Mystery in Sudan: The Lost Pharaohs | TRACKS

[Music] I'm sailing up the River Nile to a realm that's existed since the dawn of time a place ruled by Pharaoh's black Pharaohs but they weren't Egyptian this is a forgotten African civilization which like the Egyptians to the north built temples and pyramids that would last 5,000 years so my journey takes me a thousand miles up the Nile deep into a desert where temperatures soar to a hundred and twenty degrees and here I come face to face with the black ferrars of Africa [Music] hello I'm David Adams and this is the Sudan I'm about two and a half days sailing south of the Egyptian border into what they called the hidden quarter it's the least travelled part of the great river nile from here to Khartoum Sudan desert capital there's a thousand miles of temples tombs and fortresses of a culture that once ruled all Egypt herself as the crow flies my journey is only 330 miles but by River round the great s-bend of the Nile it's triple that distance nearest 1600 kilometers but first a little history [Music] nearly 3,000 years ago in the 8th century BC Chewbacca king of Nubia conquered Egypt his dynasty was to rule the Egyptian Empire for over a century the 25th Nubian dynasty [Applause] and Shibata who was black he and his descendants built temples and pyramids and an empire that stretched from Khartoum to Alexandria it was a civilization that was to span five thousand years so to go back to the roots of this ancient African Empire I'm sailing up the Nile in the most traditional of ways my crew is Nubian direct descendants of those who fought for the black ferrars and I'm sailing on a felucca a boat little changed in 3,000 years ideally suited to what's a very user-friendly River and what makes the Nile really navigable is that the flow goes one way towards Egypt and Alexandria and the north wind goes the other towards cartoon so boats like this can navigate up and down the Nile at will the Nile is Sudan's lifeline 60% of its waters rise in the Ethiopian highlands and flood down the Blue Nile to bring nourishment to its fertile banks but it's a very thin lifeline a green strip extending only as far as the nile waters can reach barely a mile from its banks are the scorching sands of a nubian desert [Music] today the Nubians of Sudan live in mud villagers much as they've done for centuries and I never knew mud could be made so colorful these walls have become a canvas on which to paint vivid geometric patterns again I'm going back in time these villagers ancestors would have once lived under the rule of the black Pharaohs provided they paid their tribute and worshipped the ancient God Armand Roth the Pharaohs would have been benevolent if they defaulted they would have incurred the Pharaohs Roth today the villagers are Islamic and in true Islamic style they extend a welcome to all strangers really are incredible these buildings you'd think you were in Mexico with all the painted adobe houses there instead of right in the middle of the Sudan school starts early in the Soudan at 7:00 a.m. and as Westerners seldom passed this way the school teacher grabs his opportunity he wants me to tell his students about my home country Australia that's where I come from Sydney daddy uh-huh do they know this one they know this one what's this one I'm not you know yeah yeah I wonder what would happen if I asked Western children to name an animal in the Sudan I'd be even more amazed if they knew where it was but I must be on my way thank you yeah it all seems so calm and peaceful here but just across the river is an old fort it stands as a stark reminder of rival imperial ambitions that have so often disrupted the peace of this great river [Music] and here's another Monument a temple built by an Egyptian warrior Amenhotep the third great great-grandfather of Tutankhamun [Music] it was built four thousand years ago and it predates King Solomon Babylon and the temples of classical Greece it was from temples like these that the black Pharaohs drew their inspiration and founded their ancient African civilization [Music] walking amongst these columns and fallen masonry you can't help but admire the workmanship there thousands of years old yet it seems they were carved yesterday and where are the tourists if this were a temple in Egypt it would be crawling with them but I seem to have it all to myself [Music] in Amenhotep stay this was an imperial outpost marking what was to him the ends of the earth behind was Egypt the known world beyond was black Africa in the nubian province of cush and I've also reached a natural barrier the third cataract one of a series of impassable rapids that hinder all Nile travelers my felucca can go no further and as if to rub in the point on the cliff high above the cataract there is an old inscription warning of danger ahead this was the original border between ancient Egypt and the Nubian province of cush tomorrow I joined the trail of another warrior whose Imperial ambition ran headlong into that of another would-be African Pharaoh I'm about to enter the land of cush [Music] [Music] the following day sunrise is obliterated by a desert storm [Music] my newt grains of sand and dust get in your eyes and up your nostrils [Music] sand storms like this a common place in the Sudan and most of North Africa and they don't make a photographer's life any easier [Music] I'm on the Nile on my way to dongha Murrah hope to catch an old steam ferry in it I hope to travel to Karima round the great s Bend of the Nile I'm on another felucca dwarfed by this mighty River and it was past this very spot nearly three thousand years ago that the black Pharaohs launched their invasion north now wind the clock forward to just over a century ago and we find that history repeats itself in 1896 a conquering army also sailed past this very spot but this one was heading south in the eighteen hundreds a man was born near here who believed he was sent by God it was a sort of Islamic Messiah known as the muddy he too had visions of a black African Empire this time an Islamic one today his followers still whip themselves into a frenzy in his memory they're called dervishes 120 years ago a dervish army launched a holy war to end British colonial rule they killed the British commander General Gordon at Khartoum it was ten years before his death would be avenged and when vengeance came it came in the form of this man Lord Kitchener later to become one of Britain's most outstanding generals Kitchener was determined to destroy the Dervish army and to get at them he used the River Nile the next morning we arrived in dongle Oh Mangala fantastic and it was near dongle ER in 1896 that kitcheners army first came under fire from the Dervish forces he quickly defeated them with superior firepower these the ferryboats today is therefore cookery more like sound it's finished well there's my nile ferry thanks to irrigation and droughts upstream the river level is low the result is that these once magnificent old boats have been left to rust in the mud so my plan to travel under steam like Lord Kitchener won't work [Music] it's a riverboat graveyard this is all that's left of a riverboat culture that grew up along the Nile it was based on British imperial power but it was romantic just the same [Music] imagine what it would have been like living on these river boats for days on end really like Agatha Christie and death on the Nile first-class passengers would have been reclining in these lovely little cabins drinking their gin and tonics while the Sudanese all rode down below it's still about 500 miles down to Khartoum but it would be quite a long trip and in a boat like this in those days would have been wonderfully luxurious [Music] the Battle of dongle er was Kitchener's first success dongle is famous for its markers stacked with produce from the Nile today as in 1896 there's enough food to feed an army and it's in these markets that I meet Ramadan Ramadan is also bound for Karima it tells me there's only one way to get there quickly but it means abandoning the river and going by bus and you are stopping it that's the good news the bad news is that the bus doesn't leave until the day after tomorrow so it's two days waiting there's no many buses in this guy okay the Sudanese nation of tea drinkers so we discuss travel plans attitude over a glass of sweet minted tea is there much to see around dongle well dongle er is also famous for its cooking perhaps I can relax and enjoy some Sudanese cuisine but Ramadan suggests another form of cooking you may think that being buried thirty kilometres out in the desert is some sort of Sudanese torture actually it's something that a lot of people travel a long way to do because this sand has incredible properties and anybody with rheumatism who gets buried here for an hour or two walks away with almost no pain well for me because I don't have rheumatism this is actually like a hot sauna well probably in an hour or two I'll just be nicely baked but actually is very pleasant it reminds me of an ancient venereal custom of the black Pharaohs when a pharaoh died he expected all his wives courtiers guards and palace staff to be buried with him alive it's getting hot very hot soon I'll be mummified like a pharaoh they put a cover over me as the Sun rises higher and higher in the desert sky and by now I seem to have acquired quite an audience but I can't let them watch me cook forever we must get back to dongle oh we've got a bus to catch [Music] it's a 200-mile journey which means a 12 day camel ride with a caravan I'm very glad we've got a place on this bus there's no room inside which means we have to sit up on the roof not to worry up here it's a dress circle view like it African desert buses are very colorful and I don't mean just their design and you've got to love that horn [Music] to keep the dust out of my mouth and the son of my head Ramadan insists I wear an EMA a form of Sudanese turn [Music] as we hurtle deeper into the desert my mind goes back to Kitchener's army just over a century ago [Music] 25,000 men marching through this desert I'm glad I was born in the age of motorized transport two days later dusty and tired we arrived in the town of Karima and before we say our goodbyes Ramadhan helps me to find a hotel so this is the only guesthouse in town was crying having such a knowledgeable guy [Music] and as I drift off to sleep my mind goes back to Nubia and that ancient African Empire I'm about to enter a land of pyramids and temples built by the black Pharaohs thousands of years ago this was the place from where they set out to dominate much of the known world it was also the place where the Kings became gods at first sight Kareem is just another North African desert town on the banks of the River Nile but it was once an imperial city that used to rule the Sudan and Egypt far beyond [Music] towering over Karima is jebel barkal at its foot temples and burial grounds dating back to the days of the black Pharaohs this was this sacred mountain it was from here that they drew their royal power and it was from here nearly 3,000 years ago that they launched their conquest of Egypt and beyond in ancient times this was the center of a belief system that linked gods and kings it was here they believed heaven and earth were joined well this is the seat of the gods this is where our man Dreyer the Great God of the cush and the Egyptians was worshipped and from this pinnacle there was a huge plaque of gold but Shaun out into the desert and declared to everybody that this was the center of our mantra and the worship of their great God and why wouldn't they think this place was sacred it was the highest point in their firmament from here they could survey their capital much of their Kingdom and its life-giving artery the River Nile [Music] deep inside the mountain is a secret labyrinth [Music] on the walls are inscriptions that have survived nearly three millennia their colors perfectly preserved in the dry desert air even the most powerful of the black Pharaohs feared this place for here lived the god kings where monarchs prayed and hoped to become gods themselves it was their belief in armand rah that inspired their holy war to conquer Egypt [Music] but now their gods have fallen their temples are no longer sacred and their kings along forgotten back in town there's an event on a wedding and weddings are the ultimate in Sudanese hospitality the whole town celebrates I'm in town so automatically I'm expected to attend it would be rude not to this is the bridegroom and if he's looking a little bit apprehensive then maybe a good reason why most marriages in the Sudan are arranged so it's quite possible he's never even set eyes on his future wife until today central to every marriage is the contract normally drawn up after months and months of wrangling so today's the day when the contract is supposed to be signed and the dowry paid well the signings almost finished and after that all the men are going to move out of here and join the women for what is only referred to as the festival the problem is I can't find the groom the celebrant says a prayer and suddenly there's a sound of gunfire a shot is supposed to signal the end of prayers and then there's another shot for the signing of the contract that's it this guy can get his gun to work and I wish you'd stop pointing the damn thing in my direction I half wonder if this is the origin of the phrase shotgun wedding but events have overtaken it they found the bridegroom but he's about to leave [Music] it looks like it's all over before it really began some things about a family tip the drama ran out the families of divided rooms in one vehicle the guides in another and they're disappearing family it happens all the time and Sudanese weddings [Applause] [Music] and it's time I was leaving too I still want to visit the pyramids of the ancient kingdom of cush to do that I must go further up the Nile and head into the desert fortunately Lord Kitchener's army left behind a transport system to get there Karima station that looks as if it were built for an English country town but this is not much English spoken here so for me buying this ticket is a bit of a lottery really sure where I've actually bought the ticket to got a bid Port Sudan it was really cheap there's only about ten dollars so if I get to Khartoum it'll be a very cost-effective journey the line goes from Karima up the Nile Valley then hopefully south Dakar tune on the way I'll stop me marawis but for the moment I just need to get on this train the first thing to realize about trains in Sudan is that they're very crowded I thought I'd got here early but obviously not quite early enough the second thing to learn about them is that they leave on time at least this one does as we leave Karima we travel through the thin green line the narrow ribbon of fertility but owes its existence to the Nile [Music] then as if to rub home the point quite suddenly we're in the open desert next stop well I'm not too sure about that but I'm told we're heading in the general direction of cartoon [Music] traveling on these trains I think like India absolutely packed but it was kind of the same way as the villages everybody shares their food and even though it's a really long trip I don't speak much Arabic that if you don't mind sitting on the floor but I'm too tired to worry soon the lurching motion that sends me to sleep as we head out across a sandy sea of nothingness but as I was to find out getting on the train is the easy bit as I approach the ancient pyramids of the black Pharaohs getting off turns out to be a leap into the unknown [Music] when the British Empire held sway over this part of Africa one of its lasting legacies was the rail system it left behind this is the Sudan section of what imperialists like Lord Kitchener hope could one day become the great Cape Town to Cairo railway [Music] I've now done some 500 miles of my journey as I head towards cartoon and I'm hoping to get off this train near the ancient pyramids of meroe [Music] but I see no station and this train shows no sign of stopping or even slowing it really only leaves me one option I don't think that was a smiler smoove in the world jumping off friends I don't recommend don't know if I broken my collarbone but I've certainly given a hell on a jar so we'll just see what happens but I would recommend jumping off trains as the train disappears into a mirage I head into the shimmering desert with a rather bruised shoulder on the horizon my destination pyramids of meroe [Music] nothing better illustrates the power of the River Nile than this wilderness and well beyond its irrigating reach in a wasteland rule only by Sun and wind [Music] but even out here you're never entirely alone though I wasn't expecting this hey Jane good man I never expected to see anybody happy no let's see the first traveler that icy north of Khartoum oh really yeah where you headed well I'm heading north to buddy Hoffa I've tried to get to ferry their trust lake nasser and egypt one we would just come from that way i just actually come down on the nile yeah so where have you been I mean you look like you've read the world yeah it's it's actually around the world trip started 1995 from Germany that's where I'm heading now I'm on my way home so how long till you get home I don't know it we'll probably another six months so he heads north and I continue south they call these the Forgotten pyramids because of a Western obsession with Egypt the Sudan is not on the tourist trail so these pyramids are rarely seen by Westerners and yet there are more pyramids here in the Sudan than there are in Egypt and out here in the middle of nowhere I guess this is the closest I'll get to hiring a taxi yes what I get a camel [Music] in ancient Egyptian terms these pyramids are relatively new a mere 2,400 years old but in terms of Western discovery they're even newer they weren't seen at all by outsiders until the middle of the 19th century [Music] [Applause] [Music] they've never been properly excavated but they were built by the black Pharaohs they're smaller and steeper than the better-known Egyptian pyramids and like them they've been vandalized by tomb raiders [Music] they tell me that 19 Kings are buried here along with 53 Queens countless slaves attendants dogs horses and other animals and buried with them was gold and precious stones [Music] [Music] I guess you'd have to say that this would rate as one of the wonders of the world and it would be more wonderful if all the tops of these pyramids were intact but what happened 1836 or so is an Italian treasure hunter came down here and blew the tops of them all trying to find some gold he found gold in one but by the time he'd pulled it out all the local people were so angry that he had to flee for his life maybe they didn't get him to just stand in a place like this is truly awesome these monuments stand as testimony to a black African civilization that predated Julius Caesar Christianity and Alexander the Great but its inspiration came from much earlier 4000 BC from the very dawn of civilization itself its culture became its own its carving its hieroglyphics its architectural style and after the 25th dynasty it was to last another thousand years only to be eclipsed by the arrival of Islam in 650 ad but as I gaze at these ruined walls I see graffiti of a more recent age the scratchings of adventurers and Europeans once more I'm on the trail of kitcheners army as he marched relentlessly on cartoon [Music] almost a century ago he built a military railway to supply his troops this is part of that line there's an old Sudanese saying if you see a train catch it they also say that if you hail a passing train it will stop for you and while this isn't exactly a train it'll do but it's going a lot faster than it looks I think they're trying to tell me that they can't stop if I want to lift I'll have to jump [Music] a great way to cruise into Elkader here I'm told there's a real Nile steamer that can take me up to Khartoum it's taken me nearly three weeks to get this far it took Lord Kitchener two years and it was from here that he prepared for the final showdown [Applause] at last I get my chance to ride an old Sudanese Nile ferry and what a wonderful way to travel down Africa's longest river in 1898 it's how Lord Kitchener would have entered the city and it's how I entered the city a century later back in 1898 a boat like this would have been bristling with guns Kitchener used a flotilla of them to bombard Khartoum and these guys forebears would have been on the receiving end pawned in a great political game beyond their control [Music] I've now completed nearly a thousand miles of my Nile travels in the wake of kitcheners army and now I'm near journey's end I want to make a small detour to witness a very special event but first my taxi driver has to fight his way through cartoons chaotic traffic [Music] it's grand final day for a wrestling contest and as with all grandfather's the rival teams need their cheer squads [Applause] these are the legendary new bow wrestlers not to be confused with Nubians these proud fighters come from the Nuba Mountains south of cartoon and this is their traditional sport the wrestlers cover themselves with Oakland and a tog [Music] the rules are simple make your challenge then try to throw your opponent on the ground it's an endless cycle of challenge wrestle throat while the cheer squads show no sign of losing voice while the Sudan's strict Islamic code officially disapproves of wrestling it was this fighting spirit which the Mahdi drew on when he tried to forge his North African Islamic empire and it was this fighting spirit that took the British by surprise over a century ago the final showdown came at the Battle of Omdurman [Music] [Applause] this is where the Dervish army dug in and here they waited for the British and Egyptian troops to arrive and when they did it was a massacre a medieval dervish army against Kitchener's modern war machine can you imagine what it would have been like manning these defences for months and months on end well this enormous army advanced from the north and then when it did arrive and Kitchener sail his boat up the Nile and fired the first shot on the Marty's tomb it was hardly Britain's finest hour for forty-eight British dead 25,000 modest lay dead or dying on this battlefield [Music] the Battle of Omdurman was a slaughter Spears and daggers were no match for the British artillery it was at Omdurman that a new weapon would come into its own the machine gun [Music] so today perhaps it's not surprising that the Sudanese like the black Pharaohs before them would wish to control their own destiny just as the Islamic Messiah the Mahdi had tried to do over a century ago every Friday at sundown the descendants of the Dervish army come together this was how they prepared for battle today it's how they make contact with God [Applause] and as the word dervish means poor man that's how they turn out some even wearing clothes made from rags [Applause] [Music] for them this is a transport of the soul taking them beyond their ordinary lives and giving them a glimpse of the life in the Hereafter [Music] [Applause] [Music] and as they fall into a trance from the ecstasy of the dance no wonder if they're drawing on an earlier tradition one day they believe another Messiah another Mari will be sent by God so why is such an obsession with their self-determination maybe they look back to a time long ago when under the mysterious black Pharaohs the sudan briefly ruled an empire which became the envy of the known world or maybe after thousands of years of turmoil they're sick of being pushed around [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] as I head back down the river of life I've realized there's one reason for all of this one cause of all their sorrows and joys and I'm sailing on it it's the River Nile so I'll leave you with the words of a young British Army officer who fought at the Battle of Omdurman his name was Winston Churchill and he wrote of the Nile it is the life of this land through which it flows without the river none would have started without it none would have continued without it none would have ever returned they say that if you drink from the Nile you'll return one day I shall return on another of my journeys to the ends of the earth [Music] [Music] you

Channel: TRACKS

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Keywords: TRACKS, tracks travel channel, tracks travel, black pharaohs, ancient history, ancient egypt documentary, ancient egypt history, ancient africa, timeline documentary

Id: sVMeSq73rxc

Length: 50min 24sec (3024 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 14 2019