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00:01mystical lost cities that have captivated explorers for hundreds of years mysterious
00:09tunnels that draw extraordinary adventures into hidden tombs and entire lost worlds just waiting
00:19to be found Africa the immense size and immediately recognizable shape of this
00:28incredible continent can only be described with one word iconic its landscape is endlessly diverse
00:38holding vast uncharted wilderness mysterious ancient ruins dramatic local legends and not to
00:48mention paradigm shifting discoveries that have both challenged and rewritten the history of our
00:54species on planet Earth what is it that continues to draw explorers and adventures to expansive and
01:03enigmatic Africa well that is what we'll try and find out
01:22the continent of Africa this majestic landmass spans an incredible 11.7 million square miles
01:31the space that would comfortably fit the United States China India and most of Europe
01:37and Africa's massive scale is echoed in its natural features like the world's largest hot desert the
01:48planet's longest river and Earth's highest freestanding mountain Africa is also home to the largest and the
01:59tallest creatures on dry land but even today the sheer size of the continent is largely underestimated
02:10Africa is actually a lot bigger than people think it is and there's a reason for that the type of
02:14world maps that
02:15we've used the Mercator map have effectively shrunk the size of Africa because it's in the middle and stretch things
02:21near the poles
02:22making Africa look much smaller than it actually is Africa is unbelievably big and incredibly diverse when it comes to
02:31topography
02:32Africa it encompasses giant rift valleys plains desert savannas just when you move through
02:42one area and you get to another that's completely different and this all has the effect of lending Africa a
02:50sense of perpetual mystery
02:52Africa Africa's unparalleled diversity in scale has created a legendary allure that has inspired countless explorers determined to reveal its
03:03hidden secrets
03:07but might Africa's most profound mystery surround its role in the very birth of all mankind
03:15one of the great mysteries of Africa is is that where we're really from did humans come from Africa
03:22in 1871 Charles Darwin took on human evolution in his book descent of man and he theorized that since the
03:31two animals that were most closely related to humans were gorillas and chimpanzees and they're both from Africa
03:37he says that is more likely than not where humans come from and that Africa is the cradle of humanity
03:45so the search for the origin of our species became this great obsession of explorers
03:50Darwin's
03:52Darwin's monumental theory inspired many scientific adventures in Africa
03:57and more than a century after his hypothesis
04:00American paleoanthropologist Donald Johansson was scouring Ethiopia when he discovered
04:08three million year old bones that would ignite the attention of the entire world
04:15in 1974 paleoanthropologists working in Ethiopia discovered a fossil that
04:22was hugely important they called her Lucy and it was clear from her lower body that she walked upright
04:30and this was a missing link it was the first kind of transitional fossil discovered to link ape ancestors
04:38and early modern humans the discovery of Lucy was really important and because although there
04:46been this long recognition that human origins probably came from Africa and were to be found within Africa
04:52so Lucy remains that sort of moment when that point was proven for the first time
05:00in 2026 exciting new fossil evidence of early man was discovered in a cave in Morocco
05:06proving that the story of mankind is still unfolding on this mysterious continent
05:16since the 1800s the western world has been captivated by the exciting tales of legendary explorers
05:23like David Livingston the first European to cross the massive continent
05:29and Henry Morton Stanley who covered thousands of miles of Africa's interior
05:35and shared his adventures in a famous chronicle entitled through the dark continent
05:43the idea of exploring into the heart of Africa really goes back to the 19th century
05:48there were geographers and historians traveling through Africa on exploratory expeditions to try and shed light
05:59on places that were unknown to European science but even today there's so many places and areas about which we
06:08have
06:08very little knowledge there's so much still to know today modern day explorers like ecologist Julian Bayliss
06:17are continuing to explore Africa and map the areas that remain difficult for humans to survey
06:25i probably organize and run over 50 scientific expeditions in mountains in forests in rain forests in Africa
06:34because it still holds largely unexplored areas that humankind haven't necessarily been to before
06:42and it all started with Mount Mabu in northern Mozambique i was using satellite imagery to locate
06:50these isolated forests and that area of forest turned out to be the largest rain forest in southern Africa
06:56and we've been finding new species it was tremendously exciting but there were many many dangers
07:03in running expeditions in in Africa we have to drive through the bush and it's very easy to get lost
07:11we have the dangerous animal side of things especially in this part of the world other dangers are things
07:19like traps so the local people use something called a gin trap which is like a bear trap
07:25they will basically settle your foot and the traps are buried underneath the ground you cannot see them
07:33so there's many risks
07:34in 2012 Julian Bayliss made a remarkable discovery satellite imagery revealed
07:42what he believed was an untouched ancient forest in the sky known as mount lico so immediately all these
07:52questions started to come having seen that first impression of mount lico on the satellite image
07:58mount lico is known as a sky island it has steep sides going up to the basin of rain forest
08:06what's going on here why isn't that forest disturbed and of course the only way to find out is to
08:14go and have a look
08:16despite the danger in 2018 julian and his team mounted an expedition to climb 400 feet of sheer cliff
08:25to explore this mysterious sky island after their treacherous climb they discovered
08:32what could only be described as a lost world so this forest potentially has been undisturbed for
08:41millions and millions and millions of years providing sufficient time for the animals that
08:45are found in there to develop into new species we found a new species of butterfly we found a new
08:51species
08:51of frog we even found a new species of crab in the only stream on top of mount lico and
08:59seeing it with
08:59your own eyes there's a feeling of exhilaration excitement reverence for a untouched magical ancient
09:10land that nobody or very few people have ever set foot in before africa is such a unique and wonderful
09:21place because it still holds a lot of mystery a lot of magic and a lot of adventure
09:26based on julian's work hundreds of new species have been discovered throughout these so-called sky
09:33islands of africa but beyond the continent's natural wonders africa is also home to legends of lost
09:43civilizations in a mythical lost city
09:53the kalahari desert this endless expanse of dry savannah covers an area of 350 000 square miles
10:03from botswana to namibia and south africa its name is derived from swana words that describe
10:11a waterless place and a great thirst
10:18but after a good rainy season this semi-desert becomes a thriving habitat for thousands of diverse
10:26animals and a magnet for curious and courageous adventure seekers like wildlife journalist adam cruz
10:35the kalahari is a very fascinating desert and it's massive i mean it's this big blank space in southern
10:42africa but the most interesting thing about the kalahari is it is packed with wildlife especially lions
10:52there are a lot of lions in the kalahari exploring and walking around is not as easy as it could
11:00be
11:01you've got to be very very vigilant about temperatures about wildlife and about the expanse because it's
11:08easy to get lost there and i have many times i had always gone into the kalahari first as a
11:14boy with my
11:15family gone to do safaris just go look at wildlife and then i started reading more about the previous
11:24explorers into the kalahari which prompted me to go with more purpose the last three or four expeditions
11:30i did into the kalahari was for the sole purpose of searching for the lost city of the kalahari
11:37the lost city of the kalahari is the stuff of myth and legend an ancient metropolis believed to be hidden
11:45somewhere in africa's great southern desert constructed in antiquity by an unknown civilization
11:55and the fascinating tale of this mysterious place
11:59began in 1885 with the exploits of a famous canadian entertainer turned explorer named william leonard hunt
12:09who often went by the self-proclaimed name the great farini the great farini he was a showman he was
12:17a
12:18circus man but he wanted to be an explorer and that's why he found himself in the kalahari and he
12:25thought
12:25he would write his name among the greats by crossing the kalahari and back and documenting it so farini
12:35charts his journey through the kalahari he has a companion with him who was an early photographer
12:43he photographed the dunes documented the great waterfalls called the akrabis
12:49he photographed the trees and these massive nests that basically take up the whole tree
12:56there was no doubt that farini was there
13:01so farini comes back from his trip to the kalahari and he writes a lengthy galloping book about his
13:09exploits through the kalahari three quarters through the whole story he drops in the fact that one day
13:16they stumbled across some ruins he talks about a circular wall about three quarters of a mile long
13:24he talks about a fluted column and then there's an altar
13:29he can't find any inscriptions and because they're running out of water he says they have to leave
13:34and that is the first full description of the lost city of the kalahari
13:39and from that description there were hundreds of people trying to find this mythical place
13:51perini's tantalizing tale electrified the public's imagination and soon a new wave of fearless
13:57explorers motivated by fortune and glory ventured into the great sandy abyss of the kalahari
14:04in search of this lost city one of the people that became involved with the search for a lost
14:12civilization in the kalahari was joshua norman heldman he was the grandfather of elon musk and from 1953
14:24onwards on 12 separate occasions he would go to the kalahari with his family and they would search for
14:31evidence of some kind of um you know civilization in 1964 there's an explorer by the name of aj clement
14:40he publishes his narrative of the expedition and aj clement concludes that perini was lost the whole
14:46time that he didn't know where he was and aj clement does come upon a bunch of natural rocks
14:52dullerite which he thinks might be what ferrini saw so maybe it was dullerite and perini just didn't
15:00know what he was seeing or maybe he found something that is right now buried under the sands of the
15:04kalahari for those inclined to take on the challenge the possibility of discovering a mythical lost city in
15:12africa is a seductive proposition that could rewrite africa's ancient history but to this day no one has
15:21managed to confirm farini's claims and based on his background as an entertainer many have wondered
15:28was his monumental discovery just part of the act
15:35the great farini made his fame walking on tight ropes across niagara falls and he becomes very famous
15:44as a performer and then he makes the very hard choice to go and explore africa
15:53the unexplained mystery with this lost city of the kalahari is the man farini himself his job was to
16:02entertain his job was to fabricate so the question is did he really see something or was he entertaining us
16:13he knew how to tell a story was it a real one or was it fiction was the lost city
16:21of the kalahari
16:22a complete fabrication concocted by a convincing storyteller or could it be a very real place
16:30perhaps clues can be found in the ancient stone structures that dot this epic landscape throughout
16:37southern africa there are magnificent ruins one just has to think of the great zimbabwe ruins this was
16:46once a huge city map on good way in south africa comes to mind another walled city and they are
16:53all
16:53over the place so if they are there there's a good chance that there could have been something
16:58similar in the kalahari if there is a lost city to be found you cannot afford to not go and
17:04look for it
17:06imagine having that to your name i'll definitely be going back to the kalahari
17:12i've got the lost city fever and i think unfortunately it's a permanent one
17:19finding the lost city of the kalahari remains a lofty goal for many explorers however if it's
17:26discovered will a never before known civilization need to be added to the history books who can say
17:34but there is another actual city in africa sitting in complete ruin and no one knows why
17:42centuries ago it was mysteriously abandoned
17:50kenya east africa scattered along the majestic 330 mile coastline lies the remnants of a once
17:59thriving medieval trade network among the 116 historic swahili settlements are the major port city of
18:09baza and the breathtaking beaches of melindy and nestled between them in an ancient rain forest are the
18:18ruins of a mysteriously abandoned town called geddy when geddy was first discovered it wasn't a completely
18:28unknown site the people who live around geddy have always known about the ruins there are many local
18:37stories about the association of the site with spirits and many of the swahili on the coast
18:43think of geddy as being the site of many of their ancestors and then some of the other local groups
18:49believed that it was the home of ancestral spirits and should be avoided it was first excavated
18:55starting in the 1940s by a pioneering archaeologist of the swahili coast called james kirkman and there
19:04was a written account of kirkman's excavations and actually it was the first swahili site ever to be
19:10excavated the inhabitants of geddy are definitely part of what we understand as the swahili coastal
19:20tradition but there are no histories that relate to geddy and which is quite unusual because there are
19:26histories that relate to other towns nearby who exactly came to geddy in the 11th century and we
19:34don't completely know kenyan archaeologist dr freda n kerote with the national museums of kenya has been
19:44studying the settlement for decades and has uncovered many clues about the prosperous culture that once
19:51thrived there the geddy site is about 45 acres and most of the excavation has taken place within this region
20:04and we believe that there it was occupied by between 2 500 people to 3 000 people
20:12we know that the people who live in geddy practiced islam because we have several mosques we can see
20:22the streets and also we can see the very elaborate water systems where the water was even being recycled
20:29so we know that it was a very well organized city we have found glazed ceramics from the islamic world
20:39porcelains that had come all the way from china they'd been trading far and wide it had once been
20:45this sort of central point in indian ocean trade over many centuries it grew as a center of wealth
20:52the nature of the exotic artifacts discovered at the geddy ruins suggest it was once a booming trade town
21:01but for centuries archaeologists have yet to uncover what caused thousands of people to flee such a well-built
21:10and successful city the big question about geddy is why it was abandoned mom basa and malindi two of
21:20geddy's nearest neighbors not only continue to be occupied but thrived in later centuries they're still major
21:26centers today so why geddy became unlivable is something that we don't know we can only speculate
21:37what could have caused an alleged mass exodus while some theorize it was disease or fresh water drying up
21:46or perhaps even a disruption in trade routes what's confounding is that based on archaeological
21:53evidence many believe geddy was deserted practically overnight it's not well known exactly why this place
22:03was abuddled it was actually not gradual geddy was abuddled very rapidly james kirkman discovered in the
22:15palace everything was removed and also kirkman found two jars big jars were kicked so he suggested that
22:26this were kicked when people were running out in geddy people left in a hurry did the residents of geddy
22:35really
22:36grab as much as they could carry and run and if so what were they running from
22:41them well local folklore suggests a haunting possibility it is said that the people of geddy may
22:50have been escaping evil spirits the idea that evil spirits had something to do with geddy's abandonment
22:58comes from a real and deeply embedded spiritual belief in creatures known as djinn the djinn inspires
23:09curiosity and a certain amount of fear even today among local tribes people in the geddy region
23:17gina believed to be made from smokeless fire and genes can take any form they can be
23:29malnovelant or benevolent depending on what the situation is
23:36the giriama people who live around the geddy ruins they look at geddy as a sacred place protected by jinn
23:47so there was that belief of genes even during the period when geddy was occupied but we have not found
23:54any evidence the reason why the place was abuddled and why was it abuddled in a hurry
24:00was the belief in powerful supernatural creatures somehow responsible for the abandonment of geddy
24:08it's just one of many questions yet to be answered about the history of this african archaeological
24:16enigma will the ruins of geddy ever reveal the secret of why the city was abandoned
24:22or will it or will its history remain a fascinating tale of folklore with so many different cultures
24:30africa is brimming with intriguing local legends including tribal tales of mysterious blue stones
24:39that are said to be rarer than diamonds
24:47sierra leone west africa
24:51this small coastal country is known for its stunning natural beauty diverse ecosystems and a wealth of
25:00mineral resources since 1930 an estimated 15 billion dollars worth of diamonds have officially been mined here
25:09including the massive 969 carat rock known as the star of sierra leone but in 1990 a geological discovery
25:19of a very different kind would dazzle rock experts and launch a stone hunting adventure that has spanned over
25:2830 years in 1990 an italian geologist by the name of antonio pitoni
25:37went into sierra leone and he found himself talking with one of the chiefs of the fuller tribes in that
25:47region they started talking about where diamonds came from and this chief said that they came from the
25:53sky they fell from the sky but tony said to him well what else falls from the sky and the
26:00chief said to him
26:01we can show you and a shaman took him to a location and he started digging up the ground
26:10and showed him these blue stones or sky stones as they're also known and the shaman said that these fell
26:18stones that fell from the sky stones that fell from the sky while the origin story was easy to dismiss
26:26as
26:26local mythology the rock's jacket shape and unusual blue patina was intriguing
26:33and when gemologist and rare meteorite collector jared collins saw these enigmatic stones for the first time
26:40it would set him on a 12-year quest to answer one simple question what are they in 2013 i
26:51was in hong
26:52kong for the yearly gem show and a dealer had invited me to his house to see his collection of
26:59rare gemstones
26:59i see a blue rock the blue is very striking and i picked it up and i knew there was
27:06something unusual
27:07about this and i asked the guy what is this and he said that's sky stone that's sky stone
27:15this is an object that supposedly came from the heavens and was thrust into the earth i asked him
27:23if he would sell it to me and he said no and this is a guy that would sell anything
27:28i think for almost
27:29a year i bothered this guy he finally agreed to sell me one gram the small piece and as soon
27:37as i got
27:37a hold of it i immediately cut it in half and i sent half of it over to university of
27:44washington earth
27:45and space sciences and dr tony irving did what i think is the best analysis done to date and he
27:54found that the stones are essentially calcium orthosilicate so it could be natural but his analysis
28:01was that it is probably artificial it is a man-made material he was not able to identify the blue
28:11color
28:11it's not like a pigment you can't paint with it the blue colorant remains unknown the most anomalous
28:20characteristic is why is it blue there are ways you can add a dye but we have no idea how
28:26that would have
28:26been achieved there when the stone is sampled and pieces are broken off the color kind of falls apart
28:34with it and so we have no idea what whoever made the sky stones used to turn them blue and
28:41that's pretty
28:41cool after the initial analysis jared sent sky stone samples to 15 labs around the world while the properties
28:51of the blue coloring of the rocks remain inconclusive the extensive scientific tests seem to suggest that
28:57the stone itself was somehow forged by man the data produced when the sky stones were analyzed provides a
29:08match and that's with what we call a geopolymer in other words concrete or cement according to the numbers
29:15i saw this could be anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of years old we don't know
29:20and so
29:21maybe it's a mystery concrete from civilization past the analysis of this mysterious material raises
29:29a fascinating question are the blue sky stones the product of an ancient african lost technology
29:37one thing that we do know is that whatever created it needed a high temperature for a sustained
29:44period of time that would require having a kiln in sierra leone five six seven eight thousand years ago
29:52which i'm pretty sure that they didn't have we know that the mesopotamians were the first
29:59to invent kiln technology that would be around five or six thousand bc so is it a lost technology
30:09the science keeps saying that it is potentially man-made artificial what is this material doing in
30:17sierra leone i've spent more than 12 years now trying to get to the bottom of this thing
30:22there is a mystery in here that is not yet revealing itself and i would really like to find out
30:28what that is
30:30whatever the blue sky stones are they're undoubtedly extremely rare and exotic but there's another
30:38african mystery even more ancient that has captivated the world for more than 2 000 years
30:44the yet-to-be-discovered location of cleopatra's tomb
30:53northeast africa this erd land is home to the world's longest river the nile and many ancient
31:01civilizations including the kingdom of cush in modern-day sudan the aksumite empire in ethiopia
31:11and the powerful and mysterious realm known as ancient egypt
31:17this great civilization of egypt we don't really really think about that as africa but it is it
31:22left behind the pyramids and the sphinx all these great structures that have lasted thousands of years
31:29but one of the reasons that it so captivates us is that there's still so much we don't know
31:36evidence of a once advanced and thriving empire can be found in the extraordinary engineering at cairo
31:43the grand temples and immaculate royal tombs of luxor and the captivating ruins of ancient egypt's last
31:50center of power alexandria tapasiris magna 30 miles west of alexandria according to renowned archaeologist
32:01kathleen martinez who has led excavations here for 20 years this massive two square mile temple complex
32:08could unravel one of the greatest enduring mysteries of the ancient egyptian world this is an ancient
32:17temple very sacred and nobody thought it was an important temple because it was completely destroyed
32:26abandoned and there was very little information about this place it was the only temple in egypt where
32:34you don't know to whom it was dedicated so i said we need to excavate it could be the final
32:41resting place
32:41of queen cleopatra uncovering the mysterious life and death of queen cleopatra the last pharaoh of egypt
32:49has been the ambition of countless explorers after ascending the throne in 51 bc at just 18 years old
32:58cleopatra became the richest most powerful woman on earth cleopatra the seventh was the last ruler of
33:06egypt the last queen at a time when men were really dominating all of the most important political
33:12positions she was a powerful woman in her own right cleopatra's job really was to advocate for
33:20for the needs of egypt which at this point was very much being ruled by rome one of the key
33:26ways in
33:26which cleopatra did this was by aligning herself romantically with rome's leaders so she was very
33:34clever but cleopatra remains mysterious to us because she was written about by roman writers
33:42and roman writers had a tendency to denigrate her and to paint her in a very particular light which may
33:49or may
33:49not be true and of course we don't know where she was buried the question of the whereabouts and the
33:57nature of cleopatra's tomb is one of the great problems for egyptian archaeology it seems almost
34:05like an anomaly we are led to believe that that tomb was in alexandria but we have in fact just
34:13about
34:13no archaeological evidence for that tomb for centuries archaeologists and explorers have searched the
34:21ancient city of alexandria for the legendary lost tomb of cleopatra with no success but based on her
34:29discoveries at tapasiris magna many believe kathleen martinez may be close to locating the great queen's
34:37final resting place plutarch one of the most important ancient writers said that cleopatra was
34:44buried in the temple of isis i've been excavating now for 20 seasons in the second season we were
34:54able to discover that this is an ancient temple dedicated to goddess isis we have uncovered more
35:02than three thousand artifacts and most of the objects that we have discovered are from the time
35:08of cleopatra we have discovered more than 600 coins portraying the queen we have 21 catacombs
35:19and most of those catacombs are from the time of cleopatra
35:24and who was buried there generals officials high rank people around the queen we have several statues
35:35of isis including one that experts believe could have been a statue of queen cleopatra herself
35:44all the evidence that we are getting confirm the link of this temple to the queen
35:51the kinds of things that kathleen has found strengthen the idea that this was a temple
35:59connected to isis and we also know that cleopatra went to great lengths to associate herself with isis
36:07and to present herself as a kind of manifestation of isis so very interesting that there's that clear
36:12association with the site and isis and therefore perhaps by extension cleopatra
36:17could tapoceros magna be the location of cleopatra's lost tomb while there are at least 20 more
36:24catacombs to unearth the possibility became more plausible with an underground discovery that would
36:30change the course of the search and perhaps history as we know it
36:41tapoceros magna egypt 2022 after years searching for the lost tomb of queen cleopatra
36:50archaeologist kathleen martinez discovered something extraordinary a mysterious ancient tunnel
36:58hiding beneath this enormous temple complex
37:02the discovery of the tunnel was with archaeological excavations systematic excavations but we didn't
37:10know that this shaft will go down 25 meters and it was really hard to go down and to excavate
37:21so we had to continue excavating with our hands encountering cobra different type of snakes and scorpions
37:31which make it very difficult but we continue because the tunnels go from the temple to the mediterranean sea
37:42it's open to the mediterranean sea leading me to understand that the temple was connected to another
37:52structure that today's underwater so we are going to continue excavating and working in the
38:01sea so there's a lot of work to do the tunnel will be the key to discover the tomb of
38:08queen cleopatra
38:11we have to remember that with ancient egypt the bodies of deceased individuals were often placed
38:17in chambers at the bottom of deep shafts hidden away and protected for all eternity so the presence of
38:24shafts and tunnels at the temple area immediately puts us in mind of perhaps a monumental tomb of some kind
38:30and of course until we know exactly where it goes it's very difficult to say what it might be but
38:35it is at the very least very intriguing
38:39while excavation of the tunnel is far from complete the search for cleopatra's lost tomb has attracted another famous explorer
38:47dr robert ballard who famously found the sunken wreck of the titanic now we are working on land and underwater
38:57with dr robert ballard and we recently make a major discovery the port to the harbor of double series magnet
39:08we are writing pages of history what kind of structures could be now under water
39:16could be another temple could be a town we don't know but we believe this is the beginning of another
39:26important journey there's so much that people don't know about cleopatra and this is one of the things
39:33that we're trying to change i'm convinced that the discovery of the tomb will be the greatest discovery
39:41of the century if the tomb of cleopatra is discovered within our lifetime it would be
39:47unspeakably exciting partly this is because people have been looking for it for so long but more
39:54importantly because of what it can reveal to us how did she die what did she look like royal tombs
40:02for
40:02egyptian rulers were statements about how they wanted themselves to be perceived so we get cleopatra's
40:08perspective on things finally will cleopatra's elusive lost tomb soon be discovered like many mysteries in
40:18africa scientists explorers and adventures continue their never-ending quest for answers in the birthplace
40:26of all mankind it is a rich continent it is the continent of human origins with modern technology
40:38new surveying techniques have come up there is 3d scanning there is later there is drone technology
40:50to tell us more about africa because there are many places that remain unexplored
40:57when you work in africa you're often literally writing the history for that place and that time
41:04i think there are many more stories to be told because each time we go out there
41:09we're telling something new because there's still so much to discover
41:15africa is a magnificent land the cradle of civilization offering unprecedented diversity
41:23it's also home to lost cities and forgotten cultures along with otherworldly treasures buried in its
41:31endless deserts and dense jungles and to think that scientists and explorers could be on the precipice of a
41:38great discovery that could forever change the history of mankind well it makes the hidden mysteries of
41:45this continent even more exciting what might be uncovered the possibilities are as monumental
41:55as africa itself and for now remain unexplained
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