Original subtitles

Narrator: They're watching you.

More than 4,000 satellites Circle the earth.

Every day, they uncover New, mysterious phenomena

That defy explanation.

Discovered from the skies,

A tale of untold riches And unspeakable terror

In the amazon.

It's monumental!

What were they doing In the middle of the jungle?

Narrator: The hunt from space

For putin's New nuclear mega weapon.

This could attack any major American city anywhere.

Narrator: and the giant, Vanishing undersea blob.

Maybe this thing, This dark mass,

Is alive.

Narrator: baffling phenomena, Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

**

-- captions by vitac -- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

September 3, 2018.

A survey plane flying over French guiana in south america

Fires a laser pulse At the dense rainforest below.

Producing a lidar image

Of one of the world's Most inhospitable jungles.

**

What the lidar has revealed Is a complex pattern

That sits Under the jungle canopy.

This is an Absolutely gorgeous image.

A group of massive Rectilinear structures.

Clearly, human-made.

There are what appear To be some type of grid lines.

How old is this? Is it ancient?

**

Narrator: Archaeologist mark horton Has spent decades studying

And searching For ancient settlements.

He's traveling deep Into french guiana

To investigate the site In the aerial image.

Horton: the image Is really intriguing.

It's such a difficult And inhospitable place.

But inside this forest,

Major evidence Of past human activity.

**

Narrator: the pattern In the lidar image is big.

Analysts estimate it stretches Across 200 acres

Of dense rainforest.

These forests Are largely unexplored.

Who went to the trouble To build this

In the middle Of this jungle forest,

And where did they go?

South america is full of the Relics of ancient civilizations.

Is it possible that that's Exactly what we're seeing here?

**

Narrator: The hidden structures lie deep

In the 20 million acre Rainforest,

Up the winding oyak river.

**

Horton: Here we go.

I think I'm going to need To find a boat.

**

c'est si bon. très bien.

**

Narrator: This forest is sparsely Populated by the descendants

Of various ancient tribes.

Aerial imaging has uncovered Historic sites elsewhere

Deep in this continent's Dense rainforests.

**

But a find in this region Would be unprecedented.

**

If it turns out to be A pre-colombian site,

It'd be an extraordinarily Exciting discovery.

**

Narrator: temperatures here In the rainforest

Reach 85 degrees fahrenheit.

And the canopy locks in humidity Like a pressure cooker.

**

The jungle is so hot And oppressive.

**

Unh!

Whoa.

Narrator: using the image Coordinates to guide him,

Horton finally gets through The thick vegetation

And approaches the edge Of the site seen from the sky.

**

Here we are.

We've got An enormous building here.

One can see The foundation of it.

Gosh, it must be About 30 feet

By about 15 feet in size.

It's -- it's -- It's enormous.

Narrator: and it seems This building was one of many.

There might be 10 Or 15 of them all in here.

What was their purpose?

Narrator: Whatever the building's purpose,

Horton discovers They were dwarfed

By a far grander structure.

This is simply amazing. Just look at it.

Massive stones, All beautifully cut.

That is a fabulous Stone floor that survives.

**

So this is really an elaborate, Monumental architecture.

Narrator: If these are the remains Of an ancient people,

They were Accomplished architects

With significant resources.

Horton: actually, hang on. These are steps.

What's this down here?

It's a very straight ditch.

So, what can this be?

Narrator: The archaeologist looks To the soil for answers.

But what he unearths Only deepens the mystery.

**

Now, finding this here...

That is a wine bottle.

18th or even Early 19th century.

This clearly isn't A pre-colombian structure,

As I thought it might be.

The french are the likely people That were responsible for this.

**

Narrator: Military records confirm That the french colonized

This country In the late 19th century,

Ushering in an era Of violence and oppression.

But they settle in towns Along the coast,

Not disease-ridden jungle Alive with dangerous animals.

Why would anyone In their right mind

Want to actually live here?

What were they doing In the middle of the jungle?

Scanning the image For further clues,

Horton observes Similar structures nearby.

Perhaps if I visit that,

I might get some idea Of what's going on here.

**

Narrator: horton came looking For an ancient civilization.

Oh, gosh!

Narrator: He's found something Quite different.

Horton: Look at it.

Narrator: a graveyard Of rusting iron hulks.

Horton: It's enormous!

Narrator: The last resting place Of some titanic engine.

This is one heck Of a piece of machinery.

**

Narrator: Whatever took place here, It was a mighty undertaking.

And at the next clearing, Horton is stunned

By the sheer scale Of this jungle enterprise.

Horton: [ gasps ]

God... What is this?

Simply amazing.

**

Narrator: coming up, the jungle Compound's terrible secret.

Horton: this is such A dark period in our history.

Narrator: And the sahara's 1,700-mile-long mystery.

The scale of this thing Is enormous.

**

**

Narrator: mark horton Is in french guiana

In one of the least-explored Jungles on earth,

Investigating hidden structures Discovered by lidar imaging.

**

Horton: Monumental.

Narrator: he's discovered Palatial remains

And giant rusting machinery.

Horton: God...

Narrator: and beyond it, A brick circle

With more abandoned Iron objects.

Horton: What could it possibly be?

Got these cast-iron drums, Which could be rollers.

Narrator: The shape of the structure

And the type Of machinery nearby

Add up to one thing for horton.

Horton: I think this must be A very elaborate mill.

**

Narrator: Searching for signs of what Could have been milled here,

Horton finds more heavy metal,

A major clue to what drew The french to this hostile,

Remote area of jungle.

Horton: ah. This is a great vessel

That would've been used For boiling sugar syrup.

**

So now I know What these machines are for.

This must be A french sugar plantation.

**

Narrator: Sugar is first cultivated

In french guiana in the 1650s.

Shipping records show that, By 1750,

It is the most valuable Commodity in european trade.

Once europeans developed A sweet tooth,

Sugar became white gold, In an economic sense,

Narrator: And 80% of europe's white gold Comes from south america.

**

So, actually, that explains The lidar image really well.

These rectangular features are Clearly feels for growing crops.

**

Narrator: But there was one problem.

The tropics is heaven For sugar cane

But hell for humans.

Few would come To french guiana by choice,

So most workers Were brought by force.

This is such a dark period In our history.

Horton: This must mean slavery

And slavery On an industrial scale.

**

Narrator: Slavery records reveal That between 1502 and 1866,

Of 11.2 million african slaves Shipped to the new world,

More than 90% are sent To work in south america.

**

The vast majority In sugar plantations.

Sugar cane cultivation Was one of the most brutal

Productive apparatuses Of the entire colonial venture.

Narrator: Testimonies of former slaves

Describe 18-hour days Of backbreaking labor.

A third of new arrivals Die within three years

While their masters grow rich

And build grand mansions Overlooking the damned.

Horton: a central square In the image

Must be the master's house.

The rectangular structures We saw in the ground

Must be the barrack blocks To accommodate the slaves.

**

Well, this would be A central mill here,

Where the cane was crushed.

And the juice would come down Into refining furnaces.

Narrator: Accounts of sugar boiling houses

Depict a steaming vision Of hell,

Where copper cauldrons Of raw syrup

Bubble at 240 degrees Fahrenheit.

It would've been Incredibly hot.

Smoke would've been toxic.

What a hell hole Down in this mill.

**

Narrator: Maritime records reveal That plantation owners,

Chasing yet bigger profits,

Import huge steam-driven Machines from europe.

It would've been brought over In large crates on board a ship.

And probably an engineer Would've had to come out here

Into the jungle And got it working.

**

Narrator: The machines represent Fresh hell for the slaves

Who toil at metal beasts That can swallow them whole.

If one of the workers Were to, say,

Get his fingers stuck In a one of the large rollers,

It would pull in his whole body And just crush it.

They employed somebody To stand by with a machete,

To chop the person's arm off

Before their whole body Could get sucked in.

**

Horton: It's sickening to think that

All those people were toiling Just to produce sugar

For people back in europe.

Narrator: in 1817, france bans The trafficking of slaves.

But records reveal that Some plantation owners

Ignore the new law.

This then creates, effectively, An underground market

In which newly arrived slaves

Are not carried On the official books.

It's the dark chapter In french colonial history.

Narrator: Illegal slave trafficking Allows plantations to continue

Operating in french guiana For decades.

And the age of the machines Horton has discovered

Suggests this was one of them.

An illegal operation with The capacity for 300 slaves.

**

A stain on french history Hidden by the jungle

For 190 years, Revealed from the skies.

Bellinger: These ruins in the jungle Stand as a monument

To the misdeeds of europeans Who came to these shores

And decimated the local Population for their own gain.

**

Narrator: Coming up, the real skyfall.

This bears striking similarities To the chernobyl disaster.

Narrator: And the unlikely key To artificial intelligence.

Wow, okay. This is incredible.

**

**

Narrator: U.S. Intelligence agencies

Operate a fleet of upwards Of 80 spy birds

To closely monitor Suspicious activity

In hostile nations Around the planet.

They want to know Who's there,

Why they're there, What they're doing there,

What materials are coming And going.

And most importantly, what's The use and purpose of it?

**

Narrator: In recent years,

Satellites have uncovered New missile sites in iran

And mass military buildup In the south china sea.

**

Yet the location of one Terrifying new russian threat

Has eluded them.

In 2018, russian president Vladimir putin announced

That russia was In the middle of developing

A nuclear-powered Cruise missile.

**

Narrator: The russians call their missile,

The 9m730 burevestnik.

Western intelligence agents Call it skyfall.

Skyfall is essentially The ultimate game-changer.

No defense system is really Prepared to deal with it.

**

Narrator: unlike america's Ballistic missiles,

Skyfall is designed To fly for days

Without refueling and maneuver To evade interception

As it zeroes in On its target.

Its propulsion is a small Nuclear reactor stored on board,

So the missile launches, The reactor initiates,

And then it can go anywhere in The world at very low altitude,

Undetectable, Hugging the terrain.

That would give The russian federation

This dramatic upper hand

Because almost nothing Could be done about it.

This weapon could attack

Any major american Military installation,

Any major american City anywhere.

**

Narrator: Analyst jeffrey lewis Is on the hunt

To find Putin's new mega weapon.

Turning to planet Explorer technology,

He forensically compares russian News footage of a skyfall test

With high-resolution Satellite images,

A technique called Geolocating.

Lewis: They showed us a video Of them testing it.

And they didn't tell us Where it was,

But it looked like It was very far in the north.

**

Narrator: As he scans the russian arctic,

Some unusual structures On a cluster of islands

On the barents sea Catch his eye.

There are a pair of rails With an environmental shelter,

And we could see that In the video,

But we can also see it In the satellite image.

So we were able to take the Video and match it to this site.

I think this is the site Where they conducted that test.

Narrator: But as lewis closely monitors The missile site,

Something weird happens.

Skyfall disappears.

It's very strange.

We were hoping to spot signs Of another test,

But we never saw another test. What we saw

Was they actually packed up And moved everything out.

Narrator: The nightmare scenario Is that skyfall

Is no longer in test phase.

This doomsday weapon Is now operational.

For lewis, the hunt to find The missile is back on,

The stakes even higher.

Scanning known areas of military Activity near the white sea

In the northwest of the country,

A known cold war launch Facility draws his attention.

Lewis: This is a place that russia Used to test cruise missiles,

So I think we should go Take a look at the place.

Narrator: to lewis, a section Of the base is suspicious.

It looks exactly like the One we saw way up in the arctic.

There are a pair of rails with An environmental shelter on it.

This is a smoking gun.

Narrator: The satellite images Reveal the russians

Have moved Their nuclear-powered missile

To the russian navy's Primary launch site.

And on august 8, 2019,

Disturbing news emerges From the skyfall base.

The reports are Completely confusing.

An explosion has taken place.

[ explosion ]

But we don't even know What type of explosion this is

Or how powerful it is.

And it leaves basically

The entire international Community in the dark.

Narrator: under mounting International pressure

To explain the mystery blast,

Russian officials Issue a statement.

The russians finally go ahead And come forward and say,

"Okay, there was an accident With a missile test,

But, basically, Don't worry about it."

Narrator: But over the following days,

The russian story unravels.

Morgan: In the immediate aftermath Of the accident,

There are photographs On social media

That show ambulances,

That show people responding In hazardous-material suits

And then...

Radiation levels in the area,

Jump up.

That's the cause for Some serious alarm bells.

Narrator: It appears that this russian Nuclear superweapon

Has spectacularly backfired.

Particularly concerning And telling is,

We have reports indicating

That there's a stockpiling Of iodine in this area,

Which we know can be used To mitigate or counteract

The absorption of radiation.

Narrator: In nearby severodvinsk, A city of 185,000 people,

Radiation levels jump 1,500% Above normal.

Eyewitnesses Report decontamination teams

Arriving at hospitals.

And satellite imagery confirms

A massive radiation Cleanup operation

Under way at the base.

This ship Is the serebrianka.

It is a nuclear fuel handler.

It carries radioactive cargoes.

It's extremely worrying Because it looks like

They've had a major accident.

Narrator: To cover up the extent Of the radioactive fallout,

Russia shuts down Monitoring stations in the area.

The amount of radiation The skyfall blast released

Into our planet's atmosphere Remains, for now, a mystery.

What's really alarming About this

Is that it bears Some striking similarities

To the chernobyl disaster.

The russians, at first,

Won't acknowledge That it even happened.

And then, When they ultimately do,

They downplay the exposure.

Narrator: What is certain is that The world has not heard

The last Of putin's armageddon weapon.

Wawro: is it shocking That this happened?

Yes. In the abstract.

But when you consider It happened in putin's russia,

No, because putin has nothing But contempt for his own people.

**

Narrator: Coming up, into the abyss.

One of these opened up Without warning,

And everything just disappeared Into the bowels of the earth.

Narrator: and decoding The giant desert cipher.

This looks like symbols Or writing.

**

Narrator: August 25, 2019.

A nearmap survey plane

Scans the coast Of new south wales, australia.

As it passes over Redhead point,

It photographs Something unusual.

Nelson: Wow. Okay. This is incredible.

It looks like a bomb that Went off and created a crater.

Dr. Rice: it looks like A regular coastline,

And then wham, Right in the middle,

It looks like a deep hole

Just right there, Almost perfectly round.

Narrator: For some, the abyssal image Is familiar.

The perfect circle shape Of this structure

And the dark color Makes me wonder

If what we're looking at here Is a blue hole.

Narrator: Blue holes are flooded, Caves or sinkholes.

Many were formed when sea levels Dramatically rose

After the last ice age.

Dr. Kays: Blue holes occur where, All of a sudden,

There's some sort of collapse.

So you get this hit Of deep water

That looks very dark blue

Compared to The surrounding shallow water.

Narrator: blue holes Are normally found on reefs.

Yet this wouldn't be The first time a chasm

Has opened up close To australia's east coast.

In september 2015,

A giant hole appears overnight At a camp site on inskip point,

Swallowing a 1,000 foot long Section of coastline,

Cars, and caravans.

People were fleeing For their lives.

There were campers and tents That just disappeared

Into the bowels of the earth.

Narrator: The aerial image fuels fears

That sections of Australia's east coast

Are collapsing without warning,

A fear made all the more real

By a recent Scientific expedition

Close to the great barrier reef.

Kourounis: Researchers have recently Discovered an area

Where part of the reef Is actually breaking away

And is perched above A deep underwater canyon.

Narrator: The giant disintegrating slab Is 1 1/2 miles long.

Kourounis: It's only a matter of time

That this will Eventually tumble down

And will create a tsunami

That could be Absolutely catastrophic.

Narrator: Scientists estimate that The tsunami unleashed

By the subsea landslide Will be 40 feet high.

**

Minutes later, it will smash Into australia's east coast,

Claiming countless lives.

Millions of people Live along the coast here.

**

If this is a blue hole

And we have sinkholes Forming on the beach,

That is an immediate indicator

That this is An unstable geologic area.

It's certainly unsettling.

**

Narrator: Yet further images Of the same area

Reveal something bizarre.

Dr. Fanara: wait a second. It was there,

But then all of a sudden, It's not there anymore.

Blue holes aren't ghosts.

**

The fact that it's here And not here,

Maybe this thing, This dark mass, is alive.

Dr. Kays: If we started to think about What could be in the ocean,

That could appear And then suddenly disappear.

Only one thing comes to mind And it's not just one organism

But a whole collection of Animals together in a bait ball.

Narrator: Bait balls form when schools Of fish detect threats

In the surrounding waters.

Dr. Kays: They're all swimming together

And they get more and more And more concentrated

Because predators like Sharks and dolphins

And other larger fish

Are surrounding them And attacking them.

Narrator: Sometimes formed of hundreds Of thousands of individuals,

The shimmering fish tornadoes Confuse attacking predators.

Dr. Rice: Each fish is individually

Deciding that it needs to band With other fish.

So this huge cohesive structure Is actually the product

Of thousands of different Tiny decisions

Made by these little fish.

Narrator: Studies suggest each fish Can detect minute tremors

In the water From incoming predators.

Ripples of information

Pass almost instantly From one individual to the next

So that the morphing swarm Can constantly change shape

To dodge attacks Yet avoid collisions.

Bait balls actually Are like a living liquid.

They can separate and flow

While at same time Come back together.

**

Narrator: While each fish's brain Is limited in function,

As a group working together,

They seemingly act As a more intelligent entity.

Some scientists think That decoding

How this hive mind works

Is the key to perhaps Mankind's greatest

Next technological Leap forward --

Artificial intelligence.

Kourounis: there are robotics Specialists who are studying

The behavior Of these bait balls

To help them develop and program Swarms of interactive robots

All acting as if they're One almost living organism.

**

Narrator: Medical researchers Have also discovered

Swarm like behavior in Cancer cells attacking the body.

If they can figure out The bait balls'

Biological algorithms,

They may be able to program Swarms of nanobots

To destroy tumors,

Transforming medicine For mankind.

So what we're actually seeing Here is a beautiful example

Of the way That small pieces of nature

Can work together To make something tremendous.

**

Narrator: Coming up, the sahara's Mystery mega structure.

This is a monumental task To have built this thing.

Narrator: And weird symbols In the wilds of wales.

There are literally Hundreds of them,

If not thousands.

**

**

Narrator: January 11, 2018.

A satellite passing Over the western sahara

Spots something In the desert sands.

**

Simpson jr.: Wow. Pretty weird.

You have a structure In the middle of the desert.

Chamberlain: This looks like the outline Of a building.

But as you look below,

There are things that almost Look like symbols or writing.

Perhaps this is the remnants

Of some kind Of ancient settlement.

Horton: The obvious question is why,

In this incredibly Hostile environment,

Do we have Archaeological remains?

Narrator: Though a barren Wasteland today, in the past,

The sahara was home to Many peoples and civilizations.

Climatological studies show That around 5,000 years ago,

This 3.5 million square mile Sea of sand

Is a fertile paradise.

In the past, The climate wasn't as harsh here

As it is today.

Grassland flourished,

Wild animals were able to roam Freely across this landscape.

Simpson jr.: this is exactly The kind of place

That people migrating and moving Would be interested

In stopping and setting up shop.

Narrator: This region is called The western sahara

And has been home to the sahrawi Tribe for countless centuries.

Yet these are nomadic people And unlikely to be responsible

For the structure Seen from space.

If they were going To set up a settlement,

It would be something That was very temporary --

Put up and taken down.

Narrator: Studying the image In more detail,

Hayley chamberlain develops Another theory.

Chamberlain: these walls Look like fortifications.

Nearby morocco is known for Its medieval fortresses,

Called kasbah's.

Narrator: Kasbah's walls are constructed

From a mixture Of mud and straw

Yet are highly effective Defenses.

For medieval rulers,

They are essential For protecting

Extremely lucrative Trade routes.

The mud citadel's provide Haven for camel trains

Containing as many As 12,000 beasts

Making the two-month-long trek Across the desert.

Dr. Albertson: A kasbah would've been The nerve center of defense

For any particular Military power in the area.

It also would've been the Place that kept the people safe.

Narrator: But carlo munoz spots A problem with this theory.

Looking closer at the image, This really doesn't seem like

These are the ruins Of some abandoned kasbah.

If this were A medieval-era fortress,

You'd have watchtowers to be Able to attack your enemy.

Narrator: Analysts expand Their search for clues.

South of the mystery structure, They spot something unusual.

So here we have obviously A much bigger structure,

Something that looks Like a built-up wall.

I can actually see it

Kind of cutting Through the landscape here.

As agrios tracks The 20-foot-wide structure,

She discovers it's colossal --

1,700 miles long.

That's like a wall stretching From new york to denver.

Agrios: This thing just keeps going.

I've gone hundreds of miles At this point across the sahara.

The scale of this thing Is enormous.

Munoz: the question is, Why is there this massive wall

In the middle Of the sahara desert?

Narrator: Military records indicate Both the wall

And the lone desert structure

Lie in a highly disputed Political hotspot.

In 1976, The spanish cede the territory

They controlled in north africa In this region to morocco,

A warren sued for control Of the area.

The moroccans immediately Face violent opposition

From the native sahrawi, Who demand independence.

In response, the moroccan Government constructs

This giant boundary wall

To cut the sahrawi Out of their homeland.

In terms of size and scope, This is very impressive.

This is a monumental task To have built this thing.

But the u.N. Does not recognize this border.

In fact, it's still an International political dispute.

Narrator: the giant wall, Known as the great berm,

Takes seven years to complete.

The western sahara berm Really is a marvel,

Both in terms of engineering

And in terms Of military strategy.

It makes the berlin wall Look minuscule.

And the only thing in the world To really rival it

Is the great wall in china.

Narrator: Investigators think the Proximity of the lone structure

To the massive wall Suggests it's connected.

The structure itself is Certainly defensive in nature.

It could be a support base Of some sort.

Dr. Albertson: I see things That are indicative of

Contemporary warfare -- Ditches, elongated walls,

Artillery revetments, Places that would provide

Support to the type Of modern military

That's gonna be in the area.

Narrator: The wall needs supplies to Restock the 7 million landmines

That line its base,

The longest continuous Minefield in the world,

And it needs places To provide shelter

For the 150,000 moroccan Soldiers that patrol it.

To give you Some perspective on that,

That's the size of the canadian And british armies combined.

Munoz: The facility could be used For housing equipment,

Heavy weapons to keep operations Along the berm going.

Narrator: yet this is A highly hostile region.

And it's impossible To verify the origin

And purpose of the code-like Structure seen from space.

**

Coming up, mystery monster Tracks in the mountains.

Nelson: These are massive.

It doesn't make any sense.

**

**

Narrator: April 19, 2011.

The worldview-2 satellite Flying over wales

Photographs this pattern Far below.

Nelson: These are massive etchings On the side of this landscape

But almost looks Like little symbols.

There are literally Hundreds of them,

If not thousands.

It doesn't make any sense.

Narrator: The haphazard marks crisscross

Over a rural area Of the country.

Biologist rob nelson Studies them in detail.

Looks like something Is scraping away

Or cutting into the vegetation,

But it doesn't seem to bear The hallmark of livestock

Foraging for food.

Narrator: Nelson does know Of one animal

Which can create Long abrasions in the land.

Nelson: Maybe this is something Far more destructive.

Wild boar.

[ boar grunts ]

Narrator: boar were plentiful In great britain until

They were hunted into extinction Several centuries ago.

But today, They're making a comeback.

In the 1970s, some farmers Were raising them for meat.

They escaped.

And now we have wild boar In great britain again.

Narrator: male boars Have corkscrew-shaped genitalia,

Yet sire Dozens of piglets a year,

Leading to a population Explosion in the u.K.

Nelson: wild boar have no Natural predators,

Which means they can roam around Populating wherever they go.

**

Narrator: And these horny hogs are on A collision course with humans.

Hundreds of people report Terrifying encounters

With beasts weighing As much as a black bear

And charging At 30 miles per hour.

Boards aren't something You want to run into.

They can really slice you open.

They've even been known To kill people.

[ boars grunting ]

Narrator: Boar tusks can grow To over 5 inches long

And are used for both Fighting and foraging.

Wild boar forage In straight lines

As they move their head Back and forth.

So you can imagine That they could create

These straight lines on A landscape like we're seeing.

Narrator: Yet recent boar Population studies

Suggest this is unlikely.

Faylor: Records show that, Though the wild boars

Are spreading Throughout the uk,

They haven't reached This part of wales yet.

Narrator: Other analysts think The patterns are manmade.

Archaeologists, when They're evaluating a landscape,

Scrape away the topsoil

To see if there's Any buried archaeology.

But one possibility is that

These are actually Archaeological trenches.

Narrator: wales is a hotbed Of archaeology.

With over 600 castles Packed into a country

The size of massachusetts

And evidence of human activity Dating back over 200,000 years.

Wales has a fascinating history.

Bronze age settlements, Field systems,

Roman villas, medieval castles.

Virtually every field Has something in it.

And this welsh hillside Could possibly be

A massive archaeological site.

Narrator: But for others, This doesn't stack up.

Dr. Kays: When you look really close,

You can see these patterns Are incredibly straight.

They're like what you get When you mow your lawn,

Only if you were to stop And then pick up your lawnmower

And then do it again, And then stop and pick it up,

And go at a different angle.

Narrator: Yet if these marks have been Cut out by machine,

They're big and cover 600 acres of moorland.

Gotta be wondering, Why would they have mowed

These areas In the middle of nowhere?

Narrator: Globally, heather moorland Is incredibly rare.

75% of our planet's reserves Are found in great britain.

And what little there is Is in peril.

In the past, these moorlands Used to have more livestock

Roaming around Through the heather,

Essentially giving it A nice trim

And that helps regenerate The area.

And because the use of livestock Is decreasing,

You're not getting New shoots growing.

Narrator: One possibility is to burn

Back the overgrowth With controlled fires.

Faylor: The problem with fire To cleanse an environment,

Though, is that With increasingly dry summers,

These fires can go Out of control.

Narrator: Analysts learned that, In response,

Some landowners are testing A high-tech solution

To the moorland's problems,

One that leaves strip-like Patterns in the landscape.

**

What has been sent out Is kind of a robot lawnmower.

It's so crazy.

Narrator: It's called the flailbot.

Armed with 30 whirring Steel cutters,

It's a one-ton remote-controlled Moorland munching monster.

It's pretty much a cross Between a lawnmower

And a medieval torture device.

Narrator: By cutting a series of strips Out of overgrown areas,

The robo mower Allows the heather to flourish

And creates the bizarre pattern Seen from space.