(gentle music)
- [Mahmoud] Today, the
Valley of the Kings
is one of the most visited
touristic sites in the world.
But 3,500 years ago,
the ambience was
really quite different,
it was incredibly quiet.
This silence was only
disturbed by events
like the funeral of Tutankhamun.
And 100 years ago, Howard
Carter's excavations
also happened here
in complete silence,
and these two events is
where our journey lies.
- [Yasmin] Being in the
Valley of the Kings now
when it's so empty,
feels so spiritual.
(door clanking)
- [Mahmoud] I think it's
best if we switch on some
of the lights.
- Yeah.
I've never entered the tomb
of Tutankhamun in the dark.
- Me neither, but this, where
we're standing right here,
this is where the little boy
found the steps in the rock.
And he went and
told Howard Carter,
"Come check this out,
I found something."
After weeks of work,
he reaches the final
seal of the tomb,
and he would've drilled
a hole in the wall here
just to take a peek
and see what's inside.
He let in a candle
from the hole,
and Lord Carnarvon asked
him, "What can you see?"
- And he said,
"Wonderful things."
- [Mahmoud] And they truly were.
- [Yasmin] King
Tutankhamun was a king
who ruled Egypt from
1332 to 1323 B.C.
- It's the 18th dynasty,
which is the cl*max
of the New Kingdom,
King Tut lies right
in the middle of it.
And here, the room of gold,
the room where
all the magic was.
Ah, look at the funerary texts.
Oh, it's beautiful.
The moment you walk in here,
you're being
bombarded with clues
that something was not
okay with this burial.
Already here, these
wings are reworked.
They were trying
to hide something.
- There are so
many theories about
who was actually ruling,
who were his allies,
who were his enemies?
Why did he die so young?
- And let's not also
forget that King Tut
was born into a
very tumultuous time
in ancient Egyptian history.
Was he m*rder*d?
Did he die in an accident?
So many unanswered questions.
- My quest for the
100th anniversary
is to explore all the
different theories
about his life and death
and reveal more about him
as a king and as a person.
(powerful music)
Tutankhamun:
Allies & Enemies
was made possible in part by
contributions to
your PBS station
from viewers like you.
Thank you.
(gentle music)
(car horns honking)
I'm Dr. Yasmin El Shazly,
I'm an Egyptologist.
I studied Egyptology
as an undergraduate
at the American
University in Cairo
and then I went to
the United States
to do my master's and PhD
at Johns Hopkins University.
(gas burner clicking)
- I'm Mahmoud Rashad.
I'm a filmmaker and an
independent Egyptologist.
I was born and
raised here in Cairo,
and then I went to
college in New York.
And I think being into
Egyptology helped me a lot
to retain my identity in a way.
I want to be the link
between the academics
and the public when it
comes to ancient Egypt.
- [Yasmin] For me,
as an Egyptian,
I feel it is extremely
important to contribute
to the study of this
great civilization
because Egyptians have not been
very well represented
in the field.
(gentle music)
We're going to Rashad's place.
I'm going to pick him up and
go to the Egyptian Museum.
(gentle music)
(car horns honking)
Non-Egyptians who have
never been to Egypt before,
one of their first comments
when they go to the pyramids
is that they never thought
there would be buildings
around close to the pyramids
and people living nearby.
- Most think it is only
Pharaonic dynastic,
but there is so much
more history than that.
There's the Coptic
era, the Islamic era,
and even our contemporary
history is very rich.
(Mahmoud speaking
foreign language)
(Yasmin speaking
foreign language)
- [Yasmin] It's
such an old museum,
you feel like you're
breathing in history.
(Mahmoud speaking
in foreign language)
- [Mahmoud] It's different,
a different experience.
- [Yasmin] Definitely.
(gentle music)
(car horns honking)
(gentle music)
My favorite museum in the world.
- [Mahmoud] Right?
(Mahmoud speaking
foreign language)
(Yasmin speaking
foreign language)
- But today we have
Tut's exhibition
all to ourselves
with Dr. Waziri.
- Yes.
- I can't wait.
- I can't wait either.
- I can't wait to
take pictures, right?
- Yes.
(gentle music)
- We are here as special
access to visit the museum.
You will visit and enjoy
all the masterpieces of
the "boy king", Tutankhamun
while nobody is disturbing you.
Dr. Mostafa Waziri,
I'm the head of
antiquities all over Egypt,
the Secretary General of the
Supreme Council of Antiquities.
We are alone.
- In the room.
- In the room.
- With him.
- [Yasmin] Incredible.
- [Mostafa] With the most famous
pieces all over the world.
Look at the masterpiece.
- [Yasmin] It's incredible.
And I never tire
of looking at it.
- [Mahmoud] It never gets old.
- [Yasmin] It never does.
- [Mahmoud] I never gets old.
(gentle music)
- If you did ask any foreigner,
"What do you know about Egypt?"
He would say only two words,
pyramids, and of
course, Tutankhamun.
- There has always been an
immense amount of interest
in ancient Egypt globally.
But I think finding this tomb,
and in particularly, this mask,
sparked a new era in Egyptomania
and Egyptology worldwide.
- [Yasmin] Yes, why is it
Tutankhamun that sparks this?
- [Mahmoud] Yeah, what
is the significance?
- [Yasmin] There were other
significant discoveries-
- [Mahmoud] Yes.
- Listen to this.
64 tombs in the
Valley of the Kings.
What is the only tomb which
was discovered almost intact?
- [Yasmin] Tutankhamun.
- Tutankhamun.
- [Yasmin] Yes.
- With those 5,398 pieces,
and most of them are gold.
- So Dr. Waziri, do
we owe Howard Carter
everything that we
have of King Tut today?
- To be honest, for the
good luck of Howard Carter.
This is the right
answer of your question.
(gentle music)
Howard Carter, who's
spent almost seven years
searching to find the
tomb of Tutankhamun,
but he did not.
In an unexpected way,
he start looking at this
even stone and it was the
first step of 16 steps.
Even the discovery, it was
pure coincidence and lucky.
Thank God that we have all those
beautiful pieces of Tutankhamun
and we have them in our hand.
(Mahmoud speaking
foreign language)
(Yasmin speaking
foreign language)
- Dr. Mostafa, so
what do you personally
think about
Tutankhamun as a king?
Was he the one making
all the decisions?
Was he a strong king?
- Was he perfect?
He was not.
Was he a guy who used to
give decisions, orders?
I don't think.
But he was king, of
course he was a king.
(ethereal music)
Tutankhamun, he was
not important king
because it's short period.
He was, yeah, a little boy.
He did not do any
kind of achievements,
he was just a child.
But did the people
believe in him,
of course they believed in him.
- Thank you.
- I'll see you very soon.
- See you very soon.
- Okay.
Bye-bye, enjoy it.
- Bye.
(ethereal music)
(camera shutter clicking)
That was an
incredible experience.
- It was brilliant,
and I took so many good pictures
I can't wait to
send them to you.
- Yes, I can't wait to see them.
- I want to start
King Tut's story,
but we cannot start
his story without
looking into his background,
without meeting
his family first.
- Tutankhamun's period
was very important
in ancient Egyptian history
because his father was Akhenaten
who was a very controversial
figure in Egyptian history.
He revolutionized ancient
Egyptian religion and art.
But Tutankhamun's mother
is a big question.
Until recently, most
scholars believed
that it was Kiya, one
of Akhenaten's wives.
Lately scholars
have been arguing
that it was very
possibly Nefertiti.
- [Mahmoud] I love this statue.
- [Yasmin] Yes, it's
a gorgeous statue.
- And I love how Amenhotep III,
after generations of kings
not highlighting their queens,
he comes and puts his
queen right next to him.
Akhenaten is the son
of Amenhotep III.
Amenhotep III is, arguably,
the best and most successful
pharaoh that ever ruled Egypt.
(somber music)
- Egypt was polytheistic
and so there
were several gods
with their own temples
and their own priests,
but the chief god, the
state god, was Amun-Re
and his temples were the
wealthiest in all the land.
The priests had a lot of power,
especially the priests of Amun,
and for a long time
they sort of worked
together with the king,
but we do know various
points in Egyptian history
the priests got too strong
and the kings became weaker.
And so this was a moment
of redressing the balance.
- I know that we have very
little records on this.
I think the priesthood
was starting to
become too powerful during
Amenhotep III's reign.
- Yes, that's what many
Egyptologists believe,
and that the priesthood
of Amun was becoming
increasingly powerful
and that this is
what led to the change
of the religion.
The Aten was becoming
increasingly important
under Amenhotep III,
but Akhenaten took
it to an extreme
and the Aten was
elevated from a minor god
to the supreme god
under Akhenaten.
- As Akhenaten followed
what his father did,
there was a political
reason for that.
That was to take power away
from the priests of Amun
who had been given
entirely too much.
So what Akhenaten
did was, in a way,
just take this to a
logical conclusion.
- [Mahmoud] And then
during Akhenaten's reign
he moves the capital to Amarna.
- He moved the capital to
Amarna, which is a city
that was never the
capital of Egypt before.
It's in Middle Egypt,
which is an odd place
to have a capital.
- And Amarna is where
King Tut was born.
- Probably, given that
most Egyptologists
believe that Akhenaten was
the father of Tutankhamun,
then he would've probably
been born in Amarna.
The history is
like a big puzzle.
- It is.
- We keep finding pieces.
- It is.
- And we try to fill the gaps.
- It is, it is.
I think Amarna should
be our next stop.
I've never been there.
- I love Amarna, it's-
- Have you been there before?
- I've been there
before, it's amazing.
But before then I would like to
go and see Dr. Fayza Haikal,
my mentor.
- I'd love to see her.
- Yeah, she's amazing.
- Let's go.
- Let's go.
(car horns honking)
We are now leaving
the Egyptian Museum
and meeting Dr. Fayza Haikal
in the Geographic
Association of Egypt.
Doctor, have you ever
been here before?
I've never been.
- [Fayza] No, I don't recall.
Yeah, I mean, maybe
long time ago,
but, I don't recall.
- I've never been here before,
but it's beautiful.
- Yeah, it's
absolutely gorgeous.
- I love how-
Because in films usually we only
speak about Pharaonic Egypt,
but there's so much more to
Egypt than the Dynastic Age.
- [Yasmin] Definitely.
- [Mahmoud] And this
place is part of that.
- My name is Fayza Haikal,
I am a Professor
Emerita in Egyptology
at the American
University in Cairo.
- It's been 100 years
since Howard Carter found
Tut's tomb and we both felt like
the whole world focuses
more on Tut's treasures
and the mask and the
gold and we really
don't know anything about him.
What can you advise us
before we go on this journey?
- Well, you know
the whole period,
the whole Amarna period,
is attracting people
more than anything
else in Egyptology.
- [Mahmoud] Yeah.
- His own story is
the result of the fact
that he belongs to this period
because it is the
period of Akhenaten.
Akhenaten is supposed
to be the first
monotheist in the world.
And he said something
that nobody said,
he said, "There is
no god but this god."
- Dr. Fayza, so if
you were to describe
Tutankhamun as a king, how
would you describe him?
- Being young and king,
we are assuming
that everybody was
deciding for him, et cetera.
However, I think
that in antiquity
most people died young,
so as a young person you had
more authority than today.
All I can tell you
is that he is more
important to us than
to ancient Egypt.
He is more important
to modern Egypt
because of his tomb,
that was found in intact,
and because it attracts
tourists and it attracts money.
So he's not that important
as a matter of fact,
except that he belongs
to this family,
which has been
considered so important.
- It's always lovely to spend
time with you Dr. Haikal
(gentle music)
We are now leaving
Dr. Fayza Haikal
and Rashad and I are
heading to Tell el-Amarna.
Because Tut was so young
when he lost his family
and took the
throne, he is guided
by two elders, Ay and Horemheb,
and potentially his mother,
who some experts
think was Nefertiti.
The question is, did any
of them have Tutankhamun's
best interest in mind
or were their eyes
on becoming king themselves?
(gentle music)
One thing is for sure,
the boy king would soon be
at the center of the
political and religious
battle that started
when Akhenaten
moved the capital to Amarna.
(birds chirping)
So here we are in
Tell el-Amarna.
- [Mahmoud] Finally.
- Where Akhenaten
established his new capital.
Akhet-Aten, the
horizon of the Aten.
He got rid of all the other
gods, especially Amun.
- [Mahmoud] Do you think
he moved himself here
or he was escaping
from the pressure
of the priesthood of Karnak?
- It is very possible
that he was escaping
from the pressure
because I'm sure
the priesthood of Amun
was not very happy
with his decision and
his new revolution.
- Most kings understood that
if you control the priests,
you control the country
because the priests
control the people and
religion controls people,
the temples control the people.
I've read a lot about
Akhenaten and I find him
a very interesting person,
but I sometimes
struggle with believing
that he did all of
that out of faith.
I don't think it
was purely faith,
I think there was a
lot of politics in it.
But I'm so curious to see
what was the Aten Cult
built on and we have an
almost complete version
of the "Hymn to the
Aten" in Ay's tomb,
so let's go check it out.
(gentle music)
- Akhenaten's ideology
is something that has
engendered a great
deal of debate.
Was he a religious extremist
or was this political?
There must have been some
degree of belief in his mind,
a strong belief in
either the Aten,
or himself as a living
manifestation of the Aten,
that made him go so far
in his religious ideas.
- This is Ay's tomb.
- [Yasmin] Yes.
- [Mahmoud] The one
that he never used.
- [Yasmin] Yes.
- But we're gonna go see the one
at the Valley of the Kings.
- Yes, it's going
to be interesting.
- Was mostly why the
reason why I wanted us
to come here right
after the temple,
was because of this.
- The "Hymn to the Aten".
- The "Hymn to the Aten".
And this is what Akhenaten based
his entire religion
on, its this text.
- The text reads, "Unique
god, there is none beside him.
You mold the entire
earth to your wish.
You and you alone place
every man in his place."
It tells us what he
thought of the Aten,
what kind of god he was,
that he was the only god
and that he created everything.
- [Mahmoud] But then down here
we have, this is Ay himself.
- [Yasmin] Yes, Ay and his wife.
- [Mahmoud] So this is Ay
before he becomes king,
way before he becomes king.
- [Yasmin] But he was
a very important man.
- Ay was a very
strong character,
who has been there since
the time of Amenhotep III.
Ay, who was a military man,
but also a priest and
the tutor of Tutankhamun.
- But it seems like
there was a very
intimate relationship
between him and Tut.
And that is likely because Ay
is the father of Nefertiti.
Given that information,
this means that Ay
was like a grandfather
for King Tut.
But the reason why I
love this tomb is because
it has the only un-vandalized
scene of Akhenaten and-
Ah, there it is.
- [Yasmin] Yes, it's
a gorgeous scene.
- Akhenaten and
Nefertiti giving out gold
to distinguished citizens,
and Ay would've been here.
- [Yasmin] And this is something
he wanted people to see,
he was proud of this.
- [Mahmoud] Of course Ay wanted-
- [Yasmin] Yes, of course.
- People to see that the
king was honoring him-
- And I'm sure Akhenaten
wouldn't have minded either.
- Well, Akhenaten
wanted people to see
that his dream was working,
his utopia was
working, his experiment
was working and
everything was fine.
- Yeah.
And probably wasn't.
You can't change
people's beliefs-
- [Mahmoud] And faith overnight.
- [Yasmin] Overnight.
- Overnight, you really cannot.
Let's go check these
other tombs out.
A fundamental point in
ancient Egyptian religion,
the religion of the Aten lacked,
it doesn't tell people what's
gonna happen when they die.
Things become amiss and
Amarna itself becomes amiss.
It seems that the battle
for succession has begun
even before
Tutankhamun was born.
(somber music)
- I've never been here before.
- Me neither.
- The royal tomb.
- [Yasmin] It was supposed to be
the burial place of Akhenaten.
- [Mahmoud] And his family.
- [Yasmin] And his family.
(footsteps thudding)
- But in here we
have what could be
the very first
depiction Tutankhamun.
- Yeah, there's a very
hot debate about that.
- Right.
But I've never seen it in person
so I really want to go see.
Ah look.
- Yes.
We have some good
remains of carvings.
- Well very few.
- [Yasmin] Yeah.
- But this is the
temple we were just at,
this is the great Aten temple.
- [Yasmin] Yes, open to the sky
for the worship of the sun disc.
And you can see the Aten
there, spreading its rays.
- [Mahmoud] And it's rising
from within the Akhet,
which is the name if the city.
- [Yasmin] Yeah, the horizon.
- [Mahmoud] Yeah,
it's brilliant.
(gentle music)
- Aten became the sole
god, the only god in Egypt.
And he was the power
behind the sun,
and this is why for
the first time we see
the rays of the sun
and the hands of Aten
came only to Akhenaten.
That was the biggest mistake.
He did not leave the
relation to be directly
between the people and Aten
(gentle music)
- And now this is why
we came down here.
This particular scene.
- Very important scene.
- Yeah.
This is the funeral
of Meketaten,
the second daughter of
Akhenaten and Nefertiti.
And Meketaten would
be the first victim
of that plague.
So we're not exactly sure
what happened to Tut's family,
however, all the evidence
is pointing towards
some sort of a plague
that broke out.
A lot of the sisters
of King Tutankhamun
die suddenly,
followed by Akhenaten.
This is our relief in question.
- [Yasmin] Yes.
There's a woman carrying a baby.
- [Mahmoud] And
he's being fanned,
so he's a royal child.
- [Yasmin] Exactly,
but the problem is that
there are different
interpretations
and some people interpret
this scene to be
that she died in childbirth,
during childbirth,
and that this is her baby.
- And some people say
that this is actually
her spirit being reborn
into the afterlife,
but I don't really buy that.
I have a strange
feeling this is Tut.
- [Yasmin] I can't
say, I can't say.
- More mysteries and
riddles around Tut.
- Exactly.
(gentle music)
I've been to Amarna
several times before,
but this time is extra special
because of Tutankhamun's
100th anniversary
and the story we are trying
to tell about Tutankhamun.
- I'm very happy that
I got to come to Amarna
for the first time
with Dr. Yasmin,
and it's a very
important first stop
to our story with Tut.
This is where his story began
and I will follow
him now to Luxor.
Tutankhamun suddenly
becomes king
at the age of eight or
nine when his father dies,
and the world's first
monotheistic religious
experiment in the world ends.
The power struggle for
the future of Egypt began
with the young Tutankhamun
at the center of it all.
(gentle music)
I have arrived in Luxor to
meet Dr. Hourig Sourouzian.
She's been digging at
the temple of King Tut's
grandfather, Amenhotep
III, for the past 24 years.
(gentle music)
(workers speaking
foreign language)
(Hourig speaking
foreign language)
- Okay, bravo, shukran.
I am Hourig Sourouzian,
Egyptologist, art historian,
Director of the
Colossi of Memnon
and Amenhotep III Temple
Conservation Project.
We are in the temple
of Amenhotep III,
a king who reigned
in the first half
of the 14th century.
The reign is the peak of the
highest point of the
Egyptian civilization.
It was the greatest
expansion from Syria to Sudan
and relative, a peaceful period.
So according to that,
the temple was absolutely
the largest and the
most richly equipped.
- After Akhenaten
died, Tutankhamun,
he was around nine years old
when he ascended the throne,
and what he did is he went back
to the old religion of Amun.
We do not really know
exactly who gave the orders
to reestablish the cult of Amun
and get rid of the cult of Aten,
but Tutankhamun was
pretty young at the time,
so it is most likely
that other powers
behind the throne
made this decision.
- [Mahmoud] For less
than three years
they keep him in Amarna,
but they change his name from
Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun.
So he goes from the
living image of the Aten,
to the living image of Amun.
- Because Akhenaten
had the idea to worship
the only god in his only aspect,
you have been
worshiping certain gods
and among them a
major god, Amun-Re,
suddenly someone
comes and tells you,
"Forget all this, you
will worship only one god
and you will not worship
to him directly."
- Through me.
- So this is a great schism,
it's a great revolution.
He must have been extremely
courageous to do this.
(gentle music)
Now you will have a surprise.
For us, it's already
great surprise,
until now I have held my breath.
And also for your information,
it's the first time it has been-
- [Mahmoud] We're the
first people to see it?
- And it was never
on television,
so it's a premier for you.
- Wow.
My God, it's a sphinx.
- [Hourig] Look at the
beauty of this thing.
- [Mahmoud] It's amazing.
- Yeah, (speaking
foreign language), yeah.
- It's amazing.
Is the rest of his body still?
- Yes, all in pieces.
Imagine all these
pieces are in framework.
- And you're gonna
put it together?
- [Hourig] Yeah, of course.
- Wow, this is brilliant,
but how does this
relate to our story
of King Tutankhamun?
- Well, you are making
an investigation.
- We are.
- On him, on his
life, on his career.
There was one piece of the
chest which was inscribed.
- [Mahmoud] Do you
have this block?
- [Hourig] Yes, I will ask
them to bring it, one moment.
Look, it's not cleaned yet.
- [Mahmoud] I can
read here, "Amen".
- Yeah.
So, "Amen-Ra",
"Meri", beloved of Amun-Re.
- [Mahmoud] Yeah.
But how do we know
that this is restored?
(Hourig chuckling)
- You look, it is...
this is the original surface,
this is the original surface.
Wait, I will show you.
- It's much lower, wow.
- You see?
- Yes.
- [Hourig] And guess what,
on Amun-Re, Amun was-
- [Mahmoud] Erased.
- [Hourig] Erased and restored.
- [Mahmoud] During
Akhenaten's reign.
- [Hourig] During
Akhenaten's reign.
- [Mahmoud] And restored-
- [Hourig] And restored-
- [Mahmoud] Tutankhamun's reign.
- [Hourig] I imagine
right at the beginning
of Tutankhamun's reign, they
immediately wrote it again.
- They restored it.
So in this very block
we have evidence
from the reign of
Amenhotep III, Akhenaten,
and Tutankhamun.
- And Tutankhamun.
- All three of
them just in that.
- Exactly.
- That's brilliant.
- It's nice, no?
- Brilliant.
(slow dramatic music)
Tutankhamun now is being
advised by two men,
Horemheb and Ay.
Horemheb is the army general.
Ay, he has no exact title.
We know that Ay and
Horemheb were trying to link
Tutankhamun with his
grandfather, not his father.
His father was not to
be mentioned again.
Everything he built
was dismantled,
his statues broken,
smashed into pieces
and buried into the ground.
Tutankhamun's father's
religious revolution
was very controversial and not
received well by the public.
After his death, when
Tut ascended the throne,
he returned to the old religion,
but why he did
that is a hot topic
of debate amongst scholars.
Some say it was for
political reasons
to appease the priests of Amun,
who were very powerful
in ancient Egypt.
- I am here in
Saqqara to check out
the excavations of
an Egyptian mission
that has discovered the tombs
of important New
Kingdom high officials,
similar to some
of the key figures
during the reign of Tutankhamun.
- So here is the site that
we have the burial shaft.
- Ah.
- And again, it's
going 40 meters deep.
- My God, it is deep.
(workers speaking
foreign language)
Have you gone down here?
- I've gone down here.
- Oh my God.
Is it easy to go down there?
Oh my god, it doesn't look easy.
Impressive work.
- My name is Tarek Tawfik,
Egyptologist and
the Deputy Director
of the excavations of the
Cairo University at Saqqara.
So we're excavating
the tomb of Ptahemwia.
- [Yasmin] The royal
scribe, I can see.
- 'Cause being a
scribe was power.
- [Yasmin] Yes.
- And that he has knowledge.
But now, how do we relate this
with your quest of Tutankhamun?
- Yes, how?
- I have something for you.
Here, we can see Ptahemwia,
he is sitting at
the offering table
for high officials of that time
and we will see at
the tomb of Horemheb,
who was a general
of Tutankhamun,
in the same manner
as high official,
but there we will see
an important addition.
So let's go.
- Great.
- We're here in the
tomb of Horemheb.
And actually his career was
evolving, so was his tomb.
- [Yasmin] Yeah, the
more powerful he became,
the larger the tomb-
- [Tarek] The tomb became.
- [Yasmin] Yeah.
- So here we have Horemheb
sitting as high official.
If you look very carefully here,
you will see that
later the Uraeus-
- [Yasmin] Yes, was added.
- [Tarek] The cobra was
added to his forehead
when he became Pharaoh.
- And you can see the
difference in the carving,
here it's very deep
and then the Uraeus
is very shallow unlike the rest
of the carving in the tomb.
- Exactly, they wanted
to show that this
high official, at some point,
became Pharaoh.
- [Yasmin] Became Pharaoh.
Yes.
- [Tarek] So these were
two different phases
in the life of Horemheb.
- [Yasmin] Yeah.
- And you know, his career
actually started already
under Amenhotep III,
then it continued in
the time of Akhenaten.
Horemheb was the
general-in-chief
at the time of Tutankhamun.
He plays a big role in regaining
Egypt's control
over its borders.
- [Yasmin] Questions
remain about the battle
for succession with
both of Tut's advisors.
Horemheb worked his way up
through the ranks
of the military
and wasn't part of
the royal family.
After Tut's untimely death,
Ay quickly took the
throne while Horemheb
was off fighting the Hittites.
Horemheb became Pharaoh when
Ay died three years later,
and would rule for
up to 30 years.
- So it was not before
the time of Tutankhamun
that Horemheb really
excelled as military general.
And we can see this in the most
magnificent way around here.
His task became to reestablish
Egypt's control over its borders
and with each of these
military victories,
his popularity in the
country must have risen.
- [Yasmin] Of course,
he was a hero.
- But now, let me
show you something
that is really
special in this tomb
and that provides us with some
controversy concerning Horemheb.
Here we have his
titles and there is one
very special title, which
is the title "rpat".
- [Yasmin] Uh-huh.
- [Tarek] And you know-
- [Yasmin] Yes,
Hereditary Prince.
- [Tarek] Exactly.
Which means that
he was more or less
the deputy of Tutankhamun.
- Who would've given
him this position,
was it Tutankhamun?
Or did he give it to himself?
Or did Ay play a role in this?
- Tutankhamun was, at
the time, still a child.
- [Yasmin] Yeah.
- The question would
be what did he think
about it once he
became a teenager?
- Good point, good question.
- This, I think, will
be one of the mysteries
that will still keep
us for a long time,
but this is the magic part.
(somber music)
- Some people cast
Ay as an evil genius
and Horemheb as sort of
more bluff and brave.
Whilst others think
that Ay was being weak
and manipulated and
Horemheb was the brains
behind the operation
to ultimately gain
control and power and kingship.
- My conversation
with Tarek today
confirms that there
was a lot going on
behind the scenes
and that figures like
Horemheb and Ay played
very important roles
in these power struggles.
This, to me, raises
even more questions.
(somber music)
- When the legendary
Dr. Hawass calls you,
come meet him down in Saqqara,
I immediately flew back from
Luxor to here to meet him.
We're gonna go into
the tomb of Maia today,
the royal wet-nurse
of King Tutankhamun.
There are so many
questions that are
gonna be answered
inside this tomb.
- Zahi Hawass, Egyptologist.
King Tut, he had
magic and that magic
entered in the hearts
of people everywhere.
- Dr. Zahi, this is the
necropolis of Saqqara,
why would King Tut
choose this place
for the burial of
his wet-nurse Maia?
- His mother died
maybe when he was
eight or seven years old.
His wet-nurse lived
with him here,
and inside is a unique
scene that we never see
connected with any king before.
- But before we go in,
you do believe his mother
is the mummy of KV35?
- Not I believe, it's for sure.
- It's for sure.
- It's for sure.
Our CT scan of the
tomb of the two mummies
that we found inside KV35,
then our DNA proved
that the Elder Lady
is actually Queen Tiye.
Beside her, we found
out that Younger Lady,
that many people thought
it was Nefertiti, no.
- Let's head to the tomb.
- Okay.
- After you.
(intriguing music)
- We found out through
our Egyptian Mummy Project
an important discovery.
We found out through
DNA that Akhenaten
was the father of Tutankhamun,
and the son of Amenhotep
III and Queen Tiye.
And we found out that the mummy,
the Younger Lady, was the
mother of Tutankhamun,
but she had no name.
We know now for sure
that Tutankhamun's mother
was not Nefertiti at all.
- The issue of DNA when it
comes to ancient mummies
is very controversial
because a lot of scientists
do not believe
that we have enough
reliable information
to say conclusively
who these people were.
The DNA is very deteriorated,
it's very contaminated,
and it's very ancient,
it's very old.
There are several
potential options
for who Tutankhamun's
mother could have been,
but what's for sure
is that Maia played
a huge role in his life
as a mother figure,
and was one of his
closest allies.
- Look what the
scene is showing.
First of all, it's
showing a king
because you have Nebkheperure,
this is his throne name,
and he has his royal symbols.
The cobra is on the forehead
and he's giving
her the sign ankh,
to live for the eternal life.
As a boy, you know,
he could be loving her
more than he loves his toys.
This is the lady that
she nourished him,
she raised him and
therefore the love is seen
and you can see the face exactly
facing the mouth of
Maia, seated in her lap,
that is something incredible.
I really believe
this is the most
romantic scene of
the golden boy.
(gentle emotional music)
- Dr. Zahi, I hear
a lot of passion
in your voice when
you speak about Tut,
what does Tut mean
to you as a person?
- You know, I want to tell you,
I never in my life
thought that I will be
involved with this king at all.
I thought that it's very
important to scan the mummy.
It was my purpose to do more
about this two big kings.
- Dr. Zahi had very interesting
insights on Tut's story,
he doesn't think
Nefertiti was the mother.
By visiting Maia's
tomb, I was amongst
the family of King Tut
and I met everyone that
I needed to meet
from his childhood.
I'm a bit jealous that
I missed the excavations
with Dr. Tarek and Yasmin,
but being with Dr. Zahi alone
was definitely worth it.
I'm later on gonna ahead
to visit Dr. Sahar Saleem
to check out the
CT scans of Tut.
(ethereal music)
(car horns honking)
I'm here at Qasr
El Eyni Hospital
based on Dr. Zahi
Hawass's recommendation,
to come meet Dr. Sahar Saleem,
the leader of radiology on the
Scanning the Mummy Project.
I'm sure she has
a lot of answers
to so many questions
I have on King Tut.
- I've been working in
Egyptian Mummy Project
with the Dr. Zahi for
more than 16 years now.
- Wow.
- We studied ten of
the royal mummies.
- Well, today I
can't wait to see
what you have for
us about King Tut.
- I have CT scan images
that I wanna show you
that will help you to
understand more about King Tut.
My name is Sahar Saleem,
I'm Professor of Radiology,
Faculty of Medicine
Cairo University.
I'm the leading radiologist
of the Egyptian Mummy Project.
- King Tut's mummification,
his skin looks charred,
it looks dry, it looks
cracked all over his face.
Is that because of
a bad mummification?
- So I can just tell
you that Tutankhamun
had a unique mummification,
in a good way.
- [Mahmoud] Okay.
- And not in a bad way.
Let me take you to a
tour in Tut's face.
The ancient embalmers,
they placed material
under the skin in
the same places that
modern plastic
surgeons would do.
- Botox.
- Yeah, it is in the nasolabia,
which is the area between
the nose and the mouth.
Okay, he he had it.
- [Mahmoud] Yeah, yeah.
- [Sahar] The
cheeks, he had them.
- [Mahmoud] Filled in.
- And moreover, he had
them here in the temporal.
- What you're saying now is
fascinating, it really is,
but it's confusing
me a little bit
'cause throughout my
research I was always
under the impression
that Tut's mummification
and burial were rushed.
They wanted to get
rid of him quickly
so that Ay becomes
king and we end
the story of Amarna
and his family.
- This is the difference between
telling a story and
looking at signs.
- The CT scans did tell us a lot
about his mummification,
but I'm still curious about what
it told you about his life.
- Definitely.
At the time of his death,
his bones were still growing.
His knees, the
bones at his knees,
they had just closed.
So I can tell you
that his age was
18 or 19 years at most.
There is something wrong here.
There is a sort of a fracture.
- [Mahmoud] Yeah.
- This fracture is
on the lower thigh,
left side, the inner side.
- [Mahmoud] It's quite deep.
- There is no growing bones
or evidence of healing.
Tutankhamun had a a club foot.
This condition would
have affected pain
to Tut if he tried to
put weight on his foot,
especially on the left foot.
This during standing
and also during walking.
- [Mahmoud] I know that
you're about to take
the CT scans to reconstruct
King Tut's face.
- The reconstruction
of the face of King Tut
we'll do it in a
very scientific way.
In this process I'm teaming
up with my team in Canada.
- I can't wait to see it.
- The CT scan enabled
us to know a lot
of information about the body
and how the ancient
Egyptians actually
lived their life, we
can even rewrite history
by knowing how the kings died.
(exciting music)
Hello Andrew, I have an
interesting project for you.
For the 100 year anniversary
of King Tutankhamun,
we want bring him back to life
with a facial reconstruction
based on the CT scan of
the mummy, which I did.
- My name is Andrew Nelson,
I'm a Professor and
Department Chair here in
the Department of Anthropology,
the University of
Western Ontario.
My job is to create a model,
a three dimensional model,
of the skull from the CT scan
and there is the 3D
view of the skull
that I've just reconstructed.
So I've gotta do a lot of work
in order to perfect that skull.
Creating a face of
somebody from the past
is a way of making
them more human,
but also to bring to
bear new technology,
new techniques and
new ways of thinking
about Tut and his life and
who he was as a person.
So this is the 3D model
that actually gets sent
then to Toronto
to the 3D printer.
So we're here to make
a 3D print of King Tut,
which will be a very
exciting thing to actually
see the model in
three dimensions.
Hey Ryan, how's it going?
This is the model here?
- Yeah.
- So Ryan, you figure
we're ready to pull it out?
- Yep.
- Excellent, excellent.
The actual model of the skull
is actually down inside
all this powder here.
Ryan will clear out
all of that powder
and then he'll actually
go in like an archeologist
and he'll excavate
the skull of King Tut.
There's the back of the jaw,
there's the
cheekbone coming out.
See the eye?
Lift this up for you.
There we go.
He's gonna do fine
work to get rid
of all the loose
powder off of the model
to actually show us then
the skull of King Tut.
The powder has a
consistency that's
not unlike bone
when it's finished,
but it also holds
detail very nicely
and so we'll be able
to see little details
like the squiggles and
sutures that are important.
Very nice.
Here we have the
skull of a Pharaoh.
Until next time, King Tut.
(both chuckling)
(gentle piano music)
(music continues)
- We're heading to
Luxor Temple now.
We call it today a temple,
but it wasn't really a temple,
it was more of a festival
hall, a ceremonial hall.
This is where the Royal
Ka was celebrated.
- Yes, it's like the
essence of kingship
being passed from one
king to the other.
- And I can just
imagine little Tut,
at the age of
nine, going through
these rituals of kingship.
- [Yasmin] Yeah, it would've
probably been a little scary.
- [Mahmoud] For
him probably, yes.
- [Yasmin] As a child.
- [Mahmoud] Probably.
I love coming to Luxor Temple.
- [Yasmin] Me too, it's amazing.
- [Mahmoud] It is.
- [Yasmin] Incredible.
Until recently,
many Egyptologists
believed Kiya was the
mother of Tutankhamun,
but there's a very
important scholar
who believes otherwise.
- I'm Aidan Dodson, honorary
professor of Egyptology
at the University of Bristol.
- Dr. Dodson, we know
that there was around,
well a few years,
between Tutankhamun
taking the throne and
the return to orthodox.
So what happened in between
these two time periods?
- My view, during those
first couple of years,
first three years or so,
of Tutankhaten's reign,
he was ruling along with
his mother Nefertiti,
now under the name of
King Neferneferuaten.
- [Mahmoud] That's
so interesting.
- And I think that would
work quite nicely, I think.
The widow of Akhenaten
doesn't want to
completely dump everything
which her husband had done,
but she is bright
enough to recognize that
it's not sustainable to
carry down that route.
And she's probably
thinking of her own safety,
that of her son and
everything else,
to try and, say, square
the circle almost.
That, that didn't
succeed is suggested
by the state of
the body of which,
I believe, to be that of
Nefertiti, Neferneferuaten,
who died violently.
Whether her death was accidental
or whether it was at
the hands of those
opposed to her attempt
at reconciliation
with Amun, or those
who didn't really think
she was moving fast
enough, we have no idea.
But once she was out of the way
a new set of regents were
appointed, led by Horemheb,
and then you've got
alongside Horemheb,
Ay, probably perhaps
Tutankhamun's
maternal grandfather.
Of course the
relationships of the family
during this period
are horrendous.
- [Mahmoud] Complicated.
- [Aidan] Yeah, and
every Egyptologist
comes with a different view,
but certainly my view
is Tutankhamun's mother
was Nefertiti and I think that
Nefertiti's father was Ay.
- I want to say,
many Egyptologists
could talk about theories,
but I am giving you facts
based on the CT scan
and the DNA that we did.
You know, I want to tell
you one important thing,
and our evidence that
published everywhere
proving that Younger Lady
was the mother Tutankhamun,
and she was not Nefertiti.
Nefertiti had daughters.
I really believe from
the minute he was born,
she could be his enemy.
- The DNA tests that
have been done in 2008
on Tutankhamun's
mummy was an attempt
to link him to other
members of his family.
The problem with that is
that the other mummies,
we have no idea who they are.
So there are many problems with
these DNA tests in my opinion,
and I believe the
results are inconclusive.
- There is no absolutely
definitive statement
as to who Tutankhamun's
mother is,
but one can, I think,
look at likelihoods
and I think the more probable
of the two known wives
of Akhenaten to be his
mother is Nefertiti.
- [Yasmin] Makes sense.
- And from what I read
in one of your books
is that you think that KV35
Younger Lady is Nefertiti.
- I think if the
genetic work is correct.
- [Mahmoud] Yeah.
- And that says this person
is the mother of Tutankhamun,
therefore it follows that
it must be Nefertiti.
(gentle music)
- [Mahmoud] Dr. Aidan
Dodson believes that
the KV35 Younger Lady
mummy is his mother
and is also Nefertiti.
Now, I'm not sure about
that she's Nefertiti part.
- A lot of the
relationships are based on,
you know, someone's DNA.
- [Mahmoud] Yes.
- [Yasmin] That some people
have arguments against.
- [Mahmoud] Yeah.
- [Yasmin] And then
using that DNA evidence
to come up with
another relationship.
- [Mahmoud] Yes, exactly.
- [Yasmin] Based on
that evidence, so.
- [Mahmoud] Exactly.
- [Yasmin] When Tutankhamun
took over the throne,
he faced the backlash
and the enemies
of his father's
religious revolution
and potentially had only
a handful of allies.
- [Mahmoud] Do we know who
this tomb was quarried for?
- [Yasmin] As far as I know, no.
- [Mahmoud] No.
Exactly.
- [Yasmin] It's very difficult
to know where the truth is.
- And this is the problem
with Tut's family,
there are so many questions
we can only guess,
but this is also what
makes Tut's family
super interesting,
that we have all these
open-ended questions and we have
to keep searching and searching.
(ethereal music)
(exciting music)
- We're pulling together
Tutankhamun's family tree
and the tumultuous
period in which he lived.
We're getting an idea
of who his allies were
and who his potential
enemies were.
I wonder if he was making
his own decisions or not.
- I think we've explored
a huge part of Tut's life
that I personally
wasn't that aware of.
But throughout this
journey so far,
it seems very likely
the more he grew up,
the more he wanted
to be involved
and this is such a
fresh perspective on Tut
that I personally
didn't have before.
Now unfortunately,
as we all know,
his life ends abruptly.
- What were the reasons
behind his untimely demise?
Was there a plot
to get rid of him?
Some scholars believe
he died of a disease,
some believe there was
an accident and he died
of complications
from that accident.
Some believe there was
a plot behind the scenes
to get rid of Tutankhamun.
- [Mahmoud] And I wonder if
this happened by foul play.
Was it an accident?
Or just another
chapter in a series
of unfortunate
events that followed
him since his birth?
We will try to answer
these questions next.
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01x01 - Episode 1
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This film marks the centennial of King Tutankhamun's tomb opening and is a journey of exploration into the mysteries and unanswered questions about the boy king's life.
This film marks the centennial of King Tutankhamun's tomb opening and is a journey of exploration into the mysteries and unanswered questions about the boy king's life.