Transcript Excerpt

Secrets of the Pharaohs
Episode 2: Lost City of the Pyramids
(minute 42)

NARRATOR: But in order to figure out the significance of the pyramids to later generations, the archaeologists still had to find out who the builders had been. Zahi turned back to the tombs, looking for the missing links that would definitively establish who these people were, where they were from, and what had motivated them to take part in this massive project. These questions hold great cultural significance for modern Egyptians, who have had to endure many bizarre theories about who built their most precious national treasures.

DR. ZAHI HAWASS (EGYPTIAN UNDERSECRETARY, GIZA MONUMENTS): It's very important to know that they were Egyptians. They were not people who came out of the space. They were not came from lost civilizations as we hear these days many stories that do not really have any truth in them at all.

NARRATOR: But would the bones support Zahi's contention that the workforce was Egyptian? Before the discoveries at Giza, scientists in Cairo had been analyzing the DNA of modern Egyptians. Now, they had managed to successfully extract DNA from the ancient bones. A genetic comparison would be able to establish whether a relationship existed. The results were definitive.

DR. MOAMENA KAMEL (IMMUNOLOGIST, CAIRO UNIVERSITY): People who are living here, they are the same as the people who had been living 6000 years ago. OK? And now the moderns are the descendants of these ancient Egyptians.

NARRATOR: The DNA confirmed a close relationship between the modern Egyptians living in the Nile Valley and the ancient workers who had been buried there. For Zahi, this was an extremely significant find.