NOVAFair rating?

NOVA· Season 52 · Episode 17

Ancient Desert Death Trap

S52E17·9.1·October 22, 2025·1h·PBS

Across the Middle East lie thousands of enigmatic stone megastructures whose shape, when seen from the air, looks like giant kites. The oldest were built around 7,000 B.C., predating the earliest Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge by several thousand years. Since their discovery in the 1920s, these "desert kites" have posed a stubborn mystery: Who designed them, and why were they built? How did prehistoric people, before the invention of writing, draw detailed scale models without compasses, hot air balloons, or drones? Using cutting-edge technologies, an international team of archaeologists is determined to find answers and shed new light on the poorly understood Stone Age period of human history.

Streaming on (US) YouTube TVPBSPBS America Amazon ChannelPBS Documentaries Amazon ChannelSee all

#12In Season 52of 20 rated episodes
#31All-timeof 287 rated episodes
+0.1vs season avgSeason 52 averages 9.0
2025First airedOctober 22, 2025

Guest stars

Mercer BoffeyMercer Boffeyas Narrator (voice)

Keep going