Original subtitles

♪

what makes this scroll so different than the rest?

We have descriptions of treasures.

Does the scroll give a value for the treasure?

$1 billion dollar.

A billion dollars of treasure?

65 bars of gold

are located at the sharp edge of the rock.

"sharp edge of the rock." yes.

There's a lot of sharp rocks in jordan.

♪

you see that? Oh, my god!

That's writing!

Look at that -- more pottery.

You think this could be the place?

I'm positive.

This is amazing.

Oh, my god!

♪

my name is josh gates...

Look! [ laughs ]

...Explorer, adventurer...

That is it!

...And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.

Ah, ah, aah, haa!

With a degree in archaeology

and a passion for the unexplained,

I travel to the ends of the earth,

investigating the greatest legends in history.

Okay, let's punch it.

This is "expedition unknown."

-- captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

♪

the dead sea scrolls --

one of the greatest discoveries ever made

in the field of archaeology...

Captions paid for by discovery communications

...Over 900 manuscripts found in ceramic jars

in the caves of qumran in israel,

containing the earliest known copies of the old testament,

as well as two-millennia-old stories

not found anywhere in the bible.

Since their discovery in 1946,

scientists and scholars have been obsessed

with unlocking their secrets.

Still, the questions remain --

who wrote them?

And perhaps most tantalizing,

are there more out there to be found?

♪

to get answers, I travel to israel

to see the scrolls firsthand...

This is our oldest source for the complete ten commandments.

Yes. Wow.

...And received rare access to learn how researchers

are working to preserve these priceless treasures.

What we're seeing here is a multispectral-imaging system.

That is unbelievable.

It's like a magic trick.

♪

then, I ventured into the desert region of qumran

to join archaeologist oren gutfeld at the caves

where all of the scrolls were found.

There -- more than 15,000 fragments were found inside.

Oren recently discovered a new scroll,

the first in 70 years,

and we were on hand

for the discovery of a newly-found chamber.

The cave continues.

Gates: [ laughs ]

that's a literal secret chamber.

The scrolls were written 2,000 years ago,

and ancient ruins below the caves reveal

that some of the parchments were likely written

by a jewish sect called the essenes,

but other scrolls were likely transported to the caves by jews

fleeing the roman occupation of jerusalem

and their destruction of the second temple,

where sacred documents were almost certainly stored.

Oren guided me to a remote ancient city known as beit lei,

where the jews fleeing from the romans dug secret tunnels

in an effort to hide themselves and perhaps even more scrolls.

Hey, josh. Look.

Unbelievable!

Does it go somewhere? Let's check.

Ah ha! [ grunts ]

now we've unsealed a chamber deep underground,

and we seem to have found evidence

that this may be just the place we're looking for.

Wow. Look at this.

Come here. Come here. Look. There's pottery.

Gates: You see it?

This is a body shard of a cooking pot.

So people were probably living in rooms like this.

Yes. This is huge,

sobering evidence that hebrew refugees

fleeing the roman conquest of jerusalem

didn't just hide in these chambers.

They lived here, and they may have brought

their greatest treasures with them.

Oh, look at that!

Look at that!

An oil lamp. It's an oil lamp.

Yes, and complete.

Oh, my god.

♪

it's an indescribable feeling to hold an artifact like this

knowing that the last person to touch it

lived over 2,000 years ago.

♪

and you can see right there, where it was burned.

Yes. This is typical

late-second-temple-period oil lamp.

This would have been used by somebody

from the time of the scrolls

in this otherwise terrifying darkness

to provide a little bit of light.

You can see the soot.

Look at that, all the burn marks.

I mean, that is really like time traveling.

That connects you to the past.

Yep.

♪

there really must have been this whole kind of community

of people down here, but no sign of scrolls.

Yes, organic materials,

and some of that may have to do with the climate.

Maybe they hide scrolls in this area

and they just evaporated. -Yeah.

One of the big differences between here and qumran,

as I sweat through this shirt,

it's much more humid here.

That's correct.

The dead sea scrolls were written on parchment or papyrus,

both organic materials that degrade

with exposure to air and humidity.

Oren believes this chamber is too damp

to have preserved them like the ones in qumran.

Except one of the scrolls that could have survived.

Which one? The copper scroll.

The copper scroll?

Discovered in 1952 in a qumran cave

where parchment scrolls had been found years earlier,

the copper scroll is different.

As its name suggests, it was inscribed on a thin sheet

of almost pure copper.

Even stranger is what's written on it.

So, it's not passages from the hebrew bible?

That's correct. It's a description

of where a huge amount of treasures

were hidden in the desert.

So, it's more like a treasure map?

It's like a treasure map, but you need to solve a riddle

in order to find the treasure.

Nothing's ever easy in this business.

♪

and to make things even more difficult,

unlike the rest of the scrolls

which are stored in israeli facilities,

the copper scroll isn't in this country at all.

So, I bid farewell to oren to chase a new dream,

one etched in copper.

♪

to find out if the copper scroll leads to an ancient fortune,

I leave israel for neighboring jordan,

where the scroll is kept under lock and key.

♪

when people think of the capital of a kingdom,

they probably don't picture amman.

It is, after all, one of the most cosmopolitan cities

in the middle east, spreading out across seven hills

in waves of cream-colored buildings,

but don't let the modern architecture

and bustling streets fool you.

There's history here, too --

ancient history.

♪

welcome to philadelphia.

Well, that's what the greeks called this place

when they ran it over 2,200 years ago,

but don't bother going to look for a good cheesesteak.

The romans took over in 63 bce,

built the city of jerash

and stayed for over four centuries.

Ever since, though, jordan has been an islamic kingdom,

an enduring jewel in the ruins of older empires.

Much of their history, including the copper scroll,

is housed in the jordan archaeological museum,

but getting there is easier said than done.

This sucks.

[ car horn honks ]

any -- any -- no, nothing.

It's just gridlock.

In amman, a bustling metropolis

of more than four million people,

21st-century traffic merges onto 10th-century roadways.

I just wish I could travel these streets

the way the romans did a few thousand years ago.

♪

♪

this is what I'm talking about --

power steering, panoramic sunroof,

plenty of horsepower under the hood.

The emissions are a bit rough, though.

[ coughs ] god, what are you guys eating?

Come on. [ clicking tongue ] hyah!

♪

all right. I got to find an off-ramp around here.

Hyah!

♪

ah! It was all a dream.

[ engine idling ]

[ car horn honks ] come on.

♪

an hour later, I arrive for a meeting with dr. Omar al-ghul

to ask him about the museum's most famous artifact,

the mysterious copper scroll.

Doctor. Hello.

Pleasure to meet you,

and thank you so much for taking the time.

I appreciate it. Yeah, my pleasure.

This is it? Yes, it is.

This is the copper scroll.

♪

what makes this scroll so different than the rest?

At 2,000 years ago,

people used to write on papyri...

Mm-hmm. ...Used to write on parchment.

Very, very rarely find things hammered into metal.

Copper is an extremely malleable metal,

allowing scribes to cut letters into its surface.

But when the scroll was discovered in 1952

at the same caves in qumran

where the other scrolls were hidden,

oxidation had made this unique document dangerously brittle.

And was it literally rolled up like a scroll?

Yes, exactly,

which makes us wonder why would one do that?

Why would you write something

and then make sure nobody can read it?

Right. I mean, I would think maybe you would do that

if it was a holy document of some kind

that was meant to be venerated but not read

or if it was something secret.

Exactly.

♪

archaeologists knew that whatever was hidden

on the inside of the copper scroll

had to be special,

but because it was too fragile to unroll,

the decision was made in the 1950s

to reveal the text by cutting it into strips.

In and of itself, that's a very stressful decision...

Sure. ...Because you're purposely

damaging the scroll now.

And because in such cases, you have no previous experience.

This truly is a one-of-a-kind artifact.

Yes, definitely.

It's not just unique because it's made of metal,

but what's written on it is really unusual, too.

Here we have lists, descriptions of treasure.

The scroll lists instructions on where to find

64 caches of gold, silver, and jewels.

Some of them mention places in jordan, like mount nebo,

but most of the clues are maddeningly vague.

"in the ruin that is in the valley of achor,

under the stairs, under a hill that must be climbed,

hidden under the east side 40 cubits deep

is a silver chest and its vessels

with a weight of 17 talents."

a talent is an ancient measure equal to about 75 pounds,

so 1,275 pounds of riches

are hidden somewhere in the valley of achor,

and that's just one of the treasures

listed on the scroll.

Does the scroll give a value for the treasure?

By today's prices,

that would be something like $1 billion.

A billion dollars... Yes.

...Of treasure. Oh, boy.

♪

♪

gates: In the jordan museum of amman

sits the most unique of the dead sea scrolls,

the so-called copper scroll,

with directions to a treasure

potentially worth a billion dollars.

So, what are some of the theories

as to where this treasure might have come from?

The most common theory is that

the treasures came from the second temple in jerusalem.

The second temple was the center of jewish life in jerusalem,

a religious compound containing an archive

of writing and scrolls

and also a treasury of silver and gold.

When the romans destroyed the second temple of jerusalem

in the year 70,

jewish refugees may have scattered into the desert

with its most precious items.

Do you think there's a chance that this treasure is out there

somewhere waiting to be found?

Yes.

They invested time and effort and expertise

in hammering that scroll.

It's weird.

It's like everything about this is mysterious.

It's like a treasure map without a good place to start.

Exactly.

To seek the treasure behind the copper scroll,

my first step is to talk with a leading archaeologist

about where the scroll was created...

♪

...And tracking him down is an expedition in and of itself,

starting with a three-hour drive

into the scorching jordanian desert.

♪

there, hidden in the sands,

is a secret that was guarded for thousands of years.

♪

this narrow slot canyon is known as the siq,

and it's a secret passage of sorts...

♪

...But for centuries, it's very existence

was forgotten by the outside world.

But in 1812, a swiss explorer named johann burckhardt

took it upon himself to learn perfect arabic

and adopt a disguise that was convincing enough

that it fooled local bedouins

into revealing the location of the gorge,

and what he found at the other end

is nothing short of wondrous.

♪

the lost city of petra.

♪

whether or not you've been here personally,

almost everybody knows petra because of this one building.

It's called the treasury, and it was famously cast

as the fictional hiding place of the holy grail

in "indiana jones and the last crusade."

but when it comes to petra, the treasury here,

it's just the front door.

♪

petra was a major center of commerce,

featuring royal palaces, tombs, a monastery,

aqueducts, and even a massive theater,

all sculpted into the sheer sandstone cliffs.

♪

all of this was created by the nabateans,

nomads who came in out of the desert in about 400 bce

to create a trade empire

that stretched from rome to india to egypt.

They were at the center of it all, and they cleaned up.

The nabateans were among

the wealthiest people in the region,

but could they be the source of the lost treasure,

and could they have crafted the copper scroll?

I'm about to ask an archaeologist

who's also an expert in mining and metallurgy,

dr. Mohammad al-najjar.

This is, like, the most dramatic place

in the world you could meet someone.

It is really impressive.

So, let's talk about the copper scroll.

Let's start with the material itself.

Obviously extremely unusual to find something like this

printed on metal.

Could that copper have come from here, in what's now jordan?

Yes, because 10 miles from here, we documented, actually,

more than 300 copper mines.

Are there any places that are in what is now jordan

mentioned in the copper scroll?

Several places, including mount nebo.

♪

the copper scroll was found in what is now occupied

by modern-day israel,

here in a cave in qumran with the other dead sea scrolls.

But one of the only landmarks to which it refers

is actually on the eastern side of the dead sea,

in modern-day jordan,

which means the treasure could be on this side of the border.

How much of these canyons

and these caves on the jordanian side

have been systematically explored?

Some of them have been explored, but not all of them.

My plan is to go and to look at some of these places

and to talk to the locals.

And how far away is this area?

It's about 60 miles from here to the desert.

Do you have a good car, 4x4 car?

Yeah.

You'll be driving.

Okay, sure.

Lead the way.

I'll drive.

♪

okay, out of petra.

We head for the highway toward the low deserts

on the jordanian side of the dead sea.

There may be a billion dollars hidden somewhere out in the sand

that has gone unclaimed for 2,000 years,

and dr. Najjar thinks he knows why.

Let's start with talking about the clues in the copper scroll.

Okay.

They are very vague.

♪

we have, "six silver bars are located

at the sharp edge of the rock

which is under the eastern wall in the cistern."

"sharp edge of the rock." yes.

There's a lot of sharp rocks in jordan.

♪

we have to remember that we are talking about clues

that existed 2,000 years ago.

So, those landmarks mentioned in the copper scroll,

they might not even be there anymore.

Exactly, so we need to find some people

who might know some of these places,

those people who were the first to find the qumran scroll.

I'm talking about the bedouins.

They know the landscape better than anybody else

because they have been there forever.

Okay, so the question is, how do we reach the bedouins?

That's why we need the 4x4.

Right, off-roading into the desert.

Into the desert.

We veer from the paved road to no road.

♪

♪ into the road, don't brake too soon ♪

okay.

♪ generation meltdown, little boy blues ♪

♪ walk tall, don't slip and slide ♪

♪ don't slip and slide ♪

sorry.

While dr. Najjar knows the direction of the bedouin camp,

navigating through sand dunes is an inexact science.

There's not much of a road here, doc.

Are you sure you know where you're going?

Yeah, just follow the sun.

"follow the sun," the original google maps.

♪

ooh, nature's speed bump.

[ goats bleating ]

♪

mr. Najjar, what's the etiquette here

when you have goats in the road?

They have the right of way.

Always.

And if not, you have dinner.

♪

okay, just let him go.

After you, please.

♪

[ goat bleats ]

♪

our guiding light, the sun,

is dropping toward the horizon in a hurry.

We can't afford any more delays.

You know, it is going to be dark soon, doc.

So we need to just speed up.

Speed up?

That's no simple task in jordan's loose sands,

but with daylight fading and no bedouin camp in sight,

I push the 4x4 to its limits...

♪

...And the desert pushes back.

Hmm, stuck in the sand.

[ engine revving ]

[ engine stalls ]

♪

gates: In search of an ancient fortune,

archaeologist mohammad al-najjar and I

are following clues inscribed in a copper dead sea scroll.

Dr. Najjar believes a tribe of bedouin people may know

the cryptic locations described in the 2,000-year-old text.

We need to reach their camp before sundown,

♪

but the desert doesn't give a damn.

[ engine revs ]

[ engine stalls ]

hmm, stuck in the sand.

[ gearshift clicks ]

great, now we're going to die in the desert.

To avoid that fate, we start digging out the 4x4,

although we are lacking some essential equipment.

You don't have a shovel, so we'll do it by hand.

Today's travel tip is...

Always pack a shovel.

And then, when all seems lost,

a desert miracle appears.

♪

gates: Doctor, I see a mirage.

Hi. How are you?

Man: Welcome jordan. Thank you very much.

I'm having a great time.

You don't have a shovel, do you?

[ speaking native language ]

he suggests that he can pull it out?

With what?

Gates: Our savior is a bedouin shepherd,

one of the nomads of the jordanian desert.

Where'd this guy come from?

He knows these sand dunes like a fish knows water

and advises us to stuff loose brush under the tires

so we can get traction to pull ourselves loose.

[ gearshift clicks ]

[ engine revs ]

najjar: Yeah, that's it.

That's it. That's it.

With help from our new friend,

we free ourselves from the ultimate sand trap.

We got it!

No aaa card required.

Hey, thank you.

Where do you live?

This way.

This way?

[ speaking native language ] okay.

Let's go.

Gates: With daylight fading, he points us in the direction

of the bedouin camp

before returning to the desert to tend his flock.

♪

the delay means we have to find our way in the dark,

and we're talking dark.

You don't know this kind of dark.

He said it was this way, yes?

Yes. It is this way.

We've got part of a wall.

That's a good sign. Yeah. Yeah.

Somebody's living around.

♪

ah, we got a light!

Look at that. We got a camp.

♪

[ vehicle doors close ]

[ speaking in native language ]

[ conversing in native language ]

is it okay?

Gates: The bedouin have maintained their way of life for millennia,

and it isn't because they're social butterflies.

[ all speaking native language ]

so it's a rare honor for us

to be invited to sit by their campfire.

Thank you very much for receiving us.

We met one of their friends in the desert.

He helped us. Our car was stuck.

We would still be out there, so thank you.

[ speaking native language ]

dr. Najjar talks to our hosts,

asking about any local lore surrounding the copper scroll.

They're willing to share their unique wisdom

about the scroll and its secrets.

[ speaking native language ]

the elder is saying that the people here deeply believe

that there are hidden treasures.

They say that there is a canyon

far away, a remote area,

and there are some caves in this canyon

that have never been searched.

Uh-huh. Where is that area?

[ speaking native language ]

about 20 miles from here to the south, in this direction.

Gates: With business out of the way,

my hosts are gracious enough to offer us a hot meal...

[ men speaking native language ]

[ mouthful ] so good.

...And beds for the night.

♪

in the morning, the blazing desert sun rises,

and so do we,

excited to find a cave full of treasure, sort of.

[ exhales sharply ]

morning. Good morning.

Okay. Sun is shining.

It's approximately 413 degrees out.

Let's do this.

Using directions and landmarks given to us

by our bedouin hosts, dr. Najjar navigates us

20 miles south of the camp, through jordan's barren desert,

to the canyon they spoke of in their stories.

Okay, look at this. This is amazing.

This is like another planet.

♪

looks like a maze in here.

Najjar: And you see the erosion is everywhere.

Well, that's the thing that's tricky,

is that at first glance,

everything looks like a cave or a little hiding place,

but a lot of it really is just the way

that the sand has collapsed in.

The thing that's incredible about it

is it looks exactly like qumran.

Yeah.

This looks like the other side of the dead sea,

where the dead sea scrolls were found.

Absolutely. This is, amman --

the same geology, the same topography.

Right.

I definitely think this is the right area.

Don't you? It is.

♪

is that a cave, or is it just the eroded opening?

This looks like a cave.

Let's check it out? Yes.

♪

yeah. It looks like a cave.

It's so hard to tell whether it's just the natural erosion

or whether that's something that's man-made

or had been used.

Well, it certainly doesn't go very deep.

-No. -I think this might just be

from natural erosion,

and no real evidence, at least apparent evidence,

that anybody did modify or use this.

False alarm, but that's okay.

We're definitely in the right spot.

Let's see if we can get some higher ground.

We climb up the rocky hillside

to get a bird's-eye view of the canyon,

seeking out signs of the cave mentioned in the copper scroll.

Then, we find something unexpected.

Oh, there is an opening here.

This...

Doesn't seem to go anywhere.

Ooh, what's that, though?

You think that's man-made?

I think it is man-made.

-For an oil lamp or something. -Yes.

We saw this exact thing back in caves in israel,

little oil lamp niches, little places to put light.

So could this have been part of a cave that collapsed out?

Probably, because this is too small

for anybody to live here.

Right.

Actually, if you look there,

you can see more collapses there.

I was just going to say that it looks like this whole thing

might have been a cave. Let's see what's up here.

-Yeah. Let's just check it out. -Go ahead.

Hoping that this could be part of a network of caverns,

dr. Najjar and I search the surrounding area

for other entrances.

Gates: This whole thing, I think, was a cave.

All this looks chipped out, all of it.

Yeah. That's interesting.

Yeah.

And here.

Oh, look at that.

You see that? Oh, my god!

Look at that!

♪

♪

gates: I'm in the deserts of jordan,

following bedouin stories of ancient treasure

linked to a mysterious artifact known as the copper scroll.

Archaeologist mohammad al-najjar and I

have scaled one of the walls of this remote canyon,

and now he appears to have spotted something remarkable.

Najjar: Can you see that?

Oh, my god!

Look at that!

That's writing! I see letters!

There's writing here, for sure. -There is writing, there.

You can see the cross there. -Yes.

And we have the letter "k" and probably "n."

I think this is greek.

Oh, my word.

It's greek to me, but dr. Najjar is able to make out

"kappa," greek for "k," and "nu" for "n."

was this a clue connected to the copper scroll

or simply ancient graffiti?

Unfortunately, the rest of the message

is worn off the rock and is lost to the ages.

Amazing confirmation that these are not

just what they appear to be, which are these empty canyons.

There is a presence here.

There is a human history here.

This was either a home or a place for people to pray.

This was a special place. Yes.

It is a sacred place, here, absolutely.

Unbelievable.

Oh, that is awesome.

This might be the right area.

This might be a place where there are more caves like this

that could be hiding things.

I'm sure about that. I'm sure about that.

Wow.

We found evidence that people were utilizing caves here

during the time of the copper scroll.

Now we fan out to find more.

♪

aha, look at that!

Look at this!

That's gotta be a cave.

Let's check it out.

♪

gates: It goes way, way back.

It's a real cave.

Look at the size of this place.

Let's see where it goes.

We should be very careful here because the walls are crumbling,

and there might be some animals or some snakes here.

Why you got to make it all scary right before we go in?

It's -- I mean, you know, the --

it was all exciting. They're inside the cave.

It was all exciting, and now you made it --

it is exciting, but --

now you made it scary. No.

My point is, we have to be careful.

It might be dangerous here, also.

Go ahead. Go.

Ruined it.

♪

♪

look at that. Look at the ceiling.

♪

[ wings flapping ] oh, my god!

Ah! Just a bat.

These are some bats. It was just a bat.

Yeah, okay. That's fine.

That's fine. I mean, look at that.

See? You got me on edge.

That's what happens. You got me all freaked out.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, but, I mean, look at that.

Look at that.

Look at the wall here. It's incredible.

If you touch it, it will go down.

Right, okay, so stay off the walls.

Okay.

♪

I got two passages here, one that goes down

and one that goes up, but they're both dead ends.

Let's have a look around on the ground, here.

♪

what we have here?

Oh, look at... Stone?

I don't know, maybe.

No, pottery. I don't know.

It's kind of -- look at that, pottery!

Yeah. Two pieces.

This is -- it is a cooking pot.

This is a cooking pot? Yes.

This is typical for the roman period.

A cooking pot can be significant

because it might be an indicator

that somebody was actually living here.

The thing that I'm now realizing

as we travel around here

is that we have these treasures

associated with the copper scroll,

but the descriptions to reach them are incredibly vague,

and when you actually come out here in the field,

you realize there are hundreds,

if not maybe thousands, of caves.

We're just scratching the surface.

You would need an army of people searching out here

to try to locate all these caves.

You're absolutely right.

We still have many things to be discovered here.

There's work here for generations of archaeologists.

Dr. Najjar may have lifetimes of exploring ahead of him

in the canyons and caves of jordan,

but he's not the only archaeologist

investigating the cliffs around the dead sea.

♪

the next morning, I receive a call from the man

who led me down this rabbit hole in the first place.

After sending me to jordan to learn from the experts there,

he wants to show me a location

that he believes matches a clue in the copper scroll

and may be a prime location for some of the hidden treasure.

So I get out my passport and head back

across the israeli border

to meet my old friend, dr. Oren gutfeld,

in a stretch of desert near the dead sea called hyrcania.

Oren! Dr. Gutfeld: Hey, josh.

Hello. Hi.

Why do you always ask me to meet you

in very hard-to-reach places?

[ laughs ] it's part of my personality.

Good to see you, man. How you doing?

Thank you. You look much cleaner

than last time I saw you. Yes.

This place is crazy. What is this?

This is the fortress of hyrcania.

♪

how does this place connect, or how might it connect

to the legend of the copper scroll?

Well, the copper scroll starts -- and I'm quoting...

Right. This is the only fortress

above the valley of achor.

And this has been called the valley of achor since...

Forever. ...Forever.

Well, that's pretty compelling.

And that's not all.

The copper scroll makes five mentions

of a mysterious place known as the valley of shadows,

which is what this very spot has been referred to by locals

for as long as anyone can remember.

Now it's getting really compelling.

Yes, and guess what.

We located a tunnel that could fit the description.

You think this could be the place?

I am positive.

The question is, are the treasure still here?

Show me this place. Come on.

♪

okay, now this is getting good.

Oren brings me down into the valley of shadows,

where he recently found a man-made tunnel

cut directly into the cliffs below the fortress ruin.

This is the tunnel here?

This is the tunnel, yes.

♪

oh, wow. That goes straight down.

It goes down about 350 feet.

350 feet down?

Yes, two meters high and one meter wide.

All right. Well, let's get into it.

♪

we make our way into the tight passage,

exploring for any signs of the copper scroll treasure.

Dr. Gutfeld: Follow me.

♪

the deeper we go, the more questions I have.

Why is this hand-carved tunnel even here?

What could possibly be worth the work it took to build this?

Deeper and deeper.

Over the years, erosion has worn down the stairs

in this section of the tunnel,

so oren suggests a unique shortcut.

Okay, josh. It becomes steep over here.

Why don't we sit?

Sit? What do you mean, sit?

Sit, like slide?

Yes, like that.

♪

whoo-hoo!

Oh, my god!

♪

♪

gates: Not all accommodations in jordan

are as bare as a bedouin camp.

On our drive, I decide to check out the petra bubble luxotel,

which offers inflatable living at a reasonable price.

Oh, hi, there. Come on in.

♪

each pod is equipped with its own sun deck

and hot tub.

Bounce around all you want,

but be careful with the air lock in the entry.

If you open both doors at once,

your hotel room will go flat in less than a minute.

You got to have huge balls to build a hotel like this.

Literally, you have to have huge, inflatable balls.

That's what the whole h-- you get it.

♪

♪

gates: Deep in a tunnel beneath an ancient fortress

known as hyrcania, archaeologist oren gutfeld

is attempting to find the treasures described

in a unique dead sea scroll written in copper.

The steps here have eroded to nothing over 2,000 years.

Sit, like slide?

Yes, like that.

Whoo-hoo!

Oren and I are undeterred.

Oh, my god!

♪

okay, well, that was officially

the most "goonies" moment of my entire life.

That was amazing.

♪

can you feel that the tunnel become wider and wider?

It does.

♪

we've taken the last 150 feet of the tunnel in one sitting,

but now we're faced with something new --

a choice.

Oh, look at that. It splits, two tunnels.

Two tunnels. Oh, god.

And we're exactly 300 feet away from the entrance of the tunnel.

300 feet from the surface,

and now we have two different tunnels here.

Yes.

So which one leads to certain death?

Which one leads to treasure? [ chuckles ]

let's take the right one.

Right is right, okay.

♪

look at that, josh, dead end.

♪

it just seems so weird for this

just to peter out in a really rough way.

I mean, it's not like it ends in even a proper chamber.

Exactly, almost -- it just kind of stops.

How come that after 350 feet, it just end with nothing?

And the other tunnel?

Let's go. Yeah. Let's see.

Okay. Let's see where the other tunnel goes.

Let's check out the left passage.

Okay, door number one seems to be a booby prize.

Let's see what's behind door number two.

Lots of loose rocks down here, and then...

Another dead end.

Wow.

It's just such a weird place.

What is it for?

Two branches of tunnel, two dead ends,

350 feet of hand-carved stairway built down to nothing.

There don't appear to be traces of anything

having been stored here,

but the tunnels may extend further than this

beneath our feet,

the shafts filled in by silt and sand

over thousands of years.

It will have to be excavated further for us to be sure.

♪

but according to oren, there's more than one passage

under hyrcania fortress, which means more than one place

where the treasure might be hidden.

Dr. Gutfeld: I want to show you something else.

-Another tunnel? -Another tunnel, look.

-You found another one? -Yes.

Let's see if we can make our way to the back.

Sure.

You first, please.

♪

wow.

This is amazing.

This close to the riverbed, the tunnel has been

routinely flooded for centuries,

but after months of drought,

we're getting an extremely rare look inside.

♪

we're hundreds of feet down

when we see something... Unwelcome.

Hey, josh. Look at that.

What do you got?

It's full of water. Oh, god.

It's already flooded. It's flooded.

Yes, but you can still see that the tunnel

continues inside the water.

-On the right-hand side there... -That's correct.

...You can see. It goes down.

So the question is, how far down does it go?

We don't know.

To answer that question,

oren sends for a snake camera to feed into the flooded tunnel.

If the murky water is hiding another chamber,

we may still be able to get a look.

♪

okay, camera is on.

Camera is working. Dr. Gutfeld: Yes.

♪

okay, josh, I'm going to have you feed the camera

into the water. Got it.

And we'll see if the tunnel continues.

Yeah. We'll see if this is a dead end or...

Yep. ...The find of the century.

You ready?

Okay.

♪

can you see anything?

♪

water. Putting up near the wall.

Yes. I see the wall.

I see the wall. Okay.

Can you see if the wall continues?

♪

it keeps going.

It's going? It's going.

There's another chamber?

It continues for sure.

It does? Yes.

♪

[ laughs ]

the tunnel continues. The tunnel continues.

Yep. So this is not the end.

We will have to wait until the water dry.

But there's definitely more here?

Definitely. Hey, nice work, man.

Nice work. Thank you very much, josh.

That's incredible.

Down there, below that water, in that darkness,

there is a mystery,

a mystery that continues.

Oren will return when the tunnel dries out

to see what answers or treasures await,

but I bid him farewell for a second time,

leaving on a new mission --

the journey home.

♪

during my time in the middle east,

I've explored the history and legends of the dead sea scrolls,

and in these unforgiving deserts,

brave explorers continue the quest for more scrolls

and a deeper understanding of the people who inscribed them.

♪

as for the copper scroll,

the treasures it describes may be real,

but were likely reclaimed by the hands and sands of time.

The true treasures are the scrolls themselves,

collected knowledge of a jewish people

forced into hiding in one of their darkest hours.

Yet against all odds,

the scrolls and the culture that created them endure.

For the ancient jews of israel, the scrolls were their future,

and 2,000 years later,

these aged fragments are being diligently preserved and decoded

and are enshrined in a new temple

for generations yet to come.

♪