1 00:00:02,860 --> 00:00:05,780 I'm on a voyage along the River Nile... 2 00:00:06,980 --> 00:00:10,500 ..tracking a 100-year-old tale of adventure... 3 00:00:11,420 --> 00:00:13,300 ..and mystery. 4 00:00:13,300 --> 00:00:17,220 Over there, the greatest archaeological discovery 5 00:00:17,220 --> 00:00:19,180 of all time took place - 6 00:00:19,180 --> 00:00:22,020 the tomb of Tutankhamun. 7 00:00:22,020 --> 00:00:25,860 And the most glittering treasure hoard on Earth. 8 00:00:25,860 --> 00:00:29,380 All this can tell us the story of the Golden Boy. 9 00:00:29,380 --> 00:00:31,820 A century later, 10 00:00:31,820 --> 00:00:34,780 meeting the Boy King is a dream come true. 11 00:00:34,780 --> 00:00:36,860 I didn't think I'd get emotional! 12 00:00:36,860 --> 00:00:38,700 I can't believe I'm stood here by this. 13 00:00:40,900 --> 00:00:44,780 The name of the man who found him was Howard Carter. 14 00:00:44,780 --> 00:00:48,940 His discovery is the stuff of fantasy. 15 00:00:48,940 --> 00:00:51,900 Everywhere, the glint of gold. 16 00:00:51,900 --> 00:00:55,500 But this tale of two very different men 17 00:00:55,500 --> 00:00:57,780 is not what it seems. 18 00:00:57,780 --> 00:01:00,580 Can you see over here? Yeah. There's a little bit of a cracking here. 19 00:01:01,500 --> 00:01:04,860 It's full of myths and mysteries... 20 00:01:06,100 --> 00:01:08,900 There aren't complete innocents and there aren't complete villains. 21 00:01:08,900 --> 00:01:11,060 ..big egos... 22 00:01:11,060 --> 00:01:13,500 He hasn't studied at Oxford, hasn't studied at Cambridge. 23 00:01:13,500 --> 00:01:15,820 ..and missing treasures. 24 00:01:15,820 --> 00:01:17,900 He made the wrong choice. 25 00:01:17,900 --> 00:01:21,420 So hunting through cities, 26 00:01:21,420 --> 00:01:23,180 tombs, 27 00:01:23,180 --> 00:01:25,380 and castles, 28 00:01:25,380 --> 00:01:30,020 my plan is to uncover the truth behind the legend of Howard Carter 29 00:01:30,020 --> 00:01:33,100 and the legend of Tutankhamun. 30 00:01:47,100 --> 00:01:51,140 Before I start on this quest, there's something I want to know. 31 00:01:51,140 --> 00:01:55,260 What does Tutankhamun mean here, in Egypt? 32 00:01:55,260 --> 00:01:58,780 Noura Khedr is an Egyptologist and tour guide. 33 00:01:58,780 --> 00:02:02,740 What's all this? So, basically, the graffiti of Tutankhamun, 34 00:02:02,740 --> 00:02:05,420 back in 2011, he was everywhere, 35 00:02:05,420 --> 00:02:07,660 with the headdress in the modern way. 36 00:02:07,660 --> 00:02:10,220 On this? On these walls? Everywhere! All over the streets. 37 00:02:11,500 --> 00:02:13,900 Tutankhamun ruled Egypt 38 00:02:13,900 --> 00:02:16,780 3,500 years ago, 39 00:02:16,780 --> 00:02:21,620 but in 2011, as young Egyptians protested against corruption, 40 00:02:21,620 --> 00:02:25,460 Tut became their Che Guevara, 41 00:02:25,460 --> 00:02:27,340 their Guy Fawkes. 42 00:02:27,340 --> 00:02:30,820 A 21st-century people's pharaoh. 43 00:02:30,820 --> 00:02:33,660 He was everywhere. I think of Tutankhamun, 44 00:02:33,660 --> 00:02:36,700 I always say that he's the best marketeer 45 00:02:36,700 --> 00:02:39,540 for the Ancient Egyptian civilisation 46 00:02:39,540 --> 00:02:42,780 and Egypt in the modern time. And look at that! Oh, my God! 47 00:02:42,780 --> 00:02:45,420 Even the car, the little van, with the face, 48 00:02:45,420 --> 00:02:49,060 the very iconic, imposing face of Tutankhamun. 49 00:02:49,060 --> 00:02:51,660 He's everywhere. You cannot help it. 50 00:02:51,660 --> 00:02:54,340 People love him so much. HORNS BEEP 51 00:02:55,860 --> 00:02:58,660 But what about the man who found Tut? 52 00:02:58,660 --> 00:03:02,180 He was born 3,500 kilometres away 53 00:03:02,180 --> 00:03:05,260 to an ordinary family in London. 54 00:03:10,220 --> 00:03:14,580 Before I left the UK, I tracked down the start of his story. 55 00:03:15,900 --> 00:03:19,340 He was far from the typical aristocratic explorer. 56 00:03:22,220 --> 00:03:26,060 These are Howard Carter's handwritten memoirs. 57 00:03:26,060 --> 00:03:28,660 I love the title - An Account Of Myself. 58 00:03:29,700 --> 00:03:32,940 This makes for a pretty miserable read. 59 00:03:32,940 --> 00:03:36,620 His father was an artist who didn't make an awful lot of money 60 00:03:36,620 --> 00:03:40,820 and it seems that the family lived in a sort of genteel poverty. 61 00:03:43,060 --> 00:03:45,540 Howard was born in 1874. 62 00:03:46,540 --> 00:03:49,180 Three older siblings had already died, 63 00:03:49,180 --> 00:03:52,660 so as a sickly child he was sent, alone, 64 00:03:52,660 --> 00:03:54,940 to live with his aunts in Norfolk. 65 00:03:56,500 --> 00:03:58,700 "As I was not strong, 66 00:03:58,700 --> 00:04:02,580 "I was debarred from public school life and games. 67 00:04:02,580 --> 00:04:05,740 "As the youngest in an artist's family, 68 00:04:05,740 --> 00:04:09,260 "there was a necessity to start earning my living 69 00:04:09,260 --> 00:04:11,900 "from the age of 15." 70 00:04:13,140 --> 00:04:16,020 To escape his lonely existence, 71 00:04:16,020 --> 00:04:19,180 Howard taught himself to draw the Norfolk wildlife. 72 00:04:20,140 --> 00:04:21,340 Wow. 73 00:04:21,340 --> 00:04:23,900 It's so realistic. 74 00:04:23,900 --> 00:04:26,420 You can see each individual feather. 75 00:04:26,420 --> 00:04:29,020 Even the wrinkles around the eye, 76 00:04:29,020 --> 00:04:31,020 it's just amazing. 77 00:04:31,020 --> 00:04:33,700 And I love his use of colour. 78 00:04:33,700 --> 00:04:37,300 I love the care of his brush strokes. 79 00:04:40,380 --> 00:04:44,020 Marketing this talent was Howard's ticket out. 80 00:04:46,500 --> 00:04:50,940 In Victorian England, a poor boy needed a rich benefactor, 81 00:04:50,940 --> 00:04:53,020 and Carter got one. 82 00:04:53,020 --> 00:04:56,420 The local lord and lady of the manor in Norfolk 83 00:04:56,420 --> 00:04:59,580 were so impressed by Howard's artistic skills 84 00:04:59,580 --> 00:05:02,340 that they set about finding him a position. 85 00:05:02,340 --> 00:05:04,780 They were extremely well connected, 86 00:05:04,780 --> 00:05:08,620 and some of their friends had begun to finance 87 00:05:08,620 --> 00:05:11,740 the fashionable pursuit of archaeology. 88 00:05:11,740 --> 00:05:14,860 To his complete astonishment, 89 00:05:14,860 --> 00:05:19,740 soon Howard Carter found himself on his way to Egypt. 90 00:05:25,820 --> 00:05:29,580 Dawn on the first day of my Nile adventure. 91 00:05:33,220 --> 00:05:36,020 This river is the lifeblood of Egypt. 92 00:05:38,700 --> 00:05:42,420 Either side, these lush, green, fertile strips, 93 00:05:42,420 --> 00:05:45,980 before sudden sandy barrenness. 94 00:05:48,420 --> 00:05:50,740 This is its West Bank. 95 00:05:50,740 --> 00:05:54,740 Three-and-a-half millennia ago, it was the land of the dead, 96 00:05:54,740 --> 00:05:58,580 where the pharaohs built vast tombs and temples. 97 00:06:00,820 --> 00:06:04,860 At just 17, Howard was an excavation artist. 98 00:06:06,020 --> 00:06:08,380 One of his first jobs was here. 99 00:06:09,460 --> 00:06:12,580 Back then, Tutankhamun's name was hardly known, 100 00:06:12,580 --> 00:06:18,780 but this temple was built by Tut's great-great-great-great grandfather's half-sister, 101 00:06:18,780 --> 00:06:20,340 Hatshepsut. 102 00:06:20,340 --> 00:06:26,180 Yeah, you see so many fragments... Even today, archaeologists like Dr Stephen Harvey 103 00:06:26,180 --> 00:06:29,260 employ artists to capture every detail. 104 00:06:29,260 --> 00:06:34,740 So with this strong sun of Egypt, the sun god Ra hitting the stone, 105 00:06:34,740 --> 00:06:36,980 there's a play of shadow. 106 00:06:36,980 --> 00:06:40,380 And the shadows make this readable. That was the whole point. 107 00:06:40,380 --> 00:06:43,740 And that's the sort of thing, I guess, that Carter's picking out in his drawings. 108 00:06:43,740 --> 00:06:47,060 He's trying to show those elements that might be flattened out otherwise. Yeah. 109 00:06:47,060 --> 00:06:51,300 It takes an artist to really convey the line here. 110 00:06:51,300 --> 00:06:54,260 And, you know, there is no such thing as a photograph 111 00:06:54,260 --> 00:06:57,900 that captures the way that this looks at all times of the day, 112 00:06:57,900 --> 00:06:59,100 but a drawing can. 113 00:07:00,580 --> 00:07:03,060 When Howard arrived in 1891, 114 00:07:03,060 --> 00:07:06,060 the world's eyes were on Egypt. 115 00:07:06,060 --> 00:07:09,340 Relics of the pharaohs were emerging from the sand. 116 00:07:11,300 --> 00:07:14,340 But the country was under British control. 117 00:07:17,380 --> 00:07:19,980 There was plenty of opportunity for Howard. 118 00:07:21,660 --> 00:07:26,540 His talent for drawing wildlife made him a natural for Egyptian art, 119 00:07:26,540 --> 00:07:31,300 a vital tool in unlocking the secrets of the pharaohs. 120 00:07:35,020 --> 00:07:37,500 He hasn't studied at Oxford, hasn't studied at Cambridge, 121 00:07:37,500 --> 00:07:39,740 and they want probably a dogsbody too, 122 00:07:39,740 --> 00:07:42,580 someone to really sort of do the lower level work, 123 00:07:42,580 --> 00:07:46,180 and I bet that quickly they realised how skilled he was 124 00:07:46,180 --> 00:07:48,700 and probably wanted to keep him on. 125 00:07:56,260 --> 00:07:59,500 I really think you can't get inside the mind of an artist, 126 00:07:59,500 --> 00:08:01,500 until you have a go yourself. 127 00:08:03,380 --> 00:08:06,260 This part in particular is really special to me. 128 00:08:06,260 --> 00:08:09,820 There are so many birds in this area. 129 00:08:09,820 --> 00:08:12,980 That's something I myself am really interested in. 130 00:08:15,300 --> 00:08:18,460 Howard Carter, of course, would have been up on a scaffolding, 131 00:08:18,460 --> 00:08:22,140 getting really close, taking in every single detail. 132 00:08:22,140 --> 00:08:24,860 And in that process of reproducing, 133 00:08:24,860 --> 00:08:28,780 he was training himself up as an Egyptologist. 134 00:08:32,180 --> 00:08:35,180 The sickly boy was a self-made success. 135 00:08:37,220 --> 00:08:40,620 And he was already plotting his next move. 136 00:08:44,140 --> 00:08:47,580 This is the most famous of the grand hotels 137 00:08:47,580 --> 00:08:50,060 that Howard would have seen springing up 138 00:08:50,060 --> 00:08:52,020 on the opposite side of the Nile. 139 00:08:52,020 --> 00:08:56,420 Egypt had become the winter playground of the rich and famous. 140 00:08:57,500 --> 00:09:00,180 The Winter Palace hosted Agatha Christie, 141 00:09:00,180 --> 00:09:02,060 author of Death On The Nile, 142 00:09:02,060 --> 00:09:06,220 silent movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, 143 00:09:06,220 --> 00:09:09,060 and the Tsar of Russia. 144 00:09:10,500 --> 00:09:12,500 Howard hung out at the hotels, 145 00:09:12,500 --> 00:09:15,540 selling paintings to tourists for extra cash... 146 00:09:17,460 --> 00:09:21,700 ..and impressing the rich men who ran Egyptian archaeology 147 00:09:21,700 --> 00:09:23,740 with his artistic skills. 148 00:09:25,620 --> 00:09:28,060 What I find so incredible 149 00:09:28,060 --> 00:09:31,660 is not only the sheer skill of his draughtsmanship, 150 00:09:31,660 --> 00:09:35,740 but also the scale of art he was having to produce. 151 00:09:35,740 --> 00:09:37,900 There was so much there. 152 00:09:46,620 --> 00:09:49,060 His work ethic paid off. 153 00:09:49,060 --> 00:09:51,340 Soon, he was excavating. 154 00:09:53,180 --> 00:09:56,460 And by 25, in 1899, 155 00:09:56,460 --> 00:10:01,420 he was appointed Chief Inspector in charge of archaeology. 156 00:10:03,740 --> 00:10:05,780 His beat was Luxor... 157 00:10:07,780 --> 00:10:10,020 ..the West Bank of the Nile, 158 00:10:10,020 --> 00:10:13,540 with its tombs and great temples, 159 00:10:13,540 --> 00:10:17,340 and the East Bank, with the bustling, modern city. 160 00:10:21,740 --> 00:10:25,860 Howard's job was to protect the country's heritage 161 00:10:25,860 --> 00:10:28,340 and supervise excavations. 162 00:10:30,580 --> 00:10:34,420 But in a British protectorate, this wasn't straightforward. 163 00:10:38,100 --> 00:10:41,900 I'm meeting archaeologist Dr Monica Hanna to find out more. 164 00:10:42,980 --> 00:10:46,220 Objects would cross the Nile to the East Bank where you had 165 00:10:46,220 --> 00:10:50,060 these French, American, British antiquities dealers 166 00:10:50,060 --> 00:10:51,700 who would buy the loot 167 00:10:51,700 --> 00:10:53,940 and, of course, you have these foreigners 168 00:10:53,940 --> 00:10:55,860 coming here to shop for objects. 169 00:10:55,860 --> 00:10:59,820 And I guess this Nile river is the motorway 170 00:10:59,820 --> 00:11:01,420 out of here with the goods. Exactly. 171 00:11:01,420 --> 00:11:04,100 This is the highway to Europe 172 00:11:04,100 --> 00:11:07,900 where they don't want their suitcases checked at Alexandria 173 00:11:07,900 --> 00:11:10,180 because they were just full of objects. 174 00:11:13,140 --> 00:11:16,660 Tourists travelled from Alexandria to Cairo. 175 00:11:18,100 --> 00:11:20,540 Then up the Nile to Luxor 176 00:11:20,540 --> 00:11:22,780 and the Valley of the Kings. 177 00:11:25,380 --> 00:11:28,500 Carter installed steel gates and guards, 178 00:11:28,500 --> 00:11:32,660 but it seemed impossible to stop the tomb raiders. 179 00:11:34,180 --> 00:11:38,420 Some of the most visited tombs were those of the 18th Dynasty, 180 00:11:38,420 --> 00:11:43,860 whose powerful pharaohs ruled Egypt 3,500 years ago. 181 00:11:47,180 --> 00:11:50,220 The name Tutankhamun was still barely known, 182 00:11:50,220 --> 00:11:52,700 but this was his family. 183 00:11:56,100 --> 00:11:59,540 I'm heading into the tomb of Amenhotep II. 184 00:11:59,540 --> 00:12:02,660 That's Tutankhamun's great-great-grandfather. 185 00:12:02,660 --> 00:12:06,260 In 1901, Howard Carter had left the West Bank 186 00:12:06,260 --> 00:12:08,260 and was travelling across Egypt, 187 00:12:08,260 --> 00:12:11,660 but one night someone broke in here. 188 00:12:15,380 --> 00:12:19,460 Inside the tomb was a sacred boat known as a barque. 189 00:12:20,980 --> 00:12:24,700 The tomb robbers stole it, damaging a mummy in the process. 190 00:12:26,460 --> 00:12:29,740 As soon as he heard the news, Carter rushed back. 191 00:12:29,740 --> 00:12:33,460 This was his chance to play the great detective. 192 00:12:37,940 --> 00:12:41,380 The gates he'd installed hadn't been up to the job. 193 00:12:52,300 --> 00:12:54,260 Clue number one. 194 00:12:54,260 --> 00:12:56,820 The padlock had been broken, 195 00:12:56,820 --> 00:12:59,980 forced open using a metal bar, 196 00:12:59,980 --> 00:13:03,340 but then it had been glued back together 197 00:13:03,340 --> 00:13:06,380 to give the impression that the tomb was unopened. 198 00:13:06,380 --> 00:13:09,940 Now Carter had seen this somewhere else before. 199 00:13:09,940 --> 00:13:14,060 It was the MO of a notorious local tomb raider. 200 00:13:14,060 --> 00:13:17,220 Howard Carter had a suspect. 201 00:13:21,060 --> 00:13:25,260 The suspect had pulled off a string of robberies. 202 00:13:25,260 --> 00:13:29,460 This time, Howard wanted him behind bars. 203 00:13:33,340 --> 00:13:35,260 Clue number two. 204 00:13:35,260 --> 00:13:38,260 A bare footprint next to the sarcophagus. 205 00:13:38,260 --> 00:13:41,340 Inspector Carter measured it, 206 00:13:41,340 --> 00:13:45,540 and was convinced he could match it up to his suspect. 207 00:13:45,540 --> 00:13:48,020 Now he knew he had his man. 208 00:13:51,260 --> 00:13:54,300 But the suspect had friends in high places 209 00:13:54,300 --> 00:13:56,940 who bought his stolen treasures. 210 00:13:59,100 --> 00:14:01,380 He walked away Scot-free. 211 00:14:03,860 --> 00:14:06,500 Howard was furious. 212 00:14:07,540 --> 00:14:11,540 There was a reason that Carter was so concerned about this break-in. 213 00:14:11,540 --> 00:14:15,980 This tomb didn't just contain the remains of Amenhotep II, 214 00:14:15,980 --> 00:14:18,700 but also a collection of mummies, 215 00:14:18,700 --> 00:14:23,540 members of Tutankhamun's family that were brought here in antiquity 216 00:14:23,540 --> 00:14:25,820 to keep them safe from robbers. 217 00:14:28,500 --> 00:14:30,940 The pharaohs were buried with great treasures. 218 00:14:32,580 --> 00:14:35,820 Now almost all that was left was their bodies. 219 00:14:41,660 --> 00:14:44,860 There was Tutankhamun's great-great-grandfather, 220 00:14:44,860 --> 00:14:46,660 his grandfather, 221 00:14:47,660 --> 00:14:51,780 his grandmother and, perhaps, his mother. 222 00:14:53,820 --> 00:14:57,700 Now they were vulnerable to a new generation of tomb raiders. 223 00:14:57,700 --> 00:14:59,980 There was only one solution. 224 00:14:59,980 --> 00:15:03,180 Carter carefully packaged them up, 225 00:15:03,180 --> 00:15:08,020 catalogued them and then sent them for safety to Cairo. 226 00:15:14,740 --> 00:15:19,260 Howard gave the pharaohs pride of place in Cairo's new museum, 227 00:15:19,260 --> 00:15:22,220 where you can still see their statues today. 228 00:15:24,540 --> 00:15:27,180 This is, essentially, the family photo album 229 00:15:27,180 --> 00:15:30,180 of Ancient Egypt's 18th Dynasty. 230 00:15:30,180 --> 00:15:33,660 And here is its grand matriarch, Hatshepsut. 231 00:15:33,660 --> 00:15:38,700 She was half-sister to Tutankhamun's great-great-great-great-grandfather. 232 00:15:40,100 --> 00:15:42,780 The family album continues in here. 233 00:15:45,020 --> 00:15:48,500 Some experts think that this is Tutankhamun's dad, 234 00:15:48,500 --> 00:15:49,900 Akhenaten. 235 00:15:51,500 --> 00:15:54,460 And over here, his first wife. 236 00:15:54,460 --> 00:15:57,060 This is Nefertiti. Her name means beauty. 237 00:15:57,060 --> 00:16:00,820 And, of course, look how beautiful she is in that sculpture. 238 00:16:03,100 --> 00:16:05,980 This is interesting. It's the royal family. 239 00:16:05,980 --> 00:16:10,860 There's Akhenaten again. And his other wife, known as the younger lady. 240 00:16:10,860 --> 00:16:13,460 Now that is probably Tutankhamun's mum. 241 00:16:19,380 --> 00:16:22,500 Last, but not least, Amenhotep III, 242 00:16:22,500 --> 00:16:25,180 also known as Amenhotep The Magnificent, 243 00:16:25,180 --> 00:16:29,940 the pharaoh responsible for taking Egypt to its absolute zenith of power. 244 00:16:29,940 --> 00:16:33,340 And right next to him is his wife, Queen Tiye. 245 00:16:33,340 --> 00:16:37,300 Here she's shown ever so slightly higher than her husband. 246 00:16:37,300 --> 00:16:42,140 And that shows that she was a powerful and important ruler in her own right. 247 00:16:42,140 --> 00:16:45,140 And there you have it, Tutankhamun's grandparents. 248 00:16:46,780 --> 00:16:49,980 But one member of the family was still missing, 249 00:16:51,060 --> 00:16:54,660 known only by the hieroglyphs spelling out his name, 250 00:16:55,700 --> 00:16:59,540 including the symbol of the scarab beetle. 251 00:17:01,580 --> 00:17:04,260 At still just 27 years old, 252 00:17:04,260 --> 00:17:09,060 Howard Carter may have seen this as a chance to make a name for himself 253 00:17:09,060 --> 00:17:13,300 by finding the 11th pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty - 254 00:17:13,300 --> 00:17:15,380 King Tutankhamun. 255 00:17:18,260 --> 00:17:23,100 Logically, Tutankhamun's tomb had to be in the Valley of the Kings. 256 00:17:25,580 --> 00:17:28,580 Howard didn't have the money to fund an excavation. 257 00:17:29,860 --> 00:17:32,860 What he could do was keep his ear to the ground. 258 00:17:35,100 --> 00:17:38,060 Carter loved to hang out in cafes. 259 00:17:38,060 --> 00:17:41,420 He would listen, chat to the locals, 260 00:17:41,420 --> 00:17:45,460 but this was viewed with suspicion by his British colleagues. 261 00:17:45,460 --> 00:17:47,860 It was not the done thing. 262 00:17:50,660 --> 00:17:54,340 Howard was hard-working and very ambitious, 263 00:17:55,900 --> 00:17:59,260 but he didn't always follow establishment rules. 264 00:18:01,340 --> 00:18:07,420 One night, drunk Western tourists picked a fight with some excavation guards. 265 00:18:07,420 --> 00:18:11,900 Angrily, he took the side of the Egyptian staff. 266 00:18:13,500 --> 00:18:15,580 "I have a hot temper 267 00:18:15,580 --> 00:18:18,460 "and that amount of tenacity of purpose 268 00:18:18,460 --> 00:18:22,860 "which unfriendly observers sometimes call obstinacy 269 00:18:22,860 --> 00:18:26,780 "and which nowadays, due to such idiosyncrasies, 270 00:18:26,780 --> 00:18:30,100 "it pleases my enemies to term me 271 00:18:30,100 --> 00:18:33,420 "as having 'un mauvaise caractere'. 272 00:18:33,420 --> 00:18:35,420 "Well, that I can't help." 273 00:18:37,020 --> 00:18:41,460 Not only was Howard fired as Archaeological Inspector, 274 00:18:41,460 --> 00:18:43,940 he was now unemployable. 275 00:18:46,940 --> 00:18:50,260 He turned to dealing artefacts. 276 00:18:54,540 --> 00:18:57,580 Here is Luxor Temple. Directly opposite 277 00:18:57,580 --> 00:18:59,620 is the Luxor Hotel. 278 00:18:59,620 --> 00:19:03,860 Howard Carter would stay here when he was excavating on the West Bank. 279 00:19:03,860 --> 00:19:06,700 Alongside is this street. 280 00:19:06,700 --> 00:19:10,500 It was peppered with the shops of dealers in antiquities. 281 00:19:10,500 --> 00:19:15,660 So this whole set-up was very convenient for Howard Carter's enterprises. 282 00:19:18,900 --> 00:19:23,740 As Inspector, Howard had fought hard to protect Egypt's heritage, 283 00:19:24,940 --> 00:19:27,460 but on the side, like his contemporaries, 284 00:19:27,460 --> 00:19:31,340 he'd sold some finds to collectors and museums. 285 00:19:33,460 --> 00:19:38,020 Objects were still taken without proper excavations, 286 00:19:38,020 --> 00:19:42,900 and the whole idea of taking these objects for the museums 287 00:19:42,900 --> 00:19:48,300 was the thing that was fuelling such plunder in the 19th century. 288 00:19:50,340 --> 00:19:53,460 Egypt was under British control. 289 00:19:53,460 --> 00:20:00,220 The rules said that half of the finds could be removed from Egypt, half had to stay. 290 00:20:01,380 --> 00:20:05,260 We hear about these tomb robbers. Who are the tomb robbers? 291 00:20:05,260 --> 00:20:08,060 Well, they're always the Egyptians, you know. 292 00:20:08,060 --> 00:20:11,740 And you see this usually - a very greedy person. 293 00:20:11,740 --> 00:20:16,420 While actually it's the Westerners who want to buy these objects. OK. 294 00:20:16,420 --> 00:20:19,940 Howard Carter - cop? Robber? Or both? 295 00:20:19,940 --> 00:20:23,900 I think there aren't complete innocents and there aren't complete villains. 296 00:20:23,900 --> 00:20:25,940 I think he was a mix of both. 297 00:20:25,940 --> 00:20:30,420 He probably at some times tried to do his best to protect the sites 298 00:20:30,420 --> 00:20:33,460 and at other times he did what was best for his own interests. 299 00:20:36,900 --> 00:20:41,140 Even in his wilderness years, Howard dreamed of discovery. 300 00:20:44,620 --> 00:20:49,300 But with no wealthy patron, he had no hope of funding a dig. 301 00:20:51,020 --> 00:20:53,340 He needed a stroke of luck 302 00:20:53,340 --> 00:20:55,620 and, boy, did he get it! 303 00:21:02,220 --> 00:21:06,580 For 350 years, this Hampshire estate has been home 304 00:21:06,580 --> 00:21:09,740 to one of England's most prominent families, 305 00:21:11,060 --> 00:21:13,860 but you probably know it as Downton Abbey. 306 00:21:15,500 --> 00:21:18,100 Howard became a regular visitor. 307 00:21:19,060 --> 00:21:22,580 Just cram-packed full of beautiful art. 308 00:21:22,580 --> 00:21:24,100 Wow. 309 00:21:24,100 --> 00:21:26,060 Look at this staircase! 310 00:21:26,060 --> 00:21:28,540 SHE GASPS Ah, beautiful. 311 00:21:32,100 --> 00:21:34,500 That is quite a haul. 312 00:21:37,140 --> 00:21:40,460 Must have made such an impression on him. 313 00:21:40,460 --> 00:21:46,180 And it's incredible to think that it's still used as the family home of the Carnarvons. 314 00:21:47,820 --> 00:21:53,020 At 34, Howard had the luckiest encounter of his life, 315 00:21:53,020 --> 00:21:55,700 with George, Earl of Carnarvon. 316 00:21:57,020 --> 00:22:00,620 The current Lord C is his great-grandson. 317 00:22:00,620 --> 00:22:05,060 He was probably one of the last great sort of Edwardian adventurers, really. 318 00:22:05,060 --> 00:22:08,340 Firstly, quite a gambling mentality. Oh! You know. 319 00:22:08,340 --> 00:22:10,660 He was mad about the horses. 320 00:22:10,660 --> 00:22:12,780 He was an owner, breeder and racehorse owner. 321 00:22:12,780 --> 00:22:14,700 He helped found Newbury racecourse. 322 00:22:14,700 --> 00:22:19,220 George Carnarvon spent his money on fast horses and fast cars, 323 00:22:19,220 --> 00:22:23,540 but after a nasty accident, he needed a safer hobby. 324 00:22:24,540 --> 00:22:28,740 He had this idea of a quest for something hard to touch, 325 00:22:28,740 --> 00:22:31,260 something amazing. So he was sort of drawn to history, 326 00:22:31,260 --> 00:22:33,540 drawn to archaeology even as a young boy? Absolutely. 327 00:22:33,540 --> 00:22:37,500 Without that, he would never have been someone who would have gone to Egypt 328 00:22:37,500 --> 00:22:42,020 and embarked on what might appear to be a crazy idea 329 00:22:42,020 --> 00:22:46,700 of digging up the earth to find something amazing from past civilisations. 330 00:22:48,420 --> 00:22:50,980 They often met here, 331 00:22:50,980 --> 00:22:53,620 where archaeological deals got done. 332 00:22:54,940 --> 00:22:58,020 They have these glorious gardens, you can stroll around, 333 00:22:58,020 --> 00:23:00,700 you can be by the river in the cool of the evening. 334 00:23:02,220 --> 00:23:05,860 The decor inside where you had your gin and tonic of the time, 335 00:23:05,860 --> 00:23:08,660 they could have made a plan, cooked up together, 336 00:23:08,660 --> 00:23:10,860 of how they were going to work together. 337 00:23:12,460 --> 00:23:15,060 Howard got a taste for the high life. 338 00:23:17,380 --> 00:23:23,020 There's a sense, isn't there, that Howard Carter was aspiring to be like your great-grandfather? 339 00:23:23,020 --> 00:23:25,900 He, I think, wanted to emulate 340 00:23:25,900 --> 00:23:29,540 the general style of my great-grandfather, 341 00:23:29,540 --> 00:23:33,020 which of course may well mean going to the same tailor, having the same sort of clothes. 342 00:23:33,020 --> 00:23:36,860 He also wanted to be the English gentleman abroad. 343 00:23:40,740 --> 00:23:43,620 Finally, Howard Carter, the loner, 344 00:23:43,620 --> 00:23:46,180 had found a kindred spirit. 345 00:23:47,460 --> 00:23:50,500 Together, they planned what seemed impossible - 346 00:23:50,500 --> 00:23:54,140 to find an untouched pharaoh's tomb. 347 00:23:58,660 --> 00:24:02,060 Howard was back on the West Bank, with a new house, 348 00:24:02,060 --> 00:24:04,660 paid for by George Carnarvon. 349 00:24:06,540 --> 00:24:08,380 Oh, this is nice. 350 00:24:09,820 --> 00:24:11,780 It's bigger than I was expecting. 351 00:24:13,060 --> 00:24:16,060 I think for a single guy, he's got a lot of space here. 352 00:24:19,340 --> 00:24:23,020 Before every excavation, Carter put together a shopping list 353 00:24:23,020 --> 00:24:26,660 of the little luxuries that an Englishman might want abroad. 354 00:24:26,660 --> 00:24:29,300 There's some pate de foie gras, 355 00:24:29,300 --> 00:24:32,860 And quite a lot of alcohol. Then there's practical things. 356 00:24:32,860 --> 00:24:37,420 Yardley's soap. But, interestingly, he's gone for the Bromo toilet paper. 357 00:24:37,420 --> 00:24:41,660 That's the rough, scratchy stuff, not the soft, luxurious one. 358 00:24:42,940 --> 00:24:45,100 In comparison to the other houses on the West Bank, 359 00:24:45,100 --> 00:24:47,620 this was big, comfortable and luxurious. 360 00:24:47,620 --> 00:24:51,500 Soon, everyone was calling it Castle Carter. 361 00:24:55,500 --> 00:24:59,060 Only so many digs were allowed in the Valley of the Kings. 362 00:25:02,420 --> 00:25:06,580 So while they waited, they started to dig just outside the Valley. 363 00:25:08,740 --> 00:25:12,540 This footage was shot by George Carnarvon himself. 364 00:25:14,460 --> 00:25:17,900 He could afford to pay hundreds of local workers, 365 00:25:17,900 --> 00:25:20,900 but they were more than labourers. 366 00:25:20,900 --> 00:25:24,420 They brought Howard vital intelligence. 367 00:25:27,420 --> 00:25:32,820 In his memoirs, he said that a man called Gad Hassan came to visit him here, 368 00:25:32,820 --> 00:25:35,340 in the gardens of Castle Carter. 369 00:25:35,340 --> 00:25:38,380 Hassan wanted to sell him some information 370 00:25:38,380 --> 00:25:43,220 about the location of a tomb that had just been revealed after heavy flooding. 371 00:25:43,220 --> 00:25:49,740 Now Carter thought this could be the tomb of the pharaoh Amenhotep I. 372 00:25:49,740 --> 00:25:53,580 And I think, I might be wrong, that this is Tutankhamun's 373 00:25:53,580 --> 00:25:57,140 great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather. 374 00:25:58,780 --> 00:26:03,060 The tomb had been robbed, but it was still a big find. 375 00:26:04,780 --> 00:26:07,780 Howard and George were now major players. 376 00:26:09,740 --> 00:26:14,100 So was this mysterious man, Gad Hassan, 377 00:26:14,100 --> 00:26:19,020 who had basically told Carter the location of a pharaoh's tomb? 378 00:26:19,020 --> 00:26:23,820 Well, he came from one of the nearby villages, just over there. 379 00:26:26,060 --> 00:26:28,140 Gourna is now abandoned. 380 00:26:30,140 --> 00:26:33,780 but it once housed hundreds of Howard Carter's workers. 381 00:26:37,060 --> 00:26:40,420 When I read the records of Carter, 382 00:26:40,420 --> 00:26:43,940 they're referred to as natives, native workers, 383 00:26:43,940 --> 00:26:45,980 or just not referred to at all. 384 00:26:45,980 --> 00:26:48,060 Well, I'm looking for them 385 00:26:48,060 --> 00:26:50,580 at the National Egyptian Archive of Egypt. 386 00:26:50,580 --> 00:26:54,580 I'm looking into peopling the past of Egyptian Egyptology. 387 00:26:54,580 --> 00:26:58,180 We know the expressions of Carter and we know the expressions of Lord Carnarvon, 388 00:26:58,180 --> 00:27:00,620 but we never see what did the Egyptians say. 389 00:27:00,620 --> 00:27:03,620 They're not given a voice. You see that in the photos, too. 390 00:27:03,620 --> 00:27:07,900 They're almost like props and supports... Exactly. ..to Carnarvon and Carter. Exactly. 391 00:27:07,900 --> 00:27:10,420 They do not come out as individuals. 392 00:27:10,420 --> 00:27:13,940 They come out not so different from the objects that were being discovered. 393 00:27:13,940 --> 00:27:16,740 But their knowledge was essential. 394 00:27:16,740 --> 00:27:20,540 So these people have been living in this landscape and they have been not just living, 395 00:27:20,540 --> 00:27:24,900 but they have been using it in multi purposes. And so such use of landscape 396 00:27:24,900 --> 00:27:28,060 lets you know where the water would go when there's a flash flood, 397 00:27:28,060 --> 00:27:31,260 they'd let you know where the inundation arrives. 398 00:27:31,260 --> 00:27:33,540 They were his right and left hands, basically. 399 00:27:33,540 --> 00:27:38,020 I think this is how he built his glory, on top of their shoulders. 400 00:27:39,980 --> 00:27:45,100 The years that Howard had spent hanging out in cafes with the locals was paying off. 401 00:27:47,140 --> 00:27:50,780 He knew exactly who to hire for tomb hunting. 402 00:27:57,580 --> 00:28:00,140 The details are in his diary. 403 00:28:01,140 --> 00:28:03,300 Routine payments to Gad Hassan, 404 00:28:04,420 --> 00:28:07,460 and a second foreman, Ahmed Gerigar. 405 00:28:13,780 --> 00:28:17,340 In 1917, they got permission to enter... 406 00:28:19,620 --> 00:28:21,820 ..the Valley of the Kings. 407 00:28:25,420 --> 00:28:28,260 A rich American called Theodore Davis 408 00:28:28,260 --> 00:28:30,660 had dug here for 11 years, 409 00:28:32,140 --> 00:28:36,580 but he had declared the Valley empty and thrown in his trowel. 410 00:28:41,180 --> 00:28:44,180 When Howard Carter finally got permission, 411 00:28:44,180 --> 00:28:47,100 he found a valley full of rubble 412 00:28:47,100 --> 00:28:51,340 and everyone thought that all the royal tombs that were going to be discovered 413 00:28:51,340 --> 00:28:56,100 had been discovered, but Carter did have two things on his side. 414 00:28:57,620 --> 00:29:01,100 The first clue was this channel in the cliffs. 415 00:29:01,100 --> 00:29:05,980 Howard's team knew it had been cut on purpose by the tomb builders 416 00:29:05,980 --> 00:29:08,980 to direct flood water away from the tombs. 417 00:29:10,060 --> 00:29:14,500 This narrowed the search. There was no point digging in the outflow. 418 00:29:17,780 --> 00:29:20,940 The second clue had been found by Theodore Davis. 419 00:29:22,420 --> 00:29:24,820 But he'd missed its meaning. 420 00:29:27,460 --> 00:29:31,140 It was a cup bearing the name Tutankhamun, 421 00:29:31,980 --> 00:29:34,180 including the symbol of the scarab. 422 00:29:35,580 --> 00:29:38,140 Even with this knowledge on his side, though, 423 00:29:38,140 --> 00:29:40,500 it wasn't going to be that easy. 424 00:29:42,580 --> 00:29:45,820 The work was more like engineering than excavation. 425 00:29:46,860 --> 00:29:53,060 For five long years, the Carter crew spent more time shifting rubble than sifting treasure. 426 00:29:54,700 --> 00:29:58,420 What little they found had nothing to do with Tutankhamun. 427 00:30:02,780 --> 00:30:05,460 Then, in June, 1922, 428 00:30:05,460 --> 00:30:07,740 Howard received a summons. 429 00:30:08,820 --> 00:30:11,060 In the aftermath of WWI, 430 00:30:11,060 --> 00:30:14,740 high taxation was putting stately homes at risk. 431 00:30:15,860 --> 00:30:19,620 I think Great-grandfather was getting to the stage it was all becoming quite an expensive thing. 432 00:30:19,620 --> 00:30:21,700 I think he probably said to Howard Carter, 433 00:30:21,700 --> 00:30:23,900 "Look, my friend, 434 00:30:23,900 --> 00:30:27,820 "we've had a great time out there, but maybe we should be drawing stumps 435 00:30:27,820 --> 00:30:31,580 "because this is costing more and more and we haven't made any great breakthrough." 436 00:30:31,580 --> 00:30:35,460 Howard argued passionately for just one more season. 437 00:30:36,460 --> 00:30:40,020 Ultimately, what seems to come across is they were friends. 438 00:30:40,020 --> 00:30:43,420 Yes, they were friends. He came here many, many times. 439 00:30:43,420 --> 00:30:45,500 It was at one of these occasions... 440 00:30:46,820 --> 00:30:48,780 ..in June, 1922, 441 00:30:48,780 --> 00:30:51,980 that they made the decision to continue for another year. 442 00:30:56,380 --> 00:30:59,100 Egypt was still big news. 443 00:31:02,100 --> 00:31:04,940 The world wanted a new discovery. 444 00:31:07,340 --> 00:31:12,700 Carter had just one more season left to make that big find 445 00:31:12,700 --> 00:31:15,140 that he was convinced was out there somewhere. 446 00:31:15,140 --> 00:31:19,620 It's like a Hollywood movie. The tension is incredible. 447 00:31:21,180 --> 00:31:23,380 He focused on one spot. 448 00:31:24,500 --> 00:31:27,540 Over there, under that ridge of earth, 449 00:31:27,540 --> 00:31:30,180 is the tomb of Ramesses VI. 450 00:31:30,180 --> 00:31:35,140 He was pharaoh roughly two centuries after Tutankhamun. 451 00:31:35,140 --> 00:31:40,380 At the very bottom was a pile of rubble that had never been properly excavated. 452 00:31:40,380 --> 00:31:44,460 Carter worked his way through this, and discovered the huts 453 00:31:44,460 --> 00:31:49,060 of the workers that had originally dug out Ramesses' tomb. 454 00:31:49,060 --> 00:31:53,420 But what if he was to dig further back through the past 455 00:31:53,420 --> 00:31:56,340 and go deeper? What would he find then? 456 00:31:59,220 --> 00:32:02,140 On the 4th of November, Howard wrote, 457 00:32:03,660 --> 00:32:06,500 "First steps of tomb found." 458 00:32:08,940 --> 00:32:10,980 But who found them? 459 00:32:12,260 --> 00:32:15,780 On the day of the discovery, when he arrived on-site, 460 00:32:15,780 --> 00:32:18,940 he was met by the sound of silence. 461 00:32:18,940 --> 00:32:24,820 What this meant was that the team had already discovered something important. 462 00:32:27,220 --> 00:32:30,180 The site foreman was Ahmed Gerigar. 463 00:32:34,780 --> 00:32:37,860 It was the Egyptian workers who had found 464 00:32:37,860 --> 00:32:44,540 the first step down into the most important archaeological discovery of all time. 465 00:32:46,580 --> 00:32:50,220 At the bottom was the sealed entrance to a tomb. 466 00:32:51,780 --> 00:32:53,620 Howard stopped, 467 00:32:53,620 --> 00:32:55,660 to wait for George. 468 00:32:57,340 --> 00:33:03,780 He sent a famous telegram saying, "Appears have made amazing discovery of intact tomb. 469 00:33:03,780 --> 00:33:05,820 "Await your arrival." 470 00:33:08,780 --> 00:33:12,740 It took three weeks for George to arrive in Egypt. 471 00:33:17,060 --> 00:33:20,260 On 26th of November, 1922, 472 00:33:20,260 --> 00:33:22,100 the moment came. 473 00:33:24,140 --> 00:33:27,180 As Howard peered through a hole in the wall, 474 00:33:27,180 --> 00:33:30,220 George asked, "Can you see anything?" 475 00:33:30,220 --> 00:33:32,980 Howard replied, "Yes. 476 00:33:32,980 --> 00:33:34,980 "Wonderful things." 477 00:33:43,020 --> 00:33:45,580 33 centuries had passed 478 00:33:45,580 --> 00:33:49,900 since human feet last trod the floor on which we stood. 479 00:33:51,300 --> 00:33:53,620 We were to witness a spectacle 480 00:33:53,620 --> 00:33:58,460 such as no other man in our time had been privileged to see. 481 00:34:02,380 --> 00:34:06,940 The most extensive pharaoh's treasure ever found. 482 00:34:09,220 --> 00:34:11,820 Crammed full of objects. 483 00:34:14,500 --> 00:34:18,140 To accompany Tutankhamun into the next life. 484 00:34:20,780 --> 00:34:23,620 But when we came to a golden shrine, 485 00:34:23,620 --> 00:34:26,020 the doors closed and sealed, 486 00:34:26,020 --> 00:34:27,900 we realised 487 00:34:27,900 --> 00:34:31,100 that we were in the presence of the dead king. 488 00:34:34,580 --> 00:34:36,220 So beautiful. 489 00:34:37,660 --> 00:34:40,460 Amazing to see this colour. 490 00:34:40,460 --> 00:34:43,100 The scale of the figures over there! 491 00:34:46,220 --> 00:34:48,660 Tutankhamun is shown 492 00:34:48,660 --> 00:34:52,060 with his characteristic headdress. 493 00:34:52,060 --> 00:34:56,540 And behind is his Ka, his soul, 494 00:34:56,540 --> 00:34:58,740 clasping on to the ankh, 495 00:34:58,740 --> 00:35:00,820 representing eternal life. 496 00:35:00,820 --> 00:35:03,260 And he's embracing 497 00:35:03,260 --> 00:35:05,900 the figure of Osiris. 498 00:35:05,900 --> 00:35:08,300 So this is about 499 00:35:08,300 --> 00:35:11,660 the eternal life of the pharaoh. 500 00:35:15,060 --> 00:35:19,500 Tutankhamun is surrounded by symbols of divine protection. 501 00:35:27,420 --> 00:35:30,140 This, for me, is the highlight. 502 00:35:30,140 --> 00:35:33,580 It's these women on the corners, 503 00:35:33,580 --> 00:35:36,780 one on each corner, their arms stretched around, 504 00:35:36,780 --> 00:35:38,980 and their wings touching and overlapping. 505 00:35:38,980 --> 00:35:41,700 It's only when you move around it 506 00:35:41,700 --> 00:35:45,220 you get a sense this feels like a real body. 507 00:35:45,220 --> 00:35:47,540 It feels like something three-dimensional. 508 00:35:47,540 --> 00:35:49,540 You can see her breasts, her hips. 509 00:35:49,540 --> 00:35:52,060 It's just beautiful. 510 00:35:53,460 --> 00:35:58,860 The excavation of the tomb made Howard the most famous discoverer on Earth. 511 00:36:01,780 --> 00:36:05,020 But he was also one of the most meticulous, 512 00:36:05,020 --> 00:36:07,820 recording and wrapping each treasure. 513 00:36:13,940 --> 00:36:17,580 Each one brought Ancient Egypt back to life. 514 00:36:23,100 --> 00:36:27,260 There were over 5,000 objects in Tutankhamun's tomb, 515 00:36:27,260 --> 00:36:31,180 but there's only one that everybody wants to see. 516 00:36:44,300 --> 00:36:47,140 I get shivers every time I see this. 517 00:36:47,140 --> 00:36:50,900 The golden mask of Tutankhamun. 518 00:36:54,420 --> 00:36:58,980 Up at the top there, you see Wadjet, the cobra. 519 00:36:58,980 --> 00:37:01,060 and Nekhbet, the vulture, 520 00:37:01,060 --> 00:37:04,100 symbolic of Upper and Lower Egypt. 521 00:37:04,100 --> 00:37:07,220 And Tutankhamun is king over it all. 522 00:37:10,260 --> 00:37:12,460 Carved on the back here 523 00:37:12,460 --> 00:37:16,460 were these incredibly precise hieroglyphs. 524 00:37:16,460 --> 00:37:18,740 It's a protective spell. 525 00:37:18,740 --> 00:37:23,140 It says, "Your forehead is of Anubis. 526 00:37:23,140 --> 00:37:26,460 "The nape of your neck is of Horus. 527 00:37:26,460 --> 00:37:30,140 "The strands of your hair are of Ptah-Sokar. 528 00:37:30,140 --> 00:37:34,780 "You are in front of Osiris, Tutankhamun." 529 00:37:39,060 --> 00:37:41,060 It truly is 530 00:37:41,060 --> 00:37:43,500 THE icon of Egypt. 531 00:37:53,820 --> 00:37:58,740 Dr Zahi Hawass is the country's most famous living archaeologist. 532 00:37:58,740 --> 00:38:03,180 He's spent his life decoding these works of art. 533 00:38:04,180 --> 00:38:06,540 Why do you think the Tutankhamun collection 534 00:38:06,540 --> 00:38:09,100 is so important to the Egyptian people? 535 00:38:09,100 --> 00:38:11,420 It's not to the Egyptian people. 536 00:38:11,420 --> 00:38:13,380 It is to the whole world. 537 00:38:13,380 --> 00:38:18,860 If you go in any city in the world and say, "Egypt," 538 00:38:18,860 --> 00:38:20,900 they will say, "King Tut!" 539 00:38:20,900 --> 00:38:25,540 Because the Golden Boy captured the hearts of people everywhere. 540 00:38:28,260 --> 00:38:32,260 You have the Anubis shrine, you have the canopic jars, 541 00:38:32,260 --> 00:38:36,300 you have the throne. You know, the throne is also amazing. 542 00:38:40,420 --> 00:38:43,860 The throne is inscribed with his birth name, 543 00:38:44,820 --> 00:38:46,900 Tutankhaten. 544 00:38:49,740 --> 00:38:53,020 Toys that he played with, drinking beer and wine. 545 00:38:53,020 --> 00:38:56,500 All these kind of artefacts can tell us 546 00:38:56,500 --> 00:38:59,380 the story of the daily life 547 00:38:59,380 --> 00:39:02,340 and the religious beliefs of the Golden Boy. 548 00:39:05,420 --> 00:39:09,820 Tutankhamun would have been a sensation in any age, 549 00:39:09,820 --> 00:39:11,980 but, in 1922, 550 00:39:11,980 --> 00:39:15,020 he set the world alight. 551 00:39:19,620 --> 00:39:21,820 World War I was over. 552 00:39:22,860 --> 00:39:26,180 # Wah wah! It was party time! 553 00:39:27,340 --> 00:39:28,940 # Wah wah... # 554 00:39:28,940 --> 00:39:34,420 Youth and dazzling wealth made Tut the perfect Jazz Age celebrity. 555 00:39:34,420 --> 00:39:36,860 The New York Times, 556 00:39:36,860 --> 00:39:40,540 February 18th, 1923. 557 00:39:40,540 --> 00:39:43,540 "There is only one topic of conversation. 558 00:39:43,540 --> 00:39:47,020 "One cannot escape the name of Tutankhamun anywhere. 559 00:39:47,020 --> 00:39:51,500 "It is shouted in the streets, whispered in the hotels." 560 00:39:52,580 --> 00:39:55,220 Egypt became a global craze. 561 00:39:56,620 --> 00:40:00,820 And against all the odds, Howard Carter had made it. 562 00:40:04,700 --> 00:40:07,580 But his work had only just begun. 563 00:40:11,660 --> 00:40:14,100 Before he removed anything from the tomb, 564 00:40:14,100 --> 00:40:17,260 he recorded each artefact with meticulous care. 565 00:40:24,940 --> 00:40:30,460 I asked the curators for a closer view of my favourite object. 566 00:40:30,460 --> 00:40:31,460 Wow. 567 00:40:33,140 --> 00:40:34,900 Amazing. 568 00:40:36,180 --> 00:40:39,220 It was designed to be worn by the pharaoh. 569 00:40:40,860 --> 00:40:43,020 Up in that disc at the top, 570 00:40:43,020 --> 00:40:46,220 you can see a tiny version of Tutankhamun. 571 00:40:48,340 --> 00:40:51,700 The centrepiece - the scarab beetle. 572 00:40:55,140 --> 00:40:57,740 The reason that scarab is so significant 573 00:40:57,740 --> 00:41:00,980 isn't just for its symbolism. It's for what it's made of. 574 00:41:00,980 --> 00:41:05,820 That beautiful yellow stone in the centre 575 00:41:05,820 --> 00:41:08,860 is one of the rarest stones on the planet. 576 00:41:08,860 --> 00:41:12,540 It is Libyan desert glass. 577 00:41:12,540 --> 00:41:14,980 And it was created 578 00:41:14,980 --> 00:41:20,260 when a meteorite hit the Earth, roughly 26 million years ago. 579 00:41:20,260 --> 00:41:24,340 What was it doing in the tomb of Tutankhamun? 580 00:41:24,340 --> 00:41:27,460 It's not found in any other Egyptian artworks. 581 00:41:28,380 --> 00:41:33,940 We'll never know, but the Ancient Egyptians understood how rare it was. 582 00:41:33,940 --> 00:41:39,340 And that's why they used it to offer this protection to their young pharaoh. 583 00:41:40,340 --> 00:41:43,620 These treasures made him immortal. 584 00:41:46,620 --> 00:41:49,300 George Carnarvon had spent a fortune. 585 00:41:49,300 --> 00:41:54,180 To recoup, he did an exclusive deal with the London Times. 586 00:41:54,180 --> 00:41:57,620 Nonetheless, the global press descended on Egypt. 587 00:41:59,820 --> 00:42:02,700 The pressure on Howard was enormous. 588 00:42:02,700 --> 00:42:05,340 His only protection was George. 589 00:42:06,940 --> 00:42:09,180 Then, disaster struck. 590 00:42:12,380 --> 00:42:17,140 It all happened here in the bathroom of the Royal Suite at the Winter Palace. 591 00:42:18,140 --> 00:42:20,900 Lord Carnarvon had been bitten by a mosquito 592 00:42:20,900 --> 00:42:23,060 and then later, when he was shaving, 593 00:42:23,060 --> 00:42:26,460 he opened up the wound and it became infected. 594 00:42:27,500 --> 00:42:31,820 Very soon, Lord Carnarvon was dead from blood poisoning. 595 00:42:35,020 --> 00:42:37,860 Just four months after the tomb was opened, 596 00:42:37,860 --> 00:42:41,380 Howard had lost his patron and friend. 597 00:42:43,580 --> 00:42:46,620 My amazing great-grandmother has flown out in a de Havilland plane, 598 00:42:46,620 --> 00:42:51,060 with a doctor. Gosh. She was the great nursing, medical expert. 599 00:42:51,060 --> 00:42:54,300 To be with him. It wasn't enough to save him. 600 00:42:54,300 --> 00:42:58,380 He even said a few hours beforehand, "I feel I'm, you know..." 601 00:42:58,380 --> 00:43:02,220 He had this terrible thing of dying in the hour of his triumph. 602 00:43:05,260 --> 00:43:07,340 Disaster number two. 603 00:43:07,340 --> 00:43:11,340 The whole of the world's press were also gathered here at the Winter Palace, 604 00:43:11,340 --> 00:43:13,620 and they were turning on Carter. 605 00:43:14,580 --> 00:43:18,060 Lord Carnarvon's death provided them with the perfect opportunity. 606 00:43:18,060 --> 00:43:21,300 The curse of Tutankhamun was born. 607 00:43:24,140 --> 00:43:30,300 The rest of the media was furious at being excluded from the world's biggest story, 608 00:43:30,300 --> 00:43:34,300 so the American press simply made one up. 609 00:43:38,180 --> 00:43:41,980 It's a great story because the pharaohs always said 610 00:43:41,980 --> 00:43:44,900 that anyone was cursed who breaks into a tomb. 611 00:43:44,900 --> 00:43:47,860 And the cobra was everywhere, symbolically protecting. 612 00:43:49,740 --> 00:43:51,900 The truth was more routine. 613 00:43:53,340 --> 00:43:57,380 I'm afraid it's really the fact that he was not the strongest physical character 614 00:43:57,380 --> 00:43:59,380 because of his general sort of shape 615 00:43:59,380 --> 00:44:03,420 and it was just appallingly bad... bad luck, really. 616 00:44:05,500 --> 00:44:10,420 George's own cine camera captured the last footage of him alive. 617 00:44:13,980 --> 00:44:16,180 The curse was an invention, 618 00:44:16,180 --> 00:44:18,620 but Howard was alone again, 619 00:44:18,620 --> 00:44:23,460 left to manage personal grief on top of professional stress. 620 00:44:25,300 --> 00:44:27,980 Political change was under way. 621 00:44:27,980 --> 00:44:32,220 The Egyptian authorities were breaking free of British control 622 00:44:32,220 --> 00:44:35,460 and insisting on oversight of Carter's work. 623 00:44:35,460 --> 00:44:38,500 The pressures were reaching breaking point. 624 00:44:41,820 --> 00:44:44,780 Finally, Howard lost it completely, 625 00:44:44,780 --> 00:44:49,260 posting a public notice in the lobby of the Winter Palace Hotel. 626 00:44:52,580 --> 00:44:57,020 "All my collaborators, in protest, have refused to work. 627 00:44:57,020 --> 00:45:00,260 "After the press view of the tomb, between ten o'clock and noon, 628 00:45:00,260 --> 00:45:04,260 "the tomb will be closed and no further work will be carried out. 629 00:45:04,260 --> 00:45:06,540 "Signed, Howard Carter." 630 00:45:06,540 --> 00:45:09,540 In other words, "I'm not playing any more. 631 00:45:09,540 --> 00:45:11,820 "I'm taking my ball and going home." 632 00:45:15,620 --> 00:45:19,580 Howard and George had expected to keep half the treasures. 633 00:45:19,580 --> 00:45:21,540 Those days were gone. 634 00:45:21,540 --> 00:45:24,540 Egypt insisted everything must stay. 635 00:45:24,540 --> 00:45:28,900 But Howard could continue to run the excavation. 636 00:45:28,900 --> 00:45:31,540 He was the right man for the next step - 637 00:45:31,540 --> 00:45:34,500 revealing the body of Tutankhamun. 638 00:45:39,460 --> 00:45:43,660 This is as close as I can get to his experience. 639 00:45:44,540 --> 00:45:46,740 I can't believe this is happening! 640 00:45:49,220 --> 00:45:51,500 As the last shroud was rolled back, 641 00:45:51,500 --> 00:45:54,380 a gasp of wonderment escaped our lips, 642 00:45:54,380 --> 00:45:58,620 so gorgeous was the sight that met our eyes. 643 00:45:58,620 --> 00:46:03,820 The lid of a series of three coffins, nested one within the other, 644 00:46:03,820 --> 00:46:06,460 enclosing the mortal remains 645 00:46:06,460 --> 00:46:09,260 of the young King Tutankhamun. 646 00:46:11,860 --> 00:46:13,860 I didn't think I'd get emotional. 647 00:46:14,860 --> 00:46:17,260 I can't believe I'm stood here by this. 648 00:46:18,340 --> 00:46:21,180 It feels such an honour. I just can't believe I'm... 649 00:46:21,180 --> 00:46:23,220 ..having this experience. 650 00:46:23,220 --> 00:46:26,660 I used to dream about Ancient Egypt as a girl. 651 00:46:29,940 --> 00:46:32,260 Among all that regal splendour, 652 00:46:32,260 --> 00:46:35,660 everywhere the glint of gold. 653 00:46:38,780 --> 00:46:41,620 Tutankhamun's innermost coffin 654 00:46:41,620 --> 00:46:44,220 is 110kg 655 00:46:44,220 --> 00:46:46,700 of solid gold. 656 00:46:46,700 --> 00:46:52,740 There's this delicate feathering that runs all over it. 657 00:46:52,740 --> 00:46:56,020 You've got the protective goddesses 658 00:46:56,020 --> 00:46:58,940 covering the body with their wings. 659 00:46:58,940 --> 00:47:01,900 Then the winged vulture and cobra, 660 00:47:01,900 --> 00:47:05,460 covering his chest, protecting him. 661 00:47:05,460 --> 00:47:07,780 And then, all the way up, 662 00:47:07,780 --> 00:47:10,140 these delicately-carved feathers, 663 00:47:10,140 --> 00:47:15,660 they curve right behind and embrace the body of the pharaoh. 664 00:47:17,780 --> 00:47:21,380 There's so many incredible details that I can only see 665 00:47:21,380 --> 00:47:23,620 now I'm so close to it. 666 00:47:23,620 --> 00:47:27,300 It's unbelievably, beautifully worked. 667 00:47:27,300 --> 00:47:31,940 The way the light just bounces off. It's breathtaking. 668 00:47:33,860 --> 00:47:36,860 Howard Carter had gone through so much 669 00:47:36,860 --> 00:47:41,700 and, ultimately, this was the very last obstacle 670 00:47:41,700 --> 00:47:45,540 between him and Tutankhamun himself. 671 00:47:48,620 --> 00:47:50,500 Or so he thought. 672 00:47:50,500 --> 00:47:55,060 In fact, the body was covered in rock-hard resin. 673 00:47:59,420 --> 00:48:03,220 Howard's emergency solution is pretty shocking. 674 00:48:04,900 --> 00:48:07,540 In order to remove the mummy, 675 00:48:07,540 --> 00:48:10,780 and the bracelets that were attached to it, 676 00:48:10,780 --> 00:48:15,500 they ended up having to use hot knives and chisels 677 00:48:15,500 --> 00:48:20,500 and take the body out, piece by piece, limb by limb. 678 00:48:21,900 --> 00:48:23,540 Until, eventually, 679 00:48:24,580 --> 00:48:26,500 all that was left 680 00:48:26,500 --> 00:48:30,540 was the great gold mask and Tutankhamun's head. 681 00:48:38,860 --> 00:48:40,660 They then... 682 00:48:40,660 --> 00:48:45,700 ..carefully reconstructed the body, bit by bit, 683 00:48:47,140 --> 00:48:49,540 so it could be placed back in the tomb. 684 00:48:52,020 --> 00:48:55,260 To satisfy 20th-century curiosity, 685 00:48:55,260 --> 00:48:59,900 Tutankhamun was stripped of all his divine protection, 686 00:48:59,900 --> 00:49:01,620 and autopsied. 687 00:49:01,620 --> 00:49:03,980 He was 19. 688 00:49:10,100 --> 00:49:12,900 He was just a couple of years older than my son. 689 00:49:20,060 --> 00:49:23,300 I've set up a meeting here at the Winter Palace 690 00:49:23,300 --> 00:49:27,580 to try and get to the bottom of one of the biggest Tut mysteries - 691 00:49:27,580 --> 00:49:29,700 how did he die? 692 00:49:33,620 --> 00:49:37,540 In 1968, a series of X-rays showed 693 00:49:37,540 --> 00:49:40,060 shocking evidence of multiple injuries. 694 00:49:42,820 --> 00:49:47,260 This unleashed decades of speculation on his violent death. 695 00:49:51,380 --> 00:49:54,340 But is his fragile mummy a red herring? 696 00:49:54,340 --> 00:49:59,220 Professor Salima Ikram is an expert on mummification. 697 00:49:59,220 --> 00:50:01,260 OK. I'll see to the tea. 698 00:50:01,260 --> 00:50:03,740 Yes, darling, if you do that... OK. 699 00:50:03,740 --> 00:50:06,340 ..I will open up this lovely portfolio. 700 00:50:06,340 --> 00:50:08,180 Here you go. 701 00:50:09,180 --> 00:50:11,740 So this is the leg. Uh-huh. 702 00:50:11,740 --> 00:50:14,820 Can you see over here? Yeah. There's a little bit of a cracking here. 703 00:50:14,820 --> 00:50:18,140 And people have been talking about he was thrown from a chariot 704 00:50:18,140 --> 00:50:20,620 or something happened in battle. Right. 705 00:50:20,620 --> 00:50:23,860 Let me remember that one. There's so many! Yeah. 706 00:50:23,860 --> 00:50:26,260 The chest is quite extraordinary over here. Yeah. 707 00:50:26,260 --> 00:50:28,700 But you can see that the ribs are all gone. 708 00:50:28,700 --> 00:50:32,540 Yeah. There's a theory about, "Oh, a hippopotamus bit him," 709 00:50:32,540 --> 00:50:35,020 or a horse kicked him. 710 00:50:35,020 --> 00:50:37,860 Now, that's not very likely with the horse 711 00:50:37,860 --> 00:50:41,300 because, generally, the king would be not that stupid to walk behind a horse. 712 00:50:41,300 --> 00:50:46,220 It seems Tut's famous injuries happened after he died. 713 00:50:47,980 --> 00:50:51,820 During World War II, he was left unguarded in his tomb. 714 00:50:52,860 --> 00:50:55,540 Raiders ripped a necklace from his chest 715 00:50:55,540 --> 00:50:57,740 and shattered his ribs. 716 00:50:57,740 --> 00:50:59,940 There's the famous head. Yeah. 717 00:50:59,940 --> 00:51:02,700 Now what I love here is this bit of bone, 718 00:51:02,700 --> 00:51:07,100 which for a long time was, "Tutankhamun was murdered! 719 00:51:07,100 --> 00:51:10,140 "Someone hit him on the side of his head!" Etc, etc. 720 00:51:10,140 --> 00:51:14,660 So this piece of bone that we can see here, that's disconnected, that's come away? 721 00:51:14,660 --> 00:51:19,020 Yeah, this is, in fact, probably something that happened when they were handling the mummy 722 00:51:19,020 --> 00:51:21,100 afterwards. It has nothing to do with his death. 723 00:51:22,060 --> 00:51:25,380 Howard Carter may well be one of the culprits. 724 00:51:25,380 --> 00:51:29,020 The truth is we'll never know how Tut died, 725 00:51:30,860 --> 00:51:34,900 but since the Jazz Age, the idea of a delicate boy 726 00:51:34,900 --> 00:51:38,980 living a life of luxury has captured our imaginations. 727 00:51:40,140 --> 00:51:42,460 There's still something that... 728 00:51:42,460 --> 00:51:47,340 that seems to stick, which is that Tutankhamun was this poor, fragile little boy. 729 00:51:47,340 --> 00:51:51,660 I think we're projecting a great deal onto him from our modern times 730 00:51:51,660 --> 00:51:55,260 because he was probably relatively robust. 731 00:51:55,260 --> 00:51:58,180 And he wasn't a little boy. He was 19. 732 00:51:58,180 --> 00:52:02,340 And we even know that he was, in fact, a strong, virile man. 733 00:52:02,340 --> 00:52:07,380 So I don't think this poor, pathetic boy thing holds water. 734 00:52:12,540 --> 00:52:16,380 But what about the idea that Tutankhamun was powerless? 735 00:52:18,340 --> 00:52:22,060 Forgotten because he made no mark on Egypt? 736 00:52:24,100 --> 00:52:28,940 These walls commemorate the festival of a great pharaoh. 737 00:52:30,500 --> 00:52:33,660 You see this figure right here coming out of the temple 738 00:52:33,660 --> 00:52:35,660 and going in an incredible procession 739 00:52:35,660 --> 00:52:40,340 all the way to Luxor Temple to celebrate with the people. 740 00:52:40,340 --> 00:52:44,940 We even have drinking songs inviting people to join in in the festival 741 00:52:44,940 --> 00:52:47,500 and we see it in all of the art. 742 00:52:47,500 --> 00:52:52,740 It's now believed this ruler is none other than Tutankhamun. 743 00:52:52,740 --> 00:52:54,940 CHANTING 744 00:52:56,180 --> 00:52:58,340 So, in 2021, 745 00:52:58,340 --> 00:53:01,700 Egypt recreated his festival. 746 00:53:04,300 --> 00:53:08,180 His magnificent reign brought back to life. 747 00:53:11,620 --> 00:53:17,500 Here what we see is the pharaoh Tutankhamun on this sacred barque of one of the gods 748 00:53:17,500 --> 00:53:19,980 in procession on the water. 749 00:53:21,900 --> 00:53:25,980 21st-century Egypt has rediscovered Tut 750 00:53:25,980 --> 00:53:28,460 as a symbol of national pride. 751 00:53:34,940 --> 00:53:39,860 It now seems this god-like statue is the mighty Tutankhamun 752 00:53:39,860 --> 00:53:42,780 complete with a rather splendid collar. 753 00:53:43,900 --> 00:53:47,340 When Howard Carter first opened Tutankhamun's coffin, 754 00:53:47,340 --> 00:53:52,100 an almost identical one was there on the pharaoh's body, 755 00:53:52,100 --> 00:53:56,500 but, unlike the other treasures, it then went missing. 756 00:53:58,860 --> 00:54:01,180 There's a final twist to this tale. 757 00:54:04,380 --> 00:54:07,420 One of the most famous guests at the Winter Palace 758 00:54:07,420 --> 00:54:09,100 was Agatha Christie, 759 00:54:10,580 --> 00:54:13,020 author of Death On The Nile, 760 00:54:13,020 --> 00:54:17,300 starring the great Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. 761 00:54:18,780 --> 00:54:21,260 I'm meeting another detective, 762 00:54:23,380 --> 00:54:26,340 who's been on the trail of the collar thief. 763 00:54:28,740 --> 00:54:31,300 Marc, what's happened to this collar? 764 00:54:31,300 --> 00:54:36,260 What is strange is that there is nothing of this collar, 765 00:54:36,260 --> 00:54:42,820 not any part in Egypt now. So it was a big mystery until very recently. 766 00:54:44,020 --> 00:54:47,220 Howard Carter had made detailed drawings 767 00:54:47,220 --> 00:54:51,620 of every piece of the collar, which should be in Cairo. 768 00:54:51,620 --> 00:54:57,460 So why did Marc spot this item on display in Kansas City, USA? 769 00:54:58,620 --> 00:55:04,180 I was very surprised because it looked very well to the description of Carter. 770 00:55:06,180 --> 00:55:11,900 And why, in 2015, did he see pieces up for auction in London? 771 00:55:13,100 --> 00:55:16,540 You were putting it together in your mind like an Egyptian jigsaw puzzle! 772 00:55:16,540 --> 00:55:18,660 Yes, yes. Yes, yes. 773 00:55:18,660 --> 00:55:22,660 And for this you must have all the information in your brain 774 00:55:22,660 --> 00:55:28,460 because it is the only device that works perfectly for these kind of things. 775 00:55:30,260 --> 00:55:33,580 Marc could now account for much of the missing collar. 776 00:55:34,620 --> 00:55:38,460 And the thief? None other than Howard Carter. 777 00:55:39,980 --> 00:55:45,060 Very often in Howard Carter's life, when he had some choice to do, 778 00:55:46,020 --> 00:55:48,380 he made the wrong choice. 779 00:55:49,460 --> 00:55:52,460 It seems Howard took the parts back to London 780 00:55:52,460 --> 00:55:55,380 hoping, perhaps, to reconstruct them. 781 00:55:57,780 --> 00:56:01,340 Instead, he gave them away to acquaintances. 782 00:56:03,260 --> 00:56:05,940 It was a different time, I suppose. It's very difficult. 783 00:56:05,940 --> 00:56:10,660 100 years after the events, it's difficult to have a judgment. 784 00:56:10,660 --> 00:56:14,180 We can only say, yeah, he should not have. 785 00:56:14,180 --> 00:56:17,060 But it happened. It happened. 786 00:56:20,540 --> 00:56:24,780 Howard gave away at least 24 small objects 787 00:56:24,780 --> 00:56:27,100 that should have stayed in Egypt. 788 00:56:28,660 --> 00:56:32,460 Despite his fame, he cut a lonely figure late in life, 789 00:56:33,540 --> 00:56:37,260 haunting the scenes of his glory at the Winter Palace. 790 00:56:39,380 --> 00:56:41,420 He had no close friends. 791 00:56:44,700 --> 00:56:48,500 But he was always ready to tell strangers the tale of Tutankhamun. 792 00:56:51,580 --> 00:56:54,580 He died in 1939. 793 00:57:02,460 --> 00:57:06,620 It took him ten years to record and remove 794 00:57:06,620 --> 00:57:09,460 all Tutankhamun's treasures from the tomb. 795 00:57:10,500 --> 00:57:12,660 In his attention to detail, 796 00:57:12,660 --> 00:57:16,140 Howard Carter was far ahead of his time. 797 00:57:16,140 --> 00:57:21,220 The details are...mindblowing. 798 00:57:22,420 --> 00:57:24,580 For all his many faults, 799 00:57:24,580 --> 00:57:26,940 he left a great gift to the world. 800 00:57:27,940 --> 00:57:29,180 Ah...! 801 00:57:30,260 --> 00:57:35,660 The last word on Tutankhamun must come from Egypt. 802 00:57:35,660 --> 00:57:40,340 I believe he means how powerful Egypt was at that time. 803 00:57:40,340 --> 00:57:44,420 The sense of the belonging to this land, 804 00:57:44,420 --> 00:57:48,500 being part of this heritage and huge, amazing history. 805 00:57:48,500 --> 00:57:50,700 Like this is the heritage of the world, yes, 806 00:57:50,700 --> 00:57:53,300 but also this is Egypt. 807 00:57:56,460 --> 00:58:00,420 Now, more than ever, the story of these two men 808 00:58:00,420 --> 00:58:03,380 goes far beyond a hunt for treasure. 809 00:58:06,300 --> 00:58:10,580 The archaeology of Ancient Egypt is now in the hands of Egyptians. 810 00:58:10,580 --> 00:58:15,700 And they are constantly adding new chapters to the narrative 811 00:58:15,700 --> 00:58:19,060 that aren't just about pharaohs and treasures. 812 00:58:19,060 --> 00:58:22,820 I won't be taking anything with me from Egypt, 813 00:58:22,820 --> 00:58:27,100 apart from my memories and a sense that Carter's discovery 814 00:58:27,100 --> 00:58:30,060 was only the start of the story.