Lost Worlds

The Knights Templar defended the Holy Land through bloodshed and prayer. Founded in the 12th century these Christian warrior monks reigned supreme for nearly 200 years before suffering a spectacular fall from grace. Tried for heresy they were accused of practicing strange rituals such as spitting on the cross and worshipping a severed human head as well as perverse sexual acts. They were disbanded...and their Grand Master burned at the stake. Today books like the Da Vinci Code embellish the myth of the Templars...and claims persist that they were guardians of the most sacred object in Christendom - the Holy Grail. Behind the legend we search for the Lost World of the Templars. The program will recreate the city the Knights knew as Tortosa -- now hidden among modern homes in the Syrian city of Tartus. We will reveal the secrets of their headquarters at Temple Mount in Jerusalem, with their magnificent underground vaults that could stable 1000 horses. And we reveal the extraordinary circular church in London, England, built to resemble the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the site of the Templars' mysterious initiation rites. We bring to life the hilltop fortress that Lawrence of Arabia called "the finest castle in the world": Krak des Chevaliers. We will also return to the walled Mediterranean island where the Templars made their last stand against Moslem enemies. Using cutting edge graphics, our team of experts will reveal for the first time in 800 years the Lost World of the Knights Templar.

A team of field investigators uncovers the clues that will recreate vanished or hidden worlds. They use the latest research, expert analysis and cutting edge graphic technology to take us back. In the heart of the Mediterranean a peaceful island explodes with devastating force - it will be the biggest volcanic eruption in three and a half thousand years of recorded history. At a stroke, an entire civilization is wiped from the face of the earth and lost. All that remains are stories. Then, at the dawn of the twentieth century, the remains of a spectacular palace are discovered on the island of Crete, preserved beneath thousands of tons of volcanic ash. And out of the physical clues lifted from the ash, a radical theory emerges. These ruins could be the home of an ancient civilization: Atlantis. As they uncover a lost world, our investigators find that a palace on Crete and a town on Santorini are linked by the unique engineering of their buildings. Rebuilding incredible towns, temples, and the palace of Atlantis as described by Plato and uncovered by 21st century archaeologists, we reveal the majesty and the mystery of this lost world. The builders of this palace achieved a level of engineering excellence that would not be seen anywhere else in the world for centuries. With its massive scale, its complex water management systems, and its sparkling gypsum walls, the engineering of this extraordinary palace connects it to Plato's descriptions of Atlantis.

The mighty Egyptian civilization is in its golden age. Its ruler is Ramses II, a man who intends to be the greatest of the Pharaohs. He will make his mark by building: vast statues; towering obelisks; temples carved from the living rock. Ramses is a giant of a man: he dominates his kingdom for sixty-seven years, pushing it on to ever greater glory. The ruins of what he built still stand, but thirty-three centuries on; with the aid of new research and cutting edge graphics technology, the true scale of his ambition can now be fully revealed. We reconstruct the grand hypostyle hall at Karnak; explore the technical innovation and engineering skill that produced the temple at Abu Simbel; we rebuild the Ramesseum as he would have seen it, and uncover how the extraordinary tomb that Ramses built for himself would have looked when his body was finally laid there.

A team of field investigators uncovers the clues that will recreate vanished or hidden worlds. They use the latest research, expert analysis and cutting edge graphic technology to take us back. In the 5th century BC, one man leads his city to greatness and paves the way for western civilization. The city is Athens and Pericles is not a King or prince, but an elected man. He will mastermind the most costly and ambitious construction campaign undertaken in the western world -- creating a model city of temples, houses, market places, civic buildings and a highly innovative sanitation system. But Pericles' decision to raid the Greek treasury and take the money set aside to defend all the city states will lead to the downfall of Athens and Pericles himself. It took thirty years to build, but it was brought down in one generation by war and disease. Now, two and half thousand years later we restore Athens to its former glory, we experience impregnable fortifications; the first senate house; the terrifying power of the Greek Navy; and one of the most advanced water systems in the world. We also reveal as it looked two and a half thousand years ago, the unrivalled magnificence of the Parthenon -- a building often hailed as the most perfect building ever completed.

A team of field investigators uncovers the clues that will recreate vanished or hidden worlds. They use the latest research, expert analysis and cutting edge graphic technology to take us back. In 1939 a group of scientists -- Albert Einstein among them - warned President Roosevelt, of the possibility that Hitler's Germany might be close to producing an atomic bomb. Roosevelt issued an order -- whatever it takes, the US has to be the first to develop an atomic bomb. And within three years they were well on their way to creating a hidden world of secret cities and classified nuclear facilities, built inside America. 400,000 people were part of it -- though only a handful really knew the truth. Six decades later, a team of experts return to the once-classified sites where the course of history was decided. In top secret cities and nuclear facilities, they uncover and rebuild this lost world. Requiring half a million acres of land, billions of dollars and the construction of the largest building in the world, three top secret cities were built in isolated parts of Tennessee, New Mexico and Washington State. This was to be the most costly and most labor intensive engineering program ever undertaken. Using eyewitness testimony and cutting edge graphic technology, we recreate the secret world of the Manhattan Project today.

A team of field investigators uncovers the clues that will recreate vanished or hidden worlds. They use the latest research, expert analysis and cutting edge graphic technology to take us back. Adolf Hitler caused more death and destruction than any other individual in history. But he also had plans to build on a massive scale: to construct a new Germany, based on his Nazi ideology, and place his people's achievements on a par with the great civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome. Our investigators piece together a picture of how Hitler wanted Germany to look from the ruins of what was built, and from the never-implemented plans of his architect, Albert Speer. In the Nazi heartland of Nuremberg, we recreate the spectacle of the Zeppelin Tribune: where 60,000 people could overlook a parade ground begin enough to accommodate one million. We reveal the real purpose of the giant stadia Speer planned to hold the Olympic games -- including, with seating for 405,000 people, the largest sports venue in the world. And we rebuild, with computer-generated images based on Speers own plans, the enormous monuments that Hitler planned for himself: the Triumphal Arch -- twice the height, and four times the width of Paris' Arc de Triomphe, and the People's Hall -- a domed structure, so big that the Eiffel tower could fit inside it. Monstrous, intimidating, built on slave labor: this is a Lost World, that if World War II had gone differently, we would now inhabit.