The History Channel continues its high-definition exploration of lost cities and monuments with a new episode that studies Athens. While any schoolchild or tourist knows that plenty of ancient Greek structures remain, many have disappeared.
What the Lost Worlds series does is reconstruct how places would have looked in their heyday by using cutting edge computer visualisation combined with archaeological expertise.
Athens was built in the fifth century BC. The programme examines how the ruler Pericles had his new city built, described as the most costly and ambitious construction campaign which had ever been undertaken in the western world.
See how this “model city” took shape, from temples, houses, market places to civic buildings and even an innovative sanitation system. It includes the Parthenon, which architects often refer to as a perfect structure. This Lost Worlds episode also looks at the Greek navy and how Pericles had raided money from defence funds to help finish Athens, which in turn led to its downfall.
If you don’t see or record it tonight, the documentary is repeated at various times over the next few days.
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