On the famed “Museum Island” in the river that winds through Berlin are five world-class museums that display antiquities from prehistory to the mid 20th Century. In this episode, we pit two skilled warriors against each other to discover why some Viking swords are more deadly than others. We compare an ancient Greek monument with Hitler’s podium to discover the secret power of architecture, then decipher the code embossed on a golden hat that reveals a Bronze Age wizard. We gaze at the incomparable bust of Nefertiti with an historian who believes her beauty secret was more than skin deep, then find out how easy it is to make stone statues explode but how hard it is to put the pieces back together. And finally, we find out why the art the Nazis hated is now displayed in an archeological museum.

London, UK The Imperial War Museum tells the story of Britain at war, from World War One to the present, through a collection of 10 million items, from guns to planes to medals to cyanide pills, at five locations in England visited by over 2 million people every year. In this episode, we descend into Churchill's top secret underground bunker to discover why he was an irreplaceable leader. We find out how a London housewife became a spy who withstood horrific Nazi torture to protect a vital secret, then take cover in a World War One trench as we reveal the story of a Nobel Prize winning physicist whose discovery turned the tide of the war. We meet an aging cold warrior who exposes dark truths about atomic weapons hidden from the British people for 50 years, then fly above Iraq with British top guns to discover how to stay frosty when enemy missiles lock on. And finally we follow a team of military researchers as they close in on the holy grail of camouflage: how to make a soldier invisible.

Istanbul Once the palace of the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Topkapi is a vast treasury of Islamic culture, science and weaponry, visited by over 2 million people every year. In this episode, at the foot of Istanbul's ancient walls we discover how a Muslim invader bested Christian defenders by using their superstitions against them. In the city's famed spice market we seek a poison to assassinate a Sultan, then in the Sultan's private residence we investigate how a Harem slave rose to rule an empire. In the sea at the museum's doorstep we discover how a Turkish admiral got his hands on the lost map of Christopher Columbus, then unearth a forgotten civilization that fought the mighty Pharaohs of Egypt to a draw. And finally, we test Islamic scientific theories to create a working model of the world's first robot.

London's Natural History Museum is a cathedral of nature, housing over 70 million specimens, and visited by more than 4 million people every year. From strange creatures that inhabit the ocean depths, to meteorites from far away worlds, the secrets of the past and discoveries of the future lurk in galleries and backrooms, waiting to be discovered.

Founded by Catherine the Great, the Hermitage is one of the world’s oldest and largest museums boasting 3 million treasures of art and antiquity, and visited by over 2 million people every year. Inside the Hermitage, we shine infra-red light on blackened mummies to reveal the strange tattoos of an ancient race, then visit a chamber of horrors to investigate why Peter the Great had a penchant for the macabre. We enter the private chambers of Catherine the Great to discover a device she used to improve her sex life. (No, it’s not one of those!) We reexamine the physical evidence of Rasputin’s murder to uncover his real killer’s surprising identity, then meet aged curators who risked their lives to save the museum’s treasures from Hitler’s bombs. And finally, in a gallery devoted to famous paintings, we unveil a small square canvas painted completely black. We reveal why dictator Joseph Stalin hated the black square, and why today it is worth a million dollars.

From dinosaurs to meteorites to the origins of the human species, the American Museum of Natural History boasts 32 million exhibits, and over 4 million annual visitors, along with a stellar research staff that mounts over 100 expeditions every year.In this episode, we meet an American farm boy whose love for Africa changed the image of African wildlife from scary to noble. We witness the mating rituals of a 400 million year old crab whose unique blood harbors secrets crucial to modern medicine, then crack open a dinosaur egg to uncover a clue that overturns a long held misconception about a supposedly murderous species. We run a relay race through Manhattan to investigate whether Incan knotted strings were capable of carrying encrypted messages, then blast off on a space mission to bring back comet dust that may hold the secret of how life began on Earth. And finally, we follow museum explorers as they capture animals to extract their DNA, to be preserved in the museum’s sub-zero storage facility – a blueprint of life for future generations.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum is a treasury of antiquities and weaponry collected by the royal family known as the Habsburgs – a dynasty that ruled much of Europe for 500 years. In this episode, we visit the crypt that entombs many generations of the Habsburg royal family, then meet a geneticist who is attempting to discover how inbreeding led to their demise. We go hunting with falcons to discover how one Habsburg emperor’s hobby lay the foundation for modern science, then recreate the alchemical experiment that led another emperor to believe that silver could be transmuted into gold. While learning the proper way to do the Viennese waltz, we discover how a dance craze impacted European history, then recreate a strange piece of ancient armor to find out how and why it was designed to explode. And finally, we meet a detective who takes us on the trail of a thief who purloined the museum’s most valuable treasure.

Athens The world's most important museum dedicated to the history of ancient Greece, the National Archaeological Museum boasts 11,000 exhibits from 7000 BC to the Roman conquest. In this episode, we accelerate an ancient warship to ramming speed to discover why Athenian democracy beat Persian tyranny, then visit a king's grave to reveal how bogus archeology helped fuel the pseudo-historical ravings of Adolf Hitler. We suit volunteers in armor made of bronze and armor made of linen, and then shoot arrows at them to discover which is better. (Spoiler: Alexander the Great preferred linen.) We visit the cave where Plato and Pythagoras secretly imbibed psychedelic chemicals, then go underground to face our fears in the labyrinth that inspired the myth of the Minotaur. And finally, we meet an engineer who has spent a lifetime recreating an ancient gadget called the Antikythera Mechanism to reveal its mysterious purpose.

This impressive modern museum, visited by 2 million people every year, tells the story of Mexico from before the Mayan civilization to the Spanish conquest.In this episode, a chemical engineer and some Mexican athletes help us discover whether the rubber ball used on the ancient Mayan playing field contained a human skull. We dive into a watery cave to discover the Mayan path to the afterlife, then investigate the power of a crystal skull to reveal the secrets of the dead. We pilot an ancient canoe through Aztec canals to discover why modern Mexico City is sinking, then discover how a valiant gladiator defeated a score of Aztec warriors armed with the world’s sharpest swords. And finally, we discover how a dress worn by the most notorious woman in Mexican history led to a massacre that changed history.