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"In one ancient variation on the myth of Pandora's Box, there were two jars, one for Pandora and one for her sister, Anesidora. One contained all the blessings of the gods, the other all the world's curses. Now, in a subterranean city in Northern Iraq, archaeologist Sophie Durand has discovered a secret chamber covered in writing that confirms that version of the tale--a chamber which contains a single jar. "Weird shit" expert Ben Walker joins Sophie's...

The history of Imperial China from the building of the Great Wall to the days of the last emperor.

A description of the Cardiff Giant mystery in which a man in upstate New York buried a ten-foot-tall., petrified model of a man, which was discovered by well diggers a year later, and set into motion a money-making spectacle.

Explains the life and times of this ancient Egyptian ruler, covering the story of the tomb's discovery, as well as myths and stories of mummy curses. Ever since Howard Carter uncovered King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, the young pharaoh has become a symbol of the wealth and mystery of ancient Egypt. Now, a two-and-a-half-year-long museum exhibit of Tut's treasures is touring major cities in the U.S., drawing record crowds. This Who Was...? is complete...

"For 600 years, the ancient kingdom of Carthage dominated the western Mediterranean, rising from a small city on the coast of North Africa, founded in the ninth century BCE, to the region's largest, richest empire in the third. The home of Hannibal and Dido, of war elephants and enormous wealth, beauty, and technological sophistication, at its height Carthage commanded one of the ancient world's great navies and territory spanning the coast of northwestern...

"In 1939, a team of workers beneath the Vatican unearthed an early Christian grave. This surprising discovery launched a secret quest that would last decades -- a quest to discover the long-lost burial place of the apostle Peter. From earliest times, Christian tradition held that Peter -- a lowly fisherman from Galilee, whom Christ made leader of his Church -- was executed in Rome by Emperor Nero and buried on Vatican Hill. But his tomb had been lost...

"A sweeping history of Jerusalem and the pivotal role that archaeology has played--both in its invention as a modern holy city and as the match that lit a geopolitical fire beneath it. In 1863, a French politician and adventurer heard a rumor of biblical treasures beneath Jerusalem. At the time, Jerusalem was a venerable backwater, not the thriving religious center we think of today. Archaeology itself was in its infancy--more a pastime for treasure-hunting...

Built in the fifteenth century and tucked away in the mountains of Peru, Machu Picchu was abandoned after the Spaniards conquered the Incan empire in the sixteenth century. It remained hidden until 1911 when Hiram Bingham uncovered the marvelous complex and shared his discovery with the world. Today, hundreds of thousands of people visit the site to climb the 3,000 stone steps, explore the towering monuments, and see the numerous species that call...

An exuberant, hands-on fly-on-the-wall account that combines the thrill of canyoneering and rock climbing with the intellectual sleuthing of archaeology to explore the Anasazi. David Roberts describes the culture of the Anasazi-the name means "enemy ancestors" in Navajo-who once inhabited the Colorado Plateau and whose modern descendants are the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Archaeologists, Roberts writes, have been puzzling over the Anasazi for more than...

Draws on relevant archaeological findings to reconstruct what may have actually occurred in the final days of Jesus's life, exploring such sites as a first-century house where Jesus may have been imprisoned, the trial site, and a tomb at the foot of Mount Zion.