for 3 000 years until alexander the great's armies conquered it in the 4th century bc ancient egypt was the most important civilization in the world this week's ancient top 10. secrets of egypt the list is ranked by how each entry has shaped our understanding of ancient egypt at number 10 the great sphinx the great sphinx sits at the foot of the pyramids near cairo it is the largest statue ever carved out of a single piece of stone 240 feet long 60 feet high and wrapped in riddles in the 1950s new evidence further put into question
the age of the sphinx there are water erosion marks on the body of the sphinx caused by rain but that level of rain hasn't been around egypt for over 9 000 years if these erosion marks were made 9 000 years ago long before this part of africa was a desert then egyptian civilization is far older than previously thought number nine on our countdown can't match the wise sphinx in age but in height there was no contest it's the pharos lighthouse this is alexandria egypt in the 3rd century bc it was one of the greatest cities
of the ancient world it was built around a deep natural harbor where the nile enters the sea on an island in the harbor at the end of a man-made causeway three-quarters of a mile long an incredible lighthouse was constructed to guide ships safely in at 400 feet high the pharos may have been taller than the statue of liberty the pharaoh stood for over 1500 years for all that time there was nothing like it there's never been anything like the pharos before or since for that matter two thousand years later it's still the greatest lighthouse ever
built so much so the word faros in many languages still means lighthouse the secrets of the pharas may never be fully understood but there are even bigger secrets including the raunchiest papyrus ever unearthed coming in at number eight is a scandalous find the turin erotic papyrus at the beginning of the 19th century a local farmer near the valley of the kings stumbled across an intriguing earthenware vessel there was something hidden inside it was an ancient papyrus which shook the world of egyptology to the core and this is it these fragments of ancient scroll over eight
feet long are three thousand years old it's called the turin erotic papyrus because it's kept here in a museum in turin in italy and it's recommended for adults only this material is considered so vulgar that we can only show snippets i've seen quite a lot of ancient erotic art in my time but for me the turin erotic papyrus is quite frankly jaw-dropping basically anything that can happen is happening and this is why it makes it to the ancient top 10 list it changes and humanizes our view of ancient egypt this scroll has given us more
insight into the ancient egyptians than any other discovery i can think of with this perspective we now know that as spiritual as the egyptians were they were also as human as us with the same desires as us and i find that kind of comforting at number seven a more g-rated secret the unfinished obelisk one of the most amazing engineering feats from ancient egypt obelisks were huge stone structures they were monoliths found all over egypt they were absolutely incredible obelisks were giant pillars pointing upwards toward the sun god ra in a quarry here in oswan in
southern egypt is the biggest obelisk of all but it's still attached to the bedrock if it had been finished and erected it would have been nearly as high as niagara falls it earns its place on the ancient top 10 list because it would have been the greatest solid obelisk in history reinforcing our view of ancient egyptians as master builders this is giza in 1954 there was an amazing find here an entire ship buried in the desert and it's our number six secret the khufu ship the ancient ship was buried around 2500 bc in a pit
carved out of the solid bedrock 143 feet long and just under 20 feet wide now in a specially built museum on the site at giza it's the world's oldest intact ship what was particularly amazing about it was how this ship was built there were no fixtures or fittings it was all held together with beautifully crafted joints and tied together with rope it was a sleek beautiful design and completely sea worthy but why was it buried in the middle of the desert what was it for the khufu ship never actually went to sea because it was
a funeral barge the ship was meant to transport the dead pharaoh up to his place in the heavens it absolutely transformed our understanding of seafaring four and a half thousand years ago and that's why it's in my top ten but at number five on our list is something that was an underground secret the size of a mountain early in the 19th century a young egyptian boy guided some archaeologists to a rock face near his village he had found some unusual carvings exposed by the moving sands the archaeologists returned and began to dig what emerged was
one of the most amazing buildings in the world it was carved straight into the rock face and it was the height of a ten-story building abu symbol a huge temple from the 13th century bc suitably it's one of the greatest monuments in ancient egypt because it's dedicated to one of the greatest pharaohs the pharaoh was ramses ii also known as ramses the great he was the most powerful pharaoh ever and reigned for over 70 years the whole thing was made in just about 20 years and of course this is long before the age of modern
machinery we're still trying to figure out just exactly how they did abu simbel earns its place on the list for revealing the power of ancient egypt and the power of the pharaohs now we're into the top four and it's time for a shocking secret that's become a symbol of ancient egypt a staple of horror films ask anyone what comes to mind when you say ancient egypt and i would bet you that they say mummies mummies are the preserved bodies of the dead the ancient egyptians believed that preserving the body meant it would live on in
the afterlife they believed that after death the soul left the body but that at night it would return to it to receive new life that's why the body had to be preserved mummification was an incredibly intricate procedure all of the organs were removed with surgical precision including the brain which was extracted through the nose they would soak the bodies in vats of chemicals to dry them out and preserve the flesh and the body was packed with salt this was a key to preserving it while mummies have shaped our view of how egyptians looked at the
afterlife our next secret helped to decode everything about the land of the living in ancient egypt the key that unlocked ancient egypt the rosetta stone it was because of this rock that experts were able to understand hieroglyphics the rosetta stone has three bands of writing one above the other when it was found classical scholars could read the ancient greek it translated as a list of good works done by the pharaoh and it was the name of the pharaoh ptolemy that eventually provided the breakthrough needed because his name was uncovered in the hieroglyphs the fact that
the same information is written in all three languages means that we could work out what the hieroglyphs say and from that you can understand the whole of ancient egyptian history suddenly all the hieroglyphs in egypt became readable the rosetta stone revealed a huge amount despite being small in stature just missing out on the top slot is one of the greatest building projects of all time coming in at number two it's pyramids ancient pyramids are found all over the globe from central and south america to the middle east even all the way to asia but no
one built them on the same scale or sophistication as the egyptians as this map shows there's a lot more pyramids in egypt than the three famous ones at giza in fact there are over a hundred ancient pyramids still standing all over egypt the original pyramid architect imhotep was so important to the egyptians they made him into a god the pyramids were a truly incredible achievement and the most iconic symbol of ancient egypt even today pyramids are everywhere even on the dollar bill but the next item on our countdown had its glory hidden for over 3
000 years the most magnificent the greatest most extraordinary secret of all coming in at number one are some of the treasures discovered in one of the most amazing archaeological discoveries in history it's the treasures of the tomb of titan kami the treasure was beyond anyone's wildest dreams jewelry two thrones six war chariots everything the young pharaoh would need in the next life and even more inside this golden coffin was an even greater treasure it was the face of a 3 000 year old pharaoh it was an amazing secret of egypt now revealed the incredible golden
death mask of tutankhamen tut's death mask was surrounded by precious stone the stunning blue islapis lazuli from afghanistan coits an obsidian in the eyes that came across the mediterranean it weighs 24 pounds and is an ancient masterpiece because of this undreamt of secret find we can get a true feeling for the might of the pharaohs and the power and the glory of ancient egypt there has been no civilization like egypt before or since its incredible buildings and treasures can't be matched it's a land of mystery and a land of secrets and it will continue to
amaze and astonish for millennia to come you
