(dramatic music) ♪ (narrator) This is the journey of a lifetime, to Egypt as it's never been seen before.

♪ A country where old and new exist together, and where the future is no longer on the drawing board, but is coming into being before the people's eyes.

♪ And where people from across the globe come to reconnect with a history so ancient that it is also their own.

♪ Egypt's pharaonic monuments evoke the same sense of wonder in modern visitors that they once instilled in the hearts and minds of the men and women who built them millennia ago.

♪ Egypt has embarked on a building spree and a revolution in clean power generation.

♪ Now, for the first time in its long history, Egypt is opening its skies, welcoming the world into a realm once reserved for gods, offering new perspectives on 7,000 years of human history.

Today, a nation that is as proud as it is ancient, as multicultural as it is unified... ♪ ...has discovered how it can build for the tomorrow that it's always wanted to see.

♪ (wondrous music) ♪ Despite the singularly iconic status of its Great Pyramid, the Giza Plateau is but one of the many ancient sites that draw millions of visitors to Egypt each year.

♪ Here in Luxor, the morning today, like yesterday, brings both renewal and adventure.

♪ These hot-air balloons offer more than thrills.

They afford spectacular panoramas over the ancient metropolis of Thebes and the surrounding countryside.

♪ Though home to the modern city of Luxor and its population of nearly half a million people, there are as many visible antiquities per square mile here as in any other city on Earth.

♪ (atmospheric music) ♪ This is the Mortuary Temple of the Pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut.

♪ Nestled against the tall stone walls of an ancient river valley, it was erected almost 3,500 years ago.

♪ One thousand years before the Parthenon arose in Athens.

The exquisite symmetry of this temple made it a formidable precursor to the classic architecture of the Ancient Greeks.

♪ Today, the clean, orderly stonework surrounding Hatshepsut's tomb is still aligned to the path of the setting sun at mid-winter.

♪ Like so much of Egyptian tradition, it was a choice designed to acknowledge the natural cycles of life, death, and renewal.

♪ (contemplative music) ♪ A barren and inhospitable setting.

There are few external signs to suggest this place is rightly called the Valley of the Kings.

♪ Yet it was here in 1922 the British archaeologist Howard Carter made one of the most memorable and enduring discoveries of all time.

The undisturbed tomb of a boy king named Tutankhamun.

♪ Now known to the world as King Tut, his golden facemask may be the most famous treasure discovered anywhere, and yet his tomb was packed to the roof with more than 5,000 additional artifacts from jewels to clothing, slippers, thrones, weapons, musical instruments, and much, much more.

♪ Easily the richest, it is far from the only discovery made here.

♪ So far, 63 tombs have been excavated, and many are now open to the public.

♪ (soft music) ♪ Only in Egypt can major new discoveries seem like daily events.

♪ And yet there are seemingly endless opportunities to refurbish what's already been found.

♪ Each of these colossal statues stands more than 12 meters tall, and they weigh in at 110 tons apiece.

An ancient earthquake shattered them into over 160 pieces.

But they are now being reassembled and restored.

♪ Just alongside the Colossi is the mortuary temple of another New Kingdom pharaoh, Ramesses III.

♪ Today, it's known by its Arabic name: Medinet Habu.

♪ Built on a massive scale, the most significant aspect of this temple is less its size and more its inscriptions.

♪ One set of reliefs describes the emergence and defeat of the mysterious sea people, the ocean-going invaders who launched attacks against Egypt and other neighboring states during a Late Bronze Age some 3,200 years ago.

♪ This is genuine history etched in stone by the Ancient Egyptians of Luxor, and preserved for millennia.

It's an extraordinary embarrassment of riches.

Yet these are merely what Luxor has to offer on the west bank of the Nile.

♪ On its east bank stands a series of archaeological sites that's comparable by way of its exquisite grandeur to the majesty of Giza.

♪ Karnak, the largest and most famous of them all.

This stunning temple complex represents the succession of eras and cultures and rulers who would build and rebuild here for 2,000 years.

(wondrous music) As many as 30 different pharaohs erected monuments, columns, and statues on this site.

♪ Built long before the invention of the architectural arch, 130 stone columns, some over 20 meters tall, once supported the roof of the central Hypostyle Hall, encompassing and enclosing some 50,000 square feet of space.

It's the size of a World Cup soccer pitch minus the sidelines.

♪ Yet these grand columns-- indeed, this entire complex-- is but one small element in an even more expansive ritual network that stretches for 2 kilometers down the east bank of the Nile.

♪ Today, thanks to an ongoing 230 million Egyptian pound investment, the full scope and scale of this ritual causeway is finally coming into view.

The Al-Kabbash Road, once a dusty and congested two-lane highway, is being restored to an approximation of its former grandeur.

♪ A ceremonial processional road lined with a parade of ruin sphinxes and ongoing excavations that leads from Karnak to the Temple of Luxor.

♪ Construction here began around 1400 BCE.

Additions were made by a succession of pharaohs, including Ramesses the Great.

Known as the Southern Sanctuary, this was a place built for kings.

♪ Moreover, the rituals practiced here focused on underscoring the connection between the pharaohs and the gods.

♪ Today, it is Luxor.

For the Greeks, it was Thebes.

For the ancient Egyptians, this place was called Waset.

It's an incredible testament to the power, creativity, and spirituality of our forebears.

♪ Spectacular ancient temples at yet another unique crossroads between Egypt and the world.

(solemn music) ♪ Power comes in many forms.

In Egypt, it's synonymous with political might.

The kind of power that can harness tens of thousands to the decades-long work of building the largest stone structures on the planet.

♪ But there is another power narrative in Egypt... ♪ ...born of bountiful fresh water... ♪ ...and the radiance of a hot desert sun.

(insects chirping) (dramatic music) ♪ From the very dawn of civilization, it was the sun that anchored Egyptian beliefs in the afterlife, as a symbol of perpetual renewal.

♪ By the time the Great Pyramid of the Pharaoh Khufu was completed more than 4,500 years ago, the sun had become a god named Ra.

It was one of the most powerful deities in the ancient Egyptian pantheon.

(intense music) But it was Khufu's heir, the man most likely responsible for the mysterious Sphinx, who fused the power of the Pharaoh with fervent religious devotion to the sun.

♪ He called himself the son of Ra, the firstborn child of the sun.

♪ Thereby forevermore elevating the sun and the pharaohs together into an all-powerful spiritual duality.

♪ In the years to come, sun worship in Egypt would become among the first ever monotheistic religions in human history.

♪ Its primary proponent was the Pharaoh Akhenaten.

This verse from The Great Hymn to the Orb was etched into tombs across the country during his reign.

♪ "You shine forth in beauty on the horizon of heaven.

♪ Oh, living orb, the Creator of life.

♪ When you rise on the eastern horizon, you fill every land with your beauty."

♪ The sun has always had incredible power in Egyptian life.

♪ (atmospheric music) ♪ Today, Egypt has committed itself to providing new sources of energy that are clean, reliable, and economically viable.

♪ Across the country, a whole new era of sustainable energy is taking hold.

♪ (uplifting music) ♪ Today, that same sun that once inspired both fear and reverence remains a vital resource... ♪ ...bringing clean, green energy into the heart of upper Egypt.

♪ In the broad desert, the Benban Solar Park stretches across a 40-square-kilometer expanse.

♪ It will eventually tap the power of the sun to the tune of 1,600 megawatts, enough juice to service the needs of 1.6 million modern, electrically powered homes.

♪ When complete, it will be the largest solar power plant on the planet.

♪ Today, Egypt is revolutionizing every aspect of how its power is produced, and it has plenty more cards to play.

♪ Resources here run deep.

(soft music) ♪ This is Wadi Rayan.

(water streaming) Just two hours south of Cairo.

♪ (clamoring) It boasts a natural waterfall surrounded by desert and draws local Egyptians and international travelers alike.

♪ It's a place to hike through a national park rich in plant and animal life, take a lazy paddle in the warm, clear water... ♪ ...or set off on an all-terrain adventure across the dunes, and journey deep into the ancient riverbeds of Wadi Hitan.

(engine whirring) ♪ Welcome to Wadi Hitan.

The Valley of the Whales.

♪ An almost otherworldly UNESCO World Heritage site.

♪ Somewhere around 40 million years ago, in what is known as Earth's Eocene period, the landscape here looked very different.

In fact, it was a vast inland sea.

♪ Most remarkably, a multitude of fossils discovered here provide a unique record of a period in evolutionary history when mammals left the land and moved into the sea.

♪ Nowhere else on the planet possesses a fossil record that provides such a clear-eyed glimpse of the species that became the largest animals on Earth, the whales.

(wondrous music) ♪ The water currents and waves that once shaped this landscape have long since gone.

♪ Now, it's the ever-present wind that erodes the spectacular cliffs and buttes of Wadi Hitan.

♪ (contemplative music) ♪ (grasses rustling) ♪ By the time of the New Kingdom pharaohs after 1550 BCE, wind, too, was a subject of sophisticated, lyrical Egyptian poetry.

♪ Even love stories.

♪ (leaves rustling) "If the wind comes, it blows toward the sycamore tree.

If you come, you blow on the wind toward me."

♪ The same Egyptian winds that propelled its first sailboats and fueled its romantic imagination are still powering its human journey today.

♪ Albeit in ways that would have stunned the ancient Egyptians.

♪ (uplifting music) ♪ This hypnotically beautiful enterprise is built on deep commitment to invest in the renewable energy sector.

♪ This wind farm at Jabal al-Zeit is a key component of that plan.

♪ Ideally located to harness the strong, steady winds blowing up from equatorial Africa and the Arabian Peninsula below.

♪ 300 individual windmills have been installed and networked, reshaping Egypt's clean energy future.

♪ (insects chirping) (wondrous music) ♪ Since the beginning of recorded history, the Nile has been the lifeblood of the Egyptian nation.

The elixir that provided for the magical transformation of barren desert into some of the richest farmland in the world.

♪ In fact, Ancient Egypt marked its annual calendar with just three seasons: the growing season, the harvest, and the flood.

And marked its poetry with tributes to the river's power and importance.

♪ "They tremble that behold the Nile in full flood.

The fields laugh, and the riverbanks are overflowed.

The gods' offerings descend.

The visage of men is bright, and the heart of the gods rejoices."

♪ The annual flooding of the Nile persisted throughout antiquity, and the Ancient Egyptians took great pains to celebrate it.

♪ Karnak played host to an annual festival known as Opet, celebrated in the second month of Akhet, the season of the flooding of the Nile.

♪ Water from the Nile would've risen here then to meet the stones of the temple itself.

♪ Opet was just one of many ancient ceremonial acknowledgements of the life-giving power of this river, and its story begins in the heart of this vast land.

♪ (wondrous music) ♪ The pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom who enacted one of the great acts of terrestrial transformation ever undertaken in the history of the world.

♪ They sought to turn a mix of dry desert and alligator-infested swamps... ♪ ...into navigable canals running between hundreds of thousands of hectares of rich, fertile farmland.

♪ These canals sustained the lives of millions in the days of the Middle Kingdom.

♪ Today, the same waterways still run across the country past aging relics.

♪ (dramatic music) ♪ This weathered pyramid contains the burial chamber of the Pharaoh Amenemhat III.

♪ It is surrounded by the sprawling footprint of a mortuary temple so famous, it was described by Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny the Elder as "the labyrinth."

♪ Just upstream, the tomb of Senusret II was also surrounded.

♪ Water came to the desert and flowed across the Egyptian world.

♪ (soft music) Today, the Nile is no less central to the health and vitality of the nation.

But these days, its significance is being economized in a very different way.

♪ According to archaeologists, there were farmers here as far back as 8000 BCE... ♪ ...not only working the land, but transforming it.

♪ Slowly, incrementally, they used water to both irrigate and shape their fields.

♪ Across the country, a new campaign has emerged.

♪ Conventional farming wastes far more water than greenhouse-based agriculture, primarily because of losses to evaporation.

♪ To date, plans are being drawn up to erect more than 100,000 greenhouses.

♪ (atmospheric music) At the Mohamed Naguib Military Base in Matrouh, crops can be grown all year round, making organic produce available for the Egyptian people.

♪ Agriculture has had a nearly 10,000-year history in Egypt.

♪ But this may be the biggest revolution it has ever undergone... ♪ ...as water use in the desert evolves yet again.

♪ (contemplative music) ♪ (traffic whirring) The regular flood cycle of the Nile ranks as one of the greatest gifts bestowed by nature to the benefit of humankind.

♪ But its floods were also a force to be feared.

♪ Seasons of extra heavy flooding could submerge entire villages, and a light flood season could lead to devastating famine.

♪ Efforts to control this flow are as old as Egyptian civilization itself.

♪ Here in the Nile Delta, just north of Cairo, where the river starts to fan out towards the Mediterranean Sea, the first successful Nile River dam still stands.

♪ Designed by a Frenchman and almost 30 years in the making, it's said that one of the Great Pyramids was almost demolished in order to provide the project with a cheap source of finished stone.

♪ Luckily, that never happened.

♪ Instead, after a series of false starts, its impact would prove nothing short of revolutionary.

♪ (bright music) ♪ Nine hundred kilometers to the south... ♪ ...and this is the Aswan Low Dam.

♪ A massive undertaking, for a time it was the largest masonry dam in the world.

♪ It remains a monument not only to engineering genius but also to the colonial period and the British occupation that brought it into being.

♪ It's still a vital piece of infrastructure for the people of Aswan who live below it.

♪ At the end of the colonial period, beginning in 1960 and continuing through to the end of that storied decade, one of the greatest feats of construction in all of Egypt's history was undertaken: the building of the much larger Aswan High Dam.

♪ Significantly, it sought to harness the waters of the Nile for both irrigation and flood control, and as an unparalleled source of hydroelectric power.

♪ (uplifting music) A genuinely international phenomenon, the Aswan High Dam inundated Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan with one of the largest man-made lakes in the world.

♪ Called Lake Nasser, it's 5,250 square kilometers in size, and it required the resettlement of 120,000 people on both sides of the border.

♪ Today, a Russian-Egyptian friendship monument stands along its shore, recalling the substantial Russian support that went into the dam's construction.

♪ (wondrous music) ♪ Nearby, between the Aswan Low and High Dams, is an island bejeweled by the exquisite Temple of Philae.

♪ Standing just a few feet above the waterline, this Ptolemaic Era temple looks as if it has stood here in splendid isolation for millennia.

♪ In fact, it was painstakingly removed from its original location in the late 1960s.

♪ It was reassembled here to avoid its being submerged behind the Aswan High Dam.

♪ It is an architectural masterpiece... ♪ ...perhaps overshadowed in the area only by the spectacular Temples of Abu Simbel, a 300-kilometer drive, or quick flight, further south.

(uplifting music) It took more than 20 years for the stonemasons of Ramesses the Great to painstakingly carve his monumental likenesses into rock walls overlooking the Nile... ♪ ...and just to the north, to carve it again, alongside his wife, Nefertiti, dedicated to the Goddess Hathor and to the gods of the sun, the builders and craftsmen, and of course, to the deified Ramesses himself.

♪ Three immaculately decorated chambers here extend 56 meters into the cliff beyond the temple's main gate.

Rediscovered by archaeologists in 1813, these temples, too, were disassembled and reconstructed 60 meters above their original location.

♪ Today, they peer out over its shores.

Yet another reminder of the significance of Egypt's southernmost region to the country as a whole, geographically, historically, and also today, recreationally.

♪ (pleasant music) ♪ Bustling with pleasure craft, enjoying calm waters and steady winds... ♪ ...Aswan enjoys its position at the southern end of a circuit of tour boats that seemingly forever travel the length of the Nile at a leisurely pace.

♪ For centuries, the city has marked Egypt's southern border, a place of exchange, of journeys to and from the land we now call Sudan, and all the vast realms of Africa below.

♪ Since 1899, its most stylish visitors have camped out here at the world-famous Cataract Hotel.

♪ Guests of honor have included Winston Churchill, Queen Noor, and Agatha Christie.

♪ The film based on her novel Death on the Nile was actually shot here, too.

♪ Just across the river from the luxury suites are the spectacular ruins of Elephantine Island.

♪ In the days of the pharaohs, this was a waystation for international trade, along with the ceremonial home of the God Khnum.

♪ With the head of a ram, he guarded this sacred, natural cataract, or restriction point, in the flow of the waters of the Nile.

♪ (wondrous music) ♪ (cawing) ♪ This is the oldest pyramid in the world.

♪ It is a transformative structure that surpassed all the rectangular, single-story mud-brick tombs that had preceded it.

♪ Built in the 27th century BCE for the Pharaoh Djoser, it was the first large-scale Egyptian monument made of stone.

♪ Saqqara's Step Pyramid marks more than the start of a great architectural tradition.

It's also home to some of the earliest surviving Egyptian hieroglyphics etched inside these tomb walls.

♪ Their authors wrote lyrically about their gods, about their abundant natural world, about life, and of course, about death.

♪ "The fields of rushes are filled with water, and I am ferried over to yonder eastern side of the sky to the place where the gods fashioned me, wherein I was born new and young."

♪ (dramatic music) ♪ In death, the Ancient Egyptians were reborn, marking the beginning of a continuum that thrives today.

♪ Their Saqqara and Memphis became Cairo.

♪ Bursting with life, here the people of Egypt and the world came together.

♪ Along the banks of the Nile, thousands of years of civilization would build towards the skies... ♪ ...before the Persians and then the Greeks came crashing in.

♪ Romans came next, leaving behind this ancient port, alongside a long-since demolished canal through the heart of Cairo.

♪ Christianity then spread across the region, and it still retains a powerful foothold in Old Cairo, with Catholic and Coptic churches, some 1,500 years old, still drawing vibrant communities of worshippers.

♪ And just down the street, the oldest mosque in all of Africa.

♪ The place where Islam took hold, and stayed... ♪ ...inspiring testaments to the power of the Muslim faith that can be seen in the minarets that dot the city.

♪ Developing for all on an unprecedented scale, Egypt is welcoming the world by building big.

♪ (lively music) In one year, the size of the Suez Canal almost doubled.

♪ Across 100 square kilometers in Upper Egypt, the largest wind farm of its kind is harnessing clean, renewable energy across the country.

♪ The Benban Solar Park is conjuring sunlight into electrical energy on a scale that has to be seen to be believed.

♪ From the world's most spectacular new museum... (wondrous music) ...to the stunning Temples of Abu Simbel, Karnak, Hatshepsut... ♪ the Pyramids of Djoser, Faiyum, and Giza.

♪ From the sun-drenched shores of Aswan... ♪ ...to the riverside treasures of Luxor... ♪ (waves crashing) ...to the rolling waves of the Mediterranean coast at Alexandria... ♪ ...to the sparkling shores of the Nile, rolling forever through the city of a thousand minarets.

♪ Today is a new day in Egypt.

♪ A new day for Egyptians, and a new day for all to come and to stay.

♪ (bright music)