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00:00Wow. That looks unbelievable, doesn't it?
00:09In his quest to decipher Egypt's cosmic code,
00:13Bradley Walsh has been given exclusive access
00:17to one of the most enigmatic statues in the world.
00:20Extraordinary. There you have it.
00:25The Great Sphinx at Giza.
00:28I've got a few questions about that.
00:31I think that was re-carved.
00:34Would it have been a lion? Possibly. A jackal? Maybe.
00:37A bloke? Never.
00:40What is going on?
00:50Bradley Walsh is on an Egyptian odyssey.
00:54This is extraordinary.
00:56Armed with his trusty notebook...
00:59It's a spaceship. Oh!
01:01..his measuring tools...
01:0344.6. 44.6.
01:05..and a bucketload of questions.
01:07How many blocks are in there?
01:09Can he now finally decipher Egypt's cosmic code?
01:15Oh!
01:23My head!
01:35Now, the Sphinx.
01:37First thing on the agenda for me, it don't look right.
01:41I think the head was much bigger
01:43and I think it's been carved and chipped down
01:45to give it the head of a human being.
01:50I don't think it was originally that.
01:54Because it's out of proportion completely.
02:03And Bradley is not alone
02:05with his theories about the Sphinx's head and its origins.
02:10If we look at that very finely carved head of the Sphinx,
02:15it does seem that there was something else there originally.
02:19This begs the question, when was this originally carved?
02:25One of the most popular theories
02:27is that the Sphinx's original head was an ancient animal god,
02:32destroyed in a great flood at the end of the last Ice Age,
02:36around 13,000 years ago.
02:39But mainstream Egyptology insists it dates back
02:43only 4,500 years to the reign of King Khafre,
02:47son of Khufu, the great pyramid builder.
02:53Bradley is convinced in his own mind about what must have happened.
02:58Every religion talks of a great flood.
03:01So, let's assume there's the flood.
03:04I think the Sphinx was originally a jackal.
03:07It was a jackal's head and not the head of a pharaoh.
03:11The flood comes along, carves into the rock.
03:18The Egyptian dudes come along and they say,
03:20you know what, let's ruin that, that water.
03:23Then what's happened is they've re-carved it in the image of a pharaoh.
03:30So that, for me, is not the original head.
03:33This is older than the pyramid.
03:38To discuss his theories about when the Sphinx was really built...
03:43Here he comes. This has got to be my man.
03:45..Bradley is meeting someone
03:47who knows the iconic monument better than most.
03:51He looks like he means business.
03:53Hello. Yeah, my name's Brad. Nice to meet you.
03:56Nice to meet you too. Arto.
03:58Arto Belekdanyan is an independent Egyptologist based in Cairo.
04:04So let me ask you this, Arto.
04:06Is there any record anywhere telling us of maybe a great flood?
04:10Certainly not historical texts.
04:12And the flooding of the Nile, which did take place every year,
04:16does play a huge part in Egyptian mythology,
04:19but it was never viewed as this sort of cataclysmic event.
04:22It was just the annual Nile flood.
04:24But that's not the original head, is it, Arto?
04:27Please tell me that's not the original head.
04:29It is indeed. No, no, it can't be.
04:31Was it not an animal of some description?
04:33Why would you have such a small head and such a large body?
04:37Well, the reason for that is there's a fissure
04:40right around here somewhere on the body of itself.
04:44It's hidden by the restorations.
04:47But that fissure is there.
04:51The prevailing theory is that the sphinx was carved from bedrock.
04:56This meant the builders had to contend with natural cracks
05:00or fissures, resulting in a longer body and a smaller head.
05:09You can't have the sphinx body sort of just after that fissure
05:13because then the rest of it would be structurally very unstable.
05:17Oh, right, right.
05:18So they extended it.
05:20I see.
05:22The snout of the jackal just wouldn't have worked.
05:25If it's that long, we're talking about a massive weight of stone
05:28with nothing supporting it underneath.
05:30It would have crumbled very soon after building.
05:37Although the sphinx may not be an ancient jackal deity,
05:42it does appear to represent the pharaoh Khafre
05:45in the form of an animal god.
05:48It demonstrates the ancient Egyptians' obsession with animals,
05:54an obsession that touches everything they did in life and death.
06:03The thing about ancient Egyptian religion
06:06is that the fact is way stranger than the fiction.
06:10I mean, who needs aliens when you've got these weird beings
06:14with animal heads and human bodies?
06:17And then you have to deal with the fact
06:20that ancient Egyptian worshippers, pilgrims,
06:23bought dead animals, mummified dead animals,
06:28by the tens of millions.
06:32And they created these labyrinthine underground structures
06:37for storing all these dead animals,
06:40which are still being unearthed today.
06:46To see this for himself,
06:48we travel 15km south of Giza to Saqqara,
06:52a 5,000-year-old city of the dead,
06:56home to burials of all shapes and sizes.
07:01Hidden deep in the desert,
07:03it's the final resting place of Egypt's most intriguing animal god.
07:09So, where are we right now?
07:13We're in northern Saqqara, right at a place called the Serapeum.
07:19The Serapeum is a mysterious underground labyrinth,
07:23with tunnels stretching more than 200m from its entrance.
07:28Inside, more than 20 chambers are carved into the bedrock.
07:33Archaeologists believe the complex dates back
07:36almost 3,500 years.
07:43I'm looking forward to this. Where's your hat?
07:46What's that?
07:47You need a hat.
07:48I do need a hat.
07:50Don't you ever get sunburned?
07:51I do get sunburned.
07:52Right, yeah.
07:53Little known fact, Egyptians get sunburned too.
08:00So, right, darkness is what I'm going to need.
08:03I'm going to need some lights.
08:05Where's... Hang on, let me think.
08:08Let me think. Let me...
08:10Oh, look at that.
08:11Good, eh? This works every time.
08:14Right, let's go.
08:19Whoa.
08:21This is cool, isn't it?
08:23Look at that.
08:25What are they like? Are they like... Is that writing?
08:28Hieroglyphs.
08:29Ah!
08:31Oh, wow.
08:32Oh, yeah, I can... Ah, now I can see it.
08:35The birds and stuff.
08:37Mm-hm.
08:40Do you read hieroglyphs, then?
08:41I do.
08:42Aha!
08:43What does it say?
08:44Open on Wednesdays, shut on every bank holiday.
08:49All right, so what is this?
08:50Think catacombs.
08:51You are here to bury.
08:54It's a funeral parlour.
08:56No, this is not where people were buried.
08:59Animals!
09:00Yes.
09:01Oh, it's a pet cemetery.
09:03No, not that either.
09:05Basically, think sacred animals.
09:08In fact, a very special category.
09:10Sacred bulls.
09:12Oh, big one.
09:13Sacred bulls.
09:15Oh, bulls.
09:18The ancient Egyptians excavated this sprawling maze of tunnels
09:23to house dozens of giant stone sarcophagi.
09:30Inside each was a mummified apis bull,
09:34believed to be an incarnation of the Egyptian creator god.
09:41Wow!
09:43Huge!
09:44And this is one of the smaller ones.
09:48That right there is the dedication by the king
09:50who buried the sacred bull.
09:53This bit right here, it says...
09:56Bull, duck.
09:58Well, right to left, so therefore...
10:00Oh, it's the other way round.
10:02Duck, bull.
10:03OK, so...
10:04That's the name of the apis.
10:07This here, hap, is the writing of the name apis,
10:11and the bull there just tells you what this is.
10:14Oh!
10:15See the bull?
10:16Yeah.
10:17It's telling you it's a bull.
10:20One of the biggest mysteries surrounding these catacombs
10:23is how the ancient Egyptians created the massive sarcophagi.
10:28Each coffin is cut from a single piece of granite,
10:32engineered with an incredible level of precision.
10:37What I need is some sort of mechanical instrument to measure this,
10:41and...
10:42And...
10:43Wow!
10:44Oh, look at that.
10:45Right, now, let's see how square this is.
10:49That is...
10:50Oh, wow, look at that!
10:52Look at that, look at that!
10:54Can you see that?
10:55Look at that!
10:56Arto, this is 90 degrees exactly.
11:00How old is this?
11:02Roughly 2,000 years old.
11:06The engineering's extraordinary, isn't it?
11:09What would something like this weigh?
11:11Seriously.
11:12Well, one of these, just the trough, the box itself...
11:16Sure.
11:17..nearly 40 tonnes.
11:19Yeah, right.
11:20And the lid, around 20 more tonnes.
11:2220 tonnes.
11:2360 tonnes.
11:24A total 62 tonnes.
11:27The perfect angles and sheer mass of the sarcophagi
11:31show a sophisticated level of craftsmanship.
11:35Bradley doesn't believe the Egyptians could have achieved such precision
11:40more than 3,000 years ago with only copper and stone tools.
11:47If this is granite, you can't possibly cut this with a copper tool.
11:52You can't.
11:53Have you ever heard the expression, like a hot knife through butter?
11:56Yeah, yeah.
11:57Well, this is like cutting a knife with butter.
12:00Right.
12:01If you use a copper tool.
12:02Right.
12:03Do you know what I mean?
12:04It's like taking on a paving slab with a marshmallow.
12:06So how did that happen? Come on.
12:09For Arto to convince Bradley this precision engineering was possible,
12:14they need to get hands-on with authentic Egyptian tools.
12:18See, it's actually beginning to chip away at it.
12:23What show are you watching? It's not touching.
12:25No, it did.
12:26And see the results on a grand scale.
12:40The ancient Egyptians poured huge amounts of labour
12:44into worshipping their gods and pharaohs.
12:48But Bradley is still not convinced
12:50they could have done it all by themselves.
12:53To investigate further,
12:55he wants to try his hand at stone-cutting Egyptian style.
13:01All right, Bradley.
13:03I have prepped for you a good stone-cutting set-up over here.
13:07OK. I've got to meet the dudes.
13:09Hello, lads. Good to see you.
13:11Good to see you. Brad, Brad.
13:13Brad, Brad, good to see you.
13:15There you are.
13:16I tell you what, hey, Westlife have let themselves go, haven't they?
13:21Well, we've got a piece of red granite here.
13:23What you want to do is to get the brunt of the work out of the way,
13:28you want to get it roughly level at first.
13:31And to do that, you wouldn't use copper.
13:33It's extremely inefficient.
13:34It is.
13:35So you use another type of stone.
13:37They would have used that one closer to you.
13:40This one?
13:41Yeah, dolerite, which is harder than granite
13:43for the initial prep work, getting it roughly.
13:47So you want to hit that like this
13:49or perhaps at an angle.
13:51OK. Like this?
13:54Yeah? Exactly.
13:56Literally by hand, not by hammer or anything?
13:58Nope, by hand.
14:02See, it breaks it off quite nicely.
14:06I tell you what, it's a palaver, though, isn't it?
14:09Oh, yeah, it would have taken ages.
14:12Yeah, that's working. OK.
14:15To show how the hieroglyphs were carved into the sarcophagi
14:19at the Serapion,
14:21Arto now wants Bradley to use a copper engraving tool,
14:25even though copper is a notably soft and malleable metal.
14:30So let's...
14:37Ha! You're kidding!
14:39You want to go at it at an angle.
14:41That is not happening.
14:44See? It's actually beginning to chip away at it.
14:48What? Show you, botchin. It's not touching.
14:50No, it did!
14:51What?
14:52OK, OK, do it again, do it again.
14:56You can absolutely carve shapes and hieroglyphs with copper.
15:01See?
15:02I did see that little bit, to be fair,
15:04but there's more metal, there's more copper left on it
15:06than anything else.
15:09Once you have the experience, years' worth of experience,
15:13generational experience of working stone,
15:17you'll get more efficient at it.
15:19No! You've got to be kidding me!
15:22I haven't got long to live.
15:24Well, there's plenty of tombs around here.
15:27Every engraved hieroglyph was extremely time-consuming to carve.
15:32Millions of these symbols
15:34adorn the walls of the kingdom's surviving temples.
15:38Any one may hide part of Egypt's cosmic code.
15:47But the finest examples of this craft
15:52But the finest examples of this craftsmanship
15:57are located in ancient temples to the south of the country.
16:01Now Bradley is travelling 500km down the Nile
16:05to visit two of these iconic landmarks
16:09and unlock more of their secrets.
16:17What do you think?
16:20What is this place?
16:22This is Dendera,
16:24and that massive structure over there,
16:27the temple of the goddess Hathor.
16:32Hathor was the Egyptian goddess of fertility,
16:35motherhood, music and the sky.
16:39Another animal deity, like the Apis bull,
16:42she instead took the form of a cow.
16:45Her temple was constructed from sandstone,
16:48mostly during the Greco-Roman period
16:51at the end of Egypt's dynastic era.
16:57So what am I hoping to find here?
17:00There's a couple of scenes in there that I really want to show you.
17:07The thing about ancient Egypt that attracts millions of people
17:11are the stupendous temples that we can still see,
17:15these houses of the gods.
17:17And when you go inside, the thing that really strikes you
17:21is all those cosmological references,
17:24the cosmic code that guided ancient Egypt.
17:31Brace yourself. OK.
17:33No, I mean, brace yourself. Really?
17:36I'm braced, I'm braced.
17:40Wow. Wow, wow, wow. That's extraordinary.
17:44The temple is the only one in Egypt
17:47that still retains its original roof.
17:53It was built around 2,000 years ago.
17:58That is amazing.
18:03The artwork on the walls and ceiling
18:06remain vivid with their original colours.
18:09Ah, hey, look.
18:12Right, so here we go.
18:14This is what we saw in the ball chamber, this stuff.
18:18Now, these are the glyphics, but much higher.
18:20So these are the hieroglyphics. Mm-hm.
18:22Oh!
18:24Oh, boy. What do you mean, oh, boy?
18:27This is my best stuff, Arto.
18:32The intricate temple ceiling
18:34holds clues about the Egyptian history.
18:39And the Egyptians' understanding of astronomy.
18:46Hey, hey, hey. Yeah?
18:48Look at that one up there. See with the boat? Yeah.
18:51The boat and the bloke standing on the boat. Uh-huh.
18:53But you see the things to the right?
18:55They're all stars now. Yes.
18:58Well, are they guiding their boats by the stars to find a place?
19:04That's actually a really good guess,
19:06but, no, that's not what's happening here.
19:08If you count them, you have 12 boats.
19:12What? I'm saying months of the year?
19:1512 hours of day on the east side of the temple,
19:18the side of where the sun rises, daytime.
19:21On the west side, nighttime of the temple.
19:25The temple is a model of the universe
19:28as the ancient Egyptians understood it,
19:30which is different from how we know the world to be, right?
19:34So the reason why I'm telling you this
19:37is because in the mythological understanding,
19:40the poetic meaning of the temple
19:43is that the ground we're standing on is the earth itself.
19:47So, by definition, by extension... That's the sky.
19:50..the ceiling is the sky.
19:52That's why you have stars on the ceiling.
19:55To learn more about the Egyptians' celestial secrets
19:59and their advanced understanding of the cosmos,
20:02Bradley must go deeper into the temple.
20:07So what else have we got going on?
20:09I'm taking you up the roof.
20:11I beg your pardon?
20:13And check this out.
20:15The figures carved on the walls are ascending the stairs with us.
20:19They are! They are.
20:21So, like a Stannis Stairlift.
20:23What's that? What's that? A Stannis Stairlift?
20:26You know, if you're an old person
20:28and you press a button, it brings you up the stairs?
20:30Oh, yeah, OK. See?
20:32In time, you're going to need one of those, Otto.
20:34You'll be thankful I've mentioned that.
20:36So this is like another chapel, then, is it?
20:38Yes. This is one of the chapels to the god Osiris.
20:47So what's the deal in here, then?
20:49Well, I want you to not look at the walls, but up.
20:53See this? Right.
20:55And I see people...
20:57..things round a circle.
20:59Are they going to be deities?
21:01Yes. OK, so you've got deities.
21:04Hold tight. Is this, like, say, the universe?
21:07Uh-huh. And then so this, then...
21:10How many? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven...
21:16So it's sort of 12...
21:18Is it like a...
21:22..an astrology chart?
21:24Yeah! You're absolutely right!
21:26Is it? Yeah!
21:28So what we have here... Hang on, hang on.
21:30OK, OK, carry on, carry on. You're on a roll.
21:32Thank you at last. Thank you.
21:34I'm getting it, I'm getting it. OK, go ahead.
21:36There's the moon and the sun and the...thing.
21:41Look at that one. You see that one?
21:43That's the ram, Capricorn.
21:45There you go. And to the right of that, you've got a horse body
21:48with the torso of a human being.
21:50Taurus. Sagittarius.
21:52So 2,000 years ago, which is when this really...
21:55..we're talking this place is... Yeah.
21:582,000 years later, we're still doing this stuff.
22:01With the same symbols.
22:03So all this astrology was happening years ago with the Egyptians?
22:10Absolutely.
22:13The temples were precisely constructed by studying the sky
22:18by day and by night.
22:25These observations governed the Egyptians' timekeeping and seasons.
22:31As well as the location and alignment of their monuments.
22:39When you walk through these temples,
22:41when you look at the cosmological designs on the walls,
22:46on the ceilings, the question is,
22:49are there other codes yet to be cracked
22:52which will reveal further mysteries,
22:55further enigmas about this civilisation?
22:59Beneath Dendra Temple's grand halls are hidden secret crypts.
23:05Concealed chambers holding some of Egypt's greatest mysteries.
23:11This way? Yeah.
23:13Down here. Let's go.
23:16All right. Hey.
23:18That's a bit tight down there. Yes, it is.
23:22So the best way to do this here is to go in with your behind first.
23:27It's not the first time I've heard that.
23:30I don't want to find out more than that.
23:32No, no. Leave it. That's all I need to know.
23:35This better be worth it. You're nearly there. Just watch your head.
23:38I'm nearly there. I've only just got in the hole.
23:43And it's warm.
23:45Yes, but it's worth it.
23:50This is one of the scenes that has a lot of,
23:54shall we say, alternative theories about it.
23:58In the weird theories,
24:00this is basically representing some kind of, like, piece of tech.
24:04Maybe a battery and you've got these cables, you know.
24:08So my theory behind the Great Pyramid,
24:10I think it may well have been a massive power plant.
24:13Now all of a sudden you're telling me that this temple here from Hathor,
24:19this is now some sort of battery with the leads and the cables going.
24:23Come on.
24:24So, OK, I never said this is an alleged battery,
24:29but I don't think it is.
24:32All right, so what do we think it is then?
24:34Well, this is in fact the menat necklace
24:38that we see the ancient Egyptians wearing.
24:40Yeah.
24:41And it's associated particularly with the goddess Hathor.
24:44Here in these crypts is where they kept the very precious
24:50ritual objects of the temple.
24:53So you keep it underground, hidden, gold, silver objects.
24:57And that's why we have this here.
24:59But the battery, not a chance.
25:03You're ruining the show for me, aren't I?
25:06This is going to stop me.
25:08There's a lot more coming.
25:11The Dendra Battery isn't the only cosmic enigma
25:15carved into these walls.
25:17The most infamous image in the entire temple
25:21is the so-called Dendra light bulb.
25:26Check this out.
25:28Right here.
25:31What's interesting about this is,
25:33I can see that for people it would be a light bulb.
25:37I see there's some sort of coil.
25:39OK, I can see why you might think that.
25:41Yeah, and this would be the filament in the middle.
25:43However, this is a snake, a serpent.
25:45There you go.
25:46This is a serpent, and I can see that now.
25:49Ah, hmm, OK.
25:51And this, in actual fact, is some sort of flower.
25:54The lotus.
25:56Check this out.
25:57It's saying, you see the falcon?
25:59That's Horus.
26:00Horus?
26:01There's the lotus.
26:02The text is telling you.
26:03Horus is the living soul,
26:05and there you have the snake in the lotus.
26:08Look, Horus is the snake,
26:10and he is in the lotus coming out of it.
26:15You don't need to drift far away into light bulbs.
26:18The text here is telling you precisely what is happening.
26:21It makes perfect sense to me.
26:23When I say perfect, I don't understand it,
26:25but it makes sense.
26:27OK, and do you know what it says?
26:30I can read.
26:32Now, through your tutorage,
26:34I can now read what this panel says.
26:36OK.
26:37This panel says,
26:38it's seriously hot down here.
26:40We've got to get out.
26:43I don't agree with the interpretation,
26:45but I agree with the sentiment.
26:47Let's go, dude.
26:48Let's do it.
26:49All right.
26:50From animal gods
26:52to a fascination with the universe around them,
26:55the ancient Egyptian way of life
26:57was often stranger than fiction.
27:00But for Bradley to truly understand it all,
27:04he needs to see a temple
27:06that brings all the ancient symbolism together.
27:10Sphinxes, cosmic connections,
27:13and breathtaking engineering.
27:16I mean, this would have been magnificent.
27:18I mean, magnificent.
27:29Bradley's final destination
27:31is a temple which will bring him closer
27:34to answering all the questions from his journey so far.
27:39The ancient Egyptian obsession with cosmology
27:42also involved their study of the solstices.
27:46And this, in turn, may have influenced where they located,
27:50how they positioned their temples.
27:53And nowhere are those alignments more apparent than at Karnak.
27:5950km south of Dendera,
28:02Karnak dates back to around 2000 BCE.
28:06The main temple complex was devoted to the worship
28:09of the Egyptian chief god, Amun-Ra.
28:17The sphinxes at the entrance
28:19are a reminder of the start of Bradley's journey
28:22into the world of animal gods.
28:29But as with so much of ancient Egypt,
28:32things are not quite what they seem.
28:37Right. Aha!
28:39So, I've got a question for you.
28:41Yeah, what's up?
28:42Right. Well, yeah, what's up?
28:44There's a big what's up here.
28:45Oh, OK.
28:46OK. Now, they're not sphinxes.
28:49These have, like, got the heads of, like, a ram
28:51or a goat of some description. Uh-huh, uh-huh.
28:53And when we were at the sphinx and I said to you,
28:56I believe that the head was a much bigger head of an animal
28:59than carved to a smaller head of, like, the pharaoh,
29:03you said, well, no, I don't really think
29:05that's necessarily the case,
29:07but if this is the avenue of the sphinxes, or it was,
29:10the sphinx is now taken the shape of an animal.
29:13So, what's going on?
29:15First off, yeah, these are indeed sphinxes.
29:18A sphinx does not necessarily need to have a human head.
29:21Well, in this case, obviously it's not a pharaoh,
29:24but rather it's a ram of...
29:27Well, that's because the ram was sacred to the god Amun
29:30and that's his temple.
29:34A thousand sphinxes surround Karnak's central precinct,
29:40an area of more than 250,000 square metres.
29:45It's one of the largest religious complexes in the world.
29:50After its foundation,
29:52it was continuously under construction for two millennia.
29:56The temple is even home to a sacred lake,
29:59which has never dried up in its 4,000-year history.
30:08I'm awestruck with the size of it and the scale of it.
30:11This is not even scratching the surface. Really?
30:13Oh, yeah, no, you have no idea how huge this place is.
30:16Right. OK, let's go.
30:21At the heart of the Karnak complex
30:24is the Hypostyle Hall,
30:27a seemingly impossible feat of engineering.
30:32This is extraordinary.
30:34Look at it. That's amazing.
30:37MUSIC SWELLS
30:54It covers an area of more than 4,500 square metres
31:00and includes 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows.
31:10I mean, this would have been magnificent.
31:12I mean, magnificent.
31:20How high is that?
31:22Maybe 15 metres?
31:25No. 15 metres? No, it's got to be taller than that.
31:29I need some sort of... Well done, Bill.
31:31I'm brilliant at this. Right, let's have a look.
31:35Right, we tap that, tap that, do that, do that.
31:38Here we go. Got all the gizmos going on.
31:41Now then. Ready to go?
31:43Let's do that. Do that.
31:45Do that. Do that.
31:47Woo-hoo!
31:49Can you see what that says?
31:5248 feet, five inches.
31:55What's that in metric?
31:57It's 48 times 12.
31:58There's a reason why I got into Egyptology and not maths.
32:01It's almost 500 inches worth of metres.
32:04That's so not helpful.
32:08Boys, boys, come on.
32:1014.4 metres. Eh? 14.4 metres.
32:12500, so...
32:14So you mean when I said 15 metres and you said that I was wrong,
32:17I was actually right?
32:19Yeah, all right, so you're right.
32:21It's unnecessary.
32:23I feel dizzy.
32:26The 12 central columns are even taller.
32:30They tower more than 21 metres
32:33and support lintels estimated to weigh 70 tonnes,
32:3830 times heavier than the average block
32:41used to construct the Great Pyramid at Giza.
32:46Look at the size of these blocks.
32:49Yes, you can't get your head around how they got them up there.
32:55How did they do it?
32:58Very tall people holding them over their heads.
33:01The reality is, well, they probably used ramps.
33:07Remember the first structure we passed through, the big gateway,
33:10the first pylon? Yeah.
33:12Just after going through its doorway,
33:14on the right, there was that mud brick thing.
33:17What's that? That's the construction ramp.
33:19That's how they got the stones up there,
33:21by dragging them up the slope of the ramp.
33:24That makes perfect sense.
33:27And then they take the ramp away and they're left... Exactly.
33:31Left wondering how they got all those things up there.
33:35It's genius in its simplicity.
33:38Amazing.
33:42But though remarkable,
33:44the construction of these colossal columns
33:47isn't the greatest engineering feat of this temple.
33:54Look at that. Oh, my God.
34:06Bradley has reached the heart of Karnak Temple in Luxor,
34:10arriving at the most remarkable of all Egyptian monoliths.
34:25The Obelisk of Hatshepsut was built in the 2nd millennium BCE.
34:31Its incredible size and shape have attracted widespread speculation.
34:38Some of the most spectacular theories about ancient Egypt
34:42centre on those strange constructions known as obelisks.
34:47There they are, standing out in the landscape,
34:50in the middle of temples,
34:52what are they for?
34:55Now, one of the theories is that the obelisks
34:59are part of an ancient Egyptian power grid.
35:07Imagine that you've got electricity
35:11which is surging out of the Great Pyramid
35:14via the precious metal cap at the top of it.
35:19It's zapping to the obelisks,
35:22which are also capped with precious metal.
35:26And then from the obelisks to the temples.
35:33The whole sky must have been alive with electricity.
35:39Towering almost 30 metres into the air,
35:43this obelisk is the largest in Egypt.
35:47Wow! That looks like it's made of granite.
35:53You're absolutely right.
35:55And that's one lump of stone, right?
35:57What does it depict?
35:59Well, the obelisk is a solar symbol.
36:02It's associated with the sun god.
36:05The obelisk was built for the female pharaoh Hatshepsut,
36:09who reigned 3,500 years ago.
36:12Made from a single piece of pink granite,
36:15it's estimated to weigh up to 350 tonnes,
36:19two and a half times the weight of the Statue of Liberty.
36:24It was once topped with electrum,
36:26which would flare like a lighthouse when the sun hit it.
36:33The question is, how on earth was it erected?
36:37The question is, how on earth was it erected?
36:42So it's got this massive lump of granite.
36:45They lay it on its side.
36:47They do all the carvings on it pre-standing it up.
36:52At least three sides before that.
36:56So that, I reckon...
36:58Here's the ground.
37:00There's the hole. There's the ground.
37:02There's the hole they've made for it.
37:04They lash everything they can around here.
37:07They then use that as a fulcrum.
37:10And they literally pull all this so it stands up, up, up, up,
37:14and literally slots into place.
37:18More or less.
37:20Actually, the amount of force required to pull this,
37:23when it's fully prone like that,
37:25just wouldn't have been feasible.
37:27So let's do this then.
37:30Let's do this slope with the bricks.
37:33They lay the obelisk on here.
37:35Uh-huh. Now you're getting there.
37:37So some sort of mechanical device winches it up.
37:42Elephants? Nope.
37:49I've got it. Uh-huh.
37:52There's the hole. There's the mud thing.
37:55And here is a spaceship.
37:58Oh!
38:00The spaceship comes down, latches around it,
38:03and just literally pulls it into place.
38:06I'm kidding. What's the mechanics behind it?
38:09Imagine an entire mud brick structure...
38:15...the height of this obelisk... Uh-huh.
38:19...filled with sand,
38:21with a ramp, of course, leading up to that part.
38:24Yeah.
38:26So you drag the obelisk up that slope,
38:30along the horizontal top of it. Yeah.
38:33The structure is full of sand.
38:35But on the other side, it's empty,
38:38and it's got little windows in it that you can open,
38:41thus letting gravity gradually, smoothly do the work,
38:45while you have ropes tied towards the top
38:48such that you're controlling it, guiding it.
38:52Like it would have been filled, say, with water,
38:55and we could have done it with water, so instead it's sand.
38:58Sandrolics, if you will. Sandrolics. Got it.
39:01Hydraulics, sandrolics.
39:03This is great.
39:05Everyone at home now goes,
39:07ah-ha, that's how they did it.
39:10Brilliant.
39:13Obelisks were essential features of the grandest Egyptian temples.
39:18But to truly understand their significance,
39:21you need a bird's-eye view.
39:28So Arto has arranged special access
39:31to climb one of Karnak's secret staircases.
39:35This is Indiana Jones stuff.
39:37What happens if... Actual bats.
39:39Oh, look at the bats. Yeah.
39:41What happens if a great big ball of stone comes sliding down there?
39:46The narrow steps lead up to the top of Karnak's first pylon,
39:51a temple gateway built to celebrate the pharaoh's achievements
39:56and the gods of Egypt.
40:00Wow. So how many people get to go up here?
40:03Almost nobody. Get in!
40:05This is really, really special.
40:07I love stuff like this. Who's allowed to go up here?
40:10No-one.
40:12Look at this.
40:14Oh, now we're rocking and rolling.
40:17Oh, my God.
40:21Wow.
40:29This is actually quite emotional, mate.
40:31It really is. You know, with the sun on your face...
40:35From this elevated perspective,
40:38Karnak's meticulously designed layout,
40:41with its worship of the sun god, is clear to see.
40:46Here's the cool thing.
40:48The great temple of Amun, who has done in such a way
40:51to honor the gods of Egypt,
40:53it's not just a temple.
40:55It's a temple of worship.
40:57It's a temple of worship.
40:59It's a temple of worship.
41:01The great temple of Amun was done in such a way
41:04to align with the rising sun on the winter solstice.
41:08Right.
41:09So the sun would rise directly in between
41:12the main aisle of the great hypostyle hall over there,
41:16rising in the eastern horizon.
41:20The east was associated with, of course, sunrise,
41:23and therefore, life.
41:25The sun sets on the west side of the Nile,
41:28and therefore, that was associated with death.
41:31And the straight line to this exact same axis
41:35is the Valley of the Kings.
41:40So the deceased kings are essentially
41:43in line with the rising sun
41:45on the day of the rebirth of the sun, winter solstice.
41:48Winter solstice, rebirth of the sun, comes up,
41:50hits the top of the needle.
41:52That cast a shadow, dead center.
41:54This is Raiders of the Lost Ark stuff.
41:56That's what it is.
41:57I stand there with my staff on my little circular bit
42:00where the guy burnt his hand,
42:01and it shines all the way over there.
42:05I could find the Ark of the Covenant.
42:07What do you think, Harto?
42:10That's a little bit over the top, but, you know...
42:12Harto, you've ruined it again for me, man.
42:20This place is extraordinary.
42:23Engineering is exceptional
42:27and far more intricate than the pyramids could ever be.
42:30But then again, they did have almost 1,000 years
42:35worth more of practice.
42:37And it just shows you as well
42:39that the temples are also built for alignment
42:43with the sun, the stars, equinoxes,
42:48and that's the connection between these people
42:51and their ethereal presence around them.
42:55I am so pleased I came here.
42:59This is a different level, seriously.
43:01I mean, you've got to come here.
43:03Everyone, you must come here.
43:13My auntie down there in the yellow top.
43:17Oh, the Iris!
43:20Hard of hearing.
43:24Next time, Bradley comes face-to-face
43:27with Tutankhamun's death mask...
43:30Oh, my goodness, it's really him.
43:34..and Raid's tombs...
43:37Here!
43:38..in his search for the boy king and his mysterious family.
43:42Riches beyond your wildest dreams.
43:50Do you know what, mate?
43:54It's been a pleasure. Likewise.
43:56You're a lovely, lovely man. Likewise.
44:03We'll see each other again cos we're going to go on the road,
44:05you and I, comedy double act.
44:07We're going to be known as the Egyptian Chuckle Brothers.
44:09How do you say chuckled in Egyptian?
44:11Er...
44:19Er...