Searching for Lost Worlds (1999)
Journey into lush jungle foliage, up fog-bathed mountains, under flaming desert sands, back in time. How would it feel to be the first one, to be a bold explorer, to make a one-of-a-kind discovery? Return to the golden age of exploration as five men set out into the world to make their names. This exciting five-episode Discovery Channel series will take you to South Africa, the Gobi Desert, the Andes Mountains, Egypt's Valley of the Kings, and the islands of Crete and Santorini to discover the missing link in human evolution, the bones of new dinosaur species, the lost city of the Inca, the undisturbed tomb of King Tutankhamun, and the lost civilization of the Minoans.
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Episode 1 - Skull Wars - The Missing Link
Release Date: 1999-11-30In the early 1920's, Professor Raymond Dart uncovers a tiny skull in a South African quarry that ignites one of the greatest controversies of 20th Century science. Believing he has found the Missing Link in the evolution from ape to man, Dart's theory directly challenges the prevailing wisdom of British Anthropology and Dart is soon pitted against his former mentor in a bitter battle over whose theory of evolution is correct. From struggle and heartbreak to triumph and the discovery of an astonishing scientific fraud, Skull Wars chronicles an epic tale from the Golden Age of Exploration--a tale that changed the very story of mankind.
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Episode 2 - Machu Picchu - Secrets of the Incan Empire
Release Date:Seeking fame and fortune, Hiram Bingham treks into the mountainous central regions of Peru in search of the Lost City of the Incas. When he emerges, he is an exploration superstar; the recipient of such adulation, he is able to parlay it into a career in the U.S. Senate. Following a trail of rumor and legend, he wanders far into the sacred valleys, where he discovers a series of mountain-top sanctuaries used by the Incas to hide from the Spanish Conquerors. Machu Picchu chronicles the arduous, near-mystical journey of a man consumed by ambition and reveals the astonishing remains of a vanished culture, hidden beneath the encroaching jungle and beyond the mists of time.
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Episode 3 - Dragon Hunters - Secrets of the Gobi Desert
Release Date:Roy Andrews was an adventurer. Protege to the head of New York's Museum of Natural History, Andrews sets out to prove his patron's theory that mammals had first developed on the continent of Asia. Backed by the exploration-mad financial giants who head up New York society, Andrews outfits the first automotive expedition to the burning sands of Mongolia's Gobi Desert. There he battles the inhospitable climate, the machinations of the local government and the ever-present threat of violent bandits and marauding warlords. In a quest that would cost him his eyesight, his happy marriage and, very nearly his life, The Dragon Hunter's discoveries add immeasurably to mankind's knowledge of evolution.
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Episode 4 - Atlantis - Mystery of the Minoans
Release Date:Millionaire Arthur Evans is consumed by the belief that the legends of Greece point to an earlier civilization that formed the basis for the legend of the Lost Continent of Atlantis. He spends his life and most of his fortune, uncovering this earliest of all European societies. Deciphering the artifacts of this unknown culture, Evans finds clues that his "Minoans" (named for the legendary king, Minos) produced a highly-evolved, intelligent an artistic society that reached out through trade and disappeared forever in mysterious circumstances. Atlantis presents the story of a vanished race whose epic history was long believed to be nothing more than myths--fanciful inventions from the songs of poets.
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Episode 5 - Tutankhamun - The Last Pharaoh
Release Date:Deep in the Valley of the Kings, ancient Egyptian rulers lay buried beneath tons of rubble in tombs of astonishing complexity. Despite the many raids conducted by grave robbers, the tomb of the boy-king, Tutankhamun, eludes discovery until English adventurer Howard Carter uncovers the clues that reveal the hidden labrynthian catacombs. Despite the fame and wealth they achieve, Carter and his team are dogged by tragedy, believed by many to be the manifestation of The Curse of Tutankhamun. Tutankhamun provides an exceptional view of the discovery of the ages and the haunted men who lived to regret their great achievement.