Ancient Egyptians

October, 1 1 1 1 BC.

The tombs of the Pharaohs are being plundered.

The holy city of Thebes is rocked by scandal.

A poor labourer is arrested.

This is a true story.

3,000 years later, the records of the investigation into his crime

still survive.

But his trial is no ordinary criminal case.

He's caught in a battle for supremacy

between two rival politicians.

He's a fall guy.

But he knows enough to bring down the most powerful men in Egypt.

ln a tomb carved into the hills of Thebes,

a Pharaoh lies in peace.

Sobekemsaf has been dead for 500 years.

But his journey through the afterlife is about to be interrupted.

Tomb robbers are after the treasure buried with him.

They'll stop at nothing.

ln an act of sacrilege,

they plunder the king's mummified body.

This is more than theft -

it's a crime against the gods.

Their souls will be damned for eternity.

But the thieves only care about the here and now.

No royal tomb is safe.

Amenpanufer, a quarryman with a young family,

is one of the gang.

Thebes is Egypt's religious capital.

lt's a sprawling city of 60,000 people,

run by a powerful class of rich aristocrats and priests.

Amenpanufer is a poorly paid labourer.

But he is also part of an underworld that is corrupting the holy city.

There's a thriving black market in sacred objects

stolen from the graves of Egypt's Pharaohs.

So far, Amenpanufer has kept out of trouble.

He's bribing Bakwerel, the chief of police.

Another man who is not put off by the fear of divine retribution.

The quarryman imagines he has bought himself immunity from prosecution.

But his days as a free man are numbered.

1 40 years ago, a papyrus document was dug up

near the site of Thebes.

lt's the full transcript of Amenpanufer's trial for tomb robbery.

Five other legal documents were found with the transcript of his trial.

Pieced together, they give a blow-by-blow account

of an extraordinary investigation.

This is the true story of the most serious tomb robbing scandal

in Egypt's history.

The case unfolded over the course of ten days

3,000 years ago.

Between the lines of the damning evidence against Amenpanufer,

the records reveal a corrupt world

in which nothing is sacred.

Across the River Nile from Thebes

lies Egypt's royal burial ground.

For 500 years,

the Valley of the Kings has been the final resting place of the Pharaohs.

The tomb of the current Pharaoh, Ramses lX,

has been under construction for 16 years.

lt will only be completed when he dies.

lt's a secret mausoleum carved deep into the hillside,

built and decorated by the finest craftsmen in Egypt.

The painter, Pentaweret,

is one of 60 or so men working on the Pharaoh's tomb.

He's one of the best artists in the kingdom,

hand-picked to work for the government.

lt's a job for life,

a job his son will take over one day.

The Egyptians believe their prosperity can only be assured

if every Pharaoh buried in the valley is left undisturbed for eternity.

The tomb is designed with false chambers

and booby-trapped passageways

to deter tomb robbers.

Working in the Valley of the Kings,

the builders have access to the largest treasure trove in the world.

And there's a ready market for stolen treasure.

Surrounded by such temptation,

not even the most highly valued craftsmen are entirely trusted.

Their boss in the Valley of the Kings is Harshire.

He's the site manager, in charge of every aspect of the project,

from materials to personnel.

Above all, he's in charge of security.

Harshire's prime concern

is that none of his men plunder any of the valley's other tombs.

At the end of each day, he carries out thorough security checks,

even logging in tools that could be used for breaking and entering.

ln spite of these measures,

Harshire's mind is never at rest.

A single lapse of security and he could face the death penalty.

He trusts no one.

On site, the builders are under surveillance 24 hours a day.

They are only allowed to leave

at the end of their eight-day working week.

On the journey home, they are escorted by a special police force,

the medjay, recruited from Nubia.

The tomb builders live with their families in a specially built secure compound

called Set Ma'at, the place of truth.

Even here, Pentaweret and his workmates are under observation.

And Harshire is never off duty.

Within the confines of their carefully regulated lives,

the tomb builders are the most pampered workers in Egypt.

The government provides all their basic needs.

Pentaweret and his family get free food, housing,

schooling and health care.

But all this privilege isn't enough for Pentaweret.

He isn't just building tombs,

he's also robbing them.

Harshire is right not to trust any of his workers.

Pentaweret isn't working alone.

Seven other families are in on a major racket.

Every week, priceless stolen grave goods

are being smuggled through the village to Thebes and beyond.

And it's all happening right under the noses of the medjay police.

Harshire has seen enough.

His worst suspicions are confirmed.

lf he doesn't act now, he would lose his job

and his life.

ln Thebes, Amenpanufer is fast becoming a career criminal.

Unlike the pampered tomb builders in the Valley of the Kings,

he has no state benefits to support his family.

As an unskilled labourer, he earns next to nothing.

Without his sideline, yet another mouth to feed would be a disaster.

But robbing tombs means Amenpanufer can even afford a few luxuries.

Like imported poppy seeds.

The cocktail of beer and opium helps to dull his wife's labour pains.

When a child is born, seven gods decide how it will die.

A child born on the 23rd of the month will be killed by a crocodile,

on the fourth, by fever,

and on the fifth, by love.

But half of all Egyptian children die before the age of five.

Amenpanufer's tomb robbing has kept his children alive.

But it's about to seal his own fate.

ln the Valley of the Kings, Harshire, in charge of surveillance,

knows that some of his workers are robbing the royal burial ground.

Now it's his sworn duty, on pain of death,

to tell his boss everything he knows.

Pawero is the governor of the tombs,

one of the Pharaoh's most trusted officials.

He has absolute authority over the valley.

But despite the penalty he could face,

Harshire decides not to confide in his superior.

Suspicious as ever, he now fears that what he saw in the village

was part of a campaign to strip the royal tombs

and that his own boss may be part of the racket.

Risking everything, Harshire leaves the valley

and, defying all protocol,

takes his allegations to Pawero's rival.

Paser is the mayor of Thebes.

He's a loyal man who plays by the rules.

His family have served the Pharaohs for generations.

He and Pawero are of equal rank.

One responsible for the holy city, the other for the sacred tombs.

Their worlds rarely meet.

As a god-fearing Egyptian,

Paser is horrified by what Harshire has to say.

lf he doesn't intervene,

he'll be allowing the worst kind of sacrilege to go unchecked.

But if he acts on Harshire's allegations,

he will trigger a battle with his political rival, Pawero.

News of Harshire's treachery quickly reaches Pawero.

While Paser hesitates,

Pawero decides to act,

and police chief Bakwerel is a willing accomplice.

They need a fall guy to take the heat off the tomb builders' village