NARRATOR: Egypt, the richest source of archaeological treasures on the planet. SALIMA: Oh, that's a fabulous one! NARRATOR: Beneath this desert landscape lie the secrets of this ancient civilization. JOHN: Wow, you can see why the pharaohs chose this place. NARRATOR: Now, for a full season of excavations, our cameras have unprecedented access to follow teams on the frontline of archaeology... ASHRAF: I'm driving so fast because I'm so excited! KATHLEEN: It's an entrance, we can see an entrance. NARRATOR: Revealing buried secrets... ANTONIO: I have just been told that they have found something. DON: Oh my gosh. (laughs). JOHN: A sphinx! NARRATOR: And making discoveries that could rewrite ancient history. This time, the hunt for the lost tomb of Queen Cleopatra. Colleen searches for clues in the hieroglyphs... COLLEEN: Here we see Cleopatra as the goddess Isis. NARRATOR: Alejandro scans ancient mummies in an Egyptian hospital... NARRATOR: And Kathleen makes a startling discovery deep underground. NARRATOR: Ancient Egypt, a kingdom of great pharaohs and a cradle of civilization. But after 3,000 years this rule came to an end with the last pharaoh, Queen Cleopatra. For centuries this enigmatic woman has captured the imagination of the world, but the location of her tomb is still a mystery. Today archaeologists across Egypt are on the hunt for clues. Renowned Egyptologists Colleen and John Darnell are experts in decoding hieroglyphs, they're on their way to the Valley of the Kings. COLLEEN: We're headed to the location of the burials of nearly every pharaoh of the New Kingdom. NARRATOR: The Valley is a rabbit warren of sixty-five hidden tombs. They form one of the greatest royal cemeteries in the world, but not all of them are finished. JOHN: This morning we're going to the unfinished tomb of Ramses XI. It's the last tomb begun in the Valley of the Kings, and many times unfinished things in Egypt can actually tell you a little bit more than the completed product. NARRATOR: Ramses XI reigned over 1,000 years before Cleopatra, but when he died his tomb was never used. COLLEEN: So here you could see just the initial phases of the tomb decoration, but it's already a beautiful depiction of Ramses XI. We know exactly who we're looking at because of his cartouches, his name rings, in front of his face. JOHN: Looks like they've laid out what would've been remarkable illustrations and, and texts early in the initial part of the tomb. NARRATOR: The tomb of Ramses XI is located in the east of the Valley of the Kings. Its cavernous chambers and pillared halls reveal how the pharaoh should have been buried, but the back of the tomb is unfinished. After 500 years of Egypt's kings and queens being buried in the Valley, Ramses' tomb marks the end of an era. Ramses XI abandoned the Valley of the Kings, and no more pharaohs were buried here. COLLEEN: This is very much the end of a legacy, this is the end of kings being buried in the Valley of the Kings, but it's also the start of something new, of continued royal burial that really ends with Cleopatra. NARRATOR: Historians believe this royal burial site was abandoned because of looting, but no one has found the cemetery for the last pharaohs of Egypt, Cleopatra and her family line. So where could it be? After the Valley fell out of use eventually Egypt's seat of power shifted north to Alexandria. The last great dynasty of pharaohs established their capital here to exploit trade across the Mediterranean Sea. Archaeologist Dr. Ross Thomas from the British Museum is here exploring the ancient capital for evidence that could lead to Cleopatra. ROSS: The ancient city housed about half a million people during the first century BC and it was one of the most important ancient ports and ancient cities of the Mediterranean. NARRATOR: The port city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great who conquered Egypt 2,300 years ago. It was famed for its palaces, statues, its library, and a colossal lighthouse standing over 350 feet tall, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. During this time, Egypt was ruled by the successors of Alexander, the Greek pharaohs called the Ptolemies, but this family line ended when the country was eventually conquered by Rome, leaving the last pharaoh of Egypt Queen Cleopatra. Many archaeologists think Cleopatra will be found in a royal cemetery somewhere in Alexandria, the capital built by her own family... but searching here is difficult. The ancient city was hit by a series of earthquakes and much of it now lies beneath the waves. ROSS: So do we have weights here? MAN: Yes. NARRATOR: Professor Emad Khalil from Alexandria University began exploring the sunken city over twenty years ago, keeping an eagle eye out for Cleopatra's tomb. EMAD: This has not been found obviously in Alexandria yet, but as we always say beneath Alexandria there are other Alexandrias. Okay. NARRATOR: The evidence of Cleopatra's ancient capital is strewn across the seabed. Shards of pottery, huge columns, fallen obelisks, and what they believe is one of the doorways to the famous lighthouse. ROSS: There was scores of columns and column bases, hundreds of blocks, really large structural blocks. EMAD: I think we managed to see a part of an obelisk, and part of a doorway of the lighthouse, so it is, it's really, really something. ROSS: Yeah. NARRATOR: Every dive provides new data for Emad and Ross to research, but there's no sign of Cleopatra or her family's graves. EMAD: Well you'd assume that they'd want to be buried in their own city. Normally what you have is a royal cemetery with all the burials for the kings and queens. NARRATOR: But what if Cleopatra wasn't buried in Alexandria at all? One woman thinks everyone has been looking in the wrong place. Thirty miles west of Alexandria in an ancient city called Taposiris Magna, there is a little-known temple. Here Kathleen Martinez, a qualified lawyer turned archaeologist, is on a quest. KATHLEEN: So this is one of the exciting moments of an excavation. NARRATOR: For the past decade she has been building a case that Queen Cleopatra is buried beneath this temple. KATHLEEN: I want to be an archaeologist since I was a child, but my parents convinced me to study law, and I became a lawyer. But all this knowledge and this information that I had as a lawyer I combine with archaeology, and this is how I follow Cleopatra's steps to Taposiris Magna. NARRATOR: Kathleen is from the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, but thirteen years ago she gave up her law work and started excavating here at the temple. KATHLEEN: We have uncovered so many important structures that prove this temple functioned as a temple during the time of Queen Cleopatra and the Greek pharaohs. So this could be the perfect place for Cleopatra's lost tomb. NARRATOR: At the age of eighteen, Cleopatra became pharaoh when her father Ptolemy the twelfth died. She went on to rule for twenty-one years. Faced with the threat of a Roman invasion, she formed alliances with the enemy, first wooing Julius Caesar and bearing his child, followed by a relationship with Mark Antony. But in 31 BC the Roman navy, led by Octavian, attacked Egypt. To avoid capture, legend has it that Cleopatra committed suicide with the bite of a venomous snake. KATHLEEN: She threatened Rome and Romans were afraid of her. She thought she could conquer the world, even though she was a woman. She was a warrior, and she achieved the impossible, and this is why she is my heroine and I will try to do everything I can to find her tomb. NARRATOR: Kathleen believes Cleopatra could be buried somewhere around the site. This season, she has a promising lead 300 feet outside the temple walls; a strange hollow in the ground. KATHLEEN: We found a cut, it's a cut in the bedrock, it's a shaft, and we are trying to find out what, where it lead us. NARRATOR: Kathleen believes the shaft could lead to Cleopatra's lost tomb, hidden deep underground, but trying to excavate this site is dangerous. KATHLEEN: It's dangerous because if the bucket turned around it could hit the guys which are down there. NARRATOR: With the potential to break through into an underground cavity, they're worried the floor of the shaft could suddenly collapse. KATHLEEN: It's an entrance, we can see an entrance. NARRATOR: It's a huge discovery. The shaft leads to an underground tunnel. KATHLEEN: It's so exciting. I need to see what is in there. It has been hidden for 2,000 years. NARRATOR: Across Egypt, the hunt for lost tombs continues. 500 miles south of Alexandria is the ancient city of Aswan. It's here that Spanish archaeologist Alejandro Jiménez-Serrano leads a large mission working at the ancient necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa. The site is home to one of the largest sets of intact tombs in Egypt. Alejandro is searching for unmarked graves and lost tombs. (speaking in native language). This sprawling site is even older than the Valley of the Kings, and is thought to be the burial site of many wealthy nobles. Today he's working in one of the ancient tombs, trying to identify who was buried there. ALEJANDRO: Unfortunately, it has no inscriptions so we don't the owner or the family who occupy this tomb. We can only say which period, when it was built, because of the style. NARRATOR: But deep inside this tomb the team has just unearthed two buried mummies. As they clear away the sand, Alejandro makes a startling discovery; it's the edge of a beautiful golden death mask. ALEJANDRO: Wow! NARRATOR: Death masks are often made of layers of linen or recycled papyrus, and then soaked in plaster. This forms a tough material a bit like paper mache, called cartonnage. While still wet, the cartonnage is molded to resemble the face of the deceased, and then painted. Often the name of the person was written on the mask, along with inscriptions to help transport the deceased into the afterlife. This ancient funeral practice continued for over 2,000 years, right up to the time of Cleopatra. ALEJANDRO: And the quality of the cartonnage is, is amazing, the, the colors, and it has text and it seems that it will be possible to read the name of the original owner. NARRATOR: But before Alejandro can try to put a name to this ancient body, his team will need to extract the fragile mask. They use soft paintbrushes to remove the sand grain by grain, and then strengthen the mask with paper coated with resin to stop it from breaking. ALEJANDRO: It's a privilege and it's amazing to, to have the opportunity to, to work with untouched material. NARRATOR: Back at Taposiris Magna... KATHLEEN: They take such good care of me. They are not used to women going down the shaft. NARRATOR: Kathleen Martinez is descending into a 2,000-year-old shaft. KATHLEEN: Yes. Going down. NARRATOR: She believes it could lead her to the lost tomb of Queen Cleopatra. But there's a problem. KATHLEEN: God! The tunnels are full of water. NARRATOR: The vertical shaft descends twenty-feet down and leads to two narrow tunnels. KATHLEEN: We have tunnel which is perfectly cut in the bedrock. One it seems to lead to the north, and the other goes to the south. NARRATOR: The fact that the tunnels are flooded makes any further exploration very difficult, but Kathleen is determined to push on. KATHLEEN: Okay, look. Oh God, so creepy, look! At the end of the tunnel there is a door, but it's almost completely covered with water. NARRATOR: Now she can see the quality of the stonework and how much effort it would've taken to create these tunnels. Kathleen is sure they must lead to somewhere important. KATHLEEN: I tried to go inside but then the, the level is deeper and I almost fall down, so I need to pump up the water. I have to, I have to explore this door. ♪ ♪ (speaking in native language) NARRATOR: Kathleen will need to find a water pump before she can explore the flooded tunnels any further. KATHLEEN: You cannot walk there, or crawl, because of the water, it's, it's unsafe. It will one of the greatest adventures in the excavation now because we need to know what is in there. NARRATOR: Kathleen is convinced Cleopatra's lost tomb is hidden somewhere around this site. She has evidence the temple is linked to the Egyptian goddess Isis. Kathleen thinks this is her biggest clue so far. KATHLEEN: We have archaeological evidence that the temple was maybe the most important religious center for Isis in the north, and the thing we know about Queen Cleopatra is that she was buried in a temple of Isis. So it could be a perfect place for Cleopatra's lost tomb. NARRATOR: But who was Isis, and how is she connected to Cleopatra? 380 miles south of Taposiris Magna on the banks of the river Nile, parts of this vast temple site are dedicated to Isis, who was a well-loved Egyptian goddess in Cleopatra's time. It's here that Dr. Colleen Darnell continues her own search for clues to Cleopatra's life, written in the hieroglyphs. COLLEEN: We're walking to the temple at Dendera, and one of the most significant scenes here is a depiction of Cleopatra. NARRATOR: The temple was first built 2,000-years ago and became a major place of worship for ordinary Egyptians. Through the centuries, a succession of pharaohs carved their names and images here so they could be worshipped, including Cleopatra. COLLEEN: So the title here is lord of the two lands, referring to Upper and Lower Egypt, Cleo-pat-ra. NARRATOR: Cleopatra made a shrewd decision; on the temple she wears the symbolic headdress of Isis. COLLEEN: Here we see the famous representation of Cleopatra as Goddess Isis. Here we have Cleopatra and her son Caesarion. So Cleopatra has a long wig, the horns and sun disk, and ostrich feathers behind that. NARRATOR: Cleopatra wanted to be seen by her subjects as the earthly incarnation of Isis. She was making a profound connection with one of the most popular goddesses of the time. Isis was famed for her powers of healing and protection and was adored by both Egyptians and Greeks. By immortalizing herself as Isis on the temple wall, Cleopatra hoped to keep the full support and love of her people, and it worked. COLLEEN: For Cleopatra to step into the role of Isis really proclaimed her identity as divine ruler. NARRATOR: At Taposiris Magna, Kathleen thinks Cleopatra's Isis connection could mean she's buried somewhere beneath the temple. Now, the team is pumping out the water from the flooded underground tunnels, but it's going to take a while before she can explore. KATHLEEN: It's working. Alhamdulillah. It's a big relief to see it working. Imagine, today or tomorrow we, we're going to be able to, to explore. It's so exciting! NARRATOR: Kathleen believes Cleopatra could be buried in an underground chamber, and the tunnels could lead her to it. She originally found the location of the shaft using radar technology, but with the potential for a huge discovery just feet away, she has brought in more sensitive military-grade equipment to look deeper into the rock. KATHLEEN: For me the future of the excavation is ground-penetrating radar. It's a technology that was used for military purposes, searching for tunnels and searching for cavities, and this technology is perfect for what I am looking for. So we, we can work here, make a profile here? NARRATOR: As they move the radar scanner along, it fires radio wave pulses into the ground. MAN: So here we are going about, about 15 meter depth. NARRATOR: The data from the scan will have to be sent away for analysis. It should reveal any hollow cavities hidden underground, and possibly even the location of Cleopatra's burial chamber. KATHLEEN: I always, you know, so excited about this. NARRATOR: Back at the excavation site, everything is resting on the team pumping the water from the underground tunnels. NARRATOR: While work continues at the dig, in Cairo, Kathleen is attending an important event. WOMAN: It's nice. KATHLEEN: It, what do you think? WOMAN: It's nice, oh my God! NARRATOR: At the Egyptian Museum, hundreds of Kathleen's finds have been chosen to go on display for the very first time. They all come from her site at Taposiris Magna, unearthed over ten years of excavation. Kathleen believes each piece adds further weight to her theory that Cleopatra could be buried there. KATHLEEN: We, we discover around 200 coins. For example, this is a coin of Queen Cleopatra. Can you imagine that I've been searching for Queen Cleopatra and this is the first time I was face to face with my heroine, it was a moment so exciting in excavation. Yes, we are going to change this one. WOMAN: This one? I get it. KATHLEEN: For this one, yes. I was thinking now, when I was a kid in the Dominican Republic and I dream one day to make discoveries in Egypt, and everybody in Dominican, my teachers, my parents, told me this will never happen, and now we are presenting 350 objects. NARRATOR: For someone who started as an amateur archaeologist, Kathleen now has the eyes of the world looking at her finds. KATHLEEN: We had a desire to change history. It's one of the greatest moments in my life. Of course, the exhibition, it's only a presentation of work, but the real work, the one we're really excited about, is to be onsite and, and continue searching. NARRATOR: Back at the dig site, there's a problem with the water pump. KATHLEEN: Mohamed, what happened? KATHLEEN: Cut? MOHAMED Cut, yeah. KATHLEEN: It's not working now? KATHLEEN: Can you imagine after all this effort now there's no electricity in the area, and only a few hours left today and next, and tomorrow, that's it. NARRATOR: Kathleen's government permit to dig at the site only lasts for one more day. She's now racing against the clock to explore the underground tunnels. KATHLEEN: We face so many challenges, but we don't, we, we never give up. NARRATOR: At the 4,000-year old necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa... (speaking in native language). NARRATOR: Alejandro's team has unearthed a very rare death mask made of a material called cartonnage. He hopes the mask will tell him the name of the person buried in the tomb, but decoding the hieroglyphs is proving difficult. ALEJANDRO: I cannot read properly the, the, all the signs. It will be better to do it after the consolidation and cleaning. NARRATOR: Alejandro's team has started the painstaking process of extracting the mask. Their job is made even harder because it's embedded under the bones of its owner. ALEJANDRO: It's quite a delicate moment because we have human remains that are touching and we don't want to destroy the cartonnage. MARTINA: They are taking off the cartonnage. NARRATOR: The ancient mask is carefully removed, but comes out in several parts, held together with resin and paper to prevent any further damage. MARTINA: It is really amazing. (speaking in native language). And I'm simply now checking if there was name or not. Yes, there are more hieroglyphs. ALEJANDRO: Here is the name, it's for the soul of Seti Hacaib a Inet. NARRATOR: Alejandro can now put a name to the unknown body, but he still doesn't know the persons job, or role in society. ALEJANDRO: We have now to look in the, in the publications to see if we have any reference in the neighborhood or in other documents, and but it, it's amazing. NARRATOR: The death mask is now taken to their on-site lab for further analysis. The team will try to piece it back together like a jigsaw puzzle. There could still be more secrets to be revealed about this mysterious man. In Aswan, on the other side of the site, Alejandro has unearthed several mummies still intact. He's searching for clues to their identity, which may lie hidden within the ancient bandages, but to keep them intact archaeologists are no longer allowed to open up the wrappings. ALEJANDRO: 100 years ago it was common just to cut the wrappings. Today we are lucky to have non-invasive techniques, and the idea is that we are going to take to the university hospital in Aswan where they have very good CT scans. NARRATOR: By scanning the bodies, Alejandro hopes to examine how they died, and also to see if there are any funerary objects hidden inside. ALEJANDRO: We have the possibility that he could have a dagger or a metal object inside, we could confirm the age of death, if he suffer any kind of disease. Definitely the CT scan will tell us a lot of information. NARRATOR: In the Valley of the Kings, John and Colleen Darnell continue their search for clues to Cleopatra's life and untimely death. Deep in the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I the first, they're examining inscriptions that could shed light on how Cleopatra chose to commit suicide. The tombs of the Valley of the Kings were built during a golden age in Egyptian civilization. Treasures and decorations reveal the symbolism that played a key role in their belief system. The tomb of Pharaoh Seti the first lies in the southeast of the Valley, it's the deepest and most widely decorated. Painted on its walls are images of gods and goddesses who lay at the heart of Egyptian society. Forming a belief system that continued until Cleopatra's time. COLLEEN: Here deep in the tomb of Seti I we see a fantastic depiction of the goddess Wadjet, she's labelled here in the hieroglyphs and she is the cobra who sits on the brow of the king. NARRATOR: Wadjet was the protector of Egypt and of its pharaohs. She often took the form of a snake, usually an Egyptian cobra. Legend has it that Cleopatra killed herself with the bite of a venomous snake when trapped by the invading Roman army. COLLEEN: This depiction is over 1,000 years before the suicide of Cleopatra, and the fact that she chooses this ancient symbol of the pharaohs, the asp, the cobra, to commit suicide, she's taking the ultimate royal symbol, she wants to be linked in to the earlier, the deep, ancient past of Egypt. NARRATOR: Cleopatra, through her life and death, was obsessed with the traditions of ancient Egypt. At Taposiris Magna, Kathleen believes she's getting ever closer to finding Cleopatra's lost tomb. As the dig season is coming to an end, she's desperate to see if the underground tunnels lead to a burial chamber. KATHLEEN: Is it working? NARRATOR: Her team has now been pumping out water for two days, but power cuts have severely hindered progress. KATHLEEN: Maybe we, we can, I can go down and try to see and I will explore. MAN: Shall we start? KATHLEEN: Uh-huh. I am ready. Okay. MAN: Bye bye. NARRATOR: This is the first time Kathleen has been able to explore the tunnels. NARRATOR: She starts with the one leading away from the temple. NARRATOR: With the way forward still flooded Kathleen has to turn back. She now explores the second tunnel. NARRATOR: These tunnels would have taken months or even years to carve out by hand. KATHLEEN: Uh! Alhamdulillah. MAN: Hamdulillah. NARRATOR: Kathleen believes they must lead somewhere important. KATHLEEN: It was incredible. Now we know a lot about this shaft, unfortunately we could not see the end of this tunnel, there was a lot of water. NARRATOR: With her permit about to expire, Kathleen's excavation must come to an end, but there is still a chance that the data from the ground-penetrating radar might reveal if the tunnels lead to a tomb. KATHLEEN: Now we are waiting for the GPR results, so I have to be patient and, and wait. NARRATOR: In Aswan, Alejandro is preparing for a night-time mission. He's about to transport six ancient mummies across the city to a local hospital. He's arranged to use their medical scanner after hours to see what may lie hidden inside these ancient bodies. NARRATOR: For security, a police escort joins the convoy. To try to know something about how they were buried, the pathologies, the possible diseases that they suffer, the cause of death, gender, age. NARRATOR: The C-T scanner should be able to see through the wrappings to the bones below, but Alejandro is still worried about damaging the fragile remains. ALEJANDRO: Mummies are very delicate, so you have to think that they, they have been wrapped more than 2,000 years ago, so they might suffer damages. Well, let's go. Hello? Inshallah. We, yeah, yeah, yeah, we, we will arrive in five, ten minutes maximum, okay? Ooph. We have to, to take this opportunity to get as much information as possible, so we will see. NARRATOR: Alejandro's night-time activities have attracted the attention of the local press. ALEJANDRO: I will ask to the journalists please to leave to the specialists to make their work. MAN: Please, which one we will start now, which one? ALEJANDRO: Yeah, this one. MAN: Thank you, okay. You're ready? ALEJANDRO: Yes. NARRATOR: The mummies are wrapped in cloth for added protection inside the scanner. It works by taking a series of x-rays at different angles to create a three-dimensional image of the body. ALEJANDRO: We are just checking if the scan was done right. NARRATOR: So far, very little is known about these mummies, like how they died, and whether they were old or young. Alejandro is trying to piece together their identities, hoping to discover any new clues to make sense of their lives, and ultimately, their deaths. The first analysis of the body shows that he was over 60 when he died. So now I have to choose who is going to be the next. Okay? Let's go. Well, now we have something very interesting. Interpreted that the mummy was going to be a man, but it seems that it is a woman. We didn't, we didn't expect that. NARRATOR: As the final body enters the scanner, the archaeologists spot something amazing. WOMAN: Si. ALEJANDRO: We have amulets. Together with the scarab, a wing, winged scarab. MAN: Sign of Horus. ALEJANDRO: Ah-ha. (speaking in native language). NARRATOR: The scan reveals an elaborate carved amulet in the shape of a scarab beetle. Funerary amulets were often used by the elite to protect the soul of the deceased, and the scarab beetle symbolized rebirth. The scarab was placed over the position of the heart and often had spells written on it. These spells gave instructions to the person's heart to help them during the judgement of their soul. ALEJANDRO: It's the first time that I can see them in the, in the position in, in its position in the body, so, exciting. NARRATOR: Out of the nine mummies Alejandro's team have scanned, this is the only one to have an amulet still in its original position. With such a precious find, Alejandro can wrap up his night on a high. ALEJANDRO: Now it's 12:00 and, hmm, I'm completely exhausted. Thank you. NARRATOR: At Taposiris Magna, Kathleen has received news about her radar search for Cleopatra's tomb. KATHLEEN: Today is the last day and the people which are doing the, the radar, they're bringing the result and they just told me, "We have great news for you." So tell me what is the good news we have? KATHLEEN: Possible chamber? MAN: Yes. KATHLEEN: Wow. MAN: Yes. KATHLEEN: I'm going to cry. Really, I'm trying to, I'm so happy. It could be anything buried there but I feel it's, it's what I'm looking for. NARRATOR: Kathleen's scans reveal a thirty-foot-wide cavity directly beneath the entrance to the temple. It would have taken ancient workers a monumental effort to build, and if it's a tomb it must be the tomb of someone important. This could be the perfect hiding place for the last queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. The tomb could hold her royal treasures, and its discovery would be one of the greatest finds in the history of archaeology. KATHLEEN: So the room is big, and this... MAN: Ten meters. KATHLEEN: Ten meters long? Wow. MAN: Yeah. NARRATOR: For Kathleen, Cleopatra's lost tomb could now be within her grasp. KATHLEEN: I'm just really excited and I'm touched. This is something that is really important, precious, something very precious they tried to hide there. So I think this is the final stage of my search. NARRATOR: It's been an incredible season for Kathleen and her workers, but with her permit now expired, she must secure the site and continue her search for the chamber next year. KATHLEEN: Next season I will come back. This is the moment that I was waiting for. Now I know exactly where to continue.