Dashur: Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III © Newspaper WordPress

By Free Republic | Created at 2025-01-05 14:08:54 | Updated at 2025-01-10 03:41:22 4 days ago

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0:00	·	[Music] in all more than 100 pyramids were built in the Egypt of the Pharaohs one of
0:07	·	these is a truly unusual edifice maybe the most mysterious pyramid in the entire country the Black
0:14	·	Pyramid under this amorphous ruin which looks like it could collapse at any moment hides a wonderful secret an
0:21	·	immense Labyrinth as inaccessible as its fascinating there's a whole complex of
0:27	·	rooms Way Beyond the simple needs of disposing of a dead body this is not
0:32	·	something you find in other pyramids the pyramid is off limits to the public
0:38	·	weakened by serious structural problems it could be dangerous for visitors but a few daring archaeologists
0:45	·	have risked venturing inside all the same with our cameras given special permission to accompany them look at the
0:51	·	crack in this chamber it still looks like it could collapse at any moment even for experts this little
0:58	·	known pyramid remains a real puzzle together we'll try to find some Clues to help us decipher this Millennia old
1:05	·	edifice my God there's still bones in there to shed light on all these
1:11	·	Mysteries our scientists were granted permission to venture inside Egypt's most iconic pyramids with a latest
1:17	·	generation laser scanner it's quite tight in here what happened during its construction for this Monument to have
1:23	·	ended up in such a state what did this dilapidated pyramid originally look like and why did the ancient Egyptians build
1:30	·	such an extensive network of passageways now seen for the first time using 3D
1:36	·	models we will show you everything invisible to the naked eye with a few clicks we can do
1:42	·	measurements that would be very complicated to carry out in situ this Ultra detailed digital
1:47	·	modeling should provide our experts with new answers in this ongoing scientific investigation which began 200 years ago
2:01	·	[Music]
2:30	·	deep in the Sands of Egypt is an exceptional site little known by the public the daser
2:37	·	plateau it's around 30 km from
2:43	·	Cairo this is where the first two giant pyramids of History were built the Red
2:48	·	Pyramid and the bent pyramid but in the distance Behind These
2:54	·	two giants you can make out a strangely shaped Steep Hill this in fact is is
3:00	·	also a pyramid one of the last built by the Pharaohs about 3,800 years
3:06	·	ago villagers living around here gave it its somewhat disturbing name the Black
3:11	·	Pyramid it doesn't look very much like a pyramid at all although it's called The Black Pyramid it just looks like a black
3:18	·	rugged hill with a kind of tower sticking out of the top at first sight there's nothing to
3:24	·	suggest that under this dilapidated construction there's an extensive maze of passageways probably the most
3:30	·	sophisticated Network ever built under an Egyptian
3:40	·	pyramid Frank Monier has been fascinated by the pyramids of Egypt since
3:45	·	childhood an engineer by profession he studied the construction of these monuments in great detail in the process
3:51	·	becoming one of the world's leading authorities fascinated by the Black
3:57	·	Pyramid he can draw a plan of its Apartments almost from
4:03	·	memory here I've sketched A View from Above of the Black Pyramid at desure A
4:08	·	View from Above the base of the pyramid with its funeral Apartments here we have the whole extent of the funeral Network there's nothing
4:15	·	like the complexity of these funeral Apartments anywhere else so what would be really interesting to scan would be
4:21	·	in priority the part dedicated to the queens and the part dedicated to the king to get a clear review of everything
4:28	·	that went on inside these apartment scanning the innards of this pyramid
4:34	·	could well be the way to better understand this mysterious edifice because there is still little
4:41	·	known about its interior the construction is off limits to the public and is rarely visited even by
4:47	·	egyptologists for this unprecedented Mission Frank Monier has called on archaeologist albor BR
4:53	·	bampu an expert in digital imaging he'll be able to make a complete three-dimensional and extreme detailed
5:00	·	model of these apartments it's a pyramid that's not yet
5:06	·	been opened up to the public I'll be discovering it myself and I have no idea what the conditions will be in terms of
5:12	·	the humidity and heat I feel privileged to be allowed into this Monument because very few people have been here and
5:17	·	that's pretty exciting entering the Black Pyramid is a
5:23	·	rare opportunity and whenever anyone does the
5:29	·	entrance has to be totally cleared because just like in the time of the Pharaohs it is sealed off with blocks of
5:34	·	stone to protect it and keep out Intruders Albom re is going to be using
5:41	·	a very high performance piece of technology a lar digital scanner one of the most miniaturized that
5:49	·	exists it weighs only 800 G but the insides of pyramids are usually very
5:55	·	tight spaces in which it's difficult to move around so it could still be a difficult task here I'm configuring it
6:02	·	so that the scanner and my phone are communicating that means I'll be able to get some feedback of what the scanner is
6:11	·	see we were exceptionally granted authorization to accompany Al on this groundbreaking
6:22	·	Mission it is the first time a piece of modern technology will be used inside this pyramid
6:30	·	the lar scanner makes a noise as it starts digitizing the
6:37	·	space after a few meters albon Bri checks that the device is working
6:43	·	correctly here we can see this little Green Dot that's where the scanner is and it scanned this wall here this one
6:50	·	so yes it's all in [Music] position the laser scanner can record
6:57	·	hundreds of thousands of points every second in every direction it can thus measure a space
7:03	·	with absolute Precision to the millimeter a totally unparalleled feat of
7:12	·	Technology it's a real Labyrinth once you're in here the idea is to get a precise scan of all these
7:17	·	structures with which we'll be able to document in a very detailed way the general dimensions of the spaces I'm
7:25	·	surveying on a map given to him by Frank Monier Alon Bri identifies the various
7:30	·	spaces to be digitized as a priority so we came down the sloping
7:36	·	tunnel and through a first passageway a first Corridor which was reinforced by some more modern masonry now we're
7:43	·	coming to a fork and we'll head towards the area that was dedicated to the
7:51	·	king but time is limited the conditions are stifling with
7:56	·	the air inside the pyramid barely circulating or being refreshed you cannot stay for long in this
8:02	·	Subterranean domain the humidity is very high and pretty oppressive yes it's
8:08	·	quite tiring on his way down the tunnels Alon
8:14	·	Bri scans several empty
8:24	·	rooms we've made progress and we've got the rough outline of a plan I've looked
8:29	·	into all the little rooms on either side of the central Corridor and now we're about to go into the anti chamber and
8:34	·	then the king's [Music] chamber the king's burial chamber the
8:41	·	spiritual heart of the pyramid albon Bri Marvels at the pharaoh's sarcophagus carved out of a
8:48	·	single piece of pink Granite from Aswan one of the most solid rocks found in Egypt despite it being almost 4,000
8:56	·	years old its state of conservation is impressive
9:02	·	in contrast the dilapidated state of much of the walls is quite
9:09	·	surprising scanning gives us an overall view of the condition of all these structures all the traces you see on the
9:15	·	vaulted ceiling on the masonry joints you can see how it's crumbling there even cracks it's clear that there's
9:21	·	enormous pressure bearing down structurally on the vaulted
9:26	·	ceiling the pyramid clearly had a few construction issues
9:31	·	the results of the scan should help us find out more but the pharaoh's Builders must
9:36	·	have made mistakes in the very design of the structure for the pyramid to show such signs of dilapidation
9:44	·	now to get a better understanding we have to consider the period in which it was built the Middle
9:50	·	[Music] Kingdom it was faroh amenemhat I theii who had this strange Pyramid built
9:56	·	almost 4,000 years ago he reigned in around 1800 bcee and is
10:02	·	considered the most powerful Pharaoh in one of the most prestigious lineages of ancient Egypt the 12th
10:09	·	Dynasty the 12th dynasty of ancient Egypt is part of a period the
10:15	·	egyptologists called the Middle Kingdom a kind of classical Age amonth III was the last great king of the 12th Dynasty
10:23	·	he ruled for 46 years and he inherited a prosperous country that was was
10:29	·	administratively functioning very well and he was in an ideal position to do Innovative architectures and to develop
10:37	·	and expand a building program before the Middle Kingdom Egypt
10:44	·	had been through a period of instability and division lasting several centuries during which no pyramids were
10:51	·	built but during the 12th Dynasty unity in the country was restored and the
10:56	·	Pharaohs wanted to reconnect with the architectural Prestige of their glorious ancestors there is a centralized State
11:03	·	there is one strong pharaoh and the building of pyramids comes back into
11:09	·	fashion on the same level of importance perhaps as it had been in the Old
11:14	·	Kingdom the country's most famous pyramids those on the Giza Plateau were built in the period we call the Old
11:20	·	Kingdom almost 800 years before the reign of ammat
11:26	·	theii these Kings of the 12th Dynasty considered themselves the direct Heirs of the kings of the Old Kingdom thus
11:33	·	predicating their legitimacy on the architectural and historic Legacy they copied to some extent The Monuments of
11:39	·	the kings of the Old Kingdom it is hard to believe now but
11:44	·	when it was finished the Black Pyramid looked like a classic pyramid of the Old Kingdom the Pyramid of kufu for
11:56	·	example could it still be possible to find traces of the black pyramid's past
12:01	·	Splendor What secrets are concealed under this shapeless Hill on the outside today the Black
12:09	·	Pyramid doesn't look very exciting but inside there's a whole complex of rooms
12:15	·	Way Beyond the simple needs of disposing of a dead body after a few weeks of digital
12:22	·	analysis the results of the scan are finally ready the egyptologist Mark leoner was
12:28	·	impatient to see see them it's the first time he's ever seen the internal network of the pyramid with such a level of
12:35	·	precision laser scanning captures every detail of the reality it almost looks
12:41	·	like the real thing like you're in there you can pan in you can pan out and
12:49	·	you can twirl it above all this tool lets the archaeologists save precious time to map
12:57	·	something complicated like this will take weeks months you go through with a laser scan and it takes tens of
13:03	·	thousands of points per second every point is the equivalent of an archaeologist bending down stretching a
13:10	·	tape measure and then drawing it on tracing paper on a drawing
13:17	·	board Mark is an authority on the Pyramids of Giza and therefore used to The Fairly minimalist Interiors of the
13:23	·	pyramids of the Old Kingdom the first thing to strike him about this 3D model is the huge extent
13:30	·	of the underground Network it's a complicated internal
13:35	·	structure in fact it's considered to be the most elaborate underground structure of any
13:41	·	pyramid with the most Chambers and passageways thousands of kilometers away
13:48	·	in Paris Frank Monier is able thanks to the lar scanner to evaluate the unusual
13:53	·	dimensions of the passageways the operation only takes a few clicks and gives a result of the utmost
14:00	·	Precision using this tool I can measure the expanse of the apartments that are under the
14:06	·	pyramid here we have the view from above and we can carry out a few measurements to give us an idea of the
14:12	·	dimensions of this network for example for this first Corridor here we already have a length
14:18	·	of 42 M let's measure the corridor of the king's apartments from the two ends
14:24	·	going from one room to the other over 46 M so you can see that if we add up all
14:30	·	the data we end up with over 400 m of passageways that really is a lot and in
14:35	·	all about 20 or so rooms yes all the other kings buried
14:42	·	themselves in a pyramid with one maybe two ascending passages and a few
14:48	·	Chambers in the Black Pyramid there are tens and tens of rooms and Corridor is
14:53	·	connecting all of these rooms this is not something you find in other pyramids
15:00	·	but what was the point of this huge underground Labyrinth our investigation with the lar scanner may help us
15:06	·	understand it somewhat better in any case the sophistication of this network is in sharp contrast to the dilapidated
15:13	·	state of the outside of the structure for each time you look at it the same question comes to mind how did this
15:19	·	pyramid end up looking like this the egyptologist Meredith brand has
15:27	·	come looking for answers in situ she's discovering the site for the first
15:33	·	time and immediately spots some initial Clues when I walk up to it I don't even
15:40	·	see a pyramid at first from the distance it almost looks like a mountain or some kind of natural geological feature like
15:47	·	a giant thing of sand almost but up close it's clear that's not the case at all it's really solid mud brick and each
15:55	·	of those mud bricks I can see the individual ones all throughout this slope on the
16:02	·	Top This Strange Hill is in fact a mountain of carefully stacked bricks in the middle of the
16:10	·	desert all the same size the bricks were made of a mixture of sand and clay
16:15	·	extracted from Nile mud reinforced with pieces of
16:20	·	straw at the summit part of this brick work is still in place but on the lower slopes it's all
16:27	·	just pieces wow there's so many mud bricks that have
16:34	·	fallen from this pyramid all the way down the slope so what looks like sand is
16:40	·	actually dirt and debris of broken down mud brick these bricks are still in a
16:45	·	rectangular shape and we can still see there's remains of some of the dried out straw that was used inside of them to
16:53	·	make them strong and there's even some finger Impressions from ancient Builders the
16:58	·	these mud bricks are proof of just how talented the Egyptian Architects and Builders were they knew what they were
17:05	·	doing they were able to make mud bricks like this that would last for thousands and thousands of
17:12	·	years the use of these clay bricks was in fact an innovation in pyramid
17:17	·	[Music] construction the pyramids of the Old Kingdom were made entirely of stone and
17:24	·	everlasting material but which required considerable means to mine transport and
17:31	·	[Music] assemble several centuries later then the pharaoh's Architects opted for more
17:37	·	modern methods in the Middle Kingdom King started to think about the economy how
17:43	·	they build structures and they decided that it's too much of an ordeal to make an entire pyramid out of stone so
17:50	·	instead they had the genius idea of having the center being made out of mud brick it was cheaper this was an
17:56	·	intelligent moneysaving Endeavor that the advantage of mud bricks was that they could be made anywhere in Egypt
18:03	·	they could produce the bricks and then transport them by boat to the work site so the use of mud bricks rather than
18:08	·	Stone was more to do with Logistics than technique millions of mud bricks were
18:15	·	methodically laid by the pharaoh's workers to construct the core of his
18:21	·	pyramid it's estimated that 20 million bricks were required to make the whole pyramid complex
18:29	·	but the ancient Egyptians still wanted their Monument to look like a proper
18:35	·	pyramid once the brick core was finished the whole structure was totally covered with a facing made of a unique stone
18:42	·	Limestone from Tura this stone is so pure and white
18:49	·	that it can be considered a sort of Egyptian marble originally all Egyptian pyramids were covered in
18:56	·	it thanks to these ingenious construction techniques the Egyptians were able to construct an absolute giant
19:04	·	here in fact the Black Pyramid had a base that measured 105 M by 105 M and
19:10	·	was 75 M high it was the largest pyramid of its era 75 M that's equivalent to a 25-story
19:20	·	building am menim hat the thirds pyramid became the sixth largest pyramid ever built in Egypt out of the hundred or so
19:27	·	in total
19:33	·	the only trouble was the Pharaoh and his Builders had made a big mistake they had
19:38	·	underestimated the destructive actions of stone
19:43	·	thieves these blocks have been looted to reuse the stones in or heavy blocks uh
19:49	·	in other building project to make use of their power and the history behind these blocks because these Stones had a cultic
19:57	·	and religious drop the Limestone was stripped away it was all Stripped Away
20:02	·	and reused elare which left the internal structure the brick work structure naked
20:08	·	and over the Millennia with rain and wind erosion the bricks got turned into
20:14	·	Rubble but just like the stone the bricks too were objects of
20:19	·	desire another Factor contributing to the destruction of the pyramid was that people took bricks from the structure to
20:25	·	use as a natural fertilizer on their fields the pyramid in its present dilapidated
20:35	·	State Mark Leonard tries to imagine what the pyramid looked like almost 4,000 years
20:42	·	ago at the foot of the edifice there's a strange cluster of white
20:49	·	rocks did these blocks somehow miraculously escape the stone
20:55	·	thieves now this is amazing we can actually see here one of the casing
21:02	·	stones and it could even be a Cornerstone this is really nice and
21:08	·	smooth brilliantly white this whole galaxy of casing stones
21:15	·	that we see here once covered the entire pyramid just like snu 800 years earlier
21:22	·	covered the entirety of his bent pyramid with the same fine quality White tour limestone
21:30	·	the bent pyramid barely a kilometer and a half distant is the only one in Egypt
21:35	·	to have retained most of its casing of Tura Limestone while the ravages of the
21:41	·	Millennia have given the pyramid this somewhat beige look it would have originally been a dazzling white when
21:47	·	you look at the Ben pyramid of snafu it gives you an idea of what this dark black Tower once looked like it was a
21:54	·	gleaming white geometric shape it must have been like the sun shining a newly fallen snow it must have been truly
22:03	·	blinding covered in its facing the pyramid must have looked like a perfect triangular prism of white stone
22:10	·	reflecting the light of raw the sun god this is an amazing testimony that
22:16	·	tells us what the pyramid once was when we are confronted by this big black ruin
22:22	·	it's pieces like this that archaeologists have to put together to understand the ancient path
22:33	·	Mark Leonard wants to compare the inside to what he saw on the lar Digital
22:38	·	model there are no tourists at the site the place is totally
22:44	·	deserted in the almost 50 years of his archaeological career Mark has been inside this pyramid only once
22:53	·	before I'm very excited to go in this pyramid because it's not open to the public I work at the Pyramids of Giza
22:59	·	and the Great Sphinx thousands of tourists every day all around us but here it's way off the Beaten
23:12	·	Track once inside Mark is immediately struck by the quality of the work done by the pharaoh's
23:23	·	Builders I have to Marvel at the beauty of this place the work the work is just
23:30	·	Exquisite beautiful white tour Limestone vating the joins are stupendous true
23:37	·	finesse in masonry the walls of the tunnels dug
23:43	·	underground were lined by slabs of Tura Limestone Egypt's most refined Stone the
23:48	·	same that was used to cover the
23:53	·	outside the beauty of this stonework is all the more amazing when you think think that it was never meant to be seen
24:01	·	it was all for the king in the afterlife it was in this Maze of pure
24:07	·	Limestone that the Pharaoh could enjoy his eternal rest ah the corridor to the
24:17	·	King on the Pharaoh sarcophagus Mark immediately spots quite a striking
24:24	·	symbol how nicely done these eyes are when the king mummy was put inside
24:30	·	symbolically these two eyes at the far north end of the East Side allowed him
24:35	·	to look out to the Rising Sun this representation is quite typical
24:42	·	of the funeral customs of the Middle Kingdom on the coffins in sarcophaga of that period they always represented
24:49	·	looking East a pair of eyes which gave the deceased lying down inside a sort of port hole through which to see the
24:55	·	outside and in particular to see the Rising Sun which was the driving force of Egyptian
25:03	·	religion but for Mark something in the room does not make sense I don't know the exact
25:09	·	measurements I don't have my tape measure with me but it looks too wide to come in that
25:16	·	doorway the sarcophagus does indeed look too wide to have been brought through the
25:23	·	corridors on the 3D model created by means of the lar scanner we can now measure the Dimensions
25:29	·	exactly and the measurements confirm Mark's impression with its base the sarcophagus
25:35	·	is 2.6 M long and 1.15 M wide but the corridor which leads to the king's
25:41	·	chamber is never any wider than 1 M so how did the ancient Egyptians get the sarcophagus to this place in the
25:49	·	pyramid there are grounds for thinking that the sarcophagus was placed there before the pyramid had been
25:56	·	constructed so they first of all dug they dug pits and trenches and turn these into the underground
26:04	·	Apartments most of the network of the black pyramid's passages was dug as tunnels in the clay soil of the Dasher
26:14	·	Plateau but for certain rooms they must have dug pits from the surface into which they could lower the most
26:20	·	voluminous items such as the huge
26:25	·	sarcophagus a very impressive feat when when you consider the weight of this
26:31	·	monolith the sarcophagus is pink Granite it's a very hard rock very heavy it
26:37	·	alone weighs between four or 5 tons equivalent to four large
26:45	·	cars once the chamber was finished and the vaed ceiling in place the pit was filled up with brick
26:52	·	[Music] work studying this impressive
26:58	·	sarcophagus Mark leoner has spotted another symbol familiar to
27:04	·	him the truly remarkable thing is that the bottom is carved with these Gates
27:10	·	which is a series of Palace Gates carved with bastions and niches which imitate
27:18	·	the surrounding wall of the famous joser complex the step pyramid complex they're
27:23	·	paying honor to the first pyramid Builder
27:30	·	there certainly is a striking resemblance to this wall built 900 years earlier by a legendary Pharaoh joser
27:37	·	founder of the Old Kingdom a model of prosperity unity and stability for all of ancient
27:45	·	Egypt this is the best conserved section of the huge niched enclosure wall which
27:51	·	surrounded his stepped pyramid in Sakara the first pyramid in human history
28:00	·	so the presence of this motive on the sarcophagus did not come about by chance it's not just a nod and a wink it
28:07	·	shows a true desire to Anchor their roots in the history of the first Egyptian dynasties it's above all a way
28:12	·	of linking a men the third a pharaoh from the end of the Middle Kingdom to the first Sovereign of the Old Kingdom
28:19	·	almost a thousand years earlier showing that there was a direct line from that legendary King to Amad the thir
28:28	·	by depicting this Monument amenemhat III was confirming his link to the Glorious past of the Old Kingdom and its gigantic
28:40	·	pyramids and yet some of the layout is decidedly at odds with what we usually see in classic
28:49	·	pyramids at the entrance to the King's network Mark lonard notices a very narrow
28:56	·	Corridor the way under the the southwest corner of the pyramid is a very very narrow
29:02	·	Corridor and very difficult going everything is difficult because it's so humid down
29:09	·	here I'm literally dripping with
29:15	·	sweat the passage is particularly long and extremely hard goinging because of its
29:22	·	narrowness with the data collected by Alon using the laser scanner a few weeks earlier we can measure just how narrow
29:29	·	it is only 60 cm at the end mark discovers a
29:36	·	surprisingly small room it too containing a
29:41	·	sarcophagus although cluttered with stones it is strangely similar to the pharaoh's burial
29:50	·	chamber a bit further along the corridor is another room identical to the first
29:59	·	here inside the chamber itself her burio chamber you see also a beautiful Granite
30:07	·	sarcophagus carved in the same style with the same decoration as the granite
30:13	·	sarcophagus of the king inside it an unbelievable surprise
30:19	·	awaits him my God there's still bones in there
30:27	·	and even broken pieces of
30:35	·	wood have these been in there from the beginning I don't know at the moment but
30:42	·	it is truly amazing getting to film these bones is
30:48	·	absolutely extraordinary but what are they doing here and to whom did they
30:55	·	belong the archaeologists who discovered the bone in the 1980s had them analyzed
31:00	·	and then replaced them in the sarcophagus and the tests revealed something quite
31:06	·	amazing under the pyramid were the remains of two women there are two queens that are
31:14	·	buried in this structure one we know her name is OD the second is unknown we know
31:20	·	that one was around 35 when she died the other was was around 25 so they died
31:25	·	relatively Young finding human remains in a pyramid is already a very rare
31:32	·	occurrence but it's only the second time in history that women's Bones have been
31:37	·	found usually in a pyramid complex there's an enclosure wall with a pyramid
31:43	·	and then satellite pyramids on the side for important Royal women but Amin have the third changed all that we can see it
31:50	·	perfectly clearly on the light our image two burial Chambers were built in the western quarters under the pyramid the
31:57	·	these were for the tombs of two of amenemhat III's wives before this they took care to keep
32:04	·	the Queen's Apartments totally separated but here there's no pyramid for the queen there are just Apartments
32:09	·	underneath the one pyramid but why this Innovation why did
32:16	·	the Pharaoh want to be near his Queens we don't know why he did this but
32:21	·	one possible reason is that he wanted them to be closer to him in the afterlife the women are no doubt Al
32:28	·	there to fulfill a protective function for the dead Pharaoh it's quite likely that a feminine figure would play a role
32:35	·	in the Renaissance or resurrection of the king in his funeral complex it may
32:40	·	have been some kind of particular regard for these two um women but all we can do
32:46	·	is speculate we'll probably never know why
32:52	·	Amad theii made this choice
32:59	·	but it seems that some unexpected incident came to disturb the Eternal rest of his
33:05	·	wives we return to Mark lonard underground what has particularly struck
33:11	·	him about the innards of the Black Pyramid is the high number of cracks he can see pretty much all
33:17	·	over everything shows cracking that's a crack that runs down the entire length
33:22	·	of this Corridor and you can see the CRA de are becoming more and
33:28	·	more numerous and even even here in the floor it's not only the walls and the
33:36	·	lentils it's even the floor itself was was
33:42	·	cracking you can imagine as they're dressing this down doing the final finish work you can still see their
33:47	·	chisel marks all of a sudden it must have been a booming
33:53	·	frightening sound that echoed through all the chambers and passages causing the workers to put down their tools did
34:00	·	they run right away we can
34:06	·	imagine the archaeologists have found indications that these cracks happened while the pyramid was being
34:13	·	built the fact that this damage this subsidence this settling happened during the construction is proved by the
34:19	·	patching up it was done by the ancient egyptions themselves in a lot of corridors and Chambers there are wooden
34:25	·	beams which they place there to show up up where there had been a crack and there might be a
34:31	·	collapse we have modern cross beams to to hold up everything but they are
34:39	·	supporting ancient Cedar beams that amm hits people put to hold up whatever is
34:46	·	above these beams are as old as the pyramid itself and that means they're
34:51	·	3,800 years old and there they are but what happened here
34:59	·	why does the structure show so many signs of damage for part of the answer we have to
35:06	·	go back above ground the Pharaoh May well have picked
35:13	·	a poor spot for his pyramid despite having given it long and careful
35:19	·	thought Dasher is 20 km south of the Giza Plateau the site on the outskirts
35:24	·	of Cairo of the famous Great Pyramid of kufu dasu was a very famous place and uh
35:31	·	especially to reconnect with ancestors when amam thei started to build his pyramid there were already pre-existing
35:38	·	structures all over dashu such as the big pyramids of
35:43	·	snfu snefru was one of the most powerful pharaohs of the Old Kingdom a ruler who
35:49	·	achieved legendary status for ancient Egyptians who went so far as to deify
35:55	·	him sfer was still V generated in the Middle Kingdom so 12th Dynasty Kings
36:00	·	they went to dashur to build their pyramids and in many ways they were aligning themselves with the power of
36:07	·	this pharoh from a long gone era it was at dashur that snfu had
36:13	·	histories first giant pyramids built the Red Pyramid and the bent
36:20	·	pyramid they were constructed in around 2,600 BCE eight centuries before the
36:26	·	Black Pyramid but what surprises Meredith brand is the
36:32	·	unusual location of a menam hat III's pyramid in relation to sniff
36:37	·	Rus standing where I am at the amim the third pyramid it's clear that over there
36:42	·	in dashore the ground is higher and we're here in a depression right here we
36:48	·	are incredibly low the lar scanner should provide us
36:55	·	with more information about exactly how deep the funeral apartments
37:00	·	are to this end albon Bri pampo has to walk all the way around the structure to
37:06	·	get readings of the level of the surrounding ground to compare to those of the pyramid's underground
37:12	·	[Music] Labyrinth using the data collected by the scanner the 3D model gives us a
37:18	·	perfect cross-section view of the monument and its various levels the color coding used here gives us
37:24	·	information about the respective levels of the parts scanned the higher up you go the warmer the
37:30	·	color getting redder and likewise the deeper you go the colder the color
37:35	·	turning blue or Violet so we can see perfectly well on this side view that the whole complexity
37:42	·	of the apartments is deep under the pyramid and is not inside the
37:49	·	pyramid using the 3D liar model Frank Monier can now with just a few clicks
37:54	·	establish the depth of the funeral Apartments underneath the Black
38:01	·	Pyramid so let's measure how deep these apartments go I'll pick a low point at
38:06	·	random here in this chamber for example and then pick a second Point by
38:12	·	the entrance there that gives us a depth of 12 to 13 M so the complex of Apartments
38:19	·	was dug down to a depth of 12 to 13 m a depth of 12 M that's equivalent to
38:27	·	fourth [Music] basement at this depth Mark lener
38:33	·	notices an opening in the ceiling which reveals something very strange about the Earth through which these tunnels were
38:41	·	dug oh this is a good view of the Bedrock clearly it's gray Shale clay
38:49	·	rust colored iron deposits but it's full of crack it's actually crackled it's not
38:55	·	at all stable this Bedrock is the source of a lot of
39:01	·	their problems to remain stable a pyramid
39:06	·	should be built on Solid Rock not on Clay Frable
39:14	·	ground it's a surprising mistake for Amat III's Architects to have made
39:19	·	especially when you realize that the site they chose for the structure seems particularly poorly located in the
39:25	·	topography people often assume that pyramids are in the middle of the desert but in fact if
39:32	·	you visit Egypt you will see that the pyramids are on the edge of this great
39:38	·	desert escarment and they are actually quite close to the
39:44	·	cultivation but here even the experts are surprised by just how unusually close the Black Pyramid is to the Nile
39:54	·	Valley the Pyramid of &m the thiri is Incredibly Close to the N Valley it's just right over there The Greenery the
40:02	·	agriculture the civilization the cities the towns it's just a Stones throw away
40:09	·	the ancient landscape in dasu was quite different from today's landscape the Nile shifted through the thousands of
40:15	·	years and moved its bad sideways and um we have scientific evidence that the
40:21	·	cultivated area and the the cultivation was much closer than it is today
40:28	·	for egyptologists this decision to build the Black Pyramid so close to the Nile was a total engineering
40:35	·	blunder the desert is dry the sand is far away from the water table and it's a
40:41	·	great environment to build the Nile Valley on the other hand is water logged and the water table is also really high
40:49	·	so by choosing to construct a pyramid at this site so close to the Nile Valley means that amim at the third's pyramid
40:55	·	didn't really stand a chance it wasn't built on a solid foundation to last the clay soil under the Black
41:03	·	Pyramid is porous so it's infiltrated by any rise in the level of the extremely close groundwater
41:10	·	table water infiltration weakened the ground on which the pyramid was built then this weakened permeable
41:18	·	ground must have undergone localized and irregular subsidence which was the cause of all
41:24	·	the cracks you can see in the apartments apart as the pyramid Rose its weight
41:31	·	bore down more and more heavily on its clay unstable and water loged base the edifice started to sink into
41:38	·	the ground but there could be another reason for these structural
41:48	·	problems the 3D model obtained with the lar scanner has shown us that the network of passages under the pyramid is
41:55	·	much more extensive than what is usually found in pyramids what if am menum had the third
42:02	·	by being too ambitious unwittingly undermined his own monument that simply doesn't work inside
42:08	·	of a pyramid structurally one cannot have so many chambers and keep a strong
42:13	·	Foundation to maintain a huge pyramid too many rooms too many corridors to consolidate perhaps they quite simply
42:20	·	underestimated the reinforcing measures that would be needed and this led to structural
42:25	·	problems they hadn't anticipated partip there's a lack of additional support
42:30	·	from Limestone retaining walls which means the weight of all that mud brick is not being distributed and it's
42:37	·	causing those internal facing Limestone blocks to
42:43	·	crack at a certain point the weight of the structure exceeded what the vaults could support the pyramid subsided
42:50	·	pressing down on the rooms and corridors underground causing cracks to appear everywhere
42:57	·	but why did ammat III take this risk of weakening his tomb it's a bit of a mystery because we
43:04	·	haven't found the contents of all these rooms and don't really know what their purpose was we don't actually know how
43:09	·	the the different chambers were used but there are studies indicating that chamber systems are an image of the
43:16	·	imagination of the Nether world and of the religious belief
43:22	·	system the Nether world this is where the dead must face Osiris The God Who
43:27	·	will resurrect them the Black Pyramid has its own roote which is in fact a representation of the
43:34	·	complex root that the dead have to take in order to reach Paradise perhaps these rooms are in fact sorts of fictional
43:40	·	regions of the Nether world the pyramid itself is a 3D representation of the Nether
43:46	·	world this could be the great Paradox of the Black Pyramid in trying to create the best
43:52	·	possible imitation of the Nether world in order to guarantee his access to Res Direction ammat thei in fact doomed his
44:00	·	tomb to crumbling [Music]
44:08	·	ruin there's one place under the pyramid where it seems only a miracle could have prevented a total
44:16	·	collapse an incredible place so hard to reach that albon Bri wasn't able to get in there with his lar scanner to map it
44:24	·	it's the part known as the southern Network
44:33	·	let's go Mark Leonard needs to steal his courage to venture
44:42	·	forth oh boy this is rough
44:50	·	[Music] going this is mud brick
44:57	·	the walls are made of mud bricks the same as those found on the outside of the pyramid the builders didn't even take
45:04	·	the time to cover them with slabs of white Limestone it's clear that work here was left unfinished as if the workers
45:11	·	abandoned the site in a [Music] hurry at the end of the corridor Mark
45:17	·	manages to thread himself into a tiny room but this isn't yet another burial
45:24	·	chamber this is difficult it's get smaller and smaller I
45:29	·	believe if I'm not confused we're in the C Chapel of the queen and here we find this amazing
45:38	·	Alabaster canopic chest where the internal organs were placed after being removed from the body
45:46	·	during mumification the Egyptians had a complicated way of
45:51	·	viewing the soul so you think that we have our body our double is made when
45:57	·	our body is made and that is called the car a spirit double of your body and
46:03	·	throughout your life it exists with you upon your death it inhabits the
46:08	·	tomb it was to the car chapels that one would bring offerings for the soul of the deceased after their death once
46:15	·	again amenemhat III had been Innovative in placing these chapels for the first time actually in a pyramid a chapel for
46:23	·	each of his queens and one for himself this is absolutely amazing to
46:28	·	find this incredibly beautiful object still in place and all of this was put
46:34	·	in the most inaccessible part of the most inaccessible pyramids
46:40	·	ever but after only a few minutes in this CA chamber Mark judges it wise not
46:46	·	to linger look at the crack in this chamber
46:51	·	this is very serious it's separated several centimeters wide and the uh stones
46:57	·	are Bowing in it still looks like it could collapse at any moment I think
47:05	·	um I think it's time to [Music]
47:11	·	go but in amenemhat III's burial chamber One Last Detail intrigues the
47:19	·	egyptologists the lid is beautifully sculpted and intact and relatively un damaged in fact
47:27	·	these few chips might be more recent you see in tombs that have clearly been looted where the lid is just shoved
47:33	·	aside by the robbers or they simply smashed it but the fact that it's
47:39	·	undamaged indicates that the king's burial was never put
47:45	·	inside if the lid wasn't smashed by lutters breaking into the Black Pyramid it must have been left
47:52	·	open so the sarcophagus was never sealed meaning the pharaoh's mummy could never
47:57	·	have been placed inside one thing thus becomes obvious
48:03	·	ammat theii was never buried under the Black Pyramid it became very obvious that the
48:10	·	pyramid was unstable cracks were forming the ground was sinking up to 3 cm so am
48:17	·	him the third had to abandon the project and start a new one he abandoned this um pyramid and decided oh I'm going to have
48:24	·	a better one confronted with the failure of this
48:29	·	overly complex pyramid the Pharaoh simply decided to have another one built at haara 70 km further
48:39	·	south also built of mud bricks this now has a silhouette similar to that of the Black
48:45	·	Pyramid but its interior is totally different amenemhat The third's
48:51	·	Architects had learned their lesson there was more care taken in
48:56	·	ensuring that the haara pyramid was not going to suffer from such um
49:03	·	problems here there was no underground Labyrinth one simple Corridor led to a
49:08	·	single extremely secure chamber a veritable strong box Made of Stone amhat theii had himself buried at
49:16	·	hawar in a pyramid that was perfect for ensuring his eternal rest it was stable solid it met all the
49:24	·	requirements that the Pharaoh had set s yet no images exist of this Unique
49:30	·	Interior and for good reason Amat theii could not have foreseen the disaster
49:36	·	that would eventually strike at his second pyramid it's been totally flooded for
49:42	·	over a 100 years because of rising Waters resulting from a canal built close by in the 19th
49:51	·	century even if the Pharaoh finally decided not to be buried there dashur Black Pyramid still retains The Prestige
49:59	·	of a royal tomb the Black Pyramid did fulfill its funeral role while the king wasn't
50:06	·	buried in the pyramid his queens were laid to rest there underground the remains of these
50:12	·	two queens of Amat III are still enjoying their Eternal rest but under a precarious pyramid I feel quite bad for
50:20	·	these women to be left in the in the sinking cracking pyramid it may not have been quite so G and um
50:29	·	situation the failure of the Black Pyramid was in any case a turning point
50:35	·	it sealed the fate of pyramids in Egypt the kings were thinking why am I
50:41	·	going to build a pyramid if all the stone is going to be stripped away if it's going to be looted king ammat thei
50:48	·	is the last Great Pyramid build joser is the beginning amum hat thei is the end
50:55	·	and together that is the the era of the Great Pyramids of ancient Egypt while the Black Pyramid may keep
51:02	·	on deteriorating in the coming decades this completely unique modeling campaign using the lar scanner means that we will
51:09	·	at least have a digital copy exact to the millimeter of its present State the
51:15	·	3D modeling captures the structure for the future even if the whole pyramid now
51:20	·	would finally collapse I mean God forbid we don't want that and it would crush all the chambers and Passage ways even
51:27	·	if that happened you've now captured the structure that was once there and so that's the value of modeling any uh
51:34	·	ancient Monument despite its structural problems
51:39	·	and the ravages of time the Black Pyramid is for now at least Still Standing four Millennia after it was
51:46	·	built still casting the shadow of am menim hat theii over the Nile Valley