National Geographic's Egypt - Quest for Eternity

One hundred and fifty years ago

the king of France had this obelisk brought

from Egypt to grace the heart of Paris

Three thousand years earlier

it had been dedicated to the great pharaoh Ramses II

with these words

"so long as heaven exists your monuments shall exist

and your name shall endure like the heaven."

Through the 30 centuries that the pharaohs ruled Egypt

the people of the Nile created the most glorious monuments

the world has even seen

among them

the largest place of worship in the ancient world

These miracles in stone were tributes to their gods and kings

They believed that man, like the sun

could die and be reborn

They constructed elaborate tombs to protect the body

and house the soul throughout eternity

They created guides to the underworld

Books of the Dead to insure immortality

And on their monuments

they left the testimony of their faith

These inscriptions are keys with

which we unlock the secrets of ancient Egypt

Ladies and gentlemen

now we are at the temple of the queen Hatshepsut...

And, as they have since the days of Herodotus

Antony and cleopatra

thousands journey here to see these wonders

going down to the Green Valley

for the holy visit of Amun-Re

to the goddess Hathor once a year for 15 days...

But today, having endured for 50 centuries

these seemingly imperishable structures are threatened

Their fate may be determined in our lifetime

so, people of science, soul and conscience

travel here from all over the globe

to save the priceless monuments

to decipher the meaning of the messages

before they disappear forever

This is the story of the land of Egypt

and the quest for eternity

The Nile

Flowing through the endless miles of Egypt's desert sands

its precious waters gave birth and breath

to one of the greatest civilizations

that has ever taken hold on our planet

"Hail to you, Oh Nile!" Went an ancient hymn

"sprung from earth come to nourish Egypt

Food provider, bounty maker

who creates all that is good."

The river's annual flooding left rich deposits of silt

utilizing it, farmers developed a settled life

sustained by its abundant waters

the land and crops prospered

Even mud from the Nile's banks provided the people

with material for everything from clay pots to the bricks

with which they built their homes

The Nile itself was Egypt's highway...

boats sailed northward with the currents

and south with the prevailing winds

To predict the time when the river would overflow

the ancients developed a calendar our own evolved from it

Along the extended oasis of the Nile Valley

a way of life emerged that still endures today

virtually unchanged from the furthest reaches of recorded time

And in the time of the Nile's annual flooding

when the farmers could not till their fields

they built the pyramids-tombs for their pharaohs

All that remains of the seven Wonders of the Ancient World

they were stairways to heaven

For to all Egyptians their religion promised an afterlife

The largest monument ever constructed

the Great Pyramid contains more than

two million immense limestone blocks

each weighing over two tons

One hundred thousand men toiled for 20 years

without wheel, horse or iron tools to create it

that their pharaoh might join the sun god

and live in eternity

This dedication to gods and kings was to sustain the Egypt

of the pharaohs for 3,000 years

From the beginning, the Nile was the soul of the land

The lotus growing on the river banks symbolized

the people of Upper Egypt

the papyrus, shimmering in the marshes of the Delta

was the symbol of Lower Egypt

lmmortalized on this table of slate

a king known as Narmer wears the high-domed crown

of Upper Egypt on one side

the low-curled crown of Lower Egypt on the other

It commemorates his unification of the two lands

to create the nation of Egypt in 3100 B.c.

From that time, Egyptian kings would wear both crowns

as rulers of the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt

The two lands have remained linked

from Narmer's time to the present

Isolated from its neighbors

protected by mountains, desert, and sea

the Nile Valley was an ideal crucible

in which a civilization could begin

Traces of those beginnings can be found in the city of Nekhen

The site, still populated today

holds evidence of habitation stretching back 6,000 years

since 1967

Dr. Walter Fairservis of Vassar college

and the American museum of Natural History

has been excavating here

in his continuing search for the roots of civilization

It was here, just 90 years ago

that the Narmer tablet was discovered

It was here, 50 centuries before

that king Narmer established the capital

of the newly unified nation

Here we have the walls of a princely complex

that belonged to a king who lived here 5,000 years ago

the very beginning of Egypt's unification

He was a great king, a powerful monarch

And we know from the size of the rooms

and the way things are located that he was a very rich man

a very wealthy person

We know he had storerooms full of grain

We know that he had perhaps a great hoard of copper

and many other things of that order

And yet, oddly enough, this powerful monarch

he left the place

He abandoned it

And that's part of the reason

we're exploring this area to find out why

Why, at the very beginnings of Egypt's history

do we have a place as important as this abandoned?

Perhaps the secret still lies buried in these mud-brick walls

sifting through the debris of the centuries

the Fairservis team continues to piece together

the history of the site

Many threads bind Egyptian prehistory and history

But none is stronger than the belief in immortality

But this one is interesting because...

Equipped with objects necessary for the afterlife

these bodies were buried before

the first pharaoh built his palace here

Right here, if I can just pull this up a little bit

hair pins found at the roof of the skull

Made of some quill-like or ivory, I guess

Perhaps ivory

Perhaps ivory, yes. Put that back there

In this capital, religion, tradition

and political power fused

foundations were laid on which the longest lasting of

all ancient civilizations would rise

Two thousand years later

Egypt's religious capital was Thebes

one of the richest most powerful cities on earth

At its heart was the temple of Amun at karnak

the largest place of worship in the ancient world

As dynasty followed dynasty

the great complex was enlarged and embellished

by a succession of pharaohs

Tutankhamun

whose fabulous tomb treasures dazzled the world

a female pharaoh, Hatshepsut

called "the first great woman in history"

the heretic Akhenaten, first believer in one god.

And Ramses II, the greatest builder of all time

called Ramses the Great

pharaoh while Egypt's power and prosperity flourished

this warrior-king was to rule for 67 years

bring peace to the empire, father nearly 200 children

and leave his mark on fully half the monuments in Egypt

Ramses was only about 20

when his father seti I died in 1290 B.c.

Seti had ordered his funerary temple built at Abydos

One of Ramses' first acts as pharaoh

was to travel there to complete it

To all Egyptians, this was the most sacred city on earth

Here, drawn by some mystical identification

with Abydos and the long-dead pharaoh

an extraordinary woman known as Omm seti

was to come 3,000 years later

With a group of fellow Egyptologists

she celebrates her 77th birthday

Well, thank you very much

You certainly made it a happy birthday

Make a speech

Make a speech? Oh, how lovely, I am touched

I'm afraid its a mass-produced one, but...

Never mind, no matter

My heart, my mother

My heart, my mother

My heart whereby I came into being

Do not stand up and witness against me at the judgement

I think that is the text. It should be

Yes, you've got it

Oh, thank you very much

To Omm seti at her 77th, on her way to 110

Thank you. Let us drink to our dear old friend Ramses II

Born Dorothy Eady in England

she says something called her here

from the time she was a child

she came here 50 years ago, married an Egyptian