All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens S02E04

>> NARRATOR: A temple of the

dead in the Yucatán... an

underground city in Turkey...

and a South American cave said

to contain a treasure from

to contain a treasure from
beyond the stars.

beyond the stars.

For centuries, people have told

tales of caves and tunnels deep

inside the Earth.

Subterranean passageways that

lead to lands of gods and

monsters.

But is there a surprising truth

behind these legends?

>> LINDA HOWE: I have stood in

front of drawings on the rocks

and wondered, "Am I looking at a

extra-terrestrial biological

entity?"

>> NARRATOR: Could there really

be mysterious places far

beneath our feet?

Places whose origins might not

be of this Earth?

>> PHILIP COPPENS: There were

certain aspects of the caves for

which geology could not provide

an answer.

>> NARRATOR: Millions of people

around the world believe we

have been visited in the past

by extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really help

to shape our history?

And if so, should we be looking

for proof of their existence

not in the heavens above but in

mysterious worlds deep beneath

mysterious worlds deep beneath
the surface?

the surface?

Bordered on the north by the

Black Sea, and by the Taurus

Mountains to the south, lies

Cappadocia in central Turkey.

Here, wind and water have

sculpted strange shapes out of

the soft volcanic rock-- rock

which ancient peoples once

turned into small, primitive

dwellings.

In more recent years, the site

has seen the construction of

has seen the construction of
more modern structures.

more modern structures.

But in 1963, a simple home

renovation in the town of

Derinkuyu led to an

extraordinary discovery when a

cave wall was opened, revealing

a passageway to an underground

city thousands of years old and

more than 280 feet deep.

>> GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: I've been

there on multiple occasions, and

it's incredible because there's

13 stories that go deep into

the ground, with ventilation

shafts and 15,000 little shafts

that bring air to even the

deepest of levels.

>> NARRATOR: Incredibly, the

number of rock rooms that were

found could hold an estimated

20,000 men, women and children.

There was even evidence of

religious centers, storerooms,

winepresses and stables for

livestock.

>> JOHN BRANDENBURG: Oh,

Derinkuyu would've been a

massive undertaking for anyone,

even in modern times with modern

equipment.

But in those days, it would've

been, um... stupendous.

Equal to the pyramids.

At Derinkuyu, because of the

softness of the stone, you had

to be very careful that you

provided enough pillar strength

to support the floors above,

otherwise you'd have

catastrophic cave-ins.

Surprisingly, there's no

evidence of any catastrophic

cave-ins, so they were

apparently extremely clever and

knew their material.

We're talking deep antiquity.

It is mind boggling to

understand how they could've

done this.

Perhaps they had help from some

other civilization.

>> NARRATOR: But just who built

this massive underground city?

And what mysterious force drove

them to live underground?

>> DAVID CHILDRESS: Why would

people want to live deep

underground in these weird

caverns like that?

It seems kind of scary, really.

>> NARRATOR: According to many

archaeologists and scholars,

Derinkuyu was most likely

intended to serve as a

temporary shelter from

invasion-- built around 800 B.C.

by the Phrygians, a Bronze Age

people related to the Trojans.

Others believe it was built by

the Hittites, a warrior people

mentioned in the Bible who

flourished hundreds of years

earlier.

But could the underground city

be even older?

According to ancient astronaut

theorists, it is, perhaps by

many thousands of years.

>> DAVID WILCOCK: The

Cappadocia region of Turkey

was part of the Zoroastrian

Empire, which was Persian in

nature.

And it's one of the oldest

religious traditions on the face

of the Earth.

>> NARRATOR: The Zoroastrian

religion-- an ancient faith

based on opposing forces of

good and evil-- is widely

believed to have influenced

both Hinduism and

Judeo-Christianity.

>> NARRATOR: Founded sometime

before the sixth century B.C.,

its chief god is the creator,

Ahura Mazda.

And in the second chapter of

the Zoroastrian sacred text,

the Vendidad, Ahura Mazda saves

mankind from a worldwide

environmental disaster-- much

like the story of Noah in the

Hebrew Testament.

>> TSOUKALOS: The great prophet

Yima was instructed to build a

kind of underground refuge

similar to Derinkuyu by the sky

similar to Derinkuyu by the sky
god Ahura Mazda.

god Ahura Mazda.

>> NARRATOR: According to the

sacred texts, Yima built a

multilevel underground city to

protect a select group of

people and animals, not from a

flood but from a global Ice Age.

The Vendidad calls this "the

evil winters."

According to many mainstream

climatologists, the last Ice

Age peaked around 18,000 years

ago and ended around 10,000 B.C.

Is it possible that Derinkuyu

was built as a refuge from a

was built as a refuge from a
devastating global winter?

devastating global winter?

>> TSOUKALOS: Since you cannot

carbon date stone, it's

anybody's guess how old

Derinkuyu really is.

And my question is: if we have

a Zoroastrian story that's very

similar, could it be that both

that place and Derinkuyu are

much, much older than what

we've believed so far?

>> NARRATOR: But if Derinkuyu

is in fact the underground

city that Ahura Mazda told his

followers to build, could there

be a stunning truth behind the

legend?

If so, who or what was the god

Ahura Mazda?

>> WILCOCK: Ahura Mazda does

appear to be responsible for

the management of whatever is

happening here on Earth.

There are various ways to read

this, one of which is that it

does represent some sort of

higher universal form of

consciousness.

But another is that it would

represent an overseeing

represent an overseeing
extraterrestrial intelligence.

extraterrestrial intelligence.

>> JASON MARTELL: Several

sacred texts from antiquity

speak of knowledge given to

mankind from extraterrestrials,

but also known as gods from

antiquity.

>> NARRATOR: Could the sky god

Ahura Mazda really have been an

advanced being from another

world?

If so, did he provide the

technology needed for his

followers to build this complex

labyrinth as protection from

environmental disaster?

Or is there possibly a more

ominous reason for Derinkuyu's

existence?

Some say a clue lies in the

underground city's unusual

security system: 1,000-pound

doors on rollers that allow

them to be moved by a single

person, but only from one side.

>> BRANDENBURG: The Derinkuyu

doors-- they're very cleverly

constructed.

You can basically only open it

and leverage it from the inside.

>> TSOUKALOS: So obviously,

whoever inhabited Derinkuyu was

hiding from someone or

something.

>> NARRATOR: According to the

ancient Zoroastrian texts,

Ahura Mazda soared through the

sky in a divine chariot and

waged war against his eternal

enemy, Angra Mainyu, the demon

of destruction.

But could this really be-- as

many ancient astronaut

theorists believe-- a depiction

of two extraterrestrial forces

battling over control of the

Earth and its resources?

>> TSOUKALOS: The aerial

enemies were extraterrestrials,

because they were the ones who

had the capability of flight.

They had access to those types

of machines that we can read

about in every single ancient

culture around the world.

>> WILCOCK: When you look at

the Zoroastrian tradition, you

also see clear evidence that

there was some sort of

extraterrestrial battle going

extraterrestrial battle going
on between warring factions.

on between warring factions.

Therefore, it is certainly

possible that the original

caves may have been used as

shelters against possible

aerial bombardment from

extraterrestrials that were

warring with each other during

that time.

>> TSOUKALOS: Derinkuyu was

built out of fear of an aerial

enemy, because if something

flies over you very, very fast,

you can't see the ventilation

shafts.

Some suggest 30,000 people used

to live underground at

to live underground at
Derinkuyu.

Derinkuyu.

>> NARRATOR: During recorded

history, many different peoples

did in fact hide in the

underground city of Derinkuyu

to escape everything from

desert raiders to Roman legions.

But some experts wonder whether

such conventional attacks can

really explain why Derinkuyu

was built in the first place.

>> TSOUKALOS: If it were an

enemy that was on horseback,

it would be easy for them to

just smother everyone inside by

just closing all the

ventilation shafts.

>> BRANDENBURG: We had the

phrase in the Defense

Department studies that I

participated in: "the cave is a

grave to a well-prepared

adversary."

Once you find it, it is highly

vulnerable.

>> NARRATOR: But did the people

of Derinkuyu really go

underground to avoid becoming

casualties in an

extraterrestrial battle in the

skies?

And, if so, might there

be other such cities from the

distant past?

According to ancient astronaut

theorists, there are.

And they can be found much

nearer to home-- deep in the

nearer to home-- deep in the
caves of the American Southwest.

caves of the American Southwest.

>> NARRATOR: The majestic mesas

and rugged mountains of the

American Southwest are home to

many native peoples, including

the Navajo, Zuni, Pueblo, Hopi

and Apache.

These tribes have many

different beliefs, but their

creation myths all share

something quite remarkable.

>> JAY VIGIL: When we talk about

our origin, you know, you hear

the stories about us coming down

from Alaska through the Bering

Strait.

But what we believe is we

came up from the ground.

>> CHILDRESS: The Apaches and

other Pueblo Indians, such as

the Zunis and the Hopi Indians,

all have this legend that they

emerged from some underground

emerged from some underground
world into today's world.

world into today's world.

>> NARRATOR: In some legends,

the Southwestern peoples went

back underground for safety.

The Hopi of Arizona say their

ancestors escaped a deadly

storm of falling stars with the

help of the Snake People, who

took them to shelters deep in

the Earth.

Another Hopi legend speaks of

the Ant People who protected

them from storms of fire and

ice.

>> CHILDRESS: The Hopi Indians

survived cataclysms by living

in this underground world with

the Ant People for a certain

period of time, and then

eventually they emerged from

the underground world back into

the surface world.

>> NARRATOR: Ant People?

Snake People?

Could these stories be based on

ancestral tales of people

actually living underground--

possibly during the last Ice

Age?

Or could the ancestors of

today's Southwestern tribes

have taken refuge in

sub-surface dwellings similar

to the underground city of

Derinkuyu in Turkey?

If so, over the centuries,

might they have developed

physical traits-- like large

eyes and fingers-- that made

them more closely resemble

actual Earth-dwelling creatures?

>> TSOUKALOS: The shamans, and

the elders of Native Americans,

they will tell you that before

these people were able to

emerge out of Planet Earth,

they were brought here by the

star-people, the star-gods,

which arrived from outer space.

>> HOWE: I have stood in front

of what are called the Ant

People and some of the very

strange, large-eyed drawings on

the rocks and wondered, "Am I

looking at Native American

interpretation of what today is

called a extraterrestrial

called a extraterrestrial
biological entity?"

biological entity?"

>> TSOUKALOS: If

extraterrestrials were here in

the remote past, there are

multiple species out there, is

it possible that they might've

looked lizard-like and ant-like?

And the answer is yes.

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible that

these underground creatures of

Native American legend were

actually alien visitors?

If so, could some of them still

be living beneath the surface

of the Southwestern desert?

For decades, stories of

encounters with UFOs and alien

beings have been told among the

people of New Mexico's

Jicarilla Apache Reservation.

Some of the aliens in these

stories bear a strange

resemblance to the ancient

tales of the ant-like and

snake-like beings from the Hopi

legends.

>> RICHARD VIGIL: There is

things up here that no one can

explain.

>> NARRATOR: The Jicarilla

Apache Reservation is located

next to the small town of Dulce,

nestled in the shadow of the

over 9,000-foot-high Archuleta

Mesa.

>> CHILDRESS: It is from

this mesa and mountain that

people claim they have seen

UFOs flying out of the mountain.

>> GERALDINE JULIAN: It was a

spaceship we saw right there.

And it was big-- like maybe the

size of a football field.

And then we seen this dome on

top that was all glassed in.

And then my husband was looking

at it with the binoculars and

he saw two small people.

Well, we don't know what it is.

If we stayed here and they came

down I don't know what they

down I don't know what they
would have done to us.

would have done to us.

>> NARRATOR: Could the native

tales of spaceships and strange

creatures be true?

Some UFO researchers and

conspiracy theorists believe

that these eyewitness accounts

are not only true, but are

evidence of a secret

collaboration between

underground aliens and the U.S.

military.

>> BILL BIRNES: The amount of

military traffic over Dulce, the

unmarked helicopters, the black

helicopters, the heavy-duty

Chinooks.

All these helicopters spend a

lot more time in Dulce than

they should if nothing were

going on here.

Among the stories that we've

heard from the Jicarilla Apache

is that they discovered vents,

is that they discovered vents,
actually right here on the Mesa.

actually right here on the Mesa.

>> JAY VIGIL: Awhile back, when

my brother was still alive we

used to come up here in the

back, and he showed us this

shaft and that thing was bigger

than... bigger than me.

But we walked in, and I didn't

want to go any further.

>> BIRNES: The vents were here

maybe 25 years ago.

You'd hear strange noises.

Groans.

Sighs.

Human groans.

And this lent a lot of credence

to stories that human beings

were being vivisected,

experimented on.

And thus the legend of strange

creatures and strange noises

coming out of this mesa grew

and expanded.

>> NARRATOR: Aliens living

underground.

Strange, secret government

cover-ups.

Could Native American legends

of underground beings help

unearth the truth behind these

incredible stories?

Some think the answer might be

found deep beneath the surface

of North America, but others

believe the truth lies hidden

in a mysterious cave--

thousands of miles to the south.

A cave that hides proof of

alien visitors who journeyed

alien visitors who journeyed
beyond the stars.

beyond the stars.

>> NARRATOR: South America.

The Andes Mountain range in

Ecuador.

For thousands of years, this

rain forest-- high on the

eastern slopes-- has been the

land of the Shuar, headhunters

who are fiercely protective of

their homeland, and its

their homeland, and its
secrets.

secrets.

And of all the Shuar's secrets,

perhaps none has been so

carefully guarded as the

location and entrance of the

cave of Tayos.

cave of Tayos.
But why?

But why?

Perhaps the answer can be found

in the story of an Italian

Catholic missionary named

Father Crespi, who lived in the

region in the middle of the

last century.

>> ERICH VON DANIKEN: Father

Paolo Carlo Crespi.

He was loved by the Indians.

He helped them without, uh,

asking for money.

And the Indians made him some

presents.

>> NARRATOR: But what was unique

about the "presents" or gifts

given to Father Crespi was that

they often took the forms of

elaborately-carved artifacts--

some made of gold or other

precious metals.

Often these objects featured

elaborate carvings and

symbols-- not known to be

associated with the Shuar

culture.

In his 1973 book, Gold of the

Gods,ancient astronaut

theorist Erich Von Daniken

wrote of Father Crespi's

incredible collection-- which

he believed to come from the

cave of Tayos and which were,

in his opinion, treasures from

an unknown and highly-advanced

culture.

The startling questions posed

in Von Daniken's book soon

inspired Scottish explorer

Stanley Hall to try and solve

the mystery himself.

In 1975, Hall traveled to

Cuenca to see Father Crespi's

collection with his own eyes.

>> STANLEY HALL: I had for years

been researching South America

as the missing page of

pre-history.

I first heard of the Tayos

Caves in Erich von Daniken's

book and followed it through

from there.

>> VON DANIKEN: And one of

the presents which the old

priest received is a tablet

with 36 writings.

It's metallic tablet.

No one until today was able to

No one until today was able to
translate these writings.

translate these writings.

>> NARRATOR: In 1976, Stanley

Hall mounted an expedition

of more than 100 people to

explore Tayos.

Among them was American

astronaut Neil Armstrong, the

first man to walk on the Moon.

Entering the cave through a

jungle entrance known to the

Ecuadorian Army, the explorers

were fascinated by what they

encountered-- especially large

areas that appeared to have

been excavated by someone...

been excavated by someone...
or something.

or something.

>> STANLEY HALL: The head of the

British geological group, Dr.

Brian Kelly, in 1976, he

admitted that it was difficult

for him to explain the actual

large doorways that you see in

large doorways that you see in
these caves.

these caves.

>> NARRATOR: Although Stan

Hall's expedition did find a

tomb chamber with items dating

to 1500 BC...

>> MAN: A ring! A stone ring!

>> NARRATOR: ...the expedition

found no treasure and no trace

of anything that looked like

the artifacts in Father Crespi's

collection.

But if Tayos was not the secret

origin of Father Crespi's

amazing collection, where did

it come from?

Undaunted, Hall didn't give up

his search.

15 years later, in 1991, the

explorer tracked down an

Ecuadorian named Petronio

Jaramillo who claimed to have

entered the cave of Tayos

through a secret entrance back

in 1946.

>> STANLEY HALL: And apparently,

Petronio had visited this cave

for the very first time when he

was very young.

When he was in his teens.

He said that he had to dive

underwater, go in... in this

underwater tunnel, and then

come up.

>> NARRATOR: Jaramillo told Hall

he wandered through chamber

after chamber of ancient relics,

including a vast room of books

made from gold and other

metals-- books with

unrecognizable writing...

possibly like that on one of the

metal tablets in Father Crespi's

collection.

>> STANLEY HALL: The other

things looked like formulas,

and so on, and so on.

So it was one spectacular

statement after another.

[bats squeaking]

>> COPPENS: Some argue whether

or not an ancient civilization

had come down to Earth and had

used this cave system to leave

certain artifacts of their

civilization behind for us

to recover.

>> NARRATOR: Unfortunately,

before he could guide Stanley

Hall to the underwater cave

entrance, Petronio Jaramillo

died, taking the secret to

his grave.

Stanley Hall himself died in

2008 before he was able to renew

his search for the so-called

metal library.

Fortunately, Stanley Hall's

daughter Eileen has decided to

continue her father's work.

>> EILEEN HALL: Unless we find

this treasure, unless we can

see, translate the writing, it's

still a big question mark over

who wrote it, why they put it

there and who put it there.

>> NARRATOR: But when Eileen

Hall began to look for the

location of Father Crespi's

original artifacts, she learned

that much of the priest's

collection had mysteriously

vanished shortly before his

death in 1982.

But why?

Had Crespi's artifacts fallen

prey to thieves?

Or might the Shuar have taken

their treasure back into the

cave where they found them?

Whatever the answer, Eileen

Hall has continued to research

other artifacts from elsewhere

in Ecuador.

And like Father Crespi's

objects, some seem to have

uncanny resemblances to other

cultures that, according to

mainstream archaeology, ancient

Ecuadorians could not have had

any knowledge of.

>> EILEEN HALL: This collection

is made up of what my father

believed to be the formative

cultures of Ecuador.

This is from the coastal culture

from 600 BC to 1600 AD, and this

is very humanlike, but at the

same time, some features have

been exaggerated.

Here, you've got the smaller

face with the kind of bigger

ears, and the elongated skull

shape on the head.

>> TSOUKALOS: The top of this

head looks like an elongated

cranium, an elongated skull,

and it is identical to this

Egyptian statue that we find

all over Egypt.

To see this picture right here

and compare it to the Egyptian

bust we see right here, it's

uncanny-- the head shape is

identical.

>> NARRATOR: Do Stanley Hall's

artifacts show evidence that

Egyptian cultures could have

crossed the oceans to influence

South American culture?

Or is it possible that both were

influenced by another culture--

one from beyond our world?

If so, were the strange writings

inscribed on Father Crespi's now

missing metal tablets actual

messages from an alien world?

>> EILEEN HALL: My father went

as far as saying it was possibly

an advanced civilization, but

we can't know for certain until

this library is found.

>> VON DANIKEN: So this metallic

library is still there in

Ecuador in a subterranean cave.

There are still Indian tribes

living there.

They are still protecting the

old treasure.

>> COPPENS: So it's going to

push the boundaries of academia

once this cave system has

been found.

And whether it is Inca or

extraterrestrial, it doesn't

really matter at this moment

in time.

Let's get to this cave and see

what is in there.

>> NARRATOR: Perhaps Tayos has

yet to reveal all of its

secrets, but more than 700 miles

to the north, there is another

cave-- one that may prove that

the Mayan underworld and the

terrifying gods who ruled it

were not only very real, but

were not only very real, but
thirsty for human blood.

thirsty for human blood.

>> NARRATOR: The Yucatán

Peninsula...

one of Mexico's premier

tourist destinations.

Besides scenic beaches, the area

is covered by thick jungle and

pockmarked by massive sinkholes

known as cenotes.

The ground beneath the jungle is

also honeycombed with caves.

But here, in 2007, Mexican

archaeologist Guillermo de Anda

found a cave like no other.

Following clues in the records

of 17th-century Spanish priests

that hinted at the existence of

a mysterious underground Mayan

temple deep in the jungle,

de Anda found a series of caves

near the village of

Tahtzibichen...

caves not seen for hundreds of

years, and with entrances

submerged beneath centuries

submerged beneath centuries
of floodwater.

of floodwater.

>> GUILLERMO DE ANDA: Sometimes

we have to dive into these

caves.

Sometimes they go very deep.

The average depth of our

research is about 140, 150 feet,

but we know of caves much deeper

than that.

>> NARRATOR: At first, de Anda

and his team found carved stone

heads and broken pillars with

1,900-year-old Mayan

inscriptions.

>> DE ANDA: We have found

columns under the water, and

these columns are amazing

because some of them are five

feet high and at least ten

feet wide.

>> NARRATOR: But as de Anda

surfaced in the dry areas of the

cave, he found what he believed

to be the remains of a massive

underground temple complex,

including a concrete road,

a crumbled pyramid and bones.

But why was it here?

>> CHILDRESS: The Mayans

themselves have, uh, very

intriguing legends of an

underground world called

Xibalba.

And it's believed now by

archaeologists that what they

found is what the Mayans thought

was the entrance to this

legendary underground world

that features prominently in

the Popol Vuh.

>> NARRATOR: Could this dark and

mysterious cave really be the

underground world mentioned

in the Mayan legends?

According to the Popol Vuh, the

written record of Mayan

mythology, the underworld

kingdom of Xibalba, meaning

"the place of fear," was ruled

by the cruel Lords of the Dead,

who made those who entered their

realm pass through a series

of torture chambers, involving

blood, darkness, cold, knives,

bats and jaguars.

[snarling]

>> MARTELL: We see here in this

one archaeological spot an

actual physical representation

of what the Mayans felt the soul

had to go through.

>> NARRATOR: Might, perhaps,

this cave of stalactites, sharp

enough to pierce flesh,

represent the "room of knives"

in the Popol Vuh?

There is also, arguably, a

"room of bats," and a trench

that might once have been

filled with blood, like the

river of blood in the story

that Mayan pilgrims had to

cross over.

There are places of cold and

darkness-- and even a room with

darkness-- and even a room with
carvings of jaguars.

carvings of jaguars.

>> MARTELL: These caves were

littered with large patches of

spiders and reptiles and all

types of tumultuous things that

a human really wouldn't want to

be exposed to.

>> NARRATOR: Although some

archaeologists claim this

unique site was simply modeled

after the description of

Xibalba in the Popol Vuh, De

Anda insists that items from

the cave date back to a time

centuries before the Mayan holy

book was written.

>> DE ANDA: It's not that there

was this document and

they, uh, tried to, uh, imitate

what the document said.

I think it's all the other way

around.

We believe that we have found

the particular Xibalba of the

central part of the Yucatán.

This is why we do believe it was

a real place.

>> NARRATOR: But if Xibalba is

real, were the Lords of the

Dead also real?

And if so, who or what were

they?

>> TSOUKALOS: According to the

Chilam Balambook, which is the

Book of the Jaguar Priests, it

says in there, that at that

time "The road to the stars

descended from the sky, and the

13 and nine gods came to Earth."

I'm sorry.

"Road to the stars," "descended

from the sky."

Can it be more clear?

I don't think so.

Right there we have a direct

reference to someone that has

arrived from outer space, and

we have a written record about

this.

>> NARRATOR: Could the "lords of

Xibalba" and other Mayan gods

really have been

extraterrestrial travelers?

If so, why did they display

such a thirst for blood and

torture?

>> WILCOCK: I do not believe

human sacrifice was

originally taught by the ETs.

I believe it came in the

aftermath of when the original

teachers of humankind had

arrived.

The ancient gods, which were

really just humans from

another world, withdrew from the

area, and the people became

distraught.

The more they became

distraught, the more they took

the original mythology and

interpreted it in a much more

literal way.

So what might have started out

as the myth about the Sun dying

and being reborn when it sinks

below the horizon, becomes

literally the idea of killing

people to make sure that the

Sun is gonna come back up.

>> NARRATOR: As archaeologists

and explorers continue to

uncover sites where legend and

reality meet, could there be

even more evidence that

mankind's history on this planet

is much more profound than what

we currently understand?

There are those who believe

the secret lies even deeper

within the Earth...

within the Earth...
as deep as its very core.

as deep as its very core.

>> NARRATOR: The North Pole--

a seemingly endless wasteland of

Arctic ice, shrouded in darkness

for six months of every year.

Here, there is no food, no

shelter, not even a cave to

hide from the slashing winds

and temperatures that can dive

to 90 degrees below zero.

But according to mainstream

geology, beneath the Pole and

the Arctic Ocean lies the

Earth's mostly rocky crust, up

to 30 miles thick.

Below this is molten rock,

heated by the planet's spinning

core, with a solid center of

iron and nickel the size of the

Moon.

Scientists have deduced this

information from measurements

of Earth's gravity, magnetism

and seismic waves.

But no one has ever seen these

areas.

Could the frozen surface of the

Pole be hiding a gateway to a

world within our surface world?

There are those who believe the

There are those who believe the
answer is, "yes."

answer is, "yes."

And what they believe is known

as the hollow Earth theory.

>> RODNEY CLUFF: The hollow

Earth theory is that, this Earth

is not molten inside.

It is actually hollow, and that

suspended in the hollow of the

suspended in the hollow of the
Earth is an inner sun.

Earth is an inner sun.

>> NARRATOR: Surprisingly, the

notion of a hollow Earth was

first given scientific credence

by one of the founders of

modern astronomy.

>> DAVID STANDISH: The idea that

the Earth might be hollow, as a

scientific notion, dates back

to the astronomer Edmund Halley

who is best known for his comet.

In 1691 he presented to the

London Royal Society his

hypothesis that the Earth is

hollow and contains several

little spheres inside.

Sort of like those Russian

Matryoshska dolls.

He was hypothesizing this for a

very practical reason.

The Earth's magnetic pole moved

a little bit every year to the

west, and his idea was that our

outer sphere had inner spheres

that turned independently of

the outer one.

He also suggested that these

interior spheres would also be

able to support life.

>> NARRATOR: In 1818, former

U.S. Army Captain John Cleves

Symmes, Jr., announced that

there were vast openings at each

pole where we could enter

Inner Earth.

>> STANDISH: With Symmes, the

idea of a hollow Earth gets tied

into exploring for the pole.

At this point, nobody had

actually seen Antarctica, for

instance.

>> NARRATOR: The hollow Earth

theory again captured the

public's imagination in 1864

with the release of Jules

Verne's second novel, A Journey

to the Center of the Earth.

>> STANDISH: The novel takes an

Icelandic guide and a professor

and a young man down into the

center of the Earth.

Journey to the Center of the

Earthcould really have been

called A Journey to the Center

of Geology.

Geology and Paleontology were a

very hot topic in the early

1860's and there's a lot of

discussion of that in Journey

to the Center of the Earth.

>> NARRATOR But while Verne

popularized the idea that

extinct life forms might still

exist inside the Earth, others

envisioned that the Earth

contained advanced underground

civilizations.

>> CHILDRESS: Supposedly, they

have advanced technology.

They've got ray guns and

special weapons.

And even they have flying

saucers, other craft like that.

>> NARRATOR: But is there any

evidence that such fantastic

claims could be true?

And has anyone actually been to

the world within our Earth?

Proponents of the hollow Earth

theory say, "yes," and that

one of the explorers was no

less a luminary than famed

polar pioneer Admiral Richard E.

Byrd.

In the 1920s, Byrd made world

headlines by flying over the

North Pole, and by becoming the

first man to fly solo over the

South Pole.

But hollow Earth theorists

believe that the famous

explorer went even farther, and

that, on February 19, 1947,

Admiral Byrd piloted a plane

through a hole near the North

Pole into the interior of the

Earth.

>> CLUFF: A flying saucer type

craft took control of his

airplane, with some kind of

tractor beam... and they landed

him near an Inner Earth city.

And the message that they had

for us was that they consider

themselves the guardians of

this planet, okay?

He says, "We don't approve of

you people using nuclear

weapons."

We had just blown up a couple

of cities in Japan a couple of

years before, so this was the

message that he was given.

But when he got to Washington,

they put a lid of secrecy on

this, that this was not to go

out.

>> NARRATOR: Some say Admiral

Byrd's own account of this

flight into the hollow Earth is

detailed in his secret diary,

published in the 1990s, almost

four decades after his death.

But skeptics claim the diary is

a forgery and point out that in

February 1947, at the time

Admiral Byrd was supposedly

visiting this other world

underneath the North Pole, he

was actually part of a vast

4,700-man Naval exploration

called "Operation High Jump,"

12,000 miles away, near the

South Pole.

But could Byrd's inclusion in

this large military operation

at the South Pole have been

merely a cover story?

Some people claim it was, and

this allowed him to slip away

to the other end of the planet,

unnoticed by the media.

>> GEORGE NOORY: Admiral

Byrd, the rumor was, found a

world of flying machines, and

people, and... more advanced

than us...

and that they helped him, and

then he left again.

It's a myth.

Nobody's really been able to

prove it, but it's a great myth.

>> NARRATOR: Could there really

be vast, open spaces within the

Earth where advanced

civilizations live?

Could extraterrestrial gods

really have come to Earth,

centuries ago, and hidden the

evidence of their journeys deep

within caves and tunnels?

Perhaps we have only just

scratched the surface of our

planet's underground mysteries.

If so, what clues to our

distant past might still be

waiting to be found, and

waiting to be found, and
hiding in the darkness?