Summary: Setting out from the ancient Red Sea port of Aqaba, this program travels to Petra, a pivotal trading center that sat astride the caravan route from Arabia to points north. An arid place of monumental structures carved into the colorful sandstone mountains, the Nabatean capital is also the site of innovative storm water management and water conservation systems. A low-altitude flight over the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: On the plains of Beqaa, on the site of the Phoenician city of Baalbek, stands what is arguably the world's most impressive testament to Imperial Roman architecture: the gigantic temple complex dedicated to Jupiter, Venus, and Bacchus. Its six-story columns are the tallest ever erected, and its stones-some weighing nearly a thousand tons-are the largest ever used. In this program, architect...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Using 3-D computer re-creations of Stonehenge during its three phases of construction, archival film and photos of archaeological excavations, and artwork, this program traces the long history of Britain's most famous Neolithic landmark. Archaeologists Geoffrey Wainwright, Dave Batchelor, and Gillian Swanton and authors Rosamund Cleal, Clive Ruggles, Christopher Chippindale, and Mike Pitts...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Transjordan-the Oultrejordain of Crusader times, known to the ancients as Edom and Moab-is steeped in biblical history. In this program, archaeologists Fawzi Zayadine, Mohammed Waheeb, and Carmelo Pappalardo attempt to match up biblical events with the terrain where it is said that they occurred. The refuge of Lot, the trail of the Exodus, the place of Jesus' baptism, Moses' vantage point on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: When Dutch sailors landed on Easter Island, they found a warlike people recovering from anarchy and cannibalism. What had gone wrong with a civilization that had lived in peace for nearly a thousand years? In this program, Claudio Cristino, the island's resident archaeologist; William Liller, of the Easter Island Foundation; Patricia Vargas Casanova, of the Easter Island Studies Institute at...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Reputedly the first great city of the Western hemisphere, Teotihuacan, the City of the Gods, is also one of the most mysterious. Who lived there? What were its inhabitants like? And why did their culture collapse? In this program, archaeologist Ruben Cabrera Castro, co-director of the site, leads the way down the Avenue of the Dead-and inside both the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Recent research at the 12th-century Frankish castles of Shobak and Kerak in what was called Transjordan provides valuable insights into life and death in the Holy Land during the time period of the Crusades. In this program, historian Cedric Devais, of the French Institute of the Near East-Amman, and history guide Mustapha Kiwan talk about prior archaeological missions to the region, structural...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: How much truth is there in the Old Testament account of Noah? Enhanced by satellite imagery, declassified intelligence photos, archival footage, and artwork, this program considers the scientific plausibility of the Noah story. Experts including Porcher Taylor III; archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert, of the University of Pennsylvania; linguist Peter Machinist, of Harvard Divinity School; geologist...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Hatshepsut, Egypt's only female pharaoh, was said to be a ruler with two faces: one political, the other artistic. This program tours her architectural masterpiece, the terraced and rock-cut temple at Deir el-Bahri that her people called djeser-djeseru, "sacred of sacreds." Numerous paintings adorning the interior chronicle her achievements and peace-loving enterprises, and a computer-generated...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program uses footage of the caverns beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other sacred sites, artwork, and expert commentary to analyze the historicity of Jesus' last days, the political context of 1st-century Jerusalem, and the emergence of Christianity as an institution. Jesus' execution, burial of the dead in Jewish tradition, the significance of Jesus' tomb, and two millennia of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005