All language subtitles for Unearthed Series 7 Part 8 Egypts Sunken Treasures 1080p HDTV x264 AAC MVGroup org

Narrator:
Egypt -- home to the greatest ancient civilization on earth.

A country covered
by desert sands,

yet it has over
1,800 miles of coastline,

and the mighty nile river flows
straight through its center.

Now investigators use
pioneering radar technology

to uncover the secrets
of egypt's maritime past.

What we have here
is incredible --

sphinxes, statues of priests,

perfectly preserved
for thousands of years,

just sitting underneath
the sand of the seabed.

Narrator:
Can new evidence...

Tallet:
It was a very busy harbor.

You can imagine
big fleets being there.

Narrator:
...Surprising discoveries...

The sphinx and the pyramids
were part of a waterfront

onto the major nile harbor
of their time.

Narrator: ...And a buried
riverside city...

There was a lot of ships
going in and out of this area,

so it was a very busy place.

Narrator: ...Revolutionize our
understanding of ancient egypt?

To solve these mysteries,

we'll uncover egypt's
lost harbor

and rebuild buried ships.

We'll digitally deconstruct
ancient shipyards,

unearth the sunken relics of one
of egypt's greatest lost cities,

and we'll unlock the secrets
of ancient egypt's

surprising nautical past,

to reveal how it shapes the rise
of this great civilization.

-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

beneath egypt's desert sands,

an archaeological treasure trove
is waiting to be uncovered.

145 miles east
of the great pyramids

lies the ancient settlement
of wadi al-jarf.

It's abandoned and buried
for thousands of years.

Hidden under the sand,

archaeologists make
a remarkable discovery here --

31 galleries carved
into the bedrock.

Buried inside --

dozens of storage jars,

fragments of fabric and wood,

and hundreds
of pieces of papyrus.

These are the oldest papyri
with written text ever found.

Amongst the hieroglyphs,
repeated mention of boats.

Is this evidence
of an ancient lost fleet,

a set of clues
to egypt's nautical past?

French archaeologist
pierre tallet

leads the investigation

into these mysterious
underground chambers.

For the past nine years,
pierre and his team

have been sifting
through the sands.

They discover
lost wall paintings,

thousands of broken
storage jars,

and tantalizing pieces
of rope and wood.

Pierre investigates one
of the mysterious caves

where they unearth
ancient treasures.

Close examination of the walls

reveal that these chambers
are man-made.

Yeah, those caves
are really amazing.

We have 31 in this place.

It is the main feature that we
have in this wadi al-jarf place.

They were cut with copper tools
and stone tools,

but we could imagine
that a small team of about

maybe ten men in a few weeks

was able to cut the walled cave
that you have here.

Narrator:
Like all of the caves here,

this one is vast and is
constructed with great skill.

It is 90 feet long,
with high ceilings.

So, what are these
hidden chambers for?

When they are discovered,

explorers believe
they are ancient catacombs.

But pierre's groundbreaking,
new discoveries

provide clues
to a very different purpose.

Tallet: We found ceilings,
we found jars,

we found ropes,

and most of all,
we have found pieces of foods.

Narrator:
The scale of the new finds here

and the size and shape
of the caves

allow pierre to reach
an extraordinary conclusion.

These wooden fragments
are the remains of boats.

♪

the caves themselves
are underground boatyards.

Tallet: They were using very
precious wood for the boats,

and this is probably the reason
why you have those small walls

on the floor of the cave.

They were used to place a beam
of wood to avoid the water,

if the water
was entering the cave,

it's a perfect way
to store precious wood.

Narrator: With so many
massive caves uncovered,

pierre believes that
a whole fleet of ships

are stored inside them.

But who puts them here?

Pierre scouts the site
for more evidence.

Outside, monumental stone blocks
close off the mouth

to each cave.

The stones are covered
with ancient script.

Pierre immediately recognizes
this type of inscription.

What we have here
is a cultural mark,

exactly the same way we have
this kind of marking on blocks

on the pyramid area.

Narrator:
These inscriptions are found

on the giant stone blocks
of the pyramids at giza.

Those control marks were used,
yeah,

to control the work
of the teams, in fact.

They were cuttings the blocks,
transporting them,

and it is a way to prove

that they were in charge
of this work.

Narrator: Could these
underground boat-storage areas

really date to the time of
egypt's most iconic monuments,

4,500 years ago?

Pierre decodes the ancient
script to find out.

And if you look carefully
to this mark,

you can distinguish
the cartouche of khufu,

which is here with the ram.

Narrator: The mighty pharaoh
khufu's greatest claim to fame

is building the great pyramid.

450 feet high,
it is the largest ever built.

The boats here belong to him.

Pierre deciphers the script

to discover more about
the king's lost fleet.

The boat is -- literally,

"king khufu brings
'it eats two snakes,'"

and we finally understood
that it was a boat

that was probably equipped
with two snakes on the prow,

so they have the fleet
that was very impressive

for people
that were seeing these fleets.

Narrator: This incredible
new discovery reveals

that egypt's greatest
pyramid builder

is also a master of the seas.

It means that the place was
of the highest interest

to the monarchy
and the highest administration.

Narrator: Why does khufu store
a fleet of ships underground

in the desert sands?

The red sea is over
three and a half miles away,

but pierre believes an ancient
harbor must be nearby.

He's on a mission to uncover it
and heads to the coast.

The sandy beach is almost
completely desolate,

but something catches his eye.

This place is really
fascinating,

because it's covered
of pebbles and rocks.

We are on the sandy beach,
without any rocks anywhere else.

Narrator: For pierre,
this unusual collection of rocks

is an astonishing find.

If we are looking carefully,
the place --

you can see that
it is a man-made structure.

And it is what remains
of the jetty of khufu.

Narrator:
It's a remarkable discovery,

the oldest harbor
ever found in the world.

Pierre's team dives beneath the
waves to investigate its size.

They use special pumps
to suck away the sand,

to reveal more of the harbor.

The jetty stretches an enormous
500 feet out into the sea.

They scour the ocean bed
to uncover more evidence.

It is scattered with anchors

and thousands of fragments
of pottery.

Narrator: Why does khufu station
such a big fleet here?

In the shelter of his camp,

pierre examines a database
of the discoveries.

He analyzes a collection
of copper tools.

For pierre, the copper tools
reveal a direct connection

between the port
and the great pyramids.

Here we have the real tools that
were used at the time of khufu

to build giant pyramids
like the one of khufu in giza.

Narrator: The ancient egyptians
used copper tools

to carve the stone for
their most glorious monuments.

But the nearest copper mines
are across the sea in sinai.

So, they use ships to transport
the copper

to and from this harbor.

Tallet:
This harbor shows us clearly

that even at the beginning
of the pharaonic culture,

they were trying to get
as far as possible

to take precious material
for the royal projects,

and one of the best ways
to connect with the outer world,

of course, is to develop
maritime trades and expeditions.

Narrator: From the time
of khufu, 4,500 years ago,

ancient egyptians are clearly
masters of the seas.

But how do they get
the stone-carving tools

to the desert plateau?

New evidence suggests
they sail them there.

Now can this revolutionize
our understanding

of egypt's most iconic site?

♪

narrator:
Today, the giza plateau,

home to ancient egypt's
most iconic monuments,

is completely landlocked.

But now the discovery
of an ancient harbor

and a lost fleet of ships
by the red sea

suggests a remarkable,
new theory.

Do ancient boats sail here
and deliver the tools

that are used
to build the pyramids?

Lehner:
Here on the giza plateau,

we're four or five miles
from the nile river --

where the nile flows today --

and we're also high up
into the desert.

But there are clues that,
in the time of the pyramids,

the water came right up to
the base of the pyramid plateau.

Narrator:
The giza plateau

may not have always been
a parched desert.

4,500 years ago, this area
could have been a port...

...Bringing the nile right up
to the growing pyramid complex.

Ships could then dock
right next to them,

transporting building materials

right up
to the construction site.

Dockside buildings could provide
accommodation,

administrative space,
and storage.

But is there any evidence
of this grand harbor today?

Egyptologist mark lehner

has devoted decades
to studying the giza plateau.

He hunts for its lost
ancient harbor.

Lehner:
The nile has changed its course.

But where the nile once flowed,
there are traces.

You can see scars
in the floodplain.

Narrator: Mark's team maps out
the entire site into grids.

Then they drill core samples,

to look for traces
of an ancient riverbed.

In some areas, mark only has
to scratch the surface,

to reveal the evidence.

What we have right here
is a very dark, silty sand,

deposited by the nile waters
during the annual inundation.

It indicates that the nile
was right here.

In fact, lapping up against
the lost city of the pyramids.

Narrator: The entire plateau
may be desert today,

but mark's results are proof
that this area is once awash

with a vast network
of waterways.

Lehner: The contrast between
the lighter-colored sand

and the darker silt and clay
tells us

where they made
their ancient waterways,

basins, and the structure
of their ancient port.

This is how we know whether
the nile was filling channels

and basins that the
pyramid builders themselves

dredged into their floodplain.

Narrator: Every summer,

the farmland beside the nile
becomes parched.

So, 5,000 years ago,

the egyptians dig channels
to irrigate their crops.

They build gates to control
the flow of water,

stopping the flow
if there's risk of flooding

and storing water
for times of drought.

They begin to use the channels
for transportation

and engineers
dig larger canals,

to bypass the nile's
shallowest waters,

allowing boats to sail
the length of egypt.

Boats from all over the country
can even sail here into giza.

Armed with his results,

mark ventures to the highest
point on the plateau,

to survey the extent
of the ancient port.

The results of the survey
are amazing.

They show us that
the pyramid builders intervened

in the floodplain

as dramatically as they built
on the high plateau.

We know that they cut off from
the main course of the nile,

about where this big, white
building is out here.

They cut a huge canal basin
that came right to the front

of what later became the sphinx.

This made the lost city site
a huge peninsula, like a wharf.

We don't think of it this way,

but the sphinx and the pyramids
were part of a waterfront --

a waterfront onto the major nile
harbor of their time.

Narrator:
If the ancient egyptians used their maritime skills

to build their most
iconic monuments, the pyramids,

how much more of their culture
is shaped by ships and the seas?

Could the discovery
of a lost boat

buried next to the great pyramid
itself provide a clue?

Narrator: The giza plateau
outside modern cairo...

Home to egypt's most iconic
ancient monuments.

Now investigators discover they
are part of a vast waterfront

onto a lost ancient harbor.

Boats dock here with stone
and tools

used to build the pyramids.

When archaeologists
excavate here,

they discover a clue
to egypt's nautical past.

Hidden at the foot
of the great pyramid,

they unearth a series
of vast limestone slabs.

Beneath them,

a deep pit filled with more than
1,000 pieces of ancient cedar.

Assembled, they take on
a remarkable shape.

These are the remains
of a magnificent ship,

more than 140 feet long
and 20 feet wide.

It is one of the oldest

and best-preserved ships
ever discovered.

Why is it carefully buried
at the base of ancient egypt's

most famous icon?

What can it tell us about
the importance of ships

in ancient egyptian culture?

Eissa zidan is the director
of restoration

at the new
grand egyptian museum

and is a leading expert
on the giza ship.

Narrator:
Eissa uses his expertise

to analyze every inch
of this stunning ship.

He believes it's not
a simple supply boat,

but a boat of great quality,

worthy of no less
than a pharaoh.

Narrator:
The evidence reveals that this boat belongs to the very pharaoh

who builds the great pyramid.

King khufu himself.

Narrator:
Why does the powerful king bury such a magnificent ship

next to his tomb?

Eissa has a theory.

Narrator: Eissa believes that
this boat actually transports

the mummified king khufu
from his capital, memphis,

down the nile
to his magnificent tomb.

And he has remarkable evidence
in support of his theory.

Narrator: More evidence reveals
that there is another reason

why khufu buries his boat here.

Narrator: In egyptian mythology,
the sun god ra travels

through the celestial realm,
on a boat called atet,

providing light to the world
as he sails across the heavens.

Each twelfth of his journey

forms one of the 12 hours
of the day.

At night, he travels
through the underworld,

before emerging again at dawn.

As boats grow in religious
significance,

small model boats become
common grave goods

for ordinary ancient egyptians.

They believe that these models

will magically transport them
into an afterlife.

As a pharaoh, khufu can afford
to build big.

So, perhaps this ship is also
a monumental model

for his spiritual journey.

From the very beginning,

a maritime influence
is present in the beliefs

and the monuments
of the ancient egyptians,

even in the heart of the desert.

So, how great are their
nautical ambitions?

How much do they trade
and travel?

Now can the discovery of ramses
the great's lost port city

reveal the answer?

Narrator:
Ancient egypt.

New discoveries
of buried ships...

And lost harbors

reveal that mastering the nile
and the red sea

helped forge
this incredible civilization.

Whenever you see an ancient
egyptian civilization --

building bursts
on a colossal scale --

you also see water-transport
infrastructure

on a colossal scale.

Narrator: Today, investigators
hunt for clues to reveal

the evolution
of egypt's nautical ambitions.

Egyptologist
irene forstner-muller

excavates at tel-eldaba,

in the northernmost part
of egypt, at the nile delta.

The nile delta's a very
fascinating place.

It's the place where suddenly
the nile river,

which was in the very narrow
valley of the nile itself,

spreads into several parts,

where you have connections to
the east, to the mediterranean.

Narrator: Irene investigates
the local channels of the river.

She and her team believe
that this small waterway

is only a shadow
of its original size.

They gather soil samples
and survey the whole area.

Forstner-muller:
We did the survey across the former river here --

transections,

we did a lot
of analyses with sand and silt,

so we could reconstruct
the ancient landscape.

It was 300 meters
and 11 meters deep,

so this survey clearly proves

that the nile was very mighty
in this area.

Narrator:
Evidence nearby provides clues

to what this area looked like
over 3,000 years ago.

In the nile sands, two and
a half miles from irene's site,

teams discover the broken
remains of a statue.

Only the feet survive.

But their size suggest this is
once a towering monument.

Inscriptions reveal that
this is ramses the great

and hint that this area
was once a very different place.

At the time of his reign,

this stream is a thundering
tributary of the nile.

Big enough for egypt's
largest ships.

A vast city stands on its banks.

Why does ramses build
a riverside metropolis here?

Irene uses her survey to search
for any remains

of ramses the great's lost city.

Finding evidence here
is no simple task.

This is prime agricultural land.

The fertile soil and crops
hide any clues.

But irene unearths proof of
ramses' nautical ambitions

beneath the foliage.

Oh, this is really fantastic.

This is not just ordinary mud,
but these are all mud bricks

which are part
of a huge structure,

which goes along all the way
in this direction

and in this direction.

And you have to imagine
the ancient egyptians used

material like that,
so this is very typical.

Narrator: The wall is hidden
beneath the undergrowth,

but irene is amazed by
how well it has been preserved.

So, you see here,
the layers of the brick,

the colors are different
to the ordinary soil.

So, it's much lighter,
much grayer and yellowish,

and the whole wall
was built with many many

of these structures and layers,
as you can see here.

This really appears
fantastically in this part,

so this is very amazing that
it has survived so well here.

Narrator: The scale and shape
of this wall and its location

suggest it has
a nautical purpose.

The survey tells us

that the water
might have come into this area,

so this could be part
of a large basin --

surrounding wall of a basin.

Narrator: A basin is the part
of a port where ships line up

before they dock
and offload their goods.

Forstner-muller:
This is quite a large basin

and this hints, too, that
there was a lot of ships

going in and out of this area,
so it was a very busy place

and a very important part
of the town.

Narrator:
Irene unearths further evidence

that this basin
is a hive of industry.

It's really amazing.

The ground here's
full of pottery fragments --

hundreds of them.

You can see
them all over the ground.

Narrator: Irene's expert eyes
home in on a clue that suggests

this is a massive port
in ramses the great's time.

This is a very interesting
piece.

You see the, like,
lighter color.

It's pinkish, so this is an
import from the levant --

modern lebanon
and part of syria.

So this shows that the city
had a close connection

and there was a trade happening

between egypt and the ancient
near east in this time.

Narrator: At its peak,
ramses the great's capital

is the venice of its day...

A thriving riverside city.

Trade along the river
drives its success.

Ships export goods
such as linen,

grain, and papyrus from here.

Traders exchange these goods
for a variety of imports,

including ebony,
wild animals, and incense.

At its height,
egypt's trade network

stretches as far as rome
in the northwest,

afghanistan in the east,
and nubia in the south.

For thousands of years,

the remains of this
extraordinary maritime operation

have been hidden
beneath the crops.

Only now can investigators
reveal the truth

about this lost landscape.

This really changes our picture
on ancient egypt

and how the ancient egyptians
lived and worked and traveled.

Narrator:
From its very beginnings,

mastery of the water shapes
ancient egyptian civilization.

Over centuries,
they extend their reach,

navigating the seas.

At the end of
their civilization,

how do they become a maritime
power and masters of the waves?

Can underwater discoveries
at egypt's greatest port city,

alexandria, provide the clues?

♪

narrator:
Egypt, a great nautical nation,

from its birth to the height
of its empire.

Ancient writers describe
the pinnacle

of this maritime mastery
as the port city of alexandria.

Founded by alexander the great

and once home
to the beautiful cleopatra.

Today, alexandria is a bustling
modern metropolis.

Does any evidence of
its legendary past survive?

A surprising discovery
in the city offers clues

to the ancient port.

In the early 19th century,
investigators discover

the remains of
two gigantic ancient obelisks.

They excavate one,
which has fallen

and is buried under centuries
of sand and debris.

The two obelisks are
a matching pair.

Each stands nearly 70 feet tall
and weighs almost 200 tons.

They're carved from red granite
from the quarries of aswan

and are decorated with ancient
hieroglyphs on all four sides.

Could these monumental markers
give a clue

to the location of
the ancient port of alexandria?

Damian robinson is part of an
international team on a mission

to unearth alexandria's
ancient secrets.

He hunts for the ancient site
of the two obelisks

in alexandria's busy streets.

♪

today, one obelisk stands tall
in london,

the other is in
new york's central park.

Damian uses photos
from the 19th century

to help pinpoint precisely
where they are found.

This photograph's
absolutely fascinating.

It shows the standing obelisk
as it was being taken down

for shipment to america.

But more importantly,
it shows this building.

We can look at the building,
and we can look

at the photograph
and compare the two.

So, we can be in absolutely
no doubt that the obelisk

once stood just over here
under this building today.

Narrator: Damian believes
the location of the obelisks

is the first clue
to the location

of alexandria's ancient port.

Knowing the location of the
obelisks is really important,

because ancient texts --

they tell us they were erected
at the edge of the port

and that it could be seen
from the port.

Narrator: The ancient port
is just a short distance away,

sunken beneath the modern bay.

This gives damian's team
a target area

to begin their hunt
for the ancient port.

To investigate further,
they must take to the water.

The mammoth investigation is led

by the world's leading
underwater archaeologist,

frank goddio.

Since 1992, it has been his goal
to piece together

the evidence
of this legendary ancient port.

Armed with sonar equipment
and electromagnetic scanners,

they begin to survey the entire
bay from above the waves.

Searching for a profile
of anything

that lies on top of the seabed,
or even beneath it.

The results are extraordinary.

Robinson: There are clearly
buildings down there,

there are clearly waterways

and this is an incredible view
of this landscape,

that we really
didn't see before.

Narrator: These rectangular
shapes on the seabed

are clearly man-made.

But what are these mysterious
hot spots?

The team gears up to dive
to the harbor floor.

They pick a target over
the strongest signal.

The water is cloudy and,
in places, 50 feet deep.

But as soon as they reach
the seabed,

ancient treasures begin
to emerge from the gloom.

And frank comes face to face
with something astonishing.

A fully intact sphinx
stands upright on the seabed

and then another.

A life-size figure lies
in between the two.

Robinson: What we have here
is incredible --

sphinxes, statues of priests,

perfectly preserved
for thousands of years,

just sitting underneath
the sand of the seabed.

Narrator:
When frank clears the sand away,

he reveals
a large granite block.

It is covered
with ancient script.

It's a real eureka moment
for the team.

The first glimpse of a building
from the legendary port.

♪

the excavations
are just over there,

on the other side of the bay,
beyond the boats.

And the sculptures that we found
there help us to identify

that there's a temple
in that location.

Narrator: The team believes
they can give a precise name

to this spot.

Submerged for centuries,

this is the island
of antirhodos.

Two granite sphinxes hint
at what once stands here.

A grand temple.

Alongside, divers discover
a fallen statue

of a priest of the goddess isis,

proof that this lost temple
is dedicated to her.

This is one of the many temples
described in ancient texts.

Can this discovery
help the team locate

and identify the rest
of alexandria's great port?

Robinson: What we have here are
the most amazing pieces

of a jigsaw puzzle,

that we can use to interpret
this amazing ancient port.

Narrator: Frank and his team
complete thousands of dives.

Each dive targets a new area.

As they map out
the entire seabed,

they discover a lost world --

from monumental statues

to thousands
of pottery fragments.

Robinson: It's a landscape
that's full of palaces,

of temples.

So, if you look down here
at the map,

we can see cape lochias,
which is just over here.

Cape lochias is a place
of extravagance and wealth,

it's one of the most
sumptuous places

that was constructed
in the classical world.

Next to it, as we can see here,
there's another port.

And this opens
onto the emporium, the market,

the great economic driver
of this amazing city.

It's one of the greatest ports
in the ancient world.

Narrator: For the first time
in over 1,000 years,

the grandeur and scale
of alexandria's lost waterfront

becomes clear.

The port is built with
double entry points.

For mediterranean traffic coming
from the east and the west.

The western harbor
is for commercial shipping

and handles trade with egypt's
mediterranean neighbors.

The eastern harbor is a complex
of three smaller ports.

It shelters the royal fleet
of several hundred warships.

Engineers cut channels
through the causeway,

so boats can transfer
between the two

and they build a canal
to the nile,

linking the harbor
to the rest of egypt.

Robinson:
If you need any more evidence

that the egyptians were
a great seafaring people,

you should look no further
than alexandria.

It is the center, the port,
that is the great gateway

to the mediterranean.

Narrator: Ruled by the last of
the country's great dynasties,

the ptolemies,

ancient egypt's power
lies in its maritime strength.

At alexandria, they create one
of the largest ports

ever seen in the ancient world.

So, what happens to it?

Why are its treasures now buried
beneath the waves?

Narrator: Alexandria,
built 2,500 years ago,

home to the greatest port
in the ancient world.

Alexandria marks egypt's
pinnacle as a seafaring nation.

From this port, ships sailed out

all over the ancient world
to trade.

Narrator:
Today, nothing of this ancient port exists above the waves.

What happens to it?

Why are its treasures lying
on the seabed

for hundreds of years?

World-leading underwater
investigator frank goddio

dives for clues.

He uncovers a vast stone head.

It's part of a monumental statue

and its features
are recognizable to the experts.

This is caesarion, the son
of the beautiful cleopatra

and her roman lover,
julius caesar.

Finding the head of caesarion
here is really significant.

The roman author strabo
tells us

that cleopatra founded
a temple to the divine caesars.

So finding the head here and
in combination with the texts

means that we're probably not so
very far away from that temple.

Narrator: The statue is
an amazing discovery.

But damian believes it may also
be evidence

of the fate of the port.

Robinson:
This is a map of the seabed.

It shows the different levels
all the finds

were discovered at.

One of the interesting things
is that the head of caesarion

was found just over here

at a depth of about
four and a half meters.

Now the author strabo tells us
that the temple was built

at the edge of the port

and so finding the head here
would suggest

that quite a considerable
portion of this area

has sunk beneath the waves.

Narrator: What causes the sea
to swallow up the land?

The team excavates the ocean
bed, searching for answers.

Beside the caesarion temple,

they discover a row
of fallen columns.

There are 20 of them,
each 30 feet long.

They once form
a grand entranceway.

Robinson:
The columns of the colonnade are really interesting.

They all fell
in the same direction.

It looks as if they all fell
over in an earthquake,

or a tidal wave.

The tsunami pushing all
the columns to one side.

Narrator: The written records
and archaeological evidence

reveal a highly destructive
earthquake

hits alexandria in 365 a.D.

The earthquake could generate
a powerful tsunami,

further devastating the city

as the mediterranean
waters flood inland.

The earthquake could also cause
the solid sea floor

to turn into a liquid slurry,

so the harbor structures
literally sink into the sea.

Together, these devastating
forces could be powerful enough

to wipe the great port

of alexandria
completely off the map.

Robinson: It's crazy to think
that so much of this landscape

could now be underwater,
but we're really fortunate

about the superb level of
preservation beneath the waves.

This has provided frank

and the mission with
an exceptional level of detail

with which to interpret
this sunken landscape.

It's amazing here.

Narrator: By piecing together
the clues, experts have revealed

the unknown story
of egypt's maritime past

from beginning to end.

The discovery of alexandria's
lost port and boats

buried in the deepest desert

have transformed our
understanding of ancient egypt.

Throughout
its 2,500 year history,

its pharaohs' fortunes rely
on their mastery of the water.

Controlling the nile enables
them to build the pyramids.

It allows cities to flourish
and egypt's trade empire

to grow
from strength to strength.

These lost treasures
of the desert

reveal the lost maritime past

at the heart of the rise
of ancient egypt.

♪

♪

♪

♪