Kingdom of the Mummies

In a tomb deep underground,

archaeologists carefully remove the lid

from an ancient stone sarcophagus.

Inside lie the mummified remains of an Egyptian priest,

hidden for the past 2,500 years.

Oh, my god. This is beautiful!

On closer inspection, though,

the mummy isn't what it seems.

No way.

And the investigation takes a surprise turn...

There is something quite mind-blowing.

...forcing the team to question

all that it's found so far.

I might be wrong, but I would be very surprised

if there is no more surprises in this complex.

Inside the ancient cemetery of Saqqara,

renowned egyptologist Dr. Ramadan Hussein

and his team of archaeologists

are excavating a remarkable new site.

When I started archaeology,

I never thought I would be discovering

something on that magnitude.

Extensive 3D scans

reveal a unique ancient Egyptian funeral complex,

dating from around 600 BC,

where the dead were brought to be mummified and buried

in an assortment of chambers deep underground.

This tomb complex dates to the 26th dynasty,

and that's about 700 years after Tutankhamun

and about 600 years before Cleopatra

and the end of Egyptian history as we knew it.

This time period is interesting, because this is when Egypt

had had a huge renaissance in religion and burial ideas,

so this find is really a snapshot in time

and crucial to our understanding of mummification.

Today, Ramadan and his team are investigating

a pair of stone sarcophagi.

They lie in a small chamber,

almost 100 feet below the surface.

We have two sealed sarcophagi.

One in what we call an anthropoid sarcophagus...

It means it takes the human form...

And another one that is a rectangular sarcophagus.

What makes them so special

is that unlike the other sarcophagi in this complex,

they're both inscribed with text.

Once we discovered this writing,

we understood how valuable this is,

so we have put protective paper here.

This is our means of communication with the ancients.

The inscriptions are carved on one sarcophagus

and painted on the other,

and they provide fascinating clues

about the people buried inside.

For me, it is a moment

that I can read the minds of these two persons,

to be able to know what they wanted to convey us,

what they wanted to tell us.

The ancient Egyptians believed that remembering

the name of the deceased by writing it down

would lead to their immortality,

and the text on the caskets reveals a pair of male names,

Tjanimit and Ayput.

But the text also contains

another vital piece of information: Their jobs.

And interestingly, they both match.

So far, from the text material we have collected,

we have two priests.

This is Tjanimit.

Right behind me here is another priest, and his name is Ayput.

While this is priceless information,

it raises an important question.

Why are these two priests here?

Is it purely by chance that they share the same tomb,

or could they be in some way connected?

That is pretty much the mystery.

Why do you have two priests right next to one another?

This is a question to be answered

when we lift up this lid.

To learn more about the two priests,

Ramadan must open up the sarcophagi

and investigate their contents in forensic detail.

Led by their foreman, Ammar,

the team is starting with

the rectangular sarcophagus of Tjanimit.

The first task is to break open the thick layer

of mortar running round the edge of the lid.

Intended as a seal to deter grave robbers,

its presence can mean only one thing.

This sarcophagus is 2,600 years old,

and it hasn't been touched since Tjanimit was buried inside it.

This is a three-man job,

so we'll see how successful this is going to be.

It is a very intense moment for me.

What is inside this sarcophagus?

Seems to be working.

Now the casket is partway open,

Ramadan uses an inspection camera

to take a preliminary peek.

This is unbelievable.

What it reveals is like nothing else

from the complex.

Ah. Glittering stuff.

A 2,600-year-old mummy,

adorned from head to toe

in an elaborate beaded burial shroud,

and amazingly, still in one piece.

This beautiful beaded net, it is so elegant.

This is so beautiful.

Not as pristine as you would see it in museums,

but this is a mummy

that carries the dust and aging of 2,600 years.

This is a remarkably decorated mummy.

This definitely stands out

as one of the most remarkable sarcophagus

that I have ever opened.

I have a job to bring Tjanimit back to life.

We want his story to be told,

and I think I'm going to tell the story of Tjanimit

from now until I die.

I have so much to do.

Beneath the ancient pyramids of Saqqara,

the task of opening Tjanimit's stone sarcophagus

is well under way.

After glimpsing a beaded shroud

lying on Tjanimit's mummy,

project director Ramadan is keen to learn more

about this mysterious priest.

Ammar and his team has just lifted up the lid.

It's a difficult job.

It's a lot of labor, a lot of sweat.

Before we roll it out, we need to make sure

that nothing will fall on this beautiful mummy,

so we're spreading a cloth underneath the lid.

Ammar?

We're good to go.

The lid, carved from solid limestone,

weighs almost 2,000 pounds,

and the team will slide it out on steel rollers.

When you move a large piece of stone like this lid...

You don't want this stone to smash somebody's bones.

That's first.

Second is not to damage and destroy any object

inside the sarcophagus.

So those are the two main concerns.

The safety of the living, and also the safety of the dead.

Now I think we're gonna have a full look

at the mummy of Tjanimit.

Oh, my god!

It's just unbelievable.

It is as if, actually, it was made yesterday.

It's just beautiful.

Made from hundreds of glazed clay beads,

Tjanimit's perfectly preserved burial shroud

was intended to protect him in the afterlife.

Its quality and craftsmanship are a clear sign

that Tjanimit was a wealthy individual.

This is the work of an artist

that was done 2,600 years ago,

and now we're getting a first look at it, bit by bit.

The color is coming out.

It's so beautiful, also beaded right here.

The head of the mummy.

It's still wrapped,

but see his eyes and the nose and the eyebrows

and even the mouth drawn on these linen bandages.

This is one of the most beautiful mummies

I have ever seen in my life.

What is so amazing is the preservation of the beaded net

and the necklace after 2,600 years.

It's unbelievable.

It's just beautiful.

But now the question that is on my mind,

who is this person

to have deserved such an elaborate burial?

To shed light on why a priest like Tjanimit

was able to afford such luxuries,

project consultant Salima Ikram

has come to one of the most iconic sites in all of Egypt.

The historic city of Luxor on the banks of the river Nile.

Among the many nearby tombs is a vast mausoleum

belonging to a priest called Pediamenopet.

It was always in ancient Egypt good to be a priest,

because, of course, religion was of the utmost importance,

and also you enter into this hierarchy of the temples

and the religion, and so it's sort of like a brotherhood.

For most priests,

serving one of the many Egyptian gods or goddesses

was a full-time job,

but for an elite few, like Pediamenopet,

it was a career that brought wealth and status.

One of the most striking things about Pediamenopet's tomb

is the fact that it is huge.

It's the largest non-royal tomb in all of Luxor.

The workmanship is exquisite, and it's lavishly decorated,

and it would originally have been painted,

and you can still see some of the vestiges of paint,

which means that he must have been one of the richest

and most influential men when he died.

Almost every wall of this enormous, 22-room tomb