All language subtitles for Lost.Treasures.of.Egypt.S03E05.480p.x264-mSD

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MOHAMED: This is the
entrance to the pyramid.

It's really very exciting.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists
are on the brink of the

discovery of a lifetime.

MOHAMED: Nobody entered here.

It's a really important
moment for all of us.

NARRATOR: Ahead,
the burial chamber of
a mysterious ancient queen,

untouched for 4,000 years.

MOHAMED: We will
see if this wooden beam
is really stable enough.

(overlapping chatter)

We will remove this part.

Let's hope it's safe.

(shifting rocks)

(speaking in native language)

NARRATOR: Egypt.

The land of the pyramids
and mighty monuments.

Built by all powerful Pharaohs

like Khufu, Ramses
and Tutankhamun.

But now archaeologists are
revealing new evidence of

rulers of a different
kind who could even
become Pharaohs themselves...

the Queens of Egypt.

How do these women
rise to power in a world

dominated by men?

To investigate American
Egyptologist Colleen Darnell

explores a temple
built by one of Egypt's
greatest queens...

Hatshepsut.

COLLEEN:
This temple is fantastic.

NARRATOR: A row of imposing
statues lines the temple.

COLLEEN: Oh, my goodness,
this is amazing!

These statues are
images of the pharaoh
in the form of Osiris,

but we know it's a king
because of the double crown

of upper and lower Egypt.

NARRATOR: This is the
temple of Queen Hatshepsut,

but there are statues
of kings everywhere.

COLLEEN: The king
wears a divine beard,

and holds a crook and a flail,

typical symbols of royalty.

NARRATOR: Even though
she was a woman,

Hatshepsut portrayed
herself as a man.

Colleen investigates why...

COLLEEN: I would like to find
a cartouche that has a royal

name written in hieroglyphs.

NARRATOR: A cartouche is
an oval-shaped box used

in Egyptian inscriptions.

Only kings or queens could
put their name inside one.

Colleen hunts
inside the temple.

It's a difficult task.

Many cartouches here have
been hacked out or destroyed.

COLLEEN: Aha!

This is the cartouche
I've been looking for.

Hat-shep-sut.

Over here is the word
"saat" for daughter.

Now this is a big clue...

The daughter of Re,
of his body, Hatshepsut.

NARRATOR: Hatshepsut's
cartouche identifies her as a

daughter, not a son.

It's clear she was
not hiding her gender.

But the only way Hatshepsut
could project her power as
a pharaoh,

was to portray
herself as a man...

As a king.

Hatshepsut was a queen of
Egypt and one of only a few

women ever to rule as king.

She restored broken trade
routes with foreign lands,

bringing a wealth of
luxuries like gold, myrrh,

and ebony into Egypt.

In the capital, Thebes,

she erected
colossal monuments,

signifying the power, riches,

and order she brought
to her country.

And her mortuary temple
is one of the grandest ever

built in Egypt.

Its splendor is a monument
to Egypt's success under

Hatshepsut's rule.

But how did this famous and
celebrated queen become king?

Colleen investigates.

COLLEEN: This is a
really interesting wall.

The name of Thutmose III is
here and these would have been

the cartouches of Hatshepsut.

NARRATOR: Hatshepsut was the
daughter of one pharaoh and

married to another.

When her husband died,

her infant nephew
Thutmose the Third became king.

COLLEEN: Thutmose the Third
was just a child,

so Hatshepsut essentially
ruled Egypt as queen,

but then she transforms
into Pharaoh herself,

into a co-regent,
with Thutmose the Third.

NARRATOR: Hatshepsut
ruled as co-regent for

20 prosperous years.

The magnificent temple
is testament to her rule.

But why is it so hard to
find evidence of her here?

COLLEEN: After
Hatshepsut's death,

Thutmose became sole pharaoh,

and later on in his
reign he hacked out

the names and images
of his aunt, Hatshepsut.

NARRATOR: Thutmose wanted to
erase the memory of Hatshepsut

and her children to secure
the throne for his son.

Yet, Hatshepsut's name
survives as evidence of the

power women could
attain in ancient Egypt.

COLLEEN: She was a
spectacular pharaoh.

From monumental
building campaigns,

to expeditions
to far off lands,

but I want to know more
about how she ruled as a woman.

NARRATOR: Archaeologist
Patryk Chudzik is also

exploring the
temple of Hatshepsut.

Like Colleen, he's
on the trail of how she

ruled as a woman.

PATRYK: From
22nd-23rd dynasty.

NARRATOR: Patryk always
dreamed of becoming
an Egyptologist.

Now he leads the Polish
mission at one of Egypt's most

famous monuments.

NARRATOR: His team excavates
ground beside the temple.

The old pathway
leads to an ancient tomb.

NARRATOR: 100 years ago,
American archaeologist

Herbert Winlock excavated here.

But he left a secret
hidden beneath the Temple:

a tomb that he recorded
but never fully excavated.

NARRATOR: Hatshepsut could
have destroyed the tomb to

build her temple here,
but she didn't.

NARRATOR: Patryk hopes that
the mystery of the tomb might

explain why Hatshepsut built
her temple here and reveal

something of how she
ruled as a pharaoh queen.

At Saqqara, Mohamed Megahed
is also investigating

the queens of Egypt.

He is exploring the remains of
a pyramid built for a queen.

MOHAMED: I like our work
because it's not boring,

every day you have a change,
every season you come here you

have something new.

NARRATOR: Mohamed, who
lives in the Czech Republic,

has been returning to his
native Egypt for twelve years

to excavate this site.

He sees archaeology as a
forensic investigation.

MOHAMED: This is our crime
scene, every piece of sand,

every piece of limestone it
gives us an idea of how the

site looked like.

NARRATOR: Mohamed heads up
to the top of the pyramid.

The core has collapsed,

forming a deep
crater in the center.

He plans to search for the
original entrance tunnel.

MOHAMED: So today we will
start digging and finding the

entrance of the pyramid.

NARRATOR: This is the
biggest pyramid ever built

for a queen.

She must have been
extraordinarily powerful.

Who was she?

MOHAMED: For
hundreds of years,

we knew that this
pyramid was a mystery.

NARRATOR: The last attempt
to excavate it in 1952 failed

to find the burial chamber.

MOHAMED: We knew that it
was built for a queen,

but we never knew who
was buried inside.

We used to call this 'the
pyramid of the unknown queen'.

NARRATOR: Mohamed discovered
the identity of the owner

two years ago.

MOHAMED: We found
the granite column lying in
this area and on the column,

we have the name of
the queen and her titles.

Now we can say that
this pyramid belonged

to Queen Setibor.

NARRATOR: Setibor was
the wife of King Djedkare,

a powerful
Old Kingdom Pharaoh who ruled

4,400 years ago.

Djedkare built a
pyramid 170-feet tall,

cased with white
tura limestone,

and capped with a
stone pyramidion...

plated with gold.

Around his pyramid sprawled
a vast complex of columns,

statues, and temples.

To the northeast is a
second pyramid for his wife,

Queen Setibor, with blocks
weighing up to 30 tons,

rising 110-feet from
the desert sand.

Clad in brilliant limestone,

it had a burial chamber at
its heart to keep Setibor's

body safe for all eternity.

Queen Setibor's tomb is the
largest remaining pyramid in

Egypt with an unexplored
burial chamber.

NARRATOR: Discoveries in her
burial chamber could explain

her importance and why she
had such a huge pyramid.

But today, large parts
of the pyramid are missing and

filled with sand.

Mohamed has to dig deep
to find any remains.

A metal scraping catches
Mohamed's attention.

MOHAMED: We have here for
the first time today some

nice white limestone.

NARRATOR: The high-quality
limestone block could be a

sign of the entrance.

MOHAMED: We have
to still go deeper.

NARRATOR: After many
hours of hard digging,

Mohamed feels he
is getting close.

MOHAMED: I'm so excited.

Underneath here, I'm
definitely sure that we will

have the entrance
of the pyramid.

NARRATOR: No one in
the modern era has entered

Queen Setibor's burial chamber,

but Mohamed has discovered
an ancient passage.

He could soon be the first
person to step inside the

chamber in over 4,000 years.

But ahead, a wall of
sand blocks the way.

A team excavated here in 1952.

They built a wall and propped
up a collapsed ceiling before

they abandoned their search
for the burial chamber.

MOHAMED: We will see if this
wooden beam is really stable

enough and if it's not stable,
we have to build here a small

wall to support this.

NARRATOR: Thousands of tons
of rubble and stone are

directly above their heads.

NARRATOR: Mohamed must make
the corridor safe immediately

or risk a collapse.

NARRATOR: At
Deir El Bahari near Luxor,

Colleen is investigating
the reign of the pharaoh

Queen Hatshepsut
and how she ruled a
society dominated by men.

COLLEEN: See,
this is interesting.

Hatshepsut is being breast
fed by goddesses and this is

something that we
know kings claimed.

That they were consuming
the milk of various goddesses.

NARRATOR: The engraving
reveals that Hatshepsut

claimed kingship as
her divine right.

She was the
choice of the gods.

COLLEEN: This is the
god Amun, and he's seated,

his legs are slightly
overlapping those of Ahmose,

the mother of Hatshepsut.

Amun is handing an Ankh sign,
the sign of life to Queen Ahmose

and what
it means is that Amun is

impregnating the queen.

This is the moment of
Hatshepsut's conception.

NARRATOR: Hatshepsut
claimed divine birth,

that she was the
daughter of the god Amun.

It was a powerful claim.

COLLEEN: Hatshepsut is
being very clever here.

Only the king can claim
to be of divine birth.

She's using as propaganda
the divine birth,

claiming her right
to be a pharaoh.

NARRATOR: Egyptians expected
the pharaoh to be male.

Hatshepsut's royal birth
and marriage were not

enough to claim the throne.

She had to invoke
the will of the gods.

COLLEEN: She was the
daughter of a king,

and the wife of a king,
but the divine birth scenes

enabled her to become king.

NARRATOR: Hatshepsut
relied on clever propaganda

to legitimize her
revolutionary rule.

COLLEEN: From the beginning
of Egyptian history,

queen mothers could rule when
pharaohs were very young.

But Hatshepsut does
something different.

She becomes pharaoh herself,
co-regent with Thutmose III,

and here in
Hatshepsut's temple,

we see her remarkable
rise to power.

NARRATOR: Hatshepsut was
the firstborn of a pharaoh.

She married the next pharaoh,
her half-brother.

But when he died,
the next male heir was her

infant nephew Thutmose.

When the child
took the throne,

she ruled by his
side for seven years,

but then she made
a power grab,

declaring herself
a true Pharaoh.

As Pharaoh,
Hatshepsut launched
a campaign of propaganda.

She painted scenes showing
the great god Amun as

her father and of her birth,
in the presence of the gods,

legitimizing her
as the divine heir to

the throne of Egypt.

COLLEEN: Ooh,
this is incredible!

This is Hatshepsut as a
sphinx and you can see her

long curling tail and what's
awesome are the legs of the

enemies flying up in the air,
as she tramples them.

Even though Hatshepsut
was a female king,

this depiction of her as a
trampling sphinx indicates the

ferocity of her rule.

NARRATOR: Hatshepsut had to
project a carefully crafted

image of physical
strength and divine right.

She was a prototype for ruling
queens throughout history.

COLLEEN: As a female pharaoh
Hatshepsut had tremendous power,

but what I want to know
is did other queens exert

the same authority?

NARRATOR: Colleen wants to
find out if more ancient

Egyptian queens followed
Hatshepsut's example.

Or if there was another
way to be a powerful Queen.

At Saqqara, Mohamed's team
races to reinforce the

entrance to queen
Setibor's ancient pyramid.

While Mohamed waits,
the rest of his team excavates

the strange ruins
next to her pyramid.

They have found huge stone
blocks buried in a deep

sand-filled pit.

They could reveal clues to
the role and power of Sethibor.

But first they have
to dig them out.

MOHAMED: It was a very simple
calculation: The block weight

is six and a half tons.

For moving heavy stones like
this you don't need muscles,

you need brains.

NARRATOR: As the
men get started,

Mohamed spots
ancient hieroglyphs
carved into the granite.

NARRATOR: The hieroglyphs
suggest Setibor is not just a

royal wife.

Also, the block itself
could be part of an

important structure
next to her pyramid.

It could reveal the extent
of her power and importance.

NARRATOR: The men
roll the block again,

until it sits
precariously on the rails.

MOHAMED: Six ton and a half,

any mistake it
could cause an injury.

NARRATOR: The block
is finally moving...

The wrong way.

NARRATOR: The men struggle
to move the granite block

from the pit

But Mohamed has a
new plan to get it out

using a chain block.

MOHAMED: We will see
if it will work or no.

(speaking in native language)

So finally, it's working!

It's slow but it's working.

NARRATOR: At last,
the men move the block and

set it aside.

MOHAMED: Wow they did it.

NARRATOR: Now, Mohamed
can examine it in detail.

MOHAMED: It's so beautiful.

This was the door hinge, so
the door socket was here.

NARRATOR: Mohamed discovers
the block is a lintel that

would have sat above
a grand doorway.

MOHAMED: Now we know exactly
the width of the door.

In the future, we
can reconstruct it.

NARRATOR: The lintel
bears Queen Setibor's name

a clue it's part of the
mysterious structure built next

to her pyramid.

MOHAMED: She's using
very special granite,

which was only used for
kings, not for queens.

NARRATOR: Was Setibor
acting as a king?

What will this mystery
building, and her pyramid,

reveal about Queen
Setibor's power?

At Deir El Bahari near Luxor,

Patryk is also investigating
a queen, Hatshepsut.

Strangely, she preserved
an ancient tomb beneath her

magnificent mortuary temple.

Patryk wants to know if
it can shed light on how

Hatshepsut ruled
as a pharaoh queen.

The original occupant of
the tomb remains a mystery.

NARRATOR: A hollow in
the floor once held a mummy

in a wooden coffin.

They are both long gone.

But Patryk has uncovered
some significant clues.

NARRATOR: Their excavations
confirm that the tomb

pre-dates Hatshepsut's
temple by hundreds of years.

Hatshepsut built her
temple with three huge,

layered terraces carved
into the rocks and parades

of 22 columns.

She adorned the walls with
scenes that proclaimed her

divine right to rule Egypt.

But in the far corner
she left a small entrance

to a corridor that led down
to a plain burial chamber.

Patryk's team excavated
rubble containing thousands of

ancient artifacts
including pottery and

mysterious wooden figurines.

Why did Hatshepsut
build her temple on top of

this hidden tomb?

NARRATOR: Pottery expert
Ania Wezranowska is working

through the thousands of
finds from the tomb.

She thinks she's found
something important.

NARRATOR: Even the smallest
find could help reveal the

secrets of the tomb,
and what significance it

held for Hatshepsut.

In Saqqara, deep
inside the pyramid,

Mohamed's team has built
an extra supporting wall.

Now, he can
resume the search for

Queen Setibor's burial chamber.

MOHAMED: We have measured
above the pyramid,

and we are almost in the
middle of the pyramid here.

NARRATOR: If Mohamed
can reach her tomb,

it may answer vital questions.

Why did Setibor have
the biggest pyramid ever

built for a queen?

What was the extent
of her power?

But to get any further,

Mohamed faces
his toughest obstacle yet.

The end of the corridor is
blocked by an unstable wall of

sand and rubble.

It could avalanche down
at the slightest touch.

NARRATOR: The foreman, the
Rais gives a cautious go-ahead

to continue the search
for the burial chamber.

(rocks shifting)

(speaking in native language)

From the top of the pyramid,

Mohamed can see the problem.

A hole is forming
in the crater.

The rubble is falling
straight through to the men

in the tunnel.

MOHAMED: The bad sign is part
of the ceiling is not preserved.

The good sign?

We are not very deep,
so we are very close
to the burial chamber.

NARRATOR: Down below, the
rubble just keeps on coming.

NARRATOR: The dust slows
the work of Mohamed's men.

But finally, they
make a breakthrough.

MOHAMED: For the first time,
we have daylight inside the

burial chamber of the queen.

We have to continue
removing the rubble

and limestone chips.

NARRATOR: Mohamed
checks the pyramid core.

But he must tread
carefully where the tomb
ceiling has collapsed.

MOHAMED: Part of the north
wall of the burial chamber of

Queen Setibor which
is fantastic to see from

the other side.

NARRATOR: There's still
a lot of ancient rubble to

remove before he can
investigate inside.

He only has one week left
on his permit for the site.

Will it be enough time
to reveal the secrets of

Queen Setibor's burial chamber?

At Abu Simbel, near
Egypt's southern border,

Colleen visits one of Egypt's
most remarkable monuments.

She is investigating how
women wielded power as queens

in a world dominated by men.

Hatshepsut turned
herself into a King.

But was there another way
for queens to exercise power?

Colleen has come to the
temple of one of the most

exalted queens
of all to find out.

COLLEEN: I want to investigate
one of the greatest

queens of history.

Her name is Nefertari
and she's the wife

of Ramses the Great.

NARRATOR: Ramses the Second
ruled Egypt for 60 years.

He expanded the empire
and built more monuments

than any other ruler.

His achievements
earned him the title,

"Ramses the Great."

COLLEEN: This is a
statue of Queen Nefertari

to either side are images of
her husband, Ramses the Second.

But what's remarkable is
she's almost of equal height

to the pharaoh himself.

NARRATOR: In Ancient Egypt,
size meant power.

Nefertari was portrayed as
having virtually equal power

to Ramses himself.

But Colleen finds an
inscription revealing

something even
more impressive.

COLLEEN: Here's an
inscription that tells us

Weben-Ra en Mirit-as,
"Ra Rises for love of her."

NARRATOR: Ra was the ancient
Egyptian sun god.

COLLEEN: This column of
Hieroglyphs means that

Nefertari was one of
the few queens to achieve

the status of a goddess.

NARRATOR: Nefertari was
honored as a goddess even

though she was not a
pharaoh queen like Hatshepsut.

What did she do to
deserve this exalted status?

COLLEEN: So now
I want to know,

is this just propaganda for
a favorite wife or did she

actually wield power?

This is the queen.

Nefertari is
incredibly beautiful,

but I think there's more
to the story than that.

This is a clay tablet
found in modern day Turkey.

NARRATOR: It's a letter
written in ancient Acadian.

It shows the queen of the
Hittites writing to Nefertari

before the two empires
completed the world's first

recorded peace treaty.

COLLEEN: This means that
she was really involved in

diplomacy between the
two greatest empires of

the ancient world.

NARRATOR: It
shows that Nefertari
an influential figure.

She helped broker a treaty
that kept peace between the

great empires for 40 years.

Ramses acknowledged his
queen's importance on the

walls of her temple.

COLLEEN: This is Ramses
smiting an enemy.

It's brutal, but this is how
each ancient Egyptian kings

express their power.

What's unusual is that Queen
Nefertari is behind him.

NARRATOR: Kings rarely
shared the glory of military

victories with their queens.

It suggests Nefertari
played a significant role

in Ramses' reign.

COLLEEN: It's possible
that this is propaganda,

but it's also likely that this
shows Queen Nefertari had real

political power.

NARRATOR: The evidence
suggests Nefertari and Ramses

formed a royal power couple,

each vital to the
success of the other.

COLLEEN:
Ancient Egyptian queens,

whether they were married
to a pharaoh or ruled as
pharaoh in their own right,

they truly wielded authority.

NARRATOR: While Hatshepsut
ruled as a king,

Nefertari exercised a
different sort of power.

From behind the throne, her
astute diplomacy and political

influence helped change the
course of Egypt's history.

At Saqqara, time is running
out for Mohamed to discover

the secrets of Queen
Setibor's burial chamber.

His team has finally
cleared a path.

Now Mohamed can get through
to see the chamber for himself.

But they face a new
danger from above.

The roof of the burial chamber
has completely collapsed,

and the crumbling,
overhanging walls could follow

at any moment.

MOHAMED: This is the area
which we need to support.

NARRATOR: If the walls
are only propped up by the

loose rubble underfoot,
the slightest move could bring

them crashing
down in an instant.

But if they can find
solid stone foundations
beneath the wall,

they can be more
confident that the overhang

won't collapse as they dig.

MOHAMED: We have here
parts of the large stones,

and he's looking for the
continuation of the stones.

NARRATOR: They search for the
massive stone slabs that once

supported the structure above.

Until they find them, their
only protection is to patch

the walls with mortar.

NARRATOR: Outside
Setibor's pyramid,

Czech archaeologist
Hana Vymazalova helps Mohamed

investigate the
mysterious ruins.

If she can discover
what they were,

it might reveal the source
of Setibor's power and

how she ruled as queen.

She finds an important clue.

HANA: Yep...

So, we have here the typical
pattern of the ceilings,

like a night sky with stars.

NARRATOR: The stars
would have originally been

painted yellow on
a dark blue background.

They help Hana
identify the structure.

HANA: This is a roofing block,

which came from the
portico of the queen.

NARRATOR: It's part
of a huge portico,

a ceremonial entrance to
what must have been a temple.

HANA: This was the portico,
and here is an entrance into

the temple which was just
opposite to the stairs and if

you measure the width
of this entrance,

it actually fits very nicely.

NARRATOR: Hana's discovery
proves this mysterious

building was Queen
Setibor's funerary temple.

Here, priests and
worshippers spoke her name,

and according to
Egyptian belief,

ensured her soul
lived for eternity.

HANA: It is very exciting
to see it all coming together.

It's a puzzle, 3-D!

NARRATOR: It's a
significant find,

and its size is more
evidence that Setibor was

a powerful woman.

MOHAMED: The funerary temple
is the biggest funerary

temple built for a
queen in the Old Kingdom.

NARRATOR: What more can these
ruins reveal about Setibor and

the queens of the Old Kingdom?

Could she have paved the
way for powerful New Kingdom

queens like Hatshepsut
and Nefertari?

At Deir El Bahari, Patryk
wants to know why Hatshepsut

chose this location
for her temple,

and how she ruled in a
world dominated by men.

He hopes that the thousands
of finds from a tomb

beneath it might yield clues.

One new discovery
intrigues Patryk and Ania.

NARRATOR: The pieces
look like religious charms.

NARRATOR: Patryk
has a hunch that he's
seen these features before.

He heads up to
a shrine that Hatshepsut
built in her temple.

It could reveal why the
pharaoh queen built here.

NARRATOR: Hatshepsut
dedicated this shrine
to the cow goddess Hathor.

It's directly above the tomb.

The matching finds confirm
a theory Patryk has,

that the tomb was used
by a religious cult
that worshiped Hathor.

Hathor was the
mother of the gods and their
representatives here on earth,

the pharaohs.

Ancient Egyptians worshipped
Hathor in the form of a cow or

as a woman with cow horns,
holding the sun disk.

She was the powerful goddess
of motherhood and fertility...

who breathed new life
into dead souls and guided

them to the hereafter.

In some myths, Hathor gave
birth to the sun each day,

bringing life and
banishing the darkness.

She was particularly
revered by pharaohs.

By feeding them
her divine milk,

Hathor bestowed on
them the power to rule.

NARRATOR: The tomb was
built long before Hatshepsut.

But the Hathor amulets
discovered in it date

to her era.

They're powerful proof that
the old tomb was used in the

cult worship of Hathor
in Hatshepsut's time.

NARRATOR: Patryk believes
this is why Hatshepsut

built her temple here.

This entire valley had ancient
links with the Hathor cult.

The sheer quantity of
discoveries in the tomb prove

the cult was very active
during Hatshepsut's reign.

NARRATOR: Hatshepsut was
one of the few queens ever

to become pharaoh.

She used masculine images
all over her temple to

project her power.

But Patryk's new evidence
shows that she projected

feminine powers too,
promoting Hathor here,

ahead of all the other gods.

The powerful goddess
of femininity,

motherhood and women,
helped Hatshepsut become the

mother of her nation.

At Saqqara, in Setibor's
burial chamber,

Mohamed's team is searching
for solid limestone

foundations beneath
the overhanging walls,

so they can be
sure they are safe.

He hopes the chamber will
hold clues to how Setibor

ruled as a queen.

Was she a ruling
pharaoh like Hatshepsut,

or a powerful wife
like Nefertari?

Finally, a worker sees
a smooth limestone face.

Mohamed confirms it's the
stone he's been looking for.

NARRATOR: Solid
stone foundations
underpin the overhang,

so digging can safely resume.

NARRATOR: It's the last day of
excavation inside the pyramid.

Hana joins Mohamed in
the burial chamber.

But will they have time to
excavate all this rubble and

find any traces of Setibor?

They've discovered she built
the largest pyramid and

funerary temple of any
queen of the Old Kingdom.

But how did she rule?

Was she pharaoh herself, or
part of a royal power couple?

Mohamed hopes to find answers
in the burial chamber itself.

MOHAMED: It seems
everything was smashed.

This very small, tiny,
small pieces of limestone,

it means that stone
robbers came here and
smashed everything.

NARRATOR: Stone robbers
plundered valuable white

limestone from most of
Egypt's ancient tombs,

just as tomb robbers
took their treasures.

But Mohamed still sees a
treasure trove of clues.

NARRATOR: The exposed
limestone reveals an

important new discovery.

NARRATOR: A serdab was a
chamber usually reserved for

the statue of the pharaoh.

Later queens had serdabs,
but Mohamed has discovered

Setibor was the first
queen to build one.

Why was Setibor able to
claim this, and other,

privileges of kings?

All the clues show that
Mohamed and Hana have

discovered one of the
most illustrious queens

of Ancient Egypt.

Setibor was wife of Djedkare,

one of the great pharaohs
of the Old Kingdom.

She was powerful enough to
build the largest pyramid and

temple complex of any
Old Kingdom queen.

The size and design of
her mortuary temple,

looks less like a queen's
and more like a king's.

Could this mean that
Djedkare's mysterious queen

may have ruled, as king?

Hieroglyphics expert, Hana,
thinks that the answer might

be hiding on a column they
discovered by her pyramid.

It's inscribed with
her name, Setibor.

The last part of it,
"Hor" stands for Horus,

the falcon god.

HANA: The name of Horus is
written with the individual

letters not with the
sign of the falcon,

because if it's written as
a falcon then that would

be the king's name.

NARRATOR: The Horus
inscription reveals the true

extent of Setibor's power.

HANA: They are features which
scream I'm the important queen,

but at the same time,
they are features which show

that she is not a royal person,
she's not the ruler,

she's not the king.

NARRATOR: Setibor was
not a pharaoh queen,

the supreme ruler of Egypt.

She didn't have the
power of Hatshepsut.

But the evidence uncovered
here suggests she was a

powerful royal from a
powerful royal dynasty,

and perhaps reigned more like
Nefertari, 1,000 years later.

HANA: Everything that
we are uncovering here.

They all seem to indicate
that she might have been

related to the kings.

So maybe she was the link
between those kings and

Djedkare himself.

Maybe that's why she was so
important because she was the

one who helped him to
the throne of Egypt,

and she was the power
behind the throne.

NARRATOR: Their discoveries
reveal that Queen Setibor was

one of the most powerful
and influential figures

of Ancient Egypt.

In a society that
venerated its ancestors,

perhaps she was even a
role model for the great

queens who followed her.

Finally, the team has
excavated enough rubble for

Mohamed to see the dimensions
of Setibor's burial chamber.

MOHAMED: Maybe this is a line
of the height of the room.

The ceiling reached up until
this line all the way we have

the line in the room.

All the way here.

NARRATOR: The discovery of the
ceiling line means there

is still ten feet of
rubble to clear to reveal

the entire tomb and
time is running out.

Today is the last day on
his permit for the site.

MOHAMED: I'm not sure we
will reach the floor today,

actually, I'm not sure even
if we will have a floor.

NARRATOR: But Mohamed
has achieved his goal,

he's found Setibor's burial
chamber and he'll return to

excavate it fully.

MOHAMED: I hope in the coming
season we will come again,

and we will continue and
will finish the work.

NARRATOR: Mohamed and Hana
have rediscovered a long-lost

queen who towered over Egypt,
900-years before Hatshepsut.

A queen ahead of her time,

inspiring queens for
centuries to come.

And a queen like Hatshepsut,
who projected masculine power

but drew on the feminine
goddess Hathor...

And Nefertari,

who wielded her formidable
power alongside one of the

greatest kings of all time.

Perhaps Setibor was the
trailblazer for both.

Now she can be restored
to her rightful place

alongside them and be
recognized amongst the

greatest queens
of Ancient Egypt.

Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.