Secrets of the Pharaohs | Lost Treasures of Egypt | MEGA EPISODE | National Geographic

Key Concepts

• Alexandria: Ancient Egyptian metropolis founded by Alexander the Great, heavily influenced by Greek culture.
• Taposiris Magna: Temple complex west of Alexandria, a hub for trade and religious ceremonies.
• Serapeum: Temple in Alexandria with Pompey's Pillar, showcasing Greek influence.
• Philadelphia: Ancient settlement mimicking Alexandria, providing insights into Alexandrian customs.
• Ra-Kadet: Ancient coastal fort, the site where Alexandria was built.
• Ptolemies: Greek kings who completed the construction of Alexandria after Alexander's death.
• Kom El-Dikka: Archaeological site in Alexandria with monuments repurposed by Greek rulers.
• Mausoleum: Structure built by wealthy families for the living to visit the dead.
• Citadel of Qaitbay: Fort built in 1477 CE, containing blocks from the lighthouse of Alexandria.
• Royal Cache: A hidden tomb where mummies of New Kingdom pharaohs were discovered.
• Theban Necropolis: Home to the Valley of the Kings, where pharaohs built their tombs.
• Hyksos: A group from western Asia who ruled in northern Egypt before the New Kingdom.
• Satrap Stela: A monumental decree bearing a text referring to Ra-Kadet.
• New Kingdom: A period in Egyptian history known as Egypt's golden age.
• Ahmose I: The pharaoh who reunited Egypt and ushered in the New Kingdom.
• Hatshepsut: A female king of Egypt who ruled as Regent in the New Kingdom.
• Sun Kings: A dynasty of pharaohs devoted to the Sun God Ra.
• Abusir: Pyramid fields south of Cairo, where the Sun Kings built their pyramids.
• Giza: Site of the great pyramids built by pharaohs who preceded the Sun Kings.
• Saqqara: Necropolis where the Sun Kings buried many of their officials.
• Userkaf: The first of the Sun Kings.
• Sahura: The second Sun King, son of Userkaf.
• Unas: The final Sun King.
• Pi-Ramses: A new capital founded by Ramses II.
• Ramesseum: Ramses II's mortuary temple.
• Abydos: Sacred ancient center where Sameh Iskander is exploring one of Ramses' most iconic monuments.
• Dra' Abu El-Naga: Ancient cemetery where Bahaa Gaber is exploring how Egypt coped in the increasingly volatile Mediterranean once Ramses II's 66-year reign came to an end.
• Tutankhamun: Egypt's most famous pharaoh, known as the Boy King.
• Aten: The sun disc, a god worshipped by Akhenaten.
• Amarna: The city built by Akhenaten as the new capital of Egypt.
• Hermopolis Magna: Ancient city where archeologists are excavating a huge temple complex that was in use during the New Kingdom.
• Talatat blocks: Small sandstone bricks designed to a standardized size that first appeared during the reign of Akhenaten.
• Karnak: Ancient temple complex where Tutankhamun restored the old gods.
• Festival of the Valley: A joyous celebration of the dead.

Alexandria: Birth and Disappearance of a Megacity

Uncovering Alexandria's Secrets at Taposiris Magna

• Kathleen Martinez excavates at Taposiris Magna, focusing on understanding the lives of ordinary Alexandrians.
• A large burial ground near the temple walls contains shallow graves, potentially holding clues about Alexandrian life.
• Taposiris Magna was a multi-purpose hub, strategically located for Mediterranean trade, with a causeway connecting it to the sea.
• Priests oversaw religious ceremonies and trade, making it a central location for ordinary Alexandrians.
• Linda Chapon helps uncover over 100 tombs, seeking clues to Alexandrian life.
• An intact plaster seal on a tomb suggests the presence of a body inside.

Exploring Alexandria's Greek Heritage

• Arto Belekdanian investigates the origins of Alexandria at the Serapeum, noting its magnificent scale.
• Pompey's Pillar, a Roman addition, incorporates reused elements from an earlier pre-Roman structure.
• Inscriptions on a black granite block reveal Greek writing and dedications, indicating Alexandria was also a Greek city.
• The Serapeum's architecture, with pillared temples and colonnades, reflects a Greek influence.
• Alexandria's design, with grid-like streets and Greek-styled buildings, contrasts with traditional Egyptian architecture.

Unearthing Alexandrian Customs in Philadelphia

• Basem Gehad explores a necropolis in Philadelphia, a settlement built by people from Alexandria.
• Philadelphia, unlike Alexandria, has never been built over, preserving its archaeology.
• Excavations reveal a mudbrick structure with vivid-colored frescos, indicating Alexandrian customs.
• The structure's architecture, with square platforms and columns, suggests a mausoleum.
• Ancient Egyptian mausoleums were built by wealthy families for the living to visit the dead.

The Founding of Alexandria by Alexander the Great

• Arto examines the Satrap Stela, dated to 311 BCE, which refers to a coastal fort called Ra-Kadet, meaning "The place of building."
• Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 BCE and began constructing a new city.
• Legend says the philosopher Homer guided Alexander in a dream to the site of the new capital.
• Alexander's architect used grain to map out the city's plan, blessed by birds feasting on the seeds.
• Alexander died before the city was finished, leaving the Ptolemies to complete the work.
• Alexandria's coastal location provided easy defense and access to Mediterranean trade.
• Building a new capital on the coast meant convincing native Egyptians to abandon 2,700 years of tradition.

Unveiling the Lives of Ordinary Alexandrians

• Kathleen prepares to open an intact tomb at Taposiris Magna, hoping to reveal clues about daily life in Alexandria.
• The grave appears to have suffered water damage, raising concerns about the body's survival.
• The body is in its original burial position, confirming the tomb is undisturbed.
• The skeleton is degraded but may still yield valuable evidence.
• The grave suggests ordinary Alexandrians embraced Egyptian death rites, while also incorporating Greek burial practices.

The Ptolemies' Strategy to Legitimize Their Rule

• Arto explores how Egypt's Greek rulers persuaded native Egyptians to support their new capital at Kom El-Dikka.
• The site contains monuments sculpted hundreds of years before Alexander, including sphinxes.
• The Greek pharaohs repurposed existing statues to prove their Egyptian credentials to the locals.
• This strategy worked, and Alexandria quickly became the most powerful and prosperous city in the ancient world.
• Egypt had a thriving new capital where Greeks and Egyptians lived side by side, ruled by a Greek pharaoh and surrounded by Greek culture.

The Disappearance of Alexandria

• The video poses the question of why so little survives of Alexandria compared to other ancient Egyptian sites.

Uncovering Alexandrian Mortuary Practices in Philadelphia

• Basem's team has almost finished clearing the sand from the painted mausoleum.
• The walls were painted with vivid colors, including Egyptian blue, an expensive pigment.
• The mausoleum, with a footprint of nearly 1400 square feet, was a funerary house of impressive size.
• Inside, lavish painted decorations covered the floors, walls, and ceilings with geometric patterns.
• The mausoleum could hold clues to Alexandrian architectural and mortuary traditions.
• The team discovers two mummies beneath the painted floor, but their poor condition poses a challenge.

Examining the Body at Taposiris Magna

• Kathleen's team carefully brushes the loose sand from the shallow grave, hoping to study the body of an ordinary Alexandrian.
• The body appears to be in its original burial position, confirming the tomb is undisturbed.
• The skeleton is very degraded, but expert eyes may still yield valuable evidence.
• The bones' size suggests they belong to a fully grown individual.
• The tooth's healthy condition suggests this Alexandrian had a good diet.
• The evidence suggests the lives and deaths of ordinary Alexandrians were different from anything that came before, fusing Greek and Egyptian civilizations.

Identifying the Mummies in Philadelphia

• Basem examines the mummies in their crypt, using a portable X-ray machine.
• The tight space, condition of the mummy, and unstable electricity pose challenges.
• The X-ray reveals that one mummy is an adult male, aged 35 to 37 years old at death, who lost a tooth.
• The other mummy is a female.
• The grave appears to contain a couple, perhaps husband and wife, buried together in a common fashion.
• The discovery provides first-hand evidence of how the wealthy treated their dead in Egypt's Alexandrian age.
• The family met regularly to honor the dead and shared food with the deceased above the tomb.
• The mourners would smash plates at the end of the meal, a classically Greek custom.

The Downfall of Alexandria

• Arto searches for clues to explain the ancient city's downfall at the waterfront.
• The Citadel of Qaitbay, built in 1477 CE, contains pink granite blocks from the lighthouse of Alexandria.
• Marine archaeologists find ancient granite blocks on the seabed, suggesting a cataclysmic destruction.
• An earthquake in 365 CE caused a tsunami that damaged buildings all over the city.
• The lighthouse would have been directly in the wave's path, as were the royal palaces and other iconic buildings.
• Over the following centuries, Alexandria suffered more disasters, leveling the Greek buildings that made the city famous.

Conclusion: The Legacy of Alexandria

• The glorious capital constructed by Alexander the Great's successors may have been wiped off the face of Egypt.
• However, its existence helped establish a new hybrid Greek-Egyptian way of life.
• The living enjoyed a fusion of artistic styles in their architecture and followed the traditions of both civilizations when burying their dead.
• Alexander the Great didn't just found a city; his conquest gave birth to a new Egypt, and its legacy survives to this day.

The Royal Cache: Unlocking the Secrets of Egypt's Golden Age

The Mystery of the Royal Cache

• Archaeologists search for tombs from the era of Tutankhamun in an ancient necropolis in the heart of Egypt.
• The mummies of many of the era's mightiest rulers, like Seti I and Ramesses The Great, were discovered in a different valley, all together in a single unmarked tomb known as the Royal Cache.
• The Royal Cache is a roughly hewn tunnel carved over 230 feet into the limestone rock of the mountain.
• The Royal Cache had no decoration inside.
• The Royal Cache was crammed full of grand coffins and over 40 mummies, including 11 famous pharaohs and six queens.
• Ancient Egyptians moved these mummies here from their original tombs in antiquity.
• The video poses the question of why the mummies ended up in the Royal Cache.

Exploring the Valley Beneath the Royal Cache Tomb

• José-Ramón Pérez-Accino excavates the valley beneath the Royal Cache Tomb, searching for proof that the valley was an important sacred site.
• José's controversial new idea is that the Ancient Egyptians moved the New Kingdom royals to this location, not because it was secret, but because this apparently featureless valley was actually an important sacred site.
• José and his team excavate the huge drifts of windblown sand at the base of the valley cliffs and analyze the rocky walls that surround them.
• The team hopes that big stones can provide clues to human activity in the valley.

Examining the Mummies in the Royal Cache

• Aliaa Ismail examines the mummies found in the Royal Cache at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, searching for clues to the origins of the New Kingdom.
• Aliaa examines the mummy of Seqenenre Tao, a pharaoh who lived in a tumultuous time.
• Seqenenre Tao's mummy has a slash going through his skull, likely caused by an axe during war.
• Experts have matched the wound to West Asian weaponry.
• Seqenenre Tao was captured by his enemies on the battlefield and killed.
• Seqenenre Tao was on the frontline of the battlefield defending Egypt from the Hyksos.

Uncovering New Kingdom Graves in Saqqara

• Mohamed Megahed excavates a set of intriguing new tombs in Saqqara, believing there are also New Kingdom graves hidden nearby.
• Mohamed's team begins digging at the westernmost tomb in the row, clearing windblown sand from the entrance to the tomb.
• The mix of pottery makes it much harder for Mohamed to date the burial.
• The team is close to entering the first tomb.
• Emptying the tomb could cause the weakest central point of the ceiling to disintegrate.
• Mohamed decides to document the tomb now before the team continues excavating.
• The team has photographed the chamber just in time.

Discovering Limestone Blocks in the Theban Necropolis

• The Spanish Egyptian excavation team is pulling more white limestone blocks out of the ground in the valley where the royal mummies were found.
• The white limestone doesn't match the natural rock in the cliffs above.
• The white limestone suggests that a manmade monument may once have stood here.
• The dig team has a long day ahead extracting the blocks from the sandy landscape.

Documenting the Rockface with a Drone

• José thinks the Ancient Egyptians carved an enormous face into the rock of the valley walls, like an ancient Mount Rushmore.
• José needs hard evidence to prove his theory.
• José's team has found smaller fragments of rock from the cliff face scattered below.
• José is taking to the air with a drone to document the rockface.

Excavating a Double-Decker Tomb in Saqqara

• Mohamed and his team are excavating a row of tombs that he suspects dates to the New Kingdom.
• The team found nothing inside the first tomb, but Mohamed has discovered another lead.
• To the northside of the tomb, the team found another shaft, and this shaft lead to another tomb.
• Ancient Egyptians often built double-decker tombs like this where space was scarce.
• The tomb consists of a simple eight-foot-long burial chamber.
• Both upper and lower tombs are built out of mudbrick, and have similar vaulted ceilings, indicating that they were built around the same time.
• The tomb design is characteristic of New Kingdom burials at other sites.
• Without grave goods, it's impossible to tell exactly when they were built.
• Mohamed decides to start excavating the next tomb in the series, to search for hard evidence that these tombs date from the New Kingdom.
• The team checks for debris and small finds as they go.
• The team has just found an amulet, and it was part of a necklace and perhaps it was hanging on the chest of the deceased.
• The amulet shows a king from the New Kingdom.
• The team has found a scarab beetle, and it's a kind of amulet.
• The scarab has the name of Amun-Ra on it and Amun-Ra was the main god of the New Kingdom.
• Together with the amulet, the scarab dates this tomb conclusively.
• Because the tomb's architecture is so similar to its neighbors, Mohamed believes all the tombs date from the same period.
• Mohamed is faced with another mystery: Who was buried in these tombs?
• Why did they choose to be buried alongside an official who lived a thousand years earlier?

Exploring a Tomb in Edfu

• Aliaa is continuing her investigation into the origins of the New Kingdom in Edfu, Southern Egypt.
• Aliaa wants to explore a tomb at an ancient settlement called Elkab that contains clues to who united the country and led Egypt into an age of prosperity.
• The inscriptions tell the story of the soldier's life, and document the war with the Hyksos.
• The text says that the soldier helped to sack Avaris, the Hyksos capital, and drive the Hyksos from Egypt.
• The walls also contain a clue to the identity of the pharaoh who led this victory.
• The tomb contains a cartouche that says nb-phtj-r, the royal name for the King, the throne name of King Ahmose I.
• Ahmose I became pharaoh at a young age after his father was killed by the Hyksos.
• Ahmose adopted the Hyksos's own technologies of horse-drawn chariots and bronze weapons, to strengthen his forces.
• Ahmose conquered the capital of the Hyksos.
• Ahmose united the country after around 200 years of chaos, and led Egypt into an era of peace and stability.
• Ahmose I was the founder of the 18th Dynasty, and that was the start of the New Kingdom, the golden era for Egyptian pharaohs.

Analyzing the Drone Images

• José and a drone crew are documenting the rockface, looking for evidence to support his radical theory that this empty valley was once an important religious site, with a huge effigy carved into the valley walls.
• Antonio Gómez Laguna specializes in aerial archaeology.
• Antonio will use the high-resolution images to help José search for any signs of carving on the cliff.
• Antonio has combined the images into a detailed photomosaic.
• José thinks the photomosaic clearly reveals the outline of a face carved by humans.
• It's impossible to tell for sure who might be depicted in the rock.
• The evidence that the effigy was purposefully destroyed, means that José thinks he knows who it might have been.
• Hatshepsut was a female King of Egypt who ruled as Regent in the New Kingdom, until her stepson came of age.
• Hatshepsut commissioned carvings of herself in male headdresses all across Egypt to assert her position as pharaoh.
• Hatshepsut's reign was an era of peace and prosperity, and when her stepson finally succeeded her, he had a tough act to follow.
• He sought to destroy his stepmother's legacy and erase all evidence of Hatshepsut across Egypt.

Discovering a Coffin in Saqqara

• Mohamed's team has found a coffin in a grave dated to the New Kingdom.
• Over the millennia, many Egyptian tombs have been robbed.
• An undisturbed coffin is a unique opportunity to understand who was buried here, and why they chose to be buried in this place.
• The team searches for any human remains.
• The team has found the skull inside the coffin.
• This guy was buried his head to the north.
• Mohamed asks experienced anthropologist Zeinab Hashesh to examine the skull.
• Zeinab needs to transport the skull back to her laboratory to analyze it further.

Investigating Limestone Blocks in the Theban Necropolis

• José is investigating the large white limestone blocks his team found at the base of the valley walls.
• The blocks are the same kind of limestone.
• The blocks have chisel marks.
• The blocks were buildings, they were buildings with decoration.
• These buildings with decoration have to be brought and built by somebody up here.
• There was a structure here, probably a structure of worship.
• The carved blocks are a breakthrough for José's revolutionary theory.
• The carved blocks are a first step to proving that the Ancient Egyptians did build a monumental structure in this valley.

Analyzing the Skull in Saqqara

• Mohamed and Zeinab are analyzing the skull they uncovered in a New Kingdom tomb.
• Zeinab is sure about his age, between 20 to 25, according to his teeth.
• He live in very good health because he don't have any evidence about anemia on his eyes.
• The tombs also are for not poor people.
• Their tombs are for middle class or higher middle class group.
• He has no evidence of malnutrition.
• The tomb condition with the health condition can fit together.
• The evidence from the skull confirms that the row of tombs belonged to wealthy individuals, perhaps even a wealthy family.
• Mohamed now wants to understand the significance of why these people were buried next to a much-revered official who lived and died a thousand years earlier.
• The Ancient Egyptians chose the specific locations beside important people.
• Ancient Egyptians remembered the legacy of other people.
• Ancient Egyptians believed that to live on in the afterlife, it wasn't just their body that needed to be preserved, it was their name.
• To make sure they were remembered, this New Kingdom family chose a burial location next to the high-ranking official Khuwy, so that anyone visiting this famous site would see their tomb.

Visiting a New Kingdom Tomb in Deir el-Medina

• Aliaa is visiting one final New Kingdom tomb in Deir el-Medina near Luxor.
• The tomb is from the opposite end of the social spectrum to the mummies in the Royal Cache.
• These workmen built the Valley of the King tombs.
• Aliaa has been granted special access to this sealed tomb to explore clues in the inscriptions on its walls.
• The tomb contains Ahmose-Nefertari, and we know that from her cartouche.
• Ahmose-Nefertari was the wife of Ahmose I, the pharaoh who reunited Egypt at the beginning of the New Kingdom and brought about a great renaissance of Egyptian culture.
• Ahmose-Nefertari is here because the tomb owner is honoring her.
• In this area, Ahmose-Nefertari is mentioned in at least 50 private tombs.
• The tombs here were founded long after the death of Queen Ahmose-Nefertari.
• When we see her here, we see her in a different light.
• She is not represented as a queen but as a deity.
• Ahmose-Nefertari was a deity, the mother of the New Kingdom and 18th Dynasty.
• She was venerated because the New Kingdom was not any era.
• The New Kingdom was an era of stability, it was the time of the golden age.
• The prestige tied to Ahmose-Nefertari's name and her role as Mother of the New Kingdom, held significance for the royals and rulers who came after her.
• Archeologists disagree over where she was buried, but some believe that it was Ahmose-Nefertari who was the original owner of the Royal Cache tomb.
• The mummies of the New Kingdom pharaohs were placed in the tomb of Ahmose-Nefertari, because of her significance as the founder and mother of the New Kingdom.
• That kind of significance made her tomb a very important place.

The Winter Solstice in the Theban Necropolis

• José's time with the Royal Cache Valley is coming to an end.
• It's the winter solstice.
• This is a day which was celebrated in Ancient Egypt.
• From this day onwards, days will be longer, nature will return to life.
• Everything will go back to brilliance, to fertility.
• José believes that the solstice marks a natural phenomenon in the valley, as the sun rises directly between two peaks on the horizon.
• The royal bodies ended up in a place where this phenomenon can be observed.
• José's investigation could rewrite the history of the Royal Cache.
• It suggests that when the Ancient Egyptians moved the royal mummies at the end of the New Kingdom, they didn't hide them in a secret valley.
• Instead, they chose a sacred valley that was well-known with deep religious significance.
• 500 years after her reign, José believes they chose to bury the mummies in the tomb of one of the founding figures of the New Kingdom, to honor her legacy and keep their names alive.

Conclusion: The Significance of the Royal Cache

• José's investigation could rewrite the history of the Royal Cache.
• It suggests that when the Ancient Egyptians moved the royal mummies at the end of the New Kingdom, they didn't hide them in a secret valley.
• Instead, they chose a sacred valley that was well-known with deep religious significance.
• 500 years after her reign, José believes they chose to bury the mummies in the tomb of one of the founding figures of the New Kingdom, to honor her legacy and keep their names alive.

The Sun Kings: How a Dynasty Transformed Egypt

The Search for a Burial Chamber

• Archeologists hunt for a burial chamber inside an ancient tomb in an ancient necropolis in the heart of Egypt.
• The burial chamber could date to one of Egypt's most enigmatic dynasties, the Sun Kings.

The Sun Kings of Abusir

• The pyramid fields of Abusir are 15 miles south of Cairo.
• These mysterious structures were built by a dynasty of pharaohs who ruled Egypt 1,000 years before Tutankhamun.
• Named for their devotion to the Sun God Ra, they were known as the Sun Kings.
• Archeologists are uncovering new evidence about these enigmatic kings of old.
• The video poses the question of how this powerful dynasty rose and transformed Egypt forever and what caused their magnificent reign to fall.

Excavating in Saqqara

• Archeologist Miroslav Barta is digging in the heart of a vast necropolis in Saqqara.
• This is where the Sun Kings buried many of their officials.
• The team has just identified the top of a new shaft.
• Miroslav hopes to uncover precious new information about how the Sun Kings governed ancient Egypt.
• Miroslav hopes that the shaft will lead him to a burial chamber.
• The original mud bricks lining the shaft have collapsed.
• Miroslav hopes the extra work will pay off.
• Last season, in a nearby tomb, he found a magnificent mummy that could tell him more about the officials who governed Egypt in the time of the Sun Kings.
• Serving under the first Sun King Userkaf, the mummy was a high-ranking official called Ptahshepses.
• Born into a respectable family, Ptahshepses grew up alongside the king's own children as part of the pharaoh's court.
• In time, he rose through the ranks acting as Master of Craftsmen and Master of Secrets.
• The pharaoh himself must have held him in high regard.
• He even married King Userkaf's daughter to become a member of the royal household.
• Ptahshepses lived a long, loyal life, helping to run Egypt on behalf of five pharaohs.
• Miroslav plans to carry out a full analysis of Ptahshepses' mummy to try and unlock the secrets of his life.
• First, he wants to see if the new shaft next door contains another important burial from the era of the Sun Kings.

Exploring the Pyramids of Giza

• Egyptologist Chris Naunton wants to see for himself how the Sun Kings came to power.
• To do that, he is exploring what happened to their predecessors, the pharaohs who built the great pyramids.
• The pyramids were built by the kings who immediately preceded the Sun Kings.
• The pyramids wielded huge amounts of power, controlled huge amounts of resource, but it wasn't going to last.
• Chris wants to search for clues at the tomb of the last great pyramid king, Menkaure.
• Menkaure's pyramid tends to get a little bit forgotten, and it's perhaps the least well studied of the three.
• Menkaure's pyramid can tell us about the way the history of the period unfolded.
• The pharaoh's tomb was hidden deep underground at the end of a network of sloping tunnels and antechambers.
• On top were thousands of massive limestone blocks, forming a stepped pyramid more than 200 feet tall.
• Unlike the other Giza pyramids, the bottom was clad with hard pink granite, shipped over 500 miles down the Nile from Aswan.
• Above that, a layer of white limestone.
• Complete with temples and the queen's pyramids, Menkaure's two-tone monument was designed to be an imposing symbol of his absolute power.
• Inside the pyramid, there are signs that the pharaoh's power was already waning.
• The space is just how tight it is.
• On the outside of the pyramid, there are further signs of the Giza pharaoh's demise.
• Casing stones in particular which are made of this pinkish granite represents an enormous investment on the part of the king.
• Some of the stones are beautifully smoothed off so that the, the surface of the pyramid appears completely true, some of the other stones haven't been finished that way at all.
• The Giza dynasty had run out of money, and Menkaure's successor died without an heir.
• Broke and without a leader, Egypt was at a crisis point.
• The king who would step in to this difficult period following the Giza pyramid builders was Userkaf, the first of the Sun Kings.
• Userkaf faced a huge challenge.
• He wasn't a direct heir to the throne.
• This new king needed a way of proving himself as the legitimate ruler of Egypt.
• The country's economy was in some trouble, so building an enormous pyramid like this wasn't an option that was available to Userkaf.
• He was going to need a different way of showing that he was fit to rule.

Excavating at the Pyramid of Sahura

• Archeologist Mohamed Khaled works at the pyramid of Userkaf's son, the second Sun King Sahura, on the eastern edge of the Sun King's Abusir Necropolis.
• Mohamed has been investigating inside Sahura's collapsed pyramid for over 20 years.
• Now, he's looking for more clues outside the pyramid, to find out what this huge sacred complex looked like at the peak of Sahura's power.
• Archeologists first excavated the site in 1907.
• They left large piles of spoil and debris next to their dig site.
• They simply just dumped their excavation debris from the middle to the sides, but they never checked the sides before they dumped their excavation debris.
• Mohamed hopes that previously undiscovered parts of Sahura's pyramid complex may lie hidden beneath these huge spoil heaps.
• The spoil heaps are about 20 feet deep.
• The team shifts several tons of sand.
• Mohamed hopes the hard work is going to be worth it.
• The team sees a new structure, and it was hidden under the debris.

Establishing Legitimacy Through the Sun God Ra

• Chris is exploring how Userkaf established himself as the first Sun King despite not being a direct heir to the throne in Abusir.
• Userkaf didn't have enough money to build giant pyramids like the ones at Giza, so he had to find another way to project his power to his Egyptian subjects.
• These are the pyramids of the Sun Kings.
• They dominate this landscape, but they've lost almost all their casing and they've kind of collapsed a little.
• Abusir is distinctive for another kind of monument associated with these pyramids.
• Chris investigates the remains of one of these mysterious monuments that dates from the time of Userkaf.
• It's a real jumble here.
• Huge stones and the Egyptians typically used these for their religious buildings.
• It's a bit difficult to say exactly what this was for, but it's clearly something very big, very impressive with religious significance.
• A clue to what this site was for comes from a unique text inscribed on the face of a piece of black basalt called the Palermo Stone.
• The author is unknown, but it was written during the reign of the Sun Kings.
• This is an incredibly important historical document inscribed with records of the activities all the way down to the period of the Sun Kings.
• The section tells us geese and bulls were sacrificed on a daily basis at a temple dedicated to the Sun God Ra during the reign of Pharaoh Userkaf.
• We think that this is in fact that temple of Userkaf dedicated to the Sun God.
• Userkaf built his temple on the west bank of the Nile, aligned with the path of the setting sun.
• At its heart was a towering granite obelisk built to honor the Sun God Ra.
• In the open courtyard, two sandstone statues and a mud brick altar meant priests could make sacrifices in full view of the sun and Ra himself.
• For ancient Egyptians, Userkaf's Sun Temple was standing proof of his special connection to this all-powerful god.
• Ra had already become important under the great pyramid builders of Giza.
• Userkaf's Sun Temple raised him higher still.
• There was a purpose to this.
• By elevating the status of the Sun God Ra, the kings were elevating their own status, and this, crucially, was a way for them to establish their right to rule.
• By forging a closer relationship with Ra, Userkaf helped convince his people that he was the legitimate king of Egypt.
• The Sun Temple would have been in use throughout the pharaoh's life as a place for offerings and worship.

Descending into the Shaft

• Miroslav is descending into the depths of a 45-foot shaft at the northern end of the Sun King's Necropolis at Saqqara.
• He's searching for an important official's burial chamber.
• There is no space for emotions, there is no space for being nervous because you have to be pretty concentrated.
• You have to hold yourself tight with the ladder and, uh, be very careful.
• An obstacle stands between Miroslav and the tomb beyond.
• Here we have the blocking wall that was protecting the deceased from the world of the living.
• Imagine the last person leaving used his fingers and plastered the wall over like this.
• You can still see fingerprints.
• There is only one way through, a hole just 24 inches wide.
• This hole is not original.
• It was broken through by the robbers in antiquity.
• They removed one limestone block from here and probably two more from this part.
• It was just wide and high enough to let them in.
• We will use the same, same breaks to see what's, what's inside.
• The hole implies that the tomb has been robbed, but until Miroslav sees inside, he can't be sure.
• Miroslav hopes to get through.
• There's nothing but windblown sand.
• This still isn't the burial chamber.
• Miroslav spots something in the far corner, a doorway.
• It's extremely huge room.

Discovering a New Structure

• Mohamed is investigating a mysterious structure hidden beneath the spoil heap at the pyramid complex of the Sun King Sahura.
• If it's a part of the funerary temple, then it will completely change our idea about the outline of this pyramid complex.
• The pyramid was surrounded by a huge complex of buildings, including a funerary temple in front of it.
• Unlike a sun temple built to worship the Sun God Ra, a funerary temple was a place where Sahura's subjects came to honor him after his death.
• There's something here, it started to appear.
• Mohamed has unearthed the lower part of a pottery vessel.
• The red powder inside the pot is paint, remarkably still in place after 4,400 years.
• They made masonry marks in order to tell the workers, to give them instruction.
• If he said for example, raise the level of the structure, then he could make some sign.
• This is an important discovery for us because this is the first time that we see such things like that.
• Maybe it comes from the time of Sahure or maybe it was moved from another place and then it was thrown just here by luck because it was broken.