Lost Treasures of Egypt

Buried deep underground,

an ancient Egyptian tomb from the time of

Ramses the Great.

This bricked up entrance has been undisturbed for

nearly 3,000 years, until now.

OLA (off-screen): Are we going to be able to get in, yes?

Oh, my god. It is dark.

It looks very, very deep.

What's revealed is a surprise to even

the most experienced archaeologist.

Oh, la, la. Yes. Ooh, beautiful. My god.

Ramses the Second,

known as Ramses the Great was one of the most

powerful and successful rulers of the ancient world.

He reigned for 66 years,

expanded Egypt's borders and built more monuments and

temples than any other Pharaoh.

How did he become such a mighty king,

and build a legacy that has lasted three millennia?

Today across Egypt,

archaeologists are digging up evidence from his life,

and those that served him,

as they attempt to uncover the secrets of Ramses

rise to power.

Most ancient Egyptians never saw

Ramses the Great in the flesh,

but his image was everywhere.

To investigate how Ramses made his presence

felt across his Empire,

American hieroglyphs expert and vintage clothes collector,

Colleen Darnell,

ventures to one of his most impressive achievements,

Karnak Temple.

The sheer scale of this temple

is just overwhelming.

This is one of the most impressive spaces

in the world.

You can read all the numbers,

how high the columns are, how many there are,

and I especially love the color on the ceilings.

You have to stand here in order to appreciate

its magnificence.

When Ramses came to power,

Karnak was already a temple complex the size of

75 football fields,

and held a sacred lake larger than seven

Olympic swimming pools.

One temple, called the Temple of Amun-Re,

was big enough to hold ten Gothic cathedrals

within its walls, but Ramses wanted more,

so he completed a masterpiece begun by his father:

a vast building whose roof rests on pillars,

a great Hypostyle hall.

It's one of the largest religious rooms ever built.

So what can this sacred temple reveal about what made

Ramses such a powerful and memorable leader?

Around 30 different Pharaohs helped build Karnak,

making modifications over one and a half thousand years.

But the writing on the temple walls tells a different story.

There's one name I see more than any other,

and that is Ramses.

This is the cartouche of Ramses II.

We see it again all around this column.

We see it on this column, pretty confidently nearly

every column in this side of the Hypo-style Hall has

multiple examples of the name of Ramses II.

134 sandstone columns tower up to

66 feet high.

Recent analysis shows every single one is inscribed with

Ramses name and stories of his life.

He didn't just help build the most iconic room in the temple,

he made sure everybody knew it.

But many of Egypt's kings built big monuments.

Colleen wants to see what else Ramses did to make

his reign so special.

Clues to his epic achievements are carved

into the temple walls.

This wall's just amazing.

It's filled with the military victories of Ramses II.

We have him fighting in a chariot,

then he's bringing his captives in and presenting

them to the god Amun, the god here at Karnak temple.

And over here he's smiting foes from the

four corners of the world.

He truly wanted to be known as a warrior Pharaoh.

As a young Prince,

Ramses accompanied his father Seti the First

on military campaigns,

gaining experience of leadership and war.

He became king while still a teenager,

and took command of the Egyptian military,

an army of 100,000 men.

He personally led them onto the battlefield against the

Hittite Empire of Kadesh,

and returned home proclaiming victory.

But his campaigns continued throughout

his long reign,

as he expanded and strengthened Egypt's control,

earning a fearsome reputation as a

mighty warrior king.

COLLEEN (off-screen): This is an incredible scene.

We see Ramses in his chariot and he's pulling an enemy off

of his own chariot,

and is about to pierce him with a spear.

And all this is taking place outside of the Syrian city,

so this shows Ramses extending the boundaries of Egypt.

Ramses, like other Pharaohs,

put his military victories on temple walls,

because it was a way of showing the triumph of Egypt,

the triumph of order over chaos represented by foreigners.

These scenes,

together with other ancient evidence,

suggest Ramses really did fight alongside his men,

unlike many Pharaohs who made similar boasts,

but never actually fought themselves.

His bravery and tactical skill were central to his rise to power,

but is there more to Ramses rule than

just military might?

In Luxor's Deir El-Bahari, where Ramses buried many of

his nobles at the sprawling tomb complex of Asasif,

Egyptian archaeologist Fathi Yaseen leads a team

excavating deep below the desert sand.

Fathi wants to find out why they chose this specific location for their necropolis,

and what it can reveal about Ramses long reign.

We have here a lot of temples, thousand of tombs.

Fathi doesn't just run this dig,

he oversees every antiquity site on Luxor's west bank,

and has done for 30 years.

Born and bred just north of Luxor, it was his childhood dream to work in Egyptology.

My job is very busy, but for us it is exciting work.

Why? Because maybe what we find here...

adds for Egyptology

more information for the ancient history.

The location of these burials is very

unusual and mysterious.

On Luxor's west bank, ancient Egyptian elites mostly

buried their dead high up on hillsides,

so people would look up to them,

even in death.

But here at As-Asif, the tombs are right on the valley floor.

Why choose this area?

Why choose to locate the tombs in this area?

What's importance of this area?

Last season, Fathi and his team discovered

the beautifully decorated cartinage of an elite.

He thinks it's the tip of the iceberg,

and means there's an important undiscovered tomb nearby.

It could contain priceless treasure and inscriptions

with information about the tomb owner that might help explain the tomb's

strange location.

Starting from a simple mud brick wall in the sand,

Fathi's excavations reveal the outline of a huge tomb.

Now Fathi and his team need to find the

tomb's underground doorway.

It is very exciting for us to see this entrance

but what's behind this entrance? We don't know yet.

Workers painstakingly remove debris

from the tomb's mud-brick outline on ground level.

We are working under nearly 40 degrees. It is hot.

Despite the 104 degree Fahrenheit conditions,

they work quickly to reveal a 65-foot long corridor,

but have no idea how deep it is.

It could take weeks to reach bedrock and the tomb's

underground entrance.

Our concentration now is to recognize what is behind the debris.

It is very exciting moment for us.

Fathi and his team have many tons of sand to shift,

but they keep an eye out for any clues hidden in the dust.

Part of a ushabti.

It's a very good indication because it means

we are working in the right position to find the

entrance of the tomb.

At the Saqqara Necropolis on the outskirts

of Cairo, in front of the world's oldest pyramid,

Egyptian archaeologist Ola El Aguizy,

is exploring the tombs of Ramses generals.

I love my work I'm doing.

I really love it.

To rule an expanding empire,

you need loyal soldiers and Ola hopes to find out how

Ramses rewarded those who supported his rise to power.

OLA (off-screen): This is a family burial, the whole area.

It's clear that they're all related.

It's just a real puzzle.

Grandmother Ola came to archaeology

50 years ago through her love of hieroglyphics.

She spent the last 15 years exploring these ancient tombs,

mostly with the same trusty team of workers.

Every day we come here we have a surprise.

We have something new to find.

This season Ola's excavating an

impressive temple tomb.

It belongs to a senior general called Iwrkhy.

Iwrkhy was known to be a very important general

in the army of Ramses II.

That's why I'm very keen on this excavation of

this tomb this year.

Archaeologists believe Iwrkhy and his family came from Syria,

traveling to Egypt for a better life.

Iwrkhy was quickly accepted into Egyptian society,