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00:00Buried at the back of an ancient Egyptian tomb...
00:07This is the first time that we found this.
00:10...lies a mysterious sealed sarcophagus.
00:13This is really surprising. We have found sarcophagi closed, totally untouched.
00:18No one has seen inside for over 2,000 years.
00:23When we take out the lid of the sarcophagus, what happens?
00:28They are hoping to find a pristine mummy, perfectly preserved for the afterlife.
00:36Wow, this is amazing.
00:39Egypt.
00:53Home of the mighty pyramids and the most famous tombs in the world.
00:59These iconic structures and the mummies they contained had a single purpose.
01:06To help ancient Egyptians overcome death and achieve eternal life.
01:13Today, archaeologists across Egypt are searching for new tombs and mummies
01:19to understand the extraordinary lengths Egyptians went to to achieve life after death.
01:26They decode the ancient rituals thought to grant immortality,
01:31investigate how Egypt's wealthy elites buried their dead,
01:35and search for clues to what happened to these beliefs as ancient Egyptian civilization came to an end.
01:50At the ancient settlement of Philadelphia,
01:57Egyptian archaeologist Bassem Gehad is excavating a vast necropolis buried beneath the sand.
02:05This is the cemetery of ancient Philadelphia.
02:09It extends all over this huge space that was occupied for more than six centuries.
02:17Philadelphia was once a bustling metropolis during the era of Queen Cleopatra,
02:23ancient Egypt's last dynasty.
02:27Bassem has spent over eight years sifting through the desert sand to reveal its hidden secrets.
02:35This site is outstanding because it's completely backed with thousands of tombs and graves.
02:44During previous seasons, Bassem has found mummies and high-quality coffins in shallow graves on the valley floor.
03:02This season, he wants to investigate a mysterious shaft high up in the hills above the city.
03:11He's hoping to find an unopened tomb with mummies that sheds light on life after death at the end of ancient Egyptian civilization.
03:21I've been studying and excavating graves and tombs down in this flattened area,
03:28but here up in the mountains, they might have hidden lots of things, lots of secrets, and that's what we want to reveal.
03:38High up in the rugged hills, far from the valley floor, the ancient citizens of Philadelphia built a series of mysterious graves.
03:48They laboriously carved holes into the solid limestone, some of them shallow, others up to 40 feet deep.
03:58Here, they buried their dead, around 500 in total, entombing them in rocks.
04:07For nearly 1,500 years, no one had any idea that these graves existed.
04:14What can these tombs reveal about the owners' beliefs in the afterlife?
04:22To uncover what lies at the bottom of the shaft, Bassem's team must piece together several ladders to form one long enough to reach the bottom.
04:33We are doing the proper preparation for the rope and ladder so that everyone would be safe maneuvering and working around this shaft.
04:43It looks like this shaft is really deep, almost like 14 meters down.
04:48No one would like to fall in this shaft. I mean, this would be the final ticket to the afterlife.
04:55Next, they must raise the mammoth ladder and carefully lower it into the long, dark shaft.
05:26With the ladder in place, Bassem prepares to make the descent into the unknown.
05:33The moment you start to prepare yourself to get inside the burial shafts, you get really nervous because you have all the good thoughts, but also some bad thoughts.
05:44The shaft is over 40 feet deep. A fall here could be fatal.
05:52It's really deep.
05:59On the west bank of the Nile, near Luxor, American Egyptologist and vintage clothes enthusiast Colleen Darnell has come to the world-famous Valley of the Kings.
06:17Behind each of these doors lies a rock-cut tomb that can often go hundreds of feet into the bedrock.
06:25Colleen wants to decode inscriptions inside these tombs to learn more about what the ancient Egyptians believed happened to them after death.
06:35She begins at the tomb of one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs, Seti I.
06:50This is one of the most incredible tombs in the Valley of the Kings. The decoration is sumptuous.
07:02The tomb stretches over 450 feet deep into the hillside. Almost every wall is covered with inscriptions.
07:15The scenes and hieroglyphs on the walls of this and other tombs provide the most valuable sources for understanding the ancient Egyptian beliefs of the afterlife.
07:25One wall in particular draws Colleen's attention.
07:34The hieroglyphs tell us that this is the ritual for the opening of the mouth.
07:41The opening of the mouth ceremony was a crucial step before the king's mummy was ceremonially placed in his coffin and sealed in the tomb.
07:51As the scenes continue, offerings are made to the deceased king. At the conclusion, not only is the mouth of the king opened, but also his eyes.
08:02The purpose of this entire set of processes is so that the king, after death, can live again in the afterlife.
08:11The ancient Egyptians believed that when a person died, elements of their soul became separated from their physical body.
08:22But the spirits still needed that body in the afterlife, so mummification made sure that the earthly remains stayed intact and recognizable.
08:33A priest, wearing a mask depicting the god Anubis, performed rituals to symbolically open the deceased's eyes, ears, and mouth.
08:44So that when body and spirit were reunited, the deceased was able to see, hear, and speak in their eternal afterlife.
08:54The ancient Egyptians believed that death was not the end. With the proper preparations, it was merely the beginning of an immortal journey of the soul through the afterlife.
09:06So what did the ancient Egyptians believe their ultimate destination was after death?
09:12To find out, Colleen wants to investigate another remarkable tomb in the hidden village of Deir el-Medina.
09:24At the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus, 100 miles south of Cairo,
09:31a Spanish archaeological team, led by Esther Pons Meado and Maitei Mascot Roca, is excavating a vast necropolis.
09:41This is a very big necropolis, and with many, many, many tombs in different periods, more or less 1,300 years.
09:52Esther and Maitei work for different Spanish institutions, but every year they join forces for a dig season in Egypt.
10:02They have worked together at this site for over 20 years.
10:06The people say that we are like sisters, because one is blond, the other is brown in hair, and we have the same size.
10:14There are two people in one.
10:17The relation with Esther is perfect, I think.
10:22We are sisters of Oxyrhynchus.
10:25Oxyrhynchus was a rich burial site used by wealthy ancient Egyptians from the era of the Roman Empire.
10:32from the era following Tutankhamun to the age of Alexander the Great and beyond.
10:38This season, Esther and Maitei plan to excavate a new section of the necropolis.
10:44They are looking for mummies that tell them how Egypt's wealthy elite prepared their dead.
10:51We decided to work here. It is a new area, and we have another expectation.
10:56We don't know what we can find here.
11:02The team gets to work removing layers of windblown sand and debris from the new, unexplored area of the site.
11:13We found the shaft. You can see the mouth of the shaft.
11:17The shaft marks the presence of an unexplored tomb.
11:21The tomb appears to be a large, 11-foot-deep hole cut into the rocky ground.
11:27Sand and debris still cover the tomb's floor.
11:39The workers go down to clean the tomb.
11:42The workers go down to clean the tomb.
11:45The workers go down to clean.
11:50The workers quickly clear the loose sand from the tomb.
11:59Esther heads down to investigate.
12:06You see? They continue down this.
12:10The tomb is bare.
12:12The tomb is bare.
12:15But a pile of rocky debris appears to be blocking a void at the back.
12:29Esther begins to document the void.
12:33But quickly spots an issue.
12:41It's not in good condition, and at this moment it's very dangerous to walk here, because you see the rocks.
12:47You go down, you hurt your head.
12:49But of course you can… you listen.
12:53Before you go to the shaft.
12:57Esther needs to have the rocky ceiling inspected before it's safe to continue working in this part of the tomb.
13:04Only then can she find out what lies hidden behind the debris.
13:08We think we have more surprise in this area because it's amazing.
13:17High in the mountains, near ancient Philadelphia,
13:23Bassem is descending a narrow 44-foot-deep shaft to explore a new tomb.
13:33What we are looking at now is the core of the mountains.
13:39He's hoping to find a burial chamber with grave goods and mummies that date from the end of ancient Egyptian civilization.
13:54At the bottom, Bassem can finally explore.
13:58I'm really excited to investigate what could be inside this room.
14:09This is a Thurmite period oil lamp.
14:14It was placed in this small niche during the funeral and placing of the mummies and the coffins in this room.
14:21It's really unique because finding this material in contact with the ground,
14:27it's a very special experience.
14:29The oil lamp is a clue that the tomb dates from the very end of ancient Egyptian civilization.
14:36It means someone must be buried here.
14:39Imagine yourself placing one of your family members, his coffin and his mummy inside this room.
14:47It's a very special experience.
14:492,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians only had ropes to haul themselves and the mummy in and out of the tomb.
14:57It would have been difficult and very difficult to carry the mummies and the coffins inside the tomb.
15:04But now, with the passage of time, they are able to carry the mummies and the coffins inside the tomb.
15:102,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians only had ropes to haul themselves and the mummy in and out of the tomb.
15:17It would have been difficult and very dangerous.
15:21At the other end of the chamber, Bassem can explore no further.
15:27This looks nearly five meters long, so it's a really big room.
15:32This is an enormous amount of work that has to be done to take out all of this sand from here.
15:41Bassem's team gets to work removing debris from the tomb.
15:47It's slow going. Just like the ancient Egyptians, they can only remove the sand one bucket at a time.
16:04The workers spot something buried beneath the sand.
16:09It seems that we dropped into a place where there's a sort of pottery assemblage.
16:16We need to clean all of this debris and then we start taking it out.
16:21We need to get this pottery as complete as we can see it now.
16:27At the Oxyrhynchus necropolis, the ceiling in Esther's tomb has been inspected for safety.
16:38And they have been given the all clear to continue excavation work.
16:44For us it's very important because we can continue, of course, working and it's not a danger.
16:50Esther is searching for mummies that tell her how Egypt's wealthy elite prepared their dead.
16:57Under the debris pile at the back of the tomb, the team has made an astonishing discovery.
17:04We found four mummies that you can see with their head to the south, with a painting with a different colour.
17:13The skeletons of three adults and one child are covered in fragments of painted funerary wrappings.
17:20Being buried without a coffin or sarcophagus indicates that this was a poor, low-status burial.
17:28Perhaps the father, the mother and the child, but it's not possible to say for sure.
17:35And that's not all. Beneath the skeletons, Esther can make out two stone sarcophagi.
17:41Crucially, their lids are still sealed.
17:45It's really surprising because in this case it's the first time that we had found two sarcophagi closed, totally untouched.
17:53Sarcophagi like these are often found in the tombs of the Egyptians.
17:58It's the first time that we had found two sarcophagi closed, totally untouched.
18:04Sarcophagi like these were only used by the wealthiest Egyptian elites.
18:10It's an incredibly rare and valuable discovery.
18:14This is the first time that we found this.
18:17Never have found in another part in the necropolis in Oxirinco.
18:22When we take out the lid of the sarcophagus, what happened, you know?
18:26It's a surprise.
18:31To find out what secrets lie inside the sealed sarcophagi,
18:35Esther's team must first document and carefully remove the mummies on top.
18:45But on the surface, the weather takes a turn for the worse.
18:49A sandstorm could blow sand into the open tomb and jeopardise the team's delicate work.
19:08Near Luxor, Colleen is travelling to the remains of the ancient village and necropolis of Deir el Medina.
19:17She wants to understand what the ancient Egyptians hoped awaited them in the afterlife.
19:29This remote village was home to the skilled craftsmen who built the pharaoh's tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
19:38Colleen heads to the tomb of one of the stonemasons.
19:46Despite its relatively small size, it's elaborately decorated.
19:53This is a beautiful scene showing an idealised agricultural landscape,
19:59from ploughing and sowing to the abundance of plant life along the Nile.
20:05This text tells us the name of this agricultural paradise.
20:10The Field of Reeds is one of the ways in which the Egyptians could imagine the pleasurable aspects of the afterlife.
20:20The Field of Reeds is an eternal green land of plenty.
20:25A perfect version of earthly life.
20:29Like the Nile Delta, the field of reeds is a place of abundance.
20:34A perfect version of earthly life.
20:38Like the Nile Delta, it is a fertile haven where crops will always grow,
20:45and magical labourers harvest and till the land for the deceased souls.
20:50Here, the immortal souls can live an everlasting life of luxury, hunting and fishing for leisure.
20:58But this idyllic paradise wasn't furnished with any home comforts,
21:05something the ancient Egyptians had to remedy themselves.
21:09Today this tomb is empty, but when it was first discovered,
21:13it was intact, crammed full of objects that had been untouched for thousands of years.
21:20The tomb was discovered in 1886.
21:24The original excavators kept meticulous records of everything they uncovered.
21:30There are dozens of items in the list.
21:33A lot of them were intended for the burial, specifically made to be placed in the tomb.
21:38Some of my favourite are the tools the tomb owner used in life,
21:42his sandals and walking sticks, items that he wanted to have with him in the afterlife.
21:48The ancient Egyptians believed that any earthly possessions they put inside their tomb
21:54would travel with them to the afterlife.
21:59Beneath the temple-like tomb exterior,
22:02the vaulted burial chamber was richly decorated with murals depicting the deceased's life.
22:09The tomb owner's coffin was one of many, including members of his family,
22:14all stacked on top of one another.
22:17The rest of the tomb was packed with furniture,
22:21including a special funerary bed, chair and six stools.
22:26The floor was littered with ceramics and boxes containing cosmetics.
22:31It was the family's earthly possessions, all crammed into the space of a removal van,
22:38ready to take with them and use in the afterlife.
22:42But Colleen spots another scene that suggests a luxurious eternity in the afterlife,
22:48surrounded by your favourite things, wasn't guaranteed.
22:52This scene shows knife-wielding gods that guard the portals to the underworld.
22:59For the ancient Egyptians, even if your mummy was perfectly prepared,
23:04there were still challenges before you reached the celestial realm.
23:08To understand what dangers awaited the deceased on their journey to the afterlife,
23:13Colleen wants to travel to one of ancient Egypt's most unusual structures.
23:23In Philadelphia,
23:27Bassem's team has nearly finished clearing several tons of sand from the tomb,
23:33and they've made a major discovery.
23:35What we have here is two amazing pottery coffins.
23:40The pottery coffins could provide Bassem with valuable evidence of burial practices and beliefs
23:47at the end of ancient Egyptian civilisation.
23:50The team is working to understand and investigate what was inside this coffin.
23:56We have plenty of sand and soil that we need for the burial.
24:01We have plenty of sand and soil that we need to work really carefully.
24:08We already started to find some skeleton remains like this sternum bone.
24:15To understand more about the coffins and their owners,
24:19Bassem plans to remove one from the tomb and take it to his lab for analysis.
24:23But moving a fragile 2,000-year-old pottery coffin will be an immense challenge.
24:30I'm really amazed how they have managed to get the coffin and the mummy down to this room.
24:37I'm also willing to test the reverse of this process,
24:43taking one of the coffins up to the surface.
24:46The team below carefully removes the remaining soil and bones from the coffin.
24:55Up top, Bassem gets ready to oversee the lift.
25:00The plan is that we will prepare almost the same size wooden box that was reinforced with beams,
25:07and then using the rope we will take it from the burial chamber up to the surface.
25:12We will take it from the burial chamber up to the surface.
25:26There's a lot of tension in this job to get it done properly.
25:31We don't want to lose the coffin.
25:34In the tomb below, the team carefully secures the fragile coffin in the padded box.
25:41Up on the surface, Bassem and the workers prepare the winch.
25:46We have to go back to the old school, using the rope to take it up,
25:51the same way that the ancient Egyptians used ropes to descend in this burial chamber.
25:56It's a reverse process.
25:58Finally, everything is set.
26:01Bassem gives the go-ahead to begin the lift.
26:14In Abydos,
26:17Colleen wants to investigate what challenged her.
26:21In Abydos,
26:24Colleen wants to investigate what challenges the ancient Egyptians had to overcome to reach the afterlife.
26:33Abydos was important for ancient Egyptian kings,
26:36because it was the location of the burials of the first kings of Egypt,
26:40and it was very significant for their beliefs in the afterlife.
26:43Colleen explores an unusual structure called the Assyrian.
26:52I've been studying this monument for years, but it's the first time I've been inside.
26:56It's absolutely amazing.
27:00Like Seti I's tomb in the Valley of the Kings,
27:04the passageways are decorated with elaborate scenes etched into the walls.
27:09This is the god Osiris, represented dozens of times on the walls.
27:14And here is his important title, Heka Duat, Lord of the Underworld.
27:22Osiris was one of Egypt's founding gods,
27:26and lord of a dark underworld realm called the Duat.
27:29In a passageway nearby, Colleen inspects a series of reliefs
27:33that paint a picture of Osiris' underworld realm.
27:38They describe the sun god Ra's nightly journey through Osiris' underworld,
27:43and his passage through twelve gates.
27:47The same journey the soul of the deceased went through.
27:51This is the passageway to the Underworld.
27:54And his passage through twelve gates.
27:57The same journey the soul of the deceased had to make to reach the afterlife.
28:03This is a text that we know as the Book of Gates.
28:07There are twelve massive portals, or gates, through which the sun god must pass.
28:15And they represent the twelve hours of the nightly journey.
28:18To reach the afterlife, a person's soul had to follow the sun god
28:23and make a long and difficult journey through the lands of the underworld.
28:29They had to cross a lake of fire that was patrolled by four fearsome baboons,
28:35who could only be appeased by reciting the correct spell.
28:41And they needed to confront a giant serpent who represented Apep,
28:45the god of darkness and chaos.
28:49At the end of their journey, they had to face the greatest challenge of all,
28:54the lord of the underworld, Osiris himself.
29:01The journey through the underworld was a perilous one for ancient Egyptian souls.
29:08The deceased's soul was aided and guided by the sun god Ra,
29:12on its dangerous journey.
29:16But if they made it through the underworld,
29:19even Ra couldn't help them with the final reckoning.
29:23In order to enjoy a blessed afterlife, the deceased first had to pass the Judgment Hall.
29:29To learn more about what final test awaited the deceased's soul,
29:34Colleen needs to decode some ominous hieroglyphs.
29:38At the necropolis of ancient Philadelphia,
29:47Bassem and his team slowly lift the fragile 2,000-year-old coffin from the tomb below.
29:57The coffin could contain valuable artifacts,
30:01such as the remains of a famous Egyptian poet,
30:05The coffin could contain valuable evidence of beliefs and rituals
30:10at the end of ancient Egyptian civilization.
30:19The shaft is less than 10 feet wide and the walls are fragile.
30:25A slip with the box here could cause the walls to collapse,
30:29trapping the workers below.
30:34Hamdi!
30:40Finally, we did it. Reborn of the coffin.
30:47The team prepares to take the coffin back to base camp.
30:52It's been very stressful doing this job.
30:56Finally, we can call it a day and we are ready now to take it to the dig house so that we can study.
31:02Bassem will now clean the coffin and analyze the bones to try and unlock their secrets.
31:15In Abydos, Colleen is exploring the long, dark passageway beneath the Assyrian.
31:24She searches the walls for clues to the final test a person's soul must pass
31:28before they can spend an eternity in the afterlife.
31:34This is a representation of the judgment hall of Osiris,
31:38what awaited the soul of the deceased.
31:41And one of the key elements of this scene is a set of scales.
31:46Here the scale pans are empty, but if this were the judgment of an individual person,
31:52one pan would have the feather of truth
31:54and the other pan would have the heart of the deceased,
31:58weighing whether or not a person had lived a moral life.
32:05By weighing the preserved heart, Osiris would determine how a person lived their life.
32:15A pure heart that had lived a virtuous life would be light and balanced with the feather of truth.
32:25For an ancient Egyptian, this was the ticket to eternal life,
32:30with the sun god Ra himself leading them into paradise.
32:36But if the heart was heavy, weighed down by guilt or wrongdoing,
32:41Ammit, the devourer, would eat it, condemning the soul to live in hell.
32:47The ancient Egyptians feared that if the soul did not pass Osiris' test,
32:53they would be damned forever.
32:55Here we have the people who have died a second death.
32:59They have been set on fire and are condemned to spend eternity upside down.
33:07Failing Osiris' final judgment was a fate the ancient Egyptians feared more than anything else.
33:14But if they passed, a tranquil life of luxury in the field of reeds awaited.
33:22What determined whether or not the Egyptians enjoyed an eternal paradise
33:27was the morality and the decisions that they made during their earthly lives.
33:44At Oxyrhynchus,
33:50the sandstorm has passed and the sun beats down on the workers once again.
33:57In the tomb, the anthropologists have removed the skeletons.
34:05Esther and Maite are thoroughly documenting the outside of the sarcophagus before they open it.
34:12Now we are cleaning the lid and after three minutes, four minutes, open.
34:20They hope the sarcophagus will contain a wealthy, ancient Egyptian elite's mummy.
34:26We are doing a photo. A lot of photos. A lot of.
34:35But before the team opens the lid, they need to put on protective masks.
34:41It is dangerous because the air, the air has been many, many years inside. It is closed.
34:48Sealed ancient burials like this can contain dangerously harmful bacteria and mold.
34:56Now Esther and Maite can finally open the sarcophagus and reveal any secrets hidden inside.
35:07No, no, no, no, no. Wait a minute. No, wait.
35:12Esther spots a problem with the lid.
35:29Fearing the lid could crumble onto whatever lies inside the sarcophagus,
35:34Esther and Maite decide to call for specialist help.
35:41It is Bernat. Bernat, restorer of the excavation.
35:49Bernat confirms that they can't risk taking out the sarcophagus lid in one go,
35:55so they carefully remove it piece by piece instead.
36:00This is amazing.
36:04Wow, beautiful.
36:05Beautiful.
36:10At the Oxyrhynchus necropolis,
36:16the team carefully removes the final pieces of the fragile sarcophagus lid.
36:36Wow.
36:39Very good.
36:41Very, very good.
36:44Inside there is a mummy with all the cartonized bandage with color blue, red, cream and black.
36:53It's very, very, very beautiful.
36:58I think it's complete.
37:00It's a stunning find, an intact and richly decorated high-status mummy.
37:08Very excited and very happy also.
37:14The mummy is covered in an elaborately painted funerary wrapping called a cartonnage.
37:21Its colors are still vivid after more than 2,000 years sealed away inside the sarcophagus.
37:28It's one of the big discoveries in the Oxyrhynchus, really,
37:31because it's the first time you have found this kind of mummy with cartonnage,
37:35with the color, the decoration of the cartonnage, and complete.
37:39The mummy's opulent cartonnage indicates that this ancient Egyptian was part of the wealthy elite.
37:47The exquisite decoration offers a valuable insight into how wealthy ancient Egyptians prepared for their afterlife.
37:58The cartonnage was mostly made from linen or papyrus.
38:03Covered in plaster, it was molded to the shape of the mummy beneath.
38:08The mask was specially painted to resemble the deceased, with gold skin and blue hair symbolizing divine status.
38:17They decorated the broad collar with a winged sun, representing power and godliness.
38:22And on the abdomen was the winged goddess Nut, who protected the deceased.
38:28Mimicking many elements of a royal burial, a cartonnage gave wealthy Egyptians the best chance of reaching the divine afterlife.
38:42For them it's very important to be protected with the gods and with the goddess.
38:47It's very important in the afterlife.
38:48This wealthy individual could have afforded a rich and comfortable life,
38:53and they used their wealth to ensure their death was comfortable too.
38:58It's amazing and it's very important for the history of Oxiricus.
39:04It's for us very exciting to discover this.
39:08For my dear family it has been wonderful.
39:11Today has been a very special day.
39:13At Bassem's base camp in Philadelphia,
39:19the team is analyzing the pottery coffin, grave goods, and the skeleton found inside the tomb.
39:26Bassem hopes they offer clues to ancient Egyptian beliefs at the end of the civilization.
39:33Now we know that Bassem was a very powerful man.
39:37Now we know that he's a male from the investigation of the skull and also the pelvis.
39:42Looking through the teeth here, it's clear that he has very good conditioned teeth, meaning that he was fed very well.
39:50The teeth indicate this was a wealthy individual who could afford a substantial diet,
39:57a theory supported by the size of the man's coffin.
40:00This is one of the largest examples of the pottery coffin that we have ever found in this cemetery.
40:05So this gigantic coffin was made specifically for this guy.
40:10The collection of the material, including the human remains, coffin,
40:15and everything fits very well with the early Ptolemaic period.
40:19These people might have been those who witnessed the death of Bassem.
40:23Bassem believes the coffin, grave goods, and partially mummified remains
40:28date from near the end of ancient Egyptian civilization.
40:32But the tomb's deep shaft, cut into the bedrock, and evidence of mummification
40:38are much older burial practices.
40:41Bassem is convinced that the remains of Bassem were found in the tomb.
40:45But the tomb's deep shaft, cut into the bedrock, and evidence of mummification
40:51are much older burial practices that were popular for thousands of years.
40:56People were keen on having the same kind of rituals,
41:01and were following the same tradition of the Pharaonic period during the early Ptolemaic period.
41:07The Ptolemaic period was ruled by a dynasty of Greek pharaohs.
41:12But Bassem finds no evidence of Greek influence amongst the objects from the tomb.
41:18So one of the interesting finds that we have found is this pot with the coin inside.
41:24Placing this coin into the coffin is really important.
41:28Placing a coin with the deceased was originally an Egyptian burial custom,
41:34but the practice went on to become a popular Greek tradition.
41:38It's like the ticket for the afterlife.
41:42Bassem's finds reveal that even at the end of ancient Egyptian civilization,
41:48belief in an afterlife was fundamental.
41:52And how your body was treated, and the tomb you were buried in,
41:57were critical to achieving immortality.
42:00This belief was so strong that it even influenced later civilizations.
42:05They don't consider death as the end of anything.
42:09They consider death as a gate for another life.
42:17Today, archaeologists are uncovering new information about the elaborate rituals and vast resources
42:25ancient Egyptians devoted to achieving life after death.
42:29The wealthiest filled their tombs with offerings,
42:32and covered their bodies in lavish cartonages,
42:36so the gods would help them on their way.
42:39And at the end of a 3,000 year long civilization,
42:43an obsession with living for eternity was still one of their most fundamental beliefs.
42:49In some ways, they succeeded.
42:52Their elaborate tombs and mummified remains are one reason their stories are still told today.
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