All language subtitles for ancient.egypt.by.train.s01e03.1080p.hdtv.h264-cbfm

I'm Alice Roberts,
and I'm on an adventure

to look at the world's oldest
and greatest civilisation.

I'm going to be travelling
the length and breadth of Egypt

by train

to discover its ancient past.

I want to understand
how the tombs, temples and pyramids

came to be made.

And dig even deeper

to understand what life was like

for the ordinary people
that made them.

Along the way,
I'll be meeting archaeologists

who are still working to uncover
the story of ancient Egypt.

I'll be looking at
some familiar sights

but also learning about
brand-new discoveries.

I've left the Nile Delta
and the Pyramids far behind me now

and I'm travelling further south,
further upriver.

I want to get a wider picture
of ancient Egyptian society.

I want to find out
about everyday life.

But I'm also going to
one of the most iconic landscapes,

the religious centre of Egypt
for thousands of years.

The train from Minya to Luxor

hugs the Nile for 230 miles.

I'm excited to see if Luxor
lives up to its reputation

as the world's greatest
open-air museum.

Known to the Greeks as Thebes

and the Egyptians as Waset,

this city was the religious capital
of ancient Egypt.

The Nile,
as it flows past modern Luxor,

is thronged with tourist boats,

from little ferries to cruise liners.

Later on, I'll be taking
a boat trip myself.

But first, I have a meeting
across the road here.

Lying in the north of
the modern city of Luxor

is Karnak Temple,

the biggest religious complex
in the world

and in use for around 2,000 years.

I'm meeting Tayeb Gharieb Mahmoud,
the temple's director.

Tayeb.
Good morning. Welcome.

Sabah el-kheir.
Sabah el-noor.

How long have you been here
as director?

Actually, I stated my work here
as inspector in 2000,

until it's moment.

And now I am the director
of Karnak Temples.

That's a nice job.

Which mean that more than 20 years
working in Karnak.

Yeah.
Yes, I think it's amazing.

It's a huge complex.

It's not one temple,

it's more than 12 temples.

What's this over here?

It's shrines
for the Triad of Thebes.

We had three main gods here.

We have the god Amun,

and his consort, the goddess Mut,
the goddess of motherhood.

And their son the god Khonsu,
the god of the moon.

So, they're not really
worshipping individual gods,

they're worshipping a family group?

Usually, yes.

Every city in Egypt
had this kind of triad.

This is the main concept
in the Egyptian religion.

Yeah.

This statue belongs
to the King Ramesses II,

one of the most important kings

in all of the ancient world.

Who's the person between his legs?

We think this is
one of his daughters.

She was so close,

and he wanted to represent her
with him.

Yeah.
As a princess.

Look at those lovely lotuses.

It's... It's papyrus flower.

Papyrus flower, ah.
Yes.

So, papyrus must have been
an important plant.

Exactly, exactly.
It's a kind of sacred plant, is it?

It was sacred
because the god Horus was hidden

by his mother, the goddess Isis,

from his uncle,
who wanted to kill him,

inside the marshes of the delta,
to save him.

And the Hypostyle Hall,

it's representation
for the marshes of the delta.

Egyptian temples typically
have a monumental gateway

called a pylon, formed of two towers.

Inside, they have open courts

surrounded by colonnades

and a roofed hypostyle hall
full of columns,

the best room in the house.

Where we are right now,

this is a hypostyle hall.

And this is the biggest
and hugest hall all over the world,

It's consisted of 134 columns.

Oh, this is unbelievable.

I don't think I've ever seen pillars
as big as this. This is enormous.

It's the biggest, yes,
and tallest columns

in the Egyptian civilisation.

Yeah. And look at the colours!

Yes, this is original colours.

We are talking about
more than 3,000 years.

I mean, they would have been
so bright, wouldn't they?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They're bright now.
Yes.

And we have this project

to clean the whole part
of the Hypostyle Hall.

We started just about
eight or nine months,

and we think that we will continue
for maybe four years.

And these were holding up
a ceiling, were they?

Or was it open as it is today?
Yeah, exactly.

No, it had ceiling, it had roof.

The hall, in general,
it was completely dark

because this part of the temple,
it wasn't open for anyone.

It was for the king and his family,

some... the most important persons.

The collection of temples
and chapels at the Karnack complex

is architecturally impressive,

designed to awe worshippers
to encourage that idea of

the pharaoh as not just
close to the gods,

but a god in his own right.

And there's no doubt that
some of the pharaoh's power

came from military success.

This temple was built
by the warrior king Tuthmosis III

who ruled over a vast empire.

King Tuthmosis built this temple
as a festival hall.

It was for the festival
after his victories.

This king, he was a warrior.
Yeah.

And he was the owner of

the famous battle in
the ancient civilisation - Megiddo,

between Egypt and the Palestines.

And he made this victory.

And this is his addition, then,

the part that
celebrates his victories?

Exactly, his victory in Palestine.

Yeah.
Exactly, yeah.

And expanding his empire.
Yes, exactly, exactly.

The pharaoh's power
was intimately bound up

with the gods
worshipped in ancient Egypt,

and yet one revolutionary pharaoh

would attempt to change all that
and create his own religion.

I'm exploring
the Temple of Karnack in Luxor,

the religious centre
of ancient Egypt.

But there was one rebel pharaoh

who didn't want to
worship the gods here.

His name was Akhenaten.

So, what happened
with Akhenaten, then?

Because he doesn't
attach himself to Ra,

he identifies himself
with another god.

It's a very difficult
and complicated era

in the Egyptian civilisation.

The king Akhenaten,

he wanted to unify all gods
under the umbrella of one god,

to be the controller
of all the gods.

And for 17 years,
he tried to do that,

even he emigrated Thebes to Amarna.

So, Akhenaten comes along and says,
"No, actually..."

Exactly.

"I'm leaving... I'm leaving...
I'm leaving all this behind,

"I'm going to go and set up somewhere
else. I'm going to have Amarna."

Especially because
the priests of the god Amun,

they tried - we think that they
tried to make some problems for him,

even, maybe they tried to kill him.

Really?
Yes.

Do you think he thought that

the priests here at Karnack,
the priests of Amun-Ra

were becoming too powerful?

Yes, of course. Yes, of course.

It's very clear it was the priests,
the high priest,

he was the controller
of everything in Egypt.

Even, they became
the rulers of Egypt.

Oh, really?
Yeah.

So there's that
very close relationship

between religion and royalty,

and at that point,
actually it becomes the same thing.

Yes, exactly.

It seems that Akhenaten
was attempting to

wrest power away
from the high priests,

but after he died,

Luxor was restored
as the religious centre of Egypt.

Tayeb, thank you so much for that
wonderful introduction to Karnack.

I mean,
it's such an astonishing place to be.

I'm going to go and do some drawing,
I think, if that's alright?

I thank you.
I hope to see again. Thank you.

Bye-bye.
Bye.

In 1873,

Egyptologist Amelia Edwards
visited Karnack,

writing about the temples,
but also sketching them.

I think I've found the precise spot
where she stood to draw this view.

I like just slowing down
and sketching,

'cause it makes you look really hard.

It makes you appreciate
this architecture even more.

I love the shadows that
we've got coming through...

..and the way they play
on these pillars.

Looking at Amelia's beautiful
field sketches in her book,

we can see that
obviously there's been

more renovation since her time.

So, it does look a little different.

But I think we're still looking
in the same direction,

and I think that
is that cross piece there,

part of the ceiling.

But then, it would have been
really, really different,

going right back into ancient Egypt

when this whole place
would have been roofed over,

so we wouldn't have had any of this
sunlight streaming through,

it would have been
a very dark, mysterious place.

Representing the marshes

where the baby Horus
was hidden to keep him safe.

And that's what
these enormous pillars represent -

the papyrus reeds of the marsh.

I love the way the art and the myth
are all bound up together here.

Leaving Karnack Temple,
I find an extraordinary path,

a perfect straight line
stretching a mile and a half

that will take me
to the gate of another temple.

This is the Avenue of Sphinxes,

an ancient processional route

that was built over 3,500 years ago,

and was renovated through time,
most recently in 2021.

So, now it's possible once again

to walk all the way
from the Temple of Karnack

to the Temple of Luxor.

It's thought that this avenue

would originally have been lined with
over 1,000 Sphinxes.

Many have been lost or damaged,

but some are in
remarkably good condition.

It was created
for a grand procession,

part of the annual Opet Festival,

when people would carry
statues of gods

in boats along the route.

It's great to be able to
walk the whole distance,

BUT, I would not want to do this
carrying a statue.

The festival would be held
at the time of the Nile flood,

which was celebrated
because it made the land fertile.

A year without a flood
was a year of famine and suffering.

Think I've just passed
the halfway mark,

and I'm just heading
under this road bridge,

and I can see the Temple of Luxor
really clearly now, in the distance.

Walking this sacred route

means I'm approaching Luxor Temple...

..the same way as the worshippers
at the Opet Festival would have done.

That is almost
too impressive for words.

It's fantastic.

At the end of the procession,
once inside the temple,

rituals would take place

to emphasise the link between
the god Amun and the pharaoh.

And I'm meeting a friend here,

archaeologist,
Professor Sarah Parcak.

It was a festival to
celebrate regeneration,

both to reinforce
the power of the gods

and THEIR rebirth and regeneration,

and also to celebrate and reinforce

the power of the kings
and THEIR life force and their ka.

So, the kings always wanted to be
seen as absolute legitimate rulers.

Yeah, yeah.
They were connected to the gods.

I think that's fascinating,
that they...

..that the rulers, the pharaohs

were really kind of
identifying themselves

with this natural annual cycle.

One of the principal duties
of the king

was to be the guarantor of Ma'at.

So, Ma'at was
the goddess of balance.

And they had to provide Ma'at,

they had to ensure that
everything would remain in balance,

that it would flood not too much,
not too little -

you know, this Goldilocks,
perfect flooding

that would allow for, you know,

enough food to
get them through the year

and to put enough in storage.

If the soil-enriching floods
didn't happen,

the harvest would be poor,

and the king would have failed

in his primary duty
to provide for his people.

It's really interesting,

thinking about how, actually,
environmental catastrophes

can cause massive
political destabilisation.

We have a lot of evidence
throughout ancient Egyptian history

of droughts happening.

And one of my own personal
areas of interest

is the end of Egypt's
great pyramid age,

around 2,200 years ago.

And around this time,
we have a king called Pepi II

who rules for over 90 years.

And what we think we see,

and we have a lot of environmental
peer-viewed evidence for this,

there's a sustained period
of droughts,

a period of between
50 and 100 years.

There are no more
foreign expeditions,

no more pyramids are built,

there's great political instability,

power starts flowing
to the provinces

and there's drought.

You know, it's a big problem.

And people probably were thinking,

"Well, the king promised that
it was going to flood,

"and where's the flood,
why isn't it coming?"

And even, you know, even
new evidence has just come out

for during the reign of Cleopatra,

in studying volcanic eruption -
in Alaska of all places.

And it probably let enough
volcanic ash into the atmosphere

where it had a pretty significant
impact on global climate.

And we have a series of sustained
droughts in Cleopatra's reign

which led to a lot of instability.

And they're probably connected.
A lot of this work is on-going.

But I'm fascinated
by environmental history

and how it impacts Egyptian culture.

Sarah is a pioneer
in SPACE archaeology.

She doesn't dig on other planets,

but she uses satellite images
to find new archaeological sites.

Analysing those multi layered images,

she can pinpoint specific locations

where there could be exciting
new archaeology to investigate.

How is Egyptology, as a discipline,
being transformed by new technology?

The work I do with satellites,

allowing us to find
previously undocumented sites

or futures within sites.

What have you got that
you can show me then?

Let's get out my computer and...

Which of the 9,000 images that
I'm currently working on...

I might not have time
to see them all.

Really? Just 8,427.

Let's look at
Great Temple of Ramses III.

Where's this, then?

This is on the West Bank of Luxor.
So this is just across from us.

And when you have
satellite imagery...

This is just a visual image.

Oh, wow, look at that.

So, you have a pretty
good understanding.

We can see pretty clearly
the temple.

So, you can see
the excavated temple.

You can see the excavated,
and there's a little bit,

like, there's a hint
of some mud-brick walls here.

This is just basic visual imagery.

This is before
using the multi spectral data.

And a lot of what I do,

it sort of looks like
a gobbledygook MRI image sometimes,

and you're like,
"Trust me, there's something there."

There we go.
Oh, wow.

So, I just made a pop of it.

So, it looks a lot clearer now.
A lot clearer.

So when you order imagery,
you can fiddle with the bands

to get the information to be
much, much more clear.

Even looking at these images here,

and we can see so much
buried archaeology there.

I often get asked, you know,

how much of ancient Egypt
is left to find?

And it's like,
how long is a piece of string?

How can we really know?

But also, I'm a nerd,
and so I did the math. And?

In the delta alone,
we have excavated 1/1,000th of 1%

of the total volume of sites.

Oh, my goodness.

And that's in the delta,
not for all of Egypt.

So, we know this much.

We see headlines all the time

of the amazing
discoveries being made.

And it's the tip of the iceberg.
It's a tiny bit.

But it's why, I mean,
I'm excited, right, I hope...

I tell my students,
"I hope you all prove me wrong,

"then I've done a good job."

I'm going on a day trip
to the other side of the Nile.

If Luxor on the east bank
is the land of the living,

over on the West Bank,
it's the land of the dead.

The Theban Necropolis is over there.

And this Nile ferry
is the best way to get there.

Everything I've seen so far has been
on the east bank of the Nile -

Karnack, the Temple of Luxor.

And now I'm headed over to
the West Bank,

and I'm going to look at
Deir el-Medina

and go to the Valley of the Kings
and the Valley of the Queens.

I'm in Luxor,
exploring ancient Egypt.

And this time, instead of
travelling by train,

I'm taking my first boat trip
on the Nile.

It's a kind of timeless scene, this -

all these boats thronging the Nile.

And this would have been the MAIN
transport link through Egypt,

right from the Mediterranean

all the way up to Aswan and beyond.

The flood plain of the Nile
is full of life,

with trees and luscious vegetation.

Then, suddenly, you reach
the dry and barren higher ground.

This is where the dead were buried.

Up and away from
the banks of the Nile,

this is where the rulers of Egypt
were buried around 3,000 years ago.

Still early, but it's hot already.

But before I go to explore

the magnificent tombs
of the kings and the queens,

I'm going to see a very rare
archaeological site indeed,

one that tells us about
the lives of more ordinary folk.

I'm really excited to be here.

I'm just approaching a site that

I'm really desperate
to have a look at

because I think
what I'm going to get here

is the best glimpse I've had so far

of everyday life in ancient Egypt.

Deir el-Medina was a village

for the artisans who worked on
the royal tombs, and their families.

It was in use for 500 years.

As you see all, the mountains
around us are limestones.

I'm with Cedric Gobeil who's worked
extensively on excavations here.

Cedric, you've excavated here
at Deir el-Medina for many years.

So introduce me to the site.
What am I looking at here?

Well, actually what we have
is the workmen's village.

It's almost unique in Egypt.

So, it's roughly 68 houses.

And these people,
their life was devoted

in digging and decorating
the royal tombs

in the Valley of the Kings
and the Valley of the Queens.

This is really important
to know about, isn't it?

You've got the amazing temples
and you've got the fantastic tombs,

but, you know, you wonder
where the population at large is.

And what do we learn
about their lives?

Who were they?
Are they being treated well?

Are they effectively slaves?
You know, what was going on here?

In fact, they were
absolutely well treated.

They were a sort of
lower-middle class elite.

Because as they were engaged
in working for the royal tomb,

they had to be super well treated.

Some of them knew how
to write and read. Really?

Which was actually something -
absolutely -

which was something that only

a few percentage
of the population was able to do.

Thanks to that, we have almost,
on a daily basis, their life.

It's called the archive of the tomb.

And we can trace the delivery
of goods that they were receiving,

their salaries,
their absence from work.

That level of detail?
Absolutely. We have also census.

So we know, more or less,
who were living where and with whom.

So, we have a census of the family.

This is absolutely extraordinary.

We can trace back their life
almost on a day-to-day basis.

What amazing resources
for archaeologists

to be able to come along
and reconstruct life.

It's unique. I dare to say
it's almost unique, yes.

So, what was their life like, then?

I mean, were they getting salaries?

Are we looking at
that kind of arrangement?

They would receive a monthly salary,

in the form, the shape of goods.

So either, you know, you would
have oats, you would have barley,

you would have things to eat,

all the products that you would need
to survive and to live very well.

So, it's not a monetary economy?

No, back then, there was no money.

Yeah.
Yeah.

Cedric has found evidence of

not just how these artisans lived
day-to-day,

what their houses were like,
what they ate,

but something quite incredible -

the world's first example
of industrial action.

In terms of worker's rights,
do we know anything about that?

You're telling me that
they received salaries.

Could they get annoyed
about how much they were being paid,

Could they ask for more?
Absolutely.

I would say the most explicit
example of these rights,

work rights,
is contained on a papyrus.

It's called the Strike Papyrus.

And on this papyrus,

it tells us that during the year 29
of the reign of Ramesses III,

these workmen were supposed to
receive their monthly salary,

but the salary didn't show up.

So, what they did,
they completely put down...

Down tools.
..their chisel and mallets.

They felt entitled enough
to complain and to go on strike.

Isn't that extraordinary?

So, more than 3,000 years ago,

we've got the first evidence
in the world of worker's rights?

Absolutely.
Yeah.

And what about the tombs here?

I mean, just walking up onto
the hill looking over the village

we've walked past a few tombs.

Whose are these tombs, then?
Of the same workmen.

So, also, this is also
one of the reasons

why this site is so particular.

They were living here,
but they were also dying here.

And I think,
thanks to your work here,

it's now possible to go into
some of these tombs.

So can we take a look?
Absolutely.

It would be my great pleasure,
absolutely.

Lead on, then.
Let's do so.

Cedric wants to show me the tomb

of the family of a local craftsman
called Sennedjem.

He worked on the royal tombs nearby,

but for a lowly artisan,
his own tomb is rather special.

The mini pyramid
is a modern reconstruction.

But inside is the original tomb,
more than 3,000 years old.

So, as we go down,
please mind you head,

it might be a little bit,
you know, low, here as well.

And then we finally arrive.

And here again,
please mind your head.

So, we're quite deep here.
Absolutely.

Oh, my goodness!
No. This isn't original?

Isn't it fantastic?

It hasn't been...
It hasn't been restored?

Not at all, almost looks like
it was made yesterday.

It really does.
I mean, it's just amazing.

How old is this?
When does this date to?

The reign of Rameses II - 1280 BC.

More than 3,000 years ago?
Yes.

And we have to imagine that

all the coffins
were piled here, and furniture.

Just amazing. So, a whole family
interred in this tomb?

Buried in all this
fantastic, decorated tomb, yes.

These decorated artisan's tombs
are highly unusual.

They don't show images of daily life,

as we see with
higher-ranking officials.

Instead, they're full of
religious and mythological themes.

This is all magical iconography,
and magical text

in order to ensure
the transformation of the deceased

and his afterlife.

Yeah. So, what's happening
in this image here?

What we are looking at actually
is a scene depicting the heaven,

the ideal world for the Egyptians
once they were dead.

And it's a place full of,
you know, the harvest.

You have trees full of fruit,

and also, it's all
surrounded by water,

so, you will never lack of water.

Here you have the god Ra,
the sun god, in his barque,

travelling in the sky.

As you see,
he's presiding over heaven.

So, it means this is a place that
the sun will always shine on.

On this scene,
you see the deceased and his wife,

and they are receiving
water and food

from what we call the tree goddess.

Oh, she's wonderful. Look, she's
growing out of the trunk of a tree.

Absolutely.

And we've got these eyes -
are they Eyes of Horus?

Wadjet eyes, exactly, Eyes of Horus.

And they are magical symbols,

right there to ensure
the protection of this whole scene.

Yeah.

Something else that is quite nice
to see is Wepwawet and Anubis,

two jackal-headed gods.

So, they are protecting
the ones who are opening the ways

to the Necropolis,

because this is
the house of eternity.

And actually, his wish is
to be able to walk from it

and come back to it for rest.

It's almost like a real house.
Yeah, yeah.

And in this case,
they are protecting him.

They're fantastic, aren't they?

Deir el-Medina,
this fascinating worker's village

is tucked away in the hills
just out of sight

of the place where the people who
lived here would have gone to work.

They'd have been able to
do the commute on foot,

presumably carrying tools and food,

because just a kilometre away from
the village is the royal Necropolis,

the Valley of the Kings.

It contains 63 tombs that we know of,

including the resting places

of some of
the most well known pharaohs

from the annuls of ancient Egypt.

Each tomb was carved
deep into the rock,

stocked with valuable
personal possessions,

and after the mummy
of the dead pharaoh was laid inside,

it would be sealed.

I'm meeting Dr Bahaa Gaber,

director of the West Bank.

Bahaa.
Alice, how are you?

Hi, lovely to meet you.

Lovely to meet you too.

So, are we going to go
into the tomb of Seti?

Yes, let's go
and have a look to the tomb.

I'll follow you.

Bahaa wants to show me the biggest
and most impressive tomb first,

belonging to the pharaoh Seti.

Oh, my goodness!

And immediately,
as soon as you're in...

It's a beautiful tomb.

Descending the modern wooden steps,

I'm surrounded by
incredible decoration.

The walls and ceilings
are covered in painted reliefs

carved into the plaster.

Ah, look at that on the ceiling.

We've got - what is it,
vultures flying there?

Yeah, the vulture actually
was the goddess of protection

in ancient time.

And here you will see also
the beautiful goddess Ma'at.

She was the goddess of truth.

And she stretched the wings
to give a protection to the king.

That reminds me of the way that
Isis is represented

on the foot of
Tutankhamun's sarcophagus.

Right.
She has wings like this.

And that was a sign of protection
for the boy king.

Yeah.
Yes.

What I really like about this
is the confidence of the line work.

It's absolutely beautiful.

I mean, these are consummate artists,
aren't they?

Right, right.

It's... It's... It's just so adept.

What I also notice is that

some of the artwork seems to
have been a work in progress.

You can see how the artist
sketched the design in red

before committing to black ink.

The next stage would have been
to carve the relief and paint it.

But here, they never got that far
before the tomb was sealed.

This scene shows Seti's
red sarcophagus

as it's brought down this very shaft,

being taken to
its final resting place.

And you see the coffin, it's coming.
Oh, yeah.

So, the green land to the desert,

and then, suddenly, the coffin
will be inside the tomb.

He will cross from the first life
to the second life,

from the earth to the sky.

They must have had
a bridge across here?

Err, in ancient time?
Yeah.

No, didn't have any kind of bridge,
for securing. That was closed.

Well, there must have been a bridge
when they brought his coffin in?

Exactly.

That's right.

And then the tomb
carries on down here?

Yeah, such more and more and more.

It just goes on and on.
Exactly.

Just imagine how many people
worked on this tomb.

There's more over here.

Such amazing...
Look at the colours, still.

After 200m of stairs,

we finally enter Seti's tomb.

And it doesn't disappoint.

Is this the burial chamber,
then, do you think?

Yeah.
Yeah.

This is the last past of the tomb.
Yeah.

So, what are we looking at here?

It looks like gods and stars.

Is it constellations?
Yeah, yeah.

All those images which were
created by solar discs, stars,

so that's the imagination of
the ancient people about paradise.

This is absolutely beautiful.

And I'm... I'm kind of overwhelmed
by the whole thing.

I think it's extraordinary
and stunning.

And then the one thing
which I'm looking at

which is really
kind of speaking to me

is the fact that there's
this constellation up there

in the shape of a lion.

Yes.
And we still call that Leo.

Yes, right.

And that's a direct connection
back to ancient Egypt,

the ancient Egyptians'
understanding of the world,

the way they looked at the world,

and that's amazing.

What incredible artists.

I am in awe of them.

Yeah, such an amazing tomb.

Yeah, it's all about Seti, but...

..I'm just...

..I'm just blown away by the artists.

Yeah.

The artisans who made this.

And yet we are still not
at the lowest level.

There seems to be another tunnel.

Now what's this?

That's actually the tunnel,
a 100m tunnel.

Where does it go?

We did excavation
on the tunnel itself,

because we dreamed one day

that we will find treasures
inside that one.

That there might be a sealed room?
Exactly, exactly.

The king cut this tunnel

to link between his first life
and the second life.

Where does the tunnel go?

We walked until 100m,
and it never ended.

So, the excavation is unfinished?
Yes.

You haven't got to the bottom
of that tunnel?

Exactly, we finished the excavation
because the oxygen not enough.

Right, OK.
Yes.

So, conditions became too difficult
to carry on working.

Yeah.
He might be down there.

Until we finish the excavation,
we can't say anything.

Maybe the king
was hiding something behind.

And that's why we're still waiting
to see what will be there.

That is the secret of this tomb.

Yeah. Keep looking Bahaa!
I'll come back next year.

OK, I'll be waiting for you there.

Valley of the Queens,

called Ta-Set-Neferu
in ancient Egyptian language,

which means 'the beautiful place'.

I've come to Luxor,

and I'm on the west side of the Nile
with Dr Bahaa Gaber.

Tucked among these Theban hills

are the Valley of the Kings
and the Valley of the Queens.

Valley of the Queens,

called Ta-Set-Neferu
in ancient Egyptian language,

which means 'the beautiful place'.

Whereas earlier pharaohs
built immense pyramids

to contain their tombs,

these valleys mark a change.

Here, the ruling elite were
making use of a natural landmark

with their tombs hidden
among these limestone hills.

In one of the 91 tombs here

is Seti's daughter-in-law, Nefertari.

This was a beautiful,
really, location.

And also the same, the colours,

amazing colour that
you will see here on the tomb.

This is so beautiful, Bahaa.

Such an amazing tomb.

You see the colours, still,
until now, more than 3,000 years

and the colour's
still in a good condition.

That's gorgeous, isn't it?
Such a beautiful one.

So, what are we seeing
in these images?

Who are these gods
and what does the writing tell us?

It's part from the sacred texts

who talk about the second life
and the gates,

the entrances to the second life.

So, it talks about the gods
who will open the doors

for the spirit of the Queen
to live in paradise

on the end of the journey at night.

So, they're letting her
through those gates?

Yes.
Yeah.

It's such an amazing feeling
when you are here.

It's very beautiful,
these kind of jewel-like colours.

I love the ceilings.

You're closed in underground,

but you can still look up
and see the night sky.

It does defy belief, doesn't it?

That these colours are here
more than 3,000 years later.

The tomb of Nefertari is lavish,

fit for the favourite wife
of the pharaoh Ramesses II.

The king loved Nefertari so much,

that's why he cut a beautiful tomb
for her like that.

It's almost like a pharaoh's tomb,
isn't it?

I think that he treated his wife
like a pharaoh,

like she is a queen of Egypt.

Oh, look at this beautiful room.

This is fabulous.

The paintings in here are glorious.

We've got lots of gods
around the place.

That's Osiris.

But we've also got Nefertari herself,

I can see this figure of a woman,

and I can see her name
in a cartouche.

So, she's there,

and there and there
and there and over there.

So, five times.

And it's all Nefertari,
and she's really beautiful.

Look at the combination
of the painting on the relief,

so there's this sculpted
ear and nose and lips.

And I love her headdress,
so this vulture headdress.

Again, it's got
a bit of relief to it,

but there's also some shadow here.

So, that's really weird,

because there's no shadow
on the rest of her body,

it's quite flat-looking.

But up here, we've got this
little bit of shading.

Suddenly this is leaping out
as very three-dimensional.

Look at her earring and her bracelets
and her beautiful dress.

She's wearing an under dress,

and then over the top of it
she's got this sheer, fine linen,

which is so, so fine
we can actually see through it,

you can see her arm
underneath there.

So, we're getting
a real insight into,

well, fashion, I suppose.

High fashion -
this is a queen, after all.

What's amazing about this

is looking at these tombs and...

..there is obviously
a standard way of doing things.

There are standard texts
which are going to be on the walls.

You're going to have particular
gods reappearing, and goddesses.

I love the way in, as you're
going past all those goddesses.

There's one point where
there are no men in the room,

it's just women.

But also, what this is

is the tomb of an individual,

and here she is.

So, it's not just an idea,

it's not just a representation
of A queen.

This is someone, this is Nefertari.

Before I travel back
across the Nile to Luxor

I've been given the chance
to visit the tomb of Tutankhamun

in the Valley of the Kings

on my own.

I've already seen
the objects from his tomb

and his magnificent death mask
and his decorated, empty sarcophagus

in the Egyptian museum in Cairo.

But this is where
his stone sarcophagus still lies

AND the mummified body
of the young king himself,

brought back to the tomb
in which it was placed

almost 3,500 years ago.

English archaeologist Howard Carter

first came to Egypt in 1891.

But it was 30 years later that
he'd make the discovery of a lifetime

when he found
the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Having discovered the steps
down to the tomb,

on November the 26th, 1922,

Carter opened the doorway

to find that the tomb inside
was intact, un-plundered.

He was surrounded by thousands
of incredible objects -

furniture, jewellery and ornaments.

And everywhere the glint of gold.

And here is
the great stone sarcophagus.

Inside that would have
been the wooden sarcophagi

gilded, covered in jewels.

And, inside
the innermost one of those,

the mummified remains
of the pharaoh himself -

Tutankhamun.

And look how beautiful this is,

with these four protective goddesses,
wings outstretched,

protecting the pharaoh.

And here he is,
the most famous pharaoh of them all

by virtue of the fact that
his tomb was undisturbed

when it was discovered
by Howard Carter in 1922.

And analysis of his remains

reveal that he was young.

He was around the age of 19
when he died.

So he'd only been
on the throne for 10 years.

And there's been ongoing speculation

about the cause of death.

It can be very difficult
to determine.

Some said there's a head injury
that could have been the fatal wound,

perhaps, even, he was murdered.

But recent analysis
has ruled that out.

The damage was post-mortem,
it happened after his death.

But DNA from his mummy
has revealed that he had malaria,

so perhaps that
is what led to his early death.

And, of course, there were
all those extraordinary objects

buried with him in his tomb
that are now in the Cairo museum.

But Tutan-khamun... Tutankh-amun
is here, back in his tomb.

Here in Luxor, I've seen
how religion and royal power

went hand-in-hand in ancient Egypt.

I've seen the tombs of pharaohs,

but also learned about the artisans
who created those beautiful tombs.

But now I'm heading back
to the station

to continue my journey towards Aswan,
my final destination.

I'm continuing south, upriver,

and I'll be stopping off at
a whole series of sites

that are strung out like jewels
along the banks of the Nile.

Captions by Red Bee Media
(c) SBS Australia 2023