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Speaker 1: If you had to pick seven ancient wonders of the world,

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which ones would they be? We've compiled a list of

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our top seven, from the soaring heights of the Great Pyramid,

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through the statues of Easter Island, exotic Mayan temples, a

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Roman Amphitheater, and the Great Wall of China. The next

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two hours, we'll explore some of the most awesome ancient wonders,

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each rich in stories of mystery and intrigue. Will take

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part in the summer Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, walk the

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Great Wall of China, and join archaeologists in Mexico as

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they hunt for treasure in the Maya Temples. By searching

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for clues hidden within these historic monuments, we can begin

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to unlock their secrets and reveal the marvels of these

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ancient wonders of the world. The three Pyramids of Giza

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have stood on a high plateau by the Nile for

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more than four and a half thousand years. These wonders

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were built by the ancient Egyptian king Trufu, his son,

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and his grandson. Kufu's Great Pyramid is the largest and

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most impressive of them all.

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Speaker 2: The pyramid has magic admestry, and I always say, if

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you come by to visit the Giza plateau and just

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walk and you can see the pyramid for the first time,

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your heart will be going up and down because it's

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something that cannot be explained. The Great Pyramid of Kufu

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is immortal.

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Speaker 1: Amazingly, these ancient wonders are only a few minutes from

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downtown Cairo. The Pyramids at Giza are the planet's original

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tourist attraction.

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Speaker 3: Awesome to think that you are standing on ancient history

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and seeing it in person.

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Speaker 4: This is so much better than any kind of picture

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or television or anything.

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Speaker 5: It's just unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: Today millions of visitors from around the world come to

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marvel at the pyramids.

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Speaker 6: You know, I have always been thinking about pyramids since

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I was a little kid. For me, it's kind of

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a dream come true.

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Speaker 7: I tried to read up on ahead of time, and there's.

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Speaker 8: Just no way to.

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Speaker 3: Prepare yourself for this, which is absolutely amazing.

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Speaker 1: One scene, these ancient giants are never forgotten.

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Speaker 2: All of this Lily capture the heart of everyone who

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come to visit the ship. And therefore, when you got

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to Paradise, God will say the only mistake that you

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do in your life that you did not visit the.

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Speaker 1: The Great Pyramid is the largest monument ever built. The

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base is bigger than any temple or cathedral, and until

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the Eiffel Tower was finished in eighteen eighty seven, it

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was the tallest structure for over four thousand years.

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Speaker 2: When we did an estimation a few months ago, we

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found out that the stones of the Great Pyramid are

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one million and three hundred thousand blocks. This the pyramids

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were massive, built of massive stones.

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Speaker 1: The precision of their construction is astonishing. The four sides

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were aligned almost exactly with true north, southeast, and west,

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and the outer casing blocks were so skillfully laid that

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even a knife blade won't fit between them. Robert Bouval,

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born in Egypt, has been fascinated by the pyramids all

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his life. He's a construction engineer and full of admiration

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for the amazing skills of the ancient pyramid builders.

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Speaker 9: There is no question that the Disneycropolis is the largest

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engineering project in the world in history, and omal sky

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Rise will contain something in the order of two hundred

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thousand tons of material. This is six million tons. You're

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talking about ten to fifteen times greater. So they're the

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giant skycrapers of history.

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Speaker 1: Four and a half thousand years on, we still have

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no real idea how the Egyptians managed to construct these

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gigantic monuments, the largest stone structures ever built.

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Speaker 9: The thing that makes them special is the father that

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we know very little about them. We don't know exactly

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who build them, we don't know exactly how old they are,

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we don't know why the building, So it's a huge

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question mark that looms in the desert. Some of the

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blocks that we use way up to sixty tons. These

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blocks are made of granite. Granite is imported from six

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hundred miles to the south of Egypt down the Nile.

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Can imagine sixty tons. Sixty tons is sixty family cars,

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you know, compacted into one block. So this is the

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kind of problems that we see, and they seem to

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sort of tease us with this mystery.

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Speaker 10: It is a.

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Speaker 9: Challenge to future generation to say, figure out how we

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did it.

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Speaker 1: All three pyramids at Giza were originally cased with polished

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white limestone. Over the centuries, most of this limestone has

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been pillaged, but a few blocks remain around the base

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of the Great Pyramid and on the summit of King

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Kaffra's pyramid.

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Speaker 9: You can't see the pyramids today from Bianzidan, but with

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this reflective surface they would have been sparkling, so you

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can imagine when they were new, they would have been

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absolutely staggering.

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Speaker 1: If their size remains a marble, their purpose remains one

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of the greatest mysteries. The traditionally accepted view is that

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they were built as tombs for the mummified bodies of

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the pharaohs.

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Speaker 2: The pyramid was a tomb, but it was also a

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national project of the whole nation. Every household in the

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north of Egypt and the south participated in building the

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pyramid by sending workforce, grain food to help the king.

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Because the pyramid will help that the birth of the king.

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It would make the king as a god. When they

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put the cap stone in the top of the pyramid,

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it meant that the pyramid was finished and everyone dance

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and sing.

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Speaker 1: But Robert Bouval has a controversial alternative theory, which he

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began to formulate twenty years ago. His first seeds of

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doubt were sown deep inside the pyramid. The experience of

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climbing through this ancient ructure is unforgettable and completely impossible

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if you suffer even the tiniest degree of claustrophobia. Close

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to the heart of the pyramid, the tiny passageway opens

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up into the grand gallery. Over the centuries, the pale

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limestone has been blackened by the soot from countless candle flames.

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It was here in the King's chamber that Boval first

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questioned the Orthodox view that this was a tomb for

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King Kufu's mummified body.

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Speaker 9: The Gyptologists say that this is a coffin for a

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dead body, but it may not be a coffin. It

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may be a place where great resurrection rituds take place.

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In fact, it may be something that served for the living,

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not for the dead.

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Speaker 1: No human remains have ever been found inside any Egyptian pyramid.

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Boval believes this suggests that the monuments were built not

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as tombs, but as a grand setting for symbolic resurrections.

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He was also intrigued by the curious layout of the pyramids.

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The two largest are set along a southwest diagonal line,

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but the smaller pyramid of my Serinas was slightly offset

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to the east. Why was the third pyramid both smaller

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and built out of line.

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Speaker 9: It was one of those things that being an engineer

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and being a surveying engineer was totally puzzling. I had

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a hunch that it had something to do with the

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stars the started engine.

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Speaker 1: Boval followed up his hunch by taking a closer look

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at a completely different pyramid at the ancient side of Sakara,

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twenty five miles from Giza. This small pyramid was built

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for King Unas two hundred years after the Great Pyramid.

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It may look decrepid, but it holds some of the

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most revealing testimonies of the ancient Egyptian culture. Apart from

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some insignificant graffiti, the Pyramids of Giza are completely devoid

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of writing. But deep inside this pyramid are the Pyramid Texts,

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the oldest religious writing in the world. Two tiny rooms

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are crammed with magical spells, prayers, and hymns about the

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rebirth of the king and his reunion with the gods

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in the afterlife.

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Speaker 9: They're intensely astronomy. They speak of the stars, they speak

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of the sun. It seems it's all about the sky,

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which is not surprising because this was the afterlife destiny

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of the king.

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Speaker 1: Many of the hieroglyphs tell of the king making his

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afterlife journey to the stars, in particular the constellation of Orion.

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The Egyptians believed Orion was the representation of Osiris, the

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god of regeneration and symbol of eternal life. So Boval

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wondered if there could be a link between Orion and

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the unusual layout of the pyramids at Giza. After the break,

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we reveal Boval's ingenious solution to the mystery. Author Robert

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Bovell's brain wave about the unusual alignment of the pyramids

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of Giza came during a chance conversation in the desert.

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His friend was contemplating the three stars of Orion's belt.

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Speaker 9: And he pointed specifically about the stars, and he referred

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to them as the three stars in a row. And then,

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just as an afterthought, said, but the third one is

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offset to the left, and the penny dropped. Suddenly, there

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was a correlation in my mind as to why this designed,

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this layout of the three pyramids had been said this way.

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Speaker 1: With mounting excitement, Boval began to formulate his theory that

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the ancient Egyptians based the layout of the pyramids on

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a plan of the stars When he got back to Giza,

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Boval found further proof that the pyramids were designed to

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assist the king's afterlife journey to the stars. In the

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King's chamber of the Great Pyramid, a so called ventilation

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shaft is aligned directly with the peak position of Orion's belt,

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as it would have been seen in the ancient Egyptian

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night sky, and similar shafts originating from the center of

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the pyramid point directly towards other constellations that also had

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important significance in the ancient Egyptian star religion. By now,

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Boval had enough evidence to construct his controversial theory.

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Speaker 9: That the whole machinery of the religion was how to

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ensure that their pharaohs after death would manage to undertake

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this celestial journey and return to the stars, and these

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monuments are the agency to produce that results. They are

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launching pads, if you like, for the pharaohs to reach

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the stars.

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Speaker 1: How famous Orian correlation theory took the world by storm

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and reopened the debate about the mystery of the pyramids.

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Most Egyptologists stand firm in their belief that the pyramids

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were built as tombs, and they've completely dismissed Boval's star theory.

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Speaker 2: It's beautifully written, it's beautifully made, its computer analysis, but

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it's strong because those people they come and smell the dirt,

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like I always say that those people they go and

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ride this box in an air cordition room in London

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or in America. But we excavate and our perfume is

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a dirt.

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Speaker 1: Whichever theory is correct, there remains an unsolved mystery what

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happened to the mummified corpses of King Kufu, his son,

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and his grandson. If Boval's theory holds true and the

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pyramids weren't used as tomb, the mummies might have been

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buried somewhere nearby.

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Speaker 9: Perhaps one day they will pop out. I mean one

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has to bear in mind that you're looking at the

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tip of the iceberg here, because there are still a

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lot of unexcavated sites. I mean, they keep on finding

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things all the time. They say that seventy percent of

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what was here is still underground, so they may still

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pop out.

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Speaker 1: There are many questions still to be answered about the

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pyramids at Giza, and it's likely that these ancient wonders

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will always be shrouded in mystery. Perhaps rightly so, they

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will remain one of the greatest enigmas of our time.

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The Tower of London is the oldest palace and fortress

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in Europe. Behind this facade of respectability, like dark, blood

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curdling tales of terror, sinister acts born of ruthless ambition.

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For over nine hundred years, these monumental walls have overshadowed

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the city of London. Even today, the Tower of London

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is one of the capital's most prominent landmarks. Standing on

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the banks of the River Thames, this great royal fortress

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is one of the most popular attractions in Britain, with

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two million visitors every year.

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Speaker 5: Well, I've been working at the Tower of London as

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an assistant curator and archaeologist for six years and the

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place never ceases to amaze me how much there is

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to discover here. And one thing that I still can't

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get my head round is the fact that we have

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buildings here from every century, from the eleventh century to

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the twenty first century. I can't rethink of anywhere else

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in England or Europe, or anywhere else in the world

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that can say that. It's just immensely exciting.

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Speaker 1: The White Tower is the center of today's castle. In

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the twelfth century, the monarchy, inspired by the design of

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European castles, built the first perimeter walls. At the end

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of the thirteenth century, Edward the First, one of the

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greatest castle builders of all time, constructed a second concentric

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wall and dug a new moat, giving us the shape

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of the castle we see today.

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Speaker 5: One of the most long lasting functions of the Tyer

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of London, and the one that's impressed itself most on

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people's memories, is its function as a prison ah ah ah.

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Speaker 1: For prisoners jailed in the tower, this would have been

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a dreadful place.

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Speaker 5: They are kept, probably in solitary confinement, and food will

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be brought to them by their jae. They won't be

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able to talk to anyone. Sometimes prison must have been very,

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very unpleasant business.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, many of the tormented prisoners left behind engravings and

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the walls of their cells that can still be seen today.

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The intricacy of these gruesome carvings reveals the depths of

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their suffering. Their misery was sometimes made much worse by

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merciless torturers. These cruel acts were often the result the

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ambitious desires of the monarchy.

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Speaker 5: It's very, very important to be aware that torture in

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this instance was done only by royal warrant, and the

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interrogators did it out of sadism. They did it because

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they needed to get information.

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Speaker 11: Ah.

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Speaker 1: The Tower of London was founded by the first Norman

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King of England, William the Conqueror, soon after he invaded

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England in ten sixty six.

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Speaker 5: We know from writers at the time that he thought

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that the people of London were a huge, fierce and

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fickle population, and for that reason he felt that he

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needed to protect himself within the city, and so he

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built the Tower of London.

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Speaker 1: Next up gruesome tales of treason and treachery at the tower.

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As the Tower of London grew in size, a variety

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of intimidating defenses were added to resist attack.

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Speaker 12: The reason why this one particular art was so securely

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defended is because all those hundreds and hundred of years ago,

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this was the only entry into the Inner Wars into

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the Royal Palace itself.

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Speaker 1: Since the fourteenth century, the castle has been protected by

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jumen warders. Today there are thirty eight of them, all

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former non commissioned officers from the armed forces, and they

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live with their families within the Tower Wars.

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Speaker 13: Most people call us beef Is. That's the nickname. No

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one's really sure where it came from. The nearest week

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you get to it is that certainly during the reign

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of Henry the eighth we were partly paid in beef.

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Speaker 12: Ladies and gentlemen were now down beside one of the

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most famous infamous skates for that hatter in the history

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of the world. For before you lie, straight escape, And

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for all you lovely Americans, do you know what it was

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originally called?

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Speaker 13: Water Gate? We are the tower Guardians. We are more

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or less a policeman. We're responsible for everything within the tower,

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the safety, the security of everything and the people that visit.

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But our main job is the security of this great

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royal palace.

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Speaker 1: As well as being watched over by Yeoman warders, the

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tower is also secured by military guards from the same

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regiment as those at Buckingham Palace. Their most important duty

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is to guard the Crown jewels that are kept secure

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in the Waterloo barracks. And there are other residents of

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the tower that have an historic role to play in

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defending the castle. The Ravens, Yeoman water Derek Coyle is

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the raven master.

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Speaker 12: Bit of a wall name. See two of our ravens.

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The one million is called Mooning, the one just behind

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her is called Cedric. It's my job to look after

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these birds. Now, whilst we're on about them. They are

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not tame. They are semi wild. You go into their territory,

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they'll attack. Put your finger out. They're allowed to take

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the finger and straight off. Look at the bags on

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them as well as not their talons. I raise the shop.

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So please give these birds the respect that they deserve.

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Speaker 13: All right, come on, hondy, good boy.

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Speaker 1: Ravens have lived here for hundreds of years, and tradition

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holds that if they should ever leave, the White Tower

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will be destroyed and a great disaster will befall England.

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Speaker 13: Go on, so a good boy.

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Speaker 1: In sixteen sixty Charles the Sid took this belief so

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seriously had he decreed that at least six ravens should

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be kept here at all times. Today these birds have

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their wing feathers clipped so they can't fly away. These

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famous residents of the tower get five star treatment, and.

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Speaker 13: That's what they get.

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Speaker 1: Luck.

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Speaker 13: Prime hard raven's are magnificent, whereas they're very humorous, they're

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very mischievous, and they're very very intellivision. Oh I love them.

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Come on, then, come on then.

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Speaker 1: The London was originally built as a royal palace and

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was used as a royal residence until Elizabethan times. Many

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kings and Queens of England were treated to a lavish

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lifestyle here, but some of the aristocracy were brought to

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the tower for a much more sinister purpose, to be

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locked up.

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Speaker 5: It's very important to know that this isn't just any

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old prison. This is a very important prison of state,

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and most of the people who are brought here are

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people who are either too important or too dangerous to

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be kept anywhere else.

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Speaker 1: Prisoners at the Tower were expected to pay for their

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own cheap Wealthy royalty and noblemen could afford to live comfortably,

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bringing in their own possessions and buying themselves extravagant meals.

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Speaker 5: Most of your prisoners would be living in houses, or

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would be living in towers. It's not like Alcatraz. It's

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an awful lot more like living under house arrest. And

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that's what it would be like.

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Speaker 1: Sir Walter Raleigh, famous explorer of the Americas, was imprisoned

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in the Bloody Tower for thirteen years after his alleged

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involvement in a plot against King James the First. He

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lived here with his wife and two sons, wrote the

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history of the world, and even grew tobacco in the

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tower garden, and then he was finally executed in sixteen eighteen.

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The most notorious prisoners were brought to the Tower by river,

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often at night, where they entered the fortress through the

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now infamous Trader's Gate.

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Speaker 12: Many and a leed traitor when it comes from these gatesphere,

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including four Queens of England, Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howell,

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Lady Jane Gray, the unprowned Queen of nine Days Only,

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and of course the young Princess Elizabeth, who later became

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Queen Elizabeth First.

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Speaker 1: For prisoners such as Anne Boleyn, this journey would be

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their last. Anne Berlyn was the second wife of Henry

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the eighth, and after her conviction for adultery, she was

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brought to the tower. Ironically, her lodgings were the same

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rooms she had stayed in just three years earlier to

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prepare for her coronation. Anne was condemned to execution by beheading.

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At her request, a swordsman from France was summoned to

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deliver a swift death with a sharp sword rather than

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the traditional axe, which could take several blows. On the

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morning of the nineteenth of May fifteen thirty six, she

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was finally given the dignity of a private execution on

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Tower Green. Only seven prisoners, the most prestigious, were beheaded

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within the tower walls. All other unfortunates were executed outside

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the perimeter walls in full view of the public. Up

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until the nineteenth century, no one knew what happened to

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the bodies, but in eighteen seventy six workmen restoring the

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tower's chapel made a gruesome discovery. Fifteen hundred corpses were

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lying under the flagstones.

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Speaker 5: They are still there now in the area of the alta,

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with a new Victorian pavement laid over the top of them,

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bearing their names in the coats of arms of the

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important people buried in that area, and Catherine Howard, Lady

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Jane Gray, the Earl of.

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Speaker 1: Essex, and many others. Some of the royal victims still

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haunt the castle today. The tale of the Two Little

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Princes is one of the saddest stories of the tower.

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After their father Edward died in fourteen eighty three, the

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boys were lodged in the tower while the eldest was

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prepared for coronation, but their uncle Richard declared the boys

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illegitimate and had himself crowned as King Richard the Third.

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The princes were soon to mysteriously disappear. The common belief

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is that they were murdered, and many suspected that the

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dreadful crime was sanctioned by King Richard. Reports at the

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time stated that the youngest boy was smothered to death

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and his older brother fatally stabbed, but the full truth

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will never be known.

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Speaker 5: There's an aftermath to this story that in the year

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sixteen seventy four, some workmen doing some work near the

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White Tower, quite by accident, came upon the burials of

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two small children. The authorities at the time convinced King

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Charles the Second, then on the throne, that these were

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none other than the bones of the two missing princes

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in the tower, and they were taken to Westminster Abbey,

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where even now they're buried, interred within a marble urn

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in a place called Innocence Corner.

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Speaker 13: Every stone Every brick in the wall has its own

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little story to tell. And when you think that I

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walk around every day where kings and Queens of England

401
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:09,759
have walked, some for their last walk, it just brings

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it home to you. It's a great traditional place and

403
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long mates stay.

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Speaker 6: That way as well.

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Speaker 1: Coming up, we relived the glories of ancient Rome and

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the greatest amphitheater ever built. The Colosseum, a marvel of

407
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Roman engineering and the greatest amphitheater ever built. This huge

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stadium was designed so that as many Romans as possible

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could watch the most cruel and violent games the world

410
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has ever seen. Thousands died here in the name of

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popular entertainment. The Colosseum stands in the heart of Rome,

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the vibrant capital city of Italy. Rome and its architecture

413
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is a must see on the Grand Tour of Europe.

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It's a living museum, overflowing with ancient wonders. Throughout the

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city are relics of over two thousand years of history,

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dating back to before the time of Christ. The most

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awe inspiring of all these ancient monuments is the inaugurated

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in eighty a d. This sporting arena was the brainchild

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of the emperor Flavius Vespasian, and was originally called the

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Flavian Amphitheater. The building is divided into four levels, the

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first three of arches and the fourth divided into compartments

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with windows.

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Speaker 5: I've seen pictures and everything, but they really can't capture

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how big it really is.

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Speaker 14: The fact that an ancient people were able to construct

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something so incredibly huge, it's just incredible to me.

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Speaker 8: The idea of it, the immensity of it, the enormous

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at the engineering of it, just absolutely fascinating.

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Speaker 1: What we see today is nothing compared to what the

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spectacular Amphitheater would have looked like in ancient Rome. In

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its prime, the colosseum was faced with marble, and each

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portico was filled with an ornate statue of an important

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Roman face. At the very top of the building, there

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were two hundred and forty masts which supported an enormous

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canvas awning known as the valerium. On sunny days, it

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was stretched over the top to provide shade for the spectators.

437
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The Amphitheater had a capacity of over fifty thousand people.

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Archaeologists like Lynn Lancaster have worked out how the coliseum

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was designed to cope with such large numbers of spectators.

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They would have entered through one of eighty different entrances.

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Speaker 15: Above each of the arches on the ground level there

442
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is actually a Roman numeral and they go from one

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to seventy six. Through these numbers, you would know where

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to go into the building, and then so if you

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were sitting over there, you wouldn't want to come in

446
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over here and then wander all around. You would want

447
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to come in on one of the gates there. And

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this was one of the really clever things about the

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building is that they were able to organize very large

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groups of people to get to the right very quickly.

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Speaker 1: Despite the size of the building, more than fifty thousand

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people would have been able to reach their seats within

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a matter of minutes. Where the people sat was determined

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by social class. The highest class senators would sit nearest

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the arena, and wealthy men would sit in the second

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tier above that, poorer men would sit in the third tier.

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Women in slaves were restricted to the very top, where

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there were only uncomfortable wooden benches. There were also two boxes,

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no longer preserved, one for the emperor and one for

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the sacred priestesses, the best of virgins.

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Speaker 15: Now these would be the only women who would be

462
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sitting low down, and these were prime seats or the

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vesta virgins. Gave up a lot to be vest of virgins,

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but they got something in return.

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Speaker 1: Each day's bloodshed was divided into three parts. Professor Roger

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00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:19,559
Wilson from the University of Nottingham has researched the day's events.

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Speaker 16: Fest of all, in the morning you had the animal shows.

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This was if you liked the order. This was the

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warming up of the people. And then at midday, if

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there were criminals to be executed, then they would be executed.

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And then after a pause, there would be the afternoon entertainment,

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and that was what people were really waiting for, the

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gladiatorial combat. I think you've got to imagine a good

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deal of noise, the roar of the spectators. We're talking

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about fifty thousand people packed into that arena, making one

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hell of it.

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Speaker 1: In to provide this dramatic entertainment, there was a large

478
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:23,719
working area underneath the arena. Hidden elevators and trapdoors with

479
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:28,039
a complicated system of counterweights and pulleys allowed animals, men

480
00:37:28,119 --> 00:37:30,519
in scenery to appear from underground.

481
00:37:32,119 --> 00:37:34,519
Speaker 15: The cage would pop up through the floor, and so

482
00:37:34,639 --> 00:37:36,559
this is one of the ways they could to make

483
00:37:36,599 --> 00:37:40,159
it more spectacular. They could have scenery or gladiators or

484
00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:44,320
animals sort of coming up from nowhere.

485
00:37:44,079 --> 00:37:53,119
Speaker 1: Up next the most sensational and bloodthirsty games ever, the

486
00:37:53,159 --> 00:37:56,280
most sensational games at the coliseum in Rome were in

487
00:37:56,320 --> 00:38:00,599
one hundred and seven AD. Ten thousand gladiators fought to

488
00:38:00,639 --> 00:38:02,920
the death in a blood bath that lasted one hundred

489
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:06,400
and twenty three days, an.

490
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:09,840
Speaker 16: Enormous amount of entertainment. And also there were no less

491
00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:14,880
than eleven thousand animals butchered in the course of that

492
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:29,320
one hundred and twenty three days. At the end of

493
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:32,880
the games, when they had all been slaughtered, one of

494
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:37,000
the fascinating questions is what happened to the carcasses. When

495
00:38:37,039 --> 00:38:40,079
you've got an elephant dead in the arena, Okay, you

496
00:38:40,119 --> 00:38:42,320
can drag it out, but what then do you do

497
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:44,760
with it? Whether they were cut up and given to

498
00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:48,280
feed other animals that were waiting their turn, we simply

499
00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:49,000
don't know.

500
00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:55,079
Speaker 1: The dead animals and corpses would probably have been taken

501
00:38:55,119 --> 00:39:00,719
to one of the many buildings surrounding the Colosseum. In

502
00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:04,360
nineteen thirty seven, the remains of the Ludus Magnus, the

503
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:08,599
largest gladiatorial school in Rome, were discovered. Next door to

504
00:39:08,639 --> 00:39:13,599
the Colosseum, a mini arena has been partly excavated, and

505
00:39:13,639 --> 00:39:16,519
this is where the gladiators were subjected to a strict

506
00:39:16,559 --> 00:39:20,079
program of training, watched over by their trainers, who would

507
00:39:20,079 --> 00:39:25,519
have sat on their surrounding seats. The gladiators would have

508
00:39:25,559 --> 00:39:28,519
lived here in a permanent state of captivity.

509
00:39:30,679 --> 00:39:36,440
Speaker 16: Gladiators were either slaves or they were criminals. In either house,

510
00:39:36,559 --> 00:39:41,760
they were expendable. It was a very hard life. They

511
00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:44,360
lived in pretty harsh conditions. I'm sure they were pretty

512
00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:49,480
abysmally treated, but if the alternative was either straight execution

513
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:53,079
or condemnation to the mind, then frankly, perhaps it was

514
00:39:53,119 --> 00:39:55,519
a better life being a gladiator. At least you had hope.

515
00:39:57,199 --> 00:40:00,079
Speaker 1: They walked to the games through an underground tunnel that

516
00:40:00,159 --> 00:40:16,039
led directly from the Ludus Magnus to beneath the Colosseum.

517
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:19,840
The ultimate prize was a gladiator's freedom, but this was

518
00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:20,840
rarely granted.

519
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:26,079
Speaker 16: The pinnacle of gladiator's achievement if they'd really been successful,

520
00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:28,920
was that they would go on winning, They go on

521
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:33,480
getting adulation in the amphitheater, and as we know from inscriptions,

522
00:40:33,519 --> 00:40:35,480
they were the equivalent of the pop stars.

523
00:40:35,119 --> 00:40:36,679
Speaker 17: Of the day.

524
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:40,760
Speaker 1: The Colisseum is so well preserved that it's not difficult

525
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:47,880
to imagine the gory events of two thousand years ago.

526
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:52,119
Speaker 14: Once you stood down on the floor and looked up

527
00:40:52,119 --> 00:40:55,000
at where Caesar sat, you can imagine what it's like

528
00:40:55,039 --> 00:40:56,920
to be a gladiator and be fighting for your life

529
00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:58,000
in there. Quite amazing.

530
00:40:58,079 --> 00:41:01,320
Speaker 5: It seated fifty thousand people, but pretty much for the

531
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:02,039
wrong reasons.

532
00:41:02,639 --> 00:41:05,320
Speaker 8: So excited people being killed, we would be mold. But

533
00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:09,519
drama and fiercer and excitement. To me, everything was here, well,

534
00:41:09,599 --> 00:41:10,199
light was here.

535
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:15,199
Speaker 1: Construction of the Colosseum began in seventy a d. And

536
00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:22,400
this masterpiece of engineering took ten years to build. Around

537
00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:26,159
three hundred thousand cartloads of huge stone blocks were used

538
00:41:26,199 --> 00:41:31,039
to build the outer walls. Towards the top of the monument.

539
00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:34,400
The stone was replaced by much smaller and lighter bricks

540
00:41:34,639 --> 00:41:35,840
held together with mortar.

541
00:41:37,679 --> 00:41:41,320
Speaker 15: Roman mortar is particularly strong, much stronger than say the

542
00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:43,599
mortar they would use in Greece, because there's a volcanic

543
00:41:43,679 --> 00:41:48,119
material in the area called Potslana. You can actually see

544
00:41:48,119 --> 00:41:51,280
the potslana in there. It's the little dark speckles, but

545
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:53,679
it has chemicals in it that will bind with the

546
00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:56,960
lime and it'll create a mortar that's eight to ten

547
00:41:57,000 --> 00:41:58,880
times stronger than the regular mortar.

548
00:42:13,239 --> 00:42:17,960
Speaker 1: Since its heyday, the Colosseum has suffered from plundering and decay.

549
00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:22,119
The outer wall was partially destroyed when it was damaged

550
00:42:22,119 --> 00:42:26,719
by an earthquake in the fourteenth century, but some of

551
00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:28,400
the damage was much more deliberate.

552
00:42:30,159 --> 00:42:33,360
Speaker 15: Because people often ask me why the Colosseum looks like

553
00:42:33,519 --> 00:42:35,519
a bunch of Swiss cheese, because it has all these

554
00:42:35,559 --> 00:42:39,440
holes in it, and these holes are robber holes. The

555
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:42,159
whole monument was put together, at least the stone parts

556
00:42:42,159 --> 00:42:45,360
were put together with the iron clamps and iron dowels,

557
00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:49,280
and in the medieval period when they needed to have

558
00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:51,840
lots of iron to melt down for cannon balls or whatever,

559
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:54,400
they would go to ancient monuments and they would dig

560
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:56,599
out the ancient iron and then melt it down into

561
00:42:56,639 --> 00:42:57,440
whatever they needed.

562
00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:02,119
Speaker 1: It's a marvel that this huge building is still standing

563
00:43:02,199 --> 00:43:05,199
without any of the original iron clamps and dowels.

564
00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:09,400
Speaker 15: Once they put the arches all the way around. Then

565
00:43:09,559 --> 00:43:11,719
it forms sort of a unified hole, and so it's

566
00:43:11,719 --> 00:43:14,159
not nearly as unstable, and so even when you take

567
00:43:14,199 --> 00:43:16,400
the pens out, it's not going to fall down because

568
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:17,880
it's structurally sound.

569
00:43:20,159 --> 00:43:23,920
Speaker 1: The more archaeologists learn about this grand monument, the more

570
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:27,239
respect they have for the skills of the ancient Roman craftsmen.

571
00:43:28,679 --> 00:43:32,239
Speaker 15: This building is overwhelming at times. Every time I come here,

572
00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:35,480
I see something new. It's really exciting to be here.

573
00:43:40,039 --> 00:43:44,199
Speaker 1: For over three hundred years, this was Rome's premiere killing ground,

574
00:43:45,039 --> 00:43:47,199
but towards the end of the Roman Empire and the

575
00:43:47,239 --> 00:43:51,360
onset of Christianity, the Romans began to grow unhappy with

576
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:57,400
the savage role call of brutality. In four hundred and

577
00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:04,559
four a d. The Emperor Honorius finally banned gladiator shows forever. Today,

578
00:44:04,639 --> 00:44:07,519
this triumph of Roman architecture is surely one of the

579
00:44:07,519 --> 00:44:18,480
most monumental ancient wonders of the world. Next up, we

580
00:44:18,599 --> 00:44:30,559
investigate the mysteries of the oldest structure on Earth. Deep

581
00:44:30,559 --> 00:44:33,079
in the heart of the English countryside lies what is

582
00:44:33,119 --> 00:44:43,639
possibly the oldest structure on Earth. This is Stonehenge. It

583
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:47,320
was built by a prehistoric man and yet amazingly, this

584
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:54,840
extraordinary monument is aligned with the cosmos. The arrangement of

585
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:57,440
the stones can predict exactly when the sun and the

586
00:44:57,480 --> 00:45:00,599
moon will eclipse, and on the longest day of the year,

587
00:45:01,119 --> 00:45:10,360
they line up precisely with the Midsummer sunrise. Stonehenge stands

588
00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:22,360
on the bleak expanse of Salisbury Plain. On the eve

589
00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:25,480
of the longest day of the year, thousands of people

590
00:45:25,559 --> 00:45:28,760
gather together at Stonehenge to party through the night and

591
00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:37,519
celebrate the dawn of the Summer solstice. For Celtic priests

592
00:45:37,599 --> 00:45:40,519
known as Druids, this is the time of year when

593
00:45:40,519 --> 00:45:43,400
the lure of these ancient stones seems to reach its

594
00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:44,239
greatest power.

595
00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:49,400
Speaker 18: Druids have always been at Stonehenge and celebrating the birth

596
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:51,679
of the longest day, which is a major part of

597
00:45:51,719 --> 00:45:56,800
our religious experience, and what we as Drewids believe is

598
00:45:56,800 --> 00:46:02,480
that at the Samerson Stice, Druidsagans, Christians, Hindus, Jews, it

599
00:46:02,480 --> 00:46:05,760
doesn't matter, have a focal point in the British landscape

600
00:46:05,760 --> 00:46:08,519
where they can gather to celebrate what is the longest

601
00:46:08,559 --> 00:46:09,280
day of the year.

602
00:46:17,280 --> 00:46:20,320
Speaker 1: It is believed that this ancient stone circle has long

603
00:46:20,400 --> 00:46:22,480
been a spiritual focus.

604
00:46:23,159 --> 00:46:25,199
Speaker 18: And going back to a time in ancient Britain and

605
00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:29,440
the pagan faith was predominant, and they celebrated the changing

606
00:46:29,519 --> 00:46:32,079
of the seasons, and they went to specific places and

607
00:46:32,159 --> 00:46:36,840
sacred sites to celebrate that. So Stonehenge has always been

608
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:42,199
a gathering point of the summer's solstice.

609
00:46:47,599 --> 00:46:53,280
Speaker 1: Stonehenge is the most complete megalithic monument in Europe, older

610
00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:56,880
than the Great Pyramid in Egypt. The site dates back

611
00:46:57,039 --> 00:47:01,239
five thousand years. That's two and a half years earlier

612
00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:04,639
than even the first Druids, and there is nothing else

613
00:47:04,800 --> 00:47:12,639
like it anywhere in the world. The magnetism of these

614
00:47:12,679 --> 00:47:15,920
stones draws more than a million visitors every year to

615
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:20,440
ponder the questions who built this ancient monument, how was

616
00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:22,920
it built, and why.

617
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:27,199
Speaker 17: Stonehenge is one of the great wonders of the world.

618
00:47:27,280 --> 00:47:29,920
Speaker 1: So we're here in the midst and the rain.

619
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:30,760
Speaker 19: To see it.

620
00:47:31,440 --> 00:47:33,440
Speaker 1: My first impression is on the road coming up here

621
00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:34,719
and you just see them in the distance, and I

622
00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:37,800
was really excited over it. You know, that's pretty incredible.

623
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:39,679
Speaker 17: Yeah, and then it's awesome for it.

624
00:47:43,559 --> 00:47:46,800
Speaker 20: Pandalous to think that it's British has been there so long.

625
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:49,719
I mean, you know how did they do it?

626
00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:56,760
Speaker 1: The intriguing enigma of Stonehenge has left a lasting impression

627
00:47:56,800 --> 00:47:58,800
on many generations of visitors.

628
00:48:00,119 --> 00:48:00,880
Speaker 5: It is unique.

629
00:48:01,159 --> 00:48:05,239
Speaker 21: Stonehenge is recognized around the world. I mean, you draw

630
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:08,280
the Triliathan symbol out and people recognize that in the

631
00:48:08,280 --> 00:48:10,719
same way as you draw the pyramid out. They recognize

632
00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:15,079
those things. It is an internationally known monument. It's become

633
00:48:15,119 --> 00:48:18,480
that sort of icon. The mystery is what was it

634
00:48:18,599 --> 00:48:23,159
used for? Why was it built? There is no written evidence,

635
00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:26,199
so we'll never actually know the motives behind it. And

636
00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:29,280
I suppose the fun about Stonehenge because we don't know,

637
00:48:30,199 --> 00:48:31,079
you can speculate.

638
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:36,119
Speaker 1: There are plenty of theories. Some believe that this site

639
00:48:36,199 --> 00:48:42,079
was designed for sacrifice. In the Middle Ages, people thought

640
00:48:42,119 --> 00:48:44,760
the monster as stones have been put up by giants,

641
00:48:45,199 --> 00:48:48,079
and since then there have even been theories that this

642
00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:50,440
is a UFO landing.

643
00:48:50,119 --> 00:48:55,119
Speaker 14: Site, rising to the old.

644
00:48:54,880 --> 00:48:59,840
Speaker 1: Perscyd Ruined priests are firm in their belief that stone

645
00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:01,639
was built as a temple.

646
00:49:03,719 --> 00:49:07,000
Speaker 18: How Stonehenge got there and how it was built is

647
00:49:07,079 --> 00:49:10,639
lost in the mystery of time. But I firmly believe

648
00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:13,880
I know what it's there for, and that is as

649
00:49:13,880 --> 00:49:16,239
a place of worship at the turning of the seasons

650
00:49:16,360 --> 00:49:18,000
of the year of our name.

651
00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:21,239
Speaker 1: What we do know is that it was built with

652
00:49:21,320 --> 00:49:24,840
astounding precision, and the alignment of the stones will accurately

653
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:34,440
predict the turn of the seasons. In the outer ring

654
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:37,199
of stones, one of them is half the width of

655
00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:41,320
the others, creating twenty nine and a half stones. These

656
00:49:41,360 --> 00:49:44,119
may well represent the twenty nine and a half days

657
00:49:44,280 --> 00:49:49,119
in a lunar month. Four stationed stones set outside the

658
00:49:49,119 --> 00:49:52,840
stone circle mark the most northerly and southerly positions of

659
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:55,119
the risings and settings of the Sun and the moon.

660
00:49:57,320 --> 00:49:59,880
Around the outside of the stones, there are fifty six

661
00:50:00,079 --> 00:50:04,159
pits known as Aubrey holes. Using a model of Stonehenge,

662
00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:08,079
Robin Heath can demonstrate how these pits could have predicted

663
00:50:08,199 --> 00:50:09,239
a lunary clipse.

664
00:50:10,440 --> 00:50:12,760
Speaker 10: We imagine that the Earth is the center of Stonehenge.

665
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:16,079
The temple represents the Earth. Then we can say that

666
00:50:16,119 --> 00:50:19,400
the outer diction bank represents the sky.

667
00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:25,039
Speaker 1: By moving a marker for the moon by two Aubrey

668
00:50:25,039 --> 00:50:28,159
holes each day and a marker for the sun once

669
00:50:28,199 --> 00:50:33,039
every thirteen days, the model behaves like an astronomical calculator.

670
00:50:33,320 --> 00:50:37,599
When the two markers coincide. The Aubrey holes predict an eclipse.

671
00:50:44,639 --> 00:50:49,159
When we return, we get fired up with the Druid priests.

672
00:50:50,639 --> 00:50:55,400
Four five hundred years ago, prehistoric man began the extraordinary

673
00:50:55,480 --> 00:51:03,440
feat of positioning the stones at Stonehenge. At first, there

674
00:51:03,480 --> 00:51:07,239
were just the smaller bluestones, named after the bluish color

675
00:51:07,320 --> 00:51:12,079
of the rock. These were erected inside a pre existing

676
00:51:12,159 --> 00:51:19,960
earthwork in the shape of a double crescent. Two or

677
00:51:19,960 --> 00:51:24,159
three hundred years later, the much larger stones, the Sarsen stones,

678
00:51:24,519 --> 00:51:31,519
were brought from the Molbra Downs twenty miles away. These

679
00:51:31,599 --> 00:51:34,800
huge boulders were arranged in a closed circle with five

680
00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:40,960
immense trilithons and a horseshoe shape in the center. Mysteriously,

681
00:51:41,119 --> 00:51:45,280
the smaller bluestones were then completely repositioned within the circle.

682
00:51:48,280 --> 00:51:51,000
Hauling the Sarzen stones to the site would have required

683
00:51:51,079 --> 00:51:55,280
heroic effort. They weighed anything up to a massive fifty tons.

684
00:51:58,679 --> 00:52:02,639
In nineteen ninety six, a large group of volunteers conducted

685
00:52:02,639 --> 00:52:06,639
an experiment to find out how it could have been done.

686
00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:12,400
They were limited to the tools of the prehistoric age, ropes,

687
00:52:12,519 --> 00:52:21,159
wooden levers, and brute force. They successfully hauled the replica

688
00:52:21,199 --> 00:52:28,079
sarsen stone along a sledge guided by wooden tracks. Then

689
00:52:28,119 --> 00:52:30,920
there was the problem of how the ancient craftsmen could

690
00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:38,039
have stood the stone upright. The team exploited some basic

691
00:52:38,119 --> 00:53:01,320
principles of weights and balance. Root force was needed to

692
00:53:01,360 --> 00:53:14,960
stand it straight, but the original builders still had the

693
00:53:15,039 --> 00:53:20,960
daunting task of raising the lntil stones. The outer circle

694
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:24,079
of sarcen stones once supported a complete ring of thirty

695
00:53:24,159 --> 00:53:28,639
lntels fifteen feet above the ground. This was one of

696
00:53:28,679 --> 00:53:35,199
the greatest engineering achievements of prehistory. One solution is that

697
00:53:35,239 --> 00:53:38,599
the lentils were raised by progressively adding to a temporary

698
00:53:38,679 --> 00:53:44,559
timber platform. Then the craftsmen had to line up holes

699
00:53:44,639 --> 00:53:47,199
carved out of each end of the lintel with a

700
00:53:47,199 --> 00:53:51,719
protruding tennin on top of each upright stone.

701
00:53:52,599 --> 00:53:54,639
Speaker 10: I think that was a precarious operation. You had to

702
00:53:54,639 --> 00:53:58,199
slide the lintel from the cradle onto two upright stones

703
00:53:58,239 --> 00:54:01,639
with tennin joints in them and get it right. And

704
00:54:01,760 --> 00:54:10,159
they did get it right.

705
00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:16,639
Speaker 1: An hour before dawn, the solstice festivities reach a climax.

706
00:54:18,159 --> 00:54:21,599
The druids lead the torchlit procession in a complete circle

707
00:54:21,639 --> 00:54:25,360
around the stones, symbolizing the Earth orbiting the sun.

708
00:54:29,960 --> 00:54:33,239
Speaker 18: These stones have been used as a gathering point for many,

709
00:54:33,239 --> 00:54:36,880
many millennia, and it's in that that they have gathered

710
00:54:36,880 --> 00:54:40,559
their own power and their own mistake, and it's that

711
00:54:40,559 --> 00:54:53,639
that draws successive generations to them.

712
00:54:53,760 --> 00:54:58,559
Speaker 1: Over two hundred generations have passed since Stonehenge was erected,

713
00:54:59,480 --> 00:55:02,920
yet great Wonder is still here for us to admire

714
00:55:02,960 --> 00:55:20,960
and marvel at. Its construction. Built across mountain ranges up

715
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:24,559
to eight thousand feet high, the Great Wall of China

716
00:55:24,719 --> 00:55:29,960
is a feat of engineering unparalleled in the world. It

717
00:55:30,039 --> 00:55:34,119
extends over four thousand, five hundred miles from North Korea

718
00:55:34,199 --> 00:55:39,000
to the wastes of the Gobi Desert. The same distance

719
00:55:39,119 --> 00:55:46,320
is from Miami to the North Pole. The Great Wall

720
00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:49,760
of China is the longest man made structure on the planet.

721
00:56:11,760 --> 00:56:14,719
Two hundred and fifty BC, China was a nation of

722
00:56:14,800 --> 00:56:24,119
warring states. After decades of fighting, the Emperor Chin chewand

723
00:56:24,440 --> 00:56:31,760
succeeded in joining the different kingdoms into a single, unified China.

724
00:56:33,079 --> 00:56:36,199
But the victorious emperor needed to protect his new country

725
00:56:36,239 --> 00:56:39,559
from marauding tribes from the north, and two hundred and

726
00:56:39,599 --> 00:56:42,800
twenty one BC he ordered the building of the Great

727
00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:55,760
Wall of China. So good was the quality of construction

728
00:56:56,320 --> 00:56:59,760
that many sections are still standing two thousand years later.

729
00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:02,760
It has been calculated that the wall would have cost

730
00:57:02,800 --> 00:57:10,280
two hundred and sixty billion dollars in today's money. In

731
00:57:10,400 --> 00:57:14,440
nineteen ninety nine, a group of British tourists set off

732
00:57:14,519 --> 00:57:17,039
on a hundred mile hike along the wall to raise

733
00:57:17,079 --> 00:57:20,800
money for charity. This was to be the adventure holiday

734
00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:21,840
of a lifetime.

735
00:57:34,840 --> 00:57:38,000
Speaker 20: I really thought it would be a straightforward walk in

736
00:57:38,079 --> 00:57:40,800
the park kind of thing. Trust me, it was amston.

737
00:57:55,480 --> 00:57:58,239
Speaker 1: Their plan was to walk along the most treacherous parts

738
00:57:58,280 --> 00:58:01,360
of the wall. Just get up to the wall itself

739
00:58:01,880 --> 00:58:05,199
involved a tough two hour height, the rough terrain, and

740
00:58:05,239 --> 00:58:06,760
the only way was up.

741
00:58:08,519 --> 00:58:11,559
Speaker 20: As coached the wall, it looked about a million feet

742
00:58:11,639 --> 00:58:15,079
high and I thought to myself, and they want me

743
00:58:15,159 --> 00:58:17,320
to get up there, now I'm going back up.

744
00:58:21,159 --> 00:58:22,920
Speaker 22: No one could get on it by themselves, and it

745
00:58:23,000 --> 00:58:25,639
was much higher than I was, probably about six seven

746
00:58:25,639 --> 00:58:29,960
foot high in some places where we wanted to get on.

747
00:58:31,159 --> 00:58:33,400
So we had to have two people on the top

748
00:58:33,400 --> 00:58:35,760
of the wall two people below and they sort of

749
00:58:35,800 --> 00:58:37,800
pushed you up and had to get you on top.

750
00:58:39,559 --> 00:58:42,599
Speaker 1: Reaching the top was a momentous achievement for Aid, who

751
00:58:42,639 --> 00:58:44,239
suffers from vertigo.

752
00:58:44,440 --> 00:58:47,400
Speaker 20: Actually got up on a wall and I said, I

753
00:58:47,480 --> 00:58:52,079
made it. I made it, and that was just ecstatic.

754
00:58:52,280 --> 00:59:01,360
Simply just being there.

755
00:58:57,960 --> 00:59:01,159
Speaker 4: Just really takes your breath away. It's so exhausting, but

756
00:59:01,280 --> 00:59:02,800
such an achievement when you actually.

757
00:59:02,519 --> 00:59:03,079
Speaker 17: Get up there.

758
00:59:08,679 --> 00:59:12,440
Speaker 1: The Hagers have been given permission to walk sections of

759
00:59:12,480 --> 00:59:16,280
the Great Wall normally off limits, and in parts it

760
00:59:16,440 --> 00:59:18,800
was crumbling and dangerously precarious.

761
00:59:21,159 --> 00:59:23,440
Speaker 4: The parts of it that were crumpling that we walked on,

762
00:59:23,599 --> 00:59:25,559
that was the best bit because you're out there on

763
00:59:25,599 --> 00:59:27,800
your own, and parts of it were a bit scary.

764
00:59:28,480 --> 00:59:31,599
Luckily I don't suffer from vertigo or anything, but it

765
00:59:31,639 --> 00:59:33,000
was still scary even for me.

766
00:59:34,960 --> 00:59:38,840
Speaker 20: At one stage, I was walking up and someone said

767
00:59:38,880 --> 00:59:41,840
to me, right, I now looked behind you, and I

768
00:59:41,880 --> 00:59:44,320
felt as if I was on the moon looking down.

769
00:59:45,039 --> 00:59:46,760
I didn't realize i'd gone that far up.

770
00:59:54,360 --> 00:59:56,760
Speaker 22: Chinese people are generally much shorter than all of us,

771
00:59:57,159 --> 00:59:59,800
and to think that they actually built the wall and

772
01:00:00,079 --> 01:00:02,760
climbed along it was just amazing. So it really made

773
01:00:02,760 --> 01:00:05,480
you think about who was building it and how they'd

774
01:00:05,519 --> 01:00:08,760
actually managed to lug all of these big blocks of

775
01:00:08,800 --> 01:00:12,360
stone and actually build the wall.

776
01:00:12,920 --> 01:00:16,280
Speaker 1: When the Great Wall was initially built during the Qin dynasty,

777
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:25,480
it was made of compacted earth and reads. Emperor chinchewand

778
01:00:25,840 --> 01:00:30,440
used three hundred thousand soldiers and five hundred thousand conscripts.

779
01:00:33,639 --> 01:00:36,559
He built the three thousand miles of the wall in

780
01:00:36,760 --> 01:00:42,360
just ten years. One of the world's leading experts on

781
01:00:42,480 --> 01:00:45,079
Chinese history is Krol Michaelson.

782
01:00:46,320 --> 01:00:50,719
Speaker 23: Chinchi Hondi has been both revered and reviled throughout Chinese history,

783
01:00:51,599 --> 01:00:54,960
but generally his building of the Great Wall was regarded

784
01:00:55,000 --> 01:00:58,159
by most people as one of the most abhorred things

785
01:00:58,199 --> 01:01:00,800
that he did because an awful lot of people died

786
01:01:00,840 --> 01:01:08,199
building it. Many people were sent many hundreds of miles

787
01:01:08,199 --> 01:01:10,599
away from their home and never made it back again.

788
01:01:11,559 --> 01:01:16,199
There are millions of bones buried under the foundations of

789
01:01:16,239 --> 01:01:17,840
the Great Wall to help strengthen it.

790
01:01:24,119 --> 01:01:27,039
Speaker 1: In the sixteenth century, in response to the thread of

791
01:01:27,119 --> 01:01:30,840
invading Mongols from the north, the Great Wall of China

792
01:01:30,960 --> 01:01:33,440
was substantially renovated and extended.

793
01:01:34,639 --> 01:01:37,639
Speaker 23: It was during the Ming dynasty that the wall that

794
01:01:37,679 --> 01:01:43,039
we see in China today was reconstructed and rebuilt made

795
01:01:43,079 --> 01:01:45,960
of brick and stone. Special kilns being set up to

796
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:48,599
bate the bricks in each place in order to make

797
01:01:48,679 --> 01:01:52,559
it sturdier than it had been. It is the brick

798
01:01:52,599 --> 01:01:56,280
and stone reconstruction that the astronauts could see from the

799
01:01:56,280 --> 01:02:00,159
moon and that the actual tourists who go to China today,

800
01:02:00,320 --> 01:02:03,760
and this is a very much sturdia more impressive wall

801
01:02:03,840 --> 01:02:05,840
than the original Great War would ever have been.

802
01:02:07,000 --> 01:02:10,679
Speaker 1: Up next, the Chinese Army defends the war against marauding

803
01:02:10,679 --> 01:02:19,960
invaders from the north. Today, the Great Wall of China

804
01:02:20,239 --> 01:02:24,039
is an accessible tourist destination and attracts people from all

805
01:02:24,079 --> 01:02:31,559
over the world. Most tourists visit the reconstructed sections close

806
01:02:31,599 --> 01:02:39,639
to Beijing. In nineteen seventy two, Richard Nixon was the

807
01:02:39,679 --> 01:02:44,440
first American president to visit China. Stop at the Wall

808
01:02:44,519 --> 01:02:46,920
provided the perfect photo opportunity.

809
01:02:47,800 --> 01:02:50,440
Speaker 10: We've come a long way, but I would say it's worth.

810
01:02:50,280 --> 01:02:53,440
Speaker 12: Coming sixteen thousand miles just to stand here and.

811
01:02:53,480 --> 01:02:58,639
Speaker 1: See the Wall. In nineteen ninety eight, Bill Clinton was

812
01:02:58,719 --> 01:02:59,679
equally impressed.

813
01:03:00,159 --> 01:03:02,920
Speaker 22: More magnificence than I had imagined it would be, and

814
01:03:02,960 --> 01:03:07,599
there are much more sudden changes in altitude than I thought.

815
01:03:09,880 --> 01:03:12,559
Speaker 1: The sheer size of the Great Wall ensure that it

816
01:03:12,599 --> 01:03:15,800
was rarely breached but during the early years it was

817
01:03:15,840 --> 01:03:22,280
constantly attacked by enemies from the north. Soldiers send coated

818
01:03:22,320 --> 01:03:25,559
smoke signals along the wall to warn of potential attack.

819
01:03:27,760 --> 01:03:31,760
When the wall was rebuilt in the Ming dynasty, watchtowers

820
01:03:31,800 --> 01:03:35,400
were constructed every two hundred yards, and extensions of the

821
01:03:35,400 --> 01:03:38,679
wall were built at right angles, so the soldiers could

822
01:03:38,719 --> 01:03:47,599
attack the enemy from two sides. If the wall was breached,

823
01:03:47,960 --> 01:03:51,320
the Chinese troops could retreat and take cover behind specially

824
01:03:51,360 --> 01:03:58,679
designed buttresses. If all else failed, they could take refuge

825
01:03:58,679 --> 01:04:11,800
in the heavily fortified watchtowers. But it was the Chinese

826
01:04:11,840 --> 01:04:15,119
invention of gunpowder that was eventually used by the enemy

827
01:04:15,559 --> 01:04:17,280
to effectively attack the wall.

828
01:04:19,800 --> 01:04:22,360
Speaker 23: Once they could use cannons, they could breach the Great

829
01:04:22,360 --> 01:04:24,480
Wall very easily, and by the end of the Ming

830
01:04:24,559 --> 01:04:27,599
dynasty it was perfectly obvious that building this wall was

831
01:04:27,599 --> 01:04:30,480
fairly useless if in fact it could be breached by cannons,

832
01:04:30,800 --> 01:04:32,840
and so at the end of the Ming dynasty in

833
01:04:32,960 --> 01:04:37,000
sixteen forty four, the reconstruction of the Great Wall basically ended.

834
01:04:47,920 --> 01:04:51,159
Speaker 1: After six days, the charity walkers completed their one hundred

835
01:04:51,239 --> 01:04:59,440
mile hike, reaching the end of such a unique adventure,

836
01:05:00,039 --> 01:05:01,559
an emotional experience.

837
01:05:02,400 --> 01:05:06,280
Speaker 4: It's very, very emotional. We'll hugged each old. You know

838
01:05:06,320 --> 01:05:07,079
we've made it.

839
01:05:08,000 --> 01:05:08,639
Speaker 17: Vistisnal.

840
01:05:10,679 --> 01:05:13,880
Speaker 1: Anyone who visits the Great Wall of China cannot fail

841
01:05:13,960 --> 01:05:17,639
to be impressed by the vastness of this ancient wonder.

842
01:05:18,880 --> 01:05:22,159
Speaker 23: It's just such an amazing feat. The fact that they

843
01:05:22,280 --> 01:05:27,119
were able in two hundred BC to build such an

844
01:05:27,119 --> 01:05:32,519
immense project is testimony to the greatness of Chinese civilization.

845
01:05:46,880 --> 01:05:49,920
Speaker 1: This is one of the most isolated places on Earth,

846
01:05:52,480 --> 01:05:56,119
yet every year twenty thousand tourists make the journey here

847
01:05:56,159 --> 01:05:59,000
to see some of the strangest wonders of the world.

848
01:06:18,159 --> 01:06:21,239
Easter Island is over two thousand miles from the nearest

849
01:06:21,239 --> 01:06:27,800
habitation in Chile. It's a place with a tragic history

850
01:06:28,159 --> 01:06:31,920
where the events of the past almost destroyed an entire population.

851
01:06:36,000 --> 01:06:39,760
Eight hundred and eighty seven gigantic statues dot the island.

852
01:06:40,480 --> 01:06:44,360
Some perch on top of beautifully crafted platforms called ahu,

853
01:06:44,880 --> 01:06:53,679
and the statues face inland towards the island community. These

854
01:06:53,719 --> 01:06:59,280
mysterious figures all have similar features an elongated head, long ears,

855
01:07:00,079 --> 01:07:05,239
prominent nose, and determinedly pursed lips. Some are crowned with

856
01:07:05,400 --> 01:07:08,800
enormous cylinders of red stones, and they all have an

857
01:07:08,840 --> 01:07:10,599
eerily human like stance.

858
01:07:13,199 --> 01:07:16,920
Speaker 19: If you look at these tattoos, you can see portraying

859
01:07:17,119 --> 01:07:20,719
their image. The presence of an elder person is not

860
01:07:20,920 --> 01:07:23,559
a friendly person that kind of look into your eyes

861
01:07:23,880 --> 01:07:28,639
and smiling, but somebody either mean or authoritarian and too

862
01:07:28,719 --> 01:07:32,400
arrogant to look close to you. So it's an attitude

863
01:07:32,440 --> 01:07:35,440
of in a sense of the Polynesian style.

864
01:07:38,440 --> 01:07:42,079
Speaker 1: Easter Island, known as Raphanui by the locals, has an

865
01:07:42,119 --> 01:07:46,039
area of just sixty square miles, about the size of Boston.

866
01:07:46,840 --> 01:07:51,440
The original inhabitants were Polynesians who sailed from distant islands

867
01:07:51,440 --> 01:07:58,519
sometime before eight hundred AD. Soon after their arrival, the

868
01:07:58,599 --> 01:08:05,400
islanders began to build these extraordinary statues. Their original purpose

869
01:08:05,440 --> 01:08:10,360
has been lost in time, but the Rapannui population today

870
01:08:10,400 --> 01:08:14,280
believed they were built as a representation of their Polynesian ancestors.

871
01:08:16,840 --> 01:08:20,039
Speaker 19: In many of the Polynesian islands, the representation of the

872
01:08:20,079 --> 01:08:24,680
ancestor were doed with small figurine, sometimes within piles of rocks.

873
01:08:25,000 --> 01:08:28,119
A Rapnoi we have the image of the ancestor, and

874
01:08:28,359 --> 01:08:33,239
it grew in size and style from a small roundhead

875
01:08:33,279 --> 01:08:36,439
figure all the way to the largest of twenty two

876
01:08:36,960 --> 01:08:40,760
meter high.

877
01:08:41,279 --> 01:08:44,760
Speaker 1: Most of the platforms with statues are sighted along the coast,

878
01:08:45,199 --> 01:08:51,920
but there are many more statues inland. The world's leading

879
01:08:52,000 --> 01:08:56,199
expert on the island statues is Joanne van Tilberg, an

880
01:08:56,239 --> 01:09:02,520
American archaeologist. She's been surveying and documenting the stones for

881
01:09:02,560 --> 01:09:05,159
the last twenty years.

882
01:09:05,319 --> 01:09:08,600
Speaker 3: East Island has probably been the most important project I've

883
01:09:08,640 --> 01:09:11,600
ever worked on. I didn't come here intending to work

884
01:09:11,600 --> 01:09:16,119
as an archaeologist, but once here I think, well, I

885
01:09:16,159 --> 01:09:16,720
fell in love.

886
01:09:19,800 --> 01:09:20,880
Speaker 17: Yeah, we have to check a.

887
01:09:20,840 --> 01:09:21,720
Speaker 5: Couple of these.

888
01:09:24,800 --> 01:09:29,239
Speaker 3: One sixty one, sixty three to the exact one sixty

889
01:09:29,239 --> 01:09:30,239
three to the mottom.

890
01:09:30,000 --> 01:09:30,279
Speaker 16: Of the deck.

891
01:09:30,359 --> 01:09:34,279
Speaker 1: By taking hundreds of careful measurements of each statue, Ben

892
01:09:34,359 --> 01:09:39,159
Tilberg has built up an intimate knowledge of their individual features.

893
01:09:39,479 --> 01:09:40,680
Speaker 17: And on the side of the neck.

894
01:09:41,640 --> 01:09:44,439
Speaker 3: Even though the statues at first glance appear all the

895
01:09:44,479 --> 01:09:49,319
same and appear standardized, they have individual design characteristics, and

896
01:09:49,359 --> 01:09:53,000
they have in fact individual personalities, so that now I

897
01:09:53,079 --> 01:09:56,319
can see what the revenue people have always said, which

898
01:09:56,359 --> 01:10:04,840
is that these are the faces of their ancestors.

899
01:10:06,119 --> 01:10:10,119
Speaker 1: Most of the statues were carved from compressed volcanic ash

900
01:10:10,159 --> 01:10:16,199
concentrated in this extinct crater known as Rano Roraku. There

901
01:10:16,199 --> 01:10:19,600
are three hundred and ninety seven statues stranded in various

902
01:10:19,640 --> 01:10:21,560
stages of completion in this quarry.

903
01:10:22,640 --> 01:10:24,479
Speaker 3: I think the quarry for everybody who comes here. It

904
01:10:24,560 --> 01:10:26,600
is sort of the beating heart of the island. It's

905
01:10:26,600 --> 01:10:29,840
the place where the energy is concentrated in terms of

906
01:10:29,880 --> 01:10:32,079
the numbers of statues, in the size of statues.

907
01:10:35,399 --> 01:10:38,800
Speaker 1: This rock was never used to build houses or even walls.

908
01:10:39,439 --> 01:10:43,159
The mountain was a revered site that provided the Rapanui

909
01:10:43,199 --> 01:10:45,920
with the precious material to build statues.

910
01:10:47,720 --> 01:10:50,520
Speaker 3: It was a place of tremendous energy and production, but

911
01:10:50,560 --> 01:10:53,960
it was also a sacred place, a place that was scary,

912
01:10:54,159 --> 01:10:57,680
that was filled with spirits. Come around at night. They

913
01:10:57,720 --> 01:10:58,720
seem a little.

914
01:11:00,039 --> 01:11:17,119
Speaker 17: A little spooky.

915
01:11:18,319 --> 01:11:22,520
Speaker 1: The original Rapanui islanders lived in complete isolation from the

916
01:11:22,560 --> 01:11:26,800
rest of the world until Easter Sunday seventeen twenty two,

917
01:11:27,039 --> 01:11:30,760
when a Dutch navigator yakup Roe Vane, landed on the

918
01:11:30,840 --> 01:11:38,199
shores and named the place Easter Island. These explorers marveled

919
01:11:38,199 --> 01:11:41,359
at the statues, but if they did discover anything of

920
01:11:41,399 --> 01:11:48,159
their purpose, nothing was recorded. For posterity. After the break

921
01:11:48,680 --> 01:11:56,520
we revealed a disaster that struck Easter Island. As recently

922
01:11:56,520 --> 01:12:00,800
as twenty five years ago, archaeologists made an intriguing new

923
01:12:00,840 --> 01:12:06,399
discovery about the Easter Island statues. Some of the figures

924
01:12:06,439 --> 01:12:09,199
would originally have had eyes made of coral.

925
01:12:10,319 --> 01:12:13,039
Speaker 19: We have learned for the first time that the stone

926
01:12:13,119 --> 01:12:17,000
carving on Easter Islands have carried inlaid eyes once they

927
01:12:17,039 --> 01:12:21,039
are placed on the platforms, and that is true throughout

928
01:12:21,079 --> 01:12:24,880
the entire islands. Although fragments of coral has been fined

929
01:12:24,920 --> 01:12:28,720
before by colleagues and even almost the whole eyes, we

930
01:12:28,840 --> 01:12:33,119
did not discover that these are eyes of status until

931
01:12:33,239 --> 01:12:34,399
nineteen seventy eight.

932
01:12:41,439 --> 01:12:44,319
Speaker 1: The most enduring mystery that has yet to be solved

933
01:12:44,880 --> 01:12:48,439
is how these huge statues were transported to their specially

934
01:12:48,479 --> 01:12:52,520
prepared platforms. It's believed that some of the smaller ones

935
01:12:52,600 --> 01:12:55,319
might have been rolled on logs, but this would have

936
01:12:55,359 --> 01:12:58,920
been impossible for the largest statues that can weigh anything

937
01:12:59,000 --> 01:12:59,840
up to eighty two.

938
01:13:01,479 --> 01:13:04,319
Speaker 3: Once you get up into these large size statues, there's

939
01:13:04,359 --> 01:13:08,720
a whole other series of problems that come up proportionate

940
01:13:08,800 --> 01:13:12,079
to their size increase, and there has been speculation on

941
01:13:12,159 --> 01:13:14,399
the part of some that perhaps they were in fact

942
01:13:14,560 --> 01:13:18,680
manipulated upright over this terrain and out along the roads.

943
01:13:19,560 --> 01:13:21,920
It hasn't been demonstrated yet that that could have been

944
01:13:21,960 --> 01:13:25,039
done here, but it's open to consideration.

945
01:13:28,439 --> 01:13:32,520
Speaker 1: For hundreds of years, Easter Islands supported a thriving community,

946
01:13:32,680 --> 01:13:37,520
and the population increased to around ten thousand. The islanders

947
01:13:37,520 --> 01:13:42,000
built bigger and bigger statues, but then in the seventeenth

948
01:13:42,039 --> 01:13:52,199
century something went terribly wrong. The landscape is strewn with

949
01:13:52,359 --> 01:13:55,840
toppled abandoned statues, and many of them seem to have

950
01:13:55,840 --> 01:14:02,680
been deliberately decapitated. Why would the islanders suddenly turn against

951
01:14:02,680 --> 01:14:08,159
their sacred statues. Pollen analysis of samples taken from the

952
01:14:08,159 --> 01:14:11,720
bottom of this lake revealed that the island was once

953
01:14:11,880 --> 01:14:20,000
heavily forested with giant palm trees. Over the years, the

954
01:14:20,119 --> 01:14:24,039
islanders cut them down to provide housing, wood for fires,

955
01:14:24,079 --> 01:14:30,039
and logs for transporting the statues. They created an ecological disaster.

956
01:14:31,560 --> 01:14:35,760
As the forests disappeared, the land began to erode and

957
01:14:35,840 --> 01:14:37,359
their crops began to fail.

958
01:14:38,319 --> 01:14:42,479
Speaker 19: When that came then, the obvious consequence, among others was

959
01:14:42,720 --> 01:14:48,920
social conflicts, and societ conflict led to inter tribal fightings

960
01:14:49,279 --> 01:14:53,720
and eventually to a total social organization change. So within

961
01:14:53,880 --> 01:14:58,960
this social conflict, the monument were either abandoned or destroyed.

962
01:15:00,960 --> 01:15:03,640
Speaker 1: This was the end of the era of the statues.

963
01:15:06,600 --> 01:15:09,560
The survivors of the conflict had to find new ways

964
01:15:09,560 --> 01:15:13,760
of living on this desolate island. They couldn't escape because

965
01:15:13,800 --> 01:15:17,800
there was no wood to build boats, and there was

966
01:15:17,840 --> 01:15:20,640
worse to come when passing ships began to dock at

967
01:15:20,680 --> 01:15:26,399
Easter Island, Repeated raids by slave traders, and the introduction

968
01:15:26,520 --> 01:15:30,800
of unfamiliar infectious diseases almost wiped out the population.

969
01:15:33,199 --> 01:15:37,039
Speaker 19: We do know for fact that in eighteen seventy seven

970
01:15:37,680 --> 01:15:40,880
our population on this island was only one hundred and eleven.

971
01:15:42,000 --> 01:15:47,760
Almost two exterminations. We could have lost the entire human groups.

972
01:15:48,399 --> 01:15:55,399
That would be perhaps the saddest aspect of human history.

973
01:15:56,600 --> 01:15:59,920
Speaker 1: Now an x by Chile, the island has rebounded from

974
01:16:00,119 --> 01:16:03,960
near obscurity with its current population of more than three thousand.

975
01:16:08,680 --> 01:16:12,000
We still don't understand the original purpose of these statues,

976
01:16:12,520 --> 01:16:15,720
but today they provide an important source of income for

977
01:16:15,800 --> 01:16:23,279
the Rapanui. Tourists and archaeologists flocked to the island to

978
01:16:23,359 --> 01:16:38,720
wonder at these extraordinary legacies of the past. In the

979
01:16:38,840 --> 01:16:42,439
eighteenth century, the Spanish priest was sent by his bishop

980
01:16:42,520 --> 01:16:50,720
to explore the dense jungle of Central America, searching for

981
01:16:50,840 --> 01:16:55,079
new land to cultivate. He stumbled upon some hauntingly beautiful

982
01:16:55,159 --> 01:17:02,600
ruins rising spectacularly out of the forest. This was the

983
01:17:02,680 --> 01:17:23,520
lost city of Polenke. Lenk lies on the edge of

984
01:17:23,560 --> 01:17:35,479
the jungle in Chiappus, Mexico. Vast, mysterious and enchanting, this

985
01:17:35,600 --> 01:17:39,359
ruined city was originally constructed by a long lost Native

986
01:17:39,359 --> 01:17:50,760
American civilization, the Maya. Two hundred and fifty years after

987
01:17:50,800 --> 01:17:55,119
it was first discovered, archaeologists are still unraveling the mystery

988
01:17:55,119 --> 01:17:57,960
of what happened to the Maya and why these ancient

989
01:17:58,000 --> 01:18:05,279
people abandoned their city. The ruins date back to before

990
01:18:05,359 --> 01:18:09,279
the seventh century, when the Maya civilization covered large areas

991
01:18:09,319 --> 01:18:16,439
of Central America. Chichanitza, at the tip of the Yukatam Peninsula,

992
01:18:16,560 --> 01:18:19,159
is one of the most famous of the excavated cities,

993
01:18:21,680 --> 01:18:25,479
but Polenke, nearly three hundred miles to the southwest, is

994
01:18:25,520 --> 01:18:30,600
even more impressive and intriguing. Many of the buildings on

995
01:18:30,640 --> 01:18:33,960
this sprawling site have still to be reclaimed from the jungle.

996
01:18:37,640 --> 01:18:41,520
Julian Miller is one of an international team of archaeologists

997
01:18:41,600 --> 01:18:44,359
who's been unearthing the secrets of this ancient city.

998
01:18:45,279 --> 01:18:47,960
Speaker 11: Kolenka is almost a magical place. It has a certain

999
01:18:48,199 --> 01:18:55,560
appeal that other sites don't. It's special between the buildings

1000
01:18:55,600 --> 01:18:58,199
and the woods that surround the buildings. It's just a

1001
01:18:58,199 --> 01:19:00,640
wonderful place to come and spend time and visit.

1002
01:19:05,199 --> 01:19:08,279
Speaker 1: More than a thousand tourists every day flock to this

1003
01:19:08,399 --> 01:19:12,920
lost city to admire the elaborate creations of the Maya

1004
01:19:14,520 --> 01:19:18,159
tur guide Moyess Morales shows many of them around the site.

1005
01:19:18,680 --> 01:19:23,640
Speaker 24: Balenka doesn't have beaches, Bananka doesn't have good hotels, Baloonque

1006
01:19:23,720 --> 01:19:28,199
doesn't have a niceiscaus. Balenka has nothing but the ruins

1007
01:19:28,640 --> 01:19:31,680
and the beautiful nature. So the people that comes to

1008
01:19:31,680 --> 01:19:35,199
Palenka they come for the culture of reason. So you

1009
01:19:35,279 --> 01:19:38,720
see the best people of the world visiting Palink and

1010
01:19:38,800 --> 01:19:41,399
that's a real privilege.

1011
01:19:42,800 --> 01:19:46,199
Speaker 1: Originally, this city would have supported a population of fifteen

1012
01:19:46,279 --> 01:19:53,399
to twenty thousand people. Their wooden houses are long gone,

1013
01:19:53,800 --> 01:19:57,520
but the palaces and temples built from limestone have survived

1014
01:19:57,520 --> 01:20:05,640
the passage of time. The most spectacular building at Peleenke

1015
01:20:05,880 --> 01:20:09,920
is the Royal Palace. It was built over several generations

1016
01:20:10,000 --> 01:20:13,239
as successive ruling kings added their embellishments.

1017
01:20:14,399 --> 01:20:17,119
Speaker 24: This is a paradise in the sense that the monuments

1018
01:20:17,159 --> 01:20:20,720
are among the most important ones in the world. So

1019
01:20:20,840 --> 01:20:24,960
the Maya culture is one of the ten very important cultures,

1020
01:20:25,119 --> 01:20:26,359
So what else do you want?

1021
01:20:30,760 --> 01:20:34,000
Speaker 1: The Maya culture was very complex. They had their own

1022
01:20:34,039 --> 01:20:38,159
form of writing, the Central American equivalent of Egyptian hieroglyphics,

1023
01:20:38,520 --> 01:20:42,600
which has still not been fully deciphered even today, and

1024
01:20:42,640 --> 01:20:46,680
they had an obsession with blood ritual bloodletting was a

1025
01:20:46,720 --> 01:20:51,119
major part of any important event. Human sacrifice was often

1026
01:20:51,119 --> 01:21:00,880
the climax of religious celebrations and sporting events. Coming up,

1027
01:21:00,920 --> 01:21:10,199
we descend to a subterranean world of the dead. Over

1028
01:21:10,239 --> 01:21:12,920
the last fifty years, there have been a series of

1029
01:21:13,000 --> 01:21:18,720
dramatic discoveries in the ancient Maya city of Helenke in Mexico.

1030
01:21:23,159 --> 01:21:26,399
One of the most impressive was at the Temple of Inscriptions,

1031
01:21:26,920 --> 01:21:33,279
an eighty five foot high eight stepped pyramid. In nineteen

1032
01:21:33,399 --> 01:21:39,159
fifty two, a Mexican archeologist, Alberto ruz Lulia set about

1033
01:21:39,199 --> 01:21:43,199
reclaiming this stone monument from the jungle undergrowth. At the

1034
01:21:43,239 --> 01:21:46,159
base of the pyramid, he discovered an entrance to a

1035
01:21:46,319 --> 01:21:50,199
dank and eerie staircase blocked by tons of debris.

1036
01:21:55,359 --> 01:21:55,760
Speaker 13: Royalty.

1037
01:21:58,479 --> 01:22:03,319
Speaker 1: After three seasons of intense excavation, he uncovered steps that

1038
01:22:03,439 --> 01:22:06,359
led eighty feet down into the heart of the pyramid.

1039
01:22:17,359 --> 01:22:20,800
At the very bottom was a vaulted burial chamber containing

1040
01:22:20,840 --> 01:22:32,039
an intricately carved stone sarcophagus. Inside was the skeleton of

1041
01:22:32,079 --> 01:22:36,600
Pakal Vautaan, one of the great ruling kings of the city.

1042
01:22:37,960 --> 01:22:41,159
His face was covered by a mosaic j death mask.

1043
01:22:43,000 --> 01:22:47,439
The carvings on the massive sarcophagus depict Pakal at the

1044
01:22:47,439 --> 01:22:51,359
moment of his death, falling into the underworld, symbolized by

1045
01:22:51,359 --> 01:22:52,560
a monster's jaws.

1046
01:22:55,680 --> 01:22:59,279
Speaker 24: The man that is veries here was the most important

1047
01:22:59,319 --> 01:23:03,199
person in the half of the war during his life.

1048
01:23:04,239 --> 01:23:08,000
When this man was alive the seventh century, there was

1049
01:23:08,079 --> 01:23:11,199
nothing in Europe, and there was nothing in the Pacific.

1050
01:23:11,560 --> 01:23:14,399
There was nothing in the American continent but the Maya

1051
01:23:15,119 --> 01:23:18,640
saw in the western ward. There is nothing more important

1052
01:23:18,720 --> 01:23:21,680
in the seventh and eighth century than the Maya culture.

1053
01:23:23,000 --> 01:23:26,079
Speaker 1: This was the very first pyramid tomb ever discovered in

1054
01:23:26,119 --> 01:23:30,079
the Americas and is still the most important and impressive

1055
01:23:34,600 --> 01:23:38,000
here at Polenke. There are more than a thousand buildings

1056
01:23:38,039 --> 01:23:42,399
still to be reclaimed from the jungle, but by the

1057
01:23:42,479 --> 01:23:45,840
laws of Mexico, you're not allowed to excavate a building

1058
01:23:46,239 --> 01:24:00,000
unless you intend to restore it. For Mexican archaeologist Alfonso Morales,

1059
01:24:00,359 --> 01:24:02,039
it's a time consuming process.

1060
01:24:02,840 --> 01:24:06,359
Speaker 7: The restoration is very slow, it's very tedious, it is

1061
01:24:06,439 --> 01:24:09,840
very expensive. We can tell that fifty structures had been

1062
01:24:10,000 --> 01:24:13,039
uncovered in two hundred years. It will multiply by the

1063
01:24:13,119 --> 01:24:15,600
non number of structures. It will take us three thousand,

1064
01:24:15,600 --> 01:24:17,479
six hundred years to do the side of Polinka.

1065
01:24:19,199 --> 01:24:23,039
Speaker 1: One of the latest projects involves restoring a pyramid that's

1066
01:24:23,079 --> 01:24:28,079
become overgrown by trees. The Maya had ingeniously covered a

1067
01:24:28,159 --> 01:24:32,039
natural hill with limestone blocks and built a temple on top.

1068
01:24:34,760 --> 01:24:37,439
When Julia Miller and her team surveyed the site with

1069
01:24:37,560 --> 01:24:41,960
ground penetrating radar, it revealed a tomb hidden fifteen feet

1070
01:24:42,039 --> 01:24:49,880
beneath the temple. To investigate further, they dug and exploratory.

1071
01:24:49,119 --> 01:24:52,279
Speaker 11: Pits about the before.

1072
01:24:54,239 --> 01:25:00,720
Speaker 1: Dusting at the bottom of the pit. They located the

1073
01:25:00,720 --> 01:25:03,680
corner of the tomb and the archaeologist. We're able to

1074
01:25:03,760 --> 01:25:07,000
insert a video camera by digging out a small hole.

1075
01:25:12,119 --> 01:25:14,479
Speaker 11: It's looking towards the northwest corner. Right now, it's at

1076
01:25:14,479 --> 01:25:19,000
the roof. I can see the doors at the southern

1077
01:25:19,079 --> 01:25:19,680
end of the tomb.

1078
01:25:20,560 --> 01:25:20,920
Speaker 5: How's that?

1079
01:25:21,479 --> 01:25:24,840
Speaker 11: I think, Yeah, that's a little bit better. And if

1080
01:25:24,840 --> 01:25:28,119
you can turn it there we go. Okay. I can

1081
01:25:28,159 --> 01:25:30,920
see four pots. I can see some jade beads that

1082
01:25:30,920 --> 01:25:34,039
are on the floor. There's a lot of debris that's

1083
01:25:34,079 --> 01:25:37,600
fallen onto the floor. It looks like the debris from

1084
01:25:37,760 --> 01:25:43,640
the walls. It is really exciting because most tombs have

1085
01:25:43,800 --> 01:25:47,439
something of pottery. They'll have jade, they'll have shell, they'll

1086
01:25:47,439 --> 01:25:49,840
have lots of different kinds of artifacts. But this tomb

1087
01:25:49,880 --> 01:25:52,359
is really special because it has mural paintings.

1088
01:25:51,960 --> 01:25:53,000
Speaker 17: On the walls.

1089
01:25:53,880 --> 01:25:55,680
Speaker 11: Yeah. Now you can see one of the figures on

1090
01:25:55,720 --> 01:25:58,720
the west side of the tomb. It's a man who's

1091
01:25:58,760 --> 01:26:01,920
wearing an elaborate head dress with lots of feathers on it,

1092
01:26:02,119 --> 01:26:05,239
and he's got a necklace, probably with jade beads, and

1093
01:26:05,239 --> 01:26:07,079
he's wearing a kilt.

1094
01:26:08,399 --> 01:26:12,039
Speaker 1: The Maya didn't mummify their dead, so the body in

1095
01:26:12,079 --> 01:26:14,319
the tomb has long since decomposed.

1096
01:26:15,319 --> 01:26:17,680
Speaker 11: We don't know whose tomb it was. At this point.

1097
01:26:17,720 --> 01:26:21,000
We can't see any hieroglyphic writing on the walls or

1098
01:26:21,039 --> 01:26:23,520
on any of the ceramic vessels. I see what I

1099
01:26:23,560 --> 01:26:25,319
think I can still see is but the shape of

1100
01:26:25,319 --> 01:26:29,000
the ceramic pots tells us that the tomb came from

1101
01:26:29,039 --> 01:26:30,479
about five hundred and forty a d.

1102
01:26:34,079 --> 01:26:38,800
Speaker 1: Mysteriously, sometime during the eighth century, the Maya civilization at

1103
01:26:38,840 --> 01:26:46,880
Polink collapsed. Nobody really knows why. Ecological disaster, war and

1104
01:26:46,960 --> 01:26:54,319
famine are possible causes. But whatever the reason, these majestic

1105
01:26:54,399 --> 01:26:57,960
monuments were deserted and left to decay under a shroud

1106
01:26:58,000 --> 01:27:03,840
of tangled vines and foliage over a thousand years later.

1107
01:27:04,319 --> 01:27:07,800
Pilenk has a mystical charm that will enchant tourists and

1108
01:27:07,960 --> 01:27:09,359
archaeologists forever.

1109
01:27:11,720 --> 01:27:13,760
Speaker 11: When Pelenki empties out at the end of the day

1110
01:27:13,960 --> 01:27:17,159
and the sun is setting in the west, it's just

1111
01:27:18,279 --> 01:27:22,399
a beautiful, beautiful place. The monkey start howling, the birds

1112
01:27:22,399 --> 01:27:26,840
start singing, and you just want to sit and soak

1113
01:27:26,880 --> 01:27:27,880
in the atmosphere.

1114
01:27:34,600 --> 01:27:37,840
Speaker 1: Around the globe, there is a rich heritage of magnificent

1115
01:27:38,000 --> 01:27:45,720
monuments left behind by our ancient ancestors. These amazing feats

1116
01:27:45,720 --> 01:27:50,079
of engineering have survived the ravages of time and outlasted

1117
01:27:50,359 --> 01:27:57,319
entire civilizations. They stand as a testimony to the triumph

1118
01:27:57,600 --> 01:27:58,840
of human endeavor.

1119
01:28:04,680 --> 01:28:22,680
Speaker 15: Stiddy sim evitevisivis