All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens Origins s01e05 Mysterious Underground Worlds.eng

NARRATOR:
Vast, man-made caves

that defy explanation,

subterranean chambers

rumored to house
profound knowledge

and enduring tales
of an extraordinary civilization

concealed within the Earth.

For nearly two decades,

Ancient Aliens
has traveled the globe

exploring towering
megalithic structures,

mysterious artifacts

and stories
of otherworldly beings

in a quest for evidence

that might reveal the truth
of our extraterrestrial origins.

Our ancestors have always said,

"As above, so below."

NARRATOR:
Now we take a look back

through
the Ancient Aliens archives,

to the show's very origins,

to examine the evidence
that we are not alone.

We have never been alone.

? ?

DvX3M
opensubtitles.org

We live on a truly
fascinating planet.

I mean, anywhere you go,

you find ancient sites
and artifacts,

some of which are still
very mysterious to this day.

But what really blows my mind
is how much of it

is still hidden underground.

And we're finding more
all the time.

Like massive underground tunnels

and entire subterranean cities.

There's even a tomb in China
that had rivers of mercury.

-Right.
-WILLIAM HENRY: Oh, yeah, it's incredible

what they've found
underground in China.

And I'm really glad
we're starting this episode

with a story Ancient Aliens
covered in 2015,

where these Chinese
archaeologists discovered

a labyrinth
of these man-made caverns

-that just totally
defy explanation. -Yeah.

NARRATOR:
Zhejiang province, China,

June 1992.

A local villager pumping water

out of a pond
in Phoenix Hill uncovers

a man-made cavern with stairs,

hallways

and massive
ten-story-tall pillars.

The grotto is one in a series
of 24 separate caverns,

each with similar proportions

and intricately carved walls,
floors and ceilings.

PAUL BAHN:
Nobody really knows what on Earth these things are.

There's no trace of them
having been occupied

or being used for storage.

Uh, certainly not for burials,

there's no trace
of anything like that.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
There's a Swiss author

by the name of Luc B�rgin

who was first to take this story
outside of China

in his book China's Mysterious
Cave Labyrinth,

and what he showed me
convinced me that some kind

of advanced technology
was used here.

It's one of the most amazing
things I've ever seen,

where you enter
this subterranean world

that clearly has been
hewn out of the bedrock

with artificial means.

It's almost as if there was some
sort of artificial mechanism

that was grinding and drilling
all of the stone out,

and this suggests
the possibility

that they may have had
some sort of technology.

NARRATOR:
Archaeologists estimate

that the material
excavated from the site

would amount to nearly
one million cubic meters,

approximately the volume
of 400 Olympic-sized pools.

Yet, there is no evidence

of where this material
would have gone,

and Chinese officials
have calculated

that an endeavor
of this magnitude

would take
a minimum of 1,000 men

working day and night
for at least five years.

There is no historical record,

uh, of these caverns
having been excavated,

so there's no document
explaining

what they were used for,
who excavated them.

And this remains a very, very,
uh, frustrating detail

for historians.

ANDREW COLLINS:
We know that, in China,

there are written records

that go back
at least 3,000 years.

They make absolutely
no mention of these caves.

So we must look
much further back in time

for their origin.

But exactly how old are they?

Are they 4,000 years,
5,000 years?

Are they even 10,000 years?

We just don't know at this time.

TSOUKALOS:
Some have suggested

that they're
up to 15,000 years old.

In fact, Chinese scholars
are the ones who have proposed

that this cave system dates back

to one of China's
first emperors, Huangdi,

and Huangdi, as we all know,

descended from the sky
in nothing else

but a fiery dragon.

DAVID WILCOCK:
Somebody went to an extreme amount of trouble

to build
an underground civilization.

Why would they do that?

Is it possible
that something was happening

on the surface of the Earth?

When we go back
to the Icelandic legends,

we see this cataclysm

that is described
as a cataclysm of fire

called the Ragnarok,

in which you have
flames in the air

and rocks and gravel
raining down from the sky.

NARRATOR:
In the Icelandic Ragnarok legend,

the world is turned upside down.

A great fire is followed by

a submersion
of the world in water,

resulting in the death
of the Nordic gods

and their offspring.

Only two humans are left
to repopulate the Earth.

It is a tale much like that

of the great flood found
in the Judeo-Christian Bible.

And similar stories
of a great deluge,

one that marks
the end of an old world

and the start of a new one,
can be found in the histories

of virtually every ancient
civilization on our planet.

ROBERT SCHOCH:
Virtually every culture-- every ancient culture--

talks about floods
and ancient floods.

Some people dismiss this
as, you know, myth,

without explanation.

But what we find geologically

is, in fact,
we would expect flood legends.

NARRATOR:
In 2007,

a consortium of geologists

publishes
its collective findings

indicating evidence
of a major meteor event.

What they discover
is a carbon-rich layer

in the geological record

at various sites
across the globe,

dating back to around 10,900 BC.

A separate study
conducted by scientists

studying Arctic ice core samples

finds evidence suggesting
a rapid glacial melt

at nearly the same time period.

SCHOCH:
The Ice Age ends very,

very dramatically,
almost literally overnight.

You see this in the ice cores.

All of a sudden,
there are dramatic changes.

Temperatures rising...

...torrential rains,

flooding.

NARRATOR:
Could the geological record suggest

that the stories
of a global cataclysm are true?

If so, might the stories
of a cleansing

of the Earth
of otherworldly beings,

leaving only humans
to repopulate the planet,

also be true?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest further evidence
may be found

by exploring another
mysterious underground city

located nearly 300 feet
beneath the earth.

You can't have a conversation
about underground structures

without mentioning
Derinkuyu in Turkey.

It's got to be one of the most
incredible places

-on this Earth.
-CHILDRESS: Yeah, Derinkuyu

is an entire city
deep underground.

And it's anyone's guess
how old it is,

but it goes back
at least 3,000 years.

Oh, and we've proposed
it's even older than that

because it's only about
300 miles from G�bekli Tepe,

and there, we know
it dates back 12,000 years.

We covered that place
in season two of Ancient Aliens,

and it's one of those sites
that just blows you away.

Absolutely.

NARRATOR: 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.

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,

storerooms,

winepresses

and stables for livestock.

JOHN BRANDENBURG:
Oh, Derinkuyu

would've been a massive
undertaking for anyone,

even in modern times
with modern equipment.

But in those days, it would've
been, um, 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-ins,

so they were
apparently extremely clever

and knew their material.

We're talking deep antiquity.

It is mind-boggling

to understand
how they could've 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?

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.

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 Ahura Mazda.

And in the second chapter
of the Zoroastrian sacred text,

the Vendidad,

Ahura Mazda saves mankind

from a worldwide
environmental disaster,

much like the story of Noah
in the Hebrew Testament.

TSOUKALOS:
The great prophet Yima, he was instructed

to build a kind
of underground refuge

similar to Derinkuyu
by the sky god, Ahura Mazda.

NARRATOR:
According to the sacred texts,

Yima 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 BC.

Is it possible that Derinkuyu
was built as a refuge

from a devastating
global winter?

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 Ahura Mazda

told his followers to build,

could there be a stunning truth
behind the legend?

If so, who or what

was the god Ahura Mazda?

WILCOCK:
Ahura 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 Ahura 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.

The Derinkuyu doors, they're
very cleverly constructed.

You can basically only open it
and leverage it from the inside.

TSOUKALOS:
So, obviously, whoever inhabited Derinkuyu

was hiding from someone
or something.

NARRATOR:
According to the ancient Zoroastrian texts,

Ahura 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?

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.

WILCOCK:
When you look at the Zoroastrian tradition,

you also see clear evidence
that there was

some sort 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.

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.

BRANDENBURG:
We had the phrase in the Defense Department studies

that I participated in
that "a 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 beliefs,

but their creation myths
all share

something quite remarkable.

JAY VIGIL:
When we talk 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 up from the ground.

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.

(tribal chanting)

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.

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.

LINDA MOULTON HOWE:
I have stood in front of

what are called the Ant People

and some of the very strange,

large-eyed drawings on the rocks

and wondered, "Am I looking

"at Native American
interpretation

"of what today is called

an extraterrestrial
biological entity?"

TSOUKALOS:
If extraterrestrials were here in the remote past,

there are multiple species
out there,

is it possible
that they might have 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 UFOs and alien beings

have been told among the people

of New Mexico's
Jicarilla Apache Reservation.

Some of the aliens
in these stories bear

a strange resemblance

to the ancient tales
of the ant-like

and snake-like beings
from the Hopi legends.

There is things up here
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.

It is from this mesa
and mountain

that people claim
they have seen UFOs

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 U.S. military.

The amount of
military traffic over Dulce,

the unmarked helicopters,
the black helicopters,

the heavy-duty Chinooks,

all these helicopters 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.

JAY VIGIL:
A while back, uh,

when my brother was still alive,
we used to come up here

in the back,
and he showed us this shaft,

and that thing was bigger
than... bigger than me.

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

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

You'd hear strange noises.

Groans.

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?

Perhaps additional clues
can be found

by analyzing ancient cave art

depicting curious
humanoid figures.

In almost every ancient culture,

there are stories of beings
coming down from the sky,

but there are also stories of
beings living beneath the earth.

-Right.
-HENRY: There really are.

In the Native American
tradition,

we learn about the Snake People,
the Ant People.

Then there's this cave art

that shows
these humanoid figures

with these really
strange-looking bodies.

Yeah, and some of these figures
that you're talking about

can be found
in the Grand Canyon.

In fact, we covered them

in a 2014 episode
of Ancient Aliens

called "Forbidden Caves."

NARRATOR:
Santa Monica, California.

2014.

Here at xRez Studio,

visualization artists
Greg Downing

and Eric Hanson
are pioneering the use

of photogrammetry
and special effects software

to assist archaeologists
in the global effort to decipher

ancient cave art.

GREG DOWNING:
We use a combination of techniques

from the fields of computational
photography and graphics,

uh, in order to help
the archaeologists

reveal information
difficult to see

just with basic vision
when you're there.

NARRATOR:
The team recently traveled

to the Grand Canyon
to compile a massive,

in-depth photographic
compilation

of the collection
of strange petroglyphs

known as the Shaman's Panel.

We were drawn to the panel
for two primary aspects:

One was the rich layering

of the, uh,
anthropomorphic figures,

and two is
the kind of evocative,

uh, surreal nature
of their composition.

DOWNING:
This cave is maybe, like, five or six feet deep.

So by using
a photogrammetric technique,

we're able to get the detail
across the entire painting.

HANSON:
The nice thing about this technique is

we can separate
the different dyes

and minerals that are used.

And in this case,
now we can kind of see

the layering expressed.

We can see figures that are
simply lost by the naked eye.

Yeah, that brings it out.

DOWNING:
Yeah, that's a complete difference.

NARRATOR:
Could modern techniques one day uncover

even more details

about what ancient people
really saw

and hoped to communicate
with rock art?

Some ancient astronaut
theorists believe

one compelling clue
that modern researchers

might be on the right track

can be found, oddly enough,
in contemporary America.

March 1945.

Amazing Stories magazine
publishes an article

entitled "I Remember Lemuria."

But according to the author,

this is the first piece
to appear

in the science-fiction magazine
that is not fiction at all

but an actual account
of his own alien abduction.

REDFERN:
Richard Shaver was a man

who surfaced decades ago
with a story

of underground entities

that were very hostile
to the human race.

Terrible creatures
that would kidnap

and kill members
of the human race.

TIM SWARTZ:
They were the first inhabitants of planet Earth.

When the Sun became radioactive,

these people could no longer
live on the surface.

Some left in their spaceships.

Others went underground.

NARRATOR:
Could Richard Shaver's account

of underground extraterrestrials
abducting humans be true?

Shaver proposed
that the alien race

that once populated the Earth
had developed

highly specialized equipment
that allowed them

to embed multifaceted imagery
into stones.

TUCKER:
Richard Shaver believed

that he had made
the greatest discovery

in the history of mankind

about the true nature
of intelligent life on Earth.

So, this is an original Shaver
photograph of a rock book.

And this multidimensional way
of making images

in the rock books was something
that Shaver saw as a real sign

of the superior intelligence
of the ancient races.

And Shaver believed
that these weren't mere rocks

with random patterns,
that these were actually

deliberately manufactured
artifacts by the ancient races

who had been here
30,000, 100,000,

who knows how many years ago.

NARRATOR:
Might Richard Shaver have actually discovered

real physical evidence
that extraterrestrials

have been here on planet Earth
and might still be here today?

Whether or not Richard Shaver's
stories are true,

it does dovetail
with legends across this planet

of a race of beings
that either created humankind

or were at least our ancestors

that had a superior technology.

REDFERN:
If we're looking for extraterrestrials, ironically,

the heavens above might not be
the best place to look.

We should, perhaps, even be
looking deep below our feet.

CHILDRESS:
In some ways,

exploring the underground
cavern world

of planet Earth
is-is the final frontier.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible

that some of the world's
most mysterious caves

really are home
to extraterrestrial beings?

Could it be that the knowledge
of the universe

has been left for us
to discover right here on Earth

once we have the technology
to unlock it?

Perhaps we will find proof
by searching deep underground.

NARRATOR:
Los Angeles, California.

January 1934.

The Los Angeles Times publishes

an article entitled "Lizard
People's Catacomb City Hunted,"

accounting the attempt by mining
engineer G. Warren Shufelt

to locate and excavate
a maze of tunnels

which he believed
were beneath the streets

of Downtown Los Angeles.

CREASON:
Warren Shufelt was a mining engineer,

and he invented a device,

uh, that he called
the radio X-ray,

to be used for gold mining,

and this device could find
tunnels underground.

And he actually created
a map of the tunnels.

NARRATOR:
Included on Shufelt's map of tunnels

were 16 places where he said
he had located gold deposits.

Shufelt gained momentum
after meeting

with a Hopi medicine man
who told him the legend

of the Lizard People
that live in underground cities.

CREASON:
Warren Shufelt had a sit-down

with an Indian medicine man
in Arizona

who told him
there was a Hopi legend

that there was three cities
on the Pacific coast

that were
completely underground.

The-the story goes that

5,000 years ago
there was a meteor shower

and these Lizard People
sought refuge underground.

They dug these tunnels,

and one of the network
of tunnels

was under the city
of Los Angeles.

NARRATOR:
According to the legend,

the Lizard People
carved out vast chambers

large enough to house
a thousand families

using advanced technologies

such as a mysterious chemical

that could easily bore
through bedrock.

Shufelt obtained permission
from the city

and began digging to try and
reach the vast tunnel system.

The city council,
perhaps motivated

by the alleged gold that was
contained within the tunnels,

allowed Shufelt to dig
a 250-foot shaft

under the agreement
that he would give them

50% of the treasure,
if recovered.

CREASON:
Warren Shufelt was a successful mining engineer,

and it seems that he had
some kind of connection

at the Los Angeles Times,

'cause the Times
really followed the story.

It was a story that caught
the popular imagination.

NARRATOR:
After a month of digging

and not reaching
the tunnel system,

Warren Shufelt and his team
ran out of money

and stopped the search.

But fascination with the story
continues to this day.

So now we have these stories
of-of underground people,

a race living underground
in-in tunnels and bases.

And you have to wonder,
is this some kind of

reptilian extraterrestrials

who have taken control
of our planet

and are living underground?

It seems incredible, and yet,

it's what some of the stories
are telling us.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible

that an advanced race
of Lizard People

once lived underneath
the Western United States?

And could they still
be there today?

Astonishingly, a nearly
identical legend exists

halfway around the world.

Benares, India.

Within this city
lies the Well of Sheshna...

...which in Hindu legend
is an entrance

into an underground city
of the nagas,

a race of semidivine
serpent people

known throughout
Eastern culture.

JONATHAN YOUNG:
In Benares, the sacred city of India,

there is a well,
the Well of Sheshna.

This is one of the portals

to the underground city
called Patala,

and the nagas
live in this place.

It's a place of great power
and mystery and some danger,

and only the holy
can make contact with it.

Patala is the underworld
in Hindu mythology.

There are many beings
that live in there,

many reptilians,
which are called nagas.

As a demigod,
they must have descended

from heaven to the Earth
to teach,

to give special qualities,
to the human world.

Nagas are not really evil,

being as in
Judeo-Christian context.

NARRATOR:
Ancient astronaut theorists claim the Hindu stories

of the nagas bear
a striking resemblance

to the Hopi stories
of Lizard People,

who also resided
beneath the earth.

So here we are linking the naga,
the serpent beings,

with the reptilian beings
of the Hopi tradition.

We see a common thread here
of these beings

who are, at one time,
reviled and also revered,

but also as beings that have
a direct influence on humanity.

NARRATOR:
Is it merely coincidence that extremely similar legends

of advanced reptilian beings
living underground

can be found
on opposite sides of the world?

And is it possible these
reptilian underground dwellers

surface every so often
to interact with humanity?

Perhaps more clues can be found

in artifacts unearthed
in the cradle of civilization.

Southern Iraq, 1923.

British archaeologist
Sir Leonard Woolley

leads an excavation
to uncover the remains

of one of the oldest
agricultural communities

in the world, the Ubaid culture,

which dates back to 5900 BC.

Among the remains, they discover
some unusual clay artifacts.

Among the dwellings and tools,
they also discovered

these strange-looking
clay figurines.

And I say "strange" because
they don't really look human.

They have the facial features

of what seems to be reptiles.

Now, is it possible
that the Sumerians

were depicting a race of beings

that were living among them
at the time?

NARRATOR:
Mainstream scholars have debated

the meaning of the statues
since their discovery,

thinking perhaps
they were Sumerian gods.

However, ancient astronaut
theorists believe the statues

could have a different meaning.

These clay figurines have these

what are called
coffee-bean eyes.

They have these
elongated skulls.

They look very much like

some kind of reptilian
extraterrestrial.

And they're
breastfeeding children

and doing very normal
human things

that you wouldn't think that
gods would necessarily be doing.

So it's this mixture
of human activity

with these reptilian aliens.

So we're showing
mammalian reptilian physiology.

When it shows them, um,
holding those babies,

it's not a normal thing
to have anywhere

in iconography
throughout the entire World.

And it makes you suspect
to whether or not

they had actual
physical contacts between them.

NARRATOR:
Could it be that legends and artifacts

left behind by ancient societies

offer insight into
a subterranean realm

and the beings that inhabit it,

a reality that has since
been concealed from mankind?

According to ancient
astronaut theorists,

the answer is a resounding yes,

and additional evidence
could lie buried

deep beneath the Giza Plateau.

One of my favorite places
on Earth is Egypt.

And what's crazy is that
when you go there today,

you see the pyramids and temples
and monuments on the surface,

but Egyptologists estimate
that as much as two-thirds

of what the ancient
Egyptians built

is still beneath the sands.

Yeah, and they're making more

discoveries like this
almost every day.

And one of the most enduring
mysteries

is what's underneath the Sphinx.

Yes, and the famous psychic
Edgar Cayce

said that there was
a secret chamber

beneath the Sphinx in the 1930s,

and new evidence shows
that there is one.

Right.

And we covered this
in season three

of Ancient Aliens.

NARRATOR:
1936. The Giza Plateau, Egypt.

For more than 3,000 years,

the body of the Great Sphinx

had been buried
beneath the sand.

But after 11 years of work,

Egyptian archaeologists
uncovered the entire monument

for the first time
since antiquity.

At 241 feet long
and 66 feet high,

it is the largest and oldest

monolithic statue in the world.

Even more incredible
is its shape.

The Sphinx has the head of a man

and the body of a lion.

Although Egyptologists
date the construction

of the Great Sphinx to the reign

of the Pharaoh Khafre
in approximately 2500 BC...

...others claim its construction
could be much, much older.

ROBERT BAUVAL:
The orthodox dates

of about 2500 BC
tagged on these monuments

has been challenged
by a group of researchers,

including myself,
who have argued

that the erosion of the Sphinx

suggests a much,
much older Sphinx.

NARRATOR:
Although Egyptologists have found no agreement

as to when or why
this strange monument was built,

ancient astronaut theorists
believe it may offer proof

of extraterrestrials
being present in ancient Egypt.

MARTELL:
We see in many ancient Sumerian

and Egyptian
inscriptions of sphinxes,

half-man, uh,
half-animal of some kind,

and a variance to a degree
of different combinations

of animals and human beings.

We have to wonder,
why would they be doing this?

And, logically,
it starts to make more sense

when we realize a lot
of these ancient texts

explain that
extraterrestrials came here

and created us in their image
and after their likeness.

GEORGE NOORY:
If you believe the work of the late Zecharia Sitchin,

where he believes that
the Anunnaki came from a planet

that is somewhere
out in our solar system,

and that they came here
to mine for gold.

But they figured, they're not
gonna do the work themselves,

so they decided to take what
creatures were on this planet

at the time,
genetically alter them

and make mankind.

MARTELL:
And if that's the case,

it's very possible
that they could be using

genetic alterations
to experiment

with not only just humanity

but a mixing of other species
with humanity.

NARRATOR:
Could the Great Sphinx be evidence

of genetic engineering
by ancient aliens?

And if,
as Zecharia Sitchin proposed,

extraterrestrials were
genetically altering

humans and animals
for the purpose of mining gold,

might this enormous structure

have at one point been
a repository for that gold?

Is it possible that when
Egyptian archaeologists

began excavating
the Great Sphinx,

what they were really
searching for was gold?

Over the centuries,
secret chambers, shafts

and elaborate tunnel systems

have indeed been discovered
all around the Giza Plateau.

BAUVAL:
A shaft was discovered, called the Osirian Shaft,

which led under the
Giza Plateau, behind the Sphinx.

Now, in that shaft
are various passageways

that lead seemingly nowhere.

NARRATOR:
In recent years,

ground-penetrating radar,
or GPR scans,

have been conducted
which reveal evidence

of numerous underground cavities

located not only
around the Sphinx

but underneath it as well.

BAUVAL:
From a scientific point of view--

I'm not talking about
speculation and theories

and legends and so forth--

that was the very first time
that some strong indication

that there might be
these hidden tunnels

and chambers under the Sphinx.

And, according to this,
they found very strong evidence

of what looked like
artificial chambers.

COPPENS:
And it's not a question as to whether or not,

uh, there is a secret
underground passage

underneath the Giza Plateau.

The question is:
Can we get access to this?

And, of course,
the all-important question is:

Is there something there
of extraordinary value,

maybe even something
which defies science,

which might even be of
an extraterrestrial nature?

NARRATOR:
If the alleged cavities under the Sphinx

contain not only gold

but gold mined
by ancient alien beings,

might they also
contain something more

than just material treasure?

Ancient astronaut
theorists believe

an elaborate secret repository

is located under
the Sphinx's paws,

known as the Hall of Records.

It dates back
to the fall of Atlantis,

which, according
to ancient texts,

is said to have occurred
nearly 12,000 years ago.

They also claim that
there were extraterrestrials

living in Atlantis

and that they needed
a repository

to house all of their
accumulated knowledge.

ERICH VON D�NIKEN:
The Hall of Records,

it was made by us
but with the tools

and the knowledge
of extraterrestrials.

BAUVAL:
It is speculated that

a group of survivors of Atlantis

came to Egypt
at about 10,500 BC,

brought along with them
their records,

their knowledge,
and built this storeroom

somewhere at Giza.

NARRATOR:
If archaeologists do someday

unearth secret chambers
below the Sphinx,

what will they find?

Gold?

A library of ancient
extraterrestrial knowledge?

Or perhaps something
even more profound?

You know, ancient Egypt

isn't the only place
that is rumored

-to have a hall of records.
-Mm-hmm.

There are rumors that
there are underground

repositories of knowledge
all over the world.

And, in fact, I've been to one:
Giorgio's basement.

(laughter)

Look, I live
in California, David.

We don't have basements.

Okay, maybe
Erich von D�niken's basement.

Well, he actually was
one of the first ones

to write about this rumored
hall of records in Ecuador,

and we covered this in
season two of Ancient Aliens.

NARRATOR:
South America.

The Andes mountain range
in Ecuador.

For thousands of years,
this rainforest,

high on the eastern slopes,

has been the land
of the Shuar...

...headhunters who are fiercely
protective of their homeland

and its 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.

VON D�NIKEN:
Father Paolo Carlo Crespi.

He was loved by the Indians.

He helped them without,
uh, asking for money.

And the Indians
made him 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 D�niken

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 D�niken'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, uh, prehistory.

I first heard of the...
the Tayos Caves

was in Erich von D�niken's book

and followed it through
from there.

VON D�NIKEN:
And one of the presents which the old priest received

is a tablet with 36 writings.

It's metallic tablet.

No one until 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.

(helicopter blades whirring)

Entering the cave
through a jungle entrance

known to the Ecuadorean army...

...the explorers were fascinated
by what they encountered,

especially large areas
that appeared

to have been excavated
by someone.

Or something.

HALL:
The head of the British geological group,

Dr. Brian Kelly, in 1976,

he admitted
that it was difficult

for him to explain
the actual large doorways

that you see in these caves.

MAN:
Oh, yeah...

NARRATOR:
Although Stan Hall's expedition

did find a tomb chamber
with items dating to 1500 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 Ecuadorean

named Petronio Jaramillo,

who claimed to have entered
the Cave of Tayos

through a secret entrance
back in 1946.

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 underwater,

go in-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 metal tablets

in Father Crespi's collection.

HALL:
The other things looked like formulas.

And so on and so on.

So it was one spectacular
statement after another.

(bird screeching)

COPPENS:
Some argue 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 his search

for the so-called metal library.

Fortunately,
Stanley Hall's daughter Eileen

has decided to continue
her 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
their 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 Ecuadoreans could not
have had any knowledge of.

EILEEN:
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 humanlike,
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
on 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.

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 Yucat�n Peninsula.

One of Mexico's
premier tourist destinations.

Besides scenic beaches,

the area is covered
by thick jungle

and pockmarked 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 floodwater.

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

Sometimes they got very deep.

The average of-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 1,900-year-old
Mayan inscriptions.

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 ten 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?

The Mayans themselves have, uh,
very intriguing, uh, 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 the Popul Vuh.

NARRATOR:
Could this dark and mysterious cave

really be the underground world
mentioned in the Mayan legends?

(birds chirping)

According to the Popul 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.

(animal snarling)

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 Popul 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.

(growls)

These caves were littered
with large patches of spiders

and reptiles and all types
of tumultuous things

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

NARRATOR:
Although some archaeologists claim this unique site

was simply modeled after
the description of Xibalba

in the Popul Vuh,

De Anda insists
that items from the cave

date back to a time
centuries before

the Mayan holy book was written.

DE ANDA:
It's not that there was this document

and they tried to, uh,
imitate what the document said.

I think it's all
the other way around.

We believe that we have found
the particular Xibalba

of the central part of Yucat�n.

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?

TSOUKALOS:
According to the Chilam Balam 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?

I do not believe human sacrifice

was originally taught
by the ETs.

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 gonna 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.

You can't talk
about underground mysteries

without mentioning
the Hollow Earth theory

that was proposed
back in the 1600s.

Yeah, and personally,
it doesn't really work for me,

but the moment that you change
the word "hollow" to "inner,"

then all of a sudden,
it makes sense to me.

Because we know for a fact

that gigantic chambers exist

underneath the Earth's crust.

Right. Then you have
the writings of the Mayans,

the Buddhists, the Kabbalists.

They all speak
of these multiple levels

beneath the Earth

that are inhabited
by nonhuman entities.

We covered this
in a 2015 episode

called "The Other Earth."

NARRATOR: Woolpit Village.
The 12th century AD.

Two small children
mysteriously appear

near the opening of a cave,

a boy and a girl
speaking in a language

that is indecipherable.

But even more odd,
their skin is green.

SABINA MAGLIOCCO:
The farmers in the area who were harvesting vegetables

came upon these two children.

Their skin was green,

and their clothing
was said to be made

of a strange fabric.

It was a fabric unfamiliar

to the people
who were describing them.

KATHLEEN McGOWAN:
The children are immediately whisked off

and put into isolation

from the rest of the village
for several days

because no one is sure
if they're actually human.

MAGLIOCCO:
The children said that they came from the land of Saint Martin,

a land that was, in many ways,
much like Earth.

They described the place
that they came from

as not being
as bright as our land is.

There was no bright sun,
there was no dark night,

but it was a sort of twilit land

with the sky
the color of early evening.

NARRATOR:
Prominent 12th-century historian William of Newburgh

included a detailed account
of the Green Children

in his major work
History of English Affairs.

He noted that they
eventually acclimated

to their new environment.

The children gradually
became part of the community.

The-the boy, the-the younger
of the two children, died,

but the girl survived,
and there is

some serious tracking
of her descendants,

indicating that she
is a real person in history.

NARRATOR:
Many theories have been proposed

as to where exactly
these children came from.

McGOWAN:
The most popular theory seems to be

that they came
from another planet.

A planet with
a different type of orbit,

a planet that was not
exposed to the Sun.

NARRATOR:
Does the well-documented account of the Green Children of Woolpit

give credence to the existence
of another inhabited world

separate from our own?

Some ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that another Earth

may exist not in space

but deep within the Earth,
right under our feet.

June 13, 2014.

Scientists researching
the Earth's mantle

announce that they have found
what they believe

to be a vast body of water,

three times the volume
of all of our oceans combined,

contained within a mineral layer

400 miles inside the Earth.

The discovery shakes
the foundation

of what scientists and scholars
thought they knew

about the ground under our feet.

We have just scratched
the surface of the Earth.

Uh, we drilled down
like eight miles,

and we had to stop
because it got too hot.

Out of 4,000 miles,

basically to the core of
the Earth, we went down eight.

That's nothing.

BROOKS AGNEW:
We have more than 70

active space programs right now.

We can tell you more
about the surface of the Moon

than we can the surface
underneath our own oceans.

NARRATOR:
Our scientific understanding

of the internal structure
of the Earth

is primarily based
on observations

of seismic waves
generated during earthquakes

and knowledge
of Earth's gravitation field.

Since we have not actually
drilled down far enough

to confirm these findings,

could it be that we may be wrong

about the composition
of our own Earth?

Some ancient astronaut
theorists say yes

and suggest that according
to our earliest mythologies,

an "other Earth" might not
be found in the heavens

but deep within our own planet.

AGNEW:
One of the most consistent themes that we find

in ancient cultures
when we travel around the world

is the idea that
there is another world,

another Earth,
inside of the planet.

One of those
is the Maya tradition.

They have a holy book
called the Popol Vuh.

Inside this book,
it talks about two twin boys

that came up out of the Earth

and were actually
the first humans on the planet.

And to this day,
they still believe

that life force comes
from inside the planet,

not from outside in heaven.

The Mayans have this.
The Tibetans have this.

The Hopi Indians have this.

CHILDRESS:
Within Buddhism, there are stories

of a place called Agartha,

or Agharti,
which is an inner world.

And it's inhabited, too,
by people,

and that they are
an advanced race,

and even that they have trains
and vehicles that are moving

through this inner Earth.

ARIEL BAR TZADOK:
The most ancient teachings share with us the shocking revelation

that the Garden of Eden

was on no place
on the face of the Earth,

but rather, the Earth is hollow

and that the Garden of Eden

is an entire domain
in inner Earth.

So are these stories literal?

There are those
who believe that they are.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible that an "other Earth"

can be located within
the confines of our own planet?

Historically, underground realms

were not relegated
to mere mythology.

Well-respected scientists
and mathematicians

have long speculated
about a theory

that became known
as Hollow Earth.

MICHAEL DENNIN:
The scientist Edmond Halley is most famous for Halley's Comet.

He was also very interested
in the Earth,

and one of the challenges is...
was trying to figure out

what was the real structure
of the inside of the Earth.

He had a fascinating theory
of not just a Hollow Earth

but an Earth
with multiple layers

and many different atmospheres
with many different layers

of land and earth circling
and being concentric

as you went towards the center.

NARRATOR:
75 years later, 18th-century mathematician

Leonhard Euler put forth
his own Hollow Earth theory

with no concentric shells
and a sun at the center

spanning 600 miles.

AGNEW:
Euler was a gifted mathematician.

He developed this idea
that the planet Earth

is not only hollow, but
the poles are actually thinned.

And there are actually entrances
into the inner core

at the North and South Poles
of the Earth.

He imagined that there were
advanced civilizations

living inside the planet.

NARRATOR:
Ideas of an occupied Hollow Earth would be revisited

nearly two centuries later,
in 1947,

when famous polar explorer
Admiral Richard Byrd

flew reconnaissance missions
over the North Pole.

Byrd allegedly reported
in his private journal

about a mysterious land
beyond the North Pole,

which he called "the center
of the great unknown."

I've always been
a huge fan of Jules Verne,

and when he published A Journey
to the Center of the Earth

in the late 19th century,
this idea

of a whole other world
inside the Earth

became a hot topic once again.

And then again
in the mid-20th century,

when stories emerged
about Navy Admiral Richard Byrd,

first pilot to fly over both
the North and the South Pole.

Some accounts say he actually
discovered an opening

into the Earth.

Yeah, I mean,
this notion of beings

living inside the Earth
persists even to today.

And we covered this
in an early season two episode

of Ancient Aliens.

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 Pole
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 Halley, who is
best known for his comet.

In 1691, he presented
to the London Royal Society

his, uh, hypothesis, uh,
that the Earth, uh, is hollow.

He also suggested
that these interior spheres

would also be able
to support life.

NARRATOR:
In 1818, former U.S. 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.

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 1860s, and there's
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.

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 of the explorers
was no less a luminary

than famed polar pioneer
Admiral Richard E. Byrd.

In the 1920s,
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.

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, okay?

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 1990s,

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 High Jump

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.

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 have 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?

Discovering things underground
is very difficult,

but we're now getting technology
that allows us

to see underground and find
these hidden structures.

HENRY:
Would you guys go into them?

Would you go into
these deep underground...

-Yes.
-I've... I've been in some.

-TSOUKALOS: Of course.
-I've been in some. Yeah.

In-in Asia and in South America.

We tend to focus outwards
into outer space

when we're looking
for extraterrestrials,

but maybe we should
really be focusing

underneath the surface
of our Earth.

Our ancestors,
the great cultures,

have always said,
"As above, so below."

So, what more is there below?

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