Original subtitles

This site is unbelievable.

Deep underground a 2,000-year-old tomb filled

with mummies has been devastated by tomb raiders.

Finding a burial shaft like this.

It makes our stay in the desert worth it.

Archaeologists scan through the wreckage in search

of clues to what happened.

OK, that's it.

Unbelievable.

The mummy, it's not looking usual.

We're going to investigate it right now.

The Great pyramids of ancient Egypt.

These structures were created to protect the tombs of the

mightiest kings and queens of the ancient world and the

unimaginable wealth they were buried with.

But ever since they rose from the desert floor,

they've been a target for attack from tomb raiders.

The battle between tomb builders and tomb robbers has

raged for millennia.

Now, archaeologists across Egypt are unlocking the

secrets of the origins of tomb raiding.

How pyramids and tombs evolved to better protect the dead and

how the latest technology can salvage vital information from

the wreckage these ancient raiders left behind.

In Saqqara, British archaeologist John Ward has

come to Egypt's first-ever pyramid the

Great Step Pyramid of Djoser.

Man's first skyscraper in effect.

What an achievement.

John and his wife, archaeologist Maria Nilsson,

have spent 14 years exploring the quarries of the

great pharaohs on the banks of the Nile.

Today, John is investigating how the builders of the first

pyramid tried to keep the riches inside,

safe from tomb raiders.

For the robbers, this huge structure just literally

dominating the landscape was like a beacon.

Tomb raiders were the scourge of ancient Egypt.

Egyptians were often buried with gold and other valuables,

with the richest taking vast stores of

treasure to their graves.

For robbers this was irresistible,

and the pyramid builders knew it.

Beneath thousands of tons of limestone a vertical shaft

descends ninety feet to the burial chamber.

Here, the pharaoh's mummy was laid to rest within

a vast granite sarcophagus.

A 3.5-mile-long labyrinth of underground tunnels,

strewn with offerings,

protected the burial chamber to preserve the pharaoh's body

and riches for eternity.

What's amazing is that the achievement is supposed to

be the pyramid above us that rises out of the desert floor,

but actually it's this labyrinth.

These tunnels just keep on going on and on and on.

With multiple false doors and dead ends,

builders designed the labyrinth to confuse and deter

any would-be thieves.

I've only been in here for about ten minutes and

already I've completely lost my bearings.

If they got past the labyrinth,

the robbers then needed to break into the burial chamber,

to access the riches it contained.

Ancient Egyptians believed they could take their

luxurious possessions, like jewelry and furniture,

with them into the afterlife.

So, to protect the pharaoh and his treasures,

the builders plugged the entrance to the chamber with

huge granite blocks.

After going through all of the challenges the labyrinth,

getting lost like I did,

they were confronted by all of this stacked red granite and

hiding behind it all was the actual sarcophagus of the living God,

the pharaoh himself.

This pyramid was specifically engineered to

keep thieves out.

But like almost every other pyramid in Egypt, it's empty.

Robbers found a way in.

These pyramids failed in their fundamental task in

protecting the Pharaoh and his wealth,

and we see evidence of that everywhere.

When robbers broke into tombs,

they looked for high-value, easy-to-carry loot,

such as jewels and gold.

They often headed straight for the mummies,

since they contained highly prized sacred amulets,

concealed beneath the bandages.

They even stole the valuable white limestone that covered the pyramids,

to use for their own building projects.

But ancient Egyptians punished tomb robbers severely.

If caught, they were impaled on a giant spike,

in a public execution.

Despite the risks, looters ransacked almost

all of ancient Egypt's elite burial sites,

including the pyramids.

How did raiders get into such well-protected tombs?

To find out, John is traveling to the site of one

of the most audacious robberies in ancient Egypt,

perfectly preserved for thousands of years.

In Luxor's Deir El-Bahari,

behind the cliffs of the Valley of the Kings

Egyptian Archaeologist Fahty Yaseen,

and his 70-person team, are excavating a colossal tomb

built around 1,500 years after the great pyramids.

Fahty dreamed of becoming an archaeologist ever since

visiting nearby Luxor on a school trip.

He's worked here for the last 30 years.

The tomb was part of a grand complex,

with an ornate courtyard, built to flaunt the high

social status of those buried inside.

But, like the Great Pyramids,

this ostentatious site was a magnet for raiders.

It's a mess of bones, mummified remains and

fragments of pottery.

Fahty wants to know why this particular tomb has

been so thoroughly disturbed.

Surprisingly, in ancient Egypt,

wealth and riches were not the only prize that raiders were after.

The tomb itself was also valuable for later re-use by

elites and their families.

Was this damage all caused by robbers?

Or was the tomb cleared out so it could be used

by someone new?

To find out, Fahty is searching for the tomb's original owner.

His team is clearing a path to the tomb's burial chamber,

where they hope to find the tomb owner's body.

Whoever the owner was, they were rich.

The tomb stands in prime position next to the mighty

temple of Hatshepsut.

Its lavish entrance and large sunken courtyard were designed

to impress, during special festivals of the dead.

Carved on the western wall of the tomb's hallway was a false door.

Ancient Egyptian's believed it acted as a portal for

the tomb owner's spirit.

During elaborate celebrations, ancient Egyptians came here to

leave offerings of food, drink, and flowers,

which they believed the spirits could take back

into the afterlife.

The revelers even slept here at night to communicate with

the souls of their ancestors in dreams.

But these tombs became a target,

not just for raiders,

but also for people who wanted the tombs for themselves.

After several weeks work, Fahty's team has cleared the

way to the burial chamber at the tomb's heart.

Fahty can now enter it for the first time,

to see if the original owner is still inside.

Wow, wow. Huge tomb. Big tomb.

Oh my God.

Like the rest of the tomb,

the mess of debris strewn across the burial chamber floor

is a sign ancient tomb robbers ransacked this room long ago.

But it's not clear when, or why,

this tomb was disturbed.

Was it looters on the hunt for treasure?

Or did someone remove the original owner,

and re-use the tomb,

installing a new mummy in their place?

The burial chamber contains no mummies.

The original tomb owner has been removed or destroyed.

But back in the main chamber,

Fahty's head technician, Sayed,

has made a breakthrough.

He's found what looks like a pristine mummy.

In Philadelphia, an ancient city in the desert

south of Cairo...

Egyptian archaeologist Basem Gehad has

spent years uncovering an ancient necropolis buried

under the desert.

Today, he and his team are on their way to a tomb from the

final years of Egyptian civilization.

It was built almost 2,500 years after the first pyramid.

And it was created with one thing in mind,

keeping raiders out.

The builders learned from the mistakes of their predecessors.

They left no pyramid or temple to mark the tomb's location,

and hid it in the middle of the desert,

at the bottom of a perilous, 36-foot shaft.

The idea behind this deep burial shaft and hiding

it in the mountain was to keep it very safe and secure from

these tomb raiders.

It's a kind of securing the afterlife.

And we are very enthusiastic to see what could be inside.

But how successful were the tomb builders?

Did they manage to keep the raiders out?

Basem needs to go down and investigate.

To do that...

The team needs to haul a 440-pound,

hand-operated winch up the mountain and secure it over

the shaft.

With the winch in place...

Basem is ready to go down...

It's really scary and it's really dangerous.

If the winch fails, the fall could kill him.

When he finally arrives at the bottom,

he's greeted with an astonishing sight...

Unbelievable.

Dozens of mummies.

30 feet underground,

Basem begins to explore the hidden tomb.

Did it protect its occupants, or have raiders looted it?

This site is unbelievable for me.

I can see here one complete mummy.

And also, at the end of the room there is

one complete mummy.

So, it's another mummy here.

It's a huge complex,

measuring 300 square feet,

proving that this was an elite tomb.

Inside, builders carved three burial chambers out of the bedrock,

which housed around eighty intricately wrapped mummies.

Finding a burial shaft like this.

It makes our stay in the desert worth it.

But something isn't right.

Basem isn't the first person to set foot in this tomb.

It shows clear signs of being raided,

and most of its contents have been destroyed.

So, the tomb raiders came here and then it seems to

me that they took most of the precious materials,

the wonderful objects.

When ancient Egyptians died,

their relatives placed food, drink,

and everyday objects in their tombs.

The wealthier elites took more lavish personal belongings,

like weapons, golden furniture and even chariots.

Ancient Egyptians believed they could take these grave

goods with them into the afterlife to protect

and sustain them.

But the treasures in the tombs of the elite made rich

pickings for thieves.

Basem's job now is to see what the robbers left behind.

They took all the masks,

except one gilded mask remains of one gilded mask here which

is shining in front of us,

an amazing example of what could be the state of art during this period.

The mask proves there could be a lot left to

discover in the wreckage left behind by the raiders.

Basem will need to scour the tomb for clues to find out

when, and how, it was robbed.

It's like working on a crime scene.

You have to collect all the evidence,

gather all the kind of clues.

We still have a lot of things to do.

In Luxor's, Deir El-Bahari

Fahty is hunting for the original owner of

this raided tomb.

His team has found a spectacular mummy next

to the main entrance.

In his three decades working as an archaeologist,

this is one of the most pristine mummies Fahty

has ever found.

Wow. Complete huh?

Yeah, complete.

The mummy's location in this first hallway

is a mystery.

If this is the owner of the tomb,

it should be buried in the burial chamber.

If this mummy is the original owner of the tomb,

it could be a clue to what happened here.

Was it robbers, or later elites re-using the tomb?

To know more,

Fahty has to run further tests on the mummy.

But first, he has to remove the mummy from the tomb.

It's an incredibly delicate procedure.

The fragile mummy is thousands of years old and could easily

crumble when moved.

We have to be stable.

Can these ancient remains reveal clues

to what happened here?

Is this mummy the tomb's original owner

or a later imposter?

In the shadow of the ruined Meidum Pyramid John is

investigating one of the greatest heists of the ancient world.

He wants to find out how tomb raiders got inside one of

ancient Egypt's best-protected tombs.

It's truly an astonishing monument this.

This magnificent structure literally just rises out of

the desert floor.

This huge, 300 by 150-foot mound

is called a mastaba,

a style of tomb that predates the pyramids.

Known as Mastaba Seventeen, this is one of the biggest,

and most impressive in all of Egypt.

Unlike the pyramids that were built with

a complex network of tunnels to get in and out,

Mastabas were completely sealed.

Once finished, it was never meant to be entered.

It was a house of eternity for those who were going

to be entombed inside.

At the heart of the mastaba,

a single body lay inside a granite sarcophagus

secured with a three-ton lid.

The sarcophagus sat within a solid limestone chamber with

colossal limestone blocks sealing the only entrance.

The chamber itself sat around 30 feet underground in a

deep, natural recess.

Finally, a vast mudbrick and rubble structure covered the

chamber and the recess it sat in,

with no way in, or out.

100 feet of rock stood between the inhabitant

and the surface.

Like a fortress for the dead layer after layer after layer,

literally protected that one single person lying

inside the sarcophagus inside the main chamber.

But even this protection was not enough to

keep the robbers out.

On the southern side, John identifies a hand-cut tunnel

carved out of the walls by looters.

Wow, look at this.

Not only have they cut through all of this mud

brick exterior facade.

But they've actually tunneled underneath the mastaba.

To understand how the robbers carried out such a daring raid,

John has been granted special access to

enter their tunnel.

I must admit, I'm not looking forward to going

into dark tunnels.

Oh, wow.

At the necropolis of ancient Philadelphia,

Basem is investigating a hidden tomb.

He wants to find out who looted these burial chambers,

and when.

He's already discovered mummies that appear to be

undisturbed, and an intact burial mask.

There could be more evidence hidden among the debris.

Maybe we could find one clue, about the tomb raiders.

Therefore, we could understand when and who did this

disturbance inside this room.

Basem must investigate this chamber,

inch by inch.

Normally, it would take days of painstaking work.

But his team is armed with some cutting-edge technology

more at home on a modern-day crime scene.

It's the most advanced technique to be used

in the archaeological field.

I can't wait to see the results.

As Basem's laser scanner pans around the chamber,

a camera records hundreds of images every second,

while a laser measures the space with pinpoint accuracy.

Together, they create a high-resolution model of the

entire tomb, allowing Basem to see things that are invisible

to the naked eye.

OK, that's it.

Unbelievable.

We have every single detail of this room now in our hands

As they analyze the imagery,

Basem notices something unexpected.

From the assessment of the scan,

there is something interesting.

The mummy, it's not looking usual.

We are going to investigate it right now.

The mummy could provide another clue to who

raided the tomb, and when.

Ahmed.

But to investigate properly, first, they'll need to move it.

At the Asasif necropolis,

Fahty's team has unearthed a pristine mummy among the

debris of a heavily raided tomb.

Fahty wants to find out if this mummy

was the tomb's original owner.

That will offer a vital clue to whether this tomb was

raided or reused.

He's enlisted the help of physical anthropologist Jesus Herrerin,

who's brought a state-of-the-art

X-ray scanner.

With it, he should be able to tell the mummy's sex,

and even how much manual labor they did.

Already, he likes what he sees.

90% of the mummies in Egypt are broken.

90%? 90%.

Only 10% is a complete mummy like this.

That's a great, great discovery.

Embalmers wrapped this mummy with an

extraordinarily high level of precision.

They even wrapped each finger individually.

Look at the fingers.

This wrapping each one.

Uh-huh.

Individual independence from each another.

A high-quality mummy like this could be the tomb's

original owner.

But they need more evidence.

Jesus painstakingly scans the entire body.

He must take dozens of images to piece together a

full picture of what's beneath the bandages and

reveal the mummy's identity.

At the necropolis of ancient Philadelphia,

Basem is investigating a robbed tomb.

He's discovered a strange-looking mummy that

could give him a crucial clue to when, and how,

this tomb was raided.

But to investigate further,

he needs to remove the mummy from the burial chamber.

It's really unsafe to work and maneuver around an

object with this kind of roof inside,

so we need to take it outside.

Raiders have already disturbed the mummy,

making it extremely delicate.

One wrong move and it could crumble to pieces.

Now that he's safely removed the mummy from the burial chamber,

Basem is able to take a closer look.

The mummy is twisted in a strange way.

The face is looking downwards.

It's the first time we've seen a mummy this way.

It's not in the usual articulation of the body it's

very, very strange.

It appears that the mummy's neck has been twisted

delicately to remove its precious burial mask,

while leaving the mummy itself intact.

For Basem, that suggests that this tomb was raided

relatively recently.

Tombs raided in antiquity tend to be much more disturbed,

with mummies deliberately smashed to pieces.

So, for me, it looks like it was

raided like 100 years ago.

It's a big discovery.

It means this hidden tomb, built in 300 BC,

managed to keep its dead safe from raiders for two millennia.

Only in modern times, armed with modern equipment,

did treasure hunters finally manage to break in.

Around a century ago, it was the most interesting

thing for people from different places in the world

to come to Egypt and to collect wonderful objects from

the tombs and from different sites in Egypt.

This so-called 'Egyptomania' craze spread

around the world in the early Twentieth Century.

It culminated in 1922 with the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb

by Howard Carter.

During this period, European explorers took

countless precious artifacts from ancient tombs.

They ended up in museums or sold to private collectors.

This mummy survived the modern-day raiders.

Now Basem wants to make sure it is properly conserved

for the future.

To do this, he has to remove it from the tomb.

In Meidum, John is following a narrow tunnel

deep underneath a heavily fortified tomb.

He wants to find out how looters robbed it nearly

4,500 years ago.

Wow.

Their first challenge was to reach the

center of the vast stone filled mastaba.

I can't imagine working in such an environment,

so enclosed.

Would have been horrible, the dust on one's lungs.

Digging a tunnel like this involves shifting

hundreds of tons of rock and the constant

threat of the tunnel collapsing.

Okay, I've come to a...

It would have taken months of dangerous

painstaking work.

You can see all the chisel marks on the walls are still intact.

Using the most rudimentary tools,

they've been able to create this tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel,

a vertical shaft drops 20 feet straight down.

Oh my God, there's nothing holding this ladder in place.

I'm putting my foot into darkness here.

Wow.

At the bottom of the shaft,

John comes across something incredible.

That is absolutely unbelievable.

Oh, wow.

John has reached the end of the robber's tunnel.

It's hit the rock casing of the burial chamber with

incredible precision.

The robbers have tunneled, all the way along,

then dropped the shaft and then literally tunneled this

tiny little tunnel here and hit this limestone

casing dead on.

The tomb raiders undercut the mastaba on its

south side and chiseled their way through the limestone

bedrock in a straight line for 60 feet.

Then they stopped and dug a shaft straight down through

the lose infill of the hollow until they hit the limestone

wall of the burial chamber.

Just imagine just them sitting here exactly kneeling

where I'm kneeling right now, just chiseling away

frantically at this limestone, knowing what lay behind it was

treasures that would elevate them in this mortal life.

Wow.

To hit the outside of the burial chamber with

their tunnel with such accuracy,

John believes the looters must have known the layout of the

tomb in exceptional detail.

They would definitely have had to have had inside

information to know where to go.

Whoever led this party knew exactly where to place this

final tunnel because it led them directly,

directly onto the chamber.

Inside...

Wow.

The burial chamber is beautifully finished in smooth-cut limestone.

Wow.

I'm like a little giddy kid in a sweet shop.

But John is not alone in the tomb.

Bats.

Dozens of them, and John has a serious phobia.

Oh my god they're hanging.

Oh, my God, they're everywhere.

In Luxor's Deir El-Bahari at the Asasif necropolis,

Jesus has finally stitched dozens of X-ray images together

to build a complete,

detailed scan of the mummy Fahty has discovered.

He wants to know if this mummy is the tomb's owner.

It could be a vital clue to whether this tomb was raided

for treasure, or if it was reused.

By analyzing the bones, Jesus can identify the mummy's

gender and social standing.

Whoa, it was a complete mummy in very good condition.

You can see the skull, the torso and the sex is male.

So, is a man?

Yes, it's a man.

We can see very clear in the morphology of the hips.

The bones also reveal a clue to the man's

social status in life.

In the vertebral column,

there aren't any signs of osteoarthritis.

The excellent condition of the bones suggest

that this man did not do any hard,

manual work during his life.

He was probably a high-ranking nobleman.

This is a sign that this mummy could be the

original owner of this lavish tomb.

Normally, high-status mummies would have amulets of precious

stones wrapped inside its chest.

These should show up on the x-ray.

Took it. Yeah, unfortunately.

The evidence suggests a complex series of

crimes and events.

It looks like this mummy was the tomb's original owner.

But someone moved it from its initial location inside the chamber,

and robbers took its precious jewelry.

Meanwhile, the rest of the tomb has been almost

completely destroyed.

For Fahty, this suggests the tomb wasn't simply robbed,

or reused once.

It was raided and reused many times,

across hundreds of years.

Like the pyramids, this elaborate tomb drew

people to it.

Not only raiders for treasure,

but people who wanted to be buried in it themselves,

when they passed away.

Fahty still has a long way to go to piece

together the mess that generations of robbers left behind.

But with every new clue,

and with the help of new technology,

he's getting closer to unravelling the

mystery behind this tomb.

In Meidum, John is investigating how ancient

tomb raiders carried out a spectacular heist on one of

the biggest Mastabas in Egypt.

The ceiling of the burial chamber is teeming with bats.

I don't do bats.

It's like giant flying spiders.

4,500 years ago, instead of bats,

this chamber would have contained riches,

such as gilded furniture and pottery.

But to reach the most valuable bounty the robbers faced

one final challenge:

A giant stone sarcophagus,

which contained the mummy's gold death mask and precious jewels.

This red granite sarcophagus,

weighs in excess of eight ton.

It's one of the biggest sarcophagi in all of Egypt.

But still the robbers were able to get in,

and they left a 4,500-year-old clue

to how they did it.

Oh, wow, look at that.

Amazing!

The original mallet that the looters used and they've left it there.

The thieves used long wooden levers to pry the lid open,

then propped it up using their wooden mallets.

It's actually quite amazing to think that this lid

is just literally sat on top of that mallet in exactly the

same position that the robbers left it.

This was a truly spectacular heist,

and the evidence preserved for millennia reveals how determined,

and well prepared, the looters were.

But the real secret to their success was their inside

knowledge of the layout of the tomb.

Armed with that information,

and the promise of untold riches,

the tomb builders didn't stand a chance.

One can only imagine when they crawled through and

then walked into this chamber.

What lay in wait for them...

treasures beyond their wildest dreams.

It would change their lives completely.

At the necropolis of ancient Philadelphia,

Basem has discovered that this raided tomb kept its occupants

safe for two millennia, before modern treasure hunters

looted it a century ago.

Now, he wants to make sure this mummy is preserved for posterity...

By removing it from the tomb and taking it to a

museum for safe keeping.

To do that, he'll need to haul it up

the 36-foot burial shaft.

Most of us are a bit stressed.

I'm a bit afraid that this operation is a delicate one.

That's why we have to do it in a proper way to save it.

The box weighs 220 pounds,

and his team must pull it out of the tomb by hand.

You see how, how tough is this operation?

It's really hard.

The shaft is only seven feet wide and cut

from loose rock.

If the box smashes into a wall, it could collapse.

Be careful, be careful.

This is not safe!

It's not safe to be inside the shaft while they are lifting

the box.

This is the, the most nervous part of the work today.

Good, good, good, good.

Finally, they lift the mummy to safety.

Basem has discovered that this humble,

secret tomb was in some ways more successful than

the great pyramids.

It protected its occupants for 2,000 years and now,

at least some of its precious artifacts can be

preserved for the future.

I believe that there are still wonderful things

that we could recover from this burial shaft.

Our role now is to safeguard these objects and to record it

for the future generation.

Protecting the people buried within ancient

tombs like this,

remains a challenge even today.

But this hidden desert tomb, undisturbed for two millennia,

proves how tomb builders adapted their methods

to beat the raiders.

The earliest tombs, the mastabas,

couldn't keep robbers out,

so builders improved the design

Pyramids with elaborate anti-theft devices came next,

to try and keep the tombs safe.

But adding huge structures on top just made them an even

bigger target.

So eventually, tomb builders abandoned pyramids and temples

and hid their tombs deep in the bedrock of

sacred and secret valleys.

Every season, with the help of new technology,

archaeologists understand more about the centuries-long

battle between tomb builders, and tomb raiders.

How the earliest robbers used inside knowledge to break into

the richest tombs.

How wealthy tombs were raided and reused

in a cycle that lasted hundreds of years and how,

at the end of Egyptian civilization,

some tombs were finally able to protect their occupants for millennia.