National Geographic: Egypt - Quest for Eternity

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One hundred and fifty years ago

the king of France had

this obelisk brought

from Egypt to grace

the heart of Paris

Three thousand years earlier

it had been dedicated to the

great pharaoh Ramses II

with these words

"so long as heaven exists

your monuments shall exist

and your name shall endure

like the heaven."

Through the 30 centuries

that the pharaohs ruled Egypt

the people of the Nile created

the most glorious monuments

the world has even seen

among them

the largest place of worship

in the ancient world

These miracles in stone were

tributes to their gods and kings

They believed that man, like the sun

could die and be reborn

They constructed elaborate tombs

to protect the body

and house the soul

throughout eternity

They created guides to

the underworld

Books of the Dead

to insure immortality

And on their monuments

they left the testimony

of their faith

These inscriptions are keys with

which we unlock the secrets

of ancient Egypt

Ladies and gentlemen

now we are at the temple of

the queen Hatshepsut...

And, as they have since

the days of Herodotus

Antony and cleopatra

thousands journey here

to see these wonders

going down to the Green Valley

for the holy visit of Amun-Re

to the goddess Hathor once

a year for 15 days...

But today, having endured

for 50 centuries

these seemingly imperishable

structures are threatened

Their fate may be determined

in our lifetime

so, people of science, soul

and conscience

travel here from all over the globe

to save

the priceless monuments

to decipher the meaning

of the messages

before they disappear forever

This is the story of

the land of Egypt

and the quest for eternity

The Nile

Flowing through the endless miles

of Egypt's desert sands

its precious waters gave birth

and breath

to one of the

greatest civilizations

that has ever taken hold on our planet

"Hail to you, Oh Nile!"

Went an ancient hymn

"sprung from earth

come to nourish Egypt

Food provider, bounty maker

who creates all that is good."

The river's annual flooding left

rich deposits of silt

utilizing it, farmers developed

a settled life

sustained by its abundant waters

the land and crops prospered

Even mud from the Nile's banks

provided the people

with material for everything

from clay pots to the bricks

with which they built their homes

The Nile itself was Egypt's highway...

boats sailed northward

with the currents

and south with the prevailing winds

To predict the time when the

river would overflow

the ancients developed a calendar

our own evolved from it

Along the extended oasis of

the Nile Valley

a way of life emerged

that still endures today

virtually unchanged from the furthest

reaches of recorded time

And in the time of the Nile's

annual flooding

when the farmers could not till

their fields

they built the pyramids-tombs

for their pharaohs

All that remains of the seven Wonders

of the Ancient World

they were stairways to heaven

For to all Egyptians

their religion promised an afterlife

The largest monument ever constructed

the Great Pyramid contains more than

two million immense limestone blocks

each weighing over two tons

One hundred thousand men toiled

for 20 years

without wheel, horse

or iron tools to create it

that their pharaoh might

join the sun god

and live in eternity

This dedication to gods and

kings was to sustain the Egypt

of the pharaohs for 3,000 years

From the beginning, the Nile was

the soul of the land

The lotus growing on the river

banks symbolized

the people of Upper Egypt

the papyrus, shimmering in the

marshes of the Delta

was the symbol of Lower Egypt

lmmortalized on this table of slate

a king known as Narmer wears the

high-domed crown

of Upper Egypt on one side

the low-curled crown of Lower Egypt

on the other

It commemorates his unification

of the two lands

to create the nation of Egypt

in 3100 B.c.

From that time, Egyptian kings

would wear both crowns

as rulers of the two kingdoms of

Upper and Lower Egypt

The two lands have remained linked

from Narmer's time to the present

Isolated from its neighbors

protected by mountains, desert,

and sea

the Nile Valley was an ideal crucible

in which a civilization could begin

Traces of those beginnings can be

found in the city of Nekhen

The site, still populated today

holds evidence of habitation

stretching back 6,000 years

since 1967

Dr. Walter Fairservis of Vassar college

and the American museum of

Natural History

has been excavating here

in his continuing search for

the roots of civilization

It was here, just 90 years ago

that the Narmer tablet was discovered

It was here, 50 centuries before

that king Narmer established

the capital

of the newly unified nation

Here we have the walls of a princely complex

that belonged to a king who lived

here 5,000 years ago

the very beginning of Egypt's

unification

He was a great king, a powerful monarch

And we know from the size of

the rooms

and the way things are located

that he was a very rich man

a very wealthy person

We know he had storerooms full of grain

We know that he had perhaps

a great hoard of copper

and many other things of that order

And yet, oddly enough,

this powerful monarch

he left the place

He abandoned it

And that's part of the reason

we're exploring this area to

find out why

Why, at the very beginnings of

Egypt's history

do we have a place as important

as this abandoned?

Perhaps the secret still lies buried

in these mud-brick walls

sifting through the debris

of the centuries

the Fairservis team continues

to piece together

the history of the site

Many threads bind Egyptian

prehistory and history

But none is stronger than the

belief in immortality

But this one is interesting because...

Equipped with objects necessary

for the afterlife

these bodies were buried before

the first pharaoh built

his palace here

Right here, if I can just

pull this up a little bit

hair pins

found at the roof of the skull

Made of some quill-like or ivory,

I guess

Perhaps ivory

Perhaps ivory, yes.

Put that back there

In this capital, religion, tradition

and political power fused

foundations were laid on which

the longest lasting of

all ancient civilizations would rise

Two thousand years later

Egypt's religious capital

was Thebes

one of the richest

most powerful cities on earth

At its heart was the temple of

Amun at karnak

the largest place of worship

in the ancient world

As dynasty followed dynasty

the great complex was enlarged

and embellished

by a succession of pharaohs

Tutankhamun

whose fabulous tomb treasures

dazzled the world

a female pharaoh, Hatshepsut

called "the first great woman

in history"

the heretic Akhenaten,

first believer in one god.

And Ramses II, the greatest builder

of all time

called Ramses the Great

pharaoh while Egypt's power and

prosperity flourished

this warrior-king was to rule

for 67 years

bring peace to the empire,

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