Original subtitles

- [Tony] The remnants of ancient civilizations

hold secrets that are still left unexplained.

- Then I realized this is beyond my understanding.

- [Andrew] We don't know why they built this

and what they mean.

- [Tony] From sunken cities, to lost tombs,

and cryptic carvings, they could hold the key

to unlocking some of the world's greatest mysteries.

- This is definitely one

of the greatest archeological discoveries in the world.

- [Tony] Do these stones contain clues

to a treasure map?

- We believe they lead to some

of the greatest treasures this world has ever known.

- [Tony] Is there an ancient pyramid

off the coast of Louisiana?

- The only architectural form

that can create an electromagnetic anomaly

is a pyramidal structure.

- [Tony] And what could explain the pristine condition

of this 2,000-year-old mummy?

- [Ken] Ancient Chinese perhaps employed

a form of cryogenics in order to preserve living beings.

- [Tony] On this special episode

of The Proof is Out There: Unexplained Edition,

our team of top experts will investigate some

of the most mysterious ancient ruins

and relics from around the world.

And then, we'll pass a verdict.

- [Ed] These are all still unanswered questions.

- The proof starts now.

[dramatic music]

Good evening and welcome to The Proof Is Out There.

We've all heard the legend of Atlantis,

the supposed lost island paradise, first mentioned

by the Greek philosopher, Plato.

But what if there's actually a sunken civilization

that most people have never heard of

right off the Gulf Coast of the US?

- [Tony] It's May 2011 on the Chandeleur Islands,

50 miles offshore from southeastern Louisiana.

Architect and amateur archeologist,

George Gele, has received permission

to do exploration dives in the area

with a remote operated vehicle.

What his underwater videos reveal is astonishing.

Scattered on the sea floor are what appear

to be large granite blocks.

The cubic stones don't seem

to be at all natural since they all

have 90-degrees squared edges

and some have carvings and cuts.

Check out what they look like

after he's brought them up and cleaned them off.

Could they once have been part of a larger structure?

George says he's certain this is the site

of an ancient lost city that he has named Crescentis.

- I'm an architect and a contractor,

so I do know what buildings look like

even if they're underwater

and covered up a lot somewhat with sand,

and that's what we have here.

An ancient culture that nobody knew that was there.

- [Tony] George says the location

of this submerged civilization first came

to him while sleeping one night in the 1960s.

- I had a incredibly vivid dream.

I got up and I sketched it,

and the dream was what I call the Star of David diagram,

and it showed in that diagram that

if you start off at Giza at the Great Pyramid,

there were six cities at the same latitude as Giza,

and one of them was in Louisiana.

- [Tony] Erin McCarthy says

George believes the block scene in this video could be

at least 12,000 years old, predating the Incan,

Mayan, and Aztec civilizations.

- Granite is not natural to the area.

His theory is that they were brought

from somewhere that's not Louisiana

and floated down the Mississippi at some point

before the last Ice Age, when this area

of Louisiana would've been above water.

- [Tony] And wait, there's more.

George believes that just as we see in Giza,

there was a 280-foot-tall pyramid here

that is now buried in silt.

- He claims that it produces a ton

of electromagnetic activity,

and fishermen who fish out near that area say

that it actually affects their compasses.

- [Tony] George says this buildup of energy

gives more credence to his pyramid theory.

- I know that having done 50 years of research

in how they produce energy, the only architectural form

that I'm aware of that can do that is a pyramidal structure.

- It seems clear these huge blocks replaced here

by someone or something.

As glacial ice melted at the end of the Ice Age,

it flowed down the Mississippi River

into the Gulf of Mexico, submerging the coastline

and moving it 60 miles inland.

So could these blocks have been deposited here by the river

or could a lost Louisiana City,

which George calls Crescentis,

have been the Ice Age's greatest casualty?

[pensive music]

If this site is really 12,000 years old,

it would be from around the time of the emergence

of the Clovis culture,

thought by some to be the first inhabitants of the Americas.

- Clovis was not a culture that gathered

in large groups of people or in sedentary ways.

They were hunter-gatherers.

They traveled, and that's how they survived.

- [Tony] So if it's unlikely the nomadic Clovis

would build a permanent site like Crescentis,

what about the humdrum explanation

that this is just an artificial reef

from more modern times, built as a habitat for marine life?

- Typically, when we make reefs,

we don't make them out of stone.

We use things like tires

and other lighter material that works just as well

for creating natural reefs.

- [Tony] So what about the theory

that the electromagnetic energy detected here

is evidence of a lost pyramid?

- If you take a rock that has a magnetic field in it

and you take it outta place and drop it,

it still has the magnetic field in it.

That magnetic field is frozen in those crystals.

So it would not surprise me

that if somebody took a magnetometer down there

and looked at these rocks,

that they would have a very localized magnetic field

from somewhere else where the magnetic field is strong.

- [Tony] Then could this actually be lost city?

- Sea level can change over time,

and so, I think it makes sense that you may have a city

that's farther than where the coast currently ends.

[pensive music]

- Our verdict? These are possible city ruins.

We know these rocks don't belong there,

and we don't think it's an artificial reef.

And as Professor Szydagis said,

sea levels have risen in the gulf dramatically

over the millennia,

but we also need to be cautious.

More research needs to be done

before we know for sure what we're looking at.

There is very little known

about the lost Olmec civilization,

though it's considered the mother culture

of Central America, but a massive new discovery

could change everything we know,

or it might just deepen the mystery.

Summer 2020, in the state of Tobasco

in southern Mexico,

archeologists are surveying the land from above,

armed with a new technology called LIDAR.

It stands for Light Image Detection and Ranging.

Laser beams are sent to the ground and bounce back,

creating a digital map of areas hidden

for centuries by thick dense vegetation.

The team is working in the remote jungles

when their LIDAR detectors uncovered this.

It's a series of images which appear

to be a city containing rectangular plazas

and platforms with distinct lines and edges.

So remember, this isn't a photo,

it's a laser image of the jungle from above enabling us

to see what's covered by the canopy and underbrush.

So take a look at these rectangles,

here, here, and then we've got a large one here.

Some of them are nearly a half-mile long,

and then take a look at these lines here.

I'm just wondering, I could be wrong about this.

Could they be roads?

Dr. Takeshi Inomata led the team that made the discovery.

- It was really great,

particularly, those perfect rectangular-shaped site.

That's something we were not expecting.

- These structures and the mysteries surrounding them

really harken back to some older legends

of lost cities, of the idea of El Dorado.

- [Tony] El Dorado was a legendary city filled with gold

that the Spanish conquistadors heard rumors about

while exploring The New World in the 1500s.

Many died in their unending quest to find it,

including the English courtier, Sir Walter Raleigh,

who was beheaded for battling the Spaniards

during the fruitless search.

Yet another theory about this site is that it's evidence

of the oldest civilization known to Mesoamerica.

- These structures could possibly have been created

by the Olmec civilization.

There were only two other major sites

where we know the Olmec to have lived.

- [Tony] The Olmec date between 1600 and 350 BC,

hundreds of years before the more well-documented Inca,

Mayan, and Aztec empires.

It's still unclear how and why their civilization vanished.

- [Takeshi] We thought we already knew

about many of those big sites.

Some of them are almost kilometer long

and then they have perfect rectangular shape,

which was surprising.

- [Tony] So who really made this large site and why?

Based on the images in Olmec-style rock carvings

found recently in Morelos, Mexico,

some speculate this could have been used

for religious rituals like human sacrifice.

These and similar artworks suggest Olmec leaders

ritually killed captives of war

and other elites to gain the favor of the gods.

Although the fate of the Olmec is unknown,

one thing is definitely clear,

LIDAR is the future of archeology.

In fact, another recent LIDAR find uncovered this

1500-year-old urban settlement in the Bolivian Amazon.

More evidence that cultures we've always

thought of as undeveloped,

were actually more sophisticated than we ever imagined,

but are these ruins in Mexico the remains

of the Olmec civilization or something else?

Let's see what our experts can dig up.

[pensive music]

It's unlikely this could be the ancient lost city of El Dorado

as some have speculated, since the Mexican state

of Tobasco where it's located is not known

for gold deposits,

but maybe instead it has something to do

with the search for liquid gold.

- Mexico's national oil company, Pemex,

has been intensively working in there,

so it's possible that some of those things

that look ancient might be overgrown Pemex platforms,

- [Tony] But as he looks more closely,

Barnhart recognizes the pattern of these structures

as something familiar to archeologists.

- This entire thing was once a big platform with buildings

and probably big sculptures as well,

and we're talking about huge areas

upon which the Olmec put their cities.

- It looks like mounds that we already know about

that are at the two other complexes

that we know are associated with Olmec.

The Mayans came along later,

and they occupied a different place in that jungle,

and so, we know this was exclusively Olmec

because of where it's located.

- [Tony] Now, of course, it's long been suggested

that various Mesoamerican sites like the Nazca lines

in Peru were designed to communicate with

or even guide extraterrestrial visitors.

Mainstream archeologists usually dismiss these theories,

but even they remain mystified about this latest find.

- Honestly, we don't know what they are.

We don't know why they built this and what they mean.

[pensive music]

- Our verdict? Olmec archeological site.

But what it's for and why this civilization collapsed

is still unknown.

We do know that the Olmec invented calendars,

created the system of mathematics,

and they even had toothpaste, but the exact extent

of their sophistication remains

a secret covered by the jungle.

- Everyone loves a good treasure hunt,

and some believe the mysterious stones in this next story

could unlock the secret location of untold riches.

Do we have your attention?

It's 2004 in Phoenix, Arizona,

third-generation treasure hunter, Dan Dillman,

third-generation treasure hunter, Dan Dillman,

is at the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum

where he's been granted special access

to view some artifacts

that have long been a family obsession.

These photos show replicas of a set

of rectangular slabs known as the Peralta Stones.

They're each 18 inches wide and 12 inches tall.

One is known as the horse stone, or the priest stone,

and features a horse on one side and a priest on the back.

A second, the trail map stone features

what looks like a pictorial map.

The third has a recessed heart that's filled

with a separate heart-shaped stone.

This heart tablet seems to connect with the trail map.

- I first heard about the Peralta Stone Tablets

from my grandfather and uncles

when I was just a little kid sitting

at the kitchen table talking about treasure stories,

and my grandfather and uncles truly believed

that these were real stone maps that led to some place.

- [Tony] The story goes that the original tablets

were found in the 1940s in Arizona.

- Police officer Travis Tumlinson

was near Apache Junction, Arizona,

and he just stepped out of the car

to stretch his legs, and he found these stones

buried in the dirt next to where he was parked.

- [Tony] This heart-shaped insert

was apparently found later

by someone who went back to search the area.

- [Kathy] The prevailing theory is

that these stones will tell the way

to get to the Lost Dutchman Mine.

The Lost Dutchman Mine is believed

to be on some land in the Superstition Mountains.

In 1748, the land was granted

to a Mexican cattle bearer named Don Miguel Peralta.

It is said that there was a gold mine on that property,

but he rarely ever went to it.

- [Tony] In the 1870s, German immigrant

Jacob Waltz supposedly found the location of the mine

and spent years filling his saddlebacks with gold.

Dutchman was a common American term

for a German in the 1800s, from the anglicized version

of the German word, Deutsche.

- [Kathy] It's possible that these stones

led him to find the mine,

but it's also possible that he's the one that authored these

to help him remember where the mine was.

- [Tony] A number of searchers have mysteriously died

or gone missing while hunting for this goal,

and that only adds to the superstition

that surrounds these peaks.

- We continue following the information

that we've gleaned from the Peralta Stone maps,

and we believe they lead to some

of the greatest treasures this world has ever known.

- The superstition mountains are renowned

for more than just a legend of The Lost Dutchman Mine.

Some Apaches believe a hole leading

to the underworld is located there.

What can our experts discover

about this legendary search for treasure?

Let's put them on the hunt.

[pensive music]

- One of the tablets has a text that in Spanish says,

"Look for the map," which strikes me

as a little odd, considering

these tablets are supposed to be the map.

On the flip side, we have what's called The Horse Tablet,

and then there's text again in Spanish saying,

"The horse of Santa Fe.

I graze north of the river," which people have taken

to be some sort of cryptic directions to the mine.

One of the troubles I have with that particular text though

is that horse, "caballo," is misspelled.

- [Tony] Barnhart adds that on The Heart Stone,

there appears to be a date, 1847,

the last year Arizona was a part of Mexico.

But what about the symbols on the other tablets

like the so-called, Trail Map Stone?

- The trail map itself seems

to be kind of squiggly lines.

There's no place where it begins or ends,

so it's very difficult

to discern how you would use it as a map.

- [Tony] So who carved these stones?

Barnhart says it's unlikely the German prospector,

Waltz, would've been literate in the 1800s,

much less have the education to be able

to write words in other languages.

And more importantly, he says the stones reveal

two completely different levels of carving skill.

- [Ed] The stones appear to be carved

by two different authors.

One is a much better artist than the other.

- The carvings that you see on the two sandstone ones,

which is the map, are pretty legitimate

of what you would find in the 1840s and 1850s.

These rocks are scattered all over Arizona,

and they were used as markers to show people

where you want 'em to go.

The horse, on the other hand,

and the heart appear to be totally different.

That heart symbol is probably much more recent,

I would say, probably in the 1940s or 1950s.

These two rocks that are carved later do not belong

to the same puzzle that the first two do.

[pensive music]

- So, we're left a bit puzzled by these stones.

Our verdict?

The trail map stone and the heart stone

might be legitimate, 19th-century marker stones,

but the heart-shaped insert and double-sided horse

or priest stone are likely fakes from the 20th century.

And since they're not part of the same set,

it's unlikely they reveal

the hidden spot of our treasure trove.

- We haven't talked much about mummies on this show,

and now, it's time to right that wrong,

thanks to the discovery of a mysterious mummy

from before the time of Christ.

It is so perfectly preserved, some are wondering

if something supernatural might be the reason.

1968, Changsha, China.

Construction workers digging an air raid shelter

Construction workers digging an air raid shelter

unsuspectingly stumble across

what appears to be a massive tomb.

Archeologists discover over 1,000 noteworthy artifacts,

including toiletries, carved wooden figures,

and this, a perfectly preserved mummy

of a woman with a full head of hair

and skin that is still soft to the touch.

All of her organs still intact,

the corpse was found inside three nesting coffins

wrapped with layer upon layer of silk fabric

and submerged in a strange liquid.

And get this, experts believe this body

is more than 2,000 years old.

Researchers have determined that this corpse belongs

to a Chinese noble woman

from the Han Dynasty known as Lady Dai.

Historian, Gary Todd has been studying

this confounding find for almost 20 years.

- Lady Dai left behind a body that's unique in the world.

And this is definitely one

of the greatest archeological discoveries in the world.

- [Tony] That still doesn't explain the mysterious,

pristine condition of this ancient cadaver.

Ken Gerhard wonders if Lady Dai could be the product

of an ancient preliminary version of cryogenic freezing.

- There are some scientists who think that

by freezing living organisms at very low temperatures

that they could be suspended indefinitely and reanimated

and brought back to life at a later time.

- [Tony] Just recently, scientists were able

to resurrect a worm

that had been frozen in the Siberian permafrost

for more than 46,000 years.

- [Ken] There is a substantial amount of evidence

that the ancient Chinese were very familiar

with the benefits of ice

and low temperatures in preserving food

and perhaps, employed a form of cryogenics in order

to preserve living beings like Lady Dai.

- [Tony] One final theory suggests

that perhaps Lady Dai is simply proof

the ancient Chinese perfected the art of mummification.

- Lady Dai's remains have been found

in this very strange, mysterious liquid,

and it's believed that the acidic nature actually helped

to preserve her by killing bacteria and other organisms.

If so, this was an exceptional mastery

of mummification skills.

- Fun fact, the ancient Chinese believe that jade

has protective qualities to prevent a body's decay

and keep away bad spirits.

Royalty were buried in special suits cut

from the precious stone.

However, when these sarcophagi

were discovered centuries later,

all that was left inside were dust

and the ashes of crumbled skeletons.

Let's see why our experts think

this unique noble woman could have lasted so long.

[pensive music]

So could Lady Dai's corpse be the result

of some primitive form of cryogenics?

- This environment, it's cold, but it's also humid.

Cryogenics takes much more in the way

of constant temperature and very low freezing

at the initial cryogenic freezing part.

- [Tony] In fact, when modern bodies

are cryogenically frozen,

they are initially frozen in temperatures as low

as 238 degrees Fahrenheit to limit molecular motion

and to preserve the body's tissue

in a state of suspended animation.

Barnhart also points out that even today,

despite reviving those amazing worms

with their relatively simple physiology,

a more complex organism like a person is still not able

to survive long periods of suspended animation,

at least not yet.

- [Ed] As of today,

the technology to actually revive someone

has yet to be created.

- [Tony] So how did the mummification process

keep Lady Dai so well-preserved?

- We know she was wrapped in 20 layers of silk.

That silk will deprive any oxygen to the bacteria

that may be breaking the body parts down.

The burial chamber was underground 12 meters,

and this would also help preserve the body.

- And as for that strange liquid Lady Dai was submerged in?

- There's some evidence that this liquid does help

because around about 300 kilometers away,

we found another mummy.

- [Tony] In 1974, the 2,200-year-old remains

of Xui Shao Yuan were found in a similar state

of preservation floating in a similar liquid.

- There's no conclusive evidence

of how this liquid got into the coffin

or what it's comprised of,

but it's very likely

that it's slowing the decomposition process

and keeping it well-preserved.

[pensive music]

- Our verdict? Unidentified liquid.

While we know that the key

to Lady Dai's preservation was the liquid she was found in,

where it came from and what it is remains a mystery.

One thing, however, is certain.

The Lady Dai doesn't look a day over 2,000 years old.

- Ancient China may be best known

for the 13,000-mile-long Great Wall,

but some of the country's greatest treasures,

like the Terracotta Warriors were long hidden

from view under the earth,

and one of these amazing subterranean sites

seems to defy all explanation.

It's March 2018 in Longyou, China,

about 200 miles southwest of Shanghai.

Researcher, Andrew Kuznetzov is visiting the area

to see what some call

the Ninth Wonder of The Ancient World.

His footage reveals a gigantic cavern

with huge pillars supporting

a 60-to-100-foot-high, sloped ceiling.

The walls are covered in a series of paralleled,

chiseled lines and symbols,

including stone carvings of animals.

- [Tony] Erin McCarthy says the caves

were only recently discovered

in 1992 when four farmers were trying to drain

what legend said was

a bottomless lake gifted from the gods.

- When they drained the first pond,

they discovered a huge cavern.

They ended up draining a bunch more ponds

and in all, they discovered 24 caverns.

But the average size of the caverns is 11,000 square feet,

which is seven times bigger than the average American house.

- [Tony] Archeologists believe these underground grottos

were carved by hand more than 2,000 years ago

during the Han Dynasty,

and what's even more remarkable is that the walls

and columns supporting the caves are relatively thin,

yet, they have remained intact

for millennia despite seismic activity in the area.

Still, though this is considered a wonder of the world,

unlike the Pyramids and the Colosseum,

there's no universally accepted idea

of what it was used for, which is rather bizarre.

- Some have speculated that perhaps

this is some kind of underground palace

or a tomb for an emperor, the first emperor of China.

He was buried with 8,000 Terracotta soldiers.

Another theory is that this was always meant

to be a reservoir.

- [Tony] Whatever its purpose,

the network of caves is so massive

and detailed that it seems it would be nearly impossible

to construct with only the hand tools

available back in ancient China.

- Experts have estimated that it would've taken

1,000 people working 24 hours a day

for six years to carve out all of these caverns.

Workers would've had to remove

nearly a million cubic meters of rock.

- Some questions that add to the mystery:

If workers excavated all that rock, then where did it go?

And why were no tools found in or near the caverns?

There's also no mention of the caves in any written records,

so no one even knew they existed until 30 years ago.

Let's see what our experts can unearth.

[pensive music]

Could this cave system be an ancient palace?

- The palace has a number of different functions

and individual rooms for privacy.

The kind of individual spaces that a palace needs

to function are not indicated in these caverns.

- [Tony] Others have wondered if the caves

were used by miners to extract some valuable mineral,

but no trace of mining equipment has ever been found.

And since these spaces seem to fill naturally with water,

they could have been originally created as reservoirs.

- They were precisely built so

that water coming down from rain

or a monsoon would get captured into these caverns

and that it'd be used by the local people

for a water source.

It's like a big gutter,

and it's all focused to go into the caverns.

- If these were reservoirs,

why would they bother carving the walls

in these nice linear formations?

- [Tony] Barnhart thinks there might be another explanation

for why water was welcomed in this space.

- The very few objects that we have found

in these caverns are from the Han Dynasty.

The Han Dynasty was famous for its silk technology.

The weaving of silk is best done in a very humid environment.

With those parallel lines that are really kind of overhangs,

each one of them, creating places

where the condensation would rise the humidity

within this environment.

- [Tony] For six weeks after they hatch,

silk worms eat mulberry leaves

and then start spinning their silk cocoons.

Scientists have found around 75% humidity

is ideal for silkworm growth.

It helps keep the leaves from withering.

Once the cocoons are ready,

they are boiled to soften them into threads.

The threads are dyed, spun,

and woven into fabric with humid air

keeping the natural fibers more pliable.

keeping the natural fibers more pliable.

[pensive music]

Our verdict? The true purpose behind

these mysterious caves remains unknown.

Barnhart's theory about them being used

for silk making is intriguing, but there's no smoking gun.

Archeologists haven't found any artifacts like looms,

silkworm cocoons, or minerals for dyes in or near the caves.

- Since the days of King Arthur

and the Knights of the Round Table,

treasure hunters have been on a quest

to find the long lost Holy Grail.

But could a mysterious structure in England hold the secrets

to its hiding place?

See if you can crack this code.

2020, Staffordshire, England.

Historical researcher, Andrew Baker is visiting

Historical researcher, Andrew Baker is visiting

Shugborough Hall, a centuries-old,

country house with numerous neo-classical monuments.

But he's here to see just one.

Framed by a pair of columns

sits an enigma carved in stone, The Shepherd's Monument,

- The monument stands by the river.

It's surrounded by trees and by dark shrubs,

so it's eerie and mysterious.

- [Tony] Footage of the marble relief

shows four people gathered

around a tomb that reads, "Et In Arcadia Ego."

Below the carved scene is a stone plaque

bearing only the cryptic letters,

O-U-O-S-V-A-V-V, flanked by a D and an M.

Andrew says its meaning is one

of the most enduring puzzles in England.

- The idea that there was something in England

that had this coded message on it might be to do

with secret societies, treasure, who knows what.

It's as if it's been planted there for us to read today.

- [Tony] Historians believe The Shepherd's Monument

was commissioned by the estate's owner, Thomas Anson,

and that it was built sometime around the 1750s.

Beyond that, the details get murky.

- The theory goes that Thomas Anson's brother,

Royal Navy Admiral George Anson,

circumnavigated the globe collecting treasure

that was hidden away somewhere

and that the Shugborough Hall inscription

leads to the location of that lost treasure.

- [Tony] Yet, some believe the inscription leads

to treasure even more precious than gold.

- Another theory goes that the Anson family were members

of an organization known as the Priory of Sion,

descendants of the Knights Templar, who were rumored

to originally be charged with protecting the Holy Grail.

The Holy Grail is said to be the cup that was used

to serve wine at The Last Supper

and collected blood from Jesus during the crucifixion.

- [Tony] Or could the Holy Grail be something else?

According to legend, the Priory of Sion

claimed that Jesus Christ was an earthly,

not a heavenly king, whose bloodline traced itself

to ancient France's Merovingian Dynasty.

So some believe the Holy Grail is not actually

a physical cup, but rather, the Priory's secret knowledge

that Jesus married Mary Magdalene

and had children with her.

One code breaker has suggested the Shugborough inscription

stands for "Jesus as deity, divine,"

which has been linked to these controversial beliefs.

Many of these theories laid the groundwork

for Dan Brown's wildly popular "Da Vinci Code" franchise.

Professional scholars have dismissed many

of those claims as pseudo history,

but the idea of a secret society protecting

a holy bloodline retains a grip on popular culture.

So it's time to see if our experts

can chisel out the truth.

[pensive music]

Dr. Ed Barnhart begins with the theory

that George Anson collected treasures from around the world

and that the code is a way to find them.

- What George Anson collected in today's money

would be millions of dollars of wealth.

But if we look at the Shugborough Hall property

and all of these amazing monuments,

it would appear that most of George's wealth

went into the estate itself.

- [Tony] If Anson spent the lion's share of his fortune,

which seems to be the case since his family fell out

of prominence, then maybe this isn't a literal treasure map,

but rather, a clue to how the Anson's hid

the truth about the Holy Grail

as members of the Priory of Sion.

Michael O'Neill says the main problem with that theory

is this supposed secret society didn't actually exist.

- In the 1950s, a French man named Pierre Plantard

started this Priory of Sion,

and he attempted to draw a connection

between that secret society and the Knights Templar.

Unfortunately, there was no such connection.

And then in 1993, we see a raid of the apartment of Plantard

where they find all these documentation

and letters between Plantard

and his friends talking about their intentions

to perpetrate this great hoax,

so the proof is in the pudding.

- [Tony] So, if the Priory of Sion

and its connection to the Holy Grail is completely made up,

then what does this inscription mean?

Barnhart thinks he's found a clue.

- The inscription itself is clearly the initials,

the first letters of a longer statement.

This D and this M are typically on Roman tombs,

and it means, Dis Manibus,

which means, dedicated to the venerated dead.

So this may be some sort of monument dedicated

to someone who's passed away.

[pensive music]

- For us, many unanswered questions

about this inscription remain.

Our verdict is that it's a memorial dedication to someone,

though we're still not really sure who.

We may have to accept that the message

was meant to be kept private, and may stay that way forever.

- India is a land of ancient wonders,

but sadly, many of its architectural marvels

were either damaged or destroyed by invading barbarians.

The structure in our next video survived the acts,

perhaps not because of what it looks like,

but what it sounds like.

It's November 2016

and Sunil Krishnan has made a pilgrimage

and Sunil Krishnan has made a pilgrimage

to the ancient village of Hampi.

He is there to explore the beauty

and antiquity of the Vittala Temple.

The temple's biggest attractions

are these mysterious 56 pillars made of solid granite

that somehow produce musical notes when struck.

[pillar clanging]

- So I went there.

Then I realized this is beyond my understanding.

You heard about this pillar all your life.

Finally, you get to play with it.

That is an amazing experience.

[pillar clanging]

- The musical pillars of Hampi consist

of 56 granite pillars sometimes referred

to as the Sa, Re, Ga, Ma Pillars.

Sa, Re, Ga, Ma being the Indian version

of the tonal scale equivalent to a Do, Re, Mi, Fa.

So the sounds emitted will change

depending on which pillar you are tapping.

[pillar clanging]

According to legend, the musical pillars

may have been created for the God, Vishnu,

to celebrate his return,

and the reincarnation written of Vishnu

will destroy the wicked and the unjust

in this dawning of a new age.

- [Tony] Grundhauser says foreign invaders

have long obsessed over the mystery

of how these stone columns

could produce such soothing music.

- The Mughals are said to have charred the pillars

for three months trying to unlock the secrets

of their musical notes.

The English ended up carving out two of the pillars

just to see inside, discovering

that they are just granite pillars.

Many visitors to the site still have trouble explaining

how the pillars could have been created

to emit such unique musical tones.

[pillar clanging]

- Although we have examples of resonant stones

in other parts of the world,

there's nothing quite like Hampi's pillars

in terms of historical significance.

For decades, they have been the subject

of numerous scientific studies,

and yet, they still remain an enigma.

So let's see if our experts can solve this ancient riddle.

[pensive music]

[pillar clanging]

- The mechanics of this particular rock

and the diameter of the the pillars

are that it's a flexural vibration,

meaning the whole pillar itself

is wiggling side to side almost like a string.

And so, that's the thing that is allowing it

to vibrate at a particular frequency.

- [Tony] Sound crazy?

Well, you see examples of flexural vibration all the time,

like on a guitar string or a coiled doorstopper.

To test his theory, Maher creates a synthetic version

of a flexural vibration sound

and compares it to the columns.

- So I'll play the synthesized first.

[clanging synthesized music]

[clanging pillar music]

So it has the same characteristic pitch

and the general quality to it.

And so, what we're hearing when the structure is struck

is just these flexural vibrations,

but the understanding of how they work is still emerging.

[pillar clanging]

- [Tony] So, how could a giant piece of stone

be made to produce a sound the same way as a guitar string?

- Some theories have said that it may be

that the pillars are reconstituted granite

and each one of the pillars were purpose-made for the tones.

Perhaps there's inclusions in the granite stones

that subtly produce these differences in tone,

but exactly what that inclusion would be

and how Hindus of the 1500s figured that out,

these are all still unanswered questions.

- [Tony] Barnhart also points out

that even if it was possible for artisans

from over 500 years ago to wield the technology needed,

the surrounding evidence does not support that conclusion.

- The creation of a cement that would be made

of granite would involve heating up

that granite to thousands of degrees,

and there is no evidence of any kilns

of that nature being able to get

that hot anywhere near the temple.

- [Tony] And even then, the musical mystery remains.

- The kind of trial and error it would take to make each one

of them consistently make a different tone,

it boggles the modern mind

how we would go about this process.

So the idea that scientists of the 1500s did this,

not once, but 56 times, is really kind of amazing.

[pillar clanging]

[pensive music]

- Okay, people, we are genuinely stumped.

We don't know how these things were made.

So we have to conclude,

the musical pillars of Hampi are the product

of a lost technology, forgotten over time.

Today, the pillars are cordoned off

to prevent further damage to the stone instruments.

So if you go, look, but don't touch.

From sunken ruins in the Gulf to vast underground chambers

in China and singing temples in India,

we've explored enduring mysteries of the ancient world.

Some can be solved by science, others remain unexplained.

As long as these relics endure,

perhaps, so will the questions they raise.

Thank you for watching this special edition

of The Proof is Out There.

Please send us any videos, images,

or sound, that you think we should investigate

and remember to keep those cameras rolling.

[dramatic music]