Civilisations: Rise and Fall
★ 4.8 · 2025 · 59m · Documentary
Four mighty civilisations - Rome, Egypt, Japan's Samurai and the Aztecs. Their legends remain - now priceless artefacts reveal what led them to fall into the echoes of history.
Episodes
1. Rome59m · A weak emperor. A divided empire. Barbarians at the gate. Does this perfect storm mean the end of ancient Rome?
2. Egypt59m · The 3,000-year-old civilisation of ancient Egypt faces disaster as war, famine and a toxic dynasty threaten its survival. Will Queen Cleopatra become the last of the pharaohs?
3. Aztecs59m · The Aztecs battle to save their civilisation from Spanish invaders – but is the real threat from the enemy within?
4. Japan59m · For 250 years, Japan has thrived, largely cut off from western influence - until US gunboats arrive. In the face of an industrialised west, how will reformers, the shogun and the samurai class react?More Like This
Drive Thru History: Ancient History
Join Dave Stotts on an adventure through world history as he tells the stories of the people, places, and events that shaped the ancient world, and how those ancient civilizations and the Christian faith shaped Western Civilization and the world we live in today.
More info →
Pharaohs at War
2025
Each episode explores a decisive clash that forged pharaonic power and sparked cultural exchanges that helped build one of the greatest empires in history.
More info →
The New Testament You Never Knew
2019
Do you know the real story behind the New Testament? We all share a fascination for discovering ‘the rest of the story.’ Through reading the New Testament we discover that God indeed keeps his promises, but those promises don’t always look like what people expected. Especially when it comes to Jesus. Join well-known Bible scholars N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird as they team up to take you on a tour of the explosive story behind the story of the New Testament.
More info →
Tomb Hunters
2021 · ★ 7
It was an archaeological find that became global news. An extraordinary mega-tomb, filled with the largest concentration of coffins ever unearthed in Saqqara, Egypt. This four-part series places you at the site to witness this ground-breaking discovery as it happened and follows Egyptologists as they try to determine why all of these mummies were buried together and what this ancient cemetery can tell us about the Egyptian civilization's way of death 2,500 years ago.
More info →
Julius Caesar: The Making of a Dictator
2023 · ★ 6.5
He came. He saw. He conquered. The tale of an ambitious power-grab that turned to tyranny. How Julius Caesar dismantled five centuries of ancient Roman democracy in just 16 years.
More info →
Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank
2005 · ★ 6
Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank is a BBC Television documentary series in which Dan Cruickshank explores the mysteries of Ancient Egypt.
More info →
Egyptian Vice
2015
Throughout human history, there have been sinister desires driven by animalistic lust, and the Ancient Egyptians were no different. From Rameses II, who bent the truth and made himself a god on the earth, to Cleopatra, who engaged in incest and used her sex appeal as a weapon, this History Channel movie explores the dark side of one of the greatest empires in history.
More info →
Treasures of Ancient Egypt
2014 · ★ 7.5
Alastair Sooke tells the story of Ancient Egyptian art through 30 extraordinary masterpieces.
More info →
Ancient Worlds
2010 · ★ 9
Archaeologist and historian Richard Miles traces the development of Western civilization, from the first cities in Mesopotamia to the fall of the Roman Empire. In this six-part series, Miles travels through the Middle East, Egypt, Pakistan and the Mediterranean to discover how the challenges of society -- religion and politics, art and culture, war and diplomacy, technology and trade -- were dealt with and fought over in order to maintain a functioning civilization. Stories are told of disappeared, ruined and modern cities, from ancient Iraq to modern Damascus, to reveal how successes and failures of the ancients shaped the world today.
More info →