Egypt's Lost Queens (Ancient Egypt Documentary) | Timeline

[Music] ancient Egypt a rich history that lasted for over 6,000 years in the lives and deaths of its leading characters still fascinate us today we come to museums like this one to get a real sense of the grandeur of ancient Egypt monumental statues to monumental men but when we start to look around at the faces here they are just that men the way are the women of ancient Egypt well of course the most famous is clear patch of the great but then we have to go from the sublime to the ridiculous from the monumental to the tiny because most of the images we have of the great woman are in coin full but what about all the great women who came before Cleopatra I want to find out who they were if you know where to look the story of ancient Egypt is also the story of extraordinary women who left behind an extraordinary legacy issues arson oi Pharaoh the goddess ancient Egypt was a society in which women have more rights than anywhere else in the ancient world and I'm going to be looking at four of my favorite women of power each one a trailblazer who in different ways paved the way for the rest the venerated mother might look like a hole in the ground but this is where it all began a powerful reader look at me I am a pharaoh the perfect diplomat not only beautiful this woman was pretty clever too and Cleopatra's globally minded role model children that knowledge really was power together they created a legacy a female authority that would influence not only Cleopatra but generations to come these are an incredible role models to all of us in the modern world [Music] and by telling their story I'll be taking a fresh look this great civilization through the eyes of the other half of ancient Egypt it's when you [Music] now to understand the women of ancient Egypt we need to go right back to the beginning to the Egyptians own story of creation a story that gave its female characters unparalleled powers and status powers inherited from the very gods themselves [Music] now the ancient Egyptians have countless versions of the creation stories but most of them centered on they're very distinctive environment in the life-giving waters of this wonderful River Nile now in essence what the creation myths tried to suggest was that all life and started from these waters of creation from which the great Sun the source of our life had first emerged to create the deities the multitude of Egyptian deities male and female no less important and just as numerous as each other the most famous of these was Gregory's Isis and Osiris brother sister God saw her also husband and wife now according to the ancient Egyptians unlike most ancient cultures it was Isis who was the active dominant partner Venice Cyrus was a rather passive fellow in fact he was killed off early on in the story the only power in the universe strong enough to bring him back to life and resurrect him his great sister Isis who brought to bear all her great magic to resurrect him from the dead and from this path so began all humankind such stories of Isis this powerful mythical woman are in many ways key to understanding how women have such prominence in Egyptian life for Isis was venerated as a divine mother figure and the first real woman I am going in search of gained her own power and prestige as a mother she lived in the early time of the Pharaohs known as the old kingdom more than four and a half thousand years ago and her name was Hetty Paris for the ancient Egyptians death was simply a transition to the afterlife into which the soul would need to be reborn and to house their souls as well as their bodies the Egyptian elite will ever more elaborate tools the most spectacular such - is the Great Pyramid of Giza final resting place the powerful old kingdom leader pharaoh Khufu everybody comes to Egypt to see these and they are very big they are very grand and they are very imposing but I'm here today to see something even more interesting just over there I'm looking for the tomb of Koufos mother Queen Hector Paris for as mother of the king it seems that Khufu wanted her to be buried close by to ensure his rebirth into the next world so I've come here to find the source to find it origins of this whole entire site it all started here might look like a hole in the ground that this is where it all began this is the entrance to the tomb of Hector errors and I believe it was this mother's life-giving force that shape this entire plateau forever [Music] now inhale Paris day this landscape was a very special landscape it was on the edge of the desert where the Egyptians traditionally buried their dead in the land of the West the land where the Sun set and yet at her time this entire plateau had nothing honest the rest of this necropolis unfolded as a result of her - and being here and it was filled with the most spectacular golden treasures because 20 metres down this steep shaft at the very bottom is the burial chamber and heads up Harrah's personal belongings covered in gold were found there in 1925 petit paris - is the oldest intact royal burial ever found predating the tomb of Tutankhamen by 1300 years all the contents of that tiny little - came here this quiet corner of Cairo Museum this is surely the ultimate in flat pack furniture this is the bedroom suite if you like of the great Queen headset Harris is absolutely stunning we've got her bed so silver headrest one of her goals Thrones and our Manor of gold covered boxes and among these boxes a unique collection of jewelry was found this spectacular silver bangle which should have worn up each arm these are bespoke and if you look very carefully you can see they're all slightly different sizes they start off quite large and then they get increasingly smaller towards the wrist it would have fitted no one else and these are kind of made to measure just to fit her just to fit the great Queen it's absolutely extraordinary to think that this is at four and a half thousand years old asking Khufu's mother heta Paris was the most important woman in his life so he made sure that a tomb was filled with all the luxuries she would need in the afterlife a bit fabulous gold carrying chair which was given to Queen Jerez by her son is a fantastic work of art her titles are inlaid in these fine gold hieroglyph down the back of the chair in lead in this dark ebony wood you can see the little figure of the bead and the plant right immediately below that is the vulture and that means mother mother of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt the next sign is a golden Falcon follower of Horus and then scroll right down through all these wonderful titles that have Hera's held in her lifetime overseer of the affairs of the palace she whose every command is carried out daughter of the gods body and the last big hieroglyphs gives the name head heron the woman who smells and in the very final hieroglyph that the so called determinative which shows her enthroned and we come face to face with a woman herself being the mother of the king certainly had its perks and being carried around was one of them for a slightly less royal ride in the desert I've asked fatty and ibraheem for help now this wonderful thing is a replica of hector perez carrion chair and i'm going to trade out now it really symbolizes how precious this royal woman was that like the goddesses she was carried around she was far far too important to merely walk across the ground so she was carried everywhere in a chair like this one monk in Kirkuk okay go ahead at men - laughter I'm good this is really good I wouldn't like to go very far in it though [Music] [Music] now although in many ways pep-pep Harris was the source of everything here she was only ever the king's mother she may have given birth to him guided him throughout his life and enabled him to enter the next world but she was only ever royal mother unlike my next mighty woman of power the ultimate Egyptian pharaoh move forward over a thousand years to my next choice another great royal woman destined to become one of Egypt's greatest Fairland her name is Hat shepherdess and although at least 15 women and now known to have ruled Egypt is Pharaoh Hatshepsut would really make history as both a monumental builder and a royal warrior although hatshepsut was a direct royal descent becoming pharaoh wasn't so straightforward he required some skillful political maneuvering but the death of her husband the reigning Pharaoh the steps on an heir to the throne was too young to rule so hatshepsut ruled on his behalf and was eventually crowned king but how did she hold onto her power staring down on visitors to Cairo Museum her intimidating presence can still be felt all Pharaohs had to look the part but it was especially important for a woman to project herself as the perfect leader it's all about how you looked if you look like a pharaoh you were a pharaoh you took on the attribute of a pharaoh and that's exactly what hatchets was doing here the correct crown the triumphal beard and other parts of the regalia were all meant to emphasize to her subjects because you're looking at 95 99 % illiterate subjects they couldn't read royal edict they couldn't read any sacred inscription it was all about the visual and that is what that was so brilliant at doing this ultimate in propaganda look at me I am a pharaoh wearing a tie on false beard was considered a divine attribute of the gods all pharaohs had long and hatshepsut was no exception but she didn't confine such visually deviling statements of power to her own appearance I'm traveling to hatshepsut power base 500 kilometers south of Cairo two thieves and a look sir [Music] for here Hatshepsut remodeled the landscape with a whole series of monumental buildings the most famous person I'm funerary temple at Deir el-bahri known by its ancient name the most sacred of sacred places the temple is one of Egypt's most spectacular buildings the ultimate eternal monument now seeming to emerge from the foot of the Theban hills hatshepsut temple is a brilliant piece of architecture it clean geometric lines contrasts stunningly well against the rugged rocks behind them it's surely one of the most beautiful temples in Egypt and the most fitting place to commemorate the life of the great female pharaoh Hatshepsut the setting of the temple is indeed or inspiring but the reasons behind its construction go far beyond the aesthetic [Music] now hatshepsut built here for three specific reasons firstly it lay directly across from the Great Temple of the state god Ammon wroth secondly offerings could be left for her soul for eternity rather than disturbing the peace of her tomb and thirdly this place was filled with scenes personally selected by hatshepsut illustrating and emphasizing her right to the throne in short this was a piece of permanent political propaganda the Patchett's thought wasn't just a builder she was also a military commander twice leading campaigns herself against Egypt enemies in Nubia and some of the offerings discovered at Deir el-bahri hint Hatshepsut military capabilities she led her troops into battle on at least two occasions texts describer is a conqueror she who will be a conqueror flaming against her enemies this very special thing it's a votive offering presentative of an axe blade a copper alloy and it's inscribed with a episode's names and title and I think in a single object it encapsulates this female Pharaoh this woman warrior it's a wonderful thing having proved her military skills Hatshepsut turned her attention to securing the nation's peaceful prosperity she formed economic alliances that brought wealth into her country trading with kingdoms like once to the south on the Red Sea coast now hatshepsut certainly expanded Egypt's trade routes and initiated commerce on a large scale she also reopened the very lucrative trading route with the Land of Punt down the Red Sea coast and we can see exactly this scene behind us now these are the Egyptians arriving in punt these are the pun types coming out to meet them and this is the place where the Commerce occurred it's a small low chest on which the Egyptians have placed all valuable goods the beads the bangles the metal weaponry with which they're then going to trade with the Pun tight for this most precious of commodities that kind of red dome shape that actually a huge pile of Marez n' myrrh and other resins were traditionally used in temple rituals in mummification and were also key ingredients in perfume production and hatshepsut herself is known to have used fragrant merle rubbed into her skin took she puts it herself gleam like the stars before the whole land so in the days before the modern celebrity hatshepsut also had her own signature fragrance you the details in such scenes certainly help piece together how at Shep's thought managed to hold on to power for over 20 years but through one intriguing object I can even experience a little bit of time travel that's quite amazing this small alabaster vessel still has its original contents after almost three and a half thousand years and their names in title there again inscribed on the front but look inside the actual imported resin this is the stuff that referred to on the walls at Deir el-bahri and here it is it's amazing it it's as if we can smell the past we can't just see it we can't just read the words it contained in this very vessel maintaining power for more than two decades of peace and prosperity that shape suit was the most successful female monarch Egypt had yet seen and she had proved beyond doubt as an effective leader didn't have to be a man [Music] as part of hatshepsut master plan for posterity she commissioned two pairs of pink granite obelisks at Karnak temple at almost 30 meters high this one is the tallest still standing anywhere in Egypt in her own words she tells us why she wanted to set up such striking monuments as a tribute to her father to the one who made me she said and by father she didn't mean her natural parent but to move the king of the gods to whom this whole temple is dedicated their tops would have been capped with electrum which is a blend of gold and silver and the idea is they acted as a kind of esoteric lightning rod to catch the very first rays of the Sun at dawn to transmit that solar power down here into the heart of karnak temple but it could then be redistributed for the good of Egypt [Music] karnak temple is the place where the god a moon was worshipped this huge religious complex was continually expanded and embellished by successive rulers and touch episode made sure that she paid tribute to the king of the gods in the grandest of styles this is the red Chapel of hatshepsut this shrine was known as the place of the heart of a moon the state God and lay at the very center of his great temple karnak it was kind of like a sacred garage which housed the sacred vark or bolt on which the gods statue stood and would have been paraded around in procession as we can see here on these wall scenes behind me you can see the roles of shaven-headed priests bringing in two sacred back on which the statue of the god is housed hidden behind these little curtains to keep him from profane eyes and the basket itself has been greeted by the two coal rulers the young male Pharaoh took Moses bringing up the ceremonial rear as a kind of glorified magician's assistant he's burning incense to welcome the gods arrival and yet center stage is hatshepsut herself make no mistake she's the most important figure here she is a senior partner she the child of God through such lavish endowment hatshepsut was demonstrating her veneration to a moon and assisted by the priests the Pharaoh had to personally perform the necessary religious ceremonies to maintain cosmic order and this is where hatshepsut herself would have stood to perform the sacred Rite before the God presenting the offerings and pouring the sacred water all around the gods statue of course Hatshepsut would have used the golden vessel and we have a rusty old book it but it gives you a kind of an idea of what would have occurred with the sacred water channeled out and beyond the chapel the gods protection spread throughout the entire land and beyond for hatshepsut wish to be eternal like an undying star and she certainly gained a unique place in history the feelings aroused by the notion of a female pharaoh remained so strong that for some hatshepsut being cast as a kind of wicked stepmother figure kind of a woman who dared to masquerade as a man dressing up with the false beard of kingship and and user ping the right to the throne for others however she's a huge inspiration an amazing woman who kind of led the way for generations to come [Music] Hatshepsut rain had been a triumph and yet after death a stepson took sole power and for now female rule was over [Music] [Music] leaders like hatshepsut reveal ancient Egypt one of the most egalitarian societies of the ancient world where women could achieve high-powered roles owned property make business deals earn equal pay and go to court it may all sound reasonable now but it was highly unusual back then I've arranged to have to the academic Sahara mugie who's written extensively about the legacy of these incredible ancient role models time to heart in terms of the female rulers of ancient Egypt when you were growing up the easiest to find out about them about their legacy because I know there's very little in Egypt illogical literature about them they seem to have been swept very much under the academic carpet but what's the situation in Egypt was it different for you I grew up not knowing about those women except in bits and pieces in boring history book at school in the process of writing I was like getting to know my mothers and grandmothers and that's why in my writing those female goddesses come back to life as inspiring figures the amount of power that I received from knowing about them through my own eyes it was immense it was magical it was like wow this is where I come from [Music] it must be said female pharaohs were quite a rarity and by the 19th dynasty a new regime of ex-military men from the north taken power in Egypt men were now very much in control and the royal women had to find other tactics [Music] around 150 years after the death of hatshepsut my next woman used diplomatic skills to assert herself at the heart of Egyptian politics her name was Nefertari meaning the loveliest one of all necessary was not only beautiful she was also one of Egypt's most gifted queen consoles as a very young woman Nefertari had married a prince who would become one of Egypt's most famous Pharaoh's Rameses a second and it's quite impossible to go anywhere in Egypt without bumping into him for he rules longer built bigger and certainly boasted more than almost any other Pharaoh in ancient Egypt size is everything and Ramses himself have accurately been described as a giant planet Jupiter brilliant as a distance but essentially a ball of gas literally cooked to the heart of this policy of quantity over quality the bigger the better and this is wonderfully expressed by this statue here we can see Ramses on a colossal scale while eveness favorite wife Nefertari clutches at the back of his leg not even as high as his knee so in order to find out more about her we have to travel beyond Egypt's traditional boundaries so I'm going 400 kilometers south to tell a different side of this story to the temple of Abu Simbel as one of the most monumental examples of firaon it might it was built from the border with volatile Nubia it was designed to strike fear and respect into all who sailed past along the Nile toward Egypt this is a temple of Abu Simbel built by ramses ii during a 67 year reign and it's typical of the man its massive it's monumental yes it's only one of the temple at Abu Simbel in short it's only half the story the story I'm really interested in is next door within a temple dedicated for once not to Ramses but his wife [Music] [Music] [Music] here she is the great Queen necessary standing a colossal 33 feet tall as he looked very carefully you'll see she's just that little bit taller than her famous husband ramses ii because of the tall feather crown she's wearing built to make a statement the temples towering size conveyed the strategic political message that puts Nefertari at the heart of power and so for Ramses to erect these massive statues of his wife he's really bringing into play every force at his disposal including the the good lady wife the little woman at home quite literally but out here in Nubia in the wilds of this desert landscape these volatile tribes people he needed her help and she was a very potent force her colossal striking image reveals that Nefertari was the ultimate trophy wife well care laughter gosh chaplain in the interior of the temple Nefertari appears in a variety of scenes performing a series of sacred rites taking an active role extra husband she's got her arms raised she's encouraging her royal husband Rameses who was in that classic pose of an Egyptian pharaoh mating the enemy basically this is a state execution they cower at his feet he holds them by the top of the head with the hair and once they're in that position he brings the weapon down on their head literally bashes out their bridge and all the while necessary on the sidelines as a kind of royal cheerleader if you like two sides of the same coin but of no less value than a husband very very potent scene there is definitely no doubt that this was a royal double act [Music] egyptologists a novel symbol director dr. Ahmed Saleh who spent many years studying the images within both these temples is there enough information in the evidence we have to try and get an understanding of what they were like as a couple he loved her very much he married her before he ascended to the throne that means he had fall in love Williamson Terry she accompanied him like a dbt yes it seems that when necessary sell this our South her health was fading fast the sad story here is military wouldn't see her template she was sick she staying in the boat maybe she can see any statues of Earth outside but she didn't come to inside this temple what a shame she could only view the exterior least she saw her statues this is the third story is that yeah I think this is the last time for Terry this is we are talking about the 24th year of drink this is the last year of the future because when she go back to Sidley think she died and she believed it I'm traveling back north to get inside Nefertari to the place where I can find more evidence of the woman herself located in the valley of the Queen's it seems are so delicate that access is limited I've just been given permission to personally unlock the tomb of necessary the great royal wife of Ramsay as a second and I'm really excited because this is an absolute gem of a tomb I've only ever seen it once before when I was much younger so this is going to be a rare treat that is a big key Wow oh wow oh wow [Music] covering 520 square meters it's brilliant jewel-like images vividly depict the journey into the hereafter the scenes just continue one after another after another there's nothing here left to chance nothing's thrown in simply as a little bits of pretty decoration it's like a machine functioning to keep necessary soul alive in the next world great attention was given to her appearance but eyes and eyebrows outlined in black a subtle red color on her cheeks and lips and the most exquisite gold and jewelry adorning her Nefertari the loveliest of all a name implies incredible beauty and she really lives up to this this name that she has she's the ultimate high-maintenance woman she was certainly beautiful but one particular wall thief chose Nefertari in the company of Thoth the god of knowledge and literacy who was selected for a reason we come to this wonderful scene which really ties it to what we know about necessary in life necessary children to have the weighing of the heart the judgment of the Dead theme from the Book of the Dead written out but illustrated in a rather unique manner because sheer hitch here she is she's having herself in the guise of a devotee of soft the Ivies headed god of literacy and writing and the emphasis on writing can be seen on the scribal palette which sounds between necessaries and the god saw and then she's presenting herself before thought she said I am ascribe I am ascribe that's quite an emphatic statement not only beautiful this woman was pretty clever too as a royal wife she would of course subscribed to write on her behalf but being able to read and write hieroglyphs was then regarded as the ultimate in academic achievement and met Atari made sure that her credentials would be clearly portrayed posterity being the wife of such a domineering husband would also have required a considerable amount of gentle persuasion and soft power skills best shown in diplomatic correspondence exchanged with egypt's great rivals the hittites of Anatolia in modern Turkey less atari is known to have corresponded with a her opposite number in the Hittite heartland the great queen put a heater and it's amazing that one of these very electors have actually survived Nefertari would have composed her own letter in the Egyptian language and then a bilingual scribe would have translated it into Q&A forum and then embossed it on small clay tablets this is the exact letter that Nefertari wrote to the keeper it's obviously a replica but it really gives a flavor of the very words of our great royal wife necesaria it's full of warmth full of sisterly felicitations to my sister put a Heba great queen of the Hittites may the Sun God of Egypt and the storm God of the Hittites bring you joy and may the Sun God make the peace food forever at the very end of this very touching reference to the greeting gift she's spending the his hi Queen I've sent you a greeting gift to my sister for your neck a necklace of pure gold and some colored linen to make a royal robe for your husband became sending such greeting lists to the Monarchs with whom you corresponded played a crucial role in the diplomacy of the ancient world if we actually look at necesarias ear we can see something which encapsulate this idea because regardless of all the gold all Egyptian Royals were dripping in gold everybody knew that gold was as common as dust in Egypt you only have to pick it up or the ancient correspondence but in Nefertari there is a silver earring thermal value not only that it isn't even an Egyptian earring it's a style of Greek earring because these silver pieces of jewelry were sent to necessary from the Aegean area so in Far Away Greece they knew about Nefertari and these earrings were sent to her and she wore them with great pride throughout a life so there's rather master this jewelry and frocks business and it first meets the eye [Music] amidst such jewels splendor Nefertari was finally laid to rest in a manner in which she had lived in the most spectacular tomb in the whole of Egypt [Music] one of the things that strikes you most emphatically when you catch your breath and calm down and start looking at these things in a more logical rather than an emotional way he suddenly realized that this attire is husband's Naya the great Ramses is now I present he's on every temple throughout Egypt he's everywhere and yet here his wife's last resting place isn't a single image of him now of course Egyptologists have postulated many theories about why the great Ramesses wasn't actually portrayed in his wife's tomb I personally prefer to think that she herself thought well I've lived with him for so many years and in the next world it would be wonderful not after listened to him forever but whatever the real reason there's no doubting the importance and influence of Nefertari as queen of one of egypt's best-known pharaohs yet despite nurse attire is best diplomatic efforts Egypt's political fortunes are soon in sharp decline amidst rampant inflation and official corruption a long series of ephemeral rulers proved completely incapable of defending Egypt's borders from wave after wave of foreign invaders throughout the first millennium BC and the most successful of these with a macedonian Ptolemies who would change egypt's fortunes forever nine hundred years after Nefertari a new era in Egypt's history produced the first female pharaoh of the Ptolemies arson away she capitalized on the success the women rulers who'd gone before her our sin away was able to bring together two worlds the Egyptian and the Greek building on a legacy inherited from the most famous Greek of them all Alexander the Great everybody's heard of Alexander the Great who invaded Egypt in 332 BC and was crowned Pharaoh as shown in repeated scenes here Alexander was then succeeded by his rumored past brother Ptolemy whose dynasty then went on to rule Egypt for the last three centuries BC Ptolemy in turn was succeeded by his extraordinary daughter Aston away whose spectacular achievements were very consciously modelled on those of uncle Alexander born in Egypt the teenage our scenery was sent to Greece for an arranged royal marriage [Music] then at the death of her husband the king and a second disastrous marriage she fled for her life back to Egypt but having acquired a taste for power our sinorix waited her younger brother the Pharaoh to marry her he would be her route to the crown in one move Espino became ruler of two worlds Egypt and the Greek Mediterranean [Music] through her international connections are thinner we brought more prosperity knowledge and wealth into Egypt and almost any other ruler before her the bronze figure is all very interesting because you have our scenery almost giving the Queen Lee wave if you like a very regal posture she's striking but look what she's carrying in her left arm it's a cornucopia which is a kind of Greek pointed vessel but within it all the bounty the fruits the flowers the wealth of Egypt and there isn't just one cornucopia but two she bring in double the amount that anyone else can possibly bring [Music] Arsenal spent much of this fortune in the new royal capital Alexandria where her opulent lifestyle sustained by a continuous flow of exotic imports from Spira field as India and even further east and as goods like ivory silk and jewels poured into the country the rest of the population thrive - as Egypt became the greatest Marketplace on Madame ha ha ha I am not really let's travel that's ok looking for some fabric beautiful becomes how much this time I'm sorry successful okay well that's good so with commerce operating on such a vast scale Arsenal and her brother set up the sophisticated bureaucracy to manage the staggering wealth circulating within their empire now coinage silence so this huge path in Arsenal's story she's an extraordinary woman she had a huge personal fortune and her financial acumen was very much focused on Egypt's own finances she and her brother husband Ptolemy created a kind of doomsday style inventory of all Egypt's assets she created royal monopolies on absolutely everything making sure that finance flowed directly into the royal house and in ancient Egypt previously barter economy coinage played a crucial role it became increasingly common as a means of financial transaction pretty much it was the beginnings of capitalism under our sin away Egypt was once again a land of plenty and wealth and get her coins had another very useful purpose as a means of circulating her agenda this coin shows our scenery wearing the Greek diadem crown and a veil over carefully styled hair pulled back into a bun but first appearance the epitome of a standard Greek queen this is the perfect portrait of an elite Greek matron very respectable looking very well coiffed very well dressed and yet if you look really really closely just poking out in front area sort of like a a very tasteful little earring this actually a ram's horn so ram's horns of Alexander the Great our scenery is using this very very subtle device to say I am the successor at the great Alexander as his successor our sinner we built on the legacy of Alexander whose emblems were the ram's horns of Egypt state god Amal and so by adopting this symbol herself our scenario was tapping into an ancient force the single circle image confirming her place as the ruler to world [Music] so look at almost 200 kilometers south of looks off a remarkable sight on an island in the middle of the Nile gives a real sense of the power at Arsenal's disposal [Music] now we know that every temple in Egypt how statues of our sin away as the resident goddess alongside their traditional deities [Music] but it's a lie she was also worshipped the equivalent of Isis herself and mother of all gods [Music] Feli temple has rightly being dubbed the pearl of the Nile it was the cult center of the great goddess Isis and in many ways it was kind of an outpost wealth in terms of its utterly geographical location and that this was the very last place in Egypt where the ancient gods were worshipped the later the sixth century AD but not only with Isis worshipped here our sin away too was the resident goddess in fact it was through the International influence of our sin away that Isis goes global [Music] our cinemas desire to be seen as the active goddess Isis sent a very clear message to her subject [Music] she had certainly played a fundamental role in shaping Egypt both at home and abroad the Tassili know his many achievements were only possible because of the countless generations of incredible women who have gone before her and it's in one specific image she paid permanent tribute to all of them follow me the slash issues asked the NOI Pharaoh the goddess she's got all her regalia on that emphasizes just how much power this woman have and it's the crown the focus of so much recent research that can tell us so much we can even deconstruct it to tell us into his full story we start with this crown this is the red crown it represents northern Egypt and very much embodies the idea that our sinawe ruled from the royal capital Alexandria on Egypt's northern coast lies next of all we have the two toll feathers at the top and the cow horn as worn by the great royal wife Nefertari wife of roughly the same and then we move on to the twisted ram's horns across various forms of RAM thorns are associated with the great state god Alan Roth a favorite deity of hatshepsut and finally at the very heart of this very special crowd the Sun disk the great creator of all life takes us right back to the pyramid age and Hector Paris the Queen Mother so by taking on this crown our sin away is telling us she's taking on the accumulated powers of all these great women who were in power in Egypt from so many centuries before her it's a wonderful thing [Music] with this crown later adopted by the great Cleopatra herself these incredible women had been her guys she extended Egypt's power across so much of the ancient world [Music] you [Music] I must say this journey for me has been an incredible opportunity to engage with ancient Egypt in the new and very fresh way it's allowed me to investigate the lives of some incredible people four amazing women these are really incredible role models to all of us even in the modern world [Music] they were lovers mothers queens goddesses pharaohs they were incredibly strong they were incredibly capable and they underpin the whole of this fantastic ancient civilization you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Rating: 4.7197723 out of 5

Keywords: ancient egypt, egypt documentary, cleopatra documentary, ancient egypt documentary, egyptian documentary, king tut, hatshepsut documentary, timeline documentary, ancient egyptians, documentary egypt, queen nefertiti, queens of egypt, nefertiti documentary, the pharaoh, isis egyptian goddess, history documentary, egypt (country), history channel, greatest discoveries, ancient documentary, ancient history, egyptian pyramids, great sphinx of giza, the mummy, mark antony

Id: E3aNbNxKS6s

Length: 58min 53sec (3533 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 14 2017