Original subtitles

(exciting music)

- [Narrator] Ancient Egypt.

For over 3,000 years,

the world's most vibrant and puzzling civilization

flourished through war and peace.

The Egyptians built great cities, enduring monuments.

They advanced mathematics and technology.

Their astonishing legacy survives to this day.

What transformed a simple community of riverside farmers

into a great empire outlasting all others?

Archeologists have uncovered new clues from Dynasty Zero,

Egypt's very beginning.

A 5,000 year old tablet tells a fascinating tale

of warfare just before the founding of Egypt.

But is it really Egypt's birth certificate

or civilizations oldest lie?

Experts have begun to unravel the mystery

of what really happened.

They are uncovering the truth

about the enigmatic King Narmer,

the man who may have been the first pharaoh.

The man who possibly created Egypt.

(mysterious music)

Egypt around 3000 BC,

the time of Dynasty Zero.

Around one million people live on the Nile.

Fisherman, farmers, hunters.

No single pharaoh rules this divided country.

Not yet.

But history may hinge on a royal messenger.

He's been traveling upstream on the Nile for weeks.

He carries an urgent reply to a message sent by King Narmer,

the ruler of the country's south.

The response could shake the destiny of the entire country,

uniting it in peace

or plunging it into war.

King Narmer wants

to expand his increasingly powerful southern kingdom

to include the disparate tribes of the north.

But the Principalities of the Delta in the north

have always remained beyond his reach.

Until recently, little was known about this crucial period

in Egypt's history.

- We are learning about Dynasty Zero

only for the past 10 or 15 years.

We had no idea prior to that time

that there were kings, powerful rulers, in Egypt.

- [Narrator] King Narmer has demanded

that the northern tribes bow to his rule.

Preferably without a fight.

The messenger finally arrives

with a response the king has anxiously awaited.

(suspenseful music)

Control of the northern people

would magnify Narmer's power and wealth.

But the news is disappointing.

The tribal chiefs of the Nile Delta defy his demands.

They want to remain independent.

(speaking in foreign language)

But their decision apparently

won't quell Narmer's grand ambition

to rule the whole of Egypt

all the way to the Mediterranean.

(music swells)

Experts are just beginning

to speculate about Narmer's actions

and his actual role in history.

After five millennia,

it's hard to separate fact from propaganda.

Supposedly, this relatively obscure king

took up the simple spears and stone clubs of his day

and went war, vanquishing his enemies

and uniting the tribes and towns of Egypt

into a single kingdom.

(unsettling music)

At least, according to what is now known

as the Narmer Palette,

the most important source from that time,

The 5,000 year old stone inscription

shows Narmer wearing two crowns, representing all of Egypt.

But does that mean Egypt was founded by force?

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] The palette shows the king

striking one enemy with his mace,

while another is being dragged along by his nose.

There's papyrus growing out of his back,

a symbolic representation of his lands.

Clearly an act of force.

- [Narrator] Some Egyptologyists speculate

that the tribal leaders had fought each other

for generations.

But King Narmer sees the bigger pieces.

He has consolidated his power in the south

and assembled several hundred men to expand his domain.

(tense music)

The king tells his men

that the northern tribes refuse to fall under his rule,

and that the time to strike is now.

(crowd shouting passionately)

But Egyptologist Kent Weeks sees another origin

for the Egyptian empire.

- I think, myself, it was largely a peaceful operation.

And I think, too, that it was something

that was the result of a long period,

a gradual period of assimilation.

I don't mean thousands of years,

but I certainly mean several generations,

during which time this gradual emergence

of a unified culture came about.

- [Narrator] Could Egypt be united in peace?

Or would it take a vicious war

to bring the country together in a single empire?

Was an act of suppression,

an absolute victory over enemy peoples,

necessary to create a great civilization?

The answer to this question is crucial

to our understanding the next 3,000 years

of Egyptian history.

To find that answer, scholars must gather evidence

from every corner of the empire.

The swampy lands of the Nile Delta

swallowed the secrets of this Predynastic Period.

(intriguing music)

But the southern desert hides many surprises,

including a political power center dating to Dynasty Zero.

A place called Abydos.

It was a magical settlement,

nestled in the desert lowlands

next to the Nile River Valley.

In this sacred center,

the graves of the first pharaohs were discovered.

And Abydos may help scientists unravel

how Egypt was founded.

The excavation here has been the life's work

of Egyptologist Gunter Dreyer.

The ancient ruins speak volumes

about early Egyptian architecture.

But they're practically silent about how Egypt was founded.

These tombs, looted repeatedly over the last 5,000 years,

hold little except broken pottery.

Dreyer's team spent 30 years

meticulously sifting through mountains of sand.

Some of the most spectacular finds

are no longer than a fingernail,

like this evidence of perhaps the world's earliest writing.

Next to the tombs of the very first pharaohs

lie some of the oldest graves so far,

dating back to the Fourth Millennium BC.

It's here, at the edge of this ancient cemetery,

that archeologists found the tomb

of the mysterious King Narmer.

In fact, it's surprisingly modest

for the man who portrayed himself as a great war leader

and founder of the Egyptian Empire.

And it wasn't even built to last.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] The tombs here

are just ditches with brick walls.

They're very fragile.

Some of them even collapsed in ancient times.

After we excavated and photographed them,

we filled them up again for preservation purposes.

(exciting music)

- [Narrator] These photographs from Dreyer's 1981 excavation

show what Narmer's tomb once looked like.

It consisted of two simple brick lined chambers.

One for a body, one for a few funerary ornaments.

Narmer's generic tomb seems

to contradict his grand claim as Egypt's unifier.

Just a few hundred years later,

Egyptian tombs would grow to epic proportions,

taking thousands of workers decades to complete.

And entombed within them were rulers so powerful

they were venerated like gods.

Such achievements were only possible in a unified kingdom

(music swells)

with a single ruler.

If Narmer truly unified Egypt,

one would think he'd rate that sort

of monumental funerary treatment for himself.

But apparently not.

Could Narmer's glory be nothing but an elaborate fiction?

Perhaps.

The most important monument of this king

is the Narmer Palette,

a document to recount a battle that may

or may not have happened.

(music grows tense)

For the next 3,000 years,

every Egyptian king portrayed himself as a victor,

even if he never fought a war.

Narmer may have been no different.

There's another important center of Dynasty Zero

that might help solve the mystery of the Narmer Palette.

It's 250 kilometers south of Abydos

in Hierakonpolis.

(soft exotic music)

This city had a pivotal role in the founding of the empire.

For 500 years,

this was one of the great power centers of the south,

a vital part of King Narmer's rule.

And here, during the 19th century,

archeologists found the Narmer Palette.

Archeologist Renee Friedman has been working

at Hierakonpolis for more than a decade,

piecing together the few remaining traces

of the ancient city.

She and her team have painstakingly assembled a picture

of what this place must have looked like.

They've learned to tease vital information

from mundane ruins,

like this foundation of a simple house.

She can even determine who it belonged to.

- This is the house of a potter, who, fortunately for us,

burnt his house down with his own kiln,

ensuring its incredible preservation,

because it's been cut into the native dirt.

And otherwise, it would have eroded away.

But because he burnt it and made it like pottery,

it's red like pottery now because of the fire,

it's preserved it against the wind and the elements.

So we can see and get a feel

for how the ancient Egyptians at this time actually lived.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Until tragedy burnished his place in history,

the potter lived with his family in a simple clay house

like many of his neighbors.

(music swells)

In the adjacent shop,

he produced pottery for inhabitants of Hierakonpolis,

at that time, one of the greatest settlements in the world.

Nearly 10,000 people lived here,

where a huge temple dominated the city center.

But fire isn't the only way the structures

of Hierakonpolis survived.

Archeologists have excavated remains

of central breweries and bakeries.

(exciting music)

The most remarkable discovery, however,

came from outside the city.

It's a cemetery for Egyptian elite with about 200 tombs.

And not just people were buried here.

Antelopes, two elephants, and several dogs

have been found in the sand.

- With our elite,

they were all buried with many animals surrounding them.

And it's unique in Egypt.

We don't know exactly why they chose to do this,

but we think it's a symbol of power.

It's a symbol of their wealth and their control of nature.

(low fast-paced music)

- [Narrator] Their burial practices may seem strange to us,

but life in Hierakonpolis seems orderly

and strikingly civilized.

The city stretched five kilometers along the Nile.

When most Europeans still lived in fragmented settlements,

the residents of Hierakonpolis enjoyed a flourishing society

based on trade and cooperation.

And that suggests that Narmer's battle never happened,

and that the Egyptians of the country's north

and south united peacefully.

But it doesn't really prove it.

To get to the truth,

we need to dig further back into history

to discover where the ancient Egyptians actually came from.

The search for roots of the very first Egyptians

takes us 500 kilometers across one

of the driest deserts on Earth: the Sahara.

Prehistorian and climatologist Rudolf Kuper

has been exploring Africa's deserts for over 40 years.

Now he heads to the Gil Kebir Plateau

to examine a cave tourists discovered a few years ago.

The drifting sands of the Sahara

have partially hidden the cave's interior.

As the archeologists go to work,

they bring to light images unseen

for up to 9,000 years.

But Kuper and his team have years of work ahead of them,

uncovering and interpreting the significance of this site.

It may well be one

of the world's largest prehistoric paintings.

The pictures on the cave walls show ancient people dancing,

like snapshots from a vivacious prehistoric world.

Strange creatures, beasts without heads.

Hunters chasing deer.

Children at play.

And animals not associated with the desert.

Antelopes, ostriches, even giraffes.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] With some of the paintings,

you really have the feeling

that music is coming out of the walls.

Something was really happening here.

(intriguing music)

- [Narrator] But who lived here and why remains a mystery.

Prehistorians Hikorima and Francis Cabots

are part of the expedition.

Everywhere, they've discovered evidence

of early human habitation.

As they carefully examine the area around the cave,

they make some surprising discoveries.

Layers of sediment, deposits of an ancient lake,

reveal why people could live in this deserted area long ago.

The landscape looked very different back then.

9,000 years ago,

the climate here supported a savanna.

Giant herds roamed the fertile plains of North Africa.

(stirring music)

For 4,000 years,

human hunter-gatherers had more than enough to eat.

Then the rains stopped.

The savanna turned to desert.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] As the desert returned,

humans were gradually forced to move

to areas with favorable living conditions,

like the mountains, where you could still find rain,

or to an oasis.

But eventually, the people of the Sahara had to move

to the Nile Valley.

(exciting music)

- [Narrator] As the Sahara dried out,

it became the motive force of Egyptian history.

The expanding desert drove humans before it.

Their search for water took them to the Nile,

where they stopped and settled.

(music swells triumphantly)

Many generations later,

the people of the Nile constructed some

of antiquity's greatest buildings

and became one of history's longest lived civilizations.

A civilization forged from diverse embattled tribes

by the power of King Narmer.

At least, according to the Narmer Palette.

Now the king's soldiers prepare for war.

Their weapons include not just lances and maces,

but also bows and arrows,

like their ancestors hundreds of years ago in the savanna.

They train well, always ready for battle.

Narmer, his country's most senior warrior,

senses that war there will be.

(tense music)

(music swells)

And when it comes, he is prepared to lead.

(low suspenseful music)

But more than a military leader,

Narmer controls just about everything else as well.

Taxes, religion,

and the annual harvest fall under his command.

As the chief administrator,

he travels with his family through the kingdom of the south.

The well-being of his subjects falls squarely

on his shoulders.

But there is one thing he can't control.

One thing even more powerful than himself.

The mighty Nile.

(speaking in foreign language)

Rising and falling tides of this gigantic river

determine the welfare of the whole country.

Jutting into the Nile River,

the island of Elephantine marks Egypt's southern border.

The early Egyptians considered it the source of the Nile,

and therefore, all life.

(soft mysterious music)

As early as Dynasty Zero, pilgrims flocked to Elephantine,

one of the oldest sacred sites in Egypt.

They come to worship the goddess of the Nile floods,

Satet.

Called the donor of the cool water

which springs from Elephantine,

Satet plays a pivotal role in Egyptian life.

(music swells)

The real sources of the Nile weren't discovered

until the 19th century.

Some of its water springs from the mountains of Ethiopia.

It feeds into the Blue Nile,

providing almost 60% of the Nile's volume.

And there's a second tributary, the White Nile, in Sudan.

It's here that one can see what the Nile looked like

at the time of the first Egyptians.

A menagerie of African animals thrived

in the river's fertile flood plains.

(intriguing music)

Papyrus and lotus plants flourished in the marshes.

At Khartoum in the Sudan,

the White and the Blue Nile merge

to form the longest river in the world.

And once a year,

the river lets loose its fury like no other,

delivering bounty or destruction along its entire path.

(drop thunders)

Each summer, weeks of severe rainfall

in the Ethiopian highlands swell the waters

of the Nile enormously.

(tense music)

Kilometer by kilometer, the flood advances northward,

leaving only small islands poking above the water.

Depending on the amount of rainfall,

the water rises between two and eight meters.

The flood waters finally swallow the Nile Delta,

turning much of it into a shallow lake.

For some of the first settlers,

the flooding Nile often meant disaster.

If they'd built their house on low-lying land,

they could lose everything.

To survive, they had to learn to live with the flood

and use it.

The ancient Egyptians learned fast.

At the time of Dynasty Zero,

they would wait keenly at Elephantine

for the first sign of the flood.

Their descendants even built a nilometer.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] We have markings here

to measure the level of the Nile.

It was important to be able to check it,

because that was the only way

to predict how the harvest would develop in the coming year.

If the Nile didn't flood enough,

there might be no harvest at all.

If it flooded too much, that could destroy all the crops.

It was vital for the officials to estimate this in advance,

so they could work out the taxes for the farmers.

- [Narrator] For the ancient Egyptians,

the height of the water is no random event.

It flows as a blessing or a curse directly from their gods.

The people must be worthy.

As the water surges, it carries hope along with it.

The king is crucial to the process.

(speaking in foreign language)

If he displeases the gods, his people will parish.

So King Narmer performs spiritual ceremonies

to ensure that the flood waters flow

in the proper volumes to bring a healthy harvest each year.

The rising waters renew the annual bond

between the gods and the people.

And to ensure this great gift isn't squandered,

Narmer has to see that the water is properly managed.

- Controlling the Nile flood,

ensuring that there were healthy crops each year

was one of the many duties that fell on the pharaoh.

It was his task to ensure that the gods treated us properly

by raising the Nile, not too much, not too little,

but just enough for a good flood by producing adequate crops

to provide surplus foods for trade,

and in case of emergencies and so forth.

- [Narrator] The river brought dual gifts

to the people of Egypt.

Not one, but two great elements essential

for the development of an advanced culture.

- The reason Egyptian civilization could exist,

the River Nile.

It not only provided water, essential for all life,

but every year about a millimeter of fresh Nile silts

were deposited over the landscape of Egypt.

The nutrients in these silts made possible

the richest agricultural landscape

on the face of the planet.

- [Narrator] The Nile's silt does more

than just feed the fields.

This muddy sediment provides the building materials

for huts and palaces.

Whole cities rise from mud bricks.

In its marshes, papyrus flourishes,

providing the raw material for the very first paper

for the chronicles of the scribes,

the letters of the living,

and the books of the dead.

But mud alone can't guarantee a good harvest.

People have to learn how to manage the Nile's great gift.

Through dams, reservoirs, and irrigation canals,

the Egyptians learned to manage their agriculture.

Simply, but very effectively.

Even today, many farmers along the Nile

use the same time-proven methods as their ancestors.

The ancient Egyptians recognize only three seasons:

flood, planting, and harvest.

That's all that matters.

Each sewing season,

they plant an area of two and a half million hectares.

A ceremonial mace from the time of Dynasty Zero

shows a king inaugurating an irrigation canal.

The opening of the sluice gate

is a ritual reserved for the king.

It demonstrates the reverence of ancient Egyptians

for the mighty and temperamental river.

After the flood subsides,

the stored water is channeled to irrigate the fields.

(reverant music)

In the rich soil of the Nile Valley,

the wheat grows faster than anywhere else in the world,

producing enough grain

to feed an estimated one million people

at the time of Dynasty Zero.

(music grows more wonderous)

Ancient tomb paintings depict cattle breeding

and the bounty that Egypt's agricultural society relied on.

Grain becomes the country's currency,

and also Egypt's most important export.

- Early on, the Egyptians realized

that cooperation amongst themselves

was going to be key to their success.

And by success, I mean having agricultural surpluses

that could see them through the bad times,

or having the ability to repair damage

that might be caused by a flood that was a bit too high.

This kind of cooperative effort

also provided something extremely important,

and that was the ability for specialists

to develop in Egyptian society.

(captivating music)

- [Narrator] The Nile provides more than bumper harvests.

It is also the country's main thoroughfare.

With no regular roads to connect the Egyptian towns,

people rely on the Nile to get around.

Boats are indispensable

for food and transportation.

The Nile provides a dual lifeline

for the people of Dynasty Zero.

By boat, Narmer and his family visit the entire kingdom.

Every village is in easy reach.

They travel south using wind power.

When they go back north, they're carried by the current.

The wind is faster than the current.

One cruises upstream at about four kilometers an hour.

Traveling from the delta

to the far south takes just 30 days.

Hundreds of modeled boats have been found in Egyptian tombs,

a testimony to their value, even in the afterlife.

Boats can carry crops, building materials,

people, and their ideas.

Everyone possesses a boat.

The farmers and fishermen use small papyrus boats.

They're perfectly adequate for crossing

from one bank of the Nile to the other.

For longer journeys, they sail in more substantial vessels,

built from tougher materials

with more sophisticated construction methods.

- These are boats built out of wooden planks.

And we know that not only by their shape,

but because we found one from about the same age.

These wooden planks are help together

in a way that nobody else in the world has built boats.

And it's a way that actually reflects the construction

of the papyrus raft.

- [Narrator] The Egyptians built their earliest boats

by lashing papyrus reeds together,

lifting the ends out of the water

and forming a crescent to cut through the waves.

A straw roof gave shelter, and oars steered.

The first wooden boats mimicked the shape

of the papyrus boats and were constructed in the same way.

Wooden planks were sewn together

with straps made of grass or papyrus.

They were strong enough

to haul heavy cargo over long distances.

But they could also be taken apart and carried over land.

They formed the backbone of the Egyptian trade

and transport system, which began during Dynasty Zero.

- Boats were the major means of transportation.

And having said that, they were also a major means

of bringing together the country, of unifying the country.

(mysterious music)

- [Narrator] According to most

of the archeological evidence, 5,000 years ago,

a prosperous agricultural and trading society

flourished peacefully along the banks of the Nile.

But one would never guess that

looking at the Narmer Palette.

The stone is a monument to war,

with graphic depictions of violence,

the slaughter of enemies,

and prisoners bound through their noses.

How can both accounts be right?

How can archeologists reconcile the contradictions?

The Narmer Palette was discovered

in the temple of Hierakonpolis.

So archeologists believe King Narmer offered it to Horus,

the god of kings to whom the temple was dedicated.

The palette proclaims that Narmer,

the unifier of both lands,

laid the foundation for a great future.

But this could be part of the official cult of the king

rather than historical reality.

Narmer's great battle could be a metaphor

or an exaggeration.

In Cairo, Belgian Egyptologist Stan Hendrickx

is allowed to examine the Narmer Palette

for the first time in 100 years.

The tiniest detail could provide clues

about events of 5,000 years ago.

He and his team assess the data

in their research facility in Belgium.

Perhaps some overlooked detail could solve the great mystery

that has confounded Egyptologists for decades.

- Is the Narmer palette,

does it refer to historical facts?

Or it only a symbolic representation

of the power of Egyptian kings

and of the violence that is related to this power.

- [Narrator] But even with precise copies of the reliefs,

the images remain cryptic.

There's a figure with papyrus growing out of its back,

the enemy.

But we still don't know anything about him

apart from his name.

Yet the weight of the evidence, Hendrickx believes,

suggests that the war really happened.

- There are too many details referring

to badly specific places.

A specific person who,

the name of his principle victim is mentioned.

There are too many of these kind of details

to accept that it is just a purely symbolic representation.

(intriguing music)

- [Narrator] In his headquarters in Abydos,

Professor Gunter Dreyer searches for evidence

among the fragments he has excavated.

Most of these ivory and clay tablets refer

to shipments of oil and wheat.

But the oldest of them has some special information.

It dates an oil delivery to a specific year,

the year

that Narmer defeated the papyrus people.

This tiny piece of clay has rewritten history.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] We know that later, in the first dynasty,

they didn't count the years as year one, two,

or three of a particular king,

but they named the years

after significant events that happened.

This tablet is the very first of its kind.

And it cites Narmer's victory over the papyrus people.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] Proof at last that descriptions of violence

and warfare from Dynasty Zero are more than simply mythical.

Archeologist Maria Gatto, working deep in Southern Egypt,

has found more evidence.

Rock art long thought lost that tells of king

whose power reached all corners of the kingdom.

These pictures have been vandalized over recent decades.

Luckily, they were photographed many years ago.

(shutter clicks)

To study the pictures better,

Maria Gatto has transcribed them onto paper.

The drawings show an impressive, sweeping royal procession.

- There was a king with a white crown and a stick.

Then there was a fan bearer behind him.

And then there was a dog in the center.

So, because of this iconographic connection

with the Narmer Palette,

and because of this presence of the dog,

we are wondering if this king might be Narmer.

- [Narrator] Perhaps King Narmer wanted

to impose his authority here, too,

far from the center of his power.

Many other similar depictions

have been found across the region,

a reminder of who was in charge.

(speaking in foreign language)

And so, it seems likely

that King Narmer did unify Egypt by force.

When the north refuses to succumb to the rule of the south,

King Narmer plans for war.

(crowd shouting passionately)

Controlling the north is now essential

for the rulers of the south.

As their prosperity and population have grown,

so has southern demand for luxury goods

that can only be supplied via the Near East.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] The trade routes to the Near East

led past the delta, and they were under threat.

I think the main reason for the expansion of the rule

of the south into the north was to secure the trade routes.

(stirring music)

- [Narrator] Narmer and his invading army set off

on the long march north through unforgiving terrain.

The locals watch anxiously as Narmer's warriors pass.

(crowd shouting)

The papyrus people are determined

to preserve their independence.

But Narmer has other plans,

and hundreds of warriors behind him.

We now know that the Narmer Palette

depicts actual historical events.

The outcome of Narmer's battle against the papyrus people

unifies and transforms Egypt.

This is one of the first great battles ever recorded.

(music swells)

Somewhere in the Nile Delta, 5,000 years ago,

King Narmer's royal forces of the south clash

with the principalities of the delta to the north

in a battle without mercy.

At stake is the independence of the northern people.

But eventually, Narmer and his army triumph.

(pained shouting)

One of Narmer's ceremonial maces shows a victory parade.

Narmer sits under a canopy with the crown of Egypt,

his standard bearers behind him.

(exciting music)

The hieroglyphics record the booty.

120,000 captives.

More than a million goats.

400,000 cattle.

On the Narmer Palette,

the king inspects the lines of enemy dead.

They've been beheaded and castrated.

- Warfare is not only violence, but also psychology.

So humiliation of your opponent

may break the resistance of your opponent.

(triumphant music)

- [Narrator] For Narmer, victory is complete.

On the front of the palette,

he wears the crown of Upper Egypt.

On the back, the crown of Lower Egypt.

King Narmer has finished what his predecessors began,

the unification of the empire.

And to symbolize that unity,

the two crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt

are combined into one.

From now on, and for at least 3,000 years to come,

every pharaoh will wear it.

Something truly new has begun.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] The period of Narmer's rule

was a turning point in Egyptian history.

It marks the transition from the Predynastic

to the Dynastic Period.

- [Narrator] Narmer's victory ushers in 3,000 years,

31 dynasties of god-like pharaohs.

Great names will follow, names we still remember.

Thutmose.

(sweeping music)

Amenhotep.

Akhenaten.

Ramses.

Hatshepsut.

And many others.

At last, the lotus of the south

and the papyrus of the north are linked.

From now on the pharaoh's most important task

is to protect the unity of the kingdom

and to defend its borders.

Egypt has become the first territorial state in history,

the first empire.

Before long, the country subdivides

into administrative districts, the nomes.

22 in the north, 20 in the south.

When King Narmer dies after a successful reign.

The entire country mourns.

(emotional music)

In Abydos, Narmer's body begins its final journey.

Even here, at the time of Dynasty Zero.

The people of Egypt believe

that death is the portal to eternal life.

Mummification is important, but not yet perfected.

Beneath the desert sand,

an eternal home receives the crudely preserved body

of the founder of the kingdom.

Burial here is a simple affair compared

to what will come later.

The end of Narmer's reign marks the beginning of a new era.

By the next generation,

royal tombs are growing considerably larger.

At Abydos, construction starts on a new cemetery area.

The necropolis of the first pharaohs of a unified empire.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Translator] The energy that had previously been channeled

into the conquest of Egypt was now no longer needed.

It could flow into the architecture of the empire instead.

(captivating music)

- [Narrator] The kings, now pharaohs,

are no longer obsessed with war,

but with eternal life awaiting them in the beyond.

And so, they turn their architectural ambitions

to the construction of tombs.

(music swells)

Each successive pharaoh

will build a grander underground tomb.

And the monuments above them will new extravagant heights.

They culminate in the pyramids,

an expression of the glory and power

of the united Egyptian state.

The pyramids dazzled visitors then as they still do today.

Born out of warfare,

Egypt's peaceful and collaborative traditions

ultimately prevailed.

The blessings of the Nile gave rise

to a civilization of plenty,

where ample food created a wealthy culture.

Civilization sprouted and flourished,

united under god-like kings.

The age of the pharaohs had begun.

(sweeping music)