Smithsonian Channel

A look at how the post-war period and the Cold War unfolded high up in the North; recently published archival material helps to shed light on post-war events in the Arctic.

The inside story of how the AH/MH-6 evolved over the decades to become an irreplaceable aircraft for the U.S. Military.

The American Museum of Natural History in NYC gets a cave-like extension; an arts center inspired by migrating birds is built on a lake in China; Boston University gains a fossil-free, Jenga-like tower.

In the Alps of Switzerland, Mike helps an elite team install a new cable (rope) system on an iconic mountain gondola line, helps fix the world's steepest cogwheel railway track and explores mountaintop family farms only accessible.

Navigating the historic Potomac River from West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay, passing through Washington, D.C. and the national monuments and ending at George Washington's Mount Vernon estate.

Peek at landmarks in places where they shouldn't be; wing your way over an imperial pyramid in the Netherlands, a metal sphere in remote Russia, a lion shape carved into an English hillside and a bare swath cut through an Austrian forest.

Chris Ward sets out with Josh Moreira and Ward's younger brother to salvage a light aircraft that's sitting on the seabed; Jeremy Birch braves the arctic conditions to salvage two vessels that have fallen prey to the crushing ice conditions.

Navigating the historic Potomac River from West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay, passing through Washington, D.C. and the national monuments and ending at George Washington's Mount Vernon estate.

Confront objects that make no sense; spot a spinning island in an Argentinian marsh, a colossal triangle stuck in the Arizona desert, mysterious multicolored pools across northern Ethiopia and a huge human figure hidden in the Australian outback.

Unveils the Cold War as a conflict of spies, not soldiers, involving constant risk, subterfuge and tools like miniature cameras, coded messages, stealth and poisoned umbrellas.

Cinematographer and noted Egyptologist Ramy Romany has produced, directed, filmed and been featured in more than 100 documentaries on ancient Egypt. That experience makes him the ideal host for this series, in which he investigates spellbinding secrets of fascinating burial sites, mass graves and ancient tombs around the world. Each episode finds Romany in the midst of legends, myths, curses and c

Cinematographer and noted Egyptologist Ramy Romany has produced, directed, filmed and been featured in more than 100 documentaries on ancient Egypt. That experience makes him the ideal host for this series, in which he investigates spellbinding secrets of fascinating burial sites, mass graves and ancient tombs around the world. Each episode finds Romany in the midst of legends, myths, curses and c

Cinematographer and noted Egyptologist Ramy Romany has produced, directed, filmed and been featured in more than 100 documentaries on ancient Egypt. That experience makes him the ideal host for this series, in which he investigates spellbinding secrets of fascinating burial sites, mass graves and ancient tombs around the world. Each episode finds Romany in the midst of legends, myths, curses and c

The remains of Tutankhamun's parents.

A discovery of a fracture in Tutankhamun's skeleton, signalling the injury that led to his death.

Dan discovers a series of anomalies in Tutankhamun's burial and notices that the faces on his coffins and canopic jars differ from those of the famous golden mask; Raksha looks at Seti's tomb, which shows how hurried Tutankhamun's was by comparison.

Cinematographer and noted Egyptologist Ramy Romany has produced, directed, filmed and been featured in more than 100 documentaries on ancient Egypt. That experience makes him the ideal host for this series, in which he investigates spellbinding secrets of fascinating burial sites, mass graves and ancient tombs around the world. Each episode finds Romany in the midst of legends, myths, curses and c

Explores post-war justice, tracing landmark and overlooked trials worldwide, revealing how accountability for atrocities shaped modern laws against war crimes and genocide.

Germany's selection of strange bedfellows in the form of despots and dictators comes back to haunt them.

Follows historian Guy Walters and Justine Ostrowska on a 4,000-kilometer journey across Europe, chasing legends of hidden Nazi treasure.

Germany's selection of strange bedfellows in the form of despots and dictators comes back to haunt them.

Follows historian Guy Walters and Justine Ostrowska on a 4,000-kilometer journey across Europe, chasing legends of hidden Nazi treasure.

Explores post-war justice, tracing landmark and overlooked trials worldwide, revealing how accountability for atrocities shaped modern laws against war crimes and genocide.

Germany's selection of strange bedfellows in the form of despots and dictators comes back to haunt them.

Chris Ward sets out with Josh Moreira and Ward's younger brother to salvage a light aircraft that's sitting on the seabed; Jeremy Birch braves the arctic conditions to salvage two vessels that have fallen prey to the crushing ice conditions.

A journey down one of the wild rivers in the world, the Yukon; the unusual trip starts in an aircraft piloted by a painter and the odyssey ends with a visit to a graveyard of disintegrating rear-wheel steamers.

Take a deep dive into watery enigmas; glide over a sunken Italian city; a unique underwater cemetery in the Florida Keys; a yellow brick road to nowhere in the depths of the North Pacific; puzzling rocky constructions off the coast of Australia.

Bundles of cedar wood tree trunks are smashed apart, releasing thousands of logs on the shoreline; Jeremy and his crew must work fast to recover the cargo.

A journey down one of the wild rivers in the world, the Yukon; the unusual trip starts in an aircraft piloted by a painter and the odyssey ends with a visit to a graveyard of disintegrating rear-wheel steamers.

Psychedelic swirls in the Utah wastelands; a bizarre configuration of circles in the Sahara; hidden lines with the help of a drone; a remote polka-dot lake in Canada.

Experts go on a search for New York's hidden stories, involving the Statue of Liberty, the 21 Club and Typhoid Mary.

Investigate one of Egypt's oldest monuments to eternity: the Buried Pyramid of Sekhemkhet; explore a well-preserved underground tomb and view a mysterious sarcophagus during the first-ever on-camera exploration of this 4,500-year-old sacred place.

Visiting the heart of history in the Dahshur necropolis, where the first of the great pyramids was built; examining what a mini-scanner called a LiDAR reveals about this landmark's enduring mysteries.

Takes an unprecedented look inside the secret chambers of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing, and see what they reveal about the pyramid's origins.

Takes a look inside the Pyramid of Menkaure and its unfinished bicolor monument, including a chamber made entirely of graphite and a sarcophagus buried at sea.

Exceptional texts are inscribed on the walls of an obscure pyramid; experts scan the funerary chamber of Egypt's longest-reigning pharaoh to try to uncover its mysteries.

The Black Pyramid is a decaying brick-and-clay structure that contains an elaborate network of tunnels filled with ancient artifacts; Egyptologists use a mini-laser to uncover the mysteries contained within.

Investigate one of Egypt's oldest monuments to eternity: the Buried Pyramid of Sekhemkhet; explore a well-preserved underground tomb and view a mysterious sarcophagus during the first-ever on-camera exploration of this 4,500-year-old sacred place.

Visiting the heart of history in the Dahshur necropolis, where the first of the great pyramids was built; examining what a mini-scanner called a LiDAR reveals about this landmark's enduring mysteries.

Zaha Hadid cuts the top off a mountain and builds a museum inside. A Vancouver tower rises clean over a 115-year-old church. And starchitect Santiago Calatrava spans 7 live railway tracks with a column-free glass and steel station.

Mike Davidson embarks with the team to one of the most extreme, avalanche-prone ski mountains in the world: Snowbird; they battle to keep the steep and deep slopes safe with shovels, snowcats and even a WWII Howitzer.

Going on a journey across Lithuania on big trains packed to the brim as massive ships wait to collect their bounty and take it across the ocean.

Zaha Hadid cuts the top off a mountain and builds a museum inside. A Vancouver tower rises clean over a 115-year-old church. And starchitect Santiago Calatrava spans 7 live railway tracks with a column-free glass and steel station.

Mike Davidson embarks with the team to one of the most extreme, avalanche-prone ski mountains in the world: Snowbird; they battle to keep the steep and deep slopes safe with shovels, snowcats and even a WWII Howitzer.

Going on a journey across Lithuania on big trains packed to the brim as massive ships wait to collect their bounty and take it across the ocean.

Zaha Hadid cuts the top off a mountain and builds a museum inside. A Vancouver tower rises clean over a 115-year-old church. And starchitect Santiago Calatrava spans 7 live railway tracks with a column-free glass and steel station.

Mike Davidson embarks with the team to one of the most extreme, avalanche-prone ski mountains in the world: Snowbird; they battle to keep the steep and deep slopes safe with shovels, snowcats and even a WWII Howitzer.

Psychedelic swirls in the Utah wastelands; a bizarre configuration of circles in the Sahara; hidden lines with the help of a drone; a remote polka-dot lake in Canada.

Arctic conditions continue to wreak havoc in British Columbia; Jeremy Birch is called upon to raise a concrete-hulled vessel.

Meandering through the black waters of a primordial river immortalized in a folk song.

Learning why an important urban center is sinking toward oblivion; soaring over sprawling ruins buried under Saharan sands; learning the modern secret of an ancient fortress; eyeing a ghost town on the edge of the Gobi.

Phil Risko's team at Northstar works fast to refloat a trawler that's been blown onto the shore of a national park in New Jersey; the team improvises to get it back to sea before it suffers further damage.

Meandering through the black waters of a primordial river immortalized in a folk song.

Learning why an important urban center is sinking toward oblivion; soaring over sprawling ruins buried under Saharan sands; learning the modern secret of an ancient fortress; eyeing a ghost town on the edge of the Gobi.

Phil Risko's team at Northstar works fast to refloat a trawler that's been blown onto the shore of a national park in New Jersey; the team improvises to get it back to sea before it suffers further damage.

Celebrating one of humanities biggest engineering achievements, the International Space Station, a meteor proof lab bigger than a football field, constructed by astronauts traveling 250 miles above us at 17,500 miles an hour.

Mike in northeastern Australia, goes on and under the water, into labs and onto construction projects working with specialized teams; they tackle the challenge of saving dying coral on the Great Barrier Reef.

Zaha Hadid cuts the top off a mountain and builds a museum inside. A Vancouver tower rises clean over a 115-year-old church. And starchitect Santiago Calatrava spans 7 live railway tracks with a column-free glass and steel station.

Mike Davidson embarks with the team to one of the most extreme, avalanche-prone ski mountains in the world: Snowbird; they battle to keep the steep and deep slopes safe with shovels, snowcats and even a WWII Howitzer.

Going on a journey across Lithuania on big trains packed to the brim as massive ships wait to collect their bounty and take it across the ocean.

Zaha Hadid cuts the top off a mountain and builds a museum inside. A Vancouver tower rises clean over a 115-year-old church. And starchitect Santiago Calatrava spans 7 live railway tracks with a column-free glass and steel station.

Mike Davidson embarks with the team to one of the most extreme, avalanche-prone ski mountains in the world: Snowbird; they battle to keep the steep and deep slopes safe with shovels, snowcats and even a WWII Howitzer.

Going on a journey across Lithuania on big trains packed to the brim as massive ships wait to collect their bounty and take it across the ocean.

The British Avro Vulcan pushes the boundaries of long-distance flying, completing one of the longest bombing raids in history during the 1982 Falklands War.

A wolverine overcomes first-time flyer's nerves to travel to a new home. A helicopter pilot hunts for a showstopping ice cave. An 80-year-old cargo plane flies into the Arctic, and a wall of arctic fog threatens the airport wit.

The islands of Italy come in all shapes and sizes; they are home to volcanoes, ancient civilizations and some of the bluest waters on Earth.

The British Avro Vulcan pushes the boundaries of long-distance flying, completing one of the longest bombing raids in history during the 1982 Falklands War.

A wolverine overcomes first-time flyer's nerves to travel to a new home. A helicopter pilot hunts for a showstopping ice cave. An 80-year-old cargo plane flies into the Arctic, and a wall of arctic fog threatens the airport wit.