The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was probably the largest, and certainly the most famous, of the libraries of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and functioned as a major center of scholarship, at least until the time of Rome's conquest of Egypt, and probably for many centuries thereafter.

Generally thought to have been founded at the beginning of the third century BC, the library was conceive...
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Ancient Mysteries examines the history and myths surrounding the Pacific Northwest creature known as Bigfoot.


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Mysteries surrounding pirates and legendary cities. Pirate Blackbeard; women buccaneers; sunken city.


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The witch, sorceress, enchantress, the devil's consort--she has haunted the human consciousness and captured our imagination for thousands of years. The fear of the witch is woven deep within our psyche, but, surprisingly, there was a time when the witch was not a source of evil. Known for her ability to harness the hidden powers of nature herself--she was the caster of magical spells and the brewer of healing potions. What are her secret powers? And why did they become so feared and despised...
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More than 20 years after accompanying Christopher Columbus on his second excursion to the New World, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon set out on his own expedition in search of, it was said, the mythical Fountain of Youth. Instead, he discovered Florida. But what if his motivations were more material? In this installment of "Ancient Mysteries," historians and other experts suggest that profit and fame were Ponce de Leon's chief incentives.


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The Greek Ptolemaic dynasty,which ruled Egypt from 305 BC to 30 BC, issued a series of decrees over the course of their reign known as Ptolemaic Decrees. The Rosetta Stone is a well-known example of one of the decrees. The Rosetta Stone was included in the third part of a series of three decrees, the first from Ptolemy III (the Decree of Canopus), the second from Ptolemy IV (The Memphis Stele), and the third from Ptolemy V. There are approximately two copies of the Stone of Canopus, two of ...
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Teotihuacán home of the Mexican Pyramids, the great Avenue of the Dead and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent it is a two thousand-year old urban wonder. Claimed by Aztecs as the City of the Gods, it was not until the turn of this century that archaeologists realized that the eight mile square city was not Aztec at all, but built by a much earlier civilization. Planned and mapped out according to the stars and built over a series of sacred caves, at its height, Teotihuacán was the seventh ...
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Ramses II was perhaps the greatest pharaoh to rule ancient Egypt. His reign lasted 67 years--it was one of the longest in Egyptian history. As king of one of the most powerful civilizations in the world--he possessed endless energy and a determination to insure his name and his civilization would stand immortal. He was seemingly a true patron of family life. He had at least half-a-dozen principal wives--the most notable being Nefertari. He has also been credited for having sired over 100 chil...
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This episode takes viewers on an archaeological expedition to modern-day Turkey and the site of the legendary fallen city of Troy. Scholars examine evidence and discuss their recent discoveries about the Trojan War, shedding new light on the legends of the Trojan Horse, Achilles, the abduction of Helen of Troy, and on the renowned Greek poet Homer, who told the story of Troy in his celebrated work the Iliad.


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A man thinks he knows the location of the biblical ark. 3000 years ago in the holy city of Jerusalem King Solomon ordered the construction of a magnificent temple. It's purpose was to house one of the holiest objects of the old testament faith. A golden chest known as the ark of the covenant and the stones upon which the 10 commandments were reportedly engraved. According to the Bible these stones had unimaginable supernatural powers. For centuries the stones lay safe inside Solomon's temple,...
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Using the latest forensic technology, investigators re-examine evidence that could possibly lay to rest the identity of the infamous Zodiac Killer, whose murder spree terrorized the residents and baffled the police in the San Francisco Bay Area of the 1960s.






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The Amityville Horror was perhaps history's most famous haunting. Nearly every known form of paranormal activity was experienced in this Long Island home. Could the spirit have returned? There are eerily similar phenomena occurring in a new location. MysteryQuest investigates using new technology built specifically for their investigation as they try to prove that these demonic spirits not only exist but that they've taken over. [http://www.history.com/shows/mysteryquest/episodes]






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To this day no one knows the true purpose of Stonehenge, the ancient monument in the British countryside. There are many theories: a shrine celebrating a god; an ancient solar calendar; or maybe a sacrificial altar for an unknown pagan religion. MysteryQuest travels to the ancient ruin with a new theory--that ancient people may have used the sound reverberations inside this circle to induce a trance-like state among participants in ancient rituals. Were there bizarre rituals, even sacrifices,...
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In one of the earliest documented serial murder cases, five prostitutes in the Whitechapel district of London were found brutally murdered with throats slashed and bodies mutilated. All the deaths were attributed to one man: Jack the Ripper. Never solved, the accepted theory is that the killer was a local madman. Now, 120 years later new evidence indicates two surprising new theories: the killer might have been a woman, or the killer was not English, but American. MysteryQuest's team of exper...
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This island in the middle of San Francisco Bay has a forbidding reputation. Native Americans believed it to be a place of evil spirits. When it became a federal prison in 1934, only the most violent and difficult prisoners in the U.S. were sent there. It was reputed to be escape proof; only three men have ever managed to get off the island. They left in 1962 and have never been found. MysteryQuest investigates to determine whether they could have survived the icy waters of San Francisco Bay. ...
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The officers of the SS, Hitler's feared paramilitary unit, were the most notorious war criminals of WWII. Some were brought to justice after the war, but many were able to escape from Germany. A massive secret organization known as Odessa was reportedly formed to help them flee and rebuild a new Reich that would again rise to power. MysteryQuest will investigate by following the path of feared Nazis from Germany, to Austria, and Italy. The team will also travel to Paraguay where many of the N...
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Newly declassified documents are providing the opportunity for a deeper investigation into whether governments around the world are engaged in a cover-up of UFO research. MysteryQuest's expedition and science teams travel to locations in the Nevada desert and in Utah to investigate. Using state of the art technology they investigate these covert US government sites looking for clues about what the government may know. And they experience just how much the government wants to keep its secrets ...
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The lost city of Atlantis was said to be home to an advanced civilization that thrived almost 12,000 years ago. Some believe that those who lived in Atlantis may have been capable of space travel. But legend says the city disappeared suddenly and violently, swallowed by the ocean in a single day. For centuries, explorers and archaeologists have been trying to locate the submerged ruins of this legendary city. MysteryQuest's expedition team will reveal new sonar evidence of underwater structur...
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The Bermuda Triangle, a 500,000 square mile area in the Atlantic is the world's greatest unexplained mystery. Ships and planes simply disappear without a trace. The MysteryQuest team takes one of the few survivors of a Triangle encounter on a flight through it to try to determine what could be disorienting pilots. The expedition team dives in the waters of the Bahamas to try to locate the first wreckage of an aircraft lost in a Triangle disappearance. [http://www.history.com/shows/mysteryques...
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According the official public record, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker as allied troops stormed Berlin at the end of World War II. But no one actually saw him die. No body was ever produced. No photographs were ever taken. Some believe Hitler managed to escape, and for years there were sightings of the former dictator in many parts of the world. Then, in the 1990s the Russians revealed secret evidence taken from Hitler's bunker decades earlier that they said proved he ...
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If extraterrestrials influenced human history, can evidence of their existence be found in hidden tunnels and caverns around the world? Could a cave in Ecuador contain metallic books inscribed with secrets of alien technology? Was an ancient underground city in Turkey built with alien help... or as a refuge from an alien attack? Rumors of the U.S. military working alongside aliens in a secret base inside a mesa in New Mexico continue to swirl, Native American legends mention strange inner-Ear...
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Ancient underwater cities can be found around the globe, but could these aquatic worlds be the ruins of unknown civilizations--or even proof of extraterrestrial visitations? The infamous tale of the long lost city of Atlantis may be a preserved memory of an ancient alien metropolis. Beneath Lake Titicaca in Peru, the ruins of recently discovered temples support local legends of an underwater UFO base. Ancient Indian texts, known as Sangams, describe sunken cities where aliens and humans inter...
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Myths and legends have long been regarded as fantastic stories that describe powerful gods, mutant giants and fearsome monsters. But why do so many different cultures, separated by vast distances, tell the same stories? Is it possible that myths and legends were really eyewitness accounts of ancient astronauts descending to Earth? Ancient texts are filled with stories of gods interacting with humans, offering wisdom, technology, and even impregnating women. Could the demigods of mythology hav...
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Mysterious places can be found around the Earth, and, inexplicably, UFOs are often sited near these mystical areas. Planes and ships unaccountably disappear in the infamous Bermuda Triangle. Strange magnetic anomalies in Mexico's Zone of Silence have not only drawn missiles off their course, but seem to pull meteorites out of the sky. An ancient doorway carved into a sheer rock wall in Peru's Puerta de Hayu Marka is said to be a portal to other worlds. Markawasi's plateau is filled with stran...
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