El Nilo, el alma de Egipto, es también uno de los ríos más largos del mundo, cruzando nada menos que nueve países y más de 6.650 km. Este documental va en busca de las maravillas arquitectónicas construidas por los faraones en sus costas en el antiguo Egipto. Por tierra, aire y en las profundidades del Nilo, los más grandes egiptólogos internacionales han realizado análisis sin precedentes realizados por LiDar, drones submarinos, entre otros para sacar a la luz sus maravillas ocultas.
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00:00The ancient Egypt and its fascinating vestiges dating from 4,500 years ago.
00:07Pyramids, tombs, submerged cities, temples.
00:13How were they built and what remains to be discovered?
00:18One of the keys to these mysteries could be a prodigious element that we have in front of us since the Stone Age.
00:26The Nile.
00:27The longest river in the world after the Amazon.
00:306,700 kilometers of water that end in the Mediterranean Sea after crossing a dozen countries.
00:36We think of the Nile as something immutable, but the river has evolved a lot throughout the history of Egypt and even before that.
00:46Without the Nile, Egypt would not exist.
00:49The river was what created Egypt.
00:51Thanks to the Nile, thousands of granite blocks traveled incredible distances to bring to life the wonders of ancient Egypt.
01:00Our teams have carried out an unprecedented exploration with vanguard techniques, some of which had never been used in Egypt.
01:09From Alexandria to Lake Nasser and the Red Sea, we have gone in search of the footprints of the 33 pharaoh dynasties.
01:16It's like we are really bringing the ancient city of Alexandria out of the water.
01:21In this episode, we are going to explore the Nile Delta, where the last pages of ancient Egypt were written.
01:28Here, to the north of the country, is where the river has changed the most, as it has passed from seven mouthpieces to the two current ones.
01:36We will rediscover the history of the Nile.
01:39Where are the remains of the immense pharaoh of Alexandria, a city that the Egyptians connected with great ingenuity to the Nile?
01:46Can we believe the legends that speak of cities submerged under the waters of the Nile and the sea?
01:51The land collapsed, it was below sea level, and the water was so deep that it was impossible to cross it.
01:57The Nile is the largest river in the world.
02:00The Nile is the largest river in the world.
02:03Can we believe the legends that speak of cities submerged under the waters of the Nile and the sea?
02:07The land collapsed, it was below sea level, and the water was so deep that it was impossible to cross it.
02:11You can compete perfectly with Tutankhamun's treasure, but not only did he find a tomb, but a dozen.
02:16Together with the best Egyptologists and international scientists, our expedition will take us underground, through the air and to the depths of the delta,
02:25to unravel the last mysteries of the Pharaohs' Egypt, built along the sacred river.
03:03THE MYSTERIES OF THE NILE
03:11THE MYSTERIES OF THE NILE
03:14THE LOST CITIES OF THE DELTA
03:24Alexandria, the last capital of ancient Egypt, that of the Pharaohs.
03:31Located in the delta of the Nile, 200 kilometers from Cairo,
03:35Alexandria hides the fascinating remains of the Ptolemaic era,
03:39that is, that of the last two dynasties of Greek and Macedonian pharaohs.
03:44But unlike the well-known settlements of the Giza and Luxor plateau,
03:49in Alexandria, the trace of the pharaohs is not so evident at first glance.
03:54I think that the remains of Alexandria are worth it, because we are talking about urban archaeology,
04:00but we will also have to do an endless work to obtain results that have a good historical basis.
04:12Three centuries before our era, under the Trigesimo II dynasty,
04:17Alexander the Great wanted to build the largest port open to the Mediterranean.
04:21A colossal work that must connect the country and its sacred river, the Nile, with the rest of the world.
04:28Alexandria was perhaps the most important city in Ptolemaic Egypt, it was really the gateway to the Mediterranean.
04:35When he came to Egypt and received the great oracle of the god Amun,
04:41Alexander the Great chose this place because he thought it could be a great commercial and transportation point in the Mediterranean,
04:49and he also wanted to build a city in his own honor.
04:53Despite this, Alexandria does not break with what was ancient Egypt.
04:59Greek kings such as Alexander and then the Ptolemaic were called pharaohs,
05:06and they took up the legacy of the great sovereign founders of the pyramids such as Zoser or Cheops.
05:13In that eagerness, unbridled by construction, they built an incredible work,
05:19one of the seven wonders of the world, now disappeared, the lighthouse of Alexandria.
05:31In 297 BC, Ptolemy I placed the first stone of this emblematic monument on a nearby island, the lighthouse.
05:41The island is joined to the city by an impressive walkway, the Epta Stadium.
05:47Its name originates in its length, seven stadiums, almost 1,300 meters.
05:52It took more than 15 years to build this unique monument, whose main architect is unknown.
05:58The lighthouse lasted almost 15 centuries.
06:02That is, at that time, engineering was already of a quality capable of solving problems with human means.
06:14In fact, the lighthouse of Alexandria was an architectural wonder of 135 meters high,
06:20almost as much as the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
06:23Built with a shining white stone, it dominates the city,
06:27and its flame, lit day and night, guides sailors several dozen kilometers around.
06:35The first floor is 60 meters.
06:39The lighthouse has 300 wings, and inside there was a statue of the god Poseidon.
06:47However, after the 14th century, there was nothing left, only some documents.
06:54But how was it really? Why did it disappear?
07:00A mystery about to be deciphered thanks to an unprecedented archaeological mission.
07:07For 25 years, French scientists have been working in the water at the foot of the current citadel of Kite Bay,
07:14where the first lighthouse in the world was located.
07:16Many underwater excavations have been carried out in the Kite Bay area,
07:21and they have found a large number of blocks.
07:24But were they from the lighthouse of Alexandria, or were they from somewhere else?
07:30Marie-Dominique Nenat leads the excavations initiated by French Egyptologist Jean-Yves Semperer in the 1990s.
07:38There is a kind of mountain of stones, which looks good if the sea is calm.
07:45The water is clean, and the sun is in a good mood.
07:49I have gone down once or twice, and it is an extraordinary settlement.
07:55In the settlement, which extends over three and a half hectares,
07:59the equivalent of five football fields, 3,500 blocks have been found up to eight meters deep.
08:07Some have been raised to the surface to study them.
08:11But right now it is impossible to say that they were from the mythical lighthouse,
08:15especially because the exploration of such an extensive underwater area is long and complicated.
08:20It is a settlement of scattered blocks, sometimes even stacked.
08:26There are those from the pharaonic era, and they reach the late Roman era,
08:31and in ancient times, most likely, they were out of the water.
08:35Only scientists have access to this wonderful place.
08:39However, exceptionally, we have obtained an authorization to dive in it and go back 2,300 years,
08:46to touch with our own fingers the possible remains of the seventh wonder of the world.
08:52It is as if we were taking out of the water the ancient city of Alexandria.
09:05Mohamed Khed is a historian and professional diver.
09:09Get on, Mohamed.
09:12The sea is especially agitated,
09:15but together with his team he decides to take us to the place where the ruins of the Alexandria lighthouse could be.
09:21This is our boat, the Remas.
09:24We must take a first boat before getting on the Remas,
09:28a boat equipped for archaeological investments.
09:32The captain finishes the preparations on board before starting.
09:37Today the big ones arrived, and the weather is pleasant.
09:42What do we expect to see underwater, especially in this area?
09:47Maybe we'll see sphinxes, big ones, like the great sphinx of Giza.
09:53Okay, let's go there.
09:54Let's go there.
09:58They will not be alone during the exploration.
10:01It's done.
10:03To accompany them, we have brought for the first time to Egypt an exceptional submarine drone.
10:09It is a true technological portent and is not afraid of violent currents or lack of visibility.
10:17Jean-Baptiste and Cédric, drone recording specialists,
10:22have come from France and Germany to pilot this submarine robot in these unprecedented conditions.
10:30Okay, stop.
10:32The team verifies the pressure and finishes preparing the air bottles
10:37that will allow them to dive for more than an hour in the deposit.
10:42Great, let's go.
10:44Great, let's go.
10:58Cédric stays on the boat to pilot the robot.
11:02Unlike the aerial drones that work by Wi-Fi,
11:06the submarines need a cable because the probes cannot travel through the water.
11:09It is the moment of truth for the drone.
11:12The first images appear on the pilot's monitor.
11:16The water is at 28 degrees and we are 4 meters deep,
11:21but for now you can't see anything.
11:25At 6 meters, the first vestiges appear.
11:30Fascinating.
11:33Incomplete sphinxes.
11:35Incomplete sphinxes.
11:45Blocks of pink granite.
11:52Remains of columns.
12:02Hieroglyphs.
12:06The immersion is spectacular.
12:13Since 1993, only a few concrete pieces have been raised to the surface,
12:19which have allowed the French team to reach a conclusion.
12:25We have finally found the lighthouse of Alexandria.
12:29We were quickly sure that those blocks belonged to the lighthouse of Alexandria,
12:35the seventh wonder of the world.
12:38Everything was oversized.
12:41However, among the blocks found that came out of the water,
12:45there were numerous elements, such as the obelisk of Seti I,
12:50the sphinxes,
12:52or some fragments of columns that do not correspond at all to the time of the lighthouse.
12:57These remains are surprisingly much older.
13:03Many of the blocks found in the area of Kitee Bay
13:07belong to the temples of Ramses or Seti,
13:11and they were clearly brought from elsewhere, further inland.
13:15Those temples were massacred to get blocks
13:19that would protect the lighthouses and Alexandria in general.
13:24We know that the Ptolemaics had the tradition
13:28of bringing objects from the interior of Egypt to Alexandria
13:32simply to decorate, to show the ancient civilizations.
13:36Alexandria was the showcase of the Ptolemaics.
13:41The sculptures they borrowed from other abandoned places
13:45were used as an ornament or later to protect the island and the citadel.
13:49This is the explanation that the scientific community currently gives.
13:54However, the large blocks of pink granite
13:57seem to have served to build the lighthouse.
14:00But why the texts of the Greek historian Strabo,
14:04who studied the place less than a century before our era,
14:08describe it as white and not red or pink?
14:12It seems that the mystery is already solved.
14:15Throughout history, we think that it was built with marble,
14:19but it turns out that under the water,
14:23all the pieces were made of granite, red granite.
14:27So the lighthouse was not made with marble.
14:31They probably painted it or covered it with a layer of limestone or something.
14:35To find pink granite in Egypt,
14:38you have to sail more than 1,000 kilometers through the Nile
14:41to the Aswan region in the south.
14:44A titanic journey with the means of the time.
14:48Men and boats.
14:52Boats moving from south to north
14:55utilized the current of the Nile waters,
14:58while those coming from north to south were using the wind.
15:02It took about 25 days to take each block to Alexandria
15:07and build this wonder of the world,
15:10whose longevity will be exceptional.
15:131,600 years.
15:16How is it possible that this colossus of stone
15:20collapsed completely before sinking into the sea?
15:24We have clarified the mystery of its disappearance.
15:28A succession of cataclysms between the 4th and 14th centuries
15:32damaged and progressively made the lighthouse fall in its entirety,
15:36and also caused the stones to end up in the waters of the bay.
15:41All the palaces and temples of Alexandria sank into the sea.
15:46An earthquake caused great damage to many of the monuments,
15:50especially in Alexandria.
15:53In the 15th century, at the site of the old lighthouse,
15:57Sultan Mamluk Khaid Bey
16:00ordered to build a fort that still exists.
16:06The lighthouse of Alexandria and its immense megalopolis
16:10are located northeast of the Nile Delta.
16:13And at first glance, nothing unites them with the Holy River
16:17or with the rest of Egypt.
16:20Nothing further from reality.
16:23Few people know this, but in ancient times,
16:26the Nile and the Delta had a different look.
16:30Before, it was a very swampy area.
16:33There was a lot of papyrus, and a great number of animals lived there.
16:38To the north of Cairo, the river is divided into different branches
16:42to end up in the Mediterranean Sea.
16:45But at present, there are only two of them.
16:48We think of the Nile as something immutable,
16:51but the river has evolved a lot.
16:54Now we only have two outlets of the river in the Delta,
16:57but before there were seven, and then five.
17:00Among them, there was an essential,
17:03which has been an enigma for a long time,
17:05the Canopic Branch.
17:08The Canopic Branch was the widest of the Nile Branch,
17:12and through the Canopic Branch,
17:15ships coming in from the sea and then into the entire country.
17:19But this was before Alexandria.
17:23During its foundation, the city of Alexandria
17:26was located 30 kilometers from the river,
17:29in a surprising place,
17:31where all the capitals of Egypt have always been built
17:34near the Nile, the lung of the country.
17:37Without the Nile, there would be no civilization.
17:40Without the Nile, Egypt would never exist.
17:43The Nile was what created Egypt.
17:46That is why Herodotus, the father of history,
17:49when he came to Egypt in 500 BC,
17:52said, Egypt is a gift from the Nile.
17:57So, why did Alexander move away from his shore?
18:02Actually, the pharaoh wanted to build his city
18:05on a very solid rock base,
18:08even if he had to move away from the Nile,
18:11unlike the other coastal cities.
18:14And instead of copying his predecessors
18:17and building next to the river,
18:20Alexander did the opposite with his extravagant project.
18:23He took the Nile to Alexandria,
18:26a visionary construction that would profoundly
18:28change the mouth of Canopo.
18:31A large part of the waters of the mouth of Canopo
18:34flowed into Lake Mareotis,
18:37and into Alexandria.
18:40So, of course, that impoverished the ramification,
18:43which had to dry out little by little.
18:46As a result, the mouth of Canopo
18:49was completely erased.
18:52As Alexander's engineers could not predict
18:55what would happen, the complex system of canals
18:58and, most likely, the mouth of Canopo
19:01disappeared in the 5th century.
19:04For a long time, archaeologists have not known
19:07how the delta was, nor the layout of the famous mouth of Canopo,
19:10which disappeared too soon.
19:13However, a researcher was going to alter
19:16the knowledge we had of it,
19:19thanks to some prodigious discoveries
19:22hidden several meters below sea level.
19:25Submerged cities that, according to legend,
19:28were the gateway to the Nile
19:31and its mysterious ramification in the mouth.
19:37In the 1990s, the French scientist
19:40Franck Godiot saw that the three cities
19:43described in the ancient texts,
19:46located on the banks of the Aboukir Bay,
19:49had existed very close to Alexandria.
19:52Thonis, Heracleion and Canopo,
19:55which should have been the gateway to the ramification
19:58had the same name and was located in its mouth.
20:01It was perfectly documented, historically,
20:04that there were three cities missing
20:07and they had not been found.
20:10But it is impossible to see a single indication
20:13of these three cities so important to the entrance of the Nile,
20:16built around the 8th century BC,
20:19that is, about 500 years before the creation of Alexandria.
20:23So Franck Godiot decided to organize
20:26an expedition out of the ordinary
20:29in a territory much larger than the city of Paris.
20:32By making an immersion in an area
20:35of 150 square kilometers to see remains,
20:38we were not going to see anything,
20:41and as nothing had ever been seen in the area,
20:44it was likely that everything would be covered by sediments.
20:47So in 1997, a task of titanic dimensions
20:49begins west of the bay of Aboukir,
20:52on board a ship equipped with
20:55advanced detection systems developed
20:58by the French Atomic Energy Commission.
21:01There should be large springs with remains.
21:04Franck Godiot thought about leaving several times,
21:07but he was convinced that this was the right place
21:10and that the cities were waiting for him
21:13hidden somewhere under the sea.
21:16Finally, his perseverance,
21:19his perseverance paid off.
21:22After a year and a half,
21:25we had discovered 1.2 kilometers of magnetic anomalies.
21:29So we made the immersion
21:32and we found nothing, just sand.
21:35We had to dig,
21:38and that's how we found extraordinary ruins.
21:41It was the city of Canopo.
21:44For Franck Godiot and his team,
21:46it was an unforgettable day.
21:49In the excavations, several kilometers deep,
21:52the first thing they discovered
21:55was an imposing column of pink granite
21:58six meters long, intact.
22:01This deposit, which extended a kilometer wide
22:04and one and a half long,
22:07reserved more surprises for them.
22:10Soon the archaeologists began to discover
22:13not only the isolated elements,
22:16but also the ancient city of Canopo.
22:19Now we have proof of the exact place
22:22where one of the Nile mouthpieces ended,
22:25which was used to exit,
22:28and it was where one of the most important cities
22:31in ancient Egypt was.
22:34There was still a new mystery to be solved,
22:37that of the other two cities mentioned by the historians,
22:40Tonis and Heracleion.
22:43Franck Godiot's teams, a few months later,
22:46we have been able to digitize in an exceptional way
22:49in high-definition files.
22:52According to the ancient writings,
22:55the cities were very powerful at the time,
22:58when the dynasties of the Delta had converted the city of Sais
23:01into its capital.
23:04It was the beginning of the late period of Egypt
23:07in the 7th century BC.
23:10Today there is no longer the mouthpiece of Canopo,
23:13but its neighboring branch of Rosetta
23:16is one of the last remains of the ancient Nile.
23:19It begins in the northwest of Cairo
23:22to end in the Mediterranean,
23:25at the height of the city of Rosetta,
23:28about 200 kilometers away.
23:31Alexandria is precisely connected
23:34to this branch of the Nile River
23:36by a canal.
23:39And following its course,
23:42leaving behind the capital,
23:45we arrive at a fascinating place,
23:48the ancient city of Sais,
23:51the wonderful village of the 26th dynasty of the Pharaohs
23:54around 650 BC.
23:57Sais is a key city in Egyptian history
24:00and to understand what the Delta is.
24:03That immense settlement,
24:06surrounded by fields and the current city,
24:09has been studied for only a few years.
24:12But Penny Wilson's English teams
24:15have made an exceptional discovery on the spot.
24:18Sais is one of the oldest inhabited places in Egypt.
24:21Sais was important from the beginning of Egyptian history
24:24and with the 26th dynasty
24:27it went to the forefront, becoming capital.
24:30In Sais, a new chapter
24:33of Egyptian history begins.
24:36An important city
24:39with several millennia behind it,
24:42which will get its apogee thanks to the Nile
24:45with the pharaohs of the 24th and 25th dynasties,
24:48even becoming the capital of Egypt
24:51for almost 140 years.
24:54However, at first glance,
24:57there is nothing left of its ancient splendor.
25:00Sais, the prestigious, has been overshadowed
25:03by new settlers over the centuries.
25:06Thanks to new technologies,
25:09scientists hope to find the old Nile bed,
25:12the walls and the temples of Sais.
25:15Give me the end and you take one.
25:18A short distance from the remains of the city
25:21unearthed in recent years,
25:24Penny Wilson and her team are carrying out a new project
25:27to scan the terrain with a magnetometer.
25:30A device that analyzes the depth
25:33thanks to the magnetic field
25:37instead of excavating,
25:40something that would be very difficult
25:43because the fields are currently under cultivation.
25:46What we're going to do is scan them magnetically
25:49using a magnetometer in order to understand
25:52if there are any structures or archaeological remains
25:55buried underneath the field.
25:58Put it down. Looks like a right angle.
26:01Okay, go.
26:03So it's in 30 by 30 meter grid.
26:06The magnetometer takes a reading
26:09and you can hear people when it's taking a reading.
26:12And if he walks consistently at the same speed,
26:15then these readings are consistent
26:18and the data is good data.
26:21A laboratory has been set up in the excavation facilities
26:24and the data recorded by the magnetometer
26:27is sent to a computer for further analysis.
26:30We're still processing it.
26:33An image appears on the screen.
26:36The difficult work of interpretation can begin.
26:39Those dots are just small pieces of graves.
26:42Look here.
26:45What these archaeologists are most interested in
26:48are the horizontal lines,
26:51too perfect to be of natural origin.
26:54So I think those lines are the bridges over which we walk.
26:57Yes. We are able to generate a map
27:00showing areas of magnetic intensity
27:03to see if there are any alignments
27:06which might be part of structures
27:09or if there are other features which could be areas
27:12or ditches or other things.
27:15The archaeologists are convinced
27:18that Saïs was much larger than the current city.
27:21The city, connected to the Nile by ports,
27:24was a kind of island surrounded by the river.
27:27To go back in time is a titanic job.
27:30But that's how it has been,
27:33as every year new evidence has been discovered
27:36about this megalopolis.
27:39We're standing next to one of the last bits
27:42of archaeological evidence for the great temples of Saïs.
27:45This limestone structure behind me
27:48is made up of huge monumental blocks
27:51and was probably just the front part of a large temple
27:53which once stood here.
27:56The main temple and the tombs of the kings
27:59are still not found.
28:02But to reach its peak,
28:05Saïs benefited from the extinction of another capital
28:08located east of the delta, Tannis,
28:11which in ancient Egypt was one of the great ports
28:14of the Nile open to the Mediterranean.
28:17A capital that disappeared along with the mouth of the Nile
28:20which fed it and made it an exceptional place.
28:23One of the major capitals of Egypt
28:26during the late period
28:29was the city of Tannis
28:32and it was also located in one of the mouth of the Nile,
28:35the Tannica, and it was very active
28:38until it sank, of course.
28:41Tannis is part of the great cities
28:44that are present in our imagination.
28:47Since the beginning of Egyptology,
28:50it has been one of the settlements
28:53of the great pharaohs.
28:56A mysterious place that few people know
28:59and that has given shelter to the only treasure
29:02of a pharaoh that today can compete
29:05with that of Tutankhamun.
29:12Egypt at the end of the New Empire,
29:15eleven centuries before Christ.
29:18At this time, the country of the pharaohs
29:20enters a period of division.
29:23The 21st Dynasty
29:26establishes its capital in Tannis,
29:29in the delta.
29:32Although the name of Tannis
29:35is unknown to the general public,
29:38millions of us have seen very closely
29:41one of the symbols of this city of the Nile.
29:44Since the first raids,
29:47after the Napoleonic campaign,
29:50Tannis has been very important,
29:53especially in the Louvre.
29:56Visitors discover ancient Egypt
29:59thanks to the sphinx.
30:02It is the largest monolithic sphinx
30:05that exists outside of Egypt.
30:08This immense sphinx was discovered
30:11in 1825 inside the largest temple in Tannis,
30:14dedicated to the god Amun.
30:17A mysterious temple,
30:20and due to what was this port city of yore,
30:23located on the banks of the Nile,
30:26we will not start our expedition in Egypt.
30:29In Toulouse, south of France,
30:32the National Center for Space Studies
30:35analyzes the images of the satellites.
30:38Luc Lapiet is a scientist specializing
30:41in space archaeology
30:44and is especially interested
30:47in the settlement of Tannis.
30:50In this large set of images
30:53we found one that gave us an impressive result.
30:56Comparing the images taken by satellite
30:59to a large extent, Luc Lapiet
31:02noticed anomalies in the ground
31:05very interesting for archaeologists.
31:08A set of regular geometric shapes is perceived,
31:11which are distributed throughout the surface
31:14with possible alleys and inhabitants.
31:17In this image we see an entire village appear.
31:20This is an idea of the immensity of the city
31:232,500 years ago, since its area at the time
31:26extended more than 200 hectares.
31:29Today there is almost nothing left of it.
31:32Tannis is hidden under the sand
31:35and the essential is still to be discovered.
31:38Thanks to space archaeology,
31:41we will soon be able to analyze the set of Egyptian cities
31:44like Tannis, as well as carry out excavations
31:47focused on the ground.
31:50Space archaeology is essential
31:53because the Nile Valley is very extensive,
31:56so a tool of prospecting is needed
31:59that covers a very large surface.
32:02But what is left of the ruins of this city
32:05called Thebes of the North by the ancient Egyptians?
32:08And where is the wonderful treasure
32:11discovered there hidden?
32:14To get to Tannis from Cairo
32:17you have to travel by road for almost four hours
32:20and reach the town of San Helagar.
32:24Here, near the Tannic mouth of the Nile,
32:27today dry,
32:30was where the pharaohs of the 21st dynasty
32:33built Tannis and its port, surrounded by lagoons.
32:36François Leclerc leads the French mission
32:39of the Tannis excavations.
32:42Every year they discover new clues
32:45about this capital of ancient Egypt
32:47that has been forgotten for a long time.
32:50In recent years, we have carried out
32:53numerous excavations with specialists
32:56and we realized that there were elements
32:59of navigation channels on the other side of the settlement.
33:02So Tannis was clearly a port.
33:05In the city there were several temples
33:08dedicated to the divinities of the area.
33:11To the pharaoh Susenes I, Tannis owes
33:14the monumental construction of its main temple
33:17of immortality.
33:20We are in front of the temple of Amon,
33:23which is the main temple of Tannis,
33:26the same god as in Karnak,
33:29and in front is the main door,
33:32a granite door made by King Sheshonq III.
33:35There are only a few remnants of the splendor of his past,
33:38and it is because the monuments of Tannis
33:41were dismantled when it was abandoned
33:44and then transported by the Nile from the port
33:47to the city of Tannis.
33:50Archaeologists have to imagine the city
33:53from an almost empty puzzle.
33:56That mass of large blocks there
33:59is almost all of the door,
34:02so we have to imagine it.
34:05There are some large elements left,
34:08but the door was much higher.
34:11The immense door, 12 meters high,
34:14marks the central axis of the temple of Amon
34:1780 meters wide by 300 meters long.
34:22The goal of François Leclerc is exciting,
34:25to take out, classify and order the dozens of blocks
34:28to make Tannis resurface from its sweat of sand,
34:31a titanic work.
34:34We are going to resume the architectural study of this monument
34:37and try to re-study all the blocks,
34:40and then the idea is to lift the spectacular door again,
34:43but it would imply a huge work that for now we do not have planned.
34:46We have proposed to François Leclerc
34:49to make a true topographic scanner of the settlement
34:52thanks to an avant-garde technique, the LIDAR.
34:55We will only make one flight with the LIDAR?
34:58Yes.
35:01For the first time in the history of Egypt,
35:04we have obtained an exceptional authorization
35:07to fly over Tannis with an airborne laser.
35:10Julien Bernard is a French specialist in LIDAR.
35:12We are going to make a first flight
35:15to cover the settlement.
35:18We will fly at 70 meters
35:21and cover 200 meters each time,
35:24so with a single flight we should have the whole area.
35:33This technique allows you to obtain the topography
35:36of a place in a few hours,
35:39regardless of the lighting.
35:42After two hours of calculation,
35:45the result is spectacular
35:48and totally unprecedented.
35:51All the heights of the settlement
35:54appear in detail,
35:57and it also allows you to study and measure
36:00each of the elements.
36:03For topographers and archaeologists,
36:06this tool is extremely useful.
36:09Olivier Onessim, our topographer,
36:12decrypts the results of the city's scanner,
36:15which in other times was at the foot of the Nile
36:18and open to a port.
36:21The river has dried over time,
36:24but the granite blocks have survived
36:27over the centuries.
36:30It's great. It's great.
36:33To make an ascent like this,
36:36the truth is that if we wanted to get
36:39to this level of detail,
36:42it would be impossible.
36:45Along with a photogrammetry
36:48that allows, thanks to thousands of photos,
36:51to reproduce a 3D view of certain areas,
36:54for the first time,
36:57we have been able to carry out
37:00a digital simulation of the whole of Tannis.
37:03If you zoom in,
37:06you see the remains of the great labyrinth.
37:09Egyptologist Felix Arnold has agreed
37:12to do this in 3D.
37:15We have the entire complex,
37:18but the best is the documentation
37:21of certain parts of the Temple of Amun.
37:24You can see very nicely
37:27what's left of the temple's grand hall,
37:30with immense granite columns.
37:33This tool, so useful for researchers,
37:36allows to measure in detail
37:39the dimensions of each structure.
37:42You can see the length and the height
37:45in a very precise way,
37:48and this greatly facilitates the study
37:51of this immense settlement of more than 200 hectares.
37:54You can clearly see in the image
37:57how big the temple was,
38:00and it was built on a whole sequence of courtyards.
38:03The first gate, the first courtyard,
38:06the second gate, the second courtyard.
38:09So it was really a huge construction.
38:12The work of the scientists over the years
38:15will possibly allow to highlight
38:18this so relevant settlement,
38:21which now attracts no more than 1,000 visitors a year.
38:24However, the Egyptian authorities
38:27hope to return to Tannis the greatness of the past,
38:30when one of the Nile's mouthpieces passed through here,
38:33because they also have an ace up their sleeve,
38:36their royal necropolis, a very special place.
38:39In Tannis we have something extraordinary,
38:42a temple complex.
38:45The pharaohs were buried there, partly for security,
38:48to protect the burial inside the temple,
38:51so they had to put them in a smaller area.
38:54Unlike other settlements,
38:57in Tannis the tombs of the pharaohs
39:00were built inside the temple and not outside.
39:03The material of which the temple and the tombs are made,
39:06as well as the discovered objects,
39:09have allowed us to understand the importance of the Nile
39:12for the commercial purposes of Tannis.
39:15The analysis of this necropolis is worthy of an adventure movie,
39:19and the result is one of the most beautiful treasures of Egypt.
39:27In 1939, the French archaeologist Pierre Montaigne
39:31discovered an impressive set of tombs
39:34on the banks of one of the branches of the Nile Delta,
39:37which is now dry.
39:39Pierre Montaigne was one of the rulers who built Tannis
39:42and who reigned there, an unexpected fact.
39:45The first tombs in which he enters have been looted,
39:48especially that of Osorkon II.
39:51He continues with the excavations around
39:54and realizes that there is another one next door.
39:57On March 17, 1939, he goes down to the tomb
40:00and sees that it is closed.
40:03He opens it and inside he discovers
40:06what he thinks is the burial of his ancestors.
40:09Unfortunately, the sarcophagus belongs to another king,
40:12Sesson II, but he decides to continue
40:15with the investigation inside the tomb.
40:18The following year, he enters two additional rooms
40:21and there he finds the intact treasures
40:24of Susenes I and his successor Amenemope.
40:30They found a large red granite sarcophagus,
40:33the second one made of black granite,
40:36and the third one made of silver.
40:39The discovery was exceptional,
40:42at the height of that of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922,
40:45found by Howard Carter.
40:48He can compete perfectly with Tutankhamun's treasure
40:51and I would even say that he surpassed him,
40:54because he not only found a tomb, but a fortnight.
40:57The first graves found by Pierre Montaigne
41:00had been partially or completely looted.
41:03However, that of the pharaoh Susenes I
41:06is miraculously intact.
41:09Inside, there is a real loot,
41:12a sublime silver sarcophagus
41:15whose mask is decorated with pure gold.
41:18The most incredible thing about the burial of Tannis,
41:21specifically the silver sarcophagus,
41:24is that it is very well decorated
41:27with the pharaoh represented by the god Osiris,
41:30holding the two symbols of his power,
41:33the cetro and the whip,
41:36and with the ureo protector, the snake,
41:39in the forehead, to be protected against evil.
41:44Montaigne has made history,
41:47at least that is what he believes.
41:50But his discovery is eclipsed
41:53by the beginning of the Second World War.
41:56The conflict erases the great extraction of the burial
41:59and his treasure will practically be forgotten,
42:02until today.
42:05The objects of the tomb of Susenes I,
42:08which occupied a small room
42:11of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo,
42:14are now in the hands of experts
42:17who must give the treasure of Tannis a new splendor.
42:20It was in very bad condition.
42:23I went to the Cairo Museum and I saw it.
42:26And then I realized that,
42:29as it had been restored a long time ago,
42:31it needed more restorations,
42:34because it had been discovered in poor condition.
42:37Indeed, the mummies they found
42:40were very damaged by the humidity of the area.
42:43The ramifications of the Nile and the nearby lagoon
42:46that existed before our era did not help their conservation.
42:49The sarcophagi had also suffered
42:52due to the inclemencies of time and the lagoons.
42:55However, scientists have managed to erase
42:58the marks that seemed indelible.
43:01I prefer to leave the eyes for later,
43:04because they have to be restored a little before cleaning them.
43:07Yes, they have to be fixed.
43:10Yes.
43:13Exceptionally, we have been able to enter a secret place
43:16where a meticulous restoration work is carried out every day,
43:19far from all looks.
43:24There are a lot of remains and I have to remove them.
43:27I will start with the mechanical work,
43:30with the wooden stick,
43:33and then I will use the chemicals.
43:36Some Egyptologists and restorers
43:39of the Louvre Museum have come to help
43:42with this colossal work.
43:45The scientists work delicately
43:48every millimeter of this jewel of the Nile Valley,
43:51which dates back 3,000 years,
43:53to restore its former splendor.
43:56We use different kinds of tools,
43:59but mainly they are made of wood,
44:02because they give us very good results
44:05with the cleaning of the gold and do not leave marks.
44:10The treasure of Tanis can now be exhibited
44:13in a privileged place within the Cairo Museum,
44:16where the treasure of Tutankhamun was located,
44:19which is now in the Great Egyptian Museum
44:21with its 22,000 square meters,
44:24newly built.
44:29Pierre Montaigne and Howard Carter
44:32have achieved a place adapted to their fabulous discoveries.
44:41After the decline of Tanis,
44:44the capital of Egypt moved east of the delta,
44:47to Saïs, around 650 BC.
44:50So again, the power is close
44:53to the important mouth of Canopo in the Nile.
44:56To finish our expedition,
44:59we decided to return to the old place
45:02where this branching was located,
45:05and go up to the bay of Aboukir in the Mediterranean,
45:08where, at the end of 1990,
45:11the discovery of the disappeared city of Canopo
45:14revealed major discoveries
45:16related to the urbs engulfed by the waters
45:19of the Nile and the sea.
45:22We have spoken again with the scientist Frank Goddio
45:25to understand how, at the beginning of the 2000s,
45:28the cities of Tanis and Heracleion
45:31appear before his eyes accompanied by a remarkable surprise.
45:34And a little higher, Frank?
45:37The cities that had been the main accesses to the Nile
45:40and of which there were no visible clues.
45:43Seven kilometers from the current coast of Egypt
45:46we discovered magnetic anomalies
45:49very important in more than one square kilometer.
45:52And in the excavation of one of the most relevant anomalies,
45:55we discovered a huge wall of limestone blocks
45:58almost two meters long.
46:05The operations were long and tedious
46:08in a deposit that is once and a half
46:11larger than the Manhattan neighborhood.
46:13You have to suck the sand and mud
46:16with the help of huge pumps
46:19to then extract the blocks and leave the remains uncovered
46:22more than 45 meters deep.
46:25It is difficult because we have even excavated in the area
46:28and around the blocks
46:31there are more large blocks of limestone aligned.
46:34After several weeks of underwater work,
46:37scientists discover that it is the blocks
46:40of a huge temple belonging to a disappeared city.
46:44And they quickly bring technical means
46:47to analyze and record these blocks in situ.
46:50We have searched the coils of the filming
46:53of the time of the discovery
46:56to digitize them in ultra-high definition.
46:59And the result is spectacular.
47:13It's like a dream world
47:16full of amazing discoveries.
47:19There are statues, stelae,
47:22carved slabs with inscriptions,
47:25sometimes perfectly preserved.
47:28It's almost like an Atlantis,
47:31a lost city underwater.
47:34It's extraordinary.
47:37It was the great temple of the city of Heracleion.
47:40After the recent discovery of Canopo,
47:43Heracleion was a remarkable moment.
47:46However, the scientist already has another idea in mind.
47:49He wants to find the third city, Tonis, at all costs.
47:52The surprise will be capitalized.
47:55Investigating in the temple,
47:58we found a beautiful intact black stele
48:01that indicated that we were in the city of Tonis.
48:10Tonis was the city of Heracleion.
48:13Tonis was the ancient Egyptian name
48:16of the city of Heracleion.
48:19Tonis-Heracleion was the same place.
48:22Until then, Tonis and Heracleion were two legends.
48:25However, now we know
48:28that it was the same city
48:31built in the 8th century BC.
48:34A city of colossal importance.
48:37The first port of Egypt
48:40and more influential than the future Alexandria.
48:43The city of Tonis-Heracleion
48:46was the empire of Egypt in the Mediterranean.
48:49By order of the pharaoh,
48:52it was the mandatory port
48:55through which all ships of the Greek world
48:58had to pass to enter Egypt.
49:01All ships entering through another branch of the river
49:04had to turn around
49:07and pass through the port of Tonis-Heracleion.
49:10The city controlled the mouth of Canopo
49:13because it was the most navigable river in the country.
49:16Canopo and Tonis-Heracleion
49:19flourished for several centuries
49:22and were owners of the mouth of Canopo.
49:25But how could such powers
49:28be swallowed so quickly and without leaving a trace?
49:31Between 450 and 380
49:34something happened.
49:37A phenomenon occurred.
49:40Well, we don't know, but ...
49:43Now we have precise data
49:46on how the city of Tonis-Heracleion
49:49was destroyed.
49:52There was an earthquake
49:55that gave rise to a tidal wave
49:58that, in turn,
50:01originated a phenomenon of soil liquefaction
50:04and the earth collapsed more than six meters
50:07in a fraction of a second.
50:10It was below sea level
50:13The disappearance of Tonis-Heracleion
50:16shortly before our era
50:19is a true archaeological miracle for researchers.
50:22When buried under the sediments,
50:25the city was pre-taped under the mud
50:28protected from erosion and looting until today.
50:31However, there is still a lot of work to be done.
50:34A well done job.
50:37A few years ago
50:40I thought we had already unearthed
50:43about 2% or 3%,
50:46but we have realized
50:49that under the remains there are more remains.
50:52So future archaeologists
50:55will have to work for several centuries
50:58on these sites that every year
51:01offer extraordinary historical data.
51:04How many wonderful sites like this
51:07will remain to be discovered
51:10in the Nile and throughout Egypt?
51:13According to some Egyptologists,
51:16dozens or even hundreds.
51:19Let's leave the mysteries of the delta
51:22and the last dynasties to go back in time
51:25to the time of the pyramids
51:28built along the impenetrable Nile.
51:31From the Red Sea to the Giza plateau,
51:34how can the Holy River be the common point
51:37of all the remains found?
51:40Here, in one of the most unknown areas
51:43in the heart of a forgotten pyramid
51:46flooded by the waters of the Nile
51:49and submerged forever.
51:52The Nile and its mysteries
51:55still hide thousands of stories to tell.