Original subtitles

[ropes creaking]

[mysterious music playing]

[metal whining]

[Zahi Hawass] An intact tomb is like a time capsule.

[air puffing]

Filled with spells and curses

that protect the dead.

Undisturbed for thousands of years,

we are the first people to go inside.

The past is sleeping in the darkness,

waiting to be found.

You are looking at a woman,

dated back 4,300 years ago.

Over 1,000 years older than King Tut.

Imagine if I could talk to the mummy.

And the mummy could talk to me.

[ghostly voices whispering]

- [dramatic music playing] - [men shouting]

[ghostly voice whispers]

[Hawass] I'm hunting for a pyramid lost to history.

[men talking indistinctly in Arabic]

- [speaks in Arabic] - [tool clanks]

[Hawass] I am not immortal.

But my name will be remembered.

[music continues]

[whooshing]

- [man] Oh! - [speaking in Arabic]

[reporter 1] Egypt has unveiled a significant new archaeological discovery

at the Saqqara.

[reporter 2] At the famed necropolis of Saqqara near Cairo.

[dramatic music building]

[music peaks, fades]

Beautiful.

[mysterious music playing]

[music fades]

[rumbling]

[intriguing music playing]

[Hawass] Saqqara, in my opinion,

is the most magical and important site in Egypt.

It has been explored by many foreign expeditions for the last two centuries.

They discovered pyramids and tombs.

The oldest pyramid.

The Step Pyramid.

[dramatic music building]

And there is more to be discovered.

There is one area at Saqqara no one has ever excavated.

[mysterious music plays]

A patch of open desert,

Gisr el-Mudir.

Only 30% of the treasures of ancient Egypt have been uncovered.

Tombs, temples, even pyramids.

More than 70% are still hidden beneath the sand.

I have been thinking about this place for decades.

I always come out here alone.

And I ask myself the question,

"What could be under this place

that we've never touched?"

[ominous music playing]

This is a place where four and a half thousand years ago,

Egypt's earliest pharaohs invented the pyramids.

- [wind gusting] - [sand rasping]

[dramatic music playing]

The oldest is the Step Pyramid of Djoser.

All the pharaohs of the Third Dynasty that followed

built their own.

But there is one early pyramid that's never been found.

[mysterious music playing]

The missing Pyramid of Huni.

This is the year I will find that missing pyramid.

[mysterious music continues]

All the big finds in the past have always been made by foreigners.

They came. They took the objects and the glory for themselves.

- Morning. - [Tori Finlayson] Morning.

[Hawass] It's time that Egypt takes back its history,

and that the next big find is made by Egyptians.

As the head of the expedition, I study the site very well.

[Tori] Do you have Art in the Pyramid Age?

Art in the Pyramid... Yes.

- Right... - Complete Pyramids?

[Tori] One of my favorite parts of this job is I get to see everything,

everything new that he's working on, the instant that they're happening.

My name is Tori Finlayson.

I'm a PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins University

and I work for Dr. Hawass.

[imperceptible]

[Hawass] Four and a half thousand years ago at the end of the Third Dynasty,

there was a pharaoh named Huni.

He's lost to history.

[Tori] They just talk about his missing pyramid.

[Hawass] All we have is his name on some of the kings lists.

And there is a head of a statue that some believe could be his.

He looks like a strong king.

Nearly all the kings of the Third Dynasty before him built pyramids at Saqqara.

Then this area is mysterious to us.

We are hoping that this area could be

the area that the new pyramid could be discovered.

Then we'll concentrate the excavation here.

We will start working in this area.

I will direct Essam

to make some test trenches that will lead us to something.

It will be good for us if we make a square here in this area

- to test this pile of the sand. - [Hawass] Perfect. Okay.

Now we hope, if we discover his pyramid,

we'll make him famous like Tutankhamun.

He's the last king of Dynasty III,

and therefore, his... the location of his pyramid should be here.

[ominous music playing]

For three months out of the year,

the desert is inhospitable to the living.

Once the desert lets us in,

we will have just nine months before she pushes us back out.

[intriguing music playing]

[Essam Shehab] We have a big valley here. But this pile of debris is only here.

[in Arabic] Ah, right here.

We will start the excavation here, a 10x10 grid,

here on this hill.

Ahmed, you start to document your points and levels,

and bring the workers here.

- Let's do it. - [men talking indistinctly]

- [beeps] - [in English] I am Essam Shehab.

[beeping]

I started my career as an archeologist under Dr. Zahi Hawass.

- [men talking indistinctly] - [clanks]

[Sadeq in Arabic] Let's start the work. Bring your tools, your wheelbarrows,

the baskets and come up here.

Come on, guys!

Come on, Mehanny, put all the baskets in the wheelbarrow and come up.

[men talking excitedly]

[Shehab] When starting excavations, there's an enthusiasm that drives you.

[men talking excitedly]

[Sadeq] Come on, guys.

[men shouting]

[Shehab] Egypt has a very long history.

To understand what we are, we have to understand what we were.

[dramatic music playing]

[Waziry in English] I've been very successful

the last four seasons at Saqqara.

The site that I'm leading is where we found

the Tomb of Wahtye four years ago.

[reporters] It's the latest in a series of big finds...

...tomb was found in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara dates back to...

The discovery today...

It's one of the most important...

It's an ancient treasure chest...

[Waziry] This season would be no different.

Hopefully, we'll make another discovery

that will drive the entire world crazy.

The tombs here are incredibly well-preserved.

But there is one corner that we have yet to excavate.

[men talking excitedly]

[Waziry] I cannot describe what it feels like to be an archeologist.

When I do excavations, I don't know what's beneath the ground.

[mysterious music playing]

Imagine, the last person to hold this amulet lived thousands of years ago.

What was their world like? What did they believe?

This is the one which is located in the south,

and every day, every day we have to look at the sketch.

[in Arabic] The Bubasteion is one of the richest archeological sites at Saqqara.

Its history spans more than 2,500 years.

For over a year, we've been saying that the site is finished,

but every day we discover something new.

[men talking indistinctly]

[Youssef] Hold on.

- [music fades] - What is this? Is this a stone?

Okay, go on, but slowly.

Carefully.

It's a stone, yes.

[speaking in Arabic]

- Careful. - [Hamada Mansour] There's a hole here.

- [man] A shaft. - [Waziry] Hmm?

[man] Shaft.

[speaking in Arabic]

It looks like a shaft lid.

[Youssef] Ah.

Yes, that's a shaft.

A shaft lid.

[speaks in Arabic]

It's around 10 meters deep.

[suspenseful music playing]

[men talking indistinctly]

[ominous whooshing]

[men speaking in Arabic]

[Youssef] Hamada, hang on to the rock.

Careful! It could fall down!

[speaking in Arabic]

[eerie music playing]

[dramatic whoosh]

[men talking excitedly in Arabic]

[Mansour] I'm entrusted with sensitive and dangerous work.

I must be able to handle that.

[clanks]

I'd quit if I couldn't handle it.

When I'm up there at the top of the shaft,

surrounded by my workers and inspector colleagues,

I'm in the world of the living.

The natural world we all live in.

When I descend...

[rope creaking]

...I'm being transported

from the world of the living...

to the world of the dead.

[ominous music playing]

- [music fades] - [metal whining]

The world of the dead is sacred, full of hidden secrets.

[eerie music playing]

I'm always looking at the ceiling.

The tomb's walls are full of cracks.

Those cracks can cause the walls to collapse at any moment.

[metal creaking]

[men talking indistinctly]

[Mansour] I always, always, always,

with every move I make, recite the name of God.

[tool scraping on rock]

"In the name of God" will protect me when I stumble upon something harmful...

a snake, a scorpion, or a harmful insect.

[speaking in Arabic]

[Mansour] God's mercy has protected me until this very day.

[tool scraping on rock]

[suspenseful music playing]

[Mansour in English] Wow.

The Good Eye of Horus.

My God.

[speaking in Arabic]

[in English] It's usually put with the mummies.

To protect them in the other world.

[in Arabic] I always find myself drawn to a certain point.

I feel somehow drawn to the people that are buried here.

I've mentally connected to them.

Where are you?

Is that it? Or is there more to uncover?

[dramatic music plays]

This is not a solid wall, it leads to another area.

A bigger area, or an extension.

But the main area is on the other side.

Hopefully, it leads us to a large burial chamber, full of sarcophagi.

Sarcophagi that hold secrets, etchings, and writings

that would paint a picture of the Late Period.

I really hope that the tunnel in the shaft still goes further into the earth.

There are secrets hidden deep within this site.

I'm the one to uncover them.

[mysterious music playing]

[men talking indistinctly]

[Tori in English] Gisr el-Mudir is the next big thing.

A lot of money goes into an excavation,

but that also comes with a huge investment in staff.

You're going to be out there spending all this time,

and you need to find something.

Essam has been working on a sondage, which is a test trench.

You analyze what you're finding in it,

as to whether you want to continue in this area or move somewhere else.

[in Arabic] Welcome, doctor.

[Hawass in English] A test trench, it's like a window through time.

Thousands of years into the past.

[speaking in Arabic]

[Hawass in Arabic] I'm telling you, this is a quarry.

[in English] A quarry is a place that has limestone.

Then the ancient Egyptian will go

and take this limestone to build the pyramids.

You could see evidence that the ancient Egyptian cut the stones,

shaped the stones.

And it gave me the idea

that the location of the Pyramid of Huni will be discovered in Gisr el-Mudir.

[Tori] Ultimately, you don't want to be hauling rock

over a huge amount of distance if you don't have to.

So it's likely that this quarry could be

attached to a monument that is somewhere in the area.

[Hawass] We still have to do more work to find the missing Pyramid of Huni.

It has to be near the quarry.

This is the area that we need to work.

[speaking in Arabic]

[Afaf Wahba in Arabic] This place is very promising.

No one has worked here yet.

So we have high hopes of finding something important.

[Hawass in English] This site, it's not easy.

It contains many big mounds of sand.

When you take it out, it will take time.

I'm looking for a strategy now.

[suspenseful music playing]

We need to increase the number of the workmen.

I give orders that the workmen has to be 100.

- [exciting music playing] - [men talking excitedly]

[in Arabic] Issam, sing and encourage the workers!

[speaks in Arabic]

[Shehab in English] It's very important to be with the worker,

to feel the ax.

Because you don't expect what the ax will hit.

[ax clangs]

We hit shaft mouths.

[dramatic music plays]

We found... We found tombs.

[in Arabic] We'll leave this side as is.

[speaking in Arabic]

[in English] Finding one shaft means you're going to find

a series of burial shafts.

Another one.

[speaks in Arabic]

It's something big.

[in Arabic] Up to now, we haven't even dug 10% of the area

we are planning to excavate.

[speaking in Arabic]

[Hawass in English] A pyramid is always surrounded by other tombs of the elite,

from the pharaoh's inner circle.

But Saqqara is a massive city of the dead.

Not just for the elite, but for all levels of Egyptian society.

And we need more information about this cemetery

to determine if we are on the right path

or not.

[metal creaking]

[men speaking in Arabic]

- [tool clanks on stone] - [Mansour] Ah!

Ah!

[grunts]

[man] Whoo!

[Mansour] Ah!

The entrance!

We got the entrance!

This plaster from mud and silt.

[tool scraping]

The ancient people made this.

But what is behind this?

[in Arabic] At that moment, I would want to yell at the top of my lungs

that we've made a great discovery.

But I'm not allowed to.

We must call Dr. Waziry.

[Mansour] Immediately!

[laughs]

The boss.

The boss.

[dramatic music playing]

[Waziry in English] I had a phone call from the director of the site.

"We are in front of something very important."

"You've got to come."

[in Arabic] About 15 meters below ground...

[speaking in Arabic]

...we found a sealed entrance.

[suspenseful music playing]

[speaking in Arabic]

In the name of God. [grunts]

[speaking in Arabic]

[in English] Wow, wow, wow...

[Hawass] An intact tomb...

filled with coffins.

[air puffing]

[speaking in Arabic]

[Hawass in Arabic] In the middle of darkness, I get a feeling...

[suspenseful music playing]

A feeling that takes me back thousands of years ago.

[chuckles softly]

In the name of God, God is great.

I do many excavations.

Sometimes, I get this strong feeling...

[ghostly voice whispering]

...an additional feeling...

A feeling that I will find something special.

[eerie music building]

- [panting] - [music fades]

[groans softly]

[breathing heavily]

[in English] There is no oxygen here.

We should not stay longer here.

[men speaking in Arabic]

[Waziry] I'm in a hurry to go back,

to go down in the shaft to start searching.

To find my explanation for this feeling that I have.

[in Arabic] I don't mention this feeling to anyone.

[both greeting in Arabic]

- [in English] But you're late. - No, I'm not. I'm always on time.

[speaks in Arabic]

[in English] I know the big discovery you're talking about.

- What? - This one, it was 33 years ago,

when we... when you discovered me...

- How do you know that? - ...the best Egyptologist in Egypt.

- How do you know that? - [laughs] I see it in your eyes.

[Waziry] I love this man.

[both talking indistinctly]

Dr. Hawass, for me, is like my spiritual father.

He's not my boss.

But he is my boss.

[in Arabic] I am the head of Antiquities.

[in English] I am the head of Antiquities. I take both. I'm the boss.

- [Hawass chuckles] - Alas, thank you.

[Waziry] When I'm doing something, I'm calling him. "Hey."

[Hawass in Arabic] Show me!

- Tsk, tsk, tsk. - Let me have a look.

Gold! Look at the gold!

When I came to Gisr El-Mudir, I told him I'm searching for Huni's pyramid.

Professor! Bubasteion...

[in English] One day I would like to be like him?

Almost. Almost.

Shall I discover something for you, uh, prehistoric?

[laughing]

[Waziry] He is, for me, he is everything in archaeology.

For me, he is Zahi Hawass.

[gentle music playing]

[reporters] From his signature fedora... Mr. Egypt, or rather Dr. Egypt...

The Indiana Jones of Egypt's archaeology...

- To others, he's a swaggering showman... - Egyptologist...

Dr. Zahi Hawass.

When I was a young man, I hated archaeology.

When I go to any bookstore, all the books written by foreign archeologists.

When I open the TV, I see foreign archeologists.

[reporter] Over the years, the search at Saqqara...

[Hawass] All the interviews,

never see an Egyptian.

And that also killed me.

Foreigners were ruling.

But I said, "We to need to compete with them."

"We need to be good like them."

I wanted, I was planning.

"One day I'm going to make a difference in Egyptology."

"And one day, my name will be written in history."

[hopeful music playing]

And it happened.

From the beginning of my career as Assistant Inspector,

going up in every stage.

Inspector, Chief Inspector,

Director, Director General,

First Secretary of the State, Head of Antiquities Minister...

All my dreams, all my life, became true.

Archaeology in the past was like Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Putting axes, taking sand, put it away, we found a tomb!

But now archaeology is completely different.

Archaeology is science.

It's not digging to find the tomb, no!

It's digging to find history,

and to rewrite history.

[rattling]

One of the biggest mysteries is a time over 4,000 years ago.

A time that's perhaps as important to ancient Egypt

as the Renaissance is to European history.

- The Old Kingdom. - [dramatic music plays]

But that page of history has been lost.

After the Old Kingdom, people began to rob pyramids and tombs.

Finding anything that survived

over 4,000 years of decay and looting is difficult.

[men shouting indistinctly]

[exciting music playing]

[Shehab in Arabic] To this day, we've uncovered 10 tombs.

[in English] Finding this number of tombs

means that this is the beginning for us.

[man speaks in Arabic]

[Shehab] We are expecting to find and reveal

more and more of these tombs here in this area.

[suspenseful music playing]

[man calls out in Arabic]

[speaks in Arabic]

[in Arabic] Oh God!

Oh my God!

What a beauty!

[Tori in English] We're getting updates in the office

- via texts or calls. - [phone ringing]

Suddenly there's...

"No, you really need to come and see this."

[dramatic music playing]

[Hawass speaks in Arabic]

[both speaking in Arabic]

[Hawass in English] You found it in the scene like this?

God!

This is beautiful!

Tori! Look at the color!

Leave your bag away.

You cannot come to the excavation with a bag.

You look like the Indiana Jones' girlfriend.

[chuckles]

Why can't I be Indiana Jones myself?

- Why the girlfriend? - You can't. 'Cause I'm Indiana Jones.

- Okay, you can be Indiana Jones. - [both chuckling]

[Tori] Wow, there's so many of them.

[Hawass] The limestone.

Dig this out.

- Ooh! - [Tori] Wow.

Finding one intact Old Kingdom statue

would be a huge thing in any regular Egyptologist's career.

- [Hawass grunting] Ah! - [Shehab] God.

Oh my God.

[Tori] In that moment, they pulled out nine statues.

[men speaking in Arabic]

[uplifting music playing]

[Tori] It's... It's crazy.

Wow.

- This is great. - [man] Yeah.

[Hawass] The cachet of the statues shows that the people were elite.

They were not workmen or artisans,

because for anyone to afford to have beautiful statues like this,

it's very expensive.

I've never seen anything in the Old Kingdom like this.

Really beautiful.

The people who are buried in this area

are likely high officials or in the royal court, even.

[Hawass] Congratulations. This is really fantastic.

[Shehab] Thank you, doctor.

And actually, I want to tell you something important.

If you discover a big, large cemetery like this,

it should be next to one pyramid.

No one will make a big cemetery like that

without having someone important to be buried, which could be a king.

[exciting music building]

And this is why I really believe we are at the beginning of the discovery,

- the beginning. - Yeah.

Anyone who's buried could be a target for thieves.

[Tori] The question of looted or unlooted...

It's a big deal.

[all talking excitedly in Arabic]

We have very few examples

of... the unlooted monuments.

But the cachet of statues

indicated something important to me at the beginning.

[hopeful music playing]

It means that the thieves could not find out the location of the statues.

[men talking excitedly in Arabic]

[Hawass] It proves that we are in front of an intact cemetery.

And you never see in any Old Kingdom site, any intact cemetery.

Imagine if Huni's pyramid is also unlooted.

That would be the discovery of a lifetime.

- [music fading] - [wind gusting]

It's very important for us as an archeologist to have vision.

It is not really to come and just dig in a site and discover a tomb.

That's nothing.

[reporter] ...over the vast stretch of burning sand,

an English archaeological expedition, headed by a man named Howard Carter,

began in 1922 to dig for the hoped-for prize

of an undisturbed pharaoh's tomb.

[Hawass] It was his vision, that he knew,

that the tomb of Tutankhamun will be discovered completely intact.

Howard Carter was keen to discover the tomb.

Anyone else, to work in the valley for four years and never found anything,

he would leave.

Howard Carter was not lucky at all.

[reporter] Fighting the blazing desert sun,

Carter ruled with an iron fist

and was hard-pressed to keep the work going.

[Hawass] But Howard Carter insisted to continue his work

because he knew that he will discover the tomb.

[reporter] Then finally, on February 16th, 1923,

King Tut's fabulous tomb was unearthed.

Carloads of relics, as well as the young king's mummy, were removed.

Carter and Carnarvon had won the battle against superstition and nature.

[Hawass] We are not in a hurry to make a great discovery,

but if you follow the steps of archaeology,

and you do your scientific excavation,

you will reveal great things in history.

The only thing I tell myself,

"Zahi, be patient."

Yeah, and I'm coming down.

[grunts softly]

[rope creaking]

[Hawass speaking in Arabic]

[metal squeaking]

This tomb dates to about 600 years before Christ.

Near the end of ancient Egyptian history.

Every object and artifact in this shaft has a single purpose.

[mysterious music playing]

They are layers of magical protection

designed to prevent the dead from being disturbed.

In order to open the coffins,

we need to remove the statues that surround them.

[Ashraf Mohi in Arabic] It's a great honor to be the first person

to touch these artifacts after 2,400 years.

[speaking in Arabic]

I don't want to touch them, but I will have to, to restore them.

They call us "surgeons of civilizations."

[in English] It means "surgeons of civilizations."

[speaking in Arabic]

[Mohi in Arabic] I have a patient that needs intensive and quick care.

There's a statue of a falcon. Part of it was gilded.

The gold is starting to peel off the face

to the extent that my breath is moving the gold.

So this could fall at any moment.

[in English] It's very fragile.

So, it needs a lot of concentration.

[tense music playing]

[in Arabic] I take care of every move and every breath.

If I feel something move, I stop immediately. That's enough.

We apply first aid to make sure that the statue's face stays intact.

[speaks in Arabic]

[speaking in Arabic]

True, it will take a long time.

But to take a long time, whether two, three, or ten days,

or even a whole month,

for something that's 2,400 years old, that's nothing.

Any artifact that is partially damaged or destroyed...

means lost knowledge of the ancient Egyptian history.

Ancient Egyptians surrounded themselves with magic

for protection in the afterlife.

[ominous whooshing]

[men whispering in Arabic]

[Mohi] According to the ancient Egyptian belief,

when we pass away,

we will need small cups...

because the soul is small.

[man speaking in Arabic]

[Mohi] So they put miniature cups,

glasses and trays in the tomb,

so it can protect and feed the soul in the afterlife.

[speaking in Arabic]

But there's other items placed there that don't have an explanation.

- [Mohi] It's a finger. - [man] Hamada, it's a finger.

[Mohi] This is very unexpected!

A finger! How come?!

[man speaking in Arabic]

[camera shutter clicking]

[suspenseful music playing]

[Mohi] What does it mean?

These strange and puzzling artifacts.

There's very little information about them.

Without writings, we won't be able to understand anything.

The last person to leave the chamber,

the priest,

performs magical spells and rituals

that will keep the chamber hidden forever.

In the eyes of the ancient Egyptian, we're here to ruin his rituals.

[mysterious music playing]

[speaking in Arabic]

[eerie music building]

[ghostly voice whispering]

[wind gusting]

[speaking in Arabic]

[pole rattling]

[speaking in Arabic]

[Mansour] The most important thing to the ancient Egyptian

is that his body has to stay in good shape,

because the soul will inhabit it...

then leave it to meet the god Osiris in the day journey.

It's a long journey that takes a whole day.

He'll swim with the god Osiris around the sun disc...

and then come back in the evening.

The soul returns again to its tomb.

[Shehab in English] The ancient Egyptians, they did everything

to protect their bodies for having life after death.

[in Arabic] They did their best to hide their tombs.

[in English] Because they believe if their bodies

were destroyed for any reason...

then they will be deprived from the life after death.

[men speaking indistinctly in Arabic]

[Shehab] Within four months, we succeeded to uncover

about 153 shafts.

[suspenseful music playing]

And when we talk about shafts, we are talking about burial chambers.

Before we go down,

we are removing the debris blocking the mouth of the burial shaft.

The deposit that filled the shaft can help me to know

if this tomb was robbed or not.

If I find only sand,

it means that this tomb was looted,

because sand came with the wind.

It means that this tomb was opened for very long time.

But if the shaft of the tomb is filled with crushed limestone

or fragments of mud brick...

it means that this shaft was not opened before,

so we found it intact.

[men speaking in Arabic]

[Shehab in Arabic] Move it to the top!

- [men shouting excitedly] - [intriguing music playing]

[dramatic music building]

Lord, be with me.

[man] Moving down.

Going down.

[metal and rope creaking]

[Shehab] Come on, darling, get down. Good job.

[man] Stop.

Pray, guys. Good job.

[speaking in Arabic]

[Sadeq] This is a face.

We have located the wall.

We'll keep going down until we get to the ground. Okay, doctor.

- [Waziry] Good job. - Thanks, doctor.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Waziry] What do you see down there?

I see through this opening a sarcophagus.

Congratulations, guys! Good job.

[people applauding]

[Wahba] When we uncover the remains from the Old Kingdom,

we're ecstatic as archeologists because those are from so far in the past.

[Tori in English] Dr. Essam tell you what we'll see?

Yes.

[Hawass] At the end of Egyptian civilization,

mummification was popular.

And many people were being mummified.

But in the Old Kingdom, they were only beginning to figure out mummification.

What we find in the tomb may tell us the status of people

buried in this area of the cemetery.

[in Arabic] Hey, doctor.

[Hawass] Reis, why do you think it's not been opened before?

Because it was completely sealed from the entrance.

[Hawass in English] The sarcophagus is very simple.

But still, it's sealed.

It's sealed since more than 4,000 years ago.

And we are going to open it now, and we'll see what could be hidden inside.

[Sadeq speaks in Arabic]

[in Arabic] Move the lever from the front to the back.

Support your back.

In the name of God.

- [Hawass] Push from here. - [stone sliding]

[straining, speaking in Arabic]

[suspenseful music playing]

[Hawass in English] It's a... a skeleton.

Mummified, but not really excellent mummification,

because the part of the chest is deteriorated.

[solemn music playing]

We are not going to take this mummy out.

I will leave it as it is.

I'd like to leave him in peace.

This man was important, because he was mummified.

But after 4,000 years of decomposition,

this burial is too deteriorated

to give us any more clues to this person's status in society.

[Wahba in Arabic] You get surprised by results you didn't expect.

This is what archaeology is, it's the beauty of it.

[in English] I am not looking for just one burial.

I am looking to the whole cemetery.

Is this poor or this more rich, or more elite?

[Hawass] That will be the key to knowing for sure

if this cemetery is connected to a royal tomb or not.

We have to keep excavating to find more conclusive evidence

that there is a pyramid in this area.

[men talking indistinctly]

[Waziry in Arabic] One millimeter at a time, please!

[metal whining]

Slowly!

[mysterious music playing]

[men speaking in Arabic]

[Waziry] Okay, that's it!

Thank God.

[man exhales]

[Mohi in English] The conservators have finally finished their work.

The statues are now strong enough

that we can risk transporting them out of the tomb.

[speaking in Arabic]

But now we're gonna start to unlock the coffin.

[speaks in Arabic]

[in Arabic] Keep the masks on, we are opening coffins.

God knows what condition the mummies are in.

Come on! You guys ready?

[in English] This one, it's well-sealed, as you can see the remains of this mortar.

[speaking in Arabic]

[Waziry in Arabic] Lift it up a little. A little from your side.

Hamada, bring the one you're holding.

[suspenseful music playing]

[speaking in Arabic]

[tense music playing]

- [Mansour] There's a weird smell. - You're right, Hamada. Youssef, stop.

Youssef, stop.

[Waziry in English] It's very smelly. So we have to be very careful.

Maybe it's germs, maybe it's bacteria, it's whatever... I don't know.

[Mansour in Arabic] When we were opening the coffin,

I smelled something really strange. The smell is that of a decomposed body.

The smell of a human being, like you and I,

who was put in a coffin 2,600 years ago.

[Waziry] Come on, in the name of God. Let's do it.

[speaking in Arabic]

[in English] This mummy,

it was well-sealed.

But something wrong happened, maybe a long time ago.

But this mummy, it was not really mummified in a perfect way.

So that's why it was deteriorated easily.

Maybe it's a mistake of the ancient Egyptian embalmers.

No, no, no. The mummy is in really very bad condition of preservation.

[Mansour in Arabic] The mummy was completely oxidized.

The writings were all broken.

You can't understand one sentence of it. Not even the name of the deceased.

So this is truly sad for any archeologist.

When you don't have any writings, you can't do anything but sit clueless.

[speaking in Arabic]

[Mansour] After opening the three stone coffins

and not being able to find useful information about them...

all hopes depend on the wooden coffins

and finding any text, object, or information inside them

that could tell us something about the tomb.

[speaking in Arabic]

[suspenseful music playing]

[Waziry in English] On the lid, there are inscriptions.

[speaking in Arabic]

[in Arabic] Osir, Ahmose...

[in English] His name.

[speaking in Arabic]

[in Arabic] This means it belongs to...

- [Youssef] So his name is Ahmose? - [Waziry] Yes.

[Youssef] So the name of the coffin's owner is Ahmose.

[Waziry] His mother is Nebut.

His mother. No, because this means "born from."

So, what is our final conclusion?

[in English] His name is Ahmose.

He is the son of Sekhet.

[speaking in Arabic]

[all talking excitedly]

[Waziry] In the name of God. Three, two, one, go!

Stay up there. Keep it high!

Move a little in there, Hamada.

- Right here, professor. - [man] Down here.

[camera shutter clicking, beeping]

[Waziry in English] By his feet, a bronze protector statue.

[in Arabic] This is a bronze cat. A bronze cat.

[in English] Bronze?

Bronze.

On his chest, a tiny gold amulet.

[in Arabic] Look at that!

[in English] A bird with a human head.

The ba, his soul.

[in Arabic] Guys, I'm looking at something that I'm not sure what it is.

Let me through.

Mm-hmm.

- What is that? - [man] It's something round!

- I've never... - Cylindrical shape.

[Waziry] It's wrapped up in linen.

[man] I've never seen something like it.

[Waziry] Professor Ashraf will tell us if it's safe to touch it.

[Mohi in English] When Dr. Waziry asked me to touch the object,

I was very afraid because it may be very dry.

And if it's very dry, it is, uh, like a powder.

[Mohi in Arabic] Let's do this. God be with us.

- [tense music playing] - [ghostly voices whispering]

What do you think is in there?

- I think it's something... - [man] It's some kind of paper.

- It's a papyrus! - [all cheering]

- [triumphant music playing] - It's a papyrus inside a pocket.

[Waziry] Oh God!

[man] This is amazing!

This is amazing! This is a first.

- [Waziry] This is a first. - [man] I've never seen such a thing!

A good thing that it's wrapped,

because this has protected it from being damp.

It will definitely contain secrets of the civilization of ancient Egypt.

There is Harris Papyrus and Ebers Papyrus

and other papyrus that was named by its discoverer, and their team.

I see no problem in naming it...

- Waziry! - [man] Waziry!

[all laughing]

- [Waziry] Waziry Papyrus! - [man] Of course, congratulations!

- [Waziry] All agree? - [men] We do, professor!

- [Waziry] Waziry Papyrus? - [man] Congratulations!

[speaking in Arabic]

[Waziry in English] I've been working in this field for more than 30 years.

Yeah, we used to... to find little pieces of papyrus.

But to find untouched scroll of papyrus like this?

This is something really very important.

[praying in Arabic]

[Mohi in English] A complete papyrus is more valuable than gold.

[in Arabic] Because it contains lost knowledge.

This might be the second or third ancient Egyptian papyrus found in such shape.

[uplifting music playing]

[speaking in Arabic]

[laughing]

Congratulations, doctor.

[speaking in Arabic]

What's the direction of Mecca? I swear, I'm thanking God.

The ancient Egyptians did not plan

to just keep their belongings, to be hidden down there forever.

They believed that there's resurrection, immortality and an afterlife.

Now, we will bring them back to life after 2,500 years.

Today they will see the light for the first time.

[intriguing music playing]

All this heritage is hidden underground,

it's invisible to everyone.

[metal creaking]

I believe it should be taken up...

[grunts softly]

[uplifting music playing]

...to be displayed in museums for all humanity to see it.

[music fades]

[in English] A lot of questions, they were running in my mind.

What kind of papyri is this one?

How big is it going to be?

You think it's going to be fragments like the rest of the papyri that people found?

[in Arabic] Maybe, just maybe, it's a complete one?

I don't know.

Could it have missing parts? I don't know.

[in English] I want to learn more.

But of course we have to protect it, so it's inside the fumigation bag.

For how long? At least three weeks.

[in Arabic] And I can't wait for those days to pass fast

until the sterilization.

Then humidification processes are done.

Then we open the papyrus.

[snaps fingers]

- [wind gusting] - [tools scraping]

[suspenseful music playing]

[in English] After almost nine months, we are still working.

And with every passing day,

the conditions out in the desert become more difficult for the team.

- [Wahba in Arabic] We keep going? - We'll continue to work normally.

But if it starts getting too windy?

If it gets too dusty and we can't see, we can't keep going.

[Sadeq] We can tolerate the heat and the sun,

but the storm is very hard.

When the storm hits you,

you cannot even close your mouth.

[Hawass in English] We suffer a lot.

But at the end, the discovery makes you forget any difficulties.

[metal squeaking]

We found a shaft with an unlooted burial chamber.

Ah, okay.

[in Arabic] Do you have a light?

[in English] It's huge.

There is a huge limestone sarcophagus, perfectly sealed.

Imahu, "the honored one."

"Under"...

Nebet Hut.

The word "overseer," Imerah, is only for high people.

This is the highest title.

Her name is Nebet Hut. Inside here should be a lady.

[eerie music playing]

[men speaking in Arabic]

[Hawass] Push, push, push.

[metal and wood creaking]

[stone creaking]

Okay, silence! Silent!

[mysterious music plays]

I need more space.

You are looking at a woman dated back 4,300 years ago.

Over 1,000 years older than King Tut.

[panting softly]

Beautiful.

[mysterious music playing]

Beautifully mummified.

[man in Arabic] Oh God!

[Hawass in English] The color of the necklace,

green and blue.

Two pieces of a beautiful headrest.

Gold.

Gold.

I think this is maybe the best mummy we found until now in this cemetery.

[sighs]

It's very rare that you can make a discovery like this.

[pleasant music playing]

[men speaking in Arabic]

[Hawass in English] Most of the beautiful mummies are dated 3,000 years ago.

But this mummy is maybe the oldest beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt.

In the Old Kingdom, mummification was extremely rare.

Only a pharaoh or someone in his court would have access to that technology.

Now, the most exciting thing, this is the work we're going to continue.

Examining the mummy.

[in Arabic] Of course, it's something amazing.

It's a great feeling.

I took samples, being as careful as possible

to not destroy the mummy that's under me.

For example, I took samples of the linen

and also from a black substance on the head,

and around the skull.

I need to know what they're made of.

We have the use of resin for the mummification of the face.

In the Old Kingdom, the resin was used very rarely,

which means she could be part of the royal palace.

[Mohi] The mummy we're seeing in front of us

is not your everyday mummy in Saqqara.

We usually see a shaft, a shaft with bones.

But to see a mummy that's almost whole, from the Old Kingdom,

this is obviously something extraordinary from this period of time.

I've been working in Saqqara a long time. I saw different mummies.

But this is the first time for me to see a gilded cane next to one.

This would mean that this person is very important and should be respected.

No ordinary person will carry a cane with them that's coated with gold.

So this is clearly a unique mummy from this period.

Every time we stand in front of a mummy,

the first thing that comes to mind, "Who was that person?"

Was that an eminent person in society?

Would I have been able to stand in front of him,

during his existence? In his period?

[dramatic music building]

[Hawass in English] No one of the elite will be buried in an isolated cemetery.

She cannot go alone to the afterlife.

She has to fly together with a big soul, with a king.

And therefore, I believe that we are going to discover

a big, large, important pyramid for a king.

The Pyramid of Huni.

[wind gusting]

Maybe I will fail.

But maybe I will find it.

We're still working.

[men speaking indistinctly]

[speaks in Arabic]

Okay.

- [in Arabic] Is this completely closed? - Yes.

We uncovered 83 meters from it.

You will also see a step on top.

You will see it.

It supports the idea of this being a pyramid.

[Hawass] What else could it be?

[sighs]

[man] Eighty meters, and this is the corner here.

[tense music playing]

[Hawass in English] I'm looking for the Pyramid of Huni.

Now, if I discover this pyramid, maybe intact, then my dream became true.

And this is why this Huni, who is very little known in history,

he will come back to be famous in the history of Egypt.

The angle here is clear.

[both speaking in Arabic]

[in Arabic] Great.

We will proceed with the work, so all workers need to be here.

A team on this side here.

Clean and uncover this whole area here.

[man speaks in Arabic]

[in English] We'll work completely in this area now.

No more tombs, but we will go to discover the new pyramid.

[man shouting in Arabic]

Look at the size of this wall.

It's 83 meters long from here to there.

It's 100% the base of the pyramid,

or this could be the enclosure wall of the pyramid.

Actually, we are going to start the excavation

from this corner for about 20 meters,

until we can find the length of the side also.

- [speaking in Arabic] - [dramatic music playing]

[Hawass] We are looking at the beginning of a discovery

of a new pyramid for the first time at Saqqara.

- [speaking in Arabic] - [men talking excitedly]

[dramatic music building]

[music fades]

[in Arabic] Until today, we can't confirm that it is a pyramid,

so we are waiting to see the other side of the wall,

- to see if it could be a pyramid or not. - Mm.

[gentle music playing]

What are you planning to do in the site of Bubasteion?

It is a good timing for the end of the season.

[in English] Very good... Very good discovery to announce!

- What's the discovery? - No, I'm not going to tell you.

I'll keep it secret.

[puffs]

It's like...

[chuckles softly]

Like the old days. [laughing]

[speaks in Arabic]

[in Arabic] Ah, Dr. Zahi, remember the good old days.

[Hawass in English] Over the last four decades,

I have trained an army of Egyptian archeologists.

They will go on even after I am long gone.

More than anything I have discovered,

that will be my legacy.

[music continues]

I taught all my assistants how to be a good archeologist.

But I'll never be able to teach them the passion.

But I hope that one of them can find it.

[car horns honking]

Wait. Step by step.

[intriguing music playing]

[man] This is the end.

Wow.

Finally!

[men speaking indistinctly]

[Waziry in Arabic] The layer of the papyrus is very thin.

A third of a millimeter! So dangerous to handle.

"These are the words of the god Osiris."

The god of death!

- [people clamoring excitedly] - [uplifting music building]

[Waziry in English] This papyrus is something like nine meters.

This papyri contains chapters of The Book of Death.

It was found by Egyptian missions, Egyptian hands,

so we're going to call it with Egyptian name.

Waziry Papyri.

And we did register the papyri with this name, Waziry Papyri.

[applause]

[in Arabic] Long live Egypt, and congratulations.

[in English] This is my mission,

to show the entire world that Egyptians are the future of archaeology in Egypt.

This papyrus is only the beginning.

The beauty of archaeology is that the search to understand our past,

to uncover new knowledge,

is never over.

[music fades]

[Hawass] If you discover a pyramid of a king,

it's something amazing.

I really believe that when we excavate the site completely,

this will be the news all over the world.

Because hundreds of archeologists searched for the Pyramid of Huni.

We need at least one year of excavation.

[uplifting music playing]

Archaeology is a process,

a journey into the unknown.

It took Howard Carter five years to find the tomb of King Tut,

but he kept going because he believed in his dream.

But if you don't have a dream, you will never get to your destination.

Every morning when I wake up, I begin to dream and wonder.

What will we find at the excavation today?

What's inside the pyramid?

Does it really belong to Huni?

Or to some other lost pharaoh we have never heard of?

All my dreams are in it

because I know what's going to happen.

Everything I predicted,

it became true.

[sweeping music playing]

[music fades]

[mysterious music playing]

[gentle music playing]