Over thirty years ago, on a plain in the eastern suburbs of Changsha, Hunan Province, stood two peculiar mounds rising from the fields like horse saddles. Locals called them "Mawangdui," rumored to be the tombs of a noble family from the 9th century. In the 1970s, an accidental discovery revealed a miraculously preserved female corpse dating back over a thousand years to the world.
The Maya Civilization has baffled historians for centuries with its unprecedented prowess in Math, Astronomy, and Engineering. All that was left of the Maya seemed to only be the ruins of giant pyramids, but the most recent discoveries from archaeological excavations reveal much more: lost citadels in the Guatemalan jungle found around Tikal, a sacred cenote at Chichen Itza, and underground network of tunnels discovered at Teotihuacan. How were these ancient people able to build such structure, and what was their purpose? With the development and implication of new technologies (Lidar system and electrical resistivity tomography), we will try to answer the questions raised by these megastructures of stone. Through detailed CGI reconstitution, this series brings to life the Maya people, their gods, and the long lost secrets of their way of life.
Exposing the world's most conniving, creative, and criminally adept con men, Serial Swindlers goes inside their minds. While their crimes and exploits are a ready-made Hollywood script, their escapades have left a trail of heartache, poverty and destruction. Ordinary criminal minds they are not.
Craig Charles, the BBC 6 Music Radio DJ, star of Red Dwarf and Coronation Street, hosts the show alongside world renowned space journalist astrophysicist, and award-winning author Sarah Cruddas. Craig Charles: UFO Conspiracies follows sci-fi favourite and long-time UFO enthusiast Craig and astrophysicist Sarah as they scrutinise compelling evidence relating to some of the most perplexing UFO encounters of recent years, revealing never before heard testimony to separate fact from fiction and ask: are the unexplained aerial phenomena prowling our skies extra-terrestrial?
Route 66 was decommissioned as an official American Highway some time ago but try telling that to Henry Cole. Six years after his previous pilgrimage, Henry fires up the beast and feels the pull of a fresh adventure on 'The Mother Road'. The 90 degree heat, 100% humidity and torrential rain turn out to be the least of his problems. The real ones come in the shape of the UFO Hunters, real gun slingers, eccentric millionaires and other frightening bikers Henry meets as he traverses the 2500 mile route. Is the myth growing more magical or is it fading into folklore? You can trust Henry to tell you straight as he gets his kicks on Route 66.
Following the night shift of Gloucestershire Constabulary, revealing the relentless and uphill fight against night-time crime. As darkness falls across the county, officers face incidents with more drink, drugs and violence than during the day.
A Thousand and One Nights: The well-known folk tales from the Orient are passed on from generation to generation. Adventurers fire our imaginations. Expeditions give us a glimpse. There is no other landscape that is so barren and at the same time so filled with mysteries. Our films will unveil some of these secrets and tell stories about landscape and people in the desert today.
Photographer will tell the intensely personal stories of the world’s greatest visual storytellers and artists, from how they found themselves behind a camera to how they dedicate themselves to the endless pursuit of perfecting their craft.
Cruising Santa Cruz's ocean highways, Edmund Kemper appears to be a 6'9" gentle giant who offers hundreds of young female hitchhikers a ride. But behind his charming smile and signature gold-rimmed glasses lurks a brutal and perverted monster. In 1973, while awaiting trial, Kemper was interviewed by psychiatrist Dr. Donald Lunde. Lunde records Kemper's detailed confession on audiotape. For 50 years these tapes were locked away and forgotten, but now they are public for the first time and reveal a tormented childhood, dark sexual fantasies, and a thirst for revenge on the person he despises most, his own mother.