All language subtitles for L.T.o.t.B.S01E03.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track4_[eng]

[narrator]
In the east of Egypt's Nile Delta,

investigators unearth treasures
hidden for more than 3,000 years.

Here, slowly, slowly.

Uncover it so we can find out in
which year this was all made.

[narrator] They're uncovering
the remains of a mega city

that some believe matches a city
in the Bible's Book of Exodus.

[Alexandra Winkels]
We have to secure it first,

then we can take it out.

It might be a high official,
maybe even palatial building.

[narrator] Abandoned in ancient times,
its true location was lost for millennia.

[Winkels] I think we are really lucky here
to have this preserved.

[narrator] These newly
discovered wall paintings

bring the forgotten city to life,
and could help decode the origins

of the Bible's epic story of Exodus.

We have probably excavated half a percent.

There's still a lot to be explored.

♪♪

[narrator] The stories in the Bible
are famous across the world.

They tell of great battles
between good and evil,

earth-shaking catastrophes,
and iconic heroes.

Now, new archeological discoveries

buried in the Middle East
for thousands of years

are shedding light on the real events
that may have given rise to these legends.

In the story of Exodus,

the prophet Moses leads his people,
the Israelites, out of captivity in Egypt.

They flee across the sea
chased by the pharaoh's army

and into the safety of the promised land.

It's a story of triumph over
hardship and adversity

that people all over
the world can relate to.

♪♪

[narrator]
This season, international teams

of archeologists dig
through centuries of earth

and piece together
millennia-old mysteries.

Could discoveries in Egypt
help unearth the truth

about the world of the Exodus?

In the south of Egypt,

on the banks
of the River Nile, is Luxor...

the capital of Egypt
during its golden age--

the New Kingdom.

Here, archaeologist
Jay Silverstein is on a mission

to ground truth the biblical legends.

He wants to explore if there's
any archeological evidence

for an event like the Exodus
in Egyptian history.

[Dr. Jay Silverstein]
When you're able to correlate

the material evidence,

the facts, the artifacts that you find

to the events described
in these ancient texts,

to me, that's very satisfying.

[narrator]
The Old Testament's story of Exodus

begins nearly 4,000 years ago.

It tells how a people
called the Israelites

travel to Egypt and live here
for over 400 years.

One pharaoh feels threatened
by their growing numbers,

and forces them into slavery.

He orders them to build the great cities
of Pithom and Ramesses,

which will serve as store sites.

If the Israelites don't work hard enough,

-the pharaoh has them beaten.
-[whip cracking]

Recent archeological evidence
has cast serious doubt

on the idea that Egyptian pharaohs
enslaved people to build their pyramids.

But did later ancient Egyptians
ever use foreigners as enslaved labor?

Jay travels across the Nile
to search for clues.

Built into the sandstone rock cliffs,

the Valley of The Nobles
was once a burial site

for the elite in Egyptian society.

Jay investigates the tomb

of a powerful official called Rekhmire,

the second in command
to one of Egypt's great pharaohs.

He was the CEO
of the Egyptian corporation.

These walls capture
that whole range of activities.

[narrator] His tomb records one
of his greatest achievements,

the construction of a temple
to the god Amun.

So here, we have an inscription that says,

"The captives that His Majesty
the Pharaoh has brought back

to work in the construction
of the temple of Amun."

And so, quite literally,
saying that these are prisoners

who have been brought back in servitude.

[narrator]
The enslaved figures represent people

from neighboring countries.

[Dr. Silverstein]
And you can see that there are

different types of representations here,

whereas the Egyptians have the long kilt,

looking at their haircuts,
and their stance,

and the fact that they're in
positions of authority,

as opposed to the laborers,
who have shorter garments,

different types.

Their skin colors vary a little bit.

[narrator] Archeologists
think some of the figures

in this painting depict captives
from as far as Syria and Canaan.

Canaan appears
throughout the biblical texts

as a location to the east of Egypt,

the original home of the people
that became the Israelites,

and the land where they hope to return.

Canaan represents one of these spots

that has its own
really important geography,

'cause it's a crossroads
between Asia and Egypt.

And so, we see a lot
of geopolitical activity

happening in this area,
a lot of migrations

of people moving back and forth.

[narrator] These paintings are evidence
that foreigners, possibly from Canaan,

could have been enslaved by the Egyptians.

Was a group called
the Israelites among them?

And if so, where and when did they live?

A clue to another part of the story
could lie 350 miles north

in Egypt's Nile Delta, at Pi-Ramesses.

In one of the most groundbreaking missions

in recent years, a team
of German archeologists,

led by Henning Franzmeier,
investigates this mysterious ancient site.

Abandoned in ancient times,

Pi-Ramesses' true location
was lost for millennia...

until archeologists confirmed
its location in the 1960s.

[Dr. Henning Franzmeier]
Amongst the big and important

ancient Egyptian sites, Pi-Ramesses
is probably the least explored.

[narrator] Pi-Ramesses was once
the capital of ancient Egypt.

Some believe it is the location
of one of the cities

named in the Exodus legend.

So, what archeological evidence
is there for these biblical cities?

Today, Henning is on a mission
to unearth the real city

buried beneath the soil here.

Directing a mission
like the Pi-Ramesses mission

is actually fulfilling
a kind of childhood dream.

Wherever we work here,
we might find something completely new.

[tools scraping]

So, you were speaking about

-this area right?
-[worker] Yes.

[Dr. Franzmeier]
That we have to have a look there.

[narrator] Henning scours
the site for any evidence

of ancient structures beneath the ground.

[Dr. Franzmeier] I think, at least here,
one can see them, one can actually see it

-all the way down.
-Yeah.

And then, also here.

[narrator]
The team's excavation

reveals faint outlines
of foot-long mudbricks.

[Dr. Franzmeier]
They are really hardly visible.

This is why we are working
with very experienced workmen.

They can spot these mudbricks
better than I could ever do.

[narrator] The earliest Egyptian pyramids,
constructed more than 1,000 years

before the believed date of Exodus,
were built of stone.

The walls of Pi-Ramesses
are made of mudbrick.

Though quicker and easier to build with,

this construction method causes problems

for archeologists trying
to understand the past.

The humid, waterlogged
conditions of the Nile Delta

have destroyed much
of the mudbrick evidence here.

[Dr. Franzmeier] This kind
of line between the bricks

that we have here,
I think is really relevant.

[narrator] The team pieces
together the pattern of bricks

to reveal a series of walls
nearly 7 feet wide.

[Dr. Franzmeier] This clearly
shows that we are not talking

about some normal habitation.

[narrator] The team carefully
measures the dimensions

and uses the latest technology,

like results from magnetic scans,

a technique that was applied
across the site.

The damp conditions have led to
the widespread disintegration

of buildings and organic artifacts.

So, gleaning every possible clue

from what does remain is vital.

Bringing all their information together

reveals the outline
of a remarkable structure.

The archeologists believe
they've unearthed

a long-lost royal palace

that covers more than 240,000 square feet.

A wide road flanked with statues
leads to this grand building.

Hundreds of similar scans
reveal the palace

is part of a large city...

once considered the greatest in Egypt.

Spanning over six square miles

and flanked by waterways
from the River Nile,

it includes storerooms,
bustling marketplaces,

and sacred temples.

This magnificent royal city
was one of the largest in Egypt,

home to over 300,000 people.

[Dr. Franzmeier] We know now,
thanks to the magnetic measurements,

the site was huge.

But we have probably
excavated half a percent.

So, there's still a lot to be explored.

[narrator]
The mudbrick walls discovered here

are clear evidence
of a vast and important city,

and there's a potential connection
to the two in the Exodus story.

[Dr. Franzmeier] We can quite clearly tell
that there's a lot of storerooms.

We have these longitudinal rooms,
and lot of them in a row,

and this is typically storeroom
architecture in ancient Egypt.

[narrator]
The resemblance between this metropolis

and the city of Ramesses
in the Bible are intriguing.

Could this be one of the two store cities

the Israelites were forced to
build in the Story of Exodus?

As the team at Pi-Ramesses

continue excavations
around the palace walls,

it's not long before they find evidence
of more than just the city layout.

[Dr. Franzmeier]
This soil has a very distinct color here

and it's totally different from
the normal clay that we have.

[narrator]
Just a few inches down,

the team hits the jackpot.

They unearth belongings
of the people that lived here.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[narrator] Henning and the team
peel away the plaster

of the ancient
palace floor in Pi-Ramesses.

It's not been disturbed
for more than 3,000 years.

The organic matter and objects

could help to reveal
exactly who lived here.

Were there Israelites from Canaan
enslaved within these city walls?

It's garbage. It's ancient garbage,

so exactly what we archeologists like.

And already, just having taken
away these few centimeters,

we have quite a lot of pottery,
and I guess by the end of the day,

from this small area,

we'll have three or four
full baskets of pottery.

[narrator]
This layer contains the rubbish

discarded by the ancient
inhabitants of Pi-Ramesses.

It gives archeologists a unique insight
into the lives of these people.

In the pit, Henning finds an object
that doesn't appear to be Egyptian.

This is a sherd of
a so-called Canaanite jar.

Canaanite jars were the standard container
of the late Bronze Age.

They were made all over
the Eastern Mediterranean.

[narrator] The name Canaanite
means "from Canaan,"

the land where the Bible
says the Israelites came from.

Pi-Ramesses was the gateway to Egypt

for neighboring civilizations
who visited for trade.

They would have brought in
resin, or wine, or oil,

and would have taken goods
such as glass, for instance, out of Egypt.

[tools scraping]

[narrator] These Canaanite jars
may have arrived

at Pi-Ramesses as cargo.

On its own, the sherd doesn't prove

that people from Canaan lived in the city.

Henning heads to the team's dig house

to sift through
more evidence from the site.

Thousands of fragments
of pottery line the shelves.

They include beautiful vases
originating in Greece and Cyprus.

Henning analyzes an intriguing
piece from the stores...

a sculpted figurine.

[Dr. Franzmeier]
It's a head made of clay,

and it represents most likely
a non-Egyptian God.

[narrator] This figurine
has a cap and large ears,

mirroring images of a god called Baal.

Baal was a Canaanite deity.

This is strong evidence
that people from Canaan

were trading and living in Pi-Ramesses.

[Dr. Franzmeier] Not only
Egyptians lived in Pi-Ramesses

but also foreigners coming
from all around the Mediterranean, maybe.

[narrator] This object along
with others found previously,

hints at a bustling city with a population
made up of many different cultures.

I think in this period,
there's no other Egyptian city

where you have so much
of this foreign pottery.

[narrator] If people from
Canaan were treated badly

and enslaved in Egypt,

what might have tempted them
to come to the country?

In Manchester, bioarcheologist
Iwona Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin

is an expert on the movement
and health of ancient people.

She investigates a relief
from a temple complex in Egypt,

carved more than 1,000 years

before the construction of Pi-Ramesses.

It shows what appear to be
Bedouin tribespeople

from the desert regions, not Egyptians.

[Dr. Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin]
It's a very unique scene

showing individuals with
incredibly emaciated bodies.

I think particularly striking
is this gesture here,

someone who's resting
and is just really exhausted.

We can very clearly see those grooves

which were made to accentuate
the bone structure

of those people's faces.

This is not something
that we would normally see

in reliefs or paintings in ancient Egypt.

[narrator]
Why would a pharaoh

want to immortalize
these people on his temple?

[Dr. Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin]
It is believed that

it was maybe commissioned

by the pharaoh to sort of
demonstrate his generosity,

maybe in welcoming those people,

into the Nile Valley,
and potentially supporting them.

[narrator]
It's evidence that foreign people

sought sanctuary in Egypt
in the 24th century BCE.

It is not surprising that people
would be seeking refuge along the Nile.

It was, and still is,
the most important river

running across the country.

Water means life, quite simply.

[narrator] Land irrigated by the Nile
provided an abundance of food.

Archeologists have discovered
vast brick silos across Egypt.

Some carried up to more
than 3,500 cubic feet of grain.

In the Bible, Joseph comes to Egypt

and becomes an advisor
to a great Egyptian pharaoh.

He encourages his family to move here
because Egypt has stores of food.

Reliefs like this
suggest the idea of people

escaping from Canaan to Egypt
draws on real events.

Periods of famine
and suffering did happen.

Canaanites may have taken refuge in Egypt
and been enslaved.

The Bible tells of a champion
who appears to save the Israelites.

Exodus describes how a pharaoh
grows so afraid of them,

that he orders all male Israelite babies
to be killed at birth.

[water lapping]

One desperate mother floats her infant son
down the Nile in a basket.

[baby crying]

The pharaoh's daughter finds him
and names him Moses.

After growing up as her son,
he ends up killing an Egyptian

who was beating an Israelite.

The pharaoh orders Moses
killed for his crime...

forcing him to flee Egypt
and live in exile.

So, what evidence is there at
the ancient city of Pi-Ramesses

for the living conditions
of ordinary people?

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[narrator] At the Pi-Ramesses
site in the Nile Delta,

Henning and the team continue
to excavate the rubbish pit

to look for clues that help to understand
what it was like to live here.

Unlike many places in Egypt
where the sand preserves evidence,

here, water from the surrounding fields
destroys archaeology.

Very little is left, and organic remains
such as bone are rare.

The team tirelessly hunts
for microscopic remains

that could provide clues.

Everything has rotten away, basically,
so we need really these things,

these small fragments to also
really reconstruct history.

[narrator]
Pieces of animal bones

can reveal the diets of the population.

But analysis of even
fragmentary human remains

could reveal markers
of disease and malnutrition.

The finds could shed light

on one of the most famous
chapters of the Exodus legend.

When Moses returns to free his people,

the pharaoh refuses
to release the Israelites...

prompting God to punish
the ancient Egyptians

with a series of deadly plagues.

At first, the waters
of the Nile turn to blood,

killing all fish and making it
impossible to drink

in all of Egypt for a whole week.

When the pharaoh refuses to back down,
swarms of locusts block out the sun,

devouring all the plants

and every last bit of food
the Egyptians have.

When a pestilence kills
all the Egyptians' livestock,

sparing the animals of the Israelites,
the pharaoh will still not let them go.

It's only when God kills
every firstborn son in Egypt,

including the pharaoh's own child,

that the king agrees
to set the Israelites free.

Historians think these stories

might not refer to a series
of specific events,

but rather what the world
of the New Kingdom was like.

So, what other archeological
evidence is there

of the threats that
the ancient Egyptians faced?

In Manchester, Iwona and museum curator

Campbell Price
search the stores for clues.

[Dr. Campbell Price]
These two, I think these are exactly

the kind of thing
you would find at Pi-Ramesses.

[narrator]
These miniature limestone blocks

were carried by ancient Egyptians
to call upon the gods in prayer.

This is the name of the god...

-Mm-hmm.
-...at the top, the signs.

And then, "who hears."

-Mm-hmm.
-And then, "prayers."

So, "the god who hears prayers,"
literally.

You pick it up if you've got a problem.

-[Price laughs]
-A hotline to the god.

[Dr. Price]
A hotline, like a smartphone.

[narrator]
These objects offered forms of protection

and could be kept close by.

The Egyptians also wore
glazed ceramic amulets

around their necks.

It's a fantastic illustration
of a human desire to be safe.

This is the goddess Sekhmet.

Her name means "she who is powerful."

And the idea was that Sekhmet
was a protector of human beings

against famine, plague, and pestilence.

You would gain the protection
of the goddess for yourself

and for your family.

[narrator]
There's no archeological evidence

of the fantastical 10 plagues
from the Exodus story.

Campbell thinks they reflect
the experience of people

living in Egypt
and across the ancient world.

So, when you hear stories
like the 10 plagues,

these are ways of discussing
big issues in the ancient world.

Not knowing what tomorrow
will bring made the Egyptians

want to be prepared,
to have insurance policies.

[narrator]
Evidence of disease has been found

throughout ancient Egyptian history.

The story of the 10 plagues
may be a remnant of folk memories

from periods of disease and unrest.

Back at the Pi-Ramesses excavation...

the team continues to excavate.

Although the Exodus story
names the City of Ramesses,

biblical chronology suggests
events took place

before any of the 11 pharaohs
named Ramesses came to power.

What's more, the biblical account
doesn't actually name the pharaoh

who ruled at the time of Moses.

Archeologists here hope their research

will give greater certainty
about who built

the palatial residence they've uncovered.

Conservator Alexandra Winkels finds
something extraordinary in the palace.

[Winkels] I think we are really lucky here
to have this preserved.

[narrator] She's discovered
that these fragments

of wall plaster are painted.

Maybe we should make it wet from the back

-a little bit, right?
-[Winkels] Yes, yes.

[narrator] It may provide clues to when
this huge ancient metropolis was built,

and by whom.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[narrator] In the southeastern corner
of the Pi-Ramesses palace,

Alexandra carefully brushes away soil
from the rare plaster wall painting.

[Dr. Franzmeier]
How is it going with the plaster?

-[Winkels] Yeah.
-[indistinct chatter]

[narrator]
It's still stuck to the exposed wall

of the more than 3,000-year-old palace.

[chatter continues]

What might this wall painting
reveal about the founder of this city?

[Dr. Franzmeier]
Okay, I will call Ahmed.

Ahmed, can you come here?

Here, slowly, slowly.

Uncover it so we can find out in
which year this was all made.

[narrator] The painted wall has cracked
into hundreds of tiny fragments.

They are scattered in the disintegrated
remains of a mudbrick wall.

Alexandra hopes to use
her expert knowledge

of plaster conservation techniques

to reveal an intact section
of the fragile painted wall.

[Dr. Franzmeier] Now then,
we take away first this part here,

that just this remains,
then you can remove...

-[Winkels] Yeah.
-...the remains

-...of the wall plaster.
-You'll also apply

the Japanese paper on this area

to keep the fragments in place,

because if we don't,
everything will crumble.

[narrator] Alexandra uses a special paper
covered in adhesive

to strengthen the fragments
and keep them in position...

[liquid sloshing]

...whilst the rest of the team
applies fabric

soaked in plaster behind the relief

to make it strong enough
for them to remove.

[Winkels]
We have to secure it first,

and then we have to remove
the surrounding clay

and then we can-- we can take it out
and work on the fragments in more detail.

[narrator] Alexandra
and her team of conservators

take the plaster pieces to the dig house

to clean them for closer inspection.

[brush lightly sweeping]

The traces of magnificent
colors are hard to see

and could have been
easily missed in the dust

of the excavation site.

Alexandra and her team
carefully wash away the earth,

a job for only the most
expert conservators.

They are the first people to set eyes

on these painted decorations
in more than 3,000 years.

The fragments we are working on right now,
they are the-- the top plaster layer.

[lightly scraping]

[narrator]
This type of plaster is a rare find.

It's made from lime.

[Winkels]
You have the mudbrick masonry,

then a clay plaster layer,

and the top layer was decorated
with a very thin lime plaster.

And this lime plaster is, for-- for Egypt,
a very special material,

because it hasn't been used
in so many places.

[narrator]
Artists painted these decorations

on top of the freshly applied lime plaster
while it was still wet.

It's a technique
perfected in ancient Greece

which enhances the paint pigments.

The use of lime plaster

is another sign that it might be

a high official, and maybe
even palatial building.

[narrator]
Few people other than a pharaoh

could afford to employ
such skilled foreign workers

to decorate the magnificent palace.

♪♪

The dig house contains clues
to who this ruler might be.

Henning analyzes small pieces
of carved stone fragments.

[Dr. Franzmeier] This little tiny object
is one of the most important objects

that we have found in the past years.

[narrator] This small plaque
is in the form of a cartouche.

It is carved with a royal name.

Items like these were buried
in the foundations during construction

to preserve the name of
the king that had them built.

[Dr. Franzmeier]
This is a pretty small fragment of stone

but we can see here traces
of the so-called cartouche.

And we have here a couple
of hieroglyphic signs

that give us the name "Massassu."

And this, in this period,
can only be Ramesses II.

[narrator] This Ramesses II carving
is strong evidence that he is the pharaoh

that built this palace
and the city of Pi-Ramesses.

Some believe that because
of the name of this city,

Ramesses II is one of the pharaohs
in the Bible's Exodus story.

Ramesses' skills as a general
and self-publicist

cemented his reputation
as a great warrior-king

among the Egyptian people.

He erected more monuments than
any other Egyptian pharaoh.

He even passed off
other temples as his own

by putting his name on them.

He left such a legacy

that even today, he's remembered
as one of the greatest pharaohs of Egypt.

Could the fame of his name

explain why he became
attached to this legend,

even though he lived long after the Bible
suggests Exodus took place?

[narrator] In the south of Egypt,
across the Nile from Luxor,

Jay heads to the mortuary temple
of Ramesses son, Pharaoh Merneptah.

Inside is the replica of
a 10-feet-tall relief,

or stele.

Jay thinks it could be key
to helping piece together

the historical setting
of the Exodus story.

[Dr. Silverstein]
If there were a smoking gun

for the biblical tale of the Exodus,
this would be it.

This is our historical reference,

the written record of the pharaoh
referring to the people of Israel.

[narrator] This is the earliest
written reference

to the Kingdom of Israel ever found.

The inscription says that
the seed of the Israelites

is no more, that it's been laid to waste.

[narrator]
Jay suspects the stele

could describe Merneptah's
defeat of their homeland.

Some think that this inscription

confirms that Ramesses
was the pharaoh of Exodus...

the persecutor of the Israelites,

who are first recorded as living in Canaan
during the rule of his son.

But Jay believes this conclusion
is far from certain.

♪♪

[Dr. Silverstein]
We have to be careful when we read

something like this
about implying too much of it

as the exact correlation
to the biblical text.

There was this interaction going on
between the Israelites and the Egyptians,

and that conflict may have
lasted for hundreds of years.

[narrator] One possibility
is that the biblical story

of Exodus is not an account
of a single event.

It's a collective memory
of historic figures and places.

Ramesses the Great
is the sort of famous figure

that the scribes may have had in mind
when first writing down the biblical tale.

[Dr. Silverstein]
His image as this great pharaoh

sort of epitomizes the type of opponent

that you expect Moses
to be facing off with

when we talk about the great pharaoh.

[narrator] If the legend
of Ramesses the Great

did influence the Exodus story,

what other light could his city
shed on the biblical tale?

Back in the north,
Henning travels from Pi-Ramesses

to the secure storerooms at Tanis.

They contain many of the larger
and valuable finds

from Pi-Ramesses.

He searches for clues to Ramesses' reign.

[Dr. Franzmeier]
This is our storeroom.

This is the storeroom
where all the most important

and best finds of the mission
from the past

more than 40 years are being held.

[narrator] Hidden among the large stele

and limestone blocks
are smaller unique artifacts

that Henning wants to study.

These objects are very difficult
to identify what they are.

In fact, they are the only
remaining pieces of chariots,

chariots that were also produced
in the same workshops

as the arrowheads or the shields.

[narrator]
Chariots played a key role

in Egyptian warfare
during Ramesses' reign.

The Egyptians bound leather straps
around these limestone yokes

to attach each horse to the chariot.

One soldier commanded the horse

while another was armed
with a bow and arrow.

The team also found
strange stones at Pi-Ramesses

with a hole pierced
through their upper half.

Henning believes they were used
to tether horses.

Archeologists found
several of these stones

in one specific area in Pi-Ramesses...

[horses whinnying]

...evidence that there was once
a huge stable complex in this city.

Spanning over 180,000 square feet

with space for nearly 500 horses...

it is the biggest ancient
Egyptian stable ever found.

And the chariot pieces are evidence

this may well be the headquarters
of the royal chariot fleet.

Pi-Ramesses was not just
the residence of the king.

It was one of the most
important military bases

for the Egyptian empire.

[Dr. Franzmeier]
Chariots were very lightweight

and very, very fast and efficient.

[narrator] Ramesses II
commanded a lethal chariot army

that helped him to conquer many
of the surrounding nations.

Even as far north as Canaan.

A pharaoh leading his chariots into battle
was a recognizable scene in ancient Egypt,

one that also appears at a critical moment
in the Exodus story.

After the plagues, the pharaoh
allows the Israelites to leave,

then changes his mind
and orders his chariot army after them.

[wind whooshing]

With the Red Sea blocking
the Israelites' path...

God orders Moses to raise his staff.

[waves crashing]

Miraculously, the Red Sea parts...

so Moses and his people flee to freedom.

As the sea crashes back down,
it sweeps away the pursuing Egyptian army.

This scene is one of the most
famous and fantastical

in the biblical story of Exodus.

In the south, Jay Silverstein
journeys across the Nile to Luxor...

and the monumental Temple of Karnak.

He wants to investigate
this dramatic scene

from the Exodus story.

[Dr. Silverstein]
From a religious perspective,

what the story does, is it demonstrates
how strong God can be.

God can directly intervene

with the laws of nature,
the laws of physics.

[narrator]
Could there be historical truth

in elements of this legendary event?

[Dr. Silverstein]
We see chariots occurring

in the pursuit of the Israelites.

That resonates as something
very historically accurate.

So, what did happen?

[narrator] Jay thinks one of these walls
within Luxor's Karnak Temple

could provide clues
to the legendary location

of the Bible's parting of the waters tale.

Here we are, looking at the--
the reliefs of Seti the First,

the predecessor to Ramesses the Great.

As we get over here, we get to something

that's kind of key when
we think about the exodus.

What you see is a sea or a river
surrounded by reeds.

[narrator] Although today many associate
the Israelite escape with the Red Sea,

the actual Hebrew account
uses the words Yam Suph...

which literally translates
to Sea of Reeds.

The translation became the Red Sea,
and that became fixed in our mind

as we know the geography,

and that's obviously
the largest body of water

that we can think of between
Egypt in the Sinai and Canaan.

If we go back to that Hebrew text,

and think of the Sea of Reeds,

that changes our perception
of what's going on.

[narrator] Jay thinks it's
possible that the Israelites

crossed a waterlogged area
to escape a pursuing Egyptian army.

[Dr. Silverstein]
There are shallow lakes

throughout the northern part
of the Nile Delta.

I would take my people
to a shallow, swampy area

where I know chariots are useless,
because they're gonna get bogged down.

[narrator] The reliefs and statues
in the heart of the Temple of Karnak

document the history
of the Egyptian Kingdom.

It was built over a period of 1,500 years
with 30 successive pharaohs adding to it.

[Dr. Silverstein] Geopolitics in
the ancient world were fluid.

Even in a period of 100 years,

you might see the boundaries
of Egypt dramatically change

from one extreme to another extreme.

[narrator] The pharaohs and battles
remembered within these walls

may have influenced the writers
of the biblical story.

Tradition says that Moses himself
recorded the events of Exodus

after receiving the Ten Commandments
on Mount Sinai and escaping Egypt.

But many historians believe
Exodus was written down

hundreds of years later
in the 9th Century BCE.

At this time, Egypt was still

a potentially dangerous
neighbor for the Israelites.

[Dr. Silverstein]
There's a lot of evidence

for the Exodus,
as long as you're not trying

to make it some sort of literal story
that's word-for-word what's in the Bible.

I think it's pretty difficult

to put an absolute date on the Exodus.

It's really covering a period
of a couple hundred years

where events are related

to the development
of the Israelites as a people,

and it has a lot to do with
the relationship to Egypt.

We're really getting this composite story.

[narrator] Jay thinks the story
could be a compilation

of historic events,
which reflect centuries

of the Israelites' experiences.

It also delivers
a moral lesson of redemption

for those who trust in God's plan.

♪♪

At Pi-Ramesses, Henning and his team
reach the end of the dig season.

[Dr. Franzmeier]
We are doing a few last drawings,

a few last photographs here on the site.

We got a lot of nice finds.

So many archeological contexts
on top of each other

that can tell us so much more
about what happened here.

[Winkels] This is a very nice example
from the Ramesside Period.

We're very lucky
that it's still preserved,

and even the colors are
preserved comparatively well.

[Dr. Franzmeier]
We hope to return next year

to dig deeper into this area,

and to answer more questions.

[narrator] Slowly, the city of Pi-Ramesses
is beginning to reveal its secrets.

[Dr. Franzmeier] You see basically
nothing today on the surface.

But the memory of it

was preserved through
the monotheistic religions,

as there is this place
called Ramesses in the Bible.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[narrator] Founded by one of
Egypt's most powerful pharaohs,

this immense metropolis
could have influenced

one of the Bible's greatest stories.

The Exodus legend
is not only the origin story

of a new nation,
it highlights the experiences

of a people living in the mighty shadow
of their neighbors...

the conditions in which they lived,
and the power of the Egyptian rulers.

The story of Exodus
is a valuable reflection

of the world in which it was written.

The Exodus story,
I think resonates with all sorts of people

who have had to face oppression
at various times in their history.

So, it's about overcoming
overwhelming odds.

It's about God favoring you,

God giving you a chance to succeed.

♪♪