head is part of the funerary
goods buried in the
tomb of Ramses' head general
called Iwrkhy.
They hold the mummy's vital organs,
so they can live again
and reuse their organs in the afterlife.
OLA (off-screen): So beautiful.
And the cheek is so smooth.
Finding this is like a treasure also,
because it's very indicative
of lots of other things.
NARRATOR: If these decorative
items belong to Iwrkhy,
it proves he and his
family were highly rewarded
by Ramses the Great.
Alabaster was a prized material,
thought of as desirable by the gods.
If this was Iwrkhy's
it's evidence he had a
very luxurious burial.
It's a rare find.
But there's more treasure
beneath the debris.
OLA (off-screen): Okay, now
we have a block coming out.
Let's see.
Oh my God!
(laughs).
NARRATOR: Hidden under the
sand for thousands of years,
the block is covered in inscriptions.
OLA (off-screen): They're
all kneeling on the ground and
weeping and mourning.
NARRATOR: Beautiful carvings
on the blocks' underside,
reveal distraught funeral
mourners convulsed in grief.
It's a religious scene,
depicting the sacred
funerary rites for the
tomb owner's burial.
OLA: It's not every day
that we find something as big as that.
We cannot find the name of the owner.
It needs to be taken into
the magazine and put together
again by the specialists.
NARRATOR: If they can find the name
of the tomb owner in the inscriptions,
the block could prove that
Ramses' generals, like Iwrkhy,
were so important they received elaborate
funerary processions as
part of Egypt's high society.
OLA: You'll find
a lot of things,
significant thing that could help find
information about Iwrkhy.
NARRATOR: But Ola can't
see Iwrkhy's name yet,
nor any others.
She needs to find more of the
block to piece together their names.
OLA: Well, it's a lot of
work still to be done,
but it is promising.
But, I might tell you
I have to go out before it
falls on our heads.
(laughs).
NARRATOR: With so many
finds inside the tomb,
and with so many rooms
still to excavate, for Ola,
this is simply the beginning.
OLA (off-screen): Of course,
it is part of the puzzle,
and it is part of the suspense.
Any block we find we are expecting to
find something important.
Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic.
Three times fantastic.
(laughs).
NARRATOR:
In Egypt's far south,
Colleen investigates
Ramses the Great's legacy.
She wants to understand how
he became the most powerful
Pharaoh of ancient Egypt,
and why we still know
his name three millennia
after his death.
COLLEEN (off-screen):
This is Lake Nabta.
I'm at the southern border
of modern day Egypt and
just a few miles upstream is Sudan.
But this is ancient Nubia.
This is where Ramses's armies
and his bureaucracy maintained
control over the
all-important gold resources
of ancient Egypt.
NARRATOR: Ramses and
other Pharaohs sourced vast
quantities of their
precious gold from Nubia.
Control of this area
allowed Ramses to trade the
gold and other goods
with the rest of Africa,
and over the Red Sea with Asia.
And it is here that Ramses
chose to build one of his most
impressive temples, Abu Simbel.
COLLEEN: Incredible.
No matter how many times
I see this monument,
I'm overwhelmed by how massive it is.
The four colossal statues of
Ramses face the Nile River.
They would have been
visible at great distance,
making a statement of
Ramses' divine authority.
NARRATOR:
Here, in ancient Nubia,
Ramses wanted everyone
to know he was King and this
was his Empire.
Inside the temple walls,
Colleen finds a vast
record of Ramses' rule.
COLLEEN: This temple is simply
filled with Ramses military victories.
Battles are everywhere.
NARRATOR:
But in a side chamber,
Colleen spots something more intriguing
than military propaganda.
COLLEEN: This is such
a peculiar image.
So Ramses is offering two jars of water,
and then there's an offering
table in front with two
baskets of fruit, topped
off with a lotus flower,
and below are two loaves of bread.
These are the sorts of
offerings that Kings would
present to deities, and the
Coronation name of Ramses is
labelling the god who the king worships.
This is not the king
offering to just any god,
but to his own deified self.
This is Ramses as King
offering to Ramses as a god.
Meaning that this temple
was a place where Ramses
could be worshipped for
generations to come.
NARRATOR:
Throughout his reign,
Ramses increased his power
through military glory and by
ultimately securing peace.
But it was by making himself a god,
that he was able to secure
his legacy as Ramses the Great.
All Pharaohs deify
themselves before they die,
but Ramses the Great,
like everything else,
did it bigger and better,
building grander temples
to be worshipped from,
and proclaiming his
divine right to rule more times
than any other.
COLLEEN: Abu Simbel and Karnak Temple are
among the greatest wonders of the world,
but in ancient Egypt,
to have your name repeated,
granted you immortality in the afterlife.
We know that nine more
Pharaohs were named Ramses,
and we're still repeating his name today.
He truly lives forever.
NARRATOR: Every season,
ongoing excavations are
uncovering new evidence
about what made Ramses the
most powerful and successful
ruler of ancient Egypt.
Hundreds of temples and monuments show his
skill at propaganda.
His repurposing of statues
linked him to Egypt's
illustrious past rulers.
A mighty warrior, his peace
treaty reveals that he was an
outstanding diplomat.
He held expensive burials
for those loyal to him and
his lavish festivals show
that he shared the prosperity
of his long reign.
He truly was the greatest
of all Egypt's kings.