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Underground Marvels
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00:02Carved into the mountainside beneath this West Virginia hotel lies a top-secret Cold War bunker.
00:09For nearly 30 years, this military fortress was kept hidden from the world until its cover was shockingly blown.
00:17It was no longer deniable. We're closing down the bunker.
00:22Thousands of miles away in the United Kingdom is the entrance to a giant subterranean network
00:28created by 200 years of mining.
00:32How has it been transformed for modern-day use?
00:36You get the thrill of being underground that is so alien to most people.
00:41And in Israel, more than 1,000 caves make up an ancient underground labyrinth.
00:47What secrets are just being revealed? And what still remains below?
00:52We were actually the first people to enter into that room in 2,000 years.
01:09Throughout history, life underground has captured our imagination.
01:15It creates a very frightening but also a very beautiful experience.
01:19Now, we're taking you further and deeper.
01:23There's all kinds of wild theories about what could be below.
01:26To unearth the mysteries, the secrets, and the wonders of these underground marvels.
01:41Hidden underneath this palatial West Virginia hotel is the site of one of America's most closely guarded Cold War secrets.
01:50In the event of a nuclear attack, this vast subterranean bunker was designed to provide more than 1,000 people
01:58with enough water and food to survive for 60 days.
02:02I walked by it thousands of times and never thought, oh, there's an 18-ton blast door behind there.
02:08How was the construction of this massive structure kept confidential from the people living and working in the hotel above?
02:16One of the techniques they used to keep it secret was hiding it in plain sight.
02:20And how was its cover suddenly and shockingly blown?
02:23The bunker was really sort of prepared for everything except this.
02:36At the height of the Cold War, the threat of nuclear Armageddon sent the world into a panic.
02:43Fearing an invasion could happen at any moment, both the Soviet Union and the United States built up their military
02:50capabilities.
02:50Constructed vast nuclear arsenals, and in the event of a national emergency, built secret underground bunkers.
03:03Spread over 11,000 acres of sprawling West Virginia hills, the Greenbrier Resort was an unlikely yet perfect location.
03:12From the mid-1800s on, the Greenbrier has really been a passionate place to visit.
03:18Cam Huffman is director of public relations at the resort.
03:23Politicians, actors, actresses were visiting, and five U.S. presidents visited here even before the Civil War.
03:29It's a mark of society if you get to come and stay at the Greenbrier, and it's still that way.
03:36The hotel's involvement in the Cold War efforts began in 1955.
03:42The U.S. government had tasked the Army Corps of Engineers with scouting locations for a subterranean bunker,
03:48where members of Congress could safely shelter in the event of a nuclear attack.
03:55Having already served as a military hospital during World War II, the Greenbrier was ultimately selected because of its proximity
04:03to Washington, D.C.,
04:04and prior relationship with the U.S. government.
04:11Constructing the bunker, codenamed Project Greek Island, was a huge undertaking.
04:18People in the military and in the government were thinking it's a question of when there's a war.
04:25These two superpowers are going to be sending bombers across the ocean, and Washington would be a primary target.
04:32Bob Conte has worked at the Greenbrier Resort for over 40 years and is an expert on its rich history.
04:40The government drew what they called the federal arc.
04:44So within 300 miles of Washington, D.C., was a series of emergency relocation centers.
04:51It wasn't really a matter of protecting certain individuals.
04:55It was a matter of keeping the constitutional framework of our government.
04:59So you're going to move the leadership of the federal government to these facilities.
05:03Congress here, executive branch to another facility, the Defense Department to another facility.
05:09They would stay in contact with one another, and they would provide continuity of government.
05:14It was really an audacious idea.
05:22Construction on the bunker began in 1958.
05:25To keep their plans under wraps, the resort came up with a cover story that they were adding on a
05:31new wing to the hotel.
05:35The Greenbrier at the time didn't have air conditioning.
05:37We're kind of at a time in history where air conditioning was becoming popular and needed in hotels such as
05:42the Greenbrier.
05:43So they were able to build the West Virginia wing and use the story that they needed rooms that had
05:48air conditioning.
05:49So it worked out perfectly.
05:51Neither the hotel staff nor the locals caught on to the real reason behind this major addition.
05:57People knew that there was a construction project going on.
05:59It was just what was beneath that people didn't know about.
06:02One of the techniques they used to keep it secret was hiding it in plain sight.
06:07Construction of the new wing provided the perfect cover for the real work that was being done underground.
06:15They built a wall around it so that people couldn't see exactly what was going on.
06:20At 112,544 square feet, the two level facility was roughly the size of two football fields stacked on top
06:29of each other.
06:30The bunker is basically a giant concrete box that has two foot thick concrete walls reinforced with steel all the
06:36way around it.
06:37It's buried under 20 feet of earth.
06:39It took 50,000 tons of concrete to build it all.
06:42It obviously took a massive crew to build the whole thing.
06:46The Greenbrier Bunker was built to accommodate 1,100 people, 435 representatives, 100 senators, and all the associated legislative members
06:57and their support staff.
06:59This was no small project.
07:02The bunker, for all intents and purposes, is a giant concrete, 112,000 square foot box.
07:10And it's vulnerable at the entrances and exits.
07:13So, thus, you need to have blast doors to protect those openings.
07:17This is an 18-ton blast door.
07:21This is where the hotel meets the bunker.
07:25Now, you can't have an 18-ton blast door sitting in the middle of your hotel without raising suspicions.
07:30What you're looking at here is just a cover door that fit right over this.
07:35In the 30 years that this bunker was sitting here, I walked by it thousands of times and never thought,
07:41oh, I bet that's a cover door and there's an 18-ton blast door behind there.
07:50The bunker was part of a larger continuity of government program.
07:53In the event of an international crisis, the entire property would be used as a meeting place for members of
08:00government.
08:01This is called Governor's Hall right here.
08:03There are 435 seats here, 435 members of the House of Representatives.
08:09There would be meetings here. There would be deliberations on legislations.
08:13They'd be taking votes here.
08:15Down the corridor is a second room that could accommodate up to 100 people.
08:20This would have been the Senate side.
08:22All this was aimed to provide continuity of government to the American population in the face of a catastrophic war.
08:32To ensure Congress could communicate with the military and what remained of the public, the necessary technology was put into
08:40place.
08:421,300 telephone lines running into this underground facility.
08:48In contrast to the resort's premier accommodations, the bunker wasn't outfitted with five-star amenities.
08:55The dormitories consisted of 18 rooms, each built to house 60 people in metal bunk beds.
09:02These are some of the bunk beds that were installed in the bunker back in the early 1960s.
09:07There were 1100 beds. The dormitories took up about 30% of the whole square footage.
09:15For all those years, every member of Congress had a bed assigned to them.
09:21But for all that it lacked in comfort, it made up for in preparedness.
09:26In the event of a nuclear attack, how would this underground fortress maintain a constant state of operational readiness?
09:33And nearly 30 years after its construction, how did one journalist blow the bunker's cover?
09:45During the Cold War, in the event of a nuclear attack, the United States Congress would have been taken underground
09:52to a decontamination room beneath the Greenbrier Hotel.
10:01So you would take all your clothing off, you would just put it right down in here, because it's contaminated.
10:08There are a series of shower nozzles.
10:10It's a matter of high pressure, good water, wash any contamination that would have attached to your body.
10:16Pass through these doors, and it's time to get a new set of clothing.
10:20Good old U.S. Army fatigues.
10:22And then you walk directly into the bunker proper.
10:25Among its other features, the bunker had a kitchen stocked with enough food and water to last for 60 days.
10:32So we're entering the cafeteria.
10:34Who knew that back behind their closet was this cafeteria?
10:40It also had a medical clinic, equipped with a state-of-the-art operating room, a dental unit, and 12
10:47beds, as well as a fully stocked pharmacy.
10:50While guns, straight jackets, and riot gear were in place if needed.
10:55The bunker also had its own secure water supply, and three separate generators, each capable of powering the bunker on
11:03its own.
11:05All this was fueled by oil.
11:08Every Wednesday night, for 30 years, they fired up these generators here.
11:14They did this in the middle of the night.
11:16For three decades, the Greenbrier bunker was maintained in both a constant state of operational readiness and complete secrecy.
11:26Members of the Greenbrier staff, they were the plumbers and the electricians and the air conditioning guys.
11:31They were cleared. They had signed non-disclosure agreements.
11:35They were pretty stiff, you know.
11:36I mean, you sign one of these things, and it tells you right above your signature how long you're going
11:41to be in jail and how big the fine is going to be.
11:44So people were pretty serious about not talking about this.
11:47But at all times, this had to be available to the Congress of the United States.
11:56Having worked here throughout the 70s and 80s, Bob's experience shows how every day hundreds of people came within inches
12:04of the U.S. government's top secret operations.
12:07This was the office of Forsyth's Associates, our audio-visual consultant.
12:12They repaired televisions.
12:14And one of the little perks of working here was you could bring your television.
12:17They would come in here, Chuck and Bob were here, you'd shoot the breeze with them.
12:21But Chuck and Bob would both have been government employees.
12:25Their job was not to fix TVs, but to guard the bunker and keep it ready at a moment's notice.
12:31Unbeknownst to me and everybody else that this was the dividing line between the overt part of the facility and
12:40the covert part of the facility.
12:43The bunker remained a complete secret to the outside world for more than 30 years.
12:50Then in April 1992, reporter Ted Gupp, who had been investigating rumors about the Greenbrier for several years, finally persuaded
12:59someone to talk.
13:00When he arrived here, he actually had a map of the facility and where all the rooms were, an accurate
13:07map.
13:08So once he showed that, it was pretty clear that he had some good sources.
13:13They spent quite a bit of time at the Washington Post should they publish this story.
13:18And finally, it was decided that they did not think that this would affect national security, so they went ahead
13:26with the story.
13:28Ted Gupp's article contained explicit details of the classified bunker, and the government immediately reacted.
13:40It was no longer deniable.
13:43The next day, the Speaker of the House, Tom Foley, announced, we're closing down the bunker.
13:51In the three years following the article's publication, the legal relationship between the Greenbrier and the government was dissolved.
13:59The bunker was really sort of prepared for everything except an article in the Washington Post.
14:04There really wasn't a plan for how to shut this down.
14:09Equipment from inside the bunker was removed and transferred to other government properties.
14:14And on August 1st, 1995, the bunker officially became the property of the Greenbrier.
14:21The very first thing we started doing was giving tours.
14:25Serving as a tour guide, Bob immediately got full access to the areas that had been hidden away for more
14:31than 30 years.
14:33To say the least, I'm peeing in my pants. I'm pretty excited, you know.
14:37I'm gonna actually see this bunker.
14:39We walk through those doors there, and we go into the kitchen.
14:43And I'm thinking, wait a minute, this looks like a high school cafeteria kitchen.
14:48This is the secret bunker I've been hearing about for years.
14:51I mean, it was right here. It was right next to this exhibit hall where I've been a thousand times.
14:57Today, the Greenbrier bunker offers a unique and quite terrifying reminder of how close the world came to nuclear war.
15:05It gives us an insight to what life would have been like for the chosen few sheltered deep below a
15:12post-apocalyptic world.
15:25Hiding at the base of a 1,200-foot mountain lies the entrance to Kumorthin Mine, one of the deepest
15:32places in the United Kingdom.
15:34Down here in the bowels of the earth, you have no idea what it's doing outside.
15:41During the peak of the Industrial Revolution, these pitch black passages in Wales were dug by hand.
15:48Slate from this mine was exported globally.
15:51They were going as far as Australia, all over the world.
15:56Kumorthin shut down in the 1990s after the cost of slate mining became unsustainable.
16:02So why now are their voices once again ringing in these forgotten tunnels?
16:07We wanted to keep it as authentic as possible.
16:11How has a long harmonious history of humans working with the land been revived to bring new life here?
16:25In the 1800s, the rapid growth of the Industrial Revolution drove people from rural country homes towards cities.
16:34This expansion fueled a housing boom, putting Welsh slate for roofing in high demand.
16:40The slate roof, you could guarantee it for well over a hundred years.
16:45At its peak, slate mining in Wales employed 17,000 people and produced half a million tons per year.
16:53Kumorthin in North Wales was one of the most prolific slate mines in the region.
16:58It's one of the renowned slates in the world.
17:01Pred Hughes worked in the slate mines here for 25 years and is now part of Kumorthin's revival.
17:08The slate runs in my veins. It's history, it's texture, the whole lot. I just love it.
17:16We are looking at the mountain here. Believe it or not, it's a hollow mountain.
17:21Going down 15 levels, going up 14 levels.
17:25And it's all because of the Ordovician slates that lies within this mountain.
17:38250 men would have walked down there in the mornings.
17:43And the poor sods that work down in the lower levels, they had a long walk to reach their work.
17:56Kumorthin's vertical shafts reached so high and so deep that you could fit both the Eiffel Tower and the Statue
18:03of Liberty on top of each other.
18:06This is a crucial part of the mine because here we are looking down the backbone of the mine.
18:141,383 feet below ground.
18:21Advances in technology allowed miners to burrow deeper into the mountain.
18:27Yet progress doesn't come without risk.
18:30And by the late 19th century, that progress was tested.
18:35This was the stayway to hell.
18:37But as you can see, this has come under a little bit of an accident and it's wedged between the
18:42floor and the roof.
18:54Situated outside a small town in Wales lies one of the world's largest slate mines.
19:00What makes it so remarkable is the distinctive geology surrounding it.
19:05About 450 million years ago, this entire region was under water and the oceanic sediments formed this hard slate.
19:15This slate, it's a very fine, fine sediment that's been compressed and it splits into a very fine, smooth ribbon
19:26roofing slate.
19:27It's one of the renowned slates in the world.
19:31The unique properties of the rock here also make it ideal for mining.
19:36Gravity basically is with you.
19:38Because of the angle of the slate, it lays on about 42, 45 degrees.
19:50During the 1800s, slate production was on the rise and Coomorthan slate miners were expected to keep up with the
19:57demand.
19:58To extract the slate from the mountain, miners came up with an explosive solution.
20:04Gunpowder.
20:05They would have filled the hole up with black powder up to there.
20:08But the hole for the powder had to be cut by hand.
20:11It's called a jumper.
20:14You would twist it and throw it into the hole.
20:18And of course, the force of that would chip away the hole and it would bounce back or jump back
20:25into your hand.
20:26Thus the name, the jumper.
20:30Every chamber would only be two men.
20:33These two men would fire a big block, taken out on a trolley, maybe two, three, even four wagons, about
20:41a ton and a half each.
20:42So in total, you're talking nine tons, it would haul up on one go.
20:51Although advances in technology sped up the mining process, some of these engineering upgrades created new obstacles.
21:00It created much more dust.
21:04And of course, the dust from the slate is silica.
21:09So they would breathe in the dust and give them silicosis on the lung.
21:14It was horrendous.
21:17By the late 1800s, the miners had dug nearly 800 feet below sea level, more than 1400 feet below the
21:25mountain.
21:26However, in 1884, a major underground collapse caused half of the mine to flood and temporarily closed down.
21:35We're on G floor and this is the lowest point we'll get to.
21:40Because as you can see down there, it's flooded.
21:43Nine floors down into the bottom of the Q floor.
21:47One thing about being down here and that water icing, that's the only clue you have.
21:53That is probably horrendous weather outside.
21:58That water is on the rise.
22:00We're not in too much danger.
22:07Many companies attempted to restore the mines to pre-flood working order.
22:12The tunnels remained in use until the end of the 20th century.
22:15But the doors closed for good in 1997.
22:20Much of the original machinery was abandoned.
22:24There's so much artifacts left here.
22:26They were just shut shop and just left quite a lot of stuff.
22:33But even though the mine is now closed, it hasn't been forgotten.
22:37How were the tunnels and shafts, once the pride of Qumorthan, transformed to draw crowds?
22:52In Wales, a new generation of thrill seekers is heading back underground to explore the wonders of the abandoned Qumorthan
23:00mine.
23:01It really is a real adventure.
23:04It's a good day out.
23:07Mike Griffiths is part of a local company that has turned this old industrial site into an extreme adventure course.
23:14It's all fairly white knuckle activities.
23:16We've got climbs, zip wires, traverses, abseils.
23:22We've got a big free fall, which involves people stepping off the ledge, plummeting into the abyss.
23:31It's what we call kind of authentic adventure because everybody's clipped into the safety system, but there is still that
23:37element of danger.
23:40We wanted to keep it as authentic as possible.
23:42You get the thrill of being underground in this environment that is so alien to most people.
23:47And you get the history of the place and a feel for how it was when the miners worked underground
23:52here.
23:55It's taken veterans and newcomers alike to reimagine this space.
24:00It's quite emotional in a way after working almost 25 years in the slight industry here in Festinio.
24:06Yeah, a bit slippy here, Fred.
24:10Building the route was challenging to say the least.
24:13What we were able to do was try and get into areas of the mine that nobody had really been
24:17in before.
24:18So we have this vision of lots of zip wires such as the one you can see here that heads
24:22across.
24:23It's a little island.
24:24Nobody had been on them for over a hundred years.
24:28Despite the challenging environment, in many ways the old mine is perfect for this new purpose.
24:34The architecture of the slate mine lends itself really well to what we do.
24:38The 42 degree angle of the slate kind of creates an angle that's a tough climb, but just about doable.
24:47This intense course isn't for a novice adventurer.
24:51This is one of the most dangerous areas of the mine that we'll pass through on one of our trips.
24:55We're absolutely fine where we're standing now, but if I shine my torch behind me here,
25:00you can see on the far side of this chamber that there has been a big collapse at some point
25:04in the past.
25:08Mike, Pred and their colleagues were blown away by the popularity of the mine,
25:12as visitors flocked to get a taste of the danger and the history.
25:18We are at the deepest accessible point in Comorfin now.
25:22And for those who can make it this far, we've got an extra special treat that I'm going to show
25:25you now.
25:26Follow me.
25:28The climbing and rappelling naturally ends at the bottom of the mine, the lowest point.
25:35Cavers would usually then begin the long climb back to the entrance.
25:41But Mike had a better idea.
25:44Welcome to the deepest underground accommodation in the world.
25:48Mike and his team have spent months constructing six cabins at the very lowest point of Comorfin mine,
25:54where Cavers can spend the night in the dark, damp bottom of the pit.
25:59We're miles away from civilization down here,
26:02and it's somewhere that you don't need to worry about noisy neighbors, that's for sure.
26:06Mike and the team have always felt the need to honor not just the history of the mine,
26:11but the history of the mountain.
26:13They vowed early on to limit any damage to the surrounding environment as much as they could.
26:19These cabins do have electricity, but it's provided by the mine itself.
26:24There's a lot of water down here that's all flowed down through the mine.
26:28An enormous effort was made when Comorfin was being worked to pump all of the water out.
26:34Since Comorfin has closed down, nature's kind of taken over again,
26:37and the water that was once pumped out is now flowing down into the mountain through this turbine,
26:42which generates power for our accommodation.
26:46Converting this area for their guests has been no simple task.
26:50It's been great, but don't get me wrong, it's been tough.
26:53Every single supply and tool has been brought down by hand,
26:57across the very same eight-hour journey that visitors must negotiate.
27:02I'm going to go over to the left a bit.
27:04It has taken Mike and Pred almost eight months to get the cabins built, and they aren't done yet.
27:10I dread to think how many kilograms of equipment and timber and tools and everything that we've brought down here.
27:16It has been really tough.
27:18Thank you very much.
27:20We've only got two loads left after this one, after the hundreds that we carried down here.
27:26It's probably come quite close to having broken me.
27:30But we've managed to sort of fight on through and get most of it completed now.
27:33My back's thanking me for that.
27:36What the old quarry men would say if they was to see this,
27:39probably would tell us all that we're all mad.
27:43Former miner Pred is proud of the mine's reinvention.
27:48If you would have asked me ten years ago, five years ago,
27:52that I would be building these accommodation in an old quarry man's chamber,
27:58it would be unbelievable.
28:03It's really nice, you know, bringing life back into these empty voids.
28:08After doing it, they look good. They really look good.
28:31Spanning 2,150 acres, this UNESCO World Heritage Site in Israel
28:36marks an area which has been home to a multitude of civilizations beginning some 3,000 years ago.
28:45Jews, Edomites, Phoenicians, Egyptians all lived here.
28:50This land was mentioned throughout the Bible.
28:53This site was destroyed many times and built all over again.
28:58Yet below ground, a spectacular timeline has been preserved.
29:02There are more caves to excavate.
29:05Maybe even 10,000.
29:07What do these ancient caves tell us of the lost civilizations that once called these lands their home?
29:20Located in southern Israel is one of the most extensive archaeological sites in the world.
29:32In the region known as the Shefela, or Judean Lowlands, this area has for centuries been a crossroads for travelers
29:40moving north and south, east and west between Europe, Africa and Asia.
29:48Covering an area over 10,000 square miles, the Bet Guvrin National Park encompasses the remains of the town of
29:57Maresha.
30:02The biblical six-acre tell, or ancient mound of Maresha, is the oldest site in the park and was built
30:09to defend against marauding Egyptian pharaohs.
30:12This site was destroyed many times and built all over again.
30:18Haji Yohanan is an archaeologist and expert in deciphering the clues left behind.
30:25Maresha is cited as a fortified city that was built by Rehavam, king of Judea.
30:31He managed to defend it from the Egyptian pharaoh Shishak, who came to conquer this city and didn't succeed.
30:41Ancient Maresha enjoyed its most successful period of peace and prosperity during the third and second centuries BCE.
30:50Maresha was a cosmopolitan center. It was an economic magnet.
30:58We are right now in ancient Maresha, a city mentioned four times in the biblical text.
31:04Archaeologist and director of the Maresha project, Dr. Ian Stern, is an expert on the region's rich history.
31:12This was a city that, at its peak, contained close to 10,000 people.
31:17Jews, Edomites, Phoenicians, Egyptians, all sorts of people mixed here, lived, thrived, traded, and brought there various cultures basically to
31:29shine in a city like this.
31:31And while this region has a tumultuous history, dating back over 2,000 years, its geology tells its own unique
31:39story.
31:40The land under Bet-Guvrin Maresha is unusual.
31:44The geology of the region basically has about a meter and a half of very hard rock called Nari.
31:51But if one could penetrate with their iron tools, about a meter and a half down, they came to a
31:57very soft rock called Kirtom, which is like chalk.
32:01Once they hit the chalk level, they belled out. Belling out allowed them to create a quarry.
32:10Among the many caves in the area, the park contains over 800 bell-shaped caves.
32:16Many of these structures are linked together via underground tunnels.
32:21The largest bell caves are located to the east side of the park and were initially excavated for chalk.
32:28You can see here the beginning of the quarrying of new bricks.
32:33In actuality, they would have now, the next step would have been to carve away here and bring another brick
32:38out.
32:41Here's one typical brick, but if we look at the wall over here, one can see that they went line
32:46by line.
32:47These bricks were taken out and they were used to build their homes on the surface.
32:52The soft chalk made it easy for inhabitants to hollow out subterranean facilities, thousands of them.
33:01Once they had built their homes, they then had a hollow space underground.
33:06It could then be converted into rooms that had a functional value.
33:11Cool and comfortable in the summertime, and it is basically dry in the winter,
33:15which means everything inside here is preserved very well.
33:18This complex here has over 30 interconnecting rooms.
33:30Soon, the people of Maresha realized the caves they dug in the limestone rock could serve another purpose,
33:37one that would supply the town's inhabitants with a vital human necessity.
33:48Located nearly two hours south of Jerusalem, the Bet-Guvrin Maresha National Park is one of the most extensive archeological
33:56sites in the world.
33:58By the third to second centuries BCE, the town of Maresha had become a sprawling Hellenistic settlement.
34:05But what makes it unique is what lies below ground.
34:11During this era, the people of Maresha dug caves in the limestone,
34:15not only to quarry chalk to build their homes, but also to hollow out subterranean facilities,
34:21like this carved-out water cistern.
34:28Maresha is located in an arid area where water is definitely needed.
34:35The large caves were used partially as a water cistern.
34:39The chalk is watertight.
34:42They were draining the roofs of the buildings on top, and then drained into the water cistern.
34:50The water cistern were full, and in this arid area, you have to accumulate large amounts of water in order
34:59to hold through the summer.
35:03In the years that followed, as the city's needs evolved, the quarries were converted into baths, tombs, and places of
35:11worship.
35:13Among the most remarkable caves in the park are the burial caves, excavated when the city was under Greek rule
35:20and named Sidon.
35:22They're known as the Painted Caves.
35:26This burial cave is called the Apolloponnes Cave.
35:30Apolloponnes was the head of the Sidonian community.
35:34This person believed in the Greek mythology because Phoenix symbolized the life after death.
35:41Apolloponnes, as the head of the family, was buried in this chamber.
35:46He was one of the richest persons in this city.
35:49You can see that by the very nice paintings on the wall.
35:55When we walk around, we'll see the chambers where people were buried, their corpses were laid over here.
36:03After a year, when the remains are only bones, you collect the bones and make room for the other deceased.
36:11The only deceased that is left in his place is the head of the family, Apolloponnes.
36:21These caves were also used for the living, and some of the most magnificent caves are the columbarium, used to
36:29house and harvest turtle doves.
36:31Doves were highly praised for their eggs, their meat, and for their droppings.
36:37The doves, and their droppings, which were used as fertilizer, were highly sought after.
36:42It was also very important for sacrifice in the Jewish and the pagan cultures.
36:52So we're in the middle of the columbaria caves.
36:55It is 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 20 feet high.
37:02This columbaria is one of the biggest that we have in maresha.
37:07The niches that are carved into the chalk, starting at 9 feet,
37:12in order to prevent predators getting to the doves inside the niches.
37:16The doves were the most precious things in this cave.
37:20The cave contains about 2,000 niches all over.
37:29Hellenistic maresha fell in 167 BC, during the Maccabean Revolt.
37:37The region has always been a prized territory, and considered worth fighting for,
37:42because it's a crossroads for people traveling between Europe, Africa, and Asia.
37:49In 40 AD, King Herod attacked, and wiped the city from the map,
37:54replacing it with the newly built Bet-Guvrin.
37:5960 years later, Rome made its mark on the region,
38:03when General Vespasian invaded, slaying an estimated 10,000 people.
38:09Haji has studied the area's volatile history in detail.
38:13Despite the fighting and killing, the people of this country lived on.
38:19A small militia of Jewish rebels just sat inside hiding caves.
38:24The hiding caves were carved into places where the Romans couldn't enter.
38:31Confined to the narrow tunnels, these resistance fighters battled on.
38:35This is a place for living and surprising the Roman legionaries
38:40that were looking for the rebels.
38:42Roman military prowess eventually dislodged this rebel militia.
38:47The Romans take them out by using smoke.
38:52Just imagine living inside those tunnels.
38:56In 135 AD, Emperor Severus renamed Bet-Guvrin the City of the Free.
39:06The Roman amphitheater was built in the 2nd century AD to hold gladiator wars,
39:13to amuse the Roman legions who were left here after the suppression of the Bar Kochva revolt.
39:21After the fall of the Roman Empire, Bet-Guvrin changed hands several more times.
39:28The caves of Bet-Guvrin and Marescia have been a treasure trove for archaeologists for more than a hundred years.
39:36Among those man-made subterranean structures is a site known today as the Maze Caves.
39:43A system of 31 interconnected caves which were used as dwellings when the Greeks ruled during the Hellenistic period.
39:51We discovered an opening and that was quite exciting because we were actually the first people to enter into that
39:57room in 2,000 years.
40:03But it has only been recently that serious excavation has begun.
40:08There are more than 1,250 acres to explore here.
40:12So archaeologists have employed a tactic seen in no other excavation site in the world.
40:18They use the help of volunteers.
40:20Without exaggeration, hundreds of thousands of people have participated in this program.
40:25A number of those people actually continue to excavate or work on the pottery restoration as well as the registration.
40:33It is giving us such valuable information about the economy, about iconography, about styles, and even about the ethnic makeup
40:43of the city.
40:44We discovered a series of seven new rooms.
40:48Within one of those rooms was an archive that contained 1,027 ceilings.
40:55Ceilings are clay that were stamped and they would have been attached to documents, papyri of two millennium ago.
41:03On these ceilings, the images that we found were gods and goddesses including Athena, including Hercules.
41:10Erotic scenes as well.
41:12This is the largest private archive ever to be discovered in Israel.
41:20Today, the hidden underground treasures give us a truly unique insight into life in this region over 2,000 years
41:29ago.
41:30This magnificent site may have already gained worldwide recognition, but the extraordinary subterranean story of Bet Guvrin is far from
41:40over.
41:40It will take us years to process all of the material that we have there.
41:44Incredible insight into life in Mauritius from 2,000 years ago.
41:51The area that's known as the land of 1,000 caves.
41:56We believe that there are more caves to excavate.
41:59Maybe even 10,000 caves in this area.
42:02We believe that there are more caves in this region that we have foundлан in this area.
42:03Two gatekeepers with one and three balloons, single chuckle from any giant forest,
42:09We believe that could potentially be a valuable community for a 4