Abandoned Engineering — Season 5
Ambitious engineering projects that have been left in ruins.
About this season
These are some of the most spectacular examples of abandoned engineering the world has ever known. The series explores how and why they were built, consider the financial and social costs of their failure and examine the environmental and ecological impacts. The series also explores how experts came up with plans to make something beautiful or useful from the ruins.
Episodes (8)
1. Disaster in the Desert
Aired 21 January 2020 • 44 min
The desert town that faced a disaster of biblical proportions. Plus, vast coastal ruins that reveal a past once wiped from history.
2. The Valkyrie Assassin
Aired 28 January 2020 • 44 min
The underground base with the power to destroy a nation, the site linked with an attempt to kill a dictator, and an ancient world discovered in the American wilderness.
3. Escape from Devil's Island
Aired 4 February 2020 • 44 min
Claustrophobic prison cells that contain a story worthy of international acclaim, and a vast mountainside complex that held the power to change the world.
4. Top Secret Nuclear Arsenal
Aired 11 February 2020 • 44 min
A secretive underground base that concealed the power to destroy nations, and a sprawling industrial relic clinging to the edge of an unforgiving waterfall.
5. A Nation Torn Apart
Aired 18 February 2020 • 44 min
Including an exploration of a marooned iron-clad structure in Portland, off the coast of England, that hides a dramatic story of war and resilience; Pratt Cotton Gin Mill, a vast facility in the heart of America's deep south that helped tear apart a nation; and a Mediterranean island fortress at Spinalonga, Greece, that became the scene of a dark conspiracy.
6. Ghosts of the Swamp
Aired 25 February 2020 • 44 min
Including an exploration of forgotten relics from the defence of America's homeland, at Fort Jackson, USA, concealed by the banks of the Mississippi River; a concrete behemoth at Lorient Sub Base, on the coast of France, that proved invulnerable to enemy bombardment; and a ghostly ruin at Gwrych that is now home to a haunting presence.
7. Death Behind Bars
Aired 3 March 2020 • 44 min
An American prison for the violent and deranged with links to an infamous cult leader, and a cavernous tunnel network in France offering shelter from unrelenting bombardment.
8. Behind Enemy Lines
Aired 10 March 2020 • 44 min
An Albanian village home to Allied secret agents, devastated for resisting the Nazi war machine, and a notorious asylum in America that enforced lobotomies on a terrifying scale.