CLEOPATRA’S LOST TOMB (TREASURES OF EGYPT)

CLEOPATRA’S LOST TOMB (TREASURES OF EGYPT)

NARRATOR: Egypt is the richest source of archaeological treasures on the planet

SALIMA: Oh, that's a fabulous one!

NARRATOR: Beneath this desert landscape lie the secrets of this ancient civilization.

JOHN: Wow, you can see why the pharaohs chose this place.

NARRATOR: Now, for a full season of excavations, our cameras have unprecedented

access to follow teams on the frontline of archaeology...

ASHRAF: I'm driving so fast because I'm so excited!

KATHLEEN: It's an entrance, we can see an entrance.

NARRATOR: Revealing buried secrets...

ANTONIO: I have just been told that they have found something.

DON: Oh my gosh.

(laughs).

JOHN: A sphinx!

NARRATOR: Making discoveries that could rewrite ancient history

This time, the hunt for the lost tomb of Queen Cleopatra

Colleen searches for clues in the hieroglyphs...

COLLEEN: Here we see Cleopatra as the goddess Isis.

NARRATOR: Alejandro scans ancient mummies in an Egyptian hospital...

NARRATOR: And Kathleen makes a startling discovery deep underground.

NARRATOR: Ancient Egypt, a kingdom of great pharaohs and a cradle of civilization

But after 3,000 years this rule came to an end with the last pharaoh,

Queen Cleopatra.

For centuries this enigmatic woman has captured the imagination of the world,

but the location of her tomb is still a mystery.

Today archaeologists across Egypt are on the hunt for clues.

Renowned Egyptologists Colleen and John Darnell are experts in decoding hieroglyphs,

they're on their way to the Valley of the Kings.

COLLEEN: We're headed to the location of the burials of

nearly every pharaoh of the New Kingdom.

NARRATOR: The Valley is a rabbit warren of sixty-five hidden tombs.

They form one of the greatest royal cemeteries in the world,

but not all of them are finished.

JOHN: This morning we're going to the unfinished tomb of Ramses XI.

It's the last tomb begun in the Valley of the Kings, and many times unfinished things

in Egypt can tell you a little bit more than the completed product.

NARRATOR: Ramses XI reigned over 1,000 years before Cleopatra,

but when he died his tomb was never used.

COLLEEN: So here you could see just the initial phases of the tomb decoration,

but it's already a beautiful depiction of Ramses XI.

We know exactly who we're looking at because of his cartouches, his name rings,

in front of his face.

JOHN: Looks like they've laid out what would've been remarkable illustrations and,

and texts early in the initial part of the tomb.

NARRATOR: The tomb of Ramses XI is located in the east of the

Valley of the Kings.

Its cavernous chambers and pillared halls reveal how the pharaoh should

have been buried, but the back of the tomb is unfinished.

After 500 years of Egypt's kings and queens being buried in the Valley,

Ramses' tomb marks the end of an era.

Ramses XI abandoned the Valley of the Kings,

and no more pharaohs were buried here.

COLLEEN: This is very much the end of a legacy, this is the end of kings being buried in

the Valley of the Kings, but it's also the start of something new,

of continued royal burial that ends with Cleopatra.

NARRATOR: Historians believe this royal burial site was abandoned because of looting,

but no one has found the cemetery for the last pharaohs of Egypt,

Cleopatra and her family line.

So where could it be?

After the Valley fell out of use eventually Egypt's

the seat of power shifted north to Alexandria

The last great dynasty of pharaohs established their capital here to exploit

trade across the Mediterranean Sea.

Archaeologist Dr. Ross Thomas from the British Museum is here to explore the ancient

capital for evidence that could lead to Cleopatra.

ROSS: The ancient city housed about half a million people during the first century BC

and it was one of the most important ancient ports

and ancient cities of the Mediterranean.

NARRATOR: The port city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great

who conquered Egypt 2,300 years ago.

It was famed for its palaces, statues, its library, and the colossal lighthouse standing

over 350 feet tall, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

During this time, Egypt was ruled by the successors of Alexander,

the Greek pharaohs called the Ptolemies,

but this family line ended when the country was eventually conquered by Rome,

leaving the last pharaoh of Egypt Queen Cleopatra.

Many archaeologists think Cleopatra will be found in a royal cemetery somewhere in

Alexandria, the capital built by her own family...

but searching here is difficult.

The ancient city was hit by a series of earthquakes and

much of it now lies beneath the waves.

ROSS: So do we have weights here?

MAN: Yes.

NARRATOR: Professor Emad Khalil from Alexandria University began exploring

the sunken city over twenty years ago, keeping an eagle eye out for Cleopatra's tomb.

EMAD: This has not been found obviously in Alexandria yet,

but as we always say beneath Alexandria there are other Alexandrias. Okay.

NARRATOR: The evidence of Cleopatra's ancient capital is strewn across the seabed.

Shards of pottery, huge columns,

fallen obelisks, and what they believe is one

of the doorways to the famous lighthouse.

ROSS: There were scores of columns and column bases, hundreds of blocks,

really large structural blocks.

EMAD: I think we managed to see a part of an obelisk,

and part of a doorway of the lighthouse,

so it is, it's really, really something.

ROSS: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Every dive provides new data for Emad and Ross to research,

but there's no sign of Cleopatra or her family's graves.

Thirty miles west of Alexandria in an ancient city called Taposiris Magna,

there is a little-known temple.

Here Kathleen Martinez, a qualified lawyer turned archaeologist, is on a quest.