Original subtitles

I'm not able to walk but I can see.

There is an entrance.

Just outside Alexandria,

beneath a temple,

archaeologists are searching for the tomb of Cleopatra,

Egypt's last queen.

I have a hunch and I think I...

I am about to solve this mystery with this door.

Oh...

Ancient Egypt.

Its unparalleled monuments tell the story of a

civilization that spanned 3,000 years.

But its final chapter revolves around one beautiful and

beguiling woman, Cleopatra.

This legendary queen was Egypt's last-ever pharaoh,

despite having a healthy son and heir.

Today, Archaeologists across Egypt are investigating the

mystery surrounding the end of her reign.

Was Cleopatra a successful pharaoh?

What turmoil contributed to her downfall?

And where is her long-lost tomb?

On the outskirts of Alexandria,

at the temple of Taposiris Magna,

Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martinez is searching

for Cleopatra's burial chamber.

Its location is one of the greatest mysteries

in the history of Ancient Egypt.

I believe when we discover the tomb of

Queen Cleopatra, she will tell her story and it's

going to be marvelous.

Kathleen first heard the story of Cleopatra

when she was just 15 years old.

After 20 years as a successful lawyer,

she quit to dedicate her life to finding the lost queen.

She's my heroine.

I think she was an accomplished woman,

very advanced for her time.

She was a politician.

She was able to speak all the languages of her time,

nine languages.

She was a queen. She was a goddess.

I believe she was a genius.

While many believe Cleopatra's tomb to

be in her capital, Alexandria,

Kathleen's investigations have led her to the temple

of Taposiris Magna.

She thinks Cleopatra used this temple to conceal her tomb.

Cleopatra was the human representation of

goddess ISIS.

And this temple was dedicated to Isis.

That's why I believe she's buried here.

It's Kathleen's twelfth season digging here,

and she's already discovered coins bearing the image of the

legendary queen, evidence the temple dates to her time.

Every year that I come to Egypt,

I'm putting a piece of the puzzle together.

I know I'm getting closer and closer.

Last year, Kathleen used a network of geophones to

make an astonishing discovery.

Geophones record small vibrations in the earth's

crust to detect subterranean cavities.

At Taposiris Magna, they exposed a large empty space

below the temple.

Kathleen is eager to find out if this void could be

Cleopatra's long-lost tomb.

She attempted to access it via an ancient tunnel

last season but heavy rains made it impossible to enter.

Now, because of an exceptionally hot summer,

the tunnel is dry.

Will it lead Kathleen to the mysterious void,

and Cleopatra?

I know, I know there's something very

important down there.

But even now, when the tunnel is dry,

exploring it is a serious challenge.

The only way in is down a dangerous rock-cut shaft.

To climb down the shaft, Kathleen's workmen must

install a chain of ladders.

It's a time-consuming task but essential to get right.

With a 25-foot drop, any mistakes will be fatal.

We have to do it, but in a safe way.

Once the ladder falls, we're dead.

In Alexandria...

American Egyptologist Meredith Brand is also on the

trail of Cleopatra.

The catacomb of Kom el Shoqafa lies 65-feet below

the modern city.

No one knows exactly who was buried here,

but it's one of the only surviving large tombs of

ancient Alexandria.

It's gorgeous.

We don't know what Cleopatra's tomb would have looked like

and we haven't found any other royal tombs from her dynasty

so this tomb here is our best approximation.

Meredith was just 17 when she first came to Egypt.

She's since spent more time in ancient tombs than

back home in the US.

Coming to places like this is one of the

reasons why I became an Egyptologist.

Meredith examines the tomb's statues,

and the carvings on the walls.

This scene is fantastic.

You have a God Anubis, the Jackal-headed deity,

mummifying the deceased and all the other gods that you

would expect to see in an ancient Egyptian scene.

The carving is of a scene typical in ancient Egyptian burials,

but the tomb also has carvings from

a different culture.

Down here on the sarcophagus,

the scene is fully Greek.

This Garland and the head of these figures are 100% Greek.

The tomb is a strange mix of Greek and

Egyptian styles.

It's a clue to the true identity of Cleopatra and the

Egypt she ruled.

In 332 BC,

Alexander the Great conquered Egypt,

and founded the city of Alexandria.

He paved the way for a new dynasty of Greek pharaohs,

called the Ptolemies, who ruled from the new city.

300 years later, Cleopatra, aged just 21,

defeated her younger brother in battle to become

Queen of Egypt.

Despite her Greek heritage,

she embraced Egyptian traditions,

wearing the dress and crown of the pharaohs of old,

and becoming the first of her line to learn

the Egyptian language.

This tomb is testament to the mix of the two ancient

cultures Cleopatra personified.

This iconography forms a unique image that

reflects the culture of Alexandria at the time of

Cleopatra, a mixture of Greece and Egypt.

Cleopatra ruled from this multicultural capital

for 20 years.

But according to ancient sources, in 30 BC,

she committed suicide as the last ever pharaoh.

The clues to Cleopatra's many riddles,

the reason for her downfall and death,

and the location of her tomb,

can be found in the ruins of this hybrid

Greek and Egyptian world.

In Philadelphia an ancient city that dates from the reign

of Cleopatra, Egyptian archaeologist Basem Gehad and

his team have set up camp.

So, this is the site of ancient Philadelphia.

It's very hot, windy like today and sand.

It's not the best-case scenario to, to live in.

Every year, Basem and his team spend weeks at a

time living in tents in the middle of this barren desert.

Despite the basic conditions, for Basem,

it's a dream come true.

I've dreamed since I was a child to be an

archaeologist and Egyptologist.

For this reason, I have this kind of full energy to stand

for many, many, many days and weeks in the desert,

non-stop work and non-stop excavation.

When Basem excavated here last season,

the team found a complex of vaulted tombs.

Inside one of the tomb chambers,

set back from the main gallery,

they discovered thin strips of painted wood,

reassembled to reveal a beautiful painting.

The team also found fragments of a human skull,

and some diamond-patterned linen.

Remarkable traces of a hidden necropolis below the sand and

the people who lived here around 2,000 years ago.

Basem hopes to find an even bigger catacomb this year,

to investigate how the Greeks, and ancient Egyptians

co-existed in Cleopatra's Egypt.

We have many catacombs and tombs and graves in this

area that could give us information about the Greeks

and Egyptians who were living here together.

But there's one big problem: The site covers an

area larger than 800 football fields with no records of

where the catacombs lie buried.

It's a tough call to decide where to start digging.

It's just like as if you are searching for a needle

in this, uh, in this big desert.

Basem finds some banks of raised sand that

match features he's spotted on satellite imagery of the site.

Together, they could be evidence of a large tomb

hidden beneath the desert floor.

The team marks out a trench and starts digging.

They move tons of sand under the hot desert sun and by noon,

Basem's hunch pays off.

So, we just found this staircase,

stairs that was rock cut in the in the rock,

in the mother rock, and it leads to the entrance.

We are thinking that it's a catacomb.

What treasures lie beyond the stairway?

What could they reveal about Cleopatra's world and

the downfall of ancient Egypt?

If we were super lucky,

we would have like an intact catacomb,

maybe we could find the mummies.

The team works all afternoon to clear sand

from the entrance.

Finally, there's enough room for Basem to take

a look inside the tomb.

I can see a lot of remains of mummy and skeletons.

Basem crawls through the narrow opening

in the rock.

It's a unique example that we have here.

Animal offerings everywhere.

Inside, lies a huge catacomb complex with

11 burial niches.

In front of one, Basem discovers an intact amphora

left above the sand.

This kind of jar, wine jar,

were used on the turn of the Ptolemaic to the Romans

which is the date of the Cleopatra reign.

It's evidence the catacomb is Greek and

dates to Cleopatra's time.

Now, the team must excavate the entire complex.

Apart from a few pieces of pottery above the sand,

it's almost entirely buried.

We are very, very happy and extremely excited to see what,

what could be below the sand.

They begin to clear the first burial niche.

It's really tough work working in this condition.

The humidity is absolutely high.

It's really hot summer and then dust and the remains of

organic materials and it's really hard.

The team carefully removes several cubic feet of

sand from the grave pit.

This is the most exciting part because you

never know, when you remove just two meters you could find

a wonderful thing.

The most interesting gift of the season could be a few

steps from your digging place.

We have one skull and two left bones for two legs,

two different persons.

Basem and forensic anthropologist

Abdullah Abdo Abdullah inspect the skull.

Yeah!

From the bone structure,

Abdullah can tell it is an adult male.

The formation of the skull reveals the man was

about 50 years old when he died.

The sutures which is the intersecting point of the

different parts of the skull starts to disappear, for us,

it's an indication for a real old man.

He was likely the patriarch of an extended Greek family,

prospering in the reign of Cleopatra

2,000 years ago.

What more can this catacomb reveal

about Cleopatra's world?

After excavating down three feet,

Basem calls a halt.

It seems that it is very difficult to maneuver

inside this locali.

As you see, this court is full of sand and

debris and materials.

It hinders us from going farther from work.

The huge piles of sand in the catacomb's main

room make it impossible to reach down to the deeper

levels of the burial niches.

The team must clear the sand from the entire room before

they can explore the niches fully.

But with their excavation permit ending

in just a few days,

they have to work fast.

At Taposiris Magna...

Kathleen's team builds ladders down to the tunnel and the

mysterious void beneath the Temple.

While she checks in with her crew at the other end

of the site.

She's tirelessly looking for clues to Cleopatra's tomb

across the entire complex.

Cleopatra could be anywhere.

I will explore every inch of this archaeological site,

and I'm sure I will find her.

To the east of the temple,

next to an ancient lighthouse,

Kathleen already discovered a huge necropolis

from Cleopatra's time.

Last year, in a catacomb here,

her team made an extraordinary discovery.

While digging, the remains of a man emerged from the earth.

In his mouth, they found a golden tongue,

cast from pure 22-carat gold.

The tongue may have been meant to allow the deceased

to speak with the gods.

It's only one of four mummies like this the team

has found in the necropolis.

It's a sign this is a burial site of the elite.

We want to understand who are those who

were buried here and what can we learn from this,

related to my search.

Kathleen has a new lead in this necropolis:

An intact tomb.

You can't express the excitement waiting to see.

It's been hidden, it's been hidden for so long

and then we're here.

First, the team needs to remove the heavy

limestone blocks that seal the burial.

Put in the same position, no here,

the same position, we put it here.

Suddenly, one of the workers spots something

in the sand.

What is that?

It's metal, it's bronze.

Kathleen, and fellow archaeologist Juan Padilla,

inspect the find more closely.

It seems it has some indentation.

Yes and some decorations. Yes.

This is a part of a clothing.

It's a fibula.

A fibula is a small brooch people used to fasten

their robes in ancient times.

It was common around the time Cleopatra's rule ended,

evidence this tomb could date to the very last

chapter of her reign.

Can this tomb reveal new information about Cleopatra's

last days and her hidden burial chamber?

It's a very good sign. And this is on the top.

So, we have to see after we open what is inside the tomb.

For over an hour, in searing temperatures,

the team hauls tons of sand out of the tomb.

Oh wow!

Below the first set of limestone blocks,

they unearth part of a skeleton.

But it's unlike anything they've seen before.

Oh, my God!

Kathleen and Juan examine the skeleton as it

emerges from its tomb.

We believe he's a man because the structure of

the bones is, are thick.

It looks like a heavy or a strong man.

The man's lower leg bones stick out from

below the blocks.

They're barely visible and covered in dirt,

but Kathleen and Juan can tell this is no ordinary skeleton.

The man's skeleton is well preserved,

but his feet have been cut off clean at the ankle.

Oh, my God! They cut his feet!

Why did someone mutilate this man's body?

The first thought is a kind of punishment.

It's possible this man had both his feet

chopped off when he was alive.

What had he done to warrant such a cruel punishment?

We need to find out.

I'm really anxious to remove all the stones and

see who he was.

This is not normal!

The team removes the final blocks and clears

the sand to expose the upper part of the skeleton.

Oh!

Wow, oh...

Kathleen investigates the skeleton as

it emerges from under the sand.

His feet has been cut.

But at the same time, which is really strange,

is that he has been mummified.

Mummification was an act of respect for the deceased,

designed to keep the body intact for the afterlife,

the ultimate reward for a virtuous life lived.

Yet Kathleen believes this man was mutilated as a punishment.

Maybe he belongs to a powerful family,

or he had an important position, but at the end,

he got punished.

This perplexing burial could be a sign of

trouble in the time of Cleopatra.

It's all the more reason Kathleen must continue her

search for Cleopatra's tomb.

At the necropolis of ancient Philadelphia

Basem and his team have painstakingly removed several

tons of sand from a catacomb dating to the time of Cleopatra

Discoveries in the grave cuts might reveal

more evidence of trouble in her reign.

So, based on the status of the catacomb,

it seems that the tomb raiders were here before and most of

the grave cuts were disturbed.

Tomb raiders looted this tomb in ancient times,

taking its gold and precious artifacts.

Basem inspects the items the robbers left behind.

The ancient Egyptians believed the

deceased needed these offerings for the afterlife.

Finding them in a Greek tomb could be evidence

the Greeks here embraced Egyptian belief and custom,

just like Cleopatra in her capital, Alexandria.

We will keep looking here inside this catacomb.

And we will search,

we continue our search all over this necropolis.

With only a few days of his dig season left,

Basem decides to focus his efforts on the area

just outside the tomb complex.

It's not long until his decision pays off.

Barely visible in the sand,

is a thin strip of wood with faint traces of paint.

Oh wow!

It's a breath-taking moment for me.

In the sands of the necropolis,

Basem has made an incredible discovery.

Greek artists from Alexandria travelled south through Egypt,

along the Nile.

People commissioned their portraits from the artists,

who painted with hot beeswax onto wood.

The lifelike portraits were unlike anything

in Egyptian art.

People hung them in their homes.

When they died, the portrait was put on their face before

they were mummified, in the hope their spirit would

remember what they looked like in the afterlife.

It's really a masterpiece.

Despite the layers of dust,

Basem can clearly make out the face of the woman it depicts.

We can realize all the detail, the hair, eyes,

nose, lips and even the necklace,

the green necklace from emerald and the tunic,

the Greek tunic which is painted in purple.

It's a beautiful portrait of a Greek woman who

lived and died here at Philadelphia around the

time of Cleopatra, some 2,000 years ago.

Basem thinks tomb robbers must have broken the fragile

painting when they tried to remove it from the grave.

When it's broken into small fragments or slides,

for them it's useless,

they could not sell it to the market so most probably

they left it at the site.

For us it's a treasure.

I can't see any kind of object that could be

more beautiful than this face.

It's a great discovery,

everything Basem has hoped for.

The aim of the mission,

we can say that it's accomplished.

This single piece makes our work here worth it,

because it's in itself, it's unique.

It's possible that Cleopatra, too,

would have been buried with a life-like portrait of herself.

We know very well that ancient Egyptians were

very keen in keeping the picture of the deceased.

It seems that the tradition continued during

the Ptolemaic period.

They kept the same traditions, but they did it their own way,

using a new tradition of paintings.

And then they put this wonderful, amazing,

awesome portraits on the face and then they wrapped

the whole mummy in an Egyptian style.

Basem's discovery suggests that even outside Alexandria,

the Greeks of Cleopatra's reign followed her example,

and embraced Egyptian customs.

And Cleopatra's respect for the old ways won her favor

with the Egyptians,

allowing her to rule over a prosperous,

multicultural empire.

Both nations lived very harmoniously together,

in a very mixed community, mixed culture.

The Greeks and Egyptians lived

together in harmony.

So, what was causing trouble in the time of Cleopatra?

What led to her downfall?

In Alexandria...

Meredith has come to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina,

the city's modern library to investigate.

This is the modern library of Alexandria.

It's somewhere near where the ancient library would have been,

and the ancient library of Alexandria was renowned

through the entire Mediterranean world as the

biggest center of knowledge.

It had the most amount of books ever collected.

But it's not an ancient book that grabs

Meredith's attention.

It's an unusual granite bust.

This statue is remarkable.

It's got this Greek style haircut,

like a fringe that comes down and it's wispy and curly.

So, to me, this is, this is a very Greek face.

And then on top of it is a traditional ancient Egyptian

headdress for kings called the Nemes headdress.

The Nemes is a folded piece of striped cloth

covering the head and shoulders.

Worn with a crown, it identifies the wearer

as a pharaoh.

So, this is the headdress of an Egyptian king,

with the face of a Greek man.

This is most probably Caesarion,

the son of Cleopatra and a direct product of her

relationship with Rome.

Caesarion was the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar,

the great dictator of Rome.

The two began an affair when Cleopatra was fighting

a bitter civil war with her brother,

against their dying father's wish for

them to rule together.

When Caesar and his army came to Alexandria,

Cleopatra seized her chance to win a powerful ally and

Egypt's crown.

As her brother's army patrolled the city,

Cleopatra smuggled herself into Caesar's chambers,

rolled in a rug, to meet him face to face.

Entranced, Caesar helped Cleopatra win her throne and

the two had a son, Caesarion.

But a few years later,

Roman senators, fearing Caesar' grip on power,

assassinated him.

His three closest allies took control of Rome.

Cleopatra met with one of them, Marc Antony,

making her entrance on a golden boat.

They formed a new alliance and the two fell in love.

Cleopatra has been painted as some wanton

seductress but in actuality all her moves were strategic.

She was a smart woman who understood geo-politics and

understood Egypt and the Mediterranean world.

She made alliances based on who was in power and who could

help her secure the throne.

Egypt was stable.

Cleopatra was firmly in control,

backed by a strong alliance with Marc Antony and Rome.

But just ten years later, everything came tumbling down.

What went wrong?

Meredith investigates a giant marble

bust just next to the statue of Cleopatra's son Caesarion.

This statue is fantastic.

It's totally not Egyptian.

Everything about this screams Rome

from the white marble to the hairstyle,

the delicate portraiture in the face, nose, everything.

This is a Roman statue. This statue is Octavian.

Octavian was Julius Caesar's adopted son.

After Caesar's death, Octavian moved quickly to take

power in Rome.

Marc Anthony, and his alliance with Cleopatra,

stood in his way.

They formed a huge super-block of power

that Octavian thought was a direct threat to his rule.

And Octavian had a score to settle with Marc Anthony.

Marc Anthony was married to Octavian's sister

while he was having an alliance and a relationship

with Cleopatra.

So, this upset him on a political level and

a personal level.

In 32 BC, Octavian, backed by the Roman Senate,

declared war on Cleopatra.

Cleopatra's alliance with Marc Anthony had put her,

and Egypt, in the line of fire.

Cleopatra's relationship with Marc Antony

seemed like a brilliant strategy yet it

led her into trouble.

At Taposiris Magna...

the brutally mutilated, but beautifully mummified man,

may be a victim of Cleopatra's war with Rome.

This time was chaotic.

The first century, it was Cleopatra,

Marc Antony against Octavian,

and maybe he was on the wrong side,

and this is why he got punished.

It's a great discovery.

Cleopatra would also be a victim of this war.

Now, Kathleen is hunting for her lost tomb.

She believes it's in a large cavity she's discovered

beneath the temple here.

Her team has finally set up a ladder system at the top of

the dark and narrow entrance shaft.

Kathleen can finally enter.

It's 25-feet deep.

A fall from that height could kill her.

For some reason, that I don't understand,

I'm not afraid.

I'm ready to go down.

Oh, my gosh. Oh, oh, oh.

The second stairs, it's really unstable.

It's moving, oh god!

After a perilous descent,

Kathleen can explore the tunnel.

This is marvelous!

We can see clearly there are some traces

of painting of ancient times.

We can see plaster here, it was covered.

The construction of this tunnel has been made by

chisel, by hand.

Hundreds of meters.

The tunnel is hundreds of feet long and cut

through solid bedrock.

Carving it by hand would have taken years.

Why?

Why they will build this tunnel?

Why they will do such a big effort?

Could the huge amount of time invested to dig

and decorate this tunnel be evidence that it leads to

Cleopatra's long-lost tomb?

Kathleen ventures deeper.

Oh! Wow.

In Alexandria,

Meredith investigates what led to Cleopatra's mysterious death.

In the heart of her capital are the ancient ruins

of Kom El Dekka.

Oh, this is an incredible site.

It's completely preserved.

This is stunning.

Looking around there is no ancient Egypt here.

There is this amphitheater, a public bath, broad streets.

Everything about this space is Roman.

At Kom el Dekka, there is no trace of

Cleopatra's mix of Egyptian and Greek culture.

It's evidence of a complete Roman takeover.

Julius Caesar's adopted son, Octavian,

was threatened by Cleopatra and Marc Antony's alliance.

A year after declaring war, he made his move.

Octavian amassed a vast navy and attacked Cleopatra

and Marc Anthony's combined forces.

The fleets clashed off the coast of Greece.

Octavian's navy won the day,

and Marc Anthony and Cleopatra each fled.

According to legend, Marc Antony later heard

rumors Cleopatra was dead,

so he fell on his sword to join her in the afterlife.

But Cleopatra was alive.

She rushed to his side, and he died in her arms.

Marc Antony's death was the first step in Octavian

becoming the sole ruler and dictator of Rome.

But that wasn't enough for Octavian.

He was ambitions,

he wanted to expand the empire and he had

his eyes set on the wealth of Egypt.

Only Cleopatra stood in his way.

Cleopatra was a smart ruler.

She was capable and despite all the challenges she kept

Egypt safe and prosperous for a long time.

But she had backed the wrong guy.

Her empire was in tatters,

her lover was dead and Rome was breathing down her neck.

Cleopatra, she had run out of options.

Legends say Cleopatra took her own life,

using the venomous bite of a cobra.

Octavian had invaded Egypt,

and now searched for her son and heir, Caesarion,

but he had fled to the east coast.

The young king returned to Alexandria to beg for mercy.

But Octavian ordered his death.

The age of the pharaohs was over.

The death of Marc Antony,

Cleopatra and her son gave full uncontested control of

Egypt to Octavian.

Octavian became Rome's first emperor and took

the title, Augustus.

Egypt became a province of his huge empire.

The Egypt that had survived for 3,000 years

was no more.

And Cleopatra's body, and tomb,

have never been found.

At Taposiris Magna...

Kathleen is about 100 feet into the tunnel,

when she suddenly spots something behind the debris.

Oh!

I'm not able to walk but I can see,

I can see over there, there is an entrance!

Just trying to see as much as possible.

If we're lucky, we can see what is beyond the rubbish.

It continues, you can see clear the tunnel continues,

this is it.

The entrance is a tantalizing clue.

Could it lead to an underground tomb?

Perhaps even the lost tomb of Cleopatra?

I have a hunch and I think I, I

I'm about to solve this mystery with this door.

Yes.

Oh...

After 30 minutes in the tunnel,

Kathleen is forced to return to the surface for fresh air.

I'm so tired and my, my, my boots are slippery.

A huge mound of rubble blocks the mystery

entrance inside the tunnel.

Kathleen won't be able to clear it before her permits

run out in a few days' time, but the tunnel and the void

beyond it are more promising than she had hoped.

After all these years,

you can't imagine the excitement to go down and

really explore.

The tomb of Cleopatra might be down there.

I'm really very proud of the work we're doing here.

So, let's, we applaud for all my team and all this effort.

After years of searching,

Kathleen could be closer than ever to discovering

the lost tomb of Cleopatra.

These tunnels are leading us to probably one of

the major discoveries of this century.

Every season, archaeologists unearth new

clues about Egypt's last pharaoh.

Their evidence shows Cleopatra skillfully ruled over a hybrid

Greek-Egyptian society.

She forged clever alliances to secure her throne and

keep Egypt safe.

But she got caught up in Octavian's plans for domination.

As he engulfed Egypt in a violent war,

Cleopatra might have had no other escape but to commit

suicide and hide her tomb from his wrath.

She outsmarted the Romans.

She outsmarted the most powerful army on earth,

and I believe they brought her here and she disappeared

at Taposiris Magna.

But while Cleopatra was defeated,

her memory lives on and captures the imagination

to this day.