Good morning, today I am going to do a documentary on the Mayan Empire.  I am pulling the documentary from the National Geographic Channel.  Now January is done and now we can move on to February.  I continue to whittle away my documentary review playlist. 2025 will continue to move on.  It is from the National Geographic Channel and has a run time of 44:24.  The documentary is called The Lost World of the Maya.

The Central American jungles still have secrets to reveal.  Using the latest in technology, historians and archeologists are learning more about the Maya. The Maya were a people who Maya built extraordinary monuments.  They also built monumental cities and mastered astronomy and mathematics.  Their exploits were legendary and they would inspire generations of explorers to go into the jungle.  So what can technology do to expand the understanding of the Maya?

In 2018, more and more cities were revealed that were built by the Maya.  LIDAR allows historians to look beneath the jungle canopy.  It can be comparable to an x-ray machine.  What is hidden in the jungle is slowly coming into the light with LIDAR.  Beneath the impenetrable jungle, structures are being revealed.  For decades, archeologists have been learning about the Maya from remains that were discovered by foot.  With LIDAR now people do not have to blindly go into the jungle to learn more about the Maya.

The city was ruled by a local king who built a grand pyramid on the site.  The pyramid may have been the tomb of the local king.  So the archaeologists act on a hunch and put a shaft in the pyramid.  In the vault, there seems to be something going on in the pyramid.  There looks to be a vault stone, a type of stone that is laid to hold up the ceilings of buildings.  There also seems to be a foundation of an ancient building next to the pyramid.  These foundations may re-write Mayan history.

The Mayans lived in the jungle and carved their cities out of the jungle landscape.  They would eventually perfect their writing.  They would become masters of mathematics.  They would study the skies.  Unfortunately, war and famine would come to the Mayan world.  Their great cities would be abandoned.  The discoveries of the ancient ruins seem to hint that someone had occupied the area before.

Then the documentary transitions into a secret location.  It is kept secret to hide it from the looters.  The location is a challenge to get to because it is underground.  Hidden inside a cave are the remnants of a cave.  This cave was where secret and sacred rituals took place.  Inside the cave, there are paintings that were created by the Mayans.  After this short discussion on the cave, it then shifts to the new discoveries that have been made as a result of technology.

The archeologists talk about the discoveries that have been made.   Cities that were thought to have not existed are now being revealed.  I hope that looters will not find these cities, although it may be too late for some of those cities.  Anyway, the documentary follows the story of a refugee King, who rebuilt the city.  This story has shifted the understanding as to where the Maya people arose.  The documentary continues to look at the city that were discovered.  To learn more about the Mayan and their cities continue to watch the rest of the documentary to find out.

I still with National Geographic would divide these documentaries into chapters to help keep track of things.  I ended up finding myself drifting during periods of the documentary because it seemed to jump all over the place with no natural flow to the information.  The introduction was a lie because it seemed to hint that it was going to be about LIDAR and what was discovered with LIDAR.  It was very disappointing to watch.  If it was better organized, it would have been a better documentary because just based on other documentaries technology has had a big impact on how it has furthered history.  This would be a documentary I would not show to a history class nor would I show it to a science class.

Good morning, good evening, or good afternoon.  I am working through some ancient history documentaries to help you teachers prepare for the next school year.  Today I am looking at another documentary from the Drain the Ocean series.  This time both the ocean and the sea are being drained away.  I am working on a documentary on Ancient Egypt.  The run time for this documentary is 47:22.  It is called Egypt’s Lost Wonders.

Ancient Egypt is still revealing its secrets.  Its secrets are still covered by both water and sand.  With the latest in imaging technology, more and more of these secrets are being revealed.  Will the mystery of the Alexandria lighthouse be solved?  Why did a pharaoh build fifteen mega-forts?  Was he afraid that there would be an invasion?  Why are there boats buried deep in the desert?  What do these boats reveal about the Valley of the Kings?  Drain the Ocean works to help reveal more of Ancient Egypt’s secrets.

The story begins with Alexandria.  It has been established by Alexander the Great when he conquered Ancient Egypt.  He would announce the grandness of his brand-new city by building a great lighthouse.  When Egypt declined, the lighthouse was abandoned and neglected.  It would eventually collapse into the Mediterranean as a result of an earthquake.  It was thought to have been lost in the harbor in Alexandria.  Today a French team of archaeologists dive on the site to learn more about the magnificent lighthouse.  The goal is to digitally rebuild the lighthouse.

For more than twenty years Isabelle Hairy has been working hard on discovering more and more of the lighthouse.  The French team has discovered granite blocks on the site.  Could they be part of the lighthouse?  However, there is a challenge as there have been many different interpretations of what the lighthouse looked like.  What did the lighthouse at Alexandria really look like?  The French team discovered the remains of the door as well as a variety of granite blocks that are the cornerstones of the lighthouse.  The blocks hint that the walls were straight.  However, there are pieces of the lighthouse that are missing because they have been taken to museums for display.  Isabelle Hairy then tours the fort that was built on the remains of the lighthouse.  The mosque inside the fort seems to hint at the design of the lighthouse.  Isabelle then turns to the historical records to learn more about what the lighthouse looked like.  So what does Isabelle find out about the lighthouse?  What did the lighthouse actually look like?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

The documentary then transitions into the hidden wonders of the Nile River.  The Nile is one of the longest rivers in the world and was essential to Ancient Egypt.  Without the Nile, Ancient Egypt would not have happened.  So now the documentary turns to draining the sand to reveal a cache of hidden boats.  Why are these boats buried in the sand?  The sand is drained away and it reveals that fourteen boats were buried in the desert.  The boats are about sixty feet long.  What were these boats?  Why were they buried in the desert?

Draining the sand away reveals that the boats were carefully stitched together and were rowing boats.  Only one person could have ordered these boats: the Pharoah.  What are these boats doing in the middle of the desert?  One man looks to unlock the secrets of these boats.  This was something I never heard about in regard to Ancient Egypt, burying boats, it was always a Viking thing.  So I learned something new from this documentary.  To learn more about these boats for yourself continue to watch the rest of this documentary.

First things first, I would have divided this documentary up into chapters just to help make viewing easier. I hope one day that National Geographic can get its act together and finally put chapters in its documentaries.  That said, these documentaries continue to deliver on both content and active engagement.  I would continue to recommend this series to teachers to use in both a history and a science classroom.

Just because I can, I want to mention that if you turn in twelve Lighthouse Society Passport boats, you get the special designation of the “Pharos of Alexandria” on the website.

Hello, January is flying by really quickly and now I am close to the end.  Then on to February and March, I believe you get the picture teachers!  Before we know it the school year will be done!  Anyway, when I started this blog in late 2020 it was a challenge to find good documentaries on the Holocaust.  Now five years have gone by and I have a whole section on the topic.  Today’s documentary is about the sterilization and medical experiments that took place in Auschwitz.  Yes, there is a warning at the start of this documentary about what is about to be shown.  The run time for this documentary is 42:52.  The documentary is called Made in Auschwitz: The Untold Story of Block 10.

Carl Clauberg was a doctor in Auschwitz who attempted to sterilize hundreds of girls and women.  He was a leading light in reproductive medicine at the time, however with his experimentations on the women and girls at Auschwitz, a shadow is cast over his legacy.  Many died as a result of the experience.  Others survived who not only gave testimony as to what happened to them for this documentary but were able to speak out at his trial as to what was done to them.  Against all the odds, some were able to have children.

Leny Adelaar is the first voice of the documentary.  She talks about when she first arrived at Auschwitz.  The guards asked if anyone was married and Leny confessed that she was.  She and the other married women were saved while the others were gassed.  They were brought to a barracks with other women.  It was Block 10 and they were going to be experimented on.  Louise Pleskoff, another voice, recalls the brutal treatments. 

Carl Clauberg talked about the experiments that he performed on these women.  He had been put on trial in the Soviet Union for trials against humanity.  In 1955 he was repatriated from the Soviet Union to the German Republic.  However, his gasp at freedom was short-lived when the German Republic and the Jewish Council pressed charges against him.  He was going to be put on trial, however the judges were skeptical.  So the survivors were forced to undergo medical examinations to prove what Clauberg had done to them. 

Renee Duering, a survivor of Block 10 speaks.  She speaks of her childhood and recalls her house was the first house on the street with a telephone.  Genia Oboeuf lived in Brussels after being born in Warsaw.  Leny also talks about her childhood and how close she was to her family.  Eva Golgevit recalled living in Paris.  She was a resistance fighter with a small son, who takes part in the documentary.  She could no longer care for him and so he was placed with an organization that constantly moved him when it became too dangerous for him. 

The documentary shifts to Clauberg’s work and life and the rise of Hitler.  Clauberg would be willing to participate in the experiments at Auschwitz.  The survivors talk about the rise of Hitler and how he had an impact on their lives.   Genia Oboeuf talks about how the concern for Hitler began in 1933 with the rise in refugees.  Then there is a shift in the documentary when the deportations began.  Then the women talk about their first arrival to Auschwitz and Block 10.  It was here where they would be experimented on.  Every day ten women were called out by their numbers and these ten would be experimented on by Clauberg.  What followed was a horror.  There were many injections, x-ray machines, and operations.  To learn more about what happened to these women continue to watch the rest of this documentary.

One of the best lines of the documentary was from Astrid Ley and the line was something along the lines of “he traded privileges for becoming a criminal.”  This was a very well put together documentary and the survivors were the greatest part of the documentary.  This is a part of the Holocaust that is not really explored and it gave a good presentation of what happened.  It was utterly disgusting what happened to these women.  This would be a documentary to show to a history class as well as a science class.

Hello, I hope that you are doing very well.  Today I am doing a documentary on Auschwitz.  This is the story of six women who survived Auschwitz.  It looks like they got together to tell their stories.   The run time for this documentary is 56:22.  The documentary is called It Is Called Swimming in Auschwitz. 

Six female Holocaust survivors return to Auschwitz-Birkenau to tell their stories of survival.  These women come from different countries and come from different backgrounds.  One was the daughter of labor activists.  Another was going to be a nurse.  One was the child of a Prague industrialist.  These women talk about how they were able to survive and remain hopeful in their experience.

The story begins with one woman’s story.  It had been two weeks before liberation when Doctor Mengele examined her.  He told her that if she survived she should take her tonsils out.  She found the statement ridiculous.  Eventually, we are treated to archival footage of Rene.  She had been born in Prague and had an interest in fashion.  Her family was upper-middle-class Jews.  She recalls when her country was simply given to Hitler.  Then there is another woman who tells her story about her childhood.  She had an enjoyable childhood.

Rina, a third woman tells about her experiences growing up in Poland. A fourth woman talks about how her family had weekly passes to the opera houses and how she went on vacations with her friends.  Everything changed for her family.  The fifth woman is from Holland and talks about her family.  The last woman who spoke was from Hungary.  Her family was Orthodox Jewish and she recalls going to Jewish school.

They recall the day when things changed, and how their lives would have changed.  One recalls being arrested and another recalls working in a sewing factory.  The Germans would have constantly yelled at them.  One woman heard about Auschwitz and that it was being built.  She thought the soldier was making it up.  In Czechoslovakia thought they would have been protected, because they were enlightened.  That changed with Hitler, and her father was fired from his job.  She recalls the long lines at the consulates for people to get out.  It was too late and the transports began.

They recall Hitler speaking about getting rid of the Jews.  There was a big disbelief in Hitler’s words because the Germans were educated and educated people did not massacre people.  Hungarian Jews felt safe, however, this was an illusion.  More and more transports were set up and more and more Jews were killed.  Families were divided as the men were sent to locations unknown.  One lady recalls her father being taken away and how emotional she felt.  The Hungarian Jews were the last transported to the concentration camps.

These six women would eventually be transported to Auschwitz.  It was a shock to realize that they had been transported to Poland.  They recall the crowds and the separation.  Everything moved quickly and there was a lot of confusion.  They recall the soldiers that were in charge of the crowds.  They looked cruel.  Then they talk about the divisions that took place. 

Finally, these women would have entered Auschwitz and it was here they would have been met with a hell on earth.  The reality of Auschwitz was realized.  From the time they entered, they would have been dehumanized.  During these first moments, the women would laugh as a way to release the tensions.  One woman still laughs about it.  How would these women survive?  To learn more about these women continue to watch the rest of the documentary.

It would have been very good to divide this documentary up into chapters to help pull things out and to have them labeled with the names of the women.  The documentary was very fast-moving moving too.  It was almost too fast to catch everything these women were saying.  This documentary could have been lengthened to slow it down.  Periodically some stats were shown, which were a bit jarring and there was no reason to include them without any context.  Maybe there could have been some additional narration to help provide context to the numbers.  Anyway, still this documentary would be an excellent documentary to show to a history class.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on when you are reading this.  I hope that you are well and that you are wrapping up putting together your lesson plans.  Time is flying by. Anything that was translated had subtitles.  This is a documentary about two twins who were separated in the Holocaust.  The run time for this documentary is 51:56.  It is called Adam and Ida: Almost a Fairytale.

A pair of Jewish toddlers were separated when they were just three years old.  One twin, Adam would survive a concentration camp.  The other Ida survived the war by hiding with a Polish couple.  Both twins were given new names and raised Catholic.  The odds of them seeing each other were almost impossible.  However, one day Ida saw a newspaper photo of a man who reminded her of someone.  For the first twins come together to tell their story.

The documentary begins with Ida telling her story.  She is on her way to a meeting.  While she prepares there is an empty chair waiting for someone to come.  Ida starts talking about wanting to find her family.  Then another voice narrates, it is a man’s voice talking about the first phone call.  He had been out and it was his son who answered the phone.  The man would call her back and they would talk.  There was a strong disbelief on her brother’s end, however when he mentioned “Leon” Ida said that that was her father.  Eventually, the phone calls started to fly between the pair.

The pair would eventually meet.  Prepare for tears when you watch this section, it was a highly emotional reunion.  Their reunion made headlines around the world.  Their story begins in Poland.  A pair of twins and their other family members were marched into the ghetto.  Ida remembers always holding hands with her twin.  She recalls the Gestapo and children being separated from their mothers.  Ida’s memory is phenomenal. 

Ida recalls being taken away by a man and this would be the last time she would see her older sister and twin again.  She was taken to another city and the man presented the little girl as his wife.  Ida recalls it was Christmas time and she was adopted by the couple.  If they were caught, they would have been severely punished for hiding a Jewish child.  The couple would have poured their love onto Ida.

Adam’s story begins in the concentration camp, as he has no memory of the ghetto.  He would be chosen to have medical experiments performed on him.  He believed that was the only reason he survived.  It was believed that he would die but he was rescued by a Russian soldier.  He would be adopted by a Polish couple as well and would be taken away from the concentration camp.  It would take him two years to recover.  However, he seemed to be a man in search of something.

Ida talks about the day the Germans left and how the city was quiet.  The Russians were on their way.  The people would throw flowers at the Russians and kiss them.  The city was liberated.  Ida would learn that her father survived because he was in Russia at the time.  The reunion did not go well.  She would eventually stay with her father.  Adam was treated differently and was blamed for everything by his new family.  They had six biological children of their own.  Adam would then learn he was Jewish and it would lead him to search for his family.  Ida too would long to search for her family.  With the incredible odds, how did Ida and Adam find each other?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

The title made me nervous.  It gave me the feeling that the family reunion was all going to go wrong.  I know there would have been challenges, but that does not mean that it should not be considered an almost fairytale.  Anyway, it was a very well-done documentary about two siblings searching for each other.  The pacing was very well done and the artwork was lovely.  This would be at the top of my list to show to a history class.

Hello, I hope that the year has kicked off very well for you.  Today I am changing it up because I am selecting a documentary from Wyoming PBS.  It has been a while since I did a documentary on American History, so today I am going to do one from American History.  The documentary is called Risky Business: The Ghost Town of Kirwin.  It looks like Kirwin was part of Wyoming PBS’ version of Main Streets.  The runtime for this documentary is 57:06.

Kirwin is an abandoned mining camp deep in the Absorka Mountains in Wyoming.  All that remains of the town are weathered buildings.  However, they are at the center of the story of Kirwin.  These stories include miners who looked for treasures.  There were natural disasters that swept through as well as explorers.  Amelia Earhart visited the town as well.  So what made this town so special?  What about the history of Kirwin?

The road to Kirwin begins on paved roads before turning into a single dirt track.  The drive goes past some beautiful scenery before you arrive at Kerwin.  Gold and silver were first discovered in 1885 by deer hunters and soon people started to head to the valley to dig for both metals.  They headed back down to Arland, an already established town.  It was known as a rough town and it was started in the early 1880s.  However, down the road another town had established and it was where the people traveled through.  Gold fever swept through the area and it was said that it was a large strike.

In 1886, claims would be established in what would become Kerwin.  Eventually, more people came and the Wood River Mining District was established.  More investors came in and more people would come in and settle in Kerwin.  Cattle would be brought in which would have diversified the economy of the area.  The mine manager built his wife a house, a wife reluctant to move to Kerwin because of the harsh winters.  Even though he had the nicest house in the area, his wife did not stay.

Mining would commence in the area with many tunnels being dug into the mountain.  Bronco Nell was called the businesswoman in Kerwin.  She had spent some time in prison and drove a freight wagon bringing supplies in.  She dressed as a man and would later die in Meeteetse, Wyoming.  The city would grow to boast a post office, a few general stores, a boarding house, and an assayer’s office.  What was missing from the scene was a salon and brothel.  The only unmarried woman allowed was the teacher.  The miners had to go to Meeteetse for their entertainment.

It is here that Butch Cassidy is introduced.  He was born Robert LeRoy Parker and he was a Mormon boy.  He went to work on a nearby ranch and took the nickname of Butch Cassidy after a ranch hand.  When he was arrested he went by that name.  Otto Frank was a local rancher who helped fund the Johnson County Wars.  He forced Butch Cassidy to sign a petition to help build a bridge, and although he was not a resident of the area, Cassidy signed the petition and it was something that made him proud that he helped build a bridge.

Mining was a challenging job.  Men were killed in explosions.  A tunnel could collapse.  Summers could be pleasant for the mining families; however, winters were brutal and long.  They carried on as best as they could.  There were celebrations.  Kerwin was booming and wagon traffic was humming.  It was thought that Kerwin would get a spur railroad line and telegram lines.  Times were good for the people of Kerwin.  So what happened?  Why did people leave?  Why is it a ghost town today?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

This was a very interesting story about mining history.  The stories were very well done and you had the sense that Kerwin was on the way to being a thriving town.  Then it all came crashing down for the residents.  I wish that the documentary was timed stamped, but this would be a documentary that I would recommend showing to an American history class.
 

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this.  I hope that things are going well for you.  Now onto a documentary about dinosaurs and how they were first discovered.  This was found on the Odyssey – Ancient History YouTube Channel.  It looks to be a docudrama about when the first dinosaurs were discovered.  In my opinion it probably would have been better on a different history channel and not the ancient world because it was set during the Victorian time period. The run time for this documentary is 57:52.  It is called the Dinosaur Hunters.

Mary Annie in 1812 near Lyme Regis unearthed the remains of a creature seventeen feet long.  It was a backbone with a long tail and a large skull.  It was the first skull of that size discovered in Britain.  This find sent shockwaves throughout the world.  It would trigger an era of Dinosaur Hunting.  This dinosaur hunting would set off a decades-long fight and feud as vicious as the dinosaurs itself.  So what happened to these early dinosaur hunters?

The Story begins with Lyme Regis where a skeleton was discovered and purchased by a local landlord who donated it to the Natural History Museum in London.  However, it was a discovery that would have sent shockwaves beyond London.  The dinosaur that was found on the beach would be eventually named ichthyosaur, or fish dinosaur.  Then the story goes back to Lyme Regis and how the story spread beyond the area and Reverend William Buckekly who was interested in the prehistoric world.  This transition was a little bit confusing and probably should have been made clearer.  I had to rewind this section a few times.

Then the documentary transitions to the wedding of a local shoemaker.  He was interested in the sciences and wanted to challenge what was understood as science at the time.  His wife loved science too and would encourage his endeavors.  The gentleman was an outsider who supported the French Revolution.  He was apprenticed to a local surgeon and would eventually become a doctor.  He was an excellent midwife and delivered many babies.  In a time when women died in childbirth, he only had two deaths during this practice.  In his spare time, he would pursue geology and would explore the Sussex countryside.

Then the documentary shifts to the researchers who continued their explorations.  They were part of an elite group and William Buckley was Britain’s first professional geologist.  Then the documentary looks at the remains that were discovered.  At the time, the bones would not have been belonging to any known animals.  There was a gentleman who examined the bones, and he was a man whose words would be gospel in the geologic world.  Then the documentary talks about how religion and science would clash as a result of the discovery of the dinosaur.

Then the documentary goes back to the midwife in Sussex, he had convinced some quarry workers to give him any bones that were discovered in the quarry.  Eventually, he was brought a good-sized fossil and he would work to uncover the fossil.  Both he and his wife would go to the site where the fossil was found and continue their work.  The documentary recreates the time they found a fossilized tree trunk.  It was his hope that his discoveries would shoot him up the scientific ranks.  So what other discoveries were made in Britain?  How would these discoveries make an impact on science?  Would the midwife find his place in science?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

The docudrama wasted no time in getting right to the story launching into the discovery at Lyme Regis.  I did have to rewind it at different points to try to catch what was going on.  It would have benefitted from being time-stamped and even inserting chapter titles. It also would have benefited putting names to the people in the docudrama and not just announcing the names.  I would have liked to have been able to spell out the people’s names. It was interesting to hear Dereck Jacobi narrate the documentary.  This would be one docudrama to skip showing to a history class as well as a science class.

Hello, and good morning.  I hope that this day finds you well.  It is a documentary that highlights how far technology has come in order to examine history.  This documentary is from the Get.Factual YouTube Channel.  Today I am going to feature a documentary on Angkor Wat.  The run time for this documentary is 55:35.  It is called Angkor Wat and it may be part of a series on ancient superstructures.

Angkor Wat was hidden in the jungles of Cambodia.  It was the largest religious structure ever built.  Using the latest in technology, archeologists are examining monuments carefully and learning more about the secrets of Angkor Wat.  Using satellites, aerial devices, and molecular scales they seek to learn more about Angkor Wat.  Why was it built?  Who built it?  What was its purpose?  Why did it go into decline?

It is a site known worldwide.  The remains of the structure are amongst the most unique in the world.  It was built by the Khmer Empire.  It is hidden among 400 square miles of jungle.  It is the largest religious complex in the world.  It was built from 1113 to 1150 and it was an extraordinary feat.  It was primarily built with stone, which would have been a challenge to use and transport.  The nearest quarries would have been more than 30 kilometers away.  Millions and millions of sandstone blocks would have been needed to be transported.  How was this feat accomplished?

The site is massive, and there are different sections in the city.  There was a religious center and a royal center.  There was a massive water reservoir in the area in the area.  Satellites reveal that there was an expansive hydraulic network that kept the complex water.  There have been many theories over the years about the purpose of the reservoirs and canals.  One new theory that emerged was that the canals were used to help transport the stone that was used to build the complex. 

Microscopic examination of the stone shows that it would have been tough to carve and shape.  The rock was almost 50% quarts.  How was the stone carved so quickly?  There have been restoration efforts done on a nearby temple.  This is a unique opportunity to learn the techniques that were used to build Angkor Wat.  Restorers getting to know these ruins intimately.  The restorers concluded that a massive workforce was employed to build Angkor Wat.  However, it still would have taken a massive amount of time to build the complex.  There had to have been another method to speed up the construction.  During this section, I was starting to compare the construction of Angkor Wat to the Guendolen Castle construction.

The documentary then shifts to an unfinished temple site that is a testing place for new theories as to how the monument was built.  Perhaps, like the pyramids, the workers used ramps to haul stones up to greater and greater heights.  The workers and the architects would have carefully planned ahead to make sure the work went smoothly and efficiently.  This section continues to remind me of the Secrets of the Castle series as well as any documentary on how the pyramids were built.

Angkor Wat would have been the center of the Khmer Empire and would have had a population of about 800,000 people.  The people would have transformed the landscape to suit their needs.  How big was this complex?  A LIDAR campaign was launched.  A large area was swept and the results revealed a vast complex of unknown temples and buildings.  So what were these ruins that LIDAR revealed?  What about the people who lived in Angkor Wat?  Why did the city decline?  What else is yet to be discovered about Angkor Wat?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

It still really amazes and surprises me how technology is used to come alongside and help students and teachers learn more about history.  From time to time I found myself comparing Angkor to other complex historic building projects.  This was an excellent documentary, and it could have run even longer because there is just so much there.  I highly recommend this for a science, technology, and history class.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening.  I am working on some additional documentaries from the ancient world.  This is part of the series Drain the Oceans from the National Geographic YouTube Channel.  This is an enjoyable series and I hope that the National Geographic channel will publish the Drain the Great Lakes episode.  Today’s episode talks about the ancient worlds particularly Atlantis that were lost beneath the waves.  The run time for this episode is 47:22.  The episode is called Legend of Atlantis.

The waves hide ancient secrets.  New evidence is emerging of grand civilizations that were lost in the seas.  There were pyramids off the coast of Japan.  Why are there circular stones lying in the Aegean Sea?  Is a rock formation just rocks, or are they the remains of a great city?  Atlantis may be revealed.  There are many other stories that have yet to be revealed.  If we drain the waters, we can see what is lying on the sea floor.

The story begins off the coast of Japan.  When the waters are drained away, an interesting formation appears.  Is this a huge underwater temple?  Or is it a natural formation?  When the oceans are drained away, perfectly straight walls emerge.  However there is something unusual about these walls, there is no evidence of building.  Could this be a natural formation?  Upon closer examination, it looks like these step-stairs walled formation is carved.  When the diver first discovered the site, he immediately thought of Manchu Pichu.

The site is the size of five football fields and is the same height as an eight-story building.  The site is surveyed with the latest in scanning technology.  The scans revealed that it could potentially have been carved by humans, or was it?  What was the purpose of this site?  Who built this site?  Why does it appear castle-like?  What does this tell us about the ancient people of Japan?  Or is this monument simply a natural formation?

The documentary shifts to the Aegean Sea and a pile of jumbled stones.  Is this debris or evidence of a great civilization?  A diver looking to take pictures discovered circular objects in the sea bed.  These were highly unusual and these stones stretch out for miles.  Why are these stones out in the sea?  The Aegean Sea is drained away and reveals a debris pile.  More and more shapes are revealed and were these the remains of columns?  Columns were important to Greek architecture.  They were used to help build temples.  If these are columns what were they dedicated to?  Or are these just a natural formation?  Man, this Drain the Ocean is really skeptical about natural formations versus man-made formations.

The story then shifts to an island off the Greek and an ordinary fishing port.  However less than one hundred yards off the port, an archeologist discovers evidence of shapes and human activity.  It was discovered that there were the remains of a town underwater.  Could these be man-made structures?  With the way this documentary has been going probably not.  Anyway, the water is trained anyway and the square remains of something are uncovered.  The remains cover over 20 acres and could have housed thousands of people.  It is clear that the structures are manmade.  Divers have discovered pottery on the site that would prove that the area had been inhabited at one time.  Why did the builders build this town?  Why was this site selected?  What about Atlantis?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

I found this episode enjoyable.  The big downside of this series is that the episodes are too short.  There could be longer episodes and certain sites could have more time dedicated to them.  The debate over the formation in Japan was very interesting.  It could have the potential of something, so it will take time to discover what that is.  Just because science does not see anything now, does not shut the door on future discoveries.  History is always evolving with discoveries.  Anyway, it is nice to see James Delgado participate in this documentary.  Even though it was full of skepticism about what was discovered on the ocean floor, this would be something I would show to a science class.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening and I hope that this finds you well.  January is flying by quickly and soon we will be in February.  Today I am going to do a documentary on Ancient Rome.  It looks like it is going to be about Pompeii, and it has been a while since I have done a documentary on Pompeii and on the Roman Empire.  It also looks like it is an older documentary, so here goes nothing!   The run time for this documentary is 51:23.

Pompeii and Heracleum would go down in history as two Roman towns that were buried under layers of ash from Mount Vesuvius.  These cities give a glimpse into what life was like in the Roman Empire beyond Rome.  During the Roman Empire, this area was a holiday resort.  Unfortunately, the holiday would end with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  The remains of Pompeii and Heracleum lie quiet, their preservation a testament to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 

Pompeii and Heracleum were considered the playgrounds of the rich during the Roman Empire.  When these cities were built they thought the Romans thought they were building on a large hill next to the sea.  However, that hill turned out to be a dormant volcano: Mount Vesuvius.  When Mount Vesuvius erupted, it would unleash hell on earth for the citizens of Pompeii and Heracleum.  These cities would have been buried under tons of ash which not only would have killed the people but preserved their buildings for future generations.

The story of the volcanic eruption is told by two historians Pliny the Elder and his nephew Pliny the Younger.  Pliny the Elder was so intrigued by what was going on he would order his ships to go into the harbor to observe what was going on.  The peak of Mount Vesuvius had blown its top off and was one of the most violent disasters in history.  The day Mount Vesuvius erupted would have begun like any other day.  The people would have gone about their business with the mountain looming over them.

Over the previous days, there had been minor tremors.  Local sources of water had dried up.  These were early warning signs of something looming.  Mount Vesuvius suddenly exploded throwing burning rock and ash into the sky.  The sun darkened.  Chaos and shock rippled through Pompeii.  Rescue for these people was out of the question as tons of pumice stones rained down on the people.

Two days later, the sun would appear again.  It would have revealed a landscape full of devastation and a city that had vanished.  Mount Vesuvius had been ripped open, leaving behind a stump.  In the Romans's eyes, the area would become cursed and nobody would try to resettle in the area.  What would have happened to its people?  At the start of the eruption, people would have headed indoors to shelter from the falling ash.  However, there would have been people who died in the streets after being hit by debris while they fled from the volcano.

What remains of the city was uncovered by archeologists.  It had been theorized that Pompeii had been evacuated, however, the remains of the people were discovered and it proved that not many people fled from the volcano.  There was an exploration of the fault line that would have caused Mount Vesuvius to explode.  To learn more about what had gone on that led to the explosion of Mount Vesuvius, continue to watch the rest of the episode.

To start off, it felt like the documentary started in the middle of another documentary because we were treated to a map of the Bay of Naples with no real context to it other than this was where Pompeii and Heracleum were located.  The volume seemed very low too, so you may have to turn up the volume on the device you are showing this documentary on.  This documentary is older, however, I found it very good.  There are plenty of updated documentaries on Pompeii and Herculaneum though.  It also looks like it was pieced together with another short documentary, which was not clear from the description.  It should have been divided into chapters if that was the case.  Anyway, I would skip this one as there are more updated documentaries available.