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Original subtitles

WILLIAM SHATNER: Twisted cords concealing secrets

to an ancient mountain empire.

A quest of mythic proportions

carved into a mysterious runestone.

And a universal ruler

intentionally hidden for all eternity.

Throughout the course of human history, many kingdoms

have prospered and expanded their territory,

only to one day collapse into the sands of time.

And with their demise,

secrets as to how these cultures lived,

fought, and ruled simply vanished.

Fortunately, tantalizing clues left behind

offer historians and archaeologists

the opportunity to piece together

what remains of the ancient past.

For instance, what can an intricate gold artifact

from a mountain lake or a towering megalithic pyramid

reveal about the people who made them?

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

โ™ช โ™ช

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 A.D., 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.

EDWIN BARNHART: 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.

SHATNER: 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?

SABINE HYLAND: The Incas had a 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.

SHATNER: 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 can... 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.

SHATNER: 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 a 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?

HUGH NEWMAN: 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 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.

SHATNER: Are Pachacuti's mummified remains, and with them,

the secrets of Machu Picchu, concealed in this chamber?

For now, the answers may lie sealed 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.

HYLAND: Quipus are twisted chords 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.

And 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.

SHATNER: Will translating these intricate rope knots reveal

why the Inca built the mountain kingdom of Machu Picchu?

It's an intriguing possibility, and one that illuminates

how important it is to decipher the relics of the past.

Like in the case of a delicately crafted miniature

found hidden in the jungles of Colombia.

It's a piece of art that many believe tells the story

of an ancient culture with riches so vast

they built a city constructed entirely of gold.

Its name?

El Dorado.

SHATNER: Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro,

capture the Incan Emperor Atahualpa,

and kill 5,000 of his men in the course of just one hour.

Pizarro is on a quest to both conquer the New World

and plunder as much gold as he can find.

Pizarro starts to take these gold and riches

from the kingdoms of the Andes.

And this really starts a precedent for conquistadors

trying to take riches and send them back to Europe.

This quest for gold is what drives them.

BELLINGER: From the European point of view, once there was

the hint of gold up in the hills of South America,

it was an absolute frenzy.

The indigenous people all around them

were literally draped in gold,

the likes of which Europeans never would see back at home.

SHATNER: As the Spanish conquistadors encountered indigenous people

throughout South America,

they heard stories of a vast city made entirely out of gold.

In fact, the Spanish came up with a name for the golden city.

They called it El Dorado.

The name El Dorado comes from the words "the golden."

That's literally what it translates to.

The Spanish trekked through rain forests

and across swollen rivers and up icy mountains

in search of what they assumed had to be a hidden city of gold,

a place of untold riches just waiting to be plundered.

There were similarities to all of these stories,

and that kept the Spaniards thinking,

"Well, maybe there's something to this. Maybe it's not a myth."

And because they don't know exactly where it is

it starts to be thought of as a lost city.

SHATNER: The Spanish belief that El Dorado

was a real lost city of gold was reinforced

when they came into contact with a mysterious civilization

known as the Muisca people.

The Muisca were the indigenous people who occupied

this particular highland area of the Andes,

which is, today, Colombia.

And they occupied this area for about a thousand years,

beginning in 600 AD. And, in fact,

they were so sophisticated

that they really take their place alongside

better known empires in the region, such as the Inca.

LEVY: The Muisca were incredible goldsmiths.

They were really skilled craftsmen at goldwork--

finely wrought, thinly pounded gold.

They made animals, they made gold

that was depictions of their deities.

SHATNER: Spanish Conquistadors searching for El Dorado

came to believe that it was built by the Muisca

because of a curious ritual they supposedly performed

high in the mountains

at a body of water known as Lake Guatavita.

When the Muisca initiated a new leader,

there was a very specific ceremony

that they performed on Lake Guatavita.

The leader would plaster his body in gold dust.

He would climb into a raft surrounded by priests.

At his feet was a pile of offerings,

gold and jewels.

Once they had paddled out to the middle of the lake,

he would make his offering to the god.

And that involved dropping all of the valuables

off the raft into the water,

and then diving in himself, so that the gold dust

would be washed from his body.

LEVY: When the conquistadors begin to hear about these rituals

that involve gold and a golden man,

it stood to reason that this place, El Dorado,

a lost city, is going to be somewhere out there.

SHATNER: The Spanish heard rumors that the Muisca

had performed this golden ceremony at Lake Guatavita

for a thousand years,

since the beginning of their civilization.

The conquistadors believed that El Dorado

must be an ancient, hidden city where, centuries earlier,

the ancestors of the Muisca had stockpiled

vast amounts of gold to be used in the sacred ritual.

LEVY: As conquistadores kept trying to find El Dorado,

they found a lot of gold,

they found goldwork made by the Muisca

that was really, really elaborate,

and they kept getting just enough

to sort of tantalize them to know or believe

that there would be more,

but they never quite found

the El Dorado that they had been looking for.

SHATNER: Although the Spanish failed in their quest to find El Dorado,

for centuries, treasure hunters from around the world

journeyed to South America in search of the lost city.

And then, in 1912,

an incredible discovery was made

at the bottom of Lake Guatavita.

LEVY: Hartley Knowles, a British engineer, came to Lake Guatavita

and, with a mining company, was able

to completely drain the lake to the bottom.

He found gold, rumored to be about $20,000 worth,

but what happened was as the lake went down,

all the silt and mud at the bottom

hardened in the sun until it was like concrete,

and they couldn't get any more gold out of the bottom.

JAGO COOPER: They cut a notch out of the side of the hill

and drained the lake.

But it only remained drained for about 24 hours

before the lake refilled.

But what they found was some objects that sort of showed that

this idea of offerings being thrown into the lake was true.

SHATNER: Even more incredible evidence of the Muisca rituals

was found later, in 1969, in a nearby cave.

BELLINGER: In 1969, some villagers

stumbled upon an absolutely spectacular find

in a ceramic jar.

They found an exquisite raft

crafted all out of gold.

The workmanship was incredible.

But even more exciting is that

it corroborated everything that had been written down

about the Muisca rituals in Lake Guatavita

when they were initiating a new ruler.

SHATNER: Since the story of the ritual performed by the Muisca chief

was proven to be true, does that suggest that

the tales of El Dorado, the lost city of gold,

could also be true?

And if so, where might it be hidden?

LEVY: Cities in the Amazonian region, over time, have a tendency

to become absorbed and enveloped by the jungle.

South America is an incredible place to keep secrets

and for a lost city like El Dorado to dwell.

SHATNER: Could El Dorado have really existed only to be swallowed up

by the dense jungle, its vast riches buried and beyond reach?

Perhaps one day other precious artifacts like the golden raft

will be unearthed and provide yet another clue

to solving the mystery of the lost city of gold.

But there's another object of fascination,

this one made of stone,

that inspired a search of an entirely different kind--

a quest to find a mythical outpost

of the infamous Nordic warriors

known as the Vikings.

SHATNER: According to a collection of medieval prose

called the Icelandic Sagas,

a group of Vikings were said to have taken a daring voyage

from Scandinavia across the Atlantic Ocean

on a journey to reach a faraway realm known as Vinland.

The Sagas describe Vinland as a bountiful paradise

and, for centuries, historians thought

it was merely the stuff of myth and legend.

But then, in 1960,

Norwegian husband-and-wife team Helge and Anne Ingstad

set out to prove not only that Vinland was a real place

but also that it was located in North America.

SCOTT A. MELLOR: Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad combed the entire

coast of Canada to try and find this site.

And they were very confident that the Sagas

had an element of fact about it.

And they were right, they did.

SHATNER: The Norwegian couple uncovered the remains

of a Viking settlement on the northern tip of Newfoundland

that dated to the 11th century AD.

This profound discovery, which is now

a UNESCO World Heritage Site called L'Anse aux Meadows,

is indisputable proof that the Sagas may hold more truth

about the Vikings than we ever thought possible.

BILL: L'Anse aux Meadows is actually the physical evidence

of Scandinavian habitation on the North American continent.

The Vikings did discover North America

500 years before Christopher Columbus.

THOMPSON: We know that there were Viking settlements in the New World.

When I was a young boy that was considered a legend.

Now it is historical fact.

And they may have actually been more extensive

than we see in the Sagas themselves.

MELLOR: L'Anse aux Meadows is in Newfoundland.

And we know that they were there.

But then, of course, it begs the question,

how far in did they get?

SHATNER: Is it possible the Vikings

traveled deep into North America?

Well, there are those who believe the answer is yes,

and they claim the proof can be found

more than 2,000 miles away from Newfoundland...

...in Alexandria, Minnesota.

This small city, about 130 miles northeast of Minneapolis,

is home to the Runestone Museum.

Inside is an artifact that many point to as evidence

that the Vikings traveled well beyond

the northeastern tip of Canada

and into the heartland of America.

Because on display is the remarkable yet controversial

Kensington Runestone.

The Kensington Runestone is about the size of a gravestone.

And it was discovered in 1898 in Kensington

in Douglas County in Minnesota

by a Swedish immigrant, Olof Ohman,

and it is covered in runes.

And what intrigues people is that

it seems to be incontrovertible proof

that the Vikings were there.

THOMPSON: Runes are Viking works of art.

And runestones are located

pretty much throughout the Viking realm.

Runes were kind of cumbersome to write with.

And so things tended to be short.

So what you end up with is very often cryptic poetry

with a tremendous amount of meaning

packed into very obscure passages.

So, even to be able to understand these runes

was sort of a master craft.

SHATNER: For over a century, people have speculated about the meaning

of the cryptic markings on the Kensington Runestone.

By comparing it with other known runestones,

historians have theorized that the stone

tells the tale of a Viking expedition.

McMAHON: Allegedly, the Kensington Runestone

has an intriguing story

written in Runic script,

about a group of about 30 Vikings

who journey from Vinland

all the way down into what is now Minnesota.

Now, ten of them are massacred

en route by the local people.

But the suggestion is that these Vikings

made it to the interior of North America.

SHATNER: Based on this translation,

many believe that the Kensington Runestone is a memorial

to Vikings who died on their quest to explore North America.

But skeptics have questioned the stone's authenticity.

McMAHON: This could either be a genuine account

of an incredible journey by intrepid warriors

deep into America, or the other theory

is that this was Swedish immigrants

trying to prove to their neighbors

that they had a much longer presence

and an entitlement to be there

because their ancestors had been there.

But the idea that these warriors ventured deep into North America

into places that we know well today, Minnesota--

that really captures the imagination.

Did a group of Viking explorers,

adorned with axes and shields,

venture deeper into the forests of North America

than we've been led to believe?

Whatever the truth may be,

discoveries that rewrite the timeline of human history

have far-reaching implications.

Such is the case with an ancient kingdom in Southeast Asia

that constructed what may be

the oldest pyramid on Earth.

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.

NEWMAN: 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 is 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.

SHATNER: 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.

COLLINS: 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 mounts,

is something even more incredible.

We now know that this site

does actually conceal beneath it

a massive pyramid complex.

NEWMAN: Gunung Padang is really like a step pyramid

buried under stone and earth.

And the evidence suggests this is extremely ancient

and is a very, very important place.

SHATNER: 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.

SHATNER: The discovery of a chamber buried underground

has added to the mystery of Gunung Padang.

But the most significant revelation so far is that

this structure might be the oldest pyramid ever built.

SHATNER: 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 ten 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.

SHATNER: Do the technological achievements

of a lost civilization lie hidden

within the stone chambers of this ancient pyramid?

It's no surprise that the empires of the past would

go to great lengths to conceal their most precious secrets.

Such is the case surrounding the actual resting place

of one of the most feared rulers in history.

It is the mystery of the lost tomb

of Genghis Khan.

SHATNER: Towering above the sparse landscape is a massive,

130-foot-tall statue made of stainless steel.

This magnificent monument is a depiction

of Mongolia's most famous ruler:

Genghis Khan.

THOMPSON: Genghis Khan is one of the most prominent figures

in all of history. And he came up as

a very small, minor player in what was a small,

minor country that most of the world hadn't heard of.

But by the time he had died,

he had conquered most of the known world.

STEAVU: Genghis Khan is unquestionably

Mongolia's greatest cultural

and historical and national hero.

He was at the head of

one of the largest empires in the world,

second only to the British Empire.

And many people, maybe outside of Mongolia,

might remember Genghis Khan for the bloodshed and conquests.

But he was also at the origins of many technological,

scientific, astronomical developments and advancements.

SHATNER: After 20 years of empire building,

Genghis Khan died in the year 1227 AD

while battling the Western Xia dynasty.

Khan's exact cause of death is a mystery.

But before he passed, he commanded that

his final resting place should be unmarked

so that his tomb would be undisturbed forever.

STEAVU: The circumstances of his burial are quite mysterious.

According to legend, Genghis Khan's body

was brought back to Mongolia

by a group of 2,000 servants

who were guarded by a group of soldiers.

The servants were all killed by the soldiers.

Now, the soldiers themselves were then killed

by a second group of soldiers

who then themselves committed suicide

so that the burial site would remain

forever undisturbed and unknown.

THOMPSON: Many great rulers in many parts of the world

have wanted not to display one's body, but rather to hide it.

And that would have been the practice by Genghis Khan.

Because he knew that his tomb, if it was ever uncovered,

would be an enormously political tool for whoever uncovered it.

And he wanted to control that legacy.

SHATNER: In the eight centuries since Genghis Khan's death,

many have tried to find his tomb.

But thus far, no one has been able to defeat

Khan's drastic measures to keep its location a secret.

Which naturally begs the question: where could it be?

A French archaeological expedition ventures

deep into this rugged region of northern Mongolia

to find Genghis Khan's lost tomb.

The team believes that the tomb may be hidden near

a particular mountain peak that is known is Burkhan Khaldun.

SHATNER: Burkhan Khaldun is almost 8,000 feet high

and covers more than 93 square miles.

Exploring this vast, rugged terrain is made

even more difficult because in 2015

the mountain was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site,

rendering if off-limits to any excavations

in search of Genghis Khan's tomb.

Mongolians, in general, still desire

to honor Genghis' Kahn's wishes.

They discourage archaeological digs to try to find the tomb.

He is still very, very much a hero in Mongolia.

And his wishes are still respected.

SHATNER: Because of the restrictions against

searching Burkhan Khaldun,

members of the French expedition decided that

the key to finding Genghis Khan's tomb

was to explore the mountain from the sky.

And in 2016, they used drones

equipped with both photographic and infrared cameras

to do an unprecedented survey of the area.

SHATNER: After surveying the mountain from above,

the French team made an extraordinary discovery.

They identified a mound that was 130 feet high

and 820 feet wide

that they believe might be man-made.

The French team that accessed the mountain

identified that the pyramid-shaped elevation

also had a little shrine

and it sits atop of this sacred mountain.

So, they speculate that this would

probably be where Genghis Khan is buried.

SHATNER: Is it possible that the structure

discovered by the French expedition on Burkhan Khaldun

is the tomb of Genghis Khan?

For now, that question is unanswered,

because the Mongolian people remain committed to honoring

the revered emperor's dying wish

that his tomb should never be found.

SHATNER: Located near the border of Russia and Mongolia,

this region is known for its vast grasslands.

But in 2021, archaeologists from the Russian Academy of Sciences

made a remarkable discovery.

While conducting an aerial survey,

they spotted an enormous symbol known as a geoglyph

that was formed using carefully arranged pebbles and sandstones.

PAUL BAHN: In Central Asia we have something called

the Siberian Bull.

It's a very simple drawing just done with dark stones

making the outline of a tail and the back legs of an animal.

And, fortunately, it's linked quite closely

to an early Bronze Age burial,

so we reckon it must date to back to 2,000 BCE.

It is some 4,000 years old, and still there.

Research on this is still ongoing,

but it shows that there's still so much

about these geoglyphs and the beliefs and the values

that were held by the ancient people who made them

that we do not know.

SHATNER: The Siberian Bull is ten feet tall and 13 feet long,

and is the first geoglyph of an animal

discovered in Central Asia.

But what's more remarkable is that

even larger ancient geoglyphs have been found

all over the world.

Many of them are so vast

that they can only be identified from the sky.

BAHN: Geoglyphs are an astonishing phenomenon.

They're found in many, many parts of the world,

primarily in deserts.

And they are often of huge size,

involving an enormous amount of work.

Geoglyphs can be divided up, really, into the ones

that just look like geometric shapes to us,

and there are many, many of those.

You have lines which just look like roads or paths

going on for miles.

And then, of course, you have what seem to us to be

depictions of birds, animals, humans.

And they must all have very different meanings

to the cultures that produced them.

NEWMAN: In March 2022, archeological researchers found

what could be the largest geoglyphs on the planet

in the Thar Desert of ancient India.

They stretch over a huge distance,

and one of them kind of forms into what appears to be

a kind of strange spiral.

And there's other ones which are like sinuous serpents.

MIANO: One of the more fascinating geoglyphs

is the Uffington White Horse that was found

in Oxfordshire, England.

They dug trenches and they filled them with chalk

to create this beautiful horse,

which itself is 3,000 years old.

And we expect to find more as time goes on.

SHATNER: Why did so many ancient cultures across the world

labor to carve these enormous figures and symbols

that could only be fully seen from the sky?

Well, according to some researchers,

it could be because the people who created the geoglyphs

intended them to be viewed not by man but by gods.

BAHN: It seems a reasonable supposition

that a lot of these images, which only make sense

from the air, were very much tied to things in the heavens.

There are astronomical orientations

of some of the lines

and some figures may represent constellations.

But there are so many possibilities because there are

so many hundreds of different geoglyph types

that you can't simply put one explanation on all of them.

SHATNER: Recently, a new theory has been proposed to explain the famous

Nazca Lines in Peru, which date back more than 2,000 years.

BAHN: The great Nazca Lines are done in one continuous line--

the monkey or the spider.

We've always assumed that the people who made the Nazca Lines

were trying to communicate with gods, ancestors,

spirits or whatever.

But there was an idea put forward quite recently

by an American scholar

who thought that some of the geoglyphs

might be linked to runoff from hills and channeling the water

and helping the crops to grow.

MIKE TUCKER: There's a trend in backyard gardening called permaculture,

where the gardener digs trenches and

creates swells or hills to sequester the water

or capture the rainfall,

so that way the ecosystem supports their own garden

and they don't have to bring in extra irrigation.

MICHAEL WYSESSION: In places like where the Nazca Lines are,

we see a very barren, arid, dry place, currently.

But if you went back thousands of years,

you'd find alternating periods

of extreme rainfall events.

NEWMAN: We don't have written records of what they were thinking

or what they were doing and why they were building these sites.

The fact is there are different theories

in different parts of the world as to

what they could have been created for.

But whether it's in a desert

or whether it's like chalk hill figures in ancient Britain,

at least they still exist

and we can appreciate and study them today.

From high in the Andes mountains to the steppes of Mongolia,

the evidence of powerful bygone civilizations

is all around us.

What can we learn from the ruins

of these once-great cultures?

Perhaps they show us a cautionary tale

of how empires rise and fall,

as well as reshape our understanding

of human history as we know it.

It's clear that our innate need to explore the mysteries

of our ancient past will keep the search going,

because the most closely guarded secrets

of these mighty kingdoms remain...

unexplained.

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