Unearthed

Refrigerator, and I'm going to open it the minute we discover planet nine.

Ian tombs

carved out over 3,000 years ago

and the final resting place

of the famed boy king,

Tutankhamen.

When he found the tomb of the king of tut,

it was fantastic.

And no discovery then or since

has ever had the excitement

that king tut's did.

Today, teams are working

inside Tutankhamen's tomb

to unearth its mysteries.

Even today, every time we turn around

we find more questions to ask.

Why is the tomb of Tutankhamen so unique,

and how did it stay hidden for over 3,000 years?

To find out...

We will venture inside the valley of the kings.

Blowing it apart,

we'll explore its hidden chambers...

And golden coffins...

To reveal the secrets

at the heart of this ancient wonder.

captions paid for by discovery communications

by the banks of the river Nile,

hidden in a labyrinth of rock,

lies a monumental ancient burial site...

the valley of the kings.

Extending deep beyond giant stone entrances,

dozens of subterranean tombs

became the final resting place

for powerful Egyptian pharaohs.

The valley of the kings was in use

as a royal burial place for about 500 years.

The primary concern

was that the pharaoh's body

be protected,

that it could survive, could endure for an eternity.

Today, teams from around the world use

the latest scanning and forensic technology

to unearth the secrets

of these subterranean chambers.

Beneath this valley

lie more than 60 hidden tombs

carved deep into the rock.

Most are similar in design,

their snaking tunnels descending

towards the underworld,

creating a rabbit Warren

of hundreds of painted chambers

filled with hieroglyphs

and paintings of the afterlife.

Hidden near the center lies the tomb

of the most famous pharaoh of all...

King Tutankhamen.

This mysterious chamber

is unlike any royal tomb in the valley

and puzzles archaeologists to this day.

Tutankhamen's tomb lies at the heart of the valley,

surrounded by the tombs of the great pharaohs

that came before and after him.

Today, Tutankhamen is the most famous name

of all these ancient kings,

but during his lifetime,

historians believe he was insignificant.

He was a kid...

9, 10, 11 years old.

The little-known relatively minor pharaoh.

Yet, Tutankhamen's tomb

transformed his fate.

This young boy king became

one of the most powerful symbols

in egyptological history.

Kent weeks has spent 40 years studying

the valley of the kings.

Kent and teams of archaeologists

are working to resolve a crucial mystery.

How did Tutankhamen's tomb transform the boy king

from a minor pharaoh

to one of the most celebrated men in history?

Kent believes the first clue lies

in how the tombs in the valley

are decorated.

He wants to understand why the imagery in tut's tomb

is so different to those belonging

to more powerful pharaohs.

Royal tombs in the valley of the kings,

they all follow pretty much the same standard rules,

contain the same standards scenes,

but the tomb of Tutankhamen

is unusual.

Kent heads to a different tomb belonging

to the great king SETI ii

to investigate how royal tombs

are traditionally decorated.

Okay, let's do the other side.

Inside, he forensically records

every square inch

of the carvings adorning the walls.

Many of these artworks show scenes

from the important religious text,

"the book of the dead."

their primary objective

was to ensure the safe passage of the pharaoh

from this life into the next.

This was a major concern to Egyptians.

When a pharaoh died, can we be sure the pharaoh

is going to have a safe journey

into the afterlife?

All of the texts,

all of the scenes in these tombs

are designed to serve those simple functions.

In ancient Egyptian beliefs,

the journey to the afterlife begins as the sun sets.

The pharaoh takes the route of the sun

as it passes down into the underworld.

Armed with spells from the walls of the tomb,

he faces many challenges,

including a lake of fire

and giant serpent.

Most Egyptians would then face the most rigorous test...

To have their heart weighed against the feather of truth,

but the pharaoh was thought to be exempt.

When he reaches the end,

a parade of gods welcomes him to the afterlife.

He is transformed into the sun god

and the sun can rise again.

With the spells and prayers on the walls of the tombs

acting like a guidebook for the pharaoh,

the ancient engravers couldn't make a single mistake.

When you look at these relief carvings,

even something as straightforward

as columns of hieroglyphic text,

the first thing I think that strikes a person

is the care,

the attention to detail.

The birds are meticulously shown.

You can identify species of birds

from the way they're depicted.

The care is important

because these texts are important.

Most royal tombs are

just as extensively decorated

with incredible attention to detail,

but surprisingly, the tomb of Tutankhamen,

the most famous tomb in the valley,

is far less impressive.

Tutankhamen's tomb is just four small chambers,

each no more than 14 feet wide.

At the heart of the tomb

is a sparsely decorated burial room

modestly painted and with no carvings.

Hidden in the walls,

mysterious niches once held sacred statues,

Ushabti to come to life as the pharaoh's servant

and the jackal god of the dead, Anubis.

Tutankhamen's burial chamber

is filled with magical decoration,

but beside it,

the rest of the tomb is left bare.

This simple tomb is unlike

any other royal tomb in the valley.

All of these things

conspire to make Tutankhamen's tomb

unlike any other in the valley of the kings,

and we can't be sure why.

Today, Kent has a rare opportunity

to study the religious text

inside Tutankhamen's burial chamber

up close.

He searches for clues that might explain

why they're not as elaborate as other pharaohs'.

Kent works with a team carefully conserving

the delicate decoration.

Lori Wong has found mysterious anomalies

in the way the ancient walls have been painted.

If we notice here, the very base of the wall,

you can see that there's drips running down.

Throughout this tomb, we have drip marks,

so it suggests this very fast fluid action

in terms of the application of the painting materials.

Also, what's really unusual

is that in this small burial chamber,

each wall has a slightly different painting technique.

It's unusual because one would expect,

in a small chamber,

that the painting technology would be the same

from wall-to-wall.

Kent has found something else strange

about the imagery in the chamber.

In other tombs, long corridors were filled

with column after column after column

of religious texts.

Here, we have just a few highly abbreviated scenes.

Kent has spotted an illustration

of the pharaoh's journey through the underworld,

but it's been dramatically simplified.

We have 12 baboons shown here,