It’s a very exciting day today, because this is finally going out into the world! Thanks to everyone who has given such a great response to this book. The channel really has a brilliant community, and I’m so grateful to everyone who has followed along on this journey.
Far in the distance, three colossal shapes tower over the desert horizon…
In this episode, we travel to the Nile Valley, and tell the story of one of the most iconic cultures ever produced by humankind – the civilizations of ancient Egypt. I want to show how this series of related cultures grew up in the floodplains of their great river, and built some of the most enduring and recognizable structures in the world. And I want to tell the story of what happened to bring the age of the Pharaohs finally and cataclysmically to an end.
Fall of Civilizations will now be available as a book, coming April 2024 with Duckworth Books.
Based on the podcast with over 100 million downloads, the Fall of Civilizations book brilliantly explores how a range of ancient societies rose to power and sophistication, and how they tipped over into collapse.
Across the centuries, we journey from the great empires of Mesopotamia to those of Khmer and Vijayanagara in Asia and Songhai in West Africa; from Byzantium to the Maya, Inca and Aztecs of Central America; from Roman Britain to Rapa Nui. With meticulous research, breathtaking insight and dazzling, empathic storytelling, historian and novelist Paul Cooper evokes the majesty and jeopardy of these ancient civilizations, and asks what it might have felt like for a person alive at the time to witness the end of their world.
Buried beneath the city streets of the Tunisian capital of Tunis, an ancient city lies forgotten…
In this episode, we look at one of the most dramatic stories to come down to us from the ancient world: the rise and fall of the empire of Carthage. Find out how this city rose out of the Phoenician states of the Eastern Mediterranean, and set out on voyages of discovery and settlement that put them at the centre of the ancient world. And hear how the city of Carthage was destroyed, and its memory nearly wiped from the earth.
In the lowlands of Burma lie the remains of thousands of crumbling temples…
In this episode, we tell one of the most colourful stories of civilizational survival: the story of the Bagan Empire of Myanmar. Find out how this kingdom rose up in the Irrawaddy river valley of central Myanmar, and built one of the most remarkable series of monuments to have survived from the medieval world. Discover what life was like for the people who lived there, and find out what happened to cause its sudden and complete collapse.
In the deserts of Jordan, a city lies hidden for centuries in a valley of rose-red stone…
In this episode, we look at one of the most peculiar stories of civilizational survival to come down to us from the ancient world, the story of the Nabataeans. Find out how these once humble traders rose to become masters of the desert sands, and to defy empires. And discover what happened to finally bring down the empire of Nabataea.
In the lowlands of Northern Iraq, a series of enormous cities lies crumbling in ruins…
In this episode, find out about one of the most remarkable ancient civilizations: the society known today as the neo-Assyrian Empire. Discover how the Assyrians built their empire out of the ashes of the Bronze Age, and built an empire of iron that lasted for centuries. Explore the extraordinary flourishing of art and technology that they fostered. And finally, discover what happened to cause their final, devastating collapse.
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High up on the craggy peaks of the Urubamba Canyon, a lost city lies wreathed in cloud…
In this episode, we explore the mountains of the Andes, and tell the story of the Inca Empire. Find out how these mountain people built the largest empire in the Western Hemipshere, in one of the toughest terrains on earth. With Inca poetry, Quechuan hymns and authentic Andean instruments, discover the unique culture of the Inca. And find out what happened to bring their society crashing down around them.
