Series & Specials

Building Wonders of the World

Release Date

2015

Client

NOVA/PBS/ARTE

Awards

Emmy Nominations for Outstanding Writing, Outstanding Science and Technology Programming, Outstanding Cinematography, Writers Guild of America Award, Best Film of the International Archaeological Film Festival, CINE Special Jury Award

Secrets of the Parthenon, Riddles of the Sphinx, Building the Great Cathedrals, Colosseum Roman Death Trap, Hagia Sophia Istanbuls Ancient Mystery, Petra Lost City of Stone

These world monuments are snap shots in stone – the physical embodiment of the ideals of their civilization at a unique moment in time.

What did these iconic structures mean to the people who built them?  How did they construct such feats of imagination on such a grand scale with only simple tools?  Why do these building’s awe-inspiring power continue to echo through the ages?

Historians, scientists, and builders use ancient tools and techniques combined with 21st century science to discover the design and engineering secrets of the ancients.  Each film is a classical archaeological detective story to set up the history and cultural context of the building, and an immersive hands-on experience of actually constructing elements of the building today.

Says producer/director Gary Glassman, "We dreamed up ambitious projects involving some of the world's greatest monuments and were fortunate to find people who shared our vision - from scientists and scholars, public officials, workers, and broadcast partners committed to intelligent programs."

Narrated by Jay O. Sanders

Fascinating...no mere how-did-they-lift-those-heavy-rocks rumination. You'll feel smarter at program's end.

—Neil Genzlinger, New York Times

The first time a wild animal is lifted into the Colosseum in 1500 years.

—Matt Blitz, Smithsonian Magazine

 

Trailer for 2nd season - Colosseum, Hagia Sophia, Petra

The series is narrated by Jay O. Sanders

 

Review of the series.

 


Secrets of the Parthenon

Premiere Airdate: January 29, 2008 on NOVA/PBS

Co-produced with NOVA, Studio Internationale, and ARTE/France

Winner of the Writers Guild of America award for Outstanding Script for Television Documentary
Emmy Nominated for Outstanding Science, Technology, and Nature Programming, and Outstanding Writing for Documentary

For 25 centuries the Parthenon has been shot at, set on fire, rocked by earthquakes, looted for its sculptures, and disfigured by catastrophic renovations. To save it from collapse, the modern restoration team must uncover the secrets of how the ancient Greeks built this icon of western civilization in less than nine years without anything resembling an architectural plan.

For Credits and more information visit the Secrets of the Parthenon page on the NOVA/PBS website.

New York Times review

Purchase the program at PBS.

 


Building the Great Cathedrals

Premiere Airdate: October 19, 2010 on NOVA/PBS

Co-produced with NOVA, Telfrance, and ARTE/France

Emmy Nominated for Outstanding Science, Technology, and Nature Programming and Outstanding Cinematography

These skyscrapers of stone dominated skylines for nearly a thousand years. Now, a team of scholars and builders investigates how they we went up, and why some of the tallest fell down. Embedded in stone and stained glass, they uncover a hidden mathematical code - ripped from pages of the Bible - that was used as a blueprint to build the great Gothic Cathedrals.

For Credits and more information visit the Building the Great Cathedrals page on the NOVA/PBS website.

Purchase the program at PBS.

 


Riddles of the Sphinx

Premiere Airdate: January 19, 2010 on NOVA/PBS

Co-produced with NOVA, Telfrance, and ARTE/France

Emmy Nominated for Outstanding Writing

For over 4000 years, the Sphinx has puzzled all who have laid eyes on it. What is this crouching lion, human-headed creature? Who built it and why?
To unlock its secrets, two teams of scientists and sculptors immerse themselves in the world of ancient Egypt — a land of pharaohs and pyramids, animal gods and mummies, sun worship and human sacrifice.

For Credits and more information visit the Riddles of the Sphinx page on the NOVA/PBS website.

Purchase the program at PBS

Egyptologist Kasia Szpakowska deciphers the dream stela

 


Colosseum - Roman Death Trap

Premiere Airdate: February 11, 2015 on NOVA/PBS

Co-produced with ARTE/France and ZED

AGON International Archaeological Film Award for Best Directing

It is one of the most iconic buildings of the ancient world—legendary, mythical, even magical.  The Colosseum stands as a monument to Roman imperial power and cruelty.  The spectacles staged here involved the killing of tens of thousands of gladiators, prisoners, and wild animals.  Records of these games brag of seemingly impossible spectacles – beasts magically appearing on stage and water flash-flooding the arena so that full-sized ships could engage in sea battles.  How could this have been achieved, or were the Roman historians exaggerating?  Until now, experts have been dubious – but what if these tall tales are true?  Now a subterranean archaeologist investigates tunnels to see how the Colosseum could be flooded. And architects, engineers, and builders construct a lift and trap door system to attempt the release of a wolf into the most famous amphitheater in the world for the first time in 1500 years. Do they have what it takes to replicate the innovation and ingenuity of the Romans?

For Credits and more information visit the Colosseum - Roman Death Trap page on the NOVA/PBS website.

Purchase the program at PBS.

How the Ancient Romans Got Wild Animals onto the Arena of the Colosseum

Ancient Savagery How It Worked

Smithsonian Magazine - Lifting Wild Animals into the Colosseum

Funding Italy's Heritage

 


Petra - Lost City of Stone

Premiere Airdate: February 18, 2015 on NOVA/PBS

Co-produced with ARTE/France and ZED

AGON International Archaeological Film Grand Prize 

For over a millennium, Petra was lost to the western world.  Two hundred years after its rediscovery in the 19th Century, still less than 2% of the city has been explored.  Now, in a daring experiment, an archaeologist and sculptors team up to carve an iconic temple-tomb to find out how the ancient people of Petra built their city of stone.  And beyond Petra’s city of the dead, scientists using remote sensors and hydraulic flumes discover a city of the living—complete with a water system that not only supplied 30,000 people with enough to drink, but also filled bathhouses, fountains, and pools with such abundance that some scholars believe this desert metropolis may have been the Las Vegas of the ancient world.  The race is on to discover how these nomads created this oasis of culture in one of the harshest climates on earth, and ultimately, why Petra disappeared.

For Credits and more information visit the Petra - Lost City of Stone page on the NOVA/PBS website.

Purchase the program at PBS.


Hagia Sophia - Istanbul's Ancient Mystery

Premiere Airdate: February 25, 2015 on NOVA/PBS

Co-produced with ARTE/France and ZED

AGON International Archaeological Film Award

Hagia Sophia – Over the last fifteen hundred years it has been a Christian church, Islamic mosque and secular museum.  Built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 537 AD, he proclaimed at its opening, “Solomon, I have surpassed you,” placing his church, and himself, in the lineage of the Bible’s greatest builder and his temple in Jerusalem.  But Hagia Sophia possesses a special quality in addition to its beauty and awesome size.  Built at the intersection of major fault lines, Istanbul has endured more than a dozen devastating earthquakes, and yet for 1500 years it remains standing.  How does it survive?  Is it by “miracle” or design?  Now an international team of experts is investigating Hagia Sophia’s seismic secrets.  They are using radar, laser and computer technologies, even building an 8-ton scale-model of Hagia Sophia to place on a motorized shake table to simulate the effects of a major earthquake on the real building.  As Istanbul braces for its next major earthquake, scientists race to discover how the Hagia Sophia was built, why it still stands, and whether it will survive.

For Credits and more information visit the Hagia Sophia - Istanbul's Ancient Mystery page on the NOVA/PBS website.

Purchase the program at PBS.


 


Related News

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A Treasure Made With Math and Marble


“Secrets of the Parthenon” is no mere how-did-they-lift-those-heavy-rocks rumination.