All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S02E04.1080p.AMZN.WEBRip.DD2.0.x264-Absinth_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: A temple of
the dead in the Yucatan,

an underground city in Turkey,
and a South American cave

said to contain a treasure
from beyond the stars.

For centuries people have told
tales of caves and tunnels

deep inside the Earth,
subterranean passageways

that lead to lands
of gods and monsters.

But is there a surprising
truth behind these legends?

-I have stood in front
of drawings on the rocks

and wondered, am I looking at
the extraterrestrial biological

entity?

NARRATOR: Could there
really be mysterious places

far beneath our feet, places
whose origins might not

be of this Earth?

-There were certain aspects of
the caves, for which geology

could not provide an answer.

NARRATOR: Millions of
people around the world

believe we've been
visited in the past

by extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really
help to shape our history?

And if so should we be looking
for proof of their existence,

not in the heavens above,
but in mysterious worlds

deep beneath the surface?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[HOWLING]

-Bordered on the
north by the Black Sea

and by the Taurus
Mountains to the south

lies Cappadocia
in central Turkey.

Here wind and water have
sculpted strange shapes

out of the soft volcanic rock,
rock which ancient peoples once

turned into small
primitive dwellings.

In more recent
years the site has

seen the construction of
more modern structures.

But in 1963 a simple
home renovation

in the town of Derinkuyu led
to an extraordinary discovery

when a cave wall
was opened revealing

a passageway to an underground
city thousands of years old,

and more than 280 feet deep.

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: I've been
there on multiple occasions,

and it's incredible
because there's

13 stories that go deep into the
ground with ventilation shafts

and 15,000 little
shafts that bring air

to even the deepest of levels.

NARRATOR: Incredibly the number
of rock rooms that were found

could hold over 20,000
men, women, and children.

There was even evidence of
religious centers, store rooms,

wine presses, and
stables for livestock.

JOHN BRANDENBURG:
Oh, Derinkuyu would

have been a massive
undertaking for anyone,

even in modern times with modern
equipment, but in those days

it would've been stupendous,
equal to the pyramids.

At Derinkuyu because of
the softness of the stone

you had to be very careful
that you provided enough pillar

strength to support
the floors above,

otherwise you'd have
catastrophic cave-ins.

Surprisingly there's no evidence
of any catastrophic cave

in, so they were
apparently extremely clever

and knew their material.

We're talking deep antiquity.

It is mind boggling
to understand

how they could have done this.

Perhaps they had help from
some other civilization.

NARRATOR: But just who built
this massive underground city?

And what mysterious force
drove them to live underground?

DAVID CHILDRESS:
Why would people

want to live deep underground in
these weird caverns like that?

It seems kind of scary really.

NARRATOR: According to many
archaeologists and scholars

Derinkuyu was most
likely intended

to serve as a temporary
shelter from invasion,

built around 800 BC
by the Phrygians,

a Bronze Age people
related to the Trojans.

Others believe it was
built by the Hittites,

a warrior people
mentioned in the Bible

who flourished hundreds
of years earlier.

But could the underground
city be even older?

According to ancient
astronaut theorists

it is, perhaps by many
thousands of years.

DAVID WILCOCK: The
Cappadocia region of Turkey

was part of the
Zoroastrian Empire, which

was Persian in
nature, and it's one

of the oldest
religious traditions

on the face of the earth.

NARRATOR: The Zoroastrian
religion, an ancient faith

based on opposing
forces of good and evil,

is widely believed
to have influenced

both Hinduism and
Judeo Christianity.

Founded sometime before the
sixth century BC its chief God

is the creator, Ahuru Mazda.

And in the second chapter of
the Zoroastrian sacred text,

the Vendidad Ahuru
Mazda saves mankind

from a worldwide
environmental disaster,

much like the story of Noah
in the Hebrew testament.

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS:
The great prophet Yema

he was instructed to build
a kind of underground refuge

similar to Derinkuyu by
the sky god Ahuru Mazda.

NARRATOR: According
to the sacred texts

Yema built a multi-level
underground city

to protect a select group
of people and animals,

not from a flood, but
from a global ice age.

The Vendidad calls
this the evil winters.

According to many
mainstream climatologists

the last ice age peaked
around 18,000 years ago

and ended around 10,000 BCE.

Is it possible
that Derinkuyu was

built as a refuge from a
devastating global winter?

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Since
you cannot carbon date stone

it's anybody's guess how
old Derinkuyu really is.

And my question is, if we have
a Zoroastrian story that's

very similar, could it be that
both that place and Derinkuyu

are much, much older than
what we've believed so far?

NARRATOR: But if Derinkuyu is,
in fact, the underground city

that Ahuru Mazda told
his followers to build

could there be a stunning
truth behind the legend?

If so who or what was
the god Ahuru Mazda?

DAVID WILCOCK: Ahuru
Mazda does appear

to be responsible for the
management of whatever

is happening here on Earth.

There are various
ways to read this.

One of which is that it
does represent some sort

of higher, universal
form of consciousness,

but another is that
it would represent

an overseeing
extraterrestrial intelligence.

JASON MARTELL: Several
sacred texts from antiquity

speak of knowledge given to
mankind from extraterrestrials,

but also known as
gods from antiquity.

NARRATOR: Could the sky
god Ahuru Mazda really

have been an advanced
being from another world?

If so, did he provide
the technology

needed for his followers to
build this complex labyrinth

as protection from
environmental disaster?

Or is there possibly
a more ominous reason

for Derinkuyu's existence?

Some say a clue lies in
the underground city's

unusual security system, 1,000
pound doors on rollers that

allow them to be moved
by a single person,

but only from one side.

JOHN BRANDENBURG:
The Derinkuyu doors

are very cleverly constructed.

You can basically only
open it and leverage it

from the inside.

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: So obviously
whoever inhabited Derinkuyu

was hiding from
someone or something.

NARRATOR: According to the
ancient Zoroastrian texts

Ahuru Mazda soared through
the sky in a divine chariot

and waged war against
his eternal enemy,

Angra Mainyu, the
demon of destruction.

But could this really be,
as many ancient astronaut

theorists believe, a depiction
of two extraterrestrial forces

battling over control of
the Earth and its resources?

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: The aerial
enemies were extraterrestrials

because they were the ones who
had the capability of flight.

They had access to
those types of machines

that we can read about in
every single ancient culture

around the world.

DAVID WILCOCK: When you look
at the Zoroastrian tradition

you also see clear
evidence that there

was some kind of
extraterrestrial battle going

on between warring factions.

Therefore it is
certainly possible

that the original
caves may have been

used as shelters against
possible aerial bombardment

from extraterrestrials that
were warring with each other

during that time.

-Derinkuyu was built out
of fear of an aerial enemy.

Because if something flies
over you very, very fast

you can't see the
ventilation shafts.

Some suggest 30,000 people
used to live underground

at Derinkuyu.

NARRATOR: During
recorded history

many different
peoples did, in fact,

hide in the underground
city of Derinkuyu

to escape everything from
desert raiders to Roman legions.

But some experts wonder whether
such conventional attacks

can really explain why Derinkuyu
was built in the first place.

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: If it were
an enemy that was on horseback

it would be easy for them to
just smother everyone inside

by just closing all
the ventilation shafts.

JOHN BRANDENBURG: We had
the phrase in the defense

department studies
that I've participated

in that the cave is a grave
to a well prepared adversary.

Once you find it, it
is highly vulnerable.

NARRATOR: But did the
people of Derinkuyu

really go underground to
avoid becoming casualties

in an extraterrestrial
battle in the skies?

And if so, might there
be other such cities

from the distant past?

According to ancient
astronaut theorists

there are, and they can be
found much nearer to home,

deep in the caves of
the American Southwest.

NARRATOR: The majestic
mesas and rugged mountains

of the American
Southwest are home

to many native peoples including
the Navajo, Zuni, Pueblo,

Hopi, and Apache.

These tribes have many
different believe,

but their creation
myths all share

something quite remarkable.

-Where we're talking about
our origin, and you know,

you hear the stories about
us coming down from Alaska

through the Bering Strait,
but what we believe

is we came out from the ground.

DAVID CHILDRESS: The Apaches
and other Pueblo Indians,

such as the Zunis
and the Hopi Indians,

all have this legend
that they emerged

from some underground
world into today's world.

NARRATOR: In some legends
the southwestern peoples

went back underground
for safety.

The Hopi of Arizona
say their ancestors

escaped a deadly storm of
falling stars with the help

of the snake people
who took them

to shelters deep in the Earth.

Another Hopi legend
speaks of the ant people

who protected them from
storms of fire and ice.

DAVID CHILDRESS: The Hopi
Indians survived cataclysms

by living in this underground
world with the ant people

for a certain period of time.

And then eventually they emerged
from the underground world

back into the surface world.

NARRATOR: Ant people.

Snake people.

Could these stories be based
on ancestral tales of people

actually living
underground, possibly

during the last ice age?

Or could the ancestors of
today's southwestern tribes

have taken refuge in
subsurface dwellings

similar to the underground
city of Derinkuyu in Turkey?

If so, over the
centuries might they

have developed physical traits
like large eyes and fingers

that made them more
closely resemble

actual earth-dwelling creatures?

-The shamans and the
elders of Native Americans,

they will tell you that
before these people were

able to emerge out
of planet Earth

they were brought here by
the star people, the star

gods, which arrived
from outer space.

-I have stood in front of
what are called the ant

people in some of the very
strange, large eye drawings

on the rocks and
wondered, am I looking

at Native American
interpretation

of what today is called a
extraterrestrial biological

entity?

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: If
extraterrestrials were here

in the remote past, there are
multiple species out there,

is it possible that
they might have

a looked lizard
like and ant like?

And the answer is yes.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that
these underground creatures

of Native American legend
were actually alien visitors?

If so, could some
of them still be

living beneath the surface
of the southwestern desert?

For decades stories
of encounters

with UFO's and alien
beings have been

told among the people of New
Mexico's Jicarilla Apache

Reservation.

Some of the aliens
in these stories

bare a strange resemblance to
the ancient tales of the ant

like and snake like beings
from the Hopi legends.

-There is things up there
that no one can explain.

NARRATOR: The Jicarilla
Apache Reservation

is located next to the
small town of Dulce, nestled

in the shadow of the over
9,000 foot high Archuleta Mesa.

DAVID CHILDRESS: It is
from this mesa and mountain

that people claim they
have seen UFO's flying out

of the mountain.

-It was a spaceship
we saw right there,

and it was big, like maybe
the size of a football field.

And then we seen this dome on
top that was all glassed in.

And then my husband was looking
at it with the binoculars,

and he saw two small people.

Well, we don't know what it is.

If we stayed here
and they came down

I don't know what they
would have done to us.

NARRATOR: Could the
native tales of spaceships

and strange creatures be true?

Some UFO researchers
and conspiracy theorists

believe that these eyewitness
accounts are not only true

but are evidence of a
secret collaboration

between underground aliens
and the US military.

-The amount of military
traffic over Dulce,

the unmarked helicopters,
the black helicopters,

the heavy duty Chinooks,
all these helicopter

spend a lot more time
in Dulce than they

should if nothing
were going on here.

Among the stories that we've
heard from the Jicarilla

Apache is that they
discovered vents,

actually right here on the mesa.

-A while back, when my
brother was still alive,

we used to come up
here in the back,

and he showed us the
shaft, and that thing

was bigger than, bigger than me.

But we walked in, and I
didn't want to go any further.

BILL BURNES: The vents were
here maybe 25 years ago.

You'd hear strange noises,
groins, sighs, human groans,

and this led a lot of
credence to stories

that human beings were being
vivisected, experimented on.

And thus the legend
of strange creatures

and strange noises coming out
of this Mesa grew and expanded

NARRATOR: Aliens living
underground, strange secret

government cover-ups.

Could Native American
legends of underground beings

help unearth the truth behind
these incredible stories.

Some think the answer
might be found deep

beneath the surface
of North America,

but others believe
the truth lies

hidden in a mysterious
cave thousands of miles

to the south, a cave that
hides proof of alien visitors

who journeyed beyond the stars.

NARRATOR: South America.

The Andes mountain
range in Ecuador.

For thousands of years
this rain forest,

high on the eastern
slopes, has been

the land of the Shuar,
headhunters who are fiercely

protective of their
homeland and it secrets.

And of all the Shuar's
secrets, perhaps none

has been so carefully
guarded as the location

and entrance of
the cave of Tayos.

But why?

Perhaps the answer can
be found in the story

of an Italian Catholic
missionary, named

Father Crespi, who
lived in the region

in the middle of
the last century.

-Father Paolo Carlo Crespi.

He was loved by the Indians.

He helped them without
asking for money,

and the Indians make
them some presents.

NARRATOR: But what was
unique about the presents

or gifts given to Father
Crespi was that they often

took the form of elaborately
carved artifacts,

some made of gold or
other precious metals.

Often these objects featured
elaborate carvings and symbols

not known to be associated
with the Shuar culture.

In his 1973 book,
"Gold of the Gods",

ancient astronaut theorist,
Erich von Daniken,

wrote of father Crespi's
incredible collection,

which he believed to come
from the cave of Tayos,

and which were, in
his opinion, treasures

from an unknown and
highly advanced culture.

The startling questions
posed in Von Daniken's book

soon inspired Scottish
explorer Stanley Hall

to try and solve
the mystery himself.

In 1975 Hall traveled to
Cuenca to see Father Crespi's

collection with his own eyes.

STANLEY HALL: I had for years
been researching South America

as the missing
page of prehistory.

I first heard of the Tayos
caves was in Erich von Daniken's

book, and followed it
through from there.

-And one of the presents
which the old priest received

is a tablet with
certain six writings.

It's metallic tablet.

Know one alive today was able
to translate these writings.

NARRATOR: In 1976 Stanley
Hall mounted an expedition

of more than 100 people
to explore Tayos.

Among them was American
astronaut Neil Armstrong,

the first man to
walk on the moon.

Entering the cave through
a jungle entrance known

to the Ecuadorian
army the explorers

were fascinated by
what they encountered,

especially large
areas that appeared

to have been excavated
by someone or some thing.

STANLEY HALL: Head of the
geological group, Brian Kelley,

in 1976 he admitted
it was difficult

for him to explain the
actual large doorways

that you see in these caves.

NARRATOR: Although Stan
Hall's expedition did

find a tomb chamber with
items dating to 1,500 BC

-A ring.

A stone ring!

NARRATOR: The expedition
found no treasure,

and no trace of anything that
looked like the artifacts

in Father Crespi's collection.

But if Tayos was not the secret
origin of Father Crespi's

amazing collection,
where did it come from?

Undaunted Hall didn't
give up his search.

15 years later, in
1991, the explorer

tracked down an Ecuadorian
named Petronio Jaramillo who

claimed to have entered
the cave of Tayos

through a secret
entrance back in 1946.

STANLEY HALL: And
apparently Petronio

had visited this cave for
the very first time when

he was very young, when
he was in his teens.

He said that he had
to dive under water,

go in this underwater
tunnel and then come up.

NARRATOR: Jaramillo told Hall
he wandered through chamber

after chamber of ancient relics,
including a vast room of books

made from gold and
other metals, books

with unrecognizable writing.

Possibly like that on
one of the middle tablets

in Father Crespi's collection.

STANLEY HALL: Said other
things looked like formulas,

and so on, and so on.

So it was one spectacular
statement after another.

PHILIP COPPENS: Some
argue to whether or not

an ancient civilization
had come down to Earth

and had used this
cave system to leave

certain artifacts of their
civilization behind for us

to recover.

NARRATOR:
Unfortunately, before he

could guide Stanley Hall to
the underwater cave entrance,

Petronio Jaramillo died,
taking the secret to his grave.

Stanley Hall himself
died in 2008,

before he was able to renew its
search for the so-called metal

library.

Fortunately, Stanley
Hall's daughter, Eileen,

has decided to continue
here father's work.

-Unless we find this
treasure, unless we can see,

translate the writing it's
still a big question mark

over who wrote it, why they put
it there, and who put it there.

NARRATOR: But when
Eileen Hall began

to look for the location
of Father Crespi's

original artifacts she learned
that much of the priest's

collection had mysteriously
vanished shortly

after his death in 1982.

But why?

Had Crespi's artifacts
fallen prey to thieves?

Or might the Shuar have
taken the treasure back

into the cave where
they found it?

Whatever the answer,
Eileen Hall has

continued to research other
artifacts from elsewhere

in Ecuador, and like
father Crespi's objects,

some seem to have uncanny
resemblances to other cultures

that according to
mainstream archaeology

ancient Ecuadorians could not
have had any knowledge of.

EILEEN HALL: This
collection is made up

of what my father believed
to be the formative cultures

of Ecuador.

This is from the coastal
culture from 600 BC to 1600 AD,

and this is very human
like, but at the same time

some features have
been exaggerated.

Here you've got the smaller face
with the kind of bigger ears,

and the elongated skull
shape in the head.

-The top of this head looks
like an elongated cranium,

an elongated skull,
and it is identical

to this Egyptian statue
that we find all over Egypt.

To see this picture
right here and compare it

to the Egyptian bust we see
right here, it's uncanny.

The head shape is identical.

NARRATOR: Do Stanley Hall's
artifacts show evidence

that Egyptian culture could
have crossed the ocean

to influence South
American culture?

Or is it possible that
both were influenced

by another culture, one
from beyond our world?

If so were the strange writings
inscribed on Father Crespi's

metal tablets actual
messages from an alien world?

-My father went as far
as saying it was possibly

an advanced civilization,
but we can't know for certain

until this library is found.

-So this metallic library
is still there, in Ecuador,

in a subterranean cave.

There are still Indian
tribes living there.

They are still protecting
the old treasure.

PHILIP COPPENS: So it's going to
push the boundaries of academia

once this cave system
has been found.

And whether it is Inca
or extraterrestrial

it doesn't really matter
at this moment in time.

Let's get to this cave
and see what is in there.

NARRATOR: Perhaps Tayos has yet
to reveal all of its secrets,

but more than 700
miles to the north

there is another
cave, one that may

prove that the Mayan underworld
and the terrifying gods who

ruled it were not
only very real,

but thirsty for human blood.

NARRATOR: The Yucatan Peninsula,
one of Mexico's premier tourist

destinations.

Besides scenic
beaches, the area is

covered by thick
jungle and pot marked

by massive sinkholes
known as cenotes.

The ground beneath the jungle
is also honeycombed with caves.

But here, in 2007, Mexican
archaeologist Guillermo de Anda

found a cave like no other.

Following clues in the
records of 17th century

Spanish priests that
hinted at the existence

of a mysterious
underground Mayan temple

deep in the jungle De
Anda found a series

of caves near the
village of Tahtzibichen.

Caves not seen for hundreds
of years, and with entrances

submerged beneath
centuries of flood water.

GUILLERMO DE ANDA: Sometimes we
have to dive into these caves.

Sometimes they go very deep.

The average of our research
is about 140, 150 feet,

but we know of caves
much deeper than that.

NARRATOR: At first
De Anda and his team

found carved stone
heads and broken pillars

with 1900-year-old
Mayan inscriptions.

GUILLERMO DE ANDA: We have
found columns under the water.

And these columns are
amazing because some of them

are five feet high and
at least 10 feet wide.

NARRATOR: But as
De Anda surfaced

in the dry areas of the cave
he found what he believed

to be the remains of a massive
underground temple complex,

including a concrete road, a
crumbled pyramid, and bones.

But why was it here?

DAVID CHILDRESS: The
Mayans themselves

have a very intriguing legends
of an underground world called

Xibalba.

And it's believed
now by archaeologists

that what they found is
what the Mayans thought.

was the entrance to this
legendary underground world

that features
prominently in Popol Vuh.

NARRATOR: Could this dark
and mysterious cave really

be the underground world
mentioned in the Mayan legends?

According to the Popol
Vuh, the written record

of Mayan mythology, the
underworld kingdom of Xibalba,

meaning the place
of fear, was ruled

by the cruel lords
of the dead, who

made those who
entered their realm

pass through a series
of torture chambers

involving blood, darkness,
cold, knives, bats, and jaguars.

JASON MARTELL: We see here in
this one archaeological spot

an actual physical
representation

of what the Mayans felt
the soul had to go through.

NARRATOR: Might perhaps
this cave of stalactites

sharp enough to
pierce flesh represent

the room of knives
in the Popol Vuh?

There is also a room of bats,
and a trench that might once

have been filled with blood,
like the river of blood

that Mayan pilgrims
had to cross over.

There are places of
cold and darkness,

and even a room with
the bones of jaguars.

JASON MARTELL: These

with large patches of
spiders and reptiles,

and all types of
tumultuous things

that a human really wouldn't
want to be exposed to.

Although some
archaeologists claim

this unique site
was simply modeled

after the description of
Xibalba in the Popol Vuh,

De And insists that
items from the cave

date back to a time centuries
before the Mayan holy book

was written.

-It's not that there
was this document

and they try to imitate
what the document said.

I think it's all the
other way around.

We believe that we have
found the particular ship

above the central
parts of Yucatan.

This is why we do believe
it was a real place.

NARRATOR: But if
Xibalba is real,

were the lords of
the dead also real,

and if so, who or
what were they?

-According to the
Chilam Bala book,

which is the book of
the Jaguar priests,

it says in there that at that
time the road to the stars

descended from the sky and the
13 and nine gods came to Earth.

I'm sorry, road to the stars
descended from the sky--

can it be more clear?

I don't think so.

Right there we have a
direct reference to someone

that has arrived
from outer space,

and we have a written
record about this.

NARRATOR: Could the
lords of Xibalba

and other Mayan gods
really have been

extraterrestrial travelers?

If so, why did they display such
a thirst for blood and torture?

DAVID WILCOCK: While I do not
believe human sacrifice was

originally taught by
the ET's I believe

it came in the aftermath of
when the original teachers

of humankind had arrived.

The ancient gods,
which were really

just humans from another
world, withdrew from the area,

and the people
became distraught.

The more they became
distraught, the more

they took the original
mythology and interpreted it

in a much more literal way.

So what might have started
out as the myth about the sun

dying and being reborn when
it sinks below the horizon

becomes literally the
idea of killing people

to make sure that the sun
is going to come back up.

NARRATOR: As archaeologists
and explorers

continue to uncover sites
where legend and reality meet

could there be even more
evidence that mankind's

history on this planet is
much more profound than what

we currently understand?

There are those who believe
the secret lies even deeper

within the Earth, as
deep as its very core.

NARRATOR: The North Pole, a
seemingly endless wasteland

of Arctic ice,
shrouded in darkness

for six months of every year.

Here there is no
food, no shelter,

not even a cave to
hide from the slashing

winds, and temperatures that can
dive to 90 degrees below zero.

But according to
mainstream geology

beneath the poll
and the Arctic Ocean

lies the Earth's mostly rocky
crust, up to 30 miles thick.

Below this is molten rock,
heated by the planet's

spinning core, with a
solid center of iron

and nickel the size of the moon.

Scientists have deduced
this information

from measurements of
Earth's gravity, magnetism,

and seismic waves.

But no one has ever
seen these areas.

Could the frozen
surface of the pole

be hiding a gateway to a world
within our surface world?

There are those who
believe the answer is yes.

And what they believe is known
as the Hollow Earth theory.

-The Hollow Earth theory is
that this Earth is not molten

inside.

It is actually hollow,
and that suspended

in the hollow of the
Earth is an inner sun.

NARRATOR: Surprisingly the
notion of a hollow earth

was first given
scientific credence

by one of the founders
of modern astronomy.

DAVID STANDISH: The idea that
the Earth might be hollow,

as a scientific notion,
dates back to the astronomer

Edmund Haley, who was
best known for his comet.

In 1691 he presented to
the London Royal Society

his hypothesis that the
Earth is hollow, and contains

several little
spheres inside, sort

of like those Russian
Matryoshka dolls.

He was hypothesizing this
for a very practical reason.

The Earth's magnetic pole
moved a little bit every year

to the west.

And his idea was that our outer
sphere had inner spheres turned

independently of the outer one.

He also suggested that these
interior spheres would also

be able to support life.

In 1818 former US Army
Captain John Cleves Symmes Jr.

Announced that there were vast
openings at each pole where

we could enter inner earth.

-With Symmes the idea
of a hollow Earth

gets tied into
exploring for the pole.

At this point
nobody had actually

seen Antarctica, for instance.

NARRATOR: The
Hollow Earth theory

again captured the public's
imagination in 1864

with the release of Jules
Verne's second novel,

"A Journey to the
Center of the Earth".

DAVID STANDISH: The novel
takes an Icelandic guide,

and a professor,
and a young man down

into the center of the Earth.

"Journey to the
Center of the Earth"

could really have
been called a journey

to the center of geology.

Geology and paleontology
were a very hot topic

in the early 1860's
and there is a lot

of discussion of
that in "Journey

to the Center of the Earth."

NARRATOR: But while Verne
popularized the idea

that extinct life forms might
still exist inside the Earth,

others envisioned that
the Earth contained

advanced underground
civilizations.

DAVID CHILDRESS: Supposedly
they have advanced technology.

They've got ray guns,
and special weapons,

and even they have
flying saucers,

and other craft like that.

NARRATOR: But is there any
evidence that such fantastic

claims could be
true, and has anyone

actually been to the
world within our Earth?

Proponents of the Hollow
Earth theory say yes,

and that one the
explorers was no less

a luminary than famed polar
pioneer Admiral Richard E.

Byrd.

In the 1920's Byrd
made world headlines

by flying over the North Pole
and by becoming the first man

to fly solo over the South pole.

But Hollow Earth
theorists believe

that the famous explorer
went even farther,

and that on February 19, 1947
Admiral Byrd piloted a plane

through a hole
near the North Pole

into the interior of the Earth.

ROONEY CLUFF: Flying
saucer type craft

took control of his airplane
with some kind of tractor beam.

And they landed him near
an inner Earth city,

and the message that they had
for us was that they consider

themselves the guardians
of this planet.

OK?

He says, we don't approve of you
people using nuclear weapons.

We had just blown up
a couple of cities

in Japan a couple
of years before.

So this was the message
that he was given,

but when he got to Washington,
they put a lid of secrecy

on this that this
was not to go out.

NARRATOR: Some say
Admiral Byrd's own account

of this flight into
the hollow earth

is detailed in his secret diary,
published in the 1990's, almost

four decades after his death.

But skeptics claim the
diary is a forgery,

and point out that
in February 1947,

at the time Admiral
Byrd was supposedly

visiting this other world
underneath the North Pole,

he was actually part
of a vast 4,700 man

naval exploration called
Operation Highjump

12,000 miles away
near the south pole.

But could Byrd's inclusion in
this large military operation

at the south pole have
been merely a cover story?

Some people claim it was.

And this allowed
him to slip away

to the other end of the
planet, unnoticed by the media.

GEORGE NOORY: Admiral
Byrd, the rumor was,

found a world of flying
machines, and people,

and more advanced than us,
and that they helped him,

and then he left again.

It's a myth.

Nobody's really been
able to prove it,

but it's a great myth.

NARRATOR: Could there
really be vast open spaces

within the Earth where
advanced civilizations live?

Could extraterrestrial
gods really

have come here centuries
ago, and hidden the evidence

of their journeys deep
within caves and tunnels?

Perhaps we've only
just scratched

the surface of our planet's
underground mysteries.

If so what clues
to our distant past

might still be
waiting to be found,

and hiding in the darkness?