NOVA
Season 40 Episode 10 - Building Pharaoh's Chariot
3,600-year-old reliefs in Egyptian tombs and temples depict pharaohs and warriors proudly riding into battle on horse-drawn chariots. Some historians claim that the chariot launched a technological and strategic revolution, and was the secret weapon behind Egypt's greatest era of conquest known as the New Kingdom. But was the Egyptian chariot really a revolutionary design? How decisive a role did it play in the bloody battles of the ancient world? In "Building Pharaoh's Chariot," a team of archaeologists, engineers, woodworkers, and horse trainers join forces to build and test two highly accurate replicas of Egyptian royal chariots. They discover astonishingly advanced features, including spoked wheels, springs, shock absorbers, anti-roll bars, and even a convex-shaped rear mirror, leading one of them to compare the level of design to the engineering standards of 1930's-era Buicks! By driving our pair of replicas to their limits in the desert outside Cairo, NOVA's experts test the claim that the chariot marks a crucial turning point in ancient military history.
Episodes in Season 40
Secrets of the Viking Sword
55 min
Forensics on Trial
55 min
Mystery of Easter Island
55 min
Ultimate Mars Challenge
55 min
Inside the Megastorm
55 min
Doomsday Volcanoes
55 min
Decoding Neanderthals
55 min
Rise of the Drones
55 min
Who Killed Lindbergh's Baby?
55 min
Building Pharaoh's Chariot
55 min
Earth From Space
55 min
Mind of a Rampage Killer
55 min
Meteor Strike
55 min
Ancient Computer
55 min
Australia's First 4 Billion Years: Awakening
55 min
Australia's First 4 Billion Years: Life Explodes
55 min
Australia's First 4 Billion Years: Monsters
55 min
Australia's First 4 Billion Years: Strange Creatures
55 min
Manhunt - Boston Bombers
55 min
Oklahoma's Deadliest Tornadoes
55 min
