Seven Wonders of Ancient

Able to inspire wonder and awe in all who gazed upon them, The Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome - the Pantheon, the Aqueducts of Rome, the Via Appia, the Baths of Caracalla, Trajan's Markets, Circus Maximus and the Colosseum - were the works of great men who translated fantastic visions into the epitome of human achievement. These visionaries included ambitious Emperors like Hadrian and engineers with revolutionary ideas such as Apollodorus. By the second century AD, Rome had become the 'caput mundi' - the head of the world.

Greece, a land of breathtaking beauty and light. A land where science, art and inspiration from the gods combined to produce some of the world's greatest marvels of architecture and design. The ancient Greeks used buildings and structures to reflect the variety of life at the core of their civilisation - they built the first theatres, staged the first sports events and worshipped in some of the most spectacular temples ever built. From prehistoric palaces to bold symbols of victory this programme explores the Seven Ancient Wonders of Greece - the Theatre of Epidaurus, Olympia, Delphi, the Colossus of Rhodes, Santorini, The Palace of Knossos and the greatest masterpiece of them all - The Parthenon.

At the dawn of history, the ancient Egyptians showed the world how to build the impossible… In an age before machines, when copper was the strongest metal yet discovered, great pharaohs like Khufu and Ramses II demonstrated how boundless ambition and vast quantities of human labour could transform rock and stone into some of the most incredible monuments ever created from carving out spectacular tombs in the Valley Of The Kings to the building of the iconic Great Pyramid.

America before Columbus was home to some of the greatest engineering marvels on the planet; special access to hi-tech archaeological digs reveals the secrets of ancient America's Seven Wonders as experts investigate their mysterious purposes.

Two statues, a temple, a hanging garden, two tombs and a lighthouse. This selection of monuments became known as "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World". There are probably few who could list them right away, are even fewer who know something about each of them or the reasons for which they were labeled as Wonders. Six of those seven were destroyed by forces of nature, or by human hand. Each episode in this series describes one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and we see besides the monuments themselves the people who designed and built them, with the vision to create something wonderful.

Mecca, the city that welcomes close to a quarter of a million pilgrims every fortnight, and the birthplace of Islam's founder. The Seven Wonders of the Muslim World meets the man who massages the weary feet of the faithful, the muezzin who makes the call to prayer and the head of the religious police. The programme also talks to the pilgrims as they arrive in Mecca, to help understand the thinking of modern Muslims and their deep connections with this holiest of Muslim shrines.

In this fascinating documentary, historian Bettany Hughes travels to the seven wonders of the Buddhist world and offers a unique insight into one of the most ancient belief systems still practised today. Buddhism began 2,500 years ago when one man had an amazing internal revelation underneath a peepul tree in India.

Cutting-edge archaeological methods help experts unearth the dark secrets hidden at seven wonders of ancient Rome; what they find challenges everything we know about this once-mighty empire.

Investigators use cutting-edge tech to explore seven ancient pyramids from around the world; as experts explore their lost labyrinths and alien relics, they discover unexplained connections between cultures thousands of miles and years apart.