Original subtitles

Massive structures that are visible from space.

A vast kingdom built in the clouds.

And sprawling stone cities

precisely aligned with the stars.

Scattered across the globe lie mysterious ruins

that are buried in sand-swept deserts,

perched atop towering mountains

and shrouded under the cover of dense jungles.

These ancient structures stand

as ghostly landmarks from the past,

their true history seemingly erased

by the relentless march of time.

Can modern archaeology unravel the enigma

of how and why these wonders were built?

Well, that is what we’ll try and find out.

Titan II rockets lift the Gemini IV

spacecraft into orbit.

Astronauts James McDivitt and Edward White circle

the Earth 62 times in four days,

famously achieving the first-ever

spacewalk by an American.

As part of their mission,

the astronauts take hundreds of photos

that offer an unprecedented view of our planet.

But one particular picture attracts attention

because it shows a structure that looks like

a massive eye

sitting in the middle of the Sahara desert.

The astronauts spotted something

that looked like an enormous, 30-mile-wide circular shape,

which had a center

surrounded by concentric rings of stone and sand.

And it looked just like a giant eye

from all the way up in space.

Hence, it came to be known as the Eye of the Sahara.

More than 50 years after the Eye of the Sahara

was revealed to the world, it remains a fascinating enigma,

and a striking sight to behold.

Locals call it the "Qalb ar-Risat"

or the "Richat Structure,"

and this unique formation

has raised more questions than answers.

The Richat Structure is located off the coast

of northwest Africa in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

This formation is considered to be a geological feature

that is volcanic in nature.

However, there is still scientific mystery to it.

For example, what’s so wild about this site

is its spectacular fashion of concentric circles

which are total anomalies.

The Richat Structure is truly one of a kind

in that we don’t see anything like it anywhere else on Earth.

While the Eye of the Sahara continues to puzzle experts,

in recent years, a remarkable new theory

about this mysterious structure has been presented.

It’s believed that this location could have once been the site

of a fabled island kingdom that has never been found:

the legendary Lost City of Atlantis.

The story of Atlantis

comes down to us from the Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato describes Atlantis as a huge island,

and he says that on this island

was this incredibly advanced civilization.

Atlantis had been founded by the gods themself.

By Atlas, and before that, Poseidon.

And it was ruled over by the descendants of these gods.

Atlantis is a compelling mystery to us

because it’s been a part of our western society

for a long, long time and yet we’ve never found it.

Now, recently, it’s been suggested that

the Richat Structure, also known as the Eye of the Sahara,

might be a contender for this.

Not many people normally

locate Atlantis in the Sahara.

Um, but that’s not as far-fetched as it might sound.

When you think of the Saraha now,

you think of just vast sand,

but it used to be a very lush, green environment.

With recent scientific studies,

we now know that the Sahara Desert was

a tropical paradise up until 5,000 years ago.

It had some of the largest network

of rivers ever known to exist.

It had the largest freshwater lake ever known to exist,

which is Mega Lake Chad.

There is evidence of sea life.

Mollusks have been found in and around the Richat Structure.

There are massive salt deposits,

which is evidence that the ocean had once settled

and later evaporated there.

So the Sahara Desert, as we see it today,

and the area around the Richat Structure

is simply not what it was in prehistoric times.

Even if the Eye of the Sahara was surrounded by water

in the ancient past, there are numerous locations

that have been proposed as the site of Atlantis.

So what makes this place such a compelling candidate?

Many believe a clue can be found

in Plato’s writings about Atlantis.

According to Plato, Atlantis was

technologically advanced, it was well fortified.

And it was a series of concentric rings,

sort of a super island, a super state.

Atlantis was said to be made up of concentric circles,

which matches what you see

at the Eye of the Sahara precisely.

This truly unique resemblance of concentric circles

is a massive similarity that can’t be ignored.

In addition to concentric rings,

researchers have found many more striking similarities between

the Eye of the Sahara and Plato’s description of Atlantis.

Atlantis was said to have an opening to the sea at the south.

Which is also what you see at the Richat Structure.

Anyone that looks at it from satellite imagery

can see clear evidence

that there is an opening at the south.

And not only that, evidence of a drainage,

that water had flowed right through it.

But the similarities don’t end there.

Atlantis was said to be made up of red,

black and white color stone,

which is another precise similarity

you see at the Richat Structure.

Atlantis was said to have mountains to the north.

And it just so happens that there is a massive

mountain chain to the north of the Richat Structure

called the Atlas Mountains.

Which just so happens to share the same exact name

of the very first king of Atlantis.

Atlas.

The sheer number

of similarities between Plato’s description

and the Eye is compelling.

But some believe that even more evidence lies

not just in Greek texts

but also in a curious map from Ancient Rome.

This map was created by the Romans’ very first geographer,

whose name was Pomponius Mela.

And what’s so interesting is that on Pomponius Mela’s map,

in northwest Africa,

it annotates Atlantis precisely in the same location

that you would find the Richat Structure.

And so the more that we research,

the more information that comes to light,

it suggests that the Eye of the Sahara is indeed

the long-lost location for Atlantis.

But if the Eye of the Sahara was really

the site of Atlantis, then it begs the question

what happened to the ruins of the city?

Because no remnants of ancient buildings

have ever been found at this location.

Some believe the answer may lie in Plato’s account

of the fall of Atlantis.

Plato describes this amazing, sophisticated city.

And yet the more they acquired, they were not satisfied.

They kept reaching, kept reaching,

until, according to Plato,

they incurred the wrath of the gods.

The god Zeus decided that he would destroy Atlantis

in one night and a day

through earthquakes and floods.

And Atlantis then sank beneath the waves

somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

What’s interesting is that the Eye of the Sahara

is approximately 250 miles inland off the Atlantic Coast.

And what’s so fascinating is that when you look at it

from space, you can see clear evidence

of catastrophic water erosion,

these massive striations that anyone can see.

This shows that a force of water that goes far beyond

anything we ever thought was possible

bulldozed right over the Eye of the Sahara,

going from east to west

to the Atlantic Ocean,

which matches that Atlantis was said

to have been destroyed in a cataclysmic water event.

So, if the ruins of Atlantis were to be found,

it’s going to be off the Atlantic coast.

If Atlantis was a real thing, if we perhaps discover it someday...

Which we may, of course... We could learn a lot from that.

It would change our, knowledge about the past.

The story of Atlantis, this Sahara civilization,

could be almost an origin story for human civilization.

Certainly in that part of the world.

The striking aerial view of the Eye of the Sahara

continues to evoke Plato’s description of the fabled city,

and inspires further investigation.

But in Southern Peru,

there’s another mysterious structure

that can only be properly appreciated from the sky,

because it was built

nearly 8,000 feet above sea level.

Perched precariously on a mountaintop

nearly 8,000 feet above sea level

lies an ancient city that looks like

it’s floating in the clouds.

Built around 1450 AD,

this curious engineering marvel

stands as the crowning achievement

of the Inca Empire,

and is known as Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu is a technological marvel.

For one thing, it’s a fairly good-sized city,

and it was built at an incredibly high elevation.

And it’s sculpted into the mountains.

It takes a bit of time to even get up there.

The moment you walk in, you think to yourself,

"How did anyone build this

on top of sheer cliffs?"

It’s a perilous journey.

The mountainside is straight up and down.

And so, after climbing up to this huge height,

you see that the buildings themselves

seem to blend into the landscape.

As an archaeologist who has worked on sites

around the world and seen incredible

engineering achievements,

Machu Picchu kind of blows it all away.

We’re talking massive, multi-ton stones

shaped and moved into place

and they fit together perfectly.

And this mountain site somehow was transformed

into an enduring city

and survives 500 years later in

absolutely perfect condition.

Perhaps the greatest mystery of Machu Picchu

is why did the ancient Incas choose

to build a sprawling city

in such an inaccessible mountain location?

The Incas had an incredibly sophisticated culture.

We know that in the Inca Empire, when a building was built,

it had to be made strong in the spiritual world

as well as in the physical world.

As you walk through, you can see how the Inca artists

echoed the shapes of all the mountains

in the construction of Machu Picchu,

in honor of the mountain gods around it.

On the other hand, just saying that

only tells us a little bit.

There is still a huge amount of mystery

about what Machu Picchu was for.

Some believe that Machu Picchu’s true purpose may be connected

to the great ruler who ordered its construction,

Emperor Pachacuti.

Machu Picchu was built by the Emperor Pachacuti,

who’s known as really the founder

of the imperial phase of the Inca state.

One thing to remember is that in the Inca Empire,

the emperors con... Were considered divine.

They were considered like gods.

And when an emperor died, his body was mummified.

And it was treated as if he was still alive,

so that their worship could continue.

And so after Pachacuti’s death,

his family would still go and use Machu Picchu.

And we believe that when they did so,

they brought the mummified body of the emperor with them.

Did Emperor Pachacuti build Machu Picchu

to be a sacred site in the mountains,

where his mummy could rest for all eternity?

It seems like a reasonable theory,

but there’s just one problem.

Pachacuti’s remains have never been found.

However, in recent years,

some have suggested that the emperor’s mummy

may be hidden in a secret chamber

at Machu Picchu.

In 2010, a French engineer by the name

of David Crespy

was doing some measuring work

within the city of Machu Picchu.

And he noticed what was quite clearly

a doorway, blocked up by stones.

And it clearly was blocking the entrance

into some kind of chamber.

He reported it immediately to the authorities

and people have suggested that this might well be

the entrance into some kind of tomb.

We could be looking at a royal burial.

So is it the tomb of Pachacuti?

Now, they did more tests and more scans,

and they found what appeared to be gold-lined steps

going down into this area.

They wanted to push forward and excavate this,

because this would have been, without a doubt,

the most important discovery ever found at Machu Picchu.

But then, apparently,

the Peruvian government have kind of put a block on it

and stopped the progression of this.

Because they were concerned if it was dug into,

it may collapse.

Are Pachacuti’s mummified remains,

and with them, the secrets of Machu Picchu,

concealed in this chamber?

For now, the answers may lie behind a stone wall.

But perhaps there’s another way

to solve the mysteries of Machu Picchu.

Although the Inca did not leave behind any written records,

they did encode information

in strange threads that are known as quipus.

Quipus are twisted cords that redefine what writing is,

because some of them are incredibly complex

with hundreds of pendants, dozens of colors,

and they have knots that represented words,

and they were read syllable by syllable.

If you’re in an empire, like the Incas,

where people spoke many, many, many different languages,

if you have a writing system or a communication system

that is not tied to speech, but uses symbols, uses ideas,

then people who speak different languages

can come together and understand those records.

Now, what’s really mysterious

is that there were narrative quipus.

And, supposedly, these narrative quipus had biographies.

They had poems. They had histories.

They served as letters.

The Incas would have used quipus

during the construction of Machu Picchu.

If we could decipher them,

quipus could give us insights into that whole process.

That could really unlock the mysteries of the Incas for us.

Could untangling messages encoded in intricate rope knots

reveal the true purpose of Machu Picchu?

For now, the quest for answers

about this mountain kingdom continues.

But there’s a Native American structure

that stands in New Mexico

which experts believe may be even more baffling.

Because its secrets

were written in the stars.

In the stifling deserts of northwest New Mexico

lies a ten-mile-long rugged expanse called Chaco Canyon.

The landscape consists of high mesas,

sandstone cliffs and arid flatlands,

giving the impression that humans would never

inhabit this remote area.

Which is why it’s so surprising that within this desert

lie the ruins of what was once an ancient Native American city

that was centered in the heart of Chaco Canyon.

Chaco Canyon is considered a marvel

of engineering

because it’s a desert landscape.

It’s a pretty, secluded location.

Materials had to come from a long way off.

We really don’t know why they decided to build there.

The time period for the occupation of Chaco Canyon

starts around 500 AD.

And it goes all the way up to...

we’re told, 1070 AD,

and Chaco Canyon is one of the largest structures

of the ancient people that were put on the planet.

The builders of Chaco Canyon

were the Ancestral Puebloans,

a prehistoric Native American group

centered around the southwestern United States.

Unlike many of their Native American neighbors,

who maintained a traditional, nomadic lifestyle,

the Pueblo people built

an astonishing, quasi-urban settlement

centered around Chaco Canyon

in a set of 75 or more sites

housing up to 5,000 people.

So why choose

this location so specifically?

It’s hard to imagine why the Ancient Puebloans

decided to build a grand city in the middle of the desert.

But some believe that a clue lies in the fact

that the structures in Chaco Canyon

were painstakingly and perfectly oriented

with the cosmos.

The celestial alignments at Chaco Canyon

are absolutely amazing.

These guys built structures

aligned with the stars.

With the Sun and the Moon.

And we don’t understand a lot of it.

But that tells me that there was

a very religious significance to these structures.

Was Chaco Canyon built in a harsh desert

for spiritual, instead of pragmatic, reasons?

It’s a fascinating theory,

but perhaps the bigger mystery of this ancient city

is not why it was built but rather...

why it was abandoned.

Because in the 12th century AD,

the people of Chaco Canyon just disappeared.

This whole area of the Ancestral Pueblo groups

had grown into these great big structures,

and yet, suddenly, they are all abandoned.

And this happened very, very quickly.

A big question is why?

We don’t know, but whatever it was,

it was dramatic, it was drastic...

In some cases, almost overnight.

People sort of leaving meals and getting out.

And so we know that the great city-state was abandoned,

but what we do not have is sort of a written record

of what these people were thinking or believing.

What happened to the inhabitants of Chaco Canyon?

Well, we know they left behind some incredible monuments,

but what we also know is that this same area

is absolutely steeped in paranormal phenomena.

Mysterious lights have been seen there.

Other types of electromagnetic energy have been reported.

And is it possible, therefore,

that these energies are something

that the Chaco Canyon people actually experienced?

Was the abandonment of Chaco Canyon

somehow connected to paranormal phenomena?

It may sound farfetched to some.

But according to former

U.S. Special Operations Officer David Morehouse,

the government actually studied bizarre anomalies

in Chaco Canyon during the 1980s.

I was the only Special Operations Combat Arms Officer

ever assigned to a CIA, DIA,

Director of Science and Technology

Special Access Program.

It was code-named Sun Streak.

The United States government orchestrated the program in 1987

to investigate the source of anomalous phenomena

which was ascending and descending

over the Chaco Canyon area.

So we decided to keep a vigil over the night sky.

And one night, at exactly 0100 in the morning,

directly above Pueblo Alto,

something was happening in the night sky.

It was like looking at the translucent surface of water.

But hanging in the sky in an oval shape.

It seemed to bend the light of the stars behind it.

And then, after a short time,

approximately 18 to 20 minutes...

it was just gone.

Chattering amongst ourselves,

about what we just witnessed,

we described this as opening and closing.

And perhaps that is a jump

well outside any scientific reasoning.

But it is simply how it felt and looked to us.

That doesn’t happen without something unexplained

facilitating the event.

We called it a portal or a vortex, that very night.

Could there really be a portal in Chaco Canyon,

as David Morehouse claims?

And if so, might that explain why

the inhabitants of this desert city mysteriously vanished?

Perhaps further clues can be found by examining

a curious rock carving in Chaco Canyon.

In Chaco Canyon, there’s a place called Fajada Butte.

The butte rises almost like a monolith

out of the desert landscape.

And near the top of this butte

is a petroglyph

that’s carved into the rock.

And this petroglyph’s actually quite large.

It’s a circular spiral.

The spiral itself, actually, is a sign of migration

into a different dimension.

So, we’re thinking that that could be

re-interpreted as, a portal, also.

It’s very possible that the builders

of Chaco Canyon may have traveled

through a portal to a different dimension.

Because they disappeared mysteriously.

There was something unique about this place,

and there had to be some sort of an interaction with something.

Enough to draw an entire civilization of people there.

Enough to cause these people to draw spirals into rocks.

Based on my observations, my interpretation is that

a portal exists in Chaco Canyon.

Is there an inter-dimensional portal at Chaco Canyon?

To understand both the site’s mysterious origins

and strange modern-day phenomena,

we still need to dig deeper for the truth.

And the same could be said

about a structure in the jungles of Indonesia

that looks like an ordinary mountain peak,

but is actually...

the ruins of a giant pyramid.

In the countryside of this lush, tropical island

located in the Indian Ocean,

lies a mountain that, from a distance,

looks no different from any other peak in the region.

But close examination of the mountaintop reveals

a series of ancient stone terraces

that are littered with thousands of megalithic blocks.

This intriguing site

is known as Gunung Padang.

Gunung Padang has all these remarkable

kind of hexagonal basalt columns

as part of the entire construction.

Hundreds of thousands of them, in fact.

Each of the stones, they weigh up to about

a third of a ton each.

They make up the foundation, and they’re also placed

in certain configurations at the top.

There’s something very powerful about this place.

It was only really rediscovered

by farmers over the last few decades.

It’s almost untouched.

It’s like it hasn’t been known about for thousands of years.

It makes you wonder who could have done this and when.

The thousands of stone blocks

strewn atop Gunung Padang are a perplexing sight.

It’s hard to imagine what structure

they could have been part of, or what purpose they served.

And the origin of these curious ruins

has long been shrouded in mystery.

But in 2013, archaeologists excavating the mountain

discovered that the truth about this mysterious site

is hidden beneath layers of dirt and rubble.

A team of experts did drilling, they did radar surveys,

and they did radiocarbon testing.

And what this revealed is that beneath the site

that is visible today, which includes a number of

incredible stone settings and rock mounds,

is something even more incredible.

We now know that this site

does actually conceal beneath it

a massive pyramid complex.

Gunung Padang is really like a step pyramid

buried in stone and earth.

The evidence suggests this is extremely ancient

and it’s a very, very important place.

The revelation that Gunung Padang is actually

the ruins of a massive pyramid made headlines around the world.

And in recent years, further investigation

of the site has been led by geologist Danny Hilman.

Danny and his team believe

they have uncovered evidence of a hidden chamber.

The discovery of numerous chambers

buried underground

has added to the mystery of Gunung Padang.

But the most significant discovery so far

is that this structure might be

the oldest pyramid ever built.

Ancient Egypt’s Pyramid of Djoser has long been

considered the world’s oldest pyramid.

But based on Danny Hilman’s research,

Gunung Padang’s buried pyramid

could be 10,000 or even 20,000 years older.

If Gunung Padang is a 20,000-year-old pyramid,

it would place an hitherto undiscovered culture

at the heart of Indonesia.

And it would completely disrupt our understanding

of the evolution of human technology around the world.

If Gunung Padang was really built 20,000 years ago,

then our ancestors were far more advanced than we commonly think.

And further evidence of surprising ancient technology

can be found at a mysterious temple complex

in Bolivia called Puma Punku.

The site contains stone blocks

that were carved so precisely

some believe they were cut not by man but rather...

by machine.

Spanish explorer Pedro Cieza de Leon leads

a group of conquistadors through the Andes mountains

when he stumbles upon the ruins of a vast, abandoned city.

The astonishing site contains numerous temples

made out of massive stones.

Though its builders disappeared long before the Spanish arrived,

locals call the city Tiahuanaco.

Tiahuanaco is an elaborate example of skill in stonework.

Spanish conquistadors, in their chronicles,

described it specifically.

It was wondrous, as they said.

And it consisted of gateways and windows

carved from single blocks of stone.

They just could not imagine how it was created.

Ever since Spanish explorers discovered

the awe-inspiring ruins of Tiahuanaco,

archaeologists have been eager to unravel its mysteries.

In the 20th century, modern excavations revealed

the enormous scope of this ancient metropolis.

Tiahuanaco was the city capital

of a powerful, pre-Hispanic empire

that dominated the south Andes between around 500 to 900 AD.

The Tiahuanacans were a really advanced civilization.

Looking at the stonework today,

it would have been an incredibly time-intensive, laborious task

without power tools.

And yet, they managed it.

The most mysterious ruin at Tiahuanaco

is a terrace platform called Puma Punku.

Scattered across the site are enormous stone blocks,

each carved with such laser-like precision

that we still don’t know

how they were so perfectly fashioned.

There are places all around the world that have megaliths,

giant stones, but Puma Punku in particular

has stones that are not just multi-ton stones.

But they are carved in such a way where

you couldn’t even slip a piece of paper between the stones.

And it’s a mystery how exactly

they were able to put these stones

together like they were little Lego blocks.

The craftsmanship is really far superior

to anything that we have seen before.

How did they stack them up?

How did they work with them?

They had something that we no longer have.

How did ancient people

manage to craft enormous stones

with such precise angles

and intricate patterns?

The answer may lie in a curious story

from Tiahuanaco mythology.

In the traditional creation stories of Puma Punku,

it’s said that the great god Viracocha created

a race of giants from the mud or earth,

and then controlled them and gave them consciousness.

And they created and built the sites in the area.

If you go to the museum at Puma Punku

and museums in the area,

you see these gigantic, elongated skulls on display.

And it makes you wonder if these were classed as giants

by the native inhabitants.

And when you go to Puma Punku,

the traditions of giants really resonate when you see

the size of some of these stones in the construction.

The largest stone block at Puma Punku

weighs 144 tons.

Whether the myth is fact or fiction,

to move such an object

would certainly be a giant task.

And according to legend, giants

also had a part to play

in the destruction of Puma Punku.

According to the traditions, the giants

became out of control, cannibalistic,

terrorizing the local inhabitants.

And so the creator god Viracocha

had to completely destroy them by a flood.

And when you go to the site today, you can see that

it almost looks like a tidal wave or tsunami

has been wiped over the land, and knocked these giant stones

around like Lego blocks.

And scattered them at vast distances.

And so it looks like something happened

which just took out the whole site

and all the inhabitants of the area.

For centuries, the truth about Puma Punku

has been shrouded in myth and folklore,

leaving many to wonder if its full history

will ever be unraveled.

But then, in 2018,

French geopolymer scientist Joseph Davidovits

published a fascinating new study

in which he theorized that the stones at Puma Punku

were not carved and moved into place

but rather molded together.

He did what archeologists had never done.

He looked at the stones of Puma Punku

under a microscope.

And what he saw was that they weren’t

just regular basalt.

They were actually polymers of varying things

that were glued together.

And that shouldn’t have happened in regular,

naturally-occurring stones.

So he theorized that they were created

in a kind of ancient cement.

Turned into big molds.

And that they were put together in forms.

They weren’t carved.

They were created to fit together.

Have modern archaeologists

finally solved the mystery of Puma Punku?

It appears that only time will tell.

But technology is providing new insights

into many other ancient structures around the world.

Like a curious series of ruins

that were recently found

in the middle of the Arabian desert.

In this arid region,

located in the Arabian Desert.

Summer temperatures average more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit

during the daytime.

The landscape is a desolate expanse

of jagged rock formations

and smoldering volcano fields.

But incredibly, in 2017,

archaeologists analyzing satellite images of this desert

discovered the ruins of more than 400

ancient, man-made structures.

A recent aerial survey using Google Earth,

a relatively new technology, has identified

huge formations

of piles of stones that are in odd shapes.

They look like keyholes

or kites.

And there are hundreds of these, and they’re rather large.

Some of them are as much as

a kilometer in size.

It’s been suggested that they could be

as old as 9,000 years.

But to date, we don’t know what their purpose is.

This area is literally dangerous.

It’s inhospitable.

And why these features were built there

remains somewhat of a mystery.

What’s also interesting is these various configurations.

Some people say they look like gates.

But we find other designs.

We find abstract motifs.

We find symbols

that can’t be explained.

So, who would have constructed these in such a remote region?

They may have been made specifically

for a purpose we just don’t know.

Archaeologists continue to try and unravel the mystery

of these strange formations in the Arabian desert.

But what’s undeniable is that modern technology

is both revealing ancient structures

and providing new clues that could finally shed light

on the secrets they have held for centuries.

It’s really exciting that satellite imagery

is available to the general public

and not just to scholars.

This whole new generation of archeologists

can sit at home and do the same kind

of reconnaissance that experts can do over a site.

It’s a game changer.

Another big technology is lidar.

Lidar’s... a way you can map the ground and the terrain,

and it can peer through, the vegetation.

So in places where there’s a heavy overgrowth of vegetation,

it has uncovered vastly more archaeological monuments

than we knew was there.

So we’re absolutely on the verge

of a huge opening up of archeological discoveries.

This is really going to help us to understand

the vast complexity of human civilization

and our story here on Earth.

Was the Eye of the Sahara the location of Atlantis?

Is Gunung Padang the oldest pyramid ever built?

And how were the massive blocks

at Puma Punku so perfectly fashioned?

Perhaps further examination of these ruins with new,

cutting-edge technology will one day reveal the answers.

But until then, the mystery of both

wondrous ancient structures

and the civilizations who built them, will remain...

unexplained.

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