1 00:00:06,006 --> 00:00:09,100 This is the story of a journey of a lifetime. 2 00:00:09,576 --> 00:00:13,068 I'm circumnavigating the world in just five months. 3 00:00:13,380 --> 00:00:18,044 My quest is to seek out 80 of the greatest treasures created by mankind. 4 00:00:21,888 --> 00:00:26,086 Some of the treasures I've chosen are undisputed wonders of the world. 5 00:00:28,928 --> 00:00:33,262 Others are not as well known, but nevertheless awe-inspiring. 6 00:00:36,236 --> 00:00:40,332 And some of my choices are surprising - even shocking. 7 00:00:43,343 --> 00:00:46,870 My mission is to reveal what has driven man over thousands of years 8 00:00:47,047 --> 00:00:50,414 to create art and architecture that is incredibly beautiful 9 00:00:50,583 --> 00:00:55,077 and which tells the story of mankind, of civilisation. 10 00:00:56,589 --> 00:00:58,113 Along the way, I'll visit some of the 11 00:00:58,291 --> 00:01:02,660 most mysterious places on earth, and the most dramatic. 12 00:01:04,531 --> 00:01:08,092 I'll come face to face with the legacies of great ancient civilisations, 13 00:01:08,268 --> 00:01:13,262 and encounter cultures which are clinging onto survival in the modern age. 14 00:01:15,241 --> 00:01:17,539 I hope to learn something about human aspirations, 15 00:01:17,710 --> 00:01:20,076 about the secrets of life and death, 16 00:01:20,246 --> 00:01:23,113 and ultimately about myself. 17 00:01:50,510 --> 00:01:53,206 I face an exhilarating and daunting challenge. 18 00:01:53,379 --> 00:01:58,840 I'm going to 40 countries and six continents in 1 50 days. 19 00:02:01,421 --> 00:02:05,152 Here we go. This is it - starting. The waiting's over. 20 00:02:05,758 --> 00:02:09,717 Months of planning, months of planning's over - and we're now going. 21 00:02:09,896 --> 00:02:12,694 It feels great actually to be on the move. 22 00:02:14,100 --> 00:02:18,036 Setting up such an ambitious expedition has been a logistical nightmare, 23 00:02:18,204 --> 00:02:21,640 with all the visas to obtain and arrangements to make. 24 00:02:23,309 --> 00:02:27,245 I'm booked onto 90 flights and will cover more than 80,000 miles, 25 00:02:27,413 --> 00:02:30,041 seeing a new treasure every other day. 26 00:02:30,583 --> 00:02:31,880 My schedule's so tight that 27 00:02:32,051 --> 00:02:36,112 if anything goes wrong the whole enterprise could fall apart. 28 00:02:36,789 --> 00:02:38,814 I wonder what I've let myself in for. 29 00:02:38,992 --> 00:02:43,554 The finest moments of human creation in five months flat. 30 00:02:50,003 --> 00:02:54,463 My odyssey begins with a 1 5-hour flight from London to Peru. 31 00:03:05,318 --> 00:03:07,286 There's no better place to start. 32 00:03:08,054 --> 00:03:10,454 Peru is home to some of the world's great treasures 33 00:03:10,623 --> 00:03:16,528 and most enigmatic lost civilizations - not least, the lncas. 34 00:03:17,297 --> 00:03:20,858 Their achievements and way of life are still celebrated in modern-day Peru, 35 00:03:21,034 --> 00:03:25,835 500 years after the lnca world was destroyed by Spanish conquerors. 36 00:03:36,216 --> 00:03:37,547 To find what I'm looking for, 37 00:03:37,717 --> 00:03:41,016 I head deep into the lncas' mountainous heartland. 38 00:03:41,654 --> 00:03:45,647 I'm travelling - on a narrow gauge railway through the High Andes. 39 00:03:45,825 --> 00:03:46,689 I'm going to a place that 40 00:03:46,859 --> 00:03:52,195 I'm told is one of the most beautiful and spiritually uplifting on earth. 41 00:03:53,766 --> 00:03:56,064 It's Latin America's Shangri-la. 42 00:03:56,236 --> 00:03:58,796 A place shrouded in mystery. 43 00:03:58,972 --> 00:04:03,136 It had a short life, little more than half a century. 44 00:04:03,543 --> 00:04:06,842 It was lost in a cloud forest for 400 years 45 00:04:07,013 --> 00:04:09,504 and only rediscovered in 1 91 1. 46 00:04:11,251 --> 00:04:15,711 It's gone on to become one of the most famous places in Latin America. 47 00:04:32,105 --> 00:04:36,599 Machu Picchu, which - stands on a natural shelf high in the Andes, 48 00:04:36,776 --> 00:04:39,836 2,350 metres above sea level. 49 00:04:40,013 --> 00:04:42,880 It's a staggering location, 50 00:04:43,049 --> 00:04:45,916 an amazing place to build a city. 51 00:04:47,887 --> 00:04:50,651 Machu Picchu feels like it's on top of the world, 52 00:04:50,823 --> 00:04:52,723 the realm of the gods. 53 00:04:55,495 --> 00:04:57,258 It's thought to have been built in the 1460s 54 00:04:57,430 --> 00:05:00,797 by the lnca god-king Pachacuti lnca. 55 00:05:03,870 --> 00:05:08,569 I'm intrigued why he built a city in such a remote and difficult location. 56 00:05:10,743 --> 00:05:15,908 This is the main gate to Machu Picchu, and it's amazing it's so small, 57 00:05:16,082 --> 00:05:18,209 and that tells us a lot about lnca society, 58 00:05:18,384 --> 00:05:20,978 and indeed about Machu Picchu. 59 00:05:21,421 --> 00:05:26,017 The simple fact is that the lncas are very advanced in some ways and not in others. 60 00:05:26,192 --> 00:05:29,821 They didn't have the wheel, didn't have great forms of transport, 61 00:05:29,996 --> 00:05:33,864 great carriages, therefore didn't need to bring things inside the city. 62 00:05:34,067 --> 00:05:37,059 Things would be delivered outside and brought in by hand. 63 00:05:37,236 --> 00:05:42,333 So the city gate could be no bigger really than the door to a - to a room. 64 00:05:42,508 --> 00:05:44,237 It's really quite astonishing. 65 00:05:48,514 --> 00:05:50,641 Machu Picchu has about 200 buildings, 66 00:05:50,817 --> 00:05:53,547 was home to around a thousand people. 67 00:05:54,787 --> 00:05:58,553 It's laid out with streets built on terraces cut into the mountainside. 68 00:05:58,825 --> 00:06:02,522 Most people lived in small humble houses. 69 00:06:07,233 --> 00:06:13,729 And here is a very intact house in Machu Picchu. Absolutely staggering. 70 00:06:13,906 --> 00:06:17,672 All here apart from the roof, roof timbers and thatch outside, 71 00:06:17,844 --> 00:06:22,281 that had been tied on with ropes onto sort of stone pins on these gables. 72 00:06:22,448 --> 00:06:24,939 Otherwise, all here. 73 00:06:25,752 --> 00:06:31,315 Now, the lncas didn't have much furniture. I believe lived most on the floor and carpets, 74 00:06:31,491 --> 00:06:35,621 but would keep some things in these little recesses here, cupboards, this little niches. 75 00:06:35,795 --> 00:06:38,025 Oh erm, gosh more niches, and a wonderful view. 76 00:06:38,197 --> 00:06:42,156 God. The sacred mountain. 77 00:06:57,016 --> 00:06:59,416 The lncas were amazing civil engineers. 78 00:06:59,585 --> 00:07:04,818 They were great road builders and they built sewers and water systems, 79 00:07:04,991 --> 00:07:11,453 and here you see at Machu Picchu how water was supplied to this - the city itself. 80 00:07:11,631 --> 00:07:14,031 Water was gathered - from the high mountains up there, 81 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:16,794 brought down into a little canal here, 82 00:07:16,969 --> 00:07:20,405 running through and then into this cascade, waterfall. 83 00:07:21,774 --> 00:07:23,639 Roman quality really. 84 00:07:33,553 --> 00:07:35,851 Look at this. That's a fantastic example of lnca stonework. 85 00:07:36,022 --> 00:07:40,186 Massive blocks cut to fit together like a jigsaw. 86 00:07:40,359 --> 00:07:43,522 Beautifully finely jointed. No mortar of course. 87 00:07:43,863 --> 00:07:45,694 Just astonishing. 88 00:07:46,599 --> 00:07:50,160 Creating a very, very, very strong walling, anti-earthquake. 89 00:07:50,336 --> 00:07:53,396 This of course must be, yes, a temple complex. 90 00:07:53,573 --> 00:07:55,564 More temples. Two more temples here. 91 00:07:56,843 --> 00:08:01,712 And in front of me the temple of three windows, as it's now called - 92 00:08:01,881 --> 00:08:07,080 - relating, I think, to lnca creation myths about three caves. 93 00:08:10,990 --> 00:08:16,792 Wonderful view through those windows of divine landscape beyond. Here - 94 00:08:16,963 --> 00:08:19,363 - is what's the called the principal temple - 95 00:08:19,532 --> 00:08:21,591 - a massive altar stone. 96 00:08:21,767 --> 00:08:24,964 And just look at this masonry, it's incredible. 97 00:08:25,137 --> 00:08:29,198 Cut precisely by hammering one stone against another. 98 00:08:29,375 --> 00:08:34,108 And the size of those blocks of stone. Good Lord. 99 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:36,874 It's absolutely superb. 100 00:08:40,319 --> 00:08:42,810 The large number of temples at Machu Picchu shows 101 00:08:42,989 --> 00:08:45,822 what a special place this was to the lncas. 102 00:08:46,726 --> 00:08:50,287 The most important of these is the Temple of the Sun. 103 00:08:52,365 --> 00:08:55,459 At this time of year, the winter solstice in Peru, 104 00:08:55,635 --> 00:09:01,232 the stone altar and the window are in perfect alignment with the rising sun. 105 00:09:05,511 --> 00:09:12,110 I'm approaching a temple, but before I get there, there is this very strange stone. 106 00:09:12,285 --> 00:09:15,220 This is the profile. Well, you may think not too strange, 107 00:09:15,388 --> 00:09:21,486 but behind it you realise this profile is a miniature version, a model - 108 00:09:21,761 --> 00:09:24,491 - of the mountain range in the distance. 109 00:09:24,664 --> 00:09:33,197 So evidence, I think - of lnca veneration for the high lands, the mountain peaks. 110 00:09:40,413 --> 00:09:44,179 Machu Picchu was once thought to be home to beautiful virgins of the sun, 111 00:09:44,350 --> 00:09:47,717 who dedicated their lives to the lnca sun god. 112 00:09:48,788 --> 00:09:50,380 This may be fantasy, 113 00:09:50,556 --> 00:09:55,994 but there's little doubt that Machu Picchu was a sacred city, a holy place. 114 00:09:59,298 --> 00:10:01,163 I'm at the highest point of Machu Picchu, 115 00:10:01,334 --> 00:10:05,168 and this must have been the site - of a temple, 116 00:10:05,338 --> 00:10:09,035 because here is an altar, an altar - 117 00:10:09,208 --> 00:10:13,542 - of a very magnificent, though - peculiar, kind. 118 00:10:13,713 --> 00:10:16,204 It's cut from the mountain itself. 119 00:10:16,382 --> 00:10:20,978 No one really knows quite what this - meant to the lncas. 120 00:10:21,253 --> 00:10:24,984 Some people think it's to do with the veneration of the Sun. Why not? 121 00:10:25,224 --> 00:10:28,955 Could that be a sundial up there? The protruding part. 122 00:10:30,096 --> 00:10:36,126 Or, another rather charming notion, this was a hitching post for the Sun. 123 00:10:36,302 --> 00:10:37,234 At the winter solstice, 124 00:10:37,403 --> 00:10:39,462 the lncas would fear the Sun would never return, 125 00:10:39,639 --> 00:10:42,403 and anchor it to the earth. 126 00:10:47,647 --> 00:10:53,210 Now I understand. Obviously for the lnca this was - the axis mundi, 127 00:10:53,386 --> 00:10:59,086 the axis around which the world turns. The centre of their world. 128 00:10:59,959 --> 00:11:00,482 Incredible sight. 129 00:11:00,660 --> 00:11:05,563 And now, my goodness me, a rainbow's appearing. 130 00:11:05,731 --> 00:11:08,632 And of course a rainbow, to the lnca, was very, very important. 131 00:11:08,801 --> 00:11:13,864 They believed that the rainbow was the son of the Sun - God made manifest. 132 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:20,036 And there it is - stretching right above, arcing over Machu Picchu as I stand here. 133 00:11:25,217 --> 00:11:27,344 Machu Picchu is a magical vision of heaven 134 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:32,890 that enabled the lncas to be at one with nature and to venerate their great gods: 135 00:11:33,059 --> 00:11:36,222 the mountains and the Sun. 136 00:11:48,941 --> 00:11:52,741 The following day I traveled to the old lnca capital of Cuzco. 137 00:11:53,345 --> 00:11:55,279 It's a very special day. 138 00:11:55,581 --> 00:11:59,950 The winter solstice is a time of great celebration for the descendants of the lncas. 139 00:12:02,555 --> 00:12:08,289 The ancient - lnca festival celebrates the sun's return, 140 00:12:09,261 --> 00:12:12,253 the rebirth of the great sun, the giver of life. 141 00:12:15,468 --> 00:12:19,131 ... Hello. Where's your - ah this is - 142 00:12:19,405 --> 00:12:23,273 they want to show me their ovens. Let's have a look. 143 00:12:28,848 --> 00:12:31,476 Everywhere people are baking potatoes. 144 00:12:32,351 --> 00:12:34,512 It was the lncas who developed the potato, 145 00:12:34,687 --> 00:12:38,384 which is fact a tasty hybrid of poisonous plants. 146 00:12:43,028 --> 00:12:49,024 They're lovely - little earth ovens, made on the site from the earth on which we stand. 147 00:12:49,201 --> 00:12:50,498 How very efficient. 148 00:12:51,303 --> 00:12:55,899 The potato is not my next treasure, but it provides a clue. 149 00:12:56,509 --> 00:12:59,307 My treasure has a key role in the food chain. 150 00:12:59,979 --> 00:13:02,948 It's a product of the lnca genius for manipulating the landscape 151 00:13:03,115 --> 00:13:05,174 to improve their lives. 152 00:13:09,488 --> 00:13:11,080 My dream is to see it from the skies, 153 00:13:11,257 --> 00:13:13,020 Iike the lncas' holy bird of prey, 154 00:13:13,192 --> 00:13:18,824 the condor, by soaring high over their sacred valley on a paraglider. 155 00:13:25,638 --> 00:13:26,832 - Just hang on this? - No, like this. 156 00:13:27,006 --> 00:13:27,836 I push with my knees? 157 00:13:28,007 --> 00:13:30,168 Yes. No, you push with your hands. 158 00:13:30,409 --> 00:13:33,037 At an altitude of over 3,000 metres 159 00:13:33,212 --> 00:13:36,739 I'm feeling light headed and more than a little nervous, 160 00:13:36,916 --> 00:13:38,440 so I chew coca leaves, 161 00:13:38,617 --> 00:13:40,847 which are used to make cocaine. 162 00:13:41,020 --> 00:13:43,989 What we do is we make offerings - before we do a flight. 163 00:13:44,156 --> 00:13:47,819 We let some of the leaves go into the wind as offerings to them. 164 00:13:47,993 --> 00:13:52,362 Then we always put - put a couple more in our mouth. 165 00:13:52,531 --> 00:13:54,192 A - a couple, a couple in me. 166 00:13:54,366 --> 00:13:55,390 This - what - what will it do? 167 00:13:55,568 --> 00:13:58,662 Just - it does seriously help with the altitude situation, does it? 168 00:13:58,838 --> 00:14:00,829 Yeah, it increases the circulation in the system. 169 00:14:01,006 --> 00:14:03,031 So it oxygenates the mind a little bit more. 170 00:14:03,209 --> 00:14:04,938 Okay, makes oxygen go further. Yeah. 171 00:14:05,110 --> 00:14:06,873 - Which is the opposite of altitude sickness. - Yeah. 172 00:14:08,581 --> 00:14:10,208 Let's go. Run, run, run, run. 173 00:14:15,354 --> 00:14:17,652 Keep running. 174 00:14:19,258 --> 00:14:21,089 Oh, that wasn't - 175 00:14:22,761 --> 00:14:23,455 Srry. 176 00:14:23,629 --> 00:14:24,823 Don't worry. 177 00:14:28,734 --> 00:14:29,325 Keep running. 178 00:14:29,501 --> 00:14:30,195 Running, running - 179 00:14:30,369 --> 00:14:33,304 Keep running. Run, run, run... 180 00:14:34,740 --> 00:14:35,707 Well done. 181 00:14:35,875 --> 00:14:38,173 We seem to be airborne. 182 00:14:41,213 --> 00:14:42,646 At first it's promising, 183 00:14:42,815 --> 00:14:45,283 as we fly upwards and onwards towards my treasure, 184 00:14:45,451 --> 00:14:48,215 perched on a mountainside across the valley. 185 00:14:50,956 --> 00:14:52,150 You're flying, Dan. 186 00:14:52,324 --> 00:14:56,590 I am a condor. Absolutely amazing, amazing. 187 00:15:04,370 --> 00:15:06,270 But the conditions aren't right 188 00:15:06,438 --> 00:15:09,100 and we're soon sinking towards the ground. 189 00:15:09,308 --> 00:15:10,900 It's so disappointing. 190 00:15:27,126 --> 00:15:29,492 I must revert to a four-wheel-drive vehicle, 191 00:15:29,662 --> 00:15:33,962 but it's still touch and go whether I can reach my treasure before sunset. 192 00:15:34,366 --> 00:15:36,027 It's a surprising choice, 193 00:15:36,201 --> 00:15:39,193 but it's one of the lncas' most enduring legacies. 194 00:15:39,672 --> 00:15:45,338 I see the sun's fading. Going down below - the mountain range. 195 00:15:49,515 --> 00:15:54,919 And this is it. An extraordinary abstract work of sculpture in the landscape. 196 00:16:01,126 --> 00:16:04,254 The salt pans are a most appropriate choice. 197 00:16:05,564 --> 00:16:09,000 Salt is one of the foundations of all civilisation. 198 00:16:09,201 --> 00:16:13,570 It has enabled man to create the wonders I'll enjoy on my journey. 199 00:16:15,774 --> 00:16:20,108 Below me are these salt pans - that date from the lnca times or earlier, 200 00:16:20,279 --> 00:16:22,611 four or five-six hundred years - 201 00:16:22,781 --> 00:16:27,980 - old. Strange geometry. Tier upon tier. 202 00:16:29,388 --> 00:16:31,151 And what happens is - is this, 203 00:16:31,323 --> 00:16:36,488 there's some water carrying salt that comes out of the hill over there, 204 00:16:36,662 --> 00:16:40,325 gushes out from a cavern, flows through here, 205 00:16:40,499 --> 00:16:43,332 and then is diverted into these salt pans, 206 00:16:43,502 --> 00:16:50,931 where it cascades down through pan after pan and the water stands in the sun, 207 00:16:51,110 --> 00:16:52,304 evaporates, leaving the salt. 208 00:16:52,478 --> 00:16:56,437 The salts gathered. An industry of the lncas. 209 00:16:57,182 --> 00:16:58,809 They only used it, they didn't establish it. 210 00:16:58,984 --> 00:17:00,178 And it goes on to this day. 211 00:17:00,352 --> 00:17:04,789 I look down and I can see the salts evaporating on the side. 212 00:17:16,235 --> 00:17:19,295 The salt pans capture the essence of the lnca way. 213 00:17:19,705 --> 00:17:24,733 In harnessing nature, they create something live-giving and liberating. 214 00:17:27,646 --> 00:17:29,045 To be able to preserve food at times 215 00:17:29,214 --> 00:17:32,775 of plenty gives man the time to think, to invent, 216 00:17:32,951 --> 00:17:36,478 to produce great works of art and architecture. 217 00:17:40,025 --> 00:17:42,152 That of course is what happened with the lncas. 218 00:17:42,327 --> 00:17:45,228 This is one of the keys to their civilisation: 219 00:17:45,397 --> 00:17:52,894 they had time, and that time was bought, acquired, with salt. 220 00:17:57,743 --> 00:18:01,577 Tragically, few lnca artistic treasures have survived. 221 00:18:01,747 --> 00:18:04,341 When the Spanish conquered Peru in the 1 530s, 222 00:18:04,516 --> 00:18:07,610 they melted down lnca gold and attempted to justify 223 00:18:07,786 --> 00:18:10,118 their greedy conquest of this land by eradicating 224 00:18:10,289 --> 00:18:13,656 all evidence of lnca civilisation. 225 00:18:19,198 --> 00:18:21,496 I head now to the desert coast of Peru. 226 00:18:21,667 --> 00:18:26,400 But before seeing my next treasure, I want to sample an lnca delicacy. 227 00:18:29,408 --> 00:18:36,974 Oh, my favourite thing. A nice meal for the flight. 228 00:18:37,883 --> 00:18:40,215 I say, I've wanted a guinea pig for ages. 229 00:18:40,452 --> 00:18:43,353 What will they say of this in England? Oh my god. 230 00:18:44,923 --> 00:18:46,049 Oh, delicious. 231 00:18:48,393 --> 00:18:49,621 Very tasty. 232 00:18:50,996 --> 00:18:53,123 Lovely. Save the rest for later. 233 00:18:56,435 --> 00:19:00,394 I'm about to witness one of the most mysterious treasures on earth. 234 00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:03,938 It's the largest work of art in the world. 235 00:19:04,109 --> 00:19:07,510 So enormous, in fact, you can only see it from the sky. 236 00:19:07,679 --> 00:19:09,169 - Goodbye, sir. - Bye, bye. 237 00:19:10,215 --> 00:19:14,242 It's even been suggested that it was created by aliens. 238 00:19:24,930 --> 00:19:28,058 This is my treasure - the Nazca lines. 239 00:19:28,233 --> 00:19:35,036 These great images - carved, so to speak, into the pampas below me. 240 00:19:35,874 --> 00:19:41,938 These images, huge in size, not visible, not apparent from the ground, 241 00:19:42,114 --> 00:19:46,608 from up here are absolutely dramatic and wonderful. 242 00:19:48,587 --> 00:19:51,818 There - there - there's the monkey, there's the monkey with the spiral tail. 243 00:19:51,990 --> 00:19:53,787 There it is very clear. 244 00:19:54,593 --> 00:19:59,428 And there's the humming bird. Of course, this is all a mystery. 245 00:19:59,731 --> 00:20:06,102 But what's certain, it's carrying a message, but it's a message we can't understand. 246 00:20:06,905 --> 00:20:08,736 There's the spider. 247 00:20:09,641 --> 00:20:14,601 It's like a dictionary - of sacred images from this part of South America. 248 00:20:25,123 --> 00:20:27,523 There is - the amazing astronaut figure. 249 00:20:27,693 --> 00:20:32,494 It does indeed look like a modern image of a man from outer space. 250 00:20:32,664 --> 00:20:39,194 Great goggle eyes, waving benignly at his fellow space travellers, I suppose. 251 00:20:40,973 --> 00:20:45,410 As well as his image, the whole landscape's crisscrossed by these straight lines. 252 00:20:45,577 --> 00:20:49,980 They go everywhere, for mile upon mile upon mile. 253 00:20:50,515 --> 00:20:53,279 It's like flying over an airfield really. 254 00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:58,913 It's as if we've stumbled into a secret, ancient magical landscape - 255 00:20:59,091 --> 00:21:02,527 - floating above it almost like you have no business to be here. 256 00:21:02,694 --> 00:21:06,391 It holds secrets we don't understand, can never understand. 257 00:21:06,565 --> 00:21:08,032 But yet, here it is. 258 00:21:10,035 --> 00:21:12,697 A message written in the landscape. 259 00:21:26,318 --> 00:21:31,085 I return to terra firma to find out how these huge figures were fashioned in the landscape 260 00:21:31,256 --> 00:21:32,985 up to 2,000 years ago 261 00:21:33,158 --> 00:21:36,321 by a people whose history is now lost. 262 00:21:37,262 --> 00:21:41,858 Here we can see how the great images, how the straight lines were constructed. 263 00:21:42,034 --> 00:21:44,264 A very simple process actually. 264 00:21:44,569 --> 00:21:50,166 All over the terrain are these reddish boulders, 265 00:21:50,342 --> 00:21:53,971 I suppose brought here through the act of glaciers 266 00:21:54,146 --> 00:21:57,775 thousands and thousands of years ago, rounded. 267 00:21:58,817 --> 00:22:07,122 All the Nazcas did was to move the stones to expose the gypsum underneath, 268 00:22:07,292 --> 00:22:14,255 creating a different texture, a different colour to the boulder-strewn land - 269 00:22:14,433 --> 00:22:19,803 - on each side. A very minimal manipulation of the landscape. 270 00:22:20,205 --> 00:22:21,900 The lines have survived over the centuries 271 00:22:22,074 --> 00:22:24,804 because Nazca is one of the driest places in the world, 272 00:22:24,976 --> 00:22:30,778 and it's remoteness has saved these fragile works from the destructive tendencies of modern man. 273 00:22:33,819 --> 00:22:37,949 I'm drawn into the mystery surrounding these astonishing creations. 274 00:22:38,223 --> 00:22:43,286 What on earth could they have been for? Who made them on this vast scale? 275 00:22:43,862 --> 00:22:47,923 Surely the artists couldn't have seen their complete masterpieces? 276 00:22:48,433 --> 00:22:50,765 The mysterious nature of these images has provoked 277 00:22:50,936 --> 00:22:54,133 many speculations about their origin and meaning. 278 00:22:54,306 --> 00:22:57,867 Some of these speculations are pretty wild indeed. 279 00:22:58,143 --> 00:22:59,770 Among the more sensible ones, I suppose, 280 00:22:59,945 --> 00:23:05,178 are that these are maybe an astronomical clock, a bit like an early zodiac. 281 00:23:05,450 --> 00:23:09,944 Or perhaps they're part of a - an agricultural calendar - 282 00:23:10,122 --> 00:23:12,784 - telling people when to reap and when to sow. 283 00:23:13,425 --> 00:23:17,828 Other people, of course, think these images were made - for men from outer space, 284 00:23:17,996 --> 00:23:23,059 because one can only see these - images when looking down from above. 285 00:23:23,301 --> 00:23:29,365 These images, I presume - are forms of communication with the gods. 286 00:23:30,075 --> 00:23:31,940 The all-seeing eye above. 287 00:23:57,402 --> 00:24:02,135 I'm becoming more and more enthralled by the mystical world of ancient Peru. 288 00:24:02,707 --> 00:24:04,902 I travel north to see my next treasure, 289 00:24:05,076 --> 00:24:09,604 the legacy of another lost civilisation called the Moche. 290 00:24:10,215 --> 00:24:15,278 The Moche people are known for their sinister beliefs and extreme blood lust. 291 00:24:15,454 --> 00:24:19,447 They flourished in northern Peru almost 2,000 years ago. 292 00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:24,758 The quest for my treasure takes me first to Sipan, 293 00:24:24,930 --> 00:24:27,364 the site of a priceless treasure trove, 294 00:24:27,532 --> 00:24:31,992 the Latin American equivalent of Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt. 295 00:24:35,073 --> 00:24:38,634 It was discovered by tomb raiders as recently as 1 987, 296 00:24:38,810 --> 00:24:40,437 buried deep in muddy hills 297 00:24:40,612 --> 00:24:45,242 which were once huge majestic pyramids pointing to the heavens. 298 00:24:46,885 --> 00:24:49,353 Sipan was the scene of a gunfight over a prize 299 00:24:49,521 --> 00:24:53,048 so valuable people were willing to die for it. 300 00:25:03,969 --> 00:25:08,497 This is the tomb of what is now known as Lord Sipan. 301 00:25:09,107 --> 00:25:17,606 Here we see in the centre, Lord Sipan with various bodies arranged around him. 302 00:25:17,816 --> 00:25:21,115 I believe there were eight bodies in all found in here. 303 00:25:23,889 --> 00:25:28,917 One so-called guardian with his legs cut off. 304 00:25:30,095 --> 00:25:34,555 A savage civilization. Moche, fascinating. 305 00:25:37,135 --> 00:25:41,504 For the Moche people, human sacrifice was central to their religion. 306 00:25:41,907 --> 00:25:45,775 But they were also brilliant goldsmiths and metal workers. 307 00:25:46,511 --> 00:25:50,470 An amazing hoard of jewels was found in several different tombs in Sipan, 308 00:25:50,649 --> 00:25:54,016 dating from between the first and third centuries AD. 309 00:25:54,452 --> 00:25:57,080 The jewels now on display at the tombs are reproductions, 310 00:25:57,255 --> 00:26:00,588 the originals have removed for safekeeping. 311 00:26:03,261 --> 00:26:05,456 My treasure is to be found among them. 312 00:26:05,697 --> 00:26:08,325 So I head to the nearby town of Lambayeque, 313 00:26:08,500 --> 00:26:12,960 where a museum has been specially built in the shape of a Moche pyramid. 314 00:26:24,015 --> 00:26:26,575 Among the violently beautiful jewellery are works 315 00:26:26,751 --> 00:26:30,118 which reveal another of the Moche's artistic obsessions: 316 00:26:30,288 --> 00:26:33,587 the creation of explicit fertility symbols. 317 00:26:33,825 --> 00:26:37,090 It seems that death and sex were their passions. 318 00:26:39,264 --> 00:26:41,323 By my treasure chills the blood and 319 00:26:41,499 --> 00:26:44,730 cuts to the heart of the Moche world. 320 00:26:55,380 --> 00:26:55,971 Now, this is my treasure, 321 00:26:56,147 --> 00:27:02,279 because - well, it's very beautiful and I have seen nothing else like it. 322 00:27:02,454 --> 00:27:06,618 It's a necklace. It's from the tomb of the old Lord Sipan, 323 00:27:06,791 --> 00:27:10,921 about 1 900 years old nearly, maybe 2,000. 324 00:27:11,129 --> 00:27:16,533 The spider god... had many powers. He was a god of healing. 325 00:27:17,535 --> 00:27:21,767 The web, of course, heals wounds, stops blood flowing. 326 00:27:21,940 --> 00:27:30,678 The spider encapsulated, represented many of the - feelings, the religious beliefs 327 00:27:30,849 --> 00:27:36,219 and what we would now regard as rather barbaric rites and rituals of these people. 328 00:27:36,388 --> 00:27:39,448 Through sacrifice, decapitation of the enemy, 329 00:27:39,624 --> 00:27:41,148 the head has great power. 330 00:27:42,293 --> 00:27:48,459 These people, I imagine they would - tie up their victims before sacrifice, bind them up, 331 00:27:48,633 --> 00:27:56,267 so the web symbolises the binding up, the tying of the - sacrificial victim. 332 00:27:56,641 --> 00:28:05,549 The spider consumes the bodily fluids of its victim. It devours the victim, 333 00:28:05,717 --> 00:28:13,055 and of course, these people, they would drink the blood of their sacrifices - 334 00:28:13,224 --> 00:28:14,885 - devour their power, their spirit. 335 00:28:15,060 --> 00:28:25,026 So the spider represented much of their - actions during the - ritual sacrifice. 336 00:28:25,203 --> 00:28:28,969 On the back, I notice something very strange. 337 00:28:29,441 --> 00:28:34,276 A spiral, a sacred pattern one finds in many religions. 338 00:28:38,416 --> 00:28:39,849 This necklace is my treasure 339 00:28:40,018 --> 00:28:44,421 because it tells me so much about the world of the enigmatic people that produced it: 340 00:28:44,756 --> 00:28:49,716 a world in which delicate beauty and shocking violence went hand in hand. 341 00:28:50,028 --> 00:28:53,293 This is history that still has the power to shock. 342 00:29:02,073 --> 00:29:06,169 For my next treasure, I travel to the charming city of Trujillo. 343 00:29:14,052 --> 00:29:18,148 Trujillo was founded in the early 16th century by the Spanish conquerors, 344 00:29:18,656 --> 00:29:21,887 by which time my treasure had passed into history. 345 00:29:22,327 --> 00:29:26,821 It's three miles from Trujillo, on the Pacific coast of northern Peru. 346 00:29:27,732 --> 00:29:30,724 Legend has it that it was created a thousand years ago, 347 00:29:30,902 --> 00:29:34,531 by a god called Ninelap, who came from the ocean. 348 00:29:39,577 --> 00:29:41,511 I made my way along the coast to seek out 349 00:29:41,679 --> 00:29:45,513 the fragile remains of a city once drenched in gold. 350 00:29:45,817 --> 00:29:48,479 It served as the capital of the mighty Chimu empire, 351 00:29:48,653 --> 00:29:51,349 which extended 600 miles along the coast of Peru, 352 00:29:51,523 --> 00:29:53,957 as far north as Ecuador. 353 00:30:07,705 --> 00:30:12,369 Chan Chan was the largest mud-built city in the world. 354 00:30:12,644 --> 00:30:16,546 Indeed, when at its prime, about 700 years ago - 355 00:30:16,714 --> 00:30:19,649 - this was one of the largest cities in the world. 356 00:30:19,884 --> 00:30:30,624 It is also, in its form - and planning, a very, very wonderful and extraordinary place. 357 00:30:35,333 --> 00:30:38,700 Chan Chan spreads out over eight square miles 358 00:30:38,870 --> 00:30:42,670 and is linked by wide streets protected by tall walls. 359 00:30:44,375 --> 00:30:47,640 Some of the walls were once decorated with beaten gold panels, 360 00:30:47,812 --> 00:30:49,973 which have long since disappeared. 361 00:30:51,783 --> 00:30:54,081 The city has suffered at the hands of the elements, 362 00:30:54,252 --> 00:30:56,948 but there's enough left to show what brilliant builders 363 00:30:57,121 --> 00:31:00,022 and engineers the Chimu people were. 364 00:31:02,961 --> 00:31:07,261 The mighty city was divided into ten separate citadels, 365 00:31:07,432 --> 00:31:10,595 each really a little walled city in its own right. 366 00:31:10,768 --> 00:31:14,704 These were defined by high walls - about 15 metres high. 367 00:31:14,873 --> 00:31:18,900 And within each of these little citadels - there was, well, all the sort of things a city has. 368 00:31:19,077 --> 00:31:22,376 Public buildings, administration buildings, temples, 369 00:31:22,547 --> 00:31:25,983 private houses, and a palace or two. 370 00:31:26,150 --> 00:31:34,023 And here we see the remains of this - complex and strange urban structure. 371 00:31:37,128 --> 00:31:39,323 These tall walls were partly for defence, 372 00:31:39,497 --> 00:31:44,935 but mostly they were to make life as comfortable as possible in the town. 373 00:31:45,136 --> 00:31:47,036 They acted as windbreaks, and also, 374 00:31:47,205 --> 00:31:54,373 being made of mud, adobe brick, they have incredible properties of insulation. 375 00:31:54,545 --> 00:32:00,211 Thick mud walls keep the heat out - in the summer and the warmth in in the winter. 376 00:32:00,385 --> 00:32:03,946 Here also, you see these net pattern is perforated, 377 00:32:04,122 --> 00:32:06,590 so this can let air creep in, 378 00:32:06,758 --> 00:32:11,957 cross-ventilation from the outside to inside in very hot summer days. 379 00:32:12,263 --> 00:32:15,596 All in all, a very ingenious arrangement - 380 00:32:15,767 --> 00:32:19,134 - making this natural material do a lot of jobs at once. 381 00:32:19,304 --> 00:32:23,400 Keeping you warm, keeping you cool, and keeping you safe. 382 00:32:26,110 --> 00:32:27,634 The Chimu people's reverence for nature 383 00:32:27,812 --> 00:32:29,939 is reflected in their architecture. 384 00:32:30,581 --> 00:32:32,674 Some of the walls take the form of fishing nets 385 00:32:32,850 --> 00:32:34,909 and are decorated with images of their gods, 386 00:32:35,086 --> 00:32:37,418 including sea birds and fish. 387 00:32:45,463 --> 00:32:48,489 This decoration is largely - original, 388 00:32:48,666 --> 00:32:49,598 maybe partly repaired, 389 00:32:49,767 --> 00:32:53,498 but most of it is, I suppose, 700 years old. 390 00:32:54,772 --> 00:32:56,797 It says so much about the - the belief 391 00:32:56,975 --> 00:32:58,442 - beliefs of the people here. 392 00:32:58,609 --> 00:33:02,739 We have fish and we have pelicans. 393 00:33:03,881 --> 00:33:06,076 They venerated the sea and water, 394 00:33:06,250 --> 00:33:07,740 sea water for fish, 395 00:33:08,553 --> 00:33:11,044 fresh water for life itself, for - for plants, 396 00:33:11,222 --> 00:33:12,416 for irrigation. 397 00:33:14,192 --> 00:33:18,595 It's water, I suppose, too represented there by the horizontal band. 398 00:33:20,398 --> 00:33:21,422 Water made the difference between 399 00:33:21,599 --> 00:33:24,568 the Chimus' survival and extinction. 400 00:33:25,136 --> 00:33:28,128 Their great achievement was to build a thriving civilization 401 00:33:28,306 --> 00:33:31,469 in the most arid and exposed of locations. 402 00:33:38,883 --> 00:33:46,881 Golly. From up here one gets a sense of the - vast scale of Chan Chan. 403 00:33:47,358 --> 00:33:49,451 It stretches as far as the eye can see. 404 00:33:49,627 --> 00:33:53,654 Citadel after citadel and wall after wall, one beyond the other. 405 00:33:53,831 --> 00:34:01,863 Also from here one can see what this place is all about. Water. 406 00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:06,204 Over there you can see the sea. Waves breaking. 407 00:34:06,377 --> 00:34:10,006 So there we have the fruits of the sea, fish being gathered. 408 00:34:10,181 --> 00:34:13,412 And just there - what looks like a pond. 409 00:34:13,751 --> 00:34:15,651 Ornamental now, but originally 410 00:34:15,887 --> 00:34:20,688 that was full of growing vegetables, things to keep the population alive. 411 00:34:20,858 --> 00:34:26,194 These people, they dug right down to ground water to get fresh water. 412 00:34:26,364 --> 00:34:32,132 So fresh water, salt water. Fish and vegetables, 413 00:34:32,370 --> 00:34:35,430 to support and sustain this gigantic population, 414 00:34:35,606 --> 00:34:39,133 a population that depended almost entirely 415 00:34:39,343 --> 00:34:44,144 for its livelihood on irrigation and on the fruits of the sea. 416 00:34:44,449 --> 00:34:46,679 No wonder they venerated water. 417 00:34:52,390 --> 00:34:55,052 The Chimu empire was crushed, not by the Spanish, 418 00:34:55,226 --> 00:35:00,493 but in the late 15th century by the lnca king who created Machu Picchu. 419 00:35:01,766 --> 00:35:06,066 Chan Chan was plundered for its riches and abandoned to the elements. 420 00:35:11,008 --> 00:35:15,035 I continue my journey by flying from Peru to Santiago in Chile, 421 00:35:15,213 --> 00:35:18,478 then onwards to the remotest island on earth. 422 00:35:18,716 --> 00:35:20,183 It means a massive detour, 423 00:35:20,351 --> 00:35:24,151 but I'm about to see one of the undoubted wonders of the world. 424 00:35:29,861 --> 00:35:31,726 I'm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean - 425 00:35:31,896 --> 00:35:36,595 - over 2,000 miles away from the South American mainland. 426 00:35:40,438 --> 00:35:45,603 And I'm on my way to see a treasure that's gripped my - imagination for decades. 427 00:35:48,079 --> 00:35:50,274 I've chosen to see my treasure from the sea, 428 00:35:50,448 --> 00:35:55,886 because that's how it first appeared to startled European sailors almost 300 years ago. 429 00:36:12,203 --> 00:36:15,263 The giant statues or Moai on Easter lsland 430 00:36:15,673 --> 00:36:19,575 were first seen by Europeans on Easter Sunday 1722, 431 00:36:20,144 --> 00:36:21,873 giving the island its name. 432 00:36:22,446 --> 00:36:25,176 Locally it's known as Rapanui. 433 00:36:26,017 --> 00:36:30,386 At first the explorers didn't know what they were or who had created them. 434 00:36:34,158 --> 00:36:37,719 The story of the Moai is powerful and disturbing. 435 00:36:38,229 --> 00:36:42,222 It's about man's relationship with his world and with his gods. 436 00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:44,465 It says much about his hopes and fears, 437 00:36:44,635 --> 00:36:47,468 and the fragile nature of existence. 438 00:36:49,607 --> 00:36:52,303 One of my earliest, most memorable - 439 00:36:52,476 --> 00:36:58,745 - visual experiences was seeing the Moai on the staircase in the British Museum. 440 00:36:58,916 --> 00:37:04,047 I was very, very young, but it burnt itself into my memory. 441 00:37:04,222 --> 00:37:07,658 It wasn't frightening, just incredibly - powerful. 442 00:37:07,825 --> 00:37:10,794 The face, so elemental. 443 00:37:11,662 --> 00:37:14,597 I wanted always to know more about it. 444 00:37:14,999 --> 00:37:18,162 The solemn stare, what did it mean? 445 00:37:18,502 --> 00:37:24,839 So I've come here to see other Moai, to see them in their landscape, 446 00:37:25,009 --> 00:37:29,844 in their setting, in their context, to find out - more about them. 447 00:37:30,147 --> 00:37:34,811 I've just seen this group here, and they are absolutely stunning. 448 00:37:35,620 --> 00:37:40,683 These are definitely amongst the great treasures of the world. 449 00:37:52,303 --> 00:37:56,137 The Moai are believed to represent the souls of dead ancestors 450 00:37:56,674 --> 00:38:01,043 and face inwards towards the island, protecting their descendants. 451 00:38:11,422 --> 00:38:16,189 And here's a Moai lying on its back. 452 00:38:19,297 --> 00:38:21,891 It must have been on its way to 453 00:38:22,066 --> 00:38:27,003 the sacred platform - over there. 454 00:38:27,438 --> 00:38:30,703 The stone, the figure was carved - 455 00:38:30,875 --> 00:38:35,073 - not here, not in situ, not at the the site at which it was to be erected, 456 00:38:35,246 --> 00:38:38,079 but where the stone was quarried. 457 00:38:38,282 --> 00:38:46,883 And that is over there, that broken volcanic peak in front of me. 458 00:38:49,727 --> 00:38:51,854 It's a mystery why so few of Easter lsland's 459 00:38:52,029 --> 00:38:56,466 900 Moai are mounted on their sacred platforms. 460 00:39:05,076 --> 00:39:06,805 Because, extraordinarily, 461 00:39:06,977 --> 00:39:09,775 there are dozens of Moai loitering around here - 462 00:39:09,947 --> 00:39:12,142 - on this slope leading up to the quarry, 463 00:39:12,316 --> 00:39:13,374 facing all different directions, 464 00:39:13,551 --> 00:39:16,452 some out to sea, some inland. 465 00:39:17,254 --> 00:39:21,384 I suppose this is like a - a storage area for the Moai. 466 00:39:21,559 --> 00:39:24,687 They've been carved in the quarry right up there, 467 00:39:24,862 --> 00:39:27,262 and here I can begin to see the little recesses 468 00:39:27,431 --> 00:39:29,058 where they've been cut out, 469 00:39:29,467 --> 00:39:31,264 and I guess slid down here 470 00:39:31,502 --> 00:39:33,629 and then stored in these pits. 471 00:39:35,039 --> 00:39:38,099 And here you see the key characteristics of the Moai. 472 00:39:39,810 --> 00:39:41,334 The jutting chin. 473 00:39:43,381 --> 00:39:44,905 The pouting lips. 474 00:39:46,917 --> 00:39:51,411 The great extended nose, slightly concave. 475 00:39:51,756 --> 00:39:53,417 The beetling brow. 476 00:40:09,807 --> 00:40:14,676 There are an amazing 400 Moai still at the Rana-Raraku quarry, 477 00:40:14,845 --> 00:40:17,609 almost half the total ever carved. 478 00:40:21,018 --> 00:40:28,220 Crikey, this is the crater of the volcano that spewed out the stone called tuff, 479 00:40:28,392 --> 00:40:30,223 from which the Moai are carved. 480 00:40:30,394 --> 00:40:35,889 And over there more Moai, standing looking into the crater itself. 481 00:40:36,066 --> 00:40:40,400 I suppose they're - again, they're - they're in storage. 482 00:40:48,746 --> 00:40:50,976 Here we can see - very clearly how the moai was made, 483 00:40:51,148 --> 00:40:54,345 how it was quarried from the volcano face. 484 00:40:54,518 --> 00:40:57,919 This end is still attached to the - to the rock. There you are. 485 00:40:58,823 --> 00:41:04,887 It's been cut round, been freed from its - bed. 486 00:41:05,563 --> 00:41:07,360 A bird nesting underneath it. 487 00:41:08,332 --> 00:41:11,893 Here's the - the arm. The torso here. 488 00:41:12,203 --> 00:41:17,903 And here the incredible head taking shape. 489 00:41:18,075 --> 00:41:19,406 The nose. 490 00:41:21,011 --> 00:41:23,707 And here is the mouth and chin. 491 00:41:23,881 --> 00:41:34,121 Now this stuff, called tuff, was shaped using a bit of harder rock like this, basalt. 492 00:41:34,358 --> 00:41:38,454 Basalt is harder than this compacted volcanic ash called tuff, 493 00:41:38,629 --> 00:41:42,190 and the mason would simply chip away, chip away, chip away. 494 00:41:42,700 --> 00:41:44,691 But what happened here one day, 495 00:41:45,769 --> 00:41:53,540 this particular mason downed tools and walked away leaving it never to be completed. 496 00:41:56,180 --> 00:41:59,581 Clearly something dramatic happened, and very rapidly. 497 00:41:59,783 --> 00:42:03,116 A sacred tradition suddenly stopped, was abandoned. 498 00:42:05,289 --> 00:42:08,156 Normally after completion in the quarry 499 00:42:08,392 --> 00:42:10,155 the moai would have been dragged using ropes and 500 00:42:10,327 --> 00:42:13,785 Iog rollers down to their platforms by the sea. 501 00:42:14,298 --> 00:42:17,426 Here the finishing touches would have been applied. 502 00:42:18,802 --> 00:42:21,134 When the moai had been placed on its ahu, 503 00:42:21,305 --> 00:42:24,797 eyes made of obsidian, which is a volcanic rock, 504 00:42:24,975 --> 00:42:27,341 and coral were put in place. 505 00:42:27,745 --> 00:42:31,579 And those eyes, it is said, brought the moai to life. 506 00:42:38,722 --> 00:42:40,917 But the moai did not live forever. 507 00:42:41,158 --> 00:42:44,059 Long ago in the mists of time, the cult appears 508 00:42:44,228 --> 00:42:47,686 to have been ended by some cataclysmic event. 509 00:43:00,611 --> 00:43:06,140 The following morning, I set out to discover more about the tragic fate that befell the moai. 510 00:43:31,275 --> 00:43:36,042 There are eight moai here. Each one has been toppled face down. 511 00:43:36,580 --> 00:43:41,984 You see their faces buried in the ahu, in the ground. 512 00:43:42,419 --> 00:43:44,979 Now, this could have been a great wave, a tsunami - 513 00:43:45,155 --> 00:43:48,989 - but that wouldn't have had quite this effect. 514 00:43:49,159 --> 00:43:52,595 No, these have been toppled by men. 515 00:43:52,930 --> 00:43:57,264 These moai have been murdered, have been killed ritualistically. 516 00:43:58,268 --> 00:44:03,035 They have been robbed of their power and made meaningless. 517 00:44:03,207 --> 00:44:09,146 Some have even had their - their necks broken, their heads crushed. 518 00:44:09,313 --> 00:44:13,773 I guess, their eyes gouged out. 519 00:44:14,852 --> 00:44:16,945 What this tells us, of course, 520 00:44:17,121 --> 00:44:23,253 is that something terrible happened on this island many years ago. 521 00:44:23,427 --> 00:44:29,798 Something led people to fight, to turn on themselves 522 00:44:30,434 --> 00:44:32,368 and to murder their own gods. 523 00:44:35,773 --> 00:44:40,540 The moai were almost certainly toppled by rival clans about 500 years ago 524 00:44:40,711 --> 00:44:43,509 when the island descended into civil war. 525 00:44:44,848 --> 00:44:48,841 The islanders had cut down most of the island's trees to move the moai, 526 00:44:49,019 --> 00:44:52,011 and didn't have enough timber left to build fishing boats. 527 00:44:52,222 --> 00:44:55,714 So food supplies began running desperately short. 528 00:44:56,827 --> 00:45:00,923 Locals replaced worship of the moai with the sinister cult of the birdman, 529 00:45:01,098 --> 00:45:04,124 whose image can still be seen carved into the rocks. 530 00:45:04,301 --> 00:45:09,830 But this new cult involved rival clans competing for control of limited resources. 531 00:45:12,710 --> 00:45:14,507 I head for a dark and hidden place 532 00:45:14,678 --> 00:45:17,772 which holds the grisly secrets of the birdman. 533 00:45:22,219 --> 00:45:27,851 Wow, a painting of birds, great birds. Wonderful. 534 00:45:28,025 --> 00:45:32,587 They're very fresh, bright, as if painted just yesterday. 535 00:45:34,298 --> 00:45:37,790 This cave is a - a solemn place indeed. 536 00:45:37,968 --> 00:45:44,066 Grim I guess... known locally as anakai tangata, 537 00:45:44,241 --> 00:45:50,737 which means the cave where men eat or - the cave where men are eaten. 538 00:45:51,181 --> 00:45:56,084 So this is perhaps evidence of cannibalism. 539 00:46:07,197 --> 00:46:11,327 The story of Easter lsland is really a - a parable. 540 00:46:12,269 --> 00:46:16,865 It tells the story of very heaven becoming hell, 541 00:46:17,741 --> 00:46:20,141 of benign gods becoming malign. 542 00:46:20,310 --> 00:46:26,112 And all to do with the exploitation of the resources of the island - 543 00:46:26,617 --> 00:46:28,517 - and frightful things happening. 544 00:46:37,961 --> 00:46:40,429 As I head back to the mainland of Latin America, 545 00:46:40,597 --> 00:46:42,827 I'm about to witness the sorry tale of Easter lsland 546 00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:46,629 repeating itself in 21st century Brazil. 547 00:46:53,811 --> 00:46:55,972 I'm at Cuiaba in western Brazil - 548 00:46:56,146 --> 00:46:59,604 - and I'm about to fly, go by car, and by boat, 549 00:46:59,783 --> 00:47:04,152 around 750 kilometres into the Amazon rainforest 550 00:47:04,321 --> 00:47:06,789 to find my living treasure. 551 00:47:11,028 --> 00:47:13,326 My treasure's not an ancient artefact, 552 00:47:13,897 --> 00:47:14,829 but something very special 553 00:47:14,998 --> 00:47:19,935 that continues to be created and used by people deep in the rainforest. 554 00:47:45,028 --> 00:47:48,020 Of course, I've heard about the devastation of the rainforest, 555 00:47:48,198 --> 00:47:50,996 but I'm shocked by the sheer scale of this. 556 00:47:53,737 --> 00:47:54,931 Over hundreds of miles, 557 00:47:55,105 --> 00:47:57,403 valuable timber has been removed by loggers 558 00:47:57,574 --> 00:48:00,566 and the forest transformed into grazing land for cattle, 559 00:48:00,744 --> 00:48:03,577 to feed the world with beefburgers. 560 00:48:09,753 --> 00:48:10,811 After several hours, 561 00:48:10,988 --> 00:48:12,148 we cross the threshold 562 00:48:12,322 --> 00:48:14,847 into what remains of the rainforest. 563 00:48:15,359 --> 00:48:16,451 It's been fenced off and is now 564 00:48:16,627 --> 00:48:18,857 protected by the Brazilian government. 565 00:48:24,234 --> 00:48:29,228 I head down the Warema river, a tributary of the Amazon, towards my treasure. 566 00:48:29,673 --> 00:48:32,107 It's an unbelievably beautiful work of art, 567 00:48:32,276 --> 00:48:34,744 created by a tribe called the lgbatsa. 568 00:48:36,647 --> 00:48:41,107 The lgbatsa people are clinging onto their traditional way of life as hunter gatherers. 569 00:48:41,285 --> 00:48:44,254 Their world has being threatened by the loggers and cattle ranchers 570 00:48:44,421 --> 00:48:49,256 as well as Roman Catholic Jesuit missionaries who forcibly removed their children 571 00:48:49,426 --> 00:48:51,894 as recently as the 1 960s. 572 00:49:04,608 --> 00:49:06,940 Excellent reception committee. 573 00:49:08,478 --> 00:49:10,139 Wonder who I approach. 574 00:49:14,785 --> 00:49:15,752 Hello. 575 00:49:27,397 --> 00:49:31,800 That is what I've come to see - the headdress. 576 00:49:33,971 --> 00:49:37,338 My most colourful of treasures is a symbol of the Amazon 577 00:49:37,507 --> 00:49:40,806 and an object of immense importance to these people. 578 00:49:52,956 --> 00:49:55,481 Oh my god. Wow. 579 00:49:56,193 --> 00:50:00,653 I expected one, maybe two, umahara, but a whole hut full. 580 00:50:04,034 --> 00:50:06,332 Beautiful objects, beautifully made, 581 00:50:06,503 --> 00:50:12,135 but more to the point, they're full of meaning to these people. 582 00:50:12,409 --> 00:50:15,640 They celebrate their culture, their aspirations, their religion. 583 00:50:16,346 --> 00:50:22,512 And made from human hair, parrot feathers. Ah, absolutely wonderful. 584 00:50:43,006 --> 00:50:47,875 The umahara headdress is worn with great pride by the lgbatsa people. 585 00:50:48,145 --> 00:50:50,909 It's the emblem of an endangered culture. 586 00:50:52,015 --> 00:50:54,347 It once played a key role in war ceremonies 587 00:50:54,518 --> 00:50:57,351 and is still used in dance rituals. 588 00:51:07,898 --> 00:51:12,301 This dance takes place every day for 90 days after the first of June. 589 00:51:12,469 --> 00:51:16,462 It's a celebration of birth and all things new. 590 00:51:20,110 --> 00:51:24,513 During the dance wives have the right to ask favours of their husbands, 591 00:51:24,714 --> 00:51:26,443 who are obliged to grant them. 592 00:51:40,430 --> 00:51:45,458 After the dance, I talk to members of the tribe about the headdress and how it's made. 593 00:51:48,538 --> 00:51:52,907 Can I ask what it - what it means to them today, the umahara headdress. 594 00:51:57,481 --> 00:52:02,418 He says the umahara represents a great richness in their own culture. 595 00:52:09,025 --> 00:52:10,219 And for their future. 596 00:52:19,636 --> 00:52:24,972 For their future, they couldn't stop creating it and using it for their own use. 597 00:52:25,542 --> 00:52:28,033 Represents their sense of identity really. 598 00:52:34,251 --> 00:52:36,617 It represents the identity of the lgbatsa people. 599 00:52:41,224 --> 00:52:44,955 So we've got feathers from parrots and - and female hair. 600 00:52:45,128 --> 00:52:51,158 That - that is correct, is it...? On - onto some - some - 601 00:52:55,972 --> 00:52:57,906 This is from the - a marella clan. 602 00:53:00,744 --> 00:53:02,473 It's all rather perplexing. 603 00:53:03,180 --> 00:53:04,442 To preserve their traditions, 604 00:53:04,614 --> 00:53:08,015 the lgbatsa have to make the umahara headdresses. 605 00:53:08,685 --> 00:53:13,486 Yet in so doing, they must kill protected bird species for their feathers. 606 00:53:17,260 --> 00:53:21,458 While the faces and bodies of the men and women are brightly painted in the traditional way, 607 00:53:21,631 --> 00:53:24,794 they sport natty shorts and bikini tops. 608 00:53:25,068 --> 00:53:28,799 Bit by bit, the lgbatsa are being drawn into the modern world, 609 00:53:28,972 --> 00:53:31,236 whether they like it or not. 610 00:53:37,214 --> 00:53:41,173 As evening approaches, preparations are being made for supper. 611 00:53:42,018 --> 00:53:44,714 A rather tasty feast awaits me. 612 00:54:04,007 --> 00:54:06,874 This all brings back very deep - memories. 613 00:54:07,310 --> 00:54:10,438 The family halls scattered round about the compound, 614 00:54:10,614 --> 00:54:14,675 the main hall where the communal ceremonies take place - 615 00:54:14,851 --> 00:54:17,581 - the people gathered round the fire at night eating. 616 00:54:18,288 --> 00:54:19,687 The fields round about. 617 00:54:20,090 --> 00:54:24,720 It's like a Anglo-Saxon village in England a couple of hundred years ago. 618 00:54:25,061 --> 00:54:29,430 It's like meeting one's ancestors coming back here. 619 00:54:46,116 --> 00:54:47,674 After the tranquillity of the rainforest, 620 00:54:47,851 --> 00:54:51,480 one of the world's most energetic and romantic cities awaits me. 621 00:54:54,157 --> 00:54:56,682 It's a place bursting with contradictions. 622 00:54:56,993 --> 00:54:58,654 Alongside the glamour and wealth, 623 00:54:58,828 --> 00:55:00,386 the samba and the football, 624 00:55:00,563 --> 00:55:03,828 is some of the most appalling poverty in the world. 625 00:55:23,853 --> 00:55:26,788 My treasure expresses the paradox of Rio. 626 00:55:27,023 --> 00:55:32,154 It's the first great colossus on my trip, and an icon which shouts out Brazil. 627 00:55:40,937 --> 00:55:44,464 Christ the Redeemer was built to mark the centenary in 1 922 628 00:55:44,641 --> 00:55:47,303 of Brazilian independence from Portugal. 629 00:55:47,544 --> 00:55:51,310 It was finally inaugurated in October 1931. 630 00:55:52,882 --> 00:55:56,045 As I approach, a dense fog descends. 631 00:55:56,619 --> 00:55:59,486 This is not how I expected to meet my redeemer. 632 00:56:00,156 --> 00:56:01,623 At 38 metres high, 633 00:56:01,791 --> 00:56:04,726 the largest art deco statue in the world. 634 00:56:05,595 --> 00:56:09,258 It's become a symbol not only of - - Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, 635 00:56:09,432 --> 00:56:12,026 but also of South America. 636 00:56:12,635 --> 00:56:18,335 The great arms embracing - the people of this land, the different mix of people. 637 00:56:18,508 --> 00:56:19,907 Very powerful. 638 00:56:21,211 --> 00:56:29,346 In fact, he's offering welcome and peace and love, understanding, and of course is - 639 00:56:29,519 --> 00:56:32,716 - a great Roman Catholic image. 640 00:56:33,223 --> 00:56:35,521 That is the religion of the land, 641 00:56:35,692 --> 00:56:37,819 replacing the older religions, 642 00:56:37,994 --> 00:56:43,523 the various religions we've seen, and lamented their loss really. 643 00:56:44,334 --> 00:56:48,737 So for good or ill, this is the image of the new South America. 644 00:56:50,340 --> 00:56:52,365 Amazing, as the mist comes down, 645 00:56:52,609 --> 00:56:56,443 the figure is disappearing before me. 646 00:57:06,990 --> 00:57:10,949 I had hoped to enjoy spectacular view of Christ the Redeemer from the air. 647 00:57:12,028 --> 00:57:13,290 It's not to be. 648 00:57:16,166 --> 00:57:17,360 But the flight does give me the chance 649 00:57:17,534 --> 00:57:21,834 to reflect on Rio and my travels in Latin America. 650 00:57:22,005 --> 00:57:24,303 The treasures I've found in South America 651 00:57:24,574 --> 00:57:29,910 have revealed it to be a place of thrilling and at times disturbing contrasts, 652 00:57:30,079 --> 00:57:32,343 and of deep mysteries. 653 00:57:33,416 --> 00:57:40,015 Mystery when it comes to the fact that the old civilisations, the lncas, for example, 654 00:57:40,457 --> 00:57:43,893 their civilisation was so fragile, had no written language - 655 00:57:44,060 --> 00:57:50,124 - that it made it very easy to obliterate so much of what they had discovered, 656 00:57:50,300 --> 00:57:53,633 so much of what they stood for, so many of their achievements. 657 00:57:56,439 --> 00:58:02,105 And Rio is a great emblem, I suppose, of the new South America, 658 00:58:02,278 --> 00:58:07,181 the South America formed on the graves of the old civilisations. 659 00:58:07,484 --> 00:58:11,545 The conquerors come, they bring their new religion, Roman Catholicism, 660 00:58:11,721 --> 00:58:17,455 and the great civilisations of the past are laid in the dust surrounded by history. 661 00:58:18,061 --> 00:58:20,461 And that's really what my treasures have revealed, 662 00:58:20,630 --> 00:58:27,001 the glories of the past, the indigenous civilisations here, and also - 663 00:58:27,237 --> 00:58:29,865 - the emblem of the new, Christ the Redeemer, 664 00:58:30,039 --> 00:58:36,501 presiding over this great teeming, thrill-seeking city.