Name: World's Greatest
Uploaded: 2023-06-29T21:28:12.000Z
Description: A look at the unique beauty and history of the greatest islands in the world, discovering how they were formed and what makes each island so remarkable.

A look at the unique beauty and history of the greatest islands in the world, discovering how they were formed and what makes each island so remarkable.

PBS Distribution

Travel to the centers of wealth, power, industry and innovation. From London to Tokyo, Hong Kong to New York, these are the cities that never sleep. The influence held in these economic hubs unite the global community.

Global Cities

The sheer scale of the world's Mega Cities provides a bustling home to populations of over 10 million. We take audiences from the high-density living of Shanghai and Bangkok to the sprawling parameters of Delhi and Mexico City. Each of these metropolises set the backdrop for some of the most dynamic cultures on earth.

Mega Cities

Swarming with visionaries, politicians and activists, these metropolises are defined as the official seats of government. Cities like Dublin and Amsterdam, Washington and Taipei share commonalities such as broad avenues, museums and national monuments, but beyond that they are as varied as the countries they represent.

Capital Cities

In Port Cities, we take a look at the gateways to the world. Some of the most stunning cities on the planet are port cities, hubs such as Sydney, Rio, and Cape Town, and are also some of the most culturally diverse and vibrant. The great maritime cities of the world bridge countries and continents and unite the global community.

Port Cities

Many of the Ancient Cities that helped shape the modern world endure to this day. In this episode we journey to these ancestors of influence such as Luang Parabang, Vienna and Istanbul where religious and cultural centers have shaped the ways in which we view the world around us and continue to do so in modern times.

Ancient Cities

Brave the frontiers of the world's most remote cities. More than distant trading posts and isolated regional hubs, cities like Alice Springs, Jaipur and even Las Vegas serve as gateways to the wild places of the Earth.

Remote Cities

In Jungle Animals, viewers encounter gorillas and orangutans, killer tree-dwelling pythons, delightful monkeys from three continents, awe-inspiring tigers and millions of land-dwelling red crabs. The episode explores Australia, the islands of Southeast Asia, Africa and the Amazon.

Jungle Animals

Wetland Animals dives into the swamps, rivers and flood plains of Florida's Everglades, Botswana's Okavango Delta, Kakadu National Park in Australia, the Amazon and more: deadly crocodiles, alligators and piranhas, wading elephant, hippopotamus and flamingo, unlikely swimmers manatee and platypus.

Wetland Animals

Forest Animals gets up close with bears, koalas, moose, wolves, weaver ants and Tasmanian Devils. This episode roves dark forests floors and soars above vast canopies of green in America, China, Laos and Australia.

Forest Animals

Ocean Animals features the world’s most charismatic animals that inhabit a realm humans can only fleetingly enter. From the surprises of colorful reef characters to effervescent penguins, killer sharks and regal whales, the episode dives into the places where nature reveals itself in some of its most marvelous and bizarre forms.

Ocean Animals

Grasslands are the great stages of the natural world where large animals play out spectacular lives in clear view of people. From the iconic African grasslands, this series showcases lions, leopards, elephants, rhinoceros, cheetahs and impalas. Then Australian kangaroos, wallaby and the wonderfully odd potoroo join American bison and wolves join in a grand tour of iconic animals.

Grassland Animals

Extreme Animals features environments that may be hostile to humans, but are havens to many animals. Encounters with gorgeous glow-worms, high flying condors, parched thorny devils, emperor penguins and polar bears feature in this journey through life on the edge.

Extreme Animals

The earth's surface has changed dramatically over time. Its fragile crust has folded and buckled and faulted, and nowhere are these natural forces more evident than in the world's great mountains. Explore the highest peaks of the world's terrain - the rugged realm between heaven and earth.

Mountains

There are few sights on earth as compelling as a volcanic eruption, and few that provide such dramatic insight into how our planet formed. Volcanoes have the potential to cause death and widespread destruction in a heartbeat, but they also give rise to new life and ecosystems.

Volcanoes

Ten percent of the earth is covered with glacial ice. Clinging to the world's highest mountains and forming ice caps on both poles, glaciers form in places where the temperature is so low, seasonal snows fail to melt - leaving an impression on the landscape and on all who bear witness to their splendor.

Glaciers

Most of the water on our planet is in the ocean or locked up in glacial ice. But the rest flows freely as rivers: beautiful and powerful waterways that underscore the melody of life. As they meander through the landscape, they shape it, wearing down ranges and deepening valleys, eventually flowing out into the sea.

Rivers

For all their reputation as inhospitable places, deserts are full of incredible plants and animals that have adapted to the climate, contrasting the vast areas that are empty and silent. They are bursting with geological wonders that inspire and are home to some of the most resilient plants, animals and people in the world.

Deserts

Coastlines have captured the human imagination since the dawn of history, inspiring us to venture beyond the horizon. Along coasts, one element ends and another begins. No two days are ever the same on a coastline: the only thing that remains a constant is the timeless power of the sea.

Coasts

Once powerful and populous centers of influence, these lost cities are providing clues to how our ancestors existed in the world and remind us that ancient civilizations were not so far removed from our own.

Lost Cities

These cities and towns are special places where the past coexists with the present, creating cultures totally unique to their people and their part of the world. Adhering to ancient traditions and introducing modern innovations, these unique places have fostered cultures neither old nor new. They have forged something timeless.

Timeless Cities & Towns

In construction, all buildings must break ground, but only a select few can be groundbreaking. Vastly different in shape, size and function, these diverse buildings prove there is no recipe for greatness, just the fundamental ingredients of vision, bravery and imagination.

Iconic Buildings

A bridge is a structure that's designed to transcend, but a great bridge can do more than link one point to another--it can define the place where it stands. Symbols of human ingenuity, beauty and grandeur, bridges connect us not only to each other but also to the past.

Bridges

Many of the world's most significant manmade wonders serve not as dwellings, but as powerful signposts. They are towering monuments that illuminate our way or imposing landmarks that warn us to take an alternative route. But more than giving us direction they tell us a story--giving physical form to an ideal. They characterize powerful forces, or commemorate power lost.

Monuments & Landmarks

They are places of pilgrimage and beacons for believers. Ancient in architecture and detailed in design, these man-made masterpieces stand as testaments to the strength of human faith. In a world fixated on technology and trends, these sites endure as a timeless reminder of resilience, respect and the need to reflect.

Sacred Sites

Every journey made by foot promises a grand adventure. From the highest mountains to the wildest jungle realms, treks venture down the road less travelled, allowing us to connect to nature, history and culture, one step at a time.

Treks

The most memorable journeys are those that take us to places that stimulate the senses, nudge the nostalgia or awaken our sense of awe. A journey by road expands our horizons, allowing us to explore the depth and breadth of whole countries and continents, stopping whenever and wherever we chose.

Drives

There is something seductive about setting sail. Cruises offer us a chance to dip our toes into the 70% of our planet awash with oceans, rivers and lakes, exploring places that can only be reached by daring to leave the shore.

Cruises

Our experience of the world's greatest marvels is literally and figuratively elevated when we explore them from the air. Whether you travel by air balloon, helicopter, light aircraft, a grand perspective is always guaranteed.

Flights

Land adventures are as varied as the people who undertake them and as diverse as the seasons and terrain. Most adventures come with an element of risk--a chance to confront our deepest fears, resist the gravitational pull of the ordinary and soar into the wild unknown.

Land Adventures

60% of the human body is made up of water, so it is hardly surprising that we are drawn to the 70% of the planet awash in it as well. We are captivated by oceans, rivers and lakes--the power, the flow, the reflective stillness. And as we seek to get closer, we immerse ourselves in an expanding range of aquatic experiences.

Water Adventures

The romantic notion of island life has always attracted us. Explore the histories, cultures, and unique ways of life on the World's Greatest Archipelagos -- clusters of islands that share common bonds of geography, geology and genealogy.

Archipelagos

An exploration of the Galapagos and its remote islands, where species migrate to and from where others evolve, and the perfect illustration of Darwin's theory of natural selection in practice.

Island Arks

They've been equally worshiped and feared by many peoples over the millennia. But in the wake of drama and destruction, the elements give rise to cultures and nations so breathtakingly beautiful that we've come to know them as the world's greatest volcanic islands.

Volcanic Islands

Though many island nations are small in stature, they have punched well above their weight on the global stage. Some are rooted in ancient history, while others are only just beginning to realize their full potential.

Island Nations

Some of the world's greatest islands are so close that they blend in with the mainland. But regardless of their size and origins, they are often the islands we are drawn to the most, each forging their own unique identity.

Nearshore Islands

An exploration of the Coral Islands, which includes sublime tropical life and a delicate marine ecosystem.

Coral Islands

Explore the most iconic structures of earth, including those that define nations, challenge humanity and drive life. Violent geological forces created these icons -- collision of tectonic plates, tearing of fault lines and the uplift of seabeds. From Mt. Everest's peak to the Rockies' floor, from Uluru's rusted monolith to cinematic Wadi Rum, these earth icons inspire wonder and awe.

Earth

Fire has played a major role altering the planet, often through deadly force. Fueled by molten lava, fire has created some of the world's most memorable icons, including the Hades of Hawaii, smoldering Mount Bromo, boiling Rotorua and blackened Mutnovsky. In Iceland and Japan, we see how fire not only births icons but changes the planet's destiny.

Fire

Discover the yin to fire's yan -- the world's greatest ice icons. For millions of years the weight and temperature of ice has reshaped the planet and driven the evolution of life like no other force. From Antarctica's ice sheet to Garibaldi's glacial tongue, from the depths of Norway's fjordland to America's freezing Lake Louise, we discover majestic icons frozen in time.

Explore the most fundamental element -- water -- and its greatest icons. Travel along the mightiest rivers -- the Nile and Ganges -- then visit the vast water-worlds of Kakadu and the Amazon, the water-fashioned crystal caves of Australia and Mexico, the cascading force of Africa's Victoria Falls, the ghostly vision of the Dead Sea and the thronging life of the Mekong.

Water

The world's greatest icons carved by wind are revealed. Invisible, yet with infinite power, wind has shaped Earth like no other force. Wind's icons are extremely varied; Soussusvlei's giant sand dunes, the blasts of Bass Strait, the celestial Northern Lights, the carved landscapes of Australia's Bungle Bungles and America's Monument Valley. This episode will blow you away!

Wind

Celebrate the world's greatest icons of life, including South America's Galapagos, Pacific's Palau, Africa's Serengeti, the Indonesian Archipelago and Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Explore biodiversity hotspots and see how icon-makers conspire in their creation. From ancient tortoises to rare orangutans, coral citadels to thundering herds, a stunning finale which bursts with life.

Life

Explore the world's most iconic sacred buildings -- places where people of faith have gathered for millennia to commune with their divine. Cathedrals, churches, temples, shrines, pagodas, monasteries & mosques are as architecturally varied as they are spiritually diverse. These extraordinary structures all inspire a sense of community in which we share a quest as old as time.

Sacred

Humans have been building tall structures since civilization began, compelled by the need to make an impact or flaunt their prosperity and power. Explore the world's most iconic skyscrapers -- from the Pyramids in Egypt to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, discover the engineering ingenuity underpinning the gravity defying structures that rise as high as our aspirations dare.

Skyscrapers

A thread of conflict runs through the fabric of history, compelling each generation to build structures designed to protect and defend territory. From the citadel of Aleppo to the infamous London Tower, discover a variety of iconic, historic castles and fortifications designed to keep enemies at bay and loved ones safe from harm.

Castles

Lived in by royalty, heads of state or church, palaces are designed to be lavish and flaunt the wealth of their noble residents. In this gilt-covered special, explore the world's greatest palaces. From Buckingham Palace in the heart of London to the Hawa Mahal in India, discover how the rich and infamous have spent their time and money -- each attempting to bring luxury to the next level.

Palaces

The ruling elite have always conveyed their authority through the commissioning of monumental buildings. Explore the greatest structures that represent power -- from the pyramids built to honor Egypt's great pharaohs to the prisons that housed those condemned under British colonial rule, discover architecture that has inevitably cast a long shadow over our history.

Power

Great civic spaces foster a sense of optimism and pride, and they make a statement about a city and the communities they continue to serve. Explore the world's greatest civic structures -- historic and contemporary icons such as sports arenas, public baths, museums, galleries, theatres, libraries, zoos and parks, and discover how they unite and inspire societies throughout the world.

World's Greatest

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