Palmyre, à la croisée des mondes

It's the most extraordinary feat of engineering in history, and one of the most iconic man-made structures on the planet - the Great Wall of China, stretching thousands of miles across barren deserts and treacherous mountains before finally plunging into the sea. But why did the Chinese go to such staggering lengths to build it, and what are the secrets that have enabled it to survive for over 2,000 years? Now, ground breaking science is re-writing its complex history and de-coding its mysteries to reveal that there is much more to the Great Wall than just bricks and mortar. Cutting edge chemistry reveals that the secret to the Great Wall's remarkable strength is a simple ingredient found in every kitchen, and a new survey also determines that its length is truly amazing, as we finally solve the enigma at the heart of the world's greatest mega-structure.

Rome, 2000 years ago was the world's first ancient megacity. In a world where few towns had more than ten thousand inhabitants, more than a million people lived in Rome. How did they manage without all the technologies of our modern cities? How did they bring in enough food to sustain the population? How did they house them? How did they maintain law and order? How did they make this city work?

It is possible that only one per cent of the wonders of ancient Egypt have been discovered, but now, thanks to a pioneering approach to archaeology, that is about to change. Dr. Sarah Parcak uses satellites to probe beneath the sands, where she has found cities, temples and pyramids. Now, with Dallas Campbell and Liz Bonnin, she heads to Egypt to discover if these magnificent buildings are really there.

Up to one million gladiators are thought to have died in arenas across the Roman Empire. And, although fascination with gladiators has been high, the details of their lives and deaths remain fragmentary. Now, with the discovery of an ancient Roman burial site containing 80 skeletons thought to be gladiator warriors, National Geographic recreates the world of the Roman arena and how six gladiators lived, fought and died.

La capitale gauloise disparue

In Morocco, new excavations on the site of Jebel Irhoud upset the generally accepted view of the dating of the appearance of man.

This documentary follows a team of local archaeologists excavating never before explored passageways, shafts, and tombs, piecing together the secrets of Egypt’s most significant find in almost 50 years in Saqqara.

Documentary that discovers all the secrets of mummification in the Canary Islands thanks to pioneering research. Regis Francisco López approaches the mummification techniques that took place in Tenerife for more than 10 centuries.

In summer 2003, when the heatwave hit in Europe, in Switzerland, the glacier below the Schnidejoch pass, released a mysterious object: a piece of a Neolithic quiver.

For eight centuries, between the 9th and 1st century BC, the Etruscans, inhabitants of the Italian peninsula, were one of the most powerful peoples of the Mediterranean basin, and when they disappeared they left behind impressive necropolises, vestiges of sanctuaries and even entire cities. How did they attain such power? How far did they extend their dominion and influence? What were the causes of their decline?

What is true and what is false in the hideous stories spread about the controversial figure of the Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (12-41), nicknamed Caligula? Professor Mary Beard explains what is accurate and what is mythical in the historical accounts that portray him as an unbalanced despot. Was he a sadistic tyrant, as Roman historians have told, or perhaps the truth about him was manipulated because of political interests?

Documentary following a team of technicians in Italy as they reconstruct a number of historic Middle Eastern artifacts that were vandalized at the hands of Islamic State.

Séfar (in Arabic: سيفار) is an ancient city in the heart of the Tassili n'Ajjer mountain range in Algeria, more than 2,400 km south of Algiers and very close to the Libyan border. Séfar is the largest troglodyte city in the world, with several thousand fossilized houses. Very few travelers go there given its geographical remoteness and especially because of the difficulties of access to the site. The site is full of several paintings, some of which date back more than 12,000 years, mostly depicting animals and scenes of hunting or daily life which testify that this hostile place has not always been an inhabited desert. Local superstition suggests that the site is inhabited by djins, no doubt in connection with the strange paintings found on the site.

One of the most significant cases in European archaeology is the grave of the shaman woman of Bad Dürrenberg, a key finding of the last hunter-gatherer groups. From a time when there were no written records, this site was first researched by the Nazis, who saw a physically strong male warrior from an ‘original Aryan race’ in the buried person. It was, in fact, the most powerful woman of her time. The latest research shows that she was dark-skinned, had physical deformities, and was a spiritual leader. The documentary – using high-end CGI and motion capture – compares the researchers of the Nazi era, who misrepresented and instrumentalised their findings, to today’s researchers, who meticulously compile findings and evidence, and use cross- disciplinary methods to examine and evaluate them. It also substantiates the theory of the powerful roles women played in prehistoric times. The story of this woman, buried with a baby in her arms, still fascinates us 9,000 years after her death.

From the plains of the Troade, to the cellars of a Nazi bunker, to the dark basements of Moscow's largest museum. With Homer and in the footsteps of the extremely wealthy businessman Heinrich Schliemann, we follow the true odyssey of the treasure of Priam which spans over more than 3 millennia.

Professor Alice Roberts follows a decade-long historical quest to reveal a hidden secret of the famous bluestones of Stonehenge. Using cutting-edge research, a dedicated team of archaeologists led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson have painstakingly compiled evidence to fill in a 400-year gap in our knowledge of the bluestones, and to show that the original stones of Britain’s most iconic monument had a previous life. Alice joins Mike as they put together the final pieces of the puzzle, not just revealing where the stones came from, how they were moved from Wales to England or even who dragged them all the way, but also solving one of the toughest challenges that archaeologists face.

During risky expeditions in an underwater cave in Mexico, scientists unearth the skeleton of a 13,000-year-old prehistoric teenager to gain insight into the earliest known humans in America.

Ardal O’Hanlon explores a 1930s quest to find the first Irish men and women using archaeology, answering his deepest questions about what it means to be Irish.

With an area three times larger than Pompeii, Baia, about 15 km from Naples and within the volcanic area of the Phlegraean fields, is the largest underwater archaeological site in the world. In 100 BC Pompeii is an ordinary city of small traders crouched on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius, while Baia gains a peculiar reputation: it gradually becomes the ancient Las Vegas or Monte Carlo of the Roman Empire, a real posh center for noble gens and the powerful . Nestled in the center of the Gulf of Pozzuoli, Baia is flanked on one side by the port of Puteoli (ancient Pozzuoli) and on the other by the port of Capo Miseno.

Filmed in IMAX, a young Mayan boy who lives close to the ruins becomes acquainted with an archaeologist (Guerra) and asks her to tell him about his ancestors. The crew travelled to over 15 locations in Mexico and Guatemala, including Tulum and Chichén Itzá.