Digging For The Truth

The ancient Maya of Central America were the greatest pyramid builders of the ancient world. The Egyptians built fewer than a hundred pyramids; the Maya built thousands.

One of the Bible's most sacred treasures, the Ark of the Covenant, has tantalised adventurers for centuries. Can explorer Josh Bernstein discover its fate?

Josh Bernstein heads to the Alps in pursuit of the truth about our origins. What new clues can he glean from the 5,000-year-old corpse of the iceman?

Etched into the driest desert in the world, the mysterious lines and figures of Nasca in Southern Peru are invisible from the ground. In fact, these huge drawings were not discovered until the 1930s. Ever since, they have intrigued the world.

A comprehensive look at the competing theories as to who built the pyramids and when. Does the great pyramid of Khufu hold the answers?

Intrepid host Josh Bernstein goes in search of the legendary lost City of Gold. From the peaks of the Andes to the depths of the Amazon, can he find the truth?

Queen Nefertiti was once the most beautiful and powerful woman in Egypt - renowned in the ancient world. But she vanished without a trace, lost to the sands of Egypt for more than three thousand years.

In 79 AD, the mighty volcano Vesuvius exploded in one of the most deadly eruptions of all time, burying the city of Pompeii and other Roman towns along the Bay of Naples beneath layers of ash and pumice.

Host Josh Bernstein searches for the long-lost land of Ophir, home of King Solomon's vast treasures. But can he succeed where so many before him have failed?

In the 13th century, Anasazi Indians moved their villages to the perilous cliffs of Mesa Verde and then disappeared. Host Josh Bernstein investigates the mystery.

For five hundred years, explorers have been searching the Amazon for traces of its fabled lost cities...now Digging for the Truth has found the most famous of them all.

According to the Bible, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by God to punish them for their wicked ways. Is there evidence that such a thing actually happened?

The Iliad is one of the most famous literary works of the Western world. It's an epic tale of Greek gods, earthly soldiers, and a decade-long fight over the most beautiful woman in the world. But, could the Iliad be based on fact?

Josh Bernstein searches for evidence behind the controversial theory laid out in Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code. Brown's theory claims that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and that she conceived a child.

Many explorers throughout the centuries, including the great Ferdinand Magellan, visited the region in South America now known as Patagonia and reported sighting giants.

Thousands of years before the Inca ruled the nation now called Peru, a strange and unique civilisation dominated the region. It was called Chavin, and its story is one of the most bizarre in history.

According to the Bible, the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon's Palace bearing fabulous gifts, including one of the world's most valued substances, frankincense.

She ruled over men, bedding the likes of Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony, and led one of the greatest civilisations of the world. Her name has been immortalised in myth and legend. So, how did Cleopatra become the last of the pharaohs?

Stonehenge is one of the most famous and mysterious structures in the world. Now, host Josh Bernstein investigates the origins of Stonehenge and the pre-historic world that surrounded it.

In 1539, De Soto's Conquistadors landed in Florida in search of new lands and treasure for the Spanish Crown. Three years later, they were run off the continent by Native American warriors, who lived on enormous pyramids along the Mississippi River.

There was only one ancient city in the Americas that ever truly rivalled the size, scale and power of its Old World counterparts. Its name was Teotihuacan: the City of the Gods... and today it's the largest ghost town in the world.

In 1587, over 100 settlers landed in the New World to establish England's first permanent colony. Three years later, they had vanished. Josh Bernstein is on the trail of America's oldest missing persons case.

Did Viking explorers Erik the Red and Leif the Lucky make it all the way across the Atlantic to America 500 years before Columbus? Josh Bernstein sails a Viking ship from Denmark to discover what made the Vikings such masterful mariners.

Is Atlantis a myth, or is the story based in fact? Josh heads to the Mediterranean Sea in search of Atlantis, leading an exclusive boat expedition off the coast of Cyprus in search of the 'true' Atlantis.

In less than seventy years they created the largest land empire in recorded history. How were Chinggis Khaan and his army able to achieve this military dominance on such a grand scale? And what ultimately became of the great Empire of the Khaans?

Recent X-ray's of King Tut's mummy show signs of a possible attack, but new evidence may point to another cause of death. In his quest for the truth, Josh climbs into the tomb and uses modern science to dig deeper into the rumours of Tut's murder.

For nearly a century archaeologists place the height of the Maya civilisation at the First Millennium AD. But revolutionary discoveries are now challenging those views. Josh tracks the origins of the Maya throughout the Central American rainforest.

Ramesses II built soaring statues, grand temples, and monuments to himself throughout Egypt and declared himself a living god. Josh travels to Egypt to try his hand at stone masonry, and decodes the propaganda of the pharaohs.

In 1911, explorer Hiram Bingham stumbled across a remote Inca city atop a high peak in the Andes. The site was called Machu Picchu - perhaps the most famous ruin in the world.

For thousands of years, ancient Egyptians preserved their dead in the desert sands. Now, the secrets of the Egyptian afterlife are being revealed as Josh enters a realm of temples, tombs and mummies.

The city of Petra stands as one of the most mysterious archaeological sites on Earth. Created over 2,500 years ago, the ornate Petra cityscape was carved into the walls of Jordan's mountains.

In the Bolivian Andes, a sprawling ancient city sits 4,000 metres above sea level. With its giant monoliths and grand design, it has long been compared to Stonehenge in England.

In the Old Testament, King David is the shepherd poet who, after slaying the giant Goliath, goes on to become the first king of a united Israel. But was he a real historical figure?

Deep in an Israeli cave, archaeologists found dusty manuscripts written on copper scrolls. Discover the incredible story behind them.

The Aztecs were the largest civilisation to rule Mesoamerica, but also one of the bloodiest. What is the truth behind their violence?

Centuries before the Inca, an incredible band of warriors called the Chachapoya built a huge stone monument in the Americas. But what happened to them?

Carved from single boulders of basalt, the giant stone heads of the Olmec have amazed and mystified archaeologists. What is the story behind them?

Head out on the most extraordinary treasure hunt ever, as Hunter Ellis ventures out on a search for the priceless golden artefacts of Jerusalem's Temple.

Hunter Ellis continues his extraordinary treasure hunt for the priceless golden artefacts of Jerusalem's Temple - lost for thousands of years.