Dr Fern Riddell and Dr Karen Bellinger examine the reasons for the apparent rapid collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, specifically from 476AD. Did it fall, or was it pushed?

Dr Fern Riddell and Dr Karen Bellinger examine the historic belief by some Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries that somewhere in the New World is a place of immense wealth known as El Dorado. Many explorers were led on fruitless treks into the rainforests and mountains of South America in search of this lost city of gold.

Lifting curses apparently linked to the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, claimed to cause bad luck, illness or death.

The 10 plagues of Egypt, which saw water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the killing of firstborn children. As detailed in the Bible, they were sent by God to convince Pharaoh to free the Israelites.

The life and times of King Ramses II, who oversaw the construction of more monuments and sired more children than any other Egyptian king.

How invasion, civil war and disease all had a part to play in the relatively speedy downfall of the great Inca empire in Peru in the 16th century.

Dr Fern Riddell and Dr Karen Bellinger examine the facts regarding Noah's Ark, the existence of which is one of the greatest mysteries of the Bible. According to the religious text, the great ship that rescued mankind from an unfathomable flood rests somewhere in the dangerous and inaccessible snow-frozen caps of the Ararat Mountains. So, did Noah exist, what was the deluge the vessel's launch and what are the real truths behind the biblical telling of the story?

The story of Mary Magdalene, who travelled with Jesus as one of his followers, witnessed Christ's crucifixion and the first witness to the Resurrection. She is known in some Christian traditions as the 'apostle to the apostles'.