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00:02egypt luxor september 2020 a royal city 3 400 years old is unearthed as archaeologists start
00:12to excavate the sprawling site incredible remains begin to resurface the discovery of
00:19the golden city is the most important discovery that happened in egypt after tutankham
00:28this exceptional excavation site immerses us in a key period in egyptian history the last years of the
00:36glorious 18th dynasty this is the time of the golden age of amenhotep the third the time when
00:44the artisans produce the major artifacts for the glory of that king however this discovery opened
00:54the door to a more turbulent age archaeologists found evidence of a complex and mysterious figure
01:01akhnaten the heretic pharaoh within just a few years this legendary king overturned an ancient religious
01:11order he chose to prefer one god over the others and in fact he basically cancelled the chief god
01:22amund ra but akhnaten went even further he transformed his kingdom's architecture and changed egyptian art
01:32forever his aim to bring about his religious revolution and impose an ever greater role for the pharaoh in
01:50society so either akhnaten was a religious visionary or he was a politician or a dangerous combination of the two
02:01this audacity would condemn the pharaoh to oblivion his successors would deliberately and methodically
02:07erase him from history his name is out of the king list his monument was completely destroyed
02:17today leading specialists are trying to bring this mysterious reign and its revolutionary architecture
02:23back to life after thousands of years in the shadows a new page in egypt's great history is being opened
02:31up
02:31the scale of akhnaten's work and his inordinate ambition is being revealed
02:39historians archaeologists and technicians are uncovering the remains of his buildings
02:44and even managing to recreate the whole of amarna his lost capital built in the middle of the desert
02:52they're all working to shed some light on the dark reign of akhnaten the forgotten pharaoh
03:05in the middle of the desert
03:11ancient egypt is without doubt the most important civilization that our planet has ever known
03:194 500 years ago in the early days of the old kingdom the pharaohs and their builders erected the
03:26great pyramids and their mythical guardian
03:31if you stood in front of the great pyramid of khufu and you know nothing about egyptology
03:38you will never believe that the a human being could build it
03:48the constructions of the giza plateau are the first evidence of the incredible organization of egyptian society
03:56while working on these immense projects along the nile the egyptians became masters in the art of
04:02irrigation farming building and administration
04:09we know that during this time egypt was very wealthy everything was very well organized there was a
04:16large labor force and there was plenty of food to feed them so clearly this was a time where things
04:23moved smoothly swiftly the country was economically solid and the arts and crafts flourished
04:35over 3000 years the nile civilization brought the art of construction to its highest level
04:42invented one of the first writing systems
04:46and produced a culture that would leave an indelible mark on humankind
04:54at certain points in egyptian history in the new kingdom it controlled all the land from syria down
05:01into what is now sudan so it was a much bigger country
05:07through investigation some periods of this great history are now well understood by egyptologists
05:14but some gray areas remain periods about which information is scarce
05:19and where there is still a great deal to be learned
05:32in september 2020 an extremely rare discovery was revealed to the world
05:38the discovery of the golden city is the most important discovery that happened in egypt after tutankham
05:48this is the heart of egypt opposite luxor formerly thebes on the west bank of the nile
05:55it's here that an excavation revealed secrets previously buried deep in the sand
06:02an ancient city was uncovered its ruins had been incredibly well preserved this city was kept
06:12alive like what you see under the sand for 300 years until we came to reveal the secrets of the
06:21sand
06:22we owe this discovery to the renowned egyptologist dr zahi hawas for decades he has been exploring the
06:29dunes and rocks of egypt searching for the secrets hidden beneath them you know major discoveries in
06:37egypt actually happened by accident this one of them no one really thought that this city could exist
06:44and this why the discovery of this city it's a surprise it was a lost city
06:53dr hawas and his team set about excavating the site and unearthing the remains that had been buried there
07:03dr zahi hawas and his team decided to explore this area properly and there they found enormous
07:11remains of a city it's divided into sections with sinusoidal walls
07:16and you can see places where artisans used to make jewelry pottery bricks grind grain it was extraordinary
07:29as the excavations progressed streets appeared and curiously shaped walls were revealed
07:35the geometry is unusual but very well thought out
07:40why you have the serpentine walls look it's a workshop they can burn they can cook they can make bread
07:49but the most important that this can protect them from wind from heat from anything then this was made
07:58for a reason that each one could be a workshop for our artisans
08:05around what seems to be a large central street these small sinusoidal workshops protect the city
08:13but moving towards the center distinct areas appear specializing in leather tanning and the making of
08:20clothes devotional objects and jewelry the ruins of the buildings even reveal tools jars pottery and other
08:29vessels used in the past so it's like a moment frozen in time it's a snapshot it is a unique
08:37opportunity for
08:39egyptologists to better understand the daily life as well as the technologies of ancient egypt
08:50actually we know a lot about temples and tombs but we know very little about the people who made this
09:00civilization and this is why the city can tell us for the first time about the artisans about the people
09:08who made this great civilization
09:12these ruins are all the more precious as they tell us about one of the greatest golden
09:17ages egypt has ever known so great in fact that this metropolis emerging from the sands
09:22has been named the golden city this golden city is related to amenhotep iii who was one of egypt's great
09:30rulers of the new kingdom and we know this because there are a lot of inscribed objects mentioning this
09:36king's name and also it is located in sort of malcutta area so it's basically between his funerary temple
09:46and his great heb said palace and complex so we know that it belonged to him because all of that
09:53land
09:53had been developed by him initially
10:00amenhotep the third was the ninth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty
10:04a lineage of legendary pharaohs who united upper and lower egypt his reign began in the 14th century bc
10:12more than a thousand years after the pyramids were built he is considered one of the greatest builders
10:18of ancient egypt the embodiment of egyptian power and splendor and the pinnacle of artistic achievement
10:27in fact you can liken him to louis 14 because he was a great statesman diplomat and also a lover
10:36of the
10:37arts so egypt prospered during his reign the golden city was certainly the place where the most skilled
10:46craftsmen of the day created the finest foods objects and artifacts of the time
10:53this is the time of the golden age of amenhotep the third the time when the artisans produce
10:59the major artifacts for the glory of that king
11:06near the workshop areas thousands of earthenware pots have been found and stored
11:15these probably contained offerings celebrating the pharaoh's greatness
11:23and yet in the midst of this golden age certain clues point to a more troubled time to come
11:31as in pompeii signs of the site's occupation come to an abrupt halt
11:36something happened to make time stand still
11:47around 1352 bc after reigning for 38 years amenhotep the third died his son took the throne and
11:56succeeded him as amenhotep the fourth this young pharaoh was about to become one of the most controversial
12:04rulers in egyptian history as we retrace the course of his reign we're about to discover the strange
12:12direction it was about to take
12:18what is very interesting about the texts that have been so far discovered from the golden city
12:23is that they don't just have the name of amenhotep the third but they also have the name of amenhotep
12:31the fourth the fourth his son and it seems from the evidence that these two were co-reelers for a
12:37while that amenhotep the third in fact had his son become a trainee king so he could learn what to
12:45do
12:45and how to be a statesman in the early days of his reign the young king kept in line with
12:53tradition
12:54he decided to mark his accession to the throne by turning to the other side of the nile thebes on
13:01the
13:02eastern bank here a spectacular temple was built the religious complex of karnak the largest in the whole
13:11of the ancient world covering more than two square kilometers it was extended over 2 000 years by successive
13:21pharaohs each ruler added temples sanctuaries courtyards and monumental pylons
13:31this colossal construction boasts an impressive avenue of ram-headed sphinxes
13:37a hall with 134 ornamental columns and walls decorated with frescoes each more spectacular than
13:45the last it's here that we can see the first signs of amenhotep the fourth
13:54this vast religious complex is devoted to the cult of the god amun a local deity vital to the pharaohs
14:02of
14:02the 18th dynasty
14:05over time amun had become increasingly important in the egyptian pantheon to the point of being associated
14:12with ra he became amun ra a glorious sun god
14:20the time had come for the young pharaoh to prove his loyalty to the powerful priesthood of amun
14:30he will take commitments with them to put in place a program of financing of the temple
14:37of amun and embellishment of the temple of amun and we have an archaeological witness who has been found
14:44on the entrance of the temple of amun where the young nametep IV has programmed an improvement of the entrance
14:52in addition to the entrance to the front of the entrance to the entrance to the entrance to the entrance
15:05despite being perfectly in line with tradition this monumental fresco 15 meters high points to the upheavals to come
15:14although it has now been reassembled outside the temple at some time in the past it was deliberately
15:20obscured by a wall built by one of amunhotep iv's successors a surprising thing to do worse still
15:27another scene still in its original place in the complex has obviously been scratched out and erased
15:36why was this damage done what did amunhotep iv do to incur the wrath of his successors
15:45this is what the archaeologists have to discover
15:50the first explanation is that amunhotep iv decided not only to put a stop to the embellishment of the
15:57great temple of amun but at the same time to favor another deity
16:06his heart was set on the god ra harakti another solar deity but brighter and more tangible the midday sun
16:15at its zenith
16:19amenhotep iv ordered the construction of a temple and obelisk dedicated to the god within the karnak
16:26complex he was deliberately defying the priesthood of amun and committing his first sacrilege
16:34le choix de cette construction est totalement aberrant puisque là il va à l'encontre de sans doute d'engagement
16:42qu'il avait pris ou tout de moins de ce qu'il devrait faire donc là ça ça met en
16:47évidence
16:47qu'il y a une rupture de rupture énorme qui est politiquement forte
16:52this new temple is located at the eastern end of the karnak complex the other side to the first
16:59embellishment projects he promised amun and his clergy but amunhotep iv didn't stop there he now
17:06decided to begin work on a new building this time outside the walls of karnak
17:13an opportunity to go further to take new religious liberties and make yet another provocative move
17:47the idea of the historical deity ra haram
17:51was gradually modified and pared down to establish a new cult
17:57the new god became purely and simply the sun disk flooding the world with his light
18:04his almighty rays stretching out and terminating in his hands he was now called atan
18:16amenhotep the fourth gave atan an increasingly important and to many heretical place
18:24egypt had many gods and when amenhotep the fourth came to the throne this was the case
18:31but he chose to be something that he chose to be something that is called a henotheist
18:34he chose to prefer one god over the others and in fact he basically cancelled the chief god amun ra
18:46with this increasingly exclusive worship of the god atan the pharaoh was not only undermining the
18:53polytheist tradition of ancient egypt but attacking the existing religious powers head on
19:01we think that there were probably a multiplicity of reasons for this one could be that amanhotep the fourth
19:08was a religious visionary and he thought that this god atan who was the sun disc
19:14had revealed himself to him and said you are my son you are my manifestation on earth the other
19:21thing is that maybe it was a political move maybe because the priests of amun had been gaining more and
19:28more and more power um amenhotep the fourth wanted to take power back to consolidate his spiritual shift
19:38amenhotep the fourth changed his name since amenhotep meant amun is satisfied he had to remove amun from
19:46his identity from then on every trace of him that's been found refers to him as he who is beneficial
19:53to the
19:53atan the famous akhenaten the new cult of art and would be very closely linked to the pharaoh himself
20:04and his contemporaries were in for some surprises
20:10he will be the tangible proof of divinity on earth he becomes the divine hypostasis
20:17divine and he remplace a statue of cult he devient an emanation to find out more we have to look
20:26at the
20:26new temple that akhenaten ordered to be built this edifice would be the first great symbol of his religious
20:34revolution but today almost no trace of it remains his successors methodically dismantled it
20:45a new challenge for the scientists
20:50Egyptologist robert vernier has set himself the task of bringing akhenaten's key work back to life
20:57one of his favorite tools is 3d reconstruction
21:03he's created a research structure where engineers and scientists can work together to bring the past alive
21:11one of our own for fair le lian entre la pensée d'un chercheur des chercheurs arriver a la materialize
21:20a la virtualize a la maître dans l'ordinateur a la tron 3d nous on va essayer de questionner
21:26pour arriver à conspire tout ça c'est ça notre notre rôle
21:34despite this powerful tool a building that no longer exists such as the temple of aten can only be
21:41reconstructed on the basis of real evidence
21:48archaeological remains that have to be found in the field
21:53in karnak akhenaten successors who couldn't bear to see the god amun offended disassembled the
22:00temple stone by stone as soon as his reign was over
22:05but paradoxically the destruction of the building has proved to be advantageous to the modern day archaeologists
22:12the stones of the temple were later used for other constructions
22:17and not just any constructions they were used to fill the centers of the huge pylons found on the site
22:26for thousands of years these blocks of stone effectively lay hidden in plain sight
22:35during the restoration of the ninth pylon of the temple of karnak thousands of these blocks known as talatats were
22:42brought to light
22:45the archaeologists discovered that they were decorated with mysterious engravings
22:51each one was obviously a fragment from a larger scene a priceless resource
22:58it's a very important source because we have representations that were on this
23:05and that are completely dispatched and so it's a kind of enormous pulse
23:11and so when we managed to restitue this scene in whole we have globally the dimension of the wall
23:16which is placed so it's an aid to the restitution quite strong and specific to karnak
23:25the temple walls were completely covered with immense scenes it was an incredible discovery
23:32all the archaeologists had to do was reassemble the talatats
23:36and the first walls of the structure would be recreated
23:39then it was time for 3d modeling to play its part
23:46the temple was surrounded by a large square enclosure wall each side measuring 400 cubits or 210 meters
23:55the walls were 2.1 meters or 4 cubits thick
24:02once the perimeter had been outlined the next step was to flesh out this reconstruction
24:07the teams turned to previous archaeological finds the new marks left on the ground by the temple
24:17their attention was drawn in particular to the corner of a wall
24:20where what seemed to be the remains of some pillars had been found there were also parts of a statue
24:26of akhnaten
24:30the 3d restoration teams added pillars along the surrounding wall these pillars would logically
24:37have supported a covered gallery in front of which would have been statues
24:44the first hypothesis has been developed for 30 years
24:48is that we have to do a covered gallery of the mountain
24:52that shows the mountain range and when we look at the archaeology on the ground
24:57it's the exact place of the mountain range
25:02however once assembled in three dimensions this previously accepted theory no longer seem to make sense
25:31Then the researchers had an idea.
26:00In the light of this new analysis, the 3D reconstruction was modified.
26:05The ceilings were removed, and the bases, which were thought to have supported pillars, now supported the statues.
26:14This change may seem like a minor detail, but it's highly significant.
26:19Akhenaten was further immersing himself in his own radical personality cult, and had started to change the architectural norms of
26:28his time.
26:30This direction, taken by the pharaoh, was about to be confirmed by new clues.
26:42Once reconstructed, the scenes on the walls were surprising to archaeologists.
26:48Not only do they provide information about the size of the walls, but they also describe the structure of the
26:55whole building in precise detail.
26:58So you can see the decoration, and in the decoration, you can also see the plans for the temple.
27:06So this is a unique moment where we can actually see what a temple looked like without having the temple
27:12be there.
27:15With an expert eye, it's possible to make out the position of the columns, staircases, and monumental doorways.
27:24This level of precision is unprecedented, and it's specific to the very nature of the cult of Akhenaten.
27:33Under the sun's rays, everything that constitutes reality becomes sacred.
28:01The archaeologists continue to assemble the Talatats, reconstructing ever more cities.
28:07and learning more about the organization of the founding temple of the cult of Akhenaten.
28:15This work enables us to visualize the temple's size, its pathways, doors, halls, and sanctuaries.
28:23As the reconstruction of the frescoes progresses, one feature seems to recur with striking regularity.
28:30Each of the scenes is flooded by sunlight.
28:37They will install the tables of Frande.
28:39Instead of installing them in a dark sanctuary,
28:42in a statue of a cult that represents the sun,
28:45they will install the table of Frande in a court, under the rayon of the sun,
28:50and they will officiate directly with the dieu,
28:52because these are the rayons of the sun that emanate from the divinity.
28:56And they have the culot to do that.
28:58It means that from a moment, they will only build the courts.
29:02There is no longer there.
29:04The very first temple dedicated to Aten finally takes shape before our eyes.
29:10And with it, a new style of architecture.
29:13Light lines without ceilings, breaking from tradition and making the construction process faster.
29:22A revolution in keeping with the speed of the changes that Akhenaten was imposing on society.
29:33On the strength of this first construction, he would be able to take his ambitions even further.
29:42Until now, during religious ceremonies, it had been customary to depict the pharaoh presenting himself to the god to whom
29:49he was paying homage.
29:51But with Aten, the god was no longer personified.
29:54He was reduced to the form of a sun disk, and facing him directly was no longer possible.
30:01From then on, in the depictions found by Egyptologists,
30:05the main subject of the scene is no longer the god,
30:09but rather the pharaoh under Aten's rays.
30:12So that's how he takes place the divinity.
30:15To make it simple, if you want,
30:18before the pharaon was giving to drink symbolically the divine statue,
30:24now it's him who is under the sun's rays.
30:30Then, what he did was, people couldn't worship the Aten directly.
30:35They had to worship the king, who was the intercessor between Aten and the people.
30:41So really, what this was doing was seizing power for the king back again,
30:47like it had been a couple of thousand years before,
30:51when kings were really absolute rulers and totally viewed as gods on earth.
30:59This change takes us towards a new shift in this ongoing spiritual revolution.
31:04As the king became a divine manifestation, so did his life.
31:11A new figure began to appear increasingly on the walls of buildings.
31:16A legendary queen, Nefertiti.
31:27One of the most beautiful women from ancient Egypt, as seen in the modern day, was Nefertiti.
31:34She was the wife of King Akhenaten, and she is remarkable,
31:38because in all of his imagery, she is shown very close to him.
31:43And she took things much further, and there was a much more sort of equal system.
31:48And maybe there was sort of the male and the female to create the entity as a whole,
31:54which was an idea that the ancient Egyptians royals had.
31:58But Akhenaten and Nefertiti really pushed the boundaries of this.
32:05Nefertiti's political and religious role was so important
32:08that at some point she was undoubtedly elevated to the level of co-Pharaoh,
32:13ensuring the regency of the kingdom alongside Akhenaten.
32:18The king and queen consolidated themselves in this almost divine role
32:23and nurtured a new ambition.
32:27Having established a new style of architecture and developed their own cult,
32:32they now wanted to liberate themselves once and for all from the existing religious power.
32:40Akhenaten set out in search of a new location
32:43in which to fulfil his spiritual and political vision.
32:52Free of all constraints, his goal was to start from scratch
32:56and create an entirely new capital for Egypt.
33:01The pharaoh set his sights on Armana,
33:05located halfway between Thebes, the religious capital,
33:08and Memphis, the historically political capital.
33:16This strategic choice, he claimed, was led by a divine vision of the sun setting in the distance between two
33:23mountains.
33:24The future city would be named Akhenaten, the horizon of the Aten, the pharaoh's great project.
33:34To create a city in the middle of a desert, Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their court would require the greatest talents
33:41in the kingdom.
33:46This decision, as surprising as it was ambitious, takes us back on the trail of the mysterious Golden City,
33:53recently discovered by Dr. Zahi Hawass.
33:58For archaeologists, the fate of this maze of workshops has now become clear.
34:05One of the questions we have is, why is this Golden City such a snapshot in time?
34:12Why did people leave their pots? Why did they leave their grinders?
34:16Why are things looking as if someone's just about to come in?
34:19And one of the theories that people have is that maybe Akhenaten took over the throne and said,
34:28finished, we're moving to Amarna. Let's go.
34:34The craftsmen would have been ordered to leave the site and start work on the pharaoh's project.
34:39A sudden exodus that finally explains its exceptional state of preservation.
34:46If I close my eyes and I go back three thousand years ago, I can really imagine that one day,
34:54the overseer of the king's work representing Akhenaten came to the city,
35:00workmen, artisans, leave. We go to Amarna with the king.
35:06From now on, if the archaeologists want to follow the trail of Akhenaten's reign,
35:11they'll have to continue their investigations in the middle of the desert.
35:17The aim is to reveal what would have been the culmination of all the pharaoh's efforts.
35:23First of all, the researchers have to pinpoint the exact location of this new city.
35:30He moved from Thebes and took his court to a place called Telelamana.
35:35Now, he called it Akhenaten, the horizon of the Aten.
35:40And we know all about this because he put up Steli telling us what he had done and what his
35:46plans were for the city.
35:48And he said, I will build this and I will never leave it.
35:51And so, indeed, the city of Akhenaten was born.
35:57These monumental Steli not only outline the pharaoh's ambitions and intentions,
36:03they're interesting for another reason.
36:05They were arranged in such a way as to mark out the site.
36:10To date, sixteen of these boundary Steli have been found.
36:14They delineate a large territory covering 300 square kilometers stretching around the Nile.
36:21However, in the middle of this area, all the buildings of the city seem to have disappeared.
36:29Once again, Akhenaten left few clues behind.
36:39To find out more about his great project, the archaeologists have to embark on another reconstruction challenge.
36:46But this time, on the scale of an entire city.
36:52They begin by looking at the remains of the foundations.
36:56Luckily, more of them remain than in the temple of Aten in Thebes.
37:00And they've been meticulously catalogued and analyzed.
37:05These initial findings provide a ground plan of the city's main buildings.
37:29The scientists succeed in recreating the first buildings of the city, which extend over 9 kilometers.
37:36It's possible to make out palaces, temples, and buildings.
37:39And the homes of dignitaries, as well as more modest housing, and also a craftsman's village, like the one found
37:46to the west of Thebes.
37:50It provides an ancient example of well thought out town planning.
37:59It's not a city where people come and say,
38:02there's a new city, I'm going to set up.
38:04So here, everything that happens is carried out.
38:06It's carried out.
38:07We have all the relatives of the king,
38:09all those who have functions, all those who are operational,
38:11have inhabitants in Marlin.
38:13Plus, all the personnel, the police, all the artisans,
38:18all those who work in construction,
38:19we're going to make them dormitories, there are responsibilities.
38:22So all that is organized.
38:26Some of the many buildings revealed seem more important than others.
38:31Palaces and temples that bear an uncanny resemblance to those built in Thebes.
38:36It's as if the first temple of the Aten in Karnak were a prototype.
38:43But trying to find out more about this emerging city presents new challenges.
38:53Unlike the constructions in Karnak,
38:56here there are no talatats decorated with descriptive frescoes
39:00which are so specific to Akhenaten's buildings.
39:07Fortunately, the scientists can turn to evidence that is just as precious.
39:13To be found in the tombs scattered around the site.
39:19So we don't have the walls of the temples,
39:21but we have the walls of the tombs.
39:24So we have to be careful when we look at the interpretations,
39:27that in the tombs, it's not the life of the king,
39:30it's the life of the person who will be buried there.
39:33And so the person is being represented
39:37in a valuable way in his function.
39:41However subjective they may be, these images are an incredible source of information on the buildings of this lost city.
39:49Anyone able to read these frescoes will find that they contain complete plans of the buildings.
39:56The various architectural elements appear with astonishing clarity.
40:02For the archaeologists, it's finally possible to bring the legendary site of Aamana back to life.
40:09The different areas are defined and the city's epicentre takes shape.
40:13A great palace rises up with its outbuildings and ceremonial courtyards.
40:20It's surrounded by the small and great temples of Aten,
40:24the focus of a religion that was about to set the rhythm for life in this new capital.
40:30The grand design that Aten had been working on since his accession to the throne of Egypt had finally become
40:38a reality.
40:42The cult of Aten was now firmly established in Egyptian society.
40:48But the revolution went further.
40:51Egyptologists have observed that it also had a major impact on the art of the time.
40:56The aim was to stick closely to reality,
41:00to honour the world that Aten was flooding with his light.
41:04Lines that were previously straight and rigid became more fluid, curved and natural.
41:11The depictions of Akhenaten became increasingly sinuous and detailed.
41:18He has an elongated skull, longish chin,
41:23very narrow face, high cheekbones, eyes slightly slanted like this,
41:30a very thin neck, stoopy shoulders, a big belly, big hips, big thighs,
41:37very thin calves and spindly hands and feet.
41:42The depictions of Nefertiti also become increasingly detailed.
41:47In his workshop, the sculptor Thutmose produced a magnificent bust of the Queen,
41:52one of the greatest artistic masterpieces in the history of humankind.
41:59The art of Amana is now considered a style in its own right.
42:21Today, thanks to its instantly recognizable style, scientists are able to track down pieces made in Amana's workshops,
42:30scattered throughout the world's museums.
42:33One last chance to find out more about this city and the cultural revolution that shaped it.
42:45At the Aquitaine Museum in Bordeaux, there are two sculpted heads that may well have been produced during Akhenaten's reign.
42:53They display the hallmarks of Armanian art and the challenge is to find out who they represent.
43:00To shed light on the history and identity of these sculptures,
43:053D technology is once again proving invaluable.
43:10This time, it isn't about creation, but acquisition.
43:16Capturing what's there to create a highly detailed virtual model.
43:34The scientists will take hundreds of pictures, making sure they document the tiniest details,
43:41which are sometimes the most interesting.
43:43These will allow the complexity of Akhenaten's reign to be explored in even greater depth.
43:50In terms of the models, we need to be able to see the cutscenes,
43:53and maybe anticipate the fragments that are in the Karmak's reserves or at the Aquitaine Museum.
44:04Every angle and facet is covered.
44:07The images are then located in space.
44:11Once aligned with each other, they will form an incredibly precise digital model.
44:19It will also allow us to have a different view from what we have in reality.
44:23We will be able to move a light light in a completely false way,
44:28to try to understand.
44:29We will be able to apply filters on the 3D model to make elements or details appear.
44:35It allows us to manipulate and see things that we don't see in reality.
44:41After it's been reworked and refined, this 3D model will be made available to the scientific community.
44:49Everyone will then be free to manipulate it, dissect it, and put forward their own theories.
44:58Even though a complete analysis will take a long time, these sculpted heads are already pointing us towards a crucial
45:05period.
45:06The last years of Akhenaten's reign.
45:10One of them may represent his young son, Tutankhaten, born in Amarna.
45:17When he was just seven or eight years old, his father died.
45:21Akhenaten was gone.
45:23He was only about 30.
45:27With him went his dreams and his vision of the world.
45:32When Tutankhaten took the throne after a short transitional regency, he was only nine years old.
45:41This fragile succession was an unexpected opportunity for all the opponents of the revolution led by Akhenaten.
45:53Akhenaten seemed to have created a lot of problems with his ideology.
45:57By closing down certain temples, it means that you have a lot of unhappy priests.
46:03You also have confused people, because how can you do this?
46:07How can you cancel off a god?
46:10Also, these temples have been places of wealth.
46:13What happened to the wealth?
46:15And also, Akhenaten was not really dealing well in diplomacy or anything else.
46:21The members of the clergy and partisans of the former cult of Amun
46:26pressurized and manipulated the young heir in order to regain their power and restore a certain order.
46:33The new ruler was forced to return to Thebes, to the land of the god Amun,
46:39and changed his name.
46:42Tutankhaten became the pharaoh who would go down in history as Tutankhamun.
46:48In the years that followed, the drive for restoration would go even further.
46:54It was from this moment that Akhenaten came to be regarded as a heretic.
47:01His successors took steps to distance themselves from the whole artanian adventure,
47:06and did everything in their power to ensure that it was forgotten.
47:11What will be dramatic for the knowledge of the period,
47:15is that they will dismantle everything that the king had done.
47:18All the buildings dedicated to Aton are systematically dismantled.
47:23It is easily dismantled. It is easily dismantled.
47:25It is easily dismantled.
47:26The statues are broken in 1,000 pieces,
47:29to really eradicate any trace of Akhenaten on the land of Egypt.
47:38After a reign of almost 20 years,
47:41death was not the worst sentence for the man who had done everything to make his mark on history.
47:48After he died, he was condemned to oblivion by his successors.
47:56Akhenaten spent his life shaking up the codes of his time.
48:00Within just a few years, he challenged the clergy of Amun,
48:04invented a new cult, developed his own style of architecture,
48:09and established a new capital for Egypt.
48:13Today, thanks to all these discoveries,
48:16a new period of history is being revealed to us.
48:20We know so much more about the solar cult of Aton
48:23that it is now possible to revise the image of this heretic pharaoh.
48:29In a way, what Akhenaten was doing was trying to go back to someone like the 4th dynasty, like King
48:35Khufu,
48:36where the power of the king was much more concrete and absolute.
48:44More than 1,000 years before Akhenaten, the first pharaohs, the builders of the pyramids,
48:51already had one objective in mind, to become true gods and associate themselves with the sun.
48:57The idea was revived shortly before the reign of Akhenaten in the days of his father, the powerful Amenhotep III,
49:05whose golden age proved to be increasingly prosperous, ambitious and luminous.
49:12The most important thing that we have to understand is that Akhenaten was the core agent of his father.
49:20Maybe his father taught him about Aton.
49:23You can see an increase in solarization. You can see an increase in the divinization of the living king.
49:32So, either Akhenaten was a religious visionary, or he was a politician, or a dangerous combination of the two.
49:423,300 years later, we are still rediscovering this very special time in Egyptian history.
49:49A period that saw a succession of legendary characters emerge within the space of just a few decades.
49:56Three consecutive generations, that each in their own way would change the face of the greatest civilization of all time.
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