Including a 90-minute special about the discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance
The HISTORY® Channel Africa (DStv 186) will uncover the discovery of one of greatest ever shipwrecks, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s lost ship, as part of Mystery on HISTORY month this July. Shackleton’s Endurance: The Lost Ice Ship Found follows the news earlier this year of the history-making discovery of the Endurance.
The 90-minute special, on Sunday 3 July at 19h05, is a definitive look at Sir Ernest Shackleton’s historic and ill-fated 1914 Antarctic expedition which resulted in his highly revered ship sinking, as well as maritime archaeologists’ relentless mission to find this holy grail of shipwrecks. An expedition team aboard the SA Agulhas II, a South African ship, made the deep-sea discovery of the shipwreck in March this year, 107 years after it sank.
Mystery on HISTORY month brings with it four premier mystery titles and a number of returning fan-favourites. In HISTORY’S Greatest Mysteries (starts Sunday 3 July at 20h15) Academy Award® nominee and Emmy Award® winner Laurence Fishburne delves into some of the top theories surrounding the world’s most enigmatic unsolved mysteries. In this third season he interrogates amongst others; the infamous Cold War case where nine hikers were found mutilated on the remote Dyatlov mountain pass and how the magnificent Amber Room, valued at half a billion dollars, was dismantled, and disappeared without a trace during World War II.
Fishburne will unpack these puzzles with contributions from top historians, authors, scientists, and researchers in search of possible explanations to some of the world’s most confounding events.
Lost Gold of the Aztecs (starts Friday 22 July at 20h15) follows three families determined to break a 500-year-old curse to find the hidden gold treasure. 500 years ago, Spanish Conquistadors raided the gold-filled land of the Aztecs. But according to the legend, Emperor Montezuma, and his people, were able to sneak their wealth north to seven separate locations in what is now the American Southwest. For five centuries, thousands have searched for Montezuma’s treasure and the 7 Cities of Gold. The treasure is believed to be made up of an enormous quantity of gold bars, silver, precious stones, jewellery and other Aztec artifacts, worth over $3 billion dollars.
World Greatest Treasure Mysteries, season two (starts Friday 29 July at 19h25) is hosted by real-life treasure hunters, Rick and Marty Lagina. Along with their intrepid research partner, Matty Blake, they are back on the hunt for treasure “Beyond Oak Island.” This action-packed season of the hit HISTORY Channel series will follow them across the United States and Canada as they meet and work with fellow treasure hunters to search for billions in legendary lost riches. From hidden Spanish gold mines, and outlaw hideouts, to sunken treasure galleons and river boat wrecks, the trio will dig, drill and dive their way into history.
The HISTORY Channel Africa will also air local short-form content around Africa’s Greatest Mysteries, during July. These will feature some of the continent’s most baffling historical mysteries, including the story of our own lost treasure, the Kruger Millions, when President Paul Kruger apparently took drastic measures to hide South Africa’s gold from the British Army in June 1900, as they closed in on Pretoria.
Another of the shorts will uncover the legendary ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman, which is said to still appear suddenly in the waters around the Cape and then simply vanishing again. The mystery around the ill-fated SAA Flight 295, named Helderberg, will also be examined. The plane broke up in mid-air and crashed into the Indian Ocean killing everyone aboard in 1987. With only a few bodies, a small amount of wreckage, and badly damaged cockpit tapes, investigators still don’t know what caused the crash.
Explore some of the world’s longest standing mysteries with the HISTORY Channel this July. Tune in to DStv 186, every Friday and Sunday from 19h05, for back-to-back Mystery on HISTORY programming.
