Ancient Mysteries: Popelli - Buried Alive (1996)
*** (out of 4)
Two decades after hosting "In Search Of...", Leonard Nimoy returned to television with this similar themed series that originally aired on A&E. The series took a look at various mysteries across the world and featured Nimoy and is excellent voice serving as narrator. Each episode would tackle a new subject and would feature any video or audio evidence that had been captured and there's also interviews with experts, witnesses and of course non-believers.
This episode of "Ancient Mysteries" takes a look at the 79A.D. tragedy that wiped out the entire city of Popelli when Mount Vesuvius erupted. The entire city was covered in ash and the entire event was known as one of the darkest days in history but ages later the city was discovered and scientists were able to really see what happened as many of the people were buried by the ash and preserved to be studied. This episode is especially entertaining and especially if you haven't heard too much about the actual event. Broke down into five acts, the first three are the most entertaining as they look at Pompelli, the actual volcano and the city of Herculaneum, which was also destroyed but preserved. The actual photos are quite haunting but it's just amazing to see how well the dead bodies were preserved. It's especially creepy because you can almost see the pain on the faces as these people faced death. Just check out the scene where a 14-year-old slave girl is trying to protect a young baby. The last two chapters aren't nearly as interesting because they get away from the subject at hand to look at Roman culture.
*** (out of 4)
Two decades after hosting "In Search Of...", Leonard Nimoy returned to television with this similar themed series that originally aired on A&E. The series took a look at various mysteries across the world and featured Nimoy and is excellent voice serving as narrator. Each episode would tackle a new subject and would feature any video or audio evidence that had been captured and there's also interviews with experts, witnesses and of course non-believers.
This episode of "Ancient Mysteries" takes a look at the 79A.D. tragedy that wiped out the entire city of Popelli when Mount Vesuvius erupted. The entire city was covered in ash and the entire event was known as one of the darkest days in history but ages later the city was discovered and scientists were able to really see what happened as many of the people were buried by the ash and preserved to be studied. This episode is especially entertaining and especially if you haven't heard too much about the actual event. Broke down into five acts, the first three are the most entertaining as they look at Pompelli, the actual volcano and the city of Herculaneum, which was also destroyed but preserved. The actual photos are quite haunting but it's just amazing to see how well the dead bodies were preserved. It's especially creepy because you can almost see the pain on the faces as these people faced death. Just check out the scene where a 14-year-old slave girl is trying to protect a young baby. The last two chapters aren't nearly as interesting because they get away from the subject at hand to look at Roman culture.
