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00:00Inside the pyramid of an ancient Egyptian king, a team of archaeologists is about to
00:16reveal a burial chamber that has never been excavated before.
00:21I am dreaming every day to the moment that I will start exploring the burial chamber
00:27and the time and this moment came.
00:33The roof has collapsed, burying valuable artifacts and possibly even killing tomb raiders from
00:39the ancient world.
00:44Now finally the time has come to unearth four and a half thousand years of history.
00:51It's a huge responsibility, I have to make sure that everybody is safe.
00:57But as they dig deeper into the pyramid, they must avoid being buried themselves.
01:27The ancient pyramids of Egypt.
01:31For over four thousand years, these iconic royal tombs have captivated humankind with
01:37their majesty and mystique.
01:41Today, more than a hundred survive, spanning over a thousand years of pyramid-building
01:47history.
01:50Almost all of them have been explored by archaeologists and found robbed of the king's mummy and treasures.
01:58But seven miles south of the famous pyramids of Giza, lies a smaller, lesser-known pyramid
02:06that has never been fully explored.
02:13Good morning everyone, shall we start?
02:20In Abu Sir, Egyptian archaeologist Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled and his team are about to begin
02:27a remarkable new season of excavations.
02:32They are preparing to enter an unexplored burial chamber inside the pyramid of a king
02:37named Sahuray.
02:40What lies inside is a complete mystery.
02:43I'm very excited to be back, I can't wait to start getting inside the pyramid and starting
02:49our exploration.
02:52Since I was a child, I liked history, I liked the names, I liked the life.
02:57Five thousand years, people were living here in the same places that we live right now
03:03in Egypt and to study their life, it's really a big dream.
03:11When complete, the pyramid of Sahuray would have been a shining edifice of white limestone,
03:20with the king's mummy entombed within a central burial chamber.
03:26But when early archaeologists first investigated the site, they discovered masses of rubble
03:31inside, collapsed from the pyramid above.
03:36This prevented a full excavation.
03:40Now nearly 200 years later, Mohamed has an incredible opportunity.
03:47Our mission is to excavate the burial chamber and to be the first.
03:53Many Egyptologists tried before you to enter into this place, but they couldn't.
03:59I cannot express how you feel that you are the first one after many, many years.
04:06If we will find part of his sarcophagus or even part of his mummy, this will be the
04:11best moment in my life.
04:13I dreamed of this.
04:19Deep in the heart of the pyramid, Mohamed's excavations have already revealed the structure
04:25of eight new storerooms called magazines, looted of treasures by ancient thieves.
04:33Opposite lies Mohamed's ultimate goal, a large vaulted room that should be Sahuray's burial chamber.
04:42Today, the massive ceiling beams are broken, and rocks from the pyramid fill the room up
04:49to eight meters high, the remnants of a mysterious and catastrophic collapse.
05:03Last season, Mohamed started to clear rubble at the entrance to the burial chamber.
05:09He found small fragments of dark basalt, pieces of the king's sarcophagus, and an un-mummified
05:16human jawbone that could be from an ancient tomb raider who was buried alive.
05:25Now Mohamed and his team are back to find out what really caused this pyramid to collapse
05:32and if tomb raiders really were buried, could royal treasure still be hidden inside?
05:45Their first job is a dangerous one. They must secure a precarious ceiling beam that covers
05:51the entrance to the burial chamber.
05:54We have a stone beam nine meters high that has a lot of cracks. It's of course a big
05:59problem because behind this beam it's a lot of huge blocks. If we did not support
06:05the beam, huge blocks from the core of the pyramid will fall down and it will be a big
06:09disaster and a big collapse.
06:15Ahmed Abdenabi is responsible for the safety of the pyramid structure. Climbing high above
06:22the chamber floor, he reaches the cracked limestone beam.
06:27It's very dangerous. In this place I prefer to be alone. Just one guy helping me. We have
06:35to have a little fear, just a little, to be successful.
06:41To secure the structure of the beam, Ahmed fixes a network of metal anchor rods inside
06:47the limestone and then injects it with an epoxy resin. This should stop any cracks from
06:53getting larger and breaking off, but he'll need to finish over 20 before it's completely
06:59secure.
07:00Anchor by anchor, the safety will increase.
07:06As the repair work continues, Mohammed and the team prepare the rest of the burial chamber
07:11for excavation. If they succeed, their discoveries will add a new chapter to the history of King
07:18Sahuray, his life and reign.
07:25Only 32 years after the colossal pyramids at Giza are complete, Sahuray becomes king.
07:35He builds up Egypt's navy, sending trade missions to foreign lands for exotic goods like frankincense
07:42and myrrh, and constructs temples across the country to grow the economy and be worshipped
07:50as a god.
07:53At Abu Sir, his 150-foot pyramid was the vehicle to take Sahuray into the afterlife. It was
08:01meant to last forever.
08:09Up above the burial chamber, the stone beam is now secure.
08:17We are now standing at the beginning of the burial chamber, and we hope that it extends
08:22up to 7 meters or more, 7 meters and a half, until we reach the end of the burial chamber.
08:30Several large stone blocks are precariously perched on top of a 4-meter mound of rubble.
08:37The only way forward into the chamber is to bring them down.
08:41Then we will start to take the debris down until we bring the small blocks first, and
08:47then this large one in the middle.
08:50Of course, in every single moment inside the pyramid it's very risky, but we try very hard
08:57to make sure to make the situation as safe as we could.
09:05Led by the excavation foreman, known as the rice, the team start clearing piles of pyramid debris.
09:16My rice and all the people and his team, they have got this experience from their fathers,
09:21and their father got it from their fathers and grandfathers, so it's an inherited experience.
09:26Of course, you cannot learn this in university or anything.
09:32Ismail is one of the most experienced workers that I have ever seen in my life.
09:38He has no fear, and also he has got a very, very quick reaction.
09:47Quick reactions are critical. One wrong move could spell disaster.
10:01Is it safe to come out now?
10:06Yes, yes, yes. Yes, it's very safe.
10:11The team begins to clear the debris.
10:15Almost immediately, Mohamed finds a tantalizing piece of stone buried in the rubble.
10:23So we have a piece from the basalt sarcophagus, and this is, it gives us really good indication
10:31that we are on the right way and we are going towards the burial chamber and the sarcophagus of the king.
10:42On the other side of the pyramid, Mohamed checks the team's progress restoring the newly discovered storerooms.
10:50Parts of the chamber walls are missing or destroyed,
10:55and these gaps offer a rare chance to see how the inside of Saharay's pyramid was built.
11:02We have a very unique part because we have seen the inner walls of the north side of the pyramid,
11:09as well as a very clear part of the bedrock.
11:14See how large is the stones above the bedrock?
11:18And then they start to use smaller blocks.
11:21They come above each other, but the first one is the largest.
11:26As well as understanding the pyramid's internal structure,
11:30Mohamed believes clearing away the tons of rubble will give an insight into why it collapsed.
11:37Here we have collected all the white limestone that we found during our exploration.
11:44And what's really interesting is that we found very smooth surface, and this all comes from original walls.
11:53The smooth limestone fragments from the original walls seem to have been destroyed intentionally.
12:00Mohamed thinks it's the work of robbers.
12:03Our theory is that a lot of destruction, intentional destruction, happened inside the pyramid.
12:09Either they reused the white fine limestone, or they were searching for treasures.
12:15Without knowing, without studying the things, they start to cut the walls, and the stability of the pyramid became very weak.
12:26Mohamed's excavations have revealed the builders of Saharay's pyramid dug a three-meter pit straight into the bedrock of the site,
12:34and reinforced it with local stone blocks, before cutting a deeper outline for the pyramid's internal chambers.
12:44Thick white limestone walls, ceilings, and monolithic gabled beams are added,
12:51holding the weight of 200,000 blocks from the pyramid above.
12:56Mohamed thinks damage to the white limestone walls by tomb robbers was instrumental in causing the pyramid's collapse.
13:10Two miles south of Abusir, in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara,
13:16Egyptologist Dr. Meredith Brand has come to explore the pyramid of Saharay's father, King Usakaf.
13:24Similar in size and structure to Saharay's, she hopes to reveal more clues about how these pyramids were built,
13:32to understand why Saharay's may have collapsed.
13:36It's actually pretty impressive. From a distance it kind of just looks like a hill,
13:40but when I get up close I can see all of these local limestone blocks that were used to be the core, the fill of this pyramid.
13:48Like Saharay's, the local stone blocks have suffered from heavy weathering,
13:53but originally a stronger limestone would have encased the outside.
13:57This is Dura limestone. It's fine and white and bright.
14:01And it would have made really valuable loot to people in Egypt.
14:05You could use this ready-made stone to build buildings.
14:12Heading inside, unlike Saharay's pyramid, Meredith finds the colossal stonework intact.
14:19It's nice to see that these walls are finished the way that they would have been in Usakaf's time.
14:25It's beautiful.
14:28Along the corridor, Meredith spots a huge slab of solid granite, meant to defend the pyramid from looters.
14:35In the corner, a hole has been chiseled away.
14:39Oh, this is really incredible. This is where the looters must have come in from.
14:45It's clear Usakaf's pyramid was compromised by robbers.
14:50But most of the structure is still standing.
14:53Meredith searches to find out why.
14:59Inside the pyramid's storerooms, she finds more remnants of the fine limestone walls.
15:06This is the foundation limestone for the wall.
15:10And so this would have gone from here all the way up to create a smooth surface.
15:17Like Saharay's pyramid, lots of the wall is missing.
15:22But instead of revealing blocks from the pyramid above, it has exposed a roughly hewn chamber tunneled directly into the ground.
15:31This entire space is carved out of the bedrock here in Saqqara.
15:36So it's secure, it's stable.
15:38And the robbers knew that they could take the limestone blocks from this area and it wasn't going to collapse.
15:45The broken and stolen limestone walls may not have caused a collapse here.
15:50But what about the rest of the pyramid?
15:52Back in the pyramid of King Saharay, Mohamed and the team start to make some intriguing finds.
16:22Canopic jars were used to hold the internal organs of the mummified king.
16:28For Mohamed, the discovery is bittersweet.
16:32If you find some alabaster pieces here, that means most of the alabaster and canopic jars of King Saharay has been completely destroyed.
16:41It's disappointing news for me.
16:44But it's also very interesting to see even part of the canopic jars and to see how it's really smooth and beautifully done.
16:54It's perfect. So no inscription.
16:57So hopefully we'll find more pieces that could give us more information and more clues.
17:08Soon, even more pottery emerges from the rubble.
17:11But this time, it appears more recent, perhaps something the tomb raiders left behind.
17:18It's a lower part of a pottery vessel and it has still remains of burning.
17:25So maybe they use it as an oil lamp.
17:30It's an important find. An oil lamp is the first direct evidence of the robbers working inside the burial chamber.
17:38The question is, when does it date from?
17:43And were these robbers responsible for the pyramid's collapse?
17:56In Saqqara, Meredith is exploring the pyramid of Saharay's father, Usaqaf.
18:03Deep inside the pyramid's dark corridors, she reaches an opening.
18:09Oh, wow.
18:16This is beautiful.
18:22This is it. This is the burial chamber.
18:26The room's huge gabled ceiling is intact, revealing a marvel of ancient engineering.
18:34It's a close match to what Saharay's burial chamber would have looked like.
18:39Structurally, this is the smartest thing for the ancient Egyptians to do.
18:43They wanted to have the entire weight of the pyramid above this chamber.
18:47And where I'm standing, I should be smack in the middle of it.
18:50This is interesting. There's a hole here in the back of the burial chamber.
18:55So this is probably from looters trying to see if there's anything else they could tunnel through and maybe find more gold or jewels or precious items.
19:07It seems tomb robbers have been busy chiseling away the walls.
19:12Parts of the interior of the pyramid have been torn down.
19:15It seems tomb robbers have been busy chiseling away the walls.
19:19Parts of the original floor are also missing.
19:23So down here is the bedrock. This is the bottom of the pit that the ancient builders dug in order to create the space for these rooms.
19:33So it looks like the ancient thieves came and just dug up this entire area, probably both looking for stone to loot and to see if there's any hidden treasures below.
19:46All over the pyramid, tomb raiders have left their mark.
19:52But one incredible treasure still remains.
19:56This looks to be the basalt sarcophagus lid that would have housed the mummy of Ussurkov.
20:05So this is the actual lid of his sarcophagus. We only have a fragment.
20:08This is where the king would have been buried.
20:12While the rest of his sarcophagus may have been stolen, for Saharay's father, the structure and spirit of his burial chamber has lasted for over 4,400 years.
20:25To feel the solemnness and sacredness of this space, it's quite moving.
20:32Back at the Pyramid of Saharay, the team has discovered even more artifacts the tomb raiders left behind.
20:40Muhammad takes them to be examined.
20:43He wants to know when they date from, so he can piece together the pyramid's history.
20:49We have found three oil lamps from the burial chamber.
20:53Dr. Reham Zaki is in charge of documenting the finds at the site.
20:58This is nice. So we have our robbers, you know.
21:05When you read about treasure hunting or tomb raiders in the past, and you ask in your mind how this information comes from,
21:13what is the evidence of this? So these are the evidence.
21:17It is an oil lamp, I think from medieval times, maybe the 13th century.
21:22You know, based on the features, like the handle and the shape of the body, and also the glaze, the color and technique,
21:30all of us have information about which time the oil lamp was used.
21:34The lamps appear to be around 700 years old, from the Ottoman era.
21:39Over a thousand years after even the last pharaohs of Egypt.
21:43These items are quite rare, because, you know, we always read in references and books that we are tomb raiders or treasure hunters.
21:51And we saw the evidence inside.
21:54So, you know, it's quite rare.
21:57The remarkable collection of oil lamps indicates a whole team of robbers inside the pyramid.
22:03And there's even evidence of their tools of the trade.
22:07We have this hammer, and we have this chisel.
22:10And actually, as modern times, they use this, and use this to…
22:15…to…
22:17…to…
22:19…to…
22:21…to…
22:23…to…
22:24…and use this to…
22:26…bush, to knock it.
22:28Like this.
22:30So these together, fitting perfectly with each other, you know, by knocking them, the hole is perfectly matched.
22:37And they use it inside the pyramid.
22:40So we have the whole context here. We have the lamps, and we have the robbing tool.
22:51Back inside the pyramid.
22:54So it's very good news.
22:56We have reached the original floor of the burial chamber.
23:00We have to be very careful.
23:02We have to use only the brush just to see any mortar or any traces that left by ancient Egyptians.
23:10I'm very happy every time when I see any original wall or floor inside the pyramid.
23:17The white limestone floor is intact.
23:20But so far, the only evidence of the original walls are small broken fragments.
23:26We found also another smooth limestone surface that comes from the retaining walls of the burial chamber.
23:35That means that the retaining walls of the burial chamber in this area was broken in several pieces.
23:42Once again, Mohamed thinks it's the work of tomb robbers.
23:47They were searching for some treasures, and that's why they cut here.
23:56Discoveries of oil lamps, stone cutting tools, and intentionally damaged walls mean evidence is growing that tomb raiders were responsible for the pyramid collapse.
24:08So could evidence of the king still be buried inside?
24:16Oh!
24:28Mohamed's team has spotted hints of a large slab of basalt stone inside the ancient pyramid.
24:40It extends towards the burial chamber.
24:43So what we are going to do now is just to clean this area around in order to see how far this large piece goes.
24:56I don't know how large it is, but it seems to be a very large piece.
25:01It's getting more exciting!
25:05The team add a gypsum mortar to stabilize the loose debris and continue to dig.
25:13What emerges seems to be part of King Sahuray's sarcophagus lid.
25:21It's almost 130, one meter and 30 centimeters.
25:26It's the largest piece that's ever been discovered in this burial chamber of King Sahuray.
25:34I can't believe my eyes!
25:35Definitely it's the lid.
25:38Because here we have another piece.
25:41It's the corner.
25:43It's a very smooth surface here.
25:46I cannot express my feeling now.
25:49I need to know more and more.
25:52And I'm calming myself a little bit because I need to flip it on the other side to see the smooth surface.
26:00Maybe we could find some written inscription on it. Maybe not. We will see.
26:07With the lid lying upside down, Mohamed examines underneath.
26:12Wow! It's perfect.
26:17It seems bare, but he spots something unexpected attached.
26:23They are actually ropes.
26:26So those are the ropes that they would use to pull the lid.
26:31You see them?
26:33This is ancient ropes, maybe 700 years old.
26:38And they were using them in order to take this lid out.
26:43Wow!
26:48The ropes are an extraordinary clue.
26:50Either the tomb raiders gave up dragging the lid,
26:54or something else stopped them from leaving with their loot.
26:58Oh, yes.
27:01Perhaps even a fatal accident.
27:04Another part of a jaw.
27:06A small one under the lid of the sarcophagus.
27:10It's amazing.
27:12Maybe the people when they were doing this work, something happened and they were buried just waiting for us.
27:20To discover the lid and the tomb raider.
27:26It's an incredible discovery for Mohamed and the team.
27:30Not only have they revealed a royal sarcophagus lid, the first in Abu Sir,
27:35but they have stumbled across an ancient crime scene where tomb raiders may have been killed by the pyramid they were looting.
27:44The team will keep digging for more evidence to why it collapsed.
27:47Mohamed hopes it will lead him to the king.
27:51This is definitely the biggest thing until now that we found here during our exploration inside the Pyramid of Sahuray.
28:01And we hope we will find the sarcophagus.
28:17Less than a mile away from the pyramid are the scattered ruins of a huge structure built by Sahuray's nephew.
28:26According to ancient records, Sahuray and his successors each built temples like this one separate from their pyramids.
28:35But mysteriously, Sahuray's has never been found.
28:40Meredith Brand has come to investigate what these buildings were for.
28:45Among the ruins, she finds a gigantic alabaster offering table.
28:51Oh, this is absolutely stunning. I love this.
28:56It's a beautiful piece of stone and craftsmanship.
29:00This is well over 4,000 years old, but its shape is a bit strange for ancient Egypt.
29:07Each side, there's four corners of it that have the ancient Egyptian symbol Hetep for offering.
29:15And that's usually what's on an offering table, but this one has something special in the four of them.
29:19But even more so, in the center is a giant circle in the shape of the sun.
29:24The design of this tells us exactly what's going on here.
29:27It tells us that this is the place where ancient Egyptian priests would have left the offerings for the sun god to consume.
29:37In addition to their pyramids, Sahuray and other Fifth Dynasty kings built dedicated sun temples to amplify the importance of the sun god Ra.
29:49As well as for religious purposes, sun temples functioned as economic institutions endowed with land and wealth.
29:58Each day, worshippers presented offerings of meat and beer at the temple's altar.
30:04After Ra consumed the food's spirit, it was redistributed like a tax to serve the needs of other temples across Abusir.
30:15An ancient papyrus that dates to around a hundred years after Sahuray's reign reveals the economic importance of these temples.
30:24This here is an accounting record. It's basically like a spreadsheet.
30:27And at the top, it says where goods are coming from.
30:31And then underneath it, it says the type of good.
30:34And then the vertical columns are days of the week.
30:38And here we've got some key things.
30:40We've got two rows that talk about bread.
30:43And we have this third row that says heneket, that's the word for beer.
30:47So these are crucial material goods, offerings, but also they were basically money for the ancient Egyptians.
30:54So in terms of jars of beer, this upside down V, that's the number 10.
30:59So each day, there were 10 jars of beer being sent from here just to one location.
31:06And that's only one of the transactions that happened here every single day.
31:10So having this place be a depot center that took in money and then sent it back out again to other places meant that this was an economic hub.
31:25Sun temples not only provided jobs for high status elites, but a new way for the country to distribute goods and wealth.
31:33The shift towards building separate sun temples instead of the colossal single pyramid projects like those at Giza
31:41marks a revolutionary step for the religion and economy of ancient Egypt.
31:46Fifth dynasty kings like Sahuray were part of a new emphasis on the sun Ra, where the sun was the most important god.
31:56And temples like this attest to this change in religion, change in belief, and also the idea that temples are a key part of the economy.
32:07They're a key focus of art and beauty as well.
32:11And that carries on for the rest of ancient Egypt.
32:14And yet, the whereabouts of Sahuray's own sun temple is still unknown.
32:20Sahuray must have built a sun temple. We know of it because of the Abbasid papyrus.
32:26But we've never found the actual temple. It's one of those mysteries.
32:31Could clues to its location lie beneath the rubble inside Sahuray's pyramid?
32:36Back in the burial chamber, the team finish surveying and documenting the precious sarcophagus lid.
32:44As they prepare to flip it over, their anticipation is growing.
32:49We are not sure if it will be some line of hieroglyphic inscription or not. We will see right now.
33:07The body of the lid and the smooth surface is in a good condition. No inscription, nothing.
33:28There are no clues inscribed in the stone of Sahuray's sarcophagus lid.
33:32But Mohamed finds an unusual hole.
33:36Maybe the tomb raiders cut it in order to move it above the sarcophagus, just to move the lid a little bit.
33:47As the team move the lid safely into storage, Mohamed returns to see if more fragments of sarcophagus are buried underneath.
33:56So here there are more pieces from the basalt lid, as well as the robe.
34:05And not that they were using in order to pull the lid out.
34:10There are more basalt pieces here, so maybe we could find the rest of the lid here down, but we have to clean this area.
34:19The team carefully clear away the rubble.
34:23But it's not more of the lid that they find.
34:31Oh, we found here also another piece of a skull, human skull.
34:37It seems to be part of an ill-fated tomb raider.
34:41Together, the ancient ropes, the chiseled out walls, the Ottoman-era oil lamps, and now the remains of a tomb raider crushed by the pyramid.
34:52Evidence is mounting to explain how the burial chamber collapsed.
34:57I believe that they were everywhere here inside the pyramid, just searching for treasures and destroying all the inner walls.
35:06And that's why the destruction happened.
35:09Despite myths of booby-trapped pyramids, the evidence reveals a long history of looting that eventually led to this pyramid's demise.
35:20Mohamed thinks robbers first stole from the pyramid during a period of widespread looting around 3,000 years ago.
35:27While inside the burial chamber, thieves likely displaced the king's sarcophagus lid to hunt for jewelry and amulets.
35:36Later, around 700 years ago, evidence shows Ottoman stone thieves chiseled away the limestone walls, searching for more hidden treasure.
35:46But their efforts weakened the structure, and while dragging away the remains of the pyramid, they were forced to dig deeper.
35:55And while dragging away the sarcophagus lid, at least one robber was killed by a catastrophic collapse.
36:06The excavations have revealed the pyramid's remarkable history.
36:11Now Mohamed is more determined than ever to reach the back of the burial chamber, where the rest of the sarcophagus could still be in its original place.
36:22We found many basalt parts. We believe that all of them come from the lid, nothing from the sarcophagus.
36:29That's why we believe that the sarcophagus is still intact because it's still far away, up to six meters to reach the sarcophagus.
36:37I'm very excited. You cannot imagine.
36:52For two weeks, the team continues to clear rubble and go even deeper into the burial chamber.
36:59They build a new temporary wall to shore up the sides, and a column to support the next gigantic limestone ceiling beam.
37:08But there's a problem.
37:11Yesterday I was really disappointed because we found out that this beam is totally broken from the edge.
37:17Now we have to change completely our plan because it's dangerous to leave the beam almost in the middle of the burial chamber.
37:28The broken ceiling beam is only supported by the rubble beneath and their temporary column to the side.
37:35If they excavate, any movement could bring down tons of stone debris from above.
37:41To make the pyramid safe again, the team will need to build another supporting pillar to help prop up the broken beam.
37:50It's a huge setback, and time is against them.
37:54We have only just two weeks ahead of us, and of course this delay, our plans, I'm worried.
38:01We hope that we will be able to make it. I hope so.
38:04If Mohamed can't secure the beam before the season ends, the burial chamber could be at risk of collapse, and the king's sarcophagus never found.
38:23With the season coming to a close, Mohamed calls in a specialist scanning team to map the internal structure of the pyramid.
38:33Creating a 3D model will reveal the team's incredible progress during the excavation, and help them work out how far could be left to go.
38:43In charge of the operation is Abderrahman Abbas.
38:48Understanding the spaces of any archaeological site helps the archaeologists understanding the engineering,
38:53so they can study what is this construction in the past, and analyze what tools have been used to build such great buildings.
39:06With the latest laser mapping technology, the team can produce a 3D model with millimeter precision in a matter of minutes.
39:15The scanner emits about 40,000 points per second, so every second we record thousands of points.
39:23Traditional scanners maybe will scan this area in five days, but with handheld scanners as we use today, as you see, it will take only six minutes.
39:36The results are breathtaking.
39:41Wow, it's fantastic.
39:44It's really wonderful.
39:47The scans reveal the pyramid's corridors, eight fully cleared storeroom magazines…
39:54It's crazy.
39:56…and the partially excavated burial chamber in unprecedented detail.
40:01This is the first time that we see the complete plan of the magazine, the complete structure is like this. It's perfect.
40:09This will help us very, very much in order to get the real and precise measurements, as well as also the new outline of the pyramid from inside.
40:23Wow.
40:25Science fiction.
40:28The scans show the team has advanced four meters into the center of Saharay's burial chamber.
40:34Based on the size of the magazines and the symmetry the pyramid builders used to construct them, Mohamed thinks there are still four more meters left to go.
40:50Back inside the burial chamber, the team is flat out.
40:55They have almost completed the new supporting pillar needed to safely continue the excavations.
41:01But time is running out.
41:05With only one day left, and hopes waning that they can make more progress into the burial chamber, Mohamed calls an end to the season's work.
41:16The pyramid is not ready to give up all of its secrets just yet.
41:22If you work in Egyptology, you may find good surprise or bad surprise.
41:29We have to stop because this is the end of our season, but of course I can't wait to come back again to find the sarcophagus and to reach the end of the burial chamber.
41:42With almost all of the internal structure now exposed, the discovery of the king's sarcophagus lid, and an audacious tomb raiding plot, Mohamed's excavations are bringing the mysteries of King Saharay and his forgotten pyramid back to life once again.
42:01In its prime, Saharay's pyramid complex would have been the epicenter of the Egyptian economy and religion.
42:10On the banks of the Nile, priests would have disembarked, with offerings collected from his sun temple and beyond, and walked along the pyramid's causeway to its mortuary temple for worship of the king.
42:25While today the pyramid's splendor has been lost to robbers and ruin, until Mohamed is finished, there remains a chance that Saharay himself is still buried inside.
42:44Mohamed's mission isn't over yet.
42:48When I come to Saharay pyramid complex, I feel that I'm home, I feel that I'm attached to this king, and in return I have really a great belief that also this king supports me somehow.
43:00That's why I don't stop, I go every time because it gives more and more new information, it changes more and more our history.
43:10I go every time because it gives more and more new information, it changes more and more our history.