>> or a fence, depending on who you're talking to. >> fence or wall. no, it's a big wall. it's ugly. it's really ugly. you can see it, it's not far away from here. tonight on "back to the beginning" -- did the exodus really happen? >> moses is there. his back is against the red sea. >> what happened to the ark of the covenant? >> can we see the ark of the covenant? >> and will the end of days start right here? >> soon the world as we know it will come to an end. >> come along as we continue our epic journey around the world and across time. >> oh, my gosh. >> as a war correspondent who has seen everything that tears us apart -- >> christiane amanpour in israel -- >> -- searches for what unites us. >> christianity, judaism, and

islam have so much in common. >> with christiane amanpour, danger is real. and so are the discoveries. >> our guide is carrying a gun. >> look at this, guys. is this cool or what? >> as we trace the saga, spanning generations of greed, envy, love, betrayal, and forgiveness, back. back to the beginning with christiane amanpour. we're thrilled to have you join us on a great adventure, a trip across the ancient world, as we plumb the secrets and the mysteries of the stories of the bible. hello, everyone. i'm christiane amanpour. and those stories, from genesis to jesus, still incredibly today have the power to comfort us and to guide us, to cause us to go to war and also to make peace. today jews, christians, and muslims revere the same tortured, often brave, always

fallible heroes that stride across the pages of this book. as our journey continued, we headed east into the sinai desert, following the trail of yet another complicated biblical hero. moses, wanted for murdering an egyptian slave driver who was beating up an israelite worker. the bible says that moses traveled this way to flee the pharaoh's death sentence. >> so we're whizzing through this desert at top speed because of the potential danger. >> tension was growing in egypt as people waited for the result of their first democratic presidential election. in the political turmoil authorities were losing control of this remote, bandit-ridden region. >> there are bedouins around here who have been attacking vehicles as they go through this part of the sinai during this time of political confusion in egypt. our guide has put on a head scarf to try to blend in a little bit more. and he's also carrying a gun.

>> wait. you have a gun, sir? >> yes. >> when was the last time someone was kidnapped? >> yesterday night. >> yesterday night. >> okay. are you nervous, kids? okay. so why are we stopping? >> suddenly our driver pulled over in the middle of nowhere to have a chat with a local bedouin. it seems out here in the desert everyone knows one another and gossip travels fast. >> what does he say? >> he told me the road now until now it's okay and don't worry and if anything happens contact us and we'll negotiate everything. don't worry. >> we're safe? >> yeah. we are safe. >> so with our peace of mind restored we arrived at st. catherine's monastery. tucked into the mountains of this same remote region where the bible says moses had finally stopped running. a place called middian. >> when they came here they're

astonished by how stark everything is. >> we were welcomed by father justin, a greek orthodox priest and a texan by birth. he is the caretaker of the monastery. >> you must have had so many pilgrims visiting here. what is it you think they take away? >> they become aware that you have to be away from the distractions and the routines of modern life to really become aware of god's presence. >> according to the bible and the koran, which names him the prophet mussa, this is where moses married a local girl, had a few children, and became a shepherd, a seemingly pl existence for the man who would go on to lead the exodus. but as the bible tells it, his time as a shepherd was the perfect preparation for what was to come. >> every prophet was a shepherd at one point. being a shepherd softens the heart of the prophet, prepares him for being a shepherd of a community, not only shepherd of

cattle. >> meanwhile, far away on the banks of the river nile the bible says that moses's brethren, the israelites, were still enslaved by the pharaoh, building his grand palaces and temples. after many years of suffering, the bible says, they were fed up and began to grown and cry out to their god. >> you know, jews have been at the forefront of almost every social justice movement of the 20th century. when you look at, you know, the civil rights marches, there were very often jews in the front row and second row. and i think there's a straight line from that groaning in the story of the exodus to that. the idea that we speak up. >> reporter: it seems god heard their cries. the bible says that moses, who was living in peace and quiet, then got the surprise of his life. >> and everything's peachy keen. until one day he notices a bush

that seems to be on fire and yet it's not consumed. and from that bush comes the voice of god. >> reporter: and according to tradition, that miraculous bush is still right here today. >> there's the burning bush. and what is the structure around it? >> well, it had to be enclosed when the area was engulfed with pilgrims. >> and people would come and, what, try to take bits away? >> yes. >> like a relic. >> this one's sort of pruned where at first you could reach. >> father justin tells us that st. catherine's, one of the oldest monasteries in the world, has been protecting the bush from relic-hungry pilgrims for more than 15 centuries. >> are you convinced that this is the burning bush? >> we believe that the first christians who came here picked up this living tradition, that this is the place where god revealed himself in such an extraordinary way. >> reporter: according to the bible, it was at that very moment that god first revealed his name, yahweh.

in hebrew it means "i am who i am." >> basically, moses is given the mission. go down. shall we sing it? go down moses? go down and tell pharaoh to let my people go. >> you know, moses is very reluctant when god signals to him that he has to be the leader of the jews. and his first response is effectively i don't want to be or i wouldn't be good at it. >> he is an unsure leader. don't pick me, god. how many of us have -- you know, if some finger came out of the sky and said you, we would say no, not me, not me. >> reporter: but it turns out there was another figure in ancient egypt who didn't hesitate to give everything up to follow the path of who he believed was the one and only true god. far away from the ancient royal capitals of luxor and karnak, archaeologists have discovered the remains of the lost city of amana. >> deserty space.

but akhenaten seems to think it was great. >> reporter: akhenaten was the pharaoh who built this city and his revolutionary ideas about just one god shook ancient egypt to its core. >> how are you? i'm christiane. >> i'm rahwiya. >> that's a nice name. what does it mean? >> it's a classic arabic name. it means storyteller. >> that's anent name for us. >> an egyptologist from cairo who spent years studying the ruins of amana. she says when akhenaten gave up the comfort of his palaces along the fertile nile delta and moved to this desolate place it was an act of devotion to his one god. >> why did he come here? what kind of an outlier was he? >> the idea was to find a place that has never been used by any other gods, to be virgin as what he called it. so he chose this place. >> reporter: at first glance we

couldn't see much. but then a caretaker arrived to open a padlocked door and led us into one of the most beautiful tombs that we'd seen so far. even thousands of years later the walls are still covered with akhenaten's radical message of monotheism. >> the main idea is the sun and the rays of the atem. and the influence is -- >> the one god. >> yeah. that's the main idea. is the one god is responsible for everything. he looks after us. underneath. and he looks after us in the resurrection. >> reporter: in another tomb at the site rahwiya shows us an inscription of the famous hymn to the god aten. the hymn is surprisingly similar to psalm 104 from the old testament of the bible. a psalm that's often attributed to king david. >> connections lead you to believe certain things about

moses. >> as an archaeologist, maybe not. i am -- as a muslim woman he believe he existed from the koran because these type of words can never be manmade. no matter what you call this power. allah, jesus, yahweh, whatever. it's one at the end. >> and in all these religious traditions, judaism, christianity, and islam, moses finally answered god's call and headed home to face down the pharaoh. >> coming up just minutes from now, snakes and hail and clouds of locusts. we go in search of the story behind the ten plagues and the pharaoh who messed with moses. our journey around the world and across time continues when "back to the beginning with christiane amanpour" returns. so i knit until it was full. you'd be crazy not to.

is that nana? [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. see who does good work and compare costs. it doesn't usually work that way with health care. but with unitedhealthcare, i get information on quality rated doctors, treatment options and estimates for how much i'll pay. that helps me, and my guys, make better decisions. i don't like guesses with my business, and definitely not with our health. innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. ♪ ♪ so you can have a getaway from what you know. so you can be surprised by what you don't. get two times the points on travel and dining at restaurants from chase sapphire preferred. so you can taste something that wakes up your soul.

chase sapphire preferred. so you can. here we honor the proud thaccomplishmentsss. of our students and alumni. people like, maria salazar, an executive director at american red cross. or garlin smith, video account director at yahoo. and for every garlin, thousands more are hired by hundreds of top companies. each expanding the influence of our proud university of phoenix network. that's right, university of phoenix. enroll now. we've got a frame waiting for you. [ car beeps ] ♪ ♪ we're gonna need a bigger bucket. ♪ [ male announcer ] more people are leaving bmw, mercedes and lexus for audi than ever before. the holidays won't last and neither will the season of audi.

visit audioffers.com today. ♪ the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ [ male announcer ] that's handy. it really made the difference between a morning around the house and getting a little exercise. unlike the bargain brand, depend gives you new fit-flex®, our best protection. it's a smooth and comfortable fit with more lycra strands. get your free sample at depend.com. stick with innovation. stick with power. stick with technology. get the new flexcare platinum from philips sonicare and save now. philips sonicare.

and now, snakes, storm clouds, and swarms of bugs. and who was the pharaoh who messed with moses? as "back to the beginning with christiane amanpour" continues. our journey back to the time of moses took us to the ruins of luxor. it is a grand reminder of the glory that once was ancient egypt. and nearby we met betsy bryan, an american archaeologist who's unearthing clues about this place and its people. >> all the digging that's gone on for the last several hundred years, has that enabled us to reach a conclusion about history, about even the biblical stories? >> well, i think that there's always a new conclusion.

you know, the conclusions keep changing, and people's ideas keep changing as a result of archaeology and historical study. >> so there are always surprises. >> there are always surprises. >> reporter: and that's exactly what bryan and her team have been finding. amidst the ruins of a temple that was used during the biblical time of moses. >> how significant is this dig? >> this is where the workers worked and also where they lived. because we have a temple over here but you also have to have things like bread making, beer making. but surprise is that this year we started to get a lot of human beings. they are probably the people who actually worked here, the very poor people who are seemingly finding a place to bury their family members. >> i really can't believe what i'm seeing. how old is that? >> well, it's probably around 1700 b.c. >> just jump down.

if you can. >> yep. >> reporter: call it beginner's luck, but graduate student katherine davis made this rare find on her second dig. >> so we were excavating this room right here, and we saw in the wall of this room this bone sticking out. and then we saw the two arm bones. and then teeth. and actually in excellent shape. >> really excellent shape. >> it was the first thing we noticed. these pearly white teeth. >> is it exciting for you? >> oh, i think it's fabulous. i mean, i'll be honest. it's -- i mean, you're discovering something that nobody has seen for thousands of years. it's very hard to resist that. >> reporter: the man she's just found was one of legions who likely worked here for the pharaohs. the bible says among them were the israelites. but so far nobody has turned up hard archaeological evidence of that. >> how much of egypt is yet to be dug up? >> i have no idea.

but all i can tell you is that you cannot dig anywhere in egypt and not find something. that's the truth. >> reporter: but bryan told us there was one place we might find a small clue as to what happened to the biblical israelites. so we left luxor and headed north to cairo. just across the street from tahrir square, the birthplace of egypt's recent revolution, there's the egyptian museum, where you can find a treasure trove of ancient artifacts, among them one that may prove that once upon a time the ancient israelites were here. >> we're going to take a journey back in time? >> yes. travel to unravel. >> travel to unravel. >> reporter: this is ahmed sadiq, a young aspiring egyptologist. we asked him to show us this monument. it's the earliest evidence of israel's existence in the egyptian record. it belonged to a pharaoh who ruled more than 3,200 years ago. king memta. >> what is it?

>> we view it as a facebook page. you know, the royal facebook page for the king. >> a pharaohnic facebook. >> yes. this is the chronology of king -- >> it tells the story of the king's successful military campaigns. and one of the last entries talks about a victory over the people of israel. >> when you look at the inscription here, ezrail, then fik et ben peret es. what does it say? israel is laid waste. and then literally no more. >> it originally belonged to memta the's father, the famed ramses the great. so was he the pharaoh that moses confronted? it's not fully proven, but the idea is backed up by the biblical account of the israelite slaves. >> if there was evidence of the exodus, would it make sense that it would be around the time of ramses? >> the bible speaks of slaves

being put to work by a cruel pharaoh and names the cities that they were put to work in, and one of them is ramses. so it's a real place. those kinds of clues make one thi think, well, maybe there really is something to placing this exodus in that time period. >> coming up -- did the red sea really part? and what was the root of the exodus? wait until you see what we discovered on our journey. when "back to the beginning with christiane amanpour" returns. it's the no-games, no-messing-'round, no-earning-limit-having, do-i-look-like-i'm-joking, turbo-boosting, heavyweight-champion- of-the-world cash back card. this is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere, every single day. now tell me, what's in your wallet?

life with crohn's disease ois a daily game of "what if's". what if my abdominal pain and cramps end our night before it even starts? what if i eat the wrong thing? what if? what if i suddenly have to go? what if? but what if the most important question is the one you're not asking? what if the underlying cause of your symptoms is damaging inflammation? for help getting the answers you need, talk to your doctor and visit crohnsandcolitisadvocates.com to connect with a patient advocate from abbvie for one-to-one support and education.

[[man] it's nothing but tape... [woman] it's a block. we're havin' a baby! [laughter in background] [woman screams] are we havin' a baby? [ambient crying and laughter]

and now, snakes, storm clouds, and swarms of bugs. and who was the pharaoh who messed with moses? as "back to the beginning with christiane amanpour" continues. in the bible story, after decades in the desert, moses obeyed god's order to go back to egypt. >> and so moses goes back to the egypt in which he grew up to the court where he learned and became a young man and confronts

pharaoh, surely someone he knew as a young man, to say here i am, i'm not the egyptian you thought i am, i too am an israelite, and i'm asking for my people to be released. >> to convince the pharaoh god gave moses the power to perform what the bible refers to as signs and wonder. >> he goes to pharaoh and says let my people go and pharaoh says -- >> okay. >> okay. >> reporter: the most famous of these powers was the ability to turn his staff into a snake. in the ancient world stories of snakes and magic were common. >> a magician takes a little image of wax which can be held in the hand of a crocodile and as soon as he throws it on the ground it becomes a real crocodile until the magician grabs the crocodile by the tail and once again it reverts to its small size in his palm. >> reporter: these magicians were men of high status back in ancient egypt. it's a tradition that continues to this day.

>> yikes! ah! >> reporter: back in luxor we met mohammed. he comes from a long line of snake charmers. his snakes, on the other hand, not so charming. >> oh, my goodness, there's something -- oh, it's pooped. gross snake. do you know the story of moses, mohammed? >> when the stick turned into a snake, this was from god. god made that happen. >> right. so can you turn the snake into a stick? >> he says he didn't have the special powers. zplu don't have special powers. you can't do it. it only comes from god? >> he was a prophet. >> oh, moses was a prophet. >> yes. >> reporter: moses gave his brother aaron the job of impressing the pharaoh. >> he throws down his staff, it becomes a serpent. >> and when the magicians of egypt attempted to do the same thing, they succeeded.

but moses's rod had the advantage. he swallowed them all up. >> the egyptians effectively laugh at him and the egyptians say this is a little piece of trickery, forget about it. >> reporter: unimpressed, pharaoh still refused to let the israelites go. it was at this point that god unleashed a series of disasters known as the ten plagues. >> these are absolutely horrible. you know, as horrible as anything you can imagine. >> and every spring jews commemorate the exodus story in the passover seder. they remember the ten plagues by placing on each plate a drop of wine for every plague. >> hail, gnats and flies and things of that sort. >> wild beasts. plague. boils. darkness. which was supposedly not only a darkness that was the absence of light but a darkness that was too thick to pass. it was so dark that you literally couldn't even walk through it. >> it would look like a short

series of natural disasters that most of the people sort of understood in terms of their gods and their religion. >> can we account for the plagues naturally? probably. is that the point of the story? certainly not. in the space of a year these ten disasters destroyed egypt. and that's the point. it's a miracle. miracles don't beg natural descriptions. miracles are miracles. they are when god intervenes in the order of nature. >> then god told moses to prepare the people for the coming of the tenth and worst plague. the killing of all the first-born. >> moses instructed the jews to sacrifice a lamb and to paint its blood on their doors so that the angel of death would know who was jewish and who wasn't. this is where the term "pass joer" comes from. >> and pass over that house. >> right. >> reporter: the seder is a time where jews are encouraged to ask questions. especially the children.

>> how do you wrestle with that? what does it mean? >> there are a lot of ways to wrestle with it. you can wrestle with the political ramifications. freedom never comes easy. it has never historically come easy. wars never end easily. people do not obtain rights easily. but it says in the talmud that when we divorce justice from mercy that is pure evil. so it was unquestionably just to free slaves. and it's unquestionably right to be merciful. but it certainly seems in the tenth plague like mercy has been divorced from justice. whatever we think about the egyptian enslavers, we must believe that some of them were good people, some of them were at least indifferent, and we know that the infants were innocent. >> reporter: the bible says that on that night the angel of death swept through egypt. even the pharaoh lost his own son. and he quickly sent for moses. >> for all the first nine, you know, it was possible for the

pharaoh to say this was not enough, you know, to say i'm not ready to free the jews yet. it's hard to imagine that the egyptians themselves weren't saying -- >> enough already. >> enough already. especially the -- weren't being built for them but for the pharaoh. at the killing of the first-born, which included the pharaoh's son. that the pharaoh finally said, enough. >> reporter: and the bible says the pharaoh told moses, take your people and go. >> coming up -- did the red sea really part? and what was the root of the exodus? wait until you see what we discovered on our journey when "back to the beginning with christiane amanpour" returns. s, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? [ male announcer ] nope. they don't have a decongestant. really? [ male announcer ] really. alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a fast-acting decongestant to relieve your stuffy nose. [ inhales deeply ] alka seltzer plus.

oh. what a relief it is. [ male announcer ] can't find theraflu, try alka seltzer plus for fast liquid cold and flu relief. every weekend worked, every idea sold... ♪ ...you deserve a cadillac, the fastest growing full-line luxury brand in the united states. including the all new 2014 cadillac cts, motor trend's 2014 car of the year. get the best offers of the season

on our award winning products. like a 2014 ats and srx. hurry in, offers end january 2nd.

and now, we follow the root of the exodus. did moses really part the red sea to escape the pharaoh's armies? as "back to the beginning with christiane amanpour" continues. the story of the exodus begins here on the banks of the river nile. a mighty pharaoh has been humbled. and he allows moses to lead the israelites out of egypt. the bible is talking about a massive mobilization of people. >> the figure is given of

600,000 weapon-bearing males. if you add in the old men, women, and children, this would give you approaching 2 million people. >> reporter: our exodus is just a bit smaller. my son darius and i along with our team board a train at luxor station. >> here we are. number 1. we are going to find and follow the biblical route into the sinai. >> reporter: but the route, the number of people, in fact the exodus itself, has left no archaeological trace, nor any written record other than the biblical account. >> there is virtually no evidence as the torah says that 600,000 jewish males with their wives and children and elders left egypt in the exodus. those are big numbers. you'd think someone would notice. >> reporter: the bible tells us the pharaoh had just lost his son and many of his people to the plagues, the wrath of god,

and now with the israelites about to flee the pharaoh was also going to lose a vital workforce. >> with crushing results for the economy of the country and also for the political structure. >> reporter: and so, the bible says, pharaoh has a change of heart. instead of letting the israelites go, he musters his army and pursues them. >> and they wind up suddenly in a very, very bad situation. in front of them is the red sea. behind them is pharaoh's army. >> and moses says, have you brought us this far only to abandon us? >> moses is there. his back is against the red sea. he doesn't know what to do. so the faith of our people rooted in that tradition, in those stories, says you may think that there are insurmountable obstacles before you. oh, no. but there is a god somewhere who is going to make things right.

and god gives him instruction. >> god says, why are you shouting to me? go. and moses lifts his hand, lifts the rod. and the sea splits. >> behold his mighty hand! >> reporter: the most famous image, of course, comes courtesy of hollywood. in "the ten commandments," starring charlton heston as moses. contrary to popular belief, the bible doesn't tell us exactly where this took place. and as we tried to follow the route, we came across several possibilities. first, we traveled under the suez canal through a tunnel, and then across the gulf of aqaba on a ferry. and the holiday destination of sharm el-sheikh we dipped our toes in the red sea itself.

one of the most dramatic moments of the exodus story could have taken place right here. that would have been the parting of the red sea, of course. only today it's a middle eastern gold coast full of beach resorts and diving holidays. and the waters look decidedly less ominous. but today's red sea may not be the place. the original hebrew bible refers to it as yom suf, roughly translated as the sea of reeds. and that leads some scholars to suggest the story might be describing more of a marsh. >> or the lagoon of swamp grasses or something like that, which puts you in mind of a fairly shallow body of water. >> reporter: somehow a swamp crossing doesn't quite measure up to hollywood's "the ten commandments." >> the israelites passed through the sea on dry land, and the water was like a wall on their right and on their left. >> and the egyptians are coming

on their chariots and coming in. they're trying to get through that patch. and god stopped their chariot wheels. so the sea came crashing upon them and they all drowned on the command of moses's staff. >> reporter: 12-year-old samara schaub has been studying this story as she prepares for her bat mitzvah. and it's also the story that jews commemorate every year during the passover seder. >> these words have so much meaning, and this song in particular is really symbolizing our freedom because this is the song that they sing once they were free. ♪ az yashir moshe ♪ >> people of african descent were singing these spirituals based on the story of moses.

wickedness a while may reign. satan's cause my seem to gain. oh, but there is a god who rules above. with the hand of power and a heart of love. and if i'm right, he'll fight my battles. ♪ as i go >> reporter: the story of the exodus is of course timeless. as dramatically relevant today as it ever was. because freedom is a song that continues to be sung by those who have it and those who still struggle for it. >> but we say at the end of the seder is "next year in jerusalem." jerusalem is more than a place. you know, jerusalem is an idea. jerusalem is an ideal place where there are no slaves, where everybody has freedom. >> does that mean the exodus continues, we never leave egypt, so to speak? >> or even if we're lucky enough to have left egypt, has everybody left egypt? one of the great ironies of

celebrating a seder now is our thoughts are often with egyptians and their struggles. ♪ >> when they were marching in tahrir square, what was great was here was freedom that was born in the soil that had come back to the soil. >> what the moses story stands for is that the power is with the powerless. ♪ >> we had no guns. we hardly had a vote. we had no money. the only power that we had was the moral high ground and god. ♪ i shall be free ♪ someday >> coming up, just minutes from now, the ten commandments.

what really happened on that mountaintop? and what do you find when you climb sinai today? follow the amazing journey when "back to the beginning with christiane amanpour" returns. our career guidance system.ue it's kind of like gps, you know, for your career. it walks you through different degree possibilities and even lets you explore local job market conditions, helping you map a clear course from the job you want, back to you. go to phoenix.edu and get started today. ♪ ♪ so you can get out of your element. so you can explore a new frontier and a different discipline. get two times the points on travel and dining at restaurants from chase sapphire preferred. so you can be inspired by great food once again.

chase sapphire preferred. so you can. [ male announcer ] if we could see energy... what would we see? ♪ the billions of gallons of fuel that get us to work. ♪ we'd see all the electricity flowing through the devices that connect us and teach us. ♪ we'd see that almost 100% of medical plastics are made from oil and natural gas. ♪ and an industry that supports almost 10 million american jobs. life takes energy. and no one applies more technology to produce american energy and refine it more efficiently than exxonmobil. because using energy responsibly has never been more important.

energy lives here. ♪

where moses is said to have received the ten commandments. as "back to the beginning with christiane amanpour" continues. out of the darkness of slavery, freedom. moses and the israelites crossed into the sinai desert. >> step number one, to the torch moses's sinai. >> reporter: with flashlights in

hand my son darius and i along with our team got up before dawn to join dozens of tourists and pilgrims to climb to the mountaintop and see the place where the bible says god gave moses the ten commandments. mount sinai is no leisurely hike. >> i don't want to talk. i just want to climb. >> reporter: two hours into our climb, we were getting tired. darius thought a camel might be a nice break. >> whoo! >> reporter: but it's not as easy as it looks. >> you feel like you're going to topple over the edge. >> reporter: as we regrouped in the dark and remote mountain range, it wasn't hard to imagine how the israelites, waiting for moses to return, got nervous. >> moses is up on the mountain 40 days, 40 nights. the israelites down at the foot of the mountain terrified that he is gone. >> reporter: alone, the bible says the israelites began to

doubt the one god and took comfort in a familiar bad habit. >> at the very moment that moses is sealing the deal with god, that's when they build the golden calf. >> reporter: when moses came down from the mountain with the commandments, he was shocked to find they had abandoned all self-control, drinking, carousing, and worse, worshiping a false idol. >> he's furious. god's furious. moses smashes the tablets. ultimately, everybody shapes up and moses goes back up the mountain for a second shot at it. >> reporter: we've made it to the top of mount sinai. the sun has rizen and we're amongst pilgrims from all over the world. and perhaps the sheer physical effort of getting up here -- >> pretty rough. >> -- adds to the spirituality. ♪ ♪ glory, glory hallelujah

>> the view is out of this world. and it seems fitting that this is the first and only place the bible says man ever came face to face with god. no matter what your faith, what happened here, this part of the exodus story, this part of moses's story has affected all of us for millennia. ♪ his truth is marching on >> [ speaking foreign language ]. >> reporter: the ten commandments tell us not to kill, not to steal, not to lie. they tell us to worship and love god completely, to honor a day of rest, and to honor our mother and father. they have left an indelible mark on our moral code and our civil law. and in a sense they're an early unifying response to the chaos and cruelty of the world, a

declaration that with freedom comes responsibility. >> it's why the statue of liberty, which was modeled on moses, the tablets in her arms, the rays of light on her haerksd both from the moment when moses comes down mount sinai with the ten commandments. >> reporter: but like many stories in the bible, things weren't so straightforward. >> the story most people know is moses got ten commandments on two tablets on mount sinai. there are a whole lot more than ten commandments. traditionally, 613. >> reporter: many of these laws must have had some meaning during the time of moses. even if they seem puzzling to us today. >> if you're wearing a fabric, you are not allowed to mix that fabric, wool and linen, together. if you ask the rabbis why, the answer is i don't know, god commanded it. >> reporter: god also commanded moses to build a portable temple

for the tablets called the ark of the covenant. >> the bibles tells us the exact dimensions, it's a box, it's got long handles it's supposed tore cherubim, or angels sort of on the top. >> reporter: archaeologists have found evidence that boxes such as these were common in biblical times, suggesting that the ark and its contents may have actually existed. and that would have come in handy because it was a long time before moses and his people had a permanent place to settle. according to the bible, the israelites were constantly on the move, spending 40 arduous years wandering in the desert. >> for 40 years in the wilderness the jews just bitched at each other constantly. it is a nonstop rant. we are human. we complain. can he kvetch. the israelites actually had the

temerity to say maybe it would have been better to stay in egypt. can you imagine? >> good morning. >> welcome to mount nebo. >> thank you. nice early morning to see the promised land. >> it is indeed. moses i'm not sure if he came early morning or evening. >> reporter: we met father fabian overlooking the place that moses has spent his whole life searching for. >> i think this is the last moment of the life of moses, when he's standing here and looking out, he's completed his missi mission. >> reporter: but moses would never cross into the promised land. after years of carefully following god's orders, risking it all on faith, he was denied his goal because of one mistake. as god had done so many times before, he gave moses some complicated orders to follow. he told him to speak to a rock to bring forth water.

instead, moses smaktd tcked the with a stick. the water came, but god was angry, and he delivered an unspeakably harsh punishment. for not listening god told moses that though he had led his people here they would go to the promised land without him. >> it strikes me that this must have been such a disappointment for him. that was his life's work. >> he knows that this is the end of his journey. he's delighted because he's finished. he's 120. >> reporter: the bible says moses did the only thing he could. he reassured his people. >> i told the story to my son, and he was listening to it and he started to get weepy. it is actually quite an emotional story. if you think about all of the things that this person went through, and then he can't enter the promised land. so my son, i was telling it to him and he starts to get weepy. >> how do you comfort him? >> i say we're here to tell the story. that's the comfort, actually. there are certain stories in the canon of storytelling, like the

greek myths that just seem to capture our imagination over time. it's hard to imagine a future in which they're not told. >> reporter: indeed, the story of moses at mount nebo continues to echo powerfully even in our own time. it is the story of a leader who's taken his people as far as he's able to go and who leaves them with the only thing that will sustain them, faith and the justice of their cause. >> i see god working in the 20th century. >> reporter: martin luther king has been called the american moses. he gave this speech the night before he was assassinated. >> like anybody, i would like to live a long life. >> martin luther king saying that just before he died as if it was a premonition. i mean, you must have thought of that a lot. >> well, of course i've thought of that a lot. i thought that he understood that his transition was at hand. he understood that it might even be a violent transition. >> and i've seen the promised

land. i may not get there with you, but i want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land! >> next -- from jericho to jerusalem, david and goliath, king solomon and the queen of sheba, what happened to the ark of the covenant? and is this the staging ground for the armies of the apocalypse? when "back to the beginning with christiane amanpour" continues. i mean, look at it. so indulgent. did i tell you i am on the... [ both ] chicken pot pie diet! me too! [ male announcer ] so indulgent, you'll never believe they're light. 100-calorie progresso light soups. you'll never believe they're light. life with crohn's disease ois a daily game of "what if's". what if my abdominal pain and cramps come back? what if the plane gets delayed? what if i can't hide my symptoms? what if? but what if the most important question is the one you're not asking? what if the underlying cause of your symptoms

is damaging inflammation? for help getting the answers you need, talk to your doctor and visit crohnsandcolitisinfo.com to get your complimentary q&a book, with information from experts on your condition. the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ [ male announcer ] that's handy. so you can see like right here i can just... you know, check my policy here, add a car, ah speak to customer service, check on a claim...you know, all with the ah, tap of my geico app. oh, that's so cool. well, i would disagree with you but, ah, that would make me a liar. no dude, you're on the jumbotron! whoa. ah...yeah, pretty much walked into that one. geico anywhere anytime. just a tap away on the geico app.

tonight, an amazing journey around the world and across the centuries, in search of david and goliath. >> the slingshot was in fact a bazooka. >> the lost ark of the covenant. >> the ark became a weapon of mass destruction. >> the real armageddon. >> we are in the end times. >> as we investigate the mystery behind the stories of the bible. if these stones could talk, what would they tell us? and can a war correspondent who has seen all that tears us apart? >> christiane amanpour in israel -- >> discover what it is that can bring us together. "back to the beginning with christiane amanpour" continues. >> reporter: driving through the region known today as the west bank, the heart of canaan in

biblical times, it's hard to believe that this was the promised land that moses tried for so long to reach but never did. until an unexpected patch of green comes into view, signaling our arrival into the biblical city of palms, jericho. >> jericho's one of the most interesting cities in the ancient near east. there's a spring there that's still gushing out. hundreds of gallons of water per minute. it's always been a beautiful place to live. this oasis in what is now the middle of the desert. >> reporter: it's believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. traces of 23 distinct civilizations have been found in a small archaeological park on the outskirts of town. but what draws pilgrims from around the world is actually the biblical account of how one of these ancient civilizations may have disappeared. >> flying over the sprawling modern-day jericho, we can just see the footprint of ancient

jericho, where the bible tells us joshua led his people, the israelites, in their first conquest of land in the promised land. >> reporter: the bible tells us that before his death on mount nebo, with guidance from god, moses chose a man named joshua to lead the israelites on the last leg of their journey. >> and so we have this real transition, a handing over of power from one generation to the next, where moses and his generation have been wandering it's the story of wandering for 40 years, joshua's more action-packed. this is where they come on in and they take over. ♪ fought the battle of jericho >> reporter: as told in the book of joshua the conquest of canaan has all the trappings of a summer blockbuster. ♪ and the walls came tumbling down ♪ >> sounds luke a movie. it's an action-packed scene. >> reporter: with the ark of the covenant leading the way, joshua crossed the river jordan with his army. >> i'm sure this is an elite

fighting force. >> reporter: the conquest of jericho is one in which god is clearly in the role of a divine warrior. >> the bible tells us that joshua conquered jericho by walking around the city seven times. ♪ he marched around the wall seven times ♪ >> reporter: the whole time carrying the mystical ark of the covenant, which the bible describes as having special powers. >> god at that moment causes the walls to crumble and to fall down. and it's at that moment you that just get this image of them just rushing in on the city and flooding in and taking it over for better or for worse. however you view that kind of image. whether that's one of excitement and action or that's one of hey, this is war, and war can be ugly. >> reporter: in this war the bible makes clear that no prisoners should be taken alive. every man, woman, and child should be slaughtered. and according to the bible, this bloody battle was just the first stop on joshua's