Fed up of romcoms, reality TV (Love Is Blind season two – where are you?), and eerie true crime docs and looking to add a bit of knowledge and culture into your TV-time?
On Wednesday March 31, Discovery Channel is premiering the highly-anticipated ‘The Architects of Ancient Arabia’ documentary.
Set in AlUla, a largely unknown oasis valley in the vast desert of north-western Saudi Arabia, the international documentary unearths previously unknown aspects of the ancient history of Saudi Arabia, as experts uncover traces of a society from more than 7,000 years ago.
It also reveals that human civilisation’s first building blocks were set in place in AlUla – an area that was once an important crossroad on the incense route and home to 3,000 years of successive civilisations.
Some of the most important survey and excavation work in modern history has been taking place in the region and in the documentary, the archaeologists unearth extraordinary facts about AlUla’s rich past.
The Architects of Ancient Arabia is narrated by none other than English actor, activist, and Academy Award-winner Jeremy Irons and the fascinating documentary journeys into Saudi Arabia’s history, following teams of leading international and Saudi archaeologists as well as a local historian as they reveal new wonders in the previously unexplored land.
“The weeks we spent in AlUla filming alongside the archaeological team were a life-altering experience for me and the rest of the crew.
“The startlingly spectacular landscape is like nothing I’ve ever seen. And the stone structures, literally thousands of them dotting the area, have sat untouched for thousands of years. We were walking among the ghosts of unknown ancients, and we could feel their presence, their yearning, to have their story told,” said Robert Kirwan, Executive Producer and Editor of the documentary.
The Architects of Ancient Arabia is premiering on Discovery Channel in the region on Wednesday March at 10:40pm on OSN channel 500.
Wed Mar 31, 10.40pm, www.discovery.com.
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