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Transcript
· Intro
0:03 · a couple of kilometers west of Cairo lies one of the greatest mysteries of ancient
0:08 · Egypt here in Abu rash no pyramid seems to be visible but when looking from
0:15 · higher up archaeologists discovered fascinating
0:20 · Clues this is a pyramid torn open we can see all the construction details you
0:25 · can't see that anywhere else above this giant pit there used to
0:31 · be one of the greatest buildings of ancient Egypt the Pyramid of a pharaoh ready to do anything to get the most
0:37 · beautiful tomb of all Jed fry this substructure speaks very big
0:47 · ambition experts see this torn open building as a treasure that can be studied from every possible angle if you
0:54 · want to know how the pyramid was built Jif FR pyramid is the best location for
1:00 · you to know that but what exactly did this pyramid look like and why was it completely
1:10 · dismantled in order to find out the answer scientists Reed the special authorization to scan this peculiar
1:16 · pyramid from the air thanks to innovating Technologies such as
1:22 · [Music] photogrammetry this powerful tool is used to obtain an extremely accurate
1:28 · digital 3D copy of of The Monuments through thousands of pictures there's an algorithm in the
1:35 · background that puts the geometry we saw in the field back together this photo is very well showing the whole situation
1:41 · concerned with the geomorphology of the site photogrammetry drones 3D images
1:49 · technology will help us uncover the Mysteries behind pyramid building thanks to the expertese of the greatest
1:54 · archaeologist and egyptologist from the United States Egypt and Europe
2:00 · together they'll try to solve the final Mysteries of the Pyramid of Abu rawash welcome to archaeology 2.0
2:20 · [Music]
· Abu Rawash
2:57 · [Music] abber rash is located 8 km from Cairo
3:04 · this is a colossal complex from ancient Egypt this exceptional site has long
3:10 · been buried under the sand and one must prove worthy of
3:15 · it indeed one needs to climb uphill and sometimes take Uncharted paths to
3:21 · discover one of the best kept secrets of the pho dynasties [Music]
3:30 · here egyptologists believe there once stood a perfect pyramid that was the Tomb of the Pharaoh
3:38 · Jed when it comes to pyramids Abu rawash is a key element related to how they
3:44 · were built we have an aerial view of the burial chamber and we can imagine above
3:50 · it and around the whole pyramid a pyramid for which
3:56 · egyptologists have no written record
4:05 · to try to picture the size and volume of the monument we have to go 8 km East to
4:11 · Giza there stands a small pyramid that of King
4:21 · Manor the Pyramid of mcor shows how J's pyramid probably looked like when it was
4:27 · completed or at least something similar
4:34 · such a pyramid was vital for the king in order to enforce his power and Mark his
4:39 · Reign according to Egyptian beliefs it was intended to help pharaohs achieve eternal
4:45 · life a critical building for
4:51 · jedrey because he wanted to surpass his forefathers and especially his father
4:56 · the famous kufu whose pyramid is one of the seven wonders of the world the only one still
5:02 · standing and so to distinguish himself from the great kufu jedrey used a trick
5:08 · he didn't build his tomb like his father in Giza but 8 km away in Abu
5:14 · rawash and the Pharaoh didn't pick the specific site
5:19 · randomly we don't know what his psychology or what his thinking was because we don't have Jedi's thoughts
5:25 · down in writing but we could assume that one of the reasons he chose abash is
5:31 · because the mountain Rises much higher than the plateau of Giza so he could look down on the plat of Giza he could
5:39 · look down on the Pyramid of his predecessor kufu J wanted his pyramid to be as high
5:46 · as his father's so following the local topography he picked a higher location Abu
5:53 · raash meanwhile in Abu raash there was already an ancient necropolis very rich
5:59 · so this was probably already a sacred area and that extra height will prove
6:05 · useful by building the pyramid up there Jed Fray will naturally be higher than kufu although the ladder reached 146
6:13 · [Music] M thanks to the mountain Jed Frey's pyramid reaches 226 m above sea level
6:22 · whereas kufu is only 206 M that's an impressive pyramid but it's
6:29 · less than half the size of kufu this pyramid is much smaller 106.2 M on each side and 67 M
6:39 · high but the pyramidan is about 25 met above
6:44 · kufus and so he had managed to beat his
6:50 · [Music] predecessor the pyramidan is the very tip of a pyramid resting on top of the
6:58 · building and so jedf fry surpassed kufu thanks to a clever trick yet today this is what's left of
7:06 · this Grand idea ruins the pyramid is almost completely
7:13 · gone Jed fry wanted his memory to outshine that of the other pharaohs but he didn't stand the test of
7:20 · time only 12 M are left of his tomb but why what happened to such a majestic
7:28 · building was what did it look [Music]
· Drone Scanning
7:36 · like in order to solve the mystery archaeologists have received for the first time a special authorization to
7:43 · film this secret place and to study it from every possible
7:50 · angle for the first time a drone will fly over the mortuary complex of Abu
7:55 · raash more than 500 m above the ground this is the only way to fully uncover
8:01 · this huge site to try and Solve the Riddle of this pyramid and understand why it has almost
8:07 · completely disappeared egyptologists agreed to embark on a scientific campaign unlike any
8:14 · other we're going to create a three-dimensions modeling with a resolution down to the
8:20 · millimeter the site is relatively unknown so our work will make it accessible not only to experts but to
8:27 · the general public as well to listen to the secrets of the stones they use Digital Data gathered thanks to a modern
8:34 · technique that is part of archaeology 2.0 photogrametry
8:40 · the idea is to take hundreds even thousands of pictures of a building and then an algorithm will automatically
8:47 · analyze the shots and recreate the geometry that we witnessed in the
8:56 · field thanks to the drones the whole area has been scanned just like a radioscopy put the Drone uh pretty low
9:04 · slowly take uh image yes yeah okay turn it on this
9:10 · side these unique pictures will then be analyzed for several weeks in a laboratory in
9:16 · Paris okay perfect let's go for egyptologists and experts this
9:22 · new technology is incredible at any given time a
9:27 · researcher will be able from his office to check a measurement an angle to confirm his
9:33 · theories it will introduce a new way of working basically in the case of Abu raash a
9:41 · military site often off limit for researchers this new technology will be a vital source of
9:47 · information after weeks of work experts will be able to supply the first
9:55 · discoveries such research could potentially help understand what happened to the pyramid torn
· The Excavations
10:03 · open this site has been of special interest to the Swiss Michelle
10:11 · vogia for 12 years during the early 2000s and without the current technology
10:17 · this archaeologist has brought the site buried under the sand back to life a colossal
10:24 · Endeavor I rented the largest crane in Egypt an 80 ton crane it was amazing its
10:31 · arm could reach more than 20 M long and from there lift blocks that weighed 11
10:37 · tons this is the equivalent of four trucks such a massive Endeavor enabled
10:43 · them to excavate this incredible pit that was at the time almost completely full of
10:49 · Boulders year after year Michelle vogia and his team uncovered the
10:54 · foundations and the egyptologist is positive about one thing this was a
11:02 · pyramid when we arrived on the site it's like the pyramid is under construction
11:07 · we almost expect workers to show up with their stones and start piling them up all of this cannot be observed
11:14 · anywhere else since the pyramid has been dismantled we didn't really know so much
11:21 · about what the original pyramid would have looked like if it was even completed but now thanks to the work of
11:27 · Michelle vogia we have some
11:33 · idea this archaeologist went back in time he studied the existing base to
11:38 · find out information about Jed Fry's pyramid thanks to these excavations Abu
11:45 · raash now offers the unique opportunity to study the inside of a pyramid
11:50 · closely which is impossible anywhere else an amazing opportunity to try to
11:56 · understand the Mysteries behind the construction of legendary pyramids such as those in dashur Sakara or the Giza
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12:43 · hit if you want to know how the pyramid was built Jif pyramid is the best
12:50 · location for you to know that you can actually see inside of a pyramid which
12:55 · you are not able to do at the Pyramids of Giza where you now have the finished pyramid
13:02 · and can't see how they actually look inside today we can observe the bared
13:08 · heart of the pyramid yet to analyze this huge gap as best as possible new technologies are
13:18 · vital photogrametry is essential if we are to study the pit in detail and from
13:23 · various angles
· Photogrametry
13:29 · after several months of work Experts of Technology 2.0 have completed their
13:34 · mission computers have analyzed thousands of images to put together the whole site of Abu rash in three
13:49 · dimensions when you arrive in Abu raash you're facing a massive structure but you can't observe the
13:56 · construction details here however we have a global view of the pyramid and
14:01 · the Topography of the [Music]
14:08 · area thanks to the model made of thousands of images we're only one click away from an aerial view or zoom on some
14:15 · specific details photogrametry analyzes the
14:23 · reliefs the perfect tool to understand just how massive this pit really is
14:33 · here we have an aerial view the photometry shows the shaft and
14:38 · inside there's a burial chamber divided into two rooms it's really obvious
14:47 · [Music] here to be able to witness the details of the construction of a burial chamber
14:52 · is exceptional better yet the model generated through photogrametry shows us
14:58 · two two very different rooms this makes Abu rash
15:05 · unique we discovered two different rooms as if they were under
15:10 · construction two Chambers supposed to shelter King Jed's
15:16 · sarcophagus we never found the sarcophagus itself since it completely disappeared but we can imagine that it
15:23 · was embedded in the floor and that the head pointed towards the North
15:29 · the sarcophagus might have laid here at the bottom of this
15:35 · pit a mysterious pit with impressive Dimensions 23 M
15:44 · High we can actually see how they were constructing the burial by then cutting
15:50 · a huge uh pit into the ground that is then something we cannot see um in all
15:56 · of the other pyramids
· Burial Chamber
16:01 · this giant Gap continues to surprise archaeologists
16:07 · today Mark laner is an American egyptologist who spent his life studying
16:13 · pyramids he believes that this incredible hole illustrates the power of King
16:20 · jedrey a nice light on this now isn't it amazing it's like an artificial Canyon
16:26 · jedra might have started smaller less than a quarter the area of his father's
16:31 · pyramid but all of this substructure speaks very big
16:38 · ambition Mark laner considers this burial chamber to be completely different from the one inside the
16:43 · Pyramid of jra's Father faraoh kufu what's critical here is they're not
16:51 · putting these Chambers up in the body of the pyramid like kufu
16:57 · did Jed fry totally changes the building habits of burial Chambers he doesn't
17:02 · copy what his father kufu did meaning burial Chambers built higher up inside
17:07 · the body of the
17:12 · pyramid thanks to a 3D view we can see that the chambers inside kufu are built
17:18 · quite High away from the ground Jed Fry on the other hand wants
17:24 · to innovate by looking at a transparent image of Abu wash it's quite obvious
17:30 · that the chambers are built deep inside the ground this is a brand new architectural
17:38 · process but why choose such a
17:43 · solution this is very very different than what kufu did jeda Builders maybe
17:49 · learning from that said let's just go down put such a chamber down below the
17:55 · foundation level below the Baseline of the pyramid this is not only more practical perhaps
18:02 · but also faster meaning he it takes him less to get to the point this pit was indeed a key step in
18:10 · the pyramid building process before being used as a burial
18:16 · chamber this Digital Image allows us to look below the plateau first conclusion
18:22 · the shaft is also used as a foundation for the pyramid
18:29 · once the chamber is set deeply it's time to build the pyramid on top the entire pit was filled with
18:37 · masonry and the immensity of the pyramid Rose above and yet this pyramid marks a
18:45 · kind of new beginning and can serve as a model for some pyramids both finished
18:50 · and unfinished that came afterwards Jed fry marks the beginning
18:57 · of a new era in architecture thanks to photogrametry and the complete view over the site down to
19:04 · the millimeter experts are able to explore the Mysteries behind the construction of Abu
19:11 · raash two researchers from the French Institute for Oriental archaeology in Cairo are discovering the models and are
19:18 · immediately struck by the location of the pyramid on the
19:25 · plateau we realize how high the structure is why did they build this so close to yes
19:33 · the edge of the pl the advantage of this is that we can
19:39 · go beyond the structure itself and focus on the external
19:44 · topography we can look and study elements that we wouldn't normally see at first because the accuracy of the
19:51 · Topography is very
19:57 · high by going beyond the structure of the pyramid itself and the external kartography photogrametry leads to other
20:06 · discoveries we can see a mountain here this Monument was built on a
20:13 · mountain you mean this is the only bit of mountain left in the area that's for
20:22 · sure what photog gometry clearly shows is that Jed phas Architects very cleverly use the existing rock as the
20:33 · base the Egyptians weren't dumb they didn't pick sites randomly an existing natural hill means
20:41 · that 44% of the total volume of the pyramid is already
20:47 · there 44% almost half of the pyramid this means months perhaps years of work can
20:55 · be saved during the building process
21:00 · during his excavations Michelle vagia was able to calculate this high percentage Jed fry copied the process of
21:07 · his father kufu who had already used a rock base for his
21:13 · pyramid but Jed fry goes one step further by choosing a mountain this then saved them time
21:20 · especially in this lowest part of the pyramid there is quite a lot of and stone that you would need to build this
21:27 · uh base so it it um faster in the first phase of the
21:34 · construction the Egyptian Architects used the hill as a base in the building process to save
21:43 · time Jed fre wanted to be quick and limit the cost by using the mountain and saving
21:48 · [Music]
· Granite
21:55 · Stones Some egyptologists believe such a construction method one that relies so
22:00 · much on the mountain also tells us more about who this King was there's a first clue in his name
22:08 · jedf FR which means as stable as raw the sun
22:16 · god in order to look like raw and be closer to him Jed fry picks this
22:22 · hill another clue the stone used to build the Pyramid an expensive and Shiny
22:27 · Stone that that represented his power thousands of bits of that stone
22:34 · can be found on the ground granite a key element to
22:39 · understand what the building looked like everywhere everywhere you see saw
22:48 · these piles of granite chips I mean it's one of the evidences that jeda used a
22:54 · lot of granite in his casing there are Limestone blocks it's
23:00 · quite cheap we can get them nearby by at the end we add other blocks Granite very
23:06 · tough much harder than Limestone there's a clear goal of building this monument in Granite since
23:13 · they brought it so high and from so far away perhaps not the whole building perhaps just the
23:19 · base I saw that on the eighth layer so about 8 to 9 M high they were still
23:24 · Granite blocks so we can imagine that a casing at the bottom was
23:30 · granite and then it was built with
23:36 · Limestone such massive blocks of granite are extremely solid but difficult to carve and yet the hypothesis is
23:43 · confirmed in the field you can see that they cut they made imp placements for each individual
23:50 · Granite block why does one rise up then it sinks down the reason is because when
23:59 · they move the granite Block in here it was easier to cut away the soft Bedrock
24:05 · to bring the tops of the Granite blocks flush than it was to cut the top of the
24:11 · Granite block Granite is much harder to go even further and analyze
24:17 · the area from angles that are impossible in the field photogrammetry proves once again a useful tool for egyptologists
24:28 · archaeology 2.0 lets us decipher this careful process of ground
24:37 · preparation you can see quite nicely where the casing was placed they were
24:42 · placing first the stones from the corner and then afterwards placing here these going um all along the front side of the
24:50 · pyramid so you can really then reconstruct the sequence of the stone that were're first placing
24:58 · such extensive use of granite is an important Discovery this is a clue that links various pharaohs
25:06 · together it seems that Jed phas pyramid in Abu raash is a Missing Link in
25:12 · analyzing the evolution of the pyramids his father kufu only used fine
25:20 · Limestone for the casing however J's successors cfre and M used granite as
25:25 · well and so the pyramid in Abu raash is is the very first one that makes use of granite for the
25:32 · [Music] casing the granite blocks used for the outer casing have mostly
25:40 · disappeared but the idea was copied indeed Granite casing can be found in
25:45 · mcor's pyramid Jed Fry's
25:51 · nephew by using such Noble material for the casing Jed fry turned out to be a
25:56 · precursor and distinguish himself from his father kufu the stones weigh several
26:02 · hundred tons like giant monoliths so how in the world could
26:08 · Egyptians 2,500 BC manage to move them around and bring them so
· Ramps
26:17 · high an expert in ancient Egypt was particularly interested in the
26:24 · question yanis godon closely studied a famous Theory the theory of the
26:30 · ramps roads like slopes whose ruins can sometimes be found on certain sites
26:36 · there's none left in Abu raash though but experts believe they made it possible to bring the stones from the
26:42 · bottom to the top of the pyramid by letting them slide construction ramps are a key
26:49 · element in Egyptian architecture the ramps had to have a slope of 5 to
26:55 · 10% for instance for a single straight ramp we'd need one or two kilm of ramp
27:01 · to reach the top and bring there extremely heavy
27:07 · blocks however during recent excavations yanis godon discovered a quite unique
27:13 · ramp in the hnub in the south of Egypt that Discovery questions what
27:19 · egyptologists thought they knew about ramps we discovered in hatn a ramp with
27:26 · a slope of about 20 % it means a much shorter distance
27:32 · around 700 M to reach the top of the
27:37 · pyramid and these ramps according to the latest theories could be installed
27:43 · outside the pyramid but also
27:48 · inside in Abu rash the fact that the pyramid is built against The Rock On The
27:54 · Mountain gives us Clues as to what ramp was used [Music]
27:59 · for the base of the pyramid we can be quite sure that in this case they were not using these ramps inside the pyramid
28:06 · because there you have this rock core but the Rams had to be
28:12 · outside but another mystery remains how could such blocks carved to fit each
28:18 · other be lifted and placed precisely where they should according to the architect's
28:23 · blueprints when we take a very close look at the monolith we discover that they're perfectly fitted sometimes
28:30 · without pointing to join two stones archaeological excavations help us better understand what tricks the
28:36 · Pharaohs used we were at a time when people lifted blocks of almost 200 tons they
28:43 · put the Big Blocks on a tough wooden sled and then they'd slide on ramps and they went
28:49 · up so bringing this massive monolith and sliding it right there demanded some
28:55 · work indeed there was probably a ramp that would help bring it here and slide it in that specific
29:02 · slot the final adjustment of the stone probably would have been done with
29:08 · levers and even maybe rollers you always want to keep the stone a little bit up
29:14 · off the surface so you can move it maneuver it and then you boom set it
29:21 · down numerous archaeological Studies have contributed to understanding how the blocks could be placed so perfectly
29:28 · and those same studies also prove that each block was carefully [Music]
29:34 · carved this was in a sense customade so we could have a block measuring 1.5 M
29:42 · and the next one would only be 60 or 50 cm so Egyptians could create Tade pieces
29:49 · and they knew how to be accurate down to a millimeter they also mastered giant
29:55 · constructions such extraordinary abilities are made obvious thanks to photogrametry
30:01 · indeed this modern technology enables new ways of
· Causeway
30:08 · working images from the air show us ruins that the naked eye cannot
30:14 · see for instance this road that is barely visible buried under the
30:20 · sand a road experts call
30:25 · Causeway Abu rawash is CA way is a ramp connecting the temple in the Valley located near what used to be a canal to
30:33 · the mortuary Temple of the pyramid so the causeway was huge it was
30:42 · remarkable theway went all along this track up to the up to the mountain to
30:48 · the northern wing of the retaining wall jedra has his extraordinary massive Causeway 1.7 km
30:57 · long I mean it's huge in the case of this Causeway lost
31:04 · amidst the landscape and barely visible when standing in front of it the 3D model is used as radioscopy to analyze
31:11 · the whole
31:17 · area on this perfect view we can see the cway which was leing from the N Val uh
31:23 · up to the mountains on on on the top of the mountains where the pyramid and the Temple was constructed and this photo is
31:31 · very well showing the whole situation because it's showing the reations of The
31:37 · Monuments in concern with the geomorphology of the site during the
31:43 · construction it was used for the transportation of the blocks which was very complicated logistic
31:52 · thing photogrametry proves that this Causeway was a vital element 4,500 years
31:57 · years after being built it was the main road leading to
32:03 · the mortuary
32:10 · Temple but there's another thing experts find intriguing Abu rash has two giant outer
32:16 · walls whereas most temples only have one first
32:23 · Anomaly by going to one of the Temple's doors another construction detail surprised is the
· Construction Details
32:34 · egyptologists we're at the entrance gate on the east side and we can clearly see how it was built we have Limestone and
32:41 · granite around but the face is made of black bricks this is the Niles silt they
32:48 · gathered mud and mixed it with straw but this is a problem for me we're at a time of great Builders of stone pyramids why
32:56 · would Jenifer use brick especially for his Mortuary Temple the fact that jedra has these mud
33:03 · brick structures even the Chaple and the inner Chapel for worshiping jedra is mud
33:10 · brick it looks very different than what came before with kufu it looks very different this jedra
33:18 · complex this doesn't look like a mortuary Temple for a king of the fourth Dynasty but that's just my opinion
33:26 · [Music] if the sight of Abu raash remains so mysterious it's also because of the
33:33 · outer walls that are clearly seen thanks to photogrametry
· Outer Walls
33:38 · the full view over the site allows researchers to analyze the architectural space in its
33:46 · entirety when studying the 3D images the experts are surprised by the wall whose
33:51 · position in regards to the pyramid is uncommon
33:58 · we clearly see the wall it stands out the outer
34:04 · wall it seems that if we extend the wall it would come all the way to the edge of the
34:10 · plateau we can see part of the wall here so it could be that it turns next to the edge of the
34:20 · slope photogrametry confirms the presence of an outer wall all around the
34:25 · building the wall disappeared near the the edge of the slope but is still obvious on the image and there's another
34:32 · surprise the second wall surrounding the
34:37 · building we have a second outer wall surrounding the building in which Mortuary Temple or complex have you seen
34:43 · gates with the temple none that's why I don't think this is a mortuary Monument
34:49 · the map of this place hasn't been planned like other Mortuary
34:56 · monuments finding hypo es giving meaning to the various
35:01 · buildings such is the difficult work of
35:06 · egyptologists vassel duv believes this brick wall and curious Gates prove that
· Sun Temple
35:11 · Abu rash was not a pyramid used as a tomb why because a mortuary Temple is
35:18 · closed to the public only High priests can go inside but vasel D sees in these
35:24 · Gates the sign that the place was open to the public [Music]
35:30 · he believes Jed fry ordered the construction of a sun Temple for The God Who created the universe
35:39 · raw if I want to start a sun worship if I want to be closer to the Sun that's
35:44 · where I'd go why Abu rash Abu means the place in Egyptian Rah is RW wash means
35:51 · to honor God why looking for a mortuary pyramid
35:59 · although Sun worship was growing at the time in Egypt other experts have a different opinion and on this specific point there
36:07 · are many theories we know that at this time there was a big emphasis on the sun worship
36:15 · and the Sun and its combination with kingship and that therefore that shows
36:20 · this was a symbolic a temple a kind of shrine of sorts to the sun rather than
36:25 · the king's tomb I I think that's correct it is not a sun Temple at all
36:33 · the pyramid looks like a hole and this why it made some people to think it's a
36:38 · sun Temple but it's a pyramid was built for
36:43 · Jif yet this Mortuary complex built with bricks rather than noble Stones remains
36:49 · a mystery why would jety accept this after
36:55 · all he wanted to build a pyramid that would be higher and more Majestic than that of other kings before
· Descending Passage
37:04 · him it's quite possible that the king died after the pyramid was completed but
37:09 · before the rest of the structures they were supposed to ensure the permanence of his Mortuary cult were
37:16 · finished and that would be a reason that would explain why Architects chose raw bricks for such
37:25 · structures so jedy was perhaps an important King who imagined a magnificent tomb that was completed in a
37:32 · rush the rest of the pyramid proves that Egyptian Architects built an amazing
37:37 · Monument a monument that shows their Mastery of geometry and mountainous
37:43 · areas it's especially visible in the huge slope that crosses the pyramid a
37:49 · very steep Corridor that egyptologists call the descending
37:56 · passage let the descending passage was supposed to lead to the burial Chambers
38:01 · however at the time once the work was done the pit and the Gap were totally invisible hidden by the body of the
38:09 · pyramid you can still see some of the evidence some of the masonry from this original passage which would have been
38:16 · narrow maybe as narrow as 2 cubits 1.05 M so what looks massive today was
38:24 · actually reduced to a tiny Corridor where you had to Bend forward to be able to reach the burial
38:31 · chamber thanks to photogrametry we can go below the pyramid inside the hill
38:39 · itself here we discover a 3D version of the descending passage and the burial
38:45 · chamber so the descending passage in Abu rash is a model to help understand how the corridors leading to the burial
38:51 · Chambers were built in pyramids such as kufo before
· Why The Descending Passage
38:58 · they were completed they also had such big gaps leading to the burial
39:04 · Chambers and so the very narrow corridors were first big slopes such as the one in Jet's
39:14 · pyramid alaj is just one phase of the building
39:20 · so now it looks so different but if it ever was finished it would have looked quite similar to the pyramids of dasua
39:27 · for s another Discovery also helps to
39:33 · understand another element found in many [Music] pyramids when searching Abu rash around
39:41 · the year 2000 archaeologist Michelle volia and his team calculated the angle of the access Corridor and reached a
39:48 · result of 27° a very symbolic number for
39:55 · Egyptians the 27° Le points towards the North Star which is a circumpolar star
40:01 · meaning a star that never disappears and that the dead King wants to be associated with it's another way of
40:09 · being reborn the passage was thus created to
40:16 · be a path to Eternity for the
40:21 · Pharaoh just like in every building they make Egyptians use cosmogony to come up with perfect results
40:27 · [Music] what's striking is their ability to
40:32 · combine the religious Dimension with technical aspects the descending passage is 5.5 m
40:39 · wide which is huge for a path that's supposed to receive a coffin that is maybe 50 cm wide you need it in order to
· The Burial Chamber
40:47 · introduce all the materials including huge Granite blocks probably for the
40:53 · burial chamber so basically it's a construction ramp first and then they build the passage
41:00 · within it in this fine Limestone and then fill in around
41:05 · it excavations led us see how the descending passage in Abu raash was also
41:11 · probably a construction ramp and so its role wouldn't be purely
41:16 · religious but practical too it is thanks to this ramp that
41:21 · workers were able to build a Sumptuous burial chamber in Granite here to the West western part of
41:27 · the pit I see here a granite block sitting on the Limestone subfloor it
41:34 · definitely is in place because here's the mortar bonding it to the mother rock all of these blocks of granite
41:41 · couldn't possibly come from the outside so it's a proof that one or more inner
41:46 · Chambers were covered in Granite the fact that the chamber was
41:53 · covered in Granite is another clue for archaeologists it confirms that the burial chamber was
42:00 · indeed here because such costly stones have been used in other Pharaoh's
42:08 · tombs just the fact that they do remain in place probably is an indication is an
42:15 · evidence that there was a granite Vault here and we have to reconstruct what was
42:20 · here on the basis of such evidence but also on the basis of parallels with
42:26 · other Royal tombs just about this time period everything seems to indicate that
42:33 · this is indeed the Royal tomb of jedrey a tomb that has been completely devastated and
42:39 · plundered but how when the tomb was built with a granite a stone that is
42:44 · incredibly difficult to carve on the western side he found a
42:51 · tunnel cut right here through the pavement of the passage
42:57 · and even through the Bedrock right across the corner to the West End of the
43:03 · pit we have the blueprints of the whole process from the entrance of the pyramid they dug inside the
43:10 · Limestone followed the descending passage and went down inside the floor
43:15 · of the Vault it probably happened soon after
43:21 · the burial of the king because these people knew what they were doing
43:28 · to confirm this hypothesis and visualize the path the thieves took photogrametry is the perfect
43:41 · tool we still see the beginning of a hole going below the burial chamber this hole only makes sense if there was a
43:47 · mountain a chamber and if the masonry was made of granite which is extremely hard to pierce
44:00 · Jed fr's tomb was therefore completely vandalized by his contemporaries but what about the rest
44:05 · of the
· The Roman Quarry
44:11 · structure pyramids have stood the test of time because their Architects were able to build extremely solid
44:18 · monuments and the foundation of Jed's pyramid is perfect experts believe the answer is
44:24 · simple there was a time when these piles of granite chips fed into the idea that
44:31 · there was some violent family dispute and that's why jedra came to abash to
44:37 · leave the household of hufu at Giza but what is very clear now from Thea vogia
44:45 · and his team excavated this represents Roman quaring of Jed's Granite
44:53 · casing this discovery was made by Michelle vagia during EX excavations in ALU raash around the year
45:00 · 2000 right from when the Romans invaded Egypt in 200 BC Jed Fry's pyramid was
45:06 · completely dismantled we uncovered things layer
45:13 · after layer we saw layers of sand that were brought by the wind and Below there
45:18 · were Pottery fragments from the Roman period we even found traces of cranes at
45:23 · the bottom of the descending passage used to remove blocks gather them and use them somewhere else the site has
45:30 · been used as a quarry since the Roman time and almost up until the 19th century part of the reason that Jed's
45:37 · pyramid was so robbed of the granite in Roman times it may be that
45:43 · this Causeway was a very convenient way to take the granite and haul it down from the high
45:50 · Plateau unlike Giza which is hard to reach and lost in the middle of the desert Abu rash had this Causeway
45:58 · connected to the Nile the Romans had everything they needed a monument to be
46:03 · used as a stone quarry and a road to carry the stones the pyramid is quite close to the
46:10 · City of Cairo at any time during the Roman
46:16 · period the medieval period um the stones could have been used for the city walls of Cairo for example or for the Palaces
46:24 · and so on so
46:30 · and so abber raash was used to build Cairo but jedras pyramid despite being
46:36 · dismantled today offers a fascinating image it's as if it's in the middle of
46:42 · its building process as if time had stopped a pyramid that offers insight to
46:48 · understand how pyramids were built this pyramid actually in my
46:55 · opinion it's a perfect the place to find out how the pyramid was constructed and
47:01 · yet here it marks a kind of new beginning where Kings built pyramids
47:06 · with Chambers and passageways just at or just below ground level this is a site
47:13 · that gives us a lot of information on the ancient empire I wish it would be preserved so
47:21 · the general public could grasp the tremendous efforts intelligence and cleverness of the Egyptians who created
47:28 · such extraordinary monuments Jed phas pyramid in abber rash
47:36 · remains a key element to understand the secrets of Egyptian Architects Advanced analysis thank to
47:43 · Technologies used in archaeology 2.0 have confirmed theories archaeologists had regarding the processes to build
47:51 · pyramids but the site has yet to be fully searched and could very well still be hiding important elements
47:57 · [Music] Jed phas Pyramid has yet to reveal all
48:03 · its secrets