Egypt: Engineering an Empire Page #3

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needed to build down.

He began digging a vertical shaft

7m wide ...

by 28m deep,

to house the sarcophagus of the pharaoh.

Then the workers of Imhotep

dug a second well ...

where would be taken

the body of the pharaoh.

Across the burial chamber

had underground chambers ...

which serve as

royal palace in the afterlife.

Approximately 304m south ...

the second tomb complex

was opened in bedrock.

How many pharaohs before

and after him ...

Zoser had two tombs.

Each serve a

essential spiritual purpose.

In the tomb of the north, his body

mummified would be buried.

In the south, their internal organs

be preserved ...

in canopic jars.

During mummification

was one of the important parts ...

emptying the body cavity

and take all the internal organs.

If they were left there,

the body rot and ...

basically explode.

Thus, the lungs and the liver ...

the stomach and intestines were

were then removed and dried ...

the use of a combination

salt and sodium bicarbonate.

Then, after drying by,

I do not know, a few weeks ...

they were cleaned, greased,

wrapped in bandages ...

and placed into boxes.

The mummified body

Zoser is buried ...

this labyrinth of tunnels under his

Step Pyramid in Saqqara here.

Nearly 7km

secret passages here ...

they are completely banned

for tourists ...

since it tends to collapse the ceiling,

from time to time.

At the time

Moses left Egypt ...

it was here

over a thousand years.

The purpose of the

tunnels is still a mystery.

Some may have served to

confuse grave robbers.

Others may have been

own work of thieves.

But since hardly anyone comes here ...

nobody knows what we'll find

turning a corner.

As a secret passage

or a staircase.

It is very easy to get confused here.

For example, if you arrive ...

at an intersection

and go right ...

which should have gone to

left, are lost.

I'm getting very close to the

room where Zoser was buried ...

but rather there are several rooms ...

which will serve as a

kind of memorial palace.

Here, these rooms are the luxuries

Zoser that would ...

in life after death,

or the mummies of their relatives.

It is remarkable that I

has fallen this pyramid ...

hundreds of meters and give face

with this room perfect.

Here are ...

the bones of relatives

Zoser ...

as well.

Engineers Zoser

built dozens of rooms ...

like this, for your

palace mortuary.

Down here, we find

this ...

a bandage mummy.

Or pottery 5000 years.

Or this wall

ornate ...

with this beautiful inlay

seawater.

Or these hieroglyphs

so well preserved ...

they seem

carved yesterday.

I'm sitting on the camera

Zoser's main mortuary.

Above me, there's a will,

as you can see.

The body was lowered

and deposited here.

This room is the center

the funerary complex of Zoser.

Before, it was sustained

by these beams of Phoenicia ...

what is now Lebanon, and should have

4600 years.

Are as close as possible

Zoser's tomb ...

and some people say

that precedes this area.

Well here is the sarcophagus

made of alabaster massive ...

which is perhaps the sarcophagus

a relative of Zoser.

above

is the Step Pyramid.

Perhaps, the first construction

stone on the planet.

But that's only half the story,

what we see on earth ...

is only half

because it is down here that is ...

the real palace funeral

Zoser.

And sure enough was done to

a pharaoh very powerful ...

and working with the best

engineers of Egypt.

With the construction of the substructure

the funerary complex of Zoser ...

ongoing, Imhotep Minded

superstructure above ...

that would protect

against the outside world.

With limestone mountains and a

extensive hand labor at their disposal ...

Imhotep proceeded

with fingers crossed ...

towards an unknown frontier.

2659 a.c.

Centuries before Stonehenge

the Egyptians were building the first ...

stone structure in the world.

A colossal tomb complex

for the pharaoh Zoser.

Ahead project was Imhotep ...

real architect of Zoser.

On a hill of limestone near

of Saqqara, thousands of workers ...

inaugurated a new industry,

"quarrying".

They perfected the system

cutting, extracting ...

and transporting huge blocks

construction.

His first challenge was to carve

the surface of the hill ...

symmetrical slabs.

The mining was done

grinding the rock ...

em sulcos com martelos de pedra.

And it was only with the effort,

digging ditches ...

and stacking the blocks

and then cutting them down ...

to roll them out of the quarry.

Once extracted, the stones were

swept deserts tortuous ...

the quarry to the construction site,

using nothing but ropes ...

sleds, muscles and sweat.

Everything indicates that they

knew the wheel.

But for dragging

heavy objects on the sand ...

the wheel was not very appropriate.

Sleds were much more appropriate ...

and that was what they used.

With the design of your

tomb in safe hands ...

Zoser turned his attention

the strengthening of the empire.

He was a pioneer in mining

in the Sinai Peninsula ...

fattening the coffers of the nation ...

with regular supplies

turquoise and copper.

He also extended the

southern border of Egypt to Aswan ...

the first call

cataract of the Nile ...

would remain the limit

Southern nation.

After 10 years of reign

Pharaoh still felt strong ...

and sent the Egyptian tradition that

works in his grave ...

continue until his death.

With the ground floor finished

and plenty of time ...

to build more and better

Imhotep started ...

a series of expansions

to revolutionize architecture.

About his mastaba, he

added a second smaller ...

a third of this then

a fourth ...

stacking them as

layers of a wedding cake.

E le, then wanted to make it even bigger ...

extending the four layers

to the west ...

about them and adding two more.

The tomb of Zoser assumed

gradually a different format ...

all that the Egyptians

had seen.

This new structure would be

known as the Step Pyramid.

It's almost like Imhotep worked ...

in architectural form

this simple structure ...

whole evolution of the hills

that existed ...

before that big construction ...

that set the standard for

all the pyramids that came after.

After nearly two

decades of work ...

the Step Pyramid of Zoser ...

stayed with the height of 20 floors.

Around her, a complex ...

under construction establish a new

standard for real burial mounds.

To the north, a small

palace was built.

Adjacent to it,

two houses ceremonial ...

represented the high and lower Egypt.

Surrounding the entire complex higher

a football stadium ...

a robust wall of limestone

reached a height of three storeys.

Today, as in priscas eras, the only

way into the complex ...

is through a gate torreante

colonnades that contains ...

the first forty stone columns

already raised on the ground.

Each of 10m and measuring

its finish testifies ...

amateurism engineering

at the time of Imhotep.

Fearing that its columns

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