Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs Page #2

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we took the samples of skin, muscle

and bone from a modern mummy.

What makes it so difficult to extract DNA from mummy?

Is it the passage of time, the 3000 years?

Or is it the combination of time and

chemical effects of mummification?

DNA is the blueprint of all life.

Sand and air are lifeless, because

they contain no DNA.

DNA is the magic ingredient.

For where is DNA, there is life.

This instruction manual is written

in a 4-letter code.

You rearrange this 4-code letters, and you get

endless possibilities to make a living organism.

So a beetle and a bee, a bird and a man have the

same components in every cell.

Just rearranged, and in different links.

DNA changes slightly with every generation

and these changes are recorded.

So by comparing their DNA, we can tell how close

plants and animals, including people, are related.

DNA can even tell us, what diseases

ancient mummies suffered.

Some diseases, like malaria are caused by

parasites invading the body.

Some of these parasites have left traces

of their DNA in the mummies.

Many ancient egyptians died from malaria,

just as millions of people will this year.

Like all life, diseases like malaria

evolve over time to survive.

Because malaria parasites reproduce very fast,

their DNA evolves quickly.

Thousands of generations of malaria have lived,

since the pharaohs ruled.

I want to compare an ancient malaria with

its modern descendant. Ancient DNA with modern DNA.

The differences may point towards a cure,

and millions of lives could be saved in the future.

These tests will give us the answer.

Perhaps the DNA held in mummies like Ramses,

will help to cure the people today.

To advance our research, Dr Corthals has traveled

to Egypt to see the latest mummy in the diggings.

She's visiting Dr. Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt's

antiquities on his excavations at Saqqara.

In early times, only the pharaohs bodies were made

in to mummies and buried in their pyramids.

Later more people were mummified.

First are the royals, then the nobles,

and by the time of Cleopatra, the middle class to.

So during Egypt's history, literally

millions of mummies were made.

For scholars like Dr. Hawass, these mummies

are window to ancient Egypt's past.

Many of these mummies still lie beneath the ground,

awaiting the call to paradise.

Ramses believed, his body would

come to life in paradise.

He knew, he also lived as long

as people would remembered him.

As long as they said his name.

So he built monuments for himself,

and to his beloved Nefertari.

The gods demanded, that the pharaoh

keep Egypt safe and rich.

So on the bank of a river Nile,

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