All language subtitles for Holy Marvels with Dennis Quaid S02E11 1080p WEB h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[suspenseful music]

- Across time, there
have been objects

and places of unimaginable
power, shrouded in mystery

and sought by many.

From sacred relics.

- Some churches actively claim

to have the Grail.

By some counts, there are
as many as 200 Holy Grails

across Europe.

- This might be the most
desired object in history.

- To mighty strongholds.

- King Herod knows
that his enemies

could strike at any time,

and so he decides to build
something like a safe house.

- This is a perfect
secure refuge,

because it's almost
impossible to attack.

- To a fallen angel
that personifies evil.

- We see Satan as a tempter,

trying to lure people away
from God, even God's own son.

- From there, it gets worse.

- Now, stories of some of
history's most formidable,

"Holy Marvels."
[intense music]

The Ark of the Covenant
is no ordinary object.

Its alleged powers
include destroying armies

and bringing down
fury from heaven.

So it's no surprise

people have looked
for it for centuries.

[intense music]

- There's an argument to be made

that this might be the most
desired object in history,

thanks to the phenomenal
power it's said to possess.

Millions of people are familiar

with the tales of the Ark's
ability to protect its owners

and destroy their enemies.

- The story of the Ark starts
around the 13th century BC

with a group of people
called the Israelites.

- In the Book of
Exodus, with God's help,

Moses leads the
Israelites out of bondage

and into the desert,

searching for a place they
call the promised land.

Eventually as they travel
through the desert,

they reach Mount Sinai, where
God appears before Moses

and gives them The
10 Commandments.

- God also tells Moses to
build him a holy vessel

to hold the tablets
of the commandments.

This is the Ark of the Covenant.

- [Dennis] Once
the Ark is ready,

the Israelites carry it
with them wherever they go,

utilizing its incredible power.

- In the Book of Joshua,
in the Old Testament,

an army of 40,000 Israelites
have their sights set

on the city of Jericho.

- The Israelites begin
their attack with a siege.

They blow horns
and march the Ark

around the entire
circumference of the city.

They do this every
day for a week,

until on the seventh day,
the walls of Jericho fall.

- It's incredible. No
catapults, no cannons.

The walls just crumble,
as if by magic.

- The Bible makes
this very clear.

This would only
have been possible

thanks to the power of
the object that they have,

this weapon.

Without the Ark of the
Covenant, they had no hope,

but with it, they're
an unstoppable force.

- [Dennis] Eventually,
around 1000 BC,

the Israelites bring
the Ark to Jerusalem,

where King Solomon builds a
temple for it on Mount Moriah.

It stays there for years,
until disaster strikes.

- The Babylonians wage a
savage war against Jerusalem.

After a 30-month-long siege,

they completely destroy the
city, tearing down the temple

and lighting the
whole place on fire.

- As far as the
Bible is concerned,

this is the last mention

of the Ark of the
Covenant's location.

It's in Jerusalem and then
Jerusalem is destroyed.

- [Dennis] But did the
Ark somehow survive?

Nazi leaders
certainly thought so,

along with many international
teams of explorers.

In 1980, one man
joins the search,

an amateur archaeologist
named Ron Wyatt.

- Wyatt starts out as
a nurse anesthetist.

He's an evangelical Christian

and he becomes fascinated
by biblical history.

Wyatt focuses his efforts on
finding the Ark of the Covenant

under Mount Moriah.

So he starts by exploring
some of the tunnels

that enter in from the north,

and Wyatt claims
to see the chamber

and tunnel that has
remained untouched.

- He takes out his flashlight

and he immediately
sees something

on the far side of the chamber.

He realizes he's
looking at a large case

that's sitting on
a stone platform.

- [Dennis] To get a closer look,

Wyatt brings in a surprising
piece of equipment.

- He uses a colonoscope, the
same thing that doctors use

to do colonoscopies,
to look inside.

Wyatt claims to see
that there's a box

with a flat golden side, and
on top, he sees a cherub.

This is it. He believes he's
found the Ark of the Covenant.

- [Dennis] But Wyatt
keeps the details

of his discovery a secret

- Wyatt says that
God instructs him

to leave the Ark
just as he found it.

God tells him that
there will be a time

leading up to the apocalypse,

when all will
finally be revealed.

- So Wyatt seals up the cave

and doesn't reveal
its exact location.

Now he passes away in 1999.

Who knows? Maybe someday

they'll get an excavation permit

and be able to prove
Wyatt's claims.

But until that happens,

most Ark hunters think it's
best to keep looking elsewhere.

- Like the Ark, there's
another powerful relic

that's captivated the
imagination of millions.

The Holy Grail.

- The Holy Grail might be the
most famous vessel in history,

used by the most famous
person to ever live,

at the most famous
meal ever served.

Today, we call it
the Last Supper.

It's thought to have taken place

during the Jewish
holiday of Passover.

- [Dennis] The meal
starts with a blessing.

- Jesus distributes the bread

and tells his
followers, "Take, eat.

This is my body."

He then holds up a
cup of wine and says,

"Drink all of it,
for this is my blood.

Do this in remembrance of me."

- This is one of the
most well-known events

in all of Christianity.

The night that a cup was
held and blessed by Jesus.

This simple act has created
a legend surrounding this cup

that's lasted for 2,000 years.

- [Dennis] But the cup is also
revered for another reason.

- According to legend,

the Holy Grail is an object
that has magical powers.

It is an object that
is held to be sacred.

It is an object that's
connected with healing

and potentially even
with immortality itself.

- It's a holy relic.

It's been touched by Jesus and
it can provide immortality.

This would be the
most valuable object

in the history of the world.

- [Dennis] After The Last
Supper, the Grail disappears.

From here, legends
of its whereabouts

and guardians run the gamut.

- Some churches actively
claim to have the Grail.

Others just happily allow people

to make their own assumptions,

but by some counts, there are
as many as 200 Holy Grails

across Europe.

- There's at least one sticking
point in all these claims.

The large majority of
these Grail candidates

aren't associated
with any miracles.

The Grail is supposed to
possess great powers, right?

So there are a lot of cups
with not a lot of powers.

- [Dennis] One cup, however,
does claim to have powers,

and it's currently on
display at a church

in the Spanish
town of O Cebreiro.

- This cup's
origins are unknown,

but according to this
church, in the 13th century,

it was used to offer communion

to a peasant named Juan Santin.

As the priest is
delivering the communion,

the bread and wine
turn into actual flesh

and blood in the cup.

So alarmed are these two
men that they run away.

They just abandon the ceremony.

For a hundred years,

the cup, filled with
the blood and flesh,

remain on display, unspoiled.

- This miracle is certified
by Pope Innocent VIII,

and Queen Isabella herself
eventually visits the church

and verifies the
cup's authenticity.

Today, the flesh
and blood are gone,

but the cup can still be
viewed inside a glass case.

- So what can we make
of all these cups

circulating in Europe

with each town claiming
to hold the real one.

Until somebody actually fills
one up and drinks from it

and magically becomes immortal,

identifying the Grail is
gonna be pretty tough.

- Every culture has
stories of weapons

believed to wield great powers,

and one in particular
has been held

by some of the world's
most infamous leaders.

- In Vienna's Hofburg Palace,

there's an imperial
treasury vault

which contains 21
rooms of rare treasures

collected by Austria's
Habsburg's rulers

and the Holy Roman Empire.

Among the jewel-encrusted crowns

and golden scepters
sits a dull metal spear,

which might be the
most valuable object

in the entire collection.

- [Dennis] It's
called the Holy Lance,

also known as

the Spear of Destiny.

- The spearhead is

about 20 inches long,

weighs about two pounds.

It's mostly made of iron.

It has a leather wrap to tie it,

and silver and gold
cuffs around the middle,

which were added later.

- [Dennis] But the
spear's true power

is thought to come
from another source.

- In the New Testament,

but only in the Gospel of John,

we're told that the
Romans aren't sure

if Jesus has died yet.

And so one of the Roman guards,

he actually pierces
Jesus with a spear.

- Jesus has already
died by then,

and it's said that
there's a gush of blood

and water from the wound.

- According to
non-biblical sources,

the guard who wields
the spear is blind,

but when he pierces Jesus,

the holy blood drips into
his eyes and heals him.

- [Dennis] From that moment on,

the spear is believed
to have superpowers.

- It's said that
the Spear of Destiny

can make the bearer
invincible in combat.

- It's also said that
whoever possesses the spear

is taken as a sign that
they rule by divine right,

meaning their authority
comes directly from God.

Whomever wields the spear

has in their hands the
destiny of the world.

- When you study the history
of this incredible object

and learn more
about its journey,

you realize it's
been at the center

of some of the most important
events in human history.

- In the eighth and
the early ninth centuries,

the first Holy Roman
Emperor, Charlemagne,

supposedly carries
the Holy Spear

on 47 victorious
military campaigns.

Then one day he
accidentally drops the spear

and he dies, almost
immediately, of a fever.

The relic moves
around until 1424,

when it winds up in
the city of Nuremberg.

In 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte
makes a move to seize it,

so it's sent to
the Hofburg Palace

in Vienna for safekeeping.

Napoleon never does
get his hands on it.

- [Dennis] Once it's in Vienna,

another power hungry leader
sets his sights on the spear.

- Even before his rise to power,

Adolf Hitler is
aware of the spear

from his days as a
starving artist in Vienna.

He spends his free time
wandering the halls

of the Hofburg Palace,
which had become a museum.

- [Dennis] When Hitler
invades Austria in 1938,

he seizes the weapon.

- Hitler's empire
grows, as does his ego.

He seems to believe
he's invincible,

but if he paid
attention to the legend

surrounding the
Spear of Destiny,

he should have realized that
things don't always end well

for those who wield it.

- As we all know, eventually
the tide turns against Hitler

and on April 30th, 1945,
he ends his own life

inside a Berlin bunker.

[explosion booming]

- By January 1946,

the spear is back at the
Hofburg Museum in Vienna,

having survived another war,

so maybe it really does hold
the power of invincibility.

[dramatic music]

- Like the spear,
there's another weapon

that supposedly grants
the divine right to rule.

Legend says it was first seized

by a young British
warrior named Arthur.

- Excalibur.

The very name of
the mighty sword

evokes a sense of
sacred, mythical powers,

and is forever linked to
the man who wields it,

King Arthur.

- The legend of King Arthur
originates from Welsh poetry

written around the
late sixth century AD.

Arthur was said to have ruled

after the fall of
the Roman Empire,

and he was the leader of what
was a knightly fellowship

of the round table.

His stories, of course,
involve his famous sword,

which protects the king
and his knights in battle.

- In 1136, an English
cleric, Jeffrey of Monmouth,

compiles the Arthurian tales

in a book called, "The History
of the Kings of Britain."

In Latin, he calls
the sword Caliburnus,

it just means "cuts steel."

- Eventually this sort
of gets transmuted

into what we now have as
a name for it, Excalibur.

So here it is obviously
clearly presented

as a miraculous, magical sword.

- [Dennis] The blade is
believed to be forged

on the mystical isle of Avalon.

[hammering]

- One of the most famous stories

of how Arthur gets Excalibur
is from the sword in the stone,

and in this story,
Merlin the wizard,

proclaims that whoever
can extract the sword

from the stone will be the
rightful King of England.

- So naturally, everybody
wants to take a crack at it

and become King of England,
and many people try,

but the sword just won't budge

until a boy named
Arthur pulls it free,

[metal clanging]

claiming his right
to the throne.

- [Dennis] Once it's
in Arthur's hands,

Excalibur displays
astonishing powers.

- The sword can only be used
by those it deems worthy.

Anybody else who takes
it will be destroyed

by the sword's magic, and
for those who are worthy,

it seemingly enhances
their physical abilities

to superhuman levels.

With Excalibur,

King Arthur once single
handedly defeats 960 Saxons

in battle.

- The sword is said
to be so bright

that it can blind enemies.

Even the scabbard of the
sword is said to be magical.

It prevents its owner from
losing blood in combat

so that no wound can be fatal.

- The sword's greatest power

is the fact that it grants
you the right to rule.

So if you have Excalibur,
you are the true king.

- With Excalibur at his side,
Arthur marries Queen Guinevere

and then he and his knights
embark on a series of quests.

- [Dennis] As the
legend endures,

many start to wonder,
could the sword be real?

- The thing about Excalibur

is that whether or not its
origins are mythological,

it has had a definite
impact on history.

So many rulers have wanted
to get their hands on it.

- [Dennis] Including
the famed English king

Richard the Lionheart,

who in 1191 decides
to look for it.

- He hears from
an old Welsh bard

that the mighty Arthur is
buried at Glastonbury Abbey.

- [Dennis] Convinced this
must be King Arthur's

final resting place, Richard
has the area excavated.

- What they unearth
is pretty thrilling,

an inscribed cross that bears
Arthur and Guinevere's names

and large bones
believed to be Arthur's,

and even a long lock of blonde
hair that crumbles to dust

when a greedy monk grabs it.

- [Dennis] Remarkably,
that's not all they find.

- Later that same year,

King Richard heads off to
join The Third Crusade,

and when he does, he claims
to have Excalibur at his side.

He believes the legendary
sword has been found

and that he can wield its power.

- [Dennis] Unfortunately,

King Richard dies
in battle in 1199.

- The throne passes on
to his brother John,

and in the middle of this,

Excalibur disappears from
the historical record.

- [Dennis] But some are hopeful

the sword will turn up again.

- People are still out
there, all over the UK,

using a combination
of old literature

and new technology to try
to find the fabled sword.

If nothing else,
this certainly proves

that the legend lives on.

- Stories of holy weapons
capture our imaginations,

but sometimes, actual
places can inspire us.

Consider one famous fortress,

built by King Herod in
the first century BC,

that will become a symbol of
incredible bravery, Masada.

- Even though King Herod

is basically a puppet of
the Romans, he is no fool.

He knows that his Jewish
people have many enemies

that could strike at any time,

and so he decides to build
something like a safe house.

Masada, which means "strong
foundation" in Hebrew,

is to be a fortress
and a royal retreat.

And construction on this
starts around the year 30 BC.

- Herod chooses
a 18-acre plateau

that's about 1,400 feet
above the Dead Sea.

This is a perfect location
as a secure refuge,

because it's almost
impossible to attack.

- The fortress is surrounded
by a casemate wall.

These things run
4,600 feet altogether,

they're 13 feet thick.

The space between the walls
could be used in peace time

for storage.

However, in war time, you
could fill in that space

with rubble, debris,
rocks and dirt,

to make an even
stronger defensive wall.

- [Dennis] Luckily, Herod
never has to use it,

but seven decades
after his death,

it comes in handy for a
group of Jewish rebels.

- The first Jewish-Roman
war breaks out in AD 66.

This follows years
of rising tensions

between the Jewish population
and their Roman overlords,

until you have open conflict
and warfare between the two.

- [Dennis] As the war continues,

one group in particular
look for a more secure post.

They're called the Sicarii.

- The Sicarii are
elite Jewish assassins

who are known for taking
out their enemies.

The Romans obviously,

but also Jewish collaborators
with the Romans.

- The Sicarii, they decide that
it's time to get out of town

and they move into
the abandoned Masada

by late in the year of 67 AD.

They're sure that the
Romans are after them,

but that this is
the safest place

that they could possibly hide.

- [Dennis] It turns
out to be a smart move.

- By 70 AD, the Romans
lay siege to Jerusalem

and pretty much
totally destroy it.

The Romans take down every
Jewish stronghold in the region,

but they save Masada for last.

- Sometime between 72 and 73 AD,

the Romans decide it's time to
attack the Sicarii at Masada.

By this point, the
Sicarii have been here,

holding out for
about five years.

There are about 960
men, women and children,

and they're very well
prepared to defend themselves,

under the command of
their leader, Ben Ya'ir.

The Sicarii leader
knows that the Romans

can only be delayed,
they cannot be stopped.

- The Sicarii decide
to burn down Masada

and end each other's lives,

rather than submit
to the Romans.

- [Dennis] When the Romans
finally enter Masada

ready for battle,

they're instead met
with an eerie silence.

- When the Romans entered Masada

and they found all the
Jewish inhabitants dead,

they also found that they
still had plenty of food there,

so they didn't kill themselves
because they were starving.

They did it simply because
they wanted to be free.

- [Dennis] For over
a thousand years,

the walls of Masada
remain silent,

but today, it's a
different story.

- Masada is now the second most
popular tourist destination

in Israel after Jerusalem.

Nearly a million people
make this trek each year

to visit this ultimate symbol
of strength and resistance,

a place where a small group
of rebels managed to stand up

to the world's
most powerful army.

[dramatic music]

- While Masada is a testament
to courage and endurance,

there's another rock
equally as formidable.

- On the southern tip of
the Iberian Peninsula,

there's a narrow passage that
separates the Atlantic Ocean

and the Mediterranean Sea,
a huge-cliff like mountain,

some 1,400 feet high,
that's also full of caves.

- If you are a seafaring
culture that wants to expand,

import, or export goods,

there's only one way to
exit the Mediterranean,

and that's the eight-mile-
wide Strait of Gibraltar.

And so right away, people
start giving this place

a sacred significance,

because of how crucial it
is to their daily lives.

- The Greeks integrate Gibraltar

into their story of Heracles,
who the Romans call Hercules.

Both of these cultures,
Greek and Roman,

refer to Gibraltar as
the Pillars of Hercules.

- [Dennis] According
to the legend,

Hercules travels west to the
edge of the Mediterranean Sea

in search of an
infamous monster.

- Hercules is tasked with
bringing back the cattle

of a three-headed
monster named Geryon,

who lives beyond the pillars.

He succeeds, and in some
versions of the story,

Hercules then narrows the strait

to prevent sea monsters from
entering the Mediterranean.

- [Dennis] Gibraltar also
protects against human invaders.

- Given its tactical location,

you can spot enemies
from miles away

from the top of that mountain.

We know that the Romans,
the Vandals, the Visigoths,

the Muslims and the Christians,

all use it as a
strategic lookout.

- [Dennis] Control of the
rock continues to shift hands

for generations.

Then the British arrive in 1713,

and begin carving a hidden
world deep inside the stone.

- The British began advancing
tunnels through the rock,

beginning in the
late 18th century.

There are now 35 miles
of tunnels in Gibraltar,

including the longest one of
them all, the Great North Road,

which is three and
a half miles long.

In addition to that, there
are training facilities

for the British military
inside the rock as well.

- During World War II,

the British host General
Dwight D. Eisenhower

for 21 days within
the Rock of Gibraltar,

where he commands
Operation Torch,

which is a combined US
and British invasion,

where they drive the
Nazis out of North Africa.

[dramatic music]

- Today, Gibraltar remains
as a place of protection,

albeit with a modern twist.

It currently houses

one of the most secure computer
data centers in the world.

[mysterious music]

- While many holy marvels
are created for the living,

some are meant for the dead.

There's one ancient
Egyptian text

that supposedly
grants great power,

but only after the
person wielding it dies.

- The Book of the Dead isn't

an actual traditional book

with pages.

Instead, it's a collection
of hieroglyphics

written in different places,

on tombs, on coffins,
on papyrus scrolls.

- It's a hands-on practical
guide to the world of the dead,

and the various incantations

that will protect the deceased

against all sorts of
perils in the afterlife.

For ancient Egyptians,

the afterlife was a
treacherous place.

In the afterlife, you can
be eaten by a crocodile,

you can be poisoned by a snake,

you can be bitten
by horrible insects.

So there are spells in
the Book of the Dead

that you can cast
to protect yourself

from all of these things.

- There are other spells

that literally keep
you in one piece.

The Egyptians believe that
the human being is made up

of a whole collection
of substances,

and that upon death, those
substances can go flying apart.

- One spell keeps your head
attached to your torso.

Another ensures that your
heart doesn't go wandering off.

Another keeps your
flesh from rotting.

- There are spells that describe

how to make your body
regain movement and speech,

or how to craft
protective amulets,

or how to turn your saliva
into a magical healing elixir.

- [Dennis] Physical survival
was only part of the journey.

There's also a test.

- While you're making your
way through the underworld,

you get asked a
series of questions,

but it's an open book exam.

If you've got your Book
of the Dead near you,

you'll be fine.

- For example, part of your
journey is made on a boat

or a barge, and so there's
a spell in the book

that you need to
summon this boat.

And when the boat arrives,
it gives you a quiz.

The rudder asks you,
"Tell me my name,"

and you have to know

that the rudder's spiritual name

is Aker.

- If you don't have
the right spell

or know the answer
to a question,

you can die
permanently this time,

never to have your
chance at immortality.

In other instances, you
might lose your head

and be doomed to
wander the afterlife

without a head, forever.

- One of the worst
possible consequences

is that you get
turned upside down,

causing your digestive
tract to work in reverse.

That means you're going to
spend eternity drinking urine

and eating feces.

So you better have that book.

- If you do everything according
to the Book of the Dead,

you get to dwell happily
ever after in the afterlife.

- For the Ancient Greeks,

the journey to eternal life

requires crossing a much
more treacherous barrier.

- In the epic Greek tales
such as Homer's "Iliad,"

there's a natural barricade
called the River Styx.

It's a mythical body of water

that protects both our world

as well as the
underworld of Hades.

- The living aren't
meant to enter Hades,

and the dead aren't meant
to come back from it.

So this river is
crucially important

to the sacred order of things.

- The River Styx is
said to be impossible

to cross by natural means,

because it flows with

a corrosive black
water that poisons

and dissolves everything that
comes in contact with it.

Now, this water can
cause paralysis.

It can even harm the gods.

In one story, it causes the gods

to lose their ability to speak.

- Legends like these
cement the Styx

as perhaps the most powerful,

sacred body of water
in Greek mythology.

- [Dennis] But a recent
discovery suggests

that the River Styx
may actually be real.

- Around 130 miles
south of Mount Olympus

lies a river called Mavroneri,

which literally
means "black water."

- It originates in the
high mountains of Achaia

where its cold waters cascade

over this kind of limestone crag

to form the second highest
waterfall in Greece.

- They find that a toxin
called calicheamicin

flows through the Mavroneri.

It's a naturally
occurring soil bacteria

that was discovered in the 1980s

in deposits of calcium carbonate

that form on the
limestone in the river.

Cytotoxins like calicheamicin
cause cell death,

which can induce fever, chills,

and severe muscular
and neurological pain.

- A geochemical
analysis of this river

really needs to be conducted

to see whether the
concentration of calicheamicin

in the water here
could have been deadly.

But it's pretty incredible

that modern researchers
are still looking

into the legendary River Styx,

after nearly 3,000
years of speculation.

[intense music]

- When it comes to the
embodiment of dark power,

perhaps no figure
is better known

or more feared around
the world than Satan.

The question is, why?

- The term Satan comes from
the Hebrew word Ha-Satan,

which actually means "the
accuser" or "the adversary."

The word appears more than 20
times in the Old Testament,

referring to a being
dispatched by God

as an instrument of judgment.

- The first instance of
the term Ha-Satan occurs

in the Book of Numbers,

when God sends a Satan

to confront the greedy
prophet, Balaam,

who's planning to
curse the Israelites.

And this Satan actually acts
as a kind of employee of God.

He's under his command.

- Ha-Satan's role as an
instrument of God's judgment

is further established
in the Book of Job.

Satan and God are having
this conversation about Job.

Job is a man who's favored
by God for his righteousness.

Satan starts questioning
Job's integrity,

saying that Job is only good

because God has given
him such good fortune.

It's not because of
Job's great faith in God.

- And this all leads up
to the Book of Isaiah,

when we finally hear
the familiar tale

of a former angel
called Lucifer,

who is cast out of
heaven for aspiring

to be even more
powerful than God.

He's said to be banished
by God to the quote,

"Lowest depths of the pit."

- But even in this story,

he's still not the kind
of powerful, evil force

that we think of him today.

He's actually powerless,

because God has complete
authority over him.

- [Dennis] That changes
in the New Testament.

- In the Gospels
of Matthew, Mark,

and Luke, we start seeing
a darker, stronger,

and more independent
side to Satan.

In Matthew, Satan tries to
tempt Jesus in the wilderness,

offering worldly power in
exchange for worshiping him.

And it seems like
Satan is doing this

without God's authorization.

- Now we see Satan in
this role as a tempter

and as a corrupter, trying
to lure people away from God,

even God's own son.

- From there, it gets worse.

The gospels describe
Satan causing illnesses,

including fever and
leprosy and even arthritis,

and his main goal is to
turn humankind toward evil.

[eerie music]

- By the time you get to
the Book of Revelation,

Satan's transformation
is complete,

into a full-fledged,
evil enemy of God,

and he has a whole new look.

He takes the form of a great
red dragon with seven heads,

10 horns, and a massive tail.

He eventually wages war
against the righteous

and loses, getting cast
into a lake of fire to die.

- [Dennis] The Book
of Revelation

paints a vivid picture
of final judgment.

For millions in medieval Europe,

that vision feels all too real,

when the Black Death sweeps
through in the 14th century.

- The Black Death was
said to have killed

almost a third of the
population of Europe.

[tense music]

- In the wake of the plague,

people are praying
to the church,

"Protect us from the evil that
Satan has unleashed upon us."

In places like England,

that were hit especially
hard by the plague,

Christian sects begin to form

with the goal of living as
pious a life as possible

to escape the wrath of Satan.

- [Dennis] The Puritans bring
this view to the New World.

- They come from England

when the panic around
Satan is in full swing,

and they settle in New England

and they start seeing Satan
everywhere around them.

These are extremely
religious people

who move to an
unfamiliar wilderness.

There are strange
beasts all around them.

Wolves had gone extinct
in England by the 1500s,

and their wild,
nighttime howling

is freaking out the Puritans,
[wolves howling]

who believe that these wolves
are in league with the devil.

- [Dennis] The fear of
Satan is so overwhelming,

that in 1692, the Massachusetts
Colony executes 19 people

believed to comport
with the devil.

Known as the Salem Witch Trials,

these tribunals eventually
launch endless books,

plays and movies.

- Ever since the tragic
events of the witch trials,

the idea of an evil Satan,

a beast unleashed on mankind,

has remained firmly rooted in
literature and pop culture.

- All you have to do is
turn on your television

or your radio or log into your
favorite social media site,

and you're going to
find depictions of hell.

You're gonna find the devil

and his minions running
around with their pitchforks.

You're gonna find fire,
flames, darkness, brimstone,

all of these catastrophic,

eternal punishments
raining down.

- We've explored the
power to live forever,

to protect what's sacred and
to destroy entire cities.

But what about a stone

believed to hold the
fate of the world?

- The Aztec rule central
Mexico from the 14th

to the 16th centuries.

The Aztec are an
advanced people.

They develop sophisticated
irrigation methods

to use in agriculture.

They design and implement
an aqueduct system

to supply fresh water.

They even drain the swampy land

around what is now Mexico City

to construct their capital
city of Tenochtitlan.

- [Dennis] As they
continue to develop

their thriving culture,

they also expand their
spiritual practices.

- A big part of Aztec
religious and cultural beliefs

is ritual human sacrifice.

- Why are they killing
people so often?

It's because they believe
that if they don't, the world,

actually the entire universe
will come to an end.

As the legend goes, each night,

the stars and the moon,
in a fit of jealousy,

launch an attack
against the sun,

and each morning, the sun
manages to beat them back

to rise again.

The sun is really their
sun god, Huitzilopochtli.

And he can only win
this nightly battle

and rise again to
power life on Earth

with the help of
the Aztec people.

- And the only way to sustain

and support a sun god is
through human sacrifice.

[tense music]

- [Dennis] Central to this
ritual, the Aztec sunstone.

- It's a massive
sculpture, 12 feet across,

over three feet thick,
weighing some 54,000 pounds.

It's intricately
carved with glyphs.

- It's thought the
sacrifices would happen on

or near the sunstone, which
was probably originally located

in the main square
of Tenochtitlan.

- The victim's blood would
spill onto the stone altar,

which features an image of
the sun god at its center.

So the power of human life

is being fed directly
into the sun.

- [Dennis] Some
historians estimate

the Aztec perform around 20,000
human sacrifices per year.

- This continues for
centuries until 1519.

That's when Spanish
conquistador, Hernan Cortes,

and his men arrive
in the Aztec capital.

They're the first European
settlers on this land.

- [Dennis] While
taking in the sights

of this awe-inspiring city,

they witness a human
sacrifice for the first time.

- Now, this
definitely doesn't fit

with the Spaniard's
Christian beliefs,

which they came to
Mesoamerica to spread.

And so the conquistadors
very quickly

start to subjugate the Aztec.

In fact, they're so fearful,

they begin a campaign to destroy

or hide any Aztec artifacts
they find that aren't gold.

- And of course, the
scariest artifact of all,

the massive sunstone that's
seen thousands of deaths.

It's said to have been buried
near the center of the city

by the first Spanish
archbishop there.

- But as is often the case,

what's buried refuses
to stay that way.

In 1790, workers making repairs

to Mexico City's
cathedral accidentally

unearth the stone.

[dark tense music]

- [Dennis] The sunstone
is eventually relocated

to the National Museum of
Anthropology in Mexico City,

where it stands today.

- What's interesting
is that in one key way,

the Aztec might
actually be right

about the way the
world could end.

Astronomers today are
confident that our planet,

along with the rest
of our solar system,

will one day be destroyed
by the death of the sun.

- But here's an
important distinction

from the Aztec beliefs.

While this is scientifically
guaranteed to happen,

it isn't happening anytime soon.

We have about 5 billion years
to go, no sacrifices required.

[explosion booming]

- Power in objects
like the Holy Grail

or the unstoppable
force of Satan

don't always exist in
what we can see or hold.

Sometimes it endures
in the belief

and purpose we give to it.

I'm Dennis Quaid. Thanks for
watching, "Holy Marvels."