The second episode in this three-part mini-series distills Rick Steves' 30 years of travel experience into 30 minutes of practical advice on how to have a fun, affordable, and culturally broadening trip to Europe. Shot on location in Amsterdam, Germany's Rhineland, Venice, Siena, the Italian Riviera, the Swiss Alps, Paris, and London, these episodes cover Rick’s favorite 3,000-mile European loop while providing viewers with essential travel skills....

The historic town of Mostar, spanning a deep valley of the Neretva River, developed in the 15th and 16th centuries as an Ottoman frontier town and during the Austro-Hungarian period in the 19th and 20th centuries. Mostar has long been known for its old Turkish houses and Old Bridge, Stari Most, after which it is named. In the 1990 conflict, however, most of the historic town and the Old Bridge, designed by the renowned architect Sinan, were destroyed....

We delve into the world of contemporary Arab art through the inter-connected stories of one man, three museums. We look at his art, his protégés and the people who collect it. From exhibitions in London's British museum to the region's largest ever retrospective to an Arab artist in Qatar, this episode of Inside The Middle East gets to know artist Dia Azzawi.

Dubai is today the shining torch-bearer of the Middle East. Unprecedented high oil prices have provided the region with the impetus to invest, diversify, and build. And Dubai has emerged as the model for much of the Arab world, growing at an exponential rate of 16 percent. But is it sustainable? And how have companies as diverse as a Singapore electronic solutions company, a Thai-based international group of hotels and resorts, and a Singapore architectural...

In this program, Bill Moyers talks with scholar, writer, and economist Charles Issawi about the sources of Arab resentment toward the West and the possibility of better relations in the future. Issawi explains the Arab world's reluctance to modernize and its aversion to the secular nature of Western society - especially in the area of sexual freedom. The history of Islamic fundamentalism in the Arab world is traced, and its impact on Arab/West relations...

In 55 BC Julius Caesar marched through Europe, crushing the rebellious tribes in the North. In mid-summer he arrived at the mighty Rhine. He was determined to get his legions across to teach the tribes on the other side a lesson, but considered it beneath the dignity of the Roman army to cross the river by boat. Consequently, he ordered his men to build a wooden bridge over a river which was at least 400 meters wide, up to 8 meters deep and flowing...

The investigation into the Knights Templar and whether the order continued on in secret well beyond their official end in 1307 takes the team to the ancient city of Acre, where one of the largest tunnel complexes in the world was built centuries ago.

The eruption of the Vesuvio froze the town of Pompei forever. The catastrophe led to a vast interdisciplinary project: volcanology reveals the force of the eruption, archeology and the study of texts uncover new objects of daily life found in the remains of buildings and roadways, including graffiti on the walls… But can one be sure that all of these discoveries date back to the eruption?

During the Cold War, the power blocs of the East and West vied to control the vast mineral resources of the former Belgian colony, The Congo. The CIA working with the British, French, and Belgian Secret Services feared that this newly independent African country had fallen under Soviet influence. So the Secret Services funded a rebellion in the mineral-rich province of Katanga-and installed a puppet President, Moishe Tchombe, whose first act was to...

Ben-Gurion's founding principles of the Israeli state were security and immigration. This program examines the history of Jewish immigration and the conflux of cultures that exist within the broader cultural/religious identity of the Israeli population. In addition to identifying as Jewish, Israelis also identify themselves as Polish, Russian, Hungarian, Romanian, Libyan, Algerian, Yemenite, and Ethiopian. Yet as the Jewish state prospers and grows,...