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We are surrounded
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by extraordinary feats of engineering,
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constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible.
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Without engineering, there'd be no modern world.
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Gigantic cities.
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Amazing infrastructure.
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And ingenious inventions.
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Engineering is the key to turn dreams into reality.
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To reach these dizzying heights
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today's technology relies on breakthroughs
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made by ancient engineers.
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It's mind boggling how they did this.
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How did early civilizations
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build on such a scale?
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They raised the bar for construction in a way
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that no one thought possible.
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The sheer engineering ability
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is in itself impressive.
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By defying the known laws of physics
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and daring to dream big.
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They constructed wonders of the world
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from gigantic pyramids,
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to awe inspiring temples
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and mighty fortresses.
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All with the simplest of tools.
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Can you imagine the skills
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people would have needed to build like this?
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Now it's possible to unearth the secrets
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of the first engineers.
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They managed to construct edifices
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that has survived the ravages of time.
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And reveal how their genius
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laid the foundations for everything we build today.
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(awe-inspiring music)
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Humanity is obsessed with surpassing
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the limits of construction and engineering.
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Establishing new records only to break them again and again.
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As humans we always want to advance,
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as engineers, always want to push the boundaries.
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Every decade sees radical new structures.
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And bigger is always better.
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rising a dizzying half a mile above the desert,
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Dubai's Burj Khalifa currently reigns
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as the tallest structure in the world.
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Wrapped in a glass curtain wall,
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the supertower's sleek silhouette
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dwarves the surrounding city.
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And in Ontario, the Absolute Towers
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appear to shimmer and twist around their own axes.
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With continuous balconies and elliptical floor plans,
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the skyscrapers take on shapes
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that seem to defy the laws of physics,
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But these architectural monuments also express the wealth
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and power of those who commissioned them.
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They are expensive and they're always symbols of power
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to a certain extent.
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Engineering as the ultimate status symbol.
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They want to build the biggest thing they can do
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to make a point of saying I was here.
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Creating massive eye catching structures
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is one of the best ways to impress.
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Whether they're captivating onlookers
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or symbolizing the might of a nation,
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these statement buildings are found across the globe
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reaching ever higher.
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We certainly see it going on today,
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the race to be the tallest building in the world.
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But while modern tall buildings
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are usurped by a new rival every few years,
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in the ancient world, one civilization
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built a structure that would reign supreme
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for almost four millennia.
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And it emerged in ancient Egypt.
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{\an8}In terms of building big, tall, structures
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{\an8}I don't think anyone rivaled the Egyptians.
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{\an8}What the Egyptians did was take monumental building
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{\an8}to its extremes.
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Egypt's most iconic structure
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became the tallest building in the world,
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a title it retained for more than 3,500 years.
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The Great Pyramid of Giza,
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the largest pyramid ever built.
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Last of the original
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seven Wonders of the World still standing.
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{\an8}It was recognized by the ancient world as extraordinary,
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and it's still an iconic symbol of Egypt
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and of the ancient Egyptians today.
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At a time when most buildings
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were only one story high,
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the Egyptians created something unimaginable.
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Soaring to over 475 feet,
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the pyramid remained the world's tallest structure
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until the 14th century.
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{\an8}It's the biggest ancient building of them all,
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{\an8}it's still standing and it's a real icon.
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But the great pyramid isn't only about scale.
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With principles that still apply today,
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it's also a masterpiece of mathematics
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and precision engineering.
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Aligned to face true north with pinpoint accuracy.
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{\an8}The size makes it impressive,
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{\an8}but it's also the dimensions, the proportionality.
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The measurements are very accurate.
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Each side is equal.
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Built with over 2 million stone blocks.
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Some seemed to weigh as much as two and a half tons.
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And these fits together like a jigsaw puzzle.
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The expertise that went
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into making this thing was incredible.
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It's a triumph against impossible odds.
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Believed to have been constructed in just 20 years,
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the result of extraordinary human ingenuity.
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It's built in such a carefully engineered way
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that it seems impermeable to the passage of time.
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It's a solid structure built on solid foundations,
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built to last, which indeed it has.
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The great pyramid
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is an ancient engineering masterpiece,
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but this world famous monument is still shrouded in mystery.
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For centuries it has remained
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one of the great engineering enigmas.
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The complex engineering that went into that
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{\an8}without the modern day technology
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{\an8}that we have is really astounding.
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The kind of challenges just to build something of that scale
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with the materials they had available
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is really an amazing feat of engineering.
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What drove the Egyptians
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to erect such enduring monuments in the first place?
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Of course, there are many theories
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as to why the pyramids were
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constructed by the ancient Egyptians.
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Were they really enormous burial places
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with hidden chambers inside?
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Or did they serve another function?
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Even the ancient Egyptians looked back generations later
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at this thing, with some degree of mystery.
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To find answers, we need to go back
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to the first pyramids.
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Over 5,000 years ago,
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Egyptian civilization began to emerge
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along the banks of one of the world's longest rivers,
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the Nile.
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For the ancient Egyptians
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the Nile was fundamental to their entire culture.
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Without the Nile there is no Egypt.
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Annual floods brought nutrient rich waters
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to the lands along the Nile's banks,
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giving life and fertility.
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It's that that could support this great civilization
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and allow it to store grain and grow and grow and grow
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and do more and more remarkable things.
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For the most part, it was a blessing
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and Egypt became a land of plenty,
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but during times of drought, there was starvation and death.
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If the Nile flood was too low, then famine would follow.
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If the Nile flood was too high,
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then entire villages could be washed away.
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This precarious existence
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led to an obsession with death and the afterlife.
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And in order to protect the bodies of their dead,
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the Egyptians developed a method of artificial preservation,
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mummification.
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Mummification was invented to provide
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a permanent physical home for the soul,
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which could wander around, live forever
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and then come back at will into its body.
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The body of the deceased
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was washed and purified.
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All the organs were removed, excluding the heart.
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It was then dried out with salts
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and wrapped head to toe
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before finally being laid to rest.
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{\an8}Some bodies were simply wrapped in linen
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{\an8}and put in the desert.
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The desert sands may have been good enough
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for ordinary Egyptians,
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but they're mummified rulers
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demanded a more secure resting place.
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The ancient Egyptian king was essentially worshiped
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as a kind of god in life,
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and certainly as a god in the afterlife.
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Workers used simple hand tools,
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excavating huge underground burial chambers for their kings,
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protective tombs for their journey into the afterlife.
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And mummification continued for thousands of years,
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but other techniques for preserving
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the human body after death have since been invented,
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including one very recent innovation.
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Hundreds worldwide have had their corpses frozen
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in special cryogenic chambers,
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preserving their remains in the hope that resurrection
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may be possible in the future.
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People hope that when they're eventually
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brought back to life,
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that there will have been advances in medicine
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that means there'll be able to treat incurable diseases
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that we have today.
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The procedure must begin minutes after death.
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Antifreeze compounds replace the corpse's blood
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to prevent harmful ice crystals forming
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as the body is slowly cooled to a temperature
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of minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit,
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and finally lowered into a tank of liquid nitrogen
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where it remains ready for the afterlife.
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But over 4,000 years ago,
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all the ancient Egyptians had was their belief in the king.
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And they were certain the efforts their engineers made
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to preserve the royal body would be rewarded.
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Each royal mummy had to be buried
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in a very, very safe place.
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And it was only when this was done
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could Egypt truly thrive because it was believed
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that each successive Pharaoh contained divine power.
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By creating a secure burial chamber for the King,
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the people believed that the survival
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of their civilization was insured.
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So royal grave sites became unmissable monuments.
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The earliest Kings were buried in
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what we call mastaba tombs,
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low rectangular structures with sloping sides.
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They can be quite large, but they weren't made from stone.
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These were made from mud brick,
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Mud brick was the most common building material in Egypt
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because simply it's made of the mud
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from the banks of the Nile.
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But a belief in the afterlife,
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wasn't the only motivation for tomb building.
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Each successive ruler wanted
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a memorial larger and grander than the last.
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Royal tombs had become a mark of status.
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Then around 2650 BC,
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one genius of ancient engineering had an outlandish,
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world-changing idea to take tomb building to new heights.
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King Djoser had his architect Imhotep
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embellish his simple mastaba tomb.
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You can see the really big leap from the previous phase.
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This huge leap that Imhotep seems to make.
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One that would change
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the Egyptian landscape forever.
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Imhotep wanted something grander to commemorate his king
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and took Egyptian engineering to the next level, literally.
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He envisioned six different layers of mastaba
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stacked on top of each other,
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but this new design would involve a tremendous amount
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of material and weight.
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So a radical breakthrough was needed.
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The great leap forward
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was that the Djoser's pyramid
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was built of limestone rather than mud brick.
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The use of stone revolutionized construction in Egypt.
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The architect Imhotep also changed the design,
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instead of the rectangular mastaba,
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it was made into a square,
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which is effectively far more stable.
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Imhotep had designed Egypt's first pyramid.
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It would prove a massive undertaking.
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Building with stone is not easy.
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It's not cheap, it takes a long time.
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It's not an easy material to work with.
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Over the course
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of Djoser's nearly 20-year reign.
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His builders assembled the six stone layers of his pyramid,
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a colossal structure,
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unlike anything the Egyptians had ever laid eyes on.
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Djoser's pyramid is probably
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the world's first monumental building in stone.
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This engineering masterpiece reinforced
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the king status as a living god.
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196 feet tall, the groundbreaking form
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00:14:42,990 --> 00:14:45,063
would come to be known as a step pyramid.
272
00:14:48,130 --> 00:14:50,110
It can only be imagined
273
00:14:50,110 --> 00:14:53,370
what impact first pyramid must have had
274
00:14:53,370 --> 00:14:55,710
on the Egyptian population.
275
00:14:55,710 --> 00:14:57,830
The whole structure was designed
276
00:14:57,830 --> 00:15:00,023
to be seen from the valley below.
277
00:15:04,620 --> 00:15:06,460
Imhotep would go down in history
278
00:15:06,460 --> 00:15:10,343
as the world's first engineer and architect known by name.
279
00:15:12,860 --> 00:15:15,503
He had created the original skyscraper.
280
00:15:20,630 --> 00:15:24,520
Some modern architects have also become household names,
281
00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:27,303
world famous, thanks to their unique designs.
282
00:15:29,610 --> 00:15:32,373
One of the greatest in their ranks is Frank Gehry.
283
00:15:33,930 --> 00:15:36,713
His buildings are monumental works of art.
284
00:15:40,430 --> 00:15:42,800
He has such a signature style to him
285
00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:44,970
that you can pretty much look at a building
286
00:15:44,970 --> 00:15:47,713
and probably guess correctly that that that's a Gehry.
287
00:15:49,020 --> 00:15:50,330
Cutting edge technology
288
00:15:50,330 --> 00:15:53,020
helps deliver the engineering solutions
289
00:15:53,020 --> 00:15:55,573
that bring Gehry's sculptural sketches to life.
290
00:15:56,820 --> 00:15:59,930
For me it's about his use of geometry
291
00:15:59,930 --> 00:16:03,550
to create really, really unusual shapes.
292
00:16:03,550 --> 00:16:06,070
In a sense he was a bit like the Egyptians
293
00:16:06,070 --> 00:16:08,940
{\an8}who built the pyramids as they were making things
294
00:16:08,940 --> 00:16:11,190
{\an8}that would make people go, wow, look at that.
295
00:16:12,490 --> 00:16:14,603
New forms never seen before.
296
00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:18,473
Making headlines around the world.
297
00:16:23,410 --> 00:16:28,020
Gehry is an architect who refuses to accept limits,
298
00:16:28,020 --> 00:16:31,113
something he and Imhotep appear to have in common.
299
00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:39,180
But why was the step pyramid design
300
00:16:39,180 --> 00:16:40,833
chosen for Djoser's tomb?
301
00:16:42,020 --> 00:16:44,210
Some believe that the pyramid sides
302
00:16:44,210 --> 00:16:46,423
act as a celestial staircase,
303
00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:50,223
guiding the Pharaoh's soul to the afterlife.
304
00:16:51,370 --> 00:16:55,220
Or could Imhotep have had a more practical reason?
305
00:16:55,220 --> 00:16:57,180
If one looks at the grains of sand
306
00:16:57,180 --> 00:16:58,800
trickling through an hourglass,
307
00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:01,640
they naturally form a pyramidal shape.
308
00:17:01,640 --> 00:17:06,400
And that's because the pyramid is a deeply stable structure.
309
00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:09,400
And a stable structure is a strong structure.
310
00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:13,580
A pyramid is very stable because of having a large base
311
00:17:13,580 --> 00:17:14,830
compared to its height.
312
00:17:14,830 --> 00:17:17,330
You've got basically a very low center of gravity.
313
00:17:18,750 --> 00:17:22,220
It's a structure that as long as you expand the base
314
00:17:22,220 --> 00:17:25,450
can grow infinitely large because the base
315
00:17:25,450 --> 00:17:28,463
will sustain the structure as far as you want.
316
00:17:29,500 --> 00:17:31,140
Their stable form explains
317
00:17:31,140 --> 00:17:34,470
why the pyramids of Egypt are still standing tall,
318
00:17:34,470 --> 00:17:37,193
enduring weather and erosion over millennia.
319
00:17:41,110 --> 00:17:45,180
Djoser's step pyramid launched an engineering arms race
320
00:17:45,180 --> 00:17:47,103
that would continue for centuries.
321
00:17:48,675 --> 00:17:50,400
After Djoser, the pyramid became
322
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:52,500
the kind of stereotypical monument
323
00:17:52,500 --> 00:17:54,163
in which a king would be buried.
324
00:17:57,410 --> 00:18:00,390
They were really showing off the might and power
325
00:18:00,390 --> 00:18:03,870
{\an8}of the Egyptian empire at the time.
326
00:18:03,870 --> 00:18:05,390
{\an8}We do the same thing today.
327
00:18:05,390 --> 00:18:07,383
People build taller and taller.
328
00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:11,620
But as with everything in the modern world,
329
00:18:11,620 --> 00:18:15,263
even big buildings need to be put up as quickly as possible.
330
00:18:16,230 --> 00:18:17,680
In New York city,
331
00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:20,583
marvels of engineering continue to be developed.
332
00:18:21,740 --> 00:18:23,750
High profile skyscrapers,
333
00:18:23,750 --> 00:18:26,180
many of which reach 1000 feet tall
334
00:18:27,550 --> 00:18:29,860
with more and more commissioned each year,
335
00:18:29,860 --> 00:18:33,463
the scale of this new wave of construction is unprecedented.
336
00:18:35,230 --> 00:18:38,090
And thanks to modern materials and techniques,
337
00:18:38,090 --> 00:18:41,023
each building can be completed within a few years.
338
00:18:53,170 --> 00:18:54,720
In ancient Egypt
339
00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:58,220
pyramids couldn't possibly be built this fast,
340
00:18:58,220 --> 00:19:00,650
but the pressure was on.
341
00:19:00,650 --> 00:19:03,460
Not only to be ready for the death of the Pharaoh,
342
00:19:03,460 --> 00:19:05,610
but to go taller than before.
343
00:19:05,610 --> 00:19:07,514
There was this real desire
344
00:19:07,514 --> 00:19:10,464
to exceed what your predecessor had done.
345
00:19:10,464 --> 00:19:13,264
There is a kind of mark of your status, of your ability.
346
00:19:14,120 --> 00:19:17,030
Pushing pyramid construction to the next level
347
00:19:17,030 --> 00:19:19,923
called for new architectural and engineering skills.
348
00:19:21,570 --> 00:19:24,790
Djoser's successors must have seen Djoser
349
00:19:24,790 --> 00:19:26,363
as a very hard act to follow.
350
00:19:27,260 --> 00:19:29,510
Most of them had very short reigns
351
00:19:29,510 --> 00:19:31,060
and of course you can't achieve much
352
00:19:31,060 --> 00:19:33,590
if you're only on the throne for two or three years.
353
00:19:33,590 --> 00:19:36,060
In fact, for the next several decades,
354
00:19:36,060 --> 00:19:38,680
not a single pyramid was built successfully
355
00:19:40,310 --> 00:19:44,563
until one Pharaoh changed ancient engineering forever.
356
00:19:46,060 --> 00:19:48,550
In the fourth dynasty of ancient Egypt,
357
00:19:48,550 --> 00:19:51,050
King Sneferu was determined to build a pyramid
358
00:19:51,050 --> 00:19:53,003
far larger than his predecessors.
359
00:19:55,230 --> 00:19:58,130
Blinded by ambition, his monument was destined
360
00:19:58,130 --> 00:19:59,963
to meet with terrible disaster.
361
00:20:01,870 --> 00:20:05,420
Sneferu began constructing the pyramid of Meidum,
362
00:20:05,420 --> 00:20:08,360
a step pyramid similar in design to the original,
363
00:20:08,360 --> 00:20:09,893
but significantly taller.
364
00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:13,090
But halfway through construction,
365
00:20:13,090 --> 00:20:15,613
the step design was mysteriously abandoned.
366
00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:20,490
It seems that the king had a desire to smooth the sides,
367
00:20:20,490 --> 00:20:21,740
to create a true pyramid.
368
00:20:22,910 --> 00:20:26,960
The King asked that his workers fill in the steps
369
00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:31,030
with limestone and then apply smooth casing to the outside.
370
00:20:31,030 --> 00:20:33,310
It was a revolutionary concept,
371
00:20:33,310 --> 00:20:35,163
but something went terribly wrong.
372
00:20:36,100 --> 00:20:37,920
Modern archeology has revealed
373
00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:40,980
that the outer layer of limestone rested on sand
374
00:20:40,980 --> 00:20:42,483
rather than solid rock.
375
00:20:43,700 --> 00:20:46,510
It put the basis of the four external supporting walls
376
00:20:46,510 --> 00:20:48,153
under enormous pressure.
377
00:20:49,010 --> 00:20:50,523
Something had to give.
378
00:20:51,670 --> 00:20:56,670
Unfortunately at some point, probably during construction,
379
00:20:57,180 --> 00:20:59,633
these sides began to crumble away.
380
00:21:10,840 --> 00:21:13,490
As if an anticipation of defeat,
381
00:21:13,490 --> 00:21:16,833
the king had already begun construction on his next pyramid.
382
00:21:18,179 --> 00:21:21,280
It's a much larger construction than the previous pyramid.
383
00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:24,760
And that's going to come with a whole bunch of challenges.
384
00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:27,200
But as his new pyramid grew skyward,
385
00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:29,470
Sneferu found himself once again,
386
00:21:29,470 --> 00:21:33,973
on the brink of disaster and construction ground to a halt.
387
00:21:35,410 --> 00:21:37,700
They might have thought that the amount of stone
388
00:21:37,700 --> 00:21:40,200
that was gonna be needed to complete this thing
389
00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:42,020
and the height that it was gonna to get to
390
00:21:42,020 --> 00:21:44,230
was just gonna be too much.
391
00:21:44,230 --> 00:21:46,690
Without a drastic design change
392
00:21:46,690 --> 00:21:49,650
the pyramid couldn't be completed.
393
00:21:49,650 --> 00:21:52,110
Determined not to disappoint their king,
394
00:21:52,110 --> 00:21:55,100
Sneferu's engineers changed the angle of the upper section
395
00:21:55,100 --> 00:21:59,483
from the original 54 degrees to a much shallower 43,
396
00:22:00,360 --> 00:22:03,080
a modification that would significantly reduce the volume
397
00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:05,533
and weight of the pyramids upper half.
398
00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:11,073
The compromise worked, but it came at a cost.
399
00:22:12,170 --> 00:22:15,130
In saving the structure, the engineers produced
400
00:22:15,130 --> 00:22:18,483
the strange, comical shape in evidence today.
401
00:22:20,470 --> 00:22:23,543
It's gone down in history as the bent pyramid.
402
00:22:29,830 --> 00:22:31,420
Last minute modifications
403
00:22:31,420 --> 00:22:34,400
are still commonplace in construction.
404
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:36,160
Most are only minor,
405
00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:37,763
though there are exceptions.
406
00:22:41,310 --> 00:22:45,850
In 1971, the John Hancock tower in Boston
407
00:22:45,850 --> 00:22:49,303
was mid-construction when something unexpected happened.
408
00:22:53,651 --> 00:22:55,280
(glass cracks)
409
00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:58,421
Glass began smashing onto the streets below.
410
00:22:58,421 --> 00:23:01,060
(people shout)
411
00:23:01,060 --> 00:23:02,760
To the engineer's horror,
412
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:06,220
the reflective windows were falling out of the building.
413
00:23:06,220 --> 00:23:08,540
There was too much movement taking place.
414
00:23:08,540 --> 00:23:10,700
And so the stresses in the glass
415
00:23:10,700 --> 00:23:12,380
were causing these windows to break
416
00:23:12,380 --> 00:23:14,230
and actually pop out of the building.
417
00:23:16,470 --> 00:23:18,480
Over 10,000 window panes
418
00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:21,113
had to be replaced with heat-treated panels.
419
00:23:23,070 --> 00:23:26,010
This new glass had to be processed through a furnace
420
00:23:26,010 --> 00:23:28,193
to significantly increase its strength,
421
00:23:29,060 --> 00:23:31,560
providing greater resistance to thermal
422
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:33,193
and mechanical stresses.
423
00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:40,210
But replacing the old windows was a long and costly process.
424
00:23:40,210 --> 00:23:41,740
This is one of the challenges
425
00:23:41,740 --> 00:23:43,910
of these prominent buildings.
426
00:23:43,910 --> 00:23:47,140
They're in the public eye as they're being constructed.
427
00:23:47,140 --> 00:23:49,410
And so any mistakes that happen
428
00:23:49,410 --> 00:23:51,710
are very public and very embarrassing.
429
00:23:51,710 --> 00:23:54,550
Before the new panels could be installed,
430
00:23:54,550 --> 00:23:58,173
the empty frames were covered up with sheets of plywood,
431
00:23:59,140 --> 00:24:02,723
earning the tower the nickname, Plywood Palace.
432
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:09,143
Errors like this are hard to ignore.
433
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:16,180
And despite reaching over 220 feet tall,
434
00:24:16,180 --> 00:24:19,853
Sneferu appears to have seen his bent pyramid as a failure,
435
00:24:21,180 --> 00:24:24,170
but the King and his engineers learned from their mistakes
436
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:27,763
and moved on to a third attempt.
437
00:24:29,130 --> 00:24:32,740
They now knew that large high-quality blocks of limestone
438
00:24:32,740 --> 00:24:34,790
would strengthen a pyramid's foundation
439
00:24:35,700 --> 00:24:39,060
and a wider base with a shallower angle of incline
440
00:24:39,060 --> 00:24:41,070
would increase its stability.
441
00:24:41,070 --> 00:24:42,110
It is 43 degrees,
442
00:24:42,110 --> 00:24:44,860
like the top part of the bent pyramid from the base.
443
00:24:44,860 --> 00:24:46,863
So it's a very low lying period.
444
00:24:48,110 --> 00:24:50,340
After decades long attempts,
445
00:24:50,340 --> 00:24:54,800
Sneferu had finally achieved the perfect pyramid form.
446
00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:58,223
Engineering genius had triumphed against all odds,
447
00:25:00,500 --> 00:25:03,853
creating the first success of a new breed,
448
00:25:07,730 --> 00:25:09,183
the Red Pyramid.
449
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:12,970
It's what you call a perfect pyramid.
450
00:25:12,970 --> 00:25:14,300
The one that conforms
451
00:25:14,300 --> 00:25:16,400
to what we think of as a pyramid the most.
452
00:25:20,090 --> 00:25:22,020
The smooth and symmetrical shape
453
00:25:22,020 --> 00:25:24,660
recognized worldwide.
454
00:25:24,660 --> 00:25:28,440
And at 229 feet tall Sneferu's monument
455
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:30,213
would be a tough act to follow.
456
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:35,290
But this remarkable structure
457
00:25:35,290 --> 00:25:37,883
didn't Mark the Zenith of pyramid building.
458
00:25:42,950 --> 00:25:47,350
Sneferu's son, Khufu would in turn dream the unimaginable,
459
00:25:47,350 --> 00:25:48,620
determined to be remembered
460
00:25:48,620 --> 00:25:50,773
as one of Egypt's greatest rulers.
461
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:56,320
In the 26th century BC,
462
00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:58,510
one of his first decisions as Pharaoh
463
00:25:58,510 --> 00:26:00,983
was to commission his own grand tomb.
464
00:26:02,490 --> 00:26:04,940
This was intended to be a new pyramid
465
00:26:04,940 --> 00:26:07,363
on a totally different scale.
466
00:26:07,363 --> 00:26:08,610
There was an element of wanting
467
00:26:08,610 --> 00:26:11,330
to build bigger and better than his father.
468
00:26:11,330 --> 00:26:15,013
It was down to him to excel the king that went before.
469
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:17,723
Could it even be done?
470
00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:22,620
Planned to cover an area more than 12 acres,
471
00:26:22,620 --> 00:26:24,150
Khufu's pyramid would require
472
00:26:24,150 --> 00:26:27,053
more than 2 million stone blocks to complete,
473
00:26:28,110 --> 00:26:32,010
adding up to a total of six and a half million tons.
474
00:26:32,010 --> 00:26:35,393
More than 17 times the weight of the Empire State Building.
475
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:39,590
And accuracy of form and measurement
476
00:26:39,590 --> 00:26:43,020
were of paramount importance to Khufu's architects.
477
00:26:43,020 --> 00:26:45,220
One small error at the base
478
00:26:45,220 --> 00:26:47,760
would lead to a complete disaster closer up to the top,
479
00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:50,350
so the alignment and accuracy
480
00:26:50,350 --> 00:26:55,280
of placing every single block as they went was critical.
481
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:57,780
Creating such a monumental masterpiece
482
00:26:57,780 --> 00:27:00,263
would demand tens of thousands of workers.
483
00:27:01,930 --> 00:27:03,630
But would Khufu's great pyramid
484
00:27:03,630 --> 00:27:07,023
be built by an army of slaves or willing laborers?
485
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,873
For years, controversy raged.
486
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:18,080
Then in 2010, mud brick tombs
487
00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:20,050
were discovered near the great pyramid
488
00:27:21,300 --> 00:27:23,353
more than 4,000 years old.
489
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,910
These shafts contain the skeletons of pyramid builders,
490
00:27:27,910 --> 00:27:31,360
well-preserved by the dry sand,
491
00:27:31,360 --> 00:27:34,683
along with clues to how the workers were treated in life.
492
00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:38,360
They were provided with food for the next world.
493
00:27:38,360 --> 00:27:41,040
They were provided with the cans of beer and bread
494
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:42,740
that they'd enjoyed in this world.
495
00:27:43,610 --> 00:27:47,230
And some of the tombs even have inscriptions on them
496
00:27:47,230 --> 00:27:50,723
telling us who was buried inside, what job they did.
497
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:53,480
The tombs provide strong evidence
498
00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:55,030
that the great pyramid was built
499
00:27:55,030 --> 00:27:57,480
by skilled construction workers,
500
00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:00,330
highly regarded for their craft,
501
00:28:00,330 --> 00:28:03,343
not a disposable workforce of slaves.
502
00:28:06,700 --> 00:28:09,020
They may have been willing workers,
503
00:28:09,020 --> 00:28:11,443
but a monumental job still lay ahead.
504
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:15,400
To build something like the pyramids,
505
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:17,580
you've got to organize the movements
506
00:28:17,580 --> 00:28:19,690
of massive amounts of material
507
00:28:19,690 --> 00:28:22,133
then creation of the blocks that you need.
508
00:28:23,860 --> 00:28:26,680
Cutting the rock would be a Herculean task
509
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:28,450
for laborers equipped only
510
00:28:28,450 --> 00:28:31,143
with copper chisels and crude hammers.
511
00:28:32,350 --> 00:28:35,060
The sheer physicality of this kind of work.
512
00:28:35,060 --> 00:28:37,520
The physical toll that must take on the body
513
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:38,893
would have been immense.
514
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:41,670
Theory suggests that
515
00:28:41,670 --> 00:28:45,890
up to 20,000 workers toiled on the great pyramid,
516
00:28:45,890 --> 00:28:49,033
consuming vast quantities of raw materials.
517
00:28:53,700 --> 00:28:57,140
Since Khufu's reign, demand for natural resources
518
00:28:57,140 --> 00:28:58,653
has grown exponentially.
519
00:29:03,850 --> 00:29:06,973
Quarrying now takes place on an industrial scale.
520
00:29:08,170 --> 00:29:09,810
Reaching far deeper than
521
00:29:09,810 --> 00:29:12,630
the Egyptians ever imagined possible.
522
00:29:12,630 --> 00:29:16,440
Modern day quarries and mines are enormous undertakings
523
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:18,403
compared to ancient predecessors.
524
00:29:20,330 --> 00:29:21,950
Two and a half miles wide
525
00:29:21,950 --> 00:29:23,853
and three quarters of a mile deep,
526
00:29:24,700 --> 00:29:26,910
Bingham Canyon outside Salt Lake City
527
00:29:26,910 --> 00:29:29,313
is considered the largest mine on Earth.
528
00:29:30,180 --> 00:29:32,383
It's also one of the most productive.
529
00:29:34,710 --> 00:29:37,660
As of 2018 Bingham Canyon generated
530
00:29:37,660 --> 00:29:40,743
approximately 19 million tons of copper,
531
00:29:42,630 --> 00:29:44,803
more than any other mine in history.
532
00:29:47,330 --> 00:29:49,540
The sort of machinery that's used on them
533
00:29:49,540 --> 00:29:52,593
is pretty terrifying, actually awe-inspiring.
534
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:56,950
Bucket wheel excavators,
535
00:29:56,950 --> 00:30:00,683
capable of moving millions of cubic feet every day,
536
00:30:02,380 --> 00:30:06,637
equivalent to more than 20,000 fully loaded dump trucks.
537
00:30:07,750 --> 00:30:10,530
We might go and doff our cap to the Egyptians
538
00:30:10,530 --> 00:30:11,540
for their pyramids.
539
00:30:11,540 --> 00:30:13,500
If they were see our quarries and our mines,
540
00:30:13,500 --> 00:30:15,613
they would doff their caps in return.
541
00:30:18,810 --> 00:30:20,740
Mining was a much slower business
542
00:30:20,740 --> 00:30:21,983
in ancient Egypt.
543
00:30:22,930 --> 00:30:25,240
Even once stone had been extracted,
544
00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:27,173
another great challenge remained.
545
00:30:28,610 --> 00:30:30,853
Transporting it to the build site.
546
00:30:32,020 --> 00:30:35,543
A recent discovery has revealed exactly how it was done.
547
00:30:36,770 --> 00:30:39,300
In 2013, a team of archeologists
548
00:30:39,300 --> 00:30:41,470
came across something remarkable,
549
00:30:41,470 --> 00:30:44,203
hundreds of miles from the pyramid side at Giza.
550
00:30:46,350 --> 00:30:49,290
Dozens of inscribed papyrus fragments,
551
00:30:49,290 --> 00:30:53,643
written more than 4,500 years ago during the reign of Khufu.
552
00:30:55,130 --> 00:30:57,120
These are essentially a logbook.
553
00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:00,080
What they tell is that foreman called Merer,
554
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:01,710
and he's commanding a ship,
555
00:31:01,710 --> 00:31:04,510
ferrying goods from one part of Egypt,
556
00:31:04,510 --> 00:31:06,940
all the way up to the Giza Necropolis
557
00:31:06,940 --> 00:31:08,393
where the pyramids are built.
558
00:31:10,530 --> 00:31:12,510
Merer recorded his daily activity,
559
00:31:12,510 --> 00:31:15,020
transporting stone by boat
560
00:31:15,020 --> 00:31:17,733
from the Tura Limestone Quarry to Giza,
561
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:21,180
ferrying blocks from this quarry,
562
00:31:21,180 --> 00:31:23,200
and others along the Nile
563
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,123
ensured enough stone reached the pyramid site.
564
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:29,930
All thanks to a mode of transport
565
00:31:29,930 --> 00:31:32,383
on which the modern world still depends.
566
00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:41,480
Cargo ships carry billions of tons of goods
567
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:43,143
across the globe each year.
568
00:31:44,930 --> 00:31:47,810
And that number continues to rise.
569
00:31:47,810 --> 00:31:48,960
We've become very used
570
00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:51,880
to the idea of containerized transport,
571
00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:54,380
and it affects how we move stuff around the world.
572
00:31:56,140 --> 00:31:57,010
Container ships
573
00:31:57,010 --> 00:32:00,040
reach up to 1300 feet in length,
574
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:04,433
capable of carrying over 100,000 tons in a single journey.
575
00:32:10,270 --> 00:32:12,160
Thanks to their shipping skills,
576
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,690
the ancient Egyptians maintained a steady supply of blocks
577
00:32:15,690 --> 00:32:16,893
to the pyramid site.
578
00:32:20,260 --> 00:32:22,493
But the biggest challenge still lay ahead.
579
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:27,920
How do you get that block that you've quarried
580
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:32,510
and put next to the pyramid up into the pyramid itself?
581
00:32:32,510 --> 00:32:34,460
One recent idea may explain
582
00:32:34,460 --> 00:32:36,710
this long-standing mystery.
583
00:32:36,710 --> 00:32:40,163
Many Egyptologists suspect that ramps were used.
584
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:43,100
It's likely engineers used
585
00:32:43,100 --> 00:32:46,581
a large single ramp leading to the pyramid.
586
00:32:46,581 --> 00:32:50,500
And the ancients knew it was crucial to get its angle right.
587
00:32:50,500 --> 00:32:53,080
Anything beyond six or seven degrees
588
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:55,060
becomes very, very difficult
589
00:32:55,060 --> 00:32:58,250
to then push a large block uphill.
590
00:32:58,250 --> 00:33:00,080
But keeping the ramp shallow
591
00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:02,763
would force it to cover a huge distance.
592
00:33:03,690 --> 00:33:07,050
It would be miles long to get to the top of the pyramid.
593
00:33:07,050 --> 00:33:08,653
So it would take longer to build a ramp
594
00:33:08,653 --> 00:33:11,020
than it would take to build a pyramid.
595
00:33:11,020 --> 00:33:12,463
That doesn't make any sense.
596
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:16,020
Speculation continues
597
00:33:16,020 --> 00:33:19,823
as to exactly how the Egyptians built their giant monuments.
598
00:33:20,690 --> 00:33:23,090
Pyramids are so extraordinary
599
00:33:23,090 --> 00:33:25,370
that people have always struggled to believe
600
00:33:25,370 --> 00:33:27,260
that they could possibly have been built
601
00:33:27,260 --> 00:33:29,403
as long ago as they were.
602
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:31,850
And their perfection
603
00:33:31,850 --> 00:33:34,420
has become a breeding ground for wild theories
604
00:33:37,604 --> 00:33:41,730
with some suggesting that there's something else going on.
605
00:33:41,730 --> 00:33:43,870
People when faced by the pyramids,
606
00:33:43,870 --> 00:33:46,760
look at this and think it can't possibly have been done
607
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:49,730
without some force from outside.
608
00:33:49,730 --> 00:33:51,570
Did this ancient civilization
609
00:33:51,570 --> 00:33:54,140
have alien assistance?
610
00:33:54,140 --> 00:33:55,890
That couldn't possibly be true.
611
00:33:55,890 --> 00:33:58,850
The arguments are fabulously speculative,
612
00:33:58,850 --> 00:34:00,950
none of them plausible, none of them real.
613
00:34:02,590 --> 00:34:05,090
I feel quite offended on behalf of the ancient Egyptians
614
00:34:05,090 --> 00:34:07,570
that their abilities are called into question like this.
615
00:34:07,570 --> 00:34:10,090
Of course, the Egyptians built the pyramids.
616
00:34:10,090 --> 00:34:12,200
They did so brilliantly.
617
00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:14,300
There may be precious little evidence
618
00:34:14,300 --> 00:34:17,040
to support how the pyramids were built,
619
00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:19,260
but there's no doubt that these mighty tombs
620
00:34:19,260 --> 00:34:22,320
were constructed by skilled Egyptian craftsmen
621
00:34:23,690 --> 00:34:25,593
without any outside help.
622
00:34:27,060 --> 00:34:29,163
Certainly not from aliens.
623
00:34:31,810 --> 00:34:33,920
And the Egyptians engineering brilliance
624
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:37,610
didn't stop at the pyramid's limestone exterior.
625
00:34:37,610 --> 00:34:40,680
The great pyramid isn't a completely solid structure.
626
00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:43,703
There are chambers and pathways within it.
627
00:34:44,820 --> 00:34:47,490
A grand tomb for the king,
628
00:34:47,490 --> 00:34:50,603
with the king's chamber right at the pyramid's heart.
629
00:34:51,810 --> 00:34:53,560
Today, all that remains
630
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:56,490
is Khufu's giant granite sarcophagus
631
00:34:56,490 --> 00:35:00,053
along with two tiny shafts on the north and south walls.
632
00:35:01,220 --> 00:35:03,110
Originally, it was believed that
633
00:35:03,110 --> 00:35:05,610
these could be air shafts for the burial chamber,
634
00:35:05,610 --> 00:35:08,190
but that seems unlikely.
635
00:35:08,190 --> 00:35:10,370
Then in 1964,
636
00:35:10,370 --> 00:35:13,133
astronomers made an extraordinary discovery.
637
00:35:14,460 --> 00:35:18,160
One shaft aligns precisely with Orion's belt
638
00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:21,200
while the other lines up with the North Star,
639
00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:24,303
as it would have appeared in ancient Egypt's night sky,
640
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:28,950
both shafts rise at constant angles,
641
00:35:28,950 --> 00:35:31,450
each running for more than 130 feet
642
00:35:31,450 --> 00:35:33,280
through the body of the pyramid.
643
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,990
They are intended to provide a clear sight line
644
00:35:36,990 --> 00:35:40,220
from the burial chamber up to the stars.
645
00:35:40,220 --> 00:35:42,520
An engineering phenomenon,
646
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:45,950
all to guide the king's spirit after death.
647
00:35:45,950 --> 00:35:48,840
There's a desire for the royal soul
648
00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:50,860
to emerge from the mummified body
649
00:35:50,860 --> 00:35:53,070
and ascend to not only the gods,
650
00:35:53,070 --> 00:35:55,630
but also to travel up into the night sky
651
00:35:55,630 --> 00:35:57,823
and join with the stars.
652
00:35:58,890 --> 00:36:01,233
Launch pads to the afterlife.
653
00:36:03,858 --> 00:36:07,097
But the Pharaoh wouldn't ascend to the heavens empty-handed.
654
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:10,140
Egyptian rulers were often buried
655
00:36:10,140 --> 00:36:11,780
with their most prized possessions
656
00:36:11,780 --> 00:36:13,623
to accompany them in death.
657
00:36:14,630 --> 00:36:17,150
Gold, silver, and bronze artifacts
658
00:36:17,150 --> 00:36:19,540
were loaded into their great tombs
659
00:36:19,540 --> 00:36:23,143
while fine linens and artwork adorned the secret chambers.
660
00:36:25,300 --> 00:36:28,730
All the things that made yourself happy here and now.
661
00:36:28,730 --> 00:36:31,620
So you could carry it with you into the world beyond.
662
00:36:31,620 --> 00:36:35,290
But this wasn't simply about jewels or gold.
663
00:36:35,290 --> 00:36:38,510
Egypt's greatest treasure was the mummified body
664
00:36:38,510 --> 00:36:42,860
of the god king, which must be protected at all cost.
665
00:36:42,860 --> 00:36:46,200
The burial chamber itself is quite incredible.
666
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:48,073
It almost looks like a bank vault.
667
00:36:48,930 --> 00:36:50,950
Egyptian engineers are thought to have used
668
00:36:50,950 --> 00:36:53,573
a 3D scale model of the burial chamber,
669
00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:57,403
a surprisingly modern technique for construction.
670
00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:00,180
If you were thinking about designing something
671
00:37:00,180 --> 00:37:03,480
like a pyramid today, we would be designing that digitally.
672
00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:05,860
So we'd have a 3D digital model
673
00:37:05,860 --> 00:37:08,713
to understand what the space was like inside.
674
00:37:11,170 --> 00:37:12,650
No expense was spared
675
00:37:12,650 --> 00:37:14,963
in designing the king's burial chamber.
676
00:37:16,660 --> 00:37:20,083
Engineers devised a way to plug the passages with stone,
677
00:37:21,050 --> 00:37:22,643
sealing off the tomb,
678
00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:26,040
securing the site where their king's journey
679
00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:27,853
into the afterlife would begin.
680
00:37:31,020 --> 00:37:35,843
In 2560 BC, after two decades of work,
681
00:37:38,240 --> 00:37:41,093
the great pyramid of Giza was completed.
682
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:45,563
Khufu had created a symbol of his absolute rule,
683
00:37:47,410 --> 00:37:51,623
towering 479 feet over the Egyptian desert.
684
00:37:53,770 --> 00:37:56,250
To see this, the biggest structure
685
00:37:56,250 --> 00:38:00,020
anyone had ever seen in all human history.
686
00:38:00,020 --> 00:38:03,990
I mean, it's hard to imagine what it must've been like.
687
00:38:03,990 --> 00:38:07,340
Armed with basic tools and clever engineering
688
00:38:07,340 --> 00:38:10,853
the ancient Egyptians had created a structural marvel.
689
00:38:11,740 --> 00:38:15,270
It's staggering to think for almost 4,000 years.
690
00:38:15,270 --> 00:38:20,030
The great pyramid of Giza was the tallest building on Earth.
691
00:38:20,030 --> 00:38:21,570
An eternal testament
692
00:38:21,570 --> 00:38:23,343
to the power of their empire.
693
00:38:24,317 --> 00:38:25,940
This is a statement piece,
694
00:38:25,940 --> 00:38:28,890
the wealth, the might, the power
695
00:38:28,890 --> 00:38:31,093
and how important this person is.
696
00:38:32,740 --> 00:38:33,810
Originally covered
697
00:38:33,810 --> 00:38:37,120
by a smooth sloping of fine, white limestone
698
00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:39,990
the monument was once even more striking,
699
00:38:39,990 --> 00:38:41,240
gleaming in the sunlight.
700
00:38:44,940 --> 00:38:46,520
The last of the seven wonders
701
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:48,763
of the ancient world to survive.
702
00:38:50,770 --> 00:38:53,420
It's one of the most well-studied buildings on Earth,
703
00:38:54,600 --> 00:38:57,173
but there's still so much left to learn.
704
00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:00,750
In many ways we've just scratched the surface
705
00:39:01,780 --> 00:39:05,140
and the more rapidly modern technology develops,
706
00:39:05,140 --> 00:39:07,490
the more we're finding out about ancient Egypt.
707
00:39:08,510 --> 00:39:09,690
Often a discovery
708
00:39:09,690 --> 00:39:12,053
raises more questions than it answers.
709
00:39:14,550 --> 00:39:17,100
In 2017 scientists detected
710
00:39:17,100 --> 00:39:19,713
a previously unknown void within the structure.
711
00:39:21,270 --> 00:39:23,640
Techniques including thermal imaging
712
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:26,910
helped identify a space roughly 98 feet long
713
00:39:26,910 --> 00:39:28,700
above the giant passageway
714
00:39:28,700 --> 00:39:30,423
leading to the king's chamber.
715
00:39:31,410 --> 00:39:33,180
It gets people really excited
716
00:39:33,180 --> 00:39:36,030
and people think there's another chamber.
717
00:39:36,030 --> 00:39:38,977
This could be where someone's buried and where goods are.
718
00:39:41,660 --> 00:39:44,310
But it's true purpose remains a mystery.
719
00:39:47,270 --> 00:39:50,000
Despite archeologists best efforts,
720
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,453
the great pyramid retains many of its deepest secrets.
721
00:39:56,740 --> 00:40:00,253
And it's just one of many pyramids yet to be fully explored.
722
00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:04,590
The ancient Egyptians went on to build
723
00:40:04,590 --> 00:40:08,370
more than 80 further pyramids across the country.
724
00:40:08,370 --> 00:40:12,253
But none surpassed the magnitude of Khufu's great pyramid.
725
00:40:13,220 --> 00:40:14,360
Over the centuries,
726
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:17,593
the scale and precision of construction tailed off.
727
00:40:20,980 --> 00:40:23,060
They're not being built in the same way
728
00:40:23,060 --> 00:40:24,570
as those earlier pyramids.
729
00:40:24,570 --> 00:40:25,950
And what happens is these things
730
00:40:25,950 --> 00:40:27,573
don't stand the test of time.
731
00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:31,793
But why did
732
00:40:31,793 --> 00:40:34,213
Egypt's pyramid building craze die out?
733
00:40:35,490 --> 00:40:38,290
Tomb raiders were a massive problem for the Egyptians.
734
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:43,060
People who were well aware of what was within those tombs.
735
00:40:43,060 --> 00:40:45,490
Of course, it doesn't take a genius
736
00:40:45,490 --> 00:40:47,850
to work out where that goal might be.
737
00:40:47,850 --> 00:40:49,800
You might as well just put a big cross.
738
00:40:52,430 --> 00:40:53,770
Eventually, the Pharaohs
739
00:40:53,770 --> 00:40:56,963
were forced to change their approach to royal burials.
740
00:40:59,470 --> 00:41:02,640
A thousand years after the great pyramid age,
741
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:05,210
the pharaohs of the new kingdom established
742
00:41:05,210 --> 00:41:08,223
a secret burial place on the Nile's west bank,
743
00:41:10,890 --> 00:41:12,833
the Valley of the Kings.
744
00:41:15,420 --> 00:41:19,223
More than 60 tombs were carved across this remote valley.
745
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:23,750
The Valley of the Kings contains burials,
746
00:41:23,750 --> 00:41:27,270
which are cut directly into the rock itself.
747
00:41:27,270 --> 00:41:28,840
Including the most famous
748
00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:30,663
Egyptian burial of them all,
749
00:41:32,630 --> 00:41:34,777
the boy king, Tutankhamun.
750
00:41:48,830 --> 00:41:52,903
Today, engineers have dug one structure deep underground.
751
00:41:54,330 --> 00:41:56,410
Not to protect a king,
752
00:41:56,410 --> 00:42:00,073
but to ensure the continued survival of nature itself.
753
00:42:02,020 --> 00:42:04,040
Deep in the bowels of an icy mountain
754
00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:06,260
on the Island of Spitsbergen
755
00:42:06,260 --> 00:42:08,753
lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault,
756
00:42:09,900 --> 00:42:13,210
a secure facility where more than a million seeds
757
00:42:13,210 --> 00:42:16,093
from the world's agricultural plants are kept.
758
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:20,370
Constructed in 2008,
759
00:42:20,370 --> 00:42:23,670
the site was chosen for its position below permafrost
760
00:42:23,670 --> 00:42:28,280
and thick rock over 320 feet within the mountain
761
00:42:30,850 --> 00:42:33,560
where the seed samples will remain frozen
762
00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:35,843
even if the power supply fails.
763
00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:40,020
It's a gigantic safety deposit box,
764
00:42:40,020 --> 00:42:42,660
which holds the world's largest collection
765
00:42:42,660 --> 00:42:44,573
of agricultural biodiversity.
766
00:42:45,750 --> 00:42:47,100
The facility ensures
767
00:42:47,100 --> 00:42:49,690
that biodiverse plant life could be restored
768
00:42:49,690 --> 00:42:53,573
after a great natural disaster or global catastrophe.
769
00:43:01,350 --> 00:43:03,550
And as ancient Egypt's rulers continued
770
00:43:03,550 --> 00:43:06,310
to be buried away from prying eyes.
771
00:43:06,310 --> 00:43:08,763
The pyramids were soon forgotten.
772
00:43:10,430 --> 00:43:13,553
But elsewhere their story was only just beginning.
773
00:43:15,030 --> 00:43:18,580
In a burst of creativity around the eighth century BC,
774
00:43:18,580 --> 00:43:20,510
one of Egypt's neighboring kingdoms
775
00:43:20,510 --> 00:43:22,863
began their own pyramid building craze.
776
00:43:24,300 --> 00:43:26,920
Few people realize there are more than twice
777
00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:29,910
as many pyramids over the Southern border
778
00:43:29,910 --> 00:43:32,230
in ancient Nubia, modern Sudan.
779
00:43:32,230 --> 00:43:33,810
But Sudan's pyramids
780
00:43:33,810 --> 00:43:35,303
would be radically different.
781
00:43:36,490 --> 00:43:39,540
Their angle of incline is far, far steeper
782
00:43:39,540 --> 00:43:41,100
than the Egyptian ones.
783
00:43:41,100 --> 00:43:44,483
And more often than not, they are considerably smaller.
784
00:43:45,370 --> 00:43:47,640
For visitors these ancient structures
785
00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:50,340
are striking sites to behold,
786
00:43:50,340 --> 00:43:53,223
the last pyramids of ancient Africa,
787
00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:59,603
but on the far side of the world, other empires were rising.
788
00:44:09,160 --> 00:44:11,403
From around 1200 BC,
789
00:44:13,220 --> 00:44:16,163
advanced societies emerged in the Americas,
790
00:44:18,540 --> 00:44:23,430
the Olmec, Maya, and Aztecs flourished across the region
791
00:44:23,430 --> 00:44:27,453
developing great civilizations up until the 16th century.
792
00:44:30,110 --> 00:44:32,143
And they had one thing in common.
793
00:44:36,410 --> 00:44:37,393
Pyramids.
794
00:44:38,260 --> 00:44:40,660
These civilizations began constructing
795
00:44:40,660 --> 00:44:43,663
the sky high structures at a remarkable rate.
796
00:44:44,870 --> 00:44:49,870
{\an8}We can literally say that thousands of pyramids
797
00:44:50,190 --> 00:44:52,913
{\an8}dotted the Mesoamerican landscape.
798
00:44:54,110 --> 00:44:55,570
More pyramids than
799
00:44:55,570 --> 00:44:58,373
in the rest of the world combined.
800
00:44:59,570 --> 00:45:01,840
Topped with elaborate platforms
801
00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:03,850
they became the glorious centerpieces
802
00:45:03,850 --> 00:45:05,823
to vast ancient cities.
803
00:45:06,970 --> 00:45:09,030
Believed to house their deities
804
00:45:09,030 --> 00:45:11,423
and serve as tombs for their dead kings.
805
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:14,173
But was that the entire story?
806
00:45:15,020 --> 00:45:18,943
Do these mighty structures conceal a dark and bloody past?
807
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:27,640
Once the most populous city in the Americas,
808
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:31,513
Teotihuacan sprawled over an area larger than ancient Rome.
809
00:45:33,310 --> 00:45:37,090
Teotihuacan was a very large city,
810
00:45:37,090 --> 00:45:42,090
possibly having a hundred thousand inhabitants at the peak.
811
00:45:44,810 --> 00:45:45,860
The largest city
812
00:45:45,860 --> 00:45:48,320
anywhere in the western hemisphere.
813
00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:50,970
Yet little is known about the people who lived there.
814
00:45:53,520 --> 00:45:56,393
Teotihuacan is a major site.
815
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:02,460
{\an8}It was prominent until about 600
816
00:46:02,460 --> 00:46:04,960
{\an8}and then things began to decline.
817
00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:07,270
The city was suddenly abandoned
818
00:46:07,270 --> 00:46:09,390
and it's still not clear why it's people
819
00:46:09,390 --> 00:46:12,200
and their culture vanished overnight.
820
00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:15,280
We have several signs of destruction.
821
00:46:15,280 --> 00:46:19,387
Monuments were destroyed, the city was burned.
822
00:46:20,790 --> 00:46:22,940
Now the pyramids and ruins
823
00:46:22,940 --> 00:46:25,723
are all that remain of this once majestic city.
824
00:46:26,590 --> 00:46:28,510
And they offer insight into the lives
825
00:46:28,510 --> 00:46:29,847
of the Teotihuacan people.
826
00:46:32,107 --> 00:46:35,653
But there have also been some disturbing discoveries.
827
00:46:37,820 --> 00:46:40,560
Beneath one of the city's largest structures
828
00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:43,000
known as the Pyramid of the Moon.
829
00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:45,683
Archeologists were shocked by what they found.
830
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:51,030
Underground chambers filled with animal and human remains,
831
00:46:51,030 --> 00:46:52,763
including human skulls.
832
00:46:54,210 --> 00:46:57,730
The ritual activity of the temples
833
00:46:57,730 --> 00:47:02,730
sometimes entailed the participation of human beings
834
00:47:02,810 --> 00:47:05,890
that were offered up ritually,
835
00:47:05,890 --> 00:47:08,433
individuals that were killed ritually.
836
00:47:09,870 --> 00:47:12,820
Some were captives of war.
837
00:47:12,820 --> 00:47:17,140
We know that they had their hands tied up.
838
00:47:17,140 --> 00:47:20,350
Large offerings, including human sacrifices
839
00:47:20,350 --> 00:47:24,323
were made regularly in an attempt to appease the gods.
840
00:47:25,180 --> 00:47:28,243
Some even believed that it would prevent the apocalypse.
841
00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:33,230
Despite their bloody and brutal history,
842
00:47:33,230 --> 00:47:36,830
these monuments are marvels of the ancient world,
843
00:47:36,830 --> 00:47:38,420
still standing centuries
844
00:47:38,420 --> 00:47:40,973
after their creators all but disappeared.
845
00:47:44,570 --> 00:47:47,130
Pyramids are among the most enduring icons
846
00:47:47,130 --> 00:47:48,403
of the ancient world.
847
00:47:51,480 --> 00:47:55,403
Even today, they feature heavily in architectural design.
848
00:47:56,930 --> 00:48:01,490
Modern architects still find that shape fascinating,
849
00:48:01,490 --> 00:48:03,810
it's perfection, it's symmetry,
850
00:48:03,810 --> 00:48:06,600
the way that it connects us back to our history.
851
00:48:06,600 --> 00:48:08,660
And you see that now reflected
852
00:48:08,660 --> 00:48:10,473
in buildings around the world.
853
00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:13,890
The Luxor Las Vegas Pyramid
854
00:48:13,890 --> 00:48:17,260
is specifically modeled on Khufu's grand tomb,
855
00:48:17,260 --> 00:48:19,753
complete with its own Sphinx and obelisk.
856
00:48:22,830 --> 00:48:26,310
And in Paris, the glass pyramid fronting the Louvre Museum
857
00:48:26,310 --> 00:48:29,400
is one of the city's most notable landmarks.
858
00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:31,820
That pyramid shape is still something that we desire.
859
00:48:31,820 --> 00:48:33,170
I think there's something about the symmetry
860
00:48:33,170 --> 00:48:35,653
we seem to have an affinity or a liking to.
861
00:48:36,750 --> 00:48:40,560
Pyramids are part of our common global culture.
862
00:48:40,560 --> 00:48:42,803
Even found on the U.S. dollar bill,
863
00:48:43,780 --> 00:48:47,253
a homage to Egyptian ancestry in updated form.
864
00:48:53,330 --> 00:48:57,030
Dating back more than 4,500 years,
865
00:48:57,030 --> 00:49:01,380
pyramids revolutionized construction in the ancient world.
866
00:49:01,380 --> 00:49:06,200
They consumed materials and labor on an unparalleled scale,
867
00:49:06,200 --> 00:49:09,483
requiring engineering know-how never seen before.
868
00:49:11,100 --> 00:49:13,993
Today they continue to inspire.
869
00:49:15,020 --> 00:49:17,260
And it doesn't look like these iconic structures
870
00:49:17,260 --> 00:49:18,853
will be going anywhere soon.
871
00:49:20,610 --> 00:49:25,200
The pyramid, an ancient design so perfect
872
00:49:25,200 --> 00:49:27,063
it has survived the ages.
873
00:49:30,095 --> 00:49:32,512
(epic music)
68700
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