All language subtitles for Greatest.Mysteries.Ever.S02E01.1080p.WEB.h264-1FREQUENCY_track3_[eng]

[narrator]
The ten plagues of Egypt.

One of the most famous
and terrifying episodes

recounted in the Bible.

Within the early chapters
of the Book of Exodus,

the second book
of the Hebrew Bible,

lies the description of
the onslaught of curses

that assailed
the kingdom of Egypt.

[narrator] Over time, the story
of the ten plagues

and its conclusion with
the Red Sea crossing

has become one of
the most studied accounts

in the history of
religion and the subject of

countless investigations
and controversies.

[Tony] Is this a legend,
a purely allegorical tale,

or could these events have
their origins in a series of

actual natural disasters?

[Karen] What's fascinating
about the description of

the plagues of Egypt is that

they can be compared to
observable, natural phenomena.

[narrator]
We'll dive deep into one of

the most sensational
and mysterious episodes

recounted in the Bible,
the ten plagues of Egypt.

[narrator]
The ten plagues, among the most
spectacular events described in

the Bible, are a series of
devastating punishments that

befell the kingdom of Egypt
over 3,500 years ago.

Men covered in ulcers,

the death of livestock,

and even the slaughter
of all the kingdom's firstborn.

The list is chilling,
so it's not surprising thats

popular culture has long been
intrigued by them.

[Virginie speaking French]

[narrator]
The events recounted in
the episode of the ten plagues

are supposed to have
taken place in Egypt.

[Virginie speaking French]

[narrator]
The story of the ten plagues is
told in the book of Exodus,

the second book of the Bible.

In the beginning, it is written

that some time
after arriving in Egypt,

the Israelites
find themselves enslaved

by a tyrannical pharaoh.

Their situation grows even more
dire when, to reduce the number

of Hebrews who rivaled
the population of Egyptians,

the pharaoh orders the death
of all male Hebrew children.

"'Look, ' he said to his people,
'the Israelites have become

"far too numerous for us.'

"Then Pharaoh gave
this order to all his people,

'Every Hebrew boy that is born
you must throw into the Nile.'"

To save their son,
a family from the tribe of Levi,

one of the 12 tribes of Israel,
places their newborn son

in a wooden basket near
one of the banks of the Nile.

He was found by the pharaoh's
daughter, who decides to raise

the newborn as her own son.

She called the child Moses.

[narrator]
Moses is raised at Pharaoh's
court, but he discovers

his true heritage and begins to
understand the misery

of his people,
shackled in slavery.

When he observes a slave
being beaten by a foreman,

he kills him in a fit
of suppressed rage.

[Virginie speaking French]

[narrator] At the age of 80,
Moses returns to Egypt

to ask Pharaoh
to free his people.

But Pharaoh refuses.

First and foremost is
the question of whether

the facts are true.

There are those
who don't believe they are,

and those who do,

but who seek to
rationally explain these events.

Opinions differ even
among the believers.

One area of contention is
the dating of the 10 plagues

and of the exodus itself.

The problem is that despite
numerous excavations throughout

the region, stretching from
Egypt to present-day Syria,

no archaeological evidence has
ever indicated the presence of

the Hebrews in Egypt or any
kind of exodus into the desert.

[narrator]
The lack of historical evidence
extends beyond the exodus

to the plagues themselves.

The ancient Egyptians covered
their temples and monuments

with hieroglyphics that
recorded important events,

and ten horrific
and deadly plagues

would certainly qualify.

But no mention of them
had ever been found,

at least not until 2014.

Karnak Temple in Luxor was
the largest religious complex

in ancient Egypt.

The temple's remains, with their
hieroglyphic-covered walls,

tell the story of 2,000 years
of human history.

It was here,
between 1947 and 1951,

that French archaeologists
discovered several fragments

of a 1.8-meter-high stele,
a particularly imposing size.

[narrator]
The upper part of the stele
helped date the monument

to the time of Ahmose I,
founder of the 18th dynasty.

It's estimated that he ruled
around 3,500 years ago.

Ahmose I was a very
important pharaoh.

He reunited
Upper and Lower Egypt

by driving out the Hyksos,

invaders who had seized
the Nile Delta

several decades prior.

This reconquest
laid the foundations

for the New Kingdom, when
Egyptian power reached its peak.

[horses neighing]

Scholars disagree on
the exact dates of his reign,

except that he ruled sometime
in the 16th century BCE.

Precisely dating events is
very complicated in Egyptology.

[narrator] In the late 1960s,

Belgian Egyptologist
Claude Vandersleyen,

a specialist in
the Ahmose dynasty,

proposed a translation.

For the Belgian researcher,
there could be no doubt that

this record referred to a very
violent climatic event,

a subject that had never before

been found inscribed on a stele.

But not everyone was convinced

by Vandersleyen's
interpretation.

[narrator]
Karnak Temple in Luxor

was the largest religious
complex in ancient Egypt.

Between 1947 and 1951,

French archaeologists
discovered several fragments

of a 1.8-meter-high stele,

[narrator] In the late 1960s,

Belgian Egyptologist
Claude Vandersleyen,

proposed a translation.

This record referred to a very
violent climatic event,

a subject that had never before

been found inscribed on a stele.

No pharaoh before him had ever
deemed a meteorological event

worthy of record.

Why?

Because no pharaoh would ever
consider himself to be at

the whim of the gods who caused
the storm in the first place.

[thunder crashing]

[Karen]
Documenting such an event
so publicly would be seen as

an admission of weakness.

[narrator] Other Egyptologists
subscribe to a more

conventional interpretation,

seeing the text
as a metaphorical tale of war

against invaders,
probably the Hyksos,

a much more
common subject at the time.

Without a compelling
or conclusive case,

the controversial stele
soon became yesterday's news.

But in 2014, two researchers
from the University of Chicago,

Nadine Moeller
and Robert Ritner,

decided to reopen
the investigation,

and their discovery lent
renewed credibility

to Claude Vandersleyen's
stormy interpretation.

On line seven
of the front of the stele,

an initial indication caught
the eye of the two researchers.

It clearly states
that the sky is raging.

But the smoking gun is in
the middle of line eight on

the stele, which,
according to Moeller and Ritner,

refers to a heavy rainstorm.

[thunder crashing]

[Karen]
Hieroglyphics are extremely
challenging to translate,

even for experts.

The meaning of the symbols
varies according to the context

and their association
with each other.

Complicating matters further

is the fact that the Egyptians'
meteorological vocabulary

mirrors the vocabulary
of human actions.

For example, the word used
for rain is "strike,"

which must then be associated

with a hieroglyph
symbolizing water.

In this case,
we're no longer talking about

a clash between two armies,
for example,

but rather about
rain hitting the ground.

[narrator] The rest of the stele
continues to support the case

and refers to darkness, rain,
and winds so strong that,

quote, "torches could not
be lit anywhere."

[heavy pattering]

[Tony] The entire lower part
of the stele, meanwhile,

offers a detailed list of
the damage, destruction,

and necessary reconstruction
in the kingdom.

Nadine Moeller and Robert Ritner
find far too precise

to be considered
purely metaphorical.

It therefore appears
to recount a very real event.

[narrator]
Far more remarkable than
the storm, the Tempest Stele

may well be the first
weather report in history,

the extraordinary account of
an unprecedented event,

and consistent with two of
the ten plagues mentioned

in the Bible,
the hailstorm and the darkness.

But this provocative evidence
is just one data point.

Wouldn't such a historic storm
deserve a mention in other

records of the time?

That's where
the Rhind papyrus comes in.

[Virginie speaking French]

[narrator]
On the face of it, the subject
of the scholarly papyrus

has absolutely nothing
to do with the weather.

But turn it over and there's
some interesting text,

added after the main manuscript
had been written,

that stands out from the rest.

The first column reads,

"Year 11, second month
of the harvest season,

"Heliopolis was entered.

"The first month of
the inundation season,

the 23rd day, he attacked Zaru."

The text relates to
the progression of

a southern king into
the Hyksos kingdom.

Now, the king who reunited
the two Egypts by regaining

ground in the Hyksos-occupied
Nile Delta was Ahmose,

the pharaoh who had
the Tempest Stele engraved.

[narrator] The last two columns
offer further details,

"Year 11, first month of the
inundation season, third day.

"Birth of Set,
the majesty of this god

"caused his voice to be heard.

"Birth of Isis,
the heavens rained.

[thunder crashing]

[Tony] This information
leads us to believe

that we are dealing with
a storm.

The god Set is
the god of storms,

so the fact that
his voice is heard

could indicate
a very strong blast

or particularly
powerful thunder.

And the rain on the day of
Isis' birth would indicate

a violent storm
or torrential downpour.

[thunder crashing,
water whooshing]

As with the Tempest Stele,
the fact that weather phenomena

are mentioned is a strong
indication of the exceptional

nature of these upheavals.

But in this particular case,
we're undoubtedly talking about

a storm of uncommon
duration or violence.

[narrator] The inscriptions
on the papyrus and the stele

were both made during
the reign of Pharaoh Ahmose I.

The argument that these are
references to the great plagues

becomes ever more compelling.

[thunder crashing]

[narrator] The Tempest stele
and the Rhind papyrus

seem to provide solid evidence
between a dramatic weather event

and some biblical plagues.

Such a cataclysmic weather event

wouldn't have been
confined solely to Egypt.

If it truly happened, it would
have happened someplace else

as well, and something
must have triggered it.

As early as 1967,

when a translation of the
Tempest Stele was published,

Greek seismologist
Angelo Galanopoulos

raised the possibility of a link

between the torrential rains
described in the stele

and the ferocious eruption
of Thera over 3,500 years ago.

With an explosivity score
of almost seven

on a scale of eight,

the super colossal
eruption of ancient Thera,

a volcano on
the island of Santorini,

it's one of the most devastating
in human history.

[booming blast]

[narrator]
The mountain literally explodes,

ejecting a column
of volcanic material

35 kilometers
into the stratosphere.

After that came a bombardment
of burning pumice stones

falling from the plume,
accompanied by fiery clouds,

avalanches of gas,
and incandescent ash

racing from the mountain flanks

at nearly
150 kilometers per hour.

Gigantic fractures ripped open
the magma chamber.

Seawater rushed in
and flooded the chamber,

triggering further explosions
that pulverized the rocks.

[Mark] The Thera volcano
released energy equal to
600 megatons of TNT.

That's 40 atomic bombs.

In two days, it spewed

27 times more
than the eruption of Vesuvius

that buried Pompeii in 79 CE.

[narrator] After the eruption,
the chaos continues.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] The magma chamber,
completely emptied,

collapses in on itself.

The sea rushes in to fill
the massive crater,

generating a series of tsunamis

estimated between
30 and 150 meters high.

[people screaming]

[Mark] Traces of these tsunamis
have been found

in archaeological sites along
the shores of the eastern
Mediterranean,

all the way to the Black Sea.

That's how monumental it was.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator]
At the end of the cataclysm,

all that remains of
a 900-meter-high volcano

is a gaping caldera, or crater,

eight kilometers in diameter.

The present-day islands of
Therasia, Aspronisi,

Palea Kameni,
Nea Kameni, and Thera,

better known as Santorini,
are what remains.

The island and its people
simply ceased to exist.

For centuries, it was
completely forgotten

that Santorini had
ever been populated,

until excavations begun in 1967

unearthed the remains
of Akrotiri,

one of the island's
once-flourishing cities,

beneath thick layers
of ash and pumice stone.

[narrator] The explosion itself

went far beyond
the borders of Santorini.

In 2010, the eruption of
the Icelandic volcano
Eyjafjallajökull,

demonstrated the vast distances

covered by the airborne ash.

It reached Great Britain,
more than 1,000 kilometers

from the Icelandic cloud,

despite being
a relatively modest eruption.

Yet Egypt is only 700 kilometers
southeast of Santorini

and would have felt the impacts

of such a massive
geological event.

[volcano booms]

Before long, the ashes
reached the Nile Delta

and thus darkened the skies
for several years.

It cooled the climate,
not only in the wider region,

but across the globe.

The rainstorms that plagued
the pharaoh's land

could well have been triggered
by this natural disaster.

Could this event
have altered the climate

and led to the catastrophes
described in the Bible,

and plunged the greatest
civilization of antiquity

into chaos?

As early as 1967,

Greek seismologist
Angelo Galanopoulos

raised the possibility of a link

between the torrential rains
described in the stele

and the ferocious eruption
of Thera over 3,500 years ago.

Once again, the idea wasn't
taken seriously at first.

[Fern] As early as 1971,

the German geologist
Reinout Willem van Bemmelen

proposed that the eruption
of the Thera volcano

could explain
the entire biblical story.

But his thesis
failed to attract attention.

Once scientists confirmed that
the ash from the eruption

had piled up in the Nile,

researchers dusted off
van Bemmelen's thesis.

In the Old Testament,
it is written,

"This is what the Lord says...

"with the staff that is
in my hand,

"I will strike the water
of the Nile,

"and it will be
changed into blood.

"The fish in the Nile will die,
and the river will stink.

The Egyptians will not
be able to drink its water."

One hypothesis is that sulfuric
acid in the volcanic ash

may have oxidized the ferrous
rocks in the riverbed,

giving the water a rusty tint.

The chemical reaction then
encouraged the growth

of cyanobacteria,

potentially harmful
to humans and animals.

The same thing happened after
the eruption of Mount Hudson

in Chile in 1991.

So it's entirely possible.

[Tony] Another theory is that
a change in the climate

triggered a massive bloom
of red algae.

In the Gulf of Mexico in 1978,

an algae bloom of Karenia brevis

reddened the water, making it
toxic to both humans and fish.

[narrator]
The algae bloom could then
trigger a chain reaction.

As the water grows acidic,
it poisons the fish,

which float to the surface
and wash up on the Nile's banks

and create the conditions
for the second biblical plague.

"The frogs died in the houses,
in the courtyards,

"and in the fields.

They were piled into heaps,
and the land reeked of them."

[Virginie speaking French]

[narrator] The Egyptians'
ordeal continues with
the fifth plague...

"This is what the Lord,
the God of the Hebrews, says,

"'Let my people go, so that they
may worship me.'

"If you refuse to let them go
and continue to hold them back,

"the hand of the Lord
will bring a terrible plague

"on your livestock in the field

"on your horses,
donkeys, and camels

"and on your cattle,
sheep, and goats.'

"And the next day,
the Lord did it.

All the livestock of
the Egyptians died."

The sudden proliferation of
insect pests can certainly

decimate livestock.

John Marr and Curtis Malloy,
two epidemiologists

at the New York Department
of Public Health,

studied a midge of
the genus Culicoides.

It carries two viral diseases,

African horse sickness,
which attacks horses,

and blue tongue disease,
which mainly affects cattle.

Add to this the grass
contaminated by volcanic ash,

and the polluted drinking water
of the Nile,

and it's easy to see

why the animals are dying off
one after the other.

In the Bible, it is written,

"Then the Lord said...
'Take handfuls of soot from

"a furnace and have Moses
toss it into the air

"in the presence of Pharaoh.

"It will become fine dust over
the whole land of Egypt

"and festering boils will break
out on people and animals

throughout the land.'"

[Tony]
Some researchers believe that
these pustules are a product of

myiasis, a skin infection
created by the larva

of certain fly species.

These develop under the skin,

resulting in boil-like lesions.

Insects can also transmit
parasitic diseases

such as cutaneous leishmaniasis,

which cause severe skin lesions.

[narrator]
There is another theory
which implicates Thera

even more directly.

Microbiologist Siro Trevisanato
found a plausible explanation

for the postulates in
a remarkable papyrus

he recovered from the archives

of the British Museum in London.

The London Medical Papyrus
is one of the earliest,

if not the earliest,
medical documents in history.

It was completed
around 1350 BCE,

but its contents
are much older than that.

The surviving part lists 61
treatments and provides us with

invaluable information about
the Egyptians' knowledge of

medicine and biology, as well
as the remedies they used.

[narrator]
Of these 61 treatments,

one caught
the biologists' attention.

The papyrus refers to white
lesions that appear on contact

with red water.

[Fern]
This red water could refer to
the first plague of Egypt,

and these lesions
would be the ulcers or boils

spoken of in the Bible.

[narrator]
The document doesn't mention
anything about

the cause of these lesions,

but the treatment provides
a compelling clue.

To heal these boils,
a special ointment must be

applied to the skin,

made from alkaline ingredients
such as soda, okra,

and animal fat.

[Fern]
If the remedy is alkaline,
there's only one conclusion,

the active agent is acidic.

These white lesions would
therefore be acid burns

caused by contact with
the red water.

And Trevisanato speculates
that the Egyptians could only

have been exposed
to one acidic compound,

sulfuric acid from
the ashes of the Thera volcano.

[thunder crashing]

[narrator]
One way or another,

the epic volcanic eruption
on Thera

seems to be the culprit

behind the first six
biblical plagues.

But what does science say
about the next three?

Hail, locusts, and darkness.

The epic volcanic eruption
on Thera seems to be the culprit

behind the first six
biblical plagues,

but what does science say

about hail,
locusts, and darkness?

"At this time tomorrow, I will
send the worst hailstorm that

"has ever fallen on Egypt,

from the day it was founded
till now."

It's a fact, a volcanic eruption

can significantly
disrupt the weather.

It's happened in modern times.

On June 15, 1991,
the Pinatubo volcano in

the Philippines erupted after
500 years of inactivity.

[speaking French]

[narrator] A volcano's ability
to change the weather

lies in the composition
of the volcanic cloud.

Besides tons of ash,
it contains a high quantity of

sulfur dioxide, a gas that
remains in the atmosphere

long after the ash has fallen.

[Mark]
In the atmosphere, when sulfur
dioxide mixes with water vapor,

it slowly transforms
into sulfuric acid.

The tiny droplets
remain suspended

in the upper atmosphere.

[narrator]
Floating around the atmosphere,

the droplets surround the Earth.

When the sun's rays hit them,
they act like a mirror,

reflecting part of
the light back into space

and absorbing the rest.

As a result,
the stratosphere warms

while the ground
temperature falls.

[thunder crashing]

When the ground is cold
and the atmosphere is hot,

the air mass changes,
and storms are formed.

[narrator] The eruption
of the Thera volcano

was as much as 10 times
bigger than Pinatubo's.

So it only stands to reason

that it would impact
the global climate

in addition to
creating havoc locally.

In Egypt, it could also
lead to unusual events,

such as heavy rain
or hailstorms.

Hail, in particular, can be
caused by the accumulation

of ice around suspended
volcanic particles.

And this litany of bad weather

in a usually warm
and stable climate

sets the stage for
plague number eight.

"By morning, the wind had
brought the locusts...

"They devoured all that was left
after the hail,

"everything growing
in the fields

"and the fruit on the trees.

"Nothing green remained
on tree or plant

"in all the land of Egypt...

"Never before had there been
such a plague of locusts,

nor will there ever be again."

Far from never happening again,
locust invasions are actually

a well-known phenomenon
in East Africa.

In January 2020, for example,
Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia

experienced heavy rains.

While rain is generally welcomed
in these drought-prone areas,

in this case, the relief
quickly faded at the arrival

of billions of locusts that
invaded the Horn of Africa.

In a single day, a small swarm
can devour enough crops to feed

2,500 people,
threatening the food security

of the countries
they pass through.

[Tony] The biblical locusts
may have been disturbed

by atmospheric changes
from the eruption.

Humidity encourages locusts
to reproduce, so it's not hard

to imagine their numbers
multiplying and reaching Egypt,

a country located
very close to Sudan,

one of their
main breeding grounds.

[narrator]
Some scholars believe that this
eighth plague of locusts

caused the ensuing ninth plague.

"And total darkness covered
all Egypt for three days."

Others suggest that
the darkness could also be

a result of the dust ejected
from the eruption

of the Thera volcano.

We can tell what they
must have experienced in Egypt

from a more recent
super eruption.

In 1815, the Tambora volcano
in Indonesia

triggered a worldwide
volcanic winter,

which was followed by
the year without summer.

[Fern]
To build dramatic intensity,

the authors of
this episode from the Bible

may have rearranged
the chronology of events.

If darkness,
the penultimate plague,

invaded the region,

it would have happened in
the early days of the eruption,

when the dust cloud may have
obscured the sky for days.

Or perhaps, given the power of
the eruption, there could have

been a second ash cloud
that came later.

But this theory
is less plausible.

[suspenseful music playing]

[thunder crashing]

[narrator] Either way,
the plague of darkness

does find support

from the provocative
Tempest Stele found at Karnak,

which describes
a cloud of sudden darkness

that swallowed Egypt, which is
consistent with the effects

of a volcanic cloud.

That leaves one final plague,

the cruelest and by far
the most difficult to explain

in terms of a volcanic eruption,

the death of the firstborn.

The merciless and personal
final plague is the one that

will make Pharaoh capitulate.

[narrator]
According to the Bible,

all the firstborn
of the Egyptian families

are killed in a single night.

[dramatic chord strike]

"Every firstborn son
in Egypt will die,

"from the firstborn son of
Pharaoh, who sits on the throne,

"to the firstborn son
of the female slave,

"who is at her hand mill,

and all the firstborn
of the cattle as well."

For a long time,
researchers have been at a loss

to rationally explain this,

especially given that death
reportedly spread

in a single night
and how the plague

affected only the eldest
members of the family.

For some, the culprit lay
in the Egyptians' diet.

According to this theory,
the persistent humidity

resulting from the explosion
could have caused their grain

to spoil, either by
a bacterium such as ergot,

or more likely by a fungus.

[Virginie speaking French]

[narrator]
But contaminated grain doesn't
explain why only the firstborn

in each household was affected.

[Karen] The reason is societal.

In ancient Egypt,
it was customary for elders

to be the first to eat
at mealtimes.

So it's plausible that
they're the main victims.

The first to eat,
so the first to be poisoned.

We shouldn't necessarily
take this literally.

Trauma and memory
can alter historical fact

as it's passed down
through communities.

Poisoning may not have killed
all of the firstborn,

but it's the most horrific
and shocking version of what

could have happened.

And those versions tend
to take the firmest hold

of our collective imagination.

[narrator]
Whatever theory we follow,
the result is the same.

The last plague of Egypt
could also have an explanation

grounded in
the historical reality,

however many steps removed
of the Thera eruption.

History can be a slippery
thing, with dates in particular

being a constant source
of speculation.

Scholars all agree that
the volcano on Thera

erupted cataclysmically,

but they can't agree on
exactly when.

In 2002, a team of geologists
led by Dane Walter Friedrich

made an extraordinary find...

An olive branch
perfectly preserved under ash

at the eruption site.

An olive branch
usually symbolizes peace,

but this one
stirred up controversy.

Scientists used two techniques
to date the sample.

[Mark] Carbon 14 is
a radioactive element

present in all living organisms.

Once the organism dies,
its carbon 14 content

decreases at a regular rate.

Scientists can use it as
a chronometer to estimate

the age of once-living objects,
such as wood or bone.

[narrator] The other technique
is slightly more recent

and increasingly popular,
dendrochronology,

or the study of tree rings.

Trees grow in a seasonal cycle.

In spring, they produce
a lot of wood.

Then growth slows down
in summer before coming to

a complete halt in
autumn and winter.

This annual cycle
creates rings in the trunk,

which can be seen
when the tree is cut.

Counting these rings allows to
determine the age of the tree,

but also to see
the climatic conditions of

a particular year.

The rings will be narrower,
for example, if the tree

has experienced a drought
or a very cold spell.

So this method was employed
for the Thera eruption,

since it still works
for trees over 5,000 years old.

[narrator]
The data suggested that
the eruption would have taken

place between 1681 and 1542 BCE.

Except that this date,
rather than creating consensus,

threw gasoline on the fire.

The first reason is that this
date contradicts the findings

of archaeologists, who through
the study of ceramics on site,

determined that
the eruption occurred

several decades earlier,
between 1570

to 1544 BCE.

[Mark] Several researchers
found the dating

of the olive branch problematic.

Dendrochronology is most
effective with oaks,

firs, or pines.

With olive trees,
it's more complicated because

their tree rings
are much harder to read

due to the arid climate.

Unfortunately, carbon-14 dating
can also be affected by

atmospheric and other factors.

[narrator]
A new twist came in 2018,

when an international team
of researchers

led by Charlotte Pearson
believed they had developed

a new method
for reducing inaccuracies

when reading tree rings.

This time they studied
the growth rings

of Bristlecone pines,
North American trees

that can live as long as
5,000 years,

as well as the rings
of very old Irish oaks.

Both these tree species

grow thousands of kilometers
from Santorini.

Unlike the olive branch
found at Santorini,

dendocrinologists consider

these pine and oak
species reliable.

By proving that they had cooled
at around the estimated time of

the Thera eruption,

scientists could propose
a more accurate date.

[narrator]
The pines and oaks study
did in fact show signs

of experiencing cooler seasons,
in the form of narrower rings.

That observation helped provide
a more accurate estimate

of the date of
Santorini's eruption.

It would have occurred between
1600 and 1525 BCE,

a period overlapping
the 1570 to 1500 BCE dates

estimated from the ceramics.

Above all, these dates
could coincide

with the reign of King Ahmose,

the pharaoh who witnessed
the raging storm

described in the Tempest Stele.

Still, not everyone agrees.

It's worth remembering
that the Hebrew Bible,

also known by Christians
as the Old Testament,

is said to have been written
around the 7th century BCE,

at least nine centuries after
the presumed date

of the eruption of
the Thera Volcano,

and probably by several authors.

[indistinct chatter]

[Virginie speaking French]

[Karen] By mastering
the natural elements,

Yahweh strips the Egyptian
deities of their power.

One by one, he discredits them

by demonstrating their weakness

in the face of the plagues.

And by demonstrating
his superiority,

he's legitimizing those
who choose to follow him.

[narrator]
And the story of Moses

certainly succeeded
in that task.

He is featured in
the texts of Judaism,

but also in the later texts
of Christianity and Islam,

all of which have inspired
millions of people

around the world.

[group singing]

[narrator]
A sequence of natural events
triggered by a natural disaster

or a metaphorical tale that
has captivated our imaginations

and inspired
three world religions?

It's up to each of us to decide,
according to our own beliefs,

but the mystery
remains unresolved.