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Mohamed!

Oh wow

It's inscripted stone

In the
shadow of the pyramids,

archaeologists make an
extraordinary discovery.

This oval shape,
this is the name of the
King, Khaafre,

the owner of the
second pyramid.

They unearth a stone
inscribed with a cartouche,

an ancient symbol
of the pharaoh.

MOHAMED
Kha'afre, this is the most
important hieroglyphic sign

and it's dating
back 2600 BC.

The Pharaoh,
Khafre, built the
second pyramid of Giza,

could this astonishing
discovery of a four and a
half thousand year old

stone bearing the
pharaoh's name,

help to answer one
of Egypt's greatest
unsolved mysteries?

This is a
great discovery.

What happened
to the missing bodies

of the great pyramid pharaohs?

These are cold cases,
maybe the coldest robbery
case in the books.

The ancient
Pyramids of Giza

tower above the urban
sprawl of modern Cairo.

The pyramids were
built four and a half
thousand years ago,

as tombs for three
generations of pharaoh kings.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu
stands over 450 feet tall.

Khafre, his son, built his
tomb just 13 feet shorter.

And Khufu's grandson,
Menkaure, built
the smallest pyramid,

but it's still the height
of a 15 story tower block.

These tombs are
giant fortresses,

designed to keep the
pharaoh's corpses and
treasures safe for eternity.

The man responsible
for preserving these
ancient monuments is

Ashraf Mohie El Din, the
director of the Giza Plateau.

Ashraf is a world famous
archaeologist and knows
more about this site

than anybody else
on the planet.

Today, he's spearheading
a pioneering excavation
that he hopes will

transform our knowledge of
the pyramids and the pharaoh
kings who built them.

Everybody's dreaming
to come, to see the pyramid,

I get the honor to
come every day.

Ashraf has
dedicated the last 20 years to
investigating this vast site.

But there's one area that's
still shrouded in secrecy,

largely untouched by
modern archaeologists,
until now.

Due south of the pyramids,
is a barren one square
mile desert landscape.

It makes up the
entire southern half
of the Giza Plateau.

It's called the
Southern Field.

Ashraf assembles a
team of over 60 workers,

to undertake a vast
excavation beneath this
unchartered patch of desert.

Over the course of the
next eight months,

they will remove hundreds
of tons of sand,

dumping it at the
base of the plateau.

Guys, let's work
our way down like this

Our work actually here,
to clear the sands,
step by step,

layer by layer,
to see what is
under the sands.

Nobody knows what
secrets lie undiscovered
beneath the sands here.

But historic excavations
across the Giza Plateau

have led to
astonishing discoveries.

West of the Pyramids,
archaeologists unearthed

an enormous cemetery
for high officials.

To the east, the tombs of
the Pharaoh Khufu's family.

And gigantic
processional causeways,
with grand temples,

including a temple devoted
to the great sphinx.

Archaeologists have even found
the remnants of a harbor town,

where pyramid building blocks
weighing up to 15 tons,

were delivered on
board fleets of ships.

But no-one knows for sure
what lies buried beneath

the largely unexplored
Southern Field.

As Ashraf's team
shift the sands...

Mohamed!

They unearth
a startling discovery,

just a few inches
beneath the surface.

Oh wow

It's inscripted stone

They find
a beautifully carved
limestone block.

It's buried
in soft sand

This oval shape, we
call it a cartouche

This is the name of the king

The team are
onto something big.

ASHRAF
It's inscribed with the
name of the King Khafre.

Kha Ef-Re, the owner
of the second pyramid.

ASHRAF So, this
means, this block dates back
to the age of the pyramid.

What connects
this limestone block to
the pyramid pharaohs?

Could this discovery here
in the Southern Field,

finally shed light on
one of Egypt's greatest
unsolved mysteries?

What happened to the mummies
of the pyramid kings,

Khafre, Khufu and Menkaure?

The bodies of these
pharaohs were once entombed
inside the pyramids,

but have never been found.

It's a place to have
his mummy and his treasures,

so it should be well secured,
well protected.

But keeping
the pyramids secure was
a formidable challenge.

We know from
both archaeological
and textual sources,

that tomb robbery was always
a problem in ancient Egypt.

The monuments failed.

The first explorers to
enter Khufu's pyramid
in the ninth century

find the burial chamber empty.

Khafre and Menkaure's
bodies also disappeared.

Doctor Mark Lehner is
a world leading expert
on the Great Pyramids.

MARK
These are cold cases.

Maybe the coldest robbery
case in the books.

Mark wants to
know how these enormous,

fortified tombs
were broken into.

He retraces the
robber's footsteps

into the Great Pyramid
of Khufu to investigate.

Khufu built the first
and largest great tomb
on the Giza Plateau.

It's the only surviving
wonder of the ancient world.

MARK Here,
they built the most perfect,
largest pyramid of all time.

And they never
equaled it afterwards.

It's thought,
20 to 30,000 people
labored for two decades

to complete this
incredible monument.

Using enormous ramps to stack
up 2.3 million stone blocks.

MARK They did
it with such an exactitude,

that the base is off level
only by an inch around the
entire perimeter.

This wasn't
just a burial tomb,

people worshipped the pharaoh's
memory here after he died.

The pyramid would have
looked very different
when originally finished.

Mark examines smooth
limestone blocks at the
monument's northern base.

These blocks would have once
encased the entire pyramid.

MARK This
brilliant outer casing was
also a line of defense

against anybody who would come
in to plunder the royal burial.

It was one gleaming sheet of
stone and nobody knew exactly
where the entrance was.

But robbers did break in.

They didn't hunt
for the entrance,

because that would have been
concealed by the limestone.

Instead, they tunneled right
through 100 feet of the
pyramid's building blocks

until they hit an
internal passage.

Mark climbs up through the
pyramid's grand gallery.

These enormous structures
weren't just protected
from the outside,

inside there were
even more anti-theft
devices to negotiate.

At the top, Mark finds
evidence of an ingenious
pyramid locking mechanism.

Thick ropes would
have run down these slots.

Those ropes would
have controlled slabs

that would slide
down these slots.

Boom, boom, boom.

To close the entrance into the
burial chamber of the pharaoh.

Mark believes that
when it was time to lock

the pharaoh's body in his tomb,

workers used a complex
network of ropes to drop
enormous granite slabs...

sealing the burial chamber.

The Ancient Egyptians
then released three
even bigger blocks,

that slid down the
ascending passage,

before slamming into
the end of the tunnel,

totally blocking it off.

Finally, they concealed
the pyramid's doorway,

under a seamless
layer of limestone,

making it impossible to
tell where the entrance lay.

Ancient engineers thought
they'd built the perfect
pyramid protection mechanism,

they were wrong.

MARK The
anti-theft measures didn't work.

The chamber has been empty
since recorded history.

We don't know
who carried out this crime,

but Mark has a theory about
when the robberies took place.

MARK It's my
sense that it was done,

maybe very soon after the
pyramid was complete because

those who made the
forced tunnel,

seemed to have known how to
turn it just to connect
with the ascending passage,

which is the way
up to the king's chamber.

We know from
the breath-taking discovery

of Tutankhamen's golden
treasures that pharaohs were

buries with great riches
for use in the afterlife.

So the pyramid pharaoh's
burial chambers would
have been rich pickings.

But the pharaoh's mummies
had no intrinsic value

and the ancient tomb robbers
would likely have feared
these sacred remains.

Ancient Egyptians believed
the key to eternal life

was to preserve the
bodies of the dead.

So when thieves
ransacked the tombs,

they would grab all
the treasures buried
with the pharaoh.

They even opened the coffins,

to pluck gems and amulets
from the mummies.

But we know from other
Egyptian tomb robberies

that looters may have
feared the wrath of
the dead pharaohs

and would have left their
preserved bodies behind.

So why did all the royal
mummies disappear from
the Pyramids of Giza

and where are they now?

Any Egyptologist
on this planet wishing to
find a mummy for a pharaoh.

If archaeologists
find those missing mummies,

it would be an
enormous breakthrough

in our understanding of these
ancient and enigmatic kings.

MARK We don't
have a New York Times or a
Sunday Times

that tells us about
these pharaohs.

We just don't know
how old they were,
what they looked like,

their personalities,

we know these pharaohs
primarily from their monuments.

Could the
corpses of Khufu,
Khafre and Menkaure

have been moved and reburied
elsewhere on the Giza Plateau

to keep them safe
from further robbers?

I'm hoping in
the future, in our
excavations to find

a hidden mummy of Khufu,
a hidden mummy of Khafre

Ashraf believes
that this stone,

carved with King Khafre's name
is just the tip of the iceberg.

What else lies buried
in the Southern Field?

I believe lots
of things in the future,
is waiting for us

Ashraf's
team is now eight weeks
into their pioneering

35 week excavation of
the Southern Field.

The more sand they remove,

the more extraordinary
discoveries they make.

Unearthing ancient clay pottery.

They've got
lots of jars, they put
beer, honey, milk, wine,

even cheese to be
re-used in afterlife.

And huge mudbrick
structures Ashraf believes

are the walls of
long buried tombs.

It extend from
here to over there.

You see my colleague
over there?

And where
there are tombs,
there are bodies.

As the team
continues to dig,

they unearth dozens
of burial shafts.

We have more
than 50 shafts here,

so I'm cleaning one by one.

It's now clear
that this unexplored patch

of the Giza Plateau was once
an important necropolis,

a vast cemetery dating
back some four and a
half thousand years.

Who was buried here?

Many of the shafts are
either empty or unfinished.

But some...

Oh my God

Still contain
remnants of burials.

This burial chamber

may be three meters inside

Seven beer jars

One particular
shaft astounds them.

ASHRAF Wow.

This shaft leads
to an interconnected network

of underground chambers.

I think there is
many chambers to explore.

It's an
extraordinary discovery,

this mysterious network of
chambers is a mass grave.

Lots of remains
of mummies, skeletons,

bones and skulls.

This is one of
the bandages which was
used to wrap the body.

Could these tombs
contain the missing bodies

of the pyramid pharaohs?

Some skeletons are ruled
out because of their size.

Oh my God.
It's a burial for a baby.

ASHRAF I'm
working more than 20 years
now as archaeologist.

This is for the
first time for me,

to discover a burial for a baby.

ASHRAF And
there is a beautiful mask.

In one hidden
corner of the tomb network...

Wow.

Wow, wow, wow, wow.

Ashraf makes
another spectacular discovery.

A mask with
a Golden sheets.

Wow! A golden finger!

ASHRAF
I can see the nail.

Oh my gosh,
he still has a hair.

ASHRAF
A skull with a hair.

The whole coffin was
covered with sheets of gold.

These golden
shards once formed part of
an ornately gilded coffin.

ASHRAF I
believe got a high rank

to have this golden
sheets on his coffin.

Such liberal
application of gold

would have been reserved only
for the wealthy elite

and high status Egyptians.

And to find an elaborate
burial amongst the
scattered remains

is a surprise for the team.

They must now analyze
the body to investigate

who was buried inside
this golden coffin.

Could these even
be the remains of a
great pyramid pharaoh?

Astonishingly, this wouldn't
be the first pharaoh's body

to be found in a
humble mass tomb.

Dr. Colleen Darnell
has devoted her career

to studying Egyptian
beliefs about death.

She investigates a spectacular
collection of mummies

that could shed light on
why the bodies of the
pyramid pharaohs

weren't found inside
their enormous tombs.

These mummies date from
Egypt's New Kingdom,

a time some 1,300 years after
the Giza pyramid pharaohs.

In the New Kingdom,

pharaohs no longer
advertised their burials

with giant pyramids.

Instead, they
conceal their tombs,

carving them deep underground
in the Valley of the Kings.

It was in this valley that
the New Kingdom pharaoh,

Tutankhamen and his
golden treasures,
were found.

But the final resting place
of these pharaoh's mummies,

wasn't so final.

COLLEEN This
is the mummy of Rameses III.

You might think that he
was found in his tomb in
the Valley of the Kings,

but over 100 years
after he died,

his burial was removed and
his mummy was re-wrapped

to be interred in
an unmarked tomb.

Inscriptions on the linen wrappings

allowed archaeologists
to identify the body
of Rameses III

and he wasn't the
only pharaoh

to be removed from his tomb
and re-buried.

Thutmose the II,
believed by some to
be the pharaoh

from the Bible's Exodus
was buried with him.

So was Seqenenre Tao,
a king whose mummy

suggests he came to a
gruesome end in battle.

There were many more pharaohs
in that unmarked tomb,

spanning some four and a half
centuries of Egyptian history.

Most of the kings
of the New Kingdom were

buried together in
that unmarked tomb.

Why were these
great pharaohs removed
from their tombs

and re-buried together?

And could the same fate have
befallen the pyramid pharaohs,

Khufu, Khafre
and Menkaure?

Dr. Colleen Darnell
hunts for clues

to solve the mystery of why
dozens of pharaohs were

removed from their original
tombs and re-buried in an
unmarked grave.

Could this ancient
papyrus hold the answer?

COLLEEN One
of the more remarkable
documents to survive

from Ancient Egypt is
a transcript of the

confessions of a tomb robber.

The papyrus was long
ago torn down the middle,

the two halves now live
in different museums.

But by bringing the
pieces together,

Colleen can decode the ancient
confessions of a New Kingdom

tomb robber named Amenpnufer,

who broke into the tomb of a
pharaoh named Sobekemsaf II.

"We took our copper
tools and we broke into

its very inner chamber."

And we know that they're
going through the
mummies themselves

because they talk about
a piece of Gold jewelry

at the neck of the king.

Amenpnufer admits to digging a tunnel

into the tomb of the pharaoh.

Once inside, he took as much
gold as he could carry,

but he was caught.

For his crimes,
a brutal punishment,

sentenced to death
by impalement.

This tomb robbery
and others like it,

alarms New Kingdom authorities.

Their Pharaoh's mummies,

so sacred to the
Ancient Egyptians,
aren't safe.

The authorities take action.

In order to
safeguard the royal mummies,

they were moved,
re-wrapped and buried
together in an unmarked tomb.

COLLEEN We
know that the plan worked,

by moving them from the
Valley of the Kings,

to an unmarked tomb,
they survived for
thousands of years.

If all of
these kings were moved
to an unmarked tomb,

could the same fate
have befallen the
great pyramid pharaohs,

Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure?

Could their bodies have
been moved and buried
in an unmarked grave

and could those graves lie
here in the Southern Field?

Ashraf's team has cleared
up to 32 feet of sand.

Their work reveals the vast
scale of this cemetery.

We have
one, two, three, four,
five tombs over there.

ASHRAF
Those tombs were
completely covered with sand.

The most impressive
tomb they find lies at the
far edge of the site.

The tomb is an incredible
limestone structure.

Detailed engravings
cover its walls.

One hieroglyph is familiar.

ASHRAF
So, Kha-Ef-Ra.

It was the same cartouche
in the block we found
in the excavations here.

Ashraf now believes
the block of limestone
bearing Khafre's name

may have once formed part of
this beautifully carved tomb.

But this tomb doesn't belong
to the pharaoh himself.

The hieroglyphics
here tells about his title,

Webb Nisu.

Kh F Ra, Hemm,
netter, the priest,
so this guy,

he was the priest of
the Temple of Khafre.

This was the burial
chamber for a high priest.

This priest would
have worked in the temple

attached to Khafre's pyramid.

The temple was built
as a place of worship

to keep the pharaoh's
memory alive after death.

The discovery suggests
that this Necropolis was
no ordinary cemetery.

It was a burial site for
high-ranking officials

who worked in the
very heart of Giza.

ASHRAF To
find such a quality of
hieroglyphics like this,

dates back from 4,500 years,

this really a great discovery.

Further study of this tomb

could not only shine
a light on the life of Khafre,

the great pyramid king,
but also those who
worshipped him.

11 weeks into the dig,

further excavations reveal
another strange shaft.

This shaft is carved almost
ten feet deep into the rock.

Those blocks they
are covering the entrance
of the burial chamber.

ASHRAF
It means it's intact.

Ashraf sends site inspector,
Ahmed Ezz,

down to help clear the blocks.

I hurt my finger,
you idiot

Wait, look at mine!

They lift the last of
the enormous 80 pound blocks

that covered the entrance
to the burial chamber.

Nearby Ahmed, I can
see there is something there

maybe there is
something from wood,
I'm not sure yet

It's a coffin!

At the
bottom of this newly
discovered burial shaft,

in Giza's Southern Field,

Ashraf is inspecting an
exquisitely painted coffin.

You can see the face

his lips, his nose,
it's well detailed

I'm speechless

This coffin
is an extraordinary,
one of a kind find.

If you have a
look here, we have
the beautiful Anubis

the guardian of the tomb here

These markings
protect the owner's body

so that he can flourish
in the afterlife.

And this coffin even
has a false lid...

Wow.

An extra
line of defense.

It's a cover,
above a cover

In fact,
coffin after coffin
are being discovered

scattered all across
the excavation site.

Some are buried
in shallow sand.

What's this, Ahmed?
Wood?

Yes, that's wood

The team decode
the markings on the coffins.

It's like your
wife is giving a birth,

I wish I can hold this
coffin between my arms,
he's my baby.

The coffins were
buried on top of and inside
the old kingdom tombs.

But while the tombs
may date back to the
time of the pyramids,

the caskets inside are
from a much later period.

This style of wooden coffin,

carved and intricately painted
to look like its inhabitant,

did not exist when the
pyramids were constructed.

It's much later
than the pyramids time,

the decorations,
the motifs of the scenes,

it's a style of,
of late period.

The coffins of
the Southern Field date
from the late period,

the term given by
archaeologists to a time

2,000 years after the
Old Kingdom pharaohs.

Why do these graves lie
amongst the tombs of
their ancient ancestors

in the shadow of the pyramids?

The time scales are enormous.

The Pharaoh Khufu built
the first Great Pyramid

around 2,500 BC.

A further 1,300 years passed,

before the rule of
the boy king,
Tutankhamen.

And the late period
coffins unearthed in
the Southern Field

came another 700 years
after even King Tut.

In fact, these Egyptians
lived almost as close to
smart phones as they did

to the pyramid pharaohs.

It's a remarkable
twist to the tale,

the Southern Field
appears to be a cemetery
on top of a cemetery,

created 2,000 years apart.

This burial site is
a window into an astonishing
chapter of Egyptian history.

This site was once
an important old
kingdom necropolis,

with limestone and mudbrick
tombs covering the hillside.

But the cemetery's
peace was shattered.

2,000 years later,

the Late Period Egyptians
suddenly began to re-use
the necropolis,

carving fresh shafts

and re-opening ancient
burial chambers.

Burying their dead on
top of and inside

the ancient tombs of the
Old Kingdom Egyptians.

The discoveries
here lead Ashraf,

director of the Giza Plateau,
to propose an incredible idea.

Could these late period
Egyptians have played a
role in the disappearance

of the bodies of
the pyramid kings,

Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure?

Maybe the
Late period people

found the body of
one of the pharaohs

and moved it some place else

Maybe there's a mummy

a great discovery of a pharaoh

was waiting for us here

Although late period
Egyptians lived two millennia

after the great
pyramids were built,

they had an obsession
with the ancient
pharaohs who built them.

These people,
they were worshipping

the pharaohs from
the Old Kingdom

Why did late
period Egyptians have
such a fascination

with these ancient
pyramid pharaohs?

Dr. Colleen Darnell
is a world expert

in decoding ancient texts.

She believes the walls
of a lesser-known period,

nine miles south of Giza,
in Saqqara,

could reveal the
reason late period Egyptians

idolized the pyramid
pharaohs and may even

have sought to protect and
preserve their royal mummies.

Saqqara is an
ancient cemetery.

It neighbors the
Giza necropolis

and built around the same
time as the Great Pyramids.

17 pharaohs are buried here.

Colleen investigates
the pyramid of Unas.

It was built by King Unas
who lived just 100 years

after the Giza
Pyramid pharaohs.

COLLEEN The
exterior of the pyramid
of Unas is pretty eroded.

But on the inside,
it's remarkably well preserved.

The interior of
Unas's pyramid is covered
with mystical symbols.

These are the Pyramid texts,
magic spells designed to

help the deceased achieve
immortality in the afterlife.

These spells also reveal
why Late Period Egyptians

may have gone hunting

for the bodies of the
Giza's pyramid kings.

Colleen Darnell
decodes ancient spells

carved into the walls
of the pyramid of Unas.

One of the spells
begins, "Hail King Unas,"
and then it says,

"You have not gone away dead,
you have gone away, alive."

COLLEEN
He's achieved eternal
existence in the afterlife.

These spells
don't just grant the
pharaoh immortality,

they're also a road map to
becoming an all-powerful God.

COLLEEN It says,
"The one whom he desires
to live, he shall live

and the one who he desires
to die, he shall die."

The spells of the pyramid
texts describe how the

king becomes a god
in the afterlife.

These texts reveal
that pyramids weren't just
burial chambers,

they were God-making machines.

No pyramid texts were found
inside the Giza pyramids.

But Colleen thinks that's
because the architects never
carved them into stone.

COLLEEN
It's entirely possible
that the pyramids of Giza

would have had pyramid texts
on papyrus scrolls included

in the original burial,

but all of that material
is now lost to us.

The pyramid pharaohs
built their enormous tombs

to become Gods in
the afterlife.

And 2,000 years
after their deaths,

that's exactly
what they'd become.

They were now Gods to the
late period Egyptians.

The late period marked
the dying days of
native Egyptian rule.

Between 664 to 332 BC,

Egypt was under attack
from Assyrians,

Babylonians and Persians.

In the Empire's
final decades,

late period Egyptians
returned to Giza.

They looked to the
pyramid pharaohs,
Khufu,

Khafre and Menkaure for
protection in the afterlife.

These were now their
Gods and the late period

Egyptians wanted to be
buried beside them.

Late period
Egyptians idolized Khufu,

Khafre and Menkaure.

That's why they
want to have their tombs
nearby the pyramids,

they believed the
pyramid pharaohs,
they are Gods.

The late period
Egyptians worshipped the
pyramid pharaohs as Gods.

So if they did find the
bodies of the ancient kings
left behind by looters,

they would have wanted
to preserve and protect
the royal remains.

Just like the mummies
of the New Kingdom pharaohs,

re-wrapped and re-buried near
the Valley of the Kings.

Could the late period
Egyptians have moved the
royal mummies to their own

necropolis in the
Southern Field to
keep them safe?

After 12 weeks of
intensive excavations
on the Southern Field,

Ashraf's investigation
enters a new phase.

The team will now
begin to open the coffins
found around the site.

ASHRAF
Wow. It's a mummy.

But, it's not for a tall or
a big guy, maybe he's 15, 16,

he didn't have
enough time or money

to afford a
big burial for him.

Ashraf works with
expert osteoarcheologist
Dr. Amira Shahin,

to examine the bones excavated
from the network of tombs

beneath the Southern Field.

We have
another clavicle...

But there is one
burial in particular that

Ashraf is keen for
her to investigate.

Can Amira's analysis
finally reveal who is
buried in the golden coffin?

Will the body reveal
evidence of their status

and a reason for their
elaborate burial?

Could this even be the
body of a pyramid pharaoh?

Re-buried by late
period Egyptians?

According to
the shape of the, the skull,
these tiny bones.

So this is most probably
a skull of a female.

She died when all her
teeth are present, so
she's really young.

This is
no pyramid pharaoh,

but the bones do reveal a
remarkable ancient practice.

This is not normal.

Amira finds
a substantial hole just
above the right eye.

The hole is unusually smooth.

AMIRA This
is the surface of the
bone, it is not broken.

This hole happened
before death.

It has been made
by a physician.

This smooth,
circular hole,
suggests that

this skull had
undergone an operation,
ancient surgery.

These people
get medical health

600 BC, we have medical health

for medium class people

and this for me,
is something new

These bones
might not be those
of a pyramid pharaoh,

but they're an
important discovery,

revealing physical evidence
of ancient surgery,

in a civilization known
for some of the earliest
surgical procedures.

What of Khufu,
Khafre and Menkaure?

Can Ashraf's excavations
reveal evidence to help
solve the mystery

of what happened to
their mummified bodies?

And what role, if any,

late period Egyptians played
in their disappearance.

Incredible evidence may
finally provide the answers.

Evidence from inside
Menkaure's pyramid.

The enormous
monuments of Khufu and
Khafre tower 260 feet

above the smallest pyramid
on the Giza Plateau.

But Khufu's grandson,
Menkaure, still built a
tomb that towers over

200 feet tall and weighs
in at 600,000 tons.

In the hunt for the
missing pyramid pharaohs,

this could be the most
important monument of them all.

While the other two great
tombs have been open to
modern explorers since

the beginning of
recorded history,

the entrance to
Menkaure's pyramid was
buried deep in the sand,

until the early 19th century,
when archaeologists finally

dug down to access
the burial chamber.

Inside, they found a
mysterious wooden coffin.

The coffin now resides at
the British Museum and

the inscriptions are worn
and difficult to read.

Archaeologist, Dr. Lehner,
is a world leading expert
on the pyramids of Giza.

He examines a copy
of a drawing made
almost 200 years ago.

So this is
the wooden coffin,
found in 1837.

MARK It's
inscribed for Menkaure,
as Pharaoh.

And it says, "Oh Osiris,
Menkaure, king of
upper and lower Egypt.

They cause that you'll exist
like a God, without enemies."

The text states
that this coffin contains
Menkaure's mummified body.

It reveals that he hoped
to become a God upon death,

just like the other
pyramid pharaohs.

But there's a mystery,
the coffin is wooden
and shaped like a human.

This style of coffin
is identical to the
late period burials

being unearthed by Ashraf
in the Southern Field.

MARK
It's named for Menkaure,

but this is not his
original coffin.

Everything about this
suggests that it was
put into the pyramid

2,000 years after Menkaure died.

And this is very strange.

MARK Is this
a re-burial of Menkaure,
some 2,000 years later?

2,000 years
after Menkaure was first
locked into his pyramid,

late period Egyptians
entered the tomb,

perhaps themselves hunting
for the pharaoh's body.

They likely found the
burial chamber
desecrated from robbers

and maybe they found
this body too.

But Menkaure was a God,

they couldn't leave his
sacred body unprotected.

Instead, they re-wrapped
the mummy and placed
it in a new coffin.

Holding a fresh
funeral for Menkaure,

restoring his body into
the pyramid he built.

MARK We know
at this period they revived
the memories of these kings

and in this case apparently,

re-doing Menkaure's burial at
this time of renaissance,

when they're reviving the cult
of these long dead pharaohs.

Menkaure's
body wasn't found
inside the casket.

But the coffin itself
is evidence that a pyramid
pharaoh was moved by these

late period Egyptians
and restored into
his ancient tomb.

A God reburied 2,000
years after he died.

Could the same fate
have befallen the other
pyramid pharaohs,

Khufu and Khafre?

There's one way to get answers,
find the missing bodies.

We now know that the
vast Southern Field was
an important burial site

for these late
period Egyptians.

And Menkaure's coffin is
evidence that late period
Egyptians did indeed go

looking for the ancient
pyramid pharaohs to protect
and preserve their mummies.

This huge expanse of
desert may offer up a
pyramid pharaoh yet.

I will not stop
digging here because every
day I get more excited

to find more things,
more finds, more
discoveries.

Months of intense
digging has unearthed a

treasure trove of
unique discoveries.

From the beautifully carved
tomb of a high priest

who worked in the
shadow of the pyramids.

To the shattered golden coffin
of a mysterious young woman,

the recipient of
ancient surgery.

And they've found
countless other artifacts

that reveal extraordinary
details about the lives

of those who built
Egypt's great pyramids

and the people who
worshipped them.

ASHRAF Since
I was a child, I was
dreaming to be excavator,

to find new discoveries,
and I think I'm making
my dream come true,

by being here in this site.

The hunt for
the pyramid pharaohs,

Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure,
will continue.

Maybe in the
future we will find
their mummies hidden

somewhere around the pyramid,

maybe not, but it's going
to be fun to keep looking.

Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.