The Aztecs reign over Mesoamerica as the last great culture before the Spanish conquest. As they venture south, a group of warriors finds Giant pyramids, the remains of an enormous ancient city completely abandoned. They call it “Teotihuacan,” the City of the Gods. Who built this magnificent city? Mexican archaeologist Sergio Gomez Chavez is about […]
Countless figures and symbols have been engraved into the monolith since the Itacoatiara culture existed in Rio Paraíba. At an early stage local archaeologists noticed that many of the petroglyphs on the Rock of the Ingá displayed similarities with writing from the Old World in classical times. Carthage’s Lost Warriors premieres Wednesday, April 2 at […]
150 years ago, malaria was a mystery to doctors in Africa and the west. On earlier expeditions, when Livingstone travelled along these same river banks, he recorded suffering from malaria dozens of times. Livingstone develops his own medicine and pioneered a systematic dosage to keep him alive. The main ingredient was quinine, found in the bark of the South American cinchona tree. Branded back home as the ‘Livingstone Rouser’ – it was marketed and sold for forty years. It would protect British soldiers, colonialists and merchants from malaria and allow them to build the largest empire of the age. Livingstone’s creation became known as ‘Rousers’ as they “roused” a patient from a debilitating fever.
Livingstone charted large parts of the continent previously unseen by European eyes. Where there was once a blank space, he filled in the map of Africa. One of Livingstone’s most famous discoveries was the Victoria Falls on the Zambesi River.
In 2009, a team of marine archaeologists carrying out a sonar survey of the seabed around the Italian island of Ventotene made an astonishing discovery. The wrecks of five ancient Roman ships were found in pristine condition. Remarkably, much of the cargo remained exactly as the ancient Roman crews had loaded it, suggesting that these […]
Beginning in the 1950s, American and Soviet scientists embarked on a perilous race to see who could build and detonate the world’s largest bomb. The results exceeded all expectations about how big a bomb could be built. Initially, the Americans led the way, but then left the field clear for the Soviet Union to break […]
The life-sized terracotta warriors of China are known throughout the world. This clay army of 8,000 including infantry, archers, generals and cavalry was discovered by archaeologists in 1974 after farmers digging a well near the Chinese city of Xian unearthed pieces of clay sculpted in human form. An amazing archaeological find, the terracotta warriors date […]
On April 20, 1925, Colonel Percy Fawcett, his elder son Jack Fawcett and Jack’s lifelong friend, Raleigh Rimmell, departed from Cuiabá, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, to find “Z” – Col. Fawcett’s name for what he believed to be an ancient city lost in the uncharted jungles of Brazil. The […]
When the Meermin set sail from Madagascar for South Africa on a hot summer’s day in 1766, the Dutch crew had no idea they were about to make history. The ship was filled to capacity with human cargo, slaves bound for hard labor building the Dutch East India Company’s colony at Cape Town. But the […]
Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was the largest troop offensive in military history. And the Battle of Stalingrad is arguably the deadliest single battle the world has ever seen. The eventual Russian victory has long been lauded as a shining example of Stalin’s military genius. He is said to have baited a […]