00:00Ancient as the world, a huge bottomless hole releases disgusting smells filling the area around.
00:07Strange sounds come from the depths of this mysterious pit.
00:10People are too afraid to walk nearby and discuss this hole out loud.
00:14If you look down there, you'll see nothing but ominous darkness.
00:19All this sounds like a plot from some horror movie, but this is reality.
00:24This creepy hole really exists, and now we're going there to find out what it is.
00:30You get on a plane and fly to Southwest Asia.
00:33Then you go to the south of the Arabian Peninsula.
00:35You get in the car and drive to the place called the Well of Barhut.
00:39Nobody agrees to go with you, because they believe this place is so dangerous.
00:44It's located in the desert of Yemen's Almara province.
00:48To get there, you drive through dunes and lifeless plains.
00:51The closer you get to the hole, the quieter it becomes around.
00:55There's almost no vegetation, and you don't see any animals.
00:58Only a few birds fly by.
01:01Your GPS says you're almost there.
01:04You stop the car, get out, and an unpleasant smell immediately sneaks into your nose.
01:09You can't figure out what it is.
01:11Some people think the hole smells like rotten eggs.
01:14You cover your nose with a bandage and head forward.
01:17You still feel the odor even through the fabric.
01:20You take a few steps forward and finally see it.
01:23A giant hole in the middle of the desert.
01:26It's 100 feet wide.
01:28This is almost the size of a basketball court.
01:31But it's not the size that scares you, but the darkness.
01:34It's so black that you can't see anything.
01:37It's like someone spilled a spot of black paint in the middle of Golden Saint.
01:40The sun's shining brightly, but the hole absorbs all the sun's rays.
01:46People flew over this place in a helicopter.
01:49Photographers use the most powerful lenses for their cameras to see at least something.
01:53But they caught nothing but darkness.
01:55Even a special drone was floating directly over the pit but couldn't notice anything.
02:00And the darkness is so deep that no one has been able to find out the exact depth yet.
02:04According to approximate calculations, the depth of the hole is somewhere between 320 and 820 feet.
02:12This is almost half as tall as the Empire State Building.
02:16You throw a stone into the hole.
02:18Hear it knocking against the walls.
02:20With each knock, the sound becomes quieter.
02:23You can't hear the moment when it touches the bottom.
02:26You decide to spend the night in the car next to the hole.
02:29For several hours, you toss and turn in the seat and can't sleep.
02:33Finally, you manage to do that.
02:36And you're having a real nightmare.
02:38Terrible monsters come out of the hole and surround you.
02:41Fortunately, the first sun rays wake you up.
02:45Locals also believe this place is a prison for some evil creatures.
02:49They scream and emit an unpleasant smell.
02:52You hear strange, scary sounds and can't explain their nature.
02:56The smell is so disgusting that you get an attack of nausea.
02:59So you move away from the hole a few feet to the side.
03:03At the moment, the giant hole in Yemen is one of the most poorly studied and mysterious wonders of nature.
03:10Scientists still don't know where it came from, what's hidden inside, and how old it is.
03:15Many people say the hole is millions of years old.
03:18Perhaps it'd been formed before the time when dinosaurs walked on Earth.
03:21The worst thing is, is that it's almost impossible to explore the hole.
03:26There's very poor ventilation inside and almost no oxygen.
03:30This makes any research dangerous and expensive.
03:34Locals are afraid to talk out loud about the hole because it can bring bad luck and troubles to life.
03:39Also, some legends say the well of Bar-Hoot threatens all life on the planet and can cause the end of the world.
03:46For centuries, there were legends that evil spirits that live down there sometimes get out.
03:51However, there are also more scientific hypotheses.
03:56Maybe construction works created the hole.
03:59It could be soil drilling or mining.
04:01All this could have caused vibrations inside the Earth's crust and create the deep well.
04:05Experts say that erosion of limestone or moving geological salts or brines could have created this pit.
04:11There's also a scientific theory similar to the legend about the end of the world.
04:15It says the big hole is the mouth of a dormant supervolcano.
04:19At any moment, it can wake up and spew a million tons of lava and volcanic ash.
04:24Maybe further research will be able to solve the mystery of the hole.
04:28Now we're going to another mysterious hole.
04:31This time, it's located not on the ground, but in the water.
04:34After the hot sands of Yemen, you plunge into the cool waters of the coast of Belize.
04:39Here, you're going to visit the Great Blue Hole.
04:42You're sailing on a boat.
04:44The water around is blue, but as soon as you get into the hole's territory, the water becomes darker.
04:49The huge black pit lies right in the middle of the Blue Sea.
04:53It's 1,000 feet wide and 400 feet deep.
04:56The Statue of Liberty could easily fit inside.
04:59The most interesting thing is that the hole has a perfectly round shape.
05:03It's like someone created it, artificially, and used it as a huge storage.
05:08For a long time, it was believed the hole was created with outer space technologies or by representatives of an ancient disappeared civilization.
05:16Unlike the pit in the middle of the desert, you can go down into this one.
05:20And some people did it.
05:23The theory about the artificial origin of this hole was rejected in 1971.
05:27That year, the famous researcher Jacques Cousteau went down there and proved the Great Blue Hole was created by nature.
05:34It happened hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of years ago.
05:37Thanks to the structure of the stalactites' formations discovered inside, he found out about a strong earthquake that occurred on the planet about 200 million years ago.
05:47There was a shift in the tectonic platform.
05:50After that, the ground collapsed more and formed a funnel.
05:53It happened at the end of the Ice Age when the ice began to melt.
05:56But this isn't just a deep pit.
05:59There are many underground caves inside.
06:01It's like a long maze where you can easily get lost.
06:04To dive into this underwater cave, you'll need a large supply of oxygen and a team of professional divers who know these mazes well.
06:13So, you put on a scuba suit and two oxygen tanks and go down into the water.
06:18In the beginning, you meet a lot of marine life, several species of turtles, sharks, octopi, and more than 60 species of corals.
06:29And the deeper you go down, the emptier the hole becomes.
06:32On the smooth walls, you notice entrances to intricate mazes.
06:37Flooded caves are interesting with stalactites and stalagmites.
06:41But you don't risk going far into the caves.
06:43Just like inside the Egyptian pyramids, some people couldn't find their way back here.
06:48So, you decide to go down to the very bottom of the hole.
06:52But you can't do this without a very special vessel.
06:55So, you need to pay a lot of money and rent a submarine.
06:58Or, you can sit at home and watch the dive into the hole online.
07:01At the end of 2018, a team of scientists went on an expedition to the bottom of the blue hole and made a live broadcast.
07:09They managed to take new photos inside and created the first 3D map of this place.
07:15Closer to the bottom, they discovered new types of stalactites in the form of icicles.
07:20These stalactites had been here even before the big blue hole filled with water.
07:24Also, a thick layer of hydrogen sulfide was found deep inside.
07:28This substance completely absorbs sunlight.
07:31That's why you find yourself in absolute darkness.
07:35And in this darkness, in the lower part of the pit, scientists found remains of mollusks, turtles, and snails.
07:42Sometimes marine creatures got here, but can't get out because of a lack of oxygen.
07:47But the most unexpected thing that scientists found there belongs to people.
07:52Somehow, a plastic bottle got to the deepest part of the hole.
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