Overview: Hannibal, one of history's most famous generals, achieved what the Romans thought to be impossible. With a vast army of 30,000 troops, 15,000 horses and 37 war elephants, he crossed the mighty Alps in only 16 days to launch an attack on Rome from the north.

DVD Verdict: For more than 2,000 years, nobody has been able to prove which of the four possible routes Hannibal took across the Alps, and no physical evidence of Hannibal's army has ever been found ... until now.

For those not in the historical know and so that we all can get a grip on this brilliant new PBS documentary before exploring it, Hannibal's crossing of the Alps in 218 BC was one of the major events of the Second Punic War, and one of the most celebrated achievements of any military force in ancient warfare.

History informs us that bypassing Roman and allied land garrisons and Roman naval dominance, Hannibal managed to lead his Carthaginian army over the Alps and into Italy to take the war directly to the Roman Republic.

However, in 'Secrets of the Dead: Hannibal in the Alps', a team of experts - explorers, archaeologists, and scientists - combine state-of-the-art technology, ancient texts, and a recreation of the route itself to prove conclusively where Hannibal's army made it across the Alps - and exactly how he did it. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.