All language subtitles for Expedition.Files.S02E02.1080p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta[EZTVx.to].mkv3

On this episode of "expedition files..."

The infamous Franklin expedition

charts a path through
the punishing arctic,

leading to the
disappearance of 129 men.

Now, for the first time, we
reveal a shocking new theory

behind their grisly end.

And a young woman
travels to Hollywood,

chasing her silver screen dreams.

But it's her gruesome death
that lands her the moniker

of the "black Dahlia."

Then, an adventure to find
the legendary lost city of z,

hidden deep in the
Amazon, ends in tragedy.

But we discover there's
so much more to this story

than just a myth.

In the corridors of time

are mysteries that defy explanation.

Now, I'm traveling through history itself

on a search for the truth.

New evidence.

Shocking answers.

I'm Josh gates.

And these

are my "expedition files."

My travels have taken me
to 114 countries and counting.

And I've had amazing
adventures along the way.

There's nothing quite
like the thrill of setting foot

in a foreign land on an
expedition into the unknown.

And I'm not alone.

Humans have long been
searching for what's just

beyond the horizon,
relentlessly adventuring with

exciting and sometimes
deadly consequences.

In this episode, we
chart the courses of three

of history's most mysterious adventures,

or perhaps that should
be misadventures.

For each file, the same question

guides our compass.

What really happened
to these brave mavericks?

We begin here on the frigid deck

of the British royal Navy's hms erebus.

Not far behind is her
sister ship, the hms terror.

Our position?

Somewhere above the
arctic circle in baffin bay,

west of Greenland.

And the temperature is dropping.

It is June of 1845,
and the erebus' captain,

sir John Franklin, has just spotted ice.

He's leading an expedition to
discover the northwest passage,

a route through the Canadian
arctic linking the Atlantic

and pacific oceans that, if found,

would revolutionize global trade.

But they won't find it.

Instead, these two ships
will soon be trapped in the ice.

And after reports of bizarre behavior,

all 129 men aboard will vanish
in what will become known

as "Franklin's lost expedition."

But now, the cold truth about their fate

may finally be thawing out.

This is captain Franklin's third attempt

to chart the arctic.

He's really hoping third time's the charm

haunted by what happened
on his first expedition

to these frigid waters.

During that trip, ignoring
native inuit warnings

about scarce game,
Franklin lost 11 crew members

to starvation, with the rest
surviving on deer bones

and boiled boot leather.

Now known as "the
man who ate his boots,"

this time he's come prepared.

With a wealth of food on board,

Franklin is driven to
upgrade his nickname

to "the man who found
the northwest passage."

Since the end of the 15th
century, European explorers

have tried and failed to
find the fabled passage,

turned back by a maze
of hull-crushing ice

and deadly cold.

John Franklin commands
the hms erebus.

In Greek mythology, erebus is
the personification of darkness.

The second vessel, the hms terror,

is overseen by second-in-command
captain Francis Crozier.

Decades earlier, both vessels
served as British warships,

hence their threatening monikers.

Subsequently, they're retrofitted for

polar exploration.

The ships have been
outfitted with iron-plated hulls,

reinforced decking,
and even central heating.

For emergencies, each
has a propeller powered by

a locomotive engine.

But perhaps the greatest
innovation of all is this

canned food.

Both ships are stocked
with enough canned rations

to help ward off hunger and
scurvy for up to three years.

The 129 men aboard know
they may need it because.

Franklin's last arctic
adventure took exactly that,

three long, torturous years.

After setting sail from
the United Kingdom

in may of 1846, no one is
alarmed when the summer of 1847

passes without any
news from the expedition.

It isn't until the spring
of 1848, two years after

the expedition set sail,
that British search parties

finally venture into the
arctic over land and by sea.

But they find nothing, no
trace of Franklin or his men.

Desperate, the admiralty offers a reward

equivalent to nearly $4 million today

to anyone who can
find the lost expedition.

Soon, more than a dozen
ships join the search.

Finally, in the summer of
1850, a chilling discovery.

On an island deep in the arctic,

searchers uncover the
remnants of a winter camp,

with hundreds of empty food cans,

as well as some still
unopened, left behind.

But the most haunting
find is yet to come.

Three well-marked graves.
Two for crewmen of the erebus,

one for a sailor from the terror.

The graves raise big questions.

Why had the men abandoned
the warmth and safety

of their ships?

Where were they heading
when these three died?

And biggest of all, could the rest of

their comrades still be
alive out here somewhere?

With renewed optimism,

a surge of explorers join the search.

But sadly, the trail
yet again goes ice cold.

Then in 1854, eight years
after the Franklin expedition

first set sail, arctic
explorer John rae meets

with inuit people on king William island,

who claim to have seen "kabloonas,"

their word for "white men."

The inuit recount that
four winters earlier,

they had seen 40 men
towing a lifeboat over the ice,

their leader matching the description of.

Franklin's deputy Francis Crozier.

But this wasn't the
end of the inuits' tale.

They also claimed to have
found the remains of a camp.

It contained dozens of rotting bodies,

some showing signs of cannibalism,

and no one was still alive.

As proof of their story,
the inuit present items

recovered from the camp,

including a medal that
belonged to Franklin.

When these reports reach
London, the public refuses to believe

the men of the royal
Navy would ever commit

the barbaric act of cannibalism.

Instead, opinion turns against the inuit.

They are accused of
murdering the sailors

and then lying to hide their crimes.

And so further inuit
reports are largely ignored,

even though they may provide
the key to unlocking the truth.

Because an inuit family contends

they met Franklin's crew
while they were still alive.

They claim a small group
of white men staggered

into their camp.

The starving sailors
seemed incapable of speech,

staring blankly, clutching
worthless possessions.

Fearful of provoking
them, the inuit invited

the zombie-like men into
their home, offering seal meat.

But the men refused to eat,

even though they were clearly hungry.

The terrified family
waited for the cover of night

before slipping away,

leaving behind a supply
of food for the men.

But months later, the
inuit returned to find

the food uneaten and
the white men dead.

And just like in the other inuit report,

the bodies were cannibalized.

Once again, the authorities dismiss

the inuits' accounts of cannibalism.

Meanwhile, John Franklin's widow, Jane,

funds a new mission
to save her husband,

or at least his legacy.

For two grueling years, this new crew,

equipped with sleds and dogs,

fight their way through the arctic,

where they make the
most crucial discovery

since Franklin vanished.

On the northwest coast
of king William island,

the expedition discovers a cairn,

a marker made of stacked stones,

and hidden among these stones, a note.

Sir John Franklin died
on the 11th of June, 1847.

Total loss by deaths

nine officers and 15 men,

under the command of
captain Francis Crozier.

The news is shocking.

The erebus and the terror
have been abandoned after being

trapped by ice for 19 months.

The architect of their journey,
sir John Franklin, is dead,

confirmed in writing by
his deputy, Francis Crozier.

In total, 24 members of the
expedition have perished.

For the next century and a half,

more grisly clues will
be found to the south,

where more than two dozen
bodies from the Franklin expedition

are found scattered
across king William island,

some in shallow graves,

many frozen where they fell.

But nothing explains the
expedition's sudden deaths,

divided crews, strange
zombie-like behavior,

and why some would
travel back to the north

directly away from their
only chance of survival.

Had the entire crew gone mad?

Over the years, many
theories have been put forward

to explain the crew's
deaths, including scurvy,

pneumonia, and tuberculosis.

To explain the crew's bizarre behavior,

many contend that lead poisoning
from the sailors' canned food

was to blame.

But then again, many ate canned
food in the mid-19th century,

and it didn't cause
them to lose their minds

or their lives.

Perhaps the answers
to the mystery lie with

the missing ships themselves,
hms erebus and terror.

Where exactly did they vanish,
and what secrets do they hide?

Recent discoveries may finally reveal all.

In 1845, English ships erebus and terror,

along with 129 men
aboard, vanished during

their arctic adventure to
find the northwest passage.

But now a recent discovery
is changing the course

of this truly chilling mystery.

In 2014, nearly 170
years after it left england,

the erebus is found.

Searchers finally turned to
the source they'd been ignoring,

the oral histories of the inuit,

notably one concerning, spoiler alert,

a giant ship trapped in ice.

In the shallow waters off
the Canadian mainland,

south of the original search area,

the erebus is finally discovered.

And it wasn't long until
researchers had a matching set.

Author Ken mcgoogan has
spent over 25 years researching

the Franklin expedition.

Now, with the shipwrecks found exactly

where inuit stories said,

Ken is reexamining
these tales as key evidence

of the expedition's final days.

Going right back to the earliest reports,

the inuit described the men
trekking along the coast of

king William island

delirious and not
making very much sense.

So why were they
stumbling and delirious?

I was trying to piece it together,

looking for the root cause.

Ken examined the popular theory
that canned supplies had killed

the crew, though perhaps
not from the lead lining on

the tins, but rather
poisoning of the food itself,

specifically a deadly
bacterial toxin called "botulism."

But botulism alone wouldn't explain

the crew's strange behavior.

Ken suspects another culprit altogether.

One native to the arctic.

I think they were killed by polar bears.

Not that they fell victim to an attack

but rather that they ate the polar bears.

They ate the polar bears that
were infected with trichinella

and they contracted it themselves.

Gentlemen, a toast,

to the thawing of the ice.

Trichinella, a parasite
found in undercooked meat,

causes a deadly
disease called trichinosis.

Symptoms can take several
weeks to appear as the parasite

incubates, with severe
cases leading to delirium

confusion, and even hallucinations.

And without treatment, it can be fatal.

The larvae get into the muscles,

and that's how it begins.

And then they spread, and ultimately,

they do affect the brain

and that to me is the sole explanation.

This could explain how
captain Franklin and his men

fell into a terrifying mental state.

What I think happened is that

they panicked because
all these men are dying.

So they start trekking along
king William island but many of

them are falling more and more
sick and dropping down dead,

as a matter of fact.

And at that point, they
reached desperation eventually,

and they do resort to cannibalism.

Ken's theory is compelling.

As the crew trek south, unknowingly,

the trichinella parasite is
already incubating within them.

Its disease then suddenly
flourishes and many become

too weak to continue, while
others are driven insane.

Each year, authorities continue
their archaeological excavation

of hms erebus and terror,

both still submerged in
unforgiving arctic waters.

Perhaps they'll find definitive
answers as to the true fate of

John Franklin and his men.

Although they never managed
to find the northwest passage,

the courage and
sacrifice of their expedition

inspired others to follow in their wake.

And 60 years later, in 1906,

Norwegian explorer, roald amundsen

became the first to
successfully navigate a ship

through the northwest passage.

Today, due to the changing
climate, these waters

have become ice-free
for several months a year,

allowing commercial vessels

and even the occasional
cruise ship to pass through.

Franklin would be thrilled.

From an expedition lost
in the arctic wilderness

to a tragic crime in the city of dreams.

It is January 9th, 1947,

and I'm here in the shadows
of downtown Los Angeles.

22-year-old Elizabeth short
has come here on a very different

type of adventure,

an adventure to reinvent
herself as a Hollywood star.

That's her in front of
the biltmore hotel with

her boyfriend, Robert manley.

She'll become famous,
all right, world famous,

but in the most horrifying way
imaginable, because six days

from now, Elizabeth will
be known by another name,

the "black Dahlia."

This ghastly murder has
confounded investigators

for over 75 years.

Now, new evidence may
finally reveal the identity

of the depraved killer

and explain how they stayed
one step ahead of justice.

Betty bersinger is pushing
her three-year-old daughter

down the sidewalk in L.A.'s
leimert park when the mother

spots what she believes is a
mannequin lying on the grass.

But it is no mannequin.

It is the dismembered body of a woman.

When police detectives arrive,

they discover a crime scene
unlike any they've seen before.

A nude woman cut in half

and a smile has been
carved into her face,

stretching from ear to ear.

Police have no idea who this woman is

or who's behind her brutal murder.

Analyzing her wounds,
the coroner believes the cuts

to the victim's body are
so precise, so surgical,

they were likely performed by a doctor.

When detectives send the
woman's fingerprints to the FBI

for analysis, they find a
match, Elizabeth short.

With Elizabeth's dark
hair and propensity for

dark clothing, reporters
nickname her the "black Dahlia"

in local newspapers.

And she was seen for the
final time with a young salesman

she'd been dating named Robert manley.

Manley tells investigators he has no idea

what happened to Elizabeth.

He says he last saw her
when he dropped her off at

the biltmore hotel.

Manley is given several polygraph tests

to verify his story.

He passes all of them and
is dropped as a suspect.

Questioning people around the biltmore,

detectives get their
first lead in the case.

Good evening, detective brown, LAPD.

Have you seen this lady?

Yeah, yeah, sure I
have. Couple nights ago.

She came and used the phone.

They locate a hotel employee
who claims he saw Elizabeth

using a lobby phone
before exiting the hotel

around 10 P.M.

Thank you, sir.

Another witness then spotted
short walking down the street

with a gentleman.

When detectives press the
witness about the man seen

with Elizabeth, they can't
remember any specific details.

A shame since police
believe this mystery man

may have been her killer.

The brutal murder was already
among the most disturbing

that law enforcement
had ever encountered

but things were about
to get even more surreal.

A week after the
discovery of short's body

a phone call from someone
claiming to be the killer

is placed to the offices of
the Los Angeles examiner

newspaper congratulating them
on their coverage of the murder.

A few days later a
mysterious package will arrive,

and the contents could
crack the case wide open.

A note on the package reads,
"here is Dahlia's belongings,

letter to follow."

Inside, reporters find
short's birth certificate,

photographs, and an
address book with the name

Mark Hansen on the cover.

For the police, this is a gold
mine of potential evidence.

Detectives are confident
the letter was sent

by short's killer.

They dust the package for fingerprints,

but nothing usable is recovered.

Police believe this
Mark Hansen character

could be the key to solving the case.

Investigators question
Elizabeth's roommate,

Ann toth, about Mark Hansen.

He owns the nightclub at the biltmore.

They discover he is a wealthy
Hollywood nightclub owner.

Toth reveals short stayed
with Hansen for a few nights

in the months leading up to her killing.

She also informs detectives
that Elizabeth had rejected.

Hansen's romantic advances.

Detectives question
Hansen about his relationship

with Elizabeth.

Mark denies he was attracted to short

and claims to have offered
her a room in his home

simply because she
needed a place to stay.

Mark also claims short
stole the address book

from his residence.

I got nothing to do with it.

In time, detectives clear Mark Hansen

as a potential suspect.

Over the next 52 years,
hundreds of individuals

would confess to killing Elizabeth short.

But the LAPD decides none of
these confessions are credible.

Then, in 1999, a former
Los Angeles police detective

discovers something that turns this case

and his world upside down.

For over 50 years,
the savage killer behind

the notorious 1947 black
Dahlia murder eluded police.

But in 1999, retired LAPD
detective Steve hodel

is sifting through his father's belongings

when he uncovers something
unusual, a photograph of a woman

who looks like the black
Dahlia herself, Elizabeth short.

Steve hodel's father is George hodel,

a prominent Los Angeles physician.

When Steve was a boy, the hodels lived

in the sowden house in
the hills above Hollywood,

designed by frank Lloyd Wright
to resemble a Maya temple.

At this stage in his life,
his father was on his third

marriage and had five children.

His first wife had been common law,

and his second wife had
never officially divorced him.

George was not one to
follow the constraints of

conventional society.

Steve's early childhood
was filled with memories of

his parents' wild parties,

attended by Hollywood
actors and actresses.

And why would his father
have a photograph of L.A.'s most

notorious murder victim?

Relying on his decades as a detective,

Steve digs deeper into his father's past

to see if George had any
connection to the black Dahlia.

He becomes intrigued
when he reads that the police

theorized short's vicious injuries

likely came at the hands of a doctor.

Steve's father, George, was a doctor

who had performed numerous surgeries

during his early career.

And hodel's medical
office was in downtown L.A.,

close to the biltmore hotel,

where Elizabeth short
was last seen alive.

When Steve compares
the letters sent to the press

by the supposed murderer in 1947

with a sample of his father's handwriting,

his blood runs cold.

The similarities are alarming.

He even hires a
handwriting expert to analyze

the two samples. The expert confirms it.

The same person wrote both letters.

Steve pulls some favors
and gets access to the original

black Dahlia case file,

and his darkest
suspicions are confirmed.

George hodel was one
of the prime suspects

in the black Dahlia murder.

Witnesses identified Elizabeth short

as one of George's girlfriends.

Steve even discovers the
LAPD installed a wiretap

inside his father's house.

This revelation has been
closely followed by journalists

Anne and David vasquez,
who have become the foremost

experts on short's unsolved murder.

So the LAPD ends up
wiretapping George hodel's home

for some 40 days,

and they capture some
incredible evidence,

including a conversation in
which George tells a friend,

"supposing I did kill black Dahlia.

They can't prove it now."

Even after these
conversations were recorded

during the wiretapping,
LAPD still didn't feel confident

that they had enough evidence
to make an arrest of George hodel.

But it confirmed what Steve
hodel had spent already

years building a case
about connecting the dots

between his father and
the black Dahlia murder.

As unconscionable as it is,

Steve firmly believes the unthinkable.

His own father was
responsible for one of the most

disturbing murders in history.

As a retired cop, Steve's
confident the LAPD had

enough evidence to arrest his father

for the black Dahlia murder.

So why didn't they?

For years, Steve was left wondering

until a rediscovered letter from the 1940s

offered critical clues.

The letter was penned in
1949 by w. Glenn Martin,

then a paid informant
working for the LAPD.

And it makes stunning allegations

about the black Dahlia case.

That letter is filled with
references to someone known

as g.H., and it connects g.H.
To the murder of black Dahlia.

And g.H. Was using his influence
with the L.A. district attorney,

with LAPD, to either confuse
or disrupt the investigation

into the black Dahlia murder.

Steve hodel sees the initials g.H.

Throughout this letter.
He knows instantly that g.H.

Stands for George hodel
and that his dad is yet again

connected and tied to
the black Dahlia murder.

Steve's sister, tamar, who had
experienced her own troubled

past with their father warned
him that George had deep roots

within the police community.

He had been rumored to
have treated venereal disease

and terminated unwanted pregnancies

on behalf of city officials

who in turn might have
protected him from being arrested.

After analyzing all of the
evidence for over a decade,

Steve hodel has
developed a strong theory

of what he believes happened
in the case of the black Dahlia.

On the fateful night of January 9th,

George meets Elizabeth
short at the biltmore hotel.

Steve believes that what
began as a charming date

spiraled into disaster.

George becomes enraged
when he discovers Elizabeth

is romantically involved
with someone else.

George then forces her back
to his house against her will.

Steve suspects his insanely
jealous and humiliated father

punishes Elizabeth for her
betrayal by torturing short

for days in his basement.

Steve's half-sister claimed to
have witnessed their father's

dark proclivity for sexual
orgies and sadomasochism.

So there is a chance that this
dark obsession turned deadly.

Amidst the punishment she
dies, and Steve believes his father

surgically dismembers her.

Then, George drives Elizabeth's
mangled body to leimert park,

where he stages her
remains to shock the world.

In a recent interview, Steve hodel said,

"I couldn't believe the great man I knew

"could ever do something like this

I was very wrong."

George hodel though,
was never arrested

for the death of Elizabeth
short and he never will be.

He died in 1999.

And to date, the LAPD
has never charged anyone

with the black Dahlia murder.

But for George hodel's son, at least,

this horrifying case is closed.

From the concrete
jungle to the actual jungle,

it's may 30th, 1925,

and I am deep in the
south American Amazon.

That right there is Percy fawcett,

a veteran explorer on
his seventh expedition

into this unforgiving wilderness.

Alongside is his son,
Jack, and friend, Raleigh.

Together, they're searching
for a fabled lost city

rumored to be dripping
in gold and jewels.

It's a place hidden deep in
the vast mato grosso jungles

in the interior of Brazil.

This city has no name,
but fawcett calls it "z."

Far from solving this mystery,
Percy and his companions

will only add to it because all of them

are about to disappear without a trace.

In his early career,
fawcett goes to work for

the royal geographical society

to survey and map
the jungles near Bolivia.

With accounts of his daring
jungle exploits published in

newspapers back in
england, fawcett's fame grows,

and he embraces his celebrity status.

He reports encountering exotic
animals unknown to science,

including an almost certainly
exaggerated account of shooting

a 62-foot-long anaconda.

But he does accomplish
something few other westerners

are able to,

navigating dense
jungles and maintaining

friendly relationships
with indigenous tribes,

many of whom are known
to be hostile to outsiders.

Some of these natives
whisper stories to fawcett

about a sprawling, ruined
city hidden deep in the jungle,

and soon an obsession
begins to take root.

Fawcett isn't the first
to follow the siren's call

into the Amazon.

Centuries earlier, Spanish
conquistadors had also

pursued rumors of
glittering, abandoned ruins.

Their expeditions to find
them ended in failure and death.

Fawcett's own search leads
him to the national library

of Brazil, where he discovers
a weathered parchment.

Known as manuscript 512,

it appears to have been written in 1753

and describes a Portuguese expedition

into the Brazilian interior,

which claimed to discover ruins

resembling a classical
Roman city with stone arches,

opulent statues, and
enigmatic carved symbols.

This, coupled with the native accounts,

convinces fawcett that
a majestic lost civilization

is hidden in the depths of the Amazon,

waiting to be rediscovered.

His research has led him
to believe the lost city hides

somewhere in the Brazilian
state of mato grosso,

nearly 350,000 square
miles of wilderness.

His team heads into the
jungle on April 20th, 1925.

Fawcett decides to travel light

and to make the
expedition a family affair,

bringing his 21-year-old son, Jack,

and Jack's best friend, Raleigh rimmell.

The public is fascinated with the quest,

but experts are less than enthusiastic.

The overwhelming majority
think that z is just a fantasy,

but fawcett is undeterred.

After a month trekking
through the jungle,

fawcett's team arrives at a
place known as dead horse camp.

Here, he sends a native
runner back to civilization with

a letter he's written to his wife, Nina.

He gives the coordinates of the camp

and notes that his group
has plenty of provisions

and remain in good spirits.

He signs off, "you need
have no fear of any failure."

These are the last written
words of Percy fawcett.

After he departs dead horse camp,

he will never be heard from again.

Los Angeles is known for
its traffic, its movie stars,

and surprisingly, its
underground tunnels.

Originally built in the
early 1900's for streetcars,

these tunnels soon found
themselves repurposed

for far more exciting and
possibly illegal activities.

During prohibition, they
became secret highways for

smuggling booze, allowing
city officials and mobsters

to both enjoy a drink.

Some believe they were
the pathway by which

the notorious black Dahlia
murderer was able to dump

Elizabeth short's body without detection.

Later, the tunnels were used
for more official purposes,

like moving prisoners to the county jail,

proving that L.A. has always
had a flair for dramatic entrances.

Today, these tunnels
have been mostly sealed,

a stomping ground
for conspiracy theorists

who swear they connect to
secret government facilities,

or at least some really
creepy basements.

Amazon explorer, Percy fawcett,
is convinced that the ruins of

an advanced civilization nicknamed "z"

lay hidden in the jungles of Brazil.

In may 1925, while
searching with his son, Jack,

and their friend, Raleigh,

the three men venture out to find the city,

but never return.

They leave behind two mysteries

what was their ultimate fate?

And does the lost city of z really exist?

In January 1927, after 18 months

with no communication
from the expedition,

the royal geographical
society declares the men lost,

presumed dead.

But fawcett's skill in
the wilderness is almost

unmatched, and many
of his friends and admirers

refuse to believe he's missing,

and instead think he may
have found the city and stayed.

In 1928, a rescue mission
led by British aviator g.M. Dyott

retraces fawcett's route
through the Amazon.

Although he's unable to find the men,

he does discover a small brass
plate bearing fawcett's name

in the possession of a native tribe.

Unfortunately, it's later
confirmed that the object was

from fawcett's previous
mission five years earlier.

Later, a compass of fawcett's
is also found in the jungle,

but it was one he left behind
before his final expedition.

One persistent theory is that
fawcett and his companions

were killed by a local tribe.

In 1951, the kalapalo
Indians revealed they were in

the possession of bones that
they claimed were the remains

of Percy fawcett after he
was killed by the tribe's chief.

Please, please, no, no, no, no.

For the next 50 years,

that's the story that is
largely and falsely believed.

But in 2005, the kalapalo tribes people

tell a different story.

They claim the bones
are not fawcett's after all,

but belong to one of their elders.

They say they lied in 1951
to prevent more outsiders

from coming into their territory
to search for the explorer.

The kalapalos say they did
encounter fawcett and his party,

but just gave them food

and cautioned them
not to venture further.

But the men ignored their warnings.

Rumors have long swirled that fawcett

and his companions
encountered less hospitable tribes

who riddled them with arrows
or clubbed them to death.

Other stories emerged
that they died of fever

or starvation deep in the
labyrinth of the Amazon.

One thing is clear,
somewhere along the way,

like those who searched before them,

their obsession with
z led to their demise.

For 100 years after
Percy fawcett and his team

vanished, experts
remained highly skeptical

that a jungle Metropolis
existed in the Amazon.

But then, a remarkable
scientific discovery in 2022

using helicopter-mounted lidar
technology may prove fawcett

was right after all.

Lidar, which stands for
light detection and ranging,

uses lasers to map terrain
and reveal long-hidden features.

Archaeologist Dr. Andrew
kinkella has analyzed

the latest lidar results,

and what he's found
could rewrite the history

of the fawcett expedition.

Using lidar across some of these areas,

we have started to find
what we term "garden cities."

What you have there is you have homes,

you have kind of farmsteads,

you have plazas where the
homes are situated around,

and you even have roads
connecting these things.

There have been guesses at
population in this area that it

might have been as high as 50,000.

So the lidar gives us
irrefutable data that many,

many more people were
living in the jungle at this time.

About a thousand years ago,

things were really
happening in the Amazon.

Percy fawcett disappears
in the mato grosso area

of the Amazon, in 1925.

And that turns out to be one
of the areas where we're finding

these garden cities.

So while looking for z,
Percy fawcett was probably

literally walking over these cities.

But if you're cutting
a trail in the jungle,

your world is about a 10-foot circle.

So there could be a
huge pyramid right there.

You will not see it.

We don't know how Percy, his son, Jack,

and their friend, Raleigh, met their end.

Their remains and the
artifacts of their bold adventure

are out there somewhere in the
endless jungles of the Amazon.

But we do know that z wasn't
a towering city made of stone,

but rather a vast network
of native communities

that once thrived in the Amazon.

And fawcett's expedition, though fatal,

wasn't as foolish as
many of his peers believed.

I'm Josh gates, and I'll see
you on the next expedition.