The Great Rift (Blu-ray)

The producers of Life, Galapagos and Yellowstone bring us The Great Rift. Visible from space, Africa's Great Rift Valley runs four thousand miles from the Red Sea to the mouth of the Zambezi - a diverse landscape of erupting volcanoes, forest-clad mountains, spectacular valleys, rich grasslands, vast lakes and mighty rivers.

Home to the greatest concentration of animals on earth - lions, crocodiles, elephants, hippos and flocks of flamingos - and pastoralists such as the Maasi - this is a land of constant geographical turmoil.  It will take you to another world - a world of exotic extremes, where the forces of nature have shaped the landscape and so created a hotbed of evolution. It is the very cradle of mankind.

Visible from space, the Great Rift runs for thousands of miles. It creates, connects and defines the wildest, most charismatic landscape in the world. From the majestic, snow-capped mountains of the Kilimanjaro to the hustle and bustle of the Red Sea's coral reefs; the dry open savannahs of the Serengeti to the rain-soaked forests of the Mountains of the Moon. The Great Rift displays remarkable wildlife and awe-inspiring landscapes. It's home to the greatest concentration of animals on earth - lions, crocodiles, elephants, hippos and flocks of flamingos - and pastoralists such as the Maasai - this is a land in constant geological turmoil.

From the team behind the Emmy award-winning Wild China, The Great Rift travels through nine different countries, investigating the forces that have shaped this turbulent landscape. State-of-the-art high definition filming techniques reveal sights that have never before been captured on film, such as giant mastiff bats suckling their young, or the secrets of the dark underwater depths of a deep sea crack off Dijibouti.

The series is accompanied by a musical score of traditional African music composed by Emmy award-winner Barnaby Taylor. It will take you to another world - a world of exotic extremes, where the forces of nature have shaped the landscape and so created a hotbed of evolution. It is the very cradle of mankind.

Episode 1: Fire

Ethiopia's Afar Depression is an alien landscape of volcanoes, huge salt pans and fierce temperatures. In the neighboring Highlands, 30 million years of activity, with half a million cubic kilometers of lava have created a volatile landscape. Animals have developed amazing survival strategies to live here. Gelada baboons use their extraordinary agility to find safety on the vertiginously steep cliffs, while rare Ethiopian wolves, unlike any of their counterparts, live as solitary hunters. Underlying some of the volcanic lava slopes are mysterious caves, filled with extraordinary creatures. Travel west and the valley changes from grassland to true African jungle, including the Rwenzori Mountains of the Moon, which, shrouded in mist, are the last refuge for the world's largest primate, the mountain gorilla.

Episode 2: Water

Faulting and rifting has channeled East Africa's rivers to provide a sanctuary for mighty gatherings of hippos and birds. The same turbulent forces also created the freshwater lakes, thousands of feet deep. Each lake has evolved its own unique species; Lake Malawi alone has more species of fish than any other lake in the world, while above the surface, enormous swirling clouds turn out to contain literally billions of insects, which form the basis for the extraordinary ecosystem. Further north, chemicals leached from the Rift's alkaline volcanoes have created some of Africa's most inhospitable habitats: the caustic soda lakes. Yet even here, life continues to flourish, as flamingos have adapted to this harsh world and they gather in their tens of thousands. At its northern extremity, the Rift plunges into the sea at Djibouti and enters a world of giant corals and shoals of colorful fish.

Episode 3: Grass

The Rift's active volcanoes, erupting over thousands of years have filled the valley floor with volcanic ash, providing the ingredients for tremendous diversity - the vast grasslands of the Serengeti. In the rain shadow of the great volcanoes, the dry conditions have stunted the growth of trees, but have created perfect conditions for grassland. The richness of the landscape draws vast herds of zebra and wildebeest, elephant and rhino, cheetah and lion. But an even more successful creature owes its origins to this remarkable landscape - humankind. Preserved over two million years ago in the volcanic ash soil are the first known human footsteps. At the nearby Olduvai Gorge, the remains of early man have been found from as long ago as a million years. Recent fossil discoveries are rewriting traditional theories of human evolution, making it the most important prehistoric site in the world. Humans still inhabit this valley, as Masai continue to live alongside the animals, much as they have always done. The people have evolved with the landscape and the wildlife over tens of thousands of years.

Series Producer: Phil Chapman (Wild China)

Executive Producer: Mike Gunton (Life; Galapagos; Yellowstone)