National Geographic: Mysteries of Egypt (1998)

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National Geographic: Mysteries of Egypt (1998)

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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 d*ed,

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 d*ed,

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 d*ed,

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 d*ed 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.

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 k*lled 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 d*ed.

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

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 d*ed 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 d*ed

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 sh**t 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 sh**ting 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

over 4,000 years ago

may be too much to

accomplish this day.

We have a panic moment here.

See what I'm wondering...

if we had some good lengths

of rope that

we could throw on shore and

draw that in.

It's a last ditch attempt

sail the boat anywhere

near the shore and have

the extras drag it in with ropes.

Throw the damn rope.

But the nightmare continues.

The light is going,

and the sh*t with it.

I quit... the boat looks great...

yeah all the physical

elements are great...

just, you know,

we just want to get the boat

to go up the river

turn around and come back.

And we finally just

we have to move on and

do other things.

At least there were no casualties.

During the actual building

of the pyramids,

mistakes often resulted

in serious injury and sometimes death.

Building the pyramid for sure

there was many accidents

we found about 12 skeletons.

At least ten of them

had accidents on their hand

two of them had accidents

on their leg.

It means maybe a stone

fell down on their leg.

Pyramid-building was dangerous work.

In the next scene,

the crew will film a runaway

column stone.

It's only a prop,

but it weighs about 400 pounds.

Actors, extras, and an

Egyptian stuntwoman must scramble

out of the column's path

at the last possible moment.

There is little room for error.

While the prop gets

a last minute touch-up...

the film crew sh**t

the stone's point of view.

She's quick! Thank God.

I've done things like this before

but not as dangerous.

Finally, both camera and

column are ready to roll.

Three, two, one, go!

The sh*t comes off without a hitch

and the crew now turns to

their biggest challenge

recreating the funeral procession

of Egypt's most famous pharaoh.

Carter, please,

can you see anything?

Yes, wonderful things.

Wonderful things.

In 1922,

an obscure English archeologist

named Howard Carter

unearthed the remains of an

even more obscure pharaoh

named Tutankhamen.

Carter had discovered

what all others had

despaired of ever finding

a virtually unlooted

pharaoh's tomb.

And the treasures of King Tut

have never relinquished

their grip

on the world's imagination.

Now director Bruce Neibaur's crew

wants to bury King Tut all over again.

High above a desert valley,

the crew prepares to capture

the boy king's funeral procession.

In Tut's time,

the pharaohs no longer built pyramids for

their tombs-instead they hid their treasure

filled burial sites in the

remote valley of the kings.

The valley can be a tricky place to

sh**t as the director of photography

Reed Smoot,

knows all too well.

It's tough because the sun

hits the horizon,

it's beautiful for about 30 seconds,

and then, boom!

It's midday.

But everyone feels the pressure

and lining up extras can be the bane

of any casting director's existence

Meanwhile, costume designer

Jackie Crier rushes to outfit them.

I'm not always calm.

I'm pretty calm.

Months of research, design and

artistry have gone into the costumes.

And into the props as well.

Egypt's finest artisans have carved

an exquisite replica of Tut's coffin.

Made of gold over plaster,

it looks like the original.

And like the original,

it's not easy to move.

How heavy is the coffin,

Michael?

It's a nightmare.

Advisor Nicholas Reeves

has arrived.

The author of several

books on Tut,

Reeves is here to

make sure the boy

king's last rites are performed

according to ancient protocol.

His only reference source lies deep

within the valley of the kings...

on the walls of the tomb itself.

Reeves also thinks these walls

contain shocking clues

about how the young pharaoh d*ed.

Why should he have d*ed at 17?

There's no trace of TB

or any other illness.

Nothing at all.

He was healthy when he d*ed.

And x-rays taken of Tut's skull

suggest the possibility of foul play.

Certainly x-rays of the head

show damage which might

have been caused by a blow.

In fact,

Reeves thinks Tut was m*rder*d...

and that his k*ller

attended the funeral.

But as the sun creeps up

over the horizon,

the immediate concern is

getting the procession underway...

and on film.

But before they can start,

another question-what sound

should the funeral goers make?

Taking their cues from

modern Egyptian funerals,

they decide on wailing.

And production designer

Michael Buchanan demonstrates

for the bemused extras.

But there's a last

minute hitch.

Reeves is bothered by

the golden staffs.

There's no time for

scholarly debate.

They've got to go.

Action!

Three thousand years

after his death,

golden light and mournful

sounds fill the valley

as the coffin of the 17-year-old

boy-king once again makes

its way to a final resting place.

From an Egyptologists point of view,

what's quite striking is the colors...

the contrast of the gold

against the backgrounds...

and the noise and the

whole atmosphere of the thing.

I think it's captured very well.

A filmmaker's imagination brings

back a lost moment in time.

At last it's time to rehearse

the scene where Tut's advisor,

Ay, administers last rites...

just as recorded

on the tomb paintings.

But Reeves suspects Ay had more

than a ceremonial role

in the young pharaoh's death.

Ay may well have had a hand

in Tutankhamen's downfall,

I suspect.

He had the most to gain.

It was Ay who took over the

pharaoh's throne after Tut's death,

but we may never know the truth.

With the sacred rites finished,

Tut's coffin was carried deep within a

labyrinth designed to foil grave robbers

sealed in for an eternity...

which turned out to

be a mere 3,000 years.

Tutankhamen in life

was a minor pharaoh.

He's quickly forgotten by his successors

and by the ancient Egyptians.

Now he's probably the most famous

king Egypt has ever known.

I think if he's looking

down on us,

he's probably quite happy.

One of my hopes for this film

is that people will see it,

and they'll be stimulated enough

to go to the library to

learn more about the project.

I keep looking at this stuff

and these beautiful scenes we're getting,

because I do feel at times like

I can really see what it was like.

Creating a sense of past

is what they've pursued all

these days under the desert sun...

hoping to share the secrets

of ancient Egypt.
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