1
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:08,960
Frankincense, one of the gifts given by the three Wise Men to the newborn Christ.

2
00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:15,520
As rare and as precious as gold. Its smoke was thought to have

3
00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:19,680
divine powers that directly connected man to his god.

4
00:00:22,240 --> 00:00:26,640
From its source in Oman, an epic trade route was forged across

5
00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:31,720
Arabia to the Holy Lands where it was shipped throughout the Ancient World.

6
00:00:35,160 --> 00:00:40,280
And along the way, entire civilisations emerged from the desert and prospered.

7
00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:51,520
Now, 5,000 years after the frankincense trade began, I'm following in the footsteps

8
00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:55,320
of one of the great epic trade routes of ancient times.

9
00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:12,720
My 2,000-mile journey started in Oman with the Al Mahri tribe,

10
00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:16,000
the descendants of the original frankincense traders.

11
00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:17,920
Goodness knows what's going to happen!

12
00:01:17,960 --> 00:01:23,920
The ancient trail led me to Yemen, one of the most dangerous countries in the world

13
00:01:23,960 --> 00:01:26,040
and a stronghold of Al Qaeda.

14
00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:29,840
People keep telling you, there is a risk, there is a risk.

15
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:32,840
From remote desert villages, I journeyed to Riyadh,

16
00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:39,600
Saudi Arabia's glittering modern capital, where I got a glimpse into the lives of the super-rich.

17
00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:43,200
I feel like I'm in a Bond film.

18
00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:46,080
With my life in the hands of Saudi's first astronaut,

19
00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:48,880
I followed the frankincense path from above.

20
00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:51,000
Ahh! You're mad!

21
00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:55,760
Safely on ground, the trail took me through the Muslim world's

22
00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:58,600
most sacred territory to the gateway of Mecca.

23
00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,520
It's just magical.

24
00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:04,160
700 miles north, I explored the spectacular ruins

25
00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:09,680
of a city built entirely on the profits of frankincense.

26
00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:15,240
And then, I was shown new evidence of the ancient route in the Red Sea -

27
00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:17,800
an untouched wreck of a ship.

28
00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:26,160
From the coast of Saudi Arabia I've crossed the Red Sea to reach Aswan in Egypt, to join

29
00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:30,640
an even more ancient trade route that followed the river Nile.

30
00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:38,000
I'm near Egypt's southern border. This is where the frankincense trail

31
00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:42,840
of the Pharaohs begins, as does my journey to follow it.

32
00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:46,600
Incense was one of the most important commodities in Ancient Egypt

33
00:02:46,640 --> 00:02:50,840
because the Pharaohs used its smoke to communicate with their gods.

34
00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:54,560
And that made it as essential to life back then as water from the Nile.

35
00:02:57,920 --> 00:03:04,240
Vast quantities of frankincense were shipped from the south along the Nile by one people, the Nubians.

36
00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:07,560
Their civilization pre-dated the Pharaohs and throughout

37
00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:11,120
most of their history, they controlled trade along the river.

38
00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:17,360
Today they still carry profitable cargo - crowds of tourists.

39
00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:23,560
Although they no longer deliver frankincense, it still plays an important part in their lives.

40
00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:27,320
I've been invited to a Nubian village to see for myself.

41
00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:29,120
I'm going to a wedding.

42
00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:35,680
I hear the party before I get there, and I can't wait.

43
00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:41,920
Nubians, I'm told, really know how to celebrate a wedding.

44
00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:47,760
I'm meeting the father of the bride with my wedding present - some of the frankincense I bought in Oman.

45
00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:53,640
Nubian tradition uses incense smoke to consecrate a marriage.

46
00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:58,680
OK, so, Mohammed, this is my present for your daughter, it's good?

47
00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:01,560
Mmm, beautiful.

48
00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:03,480
Beautiful? It's good for the bride?

49
00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:06,520
She will be pleased?Yeah. Yes.OK.

50
00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:15,720
Nubian weddings have been known to last for anything up to 40 days.

51
00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:21,520
Luckily for the groom, Mohammed, his wedding is a relatively short, low-key affair.

52
00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:24,200
This is the third and final day.

53
00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,360
In the time-honoured way, he's had to pay for everything

54
00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:32,560
including transport, accommodation and food for all 200 guests.

55
00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:37,120
To be able to foot the bill, he's been saving for seven years.

56
00:04:41,280 --> 00:04:46,200
This is the bride's home, but she stays out of sight until the big moment.

57
00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:51,280
Just outside her room, her aunties are preparing for the final wedding ceremony.

58
00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:58,920
Using an ancient family recipe, they're creating a special blend of perfumed smoke.

59
00:04:58,960 --> 00:05:03,560
This is a whole kind of precursor before the bride arrives.

60
00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:07,320
The women are getting the frankincense, some of my frankincense

61
00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:11,880
then some sort of aromatic herbs and bits of bark and things.

62
00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:14,600
They get those ready, and there's going to be some

63
00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:16,840
blessing between the bride and the groom.

64
00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:21,520
There seems to be a tremendous amount of ritual here, and although I had a,

65
00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:25,640
I suppose, traditional English wedding in a church,

66
00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:33,440
it pales into insignificance compared to this, which is like a tremendous theatrical performance.

67
00:05:39,840 --> 00:05:43,480
Outside, the family wedding party is joined by the entire village.

68
00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:48,080
The main street is blocked off and the dancing begins in earnest.

69
00:05:50,840 --> 00:05:54,760
This is when the beautiful bride, 26-year-old Azar, appears.

70
00:05:54,800 --> 00:06:01,720
Her arrival is heralded by dancing, singing and something totally unexpected.

71
00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:08,480
Not the heady perfume of frankincense smoke but the synthetic fragrance of toilet freshener.

72
00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:15,160
I can't believe that I dragged 40 kilos of frankincense here, only to be upstaged

73
00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:16,680
by an aerosol.

74
00:06:19,840 --> 00:06:25,080
Finally, the mothers of the bride and the groom step forward to give their children away.

75
00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:39,240
Like the exchanging of rings, their blessing with incense smoke confirms their bond as man and wife.

76
00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:46,360
Tomorrow, I'm returning to the trade route that made the ancestors of my fellow wedding guests

77
00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:47,800
very wealthy indeed.

78
00:06:57,840 --> 00:07:02,440
After travelling 1,000 miles from the south with their cargo stacked high,

79
00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:06,520
the Nubian traders would have arrived at this remarkable sight.

80
00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:13,200
This was the gateway to Pharaonic Egypt, Philae Temple.

81
00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:15,440
I can't get off here, can somebody help me off?

82
00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:19,320
Shokran! Thank you.

83
00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:26,680
The original temple was built to worship the most important god of the afterlife, Osiris.

84
00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:33,240
It was Osiris who decided the passage of the dead into paradise, and who also brought life to the world.

85
00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:38,600
But this temple didn't just serve a religious purpose.

86
00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:44,480
Because of its geographical location, right at the southern point of Ancient Egypt's territory

87
00:07:44,520 --> 00:07:50,240
and of course right on the river, this temple probably doubled as some kind of trading post.

88
00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:54,480
Everything that the Pharaohs imported from the lands to the south of here

89
00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:58,960
would have travelled along this stretch of the Nile - from elephants to pygmies,

90
00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:04,200
to wood for construction and of course huge quantities of incense.

91
00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:12,600
These inscriptions describe how important frankincense was to the rituals of the Pharaohs.

92
00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:19,760
They believed its smoke allowed them to assume the power of the gods so they could rule over all of Egypt.

93
00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:23,400
And it was burnt in every temple, every day.

94
00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:29,680
This temple may be a remarkable example of ancient architecture

95
00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:36,880
and human endeavour, but probably the most extraordinary thing about it is it wasn't actually built here at all.

96
00:08:36,920 --> 00:08:42,160
See that little green lump out in the water there?

97
00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:43,960
That's the original Philae Island.

98
00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:47,040
That's where this temple stood, but when the Egyptians built the

99
00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:54,800
high dam, the entire area flooded, and this temple was submerged almost right to the top.

100
00:08:54,840 --> 00:08:57,680
So, basically, the Italians got together with UNESCO,

101
00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:01,760
got a bit of cash and said, "We'll move it to dry land."

102
00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:07,600
What they had to do, you can see the post just sticking out there, that was a mini dam that they built, so

103
00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:12,560
they could drain the water away from the temple, literally cut out, block

104
00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:17,040
by block, bring it back here like a giant jigsaw and reconstruct it.

105
00:09:17,080 --> 00:09:21,480
The more lucid among you may be thinking, "Why didn't they do that before they flooded it?"

106
00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:23,000
I don't know either.

107
00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:31,040
From Philae, I'm following the frankincense route that continued

108
00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:36,160
north along the Nile, supplying the hundreds of temples along its length.

109
00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:38,560
Thank you. How chivalrous you are.

110
00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:41,360
No afraid. No afraid. Is it slippery? It's fine.

111
00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:43,200
Hello, my name is Kate.

112
00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:47,400
My name is Kaman.Hi, Kaman, nice to meet you. What a beautiful boat.

113
00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:50,240
'I'm sailing on a felucca, the type of traditional boat

114
00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:54,720
'that transported frankincense along the river.

115
00:09:54,760 --> 00:10:00,960
'Made from the trunks of palm trees, feluccas are designed to skim across the Nile's fast-flowing current.'

116
00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:02,800
To north.To north.

117
00:10:07,840 --> 00:10:09,840
Oh, we've done it.

118
00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:13,040
Hooray. Gosh, I can't believe how high it is.

119
00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:16,360
It's so beautiful.

120
00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:25,760
For something like 6,000 years, the Nile has been Egypt's highway,

121
00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:29,120
carrying its goods and carrying its people.

122
00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:33,040
But it's not just a river, it's the nation's life blood.

123
00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:36,520
Because this country sees less than an inch of rain each year,

124
00:10:36,560 --> 00:10:39,520
Egyptians rely on the Nile for their fresh water.

125
00:10:39,560 --> 00:10:46,960
And amazingly, 95% of the population live within a mile of its banks.

126
00:10:59,960 --> 00:11:01,800
There are a lot of them, aren't there?

127
00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:03,520
Many cruise boats.

128
00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:08,840
What do you think of them?

129
00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:29,160
How old were you when you first were in charge of a boat like this?

130
00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:34,080
And was it your father's boat?

131
00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:44,280
I have to say, at this time of day,

132
00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:47,720
I can't think of anywhere more beautiful to be than here.

133
00:11:47,760 --> 00:11:49,520
You're very kind.Thank you.

134
00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:02,160
At dusk, we make camp and boil some of the Nile's water for tea,

135
00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:06,200
just as I imagine the frankincense traders would have done.

136
00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:13,480
Tomorrow I'm going to the temple of a Pharaoh who's demand for frankincense surpassed any of her predecessors.

137
00:12:19,520 --> 00:12:23,440
Less than a mile from the river bank, built into the mountains that enclose

138
00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:28,160
the famous Valley of the Kings, is the temple of Queen Hatshepsut.

139
00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:34,800
She ruled Egypt nearly 1,500 years before her more famous successor

140
00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:39,320
Cleopatra, and her consumption of frankincense was legendary.

141
00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:43,000
The world's leading expert on Hatshepsut, Dr Szafranski,

142
00:12:43,040 --> 00:12:47,480
shows me one of the very few surviving images of her.

143
00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:50,720
Although her face has been vandalized, the unusual position

144
00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:55,520
of her hands shows her making a ritual offering of frankincense.

145
00:12:57,080 --> 00:13:01,720
So she would have had oil on, she's got a hand like that, with oil on this finger?

146
00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:06,320
And then like that.

147
00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:12,200
All the way up the statue.

148
00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:16,400
And that oil would have been fragranced with frankincense, with

149
00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:19,760
these imported perfumes that she loved so much.

150
00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:22,600
Yes. That's it.

151
00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:24,640
It seems quite an awkward way to do it.

152
00:13:24,680 --> 00:13:26,160
Yeah.

153
00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:32,520
All the Pharaohs used frankincense to commune with the gods but Queen Hatshepsut

154
00:13:32,560 --> 00:13:38,080
was the first to burn vast quantities on a huge public scale.

155
00:13:38,120 --> 00:13:42,280
And this was designed to prove her divine power to her people.

156
00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:09,200
During the week long feast, a gigantic pyre of frankincense burned

157
00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:13,800
day and night, its cloud of smoke visible from miles away.

158
00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:18,040
And presumably, all these clouds of incense smoke

159
00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:22,760
that people were seeing from the Nile meant that she had to make

160
00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:27,600
an awful lot of journeys to get that incense from the south.

161
00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:38,080
These 3,500-year-old frescoes are the earliest records in the world

162
00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:40,640
of frankincense being transported.

163
00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:51,760
So she actually came up with the idea, of rather than just getting

164
00:14:51,800 --> 00:14:55,680
the harvested sap, of taking the WHOLE tree back?

165
00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:58,360
Very clever.

166
00:14:59,920 --> 00:15:05,840
Although this temple was Queen Hatshepsut's tomb, her body was never found here.

167
00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:09,600
But a recent discovery could have solved the mystery.

168
00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:13,320
When I get to Cairo, I'm going to see for myself.

169
00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:18,800
Now, it's believed that less than one per cent of Ancient Egypt

170
00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:23,480
has been excavated so far, but you can't just turn up and dig.

171
00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:26,480
'Dr Szafranski is taking me to meet the man

172
00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:30,520
'in charge of all archaeological activity in this whole area.

173
00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:37,880
'He's one of the most powerful archaeologists in Egypt, and he has a fearsome reputation.'

174
00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:42,480
Shall we go in?Yes, we go in.

175
00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:46,920
'Mansour Boraik's job is to protect the wonders of Ancient Egypt

176
00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:51,600
'from tourists, TV crews and especially archaeologists.

177
00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:56,560
'His rules are strict and his motto simple - break them and you're out.'

178
00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:17,280
And what did you do? Did you just go to her and say, "Pack your bags"?

179
00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:30,720
'Warning heeded, Mansour agrees to meet me later'

180
00:16:30,760 --> 00:16:33,840
at one of Ancient Egypt's greatest treasures,

181
00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:37,880
which just happens to be round the corner from his office.

182
00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:45,040
This is one of the most astonishing things about Egypt.

183
00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:49,960
You walk round a corner, and there's yet another walloping great temple.

184
00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:03,760
This is Karnak,

185
00:17:03,800 --> 00:17:07,560
the largest religious site anywhere in the world.

186
00:17:07,600 --> 00:17:12,680
It's a collection of different temples that represent the combined legacy of nearly every Pharaoh

187
00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:15,880
who reigned over Ancient Egypt.

188
00:17:15,920 --> 00:17:20,400
Pharaohs always wanted to outdo the previous Pharaoh,

189
00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:23,560
so someone would build a temple,

190
00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:27,960
die, the next Pharaoh would come along and go, "Ha! I can do better than that,"

191
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:31,960
and would build one even bigger, and so the result is

192
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:35,360
two kilometres square of just kind of...

193
00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:38,680
well, Egyptians showing off, really.

194
00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:44,800
The first temple was built here nearly 4,000 years ago.

195
00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:51,200
From then onwards, Karnak was under constant construction

196
00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:53,080
until the birth of Christ.

197
00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:59,760
The scale of this place, of all this Ancient Egyptian architecture,

198
00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:02,600
just takes your breath away.

199
00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:08,880
The Ancient Egyptians believed Karnak to be the gods' home on Earth.

200
00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:14,120
To show respect to those gods, frankincense would have been burnt here day and night.

201
00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:17,240
Mansour has arranged to me at Khonsu temple,

202
00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:21,240
a place where frankincense was prepared by high priests.

203
00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:24,560
In this vast maze, I don't have a clue where it is,

204
00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:26,200
but he should be easy to find -

205
00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:29,160
he's brought a hundred schoolchildren with him.

206
00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:32,760
Can't be hard to find a hundred schoolchildren, surely.

207
00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:37,040
Excuse me, Khonsu temple?

208
00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:39,120
"CHEN-SU".HEN-su. CHEN-SU.

209
00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:42,320
Ah, OK. Khonsu. Is it through that way?

210
00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:46,480
'One of the many guardians of the site, Abdul, shows me the way.'

211
00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:49,760
Can you just go a little bit more slowly, Abdul?

212
00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:54,600
Oooo-ooo-oh!

213
00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:57,280
Woo-ooo-oh! Is that an earthquake?

214
00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:00,520
'Most of the buildings in this corner of Karnak

215
00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:05,480
'have been destroyed by earthquakes, but Khonsu temple remains.'

216
00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:08,600
A-ha! I think these are the children I'm looking for.

217
00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:12,880
They're here to learn the rituals of their ancestors

218
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:16,240
in a place known by the high priests as the Holy of the Holies.

219
00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:20,120
'And just as he promised me, Mansour is here to meet me.'

220
00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:23,200
I have to say, I am so envious of these children,

221
00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:25,440
because what a place to learn history!

222
00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:31,760
And he's burning incense, as well.

223
00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:35,160
'High priests used burning frankincense

224
00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:39,040
'to lead Karnak's most important annual procession,

225
00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:41,640
'which started in this very temple.

226
00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:46,000
'In ancient times, the entire city would have followed the priests

227
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:50,760
'to where the Pharaoh made his dramatic public offering to the gods.'

228
00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:29,440
When they were worshipping their gods, and this sounds like an obvious question,

229
00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:33,360
but what was it that the Pharaohs wanted from their gods?

230
00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:37,040
What were they asking for with all this frankincense?

231
00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:47,200
The Pharaohs believed this power could give them control over the earth.

232
00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:51,200
If they performed the rituals well, it would mean prosperity.

233
00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:53,840
If they didn't, their people starved.

234
00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:56,640
Frankincense was key to that religion.

235
00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:11,880
For over 4,000 years,

236
00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:16,040
frankincense was used in religious ceremonies throughout Ancient Egypt.

237
00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:19,640
But its religious significance didn't end with the Pharaohs.

238
00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:28,360
From Karnak, I'm heading one hundred miles north to join

239
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:33,160
a modern-day religious ceremony where frankincense is still being used.

240
00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:38,560
I'm sharing a bus with some Christian pilgrims who belong

241
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:43,080
'to the Coptic Church, one of the oldest branches of Christianity.'

242
00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:47,160
Surprisingly, in a country I think of as almost exclusively Muslim,

243
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:51,600
Coptic Christians make up around 10% of the population.

244
00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:58,040
This bus is taking me to Durunka, one of the holiest sites in Egypt if you happen to be a Coptic Christian.

245
00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:03,720
They believe that this is where Mary, Joseph and Jesus fled to escape from the persecution of Herod,

246
00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:07,520
and every year, up to 50,000 Coptics will make a pilgrimage here

247
00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:10,960
to take part in one of the biggest events of the Coptic year.

248
00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:21,960
The monastery of the Holy Virgin here at Durunka is big,

249
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,640
about the size of a small town, but every bit of it

250
00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:29,480
is crammed with people, here to take part in the procession.

251
00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:34,760
I had planned to meet somebody very tall. You know the man?

252
00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:36,760
He's very tall. The holy man.

253
00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:41,960
'To help me find my way, I've arranged to meet one of the monks.

254
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,880
'He hasn't left the monastery for ten years.

255
00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:47,720
'He wanted to take himself away from the world.

256
00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:52,040
'But the irony is, today the world has come to him.'

257
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,360
Deacon Basil? Yes, pleased to meet you.

258
00:22:54,400 --> 00:23:00,440
I didn't think I was ever going to find you! So, you are going to lead me in this madness.

259
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:05,080
OK, I follow you. You go. Go, go, go.

260
00:23:05,120 --> 00:23:08,080
And I'm your willing disciple.

261
00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:10,080
I think.

262
00:23:10,120 --> 00:23:14,920
You came here for a solitary life?! Yes.Deacon Basil, you came to the wrong place!

263
00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:21,560
The wrong time. So, why does everybody come here at this time of year?

264
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:30,360
OK. But why do it at this time of year, when it's so hot

265
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:34,800
and everyone seems to be almost on the brink of madness?

266
00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:48,720
'As part of the celebrations, monks have been praying

267
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,720
'and burning frankincense in this chapel since dawn.

268
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:56,920
'Just like the Pharaohs, they believe the holy smoke delivers their prayers to their god.

269
00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:00,680
'But unlike the Pharaohs, they don't have their own reliable supply.'

270
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:11,200
You know what I have?

271
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:20,280
HE SINGS

272
00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:24,840
The monks sing in a language once used by the Ancient Egyptians.

273
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:28,600
This is the final prayer before the procession begins outside.

274
00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:32,080
But there's another thing Deacon Basil wants me to see.

275
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:38,880
It's a great honour for Coptic families to have their babies baptised here,

276
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:44,720
and the priest will perform about 5,000 baptisms over the next few days.

277
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:47,760
Are there a lot of Coptics practising in Egypt now?

278
00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:51,360
Because Egypt's predominately a Muslim country, isn't it?

279
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:03,200
It's quite rigorous. In Britain, when a child is baptised,

280
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:06,840
they just use a bit of water and they make the sign of the cross on the forehead.

281
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:09,720
This, the child has to swim! Yes, yes.

282
00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:29,320
'Deacon Basil leads me to the cave Copts believe was once a refuge for the Holy Family.

283
00:25:29,360 --> 00:25:33,760
'It's one of their most sacred sites, and it's full of volunteers

284
00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:38,120
'making last-minute preparations for the procession.'

285
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:45,160
These men in white robes are amongst the most devoted, and today they're going to be put to the test.

286
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:51,840
Their job is to protect the monastery's bishop as he leads the procession through the crowd outside.

287
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:56,760
Many have been waiting here for two days to claim their position.

288
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:01,480
But others haven't gone to the same trouble.

289
00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:05,320
Wealthy families have purpose-built viewing rooms that are only used

290
00:26:05,360 --> 00:26:09,640
to watch the procession for this one day each year.

291
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:12,160
Then the bishop arrives.

292
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:18,920
87 years old, he's too frail to walk and will complete the procession in a golf buggy.

293
00:26:30,120 --> 00:26:32,880
The crowd believe that a blessing from the bishop

294
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:37,480
will bring good luck to them and their family for the year ahead.

295
00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:42,440
The closer they get, the better they think their chance is of this coming true.

296
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:52,280
This procession has been attracting ever bigger crowds

297
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:53,880
over the past decade,

298
00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:56,880
with attendance figures almost doubling year after year.

299
00:26:56,920 --> 00:27:02,200
Stories of the blessed finding sudden fortune have been a motivation,

300
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:07,360
but it's also been suggested that rising Islamic fundamentalism across Egypt

301
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:10,600
has sparked a new wave of Christian fervour.

302
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:13,760
Seems to be descending into complete chaos.

303
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:17,840
They're trying to control the crowd

304
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:21,600
with the barrier here, but it looks like fighting's breaking out.

305
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:37,360
It's actually getting a little bit nerve-wracking now.

306
00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:48,560
The bishop remains calm as chaos descends all around him.

307
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:57,000
After just 20 minutes, the procession comes to an end,

308
00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:59,760
as the bishop returns to his solitary life

309
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:03,160
inside the private rooms of the monastery.

310
00:28:06,360 --> 00:28:11,760
The procession is officially over, and now it's just processing to get out of town.

311
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:15,840
That was quite possibly the most insane experience

312
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:22,000
I think I've ever had, but despite it being, at times, actually quite frightening,

313
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:27,640
the number of people and the crush and this kind of fervour,

314
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:30,320
everyone has been incredibly friendly,

315
00:28:30,360 --> 00:28:35,600
and what really comes out is this pride in the Coptic faith,

316
00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:38,280
people coming up to me and just saying,

317
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:41,680
"Look at all these Coptics together. Look at them all."

318
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:47,000
There's thousands of people here, and they're all celebrating, and they're really proud of the fact.

319
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:50,360
And this sort of thing has been happening all the time,

320
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:53,440
just these little spontaneous outbursts in the crowd.

321
00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:57,320
I think the party might go on a lot longer than I can handle.

322
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:08,920
This has been a crazy day, both exhilarating and frightening,

323
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:11,800
and in that heat and the crush of the crowd,

324
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:14,200
it was also completely draining.

325
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:16,600
I've reached that point

326
00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:20,360
where all I want to do is stop, cool down and go to bed.

327
00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:28,440
But this is Egypt, and it feels as if this country never sleeps.

328
00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:33,040
The night-time, apparently, is THE time to travel.

329
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:49,480
So I'm catching the 1am train, and the plan is that I wake up

330
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:54,760
refreshed and ready to go in Egypt's capital city, Cairo, first thing in the morning.

331
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:57,680
That is, if I can ever get in my cabin.

332
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:16,400
Like almost everything in this country, the train line sticks close

333
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:20,440
to the Nile on my 300-mile journey to Cairo.

334
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:29,760
After five very short hours and not much sleep at all,

335
00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:34,040
I arrive with the morning papers in the middle of the city.

336
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:37,600
Home to 18 million people,

337
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:42,240
its population is growing faster than almost any other place on Earth.

338
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:46,840
And already, at 6am, the streets are buzzing.

339
00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:53,800
My first stop is the spice market,

340
00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:59,280
where frankincense has been traded since Cairo was first built.

341
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,520
So, is Cairo a good city to live in?

342
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:11,240
Today, the traffic is not so bad.

343
00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:44,600
Cairo wasn't founded by the Pharaohs.

344
00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:49,240
It was constructed instead by Muslim conquerors from Tunisia

345
00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:51,640
just over a thousand years ago.

346
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:55,920
That's why the heart of it is known as Islamic Cairo.

347
00:31:55,960 --> 00:32:01,480
'Its maze of alleyways twists around hundreds of medieval mosques and forts.'

348
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:08,840
Can I swap an apricot for some frankincense?

349
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:11,280
Perfect.

350
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:14,720
OK! Thank you!

351
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:16,280
How are you?

352
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:18,560
I'm fine.Good.

353
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:26,080
The air is filled with the smells of a hundred different spices and aromatics.

354
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:28,880
It's a nose-tickling experience.

355
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:35,440
SHE SNEEZES

356
00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:41,400
Used for medicines, for ingredients, for talismans, seeds and starfish,

357
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:45,800
oils and incense are still in demand all over Egypt today.

358
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:50,880
SHE SNEEZES Excuse me! Do you want me to help?

359
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:55,280
We're coming through!

360
00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:08,760
The old city's alleyways lead me to Cairo's famous Museum of Egyptian Antiquities.

361
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:14,000
This is where the Pharaohs' priceless artefacts are kept on display.

362
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:21,160
It's also where the mummy which might be that of Hatshepsut, the frankincense queen, is on show.

363
00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:25,080
Before I find her, first I have to make my way

364
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:30,880
through crowds of tourists and 120,000 Ancient Egyptian relics -

365
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:35,160
so many that not all of them have been catalogued.

366
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:38,440
But some are famous the world over.

367
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:43,840
Tutankhamen, the pop-star Pharaoh.

368
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:48,320
It's staggering, isn't it, that thousands of years after a man's death,

369
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:52,680
people are flocking just to see what he was buried with?

370
00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:57,680
Tutankhamen is the best-known of all the Pharaohs because his tomb,

371
00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:02,080
full of kingly treasures, which included frankincense, was found intact.

372
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:08,520
When modern-day archaeologists found Queen Hatshepsut's tomb, the treasures and her mummy had gone.

373
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:14,440
Well, if the details of Hatshepsut's life weren't sketchy enough,

374
00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:17,400
her death has also caused Egyptologists

375
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:20,320
to argue and wrangle for years and years.

376
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:25,760
Basically, no-one could find a mummy that was definitely Hatshepsut.

377
00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:32,440
But the discovery of the mummified remains of one of her household staff provided a clue.

378
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:35,840
This is the wet nurse of Hatshepsut. She was called In,

379
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:38,280
and she must have been a very beautiful woman,

380
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:41,720
quite striking, with all that red hair.

381
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:45,000
Another mummy was found alongside her -

382
00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:50,440
the remains of an unidentified woman but much less well preserved.

383
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:55,040
This was the mummy of a very obese, diseased-ridden woman,

384
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:58,000
but recent thinking believes

385
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:03,040
that the face I'm looking at now is the face of Hatshepsut.

386
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:07,480
How she got there, why she ended up in that state,

387
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:12,360
nobody really knows. And the evidence that this Hatshepsut is based on one tooth,

388
00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:17,880
one tooth missing, another tooth found in another coffin that was apparently Hatshepsut's.

389
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:20,360
So, it is all still a bit of a mystery.

390
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:26,960
The Ancient Egyptians believed they had to be mummified

391
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:31,280
so they could be resurrected and live eternally in the afterlife.

392
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:38,040
But mummification was only one part of the process they had to undertake to reach the world of the gods.

393
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:43,280
On the edge of Cairo are the most famous monuments in Egypt

394
00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:48,360
built on the orders of Pharaohs to help them travel from this life to the next.

395
00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:58,080
It was here frankincense was used

396
00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:01,240
in some of history's most elaborate death rituals.

397
00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:07,400
The tallest of the great pyramids of Giza is 450 feet high.

398
00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:12,280
For 4,500 years, until the construction of the Eiffel Tower,

399
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:15,720
it remained the tallest structure on Earth.

400
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:21,480
'Janice Kamrin is one of the world's leading experts on the pyramids.'

401
00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:28,160
I remember the first time I saw the Mona Lisa for real, and it was like seeing a celebrity.

402
00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:34,760
It was, "I've seen this all my life." And this is the same, you can't quite believe that this it it.

403
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:39,080
That this is actually real. It is so big.It's SO big.

404
00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:42,560
I remember the first I came here, driving up,

405
00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:45,000
and it just got bigger the closer we got.

406
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:47,320
It's just enormous.

407
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:52,840
Can you...? What went through the guy's mind? Who thought of this? It's madness, isn't it?

408
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:57,800
You've got to get to the sky, get as close as you can.That was it, was it? Trying to get to the sky?

409
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:01,720
That was part of it, sure. It's astonishing.

410
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:06,160
Although it took 100,000 people 20 years to build,

411
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:09,800
it's the tomb of only one man, the Pharaoh Khufu.

412
00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:12,840
Why did Khufu build it?

413
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:17,600
After his death he became a god, and this was his resurrection machine.

414
00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:19,960
That's the Egyptological buzz word.

415
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:24,280
What do you mean? So the idea was that he would put himself in this

416
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:28,600
to be resurrected and, what, shot out of the top suddenly as a god?

417
00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:32,520
One thing that's interesting about Ancient Egyptian religion

418
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:36,280
is that this pyramid, this huge mountain of stone

419
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:39,600
represents kind of a stairway to the sky.

420
00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:45,600
And this is about as big a stairway as anyone could imagine.

421
00:37:45,640 --> 00:37:49,160
The Ancient Egyptians believed that they entered the afterlife

422
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:52,240
through a specific part of the sky above.

423
00:37:52,280 --> 00:37:55,800
'But Khufu's journey started deep inside the heart of the pyramid,

424
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:57,600
'in his burial chamber.'

425
00:37:57,640 --> 00:37:59,520
Lead on.

426
00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:05,920
'The burial chamber is situated close to the centre of the pyramid,

427
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:08,480
'250 feet below its apex.'

428
00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:10,760
The thing that I hadn't appreciated,

429
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:15,040
and I'm going to seem really stupid now, but I thought the pyramid

430
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:19,280
was sort of a pyramid-shaped shell and it would be completely hollow inside,

431
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:21,520
but it's solid rock all the way through.

432
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:24,960
It is. I mean, the bottom part is actually bedrock,

433
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:29,440
they left a chunk of bedrock sticking up from the plateau and then built quarried stone around it.

434
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:35,840
This tunnel leading up to the burial chamber

435
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:40,200
is only four foot high, and originally was blocked

436
00:38:40,240 --> 00:38:44,920
by three seven-tonne granite slabs to stop intruders.

437
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:51,280
That whole thing about women gently glowing...

438
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:55,720
It's not true! I'm not going to look very ladylike when I get up here!

439
00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:59,520
Oh, my goodness, it's completely unexpected!

440
00:38:59,560 --> 00:39:05,240
It's called the Grand Gallery, it's a remarkable feat of engineering.

441
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:07,040
It's unique.

442
00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:09,200
The technique is called corbelling -

443
00:39:09,240 --> 00:39:12,360
see how the stones overlap and overlap until the top?

444
00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:15,200
And then straight up that way is the burial chamber.

445
00:39:15,240 --> 00:39:17,640
That's where we're going?Yeah.

446
00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:20,320
OK.You ready?I'm ready. Pick a side.

447
00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:24,720
I've got my breath back. Which way do we go up?This way.

448
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:29,520
'For anyone taking part in Khufu's funeral,

449
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:33,640
'this journey must have been awe-inspiring and terrifying

450
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:36,080
'in equal measure.

451
00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:40,080
'The tunnels would have only been dimly lit by torches

452
00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:42,680
'and probably full of incense smoke.

453
00:39:42,720 --> 00:39:46,480
'It must have felt like a procession into another world.

454
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:53,720
'Finally, a much smaller tunnel that leads to the Pharaoh's resting place.'

455
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:56,280
You can't do this elegantly...

456
00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:03,040
You could be in the most modern building in the world.

457
00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:06,720
'Once, this room was stacked full of treasures

458
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:11,520
'that the Pharaoh believed he'd need in the afterlife, but they've long since been stolen.'

459
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:17,240
And this? This is the king's sarcophagus.

460
00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:21,400
This is where the coffins and the royal mummy would have been put.

461
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:25,760
And would frankincense have played a part or incense played a part,

462
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:28,440
cos obviously that played a huge part later on,

463
00:40:28,480 --> 00:40:32,080
but is that something that would have been key at this stage as well?

464
00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:37,160
Incense was part of the offering ritual, from the earliest periods of Egyptian history.

465
00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:41,880
It's listed as part of your main offering, and it was definitely used

466
00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:46,000
as part of the funerary ritual and part of the daily cult ritual.

467
00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:50,600
Nice echo, huh?

468
00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:55,400
The first time I ever came here, my friend Stacey and I had the place to ourselves

469
00:40:55,440 --> 00:41:00,200
for some reason, and we sang a rousing rendition of Amazing Grace.

470
00:41:00,240 --> 00:41:02,440
The acoustics were wonderful.

471
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:04,720
It was like singing in the shower times ten.

472
00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:07,280
Oh, should we do one? I don't know the words.

473
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:12,280
I don't think I remember them either!You must remember one line. How does it start? Go on.

474
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:16,200
# Amazing grace... #

475
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:35,360
After the claustrophobia of the pyramid,

476
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:40,280
I've come to Cairo's only green public space, Al Azhar Park,

477
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:43,400
to say goodbye to the city.

478
00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:48,880
Families come here for fresh air and for the magnificent sunsets.

479
00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:53,520
Tomorrow I'm leaving the metropolis,

480
00:41:53,560 --> 00:41:58,560
leaving behind the Nile River and the mighty trade route of the Pharaohs.

481
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:10,960
Now I'm turning east, towards the frankincense trail of Arabia.

482
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:15,480
From the Sinai Desert I'll travel on foot to the Red Sea Coast.

483
00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:23,400
'A local Bedouin known as Farag the Fox has agreed to be my guide across the desert sands to the sea.

484
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:28,960
'It's a 30-mile journey that takes around two days.

485
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:34,240
'And of course, we're going to travel by camel.'

486
00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:44,160
Even though you have the 4x4 now, the camel can't be beaten?

487
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:52,720
'I'm getting rather used to this now.

488
00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:56,560
'Riding a camel is sort of like riding a bike - you never forget.

489
00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:59,120
'But I'll need to look after mine.

490
00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:01,760
'Camels today are regarded as luxury items.

491
00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:06,000
'They can cost up to £1,000 each so they are a big investment,

492
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:09,200
'especially in a region with little paid work.'

493
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:20,080
There are still, then, Bedouin living in the Sinai in the old way?

494
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:44,200
I think that maybe there will be lot of people

495
00:43:44,240 --> 00:43:46,840
who would like to live the Bedouin life,

496
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:49,800
would like to get back to that simple life.

497
00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:56,080
Farag has brought me to meet a traditional Bedouin healer

498
00:43:56,120 --> 00:43:58,280
who's famous across all of Egypt.

499
00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:01,320
He's famous because he cures people who are ill,

500
00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:04,480
using only herbs that he collects from the desert.

501
00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:09,720
Dr Ahmed, Salaam Alaikum.

502
00:44:09,760 --> 00:44:13,680
Walaikum Salaam.I'm sorry, you're with a patient. Shall I go?

503
00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:17,320
It's OK?

504
00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:19,880
Salaam Alaikum.

505
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:25,000
Nice to meet you. Please carry on.

506
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:30,640
'A self-proclaimed doctor, he has no formal medical qualifications.

507
00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:34,960
'Instead, Dr Ahmed uses the knowledge of generations of healers before him

508
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:40,040
'to diagnose and treat everything, from cataracts to broken bones.

509
00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:43,680
'This patient has been suffering from severe stomach pain.

510
00:44:43,720 --> 00:44:47,360
'Dr Ahmed begins by listening to his blood flow.'

511
00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:54,440
Dr Ahmed, can you tell me what's wrong with the patient?

512
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:06,280
'I join Dr Ahmed as he goes to collect the patient's medicine.

513
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:09,640
'The desert that surrounds his clinic is his pharmacy.

514
00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:17,400
'There are 527 varieties of herbs that grow here, and he knows the healing properties of all of them.

515
00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:22,200
'This is the plant he needs to cure his patient, a type of desert rosemary.'

516
00:45:23,240 --> 00:45:25,400
Oh, yeah.

517
00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:29,760
Can I...or will I...?

518
00:45:32,520 --> 00:45:35,200
It tastes completely different from it smells.

519
00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:38,240
It tastes woody. It's quite nice.

520
00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:42,360
Pharmaceutical companies have used herbs from the Sinai

521
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,960
as the basis for commercial drugs since the 1950s.

522
00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:50,000
Dr Ahmed treats all his patients directly from the source.

523
00:45:50,040 --> 00:45:52,440
Wow, what a smell!

524
00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:56,600
Look at all this stuff.

525
00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:03,720
All these are different herbs for different treatments?

526
00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:09,120
'After Dr Ahmed has crushed the plants' leaves, he mixes them with other herbs.

527
00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:17,360
'With a final 21st century touch, his patient receives his 100% natural medicine.'

528
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:26,080
How quickly will he get better?

529
00:46:27,640 --> 00:46:29,800
He'll be good?Yeah, yeah.

530
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:31,960
We need you in England!

531
00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:43,200
I rejoin Farag and we continue our journey east.

532
00:46:43,240 --> 00:46:48,600
Just a few miles from the coast, Farag decides to stop for the night.

533
00:47:02,880 --> 00:47:05,320
'And of course, there's a tent to be put up.

534
00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:08,040
'Not just any tent, but the traditional home of the Bedouin.

535
00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:10,560
'Spun from goat hair,

536
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:14,600
'it's a design that's been perfected over thousands of years.'

537
00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:21,080
Any minute now someone's going to ask for an instruction book.

538
00:47:34,600 --> 00:47:38,480
To this one.To this line here? Yes, to this line here.

539
00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:42,200
No, come back, more, more, more. More, more?

540
00:47:42,240 --> 00:47:45,080
That way?That way.Like that?

541
00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:47,280
Yeah, yeah. Up, up.

542
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:53,160
That's taken roughly 45 minutes,

543
00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:58,600
and I have to say, I don't like our chances of staying dry if it did rain suddenly.

544
00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:00,640
There's an awful lot of gaps there.

545
00:48:02,200 --> 00:48:04,880
Maybe that's Bedouin air conditioning.

546
00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:10,280
The layout of a Bedouin camp follows strict rules and procedures,

547
00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:13,080
and even the camels have to know their place.

548
00:48:17,640 --> 00:48:21,320
Why? ..It's just the system?

549
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:33,840
It's like a guard dog?

550
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:42,280
Doesn't do anything. So we put him in the back!

551
00:49:12,880 --> 00:49:15,520
Oh, my word, that looks amazing!

552
00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:18,000
It smells fantastic.

553
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:19,640
Perfect.

554
00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:22,280
So do you eat just with the bread?

555
00:49:34,080 --> 00:49:37,800
Oh, this bread is hot and so fresh.

556
00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:39,640
I'm going to try a bit of this.

557
00:49:42,240 --> 00:49:44,400
Oh, tastes good.

558
00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:52,320
When it's silent like that, you know everyone's really enjoying their food.

559
00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:57,840
Dinner's over by eight o'clock and I'm ready for bed.

560
00:49:57,880 --> 00:50:01,040
Would it be OK if I slept outside?

561
00:50:01,080 --> 00:50:05,920
The stars are so beautiful and in England it's always raining, and you never get a chance to sleep outside.

562
00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:09,320
It's OK, no problem. Where would be a good place to go?

563
00:50:13,320 --> 00:50:15,240
The wind? OK.

564
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:20,600
There is no wind, Farag. It's completely still!

565
00:50:30,560 --> 00:50:34,280
So not quite in the tent, but just outside it.Yeah.

566
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:41,200
So I'm just at the edge of the tent, and it is quite bumpy.

567
00:50:41,240 --> 00:50:47,480
But I'm so exhausted, I think I will just sleep incredibly well.

568
00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:51,920
Although, him talking about breezes, I don't know where that's coming from

569
00:50:51,960 --> 00:50:57,400
cos it's absolutely still and it must still be about 35 degrees.

570
00:50:57,440 --> 00:51:00,920
And my view of the stars is interrupted.

571
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:04,120
(Call the manager, I'm going to complain.)

572
00:51:08,640 --> 00:51:12,480
At dawn, the tent we took so long to erect is taken down again.

573
00:51:12,520 --> 00:51:15,440
I think I can officially say

574
00:51:15,480 --> 00:51:18,200
that I'm not tough enough to be a Bedouin.

575
00:51:18,240 --> 00:51:20,680
Everyone went to sleep

576
00:51:20,720 --> 00:51:25,120
and I lay down on the bit of carpet that Farag gave me.

577
00:51:25,160 --> 00:51:28,960
I was looking at the stars thinking "I'm never, ever going to sleep."

578
00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:33,640
And I just felt so guilty about kind of failing.

579
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:41,920
I crept out with my torch and was sort of scanning around and I saw a sleeping bag. Yes!

580
00:51:41,960 --> 00:51:47,760
So I snuck it back in and unrolled it so I had about that thick a mattress,

581
00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:52,880
put a carpet over the top so no-one would know, and finally passed out

582
00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:55,800
for about, I don't know, an hour.

583
00:51:55,840 --> 00:52:00,600
But it was so hot. The temperature never went down at all.

584
00:52:00,640 --> 00:52:04,800
And... So although it's a very, very beautiful place to sleep,

585
00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:07,200
it wasn't the most restful night.

586
00:52:13,480 --> 00:52:16,080
Oh, that's better.

587
00:52:16,120 --> 00:52:21,360
'After the Bedouin breakfast of tea and tobacco we head to the Red Sea.

588
00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:26,400
'Farag has been measuring our journey according to the time he takes to smoke cigarettes.

589
00:52:26,440 --> 00:52:29,320
'He's nearly through a whole pack.'

590
00:52:29,360 --> 00:52:31,560
How many cigarettes to the village?

591
00:52:31,600 --> 00:52:37,080
Half a cigarette? OK, so we're quite close. ..Half an hour.

592
00:52:38,800 --> 00:52:42,520
This tough landscape has made the Bedouin who they are.

593
00:52:42,560 --> 00:52:47,560
Every tree and rock has a meaning or a purpose, and is inhabited by spirits.

594
00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:51,000
There are good and bad spirits. The bad spirits are known as djinn.

595
00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:56,440
Someone who is particularly unlucky or suffers from inexplicable ill health

596
00:52:56,480 --> 00:53:00,240
is believed to be possessed by djinns.

597
00:53:00,280 --> 00:53:07,280
This region is home to a man who has inherited the power to exorcise evil spirits.

598
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:09,040
Salaam Alaikum.

599
00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:15,440
'This Sheikh is able to detect whether someone has been possessed by djinns.

600
00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:19,520
'And as soon as we're introduced, I begin to feel a little anxious.'

601
00:53:19,560 --> 00:53:23,800
When the Sheikh meets someone like me for the first time,

602
00:53:23,840 --> 00:53:31,080
does he sort of try and assess, look at me, and think,

603
00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:33,760
"She has a bad spirit," or...?Yeah.

604
00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:40,000
Really? I'm quite nervous now.

605
00:53:40,040 --> 00:53:46,240
'The Bedouin of the Sinai believe that possession by djinns is a frightening reality.

606
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:52,360
'Just last month the Sheikh exorcised a man who had inexplicably murdered his family.

607
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:59,200
'The evil spirits only become visible in specially prepared smoke.

608
00:53:59,240 --> 00:54:03,960
'He wants to find out if it's possible that a djinn might have possessed me while I slept.'

609
00:54:12,560 --> 00:54:15,280
Or you leave it out.Out.

610
00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:34,880
You know when you were a kid, and your mum says never accept sweets from a strange man?

611
00:54:37,040 --> 00:54:40,120
She never told me what to do in this situation.

612
00:54:49,400 --> 00:54:54,120
'The Sheikh adds frankincense to the burning embers to thicken the smoke.

613
00:54:54,160 --> 00:54:57,360
'I'm both sceptical and a little afraid.'

614
00:54:57,400 --> 00:54:59,600
Stand up and put blanket on.

615
00:55:03,800 --> 00:55:06,200
Like a cloak, or on my head?

616
00:55:06,240 --> 00:55:08,040
On your head.On my head.

617
00:55:09,640 --> 00:55:12,600
OK, OK, sit down.

618
00:55:12,640 --> 00:55:14,480
Sit down?

619
00:55:20,120 --> 00:55:25,320
'The Sheik looks for signs of the spirits in the smoke of the burning frankincense.

620
00:55:25,360 --> 00:55:28,560
'This is my moment of truth.

621
00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:31,280
'After what seems an eternity,

622
00:55:31,320 --> 00:55:35,680
'he hands me an ember of the burnt frankincense.'

623
00:55:35,720 --> 00:55:39,080
I have no djinns?

624
00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:41,240
Thank you!

625
00:55:41,280 --> 00:55:45,760
'The colour is pure and pale - a sign I'm free from evil spirits.'

626
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:50,160
Is there anything that the Sheik can do

627
00:55:50,200 --> 00:55:54,600
to give me good luck for the rest of our journey?

628
00:55:55,720 --> 00:56:00,200
'The last of the frankincense embers are added to water to make a blessing.'

629
00:56:11,040 --> 00:56:14,720
OK. So I will be safe tonight and for the rest of my journey?

630
00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:16,600
Yeah.OK.

631
00:56:22,040 --> 00:56:26,400
'From the cave, it's only a two-hour walk to the Red Sea coast.'

632
00:56:31,880 --> 00:56:35,080
Wow. The end of Egypt.

633
00:56:35,120 --> 00:56:38,560
CAMEL GRUNTS All right, just calm down!

634
00:56:38,600 --> 00:56:40,560
Down to the sea.

635
00:56:47,840 --> 00:56:50,840
This is now the fourth nation that I've crossed

636
00:56:50,880 --> 00:56:53,360
on my remarkable frankincense trail.

637
00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:56,200
Just across the water is the Kingdom of Jordan,

638
00:56:56,240 --> 00:56:59,040
where I'll begin the final stage of my journey.

639
00:57:00,920 --> 00:57:07,680
In the next programme, I leave camel trains behind and hitch a ride on the longest freight train in Arabia.

640
00:57:07,720 --> 00:57:10,320
There's something quite exciting about going on a train

641
00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:13,520
that doesn't take passengers, and taking off into the desert.

642
00:57:13,560 --> 00:57:15,400
I meet a daredevil pilot...

643
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:18,240
You are a girl who knows how to make an entrance!

644
00:57:18,280 --> 00:57:23,800
And we trace the ancient route through one of the most spectacular deserts in the world,

645
00:57:23,840 --> 00:57:27,160
to a hidden city built by frankincense traders.

646
00:57:27,200 --> 00:57:33,440
Then I cross no-man's land into Israel to a different way of life and a different world.

647
00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:37,120
What I can do is call the Rabbi over and explain it to you exactly.

648
00:57:37,160 --> 00:57:39,000
HE SINGS

649
00:57:40,360 --> 00:57:42,720
The ancient trade route leads me

650
00:57:42,760 --> 00:57:48,200
to the most contested religious territory on the planet, the city of Jerusalem.

651
00:57:48,240 --> 00:57:50,240
People have given up their lives for it.

652
00:57:50,280 --> 00:57:54,120
And then I make my final border crossing to the last stop on my frankincense trail.

653
00:57:54,160 --> 00:57:56,920
The village of Bethlehem.

654
00:57:56,960 --> 00:57:59,160
And I arrive on the one day of the year

655
00:57:59,200 --> 00:58:02,960
when it's the centre of the world's attention - Christmas Eve.

656
00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:09,520
The Patriarch is coming, and so is every security man in Palestine.

657
00:58:14,400 --> 00:58:17,880
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd