Participants: David Down
Series Code: DUTP
Program Code: DUTP000001
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00:18 I'm standing in front of the greatest pyramid in the land
00:22 of Egypt. It was built by Pharaoh Khufu or if you prefer 00:27 his Greek name, Cheops of the fourth dynasty. 00:30 Experts and scholars still wonder today at these amazing 00:35 feats of architecture and engineering. 00:38 And later during the program, we'll be showing you 00:42 the internal workings of this particular pyramid, 00:45 on its scale model. In the meantime, however, let's go 00:51 back in time with David Down as we take you back through 00:55 the exciting history of the great dynasties of Egypt. 01:37 Well, there were 30 or 31 dynasties in the history of 01:40 ancient Egypt, depending on whether you include the last 01:43 Persian dynasty or not. A dynasty, you know, is where 01:46 a king is succeeded by his son and as long as it stays in the 01:49 family its a dynasty. Well the first king of the first dynasty 01:53 was a king by the name of Menes. And these kings were buried 01:56 in what is know as mastabas. Now these are stone mastabas 02:00 over here, the 4th dynasty. But the kings of the 1st and 2nd 02:04 dynasty were buried in non drip mastabas. 02:07 Now when we come to the 3rd dynasty, there was a dramatic 02:10 development. And we find that at Saqqara. Let's go there and have 02:14 a look. We are now at the so called step pyramid of Saqqara; 02:18 which you can see over here. And in this pyramid we have 02:23 two significant steps forward. It was made for King Djoser. 02:26 of the 3rd dynasty by his architect, Imhotep. 02:31 And in the first place, instead of using mud bricks as did 02:35 the Pharaohs of the 1st and 2nd dynasties, it is made of stone, 02:39 pretty rough stone to be sure. But nevertheless its made of 02:42 stone. And secondly, we have here six stages altogether. 02:46 First of all it started off as a mastaba. And then 4 stages 02:51 were placed on top of that. Then later on 2 more stages 02:55 making 6 stages altogether. But how do we know that this is how 02:59 the pyramid was built? Well, around the south side where the 03:02 the stone robbers have removed the outer facing of the pyramid, 03:05 you can see where the mastaba was originally. 03:08 And then around the east side you can see the joints. 03:11 See where its been added on here? 03:14 And so the archeologists have been able to put the whole thing 03:17 together, and we know just how it was done. 03:19 Now, the question is, Where did this concept come from? 03:22 Where did Imhotep get this great idea? It's assumed that he just 03:26 had a brain wave and built up the stages, one by one 03:29 in thought after thought. I personally don't agree with that 03:32 I consider that this whole concept was borrowed from 03:36 Mesopotamia. You see, there was no communication between 03:40 Mesopotamia and Egypt than is generally assumed of. 03:42 And in Mesopotamia where civilization began, 03:46 we have what is known as Ziggurats, for instance the 03:50 Ziggurat of Ur of the Chaldees. There's the tower of Babel 03:54 in Babylon. And there's Burr's Nimrod. There are numerous 03:57 ziggurats, and there was stage upon stage. Now the only 04:01 difference was, that whereas these ziggurats were used 04:04 for worship - I used to go up on top there and worship on top. 04:07 This idea was used for burial. So you don't go up on top. 04:12 It was simply a burial chamber underneath. 04:14 And actually there's a more complex series of passages 04:18 in two chambers underneath here than any other pyramid or any 04:22 other burial place in the whole of the land of Egypt. 04:25 Its absolutely amazing. Now from here we can see three 04:30 pyramids in the distance as we look south. And they all belong 04:34 to one king. Now, not even a god king can be buried in 3 places 04:39 at once. So why did this king want three pyramids in which to 04:44 be buried? 05:00 What you're looking at is not really the final pyramid. 05:03 You're just looking at the square core. 05:06 Originally this was the first true pyramid formed. 05:10 Now what we saw at Saqqara, so called step pyramid, 05:13 which I don't consider to be a pyramid at all, 05:16 went up in stages. But here we have the development of the 05:20 first true pyramid form that went right up straight on the 05:23 outside. But you'll notice that the outside is gone. 05:27 It's fallen down. The question is, What happened? 05:30 Well, its like this. If we were to go in the entrance, 05:37 we would find that there is a descending corridor going right 05:41 down, and then a horizontal passage going along, 05:45 and at the end of that, there're some large cedar beams there 05:49 holding the stones together, and from there we go 05:52 straight up into the center of the very heart of the pyramid. 05:55 And up there is the tomb chamber but you'll notice something 05:59 about it. Its not finished, never was finished. 06:02 And after all, this is what a pyramid is all about, 06:05 for the burial of the king. That's the most important part. 06:07 Okay, so why wasn't it finished? Well, the question is, 06:11 Did this outside covering collapse slowly, disintegrate 06:16 over thousands of years, or as Curt Ningolson, an engineer 06:21 incidentally, not an archaeologist but maybe 06:23 an engineer knows more about this. He claims that it was a 06:27 sudden collapse and it happened before the pyramid was entirely 06:30 finished. And that would explain, of course, just why it 06:33 was abandoned. After all, it must have been like an 06:37 earthquake, when it all came tumbling down. 06:38 So what was the king then to do? 06:40 Well, he could clear the rubble away and start again, 06:43 it may be; but maybe there's some superstitious reason 06:46 that he decided not to do that. And so he decided to go 06:50 elsewhere. And so we have the second pyramid, which is the 06:55 bent pyramid. Now its called the bent pyramid because it goes 06:58 up at an angle of 54 degrees and then levels off to 43 degrees. 07:03 Now the question is, Why? Now some people say he ran out of 07:06 money - finish it off more economically. Others say, 07:10 He died and his son finished - I'll tell you what his son 07:12 would have been doing. His son would have been busy starting 07:16 building his own, you see. So what is more likely is that he 07:21 got about half way and then he realized that this also 07:26 could collapse. Actually there is some stress strain, some 07:29 cracks in that pyramid which suggests there was a problem. 07:32 Now that being the case, maybe he said, Well, look, we better 07:36 finish it off at a lower angle so as to see that it doesn't 07:39 collapse. But the stress strains were there. So maybe that 07:43 accounts for the third pyramid. Now the third pyramid, the 07:46 Red Pyramid of Dahshur, was finished off, the whole thing, 07:50 at 43 degrees. I guess he figured, Well, here's 1 pyramid 07:54 which is not going to come down on top of me after I'm buried. 07:57 So I think this is undoubtedly the reason why he had 08:00 Three pyramids. There's just one other interesting point about 08:03 this and that is, People ask me, How long did it take to build 08:08 the pyramids? Well, most people will refer to Herodotus, 08:12 the ancient historian about the fifth century, B.C. 08:15 who says that the great Pyramid of Khufu, the ramp leading up 08:21 to it of course took about 10 yrs and the Pyramid itself 08:24 20 yrs. But listen 30 years the Pharaohs didn't rule that long. 08:28 They had no guarantee they're going to be still alive at the 08:31 end of thirty years. But on the other hand, the bent Pyramid of 08:34 Dahshur has an inscription down at the bottom in which it refers 08:39 to the twenty first year of the king. And half way up is another 08:43 inscription with the twenty second year of the king. 08:46 That means it only took one year to get from the bottom 08:48 to the half way up. The whole thing probably finished 08:51 in two years. So maybe Khufu's Pyramid was finished in 08:54 about 2 or 3 years. I think that's more likely. 09:04 Well, you wouldn't want to have Claustrophobia to go into that 09:07 Pyramid. And look, while we're here, just over there 09:10 is a mastaba. I think we should go in there and have a look. 09:13 The original entrance to this mastaba is around on the east 09:19 side. But it was blocked up when the mastaba was first made 09:23 so nobody has ever gone in there since. 09:25 But we have to go in here, which is the entrance that was made by 09:30 the tomb robbers to get everything out of the mastaba 09:33 of value. Well, you can see, they didn't make a very big 09:37 hole. In fact you have to really squeeze through here, 09:41 to get into the tomb chamber. Now when you get through there, 09:45 you can see the stone plugs that blocked up the original entrance 09:49 That's why the tomb robbers had to make their own entrance. 09:52 And here you can see the Sarcophagus in which the 09:56 body was buried in the tomb chamber. 09:58 Well, it was pretty hard to get in and out of there. 10:05 Well, now we go to the biggest pyramid of all, Senefru's son 10:09 Khufu or Cheops. 10:23 Well, this is the pyramid of Khufu or Greek name, Cheops. 10:28 And what a massive monument this is. Do you realize just how 10:31 many stones are in this thing? It has been estimated that 10:34 there are two million, three hundred thousand blocks 10:37 of stone in this colossal monument. And on the average, 10:41 each stone is about 21/2 tons in weight. The biggest of them 10:45 is 15 tons. You know, there's just so many stones in this 10:50 pyramid that suppose we do it this way. If we took some 10:54 of these stones, and we cut them into pieces, 10:58 blocks 30 centimeters by 30 centimeters and we put one block 11:03 here and another block beside it and another one, etc. 11:06 just keep on going. Do you know we could go right around 11:09 the coast of Australia? And we've still only used half 11:12 the blocks of stone in this pyramid. We could go right 11:15 around again. That's a colossal number of stones, you know. 11:18 Well, people ask me, How did they get these stones up there 11:22 in the first place? There are no tomb inscriptions. 11:25 There's no reference in any of the statements in the ancient 11:29 writers as to how this was done. All we, the only clue we have, 11:33 is the fact that at Karnack there's a pile on there, 11:37 and there are some mud bricks going up and they never removed 11:43 these big stones right up onto the top of the columns or off 11:48 these pyramids. So undoubtedly that's the way it was up here. 11:51 No mystery about it at all. This pyramid is colossal. 11:55 >From one corner to the other is 229 meters. Do you realize 12:02 that in order to walk right around you're going to go more 12:05 than one kilometer? The height is 146 meters. 12:10 Well, that's what it is today, anyway. You might notice the top 12:14 is a little bit flat. It's 10 meters lower than that. 12:16 That's because local builders have taken stones from the top 12:19 for their own building purposes in Cairo. Well, how was this 12:24 pyramid anciently. What was it like in the beginning? 12:27 Well, we'll go around the other side and have a look at that. 12:30 Now, we're around on the north side of the pyramid, 12:34 and this is where the official entrance was. 12:36 In fact, if you look up there, you can see the keystones, 12:41 the arch. And that was where the official entrance was 12:44 and from there the descending corridor slopes down right into 12:47 the very heart of the pyramid. But in order to see just what 12:51 the inside passages and tomb chambers are like, 12:54 we need to have a look at a model of the pyramid taken apart 12:57 and then you'll be able to understand what the inside 12:59 of this pyramid is like. Now you see here, the original 13:03 entrance when it was finished. Of course this was covered up so 13:07 that you couldn't see it. It's slightly off center. 13:09 Here's about the center, here. And here is Mar moon's entrance, 13:11 where they illegally dug in there. And that's where visitors 13:14 and tourists go in there today. I have made it so we can take 13:18 apart and you can see the passages in side. Now over here 13:24 is the entrance and the descending passage going down 13:28 into bedrock and then it levels off and goes to a tomb chamber, 13:32 which is unfinished. Here are these - is the ascending 13:35 passageway and it was blocked off here, with a slab of stone, 13:39 and so anyone going down here would not know that the passage 13:42 was there. But that's the slot of stone that fell down 13:45 when the workmen of Mar moon started digging through there. 13:48 You'll notice its blocked off by three large slabs of stone here, 13:52 and then the passage goes right up here. It goes level here, 13:56 horizontal to what is known as the queen's chamber, 13:58 and there are two links coming up here only they go nowhere. 14:01 Then here is the ascending gallery and comes up here 14:05 and then levels off and goes into the king's chamber 14:09 And at the end there, is the sarcophagus. There are five 14:14 gaps about here to relieve the pressure of the immense, 14:18 enormous amount of stone that's above it, crushing it. 14:21 And it was in here that a workman had scribbled the 14:25 name of Khufu. And that's how we can identify this pyramid. 14:28 There are two small passages going up here. 14:31 They are only small and - I don't think so but; 14:36 anyway they come up here and right out to the outside. 14:40 So this gives you and idea of what the inside of the pyramid 14:44 looks like. Now there is one more very interesting aspect 14:49 of this pyramid. People often ask me, How old are the pyramids 14:53 Well by the usually accepted chronology, these pyramids 14:57 were built about 2,600 BC. But if we accept the biblical 15:02 chronology, it means that the universal flood occurred about 15:06 2,300 BC. Now that means that this pyramid would have to be 15:10 later than that. In fact, according to Dr. Manuel 15:13 Vilicopsky's revised chronology, it would place it about the 15:17 nineteenth century BC. And that would be about the time that 15:20 Abraham visited Egypt. You know. You have the record 15:23 in the book of Genesis of Abraham coming down here to 15:27 Egypt and talking with the Pharaoh and so forth. 15:29 Now remember where Abraham came from. He came from Ur 15:33 of the Chaldees. And C. Leonard Wooley's excavations there 15:36 from 1922 to 1934 reveal that the Sumerian civilization 15:42 was the world's first civilization. And they had a 15:45 remarkable understanding of mathematics and astronomy, 15:49 and trigonometry and other sciences. Well, now Josephus, 15:54 the Jewish historian made a very interesting statement 15:57 and I want you to listen to what that statement says. 16:00 Abraham communicated to them, that is the Egyptians, 16:04 arithmetic and delivered to them the science of astronomy. 16:08 For before Abraham came into Egypt, they were unacquainted 16:12 with those parts of learning. For that science came from the 16:17 Chaldeans into Egypt. So if that is correct and Abraham 16:23 came here during the time of Khufu, that would explain 16:26 something very interesting. You see this pyramid is exactly 16:30 square. It is exactly level. It is exactly orientated 16:35 north, south, east and west. And if you were to take a circle 16:39 with the top of the pyramid as the center of the circle, and 16:43 apply the formula 2 pi r, you would find that that would be 16:48 the exact circumference of the base of the pyramid. 16:52 Well, now either that's a remarkable coincidence 16:55 or it means that the Egyptians at this time knew the formula 16:58 for 2 pi r. And where did they get it from? Well, if Abraham 17:02 imparted to them this knowledge, that would explain it all. 17:05 And so it raises the interesting possibility that the Egyptians 17:10 may indeed, as Josephus says, have learned their astronomy 17:13 and their mathematics from Abraham, who brought it from 17:17 Ur of the Chaldees. 17:33 Well, Khufu followed by Khafre, or to give him his Greek 17:38 name, Chephren, and he built this next pyramid. 17:41 Not quite as big as the preceding one but it's still a 17:43 big beauty, isn't it? And the interesting part of this pyramid 17:46 is that right up at the top, You see it? is still part of the 17:49 stone facing that originally covered both pyramids, 17:53 Pure limestone, beautiful white glistening limestone it was. 17:57 Well, most of it is gone, taken by the stone robbers, actually. 18:00 But there's that little bit still left at the top there 18:03 to enable us to know just what these pyramids looked like 18:05 when they were finished. Now, Khafre had a interesting system 18:10 He wanted to stay there forever. He wanted his body to be 18:13 preserved forever. And so he devised an idea to guarantee 18:17 that no tomb robbers would ever get into his tomb. 18:27 Well, this was his idea. He had a sphinx made here, 18:32 it was cut out of the solid rock. You see that knoll over 18:36 there. Well, there was one like that here. And they cut the 18:40 stone away from it and left this Sphinx standing, a 18:43 human face and a lion's body. Its 73 meters long and 20 meters 18:48 high and it had the face of Khafre, so we know it was meant 18:52 to be guarding his tomb. But it didn't do a very good job 18:55 because his tomb was robbed anyway by the tomb robbers. 18:58 So we leave the pyramid of Khafre and we go to the next 19:05 pyramid which is a lot smaller and that was the pyramid of 19:08 Menkaure or to give him his great name Mycerinus. 19:12 Its a lot smaller, only about a quarter of the size of the 19:15 preceding one; but the interesting part about this 19:17 pyramid is that it was covered not with white pure limestone, 19:21 but with this beautiful pink granite that was floated down 19:25 the river Nile. Nearly a thousand kilometers from 19:27 Moswan? and this covered nearly half of the bottom of the 19:30 pyramid. most of it has fallen down, of course. 19:33 But, let's have a look at the top of this pyramid. 19:36 Its rather interesting. 19:58 Well, here we are at the top and believe me, its a long way up. 20:03 But its worth it. Away out over there are the pyramids of Abusir 20:09 Now, they are the pyramids of the Pharaohs of the 5th dynasty. 20:14 They are in very bad shape. They are crumbled right down. 20:16 But in particular I want to tell you about the last king 20:20 of the 5th dynasty, whose name was Unas. So here we are at the 20:25 pyramid of Unas over there. Its in rather poor condition. 20:28 All the outside stone is gone. But the inside is interesting. 20:32 There's a new development here. Lets go down and have a look. 20:48 Well, we're a long way below ground level here. 20:54 But Unas wanted his soul to have the impression that he was 20:58 underneath the night sky. And so he had all these stars 21:04 painted on the roof of his tomb chamber. 21:08 As well as the stars on the roof, there's another very 21:12 important feature here. And that is the introduction of these 21:16 beautiful hieroglyphic texts in a tomb for the first time. 21:20 Now up until 1822 nobody could read these texts. 21:24 But then came the Rosetta stone. 21:28 In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte's forces crossed the Mediterranean 21:33 and he occupied Egypt. Soon after, one of his officers 21:37 was rebuilding a fort of a place called Rashid in the delta, 21:41 now known as Rosetta. And he found there a strange stone, 21:45 which he sent up to Cairo. Subsequently the British 21:48 occupied Egypt and confiscated the stone. So the Rosetta stone 21:54 is now in the British museum. And as you can see, it is in 21:57 three different scripts. It was a French genius by the name of 22:02 Champollion who was ultimately able to announce that he was 22:06 able to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphics in the year 1822. 22:10 The way he was able to do it was from this Rosetta stone. 22:14 At the top there is the Egyptian ancient hieroglyph pictorial 22:20 writing. Beneath that in the center is the demotic, which is 22:24 also the Egyptian language but in a cursive script. 22:29 And down below here is the same message in the Greek script 22:34 and language. Now this could be read. The Greek could be read. 22:37 And so by comparing this with the demotic and then with the 22:41 hieroglyphs ultimately Champollion was able to announce 22:44 that he could interpret the hieroglyphs. So now the 22:49 Egyptologists can read the beautiful hieroglyphic texts 22:52 and the result is some very interesting light on the 22:56 biblical story. 23:09 Behind me is a hill on which once stood the ancient city of 23:13 Dothan. And it was in this vicinity that one of those 23:18 stories which is sometimes stranger than fiction took place 23:23 It was the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons 23:29 and one of them was Joseph, the second from youngest was Joseph. 23:33 And Joseph was a very good boy. Jacob loved him very much. 23:38 But he made the fatal mistake of showing favoritism toward 23:41 this son. And he even made him what the bible calls a coat 23:46 of many colors. Actually, that's not a good translation. 23:49 It should be a coat with long sleeves. You know why? 23:52 Because if you had long sleeves that meant that you weren't 23:56 expected to do any manual work. Well the other brothers, 24:00 of course, had to go out and do their work. And one day they 24:04 left the home and went out with their flocks to Shechem. 24:07 And after they were away for a while, their father got a bit 24:12 anxious and said to Joseph, You better go and see how they 24:14 are getting on. So Joseph went. Now Joseph had had some dreams, 24:19 in which he dreamed that sheaves from a wheat field like this 24:23 were bowing down, 11 of them were bowing down and worshiping 24:27 him. And of course the brothers interpreted this as meaning that 24:31 one day they would bow down to him, and of course, they didn't 24:33 like that. And they resented this, you see. 24:37 Well, when Joseph came to Shechem, he found that the 24:39 brothers had already left, and they told him, They've gone on 24:42 to Dothan. So that means they came on to this place here. 24:45 And when the brothers saw Joseph coming, they said, Aha, 24:50 here comes that dreamer. Now listen, lets kill him. And then 24:55 let us see what happens to his dreams. And so they all thought 24:58 that was a good idea and so when poor unsuspecting Joseph 25:01 came they grabbed hold of him. But Reuben, the oldest of the 25:05 brothers, didn't want to have to go back to his father and tell 25:08 the story and so he said, Listen don't lets kill him. Let us 25:12 throw him into this pit, referring to a nearby cistern. 25:16 This well is at the foot of the hill on which Dothan is built. 25:22 The stones up near the top are of fairly recent origin, but 25:25 those stones down at the bottom are very old. 25:27 Well it is possible that into this pit which was dry 25:31 at the time, Joseph was lowered with the intention of leaving 25:36 him there by the brothers. However after while Judah came 25:40 along, and he said, Look, why don't we make a quick Shekel 25:43 out of this and a caravan of camels was coming along 25:47 and he said, Lets sell him as a slave. Well, these Midianite 25:52 traders took Joseph down to Egypt and they sold him to an 25:57 officer by the name of Potiphar. Apparently Joseph decided 26:00 that if he was going to be a slave, he might as well be a 26:02 good one. And he was so reliable that Potipher promoted him to 26:06 be the head over his household. 26:08 Unfortunately for Joseph, there was some false accusation made 26:13 against him and he was flung into prison. Well, while he was 26:16 in prison there, the two servants of Pharaoh 26:20 a butler and a baker were also flung into prison. And one day 26:23 Joseph came along. And he found them looking very disconsolate. 26:26 And he said, What's your problem? 26:28 Well, the Butler said, We've had some dreams and we don't know 26:32 what the meaning is. Oh, Joseph said, Tell me. 26:34 I'll tell you the meaning. God knows the meaning. 26:36 So the Butler said, Well, I dreamed that I had 3 bunches 26:41 of grapes and I squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup. Oh, Joseph 26:45 said, That's easy, it simply means that after 3 days 26:48 you're going to be restored as Pharaoh's butler. 26:51 to squeeze the grapes into his cup. Well then the baker heard 26:56 that and he thought, That's pretty good. And he said, Well 26:58 I dreamed that I had 3 baskets of bread on my head. 27:02 And the birds came and ate up the bread. Joseph said, That 27:07 means that after 3 days you're going to loose your head. 27:10 Well, it happened just exactly as Joseph had predicted. 27:14 And when the Butler was restored Joseph said, Hey, Just remember 27:20 me when you get out, because I shouldn't be in here. 27:23 But unfortunately the butler completely forgot all about it 27:26 and it wasn't until about two years later that Pharaoh had a 27:29 dream. And he did not know the meaning, called the wise men 27:33 and they couldn't tell him. And it was then that the butler 27:36 suddenly remembered, Oh yes, I remember that fellow in prison 27:40 so he told Pharaoh about it. And so Pharaoh said, Well bring 27:44 him here. And so Joseph was brought in and Pharaoh told him 27:49 the dream. He said, I dreamed that there were 7 fat cows 27:53 came up out of the river Nile, and they grazed there. 27:58 And then 7 thin cows, so thin you couldn't believe it, came up 28:03 and they gobbled up the 7 fat cows. Well, Joseph said, 28:07 I'll tell you what that means. It means that there's going 28:10 to be 7 years of plenty. And that will be followed by 28:13 7 years of famine. The Nile is going to stop flowing just 28:16 about, and there'll be a famine so you better gather together, 28:20 appoint somebody to gather together all the grain during 28:24 those 7 years of plenty, so that when the 7 years of famine 28:28 comes, you'll have enough to eat. And so Pharaoh said, Well, 28:32 That's a good idea and what better person could we have 28:36 to do all this than Joseph. And so Joseph was appointed 28:40 as the viziers of Egypt. Now the question is, Who was this 28:46 Pharaoh? Which one? I personally consider that the chronology 28:52 of Egypt needs to be shortened and in that case, this incident 28:56 would take place at the beginning of the 12th dynasty 29:00 of Egypt. And in particular, the Pharaoh concerned would be 29:04 the Pharaoh called Sosostris the first. 29:07 And I think I have some good reasons for thinking that. 29:15 This is a statue of Sosostris, the first. Actually he's quite a 29:19 nice looking guy, don't you think? 29:21 Almost a smile on his face. And there's another group of 29:24 statues in the Cairo museum. They are clustered around a 29:27 shrine. There's 10 statues all together. And they're all 29:31 identical. And they show him also as a nice looking 29:34 fellow. And there's another statue that shows him as a 29:38 shepherd with a shepherd's crook in his hand. 29:40 In other words, he was looking after his people. 29:43 Or he had an interest in his people. Now he was the one 29:46 who made this obelisk over here. And it has inscriptions 29:50 on all four sides. They are all identical. And this was the 29:53 first large obelisk that was ever made. Now it was called 29:58 the Pillar of On and the biblical record says that Joseph 30:02 married the daughter of the priest of On, 30:05 and that fits right in in this place here. 30:08 And so I would identify Sosostris the first, 30:12 as the Pharaoh under whom Joseph was promoted to be Vizier.. 30:17 Now there is something else. The biblical 30:21 record indicates that Joseph was a very prominent figure. 30:25 I'd like you to listen to what the biblical record says 30:28 in the book of Genesis, chapter 41. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph 30:34 You shall be over my house and all my people shall be 30:37 ruled according to your word. Only in regard to the throne, 30:41 will I be greater than you. And he had him ride in the 30:45 second chariot which he had. And they cried out before him, 30:48 Bow the knee. So he set him over all the land of Egypt. 30:52 Now, did you notice just what respect was paid to Joseph? 30:57 People bowed down in front of him. Now that didn't usually 31:02 happen with a vizier. But it so happens that under Sosostris 31:06 the first, we know from history that there was such a vizier. 31:10 And his name was Mentuhotep. The very well known Egyptologist 31:17 Muschat?, described the activities of this vizier?. 31:21 I want you to listen to what it says. In a word, our Mentuhotep 31:27 who was also invested with several priestly dignities 31:30 and was Pharaoh's treasurer, appears as the ulti-ego 31:35 of the king. When he arrived the great personages bowed 31:39 down before him. So you see this fits in very well with the 31:45 biblical account and we do have such a visier under Sososteris?, 31:50 the first. But there's other evidence, too, to support 31:53 what I am saying. Well, here we are in the Fiume, 31:58 this remarkable Oasis that supports so many people. 32:01 And here I think is something, I think, very significant. 32:06 You see this canal. Its a very large canal. And it comes 32:09 a long way and flows into this Oasis which is below sea level. 32:13 And it was a vast lake. And it brings fertility to this whole 32:17 area. Now the interesting part is that this is called Joseph's 32:21 canal. And nobody knows where it got that name. It seems to go 32:25 back a long way. And it is my opinion that this canal which 32:28 was dug during the 12th dynasty the early 12th dynasty, was dug 32:33 during the time of Joseph, who knew that a 7 year famine 32:36 was coming. And so he had this canal dug to provide fertility 32:41 to the land of Egypt during this time. Now there's 32:44 something else I think is very significant, and that is 32:47 further down stream is a place called Bey Hasan. 32:51 And at Bey Hasan there are some tombs, and one of these tombs 32:56 has on the wall a beautiful painting - Well, it used to be 33:01 beautiful. Its faded now - of some Semitic immigrants who 33:05 come into Egypt and there chose the type of clothing they wore, 33:10 the type of domestic animals they had, the type of weapons, 33:14 and you'll even notice this fellow had brought his portable 33:17 TV with him. Well, actually its a musical instrument. 33:20 Anyway, so this shows the Semitic immigrants during the 33:24 12th dynasty. Now who were they? I don't say that they were 33:27 Joseph and his family but I do consider that it highly likely 33:31 that they were the Israelite people who had fanned out over 33:36 the land and this man thought it significant enough to put it on 33:40 the wall of his tomb. Now there's one more thing I want to 33:43 tell you about. One of these tombs was made by a man 33:47 by the name of Ammoni, and he also was during the time of 33:51 Sososterus the first. And he left on the wall of his tomb, 33:56 a record of his good deeds. That's what they mostly did, 33:59 you know, told their gods what a good fellow they were, and 34:02 among other things, he referred to what he did to prepare 34:07 for a coming famine. Now Jan will read you a statement 34:10 from a historian and a translation of this wall 34:15 inscription. No one was unhappy in my day, not even in the years 34:20 of famine. For I have tilled all the fields of the gnome of Ma 34:24 up to its southern and northern frontiers. Thus I prolonged the 34:29 life of its inhabitants and preserved the food which it 34:32 produced. And so I consider all of this points to the fact 34:36 that Sososterus the first was the Pharaoh under whom Joseph 34:41 was the visier of Egypt. Now we come to the 5th king of the 12th 34:47 dynasty, whose name was Sososterus the third. 34:49 And I consider him to be the Pharaoh referred to in the book 34:53 of Exodus, chapter one and verse 8, where it says, Now there 34:57 arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he 35:01 said to his people, Look, the people of the children of Israel 35:04 are more and mightier than we. Come let us deal wisely with 35:07 them. Therefore they set task masters over them to afflict 35:11 them. Well, I consider that by now Joseph would be dead, 35:15 and this would be the Pharaoh referred to in this verse. 35:17 And believe me, he's a nasty looking character, just a sort 35:21 of fellow that you would expect to do this sort of thing. 35:23 For instance, there is this statue of him in the Cairo 35:26 museum. You notice the down turned sour mouth that he's got 35:31 and the nasty expression. And then here's another statue of 35:34 him. A similar appearance. And then here is this sphinx of 35:38 him. Now I just wouldn't like to know this fellow. And I think he 35:42 is the Pharaoh referred to here. Sesostris the 3rd was followed 35:46 by Amenemhet III. And he also was a nasty looking 35:50 character, as these statues indicate. Here's one, 35:54 for instance in the Luxor museum. And he reigned for 43 35:58 years. This is his pyramid that he built here. Not a very big 36:01 pyramid today. But originally it was covered with stone 36:05 and a lot bigger than this. Today all that is left is the 36:08 core of the pyramid, which is made of mud bricks that are 36:11 laced with straw. In fact you can see the little flecks of 36:14 straw that were in there. And after all that's what we would 36:17 expect, isn't it? Because here in Exodus, chapter 5, and 36:21 verse 7, it says, You shall no longer give the people straw 36:24 to make brick as heretofore. Let them go and gather straw for 36:28 themselves. So I think that this was the Pharaoh who was 36:31 responsible for this. Another interesting point is that 36:34 Amenemhet III had a daughter, no sons, and that daughter 36:39 had no children. Her name was Sobekneferu Rey. 36:44 And this would explain why she went down to the river Nile 36:47 and saw the little baby Moses in the basket there. 36:50 You might wonder, Well now, why would an Egyptian princess 36:53 take a little baby from the slaves and propose to make him 36:58 the next Pharaoh. Well you see she wasn't down there having a 37:00 bath or taking a swim. She was down there for ceremonial 37:04 purposes worshiping the god, Hapy, the river god, the Nile 37:08 God. And he was the fertility God. And of course she needed 37:11 a god like that if she was infertile. And so she was down 37:15 there worshiping the god, Hapy, the fertility god. 37:18 Alright, and so she sees this little baby comes along and 37:21 regards it as a gift of the fertility god, Hapy. And I think 37:25 probably whether she called him Hapi Moses. You see Moses 37:27 means, drawn out of. Or born of in other words born of the river 37:32 god Hapy. There are a number of Pharaohs called that. 37:35 For instance there was Thutmosis born of the god Tut. 37:38 There was Ramoses, or Ramses born of the god, Ra. 37:41 So here we have Moses, born of the god Hapy. Well, he was 37:46 the baby who was to become the next Pharaoh, but he disappears 37:50 off the scene. And its not hard to understand why. There was a 37:55 king by the name of Amenhotep the fourth who was intended to 37:59 be the heir of Amenhotep III. But suddenly he disappears 38:03 from the scene. I think that was Moses, myself. Because he was 38:06 forced to flee at the end of this man's reign. 38:08 And so we come to the end of this dynasty and I think it fits 38:12 in very well with what we know of biblical history. 38:31 Well, now we're visiting the tomb of Sesostris II. You see it 38:36 over there in the distance? Its also a mud brick pyramid 38:40 And this particular pyramid was made by Sesostris II, 38:46 and it was excavated by Sir Flinders Petrie in the year 38:49 1891. And Rosalie David published a book early in 1986, 38:54 in which she highlighted some of the discoveries made by 38:57 Petrie. And he found that there was an entire city here, 39:01 which was occupied by Semitic slaves, if you please. 39:06 We'll go to the top of the pyramid and I'll point out 39:09 the city from there. 39:30 Well, I don't want to have to climb that pyramid every hot 39:34 summer day. But from here you can look out and see where the 39:40 temple was and where the city was that Petrie excavated. 39:44 Now he found evidence there that it had been occupied by 39:48 the workmen who lived and who worked on building the pyramids. 39:53 And he concluded from the evidence that they were Semitic 39:56 slaves. Now there's something else that he found, too. 39:59 This book by Egyptologist, Rosalie David was only published 40:04 in 1996. And it is on the people who built the pyramids, 40:10 actual workmen you see. 40:11 It has in particular here, a chapter called, The Foreign 40:15 Population at Kahun. And it says >From his excavations at Kahun, 40:21 Petrie formed the opinion that a certain element of the 40:23 population there had come from outside Egypt. 40:27 Now, the archaeologist couldn't figure out who this foreign 40:30 population were. It says here It is apparent that the Asiatics 40:35 - Now an Asiatic is a term that the Egyptians used for somebody 40:38 from Syria or Palestine, or somewhere in that region. 40:41 The Asiatics were present in the town in some numbers. 40:45 And this might have affected the situation elsewhere 40:47 in Egypt. It can be stated that these people were loosely 40:51 classed by Egyptians as Asiatics although their exact homeland 40:54 in Syria or Palestine cannot be determined. 40:57 Now the reason that they could not determine it, is because 41:00 I consider they have the wrong chronology. 41:02 Therefore they did not associate them with the Israelite slaves. 41:06 I believe they should be identified as the Israelite 41:09 slaves. It says, The reason for their presence in Egypt remains 41:13 unclear. In other words we don't know who they 41:15 were or how they came to be in Egypt. But put it with the 41:19 biblical account, and you have the answer. 41:21 They were enslaved by the Pharaoh. 41:23 Of particular interest, I think is something that Petrie found 41:28 under the floors there. There were boxes. 41:31 You see the picture of the box here? Very well preserved. 41:34 And this box was found under the floor as boxes were under 41:39 many of the floors of the homes. And it says, Larger wooden 41:43 boxes, probably used originally to store clothing and other 41:46 possessions, were discovered underneath the floors of many 41:49 houses at Kahun. They contained babies, sometimes buried 2 or 3 41:56 to a box and aged only a few months at death. I think that's 42:00 very significant. How did they get there? Well we know from 42:05 the biblical record, that Pharaoh decreed that all 42:08 the baby boys were to be put to death at birth. 42:11 Some of the mothers managed to look after their babies for a 42:14 month or two or three months, as with Moses, but then I can 42:18 see the Egyptians coming along and wrenching them 42:21 from the arms of the Israelite mothers, killing them, 42:23 and the loving parents burying them in these boxes under their 42:27 floors. One more significant point about this, 42:30 is as to where all these Asiatic slaves went to. 42:35 Interesting. Listen. There are different opinions of how this 42:39 first period of occupation of Kahun grew to a close. 42:43 The quantity, range, and type of articles of everyday use which 42:47 were left behind in the houses, may indeed suggest that the 42:51 departure was sudden and unpremeditated. 42:54 Now how can slaves just suddenly 42:57 pack up and leave? Just drop all everything and leave. 43:01 And here's the evidence that this is what happened. 43:03 It's unbelievable unless you accept the biblical account 43:07 that all these Israelite slaves just suddenly left Egypt 43:11 in the great exodus movement. I read to you what the biblical 43:16 account says, in Exodus, chapter 12 and in verse 41. 43:19 It came to pass at the end of the 430 years on that selfsame 43:24 day, it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out 43:27 from the land of Egypt. Well, personally, I think that 43:30 explains why the slaves left suddenly and unpremeditatedly. 43:35 Now archaeologists say generally that there is no record 43:40 in Egypt of the Exodus or of the Israelite slaves for that matter 43:45 I think that's because they are looking for it in the wrong 43:47 place. They are looking for it at the end of the 18 or 19th 43:50 dynasty. But if you look for it at the end of the 12th dynasty 43:53 I believe you do find a record. You see, these ten plagues that 43:57 fell on Egypt, prior to the exodus were absolutely 44:00 devastating. Listen. Exodus 7, And all the waters that were in 44:04 the river were turned to blood. The fish that were in the river 44:07 died. The Egyptians could not drink the water of the river. 44:10 Whether they actually turned to blood or looked like blood, 44:14 doesn't matter. The point is, They couldn't drink the water. 44:17 Chapter 9. The hand of the Lord will be on your cattle, horses, 44:21 donkeys, camels, oxen, sheep, a very severe pestilence 44:25 all the livestock of Egypt died. Well you can see how Egypt is 44:28 dependent upon it's livestock and if they all drop dead, 44:31 it must have been an absolute disaster. Then we read, 44:34 Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and the Lord sent 44:37 thunder and hail. The hail struck through the whole land 44:40 of Egypt. All that was in the field, both man and beast, 44:43 the hail struck ever herb of the field and broke every tree 44:46 of the field. All their fruit trees were devastated. 44:48 And so it absolutely shattered the economy of Egypt. 44:51 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and rested on 44:56 all the territory of Egypt. They were very severe. And they 44:59 covered the face of the whole earth so that the land was 45:01 darkened. They ate every herb of the land in all fruit of the 45:04 trees which the hail had left. Here, you've got beautiful crops 45:07 here. but they're all destroyed by locusts, hail, thunder, 45:11 everything. And Egypt was absolutely laid in the dust. 45:14 Well, there should have been some record of all this in Egypt 45:18 if it really happened. And I believe there is a record if you 45:21 look in the right place. In the Leighton Museum in Holland, 45:24 there's a Papyrus there called the Ipuwer Papyrus. 45:28 And its to be dated to this time. Now you listen, Jan is 45:31 going to read you a translation of it. 45:32 Plagues stalk through the land and blood is everywhere. 45:36 nay, but many dead men are buried in the river. Nay but 45:41 the river is blood. Does man drink thereof? He rejects it 45:45 as a human. Nay but gates, columns and walls are consumed 45:50 with fire. Nay, but corn has perished everywhere. 45:54 The storehouse is bare. 45:56 So you see when we look in the 46:00 right place we find that you can take the biblical record 46:04 seriously and it all fits into place. 46:06 In our next program we leave the pyramids of Egypt 46:11 and travel south to the tombs and temples of Luxor and Karnak. 46:17 There we will further investigate how biblical history 46:21 can be both complemented and brought to life by historical 46:25 facts and archaeological discovery. 46:28 Luxor was the capitol of Egypt during the reign of king 46:32 Tutankhamen and in the rugged hills of the west bank, lies the 46:37 famed valley of the kings, while to the east, the beautiful 46:42 temple of Luxor and Karnak. |
Revised 2014-12-17