Jesus: The Evidence

Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou examines how archaeological discoveries are changing the way people interpret stories from the Bible.

For centuries, explorers have searched for the Bible’s most sacred religious artefacts. One of the most mysterious of these objects is the famed Ark of the Covenant. The gold-plated wooden chest – one of the most instrumental symbols of faith and God's presence – was believed to house the two tablets bearing the Ten Commandments. The Ark’s exact whereabouts has long puzzled scholars. Where did it go? And why has it remained such a mystery?

Millions of tourists visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia every year to marvel at its remarkable architecture, yet most are probably unaware that when it was built nearly 1,000 years ago it was even more impressive. Using remote sensing technology, scientists now know what is hidden beneath the nearby paddy fields and jungle: a sophisticated metropolis with an elaborate network of houses, canals, boulevards and temples covering 30 square kilometres that housed three-quarters of a million people. To put that into perspective, London at that time was home to just 18,000. These previously hidden finds tell us a great deal about life during the golden age of the powerful Khmer dynasty.

Dan Snow joins military archaelogists as they investigate the former battlegrounds of the Second World War, uncovering little-known stories through excavations and dives across Europe

In 90 A.D., ancient Rome played host to a sporting spectacle that attracted crowds three times the size of the Colosseum?s gladiator games: chariot racing. Every week, 150,000 fans packed the massive Circus Maximus, not just to cheer on the speed, fury, and danger of the races, but to witness the champion charioteer, Flavius Scorpus. Examine his improbable rise from young slave to arguably the most successful competitor in the sport?s history.

Expert interviews and gripping reenactments combine to reveal the extraordinary life of Alexander the Great and his burning desire to conquer the world.

The Power of Myth is a television series originally broadcast on PBS in 1988 as Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. The documentary comprises six one-hour conversations between mythologist Joseph Campbell and journalist Bill Moyers.

It was an archaeological find that became global news. An extraordinary mega-tomb, filled with the largest concentration of coffins ever unearthed in Saqqara, Egypt. This four-part series places you at the site to witness this ground-breaking discovery as it happened and follows Egyptologists as they try to determine why all of these mummies were buried together and what this ancient cemetery can tell us about the Egyptian civilization's way of death 2,500 years ago.

The construction of the Egyptian pyramids remains an enigma, an unsolved mystery. But today, Egyptologists and archaeologists have developed a new tool which uses aerial and satellite images to provide valuable fresh clues about the position, construction, and evolution of these edifices. This series sets out to decode the mysteries of the pyramids' construction, and to recreate Egypt as it was more than 5000 years ago.

Time Team is a British television series which has been aired on British Channel 4 from 1994. Created by television producer Tim Taylor and presented by actor Tony Robinson, each episode featured a team of specialists carrying out an archaeological dig over a period of three days, with Robinson explaining the process in layman's terms. This team of specialists changed throughout the series' run, although has consistently included professional archaeologists such as Mick Aston, Carenza Lewis, Francis Pryor and Phil Harding. The sites excavated over the show's run have ranged in date from the Palaeolithic right through to the Second World War.

A mission to discover and re-create unexcavated worlds still hidden beneath the earth.

Albert Lin investigates two great stories of the Bible: Could real events lie behind the parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah?

The Bible is both a religious and historical work, but how much is myth and how much is history?

Documentary telling the stories of the men and women who travelled across Egypt to uncover the earliest Christian texts.

It is said to be one of the oldest books in the world. Has it been altered? If yes why? A remarkable journey back in time to see what the Old Testament and the New Testament is hiding from us.

Do you know the real story behind the New Testament? We all share a fascination for discovering ‘the rest of the story.’ Through reading the New Testament we discover that God indeed keeps his promises, but those promises don’t always look like what people expected. Especially when it comes to Jesus. Join well-known Bible scholars N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird as they team up to take you on a tour of the explosive story behind the story of the New Testament.

John Romer recreates the glory and history of Byzantium. From the Hagia Sophia in present-day Istanbul to the looted treasures of the empire now located in St. Marks in Venice.

Jonathan Phillips attempts to find the answer to the question: How did Christianity grow and develop from just a small, Jewish sect to the largest, and majority, dominant religion of the West?

Explore a world never seen before a world hidden under miles of water, the landscape of the seabed. Join expeditions to dive long-lost vessels, discover ancient sites and follow the scientists who are probing the darkest and deepest corners of this underwater world. Computer generated, three-dimensional maps and imagery will offer a first glimpse of these mysteries.

A documentary series hosted by John Rhys-Davies based on the articles published in the magazine "Archaeology".