NOVA Season 40 Episode 10 Synopsis

3,600-year-old reliefs in Egyptian tombs and temples depict pharaohs and warriors proudly riding into battle on horse-drawn chariots. Some historians claim that the chariot launched a technological and strategic revolution, and was the secret weapon behind Egypt's greatest era of conquest known as the New Kingdom. But was the Egyptian chariot really a revolutionary design? How decisive a role did it play in the bloody battles of the ancient world? In "Building Pharaoh's Chariot", a team of archaeologists, engineers, woodworkers, and horse trainers join forces to build and test two highly accurate replicas of Egyptian royal chariots. They discover astonishingly advanced features, including spoked wheels, springs, shock absorbers, anti-roll bars, and even a convex-shaped rear mirror, leading one of them to compare the level of design to the engineering standards of 1930's-era Buicks! By driving our pair of replicas to their limits in the desert outside Cairo, NOVA's experts test the claim that the chariot marks a crucial turning point in ancient military history.

NOVA Season 40 Episodes...

• s40e01 - Secrets of the Viking Sword
• s40e02 - Forensics on Trial
• s40e03 - Mystery of Easter Island
• s40e04 - Ultimate Mars Challenge
• s40e05 - Inside the Megastorm
• s40e06 - Doomsday Volcanoes
• s40e07 - Decoding Neanderthals
• s40e08 - Rise of the Drones
• s40e09 - Who Killed Lindbergh's Baby?
• s40e10 - Building Pharaoh's Chariot
• s40e11 - Earth From Space
• s40e12 - Mind of a Rampage Killer
• s40e13 - Meteor Strike
• s40e14 - Ancient Computer
• s40e15 - Australia's First 4 Billion Years - Awakening
• s40e16 - Australia's First 4 Billion Years - Life Explodes
• s40e17 - Australia's First 4 Billion Years - Monsters
• s40e18 - Australia's First 4 Billion Years - Strange Creatures
• s40e19 - Manhunt - Boston Bombers
• s40e20 - Oklahoma's Deadliest Tornadoes

NOVA Show Summary

Seen in more than 100 countries, NOVA is the most watched science based television series in the world and the most watched documentary series on PBS. It is also one of television's most acclaimed series, having won many major television awards, most of them many times over.