All language subtitles for Secrets Unlocked Series 1 Part 17 Egypts Lost City 1080p

(dramatic music)

Mastrelli: He was the most
powerful pharaoh

Ever to rule egypt.

A battle-hardened general

Who oversaw the biggest building
program since the pyramids.

He was ramesses the great,

And his crowning glory
was the construction

Of a magnificent new
capital city, pi-ramesses.

A city that vanished
from history.

This is the hunt for the lost
city of ramesses the great.

For centuries, the mysteries

Of the past have
kept their secrets.

But there are
clues cast in gold,

Etched in stone,
written in blood.

We can unlock them.

(mysterious music)

Egypt, a land once home
to a great civilization,

Whose secrets are still being
uncovered 3,000 years later.

And one way we're able
to uncover them is

By finding clues
like cartouches.

A cartouche is a royal stamp
bearing the name of a pharaoh,

Like here, tutankhamen,

The ruler of lower
and upper egypt.

Cartouches etched into
monuments reveal the identity

Of their builder.

And there was no greater builder

In egypt's new kingdom
than ramesses the great.

So how did his prized capital

In the nile delta simply vanish?

What happened to the
temples, the obelisks?

It can get pretty hot in egypt,

But not hot enough
to melt stone.

The lost city of pi
-ramesses is a mystery

That's confounded
egyptologists for centuries.

Ramesses ii, better known
as ramesses the great.

He ascended to the
throne in 1279 bce

And his 67 year reign
would be the longest

In the history of ancient egypt.

He would become egypt's
greatest pharaoh.

And throughout the land,
on every temple and statue,

Masons carved his cartouche,

The set of hieroglyphs
that form his royal name.

Ramesses, beloved
of the god amun.

Ramesses believed
the countless statues

And inscriptions in his honor
would bring him immortality.

Many of his finest
monuments were said

To be at his new capital
city, pi-ramesses,

The house of ramesses.

Like egypt's modern
capital, cairo,

Ancient texts reveal

That pi-ramesses was
a bustling metropolis,

Vibrant and full of life.

Bietak: According to the texts,

Pi-ramesses must have
been a splendid city

Full of dazzling houses.

There were palaces.

There were gardens.

Pusch: The splendor of
the city is described

In the most marvelous way,

Everybody was dressed in
the most beautiful gowns,

Everybody wanted to
live inside the city.

Mastrelli: But pi
-ramesses was a city

That would become
shrouded in mystery.

Because somehow, 200 years
after ramesses' reign

Around 1,000 bce, this
magnificent city disappeared.

The only surviving evidence

About the lost city
comes from ancient texts.

Egyptologist chris naunton
examines a transcript

Of the key source that
was written at the time,

A papyrus manuscript known
as the "hymn to pi-ramesses."

Naunton: It says something like:

Its western part was
as the house of amun

And its southern part
was as the house of seth.

Suggesting that these
two temples dedicated

To these two crucially
important gods, amun and seth,

Were at the very
heart of the city.

And there's a passage here,

It seems to be suggesting
that the city is

The marshaling place
of the chariotry,

To use one translation.

The mustering place of the army.

This is a city that
is ready to go to war.

Mastrelli: A city decorated
with great temples,

Housing a powerful
military garrison.

For ramesses, a
proud warrior king,

It was the crowning
glory of his reign.

But where was it?

Frustratingly, on
the crucial subject

Of the city's location, the
"hymn to pi-ramesses" is silent.

But fragments of evidence

From other sources do
suggest a possible location.

Naunton: There are obscure
references in various texts,

And taken all together,
our best estimate would be

That the city was located
on the easternmost branch

Of the river nile,
in the nile delta.

Mastrelli: The nile delta is
the area of northern egypt

Where the river nile splits
into separate branches

Before reaching the sea.

Zeroing in on the
easternmost branch

Should have been an easy
task for the archeologists.

Except for one thing.

Over the millennia,

Many branches of the nile
delta have silted up,

Where there used to
be seven branches,

Now there are only two.

So today, the easternmost branch

Of the nile isn't where
it was 3,000 years ago.

Undaunted by this riddle,

Austrian egyptologist professor
manfred bietak believed

He could find the lost city

By reading into
the river's past.

Bietak: Our task was
to reconstruct

The historical landscape

Of the second millennium bc.

We had to search for
the minute traces

Of the ancient landscape,

Particularly, the
rivers of the nile delta

And the drainage systems.

Mastrelli: Bietak knew
that even though

The ancient rivers had vanished,

They had left behind tell-tale
features in the landscape.

Over the centuries, river
sediment had formed ridges,

Which could be seen on
contour maps of the area.

And from these ridges,
bietak could work out

Where the lost channels of the
nile delta had once flowed.

Bietak: We were able to extract

From these contour
maps the main features

Of the ancient landscape.

Mastrelli: Bietak was able
to map the ancient branches

Of the nile delta.

He then matched them against
archeological sites known

To be from the reign
of ramesses the great.

One site stood out.

Bietak: After the study of
these contour maps

We were able to pinpoint
pi-ramesses, here.

Mastrelli: Bietak concluded
that pi-ramesses lay

Near the modern
egyptian town of qantir.

This was a difficult hunch
to sell colleagues on

Because at qantir,
there appeared

To be nothing but empty fields.

(upbeat music)

Today, archeologist dr.
Henning franzmeier is

In charge of the site.

There are so many pottery shards

From the time of
ramesses the great,

That they litter the
fields and paths.

Franzmeier: So here we have
a piece of pottery

That is clearly from
the ramesside period.

I can tell by the way it is made

And by the clay that
was used for that.

Finds like this you
come across in an area

Of up to 20 square kilometers,

All around the modern
village of qantir,

All around this area.

In every field, you
find sherds like this.

Mastrelli: The 3,000-year-old
sherds are scattered

Across a vast area of
eight square miles,

Revealing that the ancient
settlement was much larger

Than the modern town of qantir.

And as farmers
clear their fields,

New evidence is turning
up, all the time.

Franzmeier: Here we
have quite something.

It's a piece of limestone

But what we can see here
is traces of hieroglyphs.

It's pretty much weathered

But we can really see
here two hieroglyphs,

And this is the
hieroglyph for the sun,

A hieroglyph that could be part
of the name of ramesses ii.

Mastrelli: But if
this was the site

Of the ancient capital
of pi-ramesses,

As professor bietak believed,
something didn't quite fit.

According to the
"hymn to pi-ramesses,"

The capital city was full
of awe-inspiring monuments.

And other major cities from the
time of ramesses are covered

In the ruins of giant
statues and temples.

But at qantir, there's just
one tantalizing remnant,

In the corner of
a farmer's field.

Franzmeier: So all
around these fields,

Even though we have all these
little finds in the ground,

We never found anything on
the surface except for this.

This is a part of a statue.

The feet of a statue that
stood about 33 feet tall

When it was complete,
of a seated king,

Which we know because the feet
are right next to each other

In this way and not in
a striding position.

Here we even have
the hieroglyphs

To tell us the name of
the owner of this statue,

It is ramesses ii, we
have here, the god amun

And here, the god ra,

And so this is (speaking
in foreign language)

That is the name of ramesses ii.

Mastrelli: But where is the
rest of the statue?

And, why is it the only
one they've found here?

Was the site of
qantir a dead end

Or could the answers
lie below ground?

Mastrelli: The modern day city
of qantir appears

To be an intriguing candidate

For the lost city
of pi-ramesses.

It's in the right spot,

And pottery from that period
litters the surrounding fields.

But, unlike other
sites in egypt,

There's virtually nothing
left above ground.

It was time to start digging.

(dramatic music)

The first major excavations
at qantir began in 1980.

Just a few inches
below the fields,

Archeologists detected the
foundations of a giant building.

But what was it?

At the roemer and pelizaeus
museum in germany,

Dr. Edgar pusch,
who led the dig,

Is investigating precise
replicas of the finds.

Pusch: One of the first
objects we found

In this area was a fully
functioning horse-bit,

Like this.

We found the equipment
for war chariots

Or hunting chariots,
two-wheeled.

We were absolutely sure
we do have a chariotry

In connection with
horse stables,

Housing about 460, as a minimum.

Mastrelli: Enough to pull 230

Of the 2,000 chariots ramesses
was thought to command.

These stables were the
largest chariot stables

Ever discovered in the
eastern mediterranean.

And they exactly matched
ancient descriptions

Of chariot stables at
ramesses' lost city.

Ancient texts reveal
that pi-ramesses,

Had been an important
military base,

Built to counter a
specific strategic threat.

Ramesses' empire stretched
from modern sudan

In the south to
syria in the north,

Where it met the
might hittite empire,

Egypt's greatest rival.

At the beginning of his reign,
ramesses met this threat

By moving his capital from
memphis to pi-ramesses,

In the eastern nile delta.

The new city was to be
a defensive bastion,

And a launch-pad for
his own campaigns.

At qantir, further excavations
turned up masses of weapons,

More evidence that this was
an important military site

Pusch: We found arrow heads of
all different kinds and shapes.

We found also within
the chariotry, daggers.

Mastrelli: What they discovered
next was unprecedented

In the history of egyptology.

Pusch: I detected something

Which was never excavated
before at that time,

And I, myself didn't know
what to make from it.

Mastrelli: Alongside
more arrowheads,

They uncovered broken
crucibles, charcoal and ash.

They had discovered a
metal-working site, a foundry.

Pusch: It is a huge foundry

For producing bronze and
casting bronze objects.

(dramatic music)

Mastrelli: Bronze was harder
than any metal at the time

And ideal for making weapons.

What was so extraordinary
about the bronze foundry

At qantir was that it was part

Of the biggest metal
working site ever found

In the ancient world.

And would have been capable

Of turning out
thousands of weapons,

For an egyptian army that may
have numbered up to 100,000.

Franzmeier: We have nowhere,
evidence of

Such a large installation

Of this kind anywhere in
the whole middle east,

From this period to
the late bronze age.

It does not exist anywhere else.

Mastrelli: Chariots,
swords, arrowheads,

A giant foundry to
forge bronze weapons,

All of it fits

What the ancient texts
tell us about pi-ramesses.

Could the farmland of qantir
be covering the remains

Of this once great city?

A ground-breaking new
technology would be the key

To revealing what lay
beneath these empty fields.

In 1996, dr. Pusch and his
team began a magnetic scan

Of the area, to
see below the soil.

Pusch: We scanned with
the magnetic devices

About two square kilometers.

A magnetic scan has
two major advantages.

Number one, it is
non-destructive

In comparison to archeology

And number two, what you
measure within one day as area,

You need a minimum from eight
to 12 years for excavation.

Mastrelli: The results
would astonish them all.

(people chattering)
(dramatic music)

Mastrelli: At qantir in egypt,

Excavations have uncovered
an important military base

From the reign of
ramesses the great.

But could it be his fabled
capital city, pi-ramesses,

Which disappeared
3,000 years ago?

Dr pusch and his team brought

In magnetic scanning equipment,

To look for signs of a lost
city hidden beneath the soil.

The results blew them away.

The scan revealed
street after street,

Building after building.

A great city lay hidden
beneath the fields.

Pusch: I was jumping, I really
and truly was jumping

Because we had the lay
out of the buildings,

We had pits for pillars, we
had walls of different sizes,

Of different lengths,

And it was just an unbelievable
and incredible thing.

Mastrelli: It became the
largest magnetic scan

In the history of egyptology.

And what it detected were the
foundations of a major city.

Franzmeier: This city
is one of the

Largest settlement
sites anywhere

In the whole middle east.

We have to imagine where
it is now, just flat land,

Temples and palaces, and
houses for, most probably,

Tens of thousands of people.

Mastrelli: The evidence
was overwhelming,

And there was only
one conclusion.

This was the site of the lost
city of ramesses the great.

Pusch: The hugeness of it,
the finds we make,

All together make
it absolutely sure

That this area is pi-ramesses.

Mastrelli: A 3000-year-old
mystery had finally been solved.

But now the archeologists
faced a new challenge,

To explain what
had happened here,

And why there was nothing
to see above ground level

Except for a giant
pair of stone feet.

The answer lay not in qantir,

But 12 miles to the north in
the ancient site of tanis.

200 years after the
death of ramesses ii,

Tanis became the new
capital of egypt,

And in need of stone,
they recycled it

From neighboring and now
abandoned pi-ramesses.

Oddly, two centuries
after his death,

Countless monuments in
this city bear the name

Of ramesses the great.

Although the magnificent
super-structure

Of this city was
likely shipped away,

The magnetic scan reveals
that much still remains

Beneath the fields of qantir.

Pusch: Of course, this is
not the complete city,

But we do have palaces,
temples, villas,

Houses, streets,
alleys, everything.

Mastrelli: At the
city's very center is

The unmistakable outline
of a giant temple.

This is the next area of
interest for archeologists,

And where they plan
future excavations.

Gps and the magnetic scan
have already revealed

Its enormous size.

Franzmeier: So we are
now in south

Of the modern
village of qantir.

Here we see massive walls

Which mark the limits
of a big precinct,

Of a temple or a palace.

Here in the center we
have the central building

Of this temple or palace,

Which is 30 meters wide
and around 100 meters long.

(suspenseful music)

Mastrelli: Dr. Franzmeier
marks out the foundations

With flag poles to
illustrate its scale.

Franzmeier: So we
have now reached

The central part
of the temple.

And, if you have a look
here along this line,

Approximately where now,
there is the modern houses,

That is the end, the limit of
this central temple building

Which seems so tiny on the plan.

If we take into consideration,
the whole precinct,

Then we end up far
under the modern

And the recent buildings in
the distance, all around here,

And it extends definitely
for another 100 meters,

Underneath the buildings.

Mastrelli: From the
magnetic scan and evidence

From other sites, it's possible

To reconstruct the great
temple of pi-ramesses.

The great temple was
the spectacular

Heart of pi-ramesses.

Rising around it
were other temples

And a vast palace complex,
where ramesses himself lived.

In its heyday, this was one
of the most magnificent cities

Of ancient egypt.

And much more remains
to be discovered.

And for dr. Pusch,

Helping to solve the
3,000 year-old mystery

Of ramesses' lost city still
holds special significance.

Pusch: This is the
highlight of my career.

We have really proved, yes,
this is not just poetry,

Not just fiction,
this is reality.

Mastrelli: A 50
-year investigation

Has finally revealed

How pi-ramesses, despite
all its fame and glory,

Vanished from the
face of the earth.

(dramatic music)

And all the credit has to
go to the incredible team

That made locating this
lost city their life's work.

Despite all of the
breathtaking sites in egypt,

It takes a special kind of
determined archeologist,

With lots of patience
and perseverance,

To find what appeared
to be lost to history.

It's the archeological
equivalent

Of finding a needle
in a stack of needles

And proving yet again,

That ancient egypt still
has many secrets waiting

To be discovered.