All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S07E08.American.Ghost.Park.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Tom ward (narrates): A
region littered with ruins.

Home to an
extraordinary deception.

Spies behind enemy lines,
danger, espionage, warfare,

could almost be the pitch
for a Hollywood blockbuster.

The grand remnants

of a mystical city
of stone in Tanzania.

It's kind of like an
Amazon warehouse

where it's collecting,
distributing,

producing and then
exporting all over the globe.

A derelict facility in buffalo that
would produce an American icon.

It's hard to describe,

it's like you're
touching kind of cotton

like, very, very soft cotton

and it's whiter
than white colour

like the colour of virtue,
the colour of purity.

And a secret complex in Taiwan
built to serve a brutal regime.

A guest house was
actually a smoke screen

for its real purpose.

Decaying relics.

Ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past.

Their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

The golan heights, a
politically explosive region,

strewn with the
remains of warfare.

There's military
vehicles littering the area,

there's mine field
warning signs everywhere.

This is a military zone.

This is the flash point,

the centre of conflict
which over and over again

has resulted in tremendous
violence on a vast scale.

At its heart a
battle scarred ruin.

It looks a little bit perhaps
like a parking garage

or some kind of office building
but all windows are blown out.

And it was clearly hit by
something pretty powerful,

there's a hole that
goes from the roof

all the way to the basement.

But before destruction rained
down on these defaced walls,

it was the site of an
astonishing deception.

Through these halls
walked a man whose ability

to pretend to be what he wasn't,

his ability to be trusted and
get sensitive secret information

was unparalleled and he
just might have changed

the course of history.

Damascus Syria,
the 18th of may 1965.

10,000 onlookers
packed the martyr square

where a lone man
hung from a noose.

The trusted him,

they promoted him
in the government,

they almost made him
defence minister of Syria

and in order to
expunge that shame,

they don't just
decide to kill him,

they sentence him to death
and they hang him publicly.

This man's journey to the
gallows is inextricably linked

to this collection of ruins less
than 40 miles from Damascus.

Today, the golan heights
are occupied by Israel

but this structure's
distinctive style suggests

an outside influence.

You can tell by the
brutalist architecture

that there was a
heavy Soviet influence

on its design.

This site was built in the 1950s
with the help of Russian engineers

and Russian materials.

The Soviet union however
was no ally of Israel.

In the 1950s this terrain

was controlled by Syria
and it was heavily fortified.

Access in and out
of the golan heights

was strictly controlled by
the Syrian military and police.

It was a front line
province in a front line state.

And Syria confronted
Israel actively.

This is the former Syrian
military headquarters.

Ilan shulman is a
retired Israeli paratrooper

and an expert on the
history of this troubled region.

So, first of all we're standing

and it's you know,
quite unbelievable

but this was the main
office of the commander

that was in charge
on the Syrian forces

on the golan front,
the southern front.

The headquarters was the
centre of military operations

in the golan heights and
the centre of intelligence.

But this structure was
soon drawn in to war.

So, in the entrance
of the headquarters

and we see here an entrance

of a bomb that managed
to penetrate the roof,

the floor and got all
the way down here

to the lobby of
the headquarters.

The root cause of this damage
can be found just 10 miles away

in the shattered remains of
a Syrian border fortification.

So, we're here in tel faher

in the biggest Syrian
bunker in the golan heights.

It's a net of bunkers
and trenches and,

and firing positions and
barbed wires and mine fields.

The irony is that, er, every
soldier that was station here

er, for him this was
the Syrian defence line.

But from the Israeli
perspective things looked

very different.

Attacks on the Israeli settlements
below tel faher were common

and although the Israeli
defence forces responded

in kind the Syrians
had one key advantage.

It's an elevated position.

It looks out over the sea of
galilee and importantly Israel.

The tactical advantages of
this location are very obvious.

So, this was the firing
positions, one of many

that were around the main bunker

and the machine gun
was right over here

and you can see that those
guys, doesn't matter what you do

you're eventually
being a sitting duck.

With tensions at an all
time high in October 1962

a visitor arrived at the
military headquarters.

In the early 60s a man
shows up in Damascus

by the name of
Kamil amin thaabet,

he was a Syrian who'd
been living in Argentina.

Now, he had moved to Damascus
to try to set up businesses

in his home country.

With an extraordinary rise through
the Syrian political establishment,

he was soon in a
position of great power.

He becomes the
transport minister of Syria,

he becomes deputy
defence minister of Syria

and he is implicitly trusted

by the Syrian regime.

His initial story was
he wanted to visit

the fresh mountain
Springs in the golan

but because he was friends

with so many high
level military officials,

the officials on the ground
thought they could maybe earn

a few brownie points
by showing him around

and treating him
like a big shot.

But this man was not
who he appeared to be.

Well, Kamil amin
was really Eli Cohen,

a Mossad intelligence agent.

Sent by Mossad,

Israel's foreign
intelligence service

he was a spy deep
behind enemy lines.

Before being given the grand
tour of the military installations,

Cohen had to sign
in at the headquarters.

The amazing part was
that Eli Cohen was here.

He managed to get
to the headquarters

of the Syrian army, it
was in this structure,

in each of those rooms
there was a commander,

there was an officer,

there was an intelligence officer
gathering information about Israel.

Cohen had almost unimaginable
access to the golan heights

and it's military secrets.

Cohen was able to
observe various installations,

different listening posts
where the trenches were,

where the artillery
guns were located.

Eli Cohen is going out
to places like tel faher

on the golan heights

and he's saying hey all
the soldiers come here,

pose with the deputy
defence minister.

And he comes away with
pictures of all the fortifications

on the golan heights.

And of course he sends
them all back to Israel.

But as more and more
intelligence leaked out of Syria

the net was closing around
Mossad's inside man.

Cohen is an immensely
valuable asset to Israel intelligence

right up until the
moment that he's caught.

Syrian agents burst
in to his apartment

and found him
literally at his radio set.

They captured him,
tortured him, interrogated him

and finally sentenced
him to death.

But Eli Cohen's incredible work
would soon prove invaluable.

In 1967, tensions
between Israel and Syria

had reached a fever pitch.

War was coming
to the golan heights.

In 1967, the arab
countries around Israel

were preparing for
a massive attack,

Israel knew this was coming
and decided to counter attack first

and this was the beginning
of the famous six-day war.

They'd already
done the surveillance,

they'd already done
the intelligence analysis,

they'd already done
the contingency planning,

all they had to do is
take a plan off the shelf

and put it into motion.

With war already under-way
with their neighbours to the south,

the Israeli defence force,

the idf decided to
take the high ground.

After neutralising
the bunker at tel faher

in just a few hours the idf advanced
towards the military headquarters

where the Syrians
had fallen in to disarray.

They had not had time
to destroy the papers,

the secret papers
that were there

so, the full contents
of the secret vaults

of this facility fell in
to the hands of the idf.

So, for the Israeli's this place
was a little bit of a gold mine.

When a seize fire was called
on the 10th of June 1967

Israeli military leaders
met in the headquarters

to discuss Israel's control
of the captured golan heights.

But only a few years later

war would erupt around
this structure again.

On the Jewish holiday
of yom kippur 1973

the Syrian army thundered
past the headquarters

briefing taking the
strategic high ground.

This is the site of
the largest tank battle

since the second world war.

This is the epicentre
of a war between

the United States ally Israel
and the Soviet ally Syria.

This could easily have been

the beginning of world war 3.

Seemingly against the odds,
the idf retook the golan heights.

After a seize fire
line was drawn

less than 300 feet
from the headquarters,

it served briefly as a base

for the United Nations
peace keepers.

But this imposing structure was
soon abandoned to the elements.

The military hq was serious
damaged in the 73 war,

left it more or less in
the state you see it today,

the impact of bombs and shells.

Today, control of the golan
heights is still being fought over.

Most countries in
the world consider

the golan heights to
be occupied by Israel,

most countries in the world
consider that occupation to be

at best dubious
under international law.

Israeli leaders have made
clear how reluctant they would be

to give up this
strategic terrain

it was used to threaten
them for decades.

Now, they're in a position to
be able to use this high ground

as a first line of
defence for their country.

And the extraordinary
legacy of Eli Cohen,

israels spy inside
the golan heights

continues to be felt to this
day on both sides of the conflict.

When Eli Cohen is
unmasked as an Israeli spy

the resulting national shame
and the embarrassment

for the Syrian
government directly results

in the Syrian air
force commander

hafez al-Assad taking power.

And that ushers in
decades of Assad family rule

which is ruthless, brutal
and continues to this day.

In the city of buffalo usa,

an industrial relic stands
apart from those surrounding it.

Here there's a lot of poverty,
there's a lot of empty store fronts,

there's a lot of run down areas.

Here's this very
impressive building

but you can tell it's
not a high school

or an office building, it's
got a large smoke stack

and there's a rail line
running right next to it.

The inside is littered with
abandoned machinery,

dark basements and
open elevator shafts.

It's derelict, it's run-down.

There's still rubbish strewn
around the floor there's paper,

there's bits of detritus
but there's also elements

of grandeur left in here.

This building once
proudly displayed it's name

but now that
display is in pieces.

On the roof of this
very impressive building

is a sign that once
proudly displayed

its purpose but doesn't
make a lot of sense now.

Clearly we're missing
some letters here.

Chris hawley first came
to this site 10 years ago.

I felt a sense of wonder

when I first walked
in to this space.

It clearly symbolised
to me er, what er,

buffalo was at its apex
of industrial greatness.

Inside this building

has been mostly stripped of
whatever equipment was here

but you can see the graffiti artists
have gotten in and left their Mark.

Evidence of the last people
who were here can still be found.

You can imagine the day
this place closed down,

that everyone
had to just pack up

and leave and the
remnants were just left.

2004, (indistinct)
Brands, companies.

On someone's desk er,
before the factory closed.

It's a nice desk.

Few clues remain of what
happened in this place.

But the largest piece of the
puzzle can be found on the roof.

You see the back
of the broken sign

looming from the edge

of the building precariously
down over the street.

And on the floor is one
of the missing letters.

Anyone who grew
up in the United States

in the latter part
of the 20th century

you put that in place and
you immediately recognise

the logo for wonder bread.

Wonder bread and hostess cakes
were iconic American products,

we all remember it even
growing up in the 1980s like me

er, going to a gas station
or coin, or convenience store

and grabbing off the shelf
some twinkies, some hohos

or snowballs and those
were some of the products

that were made
here at this site.

But the most important
American product made

in this factory was their
classic loaf of bread.

Soft as sponge and pure white.

Wonder bread was a staple

of the modern American kitchen

especially in the second
half of the 20th century.

The texture of it just
feels, it's hard to describe,

it's like you're
touching kind of cotton

like very very soft cotton and
it's whiter than white colour,

like the colour of virtue,
the colour of purity.

Long before wonder bread
became an American icon

the company faced
a major challenge.

In the 1920s the problem
with a bread factory

is exactly the word factory

because in most people's
mind at that time a factory

was a big dirty grimy place
but if you're producing bread

you want people to feel that

it's clean, it's hygienic,
it's wholesome.

So, how do you convince people
that something that comes out

of this dirtiest of locales is
the cleanest thing possible?

They are going to launch this
massive advertising campaign

er, to try to reassure people
that the world might be

a dangerous place and full of germs
but this bread, this bread is safe.

When this factory opened

they invited every
housewife in buffalo

to come tour the
plant with the so called

scientific and sanitary
practices in place.

As you can see also on the
walls er, much like the rest

of the other factory, the
walls are aligned with tile,

concrete and tile were
used throughout the building

as a sanitary measure.

If you look at the
way the building's built

with that white exterior

it's designed to look like
sort of a temple to cleanliness,

not a dirty grimy factory.

Now, these days we would
be suspicious about that,

a company that
keeps kind of pound

that message home
like it's clean it's clean

we start to think
well what are they,

what are they hiding.

The company hoped
to entice customers

by removing as many
contamination risks

as possible but they
went one step further.

Removing people
from the process.

They advertise an industrial
process free from human touch

so, not a single human
hand was to touch

any part of the food product
itself so, any person employed

in this plant was only
handling machinery.

The advertising campaign
helped establish wonder bread

as one of American's
favourite brands.

Wonder bread was a
pioneer in the movement

towards national brands

for products that used
to be locally produced.

And to do that it had to
be completely uniform,

the loaf you buy in bangor Maine

has to be identical to
the loaf you would buy

in San Diego California.

So, we're here on the 5th
floor and the 5th floor played

a critical role in the plants
in the early 20th century

because of air conditioning
was revolutionary.

It meant for the plant that
every single loaf of bread,

every single pie,

every single cake that
came out of this plant

was more or less the
same to the customer.

By the 1960s Americans
were consuming

over half a kilogram of
white bread every week.

But the public was
about to realise

that the manufacturers
baking process

had a flaw.

They milled the flour in
a more aggressive way

than previous bakers had.

A grain of wheat has 3 parts,

you have an outer layer
of kind of fibrous bran,

then you have the wheat
germ and inside the wheat germ

you have the interior endosperm
which is the white heart

of the wheat.

And when you only produce
bread with that endosperm

you get this incredibly
white spongy bread

that's completely
uniform in consistency.

The problem with super
processed white bread

is that you're also throwing
away all the nutritional content,

all the fibre, all
the good stuff in it.

In the 1980s the public came
to realise that white bread

might not be as healthy
as they once thought.

People were starting to
learn more about nutrition,

learn more about the
importance of fibre in the diet.

And realising that this
browner wheat bread

that they had been staying away
from was actually healthier for you.

Sales of white bread tumbled

and baking companies
moved to other recipes.

But wonder bread
was slow to change.

And wonder bread's dominance
of the market gets smaller

and smaller and smaller
and finally in 2010 america

you have brown bread
outselling white bread.

In 2004, with demand decreasing

the buffalo factory
closed its doors.

150 people were laid off,
the building was cleared,

for the past 16
years, er, the building

has very slowly deteriorated.

When I was first
in this building

one decade ago it
was perfectly fine.

White bread never recovered
it's market dominance in the us

but now wonder bread is back
with a whole wheat alternative.

For nearly two decades
buffalo's wonder bread factory

has remained derelict,

a monument to an
old way of doing things.

So, there's a lesson there
for how economics works,

advertising and the
message that you send

has an incredibly powerful
effect on the people hearing it.

And producers whether of
slogans or bread should think

about not just will we sell it
but should we be selling it.

On the outskirts of a city in Taiwan
lies a curiously shaped complex.

You've got this bustling
city of two million

and then you come to
this kind of this opening

this clear space on
the edge of the city

where none of this
urban sprawl infringes.

It's almost like the
surrounding buildings

don't dare encroach
in to this zone.

When you look at
a satellite picture

or a drone shot of
this piece of ground

it looks like somebody
has dropped a bagel.

There is no apparent
evidence of the requirement

for these giant circles.

It's a maze like complex,
every corner you turn

there's another
strange shaped building.

In the centre there's this
green building broken up

in to rooms with padded walls.

The variety of infrastructure
suggests the site

has been subject
to multiple uses.

"There are two major phases,

"the bright side
and the dark side.

"They are two very
contrasting sides."

What darkness
descended on this place

and how is it connected to
Taiwan's fight for independence?

Some of these structures
were undoubtedly built

with defence and
fortification in mind.

One of the doors
has a circular plate,

almost like a water tight hatch

that you'd find on a
submarine or a battleship.

Bomb proof case-mates

with thick earth roofs over top,

to absorb bombs and artillery
shells if they come under attack.

What was inside these buildings
that warranted such protection?

One large structure in the
centre of the complex contains

a vital clue.

There are quite a few
circular holes in the brickwork

suggesting that at one time
something was attached to it

or protruding from it.

These holes are the
key to understanding

the original
purpose of this place.

Professor kuang a
local university lecturer

has spent years piecing
together the scant evidence

that remains here.

"There were cables here

"for wireless radio
communications.

"They went from the roof
connecting to a main tower

"which was 200 metres tall,

"the signals were then
transmitted to 18 additional towers.

"Each of them 60 metres tall."

So, what we're looking at
here is an array of antennas

and because you've got this
full array, you're able to be,

er, directional and that enables
you to transmit with great efficiency

and also it enables you
to receive optimally signals

that are coming from
all over the pacific.

All these cables coming
from different areas joined up

in the middle, it must have
looked seriously impressive.

Like some kind of work of art.

Built in 1917

this is the fongshan wireless
communications centre,

a state of the art facility
central to Japan's plan

to take over the
western pacific.

Once Japan and next
Taiwan from China in 1895

they saw the value of Taiwan

as kind of an outpost
off the coast of China

and, er, great sort of accelerant
for their naval expansion.

Radio communications centre
like fongshan is absolutely vital

to the spread of Japanese power.

Yes, this buildings role

as a Japanese
communications facility

would only be revealed
with a recent discovery,

when a hidden naval emblem
emerged from beneath cleared rubble.

"A lot of evidence of
the Japanese being here

"during world war
two has vanished

"that's because after the
Japanese were defeated

"in world war two they
destroyed most of it

"when they were being
interrogated for war crimes."

How exactly Japan
employed this high tech station

during world war two
may never truly be known...

Yet what transpired here later

is remembered all too
painfully by many Taiwanese.

At the end of the
second world war

and as the allies are occupying

the Japanese empire,

one of those allies
is nationalist China.

And this station on Taiwan

becomes part of the new China.

The new nationalist China also
known as the republic of China

was fighting a bitter civil
war against communist forces

and they had a very
different plan for this place.

It is newly dedicated
to the requirements

of nationalist China.

The Chinese Navy moved in and
added the fongshan guest house.

Sounds nice doesn't
it? Think again.

The guest house was
actually a smoke screen

for its real purpose.

Imprisonment and interrogation.

Taiwan it becomes
the last bastion

of the republic of China

and the republic of
China government

is really worried about
communist subversion

and as a result

they are prepared
to act ruthlessly

against anyone they
consider a communist,

anyone they consider a traitor.

As well as communists
many of those suspected

of supporting
Taiwan's independence

from a united China
also ended up here.

"They confiscated
your belongings,

"if you were lucky
you will get them back

"but stuff like belts
were taken away

"because they were
scared you'd kill yourself."

The torture and interrogations
here sent screams echoing for miles.

"There would be whaling's

"at around midnight,

"some villagers from
the neighbourhood

"couldn't stand it and
moved to the city."

There are some cells
where the walls are padded

and electrified to stop
the prisoners using them

for suicide.

To think people may
have been locked up

and treated this badly
here as recently as 2001

it's shocking.

What we've got to remember
that democratisation

in Taiwan is a
recent phenomenon.

Taiwan was a scary dictatorship

until recently.

A cultural shift towards
protecting basic human rights

finally forced this place to
be shut down for good in 2002.

These horrors were
just no longer acceptable

in the 21st century.

It's doors were closed
and the site abandoned.

These structures are now
preserved as monuments to the past

and centres of learning

and while the impressive
technological achievements

of the Japanese Navy
should not be forgotten,

it is the human hardship
endured here later

that deserves
greater reflection.

There were martyrs
and innocents,

"there were some who
were released after a while

"but some died tragically.

"That's the relatively dark side

"but it is a lesson to
be learned from history."

And with Taiwan's
long time adversary

the people's republic of China
increasingly flexing its muscles,

the lesson is more
important than ever.

Just off the coast of
Tanzania in east Africa

is the island of kilwa kisiwani.

Once home to a
thriving community.

The island is
littered with ruins

and they have an
ancient feel to them.

It looks almost like it could be
some kind of mythical city made

out of coral stone.

The two best
preserved structures

offer up contrasting
styles of architecture.

One is a powerful fortified
building on the waters edge

but the other is
something entirely different.

The masonry really is beautiful,

it's precise and delicate.

So, this is ancient engineering
with a lot of class and thought

and effort put in to it.

These pointed arches and
domed roofs are so evocative,

you can almost
imagine walking around

a buzzing thriving community
that clearly once lived here.

When a real life Indiana
Jones encountered

this settlement in the 1300s he
was astonished with what he saw.

Ibn battuta, he's a
kind of arab Marco Polo

and he called kilwa

one of the most beautiful
cities he had ever seen.

What was this place that
amazed all who encountered it?

And what did these mysterious
ruins tell us about a clash of empires

that would bring
about kilwa's downfall?

Abdallah Ahmad
is a kilwa native.

Born and raised here

he is caretaker of
this remarkable site.

"Here we are at gereza fort,

"it's a fortress in kilwa
and the former prison

"of kilwa kisiwani."

The fort sits on the same
site as an earlier fortification

built by the Portuguese in 1505.

These Portuguese explorers
had launched a devastating attack

before seizing the island.

This was a place with
something worth fighting for

and then striving to protect.

"Even if I stretch my arms

"I can't span the
breadth of this wall

"which surrounds
the whole building."

The Portuguese and
subsequent conquerors

were desperate to
secure this island

because they had
stumbled upon a gold mine.

A kingdom famed across the
region that by the 11th century

had developed in to
a booming seaport.

"And why specifically

"did people like
this area, to live here

"and build architecture
like this, they liked this area

"because it was easy for trade

"with sea faring
vessels like barges."

Trade was the key and the
island had geography on its side.

It's perfect for trade
because it's connected

to the African continent
and the Indian ocean.

And the Indian ocean is like
commercial super highway.

The currents literally propel
ships across the Indian ocean

from all over the world,

we're talking about
the arabian coast,

the persian Gulf, the
Indian subcontinent

and all the way up from China.

And then 2 months
later the currents reverse

and push the ships back
across in the other direction.

Directly north is
the middle east

er, a trading centre and a
hub of cultural exchange.

You're also right at the mouth
of a bunch of river estuaries,

now that might not
mean a lot to us now

but back in the day rivers
were really the highways

of the ancient world.

It's what people and
people bought trade.

It was importing goods
from all over the world,

arabian ceramics
and Chinese porcelain

but there was a lot
more going on in kilwa

than simply importing
and exporting goods.

The ornate dome
structure stands out

in stark contrast to
the utilitarian fortress.

It suggests outsiders took charge
and put their stamp on the island.

"Even as we examine

"it's architecture
and construction

"it is different from most
other buildings in kilwa."

It's domes clearly speak
to a strong islamic influence.

"Where I am here

"is the area of the great mosque
which was added in the 13th century.

"And there's the stairs
that the museum went up

"to call for prayer.

"So, people would
come to worship."

The best relic of
islamic on kilwa kisiwani

has to be the great mosque.

The shiraz people from a
region in modern day Iran

established firm roots here

and by the 1300s were
displaying their cultural influence

with glorious coral
stone buildings.

In charge was an arab
sultan who further enlarged

the iconic great mosque

just in time for the
arrival in around 1331

of the most famous
travel writer of the day.

The Moroccan
explorer ibn battuta.

He's a kind of arab Marco Polo
who travelled all across this part

of the world and left
this incredibly rich record

of the cities that he visited
and the people he met.

Travelling as far as
Spain, Iraq, India and China

he was still struck by the
buildings on display here

and welcomed by
the shiraz sultan

he was bought in to an
elaborate and exotic world.

At its heart the great mosque

built in at least
2 distinct stages,

first the small
northern prayer hall

built in the 11th
and 12th centuries

with 16 domed and vaulted bays

divided by 9 pillars holding
a flat coral plaster roof.

And then the 14th
century enlargement

with a further 30 bays adorned
with dressed coral panels,

taking centre stage though
was the biggest dome

in east Africa at the time.

It was up until the 16th
century the largest mosque

in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"This mosque spread
islam far and wide

because in the
southern saharan desert,

this was the best known mosque.

The nearby ruins of a palace
completed around the same time

as the great mosque

reveal a fusion of
islamic and local customs

that over time became
known as Swahili.

The ruins included some
traditional Swahili elements

like a stepped
greeting court bordered

by guest rooms for
visiting merchants

but it also borrowed elements
from traditional islamic palaces

such as an octagonal
swimming pool

er, rooms for
hundreds of guests.

After leaving kilwa,

battuta continued to
explore the medieval world,

he's believed to have travelled
more than any other explorer,

covering 10 times the
distance of Marco Polo.

Robberies, kidnappings
and ship wrecks

couldn't prevent
him reaching China.

So, even battuta who saw
just so many remarkable things

he still described kilwa as
one of the most beautiful cities

he had ever seen.

Described by some as
a real life Indiana Jones

he eventually died back in
his home land of Morocco

in around 1369.

And kilwa's days
were also numbered.

The 16th century marks the beginning
of Europe's great merchant empires.

Portuguese explorer
vasco da gama,

launched an attack as
he ruthlessly attempted

to arrest control of trade.

The Portuguese had
this grand strategy

for how they were
going to take control

of the Indian ocean
which was essentially

to seize all the major ports.

So, it's no surprise that
they took kilwa in 1505.

They built the gereza fort to
cement their dominance here

in kilwa kisiwani.

Spain and Portugal had
reclaimed land and independence

from islamic control
during the crusades

and now they were going to move

from reclaiming land
to expanding overseas.

Therefore it was a symbol

of the Christian
advance against islam.

Rather than a centre of trade,

the island itself became
a prized possession

fought over and traded between
numerous competing empires.

Never again achieving
the same success

the city was
abandoned in the 1840s.

The site is now
protected by unesco

who face a constant battle

to prevent the ruins
from further collapse.

Now, there's been extensive
digs and excavations here

so, we've learned
a lot about this site

but there's a lot that we
still could discover here,

the place is thick with mystery.

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