The ancient Olympic Games were founded in western Greece in 776BC and lasted for over a thousand years. In this episode we visit the site of the games at Olympia, exploring the athlete’s village and sporting venues, together with the religious structures dedicated to Zeus and Hera.
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West Kennet Long Barrow, in Wiltshire, England is one of the oldest structures in the British Isles being over 5,500 years old. A chambered tomb, it was the last resting place of 46 neolithic people, and may have been used in religious ritual performances. Today we explore this site an...
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RAF Greenham Common was, for fifty years, home to several USAF units. At the height of the Cold War, Greenham became the base for a substantial quantity of nuclear weapons - 100 ground-launched cruise missiles. With the end of the Cold War, and the US-USSR Nuclear Forces Treaty, the missiles wer...
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In this episode, we explore the English Civil War, looking at the origins and outcomes of what is probably the costliest war of Britain’s history. We also look at the site of just one of the many battles which occurred during the campaign - that of the second Battle of Newbury at Donnington Castle.
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The Queen’s Hamlet at the Petit Trianon in Versailles, is a remarkable collection of 'rustic' buildings created as an escape from courtly life for Marie Antoinette - Louis XVI's Queen. The hamlet began life in the Summer of 1783, clustered around a small lake, and was intended to resemble a pict...
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Stonehenge - perhaps the most enigmatic of all ancient monuments. In April 2008, a new archaeological excavation was mounted to investigate the origins of some of the most ancient of the megaliths. Today’s film looks at some of these 'bluestones' and watches the archaeologists at work.
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In AD117, Hadrian was proclaimed Emperor of Rome. As one of its greatest emperors, he set about stabilizing the Empire and bringing order to its provinces, but in addition to his military acheivements, he was also a great polymath and a lover of culture. At Tivoli, near Rome, he set about buildi...
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In 1851, Prince Albert inaugurated a new form of exhibition - the World Fair. The first was The Great Exhibition held in Hyde Park, an event which catalysed this part of London and created a wealth of new cultural institutions.
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This week’s episode travels to the heart of the Aegean Sea and there, right at its centre, we find the island of Delos. Birthplace of the gods Apollo and Athena, Delos has been a place of veneration since the 4th millennium BC, and reached its zenith during the Classical and Hellenistic periods ...
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The Pont du Gard is a massively engineered Roman aquaduct lying to the north of the Provence town of Nimes. Its three storeys of arches carried water across the valley of the River Gard to the fountains and public supply of Nimes.
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Avebury "it does as much exceed in greatness the so renowned Stonehenge ... as a cathedral doeth a parish church". So wrote John Aubrey in 1663. Aubrey was one of the first antiquarians to systematically examine and document the huge Neolithic henge monument at Avebury in Wiltshire, England. In ...
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Thuburbo Maius is a remote, yet well preserved, Roman town in Tunisia, North Africa. Originally a Berber-Carthaginian settlement, it was re-founded as a veterans colony by the Emperor Augustus in 27BC and re-named Colonia Julia Aurelia Commoda. The town became wealthy due to its position guardin...
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