Ancient Impossible - First Season

How did the Egyptians carve the world's

largest monument thousands of

years before Mount Rushmore?

That is absolutely extraordinary!

How did the Romans build a dome bigger than the

dome on the U.S. Capitol Building?

This is just under 2,000 years old.

It is incredible that it is still standing.

And how were the massive Stones of Stonehenge

moved hundreds of miles across rugged terrain?

Monuments more colossal than

our own, ancient super weapons as mighty as today's,

technology so precise it defies reinvention.

The ancient world was not primitive.

Their marvels were so advanced, we still use them.

Travel to a world closer than

we imagine, an ancient age

where nothing was impossible.

Over 3,000 years ago, one of

Egypt’s greatest pharaohs

created this impossibly vast

monument to himself at Abu

Siebel, an imposing location on the Nile river.

To this day, it is still the

largest temple ever carved out of solid rock.

This colossal monster monument

was built in an age before

modern machinery, before there

were even iron tools.

But how did they do it?

To understand what they were up

against, we look at a monster

monument being built right now.

Crazy Horse Monument, South Dakota.

This project is so vast that Dr.

Derek Muller needs a helicopter to appreciate it.

This is absolutely amazing.

I am coming up close and

personal with one of America’s

native American leaders, Crazy

Horse, who led the native

Americans to victory in the

Battle of Little Big Horn.

This sculpture is just

mind blowingly big.

It is the whole mountain.

The statue of this

great native American hero on

horseback will be 563 feet high

when completed.

Just the horse's nostril alone

will be big enough to hold ten full size cars.

This impossible monument is so

massive and time consuming that

the task has been handed down

from father to son.

My dad got a letter from

Henry Standing Bear asking him

to carve a mountain to the

native American Indian.

And in 1948, he started it.

Crazy Horse will be the largest

carving of any kind in the world

as far as mountain carvings go,

and I think it's the tallest

memorial built by man.

But until Crazy

Horse Monument is complete, the

title for the world's largest

monument remains with Abu Siebel, in Egypt.

In a boundless and barren

desert, this monument stands,

carved out of a single mountain

just like Crazy Horse.

But it took the Egyptians just 20 years to build.

How was this possible so long ago?

Look at that.

That is absolutely

extraordinary.

Oh, wow.

In terms of the scale of the

achievement, the size of the

building, and the fact that this

is cut directly into a mountain,

the great temple at Abu Siebel

is as close as there is to an

ancient impossible mega build.

Well, standing in front of

Abu Siebel right now, I am

incredibly impressed by this structure.

You really only get a sense of

scale when you're right up

against it.

It is just so amazing.

I don't even come up to his feet.

Monuments like

these were built on the orders

of the pharaohs, absolute rulers

of Egypt, who ruthlessly used

every resource they could muster

to celebrate their rule.

But one pharaoh outbuilt all the other pharaohs.

In a massive fit of pride,

Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II

decorated the outside of the

temple with four massive statues of himself.

Ramses II was an ego maniac.

He was the greatest, powerful,

celebrated pharaoh of all time.

He probably reigned from the age of 24 to 90 years old

and he built huge monuments to celebrate himself.

He even changed inscriptions on

existing monuments to celebrate himself.

He was the ancient monument

builder of the ancient world, if you like.

It’s a grand statement of

power and capability.

You didn't need to be able to read.

You didn't need to be able to

meet the man to know what he was capable of.

This was a visual statement that

I am as powerful as any man,

almost as powerful as a god.

Ramses II was buried in the

Valley of Kings and is now

on display in a museum

and even though he died over

3,000 years ago, everyone still

remembers him, which I am sure

pleases him enormously.

The vast interior

of Abu Siebel is a great

testament to the phenomenal

ability and craftsmanship of the

ancient builders.

Wow.

Can you believe that?

Look at how amazing this temple is.

You know, as a modern engineer,

I wouldn't believe that this was

possible if someone had told me

they could build a structure

this big and detailed and just

beautifully constructed.

I wouldn't think it's possible.

Despite its tremendous size, the temple of

Abu Siebel was built with

pinpoint precision, an example

of not only advanced engineering

but that the Egyptians also had

an extraordinary knowledge of astronomy.

On exactly two days of the

year, February the 21st and

October the 21st, possibly the

King’s birthday and the King's

coronation, the light falls

inside the temple and shines on

the back wall and lights up the holy statues...

The question remains how did the ancient

Egyptians build this impossible temple?

Now we're still trying to

work out what sort of techniques

they could have used to construct it.

It’s from another time, and that

doesn't make sense.

Some clues might

lie in another modern mega monument

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota.

It’s been called the Eighth

Wonder of the World.

Many believe Mount Rushmore

would not exist if it were not

for the work of the ancient

builders at Abu Siebel.

We are going to see the

modern Abu Siebel, Mount Rushmore.

But the best way to see it is from a chopper.

I can't wait.

Let’s do this.

These faces of Presidents Washington,

Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln

are 60 feet high, taller than a 5 story building

Wow.

That is truly something special.

You look at the size of that thing, the scale.

You know, its 60 foot high faces.

If those were made into men,

they would stand 465 foot tall.

You think about Abu Siebel and

what they were able to achieve there, the statues of Ramses

were actually larger than each of those faces.

Can the construction of Mount Rushmore

help us to understand what it

took to create Abu Siebel?

Rushmore was carved with explosives.

The people who built Mount

Rushmore had dynamite.

They had pneumatic drills.

They had all of this very

impressive modern technology.