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00:00Oh, my goodness, it's really him.
00:22The Death Mask of Tutankhamun is one of the most famous artefacts in world history.
00:29And for Bradley, coming face-to-face with it fulfils a lifelong ambition.
00:35I've waited 50-odd years for this moment.
00:40You can't imagine that I'm actually here.
00:44Wow, that is just unbelievable.
00:50Many mysteries continue to surround the reign of ancient Egypt's boy king.
00:55How and why did he ascend the throne at such a young age?
01:01And why, despite such a short reign, was he so revered?
01:12Bradley Walsh is continuing his Egyptian odyssey.
01:18Armed with his trusty notebook...
01:20It's a spaceship.
01:22Oh!
01:23His measuring tools...
01:2444.6.
01:2544.6.
01:27And a bucketload of questions.
01:29How many blocks are in there?
01:31Can he now finally decipher Egypt's cosmic code?
01:36Oh, look at that.
01:38Sacred balls.
01:39I beg your pardon?
01:44OK, so here we are.
01:46We've done the pyramids.
01:47Tick.
01:48Done the sphinx.
01:49Tick.
01:50I've done temples.
01:51Tick.
01:52What I've got to do now is find out about the boy king.
02:06King Tut.
02:07Here I come.
02:08When I was 12, in 1972, our school went on a trip to see King Tutankhamen's mask and
02:28the sarcophagi and stuff like that.
02:30Of course, I was too young at 12 to go.
02:37I was very jealous of those kids going in 1972.
02:42That, for me, was the blue touch paper.
02:50Tutankhamen is beyond doubt the most mysterious, enigmatic pharaoh.
02:58His life and death are cloaked in intrigue, conspiracies, tales of murder.
03:07Why did he die?
03:09How did he die?
03:10And what are the mysteries that surround his life, himself, and his very strange family?
03:20To help find some answers, Bradley is reuniting with Egyptologist Meredith Brand.
03:26Hey, Brad.
03:28Hey, Meredith.
03:29A lecturer at the American University in Cairo.
03:34How many times have you seen this?
03:36I've seen it a lot.
03:38A lot.
03:39But every time, it's just, I notice something different about it.
03:43OK.
03:44Something new.
03:45Like, this time, I didn't realise, like, there's a bit of a dent in his cheek.
03:48It kind of gives it a bit of a cheekbone kind of thing that I didn't see before.
03:52Oh, right.
03:55The mask is intricately moulded, using two layers of gold.
04:00Measuring 54 centimetres tall, King Tut is depicted wearing a nemes headcloth, topped
04:07with the royal insignia of a cobra and vulture, symbolising his rule of both Lower and Upper
04:14Egypt.
04:15Inlaid with precious gemstones, it weighs in at 10 kilograms, and was created over 3,000
04:23years ago.
04:25It's hollow, I noticed.
04:26So, would they have put his head inside it?
04:28Yeah.
04:29No.
04:30This would have gone over his head.
04:31It's his funerary mask.
04:32His mummy was wearing this.
04:33Ah.
04:34I had no idea.
04:35So, this, like, transformed Tut into a god.
04:39Right.
04:40He had the skin of gold, and it covered his mummy.
04:44Despite his worldwide fame today, Tutankhamun died at the age of just 19 in mysterious circumstances.
04:54What age did he come to the throne?
04:57Around nine years old.
04:58So, he was a very young boy.
04:59No.
05:00So, it only reigned for ten years.
05:01Yeah, a little less than ten years.
05:02So...
05:03It's this kid, he's 19 years old, and I look at me when I was 19, all I wanted to do was
05:08play football.
05:09He looks like a 19-year-old lad.
05:12Yeah.
05:13He actually does.
05:14They captured it.
05:15Nice to meet you, sir.
05:17After all these years.
05:20Brilliant.
05:23Tutankhamun is not the only enigmatic member of his family.
05:28His relatives of Egypt's 18th royal dynasty are strewn throughout Cairo's Museum of Antiquities.
05:35This is unbelievable.
05:36It's just pharaoh, pharaoh, king, king, sarcophagus, sarcophagus.
05:42Who are these dudes?
05:44That's Tut's grandfather.
05:45Oh.
05:46So, his grandfather and his grandmother.
05:47Come on.
05:48We'll go check out his father.
05:50The statues and images of Tut's royal family are completely different from any other.
05:56So much so that some have even questioned whether they were human.
06:02If the pharaohs of ancient Egypt were, in fact, extraterrestrial beings, that might
06:10explain why the incredible structures that we see throughout ancient Egypt,
06:16the temples, the pyramids, the obelisks,
06:21were created by technology that was millennia ahead of its time.
06:30The most mysterious of all Tut's family is his father, Akhenaten.
06:35Depicted with a long face and exaggerated features,
06:39he's known as the alien king.
06:42That's King Tut's dad?
06:44Yeah.
06:45Is that Akhenaten?
06:46Akhenaten.
06:47Yeah, that's him.
06:48That's it.
06:49He was a completely different king.
06:51Oh, I can see that.
06:52He might have been a queen.
06:54He's got the lips going on and very high cheekbones,
06:58an exposed belly, the wide hips.
07:00When we look at this, there's, like, two possible options, right?
07:04Cross-dresser.
07:06That's a third possibility.
07:08But one of them is that he actually looked like this.
07:11Maybe.
07:12Maybe.
07:13Maybe he did naturally have very wide hips.
07:15Like, maybe he did have a genetic disease.
07:17It would give him a different shape.
07:19The other one is that this could be a stylistic choice,
07:22that he's trying to send a message with his art.
07:24Oh, wow.
07:25He's trying to say, I'm not like the other kings.
07:27I'm doing something completely different.
07:29I'm breaking away from tradition, so I'm going to show myself different.
07:32I'm going to show myself different.
07:35Akhenaten was the son of one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs.
07:40Until the fifth year of his reign, he was known by a different name,
07:45Amenhotep IV.
07:47Experts can't agree exactly when he ruled,
07:51or where he was crowned,
07:53or even at what time he was crowned.
07:56It's hard to say.
07:57It's hard to say.
07:58It's hard to say.
07:59It's hard to say.
08:00It's hard to say when he ruled, or where he was crowned,
08:04or even at what age.
08:06But there are clues to the reasons behind Akhenaten's unusual appearance.
08:13What is this, then?
08:14This is a mini shrine.
08:22We've got Akhenaten.
08:24And behind him is his wife, Nefertiti.
08:27Ah!
08:28Yes.
08:29She's married.
08:30She's really famous.
08:31So Nefertiti is King Tut's mum.
08:33No.
08:34Oh.
08:35King Tut's stepmother.
08:36Right, okay.
08:37So Akhenaten and Nefertiti had six daughters.
08:39Right.
08:40And then he had Tutankhamun with another wife.
08:43You see there's a sun disk, right?
08:44Yeah.
08:45Akhenaten banned all the other gods.
08:47Just the sun god, Aten, is the only god that you could worship.
08:50And the only way people could worship Aten
08:53was through Akhenaten and Nefertiti.
08:55So Akhenaten named the sun god, Aten, after himself, Akhenaten?
09:01The opposite.
09:02He named himself after the sun god.
09:04So the sun god was Aten.
09:05Yeah.
09:06He was Akhen, and he decided to name himself Akhenaten.
09:09Well, this is wild.
09:10But originally his name was Amenhotep.
09:12So with the god Amun in there.
09:14I know.
09:15But not the Amenhotep we know.
09:17This is Amenhotep III.
09:19He was originally Amenhotep IV.
09:21Oh.
09:22It's going to break his brain.
09:24Sorry, Brad.
09:25Oh, man.
09:28Tut's family were pretty unusual.
09:31He married one of his six half-sisters, Ankesenamun,
09:36while his mother's true identity remains a mystery.
09:41Mainstream Egyptology suggests Akhenaten and his family's strange looks
09:46were due to their religious beliefs and worship of the sun god.
09:51But for some, their appearance is potentially evidence
09:55of otherworldly influence.
09:58Akhenaten chose for his daughters to be portrayed this way in art.
10:02Wow.
10:03And we don't know why.
10:04This is possibly where all these alien connections...
10:07You know what, you don't ever say, like,
10:09the pyramids were built by aliens and all that.
10:12And this doesn't look right, does it?
10:14I mean, it's definitely unusual.
10:16Like, this is a completely different style.
10:19No. No.
10:24Do I believe in aliens?
10:26Of course. Of course I do.
10:29We are positioned third rock from the sun.
10:32How many suns are there?
10:33There's got to be another bloke sitting in another building
10:36opposite another camera at this precise moment going,
10:39we can't be the only ones, surely?
10:44It may be because their brains needed to be big,
10:47they wanted to show their heads as larger,
10:49maybe to say, like, they're very clever people, maybe?
10:51That would be nice, but the ancient Egyptians had no idea
10:53that thoughts came from the brain, they thought it came from the heart.
10:56In mummification, they took the brain out from the nose and threw it away.
10:59Of course they did.
11:00Either way, these are strange-looking statues.
11:03You got it.
11:04This is a very interesting family.
11:06If Bradley is to find out more about King Tut and his unusual family...
11:11It's a huge feat.
11:12Well, the statues have huge feet, that's the way it is.
11:15And a big nose.
11:16..he needs to head south,
11:18to the location of ancient Egypt's capital, Thebes.
11:23Modern-day Luxor.
11:25THE LEGEND OF BRADLEY WALSH
11:41Bradley Walsh is on the hunt for ancient Egypt's boy king, Tutankhamun.
11:48His search has brought him 500km south of Cairo to Luxor,
11:53known as Thebes.
11:54It was the capital of Egypt during the reigns of Tut and his father,
11:59the so-called alien king, Akhenaten.
12:04The ancient city is divided east and west by the mighty River Nile,
12:11which Bradley is crossing on a traditional sailing boat called a felucca.
12:17I'm of a certain age and there are quite a few people watching this
12:20who are of a certain age that love cruises.
12:22I've seen them on the telly and they look great.
12:24And you can go up and down the Nile and I'm looking forward to that.
12:27That's it, because I love being on boats, you see.
12:29I love a boat, bobbing along, bobbing along. Great.
12:37Bradley is getting his wish,
12:39as he and Meredith cross the world's longest river
12:43to what was once ancient Egypt's greatest city
12:47and the final resting place of her rulers.
12:51We can imagine in ancient Egypt you would have boats zipping by from east to west,
12:56crossing this entire length of the river.
13:10In ancient Egypt, the Nile divided the land of the living in the east
13:16and the land of the dead in the west.
13:21So you would have the east bank, where the temples, everyone was living,
13:25everything was happening, and then you have the west bank,
13:28which is the area of the dead, the mortuary temples, the tombs.
13:31And is that where we're going?
13:33Yes, we're going to go see where the kings were buried.
13:36And there's still a lot more to be discovered.
13:42There's a lot to be discovered. Oh, no.
13:45Do you think I should...
13:47What about if we take a shovel over there?
13:49That would be a bad idea. Why?
13:51We can't do that. Yeah, we can.
13:53No, it's very illegal.
13:54What about if I find a piece of gold and just stick it under my hat?
13:58Oh, Meredith.
14:12Just two kilometres inland
14:14are two of the most extraordinary statues in ancient Egypt.
14:18The Colossi of Memnon,
14:20dedicated to Tut's grandfather Amenhotep III,
14:24tower over the landscape.
14:28Wow, wow, wow.
14:29It's quite a sight, huh?
14:31No, it really is.
14:36Amenhotep III built these marvels of engineering
14:40to immortalise himself, his mother, Queen Mutemwaye,
14:44and his wife, Queen Tai, carved at his feet.
14:48They depict the pharaoh himself in a seated position.
14:52Constructed in 1350 BCE,
14:56they've stood here for more than 3,300 years.
15:04Tut's grandfather wanted the giant sentinels
15:07to guard his mortuary shrine,
15:09the largest in the Land of the Dead.
15:12But though the statues have survived, the temple is long gone.
15:18All that way down there was the temple,
15:21and now...
15:23What? Just no more?
15:25He built this entire temple mostly out of mud brick.
15:29So the mud brick goes.
15:31Why build it out of mud? I don't see what's going on there.
15:34That is a really good question.
15:36Amenhotep III had a lot on his plate.
15:38He had constructions everywhere.
15:40But he loved statues.
15:42And in his temple, he had maybe 1,000 statues.
15:45Not all of them were this big.
15:47A bit like the terracotta army in China.
15:50I mean, it's that same kind of scale of statuary.
15:54So he put more energy in the statues than in the architecture.
16:00Weighing in at 700 to 1,000 tonnes each,
16:04ancient sculptors carved the 18-metre-tall statues from quartzite,
16:09a very dense and hard-to-work rock.
16:12These two were carved out of a single block of stone?
16:20Uh, I don't think so.
16:22But you can see, like, there's straight joins there on the shoulder.
16:26That isn't one single block. That is, like, another block.
16:29There was an earthquake in 27 BC that knocked a lot of this off.
16:33So a lot has been reconstructed and reassembled.
16:36You can see their faces are gone. Yeah.
16:38They would have originally had crowns.
16:40And what we're left with is these kind of mysterious statues.
16:46Each block was quarried from a site close to the pyramids at Giza
16:50and then transported 500 kilometres to Thebes by boat.
16:55Many archaeologists believe the ancient builders
16:58then dragged each 1,000-tonne statue two kilometres inland.
17:04Bradley, however, isn't convinced.
17:08Well, you see... OK.
17:10You see now, that's 50 double-decker buses.
17:14Now, 50 double-decker buses without the wheels.
17:17You're not pushing them. They're laid on their side.
17:20They're stacked, OK?
17:22Now we've got to get them down the river and drag them through here.
17:26You're not doing that. I mean, they did it.
17:29It's here. It was done.
17:31And I have a way to show you.
17:35Oh, I've got to see this. This better be good.
17:41Meredith is arranging a demonstration to show Bradley
17:45how the ancient Egyptians could have moved such giant blocks of stone.
17:50It's a theory experts developed after studying images on tomb walls
17:55that depict hundreds of men pulling vast statues on wooden sleds.
18:01Oh, brilliant!
18:04Ha-ha!
18:06Now then, Meredith, you've got something for me, haven't you?
18:09This is what the ancient Egyptians would have had to move these stones.
18:12You want to give it a try?
18:14Well, there's no chance. I mean, there's no chance.
18:17I mean, seriously. I mean, I'm very strong.
18:19I was the Watford and District champion.
18:21I was a strongman champion for under-12s.
18:23Oh, well, let's see if time has changed anything.
18:25Yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:26Yeah, well, that's not happening, is it?
18:28I have some guys that can help us. We've got some friends.
18:30Hello, hello.
18:31Hello, gentlemen. Just the two of you? Seriously?
18:33Well, let's try it. Let's just see. It's an experiment.
18:35OK, all right. Are you helping as well?
18:37OK, I'll help as well.
18:38All right, here we go, then. Right.
18:39Hey-da-whoop!
18:42Hey-da-whoop!
18:46Hey-da-whoop!
18:49OK, well, the old hey-da-whoop is...
18:51I've got to be honest with you. It's not working.
18:53No. OK, let's get more people.
18:55And always another hey-da-whoop.
18:57Hey-da-whoop!
18:59Oh, look, two inches.
19:01Hey-da-whoop!
19:03Oh, thank goodness the pyramid isn't 500 kilometres away.
19:05Hey-da-whoop!
19:07OK, I see the problem. OK, OK, so it works to some extent.
19:09I beg your pardon? To some extent.
19:11I mean, it moved. It moved.
19:13It moved? Well, I'm not being funny.
19:15It moved. I might be wrong, but that's about a metre.
19:17It's a bit slow.
19:19It's a bit slow. So we do have images
19:21where you have guys standing on top
19:23with huge things of water.
19:25To make it even more difficult.
19:27To make it even more hairier, stand on top.
19:29That's exactly what you want to be doing.
19:31So they're standing and they're holding jars
19:33and they're pouring liquid onto the ground
19:35to hopefully make it easier.
19:37OK.
19:39OK, boys, hey-a-whoop-a.
19:41Let's get it.
19:43Hey-da-whoop!
19:45Hey-da-whoop!
19:47Hey-da-whoop!
19:49Ooh, ooh, ooh.
19:51Ah, you see? Ooh.
19:53Add more water, add more water.
19:55All right. Oh, now we're talking, lads.
19:57Yeah, hey.
19:59Hey-da-whoop!
20:01I mean, this is a long old process.
20:03No wonder it took 27 years to build.
20:05I'm not being funny.
20:07I mean, it takes time.
20:09Yeah, seriously.
20:11Hey-da-whoop!
20:13OK, well, we've probably moved that
20:15in maybe, I don't know, three minutes.
20:17Remembering this is only probably a tonne and a quarter.
20:19Yeah.
20:21Those big ones were 50 tonnes.
20:23Yeah, and they moved giant statues too.
20:25It's not just blocks.
20:27So I've seen the Colosseum Memnon now
20:29and, you know, to see,
20:31to imagine those being moved
20:33in this method...
20:35It's a huge feat.
20:37Well, the statues have huge feet.
20:39That's the way it is.
20:41That's what the whole thing about having a big statue is.
20:43And a big nose.
20:45And the whole bit going with it. Everything's much larger.
20:47Hey-da-whoop!
20:53A few kilometres further inland
20:55is where the ancient Egyptians buried their pharaohs.
20:59So Bradley's next stop
21:01is the most famous cemetery in Egypt.
21:05It's really eerie.
21:07It's quite frightening, isn't it?
21:09The Valley of the Kings.
21:13The Valley of the Kings.
21:27Bradley Walsh's search
21:29for the secrets of Egypt's boy king
21:31has led him to a place
21:33the ancient Egyptians called
21:35the Necropolis of the Millions of Years of the Pharaoh.
21:39Today, it's known as
21:41the Valley of the Kings.
21:43It was here, in 1922,
21:45archaeologist Howard Carter
21:47made the greatest discovery of all.
21:51The tomb of Tutankhamun.
21:55I didn't realise
21:57that the pyramids
21:59were so far away from the Valley of the Kings.
22:01I actually didn't know that.
22:07I'm now seeing it on a map and going,
22:09OK, that's the journey I've got to make.
22:15I'm in. I'm now going to find
22:17underground tombs.
22:21And the thing I'd really like to see
22:23is an Egyptian mummy, a real one.
22:25I really would.
22:27I think that'd be cool.
22:31After the age of the pyramids,
22:33the ancient Egyptians
22:35began to bury their pharaohs
22:37in elaborate underground tombs.
22:41For more than 500 years,
22:43during the 18th, 19th
22:45and 20th dynasties,
22:47the Valley of the Kings
22:49was the royal burial ground.
22:51To date,
22:53archaeologists have unearthed
22:55more than 60 pharaohs' tombs.
22:59While most of them are situated in the main valley,
23:01a select few
23:03ended up here,
23:05in the Gorge.
23:07The Valley of the Kings
23:09is a place of death.
23:13It's a place that is
23:15packed with stories
23:17and intrigue
23:19and tales of murder
23:21and wicked acts.
23:27This is the New Kingdom tomb,
23:29about 1500 to 1000 BC.
23:31This is the time of Tutankhamun,
23:33it's the time of Ramses II,
23:35and instead of a pyramid,
23:37this is what they built.
23:39And so all this
23:41would have been completely covered
23:43back in the day?
23:45That's the idea. There's the door here,
23:47and then they could put covering in front of it,
23:49but they didn't want anyone to see it
23:51to know it to go in.
23:53So this is a completely opposite approach
23:55compared to the giant,
23:57huge pyramid that everyone can see.
23:59Because 1000 years before that,
24:01the pyramids were a beacon,
24:03come and rob me,
24:05now they're going to get hidden.
24:07Yeah?
24:09This tomb
24:11is extra special.
24:13Not only is it Bradley's first,
24:15it's also the tomb
24:17of someone he has already met,
24:19Tutankhamun's father,
24:21Akhenaten.
24:25It's really eerie.
24:27This is my first tomb,
24:29and it's full of kings.
24:31This is cool.
24:33And look at this, we've got special access.
24:35Yeah, just for you.
24:37You must be very famous over here.
24:39Okay.
24:41All right.
24:43And here we go.
24:45This is Akhenaten's tomb.
24:51Oh, dear, oh, dear.
24:53Well, I've got to say,
24:55you know what?
24:57Can I be honest?
24:59Be honest.
25:01I'm a bit underwhelmed.
25:03I'm impressed with the gate, the iron gate.
25:05He's played a blinder with that, to be fair.
25:07I just find it...
25:09I don't know what I expected to see.
25:11I don't know if I expected to see
25:13statues carved into the walls
25:15and ceiling stuff.
25:17I thought I was going to walk into, like,
25:19some grand hall, do you know?
25:21Akhenaten came here when he first became king.
25:23Right.
25:25And then stopped.
25:27And this is all because Akhenaten
25:29left this area and was never buried here.
25:31But the good news is
25:33this is where you're starting
25:35with the Valley of the Kings.
25:37Moving forward can only be more impressive.
25:39Oh, I see. This is it.
25:41This is like you doing,
25:43oh, this is all that stuff where you took me to see the beginning of the pyramids.
25:45And then we build up to the pyramids.
25:47I get it.
25:49I know, building up the expectation and excitement.
25:51There we go, some anticipation.
25:53So this is good, starting at square one,
25:55where are we going now?
25:57Just say to the camera where we're going next.
25:59Seriously, you say where to the camera
26:01where we're going next.
26:03That's it, lovely.
26:05That'll teach you.
26:07Oh, wait, hold on now.
26:09That's it.
26:11Help!
26:19Bradley's next stop
26:21is the Valley of the Heb,
26:23which is situated in the eastern branch
26:25of the Valley of the Kings.
26:31It should take them closer
26:33to the mystery of Tutankhamun's untimely death.
26:37Was it an accident?
26:39A fatal disease?
26:41Or was it murder?
26:45For those who believe that Tutankhamun was murdered,
26:47the most convincing evidence
26:49is that there seems to be a wound on his skull,
26:53evidence that he was basically bashed over the head.
26:57And one of the key suspects for this crime
26:59was Horemheb,
27:01one of his generals,
27:03a powerful and ambitious man.
27:05Hyah!
27:15Hyah!
27:17LAUGHTER
27:19LAUGHTER
27:21LAUGHTER
27:35Oh, wow!
27:37Look at this.
27:41Oh, the stars, like I saw on the roof at Dendera.
27:43Yeah, so they made the night sky
27:45in this entire tomb.
27:47Ooh, what's the deal with all this?
27:49This is a well,
27:51but there's no water there.
27:53It did two things. The first one, if there was a flash flood,
27:55it would catch all the water... Oh, right.
27:57..and prevent it from going into the barrel chamber. Right.
27:59And the other one is this was to prevent tomb robbery.
28:01Because we have to imagine, if we were in the ancient times,
28:03there would have been no wooden bridge like we're standing on here.
28:05No, of course.
28:07The wall paintings depict
28:09the pharaoh's journey into the afterlife,
28:11surrounded by the gods
28:13of the underworld.
28:15That guy right there, that's the king.
28:17That's the god of the underheb.
28:19So we have Isis, right there. Yeah.
28:21Let me guess who that is.
28:23Who is it?
28:25He's, um... Give me a clue, give me a clue.
28:27This guy's name was Osiris. He's the god of the underworld.
28:29Oh, that's it! That's it!
28:31That's it, Osiris.
28:33And behind him is the god Anubis,
28:35and he helps you get into the afterlife.
28:37Another one, Anubis, Osiris, Iris.
28:39I had an auntie Iris. You did? Yeah, lovely.
28:41But that's Isis, not Iris.
28:43Dating from around 1300 BCE,
28:45the vivid, colourful paint
28:47is more than 3,300 years old.
28:51Just to get your brush doing this,
28:53you're just really in touching distance.
28:553,300 years ago. Yeah.
28:57It's like, I'm that close to the guy
28:59who stood here and did this.
29:03With parts of the tomb left unfinished,
29:05it's possible to see
29:07exactly how the ancient artists worked.
29:11So look at this.
29:13Out of horizontal lines
29:15and vertical lines, they made registers.
29:19Ah, to keep it into perspective.
29:21And they would make them by dipping a rope
29:23into red paint,
29:25stretching them...
29:27Pinning each end, and then flicking.
29:29Yep.
29:31And it would land and leave the mark, like they do today.
29:33Exactly.
29:35Yeah, clever. And that's not all.
29:37These registers decided everything.
29:39You can see the top line, that was the size of their head.
29:41And then their shoulders were going to be at the second line.
29:43Mid-hip is third.
29:45And then right below the knee.
29:47So they could do these entire rows of figures
29:49and keep them in order.
29:51Yeah.
29:57Descending almost 30 metres underground,
29:59Horemheb's tomb
30:01stretches for nearly
30:03130 metres,
30:05one of the longest in the Valley of the Kings.
30:11I wonder, how long then would it have taken
30:13to carve all this out, do you think?
30:15Horemheb ruled for 14 years.
30:17Right.
30:19So he would have started this when he became king.
30:21And so it took them a long time
30:23just to carve everything out of the rock.
30:27Let me ask you this.
30:29Did Howard Carter find this?
30:31No.
30:33But Howard Carter was the first one
30:35to bring electricity to the Valley of the Kings.
30:37He did? Yeah.
30:39All these tombs were completely dark
30:41until Howard Carter came.
30:43Do you know what? He's a genius. He is.
30:45Howard Carter. Electricity.
30:49Perfect.
30:51Well done, Howard. Come on then.
30:53Ah!
30:55This is good.
30:57At the very bottom of the tomb
30:59is Horemheb's burial chamber,
31:01complete with his huge
31:03granite sarcophagus,
31:05into which he was entombed
31:07in 1292 BCE.
31:09That's impressive stuff, isn't it?
31:13Look at this. You can see inside.
31:19Would this have a gold sarcophagus
31:21and treasures buried with him?
31:23He would have been
31:25surrounded in
31:27different layers of linen,
31:29jewels. He would have had a gold mask.
31:31He would have had all of these things.
31:33Who's the dude with the wings?
31:35This is a lady. Her name is Selket.
31:37She helps with breathing.
31:39These are all gods and goddesses
31:41that are protecting the mummy
31:43magically so that he would come out
31:45of the tomb and be able
31:47to join the afterlife.
31:49And this entire tomb,
31:51like all the other tombs in the Valley of the Kings, was robbed.
31:55Don't listen to Meredith.
31:57There's a load of tombs left.
31:59That is not accurate.
32:01There are a load of tombs left.
32:03Not accurate.
32:05I'm starting a travel agency.
32:07Bring your shovel.
32:09Do not do that.
32:11Bridges beyond your wildest dreams.
32:15Horemheb was Tutankhamun's
32:17successor and possible murderer.
32:19While unproven,
32:21he clearly gained
32:23from Tut's untimely death.
32:25There's something almost
32:27Shakespearean about the life
32:29and the death of Tutankhamun.
32:33It's like a murderous tragedy
32:35that the Bard could have penned.
32:43Just one more stop
32:45for Bradley to meet
32:47the man who discovered Tut's tomb
32:49in 1922.
32:51I can't imagine he was like a laugh a minute.
32:53Before finally coming face to face
32:55with the boy king himself.
32:57Is this it?
32:59It's him.
33:03The discovery
33:05of King Tutankhamun's
33:07intact tomb
33:09in 1922
33:11triggered a worldwide
33:13frenzy for all things
33:15Egyptian.
33:17Dubbed Egyptomania,
33:19the man at its heart
33:21was British Egyptologist
33:23Howard Carter,
33:25who lived here,
33:27just a few minutes walk
33:29from the Valley of the Kings.
33:34Here we go.
33:38I used to go to school
33:40in a place called Francis Coombe's
33:42Secondary Modern.
33:44We had a religious teacher.
33:46Her name was Miss Altham.
33:48And one day she comes into the class
33:50and we're talking about ancient Egyptians.
33:52Then she tells us,
33:54straight out of the blue,
33:56that her great-great-great uncle
33:58was Howard Carter.
34:00That's it. That's my door open
34:03After you. After me?
34:08This house was built in 1910.
34:10Right, okay. By Howard Carter.
34:12This is the beautiful
34:14entranceway he has to the dome.
34:16Took a lot of influence from local architecture.
34:18Yeah. Right? So the heat is rising,
34:20it keeps everything cool. Right.
34:22There's no air conditioning, there's no nothing,
34:24so he's got to use architecture to help
34:26make a comfortable space.
34:28Can I go in there? Yeah.
34:30This is like the original
34:32kind of early 1900s kitchen.
34:34Right. This is one
34:36of my favourite rooms because it tells you
34:38so much about Howard Carter.
34:40All these paintings
34:42around are Howard Carter's work.
34:44Oh!
34:46He originally came to Egypt when he was just 17
34:48to be an artist for
34:50archaeological excavations.
34:52So he left Norfolk and he went
34:54to Egypt.
34:56Is that familiar to you?
34:58It is, it is. That's, um,
35:00that's, um, don't tell me,
35:02don't tell me, that's Karnak.
35:04It's Karnak.
35:06So he does these paintings of Karnak, paintings of the
35:08temples, and he does these beautiful
35:10paintings of the tombs. You can see this one
35:12over here next to you. Look at that.
35:14When Howard Carter
35:16first started working here, no one was taking photos.
35:18So if you were going to excavate and publish,
35:20you had to have a really beautiful drawing
35:22and an illustration. Sure.
35:24And he was very talented at this.
35:26That's what he really was.
35:28This is quite cool.
35:30Another of Carter's passions
35:32was photography.
35:34And at the rear of the property
35:36is his darkroom.
35:38It's like just...
35:40It's a whole different world.
35:42And these photos I really like so much
35:44because it shows you what archaeology was like.
35:46You would have had just teams
35:48of people. Oh, my God.
35:50Carrying baskets, moving everything.
35:52And literally like in a chain.
35:54To you, to you, to you.
35:56You don't think of that.
35:58And I mean hundreds of people. Hundreds.
36:00Imagine if you're
36:02part of the team from Akhenaten's
36:04tomb and you're right up the front
36:06with Howard Carter. You're right
36:08there. You're right there. You're like the foreman
36:10of what you're doing. And then you're
36:12pulling all these rocks away
36:14from Akhenaten's tomb
36:16and you pull the last rock away
36:18and you go, oh.
36:20Then down the line you're going,
36:22it's terrible. It's terrible.
36:24All the way down the line. Waste of time.
36:26Waste of time. Waste of time.
36:28What is this?
36:30This is Howard Carter's study.
36:32Aha.
36:34Carter began his search for Tut
36:36in 1914. But eight years
36:38later, having found nothing,
36:40his backers, led by George
36:42Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon,
36:44were on the point of pulling the plug.
36:46Lord Carnarvon was backing him for all this.
36:48But it got to the point where he was at the
36:50end of his money and he said, look, I don't want to fund it anymore.
36:52And Howard Carter was like, look, there's just one
36:54spot left that we need to find.
36:56Oh my God. If I don't find anything this season, I'm done.
36:58And then they started excavating.
37:00Bang. Cleared the dirt.
37:02And they found stairs.
37:04No. And then, boom, that was it.
37:06That was the tomb of Tutankhamun.
37:08Never,
37:10ever, ever
37:12give up. Right?
37:14That's the lesson. Tenacity.
37:16That's the word, isn't it? Yeah.
37:20The discovery
37:22of Tut's tomb made headlines
37:24around the world
37:26and kick-started a global
37:28craze for Egyptian reliquary
37:30and culture.
37:34Gold. The gods.
37:36Archaeology. Mystery. Maybe there's
37:38a curse. Like, there's just so much that came
37:40with that, that people were so excited.
37:44Unearthing the Boy King in 1922
37:46was the beginning
37:48of ancient Egypt's resurrection.
37:54Ever since,
37:56millions of tourists have flocked
37:58to marvel at the remains of one of the
38:00world's oldest and
38:02longest-lived civilisations.
38:06Carter put Egypt really
38:08on the map.
38:10It was Egypt this
38:12and Egypt that.
38:14This is where modern
38:16Egyptology, the Valley of the Kings,
38:18the whole resurgence of it...
38:22This is where it started.
38:26The tomb of Tutankhamun
38:28is visited by more than 1,000
38:30people every day.
38:34They come here to witness
38:36the final resting place
38:38of this world-famous boy
38:40who was just nine years old
38:42when he came to the throne
38:44of Egypt for only a decade.
38:48This is it.
38:50This is just history, isn't it? This is it.
38:52Do you want to go down? Yeah, we can go down.
38:54We have special access.
38:56This is great, isn't it?
38:58I know.
39:04Lift this off, and there he is.
39:06Yeah?
39:08I just can't get my head around it.
39:10I actually can't. I'm here
39:12and there he is.
39:14This is just amazing.
39:20And what I love
39:22when you stand here so close,
39:24you can see all the paint strokes.
39:26You can see the kind of human hand
39:28in making this tomb.
39:30It's stunning.
39:32It really is.
39:36Tutankhamun has shaped
39:38so much of our understanding of Ancient Egypt,
39:40our popular culture.
39:42When we think about what Ancient Egypt is,
39:44this place has defined it.
39:46Finally, Bradley gets to meet
39:48the boy king himself.
39:50Is this...? No.
39:52Is this really him? It's really him.
39:54No, it's not. Yeah.
39:56Dying at just 19,
39:58his mummified remains are nearly
40:003,500 years old.
40:02All right, you got it?
40:04One, two, three, four,
40:06five.
40:08Five foot, about
40:10four inches, he is.
40:12Have you been this close before? I have never been
40:14this close to Tutankhamun. You're kidding me. No.
40:16It's a...
40:18It's...
40:20It's 3,500 years across time
40:22and it's like...
40:24Unbelievable, isn't it?
40:26I know. It's the first time I've seen you at a loss for words.
40:28Well, it's just mad that
40:30I'm here, you know,
40:32and I'm face to face with him.
40:34Comes to the throne
40:36at 10 and dies
40:38at 19. The whole
40:40expectation of a nation on your shoulders.
40:42Just
40:44extraordinary stuff.
40:46It really is.
40:48And it's sort of sad he's on his own,
40:50you know? But this is what he wanted.
40:52He wanted to be buried in his tomb and
40:54exactly what he wanted for his afterlife.
40:56Yeah. And now the whole world has been
40:58saying his name, so he'll live forever.
41:00So it kind of has a happy ending.
41:02That's cool, yeah. I get that, yeah.
41:04Thanks, Meredith.
41:06This is great, mate. Seriously.
41:08This has been an unbelievable journey, mate.
41:10It truly has.
41:16The ancient Egyptian
41:18civilisation lasted
41:20for over three millennia.
41:22It was a period of astonishing
41:24advances in almost every
41:26walk of life.
41:28From medicine and literacy
41:30to engineering and construction.
41:32Pyramids,
41:34temples, tombs
41:36and numerous kings and queens.
41:38All woven into a
41:40rich and incredible tapestry.
41:42Which today
41:44captivates all who see it.
41:46Including
41:48Bradley.
41:50What can I say about Egypt? Because
41:52I came with such
41:54sort of expectations of finding out
41:56different truths about the whole myth
41:58of the pyramids and Egyptology, etc.
42:00But the most
42:02extraordinary bit for me
42:04was being right next
42:06to the boy king.
42:08I found that really moving.
42:103,500
42:12years old. And there he is.
42:14I'm sort of within six inches
42:16of him.
42:18There are people out there,
42:20sceptics, how the pyramids were built.
42:22You've got to come and see them.
42:24If you haven't seen them, whatever you read online,
42:26whatever you read in books,
42:28whether it was, I don't know,
42:30aliens or whatever it was,
42:32you've got to come and see it for yourself.
42:34It couldn't be more organic.
42:36It really couldn't. Everything is man-made.
42:42Definitely man-made.
42:46Or were they?
42:48Ta-da!
42:58Ta-da!
43:04Oh, thanks, Meredith.
43:06That's great.
43:08Thank you. Have I driven you mad?
43:10Completely.
43:12That's so cool.
43:14Good, I thought I might have done you.
43:16Ha-ha-ha!
43:26So you don't think the aliens built them, then?
43:28Nope.
43:40Just checking, only one last time.
43:42Just one last time.
43:46Ta-da!
43:48What about the little pyramid?
43:50That one? Yeah.
43:52Maybe.
43:54Ha-ha-ha!
43:56It wasn't the aliens.
43:58No.