Life Ancient Egypt - Life and Death in the Valley of the Kings


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Ancient Egypt.

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One of the most fascinating civilisations on earth.

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But what was it like to be an Ancient Egyptian,

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living in this incredible place?

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It's OK trying to understand Ancient Egypt on a visual level -

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pyramids, King Tut, mummies.

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But to really get into the head of the Ancient Egyptians,

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you've got to walk in their footsteps.

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I'm Egyptologist Dr Joann Fletcher

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and I've spent over 40 years obsessed with this lost world.

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'While the magnificent temples and tombs of the Pharaohs

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'can tell us one story, I'm interested in another.

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'The story of ordinary people, the real Egyptians.'

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It's such a privilege. We're amongst their family here.

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This feeling of closeness, of warmth, of love.

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'I'm going to uncover evidence about how they lived their lives...'

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Oh, wow!

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It's a glimpse into the sort of world of Ancient Egyptian

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interior design.

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'..and reveal what they hoped for in death.'

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There was no Grim Reaper,

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just this beautiful goddess wanting to embrace them in her warm arms.

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'There is one very special couple I want to get to know

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'as I journey to their desert village home

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'and examine the treasures from their tomb...'

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You can only imagine his pride and joy at receiving

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such a mark of royal favour.

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'..as we discover what life was really like in Ancient Egypt.'

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Welcome to Deir el-Medina.

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Or as the people who used to live here 3,500 years ago

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used to call it, Pa-demi, which simply means "the village".

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Today, this village feels remote and inhospitable.

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But 3,500 years ago,

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this community lay at the heart of Ancient Egypt.

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Situated on Luxor's West Bank,

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it was a suburb of Egypt's great city, Thebes.

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Now, this is the landscape of kings and gods, Pharaohs, and yet

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these are the homes of ordinary people leading ordinary lives.

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Men and women, aunts and uncles, grandparents and kids,

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they all lived here in this tightly packed community.

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And by re-imagining how people lived, in the colours, the sounds,

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the smells, we have an instant gateway

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right back 3,500 years to these ancient people

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who lived here in this remote little village in the desert.

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Now, in order to piece together the lives of such people,

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I have got an amazing set of clues.

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The earthly remains of a husband and wife who once

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lived in the village...

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but now reside nearly 2,000 miles away,

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here at the Egyptian Museum in Turin.

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Meet Kha and Merit - Kha the architect, Merit his wife.

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Now, Kha and Merit were two of the leading lights of the village.

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Kha's actual title was the Chief of Foreman,

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so he was in charge of the workforce.

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Merit, her official title was Lady of the House,

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which is Ancient Egyptian for "housewife".

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This is the only known statue of Kha.

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Almost certainly an idealised image,

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it nonetheless suggests a proud and rather handsome man.

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This death mask is one of the few representations we have of Merit,

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which reveals a soft and beautiful face.

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Although these mummies have never been unwrapped,

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what lies beneath has been revealed by x-rays and CT scans.

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We know that Kha, who stood about five foot six,

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was a very striking-looking individual, with a rather prominent nose

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and a great fondness for lots of black eyeliner.

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But then when we turn to his diminutive wife, Merit,

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a very dainty little lady, standing about five foot two.

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She also had a long, crimped wig of dark brown,

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wavy hair which would have made her look really, really beautiful.

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But what really brings Kha and Merit back to life is this.

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The collection of objects discovered in their intact tomb

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in 1906,

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where they had lain undisturbed for over 3,000 years.

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A leading Egyptologist from the time wrote...

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This is really a unique find because of its intactness, but also

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because of the wealth of material that was in the tomb.

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Tables and chairs and stools and more chairs and coffers,

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and coffers packed with linen

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and the coffers packed with cosmetic vessels.

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Shaving equipment packed into a little leather pouch

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and his hip flask - everything is there.

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Even the shaped breads wrapped with palm fronds to keep them fresh.

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It is really incredible -

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there is material there for research for another few generations.

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The collection not only gives us a fascinating insight

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into the burial but also the lives Kha and Merit lived.

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The finds, ranging from death masks

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and coffins, to their most intimate belongings used in life.

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Like this, Merit's beauty box.

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This is basically the contents of Merit's dressing table,

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the perfume, cosmetics, moisturisers

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and all the things that the Ancient Egyptians regarded as so essential.

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Well-used and well-loved, this stunning cosmetic chest tells us

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Merit was a well-to-do woman, who cared about her appearance.

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This is Merit's glass black kohl eyeliner.

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Glass was very rare at this time,

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and it's in the classic Egyptian colour combination of blue and gold.

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The black eye paint that Merit herself applied every day

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to her own eyes is still inside this vessel.

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It's got its wooden applicator stick in the top,

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and Egyptian ladies today still use this in exactly the same way.

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This stone alabaster perfume vessel has still got the original contents

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running down the outside.

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And it's extraordinary to think that, in some cases,

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with the Ancient Egyptians, it's not just a question of the visuals,

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it's how to reach back in time into their world through other senses,

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the sense of smell, for instance, and to be able to smell

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the things that they smelt, the cinnamon, the lotus, the cedar.

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Clearly, this is an expensive item, so how would

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a fairly ordinary Egyptian like Merit afford such luxury?

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The answer lies in the village and the very special

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occupation of its inhabitants.

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These were Egypt's tomb and temple builders.

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From the foreman to the stonemason, from the draughtsman

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to the carpenter, they all lived here with their wives and children.

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About a mile to the north-west is where they worked.

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The most famous cemetery on earth.

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This is the great and majestic necropolis of the millions

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of years of Pharaoh life, prosperity and health in the west of Thebes.

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Or, as we know it today, the Valley of the Kings.

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For nearly 500 years, men like Kha created

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the tombs of some of Egypt's most famous Pharaohs.

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Hatshepsut, Amenhotep III and Tutankhamen were all buried here.

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They were an elite, a kind of crack force of workmen

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and architects, the very best of the Egyptian culture.

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They were the craftsmen that implemented what Pharaoh wanted -

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to sustain Pharaoh's soul for eternity.

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They were almost magicians,

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operating secretly within this stunning landscape.

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But I'm getting ahead of myself,

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as the life story of Kha and Merit begins back in the village.

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Here I want to explore how they may have met and fallen in love.

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They probably grew up in the village,

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but how did a young couple like them go about courting?

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To find out, I don't have to go very far,

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as here, on the outskirts of the village, is the great pit.

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It's a long-abandoned attempt by the villagers to find

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a groundwater source.

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They dug down and down and eventually reached more than 50 metres.

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They wanted to become self-sufficient in water,

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but sadly for them, they never did.

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And yet what the pit did become was a community dump,

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a mine of information.

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When this pit and the surroundings were excavated

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by archaeologists, they made some remarkable discoveries.

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And this was what was found here, literally tens of thousands

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of these pieces of pottery and stone, some with pictures,

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many more with words,

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giving us the real history of the village, because these are their notes, their reminders,

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their love songs, their laundry lists.

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The very voices of this village.

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Some of these voices tell us about falling in love.

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WOMAN'S VOICE: "Your hand is in my hand. My body shakes with joy.

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"My heart is so happy because we walk together.

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"To hear your voice is like pomegranate wine."

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This is a typical love poem. Written on papyrus, as well as stone

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or pottery fragments, they capture the feelings of young mothers.

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They're so common,

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it seems our village was a real hotbed of passion.

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Every single one of the love poems from Ancient Egypt

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come from this village, except one.

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Some of the titles are really evocative.

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There is Your Love, Down To The River, All Night And All Day

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and the rather suggestive Shedding Clothes.

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"I go down to the water to be with you

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"And come up again with a red fish looking splendid on my fingers.

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"Oh, my warrior, my beloved. Come, look at me."

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And it's nice to imagine that such beautiful lines of love played

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a part in the courtship of Kha and Merit.

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Today, we might seal the deal with a proposal,

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engagement and marriage.

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But some Ancient Egyptians seem to have taken a rather more direct approach.

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Kha may well have signalled his commitment

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to Merit by bringing her his bundle.

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To "bring the bundle" meant that you wanted to indicate your desire

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to move in with the person who took your fancy.

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The bundle is thought to have been a kind of dowry,

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consisting of everything the man owned.

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It's likely that presenting it to your intended

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was one of the first steps of setting up home together.

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However, this didn't always go to plan, as one villager recounts.

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In a note the man left, he tells us this very sad story.

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He lists all his worldly goods,

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which, I must say, aren't that impressive,

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and then he tells us he went to the woman's house.

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But all her family simply threw him out, and as he says himself,

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"So I went again, with all my property in order to live with them,

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"and see! She acted in exactly the same way and threw me out again!"

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You can almost feel he is outraged because this woman has not

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just turned him down but all the things he could bring with him.

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Presumably, she was unimpressed by the size of his bundle.

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We can assume Kha suffered no such indignity, as evidence from

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the tomb suggests that he and Merit were a loving and monogamous couple.

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The scenes on this beautiful box show Kha and Merit seated together,

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to share the offerings which will sustain them in the afterlife.

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But in life too we also have clues to their devotion.

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Now, although the Ancient Egyptians didn't have a marriage ceremony

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as we would understand - they simply moved in together -

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they nevertheless would exchange love tokens,

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quite often in the form of rings.

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This ring was discovered underneath the death mask of Merit.

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It's so precious that it is not yet on display here in Turin.

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This is the ring that was found inside the mask,

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almost as an afterthought, of Merit,

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so it was shoved in their just as she was being buried.

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It spent all those thousands of years just tucked away,

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hidden away within Merit's own wrappings.

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A very ad hoc thing, a very spontaneous gesture.

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The image on it... it looks like the cow of Hathor.

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That's exactly what it is.

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The goddess Hathor is often depicted as a cow.

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She was seen as the eternal mother figure, to both the living

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and the dead.

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In life, she aided fertility and provided protection in childbirth.

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While in death, she ensured safe passage into the afterlife.

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This represents the love between Kha and Merit,

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and in this tiny little object, it is perhaps the most important thing

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from the entire tomb, for me, personally.

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It's wonderful.

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Kha and Merit lived in a glittering age in Egyptian history.

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Sustained by the annual floods of the River Nile,

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the Egyptian state had existed for almost 2,000 years.

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By 1400 BC, it was at the height of its power

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and now ruled by the 18th royal dynasty.

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Its kings are among the greatest names of Ancient Egypt.

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We have a so-called boy king Tutankhamen, the great female pharaoh Hatshepsut

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and the so-called bad boy, the heretic, Akhenaton.

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But, really, at the very heart of all this is Akhenaton's father,

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this man, Amenhotep III.

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The dazzling sun god himself and the very personification -

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at least, he thought - of Ancient Egypt's greatest deity, the sun.

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He's my favourite Pharaoh, because he presided over a golden age,

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when Ancient Egypt really did rule the ancient world,

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and this is the very Pharaoh who was Kha's boss.

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Kha worked for him.

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Kha's job was to ensure the Pharaoh's immortality.

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He did this by helping design and build some of Egypt's most extraordinary monuments,

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both tombs and temples.

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This is one such project from the reign of Amenhotep III.

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The solar court in Luxor Temple.

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It's a revolutionary design, as it moved away from the dark

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and cloistered shrine to an open celebration of the sun.

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In return, like all state employees,

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Kha and Merit were given the things they needed in the village.

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A home, a tomb, food, water, even servants.

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This was the highly organised world of the middle classes -

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women had rights, many kids an education

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and literacy was far higher in the village than elsewhere in Egypt.

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In Kha and Merit's time, the village consisted of about 20 houses,

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and while we do not exactly which one was their house, it was almost certainly one of the larger ones,

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here at the northern end.

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Perhaps even this one.

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So we go into the front room here, and this would be an area, really,

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where the woman of the house hung out,

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chatted, gossiped and so forth.

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Kids running in and out. Up the stairs.

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Around the corner into perhaps the most important room in the house.

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And here, I absolutely love this.

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This is built-in furniture.

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It's kind of like a divan, a chaise longue, if you like.

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And this is where the gentlemen of the house would sit of an evening

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drinking beer, having a chat.

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Then back up this little step and then into this area,

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which is quite a considerable size for a room like this.

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Probably storage but also a bedroom

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where the beds or the sleeping mats would have been placed.

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So as we progress a little further into the highest part of the house,

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we come into a storage area,

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maybe for clothes but almost certainly for food and drink also,

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because this area directly adjoins this wonderful fitted kitchen.

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This is extraordinary, because we've actually got the built-in oven

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at the back of the house.

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We even see these when they're doing little sketches of ladies blowing into the oven

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to keep the fire hot and then they can cook the bread and so forth.

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And then here an Ancient Egyptian refrigerator

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where you'd place pottery vessels with drink in.

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You'd want a cool drink - on a day like this, you can understand why.

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And the only way to do this was to sink the vessels

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into a pit deep in the ground.

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A little temporary roof over it to keep it as chilled as possible.

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So fridge, oven. They've got everything they needed.

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And, of course, at either side aren't rooms of this house,

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but these are the neighbours' houses.

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These are a terraced street, if you like,

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of back-to-back houses of the sort Britain had in the Industrial Revolution.

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So the neighbours were never very far away,

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and the concept of privacy, certainly in this little corner

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of Ancient Egypt, was a completely unknown thing.

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Life in the village was almost entirely supported by the state.

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A daily procession of donkeys would carry water up from the Nile Valley

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to be decanted into a central cistern.

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Each household was entitled to an average of 100 litres per day

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for drinking, cooking and bathing.

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Les than half a mile from the village

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lies another crucial remnant of this highly organised infrastructure.

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Although built a little after Kha's time,

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grain stores like these acted as a kind of bank.

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Money didn't exist in Egypt at this time, so at the end of each month,

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Kha would have received his salary as a ration of wheat and barley.

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Granaries like this would have held an immense amount of food.

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These granaries alone would have held over 40,000 individual sacks of grain.

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Chief workmen like Kha were entitled to seven and a half sacks of grain a month -

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five and a half of wheat and two of barley.

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Plenty for Merit and their servants to produce the staples of Egyptian life, bread and beer.

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The villagers also received fish and vegetables

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and could trade their excess grain for luxuries like meat and wine.

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These places would have been full of life.

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People bustling here and there, scribes taking record,

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making an account of all the stuff being delivered.

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A constant stream of men carrying sacks, depositing them here,

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people coming to collect their rations.

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It's a simple system but one that endured,

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fuelling Egypt's success and political stability for thousands of years.

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Indeed, it was a system so important,

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it was represented on numerous tomb walls.

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These scenes are from the tomb of the scribe Menna,

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contemporary with Kha himself.

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Here we can see the whole process of the wheat and barley being harvested and distributed.

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And here the principle food it produced, bread.

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Kha and Merit had no less than 50 loaves of bread in their tomb.

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Now, bread was the key ingredient in the Ancient Egyptian diet.

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The Ancient Egyptians added many different things to it.

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You could add dates or honey to make it sweet,

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or savoury things - cumin seeds, coriander seeds -

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all manner of ingredients to really vary it.

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And in the tomb, there's a whole range of different sizes and shapes,

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including what appear to be gingerbread men,

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little shapes of fruit, flowers and animals.

0:25:160:25:20

Although they didn't have yeast as such, the technique

0:25:220:25:25

of combining flour, water and salt to make bread

0:25:250:25:28

is virtually unchanged in 3,500 years.

0:25:280:25:30

I mean, this is a completely timeless scene,

0:25:330:25:35

this fabulous mud brick oven is typical of the ovens

0:25:350:25:39

we find in Ancient Egyptian settlements.

0:25:390:25:42

It's totally believable to imagine Merit baking bread to feed her family.

0:25:490:25:54

It's a completely timeless scene.

0:25:540:25:57

SHE SIGHS AND SPEAKS ARABIC

0:26:050:26:07

It's a real direct link back into their world.

0:26:130:26:16

The smell of this wonderful stuff, the feel of it, the way it was made.

0:26:160:26:21

All Egyptians would have eaten this on a daily basis.

0:26:250:26:29

It was the sort for stuff that you offered to the gods.

0:26:320:26:35

And even when the bread had gone mouldy,

0:26:370:26:39

the Egyptians used it as a form of medicine,

0:26:390:26:42

which wouldn't be fully understood for thousands of years.

0:26:420:26:45

The medical texts actually advocate take bread in mouldy condition

0:26:450:26:50

and apply to the wound in question.

0:26:500:26:52

And although they didn't know why it worked, it did work,

0:26:520:26:55

because mouldy bread contains,

0:26:550:26:57

of course, penicillin, which we in the West think we discovered.

0:26:570:27:01

And yet the Ancient Egyptians fully appreciated its benefits 5,000 years ago.

0:27:010:27:06

It's very good stuff.

0:27:060:27:08

While Merit's responsibilities were largely focused on life at home,

0:27:100:27:15

Kha's duties were dominated by working for the Pharaoh.

0:27:150:27:19

He and his fellow tomb builders took this path from the village to their workplace,

0:27:220:27:26

the Valley of the Kings.

0:27:260:27:29

It starts here at the southern end of the village

0:27:340:27:36

and follows that path there. See right up over that col?

0:27:360:27:40

And then we go straight up and over the top of the mountain.

0:27:400:27:44

Kha and his workforce would have regularly made this journey,

0:27:470:27:51

sometimes camping out during the working week

0:27:510:27:53

in small huts in the Valley.

0:27:530:27:55

In Kha's day, there were probably about 40-60 men making this journey,

0:28:000:28:04

probably singing, probably carrying water pots themselves

0:28:040:28:08

and the day's rations maybe.

0:28:080:28:10

Kha must have walked this path hundreds of times,

0:28:100:28:13

first perhaps as a carpenter,

0:28:130:28:15

but eventually as the royal architect and overseer.

0:28:150:28:19

So if we've been walking about 45 minutes in the full sun,

0:28:190:28:22

and it's really, really hot,

0:28:220:28:24

then Kha and his men coming up this path to work,

0:28:240:28:27

they do the walk and then they had to do the work.

0:28:270:28:30

Exactly.

0:28:300:28:32

Their regular commute took them further west into the Land of the Dead.

0:28:340:28:38

In fact, from up here, you can see why this place

0:28:380:28:42

was so carefully chosen, as it mirrors the Ancient Egyptian spiritual beliefs.

0:28:420:28:48

If you worship the sun as a god,

0:28:490:28:52

then two times of the day take on special significance -

0:28:520:28:56

sunrise in the east and sunset in the west.

0:28:560:28:59

Sunrise is the birth of the god, so the east is the land of the living,

0:28:590:29:03

sunset is the death of the god, so the west is the land of death.

0:29:030:29:07

So they picked this spot to make their tombs for the dead.

0:29:070:29:10

This one spot - life...death.

0:29:130:29:17

The Nile Valley, the Valley of the Kings.

0:29:170:29:21

-And it is that stark, isn't it?

-It is.

0:29:230:29:25

Continuing our hike, we finally reach the western branch of the Valley of the Kings.

0:29:370:29:42

Where time has virtually stood still.

0:29:460:29:48

Remnants of the tomb builders' world litter the landscape.

0:29:510:29:55

-This is a great staircase.

-It's superb, isn't it?

0:29:570:30:00

Beautifully constructed, though, further up.

0:30:020:30:04

It's absolutely perfect.

0:30:040:30:06

This is it, this is the start of Kha's domain.

0:30:100:30:14

This is actually a guard hut, and one man would be on guard in here 24 hours a day.

0:30:140:30:19

And you can see...

0:30:190:30:20

..even ancient pottery has been preserved at this site.

0:30:220:30:26

That's 3,500 years old.

0:30:260:30:27

-So this piece is like one of Kha's empties, his empty beer jar.

-There you go.

0:30:270:30:32

And we know this is authentic because this part of the West Valley

0:30:320:30:35

-was only ever used for royal tombs in Kha's day.

-That's right, yeah.

0:30:350:30:40

The guards in these huts maintained a watchful eye over everything that went on in the Valley.

0:30:450:30:51

What it was guarding against was obviously tomb robbery for the pre-existing tombs,

0:30:510:30:58

but while the new king's tomb was under construction, the materials

0:30:580:31:02

used in the construction of a tomb were also very valuable.

0:31:020:31:05

-Metal.

-Copper. The copper chisels especially.

0:31:050:31:08

The paints, the plaster, the oils for the lamps.

0:31:080:31:12

This was all very valuable material.

0:31:120:31:14

Although deathly silent today, 3,500 years ago, these walls

0:31:180:31:23

would have reverberated with the sound of Kha's construction teams.

0:31:230:31:28

There'd be the mallets hitting the chisels in the tomb,

0:31:320:31:35

they're be the pounding of the people making the plaster,

0:31:350:31:38

the mixing bowls for the paints.

0:31:380:31:40

And they would be the voice of the overseer telling people off or telling to do this or that.

0:31:410:31:46

Building a tomb for the king was hazardous work, although not all the dangers are immediately obvious.

0:31:480:31:55

Apart from the normal hazards of hitting your hand with a mallet or getting cut with a chisel,

0:31:560:32:00

falling off scaffolding, breaking legs, falling down the tomb.

0:32:000:32:05

The other risk is because this is a wadi, it's a dry riverbed,

0:32:050:32:08

there are flash floods now and again, and all this would come crashing down.

0:32:080:32:13

And they would have to run.

0:32:150:32:17

During his lifetime, Kha worked on three royal tombs,

0:32:240:32:28

initially as a craftsman.

0:32:280:32:31

These copper chisels found in his tomb were the tools of Kha's trade.

0:32:320:32:39

He then rose to become royal architect and overseer responsible for the design

0:32:390:32:45

and construction of at least two Pharaohs' tombs.

0:32:450:32:48

It was a task on which Egypt entirely depended,

0:32:510:32:55

since each Pharaoh must be able to reach the afterlife

0:32:550:32:59

to ensure both their immortality and the wellbeing of their subjects.

0:32:590:33:04

Build it correctly, and all would be well. Fail, and Egypt would fail with it.

0:33:070:33:12

So how did Kha and his men actually undertake this most onerous of tasks?

0:33:180:33:24

-I'll follow in your footsteps.

-Right.

0:33:240:33:26

This is tomb KV25.

0:33:280:33:30

Thought to have been started for Amenhotep III's son, Akhenaton,

0:33:310:33:36

it was left unfinished when Akhenaton suddenly moved his capital away from Thebes.

0:33:360:33:41

It's as if the workmen only downed tools yesterday.

0:33:430:33:46

So you can see, Jo, the unfinished wall.

0:33:480:33:50

It's been chiselled smooth, but it hasn't been plastered.

0:33:500:33:53

And you can actually see the gouge marks of the chisels where they've gouged out the material.

0:33:530:33:57

What a treat to be able to see this kind of working surface.

0:33:570:34:01

As an architect, Kha meticulously planned the tomb's layout

0:34:040:34:08

using the Ancient Egyptian unit of measurement, the cubit.

0:34:080:34:12

In modern terms, the cubit was roughly 52.5 centimetres long.

0:34:120:34:17

And it is subdivided into what was called seven palms.

0:34:170:34:20

The palm of your hand. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

0:34:200:34:24

And on the end, we have four fingers there.

0:34:240:34:26

-Perfect.

-Perfect.

0:34:260:34:27

And the way this would have been used was for marking out

0:34:270:34:30

and measuring your way down the tomb.

0:34:300:34:32

In fact, you can see the dots there where they've been marking out. See?

0:34:320:34:38

As they came down...

0:34:380:34:40

-It corresponds exactly!

-Indeed.

0:34:420:34:44

-And it's so usable.

-So simple.

0:34:440:34:47

-Very elegant.

-It is elegant, isn't it?

0:34:470:34:49

And at the end of the day's work, Kha could fold it up,

0:34:490:34:52

pop it back in its leather carrying case and take it home.

0:34:520:34:56

Just imagine Kha and his team of 30 or 40 men

0:34:590:35:04

toiling in this extreme heat and choking dust.

0:35:040:35:09

And to light their way, all they had were these simple oil lamps.

0:35:090:35:14

I think being down here in the dark with a lamp like this

0:35:160:35:21

really increases the respect I have for Kha and his workforce,

0:35:210:35:25

that they were able to create such sublime monuments with such simple tools.

0:35:250:35:31

The evidence reveals Kha was highly respected in life.

0:35:390:35:43

This beautiful object is a golden royal cubit.

0:35:440:35:48

It was presented to Kha in recognition for his work

0:35:480:35:51

for the Pharaoh Amenhotep II.

0:35:510:35:54

It can only be equated to a carriage clock or an engraved tankard

0:35:540:35:59

that you're given for good service.

0:35:590:36:01

And you can only imagine Kha's pride and joy at receiving such a mark of royal favour.

0:36:010:36:07

Had the Ancient Egyptians had a mantelpiece, this would have been on it.

0:36:070:36:11

But I think the true value of this special cubit is the fact

0:36:110:36:15

it's been personalised to such a great degree.

0:36:150:36:18

And it actually sums up Kha in a single item.

0:36:180:36:22

It's the tools of his trade and yet it's been embellished.

0:36:220:36:26

The inscriptions on this are wonderful.

0:36:280:36:31

There's so many little details about Kha's career,

0:36:310:36:34

about the fact that he built a small shrine or temple,

0:36:340:36:38

not even in Thebes, further north at a site called Thermopolis,

0:36:380:36:41

so he was clearly active outside of Thebes.

0:36:410:36:46

It's pretty hard to describe how it feels to hold something like this

0:36:460:36:51

that Kha and probably Merit would have held quite a lot,

0:36:510:36:54

just to sort of marvel at it

0:36:540:36:56

and congratulate themselves on being so high up in Pharaoh's favour.

0:36:560:37:02

I love it. I absolutely love it.

0:37:070:37:10

With Kha's career on the rise, he and Merit also started a family.

0:37:140:37:18

Childbirth is a risky time in any woman's life

0:37:200:37:22

and certainly in Ancient Egypt.

0:37:220:37:26

Merit would have sought help from Hathor, then pre-eminent goddess of motherhood.

0:37:260:37:32

All Ancient Egyptian women wanted to be like Hathor,

0:37:320:37:35

she's like a modern female celebrity that all women aspire to be.

0:37:350:37:40

She had it all and she was worshipped here.

0:37:400:37:44

This is the funnery temple of the great female Pharaoh Hatshepsut, at Deir el-Bahri.

0:37:460:37:53

Situated just two miles from the village, it's located at the base

0:37:530:37:58

of the very cliffs in which Hathor herself was believed to reside.

0:37:580:38:02

But how might the goddess have touched Merit's life?

0:38:050:38:08

These columns are each one topped with the image of the goddess herself,

0:38:100:38:15

the face of a beautiful woman

0:38:150:38:17

but with cow's ears poking through the mass of hair to reflect

0:38:170:38:20

the goddesses cow-like, docile, sweet nature.

0:38:200:38:24

She's seen as an eternal mother figure

0:38:260:38:28

that can nurture all those around her who would then take care of your soul for eternity

0:38:280:38:33

and allow you to be reborn each morning with the rising sun.

0:38:330:38:37

Ordinary people like Merit could not enter the actual temples themselves.

0:38:390:38:46

These were sacred places reserved for the clergy and the Pharaohs.

0:38:460:38:51

So Merit would have turned to a more domestic form of worship.

0:38:510:38:54

Now, this wonderful thing is an exact replica

0:38:560:38:59

of a bowl found in the village

0:38:590:39:00

and it shows the double heads of the goddess Hathor.

0:39:000:39:04

I think they very much regarded this as a potent talisman,

0:39:040:39:08

almost like an amulet that they could have about the house

0:39:080:39:11

to bring the beautiful face of Hathor into their daily lives.

0:39:110:39:15

So, whatever they put in it, be it food, beer, wine, even flowers,

0:39:150:39:20

the contents would be almost sprinkled

0:39:200:39:22

with a little bit of Hathor's magic.

0:39:220:39:24

Yet Hathor wasn't only the goddess of fertility and motherhood -

0:39:280:39:32

she was also the deity of sexual pleasure.

0:39:320:39:35

And the evidence suggests that enjoying sex

0:39:350:39:38

was as important then as it is now.

0:39:380:39:41

This is a replica of the section of the so-called Turin Erotic Papyrus.

0:39:410:39:47

What it shows are couples actively, very actively, having sex.

0:39:470:39:53

The men all appear quite rough and ready.

0:39:530:39:56

Some have receding hairlines, stubble, pot bellies.

0:39:560:39:59

Each one has an enormous phallus.

0:39:590:40:03

As for the women, they are very beautiful, very agile,

0:40:030:40:07

each has got a very exquisite hairstyle

0:40:070:40:10

fronted by one of these fragrant lotus blossoms.

0:40:100:40:13

And so there's this desire to almost tap into the erotic.

0:40:130:40:17

These aren't kind of showing women as slabs of meat

0:40:170:40:20

simply there for male pleasure, not at all.

0:40:200:40:22

These are active women engaged in acts of pleasure, acts of love.

0:40:220:40:27

They are using sex as a kind of form of leisure,

0:40:270:40:30

of entertainment, as well as doing it, portraying it.

0:40:300:40:33

And while Hathor might have offered sexual inspiration, her presence

0:40:360:40:40

was needed most during the dangerous time of pregnancy and childbirth.

0:40:400:40:44

Women like Merit would have looked to her for protection.

0:40:460:40:49

The outer precincts of the temple here at Deir el-Bahri

0:40:500:40:54

were a focus for such worship.

0:40:540:40:55

This faded scene is a rare representation of a pregnant woman.

0:40:570:41:01

In this case, the mother of the female Pharaoh, Hatshepsut.

0:41:010:41:05

There she is as the unborn foetus,

0:41:050:41:07

and you can just make out the gentle swelling of her mother's abdomen,

0:41:070:41:11

here, as the unborn Hatshepsut

0:41:110:41:13

resides within the safety of her mother's body.

0:41:130:41:16

When the archaeologists excavated all around here a century ago,

0:41:160:41:21

they found such amazing things as baby clothes

0:41:210:41:25

that had been specially made with an image of Hathor,

0:41:250:41:27

almost like a Post-it Note to the goddess.

0:41:270:41:30

These would be left here in the hope that these women could conceive.

0:41:300:41:35

Merit had three children that we know of - two sons and one daughter.

0:41:400:41:45

Their images appear in Kha and Merit's tomb chapel

0:41:450:41:48

and on the painted boxes found in their tomb.

0:41:480:41:50

With infant mortality as high as 50%,

0:41:500:41:54

Merit would've needed all the help she could get,

0:41:540:41:57

but the villagers didn't just turn to the gods.

0:41:570:42:00

This is the Kahun Papyrus. It details the prescriptions

0:42:020:42:06

and spells used to tackle illnesses suffered specifically by women.

0:42:060:42:11

"Examination of a women who is aching in her rear, her front

0:42:110:42:15

"and the calves of her thighs.

0:42:150:42:18

"You should say of it, it is discharges of the womb,

0:42:180:42:21

"and you should treat it with one measure of carob fruit,

0:42:210:42:25

"one measure of incense pellets, one unit of cow's milk.

0:42:250:42:28

"Boil, cool, mix together and drink on four consecutive mornings."

0:42:280:42:33

What they are trying to do is bring some sort of order,

0:42:370:42:41

some form of understanding, to a host of complex medical conditions.

0:42:410:42:46

And in the root cause of many of the problems

0:42:460:42:49

associated with woman's illnesses, there is apparently a wandering womb,

0:42:490:42:53

because the Egyptians thought that this part of the female anatomy

0:42:530:42:57

wasn't fixed in situ but would kind of wander all over the body.

0:42:570:43:02

This bizarre condition had an equally bizarre cure.

0:43:020:43:06

The woman would sort of stand over burning incense

0:43:060:43:09

in the hope that this rising sweet smell of the fumes

0:43:090:43:12

would encourage this wandering womb down into its proper place.

0:43:120:43:17

And while today this may seem rather strange,

0:43:180:43:21

such a diagnosis and treatment may have had some positive effect.

0:43:210:43:25

Certainly, to the woman in labour,

0:43:270:43:29

to have a medical practitioner present, reading out these

0:43:290:43:33

medical prescriptions, would have had an almost placebo-like effect,

0:43:330:43:38

and I think that's the strength of documents like this,

0:43:380:43:41

used in conjunction with all the amulets and all the magical spells

0:43:410:43:44

that could be brought to bear by the village midwife.

0:43:440:43:47

The recitation of text like this would have brought a further layer

0:43:470:43:51

of order to a very difficult and complex time in a woman's life.

0:43:510:43:55

Alongside raising her children,

0:43:580:44:00

Merit would have been responsible for her home.

0:44:000:44:03

She is likely to have been just as house-proud as you and me.

0:44:030:44:06

Yet, far from the monochrome beige we see today,

0:44:080:44:11

the world of Ancient Egypt was a riot of colour.

0:44:110:44:14

The vestiges of this can still be seen - if you know where to look.

0:44:180:44:22

When we look up at the ceilings,

0:44:290:44:31

the areas which had been sheltered from direct sunlight,

0:44:310:44:34

the colours are absolutely superb.

0:44:340:44:37

The condition, the brightness, the vivacity.

0:44:370:44:41

They're sort of leaping out of the walls and ceilings,

0:44:410:44:43

right into our eyes.

0:44:430:44:45

And this temple, with its vibrant colour,

0:44:450:44:48

was created by the later Pharaoh, Ramesses III.

0:44:480:44:52

The Egyptians were far from subtle in their use of paint.

0:44:520:44:56

Primary colours - red, green, blue - all these amazing,

0:44:560:45:01

vivid hues, and the blues and greens are particularly bright.

0:45:010:45:06

This, of course, is more of a status marker for the king who commissioned

0:45:060:45:11

such a brilliant piece of work, because blues and greens weren't

0:45:110:45:15

naturally occurring pigments and had to be manufactured at great cost.

0:45:150:45:19

And so this is a way for the monarch to say,

0:45:190:45:21

"Look at me, look at the wealth I possess."

0:45:210:45:23

The effort and expense involved in producing such synthetic colours

0:45:260:45:31

was way beyond the reach of most ordinary people.

0:45:310:45:34

Instead, it they used locally sourced materials,

0:45:370:45:40

ones that could, literally, be picked up from the desert floor.

0:45:400:45:45

This rock, in my hand, is kind of like a colour box

0:45:450:45:49

that brought Ancient Egypt to life,

0:45:490:45:51

because on one side we have the red iron oxide,

0:45:510:45:55

on the other the yellow iron oxide.

0:45:550:45:57

And so, by splitting a rock like this

0:45:570:46:00

into the component yellows and reds,

0:46:000:46:03

you could crush these up, mix with water

0:46:030:46:05

and then apply to the design surface.

0:46:050:46:07

I think the best way to sort of try to re-animate these colours

0:46:170:46:20

is probably to use that old standby, a little bit of spit.

0:46:200:46:24

Always works! Rub the stone.

0:46:240:46:26

It's very, very vivid.

0:46:270:46:29

You can see the effect it has against white.

0:46:370:46:40

So, you have these two shades that, for the Ancient Egyptians,

0:46:400:46:44

really did reflect blood, life, vivacity,

0:46:440:46:49

and then the yellow of the golden sun.

0:46:490:46:52

I want to see how villagers like Kha and Merit

0:47:000:47:03

used colour to decorate their homes...

0:47:030:47:05

..and I'm in luck, because here, at the southern end of the village,

0:47:060:47:10

a single precious clue remains.

0:47:100:47:12

Here it is!

0:47:120:47:14

Now, if I lift this cloth,

0:47:150:47:17

I'm going to see something I've waited a long time to see,

0:47:170:47:20

and it's, basically, an original wall scene

0:47:200:47:23

from an Ancient Egyptian house.

0:47:230:47:26

So, here goes.

0:47:260:47:27

Oh, wow!

0:47:320:47:33

It's a phenomenal piece. The colours are so fresh.

0:47:350:47:38

It's a glimpse into the sort of world

0:47:380:47:41

of Ancient Egyptian interior design.

0:47:410:47:43

It's the lower half of a female musician, and she's playing a flute.

0:47:450:47:50

She's got gold bracelets, gold anklets,

0:47:500:47:53

but the most exciting thing are these two tattoos

0:47:530:47:56

of the household god, Bes.

0:47:560:47:57

So evocative, so warm, so sumptuous in its lavish use of colour,

0:47:570:48:02

and these fabulous, fabulous leaves.

0:48:020:48:05

Heart-shaped, draping down the sides to sort of inject some much-needed

0:48:050:48:11

vegetation, greenery, into this sort of desert environment.

0:48:110:48:15

It's an intriguing thought that here, in the very village

0:48:150:48:19

where the men who built and painted the royal tombs,

0:48:190:48:22

would they have been commissioned by one of the housewives here

0:48:220:48:25

to come and paint my house?

0:48:250:48:27

Or did the women paint these images for themselves?

0:48:270:48:30

It's something we'll never know,

0:48:300:48:31

but I like to think that the lady of the house would have had

0:48:310:48:34

a direct input into the kind of scene

0:48:340:48:36

she wanted around her as she went about her daily chores

0:48:360:48:39

with the kids and her friends, and female relatives.

0:48:390:48:42

Such fragments from the past

0:48:470:48:49

allow us to get closer to the real Kha and Merit.

0:48:490:48:52

In the case of Merit, she seems to have been a loving wife

0:48:540:48:58

and hard-working mother.

0:48:580:49:00

A delicate and beautiful woman, the epitome of taste and style.

0:49:000:49:06

But, sadly, this is where Merit's story ends -

0:49:060:49:09

the evidence suggesting she died quite suddenly

0:49:090:49:13

to leave her beloved Kha as a grieving widower.

0:49:130:49:16

He even had to bury her in a coffin intended for him,

0:49:180:49:21

for not only is it far too large for Merit,

0:49:210:49:24

the inscriptions name only Kha.

0:49:240:49:27

Yet, Merit was immortalised in the tomb chapel she shared with Kha,

0:49:310:49:35

located just yards from their village.

0:49:350:49:38

And this is where Kha and their children would have come

0:49:380:49:42

to bring regular offerings and to pay their respects.

0:49:420:49:45

It's such a privileged glimpse into their everyday life.

0:50:140:50:17

We're amongst their family here,

0:50:170:50:19

and that's what this whole tomb chapel chamber has all around it.

0:50:190:50:25

This feeling of family, of closeness, of warmth, of love.

0:50:250:50:29

What's interesting here is that Kha and Merit are shown several times...

0:50:330:50:38

..and yet the one constant child that's with them is their daughter,

0:50:390:50:43

Merit, named after her mother.

0:50:430:50:45

And this is Merit the mother, here,

0:50:450:50:49

and this is Merit the daughter, behind her.

0:50:490:50:51

On the other wall, we have the daughter, Merit,

0:50:520:50:55

who's leaning forward towards her father, Kha,

0:50:550:51:01

and she appears to be tying a necklace around his neck,

0:51:010:51:04

or perhaps anointing him with perfume.

0:51:040:51:07

I'd like to think that it was Merit, the daughter,

0:51:070:51:09

who cared for Kha in his old age.

0:51:090:51:11

But what happened to Kha, the proud and talented architect?

0:51:200:51:23

These elegant walking sticks may suggest he lived on into old age...

0:51:300:51:35

continuing to oversee the most important commission of his life.

0:51:350:51:39

So, I've come back to this remote part of the Valley of the Kings

0:51:390:51:43

to find the final resting place of Amenhotep III.

0:51:430:51:46

It was actually the third of the royal tombs that Kha worked on,

0:51:490:51:52

so it's so exciting to be going in here

0:51:520:51:55

and following in Kha's wonderful footsteps.

0:51:550:51:58

My enthusiasm is well-founded, because the tomb,

0:52:040:52:07

currently under restoration, has been closed for decades.

0:52:070:52:12

Hardly anyone gets to see this.

0:52:120:52:14

SHE SNIFFS

0:52:310:52:33

This isn't very professional, is it?

0:52:400:52:43

SHE SNIFFS

0:52:430:52:44

This is so beautiful. It, literally, has brought tears to my eyes.

0:52:440:52:49

It is so stunning. The colours are fantastic, it's exquisite.

0:52:490:52:54

It's Amenhotep III

0:52:540:52:56

being received into the care of the gods of the underworld.

0:52:560:52:59

And there's Anubis handing out the sign of life to Amenhotep.

0:52:590:53:04

You think, Kha and his men designing these images.

0:53:060:53:10

Just putting the King's vision into practice and just...

0:53:100:53:14

..literally, it's taken my breath away.

0:53:170:53:20

Look, the artist hasn't just come along with his blue paint

0:53:200:53:24

and the palette, and boshed on the paint - somebody's taken the trouble

0:53:240:53:28

to apply individual curls of hair, here.

0:53:280:53:30

Can you see the texture? The curls, here?

0:53:300:53:34

That's textured hair.

0:53:340:53:35

And there, also, Amenhotep with Osiris,

0:53:360:53:40

green-faced god of vegetation, new life and resurrection.

0:53:400:53:44

And that's really what this tomb does.

0:53:460:53:48

It's a time machine, it's the place Amenhotep III's mummy

0:53:480:53:52

would have finally been laid to rest.

0:53:520:53:54

You can clearly see that no expense was spared and for good reason.

0:53:560:54:02

For this is where the Pharaoh, then revered as a god,

0:54:020:54:06

would dwell in the afterlife - his next seat of power.

0:54:060:54:09

Oh, and down we go, deeper and deeper into the underworld.

0:54:110:54:16

Wow, it really does evoke a sense of going down into the subterranean

0:54:160:54:20

underworld, into the blackness, into the darkness, into eternity.

0:54:200:54:25

This elaborate network of chambers and stairways

0:54:290:54:32

was designed to protect the royal mummy

0:54:320:54:34

and all the glittering treasures which once surrounded it.

0:54:340:54:38

Now, look at this very clever trick of the architect, our boy Kha.

0:54:430:54:48

Look at this - can you see the way the images

0:54:480:54:51

were once all along this wall?

0:54:510:54:53

Just the whole way around, images of the king and the gods,

0:54:530:54:56

and yet, originally, this would have been packed

0:54:560:55:00

with mud brick, probably.

0:55:000:55:02

Plastered over, the images drawn and painted over it,

0:55:020:55:06

so that any would-be tomb robbers would come down here, think,

0:55:060:55:10

"Oh, this is it, nothing much in here,"

0:55:100:55:12

and hopefully leave by the way they came in,

0:55:120:55:15

because this is actually the next stage of the tomb.

0:55:150:55:19

So it's kind of like a hidden portal.

0:55:190:55:22

This is the burial chamber, the most important part of the tomb,

0:55:220:55:26

and there it is...

0:55:260:55:28

..the final resting place of one of Egypt's greatest Pharaohs.

0:55:290:55:34

The man considered a god, both in life and in death.

0:55:340:55:40

How do you bury a god?

0:55:400:55:42

Well, obviously, surrounded, dripping in gold,

0:55:420:55:45

semi-precious stones and the most beautiful funerary items...

0:55:450:55:50

..all of which would have been choreographed,

0:55:510:55:54

planned by Kha and his colleagues.

0:55:540:55:57

Everybody wants to take care of the king.

0:55:570:56:00

Within the royal mummy dwelt the soul,

0:56:000:56:02

the immortal soul, of Egypt itself.

0:56:020:56:05

This cumulative build-up of every royal Pharaoh who had gone before

0:56:050:56:10

resided within the mummy who once lay down there.

0:56:100:56:13

Oh, wow!

0:56:270:56:29

It's been 46 years waiting to see this tomb

0:56:290:56:32

and it's been well worth it.

0:56:320:56:34

Although we can now appreciate his consummate workmanship,

0:56:390:56:43

it seems Kha himself never saw the finished tomb,

0:56:430:56:46

for he died before his king.

0:56:460:56:48

But like his king, Kha's own body

0:56:510:56:54

was prepared for its eternal journey into the afterlife

0:56:540:56:57

before he too was buried.

0:56:570:56:59

Since this journey has given us a chance to get that little bit

0:57:080:57:12

closer to Kha and Merit, I think we could almost call them friends.

0:57:120:57:17

Their worries and concerns are not unlike our own -

0:57:180:57:22

hard work, family and, above all, love.

0:57:220:57:27

Yet, this is only the beginning of their story.

0:57:280:57:31

What comes next is a journey into a world very different from our own.

0:57:310:57:36

A world of ritual, of magic

0:57:360:57:39

and the unswerving belief that life really can go on for ever.

0:57:390:57:43

And here we have Kha's name, right down the middle,

0:57:450:57:48

and to speak the name of the dead is to make them live again -

0:57:480:57:51

Kha and Merit.

0:57:510:57:53

So, join me next time

0:57:540:57:56

as we travel deep into the heart of the Egyptian afterlife.

0:57:560:58:00

It's an extraordinary journey

0:58:010:58:03

on which we uncover Kha and Merit's costly preparations for death,

0:58:030:58:08

all played out in a series of complex and elaborate rituals

0:58:080:58:12

as they attempt to achieve their place in eternity.

0:58:120:58:18

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