The premise of the programme was that ten contestants with unique skills must solve a variety of ancient clues and puzzles from throughout history, with the aim in each episode of finding "The Symbol".
The Search is presented and conceived by Jamie Theakston, inspired by the Kit Williams' children's book Masquerade and made by Princess Productions.
The first episode focused on Renaissance Italian themes; the second, Medieval French; the third, Mughal Indian; the fourth, Ancient Egyptian, the fifth Mayan Guatemala, the sixth Inca Peru and the seventh (finale), British History.
Here, the teams found the name of their next location to be the Abbey at San Galgano, whereupon they are forced to scour the site making use of perspective to reveal a perfect circle.
In San Gimignano the teams predictably had to climb the tallest of the famous towers to reveal numbers to input into a Cardano combination lock in the order of the Fibonacci Sequence.
They found a pictorial stained glass by the rose window, and placing this over the French message filtered out certain letters, revealing the name Chartres, a town also famous for its cathedral, which became the teams' next location.
In La Tour, the female team open a trapdoor which Mairianne and Saskia climb down through and find a collection of paintings with a clue to examine the 'subtext'.
The mountain fort at Montsegur is reached by an arduous two-hour walk which proves too difficult for the male team contestant Alan, who resigns his place in the show and returns to England.
However, letters on the rocks also require placing in a particular way (inspired by Chinese trigrams), to reveal the final location, the caves of Grotte de Lombrives.
Finding a sword in the cart, they cut the rope, meaning the other team will have to wait for the boat's return and receive a heavy time penalty.
The task is inspired directly from History, where Shah Jahan was permitted to only see his beloved Taj Mahal through a mirror by his son.
Meanwhile, Simon's frustration at not being able to find the clue leads him to tell the driver to turn off the music so he can concentrate, leaving his team dead in the water.
Once they find all three they have to shine light in a room in the nearby Bent Pyramid through the rings to reveal the name of the third location in the episode, Giza.
The final day sees the teams begin in Saint Catherine's Monastery at the base of the Mount Sinai (the supposed location of the burning bush).
Alex eventually finds the clue first, meaning the girls have first choice on how to get up the mountain, the long but easy camel ride, or the more direct but arduous trek up over 1000 steps.
While Adrian and Simon go down literally the wrong avenue of exploration (looking in the public toilets), Alex spots the image, leading the girls to two alfombra, which are carpets made from sawdust.
This is not enough to beat the girls, however, who shortly uncover the name of the fourth location blazing on sticks at the volcano's summit, Yaxhá, the ceremonial centre of the Maya civilization.
Saskia's code breaking talent leads her to discover that this task requires simple knowledge of frequency analysis (cryptanalysis).
Solving the clue with ease, the girls are directed to the river, where they must fill a well with water, causing refraction to allow them to view the name of the next location.
Alex is blinded by the pressure to succeed (knowing Saskia, Simon and Marianne are planning to vote her off), and forgets about the poem, heading to the final chest first.
Eventually, Simon and Mairianne ask a bilingual priest for assistance and are directed to the carved stones where they too discover the clue to the second part of the task.
With a time advantage, Saskia and Adrian arrive at Coricancha to find a replica golden disc (representing Inti) hanging from a circle of candles.
Saskia and Adrian are physically disadvantaged in this task and Simon and Mairianne close the gap only to find the random current in the rapids slows them down.
The next day sees a solo challenge as each contestant has to use a series of Quipu devices to decipher names of locations in Machu Picchu, which they must navigate to using their maps.
However, on the third quipu, despite reaching it first, she wastes time going through all 25 shift codes instead of simply using a reverse substitution cipher, which Marianne does first to reveal "Young Peak".
Once again, Saskia there finds the symbol, ensuring her a place in the final, leaving Marianne visibly upset that she didn't even get a fair shot at winning.
Inside a barrel, they find a map with X marking the prize money, as well as the clue "He Be Loot", which is an anagram for Boot Heel, where the real key is hidden.
Suzie speaks about how in one era they used to hide things in the soles of shoes, and when Marianne picks up one of the boots, the heel snaps off and the key is revealed.
Arriving ahead, Mairianne runs round the area with her map, eventually finding the next clue, two gravestones with one marked as IR, and one as ER.
The quote is actually of Mary's before her execution at Elizabeth's hands, referring to her son James, who would take the monarchy and start the reign of the Stuarts over the Tudors.