1 00:00:07,006 --> 00:00:10,100 This is the story of a journey of a lifetime. 2 00:00:10,576 --> 00:00:14,068 I'm circumnavigating the world in just five months. 3 00:00:14,380 --> 00:00:19,044 My quest is to seek out 80 of the greatest treasures created by mankind. 4 00:00:22,888 --> 00:00:27,086 Some of the treasures I've chosen are undisputed wonders of the world. 5 00:00:29,928 --> 00:00:34,262 Others are not as well known, but nevertheless awe-inspiring. 6 00:00:37,236 --> 00:00:41,332 And some of my choices are surprising - even shocking. 7 00:00:44,343 --> 00:00:47,870 My mission is to reveal what has driven man over thousands of years 8 00:00:48,047 --> 00:00:51,414 to create art and architecture that is incredibly beautiful 9 00:00:51,583 --> 00:00:56,077 and which tells the story of mankind, of civilisation. 10 00:00:57,589 --> 00:00:59,113 Along the way, I'll visit some of the 11 00:00:59,291 --> 00:01:03,660 most mysterious places on earth, and the most dramatic. 12 00:01:05,531 --> 00:01:09,092 I'll come face to face with the legacies of great ancient civilisations, 13 00:01:09,268 --> 00:01:14,262 and encounter cultures which are clinging onto survival in the modern age. 14 00:01:16,241 --> 00:01:18,539 I hope to learn something about human aspirations, 15 00:01:18,710 --> 00:01:21,076 about the secrets of life and death, 16 00:01:21,246 --> 00:01:24,113 and ultimately about myself. 17 00:01:51,510 --> 00:01:54,206 I face an exhilarating and daunting challenge. 18 00:01:54,379 --> 00:01:59,840 I'm going to 40 countries and six continents in 150 days. 19 00:02:02,421 --> 00:02:06,152 Here we go. This is it - starting. The waiting's over. 20 00:02:06,758 --> 00:02:10,717 Months of planning, months of planning's over - and we're now going. 21 00:02:10,896 --> 00:02:13,694 It feels great actually to be on the move. 22 00:02:15,100 --> 00:02:19,036 Setting up such an ambitious expedition has been a logistical nightmare, 23 00:02:19,204 --> 00:02:22,640 with all the visas to obtain and arrangements to make. 24 00:02:24,309 --> 00:02:28,245 I'm booked onto 90 flights and will cover more than 80,000 miles, 25 00:02:28,413 --> 00:02:31,041 seeing a new treasure every other day. 26 00:02:31,583 --> 00:02:32,880 My schedule's so tight that 27 00:02:33,051 --> 00:02:37,112 if anything goes wrong the whole enterprise could fall apart. 28 00:02:37,789 --> 00:02:39,814 I wonder what I've let myself in for. 29 00:02:39,992 --> 00:02:44,554 The finest moments of human creation in five months flat. 30 00:02:51,003 --> 00:02:55,463 My odyssey begins with a 15-hour flight from London to Peru. 31 00:03:06,318 --> 00:03:08,286 There's no better place to start. 32 00:03:09,054 --> 00:03:11,454 Peru is home to some of the world's great treasures 33 00:03:11,623 --> 00:03:17,528 and most enigmatic lost civilizations - not least, the Incas. 34 00:03:18,297 --> 00:03:21,858 Their achievements and way of life are still celebrated in modern-day Peru, 35 00:03:22,034 --> 00:03:26,835 500 years after the Inca world was destroyed by Spanish conquerors. 36 00:03:37,216 --> 00:03:38,547 To find what I'm looking for, 37 00:03:38,717 --> 00:03:42,016 I head deep into the Incas' mountainous heartland. 38 00:03:42,654 --> 00:03:46,647 I'm travelling - on a narrow gauge railway through the High Andes. 39 00:03:46,825 --> 00:03:47,689 I'm going to a place that 40 00:03:47,859 --> 00:03:53,195 I'm told is one of the most beautiful and spiritually uplifting on earth. 41 00:03:54,766 --> 00:03:57,064 It's Latin America's Shangri-la. 42 00:03:57,236 --> 00:03:59,796 A place shrouded in mystery. 43 00:03:59,972 --> 00:04:04,136 It had a short life, little more than half a century. 44 00:04:04,543 --> 00:04:07,842 It was lost in a cloud forest for 400 years 45 00:04:08,013 --> 00:04:10,504 and only rediscovered in 1911. 46 00:04:12,251 --> 00:04:16,711 It's gone on to become one of the most famous places in Latin America. 47 00:04:33,105 --> 00:04:37,599 Machu Picchu, which - stands on a natural shelf high in the Andes, 48 00:04:37,776 --> 00:04:40,836 2,350 metres above sea level. 49 00:04:41,013 --> 00:04:43,880 It's a staggering location, 50 00:04:44,049 --> 00:04:46,916 an amazing place to build a city. 51 00:04:48,887 --> 00:04:51,651 Machu Picchu feels like it's on top of the world, 52 00:04:51,823 --> 00:04:53,723 the realm of the gods. 53 00:04:56,495 --> 00:04:58,258 It's thought to have been built in the 1460s 54 00:04:58,430 --> 00:05:01,797 by the Inca god-king Pachacuti Inca. 55 00:05:04,870 --> 00:05:09,569 I'm intrigued why he built a city in such a remote and difficult location. 56 00:05:11,743 --> 00:05:16,908 This is the main gate to Machu Picchu, and it's amazing it's so small, 57 00:05:17,082 --> 00:05:19,209 and that tells us a lot about Inca society, 58 00:05:19,384 --> 00:05:21,978 and indeed about Machu Picchu. 59 00:05:22,421 --> 00:05:27,017 The simple fact is that the Incas are very advanced in some ways and not in others. 60 00:05:27,192 --> 00:05:30,821 They didn't have the wheel, didn't have great forms of transport, 61 00:05:30,996 --> 00:05:34,864 great carriages, therefore didn't need to bring things inside the city. 62 00:05:35,067 --> 00:05:38,059 Things would be delivered outside and brought in by hand. 63 00:05:38,236 --> 00:05:43,333 So the city gate could be no bigger really than the door to a - to a room. 64 00:05:43,508 --> 00:05:45,237 It's really quite astonishing. 65 00:05:49,514 --> 00:05:51,641 Machu Picchu has about 200 buildings, 66 00:05:51,817 --> 00:05:54,547 was home to around a thousand people. 67 00:05:55,787 --> 00:05:59,553 It's laid out with streets built on terraces cut into the mountainside. 68 00:05:59,825 --> 00:06:03,522 Most people lived in small humble houses. 69 00:06:08,233 --> 00:06:14,729 And here is a very intact house in Machu Picchu. Absolutely staggering. 70 00:06:14,906 --> 00:06:18,672 All here apart from the roof, roof timbers and thatch outside, 71 00:06:18,844 --> 00:06:23,281 that had been tied on with ropes onto sort of stone pins on these gables. 72 00:06:23,448 --> 00:06:25,939 Otherwise, all here. 73 00:06:26,752 --> 00:06:32,315 Now, the Incas didn't have much furniture. I believe lived most on the floor and carpets, 74 00:06:32,491 --> 00:06:36,621 but would keep some things in these little recesses here, cupboards, this little niches. 75 00:06:36,795 --> 00:06:39,025 Oh erm, gosh more niches, and a wonderful view. 76 00:06:39,197 --> 00:06:43,156 God. The sacred mountain. 77 00:06:58,016 --> 00:07:00,416 The Incas were amazing civil engineers. 78 00:07:00,585 --> 00:07:05,818 They were great road builders and they built sewers and water systems, 79 00:07:05,991 --> 00:07:12,453 and here you see at Machu Picchu how water was supplied to this - the city itself. 80 00:07:12,631 --> 00:07:15,031 Water was gathered - from the high mountains up there, 81 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:17,794 brought down into a little canal here, 82 00:07:17,969 --> 00:07:21,405 running through and then into this cascade, waterfall. 83 00:07:22,774 --> 00:07:24,639 Roman quality really. 84 00:07:34,553 --> 00:07:36,851 Look at this. That's a fantastic example of Inca stonework. 85 00:07:37,022 --> 00:07:41,186 Massive blocks cut to fit together like a jigsaw. 86 00:07:41,359 --> 00:07:44,522 Beautifully finely jointed. No mortar of course. 87 00:07:44,863 --> 00:07:46,694 Just astonishing. 88 00:07:47,599 --> 00:07:51,160 Creating a very, very, very strong walling, anti-earthquake. 89 00:07:51,336 --> 00:07:54,396 This of course must be, yes, a temple complex. 90 00:07:54,573 --> 00:07:56,564 More temples. Two more temples here. 91 00:07:57,843 --> 00:08:02,712 And in front of me the temple of three windows, as it's now called - 92 00:08:02,881 --> 00:08:08,080 - relating, I think, to Inca creation myths about three caves. 93 00:08:11,990 --> 00:08:17,792 Wonderful view through those windows of divine landscape beyond. Here - 94 00:08:17,963 --> 00:08:20,363 - is what's the called the principal temple - 95 00:08:20,532 --> 00:08:22,591 - a massive altar stone. 96 00:08:22,767 --> 00:08:25,964 And just look at this masonry, it's incredible. 97 00:08:26,137 --> 00:08:30,198 Cut precisely by hammering one stone against another. 98 00:08:30,375 --> 00:08:35,108 And the size of those blocks of stone. Good Lord. 99 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:37,874 It's absolutely superb. 100 00:08:41,319 --> 00:08:43,810 The large number of temples at Machu Picchu shows 101 00:08:43,989 --> 00:08:46,822 what a special place this was to the Incas. 102 00:08:47,726 --> 00:08:51,287 The most important of these is the Temple of the Sun. 103 00:08:53,365 --> 00:08:56,459 At this time of year, the winter solstice in Peru, 104 00:08:56,635 --> 00:09:02,232 the stone altar and the window are in perfect alignment with the rising sun. 105 00:09:06,511 --> 00:09:13,110 I'm approaching a temple, but before I get there, there is this very strange stone. 106 00:09:13,285 --> 00:09:16,220 This is the profile. Well, you may think not too strange, 107 00:09:16,388 --> 00:09:22,486 but behind it you realise this profile is a miniature version, a model - 108 00:09:22,761 --> 00:09:25,491 - of the mountain range in the distance. 109 00:09:25,664 --> 00:09:34,197 So evidence, I think - of Inca veneration for the high lands, the mountain peaks. 110 00:09:41,413 --> 00:09:45,179 Machu Picchu was once thought to be home to beautiful virgins of the sun, 111 00:09:45,350 --> 00:09:48,717 who dedicated their lives to the Inca sun god. 112 00:09:49,788 --> 00:09:51,380 This may be fantasy, 113 00:09:51,556 --> 00:09:56,994 but there's little doubt that Machu Picchu was a sacred city, a holy place. 114 00:10:00,298 --> 00:10:02,163 I'm at the highest point of Machu Picchu, 115 00:10:02,334 --> 00:10:06,168 and this must have been the site - of a temple, 116 00:10:06,338 --> 00:10:10,035 because here is an altar, an altar - 117 00:10:10,208 --> 00:10:14,542 - of a very magnificent, though - peculiar, kind. 118 00:10:14,713 --> 00:10:17,204 It's cut from the mountain itself. 119 00:10:17,382 --> 00:10:21,978 No one really knows quite what this - meant to the Incas. 120 00:10:22,253 --> 00:10:25,984 Some people think it's to do with the veneration of the Sun. Why not? 121 00:10:26,224 --> 00:10:29,955 Could that be a sundial up there? The protruding part. 122 00:10:31,096 --> 00:10:37,126 Or, another rather charming notion, this was a hitching post for the Sun. 123 00:10:37,302 --> 00:10:38,234 At the winter solstice, 124 00:10:38,403 --> 00:10:40,462 the Incas would fear the Sun would never return, 125 00:10:40,639 --> 00:10:43,403 and anchor it to the earth. 126 00:10:48,647 --> 00:10:54,210 Now I understand. Obviously for the Inca this was - the axis mundi, 127 00:10:54,386 --> 00:11:00,086 the axis around which the world turns. The centre of their world. 128 00:11:00,959 --> 00:11:01,482 Incredible sight. 129 00:11:01,660 --> 00:11:06,563 And now, my goodness me, a rainbow's appearing. 130 00:11:06,731 --> 00:11:09,632 And of course a rainbow, to the Inca, was very, very important. 131 00:11:09,801 --> 00:11:14,864 They believed that the rainbow was the son of the Sun - God made manifest. 132 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:21,036 And there it is - stretching right above, arcing over Machu Picchu as I stand here. 133 00:11:26,217 --> 00:11:28,344 Machu Picchu is a magical vision of heaven 134 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:33,890 that enabled the Incas to be at one with nature and to venerate their great gods: 135 00:11:34,059 --> 00:11:37,222 the mountains and the Sun. 136 00:11:49,941 --> 00:11:53,741 The following day I traveled to the old Inca capital of Cuzco. 137 00:11:54,345 --> 00:11:56,279 It's a very special day. 138 00:11:56,581 --> 00:12:00,950 The winter solstice is a time of great celebration for the descendants of the Incas. 139 00:12:03,555 --> 00:12:09,289 The ancient - Inca festival celebrates the sun's return, 140 00:12:10,261 --> 00:12:13,253 the rebirth of the great sun, the giver of life. 141 00:12:16,468 --> 00:12:20,131 ... Hello. Where's your - ah this is - 142 00:12:20,405 --> 00:12:24,273 they want to show me their ovens. Let's have a look. 143 00:12:29,848 --> 00:12:32,476 Everywhere people are baking potatoes. 144 00:12:33,351 --> 00:12:35,512 It was the Incas who developed the potato, 145 00:12:35,687 --> 00:12:39,384 which is fact a tasty hybrid of poisonous plants. 146 00:12:44,028 --> 00:12:50,024 They're lovely - little earth ovens, made on the site from the earth on which we stand. 147 00:12:50,201 --> 00:12:51,498 How very efficient. 148 00:12:52,303 --> 00:12:56,899 The potato is not my next treasure, but it provides a clue. 149 00:12:57,509 --> 00:13:00,307 My treasure has a key role in the food chain. 150 00:13:00,979 --> 00:13:03,948 It's a product of the Inca genius for manipulating the landscape 151 00:13:04,115 --> 00:13:06,174 to improve their lives. 152 00:13:10,488 --> 00:13:12,080 My dream is to see it from the skies, 153 00:13:12,257 --> 00:13:14,020 like the Incas' holy bird of prey, 154 00:13:14,192 --> 00:13:19,824 the condor, by soaring high over their sacred valley on a paraglider. 155 00:13:26,638 --> 00:13:27,832 - Just hang on this? - No, like this. 156 00:13:28,006 --> 00:13:28,836 I push with my knees? 157 00:13:29,007 --> 00:13:31,168 Yes. No, you push with your hands. 158 00:13:31,409 --> 00:13:34,037 At an altitude of over 3,000 metres 159 00:13:34,212 --> 00:13:37,739 I'm feeling light headed and more than a little nervous, 160 00:13:37,916 --> 00:13:39,440 so I chew coca leaves, 161 00:13:39,617 --> 00:13:41,847 which are used to make cocaine. 162 00:13:42,020 --> 00:13:44,989 What we do is we make offerings - before we do a flight. 163 00:13:45,156 --> 00:13:48,819 We let some of the leaves go into the wind as offerings to them. 164 00:13:48,993 --> 00:13:53,362 Then we always put - put a couple more in our mouth. 165 00:13:53,531 --> 00:13:55,192 A - a couple, a couple in me. 166 00:13:55,366 --> 00:13:56,390 This - what - what will it do? 167 00:13:56,568 --> 00:13:59,662 Just - it does seriously help with the altitude situation, does it? 168 00:13:59,838 --> 00:14:01,829 Yeah, it increases the circulation in the system. 169 00:14:02,006 --> 00:14:04,031 So it oxygenates the mind a little bit more. 170 00:14:04,209 --> 00:14:05,938 Okay, makes oxygen go further. Yeah. 171 00:14:06,110 --> 00:14:07,873 - Which is the opposite of altitude sickness. - Yeah. 172 00:14:09,581 --> 00:14:11,208 Let's go. Run, run, run, run. 173 00:14:16,354 --> 00:14:18,652 Keep running. 174 00:14:20,258 --> 00:14:22,089 Oh, that wasn't - 175 00:14:23,761 --> 00:14:24,455 Sorry. 176 00:14:24,629 --> 00:14:25,823 Don't worry. 177 00:14:29,734 --> 00:14:30,325 Keep running. 178 00:14:30,501 --> 00:14:31,195 Running, running - 179 00:14:31,369 --> 00:14:34,304 Keep running. Run, run, run... 180 00:14:35,740 --> 00:14:36,707 Well done. 181 00:14:36,875 --> 00:14:39,173 We seem to be airborne. 182 00:14:42,213 --> 00:14:43,646 At first it's promising, 183 00:14:43,815 --> 00:14:46,283 as we fly upwards and onwards towards my treasure, 184 00:14:46,451 --> 00:14:49,215 perched on a mountainside across the valley. 185 00:14:51,956 --> 00:14:53,150 You're flying, Dan. 186 00:14:53,324 --> 00:14:57,590 I am a condor. Absolutely amazing, amazing. 187 00:15:05,370 --> 00:15:07,270 But the conditions aren't right 188 00:15:07,438 --> 00:15:10,100 and we're soon sinking towards the ground. 189 00:15:10,308 --> 00:15:11,900 It's so disappointing. 190 00:15:28,126 --> 00:15:30,492 I must revert to a four-wheel-drive vehicle, 191 00:15:30,662 --> 00:15:34,962 but it's still touch and go whether I can reach my treasure before sunset. 192 00:15:35,366 --> 00:15:37,027 It's a surprising choice, 193 00:15:37,201 --> 00:15:40,193 but it's one of the Incas' most enduring legacies. 194 00:15:40,672 --> 00:15:46,338 I see the sun's fading. Going down below - the mountain range. 195 00:15:50,515 --> 00:15:55,919 And this is it. An extraordinary abstract work of sculpture in the landscape. 196 00:16:02,126 --> 00:16:05,254 The salt pans are a most appropriate choice. 197 00:16:06,564 --> 00:16:10,000 Salt is one of the foundations of all civilisation. 198 00:16:10,201 --> 00:16:14,570 It has enabled man to create the wonders I'll enjoy on my journey. 199 00:16:16,774 --> 00:16:21,108 Below me are these salt pans - that date from the Inca times or earlier, 200 00:16:21,279 --> 00:16:23,611 four or five-six hundred years - 201 00:16:23,781 --> 00:16:28,980 - old. Strange geometry. Tier upon tier. 202 00:16:30,388 --> 00:16:32,151 And what happens is - is this, 203 00:16:32,323 --> 00:16:37,488 there's some water carrying salt that comes out of the hill over there, 204 00:16:37,662 --> 00:16:41,325 gushes out from a cavern, flows through here, 205 00:16:41,499 --> 00:16:44,332 and then is diverted into these salt pans, 206 00:16:44,502 --> 00:16:51,931 where it cascades down through pan after pan and the water stands in the sun, 207 00:16:52,110 --> 00:16:53,304 evaporates, leaving the salt. 208 00:16:53,478 --> 00:16:57,437 The salts gathered. An industry of the Incas. 209 00:16:58,182 --> 00:16:59,809 They only used it, they didn't establish it. 210 00:16:59,984 --> 00:17:01,178 And it goes on to this day. 211 00:17:01,352 --> 00:17:05,789 I look down and I can see the salts evaporating on the side. 212 00:17:17,235 --> 00:17:20,295 The salt pans capture the essence of the Inca way. 213 00:17:20,705 --> 00:17:25,733 In harnessing nature, they create something live-giving and liberating. 214 00:17:28,646 --> 00:17:30,045 To be able to preserve food at times 215 00:17:30,214 --> 00:17:33,775 of plenty gives man the time to think, to invent, 216 00:17:33,951 --> 00:17:37,478 to produce great works of art and architecture. 217 00:17:41,025 --> 00:17:43,152 That of course is what happened with the Incas. 218 00:17:43,327 --> 00:17:46,228 This is one of the keys to their civilisation: 219 00:17:46,397 --> 00:17:53,894 they had time, and that time was bought, acquired, with salt. 220 00:17:58,743 --> 00:18:02,577 Tragically, few Inca artistic treasures have survived. 221 00:18:02,747 --> 00:18:05,341 When the Spanish conquered Peru in the 1530s, 222 00:18:05,516 --> 00:18:08,610 they melted down Inca gold and attempted to justify 223 00:18:08,786 --> 00:18:11,118 their greedy conquest of this land by eradicating 224 00:18:11,289 --> 00:18:14,656 all evidence of Inca civilisation. 225 00:18:20,198 --> 00:18:22,496 I head now to the desert coast of Peru. 226 00:18:22,667 --> 00:18:27,400 But before seeing my next treasure, I want to sample an Inca delicacy. 227 00:18:30,408 --> 00:18:37,974 Oh, my favourite thing. A nice meal for the flight. 228 00:18:38,883 --> 00:18:41,215 I say, I've wanted a guinea pig for ages. 229 00:18:41,452 --> 00:18:44,353 What will they say of this in England? Oh my god. 230 00:18:45,923 --> 00:18:47,049 Oh, delicious. 231 00:18:49,393 --> 00:18:50,621 Very tasty. 232 00:18:51,996 --> 00:18:54,123 Lovely. Save the rest for later. 233 00:18:57,435 --> 00:19:01,394 I'm about to witness one of the most mysterious treasures on earth. 234 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:04,938 It's the largest work of art in the world. 235 00:19:05,109 --> 00:19:08,510 So enormous, in fact, you can only see it from the sky. 236 00:19:08,679 --> 00:19:10,169 - Goodbye, sir. - Bye, bye. 237 00:19:11,215 --> 00:19:15,242 It's even been suggested that it was created by aliens. 238 00:19:25,930 --> 00:19:29,058 This is my treasure - the Nazca lines. 239 00:19:29,233 --> 00:19:36,036 These great images - carved, so to speak, into the pampas below me. 240 00:19:36,874 --> 00:19:42,938 These images, huge in size, not visible, not apparent from the ground, 241 00:19:43,114 --> 00:19:47,608 from up here are absolutely dramatic and wonderful. 242 00:19:49,587 --> 00:19:52,818 There - there - there's the monkey, there's the monkey with the spiral tail. 243 00:19:52,990 --> 00:19:54,787 There it is very clear. 244 00:19:55,593 --> 00:20:00,428 And there's the humming bird. Of course, this is all a mystery. 245 00:20:00,731 --> 00:20:07,102 But what's certain, it's carrying a message, but it's a message we can't understand. 246 00:20:07,905 --> 00:20:09,736 There's the spider. 247 00:20:10,641 --> 00:20:15,601 It's like a dictionary - of sacred images from this part of South America. 248 00:20:26,123 --> 00:20:28,523 There is - the amazing astronaut figure. 249 00:20:28,693 --> 00:20:33,494 It does indeed look like a modern image of a man from outer space. 250 00:20:33,664 --> 00:20:40,194 Great goggle eyes, waving benignly at his fellow space travellers, I suppose. 251 00:20:41,973 --> 00:20:46,410 As well as his image, the whole landscape's crisscrossed by these straight lines. 252 00:20:46,577 --> 00:20:50,980 They go everywhere, for mile upon mile upon mile. 253 00:20:51,515 --> 00:20:54,279 It's like flying over an airfield really. 254 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:59,913 It's as if we've stumbled into a secret, ancient magical landscape - 255 00:21:00,091 --> 00:21:03,527 - floating above it almost like you have no business to be here. 256 00:21:03,694 --> 00:21:07,391 It holds secrets we don't understand, can never understand. 257 00:21:07,565 --> 00:21:09,032 But yet, here it is. 258 00:21:11,035 --> 00:21:13,697 A message written in the landscape. 259 00:21:27,318 --> 00:21:32,085 I return to terra firma to find out how these huge figures were fashioned in the landscape 260 00:21:32,256 --> 00:21:33,985 up to 2,000 years ago 261 00:21:34,158 --> 00:21:37,321 by a people whose history is now lost. 262 00:21:38,262 --> 00:21:42,858 Here we can see how the great images, how the straight lines were constructed. 263 00:21:43,034 --> 00:21:45,264 A very simple process actually. 264 00:21:45,569 --> 00:21:51,166 All over the terrain are these reddish boulders, 265 00:21:51,342 --> 00:21:54,971 I suppose brought here through the act of glaciers 266 00:21:55,146 --> 00:21:58,775 thousands and thousands of years ago, rounded. 267 00:21:59,817 --> 00:22:08,122 All the Nazcas did was to move the stones to expose the gypsum underneath, 268 00:22:08,292 --> 00:22:15,255 creating a different texture, a different colour to the boulder-strewn land - 269 00:22:15,433 --> 00:22:20,803 - on each side. A very minimal manipulation of the landscape. 270 00:22:21,205 --> 00:22:22,900 The lines have survived over the centuries 271 00:22:23,074 --> 00:22:25,804 because Nazca is one of the driest places in the world, 272 00:22:25,976 --> 00:22:31,778 and it's remoteness has saved these fragile works from the destructive tendencies of modern man. 273 00:22:34,819 --> 00:22:38,949 I'm drawn into the mystery surrounding these astonishing creations. 274 00:22:39,223 --> 00:22:44,286 What on earth could they have been for? Who made them on this vast scale? 275 00:22:44,862 --> 00:22:48,923 Surely the artists couldn't have seen their complete masterpieces? 276 00:22:49,433 --> 00:22:51,765 The mysterious nature of these images has provoked 277 00:22:51,936 --> 00:22:55,133 many speculations about their origin and meaning. 278 00:22:55,306 --> 00:22:58,867 Some of these speculations are pretty wild indeed. 279 00:22:59,143 --> 00:23:00,770 Among the more sensible ones, I suppose, 280 00:23:00,945 --> 00:23:06,178 are that these are maybe an astronomical clock, a bit like an early zodiac. 281 00:23:06,450 --> 00:23:10,944 Or perhaps they're part of a - an agricultural calendar - 282 00:23:11,122 --> 00:23:13,784 - telling people when to reap and when to sow. 283 00:23:14,425 --> 00:23:18,828 Other people, of course, think these images were made - for men from outer space, 284 00:23:18,996 --> 00:23:24,059 because one can only see these - images when looking down from above. 285 00:23:24,301 --> 00:23:30,365 These images, I presume - are forms of communication with the gods. 286 00:23:31,075 --> 00:23:32,940 The all-seeing eye above. 287 00:23:58,402 --> 00:24:03,135 I'm becoming more and more enthralled by the mystical world of ancient Peru. 288 00:24:03,707 --> 00:24:05,902 I travel north to see my next treasure, 289 00:24:06,076 --> 00:24:10,604 the legacy of another lost civilisation called the Moche. 290 00:24:11,215 --> 00:24:16,278 The Moche people are known for their sinister beliefs and extreme blood lust. 291 00:24:16,454 --> 00:24:20,447 They flourished in northern Peru almost 2,000 years ago. 292 00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:25,758 The quest for my treasure takes me first to Sipan, 293 00:24:25,930 --> 00:24:28,364 the site of a priceless treasure trove, 294 00:24:28,532 --> 00:24:32,992 the Latin American equivalent of Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt. 295 00:24:36,073 --> 00:24:39,634 It was discovered by tomb raiders as recently as 1987, 296 00:24:39,810 --> 00:24:41,437 buried deep in muddy hills 297 00:24:41,612 --> 00:24:46,242 which were once huge majestic pyramids pointing to the heavens. 298 00:24:47,885 --> 00:24:50,353 Sipan was the scene of a gunfight over a prize 299 00:24:50,521 --> 00:24:54,048 so valuable people were willing to die for it. 300 00:25:04,969 --> 00:25:09,497 This is the tomb of what is now known as Lord Sipan. 301 00:25:10,107 --> 00:25:18,606 Here we see in the centre, Lord Sipan with various bodies arranged around him. 302 00:25:18,816 --> 00:25:22,115 I believe there were eight bodies in all found in here. 303 00:25:24,889 --> 00:25:29,917 One so-called guardian with his legs cut off. 304 00:25:31,095 --> 00:25:35,555 A savage civilization. Moche, fascinating. 305 00:25:38,135 --> 00:25:42,504 For the Moche people, human sacrifice was central to their religion. 306 00:25:42,907 --> 00:25:46,775 But they were also brilliant goldsmiths and metal workers. 307 00:25:47,511 --> 00:25:51,470 An amazing hoard of jewels was found in several different tombs in Sipan, 308 00:25:51,649 --> 00:25:55,016 dating from between the first and third centuries AD. 309 00:25:55,452 --> 00:25:58,080 The jewels now on display at the tombs are reproductions, 310 00:25:58,255 --> 00:26:01,588 the originals have removed for safekeeping. 311 00:26:04,261 --> 00:26:06,456 My treasure is to be found among them. 312 00:26:06,697 --> 00:26:09,325 So I head to the nearby town of Lambayeque, 313 00:26:09,500 --> 00:26:13,960 where a museum has been specially built in the shape of a Moche pyramid. 314 00:26:25,015 --> 00:26:27,575 Among the violently beautiful jewellery are works 315 00:26:27,751 --> 00:26:31,118 which reveal another of the Moche's artistic obsessions: 316 00:26:31,288 --> 00:26:34,587 the creation of explicit fertility symbols. 317 00:26:34,825 --> 00:26:38,090 It seems that death and sex were their passions. 318 00:26:40,264 --> 00:26:42,323 By my treasure chills the blood and 319 00:26:42,499 --> 00:26:45,730 cuts to the heart of the Moche world. 320 00:26:56,380 --> 00:26:56,971 Now, this is my treasure, 321 00:26:57,147 --> 00:27:03,279 because - well, it's very beautiful and I have seen nothing else like it. 322 00:27:03,454 --> 00:27:07,618 It's a necklace. It's from the tomb of the old Lord Sipan, 323 00:27:07,791 --> 00:27:11,921 about 1900 years old nearly, maybe 2,000. 324 00:27:12,129 --> 00:27:17,533 The spider god... had many powers. He was a god of healing. 325 00:27:18,535 --> 00:27:22,767 The web, of course, heals wounds, stops blood flowing. 326 00:27:22,940 --> 00:27:31,678 The spider encapsulated, represented many of the - feelings, the religious beliefs 327 00:27:31,849 --> 00:27:37,219 and what we would now regard as rather barbaric rites and rituals of these people. 328 00:27:37,388 --> 00:27:40,448 Through sacrifice, decapitation of the enemy, 329 00:27:40,624 --> 00:27:42,148 the head has great power. 330 00:27:43,293 --> 00:27:49,459 These people, I imagine they would - tie up their victims before sacrifice, bind them up, 331 00:27:49,633 --> 00:27:57,267 so the web symbolises the binding up, the tying of the - sacrificial victim. 332 00:27:57,641 --> 00:28:06,549 The spider consumes the bodily fluids of its victim. It devours the victim, 333 00:28:06,717 --> 00:28:14,055 and of course, these people, they would drink the blood of their sacrifices - 334 00:28:14,224 --> 00:28:15,885 - devour their power, their spirit. 335 00:28:16,060 --> 00:28:26,026 So the spider represented much of their - actions during the - ritual sacrifice. 336 00:28:26,203 --> 00:28:29,969 On the back, I notice something very strange. 337 00:28:30,441 --> 00:28:35,276 A spiral, a sacred pattern one finds in many religions. 338 00:28:39,416 --> 00:28:40,849 This necklace is my treasure 339 00:28:41,018 --> 00:28:45,421 because it tells me so much about the world of the enigmatic people that produced it: 340 00:28:45,756 --> 00:28:50,716 a world in which delicate beauty and shocking violence went hand in hand. 341 00:28:51,028 --> 00:28:54,293 This is history that still has the power to shock. 342 00:29:03,073 --> 00:29:07,169 For my next treasure, I travel to the charming city of Trujillo. 343 00:29:15,052 --> 00:29:19,148 Trujillo was founded in the early 16th century by the Spanish conquerors, 344 00:29:19,656 --> 00:29:22,887 by which time my treasure had passed into history. 345 00:29:23,327 --> 00:29:27,821 It's three miles from Trujillo, on the Pacific coast of northern Peru. 346 00:29:28,732 --> 00:29:31,724 Legend has it that it was created a thousand years ago, 347 00:29:31,902 --> 00:29:35,531 by a god called Ninelap, who came from the ocean. 348 00:29:40,577 --> 00:29:42,511 I made my way along the coast to seek out 349 00:29:42,679 --> 00:29:46,513 the fragile remains of a city once drenched in gold. 350 00:29:46,817 --> 00:29:49,479 It served as the capital of the mighty Chimu empire, 351 00:29:49,653 --> 00:29:52,349 which extended 600 miles along the coast of Peru, 352 00:29:52,523 --> 00:29:54,957 as far north as Ecuador. 353 00:30:08,705 --> 00:30:13,369 Chan Chan was the largest mud-built city in the world. 354 00:30:13,644 --> 00:30:17,546 Indeed, when at its prime, about 700 years ago - 355 00:30:17,714 --> 00:30:20,649 - this was one of the largest cities in the world. 356 00:30:20,884 --> 00:30:31,624 It is also, in its form - and planning, a very, very wonderful and extraordinary place. 357 00:30:36,333 --> 00:30:39,700 Chan Chan spreads out over eight square miles 358 00:30:39,870 --> 00:30:43,670 and is linked by wide streets protected by tall walls. 359 00:30:45,375 --> 00:30:48,640 Some of the walls were once decorated with beaten gold panels, 360 00:30:48,812 --> 00:30:50,973 which have long since disappeared. 361 00:30:52,783 --> 00:30:55,081 The city has suffered at the hands of the elements, 362 00:30:55,252 --> 00:30:57,948 but there's enough left to show what brilliant builders 363 00:30:58,121 --> 00:31:01,022 and engineers the Chimu people were. 364 00:31:03,961 --> 00:31:08,261 The mighty city was divided into ten separate citadels, 365 00:31:08,432 --> 00:31:11,595 each really a little walled city in its own right. 366 00:31:11,768 --> 00:31:15,704 These were defined by high walls - about 15 metres high. 367 00:31:15,873 --> 00:31:19,900 And within each of these little citadels - there was, well, all the sort of things a city has. 368 00:31:20,077 --> 00:31:23,376 Public buildings, administration buildings, temples, 369 00:31:23,547 --> 00:31:26,983 private houses, and a palace or two. 370 00:31:27,150 --> 00:31:35,023 And here we see the remains of this - complex and strange urban structure. 371 00:31:38,128 --> 00:31:40,323 These tall walls were partly for defence, 372 00:31:40,497 --> 00:31:45,935 but mostly they were to make life as comfortable as possible in the town. 373 00:31:46,136 --> 00:31:48,036 They acted as windbreaks, and also, 374 00:31:48,205 --> 00:31:55,373 being made of mud, adobe brick, they have incredible properties of insulation. 375 00:31:55,545 --> 00:32:01,211 Thick mud walls keep the heat out - in the summer and the warmth in the winter. 376 00:32:01,385 --> 00:32:04,946 Here also, you see these net pattern is perforated, 377 00:32:05,122 --> 00:32:07,590 so this can let air creep in, 378 00:32:07,758 --> 00:32:12,957 cross-ventilation from the outside to inside in very hot summer days. 379 00:32:13,263 --> 00:32:16,596 All in all, a very ingenious arrangement - 380 00:32:16,767 --> 00:32:20,134 - making this natural material do a lot of jobs at once. 381 00:32:20,304 --> 00:32:24,400 Keeping you warm, keeping you cool, and keeping you safe. 382 00:32:27,110 --> 00:32:28,634 The Chimu people's reverence for nature 383 00:32:28,812 --> 00:32:30,939 is reflected in their architecture. 384 00:32:31,581 --> 00:32:33,674 Some of the walls take the form of fishing nets 385 00:32:33,850 --> 00:32:35,909 and are decorated with images of their gods, 386 00:32:36,086 --> 00:32:38,418 including sea birds and fish. 387 00:32:46,463 --> 00:32:49,489 This decoration is largely - original, 388 00:32:49,666 --> 00:32:50,598 maybe partly repaired, 389 00:32:50,767 --> 00:32:54,498 but most of it is, I suppose, 700 years old. 390 00:32:55,772 --> 00:32:57,797 It says so much about the - the belief 391 00:32:57,975 --> 00:32:59,442 - beliefs of the people here. 392 00:32:59,609 --> 00:33:03,739 We have fish and we have pelicans. 393 00:33:04,881 --> 00:33:07,076 They venerated the sea and water, 394 00:33:07,250 --> 00:33:08,740 sea water for fish, 395 00:33:09,553 --> 00:33:12,044 fresh water for life itself, for - for plants, 396 00:33:12,222 --> 00:33:13,416 for irrigation. 397 00:33:15,192 --> 00:33:19,595 It's water, I suppose, too represented there by the horizontal band. 398 00:33:21,398 --> 00:33:22,422 Water made the difference between 399 00:33:22,599 --> 00:33:25,568 the Chimus' survival and extinction. 400 00:33:26,136 --> 00:33:29,128 Their great achievement was to build a thriving civilization 401 00:33:29,306 --> 00:33:32,469 in the most arid and exposed of locations. 402 00:33:39,883 --> 00:33:47,881 Golly. From up here one gets a sense of the - vast scale of Chan Chan. 403 00:33:48,358 --> 00:33:50,451 It stretches as far as the eye can see. 404 00:33:50,627 --> 00:33:54,654 Citadel after citadel and wall after wall, one beyond the other. 405 00:33:54,831 --> 00:34:02,863 Also from here one can see what this place is all about. Water. 406 00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:07,204 Over there you can see the sea. Waves breaking. 407 00:34:07,377 --> 00:34:11,006 So there we have the fruits of the sea, fish being gathered. 408 00:34:11,181 --> 00:34:14,412 And just there - what looks like a pond. 409 00:34:14,751 --> 00:34:16,651 Ornamental now, but originally 410 00:34:16,887 --> 00:34:21,688 that was full of growing vegetables, things to keep the population alive. 411 00:34:21,858 --> 00:34:27,194 These people, they dug right down to ground water to get fresh water. 412 00:34:27,364 --> 00:34:33,132 So fresh water, salt water. Fish and vegetables, 413 00:34:33,370 --> 00:34:36,430 to support and sustain this gigantic population, 414 00:34:36,606 --> 00:34:40,133 a population that depended almost entirely 415 00:34:40,343 --> 00:34:45,144 for its livelihood on irrigation and on the fruits of the sea. 416 00:34:45,449 --> 00:34:47,679 No wonder they venerated water. 417 00:34:53,390 --> 00:34:56,052 The Chimu empire was crushed, not by the Spanish, 418 00:34:56,226 --> 00:35:01,493 but in the late 15th century by the Inca king who created Machu Picchu. 419 00:35:02,766 --> 00:35:07,066 Chan Chan was plundered for its riches and abandoned to the elements. 420 00:35:12,008 --> 00:35:16,035 I continue my journey by flying from Peru to Santiago in Chile, 421 00:35:16,213 --> 00:35:19,478 then onwards to the remotest island on earth. 422 00:35:19,716 --> 00:35:21,183 It means a massive detour, 423 00:35:21,351 --> 00:35:25,151 but I'm about to see one of the undoubted wonders of the world. 424 00:35:30,861 --> 00:35:32,726 I'm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean - 425 00:35:32,896 --> 00:35:37,595 - over 2,000 miles away from the South American mainland. 426 00:35:41,438 --> 00:35:46,603 And I'm on my way to see a treasure that's gripped my - imagination for decades. 427 00:35:49,079 --> 00:35:51,274 I've chosen to see my treasure from the sea, 428 00:35:51,448 --> 00:35:56,886 because that's how it first appeared to startled European sailors almost 300 years ago. 429 00:36:13,203 --> 00:36:16,263 The giant statues or Moai on Easter Island 430 00:36:16,673 --> 00:36:20,575 were first seen by Europeans on Easter Sunday 1722, 431 00:36:21,144 --> 00:36:22,873 giving the island its name. 432 00:36:23,446 --> 00:36:26,176 Locally it's known as Rapanui. 433 00:36:27,017 --> 00:36:31,386 At first the explorers didn't know what they were or who had created them. 434 00:36:35,158 --> 00:36:38,719 The story of the Moai is powerful and disturbing. 435 00:36:39,229 --> 00:36:43,222 It¡¯s about man's relationship with his world and with his gods. 436 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:45,465 It says much about his hopes and fears, 437 00:36:45,635 --> 00:36:48,468 and the fragile nature of existence. 438 00:36:50,607 --> 00:36:53,303 One of my earliest, most memorable - 439 00:36:53,476 --> 00:36:59,745 - visual experiences was seeing the Moai on the staircase in the British Museum. 440 00:36:59,916 --> 00:37:05,047 I was very, very young, but it burnt itself into my memory. 441 00:37:05,222 --> 00:37:08,658 It wasn't frightening, just incredibly - powerful. 442 00:37:08,825 --> 00:37:11,794 The face, so elemental. 443 00:37:12,662 --> 00:37:15,597 I wanted always to know more about it. 444 00:37:15,999 --> 00:37:19,162 The solemn stare, what did it mean? 445 00:37:19,502 --> 00:37:25,839 So I've come here to see other Moai, to see them in their landscape, 446 00:37:26,009 --> 00:37:30,844 in their setting, in their context, to find out - more about them. 447 00:37:31,147 --> 00:37:35,811 I've just seen this group here, and they are absolutely stunning. 448 00:37:36,620 --> 00:37:41,683 These are definitely amongst the great treasures of the world. 449 00:37:53,303 --> 00:37:57,137 The Moai are believed to represent the souls of dead ancestors 450 00:37:57,674 --> 00:38:02,043 and face inwards towards the island, protecting their descendants. 451 00:38:12,422 --> 00:38:17,189 And here's a Moai lying on its back. 452 00:38:20,297 --> 00:38:22,891 It must have been on its way to 453 00:38:23,066 --> 00:38:28,003 the sacred platform - over there. 454 00:38:28,438 --> 00:38:31,703 The stone, the figure was carved - 455 00:38:31,875 --> 00:38:36,073 - not here, not in situ, not at the site at which it was to be erected, 456 00:38:36,246 --> 00:38:39,079 but where the stone was quarried. 457 00:38:39,282 --> 00:38:47,883 And that is over there, that broken volcanic peak in front of me. 458 00:38:50,727 --> 00:38:52,854 It's a mystery why so few of Easter Island's 459 00:38:53,029 --> 00:38:57,466 900 Moai are mounted on their sacred platforms. 460 00:39:06,076 --> 00:39:07,805 Because, extraordinarily, 461 00:39:07,977 --> 00:39:10,775 there are dozens of Moai loitering around here - 462 00:39:10,947 --> 00:39:13,142 - on this slope leading up to the quarry, 463 00:39:13,316 --> 00:39:14,374 facing all different directions, 464 00:39:14,551 --> 00:39:17,452 some out to sea, some inland. 465 00:39:18,254 --> 00:39:22,384 I suppose this is like a - a storage area for the Moai. 466 00:39:22,559 --> 00:39:25,687 They've been carved in the quarry right up there, 467 00:39:25,862 --> 00:39:28,262 and here I can begin to see the little recesses 468 00:39:28,431 --> 00:39:30,058 where they've been cut out, 469 00:39:30,467 --> 00:39:32,264 and I guess slid down here 470 00:39:32,502 --> 00:39:34,629 and then stored in these pits. 471 00:39:36,039 --> 00:39:39,099 And here you see the key characteristics of the Moai. 472 00:39:40,810 --> 00:39:42,334 The jutting chin. 473 00:39:44,381 --> 00:39:45,905 The pouting lips. 474 00:39:47,917 --> 00:39:52,411 The great extended nose, slightly concave. 475 00:39:52,756 --> 00:39:54,417 The beetling brow. 476 00:40:10,807 --> 00:40:15,676 There are an amazing 400 Moai still at the Rana-Raraku quarry, 477 00:40:15,845 --> 00:40:18,609 almost half the total ever carved. 478 00:40:22,018 --> 00:40:29,220 Crikey, this is the crater of the volcano that spewed out the stone called tuff, 479 00:40:29,392 --> 00:40:31,223 from which the Moai are carved. 480 00:40:31,394 --> 00:40:36,889 And over there more Moai, standing looking into the crater itself. 481 00:40:37,066 --> 00:40:41,400 I suppose they're - again, they're - they're in storage. 482 00:40:49,746 --> 00:40:51,976 Here we can see - very clearly how the moai was made, 483 00:40:52,148 --> 00:40:55,345 how it was quarried from the volcano face. 484 00:40:55,518 --> 00:40:58,919 This end is still attached to the - to the rock. There you are. 485 00:40:59,823 --> 00:41:05,887 It's been cut round, been freed from its - bed. 486 00:41:06,563 --> 00:41:08,360 A bird nesting underneath it. 487 00:41:09,332 --> 00:41:12,893 Here's the - the arm. The torso here. 488 00:41:13,203 --> 00:41:18,903 And here the incredible head taking shape. 489 00:41:19,075 --> 00:41:20,406 The nose. 490 00:41:22,011 --> 00:41:24,707 And here is the mouth and chin. 491 00:41:24,881 --> 00:41:35,121 Now this stuff, called tuff, was shaped using a bit of harder rock like this, basalt. 492 00:41:35,358 --> 00:41:39,454 Basalt is harder than this compacted volcanic ash called tuff, 493 00:41:39,629 --> 00:41:43,190 and the mason would simply chip away, chip away, chip away. 494 00:41:43,700 --> 00:41:45,691 But what happened here one day, 495 00:41:46,769 --> 00:41:54,540 this particular mason downed tools and walked away leaving it never to be completed. 496 00:41:57,180 --> 00:42:00,581 Clearly something dramatic happened, and very rapidly. 497 00:42:00,783 --> 00:42:04,116 A sacred tradition suddenly stopped, was abandoned. 498 00:42:06,289 --> 00:42:09,156 Normally after completion in the quarry 499 00:42:09,392 --> 00:42:11,155 the moai would have been dragged using ropes and 500 00:42:11,327 --> 00:42:14,785 log rollers down to their platforms by the sea. 501 00:42:15,298 --> 00:42:18,426 Here the finishing touches would have been applied. 502 00:42:19,802 --> 00:42:22,134 When the moai had been placed on its ahu, 503 00:42:22,305 --> 00:42:25,797 eyes made of obsidian, which is a volcanic rock, 504 00:42:25,975 --> 00:42:28,341 and coral were put in place. 505 00:42:28,745 --> 00:42:32,579 And those eyes, it is said, brought the moai to life. 506 00:42:39,722 --> 00:42:41,917 But the moai did not live forever. 507 00:42:42,158 --> 00:42:45,059 Long ago in the mists of time, the cult appears 508 00:42:45,228 --> 00:42:48,686 to have been ended by some cataclysmic event. 509 00:43:01,611 --> 00:43:07,140 The following morning, I set out to discover more about the tragic fate that befell the moai. 510 00:43:32,275 --> 00:43:37,042 There are eight moai here. Each one has been toppled face down. 511 00:43:37,580 --> 00:43:42,984 You see their faces buried in the ahu, in the ground. 512 00:43:43,419 --> 00:43:45,979 Now, this could have been a great wave, a tsunami - 513 00:43:46,155 --> 00:43:49,989 - but that wouldn't have had quite this effect. 514 00:43:50,159 --> 00:43:53,595 No, these have been toppled by men. 515 00:43:53,930 --> 00:43:58,264 These moai have been murdered, have been killed ritualistically. 516 00:43:59,268 --> 00:44:04,035 They have been robbed of their power and made meaningless. 517 00:44:04,207 --> 00:44:10,146 Some have even had their - their necks broken, their heads crushed. 518 00:44:10,313 --> 00:44:14,773 I guess, their eyes gouged out. 519 00:44:15,852 --> 00:44:17,945 What this tells us, of course, 520 00:44:18,121 --> 00:44:24,253 is that something terrible happened on this island many years ago. 521 00:44:24,427 --> 00:44:30,798 Something led people to fight, to turn on themselves 522 00:44:31,434 --> 00:44:33,368 and to murder their own gods. 523 00:44:36,773 --> 00:44:41,540 The moai were almost certainly toppled by rival clans about 500 years ago 524 00:44:41,711 --> 00:44:44,509 when the island descended into civil war. 525 00:44:45,848 --> 00:44:49,841 The islanders had cut down most of the island's trees to move the moai, 526 00:44:50,019 --> 00:44:53,011 and didn't have enough timber left to build fishing boats. 527 00:44:53,222 --> 00:44:56,714 So food supplies began running desperately short. 528 00:44:57,827 --> 00:45:01,923 Locals replaced worship of the moai with the sinister cult of the birdman, 529 00:45:02,098 --> 00:45:05,124 whose image can still be seen carved into the rocks. 530 00:45:05,301 --> 00:45:10,830 But this new cult involved rival clans competing for control of limited resources. 531 00:45:13,710 --> 00:45:15,507 I head for a dark and hidden place 532 00:45:15,678 --> 00:45:18,772 which holds the grisly secrets of the birdman. 533 00:45:23,219 --> 00:45:28,851 Wow, a painting of birds, great birds. Wonderful. 534 00:45:29,025 --> 00:45:33,587 They're very fresh, bright, as if painted just yesterday. 535 00:45:35,298 --> 00:45:38,790 This cave is a - a solemn place indeed. 536 00:45:38,968 --> 00:45:45,066 Grim I guess... known locally as anakai tangata, 537 00:45:45,241 --> 00:45:51,737 which means the cave where men eat or - the cave where men are eaten. 538 00:45:52,181 --> 00:45:57,084 So this is perhaps evidence of cannibalism. 539 00:46:08,197 --> 00:46:12,327 The story of Easter Island is really a - a parable. 540 00:46:13,269 --> 00:46:17,865 It tells the story of very heaven becoming hell, 541 00:46:18,741 --> 00:46:21,141 of benign gods becoming malign. 542 00:46:21,310 --> 00:46:27,112 And all to do with the exploitation of the resources of the island - 543 00:46:27,617 --> 00:46:29,517 - and frightful things happening. 544 00:46:38,961 --> 00:46:41,429 As I head back to the mainland of Latin America, 545 00:46:41,597 --> 00:46:43,827 I'm about to witness the sorry tale of Easter Island 546 00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:47,629 repeating itself in 21st century Brazil. 547 00:46:54,811 --> 00:46:56,972 I'm at Cuiaba in western Brazil - 548 00:46:57,146 --> 00:47:00,604 - and I'm about to fly, go by car, and by boat, 549 00:47:00,783 --> 00:47:05,152 around 750 kilometres into the Amazon rainforest 550 00:47:05,321 --> 00:47:07,789 to find my living treasure. 551 00:47:12,028 --> 00:47:14,326 My treasure's not an ancient artefact, 552 00:47:14,897 --> 00:47:15,829 but something very special 553 00:47:15,998 --> 00:47:20,935 that continues to be created and used by people deep in the rainforest. 554 00:47:46,028 --> 00:47:49,020 Of course, I've heard about the devastation of the rainforest, 555 00:47:49,198 --> 00:47:51,996 but I'm shocked by the sheer scale of this. 556 00:47:54,737 --> 00:47:55,931 Over hundreds of miles, 557 00:47:56,105 --> 00:47:58,403 valuable timber has been removed by loggers 558 00:47:58,574 --> 00:48:01,566 and the forest transformed into grazing land for cattle, 559 00:48:01,744 --> 00:48:04,577 to feed the world with beefburgers. 560 00:48:10,753 --> 00:48:11,811 After several hours, 561 00:48:11,988 --> 00:48:13,148 we cross the threshold 562 00:48:13,322 --> 00:48:15,847 into what remains of the rainforest. 563 00:48:16,359 --> 00:48:17,451 It's been fenced off and is now 564 00:48:17,627 --> 00:48:19,857 protected by the Brazilian government. 565 00:48:25,234 --> 00:48:30,228 I head down the Warema river, a tributary of the Amazon, towards my treasure. 566 00:48:30,673 --> 00:48:33,107 It's an unbelievably beautiful work of art, 567 00:48:33,276 --> 00:48:35,744 created by a tribe called the Igbatsa. 568 00:48:37,647 --> 00:48:42,107 The Igbatsa people are clinging onto their traditional way of life as hunter gatherers. 569 00:48:42,285 --> 00:48:45,254 Their world has being threatened by the loggers and cattle ranchers 570 00:48:45,421 --> 00:48:50,256 as well as Roman Catholic Jesuit missionaries who forcibly removed their children 571 00:48:50,426 --> 00:48:52,894 as recently as the 1960s. 572 00:49:05,608 --> 00:49:07,940 Excellent reception committee. 573 00:49:09,478 --> 00:49:11,139 Wonder who I approach. 574 00:49:15,785 --> 00:49:16,752 Hello. 575 00:49:28,397 --> 00:49:32,800 That is what I've come to see - the headdress. 576 00:49:34,971 --> 00:49:38,338 My most colourful of treasures is a symbol of the Amazon 577 00:49:38,507 --> 00:49:41,806 and an object of immense importance to these people. 578 00:49:53,956 --> 00:49:56,481 Oh my god. Wow. 579 00:49:57,193 --> 00:50:01,653 I expected one, maybe two, umahara, but a whole hut full. 580 00:50:05,034 --> 00:50:07,332 Beautiful objects, beautifully made, 581 00:50:07,503 --> 00:50:13,135 but more to the point, they're full of meaning to these people. 582 00:50:13,409 --> 00:50:16,640 They celebrate their culture, their aspirations, their religion. 583 00:50:17,346 --> 00:50:23,512 And made from human hair, parrot feathers. Ah, absolutely wonderful. 584 00:50:44,006 --> 00:50:48,875 The umahara headdress is worn with great pride by the Igbatsa people. 585 00:50:49,145 --> 00:50:51,909 It's the emblem of an endangered culture. 586 00:50:53,015 --> 00:50:55,347 It once played a key role in war ceremonies 587 00:50:55,518 --> 00:50:58,351 and is still used in dance rituals. 588 00:51:08,898 --> 00:51:13,301 This dance takes place every day for 90 days after the first of June. 589 00:51:13,469 --> 00:51:17,462 It's a celebration of birth and all things new. 590 00:51:21,110 --> 00:51:25,513 During the dance wives have the right to ask favours of their husbands, 591 00:51:25,714 --> 00:51:27,443 who are obliged to grant them. 592 00:51:41,430 --> 00:51:46,458 After the dance, I talk to members of the tribe about the headdress and how it's made. 593 00:51:49,538 --> 00:51:53,907 Can I ask what it - what it means to them today, the umahara headdress. 594 00:51:58,481 --> 00:52:03,418 He says the umahara represents a great richness in their own culture. 595 00:52:10,025 --> 00:52:11,219 And for their future. 596 00:52:20,636 --> 00:52:25,972 For their future, they couldn't stop creating it and using it for their own use. 597 00:52:26,542 --> 00:52:29,033 Represents their sense of identity really. 598 00:52:35,251 --> 00:52:37,617 It represents the identity of the Igbatsa people. 599 00:52:42,224 --> 00:52:45,955 So we've got feathers from parrots and - and female hair. 600 00:52:46,128 --> 00:52:52,158 That - that is correct, is it...? On - onto some - some - 601 00:52:56,972 --> 00:52:58,906 This is from the - a marella clan. 602 00:53:01,744 --> 00:53:03,473 It's all rather perplexing. 603 00:53:04,180 --> 00:53:05,442 To preserve their traditions, 604 00:53:05,614 --> 00:53:09,015 the Igbatsa have to make the umahara headdresses. 605 00:53:09,685 --> 00:53:14,486 Yet in so doing, they must kill protected bird species for their feathers. 606 00:53:18,260 --> 00:53:22,458 While the faces and bodies of the men and women are brightly painted in the traditional way, 607 00:53:22,631 --> 00:53:25,794 they sport natty shorts and bikini tops. 608 00:53:26,068 --> 00:53:29,799 Bit by bit, the Igbatsa are being drawn into the modern world, 609 00:53:29,972 --> 00:53:32,236 whether they like it or not. 610 00:53:38,214 --> 00:53:42,173 As evening approaches, preparations are being made for supper. 611 00:53:43,018 --> 00:53:45,714 A rather tasty feast awaits me. 612 00:54:05,007 --> 00:54:07,874 This all brings back very deep - memories. 613 00:54:08,310 --> 00:54:11,438 The family halls scattered round about the compound, 614 00:54:11,614 --> 00:54:15,675 the main hall where the communal ceremonies take place - 615 00:54:15,851 --> 00:54:18,581 - the people gathered round the fire at night eating. 616 00:54:19,288 --> 00:54:20,687 The fields round about. 617 00:54:21,090 --> 00:54:25,720 It's like a Anglo-Saxon village in England a couple of hundred years ago. 618 00:54:26,061 --> 00:54:30,430 It's like meeting one's ancestors coming back here. 619 00:54:47,116 --> 00:54:48,674 After the tranquillity of the rainforest, 620 00:54:48,851 --> 00:54:52,480 one of the world's most energetic and romantic cities awaits me. 621 00:54:55,157 --> 00:54:57,682 It's a place bursting with contradictions. 622 00:54:57,993 --> 00:54:59,654 Alongside the glamour and wealth, 623 00:54:59,828 --> 00:55:01,386 the samba and the football, 624 00:55:01,563 --> 00:55:04,828 is some of the most appalling poverty in the world. 625 00:55:24,853 --> 00:55:27,788 My treasure expresses the paradox of Rio. 626 00:55:28,023 --> 00:55:33,154 It's the first great colossus on my trip, and an icon which shouts out Brazil. 627 00:55:41,937 --> 00:55:45,464 Christ the Redeemer was built to mark the centenary in 1922 628 00:55:45,641 --> 00:55:48,303 of Brazilian independence from Portugal. 629 00:55:48,544 --> 00:55:52,310 It was finally inaugurated in October 1931. 630 00:55:53,882 --> 00:55:57,045 As I approach, a dense fog descends. 631 00:55:57,619 --> 00:56:00,486 This is not how I expected to meet my redeemer. 632 00:56:01,156 --> 00:56:02,623 At 38 metres high, 633 00:56:02,791 --> 00:56:05,726 the largest art deco statue in the world. 634 00:56:06,595 --> 00:56:10,258 It's become a symbol not only of - - Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, 635 00:56:10,432 --> 00:56:13,026 but also of South America. 636 00:56:13,635 --> 00:56:19,335 The great arms embracing - the people of this land, the different mix of people. 637 00:56:19,508 --> 00:56:20,907 Very powerful. 638 00:56:22,211 --> 00:56:30,346 In fact, he's offering welcome and peace and love, understanding, and of course is - 639 00:56:30,519 --> 00:56:33,716 - a great Roman Catholic image. 640 00:56:34,223 --> 00:56:36,521 That is the religion of the land, 641 00:56:36,692 --> 00:56:38,819 replacing the older religions, 642 00:56:38,994 --> 00:56:44,523 the various religions we've seen, and lamented their loss really. 643 00:56:45,334 --> 00:56:49,737 So for good or ill, this is the image of the new South America. 644 00:56:51,340 --> 00:56:53,365 Amazing, as the mist comes down, 645 00:56:53,609 --> 00:56:57,443 the figure is disappearing before me. 646 00:57:07,990 --> 00:57:11,949 I had hoped to enjoy spectacular view of Christ the Redeemer from the air. 647 00:57:13,028 --> 00:57:14,290 It's not to be. 648 00:57:17,166 --> 00:57:18,360 But the flight does give me the chance 649 00:57:18,534 --> 00:57:22,834 to reflect on Rio and my travels in Latin America. 650 00:57:23,005 --> 00:57:25,303 The treasures I've found in South America 651 00:57:25,574 --> 00:57:30,910 have revealed it to be a place of thrilling and at times disturbing contrasts, 652 00:57:31,079 --> 00:57:33,343 and of deep mysteries. 653 00:57:34,416 --> 00:57:41,015 Mystery when it comes to the fact that the old civilisations, the Incas, for example, 654 00:57:41,457 --> 00:57:44,893 their civilisation was so fragile, had no written language - 655 00:57:45,060 --> 00:57:51,124 - that it made it very easy to obliterate so much of what they had discovered, 656 00:57:51,300 --> 00:57:54,633 so much of what they stood for, so many of their achievements. 657 00:57:57,439 --> 00:58:03,105 And Rio is a great emblem, I suppose, of the new South America, 658 00:58:03,278 --> 00:58:08,181 the South America formed on the graves of the old civilisations. 659 00:58:08,484 --> 00:58:12,545 The conquerors come, they bring their new religion, Roman Catholicism, 660 00:58:12,721 --> 00:58:18,455 and the great civilisations of the past are laid in the dust surrounded by history. 661 00:58:19,061 --> 00:58:21,461 And that's really what my treasures have revealed, 662 00:58:21,630 --> 00:58:28,001 the glories of the past, the indigenous civilisations here, and also - 663 00:58:28,237 --> 00:58:30,865 - the emblem of the new, Christ the Redeemer, 664 00:58:31,039 --> 00:58:37,501 presiding over this great teeming, thrill-seeking city.