National Geographic: Mysteries of Egypt Page #3

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not quite as modern

of the tomb of a

teenage pharaoh.

On November 26, 1922,

Howard Carter reached the wall

outside the first chamber

of Tutankhamen's tomb.

What can you see?

Carter, please,

can you see anything?

Yes.

Yes.

Wonderful things

Wonderful things

And they were wonderful things...

kept hidden for over

in four chambers carved

from solid rock.

They entered to find the only

intact king's tomb

ever discovered in modern times.

And in the burial chamber,

four golden shrines.

Inside the fourth shrine,

three golden coffins,

one inside the other,

and at the center...

the mummy of the boy

king Tutankhamen.

This was the greatest treasure

ever found in Egypt

well over 2,000 objects of gold

alabaster

lapis and precious jewels

made thousands of years ago

by master craftsmen.

They gave us a personal

glimpse of a royal life

in ancient Egypt-and fueled

our drive to continue searching

to continue learning.

So through discoveries

like Howard Carter's

and those of modern archeologists,

the ruins of ancient Egypt

means something to us.

The stone creations

that still loom up

from the desert are

mute testaments of humanity's

great stride forward

from hunters and gatherers...

to builders of

majestic structures,

to dreamers of grand dreams.

These stone wonders are

the shape of our beginnings

towering symbols of our

rise to become thinkers

artists,

poets... and builders.

These great monuments

keep us humble, too.

After all, they managed to survive

for nearly 5,000 years.

How long has our modern

civilization been around in comparison?

Not very long.

Not very long.

Now as to the matter

of the-the curse:

Lord Canarvon died from

an infected mosquito bite

five months after King

Tut's tomb was opened.

So it is true, after all.

Well, Lord Canarvon did

die an untimely death,

but Howard Carter lived to be 65

and the little waterboy

who was one of the first into

the tomb because of his size

lived to a ripe old age,

as did most of the workers.

Clearly,

there was no curse of death.

But beyond all of that,

a curse, you see,

flies in the face of

everything the Egyptians believed in.

You mean life.

Yes, life.

Death, for them,

wasn't an end, it was the

beginning of a great

journey through eternity,

where their gods and

kings sailed the morning ship

across a lake of flames

in the sky,

rising in new life

each day with the sun.

Two thousand years after

Egypt's last pharaoh died

a modern film crew

has just 34 days

to bring their

ancient world alive.

But putting history on film

is always a delicate business

and tackling ancient Egypt

may be the toughest

filmmaking challenge of all.

Ancient Egypt began

more than 5,000 years ago

and its remarkable

civilization lasted 3,000 years.

The magnificent remains of

Egypt's glorious past

include the pyramids... temples

Tut's tomb and its treasures

yet the people that created

them were a mystery to us.

But today we know more than

ever about life in ancient Egypt

and director Bruce Neibaur is

celebrating our knowledge

in a larger-than-life film.

The thing that draws me

to history is the fact

that we are all part of the

same human experience

we're all linked together

in some way.

What's happened in the past

is bringing itself

to bear on what's happening

in the present.

Bruce is filming the

"Mysteries of Egypt,"

a giant-screen

Imax feature for National Geographic

and destination cinema.

It's a monumental undertaking

there are hundreds of extras

thousands of costumes and props

and over eight tons of

specialized equipment designed

to shoot the biggest film

stock in the world.

A standard 35mm frame

is about this big

Imax is about this big and

it's thrown up on a screen

six stories high...

every detail shows up.

Authenticity is everything.

And the crew is under constant

pressure to achieve perfection.

Costume designer Jackie Crier

has been working since dawn.

Today, she must transform hundreds

of extras into pyramid

builders for a crucial scene.

Down river

archeological advisor Zahi Hawass

waits for shooting to start

with producers Scott Swofford

and Lisa Truitt.

I take full responsibility

for everything bad in the film.

If anything goes wrong

I will throw Lisa

Scott and Bruce in the Nile.

Getting it right can be difficult,

because just how the Egyptians

did build the pyramids is still a mystery.

We know they devised a system

for moving mammoth

chunks of limestone.

We know the system was efficient

one 5,000-pound stone could be

added to a rising mound

every two minutes.

But what we don't know is how

they did it without wheels or cranes.

They simply do not show

pyramid building anywhere

and so what we

are left with

are surmises or inferences

that we make from the stones

the size of the stones.

But you know the rules

of physics haven't changed.

We have found sledges.

We have found ropes or

fragments of rope.

We have found ramps of pyramids.

The evidence has an

interesting tale to tell

but getting the story on film

requires some distinctly modern tricks.

Production designer Michael Buchanan

knows everything has to look just right.

I'm trying to make the plaster

look like real stones.

So it doesn't look

like what it is!

The plaster stones weigh only

a fraction of the real thing,

but the actors' efforts are real.

As the camera rolls,

on sledges up increasingly steep ramps.

It's a dazzling sight...

and one not seen on the

Giza plateau in over 4,000 years.

Until now

I haven't seen any film

that is done on ancient

Egypt that is accurate.

All that we see is like

When I saw the stones

going up the hill,

it really looked like

ancient Egypt.

So this is a huge pay off

and to have Zahi's stamp

of approval is a big,

big relief.

But more than stone was moved

to build the pyramids

traveled to the isolated Giza plateau.

How they got here

might surprise you.

Four thousand years ago,

the pyramids weren't

surrounded by desert.

The Egyptians built harbors

and canals that brought

the Nile deep into the

Giza plateau.

We can imagine,

back 4,600 years ago,

Cheops building his pyramid,

what he did

he cut this harbor,

and the harbor was

connecting with the Nile.

The harbor was used every morning

when the workmen are coming.

Everyone is holding his lunch

and coming,

and coming in boats, and

they work here and building

the pyramid from the sunrise

to the sunset.

Bringing that ancient harbor

to life will be

one of the most difficult tasks

the crew undertakes

but Bruce wants

the scene on film.

All the modern tools

are employed-extras across

the river are cued

by walkie-talkie...

and even the sailboat

has a motor hidden from view.

Duck out, man!

Turnover! Roll it

please turning, turning, turning.

But nothing goes as planned

the wind won't cooperate

and the Nile's current forces

the boat backwards.

Oh, man-collision!

What was done with ease

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