Frédéric Wilner

The Khmer Empire - officially 'The Angkor Empire' was a powerful 13th century Hindu-Buddhist state in Southeast Asia. Using sophisticated technologies to see inside Khmer temples, combined with statues, casts, and documents discovered by 19th century explorers, scientists today discover how they operated, the meaning of their architecture, and how the capital become the largest city in the world.

Why did the Roman Empire, which dominated Europe and the Mediterranean for five centuries, inexorably weaken until it disappeared? Archaeologists, specialists in ancient pathologies and climate historians are now accumulating clues converging on the same factors: a powerful cooling and pandemics. A disease, whose symptoms described by the Greek physician Galen are reminiscent of those of smallpox, struck Rome in 167, soon devastating its army. At the same time, a sudden climatic disorder that was underway as far as Eurasia caused agricultural yields to plummet and led to the westward migration of the Huns. Plagued by economic and military difficulties, attacked from all sides by barbarian tribes, the Roman edifice gradually cracked.

The legendary treasure of Tutankhamun, which contains over 5,000 objects, including 2,000 pieces of jewelry and goldsmith's work, was discovered in 1922 by the British archaeologist Howard Carter. Now the pharaoh's treasure reveals a new secret: hidden traces of a mysterious pharaohess. In addition, a British archaeologist is said to have stolen some of the grave goods...

On the mythical site of Saqqara, the Apis bulls were buried for more than a thousand years in the immense underground necropolis of the Serapheum. Discovered in 1850 by the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, this place shelters a treasure of which a part is preserved in the Louvre. The collapse of the ceiling of one of the galleries had however prevented the archaeologist from venturing into the entire necropolis. More than 170 years later, the museum's Egyptologists are continuing the work of their famous predecessor. Investigating the cult of the Apis bull and the mysterious rituals that surrounded it, the team is especially looking for access to the unexplored parts, which have at least eight burial chambers, with the hope of finding intact tombs.

The tumultuous history of the Louvre Museum, founded in 1793, and its fabulous art collections, an immortal testimony to the destiny of France and all of Europe.