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7.Wonders.of.the.Ancient.World.S01E01

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00:00In an ancient Egyptian tomb over a hundred years ago, archaeologists discovered the
00:13oldest ever surviving description of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
00:21A fragment of papyrus had been used to wrap a mummified body, and it still had writing
00:31on it, including these magical words, hepta, which means seven in Greek, and the beginning
00:39of the amata, which means wonders or sights.
00:44So basically, this was a bucket list of the most spectacular sights in the world.
00:50A kind of guide so that ancient tourists could travel to them, which means that I can follow
00:57these clues and follow in their footsteps.
01:05I've spent years investigating the seven wonders of the ancient world.
01:10This just has to be one of the best views in the world.
01:14The unique list of monumental masterpieces first written down 2,300 years ago.
01:22Unbelievable.
01:23Oh my gosh.
01:24Now I'm heading on a thrilling journey to explore them all.
01:28Hello.
01:29Oh.
01:30Following the trail of ancient travellers.
01:32I love Cleopatra.
01:33And adventurers across three continents.
01:37Bleh.
01:38Deciding the mysteries of who built them.
01:40And look, what's the lesson?
01:42Artemisia.
01:43How?
01:44This was the space.
01:45This was his workshop.
01:46Exactly.
01:47And why?
01:48This statue was all about the seething power of potential.
01:53With exclusive access to brand new discoveries.
01:56It's not just any city gate.
01:58It's the one that leads to one of the wonders of the world.
02:01Absolute.
02:02To bring the wonders back to life.
02:04Exactly where they once stood.
02:08Hello.
02:09Hello.
02:10Hello.
02:11Hello.
02:12Hello.
02:13Hello.
02:20My journey begins here in Egypt, on the River Nile.
02:31I'm heading for the capital, Cairo.
02:34What an adventure.
02:40So, this is how travelers have explored the sites of Egypt for millennia.
02:45Cleopatra, that great pharaoh, brought Julius Caesar down here on a river cruise.
02:51And this beautiful, beautiful waterway has taken me very close to my first wonder destination.
02:59Bye.
03:00Bye.
03:01See you later.
03:03Bye.
03:04Bye.
03:05Bye.
03:06Bye.
03:07Bye.
03:08Bye.
03:09My target lies on a desert plain west of the Nile, the Pisa Plateau.
03:18This just has to be one of the best views in the world, doesn't it?
03:24Bye.
03:25Bye.
03:26So, these are the pyramids, and that one over there, the furthest one, that is the oldest
03:29and biggest of all the ancient wonders.
03:36Up close, you appreciate just how massive it is.
03:42Just how massive it is rightly called the Great Pyramid. It's dominated Giza for a mind-blowing
03:524600 years I just love this place. You know the thing is however many times I've come here
03:58I almost can't believe it's real when I stand next to it. It's the
04:06essence of
04:08awe-inspiring
04:10Over 400 feet high and the heaviest building ever made by humans
04:18It's the heaviest building on earth. If you weighed it, it would weigh six and a half million tons
04:26That's 20 times the weight of the Empire State Building
04:33Every year 15 million visitors flock to see the Great Pyramid
04:38It was a magnet for tourists in ancient times, too
04:42Hi, Salaam
04:44Beautiful. What's the name of your camel?
04:45It's a good camel. I'm sure it's a good camel. What's the name?
04:48Michael Jordan
04:49Michael Jordan
04:50Yes. Hello. Hello. Hello. Are you a biter?
04:52Yes, no. Don't worry.
04:54They either kiss or bite the camel, basically
04:58Guides and souvenir sellers have also been here for centuries
05:02Hi. Oh, you're just anybody's, aren't you?
05:05Whenever you've come to the pyramid through time there have been people offering you camel rides or you know giving you souvenirs
05:13souvenirs and Herodotus
05:15Herodotus, no less, who was a Greek historian who we think came here around two and a half thousand years ago
05:22When he came there was a guide who interpreted the hieroglyphs that were on the outside of the pyramid
05:28And he was told that they represented the number of onions and beetroot and garlic
05:34That were used to feed the workers and it wasn't true
05:37But just the guides are making out to tell stories even back then for ancient tourists
05:44The beautiful camel nice to meet you chakra
05:50Many tales have been told about the great pyramid
05:54Some claim it was built by aliens
05:57But this was a giant tomb for one man
06:02a king of all egypt
06:04called khufu
06:07Salaam
06:10Do you have any um pharaohs or king khufu?
06:13Do you have khufu?
06:14Khufu, yes
06:15Yes
06:15I love it back back back
06:17Egyptian money
06:18Egyptian money
06:19200 Egyptian power
06:21Okay
06:22Thank you
06:23Thank you
06:23Shagran
06:24Shagran
06:24Thank you
06:26So I wanted to get this because this is actually a pretty good replica of the only undisputed image we have
06:35Of king khufu and I adore it because it's so tiny which is ironic
06:40Given how massive his tomb was
06:43Thank you
06:43Shagran
06:44Shagran
06:44Bye
06:47Once the king died
06:48courtiers and priests accompanied his mummified body in a procession across the plateau
06:54And right inside the great pyramid
06:57I'm about to follow in their footsteps
06:59Going into the heart of this ancient wonder
07:02I'm exploring the oldest ever seven wonders list
07:17First the awesome great pyramid of king khufu
07:25It's just incredible isn't it
07:28But wait until you see it in all its original glory
07:35First we have to precision map the rough stone blocks never meant to be on show
07:40Then add back the lost limestone casing polished to sparkle like silver
07:47At its summit a glittering capstone of gold
07:53And not in a desert
07:54When the pyramid was built this was a lush green landscape with the waters of the nile running much closer
08:01Now I just have to tell you something pyramid is actually the name given to this place by the ancient greeks
08:11Because pyramids was their word for a little bun or cake shaped a bit like this
08:18For the ancient egyptians this was mer
08:22m-e-r a place of ascension
08:25Because this in fact was a launch pad to jettison king khufu into eternity
08:35The engineers of the great pyramid weren't just building a monument
08:39They were designing a machine to help make king khufu immortal
08:43To understand how the wonder operated i need to go inside
08:51we are incredibly lucky because my team and i have been given access
08:58inside the pyramid after sunset which means we can get to explore its secrets all by ourselves
09:06From the 18th century when travelers came here guides will often shoot a gun into the entrance to scare away tomb robbers and ghosts
09:22so wish me luck
09:27Treasure hunters hacked out this tunnel to reach passages they hoped led to the pyramids riches
09:36I
09:38Just look at this
09:40Even the engineering in here is totally remarkable so
09:46Everything about this place is a wonder
09:49both outside
09:51and in
09:53This steep vaulted corridor is known as the grand gallery
09:57It's just one of a network of mysterious spaces engineered by the pyramids architects
10:06A lower tunnel leads to an underground cavity carved out of the bedrock
10:13And above that there's a second vault now called the queen's chamber
10:18I'm heading for the most impressive of all
10:22The king's chamber
10:24Where we think khufu's body was brought when he died
10:29Big enough for the mountain of possessions the king would need in the afterlife
10:38So the whole of the tomb is designed like a giant fortress or a kind of bank vault
10:44So this is where solid blocks of stone could come crashing down to protect the burial chamber itself
10:53Against two mobbers
10:55So
11:07This is the king's chamber
11:12And the walls here are made of solid red granite
11:18That's been brought all the way from Aswan, so that's hundreds of miles away
11:22And when you see this stone in the desert
11:24It glows with this kind of
11:27Eerie
11:29Violet light and actually red granite is slightly radioactive
11:33So the way the king here was being protected in many ways
11:39And this is his sarcophagus
11:43This is where the king would have been laid to rest
11:52So this room itself has its own secrets I just have to show you this
11:56So this is a shaft that goes right the way out to the outside of the pyramid
12:03If I put my hands in the air is blissfully cool on my arm
12:08And so people originally thought maybe this was a ventilation shaft
12:12But in fact the way this orientates goes directly up in line with the stars
12:19So it's probably the way that khufu could travel out to be reunited with the universe
12:34Today the stray dogs of the giza plateau are the only ones with access to climb the great pyramid
12:42But we know from the records and images they left
12:45For centuries tourists too clambered to the top
12:53The pyramid has intrigued for thousands of years
12:58And it's posing new questions thanks to the latest technology
13:05I know a man who can explain what's being discovered
13:08Jan Frankie has spent over 30 years using radar to look through solid rock
13:17Lovely to see you
13:18You and I both love this place so much and it's 4,600 years old
13:22Yeah
13:22But the incredible thing is we don't know everything about it
13:25But you bring science to the story
13:28Well that's right you know
13:30A hundred years ago exploration of the structure would involve you know chisels pickaxes or indeed explosives
13:36And now we look at it more as a preservation effort
13:39So we would want to use things that would be akin to medical imaging, right?
13:43We can't take an x-ray of this because it's a rather large patient
13:46But what else can we do? What other sciences can we apply to this to try and map out what's really inside?
13:52Yeah, because the whole thing
13:54It's like a kind of honeycomb in a way
13:56It's full of chambers and channels and shafts
14:00Indeed right and four or five years ago a team was able to map out a very large low density zone
14:08Now we don't say it's necessarily a void it could be anything directly above the grand gallery
14:13We might in the future be able to actually get a shape out of it
14:17And that's very exciting because that might mean that there is something the size of a cathedral
14:23Inside that structure that we don't know we don't even know how to get to it
14:27We have no idea what it contains
14:28That's the incredible thing isn't it? This was a tomb
14:31But the body of the king has never been discovered so it could be in there somewhere
14:37That's right, you know, we look at the king's chamber, right?
14:39And that was just assumed to be the king's chamber and we think oh, that's great
14:42But the sarcophagus is too large to fit through the entrance for example
14:46There's a lot of enigmas around that
14:49Could it be that that could be even a decoy?
14:51Are there other rooms elsewhere?
14:54We just don't know and that's what's so exciting about this
14:59So what about the man behind the tomb?
15:04Like wonder seekers through the ages
15:06I've come to one of Cairo's oldest bazaars
15:10Heading to meet a friend with unique insight into the motives
15:13And mummification of the wonder maker khufu
15:20Professor sahar salim was a key part of a project that scanned all of egypt's royal mummies found so far
15:28Thank you so much I found beautiful
15:32This is my favorite king city the first
15:36He was the father of king rancis the second
15:39Yes
15:40Whenever I look at him I just realized the the embalmers did a great job in in placing
15:48Pats underneath the skin of the face to give him a beautiful appearance
15:53King khufu built his great pyramid to last and he must have wanted his body to be perfectly preserved
16:01To live for eternity
16:03Is it right that sometimes you get pepper put into them into mummies?
16:08Yes
16:09Incredible
16:09Yeah yeah yeah
16:09They did that likely to repel insects and like an antibiotic as well
16:16And and the embalmers they they kept the unique features of the king
16:21For example rancis the great he had such a unique nose
16:25And the embalmers in order to avoid being uh being pressed by the binding and by the linen or so
16:33They put a small bone of a small animal inside the nose
16:38You're the perfect person to understand that this this wonder in human terms
16:44I i always imagined myself being one of the ancient egyptian people they are my ancestors after all
16:52So i i'm thinking with the mind and seeing with the eyes of king khufu
16:57He wanted the pyramid to be as immortal as himself and to be remembered through this huge project that all the nation
17:06They joined in order to accomplish the this legacy of the king maize and i just adore the fact that this
17:16This has to be a good sign doesn't it we've been blessed by the company of a of a cat for our chat that couldn't be more egyptian
17:26The experts who prepared khufu's body were part of a workforce tens of thousands strong all aiming to launch him into the afterlife
17:34Most labored away on the construction site using materials brought in from across continents
17:43And every year there are new finds that tell us how they helped build the pyramid
17:49It's a total privilege to get in here and i promise you're in for a treat
17:57Welcome to our flea market for 35 years
18:00Mark lerner and his team have been uncovering a vast workers city along with their possessions and tools
18:10By decoding these everyday objects they're piecing together the lives of the wonders forgotten heroes
18:20And these people they aren't slaves because this is the question yeah
18:24Yeah yeah and were they slaves yeah we have evidence that labor was obligatory
18:30But labor was obligatory through much of the pre-modern world
18:34Now you everybody owed service to somebody above them their lord and that was true in ancient egypt for sure yeah
18:41They're building the great pyramid of giza you know
18:44One of the biggest buildings in the world until the turn of the 20th century
18:47But they're still in the old kingdom at this period using essentially stone age tools this
18:53Is bang i mean it's a basher you would rotate it as you go yeah
18:58And this is how it creates the sphere shape put a little bit of grain here and then grind it into flour this jar
19:05We think they may have
19:07Put cheese in the jar buried it and they age the cheese and uh
19:12It's called basically an arabic old cheese
19:16A modern casserole very simple this is a combedware vat fragment
19:22And the idea is that they're combing the surface because the oil is very slippery so are you taking that back?
19:27Are you feeling anxious about that now?
19:30Crude cutting meat bone but they come in all different shapes here fish hook
19:35With a little loop for tying it to a line so what a thought so they're building the pyramids
19:42And if they have a bit of downtime they're going out for us
19:45Well you see it implies a bit of downtime it implies fishing so we have to factor all this into your earlier question
19:52Were they slaves how difficult was this work all of this gets you know added in to the puzzle
19:58And everything you're saying is a reminder that when we think of these wonders
20:02We shouldn't just think of them as the kind of engineering end products
20:06It's the it's the people who make them who make it's the people who make the pyramids
20:10I realized that to understand the pyramids
20:13I really had to turn my back and look away but look nearby
20:17You know for where were they living?
20:19How are they housed?
20:20How are they fed?
20:22And uh and to find these elementary structures of everyday life that made it possible to build the great pyramid
20:28Is one of the most satisfying things in my career
20:31Mark what you're finding is
20:33Amazing and you're giving you're giving the pyramids back to the people who who built them because you know
20:39By by just by touching them by looking at this it allows us to respect them all
20:45It's what we're all about in our excavations
20:50Mark gave me a great tip off
20:52Experts are scanning intriguing holes around the pyramid that decode how engineers marked out the tombs giant footprint
21:04So this is what they're scanning all the way along the south side every three meters or so
21:09You've got these dibbits where stakes would have been put and on the stakes would be tied ropes
21:16Which measured out the matrix of the foundation of the great pyramid so you know it all starts here
21:24When the last measuring rope had been lined up construction must have begun
21:34The pyramids army of workers went on to shift 2.3 million blocks of stone into place
21:41It took between 20 to 25 years to construct the pyramid
21:47Which would have meant that one block would have been put in place?
21:51Every two minutes and some of these weigh 15 tons
21:57Which of course begs the question that every wonder seeker has wanted to be answered
22:03How did they build this thing?
22:19I'm on a mission to discover the construction secrets behind the oldest and biggest of all the seven wonders
22:27the great pyramid at geyser
22:30This engineering giant didn't spring from nowhere the ancient egyptians have been building prototypes for years
22:44I'm following the route of the nile because up here there are some brand new secrets. I want to explore
22:52I'm heading 20 or so kilometers south of cairo
22:55To ancient sakara because this is where we find an origin story of our oldest wonder
23:05This is what's known as the step pyramid and it was actually built by a predecessor of khufu called dosa
23:11And it is the prototype for all the pyramids that followed so there will definitely be clues to the engineering of the great pyramid
23:19In here
23:22Researchers surveying this area have developed an intriguing new theory about how all those stone blocks made it to the top of the pyramid
23:33It revolves around an element that might seem a bit of a surprise out here in the desert
23:38water
23:40When the step pyramid was built there was much more rainfall than there is today
23:47Flash floods would have sent water coursing through the area as it headed down towards the nile
23:53And just beside the pyramids enclosure is a set of huge trenches and shafts that could have been used to store and channel it
24:02underground pipes have been found connecting these trenches with the center of the pyramid itself
24:11So lucky to get in thank you
24:23down below in shafts not open to the public is a labyrinth of twisting tunnels leading deep under the pyramid
24:45This is a quite a trail to follow to find evidence and it is really hot down here. It's really hot
24:59Oh
25:05Look at this i mean that is extraordinary
25:09This is just awesome
25:12So for decades people have been debating what this was for but it could be that this huge space is basically a giant
25:21lift shaft with the lift mechanics powered by water
25:30The theory goes that water is channeled into the shaft where it pushes up a floating raft which lifts the heavy stones
25:40Stacking up more platforms on the raft lifts the stones even higher building the pyramid from the inside out
25:48And you can have a look at this round here
25:56It could be this huge plug basically control the water supply
26:02So it would come down to block it and then it would be released to flood this whole chamber
26:12This is still a theory
26:14But i love the idea that the engineers who built the great pyramid could also have used water power
26:21Remember the nile was much closer to our wonder then
26:25Another of this wonder's secrets
26:31The great pyramid is an
26:34Astonishing wonder
26:35It is gigantic and it's still standing four thousand six hundred years after it was first built
26:45And it might have been conceived to serve the vision and ambition of a single man
26:52But it was only possible thanks to the ingenuity and collaboration and
26:59Enormous effort of many tens of thousands
27:04To reach the next wonder on our ancient bucket list i'm heading downstream
27:21Along the nile all the way to the coast and the city of alexandria
27:27It's been the largest settlement on the mediterranean ever since our wonder list was written down
27:38alexandria is named after the greek empire builder who founded it 2 300 years ago alexander the great
27:46This huge harbor was the secret of the city's success
27:58Where 300 galleys could dock at any one time a dynamic crossroads for trade and ideas
28:07The coastline here is notoriously dangerous so the people of alexandria built a
28:13A massive lighthouse to help the ships come in to safety it was around 100 meters or so high
28:20So that is bigger than the statue of liberty. It's taller than big ben
28:26It was on that promontory where you can see that fort today
28:30And it would eventually become a favorite on the seven wonders list
28:37Raised around 280 bce
28:40unlike the great pyramid the lighthouse no longer stands felled by a devastating earthquake close on 700 years ago
28:49To build a picture of what it looks like and how it operated we'll take some detective work
28:54In roman times travelers came to alexandria not only to see the lighthouse wonder
29:10But as a health cure
29:15Securing a room as close as possible to the beachfront and the sea air was vital
29:20That's what i call a view
29:25And that tradition seems to carry on right the way through to the 19th century
29:29There is this brilliant book which is a guidebook to traveling to egypt
29:33And it says that you need to pack a medicine chest that contains blue pills whatever those are and
29:41Rhubarb pills and a rat trap
29:44Luckily i'm not gonna need that in my charming hotel here
29:48My beautiful view
29:49I'm heading to the area where we know the lighthouse once stood
29:59The end of this promontory which used to be an island called faros
30:04Why the wonder's proper name is the faros of alexandria
30:10Now home to a fort the lighthouse was a towering maze with a ramp for animals to lug fuel up to its giant flame
30:18Exploring the fort there are echoes of the ancient faros which had 300 rooms
30:25And fantastically we do have an eyewitness account of the wonder when it still stood
30:32Almost 900 years ago an architect engineer from southern spain called al balawi on his way to mecca on pilgrimage
30:43Came here with some of his mates on what was basically a kind of research adventure trip
30:49Al balawi wrote a meticulously detailed description of the lighthouse inside and out
31:00It sounds like a thrilling indiana jones like experience as they wandered around inside the empty wonder
31:08He describes three sections stacked up on top of each other a square base
31:18an octagon in the middle
31:19And a circular tower at the top
31:24There's tantalizing evidence that some of the wonder's original building materials
31:30Have survived right here
31:32This is um a pedestal made of red granite that would originally have had a statue on top of it
31:40And i am pretty certain that this came from the original lighthouse
31:45So i'm going to see what other clues i can track down in the city
31:48The first place to look is somewhere archaeologists are making remarkable discoveries
31:59Underwater in alexandria's harbor nice to see you nice to meet you what an adventure
32:06thomas fauchet is director of an archaeology institute that's been exploring the seabed here for the last 30 years
32:14and he's taking me to one of the most impressive of their finds
32:19too heavy to shift beyond the harbor wall a giant 13 meter high doorpost from the lighthouse's entrance
32:29so here we are the door gem of the lighthouse so this is part of it yes it was broken into pieces the two blocks are 70 tons
32:3970 tons it's immediately we're getting a sense of this extraordinary scale
32:45also i love the fact all the fishermen are just hanging out yeah you know gone fishing next to a remnant of the one of the seven wonders
32:53i've just got to have a moment here as well because we're bang opposite the royal quarter of alexandria
32:58we know that cleopatra would have looked at the at the lighthouse and
33:03and she would probably have walked through that door probably yes definitely she she had
33:10it's it's great because i love cleopatra i'd love to touch it we're so near and yet so far so you know
33:17her hand might have run run along the along the doorpost it's just incredible from us it's so incredible
33:24based on the find the team has reconstructed what this monumental doorway looked like
33:33the two blocks that are in on the embankment and that's the one that are that are still under
33:39water with the lint all of it i mean that really really is incredible and beyond the harbor wall in
33:45the shadow of the fort something even more remarkable a debris field of ancient remains
33:55so you have here the diver with a camera special camera to go under water and then it's taking a
34:01lot of photos around the blocks the teams mapped over 5 000 blocks in 3d using a technique called
34:09photogrammetry so what you see here this is the fort and so the lighthouse was lying just underneath
34:16and if you go there you will see all these blocks all around it is thick with blocks it's like a carpet
34:24yeah it's a lot of blocks and and that's here i mean so we're kind of actually we're floating a bit
34:29so we're kind of moving almost right under the boat is right these blocks are here yes
34:33it's really exciting i don't know it's really exciting the image of the diver
34:43rams home the sheer scale of this ancient wonderland plotting the heaviest blots which stayed where
34:51they fell means the team can now pinpoint the exact location of the lighthouse that the location of the
34:58lighthouse was not strictly underneath the fortress but maybe located a little bit few doesn't matter
35:06right here yeah reality lies under the water still here
35:13the underwater archaeology can fill in the gaps left by ancient writers so now we can recreate the
35:22faros lighthouse where it once stood
35:28its three tears soared into the sky the entrance was reached by a giant causeway at least 100 meters tall
35:41in antiquity it was only outdone by the great pyramid huge statues guarded its monumental doorway
35:49mythical sea creatures known as tritons blew trumpets from its walls
35:59at its summit an enormous light able to guide ships to safety the ancients tell us it was visible from
36:06over 50 kilometers away a welcome beacon for seafarers approaching this treacherous coast
36:14the power behind the beam can be found in surprising places you still get these traditional horses and
36:21carriages all over alexandria super hair super hair actually mainly for tourists now but here's a little
36:29fact for you in the lighthouse the fuel was mainly horse manure because it gives so much energy and it kind
36:36of takes ages to burn and it produces loads of smoke which they also had in the lighthouse so you know
36:42just think about it this is the descendants of one of the creators of one of the wonders of the world
36:48very nice horse very nice horse very nice chocolate salam salam bye
36:57what i want to investigate next are the people who dreamt up the lighthouse in the first place
37:02and the dynamic ancient city that nurtured such a technological marvel
37:19i'm in alexandria the city alexander the great founded on egypt's mediterranean coast investigating
37:27its lighthouse wonder and the greek culture of the people who built it so this is one of our wonder
37:35makers ptolemy the first he was actually a best friend of alexander the great back in his hometown in
37:42what's now northern greece and he ended up being a general for alexander and then taking over the
37:47province of egypt's after alexander the great died and it was he who first conceived of the idea of this
37:54lighthouse look at this lovely greek salad perfect but it was it was ptolemy's son ptolemy the second
38:04who actually completed the lighthouse ptolemy the second was a was a bit more of a party boy
38:09so he used to organize these huge parades here in alexandria with zebras and ostriches and even
38:17rhinoceros and these giant kind of early ancient robotic automata so he was a man who did nothing
38:26by hearts and it was ptolemy the second who witnessed the lighthouse soaring into the sky here
38:35two giant statues just inside the lighthouse door were almost certainly ptolemy the second and his wife
38:43arsinoe both were salvaged from the seabed in the 1990s and ptolemy now stands next door to the
38:52modern library of the city overlooking students from the university here i'm sure he'd have approved
39:00because the lighthouse was an integral part of the ptolemy's master plan to make alexandria a hotbed
39:08of knowledge of knowledge and innovation evidence for this ancient melting cot can be found underground
39:18this stairway leads down beneath the city streets to a labyrinth of tombs dating back 1800 years
39:28what you see down here is what a fantastic international mash-up city alexandria was
39:39the clues are carved into the walls it's a heady mix of styles
39:47egyptian gods guarding a tomb
39:52a greek shield decorated with a snake-haired medusa
39:56and a roman soldier's uniform sported by egypt's dog-headed god of the underworld anubis
40:04this place was a kind of gene pool of ideas and inspiration so for instance the alexandrians invented
40:16the steam engine and the world's first vending machine and principles of maths and medicine we still
40:23use today and the lighthouse was the incarnation of all that brilliance so basically alexandria was a bit
40:32like the um like the silicon valley of the ancient world
40:36the key innovation at the heart of alexandria's towering wonder was its light with that 50 kilometer reach
40:47so how did ancient engineers achieve this feat they're very detailed descriptions of how the lighthouse
40:58technology actually worked and basically what people talk about are polished mirrors which is almost
41:06certainly metal probably highly polished copper and just a natural flame so what we thought we'd do
41:13is try to work out how the tech actually actually operated and it's exactly the same technology as a car
41:21headlights or a torch where you have a light in the middle and then these kinds of concave mirrors
41:26around the outside so so we couldn't we couldn't afford a whole um reconstruction of the lighthouse of
41:34alexandria so what we thought we'd do is get this charming copper bowl because of course for a lighthouse
41:40it's the beam that really matters and in theory that's focusing the flame in a sort of laser beam
41:48of light which is currently blinding the cameraman this is not bad says the director off is that you're
41:57getting a beam from it working really well is it it works it works yeah well as we know it did because
42:04we've been writing about it for 2 000 years but we proved the technology works we're all so excited
42:11it's actually working look at that it's it's a mini wonder of the world
42:29the pharaoh's lighthouse deserves to be on the ancient wonders list because it was a technological marvel
42:36no lighthouse as big has ever been built since but also because of what it represented in this dynamic
42:46cosmopolitan ancient city of alexandria a burning beacon of enlightenment and delight
42:55of invention and vision and wisdom
42:59next time i travel to greece to investigate two remarkable wonders the tallest statue in the
43:12ancient world the stunning colossus of roads and at the birthplace of the olympic games
43:19an awe-inspiring tribute to the king of the gods
43:38so
43:49so
43:53you
43:54you
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