National Geographic - Tales from the Tomb 2of4 Harem Conspiracy
Transcript
00:00He was the last of Egypt's great pharaohs, a warrior, a master strategist, and then one
00:17night, King Ramses III met his match.
00:27In the place he expected it least.
00:30Now, 3,000 years later, an archaeologist turned detective is cranking up the heat in a new
00:39investigation.
00:40She's sorting through tales of sex, poison, and treason, and will lift the veil on the
00:49death of Ramses III.
00:52Was it natural causes, an accident, or murder?
01:111153 B.C., ancient Egypt.
01:17Ramses III arrives at his palace in Thebes for a huge celebration.
01:22He's led Egypt for 30 years, and he's showing signs of wear and tear.
01:27This 20-day festival is designed to rejuvenate the aging pharaoh's vitality.
01:34Dozens of harem wives kick off the celebration inside the Medinet Habu Palace.
01:44But there's a dark side to the festivities.
01:49A minor queen is up to no good, Queen Tiye, a trusted wife of Ramses for many years.
02:02Her records point to her as a murder suspect, and she's got a motive.
02:15Tiye's rival, Queen Isis, is Ramses' chief wife.
02:20So her son stands ready to inherit the throne.
02:30Queen Tiye wants her own son, Pentaware, to be the next pharaoh, and like most ambitious
02:35mothers, she'll do just about anything to help her son, even stage a coup.
02:51Night falls, Ramses arrives, and the palace comes alive.
03:04Queen Tiye and her cohorts have waited patiently.
03:08It's time to set their plan in motion.
03:12There's no turning back.
03:15What happens next will change history.
03:21Susan Redford, a distinguished Egyptologist, wants to figure out exactly what did happen
03:26that night.
03:28But it won't be easy.
03:31There's no single account, and lots of conflicting information.
03:37Ramses was a bundle of contradictions.
03:42He was a giant in battle, who crushed Egypt's invaders.
03:49Yet he never suspected that his most dangerous enemies were right at his side.
03:59He was a powerful and charismatic leader, but as the last of the great pharaohs, even
04:05he couldn't save Egypt.
04:10Redford's investigation turns up the unmistakable signs of a crumbling empire.
04:17Ramses' Egypt had tumbled into economic decline.
04:21In the streets, his people were starving.
04:27The pharaoh lived in glorious extravagance, with magnificent palaces and countless servants.
04:35No one could have imagined this disaster 100 years earlier, during Egypt's golden
04:40years.
04:41The craftsmen and laborers who built the dazzling royal tombs and temples were rewarded with
04:49generous salaries and decent living conditions.
04:58But under Ramses' watch, the kingdom weakens and goes broke.
05:04Egypt loses access to key trading routes and essential materials, like iron.
05:10Without the raw materials, they can't compete.
05:15Money dries up, and the government stops paying workers for their services.
05:21With no food or supplies, a middle class that once lived comfortably now must get by on
05:28scraps.
05:33An ancient text documents one worker's plea.
05:39We are extremely destitute.
05:41Truly, we are already dying.
05:54Many believe Ramses either doesn't know or doesn't care about their misery.
06:00But Queen Tiye does know, and plots to use the growing hostility to her advantage.
06:09As evening heats up and the pharaoh winds down, Queen Tiye's allies, both in and out
06:16of the palace, set their plan in motion and begin to close in on Ramses.
06:2821st century Egypt, the Cairo Museum.
06:34The final stop for Ramses III, Egypt's last great pharaoh.
06:45Susan Redford has been investigating Ramses' death for years, but she's never been face
06:50to face with a 3,000-year-old king.
06:54She finally has the chance for an autopsy, of sorts.
07:00And she's brought along one of the world's leading mummy experts, Dr. Salima Ikram, to
07:05help her read the mummy.
07:08It's absolutely astounding to me to actually look into the face of Ramses III.
07:17Marvelous.
07:19Beautifully preserved.
07:21And I'm curious as to how his being so tightly wrapped, how we can tell that he was quite
07:27an obese man.
07:28I expect to see some folds of skin.
07:32Even after 3,000 years, Salima can tell that Ramses lived luxuriously.
07:37Well, no, I don't really see any folds of skin.
07:42He's a little bit jowly.
07:43And if you look at his face, his bones look quite broad, and he does look a little bit
07:49plumper than the other people that, if you look at 18th dynasty royal mummies, or 19th
07:55dynasty, they're much sparer.
07:57Exactly.
07:58And maybe possibility of a double chin here.
08:00Yeah, it could be that that's why it's been pushed out.
08:03Kind of cracked a little bit.
08:05Yeah, he doesn't look what I would call svelte by any stretch of the imagination.
08:10The pharaoh's body does look like Ramses had a few more feasts than the one that fateful
08:15night.
08:16History tells us he lived well.
08:19Figuring out how he died is another story.
08:24Susan has established motive in this investigation, a queen's ambition for her son.
08:30Now she's looking for opportunity, how to kill a king and not get caught.
08:49For a closer look, Susan goes to Thebes and the scene of the crime.
08:56Thebes Temple, Medinet Habu.
09:02This massive complex of stone and mud brick was known as the Mansion of Millions of Years.
09:10The defensive wall that surrounds the temple is 10 meters, nearly 40 feet thick, and the
09:17ornate buildings house 75,000 square feet of decorated surfaces.
09:23This is the eastern high gate and the main entry into the temple compound, and there
09:29right above are the harem apartments, a very extensive living quarters of the harem women,
09:37and the place where the king dallied with his women, and I think the place where the
09:43coup and the conspiracy and the assault on the king actually took place.
09:51Thebes had palaces throughout Egypt, each with its own harem.
09:56The main function of the harem was, of course, the entertainment and pleasure of the king.
10:02These were royal palaces.
10:13In ancient Egypt, the word harem meant secluded ones, but it could also mean prison.
10:23And that's just what it was.
10:28The pharaoh's wives and concubines were considered his property.
10:33They lived under a 24-hour lockdown and had virtually no contact with the outside world.
10:42You really get a sense of how isolated the women are just by the architecture of the
10:47complex itself.
10:49It's far removed from the king's palace and the temple.
11:00The women who lived here developed great skills as weavers, entertainers, and companions.
11:07So there was definitely a whole economy that revolved around these harem palaces.
11:16They were thriving estates, and they were quite productive in terms of producing linen
11:23and garments.
11:27But their most important job, to encourage the king's sexual desire and guarantee a healthy
11:33bloodline, so the dynasty continued.
11:41The majority of the harem women had sexual responsibilities to the king.
11:49The king was called the great bull, the great procreator.
11:53Many pharaohs had a great number of offspring, many by these women of the harem.
12:01Because children often died in infancy, having many offspring increased the odds that a
12:06king would have a healthy heir.
12:12One famous pharaoh fathered more than a hundred children.
12:17Having many children helped the line of succession, but created fierce sibling rivalries.
12:24The pharaoh's many wives all lived in luxury.
12:29They wore the finest linens and jewelry.
12:35They bathed in expensive oils and had an endless supply of intoxicating fragrances like myrrh,
12:42frankincense, and jasmine.
12:46Most importantly, being part of the harem guaranteed burials and tombs that brought
12:51safe journeys into the afterlife.
12:55Some wives were handpicked for their beauty.
12:59Others were foreign princesses given as gifts.
13:03All lost their freedom, and nearly all accepted their fate.
13:14But Redford thinks the Medinet Habu harem was different.
13:21She believes there's enough evidence to prove the harem actually murdered Ramses.
13:31Now she wants to figure out how they did it.
13:39For centuries, Ramses' mummy was lost to the world.
13:44Then in 1881, archaeologist Emile Bruch discovered Ramses' body in a secret cache of 40 royal
13:53mummies.
14:00They moved the mummies to Cairo to unwrap and examine.
14:08The team estimated that Ramses III lived to 65, but reached no conclusion on what killed him.
14:20In the 1960s, an American Egyptologist x-rayed Ramses' body, and Susan wants Salima to take
14:27another look.
14:31Susan wants to know if an assassin murdered Ramses in a violent fight.
14:40If Ramses had suffered a blow to his head, his x-rays should show trauma.
14:48But Salima doesn't see those signs.
14:52I have looked at these x-rays of Ramses III to see if there was any kind of trauma that
14:57we could see on the bones, but none of the x-rays showed anything that might be construed
15:03as trauma of any sort.
15:05So if he were murdered, then it couldn't have been by a blow to the head or anything else.
15:11So the x-rays eliminate the trauma theory, but there are still plenty of other ways to
15:17murder an unpopular king.
15:23It was spring, 1155 B.C.
15:28Egypt was breaking down, and the aging pharaoh was losing touch with his kingdom.
15:40Ramses had amassed great riches.
15:43He even tells us in his palace he dined off on cutlery of fine gold and silver.
15:50The treasury was full, but the people of Thebes were obviously not getting fed.
15:58So of course this would not make him a very popular king at this period.
16:05Desperate times inspired desperate measures.
16:09The unpaid workers decided to take action.
16:12They staged the world's first recorded strike.
16:19The supervisor of the day book records that all work stopped on this day.
16:24The men scaled the walls and headed for the palace.
16:29The texts tell us what they say.
16:31It's because of hunger that we have been driven to this.
16:34There's no clothing, no oil, no fish, no vegetables.
16:40Send a pharaoh, our good lord, concerning this.
16:48Some of the pharaoh's wives have close family ties to the villagers, and word of the strike
16:53reaches the harem in Medinet Habu.
16:58The growing hostility provides the opportunity Queen Ti's been waiting for.
17:06Egypt's economic collapse creates the perfect environment for igniting rebellion.
17:15Queen Ti discreetly recruits conspirators among the other women of the harem.
17:21Together they devise a way to communicate with the outside world.
17:31Virtually every day, laborers come to the palace to work or deliver supplies.
17:44The harem develops allies among the workers to send messages in and out of the palace.
17:54The ancient record tells of one secret note.
17:59Get people together, incite hostilities in order to provoke rebellion against their lord.
18:10The women recruit professional soldiers, including a commander whose sister is part
18:15of the harem, to lead the rebellion outside the palace gates.
18:21If all goes according to plan, the soldiers will take over the palace after the pharaoh
18:26is murdered and make sure Queen Ti's son assumes the throne.
18:31All these things, I think, came together and coincided to lay the groundworks for this
18:39coup d'etat.
18:40They were going to get rid of the king and they were going to do it right here.
18:49As the moon rises high in the sky, the celebration is in full swing.
19:08Ramses relaxes in the splendor of Medinet Habu, oblivious to the traitors and the desperation
19:20of his people.
19:33His enemies have him surrounded.
19:36Now they wait for Queen Ti's sign.
19:46As Ramses' celebration winds down for the night, Queen Ti's coup picks up momentum.
19:55She puts her plan to murder the pharaoh in play.
19:59The first weapon, magic.
20:04Ti summons the court magician, Praecomenath, to cast spells over the palace guards.
20:12Egyptians very much believed in the power of magic and they really felt they couldn't
20:17go forward without some magical incantations to confuse people.
20:26Egyptians believed the gods protect the pharaoh, so an assassination requires magic.
20:33They think sorcerers have the power to reverse decapitations and bring inanimate objects
20:40to life.
20:43Praecomenath prepares small wax figurines, which he'll use as voodoo dolls.
20:52The magician and the conspirators believe these dolls will immobilize the palace guards.
20:59Now all the pieces are in place.
21:05Praecomenath casts his spells as the recruited soldiers organize their men in the shadows
21:11of the palace walls.
21:18Then they attack.
21:41Praecomenath's magic fails to disable the guards.
21:46Instead, the sentries turn back the insurgents and capture most of them.
21:56The pharaoh's guards crush the rebellion.
22:03Inside the palace, the harem's murder plot moves forward, unaware of the failed attack
22:09outside the palace walls.
22:12But the big question remains, what weapon did the wives use against Ramses?
22:20Poisons would have been a likely option.
22:24They were often used as medicines and would have been in the palace.
22:31The Egyptian pharmacopoeia is chock full of resins and poisons that the Egyptians used
22:38quite liberally.
22:40They were quite aware of the dosage it would take to put someone in a coma, say.
22:54Mandrake for instance, a poisonous plant often added to wine to cure insomnia.
23:01Too much mandrake, however, brings about a permanent sleep, and eating the fruit from
23:06a mandrake plant kills in less than an hour.
23:13Poppies which produce morphine were just as common, just as medicinal, and just as deadly.
23:22An overdose causes paralysis, coma, and ultimately, death.
23:30Egypt also had a ready supply of the castor oil plant.
23:34Every Egyptian knew of its healing effects.
23:37They also knew that the castor oil plant contained deadly ricin.
23:42Just a few seeds then, as now, can trigger fatal respiratory failure.
23:49And rounding out the menu of deadly options was nightshade.
23:52It still grows wild in Egypt, producing toxic berries that can impair the human nervous
23:58system.
24:04The harem had an embarrassment of deadly riches to poison Ramses, and Queen Tiye had important
24:11allies among the king's personal attendants, people who had access to his food and drink.
24:20The records indict the palace's pantry chief, Pai Bakamana, as Queen Tiye's main co-conspirator.
24:30Ramses probably doesn't even know the pantry chief's name, but Pai Bakamana controls everything
24:36the pharaoh eats and drinks.
24:43Pai Bakamana, alone in the kitchen, could discreetly pour a deadly dose of mandrake
24:50or nightshade into a goblet of wine.
24:57As Ramses retires to the sanctuary of his harem, the women ensure that poison is the
25:03last thing on his mind.
25:13Eventually, one of the wives innocently hands the wine to Ramses.
25:31But Susan Redford doesn't buy it.
25:48She thinks the poison theory is flawed.
25:52For one, many of the poisons have a bitter taste, so Ramses might have rejected his first
25:58sip.
26:00Second, the records indicate Ramses died slowly.
26:06Most poisons kill quickly.
26:09He survived.
26:10We know he survived at least two weeks, possibly two and a half weeks.
26:19So if the wives didn't use poison, they must have resorted to something else.
26:26Maybe they chose something that was just as deadly, but killed more slowly.
26:41A snake can be a chillingly effective assassin's tool, and it might have been the perfect choice
26:48to kill Ramses.
26:51But how do you smuggle one into the palace, and how do you get it to bite the pharaoh?
26:57It would have been quite easy to convey a poisonous snake into the harem quarters.
27:05Snake charmers abound in Egypt even today.
27:08They can actually, by handling the head of the snake in a certain way, cause the snake
27:16to be very stiff.
27:22Hitting the right pressure point can turn a writhing snake into a straight arrow, so
27:28straight that it can be tucked into a sleeve and smuggled past palace guards.
27:34Dr. Zoltan Takacs, a research scientist at the University of Chicago, has his own view
27:40about which type of snake would have been best for the assassins.
27:45If, in fact, this whole killing happened by a snake or snake venom, then I would tend
27:52to believe that the culprit was carpet viper.
27:57It's easy to find a carpet viper in the desert.
28:02Even today, this species kills more people than any other snake in Africa.
28:09At barely two feet long, it's a ready-made murder weapon.
28:14It's a tiny little snake, but it's very, very aggressive, and the venom is very, very toxic.
28:23A couple drops can kill you.
28:25Actually, from the carpet viper, it has been estimated that all you need is about three
28:29milligrams of venom.
28:32Viper venom wreaks havoc on the body.
28:37It ruptures the blood vessels, makes blood leak into the tissues.
28:43You start to bleed internally.
28:45You can bleed from your gums, you can bleed in your GI system, in your gastrointestinal
28:49system, and you can bleed from old scars.
28:53So it's a pretty bad scenario.
28:56And in more severe cases, you can have bleeding in your kidney or even in your brain.
29:05If one of Queen T's accomplices could sneak a carpet viper into the palace, the harem
29:12could make sure it had a close encounter with the pharaoh.
29:18With so many wives, it's hard to keep track of everyone.
29:23It just takes one to slip treachery under the covers.
29:29So Ramses returns to his chambers after a long night of celebration.
29:45He doesn't want bodyguards here, just the wife he's decided to spend the night with.
29:59The only thing on his mind is pleasure.
30:08The only thing on her mind is murder.
30:29The snakebite will not kill you instantly.
30:39It needs time for the components of the venom to exert their effects.
30:43But it can be as long as like a week, two weeks, or sometimes even more.
30:51Susan Redford knows that Ramses died a slow death.
30:55The snake is murder weapon theory makes sense.
31:01She also identifies important clues in the court records.
31:05The curious thing there is that two conspirators who took leading roles in the conspiracy,
31:11one is given the name The Snake.
31:15The other is called The Lord of Snakes.
31:19There's one other clue.
31:23An amulet suggesting Ramses was actually bitten by a snake.
31:29There is this very small amulet which was found
31:33that actually says that Ramses' arms are coated by the sun god Ray
31:41against the bite from a venomous snake.
31:45Isn't that marvelous?
31:48That is so cool because that does in a way argue for someone who has lived post-snakebite.
31:52The other interesting thing about this amulet is that
31:56the wearer is supposed to apply it to his hand
32:00and it is a protection for the bedroom.
32:04That's very uncanny.
32:06If when we're going to poison someone, something in their food
32:10would be much more suspicious.
32:14A snake that would wander in from the garden in the areas where they lived
32:18stands a much better chance of sneaking in
32:22and then being regarded as a natural disaster that had befallen the king
32:26rather than something that was particularly planned.
32:30There's no question that Ramses had a connection to snakes.
32:34Even the lid of his sarcophagus had a carving of a deadly viper.
32:44The case for assassination by snake seems very strong.
32:48Still, the 3,000-year-old records don't yield all the answers.
32:52There's no mention, for instance, of what happened to Ramses
32:56in the hours after the assassination attempt.
33:00The record, however, tells us exactly what happened to the conspirators.
33:04The king's guards rounded up all the suspects.
33:08They tortured them for information and confessions.
33:12The king's guards were forced to kill them.
33:16The king's guards were forced to kill them.
33:20The king's guards were forced to kill them.
33:24The king's guards were forced to kill them.
33:28The king's guards were forced to kill them.
33:30The king's guards were forced to kill them.
33:40A crime against the pharaoh was a crime against God.
33:4433 insurgents, including Prince Pentawere, Queen Tea's son,
33:48The court magician,
33:54The pantry chief, the commander, and the two snake charmers
34:01face the charge of high treason, an offense punishable by death.
34:09The harem women don't escape scrutiny either.
34:14They're taken into custody.
34:25At the trial, an official scribe records the entire proceedings
34:29on a papyrus.
34:35A high offense, such as treason, requires judgment from the gods.
34:44And communicating with the gods requires priests,
34:49the high priests of Amun.
34:54They alone decide the fate of the alleged assassins.
35:00They are the real power in this trial
35:02and are emerging as a potent force across Ramses, Egypt.
35:11The priests go through a 10-day ritual
35:13cleansing before the hearing.
35:16They were shaved completely, no hair,
35:20dressed in fine linen garments, and even
35:23were told they were given little pellets of natron
35:27to cleanse their breath as well.
35:33And they may have taken a little something extra, hallucinogens,
35:38to help them speak to the gods.
35:46This trial has no cross-examinations,
35:48burdens of proof, or legal niceties.
35:54Here, the ornate gold idol plays judge, jury, and appeals
35:59court.
36:01To address the oracle, the bark was brought in.
36:06A procession around the court would have taken place.
36:13At one point, the bark would stop,
36:16and the question would be presented to the god.
36:20And it would be in the form simply
36:21of a yes or no answer.
36:23Should this person be given the death penalty?
36:26Is he guilty?
36:29A trembling oracle means the gods are ready to speak.
36:36If it moves forward, the gods say yes.
36:40Backwards means no.
36:45Suppose you can liken it to a Ouija board,
36:48where certain people who like to address the Ouija board
36:52swear up and down that they're making
36:54no movement of the piece as it moves and answers
36:57their question.
37:03Just like a Ouija board, the players control the outcome.
37:09And these players weren't feeling generous.
37:12The verdicts?
37:15Queen Ti's son, Prince Penaware, sentenced to death
37:18for inciting rebellion.
37:23As royalty, he escapes the public humiliation
37:26of execution.
37:28He quietly commits suicide by taking poison.
37:32Preah Kemeneth, the court magician,
37:34guilty of the treasonous use of black magic.
37:38He opts for suicide as well.
37:46Pai Bakamana, the pantry chief, guilty of colluding
37:50with Queen Ti in the harem.
37:51He's sentenced to death for inciting rebellion.
37:55Pai Bakamana, the pantry chief, guilty of colluding
37:59with Queen Ti in the harem.
38:01The oracle condemns him to public execution.
38:13In all, 33 conspirators die.
38:24The oracle decrees they must be burned,
38:27alive, in a public spectacle.
38:55Afterward, officials scatter their ashes
38:57over heavily-traveled dirt roads,
39:02destroying any hope of an afterlife.
39:09It's the ultimate degradation for an Egyptian.
39:12And the absolute opposite of what Queen Ti intended.
39:18But that's not the end of the story.
39:21The desperate women must now try to save themselves.
39:26And time is running out.
39:28The time is running out.
39:30The time is running out.
39:32The time is running out.
39:34The time is running out.
39:36The time is running out.
39:38The time is running out.
39:39And time is running out.
40:02As the noose tightens on the conspirators,
40:05the women attempt a last-ditch effort to avoid execution.
40:10They turn to lust.
40:13The wives seduce four court officials,
40:16including two judges, a bailiff, and a police chief,
40:21in an effort to gain leniency.
40:24They have a secret rendezvous, but are caught in the act.
40:29The papyrus doesn't give us a tell-all account,
40:33but does tell us this much.
40:36They had a fine party down there.
40:39Their misdeeds seized them.
40:44The men are found guilty of mingling with the prisoners.
40:50Their punishment comes swift and harsh.
40:53Executioners lop off the officials' ears and noses.
40:59Now Queen Ti and her cohorts have run out of options,
41:03and they won't even have the benefit of a trial.
41:06They certainly would not have had a public trial.
41:09If any trial whatsoever, these were the king's property,
41:13so none of this royal dirty laundry
41:16would have been aired for the public.
41:20There's no more mention of the harem and the papyrus.
41:24They simply vanish.
41:32It's a long shot,
41:33but Susan Redford thinks an unidentified tomb
41:37might explain the fate of Queen Ti and her accomplices.
41:42The Valley of the Queens is a vast burial ground
41:44for Ramsay's family and other royal wives and children.
41:51The royals commissioned their own tombs.
41:54Size, location, and decor all reflected status.
42:01Oh, it's marvelous.
42:04All right, there's a cartouche.
42:07Queen Isis's tomb has all the trappings of power.
42:12Was it difficult to get?
42:13The vulture feathers on her headdress
42:15signify her importance and standing as chief wife.
42:23But not all tombs are created equal.
42:27What I think we have is the tomb of Queen Isis
42:32and her offspring up through this main thoroughfare.
42:38And off on this peripheral valley,
42:40we have possibly Queen Ti and her offspring.
42:49This unfinished chamber sits off to the side,
42:52and that's why Susan thinks it might belong to Queen Ti.
42:56Very curiously.
42:58I'm impressed by how close it is to the three princes' tombs.
43:04It is right next to Queen of Ramsay's II as well.
43:10It seems to have been fully excavated,
43:12and the decoration was begun.
43:15It has been investigated to a certain extent
43:18because it's been documented that it does belong to a queen,
43:23but that's certainly not the case.
43:28I don't know what it's going to find.
43:31This tomb may be empty because its owner died before her time.
43:36Violently, in disgrace.
43:49At Medina Dhabu,
43:50Susan sees more signs in the reliefs of Ramsay's family.
43:57One drawing in particular depicts a beautiful queen,
44:03but something's missing.
44:06The queen has no name, no identity.
44:11This might be Queen Ti.
44:16Nearby, there's another nameless image.
44:19Only this one is a prince.
44:22Perhaps it's Queen Ti's son, Prince Pentaware.
44:27Robbing an identity is the supreme punishment for an Egyptian royal.
44:34It also means there's virtually no chance for an afterlife.
44:41Definitive answers can't be found among tombs and incomplete court records.
44:46We can deduce what might have happened from the bits of history we do have.
44:51What is clear is that Ramsay's lived long enough
44:55to appoint 12 judges to his own murder trial.
45:03But he didn't live to see the verdicts.
45:07He died about two weeks after the harem's assassination attempt.
45:14Killing Ramsay's was the only part of Queen Ti's plot that succeeded.
45:22Everything else was a disaster.
45:26The rebellion failed, and all of Queen Ti's allies paid with their lives.
45:33Queen Isis's son, Ramses IV, succeeded his father as originally planned.
45:40His six-year reign was undistinguished, except for one thing.
45:44Ramses IV commissioned the record of Queen Ti's betrayal,
45:49so the story of his father's murder would survive.
45:56But he and his heirs couldn't keep their grip on absolute rule.
46:06A new power was on the rise.
46:10The Amun Prince.
46:11The Amun priests seized the influence the pharaohs lost.
46:16They emerged as Egypt's ruling class, just 100 years after Ramsay's death.
46:25The age of pharaohs and their harems was over.
46:31And Egypt's 1500-year reign as the world's great superpower came to an end.