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00:00When one of history's greatest inventors dies,
00:03some of his prized archives are lost under peculiar circumstances.
00:08Tesla was found dead in his New York hotel room in 1943.
00:11His personal books, notes, and diagrams were sealed in a total of 80 trunks,
00:16which were shipped back to Tesla's native Yugoslavia.
00:18But only 60 trunks arrived.
00:20So where did those missing 20 trunks go?
00:24A plane carrying one of America's greatest musicians
00:27mysteriously disappears over the English Channel.
00:30Glenn Miller was a cultural phenomenon.
00:33His hits were anthems of a generation.
00:35The timing of Miller's flight couldn't have been worse.
00:39What happened to the flight carrying Glenn Miller toward the front lines?
00:44An ancient civilization responsible for creating one of the seven wonders of the world vanishes.
00:50For centuries, the Nabataeans had thrived.
00:52However, by the seventh century, Petra had faded into obscurity.
00:57How did such a prosperous civilization vanish so dramatically?
01:02The chain of history has many missing links.
01:06Prominent people, priceless treasures, extraordinary artifacts,
01:12their locations still unknown, lost to the fog of time.
01:16What happens when stories of the past become...
01:24...vanished history?
01:40September 1940.
01:42As World War II raged, the legendary physicist Nikola Tesla told a news reporter that he developed a teleforce,
01:50a powerful ion beam capable of disabling any military aircraft up to 250 miles away.
01:57Tesla intended to take his invention to the U.S. government and stop the war.
02:02Tesla hated war and wanted to make war machines impractical.
02:07But others saw his teleforce for its potential as an awe-inspiring weapon, a death beam.
02:15The Nazis wanted it, the Soviets wanted it.
02:18And while the technology sounds so incredible it's hard to believe,
02:21Tesla had such an impressive track record that if he said he could do something, people tended to believe him.
02:29Tesla was found dead in his New York hotel room one day in 1943, and various people and agencies swooped in.
02:35His personal books, notes, and diagrams were sealed in a total of 80 trunks,
02:39which were carefully labeled, accounted for, and ultimately shipped back to Tesla's native Yugoslavia.
02:45But overseas, only 60 trunks arrived.
02:49The contents of those documents, if they could be found, might still impact our world, for better or worse.
02:55So where did those missing 20 trunks go? And who took them?
03:02Tesla was born in 1856 in the Austrian Empire, now Croatia. As a university student, he was shown a Gram Dynamo,
03:11an impressive new device that could work as both a direct current motor and generator,
03:16and felt it would be simpler and more efficient if it could be made to work with alternating current.
03:21After graduation, when Tesla was only 24, he was walking along, reciting lines from Goethe's Faust to himself,
03:30when the solution came to him. And just like that, he'd invented the induction motor,
03:35that's now used to generate power all over the world.
03:38By 1887, Tesla, still in his early 30s, had filed seven patents related to power transmission
03:48and motors that ran on AC power. So Westinghouse bought his patents during what became known
03:55as the War of the Currents against Thomas Edison, who championed the use of DC power, direct current.
04:02Less than a decade later, more than 80% of all appliances were running on alternating current, AC.
04:12Tesla spent his patent money and more on building specialized laboratories,
04:17a 20-story tower in Colorado that generated 135-foot-long lightning bolts,
04:22and an even taller one on Long Island that he planned to use for wireless transatlantic communications
04:27to one day transmit wireless power all over the world.
04:30Tesla seemed to envision every one of his inventions benefiting humanity in some way.
04:35Wanting to ensure his peace beam got built, Tesla sent a paper with diagrams to many of the allies.
04:42The paper declared that his teleforce would shoot out a super narrow concentrated stream of particles
04:49at 270,000 miles per hour.
04:52This is what is referred to today as a charged particle beam weapon.
04:56Tesla said his beam could take down a fleet of 10,000 warplanes up to 250 miles away, thus making war impossible.
05:06That got attentional right abroad and at home.
05:09The United States government became extremely concerned about Tesla's research falling into enemy hands.
05:16Tesla lived in hotels throughout much of his life as an American citizen.
05:22In 1943, he'd been residing on the 33rd floor of a hotel near Penn Station.
05:28One day, a member of the staff discovered him lying face down in his room, dead, and wearing only a pair of socks.
05:35The FBI quickly arrived on the scene, even though there was no sign Tesla's death was suspicious.
05:43He was 86 and not in the best health.
05:46They were there for Tesla's papers, which they then managed to keep to themselves for almost a decade.
05:52In 1952, the court ordered that Tesla's personal effects, including his papers and diagrams, be released and allowed to be sent to Belgrade under the care of the Nikola Tesla Museum.
06:03That means it was sometime between leaving Tesla's hotel room in 1943 and reaching the museum in 1952 that those 20 suitcases disappeared.
06:10If having a strong motivation, access, and ample opportunity to remove the files are considered, one needn't go far to find a possible suspect.
06:22The United States government, especially in the midst of World War II, had plenty of urgent reasons to remove the most significant files from Tesla's trove of plans and documents.
06:32Whether to use his teleforce or wireless power transmission for their military applications, or simply to make sure the Nazis couldn't get their hands on them, they may simply have felt they had no choice.
06:45Tesla's nephew, Sava Kosanovic, showed up at the hotel the morning after he found out about Tesla's death.
06:51But when he got there, Tesla's body had already been removed.
06:55Not only that, he claimed some of his uncle's technical papers were missing, as was a notebook Tesla kept.
07:02Two days after Tesla's death, a government department called the Office of Alien Property Custodian seized the rest of his possessions from the hotel room, including those 80 trunks.
07:15That department was created to control enemy property confiscated in the US, but Tesla was an American citizen, so they probably had no legal right to do it, and just did it anyway.
07:27Three weeks later, the government called an expert in high-voltage physics from MIT to examine and assess Tesla's papers.
07:34A Dr. John Trump. That's right. That Trump. President Donald Trump's uncle, as it happens.
07:40Dr. Trump's report to the government said Tesla's work over the last decade and a half of his life was mostly speculative, not new, not sound.
07:48But not everybody agreed with John Trump's assessment. There were people with pull and experience that felt otherwise.
07:59After World War II was over, and while the OAP was still holding on to Tesla's papers, the Air Technical Service Command requested photo-stack copies of his papers on beam weaponry and never returned them.
08:13And by 1958, DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, started a top-secret project, Seesaw, with the aim of developing a charged particle beam weapon.
08:26The FBI faced questions and accusations of cover-ups for decades after Tesla's death, to the extent that finally in 2016, they released over 250 pages of heavily redacted documents about Tesla's papers, many of which had been signed personally by Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI.
08:46The released documents didn't disprove anyone's suspicions. In fact, they showed just how intensely interested in Tesla's files the FBI had been.
08:57Some believe that the only files the United States government actually saw were just leftovers, either duplicates or documents of lesser importance that the people who took the 20 suitcases of files didn't bother taking.
09:12Nazi Germany would have had real interest in Tesla's death rate and his wireless transmission of energy, so they could add those inventions to their growing collection of Wunderwaffen, wonder weapons.
09:27But it wasn't just Nazi Germany. The Soviets, America's ally at the time, had paid Tesla $25,000 for the rights to some of his patents on wireless power transmission in 1920.
09:39They also paid him $250,000 in 1939, after running a successful test on one phase of his peace beam.
09:46So it's entirely possible that Tesla's files ended up in foreign hands, the Soviets or the Nazis.
09:53Whoever it was that got the 20 missing suitcases would have needed an operative with access to do so.
10:01Tesla's nephew, the one that showed up at the hotel promptly after his body was found, was also a Yugoslavian politician and Yugoslavia's ambassador to the United States, who happened to be stationed in New York City during Tesla's final years.
10:17Apparently, when Kasanovich arrived at the hotel that day, he hired a locksmith to get into Tesla's room and then open his uncle's safe.
10:26There was a memorial book from Tesla's 75th birthday inside. Kasanovich took that, then had the combination changed and left.
10:34The U.S. authorities flat out thought Kasanovich might be a spy, who could sell Tesla's secrets to the Nazis or the Soviets, and they considered arresting him, but didn't.
10:45Sava Kasanovich was the administrator of Tesla's estate from the time the inventor died until his own death in 1956.
10:55He's the one who successfully got the courts to release the trunks.
10:59He had them sent to Belgrade in 1952.
11:02So all through the 1950s, Soviet scientists were able to access the archive through the Tesla Museum in communist Yugoslavia,
11:11while Western scientists would have had a much harder time.
11:16After decades of fruitlessly searching for Tesla's missing files, many scientists have decided his idea for a peace beam just isn't feasible.
11:26In fact, charged particle beam weapons that both the United States and the Soviet Union tried to develop during the Cold War were a striking similarity to Tesla's descriptions of his peace beam, his teleforce.
11:39They just couldn't get theirs to work.
11:41The United States tried again in the 1980s.
11:44Ronald Reagan called this new version of the program Star Wars and gave it an annual budget bigger than NASA's.
11:51But they still couldn't get it to work.
11:53One decorated physicist who refused to help was John Trump.
11:57Like Tesla, he was only interested in using science for the betterment of humanity.
12:02The nephew of Dr. John Trump established the Space Force during his first term as president with a mission to secure America's interests in, from and to space and to limit opposition from adversaries.
12:17You've got to wonder what the scientists working for Space Force would do with Tesla's research if they were ever to find it.
12:24Nikola Tesla seems to have successfully taken his knowledge about directed energy and particle beam devices with him when he died.
12:34One can only hope that if his secrets are ever discovered, they might be used to build weapons of peace, as he'd intended.
12:54They were carved into crimson sandstone cliffs in modern-day Jordan.
12:58Petra was once the dazzling heart of the Nabataean kingdom.
13:02Renowned as master traders and desert tacticians, the Nabataeans dominated the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe.
13:11The Nabataeans emerged around 400 BCE as nomadic tribes in the Negev and Arabian deserts.
13:17And they settled in Petra by 200 BCE.
13:20Their mastery of the incense roots, transporting luxury goods like frankincense, myrrh, and spices, brought them immense wealth.
13:27Petra was a vibrant metropolis with fountains, lush gardens, and grand structures like the great temple complex.
13:34Influences from Persia, Greece, Rome, and Egypt converged in its architecture, while alliances forged by King Artas elevated Petra to a cosmopolitan hub of trade and culture.
13:48Their towering rock-cut tombs and lavish villas spoke of a civilization unmatched in creativity and resilience.
13:57But by the 7th century, the Nabataeans had abandoned Petra and seemingly disappeared.
14:04So the question remains, how did a civilization that cherished the boundless freedom of the desert above all else meet its ultimate downfall?
14:16Known to the Nabataeans as Rackmu, Petra was far more than a red rock outpost.
14:22Early European explorers thought Petra was little more than an acropolis filled with tombs.
14:28But that all changed in 1812, when a Swiss adventurer was led to Petra by his guides and became the first European to document the site in centuries.
14:39The Nabataeans were awed by the vast series of towering facades, hidden passages, and sprawling temples.
14:47The Nabataeans also demonstrated advanced agricultural innovation.
14:52The engineers created a revolutionary water management system of aqueducts, dams, and reservoirs that sustained life and agriculture in the harsh desert.
15:02These innovations enabled the cultivation of fruit trees, wheat, and vineyards.
15:07And by the first century CE, the city supported over 20,000 residents.
15:13But even as the Nabataeans reached their zenith, external pressures began to mount, threatening the stability of their desert empire.
15:20Shifting trade routes, natural upheavals, and changing economies chipped away at their dominance.
15:26For centuries, the Nabataeans had thrived by adapting to shifting geopolitics and environmental challenges.
15:32However, by the seventh century, Petra and the Nabataeans who had built it had faded into obscurity.
15:39The stunning city had been abandoned by all except local Bedouins from the area.
15:45How did such a prosperous civilization vanish so dramatically?
15:50Some trace Petra's decline to a moment of transformation, a turning point that redefined the Nabataeans' identity and their place in history.
15:59In 106 CE, Emperor Trajan annexed the Nabataean Kingdom following the death of King Rabal Soter II, transforming it into the Roman province of Arabia Patria.
16:13Roman accounts portray this transition as a seamless and peaceful incorporation, with the Nabataeans depicted as willing participants in the empire's expansion.
16:25This theory suggests that the Nabataeans' independent identity simply faded into the folds of imperial history.
16:36According to the Roman stories, Petra initially flourished as a provincial hub, despite the upheaval.
16:44Roman engineers built the Via Nova Triana, a major road linking Aqaba on the Red Sea in Jordan, to Bostra in southern Syria.
16:52They expanded farming terraces, put up watchtowers, renovated parks and pools, all signs that Rome was determined to integrate Petra into its empire.
17:05Beneath the surface of this seemingly harmonious transition, recent discoveries point to a more turbulent reality.
17:12Ancient carvings in the deserts of northern Arabia tell a story at odds with official Roman accounts.
17:21One text describes a, quote, war of the Nabataeans and a king named Malachos smiting 3,000 Roman soldiers.
17:28These inscriptions may confirm that the Nabataeans resisted Rome more forcefully than the empire admitted.
17:37Some suggest that Rabo Soter II may have left behind two heirs who refused to yield the kingdom without a fight.
17:46It's possible Rome named the new province Arabia Patria to erase the Nabataean identity from the land and bury any record of protracted conflict.
17:59Ultimately, Petra's decline may have involved far more than conquest.
18:05Rome's annexation was likely just one chapter in a deeper story of resilience and resistance, raising questions about whether it was truly the beginning of the end or merely part of a larger story.
18:20Petra and its people would face another far greater challenge, one that struck without warning and placed its future on precarious ground.
18:33Another factor in the Nabataeans' disappearance that often gets mentioned is a catastrophic earthquake that struck the region on May 19, 363 CE, during the reign of the Emperor Julian.
18:45Contemporary observers said it was one of the most devastating seismic events of the late Roman period.
18:52Experts say it might have been somewhere between 6.5 to 7 on the Richter scale.
18:59Excavations in Petra revealed collapsed columns at the Temple of the Winged Lions, the Great Temple and elsewhere, consistent with intense shaking.
19:07Further damage came from the failure of anti-flash flood systems, causing thick layers of sediment and rubble to bury certain areas of the city.
19:13With their homes destroyed and water channels compromised, many residents could have fled to nearby agricultural sites such as Beda and Wadi Musa, where springs and less damaged landscapes offered greater stability.
19:28And though some rebuilding efforts were attempted in Petra, they were small scale and often used salvaged materials, resulting in crude, makeshift designs.
19:37But here's the catch. Despite the devastation caused by the earthquake, Petra endured for almost 300 more years, which forces us to explore alternative theories.
19:51Though the Nabataeans' heritage endured in subtle ways, the sands of time soon brought another transformation, one that would reshape Petra's identity and its place in history, leaving lingering questions about its ultimate fate.
20:08Archaeologists looking to explain the Nabataeans' disappearance have also been exploring the impact of Islamic conquests in the 600s.
20:15There's some evidence hinting that as Muslim armies expanded across the Arabian Peninsula, Petra, which had already declined from its days as a major trading hub, might have been integrated into the Islamic world.
20:30Petra's strategic location on key routes through South Jordan initially made it a focal point for these conquests.
20:39But eventually, the rise of cities like Isla and Tabuk redirected commerce and military focus away from Petra.
20:45By 630 CE, treaties with local leaders signaled the growing influence of Islamic governance in the region.
20:51Excavations at Beda, a settlement near Petra, reveal a more complex narrative.
20:58Stating from the 11th to 14th centuries and constructed atop Nabataean foundations point to gradual integration rather than abrupt erasure.
21:10Based on the evidence, it's most likely the Islamic conquest did not erase the Nabataeans.
21:16Instead, Petra became a living tapestry of Nabataean, Byzantine, and Islamic influences, a testament to the resilience and adaptability of its people.
21:29From humble origins to its golden age, Petra and the Nabataeans who shaped it remains a testament to human ingenuity in one of the world's precious landscapes.
21:42Recent discoveries have only added to the wonders of Petra.
21:47A tomb recently uncovered beneath the famous treasury held not just twelve skeletons, but also hundreds of artifacts made of bronze and iron and ceramics.
21:58They're just another reminder that the people who lived at Petra had a society filled with refined customs and ceremonies.
22:07The Nabataeans' deep understanding of arid landscapes and their preference for mobility allowed their culture to outlast Petra's decline.
22:14Their ingenious water systems, thriving trade networks, and artistic achievements influenced civilizations long after the city was at its peak.
22:22The astounding city of Petra, carved into crimson cliffs, silently recounts a thousand-year saga of resilience, triumph, and reinvention.
22:33A legacy that continues to inspire awe in the shifting sands of the desert.
22:39December 15, 1944, with the Allied advance into Europe quickening and morale a precious resource, a single-engine plane slipped into a dense, cold mist above England.
23:04On board was Major Glenn Miller, America's most celebrated band leader turned wartime morale officer, bound for a new stage and liberated Paris.
23:17By the mid-1940s, Glenn Miller was a cultural phenomenon.
23:22His hits like In the Mood and Moonlight Serenade were anthems of a generation.
23:29But at the height of his fame, Miller made a remarkable choice.
23:34He walked away from stardom and enlisted to serve his country.
23:40In war-torn Europe, Miller's music was more than entertainment. It was a lifeline.
23:44His broadcasts, carried by the BBC and the Allied Expeditionary Forces program, resonated in damp barracks, crowded field hospitals, and muddy foxholes.
23:55On December 15, 1944, Miller arrived at RAF Twinwood Farm near Bedford to board a flight to Paris, where his band planned to meet him.
24:02The city was still reeling from the grip of Nazi occupation, and Miller had prepared a Christmas concert to uplift Allied troops.
24:11The timing of Miller's flight couldn't have been worse.
24:14The very next morning, the Germans launched the attack that began the Battle of the Bulge.
24:20Allied command was plunged into chaos, so no one realized the Norsemen had disappeared.
24:26It was days before anyone realized the plane and its passengers were gone.
24:31And decades later, the question is still unanswered.
24:36What happened to the flight carrying Glenn Miller toward the front lines?
24:42December 1944 marked a pivotal moment in the war.
24:46The Allies, fresh from the liberation of Paris, were pressing toward the Rhine,
24:51while German forces prepared a devastating counterattack to stall their advance.
24:56For soldiers on frozen battlefields, hope was as vital as ammunition.
25:02In 1942, Miller was turned away by the Navy due to his age, so he presented the army with a bold plan.
25:13To modernize military bands and harness music as a morale booster.
25:18This vision led to the creation of the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band,
25:24which revolutionized entertainment for troops around the world.
25:30By 1943, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower recognized the need for familiar voices and music
25:37to lift the spirits of American troops stationed in England.
25:40The newly launched American Forces Network, filled with news, sports, and music from home,
25:45quickly boosted morale, and the results showed.
25:48Eisenhower wanted more.
25:50He specifically requested that Glenn Miller be moved to the UK
25:54to keep spirits high among Allied troops.
25:58After Paris was liberated in August, Miller was eager to bring his music to GIs on leave in the city.
26:03But the AFN and BBC were reluctant to let him go, since they relied heavily on his band's recordings to fill their program.
26:09To secure their approval, Miller took on a grueling schedule, recording an astonishing 84 hours of programming over the course of three weeks.
26:18His efforts paid off, and the plan was announced. Glenn Miller was heading to Paris.
26:22At 1.55 p.m. on December 15, Miller boarded a UC-64A Norseman alongside Lieutenant Colonel Norman Basel and Pilot John Morgan,
26:34and the men began their ill-fated journey across the English Channel to Villa-Coblet, France.
26:40When Miller's band arrived in Paris three days later, December 18, he was nowhere to be found.
26:48So they contacted the military authorities and discovered no one there even knew that he'd ever taken off in the first place.
26:55The Norseman had been reported as missing over the English Channel,
26:59but Miller was so impatient to get to France that he'd got it on the plane without official permission.
27:05So it was only the pilot who was listed as having been on board.
27:10All we know is Miller's plane flew within a few miles of Woodley Airfield at 2.12,
27:18before it turned south and vanished.
27:22This would mark the start of one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the war.
27:28Despite exhaustive searches, no trace of Glenn Miller or the Norseman has ever been found.
27:36The English Channel crisscrossed by bombers, transports and reconnaissance planes was an unforgiving corridor.
27:43In such volatile airspace, even the slightest miscalculation could transform a routine flight into disaster.
27:50Glenn Miller's Norseman may have drifted into one of the most perilous areas above the channel, a jettison zone.
27:57Returning Allied Lancasters, burdened with high-explosive payloads, would circle these 10-mile areas
28:04to safely offload their 500-pound bombs before landing in England.
28:09The practice was vital for safety on the ground, but for any aircraft flying below, the consequences were catastrophic.
28:14A single misstep into the zone could turn an ordinary flight into a fatal encounter,
28:18as tons of explosives rained down without warning.
28:21On the day Glenn Miller's plane vanished, a group of Lancaster bombers, nearly 140 of them,
28:30returned from an aborted air raid over Germany.
28:33The fighters, meant to escort them, had been grounded, so the mission was called off.
28:38And the bombers were full of more than 100,000 incendiary bombs, payloads too dangerous to land with.
28:46So the squadron set course for the South Jettison area, part of the English Channel that was designated as a dumping zone.
28:55Decades later, RAF navigator Fred Shaw recalled that as his Lancaster neared the South Jettison area,
29:04he spotted a small, high-wing aircraft below.
29:08Moments later, his squadron began releasing their payload of bombs tumbling toward the sea.
29:16If Shaw's story is accurate, this tragic scenario might hold the answer to Glenn Miller's disappearance.
29:26Initial doubts about Shaw's account arose from discrepancies in the reported timelines.
29:32Some reports claim the bombs were jettisoned at 1.40 p.m.,
29:36but pilot John Morgan's flight log placed the Norseman an hour ahead of the bombers.
29:43Lancaster bombers also generally jettisoned their payloads from altitudes of 5,000 to 6,000 feet.
29:50And from those heights, it's thought that a Norseman flying much closer to the water
29:55would have just looked like a tiny speck, almost invisible to the bombers, even in clear skies.
30:02Crucially, no Lancaster crews reported seeing an aircraft in distress
30:07or filing any reports of an incident, as was their strict obligation.
30:12So in the end, the friendly fire idea feels more like speculation
30:17born out of the confusion of war, pushing us to look at other more likely explanations.
30:24The skies of 1944 held more than just danger from above.
30:29Hidden within the fragile machines carrying the men lay vulnerabilities waiting to betray them.
30:35Another explanation focuses on the aircraft itself.
30:39The UC-64A Norseman was built for durability and designed to meet the demands of wartime aviation.
30:46But its simplicity also left it vulnerable.
30:48Its single-engine, lightweight steel frame and minimal safety systems were practical for logistics,
30:54but offered no protection against the engineering challenges of winter flying.
30:59One recurring issue, carburetor icing, could turn even the sturdiest planes into death traps.
31:07Carburetor icing was a mechanical flaw rather than a purely environmental hazard.
31:11When moisture in the air froze inside the engine's fuel intake, it restricted air flow and starved the engine of power.
31:16Pilots frequently reported this issue with the Norseman, particularly in cold, damp conditions.
31:23During the war, ground crews were overworked and had limited resources, so they had to prioritize combat aircraft over transport planes like the Norseman.
31:32So even relatively easy-to-fix issues like an improperly calibrated carburetor or a crack in a fuel line were easily overlooked.
31:43If the Norseman's engine failed mid-flight, Captain Morgan's response would have been critical.
31:49But the perilous conditions over the English Channel left him little time or space to act.
31:55Flying low beneath the cloud cover to maintain visibility, Morgan would have had no margin for error.
32:03At that altitude, even a brief engine stall could be fatal.
32:08The Norseman's lightweight, fabric-covered frame would have offered no protection in a crash.
32:16Once it hit the water, it likely disintegrated, leaving no trace for investigators to find.
32:22To our knowledge, there were no significant issues with Miller's aircraft, and no distress signals were sent during the flight.
32:30Even with a mechanical failure, an experienced pilot like Morgan might have managed a controlled ditching, if given time to react.
32:39If the engine failed, why didn't he send a mayday signal?
32:43Or was the situation too sudden and catastrophic to allow it?
32:47For some, the answer lies not in faulty machinery, but in the unrelenting forces of nature that turned the skies over the English Channel into a battleground no pilot could hope to conquer.
32:59The most straightforward explanation is also the most haunting.
33:02Glenn Miller's Norseman fell victim to the brutal winter skies.
33:05Weather over the channel in December 1944 was notoriously treacherous, and December 15th was no exception, with a 300-foot ceiling and ice due to freezing drizzle.
33:15When the Norsemen lifted off, the weather was foggy, but seemed manageable.
33:21Once they got over the channel, the conditions got worse.
33:24Records suggest that dense cloud layers stretched from sea level upward, in conditions that would have been ideal for causing icing at lower altitudes.
33:34The English Channel in winter was infamous among aviators.
33:39Sudden gusts, violent turbulence, and thick fog often reduced even the most seasoned pilots to flying by instinct alone.
33:49Visibility could vanish without warning, leaving crews disoriented and vulnerable in an endless, featureless void.
33:59To maintain visibility, pilots often flew low beneath the cloud cover.
34:04But flying so close to the sea came with its own risks.
34:07Over the channel, Atlantic winds could have collided with coastal drafts, creating sudden turbulence.
34:14A single downdraft could pull a plane into the water within seconds.
34:18But given the absence of solid evidence, it's impossible to conclude that weather conditions caused the disappearance.
34:26Despite decades of investigation, no trace of Glenn Miller, his companions, or their aircraft has ever been confirmed.
34:34But tantalizing clues persist, keeping the mystery alive and tied to the enduring legacy of his music.
34:41In 1987, a retired trawler man reported pulling up wreckage he believed was Miller's Norseman.
34:46Though he was told to return it to the channel, he recorded the coordinates, a potential clue tied to historical aircraft data.
34:52The Norseman was the only plane of its kind lost during the war, and its unique steel-tubed fuselage and engine could still confirm its identity if found.
35:04From his early days as a struggling trombonist, to creating a signature sound that defined the big band era, Miller's story is one of persistence and innovation.
35:14His disappearance over the English Channel remains a mystery, but his music continues to resonate, transcending time and connecting audiences across decades.
35:26In 435 BCE, renowned sculptor Phidias completed his masterpiece, a towering 40-foot statue of Zeus, the supreme deity of the ancient Greek Pantheon, housed in a special temple at Olympia.
35:49The sculpture presided over the Olympic Games for nine centuries.
35:53Zeus' statue became the focus of the Games, the procession of athletes and spectators who had pilgrimaged from all over Greece to attend, marched through the temple on the way to the stadium to observe this colossal effigy and pay their respects.
36:08The statue and its temple weren't just the focus of the Games. They were one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.
36:16People came from all over the Mediterranean to experience this sublime sculpture of the god who ruled over all the other gods.
36:23We know the statue existed for at least about 900 years, but by the 500 or 600 CE, it was gone.
36:32There are lots of theories about what happened to it, but no conclusive evidence.
36:38So how does an enormous 40-foot sculpture disappear?
36:43What did happen to Olympia's famous statue of Zeus?
36:49Because Olympia had no full-time civilian population, it was not considered a city, but rather a sanctuary site with over 700 structures dedicated to the worship of Zeus, and for hosting the Games meant to honor him.
37:04Just as they are now, the Games were held every four years, even in times of war.
37:09This was a religious event, meant to be enjoyed not only by people, but by the gods themselves.
37:15So a secret truce would be in place to ensure peace while the Games were on.
37:20Ironically, a disagreement between two nearby towns, Elis and Pisa, over which one of them should have the right to oversee the Games, is what led to war.
37:31The towns fought for decades, and when Elis finally came out on top, the town decided to celebrate the victory and spend some of the loot they'd stolen during the war by building a fabulous temple dedicated to Zeus.
37:46The Temple of Zeus was finished about 460 BCE, and it would have instantly become a famous landmark right near the main Olympic Stadium.
37:55It was nearly 100 feet wide, and more than 200 feet long.
38:00Six massive columns on the front, and 13 down the sides.
38:05And inside, you'd find a chamber called a cella, that was built for one central purpose.
38:11To house a towering statue of the king of the gods.
38:15Phidias already had a reputation for creating a colossal sculpture of the goddess Athena for the Parthenon in Athens.
38:25For the statue of Zeus, he had a huge workshop built in Olympia, seemingly determined to outdo himself.
38:32By 435 BCE, the enormous statue was completed and installed in the temple.
38:38There was a 20-by-30-foot podium of black marble on which Zeus sat on his throne.
38:43His features were meticulously sculpted, with precious jewels inlaid in his eyes.
38:49In one hand, he held the scepter with an eagle.
38:52In the other, he held a statue of Nike, the goddess of victory.
38:56The statue helped Olympia become one of the most important religious centers in Greece.
39:02It was so famous, there were even miniature likenesses of it depicted on coins,
39:06which is part of how we know what it looked like.
39:09It was a must-see on people's bucket lists for centuries.
39:13But then, at some point before the end of the 500s CE, the statue disappeared.
39:19It's possible the statue of Zeus, the god who wielded one form of nature's power,
39:26may have been destroyed by an even greater force of nature Zeus did not control.
39:32This part of the world experienced powerful earthquakes during the first millennium CE.
39:38One of them could have brought the temple of Zeus down and smashed Phidia's masterpiece to bits.
39:45After the ruins of Olympia were discovered and ultimately excavated in the late 19th century,
39:52evidence emerged that led to this theory.
39:56As the temple of Zeus was uncovered, many columns of its southern flank
40:00were splayed out in a pattern like fallen dominoes,
40:03which immediately suggested that only something as overwhelming as an earthquake could have toppled them.
40:09The geological record shows there were catastrophic quakes in that part of Greece.
40:14in 522 CE, and again in 551 CE.
40:20The 551 event even resulted in the site being buried under more than 25 feet of silt
40:26from the Alpheos and the Kladios rivers.
40:31Some people question that theory though.
40:33Modern simulations have suggested that the earthquake in 551
40:37wouldn't have been powerful enough to topple the columns into that particular pattern.
40:41They clearly did fall.
40:43So if it wasn't an earthquake, historians are left to figure out what else could have brought them down.
40:48Some have speculated that not even the king of the gods can stay above the law of the land for very long.
40:56The temple of Zeus in Olympia, along with the world famous statue it contained,
41:02may have been intentionally destroyed per the orders of Rome's Christian leadership.
41:08In the late 4th century CE, the Roman Emperor Theodosius I outlawed all pagan cults throughout the empire.
41:18Pagan sanctuaries were to be abandoned and all non-Christian rituals were banned.
41:25The Olympics, which had been held every 4 years for almost 12 centuries, were ended.
41:34The emperor had not, not yet anyway, ordered the destruction of pagan temples themselves.
41:40But one overenthusiastic prefect in the town of Apomir took it upon himself to demolish a temple there
41:46that was dedicated to Zeus by having its columns pulled down.
41:51They tried with teams of draft animals and ropes, and the columns wouldn't budge.
41:56So they tried something brilliant.
41:58Undermined one side of three of the columns, supported that side by inserting timber beams,
42:05undermined some more, and then lit the beams on fire.
42:09The beams burned away and the three columns toppled, smashing into and taking down another 12,
42:16and possibly at least part of the roof.
42:19They said that the crashing sound was heard throughout the town.
42:24Some researchers have suggested that if the same technique was used on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia,
42:30that might explain the toppled dominoes pattern.
42:33But whatever the cause, an earthquake or intentional demolition, there's another unanswered question.
42:40If the statue of Zeus was destroyed in the temple,
42:43why haven't we found any trace of gold or ivory from it?
42:49When all efforts at finding proof something existed in a certain place have been exhausted,
42:54it may lead to one simple but surprising conclusion.
42:58Maybe the statue of Zeus just wasn't there, not by the time of the destruction of the temple anyway.
43:06It may have been moved to Constantinople, now Istanbul, over 400 miles across the Sea of Marmara.
43:15The thing is, even well after pagan rituals and beliefs had been banned,
43:20the statue of Zeus was recognized by many as an important work of art.
43:25And somewhere around 430 CE, the imperial chamberlain of Theodosius, a man named Lausus,
43:32might have used his money and position to acquire the statue for his private collection of pagan antiquities.
43:40In 475 CE, there was a great fire in Constantinople,
43:45and it swept right through the area where the palace of Lausus stood.
43:49Later historians reported that the palace was destroyed, along with the statues inside it.
43:56But we don't know if Zeus was one of them.
43:58Though Phidias' later life is something of a mystery,
44:03we know that the great statue of Zeus at Olympia turned out to be his greatest and last masterpiece.
44:10There are accounts that Phidias was implicated in a number of crimes,
44:15targeted by enemies of one of his benefactors.
44:18He was accused of stealing gold from one of his own statues, which was disproved.
44:25But he was convicted of impiety for carving his own likeness into the goddess Athena's shield.
44:32For that, he was jailed.
44:34After that, the historical record is inconclusive.
44:38He may have died in jail, or he may have been released into exile.
44:43The statue of Zeus stood tall in Olympia for roughly a thousand years,
44:48and could be said to have achieved a kind of immortality even beyond that.
44:52Phidias' depiction of Zeus, seated on his throne, became the standard,
44:57copied and repeated for gods and mortals ever since.
45:02nuanced air acting
45:06In English
45:08Toysk
45:10He's seen in English
45:12tacos
45:14As you know the truth is,
45:16haled andJuliet
45:19Of course there is someone with no wizard
45:20Urs!
45:21Orador
45:22Terce
45:23Of course there is someone with five
45:25In English
45:26e
45:29Toysk
45:29Toysk
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