Ancient Egypt's Mega Fortresses - 3D DOCUMENTARY

Deep in the deserts of Egypt, lurk monumental fortresses of unimaginable size which have been lost to the sands of time. Massive bastions from the Bronze Age, which put the castles of the Middle Ages to shame despite having been erected more than two millennia before. Built to wage war upon the Nubians of the South, their scope and complexity baffles the mind. From the largest features of their infrastructure, such as the reinforced gatehouses, to the smallest defensive details meant to engineer deadly killing fields, and the interior layouts of its important buildings such as the commander's headquarters. Sadly, one may no longer visit many of these landmarks, as they have been lost to the ravages of time and the rising waters of the Aswan Dam. Their gates may be forever closed to us. But today, let us bring their glory to life by exploring the true size of the Buhen Fortress. You can take control of the Buhen region and stake your own claim to the Nile with today's sponsor Total War Pharaoh. Creative Assembly has been a long-time supporter of the channel, and does a great service to the historical community by bringing a focus to fascinating time periods from across the eras while supporting educational content like this video. Their latest game is set in the Bronze Age, as collapse looms on the horizon. At launch, you take command of eight playable factions from across the Egyptian, Canaanite, and Hittite cultures. While this is a welcome return to the historical setting, it's clear the team has carried on some of the best ideas from the recent Warhammer series. For instance, each faction is packed with unique mechanics to help set them apart. Additional mechanics such as legacies lets you further control how you play the campaign. Entire campaigns can also now be fully customized each time you start, and the world itself is constantly evolving thanks to the new Pillars of Civilization mechanic which helps represent the larger narrative of a world teetering on the edge of collapse. There's also a ton of other features worth noting such as dynamic weather effects which actually impact battles, new unit mechanics such as the fighting retreat option, and of course, a welcome return to open-style sieges with all manner of siege engines and the new mechanic of sapping. You can get all this and more in Total War Pharaoh which releases October 11th, so click the link below to get the game now. Enjoy! The traditional borders of Egypt were the Western Desert, the Northeastern Sinai, and the First Cataract of the Nile. Each of these locations provided natural barriers which had served to organically partition the region. Yet as civilizations expanded, they began to spill over these frontiers. Thus it was in the interest of those who controlled the fertile Nile to reinforce their domains with man-made defenses. This would happen most prominently in the transitory region of the Upper Nile which was marked by a series of cataracts that served to limit efficient modes of water travel. To the North, the Pharaohs of Egypt had consolidated their holdings over the course of centuries which spanned the long history of the Old, the Intermediate, and the Middle Kingdom periods. To the South meanwhile, the various leaders of Nubia had done much the same. Theirs was a land rich in livestock, precious metals, and trade routes into the African interior which spawned its own glorious civilization. The power struggles between the two would be fought across these cataracts, with each country's sphere of influence waxing and waning over the years. A major shift in Egyptian-Nubian relations would occur at the height of the Middle Kingdom with the rise of the 5th King of the 12th Dynasty, Pharaoh Sinusret III. He was a mighty warrior king who leveraged the full power of his nation to launch a series of major campaigns into Nubia around the year 1860 BC. As a part of these ambitions to tame the southern border, he would also embark on a massive building program of river forts and citadels. Let us zoom into the region to better appreciate this project. Here you can see the constellation of defensive positions which were built or upgraded in this period. Most are clustered around the second cataract, cementing control of all the lands to the north, checking the movement of people and goods across the frontier, and serving as a staging point for raids and invasions to the south. Fascinatingly, the very names of these fortresses can be translated to give us a sense of their purpose. Examples include, quote, to combine the two countries, the conqueror of Nubia, and repelling the Medjay. Some even proudly boast of their features, such as this one, quote, the one who is resistant to the bowmen. Another bears the proud title of its creator, quote, Sinusret III justified. Regarding their strategic positioning, each bastion was located within eyesight of its neighbor, and when this was not possible, they were connected by a series of watchtowers and patrolled roads. Generally speaking, such Nubian border forts shared similar design principles one might find elsewhere in Egypt, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. Namely, they consisted of a central citadel surrounded by an outer, rectangular perimeter wall. Within was housed a barracks, a granary, a central magazine, a shrine, and a treasury. Such facilities could accommodate a population of several hundred including civilian, military, and administrative personnel. Defensively speaking, we find that these fortresses were of advanced design with multi-layered fortifications, overlapping fields of fire, and elaborate support facilities. For instance, at Mirgisa, there was built a more than one kilometer long inland slipway which allowed ships and goods to efficiently bypass the rough waters of the Taken together, this line of fortifications was truly impressive, a fact which led archaeologist William Adams to proclaim them quote, a chain of the mightiest fortifications ever erected in the ancient world. This claim is best appreciated when we consider what it would have taken to build them. Simply put, the task was gargantuan, requiring tens of thousands of workers, craftsmen, and engineers. As with the Great Pyramids, this labor pool was largely derived from the recruitment of farmers who would have been available for such toils in the off-season. For any project, scouts would have first assessed the land. Potential sites were then considered and plans drafted for the development. Next came the surveyors who helped guide the start of construction as the requisite supplies were gathered. With regards to the latter, much of this would have involved the production of mud bricks which served as the primary building material. The process was quite simple. First, mud was harvested. It was then wet with water and pressed into a mold. Often straw would have been mixed in to improve the tensile strength of the material. Next, the bricks were laid out in the sun to dry. These could then be stacked and staged for construction. In this way, the banks of the Nile could quite easily be mined for the tens of millions of bricks required to raise massive fortifications out of the desert sands. As construction began, these bricks were laid one onto the other by crane or by hand. Over time, this would gradually increase the bearing weight upon the walls, compressing the mud bricks to the point that they might deform and collapse. But Egyptian architects were masters of their craft who prepared many countermeasures. This included using granite to strengthen the base of fortifications, employing wooden framework to provide structural support, inserting layers of rush mats roughly every six brick rows to dissipate loads, adding abutments to hold up key areas of the structure, and finally, applying a layer of white plaster to all exterior faces as protection against wind and rain. Truly this was marvelous work. But to properly wrap our heads around such construction projects, let us now bring one to life. Our chosen specimen will be the Buhen Fortress. While submerged below Lake Nassar today, it is an ideal candidate as it was rigorously studied by academics in the years leading up to its planned flooding with the construction of the Aswan Dam. This is the Fortress of Buhen. Nestled against the Nile, it ran 450 meters along the water's edge and extended about 130 meters inland for a total surface area of roughly 58,000 square meters. For scale, we can place the famed island castle of Mont Saint-Michel, or the Edinburgh Castle, side by side. Here we see that ancient, bronze-age Buhen proudly holds its own against these medieval bastions, and in fact, covers a roughly 20% greater surface area. But Buhen was not always so mighty. Its Phase I plan was restricted to the inner core, around which existed an outer ditch and barricade. Phase II, which is currently depicted, was expanded under the reign of Senusret III to reinforce the outer defenses. The end result was a substantial upgrade to its defensive capabilities. The major elements which we will be reviewing are as follows. The outer desert wall, the outer Nile wall, and the citadel. We will begin with Buhen's first line of defense, the outer wall. Its three desert-facing sections ran a total of 700 meters. These fortifications were formidable, consisting of a massive wall studded by towers spaced every roughly 50 meters and fronted by a continuous ditch. But such marvels are best appreciated up close. Dropping to the desert floor and approaching Buhen on foot, we meet our first obstacle, a gaping trench. Measuring three meters deep and six meters across, it is large enough to swallow entire battalions of soldiers whole. The ditch's steep embankments make it easy for men, animals, and siege engines to fall in, but very difficult to crawl out. This is especially true on the inner slope, whose embankment is topped by a low wall which stands a few meters tall. Not only does this feature hinder an attacker's advance, but it also doubles as a protective screen behind which archers can safely fire at foes through well-placed slits. Reconstructions vary, but some models suggest that a simple step platform on the reverse of this palisade would have allowed this screen to be raised even higher while granting defenders the ability to fire from a range of convenient angles. But these ground-level features pale in comparison to the enormous walls which loom behind them. Unfortunately, the exact height of the structure is a matter of some speculation, as there are no intact walls left to measure. However, researchers tend to agree that they stood around 10 to 14 meters tall, the equivalent of a three to four story building. Cutting a section through them, we see that these walls are about 5.5 meters thick. Their rock core gives them a base of strength, atop which are stacked thousands of mud bricks. Once more, we must point out that at Buhen, no wall tops remained at the time of their discovery. Nonetheless, Egyptian art from the period suggests that Buhen and fortresses like it were crenellated. It should also be noted that a crenel is actually the gap between two merlins, not the merlin itself. Merlins were used as cover so that archers could pop out into the crenel and then return to the safety of the merlin. In addition, it seems that the walls were not built as simple flat plains. Rather, they featured many outcroppings which would allow defenders to pour on infilating fire down on any attackers who had reached the walls below. To further enhance the defensive position, large towers were built into the walls at major vertices or at roughly 50 meter increments. Extending several meters above the wall, they provided an even more elevated firing position which could host a multitude of soldiers and observers. The towers themselves contained interior spaces with additional firing positions as well as storage rooms for weapons, ammunition, and critical supplies. Swooping down upon these battlements, we can appreciate their commanding grip of the desert extending before them. Defenders manning such positions would have been armed with slings, bows, spears, shields, maces, and axes as is attested to by contemporary artistic depictions of a fortress under siege. Attackers facing such a position would have certainly paused before approaching. Should they summon the courage, they would first be met by a hail of sling stones with an effective range of up to 200 meters. Archer fire would have added to the storm of projectiles within about 100 meters of the walls. If this could be weathered, the attacker would be hard-pressed to penetrate the ditch, palisade, and thick wall. The most vulnerable point of entry would have been the gates, which were ultimately a necessary feature for granting access to the fortress. Yet Egyptian military architects were well aware of this Achilles heel. Thus, they designed an enormous gatehouse to compensate for it. Protruding out from the wall, it once more provided excellent fields of fire. This shape also allowed for the creation of two courtyards with three successive gates. These effectively thickened the weak point of the gates and allowed for efficient traffic control. Any attackers who broke through would be funneled into these killing fields, whose open tops allowed gatehouse defenders to fire down upon them from all sides. Given all this, we might sensibly assume that an attacker might wish to assault Buhen from another side. Thus, let us now turn our attention to the outer defenses along the Nile. Here we see that the approximately 450 meters of waterfront are protected by another wall. It is of similar make to its desert counterpart, with perhaps a smaller scale ditch and palisade at its foot. The most notable difference is the inclusion of a centrally located dock with a pair of protruding platforms. A multitude of small craft and large vessels could easily come and go. Behind them are located a pair of water gates which granted critical access from the fortress to the Nile. This single feature was critical to the sustainability of the Buhen fortress. The Nile was the most important source of water, food, and connection to the rest of Egypt. By tapping directly into it, the defenders could maintain a steady supply of goods, troops, and information from its sister fortresses or the various power centers of the kingdom. Thus, so long as this connection to the Nile was maintained, Buhen could outlast virtually any attacker which attempted to besiege it. In times of peace, Buhen also doubled as an important hub for controlling the flow of goods across this stretch of the border region. Here, caravans from across the sands arrived carrying animal and plant products, raw minerals, slaves, and more. What was not to be traded or collected as tribute was likely used by the garrison. Archaeological evidence suggests that fruits such as sycamore figs and dates were regularly imported for consumption alongside staple foods of fish, bread, and beer. Having now covered both the land and water-facing outer defenses, let us now turn our attention to Buhen's interior citadel. It is separated from the outer walls by a large, flat, open area. Archaeological records do not point to the existence of any significant permanent structures besides a temple which was built in the later New Kingdom period. Likely this was intentional so that the interior of the Nonetheless, we might speculate that the area may have organically grown a town's worth of small-scale or temporary structures to support the extended population which called Buhen their home or their place of work at one point or another. But whatever civilian accommodations might have been erected, they would always have been overshadowed by the imposing military structure which lay behind them. This citadel was among the oldest of Buhen's defenses, dating back to the earliest Phase I plan from centuries prior. It measured about 150 by 140 meters with the familiar pattern of walls, towers, gatehouses, and ditches. Yet there are a few features worth inspecting in greater detail. For instance, the ditch here used a set of palisades which were studded by small circular outcroppings. Their geometry allowed for improved unfilating fire along the length of the position. This was further improved by an arrow loophole system which allowed archers to fire out from a single position in multiple directions. Adding further to this, some architectural details in the main wall behind the palisade suggest that at one point an enclosed room may have existed. Should this have been the case, defenders would have been provided with a magnificently protected position within which they could fire and reposition secretly and safely. Another feature worth reviewing is the citadel's gatehouse. Though not as large as its desert wall counterpart, it features its own set of robust defensive measures. For instance, the gate is inset within the footprint such that archers can once more fire down upon their assailants. Additionally, a trench cuts across the middle of the gatehouse with removable flooring to interrupt access on foot when needed. Protected within these inner defenses lay the central facilities of Buhen. They include a dense array of structures vital to the operation of the fort, namely barracks, granaries, storerooms, a temple, a commander's headquarters, and more. Dropping down to one of the various streets, we can get a sense of what walking about the heart of the fortress was like. For most, a daily commute involved traveling to and from one's post and their quarters. It would be within these barracks that they spent much of their off-time. Here is an artist's depiction of a common living space for the soldiers at Buhen. It consists of small, simple rooms for sleeping, dining, and storage. The accommodations for the higher-ups would have been much more impressive. For an example of this, we can turn our attention to the commander's headquarters located in the corner of the citadel. Here's a 3D reconstruction of the building. We've removed the roof and walls to grant you a better look inside. The building's roughly 1,000 square meter footprint was divided into several rooms for personal and official business. Entering from the south, one would be met by a guarded door. Behind it lay two hallways with flights of stairs. The left path led directly to the adjacent ramparts, while the right path led to the building's roof. Most guests would have been ushered towards the latter, where an entryway opened up into the grand court. In its time, the room would have been marvelously decorated. After all, the commander was the embodiment of the pharaoh in these distant lands and thus must have been prepared to exude all the same power to any who entered his majesty's court. Here, we must imagine that important Nubian delegations or Egyptian dignitaries might be hosted. Across from us lay the commander's offices, where he and his staff would have been kept busy by all manner of administrative tasks. Behind them lay an elongated hall which may have acted as a storeroom. Along the south wall of the Greek court was another passage which led to the commander's private quarters. The first chamber was a large living space, into which might have been invited trusted guests. To the right was a sleeping quarters, which was likely well furnished with a bed and other luxury items given the high status of its occupant. Beyond the living room lay yet another elongated hall which may have served as a magazine for storing military gear. Yet more structures worth investigating filled out the rest of Buhen's citadel, but for now we shall have to conclude our tour. In review we have seen just how mighty the fortifications were at Buhen. This should give you a great sense of the incredible amount of effort it took to plan, build, and maintain such a military complex. Adding to this idea we must remember that Buhen was just one of many fortresses built by the Egyptians to secure control over this area of the Nile. This speaks to the important strategic value which was placed on the transitory lands around the first and second cataracts. Indeed establishing an iron grip on this territory is what would allow Senusret III and his successors to expand the pharaoh's kingdom into Nubia over the centuries which followed. For many long years though the garrison at Buhen was largely at peace, left to act as a policing force which kept a watchful eye on the people and goods which traversed the region. To this end its soldiers often ventured out into the countryside on regular patrols. These would have been carried out by groups of men accompanied by dogs who were both well prepared to sniff out affairs in the desert. For a sense of what they might find here are a few reports which were found from the period. Quote, the frontier group that went out to patrol the desert edge by the fortress in year three third month of the flood the last day has returned to report to me saying we found the track of 32 men and three donkeys. And another quote, a number of Nubians arrived in year three fourth month of the flood day seven at evening time to do some bartering. What they had brought was bartered and they sailed south to the place they had come from after they had been given bread and beer as is customary. Eventually however as Egypt's light began to fade with the collapse of the bronze age the activities of the garrison became more serious as Buhen and her sister fortresses stood as bastions against the circling jackals. You can actually fight for control of the Egyptian-Nubian border regions in Total War Pharaoh. At the start of the game Buhen has actually fallen into the hands of a rebellious Kushite faction but can be yours to claim as the jewel of a new great empire. A big thanks to Creative Assembly once more for sponsoring this episode and shedding light on this era of history. A big thanks as well to our patrons and YouTube members for supporting the channel as well as the researchers, writers, and artists who made this episode possible. We couldn't have done it without this team and this community. If you like this documentary be sure to like and subscribe for more content and check out these other related videos. See you in the next one!