- 7 minutes ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00In 524 BCE, an army of 50,000 for Cambyses II set out to conquer Egypt, only to vanish in the western desert.
00:11The sands swallowed Cambyses' ambitions, leaving behind only questions and legends.
00:19The greatest mystery of the Devil's Bible, the largest surviving medieval manuscript, lies not in what remains, but what is missing.
00:27Ten pages meticulously cut out and deliberately removed.
00:33What secrets were these pages meant to conceal, and why were they erased from history?
00:40Thousands of hours of secret voice recordings within President Richard Nixon's administration
00:45and subsequent erasure of 18 and a half minutes results in one of the biggest political scandals of all time.
00:53Who erased the tape, and what exactly were they so desperate to hide?
01:01The chain of history has many missing links.
01:07Prominent people, priceless treasures, extraordinary artifacts, their locations still unknown, lost to the fog of time.
01:18In 524 BCE, Cambyses II, Persia's conqueror of Egypt, dispatched 50,000 soldiers.
01:48soldiers from Themes into the merciless western desert to silence the oracle of Amun.
01:56Cambyses II was the son of the famous Persian king of kings, Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire.
02:06Cambyses was named crown prince as early as 539 BCE, and seems to have served as co-ruler.
02:13But when Cyrus died, his son officially took the throne.
02:17Cambyses reigned from 530 to 522 BCE, and was determined to expand the empire, carrying on his father's ambitious campaigns of conquest.
02:31By 525 BCE, Cambyses had set his sights on Egypt, attracted by its abundant resources and strategic importance.
02:40As he marched along the Mediterranean coast, he secured water supplies through alliances with Arabian chieftains.
02:47The decisive battle of Pelusium opened the gateway to the Nile Delta, and by that summer, Memphis, Egypt's capital, fell to Persian forces, marking the start of the 27th dynasty under Persian rule.
03:01But victory brought defiance.
03:06Many Egyptians viewed Cambyses as a foreign usurper.
03:11One particularly potent symbol of resistance lay deep in the western desert, the oracle of Amun at Siwa.
03:19Revered by Egyptians and Greeks alike, the oracle was a temple and sanctuary in the Siwa oasis, where a priesthood served as intermediaries between the god Amun and those seeking divine guidance.
03:32It refused to legitimize Cambyses' rule, a public slight against the new pharaoh king.
03:42Determined to crush this affront, Cambyses dispatched 50,000 soldiers westward from Thebes.
03:50Their mission? To subjugate the Amunians at Siwa and destroy the oracle.
03:56Greek historian and geographer Herodotus, later dubbed the father of history, helped pioneer Greek trade with Egypt.
04:06He wrote detailed accounts about the lives of prominent kings and famous battles.
04:12But according to Herodotus, the troops vanished without a trace, never returning to Egypt nor reaching the Amunians.
04:21So what happened to this massive force?
04:26The western desert, spanning nearly 40,000 square miles across western Egypt and eastern Libya, is one of the most inhospitable landscapes on Earth.
04:43In this desolate expanse, described by Herodotus as a place where even powerful armies can vanish, Cambyses' ill-fated expedition began.
04:56Herodotus is our main source for the story.
05:00He writes about the force leaving Thebes in Upper Egypt and stopping at the Harga oasis after a seven-day's march.
05:08That much seems to check out.
05:10Thebes and Harga are about 150 miles apart, and his timeline matches the estimates for how long it would have taken to travel across that much desert.
05:19From there, the army continued on a route towards Siwa, home of the oracle of Amun.
05:27But no corroborating records detail the exact path or what truly befell the soldiers of Cambyses.
05:33Siwa was critical.
05:37Beyond its religious standing, it was a strategic desert oasis that dared question Persian authority by refusing Cambyses' legitimacy.
05:48In sending an army across the desert, Cambyses sought not just conquest, but symbolic dominance, an attempt to erase any lingering doubt of his right to rule Egypt.
05:59The western desert spared no one.
06:04Reliable water sources were scarce and hidden, making each new stretch of desert more perilous than the last.
06:12Without the Arabian chieftains who had once supplied water, the army moved forward with only limited provisions.
06:19Somewhere between Kyrgyz and Siwa, the sands swallowed Cambyses' ambitions, leaving behind only questions and legends.
06:33Herodotus gives us a chilling tale.
06:36He says that as the army of Cambyses stopped to eat, a wind whipped up from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand.
06:48And that storm swallowed up the troops.
06:51Dunes rose in the place where men had stood just moments earlier.
06:55But Herodotus' account raises questions.
07:01Could a storm, even of such ferocity, obliterate an entire army of 50,000 soldiers without a trace?
07:11Experienced armies like Cambyses' would have been prepared for harsh desert conditions.
07:17And a sandstorm, no matter how powerful, would likely not have been enough to overwhelm them entirely.
07:25The desert's silence may be masking not a natural calamity, but the echoes of an ancient rebellion, one that toppled an army and rewrote the narrative of a pharaoh's conquest.
07:42Some historians think that the army of Cambyses might have come to an end in battle against an Egyptian rebel called Petubastus IV.
07:51He declared himself pharaoh around 522 BCE and led an uprising against Persian rule.
08:00This theory gained momentum thanks to the work of a Dutch archaeologist who uncovered inscriptions referencing a pitched battle in the remote western desert.
08:10According to his findings, the temple blocks at Amida revealed Petubastus IV possessed enough power and resources to erect a major monument in honor of the god Thoth.
08:24An undertaking that implies a stable administration rather than a fleeting revolt.
08:28It was proposed that the lost army legend may have originated as Persian propaganda, a fabricated sandstorm tale to mask a humiliating defeat.
08:41The evidence points to Cambyses dispatching a large contingent from Thebes to quash Petubastus IV's rebellion in or near the Dakla oasis.
08:51But instead of returning victorious, the force vanished from the historical record.
09:01The simplest explanation is that Petubastus ambushed them, won decisively, and capitalized on the victory to consolidate his authority.
09:11If it's true, that story helps explain why Petubastus IV appears on ancient lists of Egyptian kings, that his rebellion wasn't just symbolic, but successful enough to secure territory, build temples, and maybe even briefly rule from Memphis, which the Persians used as their administrative capital for the area.
09:33Another possibility is that the Western Desert itself inflicted a slow, crushing defeat on Cambyses' army.
09:42Even without direct combat, crossing hundreds of miles of featureless dunes and sweltering heat could doom a force of this size.
09:51Rather than taking the coastal path where Arabian chieftains had previously provided water, Cambyses allegedly sent his soldiers southwest from Thebes through oases like Kerga and possibly Dakla, then onward towards Siwa.
10:13This route required precise navigation and reliable wells, both of which were in critically short supply.
10:25If the army of Cambyses veered even slightly off established caravan paths, they would have lost access to crucial water supplies.
10:34Dehydration, not just sandstorms, likely sealed their fate.
10:38After decades of exploration across Egypt's western desert, a surprising new route for Cambyses' ill-fated army was discovered.
10:53This research is pivotal.
10:55Cambyses' army may have veered onto an alternative track deep within the Great Sand Sea, bypassing the more established oases, which might still have been under Egyptian control.
11:07In doing so, the army sacrificed short-term security for the element of surprise, hoping to catch the defenders of the Amon temple off guard.
11:19Based on this research, Cambyses' army must have set out from Thebes along a lesser-known corridor, one that earlier archaeologists had not examined.
11:31Their geological surveys over these unchartered swaths of terrain revealed dried-up wells and fragments of earthenware pottery matching Persian water pots.
11:43Local Bedouin legends of an entire valley filled with bleached human bones fueled suspicions.
11:56A big discovery was made not far from Siwa by a pair of filmmakers.
12:00A grave littered with skeletal remains, which included a horse's bit, said to have maybe been used by the Persian cavalry.
12:10Some believe it might be tangible evidence that the forces of Cambyses met their end there in the Great Sand Sea.
12:18Scattered bronze arrowheads, fragments of Persian pottery, and human remains suggest the soldiers dispersed under brutal conditions, some seeking shelter behind dunes, others wandering off in a desperate search for water.
12:34The Western desert's dunes can bury artifacts and skeletons for centuries before revealing them again.
12:44Such intermittent rediscovery explains why we've only encountered scattered finds instead of a single conclusive burial site.
12:53Nature's forces have continuously rearranged the remnants.
12:57In all likelihood, Cambyses' army didn't vanish in one massive storm, but gradually disintegrated in a logistical nightmare, an episode few ancient chroniclers saw fit to document in detail.
13:18The fate of Cambyses' lost army is a haunting mystery etched into the unforgiving sands of the Western desert.
13:27Over 2,500 years later, the desert refuses to yield the truth of what happened to 50,000 men.
13:37The account of Herodotus is as much a carefully crafted narrative as it is a historical source.
13:45The lack of physical evidence raises questions about how much of his story is fact and how much is fiction.
13:57For now, the legend of the lost army of Cambyses stands as a potent reminder that even the grandest armies are not invincible.
14:08Time, shifting sands, and the unyielding desert continue to obscure the truth.
14:14In the shadowy heart of medieval Bohemia, a colossal manuscript emerged.
14:33A towering compendium of sacred scripture, esoteric knowledge, and an unsettling portrait of the devil.
14:40Known as the Codex Gigas, or the Devil's Bible, it was intended to contain all the world's knowledge.
14:50The Codex Gigas is the largest surviving medieval manuscript.
14:55It weighs 165 pounds, stands some three feet tall, and was crafted from the skins of over 160 animals.
15:02Encased in leather and ornate metal, it aimed to gather every kind of knowledge.
15:06Spiritual, historical, medicinal, even magical within one binding.
15:11The Codex was created in the early 1200s, period shaped by the Fourth Lateran Council.
15:21The church was cracking down on heresy, books were being destroyed, scribes were carefully watched.
15:28Producing a manuscript that included both scripture and magic formulas must have been inherently risky.
15:35An inscription on the first page suggests that the Codex originated at the Benedictine Monastery of Podladice in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic.
15:48But this impoverished monastery lacked the resources for such an ambitious project.
15:53Over centuries, the Codex changed hands, purchased, pawned, and prized by collectors like Emperor Rudolf II, and seized by Sweden as war booty.
16:02The journey leaves behind more questions than answers.
16:07The greatest mystery of the Devil's Bible lies not in what remains, but in what's missing.
16:13Ten pages meticulously cut out and deliberately removed.
16:18This wasn't the result of accident or decay.
16:21What secrets were these pages meant to conceal, and why were they erased from history?
16:26The Codex Gigas is a window into the medieval world, reflecting a time of religious devotion, intellectual ambition, and social upheaval.
16:40Over the centuries, it has been prized as a spiritual treasure, a financial asset, and a source of fascination.
16:51Forensic analysis suggests the Codex was produced by a single scribe over as many as 20 to 30 years.
16:57This is a lifetime's work, considering the average lifespan at the time was roughly 30 years.
17:01Its uniform script and illustrations show no breaks in style, and no sign of aging in handwriting.
17:07This consistency defies easy explanation, and fuels legends that the scribe achieved the impossible with supernatural help.
17:14Legend says the Codex was written by a monk called Hermann the Recluse, who broke his sacred vows and was condemned to death by being walled up alive.
17:29To save his life, he promised to write a book that would glorify the monastery by compiling all human knowledge, and to do it in a single night.
17:39By midnight, he was so desperate, he struck a deal with the devil, selling his soul in return for finishing the book.
17:48And in thanks, Hermann included the devil's portrait.
17:54The contents of the Codex are fascinating.
17:58Half of its pages contain the Old and New Testaments, while the remainder overflows with other texts, like Isidore of Seville's Edemalia,
18:07Josephus' Histories, Medical Remedies, Exorcism Rituals, Magical Formulas, and Lengthy Sinful Confessions.
18:15It also contains an extensive list of rarities, like alchemical and scientific sketches, and even a 12-page calendar.
18:24Among its most arresting images is that of the devil himself.
18:29This full-page portrait of the devil is unlike anything else in medieval manuscript art.
18:37He's depicted with massive horns, twin tongues, and crimson claws, draped only in an ermine loincloth, a fabric worn exclusively by royalty.
18:47This underscores his status as the Prince of Darkness.
18:50Directly opposite this infernal figure is an unsettling depiction of the heavenly city, empty of life.
19:02This juxtaposition highlights the era's spiritual tension, pitting eternal salvation against the threat of damnation.
19:08It's interesting to note that these are the only full-page illustrations in the manuscript,
19:12and part of the reason why the Codex earned its nickname, the Devil's Bible.
19:16The Codex Gigas is missing pages, and there are lots of theories about what was on them.
19:23Some people even like to say they might have included a secret Devil's Prayer, the power to end the world.
19:34While tales of occult secrets and forbidden knowledge persist, the missing pages may have a far more pragmatic origin.
19:41In medieval Europe, monasteries were not only spiritual centres, but also land managers.
19:50They constantly struggled to sustain their existence financially.
19:54Parchment made from animal skin, known as vellum, was incredibly expensive.
19:59And by 1295, Podladice Monastery was so desperate for funds, it had to pawn the Codex Gigas just to survive.
20:07It's possible that monks or later custodians removed certain pages, perhaps containing valuable illustrations or rare texts,
20:16to sell individually for much-needed income.
20:19By the early 1400s, Bohemia was engulfed by religious upheaval that led to the Hussite Revolution.
20:32Monasteries became battlegrounds over ideology, including the one where the Codex was written, which was destroyed.
20:39Libraries were raided and books were burned for being politically dangerous, denounced as heresy.
20:45If the Codex Gigas contained sensitive material, prophecies, inflammatory rhetoric, or ideas challenging prevailing doctrines,
20:57removing select pages could have been a calculated move to shield its custodians from heresy charges.
21:02As speculation swirls around political intrigue and doctrinal strife,
21:09some believe the explanation is tied to the devilish imagery within these pages,
21:15and that what vanished may have been too unsettling to remain on record.
21:20Some people have suggested the missing pages might have been removed because they crossed a line,
21:27that they could have been seen as heretical or even outright satanic.
21:31The Codex Gigas is famous for its full-page portrait of the devil,
21:36directly opposite the image of an empty, silent, heavenly Jerusalem.
21:41It's an eerie pairing that reflects medieval obsessions with sin and redemption.
21:47And when you add the exorcism rituals with magic formulas included in nearby sections,
21:52some wonder if the manuscript might have already been pushing the limits of what the church would allow.
21:56If those missing pages went deeper into demonology,
22:02like detailing unholy invocations or even diabolical pacts,
22:07they would have been seen as a serious challenge to the church's authority.
22:11Taking them out would have been a quiet way to keep the Codex within acceptable limits
22:16to protect both the manuscript and anyone connected to it.
22:20The Codex Gigas eventually became part of Emperor Rudolf II's prized collection in Prague.
22:31The palace was a magnet for philosophers, alchemists, astronomers, and artists,
22:37and filled with treasures that reflected Rudolf's profound fascination
22:41with the occult, astrology, and the pursuit of forbidden knowledge.
22:48Under Rudolf's reign, Prague became a Renaissance heart of arts and sciences,
22:53where curiosity and fear intertwined.
22:56His collection brimmed with exotic artifacts and esoteric texts,
23:01pushing the boundaries of knowledge while walking a fine line
23:04between discovery and looming threat of condemnation
23:08in an era of devout suspicion.
23:12In Rudolf's court, any page explicitly detailing unholy invocations
23:16or demon-summoning rituals could have invited immediate scrutiny.
23:20Religious authorities and political rivals alike
23:22would have seized upon this kind of material as evidence of heresy.
23:26Removing these pages may have been a calculated move to shield the Codex
23:29and its guardians from the heir's harsh consequences for perceived transgressions.
23:32There's no proof the missing pages had anything to do with satanic worship,
23:40and other surviving sections do include exorcisms and magic spells.
23:45Medieval depictions of demons were often a warning.
23:48They didn't glorify evil, they cautioned against sin.
23:52The devil's portrait is unsettling, it still fits into that tradition.
23:57But whatever happened with the Codex,
23:59we know that in a world haunted by real fear of diabolical influence,
24:04some knowledge was thought to be too dangerous to preserve.
24:10Its survival alone is remarkable,
24:13but the real mystery is those missing pages.
24:17Whoever removed them didn't just tear them out,
24:20they did it carefully, leaving no clear evidence behind.
24:23That kind of precision suggests whatever was on those pages was incredibly significant.
24:30The Codex Gigas now rests in Stockholm's National Library.
24:35Advances in modern technology like digital imaging,
24:39ultraviolet analysis, or even DNA testing of the parchment
24:42might one day reveal traces of what was lost.
24:45The missing pages leave the devil's Bible shrouded in eternal mystery.
24:57Their absence, a void where the sum of all knowledge
25:00was once meant to reside.
25:15In the early hours of the morning,
25:21five men were arrested inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters
25:24at the Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C.
25:28What first seemed like a botched burglary
25:31would ignite a political firestorm,
25:33shaking the very foundations of American democracy,
25:36and leading to the first resignation of a U.S. president.
25:39President Richard Nixon was a complex figure,
25:46brilliant, yet deeply paranoid.
25:48His obsession with control and his legacy
25:51drove him to extraordinary lengths.
25:53To document his administration,
25:56he installed a secret voice-activated recording system
25:59that automatically captured every conversation
26:02in the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room,
26:04and even at Camp David, the presidential retreat.
26:06Among the thousands of hours recorded,
26:11one tape stood out,
26:12not for what was said, but for what was missing.
26:16This conversation, just three days after the Watergate break-in,
26:19recorded a meeting between Nixon and his chief of staff,
26:22H.R. Haldeman,
26:23in what would become one of the most scrutinized
26:24and infamous moments of his presidency.
26:28The conversation probably included critical details
26:32about the administration's plans to handle the fallout,
26:35maybe even evidence of an early cover-up.
26:38But when investigators listened to the tape,
26:41they didn't find answers.
26:42Instead, they found that it had an 18-and-a-half-minute gap.
26:47It had been erased.
26:53Who erased the tape,
26:55and what exactly were they so desperate to hide?
26:58The roots of Watergate trace back to 1971,
27:10when a Nixon official leaked the Pentagon Papers,
27:13a 7,000-page classified report
27:15that exposed government deception about the Vietnam War.
27:20It came at a time when public anger and doubt
27:23over the U.S. role in Vietnam
27:25was already at a boiling point.
27:29Nixon was so enraged by the leak
27:31that he created a covert unit called the Plumbers,
27:34aptly named in reference to their job of plugging leaks.
27:37But things escalated quickly.
27:40The Plumbers resorted to break-ins and illegal surveillance,
27:43all in the name of protecting the administration.
27:45On June 17th, 1972,
27:50five men broke into the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
27:55The burglars, dressed in suits,
27:57carried sophisticated recording equipment,
28:00lock-picking tools,
28:01and wads of sequentially numbered $100 bills.
28:06It was obvious these weren't petty crooks.
28:09One was James McCord,
28:10a security coordinator for Nixon's re-election campaign,
28:12ironically nicknamed Creep.
28:15The operation was led by G. Gordon Liddy,
28:17a former FBI agent,
28:19and E. Howard Hunt, a CIA veteran.
28:22It would prove to be one of the most infamous cases
28:25of political espionage in history.
28:28And as the investigation deepened,
28:30it became clear that the motives behind the break-in
28:33went all the way to the top.
28:34By February of 1973,
28:39the U.S. Senate had formed a committee
28:41to investigate the Nixon campaign.
28:43Meanwhile, Nixon and his aides
28:45were amid a desperate cover-up
28:47involving discussions of million-dollar hush payments,
28:50using federal agencies to block the investigation,
28:53and coaching aides to lie.
28:56The real turning point came in July 1973,
29:00during the live Senate Watergate hearings,
29:02when Alexander Butterfield, Nixon's deputy assistant,
29:06dropped a bombshell.
29:08Nixon had a secret recording system.
29:11This was a major breakthrough.
29:13Those tapes held the potential to prove,
29:16without a doubt,
29:17what the president knew about Watergate and when.
29:21In 1974, under mounting pressure
29:29from federal investigators,
29:31Nixon released dozens of White House tapes
29:33and thousands of pages of transcripts.
29:37One of the key revelations
29:39in the smoking gun evidence
29:40was tape 342,
29:41a recording of a meeting between Nixon
29:43and his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman.
29:45This was the first time Nixon was recorded
29:47discussing the Watergate break-in,
29:49just three days after it happened.
29:53Thanks to Haldeman's handwritten notes
29:55from that meeting,
29:56we know he and Nixon talked about Watergate
29:59and probably about using the CIA
30:01to thwart the FBI's investigation.
30:04But there's no audio to back it up.
30:0718 and a half minutes had vanished,
30:10replaced with an ominous patch
30:11of clicks and buzzes.
30:19Nixon went to extreme lengths
30:21to keep the tapes hidden,
30:23and after two years of public scrutiny
30:25and growing calls for his impeachment,
30:27President Nixon reside in disgrace.
30:30By taking this action,
30:34I hope that I will have hastened
30:37the start of that process of healing
30:40which is so desperately needed in America.
30:45In a White House gripped by chaos and paranoia,
30:49some believe the answer to the missing minutes
30:51lies not in deliberate sabotage,
30:54but in an unintentional act of loyalty.
30:56Rosemary Woods,
30:59Nixon's fiercely loyal personal secretary,
31:02claimed she accidentally erased
31:04the 18 and a half minutes.
31:06According to Woods,
31:07she was transcribing the tapes
31:09for prosecutors when the phone rang.
31:12In her rush to answer,
31:14she said she pressed the wrong button,
31:16which caused her to delete
31:17part of the original conversation.
31:20In her grand jury testimony,
31:22Woods explained that when she went
31:24to answer the phone,
31:25she reached for the stop button
31:27on the Oval Officer's
31:28UR 5000 reel-to-reel recorder,
31:31but instead,
31:32she accidentally pressed her foot
31:33into the pedal of the machine,
31:35which would cause it
31:36to record over the conversation.
31:39To defend her version of events,
31:41Woods reenacted the incident
31:42in front of reporters.
31:44In her now infamous pose,
31:46dubbed the Rosemary Stretch,
31:47you can see her awkwardly stretching her leg
31:49to press the pedal
31:50while leaning far back
31:51to grab the phone behind her.
31:55The mechanics of the
31:56UR 5000 recorder in question
31:58cemented the initial doubt
32:00many had over Woods' story.
32:03The machine didn't even work
32:05the way Woods said it did.
32:07To erase the audio,
32:09someone would have to press
32:09both the play and record buttons
32:12at the same time.
32:14You couldn't do that with the pedal.
32:17And the erasure wasn't a single act.
32:20It was done in at least
32:21five separate segments.
32:23The idea that Woods could hold
32:25such an awkward physical position
32:26for over 18 minutes
32:28made her story
32:30virtually impossible to believe.
32:33Woods' explanation
32:34was riddled with flaws.
32:36Despite thorough investigations,
32:38there's no evidence
32:39she erased the entire
32:4118 and a half minutes.
32:42The forensic findings prove
32:44this was a deliberate act,
32:46but one that was most likely
32:48carried out by someone else.
32:53One of the most prominent theories
32:55is that President Nixon
32:56or someone in his inner circle
32:57intentionally erased the tape
32:59to hide evidence
32:59of a Watergate cover-up.
33:02The timing is key.
33:04This was Nixon's first meeting
33:05with H.R. Haldeman
33:06after the break-in,
33:07and it likely focused
33:08on how to manage the fallout.
33:09If the tape revealed
33:10early steps in the cover-up,
33:12it would have been devastating.
33:13Nixon's chief of staff,
33:20H.R. Haldeman,
33:21was in a prime position
33:22to erase the evidence.
33:24Only three days
33:25after the conversation
33:26with the missing minutes,
33:27Nixon was recorded
33:28ordering Haldeman
33:29to tell the FBI
33:30not to go further
33:32into the case, period.
33:35Haldeman was deeply involved
33:36in the cover-up
33:37and had every reason
33:38to protect both Nixon
33:39and himself.
33:41Or it could have been others
33:43in the president's inner circle,
33:44like John Ehrlichman,
33:45who was instrumental
33:46in creating the Plumbers
33:47and orchestrated
33:48many of the administration's
33:49covert operations,
33:51or campaign director
33:52John N. Mitchell,
33:53who approved the plan
33:53for Watergate.
33:54They had similar access
33:56and motives.
33:58Since Nixon wasn't good
33:59with technology,
34:00it does seem unlikely
34:01he would have done
34:02the erasing himself.
34:04And since there are more
34:05than 3,700 hours
34:07of recordings,
34:08you have to wonder
34:09why his team targeted
34:10just those 18 and a half minutes.
34:16One name that often comes up
34:18is General Alexander Haig,
34:20who took over
34:21as Nixon's chief of staff
34:22after Haldeman resigned.
34:24Haig famously called the erasure
34:26the work of a sinister force,
34:28a cryptic remark
34:30that some interpreted
34:31as an attempt
34:32to deflect blame,
34:33or perhaps a subtle nod
34:35to internal sabotage.
34:37Another possibility points
34:40to an unknown
34:41secret service agent
34:42or a technical staffer,
34:44someone with the access
34:45and technical know-how
34:46to manipulate the tapes.
34:47If they believe
34:48the June 20th conversation
34:49posed a significant threat,
34:51whether to national security
34:52or Nixon's presidency,
34:53they might have taken matters
34:54into their own hands.
34:55There have been years
35:00of speculation,
35:01but no one's ever
35:02been identified
35:03as the sinister force.
35:05There have been
35:06extensive investigations
35:07by the FBI
35:08and by Congress,
35:09but no concrete evidence
35:11of a rogue agent.
35:13So it's just one more piece
35:14of the enduring mystery
35:16surrounding those missing minutes.
35:18The fallout from Watergate
35:24was unlike anything
35:25in American history.
35:27Nixon became the first
35:28and only president
35:29to ever resign.
35:31The Watergate burglars
35:32served time for conspiracy,
35:34burglary,
35:34and wiretapping,
35:36while 48 others,
35:37including Haldeman,
35:38were convicted of crimes
35:39like obstruction of justice,
35:41conspiracy,
35:42and perjury.
35:44Watergate set a new tone
35:46for American politics.
35:47It led to sweeping reforms
35:49aimed at restoring trust
35:51in the government.
35:52The Supreme Court's
35:53unanimous decision
35:54to order Nixon
35:55to release the tapes
35:56reshaped the presidency
35:58by affirming that no one,
36:00not even the president,
36:01is above the law.
36:03That limit on power
36:04is just as relevant today.
36:08The missing minutes
36:09remain one of the most
36:10profound puzzles
36:11in American political history.
36:14Despite advancements
36:15in technology,
36:16experts have been unable
36:18to recover the missing audio.
36:20It's a mystery
36:21that remains locked away
36:22for now.
36:25Maybe one day,
36:26the right tools
36:27will finally bring
36:28those lost moments
36:29to light.
36:30He was the leader
36:45of Jesus Christ's
36:47twelve disciples
36:48and the first pope
36:49of the Catholic Church.
36:51As such,
36:52St. Peter's sacred remains
36:54have been a precious
36:54and revered relic
36:56kept in the watchful care
36:57of the Catholic Church
36:59and venerated
37:00for the better part
37:01of two millennia,
37:02less than a thousand feet
37:03from where he was martyred.
37:07The first basilica
37:09of St. Peter
37:10was built
37:11in the fourth century
37:12right over the resting place
37:14of the Apostle Peter's remains
37:16on Rome's Vatican Hill.
37:19The spot for the basilica
37:21wasn't chosen
37:22for any other reason,
37:24then that's where
37:25Peter's bones were.
37:29The site has been venerated
37:30for about 1800 years.
37:33For the long succession
37:34of popes
37:34and any other worshippers
37:35fortunate enough
37:36to have the opportunity,
37:38venerating Peter's remains
37:39has been a deeply
37:41meaningful practice.
37:42But in 1950,
37:45Pope Pius XII's
37:46Christmas radio address
37:47contained an
37:48I've got good news
37:49and bad news
37:50kind of announcement.
37:51What the pontiff said
37:52was that during the excavations
37:54carried out beneath
37:54St. Peter's basilica
37:55some years prior,
37:57human bones
37:57had been found.
37:58But he said
37:59it wasn't possible
38:00to say with certainty
38:01that the bones
38:01were St. Peter's.
38:05Catholics
38:06had been paying
38:07their respects
38:07in the basilica
38:08for centuries,
38:10confident the Apostle
38:11Peter's remains
38:12were nearby.
38:13But if those
38:14discovered bones
38:15might have belonged
38:16to someone else,
38:18then where were
38:18St. Peter's bones?
38:22It's believed
38:23that sometime
38:24between 54 and 68 CE,
38:27the Apostle Peter
38:28came to Rome,
38:30where in the absence
38:30of any Christian churches,
38:32he preached
38:33in private homes
38:34around the city.
38:36This was in the time
38:37of Rome's
38:38fifth emperor,
38:39Nero.
38:40Infamous for his
38:41public persecution
38:42of Christians.
38:45According to the accounts
38:46of the Roman historian
38:47Tacitus,
38:49Christians were killed
38:50by burning
38:51or crucifixion
38:52or being devoured
38:54by wild animals
38:55in front of crowds
38:56of a chariot racing circuit
38:58known as
39:00the Circus of Nero
39:02outside Rome's city walls.
39:05It's believed
39:05that around 67 CE,
39:07Peter became
39:09one of these
39:10martyred victims.
39:13Peter was reportedly
39:14buried in a Roman
39:15necropolis
39:16or city of the dead
39:17known as
39:18the Vatican
39:19necropolis.
39:20This site
39:21didn't have any
39:21Christian significance
39:22at the time.
39:24It was merely
39:24an area adjacent
39:25to the Circus of Nero
39:27where many Romans
39:28were buried.
39:28about a century
39:32and a half later
39:32in 313 CE,
39:34Rome's then emperor
39:35Constantine
39:36converted to
39:36Christianity
39:37and ordered a great
39:38basilica to be built
39:39over the place
39:39where Peter's tomb
39:40was believed to lie.
39:42Within the basilica,
39:43a monument
39:44eventually called
39:45the Trophy of Gaius
39:45was built directly
39:46over the tomb.
39:48There was a lattice door
39:48that supposedly led
39:49to Peter's remains.
39:50The basilica
39:53was rebuilt
39:54and expanded
39:55about 1,200 years later
39:57in the 1500s
39:58and 1600s,
39:59including the addition
40:00of the iconic dome
40:02designed
40:03by Michelangelo.
40:04Vatican Hill
40:05was completely
40:06transformed.
40:07The high altar
40:08was built above
40:09the Trophy of Gaius
40:10and St. Peter's tomb
40:12and it has stood there
40:13ever since
40:14as a symbol
40:15of Christian devotion.
40:18So according
40:18to tradition,
40:19there was no
40:20reason to question
40:21that the faithful
40:22were venerating
40:23Peter's actual remains
40:24until that papal address
40:26in 1950.
40:31If St. Peter's remains
40:33are gone
40:34from their original
40:35resting place,
40:36some historians believe
40:37they may have been lost
40:39about five centuries ago
40:40during a senseless
40:41and traumatic event.
40:44St. Peter's bones
40:45could have been lost
40:47or destroyed
40:47in May of 1527
40:49during the sack
40:50of Rome.
40:51The forces
40:52of Charles V,
40:54the Holy Roman Emperor
40:55and King of Spain,
40:58hadn't been paid
40:59in some time,
41:00so they were angry.
41:02About 20,000 of them
41:05stormed into Rome
41:06looting and pillaging
41:07and indiscriminately
41:09murdering military defenders
41:11and civilians alike.
41:14Merchants were ransomed,
41:15tortured or murdered
41:16for their money.
41:18This went on
41:18for a month.
41:20But the thing is,
41:21the violence also took on
41:22religious overtones.
41:24Many of the attacking soldiers
41:26felt a particular hatred
41:28of Catholic Rome
41:29and expressed their disdain
41:30with great cruelty.
41:33Accounts also say
41:34that churches were ransacked
41:36and that relics of Peter
41:36and other saints
41:37were trampled
41:38and destroyed.
41:41But it's the very possibility
41:43that St. Peter's bones
41:44were removed long ago
41:46that gives some modern believers
41:47and researchers
41:48hope for the bones' safety.
41:50In the 4th century,
41:54at a time when Christians
41:55faced intense persecution,
41:57some followers
41:58may have moved Peter's bones
42:00to protect them from theft
42:02or intentional destruction.
42:05And one theory
42:06as to where they'd moved them to
42:07is the Roman catacombs.
42:13Catacumba comes from
42:14two ancient Greek words
42:16meaning at the quarry.
42:18Rome's first catacombs
42:19were just tunnels
42:20dug to quarry volcanic stone.
42:23Once those tunnels
42:23were no longer being quarried,
42:25the Christians started using them
42:27as underground cemeteries
42:28and expanded and extended them.
42:31Later, tunnels were dug
42:33expressly to be used
42:34as underground cemeteries.
42:38It was common for Christians
42:39to move relics
42:40to secure locations
42:41for their protection.
42:42And the idea that this
42:43may have been done
42:43with St. Peter's bones
42:44is one of the more
42:45accepted theories today.
42:47The chronograph,
42:48the Roman calendar
42:49of 354 CE
42:50actually supports this
42:52saying that from 258 CE
42:54Peter's remains were
42:55ad catacumbus
42:57at the catacombs
42:58and not at Vatican Hill.
43:03Rome's catacombs
43:04are some of the oldest
43:05and longest
43:06in the world.
43:07There are hundreds
43:08of miles
43:09of burial tunnels
43:10beneath the city
43:11and the surrounding area.
43:13Some have been open
43:14to the public
43:14but many of them
43:15still haven't been
43:16properly explored
43:17and there could be
43:18even more waiting
43:20to be discovered.
43:21So if Peter's remains
43:22are down there somewhere
43:24they would be
43:25very hard to find.
43:28But some experts believe
43:30St. Peter's bones
43:31may be hiding
43:32in plain sight.
43:35It's possible
43:36that St. Peter's remains
43:37have already been found
43:39and that they've been
43:41in the Vatican
43:41all along.
43:44In 1939
43:45it was decided
43:46that the Vatican grottoes
43:47an ancient complex
43:49of chambers
43:49and chapels
43:50that lie beneath
43:51the floor
43:52of the basilica
43:52should be opened
43:54to the public.
43:55Creating access
43:56required some
43:57excavation work
43:58and in the course
43:58of that
43:59workers came across
44:00Roman tombs
44:01the ancient
44:02Vatican necropolis.
44:04Materials were removed
44:05and put into
44:06a Vatican warehouse
44:07and forgotten about.
44:10As these excavations
44:11continued
44:12a Catholic mystic
44:13claimed to have
44:13had several visions
44:14in which Jesus told her
44:15Peter's remains
44:16weren't on Vatican Hill
44:17but had been interred
44:18miles from there
44:19in the catacombs
44:20of Marcellinus and Peter.
44:23Years after the excavations
44:25began
44:26a worker
44:27who was involved
44:27told one of the archaeologists
44:29that some of the materials
44:30discovered early on
44:32had been bones
44:33and that they had
44:34been removed
44:35and were now
44:35in a Vatican warehouse.
44:40The bones were pulled
44:41from the Vatican storehouse
44:42and sent for forensic testing.
44:46The analysis said
44:47the bones belonged
44:48to one man
44:50heavy set
44:51who had been
44:51about 60 or 70 years old
44:54at the time of his death
44:55which matched
44:56Peter's approximate age
44:58when he was martyred.
45:00And there were traces
45:01of wool
45:02dyed purple
45:03and interwoven
45:04with gold thread
45:05suggesting
45:06the bones
45:07had been wrapped
45:08with great care
45:09before being interred.
45:14This was enough
45:15for the Catholic Church.
45:16In 1968
45:17Pope Paul VI
45:19announced officially
45:20that Peter's bones
45:21had been found
45:22so they ended
45:23their temporary stay
45:24in the Vatican warehouse
45:25and at the forensic labs
45:27and were venerated privately
45:29until 2013
45:30when Pope Francis
45:32displayed them publicly
45:33in St. Peter's Square.
45:36So it's a neat
45:37happy ending
45:38as long as you believe
45:39that the results
45:40of the forensic testing
45:41on the bones
45:41were sufficient
45:42to prove the bones
45:42really were St. Peter's.
45:44Many experts
45:45still have their doubts.
45:47Peter's bones
45:48may have been lost
45:49to history
45:50or they may be safe
45:52and secure
45:53in the Vatican
45:53but if neither
45:55of those is true
45:56there are still
45:57many miles
45:57of unexplored
45:59unexcavated catacombs
46:00that may still
46:02hold Peter's remains.
46:05Until Peter's bones
46:07are verified
46:08or located
46:09believers
46:09may have their faith
46:10tested
46:11while scientists
46:12and skeptics
46:13may keep searching
46:14for the truth
46:15and it's possible
46:16both
46:17will one day
46:18find
46:18what they're looking for.
46:20you
Be the first to comment