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2700 BC. The Old Kingdom,
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or the age of pyramids, begins.
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This is Egypt's golden age.
Its power is at its height.
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No enemies threaten its internal security.
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And yet, after five centuries of existence,
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the kingdom is consumed by
fire, bloodshed, and chaos.
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A man, the scribe Ipuwer,
relates this terrible episode,
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how the pyramids were plundered,
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and how as a result of this sacrilege,
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Egyptian society collapsed.
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"There are plunderers everywhere," he writes.
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"Hearts are violent. Squalor
is throughout the land."
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The revolution reduces the
pharaonic monuments to ashes.
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Why did the people rise up?
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Why did they suddenly attack
what they held as most sacred?
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Saqqara, south of Cairo.
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In the necropolis of King Pepi I,
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the last great pharaoh of the Old Kingdom,
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French archaeologist Audran Labrousse
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is investigating this revolution.
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For the past 30 years he has excavated
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and studied these ruins.
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He knows exactly what these monuments looked like
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before the course of history swept them away.
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This is the king's pyramid,
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surrounded by those of his eight queens
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and his funerary temple, which would be burnt down
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during the revolution.
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Only an elite handful of priests
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could enter this hallowed space.
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Fewer still were allowed to go around these statues
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and up to the offering table,
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where the deceased sovereign took his daily meals.
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This temple, to which the rioters never had access,
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embodied the absolute power of
a small group of Egyptians.
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It is probable that it was set alight deliberately.
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This is what the remains
unearthed by the archaeologists
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seemed to indicate.
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It was a terrible fire.
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This is obvious from the stone's surface.
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These white stones turned gray.
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The heat must have been sufficiently intense
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for it to penetrate the stone.
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These stones were burnt to the core.
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You have to remember that we
are in the temple storerooms.
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These storerooms contain everything
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used for the king's posthumous cult.
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There were chests, fabrics, wooden objects, oils,
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tallow for the temple's torches.
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In other words, highly flammable materials.
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And we can see that it was not an isolated fire,
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but a widespread fire.
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One storeroom did not burn down by accident.
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All the storerooms went up.
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This means the fire must have
been started in several spots,
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in several locations.
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It's an indication of the violent
nature of this revolution.
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You have to imagine this gigantic necropolis
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which stretches out over 50 kilometers
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plundered, pillaged, destroyed.
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This is what the Egyptians had feared
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since the beginning of their history:
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chaos, widespread chaos.
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In 30 years of excavations,
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Audran Labrousse and his team
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have discovered the pyramids of eight queens:
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the wives, daughters, and possibly
granddaughters of Pepi I,
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people who have lived in the century
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leading up to the kingdom's demise.
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In some of these pyramids the archaeologists
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have found items vital for
understanding the revolution
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that put an end to ancient Egypt's golden age.
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This is the case of the pyramid of Queen Behanu.
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Our latest find is the burial
chamber of a minor queen,
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probably from the end of the Old Kingdom.
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And yet, inside her chamber
she has the Pyramid Texts.
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These texts guaranteed their owner immortality
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and a smooth passage to the afterlife.
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Until then, the Pyramid Texts had only
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been inscribed on the walls
of king's burial chambers.
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Here, for the first time, the archaeologists
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have found these texts inside
the pyramids of some queens.
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Is there a link between these precious hieroglyphs
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which gave those who owned them eternal life,
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and the revolution that
destroyed the Egyptian state
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and its symbols?
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Audran Labrousse hopes to find
the answer to this question
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in the remains of the age of pyramids.
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Five centuries of history, and 14 pharaohs.
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The pyramids of the Old Kingdom were built
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on a strip of desert next to
Memphis, the kingdom's capital.
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The clues to the disaster are to be found here,
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in this vast necropolis.
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Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure.
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To understand the fall of the Old Kingdom,
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we have to go back to its height.
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A time of excess.
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The pyramid of Khufu.
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146 meters tall, 230 meters wide at the base.
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Khafre's pyramid is almost identical.
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It is just three meters smaller than his father's.
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When the pharaoh's mummy is placed inside,
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his life force takes possession of the stone.
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The pyramid becomes the sovereign's body,
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and his immense power lasts forever.
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The pharaoh is God's representative on earth,
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and he alone has this extraordinary privilege
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of being able to triumph over death,
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and of having eternal life.
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At the same time, he has other powers.
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He can, if he so wishes,
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bestow immortality on anyone he likes,
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from the lowliest servant, to the queen.
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Everyone is equal before the pharaoh,
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but he can choose, and take,
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whoever he wishes to the afterlife.
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This stone slab from Khufu's time
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gives us an idea of the sovereign's absolute power.
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A man called Ra'ur describes how he inadvertently
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knocked over the king's scepter.
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He is convinced he will be killed immediately,
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when the pharaoh gives the order to spare his life.
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So death is the rule, even for a simple blunder.
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52 meters high, Khufu's burial chamber
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is located in the heart of the pyramid.
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It is built entirely of heavy granite slabs,
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weighing over 60 tons each.
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Unlike what would soon be the case,
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the walls are bare of inscriptions.
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There is no formula here
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to ensure the pharaoh's resurrection.
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Probably copied onto papyrus, the text is read out
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at his funeral by his son, or a priest.
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Words were enough to imbue the king
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with the formula's power.
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It is a combination of prayers, practical advice,
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and even magic formulas, designed to help the king
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to overcome the countless difficulties
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encountered along the way.
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Having overcome these obstacles,
having gotten around them,
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having tried all the solutions,
he will rise to heaven
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and meld with the personality of the creator
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and reign with him for eternity in the night's sky.
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The king's soul, the ba, leaves his tomb
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as a bird with a human head.
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It undergoes another transformation
and turns into the akh,
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the energy of life, which
becomes part of the starry sky
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to achieve immortality.
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It then returns to earth to dwell in a new pharaoh.
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It's a perfect system.
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But the great Khufu, the pharaoh
with a fearsome reputation
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has a moment of weakness.
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He grants an immense privilege
to three of his wives,
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allowing them to have their own pyramids.
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This is the start of the
queen's ascension to power.
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Over time, they strive incessantly
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to obtain more and more privileges.
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But here we have the start
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of the loss of a pharaoh's privilege.
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And not just any privilege, either.
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For now, the consequences
are probably limited.
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The pharaoh, a living god, can afford to make
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such concession without any real danger to himself.
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All the same, by giving up the pyramid, the king
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has just lost the absolute
monopoly of eternal life.
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A century later, King Unas comes to the throne.
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A new clue reveals that royal
power continued to weaken,
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with consequences that would soon be very dramatic.
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The pharaoh's name is carved
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on the entrance to his temple.
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It is inscribed in what is known as a cartouche.
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It's a hare, the sign of water,
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a folded hankerchief, and a reed.
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It is very easy to read.
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WU-N-I-S. Wunis, who is
traditionally known as Unas.
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Here you can see the pyramid's casing.
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It has been destroyed by the sand,
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by the action of man.
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This pyramid has seen 4,000 years of history.
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Its sides were polished and smooth.
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The joins were invisible.
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The entire pyramid was gleaming white.
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It was almost ethereal.
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And when the sun hit the top of the pyramid
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it must have been quite magical.
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Of course it was smaller.
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It was only 52 meters in height,
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nothing like Khufu's 146 meter height pyramid.
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However, it had an extra something,
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which has been preserved in the funerary apartments
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that we're going to enter now.
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What went on in King Unas' mind?
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Which events made him revolutionize
Egyptian funerary art?
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This is what Audran Labrousse would like to know.
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Something extraordinary happened here.
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For the first time in the history of Egypt,
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the Pyramid Texts were carved
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on the walls of the funerary apartments.
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This was a totally new thing, a new stage.
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From then on, all the royal
pyramids would have these texts.
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227 incantations were chosen by the pharaoh
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for his eternal resting place.
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Each of these is a key to his resurrection.
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"Oh Unas, you have not gone dead.
You have gone alive."
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"Sit on the throne of Osiris."
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"Your scepter is now in your hand"
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"that you may give orders to the living."
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At any time the king can appeal to the Texts,
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animate them, call them to him,
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so that they can help him be reborn in eternity.
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The miracle of rebirth is
the same as for Khufu.
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But Unas gives himself an additional guarantee.
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If forgotten, the king's spirit absorbs magic words
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so that his final transformation occurs smoothly.
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So why did King Unas feel the need
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to cover the walls of his
apartment with the Pyramid Texts?
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Before, these texts would have
been recited at the funeral.
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They were only recited once.
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Then the tomb was closed.
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Here the king's approach reflects his anxiety.
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He wanted the text to act continuously,
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to be arranged around him,
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in order to help him join the cosmos
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in the eternity of the afterlife.
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Did King Unas doubt his ability
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to achieve eternal life?
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Did he have doubts about his divine nature?
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Or simply about his entourage
who could have, for instance,
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neglected to read the Texts at his funeral?
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Over 4,300 years after his death,
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it is obviously impossible to know.
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However, the archaeologists know a lot more
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about his successor, King Teti,
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whose pyramid is located a few kilometers away.
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Here, Audran Labrousse is investigating
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with another archaeologist.
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Naguib Kanawati spent several years
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excavating King Teti's necropolis.
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The first anomaly is to be
found inside the king's tomb.
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Teti's pyramid, and particularly
the funerary chamber,
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it's rather exceptional because
it is largely unfinished.
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One gets the impression building work
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came to an abrupt halt.
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Even the sarcophagus, it's resting on planks.
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It should have been placed
directly on the stone floor.
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So we have something here,
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a kind of an abrupt end to the building work.
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Of course, here, the star ceiling,
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as is the case everywhere
else, protects the pharaoh.
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But the extraordinary thing
about this vaulted ceiling
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is that the grid was laid out, and the stars drawn,
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but never painted.
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It is exactly the same thing for the Texts.
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They were laid out, clearly inscribed
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in preparation for the sculptor.
256
00:20:07,655 --> 00:20:11,170
They were partially carved, but never finished.
257
00:20:11,805 --> 00:20:13,456
There can only be one explanation
258
00:20:13,457 --> 00:20:16,985
for the state of this tomb: the king died suddenly
259
00:20:16,986 --> 00:20:19,703
and his funeral was held immediately.
260
00:20:19,704 --> 00:20:22,743
This makes murder a serious possibility.
261
00:20:22,744 --> 00:20:27,475
The historian, the Egyptian
historian, priest, Manetho,
262
00:20:27,476 --> 00:20:29,373
who lived in the third century BC
263
00:20:29,374 --> 00:20:32,433
and who was educated in both Egyptian and Greek,
264
00:20:32,434 --> 00:20:36,619
and possibly had access to
documents which are lost to us,
265
00:20:36,620 --> 00:20:41,620
said that King Teti was
assassinated by his bodyguards.
266
00:20:41,827 --> 00:20:45,301
This is the first documented case
267
00:20:45,302 --> 00:20:48,320
of a king assassinated in Ancient Egypt.
268
00:20:50,346 --> 00:20:52,598
Manetho says nothing about the reasons
269
00:20:52,599 --> 00:20:56,176
for the assassination, or the people behind it.
270
00:20:56,338 --> 00:20:59,449
It was therefore necessary to
find evidence of the murder
271
00:20:59,450 --> 00:21:02,095
and identify the possible culprits.
272
00:21:10,999 --> 00:21:12,840
Naguib Kanawati and his team
273
00:21:12,841 --> 00:21:15,415
looked around the king's pyramid.
274
00:21:17,664 --> 00:21:20,601
Before they died, men serving during Teti's reign
275
00:21:20,602 --> 00:21:23,216
had their tombs built here.
276
00:21:24,698 --> 00:21:26,371
The archaeologists found them
277
00:21:26,372 --> 00:21:29,932
and so discovered some very valuable information.
278
00:21:38,363 --> 00:21:40,245
Each of these tombs bears the marks
279
00:21:40,246 --> 00:21:43,993
of the most terrible of
punishments in Ancient Egypt.
280
00:21:50,378 --> 00:21:53,886
It is no longer possible for
the deceased soul, the ka,
281
00:21:53,887 --> 00:21:55,978
to live in his image.
282
00:21:56,389 --> 00:22:00,032
So the individual is doomed to wander for eternity.
283
00:22:09,907 --> 00:22:13,098
When we look at the offering table
284
00:22:13,260 --> 00:22:17,940
and the food that is really represented
285
00:22:17,941 --> 00:22:20,523
in front of the offering
table, they are all intact.
286
00:22:20,524 --> 00:22:24,137
Even the color is very well preserved.
287
00:22:25,767 --> 00:22:29,141
But when we look at the figure of the tomb owner,
288
00:22:29,142 --> 00:22:34,142
all the outline inward have been chiseled out,
289
00:22:34,429 --> 00:22:36,708
and also the name has been chiseled out.
290
00:22:36,709 --> 00:22:39,030
And we can still recognize the head,
291
00:22:39,031 --> 00:22:43,953
the arm stretched to the offering table.
292
00:22:43,954 --> 00:22:45,905
This is not complete elimination,
293
00:22:45,906 --> 00:22:47,654
this is damage to the figure.
294
00:22:47,655 --> 00:22:49,948
You cannot really recognize his figures.
295
00:22:49,949 --> 00:22:54,949
And that means he's finished
completely, he executed,
296
00:22:55,707 --> 00:23:00,707
and the ka cannot live in such a figure.
297
00:23:00,894 --> 00:23:03,143
Remember that the king is a god,
298
00:23:03,144 --> 00:23:06,993
and killing the king is like killing your God.
299
00:23:06,994 --> 00:23:11,454
And that is not only criminal but shameful.
300
00:23:13,771 --> 00:23:17,057
Two pieces of information escaped destruction:
301
00:23:17,058 --> 00:23:19,802
the wife, probably innocent of the plot,
302
00:23:19,803 --> 00:23:22,572
and a mention of the owner's identity.
303
00:23:23,302 --> 00:23:25,845
Shanquipta, the king's doctor,
304
00:23:25,846 --> 00:23:29,260
ostracized from society for eternity.
305
00:23:32,542 --> 00:23:36,069
The second tomb discovered by Naguib Kanawati
306
00:23:36,070 --> 00:23:37,879
and the second alleged participant
307
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:40,568
in the conspiracy against the king.
308
00:23:40,663 --> 00:23:43,157
Here the sentence is not death,
309
00:23:43,158 --> 00:23:45,733
but something equally terrible.
310
00:23:47,358 --> 00:23:48,864
This man is called Mehri.
311
00:23:48,865 --> 00:23:52,620
He's head of the bodyguards of King Teti.
312
00:23:52,621 --> 00:23:56,139
His name is inscribed here,
313
00:23:56,140 --> 00:23:58,946
and perfectly well preserved.
314
00:23:58,947 --> 00:24:03,057
We noticed that his feet are cut,
315
00:24:03,058 --> 00:24:04,727
and here once more.
316
00:24:04,728 --> 00:24:06,737
So both legs were cut.
317
00:24:06,738 --> 00:24:08,758
Plus the nose.
318
00:24:08,759 --> 00:24:13,234
The nose here, here, here, and indeed,
319
00:24:13,235 --> 00:24:16,942
also on the first door where
he sits at the offering table
320
00:24:16,943 --> 00:24:21,420
we notice that his nose is
damaged and the feet are cut.
321
00:24:21,421 --> 00:24:24,538
According to the Egyptian belief,
322
00:24:24,539 --> 00:24:26,958
if you cut the legs off someone in life,
323
00:24:26,959 --> 00:24:28,847
obviously he is crippled.
324
00:24:28,848 --> 00:24:32,336
But his ka can live in his statue,
325
00:24:32,337 --> 00:24:34,075
which is not really damaged,
326
00:24:34,076 --> 00:24:36,926
or in an image like this one.
327
00:24:37,149 --> 00:24:38,863
For the punishment to be perpetual
328
00:24:38,864 --> 00:24:40,975
and to last into hereafter,
329
00:24:40,976 --> 00:24:44,439
it has to be inflicted not only on his body,
330
00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:48,195
but on all his statues and artwork.
331
00:24:51,176 --> 00:24:55,298
This tomb belongs to a
vizier, or prime minister.
332
00:24:57,529 --> 00:25:00,607
At least that is what these hieroglyphs say.
333
00:25:00,849 --> 00:25:02,506
They are remarkable in comparison
334
00:25:02,507 --> 00:25:04,745
with those on the next column.
335
00:25:05,843 --> 00:25:09,859
Hypothesis? The tomb had two owners.
336
00:25:09,860 --> 00:25:13,514
The first, the vizier, was eliminated.
337
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:19,209
The figures have been removed everywhere.
338
00:25:19,210 --> 00:25:22,640
Here, here, here. And very smooth.
339
00:25:24,803 --> 00:25:29,065
Only the toe has just been omitted.
340
00:25:29,993 --> 00:25:33,749
This hypothesis is confirmed inside the tomb.
341
00:25:33,750 --> 00:25:35,487
The name of the new owner is inscribed
342
00:25:35,488 --> 00:25:37,523
in hieroglyphs of poor quality,
343
00:25:37,524 --> 00:25:40,272
and his image has been roughly carved.
344
00:25:41,986 --> 00:25:44,846
There is nothing about his predecessor.
345
00:25:49,272 --> 00:25:51,470
I became obsessed with this name.
346
00:25:51,471 --> 00:25:54,736
Who is he, this person who,
if there is a conspiracy,
347
00:25:54,737 --> 00:25:58,399
he must be the leader of the conspiracy.
This is a vizier.
348
00:25:58,669 --> 00:26:03,669
But there was no hint in the tomb, until we blocked
349
00:26:04,059 --> 00:26:08,448
this door in order to photograph it for publication
350
00:26:08,449 --> 00:26:13,115
and here we found the name
extremely well preserved.
351
00:26:13,116 --> 00:26:16,570
You can read the name here, Hesi.
352
00:26:16,571 --> 00:26:21,188
How the person in charge missed it,
353
00:26:21,189 --> 00:26:25,492
possibly because of the light coming from the north
354
00:26:25,493 --> 00:26:29,402
he was blinded and couldn't
see this part of the tomb.
355
00:26:30,538 --> 00:26:34,515
Hesi was probably executed
on the orders of Pepi I,
356
00:26:34,516 --> 00:26:37,186
the son of the assassinated pharaoh.
357
00:26:39,258 --> 00:26:41,853
The head bodyguard and king's personal doctor
358
00:26:41,854 --> 00:26:43,942
were also punished.
359
00:26:47,290 --> 00:26:49,595
The fact remains that simple commoners
360
00:26:49,596 --> 00:26:51,824
dared assassinate the king,
361
00:26:53,659 --> 00:26:56,737
a first in the history of Egypt.
362
00:27:01,117 --> 00:27:04,294
The pharaoh was God's representative on earth.
363
00:27:04,295 --> 00:27:08,546
He maintains truth, law, and universal order.
364
00:27:08,547 --> 00:27:12,712
If you kill the pharaoh, you
unleash the forces of chaos.
365
00:27:12,713 --> 00:27:14,273
Everything might collapse.
366
00:27:14,274 --> 00:27:16,768
The pharaoh is universal balance.
367
00:27:16,769 --> 00:27:20,435
If you destroy this balance, you
release the forces of chaos
368
00:27:20,436 --> 00:27:23,068
always lying in wait to destroy things.
369
00:27:24,244 --> 00:27:26,962
And this can have disastrous consequences.
370
00:27:26,963 --> 00:27:30,683
It can be, in a sense, the end of the world.
371
00:27:32,866 --> 00:27:38,441
However, contrary to
expectations, life continues.
372
00:27:39,532 --> 00:27:41,161
So does the existence of the world
373
00:27:41,162 --> 00:27:43,697
really depend on the pharaoh?
374
00:27:51,677 --> 00:27:54,291
Back to the burial ground of Pepi I,
375
00:27:54,292 --> 00:27:56,845
son of the assassinated king.
376
00:27:57,380 --> 00:27:59,485
Audran Labrousse and his team have made some
377
00:27:59,486 --> 00:28:03,317
significant finds regarding the
demise of the Old Kingdom.
378
00:28:08,060 --> 00:28:12,717
After our work in the mission, after the digs,
379
00:28:12,718 --> 00:28:15,669
we obviously had to protect our finds,
380
00:28:15,670 --> 00:28:19,141
especially Pepi's Pyramid Texts.
381
00:28:19,142 --> 00:28:22,453
So we have a reinforced door, and we are building
382
00:28:22,454 --> 00:28:25,929
a cement wall on top to protect this door.
383
00:28:27,054 --> 00:28:28,780
The fact is this pyramid contains
384
00:28:28,781 --> 00:28:31,348
the greatest number of Pyramid Texts.
385
00:28:31,586 --> 00:28:35,828
It is the most complete sixth
dynasty pyramid with Texts.
386
00:28:53,653 --> 00:28:55,979
After a brief period of disorder following
387
00:28:55,980 --> 00:29:00,862
Teti's assassination, Pepi I comes to the throne.
388
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:07,723
On the face of it, divine
monarchy has been fully restored.
389
00:29:10,358 --> 00:29:15,358
But we are actually less than
a century away from disaster.
390
00:29:19,593 --> 00:29:21,631
Audran Labrousse and his team have excavated
391
00:29:21,632 --> 00:29:24,597
and restored the pharaoh's pyramid.
392
00:29:26,219 --> 00:29:27,975
And the first thing they discovered
393
00:29:27,976 --> 00:29:30,931
were the after effects of the revolution.
394
00:29:45,713 --> 00:29:47,916
Here you can see the descending door
395
00:29:47,917 --> 00:29:50,171
that blocks the passage.
396
00:29:50,305 --> 00:29:52,736
This huge, seven ton door,
397
00:29:52,737 --> 00:29:56,208
was raised during the pyramid's construction.
398
00:29:56,638 --> 00:29:58,490
After the king's funeral,
399
00:29:58,491 --> 00:30:00,956
when the doors were lowered to the ground,
400
00:30:00,957 --> 00:30:03,193
which was also made of granite,
401
00:30:03,194 --> 00:30:06,190
it would have been impossible to get through here.
402
00:30:12,347 --> 00:30:14,556
It's obvious that the people who
403
00:30:14,557 --> 00:30:16,445
got through these security systems
404
00:30:16,446 --> 00:30:19,998
were perfectly familiar with the pyramid's layout.
405
00:30:20,269 --> 00:30:22,693
They knew where the obstacles were,
406
00:30:22,694 --> 00:30:25,274
and they knew how to get around them.
407
00:30:27,388 --> 00:30:29,753
Instead of going along the entrance passage,
408
00:30:29,754 --> 00:30:33,501
the thieves dug through the
pyramid's limestone walls.
409
00:30:33,564 --> 00:30:36,742
Limestone is much softer than granite.
410
00:30:40,158 --> 00:30:42,941
When they reached the three
doors they got round them
411
00:30:42,942 --> 00:30:46,547
by tunneling through the
slide slots in the ceiling.
412
00:30:52,387 --> 00:30:55,565
They could then walk straight into the king's tomb.
413
00:31:09,686 --> 00:31:11,388
What did the tomb raiders see
414
00:31:11,389 --> 00:31:13,593
when they entered this pyramid?
415
00:31:14,512 --> 00:31:17,754
The first thing they saw was
all the gold in this chamber,
416
00:31:17,755 --> 00:31:21,306
all the items the pharaoh took
with him to the afterlife.
417
00:31:23,141 --> 00:31:27,705
Gold statues, chests, fabrics.
418
00:31:27,706 --> 00:31:29,944
But that isn't what interested them.
419
00:31:29,945 --> 00:31:32,150
They were interested in the king's mummy,
420
00:31:32,151 --> 00:31:34,432
that's what they headed for.
421
00:31:35,418 --> 00:31:37,156
First to this granite chest
422
00:31:37,157 --> 00:31:39,711
that contained the royal entrails.
423
00:31:39,741 --> 00:31:42,988
There were four canopic vases in the bottom of it.
424
00:31:43,415 --> 00:31:46,676
These vases were removed and destroyed.
425
00:31:47,899 --> 00:31:52,201
Only one survived, and we were able to retrieve it.
426
00:31:53,348 --> 00:31:57,501
This is all that remains of the king's mummy.
427
00:31:59,087 --> 00:32:00,988
In the middle ages, the tomb's ceiling
428
00:32:00,989 --> 00:32:03,808
collapsed onto the sarcophagus.
429
00:32:05,296 --> 00:32:07,486
This pyramid actually served as a quarry
430
00:32:07,487 --> 00:32:09,853
for the building of Cairo.
431
00:32:11,409 --> 00:32:14,094
The archaeologists painstakingly excavated
432
00:32:14,095 --> 00:32:18,522
this pile of stones, and found
the remains of the carnage.
433
00:32:24,566 --> 00:32:28,171
Two pieces of Pepi I's loincloth.
434
00:32:30,670 --> 00:32:34,146
One of the king's sandals, and
two pieces of the gold plaque
435
00:32:34,147 --> 00:32:36,946
on which the pharaoh's mummy rested.
436
00:32:37,849 --> 00:32:40,840
The royal dynasty was the target.
437
00:32:41,270 --> 00:32:45,332
All the pyramids were plundered,
all the sarcophagi opened,
438
00:32:45,333 --> 00:32:48,339
all the mummies destroyed.
439
00:32:49,499 --> 00:32:51,047
It's a bit like what happened at the time
440
00:32:51,048 --> 00:32:53,150
of the French revolution in Saint Denis,
441
00:32:53,151 --> 00:32:54,647
when the tombs were opened,
442
00:32:54,648 --> 00:32:58,745
and the corpses were mutilated
and thrown into a mass grave.
443
00:32:59,463 --> 00:33:02,198
This was a time of unbelievable violence,
444
00:33:02,199 --> 00:33:05,738
directed, one could almost say, at a royal caste.
445
00:33:05,739 --> 00:33:07,273
Directed against all the pharaohs
446
00:33:07,274 --> 00:33:10,278
who descended from a divine bloodline.
447
00:33:12,152 --> 00:33:13,731
Of all the Old Kingdom mummies,
448
00:33:13,732 --> 00:33:16,345
the only one to have been found almost intact
449
00:33:16,346 --> 00:33:20,049
is that of Merenre I, Pepi's son.
450
00:33:27,534 --> 00:33:30,880
The others were probably reduced to dust.
451
00:33:35,590 --> 00:33:38,731
Why did the system collapse on itself?
452
00:33:41,836 --> 00:33:45,722
Were the warning signs as early as Pepi I's reign?
453
00:33:52,292 --> 00:33:55,130
The answer lies around the king's pyramid,
454
00:33:55,131 --> 00:33:56,826
where Audran Labrousse has unearthed
455
00:33:56,827 --> 00:33:59,746
eight small queen's pyramids.
456
00:34:04,301 --> 00:34:07,492
The first piece of information revealed by the dig:
457
00:34:07,493 --> 00:34:11,795
the plots continued in Pepi I's reign.
458
00:34:12,104 --> 00:34:14,682
This is what the discovery of the anonymous pyramid
459
00:34:14,683 --> 00:34:16,835
leads us to suppose.
460
00:34:19,232 --> 00:34:22,065
No inscription has been found, but its size,
461
00:34:22,066 --> 00:34:26,175
20 meters high, suggests
this was a queen's monument.
462
00:34:28,195 --> 00:34:30,238
Then there is the quality of the stone
463
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:32,288
found in her tomb.
464
00:34:34,107 --> 00:34:36,194
This is granite.
465
00:34:36,347 --> 00:34:40,968
A fragment of a sarcophagus, a queen's sarcophagus.
466
00:34:41,305 --> 00:34:44,730
I am greatly tempted to say that she was the queen
467
00:34:44,731 --> 00:34:47,271
involved in the conspiracy.
468
00:34:49,770 --> 00:34:51,460
A man known as Uni
469
00:34:51,461 --> 00:34:54,100
mentions the queen involved in the conspiracy
470
00:34:54,101 --> 00:34:57,625
on this slab housed in the Cairo museum.
471
00:34:57,897 --> 00:35:01,397
Uni says he organized the trial of the king's wife,
472
00:35:01,398 --> 00:35:05,657
his favorite, in the utmost secrecy.
473
00:35:06,259 --> 00:35:08,655
He does not say what became of her,
474
00:35:08,656 --> 00:35:12,052
but there is no mention of her after this.
475
00:35:17,229 --> 00:35:21,698
For all that, Pepi I still had
time for ambitious women.
476
00:35:22,650 --> 00:35:24,649
He even appointed one of his wives,
477
00:35:24,650 --> 00:35:28,024
Queen Inenek-Inti, as prime minister.
478
00:35:29,050 --> 00:35:32,645
French archaeologists have found her pyramid.
479
00:35:34,756 --> 00:35:39,756
Despite its modest size, it is
every inch a royal monument.
480
00:35:41,348 --> 00:35:44,092
The large granite sarcophagus is also a sign
481
00:35:44,093 --> 00:35:46,508
of her political importance.
482
00:35:49,519 --> 00:35:51,429
And yet all of this is nothing
483
00:35:51,430 --> 00:35:54,257
in comparison with its neighbor.
484
00:35:55,552 --> 00:35:58,959
Queen Ankhesenpepi II.
485
00:36:12,491 --> 00:36:14,713
Everything is bigger here.
486
00:36:14,986 --> 00:36:19,943
The temple is huge, and the
pyramid is 30 meters tall,
487
00:36:20,382 --> 00:36:23,330
instead of the usual 20 meters for queens.
488
00:36:23,963 --> 00:36:26,989
But the most important thing is inside.
489
00:36:29,032 --> 00:36:32,226
Ankhesenpepi II, the king's mother
490
00:36:32,227 --> 00:36:35,223
and regent of the kingdom of Egypt.
491
00:36:41,688 --> 00:36:44,820
This sarcophagus is magnificent.
492
00:36:44,933 --> 00:36:47,875
It's one of the finest
examples from the Old Kingdom.
493
00:36:48,058 --> 00:36:51,427
It is very evidently a king's sarcophagus,
494
00:36:51,428 --> 00:36:54,603
and yet it was made for a queen, for a woman,
495
00:36:54,604 --> 00:36:58,751
Queen Ankhesenpepi, whose name is engraved here
496
00:36:58,752 --> 00:37:00,891
on the side of the sarcophagus.
497
00:37:00,892 --> 00:37:03,553
You obviously have to imagine all these hieroglyphs
498
00:37:03,554 --> 00:37:05,366
plated with gold.
499
00:37:10,228 --> 00:37:13,891
And all around it, you have the Pyramid Texts.
500
00:37:13,892 --> 00:37:17,834
Someone who is not a pharaoh
has the immortality texts.
501
00:37:18,101 --> 00:37:21,391
This person is Queen Ankhesenpepi.
502
00:37:24,062 --> 00:37:26,738
One very interesting detail:
503
00:37:27,013 --> 00:37:31,152
As in her husband's tomb, the texts are green.
504
00:37:32,791 --> 00:37:35,123
It's the green of rebirth.
505
00:37:35,275 --> 00:37:38,197
The queen will be able to leave the sarcophagus.
506
00:37:38,209 --> 00:37:40,755
The mummy stays where it is, of course.
507
00:37:40,870 --> 00:37:43,331
But thanks to a number of transformations,
508
00:37:43,332 --> 00:37:46,659
the queen's soul will leave the sarcophagus,
509
00:37:46,660 --> 00:37:49,346
fly through the room,
510
00:37:49,347 --> 00:37:52,419
then go along the pyramid's entrance passage
511
00:37:52,420 --> 00:37:55,170
which is rather like a launching pad
512
00:37:55,171 --> 00:37:58,911
and will take this soul to
the stars of the night sky,
513
00:37:58,912 --> 00:38:00,596
to eternity.
514
00:38:01,579 --> 00:38:03,344
At the time of the revolution,
515
00:38:03,345 --> 00:38:07,591
the sarcophagus was opened and
the queen's mummy destroyed.
516
00:38:08,051 --> 00:38:11,424
What's left of the royal remains, a few bones,
517
00:38:11,425 --> 00:38:14,416
and this very moving trace of embalming products
518
00:38:14,417 --> 00:38:17,316
which ran down the side of the sarcophagus.
519
00:38:21,329 --> 00:38:24,129
In a neighboring room, Audran Labrousse
520
00:38:24,130 --> 00:38:26,695
has stored the reliefs found in the temple
521
00:38:26,696 --> 00:38:29,130
of the cult of the queen.
522
00:38:29,883 --> 00:38:33,919
One of these reliefs describes
her extraordinary ascension.
523
00:38:34,569 --> 00:38:38,238
Wife of Pepi I, she then married his son
524
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:43,606
and successor, Merenre I,
to whom she gave an heir,
525
00:38:43,607 --> 00:38:46,645
the future pharaoh Pepi II.
526
00:39:00,784 --> 00:39:04,825
She was a woman who had power, it's obvious.
527
00:39:04,826 --> 00:39:06,584
She was a powerful woman,
528
00:39:06,585 --> 00:39:10,588
and she needed power in this
man's world to govern Egypt.
529
00:39:10,589 --> 00:39:13,860
Not only to govern the
country, but at the same time
530
00:39:13,861 --> 00:39:17,230
to be able to acquire immortality herself.
531
00:39:18,284 --> 00:39:20,783
It was not at all certain at first.
532
00:39:20,784 --> 00:39:23,040
And in doing so, she made a first breach
533
00:39:23,041 --> 00:39:25,560
in this exclusive power of the pharaoh,
534
00:39:25,561 --> 00:39:28,413
this power that gave him immortality.
535
00:39:28,539 --> 00:39:30,950
And that's when it all started.
536
00:39:32,281 --> 00:39:34,717
Many people, the Egyptian elite,
537
00:39:34,718 --> 00:39:36,526
then stepped into this breach
538
00:39:36,527 --> 00:39:39,715
and obtained the right to immortality too.
539
00:39:39,780 --> 00:39:42,133
In other words, it was the end
540
00:39:42,134 --> 00:39:44,188
of one man's exclusive privilege,
541
00:39:44,189 --> 00:39:47,669
the pharaohs, all thanks to this woman.
542
00:39:52,073 --> 00:39:54,496
When she had herself depicted with her son,
543
00:39:54,497 --> 00:39:57,312
the queen is looking straight ahead.
544
00:39:57,313 --> 00:40:01,108
Whereas the king, the incarnation of God on earth,
545
00:40:01,109 --> 00:40:03,133
is in profile.
546
00:40:07,958 --> 00:40:10,263
She also had him watched.
547
00:40:10,264 --> 00:40:14,961
This papyrus is the report
written by Jeti, her informer.
548
00:40:15,005 --> 00:40:17,744
His revelations concern the most intimate details
549
00:40:17,745 --> 00:40:19,690
of the king's life.
550
00:40:21,444 --> 00:40:23,482
"Jeti notice his majesty,
551
00:40:23,483 --> 00:40:25,543
"the king of upper and lower Egypt,
552
00:40:25,544 --> 00:40:28,464
"who had set out by himself on a walk at night
553
00:40:28,465 --> 00:40:31,515
"without there being any person with him.
554
00:40:31,516 --> 00:40:33,491
"Then Jeti followed this god
555
00:40:33,492 --> 00:40:36,480
"without letting his heart put blame on him.
556
00:40:36,788 --> 00:40:40,037
"The king reached the house
of the general Sesseneh.
557
00:40:40,644 --> 00:40:42,078
"He threw a brick as a signal"
558
00:40:42,079 --> 00:40:44,014
"for a ladder to be lowered to him."
559
00:40:44,611 --> 00:40:49,179
"He climbed up, and Jeti waited
until his majesty went away."
560
00:40:49,434 --> 00:40:51,127
"After his majesty had done that"
561
00:40:51,128 --> 00:40:53,641
"which he had wanted to do with the general,"
562
00:40:53,642 --> 00:40:58,409
"he left for his palace,
Jeti following behind him."
563
00:40:59,621 --> 00:41:03,059
No one had ever spoken about the
pharaoh in this way before.
564
00:41:03,060 --> 00:41:06,101
With this text we witnessed the end of power,
565
00:41:06,102 --> 00:41:10,387
the end of a power, the end
of respect for this power.
566
00:41:14,145 --> 00:41:16,559
50 years before the revolution,
567
00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:19,341
did Egypt see the end coming?
568
00:41:20,796 --> 00:41:25,168
Whatever the case, Egyptian art was at its height.
569
00:41:25,169 --> 00:41:28,243
Rendering nature with so much life and expression,
570
00:41:28,244 --> 00:41:32,185
sculpture had never been so fine before.
571
00:41:34,612 --> 00:41:37,938
Nor had it ever so accurately portrayed daily life
572
00:41:37,939 --> 00:41:39,966
at the pharaoh's court.
573
00:41:46,197 --> 00:41:48,834
The queen organized hunts for her son.
574
00:41:48,835 --> 00:41:51,984
Animals were caught and put in an enclosure.
575
00:41:51,985 --> 00:41:54,389
What can we see in this enclosure?
576
00:41:54,522 --> 00:41:58,552
A wild bull. An ibex.
577
00:41:58,553 --> 00:42:01,280
Further away we can see two aurochs,
578
00:42:01,281 --> 00:42:03,910
and a prowling lion.
579
00:42:04,023 --> 00:42:05,993
What does this mean?
580
00:42:06,340 --> 00:42:08,849
It shows that the pyramids were
not in a desert environment
581
00:42:08,850 --> 00:42:10,474
as they are now.
582
00:42:10,475 --> 00:42:13,114
There was savannah here, African savannah,
583
00:42:13,115 --> 00:42:15,710
and a huge variety of wild animals.
584
00:42:15,711 --> 00:42:19,733
The climate changed. The wildlife disappeared.
585
00:42:22,061 --> 00:42:24,297
In the century leading up to the revolution
586
00:42:24,298 --> 00:42:26,978
the savannah gave way to desert.
587
00:42:28,409 --> 00:42:30,194
And the animals needing the most water
588
00:42:30,195 --> 00:42:32,132
disappeared from the kingdom.
589
00:42:38,523 --> 00:42:40,315
Where's the proof?
590
00:42:40,316 --> 00:42:42,649
Audran Labrousse believes he found it when studying
591
00:42:42,650 --> 00:42:46,971
the texts in Pepi I's funerary chamber.
592
00:42:51,288 --> 00:42:55,887
There is an important clue here, this elephant.
593
00:42:56,818 --> 00:42:59,548
This animal is not at all realistic.
594
00:42:59,549 --> 00:43:00,975
It's obvious that the Egyptians
595
00:43:00,976 --> 00:43:03,612
were no longer familiar with this animal.
596
00:43:04,024 --> 00:43:07,656
They had probably kept a
sketchy model on a papyrus.
597
00:43:08,170 --> 00:43:11,761
They knew that it had to have trunk and tusks,
598
00:43:11,921 --> 00:43:15,314
but there was nothing realistic
about this animal anymore.
599
00:43:16,309 --> 00:43:17,767
And yet we know that the Egyptians
600
00:43:17,768 --> 00:43:19,969
were masters of realism.
601
00:43:21,461 --> 00:43:24,461
This is simply an idea of an elephant,
602
00:43:24,695 --> 00:43:26,916
of something that had not existed in Egypt
603
00:43:26,917 --> 00:43:29,008
for a very long time.
604
00:43:29,992 --> 00:43:34,734
So here we have absolute proof of climate change.
605
00:43:38,168 --> 00:43:39,808
The elephant was probably the first
606
00:43:39,809 --> 00:43:42,729
to disappear, before the lion or the giraffe,
607
00:43:42,730 --> 00:43:45,330
which were still part of the landscape.
608
00:43:49,485 --> 00:43:51,784
But the question remains:
609
00:43:51,785 --> 00:43:55,418
When did this climate change occur exactly?
610
00:43:57,444 --> 00:43:59,694
A few kilometers away, a team from the
611
00:43:59,695 --> 00:44:04,168
German Archaeological Institute
may have found the answer.
612
00:44:07,065 --> 00:44:09,646
These scientists are excavating the causeway
613
00:44:09,647 --> 00:44:13,217
of King Sneferu, Khufu's father.
614
00:44:13,814 --> 00:44:17,162
On studying the mud bricks
used to make the causeway
615
00:44:17,163 --> 00:44:18,993
they realized it had been restored
616
00:44:18,994 --> 00:44:21,661
300 years after its construction,
617
00:44:21,662 --> 00:44:24,210
during the reign of Pepi I.
618
00:44:24,211 --> 00:44:26,467
That's to say, at the time climate change
619
00:44:26,468 --> 00:44:28,792
is thought to have occurred.
620
00:44:32,398 --> 00:44:36,041
This causeway which led to
the pharaoh's famous pyramid
621
00:44:36,042 --> 00:44:38,731
was originally open to the elements.
622
00:44:39,615 --> 00:44:42,902
It was later turned into a long roofed corridor.
623
00:44:51,491 --> 00:44:53,885
This is the oldest wall.
624
00:44:53,886 --> 00:44:57,715
It dates from the time of
Sneferu, from the fourth dynasty
625
00:44:57,716 --> 00:45:00,302
from 2600 BC.
626
00:45:01,884 --> 00:45:04,802
And this is the vaulted ceiling,
627
00:45:04,803 --> 00:45:09,803
which was erected 300 years later, in 2300 BC.
628
00:45:12,005 --> 00:45:14,746
Probably Pepi's first reign.
629
00:45:18,596 --> 00:45:22,454
Here we can see the first phase of construction.
630
00:45:23,594 --> 00:45:25,309
In the reign of Sneferu,
631
00:45:25,310 --> 00:45:28,518
the king who built the blunted pyramid, the passage
632
00:45:28,519 --> 00:45:32,155
was open between those two trapezium-shaped walls.
633
00:45:32,156 --> 00:45:34,813
In the sixth dynasty, 300 years later,
634
00:45:34,814 --> 00:45:36,844
this vaulted ceiling was built.
635
00:45:36,845 --> 00:45:39,212
This figure here gives you an idea
636
00:45:39,213 --> 00:45:41,771
of the scale of the covered causeway.
637
00:45:46,155 --> 00:45:49,205
Why would Pepi I have restored the causeway
638
00:45:49,206 --> 00:45:51,788
of such a distant predecessor?
639
00:45:53,815 --> 00:45:57,127
And why would he have taken
the trouble to cover it?
640
00:45:57,400 --> 00:45:59,861
Because the desert was advancing,
641
00:46:01,039 --> 00:46:04,879
and everything was in danger of
disappearing under the sand?
642
00:46:06,036 --> 00:46:09,005
This theory has been confirmed
by the work of another team
643
00:46:09,006 --> 00:46:12,018
that is studying the variations
in the level of the Nile
644
00:46:12,019 --> 00:46:14,133
during the Old Kingdom.
645
00:46:15,289 --> 00:46:18,179
The yearly flood of the Nile
is caused by summer rains
646
00:46:18,180 --> 00:46:21,052
in the plateau region of Ethiopia,
647
00:46:21,053 --> 00:46:25,048
where its main source, Lake Tana, lies.
648
00:46:27,079 --> 00:46:30,694
British scientists have analyzed the lake sediment
649
00:46:30,695 --> 00:46:33,053
and shown that it lost up to half its volume
650
00:46:33,054 --> 00:46:36,636
during the last century of the age of pyramids.
651
00:46:40,737 --> 00:46:43,690
In a country known for its rich agriculture,
652
00:46:43,691 --> 00:46:47,002
where all the irrigated land
is found in the Nile valley,
653
00:46:47,003 --> 00:46:49,388
a drought of this kind could have contributed
654
00:46:49,389 --> 00:46:52,818
to the decline of the pharaonic institutions.
655
00:46:57,347 --> 00:47:00,842
Especially as the last pharaoh
before the revolution,
656
00:47:00,843 --> 00:47:04,225
Pepi II, does not appear to have been able to cope
657
00:47:04,226 --> 00:47:08,144
with the major issues Egypt was facing at the time.
658
00:47:17,500 --> 00:47:20,762
At least this is what Audran Labrousse believes.
659
00:47:20,763 --> 00:47:24,639
He has detected several
worrying signs in his pyramid.
660
00:47:25,736 --> 00:47:29,888
Signs indicating a further
weakening of the monarchy.
661
00:47:36,582 --> 00:47:39,156
The Egyptians had mastered pyramid building
662
00:47:39,157 --> 00:47:41,403
by the reign of King Khufu.
663
00:47:42,295 --> 00:47:45,397
There were no major problems in their construction.
664
00:47:45,984 --> 00:47:49,504
If you take the example of Pepi I, it's perfect.
665
00:47:49,505 --> 00:47:52,355
But this pyramid was built for his grandson,
666
00:47:52,356 --> 00:47:56,616
and it happened, was
particularly serious, worrying,
667
00:47:56,617 --> 00:47:58,245
almost tragic.
668
00:48:07,929 --> 00:48:10,658
The support blocks you see here were arranged
669
00:48:10,659 --> 00:48:13,818
so as to support the pyramids outer casing,
670
00:48:13,819 --> 00:48:16,765
which is sloping and resting on them.
671
00:48:16,896 --> 00:48:18,886
The support had to be perfect
672
00:48:18,887 --> 00:48:21,356
for the casing to stay in place.
673
00:48:21,915 --> 00:48:24,028
This isn't true here.
674
00:48:24,029 --> 00:48:26,219
The stones were arranged any old how,
675
00:48:26,220 --> 00:48:28,596
and this affected the casing.
676
00:48:28,710 --> 00:48:30,695
Cracks begin to appear in it,
677
00:48:30,696 --> 00:48:33,606
and the sides of the pyramid collapsed.
678
00:48:34,240 --> 00:48:36,760
This was quite incredible, especially at a time
679
00:48:36,761 --> 00:48:39,565
when this technique had been mastered.
680
00:48:53,069 --> 00:48:54,699
Renovation work was undertaken
681
00:48:54,700 --> 00:48:57,124
following this disaster.
682
00:48:57,319 --> 00:49:00,888
Audran Labrousse has discovered signs of this.
683
00:49:04,415 --> 00:49:06,718
A solution was found.
684
00:49:07,221 --> 00:49:11,069
The casing was put back in place, and restored.
685
00:49:11,300 --> 00:49:13,717
And a girdle made of huge blocks
686
00:49:13,718 --> 00:49:16,366
was built around the pyramid's base.
687
00:49:17,575 --> 00:49:21,338
You can clearly see, here for
instance, how this girdle
688
00:49:21,339 --> 00:49:26,339
compresses and supports the base of the pyramid.
689
00:49:34,057 --> 00:49:36,640
When the king's body is placed inside,
690
00:49:36,641 --> 00:49:40,757
the monument comes to life, it has a name.
691
00:49:43,203 --> 00:49:46,574
Pepi is established and living, and this
692
00:49:46,575 --> 00:49:50,311
prestigious monument is
surrounded by a makeshift repair,
693
00:49:50,312 --> 00:49:53,721
which really isn't worth of
the monument's splendor.
694
00:50:02,481 --> 00:50:05,965
Pepi II reigned for over 60 years.
695
00:50:06,041 --> 00:50:10,857
It was a long reign. Too long, it would seem.
696
00:50:11,861 --> 00:50:15,274
Anyway, towards the end of his
reign, something happened.
697
00:50:15,545 --> 00:50:17,543
His last wives left this necropolis
698
00:50:17,544 --> 00:50:20,510
to be buried in the necropolis of Pepi I,
699
00:50:20,511 --> 00:50:22,828
Pepi II's grandfather.
700
00:50:23,185 --> 00:50:25,698
It's as if there was a disaffection,
701
00:50:25,699 --> 00:50:28,561
as if they left the king's
entourage to place themselves
702
00:50:28,562 --> 00:50:33,256
under the protection of a far
more prestigious pharaoh.
703
00:50:39,574 --> 00:50:41,396
This disaffection was accompanied
704
00:50:41,397 --> 00:50:45,052
by a deteriation of the pharaoh's image.
705
00:50:45,155 --> 00:50:49,013
One simply had to compare this
crude statuette of Pepi II
706
00:50:49,014 --> 00:50:53,007
with the noble features of his grandfather, Pepi I.
707
00:50:53,540 --> 00:50:56,693
Or the divine authority
emanating from this statuette
708
00:50:56,694 --> 00:50:59,848
of Khafre, his distant predecessor.
709
00:51:09,635 --> 00:51:12,831
What link should be made between
the depiction of the king
710
00:51:12,832 --> 00:51:15,411
and the revolution that swept
away the most powerful
711
00:51:15,412 --> 00:51:19,717
dynasty of the day, after 500 years of rule?
712
00:51:24,733 --> 00:51:27,766
In any case, the kingship lost its hold,
713
00:51:27,767 --> 00:51:31,448
and the provinces broke away one after the other.
714
00:51:40,732 --> 00:51:43,283
The papyrus of the scribe Ipuwer
715
00:51:43,284 --> 00:51:45,651
mentions this terrible trauma.
716
00:51:46,768 --> 00:51:49,338
"There are plunderers everywhere."
717
00:51:49,339 --> 00:51:53,181
"The poor man seizes the
goods of the powerful man."
718
00:51:58,521 --> 00:52:00,100
It would take two long centuries
719
00:52:00,101 --> 00:52:02,672
for Egypt to be united once more
720
00:52:02,673 --> 00:52:06,401
and for a different kingdom to arise from the past.
721
00:52:14,670 --> 00:52:17,943
Long after the revolution,
a minor public servant was
722
00:52:17,944 --> 00:52:22,063
put in charge of clearing up one
of the ruined necropolises.
723
00:52:23,221 --> 00:52:27,369
And with the blocks he collected,
he built this pyramid.
724
00:52:28,812 --> 00:52:30,392
And this pyramid
725
00:52:30,393 --> 00:52:32,807
discovered by Audran Labrousse and his team
726
00:52:32,808 --> 00:52:37,438
contains vital evidence about
the post-revolution period.
727
00:52:42,520 --> 00:52:47,520
Here the individual Re Arushef Nart.
728
00:52:48,585 --> 00:52:53,585
Down here, a remarkable bit of
evidence: the Pyramid Texts.
729
00:52:55,251 --> 00:52:57,236
They have been written, as you can see,
730
00:52:57,237 --> 00:52:59,630
very quickly with a brush.
731
00:52:59,631 --> 00:53:01,523
It's slapdash work.
732
00:53:01,524 --> 00:53:04,602
It's a bit naive, but that isn't important.
733
00:53:04,603 --> 00:53:06,748
It still does the job.
734
00:53:07,140 --> 00:53:08,902
Once reserved for the royal elite,
735
00:53:08,903 --> 00:53:11,622
eternity becomes more democratic, if you like.
736
00:53:11,623 --> 00:53:13,715
And sufficiently democratic for someone as simple
737
00:53:13,716 --> 00:53:17,059
as Re Aruschef Nart to be able to enjoy it.
738
00:53:18,409 --> 00:53:21,678
So this democratization went pretty far.
739
00:53:21,679 --> 00:53:24,276
It affected a large number of people in Egypt,
740
00:53:24,277 --> 00:53:26,356
who became immortal.
741
00:53:34,576 --> 00:53:37,717
In just a few decades, the eternity texts
742
00:53:37,718 --> 00:53:41,451
passed from the king to his entourage.
743
00:53:42,282 --> 00:53:44,471
Then after the revolution,
744
00:53:44,472 --> 00:53:47,772
to an even larger circle of Egyptians.
745
00:53:48,563 --> 00:53:52,095
And so the triumph of life after death is the fruit
746
00:53:52,096 --> 00:53:56,740
of the first known revolution
in the history of mankind.
59691
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