"NARRATOR:" "Ancient Egypt." "For over 3000 years." "the world's most vibrant and puzzling civilisation flourished through war and peace." "The Egyptians built great cities." "enduring monuments." "they advanced mathematics and technology." "Their astonishing legacy survives to this day." "Despite all their brilliant accomplishments." "the Egyptians seemed fixated on one singular idea - their own deaths." "No other culture invested so much in the afterlife." "Now. experts are unravelling the secret of this seemingly morbid obsession by examining Egypt's most elaborate tomb builder." "Ramses the Great." "They're discovering how the ancients crafted an intricate balance between the world of the living and what lies beyond." "Strange as it seems." "Egypt's celebration of death might hold the secret to the culture's longevity." "Egypt. more than 3000 years ago." "Pharaoh Seti I is dead." "Mourning priests and wailing women gather in the Valley of the Kings to escort their leader to his resting place." "His heir." "Ramses. watches the Opening of the Mouth ritual to awaken the corpse's senses in the afterlife." "For a few moments more." "Seti still rules Egypt." "Ramses can assume the throne only after his father is buried and becomes a god." "The son inherits a powerful empire where he'll rule over millions of subjects." "People travel across the country to worship their new pharaoh." "Ramses' reign will span an incredible 66 years." "And he'll live longer than most every other pharaoh." "even outliving many of his sons and daughters." "Like all Egyptian rulers. he will spend much of his life planning for his death." "Almost as soon as he takes the throne." "he starts designing his tomb." "insisting that it be more magnificent than his father's." "But it should be at the same place." "the Valley of the Kings." "where generations of Egyptian rulers began their journey to the afterlife." "Ramses chooses the spot for his tomb and appoints his royal scribe." "Ramose." "to be sure it's built properly." "Ramose is now one of the most important people in the pharaoh's life because he is responsible for the pharaoh's afterlife." "He will oversee every detail of the massive royal tomb." "Just after the pharaoh ascends the throne." "labourers have already started construction." "The limestone vaults are still being dug." "but now by Egyptologists." "And perhaps no one knows the Valley of the Kings better than Kent Weeks." "who discovered the elaborate burial complex of Ramses' sons." "For 30 years. he and his colleagues have carefully measured and mapped every underground chamber in order to conserve them." "The Egyptians were well aware that there was no way anyone could predict how long a person." "even a pharaoh. would live." "And so it was considered desirable to begin work on his tomb early in his reign so that." "God forbid he should die young." "the process of burial and the process of him making the journey into the next life can begin without any delay." "The geography of their country explains why death so obsessed the Egyptians." "A small stripe of a vivid and fertile land surrounded by deadly deserts." "Egypt seemed perched on the threshold of life and death." "Long before the days of the pharaohs." "people here would have noticed a peculiar phenomenon." "Corpses don't decay in the dry. scorching sand." "Even after decades." "they stay almost intact." "And if flesh can be preserved indefinitely." "maybe life can be too." "Once the body. the flesh." "is divorced from a clean desert sand." "it starts to deteriorate." "and so perhaps when the Egyptians came upon these bodies they realised that they really needed to do something to actively protect the body to preserve it." "so that the soul could use it for eternity." "At the American University of Cairo." "Egyptologist Salima Ikram and her students try to reconstruct the ancient craft of mummification." "Embalmers not only preserved humans." "but animals too." "The students. with only sketchy." "2000-year-old instructions." "rely on trial and error - just as the Egyptians did." "ln order to preserve the body." "because they believed your soul really needed the body to continue on into the afterlife." "the Egyptians started to experiment in different ways until they came up ultimately with this mummification." "which is the kind of mummification probably most commonly practised from about 1 400. 1 500 BC onward." "At first. the corpse lies in natron." "a natural desert salt." "It has to be frequently changed until the mummy completely dries out." "This could take up to 40 days." "The students skip the ancient incantations while rubbing seven "sacred" oils into the mummy's skin to keep it supple." "The whole process might take 70 days." "And then the mummy's ready for wrapping in linen bandages." "Over the millennia. countless creatures got the royal mummy treatment." "Even crocodiles." "the holy animals of the gods." "Some kings even took their beloved pets with them to the grave." "And that reveals something about how the Egyptians envisioned the afterlife." "The city of Abydos was the site of the cult of Osiris." "the god of death and resurrection." "ln Ramses' time. thousands of people came here every year to honour this god and pray for eternal life." "Even the new pharaoh and his Great Royal Wife." "Nefertari." "make the pilgrimage." "Like all visitors. they bring offerings to the sanctuary of Osiris." "Two thousand years before the Valley of the Kings." "Egypt's first pharaohs built their cemetery in Abydos." "The graves have been excavated - and looted - many times." "But archaeologist Gunter Dreyer still finds tiny funerary objects in the sand - like these models of garlic - that the deceased would carry into the afterlife." "The Egyptians apparently saw the next world as identical to this world." "Burial goods included wine-jars." "arrow-heads. small containers shaped like animals." "and other familiar objects to make the afterlife comfortable." "The artefacts in Abydos reveal how Egyptians imagined eternal life." "From the ruins." "Gunter Dreyer and Martin Sahlhof of the German Archaeological Institute carefully reconstruct early royal burials." "The way these tombs were constructed suggests that very early - even two millennia before Ramses - people had a solid concept of life after death." "The burial plots of the ancient pharaohs are laid out like palaces for the next life." "Deep inside the tomb." "straw mats line the main chamber and a large wooden ark holds the pharaoh's gilded coffin." "The chamber was stocked with food and jugs of beer for his journey to the next world." "Archaeologists also found the burial rooms for the pharaoh's courtiers." "who had to die to serve their departed king." "From nature. the Egyptians learned that all life follows an eternal rhythm." "If the sun rises every morning." "if the Nile floods every year." "if grain springs from the earth every summer, then it must be possible for humans to rise from the dead." "Tomb architecture expresses this shining optimism." "From a side chamber with a statue of the pharaoh." "a staircase rises to the west." "From here. the departed king would begin the journey of a lifetime." "to the Empire of the Dead." "The tomb surface. covered with cedar beams and straw matting." "is topped by a sand hill." "a symbol of resurrection." "The creation myth says all life emerged from the primordial ocean." "As the water slowly drained." "it revealed the first piece of land - the primaeval mound." "The Egyptians relived that genesis every year." "as the Nile ebbed and exposed fertile land... the promise of life's return." "As the hill on the graves reached skyward. it became more abstract." "ln just four centuries. the little mound grew into the pyramid of Giza." "Egypt's primal symbol became the pinnacle of architectural genius." "No civilisation in the world ever invested so much time and resources into tomb building." "But the investment in the afterlife paid off in the here and now." "based on what Egyptologist Mark Lehner has found." "He and his colleagues unearthed the huge town surrounding the site of the giant pyramids - what he believes to be the birthplace of the Egyptian nation." "Certainly the pyramids had a large part in creating an identity. I think." "They had to have been. you know." "a socialising force... you know. creating identity on a national scale." "Egyptians is Egyptians." "whether north or south." "An incomparable collective achievement... the pyramid of Giza becomes the tallest building in the world." "unsurpassed for almost 4000 years." "Over more than two decades." "countless workers built this enormous site which celebrates the immortality of the pharaoh." "These monuments express the cosmic order." "which the king has to preserve for the common good." "even in the afterlife." "Every Egyptian yearns for eternity but only the god Osiris." "ruler of the underworld." "judge and god of the dead." "determines who is worthy." "Ramses beseeches Osiris to grant him a long life because he has ambitious plans to extend Egypt's power and build his legacy." "And for that. he needs time." "Over the millennia." "millions of people came to Abydos." "Countless fragments of sacrificial bowls bear witness to their belief in Osiris and in life after death." "Traditionally. some people used bowls like these to write letters to their dead relatives." "asking for help or advice." "The content dealt with everyday occurrences." "There are letters where a woman will come to her deceased husband's tomb and she'll say "Excuse me..." ""Didn't you say your son should inherit these plots of land?" ""Now look. your brother's coming and saying that it's his son's."" "You know. or a woman will come and she will say to her deceased parents. you know..." ""Please help me conceive." "Don't you want your household to live on?"" "Ramses struggles with greater concerns." "He yearns to become the most powerful pharaoh the world has ever seen and starts by immortalising himself with epic construction projects." "He has to prove himself at Thebes." "The city is already Egypt's showcase." "with more than 50.000 citizens." "At its centre stands the great temple of Karnak." "the most sacred place in the kingdom because it's home to the imperial god Amun." "At Karnak." "Ramses' predecessors built monumental pylons." "a sacred lake and boulevards." "On the west side of the river stand the gigantic mortuary temples of the deceased pharaohs." "How can Ramses surpass all this?" "How can he leave behind an even greater legacy?" "He has the resources." "He just needs time." "As if obsessed. he starts with his tomb." "carefully planning it to the last detail." "The work will take many years." "He relies on specialists - master-builders. masons. craftsmen." "They have their own department in the administration of southern Egypt." "They report to Ramose." "who reports to the pharaoh." "To finalise the layout of the tomb's interior." "Ramose presents a floor plan." "noting all corridors and halls they want to dig for Ramses in the Valley of the Kings." "Stone tombs demand perfect planning." "Anything less would jeopardise the pharaoh's chances of reaching the afterlife." "It's an enormous responsibility for Ramose to shoulder." "but Pharaoh puts his trust in him." "Like any royal burial vault." "the crypt is more than a resting-place." "It also preserves the world order and must not be desecrated." "Deep drop shafts... and fake walls are designed to foil grave robbers." "The royal mummy must stay hidden forever." "The pharaoh needs his body to cross the borders to eternity." "Without a mummy." "there is no afterlife." "The unfinished reliefs in the front of the tomb are a bluff." "so burglars think the grave wasn't used." "A hidden floor leads to the burial chamber." "which conceals the pharaoh's sarcophagus." "Beneath the mummy another enormous tunnel leads to the underworld... and eternal life." "The tomb builders lived in a village called Set Ma'at." "or Place of the World Order." "near the Valley of the Kings." "on a dry and unwelcoming patch of ground." "Despite being only a few kilometres from Thebes." "workers here are completely cut off from the outside world." "One theory is that the ancient Egyptians who lived here were sequestered because they were involved in work on royal tombs and what they were doing had to be kept confidential." "Not all Egyptologists like that idea." "Another theory is that they were working with raw materials of great value - silver and gold and ebony and ivory and other precious materials that had to be watched over." "And here. in this walled-in community with guards on the only entrance." "it would have been possible to better protect these raw materials from theft." "ln Ramses' time. 25 families." "Egypt's most talented artists and craftsmen." "live in the 80 houses of Set Ma'at." "All their food and tools must be carried over the mountains to their village and Ramose records each delivery in great detail before handing out the supplies." "At Set Ma'at." "Ramose is the pharaoh's eyes and ears." "maintaining order here." "so that Pharaoh would be able to claim his place in the world beyond." "This is a house very much like the house that Ramose probably lived in." "He was certainly a vip in this village." "being in charge of the workforce carving and decorating the tomb of Ramses ll." "He was one of the most important people around here." "One could assume that he would come into this house at the end of the day." "kiss his loving wife." "climb these stairs up to the roof." "where he could relax in the sweet breath of the north wind while his wife. down here in the kitchen." "heated up the oven." "baked some fresh bread for him." "added some spices for dipping and took those and a couple of bowls of rather thick beer up to the roof for Ramose. her husband." "to relax at the end of the day." "All of this. of course. accompanied by screaming children and barking dogs and the usual things that one finds in villages in Egypt. even today." "Much of what we know about Ramose and his village was pulled from the village rubbish tip." "Egypt's trash is an archaeologist's treasure." "Thousands of pottery shards speak volumes about life here more than 3000 years ago." "These fragments of clay and limestone were once notebooks and sketchpads." "They show how the villagers lived." "A mother suckling a baby." "A woman applying make-up in front of the mirror." "A young boy tending pigs." "A farmer leading a cow." "A worker's life isn't easy." "Ramose and his men trudge four kilometres down a narrow path to the worksite in the Valley of the Kings." "Donkeys carry their tools." "their bread. their beer." "and everything they need for their 1 0-day work week away from the village." "They make their camp at the foot of a gigantic natural pyramid." "Ramose records his inventory and notes who's sick." "Reporting on who's on leave and how the project's progressing." "Women generally aren't part of the workforce." "but Ramose's wife Mutemwija sometimes brings wine or dates from the village." "a welcome change from the usual fare." "The labourers are sworn to secrecy but stories of the treasures hidden in the Valley of the Kings manage to slip out." "Below ground lies a hidden village of the dead." "This gigantic labyrinth of tombs held 1 4 generations of kings during Ramses' times." "and later would contain more than 60 so-called "houses of eternity"." "Some lie buried more than 400 metres into the stone." "A fortune lay concealed inside these chambers." "looted long ago." "The only complete royal grave treasure recovered in modern times belonged to one of Ramses' predecessors" " Tutankhamun." "His tomb contained more than 5000 objects." "a fortune in gold." "several royal beds." "a golden chariot." "statues of gods and a jewel-encrusted throne for the pharaoh." "who died when he was only 20 years old." "What robber could resist the lure of this subterranean treasure city?" "There were several guard houses posted around the Valley of the Kings." "Because of the steep hills that surround the valley." "they have pretty well unobstructed views and can see anybody coming into the valley from quite some distance away." "ln spite of precautions." "cunning robbers still infiltrate the valley." "unseen by the guards." "Some even manage to break into the royal tombs or the warehouses." "earning an ill-gotten fortune." "Tomb-raiding is usually an inside job." "With no master plan of the Valley of the Kings." "looters probably get information from Ramose's workmen." "Stealing their goods was one thing." "but actually to go and destroy the body." "to take off the jewellery." "break up the coffin." "that was considered the absolute worst because these people now had also no chance for an afterlife." "Ramose. ultimately responsible for the site's security." "does all he can to find and punish the informers." "His failure to prevent the plundering won't sit well with Ramses." "The construction of their pharaoh's tomb has suddenly become a top priority." "Egypt has mobilised for war and the crew must finish before harm comes to Ramses." "Danger lurks at the borders of the empire." "The Hittites. arch-enemies of the Egyptians. are expanding their territory and they're getting dangerously close to Egypt." "Ramses." "as Egypt's commander-in-chief." "cannot look on idly as his forces gird for war." "He must leave Queen Nefertari." "She is only one of his many wives." "but she is his Great Royal Bride." "the mother of his heir." "The vizier and the officials will take the reins of government until the pharaoh returns." "Ramses strikes out to the north with 20.000 warriors." "the biggest army Egypt has ever mustered." "to protect the frontiers of his empire." "After one month." "they close in on the Hittite troops." "based near the city of Kadesh." "in today's Syria." "ln Egypt. people are worried about the war's outcome." "Ramses is nowhere near achieving his grand ambition of constructing the empire's greatest monuments." "and his own tomb is far from ready." "Because their pharaoh is risking his life in war." "the workers have redoubled their efforts." "While the stoneworkers smash the shafts deeper into the limestone at the back of the tomb." "the front sections are being plastered and painted." "Ramose drives his men relentlessly." "It isn't enough to work fast." "They have to work carefully as well." "because every detail of a tomb must be exactly right." "The Egyptians themselves. I think." "clearly thought that preparations like the decoration of a tomb and the furnishing of a tomb were essential if they were going to have a safe journey into the afterlife." "A pharaoh's death can bring chaos unless he passes successfully to the afterlife." "For that. the paintings and hieroglyphics must be perfect." "Even in death. the pharaoh must maintain order in the world of the living." "Ceiling paintings show how the god of the sky." "Nut." "swallows the sun in the evening." "ferries her through the 1 2 hours of night and gives birth to her the next morning." "heralding a new day." "Thus. the Valley of the Kings is more than a royal graveyard." "It is the engine that drives the world." "The master builders command great respect... but also face great danger." "The deep limestone chambers can be unstable." "Accidents happen." "Ceilings collapse." "When a worker gets hurt." "construction stops." "With Egypt at war." "Ramose can't afford to get behind schedule." "especially since the tide of battle is about to turn against Ramses." "ln Syria. near Kadesh." "Ramses and his army battle for their empire and their lives." "The Hittites. fierce fighters." "have trapped the pharaoh's division and forced the other Egyptian units to retreat." "The battle turns drastically against the Egyptians and Ramses hardly manages to escape." "Knowing he can't win." "he withdraws his troops." "After months of fighting." "he returns to Egypt." "where people celebrate his arrival." "But no one must ever know what really happened on the front lines." "Ramses comes home in triumph." "He misleads his people - and the gods - trumpeting his victory against the enemies of peace and order." "And he gets away with it because the Hittites." "facing epidemics and other problems." "also back away from the war." "The danger has passed." "Ramses adorns the temple walls with propaganda portraying himself as a great. conquering general." "The images show the Hittites bent low before him." "But even though he may not have been a strong commander." "Ramses is an astute politician." "ln his 21 st year as pharaoh." "and 1 5 years after the battle of Kadesh." "the Egyptians and the Hittites negotiate peace." "A delegation of ambassadors brings a history-making document to Egypt." "It is the world's first peace treaty." "a 3270-year-old document written in cuneiform script and hieroglyphs." "Both parties sign it. promising to help each other fight their enemies." "The king of the Hittites also promises one of his daughters to the pharaoh." "a marriage that unites the former enemies closer than any document." "The peace between the nations will outlive Ramses." "The pharaoh will never go to war again." "He dedicates himself to erecting new temples and extending old ones." "With every obelisk." "with every cartouche and figure bearing his name and likeness." "Ramses celebrates life." "ln his funerary temple he erects the greatest granite statues that his people have ever seen." "becoming Egypt's greatest builder." "And. of course." "that grandeur extends to his grave." "the largest in the Valley of the Kings." "With his country at peace." "and Ramses' longevity." "Ramose and his craftsmen have ample time to prepare a worthy tomb for their leader." "At the end of each work week they return to their village." "Set Ma'at." "They celebrate the weekend with parties... and drinks." "But even their drinking songs are tinged with death." ""Give your heart every day to drink" ""Until the day when you go to the land that loves silence..."" "For Ramose." "every day is deadly serious." "ln this life. he works ceaselessly for the pharaoh's next life." "But what will become of him and his wife?" "For years." "Ramose and Mutemwija have wanted children." "but their prayers have gone unheard." "Ramose has dedicated his life to serving the pharaoh." "but at the expense of building a legacy of his own." "Without an heir. he has nothing." "The two decide to adopt a son and start preparing their own monuments... with faith... and magic charms." "The most important thing that an Egyptian often took into the afterlife was something called a heart scarab." "Heart scarabs were scarabs that were placed over the heart and on them was inscribed a special spell which basically said that I did good things in this life and therefore I should be allowed into the afterlife." "On the dangerous path to the afterlife." "no one escapes scrutiny." "Osiris. the judge of the dead." "decides the fate of the deceased." "The heart." "the home of the conscience." "must be as light as Ma'at's feather." "symbol of the goddess of justice." "If it is heavy with sin." "Osiris bars the way to the afterlife." "Only those with a pure heart will get past the Great Devourer." "a female demon with a crocodile's head and a body that's half lion. half hippo." "It consumes the souls of sinners." "condemning them to eternal death." "For the pure of heart. the afterlife continues much like this life... eating and parties - but work as well." "ln the world beyond." "canals must still be dug and fields tilled." "But the Egyptians devised a clever solution for the afterlife's tedium." "They put ushabtis - little figures." "like clones of the dead - into the tomb." "When Osiris calls the deceased to work." "the ushabtis take the job." "It's just one detail of the complex burial process." "Preparing for the afterlife was big business." "For the Egyptians. funerary rituals and. in fact. an investment in the tomb was also quite important because this was a major part of the economy." "And all of the trade that went around it and all of their sort of workmen - the embalmers. the people who quarried the natron. who ground it up." "who traded with the frankincense." "who brought the textiles - all of this was a very important component of society and economy." "And this is also something that was rather key to the whole ancient Egyptian economic system and did keep society ticking along." "At the small cemetery of Set Ma'at" "Ramose builds tombs for his wife." "his relatives and his servants." "Though a fraction of the size of the pharaoh's." "it's an adequate eternal home for his family and includes a small pyramid." "Once reserved only for pharaohs." "the pyramid's popularity spreads among the craftsmen of Set Ma'at." "whose cemetery grows crowded with them." "Everyone wants to be immortal and the afterlife is open to all who prepare for it." "Ramose dies at the age of 68." "He had worked on Ramses' tomb for almost 40 years." "His adopted son becomes the new royal scribe at Set Ma'at." "And though the pharaoh has already grown older than many of his predecessors." "his tomb is not yet finished." "Osiris has granted him long life." "but now. he's found this blessing is also a curse." "Nefertari. his beloved wife." "and twelve of his sons die before him." "To overcome his grief." "Ramses plans one more massive project." "The biggest funerary monument ever built in the Valley of the Kings." "a tomb for his sons." "directly opposite his own grave." "Thirty years ago. when Egyptologist Kent Weeks uncovered the tomb." "he didn't realise what he'd found." "When he started with the excavation at what became known as KV5." "little did he know he'd begun his life's work." "The problem with KV5 is that it's a unique tomb." "There's nothing like it anywhere in Egypt and so we really don't have anything to compare it with." "That means that basically we have to be meticulous in collecting all of the internal evidence we have here." "because that's going to be the only source of information we have to tell us who was buried here." "why they were buried here." "how we divide the tomb up into a series of individual funeral suites for each of the sons and how we try and assign functions to each of the rooms." "By the time Weeks and his colleagues had uncovered one chamber." "they'd already found another." "So far. they've discovered more than 1 50 chambers." "and they're far from done." "They suspect that many of Ramses' 45 sons were buried here." "From a hall of columns." "a corridor leads to the side tombs." "A statue of Ramses depicted as the god of death watches over everything." "Because centuries of storms have destroyed the interior of the tombs." "Weeks found little to salvage." "But some artefacts of extraordinary value managed to survive." "Like these bones and skulls." "which might reveal who was buried here." "This. I think. is almost certainly one of the sons of Ramses." "It was found in the tomb." "I don't know which son it is." "but I was looking at this more closely." "We took samples of the skulls and we also took samples of the associated long bones." "which is to say." "the bones of the arm and the leg." "We don't have the results yet." "but I'm pretty sure we're going to find that they all are the members of the same family." "Could be very exciting." "Ramses' greatest wish was fulfilled." "The gods granted him almost 70 years on the throne." "Most Egyptians have only known this one pharaoh " "Ramses the Great." "He brought them an era of peace and wealth." "His architectural and political legacy has given him a kind of immortality." "He dies at almost g0." "unbelievable at a time when most people didn't reach half that age." "But when he finally passes." "his tomb is ready." "Ramses ruled at the peak of his people's history." "Still today. he's considered one of the most important kings of Egypt and certainly no one left a greater mark on the land." "having built colossal temples on the southern borders of the empire and in Thebes." "Ramses will depart his splendid tomb in the Valley of the Kings and celebrate eternal life." "And when he reaches the afterlife." "he will help maintain order in the land of the living." "That idea consoles his people." "Given the population of Egypt at the time of Ramses ll... let's assume it's 1 .5 million people." "2 million people... given the enormity of the death of the only ruler most Egyptians had ever known... I would think that Egypt was in something of a state of chaos. of confusion." "And... people just probably wandered about shaking their head and wondering what the future held." "what was in store." "After Ramses' death. the empire begins a slow. gradual decline." "But the cult of the dead would continue for another 1 500 years." "The Egyptian way of death even survives the Egyptians." "When the Romans rule Egypt." "they adopt Egyptian customs." "Emperors crown themselves as pharaohs and assume the ancient rituals of the death cult." "including mummification." "Based on the stylised death masks of the pharaohs." "the Romans create individual portraits of their deceased." "The Egyptian culture could not be erased." "To say that ancient Egyptian religion was a glue that bound its people together." "I think. is a very true statement." "It was one of those things." "far more than a common language." "far more than common costume or hairdo or whatever." "It was one of those things that really gave you an emotional bond with your fellow Egyptian." "To the Egyptians. life. death and afterlife were all one thing." "celebrated in astonishing monuments that have weathered the millennia." "Pyramids. writing. temples and graves bear witness to the idea that the people saw their country as paradise on earth." "The belief in resurrection would outlive the Egyptians." "finding its way into Judaism." "Christianity and Islam." "And in this way." "perhaps they really did achieve immortality." "Subtitles SBS Australia 201 1"