Secrets of the Dead

Explore the charred remains of a 3,000-year old English settlement that’s shedding new light on the ancient history of the western world. Working in secret inside a quarry, experts have less than a year to save the site before the quarry drains.

A mining operation in Cerrejon, Northern Colombia, opened a window onto a previously unknown period of the earth’s history and a world teeming with giant creatures emerged. The biggest of all was Titanoboa a 43-foot snake, the largest that ever lived. But new discoveries in Cerrejon suggest that Titanoboa’s rule was challenged by a giant crocodilian.

Baiae... An ancient Roman city lost to the same volcanoes that entombed Pompeii. But unlike Pompeii, Baiae sits under water, in the Bay of Naples. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the city was an escape for Rome’s rich and powerful elite, a place where they were free of the social restrictions of Roman society. It was the Las Vegas of its day. Now, a team of archaeologists is mapping the underwater ruins and piecing together what life was like in this playground for the rich. There were vast villas, elaborate spas, and raucous parties on barges floating in the bay. No expense was spared to create a wonderland. Baiae was also the site of some of the most treacherous political dealings of ancient Rome with Emperor Nero and his enemies hatching deadly plots against each other. And then, the city sank into the ocean, to be forgotten in the annals of history until now. What made Baiae such a special place? And what happened to it?

Leonardo da Vinci is well known for his inventions as well as his art. But new evidence shows that many of his ideas were realized long before he sketched them out in his notebooks — some even 1700 years before him. Of these "inventions," Leonardo never affirmed that his projects came from his original ideas. Leonardo, The Man Who Saved Science features drawings of his most famous ideas and inventions, some of which trace their original creation to ancient Greece while others were a product of the scientific inventions of golden age of Islamic learning. This knowledge seemed to be lost in Europe during the Dark Ages until the Renaissance when Leonardo recovered it.

The Great Pyramid of Giza has fascinated people for centuries. In November 2017, the ScanPyramids research team announced they had made a historic discovery - using cutting-edge, non-invasive technology, they discovered several new cavities within the Great Pyramid. This is the biggest discovery to happen in the Pyramids in centuries.

Hannibal, one of history’s most famous generals, achieved what the Romans thought to be impossible. With a vast army of 30,000 troops, 15,000 horses and 37 war elephants, he crossed the mighty Alps in only 16 days to launch an attack on Rome from the north. For more than 2,000 years, nobody has been able to prove which of the four possible routes Hannibal took across the Alps, and no physical evidence of Hannibal’s army has ever been found…until now. In Secrets of the Dead: Hannibal in the Alps, a team of experts - explorers, archaeologists, and scientists - combine state-of-the-art technology, ancient texts, and a recreation of the route itself to prove conclusively where Hannibal’s army made it across the Alps - and exactly how he did it.