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.
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
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
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 shot 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 shoots
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 shot 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
shoot 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 died.
Why should he have died at 17?
There's no trace of TB
or any other illness.
Nothing at all.
He was healthy when he died.
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 murdered...
and that his killer
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.