National Geographic: Mysteries of Egypt Page #2

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Highly sophisticated knowledge.

Look.

All of the Giza pyramids are built

in perfect alignment

with certain stars.

That takes a knowledge

of astronomy.

The pyramids' foundations are laid out

in perfect angles

and dimensions,

precisely correct for the height

they wanted to reach.

Now that takes

knowledge of geometry

and mathematics.

And finally,

you must get these big stones

from down here to up there

and you must make them

all fit perfectly.

Now that takes knowledge

an incredible knowledge of

engineering and organization.

Organization?

Absolutely.

You just said so yourself.

It wasn't the gods who built

these great monuments.

It was people.

Thousands and thousands of people.

Imagine being one of

these people

living in a tiny village

more than 4,000 years ago.

Life would be pretty much

the same day in

and day out-farming,

herding cattle

fishing in the Nile.

Then one day,

you're selected to journey

by boat down the Nile.

You're now part of

the great national project

to build the pharaoh's tomb.

But you have no idea

what kind of tomb!

And then you see a monument

to the sun to life eternal.

How did they move such heavy

stones to such great heights?

There are many theories,

but they probably pulled

the blocks up mud-slickened ramps

raising the ramps

as the pyramid grew.

Masons then set the stones

with such precision a postcard

couldn't fit between them.

To create the

Great Pyramid of Khufu,

it took over 20 years...

more than two million

stone blocks...

and some 20,000 people.

And they might have been slaves,

but now we think

they were mostly peasant farmers

recruited to work here

part of the year.

With their help,

the early pharaohs built

more than a hundred

pyramids-80 of which survive today.

But what about the kings

who came later?

You told me King Tutankhamen

wasn't buried in a pyramid?

No, he wasn't.

They stopped building them.

And for good reason.

There were robbers who cared far

more about heaps of gold

than an eternal journey.

The pyramids,

to these thieves,

were like enormous

billboards saying,

"We've buried the king in here

and all his treasure with him."

At any rate,

a new plan had to be devised.

That's why 500 years after

the last pyramids were built

a new era of kings decided

that instead of building tombs

which everyone could see

why not build tombs

which no one could see.

Three hundred miles

south of the great pyramids

across the Nile

from the modern city of Luxor

is this barren maze of

valleys in the shadow

of a natural pyramid.

Here no thief could

find the royal tombs.

Here the kings and queens of Egypt

would remain immortal

or so they thought.

But greed breeds ingenuity.

Cleverly hiding their

devious enterprises,

robbers scoured

the Valley of the Kings.

Over time,

each of the valley tombs

was found

broken into and completely

plundered-except for one

Except for the tomb

of Tutankhamen

That

at least

is what Howard Carter believed.

And, if he was right

it would be the

greatest archeological

discovery of modern times

But after five years

he still hadn't found it,

and the situation

was becoming desperate.

Then, on the morning of

November the 4th, 1922,

a waterboy trying to

secure his jug hit

an unusual rock.

Carter sent a telegram

to Lord Canarvon in England

to come quickly and went to

Cairo to meet his benefactor.

But while he was away something

very strange happened.

The golden bird that had

brought them luck

was killed by a cobra.

Well, now the cobra was

the protector of the pharaoh.

And the canary represents those

who had entered the tomb.

So the cobra ate the canary

because of the mummy's curse.

More likely he ate it

because he was hungry.

I like the curse idea better!

Well, certainly the workmen

believed it was the curse.

The death of the golden bird

was a bad omen to them.

It meant that someone close to

the project would die within the year.

Rumors of a curse mattered

little to Carter.

He hoped his dig would uncover

a tomb like this one

the tomb of a pharaoh

named Ramses the 6th

who ruled long after King Tut.

Carter wanted to find treasure.

But if not, something

just as precious.

Pictures...

hieroglyphs that would

reveal priceless knowledge

of how the ancients lived

and what they believed.

These images are from the

Egyptian Books of the Dead,

passports to eternity which

were buried with a mummy.

To help a dead king reach

the afterlife,

they supplied answers to

questions he would be asked

spells to deflect dangers

along the way.

But preparation for the afterlife

began long before death.

In grand temples once supported

by these pillars-among

the largest places

of worship ever built

the living pharaohs gave offerings

as a way of communicating

with the gods in the world beyond

and courting their favor.

Both immense and colorful,

temples like the great structure

called Medinet Habut

were the settings for

magnificent rituals

that proclaimed to all

not only the pharaoh's power and wealth

but his devotion to the gods

he would one day join

on a journey through eternity.

They sure seemed preoccupied

with life after death.

Yes,

and probably because

no ancient people enjoyed life

as much as they did.

There are picture stories

of invention and adventure

of board games and ball games,

of dance and music...

of acrobats and mechanical toys...

of the affection between

husbands and wives...

and of family unity and love.

It was the most advanced

civilization of its time...

and it went on for 3,000 years.

But the empire they

amassed attracted invaders.

Among the stories on

temple walls

are accounts of

battles against outsiders

who tried to conquer the

kingdom of the pharaohs.

But, the invading empires

became more powerful

even more determined

and so gradually, inevitably,

the kingdom of Egypt began to crumble.

Well, how could a place

as powerful as Egypt just collapse?

Actually, many things happened,

but mostly it was the weakening

of the pharaohs' power

through civil turmoil,

making Egypt vulnerable to invaders.

Little by little

much of the pharaohs' great

empire-along

with its secrets

was reclaimed by the desert.

But even as the monuments

of Egypt crumble,

the stories are rediscovered

by modern archeologists

deciphering the distant past.

Scholars and artists are

preserving the Great Sphinx for all humanity.

Research within the

Giza pyramids has revealed

the brilliance of

ancient architects

whose sophisticated

designs prevented

the collapse of these

inner chambers and passageways.

DNA analysis is helping to

identify family ties of the royal

mummies

and to give us clues about

how they lived and died.

New excavations are uncovering

the support system of settlements

and facilities for the workers

who built the Giza pyramids.

These new discoveries

and many more-owe themselves

at least in part,

to one discovery

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