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Last broadcast on Wed, 30 Sep 2009, 23:00 on BBC Four (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Historian and writer Dan Cruickshank celebrates the creative force of architecture as he explores the world's greatest cities, buildings and monuments.
Dan travels the globe to explore how different cultures have created architecture inspired by our mortality. In the Czech Republic, he reveals the macabre tale of a chapel decorated with human bones. Even more shocking is the Yaxha Mayan pyramids in Guatemala, sites of brutal human sacrifice.
In Egypt, Dan explores how pharaohs ensured the passage of their spirit to the afterworld through elaborate mortuary temples. He visits Europe's greatest cemetery in Genoa, Staglieno, home to a spectacular collection of beautiful and erotic memorial statues. And finally, Dan comes face-to-face with death itself in Varanasi in India, a sacred Hindu town where people come to die.
Credits
- Presenter
- Dan Cruickshank
- Director
- John Hay
- Director
- Andrea Illescas
- Director
- John Mullen
- Director
- Helen Nixon
- Producer
- John Hay
- Producer
- Andrea Illescas
Broadcasts
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Wed 9 Apr 200821:00
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Sat 19 Apr 200801:15
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Tue 11 Aug 200900:00
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Wed 30 Sep 200923:00
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