Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo - Season 2 Episode 04- Hidden Giants
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00:00Mysteries can be buried anywhere, under the earth, beneath the sea, or even right under
00:14our own feet. And when we stumble upon them, sometimes what we find can change history.
00:22Tonight, big discoveries. From a monumental secret buried beneath a basement.
00:32Behind the wall, there's a cabin. Not an old cellar, but a tunnel.
00:37This sprawling maze spans over 170 square miles. It's a mind-boggling discovery.
00:45To a massive ancient structure.
00:48Archaeologists realize it dates back to a mysterious civilization.
00:53Little is known about this culture, because almost nothing has been found from the time
00:57of their reign, until now.
01:00To a monster of epic proportions.
01:03They uncover three feet of it. Four feet of it.
01:07Ultimately, it's ten feet long.
01:11Join us now, because nothing stays hidden forever.
01:22It's 1927. Charles Lindbergh is fresh off his historic solo flight across the Atlantic.
01:36It's the first of his kind. It took him 33 hours to complete.
01:40Now a global celebrity, he heads out on a two-month goodwill tour through Central America.
01:46He flies solo, location to location, and basically shakes hands with locals and basks in his newfound fame.
01:55One day, he's flying. He's crossing over this thick jungle in Honduras.
02:00And something weird catches his eye.
02:04Something that doesn't look quite natural.
02:06These structures poking through the gaps in the canopy.
02:10To Lindbergh, it looks like this might be a city.
02:17For centuries, rumors swirled of a jungle settlement overflowing with riches.
02:23They call it La Ciudad Blanca, the White City.
02:28Now Lindbergh's sighting reignites the search to find it.
02:32Explorers, archaeologists, and treasure hunters set out on new expeditions,
02:38searching for the city Lindbergh claims he saw.
02:41But even after several decades, nobody finds a trace of the city.
02:45Eventually, in 2012, an explorer named Steve Elkins tries to follow in Lindbergh's footsteps.
02:55This time, he's not looking out the window.
02:57He's using LIDAR from the air to see what the jungle below might be hiding.
03:02Over the course of five days, Elkins and his small team fly over this rugged terrain of the Honduran rainforest,
03:09mapping the invisible.
03:10On the final day, they process the LIDAR data,
03:13and it seems to reveal what looked like the outline of multiple man-made geometric structures.
03:20Armed with the coordinates, Elkins and his team head deep into the jungle for a closer look.
03:27They cut paths, encounter pit vipers, and even flesh-eating parasites.
03:33But despite all the hells of the jungle, they keep going.
03:37After several weeks, the journey proves worth it.
03:40When they find the area pinpointed by their LIDAR scans.
03:45And they find something incredible.
03:49There are hundreds of artifacts arranged almost as if they were abandoned mid-ceremony.
03:56These are the remnants of an unknown culture.
04:00The scientists estimate they were built somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 A.D.
04:05As the group presses further into the site, they come across something even more incredible.
04:12At the heart of it all, they find a massive pyramid.
04:18Half buried under the ground.
04:21And it's just the tip of the iceberg.
04:23There are mounds, pillars, plazas, stretching wide beneath the vines.
04:29This wasn't a small mountain village.
04:31This was a metropolis that flourished before European contact.
04:36The team recovered over 190 artifacts, including a carved head of a part human, part jaguar.
04:44They renamed the area of the site Valley of the Jaguar.
04:48Excavations continue to this day, and the site is deemed so valuable that the Honduran military now protects it.
04:58To date, they haven't found any huge cache of gold or treasure, but there's a lot of excavating still to be done.
05:04The recovered artifacts are now housed in the Ciudad Blanca Research Center, which focuses on the preservation of the archaeology and culture of the site, along with the wildlife that surrounds it.
05:21You don't always have to go off the grid to make amazing discoveries.
05:26Sometimes a big find is just beneath your feet.
05:30In 1480, a boy is playing under the Italian pines on Esquiline Hill in the heart of Rome.
05:39As he runs along the slope, his foot slips along a crack in the soil.
05:45He leans down, peers into the opening, and sees something that shouldn't be there.
05:51He crawls through the gap, and he finds himself in this hidden chamber.
06:00Low ceilings, curved walls, and when the boy looks up, he notices that on the ceilings are these very detailed frescoes.
06:09There are mythological scenes, strange creatures, and elaborate floral patterns covering the domed roof.
06:17Soon, his discovery attracts some of the era's most famous artists.
06:22Artists like Michelangelo and Raphael lower themselves down and explore the subterranean passages by torchlight,
06:32looking at all these mythological paintings on the walls to get inspiration for their own art.
06:37But the site's purpose remains a mystery for centuries, until a full-scale excavation of the area is ordered in the mid-1700s.
06:47Archaeologists soon find other enormous rooms, some up to 100 feet deep, covered in elaborate artwork.
06:55As they explore the frescoes and the opulent rooms, they start to put the pieces together.
07:01They realize that this is a palace, and it's a palace that matches the description of one that was built in the 1st century A.D.
07:11It's the Domus Aria, better known as the Golden House, built by infamous Roman emperor, Nero.
07:19Nero ruined Rome for 14 years in the 1st century A.D.
07:25He's known for his extravagance, his cruelty, his persecution of Jews and Christians, for murdering his mother,
07:33and for his very literal desire to burn down the city of Rome, to recraft it in his image.
07:40So when a massive fire destroys much of Rome in 64 A.D., many believe that Nero started it himself on purpose,
07:48so that he could build an opulent palace.
07:52That new palace, the Domus Aria, is huge.
07:57It sprawls over 300 acres, has over 100 rooms, marble walls, rotating dining rooms, detailed frescoes, and perfume-dispensing ceilings.
08:09There's an artificial leg surrounded by gardens, and of course, at the center of it all is a gorgeous golden statue of Nero himself.
08:20It is 100 feet tall.
08:23But before Nero can move into his new palace, he's declared a public enemy by the Senate.
08:29Even Nero's own guards abandoned him.
08:33So he decides to take his own life, and he stabs himself in the throat with a dagger before he can be executed.
08:40Once he's gone, Romans try to erase all evidence that he even existed.
08:45That includes his lavish estate, which is torn down and buried.
08:51Years later, another iconic structure is built in its place, the Colosseum.
08:56Then over time, the site is completely forgotten about.
09:00Until centuries later, when a young boy slips in the dirt.
09:08It's just another day at sea for a group of fishermen until they haul in their nets and find a lot more than just dinner.
09:19It's September of 1931, and a British fishing trawler is making its way up the North Sea.
09:25It's just an ordinary day when, all of a sudden, the nets come up heavy.
09:32Excited at the possibility of a big catch, the crew pulls the nets aboard and begins looking through their hull.
09:38The skipper, Pilgrim Lockwood, notices a huge lump of peat tangled up with their catch.
09:44He goes to break it apart with his shovel, but as he does, the shovel clangs against something solid.
09:54At first glance, it looks like a chunk of bone.
09:57But it's a darker color, and it looks carved.
10:03And on one side, it has what looks like serrated, jagged teeth.
10:08Whatever it is, it doesn't look natural.
10:11The skipper sends his strange find to the British Museum for more insight.
10:16The researchers examine the object and realize that it's a prehistoric weapon that's carved out of red deer antler.
10:25It would have been lashed end to end with another antler and used as a harpoon.
10:30Researchers date the tool to the late Mesolithic era, sometime between 10,000 and 4,000 B.C.
10:36Everything seems to check out, except for the fact that it was found so far out and so deep underwater.
10:42Mesolithic people were skilled hunters with sophisticated tools like this harpoon.
10:49But they were not skilled mariners.
10:51They had no way of venturing far from shore.
10:54That's when archaeologist Graham Clark proposes a radical theory.
10:59Maybe that spot in the North Sea used to be dry land.
11:03Up to now, everyone had assumed that there had always been a sea between Great Britain and continental Europe.
11:09But Clark suggests maybe that's wrong.
11:12Maybe thousands of years ago, this was land.
11:16The following year, a test of the peak found with the harpoon gives Clark's theory a boost.
11:22Further analysis shows that it formed in freshwater, not saltwater, confirming the weapon was lost on land.
11:30In the ensuing decades, more evidence comes in, providing more support for this theory.
11:36Fishermen begin to pull up bones from a variety of land animals.
11:40Hippos, bears, woolly rhinos, saber-toothed cats.
11:44They find more stone tools and even pieces of a Neanderthal skull.
11:48After decades of clues, the mystery comes into sharper focus when researchers manage to extract DNA from the ancient skull.
11:57Turns out he was a young man who was a meat eater with a stocky build, and he lived about 60,000 years ago.
12:05The incredible discovery leads researchers to name the area Doggerland after a nearby sandbar.
12:13But the real breakthrough comes when oil and gas companies lend a surprising hand.
12:19Using underwater survey data, they are able to create detailed 3D models of the seabed.
12:26This wasn't just an archipelago of islands or a land bridge.
12:32Doggerland was vast and teeming with life, which attracted bands of Mesolithic hunters.
12:39At its peak, Doggerland was big.
12:42It stretched over 70,000 square miles, bigger than the state of Illinois.
12:46Then, around 8,000 years ago, the Ice Age ends and temperatures start to rise.
12:52Glaciers begin to melt and water levels rise.
12:57And over the next 3,500 years, Doggerland slowly disappears beneath the sea, causing its people to have to relocate.
13:06Today, Doggerland is one of the best preserved prehistoric landscapes ever discovered.
13:14Finding a whole ancient world hidden under the sea is incredible.
13:18Our next big discovery takes us even further back in time, and it's on an even bigger scale.
13:28In 2017, a man in Pombal, Portugal, is trying to expand his garden.
13:35He starts digging and digging, and suddenly he hits something really hard.
13:41Now, this is deeply unusual because the soil there is pretty loose and sandy.
13:46He bends down to take a closer look, brushes across the soil with his hand, and he sees some sharp fragments.
13:56He takes a closer look, and he thinks that they look very much like pieces of fossilized bone.
14:03The man reaches out to the University of Lisbon, who sends a team of paleontologists to investigate.
14:09They confirm that these are indeed fossil fragments, and then a deeper investigation ensues.
14:16Pretty soon, they find another fossil, but this one's no tiny fragment.
14:21Now, this time, they find a complete bone.
14:23They uncover three feet of it, four feet of it, and there's still more in the ground.
14:31Ultimately, when they retrieve it, it's 10 feet long.
14:37This is one of the largest rib fossils ever recorded.
14:42So scientists ask, what could this giant animal be?
14:45From the shape and the size, they are able to determine that these bones come from a sauropod.
14:56Sauropods lived over 100 million years ago and are the largest land animals to ever roam the Earth.
15:03Sauropods were herbivores.
15:05They had a long neck, long tail, and they grew into the largest dinosaurs ever.
15:10They were very tiny heads, because, you know, how much weight do you want to put at the end of a 40-foot lever?
15:17The long necks allowed them to graze over a wide area of vegetation without having to move.
15:24And they had to do a lot of grazing, because sauropods could weigh as much as 50 tons.
15:31Experts estimate that the individual uncovered from the backyard in Portugal was probably close to 40 feet tall and around 80 feet long,
15:42roughly the size of a tennis court.
15:44It's one of the largest dinosaur specimens ever found in Europe.
15:48Despite millions of years passing, the ribs are still in place and aligned, just like when the dinosaur was alive.
15:56That's really unusual for fossils this old.
15:59Hopefully, the rest of the fossils from this magnificent beast will be found,
16:05and it will be stalking the floors of a museum very soon.
16:11For one man in Turkey, a small remodel opens the door to a whole buried world.
16:22It's 1963 in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey, and a man is remodeling his home.
16:28But he keeps having a strange predicament.
16:30His pet chickens keep disappearing.
16:33He starts investigating, and he traces the problem to the basement, where he finds a small opening in the wall.
16:40Curious and frustrated, he grabs a sledgehammer and knocks it down.
16:48Behind the wall, there's a cabin.
16:50Not a pipe, not an old cellar, but a tunnel.
16:54He climbs through the wall and starts to walk.
17:00One tunnel becomes two, and then it connects to different chambers.
17:06And eventually, it seems to stretch off into a dark distance.
17:10Fully weirded out, the man retreats back to his house and informs the local authorities.
17:15Investigators inspect the tunnels, and what they uncover is beyond anything anyone imagined.
17:24It's an enormous ancient underground city.
17:26This sprawling maze spans over 170 square miles.
17:36It reaches 18 stories, 280 feet below the surface, and is carved into hardened volcanic ash called tuff.
17:44But what's truly unbelievable is that it was originally built around 3,000 years ago.
17:50The city is named Derinkuyu, after the town that sits above it.
17:58And it wasn't just a place to hide.
18:01It was a fully functional underground city.
18:05There are schools, churches, a convent, apartments, even an underground wine press.
18:12The upper level was found to have stables where they kept livestock,
18:15so that the odors would not penetrate down into the lower levels where people lived.
18:21They truly thought of and designed everything that humans would need to carry out life underground.
18:27There are over 50 ventilation shafts that ensure that fresh air is delivered to all levels.
18:33And there's a well that reaches over 180 feet to fill numerous water tanks.
18:38It's an engineering marvel.
18:41There's also a security system.
18:43Several tunnels have enormous 1,000-pound millstone doors
18:48that could be used to close off the tunnels from inside.
18:52Each door has a hole right in the center, big enough for a sphere to poke through.
18:57But who built it?
18:58And why remain a mystery?
19:03Archaeologists find a Hittite statue of a lion and other relics during their excavation.
19:08This leads some to believe that the Hittites built the city as their last refuge.
19:13When their capital was under attack from the Phrygians in the 12th century B.C.
19:18Others believe that this kind of incredible construction could only have been the work of the Phrygians themselves.
19:24But one thing that's clear is that the original builders were not the only ones that lived here.
19:29Eventually, Derinkuyu was inhabited by Byzantine-era Christians who used the city to avoid persecution,
19:34which explains the cruciform church on the lowest level, 18 stories down.
19:41Altogether, researchers find more than 600 hidden entrances,
19:46including one that extends much further than anyone thought.
19:50Researchers find a five-mile tunnel that connects this subterranean world
19:55to another underground city called Kaimakli.
19:58This city is smaller, less elaborate than Derinkuyu.
20:03But the design is nearly identical.
20:05Over the ensuing years, they find over 200 more of these underground cities spread throughout the region.
20:13Each one a sleeping giant carved in stone that serves as a monument to survival.
20:19Our next discovery takes us to a very different kind of hidden world,
20:26this time in Rome.
20:31It's 2006 in Rome,
20:34and workers are drilling test holes ahead of the construction of a new underground parking garage.
20:41That is, until their drill hit something unexpected.
20:45As is the way in a city with as rich and ancient a history as Rome,
20:54when you're digging and you hit something strange,
20:57you need to stop and investigate.
21:02The workers take a closer look,
21:04and they find pottery shards and pieces of jewelry.
21:08So they ultimately call in the archaeologists to take over.
21:11And they uncover more pottery,
21:15parts of a fountain,
21:16and even the foundations of a portico.
21:18Then they find something really unusual.
21:22A piece of glass
21:23filled with transparent, crystal-like stones.
21:28The crystal stones are a major clue.
21:31In 40 AD,
21:33the philosopher Philo
21:34described seeing this kind of glass
21:37with these crystals on a visit he made
21:39to the Roman emperor Caligula.
21:41The archaeologists realized
21:44they found Caligula's long-lost infamous pleasure garden.
21:50Caligula was the third emperor of Rome,
21:53and many consider him to be
21:55the most eccentric.
21:57Some accounts say he believed he was a god.
22:00Others say he was just insane.
22:02But either way,
22:03his behavior was bizarre.
22:04He once made talking about goats in his presence
22:08a capital offense.
22:10He would appear in public
22:11dressed like Greco-Roman gods
22:14like Venus and Apollo.
22:17He once declared war with the sea
22:19and even appointed his horse consul
22:23to the Senate of Rome.
22:25But Caligula took access
22:27to a whole new level in his pleasure garden.
22:30Caligula surrounded himself in luxury.
22:33So when he wasn't feeding Romans to the lions
22:36or sleeping with his political rival's wives
22:39or even his own sisters,
22:41he enjoyed spending time in his pleasure garden.
22:46Excavations revealed frescoes
22:48inlaid with rubies and precious stones,
22:51marble staircases,
22:52and also pieces of jewelry.
22:53They also find animal bones,
22:57but not pets like cats or dogs.
22:59The bones they find are from lions,
23:01from bears,
23:02from ostriches,
23:03from peacocks.
23:04Just rare and exotic animals
23:06brought in to impress his guests
23:08and to make himself out to be
23:10this larger-than-life,
23:13hedonistic,
23:14godlike figure.
23:16Ultimately,
23:18Caligula's reign of indulgence
23:19didn't last.
23:20After just four years in power,
23:23Caligula was assassinated
23:24by his own bodyguards.
23:26His body was cremated
23:27in the garden he loved.
23:29By the 4th century,
23:31the garden is abandoned
23:32and fades from memory
23:34until it's rediscovered
23:36in 2015.
23:38When archaeologists
23:39finally finish the excavation,
23:41over 100,000 artifacts
23:44are uncovered.
23:45Today,
23:46the site has been transformed
23:47into a museum,
23:48and it contains many
23:50of those very same relics
23:51and preserved architecture.
23:53Compared to the legend
23:54of his life,
23:55the ruins of his pleasure garden
23:57are surprisingly tasteful.
23:59But the jewels,
24:00the baths,
24:01exotic animals
24:02do point to one thing.
24:04Caligula threw
24:05one hell of a party.
24:07And 2,000 years later,
24:09we're still cleaning up after it.
24:10In 1992,
24:15a man sets out
24:16to solve a local legend,
24:18but instead uncovers
24:20a long-lost engineering wonder.
24:25It's 1992
24:26in the Zhejiang province of China,
24:29and farmer Wu Anai
24:30is a man on a mission.
24:32He's just bought a water pump,
24:34and with the help of his neighbors,
24:35he's trying to drain a pond
24:37in his hometown of Longyu.
24:39It sounds crazy,
24:41but for generations,
24:42locals have passed down tales
24:44that the ponds are bottomless,
24:46and Anai is determined
24:48to get to the bottom
24:49of this legend.
24:52So he turns on the pumps
24:53and watches.
24:55As the water recedes,
24:57it reveals more
24:58than just mud and stone.
25:01When Anai peeks into the hole,
25:03he can't believe his eyes.
25:05Beneath the surface
25:08of this pond
25:09is actually
25:10a massive man-made cave.
25:14Its walls are intricately carved,
25:17its ceilings are held up
25:18by pillars,
25:19and every inch
25:21is decorated
25:21with these chiseled
25:23parallel lines.
25:24Anai and his neighbors
25:25cannot believe
25:26what they found,
25:27so they go
25:28and they drain
25:29more ponds in the region.
25:30Sure enough,
25:33they find four more caves,
25:35each as elaborately carved
25:37and decorated
25:38as the first one.
25:40These things are huge,
25:42ranging from 25 to 60 feet deep
25:45and 50 to 100 feet wide.
25:48Just as impressive
25:49is the engineering.
25:52The sloped walls
25:53help distribute weight,
25:55preventing collapse
25:56from the ground above.
25:57Every cavern faces south,
26:00which allows the caves
26:01to be filled
26:02with natural light.
26:04Over the next few years,
26:06researchers find
26:0719 more hand-carved caves.
26:10We have over
26:11300,000 square feet
26:14of engineered space,
26:16but no signs
26:17of the builders,
26:18the techniques,
26:19or of their intentions.
26:21This lack of cultural
26:22or material evidence
26:24is unprecedented.
26:24Archaeologists date
26:27their construction
26:28to between 206 B.C.
26:30and 23 A.D.
26:32This makes them
26:33the biggest underground
26:35construction project
26:36of that era.
26:38This is a project
26:39on par with other
26:41monumental architectural wonders
26:43like the Great Pyramid of Giza.
26:45As mysterious
26:46as the pyramids are,
26:47these caves are even more so.
26:50Some researchers
26:51have suggested
26:52that the caves
26:52might have been used
26:53to store grain.
26:55Others have thought
26:56that they might have been
26:57a mine for natural resources.
26:59And then there are those
27:00who think that
27:01these hidden structures
27:02are so secretive
27:04that they must have been used
27:05for religious
27:06or other cultural ceremonies
27:08for the elite.
27:10With little to go on,
27:11the mysterious caverns
27:12become known
27:13as the Longyu Caves,
27:15named after the town
27:17where they were found.
27:18In China,
27:19they're considered
27:20the ninth wonder
27:21of the ancient world.
27:22But for all their size
27:24and sophistication,
27:25they raise more questions
27:26than answers.
27:28The fact that we still
27:29don't know
27:29who built the caves
27:30or why
27:31makes them
27:32the most fascinating
27:34mysteries of the ancient world.
27:35A nice curiosity
27:39uncovered
27:40an ancient mystery.
27:42A find 20 years later
27:44in Serbia
27:44reveals something
27:46even stranger.
27:50It's July 2023
27:51in the small mining town
27:53of Kostelac in Serbia.
27:56Miners are busy
27:58excavating in a quarry
27:59when about 25 feet deep,
28:01their mechanical digger
28:02hits something
28:03really hard.
28:07It sounds like wood,
28:08so they figure
28:09that it's a buried tree trunk,
28:10but they decide
28:11to play it safe
28:12and take a closer look.
28:14When the workers
28:15brush some of the dirt away,
28:17they confirm
28:18it definitely is wood.
28:20However,
28:21this is definitely no tree.
28:23It's got sharp,
28:25crisp lines.
28:26It's been carved by man,
28:28and it looks really old.
28:31Archaeologists are called in
28:32to examine the site,
28:33and as they dig,
28:34the find gets bigger
28:35and bigger,
28:36from one plank
28:37to another
28:37to dozens.
28:39They've uncovered
28:40a massive wooden structure.
28:44It's the remains
28:46of an enormous riverboat.
28:50Now that it's exposed,
28:52archaeologists rush
28:53to fully dig out the boat
28:55before it falls apart.
28:56It takes them two days
28:58to fully uncover the boat,
29:00and it's huge.
29:01It's 65 feet long.
29:03It's 11 feet wide.
29:05Researchers believe
29:06it was a cargo vessel
29:08crewed by up to 30 men,
29:11but curiously,
29:12there's no cargo,
29:13there's no personal items,
29:15there's no human remains.
29:18Even stranger,
29:19it's underground
29:20and miles away
29:22from the nearest waterway.
29:23The Danube River
29:25is more than two miles away,
29:27but it turns out
29:28that it has shifted
29:29over the centuries.
29:31Researchers believe
29:32that at one point,
29:33it flowed directly
29:34over the spot.
29:36The ship likely sank here,
29:38and then the river
29:39changed course,
29:40and then the ship
29:40was left to be buried
29:42by the shifting sands.
29:43The whole area
29:45seems to have changed
29:46centuries ago,
29:47because just a mile away,
29:49there's an even larger
29:50archaeological excavation.
29:53The ancient port
29:54of Viminossium.
29:57Viminossium was a major
30:00ancient Roman trading hub
30:01and military port
30:02that boasted a population
30:04of about 45,000 people.
30:06Its ruins included temples,
30:08theaters, palaces,
30:10even a hippodrome.
30:11Beginning in the 4th century,
30:14Viminossium was attacked
30:15by invading forces,
30:16including Attila the Hun
30:18in his campaign
30:19against the Roman Empire.
30:20By the time
30:21the Roman Empire
30:22began to collapse
30:23in 476,
30:25Viminossium was abandoned.
30:27Experts conclude
30:28the buried ship
30:29was likely servicing
30:31the port of Viminossium
30:32around 1,700 years ago.
30:35But questions still remain
30:37about its final voyage.
30:39The ship has no signs
30:40of battle scars,
30:41no signs of cargo,
30:42no signs of crew,
30:43which suggests
30:44it may have been
30:45sunk intentionally.
30:47Perhaps better to lose it
30:48than for it to fall
30:49into enemy hands.
30:51After nearly two millennia
30:52underground,
30:54this river barge
30:54is still a mystery,
30:55but at least
30:56it's finally returning to port.
30:57road construction
31:02usually slows you down.
31:04But in 2024,
31:05it stopped everything
31:07when cruising Mexico
31:08hits something incredible.
31:13In June of 2024,
31:15just outside of Mexico City,
31:17construction workers
31:18are expanding Highway 105.
31:21As the workers labor
31:22under the blazing summer sun,
31:23trying to dig out a hillside
31:25to create space
31:26for a new lane,
31:27they hit an unexpected obstacle.
31:31It's a flat stone,
31:33which is pretty strange,
31:35but stranger still
31:36is that it is attached
31:37to another flat stone
31:39and another flat stone,
31:41and they're all linked together
31:42by mortar.
31:44All these stones
31:45form a steeply pitched wall
31:48buried underneath the mountain.
31:51And they realize
31:53this is clearly
31:54part of a structure.
31:56They halt all work
31:58and they call in
31:59the archaeologists.
32:01As they dig up
32:02this angled wall,
32:03it appears to stretch
32:04in two directions.
32:06One, up the side
32:08of the mountain,
32:09and two,
32:09down towards the road.
32:11Soon they begin
32:12to make out a shape.
32:13They find stepped corners
32:15on the outer edge
32:16of the wall.
32:16And behind that,
32:18another wall continues
32:20at a 90-degree angle.
32:21This crew thought
32:23they were working
32:24to widen the highway.
32:26But what they've really done
32:27is discovered
32:28an ancient pyramid.
32:31And not just any pyramid.
32:34The base stretches out
32:35to around 1,000 feet,
32:38about 25% bigger
32:40than the Great Pyramid of Giza.
32:43Archaeologists realized
32:44the pyramid dates back
32:45to a mysterious
32:46and largely unknown
32:48ancient civilization
32:49known as the Metzika.
32:51The Metzika
32:54were a multi-ethnic group
32:56that lived in the area
32:57from around the year
32:58950 to 1350.
33:00Little is known
33:01about this culture
33:01because almost nothing
33:03has been found
33:04from the time
33:04of their reign.
33:05Until now.
33:07Unfortunately,
33:08experts can't fully
33:09excavate the pyramid.
33:10So they use drones
33:12and imaging technology
33:13to scan the entire site
33:15from the air.
33:17When they analyze the data,
33:18they're shocked.
33:19There is an entire
33:20ceremonial complex
33:21with the pyramid
33:22as its centerpiece.
33:25This discovery suggests
33:27that this site
33:27was of great significance
33:29to the Metzika,
33:31a combination
33:31religious site
33:32and cultural hub.
33:34And just when we're
33:35hot on the heels
33:36of learning
33:37and uncovering
33:38this treasure trove
33:39of the ancient world,
33:41all work comes to a stop.
33:43Funding dries up
33:44and archaeologists
33:46are forced
33:47to abandon the site.
33:48Then,
33:49they actually have
33:51to rebury it
33:52to protect the site
33:54from the elements
33:55and from any looters.
33:57There's obviously
33:58more to uncover here,
34:00more stories
34:01about the history
34:02of this otherwise
34:03forgotten civilization.
34:04But until more funding
34:06materializes,
34:08this giant pyramid
34:09and the ancient civilization
34:11that constructed it
34:12remains, once again,
34:15buried underground.
34:18Across the sea
34:20in England,
34:20another surprising relic
34:22is buried even deeper.
34:24Not a pyramid,
34:25but a far more
34:26personal piece
34:27of the past.
34:31The year is 1972,
34:33and in the city
34:34of York, England,
34:35construction has just begun
34:36on a new branch
34:38of Lloyd's Bank.
34:40They fire up
34:41the excavator
34:42and start to haul away
34:44layers of peat.
34:46And that's when
34:47the workers notice
34:48that mixed in
34:49with the soil
34:49are some strange-looking
34:51objects.
34:53There's pieces of timber,
34:55there's textiles,
34:56and there's straps
34:57of leather.
34:58Archaeologists
34:59are called in,
35:00and as they are
35:02sifting through
35:03these artifacts,
35:04they find an object
35:06they can't quite identify.
35:10It's rough
35:12and cylindrical
35:13in shape.
35:14It's about
35:15eight inches long,
35:16two inches wide,
35:17and it weighs
35:18about half a pound.
35:22Archaeologists
35:22take a closer look
35:24at the mystery object
35:24under a microscope.
35:26They see evidence
35:28of plant pollen,
35:30cereal bran,
35:31and other organic material,
35:33and before long,
35:34it becomes pretty evident
35:35what they're looking at.
35:36What they have found
35:37is an enormous
35:39human coprolite.
35:42It's another way
35:43of saying a gigantic piece
35:44of fossilized poop.
35:45In fact,
35:48it's the largest
35:49intact piece
35:50of fossilized
35:51human feces
35:52ever discovered.
35:53What's unusual about it,
35:55apart from its gargantuous size,
35:57is that typically
35:59human feces
36:00breaks down
36:01pretty quickly,
36:02way before it has
36:03a chance
36:03to fossilize.
36:05But in this case,
36:06because it fell
36:07in peat,
36:08which is a low-oxygen
36:10environment,
36:11it didn't rot.
36:12testing puts it
36:15in the 9th century A.D.,
36:16right in the middle
36:17of the Viking occupation
36:18of York.
36:20In 866 A.D.,
36:22the Viking
36:22Great Heathen Army
36:24conquered the city.
36:26York became
36:27the Viking capital
36:28in England
36:29until 954 A.D.,
36:31and based on the diet,
36:33this coprolite
36:34was left behind
36:35by a Viking.
36:38Today,
36:39the relic
36:39is on display
36:40at the Jorvik Viking Center
36:42in York.
36:44It may not be
36:45the most important
36:46Viking artifact
36:46ever found,
36:48but it is a strong
36:49contender for number two.
36:54The ocean
36:55is full of
36:56big creatures
36:57and even bigger secrets,
37:00but none
37:00like the one
37:01a group of fishermen
37:02find in Norway.
37:06It's April 26,
37:072019,
37:09just off the
37:09coastal village
37:10of Tufjord
37:11in Norway.
37:12You have a group
37:13of fishermen
37:13that are
37:14on their boat,
37:16and before long,
37:17they feel something
37:18colliding
37:19with the side
37:20of their ship.
37:23One of the men
37:24on board
37:24looks down
37:25in the water
37:25and he sees
37:26a large beluga whale
37:28rubbing itself
37:31against the side
37:32of the boat.
37:32even though this animal
37:36is large,
37:3714 feet long,
37:38maybe 2,700 pounds,
37:40it seems
37:41friendly,
37:43tame even.
37:45Hey!
37:47But it seems
37:49to be tangled
37:50in something.
37:52He puts on
37:53a survival suit
37:53and jumps into the water
37:55to help free it.
37:56But as he gets closer,
37:58he realizes
37:59that the whale
38:00is in a harness.
38:01So he unbuckles it
38:03and sets the beluga whale
38:04free.
38:05Back on the boat,
38:07they see something strange.
38:09There's a camera mount
38:10on the harness,
38:11but the camera itself
38:13is missing.
38:14They also notice
38:15a stamp
38:16on the harness
38:16that says,
38:17Equipment,
38:18St. Petersburg.
38:19So it looks like
38:21this whale
38:21came from Russia.
38:24Nearly overnight,
38:26the beluga
38:26becomes a media
38:27sensation in Norway.
38:29But something seems
38:30off about
38:31this friendly giant.
38:33This whale
38:33doesn't swim
38:34back north
38:35towards his
38:35more natural habitat.
38:37He instead
38:37stays in the harbor,
38:39socializing
38:40with fishermen
38:41and tourists.
38:43Hi!
38:44Hi!
38:45I mean,
38:46the whale,
38:46he seems
38:47too well-trained
38:48to be a wild animal.
38:50That's when
38:51Norway's
38:51domestic intelligence agency
38:53puts two and two together
38:55and comes up
38:56with a shocking theory.
38:57The strange behavior,
38:59the harness,
39:00the familiarity
39:01with humans,
39:02this whale
39:03was clearly trained
39:04to perform
39:05specific tasks,
39:06which leads
39:07investigators
39:08to hypothesize
39:09that this whale
39:10is an intelligence-gathering
39:12spy.
39:15For years,
39:17rumors had spread
39:18around intelligence circles
39:19that the Russian Navy
39:20was actively trying
39:22to get their hands
39:23on aquatic animals
39:24to train them
39:26as Russian spies.
39:28Now, of course,
39:28Moscow denies
39:29that any such program
39:30ever existed,
39:31although there was
39:32that one time
39:33that they placed
39:33a newspaper ad
39:34seeking to buy
39:35five bottlenose dolphins
39:37for $24,000.
39:38As unlikely as it seems,
39:41the spy whale theory
39:42picks up momentum,
39:44leading investigators
39:45straight to a possible source.
39:47Intelligence officers
39:49comb over satellite imagery
39:50and indeed they find
39:52a nearby Russian naval base.
39:54The base has large sea pens
39:56that would be perfect
39:56for housing beluga whales.
39:58They conclude
39:59that this beluga
39:59either escaped
40:00from its pen
40:01or that it might have
40:02actually become lost
40:03during a training session
40:04in open waters.
40:05In honor of his Russian roots,
40:08the whale
40:08is given the name
40:10Havaldemir,
40:11combining Haval,
40:13which means whale,
40:14in Norwegian,
40:16with Vladimir,
40:17as in Putin.
40:18Sadly, Havaldemir's story
40:21does not have
40:22a happy ending.
40:23In 2024,
40:24his body is discovered
40:25floating in
40:26Rysavika Bay in Norway.
40:28Of course,
40:29given his purported
40:29spy background,
40:31rumors begin to fly
40:32that he's been
40:32taken out by the Russians.
40:34But the Norwegian
40:36Veterinary Institute
40:37does an autopsy
40:38and determines
40:38that Havaldemir died
40:40from a bacterial infection.
40:41To this day,
40:42Russia has neither confirmed
40:44nor denied
40:45Havaldemir's origins.
40:46But one thing is certain,
40:47whether he was
40:48a runaway spy
40:49or just a very
40:50confused beluga,
40:52this giant whale
40:53left behind a legacy
40:55that was
40:56larger than life.
41:01A colossal city
41:02buried in the jungle,
41:04a massive mammal
41:05working as a secret agent,
41:07and a metropolis
41:08unearthed
41:09200 feet
41:10below the surface.
41:12Sometimes,
41:13gigantic discoveries
41:14lead to even
41:15bigger revelations.
41:16I'm Danny Trejo.
41:18Thanks for watching
41:19Mysteries Unearthed.
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