Original subtitles

I'm Bettany Hughes, and I want to take you

on the ultimate adventure across the Greek islands.

This has to be one of the most exciting places on Earth, a place

full of mystery and wonder and tens of thousands of years of history

and human experience.

A cradle of civilisation, the Greece of the ancient world hothoused.

Everything from democracy to medicine.

It gave us the Olympics, engineering triumphs

and some of the most epic stories of all time,

stories that have been passed down for thousands of years

and that still influence us today.

SHOUTING

One of the very greatest centres on the Greek hero Odysseus,

the legendary warrior whose cunning won the Trojan War.

After the victory,

he begins a long journey home to the far west of Greece,

BCFOSS thGSG S885.

His story, The Odyssey, is a brilliant hail of triumph

over adversity and danger, inspiring books, movies and adventures.

And on my personal odyssey,

I'm following Odysseus's path from east to west.

I want to try to experience what he experienced...

Whoa!

...make amazing new discoveries...

It's just perfect. Still bright yellow, isn't it?

...enjoy the delights of ancient Greece today...

Mm!

...and uncover the truths

behind these fabulous myths and legends...

They killed one young lady.

...to see how they can help us understand the world

and ourselves.

Join me on this epic voyage, my Greek odyssey.

I've been travelling here for 30 years.

It's a hot spot of human history

and where Odysseus's story is set.

Now, it's debated whether he was a real or a mythical hero,

but his journey has become the stuff of legend.

The story of Odysseus is so incredible that the word

for an epic journey, an odyssey, comes from his name.

And it is an epic tale.

After leading the Greeks to victory in the brutal Trojan War,

Odysseus sets off for home,

but his voyage doesn't quite go to plan.

Odysseus gets high on drugs,

he's seduced by goddesses,

he battles monsters...

A journey that should have taken weeks ends up taking ten years.

We're told Odysseus's voyage took him from the battlefields

of the Trojan War in present day Turkey to his home in Ithaca.

So, like him, I'm beginning my 1,700 mile odyssey

just off the Turkish coast, where - I've been tipped off -

an underwater archaeology team is making some extraordinary

discoveries, revealing hidden history

and the titanic challenges

our hero would have faced on the seas.

It's a graveyard of lost ships.

58 wrecks spanning 2,500 years litter this seabed around Fourni.

These waters are as dangerous today as they were for the ancient Greeks.

So, this is the bit of the journey where the seas start to get slightly

more treacherous, and you can understand why

there are lots of shipwrecks around here.

I think I'm going to sit down for a bit.

Whoa!

Archaeologist George Koutsouflakis and his underwater cameraman

Vassilis are about to explore a wreck that dates back

over 1,500 years.

Hello, hi!

And they've invited me along as they dive

45m down to the sea floor.

Bettany. Hey, nice to see you. I'm George.

How lovely to see you.

We had a bit of weather coming over here. Yeah.

It was a little bit rough.

Is it OK to dive today?

Fantastic.

And what do you hope you're going to find down there?

Yeah.

I know there are a lot of wrecks here.

But why? You know, why does it happen on this particular stretch?

OK. The White Cape of Death.

That sounds like, "Let's go!"

Only specialist divers can brave these waters.

Here, the freakish winds whip round like a whirlpool.

In one of the most famous stories of The Odyssey, our hero is almost

sucked into a monstrous whirlpool called Charybdis.

Already, I'm seeing how the epic tales relate

to real conditions here.

So while George and Vassilis venture to the sea floor,

we're going to wait in this sheltered bay.

But just as we get settled,

the weather takes a turn for the worse.

I'm on a Greek island odyssey,

following the trail of the legendary warrior Odysseus.

After he left Troy on today's Turkish coast

to travel to his home,

the island of Ithaca in the west.

To understand the dangers he faced,

we're exploring an ancient ship,

wrecked as it travelled to trade across the Mediterranean.

Underwater archaeologist George and cameraman Vassilis film

what they find - untouched human history.

George and Vassilis have been gone two hours.

But then a familiar boat appears.

I'm glad they're OK. It was pretty gnarly out there.

Hey, guys. Are you OK?

You look tired.

Was it? Yeah.

Was it? Yeah, yeah. Was it?

Gosh, you're heroes.

THEY LAUGH

These are my two Odysseuses.

Huge containers.

George and Vassilis have found what's left of a merchant vessel,

wrecked over 1,500 years ago.

The seabed here is littered with amphorae,

huge jars used to ship olive oil, wine and grain.

They are astonishingly well-preserved.

So, the Black Sea?

I love... Chios, I'm planning to spend time there.

Yeah. Because it's, you know, where

some of the stories of Odysseus begin. Yeah, yeah.

Look at - it's huge, isn't it?

What are they transporting in that amount?

That's enormous!

And I was just going to say, it's disgusting.

So garum is this, like, fermented fish sauce

and it's, for us... SHE GAGS

Oh, my God, it's so horrible. But they loved it.

The Romans couldn't get enough of it.

That's amazing.

You can see. So it's just like a pile, like a stack of plates

from a cafe or something.

But still in their original position. God, George,

this is so incredible.

That is so beautiful to see that, isn't it?

Are there any human remains there?

Because obviously the sailors would have would have gone down...

...most of them would have gone down with the ship.

Yes. Yeah.

But I mean, it makes you... All of this...

Oh, my God,

it really makes you respect those sailors and heroes.

You know, what you've just done is pretty heroic.

But it is! It is, guys.

And if you think what they were doing 3,000 years ago, I mean,

they were good sailors, but they're absolutely

up against the elements and whatever the god of the sea throws at them,

aren't they?

No.

And we're about to find out how Odysseus might have felt.

A weather report's come in, and a storm is on its way.

OK, so this is an interesting development.

We can currently tell it from here, but it is really,

really rough out there.

There's a serious wind blowing up.

So, apparently, we might be stuck here, in this bay.

If we don't leave now, we could be stranded here

for the next three days.

So it's definitely time to set sail.

It makes you realise, when they set out in seas like this,

those ancient sailors had no idea whether they'd come back

alive or not.

The conditions finally calmed down.

But experiencing such rough weather makes you realise how essential

it is to have a really good captain.

Luckily, I'm heading to Chios, an island that boasts some

of the very best captains and crews in the whole of Greece.

It's also claimed to be the birthplace of Homer,

who composed The Odyssey.

And it's home to an old friend who's helping me plan the logistics

for the next 200 miles of my journey.

Hello!

Hey!

Oh, my goodness.

Hello, Bettany, welcome back.

Oh, thank you. Nice to see you again in Chios.

How lovely to see you.

How lovely to see you. Let's go. Let's go. Fantastic.

I met George when I came to Chios to research one of my first books,

and now he's helping me prepare

for the next leg of my ambitious odyssey.

I'm very happy to see you in Chios again.

I thought it would be a good place, because this is the island

that claims it has the best sailors, the kind of best sailing conditions.

Well, here deserves that, because in the vein of the people of Chios,

the sea is circulating.

That's good... That's good to hear.

They've got sea water running in their veins.

We have the right boat and the qualified captain.

Great.

It's so beautiful.

Hi, yasas, hi.

Hi, Bettany. Hi, Bettany.

Nice to see you.

Yamas. Yamas. Yamas.

Thank you, thank you so much.

Yasas, pedia! Yasas. Aw, yasas.

Look, George, I've got this, um...

This is the kind of plan of where I'm going to go. Uh-huh.

I'm going to put my specs on.

So, basically, we're here, in Chios.

We're going out to Lesbos and kind of zigzagging through these islands,

and then go all the way round to Ithaca, where we finish.

This is an unbelievable trip.

You will meet different cultures and different people,

but we are all original Greeks.

Aw! OK.

Well, I'm... No, I'm a...

Honestly, I can't tell you how excited I am.

Shall I give you a quick telephone call when I arrive safely in Ithaca?

No, I want a call every morning.

Do you? SHE LAUGHS

OK.

Because this is a real odyssey.

It IS an ambitious journey, but I'm hoping that one of the oldest

Greek customs will help us on our way.

This is Greek salad.

Perfect for me. Whenever I've come here,

I've always been welcomed like this.

Oh, nice.

Yeah? What is this?

This is... Green ball.

Yes, special ball with herbs.

A ball with herbs! Spinach, onions, everything.

Lovely. Charming. Local, of course.

Of course. Of course.

So I'm always welcomed like this

when I come, because there's this amazing Greek tradition

which actually goes right the way back to ancient times, of xenia.

You're very proud of xenia here.

And it means that you have to welcome strangers

and you have to make them feel as though they're the most important

person at the table.

I'm certainly getting that.

George is hovering with... What's this?

Tomato balls. Tomato balls.

Tomato balls, cheese... Local tomato balls.

Thank you. Efcharisto poli.

Many kinds of...many kinds of vegetarian food here.

And it's really interesting to me, this, because in ancient Greece,

it was almost as though xenia was the mark of a civilisation.

You couldn't be civilised unless you offered

hospitality to strangers.

That's true, isn't it? Yes. Xen-IA. Ah, OK. Xenia.

We always welcome visitors with defend local tradition and food.

And original food. Yes.

Yes!

TRADITIONAL GREEK MUSIC

We share food, wine and dancing late into the night.

Even our cameraman Tim is persuaded to down tools and get stuck in.

It's a timeless send-off

for the next phase of my epic adventure.

SHIP HORN BELLOWS

So with Greek songs of life on the open seas ringing in my ears,

I'm heading to my next island.

Just 45 miles from here is Lesbos, where our hero Odysseus landed

for a gorilla attack. To get there,

George has put me in contact with one of the best captains

on the island,

a fourth generation sailor called Nikos.

George has told me to look out for a boat called Nemesis,

which is the name of the Greek goddess

of fate and retribution.

So I hope that's not a bad omen.

I can't actually see the name, but I think this is it.

Looks like it.

Hi. Are you Nikos? Hello, hello, hello. Hi.

Hi. Welcome.

Oh, thank you. Welcome to Greece.

Aw, thank you.

Bye.

Thank you, efcharisto.

I was just going through my bag,

and I found that George has left me

a little gift from Chios to take with me on my journey,

and I know what these things are.

They're absolutely lovely.

So they're called tama or tamata,

and they're basically like kind of religious good luck charms.

So you've got a boat to keep you safe on a boat and a heart.

How sweet is that?

So I don't know whether the idea is

I've left my heart in Chios or I'm taking the love of Chios

and the islanders with me on my journey.

I particularly love these things because they actually used them

3,500 years ago.

But isn't that brilliant that these are little things

that have power in the ancient world

and still have power in the modern world today?

Now, the reason Odysseus travelled so far from his home,

west of the Greek mainland, was to fight in the Trojan War,

which all started with another famous Greek,

Helen of Troy, heralded as the most beautiful woman in the world.

Basically, she falls in love with a handsome Trojan prince,

Paris,

who then whisks her off to Troy.

As you can imagine, Helen's husband is not best pleased by this.

Odysseus summons up the Greek heroes

so they can go and fight

to put on a bloody, brutal ten-year siege to try to win her back.

But before they launch their offensive against Troy,

the Greeks raid Lesbos.

Odysseus attacks the locals mercilessly.

SWORD SLICES

His eagerness to loot and raid earned him the nickname

Sacker of Cities.

Thank you.

Lesbos is home to an intriguing architectural treasure that tells us

just how important these bloodthirsty legends were

to the ancient Greeks.

This was the greatest theatre in the ancient world.

Theatres were the ancient Greek equivalent of a Cineplex.

Huge crowds would have flocked here to watch stories sparked

by tales of the Trojan War and the adventures of its heroes,

one way that myths were passed down through the generations.

Roman troops conquered Lesbos in 88 BC

and were inspired to make copies of this very theatre

across their vast territories.

One influential Roman general was so impressed by this place,

he determined to build his own one, only bigger and more splendid,

and that would become the first-ever stone-built theatre in Rome

that was copied and replicated right the way across the Roman Empire.

Where I'm walking now was originally called an orchestra -

which, of course, gives us our word orchestra -

and it means a singing or a dancing place.

There's another cool word here - that slope,

that was the theatron, which gives us our word theatre,

but a theatron in Greek actually means a seating place.

And we know that this theatre at Mytilene could seat

up to 10,000 spectators.

MUFFLED CHEERING OF CROWDS

Now, this wall here is frankly a bit odd, because you never normally get

walls like this in Greek theatres,

but there's a very good reason that it's here.

When the Romans took over, they slightly adapted this theatre.

They were definitely more bloodthirsty than the Greeks,

and they loved their gladiatorial games.

So rather than just watching theatre here,

they put on gladiatorial contests, and they had to build this wall

because these are fights to the death.

I mean, they were really gruesome and gory and bloody.

And they built this so that the spectators behind

could be protected from the action down here.

Come over here. I just want to show you something really great.

OK. At first glance, this might just look like a pile of rubble,

but it's actually something much, much, much more exciting than that.

Just a couple of months ago,

archaeologists discovered a whole new temple here.

So this was built by the Romans,

and it was a temple to the goddess Nemesis, the goddess

of fate and retribution.

And, of course, that makes sense, if you think about it,

because gladiators were fighting here, fighting to the death,

meeting their match,

and so they had to try to keep the goddess of fate on their side.

It's a reminder that the gods were ever present in the lives

of the ancients, even in entertainment.

Now, as well as theatre, there's another great tradition

we can thank the ancient Greeks for,

and I'm on my way to discover what this is.

When I first came to the Greek island of Lesbos to research

its ancient history, I explored this beautiful place by jeep.

And now I'm back, following the trial of one of the world's original

action heroes, wily Odysseus.

We know from the Odyssey that after being caught in a storm

or a particularly tough journey that there was nothing our hero

liked better than a hot soaking bath.

And luckily for him - and me - many Greek islands boast

natural volcanic hot springs.

Now, you might associate bathing with the Romans, but centuries

before them, baths here tapped these mineral-rich waters

from over 2km underground.

Welcome. Oh, hi. Bettany. Hi, nice to meet you. Hi.

PURRING

Hello, beautiful.

Oh, these waters are really lovely

because they're just above blood heat.

But in some places on the island, the temperatures in the waters

can rise to as much as 90 degrees centigrade.

And they are absolutely packed with minerals.

You have people coming here day in, day out to treat all kinds

of different conditions like arthritis and bronchitis.

I'll tell you what I really, really love about this place is the fact

that people have been coming here to take the health benefits

of the waters - and writing about it, too -

for over 2,500 years.

Even here in the hot tub, it's clear the Greek tradition of xenia,

welcoming strangers as friends, is still going strong.

So I've been invited into this volcanic Jacuzzi by some

very friendly locals who are enjoying volcanic waters.

In the traditional baths, you had to be naked to enter them. Naked?!

Now... Now they don't allow this.

There was a lot of gossiping.

That's interesting!

So people used to gossip about each other?

They used to, like, criticise their bodies? Eh...

But it's still love me. I love it.

Even with swim suits, it's beautiful being here,

in these hot baths. She's great. She's very jolly.

I love the fact she's holding on to me as well.

We're having a kind of like hand-holding session underneath...

...underneath the water here. I love Elvira.

So why...why do you come here?

SHE SPEAKS GREEK

She sort of likes it here.

She's not coming often. Oh.

SHE SPEAKS GREEK

They...they bring her. Oh!

She prefers... She has one at home.

She prefers to stay at home.

That's brilliant!

Elvira... I thought Elvira came here every day,

you know, it made her the healthy...

But she doesn't like coming here!

She just came because her friends came.

Well, you look very healthy, Elvira.

HE TRANSLATES

Yeah.

Healthy and jolly is what the water here seems to do to people.

Bathing together gave the early Greeks a real sense

of community - somewhere they could chat and share ideas.

But the volcanic landscape here is both a blessing and a curse.

Where three plates in the Earth's crust meet,

these islands have been plagued by natural disasters...

...and man-made ones, too.

Lesbos has long been the refuge for those fleeing nearby wars.

Some things haven't changed since ancient times.

So this is the biggest refugee camp on the island

that I'm just going past.

It was originally built for 3,000 people,

and there's well over 10,000.

You know what's so awful, seeing this?

Is that this is a part of the world

where, actually, refugees have been coming

not just for decades or for centuries,

but for thousands of years.

Fleeing wars in Asia Minor and the Middle East,

it's just so tragic that it doesn't stop.

We're told the Trojan War generated a mass exodus of refugees

from what is now Turkey.

Some became legendary themselves, like the Trojan hero Aeneas.

His descendants, Romulus and Remus, so it's said, would go on to found

the city of Rome.

In both ancient and modern times, migration has shaped these islands,

and I'm now heading back across the seas to a place famous

for building the ships that carried people across these waters -

the island of Samos.

I'm going to release these ropes so you can hold the wheel.

Sure. Keep the course straight. Oh... Right.

I'm going to open... Like actually...

I'm going to open the zipper.

Because am I actually steering it? You're steering it, yes.

OK. OK...

There's this... You know those lovely lines of The Odyssey

when they talk about the sails bellying out suddenly,

like a lady's belly.

OK, straight on the mountain.

OK. Where the clouds are. OK.

Yes, Captain.

I'll do it. And I'll try and miss the massive boat in front of us.

HORN BELLOWS

In his story Odysseus managed to navigate these seas with basic

wooden sailing ships, even rafts.

A relief to see that Captain Nikos sails with the latest technology.

That's cool. ls this us? Yes, that's us. Ah, cool.

This is the course we're heading. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

200 years ago,

they have these instruments.

I mean, there was... Always, there was an idea that the people

in ancient Greece, they used to follow the coast.

But, no, they didn't. No.

They knew how to navigate in the open sea.

You know, the story is that Odysseus took ten years,

to Ithaca from Troy.

I mean, just directly,

how many clays do you think it would've taken him to sail that?

With any kind of conditions,

I mean, like, 20 days, one month. Maximum? Maximum.

No more. Ten years sailing in the Mediterranean...

It's impossible. True.

But he kept on getting distracted.

All sorts of things happen to him along the way, don't they?

Yeah. Quite easy...

Odysseus was waylaid by the delights of these islands.

And we know heroes like him and real ancient sailors

provisioned their boats with local delicacies.

I don't... I think it would be very hard, Nikos,

for it to be more idyllic right now.

Is it? Well, what could be...?

Just tell me one thing that would make it more beautiful.

It's impossible. There isn't anything.

We've got some honey. Mm!

I love proper Greek honey.

Yeah. Bread with it. Bread.

Ah! Look at that.

It's like liquid gold, isn't it?

It's so lovely.

Thank you.

Mm!

That is fantastic!

In The Odyssey, our hero is shipwrecked

on the mythical island of Ogygia,

where, after a stay of seven years,

he singlehandedly builds another boat to continue home.

Now, I've always wondered where this island was meant to be.

So I've come to the real life boat-building capital

of the Greek islands, Samos...

...which would have been an ideal place. In ancient times,

Samos was a rich and powerful city state with a fantastic navy.

It's all down to the plentiful forests of supple wood

that cover the island.

These pine forests are the island's secret weapon.

Pine is the perfect wood to make boats,

just like the wooden ships

that Odysseus and his crew sailed in,

and Samos ended up commanding 100 ships,

and not just any old boat, but warships,

which meant this island was uber powerful.

Samos may be able to give you the best wood for your boat,

but to really succeed in your journey, Odysseus

and the ancient Greeks believed they had to get the blessings

of the gods.

And not too far from the beautiful forests is a wonderful site claimed

by the Greeks to be the largest temple in the world.

This has to be one of the most romantic places in Greece,

and it's got a pretty romantic story attached.

It was said that this was the birthplace of the goddess Hera,

and it's also where she married the king of the gods, Zeus,

making her the kind of first lady of the Greek pantheon.

In the adventures of Odysseus, it was Hera who helped the Greeks

win the Trojan War.

As soon as you arrive, you get a real sense of the status

of Hera in this place because it's approached

by this beautiful, sacred way.

It was the road that led from the ancient town

right to the temple.

This site was actually so rich

that most of it has been nicked down the centuries.

So there are hardly any stones left here, but you just have to try

to imagine this place in its heyday.

It would have been a brilliant, buzzing, heady, cosmopolitan place.

MUFFLED MUSIC PLAYS

We also know that sailors, like the mythical Odysseus,

came here to leave offerings to the goddess Hera in exchange

for safe passage.

So when archaeologists were excavating here, they found tiny

fragments of what was originally a 30m-long ship

that was dedicated here to the goddess

over 2,500 years ago.

In the adventures of Odysseus, there's a beautiful description

of the goddess Hera preparing to seduce her husband Zeus.

She oils her body with olive oil and kneads her skin with perfume

and dresses her hair

so it tumbles down in these kind of lustrous tendrils.

So the two of them obviously enjoyed a pretty hot relationship.

But the problem was Zeus was not a faithful husband

and he continually had affairs with mortals

and priestesses and goddesses.

And as you can imagine, Hera was not too pleased about this.

And the two of them often had the most almighty rows.

After one infidelity, Hera was so furious,

she took herself off, and with her pure rage,

managed to make herself pregnant without the involvement of any man.

But there was a problem.

When the child was born,

Hera considered him to be so ugly, she threw him off Mount Olympus.

The mountain in mainland Greece

where the premiere gods and goddesses

were believed to hang out.

Now, that young child would become the god Hephaestus,

the God of volcanoes, and the Greeks explained

the fire and fury of volcanic eruptions

as a fact of Hephaestus's

dramatic and traumatic conception and childhood.

What I love about these legends is the insight they give us

into human nature. Notjust worshipped, the gods were used

as a model for how humans should and shouldn't behave.

The Greeks sought wisdom of all kinds -

not just myths,

but also maths.

And I want to take you to the birthplace here

of an ancient Greek whose mathematical genius touches

all of our lives.

When you come to a beautiful little Greek fishing harbour,

then mathematical theories probably aren't the first thing

that would spring to mind.

But this place is called Pythagoreio,

and it was home to arguably one of the most influential mathematicians

in the story of the world.

Hello, my dear. Hello.

A nice salad.

Lovely, lovely Greek salad. Thank you. Here we go. Delicious.

Special wine leaves, home-made. Yeah.

Great. And we have the thick aubergine rolls.

Thank you. With grated thyme and herbs. Perfect. Thank you.

Thank you. Efcharisto.

So Pythagoras lived and worked here most of his life.

We think he actually taught his students in a cave.

And, of course, one of the brilliant things that he came

up with was his theorem, which probably bugged

you all at school, which was...

...A squared plus B squared

equals C squared.

And it's a bit of geometry that allows all kinds of things

to happen - architecture and technology and science.

So that is obviously very cool.

But as well as the grand challenges of civilisation, Pythagoras also

seems to have applied his brilliance to the temptations of the flesh.

LIQUID POURING Genuinely, genuinely impressive.

I'm on the Greek island of Samos, the birthplace of an ancient Greek

whose mathematical genius has made a difference

to each and every one of us.

I'm talking about Pythagoras.

I'm told there's a souvenir that I absolutely have to get,

which apparently is a cup invented by Pythagoras, which I have to say

I find slightly hard to believe,

but I'm going to go and check it out.

Hi. Hello.

I've heard about this Pythagoras cup.

The ancient writers talk about it,

and they say that basically it stops you getting drunk.

But I don't... Yes, there is a line here, that is the limit. Uh-huh.

So if I put water or wine until the line...

Stop there. OK.

Here, I'm OK.

If I put more and pass the line, then I lose everything.

How does that work?

That's really... Because you can't see any holes inside.

Yes, but actually there are three holes.

Are there? How does that work?

You must see the inside

to understand how it works. OK.

That's genuinely, genuinely impressive.

So you see, it's totally empty.

Yes, totally empty.

That's very tragic.

All your wine gone. And now is the mystery.

There are two holes here and one here. Yeah.

So the water passes from that two holes,

it comes up here,

and when it reaches that hole, that is the line outside.

Then it makes a syphon, and the air press all the water down.

That's extremely sneaky!

So it's like a kind of...

It's a sort of... Well, it's a kind of morality lesson

and a kind of practicaljoke at the same time. Yes, exactly.

It's a lesson for the life.

Don't want more and more and more,

because, at the end, you have nothing.

You see, that is one of the reasons I love Greece, ancient and modern,

because there are these little kinds of, you know, little life lessons

in everything, even in a simple thing like a cup.

Pythagoras made this for his students

because he want all to drink the same quantity of wine.

So it's a little. Yeah. Good. Good for him.

I'll have those. Thank you so much.

Brilliant.

Genius.

A full cup of wine and a morality lesson,

all in one swift purchase.

Thank you.

It's said that Pythagoras designed his cup in the 6th century BC,

when Greek civilisation flourished, leaving us feats of ingenuity

we can still marvel at today.

And there's one here I really want to show you -

an underground aqueduct,

built to supply the city state of Samos with fresh water all year

round so the city could survive a siege, a fate suffered by Troy

during the Trojan War.

You know why it's narrow?

Helping me explore is archaeologist Irene Haralambakis.

Look up.

Up there? Yep. Wow.

Work began in the mid-6th century BC,

with two teams digging simultaneously from either side,

carving a kilometre-long tunnel

through the solid rock.

Putting their geometric theories to the test -

pretty impressively - they managed to meet in the middle.

You are out of the narrow part.

Now you can breathe and stand up. Look at this!

This is amazing.

It goes all the way through the mountain, one kilometre.

This is just a tiny fraction of what you're seeing.

Incredible.

And that would have fed the city for...

...1,500 years, then?

Yeah. Yeah. Over 1,000 years.

Really remarkable.

And why was it so important for them to create this?

It was the solution to a very simple problem - 60,000 thirsty people,

the only good supply behind the mountain,

a secret source of water that no enemy could find.

And they've got pretty simple tools still then. Very simple tools.

Are those the chisel marks you can see? Yes. Look at that!

That's incredible, isn't it?

And here - all of these are chisel marks.

I mean, it's terrible, though, to think of it, really.

I'm presuming slaves or prisoners of war?

Yes.

You always have to remember that.

So you've got these extraordinary

achievements of civilisation... True.

...but there were almost always men, and women often too, who achieved

that through their own blood and sweat. Yeah, that's true.

I'm back on the high seas again.

I've still got many miles of my own odyssey ahead of me,

so it's wonderful to see my boat has attracted some

very auspicious visitors.

Guys, dolphins in front of us.

Wow! Look straight by the boat, by the boat.

I can see! Yeah, we can see. We can see it here.

This is the most incredible thing.

So four, five, six dolphins have just come to play

with the prow of the boat,

and they're swimming over - you can see them there -

and diving out and actually whistling to us.

It's so beautiful! Of course, dolphins were supposed to be

the messengers of the god of the sea, Poseidon,

and if they came to visit your boat,

it was thought to be very, very good luck.

That's just so lovely. Look.

GIGGLES: Hello!

Here they go.

When you come here and when you sail on the sea,

you are living as the ancients did.

It's at times like this, you can so imagine Odysseus

and his crew heading towards the setting sun,

not sure what adventures lay beyond the horizon.

Next time, as I continue my journey,

I go in search of the biggest archaeological site

in all of Greece...

SHE GASPS

...seek out the delights of ancient wine...

Can we taste some, then? Of course.

...and following Odysseus's trail,

I battle the elements.

I just got completely...completely drenched!