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00:00I'm traveling the world, exploring secrets and wonders,
00:08an adventure of discovery to try to understand the story of humanity.
00:15This is a treasure that needs decoding.
00:19Today, Greece, birthplace of
00:23an astonishing culture that helped change the way the world thinks,
00:28pioneering medicine, political ideologies, global innovations.
00:34Greece is often hailed as a bedrock of civilization.
00:37It is that and so much more.
00:46I want to take you to the heart of this extraordinary place.
00:50With special and unique access to treasures and discoveries.
00:56Oh, my gosh!
00:58Revealing secrets and surprises...
01:02My goodness, if these walls could talk.
01:06..that capture the exceptional, enduring spirit...
01:10That is brilliant. That is brilliant.
01:13..of this ancient land.
01:16What do you think?
01:17..of this ancient land.
01:19What a genius. This is genius.
01:21So this was 2,500 years ago.
01:24Each one revealing something vital about the world and us.
01:29I'm taking you to my hand-picked wonders.
01:47Athens, a jewel in the crown of ancient Greek civilisation.
01:52Wherever you are in Athens, it's pretty much impossible to miss this,
01:57the Acropolis.
01:59For over 3,500 years,
02:02it's borne witness to the incredible Greek civilisation.
02:06A civilisation that still impacts our lives today.
02:12On the Acropolis rock alone, there was a theatre, a concert hall
02:16and, of course, the great temple of the goddess Athena, the Parthenon.
02:24The Parthenon's come to embody what some describe
02:27as the golden age of Athens in the 5th century BCE.
02:31But, actually, that Greek spirit of innovation and ambition
02:36and the sheer creativity and energy and audacity
02:40that built the treasures on the Acropolis
02:42was actually at play in different times and different places
02:46right across Greece.
02:48To get to the heart of this game-changing story,
02:51I'm exploring intriguing, inspiring wonders of Greece
02:55which reveal our deep debt to the past.
03:02First, I'm heading to one of the most iconic ancient sites on the planet.
03:08Home to a driving, competitive spirit
03:10that made the Greeks special and that shaped our world.
03:16Olympia, birthplace of the original Olympic Games.
03:25I just love coming to Olympia because, obviously,
03:28it's thrilling to be somewhere that's famous
03:30as the birthplace of the Olympic Games.
03:32But this site has so much more to reveal.
03:36For over 3,000 years, Olympia has been a sacred place.
03:41The chief sanctuary of Zeus,
03:43the most powerful of all the Greek gods,
03:46ruler of Mount Olympus,
03:48god of success, god of the sky.
03:56In ancient times, visitors would have entered this sacred space
03:59with a real sense of awe and wonder...
04:04..knowing that, with every step,
04:06they were drawn closer to the home of the almighty god.
04:10And, to be honest, coming here, it does still feel very spiritual.
04:17Recent digs are revealing how every detail was chosen
04:21to enhance the sublime experience.
04:24Because this has only just been excavated,
04:27you can still see fantastic details on the stone,
04:30like the fact that it's made of a composite stone
04:33that's absolutely thick with millions of year-old seashells.
04:40We know that this stone was chosen
04:42because it celebrated the raw power of the earth.
04:45Isn't that beautiful?
04:53So, this is the Altis, the sanctuary of the gods,
04:57the pulsing centre of divine power here,
05:00and a celebration of the power of the creations of humanity.
05:05And at its heart was the magnificent temple of Zeus.
05:14And within the temple, a huge statue of the god himself,
05:18decorated in gold and ivory, over 12 metres tall,
05:22and so spectacular it was considered one of the seven wonders of the world.
05:30Originally a statement of pure power,
05:33only ghostly remains have been left.
05:36The temple was destroyed by an earthquake,
05:39the statue by fire.
05:43But now painstaking research and modern technology
05:47is raising the Olympian Zeus from the ashes.
05:50This is fantastic.
05:52That's amazing.
05:54It had very famous decorations above the entrance on the pediment.
05:58World-class.
06:01And they were painted these bright colours.
06:03And then, there it is.
06:05That's the world-famous statue of Zeus.
06:10Look at him.
06:12So, covered in gold and ivory.
06:15This is brilliant.
06:17And people who came here from the ancient world
06:19said it was so beautifully done, it was so inspiring.
06:22They felt as though they were in the presence of Zeus himself.
06:27Wow, what a moment to be standing in the temple and looking at him.
06:33Every four years, for over 1,000 years,
06:37a pretty intense festival, the Glorified Achievement,
06:40was held here in honour of Zeus, including a gory climax,
06:45the ritual sacrifice of 100 bulls.
06:50Their throats were cut and then they were burnt as an offering to the gods.
06:55And the remains of that offering
06:57and the remains of the ash of the sacred flame,
06:59the Olympic flame, which is always burnt here,
07:02would be piled up in this kind of weird, greasy,
07:06ashy, bone monument altar to death and sacrifice just there.
07:13And so, when people came here, that was one of the sights.
07:17So visceral, as an experience, coming here.
07:21This was a place and an experience that really, really mattered.
07:26And if you'd come, you would never have forgotten your visit.
07:33Critically, here, men could become uber-heroes,
07:37companions of the gods,
07:39by triumphing in the ancient world's greatest sporting contest,
07:43the Olympic Games.
07:47Only free Greek citizens could take part.
07:50Heralds travelled right across the Greek world,
07:52from Sicily to Georgia,
07:54to invite aspiring athletes to compete.
08:01This was the biggest meeting of Greeks from across the ancient world
08:05and the buzz of anticipation must have been extraordinary.
08:12Close on 100,000 spectators flocked to Olympia.
08:17These games weren't just sport.
08:20This competition was itself a religious experience.
08:24The atmosphere must have been electric.
08:30So, this is the stadium where the races were held
08:33and the competitors would all have lined up here on the starting line,
08:36stark naked, to prove to Zeus how hard they'd trained for his festival.
08:42And actually, the ancient Greek word for naked is gymnos,
08:46which gives us our word gymnastics.
08:48And the stadium takes its name from the stadion or stade,
08:52which was the measure of distance from one end to the other.
08:58The victor of the stadium was crowned with wild olive leaves
09:02from a tree said to be planted by the hero Hercules,
09:06outside the temple of Zeus.
09:08Victory was such an honour,
09:10the year was named after the winner forever.
09:14And it wasn't just running.
09:17At the same time, other contests were added.
09:20Wrestling, discus, javelin, pentathlon,
09:23and something called pankration,
09:25a ferocious mix of wrestling and boxing.
09:29Throughout the games, the rivalry was mega intense.
09:34We know this from these incredible curse tablets
09:37that have been found in stadiums right across Greece.
09:40They're little thin strips of lead.
09:43And, for example, one competitor says to another,
09:46I want you to be struck deaf, dumb, and blind.
09:49I want you to be mindless, heartless, headless, hopeless.
09:53It gives you a real sense of how high the passions ran here.
09:59And that rivalry was, of course, all about winning.
10:04For the Greeks, winning was everything.
10:07There was no such thing as an honourable loser.
10:10And competition was stitched through all aspects of Greek life.
10:14So politicians competed,
10:16but poets, playwrights, and even potters competed too.
10:20The Olympic Games provided the opportunity
10:23for days on end of sublime, ferocious contest.
10:30Contest struggle was there to honour the best
10:34and to make people aspire to be better.
10:37Success was a goal enshrined in Greek culture
10:41via the Games for over 1,000 years.
10:45A legacy, some would argue, an ethos we've inherited.
10:52The modern Games were revived in Greece in 1896,
10:56after being closed down by Christian emperors 1,600 years before.
11:01The Olympic torch is now ritually lit here at Olympia
11:06and is transported around the world.
11:11Olympia is one of our wonders
11:13because from the stupendous statue of Zeus
11:16to the raw rivalry of the Games,
11:18it encapsulates a Greek spirit of competition.
11:22That constant, restless struggle
11:25to innovate and create and be the best
11:28led the Greeks to make astonishing advances in the human story.
11:34My next treasure is an experiment in Utopia,
11:38a city-state where women and men
11:41gave everything for the common good.
11:44Sparta, in the south-east Peloponnese.
11:50When you come to visit Sparta,
11:52it can be hard to imagine that this was once
11:55one of the most influential, game-changing civilisations
11:58in the world.
12:01But there's good reason for that.
12:03The Spartans didn't really believe in material wealth
12:06or monumental buildings.
12:08What they were all about was the human experience
12:11and military muscle.
12:15Sparta's male citizens were all full-time fighters,
12:20men who shared everything.
12:24The selection of men who shared everything
12:27The selection for this life as a military elite
12:30began at birth.
12:35When babies were born, they were bathed in wine
12:38by the elders of the city to toughen them up.
12:41And if they were still considered weak
12:44or disabled in any way,
12:46then they were thrown off the ridge of that mountain.
12:50For those deemed fit, super-strict training lay ahead.
12:56From the age of seven, all boys were taken out of the city
13:00and put into the agogi,
13:02which was basically a kind of extreme boot camp.
13:05They were taught music and dancing,
13:08but most importantly, survival and military skills.
13:13The boys were trained to fight,
13:17but most importantly, survival and military skills.
13:21Because the idea was to turn these young men
13:24into the ultimate fighting machines.
13:31Sparta's values were physically beaten into these young boys.
13:36Their education was brutal and bloody.
13:42When they became teenagers, things got really hardcore.
13:46The most promising trainees were selected to become
13:49part of the cryptaea, a secret society.
13:53And these boys were set the ultimate test.
13:56They had to sneak back into the city of Sparta by night
14:00and murder a slave in cold blood in his or her bed.
14:06Spartan men were not to be messed with.
14:11From the age of 20,
14:13these men were only allowed to be full-time soldiers.
14:19Someone had to do everything else to run Spartan society.
14:27All non-military work in Sparta was carried out
14:30by a slave population, the helots.
14:33Now, of course, it's an uncomfortable truth
14:35about Greek society that this was a slave population.
14:39But it was a bit different in Sparta.
14:41The helots weren't outsiders.
14:43They were local Greeks who'd been conquered
14:45and subordinated by the Spartans.
14:48And it was these helots
14:50that made the Spartan war machine possible.
14:54But compared to other Greek city-states, like Athens,
14:58women here were almost liberated.
15:05Spartan women, pretty much,
15:07had the run of the city.
15:09They were taught to speak in public.
15:11They were allowed the same rations as men,
15:13which was really unusual in the ancient world.
15:16They could drink wine.
15:18They could race in chariots.
15:20And the women used to get together
15:22to commemorate Helen of Troy,
15:24the powerful queen who was originally Helen of Sparta.
15:30They would oil one another with olive oil
15:33and speak of ambrosial nights
15:36and limb-loosening desire.
15:39Frankly, it all sounds pretty wonderful
15:42and pretty erotic.
15:45Many of these liberties were there
15:47to ensure Spartan women were strong enough
15:49to birth robust baby boys,
15:52spear fodder for the model army.
15:55But they were freedoms, nonetheless.
15:59Of course, there was a very dark side to the Spartan system.
16:03But what caught the imagination of contemporaries
16:06and many future generations
16:08was their absolute commitment
16:10to excellence and to courage.
16:14Those qualities lay at the heart
16:16of the last stand of the Spartans
16:18at the Battle of Thermopylae,
16:20when 300 Spartan soldiers,
16:22hugely outnumbered by a Persian army,
16:25refused to retreat,
16:27knowing that by standing their ground,
16:31they faced certain death.
16:39Today, people in Sparta,
16:41like local mayor Petros Doukas,
16:43remain deeply proud of their hard-core legacy.
16:47What do you think is Sparta's gift to modern Greece?
16:51Sparta's gift is the concept of bravery,
16:55loving your country,
16:57being able to sacrifice for the country,
17:00being able to sacrifice for the laws and your country.
17:03So in order to be a functioning state,
17:05you had to do things for the state,
17:07but that also gave you privileges
17:09and meant that you could be part of a healthy society.
17:11And not only gave you privileges,
17:13but it was a self-policed system.
17:15I mean, the peer pressure was there.
17:17We have to do our duty. Why?
17:19Because that's the only way to retain our freedom.
17:24Sparta was an object of fascination to other Greeks,
17:27but its extreme one-for-all and all-for-one spirit
17:31has been replicated down history.
17:33Its idiosyncratic glories
17:36inspired political movements,
17:38video games, films and books.
17:41Scores of sports teams take their name from the city,
17:44as do numerous towns, especially in North America.
17:47We got to connect the line...
17:50This is a brilliantly random event.
17:53Because people were inspired by the idea
17:57to make Sparta this kind of utopia
18:00packed full of the ultra-warrior heroes.
18:03There are loads of other Spartas.
18:05So Sparta in Greece is linking up with Spartas across the world.
18:14So he's getting all the crowds here in Sparta
18:17to shout out, this is Sparta,
18:20which is a line from the 300 film that did really well.
18:27Sparta!
18:32Sparta is one of my wonders.
18:34Not because it was the ultimate military machine,
18:37but because it was a society based on an idea.
18:40An idea that if we come together, anything is possible.
18:43And that we should put our lives
18:46to the service of a cause greater than ourselves.
18:49And love it or loathe it,
18:52it's a role model that continues to inspire
18:55after 2,500 years.
19:04Now I'm following in the footsteps of travellers
19:07from across the ancient world
19:10who urgently made this same journey
19:13as if their lives depended on it.
19:16My destination, Epidaurus.
19:19A wonder with a secret.
19:23An ancient body and soul.
19:26And the story starts in one of the most spectacular buildings
19:29in the ancient world.
19:40This vast auditorium is an architectural masterpiece.
19:4455 tiers of marble benches
19:47can seat up to 15,000 people.
19:50Ancient superstars from the playwright Sophocles
19:53to the emperor Hadrian
19:56journeyed here to enjoy drama as a shared experience.
19:59So what everybody does when they come here,
20:02and I have to say I am no exception,
20:05is they stand in the centre because
20:08the acoustics of this place are totally amazing.
20:11And this is how it was designed.
20:14And you can hear from right at the top.
20:17Angelos.
20:20Is it OK if I stand there?
20:23Do you mind running up to the top?
20:26Sure. Why not?
20:29But tell me honestly if you can hear me
20:32because I'm not going to shout.
20:35So I'm standing down here
20:38and I've just sent Angelos right up to the top
20:41to see if he can hear me.
20:45He's up at the top now.
20:48Hey, Angelos.
20:51Angelos, can you hear me?
20:54I can hear you.
20:57OK, I'm going to give you a bit of a Greek tragedy.
21:00So the wounds of somebody who loves you
21:03and the wounds of somebody who hates you are just the same
21:06because a lover's love is incurable,
21:09whether it's good or bad.
21:12What was I talking about?
21:15About the wounds of love.
21:18I was. That is brilliant.
21:21That is brilliant.
21:24I mean, what genius. This is genius.
21:27So this was 2,500 years ago.
21:30And of course, the ancient Greeks,
21:33they were sharing these brilliant, beautiful, bold words,
21:36these kind of big ideas about what it is to be human.
21:40What was said here really mattered.
21:43But the theatre wasn't actually the reason
21:46that the ancients came here from far and wide.
21:49They came because this earthly paradise
21:52was sacred to Asclepius,
21:55god of medicine, protector of human health and happiness,
21:58believed to have been born right here.
22:01This was one of the first-ever health centres,
22:04famed across the Greek and Roman world.
22:10People came here as pilgrims and as patients.
22:13Obviously, they honoured the gods,
22:16and right at the heart of the sanctuary,
22:19there was a massive temple to Asclepius,
22:22housing a giant statue of him made out of gold and ivory.
22:25But they also came desperate to be cured.
22:35This is where the gods' healing was actually thought to take place.
22:38It's called the abaton, which means a sacred enclosure.
22:41And during the day, the sick and the wounded would lie out here,
22:44and then at night, they'd enter a dark chamber
22:47to undergo the sacred rite of incubation.
22:54So, the patients fell asleep,
22:57waiting for Asclepius to come to them in their dreams,
23:00believing he'd magically cure them
23:03or reveal what treatment they needed.
23:08There's a brilliant bit of evidence from here
23:11that tells the story of a blind man who came and was cured,
23:14but then he didn't cough up enough of an offering to the sanctuary,
23:17so he immediately lost his sight again.
23:20He came back and he was healed for the second time,
23:23and the priests here loved this fact and made much of it and publicised it,
23:26because, basically, it was very convenient for them to say,
23:29listen, miracles do happen here,
23:32but only at the right price.
23:35There were, however, some treatments that were free of charge.
23:40This is just too perfect that there are dogs here in the sanctuary,
23:44because we know there were loads of dogs in ancient times,
23:47because dogs were actually sacred to Asclepius.
23:51And I know that is a bit counterintuitive,
23:54you might kind of wonder why that is,
23:57but recent research shows that there is definitely
24:00antibacterial properties in dogs' saliva,
24:04and dogs didn't heal with their lick,
24:07so they were kind of like the servants of healing in the ancient world.
24:11And they're still here today,
24:14although I'm not sure I'd let these ones lick my wounds.
24:21But treatment here went beyond dogs and miracles.
24:25Archaeology has revealed why this place was a cradle of medicine.
24:29There's something here I absolutely have got to show you.
24:32So in this lovely little cabinet,
24:35there are all these medical instruments that were found on the site,
24:38which are basically just the kind of precursor
24:41of our surgical instruments today.
24:44So there are tweezers and spatulas and knives, obviously,
24:47and then little hooks to deal with veins.
24:50And it's really interesting, this, because increasingly we find,
24:53as well as the priests, you're getting people
24:56that we really think of as doctors operating here.
24:59The ancient Greeks were massive pioneers in medicine,
25:03and actually our word pharmacy is basically an ancient Greek word.
25:07It comes from pharmaka, which means useful little things,
25:11sometimes drugs, you know.
25:14And thinking of the operations that would be done here
25:17with instruments like this, you might be relieved to hear
25:20that they did use pain relief in the form of opiates.
25:27MUSIC
25:33Healing approaches, pioneered here,
25:36spread to over 200-odd Asclepius sanctuaries across Asia and Europe.
25:42This sanatorium employed all kinds of practices,
25:46physical and psychological, as brand-new archaeology suggests.
25:51OK, so I know this might look a bit like a building site,
25:55but actually this is an incredibly exciting and important discovery.
26:01So it's an excavation that's obviously still going on,
26:05and what has been found down there is an underground chamber.
26:10Now, we don't know yet exactly what it would have been used for.
26:14It might have been a music ritual or even a snake pit
26:18or some kind of dungeon where people imagined that they were dead
26:22and that they could be healed and reborn again.
26:25But whatever it is, it's a vital new piece
26:30in the jigsaw puzzle story of this place.
26:39And this is a story that really matters, that has a lot to teach us,
26:44because 2,000 years ago, the women and men here
26:48had a holistic approach to life and health and happiness
26:53we're only re-embracing now.
27:02So, remember this beautiful theatre?
27:05Well, by the 4th century BCE, there wasn't just a theatre here.
27:09There was a stadium, a running track, a gymnasium and an odion,
27:14which is the ancient Greek word for a music hall.
27:17At first, you might think all of this was just provided as entertainment
27:20for all those visitors and pilgrims,
27:22but actually the truth runs far, far deeper.
27:27This was here as therapy,
27:30because the ancient Greeks believed that you could not have a healthy body
27:34unless you had a healthy mind.
27:37The philosopher Aristotle said that when people came together
27:40in a theatre like this to listen to drama, it was catharsis.
27:45It was a purge and a balm for society's soul.
27:56That idea of treating the person as a whole,
27:59rather than just focusing on an isolated problem,
28:02of using art to heal, might seem super-modern,
28:06but the Greeks got there 2,500 years ago.
28:11Epidaurus is a wonder for all kinds of reasons,
28:15but I really love it because it reminds us to respect history
28:19and that we shouldn't just learn about the people of the past,
28:23we should learn from them.
28:27MUSIC
28:38My next wonder, in the heart of northern Greece,
28:42opens a page in the playbook of ambition.
28:46Aegei, a capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedon,
28:50boasts the biggest palace of all classical antiquity
28:54and one of the most spectacular archaeological treasure troves
28:58ever discovered.
29:02I've come here in search of gold and the true story
29:05of two of the most iconic and dynamic kings from the ancient world.
29:11Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great.
29:17These men were determined to take over the whole of Greece and beyond.
29:24MUSIC
29:30Philip's political and military ambition
29:32was matched by his cultural and philosophical vision,
29:36and as he was conquering Greece,
29:38he was also building a massive new headquarters for himself, right here.
29:48The centrepiece was this palace.
29:51The exterior is high, spanning 12,500 square metres,
29:56with ceremonial rooms enclosing a splendid courtyard
30:00that could host 3,000 people.
30:03The first of its kind, this cutting-edge design
30:06was a model for the future.
30:09Lead archaeologist Dr Angeliki Kotaridi
30:12has given me exclusive access to the excavations.
30:16How long have you been doing these excavations here?
30:20I started in 2007 with the works.
30:24That was a huge excavation and it's still running, as you see.
30:28We have, even today, found... Today?
30:31Unbelievable, yes, that part here, this ionic capital here.
30:35Oh, my gosh! How lucky am I to get to see this!
30:38Yes, you brought us luck.
30:41So it's a capital, so this is for the top of a column?
30:44Yes, of the top of the column.
30:46It is a special capital, a very important one.
30:49Look at the decoration on it, that's beautiful.
30:52You see, isn't it brilliant?
30:54Because can we imagine Philip being shown the plans for this
30:58and saying, what do you think of our design?
31:01I'm sure he would have had an opinion on these details.
31:04Of course. He had discussed everything.
31:07He was a genius.
31:09This is an amazing building because it has no predecessors.
31:14No.
31:15For the first time, the ancient Greeks
31:17Ah, so big, you can put three Parthenons here, actually.
31:21It was the biggest building of classical Greece
31:24and it dominates all the area of central Macedonia here.
31:29Yes, and you really get that sense up here
31:32that you're not just king of the world, you're top of the world here.
31:37The palace was designed to impress all comers as a potent centre of power.
31:42Philip hosted hundreds at a time right here in lavish drinking parties
31:47where ideas and plans were shared,
31:49a kind of cross between Camp David in the USA
31:52or state banquets in Buckingham Palace in the UK.
31:56So this is incredible space.
31:58Quite high.
31:59So this is the real entrance here, yes?
32:01Yes, the door.
32:02Fantastic.
32:03Big one, six metres high.
32:05Wow.
32:06Wow, so that would be quite a spectacular entrance.
32:08And what a beautiful mosaic, look at that.
32:11A carpet for eternity, made by stone.
32:14A carpet for eternity, that's what a lovely idea.
32:18So what would this room have been used for?
32:20A banqueting room.
32:22OK.
32:23We have the couches around, gold and ivory couches.
32:26Beautiful.
32:27Imagine, here we have Philip, Aristoteles, Alexander, Athenians,
32:34people from other Greek cities as well.
32:37All the guys, which we know from history, sitting around,
32:42drinking wine with water and discussing.
32:46Philosophy, politics, the new world, which they want to create.
32:51I mean, that is just mind-blowingly brilliant.
32:55And I can imagine, thinking of those conversations that have happened,
32:58as you said, with the wine and the kind of candlelight,
33:01it would give you the ambition to think,
33:03I'm going to go and change the world,
33:05and in Alexander's case, I'm going to go and conquer the world.
33:07The history is so thick for 20 years, almost.
33:12Everything happens here.
33:14This is the absolute heart, not just of Macedon,
33:18of Greece and of the world, actually.
33:21All the development happens here.
33:24Here, yes.
33:26It is the womb that gives birth to everything.
33:31Incredible.
33:34In October 336 BCE, at the height of his power,
33:39Philip invited the leading VIPs of the day here to Aegei
33:43to celebrate the lavish wedding of his daughter,
33:46Alexander's sister, Cleopatra of Macedon.
33:50As part of the show-off festivities, the king hosted games in the theatre.
33:55The spectators crowded in.
33:59It all began with a procession of glory here at dawn.
34:03Statues of the 12 Olympian gods were processed in,
34:06followed by a statue of the king himself,
34:09making a point that he too had divine power.
34:12Philip had actually dismissed his personal bodyguard
34:15to prove that he was protected by the goodwill of the Greeks.
34:20Philip walked in alone, dressed in a beautiful white cloak,
34:24but suddenly an assassin sprang forward,
34:27somebody who'd been loyal to him before, and stabbed him under the ribs.
34:31In front of the horrified crowd, the king fell dead to the ground,
34:36and now there was a new king in charge, Alexander the Great.
34:43Alexander buried his father right here at Aegei,
34:47in a vast burial mound, in a ceremony of unparalleled glory.
34:5317 months later, he set off at the head of his army
34:56on a relentless 11-year campaign,
34:59conquering territories from Egypt to modern-day Afghanistan and India,
35:04exporting Greek culture to Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
35:08Across the centuries, 90% of the royal tombs at Aegei were looted,
35:14but then a miraculous discovery.
35:17Deep in this mound, undisturbed burials,
35:21including that of the great king, Philip II.
35:35Hailed as the find of the century,
35:38the treasures in the tombs are breathtaking.
35:44Philip II's shield of ivory and gold,
35:49his gilded armour,
35:52his gold oak crown,
35:55the heaviest and most impressive from Greek antiquity.
35:59Nearby, an exquisite ivory of Dionysus dancing,
36:04and perhaps most spine-tingling of all,
36:08a pure gold chest containing the bones of the king.
36:14The miraculous discovery of the tombs and their treasures
36:18give us a unique window into the lives
36:21of two of the world's most powerful and influential men.
36:25This is just the most remarkable place
36:28because history is being physically brought back to life.
36:31Aegei is one of my wonders,
36:33not just because it tells us about the power and ambition of Macedonian kings,
36:38but because it reveals a very human story.
36:41From Philip II's grand designs here to his brutal death
36:46to Alexander's filial piety,
36:49reflected in all that beautiful gold,
36:52this is somewhere where you can really feel
36:55the emotional currents of the past
36:58and where you get to meet personalities
37:01who went on to shape the story of the world.
37:12My next destination holds the stories of heroes,
37:16women and men prepared to die for what they believe in,
37:21somewhere that's witnessed the grand sweep of Greece's history
37:25from ancient to modern.
37:28Naphleon, first capital of the modern Greek state,
37:33a treasure where geography makes history.
37:39This is a naturally protected harbour
37:41and it sits right on the crossroads of Asia and Europe.
37:44So it means that this place has always been a really important trading centre
37:48and dating back probably 4,000 years or so.
37:51But the issue with jewels is that they attract thieves
37:55and throughout its history there have been hostile takeover bids
37:59from Byzantines and Franks and Venetians and Ottomans
38:03who've all left their mark on the world.
38:06The Romans have all left their mark on this town
38:09because they wanted control of the sea.
38:17But Naphleon's own maritime story starts long before foreign armies came.
38:22According to legend, the town was founded by Napleos,
38:26the son of the sea god Poseidon.
38:30Napleos's own son, Palamedes, was a real player in Greek mythology.
38:35He invented dice, lighthouses and even several letters of the Greek alphabet.
38:41And he played a key part in the story of the Trojan War.
38:46We're told that Palamedes was sent out across these waters
38:50to try to persuade the hero Odysseus to join the fight.
38:54Now, Odysseus had no intention whatsoever of being conscripted
38:58so he pretended he was mad.
39:00He yoked up to oxen to a plough and went out into the fields singing wildly.
39:06Palamedes just knew he was faking it
39:09and actually very cleverly he grabbed Odysseus' young baby boy, Telemachus,
39:14and laid him down in front of the oxen's hooves, knowing he would stop.
39:18Odysseus did, proving he was sane.
39:21And he never forgave Palamedes for this,
39:24so during the Trojan War he actually had him framed for theft and treachery
39:29and stoned him to death.
39:31It's a really gruesome tale and that, obviously, is just a legend.
39:36But there's an incredible discovery just a few miles from here
39:41that links those stories of the Trojan War
39:44to real historical heroic warriors.
39:49This find is now housed in the Archaeological Museum in Naphleon.
39:57I first came here years ago when I was researching a book on Helen of Troy
40:02and I remember being very excited then, so it is fantastic to be back.
40:10The treasure I discovered in the museum is actually a book
40:15The treasure I've come to see is a unique survival from the Bronze Age,
40:213,500 years ago, the time when the story of the Trojan War is set.
40:28Oh, my goodness, this never disappoints.
40:34Because what you've got to remember that you're looking at here
40:37is armour that is close on 3,500 years old.
40:42This would have belonged to a warrior and it's made of bronze,
40:45but really, really fine bronze,
40:47so those sheets are only about a millimetre thick,
40:50which means they'd have provided protection,
40:52but would have been very light to wear.
40:54And then at the top you've got this fabulous helmet
40:58decorated with boar's tusks.
41:01Now, wild boar were, and still are, really ferocious,
41:05so this whole thing is designed to impress and to intimidate.
41:09This is physically the stuff that legends are made of.
41:21And what's significant is that in the most famous account of the Trojan War,
41:25we hear descriptions of tunics and gleaming helmets exactly like this.
41:32So I think it proves that all these fabulous stories
41:36about fantastic warrior heroes like Palamedes
41:40have their roots in hard historical facts.
41:46So powerful was Palamedes' presence in Napleon,
41:49he gave his name to the hill that towers over the city
41:52and the formidable fortress constructed on it.
41:56The Palamede was built in the early 18th century,
42:00when the whole of the Peloponnese was under the control of Venice
42:03and Napleon was its capital.
42:08Work started on the fortress in 1711.
42:15Constructing this fortress was the most incredible feat of engineering
42:20because you can see how difficult the terrain is,
42:22and then the Venetians made it even more complex for themselves
42:26because they built eight separate bastions
42:29and the idea was it provided strength in depth,
42:32so if one bastion fell,
42:34then the soldiers could move up and occupy the one above.
42:41It was completed just in time
42:43because in 1715, the Ottomans from Turkey attacked.
42:52There were only 2,000 Venetian soldiers up here
42:55and the reports were that when they looked out,
42:58there were between 70,000 and 100,000 Ottoman troops,
43:02all massed in boats in the harbour,
43:04were actually attacking this fortress itself.
43:07Venetians didn't even bother to test their ingenious bastion system.
43:12They abandoned the fortress, fled to the lower town
43:16and now the Ottomans were in charge.
43:20Ottoman rule continued for a little over 100 years
43:25until, in 1821, the Greeks launched a revolt in a bid for independence.
43:35A year later, in 1822, on the night of November 29,
43:40under the cover of darkness, a band of Greek freedom fighters
43:45broke in here and successfully managed to take the garrison from the Turks.
43:50So this became one of the first places in Greece
43:54to regain its independence.
44:03As the war continued, Greek fighters were joined by a small army of foreigners.
44:08These volunteers were inspired by the belief
44:12that Western civilisation owed a profound debt to the ancient
44:16and, therefore, to the modern Greeks.
44:19The most famous foreigner to join the cause
44:22was the British poet and adventurer Lord Byron.
44:26His memory is still very much alive in Nafplion today.
44:30Oh, hi. So we're doing something about the history of Greece
44:33and obviously we're talking about Byron.
44:35So I stayed here ten years ago.
44:37Yes, I know.
44:39Yeah, with my family.
44:41I remember you. I remember you.
44:43Do you? Do you?
44:45I had a blonde girl and a little girl with red hair.
44:48So tell me one thing.
44:50We're talking about Byron and the freedom fighters of Greece.
44:54So you called your hotel Byron Hotel.
44:57It is romantic, yes, with Byron.
44:59Yeah, for Byron.
45:01Byron, he was like a hero for us in the war.
45:04Byron, he was like a hero for us in Greece.
45:08He wrote a lot of poetry to help the Greek revolution.
45:12Yes, he was very important, so we said we would have this daily
45:16because Byron is like a hero.
45:18OK, yia sas. OK, bye.
45:23Overall, nearly 300 foreigners died in the War of Independence.
45:35There is something very moving
45:37about people willing to give up their lives
45:40and die for somebody else's liberty,
45:45and that is what was happening here.
45:47They were dying for liberty
45:49and they were dying for the idea that is Greece.
45:52They were heroes who believed in something bigger than themselves.
45:57Finally, after seven years of conflict, the war was won.
46:02Greece was free and Nafplion was made the first official capital city.
46:09In 1833, the new King of Greece,
46:14in fact, a young Bavarian prince called Otto,
46:18chosen by committee in London, landed here.
46:22And for the first time in its history,
46:25Greece was a nation state with its own name.
46:32Greece is a tapestry,
46:34a place rich from its encounters with many parts of the world,
46:38and Nafplion bears witness to that.
46:45This is a city that embodies
46:47the compelling, complicated history of Greece,
46:51a story that spans east and west, ancient and modern,
46:55and that's inspired heroes, whether they're legendary or real,
46:59for all of years.
47:01And that is why Nafplion is a wonder.
47:22My wonders of Greece have taken me across this glorious land.
47:29I've seen the passion of the ancient Olympics,
47:32been dazzled by the gold of Macedon,
47:35and visited the first health spa in Western civilisation.
47:42This journey to explore the wonders and treasures of Greece
47:45has been epic and a joy.
47:48It's shown me that ambition and determination and inspiration
47:52and sheer curiosity is what builds a civilisation.
47:56And it's reminded me that the gifts of the Greeks
47:59are still enjoyed across the world today.
48:26www.nafplion.com