All language subtitles for Holy.Marvels.with.Dennis.Quaid.S02E09.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

- Tonight, for many
thousands of years,

humans have created rituals

to mark the transition
from life to death.

- It's not just a matter of
putting a body in the ground

and forgetting about it.

There is a whole
complex set of practices

to ensure success.

- From famous burial sites

mentioned in the Bible's
Old Testament...

- God reveals to him

that this is where Adam
and Eve are buried.

- To mysterious practices
followed by ancient Egyptians.

- There are spells

that turn saliva into a
magical healing elixir.

- Another keeps your
flesh from rotting.

- If you don't have
the right spell

or know the answer
to a question,

you could die
permanently this time.

- To blazing fires meant
to set the soul free.

- You've got boats,
fire, weapons.

And eventually, your final
resting place is in the ocean.

- These are some of the
remarkable ceremonies

to commemorate the dead.

[dramatic music]

Burying the dead is a custom

marked by virtually
every culture on Earth.

But of the many sites
where the dead are honored,

one of the most significant
is a simple cave,

and what was known as Canaan.

- There's a place
in the Hebrew Bible

called the Cave
of the Patriarchs.

And it may be the
burial site of not one,

not two, not three,

but eight of the Bible's
most famous people.

- The tale of the
Cave of the Patriarchs

starts in the Book of Genesis
with the story of Abraham.

Abraham is a figure
who's connected

with three major religions.

All Jews, Christians, and
Muslims are said to descend

from their ancestral
father, Abraham.

- In Genesis,
Abraham's wife Sarah

dies in a place called Kiriath
Arba, in the land of Canaan.

The Bible also calls
this place Hebron.

This isn't Abraham's homeland.

Previously God told
him to move there.

And if he did, as he was
told, God would bless him

and his descendants.

- So here he is in Canaan,

basically a stranger
in the land,

and his wife dies.

So he needs a place
to bury Sarah.

- Abraham has to negotiate
with the locals to buy a tomb.

Fortunately, he's well-liked,

so they let him choose a cave
called the Cave of Machpelah.

And Abraham pays 400
shekels of silver,

and it's all his.

- When Abraham finally passes,
he's buried next to Sarah.

Next, Abraham's son, Isaac,

the son whom he famously
almost sacrificed to God

is buried in the cave

and Isaac's wife,
Rebecca, after that.

- Finally, Isaac's son
Jacob and his wife Leah

are also buried in the cave.

Jacob, of course, is
known for having 12 sons

who each become the heads

of the 12 different
tribes of Israel.

- And when we read
the Jewish Midrash,

we find that there
are two other people

who may be buried in this tomb,

Adam and Eve.

- In this midrash,
Abraham locates the cave

while chasing after a calf.

And he has what we might call
a religious experience inside.

God reveals to him

that this is where Adam
and Eve are buried.

He also sees the entrance
to the Garden of Eden

right there in this cave.

- [Dennis] Incredibly, the
site still exists today.

- The Bible very clearly
says the cave is in Hebron

and Hebron is a real city.

It's located in the West Bank

about 18 miles
south of Jerusalem.

In the oldest part
of this ancient city,

there is a building known as
the Tomb of the Patriarchs,

and it was built over the
Cave of the Patriarchs.

- It's interesting to point out

that while multiple locations
claim to be the place

where Jesus is buried or
where Moses is buried,

there is only one place

that claims to be the
Cave of the Patriarchs.

But whether this place
actually holds the remains

of these biblical figures
is not entirely clear.

- [Dennis] What is clear
is that the cave was in use

many centuries ago,

perhaps by people
honoring the patriarchs.

- In 2020, Archeologist
David Ben-Shlomo

publishes a report on some
vessels, some ceramic pieces

that were harvested
from this burial cave

and dated them to about
the 8th century BC.

- We haven't found
any Judeo-Christian

places of worship
older than this.

If people that long ago

believed the patriarchs
were buried here,

it certainly adds credibility.

- Archeologists have found that
by the reign of King Herod,

who lived around
the time of Christ,

this cave is incredibly popular

as a pilgrimage site for Jews.

- There are so many
people visiting that site

that Herod actually constructs
a temple around the cave.

It has six-foot thick walls.

It's roughly 50 feet tall, so
it's a substantial structure.

For a long stretch of
the site's history,

it keeps changing hands.

When the Byzantine
Christians take it over

around the Fourth century,

they build a basilica at one end

and they add a roof
to the enclosure.

- Then in the 7th century,

the cave goes from Christian
control to Muslim control.

They keep Herod's enclosure,
but knock down the church

and build a mosque
at the holy cave.

- [Dennis] 500 years later,
in the 12th century,

Christians finally have a
chance to get the cave back.

- European Christians
embark on the crusades

to take back the holy land.

In the year 1100,

they succeed in seizing
the Tomb of the Patriarchs

from Islamic control

and they convert the
mosque back into a church.

During this time period,
a monk named Arnoul,

who lives at this
newly-reclaimed church,

makes a pretty
amazing discovery.

- On a really warm
June day in 1119,

he's chilling out on
the floor of the church

because it's stone
and it's cool.

But when he's lying there,
he feels a breeze blowing up

between the cracks
and the stone.

- So naturally,
he starts to dig.

He reveals a shaft that's
about 17-feet deep.

He grabs a rope and drops
down to investigate,

- And at the bottom of the
shaft, he finds a cave.

The walls of the cave
are aligned with masonry,

which was similar
to what was used

at the time of King Herod.

Arnoul starts banging around

and he finds what sounds
like a hollow spot

behind one of the walls.

He knocks down this wall and
he finds another corridor.

As best as we can tell, this
might be the first person

inside the actual cave
in over 1,000 years.

- Arnoul and his fellow monks
dig around in the cave system

under the Tomb of the
Patriarchs for weeks.

And lo and behold, they
actually find bones.

They carefully wash the
bones and put them on display

and believe that what they found

is what's left of
the patriarchs.

- So they have this display,

obviously they want
everybody to see it.

So they take that 17-foot
shaft and build steps.

So now it's an access site

for any pilgrim that
wants to come see

the Cave of the Patriarchs.

- In 1163, one of those
pilgrims writes an account

of his visit to the caves.

He writes that after he walked
through two empty caverns,

he encountered a third.

And inside, he found six actual
tombs inscribed with names

that contained the bones
of Abraham and Sarah,

Isaac and Rebecca,
and Jacob and Leah.

- It's telling that he
only sees six tombs.

Theoretically, if Adam
and Eve also buried there,

there should be eight.

Maybe their graves
are under the tombs

or in a part of the caves that
hasn't been uncovered yet.

- [Dennis] Unfortunately, this
question remains unanswered.

- In 1188, the Muslim sultan
Saladin retakes the land.

The Tomb of the Patriarchs is
converted back into a mosque.

and at some point after that,

a stone floor and
walls are installed

that block the
entrance to the cave.

- [Varun] Today, the structure

is called the Al
Ibrahimi Mosque,

and it's one of the world's
oldest religious buildings

that's still in use.

Pretty much all of
Herod's original structure

is still there inside the mosque
and it still draws a crowd.

In recent times, over a
million pilgrims a year.

- But the cave isn't
totally sealed this time.

There's a grate in the floor

where you can peer
down into the shaft

that Arnoul uncovered.

But the tombs and bones,
if they still exist,

are far out of view.

- Hopefully someday, the remains

at the Cave of the
Patriarchs can be analyzed

with modern technology

and we can find out more
about who they really were.

- Long before the Cave of
the Patriarchs existed,

ancient Egyptians also
buried their dead.

But in Egypt, death
wasn't seen as an end,

but instead the start
of a very long journey,

one that required a manual.

- For ancient Egyptians, the
afterlife is a complicated

and difficult place to navigate.

It's not just a matter of
putting a body in the ground

and forgetting about it,

there is a whole
complex set of rituals

and burial practices
to ensure success.

- [Dennis] The details
are laid out in a guide

known as "The Book of the Dead."

- "The Book of the
Dead" isn't an actual

traditional book with pages.

Instead, it's a collection
of hieroglyphics

written in different
places, on tombs,

on coffins, on papyrus scrolls.

- It's a hands-on, practical
guide to the world of the dead

and the various incantations
that will protect the deceased

against all sorts of
perils in the afterlife.

- The earliest versions we
found of the Book of the Dead

come from a pyramid at Saqqara.

And it's carved on the walls
of a tomb of a Pharaoh

who lived in the 24th century
BC, so that's 4,500 years ago.

- This early version
of the Book of the Dead

is reserved strictly
for Pharaohs

and the hieroglyphs in
these texts depict Ra,

the sun God, coming to
collect the king's soul.

Ra shows up in his golden barge.

He takes the soul of the king
and transports it to paradise,

basically the ancient
Egyptian idea of heaven,

which looks like
a field of reeds.

- And along with the story,

there are various spells which
historians believe would be

chanted by priests,

asking the gods to help
the Pharaoh on his journey.

- Few hundred years later,

we start to see these spells
being painted on the coffins

of folks just below the
Pharaohs on the social scale,

like priests, or other
members of the royal family.

We also start to see some

of these passages being
physically written

on the bandages of mummies.

- [Dennis] In 1842,

a German Egyptologist
named Karl Lepsius

translates the Book of the
Dead for the first time.

- It isn't until this
really detailed translation

that we start to get
a very clear picture

of the ancient Egyptian
afterlife beliefs

and how they evolved.

- [Dennis] One God in particular

plays a significant
role in these texts:

Osiris.

- Is one of the most important
of the Egyptian gods.

He is the God of
life and fertility,

but at the same
time, he is the God

of death in the underworld.

His backstory has a
number of variations,

but it appears that
Osiris was originally

one of the first
rulers of Egypt.

- When Osiris dies,

it's said that he's made
into the first ever mummy.

He's then resurrected to
become the immortal God

of the underworld,
and by about 2,400 BC,

the Egyptians are trying
to recreate that process

with their own funerary rites.

- So to that end, the
Egyptians developed

the most complex postmortem
practices in ancient times,

maybe even of all time.

When you die, the ultimate goal

is to essentially get to Osiris,

in the hopes that you can
become immortal yourself.

- [Dennis] Reaching the
afterlife was one thing,

but surviving it, that was
a whole different challenge.

- The text basically outlines
four different sections

that each person
needs to go through.

First, the deceased
enters the underworld

and has to learn how
to use their dead body.

Then they're resurrected,
in a sense, with a mission

of finding their way into
the underworld for judgment.

And if they pass,
they become immortal.

- [Dennis] But maneuvering
through the underworld

is no easy task.

- For ancient Egyptians,

the afterlife was a
treacherous place.

In the afterlife, you can
be eaten by a crocodile,

you can be poisoned by a snake,

you can be bitten
by horrible insects.

So there are spells in
the Book of the Dead

that you can cast
to protect yourself

from all of these things.

- There are other spells

that literally keep
you in one piece.

The Egyptians believe
that the human being

is made up of a whole
collection of substances,

and that upon death, those
substances can go flying apart.

- One spell keeps your head
attached to your torso.

Another ensures that your
heart doesn't go wandering off.

Another keeps your
flesh from rotting.

- There are spells that describe

how to make your body
regain movement and speech,

or how to craft
protective amulets,

or how to turn your saliva
into a magical healing elixir.

- [Dennis] Physical survival
was only part of the journey.

There's also a test.

- While you're making your
way through the underworld,

you get asked a
series of questions,

but it's an open-book exam.

If you've got your Book
of the Dead near you,

you'll be fine.

- For example, part of your
journey is made on a boat

or a barge, and so there's a
spell in the book that you need

to summon this boat.

And when the boat arrives,
it gives you a quiz.

The rudder asks you,
"Tell me my name."

And you have to know

that the rudder's
spiritual name is Aker.

- If you don't have
the right spell

or know the answer
to a question,

you could die
permanently this time,

never to have your
chance at immortality.

In other instances, you
might lose your head

and be doomed to
wander the afterlife

without a head, forever.

- One of the worst
possible consequences

is that you get
turned upside down

causing your digestive
track to work in reverse.

That means you're
going to spend eternity

drinking urine and eating feces.

So you better have that book.

- [Dennis] If
you're lucky enough

to make it to the end
of this arduous journey,

you come face to
face with Osiris.

- He's the one
that will determine

whether you achieve immortality.

The way he does this
is by taking your heart

and weighing it against
an ostrich feather.

- If you do everything according
to the Book of the Dead,

any of the evil and darkness
that weighed down your heart

will be washed away, making
it lighter than a feather.

And you get to dwell
happily ever after

in the afterlife.

- The Book of the Dead
offers help for the soul,

but ancient Egyptians also
took care of the body,

in a ritual we know
today as mummification.

- We all know that
mummification was very important

to the ancient Egyptians.

Even though the soul was off

on this epic quest
in the underworld,

it was still linked to the body.

And they were afraid that
if the body decomposed,

maybe the soul would too.

- The word mummy comes from
the Arabic word mumiya,

which actually means tar.

That's because when the
Arabs first encounter

Egyptian mummies in
the Seventh century,

it looks to them like
bodies covered in tar.

The mummies are actually
covered in dark resins

from the bandaging process,
but the name sticks anyways.

- It was originally thought
that Egyptian mummification

started with the pharaohs and
other royals around 2,600 BC.

We're starting to find
partial burial practices,

like the removal of organs

and wrapping portions
of the bodies

and some earlier Egyptian sites,

perhaps as early as 3,500 BC.

- [Dennis] Just as surprising,

mummification isn't
exclusive to the Egyptians.

- Cultures all over the world
have practiced mummification.

Mummies have been found
on every single continent,

except for Antarctica.

- Mummies have been
discovered in Australia.

There are mummies in China.

South Africa has mummies.

- The Capuchin monks
on the island of Sicily

mummify some of their citizens.

Their first is Frate
Silvestro da Gubbio,

who's been on
display since 1599,

and you can still
go see him today.

And he's surrounded
by a whole bunch

of other mummified
Catholic priests and monks

as well as general townspeople.

- These mummies come long
after the Egyptians of course.

And for centuries,
people assumed

that the Egyptians
were the first ones

to come up with mummification.

- [Dennis] But
thousands of miles away,

a startling discovery
challenges this idea.

- In Northern Chile, near
the port city of Arica,

archeologists have
found remnants

of an indigenous culture known
as the Chinchorro people.

They're predominantly fishermen,

and they have a long tradition
of mummifying their dead.

- The Chinchorro mummies
are first documented

by a German
archeologist in 1917.

After more than two decades
exploring in South America,

he finds these really
well-preserved human corpses

just lying near a beach
in the Atacama desert.

It's the driest desert on Earth.

The arid conditions have
preserved the bodies so well

that they've been okay
lying out in the open

for what seems
like quite a while.

- Test results reveal that
some of them date to 5,000 BC,

making them over
7,000 years old.

This means that these
mummies were created

more than 2,000 years

before Egyptians started
mummifying their Pharaohs.

- Much like Egyptian mummies,

the Chinchorro mummies also
had their organs removed

and their insides stuffed.

But it's incredible to consider
that these two practices

developed independently
of each other,

thousands of miles and
thousands of years apart.

- [Dennis] There are,
however, striking differences

between the two rituals.

- The Egyptian mummification
procedures evolve over time.

But for the most part,

the first step is removal
of most of the organs.

Next, they dry out the body

with a type of
salt called natron

that would remove all
the moisture in the flesh

so that the corpse
doesn't decompose.

- Then, the body
cavity is stuffed

with things like
sawdust, sand, or straw.

And finally, come
the linen bandages

wrapped all around the body.

The whole process
takes about 70 days.

- The Chinchorro mummies had
their skin completely removed

and the skeleton
totally de-fleshed.

- They used sticks to
reinforce the bones,

and they packed
mud onto the corpse

to stand in for the muscle
that had been discarded.

Finally, they put
the skin back on,

stretching it over the
reconstructed body,

kind of like reupholstering
a piece of furniture.

- [Dennis] For almost 30
years, the Chinchorro mummies

are thought to be
the world's oldest,

until two archeologists

discover something
unexpected in 1940.

- A husband and wife
archeological team,

Georgia and Sydney Wheeler,
are surveying a cavern

called the Spirit Cave
near Fallon, Nevada.

Inside, they find the
remains of four people.

Three of the bodies are
just partial remains

and not very well-preserved,

but one body is in
exceptional condition.

It's actually
partially mummified.

- This body belongs
to a 40-year-old male

who has very clearly

and intentionally been
placed in this cave.

It's a body that's
wrapped in rabbit skins

and then draped over
by a woven reed mat.

It is not as complex a ritual

as with the Egyptians
or the Chinchorros,

but it's still a
very well thought-out,

ancient burial practice.

- The bodies are found

with various artifacts
like knives and baskets.

Carbon dating doesn't exist yet,

so just looking
at the artifacts,

comparing them to other fines,

they estimate the Mummy to be
about 1,500-2,000 years old.

- [Dennis] 50 years later,

an anthropology professor
named Ervin Taylor

takes an even closer
look at the mummy.

- In 1996, the Nevada State
Museum is collaborating

with the University of
California Riverside,

where Ervin Taylor
radiocarbon-dates a hair sample

from the Spirit Cave mummy.

And she gets a result
that is so far out there,

they have to do more tests

because they're sure there's
been some kind of a mistake,

- But the tests are conclusive.

The show that this
person likely died

10,600 years ago.

It's easily the oldest
mummy in North America,

and it might even be the
oldest mummy in the world.

- Surprisingly, the
Spirit Cave mummy

is very closely-related
to native people

who still live locally.

In 2016, the Spirit Cave
mummy is repatriated

to the Paiute-Shoshone
Tribe in Nevada.

The tribe opts to rebury it
according to their customs.

- The mummy is given a casket.

Singing and prayers are offered,

and people are invited

to place farewell
gifts with the body.

It's a fitting second
sendoff for someone

who was given such great
care 10,000 years ago.

- Some cultures
choose not to preserve

the bodies of their dead.

They believe the
soul can be freed

only if the physical
shell is destroyed.

For Hindus, this job is
performed by a sacred flame

known as the funeral pyre.

- Hindus have been
burning bodies

almost as long as Egyptians
have been embalming them.

It's believed that the
Hindu funeral pyre custom

dates back at least 4,000 years.

One of the earliest written
records comes from the Rigveda,

the oldest sacred Hindu text
composed around 1500 BC.

- According to the Rigveda,

when a person is cremated
on the funeral pyre,

the fire deity, Agni,

carries their soul to
Yama, the God of death,

who judges them and
determines whether or not

they get a favorable rebirth.

- The ritual starts with
stacking large piles of wood

and various religious
customs are performed

depending on which sect
of Hinduism you belong to.

- First, the dead
body is washed.

And then sprinkled and anointed

with various herbs,
roots, and oils.

- The body is wrapped in
white cloth and mourners chant

and pray for the deceased.

And the idea is to
comfort the soul

as it's sent on its transition,

- And then the body is
placed on a stretcher

and carried to the pyre.

Once at that site,

the mourners walk the body
three times counterclockwise

around the unlit pyre.

And then they place the body
on top of the wooden structure

and make the
offerings of incense.

And they cover the body in ghee,
which is clarified butter.

Both are considered sacred.

Then they light the pyre,

reducing the body to
ashes over several hours.

- [Dennis] While most ceremonies
follow a similar path,

some have a shocking
additional step.

- There's a rather
disturbing practice

associated with Hindu funeral
pyres called sati or suttee.

It's an ancient tradition

where a widow of a deceased man

willingly sits or throws
herself onto the pyre,

killing herself in the process.

- In 1987, under the
government of Rajiv Gandhi,

a law criminalizing
the practice is passed.

And as far as we know,

that's the end of a
terribly sad practice.

- [Dennis] As laws change,

the spiritual significance
remains just as profound.

- Cremation is very
important to Hindus

because they believe the body
is made up of five elements:

water, fire, earth,
space, and air.

This process of
cremation called Mukhagni

returns all these bodily
elements to their origins.

- Who gets cremated
according to Hindu tradition?

Well, almost everyone,
except for people

who are considered
to be pure enough

to not need the fire
to cleanse them.

Those are priests,
enlightened sages,

children, and pregnant women.

- [Dennis] Among those laid
to rest in this tradition,

few were mourned as
widely as Mahatma Gandhi.

- One of the biggest
Hindu funerals of all time

was that of Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhi was instrumental in
freeing India from British rule.

And on January 30th, 1948,

he pays the ultimate price
when he's assassinated.

It's estimated that
over a million mourners

lined the streets to witness
this epic and tragic event.

- A small portion of
Gandhi's ashes are enshrined

at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune,

and also at the Lake Shrine

in Pacific Palisades,
California.

- But the majority of his ashes
are sprinkled into a river

near the city of Allahabad.

After a funeral pyre,

it's tradition to pour the
ashes into a body of water,

like the ocean, or a river.

- This is a final act
of purifying the soul

by quite literally
washing away the remnants

of what Christians
might call earthly sins

or what Hindus would
call karmic attachments.

And so the journey of
the ashes down the river

is emblematic of the soul's
journey towards liberation.

- [Dennis] For Hindus, one
river is considered sacred

above all others.

- [Nicola] The Ganges
starts in the Himalayas

and winds its way
over 1,500 miles

through northern India,
to the Bay of Bengal.

- The river is considered
the personification

of the goddess Ganga.

And since it's so revered,

Hindus travel from
around the world

to spread their deceased
relative's ashes into the water.

- The City of Varanasi
sits on the banks

of the Ganges River
in northern India,

and it's really become a hub

of getting ashes into the river.

- Every year, nearly 20,000 sick

and dying people make a
pilgrimage to Varanasi

just to wait to die.

The city cremates
nearly 100 bodies a day

or over 35,000 a year.

- [Dennis] Although
funeral pyres

remain an important
religious ritual,

today, the practice is changing.

- Indian funeral pyres consume

about 50 million
trees every year.

And the problems here aren't
just about deforestation.

They also produce about a
half a million tons of ashes,

much of which ends
up in the Ganges.

- A Delhi-based environmental
group called Mokshda

has developed a more
eco-friendly pyre

that consumes less
than 1/4 of the wood

of a traditional pyre.

- That said, the importance
of this holy ceremony

hasn't changed, but as our
culture and technology evolve,

it's nice to see these ancient
traditions evolve as well.

- Fire plays a role in
another funeral rite,

one performed by the Vikings
for those with high status.

- A Viking funeral is one of
those epic soul-stirring events

that seem to fly right
off the silver screen

in a blockbuster movie.

- As dramatized in
fiction, we've all seen it.

The beloved king dies,

the whole village mournfully
joins in an evening procession

down to the seaside to
pay their last respects.

They load the monarch's body

into one of those famed
Viking long boats,

and push it out to sea.

- Then just when the boat

seems like it will
disappear into the darkness,

one heroic archer steps forward.

He lights the tip of
an arrow with a torch

and he fires it toward the boat.

The arrow traces this
beautiful arc in the night sky

before perfectly
hitting its mark,

and then the boat,

with its dead king's
body, bursts into flame.

- It seems like
the perfect sendoff

for an adventurous,
seafaring people.

You've got boats, fire, weapons,

and eventually, your final
resting place is in the ocean.

- [Dennis] But the reality
of a Viking funeral

is much different
than the movies.

- So the first thing you need
to know about the Vikings

is they're not one
homogenous people.

There are multiple
clans, multiple groups,

and they all have their own
variations of funerary rites.

- Some groups don't
burn their dead at all,

but bury them instead.

There have been thousands of
Viking burial mounds found

throughout Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway,

which are the Viking homelands.

- The Vikings that do
cremate, similar to Hindus,

believe that smoke carries
the dead person's soul

into the afterlife.

- Another thing we
don't know for sure

is how often the boats
were really set on fire

and pushed out to sea,

and this is obviously because
any evidence of that practice

would've burned and sank.

- [Dennis] Fortunately,
there are boats

that have survived.

- Archeologists have uncovered
a lot of Viking burial sites

where the deceased
were placed in a boat

and the whole thing gets buried

instead of being
put into the water.

- In 1903, researchers digging
in Vestfold County, Norway

unearthed a ship called
the Oseberg ship,

which they determined
was buried in 834 AD.

And it contains
two bodies, women.

They just don't
know who they were.

- Onboard, archeologists
find tapestries.

They find silk and
expensive fabrics.

They find tools,
kitchen utensils.

They even find some
animal sacrifices,

all presumably meant to help
the deceased in the afterlife.

- Vikings didn't
leave behind them

any kinda written record

of how they did their
funeral practices.

So when archeologists
come on the scene,

they mostly have to speculate.

- [Dennis] But there's
one eyewitness account

that is written down.

- A 10th-century Arab writer
named Ahmad Ibn Fadlan

claims to witness a Viking
funeral with his own eyes.

Like the classic
Hollywood portrayal,

it involves fire in a boat,

but it also involves
a whole lot more.

- Ibn Fadlan is a
Muslim missionary

who encounters a
group of Vikings

camp out on the Volga River

near what is modern
day Kazan in Russia.

He gets an invite to the funeral

of an important
Viking chieftain.

- Ibn Fadlan writes that
first, the men in the village

pull the chieftain's
boat up out of the water.

Then they ask for a volunteer

from the chieftain's
slave girls.

- The young girl who volunteers

is to become the
chieftain's bride in death.

Part of her duties involves
having sexual intercourse

with many of the men
participating in the funeral,

who are mostly the
chieftain's family members.

- The chieftain's body
is placed on the boat.

And lots of food
and drink and spices

are also placed all around

for him to enjoy
in the afterlife.

Mourners then use
a ceremonial sword

to slice a dog in half
and place it on the boat.

They also kill and butcher
two horses, two cows,

a couple of chickens,

and they place their
meat on the ship too.

- Finally, the slave
girl is brought forward

and she sings a farewell song.

She quickly drinks a
couple glasses of alcohol,

and then she's
pulled onto the ship

by six men from the
chieftain's family.

They strangle and
stab her to death.

The men leave the dead
girl's body on the boat

with the chieftain.

They light the boat on fire

and everything is
consumed by the flames.

- What Ibn Fadlan describes

is an absolutely
barbaric ritual.

We don't know how
often it occurred

because we only have this
one account from Ibn Fadlan.

Maybe that's for the best.

- [Dennis] What we do know
is that Viking funerals

eventually die out.

- Ultimately, the Vikings
start to become Christians.

By about the year 1050 AD,

most Vikings have converted
to this new religion,

which means they're baptized.

They go to church.

And when they die, they're
buried as Christians.

The Viking funeral is no more.

- When it comes to
honoring the dead,

there is one famous site
known the world over,

a stunning monument built
in the name of love.

- The Taj Mahal is
the ultimate tomb.

It's one of the most
spectacular places

you could ever go to.

It's named one of the New
Seven Wonders of the World,

and it absolutely
deserves that title.

- The story behind
the construction

of this epic mausoleum
starts in 1631,

when the Muslim Mughal emperor
Shah Jahan's wife, Mumtaz,

tragically dies while giving
birth to their 14th child.

- Jahan and his wife
had been inseparable

since their marriage in 1612.

Jahan is completely
devastated by her death.

In his grief, he stops
listening to music.

He starts dressing badly.

He even pulls back
from his royal duties.

- In order to honor
their love story,

he chooses a beautiful
spot for her mausoleum

on the sacred Yamuna River in
the north Indian city of Agra.

And he sets out to build
her a tomb for the ages

to show the entire world
how much he loved her,

how much he misses her.

- Jahan hires more than
20,000 artisans and workers

from his territory and beyond,

including the Ottoman
Empire in Europe.

And it's also said that 1,000
elephants are brought in

to do the heavy lifting.

- The Taj Mahal is considered
one of the finest examples

of Mughal architecture,

which blends Indian,
Persian and Islamic styles.

It sits on 42 acres of land

and isn't just a
single building,

there's the main gateway
known as the Darwaza-i-Rauza,

which kind of frames the
Taj Mahal for visitors.

- The whole complex has
been precisely situated.

So when you stand at
the center of the garden

on the summer and
winter solstices,

you can actually
see the sun align

with the corners
of the building.

- And then there's the
iconic mausoleum itself.

It has four nearly
identical sides,

each with these massive,
central, 108-foot arches.

It's covered in
luminescent white marble

that was brought in from
quarries in Makrana, Rajasthan,

over 250 miles away.

- All around the marble facade,

there is this
stone-inlaid calligraphy

featuring passages
from the Quran.

There are four, over
130-foot tall minarets

on each corner of
the main building.

The iconic central
onion-shaped dome

comes in at 240 feet tall.

- The inside of the mausoleum

is an eight-sided,
ornate marble chamber.

There are carvings and
semi-precious stones everywhere.

- You just start to run
out of superlative words

to describe the Taj Mahal.

The whole thing
is unprecedented,

and it's never really
been duplicated either.

- [Dennis] According to legend,

Shah Jahan goes to great lengths

to ensure that Taj
Mahal is unique.

- There's actually a rumor
that circulates for centuries

that in 1647, Jahan
rounds up all the workers

who helped build the Taj Mahal
and cuts off their arms,

supposedly so they
would never be able

to work on a similar
structure ever again.

The story is not true.

But such a spectacular building

inspires an equally
spectacular story.

- What isn't exaggerated

is the amount of
money Jahan spends,

well over 3/4 of a billion
dollars, in today's money.

No expense was spared to
honor the love of his life.

- [Dennis] Despite all
the careful construction,

one notable detail has
long puzzled visitors.

- When Shah Jahan dies in 1666,

he's also buried
at the Taj Mahal.

But his tomb, or cenotaph,
is off to the side,

and it actually sticks
out like a sore thumb.

- With the entire complex

so intricately-planned
around symmetry,

how could this be?

Why is this tomb in
such an unusual spot?

- Well, some scholars
speculate that Shah Jahan

had no intention of being
buried there at all.

And instead, he wanted to
build his own mausoleum

across the river
from the Taj Mahal.

So they essentially have
a his and hers tomb,

his being a near
copy of the Taj Mahal

in black marble
instead of white.

- We don't have
any solid evidence

that this was the
actual plan though.

And after Jahan is deposed
by his own son in 1658,

we know that such a
building was never built.

- Today, between 5
and 6 million people

visit this stunning,
timeless monument every year,

making it one of the most
popular tombs in the world.

If Shah Jahan wanted his
wife to be remembered,

it certainly worked.

- No matter the ritual,
one thing is clear:

Throughout time, humans have
gone to extraordinary lengths

to help the dead rest in peace.

I'm Dennis Quaid, and thank
you for watching Holy Marvels.