1 00:00:15,522 --> 00:00:19,696 For over 3,000 years a story has lain hidden beneath the sands of Egypt. 2 00:00:20,579 --> 00:00:22,933 A story we are only now beginning to reclaim. 3 00:00:24,652 --> 00:00:27,589 It is a story of a time we call The New Kingdom. 4 00:00:33,435 --> 00:00:35,841 It left us the greatest treasures of the ancient world: 5 00:00:36,844 --> 00:00:42,566 an extraordinary legacy in papyrus, stone and gold. 6 00:00:43,429 --> 00:00:46,508 But behind these treasures lies an epic tale of real people: 7 00:00:47,533 --> 00:00:49,035 people like Ramesses the Great, 8 00:00:49,660 --> 00:00:55,631 Tutankhamen the Boy King and one of the most beautiful and powerful women 9 00:00:55,882 --> 00:00:59,804 of the ancient world, Queen Nefertiti. 10 00:01:03,963 --> 00:01:06,310 It is a story brought to life by their own words, 11 00:01:07,249 --> 00:01:10,937 and those of the ordinary men and women who have changed the course of history. 12 00:01:15,003 --> 00:01:20,127 In eye witness accounts soldiers ascribe the birth of an empire forged on the battle field. 13 00:01:25,939 --> 00:01:31,452 Pharaohs record how they created their own legends and became the richest rulers in the world. 14 00:01:41,489 --> 00:01:47,326 And ancient craftsmen reveal how they turned Egypt's unimaginable wealth into tombs, 15 00:01:48,052 --> 00:01:50,240 temples and treasures. 16 00:01:52,212 --> 00:01:53,469 They tell how, in the end, 17 00:01:54,732 --> 00:01:57,431 they would be forced to destroy the very tombs they had built. 18 00:02:00,235 --> 00:02:06,433 This is the story of the rise and fall of Egypt's Golden Empire. 19 00:02:27,347 --> 00:02:29,504 Over a thousand years after the Pyramids were built, 20 00:02:30,067 --> 00:02:33,426 the greatest chapter in Egypt's history was just beginning. 21 00:02:34,428 --> 00:02:37,130 The New Kingdom was to become an explosion of creativity, 22 00:02:37,539 --> 00:02:39,213 wealth and power. 23 00:02:40,528 --> 00:02:42,592 It would be the envy of civilizations to come. 24 00:02:43,683 --> 00:02:45,884 The Greeks, the Romans, Napoleon, 25 00:02:47,719 --> 00:02:49,291 all would look for inspiration 26 00:02:49,575 --> 00:02:53,136 - to the men and women who built the first empire in recorded history. 27 00:02:55,794 --> 00:02:58,389 Yet the golden age might never have happened. 28 00:03:03,201 --> 00:03:04,560 In 1560 BC, 29 00:03:05,013 --> 00:03:08,580 Egypt was in crisis for the first time in history. 30 00:03:09,611 --> 00:03:14,002 The kingdom of the ancient pyramid builders was now occupied and divided. 31 00:03:16,457 --> 00:03:18,304 Egypt was on the verge of extinction. 32 00:03:27,045 --> 00:03:27,869 In the north, 33 00:03:28,383 --> 00:03:32,169 a foreign king had invaded and declared himself pharaoh. 34 00:03:35,262 --> 00:03:36,795 His people, the Hyksos, 35 00:03:37,197 --> 00:03:39,167 now occupied the rich Nile Delta. 36 00:03:40,776 --> 00:03:41,495 To the south, 37 00:03:41,808 --> 00:03:45,763 the warlike Nubians threatened the last remnants of Egypt. 38 00:03:47,982 --> 00:03:51,522 The invasion of Egypt by the Hyksos was a shock. 39 00:03:52,043 --> 00:04:01,602 This was the first time that a strange people entered Egypt -and lived - for 150 years. 40 00:04:15,139 --> 00:04:20,329 The Egyptian royal line and its city Thebes had fallen on hard times. 41 00:04:23,172 --> 00:04:27,394 But one local family was determined to revive Egypt's former glory: 42 00:04:28,229 --> 00:04:30,145 the King of Thebes and his two sons, 43 00:04:30,770 --> 00:04:31,612 the young princes, 44 00:04:31,914 --> 00:04:34,714 Kamose and his brother Ahmose. 45 00:04:36,949 --> 00:04:38,679 The fate not only of their capital Thebes, 46 00:04:39,055 --> 00:04:42,367 but Egypt itself lay in their hands. 47 00:04:44,178 --> 00:04:48,785 Essentially it was a time of great trial for the traditional ruling family of Egypt. 48 00:04:49,776 --> 00:04:54,664 And Thebans are really just parts between these two super powers. 49 00:04:55,060 --> 00:04:56,436 They are not the super power. 50 00:04:57,902 --> 00:05:02,867 So, really..Arhmose and Kamose had become minor princes, 51 00:05:03,418 --> 00:05:05,383 and there was a feeling that Egypt, 52 00:05:05,687 --> 00:05:09,009 as it had been known for the past 1,500 years, 53 00:05:09,259 --> 00:05:10,823 could cease to exist. 54 00:05:17,454 --> 00:05:20,344 The hatred of Kamose and Ahmose toward the Hyksos was personal. 55 00:05:21,187 --> 00:05:27,725 Their father tried to rebel against the invaders in the north and paid a terrible price. 56 00:05:29,721 --> 00:05:31,193 Three-and-a half-thousand years later, 57 00:05:31,521 --> 00:05:35,912 his corpse still bears witness to his brutal slaughter at the hands of the enemy. 58 00:05:42,513 --> 00:05:43,803 The face is grizzly, 59 00:05:44,043 --> 00:05:46,307 partly because it wasn't well preserved, 60 00:05:46,307 --> 00:05:48,700 and there are many axe marks all over the head. 61 00:05:50,340 --> 00:05:55,432 There must have been a struggle and it must have been fairly bloody. 62 00:06:03,340 --> 00:06:04,110 Traditionally, 63 00:06:04,394 --> 00:06:06,561 Egyptians viewed foreigners as primitive and barbaric. 64 00:06:08,827 --> 00:06:09,812 For young Kamose,, 65 00:06:10,531 --> 00:06:16,438 the death of his father at the hands of the Hyksos must have been humiliating as well as tragic. 66 00:06:18,312 --> 00:06:20,354 In the ideology of the Egyptians, 67 00:06:20,634 --> 00:06:23,074 the foreigner is the inherent enemy, 68 00:06:23,294 --> 00:06:24,200 the inherent inferior, 69 00:06:24,513 --> 00:06:28,979 over whom the Egyptians had been given divine power by the deities. 70 00:06:30,229 --> 00:06:31,246 They are described as, 71 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:32,855 "that vile foe, 72 00:06:33,104 --> 00:06:35,201 people who are beyond the pale. 73 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:39,066 Foreigners are dirt under the feet of the pharaoh." 74 00:06:40,515 --> 00:06:47,159 Images of foreigners were carved on footstools so Egyptians could show their superiority by literally trampling on them. 75 00:06:50,207 --> 00:06:52,428 Nubians, Libyans, Asiatics, 76 00:06:52,990 --> 00:06:55,427 were depicted as ugly savages, 77 00:06:56,260 --> 00:06:59,118 not worthy of placing a foot on Egyptian sand. 78 00:07:00,586 --> 00:07:01,040 But now, 79 00:07:01,274 --> 00:07:07,086 northern Egypt and even the pyramids stood on land governed by foreigners. 80 00:07:08,051 --> 00:07:10,237 This was the worst thing to the mind of the Egyptian. 81 00:07:10,768 --> 00:07:15,726 The Pyramid to Ahmose and Kamose was a kind of a reminder: 82 00:07:16,414 --> 00:07:17,146 "Kill them, 83 00:07:17,396 --> 00:07:22,396 we need the glory of Egypt to come back." This gave them the power to unite, 84 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:27,291 to defeat those strange people and send them away from Egypt. 85 00:07:28,838 --> 00:07:29,836 With his father dead, 86 00:07:30,181 --> 00:07:31,212 his land divided, 87 00:07:31,779 --> 00:07:33,934 Kamose was determined to defeat the Hyksos. 88 00:07:35,141 --> 00:07:37,027 His actual words have survived, 89 00:07:37,371 --> 00:07:38,685 carved on a large stone. 90 00:07:39,372 --> 00:07:46,583 Kamose bluntly states his intention to destroy the enemies to the north and south of Egypt. 91 00:07:48,836 --> 00:07:49,495 Reconstruction voiceover: 92 00:07:49,495 --> 00:07:51,453 "What power can I claim to have, 93 00:07:51,453 --> 00:07:56,613 when I'm stuck between an Asiatic and a Nubian? Each of them has a piece of Egypt too, 94 00:07:56,886 --> 00:07:59,501 and shares the land with me. 95 00:07:59,795 --> 00:08:04,374 My aim is to liberate Egypt and crush the Asiatics." 96 00:08:06,155 --> 00:08:08,499 But Kamose could not fight alone. 97 00:08:09,656 --> 00:08:11,053 He had to get his people behind him first, 98 00:08:12,092 --> 00:08:13,344 and as the stela shows, 99 00:08:13,897 --> 00:08:17,581 most leaders did not object to living in a divided Egypt. 100 00:08:20,089 --> 00:08:20,811 Reconstruction voiceover: 101 00:08:21,043 --> 00:08:22,488 "We are satisfied with our share of Egypt. 102 00:08:23,310 --> 00:08:25,330 The best fields are ours to cultivate, 103 00:08:26,329 --> 00:08:28,923 grain is still being sent to our swine, 104 00:08:29,161 --> 00:08:31,438 and our herds have never been seized." 105 00:08:33,489 --> 00:08:34,160 Dr Stephen Harvey: 106 00:08:34,426 --> 00:08:38,085 Not everyone would have been upset with the Hyksos rule. 107 00:08:38,085 --> 00:08:40,380 I'm sure times were good for lots of Egyptians under the Hyksos rulers. 108 00:08:41,308 --> 00:08:44,317 What then would rally the forces? What would get people going? 109 00:08:48,775 --> 00:08:52,631 The Hyksos soon gave the people of Egypt good reason to be alarmed. 110 00:08:56,401 --> 00:08:59,259 On a remote desert road far from Thebes, 111 00:08:59,917 --> 00:09:03,244 Hyksos messengers raced south on a secret mission. 112 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:10,680 Hyksos messengers were carrying this letter, 113 00:09:11,027 --> 00:09:14,195 which must have been a rolled up piece of papyrus with a mud seal on it. 114 00:09:19,971 --> 00:09:21,606 They were going through the desert, 115 00:09:21,842 --> 00:09:22,855 probably at high speeds, 116 00:09:27,746 --> 00:09:31,138 and Kamose's spies must have intercepted these messengers. 117 00:09:44,251 --> 00:09:47,160 Kamose's men had captured a messenger from the Hyksos king. 118 00:09:48,443 --> 00:09:51,565 The letter he was carrying was addressed to Egypt's other enemy, 119 00:09:52,253 --> 00:09:53,378 the King of Nubia. 120 00:09:54,566 --> 00:09:59,664 It was an invitation to unite and conquer what was left of Egypt. 121 00:10:00,109 --> 00:10:00,895 Reconstruction voiceover: 122 00:10:00,895 --> 00:10:02,038 "Come north, 123 00:10:02,038 --> 00:10:03,277 there is no need to worry, 124 00:10:03,728 --> 00:10:06,061 Kamose is busy with me here. 125 00:10:06,620 --> 00:10:09,854 We'll divide the towns of Egypt between us, 126 00:10:10,165 --> 00:10:12,543 and Nubia will rejoice." 127 00:10:15,471 --> 00:10:22,472 The Hyksos were inviting the Nubians to join them in a plot to converge on Egypt and destroy Kamose. 128 00:10:24,513 --> 00:10:26,675 We can think perhaps of the United States. 129 00:10:27,514 --> 00:10:32,627 It would really be as if Canada and Mexico were pressing against the US and talking about invading. 130 00:10:38,330 --> 00:10:41,065 Kamose knew it was time to fight. 131 00:10:43,258 --> 00:10:46,489 The Hyksos were certainly not backward people. 132 00:10:46,731 --> 00:10:52,024 They came from the area of the Levant where towns are fortified, 133 00:10:52,702 --> 00:10:55,863 where the weapons of war are, if anything, 134 00:10:56,087 --> 00:10:58,848 more advanced then the weapons of the Egyptians. 135 00:10:59,237 --> 00:11:00,554 These are fighting people. 136 00:11:19,680 --> 00:11:26,302 Arkose, still only a young boy watched from the sidelines as his brother Kamose prepared his army for the fight. 137 00:11:28,675 --> 00:11:32,755 Kamose and his brother Arkmose would become the liberators, 138 00:11:33,270 --> 00:11:34,208 the freedom fighters. 139 00:11:34,742 --> 00:11:39,444 They would become the initiators of the greatest period of Egyptian history. 140 00:11:44,545 --> 00:11:46,837 20 year old Kamose set off leading his troops north, 141 00:11:47,797 --> 00:11:48,981 into Hyksos territory. 142 00:11:53,884 --> 00:11:59,919 Reconstruction Voiceover: 143 00:12:00,679 --> 00:12:03,243 My might army went before me like a blast of fire. 144 00:12:08,149 --> 00:12:11,639 Kamose and his army soon came across a fortified Hyksos town. 145 00:12:13,516 --> 00:12:16,357 Kamose was now face to face with his foe. 146 00:12:17,768 --> 00:12:17,995 Reconstruction Voiceover: 147 00:12:18,666 --> 00:12:20,808 When the next day dawned I swooped down on him like a falcon. 148 00:12:21,861 --> 00:12:22,797 My breath was tightened, 149 00:12:23,077 --> 00:12:24,746 I had already defeated him. 150 00:12:30,487 --> 00:12:32,269 I demolished his defences, 151 00:12:32,825 --> 00:12:34,031 killed his men. 152 00:12:42,096 --> 00:12:45,868 Kamose recorded the capture of the town with unconcealed delight. 153 00:12:46,883 --> 00:12:47,553 Reconstruction Voiceover: 154 00:12:47,806 --> 00:12:49,972 My soldiers were like lions after the kill. 155 00:12:50,587 --> 00:12:52,319 As they carried off cattle and slaves, 156 00:12:52,850 --> 00:12:53,273 wine, 157 00:12:53,966 --> 00:12:55,059 fat and honey, 158 00:12:55,933 --> 00:12:57,600 gleefully dividing the loot. 159 00:12:59,007 --> 00:13:01,852 The Egyptian army now headed towards their ultimate goal, 160 00:13:02,429 --> 00:13:04,601 Avaris the Hyksos capital. 161 00:13:05,717 --> 00:13:09,906 Kamose felt confident that victory was in his grasp. 162 00:13:12,847 --> 00:13:16,584 He taunts the King of the Hyksos and shouts to him, 163 00:13:16,932 --> 00:13:18,276 that he's a coward, 164 00:13:18,666 --> 00:13:19,850 that he is no good, 165 00:13:20,102 --> 00:13:21,905 that he's going to vanquish him. 166 00:13:29,523 --> 00:13:31,272 But Kamose would not sack Arvaris. 167 00:13:32,175 --> 00:13:34,432 The records do not say what happened to it, 168 00:13:35,026 --> 00:13:40,177 but on the verge of expelling the Hyksos from Egypt Kamose died. 169 00:13:58,376 --> 00:14:03,659 Egypt's hopes now rested on the shoulders of his 10 year old brother Ahmoses. 170 00:14:04,074 --> 00:14:07,748 Although his mother has lost both her husband and eldest son to the Hyksos, 171 00:14:08,326 --> 00:14:13,518 she now groomed Ahmoses to continue the war of liberation they had begun. 172 00:14:14,462 --> 00:14:17,277 Ahmoses would have been learning the ways of battle, 173 00:14:17,492 --> 00:14:22,100 and his mother and courtiers would have been training him to become a great military leader, 174 00:14:22,390 --> 00:14:25,087 and he had the example of Kamose to follow. 175 00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:26,666 So he's got to get it right, 176 00:14:27,029 --> 00:14:30,934 not only for his own case but because the nation depends on it. 177 00:14:31,994 --> 00:14:36,373 After 10 years of preparation Ahmoses was ready to take on the Hyksos. 178 00:14:42,296 --> 00:14:43,906 It would be his greatest test. 179 00:14:48,034 --> 00:14:50,978 The consequences would determine the rest of Egyptian history. 180 00:14:56,253 --> 00:14:59,150 Only 1 eye witness account remains of this critical moment. 181 00:15:01,129 --> 00:15:05,615 It lies in the tomb of a soldier who fought in Ahmoses's army against the Hyksos. 182 00:15:11,507 --> 00:15:13,667 The story inscribed on the walls of his tomb, 183 00:15:14,619 --> 00:15:21,731 his role in the battle against the Hyksos is the only written record of what would be the decisive battle for Egypt. 184 00:15:25,041 --> 00:15:26,393 Reconstruction Voiceover: 185 00:15:28,549 --> 00:15:32,738 Let me speak to you and tell you the honours I received. 186 00:15:33,177 --> 00:15:35,241 How I was decorated with gold. 187 00:15:36,199 --> 00:15:37,994 During the siege of Avaris, 188 00:15:38,364 --> 00:15:41,225 the king noticed me fighting bravely on foot, 189 00:15:41,930 --> 00:15:43,200 and promoted me. 190 00:15:43,868 --> 00:15:45,056 We took Avaris. 191 00:15:45,367 --> 00:15:47,602 I carried off 4 people there. 192 00:15:47,839 --> 00:15:49,401 A man and 3 women, 193 00:15:49,858 --> 00:15:55,172 and his majesty let me keep them as slaves. 194 00:15:56,767 --> 00:16:04,768 These few words of an old man are the only record of the historic defeat of the Hyksos by Ahmoses's army. 195 00:16:08,801 --> 00:16:10,981 Ahmoses returned victorious to Thebes. 196 00:16:11,399 --> 00:16:16,241 He presented his ceremonial axe to his mother as a symbol of his great victory. 197 00:16:17,455 --> 00:16:19,141 The work his father and brother had begun, 198 00:16:20,118 --> 00:16:21,618 he had finally completed. 199 00:16:24,248 --> 00:16:26,620 He actually dismissed the Hyksos. 200 00:16:27,363 --> 00:16:30,843 His father and grandfather and his brother did start, 201 00:16:30,843 --> 00:16:36,114 but he is the one who has actually succeeded to expel the Hyksos away from Egypt. 202 00:16:40,335 --> 00:16:42,409 Arkmose was no longer merely the King of Thebes. 203 00:16:43,398 --> 00:16:46,039 He was now Pharaoh of a united Egypt. 204 00:16:47,688 --> 00:16:50,329 The reunification of Egypt is crucial. 205 00:16:50,776 --> 00:16:51,917 It means a new beginning. 206 00:16:52,529 --> 00:16:59,547 It means that Egypt is back to where it should be as a unified land under the rule of one king, one Pharaoh. 207 00:17:00,266 --> 00:17:01,388 It's a seminal moment, 208 00:17:01,628 --> 00:17:02,673 it's a beginning moment. 209 00:17:02,955 --> 00:17:12,097 There is some time around maybe 1520 is the opening act in the new kingdom. 210 00:17:22,585 --> 00:17:25,276 Ahmoses attributed his victories to one source, 211 00:17:26,429 --> 00:17:27,008 the God, 212 00:17:27,008 --> 00:17:28,758 Armun-Re, 213 00:17:28,979 --> 00:17:29,992 a mysterious God, 214 00:17:30,233 --> 00:17:32,898 who's name means "The Hidden One". 215 00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:41,325 In the darkest recesses of the Temple of Thebes the God spoke to Ahmoses. 216 00:17:41,891 --> 00:17:43,081 Reconstruction Voiceover: 217 00:17:43,341 --> 00:17:45,152 Oh my son Ahmoses, 218 00:17:45,455 --> 00:17:46,653 I am the father, 219 00:17:47,873 --> 00:17:49,907 I set terror in the northlands, 220 00:17:50,108 --> 00:17:51,779 even unto Avaris, 221 00:17:52,437 --> 00:17:55,660 and the Hyksos are slain beneath my feet. 222 00:18:02,050 --> 00:18:05,380 The Egyptians were so in awe about Ahmoses's victory over the Hyksos, 223 00:18:06,128 --> 00:18:09,098 that the Pharaoh himself was worshipped as a God. 224 00:18:10,955 --> 00:18:11,494 Ahmoses, 225 00:18:11,731 --> 00:18:12,588 he was a hero. 226 00:18:12,797 --> 00:18:15,309 In the eyes of everyone they were smiling, 227 00:18:15,730 --> 00:18:16,671 calling his name, 228 00:18:17,015 --> 00:18:18,269 building a chapel for him, 229 00:18:18,269 --> 00:18:20,779 asking God to protect him because he is God. 230 00:18:22,936 --> 00:18:25,644 But Ahmoses's ambition went beyond uniting Egypt. 231 00:18:26,092 --> 00:18:30,521 He wanted gold to build Egypt into a powerful nation. 232 00:18:31,218 --> 00:18:32,722 He headed south with his army to Nubia. 233 00:18:34,627 --> 00:18:39,534 Some of the richest goldmines in the ancient world were controlled by the powerful Nubian King from his capital here at Kerma. 234 00:18:45,420 --> 00:18:49,955 In a series of battles Arkmose's army crushed the Nubians. 235 00:18:50,314 --> 00:18:53,706 Once again Ahmoses was victorious. 236 00:18:56,644 --> 00:19:00,230 After 25 years on the throne Ahmoses died, 237 00:19:01,199 --> 00:19:03,273 but his legacy would live on, 238 00:19:03,645 --> 00:19:06,900 to ensure that foreigners would never rule his country again, 239 00:19:07,390 --> 00:19:12,836 he had pushed Egypt's borders beyond the Saini desert in the north and deep into Nubia in the south. 240 00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:23,779 The warrior Pharaoh had laid the foundations of an empire. 241 00:19:24,027 --> 00:19:27,214 It was the beginning of the light of day. 242 00:19:27,665 --> 00:19:29,805 It was the beginning of the sun that dries. 243 00:19:30,293 --> 00:19:32,713 It was the beginning of the pyramids to come back, 244 00:19:32,953 --> 00:19:35,546 it was the beginning of the glory of Egypt, 245 00:19:36,497 --> 00:19:37,996 that's why we called it the Golden Age. 246 00:19:46,709 --> 00:19:49,850 Ahmoses had spent his life securing peace for Egypt. 247 00:19:50,428 --> 00:19:52,251 Now Egypt could be rebuilt, 248 00:19:52,581 --> 00:19:53,347 and Thebes, 249 00:19:53,347 --> 00:19:56,930 the religious capital could flourish. 250 00:19:58,362 --> 00:20:02,395 One Pharaoh in particular Hatshepsut transformed the city, 251 00:20:03,099 --> 00:20:08,383 constructing beautiful temples as well as the strange new obelisks that towered over them. 252 00:20:10,618 --> 00:20:12,072 Weighing over 300 tons, 253 00:20:12,312 --> 00:20:14,213 and standing 30 metres tall, 254 00:20:14,885 --> 00:20:18,181 obelisks were cut from a single piece of granite. 255 00:20:18,854 --> 00:20:26,048 Building and erecting these stone spires was a spectacular achievement that still puzzles engineers today. 256 00:20:29,823 --> 00:20:33,169 Obelisks became the defining monuments of the New Kingdom. 257 00:20:34,138 --> 00:20:35,755 Bold and innovative, 258 00:20:36,451 --> 00:20:38,878 they have been emulated around the world ever since. 259 00:20:40,946 --> 00:20:43,327 But the obelisks also represented a mystery. 260 00:20:44,517 --> 00:20:52,518 For years archaeologists have known that obelisks were built during Hatshepsut's reign but this name was missing from the list of kings on these temple walls, 261 00:20:52,518 --> 00:20:55,348 the official records. 262 00:20:55,834 --> 00:20:58,897 It was as if Hatshepsut had never existed. 263 00:20:59,489 --> 00:21:03,462 It remained a mystery for 3,000 years. 264 00:21:08,711 --> 00:21:14,984 In 1903 British archaeologist Howard Carter was working in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings. 265 00:21:18,528 --> 00:21:24,376 Sifting through the sand Carter came across a tomb and on it the name of the Pharaoh Hatshepsut. 266 00:21:30,446 --> 00:21:35,731 Hatshepsut had been wiped from historical records for a very simple reason. 267 00:21:36,883 --> 00:21:40,137 This remarkable Pharaoh was a woman. 268 00:21:44,749 --> 00:21:48,670 Early in her life Hatshepsut had been an ordinary queen. 269 00:21:49,749 --> 00:21:53,984 When her husband died her stepson Tuthmosis came to the throne, 270 00:21:54,498 --> 00:21:56,389 but he was too young to rule alone, 271 00:21:56,860 --> 00:21:59,454 so Hatshepsut ruled as co-regent. 272 00:22:00,132 --> 00:22:01,626 This was not exceptional. 273 00:22:02,008 --> 00:22:03,548 What was shocking was her next step. 274 00:22:04,143 --> 00:22:06,949 Hatshepsut declared herself Pharaoh. 275 00:22:07,738 --> 00:22:10,461 Hatshepsut must have been an extraordinary women. 276 00:22:11,556 --> 00:22:17,681 She found herself the most important ruler of the time. 277 00:22:18,214 --> 00:22:23,308 The next ruler to come to the throne Tuthmosis the Third was only a small child, 278 00:22:23,684 --> 00:22:25,047 so she took action, 279 00:22:25,372 --> 00:22:29,112 and from being a Regent she had herself proclaimed not Queen, 280 00:22:29,465 --> 00:22:31,747 but King of Egypt. 281 00:22:39,427 --> 00:22:47,478 What drives her? Is it ambition or is it politically the right thing to do at that time? 282 00:22:52,074 --> 00:22:54,012 She saw the opportunity and she seized it. 283 00:22:54,258 --> 00:22:55,884 And it was the desire for power. 284 00:22:56,199 --> 00:23:05,139 She saw that this system of female Regents could be turned into securing full power for a senior woman of the Royal Family like herself. 285 00:23:10,072 --> 00:23:16,259 Only two woman had been Pharaoh before Hatshepsut and both had failed to rule for long. 286 00:23:16,570 --> 00:23:18,787 But this did not deter her. 287 00:23:19,270 --> 00:23:22,601 She believed Egypt could be persuaded to accept a woman on the throne. 288 00:23:23,406 --> 00:23:24,260 After all, 289 00:23:24,603 --> 00:23:29,228 women in Egypt were held in high regard compared with other cultures at the time, 290 00:23:29,682 --> 00:23:31,901 as ancient texts reveal. 291 00:23:32,793 --> 00:23:33,668 Reconstruction Voiceover: 292 00:23:33,668 --> 00:23:36,325 I hereby make my Will for my wife. 293 00:23:36,542 --> 00:23:39,890 I leave her all of the property which I inherited. 294 00:23:39,890 --> 00:23:41,140 Reconstruction Voiceover: 295 00:23:41,140 --> 00:23:41,916 Don't give your wife grief at home when you know that she's in control. 296 00:23:42,153 --> 00:23:43,542 Never say "Where is it, 297 00:23:43,542 --> 00:23:44,465 find it for me", 298 00:23:44,465 --> 00:23:46,263 when she has put something where it's supposed to be. 299 00:23:46,468 --> 00:23:48,638 "Keep your eyes open but keep your mouth shut". 300 00:23:49,621 --> 00:23:50,766 If you appreciate her qualities. 301 00:23:50,766 --> 00:23:54,149 You were better off as a woman in ancient Egypt than in most ancient societies. 302 00:23:54,930 --> 00:23:58,757 But it was very difficult for them to branch out independently, 303 00:23:58,757 --> 00:24:00,321 have their own careers, 304 00:24:00,321 --> 00:24:02,227 it was still a man's world. 305 00:24:02,887 --> 00:24:05,698 Egyptian women were known as "Lady of the House", 306 00:24:05,698 --> 00:24:06,947 or if you like "Housewife". 307 00:24:07,300 --> 00:24:09,323 Hatshepsut is no housewife. 308 00:24:10,478 --> 00:24:12,751 Despite the rights women possessed at the time, 309 00:24:13,002 --> 00:24:16,126 Egyptians struggled with the idea of a female Pharaoh. 310 00:24:17,128 --> 00:24:19,315 It went against the natural order of life. 311 00:24:19,577 --> 00:24:22,370 A concept Egyptians described as Maat. 312 00:24:23,203 --> 00:24:26,454 Maat meant the order of the whole cosmos. 313 00:24:26,672 --> 00:24:28,622 The way the Universe was constructed. 314 00:24:28,991 --> 00:24:30,537 Egypt's place in the cosmos. 315 00:24:31,176 --> 00:24:32,929 Relationships with foreigners, 316 00:24:33,397 --> 00:24:35,256 and Egypt were part of that. 317 00:24:35,527 --> 00:24:36,747 Foreigners are inferior, 318 00:24:37,060 --> 00:24:38,749 Egypt is superior and dominant, 319 00:24:38,991 --> 00:24:40,884 and the King should be male. 320 00:24:46,478 --> 00:24:53,388 She knew that she had no right to the throne and the Egyptian would never accept that. 321 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:58,873 Hatshepsut's need to legitimise her role as Pharaoh would dominate her entire reign. 322 00:25:01,083 --> 00:25:03,170 First she turned to her ancestry. 323 00:25:03,630 --> 00:25:07,426 Hatshepsut stressed the fact that she was the daughter of a King. 324 00:25:08,068 --> 00:25:12,295 Hatshepsut can be seen as the Queen Elizabeth the First of ancient Egypt. 325 00:25:12,611 --> 00:25:16,392 And one of the strongest features in her life is her relationship with her father. 326 00:25:17,924 --> 00:25:18,706 She may be a woman, 327 00:25:19,097 --> 00:25:22,330 she may be somebody who's claim to the throne was rather shaky, 328 00:25:22,759 --> 00:25:27,650 but do not ever forget that she was the daughter of Tuthmosis the First. 329 00:25:28,426 --> 00:25:33,584 Queen Elizabeth used to interview ambassadors underneath a portrait of Henry the Eighth. 330 00:25:34,195 --> 00:25:35,431 The message was the same, 331 00:25:35,775 --> 00:25:38,056 "I am my father's daughter". 332 00:25:39,180 --> 00:25:42,154 Hatshepsut even put words into her dead father's mouth, 333 00:25:42,947 --> 00:25:46,150 claiming he had publicly appointed her as his successor. 334 00:25:46,811 --> 00:25:47,995 Reconstruction Voiceover: 335 00:25:48,198 --> 00:25:49,341 "This is my daughter, 336 00:25:49,559 --> 00:25:50,248 Hatshepsut, 337 00:25:51,470 --> 00:25:53,305 I hereby appoint her in my place. 338 00:25:54,026 --> 00:25:56,912 She alone will sit on my majestic throne. 339 00:25:58,115 --> 00:25:59,382 Listen to her commands, 340 00:25:59,683 --> 00:26:02,727 and work together on whatever she orders". 341 00:26:04,411 --> 00:26:05,496 But she went further. 342 00:26:06,322 --> 00:26:12,511 On her temple walls she carved the tale of how the God Amen took on her father's appearance and made love to her mother. 343 00:26:15,790 --> 00:26:23,544 Hatshepsut was not only the daughter of a Pharaoh now she was the daughter of a God. 344 00:26:25,420 --> 00:26:30,831 Hatshepsut personally embraced her sexuality revelling in descriptions of her own beauty. 345 00:26:31,518 --> 00:26:33,030 Reconstruction Voiceover: 346 00:26:33,030 --> 00:26:35,237 Her body was covered with the finest incense, 347 00:26:35,711 --> 00:26:37,724 her scent was a divine shower. 348 00:26:38,413 --> 00:26:40,976 Her skin glittered like the stars. 349 00:26:41,490 --> 00:26:43,833 The look of her was more beautiful than anything. 350 00:26:45,341 --> 00:26:50,214 But Hatshepsut was Pharaoh and the Pharaoh had to be male, 351 00:26:50,631 --> 00:26:52,835 so she had herself depicted with a male body, 352 00:26:53,303 --> 00:26:58,054 a male kilt and the false beard of a Pharaoh on her chin. 353 00:27:01,120 --> 00:27:05,096 Hatshepsut had to carefully choose who to trust at Court. 354 00:27:05,537 --> 00:27:08,376 Hatshepsut is a woman trying to be a king. 355 00:27:08,828 --> 00:27:15,268 She inherited a Court from her father but she replaces them with people that she herself has chosen, 356 00:27:15,690 --> 00:27:18,800 and it's in their interest to keep their patron, 357 00:27:19,083 --> 00:27:20,458 even if that patron is a woman, 358 00:27:20,831 --> 00:27:22,617 in place. 359 00:27:22,834 --> 00:27:25,243 They know that if she goes they go. 360 00:27:27,959 --> 00:27:32,484 One of the Pharaoh's favourite courtiers was a man named Senenmut. 361 00:27:34,837 --> 00:27:37,010 He had started life as a commoner, 362 00:27:37,839 --> 00:27:40,278 but his rise to power had been meteoric, 363 00:27:40,970 --> 00:27:44,581 sparking rumours about the nature of his relationship with Hatshepsut. 364 00:27:48,034 --> 00:27:51,912 Senenmut was promoted from the army into the royal household. 365 00:27:52,308 --> 00:27:57,006 Hatshepsut even entrusted him with raising her won daughter. 366 00:27:59,007 --> 00:28:05,041 But it was as her chief architect that Senenmut did the most for his Pharaoh. 367 00:28:06,853 --> 00:28:10,642 He had been responsible for the creation of Hatshepsut's giant obelisks. 368 00:28:14,313 --> 00:28:16,827 Now she entrusted him with her most ambitious plan. 369 00:28:19,637 --> 00:28:21,692 The building of her mortuary temple. 370 00:28:34,957 --> 00:28:41,668 The temple would be Hatshepsut's ultimate attempt to prove herself worthy of the title of Pharaoh. 371 00:28:42,491 --> 00:28:46,946 It was one of the most lavish and monumental buildings of the ancient world, 372 00:28:47,757 --> 00:28:51,931 Deir el Bahri. 373 00:28:56,758 --> 00:29:01,510 Below the great temple an additional tomb had been carved out of the rock. 374 00:29:02,550 --> 00:29:06,716 Halfway down the corridor is a drawing of the owner of the tomb, 375 00:29:07,687 --> 00:29:09,434 and next to it a name, 376 00:29:10,405 --> 00:29:12,747 Senenmut. 377 00:29:12,488 --> 00:29:15,320 The tomb's position so close to Hatshepsut's temple 378 00:29:15,896 --> 00:29:19,712 may simply have been the ultimate reward for a loyal architect. 379 00:29:21,307 --> 00:29:27,274 But perhaps it was an reflection of the intimacy between Hatshepsut and her favourite courtier. 380 00:29:36,155 --> 00:29:39,660 There was speculation at the time that Senemut was Hatshepsut's lover, 381 00:29:40,074 --> 00:29:45,234 and a series of graffiti in a tomb near the temple of Deir el Bahri 382 00:29:45,483 --> 00:29:50,953 make it fairly clear that the person who wrote the graffiti thought that that was what they were up to. 383 00:29:51,401 --> 00:29:53,604 This is a problem that female rulers tend to get. 384 00:29:53,925 --> 00:29:56,809 They pick up salacious views of what they're doing. 385 00:29:57,439 --> 00:29:59,175 I suspect that's unlikely. 386 00:29:59,605 --> 00:30:03,376 It's too dangerous a game for Senenmut to be playing. 387 00:30:04,407 --> 00:30:07,367 I suspect the relationship was one of mutual respect, 388 00:30:07,830 --> 00:30:11,283 and not going beyond the boundaries of that respect. 389 00:30:13,907 --> 00:30:22,491 But while the inner temple harboured private secrets the outer walls of Deir el Bahri became a place for propaganda and self aggrandizement. 390 00:30:24,929 --> 00:30:29,731 Carved reliefs boast the crowning achievement of her reign. 391 00:30:30,140 --> 00:30:32,619 An unusual and bold military adventure. 392 00:30:33,288 --> 00:30:36,328 Every Pharaoh was expected to prove himself on the battlefield, 393 00:30:37,025 --> 00:30:40,432 but Hatshepsut's army was under the control of her stepson, 394 00:30:40,744 --> 00:30:41,743 Tuthmosis. 395 00:30:42,393 --> 00:30:45,747 Tuthmosis was acutely aware that the throne was rightfully his. 396 00:30:47,004 --> 00:30:50,198 Like Elizabeth the First of England she doesn't trust the army. 397 00:30:50,723 --> 00:30:51,687 She's got a problem. 398 00:30:52,639 --> 00:30:55,638 If she sends the army out to extend the empire, 399 00:30:56,013 --> 00:31:00,643 if it loses she will be blamed and will almost certainly lose power. 400 00:31:01,141 --> 00:31:02,986 What happens on the other hand if it wins, 401 00:31:03,671 --> 00:31:06,676 the generals in charge of the victorious army are likely to turn round and say, 402 00:31:08,643 --> 00:31:12,012 "see we can achieve victory we don't need this Queen upstart on the throne". 403 00:31:13,395 --> 00:31:18,584 So Tuthmosis and his army represents a major problem for Hatshepsut. 404 00:31:22,139 --> 00:31:24,378 The Pharaoh devises an ingenious plan 405 00:31:25,199 --> 00:31:27,877 that would not only keep Tuthmosis and his army occupied, 406 00:31:28,475 --> 00:31:30,799 but would also enhance her status. 407 00:31:31,665 --> 00:31:34,905 She commanded her soldiers to prepare for an epic trading mission 408 00:31:35,408 --> 00:31:39,220 to a place where no Egyptian had been for over 500 years. 409 00:31:39,890 --> 00:31:41,887 The land of Punt. 410 00:31:43,879 --> 00:31:48,860 As well as keeping her stepson busy Punt offered Hatshepsut the promise of exotic goods, 411 00:31:49,234 --> 00:31:52,923 above all incense. 412 00:31:53,004 --> 00:31:56,971 Incense was a very important part of Egypt's foreign relations. 413 00:31:57,222 --> 00:31:59,598 The Egyptians valued incense tremendously. 414 00:31:59,934 --> 00:32:02,411 The elite liked to perfume their environment, 415 00:32:02,047 --> 00:32:06,567 but even more importantly when you released incense in a temple 416 00:32:07,175 --> 00:32:12,158 the God or the Goddess actually embodied themselves in the incense. 417 00:32:12,455 --> 00:32:16,926 So what you were smelling wasn't just the incense it was the aroma of her deity. 418 00:32:18,312 --> 00:32:19,794 In the 9th year of her reign, 419 00:32:20,167 --> 00:32:23,078 the Pharaoh launched the expedition to Punt. 420 00:32:23,839 --> 00:32:27,327 An epic quest for the rarest treasures of the ancient world. 421 00:32:56,670 --> 00:32:58,500 State management was the essence of this trip. 422 00:32:58,703 --> 00:33:00,600 It was a huge piece of theatre. 423 00:33:00,923 --> 00:33:02,394 It was a huge piece of propaganda, 424 00:33:03,050 --> 00:33:06,582 to show that Hatshepsut can deliver the exotic, 425 00:33:07,037 --> 00:33:07,706 the unusual, 426 00:33:08,133 --> 00:33:09,490 the divine. 427 00:33:10,416 --> 00:33:12,988 It also creates work for an unemployed army. 428 00:33:13,386 --> 00:33:15,949 It's a feat that they can talk about to their grandchildren, 429 00:33:16,179 --> 00:33:17,539 that they can say we did, 430 00:33:17,539 --> 00:33:19,365 under the famous Queen Hatshepsut. 431 00:33:35,799 --> 00:33:40,784 The walls of Hatshepsut's temple proclaimed the mission to have been a triumphant success. 432 00:33:41,737 --> 00:33:45,881 The reliefs depicted the exotic treasures her soldiers brought back to her. 433 00:33:46,350 --> 00:33:48,038 Reconstruction Voiceover: 434 00:33:48,318 --> 00:33:49,069 Look, 435 00:33:49,069 --> 00:33:52,433 they are returning and they have brought something truly amazing. 436 00:33:53,089 --> 00:33:55,354 Trees heavy with fresh incense ready to plant. 437 00:33:56,227 --> 00:33:57,322 Ebonine, 438 00:33:57,757 --> 00:33:58,684 precious ivory, 439 00:33:58,946 --> 00:33:59,607 baboons, 440 00:33:59,607 --> 00:34:01,053 monkeys and dogs, 441 00:34:01,310 --> 00:34:02,679 countless Leopold skins, 442 00:34:02,966 --> 00:34:04,908 even slaves and children. 443 00:34:05,471 --> 00:34:08,969 Nothing like this has ever happened to another king of Egypt. 444 00:34:11,282 --> 00:34:16,237 The scribes who accompanied the army carefully recorded the wonders of that exotic land. 445 00:34:17,349 --> 00:34:18,336 Houses on stilts, 446 00:34:19,055 --> 00:34:21,941 giraffes and strange tropical trees. 447 00:34:23,192 --> 00:34:29,414 Along with the flora and fauna the queen of Punt was depicted as a huge fat woman. 448 00:34:29,853 --> 00:34:33,632 These reliefs are regarded as the first antopological study in history. 449 00:34:38,249 --> 00:34:43,576 The expedition to Punt did more than legitimise Hatshepsut's position as Pharaoh. 450 00:34:45,505 --> 00:34:52,661 It set her apart as the Pharaoh who had opened Egypt and reached out to foreign lands. 451 00:34:52,661 --> 00:34:57,439 Under her reign you really have the explosion of wealth, 452 00:34:57,690 --> 00:34:58,483 of power, 453 00:34:59,222 --> 00:35:01,232 of vision in a way. 454 00:35:01,502 --> 00:35:02,858 It's a great reign. 455 00:35:06,746 --> 00:35:08,858 After 22 years on the throne, 456 00:35:09,402 --> 00:35:10,931 Hatshepsut died. 457 00:35:11,591 --> 00:35:17,403 She hoped that her obelisks towering over Karnak would forever remind the world of her greatness, 458 00:35:18,528 --> 00:35:21,780 but she had stolen the name of Pharaoh from her stepson, 459 00:35:22,250 --> 00:35:25,876 and for this he would make her pay. 460 00:35:29,128 --> 00:35:35,931 Tuthmosis the 3rd rightful heir to the throne was 25 years old and ready to claim his inheritance. 461 00:35:36,941 --> 00:35:39,432 Reconstruction Voiceover: 462 00:35:39,900 --> 00:35:43,771 Amen opened the gates and I flew up to heaven as a divine hawk. 463 00:35:44,121 --> 00:35:47,037 He gave me his strength and his might. 464 00:35:51,774 --> 00:35:57,416 Tuthmosis quickly reconnected himself with the line of warrior Pharaohs, 465 00:35:57,888 --> 00:35:59,387 Ahmoses and Kamose. 466 00:36:04,505 --> 00:36:07,701 It would be as if his stepmother had never reigned. 467 00:36:08,515 --> 00:36:10,357 Tuthmosis would make sure of that. 468 00:36:27,130 --> 00:36:35,762 Tuthmosis had her obelisks bricked up and ordered that Hatshepsut's name and image be carefully removed from every corner of Egypt. 469 00:36:36,344 --> 00:36:41,129 Tuthmosis the 3rd is saying we don't need the memory of this female ruler, 470 00:36:42,611 --> 00:36:46,177 this interlude in the history of Egypt as an imperial power. 471 00:36:47,833 --> 00:36:51,170 Even Hatshepsut's beautiful temple was defaced. 472 00:36:55,732 --> 00:36:58,621 It would be like it was in the days when it was being built and decorated, 473 00:36:58,621 --> 00:37:00,099 but in reverse. 474 00:37:01,202 --> 00:37:02,484 The scaffolding would be up, 475 00:37:02,734 --> 00:37:05,466 there would be hundreds of workmen scurrying around, 476 00:37:05,705 --> 00:37:13,176 busily chipping away at the walls to organise the defacing of the royal image of Hatshepsut, 477 00:37:13,392 --> 00:37:15,770 was suddenly a major bureaucratic task. 478 00:37:17,289 --> 00:37:21,378 And if there was anything the ancient Egyptians liked it was a major bureaucratic task. 479 00:37:21,737 --> 00:37:25,739 So I'm sure this was some high official's acme of his career. 480 00:37:28,308 --> 00:37:32,419 All evidence of Hatshepsut's reign was destroyed. 481 00:37:33,284 --> 00:37:35,888 If you erase someone's image from their mortuary monument, 482 00:37:36,109 --> 00:37:39,608 you are in effect erasing them from continuing existence in the after life. 483 00:37:40,112 --> 00:37:42,328 And for any Egyptian royal or otherwise, 484 00:37:42,663 --> 00:37:43,788 that's total disaster, 485 00:37:44,180 --> 00:37:46,630 and so by defacing a monument like that you're saying, 486 00:37:46,861 --> 00:37:48,540 no you don't have eternity. 487 00:37:52,413 --> 00:37:53,833 With her name erased throughout Egypt, 488 00:37:54,393 --> 00:37:56,708 and excluded from all the lists of kings, 489 00:37:57,255 --> 00:38:01,305 it was as if Hatshepsut had never existed. 490 00:38:09,712 --> 00:38:16,025 The death of a Pharaoh was always a time for neighbouring nations to test the resolve of a new successor. 491 00:38:16,922 --> 00:38:22,363 Now a coalition of Middle Eastern princes moved south and gathered in the city of Magido, 492 00:38:23,051 --> 00:38:25,886 threatening Egyptian trade and influence in the region. 493 00:38:26,917 --> 00:38:31,573 Perhaps his enemies thought Tuthmosis would be weak. 494 00:38:32,451 --> 00:38:35,835 If so they had made a terrible mistake. 495 00:38:36,889 --> 00:38:40,077 Tuthmosis had waited over 20 years for this moment. 496 00:38:41,089 --> 00:38:43,775 He intended not just to push back these warlike rulers, 497 00:38:44,464 --> 00:38:46,056 but to take over their countries. 498 00:38:46,751 --> 00:38:50,563 Tuthmosis was planning what no Egyptian Pharaoh had ever dreamed of, 499 00:38:51,097 --> 00:38:52,301 to build an empire. 500 00:38:53,932 --> 00:38:56,852 The strategy was hammer, hammer hammer, hammer, hammer. 501 00:38:57,131 --> 00:39:03,789 He realised that in order to build up a secure basis of power in the Eastern Mediterranean, 502 00:39:04,195 --> 00:39:06,948 that is was going to take a great military effort. 503 00:39:07,306 --> 00:39:10,012 That it was going to take many many campaigns, 504 00:39:10,281 --> 00:39:11,221 and so that's what he did. 505 00:39:17,556 --> 00:39:22,146 To increase the size of his army Tuthmosis launched a huge recruiting campaign. 506 00:39:22,929 --> 00:39:23,897 Soldiers were enlisted, 507 00:39:24,121 --> 00:39:24,870 either voluntarily, 508 00:39:25,498 --> 00:39:26,150 or by force. 509 00:39:32,061 --> 00:39:32,780 They had to be armed, 510 00:39:33,081 --> 00:39:36,240 and we know there were these great armouries filled with weapons, 511 00:39:36,629 --> 00:39:42,534 and shields and things of this kind and every soldier was given his gear, his kit. 512 00:39:46,895 --> 00:39:50,136 Finally before great divisions of the powerful Egyptian army, 513 00:39:50,475 --> 00:39:51,434 headed north, 514 00:39:51,884 --> 00:39:53,944 across the scorching Sinai desert. 515 00:39:56,884 --> 00:39:59,966 They moved boldly up the Mediterranean coast. 516 00:40:12,712 --> 00:40:15,412 The Egyptian on the move would be an impressive affair. 517 00:40:15,742 --> 00:40:24,228 The leadership was quite interested in maintaining the movement of the army as something that had considerable visual impact. 518 00:40:24,637 --> 00:40:27,064 And it was partly to impress the enemy. 519 00:40:27,373 --> 00:40:28,355 They would be hearing, 520 00:40:28,591 --> 00:40:29,623 what is the Egyptian army like, 521 00:40:29,623 --> 00:40:37,396 does it look intimidating? Is it straggling? Is it not well organised? 522 00:40:37,396 --> 00:40:45,455 What was also very important for the army that it should have a sense of itself as a very well organised entity with very high spirit. 523 00:40:48,310 --> 00:40:53,508 Led by the Pharaoh Tuthmosis himself 20.000 men marched towards Megiddo. 524 00:41:05,639 --> 00:41:09,874 At the end of every day when the troops made camp, 525 00:41:10,096 --> 00:41:12,671 the Pharaoh scribes recorded the army's latest achievements. 526 00:41:13,143 --> 00:41:16,420 They were the first war correspondents in history. 527 00:41:18,074 --> 00:41:20,626 He has scribes write down in a day book, 528 00:41:21,042 --> 00:41:22,606 all the events that take place. 529 00:41:23,261 --> 00:41:24,171 When they start, 530 00:41:24,387 --> 00:41:25,630 where they start marching, 531 00:41:26,026 --> 00:41:27,157 where they set up camp. 532 00:41:27,504 --> 00:41:29,067 How many troops there are, 533 00:41:29,356 --> 00:41:30,827 how much they need to eat. 534 00:41:31,096 --> 00:41:34,735 All the actual day to day life of an army on the move. 535 00:41:36,061 --> 00:41:36,609 Reconstruction Voiceover: 536 00:41:37,101 --> 00:41:38,143 4th month of winter, 537 00:41:38,143 --> 00:41:39,053 Day 25. 538 00:41:39,391 --> 00:41:46,707 His Majesty passed the fortress of Sile on his first victorious campaign to crush the people who were assaulting Egypt's borders. 539 00:41:49,770 --> 00:41:53,573 Back in Egypt their accounts were recorded on the walls of the Karnak temple. 540 00:41:54,386 --> 00:41:58,491 The faces of foreigners bear the names of all the cities conquered by Tuthmosis. 541 00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:04,517 Here the word Israel is recorded for the 1st time in history. 542 00:42:06,507 --> 00:42:09,297 The scribal records also include intimate details 543 00:42:09,673 --> 00:42:14,569 of what it was like to be a soldier in Pharaoh's army 3.000 years ago. 544 00:42:13,276 --> 00:42:16,152 Reconstruction Voiceover: 545 00:42:16,152 --> 00:42:19,082 The tress I lie under at night have nothing to eat on them. 546 00:42:19,362 --> 00:42:23,265 Sand flies keep biting me and sucking my veins dry. 547 00:42:23,678 --> 00:42:27,783 I'm hobbling about like a cripple because I have to go everywhere on foot. 548 00:42:28,406 --> 00:42:33,526 Tell Amen to bring me back alive from this hell hole, 549 00:42:33,814 --> 00:42:35,567 where I have been abandoned. 550 00:42:36,554 --> 00:42:40,194 Tuthmosis and his soldiers had finally arrived at their ultimate goal. 551 00:42:40,850 --> 00:42:41,739 Beyond their camp, 552 00:42:42,342 --> 00:42:44,937 behind the mountain lay Megiddo. 553 00:42:45,621 --> 00:42:50,649 This is the town in the Levant where all the princes of the area have gathered, 554 00:42:51,024 --> 00:42:53,573 and if you managed to conquer this fortress town, 555 00:42:53,886 --> 00:42:56,325 then you have pretty well conquered the whole area. 556 00:42:57,057 --> 00:42:58,986 In the words of Tuthmosis the 3rd, 557 00:42:59,563 --> 00:43:02,683 the capture of Megiddo is the capture of a thousand cities. 558 00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:12,208 On the 16th day of the 1st month of summer, 559 00:43:12,429 --> 00:43:14,569 1456 BC, 560 00:43:15,378 --> 00:43:17,754 the 25 year old Pharaoh stood on the Carmel ridge 561 00:43:18,639 --> 00:43:21,722 and faced one of the greatest dilemmas in Middle eastern warfare. 562 00:43:25,737 --> 00:43:28,895 The great fortress of Megiddo lay before him. 563 00:43:29,533 --> 00:43:31,237 3 paths led to the city, 564 00:43:31,426 --> 00:43:33,293 2 were long but safer routes. 565 00:43:34,355 --> 00:43:35,971 The 3rd path was the quickest, 566 00:43:36,796 --> 00:43:38,640 but it was also the most dangerous, 567 00:43:39,266 --> 00:43:42,548 since Tuthmosis men would have go in single file. 568 00:43:45,005 --> 00:43:46,882 Tuthmosis called a council of war. 569 00:43:47,956 --> 00:43:52,237 He later recorded how his generals were firmly against taking the dangerous path. 570 00:43:52,832 --> 00:43:53,865 Reconstruction Voiceover: 571 00:43:53,865 --> 00:43:55,041 They said to his majesty: 572 00:43:55,588 --> 00:43:58,074 "How will it be to go on this road which becomes narrow 573 00:43:58,512 --> 00:44:01,323 when it is reported that the enemies are waiting there beyond. 574 00:44:01,917 --> 00:44:03,627 There are 2 other roads here, 575 00:44:03,931 --> 00:44:06,178 do not make us go on that difficult road". 576 00:44:11,798 --> 00:44:15,514 Ultimately the last word fell to the young Pharaoh. 577 00:44:16,090 --> 00:44:20,671 His generals and men would have to live and perhaps die by his decision. 578 00:44:23,696 --> 00:44:27,449 The enemy expect Tuthmosis the 3rd to come from the easy road. 579 00:44:27,665 --> 00:44:28,604 They are waiting for him there. 580 00:44:28,604 --> 00:44:33,530 They never thought that the army of Tuthmosis the 3rd will come from the left side, 581 00:44:34,062 --> 00:44:35,369 and take this narrow, 582 00:44:35,369 --> 00:44:36,230 impossible road. 583 00:44:37,325 --> 00:44:38,658 But he said go, 584 00:44:39,001 --> 00:44:40,483 that is the road to victory. 585 00:44:53,360 --> 00:44:57,112 Suddenly as Tuthmosis had planned the Egyptian army appeared among the enemy. 586 00:45:00,206 --> 00:45:02,050 In Megiddo there was panic. 587 00:45:02,602 --> 00:45:06,136 The enemy army rushed out of the city to take on the Egyptians. 588 00:45:29,944 --> 00:45:32,227 There would have been twanking noisy dust. 589 00:45:36,071 --> 00:45:38,448 The snow and the noise and the whinnying of the horse, 590 00:45:43,521 --> 00:45:46,367 it would just be this wild melee in all this blinding dust, 591 00:45:46,708 --> 00:45:49,589 with enemy soldiers looming up in front of you, 592 00:45:49,866 --> 00:45:52,101 just as frightened and angry as you are. 593 00:45:55,401 --> 00:45:56,778 Reconstruction Voiceover: 594 00:45:58,813 --> 00:46:03,685 His Majesty set out on his electrum chariot dressed in his battle gear, 595 00:46:04,217 --> 00:46:06,308 strong armed like Horus the Lord, 596 00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:09,732 his father Amen strengthening his arms. 597 00:46:12,989 --> 00:46:14,754 The Egyptians forced the enemy to flee, 598 00:46:15,365 --> 00:46:16,804 back within the walls of Megiddo. 599 00:46:18,971 --> 00:46:26,420 The enemy kings are galloping back to the city and having to abandon their wonderful golden and silver chariots, 600 00:46:26,735 --> 00:46:27,952 because the city has closed it's gates. 601 00:46:28,310 --> 00:46:31,942 The city is not going to open it's gates while the Egyptian army is out there, 602 00:46:32,328 --> 00:46:38,581 and these kings have to be hauled up the city walls in knotted garments that the people have let down. 603 00:46:40,598 --> 00:46:41,643 It was a complete rout, 604 00:46:41,925 --> 00:46:44,771 the enemy crumpled completely before the Egyptian attack. 605 00:46:56,895 --> 00:47:01,220 But on the verge of victory Tuthmosis plan went wrong. 606 00:47:01,983 --> 00:47:06,407 He wanted his forces to continue immediately to the city and take the city. 607 00:47:06,993 --> 00:47:11,724 But the Egyptian troops stopped to plunder the enemy dead and the enemy camp. 608 00:47:12,040 --> 00:47:12,848 He can't stop it. 609 00:47:13,315 --> 00:47:16,442 The army is going to plunder and he can't get them to stop it. 610 00:47:22,841 --> 00:47:24,811 They don't do a head count in ancient Egypt, 611 00:47:25,315 --> 00:47:26,748 they do a hand count. 612 00:47:27,094 --> 00:47:28,158 They cut the hands off, 613 00:47:28,531 --> 00:47:32,814 they pile them up in whole mound and then they count them one at a time. 614 00:47:33,784 --> 00:47:37,410 A pretty gory business but I suppose it's not quite as horrid as cutting their heads off. 615 00:47:38,502 --> 00:47:41,911 Each enemy hand was worth it's weight in gold, 616 00:47:42,162 --> 00:47:47,317 but in their plundering Tuthmosis's army had given the enemy time to gather safely behind the city walls. 617 00:47:47,913 --> 00:47:53,125 The Egyptians had no choice but to surround Megiddo and wait. 618 00:47:53,460 --> 00:48:03,105 He did not have to conduct an attack on the city because by setting up the stockade he signalled that he intended to starve them out. 619 00:48:03,105 --> 00:48:05,745 Not attack them and try and take the city by storm. 620 00:48:07,574 --> 00:48:11,845 For the next 7 months while the princes in Megiddo slowly starved, 621 00:48:12,249 --> 00:48:15,670 Tuthmosis and his army raided the surrounding countryside. 622 00:48:19,343 --> 00:48:21,877 Finally Megiddo surrendered. 623 00:48:24,940 --> 00:48:26,160 Hundreds of years later, 624 00:48:26,442 --> 00:48:30,006 when the writer of the Book of Revelations spoke of the last battle of Domesday, 625 00:48:30,478 --> 00:48:32,598 he would set it here in Megiddo. 626 00:48:33,410 --> 00:48:35,933 He would call it "Armageddon". 627 00:48:41,163 --> 00:48:43,360 The Pharaoh returned in triumph to Thebes. 628 00:48:47,132 --> 00:48:51,319 Megiddo and all it's wealth now belonged to Tuthmosis. 629 00:49:01,981 --> 00:49:03,513 On the walls of Karnak temple, 630 00:49:03,876 --> 00:49:07,327 his scribes recorded the staggering scale of the booty they had captured. 631 00:49:07,847 --> 00:49:09,169 Reconstruction Voiceover: 632 00:49:09,537 --> 00:49:11,944 Living prisoners 340. 633 00:49:12,469 --> 00:49:16,392 Chariots of his wretched army 892. 634 00:49:16,833 --> 00:49:20,173 Cows 1.929. 635 00:49:20,661 --> 00:49:25,224 Male and female slaves and their children 1.796. 636 00:49:26,196 --> 00:49:29,490 Walking sticks with human heads 3. 637 00:49:30,553 --> 00:49:37,337 The war booty and tribute that poured into Thebes would make it one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. 638 00:49:38,727 --> 00:49:43,577 In a stroke of genius the Pharaoh also brought back the children of the defeated princes, 639 00:49:43,929 --> 00:49:46,496 to indoctrinate them in the ways of Egypt. 640 00:49:47,462 --> 00:49:49,278 They would grow up in an Egyptian school. 641 00:49:49,746 --> 00:49:50,674 They'd learn Egyptian. 642 00:49:51,359 --> 00:49:54,260 It was rather like what the British did in India, 643 00:49:54,528 --> 00:49:58,967 by taking the children of the Maharajas and bringing them back to public schools in England. 644 00:49:59,621 --> 00:50:02,768 That way the princes became semi Egyptian. 645 00:50:04,189 --> 00:50:08,715 But at the same time of course they were hostages to their father's good behaviour and as their father aged, 646 00:50:11,225 --> 00:50:13,212 they were sent back to replace him, 647 00:50:14,296 --> 00:50:16,382 now thoroughly infiltrated with Egyptian attitudes. 648 00:50:18,606 --> 00:50:21,026 In Nubia Tuthmosis went one step further. 649 00:50:21,576 --> 00:50:24,592 He appointed a viceroy to rule over Nubia. 650 00:50:25,574 --> 00:50:28,483 The Viceroy was called Overseer of the Gold Countries. 651 00:50:30,047 --> 00:50:31,513 He secured Egypt's lifeline. 652 00:50:32,528 --> 00:50:35,699 All the gold the Pharaoh needed to rule his empire. 653 00:50:38,137 --> 00:50:43,571 Tuthmosis III established that empire and he gave this empire the leadership. 654 00:50:43,995 --> 00:50:47,060 He gave the empire how the empire became to be strong. 655 00:50:47,500 --> 00:50:51,748 How he controlled the south at the 6th cataract, 656 00:50:52,187 --> 00:50:53,865 and controlled the eastern area, 657 00:50:54,315 --> 00:50:54,801 and Syria, 658 00:50:55,128 --> 00:50:57,078 Palestine and the area in Iraq in the whole world, 659 00:50:57,359 --> 00:50:58,817 was under Thebes. 660 00:50:59,081 --> 00:51:00,113 Under his control. 661 00:51:07,988 --> 00:51:11,833 For all these successes Tuthmosis pledged thanks to one God, 662 00:51:12,333 --> 00:51:14,021 Amen-Re. 663 00:51:16,399 --> 00:51:20,195 The Pharaoh's first task on returning from Megido was solemn. 664 00:51:21,367 --> 00:51:23,947 The King approached the inner sanctuary. 665 00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:29,434 Alone Tuthmosis made offerings to the God he credited with his victory. 666 00:51:30,169 --> 00:51:32,657 The God who granted him an empire. 667 00:51:33,354 --> 00:51:37,140 According to Tuthmosis the God spoke to him. 668 00:51:39,107 --> 00:51:39,786 Reconstruction Voiceover: 669 00:51:40,076 --> 00:51:43,242 I gave you valour and victory over all lands. 670 00:51:43,734 --> 00:51:44,880 I set your might, 671 00:51:45,289 --> 00:51:47,329 your fear in every country, 672 00:51:48,135 --> 00:51:51,331 that you may lead the living forever. 673 00:51:55,417 --> 00:52:03,678 Stepping back the king cast sand on the floor to obscure his footprints and ensure no one else entered the God's presence. 674 00:52:06,584 --> 00:52:10,452 Tuthmosis could return into the light with the blessing of Amen, 675 00:52:10,823 --> 00:52:12,370 for his new empire. 676 00:52:13,296 --> 00:52:17,354 Only 100 years earlier Egypt had been on the verge of extinction, 677 00:52:17,935 --> 00:52:19,830 but by the end of Tuthmosis's reign, 678 00:52:20,374 --> 00:52:22,063 Egypt controlled Nubia, 679 00:52:22,464 --> 00:52:24,215 the Syrian and Lebanese coasts, 680 00:52:24,748 --> 00:52:27,016 and parts of Israel and Palestine. 681 00:52:29,713 --> 00:52:34,621 Egyptians moved into territories that they never thought they probably would reach at all. 682 00:52:35,098 --> 00:52:37,308 It is an enormous empire, 683 00:52:37,588 --> 00:52:39,882 it's the biggest empire that has ever been conquered, 684 00:52:40,379 --> 00:52:42,570 and it is ruled by one king. 685 00:52:54,635 --> 00:52:56,606 And the wealth of the world arrived in Egypt, 686 00:52:56,968 --> 00:52:59,160 and receiving it is the King of Egypt. 687 00:52:59,625 --> 00:53:01,970 He is the richest man in the world at that time. 688 00:53:02,326 --> 00:53:04,199 He is the ruler of the greatest empire. 689 00:53:08,695 --> 00:53:09,975 It was the beginning. 690 00:53:10,661 --> 00:53:18,856 It was a first attempt to create a unified whole from among nations of different faiths, 691 00:53:19,323 --> 00:53:20,481 different traditions, 692 00:53:21,104 --> 00:53:22,408 different languages. 693 00:53:23,136 --> 00:53:25,795 That concept had not been realised before in history. 694 00:53:34,361 --> 00:53:36,597 The Egyptian empire was born. 695 00:53:37,707 --> 00:53:39,053 The question now was: 696 00:53:39,584 --> 00:53:43,324 "What the Pharaoh would do with his Empire of Gold?