All language subtitles for Lost.Treasures.of.Egypt.S03E04.480p.x264-mSD

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NARRATOR: Archaeologists
are about to open a coffin,

sealed for more
than 2,000 years.

NARRATOR: Inside
could be a rare,

undisturbed mummy.

TEAM: Oh!

NARRATOR: The
Valley of the Kings.

Eternal home to the Pharaohs
of Ancient Egypt's golden age.

In these mountains
archaeologists have made some

of history's most
extraordinary discoveries.

The bodies of Royals
dating back 3,000 years.

The corpses of these
kings represent the peak of

the art of mummification,

preparing a dead
body with oils and

linen wrapping to avoid decay.

But the evolution of
this sacred custom is

still shrouded in mystery.

Why, and how, did Egyptians
start preserving their bodies?

And what happened to
mummification when after

more than 2,000 years
Ancient Egypt was conquered?

Today, archaeologists across
Egypt search for mummies from

the civilization's
earliest days,

and from its final reckoning,

to shed light on
mummification's rise, and fall.

Texas-born Archaeologist
Meredith Brand encountered

her first mummy in
London's British museum,

at age seven.

Ever since, she's been
desperate to unlock the
secrets they contain.

MEREDITH: You can
hear the silence,

the wind and feel that
this was a sacred place.

NARRATOR: Meredith has
come to the Pharaohs' tombs,

because she believes
the secrets of the

origins of mummification
can be found here.

MEREDITH: This site
holds vital clues to
the mummification process,

both in terms of
technology but also

in terms of the ritual and the
reasons why Ancient Egyptians

wanted so badly to
preserve their bodies.

NARRATOR: More than 60 tombs

have been uncovered
in the Valley.

Most are
decorated floor to ceiling
with elaborate imagery.

MEREDITH: Oh the carvings,

the painting is
so fresh and vivid.

NARRATOR: These artworks
were designed to help carry

the owner's mummy
safely to the afterlife.

Meredith searches for evidence
of the Ancient Egyptians'

obsession with mummification.

MEREDITH: Oh this is
the scene I've come for!

Okay so,

what I can see here
is this jackal-headed god,

Anubis and he's
enacting mummification,

which was his sacred role.

NARRATOR: The image represents
the very first mummification,

performed by gods.

The embalming of Osiris.

According to legend
Osiris was one of

the first gods
to walk the earth.

But in a feud, he was
murdered by his brother, Seth,

who scattered his
body parts across Egypt.

Osiris' wife searched the
length and breadth of the Nile

to recover his broken corpse.

With Anubis' help, she
reassembled Osiris and

wrapped him
in strips of linen,

resurrecting him
for a second life

as ruler of the Underworld.

From then on, powerful
Egyptians had their bodies

wrapped and embalmed.

So that just like Osiris,

they could live
again in the afterlife.

MEREDITH (off-screen):
This scene reveals the
ultimate goal of the king,

which was a perfect mummy
so that he could successfully

be reborn in the afterlife.

NARRATOR: The image
depicts the myth of the
origins of mummification,

but it dates to
the New Kingdom,

more than 1,000 years
after wealthy Egyptians began

preserving their corpses.

To find out exactly how the
earliest Egyptians mummified

their dead, archaeologists
need to find one of the rarest

of archaeological treasures.

A mummy from the Old Kingdom.

In Saqqara.

World-renowned mummy expert,
Salima Ikram, has been

called out to an
extraordinary find in one
of Egypt's oldest cemeteries.

Born in Pakistan, she
fell in love with Egypt on

a family visit, at age nine.

She's spent a career poring
over its dried-out corpses,

and not just humans.

She's examined the mummies
of dogs, cats, even a lion.

In a tomb dating back
more than 4,000 years,

archaeologist Mohamed Megahed

has uncovered a
single human mummy.

If it belongs to the
tomb's original owner,

it would be one of the
oldest mummies Salima,

or anyone, has ever seen.

SALIMA (off-screen):
If we actually do have
an Old Kingdom mummy,

then it will be
terribly exciting.

I've worked on
one or two others,

and they are so rare,
but most of the time,

burial chambers and entire
sites have been re-used long

after the Old Kingdom
so I hope Mohamed is not
in for a disappointment.

NARRATOR: For four years,
Mohamed has led investigations

into this mysterious tomb.

NARRATOR: What he has
unearthed has stunned
the world of Egyptology.

Under the sand and rubble,

Mohamed discovered a corridor
leading to an antechamber,

painted in stunning
detail and vibrant colors.

Hieroglyphs reveal this is the
tomb of a man called Khuwy,

a relation of the
royal family who lived
over 4,000 years ago.

In the burial chamber
nearby there were four jars

to hold mummified organs.

A smashed, empty sarcophagus.

And strewn all over
the floor, the fragments,

of a mummy.

It could be one of the oldest
Egyptian mummies ever found.

But is it the bones of Khuwy,

or an imposter?

Last year, Mohamed's team
found more mummies buried just

outside the tomb's walls,
from a much later era.

If the mummy in the
burial chamber is from

the same time,
it can't be Khuwy.

Salima is here to
examine the mummy,

to try to
establish a positive ID.

SALIMA: It's rather a lovely
and huge and beautifully

organized magazine,

mashallah.

NARRATOR: If it does
turn out to be Khuwy,

the corpse
could answer one of

Egyptologists'
oldest questions.

Just how early in their
history did Egyptians perfect

the mysterious
art of mummification?

Near the oasis city of Faiyum.

Egyptian Archaeologist
Basem Gehad has set up camp

on the desolate site of the
ancient town of Philadelphia,

to investigate
mummification at the end

of the Egyptian empire.

As a child, drawn to Egypt's
archaeological secrets,

Basem begged his father
every weekend to take him to

the Pyramids or to
Cairo's Egyptian Museum.

These days he gets to live on
his own archaeological site,

for months at a time.

NARRATOR: Some 2,000 years
after the age of the Pyramids,

the time of the
Egyptian Kings came to an end.

Ancient Egypt was
invaded by Greece.

The Greeks had no tradition
of preserving their dead.

Basem wants to know
how the conquest changed

the practice of mummification.

NARRATOR: Today,
he's on the hunt for
something incredibly rare:

an intact Greek grave.

Now, a new photograph from
a satellite has given him a

fresh hint of where to dig.

NARRATOR: Basem's team
strips away the thin layer of

windblown sand from the mound,

immediately beneath he
finds a promising clue.

NARRATOR: Within minutes,
Basem's workers reveal the

outlines of six separate
burials cut into the rock.

It's a fantastic discovery,

but are these
graves undisturbed?

NARRATOR: The workers
clean away loose sand from

each burial in search
of an untouched grave.

(speaking in native language)

NARRATOR: The unbroken
mud seal plastered over

the tomb roof proves no-one
ever robbed this grave.

Beneath the brickwork
should be a coffin,

and its occupant should
reveal how the inhabitants of

a Greek town in
Egypt buried their dead.

NARRATOR: The sealed tomb
could contain an Egyptian,

or a rare Ancient Greek body.

In their homeland,

Ancient Greeks
didn't mummify their dead,

but could their
practices have changed when

they settled among Egyptians?

To get inside the tomb,
Basem must destroy the seal

and dismantle
the mud-brick roof.

NARRATOR: The structure
itself proves the tomb dates

to the era of Greek rule.

The team now has to remove
just a few bricks before

they can see inside.

BASEM: Surprise!

(clapping)

NARRATOR: The team breaks
through the roof of the tomb,

and catches their first
glimpse of its contents.

BASEM: Oh...

NARRATOR: It's an
undisturbed coffin,

an incredible find, and
exactly what Basem hoped for.

The painted wooden casket
has a peaked roof,

not the rounded top
of Egyptian sarcophagi.

Greeks lived side by side with
Egyptians in Philadelphia,

and this is almost
certainly a rare Greek burial.

The question is, was
the occupant buried in

the Greek tradition,

or Egyptian?

NARRATOR: To find out, Basem
needs to extract the coffin,

without crushing it.

In the desert of Gebelein,
just south of Luxor,

Meredith searches for evidence

of Egypt's
earliest death rites.

She believes the myths that
drove Egyptians to mummify

their own bodies had
roots much earlier than

Ancient Egyptian civilization.

Prehistoric rock art depicting
wildlife suggests this area

was once a sacred place.

In the 19th century,
archaeologists identified

it as a burial ground.

MEREDITH: This is a
desolate dry landscape,

nothing much to
see on the surface.

But underneath
these rocks and

sand there would have
been prehistoric tombs.

NARRATOR: In 1896,
an Egyptologist from
the British Museum received

a tip-off of a
momentous discovery.

Buried under a thin
layer of desert debris,

local farmers had
found a mummified body,

preserved in
astonishing detail.

On the upper arm
tattoos of horned
animals were still visible,

and from the head
sprouted tufts of red hair,

earning this mummy
its original nickname,

"Ginger."

There was a puncture wound
to the left shoulder blade,

and a fractured rib beneath.

Forensic analysis has
revealed the body is male and

over 5,000 years old,

but how is this body
so perfectly preserved?

For Meredith, the
evidence suggests the

man's mummification
was not planned.

Instead, it was an
accident of nature.

MEREDITH: In this photo I
can see there's no bandages or

anything that would
have preserved this mummy.

So it would seem
that this was not an
intentional mummification.

He was preserved by the sand.

There was no ritual or
magic or anything involved,

just the drying
power of nature.

NARRATOR: Hundreds of years
before the first Pharaoh,

this man lived around
the fertile flood plains
along the river Nile.

But around his 20th birthday,

he was brutally
stabbed in the back,

and left for dead.

He was buried in
a shallow grave,

with simple clay grave goods.

And covered with sand.

But the desert sun and hot dry
sand quickly evaporated all

the water from his body.

Stopping it from decomposing,
freezing him in time until his

discovery 5,400 years later.

Archaeologists have found
no papyri that explain the

historical origins
of mummification,

but Meredith believes the
practice could have evolved

from accidents of nature.

MEREDITH: Natural mummies like
the Gebelein man would have

inspired Ancient Egyptians
that if they could use

technology to harness
the power of nature,

their bodies too could
last forever into eternity.

MEREDITH (off-screen): It's a
truly spectacular discovery.

It tells us where
mummification started.

NARRATOR: In Aswan.

Across the
river from the city,

a team of Egyptian
archaeologists scours a

remote hilltop necropolis.

They hope its long-lost tombs
will hold evidence of how

ordinary Ancient Egyptians

prepared their dead
for the afterlife.

The few tombs that have been
found suggest the people of

Aswan used this burial
ground some 2,000 years ago,

as Egyptian
civilization was in decline.

Born in the town
beside the Nile,

Archaeologist Sayed Elrawy has

walked these
outcrops since childhood.

High up and inaccessible,

it is an ideal
location for a cemetery.

NARRATOR: Today, he
is investigating the

unmistakable outline
of a buried stairwell.

He believes this one
will lead to answers to how

the less wealthy
treated their dead.

NARRATOR: The only
way to test his luck,

is to dig.

NARRATOR: In the Old Kingdom
Necropolis at Saqqara,

Salima has been called to
examine a mummy found in a

noble's lavish tomb.

She hopes an X-Ray will
help establish if it's

the original tomb owner.

If it is, it could be one
of the oldest intentionally
mummified bodies ever found.

SALIMA: Where is Khuwy kept?

SALIMA: Hello Mr. Khuwy!

SALIMA: Okay, so
what we'll do is,

we'll do the X-Ray
of Khuwy right here.

MOHAMED: Okay.

SALIMA: We have electricity,

and then we'll do the
developing in the other room.

MOHAMED: Perfect.

SALIMA: So
easy-peasy inshallah.

MOHAMED: Inshallah. Okay.

(laughs)

NARRATOR: Salima's permit
to scan the mummy is

only valid for one day.

She's turned to a
trusted piece of equipment,

an archaeologist's
field X-Ray.

SALIMA (off-screen):
Our X-Ray machine dates
to I think the '80s.

I know longer than some
of us have been alive.

But it's tiny it's
easy to move around, um,

the bad thing is though
because it's not digital,

you have to do your
photography and then

your developing and then you
find out if it was a disaster

or a success.

NARRATOR: Before 'Khuwy'
goes under the scanner,

Salima will conduct
a visual inspection.

SALIMA: The moment of truth.

NARRATOR: It's the first
time she's met the mummy.

SALIMA: Ah.

NARRATOR: Only fragments
of the body remain.

SALIMA: So there is no head.
ZAINAB: Yeah.

SALIMA: But we have the ribs.

And we have pelvis.

I think he was quite fat.

You know it's a
good solid thigh.

NARRATOR: Thousands of years
spent in the tomb of Khuwy,

the Old Kingdom noble, have
not been kind to this mummy.

SALIMA: Ah, it looks like a...

I think its rodents
have eaten this.

ZAINAB: Yeah, yeah.

NARRATOR: If this
is Khuwy's body,

there's not much of him left.

But for mummy expert Salima,

there is enough to
tell how it was preserved.

That could give her a
rough idea of its age.

SALIMA: Right, smells
like a nicer quality mummy.

This in particular seems to be
very impregnated with resins.

I mean look at that.

It's extremely high quality.

NARRATOR: Ancient embalmers
bathed bodies in expensive
resins from tree sap,

preserving the flesh before
they wrapped the corpse.

SALIMA: Look at all of
this textile it's beautiful.

This is really very
fine quality linen.

Oh wow.

NARRATOR: The mummy seems
to have been wrapped in the

highest-grade of bandages.

This matches the
detailed picture of

Khuwy's lavish lifestyle
depicted in his tomb.

Khuwy was a
high-ranking official,

a member of the
Pharaoh's Royal Court
during the Pyramid Age,

near the beginning
of Egyptian civilization.

Scenes painted in his tomb
show that he could afford the

luxuries of fine food,
in vast quantities.

And jars found in the tomb,

made to hold the mummified
organs of the deceased.

Are more evidence of
a high-status burial.

A man like this could
certainly afford to have

his body embalmed in resin and
wrapped in the finest linen.

But for Salima, the quality of
the linen rings alarm bells.

SALIMA: It's extraordinary.

The only time I've
so much of this kind
of good quality linen

has been in the 21st dynasty.

NARRATOR: The 21st dynasty of
Egyptian Pharaohs reigned more

than 1,000 years
after Khuwy lived.

Wrapped in the
most delicate linen and

drenched in expensive resin,

if this is Khuwy,

then the art of mummification
was far more advanced in the

Pyramid Age than
experts believed.

SALIMA: Oh, good, Mohamed,
you are here at last.

SALIMA: I think
it's a beautiful mummy.

SALIMA: No.

It could change entirely the
history of mummification if it

happens to be Old Kingdom.

NARRATOR: If this is Khuwy,
Salima will have to re-write

her own textbooks on
Egypt's oldest mummies.

As yet, she's not convinced,

she will need to
see more evidence.

On the cliffs above Aswan,
Sayed and his team are into

their second day of
excavating a fresh tomb.

They hope it will reveal how
ordinary Ancient Egyptians

prepared bodies
for the afterlife as
their civilization faded.

They've shifted several tons
of sand to expose the stairs.

In the heat of
the early afternoon,

the work is punishing.

WORKER: Sayed.

NARRATOR: If the
tomb contains bodies,

they could hold clues to how
ordinary Ancient Egyptians

preserved their dead.

NARRATOR: Sayed's
team has made an
extraordinary discovery.

A rare tomb
packed full of mummies.

NARRATOR: The remains of a
stone sarcophagus suggest the

bodies piled around it are not
the tomb's original occupants.

So who are they?

Team foreman, Abdul,
prepares a mummy for
initial inspection.

NARRATOR: Abdul
delicately brushes to expose

the ragged remains of
the mummy's bandages.

NARRATOR: The mummy's
condition suggests he was not

wealthy enough to afford a
high-quality mummification.

The other bodies buried with
him are also badly preserved.

There's not enough space
for Sayed to examine how

this mummy was embalmed.

So he decides to
extract the body.

A mummy this
poorly preserved
could fall apart with

the slightest shock.

In the Necropolis of
Ancient Philadelphia,

near Faiyum.

Basem's search has finally
produced an intact grave:

of an Ancient Greek.

Egypt's conquerors did
not practice mummification

in their homeland, but what
did they do here in Egypt?

To find out he
needs to release the
2000-year-old coffin.

NARRATOR: With the top
layer of bricks removed,

Basem is able to inspect
the full length of the tomb.

Elaborate decorations on the
casket confirm his suspicions.

NARRATOR: The team has no
idea how degraded the roof of

the coffin might be.

Any mistake could
be catastrophic.

NARRATOR: The
crew systematically
removes just enough bricks

to open a gap wide enough for
the coffin to pass through.

NARRATOR: Basem doesn't
want to destroy any more of

the precious tomb
structure than necessary.

But the coffin
has to come out.

(speaking in native language)

(clapping)

Released from the tomb, the
intricately painted coffin and

its occupant are in more
danger than they ever have

been in the last 2000 years.

NARRATOR: Whether it
holds a mummy or a skeleton,

this coffin could
reveal how the Greeks,

who seized control of Egypt,

buried their dead.

On the hilltop above Aswan.

Sayed's mummy has
completed its journey to

the safety of
the analysis tent.

It's clear this mummy's
afterlife has been traumatic.

NARRATOR: Embalmers placed
carved stones in the wrapping

of wealthier mummies
as magical protection.

But it's unlikely the poor
could afford that luxury.

NARRATOR: The secrets of how
this man's body was mummified

are hidden
within the bandages.

But Sayed can't unwrap
him for fear the mummy

will crumble into dust.

The team needs to find
more lower-class mummies

to figure out how
Ancient Egyptians
preserved the poor.

Across the site,
Sayed's colleague,

archaeologist Hala Hussein,

has spent weeks
uncovering a different tomb.

She has also found mummies.

Or at least, bits of them.

NARRATOR: Hala's tomb
contains the remains
of some 20 mummies,

but they're
in terrible condition.

Evidence of wasps' nests
suggest insects may have

played a role in the damage.

But in the destruction
lies an opportunity.

The mummies'
bodies are exposed,

allowing Hala to see
beneath the bandages,

and search for more clues to
how ordinary Ancient Egyptians

tried to preserve their dead.

NARRATOR: The Necropolis
contains almost 300 tombs.

Each could have been the
eternal home for dozens of

ordinary Ancient Egyptians.

Now, archaeologists can
begin to sketch a picture of

their possible history.

Each tomb was originally
cut for a single mummy,

furnished with a
sandstone coffin.

Their relatives added bodies
to the tomb when they died,

until the family
died out or moved away.

Hundreds of years later,
poorer Egyptians re-used

the forgotten tombs,

filling them up with
badly mummified corpses.

Before the tombs were looted,

and the exposed
mummies destroyed.

Most of the mummies in Hala's
tomb are too degraded to tell

much about the way
they were mummified.

But one body
offers a grisly clue.

In a niche in the wall,

Hala finds the
broken mummy of a baby.

NARRATOR: The stick
was inserted in the
body to hold the head.

It suggests the body
was already decomposed

when it was embalmed.

Not only were the
poor mummified badly,

they were mummified too late.

The bits of them that survive
suggest the afterlives of

these ordinary Ancient Egyptians
were far from peaceful.

They were destroyed by insects,
desecrated by robbers,

and any meagre valuables were
ripped from their wrappings.

But for Sayed at least,

these mummies are
helping piece together

the mysterious fates
of the ordinary dead,

at the end of the
Egyptian civilization.

NARRATOR: In Saqqara,

Salima's team prepares
the mummy found in the

Old Kingdom tomb
of Khuwy for X-Ray.

They hope to learn
more about the body.

To confirm it
could actually be
the 4400-year-old noble,

and one of the oldest
Egyptian mummies ever found.

But Mohamed has more
evidence to bring to the case.

High-class mummies had
their organs removed
to stop them rotting.

These were placed
alongside the mummy in
vessels called Canopic Jars.

Mohamed found four of
these right next to the mummy.

SALIMA: Oh!
MOHAMED: See?

SALIMA: They are beautiful!

SALIMA: And it
was sealed nicely.

SALIMA: Oh!

Oh, look at that.

MOHAMED: Yes.

SALIMA: Oh I say...

SALIMA: The jars
are Old Kingdom.

SALIMA: Absolutely I
agree 100% Old Kingdom.

MOHAMED: Yes.
SALIMA: 100%.

MOHAMED: Yes.
SALIMA: Jars Old Kingdom.

Oh you're kidding me.

Okay, trade.

(gasps)

Oh...

That is nice!

You've got lots
of bits of, um,

cloth which is impregnated

with resins or oils
or whatever this black
material is, black goo.

Oh how nice!

NARRATOR: If the
resin in jars matches
the resin on the mummy,

it means they both
date to the Old Kingdom.

The mummy's exceptionally fine
linen dressing could overturn

decades of thinking and
prove mummification techniques

4,000 years ago were much more
advanced than first thought.

But the cutting-edge
chemical test that would prove

it will take months.

An X-Ray could take them a
step closer to confirmation

that it is the
Old Kingdom noble, Khuwy.

SALIMA: We want it
to be Khuwy so much.

Imagine finding
someone from the Old Kingdom

in their own tomb!

I mean that's fantastic.

NARRATOR: If Salima can
establish the mummy's sex and

social status, it could
help prove its identity.

SALIMA: One.

NARRATOR: She sends a
pulse of X-Rays through
the mummified remains,

onto a photographic plate.

SALIMA: Yep, finished!

Celebrate, wahoo!

NARRATOR: But with time
running out on the permit,

Salima's analysis depends on
whether her images come out.

SALIMA: Now for the hard part.

NARRATOR: As evening
approaches in Saqqara...

Salima hopes the X-Rays she's
taken might help flesh out a

clearer picture of the
mummy from Khuwy's tomb,

and confirm it is male.

To develop the images,
she must delicately bathe

the slides in a
succession of chemicals.

SALIMA: It's really quite
fabulous because you're

sitting there with
this blank sheet,

and then suddenly
something appears by magic.

Don't open yet.

NARRATOR: She can't allow the
film to be exposed to anything

but dim red light.

SALIMA: I hope
that's not too light.

NARRATOR: The slides
must be dipped for exactly

the right time in
each chemical bath.

Any misjudgment, and the whole
exercise has been a waste.

SALIMA: It's an
adventure each time but it's
a one-shot deal, generally,

and then there is
the absolute terror that you

won't get anything and it'll
just be a blank sheet of film,

which is horrifying.

NARRATOR: Only when the last
exposure has been fixed can

Salima begin to
assess her work.

SALIMA: Zainab?

I think you could
put on the light.

This one looks totally blank.

Oh no!

it's the vertebrae thank God!

What a relief, oh my God!

(laughing)

I thought we'd messed up
quite terribly, oh God.

NARRATOR: Hanging
the plates up to dry,

Salima and Mohamed can
finally see under the skin of

the mummy they hope is Khuwy.

SALIMA: Look at that!

NARRATOR: Their first
job is to confirm the
mummy is the right sex.

SALIMA: Yeah.

ZEINAB: And we
are sure he is male?

SALIMA: Yep, he's a he.

He is he!

ZEINAB: He's a he.
MAN: He is he.

SALIMA: He is he!

NARRATOR: A scan of
his fragmentary spine
provides more evidence.

Growths on the vertebrae
suggest the mummy's frame

carried a lot of weight,
a sure sign of nobility in

the ancient world.

SALIMA: He was
fat as well as big.

So he was a tall man and a...

Mashallah, it really
fits with a nice burial.

(laughter)

NARRATOR: The X-Rays
aren't conclusive,

but a well-mummified,
well-fed man in the same

archaeological layer
as Old Kingdom jars
is too much to ignore.

This really could be Khuwy.

If so, experts will be
forced to re-think how

advanced mummification was
in Egypt's most ancient era.

SALIMA (off-screen): It
was the only mummy that
was found in this tomb.

It should belong
to the tomb owner.

Of course, the style of
mummification is something

we haven't seen for
the Old Kingdom before,

but there's
always a first time.

This is uh...

(whistles)

Pretty cool!

NARRATOR: The story of the
rise of the mummy may need

to be re-written.

Outside Faiyum,
at the Necropolis of
Ancient Philadelphia...

Basem has gathered his most
experienced team members

in the analysis tent.

The body in this coffin could
tell Basem what happened to

mummification when the
Greeks conquered Egypt.

NARRATOR: The team removes the
dust from the coffin edges.

It means their fingers
are less likely to slip as

they lever off the lid.

(gasping)

MAN: Wow!

(laughing)

NARRATOR: Inside the
coffin is a small skeleton,

in a basic wrapping,
but also, a statue.

The artwork shows a
goddess in Greek terracotta,

but the practice of placing
a figurine in the coffin

is purely Egyptian.

NARRATOR: Anthropologist
Abdullah examines the body.

NARRATOR: The skeleton
is a young girl and

she bears clear evidence
of mummification.

NARRATOR: The remnants of hair
and skin on the mummy show

that 100 years after
Greeks had conquered Egypt,

they had begun to change their
own sacred burial practices,

and adopted Egyptian ones,
including mummification.

NARRATOR: With every new
body archaeologists unearth,

the story of the mummies
of Egypt becomes clearer.

Inspired by corpses preserved
by chance in the desert sand,

embalmers in the age of the
Pyramids refined techniques

to freeze the body in time.

For 3,000 years the
practice evolved and spread,

The myth and magic of the
mummy was potent enough to

enchant even the
invading Greeks.

All were intent
on resurrection,

and the glories
of the afterlife.

Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.