Delving into the mysteries of the past to shed light on the present.
How a Portuguese queen established one of the most iconic British traditions.
For more than 100 years, the remains of a high-ranking Viking warrior were assumed to be male.
In 1960, Jacques Piccard and Lieutenant Don Walsh journeyed to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
The dazzling construction of golden resin, gifted to Russian Tsar Peter the Great, was looted by the Nazis.
What happened when the British parliament of the 1640s made celebrating Christmas illegal?
How the Oneida community went from a radical 19th Century 'free-love utopia' to a household name in cutlery.
Baiae was the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire. Today, a team of archaeologists and engineers are trying to save it.
In the mid-1800s London had a pretty stinky problem. But what caused it? The answer is not for the fainthearted.
These portals were used to serve wine during the plague of 1630.
Some of the most powerful members of the Knights Templar were buried at The Church of Santa Maria do Olival.
Who put giant walrus bones in an old human grave in London?
BEST OF 2019: Quinta da Regaleira's 'inverted tower' celebrates Portugal's Templar past.
Submerged in eleven metres of water sits a landscape that contains clues to Britain’s earliest farmers.
Battle of Britain: The schoolgirl who helped design Spitfire
An ongoing DNA analysis may prove Christopher Columbus was not the man we thought he was.
Comedian Russell Kane shares a rather different side of one of the world's most famous monarchs.
Long before any recorded pandemic, an ancient civilisation in Nepal used a little-known system of quarantine.
BBC News presenter Clive Myrie visits Bristol and explores its colonial legacy.
Until the mid-1800s, doctors didn’t wash their hands. They believed diseases were spread by bad smells.
A new translation of an ancient Viking runestone has revealed their fears of an ominous climate crisis.
The stories of three women who were part of a quiet resistance against the Nazis in Berlin.
BEST OF 2019: Who's really buried in these intriguing monuments?
For decades, the iconic portrait of a priest murdered in the Spanish Civil War hid an unexpected secret.
Were the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands really survivors of the lost city of Atlantis?
What made the Harappan civilisation leave their cities for the Himalayas?
An international crime investigation puts the ancient Italian city of Matera on the world stage.
Three divers have lost their lives trying to discover the origin of this mysterious spring.
Archaeologists want to see the vessel on public display by 2025.
Two families have been guarding Europe's oldest lake's secret for generations
Artist Mat Collishaw attempts to unmask this famously image-conscious monarch.
In the south Australian countryside sits a mysterious Aboriginal stone arrangement.
Architect and sculptor Dy Proeung buried his life’s work to preserve it, and save his life.
In the heart of London, on the banks of the River Thames, is a landmark that very few know even exists.
Why is the village of Dargavs in Russia also known as the 'City of the Dead'?
Under the noses of millions of Londoners lies a huge archaeological site.
Archaeologists continue their quest to unearth an ancient Messinian city.
The story of how the chance find of a bracelet in the sea helped solve a decades-old hunt for a missing author.
How black-and-white photos are being brought back to life.
Orkney has a rich archaeological heritage, but it's eroding into the sea.
Dandara was a fierce warrior who defended a kingdom of freed slaves - so why has history forgotten her?
Scientists are using light brighter than the Sun to decipher scrolls buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79.
Metal detectorists stole a viking hoard that rewrites Anglo-Saxon history.
Take a look inside Wünsdorf, a complex near Berlin that housed tens of thousands of Soviet troops.
Officials are watching the vessel which moved closer to the edge last week.
The Rescued Film Project aims to develop all the world's unprocessed camera film.
A secret laboratory 800m below the Pyrenees.
Pearce Paul Creasman, an underwater archaeologist, explores the murky depths of Sudan's pyramids.
The Tale of Genji is a Japanese novel written a thousand years ago by female author Murasaki Shikibu.
The Vasa set sail in 1628 and sank after two hours. It lay under the sea until 1961.
How does a massive military cannon go missing for almost 100 years?
The 850-year-old cathedral has stood the test of time from the French Revolution to World War Two.
It’s a tourism model that relies on staying hidden.
The Wemyss Caves in Scotland house the mysterious ancient Pictish carvings.
It took 350 million bricks to build.
Can new research unlock its mysteries?
It lies beneath the waves of one of the world’s most popular beaches.
None of his teachers believed he could do it.
