[Music] a strange Tower watches over the Nile Valley located 80 km south of Cairo it is quite far from the most famous [Music] pyramids this is the Pyramid of maum and yet it doesn't look at all like the most common pyramids such as kufu and cafre instead its shape is reminiscent of a keep like an impregnable Fortress even the locals call it haram elab the false pyramid actually someone called him yesterday he was passing by and he said this is not a pyramid it looks like a tower The Peculiar shape of this Monument has continuously bewildered archaeologists is maum truly a pyramid a funeral Monument or as its shape suggests a Temple dedicated to raah the god of the sun from what we know today about solar temples they used to look like big obelisks so the shape was rather similar to what Mom currently looks like an obelisk a spike soaring to the sky and reminding of a Sunray vasel DV a French archaeologist is convinced that made of is indeed a solar Temple we can feel here that we're building something that will look like an obelisk and what's an obelisk a petrified Sunray well that's what we would have here too talk talk besides he thinks there's another element that questions the true nature of maum the room some considered to be the burial chamber even though today sand partly covers the sides of the building its sole entrance is located very high on the North side once inside there's a staircase called a descending passage that leads to what is supposed to be the burial chamber the entrance to the descending passage is located 30 m high for the first king Neu it's 12 m kufu is about 15 M K is right under the tiles under the yard and Menor is 2 3 m we never see mummies that must be more than 30 m above ground when looking at it like that this narrow room doesn't seem ready to receive the pharaoh's [Music] mummy if there had been a sarcophagus it would have been here how come the king during all the years of his Reign didn't find the time to level the floor in order to make space for a sarcophagus it means that there was no plan to put a sarcophagus here it would barely take two days to fix this no sarcophagus has ever been found in this room but perhaps even stranger no Pharaoh seems related to this building meaning that maum is not a pyramid so what could it be it's a temple what Temple who was the god at the time it was raw the whole civilization honored this God so there's nothing more normal than building a temple for this God in Obelisk shape an unfinished chamber for the king these Clues seriously question the nature of maum in order to find out its true identity archaeologists such as the American Mark laner who spent his life studying pyramids had nothing but the location itself to carry out their investigation you know this kind of archaeological work is like detective work like a crime scene you see bloody gloves you see tracks going across the floor the window is broken it's the same kind of thing there's no texts that tell us in a narrative way what happened so you have to infer from all this kind of evidence the challenge was huge the events happened 5,000 years ago and most evidence has been washed away by time yet archaeologists do have a trump card science and new technologies that allow for a totally different approach unlike their predecessors they now have access to drones satellite images and extremely realistic 3D models that permit a very detailed study of the site this is particularly true for photogrametry for the first time ever this groundbreaking technology will create a geometrically accurate digital copy of the building it will then be used to analyze the structure of the pyramids we have a real 3D view not realistic real it means we have access to the monument as it is it's not a reconstruction such photogrametry gives us a 3D view but also the right texture we have the color in order to reach such an incredible level of detail a drone and several cameras are needed they must collect thousands of images over the whole site we'd like to fly about 5 m away from the walls in order to create a 3D model that is accurate up to 1 mm then we'll combine the model with the pictures shot from the ground and Link all of the sides [Music] together the challenge lies in scanning every inch of this massive site we're going to use different angles otherwise we won't get the flat areas the Drone will give us access to the upper levels that we can't see from the ground it will be really helpful for the scientists because they have a hard time accessing these levels but now they'll be able to inspect the whole surface digitally just as if they were on the building more than 10,000 digital pictures will be treated and properly positioned so as to accurately represent the monument my first impression is that you can actually visit the site without being there which is very useful to a certain resolution to a certain degree of detail you know the Devils we say is in the details but so is insight into how they did it check every piece of that image has a unique position in relation to others and so we're able to measure the monument and its characteristics accurately thanks to photogrametry and the endless possibilities it opens up archaeologists hope to be able to validate their hypothesis regarding this mysterious Monument the technology has led to a first discovery maum is indeed a pyramid and not a tower A View from Above gave that hint to the archaeologists by studying the 3D model they were able to clearly identify the base of the monument although it's partly buried from the ground it's almost impossible to see that base photogrametry also lets them accurately measure each side the base is square about 144 M on each side meaning an impressive total surface of more than 20,000 sare m excavations on the North Face of maum unveiled the outside cladding of the pyramid the base that surrounds the keep indicates a smooth sided pyramid a real pyramid and when looking at the excavated area that shell is clearly visible this is what we call fine T Limestone and they use it they select it on purpose for the casing for outer casing thanks to photog gometry it's easy to determine the gradient of the outer shell and to calculate its angle 52° which is evidence that maum is a pyramid indeed archaeologists are familiar with this number the most famous pyramid in Egypt kufu also has a slope of 52° this is the perfect angle the one that has guaranteed the stability of the structures through the centuries the pyramid is currently 70 M high but by looking at its base and the angle of the casing which were both accurately measured thanks to the 3D model archaeologists estimate that the building used to be more than 93 m High during its golden years there are many Clues telling us that the pyramid was much higher before it was in a much better State during Antiquity Greek tourists have left markings at the top of the building which simply means that during their time the top was easily accessible so it must have been in a better shape than it is today this proves that maum used to look like all other pyramids and still look so during Antiquity but photogrammetry has yet another surprise for archaeologists a big one when on the site itself from the ground or even from the first floor we can't see anything but flat ground everywhere but when looking at the 3D model a linear structure appears too linear to be natural in fact what you see here um is something that I was looking for when we were at Mom and I couldn't see it maybe I saw it just vague faintly now here in the point Cloud it's coming out this very large dark band you know as a square around the pyramid an outer enclosure the photogrametry clearly shows us what's left of the outer wall but it's completely covered by sand however given how massive the sand piles are we can imagine that the wall is still in a relatively good shape or at least part of it is the outer wall was invisible up until now and it proves that maum wasn't isolated just as with all other pyramids it was part of a very codified complex during the excavations that took place in the beginning of the 80s archaeologists dug more than than 15 M along the east side of the pyramid this massive work uncovered a small funeral Temple along with a huge 22m long path this path typically connects the small temple close to the pyramid to the temple in the valley a closer look at the model shows the general shape of another element that can't be seen in the field because it is completely covered by sand another pyramid located in the southwest of maum we have a small funeral Temple a small pyramid a path that connects the temples and so on this is a classic pyramid complex of the fourth Dynasty there can no longer be any doubt about it maum is a true pyramid despite its peculiar shape it follows all the rules of a traditional funeral complex as they were built during the fourth Egyptian [Music] Dynasty but maum shape isn't the only only thing that has been confusing experts indeed the pyramid isn't claimed by any Pharaoh which seems incredible when coming inside the small Temple located to the east of the pyramid Mark laner is confused something vital is missing from these huge slabs a marking that can be found in every other pyramid the name of the Pharaoh who built it completely blank Stila they just left it unfinished the place was destined to receive the presents for the Pharaoh and everything seems ready they even prepared this offering slab in their traditional shape of a stylized mat with a loaf of bread very worn and broken but the offering slab was prepared the steela were here smooth down ready to receive an inscription they were left blank I mean for the ancient Egyptians this is Unthinkable you have to have your image and your name inscribed to live on in the afterlife so if there's no signature how can the pyramid be connected to any Pharaoh the funeral complex the outer wall the big and the small pyramid the small Temple and the long path tell us that this is a pyramid from the fourth Dynasty meaning sometime between 2543 and 2436 BC but how can we find out which one of the seven pharaohs of the fourth Dynasty is the father of maum we think we know these Kings because we say their names so often we associate their names with the pyramids but you know we couldn't write a narrative history of this period we just don't have the text we know almost nothing about these Kings in order to find out the father of this pyramid we need to know when it was built the date can be established by studying the burial Chambers inside the pyramid indeed their position has changed dramatically through time the first burial Chambers were dug directly in the ground and were accessed through a shaft then little by little Egyptians became Bolder and they started digging Chambers inside the pyramid's body itself the pyramid this massive artificial Mountain it was was built to protect the mummy of the king the irony would be if the very weight and pressure of the pyramid imploded the chamber and crushed The Mummy of the king and here again photogrammetry will play a crucial role in studying the inside of the monument cameras are used to photograph every angle of the long Corridor heading down to two small rooms in the king's chamber the analysis of the 3D model afterwards confirms what archaeologists suspected the king's resting place is located inside inside the building itself at the very bottom this is a key difference compared with the first pyramid of humanity the one Pharaoh Jer built if we compare mayom to the pyramids that came before it from the third Dynasty for example the stepped pyramid of Jer we can see that for josu the rooms were placed underground whereas in mum they are built inside the pyramid's body in the Jer pyramid the tombstone is placed at the bottom of a pit 22 M underground 100 years l later the burial Chambers inside kufu are placed in the center of the building much higher than in maum this first discovery means maum was built between the Jer pyramid and kufu sometime between 2,600 and 2500 BC this is a major step forward as the location of the burial chamber excludes kufu and the following five pharaohs only snu kuf Fu's father is left from the fourth Dynasty could this pharoh be behind the construction of maum the few Clues the archaeologists gathered in the field tend to confirm this hypothesis Egyptians during the following centuries of Millennium have always considered this pyramid to be sfu's work although the pyramid was never officially signed peculiar markings that caught the experts attention were found in the corridor of the small Temple the name of cro was found in the temple cro rising and this why that description that written in the New Kingdom it is in the mind of the people all the time that CIF is a builder of this pyramid the graffiti made by travelers from Antiquity date back to the 18th Dynasty some 1,200 years after snr's Reign exactly there's a fairly long graffiti up here it's very very short one the graffiti mentioned snefru as though this were a place of snu it just adds to the probability that snefru was the owner of the mum pyramid this king is quite known already archaeologists think he was behind the construction of two major buildings the bent pyramid and The Red Pyramid in dasor about 40 km away from maum yet if maum indeed belongs to snfu why isn't there any trace of his sarcophagus and why would he have built three pyramids a careful analysis of the burial chamber will help the experts uncover a possible use of their pyramid of maum when you dig an empty space inside a building you have to make sure that every stone piled up above it doesn't lean too much and come crashing down they're worried about the weight and the pressure of the pyramid basically imploding the chamber destroying it to prevent such a catastrophe Egyptians have come up with a groundbreaking technique so instead of beams Crossing horizontally they do the coring where they bring every course in a little bit more few few inches more until the the room closes at the top and this is a way to roof a space the first archaeologist who visited the burial chamber recognized the use of a common building technique during the Middle Ages when building Cathedrals it's called corbelling and consists in placing the stone blocks in teers the idea is quite simple it's about letting most of the weight of a block rest on another block and to leave only the last quarter hanging which has no risk of falling down the main advantage is that this can take on heavy loads thanks to the way the weight is spread yet one element of the architecture confuses archaeologists the ceiling of the two small rooms that lie at the bottom of the corridor don't use corbelling although they should being placed as they are inside the pyramid's body just like the burial chamber what was strange was that these two small rooms had a flat ceiling which couldn't possibly stand the pressure from above it means there had to be something above them to protect them archaeologists from the 19th century had already noticed such flat ceilings inside the burial chamber of snr's son kufu after some digging they discovered the technique the Egyptians had used so that this kind of ceiling could withstand the massive pressure of the pyramid we know that above kufu chamber There is five relieving chambers that the ancient Egyptian made them to load the heav of the stones these Small hidden rooms located above the king's chamber have the same function as corbelling spreading the huge pressure of the pyramid could such relieving Chambers have been used in maum to several decades earlier in 1999 a French team team started investigating to discover the answer with the obligation of not damaging the pyramid they tried to see Behind the Walls by using a tiny [Music] camera it was quite simple really we used an endoscope just like a medical endoscope we just needed to drill a hole about 1.5 CM wide then insert an optic fiber in it and then look the team settles above the small rooms inside the burial chamber they managed to insert the endoscope through a hole in the mortar but the operation turns out to be more complicated than expected the main issue was that we couldn't see much because the endoscope is very small and we couldn't send much light inside the rooms after several trials what they hope to find is here in the end though we managed to see that the relieving Chambers we suspected existed were indeed there so what are these Chambers anyway well there are vaults built with the coring technique hidden vaults the flat ceiling is actually a false ceiling and above it lie vaults built in corbelling just as in the burial chamber that protect the two rooms maum snr's first pyramid is a testing ground as we can see with the entrance located too high up to easily allow the mummy to be brought inside the whole history of pyramid architecture through the of SN is really getting better and better at enclosing larger and larger spaces they were getting Bolder and Bolder after building a 4 cubits wide room that didn't collapse in the next pyramid they thought perhaps I can make it 5 cubits and it didn't collapse either and so inside the next pyramid they said let's make it six Cubit and that's how sizes have increased photogrammetry will highlight another key element in this investigation measuring the width of the king's chamber inside snr's various pyramids can help determine in which order they were built in mum the burial chamber is 2.51 M wide in The Red Pyramid it's 4.18 m and in the bent pyramid 5.13 M therefore maum has the smallest burial chamber of the three which would mean that it was the first of snr's pyramids something archaeologists have noticed in the the field you can really see the the advances in coring just in terms of the beauty of the masonry how smooth it is the regularity of the steps as the sides close on each other you really see the advances in the bent pyramid and then you see near perfection in The Red Pyramid the north pyramid at aure but it may do it's the very beginning the superior chamber in medium is really ugly it doesn't have the noble characteristics the proper polish a burial chamber should have there are almost no vertical walls it's like a vault dropped directly onto the ground lots of mending and defects too since this is the beginning they want the chamber to be small too they're not confident to have a huge space that they have to roof both the measurements and the quality of the work point to a similar conclusion the orphan pyramid maum is indeed snr's first pyramid snefru is the only pharaoh who built not one but three pyramids beyond the reasons that led him to build several tombs archaeologists think that the sheer fact that a single Pharaoh could build three pyramids proves one thing the tremendous power of snefru and his kingdom 4,5 100 years ago the economy reached its Peck and the idea of kingship was that strong the king had a very strong power to control the country to make the country building his pyramid SFU benefited from a strong economy and an unusually long lifespan that allowed him to carry out his ambitious projects this King whose name means es neuru he who perfects has for 42 years perhaps even years we don't know we imagine he must have been very powerful imagine he must have been healthy and he must have been very ambitious his excessive ambition led him to show impressive organizational skills in order to make his massive building sites [Music] work indeed sn's Logistics were incredibly effective and spread much Beyond his kingdom to build the pyramids he had to import the most beautiful Limestone blocks from the distant quaries of Aswan and Torah he even went all the way to Nubia in the south of the country to bring back slaves that would help the local workers the wood used for transport comes from Lebanon and the copper used in making the tools needed to build the pyramids come from the distant mines of the Sinai Peninsula [Music] in 2011 in W El jaff on the shores of the Red Sea one of the major bases used in building maum was discovered this is the most important archaeological discovery of the beginning of the 21st century a discovery that no archaeologist Dar to imagine and with it an incredible level of logistics is revealed for the first time here we are in the oldest port in the history the technology allowed us to locate this port such a discovery was made possible thanks to archaeology 2.0 during the ' 50s two French pilots flying over the coast had located archaeological remains Pierre T an egyptologist who has long been interested in harbors and ports in ancient Egypt sought to find this location a satellite image helped him by looking carefully at the satellite shots he was able to find the remains the pilots had mentioned he notices a strange l-shape underwater that looks like an old Harbor in the analysis of the local underwater geography confirms his idea the location of this old Harbor matches that of a kind of Inlet in the coral reef that runs along the coast in the area they had located a place where accessing the shore was easier moreover another element will strengthen Pier T's Theory this site is clearly accessible through a natural Corridor called Wadi araba and when we follow this Corridor to its end we find out that the place where it connects to the Nile Valley is also the location of and so it's obvious for us that the very location of the W jar is directly related to the pyramid these Clues are good enough to justify the start of a massive archaeological excavation campaign and the results go well beyond anyone's expectations archaeologists are able to uncover a massive Harbor complex Muhammad Abdel mid is an Egyptian expert in underwater archaeology and he thinks we've just discovered the very first artificial Harbor in the history of man so this Harbor is made with two artificial peers in L shapes they thought this very early period in the history to construct a peer to close for the current and the wind then the ships can be safe inside the harbor must have been very busy indeed as its size suggests 200 M long and 200 M wide so this area could take maybe 15 boats every day there is a boat who was leaving another boat who is coming you have to charge cargo and discharge all of these needs workers the excavations unveiled many buildings near the shores and 6 km away there were 14 warehouses dug directly in the mountain inside and around many boat related items were found such as these first anchors heavy Stones roughly sculpted some even present traces of the ropes used 4,500 years ago many remains help to conclude with certainty that this was all snr's work in several locations we were able to find items with the name of the king among the Galleries and storage space built in the harbor we found the Seal of snefru on the lid of a jar that must have been used to keep products brought to the harbor this Logistics Center is essential to build the Pyramid of maum just in front of us on the other side of the Gulf of su you will uh you will hit directly on Sinai by boat the harbor is only 50 km away from Abu Zena very close to the copper mines the material used to make the tools need needed in building snr's pyramids it's very likely that the very conditions behind the building of the harbor probably right from the beginning of snr's Reign match the rising need in Copper used when building colossal structures the harbor of w aljaf establishes a direct link between maum and the material needed to build it but more important than the time gained this guaranteed a more regular and a safer Supply compared with the old road that went around the Gulf of Suez when building things as massive as pyramids work must obviously be very well organized and structured thanks to such an important Discovery archaeologists have a better understanding of the logistics SRO had set up to build his three pyramids something no other pharaoh after him will ever [Music] match but one question continues to trouble archaeologists why did SNR build three pyramids when one would have been enough to Grant him eternal life maum gives us part of the answer the king liked to experiment and to continuously improve building techniques until he found the perfect [Music] pyramid during the80s the excavations on the north side of the pyramid uncovered the building's structure this was a chance for researchers who could now study the structure of the pyramid and Carry Out photog gometric analysis the results are striking because this is exactly what we can see in the field but on a computer instead the analysis of the 3D models unveils strange anomalies namely the fact that perfectly carved limestones are visible under the layer of rough Stones the American archaeologist Mark laner thinks these blocks tell us the incredible story of maum that of two pyramids built into one well right here you can see the corner the beautiful Torah casing and the Beautiful corner of one step of the old step pyramid and so these blocks would be what's left of the outside of an older pyramid hidden under the smooth side of maum a staircas likee pyramid also called stepped pyramid on this view shot with a drone what looked like the floors of a keep would actually be the leftovers of the initial staircase shape the Pyramid of mayom looked like a stepped pyramid at first and it was completed as such but at some point during the king's Reign the stepped pyramid was turned into a smooth sided pyramid and so all around this stepped pyramid they added a kind of casing that would make the whole structure look like a true pyramid calculating the angles of the upper floors gives a result of 70° that's the slope of the old-fashioned step pyramid of each step and the accretions they use to make the steps they slope at about 74 to 75° under its smooth casing it looked just like the first and only step pyramid ever built that of pharaoh joser who built it 100 years before maum to the mom pyramid it's really two pyramids in one first there was this old step pyramid an old-fashioned step pyramid that snu started and this is the first time anybody really completed a pyramid to this height since the first pyramid of joser other kings tried to build step pyramids but didn't complete them if the place hadn't been in Ruins we wouldn't have known about the stepped Pyramid inside we wouldn't have known The Monument's history an A Closer study of the building tells the same story two techniques belong to two different time periods were used to build the Pyramid of maum thanks to photogrammetry for the first time we are able to see every element used in the building process located on top of the monument we can see all the masonry the construction technique based on Stones angled towards the center towards the core the technique consists in placing the stones with a 15° inclination toward the inside of the building the advantage of this is that every block leans against the central core and all forces are sent to the inside of the monument without the risk of blocks moving towards the outside and causing a collapse the technique was invented by Jer to build his stepped pyramid this is really a method from the third Dynasty the other method used is visible on what's left of the smooth sided pyramid at the foot of the current structure Egyptians used to lay Stones horizontally then they would carve them to give them the final smooth appearance this technique has only been mastered during the fourth Dynasty so how can we explain that Egyptians use two building techniques coming from two different eras and why didn't the Pharaoh stop at the stepped pyramid that for some reason he had another idea and apparently it was this idea for the first perfect pyramid with with straight sloping sides for that he went to dashur dashur is located about 50 kilm North of maum snefro moves the court there and starts building the very first smooth-sided pyramid in history so there's evidence that he began with a very steep pyramid of 60° remember at this time nobody knew knew what a good pyramid should look like and the evidence is that he was having problems structural problems but quickly cracks appear all over the building and the pyramid threatens to collapse snefru launches a plan to save the monument as he understands that a 60° angle is too steep he surrounds the monument with masonry and finishes the top of the pyramid with a 43° angle you have to understand that was the beginning the Arctic made a mistake ching with a big angle and therefore they did learn snu has learned his lesson still seeking the perfect pyramid he starts building a third one but this time with a much lower angle and apparently his Builders were confident he went North to dashur to build the Red Pyramid at the low angle of 43° and this is a success the pyramid is still stable 4,500 years later it really looks to me like there was a conscious research and development program to achieve this Perfection the same research process is used inside the building once the corbelling technique that consists in Roofing a room by laying stones and tear is mastered snu takes more and more risks and places the King's Room ever higher inside the [Music] monument but as a perfectionist he doesn't stop at the smooth sided 43° pyramid in Dasher instead he goes back to maum to turn the step pyramid into a perfect pyramid now all of this is part of the story of made Doom because evidently snefru sent his Builders back to made to enlarge the step pyramid and make it a true pyramid with sides that slope at 52° that's the classic pyramid angle the fact SN went back to maum after the pyramids in dashore is backed by observations in the field the pyramid's casing is the proof that maum was the last pyramid built you can see where they're coming in with a chisel and they're being very careful at that seam between one stone and another you see the vertical chisel marks coming down like that at dashore you can see we're again and again and again they were breaking the edges of the casing stones and having to patch them they would Square Off the break and then put in a patch now they're they're lured to be really careful when they dress the stone down to those edges studying the structure of the monument tells us an incredible story that of a work that spread over four decades the full length of the pharaoh's Reign making maum his first and last pyramid snefru started at mayom and finished at mayom at the beginning of his Reign and at the end of his Reign it tells a story that makes sense this is the story of a transformation from a stepped pyramid to a perfect pyramid but how could maum go from a perfect pyramid to a mere keep so much so indeed that a confused archaeologist about its true nature and the locals call it ironically Haram El kadab the false pyramid after 2,000 years dominating the valley could the pyramid truly have collapsed the idea of collapse is made compelling it's an attractive idea when you look at how irregular is this later masonry against the very smooth toura Limestone casing of the original step pyramid and there's no good Square joinery between these filling blocks and they come up in a very loose irregular way against the very smooth old step pyramid phase so there's nothing there to lock the two phases together and that's why we could think possibly of a slipping away of this later masonry and a catastrophic collapse and so the very story of maum and its double nature would be its downfall this is a tragic fate indeed from being the first perfect pyramid of the fourth Dynasty it went on to be a quarry for the following Generations many cels used to come and hold the stones taking stones from the pyramid to build uh major structures in the Islamic chiro now disfigured maum doesn't have much left from its old splend the pyramid with such an incredible story is now buried under the sand and forsaken by men archaeology 2.0 has solved the mystery of the true nature of maum and helped Trace back the story of an amazing project the midom pyramid is really two pyramids in one in fact the midom pyramid is the beginning in the end of the story of how to design a giant pyramid yet some things remain unexplained why didn't snu write his name on the slabs in the small Temple he could have claimed to be the father of such an architectural wonder and why has the burial chamber not been completed the very Place supposed to protect his dead body these questions remain unanswered for now what troubles researchers is that the Tomb of the Pharaoh who built three pyramids has yet to be found and all they have are hypotheses about this it seems that may Doom could have been some kind of alternative in case of an early death when snafu started the massive projects in Das he wasn't certain he'd see them completed being old it was much easier to complete maom than to complete a pyramid that was only starting in dashh some egyptologists believe that the pyramid isn't signed because maum was never a tomb this pyramid never been used for the king this pyramid in my opinion it became like a dami pyramid it's a sacred object and it becomes like what we call a senot it's a memorial to him rather than his actual tomb other researchers believe that the real burial chamber is yet to be found this so-called burial chamber feels more like an open space to move things even more so when we consider some strange elements such as the wooden blocks that seem to have been used to handle things they're located in front of the north wall which also presents unusual characteristics it is built like the other walls behind this wall May lie the king's tomb Maiden was built far away from the most famous pyramids such as kufu but remains one of the most mysterious this monument and its peculiar shape will demand several more Decades of archaeological investigation but thanks to new technologies researchers hope to soon be able to decipher the last secrets of this Monument built 4,500 years [Music] ago
