All language subtitles for The First Eden 3of4 The Wastes Of War

I'm in the deserts of the eastern end
of the Mediterranean in Jordan.

People have been wandering through
these lands for tens of thousands of years

and I'm with one of the last groups
to do so, the Bedouin.

Like their ancestors,
they're almost entirely dependent

on their domesticated animals.

Their camels, their sheep and their goats.

But the animal that they prize most of all

is, oddly, the one which seems
to have little practical value to them.

They neither eat it nor milk it,

nor use it as a beast of burden.

It's this. The horse.

The Arabs are great judges
of horse flesh and great riders.

And they used the horse, only until recently,

on those raids and skirmishes
which up to 30 years ago

were so much a part of their lives.

Wild horses, like these,

once lived over much of
Europe and central Asia.

They have short, stiff manes
that stand more or less upright

and a bold black stripe
running down their back.

Man tamed them some 3,000 years after
he had domesticated cattle,

initially in order to eat them.

But by 3,000BC he had found that he could
use them to pull carts and wagons.

The Egyptians harnessed them
with wide reins low around their necks

and used them for pulling their war chariots.

At around the same time, farther to the east,

the Assyrians were putting a jointed bar
of metal... a bit... into the horse's mouth

and controlling it much more effectively.

Stirrups were unknown in the Mediterranean,
even in Greek times.

That invaluable aid for riding

probably originated far away
in the steppes of central Asia.

Some people there, even today,
virtually live on horseback.

In Afghanistan, they still play the ancient
and violent game of Buzkashi,

a kind of mass polo,

in which the ball is a sand... filled skin
of a freshly killed goat.

Roman writers said that the wild tribes

who regularly raided settlements
along the frontier of the empire

were perpetually on the move,
driving their livestock in front of them,

the women and children
following behind in wagons.

They never slept inside a house
nor planted any crops.

They lived entirely on milk and meat.

Their cruelty shocked even the Romans,
who had such a taste for it.

After battles, they skinned
their slaughtered enemies

and slung the bloody pelts
over their horses as trophies.

This passion for horses
spread right round the eastern Mediterranean

and along the northern coast of Africa,
where it still flourishes.

In the 4th century, the mounted tribes
living along the northern frontier

of the decaying Roman Empire,

in a series of extraordinary
mass migrations,

overran western Europe,

burning, looting and destroying
wherever they went.

The Huns rode west around
the Caspian Sea into Hungary.

Another tribe, the Visigoths,
started southwards,

fighting their way through
Greece into Italy

and on into France and Spain.

The Vandals rode down from the north

right across Europe into North Africa

to cross the Mediterranean again
and sack Rome.

The Huns, on the move once more,
were joined by Goths

to complete the destruction of Roman power

and the civilisation that had
grown up under its protection.

By this time the great Roman cities
of North Africa,

such as Leptis were already in decline.

The fields around them, once so fertile,

but now stripped of their cover
of natural vegetation

were badly eroded
and could no longer provide the food

to support a large population.

So the aqueducts fell into into disrepair,

the columns of the temples tumbled

and the influence of Rome began to wane.

How far nomads were responsible
for this change

is a matter of argument among historians.

But certainly, as the Roman
way of life diminished,

so the surviving peoples took
to a more pastoral way of life

becoming more and more dependent
on grazing animals,

and in particular, the goat.

The goat has the most
extraordinary mouth.

It seems impervious to the sharpest thorns

and goats will eat vegetation that
no cow or sheep will tackle.

That means that they can live in near desert.

It also means that because
they eat every seedling

and anything else that is green,

they keep the land a near desert.

The desert peoples had another
important animal in their lives,

a beast of burden, the camel.

In the seventh century, a camel driver

working with the caravans that
crossed the Arabian deserts,

taking gold and spices
to the Mediterranean ports,

had profound religious visions
and began to preach a new faith.

His name was Mohammed and his faith, Islam.

(Call to prayer)

Mohammed's revelations were recorded
in the sacred book of Islam, the Qur'an.

Associated with it were
a great variety of religious texts

which included detailed instructions
on how to care for the horse

and this account of its origin.

God took a handful of the south wind, it says,

and created the horse.

And he said unto it,
"I create thee and name thee Arab.

"Goodness I tie to the hair of thy forlock.

"Booty shall come from
the strength of thy back.

"Power shall be with you,
wherever you are.

"I hold you above all beasts,
making you lord of them all.

"I make you obedient to your master

"and able to fly without wings.

"You are destined for flight and pursuit."

Inspired with the fanatical fervour by
Mohammed's teaching,

the horsemen of Islam set of on
a series of lightning campaigns

to convert all the people around them
to this new faith.

No foot soldiers or baggage trains
accompanied this swashbuckling cavalry.

They lived off the land and they carried
their swords and the Qur'an

all around the Mediterranean.

From Mecca, where Mohammed first preached,

they rode north to Jerusalem
and onto Constantinople.

They went west all along
the coast of North Africa

across the Straits of Gibraltar
and into Spain.

There they defeated
the armies of the Visigoths,

the one... time nomads who had
ruled Spain for three centuries.

So the Spanish people lost one alien rule
and gained another.

They established their Spanish capital
here at Cordoba

They partly demolished the Christian basilica

and using marble columns
rescued from the Roman ruins

that lay all around this ancient city,

They converted it in the year 785,
into a mosque.

They were to build over 3,000 mosques
in this one city.

They installed street lighting
and public sanitation.

They established a university.

And so they converted Cordoba
with its half million inhabitants

into one of the great cities of Islam.

They also greatly enlarged this mosque

by building a forest of pillars.

To do that, they needed no specifically
Islamic architectural technique.

But on one side, facing not east, towards
Mecca,
as is traditional

but south towards land from which they came,

they built a mihrab.

(# Arabic music)

It's one of the glories
of Islamic architecture

and epitomises the dazzling artistry
craftsmanship of these people.

The Arab prince who ruled over Granada,

built himself a magnificent citidel
on the hill above the city

that became known as the Red Palace,
Alhambra.

As might be expected of people
with traditions of living in deserts,

they lavished great care and skill
on conserving and controlling water.

They built giant water wheels like these,
which still survive in Syria.

Groaning as they turn
on their wooden axles,

as they have done on this site
for a thousand years.

Driven by the current of the river,
they lift water 70 or 80 feet,

and tip it out into an aqueduct
along which it flows

throughout the city to irrigate its gardens.

For them a garden was literally paradise.

They used the same word for both.

Outside its walls, lay the blazing sand
and harsh sun of the desert.

Inside, cool shade, the sound of trickling water,

the colour and perfume of flowers.

So around their castles here in Spain

they built gardens,
just as they had back in Africa.

And they brought with them
many of their favourite plants.

Including, for example, this. The orange.

They had acquired this tree from the Chinese,

and grew it as much for its
perfume as for its fruit,

which in the early varieties, was bitter,

as several oranges are still today.

They also imported peacocks from
the eastern territories of their empire,

which now extended as far as India,

to glorify their gardens with
their astounding displays.

The Arabs, indeed, were particularly
knowledgeable and skilled

in the handling of birds.

Pigeons were probably the first birds
to be domesticated by man anywhere.

The Romans had kept them imprisoned

and even broke their wings
to prevent them flying

so as to fatten them for the table.

The Arabs, however,
allowed them to fly free

and provided them with miniature castles,
like these in Egypt.

They're built of earthenware pipes
stuck together with mud,

inside which the birds nest.

From these colonies they range over
the surrounding countryside,

collecting scattered grains of corn
and other tiny particles of food.

These they convert into meat
and eggs and droppings

which accumulate
in the bottom of these towers

and constitute a magnificent fertiliser.

But falcons are the Arabs' passion.

500 years ago, when they had no guns,

hawks were almost the only means they had
of catching game

and they carried falcon with them
wherever they went.

The tradition continues unbroken.

The favourite quarry in winter
is the houbara bustard.

It's a big bird,
about twice the size of most falcons,

which must have both strength and courage
if they're to bring one down.

The hood is an Arab invention.

It has drawstrings around the neck

and fits snuggly over the beak when it's on,

so that light is totally excluded
from the bird's eyes

and it immediately settles down
and remains clam.

These portable perches
were also devised by the Arabs.

By tradition, the falconers always make a point
of handling their birds a great deal,

both to keep them tame and to make it easier
to treat them for minor injuries,

such as broken feathers.

A hare, an eagerly sought... after quarry,

both for the skill needed to catch it
and the value of its meat.

(Squealing)

This is exactly how falcons catch their prey
in the wild.

For the bird, is of course, at this moment
an entirely free agent.

(Man speaking Arabic over loudhailer)

The falconer allows his bird
a share of its catch.

Usually the liver, the lungs and the heart.

If he did not,
the falcon might not continue to hunt.

But the owners take the main part
of the carcass

and they will eat it with particular relish.

For, although falconry in Arabia
is certainly a sport,

it also remains, as once most importantly was,

a way of catching food in the desert,

where real hunger continually afflicts
most animals and men.

The Europeans also hunted with falcons
for many centuries

but their techniques
were less sophisticated

and the Arab style of hawking
spread from places

where Muslim influence was strong,

such as Sicily and also of course
from Islamic Spain.

Although the people of Medieval Europe

were learning newer
and more efficient ways of hunting animals,

their beliefs about them
and their attitudes towards them

remained in many instances
rooted in a pre... Christian pagan past.

They credited some animals
with the most extraordinary powers.

For example in gullies like this,

where the moss... covered rocks

retain just a particle of moisture
even during the hottest summer,

they believed they occasionally could find one
of the most lethal and poisonous creatures

in the whole of creation.

A 13th... century writer describes

how the army of Alexander the Great

drank from a stream
through which this animal had just passed

and during the night all 4,000 men

and their 4,000 horses died.

And this is the creature
they were so terrified of.

It's a salamander.

And of course it's entirely harmless.

It's a kind of large newt
that spends most of its time on land.

Being an amphibian it has a moist skin

and during the day
it usually hides in damp places...

under leaves or beneath the bark
of wet rotten logs... and is rarely seen.

Perhaps if such a log were thrown on a fire

a salamander might come out of it.

And if the log were really
damp and rotten,

the fire might be put out.

At any rate, the salamander was believed
to be so magically powerful

that it could live in fire and extinguish it.

And still, to this day,

we call a species the fire salamander.

Even as inoffensive and harmless
a creature as a moth

could become in the medieval mind,
a creature of dread.

If it flew in through an open window at night,

people believed it might kill them
as they lay sleeping.

And all because it had on its body

a mark that looked like a death's head.

The fox was believed to be so sly and deceitful

that it would feign death and entice birds
to fly down and feed on its corpse.

Then it would suddenly come to life
and catch them.

The eagle was thought to be immortal.

When it got old it flew close to the sun,

scorched off its tattered, worn... out feathers

and dived into the waters of a lake.

Then it came out, rejuvenated,

perhaps even, like this one,
with a fish in its talons.

Maybe the artist had seen an osprey fishing.

This species of wild goose
is a rare visitor to southern Europe

and no one living there in medieval times
could have seen its nest.

So, people reasoned, these geese must come
into the world in some other fashion.

Perhaps from these barnacles

which have what look like small,
bedraggled feathers inside them.

And, as everyone knows,
only birds have feathers.

So, the illustrators of the medieval
natural history books, the bestiaries,

obligingly showed exactly
how that came about.

Nonsense? 0f course.

These geese lay eggs in nests
like any other bird.

But they do so out of most people's sight
in the Arctic.

Nonetheless, we still call this species of goose
the barnacle goose,

and that kind of barnacle, the goose barnacle.

There were also superstitions about plants.

This strange spike appears each summer
on a rocky islet in Malta.

For centuries, it was thought
that it lived only in this one tiny location.

Though now it has been found
in one or two other places as well.

And for centuries, too,
it was thought not only to be rare

but a very powerful medicine
against a whole variety of diseases.

So much so, it was extremely valuable.

And the Grand Master of the Knights
of St John in Malta

had to post a guard on this rock
to prevent thieves.

And he regularly gathered it

and sent it as a most valued gift

to all the crown heads of Europe.

The mandrake contains a drug
that produces hallucinations

and was used by apothecaries in potions.

Its root, often cleft,

was believed to be shaped
like a human being.

And close inspection could determine
whether it was male or female.

If it was pulled up,
it was supposed to scream,

and anyone who heard that dreadful sound
would be struck dead immediately.

So an apothecary gathering a mandrake

had to take with him a horn
and to plug his ears with beeswax.

Even tugging at the plant could be lethal

and to deal with that, he had to have a dog,

which he had to tie to the mandrake.

Then, blowing his horn to drown
the dreadful shriek

and whipping the dog so that it bolted,

he could draw the root in safety.

(Church bells ringing)

Not all of these pagan beliefs
have completely died.

In Cucullo, a small village
in the Abruzzi mountains, east of Rome,

an ancient animal cult still flourishes.

0n the first Thursday in May, every year,

a statue of St Dominic
is brought out from the church.

He is being adorned with snakes.

The snakes are harmless.

They are four... lined and Aesculapian snakes.

And as they, in the wild,
frequently climb in trees,

they tend to cling to the statue.

As the saint and his snakes
are carried in procession,

the worshippers entreat him to protect them
from the bites of other snakes,

for there are dangerously poisonous snakes
in the countryside.

He is also said, by a rather curious
and convoluted logic,

to be able to cure toothache.

(Brass band playing)

The people believe that their saint, St Dominic,

who founded the Dominican order of monks
in the 13th century,

was once bitten by a poisonous snake

but, miraculously, he suffered no ill effects,

and that therefore he has the power
to grant protection to others.

But it's likely that the origins of this bizarre cult

are rooted in practices
of a far more distant past.

Many pagan myths became absorbed
into Christian practice in this way

and some were even built into the fabric
of the churches themselves.

This centaur... half horse, half human...

is an inheritance
from the myths of Greece.

There's also another alien influence
in this cloister, that of Islam.

For this church in Le Puy in southern France

has arches reminiscent of the mosque
in Cordoba.

Le Puy stands on the pilgrim road

leading to the shrine of St James
in Compostela in Spain,

one of the most holy sites
in all Christendom.

But Compostela was not far from the Spanish
territories held by the Muslims.

And the Bishop of Le Puy must have regarded
Islam as a very real threat.

In 1095, the Pope arrived here from Rome
to confer with the Bishop.

We can't be certain
exactly what they talked about

but we do know for sure that the Pope had
been receiving urgent pleas for help

from the Christians of Constantinople

who were under continuous attack
by the armies of Islam.

And it seems likely
that they were planning a holy war.

At the end of their conversations,

the Pope summoned all the bishops
of Christendom

to come and meet him
in three months' time

in Clermont, 50 miles from here.

At the end of that conference, the Pope
preached a sermon to an enormous congregation

just outside the city of Clermont.

It was an insult to Christianity, he said,

that Jerusalem and the Holy Land
should be in the hand of the infidel.

And he called for an army to go and free it.

The sermon was met with wild enthusiasm.

The Bishop of Le Puy
was one of the first to volunteer

and was put in charge
of the whole enterprise.

And the next autumn,
men from all over Europe

started marching eastwards
to assemble in Constantinople

and to go on the first Crusade.

There was much squabbling
about who should take command,

but eventually the huge army marched
out of the gates of the city,

crossed the straits of the Bosphoros
and set off eastwards for Asia.

In the mountains of Turkey, the going is rough.

The Crusaders' horses were large,
heavily... built animals,

unsuited for such country.

Many fell and were eaten
by the hungry troops.

By the time the Christian army
reached the desert

and turned south towards Jerusalem,

much of the baggage was being carried by
locally obtained mules,

even goats and dogs.

The heavily... armoured knights
fought by charging the enemy,

and trying to unseat them with a lance.

They could then butcher them
with their swords.

The Muslim horses were small and agile,

ideal for making swift, surprise raids.

In their citadels, they defended themselves
with spears and arrows.

The Crusaders stormed the walls directly,

and tunnelled beneath them.

They used huge catapults
to hurl boulders over the ramparts,

or to batter them down.

0ne by one, the Muslim cities were taken,

each siege ending only too often
in a wholesale massacre of the inhabitants.

Until at last, July 15th, 1099,

Jerusalem, the Holy City itself,

was reclaimed for Christendom.

To keep control of their gains,

the Crusaders set up a chain of huge castles
round the eastern end of the Mediterranean.

The most perfectly surviving today
is Crac De Chevalier in Syria.

Inside the fortified walls
lived a huge community,

some 4,000 Christian souls
in the case of this particular castle.

There was the commander,
his wife and his children,

100 knights or so who had sworn
allegiance to him,

and many more foot soldiers
and locally recruited servants and helpers.

Here in the heart of the castle,
the knights had their lodgings where they slept.

Beyond that stood the vaulted
refectory where they ate

and the chapel where together
they all prayed.

Beneath, on the ground floor, is a vast hall

where they stabled all their horses.

And below that,
vaults that held enough supplies

for them to withstand sieges
of months or even years.

An aqueduct channelled in water,
though during a siege,

rain could be collected in vast cisterns
cut deep in the rock.

Even so, the Christian soldiers
who patrolled these walls

began to adopt the local customs.

They developed a taste for spicy food

and wore silken robes, even turbans.

Crac's defences were unsurpassed

and surrounded by an outer ring of walls
studded with towers.

Inside that lies a moat

and beyond that another line of walls.

The only way in was over a drawbridge
and through a heavily... guarded gate.

Lf, by some trickery or sheer force of arms,

attackers got across the drawbridge
and through the main gate,

they then had to fight their way
up this long, sloping passage.

And when they got here they were faced

with a confusing change of direction.

A hairpin bend, behind which a fresh band
of defenders could be waiting.

And up this passage there was a new peril.

Holes in the roof.

Through them poured a lethal hail

of boulders and arrows

and boiling pitch and oil.

Even if he survived as far as this,

an attacker had then to face
the massed knights,

who awaited him to do battle
in the inner courtyard.

In fact, during the entire history
of the castle,

no invader fought his way as far as this.

Indeed, these defences
were so carefully planned

and so ingeniously designed,

that the castle was virtually impregnable.

But in the end, the defence of a castle
depends on an adequate number of men.

And after a century and a half of sending
successive armies to the Holy Land,

the Europeans were beginning
to lose their zeal.

In 1271 a much depleted garrison

surrendered this castle
after only a month's siege,

in exchange for a safe passage
down to the Mediterranean coast, at Tripoli.

Over the next 20 years, the rest
of the Crusaders straggled back home.

They took with them
a love of silk and spices,

an admiration of the agile
lightly... built Arabian horse,

and something that ultimately

was to devastate all Europe.

It crept on board the ships
of the returning armies

and travelled with them.

It was the black rat.

It had already reached Europe,
one way or another, in previous centuries.

But the rats the Crusaders
inadvertently carried with them

had come from the ports
of the eastern Mediterranean

where plague was rampant and endemic.

The rats were infected
with a form of septicaemia in their blood,

which eventually killed them.

They couldn't transmit this directly to man.

But they were also infested with fleas...

and they could.

Some fleas are very particular
about their hosts

and will bite only one kind of animal.

But, tragically for humanity,
that was not so with these fleas.

The fleas fed by sucking the rat's blood.

And when the rat died of its disease,

the fleas hopped onto another rat,

or a human being,

and passed on the bacillus
by injecting when they next fed

into the blood of their new host.

As the rats spread
through the increasingly crowded

and insanitary cities of Western Europe,

so did the disease.

The great pestilence broke out in 1347.

It appeared first in Sicily

but soon it was raging all over the continent.

Boils appeared on people's bodies.

Their breath became foul
and they vomited blood.

And then they died.
Sometimes in a few days,

sometimes within a few hours.

Nobody knew what caused the disease.

Nobody knew how to stop it.

Within three years of its outbreak in Europe,

it had killed one person in three.

Most of Europe at this time
was covered with forest.

Although towns were growing,

there were still vast tracts of the wild wood

largely unaffected by man.

Every species of animal
that had been known

to the Romans still flourished.

Wild pig were very common

and they regularly interbred
with domesticated pigs

that wandered out into the forest.

Deer were abundant and much hunted
for their excellent meat.

The beaver, which today
is almost entirely restricted

to northern and eastern Europe,

was, in medieval times, common in rivers

right down to the coast
of the Mediterranean.

But others were felling trees in the forest
at that time, too.

Wood, after all,
was still people's primary fuel.

It was used for building
and the population,

now rapidly increasing
after the ravages of the plague,

wanted more cleared land for their houses,
their crops and their herds.

In Spain, this animal had a particular
responsibility for the destruction of the forests.

These are merino sheep,

a breed which was introduced
in the 13th century into Spain

by the Arabs from North Africa.

Every summer since then,
huge herds of them

have been driven right across Spain
from south to north.

They stick to the same traditional routes,

even though during the last few centuries
towns have grown up in their path.

No matter.
The traffic must stop to let the sheep past.

The journey is made
because as summer approaches,

their winter pastures on the lowlands
of southern Spain dry up

and the sheep have to get to the grass
that is now sprouting in the mountains.

Merinos, when they first appeared in Europe,
were a sensation.

Their wool was longer
than any other known until then

and it made a marvellous cloth.

Everyone wanted it and only Spain produced it.

More and more Spanish aristocrats
acquired bigger and bigger herds.

The King of Spain put a tax on the head
of every merino sheep

and every pound of wool they produced.

And eventually he, too,
had became a great sheep owner.

By the 16th century there were three million
merino sheep in Spain.

And their wool was a major element
in the country's economy.

The King of Spain did everything he could
to protect them

and, therefore, his wealth.

He made it illegal to export
a living merino sheep,

so as to protect the country's monopoly.

And he did his best to protect these,

These great, wide drovers' roads
running right across Spain, the ca�adas.

The sheep needed
these broad ribbons of land

not simply to walk on but to feed on.

The 500... mile journey
took them a month or so

and they had to eat as they travelled.

The King made laws forbidding
the farmers to fence their fields,

or even to drive the sheep away
if they started feeding on their crops.

Land was commandeered to widen the ca�adas,

and if a farmer objected
he could be put to death.

Eventually these great paths
were 250 feet across, as this one is.

Up in the mountains the pastures
were also greatly expanded.

The forests that had
once come close to the summits

of all except the highest peaks,
were cut down.

First around the high moorland,

and then farther
and farther down into the valleys,

until, in some places,
the whole mountain had been stripped bare

to provide grass in the summertime

for the searching muzzles
of thousands of sheep.

So, the forests of Spain,

from the lowland winter pastures,

along the wide ca�adas,

and up here into the mountains

were sacrificed for the merino sheep.

At the end of the 15th century,
the King of Spain sent merinos to Italy,

where he also owned vast territories.

And the same thing happened there.

And there too, there was another reason
for the wholesale felling of trees.

Italy was not yet united into one nation,

but was a group
of independent states.

And foremost among them was Venice,

the most serene republic
as she called herself,

and certainly the greatest naval power

and richest trading nation
in the western Mediterranean.

Every year, her ruler, the Doge

was rode in great states down the Grand Canal

and out into the lagoon
to be ceremonially wedded to the sea

on which the city's prosperity depended.

But the cities wealth
also depended on ships

and ships required trees.

Venice owned vast forest
that stretched almost unbroken

from the shores of her lagoon,
to the flanks of the Alps.

And in them were all the different
kinds of trees her shipwrights required.

0aks for ribs, deck beams and keels.

Elms for capstains, walnut for rudders.

Spruce and fir for masts

and beech for oars.

She built two very different kinds of ship.

Huge, square... rigged
broad... bellet merchantmen

which carried her bulk trade.

And slim, speedy galleys,

driven by oars that maintained
regular schedules

and carried valuables like spices and gold.

The galleys were built in the state dockyard,
the arsenal.

For they were also the most powerful
of the state's fighting ships.

These yards were the base of the navy

that dominated the western Mediterranean.

The fleet was essential
to Venice's survival.

The war between Christendom and Islam

had not ended when he Crusaders
had return from the Holy Land.

It was now being fought at sea.

Turkish fleets were attacking
Venice's eastern colonies.

Moorish pirates, the Corsairs,

were sailing from the North African coast

and plundering her merchantmen.

Eventually, this conflict came to a climax

when the mass fleets Christendom
met the might of Islam

in a narrow strait in Greece called Lepanto.

The battle lasted only one day.

In that time, 44,000 men were killed
or seriously wounded.

Eventually, the Christians won and the westward
expansion of Islam was stopped.

For centuries to come, Lepanto was celebrated
in paintings and poetry,

as one of the great turning points of history.

It was the last great battle in which
oar... driven galleys played a decisive part.

Developments in naval artillery
and improvements sailing technique

made them out of date.

Since then, this craft have been studied
in proud detail,

and the galley that carried the Christian flag
that day at the Lepanto, El Real,

has been reconstructed
as this full... sized replica.

Whatever else this ship may show,

it is appalling evidence of what men
will do to other men.

It was rowed by 236 slaves,

prisoners of war or criminals,

who were chained to their oars.

They were fed from a kind of stew
brewed in those great iron pots.

They were cleaned simply by throwing
buckets of water over them.

And they remained permanently
at their oars,

rowing on command, until such time
as their sentences were expired or they died.

But this ship is also evidence
of the great impact

that these naval wars had
on the forests of the Mediterranean.

To build this one ship involved felling
59 beech trees for the oars alone.

Over 300 pine and fir trees

for the planking and the spars.

And most important of all
and in shortest supply,

over 300 oak trees to build the ribs
and the hull.

Furthermore, the Christian fleet
in the battle of Lepanto,

has five more ships like this,

together with over 200 smaller ships.

The Turkish fleet was even bigger,

274 fighting ships.

So, in that one battle where many of these
great ships were burnt or sunk

they had to be felled
over a quarter of a million mature trees.

So it's little wonder that by
the end of the 15th century,

the Venetians were so short of timber
that this ship, the Christian flagship,

had to be built not in Italy,

but here in Barcelona in Spain.

And by the end of the next century

the majority of ship building had shifted
away from the shores of the Mediterranean,

up to northern Europe,
where the shipwrights

could get their timber
from the great forests of the Baltic.

0n the deforested land
the horse still ruled.

Armies depended on their well... drilled cavalry

and skills of horsemanship
had reached extraordinary levels.

The Spanish riding school in Vienna
still preserves them.

Breeding horses to produce
the different kind of animals

needed to for the many
different purposes they served,

had now become a highly expert business.

Those horses, like all thoroughbreds,

can trace their ancestry back to just
three stallions from the Middle East.

Indeed 90% of thoroughbreds,
can trace them back to just one.

A horse that was imported
by the British consul to Syria

and traded in the markets of Aleppo,
it's said, for a gun.

It arrived here in 1704,

and by that time the sport of horseracing
was already well established.

In the previous century, King Charles II

had become a fanatical race horse enthusiast

and he started the custom
of bringing his whole court

down to this heath and this town
of Newmarket, to see the races.

The famous winners, then as now,
became the idols of the public.

Their portraits painted to show them
to their best advantage

and even perhaps like other portraits
to flatter them a little,

gives some notion of the ideal horse
that breeders had in their minds

and which owed so much to the horses

that were ridden by the nomads
in the Middle East.

The characteristics that go to make
a really great race horse,

are of course a matter of experience
in judgment and opinion.

But in general the animal
should have a deep chest here

so there's plenty of room
for a big heart and lungs.

Legs that are well boned
so that they support the body,

but are also lissome and long to give it speed.

A back that neither too long nor too short

and big, powerful hind quarters

because its from here that you get the speed.

But whether you're looking at a
wonderfully... bred, aristocratic athlete,

like this one, or indeed a wild horse,

surely the horse is one of the loveliest
of animals.

After 5,000 years of serving humanity,

carrying him on his travels and his sports,

on his business and into his battles,

the horse had now been replaced
by the internal combustion engine.

But it still retains a unique place
in human affections

and in human history.