Ancient King Found in Mysterious Cliff Carving | Expedition Unknown | Discovery

Josh, you ready?
Ready as I’m going to be.

Archaeologist Pierce Paul and I are attempting to decipher an immense but faint inscription carved into this cliff,
which may be the key to understanding the origins of the mysterious Naans.
But scanning it may be one of the scariest things I’ve ever done.

All right, we got the scanner clipped to you.
Okay, yep, I have a scanner here.
So you’re going to have to deploy it when we get down there.

Why am I going first again?
‘Cause you have the scanner—that’s the ticket.
Because I have the scanner, right?
Yeah, yeah, but why did I have to have… doesn’t matter.
Okay, here we go.

To scan the inscription up close,
we’ll need to dangle about 30 ft below the platform.
The ground… that thing I’m hoping to kiss in a few hours,
that’s another 650 ft below.
This is officially terrifying.

Pi’s Paul, see you in a minute.
[Music]
Calm your nerves, calm your nerves.
Okay, I see the inscription; it’s below me.
Oh God, this is scary.
Keep going, keep going, a little bit more.
I’m almost at the top.

Copy that, keep going.
I’m at the top of the inscription—
a little lower, a little more.
Okay, stop, that’s good.
Copy that, hang in there; Pi is on his way down.
Coming down, buddy?
Yep, you got it, man.
Nice and slow—going as slow as I can.

Okay, you’re on it; is it the very top?
Yeah, a little bit more.
[Music]
Hold!

Finally, my cameraman Ryan makes the trip down—
my drastically underpaid cameraman.
Okay, we’re good.
All right, welcome!

Okay, Josh, now that we’re here, what do you see?
Uh, a sheer drop to my death.
Oh, on here?
Yeah, sorry, sorry, sorry, that’s a few minutes from now.
Uh, I see a figure; there’s somebody here and a helmet, a crown,
something like that.
Uh, that’s a fancy hat—technical term.
Technical term, yeah.

And he’s holding a staff.
Oh yes, this right here.
Yeah, so we have a staff going down here.
So who is this, Josh?
No question, you’re looking at a king.
It’s a king? No question.
Incredible!

You’re one of the only people in the world to have ever come face to face with this carving.
I mean, look at this—who’s foolish enough to come up here?
That’s the people who carved it, right?
So, king of what?

No doubt, this is a Mesopotamian king.
A Mesopotamian king?
Yeah, what the heck’s a Mesopotamian king doing here?
It does have that distinctive shape to the crown.
Yeah, how do we know it’s Mesopotamia?
Well, because of the writing too.

Oh, there’s the writing!
You can see it going down; you can see them there by your left knee.
There’s some really good quality preservation.
This is cuneiform.

These little wedge-shaped cuts—
this is one of the oldest scripts in the world.
It’s extremely distinctive.
Cuneiform is an ancient writing system used in this part of the world
by civilizations dating back to the Sumerians of Mesopotamia
in the fourth millennium BC.
It helps mark the beginning of recorded history itself.

This is incredible!
A whole lot of very faded cuneiform.
Yeah, it’s been blasted for centuries by the elements.
I mean, just turn around and take a look.
I’m not turning around!
I’m not—oh, I turned around!
Why did you make me turn around?
Oh my God, it’s so far down!
It’s so far down!