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Deep in the heart of Egypt...

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..beyond colossal,
magnificent temples...

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..lies a secret,
mountainous valley...

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..hiding some of
the most spectacular

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archaeological finds
the world has ever seen.

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It may look like
a barren desert wilderness,

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but 3,500 years ago, this was
the royal cemetery of the pharaohs,

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the mighty rulers of Ancient Egypt.

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It's known
as the Valley of the Kings.

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Pharaoh after pharaoh
was buried here

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in their own grand,
underground tombs...

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with hoards of priceless golden
treasures...

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..each hoping to rest in peace
for eternity.

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But 200 years ago, the valley
became a battlefield in a gold rush

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between adventurers, robbers,
and nations,

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who raced to find the lost tombs

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and claim that treasure.

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Now, I'm telling
the incredible, cut-throat story

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of the hunt
for the valley's secret riches...

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This is one of
the most gorgeous places

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in all of Egypt.

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Every wall covered in gold.

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..unravelling a tale
with more twists and turns

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than a Hollywood blockbuster.

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With spine-chilling adventures...

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He was scared,
he was so scared.

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..culminating in
the greatest discovery of all time.

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This is the Valley of the Kings.

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Modern-day Cairo.

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Downtown.
The famous Egyptian Museum.

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And pride of place is given

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to the most astounding
archaeological prize

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in all of history.

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The Golden Death Mask of
Tutankhamun.

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So here it is.

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It is the most famous piece of art
ever made.

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It is the most famous and beautiful
archaeological treasure

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ever recovered.

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When I'm this close,

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I realise it's not only
a thing of extraordinary beauty,

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but it is such
a powerful representation

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of the young man himself.

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You feel like you are
in his presence.

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It's breath-taking.

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Tutankhamun was buried
with 5,000 priceless treasures.

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A magnificent coffin,

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a golden throne and caskets.

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For over 3,000 years,

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all were hidden
deep beneath the ground,

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until 1922,

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when they were discovered
buried in a hidden tomb

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in the Valley of the Kings.

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This was the evidence

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of the astonishing wealth
of the Egyptian pharaohs,

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and of the fact
that there WAS gold

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buried beneath those desert sands.

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But this wasn't the start
of some gold rush

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to uncover
the lost treasures of Egypt,

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this was the culmination
of a frenzied century of searching

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in the Valley of the Kings.

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Like a tale out of Indiana Jones.

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300 miles from Cairo,

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the Valley of the Kings
lies across the river Nile

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from the Ancient Egyptian capital
Thebes,

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now modern-day Luxor.

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Thebes was
the land of the living.

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The Valley,
the land of the dead.

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Getting to it, even today,
is an epic journey

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crossing what was
the Theban Mountains,

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finally reaching
one of the most awe-inspiring

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and challenging landscapes
imaginable.

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It's the strangest feeling.

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It's like you're heading
into a barren moonscape,

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just driving straight into the heart
of a desert mountain range.

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You'd never guess what was up ahead.

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Shokran.

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There's nowhere on Earth
like this place.

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I'm just trying to imagine
what it was like

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for those first archaeologists
that came here,

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and all they had to go on
was whispers, a myth,

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about what lay beneath their feet.

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It would have looked
to them...

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Well, just like
a nondescript desert valley.

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Dry, bits of limestone
broken off the cliffs,

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landslides bringing it down,
mounting it up in heaps down here.

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No hint of what was underground.

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It must have been
incredibly exciting.

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For the 3,000 years
after the pharaohs were buried,

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the rubble piled up high
in the valley.

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Most of the valley's tombs
completely disappeared from view.

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The pharaohs and their treasures
lost,

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and buried deep.

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Apart from whispered legends
of hidden gold,

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this rocky gorge appeared
largely empty and forgotten.

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Then, just over 200 years ago,

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something happened.

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WIND RUSTLES

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One of history's most famous
empire builders, Napoleon Bonaparte,

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invaded Egypt.

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Captivated by stories
of the mighty pharaohs,

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his forces entered the valley.

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The rediscovery of
the valley's secrets

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was about to begin.

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To help me understand
what the French explorers found,

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I'm meeting
Valley expert Alia Ismail.

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When Napoleon came into Egypt,

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he came with a very large group
of scientists,

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and they wrote
La Description De L'Egypte,

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which is one of the most amazing
books that history has witnessed,

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and basically that gives us
a record

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of what they saw
with their own eyes.

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I've got a map here,

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and it shows you
how the valley looked

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back in the day.

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So this is one of the maps
from the books?

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Yes.

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It looks
incredibly detailed, doesn't it?

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You can see where we are

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up this little ravine here.

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The Napoleonic Expedition
were actually coming

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to transfer the knowledge
between France and Egypt,

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trying to document
every intricate detail of Egypt.

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Napoleon's team didn't find gold,

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but they did record
12 visible tombs in the valley.

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And their visit had
a far greater impact.

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It quite literally
put the forgotten valley on the map,

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and began a new era.

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From now on, the valley would begin
attracting

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fanatical treasure hunters.

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The pharaohs of Ancient Egypt
had hoped

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to lie here in peace
for eternity,

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but now their secret was out.

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News of Egypt's mysterious valley
travelled fast down the Nile,

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captivating audiences across Europe.

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Suddenly, every nation wanted
a piece of the action,

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and the chance to capture gold
and riches for themselves.

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Britain was no exception.

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In 1817, a rather unusual
and iron-willed treasure hunter

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sailed down the Nile
towards the valley.

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He was Italian by birth,

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but he would become
Britain's secret weapon

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in the battle
for the Valley of the Kings.

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His name...

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Giovanni Belzoni.

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So this is the Great Belzoni.

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Not exactly
the sort of dusty,

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fusty archaeology scholar
that you might expect,

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but a huge man,
6'7" tall.

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As you can see in this picture,
powerfully built,

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barrel-chested,
very charismatic.

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You'd do what this man told you.

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He'd trained as an engineer,

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then done a stint
as a circus strongman.

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Famous for his strength,
and sense of daring,

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he was recruited
by the British Consul in Cairo

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to hunt for treasure.

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His first mission
was just outside the Valley,

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in one of Ancient Egypt's
most magnificent temples,

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the Ramesseum.

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He had been sent to secure
a colossal statue of Ramses,

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the exact twin of this one.

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Together, they'd stood side by side
here in the Ramesseum.

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They weighed
seven and a half tonnes,

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and their beauty meant
that their fame had spread

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to Europe and beyond.

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Napoleon's French team had tried

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to shift
the monumental pair of statues,

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even considering blowing them
out of the sands with explosives,

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but they'd failed.

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Belzoni was determined to succeed.

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Using his previous engineering
skills,

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Giovanni Belzoni
carefully surveyed the statue,

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calculating the scale
of the monumental task.

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His army of workers then levered it
sideways onto a cart...

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..before slowly dragging
the incredible weight

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all the way to the Nile.

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Even the French were impressed.

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At first, Belzoni and the French got
on quite well.

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In fact they asked him to help them
out with a particularly tricky task.

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They wanted to move the sarcophagus,

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the big heavy stone box in
which pharaohs were buried,

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belonging to Ramesses,

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and he did, very successfully.

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Trouble is,
he kept the best bit, the lid,

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for himself and the British.

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That didn't go down at all well,

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and the relationship
between the French and the British

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began to sour.

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Suddenly, archaeological sites
became battle grounds.

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And wherever Giovanni Belzoni
was digging,

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the French sabotaged his work
and stole his finds.

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He decided enough was enough.

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He wanted to go out
and find a remote place

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where he'd be left in peace
by the French.

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And there was one place
that seemed to fit the bill.

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The Valley of the Kings.

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In October 1817,

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after taking advice
from local Egyptians,

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Giovanni Belzoni
began to search the valley.

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He was hoping
that 3,000 years after the pharaohs

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were buried with their treasures,

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he'd discover an intact tomb.

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And incredibly,
he soon found not one

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but two
previously undiscovered tombs.

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Then, on 9th October, 1817,

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he discovered two more
on the same day,

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and the next day, another.

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Five in total.

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None contained treasure.

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But they were definitive proof

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that there were tombs still hidden
within the valley.

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And one of them might just contain
lost riches from Ancient Egypt.

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In the middle of October, 1817...

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..the British team
were hunting harder than ever,

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surveying every inch of the
mountainous gorge,

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Belzoni thumping the ground
with a huge stick,

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hoping for the tell-tale
hollow sound

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of a void beneath the rocks.

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By this time, Belzoni had a few
potential targets in his sights.

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He just had to decide
which one to really go for.

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He had a good think about it,

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and worked out
that one of them felt

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a bit more substantial
than the rest.

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As the sun rose on 16th October,

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he and his diggers
headed deep into the valley...

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..towards the location
he'd chosen.

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When the Egyptian team heard

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about the spot
that Belzoni had chosen,

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they were dismissive.

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They pointed out that
during the rare but heavy downpours

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that afflict
the Valley of the Kings,

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there'd be flood water
rushing straight through it.

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The Ancient Egyptians would never
have chosen that spot.

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But Belzoni ignored them.

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He had a hunch.

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As the team cleared centuries' worth
of rocks and rubble,

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the sweat poured off them.

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They dug and dug,

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for the next 24 hours,

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with barely a break.

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As he cleared away
all the loose debris and spoil,

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he got down to the firmer rock below

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and he saw something
that didn't quite make sense.

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It looked like
it had been shaped by human hands,

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sort of cut away in neat lines.

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He must have thought to himself
at that point,

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could this be
the entrance to a royal tomb?

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Nothing could have prepared him
for what he was about to discover.

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October 18th, 1817,

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in the Valley of Kings.

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The atmosphere was electric.

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The hunt was on for a lost tomb,

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and buried royal treasures.

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An army of 40 diggers
had been attacking the rock face

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for 24 hours,

256
00:14:46,760 --> 00:14:50,000
shifting tonne after tonne
of rubble.

257
00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:53,320
This wasn't easy work.

258
00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:56,080
By lunchtime,
they'd dug nearly 20 foot,

259
00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:58,800
that gaping hole
down there behind me now.

260
00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:03,040
It was exhausting. They must have
been begging for Belzoni to give up.

261
00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:06,440
But he pushed on,
and suddenly something emerged.

262
00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:09,680
They weren't sure
what it was at first.

263
00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:12,800
They cleared more rubble,

264
00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:14,520
the energy levels rising this time.

265
00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:19,440
Until, at last, they exposed a door.

266
00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:21,000
And not just any door.

267
00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:23,920
A magnificent one.

268
00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:29,040
Belzoni had no idea
what he'd find behind the door.

269
00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:33,000
But he was about
to take his first steps

270
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:35,960
into one of the most remarkable
archaeological discoveries

271
00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:37,680
of all time.

272
00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:42,280
The tomb is one of the most famous
ever discovered in the valley,

273
00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:46,520
and it belonged to one of the most
powerful pharaohs of them all.

274
00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:49,520
Seti I.

275
00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:07,560
It's a very different experience
entering this tomb today.

276
00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:11,320
It's solid under foot, I can stand
upright, and it's well-lit.

277
00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:15,560
Belzoni came here in 1817,
clutching a candle,

278
00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:19,200
crawling across mounds of spoil
and broken rock,

279
00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:21,000
close to the ceiling in parts,

280
00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:23,640
hot,
bats whizzing past him.

281
00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:32,360
As he got deeper and deeper,

282
00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:35,000
he could see it was wondrous.

283
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:39,560
He was the first person
possibly in here since 3,500 years.

284
00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:41,280
How exciting must that have been?

285
00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:47,680
And he was seeing glimpses,

286
00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:51,400
the tops of some of the gods
and goddesses and pharaohs,

287
00:16:51,400 --> 00:16:54,360
images just emerging
from the wreckage,

288
00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:56,720
only getting a tantalising glimpse

289
00:16:56,720 --> 00:16:59,480
of the full majesty
of the decoration.

290
00:17:06,280 --> 00:17:09,480
I'm 6'6",
and I can walk through here today.

291
00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:13,760
But the 6'7" Giovanni Belzoni
faced obstacle after obstacle.

292
00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:17,480
Progress would have been
painfully slow.

293
00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:20,160
Every inch he crawled through,
a battle.

294
00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:23,840
But then his descent
became even more dangerous.

295
00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:27,000
The steep shaft suddenly gave way

296
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,880
to a sheer, vertical drop.

297
00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:37,080
Belzoni talks about it
in his account.

298
00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:40,200
He says,
"There was a pit, 30 feet deep,

299
00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:42,200
"the upper part adorned with figures

300
00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:45,560
"from the wall of the passage
to the ceiling."

301
00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:51,560
For a moment,
he was stopped in his tracks.

302
00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:53,760
Another man might have given up.

303
00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:57,720
But he had an idea
that he thought might just work,

304
00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:01,320
and the next morning, he returned.

305
00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:03,080
"By means of a long beam,

306
00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:05,760
"we succeeded in sending a man up
into the aperture..."

307
00:18:05,760 --> 00:18:07,720
which is this bit here,

308
00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:10,040
and they built
a kind of bridge across it.

309
00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:15,680
With the makeshift bridge in place,

310
00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:19,440
he was able to crawl, precariously,
across the shaft,

311
00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:21,280
to the chamber beyond.

312
00:18:22,360 --> 00:18:25,000
And what he found there
was extraordinary.

313
00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:30,480
As he crept deeper,

314
00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:33,320
the tomb became
less and less buried with rubble.

315
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:36,280
Now, at every turn

316
00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:39,840
he encountered another
beautifully decorated passageway,

317
00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:42,120
and another spectacular chamber.

318
00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:45,720
He must have been
completely overwhelmed.

319
00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:57,720
But there was more to come.

320
00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:01,000
As he continued through the tomb,

321
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:03,200
he saw another shaft,

322
00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:05,760
that descended
even deeper into the ground.

323
00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:13,040
To help me appreciate
the wonders that lay ahead,

324
00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:17,440
I'm joined by world-renowned
Egyptologist Salima Ikram.

325
00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:24,200
I want you to imagine
that you are Belzoni... I wish!

326
00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:26,400
..and you've been
crawling down this tomb,

327
00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:28,760
and it's filled with dust, and bats,

328
00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:32,240
and then you've been swinging over
places where there are big chasms,

329
00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:35,840
and you've gone about 450 feet
deep into this mountain,

330
00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:39,200
and now you have come here
and you think, is it almost over?

331
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:42,240
So, you can open your eyes now.

332
00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:46,680
That is astonishing, isn't it?

333
00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:49,240
Every wall covered in gold.

334
00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:52,480
Paintings on every inch.

335
00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:54,280
It's extraordinarily beautiful.

336
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:57,320
This is one of the most gorgeous
places in all of Egypt.

337
00:19:57,320 --> 00:19:59,800
I think it's probably the most
beautiful place in the world.

338
00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:01,320
All of this glittering,

339
00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:04,480
and Belzoni holding
his flaming torch,

340
00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:07,480
and seeing these walls
glimmering with images

341
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:09,360
of the king with the different gods.

342
00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:14,200
Then, with a final few steps,

343
00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:16,320
he could go no further.

344
00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:22,600
He'd at last reached
the climax of the tomb.

345
00:20:24,360 --> 00:20:28,520
The lost burial chamber
of Pharaoh Seti I.

346
00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:31,520
And it was magnificent.

347
00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:39,080
It's incredible. It's like three
stories high, virtually! It's wild!

348
00:20:40,360 --> 00:20:41,920
It's enormous.

349
00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:43,880
And you've got
this beautifully arched roof

350
00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:45,760
which is
sort of the arc of Heaven.

351
00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:50,520
And here you've got
the Egyptian constellations,

352
00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:51,960
beautifully painted,

353
00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:54,600
so the King could be reborn
with the sun,

354
00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:58,080
and then on either side, you've got
these goddesses guarding him,

355
00:20:58,080 --> 00:20:59,760
and funerary texts.

356
00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:04,000
And right in the middle is where
you would have found the king.

357
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:05,360
In his sarcophagus?

358
00:21:05,360 --> 00:21:06,840
That's right,
and in fact,

359
00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,280
Belzoni was very lucky,
because he came here,

360
00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:13,320
and there was a beautiful
Egyptian alabaster sarcophagus.

361
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:16,720
The giant decorated box in which
they placed the body of the king?

362
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:18,880
Yup, that would have been
right there.

363
00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:21,520
And was the king in there?

364
00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:24,960
No, unfortunately he had moved on.

365
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:27,040
Just finding the tomb itself,

366
00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:29,680
it's still one of the
most astonishing discoveries...

367
00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:31,360
virtually of all time.

368
00:21:31,360 --> 00:21:34,400
Well, this was, in fact,
and is, the deepest,

369
00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:37,240
and most decorated
and most beautiful tomb.

370
00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:39,040
So I think, in terms of Egyptology,

371
00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:41,160
this was pretty spectacular.

372
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:46,200
In the journal he kept
of his adventures in Egypt,

373
00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:48,760
Belzoni wrote of
the day on which he found this tomb,

374
00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:53,120
"a fortunate day, one of
the best days, perhaps, in my life.'

375
00:21:53,120 --> 00:21:55,040
And I can well believe it.

376
00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:57,280
And this triumph would be enough
for me,

377
00:21:57,280 --> 00:21:59,040
but for him,
he had even greater ambition.

378
00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:02,480
He wanted to share news
of its discovery with Britain

379
00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:03,920
and the rest of the world.

380
00:22:07,360 --> 00:22:10,600
The discovery
of Seti's magnificent tomb

381
00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:12,920
deep in the Valley of the Kings

382
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:15,120
was about to dazzle the world.

383
00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:18,960
But not everyone was happy

384
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:20,960
with the British successes.

385
00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:25,200
French archaeologists
were furious.

386
00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:27,600
They hated being beaten
by the British.

387
00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:30,120
They were so jealous of Belzoni's
discoveries

388
00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:33,520
that when they stumbled across him
loading up a cargo of his treasures,

389
00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:35,120
they opened fire on him.

390
00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:36,360
TWO GUNSHOTS

391
00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:40,480
He had had enough.

392
00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:43,280
Luxor and the Valley
were simply too dangerous.

393
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:48,120
In September, 1819,

394
00:22:48,120 --> 00:22:50,640
he set sail for Britain.

395
00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:53,600
One of the greatest Egyptologists
of all time

396
00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:55,800
had left the Valley of the Kings,

397
00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:57,400
and he'd never return.

398
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:14,840
In 1820, Belzoni arrived back here
in the UK,

399
00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:18,600
and he put together
a smash hit exhibition.

400
00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:20,960
It was in a building right here.

401
00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:23,280
It's gone now,
so the street's completely changed,

402
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:25,720
but we do have
an image of what it was like,

403
00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:27,760
and look how enticing that is.

404
00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:33,800
An exotic facade advertising the
Egyptian treasures that lay inside.

405
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:37,600
And in that building,
Belzoni, ever the showman,

406
00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:41,400
built a scale model of Seti's tomb.

407
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:45,600
2,000 people visited
on the first day alone.

408
00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:48,040
He had a big success on his hands.

409
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,000
But more importantly,
the discovery of the tomb

410
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,640
and all this publicity
helped to ignite

411
00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:55,040
something called Egypt-mania.

412
00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:59,440
The world was now obsessed
with the Valley of the Kings.

413
00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:05,760
Belzoni's Egyptian adventures
might have been over,

414
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:09,000
but the fierce race
to find gold-filled tombs

415
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:10,920
in the Valley of the Kings

416
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:12,840
was just beginning.

417
00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:21,600
The Valley of the Kings
in the 1820s.

418
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:26,000
For 3,500 years,

419
00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,800
Ancient Egypt's mighty pharaohs
and their legendary treasures

420
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:32,560
lay secret
and hidden here.

421
00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:38,480
But now, the magnificent tomb
of the great Pharaoh Seti I

422
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:40,400
had been
discovered.

423
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:44,480
Suddenly, Egypt
was destination number one

424
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:47,240
for the world's archaeological
treasure seekers.

425
00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:49,040
But surprisingly,

426
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,680
the Valley of the Kings
was remarkably quiet.

427
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,080
This was a very hard place
to get to.

428
00:24:57,080 --> 00:24:59,040
I'm on one of the paths now
that they used,

429
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,640
up and over the mountain range,
in this heat,

430
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:05,520
arriving to a place
where there was no water.

431
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:07,520
This was
a difficult place to survive,

432
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:11,920
let alone carry out
a large-scale archaeological dig.

433
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:13,600
And there's one other thing.

434
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:15,880
Belzoni, the great tomb hunter,

435
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,880
had grandly declared
when he'd found his big royal tomb,

436
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:23,160
that he had emptied
the Valley of the Kings.

437
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:32,280
Once again, the valley was
in danger of being forgotten.

438
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:36,600
But not everyone was put off
by the wild landscape,

439
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:39,760
or Belzoni's wild claim.

440
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:46,360
Enter John Gardner Wilkinson,

441
00:25:46,360 --> 00:25:48,520
an English traveller and explorer.

442
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:53,000
Over 12 years,
Wilkinson scoured the whole of Egypt

443
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:54,560
from top to bottom...

444
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:57,840
..visiting
more Ancient Egyptian sites

445
00:25:57,840 --> 00:25:59,520
than anyone before him.

446
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:02,560
There was nothing on Earth

447
00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:05,720
that would keep him
out of the Valley of the Kings.

448
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,920
I think Wilkinson is
one of the unsung heroes

449
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:16,440
when it comes to the Valley,

450
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:18,800
because he helped to create order
out of chaos.

451
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:26,160
Until now, discoveries in the valley
had been poorly recorded.

452
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:31,600
Wilkinson was determined
to change that.

453
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,400
Wilkinson didn't just explore
every inch of this valley,

454
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:39,880
he used that hard-won research

455
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:43,520
to create a beautiful map
of the valley, which is right here.

456
00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:47,840
And he also created the first
proper, scientific numbering system

457
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:49,360
to identify all the tombs.

458
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:58,520
He designated them each "KV",
meaning "Kings Valley",

459
00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:00,120
followed by a number.

460
00:27:00,120 --> 00:27:02,320
KV 13 here,
which I'm sitting in front of,

461
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,240
KV 14 and 15,
which you can see up there.

462
00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:10,880
Wilkinson began to catalogue
each and every tomb he came across.

463
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:13,160
Under a sultry, burning sun,

464
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:15,800
he explored every inch
of the valley,

465
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:19,560
simply numbering each tomb
in the order that he passed them.

466
00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:21,440
By the time he was done
with the valley,

467
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:24,680
he thought there were 21 identified
tombs,

468
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:27,200
and that gave
a lot of people a lot of hope,

469
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:29,080
because ancient texts had been found

470
00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:32,000
suggesting there were 47 burials
in the valley.

471
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,400
That meant
there were plenty more out there.

472
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,680
Wilkinson's survey was meticulous,

473
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:42,920
but he didn't actually dig
a single new tomb.

474
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,600
It would need someone else
to find out

475
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,040
if the ancient texts were right.

476
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:51,840
Someone prepared to take on
the brutal challenge of the valley

477
00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:54,560
with the passion
to hunt deeper.

478
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:01,720
In the 1890s,

479
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:05,400
around 70 years after Belzoni's
great discovery of Seti's tomb

480
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:08,720
and Wilkinson's map of the valley,

481
00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:10,760
another archaeologist arrived,

482
00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:14,280
determined to discover
lost royal tombs.

483
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:17,480
His name was Victor Loret.

484
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:22,240
The French were back in the hunt.

485
00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:26,840
The Egyptian Government
had made Loret

486
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:29,800
the Chief Superintendent
of Antiquities.

487
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:34,520
This job gave him total control
over who could dig in the valley.

488
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:42,440
The special access soon paid off.

489
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:48,160
Within a few months of arriving,

490
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:51,080
Loret found three tombs.

491
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:55,000
The first to be excavated
in 70 years.

492
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,920
They were all badly robbed.

493
00:28:57,920 --> 00:28:59,960
Then, a month later,

494
00:28:59,960 --> 00:29:02,080
he found another one.

495
00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:12,520
Even today,
approaching this tomb,

496
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:14,320
which is right at the bottom
of this cliff,

497
00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:17,040
there's a sense of foreboding,
a real atmosphere here.

498
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:21,720
Cliffs rise up on either side,
overhanging.

499
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:25,240
But whatever I'm feeling today

500
00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:28,200
was nothing
compared to what Loret experienced.

501
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:33,920
Buried deep into this mountainside

502
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:36,720
was something
that would make his blood run cold.

503
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:42,800
He had no idea what lay ahead of him

504
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:46,960
when he stepped down
into the dark mouth of the tomb.

505
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:54,000
A much more hidden entrance,
I'd say,

506
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:55,520
quite high up in the hillside
as well.

507
00:29:57,600 --> 00:30:00,880
They didn't want
everyone to see where it was. I see.

508
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:04,240
Even for me,

509
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:07,120
the descent into this tomb
is unsettling.

510
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:12,240
For Loret, relying
just on candle light to guide him,

511
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:14,000
it must have been terrifying.

512
00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:18,440
The pitch-black tunnel
that never seemed to end.

513
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:23,000
The steep steps down,
strewn with debris.

514
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:26,480
No warning of what was to come.

515
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:30,680
Here we have this big, deep shaft.

516
00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:32,480
It would have been
pretty terrifying.

517
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:34,960
There would have been no bridge
across it, right? No, nothing.

518
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:39,720
As Loret slowly descended

519
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:42,520
from the shaft
into a cavernous chamber,

520
00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:44,960
he wondered
what on Earth he'd uncovered.

521
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:48,320
The walls were bare.

522
00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:51,680
Could this really be the
resting place of a mighty pharaoh?

523
00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:57,360
It's not really finished,
this one, is it?

524
00:30:57,360 --> 00:30:58,960
It's not very well decorated.

525
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:01,280
You can see,
there's still all the dots

526
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:03,440
from where
they were taking out blocks.

527
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:07,440
But there were
some tantalising clues

528
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:10,000
that someone had been buried here.

529
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:12,880
It was filled with debris,

530
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:15,840
there were statues,
and pieces of gilded wood,

531
00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:18,720
and all kinds of pottery
scattered about.

532
00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:22,360
Loret pushed on,

533
00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:23,800
and then...

534
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:25,800
something remarkable happened.

535
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:28,800
He stepped into a room,

536
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:30,640
and everything changed.

537
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:37,960
DRAMATIC STRINGS

538
00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:54,040
So suddenly we're back in
the world of painted pharaohs

539
00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:55,520
and gods and goddesses.

540
00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:57,000
Yes, it's fantastic,

541
00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:58,840
because you have all of that
plainness,

542
00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:00,280
and suddenly, boom!

543
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:05,360
And then, finally, at the end
of this magnificently-carved room...

544
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:07,960
the prize Loret craved most.

545
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:09,520
A sarcophagus.

546
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:13,960
And so that is
the original sarcophagus?

547
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:17,000
Yep, this is it. Still lying here
at the heart of the tomb.

548
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,200
Intact, here, with its lid.

549
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:20,640
Wow!

550
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:23,400
It was really quite
an extraordinary thing to find

551
00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:25,600
because also...
The body was in there. Yeah.

552
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:27,040
The body was in here.
Brilliant.

553
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:33,680
The grand coffin made Loret certain
the tomb belonged to a king.

554
00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:38,040
He could even read
the pharaoh's name, Amenhotep II,

555
00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:41,200
great-grandfather
of Tutankhamun himself.

556
00:32:42,240 --> 00:32:44,520
But something wasn't right.

557
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:49,120
Amenhotep was not
the only one buried here.

558
00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:53,360
In a corridor
leading off to the side,

559
00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:55,800
Loret glimpsed a small wooden
boat...

560
00:32:57,120 --> 00:32:58,560
..and on it,

561
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:01,040
a sight that shocked him
to his core.

562
00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:04,760
The way he describes it
is terrifying.

563
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:07,880
"The legs and arms were bound,

564
00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:10,160
"a hole exposed in the sternum,

565
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:12,200
"an opening in the skull.

566
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:14,880
"Was this the victim of
human sacrifice?

567
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:17,040
"Was a thief
murdered by his accomplices

568
00:33:17,040 --> 00:33:18,760
"in a bloody division of loot?"

569
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:20,960
You know, you're here crawling
through

570
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:23,720
with this one lamp lighting
your way, or a torch,

571
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:26,400
and then having that face
leap out at you.

572
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:30,920
As he scoured further side chambers,

573
00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:33,320
he found more bodies.

574
00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:35,560
And as he began to examine them,

575
00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:37,680
he noticed something incredible.

576
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:41,760
They all appeared to be royal.

577
00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:46,280
It was a fantastic find,

578
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:50,840
and at first, Loret didn't realise
how extremely important it was.

579
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:52,680
But soon, he figured it out,

580
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:55,120
because there were labels
on these coffins

581
00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:57,400
saying which king it was.

582
00:33:57,400 --> 00:33:58,880
So he suddenly thought,

583
00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:02,560
oh, my God, here we have
half of the royalty of Egypt.

584
00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:07,560
Loret had unearthed
one of the Valley of the Kings'

585
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:09,760
most significant finds so far.

586
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:14,240
A secret hiding place,
known as a royal cache,

587
00:34:14,240 --> 00:34:17,600
where the mummified remains of
the pharaohs and their families

588
00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:20,120
had been hidden
far from their own tombs,

589
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:22,040
to keep them safe.

590
00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:24,040
Loret's discoveries
may have been gruesome,

591
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:26,560
but they showed there were still
plenty of treasures to be found

592
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:28,120
in the Valley of the Kings.

593
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:30,480
News spread all over the world
like wildfire.

594
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:31,960
Problem was,

595
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:34,680
it wouldn't just be archaeologists
that would be lured here.

596
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:41,160
On November 24th, 1901,

597
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:43,960
three and half years
after Loret had discovered it,

598
00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:46,280
the tomb was robbed.

599
00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:49,200
Its precious contents were taken,

600
00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:52,120
including all the royal mummies.

601
00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:56,520
Some of the greatest finds
in the Valley had been lost.

602
00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:59,760
No-one knew
if they'd ever be seen again.

603
00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:07,680
But an Englishman
had recently arrived in Egypt,

604
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:10,000
and soon, he'd be on their trail.

605
00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:12,520
He would go on to become

606
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:14,680
perhaps the greatest tomb hunter
of all time.

607
00:35:15,720 --> 00:35:17,640
Howard Carter.

608
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:24,600
120 years ago,
in the Valley of the Kings,

609
00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:26,440
the atmosphere was tense.

610
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,920
In 1901,
at the dawn of the new century,

611
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:33,080
a catastrophe occurred.

612
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:36,040
The mysterious tomb of Amenhotep II,

613
00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:38,640
discovered just
three and a half years earlier,

614
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:40,560
was broken into.

615
00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:44,160
All of its precious contents,
stolen.

616
00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:52,280
To this day,
no-one knows exactly what happened.

617
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:54,080
Were the guards overpowered,

618
00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:57,120
or were they simply
paid to look the other way?

619
00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:59,200
One thing was for certain,

620
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:01,160
an investigation
would have to be launched,

621
00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:03,280
and the treasure
and mummies recovered.

622
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:09,600
Enter Howard Carter,
an English Egyptologist

623
00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:13,120
who would become the most successful
tomb hunter of them all.

624
00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:17,240
At the time,

625
00:36:17,240 --> 00:36:21,120
Carter was working as
the local archaeological inspector.

626
00:36:21,120 --> 00:36:24,080
He'd always dreamt
of digging inside the Valley,

627
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:26,480
and finding a lost royal tomb.

628
00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:30,640
If he was able to find out what
had happened to the royal mummies...

629
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:34,560
..he might just get the chance.

630
00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:40,360
Well, finding the robbers was easier
than Carter had imagined.

631
00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:45,240
Carter had the advantage
of knowing the local area,

632
00:36:45,240 --> 00:36:48,120
and two suspects
were already on his radar.

633
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:51,360
Mohammed and Ahmed Abd-El Rassul.

634
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:14,760
Ten years before,
another tomb had been robbed.

635
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:16,480
Shortly after,

636
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:20,760
precious ancient treasures
and papyri began turning up

637
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:23,320
on sale here
in the Luxor market.

638
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:28,040
Around that time, people started
noticing

639
00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:31,800
that the Adb-El Rassul brothers
were suddenly, inexplicably,

640
00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:33,280
extremely wealthy.

641
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:38,920
In the valley, Carter had
investigated the crime scene.

642
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:41,200
The robbers had been careless,

643
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:43,320
leaving their footprints
in the sand.

644
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:47,680
Carter took photos for evidence,

645
00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:50,400
and paid a professional tracker
to hunt them down.

646
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:53,880
They followed the trail,

647
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:57,400
and, surprise surprise,
it led straight to the house

648
00:37:57,400 --> 00:37:59,760
of the
Abd-El Rassul brothers.

649
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:02,560
They broke in,
and there were the mummies

650
00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:04,800
and the precious treasures.

651
00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:06,440
Carter recovered them,

652
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:09,160
and in doing so,
he became quite the hero.

653
00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:20,440
After recovering the mummies
and treasures from Amenhotep's tomb,

654
00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:24,200
Carter could now focus on
digging in the valley himself.

655
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:30,120
But then, everything went wrong.

656
00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:34,840
15 miles from Cairo,

657
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,760
some tourists
forced their way into another tomb,

658
00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:40,240
near the Saqqara Pyramids.

659
00:38:40,240 --> 00:38:42,600
Carter wanted them punished.

660
00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:47,560
Carter wanted to
throw the book at them.

661
00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:48,800
Rules were rules.

662
00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:51,400
But these tourists seem
to have friends in high places,

663
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:54,200
and Carter was encouraged
to let them off.

664
00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:57,560
He was furious,
and he handed in his resignation.

665
00:38:58,720 --> 00:39:02,080
Without his job,
Carter had no reliable income.

666
00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:03,720
But worse,

667
00:39:03,720 --> 00:39:07,400
he no longer had the permission
to dig in the Valley of the Kings.

668
00:39:08,600 --> 00:39:12,480
He was no longer a big figure in
the world of Egyptian archaeology,

669
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:17,360
so he got by, selling ancient
collectables to foreign visitors,

670
00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:19,120
and a few of his own paintings.

671
00:39:19,120 --> 00:39:23,760
It looked like his dream of
finding that new tomb in the valley

672
00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:25,200
was over.

673
00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:33,080
But, back in Britain,
2,500 miles away,

674
00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:35,920
someone was about to come
to Carter's rescue.

675
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:40,480
Ensconced in one of the country's
most famous stately homes,

676
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:42,360
Highclere Castle,

677
00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:45,840
was a man equally obsessed
with the Valley.

678
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:48,920
Lord George Herbert Carnarvon.

679
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:53,240
Lady Fiona Carnarvon
has been researching

680
00:39:53,240 --> 00:39:55,800
her forebear's fascination with it.

681
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:58,440
His passion in life was Egypt.

682
00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:00,960
He had a working knowledge
of a little bit of Arabic

683
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:03,680
and he had some knowledge
of hieroglyphics.

684
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:05,560
But he knew where he needed help,

685
00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:08,560
so that's what his money,
his passion,

686
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:11,080
and his commitment to it
could do.

687
00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:12,640
He was unconventional,

688
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:16,320
so he wasn't afraid to go somewhere
different, or try somewhere

689
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:19,120
where everybody said
it wasn't going to work.

690
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:21,320
He always wore that lucky hat
with the white brim,

691
00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:23,520
so you can always spot him
in photographs in Egypt.

692
00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:25,360
Well, it, er,
certainly delivered the luck.

693
00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:36,840
In 1907, Lord Carnarvon sailed
to Luxor, Egypt,

694
00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:39,760
on a mission
to hunt for lost tombs and treasure.

695
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:44,600
He set himself up in luxury
on the banks of the River Nile.

696
00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:50,240
Carnarvon headed straight here,
the Winter Palace Hotel.

697
00:40:50,240 --> 00:40:52,000
Fairly plush, isn't it?

698
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:54,200
In fact, when he was here,
it was also brand-new.

699
00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:56,080
It opened
just a couple of years before.

700
00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:59,480
It shows how the discoveries of
the Valley of the Kings

701
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:03,920
were attracting the world's great,
and good, and certainly very rich.

702
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:07,520
Carnarvon had money,

703
00:41:07,520 --> 00:41:10,320
but he now needed to find
a local expert,

704
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:12,200
before he could start digging.

705
00:41:12,200 --> 00:41:14,840
And, after asking around,

706
00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:16,960
one name cropped up.

707
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:19,640
Howard Carter.

708
00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:24,000
It didn't take much conversation

709
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:28,640
for them both to realise this could
be a match made in heaven.

710
00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:31,520
Carnarvon had power and wealth,

711
00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:34,320
Carter had knowledge and expertise,

712
00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:37,480
and they both burned
with an unstoppable passion.

713
00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:42,240
What happened here that day
was the start of the most famous

714
00:41:42,240 --> 00:41:44,760
archaeological partnership
in history.

715
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:50,040
Immediately after the meeting,

716
00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:53,160
Carnarvon and Carter began to work.

717
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:54,880
But they had a problem.

718
00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:59,360
They couldn't actually dig
in the valley itself,

719
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:02,240
and were forced to explore
the hills around it.

720
00:42:02,240 --> 00:42:06,280
The Egyptian Archaeological Service
only issued

721
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:10,800
one licence to dig in the Valley of
the Kings at any one time.

722
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:13,520
And for the moment,
the wealthy American,

723
00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:18,080
Theodore Davis, clutched
that coveted licence in his hands,

724
00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:19,960
and he wasn't going to let go of it
anytime soon.

725
00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:24,960
Theodore Davis
was a rich, retired lawyer.

726
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:27,040
Just like Carter and Carnarvon,

727
00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:29,360
he was obsessed with the promise
of buried tombs

728
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:31,440
and golden treasures.

729
00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:33,880
Davis took
a bit of a bulldozer approach

730
00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:35,840
to finding new tombs here
in the valley,

731
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:39,840
But on one level, that heavy-handed
method certainly paid off.

732
00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:43,840
He almost doubled
the number of tombs known about

733
00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:45,640
in the Valley of the Kings.

734
00:42:45,640 --> 00:42:48,960
But all the new ones he found
had been badly looted.

735
00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:55,480
By 1913,
Davis had excavated nearly 30 tombs.

736
00:42:56,520 --> 00:43:01,120
Now, a total of 61 tombs
had been identified in the valley,

737
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:04,840
more even than the ancient texts
had promised.

738
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,040
But despite his years of trying,

739
00:43:07,040 --> 00:43:10,360
an intact, treasure-filled tomb
remained elusive.

740
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:13,880
And bit by bit,
Davis was losing heart.

741
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:17,920
Carter and Carnarvon had been
digging around the valley

742
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:19,440
for five years,

743
00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:23,400
circling like vultures
waiting for their chance to swoop.

744
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:25,680
Then came the news
they'd been waiting for.

745
00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:27,880
Davis had grown old,
and he had lost his patience

746
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:30,240
with the Valley of the Kings.
He was giving up!

747
00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:34,360
Carter and Carnarvon
immediately snapped up

748
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:36,560
the permit to dig in the valley.

749
00:43:36,560 --> 00:43:39,600
Carnarvon had even
built Carter a house

750
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:42,040
to serve as
an archaeological base,

751
00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:44,320
and make sure Carter could
stay focused on the mission.

752
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:49,080
So this is Howard Carter's house,
his mud brick HQ.

753
00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:50,640
I think it says a lot about the man.

754
00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:53,000
While the other archaeologists
are living in fancy hotels

755
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:54,400
down by the Nile,

756
00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:56,720
he's set up shop so close
to the Valley of the Kings,

757
00:43:56,720 --> 00:43:58,680
just over those slopes there.

758
00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:01,040
Any closer,
he'd be sleeping in a tomb!

759
00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:05,160
Carter was now obsessed,

760
00:44:05,160 --> 00:44:07,560
spending the entire dig season
day and night

761
00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:09,320
between the house and the valley.

762
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:12,120
Nothing was going to stop him
finding his tomb.

763
00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:17,400
Carter felt certain that there was
another pharaoh buried in here.

764
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:20,880
What's more, he believed
that pharaoh's tomb was intact,

765
00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:24,480
and still filled
with its royal treasures.

766
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:26,680
Carter even thought
he knew the name

767
00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:29,200
of the pharaoh
whose tomb he was looking for.

768
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:32,480
A little-known ruler called
Tutankhamun.

769
00:44:33,720 --> 00:44:35,960
Eight years earlier,

770
00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:40,760
Theodore Davis had discovered
a pit full of mummification items.

771
00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:43,480
And on one of them,
the name of a pharaoh,

772
00:44:43,480 --> 00:44:45,320
Tutankhamun.

773
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:47,560
But no tomb had been discovered.

774
00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:52,160
In the vast valley,

775
00:44:52,160 --> 00:44:57,240
the idea of locating a single,
specific tomb seemed crazy.

776
00:44:57,240 --> 00:44:59,200
But armed with their permit,

777
00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:01,680
Carter and Carnarvon began the hunt.

778
00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:10,720
For the next seven years, every year
they investigated a new area,

779
00:45:10,720 --> 00:45:13,160
their hunt increasingly desperate.

780
00:45:15,400 --> 00:45:18,480
When his predecessor Davis had been
digging here in the valley,

781
00:45:18,480 --> 00:45:23,200
he'd had the remarkable hit rate of
averaging one new tomb every year.

782
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:27,000
In fact, in one year alone, 1905,
he'd found six.

783
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:30,320
But in all the time
Carter had been digging here,

784
00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:33,040
he'd found zero.

785
00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:39,040
After seven long years, Carter still
had nothing to show for his work...

786
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:41,160
except the mounting costs.

787
00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:46,760
As you can imagine, his patron,
his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon,

788
00:45:46,760 --> 00:45:50,080
was running a little bit short
of money and patience.

789
00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:59,360
Carter was summoned back
to Highclere Castle.

790
00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:02,800
Enough was enough.

791
00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:05,320
Carnarvon had decided
to call it a day.

792
00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:12,560
Desperate,
Carter pleaded for one more chance.

793
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:15,480
He even offered
to pay for the work himself.

794
00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:18,040
It wasn't a very realistic offer,

795
00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:20,320
but somehow, it did the trick.

796
00:46:22,240 --> 00:46:24,400
Carnarvon was so impressed
by his passion

797
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:25,840
that he made a deal.

798
00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:28,040
He'd fund one more dig.

799
00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:32,480
It would be Carter and Carnarvon's
final throw of the dice.

800
00:46:39,240 --> 00:46:41,600
In November, 1922,

801
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:44,040
Carter was back in Luxor.

802
00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:47,880
He prepared to start digging
once again for Tutankhamun's tomb,

803
00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:49,760
and its lost treasure.

804
00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:55,640
I can just imagine
the pressure that Carter was under.

805
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:57,640
Time was now against him.

806
00:46:57,640 --> 00:46:59,960
There was no more room for mistakes.

807
00:46:59,960 --> 00:47:02,960
He had to choose the right spot.

808
00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:08,960
Then he had a brainwave.

809
00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:10,960
In all the time he'd been digging,

810
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:13,200
he'd ignored one spot.

811
00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:16,640
And thinking about it,

812
00:47:16,640 --> 00:47:18,240
it was an obvious target.

813
00:47:19,240 --> 00:47:21,160
The pit that Davis had found

814
00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:24,400
containing the embalming objects
with Tutankhamun's name on it

815
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:26,240
was somewhere round here,

816
00:47:26,240 --> 00:47:29,120
and no-one had thought about
excavating over here

817
00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:31,400
because it was right next
to the mouth of a tomb

818
00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:33,040
belonging to Ramesses,

819
00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:35,000
and the Ancient Egyptian builders
of that tomb

820
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:37,840
had covered this area
with their spoil,

821
00:47:37,840 --> 00:47:39,840
and no-one had thought
it was worthwhile

822
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:41,600
checking underneath that...

823
00:47:41,600 --> 00:47:43,200
until now.

824
00:47:49,720 --> 00:47:52,560
Carter and his team
started digging once again.

825
00:47:54,320 --> 00:47:57,280
It was slow, back-breaking work.

826
00:47:57,280 --> 00:48:01,800
The entire mission was riding
on Carter's flash of inspiration.

827
00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:05,560
Day one, nothing.

828
00:48:06,520 --> 00:48:08,640
Day two, nothing.

829
00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:12,920
And then suddenly, on day three,

830
00:48:12,920 --> 00:48:14,800
there was a breakthrough.

831
00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:19,480
What happened next
is the stuff of legend.

832
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:20,960
But it was an accident.

833
00:48:20,960 --> 00:48:23,080
It wasn't really
even down to Carter.

834
00:48:25,720 --> 00:48:28,840
A 12 year old boy, Hussein Rassoul,

835
00:48:28,840 --> 00:48:31,280
was employed on site
as a water carrier.

836
00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:35,600
He was about to do something
that would change history.

837
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:43,240
On November 4th, Hussein put
one of his big flasks of water

838
00:48:43,240 --> 00:48:46,160
down on the ground,
and accidentally knocked it over.

839
00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:49,560
Now rather than pooling
on the rock a bit like this,

840
00:48:49,560 --> 00:48:51,720
it seeped into the ground,

841
00:48:51,720 --> 00:48:54,160
suggesting there was a void below.

842
00:48:59,320 --> 00:49:00,880
Carter was ecstatic.

843
00:49:00,880 --> 00:49:03,160
This happy accident
had given him hope

844
00:49:03,160 --> 00:49:06,800
that Tutankhamun's tomb
might be within his grasp at last.

845
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:10,800
He immediately set his team to work.

846
00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:14,440
After two long days
of clearing rubble,

847
00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:15,680
spirits had been flagging.

848
00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:18,200
But this discovery had been

849
00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:20,480
the injection of energy
everyone needed.

850
00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:25,240
Then, in a matter of mere hours,

851
00:49:25,240 --> 00:49:26,960
they discovered something.

852
00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:30,760
I've got
a copy of Carter's personal diary

853
00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:33,960
for that fateful day
of 4th November, 1922.

854
00:49:33,960 --> 00:49:36,680
No regular, neat little notes here.

855
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:39,360
Instead, just one sentence
dashed off any old how

856
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:40,720
across the page.

857
00:49:40,720 --> 00:49:43,160
"First steps of tomb found."

858
00:49:43,160 --> 00:49:44,760
You can feel his excitement here!

859
00:49:44,760 --> 00:49:46,600
He doesn't have time
to write things down.

860
00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:48,600
He wants to get on
with the job of finding

861
00:49:48,600 --> 00:49:50,560
the rest of Tutankhamun's tomb.

862
00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:55,360
Over the next few hours,
more rubble was removed.

863
00:49:55,360 --> 00:49:58,120
It was clear
that the steps continued down.

864
00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:00,080
And then, suddenly,

865
00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:01,560
something appeared.

866
00:50:01,560 --> 00:50:04,920
It looked like
the blocked door of a tomb.

867
00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:06,960
The door was still sealed,

868
00:50:06,960 --> 00:50:09,160
and on those seals was a name.

869
00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:12,880
A name that he had been
hoping to see for years.

870
00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:15,360
The name of Tutankhamun.

871
00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:19,440
Before Carter could open them,

872
00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:23,000
he had to wait for Lord Carnarvon
to travel out from England.

873
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:27,280
He had no idea
what lay behind those sealed doors.

874
00:50:36,920 --> 00:50:39,440
November, 1922.

875
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:45,040
The Valley of the Kings
was eerily quiet.

876
00:50:46,160 --> 00:50:48,200
Digging had temporarily stopped,

877
00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:51,960
and the feeling of anticipation
was almost unbearable.

878
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:55,720
After so many years of failure
and disappointment,

879
00:50:55,720 --> 00:50:59,120
Howard Carter believed he
had finally found the entrance

880
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:02,080
to the tomb of
Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

881
00:51:03,400 --> 00:51:05,240
He was convinced this was the one.

882
00:51:05,240 --> 00:51:07,440
This was the valley's Holy Grail.

883
00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:10,480
An undisturbed pharaoh's tomb

884
00:51:10,480 --> 00:51:13,720
filled with unimaginable gold
and treasures.

885
00:51:15,920 --> 00:51:19,120
But for now, Carter was holed up
in his dig house,

886
00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:21,440
waiting three miserable weeks

887
00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:23,640
while his sponsor,
Lord Carnarvon,

888
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:27,200
travelled the 2,500 miles by ship
from England.

889
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:37,040
Finally, on November 20th,

890
00:51:37,040 --> 00:51:40,600
Carter received the news
that Carnarvon had arrived in Cairo,

891
00:51:40,600 --> 00:51:42,520
and he was heading down the Nile.

892
00:51:45,920 --> 00:51:47,600
Carter was all set.

893
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:50,360
In the valley,
everything was prepped and ready.

894
00:51:57,880 --> 00:51:59,360
On November 24th,

895
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:02,680
Carnarvon and Carter made their way
to the unopened tomb.

896
00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:08,680
But almost instantly,

897
00:52:08,680 --> 00:52:11,760
as they came down
the top steps to the blocked door,

898
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:13,920
the sense of excitement
evaporated.

899
00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:18,000
Something wasn't right.

900
00:52:19,320 --> 00:52:22,840
Looking closely at the door,
which was right here,

901
00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:25,440
it was clear
that someone had been through it.

902
00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:27,480
It had been tampered with.

903
00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:30,520
But it had then been closed,
and resealed.

904
00:52:32,680 --> 00:52:34,840
It wasn't the news he'd wanted,

905
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:36,880
but Carter pressed on.

906
00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:40,080
Eventually, the stone blocking
the doorway was cleared.

907
00:52:40,080 --> 00:52:44,040
Carter and Carnarvon began to edge
their way down the entrance shaft.

908
00:52:44,040 --> 00:52:46,880
Both were prepared for the worst.

909
00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:50,280
That the tomb had been robbed
and then resealed.

910
00:52:50,280 --> 00:52:54,040
The next two days
must have been tortuous for them.

911
00:52:54,040 --> 00:52:58,280
As they moved slowly down
this passage, it was pitch-black,

912
00:52:58,280 --> 00:53:01,000
and full of obstacles,
dust and debris

913
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:02,800
that had gathered
over the millennia.

914
00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:04,280
But much more worryingly,

915
00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:07,920
there were signs of broken pots
and jars.

916
00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:09,560
Carter wrote in his diary:

917
00:53:26,760 --> 00:53:28,160
Over the next two days,

918
00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:30,600
Carter and Carnarvon
held their nerve,

919
00:53:30,600 --> 00:53:32,920
continuing
their inch-by-inch advance

920
00:53:32,920 --> 00:53:34,600
along this corridor,

921
00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:36,000
clearing away the debris.

922
00:53:37,280 --> 00:53:40,120
At four PM,
after nine metres of digging,

923
00:53:40,120 --> 00:53:43,120
they found another door.
It was right here.

924
00:53:43,120 --> 00:53:45,320
Mysteriously, again,

925
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:47,480
this one showed
that someone had been in,

926
00:53:47,480 --> 00:53:49,440
but it had been closed up,

927
00:53:49,440 --> 00:53:52,480
it had been resealed,
and even replastered.

928
00:53:56,520 --> 00:53:58,640
The team continued digging.

929
00:54:00,200 --> 00:54:03,480
Carter sent for more candles
to work in the darkness.

930
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:06,760
And, carefully,
they began to make a hole

931
00:54:06,760 --> 00:54:09,320
just big enough
to see what was beyond.

932
00:54:11,480 --> 00:54:13,520
With Carnarvon just behind him,

933
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:15,640
Carter peered into the darkness.

934
00:54:16,680 --> 00:54:19,720
READS:

935
00:54:30,440 --> 00:54:32,840
What happened next was probably

936
00:54:32,840 --> 00:54:36,440
the singular
most famous, most miraculous moment

937
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:38,800
in the
history of archaeological discovery.

938
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:44,600
Carter was looking through
the small hole that he'd made here.

939
00:54:44,600 --> 00:54:45,960
He wrote,

940
00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:49,600
"Carnarvon said to me,
'Can you see anything?'

941
00:54:49,600 --> 00:54:52,800
"I replied to him,
'Yes. It is wonderful.'"

942
00:54:59,720 --> 00:55:02,200
Years later,
he put it a bit more poetically.

943
00:55:02,200 --> 00:55:05,160
He wrote, "As my eyes
grew accustomed to the light,

944
00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:08,200
"details of the room within
emerged slowly from the mist.

945
00:55:08,200 --> 00:55:12,400
"Strange animals, statues, and gold.

946
00:55:12,400 --> 00:55:15,800
"Everywhere, the glint of gold".

947
00:55:20,600 --> 00:55:24,920
When Carter and Carnarvon eventually
broke through into the chamber,

948
00:55:24,920 --> 00:55:26,280
both were overwhelmed.

949
00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:31,840
Alia Ismail has joined me
to describe the amazing discovery.

950
00:55:31,840 --> 00:55:34,760
So these are the things he saw,
stacked up.

951
00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:36,680
What kind of things are these?

952
00:55:36,680 --> 00:55:40,120
So these would be, like, beds,
over here, these.

953
00:55:40,120 --> 00:55:42,960
And some food mummies, because
they thought they needed this food

954
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:45,800
in the afterlife.
You could see even the chariots.

955
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:49,320
OK, so this is the room we're in
right now. Isn't that amazing? Yes.

956
00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:51,880
By the candle light,
it would have just been flickering,

957
00:55:51,880 --> 00:55:53,800
it would have been just magical!
Yes.

958
00:55:53,800 --> 00:55:56,400
It's always more romantic
with this candle light,

959
00:55:56,400 --> 00:55:58,520
when we do think of it,
how it was.

960
00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:03,280
But 100 years ago,
as Carter looked more closely,

961
00:56:03,280 --> 00:56:06,320
he suddenly became gripped
with a sense of foreboding.

962
00:56:07,520 --> 00:56:09,360
Something seemed wrong.

963
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:11,440
The place was a mess.

964
00:56:11,440 --> 00:56:15,280
More like a ransacked storeroom
than an undisturbed tomb.

965
00:56:16,480 --> 00:56:18,360
Coming in here
you would think,

966
00:56:18,360 --> 00:56:20,560
I mean, did people
just stash things?

967
00:56:20,560 --> 00:56:23,280
Did they not think
about putting it in order?

968
00:56:23,280 --> 00:56:25,760
He didn't know,
and then he was scared,

969
00:56:25,760 --> 00:56:28,840
he was so scared,
because he wanted to find a tomb.

970
00:56:28,840 --> 00:56:31,040
Digging for five years,
looking for the tomb,

971
00:56:31,040 --> 00:56:33,480
and then he finds a cache?
It was a disappointment for him.

972
00:56:33,480 --> 00:56:34,920
To call that a disappointment...

973
00:56:34,920 --> 00:56:37,560
Anyone else in the world would've
been thrilled to discover that.

974
00:56:37,560 --> 00:56:40,040
I know, but he wanted a tomb.

975
00:56:41,240 --> 00:56:43,480
But then, as Carter looked further,

976
00:56:43,480 --> 00:56:44,960
something caught his eye.

977
00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:48,560
Two guardian statues.

978
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:52,920
He saw those statues
flanking either side of the wall,

979
00:56:52,920 --> 00:56:54,760
he thought, "No..."

980
00:56:54,760 --> 00:56:56,600
I mean,
these statues and their placement,

981
00:56:56,600 --> 00:56:59,400
there might be something
beyond that wall.

982
00:57:02,600 --> 00:57:05,320
Although the two statues
were against a wall,

983
00:57:05,320 --> 00:57:07,880
they looked carefully placed,

984
00:57:07,880 --> 00:57:10,560
as if flanking the entrance to
a burial chamber.

985
00:57:11,600 --> 00:57:13,400
Then he saw something else.

986
00:57:14,560 --> 00:57:18,960
And when he noticed there were
lots of cartouches of Tutankhamun

987
00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:21,360
on the objects he was looking at,

988
00:57:21,360 --> 00:57:26,160
he was sure now that
this was the tomb of Tutankhamun.

989
00:57:27,800 --> 00:57:30,680
Carter and Carnarvon
felt confident enough

990
00:57:30,680 --> 00:57:32,640
to make their discovery public.

991
00:57:32,640 --> 00:57:35,320
They headed across the Nile
into Luxor.

992
00:57:36,760 --> 00:57:38,840
In late November, 1922,

993
00:57:38,840 --> 00:57:41,400
Carnarvon and Carter
summoned the world's press

994
00:57:41,400 --> 00:57:43,960
here to the Winter Palace Hotel
in Luxor

995
00:57:43,960 --> 00:57:45,800
to announce
what they had discovered.

996
00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:49,520
Carnarvon secured a lucrative deal,

997
00:57:49,520 --> 00:57:54,120
selling the exclusive rights
to the story to The Times of London.

998
00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:57,600
The whole world
was instantly captivated.

999
00:57:57,600 --> 00:58:00,960
But did Tutankhamun
and his treasures

1000
00:58:00,960 --> 00:58:03,440
still lie buried in the tomb?

1001
00:58:04,640 --> 00:58:07,440
Carter had thoroughly surveyed
this chamber,

1002
00:58:07,440 --> 00:58:09,640
and it was time now
to take his search

1003
00:58:09,640 --> 00:58:11,840
beyond the wall
that stood at this end.

1004
00:58:11,840 --> 00:58:14,880
You can still see the outline of
where it used to be.

1005
00:58:14,880 --> 00:58:19,560
He believed that through here
he would find the innermost sanctum,

1006
00:58:19,560 --> 00:58:22,720
the burial chamber of the pharaoh
Tutankhamun.

1007
00:58:24,440 --> 00:58:27,480
On February 17th, 1923,

1008
00:58:27,480 --> 00:58:31,680
Carter and his team carefully
took down the wall piece by piece.

1009
00:58:31,680 --> 00:58:34,040
What lay behind it was incredible.

1010
00:58:34,040 --> 00:58:37,800
Not a room,
but a solid wall of gold.

1011
00:58:37,800 --> 00:58:40,640
This was surely the burial chamber!

1012
00:58:45,080 --> 00:58:49,400
In celebration,
the dig closed down for ten days.

1013
00:58:49,400 --> 00:58:51,320
While Carter stayed in Luxor,

1014
00:58:51,320 --> 00:58:55,040
Lord Carnarvon decided
to sail down the Nile for a holiday.

1015
00:58:56,120 --> 00:58:58,320
It should have been
a triumphant trip

1016
00:58:58,320 --> 00:59:00,440
after seven years
of digging in the Valley.

1017
00:59:04,680 --> 00:59:08,120
While he was away,
Carnarvon was bitten by a mosquito.

1018
00:59:08,120 --> 00:59:09,600
He should have been fine,

1019
00:59:09,600 --> 00:59:11,560
but he managed to slice
the top of the scab off

1020
00:59:11,560 --> 00:59:13,440
when he was shaving
here at the hotel.

1021
00:59:13,440 --> 00:59:15,600
The wound went septic.

1022
00:59:15,600 --> 00:59:17,360
Carnarvon died.

1023
00:59:24,120 --> 00:59:26,880
Without Carnarvon's money
and support,

1024
00:59:26,880 --> 00:59:29,880
the world's most exciting
archaeological discovery

1025
00:59:29,880 --> 00:59:32,320
was now in jeopardy.

1026
00:59:32,320 --> 00:59:37,560
And no-one knew yet
what lay behind that golden wall.

1027
00:59:46,520 --> 00:59:49,120
April 1923,

1028
00:59:49,120 --> 00:59:51,960
The mood had darkened
in the Valley of the Kings.

1029
00:59:53,200 --> 00:59:56,840
Just six months after Howard Carter
and his sponsor Lord Carnarvon

1030
00:59:56,840 --> 00:59:58,760
had discovered
Tutankhamun's tomb...

1031
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:01,920
..Carnarvon was dead.

1032
01:00:05,800 --> 01:00:09,200
Carter was distraught.
He hadn't just lost a great friend,

1033
01:00:09,200 --> 01:00:11,360
he'd lost his financier,

1034
01:00:11,360 --> 01:00:13,800
and the licence to dig.

1035
01:00:13,800 --> 01:00:17,640
The money and the permission
were both in Carnarvon's name.

1036
01:00:17,640 --> 01:00:20,080
The tomb was only half excavated,

1037
01:00:20,080 --> 01:00:22,400
and now the whole project
was in jeopardy.

1038
01:00:26,280 --> 01:00:27,960
Carter had little choice.

1039
01:00:29,040 --> 01:00:32,680
Despite the fact that she was still
mourning the loss of her husband,

1040
01:00:32,680 --> 01:00:35,240
Carter approached Lady Carnarvon.

1041
01:00:36,240 --> 01:00:38,840
If she would agree
to continue the financing,

1042
01:00:38,840 --> 01:00:41,760
he could continue to excavate.

1043
01:00:41,760 --> 01:00:45,720
Lady Carnarvon agreed
to take up the licence in her name.

1044
01:00:49,200 --> 01:00:52,120
Six months after Carnarvon's death,

1045
01:00:52,120 --> 01:00:54,000
work began again.

1046
01:00:58,240 --> 01:01:01,760
Day after day,
Carter returned here to the tomb.

1047
01:01:01,760 --> 01:01:03,400
He'd made his big discovery,

1048
01:01:03,400 --> 01:01:06,640
but he still had the hard work
of cataloguing,

1049
01:01:06,640 --> 01:01:10,120
photographing the thousands
of precious objects that he'd found.

1050
01:01:13,600 --> 01:01:15,240
And they were incredible.

1051
01:01:16,280 --> 01:01:19,720
From royal beds,
to treasure chests,

1052
01:01:19,720 --> 01:01:22,600
and the carved heads of gods.

1053
01:01:23,880 --> 01:01:26,920
But the greatest prize
was still potentially hidden

1054
01:01:26,920 --> 01:01:29,040
behind the golden wall.

1055
01:01:31,760 --> 01:01:34,480
The body of Tutankhamun

1056
01:01:34,480 --> 01:01:36,680
was yet to be found.

1057
01:01:40,560 --> 01:01:43,400
Until Carter had explored
that burial chamber,

1058
01:01:43,400 --> 01:01:47,640
and discovered whether Tutankhamun
still lay there undisturbed,

1059
01:01:47,640 --> 01:01:50,200
his quest was incomplete.

1060
01:01:51,680 --> 01:01:54,160
He began investigating
the golden wall.

1061
01:01:55,240 --> 01:01:57,800
What he discovered was incredible.

1062
01:01:59,080 --> 01:02:00,840
It was part of a huge box

1063
01:02:00,840 --> 01:02:03,640
filling a room
from floor to ceiling.

1064
01:02:05,320 --> 01:02:07,720
It took six weeks
and an army of workmen

1065
01:02:07,720 --> 01:02:10,000
to pack and remove the gold
from the tomb.

1066
01:02:11,080 --> 01:02:15,360
And finally,
the burial chamber of Tutankhamun

1067
01:02:15,360 --> 01:02:17,840
lay before Howard Carter.

1068
01:02:19,280 --> 01:02:21,120
Now this is much more familiar.

1069
01:02:22,200 --> 01:02:26,280
These beautiful paintings
of humans and gods.

1070
01:02:26,280 --> 01:02:29,880
It's amazing. You can see a lot
of images of Tutankhamun.

1071
01:02:31,040 --> 01:02:36,640
Every inch of the walls were covered
with mysterious, fabulous pictures.

1072
01:02:36,640 --> 01:02:38,880
And in the centre of the room,

1073
01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:41,240
the sarcophagus itself.

1074
01:02:41,240 --> 01:02:45,520
This is what he'd been hoping,
praying to see for years.

1075
01:02:45,520 --> 01:02:47,280
It was a magnificent sight.

1076
01:02:47,280 --> 01:02:48,640
So you can see here

1077
01:02:48,640 --> 01:02:52,320
the sarcophagus is flanked
by four protection goddesses,

1078
01:02:52,320 --> 01:02:55,480
and you can see their wings
on either side, protecting him,

1079
01:02:55,480 --> 01:02:59,200
and you can see his name, of course,
and his titles.

1080
01:02:59,200 --> 01:03:01,800
So that's his signature, there,
if you like. Absolutely.

1081
01:03:01,800 --> 01:03:04,600
That's his royal name,
that's his birth name.

1082
01:03:04,600 --> 01:03:06,080
You can see both of them.

1083
01:03:07,480 --> 01:03:10,800
With the king's name
engraved across the sarcophagus,

1084
01:03:10,800 --> 01:03:13,840
Carter finally had the confirmation
he needed

1085
01:03:13,840 --> 01:03:16,000
that it belonged
to Tutankhamun himself.

1086
01:03:16,960 --> 01:03:18,760
Everybody else had been trying,

1087
01:03:18,760 --> 01:03:22,040
no-one had ever found
an intact royal tomb

1088
01:03:22,040 --> 01:03:23,800
in the Valley of the Kings.
Absolutely.

1089
01:03:23,800 --> 01:03:26,240
And people thought
Carter was a madman

1090
01:03:26,240 --> 01:03:27,760
to go and dig there,

1091
01:03:27,760 --> 01:03:29,720
and look at him, what he's found.

1092
01:03:31,520 --> 01:03:33,440
But there was just one final task

1093
01:03:33,440 --> 01:03:35,360
before Carter could celebrate fully.

1094
01:03:36,840 --> 01:03:38,640
The most important one of all.

1095
01:03:39,920 --> 01:03:42,680
Lifting the lid on the sarcophagus.

1096
01:03:53,800 --> 01:03:57,520
Carter was now standing
next to the sarcophagus,

1097
01:03:57,520 --> 01:04:01,520
surrounded by a group of officials
and archaeologists,

1098
01:04:01,520 --> 01:04:06,680
as this one and a quarter-tonne lid
was winched off.

1099
01:04:06,680 --> 01:04:09,320
There were gasps of astonishment.

1100
01:04:09,320 --> 01:04:12,400
Inside,
there was a golden coffin

1101
01:04:12,400 --> 01:04:15,320
bearing the image
of Tutankhamun himself.

1102
01:04:22,920 --> 01:04:25,440
The first intact royal burial

1103
01:04:25,440 --> 01:04:27,640
had surfaced
from the Valley of the Kings

1104
01:04:27,640 --> 01:04:29,880
after 200 years of hunting.

1105
01:04:31,240 --> 01:04:34,480
And within
the spectacular, beautiful coffin

1106
01:04:34,480 --> 01:04:37,320
lay the greatest treasure
the world had ever seen.

1107
01:04:38,920 --> 01:04:43,520
The Golden Death Mask
of boy-king Tutankhamun.

1108
01:04:45,440 --> 01:04:50,360
3,000 years after
his tomb was sealed up for eternity,

1109
01:04:50,360 --> 01:04:53,000
his treasures
still take your breath away.

1110
01:04:57,880 --> 01:05:01,480
The battle to discover the secrets
of the Valley of the Kings

1111
01:05:01,480 --> 01:05:03,920
is as fascinating
and as full of intrigue

1112
01:05:03,920 --> 01:05:06,640
as the story of
the ancient tombs themselves.

1113
01:05:07,760 --> 01:05:12,120
From Belzoni's inspired discovery
of Seti's magnificent tomb...

1114
01:05:13,880 --> 01:05:17,760
..to the disturbing revelations
of Loret's tomb of horrors...

1115
01:05:20,480 --> 01:05:23,600
..and ultimately,
the passion, determination,

1116
01:05:23,600 --> 01:05:26,280
and glory of Howard Carter's hunt,

1117
01:05:26,280 --> 01:05:28,000
100 years ago.

1118
01:05:29,160 --> 01:05:32,840
Today, few people would claim
with any certainty

1119
01:05:32,840 --> 01:05:35,400
that this valley has given up
all its secrets.

1120
01:05:35,400 --> 01:05:36,880
How could they?

1121
01:05:36,880 --> 01:05:40,000
With hundreds of years
of extraordinary discoveries,

1122
01:05:40,000 --> 01:05:42,760
tombs and precious objects,

1123
01:05:42,760 --> 01:05:48,120
I think this rocky canyon
in the desert will go on dazzling us

1124
01:05:48,120 --> 01:05:49,840
with its treasures.