Immortal Egypt: Invasion (Ancient Egypt Documentary) | Timeline

this is about as far north in Egypt as it's possible to get because out there is the Mediterranean to my West is Libya to my East Palestine and Arabia while Egypt itself lies down there to the South a thousand kilometres of desert cut right through the centre by the Mighty River Nile and at its top why is this the great port city of Alexandria it was ancient Egypt's last and most influential capital it was a city of great power wealth and luxury the greatest in the world Alexandria was also home of one of Egypt's most famous Pharaoh's Cleopatra the final ruler of a Greek dynasty and the last in a long line of foreign invaders would each claimed a gypped for themselves seduced by its legendary splendors by now the pyramids were already thousands of years old they were the beginning of a seemingly indestructible core belief that had survived chaos famine and war it's as if they've been picked clean a belief that would shine even more brightly in its fabled golden age whose temples tombs and glittering treasures had made Egypt an irresistible temptation as jealous foreign rulers I'd a weakened Egypt how could it survive successive waves of foreign attack but Egypt had a secret weapon a culture so strong and deep-rooted that it seduced and then absorbed all who would claim it as their own welcome to my story of ancient Egypt throughout the first millennium BC Egypt faced wave after wave of foreign invaders but in the face of such a strong and long-lived culture all who would try to take over Egypt would themselves be taken over [Music] almost a thousand years before Cleopatra Egypt that entered its third intermediate period a time of political decline and vulnerability or it's the beginning of the 22nd dynasty around 9:45 BC the priests are in charge of the South but in the north the vultures have started to circle waiting for their chance to swoop as a group of Libyan generals seize power to rule us pharaohs of a divided land in many ways Egypt's waning power had been triggered by a loss of faith when the authority of the New Kingdom Pharaohs had begun to crumble Egypt's once pious priests that helped loot the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings systematically dismantling Egypt's previously unshakeable belief in the afterlife with the decline in power of the New Kingdom Pharaohs the Libyans who'd fought the Egyptians as mercenary generals gradually infiltrated Egypt's power structure and eventually took power as the 22nd dynasty [Music] the first king of the 22nd dynasty sheshank had a number of sons who helped him keep control of Egypt one of whom was called NIM lot and these are the bracelets of Prince NIM lot Egypt's Libyan rulers understood that looking and acting Egyptian would help to keep the country under their control these beautiful bracelets are just a tiny fraction of the golden treasures created for Egypt's libyan royals who on the surface at least upheld many of Egypt's most sacred traditions they are portraying a very small figure of the god Horus who symbolized Egyptian kingship shown as a young child emerging from a lotus blossom and on either side is protected by the rearing cobras the royal uraeus symbol yet in some ways these images are simply window dressing lip service to ancient Egyptian traditions in order to claim a greater prize for the libyans had organized nothing less than the state-sponsored plundering of Egypt's royal tombs they were so transfixed by the wealth by the gold by the bling of ancient Egypt they wanted it for themselves and over their several centuries rule while they appeared to look like Pharaohs and to rule as Pharaoh's Egypt never feels to have been a cohesive United Kingdom they weren't Egyptians at heart and that's really what mattered in many ways Libyan rule was destined to fail because even if they were militarily superior their adoption of Egyptian culture was at best superficial was insufficient to unite the country in the north the squabbling Libyan elite fought amongst themselves while in the South the Egyptian priesthood including yet more Libyan princes still clung to power the fragmented Egypt was easy pickings for any would-be invader Egypt needed a regime that could reconnect with his most powerful asset he's history and by 747 BC that's what happened when the current rulers of Nubia made a direct spiritual connection with Egypt's glorious past the Kushites were Egypt's southern neighbors in Nubia and from time immemorial they and the Egyptians had kind of battled around the sort of southern border of Egypt by the eighth century BC however the Kushites have the upper hand they were fervent believers in Egypt's traditional gods in some ways making them more Egyptian than the Egyptians the kingdom of cush in Nubia was at the very edge of the Egyptian world having been repeatedly conquered by Egypt the Kushites have been hugely influenced by Egyptian beliefs beliefs that centered on this great sandstone mountain jebel barkal for centuries it had been regarded as the mythical mound of creation the mound from which Egypt's Great Creator got a moon was born [Music] here is the holy mountain this is where the God lived in his primeval form dr. Tim Kendall has spent almost 30 years working at the site being at the southern limit of the Empire it was where where the Nile began where fertility began and so it had to be the place where creation began so this was the they imagined this is the birthplace of the god Amun and so this was the primeval Karnak when the New Kingdom Pharaohs had arrived here in 1500 BC they built this temple and dedicated it to a moon and his wife the goddess mut and when the Egyptians withdrew from Nubia some 400 years later the native Kushites continued to honor the sacred mountain and Egypt's spiritual traditions as the kushai Kings gained increasing military power they also claimed Egypt for themselves so when King Pilate a Kushites invasion of Egypt in 7 4 7 BC he didn't plunder or destroy but restored and rebuilt and founded egypt's 25th dynasty the irony is that he's conquering Egypt to put everything right I suppose so he saw such a cycle of rebirth regrowth redevelopment and the kosher night Kings are really kind of tapping into that ancient power source and just sort of giving it back to the Egyptians starting time all over again so they had that same sense of history and continuity as the Egyptians they are the natural successes of the 18th dynasty Kings fueled by a genuine desire to make their own mark in Egypt long story the Kushites began to rebuild Egypt here in their Nubian heartland King Pi expanded the existing temple of a Moon at jebel barkal to balance the original great temple of karnak in egyptian thebes but while the Kushites had absorbed the culture of egypt they still have their roots here in africa this cultural fusion is quite clearly expressed in this extraordinary representation of the Egyptian goddess mode the face of the goddess Moot has tribal scars and look we'll see if it shows with this light you see the three lines and face so this is an Egyptian goddess with a nubian makeover yeah she was a goddess of Nubia and it was appropriate for Nubians to have tribal scars so this is a very very graphic version of the way in which local Nubians were making the traditional deities of Egypt their own you physically marking them it's as if she's been stamped as a nubian how incredible this is such a land of surprises that is beautiful [Music] yet this land of surprises has something else in store too gale force winds whip up the worst sandstorm in years it's a powerful reminder that the ancients would also have had to deal with such dramatic natural phenomena and certainly test the grit in your tea the ancient would have tackled this using spells rituals they would also have made extra offerings to specific deities most notably Osiris's brother God Seth the god of turbulence the god of storms the god of red headed individuals who were seen as somewhat turbulent to cut energy why [Music] I'm seeking shelter in the shrine cut into the mountain by PI Sun taharka which is currently undergoing major restoration by an Italian mission it's apparently reveals graphic evidence of Egypt's continuing powerful influence never been here before I have no idea what's going on in here so this will be as new to me as it is to you flipping out it's a real privilege to see the time blackened walls finally giving up their secrets they're bringing out not just the goals but the blues these two colors the bright blue of the sky and the Nile and the gold this really powerful color of the Sun God this is to hakka the Kushites most powerful and important Pharaoh in classic Egyptian style he's shown offering to the God a moon and his wife the goddess moot it's raised relief this is old school this is old school technique this is skill and they're all overlaid in this yellow or gold and you can even see the little scales on this car select the moon's wearing every details here it's fabulous it's like Christmas morning this this is just extraordinary just look for yourselves just look look at their faces look at their eyes this world truly exemplifies Egypt's ancient magic as those who try to conquer it end up being seduced by it and then become a part of it it's a sincere attempt by taharka to connect his kingship to the achievements of the Pharaohs of Egypt past in particular to the rulers of the new kingdom [Music] so although history records that taharka conquered Egypt this scene reveals is actually Egypt that conquered taharka it's as if the Egyptian identity will always win out no matter what so much so that taharka is even shown with the ram's horns of a moon identifying him as the son of Egypt's God of gods these were worn by Amenhotep the third in looks our temple in the 18th dynasty they were later worn by the great Alexander to show he too was the son of a moon and here we have to Harker in all his finery in all his splendor [Applause] [Music] who knew that they were here hidden away in this special special rock we've come to the heart of jebel barkal now we've come to the heart of Egyptian religion because this is a very birthplace of a moon himself and here is just for us right now emerging from the Worlds very few people have ever seen this [Music] here inside the temple where only the most pious were allowed to haka is shown in deference to Egypt's most powerful God and outside on the mountain he exhibits his devotion on a truly monumental scale by embellishing the very top of its pinnacle 180 meters tall and 11 meters from the cliff face it seems completely inaccessible but to hawk have pulled off an incredible technical achievement he built a crane arm and elaborate scaffolding in order to make his own permanent mark on the mountain what he did was he made an inscription for himself commemorating his victories east and west and then underneath his men cut a small statue of the king and they covered the inscription with gold today you can hardly see it but in those days it would have been the most conspicuous feature of the mountain I mean that's meant to be seen by the gods seen brother gods of course no mortal I could read this from the ground but that wasn't the point this was a message to the gods carved on a monument built to impress completely covered in gold it reflected the sun's rays and it acted like a giant billboard as he telegraphed to Harker's message for miles around and this again harked back to Egypt's past when previous Pharaoh's had placed gilded cap stones on their pyramids and obelisks to harness the potent powers of the Sun just to the east of jebel barkal lies the necropolis of newry where the Kashyyyk king's transformation into egyptian pharaohs was finally completed for the dynasty who'd invaded Egypt were now copying Egypt's ultimate symbol and for the first time in over a thousand years the kings who ruled Egypt were buried in pyramids when the kings made their capital at Memphis they were living right across the river from the great pyramids vitarka spent most of his life there and was familiar with the great pyramids and so when he died he needed a pyramid of commensurate scale and and this he sort of established this new type and it was followed by all of his successor is it the Kushites eventually built more pyramids here in their Nubian homeland than the Egyptians had built in Egypt and just as at Giza dehaka's pyramid is precisely aligned to its environment from the exact day when the Nile flood begins to recede the Sun sets just like this directly behind the jebel barkal pinnacle yet only on this specific day and only when viewed from the top of two Harker's pyramid that is totally impressive not just a skill a feat of Engineering but but such devotion to the gods observing nature I mean it would take a huge amount of observation to get the position just right to get the day just right surrounded by these pyramids the images of a moon and Moot and their monumental temples it's easy to forget that the Kushites were actually a foreign power who take neat by force yet it's almost as if Egypt was taunting its invaders while you may try and dominate our land our culture will ultimately dominate you and as such the Kushites left a legacy of renewal and resurrection but like all Egypt's conquerors the Kushites moment in the Sun was fleeting for their 25th dynasty lasted but a century as a far more ruthless an ambitious power now invaded [Music] in 674 BC the fearsome Assyrian army marched into Egypt as ruthless expansionists they had little interest in Egyptian culture they graphically demonstrated their contempt by sucking the sacred city of Thebes [Music] the Assyrians unlike the Egyptians that interested in expanding their empire and really taking over other parts of the world and they do that by violence this ferry on Egyptian bronze helmet was discovered in Thebes it is one of the very few objects that reveal the Assyrian takeover of Egypt despite possessing equally powerful iconography of their own the Assyrians had little time to leave their mark they simply stamped their authority upon Egypt by trying to rip out its religious heart [Applause] this holy complex this really huge sacred space had never been attacked at in Egyptian history and so for a more damage the temple to damaged statues perhaps too damaged precious things would really have been absolute enough more to the Egyptians what's really striking is it's obvious and on Egyptian item but the Egyptians didn't even wear helmets did they they relied on their thick head so for me it really evokes a completely alien image I mean the Assyrians I mean war was their business wasn't it [Music] with their sophisticated weapons and armor the Assyrians were a war machine whose unstoppable progress seemed to spell disaster for Egypt it's after little more than 20 years the Assyrians returned east to tackle problems at home leaving vassals in charge of Egypt based at the Delta city of SACE these were the say ight Kings shrewd Egyptian politicians who first appeared to serve their Assyrian masters but soon became strong enough to declare their independence Egypt was now back in Egyptian hands thus a i'ts instigated a spectacular renaissance in native culture at the heart of which lay Egypt's most powerful symbol of national identity mummification but no longer limited to humans there was an explosion of animal mummification everything from dogs cats crocodiles Ibis and even tiny shrews the ancient Egyptians had always mummified their dead both human and animal and with the size we can almost see it as a way of the CI Kings trying to declare we are Egypt we are important this is what makes us special no one else in the ancient world could mummify like the Egyptians and so they rolled it out a millionfold with animals specifically bred for mummification and then sold as offerings at temples the sea ice had reinvigorated Egypt's oldest industry death was once again big business [Music] now this might look pretty silly but around 2,000 years ago here at saqqara this would have been a very common sight [Music] this place would have been packed with pilgrims with priests making animal mummies and they'll be trundle in the mummies across the landscaping carts like this one so we must get out of our minds this idea of Egyptian priests as these pious quiet figures wafting through the landscape went by this time it was all carried out in great numbers and it was Egypt's endless ability to reinterpret its core beliefs that was the key to its longevity for millennia the Egyptians had believed that the Pharaoh was a living God who embodied the soul of Egypt when the King died their soul live done in their mummified body which must be kept safe to guarantee the continuity of Egypt so they'd always buried their rulers in the safety of pyramids or elaborate rock-cut tombs but in times of increasing unrest and foreign rule the Egyptians could no longer rely on even having a pharaoh to bury and so they turned to another centuries-old practice the Sarah pyramid Saqqara is a huge subterranean tomb complex in which the concepts of kingship and animal mummification were fused together for each of these giant granite sarcophagi once contained an animal believed to embody all the qualities of kingship this is the burial site of the sacred APIs bull these were the bodies of mummified Bulls of such importance to the Egyptian mindset they extended all this effort and cost to create a suitably impressive burial site and they've done this in spades as one ball dies and his mummified and buried the other one is then worships in life and at death mummified and buried again and so there's a real progression the cult of the APUs bulb dates right back to the beginning of Egyptian history and it's closely linked to the Pharaoh it was believed that when the sacred bull died it became one with a cyrus the god of the afterlife and so became an acai hrus APIs or Serapis for short and these sacred Bulls became hugely important under the sights during times of foreign occupation when Egypt was increasingly being ruled by Pharaohs in obscenity a bit in Persia or wherever else for the Egyptians they needed a physical presence and the a people provided this presence because they could see it with their own eyes they could celebrate rituals in its company and at death it will be mummified and then buried in the manner of Pharaohs going back for millennia so it was crucial to have this creature here each one successively buried in a sarcophagus just like this one we're looking at some serious devotion to this sacred creature and everything it represented for Egypt in many ways the Sarah pium is Egypt writ large in which its core beliefs are taken to extremes being down here really makes you feel mini skill you realize you're now walking amongst the gods words fail me frankly because of the enormity of it all but that was the thing that was the skill of the Egyptians they battle over the head with this idea of the colossal the monumental the spectacular yet the Egyptians devotion to the APIs ball had left them vulnerable by embodying the power of Egypt within a single living animal they had created an easy target given the APIs Bulls divine status harming it would have been completely unthinkable but when the Persian king came by seas invaded Egypt he had other plans [Music] the Persian Empire swept West taking all before it and then into Egypt itself the Persian king came by seized entered Egypt in five to five BC and destroyed the say I dynasty much like the Assyrians the Persians were ruthless expansionists chiefly interested in enlarging their empire and can buy seeds seem to have trampled all over Egypt's ancient traditions having taken Egypt by force come by seized burnt the mummy of the previous say I Pharaoh before stubbing the APIs bull which slowly bled to death and by doing this can be seized were sending a very clear message to the Egyptians I am now in charge [Music] for the next 200 years the Egyptians were little more than the heavily taxed servants of the Persian Empire and with all attempts at rebellion met with extreme retaliation Egypt's needed a savior an outsider who could be transformed by Egypt's powerful ideology and in return could transform Egypt enter the Macedonian super map enter Alexander the Great Alexander was one of the world's greatest military leaders during his short life amassed an empire that stretched across three continents founding over 70 cities that bore his name after his initial defeat of the Persian King Alexander marched unopposed into Egypt in 332 BC the world's most successful Empire Builder had arrived not only transforming Egypt's future but preserving its ancient past it really is no exaggeration to say that Alexander the Great is one of the most remarkable people who ever lived he really was the superhero of the ancient world so you'd think that Egypt would be filled with his images after all he had saved them from the hated Persians and yet other than the great city of Alexandria that bears his name he is remarkably hard to find within egypt's traditional temples except here in this modest little shrine at the heart of Luxor Temple Alexander was not only a brilliant soldier but a master politician marching into Egypt's ancient capital Memphis amid rumors he was the son of Egypt's last native pharaoh this instantly plugged him into Egypt's long native history and he was crowned as a traditional Pharaoh here is the great man repeatedly across the walls of this limestone shrine and you'd never know it was Alexander simply by looking because he looks like every other Egyptian pharaoh but he knew their secrets that to rule Egypt you had to appear to be an Egyptian and he did this brilliantly to the extent that he had his name his Greek name Alexandros written in the Egyptian tradition even in a royal cartouche and it's the only give away that this is Alexander the Great because there is his name alexandros written in typical Egyptian style and there he's even wearing the red and the white jeweled crown of a United Land and so he's encapsulating everything that it was to be an Egyptian pharaoh just like the cush I came to haka at jebel barkal Alexander is shown offering incense to the king of the gods a moon but simply connecting with the gods wasn't enough Alexander understood that real power came from becoming a god and so he undertook a perilous journey across the Libyan desert to the remote Oasis shrine of c1 where he could commune with the Oracle of a moon himself and it's set in this legendary story that the god actually said to him you are my son and from then on something clicked in Alexander's mind and he went off to conquer the rest of the ancient world truly believing he was divine and he had the full blessing and support of Emil himself the king of the gods of Egypt Alexander would only stay in Egypt for six short months but during his time here he founded a city that would be his lasting legacy the great city of Alexandria built on the Mediterranean coast to create trading links with the rest of the ancient world the later historian Aryan recorded that Alexander had laid out the city's general plan himself but lacking chalk or other means he resorted to marking it out with grain when a flock of birds began eating the grain Alexander regarded this as a bad omen yet his religious advisor quickly spawned bad news into good and interpreted this as a sign that the new city would soon prosper and would one day feed the whole world a remarkably accurate prophecy for within a very few years Alexandria would not only be Egypt's new capital but the greatest city on earth although Alexander himself would never see it yet despite his pious nature Alexander was essentially a soldier and his quest to conquer the Persian Empire he left Egypt in 331 BC never to return alive moving as far east as India he conquered an empire of 2 million square miles before dying in Babylon aged only 32 but still undefeated and still the Pharaoh of Egypt at death Alexander was mummified and his body became the focus of a power struggle some of his officers wanted him buried in his Greek homeland but for others he had to return to Egypt and be buried as a Pharaoh thereby preserving Egypt's long traditions but it obviously meant that anyone who possessed his mummified body could also claim the throne of Egypt and clues to this drama can be found here in the windswept desert of Saqqara 10 years after he'd left Egypt's alive Alexander returned here for his body had been mummified Egyptian style and it became a hugely powerful talisman for whoever held the body of Alexander the Great held Egypt while enroute to Greece his cottage was diverted and his mummified body brought here to Egypt ancient necropolis of Saqqara exactly where his tomb itself was remains a mystery although situated just meters from the Serapeum is this collection of very own egyptian looking statues and it's these somewhat sandblasted statues that give us a real clue that Alexander may initially have been buried somewhere close by because these are the sculpted images of some of the greatest scholars and artists of ancient Greece although exactly who is who was kept makes scratching their heads for years they're likely identities reveal a direct link to the world in which Alexander grew up and was educated take homer for example his great warrior hero Achilles was Alexander's lifelong role model Plato who had tutored Aristotle who in turn had tutored Alexander and Pinder whose poetry had praised Alexander's Macedonian ancestors as for who placed these statues here the most likely candidate is Alexander's general improbable half-brother ptolemy 4 by burying alexander here close to Egypt's ancient capital Memphis Ptolemy could legitimize his own takeover of Egypt and by laying claim to Alexander's body and to Egypt he founded the dynasty named after himself their fabulous and outrageous ptolemies ruling Egypt for the last three centuries BC the Ptolemaic dynasty would be Egypt's final flowering 15 male kings all named Ptolemy with their female Kohl rulers half of whom were called Cleopatra Macedonian Greek by descent their dynasty would bring Greek style culture knowledge and fabulous wealth into Egypt while at the same time immersing themselves in Egypt's irresistible religion and customs they were very very sensitive to the cultural practices and the religious sensibilities of the Egyptians they knew that to control this ancient land of Egypt they had to tap into what made Egypt powerful what made Egypt special they wore the right clothes the right crowns they built the right temples they worship the right gods and the ptolemies relocated Egypt's capital from Memphis to their new super city Alexandria [Music] built to Alexander's original plan it was one of the most lavish construction projects on earth the historian Strabo would later comment that the city had magnificent public precincts and royal palaces that covered a fourth or even a third of the entire area the colonnaded marble streets were over ten meters wide there were public baths a huge gymnasium on one of the greatest wonders of the ancient world the 135 metre tall Pharos lighthouse that guided ships safely into port and at the center of the city Alexander himself who's mummified body had been exhumed from Saqqara and brought here [Music] the ptolemies had built a capital unlike anything Egypt had ever seen before for in Alexandria a new Egypt was being born the creation of Alexandria and the great influx of immigrants gave it a freshness of adversity and really kind of transformed the ancient culture whereas previously Egyptian civilization had developed along the Nile and in many ways was quite inward looking quite insular I think the fact that Alexandria was open to so many diverse influences religiously culturally and this gave it a real air of Tolerance I think had have felt very at home here there's a real sense of culture and learning an appreciation of life today Alexandria is the largest city on the Mediterranean stretching for over 20 miles along the coast as Egypt's largest seaport it caters for over 80% of the country's imports and exports a legacy that reaches directly back to the ptolemies having improved Egyptian agriculture by reclaiming new farmland through increased irrigation they supplemented the Egyptian staples with new crops such as cotton and better grapes for wine production and today the markets of Alexandria still buzz with some of the early cities lively cosmopolitan style Fingaz Elam I'm gonna try and find the nearest equivalents to ancient Egyptian delicacies and these the dates and the ancient Egyptians used to make pastries and bread from them because they're very sweet too I think I might have to taste one just for quality control you understand see how authentic they're this is incense in its raw state and of course this was burned in temples and in funerary rites the port city of Alexandria became a huge hub of international trade establishing roots with Greece the Middle East India and even Britain and his native Egyptian goods like papyrus and perfume flowed out of the country new exotic luxuries like spices silks and wines poured in the Greeks loved olives and so these were imported and the Egyptians started to grow them I'll definitely have some of these delicious we've got to get some black pepper this is one of the really really popular things certainly in Ptolemaic times because markets are dealt and open subtly as as far east as India and the Greeks went crazy for this stuff [Music] it's sadly lively shopping in Egypt never a dull moment with Alexandria now at the heart of the ancient world the rest of Egypt benefited too for determined to honor their adopted countries long history the Ptolemies undertook a massive temple rebuilding and restoration program indeed modern visitors can often fail to realize that many of the places they visit were either built or restored by the Ptolemies esna ed through Dendera colombo all of these are Ptolemaic buildings that tourists and scholars admire so much and yet they really don't give sufficient credit to the people whose vision created them the most impressive of all such temples buys the farthest from Alexandria deep into a / Egypt close to aswan is the stunning temple of Feli which an egyptian meant the end since it was located at the very southern edge of Egypt much of the temple was built by ptolemy ii and his co ruler and sister arson away there was a law passed by her husband told me to say a statue of us in had to be erected in every single temple in Egypt she had to become its resident goddess our sinner it was a powerful female pharaoh associated with a goddess Isis a role the famous Cleopatra would adopt two centuries later and under the Ptolemies feel I became a major center of the ISIS cult and here in the heart the Feli temple our cinemas golden statue would have stood side-by-side with that of Isis so the walls are full of images of Isis and her fellow gods according to me Isis was responsible for the vital Nile flood swelling the river as she wept tears of sorrow for her murdered husband Osiris who she then resurrected and with it's spectacular location feel ice still retains its hugely spiritual atmosphere in case that sense of continuity I really feel when you know Claire you feel like you're at the center of the world suppose for the ancient Egyptians you were the center of their religious world and at this point which was the heart of ancient Egyptian religion way to the Christian er away into the sixth century AD kind of messes with your head it's a very very holy classist but while feel I was becoming an increasingly important center of Egyptian religion its new capital Alexandria had become the leading center of knowledge for the ptolemies created some of the first scholarships attracting academics from across the world to study a wide range of subjects biology geology astronomy geometry and that's my philosophy and of course my own personal favorite history and at the center of this intellectual hothouse was the famous royal library but to half a million works were once housed within to compete with the famous schools of Plato and Aristotle in Athens and today that legacy lives on with Alexandria striking new library Ptolemies really did appreciate that knowledge was power and they wanted that power so they brought together in this one single place some of the greatest works in human history the plays of Aeschylus Sophocles and Euripides the works of Aristotle the philosopher the Old Testament Scriptures and all the accumulated knowledge from the temples of ancient Egypt all brought into this one single building the Great Library also contained the works of Herodotus a Greek historian who traveled the length of Egypt over a century before the ptolemies had come to power his accounts sum up the Greek fascination with Egyptian society not only is the climate different from that of the rest of the world and the river unlike any other River but the people also in most of their manners and customs exactly reverse the common practice of mankind for the women attend the markets and trade while the men sit at home and do the weaving indeed the level of equality of Egypt's women shocked Herodotus something he vividly records when he witnessed a group of men and women travelling together by boat to the Delta city of Bubastis some of the women make a noise with clappers others play the oboe while the rest of the women and men sing and clap their hands [Music] some of the women shout mockery to the women of that town they are passing whilst others dance and others stand up and expose their private parts [Music] in temples the length of Egypt the Ptolemies ensured they were portrayed as Egyptian pharaohs making them almost indistinguishable from their native Egyptian predecessors yet in Alexandria the blend of Greek and Egyptian could sometimes create a hybrid of rather strange results Namine sami is a local historian who spent years studying this remarkable tomb complex built just after the Ptolemaic period and here we come to is a unique failure me Imperial children that is fabulous guarded by Greek Doric columns the entrance is covered in images of Egyptian gods who would ensure a safe passage into the afterlife it's like a tomb but it's also like a temple but a typical Egyptian star protecting the interest yeah yeah you know why corporates choosing to be presented in the tubes because and the Cobra has no eyelashes it ki keeps her eyes open 24 hours which means it's a wake to protect to for over 24 hours a day unknown I love these snakes that's a very great looking snake but it's wearing a very little mentioned Egyptian crown that's crazy they're literally are throwing everything they've got at this - I mean Medusa Horus some discs to guarantee 50 this is the best garden doorway I've seen in Egypt it's got everything here and this statues they represent the inhabitants of the to a single wealthy family these two exhibit an odd mix of the Greek and Egyptian I think the bodies are ancient Egyptian the stance is ancient Egyptian the man's kilt is Egyptian from the neck down their Egyptian but from the neck up they're European it's clear the tomb owners had done everything they could to ensure a safe passage into the Egyptian afterlife even if they didn't quite understand how it all worked all the features are they you've got Thoth with you know presenting the oils and Anubis to in the same when we find the dead you've even got jazz underneath kinda big jaws and feather of might the goddess of for justice without her approval that you will never crosses the other side he didn't forget to add a Greek touch in a lower part to the pictures of the enosis Dionysus was the Greek god of wine and fertility clearly these to mock you pants intended to continue the lives they lived in Alexandria into the beyond I want to all what I enjoy in life to be with the other side especially the wine a great place to spend eternity [Music] despite its rather cartoon-like quality the apparent appearance of this tool demonstrates the desire of the Alexandrian elite to integrate into Egyptian culture yet in many ways it was little more than a veneer hiding the real force that would ultimately destroy Egypt for where the external invaders had largely tried and failed Egypt's real nemesis would be the Ptolemies famous love of luxury and excess much of this luxury was just a facade for the royals of alexandria notorious for their love of display were like actors on his stage as one ancient commentator observed everything in Egypt is simply play-acting and painted scenery a comment which cuts to the heart of this melodramatic monarchy for whom image was everything because while the ruling elite were living it up in Alexandria other parts of Egypt were far from content by the end of the third century BC Egypt was once more riven with civil war offer Egypt began to rebel and it fell to Ptolemy v to try and fight the fires of anarchy so not only did he portray himself as an Egyptian he went even further in his support for Egypt's ancient beliefs in doing so he left the world one of its most famous ancient artifacts the rosetta stone it's best known as the means by which the french scholar shampo liang was first able to decipher egyptian hieroglyphs in 1822 and we can tell that the inscription on the stone was of huge importance because it was written out in three types of script greek demotic and hieroglyphic in a way you could almost describe it as a kind of news bulletin it's the priests of memphis issue in this decree to let as many people know exactly what the religious and the political policy was of crown and clergy and it particularly focuses on ptolemy v generous patronage the priests are praising him because he's the one that gives wealth to the temple and gives due honor and respect to the sacred animals which were such an integral part of Egyptian religion the priests really are grateful to their Ptolemaic pharaoh who they see as wanting to sort of tap in to the ancient egyptian culture an ancient Egyptian religion much like Alexander had much like the say I sad and the Kushites had they knew that to attain true power true control in Egypt he had to do things the Egyptian way yet Ptolemy's the Fitz philanthropy came at a price keeping the peace in Egypt proved cripplingly expensive so the second half of the Ptolemaic dynasty was riven by debt corruption and vicious Civil War soon the expanding Roman Empire bore down on a divided Egypt only the famous Cleopatra stood in their way in the mould of great uncle Alexander she believed herself divine and managed to hold the Romans at bay for over 20 years but not even the great Cleopatra could prevent the inevitable and so it was it's in August 30 BC Cleopatra's famous suicide brought an end to ancient Egypt as we know it this epic culture which had lasted for three thousand years came to an end in a matter of days when on the 31st of August Egypt was formally annexed by Rome this was Egypt's point of no return a slow painful decline of Egyptian beliefs and culture until the arrival of Christianity with its numerous temples abandoned built over or simply destroyed Egypt's glories began to fade from memory [Music] but Egypt's great story can now be traced back 20,000 years to the very origins of its magical culture which had evolved from its unique environment creating a series of sophisticated beliefs able to unite a country to build great monuments it had survived chaos and famine only to rise again in a glorious zenith of rebirth and resurrection even waves of foreign invasions were ultimately assimilated by Egypt's powerful traditions and despite being eventually absorbed into the Roman Empire the ancient culture had continued until the arrival of Christianity it as the Egyptians had always believed there would be a life after death [Music] Cleopatra's Needle on London's embankment had lain forgotten in Egypt until the 19th century but as pioneering Egyptologists began a 200 year process of rediscovery ancient Egypt was reborn and this time it went global [Music] and what a privilege it is for us today to be able to see such wonderful things and capture just a glimpse of this fascinating ancient culture the culture of the people that one with their environment and who captured through their timeless monuments their own unique view of the world in fact the story of Egypt is far from over for its rediscovery means that it is only just beginning and it's the things that made the Egyptians so very special I ventured that they're now known right across the world and they've achieved their ultimate goal to live forever [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 377,888

Rating: 4.6208258 out of 5

Keywords: real, Nubian kings, historian, BBC documentary, Egypt, history documentary, Joann Fletcher, Full length Documentaries, Sudan, Alexander the Great, 2017 documentary, mummification, Documentary Movies - Topic, Channel 4 documentary, Ancient Egypt Documentary, pyramids, History, Full Documentary, documentary history, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary, Saites, Documentaries, monarchs, stories

Id: 8XpnseaS3TI

Length: 58min 52sec (3532 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 07 2018

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