- yesterday
Documentary, Egypt: Quest for the Lost Pharaoh, Discovery Channel
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00In the land of the pharaohs, a man seeks answers to a mystery 4,000 years old.
00:11Here on this barren site, a mission is underway to bring a vanished kingdom back to life,
00:17and with it, a pharaoh lost to history.
00:30For French archaeologist, Vassil Dobrev, it's the dream of coming face-to-face with the architects of another age.
00:45If you have here untouched saithic burials, so we could have something untouched under.
01:00Unraveling the tale of a priest and his family, this Egyptologist will try to reconstruct the past.
01:08From now, we start to learn about his life.
01:12This is a story of family intrigue, of political conspiracy, and the pursuit of eternal life.
01:23His wife, she's priestess at Khator.
01:30Following the few clues left to us by the ancients,
01:44this man will attempt to fill the gaps of history, in his quest for the lost pharaoh.
01:51Near Cairo, the most celebrated of Egypt's pyramids stand at Giza, on the west bank of the Nile.
02:07Thirteen miles from Giza, the world's first pyramid of the pharaoh Jozeur rises from the plateau of Saqqara.
02:13On a two and a half mile stretch, further south, by other pyramids, they are part of the site, known as South Saqqara.
02:23During the period known as the Old Kingdom, other pharaohs were buried here.
02:27But four of the six dynasty rulers have never been found.
02:31Between the first king, Teti, and the third, Pepi, a pharaoh named Userkari rose to power under questionable circumstances.
02:39To find signs of this missing pharaoh is one scientist's dream.
02:46So, we're going to take a small point here.
02:49Here, it's a point of level.
02:538,514 points of level.
03:02Treasures from the past lie hidden at Saqqara, but the only way to find them is with the most modern tools.
03:07Two researchers from the French Archaeological Institute of Cairo,
03:11Archaeologist Vassil Dobrev, and topographer Damien Lenné are mapping the site.
03:18A GPS system will capture the signals of eight satellites.
03:21The goal is to document all signs of ancient civilization and perhaps to find new pharaonic tombs.
03:28While scouting the site, Vassil pictures what it must have been like here ages ago.
03:334,200 years ago, the funerary complex of the king dominated by the pyramid was at the hub of the economy.
03:49Daily life unfolded in the valley bordering the necropolis.
03:53The fertile land of Egypt ensured an ample harvest.
04:12The entire population served the pharaoh.
04:15People from all walks of life contributed to the monarch's well-being.
04:26Among them, high dignitaries and their servants,
04:29who accessed the mortuary temple and the pyramid via a covered causeway.
04:34Today, these monuments are in ruins, but what remains is a kind of roadway to the past.
04:40Archaeologists have noticed that pharaohs built their pyramids on the plateau of Saqqara in precise geographic order.
04:50All the tombs are aligned chronologically from the first to the last king of a given dynasty.
05:02For 15 years, Vassil has been dreaming about digging here.
05:06He thinks this site is large enough to contain the foundation of a pyramid that had never been finished.
05:12And if his hunch is correct, it would belong to the mysterious Usserkare, the second pharaoh of the 6th dynasty.
05:21This simple hypothesis sparks his imagination.
05:29The pharaoh's architects check to see that this site is favorable for the construction of the royal tomb.
05:34They want to make sure that the monument fits along the axis formed by the other pyramids.
05:40The pharaoh Usserkare arrives from Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, with his consort and royal entourage.
05:43The pharaoh Usserkare arrives from Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, with his consort and royal entourage.
05:45The pharaoh Usserkare arrives from Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, with his consort and royal entourage.
05:52The pharaoh Usserkare arrives from Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, with his consort and royal entourage.
05:58The pharaoh Usserkare arrives from Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, with his consort and royal entourage.
06:05The pharaoh Usserkare arrives from Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, with his consort and royal entourage.
06:10He is here to oversee the placement of his future pyramid.
06:20The building of this monument will be the single most important accomplishment of his reign.
06:25For Usserkare, the pyramid is the only road to eternal life.
06:46His consort will assist him in his bid for eternity.
06:55Transformed into the goddess Sishat, she will immortalize the ceremony inaugurating the construction of the royal tomb.
07:08As he inhales her divine breath, the pharaoh taps her everlasting power.
07:14ンドине
07:15Anuragina
07:16Anuragina
07:21Thekid
07:22The thwt
07:2942 hundred years later, the site of Thabet Al-Gash may prove to be fertile grounds for an archaeological dig.
07:33Vasil decides to begin excavating some ten feet below the site's highest point.
07:55He will dig layer by layer, moving deeper into history.
08:00This method seems to work. A few weeks later, the Earth yields its first important files.
08:30Less than two feet below the surface, ancient remains begin to emerge from the sand, skeletons
08:41and a wooden sarcophagus. Near the sarcophagus of an adult, the archaeologists find a child's coffin.
08:57Here we see the nose.
09:04Here we see the nose.
09:11The sarcophagi are intact.
09:18The sarcophagi are intact and have not been opened since their burial.
09:25It looks like a woman.
09:32It's a woman and her child.
09:38Only a single exquisitely preserved offering basket is found next to the coffins.
09:45The archaeologists prepare to move the sarcophagi to a safer place.
09:49But at the site, excitement gives way to a more disquieting mood.
09:56The sarcophagi?
09:57The sarcophagi?
09:58The sarcophagi?
09:59The sarcophagi?
10:00The sarcophagi?
10:01The sarcophagi?
10:10The sarcophagi?
10:11The sarcophagi?
10:12A little bit.
10:15A little bit.
10:42and I also had a nice day
10:44and I also had a great day
10:46and I was like, I think
10:48I was like, I wonder if you could
10:50go to my house
10:52and I was like, I don't know
10:54to be a good day
10:56but I was like, I can't
10:58try to get out
11:00and I would like to go
11:02and see, if you can
11:04see, I'm going to miss
11:06and see, I'm going to
11:08see, if you can,
12:10The first discoveries spur Vasil to travel further back in time.
12:20These mud brick structures were built some 2,500 years ago.
12:25The sarcophagi date from the same epoch, the late period.
12:28Other graves begin to appear.
12:44When one of them is opened, wisps of mold float away from the mummy's bandages.
12:49Across the dig site, archaeologists continue to unearth skeletons and mummies.
13:04The wealth of remains confirms the extent of this late period necropolis.
13:11A fresh clue emerges from amidst the sand and stone, shards of pottery.
13:16From their shape and composition, Laurent Bavé dates these funerary vessels to the old kingdom.
13:22After several days of work, a rectangular structure 20 by 30 feet emerges from the earth.
13:44It looks like a funerary pit at another site at Saqqara.
13:48This one from the late period was dug in the temple of Unas, one of the old kingdom pharaohs.
13:55Not far from his pyramid is a shaft that descends to a staggering depth of nearly 100 feet.
14:00This pit leads to the tomb of somebody important.
14:05Because sites like this are sacred, dignitaries of the late period were often buried alongside their ancestors from the old kingdom.
14:14At Tabet al-Gersh, Vasil now hopes to find tombs from the old kingdom.
14:19But when there is pure sand, there is something below, it's clear.
14:49A pit cut into the rock intrigues the archaeologists.
15:02There is something here.
15:06Vasil holds his breath.
15:09His intuition has proved to be correct.
15:11He's in the right place.
15:13A land store.
15:19I can read something here.
15:34It's written to the great God.
15:36It's something to do with the great God.
15:39He was a privileged person close to the great God.
15:43Now, we really have to go down to see if there is something.
15:55It's really untouched.
15:57It looks exactly as it was built.
16:02This is his head.
16:04And here we have his name.
16:06Just here.
16:07We shouldn't touch the stones too much.
16:14Now I can read his name.
16:17It's Haun Efair.
16:20For the moment I see one of his titles.
16:24Semerwati, close friend of the king.
16:28Who was Haun Efair?
16:48He may have served more than one pharaoh.
16:51This is what Vasil hopes to find out.
16:53Little by little, a limestone wall emerges before his eyes.
17:00It's full of hieroglyphs, which Vasil begins to decipher.
17:09Merire mem nefer.
17:11This is King Pepi from the end of the old kingdom.
17:23He may have served more than one pharaoh.
17:27Hen Tisze.
17:30Haun Efair was clearly a priest who performed ceremonies and rites in Pepi's mortuary temple.
17:53Today, two new figures from the distant past emerge from history after more than four millennia,
18:17Hau Nefer and his consort.
18:31From now we start to learn about his life.
18:34So for the moment, what we know is that he is a priest of Pepi I,
18:39who is actually the third king of the 6th dynasty.
18:44Pepi I is just behind, so I have served him in the temple there.
18:49On the other side, I will expect to have the title with some other king,
18:53if he served two kings or three kings.
18:56This will be now interesting to find out.
18:59Might the pharaoh Usir-Khari be one of them?
19:05Vasil has just discovered a rock tomb of a dignitary and his consort from the end of the old kingdom.
19:14To protect his discoveries from the ravages of sand and thieves, Vasil seals the tomb with a metal cover.
19:24This, half a mile further south, is all that remains of the pyramid built by the pharaoh Pepi I.
19:31It was his vehicle for reaching the heavens.
19:34To live eternally, he had to eat and drink.
19:37Even after his death, his subjects brought offerings to his temple adjoining the pyramid.
19:43It was like a factory, constantly generating energy for the pharaoh.
19:47Vasil imagines that Pepi's temple may have looked like this.
19:52ansisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisastisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisis
20:22Pepi is enduring and perfect.
20:25This is the name of the king's funerary complex.
20:30The pyramid and its temple,
20:32the place where the priests that serve Pepi officiate.
20:42Offerings from all across Egypt arrive for the Pharaoh Pepi.
20:52The
20:58The
21:02The
21:06Under the supervision of scribes,
21:08everything is accounted for on papyrus and deposited in the temple archives.
21:13Paunifer performs the purification rituals.
21:17Now he is ready to enter the most sacred space of the temple.
21:22Behind this door is the hall of the five chapels of the pharaoh.
21:26The
21:29The
21:30The
21:39The
21:40The
21:41The
21:42The
21:43The
21:47He unveils the central statue of Pepi depicted as Osiris.
22:12In his role as lector-priest, keeper of the ceremonial rituals,
22:17Haunifer invokes the names of the pharaoh.
22:20May he live forever and always.
22:42Meanwhile, the adjoining rooms and corridors of the temple hum with activity.
23:07It's time to prepare the offerings for the king.
23:28In yet another sanctuary of the temple, Haunifer's wife Huti worships Hator, the goddess of peace and love.
23:37Back at Tabet al-Gash, the dig continues.
23:53The goal, to locate the entrance to the tomb.
24:02Vasil has noticed that a few selected stones from the doorway of Haunifer's tomb are missing.
24:08They appear to have been removed.
24:24It's possible that these missing stones contained the cartouche of the pharaoh Usirqare.
24:30Bernard Mathieu, director of the French Archaeological Institute of Cairo, comes to record and study the tomb's hieroglyphs.
24:51Here, there is another name.
24:57It's here, Hoti. He had maybe two wives.
25:00But here, it's not written, his wife.
25:03It's a concubine.
25:06Look, somebody removed her eyes.
25:09By scratching out her eyes, nose and mouth, someone has deprived this woman of resurrection in the afterlife.
25:25Vasil has found the tomb of a priest and his consort, and now a second woman.
25:32But this is not the only surprise awaiting him.
25:41In the middle of the limestone façade, a new passageway has just come to light.
25:51There is a mild brick vault, but completely collapsed.
25:57Intrigued by the tomb's strange layout, Vasil removes sand from around the fresco.
26:07Little by little, the image of a child appears, facing Haunifer.
26:12It's a boy.
26:14Here is a little girl.
26:27Between the priest and his wife, Hoti, the figure of a girl emerges.
26:32It's their eldest daughter, the beauty.
26:35Strangely, her head has been rubbed out.
26:38Behind the couple, there's another child.
26:56It's a boy.
27:01His name is Haou, like his father.
27:04Outside the tomb, the dig goes on.
27:27Vasil now has proof of the long-awaited necropolis.
27:31The archaeologists and workers have just unearthed several rock tombs,
27:36suggesting that more could lie hidden at Tabet el-Gesh.
27:41At the time of the old kingdom, pyramids, like those at Giza, were surrounded by tombs of dignitaries,
27:56priests, scribes, architects, honored to be near the pharaoh.
28:00This could be the case at Tabet el-Gesh.
28:07It's possible that a bigger monument stood next to these tombs,
28:10and that Ousserkari chose this site to build his pyramid.
28:15Vasil is perplexed, but it's still too early for answers.
28:29He hopes the priest's tomb will lead him to the pharaoh.
28:34It was customary at the time for dignitaries to oversee the construction of their own tombs.
28:57In so doing, they ensured the quality of the workmanship on sculptures and paintings.
29:06Today, Haou checks to see that all of his priestly functions and those of his consort
29:11are accurately immortalized in stone.
29:14Here we see that he knows the secrets of the king.
29:33For the moment, this is the official family here.
29:37This is with his wife, Houthi.
29:39The other, we don't know.
29:41And she had another name.
29:42She is something else.
29:44We don't know.
29:46Vasil takes measures to protect the tombs.
29:50A newly constructed wall prevents access to the so-called street of tombs,
29:55which has been sealed with metal covers.
29:57Vasil and Bernard notice that the name of one of Hounifer's daughters is identical to the name of the woman by his side on the door.
30:20She was definitely not a concubine.
30:30What really happened here 4,200 years ago?
30:35The priestess of Hathor, Houthi, was probably assisted by her daughter in the sanctuary.
31:00Or, she is not a bank.
31:07The priestess of Houthi is not a thief.
31:09He is a thief, the young man who was vara, the young woman.
31:12The priestess of Houthi is a thief.
31:13The house is a thief.
31:15What do you see?
31:16She needs a thief.
31:17The priestess of Houthi and Houthi is a thief.
31:20The priestess of Houthi is a thief.
32:53Why was the daughter's face erased?
32:59The culprit was probably her older brother.
33:23With the mother now gone, perhaps his sister had assumed too important a role in the family,
33:30maybe the role of Hounifer's consort, and the brother couldn't accept it.
33:34These walls have revealed many unexpected details to Vassil, insight into family intrigues
33:42of the priest, but not a single trace of the lost pharaoh.
33:46Inside Hounifer's tomb, the vaulted room is now completely cleared.
33:53A funerary pit emerges at its far end.
34:03It should lead to the priest's burial chamber, and perhaps reveal his link to the lost pharaoh.
34:10It is impressive in size, and might be several stories deep.
34:22But only three feet down, a small cavity appears to the west.
34:40For the moment, I see nothing.
34:44It's plenty with sand.
34:45So I was thinking that the pit will go very deeply.
34:56It can still go deeply, but very quickly after one meter, one meter twenty, there is a small
35:01passage here on the west wall.
35:03So, we shall see what it is, huh?
35:06I'm still surprised, huh?
35:08It could be, if the pit is not very deep, it could be the passage for the funerary chamber,
35:11which is a possibility, always.
35:14But we shall see, huh?
35:16I don't know.
35:17I'm surprised.
35:24Vassil might just have found the entrance to Hounifer's burial chamber.
35:29But as night falls, he must call it quits and lock down the tomb until
35:33morning.
35:34Even in the desert, news travels fast.
36:03To protect what lies below, Vassil has decided to reinforce security.
36:08Today, the workers arrive earlier than usual.
36:25This is a day unlike any other.
36:31It is the day that the burial chamber will be opened.
36:38If all goes well, Vassil is only hours away from his long-awaited encounter with Hounifer.
36:54He hopes the priest will help him solve the mystery of the lost pharaoh.
37:01The room they discovered the day before is not the passage to the burial chamber.
37:06Vassil and Bernard think it was a work room used during the tomb's construction.
37:13In only a few hours, Vassil has progressed another 15 feet.
37:17The pit descends deeper and deeper into the earth.
37:21It becomes narrow, the pit now.
37:34And here on the north side, we have again something like this, a passage or a small room, maneuvering
37:42room or something like this, and we don't enter for the moment there, but the pit really
37:49becomes smaller now.
37:50I hope maybe soon it will be the end.
37:54I think soon we shall arrive.
38:14Relying on intuition, Vassil tries to get an idea of what happened here ages ago.
38:29Like all dignitaries, the priest Hounifer was buried with offerings and funerary objects.
38:35Some were inscribed with the names of the dead and reveal their function in the courts of
38:40the pharaohs they served.
38:57In the tomb, a priest prepares statuettes of the dead to be placed in the burial chamber.
39:03How Nefer's son checks the offerings to see that nothing is amiss for the ceremony.
39:32In the middle of the pit, Vassil is now some 20 feet below the surface.
39:39It sounds empty behind.
39:42It's strange, this.
39:45It's really strange.
39:50Maybe there is a feeling here.
39:53Maybe this is a feeling.
39:54I cannot see very well with this light.
39:57He can't possibly be far from the burial chamber.
40:01The funeral procession has just reached the passageway that leads to the tomb.
40:26How Nefer will at last occupy his final resting place?
40:31Is it?
40:32Is it?
40:33It has been a long time to hang out here.
40:34Is it a great way to pray for everything?
40:36The Elaire is now some great love to walk.
40:37If we come to the dead, he will bring the reiteration.
40:38It has been a long time to walk.
40:39It has been a long time to park.
40:40The notufal and unfortunately run up the journey.
40:41The one in the end of the chapter is a long time to read and not be a long time to take a bullet.
40:43Oh, my God.
41:13Oh, my God.
41:43Oh, my God.
42:13At the bottom of this pit, after several hours of digging, Vasil has just reached the burial
42:30chamber, some 25 feet underground.
42:33It's a big room.
42:42Oh, we got bones here.
42:47Oh, we got bones here.
42:48Oh, my God.
42:50Oh, my God.
42:52The bones are scattered, the wooden
43:22coffin completely decomposed, and not a single funerary object remains. It's a terrible
43:28disappointment.
43:29So maybe this is the mummy, or the skeleton of Hound the Fair. Apparently it was moved,
43:38so we shall see if it was moved to something full from the floor, from the ceiling. We still
43:47have at least one meter, one meter fifty to go down here, to get a better access to this
43:52room, room that has approximately maybe five meters to two meters. It is vaulted, it is
43:59cut in the rock in a vaulted way.
44:02It looks like Hau Nefer's tomb was disturbed at the end of the Old Kingdom, perhaps for
44:18political reasons. He may have been involved in conspiracies that led to the demise of the
44:23first sixth-dynasty pharaohs, Teti, Usarkari and Pepi.
44:38The plague must continue. In the tomb, other funerary pits have been cleared, some almost
44:45twenty feet deep, but with the same disappointing results.
44:49To pursue his search for the missing king, Vasil opens a neighboring tomb. There are still surprises
45:08in store. New discoveries come to light. Several statuettes that belong to the same dignitary,
45:14the owner of the tomb. He is a lector-priest and turns out to be Hau Nefer's father-in-law.
45:33On the back we have his name, Khnum Hotep.
45:37A generation before Hau Nefer. Could New Hotep have served the pharaoh Teti or even Usarkari?
45:48Fragments of engraving scattered inside the tomb come from the lintel of the door. These
45:53beautiful stones were left here by men who were clearly on a mission. They didn't come
45:58to steal the stones, just to remove whatever was written on some of them.
46:03So what is missing here are the doorjams, here and here, because we have the lintel completely
46:11preserved in pieces. So apparently somebody had removed especially these doorjams here and
46:17here and the lintel fell and was broken in five pieces. We found them. Here we have a similar
46:24problem. It's missing all this wall. When they constructed this wall, these were courses, one stone, one stone.
46:30Then somebody came in cups and removed what is here on this wall. Why? Here we have the
46:37beginning of what was written here. It is written, I am. This is the beginning of what we call
46:42an autobiography. So he was just describing what he was, what he was doing, for whom he was doing
46:50this in this, whom he was serving. Maybe there was the name of a king.
46:54Today, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, comes to
47:04see the new finds at Tibet el-Gesh. He too finds it somewhat peculiar that only selected stones
47:10are missing. It's quite weak, so we don't touch it for the moment.
47:15The first part of Dynasty 6 is not clear to us, and we need really more to understand.
47:22We did not find the pyramid complex of a king of this dynasty. We have not really known a
47:28lot about the family, and therefore we depend completely on the study of the tombs.
47:33The missing texts may have been removed on purpose to banish Userkari from the historical record.
47:39He had succeeded the pharaoh Teti under compromising circumstances.
47:49The king Teti was killed by his bodyguards. So there was a kind of conspiration against the king Teti.
47:58And then came King Userkari for a short time, maybe one, two or three years.
48:03So during that period, maybe these people served this king because it was the king.
48:07But then when Pepi came on power, maybe at that time, everybody that served the king was removed.
48:15Maybe their biographies, what was written about this king was removed.
48:19Because he was maybe considered as somebody that took the power by force.
48:23After the death of Userkari, Pepi came to power, and work on his pyramid began.
48:30How Nefer was able to adapt to these new circumstances.
48:34He became the chief of the priests at Pepi's temple.
48:38Although he had witnessed disturbing events, he was now promoted to a more important position.
48:44The missing information shows that there was information that was so important,
48:53and maybe compromising for the next rule.
49:01The dig at Tabat al-Gersh has confirmed the existence of one part of the lost city of the dead from the old kingdom.
49:07The destruction of selective hieroglyphics texts in the tombs of Haunefer and his father-in-law proves that someone intended to eliminate all signs of the pharaoh Userkari.
49:22Vassil vows to continue his quest to prove that this is in fact a royal necropolis.
49:32His hope is that this new site will yield dozens, even hundreds of tombs of those dignitaries who once served the Egyptian king.
49:39And if luck prevails, there will arise through these shifting sands the tomb of the lost pharaoh.
50:09The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:11The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:12The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:13The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:14The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:15The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:16The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:17The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:18The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:19The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:20The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:21The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:22The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
50:24The new site will be found as a royal necropolis.
Recommended
24:41
|
Up next
29:04
1:04
8:03
0:21
45:43
41:48
44:00
51:16
59:13
59:03