Egypt: Engineering an Empire Page #7

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and decorated in relief.

At first glance, an obelisk can not

seem a great feat of engineering.

But if you think about it, is one of

buildings more artistic ...

and impressive of all time.

The history of obelisks began

the former granite quarry in Aswan.

The 184km south of Thebes.

Was left where the majority ...

the Egyptian obelisks, and where a

still lies unfinished ...

carved on three sides.

With 42m tall and weighing

over 1100 tons ...

I stand on what should

have been the largest obelisk in the world ...

if it had been completed.

It was abandoned when cracked.

But, nowadays, this obelisk

still gives us a good idea ...

how they were carved.

workers

entalhavam granite ...

Ball diabase,

like this one.

The diabase is harder than granite,

so if you slam ...

for a long time, will form chips.

For carving an obelisk

this size ...

were the experts think

required 130 men ...

for an entire year.

So, imagine yourself beating ...

and hammering a stone for a

year of your life ...

and then see what you

was working crack ...

and you have to leave.

Well, in one respect, they were lucky:

They did not need transport.

Once the needle is thought

free from its bed of granite ...

the next challenge was to carry it,

often for hundreds of miles,

to its final destination.

To do this, engineers

Egyptians resorted ...

the old and trusted Nile

and used the annual flood ...

to their advantage.

The problem of transporting

blocks of stone statues ...

and obelisks, it was moved

a huge amount of water and ...

the hulls of the boats touched the bottom

Nile and sometimes washed up onto.

So, it was better

try to carry ...

these huge pieces of stone

during flood ...

when the waters rose and

left the bed of the Nile ...

much deeper.

After the obelisk was sent

downstream, engineers ...

faced its last

and biggest obstacle:

Lift it.

How exactly ...

they did it was a mystery,

but there is a current theory ...

about the process.

First, builders settled

a base granite ...

strong enough to withstand

the weight of the obelisk.

Then surrounding this base

a wall of bricks ...

and this enclosure was filled with sand.

On both sides of the wall

towered brick ramps.

Using ropes and sleds

beneath the obelisk ...

workers pulled the cart up a ramp,

as they went down by another ...

until it aprumasse in the sand.

The sand was then removed

gradually, with the obelisk ...

held vertically

to sit on its base.

Unfortunately for Hatshepsut,

his reign did not end smoothly.

Around 1459 a. C, her beloved

Architect Senemut ...

disappeared without a trace.

The following year, the Queen herself

perished under mysterious circumstances.

The most powerful woman in Egypt

patroness of the most modern ...

architectural feat of empire

waned in history.

Do not know much

about how she died.

His body was never found.

We find the grave, but

did not find the body.

And this is another mystery

we are investigating.

35 centuries later

there are no clues.

But there is a prime suspect,

Hatshepsut's stepson ...

Thutmose III.

So long stifled by stepmother

perhaps the rightful heir ...

got rid of it.

After he took over, the statues

and monuments of Hatshepsut ...

were destroyed and her name,

erased from official records.

Tuthmose shaft becoming

a great conqueror ...

extending the frontiers of the empire

more than any other pharaoh ...

from Syria to central Sudan.

After Thutmose III ruled Egypt

first of these territories.

They were vassals of the Egyptian king.

In this sense, he was a conqueror.

1200 years after the construction

the first pyramid ...

Egypt was the

height of its power.

But just when he seemed invincible

emerged a pharaoh revolutionary ...

to shake

the foundations of the empire.

His worship of a single god would generate

the construction of a new capital ...

designed to position itself

as the center of the universe.

Thebes, the 1352. A.c. ...

The temple of Karnak

epicenter of the Egyptian society ...

was in great expectation.

The beloved pharaoh Amenhotep III

had died and his son ...

Amenhotep IV was

about to become ...

the most powerful man on earth.

The new Pharaoh did not take long to show signs

that his reign would be quite different.

The name Amenhotep means

"Amun is satisfied".

With the rise of the new empire

and the prominence of Thebes ...

as the main city of Egypt,

Amon was elevated to king of the gods.

The priests of Amun were

concentrated here, in the temple of Karnak.

These priests controlled

one-third of wealth throughout Egypt.

And when it comes to religion,

which they were sent.

But the new pharaoh, Amenhotep IV,

had no intention ...

to let someone else

send in anything.

Thus began the struggle

classic between church and state.

There were several gods associated

Ammon and one was Ra ...

spiritual strength

invisible behind the sun.

The shape and the rays of the sun,

or what we can see ...

was a God named Aton,

Amenhotep and developed ...

one entire religion around Aten,

less than a god until then ...

had secondary role.

But thanks to the new Pharaoh ...

he was elevated to a new status.

On a trip north

in the fifth year of his reign ...

Amenhotep encountered

an excerpt protected desert ...

torreantes by limestone hills.

Ali, Aton told him, saying that

one where the creation began.

deeply moved

by this spiritual encounter ...

Pharaoh changed his name to Akhenaten,

which means the server Aton.

He decided to abandon the capital

Egypt, Thebes, modern Luxor ...

and build a new city

this virgin site, the 288km.

Imagine if President

U.S. closed the Capitol ...

change everything

to Texas and said ...

"The new Capitol will be here."

Imagine what would happen

people in Washington.

It was the same

with people of Luxor ...

suddenly, everyone loses their job,

the center of power is shifted ...

and they have to follow Akhenaton

to a new place.

The rebel pharaoh called

their new city of Akhetaten ...

meaning horizon of Aten.

Is now known as Amarna ...

and retains little of the enormous

structures that made ??her ...

the most thriving metropolis Egyptian

for more than 3300 years.

Akhenaten wanted your city

built immediately ...

to be able to move soon.

His impatience stimulated

its engineers ...

to invent a new

how to build fast.

Their response was

a technological innovation ...

small blocks of limestone

cut into standard size ...

to be easily

loaded and stacked.

The blocks called "talatat"

by archaeologists ...

were precursors of the modern old

Materials prefabricated building.

The "talatat" were very useful because

become very fast ...

the construction of buildings.

Were not needed ...

those huge groups of workers

pulling blocks.

It is much easier

have several people loading ...

each block

and using them as bricks.

The city's project

was equally innovative.

Amarna covering 61.44 km , 12.8 km

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