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Clash of the Gods: Odysseus I

   2009    History
Homer's The Odyssey ranks amongst the most famous epics ever written. Follow its archetypal hero, Odysseus, as he sets sail on a twenty-year journey to return home from battle to reclaim his wife and kingdom. It's a timeless tale of adventure, filled with mythological beasts, vengeful gods, and enchanting seductresses. But could it have actually happened? Underwater divers have uncovered remains that date back thousands of years and may be a direct link to the story of Odysseus.
Series: Clash of the Gods

Hagia Sophia: Istanbuls Ancient Mystery

   2015    History
Whether serving as Christian church, Islamic mosque, or secular museum, Hagia Sophia and its soaring dome have inspired reverence and awe. For 800 years, it was the largest enclosed building in the world—the Statue of Liberty can fit beneath its dome with room to spare. How has it survived its location on one of the world's most active seismic faults, which has inflicted a dozen devastating earthquakes since it was built in 537?" As Istanbul braces for the next big quake, a team of architects and engineers is urgently investigating Hagia Sophia's seismic secrets. Follow engineers as they build a massive 8-ton model of the building's core structure, place it on a motorized shake table, and hit it with a series of simulated quakes, pushing it collapse—a fate that the team is determined to avoid with the real building

Wild Wild Country Part Two

   2018    Culture
Ma Anand Sheela and several other followers recount their experiences of moving to the ranch and the hostility from the residents of the city of Antelope. With the help of architects, engineers, city planners and commune residents, Rajneeshees construct a town called Rajneeshpuram. The commune decides to become self-governing which would allow them to issue their own building permits and have separate law enforcement.
Locals describe their mistrust towards Bhagwan. The American press begins to affiliate Rajneeshpuram with the Jonestown Massacre and paints Bhagwan as an antichrist. The group '1000 Friends of Oregon' initiates a court case to have the buildings of Rajneeshpuram destroyed. In response, Sheela begins buying up available properties in Antelope.
Series: Wild Wild Country

The Real Garden of Eden

   2011    Culture
Can we find the Garden of Eden? Bible scholar Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou thinks so. In the final episode of her series re-examining conventional readings of the Bible, she argues that the Garden of Eden has nothing to do with the origins of humanity, but is rather a story concealing dramatic events about a particular figure in a particular place, two and half thousand years ago. Marshalling compelling evidence from archaeology, Islam and the Bible text itself, she identifies and visits the exact site of Eden. It's a revolutionary theory which challenges some of the most cherished preconceptions about Eden in both Christianity and western culture.
Series: Bible's Buried Secrets

The Awakening: 1975

   2020    Culture
The series is a thorough examination of the infamous UFO cult through the eyes of its former members and loved ones. What started in 1975 with the disappearance of 20 people from a small town in Oregon, ended in 1997 with the largest suicide on US soil and changed the face of modern new age religion forever.
In the first episode, Bonnie Nettles and Marshall Applewhite begin to recruit individuals interested in end-of-the-world Christianity, new age religion, and UFOs - but the disappearance of new members soon drives media attention and family concerns.
Series: Heavens Gate

Catholicism The unpredictable rise of Rome

   2011    Culture
Over one billion Christians look to Rome, more than half of all Christians on the planet. But how did a small Jewish sect from the backwoods of 1st-century Palestine, which preached humility and the virtue of poverty, become the established religion of western Europe - wealthy, powerful and expecting unfailing obedience from the faithful? Amongst the surprising revelations, Professor MacCulloch tells how confession was invented by monks on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, and how the Crusades gave Britain the university system. Above all, it is a story of what can be achieved when you have friends in high places.
Series: A History of Christianity