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17 Episodes 2018 - 2018
Episode 1
Tue, Oct 30, 201844 mins
Allegedly a site of untold amounts of gold and riches beyond belief, the Inca capital of Cusco still holds many secrets. New technologies have led to discoveries that may finally reveal the secrets behind this mighty empire's fall.
Episode 2
Sun, Dec 30, 201843 mins
Buried and lost underground for over 1,000 years, archaeologists discover a Viking fortress that has not appeared in any written records. Experts investigate its buried treasures and hope to uncover what caused this civilization's demise.
Episode 3
Sun, Dec 30, 201843 mins
Lost in the Peruvian desert for over 5,000 years, experts find an ancient city, with signs of disturbing, strange rituals, and try to determine if this place was the first civilization of the Americas.
Episode 4
Sun, Dec 30, 201844 mins
The Statue of Liberty has always been at the center of alleged dark American mysteries. Experts are now using the latest science and technology to reveal her secrets and perhaps make new discoveries.
Episode 5
Sun, Dec 30, 201843 mins
Long alleged to be home to the mythical Labyrinth and the Minotaur, a mysterious ruined city in Greece is also believed to have inspired the legend of Atlantis. Scientists use the latest technologies to see if this can be proven.
Episode 6
Sun, Dec 30, 201844 mins
Attila the Hun has long been held to have caused the fall of the Roman Empire. Scientists with new technology are finding revealing new evidence that can determine if he was responsible or not.
Episode 7
Sun, Dec 30, 201844 mins
Recent research on Eastern Island's iconic "mo'ai", male portrait megaliths, and around those suggest major amendments of its history. Polynesian double canoes reached it in the eleventh century, but were stranded in utter isolation, starting a unique evolution, and soon scattered from one kingdom into rivaling clan territories, each erecting a cultic platform with several statues, presumably for their own major ancestors. About 1000 were made from one quarry, dug half-in to for finishing and transported to each clan capital. It seemed a civil war prevented such transports, possibly caused by excessive erosion due to further reducing the natural palm jungle, but research questions those assumptions. The end of statue production rather followed 17th century exposure to Western explorers, who brought diseases the Polynesians lacked immunity against, attested by cave burials, and shattering of their 'alone in the world' cosmology. The moai seemed no longer able to protect the communities, which declined too weak to produce them, and later took most down completely. The people actually worried about the forest loss (also by the rats they brought eating seeds) and attempted religious management of the rare potable water, even growing new palms, while cunningly improving agriculture by using mineral-rich stones as plant shelter on the fields, collaborating all over the island as attested by obsidian tools all from a single volcano, but too late.
Episode 8
Tue, Oct 16, 201843 mins
New methods of exploration have resulted in more finds at Pompeii's last unexplored area. These finds reveal the dark secrets of the massive event that destroyed Pompeii. Recently unearthed mummies may offer up more secrets.
Episode 9
Tue, Oct 9, 201844 mins
Cheops' father Sneferu, one of the longest-reigning and mightiest Pharoahs ever, ordered the building of three pyramids on a site not far from Gizeh, puzzling archaeology and architecture. The bent pyramid, which changes angle drastically in the middle, was built partially at the same time as a second one, yet neither contains his tomb. They elaborated the 'mastaba' model of earlier pyramids, filling in the 'gaps' between superposed stories and adding a shiny but heavy marble slope. Apparently this novelty incurred stability crises as the engineering wasn't calculated strong enough to resist building-up pressures, hence the project has to be aborted, lessons being learned. Even the first was nevertheless completed, as part of a necropolis project including an impressive temple to venerate the late king-god. An even more memorable legacy was that the vast efforts required to mobilize materials, work force and infrastructure at immense expense required setting up large construction settlements, considered the nuclei of the first 'true' cities in Egypt, which also had to be organized into a less embryonic state, by the ruler who unified the previous petty principalities.
Episode 10
Tue, Oct 2, 201844 mins
New cutting edge investigative equipment and techniques are being used to look into the sinking of the Titanic, and perhaps reveal new discoveries that could explain the mysteries surrounding her last moments.
Episode 11
Tue, Oct 23, 201843 mins
The Forbidden City is the world's largest palace complex, with a complex history. Ming emperor Yongle built the first version near the hill-covered palace of the Mongol previous dynasty's palace of the Great khan Kublai Khan, establishing his capital at Beijing near the still unsafe Mongol steppes border. The ingenious original drainage system allows reconstructing its outline, intended to inspire awe and squash doubts about the emperor's seizure of the throne, while housing -but also isolating from regular life- the imperial family, much of the mandarin top layer of the imperial government and its own guard, assembled daily for extravagant rituals showing the emperor as absolutist center of the Middle Kingdom. Building it in 14 years was an unedited feat of organization, mobilizing over 100,000 force laborers and expensive specialists, while precious materials had to be dragged from far, everything fitted with the very best, even an exclusive type of porcelain. The sophisticated design kept it earthquake proof for may centuries, even after the dynasty's fall it wasn't abandoned, unlike the previous practice.
Episode 12
Sun, Dec 30, 201844 mins
The city of Thebes was the religious centre of Egypt's New Kingdom. Scientists are looking for answers as to how the workers constructed the largest religious site in the ancient world.
Episode 13
Tue, Nov 20, 201844 mins
Scientific investigators create an innovative experiment to show how ancient Egyptians built the giant obelisks of Thebes. New findings suggest how they prompted the downfall of the pharaohs.
Episode 14
Tue, Dec 18, 201844 mins
New discoveries at a prehistoric stone site may finally reveal the thinking and actions of the strange people who were believed to have been responsible for the building of the world's largest stone circle.
Episode 15
Tue, Dec 11, 201843 mins
Deep in the Guatemalan jungle is the lost city of Tikal. It is believed that it was once the home of over 100,000 people. Scientists are now using new advances to show how this small village rose to become a Maya powerhouse.
Episode 16
Tue, Nov 27, 201844 mins
Archaeology in and around the Le Vega and surrounding sites in Mexican state Vera Cruz near the Gulf uncovers the capital of the oldest major Mesomaerican culture, the Olmecs, and finds them pioneers in many ways. Their main pyramid's architecture remained a model even for Mayas and Aztecs, only they built in cleverly mixed clay-sand mud with only decorative stones. Intrictate corn-pattern mosaics were buried, like lake-buried offerings to their main fertility god. They developed a prototype writing system. The largest sculptures, giant heads of a distinct type, some defaced afterward, were probably priest-kings, the first Meso- (or North) American great dynasty. They pioneered urbanization itself, in a rich volcanic area, and left the capital when the shifted river no longer irrigated their supply territory.
Episode 17
Tue, Dec 4, 201842 mins
Ramses II achieved the status of 'greatest Pharaoh ever' on account of his long, successful reign, but mainly his unequaled monument building program throughout Egypt, shamelessly faking military success, notably in the battle of Kadesh against Egypt's Hettite challenger for dominance in the Middle East. His vast, rock-carved double temple at Abu Simble, deep south, is formally dedicated mainly to the sun god Ra, but actually the culmination to raise his status from gods' favorite to one on earth. It's also a spectacular feat of architecture and logistics, rivaled only by his super-size temple for his cult at the capital Luxor, with granaries as treasury for the adjoining administrative school. Relarkably, his queen Nefertite gets unparalleled status, as his joint high priestess and deputy in state matters, equal-size at her own Abu Simble temple, because he was of commoner officer stock, hence needed her well-advertised noble blood to justify his dynasty's claim to the sacred throne.