Peru's City of Ghosts

Secrets of Egypt's Lost Queen

January 2007 •English

Move over, King Tut: There's a new pharaoh on the scene. A team of top archaeologists and forensics experts revisits the story of Hatshepsut, the woman who snatched the throne dressed as a man and declared herself ruler. Despite her long and prosperous reign, her record was all but eradicated from Egyptian history in a mystery that has long puzzled scholars. But with the latest research effort captured in this program, history is about to change.

The Shaman & Ayahuasca: Journeys to Sacred Realms

January 2010 •English

Filmed in the jungles of Peru, shaman Don Jose Campos introduces the practices and benefits of Ayahuasca, the psychoactive plant brew that has been used for healing and visionary journeys by Amazonian shamans for at least a thousand years.

Woven Songs of the Amazon

January 2007 •English

The Shipibo-Konibo people of Peruvian Amazon decorate their pottery, jewelry, textiles, and body art with complex geometric patterns called kené. These patterns also have corresponding songs, called icaros, which are integral to the Shipibo way of life. This documentary explores these unique art forms, and one Shipibo family's efforts to safeguard the tradition.

Dancing with the Incas

January 1992 •English

Documentary about the most popular music of the Andes -- Huayno music -- and explores the lives of three Huayno musicians in a contemporary Peru torn between the military and the Shining Path guerrillas.

Mother River

February 2020 •Spanish

In a remote Peruvian city, lives Honorata Vilca, an illiterate woman of Quechua descent who sells candies more than 20 years ago, with the rain will cry to the sky itself.

The Irreplaceables: Dance Movie

May 2019 •English

Join Dance Moms stars, Kendall Vertes, Chloe Lukasiak, and Kalani Hilliker as they perform on The Irreplaceables Tour. Watch along as the girls tour around Peru and perform their world-famous dances for eager fans.

Phantoms of the Sierra Madre

September 2024 •English

A Danish writer travels to Mexico with the purpose of locating a mysterious Apache tribe that fervently seeks to remain in obscurity.

In the Frozen Tomb of Mongolia

August 2014 •French

Shipibo: Learning Through the Light

August 2018 •English

Shipibo healer Ricardo Amaringo describes how he prepares, teaches, and shares the plant medicine ayahuasca. Olivia and Julian Arévalo sing examples of icaros (healing songs) in the Shipibo language.

Pérou: Pays des Incas

January 2015 •French

Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs

May 2007 •English

The grail is not the gold, nor the books of ancient wisdom, but the 3,000 year old DNA of the mummies, which may lead to a cure for malaria.

Le mystère Cléopâtre, la dernière reine d'Egypte

July 2019 •French

Heaven Earth

September 2008 •English

This documentary examines ayahuasca shamanism near Iquitos (a metropolis in the Peruvian Amazon), and the tourism it has attracted. The filmmakers talk with two ayahuasqueros, Percy Garcia and Ron Wheelock, as well as ayuahuasca tourists and local people connected with the ayahuasca industry.

The True Story of Pirates

December 2022 •French

Thanks to new excavations in Mauritius and Madagascar, as well as archival and museum research in France, Spain, England and Canada, a group of international scholars paint a new portrait of the world of piracy in the Indian Ocean.

Lost Temple of The Inca

February 2020 •English

In the mountains of Peru, an environmental scientist discovers ancient artifacts submerged beneath the headwaters of the Amazon; his findings could save this sacred landscape from mining devastation.

King Tut's Final Secrets

December 2005 •English

As part of a high-tech forensic probe into the demise of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, scientists use X-rays and CT scans as they attempt to reach a conclusion about just how this famed king died. In addition, they explore the mysterious curse on explorers linked to Tut's tomb excavation.

Perú: Tesoro Escondido

November 2017 •Spanish

Peru is a country steeped in cultural traditions that stretch back more than 1,000 years. But it's also a land of surprising natural riches.

Great Inca Rebellion

January 2007 •English

Through a mix of crime-lab science, archeology, and history, this NOVA/National Geographic special presents new evidence that is changing what we know about the final days of the once-mighty Inca Empire.

Empire in the Sun

August 1956 •English

Colorful widescreen travelogue along the Amazon River jungle of Peru, featuring an indigenous village carnival and a snake dance.

The Mystery of the Rascar Capac Mummy

December 2019 •French

Rascar Capac, the sinister creature featured on Hergé's album The Seven Crystal Balls (1948), has left its mark on many generations of readers. To draw it, the Belgian cartoonist was probably inspired by a mummy exhibited in the first pre-Columbian exhibition organized by the Brussels Cinquantenaire Museum in 1923. Two intrepid archaeologists embark on a fascinating journey to reconstruct the story of the mysterious mummy.