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Portraying engineering as a breathtaking profession is no easy
task, but the
makers and writers of Secrets of Lost Empires (BBC Books,
£17.99, ISBN 0
563 37118 8) have gone a long way towards pulling it off. Starting with some
ancient problems, Michael Barnes and colleagues set loose a bevy of
engineers to
resolve them. Rigging a bridge over an Andean gorge using ropes made in
front of
our eyes was awesome, and the TV series spared no terrifying view of the depths
below, even if the camera operators appear not to have trusted themselves
to the
flimsy looking structure.