Scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., takes an exuberant trek—by boat, land cruiser, and camel—across Africa and its glorious, forgotten history. The 288-page companion book takes readers from pyramids of ancient Nubia to Timbuktu's fabled library and university and the ruins of Ethiopia's magnificent Christian Kingdom, where the lost Ark of the Covenant is said to reside. Gates reveals an Africa virtually unknown to Westerners, and even many Africans.

• 3 discs; 360 minutes
• © 2003