All language subtitles for Mediterranean A Sea For All Part 1 1080p EN SUB

One day, long ago
in the Mediterranean...

men entered a cave.

They painted pictures
of their lives on the walls.

Of the animals they hunted.

Of the natural world,
which was all they knew.

They left their mark...

and then they went away.

That was 27,000 years ago.

The cave was the Cosquer Cave,
deep inside a limestone cliff

near Marseille,
in the South of France.

Today, it is almost inaccessible.

Its entrance is
deep beneath the sea...

and the sea is the Mediterranean.

The Mediterranean is much more
than a stretch of water.

It is the sea that saw the rise
of a range of civilisations.

On its shores,
humanity made an immense journey.

The peoples of the Mediterranean
discovered agriculture.

They invented
trade, geometry, writing.

They founded empires
and imagined great cities.

They made it the home of philosophy
and of the first democracy.

And the home
of the Religions of the Book...

Judaism, Christianity and Islam,
now the faiths of half the world.

The Mediterranean is
home to 427 million people

and 24 countries.

And yet...

And yet today, this common legacy
has been eclipsed

by fratricidal wars and
bitter tensions between neighbours.

We hear only of religious conflict,
economic crisis, and division.

Has the universal heritage of
the Mediterranean been forgotten?

Do its peoples no longer remember

how integral the Mediterranean
has been to their own history?

Look at these children playing

in a Palestinian neighbourhood
of Beirut.

They are a reminder
that it was by the Mediterranean

that people learned to live
in a community.

Look at these flocks
grazing on the plains of Algeria.

They are a reminder of
what climate change may bring

to the rest of the world.

Look at Venice, and you may conclude
that the modern world

has lost its sense of
proportion and perspective.

In a word, take a broader view,

and see the Mediterranean
as the centre of a bigger picture.

That is the story we will tell
in this journey around the sea

that the Romans called
Mare Nostrum, 'our sea'...

a sea for all that we call
the Mediterranean.

In the beginning, there was a sea.

The Mediterranean.

The name means 'the sea
in the middle of the land'.

It was born out of the collision
between three continents

Europe, Asia, and Africa
some 20 million years ago.

The land rose up,
folding like a concertina

and enclosing a vast expanse
of saltwater.

That was the origin of jagged
mountain peaks such as the Alps,

or the eroded summits
of the Pyrenees.

The Atlas Mountains
in Morocco and Algeria,

the Pyrenees in Spain,
the Alps in France and Italy,

the Pindus in Greece,
the Taurus in Turkey,

and the Lebanon Mountains...

As if in a natural cradle,

the Mediterranean
is surrounded by mountains.

But in some places,
there are no mountains.

The sides of the cradle are lowered

as they are between Libya and Egypt.

It was through this opening

that the first humans arrived
in the Mediterranean.

And it is here
that our journey begins.

This is an arid region.

It's the Libyan desert,
part of the vast Sahara.

Only a sparse line of trees
can resist the heat.

Like the sentinels
of an army in retreat,

they mark the line of the watercourse

beneath the burning sands.

The only people
who venture into this region

are the Toubous from Chad,
and Tuaregs,

including the Tamasheqs
from Mauritania.

They continue to trade
in salt and wheat

across the biggest arid zone
in the world.

Many of these men are Berbers

descendants of the first
Mediterranean people.

They are following a trail
blazed thousands of years ago

by the first humans to come out
of Africa's Great Rift Valley.

They approached the Mediterranean
by this very route,

in between Libya and Egypt.

Since then, much has changed.

Because today, the Mediterranean
is more like this...

TRAFFIC NOISE, SIRENS

North of the desert
is the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Home to 16 million people,

it is the Mediterranean's
biggest city by far.

In an influx from the countryside,

100,000 more people
arrive in Cairo every year.

The oldest quarter is the home
of the Copts, Egypt's Christians.

But Cairo is also
an Arab and a Muslim capital.

Cairo has one of the world's
oldest universities, Al-Azhar.

It teaches Islamic law,
theology and wisdom,

as well as medicine
and general subjects.

Cairo has been called
both 'the mother of the world'

and 'a human ant-hill'.

But it owes its existence
to a river...

the Nile.

The Nile is
the longest river in Africa.

Its waters flow
from the heart of the continent.

Like Egypt itself,
Cairo owes everything to the Nile,

the source of both life
and civilisation.

The first people here
were nomadic hunter-gatherers.

The reeds and wild seeds of
the Nile Delta changed their lives.

Its fertile banks
encouraged them to settle

more than 6000 years ago.

90 per cent of Egypt's population
still lives close to the river.

Water was everywhere,
as the Nile constantly flooded.

When the floodwaters receded, they
left behind a fertile black silt

that gave Egypt its ancient name...
Kemet - 'black earth'.

The river and its alluvial soil
gave birth to agriculture,

and so to ancient Egypt.

Agriculture began with the
domestication of wild Nile plants

that became barley, lentils,
flax and peas.

Today, it is an industry

that feeds seven billion people
around the world.

And it all began here,
beside the Mediterranean.

The Nile Valley is Egypt's
only agricultural area.

Space is at a premium,

obliging peasants to store fodder
on their roofs.

These peasants are the heirs
to a rural knowhow

that has been perfected over time.

Basic calculations were invented
to estimate harvests.

Early writing was used to record
agricultural inventories.

This was the basis
for the rise of civilisation.

THUNDER RUMBLES

The rule of the pharaohs arose

out of the worship
of these same natural forces.

The people of Egypt
all felt the same holy fears.

At Giza, south of Cairo,
the Egyptians built the pyramids.

The early ones
took the form of stairways

to allow the deceased ruler
to take his place

between the river and the sun.

80 such pyramids still exist today,

all of them built
in less than 1000 years

on the left bank of the Nile.

Their size makes them
visible from space,

a majestic mark left by the
Mediterranean's first civilisation.

And yet, Egypt's real legacy
to the region

is not these monuments,
but a tiny grain...

wheat.

Egypt's cereals transformed
the southern Mediterranean lands

into a granary.

Wheat was grown in Tunisia,
Algeria and Morocco...

as it still is around Rabat.

The knowledge and culture of wheat

was a precious gift
handed down the generations.

It meant bread
and the end of hunger.

DONKEY BRAYS

Born on the banks of the Nile,

agriculture has spread
far beyond the Mediterranean.

Every year, more than
700 million tonnes of wheat

are produced around the world.

Plains are the natural home
of agriculture.

Or the gentle slopes of
the Siliana region, in Tunisia,

where cultivated fields stretch
further than the eye can see.

The undulating wheat is ultimately
the true signature of a civilisation.

From North Africa
to the plains of southern Europe

and the plateaus of Turkey,

the Mediterranean world
is one of agriculture.

Wheat hasn't meant only bread
it has meant wealth.

And it gave birth to trade,

which was pioneered
in ancient Lebanon.

Lebanon is a land of mountains.

The Lebanon Mountains
soar more than 3000 metres,

and the snow is everlasting.

The very name 'Lebanon',
meaning 'white',

comes from these snow-capped summits.

Apart from the Bekqaa Valley,

the country has no significant
agricultural land.

So Lebanon has always relied
on its location

at the crossroads between
the Mediterranean and the East.

It was in Lebanon
that Persian traders and goods

first came into contact
with those of the Mediterranean.

CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS

Beirut, the capital,
is virtually a city-state.

It is thought to have
two million people,

a third of the country's population,

and it is always growing.

People from all over the
Mediterranean and the Middle East

cross paths in Beirut.

Every race and every creed.

CALL TO PRAYER FROM MOSQUE

There are also many native
ethno-religious communities.

The largest groups are Muslims
Sunni and Shia

and Christians.

Lebanon is a refuge
for Syrians and Palestinians.

The Syrians have fled civil war,
the Palestinians are in exile.

Over time, the temporary
has become permanent.

Refugee camps have become suburbs.

Lebanon has a million refugees,
almost a quarter of the population.

Between 1975 and 1990,

Beirut was ravaged
by Lebanon's own civil war.

It was fought
between the Christians,

the PLO 'state-within-a-state'

and many others, including
the Syrian and Israeli armies.

Apartment towers became
vantage points in urban warfare.

There was heavy fighting
in this scarred monolith,

nicknamed Burj el Murr,
'the Tower of Bitterness'.

Since the war,
the country has rapidly rebuilt.

It draws strength from the 4 million
Lebanese who live abroad,

and from its ancient vocation,
commerce.

In Beirut,
everything can be bought and sold.

It was here
that international trade was born

more than 6000 years ago.

And what made the difference here
was not a river, as in Egypt,

but a sea -
the Mediterranean.

It was here that the first merchants
learned how to sail the seas

in ships laden with spices,
textiles and oil.

Lebanon was known then as Phoenicia.

Today, it is hard to imagine
the courage of those early sailors.

Byblos is one of the oldest
trading ports in the world.

Its history dates back to fishermen
7000 years ago.

Today, part of the resort town
of Jbeil,

it was the Mediterranean's
first commercial centre.

From these beginnings,

the sea would become
the high road of ancient commerce.

Phoenician ships
were highly regarded.

Their hulls were made of a very
solid wood that grew nowhere else...

Lebanese cedar.

Today, the cedars of Lebanon
are rare and protected.

To see them, we have to go up to
Bsharri in the Lebanon Mountains.

Some of these giants are
more than 2000 years old.

They're the last of the dense forests
that once covered Lebanon.

The timber had many uses,

not least in helping
the Phoenicians open up

the new world of the Mediterranean.

They could never have ranged
so far by land.

The sea allowed
the first eastern civilisations

to expand all around
the Mediterranean.

The Phoenicians settled in Cyprus

then in Crete
and on the eastern coast of Greece.

They sailed along the coast of Libya

and further on
to the northwest of Africa.

Their biggest commercial centre
was ultimately Carthage,

close to modern-day Tunis.

Their empire established links

between all
these Mediterranean peoples.

It was the first form
of globalisation.

Their empire was also one of islands.

The Mediterranean has
over 15,000 of them,

each one a port-of-call
for the Phoenicians.

They might be wild and isolated,
or densely populated,

like the Kornati Islands
off the Dalmatian coast.

The Kornati Archipelago alone
has 140 islands.

This was once dry land.

The end of the Ice Age
raised the sea level,

leaving only the hilltops
above the surface.

The terrain is rough because
the Mediterranean is a volcanic zone,

one of the most active
in the world...

something that left its mark
on Mediterranean civilisations.

RUMBLING

Stromboli,
one of the Aeolian Islands,

has a volcano over 900 metres high.

Every hour, it spits out
chunks of lava and ash.

The constant minor eruptions
prevent a major blast.

Living with a volcano isn't all bad.

The lava is rich in minerals
and fertilises the land.

People have always lived
on this island.

But living here also means
accepting the mountain's anger.

This strange mix
of fascination and wariness

is as old as the human presence
in the Mediterranean.

It dates back to an ancient legend.

Between Italy and Greece,
there are 60 active volcanoes,

such as Sicily's Mount Etna.

But one of them
changed the course of history.

It was Santorini,
in the Aegean Sea, off Greece.

It looks like an island,
but it's actually a huge volcano.

What we see now
is only what was left

after the crater collapsed in
on itself.

It exploded around 1600 BC.

The blast is said to have wiped out
an entire civilisation -

the Minoans.

Based in Crete, they were
very advanced for their time.

They had their own writing,
agriculture and ships.

Overnight, this flourishing
civilisation disappeared.

Ever since,
the volcano has been dormant.

But a legend was born,

of how the natural world
can snuff out a whole civilisation.

And it resounded down the centuries.

The Greeks came to fear
the power of their mountains.

The highest, Mount Olympus,
rose almost 3000 metres.

It was the home of the gods.

The Greeks thought of the world
as having a navel.

It was at Delphi,
at the foot of Mount Parnassus.

There they built a temple to Apollo,
the god of light.

It was the seat of a priestess,
the Pythia.

She was the oracle who communicated
with the occult powers of the earth.

But the Greeks had another side.
They wanted to understand.

Throughout the land,
they built theatres

to express their doubts...
their philosophies.

It was a revolution in human thought.

The Greeks freed themselves
from their natural cradle.

They cut open their sacred mountains
to build their temples.

Today, the symbol
of this intellectual revolution

is the Acropolis,
the lofty citadel in Athens.

The Greek gods were Zeus,
the supreme god of Olympus...

Poseidon, the god of the sea...

and Athena, the goddess
of wisdom and of war.

They were all descended
from the same divinity -

Gaia, the Earth.

At the same time,
the Greek gods were jealous,

belligerent and benevolent...

That is, they were drawn
in man's image.

It was the dawn
of the principle of humanity,

which has since become universal.

The Parthenon, dedicated to Athena,
still dominates Athens.

The temple was also a treasury
where the city's wealth was stored.

That wealth would be welcome today

as the Greeks face
an unprecedented financial crisis

and a battle for their sovereignty.

A strange twist of history

when we recall that it was here,
in Athens, that democracy was born.

The Greeks were also
great seafarers and traders.

They founded some of
the Mediterranean's greatest ports.

The roll-call of Greek cities
is endless.

Mycenae, Corinth, Miletus,
Rhodes and Phocaea,

all were Greek.

So were Istanbul in Turkey,
Marseille in France

and Cyrene in Libya.

The foundation of Alexandria

marked the height
of the Greek empire.

After that came the fall.

Another empire would change
the face of the Mediterranean.

Rome.

Today, Rome is one of Europe's
great capitals,

with four million people.

It is the historic cradle
of Western civilisation.

And it all began with its conquest

of a small kingdom
in northern Italy.

Italy's northern coast
is jagged and rocky,

as it is here, in Liguria.

In the Cinque Terre region,

the villages hang suspended
between the mountains and the sea.

In Manarola, people have fished and
grown grapes since time immemorial.

Northern Italy also means Tuscany.

Here the land is rich,

and each hill boasts a granary
or a fortified village.

Tuscany has grown grapes and wheat
for 4000 years.

The most notable vineyards are in
the Chianti and Montalcino regions.

This was the kingdom
of the Etruscans,

a cultivated people who ruled
northern Italy for hundreds of years.

The Etruscan kingdom was swallowed up
by Republican Rome.

It was the first time a republic
had defeated a monarchy.

Rome drew its strength from
an extraordinary military machine

and from a natural weapon...

salt.

Salt is extracted
from the Mediterranean

at saltworks like this one
in Alexandria.

In ancient times,
it was used as money.

But Rome also found
a warlike use for it.

Salt allowed the Roman legions
to preserve their rations

while on campaign.

The legionaries
were even paid in salt

which was the origin
of the word 'salary'.

It was an era of conquest.

Rome's authority knew no limits.

The Mediterranean was renamed.

It was no longer
'the sea in the middle of the land',

but Mare Nostrum, 'our sea',
belonging to Rome,

and in a broader sense, to humanity.

Rome conquered North Africa.

In Libya, the colossal ruins of the
cities of Sabratha and Leptis Magna

include a capitol, baths,
circuses and theatres.

To unite the Mediterranean peoples
and stave off rebellion,

Rome entertained them.

The heart of the empire
lay in its cities.

Anyone who passes through
the gate of Timgad, in Algeria,

can understand
what a rich heritage this is.

The evenly spaced streets
laid out at right angles

not only made it easier
to move about,

but also created a new model
for communities

in which houses could become suburbs,
and suburbs, whole cities.

Rome invented a new way of living.

It set the pattern for urban planning
in today's metropolises.

Cities like Genoa in Italy

are still inspired by
the urban model of Rome.

With each new territory,
the Romans laid roads, dug harbours,

and built bridges
to unify the empire.

Who remembers today
that it was Nero

who first conceived the monumental
Corinth Canal in Greece?

One by one, Rome absorbed all of
the earlier Mediterranean empires...

the Etruscans, Greeks, Phoenicians,
Egyptians, and the peoples of Europe.

Each new conquest
became an imperial province

linked by road to Rome.

At its height, in 117 AD,

the Roman Empire extended from
Britain to the borders of Persia.

Under the Pax Romana,

the Mediterranean was united
for the first time...

and for the last.

Meanwhile, in the east, a new
revolution was about to begin...

in Jerusalem.

In the outer reaches
of the Roman Empire,

Semitic nomads journeyed
through the depths of the desert,

to what is today called Wadi Rum,
in Jordan.

For 1000 years,
they had led their caravans

to the heart of this rocky furnace.

They knew the secrets of the desert.

They controlled the caravan routes
between Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Commercial centres grew up
where these routes crossed.

South of the Dead Sea,

there was even a city
in the heart of the desert.

It was the most splendid
of all the commercial centres.

It was called Petra.

All that remains of Petra today

is the facades
carved out of the rock face.

The unmistakable Greek influence

reflects the mixture of cultures
and religions in the city.

After their exile in Egypt,

the Israelites too
came out of the desert.

Into the world of polytheism,

they brought with them
their conviction

that there was only one god,
a universal God,

who had chosen them,
out of all humanity, as his people.

It was the Mediterranean world's
first monotheistic religion...

Judaism.

The Israelites founded a kingdom

in the land
their God had promised them.

They built a temple in his city,
Jerusalem.

The city was a holy place,
a place for prayer.

But it would see more prayers
than its builders ever expected,

because two more monotheistic
religions were yet to come,

making the holy city
a place of contention.

The men of Israel were erudite.

On scrolls, they wrote a testament

to be handed down
through the generations.

The Hebrew bible
contained the Torah,

which defined the beliefs, history
and identity of the tribes of Israel,

and texts governing the way to live.

These rules of conduct were to ensure
the cohesion and unity of the people

and hence their survival.

Then things got complicated.

In the time of the Romans,

one of the men of Israel,
Jesus of Nazareth,

was accused of heretical preaching.

The Roman governor
condemned him to death.

But after suffering
death by crucifixion,

the condemned man
rose from the dead.

In the eyes of his followers,

the miracle proved
that Jesus was the Son of God,

the Messiah sent to the world of men.

His disciples dedicated themselves

to recording his teachings
in the Gospels,

and to preaching them to the world.

So was born the second
monotheistic creed, Christianity.

600 years later came
the third monotheistic creed, Islam.

For much of his life, the Prophet
Muhammad received revelations

that he transmitted to his companions
who recorded them in the Koran.

Islam taught
that the faithful should pray

facing the Kaaba in Mecca,
the birthplace of the Prophet.

This empty stone cube symbolised the
believers' renunciation of paganism.

With these three religions
born of the same God,

nothing in the Mediterranean world
would ever be the same again.