Episodes

Naples, Italy narrowly escaped meeting the same fate as its neighboring city, Pompeii in 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius wiped out everything around it. The wind saved Naples that day, but life in the shadow of this massive volcano is unlike any other - and so is its underground.

For centuries, Neapolitans have carved out their underground, creating a parallel world where their secrets are safe. Entire neighbourhoods line the underworld, time capsules of ancient life - with banks, bakeries and homes preserved below.

From repelling into an ancient Greek cavern to uncovering Nero's famous stage underneath a modern apartment, Don Wildman steps back almost 2000 years to discover the world hidden beneath this volcano. We're peeling back the layers of time on Cities of the Underworld: Beneath Vesuvius.

Paris, France is Europe's famous "City of Lights," but an alternate world thrives in the shadows of this capital city.

Crypts filled with the bones of former residents, ancient waterfronts, waste-filled sewers, and hundreds of miles of limestone tunnels snake beneath Paris' charming neighborhoods and bustling streets.

Host Eric Geller has special access to this dark underworld, where both the secrets of the living and the sins of the dead are revealed. We're peeling back the layers of time on Cities of the Underworld: Catacombs of Death.

Budapest, Hungary is a burgeoning Eastern European metropolis sitting on top of an ancient secret - a secret that dates back to the dawn of time.

The caves beneath Budapest were formed during the ice age and everyone from the cavemen to the communists have moved their city into the depths of this parallel world.

Host Eric Geller has special access into this sealed up time capsule - where he'll uncover a top secret World War II hospital, find the source of the boiling healing water used by both the Romans and the Turks, and see the layers of support added throughout the centuries to keep today's world from falling into the one buried below.

Bucharest, Romania is ripe with legends, folklore, and tales of the unknown. But its most famous tale is of the real-life Dracula, also known as Vlad the Impaler, who once ruled this land with a bloodthirst like no other known in history.

But for all the myth that swirls on the surface, the real truth about this infamous Romanian ruler rests, appropriately, underground. From the secret prisons of his tortured victims, to escape tunnels he carved into the mountains, to the ancient caves and mines that provide the breeding ground for the legend, Romania's subterranean stretches through centuries to bring us face-to-face with the ruthless Impaler himself.

Host Don Wildman braves the confines of caves, the depths of dungeons, and the very uncommon ground of the `Son of the Devil'. We're peeling back the layers of time on Cities of the Underworld: Dracula's Underground.

Boston and Philadelphia are renowned for their part in America's revolutionary saga, but these cities also share an unseen connection - the Freemasons.

From the whispers of hidden tunnels and tombs beneath Boston's North End, to the incredible waterworld still intact under Philadelphia, the legendary secret society has left behind the blueprints to America's rise.

And their enigmatic influence stretches from the Revolutionary Battles of Fort Mifflin to the secret struggles of the Underground Railroad. Host Don Wildman receives exclusive access to newly discovered sites and clues, and delves into a part of America's past that can only be revealed in the underworld.

We're peeling back the layers of time on Cities of the Underworld: The Freemason Underground.

 

Berlin, Germany was the battlefield of the 20th century. Today, sealed up and forgotten beneath its streets are remnants of this dark past.

Walk anywhere in the city and you could be walking directly on top of one of the over 1000 Nazi bunkers engineered into Berlin's sandy soil, lost remnants of Hitler's ill-fated Germania or even beer brewing plants that inspired the Nazis' journey into the underground. Join host Eric Geller as he travels through the dark and damp recesses of Berlin's secretive soil.

Where east meets west, and past and present collide, Istanbul is undoubtedly one of the most dynamic and exotic cities in the world.  Once the capital city of three of the world's most powerful empires - Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman - its strategic location made it the perfect spot for empires to rise, fall...and rise again.

Today Istanbul's 11 million residents are walking on top of remnants of these fallen civilizations...literally. Taxis drive over parts of Constantine's Lost Great Palace, children play on cobblestone streets concealing a massive Byzantine dungeon, a high school sits on a 3rd century wall leading to the bowels of a 100,000 seat ancient Roman Hippodrome and basements of old Ottoman homes lead to subterranean tunnels and secret cisterns.

Teamed with leading archeologists and experts, come along as we peels back the layers of the past - to reveal a hidden history that hasn't seen the light of day for thousands of years.

London, England is Europe's largest city, and for thousands of years, has been among the most powerful cities in the world. Pieces of history can be found throughout London's busy streets and marketplaces.

But there's another city hiding below the surface, of Roman baths, secret crypts, lost rivers and indestructible bunkers that could hold 8000 people - virtual underground cities.

Join host Eric Geller as he discovers the subterranean secrets found below London's most famous landmarks and even finds Winston Churchill's hidden war rooms.

New York may be the City that Never Sleeps...but it's not just The Big Apple's streets that refuse to rest. Here, the underworld is a living, breathing tangle of engineering, history, and secrets that could only exist in America's largest city.

From a classified World War II site, where death awaited unfortunate trespassers, to the original rivers and aqueducts that led to this great city's ascent, and even a mysterious train tunnel, where one of the country's bravest leaders traveled in secret - New York may just have more stories below ground than it does above.

Host Eric Geller braves this massive urban labyrinth where the past, present, and future collide. We're peeling back the layers of time on Cities of the Underworld: New York.

Rome, Italy is a city where the past meets the present on every street and also below them. Caesar. Augustus. Nero. Rome has had some of the history's most infamous rulers, and each one of them has left their mark on the city - and left remnants of his reign underground.

A secret cult practiced right next to the Circus Maximus, and their temple still remains beneath the street. The famous Piazza Navona sits on top of Domitian's Stadium. Pieces of Trajan's Basilica can be found under a gallery owned by fashion dynasty Fendi. Rome's underground is filled with evidence of life during the Empire.

Join host Eric Geller as he discovers what life was like during Nero's tyranny and Augustus' reforms. We're peeling back the layers of time on Cities of the Underworld: Rome's Hidden Empire.

Rome, Italy is known for great food, edgy fashion... and its history. The Roman Empire was the largest and most powerful in history, and pieces of this great Empire can be found under practically every street in Rome.

But how did ancient Rome achieve its greatness? The answer lies underground. From entire underground neighborhoods and one of the oldest sewer systems in the world, to aqueducts and underground theaters, the secret to Rome's success can be found beneath the streets. Many modern engineering marvels are based on ancient Roman design, and the proof is found in these subterranean locations.

Join host Eric Geller as he goes back to the founding of the Empire and traces technology back to the beginning. We're peeling back the layers of time on Cities of the Underworld: The Rise of Rome.

Edinburgh is a thriving metropolis in the heart of the United Kingdom. But take a look into its past, and you'll find it has led a double life - the sophisticated and educated surface city blossomed above while a darker, seedy world expanded below.

From plague victims getting buried alive under the streets to body snatchers, illegal distilleries and castle dungeons, Edinburgh's underground has many stories to tell. Host Eric Geller investigates these stories, deciphering fact from fiction, while uncovering the engineering marvel of Edinburgh's underground - created when the city actually changed its street level.

We're peeling back the layers of time on Cities of the Underworld: Scotland's Sin City.

Cappadocia is where east meets west, setting the stage for bloody battles and ruthless land wars. This landscape in modern day Turkey is unlike any other in the world - and with an underground to match.

4000 years ago, a mysterious pagan society called the Hittites dug deep into the soft volcanic rock to carve out an intricate underworld. But after almost 800 years of rule, the Hittite Empire vanished without a trace. Where did their people go and what clues have they left behind in their complex subterranean world?

Once the Hittites disappeared, everyone from the Romans to the Persians and the Byzantines to the Ottomans fought to control this land, contributing their own subterranean structures to the layers of fortified castles, sacred sanctuaries, and dungeons hidden beneath the sandy lunar landscape.

It was a bloody battlefield, and host Don Wildman explores the subterranean world of defence where entire civilizations hid for thousands of years.

Portland, Oregon is famous for its beer and its music, but 100 years ago, it was a city full of vice. By the early 1900's, Portland was known as the most dangerous port in the world, a place where you could just as soon get your fix of drugs and illegal liquor as find yourself trapped in a cell buried beneath the ground.

From the nefarious expanses of the Shanghai tunnels, where men were sold into slavery on the high seas, to the hidden dens of opium runners and the sly speakeasies of Prohibition, Portland had it all.

Host Don Wildman ventures beneath the refined modern streets above into a covert world of slave tunnels, fight clubs, gambling dens, and into an ingenious modern water system that literally keeps the city from drowning in its own filth.

We're peeling back the layers of time on Cities of the Underworld: Underground Bootleggers.