In Search of History Season 1, Episode 19: The Aztec Empire

The Trojan City

In the more than 3,000 years since Troy's fabled fall, its mysteries have yet to be unraveled. The legends of the Trojan Horse, Helen of Troy and Achilles have fueled some of archaeology's most celebrated expeditions, yet continue to baffle scholars and ignite controversy. THE TROJAN CITY is an exhaustive exploration of the legendary city. Travel to the site of Troy in modern-day Turkey and visit with the scientists and archaeologists who are probing its secrets. Search for answers to the central questions of this eternal mystery: Did the Trojan War really occur? Was the abduction of Helen its cause? And what do we know of Homer, the poet whose Iliad immortalized Troy's contentious history? The astonishing findings add a new and intriguing chapter to this legendary story!

45 min

A Deadly Deception

It's a spin volume mysteriously titled the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, and it is arguably one of the most influential works of the 20th Century. Henry Ford believed it was a wakeup call for America. Winston Churchill was once convinced it was true. And the Nazi's used it as a warrant for geocide. This is a story of the hoax that will not die. It has fooled millions of people all over the world for more than a century, and continues to be a powerful force of evil and hate.

45 min

Civil War Draft Riots

The year 1863, the President was Abraham Lincoln, a new law calling for more troops on the front lines came to pass and civil discontent was about to erupt in the worst violence our nation had ever seen. Soon there would be blood in the streets - the New York City Draft Riots of 1863. In the wake of the first federal draft in U.S.. history, the city exploded...and for a week it was chaos.

45 min

The Knights of Camelot

In Search of History looks the historical influences that shaped the story of King Arthur and the Knights of Camelot.

45 min

England's Lost Castles

Lost City of the Incas

The spectacular Incan city of Machu Picchu, high in the Andes Mountains, was long thought to be legendary. Then in 1911, the intrepid explorer Hiram Bingham stumbled upon its remains. But while the walls and chambers have been extensively studied in the years since, the purpose of this ancient site remains unclear. Go to the top of the world to unravel the mysteries of this enigmatic place. See incredible footage of the earliest expeditions to Machu Picchu, and meet the men and women who have dedicated their lives to unearthing its secrets. Wander through the incredible ruins and feel the eerie presence of the past and the timeless secrets that are locked somewhere within. Was it a pleasure palace, an observatory, a fortress or something else entirely?

45 min

Forgotten City of the Jungle

Pyramids of Giza

The Missing Princes of England

London, 1483. The War of the Roses rages, threatening the throne. Newly orphaned Edward V and his younger brother, placed in the care of their uncle, are declared illegitimate. They then disappear, the bodies never found. Did Richard III have them murdered? Or was he the victim of a Tudor plot to claim the throne and discredit him?

45 min

The Roman Emperors

Frontier Doctors

For the vulnerable European settlers making their way west on the uncertain plains of the American frontier, the threat of death lurked around every twist of the trail. In the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, America's western lands were a place of both isolation and primitive conditions. At each step in the march westward, new settlers fought cunning and ubiquitous enemies in the form of deadly diseases and rampant epidemics. Where battle wounds, poor sanitation, and deadly animals were common, appropriate medical care was not. To survive in these harrowing conditions, the settlers had to find a doctor - or someone calling him or herself one. In this captivating program, The History Channel® journeys deep into the American frontier to discover the stories behind the pioneering men and women whose courage and heroism both helped to save lives and make medical history.

45 min

Man in the Iron Mask

Ancient Inventions

The Nazca lines in Peru stretch for miles, forming perfect images of animals visible only from the air. Immense and precise, the pyramids remain among mankind's greatest accomplishments, and experts still debate how they were built. Span the globe in this riveting look at the most incredible accomplishments of the ancient world achievements that rival and even surpass those of today. From the secret formula of Damascus steel which helped drive the Crusaders from the Holy Land to the "computer" from Ancient Greece, probe the origins of these incredible inventions. Take to the skies in a balloon made from a design 1,000 years old, and join scientists, engineers and historians as they probe the mysteries of ancient devices that cannot be replicated today!And examine the extraordinary innovations of Leonardo Da Vinci, whose drawings included designs for a tank, machine, gun, helicopter and parachute!

45 min

Devil's Island: Hell on Earth

Described as the "world"s most notorious penal colony" the tropical outpost established by the French government in 1852 (and used until 1945) was so inhospitable that half of the prisoners have died or gone insane.

45 min

Infamous Dreyfus Affair

On a cold Paris morning in January 1895, as 20,000 people shouted, "Death to the traitor, death to the Jew," French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus was publicly stripped of his rank for committing high treason. That the evidence against him was flimsy and fabricated did not matter; he was Jewish, and that alone was enough to sustain a gross miscarriage of justice that unraveled over a dozen years before his name was finally cleared. THE INFAMOUS DREYFUS AFFAIR details the travesty which exposed the ignorance and prejudice of a nation. See how high-ranking officers set up Dreyfus to take the blame for a critical security leak, and how others who questioned his guilt were silenced and even court-martialed.

45 min

The Holy Lance

A search for the lance that pierced the side of Christ.

45 min

Voodoo Secrets

Secrets of the Rosetta Stone

For hundreds of years, the glorious history of Ancient Egypt remained a mystery to the world, its secrets locked away in the baffling language of the hieroglyphs. But in 1799, French troops near the Egyptian town of Rosetta discovered an ancient basalt slab that would prove to be the key to unlocking Egypt's mysteries. Carved in 196 BC, the Rosetta stone bore a decree praising the Egyptian king Ptolemy V etched in hieroglyphs, demotic Egyptian and Greek. From the discovery and the long struggle to uncover the secrets of the ancient language to the birth of modern Egyptology, this is the fascinating saga of the Rosetta Stone. Trace the many failed attempts and dead-ends that stumped scholars. Leading experts tell the story of the brilliant, obsessed Jean Francois Champollion, who finally broke the code. And see how, within a few years, the secrets revealed because of the Rosetta Stone had transformed our understanding of the ancient world.

45 min

China's Forbidden City

Sultana: The Mississippi's Titanic

The Sultana explosion on April 27, 1865, is the deadliest maritime disaster in U.S. history, often called "The Mississippi's Titanic". Over 1,100 to 1,700 people died, mostly returning Union soldiers, when overloaded boilers exploded near Memphis, surpassing the Titanic's death toll. It was overshadowed at the time by the news of President Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, being killed.

42 min