All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S11E09.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR:
They're watching you.

More than 6,000 satellites
circle the Earth.

Every day,
they uncover new,

mysterious phenomena
that defy explanation.

Revealed from the skies,

Armageddon in
the land of the Bible.

EGLASH: Wow, look at
this devastation here.

That's unreal.

NARRATOR:
Debauchery in the swamps.

KERLEY: People could do just
about whatever they wanted.

It was pretty wild.

NARRATOR:
And death and salvation

at the end of the world.

HORTON: This played a critical
part in one of the most

extraordinary survival stories

of human history.

NARRATOR: Baffling phenomena,
mysteries from space.

What on Earth are they?

[theme music playing]

February 2022,
Israel.

Journalist Ruth Eglash
is journeying through

the 4,000-mile-long
Rift Valley,

drawn here by
a worrying phenomenon

captured from the sky.

What's happening here is
really weird

and a little bit scary.

NARRATOR: Drone footage taken
above the east of

the country has revealed
an unfolding catastrophe in

coastal areas.

These look almost like
gigantic teeth marks,

as if someone is chewing
away at the shorelines.

DENNIE: They're almost
perfectly round,

and it turned this coastline
into what looks like

Swiss cheese.

NARRATOR:
Some of the chasms have

the appearance of sinkholes,

but their number and magnitude
are unprecedented.

KOUROUNIS: These holes
appeared in clusters,

but there's no clear indication
as to what's forming them,

and the fact that
there are so many

just adds to the mystery.

JANULIS: The only thing
I've seen that looks like this

essentially is the remnants
of a battlefield

after artillery strikes.

NARRATOR: The giant craters are
eating away at land

around the Dead Sea,

a place that has held deep
significance to humankind

for millennia.

The Dead Sea is one of
the most remarkable places

on Earth,

with evidence of continuous
occupation that goes back into

the Stone Age.

EGLASH: The Dead Sea,
it has a special place

in the hearts of people
around the world.

NARRATOR: According to
the Bible, the Dead Sea

was once verdant
and filled with life.

It also contains stories
that echoed

the destruction revealed
from the skies.

HORTON: It's been a place
people visited

because of its extraordinary
magical qualities.

But perhaps the Dead Sea is
most famous for

the stories around
two twin cities

known as Sodom and Gomorrah.

[people shouting]

KOUROUNIS: The tales go that
Sodom and Gomorra were

destroyed entirely
by fire and brimstone,

leaving nothing left behind,
not even vegetation.

NARRATOR: According to
the book of Genesis,

God brings devastation to
the twin cities as punishment

for their sins
and sexual immorality,

devastation that could explain

the giant voids
in the aerial footage.

Most explanations

that are credible about
the destruction of Sodom

and Gomorrah are geological
ones based on seismic activity.

HORTON:
The Dead Sea is at the end

of the Great East African
rift valley,

and it's an area that's very
unstable with earthquakes,

and I just wonder
whether our holes

are in some ways related
to these earthquakes.

NARRATOR: Eglash continues
eastward, bearing down

on the site in the images.

It is believed that Sodom
and Gomorrah once stood

in an area of the Dead Sea
much like this one.

Approaching the coast,

the journalist finds
more evidence

that history could be
repeating itself.

This is weird.

The road is supposed to carry
on here, but it ends suddenly.

The ground is opening up.

It's like someone
just pulled it apart.

That's...unreal.

I don't know if I should get
too much closer here.

NARRATOR: As Eglash
approaches the shoreline,

the scale of the
destruction intensifies.

Wow! Look at
this devastation here.

This is unbelievable.

There's a whole building,

it seems to have
just collapsed

inside this enormous hole
right here.

NARRATOR: It appears
that this was once

a thriving coastal resort,

but it is now being consumed
from below,

forcing its residents to flee.

EGLASH:
This place is just eerie.

That looks like a gas station.

Looks like they got out of
here in a hurry.

They just ripped
everything from

the walls as quick as
they could,

saved everything that
needed saving,

and they got out of here.

This destruction is on
an almost unimaginable scale.

NARRATOR: Further aerial images
show that this isn't

the only community
being devoured

by the mystery craters.

Many more have materialized
along the Dead Sea's shores,

and the rate at which they're
appearing is increasing.

JANULIS: This is something
significant going on here.

It's basically
the whole coastline

is littered with the things.

KOUROUNIS: There are literally
thousands of these holes.

What could be causing this?

NARRATOR: Local records reveal
the devastation is

the consequence of decades of
political upheaval

and conflict,

a tragic side effect of
humankind's attempts

to play God
with these historic lands.

This area has turned into
a very dangerous place to live.

It's shocking.

The Dead Sea is
dying right in front of us.

CERVENY: These strange holes
have ramifications

for the entire world.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
decoding the Dead Sea.

EGLASH: This is amazing.

I mean, it's incredible.

NARRATOR:
And the lost temple of heaven.

We're talking an ancient
megastructure on a scale

basically never seen before
on this planet.

NARRATOR: Aerial images have
revealed town-swallowing craters

around the Dead Sea,

echoing the biblical destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Ruth Eglash is investigating.

Hi, there,
Captain Jacky.

Thank you so much for having
me on your boat.

To learn more,
Eglash is

meeting with Jacky Ben Zaken,
who has

worked on the Dead Sea
almost a decade.

Like so many people here,

his life has been devastated
by the mysterious craters

on its shores.

EGLASH: What's the impact in
this area?

Well, families lost
their livelihood,

and people left --
people left the area.

NARRATOR: According to Jacky,
the disaster here is

the culmination of
a series of events

three million years
in the making.

BEN ZAKEN: In order to
understand the problem

of the Dead Sea,
we have to understand

the uniqueness of the Dead Sea.

NARRATOR: The Dead Sea
was originally formed when

flooding from
the Mediterranean created

a giant lagoon.

Two million years ago,

rising tectonic plates cut
the lagoon off from the ocean,

and over time, it turns into
a highly saline inland sea.

There's less water going in
that is going out

through evaporation,

making it saltier and saltier
and saltier.

NARRATOR: Throughout
the Dead Sea's history,

the salt in its waters

has precipitated into
the bedrock,

meaning it now sits on layers
of the mineral

up to 55 feet thick.

All of the salt that has been
produced when the sea dried up

in the past is still there.

It lies underneath the sea
in layers of rock.

Ben Zaken also reveals that
the unique geology here has

created giant columns of salt
that rise up from the seabed.

You look down,
you see how deep it is.

EGLASH:
This is amazing.

I mean, I knew the Dead sea
was salty, but to see it

like this, it's incredible.

NARRATOR:
For countless millennia,

the Dead Sea's salt beds
remain stable.

But when Israel declares
its independence in 1948,

events unfold which trigger
the disaster

revealed from the skies.

Water is everything here.
Water is worth more than gold.

So, to ensure the survival of
the newly created country

of Israel, they had to make sure
they had water.

NARRATOR:
To secure its water,

in 1953, Israel turns
to the River Jordan,

the main source of water
for the Dead Sea.

Palestine, Syria, Lebanon,
and Jordan also siphon

their supplies from
the 223-mile-long waterway.

The River Jordan
had its water flow

massively reduced by
Israel's water program.

JANULIS: The entire history of
the region is one of warfare

over water.

So anytime somebody modifies
the water system,

you're looking at
potential conflict,

and that's exactly
what happened.

NARRATOR: Escalating disputes
over water supplies

between Israel and Arab nations

are one of the contributing
factors of the Six-Day War

in 1967.

The 132-hour conflict
claims over 20,000 lives

and results in Israel
laying claim to land

in the West Bank
and Golan Heights.

The name of the war,
the Six Days War,

makes it sound like a sort of
minor incident.

But it wasn't, it changed

the entire political landscape
of the Middle East.

NARRATOR:
Over the following decades,

more and more water is
diverted from the River Jordan,

meaning just 11 percent
of the once mighty waterway

now trickles into the Dead Sea.

EGLASH: You can really see how
the water has receded.

Where that jetty is,
that was where the water was.

And today,
we're all the way down here.

It's unbelievable.

NARRATOR: Every year, the water
level here drops by three feet.

When it rains,
freshwater flows into cracks in

the newly exposed shoreline,

dissolving the thick layers
of salt below.

This creates chasms,
which then collapse.

The challenge for Jacky
and the other locals here

is predicting when
this will happen.

-And you see that's...whoa!
-[shrieks]

-That's okay. That's a sinkhole.
-Okay.

[indistinct]

-Whoa.
-You see, that's a sinkhole.

Don't want to get
too close to the edge.

BEN ZAKEN: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Every year,

hundreds more holes,
up to 100 feet deep,

materialize along the coast.

For locals like Jacky,

the effect is devastating,
and thousands may

soon be forced to flee
these historic shores.

Why should you stay --
I mean, why --

why should you live in a place
where you don't see a future?

NARRATOR: Hour by hour,

the Dead Sea's water level
continues to drop,

meaning the situation here
will only get worse.

For now,
all the authorities can do is

continue to monitor
the devastation from the skies.

The Dead Sea is clearly one of
the greatest wonders of

the world, but if it keeps
receding the way it has,

there'll be nothing left.

HORTON:
If the Dead Sea was to dry up,

it would be a real tragedy
to humanity.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
wild times in the Wild West.

You came to this town,
and whatever your vice was

was wide open.

NARRATOR:
And ice tomb.

Being trapped in Antarctica is
a death sentence.

NARRATOR:
June 2020,

California.

A drone scans
the 550-square-mile expanse

of the San Francisco Bay.

You have this vast,
empty area,

and it looks to be
some sort of marsh.

But when we look closer,
you start to see

that there's also
a scattered handful

of dilapidated old buildings.

NARRATOR: The crumbling
structures sit between

the cities of Fremont
and Palo Alto.

KERLEY: We are talking some of
the most expensive

real estate in the world,

and then inside
these marshes is a ghost town.

NARRATOR: Local records reveal
the mystery settlement is

called Drawbridge,

and its history is one steeped
in blood, lust, and vice.

KERLEY: People could do
just about whatever

they wanted to do
in Drawbridge.

It was pretty wild.

NARRATOR:
Drawbridge has its origins

in the 19th century
Gold Rush,

when San Francisco's
population explodes from 1,000

to 25,000 in the space
of 12 months.

Prices skyrocket, with
prospectors paying a dollar for

a single slice of bread,

forcing many to turn to
hunting to feed their families.

If food is scarce,
if you have a hard time

putting food on the table,
you have to hunt wild game.

RUBEN: The ability to hunt
and either eat or sell

the meat was very attractive
to a lot of people.

NARRATOR: As game stocks
become depleted,

officials restrict how much
the locals can hunt.

In 1876,
travelers on a train

across the San Francisco
marshes discover an opportunity.

In the middle of it, they had
to put in a drawbridge,

which meant that,
occasionally,

the train had to stop,
and when it did,

the passengers realized there
are a lot of ducks around here.

AUERBACH: When hunters realized
that this was a good spot

for duck hunting,

a kind of ad hoc community
built up.

NARRATOR: Soon, 1,000 hunters
are disembarking at Drawbridge

every weekend,
using makeshift weapons

that can slaughter up
to 500 birds with a single shot.

Illegal gun clubs
spring up to service

the bloodthirsty crowds,

many accepting poultry
as payment.

AUERBACH: The hunting was so
plentiful that dead ducks were

actually used
as betting currency

at the gambling tables,

I'll see your duck and raise
you three mallards.

NARRATOR: In 1920, the carnage
at Drawbridge steps up a gear,

when Congress
passes the 18th Amendment,

banning the production
and sale of alcohol.

As bars
and booze factories close,

smugglers use the Bay Area's
creeks and inlets

to quench
San Francisco's thirst.

HUNT: Boats docked
all along the coast,

and rum and whiskey

and all kinds of liquor

flowed through this area.

NARRATOR: Hidden in the marshes,
Drawbridge becomes ground zero

for the Bay Area's
Prohibition partying.

RODRIGUEZ McROBBIE:
Drawbridge's initial appeal

was in the booze,
but it became a hotbed

of anything that was

illegal and fun.

NARRATOR: Within a year,
Drawbridge expands from

a handful of shacks
to over 90 buildings,

a mix of cabins,
speakeasies, gambling dens,

and brothels.

Visitors are offered
four options --

drink, gamble, smoke, or leave.

You came to this small little
town right off

the rail line, and whatever
your vice was, was wide open.

BROWN:
People could drink freely.

They could gamble freely.

They could engage in
prostitution freely.

Anything went in Drawbridge.

NARRATOR: In 1933,
Prohibition ends,

and San Francisco's bars
and clubs reopen.

People desert the marshes,

and Drawbridge's heyday
draws to a close.

You have this kind of
marshland area

and this really
ramshackle town,

and there's no real reason to
want to go there anymore.

Really, all that was left was
one lonely former

drawbridge operator,

wandering around trying to pay
for sex with a dead duck.

RUBEN: The final blow
for Drawbridge came when

the buildings started
to sink into the marsh.

The residents decided
this was the last straw

and started to leave
the area.

NARRATOR: Today, Drawbridge's
revelers are long gone.

But this strange legacy
of some

of the most debauched times
in U.S. history

is still visible
from the skies.

The remains of the town are
slowly sinking into the same

marsh that, in its heyday, had
protected it from prying eyes.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
the 1,000-year-old ghost fleet.

BELLINGER: Many of them are
eerily intact.

It's as if they sank yesterday.

NARRATOR: And the town
that turned Antarctica red.

WALTERS: I find it amazing
that this remote place

has this incredibly rich story
attached to it.

NARRATOR:
March 19th, 2020.

A satellite scans

an archipelago off
the Swedish coast.

It's a series of islands,
and there are two very

parallel rows of mysterious
white floating objects

sprinkled between them.

The fact that they are evenly
spaced out

and parallel to each other
is very --

very strange.

NARRATOR: The mystery
structures' location could

offer a clue to their purpose.

They sit in the Baltic Sea,

a 150,000-square-mile treasure
trove of maritime history.

HUNT:
This area of the Baltic

has so many shipwrecks
over hundreds,

if not thousands of years.

BELLINGER: There have been
reports of divers

and even looters visiting
these wrecks

and, at times, removing
artifacts from them.

Could it be that
these platforms have

something to do with
the recovery of shipwrecks?

NARRATOR: When military
veteran Clint Janulis

studies the image,
he reveals

the structures serve
a different purpose.

A strong clue is
it's really close to

a major naval base,
used to refit, repair,

and overhaul submarines.

What we're actually seeing
in this image

is what's called
a deperming station.

NARRATOR: Deperming stations are
clandestine facilities used by

the military to conceal subs
and ships from enemy tracking.

JANULIS: It's a bit like
camouflaging a tank aboveground,

but you can do a bit more than
just hide its visual appearance.

You can actually change
its magnetic signature.

NARRATOR: The ability to change
a vessel's magnetic

signature is critical to
navies around the world.

It's a technology
born from some of

the darkest days of
20th century history.

The whole idea of de-magnetizing
was basically an outgrowth

of the threat posed by mines
deployed during World War II.

NARRATOR: During World War II,
Allied and Axis powers

construct thousands
of naval vessels,

but they suffer from
a critical flaw.

WAKEFIELD: Any steel vessel
will have a magnetic field

around it,
and this magnetic field

will disrupt the Earth's
magnetic field,

and so this allows it
to be detected.

If you think of the trick of
using a needle,

rubbed against
something magnetic,

the needle is
suddenly magnetized.

That magnetization
becomes a signal.

So that's a big problem.

NARRATOR: At facilities
like the one in the image,

engineers wrap vessels in
giant coils of copper wire

and bombard them
with electricity.

The electrical currents
running through

these copper cables is
as high as 4,000 amps.

And what this does is
it resets

the magnetic signature
of the vessel.

NARRATOR: In World War II,
the technology enables

thousands of vessels
to evade Nazi sea mines,

but it becomes
even more critical to

naval commanders
in the post-war years.

JANULIS:
During the Cold War,

both the Soviet Union
and the rest of the world

were essentially playing
a giant game of cat and mouse.

Submarine warfare and
technology was central to that.

NARRATOR:
At the height of the Cold War,

the Soviet Union possesses
twice as many

nuclear armed subs
as the U.S.

Many of them patrol
the seas in the image,

meaning they become the focus
of potentially apocalyptic

stealth warfare
between the two superpowers.

WALTERS: The Baltic really is
this massive potential

flashpoint for
any future conflict,

where all sides are
kind of flexing

their military muscles.

JANULIS: Both the Soviet Union
and the Allied submarines

were hunting each other,
tracking each other down.

They were trying to show that
they had the superiority.

NARRATOR: To evade detection,
nuclear subs shut

down systems
and minimize propeller noise,

a technique known
as silent running.

[indistinct talking]

NARRATOR: But they can still be
tracked by magnetic detection,

meaning each must regularly
visit facilities

such as this one.

MUNOZ:
A submarine's biggest asset is

its ability to
travel undetected.

If you can detect it,
you can sink it.

Western forces decommission
the site in the image in 2004,

but escalating tensions
mean there

has been renewed
activity here.

[boat horn blowing]

A new Cold War played out in

the freezing depths of
the Baltic Sea.

As the Russians encroach
further into that area,

there is a concern that this
buildup is gonna eventually

lead to something.

Worst case scenario,
a new conflict breaks out.

NARRATOR: Coming up, carnage
at the end of the world.

KOUROUNIS: The most
miraculous part is that

every single
one of them survived.

NARRATOR:
And built on bones.

If people died, their bodies
became part of the wall.

November 7th, 2021.

Satellites scan
the tiny British island of

South Georgia,

approximately 900 miles
from civilization.

We're right down here in

the southern oceans,
in a little harbor.

But what I can see is this
huge industrial complex.

This is one of the most

inhospitable places on
the entire planet.

So what could
possibly draw people

to this area of the world?

NARRATOR: Abandoned buildings
and shipwrecks

litter the isolated facility.

The most curious part are these
large, circular structures.

They look like...

storage tanks.

Are we seeing fuel tanks here?

NARRATOR: Historical records
shed more light.

AUERBACH: The stuff stored
in these tanks is fuel,

but it's fuel from
a very different age.

This crumbling site
was once one of

the largest whale oil
refineries in the world.

NARRATOR: During the 1700s,
mankind embarks on a global

whale massacre that will last
for two centuries.

By the 1840s, 900 whaling ships
are patrolling

the oceans in hunts that can
last for four years.

We're getting development
of machinery,

which required lubrication

and before the discovery
of petroleum,

the only form of lubricant
that was available

was whale oil.

KOUROUNIS:
Literally the wheels of

the Industrial Revolution were
greased by whale oil.

NARRATOR:
By the early 20th century,

whalers have killed
around three million

of these giant mammals.

And every room in every
household in

the US contains items derived
from whale carcasses.

Many different parts of whales

were used in
different industries.

The bones were used as ribbing
in women's corsets.

The teeth were carved
like ivory

into chess pieces
and piano keys.

NARRATOR: In 1904,
dwindling whale numbers

in the Atlantic lure
a Norwegian captain

to establish a station
at the site

in the image
called Grytviken.

Thousands of whales have
traveled down to feed

on the rich waters of
the Antarctic summer.

It was Grand Central Station
of whales.

At Grytviken,

500 men catch and kill
200 cetaceans each year,

including a 110-foot-long
blue whale,

the largest animal ever hunted.

There would have been
countless corpses

of these whales dragged ashore,

with dozens of men
flensing off the blubber

of these animals.

AUERBACH: This was
the equivalent of a kind of

factory production,
where the raw material was

whale carcasses.

NARRATOR:
Over the following 60 years,

this facility churns out
450,000 tons of oil.

But the tale of this whaling
station doesn't end there.

This whaling station played
a critical part in one

of the most
extraordinary survival

stories of human history.

NARRATOR: On December 5, 1914,

British polar explorer
Ernest Shackleton set sail

from the site attempting to
make the first

land crossing of Antarctica.

In that part of the world,
plans can often go awry,

and that's exactly
what happened.

His ship got trapped in
the ice,

was crushed,
and eventually sank.

NARRATOR:
With his crew marooned,

Shackleton returns
to South Georgia for help,

piloting a lifeboat
for 16 days

through 1,000 miles
of ice-packed ocean.

He then assembles
a rescue team

and heads back to recover
his stranded shipmates.

The most miraculous part of
this entire story

is that every single
one of them survived.

Shackleton's sailing of this
tiny, tiny little boat is still

considered one of
the greatest feats

of sailing ever undertaken.

NARRATOR: Five decades after
Shackleton's heroic mission,

the whaling station closes.

Today, life has returned
to this place of death,

and its once
blood-soaked buildings

can be seen from space.

WALTERS: I find it amazing that
this remote place on this tiny

little island in the middle of
this vast,

almost frozen sea,

has this incredibly
rich story attached to it.

NARRATOR: Coming up --
curse of the emperor.

We're seeing the impacts of
this echoing

through to the modern day.

NARRATOR:
May 15th, 2019.

Satellites flying
over the Yin Mountains

in northern China photograph
a mystery structure.

JANULIS: It seems to be made up
of concentric rings,

one inside the other,
almost like a bullseye.

NARDI: Given the way
the circles sort of protrude

from the ground,
it looks like it could be

some sort of a tower,
but it's really hard to tell

without getting
a closer look at it.

NARRATOR: The newly discovered
edifice is around 330 feet in

diameter and sits over
5,000 feet above sea level.

HUNT: These concentric rings are
actually high up on a mountain.

So what would this
be doing out here

in the middle of nowhere?

NARRATOR: A wider search of
the area yields a clue.

It's actually close to
a section of

the Great Wall of China.

So this leads me to believe

that perhaps there's some
military connection.

NARRATOR: The site sits between
two sections of

the Zhao State Wall,

one of dozens of
separate structures

that comprise
the Great Wall of China.

What we call
the Great Wall of China is a bit

of a misnomer, because, in fact,
it's not one single wall.

NARDI: The wall was built in
different sections,

oftentimes running in parallel
to one another throughout

different periods of time.

Around 220 BCE,

Qin Shi Huang,
the first emperor

of a unified China,

connects different
sections of wall to

protect his new kingdom from
northern raiders.

We're talking an ancient
mega structure on a scale

basically never seen before on
this planet.

HUNT:
The labor force was forced

to work under such
dire circumstances.

If people died, they were
just put into the wall.

NARRATOR: Qin stations garrisons
and communication systems

along his 3,100-mile-long wall
to guard against invaders.

JANULIS:
When you look at the image,

you can see how it could be
a beacon tower.

NARDI: These towers allowed
soldiers to communicate

with one another,
either through smoke signals

during the day
or lighting fires at night.

That's how they communicated
great distances very quickly,

literally at the speed
of light.

NARRATOR: When archaeologists
excavate the site,

they discover that it does
have ties to China's

war-torn past,
but from a different period.

This structure gives
a fascinating insight

into a little-known dynasty

that had a really
vital role in shaping

modern China.

NARRATOR: The mystery structure
has its origins

in the third century CE,

a period of bloody unrest
in this region.

From this chaos,

a clan of nomadic warriors
emerge, who establish

a 780,000-square-mile empire

and become known
as the Wei dynasty.

HORTON: They're best remembered
for the legends

about a girl warrior
called Mulan

who dressed up as a man

and led the army
for over a decade.

NARRATOR: As the dynasty grows,
its emperors construct

ceremonial sites, including

the one in the image,
to beg the gods for continued

good fortune.

Like the Temple of Heaven
in Beijing,

it was used by the Wei

for a practice known as
imperial worship.

HORTON: The belief is that

there is an emperor of heaven
who controls all natural

phenomenon -- earthquakes,
rainfall, tsunamis.

BELLINGER: The circular shape of
it is extremely important,

because in ancient Chinese
history, heaven is round.

NARRATOR: The Wei emperors use
ceremonies at the site to

reinforce their godlike status

and maintain
their grip on power.

But their success ultimately
leads to their downfall.

HUNT:
The dynasty became too wealthy,

too much like the elites of
the rest of China,

and they lost touch
with their people.

JANULIS: So the working class
people were propping up

their leaders to live
in lives of luxury,

and they basically said, "No,

we're gonna rebel."

NARRATOR: In 534 CE, following
a brutal civil war,

the dynasty collapses.

1,500 years later,
the mark it made on

the history of China is still
visible from space.

When we look at China today,
we're seeing the impacts

of this ancient dynasty

echoing through
to the modern day.