El Nilo, conocido como el alma de Egipto, se erige como uno de los ríos más largos del mundo, recorriendo más de 6.650 km y atravesando nueve países. Este documental fascinante se adentra en las maravillas arquitectónicas que los faraones construyeron a lo largo de sus costas en el antiguo Egipto. A través de técnicas innovadoras como LiDar y drones submarinos, los más destacados egiptólogos internacionales han realizado análisis sin precedentes para descubrir las joyas ocultas que el Nilo guarda celosamente.
Desde las majestuosas pirámides hasta los templos magníficos, el Nilo no solo ha sido la fuente de vida para las civilizaciones antiguas, sino que también alberga secretos que desafían el tiempo. Los descubrimientos recientes revelan no solo la grandeza de la arquitectura faraónica, sino también la profunda conexión que estas estructuras tienen con el río que les da vida. Este documental te llevará a un viaje a través de la historia, la arqueología y la ciencia, mostrándote cómo el Nilo ha sido un testigo silencioso de la evolución de Egipto y su rica cultura.
Acompáñanos en esta exploración y descubre cómo el Nilo sigue inspirando a generaciones de investigadores y amantes de la historia. ¡No te lo pierdas!
#Nilo, #AntiguoEgipto, #Historia
Nilo, Antiguo Egipto, maravillas arquitectónicas, faraones, LiDar, drones submarinos, egiptología, arqueología, historia de Egipto, descubrimientos ocultos.
Desde las majestuosas pirámides hasta los templos magníficos, el Nilo no solo ha sido la fuente de vida para las civilizaciones antiguas, sino que también alberga secretos que desafían el tiempo. Los descubrimientos recientes revelan no solo la grandeza de la arquitectura faraónica, sino también la profunda conexión que estas estructuras tienen con el río que les da vida. Este documental te llevará a un viaje a través de la historia, la arqueología y la ciencia, mostrándote cómo el Nilo ha sido un testigo silencioso de la evolución de Egipto y su rica cultura.
Acompáñanos en esta exploración y descubre cómo el Nilo sigue inspirando a generaciones de investigadores y amantes de la historia. ¡No te lo pierdas!
#Nilo, #AntiguoEgipto, #Historia
Nilo, Antiguo Egipto, maravillas arquitectónicas, faraones, LiDar, drones submarinos, egiptología, arqueología, historia de Egipto, descubrimientos ocultos.
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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.