National Geographic: Egypt - Quest for Eternity (1982)

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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,

father nearly 200 children

and leave his mark on fully half

the monuments in Egypt

Ramses was only about 20

when his father seti I died

in 1290 B.c.

Seti had ordered his funerary

temple built at Abydos

One of Ramses' first acts as pharaoh

was to travel there to complete it

To all Egyptians, this was the

most sacred city on earth

Here, drawn by some mystical

identification

with Abydos and the long-dead pharaoh

an extraordinary woman

known as Omm seti

was to come 3,000

years later

With a group of fellow Egyptologists

she celebrates her 77th birthday

Well, thank you very much

You certainly made it

a happy birthday

Make a speech

Make a speech? Oh, how lovely,

I am touched

I'm afraid its a mass-produced one,

but...

Never mind, no matter

My heart, my mother

My heart, my mother

My heart whereby I came into being

Do not stand up and witness against

me at the judgement

I think that is the text.

It should be

Yes, you've got it

Oh, thank you very much

To Omm seti at her 77th,

on her way to 110

Thank you. Let us drink to our dear

old friend Ramses II

Born Dorothy Eady in England

she says something called her here

from the time she was a child

she came here 50 years ago,

married an Egyptian

and had a son whom she named seti

From then on, she was known as

"Omm seti,"

which means "mother of seti."

She has devoted the last 30 years

of her life

to the study of seti I's temple

and become an expert on him and

Ramses II

Ramses tells that he came to Abydos

alone, you see

in the first year of his reign

after his father was dead

and he found that the decoration of

this temple was incomplete

In the inscription he says that

"I ordered the work of my father

to be completed

and all the works which my father

had started

and were still incomplete

I had them finished."

And then he goes on as

if he's speaking to the soul

of his father

you see, and telling him

that all that seti had wanted to do

and died before completing

and all his plans and ambitions

Ramses would complete it

And he said, "so long as

I am ruling

it will be as though you are

still on the throne."

He was a nice fellow,

and he was a very good son

When Omm seti came here for the

Egyptian Department of Antiquities

the temple was in ruins.

Its reconstruction became

her passion.

They confronted me with a pile of

fragments of inscribed stone

There were over 2,000

some were very small, some were

very big

My job was to copy the inscriptions

on them

catalogue them, and, where possible,

fit them together

The temple is vibrant with carvings

that look as fresh today

as when they were painted 3,000

years ago

lts walls tell the first known

story of resurrection

Osiris, a mythical ruler

was k*lled and dismembered

by his brother

His wife, the goddess !sis, found

the scattered pieces of his body

bound them together, and Osiris

arose from the dead

Their son, the falcon-headed god Horus

was to grow to manhood and avenge

his father

Anubis, jackal-headed god of embalming

was sent by the sun god to help

Osiris live eternally

The Egyptians believed

that because Osiris died

and rose again

they too could achieve immortality

Worshipping Osiris, seti assures

his place in the afterlife

Offering incense

the pharaoh worships before the

bark of the sun god, Amun-Re

Just as seti offers bread, ducks,

figs

and a pomegranate to !sis

Omm seti follows the ancient belief

Oh yes, every year at the Great Feast

and again on the birthday of the

gods Osiris and !sis

I come here with offerings of wine

bread, and incense

Oh, I love coming here

It's the place I really do feel

at home

Three days after this filming

was completed

Omm seti died

she was buried in Abydos

Egyptian city of resurrection

In the time of Ramses

the most powerful deity of the living

was the sun god Amun-Re

He was patron of the city of Thebes

located on the Nile between

the first capital Nekhen,

and Abydos

On the east bank, where the sun rises

were temples dedicated to the sun god

karnak... and Luxor

On the west bank, where the sun

buries itself each day

was a complex of tombs where

royalty was buried

the Valley of the kings

and the Valley of the Queens

The Greek poet Homer was to

immortalize Thebes as

"the city of a hundred gates

where 400 heroes with their horse

and chariots pass through each

of these great gates."

While Ramses reigned

Thebes was splendid

He ordered beautiful additions

made to Luxor temple

gigantic statues, obelisks

and courts dedicated to the

glory of Amun-Re

But having endured 3,000 years

these monuments face destruction

in our time

from the effects of

increased agriculture

industrialization,

changing weather conditions

due in part to the Aswan High Dam

and even the tourists themselves

In 1924, in response to the

impending crisis

the Oriental Institute of

the University of chicago

established a permanent

headquarters in Egypt

called chicago House

it was founded by

Dr. James Henry Breasted

father of American Egyptology

who envisioned making a record of

all the endangered monuments of

ancient Egypt

Today chicago House is under

the direction of Dr. Lanny Bell

The scholars of chicago House

have undertaken

a monumental labor called

the Epigraphic survey

Over the past 50 years

the Oriental Institute

has published an epic series

of volumes

containing the results of the survey

Utilizing an ingenious combination

of photography and draftsmanship

the chicago House Egyptologists

create facsimile

drawings of the monuments' carved

and painted surfaces

the only record that will remain

when the hieroglyphs

and decorations

have disappeared forever

from the temples

As pharaoh succeeded pharaoh

it was common for them

to alter temples

taking credit for the work

of their predecessors

By interpreting successive decorations

the chicago House team is decoding

the history of Luxor temple

As the glory of pharaonic Egypt faded

people built houses inside the temple

Their debris buried much of it

for 2,000 years

When excavation started a hundred

years ago

the stone walls were suddenly

exposed to the air

since then, salts, leaching

out of the stone

combine with moisture in the air

creating crystals that slough off

taking the images with them.

The salt on the walls makes

our work urgent

The reliefs are being dissolved

so that within a period of 200 years

the temple will still stand

but all of the decorated surface

will have flaked off

When they are gone

we want there to be a record

as accurate as humanly possible

of the decoration

so that scholars will be able to

consult our drawings

and be sure that the reliability is such

that any questions they have

about the decoration

will be answered in our volumes

When the gods were worshipped

here no more

great portions of the temples

were dismantled

Large blocks were broken into

smaller pieces

for reuse as building material

Thousands of them have been

collected over a 30-year period

chicago House is conducting a

systematic search of the fragments

to reconstruct a section called

the "Lost colonnade."

Finding a fragment that may fit

artist Ray Johnson makes notations

and the block is carefully photographed

An artist pencils, then inks in the

lines of the photograph

making corrections and replacing

what time may have removed

Then the artist fits the photograph

into his rendering of the wall

Only the areas within the inked lines

have actually been found

But from the salvaged fragments

it is sometimes possible to

reconstruct the entire design

created by the original artists

You support me going up

On those exciting and rare occasions

when a fragment that fits onto a

standing wall is found

it is replaced

Toward me?

So, piece by piece, the ancient

temple of Amun-Re rises again

The investigations of chicago House

have revealed

that the colonnade of Luxor temple

is the major standing monument

of Tutankhamun

To completely evaluate its

architectural history

the inscriptions at the top of

the structure

must be photographed

Ladders reaching five stories high

have been assembled

This is the first time in 50 years

that anyone has attempted the ascent

On the 70-foot-high columns

Dr. Bell studies the techniques used

by the artisans of antiquity

Here they inserted wooden blocks to

stabilize the structure

as they fitted it together

A roof once covered the colonnade

but it fell or was removed sometime

before 1600 A.D.

Fragments of it found on

the temple floor

have been identified

In assessing the temple's past

Dr. Bell's thought inevitably

turn to its future

Paradoxically, the vibrations caused

by the endless footsteps of the

tourists who visit each year

even the carbon dioxide they exhale

are eroding the irreplaceable

treasures they come to enjoy

chicago House studies have reveale

that a hundred years after Tutankhamun

built this structure

Ramses II systematically erased

his predecessor's

and replace it with his own

naively assuming he could deceive

the gods

and take credit for the colonnade's

construction

But Ramses also added to the

majesty of Luxor temple

He built a massive entrance-

"The horizon

from which the sun god goes forth."

From reliefs we can reconstruct a

dazzling annual festival

The Feast of Opet

With the Nile in full flood

the golden statue of the god Amun Re

has been brought to Luxor from

karnak in its boat-shrine

Within the temple's innermost

sanctuary

Ramses offers incense, flowers

and food to the linen-shrouded god

The sacrifices and ceremonies concluded

priests lead the procession out

of the temple

purifying the way before them

Thousands of citizens crowd the

waterfront to see musicians

Nubian dancers, soldiers

and priestesses accompany the

procession along the Nile

The shrine of the god is placed

on its sacred

and in great ceremony priests, god

and pharaoh are towed back to

karnak temple

Ramses' favorite queen, Nefertari

and the royal princesses greet the

procession as it arrives

concluding nearly a month of worship

and revelry,

the royal couple enters the great

temple of Amun at karnak

Within the sacred precincts

of the temple

the shrine carrying the golden statue

of the god

is hidden from public view

until the next year

symbolically renewed and reborn

the divine king Ramses advances

toward the innermost

reaches of the temple

where no common mortals are allowed

to venture

Begun by his father, seti I

this awesome hall was completed

by Ramses

A soaring forest of stone,

it is created of 134 pillars

some of them 80 feet high

ceilings and columns are ornamented

with Ramses' cartouches-magical ropes

that surround the king's name to

protect him from evil

In the hieroglyphs of his name

is the message

"it is Re, the sun god, who bore him."

From the sun god

the pharaohs drew their right to

rule-their divinity

their legitimacy, and crowns

so they constructed this mighty city

of God

A hundred pharaohs enlarged

and embellished it over a period of

a creation that did not cease

until the christian era...

that has resumed as modern

archaeologists

restore this timeless testimony

of faith

Across the Nile stretches the Land

of the Dead

Here, in mystical imitation of

the setting sun

the bodies of the deceased were

laid to rest

that they might rise again

as the sun did each day

cut into the heart of the mountain,

the Theban necropolis is a vast

labyrinth of tombs

Here, Ramses' architects built

his splendid mortuary temple,

the Ramesseum

In its forecourt lie huge fragments

of his colossal statue 1,000 tons

of granite

that once rose 57 feet in height...

that inspired shelley's sonnet

"Ozymandias

"in which he called the pharaoh

"king of kings."

When Ramses died in 1224 B.c.,

the Ramesseum was magnificent

Here, the magic of his name and

images would keep him alive forever

This was but a stopping point for

the dead king

and his funeral procession

the sacred place where offerings

would be made to him

from this day throughout all time

Though mourners wept, they knew that

if properly provided for,

one could live forever

so they carried with them everything

the dead might need

for the voyage through eternity

For a king there would be boats in

which he could sail endlessly

on the Nile...

And a throne from which

he could continue to reign

Even magical figures would be provided

to do his bidding in the afterlife

In their tomb paintings the people

of the Nile depicted the hereafter

as a pleasant extension of their

earthly lives...

a place where they could amuse

themselves hunting ducks...

where rich crops would sustain them

The deceased carried with them

"Books of the Dead."

They instructed the departed on how

to avoid the gods

and demons that would attempt to

bar their way

Her body painted with stars

a goddess of the sky stretches over

a reclining god

who represents the earth

Between them, a winged form of

the sun god sails

through the netherworld

The divine, ibis-headed scribe, Thoth

makes notes as the deeds of the deceased

are weighed on the scale of justice

In an address to the gods

the departed will assert his innocence

"I am pure of mouth and hands

without sin, without guilt,

without evil."

Those who were judged to be without

sin could join Osiris

to dwell in the "happy land of

the setting sun."

But most important

there must be a body to which the

soul could return

Anubis, god of embalming

prepares the body for the life to come

so Ramses' mummy would have gone

to his tomb

after a priest pronounced over it:

"You will live again forever."

The tomb of Ramses II

In a state of dangerous disrepair

its access is forbidden

to almost everyone

But a team headed by Dr. Kent Weeks

of the University of california

at Berkeley

has recently mapped it

In the dynasty following Ramses'

the royal tombs were systematically

plundered

As a last resort, priests collected

the surviving royal mummies

and hid them

In 1871, a grave robber

found Ramses II

where he had lain undisturbed

for 3,000 years

Reclaimed by the Egyptian Government

the mummy of Ramses now reposes

in the cairo museum

far from the Valley of the kings

This is the West Valley

It's part of the ancient necropolis

of Thebes

about nine square miles of some of

the most important

archaeological monuments anywhere

in the world

The Valley of the Queens, Valley

of the kings

Tutankhamun's tomb, they're all here

But in spite of several centuries of

interest in this area

there still does not exist a detailed

archaeological map of

what it contains

That's the purpose of the Berkeley

Theban Mapping Project

to make as detailed

an archaeological map

as modern technology will permit

It's an important project

It's going to make it possible

for us to study the history of

the necropolis

But even more important

it's going to help us to preserve

it and protect it

surveying techniques are used to

measure topographical features

...1.303

Thank you.

At headquarters in a village below

the necropolis

the team reviews its findings

It's okay

can you see "Q2" there above the

temple at Deir el Medina?

Aerial photographs are utilized

to plan tomb mapping

for the next day in the Valley

of the Queens

Right above the temple...

Yeah, right there...

Okay, that's the point we'll occupy

tomorrow morning

When surface measurements are combined

with plans of the tombs

they will create new and revolutionary

three-dimensional maps

These will make it easier to find

correlations

between the geography and the location

of the known tombs

and perhaps enable scientists to

find tombs still undiscovered

Let's drop everything here, Dave

and then we can send it on down

Why don't you and Jenny go on down

We'll start passing stuff to you

Dave, why don't you choose what we

have to take down

and we'll leave the rest up here

I get the lantern, not you

Let's finish that rear chamber today

if we can, Dave

I think we can. It looks like a

steep set of stairs

Yeah. Watch your step

It isn't really.

I got it

Okay.

Standard surveying techniques are used to

obtain the dimensions of each chamber

Every archaeological detail will

be drawn and recorded

I think that's about it, cathy

Did you get those problems in

the back chamber?

It was customary to place the tombs

of royal children

in the Valley of the Queens

This is the tomb of a young prince

son of Ramses III.

Here, the pharaoh himself offers

incense to the gods

on the boy's behalf

In these touching scenes

the pharaoh leads his nine-year-old son

into the presence of the divinities

of the underworld

carrying the feather of truth,

the boy obediently follows his father.

It is believed the ancient sculptors

and painters lit the interiors of

tombs and temples

with polished metal reflectors

used as mirrors.

And these scenes were filmed under

the same conditions.

This is the tomb of Nefertari

Though Ramses had at least

four royal wives

she remained his favorite

Due to humidity caused by increased

irrigation in nearby farmland

the exquisite murals of her tomb

are flaking off

Unless scientists can halt

the deterioration

these may be the last moments of

what was imagined

as the endless ages in which Nefertari

would live on these walls

This was the woman with

who Ramses believed he would go

through eternity...

to whom these words were written

"The princess, rich in grace

Lady of affection, sweet with love

mistress of the Two Lands

songstress of the beautiful countenance

Greatest in the harem of the lord

of the palace

All that you say, will be done

for you

Everything beautiful according

to your wish

All your words bring contentment

to the face

Wherefore men love to hear your voice."

These tributes speak to us of love

and hope

a people and a civilization

that soared brilliantly

and then was eclipsed

Here at the temple of !sis,

built on an island in the Nile

the religion of ancient Egypt had

its last stronghold

After 332 B.c., the Greek Ptolemies

would reign

as the last dynasty of pharaohs

Embracing the Egyptian religion

they built this temple dedicated

to the worship of !sis

divine symbol of motherhood

her husband Osiris,

and their son Horus

There stories are told and retold

on the temple walls

But the story of another holy family

was to sweep over Egypt

The carvings, now considered pagan

were chiseled away

christianity became

the state religion

and in the sixth century

this temple became a christian church

The meaning of the hieroglyphs

would be forgotten

the ancient rites forbidden

For 12 centuries

the story of Egypt's

ancient civilization

would be lost

In 640, Islam and the teachings

of Mohammed

swept over the country

A succession of foreigners was

to rule until 1952

when revolution restored

full independence to Egypt

after 2,000 years

cairo is the African continent's

largest city

Vexed by 20th-century problems

of expl*sive growth

pollution, economic and political

difficulties

cairo, like Egypt itself

survives through the resilience

humor and vigor of its people

Facing an expanding population

and an emerging nation's need

for energy

the Aswan High Dam was built

in the 1960s

With 17 times the material contained

in the Great Pyramid

the dam is a monument to

the new nationalism

and what some would call the

Behind the dam, Nubia was flooded

much of this ancient land disappeared

beneath the rising waters

of the Nile

And at Abu simbel

a magnificent temple hewn

from a sandstone monolith

the newly-forming lake licked

at the feet of these colossal

images of Ramses II

A concerned world realized

that the temple would soon

be engulfed

How could it

and the temple of Nefertari

which flanked it, be saved?

At the 11th hour with funding

from Egypt

the United states, and UNEscO

an international team swung

into action

racing the rising Nile

slab by slab

in cuts no more than a quarter

of an inch thick

the temple was dismantled

The work continued night and day

as workmen cut 190 feet down

through the cliffs

coded for storage

the sections made a giant

jigsaw puzzle

Moved up 200 feet beyond the

reach of the Nile

the temple was reassembled

The precision of watchmakers was

applied to the colossi

reconstructed to an accuracy of

a tenth of an inch

Ramses' temple was designed by

ancient priest-astronomers

so that

the sun would penetrate deep

within to bless a figure of the

pharaoh on the jubilee

that celebrated 30 years of

his reign

In our time, engineers have

resituated the temple

so that the sun still streams

in on the pharaoh

on each anniversary of that day

Gilding the statue of the king

seated among the gods

the sun god Re bathes the figures

in sacred light

Why have people come here since the

days of ancient Greece and Rome

These works are expressions

of the quest

for the meaning of life itself

a longing for connection with

the gods

a need for beauty,

a hope for immortality

They are worth knowing

and worth saving

because the record of the

past tells up

something of ourselves

and hints of our future

Here, Egyptians and travelers

alike raise their eyes to Ramses

speak of him, remember him

as a leader

who signed the world's first

major peace treaty

It reads

"Beginning with this day

in order to bring about good peace

and good brotherhood between us

forever...

he is in peace with me

and I am in brotherhood with him

and I am in peace with him, forever."

In the religion of the

ancient Egyptians

to speak of the dead is to make

them live again

For Ramses, the quest for eternity

has been fulfilled