Digging for the Truth

Thousands of years ago, in the nation now called Peru, the rulers of a strange and unique civilization called Chavin dominated their citizens-and the region-with the aid of hallucinogenic plants.

In 1539, Spanish explorers landed in Florida. Three years later, they were vanquished by Native Americans that lived on enormous pyramids along the Mississippi River. Who were these pyramid builders?

Host Josh Bernstein uses the latest archaeological evidence to investigate the true origins of Stonehenge and the prehistoric world that surrounded it. Visit the quarry where Stonehenge was born and see how the ancients maneuvered its massive pieces into place.

Did the 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 and tests, once and for all, whether they really did beat Columbus to the New World.

In 1587, over 100 settlers landed in present-day North Carolina to establish Roanoke, England's first permanent colony. Three years later, they had vanished. What went wrong?

Her name has been immortalized in myth and legend. She ruled over men, bedding the likes of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and single-handedly led one of the world's greatest civilizations. Join Josh Bernstein as he sails the Nile and explores the wonders of ancient Egypt in search of answers about the downfall of the all-powerful and seductive Cleopatra.

In terms of size, scale and power, the greatest of all ancient American cities was unquestionably Teotihuacán, the City of the Gods. And today, it's the largest ghost town in the world.

The story of the Queen of Sheba blows into the pages of the Bible from the desert like a sandstorm. Adventurer Josh Bernstein follows the ancient spice trail from Ethiopia to Yemen in search of clues to the identity of one of the Bible's most enigmatic and seductive figures.

Was Homer's Iliad far more than a simple work of fiction? Host Josh Bernstein goes on the trail of Achilles, Priam, and Helen in search of the real story behind one of the most famous literary works of the Western world.

Josh Bernstein searches for solid evidence behind the controversial theory laid out in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, stating that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and that she conceived a child. Does the bloodline continue 'unbroken' to this day? Forensic evidence and old-fashioned legwork separate the possible from the plainly fantastic in the international bestseller.

For hundreds of years, explorers, including the great Ferdinand Magellan, visited the region in South America now known as Patagonia and reported sighting enormous and strange giants. Josh Bernstein sets off to find out for himself if an extinct sloth could be the source of the incredible tales of South American giants.

Host Josh Bernstein treks through the heart of the Amazon on his search for the elusive "Lost City of Z." He learns the ancient hunting, fishing, and horticultural techniques that allowed the ancient tribes of the Amazon to flourish long before European contact, the very skills that could hold the answer to the survival of the rain forest.

Was God's destruction of the decadent cities of Sodom and Gomorrah just a biblical tale, or is there proof that this legendary course of events actually happened? On a Jordanian mountain, host Josh Bernstein encounters evidence supporting the biblical account of cities destroyed by a vengeful God.