Museum Secrets Revealed

Visit the historically rich nation of Tunisia and enter the Bardo Museum. Here, thousands of artifacts from local excavations fill the halls. Dating from the Carthaginian, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman periods, each of these relics has a story to tell. Join us as we explore the world of gladiators, where fire catapults are tested for their killing power, and examine the truth behind an alleged dark ritual of child sacrifice. Then venture outside as we follow a Star Wars super-fan on his visit to the land where Luke Skywalker was raised.

Each year, three million people flock to the outskirts of Paris to visit the palace once occupied by French monarchs: Versailles. Now a museum, artifacts representing revolutionaries and royalty fill its rooms, telling stories of musketeers, mistresses, a monk's bubbly quaff, and more. We reveal the encrypted letters of Marie Antoinette, discover the real man behind the fictional D'Artagnan, investigate the suspicious death of a king's mistress, and other secrets hidden in the gilded halls of this legendary chateau.

There is perhaps no other museum in the world where religion and history are as intertwined as the Israel Museum. Many of the objects here, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, are charged with spiritual meaning, and just as many are full of secrets. Join us as we tour the galleries as well as Jerusalem's holy sights and sacred ruins. We examine a rusty nail that could change the very image of Christ on the cross, and show how an ancient archeological treasure from the past links to one of science fiction's most famous characters, Star Trek's Mr. Spock.

A battering ram at sea. A portable planetarium invented centuries ahead of its time. A legendary tough guy who trusted his life to linen. These are just some of the artifacts, and secrets, found inside the galleries, halls and ancient ruins of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Take an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour as we explore its many relics, dating as far back as 7000 BC, and reveal mysteries involving Alexander the Great, the terrifying Minotaur, ancient Greek philosophers, statesmen, and more.

Enter a working palace that is also an extraordinary museum: The Palacio Real in Madrid. A million visitors a year pass through its regal ballrooms and bedrooms to witness royal possessions now on public display. But few know the secrets behind the objects…until now. Discover stories of pride, passion, and demonic possession as we explore this stately and magnificent palace. We examine a subterranean quest for the riches of Spain, investigate a clock that runs on witchcraft, reveal the secret of the Flamenco master, and more.

In the heart of Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, stands a complex of museums with a uniquely American point of view: the Smithsonian Institution. Join us as we enter its galleries, halls, and storage areas not open to the public, and explore some of its known treasures and unknown secrets. We’ll take flight in the enemy warplane used in the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor, discover the story behind a homing pigeon that saved more than 200 lives, and find out what it will take to put a human footprint on the Red Planet.

Based in the heart of St. Petersburg, the State Hermitage is one of the largest museums on Earth, housing more than three million treasures of art and archeology, each one with a story to tell. Take a private tour through its majestic palace halls and secluded passageways as we delve into the vast collection. We reveal secrets involving Catherine the Great’s lusty appetite, Rasputin’s real killer, a World War II-inspired exodus of art and felines, and an investigation of Peter the Great that may change the reputation of the city’s namesake forever.

Why did Ivan the Terrible become Ivan the Remorseful? How was novelist Alexander Pushkin killed in a duel after compiling a record of 28-0? And what was opulence-hating Vladimir Lenin doing with a Rolls Royce? Inside the State Historical Museum of Moscow, the history of Russia is on display, revealing fascinating stories spanning thousands of years. Join the museum’s curators, war experts, and Russian historians as they enter the galleries, ask tough questions, and find answers to some of Mother Russia’s best-kept secrets and darkest mysteries.

Inside Italy’s Uffizi Gallery, dark secrets reside amongst the works of the greatest masters of the Renaissance. Join us as we tour one of the oldest art museums in the western world and travel back to a time when Florence was a city rife with intrigue and crime. We’ll explore the days of the Mafia in the 15th Century, made famous in the video game Assassin’s Creed. We'll follow an artist’s path to insanity, perhaps caused by the lead in his paints, and we’ll see if Hitler’s soft spot for art is the reason the gallery still exists today.

In Greenwich, a district of London known for its maritime history, sits a museum full of nautical objects - and secrets. Follow our team of experts as we unlock the mysteries, one by one. We'll fire musket balls at Lord Nelson to discover who really killed him, and join the Royal Navy on an anti-piracy commando raid. Finally, we'll board Captain Bligh's dingy to discover how he delivered his men to safety with the help of a musket ball, a coconut shell, and a horn beaker.