All language subtitles for Mysteries.Unearthed.with.Danny.Trejo.S02E04.Hidden.Giants.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.H264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

Mysteries can
be buried anywhere.

Under the earth,

beneath the sea,

or even right
under our own feet.

And when we stumble upon them,

sometimes, what we find
can change history.

Tonight, big discoveries.

From a monumental secret
buried beneath a basement...

Behind the wall,
there's a cavity,

not an old cellar, but a tunnel.

This sprawling maze spans
over 170 square miles.

It's a mind-boggling discovery.

To a massive
ancient structure...

Archeologists
realize it dates back

to a mysterious civilization.

Little is known
about this culture

because almost
nothing has been found

from the time of their reign.

Until now.

To a monster
of epic proportions.

They uncover three feet
of it, four feet of it.

Ultimately, it's 10 feet long.

Join us now, because
nothing stays hidden forever.

It's 1927.

Charles Lindbergh is fresh off

his historic solo flight
across the Atlantic.

It's the first of its kind.

It took him 33
hours to complete.

Now a global celebrity,

he heads out on a
two-month goodwill tour

through Central America.

He flies solo,
location to location,

and basically shakes
hands with locals

and basks in his newfound fame.

One day he's flying,

he's crossing over this
thick jungle in Honduras,

and something weird
catches his eye,

something that doesn't
look quite natural.

These structures poking
through the gaps in the canopy.

To Lindbergh, it looks
like this might be a city.

For centuries,
rumors swirled

of a jungle settlement
overflowing with riches.

They call it La Ciudad
Blanca, The White City.

Now, Lindbergh's sighting
reignites the search to find it.

Explorers,
archeologists,

and treasure hunters set
out on new expeditions

searching for the city
Lindbergh claims he saw.

But even after several decades,

nobody finds a
trace of the city.

Eventually, in 2012,

an explorer named Steve Elkins

tries to follow in
Lindbergh's footsteps.

This time he's not
looking out the window,

he's using LiDAR from the air

to see what the jungle
below might be hiding.

Over the course of five days,
Elkins and a small team

fly over this rugged terrain
of the Honduran rainforest,

mapping the invisible.

On the final day, they
process the LiDAR data,

and it seems to reveal what
looked like the outline

of multiple man-made
geometric structures.

Armed with
the coordinates,

Elkins and his team head
deep into the jungle

for a closer look.

They cut paths,
encounter pit vipers,

and even flesh-eating parasites.

But despite all the hells of
the jungle, they keep going.

After several weeks, the
journey proves worth it

when they find the area
pinpointed by their LiDAR scans

and they find
something incredible.

There are hundreds
of artifacts

arranged almost as if they
were abandoned mid-ceremony.

These are the remnants
of an unknown culture.

The scientists estimate
they were built

somewhere between
1,000 and 1,500 AD.

As the group
presses further into the site,

they come across something
even more incredible.

At the heart of it all,
they find a massive pyramid

half buried under the ground.

And it's just the
tip of the iceberg.

There are
mounds, pillars, plazas

stretching wide
beneath the vines.

This wasn't a small
mountain village,

this was a metropolis

that flourished before
European contact.

The team recovered
over 190 artifacts,

including a carved head of
a part-human, part-jaguar.

They renamed the area of the
site Valley of the Jaguar.

Excavations
continue to this day.

And the site is
deemed so valuable,

that the Honduran
military now protects it.

To date, they haven't found

any huge cache of
gold or treasure.

But there's a lot of
excavating still to be done.

The recovered
artifacts are now housed

in the Ciudad Blanca
Research Center,

which focuses on
the preservation

of the archeology and
culture of the site

along with the wildlife
that surrounds it.

You don't always
have to go off the grid

to make amazing discoveries.

Sometimes, a big find is
just beneath your feet.

In 1480, a boy is playing
under the Italian pines

on Esquiline Hill in
the heart of Rome.

As he runs along the slope,

his foot slips along
a crack in the soil.

He leans down, peers
into the opening,

and sees something that
shouldn't be there.

He crawls through the gap,

and he finds himself
in this hidden chamber.

Low ceilings, curved walls.

And when the boy looks up,

he notices that on the ceilings

are these very
detailed frescoes.

There are mythological
scenes, strange creatures,

and elaborate floral patterns
covering the domed roof.

Soon, his
discovery attracts

some of the era's
most famous artists.

Artists like
Michelangelo and Raphael

lowered themselves down

and explored the subterranean
passages by torch light,

looking at all these

mythological paintings
on the walls

to get inspiration
for their own art.

But the site's purpose
remains a mystery for centuries,

until a full-scale excavation
of the area is ordered

in the mid-1700s.

Archeologists soon find
other enormous rooms,

some up to 100 feet deep,
covered in elaborate artwork.

As they explore the
frescoes and the opulent rooms,

they start to put
the pieces together.

They realize that
this is a palace,

and it's a palace that
matches the description

of one that was built
in the First Century AD.

It's the Domus Aurea,

better known as
the Golden House,

built by infamous
Roman emperor, Nero.

Nero ruled Rome for 14
years in the First Century AD.

He's known for his
extravagance, his cruelty,

his persecution of
Jews and Christians,

for murdering his mother,

and for his very literal desire

to burn down the city of Rome
to recraft it in his image.

So when
a massive fire

destroys much of Rome in 64 AD,

many believed that Nero
started it himself on purpose

so that he could build
an opulent palace.

That new palace,
the Domus Aurea, is huge.

It sprawls over 300
acres, has over 100 rooms,

marble walls, rotating dining
rooms, detailed frescoes,

and perfume-dispensing ceilings.

There's an artificial
lake surrounded by gardens.

And of course, at
the center of it all

is a gorgeous golden
statue of Nero himself.

It is 100 feet tall.

But before Nero
can move into his new palace,

he's declared a public
enemy by the Senate.

Even Nero's own
guards abandoned him.

So he decides to
take his own life,

and he stabs himself in
the throat with a dagger

before he can be executed.

Once he's gone,
Romans try to erase

all evidence that
he even existed.

That includes
his lavish estate,

which is torn down and buried.

Years later, another iconic
structure is built in its place,

the Colosseum.

Then over time, the site is
completely forgotten about.

Until centuries later,

when a young boy
slips in the dirt.

It's just another day at
sea for a group of fishermen,

until they haul in their nets

and find a lot more
than just dinner.

It's September of 1931,
and a British fishing trawler

is making its way
up the North Sea.

It's just an ordinary day
when, all of a sudden,

the nets come up heavy.

Excited at the possibility
of a big catch,

the crew pulls the nets aboard

and begins looking
through their haul.

The skipper, Pilgrim Lockwood,

notices a huge lump of peat
tangled up with their catch.

He goes to break it
apart with his shovel.

But as he does,

the shovel clangs
against something solid.

At first glance, it
looks like a chunk of bone.

But it's a darker color,
and it looks carved,

and on one side it
has what looks like

serrated, jagged teeth.

Whatever it is, it
doesn't look natural.

The skipper
sends his strange find

to the British Museum
for more insight.

The researchers
examine the object,

and realize that it's
a prehistoric weapon

that's carved out
of red deer antler.

It would've been lashed end
to end with another antler

and used as a harpoon.

Researchers date the
tool to the late Mesolithic Era,

sometime between
10,000 and 4,000 BC.

Everything seems to check out,

except for the fact that
it was found so far out

and so deep underwater.

Mesolithic people
were skilled hunters

with sophisticated
tools like this harpoon.

But they were not
skilled mariners.

They had no way of
venturing far from shore.

That's when
archeologist Grahame Clark

proposes a radical theory.

Maybe that spot in the North
Sea used to be dry land.

Up to now,
everyone had assumed

that there had always been a sea

between Great Britain
and Continental Europe.

But Clark suggests,
maybe that's wrong.

Maybe, thousands of
years ago, this was land.

The following year,

a test of the peat
found with the harpoon

gives Clark's theory a boost.

Further analysis
shows that it formed

in freshwater, not saltwater,

confirming the weapon
was lost on land.

In the ensuing decades,
more evidence comes in,

providing more support
for this theory.

Fishermen begin to pull up bones

from a variety of land animals,

hippos, bears, woolly
rhinos, saber-toothed cats.

They find more stone tools,

and even pieces of
a Neanderthal skull.

After
decades of clues,

the mystery comes
into sharper focus

when researchers
manage to extract DNA

from the ancient skull.

Turns out he was a young man

who was a meat eater
with a stocky build,

and he lived about
60,000 years ago.

The
incredible discovery

leads researchers to
name the area Doggerland,

after a nearby sandbar.

But the real breakthrough comes

when oil and gas companies
lend a surprising hand.

Using underwater survey data,

they are able to create detailed
3D models of the seabed.

This wasn't
just an archipelago

of islands or a land bridge.

Doggerland was vast
and teeming with life,

which attracted bands
of Mesolithic hunters.

At its peak,
Doggerland was big.

It stretched over
70,000 square miles,

bigger than the
state of Illinois.

Then around
8,000 years ago,

the Ice Age ends and
temperatures start to rise.

Glaciers begin to
melt and water levels rise.

And over the next 3,500 years,

Doggerland slowly
disappears beneath the sea,

causing its people
to have to relocate.

Today, Doggerland is one
of the best preserved

prehistoric landscapes
ever discovered.

Finding a whole ancient world

hidden under the
sea is incredible.

Our next big discovery takes
us even further back in time,

and it's on an
even bigger scale.

In 2017, a man
in Pombal, Portugal

is trying to expand his garden.

He starts digging and digging,

and suddenly, he hits
something really hard.

Now, this is deeply unusual
because the soil there

is pretty loose and sandy.

He bends down to
take a closer look,

brushes across the
soil with his hand,

and he sees some
sharp fragments.

He takes a closer look,

and he thinks that
they look very much

like pieces of fossilized bone.

The man reaches out
to the University of Lisbon,

who sends a team of
paleontologists to investigate.

They confirmed that these
are indeed fossil fragments,

and then a deeper
investigation ensues.

Pretty soon they
find another fossil,

but this one's no tiny fragment.

This time, they find
a complete bone.

They uncover three feet
of it, four feet of it.

And there's still
more in the ground.

Ultimately, when
they retrieve it,

it's 10 feet long.

This is one of
the largest ribbed fossils

ever recorded.

So scientists ask, what
could this giant animal be?

From the shape and the size,

they are able to
determine that these bones

come from a sauropod.

Sauropods lived
over 100 million years ago

and are the largest land
animals to ever roam the Earth.

Sauropods were herbivores.

They had a long neck, long tail,

and they grew into the
largest dinosaurs ever.

With very tiny heads

because, you know, how much
weight do you wanna put

at the end of a 40-foot lever?

The long necks
allowed them to graze

over a wide area of vegetation
without having to move.

And they had to do
a lot of grazing,

because sauropods could
weigh as much as 50 tons.

Experts estimate
that the individual

uncovered from the
backyard in Portugal

was probably close to 40 feet
tall and around 80 feet long,

roughly the size
of a tennis court.

It's one of the largest
dinosaur specimens

ever found in Europe.

Despite millions
of years passing,

the ribs are still
in place and aligned

just like when the
dinosaur was alive.

That's really unusual
for fossils this old.

Hopefully the
rest of the fossils

from this magnificent
beast will be found

and it'll be stalking the
floors of a museum very soon.

For one man in
Turkey, a small remodel

opens the door to a
whole buried world.

It's 1963 in the Cappadocia
region of Central Turkey,

and a man is
remodeling his home.

But he keeps having a
strange predicament.

His pet chickens
keep disappearing.

He starts investigating

and he traces the
problem to the basement,

where he finds a small
opening in the wall.

Curious and frustrated,

he grabs a sledgehammer
and knocks it down.

Behind the wall,
there's a cavity.

Not a pipe, not an old cellar,

but a tunnel.

He climbs through the
wall and starts to walk.

One tunnel becomes two.

And then it connects
to different chambers.

And eventually,

it seems to stretch off
into a dark distance.

Fully weirded out, the man
retreats back to his house

and informs the
local authorities.

Investigators
inspect the tunnels,

and what they uncover is beyond
anything anyone imagined.

It's an enormous, ancient,
underground city.

This sprawling maze
spans over 170 square miles.

It reaches 18 stories, 280
feet below the surface,

and is carved into hardened
volcanic ash called tuff.

But what's truly unbelievable

is that it was originally
built around 3,000 years ago.

The city
is named Derinkuyu,

after the town
that sits above it.

And it wasn't just
a place to hide,

it was a fully functional
underground city.

There are schools,
churches, a convent, apartments,

even an underground wine press.

The upper level was
found to have stables

where they kept livestock

so that the odors
would not penetrate

down into the lower
levels where people lived.

They truly thought
of and designed

everything that
humans would need

to carry out life underground.

There are over 50
ventilation shafts

that ensure that fresh air
is delivered to all levels.

And there's a well that
reaches over 180 feet

to fill numerous water tanks.

It's an engineering marvel.

There's also
a security system.

Several
tunnels have enormous,

1,000-pound millstone doors

that could be used to close
off the tunnels from inside.

Each door has a hole
right in the center,

big enough for a
spear to poke through.

But who built it
and why remain a mystery.

Archeologists find
a Hittite statue of a lion

and other relics during
their excavation.

This leads some to believe that
the Hittites built the city

as their last refuge

when their capital was under
attack from the Phrygians

in the 12th Century BC.

Others believe

that this kind of
incredible construction

could only have been the work
of the Phrygians themselves.

But one thing that's clear
is that the original builders

were not the only
ones that lived here.

Eventually,
Derinkuyu was inhabited

by Byzantine-era Christians

who used the city to
avoid persecution,

which explains the cruciform
church on the lowest level,

18 stories down.

Altogether,
researchers find

more than 600 hidden entrances,

including one that
extends much further

than anyone thought.

Researchers
find a five-mile tunnel

that connects this
subterranean world

to another underground
city called Kaymakli.

This city is smaller, less
elaborate than Derinkuyu.

But the design is
nearly identical.

Over the ensuing
years, they find over 200 more

of these underground cities
spread throughout the region,

each one a sleeping
giant carved in stone

that serves as a
monument to survival.

Our next discovery takes us

to a very different
kind of hidden world.

This time, in Rome.

It's 2006 in Rome,

and workers are
drilling test holes

ahead of the construction

of a new underground
parking garage.

That is, until their drill
hits something unexpected.

As is the way in a city

with as rich and ancient
a history as Rome,

when you're digging and
you hit something strange,

you need to stop
and investigate.

The workers take a closer look,

and they find pottery shards,

then pieces of jewelry.

So they ultimately call in the
archeologists to take over.

They uncover more pottery,
parts of a fountain,

and even the foundations
of a portico.

Then they find
something really unusual,

a piece of glass

filled with transparent,
crystal-like stones.

The crystal stones
are a major clue.

In 40 AD, the philosopher Philo

describes seeing this kind
of glass with these crystals

on a visit he made to the
Roman emperor Caligula.

The
archeologists realize

they found Caligula's long
lost, infamous pleasure garden.

Caligula was the
third emperor of Rome,

and many consider him to
be the most eccentric.

Some accounts say he
believed he was a god.

Others say he was just insane.

But either way, his
behavior was bizarre.

He once made talking
about goats in his presence

a capital offense.

He would appear in public
dressed like Greco-Roman gods

like Venus and Apollo.

He once declared
war with the sea,

and even appointed his horse
consul to the Senate of Rome.

But
Caligula took excess

to a whole new level
in his pleasure garden.

Caligula surrounded
himself in luxury.

So when he wasn't feeding
Romans to the lions,

or sleeping with his
political rivals' wives

or even his own sisters,

he enjoyed spending time
in his pleasure garden.

Excavations revealed frescoes

inlaid with rubies
and precious stones,

marble staircases, and
also pieces of jewelry.

They also find animal bones,
but not pets like cats or dogs.

The bones they find are
from lions, from bears,

from ostriches, from peacocks,

just rare and exotic animals

brought in to impress his guests
and to make himself out to be

this larger-than-life,
hedonistic, godlike figure.

Ultimately,

Caligula's reign of
indulgence didn't last.

After just
four years in power,

Caligula was assassinated
by his own bodyguards.

His body was cremated
in the garden he loved.

By the fourth
century, the garden is abandoned

and fades from memory

until it's rediscovered in 2015.

When archeologists finally
finish the excavation,

over 100,000 artifacts
are uncovered.

Today, the site has been
transformed into a museum,

and it contains many of
those very same relics

and preserved architecture.

Compared to the
legend of his life,

the ruins of his pleasure garden
are surprisingly tasteful.

But the jewels, the baths,

the exotic animals do
point to one thing:

Caligula threw one
hell of a party.

And 2,000 years later, we're
still cleaning up after it.

In 1992, a man sets out
to solve a local legend,

but instead uncovers a long
lost engineering wonder.

It's 1992 in the
Zhejiang Province of China,

and farmer Wu Anai is
a man on a mission.

He's just bought a water pump.

And with the help
of his neighbors,

he's trying to drain a pond
in his hometown of Longyou.

It sounds crazy.

But for generations, locals
have passed down tales

that the ponds are bottomless,

and Anai is determined to get
to the bottom of this legend,

so he turns on the
pumps and watches.

As the water recedes,

it reveals more than
just mud and stone.

When Anai peeks into the hole,
he can't believe his eyes.

Beneath the
surface of this pond

is actually a massive,
man-made cave.

Its walls are
intricately carved,

its ceilings are
held up by pillars,

and every inch is decorated

with these chiseled
parallel lines.

Anai and his neighbors
cannot believe what they found,

so they go and they drain
more ponds in the region.

Sure enough, they
find four more caves,

each as elaborately carved and
decorated as the first one.

These things are huge, ranging
from 25 to 60 feet deep

and 50 to 100 feet wide.

Just as impressive
is the engineering.

The sloped walls
help distribute weight,

preventing collapse
from the ground above.

Every cavern faces south,

which allows the caves to be
filled with natural light.

Over the
next few years,

researchers find 19
more hand-carved caves.

We have over 300,000
square feet of engineered space,

but no signs of the builders,

the techniques, or
of their intentions.

This lack of cultural
or material evidence

is unprecedented.

Archeologists date
their construction

to between 206 BC and 23 AD.

This makes them the biggest

underground construction
project of that era.

This is a project on par

with other monumental
architectural wonders

like the Great Pyramid of Giza.

As mysterious as
the pyramids are,

these caves are even more so.

Some researchers
have suggested

that the caves might have
been used to store grain.

Others have thought that
they might have been a mine

for natural resources.

And then there are those

who think that these hidden
structures are so secretive

that they must've been
used for religious

or other cultural
ceremonies for the elite.

With little to go on,

the mysterious caverns become
known as the Longyou Caves,

named after the town
where they were found.

In China,
they're considered

the ninth wonder of
the ancient world.

But for all their size
and sophistication,

they raise more
questions than answers.

The fact that we still don't
know who built the caves or why

makes them one of the
most fascinating mysteries

of the ancient world.

Anai's curiosity uncovered
an ancient mystery.

A find 20 years later in Serbia

reveals something even stranger.

It's July 2023

in the small mining town
of Kostolac in Serbia.

Miners are busy
excavating in a quarry

when about 25 feet deep,

their mechanical digger
hits something really hard.

It sounds like wood,

so they figure that it's
a buried tree trunk.

But they decide to play it
safe and take a closer look.

When the workers brush
some of the dirt away,

they confirm it
definitely is wood.

However, this is
definitely no tree.

It's got sharp, crisp lines.

It's been carved by man
and it looks really old.

Archeologists are called
in to examine the site.

And as they dig, the find
gets bigger and bigger

from one point to
another, to dozens.

They've uncovered a
massive wooden structure.

It's the remains of
an enormous riverboat.

Now that it's exposed,

archeologists rush to
fully dig out the boat

before it falls apart.

It takes them two
days to fully uncover the boat

and it's huge, it's 65 feet
long, it's 11 feet wide.

Researchers believe
it was a cargo vessel

crewed by up to 30 men.

But curiously, there's no cargo,
there's no personal items,

there's no human remains.

Even stranger,
it's underground

and miles away from
the nearest waterway.

The Danube River is
more than two miles away,

but it turns out that it has
shifted over the centuries.

Researchers believe
that at one point

it flowed directly
over this spot.

The ship likely sank here,

and then the river
changed course

and then the ship was left

to be buried by the
shifting sands.

The whole area seems to
have changed centuries ago

because just a mile away,

there's an even larger
archeological excavation.

The ancient port of Viminacium.

Viminacium was a major
ancient Roman trading hub

and military port that
boasted a population

of about 45,000 people.

Its ruins included
temples, theaters, palaces,

even a hippodrome.

Beginning
in the fourth century,

Viminacium was attacked
by invading forces,

including Attila the Hun

in his campaign against
the Roman Empire.

By the time the Roman Empire
began to collapse in 476,

Viminacium was abandoned.

Experts
conclude the buried ship

was likely servicing
the port of Viminacium

around 1,700 years ago.

But questions still remain
about its final voyage.

The ship has no
signs of battle scars,

no signs of cargo,
no signs of crew,

which suggests it may have
been sunk intentionally,

perhaps better to lose it

than for it to fall
into enemy hands.

After nearly two
millennia underground,

this river barge is
still a mystery,

but at least it's finally
returning to port.

Road construction
usually slows you down.

But in 2024, it
stopped everything

when crews in Mexico
hit something incredible.

In June of 2024, just
outside of Mexico City,

construction workers are
expanding Highway 105.

As the workers labor under
the blazing summer sun

trying to dig out a hillside
to create space for a new lane,

they hit an unexpected obstacle.

It's a flat stone,
which is pretty strange,

but stranger still is
that it is attached

to another flat stone,
and another flat stone,

and they're all linked
together by mortar.

All these stones form
a steeply pitched wall

buried underneath the mountain.

They realize this is
clearly part of a structure.

They halt all work and they
call in the archeologists.

As they dig up this angled wall,

it appears to stretch
in two directions.

One, up the side
of the mountain,

and two, down towards the road.

Soon, they begin
to make out a shape.

They find stepped corners on
the outer edge of the wall.

And behind that,
another wall continues

at a 90-degree angle.

This crew thought they were
working to widen the highway.

But what they've really done

is discovered an
ancient pyramid.

And not
just any pyramid.

The base stretches out
to around 1,000 feet,

about 25% bigger than the
Great Pyramid of Giza.

Archeologists
realize the pyramid dates back

to a mysterious and largely
unknown ancient civilization

known as the Metzca.

The Metzca
were a multi-ethnic group

that lived within the area

from around the
year 950 to 1350.

Little is known
about this culture

because almost
nothing has been found

from the time of their
reign, until now.

Unfortunately,

experts can't fully
excavate the pyramid.

So they use drones
and imaging technology

to scan the entire
site from the air.

When they analyze the
data, they're shocked.

There is an
entire ceremonial complex

with the pyramid
as its centerpiece.

This discovery
suggests that this site

was of great significance
to the Metzca,

a combination religious
site and cultural hub.

And just when we're
hot on the heels of learning

and uncovering this treasure
trove of the ancient world,

all work
comes to a stop.

Funding dries up,

and archeologists are
forced to abandon the site.

Then, they actually
have to rebury it

to protect the site from the
elements and from any looters.

There's obviously
more to uncover here,

more stories about the history

of this otherwise
forgotten civilization.

But until more funding
materializes, this giant pyramid

and the ancient civilization
that constructed it

remains, once again,
buried underground.

Across the sea in England,

another surprising relic
is buried even deeper.

Not a pyramid, but a far more
personal piece of the past.

The year is 1972, and
in the city of York, England,

construction has just begun

on a new branch of Lloyds Bank.

They fire
up the excavator

and start to haul
away layers of peat.

And that's when the
workers noticed that

mixed in with the soil are
some strange-looking objects.

There's pieces of
timber, there's textiles,

and there's straps of leather.

Archeologists are called in

and as they are sifting
through these artifacts,

they find an object they
can't quite identify.

It's rough and
cylindrical in shape.

It's about eight inches
long, two inches wide,

and it weighs
about half a pound.

Archeologists
take a closer look

at the mystery object
under a microscope.

They see evidence of
plant pollen, cereal bran,

and other organic material.

And before long, it
becomes pretty evident

what they're looking at.

What they have found
is an enormous human coprolite.

It's another way of saying

a gigantic piece
of fossilized poop.

In fact, it's
the largest intact piece

of fossilized human
feces ever discovered.

What's
unusual about it,

apart from its gargantuous size,

is that typically, human feces
breaks down pretty quickly,

way before it has a
chance to fossilize.

But in this case,
because it fell in peat,

which is a low-oxygen
environment, it didn't rot.

Testing puts it in
the 9th century AD,

right in the middle of the
Viking occupation of York.

In 866 AD, the
Viking Great Heathen Army

conquered the city.

York became the Viking capital
in England until 954 AD.

And based on the diet,

this coprolite was left
behind by a Viking.

Today, the
relic is on display

at the Jorvic Viking
Centre in York.

It may not be
the most important

Viking artifact ever found,

but it is a strong
contender for number two.

The ocean is full
of big creatures

and even bigger secrets,

but none like the one a group
of fishermen find in Norway.

It's April 26th, 2019,

just off the coastal village
of Tufjord in Norway.

You have a group of fishermen
that are on their boat

and before long, they
feel something colliding

with the side of their ship.

One of the men on board
looks down in the water

and he sees a large beluga whale

rubbing itself against
the side of the boat.

Even though this
animal is large,

14 feet long,
maybe 2,700 pounds,

it seems friendly, tame even.

Hey, hey.

But it seems to be
tangled in something.

He puts on a survival suit

and jumps into the
water to help free it.

But as he gets closer,

he realizes that the
whale is in a harness.

So he unbuckles it and
sets the beluga whale free.

Back on the boat, he
sees something strange.

There's a camera
mount on the harness,

but the camera
itself is missing.

They also notice a
stamp on the harness

that says "Equipment
St. Petersburg".

So it looks like this
whale came from Russia.

Nearly overnight,

the beluga becomes a
media sensation in Norway.

But something seems off
about this friendly giant.

This whale
doesn't swim back north

towards his more
natural habitat.

He instead stays in the harbor,

socializing with
fishermen and tourists.

Hi, hi.

I mean, the whale, he
seems too well trained

to be a wild whale.

That's when Norway's
domestic intelligence agency

puts two and two together,

and comes up with
a shocking theory.

The strange
behavior, the harness,

the familiarity with humans.

This whale was clearly trained
to perform specific tasks,

which leads investigators
to hypothesize

that this whale is an
intelligence-gathering spy.

For years,
rumors had spread

around intelligence circles

that the Russian Navy
was actively trying

to get their hands
on aquatic animals

to train them as Russian spies.

Now, of course, Moscow denies

that any such
program ever existed.

Although there was that one time
that they placed a newspaper ad

seeking to buy five bottlenose
dolphins for $24,000.

As
unlikely as it seems,

the spy whale theory
picks up momentum,

leading investigators
straight to a possible source.

Intelligence officers
comb over satellite imagery

and, indeed, they find a
nearby Russian naval base.

The base has large sea pens

that would be perfect for
housing beluga whales.

They conclude that this beluga
either escaped from its pen

or that it might have
actually become lost

during a training
session in open waters.

In honor
of his Russian roots,

the whale is given
the name Hvaldimir,

combining hval, which
means whale in Norwegian,

with Vladimir, as in Putin.

Sadly, Hvaldimir's story
does not have a happy ending.

In 2024, his body is
discovered floating

in Risavika Bay in Norway.

Of course, given his
reported spy background,

rumors began to fly
that he's been taken out

by the Russians.

But the Norwegian Veterinary
Institute does an autopsy

and determines
that Hvaldimir died

from a bacterial infection.

To this day, Russia
has neither confirmed

nor denied Hvaldimir's origins.

But one thing is certain,

whether he was a runaway spy
or just a very confused beluga,

this giant whale
left behind a legacy

that was larger than life.

A colossal city
buried in the jungle,

a massive mammal working
as a secret agent,

and a metropolis unearthed
200 feet below the surface.

Sometimes gigantic discoveries

lead to even bigger revelations.

I'm Danny Trejo.

Thanks for watching
Mysteries Unearthed.