Around the World in 80 Treasures (2005) s01e08 Episode Script

l'm almost four months into my quest
to find 80 of the world's
greatest man-made treasures.
l'm now in Africa.
The most beguiling and enchanting of continents.
Here, l'm looking for ancient traditions
which are alive and well.
l'm going to see works of art
with a raw and elemental beauty.
And a lost Roman city on the coast of Libya.
l'll grapple with the mysteries of perhaps
the greatest civilisation
the world has ever known.
So far, l've travelled through
the Americas, Australia,
Asia and the middle east.
From Ethiopia
l've just flown across the continent
to the very heart of Africa.
l'm in Mali, west Africa,
where seven hundred years ago or so,
different worlds met and
the link came through trade,
much of it river-borne,
in boats and craft like this.
From the north came architecture, ideas, lslam,
as well as products such as salt and silk.
And from the south and from around here,
can gold, ivory.
By the 13th century,
Mali had become a mighty trading empire
which extended across west Africa
as far as the Atlantic coast.
To find my first treasure
l've come to Djenne.
This is the oldest known city
in this part of Africa.
lnhabited since 250 B.C.,
it went on to become one of the most
vibrant and prosperous in the empire.
lt was also a centre of
lslamic learning and pilgrimage.
What's most astonishing about Djenne
is that all the buildings are made of mud,
glorious mud.
This ancient and noble building tradition
has been passed down the generations
from father to son.
This house is being repaired
and we can get an idea
how the mud building system works.
Here are the sun-dried bricks.
And these are protected with
a layer of mud render,
which is renewed every year
after the rainy season. And we can -
- see this mud render going on now.
But l say mud, but like the bricks in -
- fact it's a special clay
mixed with some straw and um -
- oh, cow dung.
Excellent stuff actually.
Very strong, very resilient
and very beautifully gooey and um -
yeah, beautifully smelly.
Let's have a go.
Put this on. My contribution.
Must do this correctly.
So what is my treasure?
Well, it's the miracle of Djenne.
lt is quite simply
the largest mud building in the world.
There's been a mosque on this site
since the late 13th century,
though this mosque - was only completed in 1907.
lt may look pretty humble
as a construction
but it's incredibly sophisticated.
l mean, the mud bricks
are very appropriate for the climate -
- and also these lovely sort of posts
that stick out,
those sort of stabilise the structure
in the extreme climate.
But also - they act as a permanent scaffolding,
to allow people to hang off -
- the building to carry out this very
necessary and regular maintenance.
Wow! Amazingly thick, earthen wall.
Three feet or so.
All to do of course
with controlling the temperature.
The wall absorbs the heat of the day, the sun.
lncredible this to be inside.
There are these huge piers
which hold the roof up,
the light's flooding in,
so we have this wonderful sense of an organic,
elemental building, these abstract forms.
Lovely details, these pointed -
- arches rising and being supported by the great,
almost natural forms of the er, piers.
There are people sitting round,
praying, reading the Koran.
Fantastic atmosphere.
l say a place of meditation
and communion with God.
lt's er, five o'clock,
towards the end of a very hot day,
but inside here - it's cool.
So how does this work?
The answer is a
very ingenious ventilation system.
And er, this is how the ventilation system works.
The thick walls of the mosque
absorb the heat during the day,
the earthen walls,
and at night they release heat.
So in the evening
these ceramic tops are taken off
these ventilation holes -
- and the heat rises and keeps the interior cool.
There are, on the roof,
a hundred and four of them.
And here in front of me are three towers,
they're minarets really -
- and on the top is an ostrich egg.
Lovely, can you see it?
And these ostrich eggs represent fertility,
sitting on top of a minaret,
which is quite obviously rather phallic.
So we have the male and the female combined.
lt's built and designed by people
who've put their heart and soul
into the building. lt's -
- an amazingly powerful creation.
lt is, in its way, as great as any
of the great buildings of the world.
This is the largest mud-built mosque
in the world -
- and looking at it now
with the sun setting behind the minarets,
it is almost overwhelming.
Next l'll be driving west,
leaving behind the lslamic world of Djenne.
l'm going back further in time
to an even older tradition.
My destination is a remote region of Bandiagara.
For centuries this has been
the land of the Dogon people.
Until the 1930's
one of Africa's most isolated tribes.
Dogon is one of the few tribes to have clung to
its traditional way of life and ancient beliefs.
At the centre of Dogon religion
is a fantastical account
of the creation of the universe.
According to - Dogon beliefs
there's one god, Ama, who lives in heaven
and one day Ama took a great ball of clay
and threw it down
and it spun and it formed a square,
each corner marking the cardinal points.
And the square formed itself gradually into
the body of a woman.
Mother Earth.
Central to the Dogon religion
has been the rite of circumcision.
The government of Mali now
discourages female circumcision,
but the male ritual is still practised
and has inspired some of the finest Dogon art.
The circumcision ceremony takes place here,
in front of, indeed below these incredible -
paintings.
Some people say these date from the 13th century.
Certainly though,
they are refreshed on a regular basis
because the ceremony takes place
every three years.
So the boys, aged about ten,
walk the route l've just walked
and sit here in a circle,
the surgeon on this stone,
the young fellow over there.
The boys are up here for about a month
during this initiation into adulthood,
into manhood
and during that time they're told stories
of their ancestors, of their gods
and they make or indeed repaint -
- these er, these images in front of me.
They are an amazing collection.
Many are tribal images.
Little medicine bags containing
sort of talismans and um, potent things.
And the most spectacular is a snake
and that's Lebaye
one of the great ancestor spirits.
The ancestor responsible for
creation of the Earth,
for crops and for plenty and there,
this great serpent writhing
and twisting on the rock.
This art is fantastic.
lt has to do with the origins of art.
lt's art without ego.
lt's not self-serving. lt's art -
- which deals with the real things of life.
With religious beliefs,
with the continuity of the community.
One could call these naive,
they're not naive of course,
they're simple, they're powerful.
They're painted - with love,
with feeling, with commitment.
They are really - very, very moving images.
l'm fascinated by the myths
and legends of the Dogon,
so l head for the village of Sango,
to seek out a powerful work of art.
The symbol of Africa.
Everywhere you look there are
sacred images carved on the doors,
the windows and the walls
of houses and granaries.
These are clues which will lead me
to my next treasure.
Ah! Now an image that's very familiar.
This rather abstract image here,
two horizontal bars connected by a vertical.
This represents the heavens,
the great male creator, Ama,
and this pointing down, the Earth,
this being the bridge between the two worlds.
And um, all around this little town
are creations of this quality,
which tell ancient and powerful stories
so central to the life of the Dogon people.
But all of this is not just
part of some dead, dusty myth,
because there's one event,
the most important event in the Dogon world
that brings all these images to life.
That makes them part of our modern world.
This dance is a bridge
between the world of the dead
and the world of the living.
Most importantly it allows the Dogon people
to communicate with their ancestors.
My treasure is the key to the dance
and opens the door to the realm of the spirits.
These Dogon masks
aren't symbolic or representative,
they contain the life force that they show.
During the dance they are alive.
The dancers and the mask are one being.
These masks are sacred objects,
too powerful for ordinary mortals to -
to hold or even to know where they're kept.
That chap l know - l recognise that mask.
That's heaven and Earth isn't it,
the one with the cross bars?
And these are the same.
Yeah, these are the same.
This is called the Kanagan mask and -
represents the spirit of man.
Spirit of man?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, man.
And these chaps are fantastic.
This mask represent levels of knowledge.
- Levels of knowledge.
- Knowledge, yes.
Of course.
And this is the spiritual animal here, this is -
lt's called lan.
That's lna, lna.
And the last are females, aren't they,
they have breasts.
They have breasts these chaps,
pulling and pushing one another over.
Pushing one another over.
Females riding high - above the Earth?
Yeah, this mask represent woman.
And the fact they are up,
that means the situation
where the Dogon people want woman to be.
To be raised up?
Yeah, yeah, to be up.
So they give high status to woman.
Very good.
And this leg symbolise the leg of er, a bird -
- you know.
Okay. But yet
women can't be in the dance, can they?
No, no, they can't.
They're represented but they can't join in.
Yeah, they can't participate to the dance -
- but they are given the most important mask.
- Okay.
And the most important stature.
And now - after this
they will go back to their place of safety.
ln fact they've danced around me once
and now they're leaving and going into myth.
African masks were a great source of inspiration
for European artists like Picasso
who recognised their emotional and primal power.
Mali's developed a thriving industry
producing masks to sell to visitors.
Most on sale here have, l trust,
been made for tourists
and are not genuine sacred masks.
Ah.
- Monsieur, bonjour.
- Bonjour.
You are welcome.
lt's amazing to see so many masks for sale.
They're hibernating, the power - is dormant.
And apparently if one's um, very sensitive
and the mask is very powerful,
even to touch one of these masks,
even when dormant,
can burn one's fingers.
l'll have a go.
Oh, well l'm not very sensitive -
- but l'm sure the power's there.
So these - are Dogon masks?
This a Dogon mask.
This is the Kanaga, this is Satimi.
This is Kanaga?
Kanaga, yeah, Kanaga mask.
And this one too?
Yeah, this one too is a Dogon.
- So this is what, an animal spirit?
- Yeah.
This one's an old one, isn't it?
Yeah, this is Dogon.
Oh that's - that's water or the sea, isn't it?
This is the er, the lion - lion's figure.
The lion. Okay, rrrh.
ls the power, is a power mask.
Power mask indeed.
Well, how much are you asking for this one?
This one is 25 thousand.
Ah, that's too much. That's too much.
This is - l have - l have them -
Much too much.
lt's a lovely thing but l know it's not worth.
Like this one l'm selling for - for 75.
l don't want that one. That's not very nice.
Yeah, this is ten thousand.
- This is a cheaper one. This is -
- No, that's horrible.
Okay. How much,
your best price is how much for this one?
Well you're - l'm saying ten,
you're saying - you're saying twenty,
so l suppose we have to go down the middle
and say um, twelve, twelve.
Nojoking is no good l'll tell you.
Price is no good.
Let's split the difference
and l'll say fifteen and that's it.
Fifteen.
No. Okay now you give me seventeen, is okay.
Seventeen you are stopped there, okay?
Sixteen. Oh for god's sake,
seventeen, okay, let's - seventeen.
l'm joking for me, this one.
l've been had, but l don't care.
Seventeen?
lt's with regret that l leave Mali.
A land of ancient and mystical faith.
From West Africa, l travel north to Libya.
On the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
l'm in Tripoli.
Until recently it would have been
almost impossible to visit Libya.
Under the hard-line regime of Colonel Gaddafi,
the country was closed to most western visitors.
But now relations have thawed
and l can visit two treasures
that have haunted my imagination for decades.
Seventy-five miles east
along the coast from Tripoli
lies my next treasure.
Libya was an important outpost
of the Roman Empire
and trades flourished along this coast.
l've come to see
one of the greatest Roman cities.
A miraculous survival of the classical world.
The city of Leptis Magna was a gateway for trade
between African Europe during Roman times.
Under the rule of Emperor Septimus Severus
in the first century A.D.,
the city enjoyed its golden age.
lt was one of the largest
and most magnificent in Africa.
Nowhere else in the world
could get such a good idea
of what it was like to be a citizen
living in a great Roman period city -
- and l'm going to be a citizen of Leptis Magna.
A citizen for the day, going to the marketplace.
Here would be sold - fruit and fish.
But l'm a merchant of fabrics, cotton,
and here is a lovely little arch -
- with ships here
bringing goods to Leptis from afar.
Certainly - my cotton comes from Egypt.
Now - through here is where l did my business,
selling my cotton and perhaps silk,
and in front of me is a very important thing.
lt's a unit of measurements.
lncredible.
The Punic measurement is what's called a Cubit.
A Cubit being an ancient - measure
from the elbow to this finger.
Exactly a Cubit of length -
- where l'd offer up my cloth like this
and sell it on to the retailer.
And here are measures for liquids,
wine or olive oil.
Liquids poured into the top of this container,
four different sizes, and -
- then there's a plug system, l guess, here -
- and the liquid would then -
- go from here into a pot and be carried away.
After a hectic morning of business,
l make my way to the Forum.
This is the heart of the city.
Here the citizens could venerate the god emperor
in the temple standing there.
What a great - space this is.
Remains there of a colonnade -
supporting sculpture.
Heads of Medusa, some of which survive.
lncredible place.
Shops over there facing the temple.
And behind the shops
the most important public building
in the city really, the great basilica.
With tiers of columns rising up
almost ninety feet,
the great basilica dispensed law and order
to the citizens of Leptis Magna.
lt's the end of a busy day.
l need a - a bath and a massage.
So l come to this magnificent public bath.
This is one of the greatest bathhouses
outside Rome itself. And -
- taking my clothes off as l go along,
putting my garments in a locker room,
l go through these rooms and here,
stripped naked by this time, l enter -
- this great chamber here which is the hot room,
which is steaming.
Can hardly see as l make my way over here.
Great furnaces creating intense - heat over here.
So l sweat, l sweat.
l'm here.
With steam coming out of pipes,
l lie down
and am massaged with olive oil.
My body worked thoroughly by a muscular fellow.
Feels fantastic.
And above me
a great vault keeping the heat in.
lf l'm taken short and need to go to the lavatory
there are these public latrines.
Well, very public actually.
Multi-seaters.
They are a really beautiful,
elegant minimal design.
l sit here above this little hole and um,
go about my business.
When completed, take a brush -
- put it in this canal of water, get the brush -
- and er, insert it through this hole and -
cleanse my person.
And then - off l go.
Much of the city that once housed
seventy thousand people
is yet to be unearthed.
By the 11th century
it had been abandoned
and covered by sand - the ruins lost.
Excavation has taken place
and the centre revealed,
but where l'm standing now is still covered.
This is where people lived.
Below my feet are the houses
of this once thriving population.
Everywhere one looks
one sees evidence of the people,
their occupation of - this site.
Bits of pot everywhere.
Lovely bit of ceramic here.
Ancient glass.
And even here - fragments of bronze coins.
Look at that.
lt's very moving to think that below my feet
is so much evidence yet to be revealed -
of what life was really like here on this coast,
this trading city, two thousand years ago.
With the decline of the Roman Empire,
the city of Leptis Magna fell prey to its enemies
and was violently sacked by Berber raiders
from the desert.
l'm going to a Berber village
to find my next treasure.
l head south towards the El Azizia desert.
One of the hottest places on Earth.
Temperatures here can reach
a baking 136 degrees Fahrenheit.
This arid land was the home of the Berbers.
The original inhabitants of North Africa.
My treasure was created by the Berber people
nearly a thousand years ago.
lt's a building created for
the most basic of reasons.
The storage and preservation of food.
ln this inhospitable region
it was the difference between life and death.
lt's built from local materials.
Stone, gypsum, plaster.
lncredibly organic in feel.
A perfect O, a perfect circle.
lt was created to store
the community's most precious thing.
Not just cereals were stored here,
dates, olives, wine, olive oil, figs.
Each window is a little cell
belonging to a different family.
Each one a little vaulted space
in which really the thing of life itself,
their food, was preserved and guarded.
l'll try and get into one of the storage cells.
Each one is um,
sort of a little independent room.
Now this ladder, gosh, seen better days, wow.
Um, okay. So l say each of these little cells
would belong to one family -
- and um, on the floor -
is the remains of the family's barley store.
l'm gonna to walk on it
because these rooms are now generally abandoned
and this food will no longer be eaten.
Oh, gosh, l'm sinking in barley.
Wow, there's more in than l thought. Wow -
- excellent. lncredible.
lt's er, oh lovely, look.
Um, fresh actually, good quality.
Now, as l look at this room - amazing.
Look at the thickness of the wall
of this granary.
lt's hot outside but cool in here,
that's the point, and er, and very, very dry.
One end of this room a little window,
so it's ventilated, very important.
What intrigues me as l stand here is um,
what's carved - on the wall.
Like a little chequerboard here,
or perhaps it's a way of marking off time.
Almost at some point it was inhabited,
or partly inhabited.
Some of the structure of the granary
also operates every effectively
as a fortification.
lt's a way of protecting the community of Berbers
in time of invasion.
ln the courtyard below they would camp -
- and l think to a degree, occupy these rooms
because some of these cells, the doors -
can be secured only from within.
So clearly these were to be occupied, l suppose
maybe if the enemy penetrated the fortress.
The Berber village lying
outside the granary is in ruins.
The granary itself is largely abandoned.
Until recently they lived here much as
they would have lived two thousand years ago,
with their own language, their own customs,
their own culture.
But things have changed, times have changed.
They are now succumbing to the modern world.
Their culture is disappearing.
So this fortress failed in the end
to save the Berbers.
lt's a - tragedy.
You see here the end of
thousands of years of Berber life.
lt's time to leave Libya
and l head towards Egypt.
Being in this evocative desert landscape
l can't resist trying
the traditional means of transport.
- Okay, you have a - you have a camel?
- Yes.
Could l see?
Ride him, the camel.
You have a camel? Can't see many.
Do you have a camel?
- No camel.
- No camel.
- Horse.
- Horse, no.
l rather wanted to mount a camel.
There's a camel. There's a camel.
- There's a camel here.
- Yes, yes.
Ah, a camel!
Oh looks like he's a very um, pleasing camel.
A reluctant camel.
They're quite - they're brutish beasts,
camels, from my experience.
They have a temper, a bit unpredictable.
Sounds already in a bad temper.
Um, okay, well let's see how this goes.
- Morning.
- How are you?
Morning. Very well. Say hello to the camel.
Pleased to meet you.
Nice to meet you. How's the camel?
What's the camel's name?
Name Whisky.
Whis - Whisky? l can live - with that.
Okay. l know getting -
camel's getting up is always a bit -
Lean back.
- Lean back and hold on.
- Yeah.
Argh. Lovely moment.
l always love the er -
nothing like getting on a camel
in the morning. Wah.
- Okay?
- Okay. Let's go for a walk.
Now Whisky, what you don't do Whisky
is you just don't suddenly sit down, okay?
l know that's what you want to do.
l'm in search of a great civilisation.
A mighty land ruled by divine kings.
The pharaohs.
They created one of the most brilliant empires
the world has ever seen.
For all our attempts to understand it,
Ancient Egypt remains shrouded in mystery.
My first stop is
on the outskirts of the largest city of Africa.
Being in Cairo
you can probably guess what
my first Egyptian treasure's going to be.
Pure, ideal, elemental forms,
as if exploding from the desert.
The power comes from the combination of the
huge scale and the perfection of the geometry.
lncredible - experience.
One can see these as a work of nature really,
the force of nature, the work of the gods.
The Pyramids remain an enigma.
We still don't know for sure
when they were built,
by whom
or indeed how they were built.
The Great Pyramid is the largest of the three.
lt's believed to have been made over
four thousand, five hundred years ago
by Pharaoh Cheops to house his tomb.
lt was constructed with incredible accuracy.
lf we accept the conventional view
about the limited technology
available at the time,
then, quite simply, the Great Pyramid
would have been unbuildable.
lt's made out of two and
a half million blocks of stone,
laid in 203 courses, rising to 481 feet.
lt's an amazing sight.
The only survivor of
the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
But the reason for choosing
the Great Pyramid as my treasure
lies inside it.
This entrance route l'm in was quarried
into the pyramid in the 9th century,
by the Caliph that ruled Cairo.
He couldn't find the secret hidden entrance
so he cut - this passageway.
Amazing. l'm walking through
the body of the pyramid.
lt's absolutely wonderful.
Ah, now here we are,
connecting with the original entrance passage,
the ascending passage,
still blocked by these great stones.
Put there to seal the interior,
stop people penetrating.
And this passage l'm about to go up,
leads to the chamber -
- in which the pharaoh Cheops,
is said to have been buried.
lncredibly low, this passage.
l'll have to go up on my hands and knees,
or at least l suppose in an attitude of prayer
with my head bowed.
The gallery's beautifully constructed.
- The huge weight above of the stone,
the solid body of the pyramid is being carried -
- by these stones above my head.
lt's quite an alarming idea actually,
walking through this little passage.
Oh. Well, another obstacle.
This passage is even lower
than the ascending passage.
Oh, gosh!
Walking through the granite wall.
And - good Lord!
What a space. What a room.
This is called the King's Chamber,
because it is thought in here
the Pharaoh Cheops was entombed
and here is the great sarcophagus.
And in the sarcophagus one supposes was once -
- the body of the great Pharaoh, Cheops.
Certainly this sarcophagus had to
be built into this room and there's no -
- other way this could have got in here,
apart from being lowered from above.
But just look at the space.
The room is formed by great granite slabs -
- some of gigantic size.
The one there - weighing,
it is thought, about eighty tons.
Look at the size of it.
And look at the joints. They are so precise.
Cut in granite. How?
Four thousand five hundred years ago,
with that primitive technology?
lt almost defies belief.
Defies understanding.
Nothing about a room - like this
is a mistake or a chance.
And the proportion - this becomes
the central proportion of classical architecture.
Greece and Rome,
ltalian Renaissance,
the double cube
is always the volume created by man
when he wants to create a powerful sacred space,
a space connecting with the gods
and the higher world.
And it starts here in this room,
four thousand, five hundred years ago.
This is in a way, this room,
is the beginning of time,
the beginning of civilisation,
the beginning certainly of architecture.
lncredible.
But the more one stands here
the details are phenomenal.
For example, this room,
where we believe the dead Pharaoh would reside,
is connected to the outside world -
by two air shafts.
lncredible, these creations,
to - allow the Pharaoh's soul.
Eh, as l mentioned the word 'soul'
the lights go out.
Scary? Yes. lncredible. lncredible.
Perhaps it's time to leave.
The survival of the pyramids is threatened by
the ever expanding suburbs and air pollution.
With a growing population of ten million people,
Cairo is one of the most densely
populated cities in the world.
And in the middle of this urban chaos
is the tranquillity and inspiration
of the Cairo Museum.
l'm here to see the most
exciting archaeological find
of the 20th century.
ln 1922, a British excavation team discovered
the tomb of Tutankhamen.
The boy pharaoh from over
three thousand years ago.
Pharaohs were buried with objects and spells
to aid them in theirjourney
through the Underworld to rebirth.
Tutankhamen's tomb was a remarkable find.
lt was one of the few royal tombs
to have escaped the grave robbers.
Within the tomb was a vast gilded box,
covered with hieroglyphs on a great casket.
And within that box was another box,
slightly smaller -
- also covered with hieroglyphs.
Within that, a third box.
And within the third box a fourth box.
And in the fourth box
was a great stone sarcophagus.
Within that three coffins.
And only, having got through all of that,
would you have found my treasure.
And here it is. Tutankhamen's mask.
An object that,
since it was discovered eighty years ago,
has captured the imagination of the world.
The boy pharaoh who died, some say was murdered,
over three thousand, three hundred years ago.
lt shows - the pharaoh reborn,
life after - death.
But he's reborn as a divine being,
his flesh replaced by gold -
and other precious objects there.
l mean there's Lapis, cornelian - turquoise.
An incredible piece of work.
Beautiful in detail, beautiful in form -
and the colour and the meaning of it,
power is here.
On the front we see -
the image of the vulture and the cobra,
so worldly power, spiritual power.
People are attracted to it
and l find myself strangely attracted to it.
l look - into the eyes of the pharaoh.
The stares back at me.
lt is an astonishing experience.
Well, um, my train's just arrived.
lt's late.
lt's also the end to an exhausting day.
So, plan is to leave the turmoil, bustle of Cairo
and get the overnight sleeper,
nine hours journey,
running beside the Nile to the relative peace,
l hope of Edfu.
Right. Okay, let's see how it goes.
Don't feel like any trouble.
Tourists.
Very nice. l've got a saloon.
Um, what's this? Widescreen television?
Er, no, actually it's fine.
And er, l'm gonna go to bed, so goodnight.
l travel south beside the Nile.
The River is the lifeblood of this land.
Cities cluster along it,
crops flourish beside it,
and beyond is only desert.
Without the Nile
there would have been no
great Ancient Egyptian civilisation
and certainly not my next treasure.
This temple is the best preserved in Egypt.
Completed around 60 B.C.,
it is dedicated to Horus, the falcon-headed god.
God of the sky and god of light.
The pharaohs were believed to be
the embodiment of Horus on Earth.
Temples like this are organised
in a very particular way.
They go from large, light -
open, public areas like this
to increasingly dark, intimate, enclosed areas
where only the elite of the land,
priests and the royal family,
can penetrate.
These walls tell the story of Egyptian theology.
Of many gods, each one representing
a different aspect of daily and spiritual life.
This sort of sliver of a room
is where offerings to - the gods were made.
lt's incredible the way these stones speak.
They're sort of living stones,
incredible space to enter.
And somewhere here on this wall among
the hieroglyphs should be the image of Min,
the god of fertility with his -
- huge erect penis, phallus,
symbolising the power
given to mankind to recreate,
to create life through the sexual act.
And the phallus removed.
This is - appalling.
Removed over there as well, l see.
Nothing else has been vandalised.
l suspect this is some frightful souvenir hunter
in the 19th century
commissioning the removal of his member.
Ah, now you see higher up,
where people couldn't reach,
the member's intact - protruding,
showing the world the power of fertility.
Now beyond this we get to the shrine itself.
ln front of me,
but now there's another division
marked by this threshold.
Only the high priest of the land
and the pharaoh in his capacity as
supreme high priest can make this step.
Now the space is constrained more,
darker, tighter space.
An altar here.
And here the shrine
in which would have stood an image -
of the great god Horus.
This is very epicentre.
lt is, in a sense - the birthplace and
the powerhouse of Egyptian religion.
l travel to the one time
spiritual capital of Ancient Egypt.
Even today,
it still has the energy of a great city.
Oh fish. There's the catfish from the Nile -
- alive and kicking, breathing.
l'd love a bit of pigeon. Hot Egyptian food.
Takeaway, just like that.
The last of my Egyptian treasures is
for me one of pure romance.
l'm pursuing a woman.
Said to be one of the most beautiful in history.
She was married to the great
and powerful pharaoh, Ramesses ll.
l've come to Luxor Temple
for my first glimpse of her.
Would l be disappointed?
Ah, Queen Nefertari, at last we meet.
Here she is,
crouching below her husband's gigantic knee.
lncredible image, look at her.
Beautiful to touch. To run one's hands over.
Amazing. But her face is gone.
Destroyed in Ancient times.
lncredibly frustrating.
To find out more about her l must go to her tomb.
There l'll discover about her life, her death,
her life after death and, more important,
l hope l'll find out exactly
what she looked like.
Tired of cars and trains,
l fancy a ride in the open air.
l head towards the Valley of the Queens
where Nerfertari was buried.
Nefertari means, 'the lovely one'
and even over three thousand years later
she still has the power to arouse.
Nefertari's tomb is closed to the public.
lnside it are the most beautiful
and best preserved wall paintings
ever discovered in Egypt.
lncredible.
The images here tell the story
of Nefertari's journey after death,
to the Underworld and then to rebirth.
And here we see her, perfect and complete,
the beautiful queen.
Look at her.
What a fantastic face.
So calm in death
and she's being escorted by Horus,
the falcon-headed god.
He's taking her on this journey
to meet all the other gods
where she can ask their protection
and their help in herjourney.
This is a rare survival of a golden age
of Egyptian painting.
The colours are fresh and vivid.
Figures are stylised
and follow Egyptian conventions
for sacred images.
Faces are seen in profile,
while the eyes are shown front on.
The bodies are elongated,
beautiful and clad in tight, revealing garments.
Now l'm descending into the tomb proper,
going down into the rock.
And here, on each side of me,
is Anubis, the jackal,
now in the form of a guardian of - tombs.
He's here to welcome Nefertari
to the Kingdom of the Dead.
Now l can see the ordeal of Nefertari.
There she is,
and she's appealing to the Guardians of
the Seven Gates to the Underworld,
the world of Osiris.
She must pass through these gates
to get to the Underworld
or she stands no chance of being reborn.
Here's one of the terrifying guardians
with his two big knives, like an alien.
And here the goddess lsis
offering Nefertari on the left
the ankh.
The symbol of eternal life.
This is the key space in the tomb,
defined by these four square columns.
Here the queen would have been reborn
as a finer creature,
ascending to the heavens.
l've got to lie down here
where the tomb would have been,
to see the view she would have had as a mummy,
as a corpse also,
at the moment of rebirth, as a finer spirit.
This is an incredible experience, my goodness me.
When was this last done, looking up.
And of course the ceiling - is the starry sky.
The stars representing the world she came from -
and the world - the heavens
to which she hoped to return.
Amazing to see this.
My journey around Africa ends
just like it started,
on a river.
lt's a great experience on the Nile.
Like all the great rivers of Africa,
it brings life to arid land,
carries trade, and -
- it carries travellers,
and l'm travelling, travelling back to Europe.
Home to Europe.
l haven't been forjust over four months.
And um, l must admit l'm sad to leave.
l'm sad to leave this land
and l feel almost nervous about
returning to my home continent.