Documentary / Family
A BBC/Animal Planet co-production, the three-part series focuses on the landscape and wildlife of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa.


The valley is the product of deep-seated geological forces which have spewed out a line of cloud-wreathed volcanoes stretching from Ethiopia to Tanzania. Their peaks provide a refuge for East Africa's most extraordinary wildlife, including newly discovered and previously unfilmed species which have evolved surprising survival strategies to cope with their challenging mountain environment.

The Great Rift Valley channels a huge diversity of waterways - rivers, lakes, waterfalls, caustic springs and coral seas - spanning from Egypt to Mozambique. Some lake and ocean deeps harbor previously unseen life-forms, while caustic waters challenge life to the extreme. But where volcanic minerals enrich the Great Rift's waterways, they provide the most spectacular concentrations of birds, mammals and fish in all Africa.

The Great Rift Valley provides the stage for an epic battle between trees and grass - its course influenced by volcanic eruptions, landscape and rainfall. On its outcome rests the fate of Africa's great game herds. In the Rift's savannas, grazers and their predators struggle to outwit each other, forcing one group of primates to develop a social system that paved the way for the evolution of mankind.

Narrator

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The Earth’s continents are instantly recognizable. These iconic landmasses seem permanent and unchanging, yet they are merely the wreckage of a much larger long-lost supercontinent – Pangaea. In this stunning four part series Professor Iain Stewart uncovers the evidence for this ancient past. He reveals how the world around us is full of clues – in the rocks, the landscapes and even the animals. All of which tell us how the land we live on was created.