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| 0:00 | · | [Music] in all more than 100 pyramids were built in the Egypt of the Pharaohs one of |
| 0:07 | · | these is a truly unusual edifice maybe the most mysterious pyramid in the entire country the Black |
| 0:14 | · | Pyramid under this amorphous ruin which looks like it could collapse at any moment hides a wonderful secret an |
| 0:21 | · | immense Labyrinth as inaccessible as its fascinating there's a whole complex of |
| 0:27 | · | rooms Way Beyond the simple needs of disposing of a dead body this is not |
| 0:32 | · | something you find in other pyramids the pyramid is off limits to the public |
| 0:38 | · | weakened by serious structural problems it could be dangerous for visitors but a few daring archaeologists |
| 0:45 | · | have risked venturing inside all the same with our cameras given special permission to accompany them look at the |
| 0:51 | · | crack in this chamber it still looks like it could collapse at any moment even for experts this little |
| 0:58 | · | known pyramid remains a real puzzle together we'll try to find some Clues to help us decipher this Millennia old |
| 1:05 | · | edifice my God there's still bones in there to shed light on all these |
| 1:11 | · | Mysteries our scientists were granted permission to venture inside Egypt's most iconic pyramids with a latest |
| 1:17 | · | generation laser scanner it's quite tight in here what happened during its construction for this Monument to have |
| 1:23 | · | ended up in such a state what did this dilapidated pyramid originally look like and why did the ancient Egyptians build |
| 1:30 | · | such an extensive network of passageways now seen for the first time using 3D |
| 1:36 | · | models we will show you everything invisible to the naked eye with a few clicks we can do |
| 1:42 | · | measurements that would be very complicated to carry out in situ this Ultra detailed digital |
| 1:47 | · | modeling should provide our experts with new answers in this ongoing scientific investigation which began 200 years ago |
| 2:01 | · | [Music] |
| 2:30 | · | deep in the Sands of Egypt is an exceptional site little known by the public the daser |
| 2:37 | · | plateau it's around 30 km from |
| 2:43 | · | Cairo this is where the first two giant pyramids of History were built the Red |
| 2:48 | · | Pyramid and the bent pyramid but in the distance Behind These |
| 2:54 | · | two giants you can make out a strangely shaped Steep Hill this in fact is is |
| 3:00 | · | also a pyramid one of the last built by the Pharaohs about 3,800 years |
| 3:06 | · | ago villagers living around here gave it its somewhat disturbing name the Black |
| 3:11 | · | Pyramid it doesn't look very much like a pyramid at all although it's called The Black Pyramid it just looks like a black |
| 3:18 | · | rugged hill with a kind of tower sticking out of the top at first sight there's nothing to |
| 3:24 | · | suggest that under this dilapidated construction there's an extensive maze of passageways probably the most |
| 3:30 | · | sophisticated Network ever built under an Egyptian |
| 3:40 | · | pyramid Frank Monier has been fascinated by the pyramids of Egypt since |
| 3:45 | · | childhood an engineer by profession he studied the construction of these monuments in great detail in the process |
| 3:51 | · | becoming one of the world's leading authorities fascinated by the Black |
| 3:57 | · | Pyramid he can draw a plan of its Apartments almost from |
| 4:03 | · | memory here I've sketched A View from Above of the Black Pyramid at desure A |
| 4:08 | · | View from Above the base of the pyramid with its funeral Apartments here we have the whole extent of the funeral Network there's nothing |
| 4:15 | · | like the complexity of these funeral Apartments anywhere else so what would be really interesting to scan would be |
| 4:21 | · | in priority the part dedicated to the queens and the part dedicated to the king to get a clear review of everything |
| 4:28 | · | that went on inside these apartment scanning the innards of this pyramid |
| 4:34 | · | could well be the way to better understand this mysterious edifice because there is still little |
| 4:41 | · | known about its interior the construction is off limits to the public and is rarely visited even by |
| 4:47 | · | egyptologists for this unprecedented Mission Frank Monier has called on archaeologist albor BR |
| 4:53 | · | bampu an expert in digital imaging he'll be able to make a complete three-dimensional and extreme detailed |
| 5:00 | · | model of these apartments it's a pyramid that's not yet |
| 5:06 | · | been opened up to the public I'll be discovering it myself and I have no idea what the conditions will be in terms of |
| 5:12 | · | the humidity and heat I feel privileged to be allowed into this Monument because very few people have been here and |
| 5:17 | · | that's pretty exciting entering the Black Pyramid is a |
| 5:23 | · | rare opportunity and whenever anyone does the |
| 5:29 | · | entrance has to be totally cleared because just like in the time of the Pharaohs it is sealed off with blocks of |
| 5:34 | · | stone to protect it and keep out Intruders Albom re is going to be using |
| 5:41 | · | a very high performance piece of technology a lar digital scanner one of the most miniaturized that |
| 5:49 | · | exists it weighs only 800 G but the insides of pyramids are usually very |
| 5:55 | · | tight spaces in which it's difficult to move around so it could still be a difficult task here I'm configuring it |
| 6:02 | · | so that the scanner and my phone are communicating that means I'll be able to get some feedback of what the scanner is |
| 6:11 | · | see we were exceptionally granted authorization to accompany Al on this groundbreaking |
| 6:22 | · | Mission it is the first time a piece of modern technology will be used inside this pyramid |
| 6:30 | · | the lar scanner makes a noise as it starts digitizing the |
| 6:37 | · | space after a few meters albon Bri checks that the device is working |
| 6:43 | · | correctly here we can see this little Green Dot that's where the scanner is and it scanned this wall here this one |
| 6:50 | · | so yes it's all in [Music] position the laser scanner can record |
| 6:57 | · | hundreds of thousands of points every second in every direction it can thus measure a space |
| 7:03 | · | with absolute Precision to the millimeter a totally unparalleled feat of |
| 7:12 | · | Technology it's a real Labyrinth once you're in here the idea is to get a precise scan of all these |
| 7:17 | · | structures with which we'll be able to document in a very detailed way the general dimensions of the spaces I'm |
| 7:25 | · | surveying on a map given to him by Frank Monier Alon Bri identifies the various |
| 7:30 | · | spaces to be digitized as a priority so we came down the sloping |
| 7:36 | · | tunnel and through a first passageway a first Corridor which was reinforced by some more modern masonry now we're |
| 7:43 | · | coming to a fork and we'll head towards the area that was dedicated to the |
| 7:51 | · | king but time is limited the conditions are stifling with |
| 7:56 | · | the air inside the pyramid barely circulating or being refreshed you cannot stay for long in this |
| 8:02 | · | Subterranean domain the humidity is very high and pretty oppressive yes it's |
| 8:08 | · | quite tiring on his way down the tunnels Alon |
| 8:14 | · | Bri scans several empty |
| 8:24 | · | rooms we've made progress and we've got the rough outline of a plan I've looked |
| 8:29 | · | into all the little rooms on either side of the central Corridor and now we're about to go into the anti chamber and |
| 8:34 | · | then the king's [Music] chamber the king's burial chamber the |
| 8:41 | · | spiritual heart of the pyramid albon Bri Marvels at the pharaoh's sarcophagus carved out of a |
| 8:48 | · | single piece of pink Granite from Aswan one of the most solid rocks found in Egypt despite it being almost 4,000 |
| 8:56 | · | years old its state of conservation is impressive |
| 9:02 | · | in contrast the dilapidated state of much of the walls is quite |
| 9:09 | · | surprising scanning gives us an overall view of the condition of all these structures all the traces you see on the |
| 9:15 | · | vaulted ceiling on the masonry joints you can see how it's crumbling there even cracks it's clear that there's |
| 9:21 | · | enormous pressure bearing down structurally on the vaulted |
| 9:26 | · | ceiling the pyramid clearly had a few construction issues |
| 9:31 | · | the results of the scan should help us find out more but the pharaoh's Builders must |
| 9:36 | · | have made mistakes in the very design of the structure for the pyramid to show such signs of dilapidation |
| 9:44 | · | now to get a better understanding we have to consider the period in which it was built the Middle |
| 9:50 | · | [Music] Kingdom it was faroh amenemhat I theii who had this strange Pyramid built |
| 9:56 | · | almost 4,000 years ago he reigned in around 1800 bcee and is |
| 10:02 | · | considered the most powerful Pharaoh in one of the most prestigious lineages of ancient Egypt the 12th |
| 10:09 | · | Dynasty the 12th dynasty of ancient Egypt is part of a period the |
| 10:15 | · | egyptologists called the Middle Kingdom a kind of classical Age amonth III was the last great king of the 12th Dynasty |
| 10:23 | · | he ruled for 46 years and he inherited a prosperous country that was was |
| 10:29 | · | administratively functioning very well and he was in an ideal position to do Innovative architectures and to develop |
| 10:37 | · | and expand a building program before the Middle Kingdom Egypt |
| 10:44 | · | had been through a period of instability and division lasting several centuries during which no pyramids were |
| 10:51 | · | built but during the 12th Dynasty unity in the country was restored and the |
| 10:56 | · | Pharaohs wanted to reconnect with the architectural Prestige of their glorious ancestors there is a centralized State |
| 11:03 | · | there is one strong pharaoh and the building of pyramids comes back into |
| 11:09 | · | fashion on the same level of importance perhaps as it had been in the Old |
| 11:14 | · | Kingdom the country's most famous pyramids those on the Giza Plateau were built in the period we call the Old |
| 11:20 | · | Kingdom almost 800 years before the reign of ammat |
| 11:26 | · | theii these Kings of the 12th Dynasty considered themselves the direct Heirs of the kings of the Old Kingdom thus |
| 11:33 | · | predicating their legitimacy on the architectural and historic Legacy they copied to some extent The Monuments of |
| 11:39 | · | the kings of the Old Kingdom it is hard to believe now but |
| 11:44 | · | when it was finished the Black Pyramid looked like a classic pyramid of the Old Kingdom the Pyramid of kufu for |
| 11:56 | · | example could it still be possible to find traces of the black pyramid's past |
| 12:01 | · | Splendor What secrets are concealed under this shapeless Hill on the outside today the Black |
| 12:09 | · | Pyramid doesn't look very exciting but inside there's a whole complex of rooms |
| 12:15 | · | Way Beyond the simple needs of disposing of a dead body after a few weeks of digital |
| 12:22 | · | analysis the results of the scan are finally ready the egyptologist Mark leoner was |
| 12:28 | · | impatient to see see them it's the first time he's ever seen the internal network of the pyramid with such a level of |
| 12:35 | · | precision laser scanning captures every detail of the reality it almost looks |
| 12:41 | · | like the real thing like you're in there you can pan in you can pan out and |
| 12:49 | · | you can twirl it above all this tool lets the archaeologists save precious time to map |
| 12:57 | · | something complicated like this will take weeks months you go through with a laser scan and it takes tens of |
| 13:03 | · | thousands of points per second every point is the equivalent of an archaeologist bending down stretching a |
| 13:10 | · | tape measure and then drawing it on tracing paper on a drawing |
| 13:17 | · | board Mark is an authority on the Pyramids of Giza and therefore used to The Fairly minimalist Interiors of the |
| 13:23 | · | pyramids of the Old Kingdom the first thing to strike him about this 3D model is the huge extent |
| 13:30 | · | of the underground Network it's a complicated internal |
| 13:35 | · | structure in fact it's considered to be the most elaborate underground structure of any |
| 13:41 | · | pyramid with the most Chambers and passageways thousands of kilometers away |
| 13:48 | · | in Paris Frank Monier is able thanks to the lar scanner to evaluate the unusual |
| 13:53 | · | dimensions of the passageways the operation only takes a few clicks and gives a result of the utmost |
| 14:00 | · | Precision using this tool I can measure the expanse of the apartments that are under the |
| 14:06 | · | pyramid here we have the view from above and we can carry out a few measurements to give us an idea of the |
| 14:12 | · | dimensions of this network for example for this first Corridor here we already have a length |
| 14:18 | · | of 42 M let's measure the corridor of the king's apartments from the two ends |
| 14:24 | · | going from one room to the other over 46 M so you can see that if we add up all |
| 14:30 | · | the data we end up with over 400 m of passageways that really is a lot and in |
| 14:35 | · | all about 20 or so rooms yes all the other kings buried |
| 14:42 | · | themselves in a pyramid with one maybe two ascending passages and a few |
| 14:48 | · | Chambers in the Black Pyramid there are tens and tens of rooms and Corridor is |
| 14:53 | · | connecting all of these rooms this is not something you find in other pyramids |
| 15:00 | · | but what was the point of this huge underground Labyrinth our investigation with the lar scanner may help us |
| 15:06 | · | understand it somewhat better in any case the sophistication of this network is in sharp contrast to the dilapidated |
| 15:13 | · | state of the outside of the structure for each time you look at it the same question comes to mind how did this |
| 15:19 | · | pyramid end up looking like this the egyptologist Meredith brand has |
| 15:27 | · | come looking for answers in situ she's discovering the site for the first |
| 15:33 | · | time and immediately spots some initial Clues when I walk up to it I don't even |
| 15:40 | · | see a pyramid at first from the distance it almost looks like a mountain or some kind of natural geological feature like |
| 15:47 | · | a giant thing of sand almost but up close it's clear that's not the case at all it's really solid mud brick and each |
| 15:55 | · | of those mud bricks I can see the individual ones all throughout this slope on the |
| 16:02 | · | Top This Strange Hill is in fact a mountain of carefully stacked bricks in the middle of the |
| 16:10 | · | desert all the same size the bricks were made of a mixture of sand and clay |
| 16:15 | · | extracted from Nile mud reinforced with pieces of |
| 16:20 | · | straw at the summit part of this brick work is still in place but on the lower slopes it's all |
| 16:27 | · | just pieces wow there's so many mud bricks that have |
| 16:34 | · | fallen from this pyramid all the way down the slope so what looks like sand is |
| 16:40 | · | actually dirt and debris of broken down mud brick these bricks are still in a |
| 16:45 | · | rectangular shape and we can still see there's remains of some of the dried out straw that was used inside of them to |
| 16:53 | · | make them strong and there's even some finger Impressions from ancient Builders the |
| 16:58 | · | these mud bricks are proof of just how talented the Egyptian Architects and Builders were they knew what they were |
| 17:05 | · | doing they were able to make mud bricks like this that would last for thousands and thousands of |
| 17:12 | · | years the use of these clay bricks was in fact an innovation in pyramid |
| 17:17 | · | [Music] construction the pyramids of the Old Kingdom were made entirely of stone and |
| 17:24 | · | everlasting material but which required considerable means to mine transport and |
| 17:31 | · | [Music] assemble several centuries later then the pharaoh's Architects opted for more |
| 17:37 | · | modern methods in the Middle Kingdom King started to think about the economy how |
| 17:43 | · | they build structures and they decided that it's too much of an ordeal to make an entire pyramid out of stone so |
| 17:50 | · | instead they had the genius idea of having the center being made out of mud brick it was cheaper this was an |
| 17:56 | · | intelligent moneysaving Endeavor that the advantage of mud bricks was that they could be made anywhere in Egypt |
| 18:03 | · | they could produce the bricks and then transport them by boat to the work site so the use of mud bricks rather than |
| 18:08 | · | Stone was more to do with Logistics than technique millions of mud bricks were |
| 18:15 | · | methodically laid by the pharaoh's workers to construct the core of his |
| 18:21 | · | pyramid it's estimated that 20 million bricks were required to make the whole pyramid complex |
| 18:29 | · | but the ancient Egyptians still wanted their Monument to look like a proper |
| 18:35 | · | pyramid once the brick core was finished the whole structure was totally covered with a facing made of a unique stone |
| 18:42 | · | Limestone from Tura this stone is so pure and white |
| 18:49 | · | that it can be considered a sort of Egyptian marble originally all Egyptian pyramids were covered in |
| 18:56 | · | it thanks to these ingenious construction techniques the Egyptians were able to construct an absolute giant |
| 19:04 | · | here in fact the Black Pyramid had a base that measured 105 M by 105 M and |
| 19:10 | · | was 75 M high it was the largest pyramid of its era 75 M that's equivalent to a 25-story |
| 19:20 | · | building am menim hat the thirds pyramid became the sixth largest pyramid ever built in Egypt out of the hundred or so |
| 19:27 | · | in total |
| 19:33 | · | the only trouble was the Pharaoh and his Builders had made a big mistake they had |
| 19:38 | · | underestimated the destructive actions of stone |
| 19:43 | · | thieves these blocks have been looted to reuse the stones in or heavy blocks uh |
| 19:49 | · | in other building project to make use of their power and the history behind these blocks because these Stones had a cultic |
| 19:57 | · | and religious drop the Limestone was stripped away it was all Stripped Away |
| 20:02 | · | and reused elare which left the internal structure the brick work structure naked |
| 20:08 | · | and over the Millennia with rain and wind erosion the bricks got turned into |
| 20:14 | · | Rubble but just like the stone the bricks too were objects of |
| 20:19 | · | desire another Factor contributing to the destruction of the pyramid was that people took bricks from the structure to |
| 20:25 | · | use as a natural fertilizer on their fields the pyramid in its present dilapidated |
| 20:35 | · | State Mark Leonard tries to imagine what the pyramid looked like almost 4,000 years |
| 20:42 | · | ago at the foot of the edifice there's a strange cluster of white |
| 20:49 | · | rocks did these blocks somehow miraculously escape the stone |
| 20:55 | · | thieves now this is amazing we can actually see here one of the casing |
| 21:02 | · | stones and it could even be a Cornerstone this is really nice and |
| 21:08 | · | smooth brilliantly white this whole galaxy of casing stones |
| 21:15 | · | that we see here once covered the entire pyramid just like snu 800 years earlier |
| 21:22 | · | covered the entirety of his bent pyramid with the same fine quality White tour limestone |
| 21:30 | · | the bent pyramid barely a kilometer and a half distant is the only one in Egypt |
| 21:35 | · | to have retained most of its casing of Tura Limestone while the ravages of the |
| 21:41 | · | Millennia have given the pyramid this somewhat beige look it would have originally been a dazzling white when |
| 21:47 | · | you look at the Ben pyramid of snafu it gives you an idea of what this dark black Tower once looked like it was a |
| 21:54 | · | gleaming white geometric shape it must have been like the sun shining a newly fallen snow it must have been truly |
| 22:03 | · | blinding covered in its facing the pyramid must have looked like a perfect triangular prism of white stone |
| 22:10 | · | reflecting the light of raw the sun god this is an amazing testimony that |
| 22:16 | · | tells us what the pyramid once was when we are confronted by this big black ruin |
| 22:22 | · | it's pieces like this that archaeologists have to put together to understand the ancient path |
| 22:33 | · | Mark Leonard wants to compare the inside to what he saw on the lar Digital |
| 22:38 | · | model there are no tourists at the site the place is totally |
| 22:44 | · | deserted in the almost 50 years of his archaeological career Mark has been inside this pyramid only once |
| 22:53 | · | before I'm very excited to go in this pyramid because it's not open to the public I work at the Pyramids of Giza |
| 22:59 | · | and the Great Sphinx thousands of tourists every day all around us but here it's way off the Beaten |
| 23:12 | · | Track once inside Mark is immediately struck by the quality of the work done by the pharaoh's |
| 23:23 | · | Builders I have to Marvel at the beauty of this place the work the work is just |
| 23:30 | · | Exquisite beautiful white tour Limestone vating the joins are stupendous true |
| 23:37 | · | finesse in masonry the walls of the tunnels dug |
| 23:43 | · | underground were lined by slabs of Tura Limestone Egypt's most refined Stone the |
| 23:48 | · | same that was used to cover the |
| 23:53 | · | outside the beauty of this stonework is all the more amazing when you think think that it was never meant to be seen |
| 24:01 | · | it was all for the king in the afterlife it was in this Maze of pure |
| 24:07 | · | Limestone that the Pharaoh could enjoy his eternal rest ah the corridor to the |
| 24:17 | · | King on the Pharaoh sarcophagus Mark immediately spots quite a striking |
| 24:24 | · | symbol how nicely done these eyes are when the king mummy was put inside |
| 24:30 | · | symbolically these two eyes at the far north end of the East Side allowed him |
| 24:35 | · | to look out to the Rising Sun this representation is quite typical |
| 24:42 | · | of the funeral customs of the Middle Kingdom on the coffins in sarcophaga of that period they always represented |
| 24:49 | · | looking East a pair of eyes which gave the deceased lying down inside a sort of port hole through which to see the |
| 24:55 | · | outside and in particular to see the Rising Sun which was the driving force of Egyptian |
| 25:03 | · | religion but for Mark something in the room does not make sense I don't know the exact |
| 25:09 | · | measurements I don't have my tape measure with me but it looks too wide to come in that |
| 25:16 | · | doorway the sarcophagus does indeed look too wide to have been brought through the |
| 25:23 | · | corridors on the 3D model created by means of the lar scanner we can now measure the Dimensions |
| 25:29 | · | exactly and the measurements confirm Mark's impression with its base the sarcophagus |
| 25:35 | · | is 2.6 M long and 1.15 M wide but the corridor which leads to the king's |
| 25:41 | · | chamber is never any wider than 1 M so how did the ancient Egyptians get the sarcophagus to this place in the |
| 25:49 | · | pyramid there are grounds for thinking that the sarcophagus was placed there before the pyramid had been |
| 25:56 | · | constructed so they first of all dug they dug pits and trenches and turn these into the underground |
| 26:04 | · | Apartments most of the network of the black pyramid's passages was dug as tunnels in the clay soil of the Dasher |
| 26:14 | · | Plateau but for certain rooms they must have dug pits from the surface into which they could lower the most |
| 26:20 | · | voluminous items such as the huge |
| 26:25 | · | sarcophagus a very impressive feat when when you consider the weight of this |
| 26:31 | · | monolith the sarcophagus is pink Granite it's a very hard rock very heavy it |
| 26:37 | · | alone weighs between four or 5 tons equivalent to four large |
| 26:45 | · | cars once the chamber was finished and the vaed ceiling in place the pit was filled up with brick |
| 26:52 | · | [Music] work studying this impressive |
| 26:58 | · | sarcophagus Mark leoner has spotted another symbol familiar to |
| 27:04 | · | him the truly remarkable thing is that the bottom is carved with these Gates |
| 27:10 | · | which is a series of Palace Gates carved with bastions and niches which imitate |
| 27:18 | · | the surrounding wall of the famous joser complex the step pyramid complex they're |
| 27:23 | · | paying honor to the first pyramid Builder |
| 27:30 | · | there certainly is a striking resemblance to this wall built 900 years earlier by a legendary Pharaoh joser |
| 27:37 | · | founder of the Old Kingdom a model of prosperity unity and stability for all of ancient |
| 27:45 | · | Egypt this is the best conserved section of the huge niched enclosure wall which |
| 27:51 | · | surrounded his stepped pyramid in Sakara the first pyramid in human history |
| 28:00 | · | so the presence of this motive on the sarcophagus did not come about by chance it's not just a nod and a wink it |
| 28:07 | · | shows a true desire to Anchor their roots in the history of the first Egyptian dynasties it's above all a way |
| 28:12 | · | of linking a men the third a pharaoh from the end of the Middle Kingdom to the first Sovereign of the Old Kingdom |
| 28:19 | · | almost a thousand years earlier showing that there was a direct line from that legendary King to Amad the thir |
| 28:28 | · | by depicting this Monument amenemhat III was confirming his link to the Glorious past of the Old Kingdom and its gigantic |
| 28:40 | · | pyramids and yet some of the layout is decidedly at odds with what we usually see in classic |
| 28:49 | · | pyramids at the entrance to the King's network Mark lonard notices a very narrow |
| 28:56 | · | Corridor the way under the the southwest corner of the pyramid is a very very narrow |
| 29:02 | · | Corridor and very difficult going everything is difficult because it's so humid down |
| 29:09 | · | here I'm literally dripping with |
| 29:15 | · | sweat the passage is particularly long and extremely hard goinging because of its |
| 29:22 | · | narrowness with the data collected by Alon using the laser scanner a few weeks earlier we can measure just how narrow |
| 29:29 | · | it is only 60 cm at the end mark discovers a |
| 29:36 | · | surprisingly small room it too containing a |
| 29:41 | · | sarcophagus although cluttered with stones it is strangely similar to the pharaoh's burial |
| 29:50 | · | chamber a bit further along the corridor is another room identical to the first |
| 29:59 | · | here inside the chamber itself her burio chamber you see also a beautiful Granite |
| 30:07 | · | sarcophagus carved in the same style with the same decoration as the granite |
| 30:13 | · | sarcophagus of the king inside it an unbelievable surprise |
| 30:19 | · | awaits him my God there's still bones in there |
| 30:27 | · | and even broken pieces of |
| 30:35 | · | wood have these been in there from the beginning I don't know at the moment but |
| 30:42 | · | it is truly amazing getting to film these bones is |
| 30:48 | · | absolutely extraordinary but what are they doing here and to whom did they |
| 30:55 | · | belong the archaeologists who discovered the bone in the 1980s had them analyzed |
| 31:00 | · | and then replaced them in the sarcophagus and the tests revealed something quite |
| 31:06 | · | amazing under the pyramid were the remains of two women there are two queens that are |
| 31:14 | · | buried in this structure one we know her name is OD the second is unknown we know |
| 31:20 | · | that one was around 35 when she died the other was was around 25 so they died |
| 31:25 | · | relatively Young finding human remains in a pyramid is already a very rare |
| 31:32 | · | occurrence but it's only the second time in history that women's Bones have been |
| 31:37 | · | found usually in a pyramid complex there's an enclosure wall with a pyramid |
| 31:43 | · | and then satellite pyramids on the side for important Royal women but Amin have the third changed all that we can see it |
| 31:50 | · | perfectly clearly on the light our image two burial Chambers were built in the western quarters under the pyramid the |
| 31:57 | · | these were for the tombs of two of amenemhat III's wives before this they took care to keep |
| 32:04 | · | the Queen's Apartments totally separated but here there's no pyramid for the queen there are just Apartments |
| 32:09 | · | underneath the one pyramid but why this Innovation why did |
| 32:16 | · | the Pharaoh want to be near his Queens we don't know why he did this but |
| 32:21 | · | one possible reason is that he wanted them to be closer to him in the afterlife the women are no doubt Al |
| 32:28 | · | there to fulfill a protective function for the dead Pharaoh it's quite likely that a feminine figure would play a role |
| 32:35 | · | in the Renaissance or resurrection of the king in his funeral complex it may |
| 32:40 | · | have been some kind of particular regard for these two um women but all we can do |
| 32:46 | · | is speculate we'll probably never know why |
| 32:52 | · | Amad theii made this choice |
| 32:59 | · | but it seems that some unexpected incident came to disturb the Eternal rest of his |
| 33:05 | · | wives we return to Mark lonard underground what has particularly struck |
| 33:11 | · | him about the innards of the Black Pyramid is the high number of cracks he can see pretty much all |
| 33:17 | · | over everything shows cracking that's a crack that runs down the entire length |
| 33:22 | · | of this Corridor and you can see the CRA de are becoming more and |
| 33:28 | · | more numerous and even even here in the floor it's not only the walls and the |
| 33:36 | · | lentils it's even the floor itself was was |
| 33:42 | · | cracking you can imagine as they're dressing this down doing the final finish work you can still see their |
| 33:47 | · | chisel marks all of a sudden it must have been a booming |
| 33:53 | · | frightening sound that echoed through all the chambers and passages causing the workers to put down their tools did |
| 34:00 | · | they run right away we can |
| 34:06 | · | imagine the archaeologists have found indications that these cracks happened while the pyramid was being |
| 34:13 | · | built the fact that this damage this subsidence this settling happened during the construction is proved by the |
| 34:19 | · | patching up it was done by the ancient egyptions themselves in a lot of corridors and Chambers there are wooden |
| 34:25 | · | beams which they place there to show up up where there had been a crack and there might be a |
| 34:31 | · | collapse we have modern cross beams to to hold up everything but they are |
| 34:39 | · | supporting ancient Cedar beams that amm hits people put to hold up whatever is |
| 34:46 | · | above these beams are as old as the pyramid itself and that means they're |
| 34:51 | · | 3,800 years old and there they are but what happened here |
| 34:59 | · | why does the structure show so many signs of damage for part of the answer we have to |
| 35:06 | · | go back above ground the Pharaoh May well have picked |
| 35:13 | · | a poor spot for his pyramid despite having given it long and careful |
| 35:19 | · | thought Dasher is 20 km south of the Giza Plateau the site on the outskirts |
| 35:24 | · | of Cairo of the famous Great Pyramid of kufu dasu was a very famous place and uh |
| 35:31 | · | especially to reconnect with ancestors when amam thei started to build his pyramid there were already pre-existing |
| 35:38 | · | structures all over dashu such as the big pyramids of |
| 35:43 | · | snfu snefru was one of the most powerful pharaohs of the Old Kingdom a ruler who |
| 35:49 | · | achieved legendary status for ancient Egyptians who went so far as to deify |
| 35:55 | · | him sfer was still V generated in the Middle Kingdom so 12th Dynasty Kings |
| 36:00 | · | they went to dashur to build their pyramids and in many ways they were aligning themselves with the power of |
| 36:07 | · | this pharoh from a long gone era it was at dashur that snfu had |
| 36:13 | · | histories first giant pyramids built the Red Pyramid and the bent |
| 36:20 | · | pyramid they were constructed in around 2,600 BCE eight centuries before the |
| 36:26 | · | Black Pyramid but what surprises Meredith brand is the |
| 36:32 | · | unusual location of a menam hat III's pyramid in relation to sniff |
| 36:37 | · | Rus standing where I am at the amim the third pyramid it's clear that over there |
| 36:42 | · | in dashore the ground is higher and we're here in a depression right here we |
| 36:48 | · | are incredibly low the lar scanner should provide us |
| 36:55 | · | with more information about exactly how deep the funeral apartments |
| 37:00 | · | are to this end albon Bri pampo has to walk all the way around the structure to |
| 37:06 | · | get readings of the level of the surrounding ground to compare to those of the pyramid's underground |
| 37:12 | · | [Music] Labyrinth using the data collected by the scanner the 3D model gives us a |
| 37:18 | · | perfect cross-section view of the monument and its various levels the color coding used here gives us |
| 37:24 | · | information about the respective levels of the parts scanned the higher up you go the warmer the |
| 37:30 | · | color getting redder and likewise the deeper you go the colder the color |
| 37:35 | · | turning blue or Violet so we can see perfectly well on this side view that the whole complexity |
| 37:42 | · | of the apartments is deep under the pyramid and is not inside the |
| 37:49 | · | pyramid using the 3D liar model Frank Monier can now with just a few clicks |
| 37:54 | · | establish the depth of the funeral Apartments underneath the Black |
| 38:01 | · | Pyramid so let's measure how deep these apartments go I'll pick a low point at |
| 38:06 | · | random here in this chamber for example and then pick a second Point by |
| 38:12 | · | the entrance there that gives us a depth of 12 to 13 M so the complex of Apartments |
| 38:19 | · | was dug down to a depth of 12 to 13 m a depth of 12 M that's equivalent to |
| 38:27 | · | fourth [Music] basement at this depth Mark lener |
| 38:33 | · | notices an opening in the ceiling which reveals something very strange about the Earth through which these tunnels were |
| 38:41 | · | dug oh this is a good view of the Bedrock clearly it's gray Shale clay |
| 38:49 | · | rust colored iron deposits but it's full of crack it's actually crackled it's not |
| 38:55 | · | at all stable this Bedrock is the source of a lot of |
| 39:01 | · | their problems to remain stable a pyramid |
| 39:06 | · | should be built on Solid Rock not on Clay Frable |
| 39:14 | · | ground it's a surprising mistake for Amat III's Architects to have made |
| 39:19 | · | especially when you realize that the site they chose for the structure seems particularly poorly located in the |
| 39:25 | · | topography people often assume that pyramids are in the middle of the desert but in fact if |
| 39:32 | · | you visit Egypt you will see that the pyramids are on the edge of this great |
| 39:38 | · | desert escarment and they are actually quite close to the |
| 39:44 | · | cultivation but here even the experts are surprised by just how unusually close the Black Pyramid is to the Nile |
| 39:54 | · | Valley the Pyramid of &m the thiri is Incredibly Close to the N Valley it's just right over there The Greenery the |
| 40:02 | · | agriculture the civilization the cities the towns it's just a Stones throw away |
| 40:09 | · | the ancient landscape in dasu was quite different from today's landscape the Nile shifted through the thousands of |
| 40:15 | · | years and moved its bad sideways and um we have scientific evidence that the |
| 40:21 | · | cultivated area and the the cultivation was much closer than it is today |
| 40:28 | · | for egyptologists this decision to build the Black Pyramid so close to the Nile was a total engineering |
| 40:35 | · | blunder the desert is dry the sand is far away from the water table and it's a |
| 40:41 | · | great environment to build the Nile Valley on the other hand is water logged and the water table is also really high |
| 40:49 | · | so by choosing to construct a pyramid at this site so close to the Nile Valley means that amim at the third's pyramid |
| 40:55 | · | didn't really stand a chance it wasn't built on a solid foundation to last the clay soil under the Black |
| 41:03 | · | Pyramid is porous so it's infiltrated by any rise in the level of the extremely close groundwater |
| 41:10 | · | table water infiltration weakened the ground on which the pyramid was built then this weakened permeable |
| 41:18 | · | ground must have undergone localized and irregular subsidence which was the cause of all |
| 41:24 | · | the cracks you can see in the apartments apart as the pyramid Rose its weight |
| 41:31 | · | bore down more and more heavily on its clay unstable and water loged base the edifice started to sink into |
| 41:38 | · | the ground but there could be another reason for these structural |
| 41:48 | · | problems the 3D model obtained with the lar scanner has shown us that the network of passages under the pyramid is |
| 41:55 | · | much more extensive than what is usually found in pyramids what if am menum had the third |
| 42:02 | · | by being too ambitious unwittingly undermined his own monument that simply doesn't work inside |
| 42:08 | · | of a pyramid structurally one cannot have so many chambers and keep a strong |
| 42:13 | · | Foundation to maintain a huge pyramid too many rooms too many corridors to consolidate perhaps they quite simply |
| 42:20 | · | underestimated the reinforcing measures that would be needed and this led to structural |
| 42:25 | · | problems they hadn't anticipated partip there's a lack of additional support |
| 42:30 | · | from Limestone retaining walls which means the weight of all that mud brick is not being distributed and it's |
| 42:37 | · | causing those internal facing Limestone blocks to |
| 42:43 | · | crack at a certain point the weight of the structure exceeded what the vaults could support the pyramid subsided |
| 42:50 | · | pressing down on the rooms and corridors underground causing cracks to appear everywhere |
| 42:57 | · | but why did ammat III take this risk of weakening his tomb it's a bit of a mystery because we |
| 43:04 | · | haven't found the contents of all these rooms and don't really know what their purpose was we don't actually know how |
| 43:09 | · | the the different chambers were used but there are studies indicating that chamber systems are an image of the |
| 43:16 | · | imagination of the Nether world and of the religious belief |
| 43:22 | · | system the Nether world this is where the dead must face Osiris The God Who |
| 43:27 | · | will resurrect them the Black Pyramid has its own roote which is in fact a representation of the |
| 43:34 | · | complex root that the dead have to take in order to reach Paradise perhaps these rooms are in fact sorts of fictional |
| 43:40 | · | regions of the Nether world the pyramid itself is a 3D representation of the Nether |
| 43:46 | · | world this could be the great Paradox of the Black Pyramid in trying to create the best |
| 43:52 | · | possible imitation of the Nether world in order to guarantee his access to Res Direction ammat thei in fact doomed his |
| 44:00 | · | tomb to crumbling [Music] |
| 44:08 | · | ruin there's one place under the pyramid where it seems only a miracle could have prevented a total |
| 44:16 | · | collapse an incredible place so hard to reach that albon Bri wasn't able to get in there with his lar scanner to map it |
| 44:24 | · | it's the part known as the southern Network |
| 44:33 | · | let's go Mark Leonard needs to steal his courage to venture |
| 44:42 | · | forth oh boy this is rough |
| 44:50 | · | [Music] going this is mud brick |
| 44:57 | · | the walls are made of mud bricks the same as those found on the outside of the pyramid the builders didn't even take |
| 45:04 | · | the time to cover them with slabs of white Limestone it's clear that work here was left unfinished as if the workers |
| 45:11 | · | abandoned the site in a [Music] hurry at the end of the corridor Mark |
| 45:17 | · | manages to thread himself into a tiny room but this isn't yet another burial |
| 45:24 | · | chamber this is difficult it's get smaller and smaller I |
| 45:29 | · | believe if I'm not confused we're in the C Chapel of the queen and here we find this amazing |
| 45:38 | · | Alabaster canopic chest where the internal organs were placed after being removed from the body |
| 45:46 | · | during mumification the Egyptians had a complicated way of |
| 45:51 | · | viewing the soul so you think that we have our body our double is made when |
| 45:57 | · | our body is made and that is called the car a spirit double of your body and |
| 46:03 | · | throughout your life it exists with you upon your death it inhabits the |
| 46:08 | · | tomb it was to the car chapels that one would bring offerings for the soul of the deceased after their death once |
| 46:15 | · | again amenemhat III had been Innovative in placing these chapels for the first time actually in a pyramid a chapel for |
| 46:23 | · | each of his queens and one for himself this is absolutely amazing to |
| 46:28 | · | find this incredibly beautiful object still in place and all of this was put |
| 46:34 | · | in the most inaccessible part of the most inaccessible pyramids |
| 46:40 | · | ever but after only a few minutes in this CA chamber Mark judges it wise not |
| 46:46 | · | to linger look at the crack in this chamber |
| 46:51 | · | this is very serious it's separated several centimeters wide and the uh stones |
| 46:57 | · | are Bowing in it still looks like it could collapse at any moment I think |
| 47:05 | · | um I think it's time to [Music] |
| 47:11 | · | go but in amenemhat III's burial chamber One Last Detail intrigues the |
| 47:19 | · | egyptologists the lid is beautifully sculpted and intact and relatively un damaged in fact |
| 47:27 | · | these few chips might be more recent you see in tombs that have clearly been looted where the lid is just shoved |
| 47:33 | · | aside by the robbers or they simply smashed it but the fact that it's |
| 47:39 | · | undamaged indicates that the king's burial was never put |
| 47:45 | · | inside if the lid wasn't smashed by lutters breaking into the Black Pyramid it must have been left |
| 47:52 | · | open so the sarcophagus was never sealed meaning the pharaoh's mummy could never |
| 47:57 | · | have been placed inside one thing thus becomes obvious |
| 48:03 | · | ammat theii was never buried under the Black Pyramid it became very obvious that the |
| 48:10 | · | pyramid was unstable cracks were forming the ground was sinking up to 3 cm so am |
| 48:17 | · | him the third had to abandon the project and start a new one he abandoned this um pyramid and decided oh I'm going to have |
| 48:24 | · | a better one confronted with the failure of this |
| 48:29 | · | overly complex pyramid the Pharaoh simply decided to have another one built at haara 70 km further |
| 48:39 | · | south also built of mud bricks this now has a silhouette similar to that of the Black |
| 48:45 | · | Pyramid but its interior is totally different amenemhat The third's |
| 48:51 | · | Architects had learned their lesson there was more care taken in |
| 48:56 | · | ensuring that the haara pyramid was not going to suffer from such um |
| 49:03 | · | problems here there was no underground Labyrinth one simple Corridor led to a |
| 49:08 | · | single extremely secure chamber a veritable strong box Made of Stone amhat theii had himself buried at |
| 49:16 | · | hawar in a pyramid that was perfect for ensuring his eternal rest it was stable solid it met all the |
| 49:24 | · | requirements that the Pharaoh had set s yet no images exist of this Unique |
| 49:30 | · | Interior and for good reason Amat theii could not have foreseen the disaster |
| 49:36 | · | that would eventually strike at his second pyramid it's been totally flooded for |
| 49:42 | · | over a 100 years because of rising Waters resulting from a canal built close by in the 19th |
| 49:51 | · | century even if the Pharaoh finally decided not to be buried there dashur Black Pyramid still retains The Prestige |
| 49:59 | · | of a royal tomb the Black Pyramid did fulfill its funeral role while the king wasn't |
| 50:06 | · | buried in the pyramid his queens were laid to rest there underground the remains of these |
| 50:12 | · | two queens of Amat III are still enjoying their Eternal rest but under a precarious pyramid I feel quite bad for |
| 50:20 | · | these women to be left in the in the sinking cracking pyramid it may not have been quite so G and um |
| 50:29 | · | situation the failure of the Black Pyramid was in any case a turning point |
| 50:35 | · | it sealed the fate of pyramids in Egypt the kings were thinking why am I |
| 50:41 | · | going to build a pyramid if all the stone is going to be stripped away if it's going to be looted king ammat thei |
| 50:48 | · | is the last Great Pyramid build joser is the beginning amum hat thei is the end |
| 50:55 | · | and together that is the the era of the Great Pyramids of ancient Egypt while the Black Pyramid may keep |
| 51:02 | · | on deteriorating in the coming decades this completely unique modeling campaign using the lar scanner means that we will |
| 51:09 | · | at least have a digital copy exact to the millimeter of its present State the |
| 51:15 | · | 3D modeling captures the structure for the future even if the whole pyramid now |
| 51:20 | · | would finally collapse I mean God forbid we don't want that and it would crush all the chambers and Passage ways even |
| 51:27 | · | if that happened you've now captured the structure that was once there and so that's the value of modeling any uh |
| 51:34 | · | ancient Monument despite its structural problems |
| 51:39 | · | and the ravages of time the Black Pyramid is for now at least Still Standing four Millennia after it was |
| 51:46 | · | built still casting the shadow of am menim hat theii over the Nile Valley |
