All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S09E02.Jungle.Fantasy.Land.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Tom ward (narrates): A
ruined neighbour in america

built to keep the peace.

This is a really
violent situation,

they want better conditions,
they want fairer pay,

they want better housing.

An ancient ghost town in Russia
that still shows traces of life.

There's people's
belongings left behind

as if they had
just left recently.

A beachside resort in Croatia

caught up in a bitter conflict.

So, this place has got
evidence of large calibre rounds

being fired in to it

which some people
might call a war crime.

And a fantastical world
hidden in the Mexican jungle.

You see heads, hands
sticking out of the ground,

stuff that looks like snakes.

It's almost like some playground
designed by doctor Zeus.

Decaying relics...

Shadows of lost worlds...

Ruins haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

(Theme music)

In the American town
of Campbell, Ohio,

one neighbourhood looks
different from the rest.

Well, the first glance

you wouldn't think anything
different of this place,

you've got some
nice green areas,

you've got some residential
housing, and so on,

but you know, most of the
houses seem to be empty.

You can see that there had
been some colour on them,

but now it's faded
and chipped away.

This is a place
that really looks like

it's seen better days,

that it once used to just be
full of activity, full of people.

And now, it just looks
impoverished and just neglected.

But there's something else

that's not quite right
about these homes.

They all look the same
inside, it almost looks industrial.

So, it's at odds with what you'd
expect for that particular area.

These strangely uniform houses
are marked by traces of protest.

Something is happened here.

It's not what it once was
and you can't help but wonder

what happened to make it
reach the state that it's in today.

Tim sokoloff first came
here as a teenager.

It was really a hot
mess of abandonment.

Most of what we're
seeing now you

couldn't see, it was overgrown,

there were trees and
brush everywhere.

Beneath the undergrowth,

Tim found the houses
were unusually distinctive.

Everything was minimalistic.

You know, there was
no cabinets, cupboards.

This was it, you had
a sink and a shelf.

This was your fuse box,

it's a Frankenstein switch

with two fuses that ran
the whole apartment.

And here, you know, we've
got original bathroom...

And pipes all exposed,

toilet with a tank
that had connection,

the tanks are actually
made to the walls.

And everybody
looks here and says,

well, how you take
a bath in that tub?

You know, little 4
foot tub, cast iron.

Eventually this neighbourhood
became home to great poverty.

And at number 50 chamber
street, things took a tragic turn.

Two brothers lived
in this apartment,

they didn't have
their water turned on

'cause they didn't
want to pay a water bill.

They would go
dumpster diving for food.

And at one point in time a
neighbour would come over

and knocked on the door

and when the one
brother opened the door

there were legs sticking
out from behind the door

because the other brother
had just passed away

and he just, you know...

Had him lay there.

Although the area had
declined dramatically

by the time the brother died,

it didn't start out that way.

These are the sheet
and tube company homes.

Their story began

with the establishment
of a steel mill

in neighbouring youngstown.

Youngstown sheet and tube

was one of the great iron
and steel companies of the day.

Remember, it's coming about
just as the industrial revolution

is growing in the United States.

But it goes on in
the 20th century

to become larger than Coca-Cola,

larger than heinz,

larger than Johnson & Johnson.

It becomes the fifth largest
steel company in the United States

and the largest
employer in youngstown.

But in 1915 the company
hit it's first major challenge.

Europe was in the
grips of the world war I,

and American industry was
straining to make materials for battle.

The world war I has a
really interesting impact

on industry in
the United States.

It ramps up demand

and so it's actually
good for business.

I mean, if you think about it,
if you're making steel and iron,

war is when demand's
at its greatest,

for the manufacturing
industry it's a boom time.

It was so good for business

that youngstown sheet and tube
could barely keep up with the demand.

But while the company was
making money hand over fist

its employees were facing
a very different kind of battle.

Working conditions
for these steel workers

was not good.

And then everything gets
speeded up when the war begins,

the workers are expected to
do more and to work over time.

There was no union yet.

There was no...
there was problems.

And they weren't really
trying to pay the guys

what they should be paying them.

So, there's a lot of
descent that started to build.

Low pay and bad conditions
created a volatile situation,

one that was about to boil over.

In December 1915,
500 employees walk out.

They put down their tools,
they want better conditions,

they want fairer pay,
they want better housing.

The labour strike
continued for weeks

and it was not always peaceful.

The strikers were serious.

They didn't just walk off,

they were going to engage

in whatever tactics they needed
to... to advance their case.

And they are so
much about business

and so serious that the company
ends up hiring armed guards

to protect their interests
and their property.

After the new year,
events came to a head.

On January 7, 1916, the
strikers along with their wives

march up Wilson Avenue to
meet a group of scab workers,

who were coming in
to try to take their jobs.

That's when things
get out of hand.

We're not sure who
took the first shot,

if it was one of the
guards at the steel mill

or if it was one of the
people in the crowd

but a shot was fired
and a riot broke out.

People rioted, they looted
some of the buildings,

burnt things, and so on.

And the next day, on the 8th
the home guard had to be called in

to calm things down

and many of the workers
were arrested and jailed.

This is youngstown
sheet and tube hospital.

For some guys
it saved their life

by getting right
here to the hospital

before they could bleed out

or, you know, their
injury took their life.

The riot was a blood bath.

By the time the dust had settled

125 people are injured
and 3 people are dead.

Tensions between
employer and employee

were at an all-time high.

So, the company made an offer.

The mill workers rioted and
burned the city to the ground.

And the mill said, this is not
conducive to our business model,

we can't have this, let's
build them some nice homes

that they can live in that

will be, give them a
better standard of living.

The housing was going to
be connected to electricity.

It was going to
have running water

and so it was going to
provide workers with amenities

that were not yet fully
standard in the United States.

The buildings were sold
as homes of the future.

But with the company's
eye on the bottom line,

these houses would have
to be built on the cheap.

They came up with an
ingenious way of doing that

by building essentially
prefabricated units.

They were going
to construct houses,

one next to each other
that were all the same.

When this apartment
complex was created

it stood for everything
america stood for,

strong, innovative, powerful.

You know, this was the epitome
of modern building technology.

Entire walls were cast
in low-cost concrete.

When they arrived on site

they were assembled
like flat packed furniture.

The buildings went together,
so when they put the next slab in,

it slid right in
there in to that one

like a lock in
place kind of lego.

And here's a section of wall,

this was actually
standing up against here

when I first came here

and eventually fell
over on to the ground.

And when it hit the
ground it's so heavy

that we heard it all the way
up in to the union square park.

You expect cars to come off
of a production line not houses,

but here they'd flip that around

and they were
literally producing

house after house
after house after house,

very quickly, very cheaply.

But in doing so also
creating a community

that was desirable for the
workers to want to go and move in.

The new homes put an
end to the strike action.

But that meant that
youngstown were both employer

but also landlord.

So, when something
was gonna go wrong

things were gonna
go badly wrong.

The company and the
neighbourhood prospered for 60 years.

But on 19th of September,
1977 the steel mill closed down.

Overnight 5,000
people lost their jobs,

it's still known
as black Monday.

And this has a huge ripple
effect in the community.

And when black Monday happens

it's sort of the first in a
series of plant shutdowns.

And so you have
this depopulation

that starts to happen in the
late '70s and in to the '80s

when you think about
the decline of the rust belt.

That's exactly
what this moment is.

Over the next few decades the
sheet and tube company homes

slowly emptied and
fell in to disrepair.

Since the 1990s most of the prefab
homes have lay rotting and empty,

but Tim is bringing
them back from the brink.

We just started a couple of
years ago renovating apartments

to try to bring the
complex back to life.

And this is one
that we renovated,

it's finished, and people
are just moving in here today

as a matter of fact.

This was a modern marvel of
building and engineering technology.

And it has a lot of history here
for our mills and for our nation.

It's important to save it.

It could bring... it could
help bring back to town,

it's our diamond in the rough.

In the highlands
of central Mexico

lies a fantastical world
hidden by dense rainforest.

We are in the heart of this
untouched beauty in the mountains.

And everywhere you look you
are just surrounded by this canopy

that is the jungle.

Then as you drop down
beneath the canopy

you realise that there are
these strange structures

dotted all around.

These remains
are difficult to date.

There are some things that
look almost like Mayan ruins,

others that look
strangely modern.

Deeper in the forest
things get even stranger.

There are fantastical
pillars and stairs to nowhere.

There's a library with no books
and a cinema with no seats.

You see heads and hands
sticking out of the ground,

stuff that looks like snakes.

It's almost like some playground
designed by doctor Zeus.

What kind of people left
behind these bizarre traces?

There just doesn't seem
to be any rhyme or reason

for its existence.

I mean, what are
all these structures?

And what the heck are they
doing in the middle of the jungle?

Who would put in so much effort,
so much time, so much money

to create this fantasy land?

Zaira linan is the director
of this curious place

which dates back to the 1940s.

Las pozas sits in a
densely forested region

of Mexico's San
Luis potosi state.

And it was this lush
exotic environment

that lured its creator here
from a very different world.

Edward James was born in
1907 to a British American family,

a very wealthy family.

And he was a true
British aristocrat.

His godfather was
actually king Edward vii,

and there were even rumours
that he was his illegitimate son.

Edward was still quite
young when his father died

and left him with
this big fortune.

Armed with his huge inheritance,

he soon spread his wings
and left war torn britain behind.

In the early 1940s he
was drawn to Los Angeles.

At the time Los Angeles was a real
hot bed for all kinds of immigrates,

people who had fled
the war in Europe.

Eventually, he fell in with a group
that you might call bohemians

or they were almost
like proto-hippies.

While he was living in la,

James decided he
wanted to create a retreat

that could pull him away

from the bustling
of every day city life.

He wanted to create his
very own garden of Eden.

Edward James's
obsession with exotic flowers

led him to Mexico.

The orchid is in some way
the most sensuous of plants,

and that appealed
to James's sensibility.

Las pozas was the perfect place

to indulge his
passion for this plant.

Las pozas started off as just
two simple huts being built,

because James wanted to
focus his attention on the orchids.

He devoted himself

to cultivating these thousands
and thousands of orchids

across his big plot.

James threw himself
in to this project

and it really bordered
on obsession.

But the nurturing
climate of las pozas

was about to deal Edward
James a devastating blow.

James was away on a trip

when a freak cold snap hit
the central highlands of Mexico,

and that period of cold weather

destroyed his entire
collection of orchids.

When returning from
a trip to New York,

he was confronted with a
very unpleasant surprise.

You can imagine James just
discovering this devastation,

it must have been
absolutely crushing.

But the catastrophe
pushed him to create

something even
more extraordinary.

This time, James decided
he was going to create

his version of the
garden of Eden

but with concrete structures

that couldn't be
destroyed by freak weather.

But Edward James didn't
stop at stone flowers,

he soon began to indulge
his other obsession.

James came of age at a time
when some of the most exciting work

happening in the arts was
the movement of surrealism.

This was the idea of
artists trying to get in touch

with something deeper,

something from
your subconscious.

He had been friends with
famous surrealist artists

like Salvador dali.

And after the
loss of his orchids,

he retreated in to a
surreal fantasy world.

He created all kinds
of fantastical shapes,

everything was as if it just
emerged out of some kind of dream.

This garden was
constantly evolving

with ever larger

and ever more bizarre
concrete structures being added.

The sculptural garden really
defied all architectural labels.

It...

Became this reality of
his surrealist thought.

The surrealist structures
surround the garden's nine pools.

He puts seats there but no
screen, he was having fun.

James gave these structures

really kind of unique
and whimsical names,

like the house with three
storeys that might actually be five.

At one point he
mentioned something about

imagine if people in the future

come in and finding
these shapes in the jungle,

like they were some ancient
Mayan ruins or something like that.

And I think that delighted
him that having people say,

"what the heck is this?"

For himself, Edward
James built a house,

a studio and a sarcophagus.

And he found refuge in his
garden at las pozas until his death.

James died in 1984,

and you can imagine
this spectacular space

just being reclaimed
by the jungle

and being kind of
lost and forgotten,

a bit the way he
might have imagined.

The garden is a masterpiece

and a testament to
one man's eccentricity

and his desire to
be extraordinary.

Today a dedicated foundation

takes care of Edward
James's surrealist vision

in the way he'd intended.

What's so charming
about this space

is in a way the jungle
is allowed to grow up

and surround some
of the structures.

In Russia's dagestan region,

an eerie ruin hides
on a mountain peak.

It's high up in
the craggy rocks,

looking down on the eagles soaring
below, and it's hard to make out.

It's almost
impossible to believe

that anyone could
have a town in this place.

But someone once eked
out an existence here.

All around it are terraced
fields fading in to the distance.

Some people call this the
machu picchu of the caucasus,

and you can really see why.

But why did people come here?

Why did people settle here, why?

Among the ruins lie
hints of a conflicted past.

There's people's
belongings left behind

as if they had
just left recently.

It looks like a town, but
there is no movement,

no vehicles, no people.

And it is a ghost town.

Local conservationist
zaur tsokolov

is keen to preserve the
deserted settlement of gamsutl'.

At the end of the 20th century
gamsutl' was still inhabited.

Zaur remembers
its last resident...

A bee keeper.

For thousands of years

zaur's ancestors lived
in this brutal terrain.

This is a part of the world
which has a history dominated

by warring tribes...

And people who feel endangered.

Dagestan has long been
a geopolitical flashpoint.

Dagestan is 19,000 square miles,

it has a population
of about 3.1 million

but it's a very,
very diverse area.

The people who lived in gamsutl'

belonged to a tribe of
elite highland warriors

known as the avars.

And there are signs
of conflict everywhere.

The position of gamsutl'

is another sure sign

that this was once a heavily
contested battle ground.

From here, from
this eagles nest,

with its series of
watchtowers and drawbridges

and above all visibility,

this was a place that
really could be defended.

And the avars watchfulness
would soon be called upon.

Originally the dagestan region

lay between the Christian
and Muslim worlds.

By the 18th century the
domineering islamic persian empire

wanted to take control
of villages like gamsutl'.

And with the war
mongering leader nader shah

at the head of the
mighty persian armies,

it seemed like nothing
could stop them.

Nader shah is seeking
to expand the territory

that he controls and the area
from which he can draw revenue

and he does that by fighting
and continuously fighting.

He's sometimes called
the Napoleon of persia.

Nader shah was determined
to take control of dagestan.

But the persians underestimated
the skill of the avar warriors

and their new leader
Ibrahim of urada.

Ibrahim was a larger
than life character.

He was aggressive,
he was provocative.

He was a formidable
military and political leader.

The first problem Ibrahim faced
though was not the persian armies,

but how to stop the avar warriors
fighting between themselves.

What he's got to be able
to do is build a coalition...

Who are willing to put
aside their constant state

of intern signed warfare

and join in common cause

to resistant persian domination.

Against the odds,

Ibrahim of urada managed to
convince the squabbling highlanders

to create a united front.

There were penalties for not
cooperating with this agreement.

So, for example, if a
village failed to contribute,

they were fined 100 sheep,
which is significant in this period.

In the end he assembled
an army of 11,000 men

ready to face the tsar.

In 1741 the bloodshed began.

When the war was finally fought,

it erupted across a front
that was tens of miles long.

But more important than numbers
of troops in an area like this

is familiarity and
intimacy with the terrain,

and the dagestani's had that.

Ibrahim and his tribes

have a massive
home field advantage.

The unlikely
confederation of avars

took nader shah by surprise.

Rumour has it

that he left his vast
treasures of campaign gold

here in the mountains

and there are still treasure
hunters who come looking for it.

Following his victory, Ibrahim
became famous as a Muslim scholar

while nader shah was later
assassinated by his own people.

The avars survived in
gamsutl' for the next 200 years...

Until the Russian communists
arrived in the 20th century.

The dagestani region

becomes an autonomous
Soviet republic

within the larger Soviet union.

The Soviets did their best to
quash the avars fighting spirit

but in the end it was
nature that won out.

It's simply too isolated

and people leave
slowly over time,

until in the end there
was just one person left.

And he died in 2015.

Today zaur is determined
that the ruins of gamsutl',

which embody the avar
warriors spirit should live on.

Croatia's glittering dalmatian
coast is crammed with tourist resorts,

but one stands out.

The building's form
this ghostly backdrop

to what should be a
picture postcard holiday spot.

It's really quite unsettling.

We've got a tourist mecca

nearby, this ought to
be prime real estate.

An eclectic collection of
ruins follow the shoreline.

Each building is
very different in style.

From brutal concrete
corridors and square solid rooms

to these beautiful
stunning curves

and elaborate archways.

You can still sort of detect
the original furnishings,

the wallpaper, these
beautiful staircases.

The grand old building
at the heart of the complex

looks the most exclusive.

This facility has got
bars, and restaurants,

and courtyards.

Then you have these
more modern hotels

built in the 1960s,
'70s, and even '80s built

at clearly a tremendous expense

that have all
been just left to rot.

But there are signs that the
luxury here was shattered.

This place has got evidence

of large calibre rounds
being fired in to it

which some people
might call a war crime.

These obliterated buildings

were witness to one
of the bloodiest conflicts

of 20th century Europe.

This place is a
living time capsule,

from a period in
this nation's history

that has definitely
not been forgotten.

Jure maric is a history professor
who grew up in the town of kupari.

Back then kupari was one of
Croatia's most exclusive resorts

and the grand
was its first hotel.

Investors come here

and they build a
big gorgeous hotel.

It's going to be
a first-rate hotel,

it's got a beautiful view
over the adriatic sea.

It's easily accessible by
railroad from anywhere in Europe.

This place is gonna make a mint.

The grand hotel, you
know, was incredibly ornate,

spiral staircase up
to the upper floors,

you know, these beautiful rooms,

great views across the sea.

So, this was quite the
impressive tourist destination.

The 139-room hotel
kick started a trend,

and for the next two decades,

holiday makers
flocked to kupari.

But the good times
wouldn't last for long.

World war ii stopped
tourism in this town,

but it wasn't the
end of it for good.

It was about to get a second
wind and on a far greater scale.

After the war, Croatia joined
forces with neighbouring Serbia,

it's long-time rival.

Along with three other Balkan states
they formed socialist yugoslavia...

Led by the communist josip tito.

Tito has to assure the
loyalty of the military.

The serb controlled Yugoslav army
in order to maintain the communist

hold on yugoslavia.

So, he decides among other things
to create a holiday resort at kupari

for the yugoslavian army.

Quickly hotels started popping
up all along this coastline,

huge brutalist blocks,
iconic of the communist era.

In 1978, tito's forces build
the Jewel in the resorts crown,

the hotel kupari.

Tito spent

more than half a billion
dollars in today's money

to create this exclusive resort.

And under his rule
the resort thrived

and the sparring Yugoslav
states remained united.

Tito's communist powers forced
a tentative peace on this region

for nearly 40 years.

Tito, of course, was the
glue that held together

this incredibly fractious
country called yugoslavia,

but tito dies in 1980.

After tito's death the
fault lines began to show.

And in 1991 the collapse
of the Soviet union coincided

with the rise of another
ruthless Serbian leader...

Slobodan milosevic.

But Croatians like jure's family
were demanding independence.

The Serbs, of course, oppose
this attempt of these nations

to break away and so a
civil war breaks out in 1991.

This spot becomes fought
over between the Serbs

and the croats and
it gets very nasty.

Kupari is just six
miles down the coast

from the strategically vital
Croatian city of Dubrovnik,

which milosevic's
Serbian-led forces

were determined to take.

These attacks and
bombings began in the city,

it became known as
the siege of Dubrovnik.

They tried to pound the
Croatian's into submission

by shelling the beautiful
ancient croat city of Dubrovnik.

And just nearby there's kupari.

During this time a small
Croatian force holes up in kupari.

So, you know, fight
the Serbian blockade

and try to attack the
Serbian artillery positions,

so then, of course, the
Serbs turn their guns on kupari

and they shell
it for six months.

The Serbian-led
assault was merciless.

Kupari's grand hotel
took the greatest hit.

The resort was
absolutely devastated.

And then when the Serbian infantry
came in to clear the croats out,

they cleared them with phosphorus
grenades, burning them out entirely,

leaving the place

essentially a gutted ruin on a
beautiful stretch of coastline.

It seemed mad that
they'd completely destroy

what they themselves had built,

but they were
determined to make sure

there was nothing
left for the croats.

By the end of the bombardment,

this was no longer
a habitable place.

It took just 2 weeks for
the Serbian-led forces

to recapture the coastline.

They destroyed 2,000
homes in the process.

The Serbian-led occupation
of kupari lasted until may 1992,

when the Croatians
finally took it back.

Serbian leader slobodan
milosevic died in 2006

while standing
trial for war crimes.

And the decimated resort of
kupari has still not recovered.

The level of devastation
here is horrifying,

and it's basically sat
like that ever since.

But good news, the site
has been bought by investors

and there's plans to redevelop
it as a great beach resort.

(Music)

Captioned by
ai-media ai-media. TV