- 4 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00An opulent island nation destroyed by the gods.
00:06Stone tablets that point to a complex in the middle of the ocean.
00:12And massive rock monoliths that may reveal a lost civilization.
00:19It's remarkable to be living in the 21st century,
00:23to be surrounded by the ruins of ancient civilizations and all around us.
00:30Other remnants of great cultures who for thousands of years
00:33created sophisticated communities and complex societies.
00:38The history of our ancestors is still a puzzle we try to solve
00:43by piecing together written records and stone monuments and buried artifacts.
00:51What secrets might be uncovered,
00:54hidden beneath our feet and in the depths of our watery oceans?
00:59Well, that is what we'll try and find out.
01:16Athens, Greece.
01:20Within this modern city stands the ruins of a citadel
01:23that was once the center of ancient Greece.
01:28The ancient Greek civilization lasted for more than three centuries.
01:33The Greeks developed a sophisticated culture
01:36which had a profound impact on Western politics, science, and philosophy.
01:42One of the best-known Greek philosophers was Plato,
01:46who wrote more than 20 important philosophical texts known as dialogues.
01:53Plato was doing his major writing in the 4th century BCE,
01:59and Plato's works are very serious,
02:02very sober philosophical reflections on major, major questions.
02:06He is really the most important philosopher in the Western world.
02:12For most of Western civilization, Plato is the basis for our thinking and philosophy.
02:20But he's also partially a historian.
02:24And his work is still used in order to identify the way life was in antiquity.
02:33Of all the influential writings of Plato,
02:37the one that is perhaps the most fascinating and the most mysterious
02:40is his account of a lost civilization that existed centuries
02:45before the rise of ancient Greece, Atlantis.
02:52Atlantis is a very important story in Western imagination.
02:56In the year 359, before the Common Era,
03:00Plato, the great philosopher, told a story.
03:02About a continent, a large island, out in the Atlantic Ocean,
03:08and it became a very powerful nation.
03:11It was home to a fabulous civilization
03:14that began as the byword for justice and compassion.
03:18It had a huge navy that it used to travel from place to place
03:24around the Mediterranean.
03:27Plato tells us in his dialogues that the information came from a famous statesman
03:34who visited Egypt by the name of Solon a few centuries before.
03:40Plato wrote that Solon traveled to northern Egypt
03:42and entered a sacred temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Nith.
03:47In the temple was a column completely covered with hieroglyphics
03:52on which the history of Atlantis was recorded.
03:56Egyptian priests told Solon the story of this lost civilization,
04:01which predated the Egyptians themselves.
04:05Egyptians would recount the story of Atlantis
04:08as a major, major part of where their civilization came from,
04:13where they got a lot of their knowledge.
04:14This was a very advanced and technological civilization,
04:18and Plato is reporting this
04:20as a very, very important story for the ancient Egyptians.
04:24Pretty much like the next day after Plato writes this,
04:30people start debating whether or not it was true.
04:32Did Plato mean this as a fictional story,
04:35or was Plato talking about a historical occurrence?
04:41While it may sound like the stuff of fantasy,
04:44in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias,
04:47Plato provides a wealth of detail about what many believe
04:50was a very real island nation.
04:55Plato described Atlantis as being a huge land mass,
04:59potentially in the Atlantic Ocean.
05:02One of the main design specs of Atlantis
05:05was this huge area at the center of the main city of Atlantis
05:10that had concentric circles of land and canals.
05:14And it had a canal coming out that went to the sea,
05:18and a great port was built there.
05:20The concentric circles of navigable canals
05:24suggest a well-planned early marina.
05:27It is strongly oriented to the sea.
05:30In the temple on the Acropolis at the center of Atlantis,
05:34there is a statue of Poseidon,
05:36the creator god of the place.
05:38And he's got winged horses,
05:40a chariot with horses that can't fly.
05:42So there is also a transcendent dimension implied.
05:48But if such a transcendent, awe-inspiring place actually existed,
05:53what happened to it?
05:56According to Plato,
05:58the Atlanteans angered the gods with their pride,
06:01what the Greeks called hubris.
06:04And you definitely don't want to do that.
06:10Atlantis got more and more vain,
06:14more and more abusive in their hubris,
06:17a kind of arrogance that was saying,
06:19we are gods.
06:21That vanity of thinking that we are as important as the gods
06:26tends to upset the gods.
06:29And then the downfall comes.
06:31The downfall that is in every Greek tragic play
06:33is the same thing.
06:35People of great privilege are brought down.
06:40Atlantis disappeared in a day and a night
06:44due to some natural catastrophe.
06:47And it ended up under the waves.
06:49The gods came and destroyed the whole place.
06:54The people were killed.
06:57The Navy was destroyed all in a day.
07:01And Atlantis sinks into the sea.
07:06When Plato talks about this catastrophic destruction
07:10of Atlantis,
07:12I have to take him seriously.
07:15And the people would say,
07:17oh, it's just a metaphor, Atlantis.
07:19Every metaphor has at its base
07:22a nucleus of historical information.
07:27So even if he fictionalized it,
07:30even if he elaborated it,
07:32at its nucleus,
07:35it's a real historical place.
07:38Obviously, the best way to prove
07:39whether or not Atlantis exists
07:41is to find it.
07:43And rediscovering mythological cities
07:45isn't as far-fetched as it might sound.
07:49Other than the myth of Atlantis,
07:52the other great myth was the existence of Troy,
07:55a city that rivaled the Greeks in power.
07:59We know about the Trojan horse.
08:01We know about Helen of Troy.
08:03We know about Achilles.
08:04For centuries, scholars scoffed at the notion
08:07that Troy was a real place.
08:10That is until amateur archaeologist
08:12Heinrich Schliemann went looking for it in 1871.
08:15And believe it or not,
08:18Schliemann found Troy,
08:19pretty much where Homer said it would be.
08:24And that spawned the whole industry
08:26of trying to find other ancient cities.
08:29But I think it also raised false hopes
08:31that we would find Atlantis
08:33the same way we found the city of Troy.
08:36It may not be so easy.
08:38The modern search for Atlantis
08:40was kicked off back in the late 19th century
08:43by a rather curious amateur scientist
08:47named Ignatius Donnelly.
08:51Ignatius Donnelly wrote a book
08:53called Atlantis, the Antediluvian World
08:56back in 1882.
08:57And this was a book that really brought Atlantis
09:00out of Plato's fables
09:02and into modern consciousness.
09:04He said Atlantis really existed,
09:07really did have advanced technology.
09:10For Donnelly, researching the story of Atlantis
09:13became such an obsession
09:15that he even went so far as to claim
09:17that he knew precisely
09:19where Atlantis would one day be found.
09:23Ignatius Donnelly said Atlantis
09:25was in a very specific place
09:26in the Atlantic Ocean,
09:28that it sank,
09:28and that the Azores,
09:30the islands out there off Spain,
09:32are the tips of the mountains.
09:35Now we have good undersea exploration.
09:37We can go down and see the heavy silt
09:40that is at the ocean bottom
09:42that took millions of years to build up.
09:44It couldn't have been a civilization
09:46that sank a few thousand years ago.
09:48So he was wrong.
09:50But Ignatius Donnelly advanced the idea
09:53that Atlantis may have physical history to it.
09:58Many researchers believe
10:00that the best way to find Atlantis
10:02is to look for it
10:03where Plato said it was located.
10:08Plato gives us very specific
10:11geographic locations
10:13for where Atlantis was.
10:18He says it's by the pillars of Hercules.
10:21And the pillars were actually two mountains,
10:25one located at the Rock of Gibraltar
10:27and the other located in Morocco.
10:30And these two rocks
10:31were the pillars of Hercules.
10:33So he's putting it in a very specific location
10:37that every single reader knew about.
10:41Do the ruins of the legendary city of Atlantis
10:45lie deep beneath the Mediterranean Sea?
10:48It's an intriguing thought.
10:51And not completely outside the realm of possibility
10:54when you consider the mystery surrounding
10:56an abandoned tropical complex
10:59that may be the home of
11:01the lost continent of Moon.
11:09Dunedin, New Zealand, March 2017.
11:13A team of geologists at GNS Science
11:16announced a major discovery
11:18related to the Earth's continents,
11:20the vast land masses
11:22that make up the planet's surface.
11:24The scientists found that
11:26in addition to the seven continents
11:28that humans have known about for centuries,
11:30there's also an eighth continent
11:33located directly underneath New Zealand,
11:36which they named Zealandia.
11:39Zealandia sank into the ocean
11:41approximately 50 million years ago,
11:44and its existence suggests
11:46that there may be even more lost continents
11:48that were swallowed up by the sea.
11:53The Earth has cycles of sea level rise
11:56and sea level fall.
11:58Over the last hundreds of millions of years,
12:00as climate has warmed,
12:02as we get sea level rise,
12:04cold periods, sea level fall.
12:06There's a huge amount of land
12:08which is now covered by the sea.
12:1110,000 years ago,
12:13with the end of the ice age,
12:15sea levels were dramatically lower
12:17than they are now.
12:19And because of the melting of the ice,
12:22sea levels have risen since then,
12:24and cities that may have existed
12:26thousands of years ago
12:28could be lost in history as a consequence.
12:34For thousands of years,
12:36cultures from around the world
12:37have told stories about long-lost continents
12:40that were home to human civilizations
12:42and are now submerged beneath the waves.
12:47Perhaps the most famous
12:48is the legend of Atlantis,
12:51a massive island that was home
12:52to an advanced civilization
12:54before it supposedly sank into the ocean
12:57after an earthquake.
13:00There's been more books written about Atlantis
13:02than any other lost continent in history.
13:05There are many sunken cities,
13:07lost lands, destroyed continents
13:09all around the planet in legend and history.
13:12For example,
13:13we have the lost land of High Brazil,
13:16which was thought to be 200 miles
13:18off the coast of Ireland.
13:21And it was even on maps until the 1800s.
13:25One of the most intriguing lost continents
13:27is a land mass that is believed
13:29to have once existed in the Pacific Ocean,
13:32a mythical land that is known as moon.
13:37The first person to write extensively
13:40about the lost continent of Mew
13:42was a Scottish writer
13:45by the name of James Churchwood.
13:49In the 19th century,
13:51he was in India
13:52when he visited a monastery.
13:56And the monks there
13:57had records, apparently,
13:59tablets that referred to this place called Mew
14:04that was this huge continent
14:06that supposedly existed
14:08from Hawaii in the north
14:11down to Easter Island in the southeast,
14:15right the way across to Micronesia in the west.
14:19And the people there
14:21were supposedly called the Nakao.
14:24The continent of Mew
14:26thrived perhaps 50,000 years ago
14:29and was sunk beneath the waves,
14:32possibly at the end of the last ice age.
14:37My great-grandfather, James Churchwood,
14:40eventually he became friends
14:42with the Rishi of the temple
14:43that he visited in India.
14:45And the Rishis mentioned
14:46that he was a member of the Nakao Brotherhood,
14:50the holders of wisdom
14:51and knowledge of the lost continent of Mew.
14:55There were mighty navigators and sailors
14:57and established civilization
15:00in other parts of the world.
15:03According to James Churchwood,
15:05the Nakao civilization
15:06had a population
15:07of more than 60 million people at its peak
15:10before a massive volcanic cataclysm
15:13caused Mew to vanish beneath the waters.
15:18So far, no evidence of the lost continent
15:21has been found on the ocean floor.
15:23But some researchers claim
15:25that, incredibly,
15:26a tiny remnant of Mew
15:28may still exist above water today
15:31on an island
15:32located in a remote part
15:35of the Pacific Ocean.
15:38Roughly 2,500 miles northeast of Australia
15:41lie the ruins of a once-great ancient city,
15:44Nan Madal.
15:46Nan Madal is a complex of man-made islands
15:50built with massive stone blocks
15:52that float atop a submerged coral reef.
15:56So as you approach Nan Madal,
15:58there are a series of islands
16:02and they're built actually on coral,
16:04the only place in the world
16:05where this actually occurs.
16:08And you've got all these incredible structures
16:11made of these prismatic blocks.
16:16At Nan Madal, you have these ridiculous basal columns.
16:20They're huge, some of them, up to like 40 tonnes,
16:22even more in some cases.
16:24Some of them are raised very high up in the air,
16:26on the very top levels.
16:28So there's a real problem when it comes to trying to understand
16:30how they move these millions of tonnes of basal columns.
16:35One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Nan Madal
16:39is that nobody really knows who constructed it,
16:43but there's some very strange stories
16:45about how the city came into existence.
16:50For instance, one of the stories talks about
16:53it being constructed by so-called master builders
16:58turning up and using a magical force
17:03to raise the blocks into the air
17:06and put them into place,
17:08almost as if they could levitate these blocks.
17:14Some people actually suggested that maybe Nan Madal
17:18was the last remnant of Mu that was still above water.
17:24And it was simply indicative of what had sunk beneath the waves
17:29from this advanced civilisation.
17:33Nan Madal's in Micronesia,
17:35so it fit the correct general area.
17:38And this is one reason people thought in terms of Mu.
17:42When it comes to looking for this lost continent of Mu,
17:46places like Nan Madal really do suggest
17:49that it could be much more down there than we realise.
17:51on the bottom of the ocean.
17:55It's exciting to think that the study of Nan Madal
17:58could want to shed light
17:59on who built these extraordinary structures
18:02and where they may have disappeared to.
18:04Such is the case a half a world away in Sardinia,
18:08where elaborate carvings, strange statues,
18:13and massive tombs
18:15may soon reveal the identity of an ancient race of giants.
18:27Sardinia, 1974.
18:29On this island, located off the coast of Italy,
18:33a farmer in a region known as Monte Prama
18:36is tilling his fields
18:38when he strikes what appears to be a large rock.
18:43But upon closer inspection,
18:44he realises that his plough has revealed something far more amazing.
18:50It's the head of a massive ancient statue.
18:56The farmer started digging around it,
18:59brushing away the mud, pulled it out,
19:01and there was this giant stone head gazing back at him
19:04with these obsidian eyes.
19:07And so this became quite a sensation at the time.
19:11It was one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the decade.
19:17Subsequently, archaeologists entered the area,
19:20and through the late 70s,
19:22they dug and they found over 5,000 fragments of these giant statues.
19:28We have archers,
19:31we have warriors,
19:32we have boxers.
19:35They are, generally speaking,
19:37about eight feet tall
19:38and approach a ton in weight.
19:41And they are unique
19:43in the regard that for their time,
19:46there was no other statuary
19:49that was in human form
19:51and size
19:52and that level of detail and sophistication.
19:57The monolithic statues
19:59came to be known as the Giants of Monte Prama.
20:03According to archaeologists,
20:05they were carved by the Neuragic people,
20:08a mysterious civilization
20:10that lived on Sardinia nearly 4,000 years ago.
20:16The Neuragic people
20:17were the indigenous population of Sardinia.
20:21Beginning around 1750 BCE.
20:26And they were not the kind of society
20:29that would have writing.
20:31So we don't know a lot
20:33beyond their everyday lifestyle,
20:36which would be in many ways similar
20:38to what was going on
20:39throughout the Mediterranean at the same time.
20:44Incredibly,
20:45some researchers claim
20:46that the reason why the Neuragic people
20:47carved statues that were 8 feet tall
20:50is because these monoliths
20:54were created in the image
20:56of an actual race of giants.
21:00One of the strange things
21:01about these statues
21:03is that they appear to be buried
21:05underneath these kind of slabs of stone
21:08in this elongated grave,
21:10as though they were almost like ancestors
21:12being buried in the ground.
21:14Why they did this, we don't know.
21:17But there are many legends of giants
21:19all over Sardinia,
21:20and the stories go on and on and on.
21:22So this could be the same giants
21:24who are memorialized
21:26in these particular statues.
21:29Could the monoliths of Monteprame
21:31really be evidence
21:32that a civilization of giants
21:34once inhabited the island of Sardinia,
21:37as some believe?
21:39Many researchers think that it's possible
21:42and claim that there are additional clues
21:44in folklore
21:47throughout the Mediterranean.
21:50Diodorus, an ancient Greek historian,
21:53discussed how there was an ancient bloodline
21:55of the Athenian civilization
21:56known as the 50 Sons of Hercules
21:59that mated with a mortal race of women
22:02to create a giant bloodline
22:04that built these monolithic statues
22:06on the island of Sardinia.
22:08This story really put the idea
22:10into different philosophers' heads
22:12that this was actually
22:13a very advanced culture
22:15that kind of led up
22:17to the time of the Neuragic people
22:20and culminated in the era
22:23of the Monteprame giants.
22:26The massive monoliths of Monteprame
22:30and stories from folklore
22:31aren't the only pieces of evidence
22:33to suggest that giants
22:36once lived on Sardinia.
22:40Because there are also mysterious tombs
22:42located throughout the island
22:44that may have been
22:46where their oversized bodies
22:48were buried.
22:51What we see at Monteprame
22:54are totally separate structures
22:56for where they buried their deceased
22:58and these are called
22:59the giant's tombs,
23:00Tomba de Giganti.
23:02They are typically made
23:04of one very large stone
23:07that have a semi-hemispherical
23:11entry area or front
23:14that curves inward
23:16with the center part
23:17having a small hole
23:19down at the bottom,
23:21which is where the skeleton
23:22would have been interred.
23:24As you see these giant's tombs,
23:26what you realize is
23:27that it's entirely made
23:28of large blocks
23:30with a small opening
23:32in the base.
23:33In tradition,
23:35these were the burial places
23:36designed for giants.
23:38They would actually build
23:38the tomb around it.
23:41This is one of the clues
23:43that kind of links
23:44with the legends
23:45that giants did exist
23:47in Sardinia.
23:48But there is further evidence
23:49that actual skeletons
23:51have been found
23:52in some of these giants' graves.
23:55We have accounts
23:57from 1901
23:58where there's a report
24:00of four nine-foot skeletons
24:02being unearthed
24:03in the vicinity
24:04in northern Sardinia.
24:06And even relatively recently,
24:08there are reports
24:09of three skeletons
24:10being dug up
24:11in an area called Turalba
24:13in southwest Sardinia.
24:14However, the problem is
24:16is that most of the evidence
24:18has now disappeared.
24:19They've just gone missing, basically.
24:22And so,
24:22you have to question
24:24why is this?
24:25Is there a cover-up?
24:28Is it possible
24:29that the bones of giants
24:30have actually been hidden
24:32from the public?
24:33It's an intriguing theory
24:35and it deepens the mystery
24:37surrounding the strange,
24:39towering statues
24:41uncovered at Monte Prama.
24:44The giants of Monte Prama
24:47are very unique
24:49and enigmatic.
24:51And Sardinia's myths
24:53and stories
24:54about who these people were
24:56typically talk about giants,
24:58but there's a lot of things
24:59we don't know
25:00about who these people were.
25:02And so,
25:03these giant statues
25:05are the mystery
25:07within that mystery.
25:10Are the tombs
25:11discovered on the island
25:13of Sardinia
25:13the final resting place
25:16of actual giants?
25:18While some may be wary
25:20of such a conclusion,
25:21our ancestors certainly
25:22went to great lengths
25:23to carve and construct
25:26massive structures
25:28out of stone.
25:29like in the case
25:30of a remote island
25:31in the Pacific Ocean
25:33whose picturesque landscape
25:35is covered
25:37with mysterious,
25:40colossal monoliths.
25:452,300 miles
25:47off the coast of Chile,
25:48an island rises
25:49from the waters
25:50of the Pacific Ocean
25:52called Rapa Nui
25:54by the locals.
25:55The island is perhaps
25:56better known
25:57by the name given to it
25:58by Dutch explorer
25:59Jacob Ruggevy
26:01when he landed here
26:02on Easter Sunday,
26:03April 5th, 1722
26:05and dubbed it
26:07Easter Island.
26:11Today,
26:12some 5,000 people
26:13make their home here,
26:15most of whom
26:15are the descendants
26:16of Easter Island's
26:18original inhabitants
26:20who were also named
26:22the Rapa Nui.
26:23But its most famous
26:25residents
26:26are the hundreds
26:27of massive,
26:28ancient,
26:29monolithic statues
26:31known as Moai
26:33that are scattered
26:34across its grassy cliffs.
26:38Easter Island is famous
26:39for its Moai statues.
26:42They are these
26:43human depictions.
26:45Their faces
26:47are very long
26:48and their chins are long
26:50and there are over
26:52900 of them
26:53on the island.
26:55About 95%
26:58of them
26:58were quarried
26:59at a crater
27:01called
27:02Rano Roraku.
27:04And there are
27:05a number of
27:06failed
27:08or just
27:08given up
27:09on Moai
27:10still carved
27:11into the crater's face.
27:13The Moai
27:15vary quite a bit
27:16in size,
27:16but the average
27:17Moai
27:18is about 12
27:19to 13 tons
27:20and about
27:2213 feet tall.
27:24So people
27:25are really fascinated
27:26by this
27:27and continue
27:28to beg
27:29for an explanation
27:30of why
27:31did the ancient
27:33islanders
27:33in this remote
27:35location
27:35invest so much
27:37in these giant statues
27:39and why are they here?
27:42archaeologists
27:43estimate
27:43that the Moai
27:44were created
27:44between 1400
27:45and 1600 AD.
27:48For centuries,
27:49experts
27:50have been confounded
27:51as to what
27:52these massive
27:53headstones
27:53were intended
27:54to represent.
27:56But then
27:57in 2010,
27:57archaeologists
27:58uncovered
27:59an important clue
28:00when a series
28:01of excavations
28:03revealed
28:03that there was
28:04more to the Moai
28:06than meets
28:07the eye.
28:08They discovered
28:10the Moai
28:11have torsos
28:13and they have
28:15very long,
28:16thin arms
28:17and hands.
28:19They're huge statues
28:21and they're buried
28:22up to their necks
28:24literally
28:25in sediment
28:27and debris.
28:28The Moai
28:29have details
28:30on the body,
28:31some have petroglyphs
28:32on the body,
28:33and people
28:34are really fascinated
28:35by this
28:35because the common
28:37misperception
28:38of the Moai
28:38comes from
28:40the really
28:41iconic photos
28:42of the heads
28:45alone.
28:45So people see that
28:47and they just
28:47call them heads,
28:48but it's correct
28:50to really refer
28:50to the Moai
28:51as statues.
28:52The discovery
28:53of the full-size
28:54Moai statues
28:55only deepens
28:57the mystery
28:57surrounding them.
28:59The revelation
29:00that some
29:01of these monoliths
29:02are more than
29:03twice as big
29:04as previously believed
29:05naturally begs
29:07the question,
29:07how did the Rapa Nui
29:09move the massive
29:11stones into place?
29:13The transport
29:14of these giant statues
29:16has been
29:17a continuing mystery.
29:19For example,
29:20the largest Moai
29:21ever transported
29:22goes by the name
29:23of Paro.
29:24Paro is about
29:2633 feet tall,
29:28and he's estimated
29:29to weigh
29:30about 75 to 80 tons.
29:33Paro was transported
29:35from the quarry
29:36to the platform
29:37where he was displayed,
29:38and it's over
29:39three miles.
29:40So it's an amazing
29:41accomplishment.
29:43The mystery
29:44of how they moved
29:45these giant statues
29:47has been
29:48a perennial question.
29:51When the first
29:52Europeans showed up
29:53and asked the local
29:54people how they did it,
29:56they said,
29:57well, the statues
29:58walked there
29:59themselves.
30:01They walked
30:02from the quarry
30:02to these platforms
30:04they stand on
30:06called Ahu.
30:07And so,
30:08if we listen
30:09to the Rapa Nui,
30:10there was a magical
30:11quality to creating
30:13these Moai.
30:15Is it possible
30:16that the Moai
30:17somehow walked
30:19into place?
30:20Of course,
30:21it sounds impossible.
30:22But according
30:23to tests conducted
30:24by archaeologists
30:26in 2012,
30:27there may be some truth
30:29to this legend.
30:31What we showed
30:32in experiments
30:34with a replica
30:36of an actual Moai
30:38is that the statues
30:40have a lower center
30:42of gravity
30:42that makes them
30:45lean forward.
30:46And if you attach
30:47ropes to the head
30:49and rock the statue,
30:52the pendulum effect
30:54takes over
30:54allowing it
30:56to fall forward
30:57and the statue
30:58actually walks.
31:00It turns out
31:01that it looks like
31:03in the end
31:03the Rapa Nui
31:05may well be right.
31:06Maybe they did
31:06walk there.
31:09Were the Moai statues
31:10moved by an ingenious
31:12use of ropes?
31:13It's just one
31:14of the many
31:15intriguing theories
31:16about these giant
31:17stone statues.
31:19But ultimately,
31:21how they were transported
31:22and became buried
31:24up to their necks
31:25remains unknown.
31:27The Moai of Easter Island
31:29really have come
31:30to represent mystery.
31:33Huge stone sculptures
31:35on a grassy,
31:37windswept island.
31:39People wonder
31:40who made these
31:41and why.
31:42And so the mystery
31:44continues.
31:46The revelation
31:47that some of the
31:48buried Moai
31:49of Easter Island
31:50had full-sized bodies
31:51adds a new wrinkle
31:53to the theories
31:53about why they were
31:55designed in the first place.
31:57Perhaps it's when we
31:58dig deeper
31:59into the earth
32:00that the true stories
32:01from the ancient past
32:03are finally revealed.
32:06Like in the case
32:07of an ancient complex
32:08in the heart
32:09of North America
32:10where a deadly ritual
32:11may have led
32:12to the demise
32:14of an entire civilization.
32:23St. Louis, Missouri
32:25in the heart
32:26of the downtown district
32:27stands the Wainwright
32:28Building.
32:30Built in 1891,
32:31this office building
32:32is one of the world's
32:34first modern skyscrapers.
32:36But as it turns out,
32:38there is a similarly
32:40sized structure
32:40in this region
32:42that is much,
32:43much older.
32:44just 10 miles
32:46east of the city
32:47stands the ruins
32:48of an ancient
32:49man-made pyramid mound
32:51that was built
32:52centuries ago
32:54and is as tall
32:56as a 10-story building.
33:00This is the largest
33:01prehistoric earthwork
33:03in the western hemisphere.
33:05The largest
33:06totally earthen mound
33:07built by ancient people
33:08in North or South America.
33:10Its base actually
33:11is bigger than
33:12the Great Pyramid
33:13in Egypt
33:13and it stands
33:14100 feet high.
33:16And it was built
33:18with about 22 million
33:20cubic feet of dirt
33:21that had to be
33:22carried in baskets
33:23on people's backs
33:24and deposited.
33:26The fact that the ruins
33:28of a man-made pyramid
33:29sit in the middle
33:30of the United States
33:31might come as a surprise
33:33for some.
33:34And yet,
33:35this monumental
33:37earthen mound
33:38is merely one
33:39of more than
33:40100 similar structures
33:42that have been
33:43discovered in this area.
33:44They are all part
33:45of a sprawling
33:46ancient city
33:47named Cahokia.
33:50Cahokia is arguably
33:53the most important
33:54of the ancient cities
33:57of North America.
33:59Constructed approximately
34:01between 700 and 1350 AD,
34:05it was an incredible metropolis.
34:10We have this idea
34:11of the First Peoples
34:12as being hunter-gatherers
34:14and riding around
34:15on horses all the time.
34:17And that's simply
34:19the wrong impression.
34:21They were an incredibly
34:23technologically
34:24sophisticated society.
34:27We don't know
34:28what this place
34:29was called
34:30or what the language
34:32the people spoke here.
34:33The name Cahokia
34:34comes from a later group
34:35of American Indians
34:36that moved into this area
34:38in the 1600s
34:39from further north
34:40around the Great Lakes.
34:41They were here,
34:42but they did not
34:43build the mounds.
34:44They just later used it
34:45as part of their settlement.
34:47We often use the term
34:49city when we talk
34:49about Cahokia
34:50because of its magnitude.
34:52It covered nearly
34:53six square miles
34:54or about 4,000 acres.
34:56During its peak
34:57between 1050 and 1150 AD,
35:00there were probably,
35:01you know,
35:0140,000, 50,000 people
35:02living within this region
35:03who would be larger
35:05than London was
35:06at that time.
35:08And yet,
35:09200 years later,
35:11by 1350 AD,
35:13the whole place
35:14had been abandoned.
35:17And indeed,
35:18there is a mystery
35:19of exactly
35:21what took place there.
35:24But if Cahokia
35:25was such a thriving metropolis,
35:27then it begs the question,
35:28how did this civilization
35:30come to an end?
35:32It's a mystery
35:33that has driven archaeologists
35:35to scour Cahokia's ruins
35:37in search of an answer.
35:39There are a number
35:40of hypotheses
35:41about the decline
35:42of Cahokia.
35:44One involves
35:45evidence of
35:46the defensive wall
35:47that was built
35:48around the center
35:48of Cahokia.
35:50So that indicates
35:51that they had conflicts
35:52in warfare.
35:53And there's been
35:54suggestions that maybe
35:55with the crowded
35:56conditions here,
35:57perhaps there was
35:58increases in disease.
36:01Did the threat
36:02of warfare
36:03or poor living conditions
36:04cause the inhabitants
36:05of Cahokia
36:06to abandon
36:07this thriving city?
36:08It's hard to say.
36:10But in recent years,
36:12another theory
36:13has emerged.
36:14One that suggests
36:15there may have been
36:16a more sinister reason
36:18behind Cahokia's demise.
36:21So one of the ideas
36:22that's been put forward
36:23is that something
36:24quite dark
36:25took place there.
36:26And this is why
36:27there's little evidence
36:28in the oral tradition
36:30or the folklore
36:31of this area.
36:32And this could be
36:32ultimately why
36:33the site was abandoned.
36:36Back in the late 60s
36:38and early 70s
36:39there was an excavation
36:40at a small mound
36:41here on the site
36:42called Mound 72.
36:43As we dug further
36:45into the mound
36:45there was a burial pit
36:46about five feet deep
36:48and at the bottom
36:49of that they found
36:5153 mostly young women
36:54all buried
36:54at the same time
36:55laid out in two rows
36:56and piled in there
36:57two deep.
36:59Next to them
37:00were four men
37:01with their heads
37:01and their hands
37:02cut off
37:02apparently
37:03in some ritual.
37:05The burials
37:06that came out
37:07of Mound 72
37:09quite clearly
37:10show evidence
37:11of mass sacrifice.
37:14We have to
37:15ask ourselves
37:16whether this
37:16would have had
37:17any kind of impact
37:18upon the society
37:20as a whole
37:21at Cahokia.
37:23Did the vast majority
37:25of Cahokia's
37:26inhabitants
37:26abandon their city
37:28because its leaders
37:29were engaging
37:30in the practice
37:31of human sacrifice?
37:33And if so
37:34then where did they go?
37:36Is this tragedy
37:37enough to explain
37:38why there is
37:39no written record
37:40that this civilization
37:41ever existed?
37:42For now
37:43experts remain
37:45collectively baffled
37:46and worry
37:48that we may
37:49never know for sure.
37:51We really must question
37:53you know
37:53what really happened
37:54because
37:54could it be something
37:55much more mysterious
37:57that we just
37:57don't know about?
38:03Egypt
38:041996
38:06Just off the coast
38:08of Alexandria
38:09in the Abukir Bay
38:12a team of
38:13underwater archaeologists
38:15begin the hunt
38:15for a lost Egyptian
38:16city
38:17known as
38:17Thonis
38:20Thonis was known
38:22in only the
38:23sort of sparsest
38:24detail
38:24thanks to
38:25a few
38:26ancient sources
38:27in which it's
38:28mentioned
38:29but it had
38:30for a very long time
38:31not been identified
38:32archaeologically
38:33so we knew
38:34it must have existed
38:34because text told us
38:35so
38:36she had no idea
38:37where it was
38:38then in the year
38:402000
38:41at a depth
38:42of some
38:4330 feet
38:43divers found
38:45ancient
38:45Egyptian statues
38:46hordes of gold
38:48coins and
38:49jewelry
38:49and even
38:50the ruins
38:51of buildings
38:52and roads
38:53all part
38:55of the massive
38:56city
38:57of Thonis
38:58that was
38:59rediscovered
39:00at last
39:03one of the
39:03most amazing
39:04discoveries made
39:05was the
39:06temple of
39:07our moon
39:08and this
39:09temple was
39:10absolutely
39:11vast
39:11constructed of
39:12these incredibly
39:14big stone
39:15blocks
39:15so we have
39:16a really
39:17visceral idea
39:18of the size
39:19and the
39:19monumentality
39:20of this temple
39:21we also have
39:22an enormous
39:23colossal statue
39:24of the god
39:25happy
39:26who's a kind
39:27of personification
39:28of the Nile
39:30it's appropriate
39:31that you would
39:32have a god
39:32like this
39:33present
39:34at the
39:34sort of
39:35entrance
39:35if you like
39:36the Mediterranean
39:36entrance
39:37to the
39:38Nile Delta
39:38region
39:39and the
39:39Nile River
39:40itself
39:41thousands
39:42of artifacts
39:42have been
39:43recovered
39:43from Thonis
39:44and archaeologists
39:45estimate
39:45that it was
39:46three times
39:47the size
39:48of the
39:48ancient
39:49Roman city
39:49of Pompeii
39:51but
39:51how did
39:52this vast
39:53remarkable
39:54city
39:54sink
39:55beneath
39:56the waves
39:58what we
39:58think
39:59happened
39:59with
39:59Thonis
39:59is
40:00an
40:00earthquake
40:01in around
40:01the
40:02second
40:02century
40:02BC
40:03caused
40:04the city
40:05to sink
40:05into the
40:06water
40:07and
40:08Thonis
40:08was
40:09lost
40:09to
40:10history
40:11but
40:12we've
40:12really
40:12only
40:13scratched
40:13the
40:13surface
40:14in terms
40:14of what
40:14we know
40:15about
40:15this
40:15city
40:16a huge
40:17mystery
40:18still
40:18remains
40:18and
40:19in
40:19large
40:20part
40:20that's
40:20because
40:2195%
40:22of the
40:22city
40:23remains
40:24underwater
40:24and
40:25remains
40:25in need
40:26of investigation
40:26only 5%
40:28seems to
40:29have been
40:29discovered
40:29so the
40:31questions
40:32remain
40:33while the
40:34full excavation
40:35of Thonis
40:36will take
40:36decades
40:38archaeologists
40:39and explorers
40:40continue to
40:41scour the
40:41globe
40:41in search
40:42of other
40:43lost cities
40:44that capture
40:46people's
40:46imaginations
40:47the reason
40:49why
40:49people
40:50look
40:51for lost
40:52cities
40:52like
40:53Xanadot
40:54or Petra
40:56or anywhere
40:57else
40:57is
40:57because
40:58we want
40:59to be
41:00the next
41:01discoverers
41:02of this
41:03incredible
41:03lost
41:04realm
41:05that nobody
41:06has set
41:06their eyes
41:07on
41:07perhaps
41:08for thousands
41:09of years
41:10because
41:11you just
41:12don't know
41:12exactly what
41:13you're gonna
41:14discover
41:18it's exciting
41:19to think
41:19about what
41:19future
41:20archaeological
41:21finds
41:22will reveal
41:22perhaps
41:23an artifact
41:25from Atlantis
41:25will be found
41:26deep
41:26underwater
41:27or
41:28the discovery
41:29of other
41:30islands
41:30like
41:30Nanmadaw
41:31will prove
41:32that the
41:32continent
41:33of Mu
41:34once
41:34towered
41:35above the
41:36ocean waves
41:36and as
41:38technology
41:38evolves
41:39lost
41:40civilizations
41:41might be
41:42spotted
41:42without ever
41:43having to
41:43raise a
41:44shovel
41:44with every
41:45new revelation
41:46we get
41:46one step
41:47closer
41:48to understanding
41:49how our
41:51ancestors
41:51once lived
41:52but for now
41:54the true
41:56history
41:56of our
41:57ancient past
41:57will remain
42:00unexplained
Comments