Historian and author Michael Wood traces the birth of modern society, in the obscurity of ancient history, in this spectacular documentary shot on locations around the world. Beyond the Movie: Alexander the Great.

NOVA Online Secrets of Lost Empires Medieval SiegeWelcome to the companion Web site to the NOVA programscheduled for broadcast on January 24, 2006.In the film, which is a part of the NOVA series,a team of timber framers and other specialists design, build, and fire a pair of trebuchets, a devastating engine of war popular in the Middle Ages. Here's what you'll find online:.The trebuchet was only the most frightening of the weapons early European warriors employed in siege warfare. They also relied on battering rams, siege towers, tunnels - anything to gain access to a castle. Defenders, meanwhile, had a few tricks of their own.Follow a slide show that documents NOVA's successful attempt to build and shoot a giant trebuchet, the most destructive war machine that ever laid siege to a medieval castle.Professor Richard Holmes, a British military historian and member of the NOVA trebuchet-building team, describes what everyday life was like in a typical English castle of the Middle Ages. (Hot Science)Build your own virtual trebuchet and fire giant sandstone balls at a castle wall.

You decide on the size of your projectiles, where to place your trebuchet, and other factors critical to success.Plus and a. Medieval Siege NOVA Online is produced for PBS by the WGBH Science UnitMajor funding for NOVA© is provided by Google and BP. created January 2000.