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00:00This is nice, very familiar. Where do I sit? Here?
00:05Yeah, that's good.
00:07Right. Good evening, and here is the news.
00:11So, Brad... Mm-hm.
00:13..why Egypt?
00:15Why Egypt? Why Egypt, indeed.
00:17I've had a fascination with Egypt and the pyramids
00:20for a very, very long time.
00:24It's an anomaly.
00:26An absolute cornucopia of ideas, fantasies.
00:34Everything since the end of the ancient Egyptians,
00:37when Cleopatra VII died,
00:39and that's Liz Taylor, to you guys at home.
00:41Everything over that time gets buried.
00:46Ancient Egypt is a world of wonder and mystery.
00:51Over centuries, historians, archaeologists and scientists
00:57have unearthed some evidence, but many questions remain.
01:02Who built those pyramids?
01:04It certainly wasn't the ancient Egyptians 4,500 years ago.
01:08I have different theories.
01:10Millions of people around the world believe that the Great Pyramid
01:14and the other treasures are part of a cosmic code
01:18that could unlock the mysteries of ancient Egypt.
01:25So now, Bradley is off to Egypt, armed with his notebook...
01:30It's a spaceship. Oh!
01:32..some measuring tools...
01:3444.6. 44.6.
01:36..and a bucketload of questions.
01:38How many blocks are in there? Hold tight.
01:40Is this, like, the universe?
01:42He's meeting some of the country's top Egyptologists.
01:45That's a pyramid?
01:47That's a pyramid?
01:49Oh, look at that. Sacred balls.
01:51A big one.
01:53In the hope he can finally decipher Egypt's cosmic code.
01:58I cannot wait to get there.
02:00I'll be there on your behalf.
02:02I'll be asking all the questions, and we shall find out once and for all.
02:10My heart!
02:17My heart!
02:24Bradley Walsh is an actor,
02:27former professional footballer,
02:30and quiz show host extraordinaire.
02:33But one part of his CV is less well-known.
02:37Once I left school, I became an apprentice
02:41at a factory called Rolls-Royce.
02:44I was interested in architecture and technical drawing.
02:47I became fascinated in the pyramids,
02:49and I realised that no way could the ancient Egyptians
02:53ever have built these pyramids.
02:55Just couldn't have done it.
02:57On his first ever trip to Egypt,
03:00Bradley wants to crack the Great Pyramid's cosmic code.
03:07He wants to find out who built it, how and why.
03:13Now then, this is it.
03:16This is actually it.
03:18I haven't actually seen anything.
03:20I've kept the brim of my hat down, so I haven't seen it.
03:24And it's literally right behind me, isn't it?
03:26It's like one of those, isn't it?
03:32Wow.
03:34It's amazing, isn't it? It's really...
03:36It's extraordinary, really, to actually be here,
03:39to see it actually in the flesh.
03:42The Great Pyramid is the only surviving wonder of the ancient world.
03:48For more than four millennia, it was the tallest structure on Earth.
03:53It's an engineering marvel and enigma.
03:58Which has led Bradley to his first burning question.
04:03People said, well, listen, this wasn't built by the Egyptians.
04:06They wouldn't have had the wherewithal or the technology to build this.
04:10So that then begs the question, who built it?
04:13Or were they advised?
04:15And people say, well, it's aliens or it's a race that died out.
04:20I don't know.
04:21Bradley is by no means alone with his doubts.
04:25There are basically three theories about who built the Great Pyramid.
04:30The first theory is that it was the ancient Egyptians.
04:34The second is that it was aliens, beings from another planet.
04:39And the third is that it was some kind of super-advanced civilisation,
04:44something like 10,000, 12,000, 15,000 years ago,
04:48that has disappeared into the mists of history.
04:54Now, what's extraordinary about this is this pyramid
04:58is over 755 feet that way.
05:01755 feet that way is level from there to there,
05:06from there to there, to there to there, from there to there,
05:09and from there to there, level on the perimeter
05:12to within three-quarters of an inch.
05:15Nowadays, you'd have to do it with lasers.
05:18So 4,000 years ago, 4,500 years ago, did the Egyptians do this?
05:23And when they say something like this was built
05:26within between 24 and 27 years, well, let me tell you,
05:30that's not quite right, but 250 yards, 250 yards square
05:34is just nigh-on impossible for just the human eye.
05:38For me, at the moment, it doesn't make sense.
05:41Originally, the Great Pyramid stood 147 metres tall.
05:47It's made of 2.5 million stone blocks.
05:52But the range of theories of how it was built
05:56are wide and conflicting.
05:59There's a key word here, and that is precision,
06:02the precision engineering that was involved, as well as the scale.
06:07That's what defies our rationale,
06:11and that's why we look at aliens
06:13or some kind of super-advanced civilisation.
06:17Mainstream academics believe the Great Pyramid was constructed
06:21around 4,500 years ago for Pharaoh Khufu,
06:26the second king of Egypt's fourth dynasty.
06:30They think the architect was Hemiunu,
06:34and it took between 24 and 27 years to complete.
06:40Bradley isn't convinced this would have been possible.
06:44Are you Meredith? I am Meredith.
06:46Hello, Meredith, my name's Brad.
06:48So he's meeting someone who knows the pyramids better than most.
06:53I am good.
06:55Meredith Brand is one of the world's leading professors of Egyptology.
07:02How long have you been studying the pyramids and Egyptology?
07:05Well, my first excavation was at the workman's village of the pyramids,
07:09and that was in 2004, so it's been 20 years.
07:12Wow, yeah, so you're getting used to it by now.
07:14I am getting used to it by now.
07:18First, Bradley wants to interrogate the remarkable timeline
07:22of the Great Pyramid's construction.
07:26This is what I can't get in my head.
07:28So Khufu reigns for 24 years.
07:31That's over 8,500 days, right?
07:33So let's assume daylight is 12 hours.
07:38Therefore, the time to build has got to be over 100,000 hours,
07:426.5 million neon minutes, something like that.
07:462.5 million blocks.
07:48So they have to lay a block every 2.5 minutes?
07:54You know, Meredith, that can't be right.
07:57It is very challenging to think how this could happen.
08:00Challenging? Yeah.
08:02If I said to you, right, Meredith, this is what we're going to do,
08:05we're going to lay this in 2.5 minutes, you can't.
08:08I don't know, I'm pretty strong, I think I could do it.
08:10Well, maybe, but I just don't...
08:12I just can't see it, it just doesn't make any sense.
08:15None, zero.
08:18The incredible speed of construction
08:21has fuelled alternative theories of how the Great Pyramid was built.
08:27Whoever built the pyramids, whether it was aliens or ancient Egyptians
08:32or some kind of super-advanced civilisation,
08:35they had a futuristic understanding of technology, of cosmology,
08:40but in particular, of mathematics.
08:44One number in particular keeps cropping up
08:48and is perplexing Bradley.
08:51Now, the Great Pyramid of Giza
08:54is a monument in scale to our Earth
08:58of 1 to 43,200.
09:03All these shapes relate in some way to this figure here.
09:08The ancient Egyptians knew that there were some significance,
09:12but what is 43,200?
09:16There's something going on.
09:20The thing about this mysterious number, 43,200,
09:24is that it suggests that those who built the Great Pyramid
09:28had an intimate understanding
09:31of the measurements of the dimensions of planet Earth.
09:35OK, here comes the terrible smoking gun for you Egyptologists.
09:40If you take the finished height of the pyramid
09:44and times it by 43,200,
09:47that gives you the polar radius of the Earth.
09:50Oh.
09:51Which is 99.7% accuracy.
09:55OK.
09:56And if you take the perimeter of the finished product here
10:00and then you times that by 43,200,
10:04you get the circumference of the Earth to within 99.3% accuracy.
10:10Well, what a coincidence.
10:12Do you believe in coincidences?
10:14Well, yeah. So do I. What a coincidence.
10:16So here's the thing, right?
10:18How many seconds are there in an equinox?
10:20I don't know. 43,200.
10:22Oh, wow, look at that.
10:23You've got all these numbers you're connecting.
10:26I mean, for me, I'm an archaeologist,
10:28so I know what we dig up.
10:30And, you know, I work from the point of,
10:33Yeah, what you've actually seen. Yes.
10:35Yeah, that's great.
10:36And I'm really going to get my teeth into this.
10:38Well, I'm glad you have some more questions that we can pick up.
10:41I've got plenty.
10:43For Meredith to convince Bradley
10:45the ancient Egyptians built the Great Pyramid
10:48without interstellar assistance,
10:51she needs to show him hard evidence.
10:54I want to show Brad on this trip how the pyramids were built.
10:58This whole shaft was done first.
11:00I want him to see, step by step, how the technology changed.
11:04So that's a pyramid.
11:06That's a pyramid.
11:08There's a snake. Oh, no, it's an electrical cable.
11:19This is one of my favourite sites in all of Egypt.
11:21OK. This is Saqqara.
11:23Saqqara.
11:24Meredith wants to show Bradley proof
11:27that the ancient Egyptians had the engineering expertise
11:30to build the Great Pyramid 4,500 years ago.
11:34So she has brought him 15km south of Giza
11:39to Saqqara,
11:41the cemetery of the ancient capital, Memphis.
11:47I mean, this site's incredible
11:49because there's, like, 3,000 years of people being buried here.
11:52Wow.
11:53And it's filled with tombs
11:55from every single time period in ancient Egypt.
11:57So, look, that, for instance, there.
11:59Yeah, tonnes of tombs, completely honeycombed.
12:02The ambitious and intricate burial chambers
12:05were designed by early, pioneering Egyptian architects,
12:10and they weren't all built underground.
12:13There's 11 pyramids here.
12:15Ah!
12:16So that's a pyramid.
12:18That's a pyramid.
12:20The architects were figuring everything out.
12:23OK, what do we do?
12:24We kind of want to do a pyramid.
12:25We kind of want to do other stuff.
12:26Yeah, great.
12:27Which is kind of cool.
12:28Yeah, really cool.
12:29You see, like, the thinking process in the stone.
12:30Yeah, I like it.
12:34Right, you ready then?
12:35I'm ready. You ready?
12:36Not you!
12:37F***ing Meredith!
12:38Get down, you maniac!
12:40Don't even know that he's...
12:41Stay away.
12:43OK, thanks, sir.
12:46Lead the way.
12:47All right, I'll show you the way.
12:49OK.
12:50Ooh.
12:51Ooh, look at that. Wow.
12:53This is the step pyramid of the King Joseph.
12:57The step pyramid was constructed in the 27th century BCE,
13:02around 100 years before the Great Pyramid.
13:07It was built for Pharaoh Joseph,
13:09the first king of the Third Dynasty.
13:13Its designer was Imhotep, the world's first architect.
13:20It's impressive, right?
13:21Yeah, yeah, it is.
13:22It is.
13:23How tall is that pyramid?
13:25So this is 60 metres tall.
13:27And I think what makes it even more impressive
13:29is that this is the first stone monument.
13:31The first stone monument.
13:32Oh, so ever?
13:33Yeah.
13:34Ah.
13:35Imhotep invented how you make a pyramid out of stone.
13:38I'll tell you who he is then.
13:39OK.
13:40Imhotep to the Egyptians.
13:41He's Christopher Wren to us.
13:43I don't even know who that is.
13:44Say what?
13:45Who's Christopher Wren?
13:47Sir Christopher Wren, St Paul's Cathedral.
13:49I cannot believe you don't know that.
13:51I'm so let down.
13:52I can't believe it.
13:53Oh, I'm off.
13:54I can't believe it.
13:59Well, that was steeper than I imagined.
14:01Well, you made it look so elegant.
14:03Now, listen, I know it sounds stupid,
14:05but obviously, far away, very tiny,
14:08as you get closer, very big.
14:10Yeah.
14:11Perspective.
14:12Yeah, perspective.
14:14Imhotep's revolutionary design
14:16included six tiers of diminishing size.
14:21Each layer was made from stone and clay.
14:25It was originally covered in gleaming white limestone,
14:29just like the Great Pyramid at Giza,
14:32and stood 62 metres tall.
14:37But the engineering beneath the pyramid
14:40is even more impressive.
14:44The ancient engineers quarried out a vast network
14:47of shafts, tunnels and galleries,
14:50leading to the pharaoh's burial chamber.
14:55Most visitors can only enter one of the upper chambers
14:58from the south entrance.
15:02But Meredith has arranged special access for Bradley
15:06from the north.
15:08I tell you what, it's steep, innit?
15:09I know.
15:10Better be careful.
15:11You've got to hold on to it.
15:12I know.
15:13It's quite the stairs.
15:14Yeah.
15:15They've done a great job with the old repointing and stuff.
15:18I must get their number, their card.
15:20I've got some work they could do at home, actually.
15:24Here we go.
15:25Oh, crikey, that is dark.
15:26Yeah, it is pretty dark.
15:27OK.
15:28All right.
15:31Oh, they're handy.
15:33Ah, look at that.
15:35You can take one.
15:37OK.
15:41So this is a huge tunnel.
15:44Yeah.
15:45Carved out of the local limestone.
15:47How far does this go on?
15:48Well, there's, like, over five kilometres of this tunnel.
15:51Say what?
15:52What a palaver.
15:54Fancy that.
15:55I mean, the underworld was a big deal to him.
15:58I don't know about this.
15:59You know what?
16:00What?
16:01What?
16:02We go back?
16:03It's pretty dark.
16:04Yeah, really dark.
16:05Why?
16:06What's going to happen?
16:07What are you going to do?
16:08I mean, well, we could just, you know, turn on the lights.
16:09So we could just turn them on.
16:12All right.
16:13OK, that's pretty slick.
16:14Yeah.
16:15I bet they've done the meter, the old fair roads.
16:16They've switched the old meter.
16:17You know what I mean?
16:18Oh.
16:19OK.
16:22Blimey, this is tricky.
16:27No, no, no, Brad.
16:28Right.
16:29Oh, right.
16:30OK.
16:31Yeah, got it.
16:32Okey-dokey.
16:35Through there, straight on?
16:36Straight on.
16:38There's a snake.
16:39Oh, no, it's an electrical cable.
16:43All right, steady, Meredith.
16:44This here, it's really steep.
16:45It is steep.
16:46Yeah.
16:47OK.
16:49All right.
16:50All right, OK.
16:52Oh, wow, look at this.
16:54Oh, wow, look at this.
16:56Oh, it's so impressive.
16:57Oh, wow.
16:58Look at that.
17:00What is this, governor?
17:02This is the burial chamber of Djoser.
17:05Crikey, how big was he?
17:06He needed, what did he have, a thyroid problem or something?
17:08He's huge.
17:09He's gigantic, the man.
17:10It's huge.
17:12Djoser's giant sarcophagus.
17:13Djoser's giant sarcophagus stands five metres tall
17:17at the very bottom of the chamber.
17:20It's made of rose granite,
17:22so manoeuvring the huge pieces into the 28-metre shaft
17:28would have been a colossal challenge.
17:31So this whole shaft was dug first.
17:33Yeah.
17:34And then they would have to lower everything inside.
17:36Right.
17:37And so you would have had to have done this
17:39before you built the pyramid
17:40because the bottom stage would have covered this.
17:42He did everything in 19 years.
17:44It's a huge feat.
17:45Yeah.
17:46He had huge feet as well?
17:47He did.
17:48Well, clearly, he has a giant sarcophagus.
17:50Believe it.
17:52The step pyramid was a landmark achievement
17:55for its designer, Imhotep.
17:58It kick-started a new era
18:00of incredible ancient Egyptian architecture
18:03dedicated to the veneration of her rulers.
18:07But could these construction techniques
18:10really be scaled up?
18:12From a structure 62 metres tall,
18:15developed over 19 years,
18:18to the Great Pyramid,
18:20more than twice the size,
18:22built in only 24 years.
18:26To explore the mind-boggling development
18:28of the pyramids further...
18:30Ah, I see.
18:32..Bradley must head deeper into the desert.
18:35That was an ah-ah moment.
18:38..in his quest for answers.
18:40Where was Nefru buried?
18:41I can't answer that. I'm not an Egyptologist.
18:43I'm from Watford.
18:51Bradley isn't convinced the ancient Egyptians
18:55could have scaled up their building techniques
18:58from Djoser's step pyramid in Saqqara
19:01to Khufu's Great Pyramid in Giza.
19:05So here's the question.
19:072,500,000 blocks,
19:106 million tonnes,
19:134,500 years ago,
19:16quarrying with elementary tools,
19:20rudimentary tools...
19:22I don't know about you, but I'm not having that.
19:27Meredith wants to demonstrate to Bradley
19:30how the ancient Egyptians
19:32split large chunks of limestone.
19:35How you doing?
19:36Say hello to the boys.
19:37Hey, Brad, lovely to see you.
19:39Hello, gentlemen. Brad, lovely to see you.
19:42These are actually the mallets that they would use.
19:45So this is kind of step one.
19:47They would take the chisel and they would take the mallet
19:50and then they would make holes into the rocks here,
19:53big enough to fit some kind of wooden wedge.
19:56Understood.
19:57So they had these wooden wedges.
19:58Right.
19:59And they'd often soak them in water.
20:01Well, the idea is that you want to allow the wood to expand
20:05and have the water kind of crack some of this limestone open.
20:08Of course you did. I was just testing you there.
20:10Oh, good. OK, well, I hope I passed. Yeah. Excellent.
20:12Now you can hit those wooden blocks to start separating.
20:15OK. Take my chisel, dear.
20:17Safety goggles on. All right.
20:19Specifically made by Ray-Ban.
20:21No advertising. I love Ray-Bans.
20:23Right, here we go.
20:26Keep hitting this one. I do? Yeah.
20:28Until when? I don't know, until it breaks.
20:30Seriously? Yeah.
20:33Why don't we see one of the professional stone-cutters
20:35and see what he does? What are you trying to say?
20:37I'm trying to say maybe it might be a skill
20:40that one learns over time with expertise
20:43and we should see it for comparison,
20:45what it looks like when someone else does it.
20:47OK.
20:48OK.
20:49OK.
20:50OK.
20:51OK.
20:52OK.
20:53For comparison, what it looks like when someone else does it.
20:56Now that I have no faith in you, I'm sure you could.
20:58Yeah, that...
21:00There you go. I wish you well.
21:02Good luck. I'll see you in the final.
21:10Oh, oh, oh! Oh. Hello.
21:12Hang on a minute, hang on a minute, I weren't allowed to use the metal one.
21:15What's he doing? He's got the metal one out.
21:17What's he doing? He's cheating!
21:19This isn't a competition. It's not like England versus Egypt.
21:22What's going on? You've learnt your...
21:24Oh!
21:26Auf my Bruch.
21:28Auf my Bruch. I tell you what, that is brilliant.
21:31However, I'm not being funny.
21:33I saw him buy that in B&Q.
21:35Well, regardless of the modern help,
21:38you saw it took very little time.
21:40With the wooden mallets and a chisel working both side by side,
21:44they could free stone pretty fast.
21:46Ish. Ish.
21:48I'll buy it...ish.
21:52Using these techniques,
21:55the ancient Egyptians built hundreds of pyramids
21:59at sites right along the Nile.
22:04Some of the most remarkable examples
22:07are ten kilometres south of Saqqara,
22:10in Dahshur.
22:15So we're here in Dahshur.
22:17Dahshur.
22:19This is where the evolution of the pyramid really takes shape.
22:23Right.
22:24This is like the missing link between the step pyramid and Giza.
22:28Originally, 11 pyramids stood along this desolate
22:323.5km stretch of sand.
22:35Today, just five remain.
22:38Wow, this is unbelievable.
22:40This is in the middle of nowhere.
22:42Yeah, I mean, it feels like that, but just over there,
22:46there was a lake and a canal coming in from the Nile Valley.
22:49Oh, right, OK.
22:50So they would have been able to, like, sail boats
22:52and have access to this place.
22:54Amid the desert landscape,
22:56there are clues to why more than half the pyramids built here
23:01have disappeared.
23:03Wow, look at that. Oh!
23:05Ah, see!
23:07The Bent Pyramid was the first to be built at Dahshur,
23:12around 4,600 years ago,
23:15half a century after the Step Pyramid
23:18and 50 years before the Great Pyramid at Giza.
23:23Pharaoh Sneferu, the first king of Egypt's Fourth Dynasty,
23:27commissioned the 105m tall structure.
23:31It was meant to be the world's first true pyramid,
23:36but as Bradley can see, things didn't go quite according to plan.
23:41Oh, I can see what's happened there.
23:44That was an ah-ah moment.
23:46A little bit.
23:47Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.
23:49Sneferu, what do you reckon?
23:50Sneferu, I've done it, I've done it, everyone.
23:52And the entire Egyptian race going, ah-ah.
23:55Back in the day in the 60s, when I was a kid,
23:58my dad bought me a miniature snooker table.
24:01And I was pretty good at it.
24:03The reason I was good at it is because I was good at trigonometry
24:06and angles, I could see the angles.
24:08So mathematics was my thing.
24:11So what we see now is around 54, 55 degrees at the bottom.
24:15Yeah.
24:16And then at the top, about halfway, it changes to 43 degrees.
24:19Right. Oh, wow.
24:20So they go big and then they boom.
24:22Yeah.
24:24Despite its unorthodox shape,
24:26the Bent Pyramid of Darshor is thought to have been the first
24:30with smooth, polished sides.
24:33Look at this, it's smooth.
24:35Look at that.
24:36Oh, my goodness, that is amazing.
24:39What we're told by writers in the ancient world
24:42is that you couldn't see the joins between the stones.
24:45It was absolutely smooth.
24:47That's what makes us think, come on,
24:50there's got to be something more than mere human beings behind this.
24:57I love this bit over here, like you can see everything.
25:00Yeah.
25:01So what's jumping out at you?
25:03What I thought was happening was they were filling in these gaps
25:06with rubble and mortar and then putting a plate of limestone on.
25:10They literally, the blocks of limestone,
25:12they're slotting into place and cutting them at an angle.
25:15Yeah, so what we think is they were bringing the rocks up here
25:18and they would draw lines on the stone where they should be cut.
25:21Yeah, of course.
25:22So as they're going to put them in,
25:24they have the people chiselling and doing the cuts.
25:26Yeah.
25:27So they're laying them and then they can smooth and check it as they go.
25:30But being up close also reveals
25:33an element of trial and error in the Egyptians' construction programme.
25:38We can see up here a kind of sense of what has gone wrong.
25:42Do you see all these cracks?
25:44Yeah, yeah.
25:45We don't see these cracks at the Great Pyramid.
25:48This is what went wrong.
25:50Yeah.
25:51The entire pyramid is covered with these cracks.
25:54Right.
25:55Because they had a fatal flaw when they built this pyramid.
25:58They just built it on the sand.
25:59Right, yeah, movement.
26:00This has not had the same solid limestone bedrock like Saqqara.
26:03Yeah.
26:04Or like Giza.
26:05As soon as they started building it, it started to sink.
26:07Yeah, absolutely.
26:08Down and down and down.
26:09So they've made a bit of a mistake.
26:11It's ended up it's not what he wants.
26:13So Sneferu said, look, lads, right, hang on a minute.
26:17This is not it.
26:18Back to the drawing board, yeah?
26:20Yep.
26:21And?
26:22And he said, let's start again.
26:24So can you imagine being the architects?
26:26Well, I can imagine all the workers going,
26:28ugh, really?
26:34What's interesting about this is that they just didn't
26:36work their angles out, basically.
26:38I mean, obviously, I'm stating the obvious.
26:41But they really hadn't.
26:42By the time he's got a 54 degree angle from floor up there,
26:46that, as you can see, is going to end up another third again.
26:50That is going to be mad.
26:52It's going to be like the Shard.
26:54And what it is, it's a trapezium.
26:57It's a trapezium with a triangle stuck on top.
27:01I wonder if he knew what a trapezium was back in the day.
27:04Oh, Sneferu.
27:06I wonder if the architect says, it's a work of art, Sneferu.
27:09It's a trapezium.
27:11And old Sneferu goes, what's a trapezium?
27:13He said, well, it's that.
27:16I tell you what this is.
27:17This isn't extraterrestrial.
27:19This is man-made.
27:21And you can see.
27:22You can see.
27:23Because, trust me, we've all had builders like this.
27:30Sneferu's next attempt is only a kilometre away.
27:36The Red Pyramid gets its name
27:39from the rusty reddish colour of its limestone blocks.
27:46It took a decade to build
27:48and is thought to be ancient Egypt's first true smooth-sided pyramid.
27:56Much of its success lay in the angle of its sides.
28:01So does this angle look like the same to you as the Great Pyramid?
28:04What angle is the Great Pyramid? 51.8 degrees.
28:08Yeah.
28:09This looks slightly shallower.
28:11Could be 43, 44, 45 degrees.
28:14Yeah, it's more wide.
28:15Yeah, precisely.
28:16I'd like to check it, though, if I could.
28:18All right.
28:19You got something to check it with?
28:21Do you know, all the way out here in the desert,
28:23what I need is some sort of, like, a spirit level,
28:25and then I can test the angle.
28:26But you know where you're going to find a spirit level?
28:28Where?
28:29In the middle of the old desert.
28:30Do you know what I mean?
28:31Where would you find it?
28:32I don't know where you'd find it.
28:33Yeah.
28:34Anywhere, I reckon.
28:35I need a spirit level.
28:36I need a spirit level.
28:37Cool, that was handy.
28:38Look at that.
28:39That angle is about it.
28:40What does it say?
28:41It says, it says 135.2.
28:46So 180 minus 135.2, 44.8.
28:51I guessed that.
28:52I actually guessed it.
28:53So this is what happened.
28:54Like, they finished the last pyramid at 43.
28:57Yeah.
28:58So they were like, OK, we know we can do this at 43.
29:01So the architects basically took the lessons
29:03and applied it to this one.
29:06At 105 metres tall, the Red Pyramid
29:10is almost exactly the same height as its predecessor.
29:15But unlike the Bent Pyramid, the builders
29:18appear to have now mastered the art of geometric uniformity.
29:25Completed around 2563 BCE, the 43 degree angle
29:33matches the upper section of the Bent Pyramid,
29:36which makes it look squat when compared to the Great Pyramid
29:40at Giza, built by Sneferu's son Khufu 50 years later.
29:47The Red Pyramid's uniform sides are only broken
29:51by a long, winding set of stairs.
29:55We're going to have a steep climb,
29:56so we could pace ourselves.
30:02Oh, wow.
30:08So this entrance is halfway up the pyramid, basically.
30:11Right.
30:13OK.
30:14OK.
30:16Wow.
30:17We're still not there.
30:18Oh, crikey.
30:19Next level, you ready?
30:20Yep, let's do it.
30:21Let's rock.
30:24Unlike the Step Pyramid, where Djoser's funeral chamber
30:27was built underground, Sneferu wanted
30:30it to be buried above ground, right
30:33in the heart of the pyramid, which
30:36means it can only be accessed through
30:39a steep, 63-metre-long passage.
30:43Here we go.
30:45Let's go.
30:47You can smell the bats.
30:49Oh, yeah.
30:50You can really smell the bats.
30:56That's a fair old struggle, isn't it?
30:59I know.
31:01Oh, but we're almost there.
31:03Oh, my God.
31:05The cramped tunnel eventually gives way
31:08to two vast, vaulted antechambers.
31:12The 12-metre-high ceilings are stepped, or corbelled,
31:16to support more than 1.5 million square metres of stone above.
31:22So this is one of the hallmarks of the pyramids,
31:24is that you have these huge chambers
31:26with these vast, corbelled ceilings.
31:28And this is just the first one.
31:29Like, this is the entrance to his entire pyramid.
31:31Yeah, this is like the entrance hall.
31:33Come in, everyone.
31:34We'll take your coats.
31:35Come into the lounge, basically, yeah?
31:37Yeah, basically.
31:38This is where the butler would have opened the door.
31:40Yeah.
31:41Come in.
31:42Shall we?
31:43Shall we?
31:44After you.
31:45All right.
31:49And this is it.
31:50This is the end of the line.
31:52I didn't expect it to be like this inside.
31:54It's almost cathedral-like, you know?
31:57Yeah.
31:58It's just simplicity and scale.
32:00It's very different than what the ancient Egyptians
32:02would do later, where they cover everything in hieroglyphs
32:04and art and painting and decoration.
32:06Really, the architecture and the stone is the star.
32:10And there would have been a floor here.
32:12Yeah.
32:13But when people came and robbed this place,
32:15they tore up the floor.
32:16They think there must be another chamber, right?
32:18So they dig down.
32:19So they keep digging, and they dig all the way down
32:21and they don't find anything.
32:22Where was he then?
32:23Well, that's one of the bigger questions in Egyptology.
32:25Where was Sneferu buried?
32:26I can't answer that.
32:27I'm not an Egyptologist.
32:28I'm from Watford.
32:29It's very tricky.
32:30It is tricky.
32:31It really is.
32:33To answer one of the biggest questions of Egyptology,
32:37Bradley must return to the Great Pyramid
32:42to test his most fantastical theory.
32:46You're kidding me, right?
32:54Even though the pyramids were built more than four millennia ago,
33:00their development and evolution are clear to see today.
33:05From the initial design of Djoser's Step Pyramid...
33:13..via Sneferu's experimentation with the Bent and Red Pyramids...
33:19..to the crowning achievement for the ancient Egyptians,
33:23the Great Pyramid, constructed for Sneferu's son Khufu.
33:30Alongside it stands the pyramid commissioned around 2520 BCE
33:36by Khufu's son Khafre.
33:42Bradley and Meredith have returned to Giza
33:45to revisit these two masterpieces from an elevated perspective.
33:51That one's yours.
33:52Oh, my God.
33:53This side.
33:54Oh, no, this is just...
33:56It's the best.
33:57It's the best?
33:58Yeah, his name's Bob Marley.
34:00His name's Bob Marley.
34:02Yep.
34:04OK, and I'm on.
34:06Well, that was handy.
34:07Look at that, cameras come and go pose. Excellent.
34:09Whoa. You got it, Brad.
34:11Got it.
34:12Cheerio, everyone.
34:17The pyramids look fantastic.
34:19Mm-hm.
34:20But the backdrop of Cairo is unbelievable
34:23as it sort of comes out of the mist at you.
34:26It's gorgeous.
34:27It's, like, truly amazing.
34:29Khafre's, cos it's so much closer, it's so much bigger.
34:33And Khafre is sneaky.
34:35He looked over at his father's pyramid
34:37and he found a slightly higher ground to build his.
34:41The pyramids at Giza attract more speculation and intrigue
34:46than any other ancient monument.
34:49Bradley is finally about to get his chance
34:53to scrutinise the most famous alternative theory
34:57about the Great Pyramid.
35:00The idea that the Great Pyramid is a power generator
35:04is something that has really fired up people.
35:08It's something that has really fired up people's imaginations
35:12around the globe, and it's a theory that's been taken up
35:15by some very prolific writers and thinkers,
35:18including the legendary scientist Nikola Tesla.
35:23Did the ancient Egyptians have electricity?
35:26I reckon they did.
35:27Is the Great Pyramid a burial chamber?
35:30No, it isn't. I think it's a power plant.
35:33Water flows underneath the Great Pyramid
35:36and it causes sound waves.
35:38The Grand Gallery and the Kings and Queens Chambers
35:41are built and made of rose granite,
35:44a very high concentration of quartz,
35:46and if you apply pressure to the quartz and make it move,
35:49it's called piezoelectricity.
35:52The rose granite of the walls start to move.
35:55More and more quartz, positive, negative,
35:57bridge it, electrical current.
35:59That's what we've now got, a circuit.
36:01All of a sudden, we're rocking and rolling.
36:03If you ever look in the Grand Gallery,
36:05if you look up and there are slots,
36:07they were resonators, creating even more electricity.
36:11All of a sudden, now, we've got this massive power plant happening.
36:14Everything is pointing it to the zenith.
36:16Then what happens? The electricity goes out through the top.
36:19That would have been free electricity to anyone on the planet,
36:23so it'd all been back in the day, 4,500 years ago,
36:26they'd all been sitting there watching telly for nothing.
36:29To test his theories,
36:31Meredith has arranged exclusive access for Bradley
36:34to the inside of the Great Pyramid.
36:37You've played a great hand to get us in here.
36:39I know, I've just got to, you know, hang out more with celebrities
36:42and get the pyramid.
36:43I've got to hang out more with Egyptologists.
36:46That's what I've got to do.
36:47You should.
36:49Looks pretty dark.
36:51Hang on a minute, by magic...
36:53of television.
36:55That's yours.
36:56Look at that, thank you.
36:59WHOOSH
37:01SHE LAUGHS
37:05Into the pyramid, look.
37:09Wow, Cairo at night, there were lights and stuff.
37:12Meredith, unbelievable.
37:14It's beautiful. Isn't it?
37:16Oh, wow. Yeah.
37:19Wow.
37:20Wow.
37:26Access to the inner sanctum of the Great Pyramid
37:29is via the Robbers' Tunnel,
37:31which was excavated in the 9th century CE.
37:36So we are now basically walking in the footpaths of the robbers.
37:42Yeah. Wow.
37:43Over here, they carved out this entire tunnel.
37:46Crikey, how long would that have taken?
37:49Because they were really determined to get in here.
37:53They really were.
37:57OK.
37:59So what do we do now?
38:01Well, so now this is where the Robbers' Tunnel
38:04meets the actual real entrance to the pyramid.
38:11I hope he appreciates this, old kufu.
38:16Let's have a look. Hang on a minute.
38:17Oh, my God!
38:21You're kidding me, right?
38:22Dave, poke your camera in there, mate.
38:24Have a look up there for me.
38:26Look up, Dave, look up there.
38:28Look at that, Dave.
38:29That just goes on forever and ever and ever.
38:33It's absolutely like the length of three or four football pitches.
38:37This is going to do me no good.
38:39Oh, no.
38:40Oh, man, my quads.
38:41Don't worry, there's a sarcophagus for you when you get up there.
38:47Right.
38:50Take a minute.
38:56I know I shouldn't have got in at showbiz.
38:58All I wanted to do was tell a few jokes.
39:00You know what I mean?
39:05Oh.
39:06I can stand up.
39:08That's handy.
39:09I know what this is.
39:11I know where I am.
39:12Where are we?
39:13I'm in the Grand Gallery.
39:14You are?
39:15Is this rose granite in here as well?
39:17No, this is all limestone.
39:18Oh, no, Meredith.
39:22Meredith, don't say that.
39:24Just for the telly, say, yeah, it's rose granite.
39:26Say, yeah, it's rose granite, Brad.
39:28Just for the telly.
39:29No, it's not rose granite, Brad.
39:31Oh, Meredith, don't say...
39:34Everything I've come up with...
39:36Do you know what you are, Meredith?
39:37You're too clever for this.
39:39You're too clever.
39:40I agree.
39:41You're too clever.
39:42You agree?
39:46Do you know what I'm going to do?
39:47Seriously.
39:48We should open a bar at the top.
39:50We'll call it Meredith's.
39:51We'll just...
39:52We should call it Brad's.
39:53This could be your bar.
39:54We'll go.
39:55Anyone will want to come.
39:56Have you been to Brad's bar?
39:57Where is it?
39:58There's a great Pyramid of Giza.
40:01See, the rose granite in this room was supposed to resonate
40:05at 440 hertz in the natural tune with our Mother Earth.
40:11But it's not rose granite now.
40:13It's limestone.
40:14Yep.
40:15What is going wrong with my theory?
40:18Well, it might be wrong.
40:20Well, I guess it is.
40:22I'm learning more and more all the time.
40:25These were supposed to be granite resonators
40:27that used the sound waves and everything
40:30and moved the brickwork, the rose granite,
40:34which moved the quartz, which generated electricity
40:37for this massive power plant
40:39that Nikola Tesla thought gave free power to the world.
40:43These were supposed to be negative-positive quartz
40:46with a roof to complete an electrical circuit.
40:50I've researched it.
40:51I come here and Meredith goes,
40:53Nope.
40:54Nope.
40:55Nope.
40:56Do you know what, though?
40:57What?
40:58I'm actually really glad, in a way.
40:59Mm-hm.
41:00And also because it just shows you
41:03how ingenious the ancient Egyptians were.
41:08WHISTLE BLOWS
41:12Carry on.
41:14OK, I've got to ask you, what is now going on in there?
41:18So this is where the Grand Gallery leads in
41:21to the King's Chamber.
41:25So Khufu...
41:26So Khufu would have been in here.
41:28Really? Yeah.
41:29Yeah, that's cool.
41:30Do you want to go see him?
41:31Oh, 100% I do.
41:32What you talking about, do I want to go and see him?
41:34I've just come up 832 steps.
41:35What do you think I'm going to do, go back down?
41:37Are you mad?
41:38I've got to have a drink in Brad's bar.
41:41Oh.
41:44Wow, this is it.
41:46Oh, you can stand up in this bit.
41:48So you know what was here?
41:50No, what was here?
41:51This was where the Portcullis sat.
41:53Oh, yeah, you can see the grooves in the wall.
41:55So the stone would have come crashing down here,
41:58blocking the entrance.
41:59Like Raiders of the Lost Ark.
42:01Exactly.
42:02That is really cool.
42:06OK, here we go.
42:07OK, here we go.
42:10Khufu's...
42:12Khufu's chamber.
42:15Oh, wow.
42:16Just so much meaning.
42:18I mean, the weight of those granite blocks.
42:21Are they granite up there?
42:22Yes, we're now in the rose granite, the red granite chamber.
42:27Look how seamless this is.
42:29I know.
42:30It just fits so perfectly.
42:31No wonder scientists spend their time in here
42:34trying to figure out what's happened,
42:36what's gone on, what it's all about.
42:39Why is it here?
42:40This is the granite sarcophagus
42:42where Khufu would have been buried.
42:44And look, you can still see the groove right here
42:46where the lid of the sarcophagus would have rest
42:48and locked in place.
42:49His mummy would have been in here.
42:52So this is one of the feats of engineering of Khufu's pyramid.
42:56Yeah.
42:57It's one thing, he built these massive pyramids,
42:59but this is really where you can see
43:02that they became experts at stone cutting.
43:05Yeah.
43:06Experts at logistics and moving these vastly huge blocks.
43:09Yeah, I get it.
43:11What they learned in that over 100 years is remarkable.
43:16It is remarkable.
43:17This is amazing.
43:24I feel when I arrived four or five days ago,
43:27it was one of life's ambitions.
43:29The ancient wonders of the world, the only one that's left.
43:32Do you know what I mean?
43:34Apart from the hanging baskets of Basildon.
43:37So, but this is, this is it.
43:40And I've been here and I've done it, that's it.
43:42I'm so glad you brought us in here, Meredith.
43:44I truly am.
43:45I'm glad you came.
43:46I tell you what it's like going in and out of pyramids.
43:48It is hard work, it really is.
43:50But so enjoyable, I'm so glad I came.
43:55See, I'm an explorer after all.
43:58But I've still got questions about the funny old lion thing
44:02at the front with the bloke's little head.
44:04You know the sphinx, that thing?
44:06I'm not sure about that.
44:08Next time...
44:09That looks unbelievable, doesn't it?
44:11..Bradley comes face to face with the great sphinx...
44:14A bloke? Never.
44:16..and tries to finally decipher Egypt's cosmic code.
44:20Now, these are the glyphics, but much higher.
44:22So these are the higher glyphics.
44:24Oh, boy.
44:25This is my best stuff.
44:33If you've spent your time
44:36flying across the universe and the galaxy
44:39in your spaceship to build this...
44:48..and your boss on another planet says,
44:51were you drunk?
44:55Seriously?
44:56It's Jenga.
45:02Jenga.