San Antonio College Library

Its Phoenician founders called it Kart Hadasht, The New Town, but history knows it as Carthage-the heart of the Punic Empire and base of the Mediterranean's renowned merchant mariners. Blending archaeology and virtual reality, this program depicts the city as it was during its heyday as a major economic, political, and cultural center. Its ingenious military port, bustling streets, and comfortable homes illustrate why it occupied a key position in...

Filmed on location in central and southern Mexico, this program touches on the Mayan, Toltec, and Aztec cultures-and a civilization that preceded them all at a city dubbed Teotihuacan by Nahuatl-speakers centuries after its fall. Expert commentary and 3-D computer images shed light on the complex societies that emerged, grew strong, and disappeared in the highlands and lowlands of Mesoamerica.

The extraordinary rock paintings of the San bushpeople provide a culturally rich point of reconnection with humankind's collective past. In this program, anthropologists Patricia Vinnicombe-author of the groundbreaking book People of the Eland-and Frans Prins as well as Megan Biesele, cofounder of the Kalahari Peoples Fund, take part in an ethnographic sojourn with the San in South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia. To better understand this venerable...

Ancient Egypt's greatest concentration of divine and funerary monuments is located on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes. Using computer-generated animation, onsite commentary by members of France's National Center for Scientific Research, and close-up archaeological footage, this program addresses the origin and evolution of religious belief in Egypt, the offices and power of the priesthood, and the layout, function, and symbolism of the Temple...

How long has civilization flourished in the Nile Valley? Were the area's first inhabitants the ancestors of the pyramid builders? Or was pharaonic culture imported, as some scholars have claimed? This program pursues the answers in an effort to understand the identity of Egypt's original people, exploring archaeological sites that predate the pyramids by thousands of years. Information on several fascinating finds-including multilayered prehistoric...

The life-size statue of Pharaoh Khafra at Giza evokes an intriguing logistical question: how did ancient Egyptian builders transport a three-ton block of gneiss granite five hundred miles from its source? This program offers a set of viable answers, examining technology and working conditions prevalent in Egypt 4,500 years ago. Considering the possibility that the statue was precut at Khafra's remote quarry site, the program also hypothesizes a North...

Although their function and architecture have inspired centuries of debate, the Egyptian pyramids harbor yet another enigma, having to do with their location. This program looks at why particular places were selected for pyramid-building and why new sites were chosen as Egypt's culture evolved. Explaining the architectural leap from the mastaba to the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the program explores reasons for abandoning Saqqara, building on the Giza...

When Dutch sailors landed on Easter Island, they found a warlike people recovering from anarchy and cannibalism. What had gone wrong with a civilization that had lived in peace for nearly a thousand years? In this program, Claudio Cristino, the island's resident archaeologist; William Liller, of the Easter Island Foundation; Patricia Vargas Casanova, of the Easter Island Studies Institute at the University of Chile; and others offer their views on...

On the plains of Beqaa, on the site of the Phoenician city of Baalbek, stands what is arguably the world's most impressive testament to Imperial Roman architecture: the gigantic temple complex dedicated to Jupiter, Venus, and Bacchus. Its six-story columns are the tallest ever erected, and its stones-some weighing nearly a thousand tons-are the largest ever used. In this program, architect Jean-Pierre Adam, of the National Center of Scientific Research,...

Starting when the first explorers laid eyes on the incomparable Sphinx, theories have proliferated about who built it and why. In this program, Zahi Hawass, of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities; Egyptologist Fayza Haikal; Kathryn Bard, editor of The Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt; authors Paul Jordan and Robert Schoch; and others employ the latest scientific scholarship and research to dispute those many theories while addressing...