Original subtitles

Toma ward (narrates): In the United States

an eerie relic festers in the back woods of Arkansas.

There's colourful cartoons that are slowly fading.

It's almost like you can hear the children laughing

from like 20 years ago.

In the middle east

an ancient bastion shrouded in myth.

It's only very recently

that we've been able to unveil

some of the mystery behind this place.

The closer you look in to those inscriptions

the more detailed knowledge we gain.

A sinister collection of buildings

in the Albanian mountains.

But something's not quite right here,

this doesn't look like a cared for space.

There are iron bars on the window, the, the paint is all drab.

And in the heart of england

a subterranean labyrinth hiding a dark purpose.

Part of it's been painted white,

part of it's been left bare brown rock.

There has to be some significance to this.

There's even an area that

it was designed for people to sleep like a dormitory,

it's like they were preparing for the end of the world.

Decaying relics.

Ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past.

Their secrets waiting to be revealed.

In Arkansas densely forested hills

hide an unexpected rural haven.

The ozarks

are america's forgotten mountain range.

It's a beautiful idyllic area

that most people are barely aware exists.

In the middle of that

we come across this strange little outpost.

This place is gorgeous.

You've got creeks and streams,

there's a forest, woodlands.

So, it's hard to get a handle on what this place really was.

At first it appears to be some kind of ghost town

but amid the tranquil beauty

more dilapidated structures hint at this site's true nature.

You've got broken scaffolds, metal frames,

offices with papers strewn all about the place.

Buildings over grown with weeds.

You can just tell how busy this place would have been.

This place is vast,

there are space for a lot of people here,

there's even a little train line.

The railroad track weaves

a course around this 400 acre complex.

There's definitely a certain amount

of make believe to this whole site.

Why is this place abandoned?

Because outside of it it looks like paradise.

A parched slide and forlorn water mill

are some of the reminders of the sites lively past.

But it seems any success was short lived.

This is dog patch usa,

once one of the nation's most unusual theme parks.

You know that back in it's day

it would have been a noisy place to be,

kids full of excitement queueing up

desperate to get inside.

But now that's all gone.

Eddy sisson helps to look after

what's left of this once bustling amusement park.

Ever since he first came to dog patch

he's been fascinated by it's history.

This part of the site is where you would buy tickets

and purchase memorabilia,

it would be your first place you would go to.

For the people who came here at its peak,

the next stage in their journey

was a magical descent in to an imaginary world.

So, after you buy your ticket

you would hop on this tram

and you could see everything that awaited you.

But what was so entertaining about this far away funfair.

This site has a theme

and that's the key to understanding

what this place was about and why it was here.

Dog patch is an amusement park

like no other in america before or since.

It's a theme park so in one sense it's like Disneyland

but there were a few major differences,

instead of mice,

fantasy castles and big rides,

you had hillbillies,

a few arcades and a lake full of trout.

It's doors first opened to the public

on 18th of may 1968.

In the heyday of the park

there would be just tonnes of people,

kids going back and forth

and people eating,

people buying tickets,

people browsing at the dog patch memorabilia.

There were just you know,

maybe 800 people in this building at one time.

But why were people

so keen to come visit these log cabins in the woods?

The story of how it came to be dates back 3 decades

before the first visitors came.

It's sort of a landmark

to a massive cultural shift in america.

This park was culturally related to one specific time period.

It reflected an america

in which people were moving from the agricultural

and the countryside's in to the cities.

The park took inspiration from an unexpected source.

A cartoon strip known as lil abner

which made fun of that change.

Today it's hard to remember

or to even imagine

how influential newspaper comic strips were

in the mid 20th century.

Lil abner was one of the most popular comic strips

and it's creator al capp was a huge celebrity.

He used to go on the tonight show,

he was friends with presidents.

Lil abner was set

in the fictional appalachian village of dog patch.

It was an over the top portrayal of rural folk living in the region.

Of course al capp's vision of life in the appalachians

was a very demeaning hillbilly stereotype

but it was also one that

people kind of loved and embraced.

So, when they heard that

there was a theme park based on dog patch

that was very appealing to a lot of people.

At its height,

the cultural phenomenon attracted a readership

of over 60 million people.

It wasn't so much about the rides,

it was more about the setting and the atmosphere it provided.

This is a slightly different take on your average theme park.

For many visitors this was a chance to be

a part of a world they had grown up consuming.

From catching a fish in the trout pond

and having it cooked in the parks restaurant.

To watching artisans

producing traditional crafts in the cabins.

Guests were transported in to al capp's imagination.

It looked just like the dog patch in the comic,

there was a waterfall,

some scruffy hills,

there were even a few caves

where you could imagine maybe somebody was off

brewing up some moonshine.

There was a waterfall,

a trout farm, there was camp grounds.

One of the largest structures

that remains here is the old tower standing tall

with the long slide flowing down.

We've all been to fairgrounds as a kid you know,

this is exactly what you want, fun and games.

In its first year, 300,000 people

came to enjoy the hillbilly theme park.

When it opened it opened to great success.

It made a lot of money, it was a very popular theme park.

Lil abner the brand was going really well,

there was plans to open a chain of themed restaurants

and there was a TV show in the pipeline too.

What may seem a strange premise for an amusement park today

somehow worked...

But dog patch was about to go on

an economic rollercoaster all of its own.

By the 70s things were changing,

there was the energy crisis,

the price of gas went sky high,

the economy was really struggling,

unemployment was high, inflation was high,

people weren't as inclined to take long road trips.

As profits plummeted the park was put up for sale.

The new proprietors believed they could turn it's fortunes around

but the odds were stacked against them.

In the '80s the park was sold

and purchased by a company that specialises

in building and branding theme parks.

The new owners really thought big,

they put in bigger rides, they put in a music venue.

At first it seemed that

dog patch's prospects had been revived.

So, it's pretty insane that 3 dog knight, Tina Turner,

Dolly Parton, all performed on this stage.

The Dukes of hazard people they got them to come

and sign autographs and

you know that wasn't a normal thing

in Arkansas to have people come you know,

huge Hollywood stars.

The parks owners even attempted to install a ski resort

to make this a year round destination

but as the 1980s wore on,

no matter how hard they tried to attract new visitors

there was one overriding problem.

Al capp retired from making the comic character

lil abner in 1977.

So, within a few years you don't have children

growing up on lil abner anymore,

they're not clambering to their parents to go to dog patch

because they've never heard of dog patch.

A brand like Disney spends millions of dollars a year

reminding everybody about those iconic characters.

You know originally dog patch was over 800 acres

which was larger than Disney world when it started.

Disney land has become huge, trumping everything.

Unable to adapt and keep pace with the changing times

the park fell in to bankruptcy.

And in 1993 it's gates finally slammed shut.

It's sort of sad to walk this ground today

because the basic idea wasn't a bad one,

a lot of people love the idea

of being in the heartland of america,

being in a rustic setting,

celebrating some of the traditions of rural life or country life.

Dog patch maybe gone forever

but the area's natural beauty could one day bring back the crowds.

Recently the derelict site has been bought by new owners.

With the hope of making use of its fish filled lakes.

This feature is the key to all of it,

if you can attract people here to fish then

that's the starting point, the idea can grow from there.

Maybe there is life left in this place yet.

Near the city of Birmingham

a quiet wilderness is hidden away from prying eyes.

This place is rural, it's remote,

it seems as if there's not a lot happening here.

That's exactly what you're supposed to think.

There's this mysterious door in the middle of the woods,

you start to wonder

if there's another world behind that door.

And in a way there is.

This complex has endless tunnels,

some of them interconnect,

some of them dead end,

they also vary considerably in size.

It's like a massive underground labyrinth,

dropping a trail of breadcrumbs

is not going to help you find your way out of this place.

But distinctive features soon emerge from the darkness.

There seems to be two halves to this tunnel network,

part of it's been painted white,

part of it's been left bare brown rock.

There has to be some significance to this.

In the lighter tunnels it gets a little more civilised.

There are office cubicles

that have machinery stashed away in them.

There's a kitchen area,

there's even an area that it was designed for people

to sleep like a dormitory.

It's like they were preparing for the end of the world.

With enough space to house hundreds

if not thousands of people

what was this place built for

and why plan to live down here in the dark?

For any lone visitor

these cold empty halls

make for an unwelcoming scene even the owner,

sid Robinson still finds the experience disconcerting.

I find the place it's very eerie,

such a vast space of darkness

especially if you just, you're there with the torch

and it has this presence

I can't put my finger on it

but yeah it's not comfortable.

But the sense of unease is nothing new.

Working down here

especially during the excavation stages

I know from having interviewed people,

spoke to men who worked here

they said it was horrific

and it was the most scariest time,

they would take a week or two to get used to the,

the pitch black and the noises.

Originally built and paid for by the British government

it was then turned over to a private company,

rover for use as factory space.

In the early 20th century rover employed thousands of people

and they built some pretty famous vehicles

like the rover 10,

the meteor and the light 6.

Rover made most of the cars they manufactured in house,

they made the chassis, the engine, even the wheels

and in doing so they established themselves

as a trusted British automobile manufacturer.

But why would they put a factory underground.

Rover may have been a car manufacturer

but they weren't making automobiles down here.

This was a shadow factory.

Known as Drake low tunnels,

this was once a secret facility designed to keep britain

in the fight against the Nazi's.

Now, Germany didn't really have the capacity

at least at the beginning of world war two

to mount a sea borne invasion of britain

but a necessary precursor was control of the skies.

After the first world war

the government had seized the initiative

and began preparing for this looming threat.

Outsourcing is a big part of their answer.

The air ministry decided to start

co-opting car manufacturers

in what they called a shadow factory scheme.

The government approached car companies,

companies like rover and they made a deal,

they would build the new factories

and they could build cars in them

but if war ever came

those factories would get converted to air craft making.

In theory it was a good plan,

but sites like this were only built

after a major flaw in it was realised.

The first shadow factories were built

right in the shadow of existing car factories.

And this made them vulnerable to bombing attacks,

Germany just bombed the hell out of them.

The fate of the country was hanging in the balance,

to find a solution they had to start digging.

So, in 1942 about halfway through the war,

rover and it's employees

were moved to a new locale, Drake low.

There was no caves as such to start

with this is all totally man made.

They had at the time 2,000 people

working down here,

doing the excavation for them

and creating this like fabulous underground factory.

We don't actually go down any steps,

it's built straight in the side of a hill

so it's all on one level, made a lot easier

for the trucks carrying the materials in and out.

Designed in a repetitive grid system,

four quarter of a mile long tunnels

formed the core of the underground network.

With rows of perpendicular routes cutting through them

in total it offered up

the equivalent of around 4 football pitches

worth of bomb proof factory space.

Rover were producing parts

for the rolls Royce Merlin engines

which was the engines they used in all of the aircraft

during the war period

so it was a very very critical

and crucial part of the operations of the war effort at the time.

With men being sent out to fight on the front,

new opportunities opened up at the factory.

But where was all the man power

going to come from to build these engines?

Where else but the kitchen.

Women literally went from cutting cloth to make dresses

to cutting steel to make bombers.

Across britain numerous shadow factories

many of which were built underground made the difference.

The battle of Great Britain was won

because they had the aeroplanes to fight off the Germans.

Without the products of Drake low

the outcome of world war two for britain

might have been very very different.

But there were corners of Drake low's underground maze

that seemed to tell a different story.

There are these dormitories

and what looks like

broadcasting equipment

which makes no sense

for a factory producing aircraft engines.

Clearly something else happened here as well.

The use of atomic bombs on Japan

did more than just end the second world war,

it set in motion a new threat to britain's security.

Just 4 years later in 1949

the Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb,

the cold war was underway.

By the 1950s britain is not only

testing out it's own h bomb,

it's making extensive plans

for how to carry on

with government in the event of an attack.

As the nuclear age developed through the 1960s and 70s,

Drake low was called back in to action,

the bomb proof tunnels were critical once again.

Britain created a new initiative.

Initially called regional seats of government

and the idea was you would divide the country

in to 12 districts.

The rsgs were designed

as a way for the British government

to continue to operate in the event of a nuclear attack.

Parliamentary members

would take shelter at the headquarters

of these different regions

and would be able to govern there

assuming anyone actually survived the attack.

Drake low was going to house the headquarters for district 9.

We have the BBC broadcasting suite

so that a regional government headquarters

like this could communicate

with all the other regional government headquarters

around the country.

But computers and communication equipment

were just the final step.

More importantly the site itself would need a major overhaul.

When they updated the site

they sealed off part of the tunnel system

and then they installed new ventilation,

air conditioning, heating system,

they updated the wiring, alarms,

put blast proof doors on for the entrances...

The way there.

Focusing on a smaller section of the tunnels,

the plan was to make this area safe from nuclear fallout.

The sand stone rock might have protected

those inside from a nearby detonation.

But questions remain

over the likelihood of survival beyond that.

You know, you'd think alright it'll be sealed

in every little nook and cranny

well although they bricked off the old factory area,

at the end of the main corridor was the original factory doors

which were wooden

and then they had two little wooden doors

separating this bunker from the factory.

So, should the fall out be

sort of making it's way round through the countryside,

it would quite easily come through you know,

round the edge of the door frame

or around through the ventilation system someway

even though they got these special filters

to recirculate the air,

by no means was this place air tight.

While Drake low was a vital part of britain's defence

in the second world war,

the rush to put something in place quickly

ahead of the next threat, may not have paid off.

With Drake low you're trying to do it on the cheap,

it's just obviously not going to work.

But you know, at least the tunnels got a new paint job.

Fortunately the site never faced

the ultimate test and was finally shut down

and sold off in 1994.

Today parts of Drake low tunnels

have been opened up to the public.

Offering a glimpse in to britain's underground efforts

to protect the country throughout the 20th century.

Among the craggy peaks

of the Israeli occupied golan heights,

an ancient structure keeps watch over the landscape.

It's formidable, it sits high above

one of the most fiercely contested areas

on the face of the earth.

It's an exceptionally dramatic setting.

And wherever you look there seems to be more tunnels,

more corridors and walls that are extraordinarily thick.

The imposing ruins spread along the Ridge line

for almost a third of a mile.

Walls have crumbled

but it's just marvellously intact.

Below ground the curious maze continues.

There's a tunnel that leads in and out

through a hidden entrance

and then there's this subterranean area

that looks like it's been flooded.

Guarding this geopolitical flash point

the deserted structure is clearly defensive.

But who built this fortress and why?

Stories are told about this place,

of links to the Bible, of the tower of babel.

This is even today a place of myth and mystery.

It's only very recently

that we've been able to unveil some of the mystery

and get to the real story behind this place.

This commanding stronghold

dates back to the end of the 11th century.

Lior shelef has long been exploring

this mythical clifftop bastion

for many years.

When I first came here as a boy

I was fascinated by the fortress.

The size of it and all the mystery around it.

Who built it?

Why did they want to build it here?

Especially here?

This is nimrod fortress.

It's named after the biblical character nimrod,

who was believed to have been the king

who ordered the construction of the tower of babel,

that extraordinary structure that stretched from earth

right up in to the heavens.

There was a legend circulating that nimrod

had been bothered by a mosquito in his ear

so in an act of regal arrogance

he cut off his own head

and replaced it with one of gold

and that er, as sort of divine punishment

for this act of arrogance

he'd been buried in the valley beneath this fortress.

Those who built nimrod

did not take the defence of this place lightly.

It's huge, you can see it from everywhere.

The rocks are big, they're curved big,

everything here is big.

It's big because this is the business card

of the people that built it.

They want people from all around it to see it

and then they wouldn't dare to come near it.

What's amazing to see, and interesting,

is the amount of effort that was done in creating

such an accurate spot

for the Archer to stand,

overlooking the exact angle

he needs to watch.

And if you stand here with your bow,

and you're aiming to the exact point

you need to see in the valley,

it's just breath-taking.

Wow.

This castle was built for military effectiveness,

many of the details of the military architecture

are incredibly well preserved,

there are the multiple layers within the castle of fortifications

within fortifications to withstand

repeated waves of attacks.

The forts layout betrays it's specific purpose.

The fortress is built as an army base.

You won't find here beds, you won't find rooms here.

You won't find quarters, there's nothing.

This is an army base

and it's built only for this purpose.

But who or what

was this army protecting?

The strategic significance

of this nimrod castle is that

it lies on this high ground, locking access

from the mediterranean coast inland to Damascus.

Any invading force would land at tyre

and make their way through the golan heights

before taking Damascus.

They chose to build a fortress specifically here...

Because it makes sure,

it prevent from anyone to attack the people

that will go from Damascus

which is about that way, and the port of tyre.

Damascus was a key seat

in power at the time

and the main road to Damascus

was a fundamentally important military highway.

Late in the 11th century crusading Christian armies

came from the west

intent on recovering

the so called holy land from islamic rule.

The crusades were a defining

part of the medieval world and of the medieval mind.

Western Christian knights rode east

partly to contain islamic forces

which were expanding in the region

but also to retake and conquer as Christian

all those holy sites from the Bible.

This whole area was a battlefield

and you see crusader castles

speckling this region

where the crusaders would create

these strongholds to defend and to advance their cause.

So, at the turn of the 20th century

when western archaeologists first arrived,

they were quick to assume that the beautiful fortress

had been built by their own crusaders.

They assume and they want to believe

that this is a crusader's fortress.

Actually, until 1987,

history books that were written

about this fortress describe it

as a crusader's fortress.

Nearby castles around the golan heights

seem to confirm their assumption.

If we look to the east,

we can see first of all beaufort,

a crusader's fortress that sits in Lebanon.

Not that far from us, and hunin,

another crusader's fortress...

And this helps us to understand

why people thought for so many years

that this fortress is actually a crusader's fortress.

But details scattered around

the fortress suggest an altogether different story.

The first clue that

we have here in the north west tower

is this inscription in arabic that gave us an idea

why this fortress wasn't built by crusaders.

This was built by the islamic forces.

In 1187,

saladin a brilliant military strategist

from modern day Iraq swept across the region

and conquered many crusader strongholds.

Saladin and his heirs

begin building fortifications

to hold back this Christian tide

and nimrod is an islamic designed castle.

This castle was built by one of saladin's nephews

in anticipation of yet another battle.

They knew what it took to succeed in this hostile terrain.

As hidden features at this site confirm.

An elaborate water system

kept the fortress well stocked even under siege...

And that wasn't the only contingency

if the castle was surrounded.

So, this is the secret passage,

an interesting way to run away from the fortress

if you need and to smuggle some things

if you are under attack.

And they build a secret passage

in a very interesting way.

It was hidden by a huge bush

and basically no-one can see it

if you didn't want to.

Nimrod fortress was built to stand up

to the waves of waring crusaders

coming from the west.

But saladin and his dynasty were looking in the wrong direction.

In the mid 13th century their defences essentially reversed

to deal with an influx of mongol invaders

from the east.

But after years of conflict with the crusaders,

nimrod was eventually taken

without a single stone being thrown,

the mongols were so feared

that the occupants surrendered

and were happy to simply be spared their lives.

The mongols were soon driven out of the fortress

and it returned to islamic rule.

When ottoman forces finally took over in 1517...

Nimrod was no longer in a strategic location.

During the ottoman period,

one of the towers, a four storey structure

that was quite luxurious enough

for anybody to have lived in normally

was converted and used as a prison.

But the shattered remains that

litter this rocky outcrop

were not the work of any marauding army.

A huge earthquake that happened here

broke a little bit of the fortress,

but not too much, as we can see the rocks around us,

there's a little bit of ruins.

As if prophetic,

nimrod's fortress was shaken by an earthquake

just as nimrod's tower was toppled by the forces of god.

Following the earthquake,

nimrod fortress was finally abandoned

to the elements.

Nimrod fortress has stood for nearly 1,000 years

overlooking a region that continues to be contested.

And the legacy of its ancient origins

can still be felt to this day.

For centuries the crusades were seen

as a dusty old subject

but now you can open a newspaper

and read that very same language,

crusade, holy war,

jihad, martyrdom,

those ideas that were current at the time,

this castle was built are still relevant today

in our modern world.

On a mountain in northern Albania,

a complex of buildings

balances precariously close to the peak.

This place is definitely out of the way,

it's miles and miles from the nearest town.

The buildings here are established,

but the road is anything but.

It's basically a dirt road cut through the mountains.

There's little to suggest what this location was used for.

But at its centre an austere building

appears to offer up some clues.

It's a very unusual place

to find a building quite like this.

It looks like your stereotypical baddies headquarters.

There's a definite structure to this place.

This set up isn't incidental it had a purpose,

there was investment here and many people

several thousand feet above sea level.

So, what was this sinister collection of buildings

teetering on an Albanian mountainside?

Zenel drangu was 24 when he first arrived here.

Zenel (translation): "I came here and I saw people

"gathered in the terrace

"and I sincerely thought

"this looks like a zoo."

That was back in 1972

when this place had been in operation for 4 years.

But what was it built for?

When you look a little closer

it's clear that it was actually a mining operation.

If you've got a massive mining operation here

it makes sense that your work force live here.

We often think of mines

as pits sunk deep into the ground.

But here thousands of feet up in the air

there were resources so rich

that it was worth climbing up the mountain

to get to them.

They were digging for iron,

copper, zinc,

and if they were lucky a bit of gold too.

Zenel worked here as a miner,

he remembers the mines vast scale.

Translation: "About 900 of us worked here...

"So 3 shifts...

"All divided in groups

"that would take the ore out."

This was a huge operation,

it would have needed a lot of manpower to run this place.

But there are signs that this was no ordinary mine.

Something isn't quite right here.

It's almost like they didn't care

for the welfare of the people who lived here,

there's lots of barbed wire and iron bars.

Workers like zenel were not here by choice.

This is spac prison,

one of the most notorious labour camps in Albania.

Translation: "Here at the camp inside its core

"where we are now we had 5 rows of fences

"and every 10 metres there were the sentry boxes

"and guard posts of the soldiers."

This horrifying gulag

dates back to 1968

and the notorious reign of communist leader enver hoxha.

Albania had been a communist country

since the 1940s

but after the death of Stalin, Albania's leader decided

that the Soviet union was straying too far

from the core values of communism

so severed all ties with the Soviet union

and with China and decided to go it alone.

The aim seemed to be

for Albania to become a shining example of communism

whether it's citizens like it or not.

All criticism of the state

was forbidden and perhaps

the very worst example of criticism

was trying to leave which was strictly illegal.

In 1972,

zenel fell foul of the brutal regime.

He fled from Albania to neighbouring yugoslavia

but was soon extradited back to his homeland.

Translation: "I was sentenced to 20 years at the age of 24,

"a sentence that I served here."

The regime relied on it

not being questioned or criticised

and if you did you ended up

being put away in places like spac for re-education

where you were shut away from public view.

Zenel suffered alongside the rest of those incarcerated here.

Translation: "The situation was difficult,

"conditions were inhumane,

"it's that hard in the mines gallery

"cause you have all sorts of gases,

"smoke and smells,

"almost like that of rotten bodies.

"It smelled acidic."

The facility was effectively a slave labour camp,

the inmates were forced to work

inhumanely long hours

with unrealistically high productivity quotas

for the mining.

And the prisoners spartan

living quarters offered no respite

with up to 54 men sleeping in each room.

The rooms are very small, almost like cages.

I mean there's basic living but this is something else.

Another terrifying aspect of life

there was that the authorities offered time off sentences

for those who agreed to spy on their fellow prisoners,

so you didn't only have to watch out

for the guards and the warders.

Translation: "I said nothing to my co-workers

"because you never know

"what kind of people you'd run in to,

"somebody could be a good person

"but somebody else could easily be someone

"who would report you to the command."

But these draconian measures

could not break the prisoners spirit.

On the 21st of may 1973

the inmates of spac prison stage a revolt.

The prisoners had just had enough,

they'd had enough of being incarcerated

in dreadful conditions for trivial offences

and they fought back.

They seized the wardens guns,

they fortified the prison and they took control.

The rebellion was bold and brave,

but it had a fatal flaw.

They were stuck up the mountain with only one road down.

Waiting at the bottom was the state police

but they didn't need to storm the prison

and risk their own lives,

all they needed to do

was cut off the prisons water supply.

The police cut off the water supply

from the bottom of the valley.

And it was only a matter of time

before the rebellion was quashed.

Zenel had just arrived at the prison

and did not play an active role.

But he witnessed the surrender.

Translation: "So, after 3 days they cut the water supply

"and the food and they had nowhere to go

"and the prisoners surrendered.

"They handcuffed all the prisoners,

"in fact 80 of them

"were given additional 25 year prison terms.

"4 of them were then executed by firing squad.

"And they showed us their pictures to stoke more terror."

Zenel had to make a decision

about how to survive in this place.

Translation: "I thought about my family,

"that I would not want to bring any harm to them

"because if I had tried to escape

"the way many others had escaped

"they would exile my family.

"In fact they would take revenge on my family."

Spac continued to operate

as a labour camp

until the fall of the Albanian communist party

in the early 1990s.

Almost 20 years later a private company

started to mine here once more.

Having suffered the brutal conditions

of spac prison for 14 years,

zenel now hopes

that it will one day become a national monument.

Translation: "Let's hope we will one day fix it

"so that visitors who might come,

"especially young ones

"would know what this nation went through."

Captioned by ai-media ai-media. TV