All language subtitles for Unearthed.(2016).S04E08.Ramses.Buried.Treasures.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-Cinefeel_track3_[eng]

Narrator: abu simbel,

Egypt's largest rock-cut temple,

Carved into
A 100-foot-high cliff.

Inside, a mysterious sanctuary

To honor strange gods.

Ward: this is an extreme feat
Of engineering,

And in my opinion,
It is one of the wonders

Of the ancient world.

Narrator:
This colossal structure
Was built 3,000 years ago

By the pharaoh ramesses ii.

He was braver, mightier,
And more powerful

Than any other egyptian king.

Narrator:
Ramesses transformed himself

Into the greatest ruler
In egypt's history.

How did he do it?

Could the secrets
Of his meteoric rise

Be locked inside
This magnificent temple?

To solve these mysteries,

We'll deconstruct
Abu simbel's giant statues

And open its sacred chambers

To uncover the truth behind

How ramesses became
Egypt's greatest-ever pharaoh.

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Egypt -- land of the pharaohs.

They were fearless warriors,

Master builders,

Leaders of a powerful,
Ancient religion.

Then came ramesses ii.

His ambition --
To surpass the achievements

Of all his predecessors
And go down in history

As the greatest pharaoh
Of all time.

The crowning glory
Of his reign --

His great temple at abu simbel.

Ward: ramesses ii
Was a mighty pharaoh,

And he built this temple
To show people exactly that.

Intimidating, powerful,
And proud.

Narrator: overlooking the river
Nile in southern egypt,

This mighty stone structure

Is one of the largest
Rock-cut temples in the world.

Could decoding its secrets

Unlock how ramesses became
Egypt's greatest pharaoh?

♪♪

Abu simbel
Is a spectacle in stone

Carved from the cliff face.

Four colossal statues
Of ramesses adorn the front.

♪♪

Hidden behind
The magnificent facade

Runs a giant, 30-foot-high
Hypostyle hall,

Flanked by eight imposing
Statues of the pharaoh.

♪♪

160 feet inside the cliff

Sits a sanctuary
To the great gods of egypt.

But is abu simbel really
Just a temple to these deities?

Can decoding its hidden messages

Unlock the secrets
Of ramesses' success?

♪♪

Ward: at first glance,
It looks as if ramesses ii

Had built this temple

To celebrate and worship
The sun god ra,

In egyptian religion,
The source of all life

And the creator of the universe.

But actually, I think
There's more to it than that.

Narrator: archeologist
And explorer john ward

Is an expert in ancient
Egyptian engineering.

There are many features here --

Falcons, symbols one expects

Of a temple
Dedicated to sun worship,

That adorn the front terrace.

Above us, ra himself.

Narrator:
John investigates a theory

That this great monument
Is no ordinary temple.

He thinks it contains
An encoded message

And that solving it
Will reveal the first step

Ramesses took
To achieve greatness.

♪♪

When the sun's rays
Strike the temple,

They flood the outer
Chambers with light.

160 feet deep into the cliff,

The sanctuary
Remains in darkness.

But two days a year, something
Extraordinary happens.

On february 22nd
And october 22nd,

The rising sun aligns perfectly
With the temple entrance.

Its rays penetrate
The holy sanctuary

And bathe the gods in light.

How did ramesses align
His temple with the sunrise

On just two dates each year?

And why?

John believes a clue lies

At the most famous
Of all archeological sites

In ancient egypt --

The great pyramids.

I'm holding a map
Of the giza plateau,

And I'm looking at the pyramids
And the sphinx

And all of the
Surrounding monuments,

And one thing that is
Striking straightaway

Is its north and south access

Are aligned to both north
And south compass points.

Narrator: a priesthood
Of surveyors achieved this feat

By applying a deep knowledge
Of the night sky.

♪♪

How they did so
Remains a mystery.

Some experts think they tracked
The path of two bright stars

To find the direction
Of true north.

And they were
Astonishingly accurate.

Archeologists have determined
That all of the monuments

On the giza plateau
Have been aligned

Within 1/10 of a degree.

Narrator:
So if surveyor priests used
Their knowledge of the stars

To align the pyramids,

How did they align abu simbel
With our star, the sun?

John believes they used a simple
But ingenious technique.

The priest would stand
Behind this rod,

Which would be anchored
To the ground

In front of where the temple
Is going to be.

The morning sunrise would cast
A shadow across the ground.

Now I need my helper. Abdul.

[ speaks arabic ]

So, the shadow's cast
All the way

Right to the very end,
To here.

By placing a marker in the sand
At the end of the shadow

And repeating this process
Day after day

Over a period of a year,
The ancient surveyors

Were able to create an arc,

Basically a record
Of every morning sunrise.

Narrator:
Once the priests had recorded

A whole year's worth
Of solar observations,

They could align the temple
With the rising sun

On any date they chose.

So, why did they pick two dates
In february and october?

Ward: some believe
That the february date

Marks ramesses' birthday,

While october marks
His ascension to the throne.

Narrator: but there's more to
This mystery than special dates.

John's convinced
That if he can decode

The identities of the figures
Inside the temple,

He can unlock its true purpose.

Three statues represent
The old gods of egypt --

Ptah, lord of truth,

Amun, lord of the sky,

And on the far right,
The sun god ra.

♪♪

But who is the fourth figure?

♪♪

John discovers a clue
Hidden in plain sight --

An encrypted message
Carved on the temple facade.

Ward: standing above the
Entrance here is the sun god ra,

But ramesses has done
Something pretty ingenious.

He's hidden a message
Within the statue itself

That reveals the true function
Of this temple complex.

Narrator: with his falcon's head
And sun disk,

At first glance,
The statue looks like ra,

The most important egyptian god,

Creator of the earth
And of life itself.

But his hands hold clues
To a different identity.

The right one grasps an user,

A symbol denoting
The word "Strength."

And in his left hand,
He holds the symbol ma'at,

Meaning truth and justice
On earth,

Order and harmony in the cosmos.

But joined together,
These three symbols

Spell another word,
User-ma'at-ra,

A name that reveals
The temple's true purpose.

♪♪

Ward: usermaatre was
The throne name of ramesses ii,

And it was the name
That he was known by

Throughout the whole land
Of egypt.

The symbolism that surrounds us
Proves that he built

And dedicated this temple
To himself.

Narrator: the statue above
The temple's entrance,

The fourth figure
In the sanctuary --

They both represent ramesses,

Not as a man

But as a god.

♪♪

All pharaohs were
Considered divine

But secondary
To the old gods of egypt.

Ramesses went one step further.

He dared to show
He was their equal.

By depicting himself
As a giant-sized living god,

Ramesses had taken
The first step

To securing his status
As the greatest.

But cutting
This huge statement of power

From an entire cliff face
Was an unprecedented challenge.

How did ramesses do it?

And was this just one
Part of a far bigger plan

To win ramesses the title of
Egypt's greatest-ever pharaoh?

Narrator:
Abu simbel, egypt.

Ramesses ii
Built this mighty temple

In a bid to make himself
A living god.

And become the greatest
Of all egypt's pharaohs.

Inside, two giant chambers
Stretch 160 feet into the cliff.

Skilled quarrymen carved them
From the solid rock,

Workers who applied knowledge
Gained over many centuries

From excavating deep tombs,

Like those
In the valley of the kings.

They used bronze tools

To hollow out
Huge chambers and tunnels.

♪♪

The interior may have been

Abu simbel's most dangerous
Construction job.

♪♪

But it's the temple's exterior
That is the greatest puzzle.

105 feet tall
And 125 feet wide...

♪♪

...This is the largest facade
Of any rock-cut temple in egypt.

How did ramesses execute
A design on such a huge scale?

♪♪

The statues on the facade

Are 15 times
The height of the average male.

Each mighty head is 13 feet wide

And adorned
With the double crown,

Symbolizing power over egypt.

At his feet stand ramesses'
Children, wife, and mother,

A royal guard
For the sun guard ra.

At the summit
Sit 22 sacred baboons...

♪♪

...Whose cry
The egyptians believed

Welcomed the rising sun.

How did ramesses' masons
Cut back this entire cliff face?

♪♪

When ramesses was pharaoh,
The ancient egyptians

Had been master builders
For more than 1,000 years.

♪♪

They'd engineered
The great pyramids of giza

And turned stone blocks
Into works of art.

But archeologist john ward knows
That to build abu simbel,

Ramesses' workforce
Had to overcome a challenge

They'd never faced before.

Ramesses ii's building plan
Was unprecedented

In both size, scale,
And ambition.

He wanted nothing less
Than the largest rock-cut temple

Egypt had ever seen.

Narrator: some scholars estimate
That quarrymen

Had to remove
13,000 tons of rock

To cut the temple
From the cliff face.

Chipping away piece by piece
Would have taken far too long,

So how did they do it?

Adel kelany is an expert

In ancient egyptian
Building technologies.

♪♪

He believed
That abu simbel's masons

Removed stones systematically,
Block by block.

♪♪

♪♪

Masons pack palm tree skin
Inside the holes

To hold the chisel in place.

Then they strike them one by one

Until the rock starts to split.

♪♪

Adel times how long his men need
To cut a single sandstone block

Weighing 2 1/2 tons.

♪♪

♪♪

So, how long
Did it take the workmen

To cut back the rock face
At abu simbel?

♪♪

♪♪

But reducing the cliff face
Was just the beginning.

Ward: the quarrymen had merely
Created a blank canvas.

Now the craftsmen faced
A second set of challenges --

To cut back and carve
The statues of the great temple.

Narrator:
Sculpting the temple facade

With four 65-foot-high statues
Was no simple task.

Getting the measurements wrong

Could jeopardize
The whole project.

So how did
The stone masons ensure

All the statues were identical?

John thinks they scaled up
An ingenious technique

Traditionally used
To paint tombs.

♪♪

What I'm holding here
Is a picture

Of an unfinished relief
In a tomb in thebes.

But what it shows
Is the grid technique

That the artists applied
To the wall prior to painting.

Narrator: the grid breaks
A complex picture down

Into lots of smaller,
Easier-to-draw images.

This grid allows them
To transfer any image

From a scale drawing
Onto a much larger surface.

Narrator: john is convinced
That ramesses' surveyors

Used this same technique
At abu simbel.

But how did they mark out a grid
On a rock face 100 feet high?

♪♪

John believes
That the surveyors developed

Their own innovative solution.

This is the square level,
A most ingenious device

Invented by
The ancient egyptians.

Basically, it allowed
The surveying

Of a straight, horizontal line,

Accurate within 1 centimeter,

Over a whole span of 100 meters.

Narrator:
To investigate how it worked,

Adel's team stretches
A cord soaked in red paint

Between two square levels...

[ conversing in arabic ]

And snap it against the rock
Face to mark a horizontal line.

♪♪

Ancient builders
May have super-sized

This technique at abu simbel.

They would have used scaffolding

To mark out giant rows
Of horizontal lines.

♪♪

Then, from the top
Of the cliff face,

It's likely
They hung weighted ropes

And drew vertical lines
To complete their grid.

Using this system,
They scaled up smaller drawings

To produce outlines of ramesses
On the rock face.

Only after marking out
The facade and the entranceway

Could workers begin
To cut their pharaoh

And the chambers of his temple
Out of solid rock.

♪♪

This building project
Was overseen by ramesses himself

But managed and executed
To meticulous detail

By the quarrymen
And the master masons.

Narrator: ramesses built
Egypt's greatest rock-cut temple

As part of his plan to become
Egypt's greatest-ever pharaoh.

But if ramesses built abu simbel
To glorify himself,

Why did he construct
A second temple next door?

And why is it dedicated
To someone else?

Narrator:
The great temple at abu simbel,

A monument
Pharaoh ramesses ii built

To transform himself
From a king into a living god.

But this isn't
The only temple here.

Beside it stands another,

And it's a clue
To a tactic used by ramesses

To secure absolute power
And realize his dream

To become egypt's
Greatest-ever pharaoh.

♪♪

To the north of the great temple

Stands a second, smaller temple,

Cut from the same cliff face.

Four colossal statues
Of the pharaoh himself

And two of a woman
Stand guard at the entrance.

♪♪

Inside, carvings show her
Praying to the gods,

Making them offerings,

While goddesses anoint her
With a sacred crown.

♪♪

But this rock-cut chapel
Is a puzzle.

Why did ramesses build a temple
To this woman?

And how did this help
To magnify his own reputation?

♪♪

Maria nilsson
Investigates this mystery.

She decodes
An ancient inscription

On the temple's facade to reveal
The woman's identity...

♪♪

...Nefertari,
Ramesses' first wife.

This temple is curious.

We know that the pharaohs
Built tombs

For their great royal wives,

But they didn't build
Temples to them.

Narrator: the statues indicate

Just how highly
Ramesses regarded his wife.

Nilsson: to the left,
We got queen nefertari.

To the right, king ramesses.

Now, they're equal in size,

Which means that he treated her
As his equal.

No other king
In egyptian history

Treated his queen
With such respect.

♪♪

Narrator: ramesses had built
Abu simbel's large temple

To proclaim himself the greatest
Of egypt's pharaohs.

So why did he allow nefertari
To share in his glory?

♪♪

Maria believes the answer lies
In a forgotten temple

200 miles north of abu simbel.

One of its shrines contains
An ancient inscription

That maria thinks reveals

Why ramesses believed nefertari
Deserved her own temple.

♪♪

It shows his wife
Performing a strange ritual.

Here we have
Queen nefertari herself

Standing in front of the
Hippopotamus goddess, taweret,

The goddess of childbirth.

Narrator: beside the inscription
Is a message

Unlike any other in egypt.

Nilsson:
"She who satisfies the gods."

Now, that's a title usually
Connected to the king,

As a high priest of the gods.

To my knowledge, queen nefertari
Was the only queen

Who was honored
With this grand title.

♪♪

Narrator:
The inscription reveals

Ramesses elevated his wife
To joint supreme head

Of ancient egypt's
State religion.

Why did he promote nefertari
To this level?

What did she have
That ramesses needed so badly?

♪♪

At abu simbel, maria
Finds an intriguing clue --

Inscriptions that reveal
Nefertari's ancestry.

So, what we've got here are
The titles of queen nefertari,

Starting with
"Hereditary noblewoman,"

Followed by "Great of praise."

Now, the first title
Is what's really important,

Because it established her
As a daughter of a nobleman,

Which is obviously
An important clue.

♪♪

Narrator: ramesses' origins
Were far humbler.

His grandfather was a solider
Who had been given the throne.

Ramesses' family had ruled egypt

For little more than a decade.

His grandfather was a commoner.

There is a family secret.

Ramesses did not come
From a long line of royalty.

Narrator:
Nefertari gave ramesses

The single most
Important thing he needed

To become egypt's
Greatest pharaoh --

Legitimacy.

The family was very well aware

That his right to rule
Could be challenged.

So by marrying nefertari,
A noblewoman,

He could secure
His right to rule.

♪♪

Narrator: queen nefertari
Was ramesses' wife for 24 years,

Bearing him four sons

Who became high priests
And commanders of his army.

Of all the pharaoh's wives,

Nefertari was
The most important.

She organized
The royal household

And the lives of ramesses'
Other wives and children.

As priestess,
Nefertari conducted

Sacred rituals with the pharaoh

And held a unique position

As joint supreme head
Of egypt's state religion.

Nefertari even
Engaged in diplomacy.

She sent letters and gifts
To foreign queens

To maintain peace
Between nations.

♪♪

Nilsson: ramesses was egypt's
Most powerful man,

But he also made nefertari
The most powerful woman.

♪♪

Narrator: decoding abu simbel
Reveals the vital role

Ramesses' chief wife played

In his plan to become the
Greatest pharaoh of all time.

♪♪

But does ramesses' account
Of a famous chariot battle

Prove he was also
Egypt's greatest warrior,

Or its greatest self-publicist?

♪♪

Narrator:
Abu simbel, a masterpiece

Of ancient egyptian engineering,

Cut by hand
Into a sheer cliff face,

Built by ramesses ii
To proclaim his transformation

From king into a living god.

But does this temple
Contain other clues

That reveal ramesses' next steps
To fulfill his ambition

To become egypt's
Greatest-ever pharaoh?

♪♪

Inside the temple's
Central chamber,

Religious carvings
Cover the walls.

The divine ramesses
Burns incense before isis,

Goddess of magic.

He offers bread and wine
To the gods of creation

And kneels before ra,

God of the rising sun.

But not all the carvings inside
The temple are religious.

There are also
Scenes of violence --

Ramesses at war,

Crushing the enemy

And beheading prisoners.

♪♪

Why are there battle scenes
On the walls of a temple?

♪♪

Maria nilsson searches for clues

Chiseled into abu simbel's
Wall carvings.

One of the most important
Responsibilities of the pharaoh

Was to show the gods
And his people

That he could maintain
The country in peace

By defeating his enemies.

♪♪

Narrator: all egyptian pharaohs
Depicted themselves

As military strongmen.

Obsessed with being
The greatest,

Ramesses proclaimed
His victories

Louder than any pharaoh
Before him.

His most spectacular was against
The rival hittite empire

At the battle of kadesh.

Ramesses carved in stone
An account

Of what was the greatest
Chariot battle in history.

He claims
That the hittites attacked,

And he had to rush
To the defense of his forces.

And with these chariots
And horses,

He came to the rescue.

And he crushes the enemies

Like crocodiles
Falling into the river.

Narrator: what was it
About the egyptian war chariot

That gave ramesses such
An advantage on the battlefield?

♪♪

Egyptologist yossra ibrahim
Investigates this mystery.

She puts a replica chariot
Through its paces

To test the technology
Ramesses claimed he used

To win his great victory.

♪♪

She discovers the chariot

Is a fast and stable
Fighting platform.

Ibrahim:
The egyptians revolutionized

The manufacture of the chariots.

They introduced the six spokes
For the wheel,

Which made it move much faster.

The two wheels are far part,

Which made it very difficult
To tip over.

Narrator: but it's clear
The egyptian chariot

Also had serious drawbacks.

Ibrahim: the problem
With the semicircular body

Is that it's very low,

So it doesn't really
Protect you.

You can easily get shot.

Another disadvantage

Is that it takes a lot of time
To turn around.

Narrator: and some experts
Believe hittite chariots

Were more robust
And better protected.

♪♪

So, if it wasn't technology

That delivered ramesses
The crushing victory he claims,

What did?

Yossra investigates at karnak,

A huge temple complex
300 miles north of abu simbel.

♪♪

Here, she discovers a clue
Locked inside a poem

That recounts the battle.

Ibrahim: so, according to
The poem, ramesses found himself

Alone on the battlefield,
Abandoned by his army.

So he turned to his father,
The god amun,

Who made him invincible.

After that, ramesses claims

To have single-handedly defeated
2,500 enemies.

Narrator: ramesses' account
Of the battle is pure fantasy.

And when yossra ignores his
Claims of divine intervention

And sudden miraculous powers,

A very different version
Of events begins to emerge.

♪♪

In his war against the hittites,

Ramesses split his army
And led half his chariots north,

To seize the enemy fort
Of kadesh,

Which he thought was unguarded.

But ramesses was tricked
By hittite spies.

East of kadesh,
3,000 hittite chariots

Launched a surprise attack.

♪♪

Ramesses rallied his troops.

Helped by reinforcements,
He engaged his enemy.

But the result was a standoff.

Ramesses failed to take kadesh.

Humiliated, he was forced
To withdraw.

♪♪

So why did ramesses
Lie about the battle

In his temple at abu simbel?

To ramesses,
Truth was not important.

The only thing that mattered
Was to establish himself

As the greatest
Warrior of egypt.

Narrator:
Ramesses used abu simbel

As a weapon
Of political propaganda

And rewrote history
To promote the myth

That he was an invincible
Military leader.

But ramesses wanted to guarantee

His achievements would surpass
Those of all his predecessors.

Was this temple just one
Of many buildings he erected

To make that dream a reality?

And if abu simbel was hewn
From a solid rock face,

Why is it crisscrossed
With deep, straight cracks?

♪♪

Narrator: abu simbel,
A great temple ramesses ii built

To turn himself
Into a living god

And exaggerate his skill
As a mighty military hero...

Part of an ambitious plan

To win the title
Of ramesses the great.

But it's what missing
From this site

That could unlock the mystery

Of how ramesses completed
His transformation

Into the greatest
Of all egypt's pharaohs.

Abu simbel was a construction
Project of epic proportions.

Guided by a massive grid,
Quarrymen removed stone

From the cliff in giant blocks

To shape the beginnings
Of the facade.

Masons then honed the rough
Blocks into human shapes,

One statue at a time,

And skilled sculptors finely
Carved the intricate details

Before the entire temple
Was brightly painted.

Its construction
Left 13,000 tons

Of stone blocks cast aside,

So what did ramesses
Do with them?

And does the answer reveal

His plans for greatness
Extended far beyond abu simbel?

♪♪

To find out,
Yossra ibrahim travels to luxor,

The ancient capital
Of upper egypt.

Here, ramesses created
This architectural wonder

To rival abu simbel.

It's called the ramesseum.

Like abu simbel, it was designed

To encourage the people of egypt

To worship ramesses
As a god for all eternity.

The ramesseum is the mortuary
Temple of ramesses ii.

Ramesses built this temple
To preserve his name

And promote his cult.

♪♪

Narrator: yossra believes
Decoding its true purpose

Could unlock
How ramesses finally realized

His lifelong ambition --

To be the greatest
Of egypt's pharaohs.

Beside the temple is a series
Of strange arched chambers

That look completely different
From the rest of the complex.

These chambers were used to
Hold grain, wheat, and barley.

People would bring the grain
And climb up to the roof

And pour it through holes
In the ceiling.

Then grain would be stored here
In huge amounts.

Narrator: in ancient egypt,
Grain was currency.

So how much money did
These granaries hold?

♪♪

Yossra measures
Their combined floor area

To calculate the wealth
Ramesses amassed.

Ibrahim: I have measured every
Single chamber on this site,

And I calculated the total
Floor area of all chambers,

And it comes up
To 8,261 square meters,

Which would total to
16 1/2 million liters of grain.

Narrator:
That's almost 10,000 tons,

More than the weight
Of the eiffel tower,

Enough to pay a workforce

Equivalent to the population
Of a medium-sized city.

But why did ramesses
Store so much wealth

Inside his mortuary temple?

Yossra believes
It's because the ramesseum

Served more than one purpose.

♪♪

It was a temple
Dedicated to ramesses,

A cult center for his worship,

Built to preserve
The pharaoh's name forever.

But ramesses also added a school

To educate generations
Of administrators,

Paid for by the stores of grain.

♪♪

Ramesses grouped religion,
Central bank,

And state department
Under one roof.

But why did he do it?

♪♪

Yossra thinks ramesses used
This vast complex

As the control center

For a project unprecedented
In egyptian history...

♪♪

...A nationwide
Building program,

More ambitious in scale

Than any pharaoh
Had ever attempted before.

He wanted to make
His name more famous

And his achievements
More glorious

Than any of his predecessors.

He launched nothing less
Than his own building program

Across all of egypt.

Narrator: from the mediterranean
Coast to the southern desert,

Ramesses built huge statues,
Giant temples,

And towering obelisks.

♪♪

Ramesses believed that becoming
Egypt's greatest-ever builder

Was the final step to becoming
Its greatest-ever pharaoh.

♪♪

This could explain what happened
To the leftover stone

Quarried during
Abu simbel's construction.

Ramesses administrators
May have ensured it was reused

For another of the pharaoh's
Great projects.

♪♪

Ramesses' building program

Was the greatest
In all ancient egyptian history.

To this day,
More monuments bear his name

Than any other pharaoh,

Including his mighty temple
At abu simbel.

♪♪

But this soaring monument
Has one final enigma.

This mega-structure is covered

By a grid of deep,
Straight cracks.

How did they get here?

And what secret
Egyptian building technique

Do they reveal

That's been hidden
For more than 3,000 years?

♪♪

Narrator: abu simbel,

The largest rock-cut temple
In all egypt.

Woven into its mighty
Structure are clues

That reveal
The steps ramesses took

To become the greatest
Pharaoh of all time.

♪♪

But it conceals
One final mystery.

The entire monument
Is crisscrossed

By a grid of deep cracks.

[ crackling ]

This one clearly cuts through
Just above the ankle

And continues all the way

Into the pillar
Behind this great statue.

♪♪

Narrator: abu simbel was hewn
From solid rock.

So where did these
Cracks come from?

The clue lies in their age.

These cracks weren't
Made in antiquity...

♪♪

...But just six decades ago.

♪♪

In 1960, the government of egypt

Built a new dam across the nile.

It transformed
2 1/2 million acres

Of desert into farmland.

But the dam also created
A giant lake.

To prevent abu simbel
From being submerged...

♪♪

...International engineers

Mounted an unprecedented
Rescue mission.

They cut the temple into pieces

And rebuilt it on higher ground
Away from the rising waters.

They cut the monument
Into individual blocks,

And I'm standing
Right next to one here.

This cut line descends
All the way down

And then continues
All the way along here

To this corner
And then descends here.

This huge, megalithic block
Once laid down there

In this original position.

And each block was
Actually hoisted by crane

To this location,
Creating the new abu simbel.

♪♪

Narrator: engineers raced
To transport abu simbel

Piece by piece, 130 feet up
To the top of the cliff.

♪♪

One can't even begin
To conceptualize

What would've happened if one
Of the cranes had faltered,

If one of the legs of ramesses

Had fallen to the ground
And smashed.

Thousands of years of archeology
Just lost in a second.

Narrator:
Rescued from destruction,

Moving ramesses' great temple

Revealed the last
Of its secrets...

♪♪

...Evidence of
Engineering expertise

That lay hidden for 3,000 years.

Ward: those clear lines
Of stratification

In the upper legs
Of ramesses there

Clearly show us
That the ancient egyptians

Had an understanding
Of the geology

And the makeup of this mountain.

Narrator:
Abu simbel's builders selected

The hardest layers of rock

To carve out load-bearing walls

Strong enough to support
The weight of the cliff above.

John ward believes this was
A deliberate design feature,

Incorporated to ensure
Ramesses' mighty temple

Lasted for millennia.

♪♪

It was only
When modern engineers

Had actually reassembled
This temple,

That they appreciated
The art, the science,

And the engineering
That had gone in

To actually creating
This great monument.

Narrator:
The largest rock-cut temple

In egyptian history.

With four colossal statues
Of the pharaoh

And a sacred inner chamber
Aligned with the sunrise,

Abu simbel proclaimed
An idealized version of ramesses

And immortalized him
As a living god.

♪♪

But the temple also reveals
How ramesses ii

Made himself egypt's
Greatest pharaoh.

He secured his grip on power
Through marriage,

Built more monuments
Than any of his ancestors,

And rewrote history
To glorify his achievements.

Ramesses the great
Transformed egypt

And won a glittering reputation

That has lasted 3,000 years.

♪♪

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