All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S10E10.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: They're watching you.

More than 5,000 satellites
circle the Earth.

Every day, they uncover new,

mysterious phenomena
that defy explanation.

Lair of the living god

and the super warrior
of the ancient world.

FINE: He's one of the greatest
generals in the history

of warfare,
and he conquered

much of the known world
at the time.

NARRATOR: Riches and bloodshed
in the California deserts.

RUBEN: This is a great
example of one of

those hidden places that have
shaped human history.

NARRATOR: And the multibillion
dollar money pit.

This site feels
absolutely cursed.

NARRATOR: Baffling phenomena,
mysteries from space.

What on Earth are they?

[theme music playing]

The Taurus Mountains,
southeastern Turkey,

87,000 square miles of virtually
impenetrable peaks,

an ocean of limestone
that rises

some 12,000 feet towards
the heavens.

Wow, look at the views from
up here!

I've been walking for hours,

and I'm still nowhere near
the peak.

NARRATOR: Kenneth Fine
is trekking through

these desolate lands,
hooked by a strange image

captured in June 2021.

When I looked at satellite
images of the area,

one thing jumped out at me
from the miles of

arid mountains.

There's a smooth,
circular peak.

NARRATOR: The mystery feature is
hundreds of feet in diameter

and sits on the summit of one of

the highest mountains
in the range.

It's like you poured sugar
onto a table.

I don't know what it is.

I -- I am genuinely baffled.

BELLINGER: This is
an incredible structure.

We're looking at something
human-made and likely ancient.

NARRATOR: Closer analysis
reveals the giant cone

is surrounded by terraces
and other ruins.

Historical records reveal

it's the legacy of
a self-declared living

deity and descendant of
the greatest warrior

of antiquity.

This place is known
as Nemrut Dagi.

I mean, the sheer scale is sort
of eye-watering.

It's incredible to think
that this place was one

of the craziest construction
projects in all of history.

NARRATOR: The Taurus Mountains
played a key role

in early human history.

Many of its peaks and valleys
have been stained with blood

shed by some of the most
powerful civilizations of

the ancient world.

Turkey is a land that people
have historically fought over,

and many empires have risen
and fallen here.

NARRATOR: What makes
these mountains so important

is that they mark the border
between Europe and Asia,

a 930-mile-long
frontier separating

the warring civilizations
of East and West.

These narrow passageways have
been used as trade routes

and by armies looking
for new lands to conquer.

It's a choke point between
Europe, Africa, and Asia.

And this place sits at
the heart of that.

NARRATOR:
To the southwest of the site

sit the Cilician Gates,

a military artery used by
the Hittites, Romans,

Mongols,
and medieval crusaders.

The structure's location
suggests it could

be connected to
this strategically vital pass.

One of the first rules
of any form

of military activity is to
control the high ground.

Maybe this strange mound is the
remains of some sort of fort?

From a defensive perspective,
this place would be ideal.

You'd see an invading army
coming from miles away.

NARRATOR: Yet as Fine
approaches the giant cone...

This is crazy,
so windy up here.

NARRATOR: It becomes
evident that it served

a different purpose.

Whoa, that's impressive.

Look at that.
I'm speechless.

NARRATOR: A massive mound
of stones rises more

than 160 feet from
the mountain summit.

I knew this thing was big,

but I hadn't fully
appreciated the size

or the scope of it until now.

This is unreal.

There's only one thing
I could think of,

and that would be a tomb.

NARRATOR: The scale of
the mountaintop tomb is almost

without precedent,

yet what's also strange
is its remote location.

We know about the great
pyramids of Egypt, which had

been built by pharaohs
who ruled over huge kingdoms.

But here, we've got
a monument of a similar scale

that was constructed out
in the mountainous wilderness.

NARRATOR: Mountains are
sacred to many cultures

around the world.

They are places
where deities reside and are

seen as boundaries between
this world and the next.

On Turkey's Mount Ararat,

some claim, sit the remains of
Noah's Ark, stranded for

eternity by the great flood.

People often associated gods
with being high up in the sky.

So if you build
on top of a mountain,

you are that bit closer to
the gods.

NARRATOR: Ancient civilizations
believed these mountains to

be inhabited by storm
and thunder gods.

They were often depicted as
bulls -- Taurus in Latin --

which gives this
mountain range its name.

FINE:
It's hard to believe

there could be human
remains buried

under this giant pile
of rocks.

I've never seen
anything like this.

It's amazing.

What it means is that
whoever was buried there

had another mountain made
on top of a mountain.

WALTERS: If this is your grave,
I think it's pretty safe

to assume you're not gonna be
some lowly peasant.

It's gonna be the tomb of
someone very important.

NARRATOR: Exploring further,
Fine discovers other structures

not visible
in the satellite image.

Wow, look at
these stone heads.

I'm totally flabbergasted.

NARRATOR: The bodies of
the 30-foot-high statues

stands sentinel at the base
of the burial mound,

their decapitated heads
resting on a terrace below them.

Fine calculates that each
likely weighs around 10 tons.

That's gotta be
the Greek god, Zeus.

Zeus was the god of sky
and thunder,

but he was also
the king of the gods.

The stone heads reflect
a mixing of cultural influences.

So we see both Greek
and Persian elements.

NARRATOR:
In the distant past,

someone commanded
their subjects to inter them

under a man-made mountain
of stones,

guarded by giant Greek
and Persian gods.

This has to be one of

the most insane and incredible
tombs I've ever seen.

But the question is
who's buried here?

NARRATOR: Coming up, secrets
of the mountaintop tomb.

This guy was a military genius
with an insatiable

desire for bloodshed
and conquest.

NARRATOR:
And Nazis versus witches.

The Nazis tried to incorporate

the occult into an advantage
on the battlefield.

Drawn by a weird structure
revealed from the skies...

It's one of the most
incredible things

I've ever seen.

...Kenneth Fine is exploring

a mammoth Turkish
mountaintop mausoleum,

guarded by the ruined statues
of pagan gods.

These statues are amazing.

They represent a blend of
the Persian and Greek empires.

NARRATOR: Close to the statues
are more clues etched in stone.

Look here.

It's an ancient
Greek inscription.

♪

I can make out
the name Antiochus.

NARRATOR: The giant tomb
is the resting place

of the megalomaniac ruler

of an overlooked yet
pivotal kingdom

of the ancient world.

Antiochus ruled one of
the kingdoms that

formed after the death of
Alexander the Great.

HUNT: One of the names
he gave himself

was Antiochus Theos,
meaning Antiochus the God.

NARRATOR: The story of the giant
tomb begins in 336 B.C.,

When Alexander the Great
becomes ruler of Macedonia, some

900 miles to the northwest.

His father taught
him military rule.

His tutor was Aristotle,
who made his mind razor sharp.

No one was better suited to

conquer the world than
Alexander the Great.

This guy was
a military genius with

an insatiable desire for
bloodshed and conquest.

NARRATOR: Alexander quickly
defeats Macedonia's

neighboring Greek states
before moving past

the site in the image to
conquer the mighty

Persian empire.

Key to his victories is
the use of the phalanx,

a formation of
128 warriors equipped

with lances up to
20 feet long.

Part of Alexander's success
was his willingness to

throw himself into battle
and fight alongside them.

That front line bravery
earned him enormous devotion

from his men,

who probably also thought
he was a living god.

[men shouting]

NARRATOR: By the age of just 32,
Alexander has built

an empire spanning three
continents and covering

two million square miles.

Alexander the Great was
unquestionably one of the most

influential people in
human history.

He never lost a battle, and he
conquered much of the known

world at the time.

Julius Caesar,
before he conquered Gaul,

lamented, "At my age,

"Alexander has already
conquered the world.

What have I done?"

NARRATOR: In 323 B.C.,
Alexander dies of a fever,

triggering a strange sequence
of events

that leads to
the construction of the giant

mountain peak mausoleum.

After Alexander's death,

this vast empire that he had
very quickly conquered,

just as quickly fell apart.

His empire is effectively kind
of atomized, and it's split into

all these sort separate
little kingdoms ruled by

his former generals, and one of
them is this place here.

It is the kingdom
of Commagene.

NARRATOR:
Commagene is a small kingdom,

but it controls trade routes

through the Taurus Mountains,
and that makes it strategically

vital to its more
powerful neighbors,

the Armenian, Parthian, Syrian,
and Roman Empires.

Commagene, because it's
at the kind of nexus

of all these bigger empires,

acts as a kind of buffer
between them,

and that makes it
very wealthy.

NARRATOR: In 70 B.C.,
Antiochus the First becomes

ruler of the kingdom of
Commagene.

He was one of the final
rulers of

Commagene before it fell to
the Romans.

HORTON:
He was an unusual king.

He had what might describe as
a very high opinion of himself.

NARRATOR: Like his forefather,
Alexander the Great, Antiochus

believes he is a deity in
human form.

He creates an imperial cult
in honor

of himself, one celebrated
with orgiastic feasts.

And, to enshrine his legacy,

he orders the construction of
the grandest

temple tomb of its era.

Not only did he encourage
all this feasting

and enjoyment
while he was alive,

but he also constructed one of
the most extraordinary

and fantastical monuments
to his memory on Earth.

This tomb becomes the physical
embodiment of megalomania,

a man who sees himself
as a god.

NARRATOR: Work on the epic
mortuary complex begins

in 50 B.C., with massive
boulders being hauled

up the 7,000-foot-high mountain.

Around the tomb itself
are piled

70,000 tons of limestone,

extending its peak yet further
towards the heavens.

This was one of the most
staggering construction projects

in history.

Basically, he remade the peak
of the mountain

in his own image.

NARRATOR: Next to
the 200,000-square-foot

burial mound,
engineers carve giant statues

depicting Antiochus among

a pantheon of
Greco-Persian gods.

Antiochus would have
wanted his link

to Alexander the Great
to be seen by all.

Having these monumental statues
accomplishes that.

The guy's ego knew no limits.

Just goes to show you how
determined he was

to be remembered.

NARRATOR:
Two millennia after his death,

the god king is
immortalized by one of

the most incredible structures
on Earth,

visible from the heavens.

But this place is far more
than that king in that tomb.

It represents the legacy of
Alexander the Great,

and the bringing together of

the ancient Greeks and Persians
in this antique land.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
the Mojave Desert's

extraterrestrial cipher.

The circles kind of look like
giant alien Petri dishes.

I don't know what this is.

NARRATOR:
And haunt of the mad emperor.

His insanity was notorious.

NARRATOR: August 18th, 2018.

Eyes in the sky scan
arid desert near

Death Valley, California,

and capture this image.

MORGAN:
This is an unusual sight.

You don't typically look
down from

space and see anything
like this.

What's really extraordinary
about this are

both the colors
and the shapes.

The circles kind of look like
giant alien Petri dishes.

I don't know what this is.

NARRATOR: The weird
kaleidoscopic code covers around

five square miles of
the valley floor.

When you see bright colors
like this on the surface,

you associate it with some
form of mineral -- for my money,

this has to be some form
of mining.

NARRATOR: Analysts turn to
local geological records.

What we're actually seeing
here is a mineral called borax.

It's what's left when

alkaline lakes
in arid regions dry up.

NARRATOR: Each year, miners
harvest hundreds of thousands of

tons of borax from
California's dry lake beds

for use in anything,
from pills to pesticides.

And it's an industry built
on an extraordinary tale

of bloodshed and riches that
stretches back 150 years.

RUBEN: This is a great example
of one of those hidden places

that are so important to
the forces that have shaped

human history.

NARRATOR: It's the late 1850s.

The California Gold Rush is
coming to an end,

forcing prospectors
to push deeper

into the state's
desert interior

in search of the next
mother lode.

Those that reach
the site in the image

discover that untold riches
lie right under their feet.

What a couple of very
enterprising American

businessmen realized was

actually these dried-out lake
beds weren't rich in gold,

but they were rich in borax.

And in its way,
that could be

a hell of a lot more valuable
than gold.

NARRATOR: During the mid 19th
century, borax is

in high demand for America's
booming industries.

The prospectors discover that
California's deserts contain

one of the largest mineable

reserves of it on Earth,
worth billions of dollars.

HYMEL: So, you have
this rush of people

to extract the borax
out of the ground.

The problem is,
this is an incredibly

inhospitable place
to operate, much less live.

NARRATOR: Much of the borax
is located in Death Valley,

the hottest place on Earth,

and every ounce of
the valuable mineral must

be scraped by hand from
the desert floor.

MORGAN: The early teams that
were involved in extraction

were functionally enslaved,

and many of the people that
were involved in this

undertaking were immigrants
from China.

Working in temperatures of up
to 130 degrees Fahrenheit,

the immigrant laborers are paid

$1.30 for a 14-hour day.

But the biggest challenge
is yet to come.

HUNT: Getting borax out of
the desert

is an intimidating problem.

It's 165 miles
from this borax deposit

to the edge
of the Mojave Desert.

The most practical solution
to this produced one of

the indelible images of

the 19th century,
and that was the 20-mule team.

NARRATOR:
Between 1883 and 1889,

so-called 20-mule teams
haul thousands

of tons of borax out of
the desert.

Lashed to some of the heaviest
wagons ever pulled by animals,

it takes 10 perilous days to
complete each journey.

Conditions on
these 10-day treks

with these mules must
have been equally horrific for

both man and animal alike.

MORGAN:
The slightest miscalculation

could produce fatal results.

If you're slowed down, then
suddenly, you're going to be

running through the amount of
fresh water you had brought.

You're going on for miles upon
miles for days upon days

in temperatures of over
100 degrees -- frankly,

it's a miracle if any of
them survived.

NARRATOR:
During the early 20th century,

technological advancements
lead to yet more minerals being

extracted from Death Valley's
salt beds.

And another strange chapter
opens in the history of

the site
revealed from space.

WALTERS: This area isn't just
rich in borax.

It also contains another
substance that's even more

valuable, and that's potash.

Potash is a central
ingredient in fertilizer,

and it is also
an essential ingredient

in the production
of explosives.

NARRATOR: In 1900, 40 percent
of the U.S. population

live on farms.

Explosives are
also reshaping the land,

[explosion blasts]

creating the mines and
railways that will transform

the country into a superpower.

This surge in demand
for potash brings

violence to the salt flats
of the Mojave.

You've got all these
prospectors suddenly

arriving at the area,

trying to stake their
claim to the potash.

So what big companies do
is they send

in teams that they refer to
as claim jumpers.

The series of disputes that
arose because these large

corporations were rivaling
the small claimants

are sometimes referred to
as the Potash Wars.

NARRATOR: One of these claim
jumpers is legendary lawman,

Wyatt Earp,
who, in 1910,

tries to seize
the reserves around the site.

in the image.

He's best known
for the shootout

at the O.K. Corral,

but he was also an important
player in the Potash Wars.

NARRATOR:
Today, California's gunslinging
claim jumpers are long gone,

but the riches
that drew them here

are still visible
from space.

WALTERS: We've all heard
of the Gold Rush,

but actually,
who's heard of the Borax Rush

or the Potash Rush?

But they're just as important
and, in many ways,

more valuable, so actually,
this image shows a really,

really vital part of
America's history.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
Mississippi's monster mystery.

If you wanted to store
Tyrannosaurus Rexes,

this is the cage to put them in.

NARRATOR: And the seventh
circle of hell.

This history was one of
unbelievable savagery.

NARRATOR:
June 14th, 2020.

Eyes in the sky scan
an industrial complex

north of the town of
Iuka, Mississippi.

RUBEN: I'm not seeing any sign
of human activity.

It looks like this whole site
has been abandoned.

HYMEL: And then right
in the center,

you can see a cage,

and it just dwarfs
everything else in the area.

WALTERS: If Jurassic Park were
real, and you wanted

to store your Tyrannosaurus
Rexes somewhere safe,

I think this is the cage to
put them in.

NARRATOR: What's more,
the monster cage isn't

the only weird structure
to be found here.

There's this tall,
rectangular building off to

the left --
I mean, really tall.

The building, it looks like
it's made of very thick walls,

making us wonder,
could this be some kind of

military project?

NARRATOR: Analysts turn
to local land records for clues.

The two structures, it
transpires, are the legacies of

a catastrophic sequence of
errors that have plagued

this town for decades.

What we're looking at in
this image is not just one,

but really two of the world's
most expensive mistakes.

This site feels
absolutely cursed.

NARRATOR: The structures have
their origin in the early 1930s

during the horrors of
the Great Depression.

With a quarter of
people unemployed,

President Roosevelt initiates
a plan to help

the ravaged southern states.

ANNOUNCER:
This was the plan --

to chain the river
through a series of giant dams.

The idea was to start damming

up the rivers in
the Tennessee Valley.

That would both provide
energy to

the residents that live there
and give jobs.

WALTERS:
The idea behind it was great.

But there was a tremendous
amount of blowback, because in

order to create
the hydro-electric power,

you've got a flood valleys,
and doing that,

you're displacing the very
poor people you're trying

to help.

NARRATOR:
Despite these challenges,

the Tennessee Valley Authority
continues to grow,

and by the 1950s, is the biggest
energy provider in the country.

It begins constructing coal,
gas, and nuclear plants,

with towns like a Iuka vying
for the vast amounts of money

they bring in.

RUBEN: The site we see
in this image was supposed to be

the location of one of the TVA's

new, gigantic nuclear
power plants.

NARRATOR: Work finally begins
on the plant in 1978.

Hundreds of millions of
dollars pour in, and the base of

the giant cooling tower begins
to rise

above the local skyline.

But then,
disaster strikes.

Construction was already well
underway on this site when

the Three Mile Island

disaster happened, and that was
one of the biggest near misses

in nuclear history.

So, the United States goes
from this attitude of

nuclear power being
the great answer

to it now being
this great fear.

NARRATOR: The subsequent drop
in demand for nuclear power

forces authorities to pull
the plug on the plant,

losing over a billion dollars
in the process.

But this mega-sized
money pit's

problems are only
just beginning.

After the TVA built all
their infrastructure

and left, NASA tried to
move in.

SILBEY: NASA was impressed by
all the existing infrastructure

and thought that they could
use it for their own

purposes to build a factory.

ANNOUNCER: Lift off of
the 25th space shuttle

mission, and it has cleared
the tower.

NARRATOR: NASA is still
reeling from

the 1986 Challenger disaster...

OVER RADIO: Challenger,
go with throttle up.

...when a cataclysmic
explosion on

one of its rocket boosters
kills all seven crew members.

After the Challenger disaster,

NASA decided to redesign and
rebuild the solid fuel rockets,

and that's where this new
factory comes in.

These are some of the most

powerful engines
mankind has ever made.

These are awesome rockets.

NARRATOR: At liftoff, NASA's
twin boosters each

produce over 6.5 million pounds
of thrust.

They burn 11,000 pounds
of fuel a second,

two million times the rate of
the average family car.

RUBEN: That tall building that
we see in the image is where

the scientists were going to

turn the liquid fuel into
solid fuel,

which is very explosive.

NARRATOR: The space agency
also installs labs,

multimillion-dollar computer
systems, and brings in hundreds

of new workers.

By 1993, it has completed
over 80 percent of its

rocket factory and spent more
than a billion dollars.

But then the curse of Iuka
strikes again.

RUBEN: Even though NASA wanted
to redesign the rocket

boosters, instead, they made
minor design changes.

So there was
no big design overhaul

of the rocket boosters,

so this site never
got completed.

You've got to feel for
the folks in the nearby town,

because first of all,

it was this lovely big power
station that was gonna

provide jobs,
and then that goes.

Then NASA turned up.

They're going to build this
lovely, great big factory,

and again,
that's abandoned.

NARRATOR: Three decades later,
the crumbling structures

revealed from space
are all that remain

of these multibillion
dollar mistakes.

The area in this image
is like a graveyard

of broken promises -- between
the Tennessee Valley Authority

and NASA,

they spend more than
$4 billion dollars,

and yet, nobody has
anything to show for it.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
insanity island.

He tried to appoint
his own horse as consul

in the Senate.

NARRATOR: And the slayers
of the Roman Empire.

Over 600 bodies have been
found here and nearby.

NARRATOR:
January 1st, 2019.

A satellite approaching

Italy's west coast uncovers
a mystery far below.

What I'm looking at
is a small island,

but in the middle is what
appears to be a very elaborate

structure, sort of
horseshoe-shaped.

HUNT:
It looks pretty desolate.

There's no other visible sign
of life here.

WALTERS: This strikes me
as a place where something

quite strange, perhaps even
sinister, has happened,

but it doesn't look like it's
been used for a very long time.

NARRATOR: The isolated structure
sits on the Pontine Islands,

and they have long been
a place of dread and terror.

What we know from historical
records is that the Romans

used these islands as kind of
dumping grounds for

undesirables, prisoners,
you name it.

NARRATOR:
In Roman times,

the humiliation of exile on
the Pontine Islands

was often considered a fate
worse than death.

One of the most famous exiles
was Agrippina the Younger.

She was the sister of possibly

the most notorious Roman
emperor that ever

ruled, Caligula.

WALTERS: Agrippina the Younger
took part in what was known as

the Plot of Three Daggers
to get her brother murdered.

Now, that plot failed,
Agrippina was captured,

and Caligula banished
his sister to these islands.

NARRATOR: Agrippina's attempt
to murder her brother

takes place in 39 A.D.,

two years into
Emperor Caligula's rule,

a rule marked by decadence,

mass murder,
and carnal deviance.

HORTON: He was often accused of
incest and sexual depravity.

But perhaps the most famous
incident was when he tried

to appoint his own horse as
consul in the Senate.

HUNT: He was mad.

His insanity was notorious.

Could this be a place where
Agrippina was imprisoned?

NARRATOR: Historical records
reveal that the structure

appears long after the collapse
of the Roman Empire.

And it's a relic of

an equally dark period
in this country's history.

WALTERS: So what this building
is, is a prison.

It's Italy's Alcatraz.

Its history was one of
unbelievable savagery.

It became like Dante's Inferno,

with its seven levels of hell.

NARRATOR: The prison's strange
shape has its origins

in the festering jails of
18th century

England, where disease
and maltreatment kill up to

a quarter of all inmates.

Prisons before
the 18th century were never

really properly designed.

They didn't have cells.

The conditions within them
was appalling.

But out of that
came a movement to

try and create more humane
prisons to house convicts.

NARRATOR:
A leader of this movement is

the philosopher Jeremy Bentham,

who, in 1785,
designs a prison

he hopes will revolutionize
the penal system.

He calls it the panopticon.

The whole idea of the panopticon
was this incredibly

effective way of

keeping a large prison
population under control with

relatively few guards.

NARRATOR: The panopticon's
circular layout enables just

a few centrally placed guards to
constantly observe

hundreds of prisoners.

What's more,
the inmates can't tell

when they're being watched,

which Bentham hopes will force
them to behave at all times.

He believed that
prisoners should be

under the watchful eye of
guards 24-7.

That's exactly what is
accomplished in this place.

HORTON: The idea was
the prisoners could contemplate

their -- their wickedness,
and in that way,

find a route to rehabilitation.

NARRATOR:
Inspired by Bentham's vision,

Italian authorities construct
the circular island prison

in 1795.

But conditions there
soon spiral

into a hellish,
violent nightmare.

The guards in this prison
became notoriously sadistic.

Prisoners were beaten,
often to death,

and because it was
this open courtyard,

these beatings were done in
public view.

NARRATOR: Instead of improving
prisoner behavior,

the fear of constant
surveillance

also turns many of them insane.

You've got to imagine the kind
of mental impact that's gonna

have on you
for -- for months and years,

constantly thinking you're
being looked at, never having

a private moment.

It is very, very inhumane.

NARRATOR: In 1860,
brewing anger among

the inmates boils over,
and they revolt.

After overpowering
the few guards,

they take over the island and
establish their own republic.

It became an extraordinary
little sort of micro nation

run by prisoners,

a kind of prisoner
utopia on this tiny,

rocky, barren island.

In 1861, the following year,
the Italians storm the island,

take back control, and
the short-lived republic is

sadly, in some ways, no more.

NARRATOR:
During the 20th century,

fascist dictator Benito
Mussolini uses the island

prison to incarcerate his
opponents before it finally

closes in 1965.

Today, Italy's Alcatraz is
a crumbling monument

to a doomed vision,
visible from space.

HORTON:
This panopticon prison

was built with lofty ideals
of prison reform,

and the deep irony is
it's actually ended up

crushing them.

NARRATOR:
Coming up,

Hitler's secret witch hunters.

There was a concerted attempt
by Nazi Germany to make

this site a part of
the history of Nazism.

NARRATOR: July 2020.

A survey plane
scanning dense forest in

northern Poland fires laser
beams at the canopy,

producing a Lidar image of
what lies beneath.

This image doesn't even look
like it's the Earth's surface.

It looks more like
a moonscape.

It actually looks like
diseased or pocked skin.

This is really strange.

NARRATOR: Around 30 of
the mystery features scar

the landscape, some more than
100 feet in diameter.

The shadows in this image
reveal that a good number

of these circular structures
are mounds,

they're raised from the earth.

MORGAN: When you see
mound-building like this,

in many cases,
it's associated with burial.

NARRATOR: Archaeological
records confirm

the image has uncovered a vast
cemetery dating back

some 2,000 years.

The people who created this
were Goths, and this ancient

cemetery tells us a great deal
about what their culture was.

NARRATOR: The Goths were
a Germanic people who rose

up against Roman rule during
the 4th century A.D.

In 410 A.D.,

they capture and loot Rome,

triggering
the empire's collapse.

The site in
the image was likely used to

inter many of the leaders of

these history-changing warriors.

Over 600 bodies have been
found here

and in the barrows nearby.

It's a site of incredible
archaeological

and cultural significance.

NARRATOR:
Over the following centuries,

Poland's forests
claim the Goth tombs,

and the site disappears from

the archaeological record.

But around 100 years ago,

it returns to play a bizarre
role in some of the vilest

events in human history.

After the Germans capture and
occupy Poland, they declared

this a sight of
German national identity.

CHAMBERLAIN: Their
archaeologists found that

the stones were arranged
in a sun, moon, stars --

the pattern, it led them
to believe that

this was some sort of
ancient observatory.

NARRATOR: Hitler is obsessed
with Aryanism,

the theory that the Nazis are
descended from superior races

and are therefore entitled
to rule the world.

By proving the Germanic Goths

could create an advanced
solar observatory,

he hopes to show that his evil
ideology has legitimate roots.

MORGAN: The Nazis wanted to draw
a direct line that connected

modern-day national socialism

to the cultural and
religious practices of

early Germans.

NARRATOR: During the Nazis'
rise to power,

head of the SS, Heinrich
Himmler, also develops

a new religion,

one that adopts the occultic
rituals of tribes like

the Goths.

As part of his obsession
with the dark arts,

he forms a unit
dedicated to witchcraft,

the Hexen-Sonderauftrag.

One of the things that
this group does is they

go throughout the records
and the archives

in libraries and look at
witch trials and burnings.

BELLINGER: One really crazy idea
they had was that the historic

witch trials
were actually part of

a Jewish, Catholic conspiracy
to wipe out the authentic

German faith and the true
Germanic origins of society.

NARRATOR: Working in secret,
the unit combs through

the records of hundreds of
medieval witch trials

and executions.

It's psychotic,
but they were seriously

attempting to come up with proof

to advance this false
narrative that Jews and early

Christians suppressed
ancient Germans.

It's not uncommon for military
people to be superstitious.

The Nazis took it to another
level, and they tried

to incorporate occult into
an advantage on

the battlefield.

NARRATOR: The Nazis go on
to use occultic rituals

and beliefs as crazed
justification

for the murder of millions.

And the place
that helped give rise to

these atrocities can now be
revealed from the skies.

There was a concerted
attempt to make this site

a part of the history
and heritage of Nazism.