Who Were The Great Invaders Of Ancient Egypt? | Immortal Egypt | Timeline

this is about as far north in

Egypt

as it's possible to get because out there is the Mediterranean to my West is Libya to my East Palestine and Arabia while

Egypt

itself lies down there to the South a thousand kilometres of desert cut right through the centre by the Mighty River Nile and at its top why is this the

great

port city of Alexandria it was

ancient

Egypt

's last and most influential capital it was a city of

great

power wealth and luxury the

great

est in the world Alexandria was

also home of one of

Egypt

's most famous Pharaoh's Cleopatra the final ruler of a Greek dynasty and the last in a long line of foreign

invaders

would each claimed a gypped for themselves seduced by its legendary splendors by now the pyramids were already thousands of years old they were the beginning of a seemingly indestructible core belief that had survived chaos famine and war it's as if they've been picked clean a belief that would shine even more brightly in its fabled golden

age whose temples tombs and glittering treasures had made

Egypt

an irresistible temptation as jealous foreign rulers I'd a weakened

Egypt

how could it survive successive waves of foreign attack but

Egypt

had a secret weapon a culture so strong and deep-rooted that it seduced and then absorbed all who would claim it as their own welcome to my story of

ancient

Egypt

throughout the first millennium BC

Egypt

faced wave after wave of foreign

invaders

but in the face of such a strong and

long-lived culture all who would try to take over

Egypt

would themselves be taken over almost a thousand years before Cleopatra

Egypt

that entered its third intermediate period a time of political decline and vulnerability or it's the beginning of the 22nd dynasty around 9:45 BC the priests are in charge of the South but in the north the vultures have started to circle waiting for their chance to swoop as a group of Libyan generals seize power to rule us pharaohs of a divided land in many

ways

Egypt

's waning power had been triggered by a loss of faith when the authority of the New Kingdom Pharaohs had begun to crumble

Egypt

's once pious priests that helped loot the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings systematically dismantling

Egypt

's previously unshakeable belief in the afterlife with the decline in power of the New Kingdom Pharaohs the Libyans who'd fought the

Egypt

ians as mercenary generals gradually infiltrated

Egypt

's power structure and eventually

took power as the 22nd dynasty the first king of the 22nd dynasty sheshank had a number of sons who helped him keep control of

Egypt

one of whom was called NIM lot and these are the bracelets of Prince NIM lot

Egypt

's Libyan rulers understood that looking and acting

Egypt

ian would help to keep the country under their control these beautiful bracelets are just a tiny fraction of the golden treasures created for

Egypt

's libyan royals who on the surface at least upheld many of

Egypt

most sacred traditions they are portraying a very small figure of the god Horus who symbolized

Egypt

ian kingship shown as a young child emerging from a lotus blossom and on either side is protected by the rearing cobras the royal uraeus symbol yet in some ways these images are simply window dressing lip service to

ancient

Egypt

ian traditions in order to claim a

great

er prize for the libyans had organized nothing less than the state-sponsored plundering of

Egypt

's royal tombs they were so

transfixed by the wealth by the gold by the bling of

ancient

Egypt

they wanted it for themselves and over their several centuries rule while they appeared to look like Pharaohs and to rule as Pharaoh's

Egypt

never feels to have been a cohesive United Kingdom they weren't

Egypt

ians at heart and that's really what mattered in many ways Libyan rule was destined to fail because even if they were militarily superior their adoption of

Egypt

ian culture was at best superficial was

insufficient to unite the country in the north the squabbling Libyan elite fought amongst themselves while in the South the

Egypt

ian priesthood including yet more Libyan princes still clung to power the fragmented

Egypt

was easy pickings for any would-be invader

Egypt

needed a regime that could reconnect with his most powerful asset he's history and by 747 BC that's what happened when the current rulers of Nubia made a direct spiritual connection with

Egypt

's glorious past the

Kushites were

Egypt

's southern neighbors in Nubia and from time immemorial they and the

Egypt

ians had kind of battled around the sort of southern border of

Egypt

by the eighth century BC however the Kushites have the upper hand they were fervent believers in

Egypt

's traditional gods in some ways making them more

Egypt

ian than the

Egypt

ians the kingdom of cush in Nubia was at the very edge of the

Egypt

ian world having been repeatedly conquered by

Egypt

the Kushites have been hugely

influenced by

Egypt

ian beliefs beliefs that centered on this

great

sandstone mountain jebel barkal for centuries it had been regarded as the mythical mound of creation the mound from which

Egypt

Great

Creator got a moon was born here is the holy mountain this is where the God lived in his primeval form dr. Tim Kendall has spent almost 30 years working at the site being at the southern limit of the Empire it was where where the Nile began where fertility began and so it had to be the place

where creation began so this was the they imagined this is the birthplace of the god Amun and so this was the primeval Karnak when the New Kingdom Pharaohs had arrived here in 1500 BC they built this temple and dedicated it to a moon and his wife the goddess mut and when the

Egypt

ians withdrew from Nubia some 400 years later the native Kushites continued to honor the sacred mountain and

Egypt

's spiritual traditions as the kushai Kings gained increasing military power they also claimed

Egypt

for themselves so when King Pilate a Kushites invasion of

Egypt

in 7 4 7 BC he didn't plunder or destroy but restored and rebuilt and founded

egypt

's 25th dynasty the irony is that he's conquering

Egypt

to put everything right I suppose so he saw such a cycle of rebirth regrowth redevelopment and the kosher night Kings are really kind of tapping into that

ancient

power source and just sort of giving it back to the

Egypt

ians starting time all over again so they had that same sense of

history and continuity as the

Egypt

ians they are the natural successes of the 18th dynasty Kings fueled by a genuine desire to make their own mark in

Egypt

long story the Kushites began to rebuild

Egypt

here in their Nubian heartland King Pi expanded the existing temple of a Moon at jebel barkal to balance the original

great

temple of karnak in

egypt

ian thebes but while the Kushites had absorbed the culture of

egypt

they still have their roots here in africa this cultural fusion is quite clearly

expressed in this extraordinary representation of the

Egypt

ian goddess mode the face of the goddess Moot has tribal scars and look we'll see if it shows with this light you see the three lines and face so this is an

Egypt

ian goddess with a nubian makeover yeah she was a goddess of Nubia and it was appropriate for Nubians to have tribal scars so this is a very very graphic version of the way in which local Nubians were making the traditional deities of

Egypt

their own you physically marking

them it's as if she's been stamped as a nubian how incredible this is such a land of surprises that is beautiful yet this land of surprises has something else in store too gale force winds whip up the worst sandstorm in years it's a powerful reminder that the

ancient

s would also have had to deal with such dramatic natural phenomena and certainly test the grit in your tea the

ancient

would have tackled this using spells rituals they would also have made extra offerings to specific

deities most notably Osiris's brother God Seth the god of turbulence the god of storms the god of red headed individuals who were seen as somewhat turbulent to cut energy why I'm seeking shelter in the shrine cut into the mountain by PI Sun taharka which is currently undergoing major restoration by an Italian mission it's apparently reveals graphic evidence of

Egypt

's continuing powerful influence never been here before I have no idea what's going on in here so this will be

as new to me as it is to you flipping out it's a real privilege to see the time blackened walls finally giving up their secrets they're bringing out not just the goals but the blues these two colors the bright blue of the sky and the Nile and the gold this really powerful color of the Sun God this is to hakka the Kushites most powerful and important Pharaoh in classic

Egypt

ian style he's shown offering to the God a moon and his wife the goddess moot it's raised relief this is old

school this is old school technique this is skill and they're all overlaid in this yellow or gold and you can even see the little scales on this car select the moon's wearing every details here it's fabulous it's like Christmas morning this this is just extraordinary just look for yourselves just look look at their faces look at their eyes this world truly exemplifies

Egypt

ancient

magic as those who try to conquer it end up being seduced by it and then become a part of it

it's a sincere attempt by taharka to connect his kingship to the achievements of the Pharaohs of

Egypt

past in particular to the rulers of the new kingdom so although history records that taharka conquered

Egypt

this scene reveals is actually

Egypt

that conquered taharka it's as if the

Egypt

ian identity will always win out no matter what so much so that taharka is even shown with the ram's horns of a moon identifying him as the son of

Egypt

's God of gods these were worn by

Amenhotep the third in looks our temple in the 18th dynasty they were later worn by the

great

Alexander to show he too was the son of a moon and here we have to Harker in all his finery in all his splendor who knew that they were here hidden away in this special special rock we've come to the heart of jebel barkal now we've come to the heart of

Egypt

ian religion because this is a very birthplace of a moon himself and here is just for us right now emerging from the Worlds very few

people have ever seen this here inside the temple where only the most pious were allowed to haka is shown in deference to

Egypt

's most powerful God and outside on the mountain he exhibits his devotion on a truly monumental scale by embellishing the very top of its pinnacle 180 meters tall and 11 meters from the cliff face it seems completely inaccessible but to hawk have pulled off an incredible technical achievement he built a crane arm and elaborate scaffolding in order to make his own

permanent mark on the mountain what he did was he made an inscription for himself commemorating his victories east and west and then underneath his men cut a small statue of the king and they covered the inscription with gold today you can hardly see it but in those days it would have been the most conspicuous feature of the mountain I mean that's meant to be seen by the gods seen brother gods of course no mortal I could read this from the ground but that wasn't the point this was a

message to the gods carved on a monument built to impress completely covered in gold it reflected the sun's rays and it acted like a giant billboard as he telegraphed to Harker's message for miles around and this again harked back to

Egypt

's past when previous Pharaoh's had placed gilded cap stones on their pyramids and obelisks to harness the potent powers of the Sun just to the east of jebel barkal lies the necropolis of newry where the Kashyyyk king's transformation into

egypt

ian pharaohs was finally completed for the dynasty who'd invaded

Egypt

were now copying

Egypt

's ultimate symbol and for the first time in over a thousand years the kings who ruled

Egypt

were buried in pyramids when the kings made their capital at Memphis they were living right across the river from the

great

pyramids vitarka spent most of his life there and was familiar with the

great

pyramids and so when he died he needed a pyramid of commensurate scale and and this he sort of

established this new type and it was followed by all of his successor is it the Kushites eventually built more pyramids here in their Nubian homeland than the

Egypt

ians had built in

Egypt

and just as at Giza dehaka's pyramid is precisely aligned to its environment from the exact day when the Nile flood begins to recede the Sun sets just like this directly behind the jebel barkal pinnacle yet only on this specific day and only when viewed from the top of two Harker's pyramid that is

totally impressive not just a skill a feat of Engineering but but such devotion to the gods observing nature I mean it would take a huge amount of observation to get the position just right to get the day just right surrounded by these pyramids the images of a moon and Moot and their monumental temples it's easy to forget that the Kushites were actually a foreign power who take neat by force yet it's almost as if

Egypt

was taunting its

invaders

while you may try and dominate our land our

culture will ultimately dominate you and as such the Kushites left a legacy of renewal and resurrection but like all

Egypt

's conquerors the Kushites moment in the Sun was fleeting for their 25th dynasty lasted but a century as a far more ruthless an ambitious power now invaded in 674 BC the fearsome Assyrian army marched into

Egypt

as ruthless expansionists they had little interest in

Egypt

ian culture they graphically demonstrated their contempt by sucking the sacred city of Thebes the

Assyrians unlike the

Egypt

ians that interested in expanding their empire and really taking over other parts of the world and they do that by violence this ferry on

Egypt

ian bronze helmet was discovered in Thebes it is one of the very few objects that reveal the Assyrian takeover of

Egypt

despite possessing equally powerful iconography of their own the Assyrians had little time to leave their mark they simply stamped their authority upon

Egypt

by trying to rip out its religious heart this holy

complex this really huge sacred space had never been attacked at in

Egypt

ian history and so for a more damage the temple to damaged statues perhaps too damaged precious things would really have been absolute enough more to the

Egypt

ians what's really striking is it's obvious and on

Egypt

ian item but the

Egypt

ians didn't even wear helmets did they they relied on their thick head so for me it really evokes a completely alien image I mean the Assyrians I mean war was their business

wasn't it with their sophisticated weapons and armor the Assyrians were a war machine whose unstoppable progress seemed to spell disaster for

Egypt

it's after little more than 20 years the Assyrians returned east to tackle problems at home leaving vassals in charge of

Egypt

based at the Delta city of SACE these were the say ight Kings shrewd

Egypt

ian politicians who first appeared to serve their Assyrian masters but soon became strong enough to declare their independence

Egypt

was now

back in

Egypt

ian hands thus a i'ts instigated a spectacular renaissance in native culture at the heart of which lay

Egypt

's most powerful symbol of national identity mummification but no longer limited to humans there was an explosion of animal mummification everything from dogs cats crocodiles Ibis and even tiny shrews the

ancient

Egypt

ians had always mummified their dead both human and animal and with the size we can almost see it as a way of the CI Kings trying to declare we are

Egypt

we are important this is what makes us special no one else in the

ancient

world could mummify like the

Egypt

ians and so they rolled it out a millionfold with animals specifically bred for mummification and then sold as offerings at temples the sea ice had reinvigorated

Egypt

's oldest industry death was once again big business now this might look pretty silly but around 2,000 years ago here at saqqara this would have been a very common sight this place would have been packed with pilgrims

with priests making animal mummies and they'll be trundle in the mummies across the landscaping carts like this one so we must get out of our minds this idea of

Egypt

ian priests as these pious quiet figures wafting through the landscape went by this time it was all carried out in

great

numbers and it was

Egypt

's endless ability to reinterpret its core beliefs that was the key to its longevity for millennia the

Egypt

ians had believed that the Pharaoh was a living God who embodied the soul

Egypt

when the King died their soul live done in their mummified body which must be kept safe to guarantee the continuity of

Egypt

so they'd always buried their rulers in the safety of pyramids or elaborate rock-cut tombs but in times of increasing unrest and foreign rule the

Egypt

ians could no longer rely on even having a pharaoh to bury and so they turned to another centuries-old practice the Sarah pyramid Saqqara is a huge subterranean tomb complex in which the concepts of kingship and

animal mummification were fused together for each of these giant granite sarcophagi once contained an animal believed to embody all the qualities of kingship this is the burial site of the sacred APIs bull these were the bodies of mummified Bulls of such importance to the

Egypt

ian mindset they extended all this effort and cost to create a suitably impressive burial site and they've done this in spades as one ball dies and his mummified and buried the other one is then worships in life and at

death mummified and buried again and so there's a real progression the cult of the APUs bulb dates right back to the beginning of

Egypt

ian history and it's closely linked to the Pharaoh it was believed that when the sacred bull died it became one with a cyrus the god of the afterlife and so became an acai hrus APIs or Serapis for short and these sacred Bulls became hugely important under the sights during times of foreign occupation when

Egypt

was increasingly being ruled by Pharaohs in

obscenity a bit in Persia or wherever else for the

Egypt

ians they needed a physical presence and the a people provided this presence because they could see it with their own eyes they could celebrate rituals in its company and at death it will be mummified and then buried in the manner of Pharaohs going back for millennia so it was crucial to have this creature here each one successively buried in a sarcophagus just like this one we're looking at some serious devotion to this sacred creature

and everything it represented for

Egypt

in many ways the Sarah pium is

Egypt

writ large in which its core beliefs are taken to extremes being down here really makes you feel mini skill you realize you're now walking amongst the gods words fail me frankly because of the enormity of it all but that was the thing that was the skill of the

Egypt

ians they battle over the head with this idea of the colossal the monumental the spectacular yet the

Egypt

ians devotion to the APIs ball had left them

vulnerable by embodying the power of

Egypt

within a single living animal they had created an easy target given the APIs Bulls divine status harming it would have been completely unthinkable but when the Persian king came by seas invaded

Egypt

he had other plans the Persian Empire swept West taking all before it and then into

Egypt

itself the Persian king came by seized entered

Egypt

in five to five BC and destroyed the say I dynasty much like the Assyrians the Persians were ruthless

expansionists chiefly interested in enlarging their empire and can buy seeds seem to have trampled all over

Egypt

ancient

traditions having taken

Egypt

by force come by seized burnt the mummy of the previous say I Pharaoh before stubbing the APIs bull which slowly bled to death and by doing this can be seized were sending a very clear message to the

Egypt

ians I am now in charge for the next 200 years the

Egypt

ians were little more than the heavily taxed servants of the Persian Empire and

with all attempts at rebellion met with extreme retaliation

Egypt

's needed a savior an outsider who could be transformed by

Egypt

's powerful ideology and in return could transform

Egypt

enter the Macedonian super map enter Alexander the

Great

Alexander was one of the world's

great

est military leaders during his short life amassed an empire that stretched across three continents founding over 70 cities that bore his name after his initial defeat of the Persian King Alexander marched

unopposed into

Egypt

in 332 BC the world's most successful Empire Builder had arrived not only transforming

Egypt

's future but preserving its

ancient

past it really is no exaggeration to say that Alexander the

Great

is one of the most remarkable people who ever lived he really was the superhero of the

ancient

world so you'd think that

Egypt

would be filled with his images after all he had saved them from the hated Persians and yet other than the

great

city of Alexandria that bears

his name he is remarkably hard to find within

egypt

's traditional temples except here in this modest little shrine at the heart of Luxor Temple Alexander was not only a brilliant soldier but a master politician marching into

Egypt

ancient

capital Memphis amid rumors he was the son of

Egypt

's last native pharaoh this instantly plugged him into

Egypt

's long native history and he was crowned as a traditional Pharaoh here is the

great

man repeatedly across the walls of this

limestone shrine and you'd never know it was Alexander simply by looking because he looks like every other

Egypt

ian pharaoh but he knew their secrets that to rule

Egypt

you had to appear to be an

Egypt

ian and he did this brilliantly to the extent that he had his name his Greek name Alexandros written in the

Egypt

ian tradition even in a royal cartouche and it's the only give away that this is Alexander the

Great

because there is his name alexandros written in typical

Egypt

ian style and

there he's even wearing the red and the white jeweled crown of a United Land and so he's encapsulating everything that it was to be an

Egypt

ian pharaoh just like the cush I came to haka at jebel barkal Alexander is shown offering incense to the king of the gods a moon but simply connecting with the gods wasn't enough Alexander understood that real power came from becoming a god and so he undertook a perilous journey across the Libyan desert to the remote Oasis shrine of c1 where he

could commune with the Oracle of a moon himself and it's set in this legendary story that the god actually said to him you are my son and from then on something clicked in Alexander's mind and he went off to conquer the rest of the

ancient

world truly believing he was divine and he had the full blessing and support of Emil himself the king of the gods of

Egypt

Alexander would only stay in

Egypt

for six short months but during his time here he founded a city that would be his lasting

legacy the

great

city of Alexandria built on the Mediterranean coast to create trading links with the rest of the

ancient

world the later historian Aryan recorded that Alexander had laid out the city's general plan himself but lacking chalk or other means he resorted to marking it out with grain when a flock of birds began eating the grain Alexander regarded this as a bad omen yet his religious advisor quickly spawned bad news into good and interpreted this as a sign that the new city would

soon prosper and would one day feed the whole world a remarkably accurate prophecy for within a very few years Alexandria would not only be

Egypt

's new capital but the

great

est city on earth although Alexander himself would never see it yet despite his pious nature Alexander was essentially a soldier and his quest to conquer the Persian Empire he left

Egypt

in 331 BC never to return alive moving as far east as India he conquered an empire of 2 million square miles before dying in Babylon

aged only 32 but still undefeated and still the Pharaoh of

Egypt

at death Alexander was mummified and his body became the focus of a power struggle some of his officers wanted him buried in his Greek homeland but for others he had to return to

Egypt

and be buried as a Pharaoh thereby preserving

Egypt

's long traditions but it obviously meant that anyone who possessed his mummified body could also claim the throne of

Egypt

and clues to this drama can be found here in the windswept desert of

Saqqara 10 years after he'd left

Egypt

's alive Alexander returned here for his body had been mummified

Egypt

ian style and it became a hugely powerful talisman for whoever held the body of Alexander the

Great

held

Egypt

while enroute to Greece his cottage was diverted and his mummified body brought here to

Egypt

ancient

necropolis of Saqqara exactly where his tomb itself was remains a mystery although situated just meters from the Serapeum is this collection of very own

egypt

ian looking

statues and it's these somewhat sandblasted statues that give us a real clue that Alexander may initially have been buried somewhere close by because these are the sculpted images of some of the

great

est scholars and artists of

ancient

Greece although exactly who is who was kept makes scratching their heads for years they're likely identities reveal a direct link to the world in which Alexander grew up and was educated take homer for example his

great

warrior hero Achilles was

Alexander's lifelong role model Plato who had tutored Aristotle who in turn had tutored Alexander and Pinder whose poetry had praised Alexander's Macedonian ancestors as for who placed these statues here the most likely candidate is Alexander's general improbable half-brother ptolemy 4 by burying alexander here close to

Egypt

ancient

capital Memphis Ptolemy could legitimize his own takeover of

Egypt

and by laying claim to Alexander's body and to

Egypt

he founded the dynasty

named after himself their fabulous and outrageous ptolemies ruling

Egypt

for the last three centuries BC the Ptolemaic dynasty would be

Egypt

's final flowering 15 male kings all named Ptolemy with their female Kohl rulers half of whom were called Cleopatra Macedonian Greek by descent their dynasty would bring Greek style culture knowledge and fabulous wealth into

Egypt

while at the same time immersing themselves in

Egypt

's irresistible religion and customs they were very very sensitive

to the cultural practices and the religious sensibilities of the

Egypt

ians they knew that to control this

ancient

land of

Egypt

they had to tap into what made

Egypt

powerful what made

Egypt

special they wore the right clothes the right crowns they built the right temples they worship the right gods and the ptolemies relocated

Egypt

's capital from Memphis to their new super city Alexandria built to Alexander's original plan it was one of the most lavish construction projects on earth the

historian Strabo would later comment that the city had magnificent public precincts and royal palaces that covered a fourth or even a third of the entire area the colonnaded marble streets were over ten meters wide there were public baths a huge gymnasium on one of the

great

est wonders of the

ancient

world the 135 metre tall Pharos lighthouse that guided ships safely into port and at the center of the city Alexander himself who's mummified body had been exhumed from Saqqara and brought here

the ptolemies had built a capital unlike anything

Egypt

had ever seen before for in Alexandria a new

Egypt

was being born the creation of Alexandria and the

great

influx of immigrants gave it a freshness of adversity and really kind of transformed the

ancient

culture whereas previously

Egypt

ian civilization had developed along the Nile and in many ways was quite inward looking quite insular I think the fact that Alexandria was open to so many diverse influences religiously culturally and this

gave it a real air of Tolerance I think had have felt very at home here there's a real sense of culture and learning an appreciation of life today Alexandria is the largest city on the Mediterranean stretching for over 20 miles along the coast as

Egypt

's largest seaport it caters for over 80% of the country's imports and exports a legacy that reaches directly back to the ptolemies having improved

Egypt

ian agriculture by reclaiming new farmland through increased irrigation they

supplemented the

Egypt

ian staples with new crops such as cotton and better grapes for wine production and today the markets of Alexandria still buzz with some of the early cities lively cosmopolitan style Fingaz Elam I'm gonna try and find the nearest equivalents to

ancient

Egypt

ian delicacies and these the dates and the

ancient

Egypt

ians used to make pastries and bread from them because they're very sweet too I think I might have to taste one just for quality control you understand see

how authentic they're this is incense in its raw state and of course this was burned in temples and in funerary rites the port city of Alexandria became a huge hub of international trade establishing roots with Greece the Middle East India and even Britain and his native

Egypt

ian goods like papyrus and perfume flowed out of the country new exotic luxuries like spices silks and wines poured in the Greeks loved olives and so these were imported and the

Egypt

ians started to grow them I'll

definitely have some of these delicious we've got to get some black pepper this is one of the really really popular things certainly in Ptolemaic times because markets are dealt and open subtly as as far east as India and the Greeks went crazy for this stuff it's sadly lively shopping in

Egypt

never a dull moment with Alexandria now at the heart of the

ancient

world the rest of

Egypt

benefited too for determined to honor their adopted countries long history the Ptolemies undertook a

massive temple rebuilding and restoration program indeed modern visitors can often fail to realize that many of the places they visit were either built or restored by the Ptolemies esna ed through Dendera colombo all of these are Ptolemaic buildings that tourists and scholars admire so much and yet they really don't give sufficient credit to the people whose vision created them the most impressive of all such temples buys the farthest from Alexandria deep into a /

Egypt

close to aswan is the

stunning temple of Feli which an

egypt

ian meant the end since it was located at the very southern edge of

Egypt

much of the temple was built by ptolemy ii and his co ruler and sister arson away there was a law passed by her husband told me to say a statue of us in had to be erected in every single temple in

Egypt

she had to become its resident goddess our sinner it was a powerful female pharaoh associated with a goddess Isis a role the famous Cleopatra would adopt two centuries later and under

the Ptolemies feel I became a major center of the ISIS cult and here in the heart the Feli temple our cinemas golden statue would have stood side-by-side with that of Isis so the walls are full of images of Isis and her fellow gods according to me Isis was responsible for the vital Nile flood swelling the river as she wept tears of sorrow for her murdered husband Osiris who she then resurrected and with it's spectacular location feel ice still retains its hugely spiritual atmosphere in case

that sense of continuity I really feel when you know Claire you feel like you're at the center of the world suppose for the

ancient

Egypt

ians you were the center of their religious world and at this point which was the heart of

ancient

Egypt

ian religion way to the Christian er away into the sixth century AD kind of messes with your head it's a very very holy classist but while feel I was becoming an increasingly important center of

Egypt

ian religion its new capital Alexandria had become

the leading center of knowledge for the ptolemies created some of the first scholarships attracting academics from across the world to study a wide range of subjects biology geology astronomy geometry and that's my philosophy and of course my own personal favorite history and at the center of this intellectual hothouse was the famous royal library but to half a million works were once housed within to compete with the famous schools of Plato and Aristotle in Athens and today that legacy

lives on with Alexandria striking new library Ptolemies really did appreciate that knowledge was power and they wanted that power so they brought together in this one single place some of the

great

est works in human history the plays of Aeschylus Sophocles and Euripides the works of Aristotle the philosopher the Old Testament Scriptures and all the accumulated knowledge from the temples of

ancient

Egypt

all brought into this one single building the

Great

Library also contained the works of

Herodotus a Greek historian who traveled the length of

Egypt

over a century before the ptolemies had come to power his accounts sum up the Greek fascination with

Egypt

ian society not only is the climate different from that of the rest of the world and the river unlike any other River but the people also in most of their manners and customs exactly reverse the common practice of mankind for the women attend the markets and trade while the men sit at home and do the weaving indeed the level of

equality of

Egypt

's women shocked Herodotus something he vividly records when he witnessed a group of men and women travelling together by boat to the Delta city of Bubastis some of the women make a noise with clappers others play the oboe while the rest of the women and men sing and clap their hands some of the women shout mockery to the women of that town they are passing whilst others dance and others stand up and expose their private parts in temples the length of

Egypt

the Ptolemies

ensured they were portrayed as

Egypt

ian pharaohs making them almost indistinguishable from their native

Egypt

ian predecessors yet in Alexandria the blend of Greek and

Egypt

ian could sometimes create a hybrid of rather strange results Namine sami is a local historian who spent years studying this remarkable tomb complex built just after the Ptolemaic period and here we come to is a unique failure me Imperial children that is fabulous guarded by Greek Doric columns the entrance is covered in

images of

Egypt

ian gods who would ensure a safe passage into the afterlife it's like a tomb but it's also like a temple but a typical

Egypt

ian star protecting the interest yeah yeah you know why corporates choosing to be presented in the tubes because and the Cobra has no eyelashes it ki keeps her eyes open 24 hours which means it's a wake to protect to for over 24 hours a day unknown I love these snakes that's a very

great

looking snake but it's wearing a very little

mentioned

Egypt

ian crown that's crazy they're literally are throwing everything they've got at this - I mean Medusa Horus some discs to guarantee 50 this is the best garden doorway I've seen in

Egypt

it's got everything here and this statues they represent the inhabitants of the to a single wealthy family these two exhibit an odd mix of the Greek and

Egypt

ian I think the bodies are

ancient

Egypt

ian the stance is

ancient

Egypt

ian the man's kilt is

Egypt

ian from the neck

down their

Egypt

ian but from the neck up they're European it's clear the tomb owners had done everything they could to ensure a safe passage into the

Egypt

ian afterlife even if they didn't quite understand how it all worked all the features are they you've got Thoth with you know presenting the oils and Anubis to in the same when we find the dead you've even got jazz underneath kinda big jaws and feather of might the goddess of for justice without her approval that you will

never crosses the other side he didn't forget to add a Greek touch in a lower part to the pictures of the enosis Dionysus was the Greek god of wine and fertility clearly these to mock you pants intended to continue the lives they lived in Alexandria into the beyond I want to all what I enjoy in life to be with the other side especially the wine a

great

place to spend eternity despite its rather cartoon-like quality the apparent appearance of this tool demonstrates the desire of the

Alexandrian elite to integrate into

Egypt

ian culture yet in many ways it was little more than a veneer hiding the real force that would ultimately destroy

Egypt

for where the external

invaders

had largely tried and failed

Egypt

's real nemesis would be the Ptolemies famous love of luxury and excess much of this luxury was just a facade for the royals of alexandria notorious for their love of display were like actors on his stage as one

ancient

commentator observed everything in

Egypt

simply play-acting and painted scenery a comment which cuts to the heart of this melodramatic monarchy for whom image was everything because while the ruling elite were living it up in Alexandria other parts of

Egypt

were far from content by the end of the third century BC

Egypt

was once more riven with civil war offer

Egypt

began to rebel and it fell to Ptolemy v to try and fight the fires of anarchy so not only did he portray himself as an

Egypt

ian he went even further in his support for

Egypt

ancient

beliefs in doing so he left the world one of its most famous

ancient

artifacts the rosetta stone it's best known as the means by which the french scholar shampo liang was first able to decipher

egypt

ian hieroglyphs in 1822 and we can tell that the inscription on the stone was of huge importance because it was written out in three types of script greek demotic and hieroglyphic in a way you could almost describe it as a kind of news bulletin it's the priests of memphis

issue in this decree to let as many people know exactly what the religious and the political policy was of crown and clergy and it particularly focuses on ptolemy v generous patronage the priests are praising him because he's the one that gives wealth to the temple and gives due honor and respect to the sacred animals which were such an integral part of

Egypt

ian religion the priests really are grateful to their Ptolemaic pharaoh who they see as wanting to sort of tap in to the

ancient

egypt

ian culture an

ancient

Egypt

ian religion much like Alexander had much like the say I sad and the Kushites had they knew that to attain true power true control in

Egypt

he had to do things the

Egypt

ian way yet Ptolemy's the Fitz philanthropy came at a price keeping the peace in

Egypt

proved cripplingly expensive so the second half of the Ptolemaic dynasty was riven by debt corruption and vicious Civil War soon the expanding Roman Empire bore down on a divided

Egypt

only the famous

Cleopatra stood in their way in the mould of

great

uncle Alexander she believed herself divine and managed to hold the Romans at bay for over 20 years but not even the

great

Cleopatra could prevent the inevitable and so it was it's in August 30 BC Cleopatra's famous suicide brought an end to

ancient

Egypt

as we know it this epic culture which had lasted for three thousand years came to an end in a matter of days when on the 31st of August

Egypt

was formally annexed by Rome this was

Egypt

's point of no return a slow painful decline of

Egypt

ian beliefs and culture until the arrival of Christianity with its numerous temples abandoned built over or simply destroyed

Egypt

's glories began to fade from memory but

Egypt

great

story can now be traced back 20,000 years to the very origins of its magical culture which had evolved from its unique environment creating a series of sophisticated beliefs able to unite a country to build

great

monuments it had survived chaos

and famine only to rise again in a glorious zenith of rebirth and resurrection even waves of foreign invasions were ultimately assimilated by

Egypt

's powerful traditions and despite being eventually absorbed into the Roman Empire the

ancient

culture had continued until the arrival of Christianity it as the

Egypt

ians had always believed there would be a life after death Cleopatra's Needle on London's embankment had lain forgotten in

Egypt

until the 19th century but as pioneering

Egypt

ologists began a 200 year process of rediscovery

ancient

Egypt

was reborn and this time it went global and what a privilege it is for us today to be able to see such wonderful things and capture just a glimpse of this fascinating

ancient

culture the culture of the people that one with their environment and who captured through their timeless monuments their own unique view of the world in fact the story of