All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S07E01.Into.the.Murder.Labyrinth.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-DoGSO_track3_[eng]

Narrator: an epic cliff face
Construction carved into rock...

It's not only the fact this
Tunnel sort of leads out

To sea, but it comes out
Halfway up a cliff.

Narrator: an eerie facility
With a gothic feel...

Auerbach: those gargoyles are
Very strange, almost like

They're guarding something

Or perhaps warning people
About what's inside.

Narrator: ...And a mystical
Labyrinth with the power

To play with the mind.

So increasingly
Disoriented underground,

These russian secret police
Begin to hunt each other.

Narrator:
Decaying relics.

Ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past.

Their secrets waiting
To be revealed.

*

*

On the outskirts of
Louisville, kentucky,

Perched on top of a hill, lies

The battered shell of
A huge and imposing building.

Auerbach: it's not the kind of
Place you'd stumble across

Auerbach: it's not the kind of
Place you'd stumble across

By accident --
It's pretty secluded.

To get to the place,
You have to take this long,

Winding drive that snakes up
The hill.

Narrator:
At first sight,

The building raises more
Questions than answers.

You can't really
Tell if this is

The front or the back of
The building.

Auerbach: how do you get in?
It's a bit disorienting.

This rambling structure
Seems to

Go on forever in
Every direction.

Narrator: while ominous-looking
Creatures gaze down from above,

Narrator: while ominous-looking
Creatures gaze down from above,

Inside,
The different spaces paint

An eerie and confused picture.

We have to ask,
Why are these abandoned?

What terrible thing
Happened here that

Makes people want
To stay away?

Narrator:
And how is it linked

To a modern-day
Global pandemic?

A three-story solarium
Dominates its southern face.

A three-story solarium
Dominates its southern face.

Could this be the key
To unlocking

The mystery of this
Building's original purpose?

There would have been
A bed

Pulled out in front of
Every single open doorway

All the way down and around
This thing,

Across the whole back.

Narrator: dale clark grew up
Just five miles away

And has been showing people
Around for the last 18 years.

Then there were usually
Smaller children's beds shoved

Then there were usually
Smaller children's beds shoved

Up against the brick wall
On the outside.

And there was just a little path
Between the foot of

The beds over here and the side
Of the beds over there.

They spent a good chunk of
Their time out here.

It must have been a very
Strange sight coming up

That driveway and seeing
All the people out like that.

But what were they doing
Out there?

It's not like there's a view
Of the ocean or the river

It's not like there's a view
Of the ocean or the river

Or anything like that.

Barratt: it's not there
As a show of wealth.

It's there for a purpose,
And what that is, to my eyes,

I'm not quite sure.

Narrator:
This is waverly hills,

An 180,000 square foot
Facility built to house

Over 500 people.

But the devil here
Is in the details.

So if from the outside it
Looks like maybe it could be

A fancy hotel or retreat,

A fancy hotel or retreat,

The inside has a very
Different feel to it.

Nusbacher: when you go down
These lengthy corridors,

You realize that this is not
A luxury hotel fallen

On hard times.

Barratt:
There's not much left behind,

But there are odd bits of
Medical equipment.

This is not just a place

Of life here in the hills

Of kentucky.

What we're looking at
Is a place of death.

What we're looking at
Is a place of death.

Clark:
This is the morgue.

We have no idea why this room
Is so small.

At the worst cases,
A body an hour,

This little room is gonna
Fill up very quickly.

That's why there's
A maintenance department

Down the far end of
The building

That's four times the size
Of this.

It became the auxiliary
Morgue during the worst of it.

Auerbach: when you need to have
An auxiliary morgue,

You're talking
A lot of bodies.

Narrator:
Waverly wasn't alone.

Narrator:
Waverly wasn't alone.

The body count was piling up
All over

The states as well as
The rest of the world.

It hit the u.S.
So badly that they had

To form a national committee
To deal with the problem.

Nusbacher: a global pandemic
Of this disease

Struck terror into the hearts
Of everyone.

Narrator: the rampaging disease
Was tuberculosis.

Built in 1924,

This was more than
Just a hospital.

This was more than
Just a hospital.

It was a home
For those afflicted.

You've also got
Dentists and barbers

And even a gift shop.

Nusbacher: patients are not
Just here for

An operation and then
Go home.

The patients, or the inmates
In this place,

Are here long enough to grow
Their hair long and get it cut.

They need to function in
This place

They need to function in
This place

For the rest of their lives.

Children that were
Born in waverly had to

Be taken away from
Their mothers immediately

After birth.

The risk of contamination
Was that severe.

And it gives you some sense
Of how long people

Were confined here if they were
Having children born here.

Narrator:
The story of a patient called

Lois brings this
Heartbreaking reality to life.

Clark: she was a mother of
Two when she got here,

And if a patient was
Doing better,

They would allow them to go
Home on furlough

They would allow them to go
Home on furlough

And then have to come back.

She came back,
And it didn't go well.

She had conceived a child
While she was gone.

To our knowledge,
The only time lois

Ever got to see her son
That was born here

Was standing in one of
These solarium windows,

Looking at the road that ran
Across the back of the building

As somebody held him up.

Patients need to be isolated.

They need to be kept away
From cities and towns

Where they could cause
Thousands of infections

Where they could cause
Thousands of infections

And thousands of deaths.

It can survive in the air,

And it can attack
Any organ in your body,

But it usually goes
For the lungs.

Barratt: the victorian name
For it was consumption,

Because it consumes your body

From the inside -- at one
Point across america

And europe, one in seven
Deaths were down

To tb -- one in seven people
Died of tuberculosis.

To tb -- one in seven people
Died of tuberculosis.

Auerbach:
Jefferson county, kentucky,

Was one of the worst-hit
Places in the country.

Narrator: fortunately, waverly
Hills rose to the occasion.

Waverly is as good as it gets.

Here is a place
Where you're going

To be looked after
By the best.

Auerbach: if you were gonna
Try out a new procedure,

Waverly was where you were
Gonna try it out.

And they were really at
The cutting edge of

Tb treatment.

Narrator:
But in the early 1900s,

Narrator:
But in the early 1900s,

The best tuberculosis
Treatment was still

Experimental to say the least.

Procedures we talk about
Most of all in here are

Auto pneumothorax,

Which is basically where they
Would let air into your chest

Cavity and manually collapse
One of your lungs.

It's very, very painful.

They thought, mistakenly,
That while the lung was

Collapsed, it would rest
And heal itself.

Nusbacher: medical science
Had not yet learned how to

Deal with this disease
And the best way

Deal with this disease
And the best way

To heal was for the patient
To heal himself or herself.

Narrator: aside from
These last-ditch operations,

There were only three treatments

Thought to be effective
Against tb --

Fresh air, sunshine,
And nutrition.

This building has areas
Purpose built for that,

Along these massive
Balconies called solariums.

These are the best treatments
They had,

These are the best treatments
They had,

But as we know from the number
Of people that were dying here,

It wasn't really
That effective in the end.

There are hospitals today
Which have a whole separate

Set of corridors for moving
Dead people out of rooms.

Narrator: the solution here
Was more direct --

A body shoot.

It was not originally built
To be a body shoot.

It was built to bring up
Building supplies

And materials.

All the mechanism, machines,

The track and everything that
Was built to bring bricks up,

The track and everything that
Was built to bring bricks up,

They just reversed it
And took bodies down.

Bottom, there was
A little building

It was basically storage
So they could

Either be loaded
Into hearses, ambulances,

Train cars, depending on
Where they needed to go.

Barratt: this was just
A grim form of architecture

But totally necessary.

Narrator: and scrawlings
On the walls serve as a reminder

Of the risks taken by
The staff who worked here.

Clark: the employees were
The original graffiti artists.

Clark: the employees were
The original graffiti artists.

There's a lot of names signed
In pencil,

Quite a few of them
Are dated,

And some of them are very old,

Just to let themselves know
That they're still alive.

That, you know,

They came and did a horrible
Job, took a chance on getting

Deathly ill, and a lot
Of 'em, you know, survived.

Narrator: a new discovery was
About to change everything.

Waverly would have
To reinvent itself.

*

Narrator: in 1943,
A scientific breakthrough

Spelled the beginning
Of the end

For the waverly
Hills sanatorium.

The antibiotic streptomycin
Was discovered, and it was

The cure the world
Had been waiting for.

Nusbacher: without streptomycin
Or similar antibiotics,

Tuberculosis would
Still be a plague,

Tuberculosis would
Still be a plague,

Even in the developed world
Where it's rarely seen.

Barratt: it's no longer needed
In the 21st century,

But it's such a monumental
Building, it has to

Reinvent itself in order to
Find a purpose today.

Narrator:
Closed as a tb sanatorium

In 1961, it is now

Frequented by people
Looking for something

Entirely different.

If an unmerciful god

If an unmerciful god

Allowed the souls
Of the departed to

Roam the world,

Then this is just the kind of
Place people imagine

Unquiet spirits would be.

Narrator: a room on waverly's
Fifth floor is

The most anticipated stop
On dale's paranormal tour.

A nurse who had gotten pregnant
By a doctor

Who was married to someone
Else mysteriously was found

Hanging out here in the hallway
Across from the elevator car,

Hanging out here in the hallway
Across from the elevator car,

Just that, right up there
Is where she was found.

Was she just overcome?

Or a lot of people

Think that maybe something
More sinister happened.

No one will ever 100% for sure

Know exactly what
Happened to her.

Narrator:
For most of the world,

Tb is seen
As a disease of the past,

But recent studies have cast
Serious doubt on

But recent studies have cast
Serious doubt on

That assumption.

Clark: the original strain,
They can pretty much

Take care of -- the problem is
There's a new strain

Coming out that is very
Antibiotic resistant,

And the old treatments
Just aren't working.

Nusbacher: tuberculosis is
Nature continuing,

To this day,
To claw

At human life and to force us
To fight back.

Narrator:
Scientists across the globe

Are racing to find treatments
For this new strain of tb

And entirely new viruses
And diseases that emerge

And threaten us
With a global pandemic.

It's almost like an arms race

With these terrible diseases,

And we hope that
We're winning,

But it's a close battle.

Narrator: these battles, despite
Their devastating effects,

Bring humanity together
In new and inspiring ways.

Bring humanity together
In new and inspiring ways.

This togetherness has been
Critical to our fight against

Pandemics and will continue
To be so in the future.

In the blue waters of
The mediterranean,

On the italian island
Of sardinia,

An intriguing ruin
Clings to the cliff face.

Meigs: you see this structure
That just boggles the mind.

Meigs: you see this structure
That just boggles the mind.

It looks like some
Ancient building,

But it starts maybe
100 feet up

This rocky cliff.

Jerram:
Has some of it fallen away?

It's a really strange
Juxtaposition from cliffs to

Something that's almost, like,
Plastered on the side.

Barratt: now, it might look,
On the face of it, that there's

Been an engineering catastrophe
Here and the cliff face has

Fallen away, but no,

This is purpose built
And what you see

Is what you're
Supposed to see.

Is what you're
Supposed to see.

Narrator:
Inside, the true extent

Of this complex is revealed.

Jerram: the tunnel itself
Is quite extensive.

It goes several 100 meters
Into the mountain.

You have to have
A big incentive

To blast your way through
Such hard rock.

Meigs: ultimately, you see
There's two levels of tunnels,

And you can see that
There is a series of

Bins in between the two tunnels
With some kind of gate

At the bottom of each bin.

Barratt:
This is an amazing sight

Barratt:
This is an amazing sight

Of great ingenuity,
And it really is

What gets people
Into engineering.

You give someone a problem,
And with enough imagination,

They come up with
An amazing solution.

*

*

Narrator: antonio littarru
Is an expert on

The history of this place.

Narrator: and yet
This particular structure

Is far from ancient.

Meigs: it's not as old
As it looks, actually,

And it's quite
Beautifully engineered.

This is not
An ancient monastery

Or some kind of
Strange castle.

Or some kind of
Strange castle.

This was
Something industrial.

Narrator: a closer look
At the tunnel walls

Reveal valuable rocks
Buried in the hillside.

Jerram: you've got rocks that
Are very, very old and rocks

That are very, very young,
And all through

Those different eras,
You get times

When you're
Having magma,

Which causes mineralization
And causes things like silver

And lead and zinc.

Narrator:
Along the coast,

Visible from this cliff face,
Are the remains of

A sprawling complex that
Suggests an operation on

A sprawling complex that
Suggests an operation on

A truly industrial scale.

Barratt: you can see rail
Tracks, huge storage chambers,

All sorts of things going on,
On an epic scale.

Jerram: you're almost dwarfed by
These rusting bits of machinery,

And it's clear that somehow,
This tunnel,

These two places
Were linked.

Narrator:
What connects these two sites?

Narrator:
What connects these two sites?

And how would
An engineering genius

Overcome
An age-old problem?

*

Narrator: in sardinia,
Tunnels seemingly engineered

Directly into a cliff face

Are somehow connected to
An industrial wasteland

Just along the coast.

Meigs: one of the biggest
Challenges of mining here

Is getting the ore
Off the island.

For centuries, there was
No real infrastructure.

For centuries, there was
No real infrastructure.

Narrator: the lead and zinc ore
Was hauled to the coast by ox

And cart.

These men and their beasts
Of burden

Toiled in the baking
Sardinian sun,

And from there,
Things only got tougher.

And from there,
Things only got tougher.

Jerram: when you have hard rock,
Hard basement rock,

You often end up with rugged,
Rocky coastlines,

Cliffs, inaccessible areas,
So they don't

Necessarily lend themselves
To big ports.

Narrator: small boats
Transported the ore

To the nearest
Deepwater port

On the island of san pietro,

15 miles across
The treacherous open sea.

The area itself is
Quite precarious

In terms of weather --
You've got the mistral winds,

In terms of weather --
You've got the mistral winds,

These cold winds coming down
From the northwest of france,

And you've got
The ponente winds

That come in from the west.

These boats can only
Hold about six tons of ore.

That's a remarkably
Small amount.

I mean, that's really --
That's just a few wheelbarrows

Full of ore,
And they would load them

As heavily as they could.

So now you've got this little
Open boat trying to get

To a harbor
Some distance away,

Where it can be loaded
Into a bigger boat.

Where it can be loaded
Into a bigger boat.

It's full of rocks.

These boats sank all the time.

It was incredibly dangerous,
Slow, inefficient.

Jerram: they're quite
Precarious little boats,

So you can imagine you're
Loading a boat full of rocks,

And then you're trying
To get it off.

If you've got bad weather,
Those boats could easily

Topple over, and many did,

And many people fell
To their deaths.

Narrator:
To solve this age-old problem,

The mine owners turn to

Venetian engineer,
Cesare vecelli.

Venetian engineer,
Cesare vecelli.

Meigs: and this guy
Was a real genius,

One of those
Out-of-the-box thinkers.

Vecelli spent a year
Studying the problem

And studying the geography
Around the mine

And the coastline.

Jerram: they found this sort of
Wonderful site where a sea

Stack was actually protecting

The waterway between
The sea stack and the land,

And it was deep water,

So in principle, you could get
Big ships in there,

But then your issue was
Creating a port.

But then your issue was
Creating a port.

His answer was this --
Porto flavia.

Instead of taking
The ore to the ports,

They would bring
A port to the ore.

He said, "Instead of
Building something new,

Why don't I use a structure
That's already there?"

Normally, any mariner
Looks at this coastline,

Looks at that cliff,
This is their worst nightmare.

And yet here they were,
Planning to

And yet here they were,
Planning to

Turn this forbidding cliff
Into a port facility.

Narrator:
Construction began in 1923,

And the teams worked day
And night for two years.

Now all they had to do

Was blast out thousands of
Tons of rock.

Jerram: they finally broke
Through the cliffs,

And they could see the sea,
But they didn't stop there.

Meigs: and then here comes
The really scary part.

They started hanging out
Over the water.

They started hanging out
Over the water.

That way,
As they dug the tunnel,

They could just shovel all
The rock out into the water.

And again, they repeated
The process of drilling

And blasting until

They'd carved out a parallel
Tunnel below the other one.

Narrator:
The miners then dug

Nine vast chambers connecting
The two tunnels.

Barratt: the silos are huge,
20 meters high,

And between the nine of them,

They could hold up to
10,000 tons of minerals.

They could hold up to
10,000 tons of minerals.

Narrator: with some
Final machinery installed,

The system was complete.

Electric trains from the mine
Would arrive

At the upper tunnel,

And the ore was poured
Into the nine huge silos.

And the ore was poured
Into the nine huge silos.

Meanwhile, large cargo ships
Would moor in the calm waters

Under porto flavia.

In the lower tunnel,
The ore poured out onto

The conveyor belt.

A nearly 50-foot-long
Retractable arm extended out

Over the sea,

And the ore would drop into
The ships waiting below.

Meigs:
At the end of that boom was

Kind of a rubberized sleeve.

So as all that gravel
And rock was tumbling down,

So as all that gravel
And rock was tumbling down,

It wasn't just gonna
Spray everywhere.

It was all gonna go directly
Into the hold where it belonged.

Barratt: in fact, they could
Turn around one of these ships

In two days,

Loading up to 500 tons an hour
Directly into the hold.

Jerram: so a really amazing
Engineering feat,

And they used the cliff
And the geology

And the whole function
Of gravity, really, to

Aid them in that process.

Narrator: porto flavia
Was a huge success.

But global forces lay in wait.

How would it meet
The challenge?

*

Narrator:
Porto flavia, italy --

An ingenious mineral port built
Into the cliff face.

Completed in 1924, it slashed
Production costs by up to 70%,

But this increased efficiency
Came at a price.

Narrator: the success of
Porto flavia was

Also short-lived for
Its owners.

Sadly, the company didn't
Have that many years

To enjoy the efficiency of
Their brilliant engineering.

At the end of
The 1920s, you had

The stock market crash
And then the great depression.

Then you had world war ii.

It reopened for a few years
In the 1950s,

But by the 1960s, there
Were new efficiencies,

But by the 1960s, there
Were new efficiencies,

New technologies.

Narrator: porto flavia is now
Preserved for visitors,

Standing as a testament to
The vision of one great engineer

Standing as a testament to
The vision of one great engineer

And paying tribute
To the lives

Of generations of
Sardinia's miners.

Barratt: this port shows
Engineering at its best.

You throw someone a challenge
Of how to get a huge amount of

Material out where nature
Is against you,

And they came up
With this incredible,

Imaginative solution.

Narrator: on the banks of
The black sea in southern

Ukraine is a port city
Founded by catherine the great.

Ukraine is a port city
Founded by catherine the great.

*

The stylish architecture
Above ground is

Matched only by
What lies beneath.

Every so often you hear a story
Of some young people who

Go down, and someone gets lost
And doesn't make it

Back out again.

Some researchers say that
We have approximately

800 accesses.

Narrator:
These access points range

From the obscure
To the bizarre.

From the obscure
To the bizarre.

Meigs: when you look
At this shed,

It might just be some
Kind of equipment shed.

And then you go inside
And realize,

It gives you access to

The most incredible underground
Labyrinth anyone has ever seen.

Zagnyboroda: it's absolutely
Quiet place.

The silence is 100%.

As soon as you switch off
Your torch,

Then the darkness is absolute.

Narrator: few people
Walking the streets of

Odessa appreciate what is
Beneath their feet.

Odessa appreciate what is
Beneath their feet.

Jerram: if you go down,
It's clear that it's not just

A normal set of tunnels.

It's actually much more
Grand than that.

They just don't understand
That they're literally walking

Above the underground city.

It's the biggest such system
In the whole world.

Narrator: a subterranean
System perfect

For a criminal underworld.

Yet it also served as
The city's last line of defense

Against an occupying force,

Against an occupying force,

A resistance movement
That descended into

A horror story.

So month-by-month passed --
They began to get insane.

Nusbacher: increasingly
Disoriented underground,

These russian secret police

Begin to hunt each other.

*

Narrator: the city of odessa
Owes its very existence to

Narrator: the city of odessa
Owes its very existence to

One of the world's most
Iconic female leaders.

Nusbacher: the russian empress
Catherine the great

Wanted to build
A new port city

In order to open up the south

Of russia to commerce,
A mighty port

Where the three great rivers
In eastern europe

Came together --

The bug, the dniester,
And the danube.

They desperately
Wanted access to a port

On the black sea
And via that,

On the black sea
And via that,

The mediterranean
And the rest of the world.

Narrator: in 1794,

Catherine approved
Funding for odessa,

Which soon became
A russian trading hub.

So odessa went from being

Basically a village to
A large city almost overnight.

They had a problem, though.

In this area, there aren't
A lot of trees.

It's grasslands and farms,
So for building materials,

It's grasslands and farms,
So for building materials,

They turn to the local stone.

Jerram: and luckily, they were
Sitting on a particular type of

Limestone, which is
Very, very good

For making buildings out of,
So they used

The geology of the rocks
Beneath their feet.

Narrator: the soluble nature of
Limestone meant natural

Underground caves
Had formed through

Millions of years of erosion.

Meigs: so when people started
Carving out tunnels to get

Their building materials,

Their building materials,

They vastly expanded
This underground network.

Narrator: this gave birth to
A subterranean world that

Pavel zagnyboroda now
Explores for a living.

Zagnyboroda: local authorities,
They try to control it somehow,

But it's almost
Impossible really.

No mobile
Phone connection.

No radio communication.

No gps signal reaches
That deep, so you can rely

Only on yourself
And your own knowledge.

Narrator: yet even he may
Never understand

Narrator: yet even he may
Never understand

The full extent
Of this system.

No one's really sure,
But one estimate

Is that there's about
1,500 miles of tunnels.

Jerram: now if you put that
Into context,

Paris has got about 150, 200
Miles of tunnels, rome maybe

About 300 miles,

So it's three times both
Rome and paris combined.

Meigs:
The layout of these tunnels

Is extraordinarily complex,

And it's not just
On one level.

They go down
On multiple levels.

They go down
On multiple levels.

Jerram: so you've got a kind of
Complexity in terms of

The different types of rooms
And corridors,

But also it's multi-tiered.

It's actually on different
Levels, they've used

Different parts of
The geology in different ways.

It really is a labyrinth
Underneath the city.

Meigs: you can imagine
How someone could become

Dangerously lost down here,

But also how someone who really
Understands the network

And knows their way around

Could use it to
Their advantage.

*

*

Narrator: a group of spies
And saboteurs are

About to make this layer
Their home.

*

The buildings of odessa have
A grand and colorful

Architecture, created by
The limestone dug out of

A subterranean world utilized
For centuries by smugglers,

Gangsters, and thieves,

But in the city's
Darkest hour,

This underbelly would offer
A glimmer of hope.

During world war ii,
The romanians were allied with

During world war ii,
The romanians were allied with

The germans,

And they attacked odessa
And took it over in 1941.

The soviets pulled out,

But they actually left behind
Some secret --

What you might call, like,
Special forces.

A group of soviet
Secret police,

A group of the cheka
From moscow,

And another group
From the odessa

Office are sent down
Into the catacombs.

Narrator: at the head of
These units were majors

Kolodchin and kuznetsov,

Kolodchin and kuznetsov,

And pavel has
Discovered evidence

Of their time here.

Zagnyboroda: kuznetsov and
Kolodchin,
This group was exactly here.

We found some bullets,
Some batteries for

Radio station,
Some guns, as well.

They were well trained and
Prepared to act as a partisan.

So they had water, food,
Guns, explosives, mines,

Whatever they needed for
A long time to stay here.

Whatever they needed for
A long time to stay here.

But they weren't prepared for
The psychological challenge,

The isolation, the darkness.

You know,
We hear about people

On polar expeditions
Who really struggle.

Imagine if you're down in
A tunnel for six months without

Seeing the sun,

Maybe only able to light
A candle once in a while.

Some of the men turned
Violent, perhaps suicidal.

Narrator:
They also had to contend with

The occupiers tossing poisoned

The occupiers tossing poisoned

Gas into the catacombs
And sealing random exits,

Hoping to trap or smoke out
The rebels.

And there was another ever

Present danger lurking
Around every corner.

Of course, partisans
Are always vulnerable.

You know, it just takes one
Person spilling the secret.

Along with kuznetsov is
Yevgeniya simirunik,

And she is a traitor.

Narrator: simirunik,
A member of

Narrator: simirunik,
A member of

The surface team,
Betrays her unit.

She turns informer and tells
The romanian security forces

Everything she knows.

Zagnyboroda: we don't know
Why she did this.

She betrayed all of them.

First of all,
They arrested all

13 people in the city,
Of course,

And then they blocked all the
Exits for this underground team.

Narrator: but yevgeniya
Simirunik is soon detected.

Her fellow conspirators
Were on to her.

Nusbacher: so, she is put
On trial in a brief,

Nusbacher: so, she is put
On trial in a brief,

Informal people's trial and
Put up against the walls of

The catacombs,
And she's shot dead.

But now,

The two groups of communist
Partisans mistrust each other,

Fatally.
-they began to get insane,

So they really got
Absolutely mad.

After approximately 10 months,
They began killing each other.

Nusbacher: the two of them
Hunt each other

In a silent vendetta.

And in the end, none of

The soviet partisans emerges
From the catacombs alive.

Having dispatched of kolodchin
And his moscow team,

Kuznetsov had been killed by
One of his own.

And yet declassified
Documents later revealed that

And yet declassified
Documents later revealed that

One man did, in fact,
Survive to tell the tale.

So he came to
The security services of

[indistinct],
And they came here,

And so he showed
Them everything.

And they just shot him dead,
In his back, right here.

On the third day, after
The liberation of the city,

He was killed
By his own people

After three years of this
Terrible hell underground.

Narrator: a potentially
Damaging story,

Narrator: a potentially
Damaging story,

The last living eyewitness to

This horrific tragedy
Had been removed.

The soviets would not allow
The reputation of their

Heroic resistance fighters
To be tarnished in this way.

Because for propaganda,
They needed an absolutely

Different story.

It may seem that they --
All these people,

All these partisans,
They died for nothing,

Like completely in vain,

That's not true, because
Romanians, they didn't

That's not true, because
Romanians, they didn't

Know how many exactly
There were partisans

Hiding underground.

Narrator: so tens of thousands
Of troops were stationed here

Throughout the war
To hold the city from

This unseen enemy below.

I think that it was

This huge contribution of
These partisans into

The victory.

*

*

Narrator: pavel now runs part
Of the catacombs as a museum,

Bringing centuries
Of history to life,

From the city's birth to
Piracy and smuggling, right up

To the nuclear bunkers of
The cold war.

On the edge of a bay in
The southwest of japan

Is a complex that's been
Towering over the land

For decades.

Somara: this is set in
Beautiful landscape.

There's water
And trees everywhere.

And then, right in front of you,
These three huge towers

Are just there,
They're massive.

Wawro: we're looking
At a really tall,

400- or 500-foot-high towers,

Very slender, tapering upward,
Like, almost like -- like

Concrete needles.

They look almost
Like smokestacks.

If you can take a peek
Inside the tower,

If you can take a peek
Inside the tower,

You see a long,

Precarious-looking metal
Ladder going up to the top.

Whoever had
The job of climbing

That ladder certainly
Didn't suffer from vertigo.

Somara: the fact that
There's three of them,

It makes you question why wasn't
One good enough.

Why did there need
To be three?

Narrator:
Only when viewed from above

Does the answer
Begin to present itself.

Wawro: they form a perfect
Equilateral triangle,

And then at the center of
This triangle is some sort of

And then at the center of
This triangle is some sort of

A building.

Somara: it's so overgrown.
It's been forgotten.

That building has been
Completely wrapped up

By the plants and trees
That surround it.

Meigs: inside the building,
There's not much there.

Clearly, this was an important
Installation of some sort,

But when it shut down,
Whatever was there got

Taken away.

Narrator:
The complex is linked to

One of the gravest military
Disasters in

U.S. History.

But the bare rooms
And the hollowed out

But the bare rooms
And the hollowed out

Tower seem to only offer
Up an incomplete picture.

Meigs: whatever these towers
Were built for,

You don't see a lot
Of infrastructure.

There's no lights or cables
Or other things.

Is there some other piece of
The puzzle that's missing here?

Narrator:
Dating back to 1918,

The towers have stood guard
Over the site

For more than a century,

For more than a century,

Thanks largely to their once
Cutting-edge design.

Hideaki matsuo is
A historian

With a detailed knowledge of
Their construction.

[ speaking japanese ]

Translator: if you head to
The back, you can see

The lines in the wall.

Each layer is 4.5 feet tall.

[ speaking japanese ]

After the first layer,
You have to wait for another

Two days before you can add
Another one on top,

And after completing 100 layers,

This 446-foot tower
Was finished.

This 446-foot tower
Was finished.

[ speaking japanese ]

Narrator: the decision to build
This tower with reinforced

Concrete despite the high costs
And slow progress

Shows the importance placed
On getting the construction

Exactly right.

Wawro: it took four years to
Build this at a cost in

Today's dollars

Of nearly $50 million, which
Speaks to the sophistication of

The technology employed.

Narrator: appearing like
An industrial chimney

Narrator: appearing like
An industrial chimney

From the outside,

The central winch system and
Other remnants show this was

Really all about reaching
New heights.

[ speaking japanese ]

Translator: when you go to
The back, there is a ladder.

It's the original one,

And there are 550 steps
To the top.

To reach the top takes
55 minutes,

And you have to keep climbing
Without a break.

[ speaking japanese ]

[ speaking japanese ]

There is nowhere to rest
In between.

It is quite a hard climb,
And it's slow.

[ speaking japanese ]

Narrator: today, a light
For warning aircraft

Sits atop each tower.

But years ago,

It was the equipment that
Defined this site that crowned

These monoliths.

What's missing from
The structures today are

The aerials,
Which were in the form

Of triangular frames,
And they would have

Sat on the top of the towers --
Between the towers

Were connecting wires,
And that linked all of them,

Were connecting wires,
And that linked all of them,

So they became one.

Narrator: together,
The towers were used to

Transmit radio signals over
Great distances.

Radio waves come in a range
Of wavelengths from

Very short ones
To very long ones.

And it's the long waves
That most easily travel

Long distances.

But to create a long radio
Wave, you need

A very big antenna.

Narrator: these towers are part
Of the hario wireless

Telegraph station,

Telegraph station,

And they were designed
To remedy

A costly problem identified
Years earlier.

One of the forgotten wars in
World history by many is

A brief war between japan
And russia in 1904.

But it was a time when japan
Actually tried out

A lot of
Their technologies.

And in that war,
They really

Learned the importance of
Good communication.

Narrator:
Prior to radio communication,

The standard way of
Sending a message

The standard way of
Sending a message

Between ships was using flags.

Meigs: navies around the world
Developed very

Sophisticated systems,

Using flags and other signals
Where they could communicate

From ship to ship and
Coordinate their activities.

But communicating from ship
To shore was always a problem.

Once you were over
The horizon,

You were on your own.

Narrator: in the modern world of
The 1920s and '30s,

Flags simply wouldn't cut it
Any longer.

Flags simply wouldn't cut it
Any longer.

Japan would soon start
Trying to expand.

They had imperial ambitions,

And so communication
Was paramount to this.

Narrator: built
To aid the expansion

Of japan's empire in asia,

Little did anyone realize
At the time that

The tower's most devastating
Use might come against

The united states.

Japan was about to engage
In battle with the u.S.,

And supposedly, these towers
Were integral to that attack.

And supposedly, these towers
Were integral to that attack.

*

Narrator: near the city of
Sasebo in japan,

Towering structures
From the 1920s still

Loom large.

In time, the united states would
Witness their deadly potential,

But their original task
Was to

Help the japanese with
Their imperial ambitions

In asia.

They want to measure themselves
Against great britain,

They want to measure themselves
Against great britain,

Against the united states,

Against the french empire,
Against the russians.

And so, for this,
They're going

To need a really modern
Communications array

So that tokyo central
Can communicate

With the japanese navy
Wherever it is.

There were actually three
Complexes like this --

One in taiwan,

One near tokyo, and this one
Close to nagasaki.

The three could communicate
With each other, so you could

Relay a message from one
To the next and beyond,

But they could also broadcast
Messages far out

But they could also broadcast
Messages far out

Over the ocean.

You have better
Communications,

Better information,

You have a huge edge
In any military conflict.

Narrator:
Central to the success of

The site was the building
At its heart.

It was crucial to japan's
Military victories

In the 1930s, and as the second
World war crept closer,

It would be put to use again,
Possibly playing a part

In one of the gravest events
In u.S. History.

In one of the gravest events
In u.S. History.

[ speaking japanese ]

Translator: this is the rooftop
Of the telecommunications room.

It is also the center of
The three radio towers.

These radio towers are
Positioned in an equilateral

Triangle almost 1,000 feet
Apart from each other,

And this is located right in
The middle of those towers,

Which was important.

[ speaking japanese ]

Cables coming from those three
Radio towers were connected to

The telecommunications room.

But the telecommunications
Room itself was

Hidden underground.

Narrator:
Overgrown on the outside

And stripped bare
On the inside,

During the second world war,

This facility was highly
Secure and self-sufficient.

The building housed
The power to run the whole

Operation in the form of
Generators and batteries.

But it was also where
Communication was sent

And received.

Narrator: messages would be
Picked up by the towers,

Narrator: messages would be
Picked up by the towers,

Relayed to this building,

Decoded, and then
Retransmitted on their way to

Their destination.

That role gave
This dark space

The potential to cause
Untold damage.

[ speaking japanese ]

Translator: this room was
Where they transmitted

The secret codes

That were created in sasebo.

[ speaking japanese ]

From the size of the room,
And because we know there used

To be five or six desks in here,
We presume

That there was a small number of
Transmission workers in here.

That there was a small number of
Transmission workers in here.

However, as they were
Dealing with highly

Confidential documents,

I don't imagine many people
Were allowed in.

[ speaking japanese ]

Narrator:
In 1941, a top secret

Coded order that would have

World-changing consequences
Is likely to have filtered

Through these rooms.

There's good reason to
Believe that one of most

Pivotal radio transmissions
In history was made via

This transmitter.

The words
"Climb mount niitaka 12 08."

The words
"Climb mount niitaka 12 08."

Those words were code
To send the instruction to

Proceed with the attack on
Pearl harbor.

Narrator:
Once the order had left tokyo,

It's thought that hario
Would have been the site that

Actually transmitted
This message

Beyond mainland japan
On its way to the naval fleet.

The results were devastating
And immediately

The results were devastating
And immediately

Drew the united states
Into the war.

But questions
About the site and its role

In all this remain
To this day.

Translator: there's almost no
Documentation remaining

About the hario radio site.

Architectural drawings,
Records of

Transmission history,
And so on,

They don't exist at all.

The reason being that straight
After the war ended,

The reason being that straight
After the war ended,

Any related documents
Were burned.

Narrator:
While the japanese may have

Destroyed the paperwork,

That was the smoking gun,
They left behind

A lot of concrete proof
In a different form.

Wawro:
We can't say for sure that

The order to attack pearl
Harbor came from hario,

Because after the war,

The japanese destroyed
All the records that were

Stored there,
But given

The configuration of
The various transmission sites

In japan,
It probably came from here.

In japan,
It probably came from here.

*

Narrator:
The towers' prominence today

Helps educate people to not

Repeat the mistakes of
The past,

And they'll continue to do so
For a long time to come.

These towers were designed
To last for about 90 years,

But the way they were
Engineered and constructed

Means that they'll last for
A lot longer than that.