0:00:10 > 0:00:11Europe,
0:00:11 > 0:00:13an ancient continent.
0:00:22 > 0:00:29Within its borders lies an unrivalled richness of both natural and human wonders.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56At its northern limits,
0:00:56 > 0:01:01Europe reaches into the icy wastes of the high Arctic.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07To the south and west,
0:01:07 > 0:01:12its fringes have been shaped by the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27Far to the east it is bounded by the primeval forests of Russia,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30rubbing shoulders with Asia.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33These boundaries enclose an area half the size of North America,
0:01:33 > 0:01:41yet 730 million people make Europe their home.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50It's hard to find a space unmarked by human occupation.
0:02:00 > 0:02:02The Europe that we see today
0:02:02 > 0:02:06is the product of a long and complex history.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11Thousands of years of settlement, invasions,
0:02:11 > 0:02:14revolutions and inventions
0:02:14 > 0:02:20have allowed us to reorder nature's ancient patterns to suit OUR needs.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30On a human time-scale, the story of the changing face of Europe seems immense,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34but there is an even more extraordinary story to be told,
0:02:34 > 0:02:38one that stretches back half a billion years
0:02:38 > 0:02:43and tells of the events that have really shaped the continent.
0:02:44 > 0:02:468,000 years ago,
0:02:46 > 0:02:50the skyscrapers of Frankfurt would have risen
0:02:50 > 0:02:52over endless, primeval wildwood
0:02:52 > 0:02:55stretching from Lisbon to Leningrad.
0:02:57 > 0:02:58Over the last two million years,
0:02:58 > 0:03:05Europe has seesawed between perishing cold and stifling heat.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08During the Ice Ages,
0:03:08 > 0:03:13Amsterdam and London would have been smothered by huge glaciers.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16And at other times,
0:03:16 > 0:03:20they'd have looked more like Africa's Serengeti plains.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24More than 50 million years ago,
0:03:24 > 0:03:28what is now Vienna and Paris would've been submerged
0:03:28 > 0:03:30beneath rich tropical seas.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36And over 100 million years ago,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40Florence and Oxford would've looked more like Jurassic Park.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44Go back 200 million years,
0:03:44 > 0:03:46and Europe rivalled the Sahara.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51And 300 million years ago,
0:03:51 > 0:03:55the world's first forests covered the continent.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59Berlin would've been part of a tropical rainforest.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06Edinburgh sits astride ancient volcanoes
0:04:06 > 0:04:10which shook the Earth nearly half a billion years ago.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14All these great events helped to lay the foundations
0:04:14 > 0:04:19for the extraordinary continent we now call Europe.
0:04:38 > 0:04:43The northern fringes of Europe are its wildest country.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49Scandinavia, a land dominated by the elements.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02In summer, it's bathed in the glow of midnight sun
0:05:04 > 0:05:09and, in winter, by the ghostly shadows of the Northern Lights.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16In this coastal labyrinth of fjords and islands,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Europe's most ancient history lies hidden.
0:05:21 > 0:05:26Norway's Lofoten islands, seemingly lifeless...
0:05:28 > 0:05:31..but they're surrounded by the richest of seas.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52Here, Atlantic storms pound some of the most ancient rocks in the world.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57They're nearly three billion years old.
0:06:00 > 0:06:05These granites formed long before the European continent even existed.
0:06:11 > 0:06:17Here, in Norway, there are also clues to Europe's birth.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22These fjords and mountains are part of an ancient range, the Caledonides,
0:06:22 > 0:06:27stretching from Ireland to Scotland and up through Norway,
0:06:27 > 0:06:32mountains that today help define the continent's western edge.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37In the east, another ancient range, the Urals,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40separates Europe from Asia.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49Both these ranges are evidence of Europe's earliest formation,
0:06:49 > 0:06:55the result of a processes that began half a billion years ago.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02Back then, Europe was still in pieces.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05Scandinavia was in the southern oceans.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09England and the Low Countries were near the Antarctic Circle.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13And most of the rest sat near the South Pole.
0:07:13 > 0:07:19All of these isolated fragments of crust were on the move.
0:07:28 > 0:07:34Continental plates are dragged along by powerful flows of molten rock deep in the Earth's mantle,
0:07:34 > 0:07:36some 80km underground.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43They only move a few centimetres every year
0:07:43 > 0:07:48but, over millions of years, these centimetres add up.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10Like a giant jigsaw puzzle,
0:08:10 > 0:08:15Europe was gradually assembled piece by piece.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21Each impact created enormous crumple zones.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23Rock was bent and buckled
0:08:23 > 0:08:27as if caught between the jaws of a vice and forced up
0:08:27 > 0:08:31into great mountain chains along the join.
0:08:35 > 0:08:40They created Europe's "backbone" which, in scale,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43once rivalled the Himalayas.
0:08:43 > 0:08:49The formation of these ancient mountains was the first act of European union.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56Since then, Europe has travelled halfway across the globe.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01300 million years ago, it was straddling the equator.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07In this warm, wet climate,
0:09:07 > 0:09:11the foothills of Europe's oldest mountain ranges
0:09:11 > 0:09:15now became the cradle of the world's first forests.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21Paris would've been smothered in a lush tropical rainforest
0:09:21 > 0:09:25which stretched east across the entire continent.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57This was no ordinary forest.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01What looked like trees were in fact giant ferns,
0:10:01 > 0:10:05horsetails and club-mosses,
0:10:05 > 0:10:09the fossils of which have been exquisitely preserved in this Scottish park.
0:10:12 > 0:10:18They offer a glimpse of the botanic wonders that once filled Europe's ancient forests.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25These club-mosses grew a massive 30m tall.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Long before birds appeared on the planet,
0:10:38 > 0:10:43these carboniferous forests would have echoed to a very different dawn chorus.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57Predatory dragonflies were common.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59And some were absolutely huge.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06This one, Meganeura, was the size of a hawk,
0:11:06 > 0:11:08with a wingspan of over 60cm.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14The forest floor was a bugs' world too.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19Fossil footprints of a millipede show it was nearly two metres long!
0:11:21 > 0:11:26Over 800 species of cockroach scurried through the ancient undergrowth.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29And these were preyed on by other giants
0:11:29 > 0:11:32like scorpions.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36Some were over 70cm long, with a sting to match!
0:11:43 > 0:11:45These swampy forests
0:11:45 > 0:11:49were also roamed by the very first land vertebrates,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51amphibians.
0:11:57 > 0:12:02The Carboniferous era was to play a pivotal role in European history.
0:12:02 > 0:12:09Its 300-million-year-old legacy would eventually revolutionise the modern world.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14This was a time of great tectonic activity.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17As the land repeatedly subsided,
0:12:17 > 0:12:21seas flooded over these great coastal forests.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27Ravaged by monsoon storms,
0:12:27 > 0:12:32fallen trees became buried by layers of sand then mud.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34Over millions of years,
0:12:34 > 0:12:39the build-up of sediment compressed this vegetation into this -
0:12:39 > 0:12:40coal.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46It took a ten metre layer of fallen rainforest
0:12:46 > 0:12:50to make just a one-metre seam of coal.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55When you consider the depth of all the seams in all the coalfields worked in Europe...
0:12:57 > 0:13:02..from Britain through northern France and Germany, Poland and Ukraine,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06the immense scale of Carboniferous forests becomes clear.
0:13:27 > 0:13:34Coal fuelled one of the greatest transformations that Europe has ever seen.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37Its presence all across the continent was a vital component
0:13:37 > 0:13:41in making Europe the cradle of the Industrial Revolution,
0:13:41 > 0:13:47and ultimately turned it into the economic powerhouse it is today.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54The ancient past can directly shape the present.
0:13:55 > 0:14:01Europe is now the most urbanised and industrialized continent on the globe,
0:14:01 > 0:14:07largely thanks to its position on the equator 300 million years ago.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16When these steaming forests were at their peak,
0:14:16 > 0:14:21other events were already in motion that would banish them forever.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Europe, still drifting north,
0:14:24 > 0:14:28had been rocked by another series of monumental collisions.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31And the result of the tectonic pile-up was this...
0:14:33 > 0:14:36the super-continent Pangaea.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44Around 230 million years ago,
0:14:44 > 0:14:48Europe was engulfed by a mass of land.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53Now, far from the oceans, rain no longer fell.
0:14:54 > 0:14:59Under an unforgiving sun, the lush, tropical forests disappeared
0:14:59 > 0:15:03and the continent was swallowed by sand.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12The fossilized remains of these desert dunes
0:15:12 > 0:15:16now form much of the bedrock of Eastern Europe.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28In the depths of a Russian winter,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32it's hard to imagine how hot and dry this place once was,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36let alone some of the creatures that roamed here.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41CHIRRUPING SCREECHES
0:15:44 > 0:15:48Dinosaurs, a new order on the move.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07Parts of Pangaea were periodically flooded by shallow seas.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12But time and again, this water evaporated,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15leaving layer upon layer of salt.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23Today, these massive deposits lie buried
0:16:23 > 0:16:28deep beneath the Netherlands, Poland, northern England and the Austrian Alps.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32They've been mined for millennia.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45Salt is a major ingredient for the chemical industry.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48It's also used, albeit controversially,
0:16:48 > 0:16:51to de-ice Europe's roads in winter -
0:16:51 > 0:16:54thousands of tons a day.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05This particular mine in Krakow in Poland
0:17:05 > 0:17:09is made up of over 300km of tunnels.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18It's so vast
0:17:18 > 0:17:23that miners have carved an entire underground cathedral out of the salt...
0:17:30 > 0:17:33..even the chandeliers!
0:17:46 > 0:17:51After tens of millions of years of baking under the desert sun,
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Europe changed once again.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58This is the Jura in eastern France.
0:17:58 > 0:18:04The slopes here are blessed with fertile, well-drained soils
0:18:04 > 0:18:06perfect for vineyards.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13And scattered among the vines are clues to the next waves of change
0:18:13 > 0:18:17that began to sweep Europe some 200 million years ago.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21A fossil ammonite -
0:18:21 > 0:18:22a marine creature -
0:18:22 > 0:18:25and mussels.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29Even the ancient relatives of squid.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32This area was once under the sea.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40These waters teemed with life.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42As well as ammonites,
0:18:42 > 0:18:47marine reptiles called Ichthyosaurs were common.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51They fed on fish, breathed air and gave birth to live young.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54They were the dolphins of their time.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08All these creatures swam where there are now thousands of vines.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12And it's this region of France that has lent its name
0:19:12 > 0:19:17to one of the most familiar periods in the Earth's history,
0:19:17 > 0:19:19the Jurassic.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26What had once been covered in dense forests, then by desert sands,
0:19:26 > 0:19:31had now become a paradise of tropical seas
0:19:31 > 0:19:34and coral reefs.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45But what was the catalyst for such dramatic change?
0:19:48 > 0:19:53The answer, once again, lies with the ever-shifting continents.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57Just as they can collide, they can also split apart.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59And when this happened to Pangaea,
0:19:59 > 0:20:04water flooded into the gaps, creating new coastlines and oceans.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12The newly liberated Europe still lay in the sub-tropics
0:20:12 > 0:20:17and the seas surrounding it were warm, shallow and clear,
0:20:17 > 0:20:19ideal for corals.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26Fossilised reefs show these seas flooded all across Europe
0:20:26 > 0:20:30and remained there for 70 million years.
0:20:32 > 0:20:38In these warm waters, more of Europe's foundations were laid down.
0:20:38 > 0:20:44Corals, shells and lime-rich mud were slowly deposited onto the sea floor.
0:20:46 > 0:20:51Millions of years of deposition and compression resulted in this.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55Limestone.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02Limestone grew in the sea but was shaped by rain.
0:21:11 > 0:21:16Rainwater dissolves limestone, drip by drip, grain by grain.
0:21:23 > 0:21:31A very simple chemical reaction has sculpted some of Europe's most breathtaking scenery.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40And limestone is also perfectly suited to be carved
0:21:40 > 0:21:42by the hand of man.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51This rock and its derivatives like marble
0:21:51 > 0:21:54provide wonderful building material.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13The legacy of the Jurassic seas
0:22:13 > 0:22:19are some of Europe's most stunning and celebrated man-made and natural monuments.
0:22:22 > 0:22:28The dreaming spires of Oxford are built almost entirely from Jurassic limestone.
0:22:28 > 0:22:34Local masons often iced this architectural cake with flights of fancy
0:22:34 > 0:22:36from gods to gargoyles.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41And when this rock was quarried,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44it also revealed traces of real monsters...
0:22:45 > 0:22:47..the bones of huge dinosaurs.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53170 million years ago,
0:22:53 > 0:22:58Oxford was a real-life Jurassic Park.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09Dinosaur fossils have been found throughout Europe.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20In Rioja in Spain, the traces they've left are not only the bones.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Hundreds of dinosaur tracks have been discovered
0:23:27 > 0:23:29in this mountainous region,
0:23:29 > 0:23:34some revealing an ancient struggle between predator and prey.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03A deadly drama from the age of the dinosaurs
0:24:03 > 0:24:07frozen forever a layer of rock.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54As reptiles conquered the skies above ancient Europe,
0:24:54 > 0:24:58dramatic changes were affecting the western shores.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01Pangaea continued to disintegrate.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06Europe was tearing itself away from what is now North America.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11This separation gave birth to one of the world's great oceans,
0:25:11 > 0:25:13the Atlantic.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15CROAKS AND SQUAWKS
0:25:16 > 0:25:18As this ocean grew,
0:25:18 > 0:25:22pterosaurs were not the only creatures exploring the air
0:25:25 > 0:25:30And the most famous evidence for that is found here
0:25:30 > 0:25:33in Solnhofen in Bavaria.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38This tiny community is famous
0:25:38 > 0:25:41for the unique qualities of the local rock.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46The limestone quarried here is extremely fine-grained
0:25:46 > 0:25:51and can be worked into thin and very light slabs.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58They make perfect roof tiles.
0:26:01 > 0:26:06But these tiles occasionally reveal something extraordinary -
0:26:06 > 0:26:10perfect snapshots from 150 million years ago.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14Back then,
0:26:14 > 0:26:18Solnhofen was part of a very still and salty tropical lagoon.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21No scavengers could survive in these toxic waters,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25and anything that died was left undisturbed.
0:26:27 > 0:26:32One casualty in particular has made Solnhofen world famous.
0:26:35 > 0:26:36Archaeopteryx.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Although it had the head and pelvis of a reptile,
0:26:46 > 0:26:51the long forelimbs suggest something altogether different.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53They're covered in feathers.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56This was part reptile, part bird.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02Archaeopteryx marks one of the major turning points
0:27:02 > 0:27:04in evolutionary history.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07From these beginnings,
0:27:07 > 0:27:12emerged the 9,000 species of birds that fill the skies today.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42The next great event that Europe experienced
0:28:42 > 0:28:44took place 100 million years ago.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50The clues lie hidden in the famous chalk cliffs of southern England.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01Chalk is composed of the shells and skeletons
0:29:01 > 0:29:03of ancient marine plankton,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06microscopic creatures,
0:29:06 > 0:29:09trillions and trillions of them.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13As they died, they slowly sank, setting in layers on the sea floor.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18Through time, they formed these cliffs
0:29:18 > 0:29:22in an ocean that was up to 300m deeper that we see it today.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32Just imagine how London might have looked back then.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42All this flooding was triggered
0:29:42 > 0:29:47by rising sea floors and a warming climate causing the icecaps to melt,
0:29:47 > 0:29:52a cataclysm that resulted in much of the continent disappearing.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00But it wasn't these rising seas that spelled the end for the dinosaurs,
0:30:00 > 0:30:04it was an event that happened 30 million years later
0:30:04 > 0:30:07and half a world away.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11A giant meteorite crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
0:30:17 > 0:30:23The destructive power equalled 5 billion Hiroshima bombs.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26Shockwaves swept across the Atlantic.
0:30:50 > 0:30:56All across Europe, life struggled to hold on.
0:31:13 > 0:31:18The extinction of the dinosaurs created opportunities
0:31:18 > 0:31:20for new forms of life...
0:31:21 > 0:31:27..evidence of which can be found here on the Baltic coast of Poland.
0:31:32 > 0:31:37These fishermen are after a catch that could change their lives.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42They're not after fish or crabs, but something far more precious
0:31:42 > 0:31:45washed up from the seabed.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50One lucky dip could net a small fortune
0:31:50 > 0:31:55and open a window back more than 50 million years into Europe's past.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06This is amber.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11It doesn't look much until it's polished. Then it can reveal all kinds of treasures.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19It is the fossilised resin of ancient pine trees.
0:32:19 > 0:32:24And trapped within it are perfectly preserved souvenirs,
0:32:24 > 0:32:28each fragment helping to build a picture of an ancient world.
0:32:33 > 0:32:39This resin has also trapped something that marks a great turning point in evolution -
0:32:39 > 0:32:42hair.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46Its presence indicates the rise of a new dynasty in Europe,
0:32:46 > 0:32:48the mammals.
0:32:50 > 0:32:55These sub-tropical forests were home to a huge variety of these creatures,
0:32:55 > 0:32:59from kangaroo-like carnivores and tapirs
0:32:59 > 0:33:01to anteaters
0:33:01 > 0:33:03and even miniature horses.
0:33:03 > 0:33:0550 million years ago,
0:33:05 > 0:33:08the mammals were evolving at an astonishing rate.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12From just one site at Messel in Germany,
0:33:12 > 0:33:16dozens of different species of fossil mammal have been unearthed.
0:33:16 > 0:33:18SOFT GROWL
0:33:19 > 0:33:26Today, their more recognisable descendants occupy virtually every niche right across Europe.
0:34:31 > 0:34:36As Europe's new fauna took centre stage,
0:34:36 > 0:34:40the continent itself was undergoing another decisive step
0:34:40 > 0:34:42towards completion.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51Signs of this can be found here on the western fringe of the continent
0:34:51 > 0:34:55along the remote cliffs and islands of Ireland and north-west Scotland.
0:34:58 > 0:35:04These spectacular coasts are built of compacted volcanic ash and lava.
0:35:06 > 0:35:11They are visible remains of ancient eruptions
0:35:11 > 0:35:15that cover thousands of square kilometres
0:35:15 > 0:35:20and mark the growing pains of a young ocean.
0:35:21 > 0:35:2360 million years ago,
0:35:23 > 0:35:29North America and Greenland finally split apart from Europe.
0:35:29 > 0:35:35As the continental plates separated, the North Atlantic was born.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37It's a process that's far from over.
0:35:37 > 0:35:43Now 5,000 kilometres wide, this ocean is still expanding
0:35:43 > 0:35:46at the speed our fingernails grow.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50This is happening all along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55Occasionally, eruptions here are immense.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12Volcanoes rise up from the abyss.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16Iceland is just the tip of one such volcano.
0:36:25 > 0:36:31Its violent volcanic history is written all across the island.
0:36:43 > 0:36:45New eruptions happen all the time,
0:36:45 > 0:36:49adding new territory to this isolated European outpost.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54These are some of Europe's youngest rocks.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58The events here in Iceland reflect the violent processes
0:36:58 > 0:37:03that have helped build Europe over the last 500 million years.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10Despite their violence and unpredictability,
0:37:10 > 0:37:13volcanic foundations do have advantages.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17The Icelanders put all these hot rocks to good use.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25A borehole sunk deep into the ground taps into all this heat
0:37:25 > 0:37:28and uses it to power much of the island.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36And a by-product of this natural central heating is this,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39the Blue Lagoon, the biggest hot-tub in the world.
0:37:50 > 0:37:56As the North Atlantic grew, Europe's north-west coast was taking shape.
0:37:56 > 0:38:01But in the south, the continent was still missing some key ingredients.
0:38:01 > 0:38:0560 million years ago, the Alps didn't exist
0:38:05 > 0:38:09and the Mediterranean coastline looked very different.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13One last push was needed to mould the continent,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16and it came from a neighbour to the south,
0:38:16 > 0:38:18Africa.
0:38:18 > 0:38:23The African Plate has been drifting north over millions of years.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26And where it pushes against the European plate,
0:38:26 > 0:38:31huge folds of rock have been forced up and over one another
0:38:31 > 0:38:33into great mountain ranges.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39Europe's southern mountains,
0:38:39 > 0:38:44the Pyrenees, Carpathians and the Alps
0:38:44 > 0:38:46all rose from this collision.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54Pieces of primeval ocean floor have been lifted thousands of metres
0:38:54 > 0:38:56up into the sky.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07The Alps are still rising
0:39:07 > 0:39:11as Africa continues to push north.
0:39:29 > 0:39:33The volcanoes of southern Europe are vivid reminders
0:39:33 > 0:39:38of the great tectonic forces lurking beneath our feet.
0:39:38 > 0:39:43Vesuvius in southern Italy is a sleeping giant.
0:39:43 > 0:39:48Nearly 2,000 years ago a huge eruption buried Pompeii.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53Today, the city of Naples lies sprawled across its lower slopes.
0:39:53 > 0:39:58Who knows when another nudge from Africa will set it off again?
0:40:08 > 0:40:14It isn't just Europe's southern mountains that owe their existence to the advancing African plate -
0:40:14 > 0:40:17so too does the Mediterranean Sea.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27This sea is one of the defining boundaries of the continent.
0:40:29 > 0:40:31With its spectacular coastline
0:40:31 > 0:40:33and clear blue waters,
0:40:33 > 0:40:37it's one of Europe's great natural treasures.
0:40:48 > 0:40:55Much of the Mediterranean's extraordinary history hinges on the narrow seaway at its western end.
0:40:58 > 0:41:03At the Rock of Gibraltar, only 14km now separate Europe...
0:41:03 > 0:41:05..from Africa.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17About six million years ago,
0:41:17 > 0:41:24the northward push of Africa combined with a drop in sea level crated a vast dam,
0:41:24 > 0:41:28cutting off the Mediterranean from the Atlantic.
0:41:31 > 0:41:33As the sun beat down,
0:41:33 > 0:41:38something like 4,000 cubic km of water evaporated
0:41:38 > 0:41:41from the Mediterranean's surface every year.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44And with no Atlantic water to replenish it,
0:41:44 > 0:41:47the Mediterranean dried out.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58In just a thousand years,
0:41:58 > 0:42:03it became a desert basin of salt-pans and caustic lakes.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19The rivers that once fed the Mediterranean
0:42:19 > 0:42:21cut deeper and deeper into the rock,
0:42:21 > 0:42:27chasing the dropping shoreline and forming a labyrinth of dramatic gorges.
0:43:00 > 0:43:02Just a few million years ago,
0:43:02 > 0:43:07France's Rhone valley must have looked more like the Grand Canyon.
0:43:25 > 0:43:27So intense was the heat in the basin
0:43:27 > 0:43:30that these waterfalls evaporated
0:43:30 > 0:43:34before they even reached the old sea floor.
0:43:34 > 0:43:36For tens of thousands of years,
0:43:36 > 0:43:44a natural dam between present-day Morocco and the Rock of Gibraltar held the Atlantic's waters at bay.
0:43:47 > 0:43:52The Mediterranean basin remained an almost lifeless expanse
0:43:52 > 0:43:55of salt, sand and parched earth.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00But as Africa pushed and pulled at Europe's southern boundary,
0:44:00 > 0:44:03the pressures on the crust became unbearable.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08Rising tides weakened the land-bridge
0:44:08 > 0:44:12and then the Atlantic burst its way over the precipice.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20So began the most gigantic flood ever.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38At its peak,
0:44:38 > 0:44:45enormous waterfalls a thousand times grander than Niagara thundered into the basin.
0:44:45 > 0:44:50More than 100 cubic km of water gushed past Gibraltar every day.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37Despite this enormous flood,
0:45:37 > 0:45:42the Mediterranean took more than a century to refill.
0:45:42 > 0:45:48But what is more amazing is that this process of drying and flooding has happened not just once,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51but possibly ten times.
0:45:52 > 0:45:54With this flooding,
0:45:54 > 0:46:005½ million years ago, Europe's southern borders had now taken shape -
0:46:03 > 0:46:07the final act in the genesis of the continent.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19A chain of incredible events has shaped Europe
0:46:19 > 0:46:22during its long and dynamic history.
0:46:27 > 0:46:33It's a history that's written across the face of this unique continent...
0:46:42 > 0:46:46..a story that began billions of years ago south of the equator
0:46:46 > 0:46:52and which charts an incredible journey across the face of the globe.
0:46:58 > 0:47:04The diversity of Europe's landscapes today reflects the changing conditions
0:47:04 > 0:47:06encountered along the way.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11Each has left a unique fingerprint
0:47:11 > 0:47:15on this small but incredibly complex continent.
0:47:22 > 0:47:28For aeons, the birth of Europe had been driven by geological events,
0:47:28 > 0:47:32but now a new and different force was destined to shape the land.
0:47:41 > 0:47:47Two million years ago, Europe's climate spiralled out of control.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50Temperatures plummeted.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52Consumed by glaciers,
0:47:52 > 0:47:55the continent would now be plunged
0:47:55 > 0:47:59into one of the most extreme eras in its history.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08The great ice ages were on their way.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45Subtitles by E Kane BBC Broadcast: 2005
0:48:45 > 0:48:48E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk