National Geographic: Mysteries of Egypt

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No land on Earth possess

more wonders than Egypt

wonders long hidden

but revealed occasionally

in a glint of gold

or a curious tale.

Our story begins with a death

the death of an unusual boy.

Worshipped as the son of Re,

the Sun god

he was a pharaoh of Egypt

We don't know how he died,

only that his death was

sudden and mysterious.

His body was preserved

in the manner of other pharaohs

and priests anointed his

coffin to prepare him

for his final journey

into the world of the dead.

The rituals had to be finished

before his father

the Sun,

descended into darkness.

So this young pharaoh

was secured in his tomb

surrounded by kingly treasures

and his seal was pressed

into its entrance.

From that time on

it was to be a place of peace

hidden and undisturbed

throughout eternity.

This young King's name

was Tutankhamen.

For 3,000 years,

King Tut and his tomb

in the Valley of the Kings

remained concealed

beneath shifting sands.

Other tombs were discovered

and completely pillaged

but not his.

Believing he could find it,

an Englishman named

Howard Carter mounted

five arduous expeditions

but they yielded nothing.

In 1922, he returned to

Egypt for a sixth attempt.

That year he brought a

beautiful canary

to brighten his spirits.

The workmen called it

the Golden Bird and told Carter

it would bring them good luck.

But as work began success seemed

a remote prospect.

And time was running out.

Carter's benefactor,

Lord Canarvon

was an English earl

fascinated by Egypt

but even he was losing faith...

and had threatened

to cut off the money.

Yet Carter persisted

knowing that

if found intact

the tomb would be filled

with amazing artifacts

that would help us peer

through the shadows of time

to glimpse a world of human

splendor long lost

to glimpse our very beginnings.

That's a great story Grandpa

but I want to know more.

You live here and

I know you can tell me

the real story.

About?

Well, my friends want me

to ask about the "curse"

how anyone who entered

King Tut's tomb...

...will have some terrible

things happen to them.

Yes, yes, I know.

I don't know if I believe it.

But will you tell me about it?

So the pharaohs, the tombs

the monuments

the great civilization

who built them

you are not interested in?

But the Mummy's curse you find...

Exciting!

Yes, I can see that.

All right then.

you shall hear all about it.

But first we must

take a trip together.

Where will we start then?

At the source, of course.

The source of the Nile.

It is the longest river on Earth,

the greatest river in Africa

crossing nearly half

the continent.

It is born of two rivers

the White Nile

which rises near Lake Victoria

and heads north

through Uganda-and

the Blue Nile

which descends from the

highlands of Ethiopia.

They meet in the

desert of Sudan,

forming the main trunk

of the Nile.

By the time it drains

into the Mediterranean Sea

its waters have journeyed

more than 4,000 miles.

To the outside world

the source of the great river

was an enduring mystery.

But to the ancient Egyptians,

the source was clear:

the Nile flowed

from the realm of the gods.

But what has the Nile

to do with mummies and curses?

Everything.

There would be no mummies,

no ancient Egypt-in fact,

no Egypt at all without her.

You see,

Egypt without the Nile

is a desert...

suitable for

camels and scorpions,

but not great civilizations.

It's only here along the

flood plain of the Nile

that the desert's heat

is softened...

and arid sand is turned

to rich farmland.

Nourished and irrigated

by the Nile,

Egypt became the longest

lived of all the

great early civilizations.

In ancient times,

so much water raced down

from the lush valleys

of Central Africa

that the Nile overflowed

its banks in seasonal floods.

Mineral-rich silt was carried

toward the desert of Egypt

from lands upstream,

where wildlife flourished.

Rich land made possible

a vast farming culture

and a stable civilization able to

turn from daily survival

to works of the mind:

science, mathematics,

engineering and astronomy.

They studied the heavens

and the seasons

gave us the 24-hour day

and the 365-day calendar.

Egypt, an old saying goes,

was the gift of the Nile.

But the Egyptians believed

there was one thing

even mightier than the Nile:

the sun-the God they called Re,

the God who created everything.

Each morning with its rising

the Sun God would be born.

Each night in setting

he'd die.

But the next morning

he would rise again

never failing.

He was eternal.

When a king died,

it was believed that

he became one with Re:

His son

the new pharaoh became Horus

the falcon,

the living God on earth.

And so the Egyptians accorded

their rulers absolute power

which they used to build

an extraordinary empire

an empire of buildings

so enormous

and art so exquisite

we are still trying to understand

how such wonders were created

how stones from the

desert were turned

into timeless monuments.

Some of the oldest buildings

on earth are here

preserved by the desert air

and the skill of their creators.

Some are so old that

they had already stood

a thousand years

when Tutankhamen was born.

The enormous obelisks of Karnak

were carved from single blocks

of granite,

moved hundreds of miles by boat

rolled on logs

and perhaps levered up

with huge timbers.

Giant statues of Ramses the Great

carved at Abu Simbel

are still some of the largest figures

ever sculpted from solid stone.

We don't know how they did it,

but we do know why

to honor the pharaohs,

both in life and after death.

Honor the pharaohs after death?

Does that have anything

to do with mummies?

Yes.

Look at Tutankhamen for example.

When the young kind died,

the priests sought

to create

a magical new body for him.

For 70 days they labored,

drying and preserving the

royal body with salts

and ointments,

then wrapping it in hundreds

of feet of linen laden

with protective jewels,

charms and amulets.

And finally,

crowning the mummy with

an exquisite golden death mask.

Tutankhamen was ready

for the afterlife.

Had the boy king lived

and died a thousand years earlier,

he would have been buried

like pharaohs long

before him in a monument

of colossal proportions

the man-made mountain

of stone called pyramids.

They probably saw the

pyramid's shape

as a mystical link

between earth and sky,

providing the pharaoh's soul

with a stairway to the heavens.

Of the fabled Seven Wonders

of the Ancient World

only the pyramids of

Giza remain-built

more than 4,000 years ago.

Nearly 500 feet tall

they contain some

of the largest pieces

of stone ever moved by

humans-as much as 50 tons or more.

Yet this was accomplished

without wheels or pulleys

or even iron tools.

How in the world did they do it

without modern machinery?

The gods certainly didn't do it.

They used their minds.

Knowledge built these great

great structures.

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