Ancient Mysteries (documentary)
Encyclopedia
Ancient Mysteries is a documentary
television series that was produced by FilmRoos
and originally broadcast on A&E
from January 7, 1994 until May 3, 1998 with reruns airing until 2000. Reruns were also re-broadcast on The Biography Channel
during the 2000s. The series deals with historical mysteries and is mostly hosted by Leonard Nimoy
(unless otherwise noted), which recalls the late-1970s TV Series In Search Of....
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
television series that was produced by FilmRoos
FilmRoos
FilmRoos was a film production company that produced such documentary television series as Mysteries of the Bible , Christianity: The First Two Thousand Years , and Banned from the Bible for the A&E Network....
and originally broadcast on A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
from January 7, 1994 until May 3, 1998 with reruns airing until 2000. Reruns were also re-broadcast on The Biography Channel
The Biography Channel
The Biography Channel is an American digital cable television channel owned by A&E and based on the television series of the same name. A version of the channel also airs on ONO and Telefónica in Spain and on Sky Digital and cable television in the United Kingdom, a version of the channel also...
during the 2000s. The series deals with historical mysteries and is mostly hosted by Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
(unless otherwise noted), which recalls the late-1970s TV Series In Search Of....
Season 1
- "BigfootBigfootBigfoot, also known as sasquatch, is an ape-like cryptid that purportedly inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid...
" (narrated by John Swanson, a Leonard Nimoy-narrated episode of Bigfoot was later produced in 1997) original air date 7 January 1994 - "Origin of the VampireVampireVampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
" original air date 14 January 1994 - "The Lost Ark of the CovenantArk of the CovenantThe Ark of the Covenant , also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in Book of Exodus as solely containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed...
" original air date 21 January 1994 - "The Lost Pharaoh" original air date 17 June 1994
- "The Marble Hunter" original air date 8 July 1994
- "Northern Lights" (narrated by Michael Kramer) original air date 29 July 1994
Season 2
- "Enigma of the Dead Sea ScrollsDead Sea scrollsThe Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
" original air date 7 October 1994 - "Rapa Nui" original air date 14 October 1994
- "The Odyssey of TroyOdysseyThe Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
" original air date 10 February 1995 - "The Shroud of TurinShroud of TurinThe Shroud of Turin or Turin Shroud is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma in a manner consistent with crucifixion. It is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, northern Italy. The image on the shroud is...
" original air date 21 April 1995 - "Shreds of Evidence" original air date 21 April 1995
- "Shadow of the Templars" original air date 12 May 1995
- "Robot Journey Into the Past" original air date 26 May 1995
- "Myth of the Spanish Inquisition" original air date 9 June 1995
- "The Loch Ness Monster" original air date 21 July 1995
- "Easter IslandEaster IslandEaster Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
: The Secrets" original air date 4 August 1995
Season 3
- "The Hidden City of PetraPetraPetra is a historical and archaeological city in the Jordanian governorate of Ma'an that is famous for its rock cut architecture and water conduits system. Established sometime around the 6th century BC as the capital city of the Nabataeans, it is a symbol of Jordan as well as its most visited...
" original air date 8 September 1995 - "Palenque: The Maya" original air date 15 September 1995
- "CamelotCamelotCamelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world...
" original air date 22 September 1995 - "Vikings in North AmericaNorse colonization of the AmericasThe Norse colonization of the Americas began as early as the 10th century, when Norse sailors explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeastern fringes of North America....
" original air date 6 October 1995 - "Machu PicchuMachu PicchuMachu Picchu is a pre-Columbian 15th-century Inca site located above sea level. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is northwest of Cusco and through which the Urubamba River flows. Most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for...
: City in the Sky" original air date 8 October 1995 - "Quest for the Fountain of YouthFountain of YouthThe Fountain of Youth is a legendary spring that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters. Tales of such a fountain have been recounted across the world for thousands of years, appearing in writings by Herodotus, the Alexander romance, and the stories of Prester John...
" original air date 13 October 1995 - "The Timber Castles of England" original air date 20 October 1995
- "Secret Mounds of Prehistoric America" original air date 29 October 1995
- "The Search for Shangri-LaShangri-LaShangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains...
" original air date 3 November 1995 - "Who Built StonehengeStonehengeStonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
?" original air date 10 November 1995 - "AtlantisAtlantisAtlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
: The Lost Civilization" original air date 17 November 1995 - "The Search for Alexander the Great" original air date 19 November 1995
- "The Riddle of the Maya" original air date 24 November 1995
- "The Lost Canyon of the Pueblos" original air date 26 November 1995
- "Naked Warriors of Europe" original air date 3 December 1995
- "Life and Death in Britian's Ancient Theaters" original air date 10 December 1995
- "Quest for the Holy Lance" original air date 24 December 1995
- "Blood and Honor at the First Olympics" original air date 11 January 1996
- "The Sunken City" original air date 14 January 1996
- "The Miraculous Canals of VeniceVeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
" original air date 21 January 1996 - "Blood and Treasure in Peru" original air date 1 February 1996
- "PompeiiPompeiiThe city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...
: Buried Alive" original air date 2 February 1996 - "Hadrian's Wall" original air date 4 February 1996
- "Secrets of the Pueblo" original air date 22 February 1996
- "The Puzzling Pyramids of Mexico" original air date 29 February 1996
- "The Rosetta Stone" original air date 21 March 1996
- "China's Wall of Doom" original air date 21 March 1996
- "AstrologyAstrologyAstrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
: Secrets in the Stars" original air date 28 March 1996 - "The Queen Pharaoh" original air date 11 April 1996
- "Secrets of Sex: The Kama SutraKama SutraThe Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian Hindu text widely considered to be the standard work on human sexual behavior in Sanskrit literature written by Vātsyāyana. A portion of the work consists of practical advice on sexual intercourse. It is largely in prose, with many inserted anustubh poetry verses...
" original air date 18 April 1996 - "Temples of Eternity" original air date 21 April 1996
- "The Forbidden CityForbidden CityThe Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum...
: The Dynasty and Destiny" original air date 25 April 1996 - "The Incredible Monuments of Ancient Rome" original air date 5 May 1996
- "Lost Spirits of CambodiaCambodiaCambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
" original air date 9 May 1996 - "Lost Legions of Rome" original air date 12 May 1996
- "Voodoo!" (two-hour special) original air date 16 May 1996
- "The Lost Cities of Rome" original air date 19 May 1996
- "RiteRiteA rite is an established, ceremonious, usually religious act. Rites in this sense fall into three major categories:* rites of passage, generally changing an individual's social status, such as marriage, baptism, or graduation....
s of Death" original air date 6 June 1996 - "Lost Castles of England" original air date 9 June 1996
- "Secrets of DelphiDelphiDelphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
" original air date 20 June 1996 - "The Secret Life of King Ramses II" original air date 11 July 1996
- "The Powerful Gods of Mt. Olympus" original air date 11 July 1996
Season 4
- "Ancient Altered StatesAltered state of consciousnessAn altered state of consciousness , also named altered state of mind, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking beta wave state. The expression was used as early as 1966 by Arnold M. Ludwig and brought into common usage from 1969 by Charles Tart: it describes induced...
" original air date 5 September 1996 - "Ancient ProphecyProphecyProphecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
" original air date 19 September 1996 - "Before Their Time: Ancient Technology" original air date 7 October 1996
- "Hidden Cities of the Etruscans" original air date 10 October 1996
- "Witches" original air date 24 October 1996
- "Mystical Monuments of Ancient Greece" original air date 21 November 1996
- "Sacred RiteRiteA rite is an established, ceremonious, usually religious act. Rites in this sense fall into three major categories:* rites of passage, generally changing an individual's social status, such as marriage, baptism, or graduation....
s and RitualRitualA ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
s" original air date 19 December 1996 - "UFOs: The First Encounters" original air date 2 January 1997
- "Tombs of the Gods: The Great Pyramids of GizaGiza pyramid complexThe Giza Necropolis is an archaeological site on the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. This complex of ancient monuments includes the three pyramid complexes known as the Great Pyramids, the massive sculpture known as the Great Sphinx, several cemeteries, a workers' village and an...
" original air date 16 January 1997 - "Secrets of the Aztec Empire" original air date 13 February 1997
- "The Curse of the Hope DiamondHope DiamondThe Hope Diamond, also known as "Le bleu de France" or "Le Bijou du Roi", is a large, , deep-blue diamond, now housed in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. It is blue to the naked eye because of trace amounts of boron within its crystal structure, but exhibits red...
" original air date 6 March 1997 - "Private Lives of the Emperors" original air date 27 March 1997
- "Secrets of the Romanovs" original air date 10 April 1997
- "Legends of the Arabian Nights" original air date 20 April 1997
- "The Fate of the Neandertals" original air date 27 April 1997
- "Human SacrificeHuman sacrificeHuman sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...
" original air date 1 May 1997 - "Lost City of Pirates" original air date 8 May 1997
- "Bigfoot" (Leonard Nimoy-narrated version) original air date 15 May 1997
- "Samuari" original air date 22 May 1997
- "Curse of the Goddess Pele" original air date 5 June 1997
- "Guardian of the Ages: The Great Sphinx" original air date 12 June 1997
- "Sacred Places" original air date 19 June 1997
- "DragonDragonA dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
s: Myths and Legends" original air date 26 June 1997 - "Headhunters of the Amazon" original air date 3 July 1997
- "The Black Death" original air date 10 July 1997
- "The Curse of the Borgias" original air date 31 July 1997
Season 5
- "TattooTattooA tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
ing" original air date 7 August 1997 - "The Sacred Waters of Lourdes" original air date 14 August 1997
- "The Magic of Alchemy" original air date 17 August 1997
- "The Search for the Abominable Snowman" original air date 21 August 1997
- "Quest for the Holy GrailHoly GrailThe Holy Grail is a sacred object figuring in literature and certain Christian traditions, most often identified with the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and said to possess miraculous powers...
" original air date 28 August 1997 - "Knights Templar" original air date 7 September 1997
- "Reincarnation" original air date 2 November 1997
- "Lost Mummies of the Inca" original air date 4 January 1998
- "Dreamtime of the AboriginesIndigenous AustraliansIndigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
" original air date 3 May 1998
External links
- Internet Movie Database: Ancient Mysteries - includes an incomplete episode list