[whoosh]
[music playing]
NARRATOR: 40 miles
south, near Aswan,
at the ancient necropolis
of Qubbet El-Hawa, professor
Alejandro
Jimenez-Serrano heads one
of the largest foreign teams
working in Egypt today.
ALEJANDRO JIMENEZ-SERRANO:
During the last 11 years,
we have been excavating
this huge complex
of tombs where the governors of
the 12th dynasty were buried.
NARRATOR: These burial chambers
were built for the nobles
governing southern
Egypt, 500 years
after the Sphinx was built.
ALEJANDRO JIMENEZ-SERRANO: We
will see what we will find.
You never know what
is going to happen
today, for what we will find
or which surprise we will have.
[music playing]
NARRATOR: Close to a cliff
side, the team reports
a skull emerging from the sand.
[indistinct chatter]
Followed by a second.
[indistinct chatter]
The huge jaws include some
teeth two inches long.
RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ: At first, we
can only see this head only.
We were like, wow, a
crocodile, a crocodile!
And then something
appeared here.
And we were, like, oh, my
God, there are two crocodiles!
NARRATOR: The crocodiles
are an especially lucky
find for Raquel Rodriguez.
It's her first
ever dig in Egypt.
RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ: I ask, oh,
this is something common?
And they were like, no, no, no.
This is the first crocodile
that we've seen in 11 years.
So I'm very happy about it.
NARRATOR: The crocodiles may
be close to the river Nile,
but this is not a natural nest.
The bones have black marks,
the remains of skin and flesh.
They are so well-preserved,
Alejandro thinks
they must have been mummified.
ALEJANDRO JIMENEZ-SERRANO:
It's a challenge to explain why
the crocodiles were mummified.
NARRATOR: Mummified
crocodiles are an unusual
find and have only ever been
unearthed at a small number
of sites in Egypt.
They could be a sign of a
rare form of animal worship.
As the team slowly
unearths more skeletons,
they count 11 in total.
And they're deteriorating,
all except one.
ALEJANDRO JIMENEZ-SERRANO:
Unfortunately, they
are not in a good of
state of preservation.
But this one, it
is almost perfect.
NARRATOR: The intact crocodile
is extremely fragile.
They can't risk damaging it.
Before they attempt to move
it, they carefully extract
the surrounding bone fragments.
In the midday sun, the
temperature is over 90 degrees
Fahrenheit.
It's hot and smelly work.
RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ: They
say that smell grows.
I'm not smelling anything
because I've got a cold,
but they say it smells bad.
NARRATOR: Now the crocodile
is exposed to the air and sun,
it's rotting fast.
Alejandro has to
get it out of here.
