All language subtitles for A.C.f.A.S01E03.Chinas.Pompeii.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD5.1.H.264-Cinefeel

ALLAN [off-screen]: This
is an incredible scene.

There'’s really no other way
to describe it than to say

it'’s a scene of mass death.

ALLAN [off-screen]: A single
family. Frozen in time.

Buried in seconds,
almost 4,000 years ago.

ALLAN: A lot of people refer
to this as China'’s Pompeii.

ALLAN [off-screen]: Could
this tragedy hold clues to the

collapse of one of China'’s very
earliest ancient kingdoms?

I'’m Allan Maca.

An archaeologist and expert
in ancient civilizations.

And I'’m investigating
China'’s distant past from

a whole new perspective, space!

Today, state of the art
satellites see the world
in stunning detail

and reveal hidden archaeology,

enabling us to recreate
a lost ancient world,

invisible to the naked eye.

Working alongside
leading Chinese experts,

my team and I are traveling
to some of the country'’s

most remote and
incredible landscapes,

and with cutting edge science,
investigating previously

unknown cultures, lost cities
and devastating cataclysms.

This is ancient China as
you'’ve never seen it before.

♪ ♪

300 miles west of Beijing in
China'’s Shaanxi Province and

on the edge of barren desert,

are the hills of
the Loess Plateau.

I'’m here to explore a
revolutionary new discovery

that'’s completely rewriting
the earliest history of China.

This is Shimao.

A 4000 year old citadel.

At the heart of a
lost ancient kingdom.

ALLAN: Nothing prepares you
to see this place in person.

This is one of the greatest
new discoveries in the

archaeology of the world.

This was clearly a
massive, massive city.

ALLAN [off-screen]:
The significance of this
discovery became clear

just a few years ago.

Shimao may have been the
biggest city of its time

anywhere on the entire planet.

And Chinese archaeologists
are only just beginning to
reveal its secrets.

Now, with new technology,
I want to explore this

extraordinary
ancient society.

ALLAN: Wow! Congratulations.

ALLAN [off-screen]:
What'’s behind its most
chilling discoveries?

ALLAN: I can tell that some of
the bones are very young.

ALLAN [off-screen]: And can the
fate of China'’s other lost
civilizations help me solve

one of the greatest
mysteries of all?

ALLAN: I feel like I
am in the presence of
something otherworldly.

ALLAN [off-screen]: Why, after
500 years of living here,

did the people of this
great city seemingly...

just vanish?

Before this discovery,
this was just a grassy hill.

The only sign of
anything manmade,

was a simple line of rocks.

ALLAN: When they first found
this they thought it was a

part of the Great Wall,
you can see why.

So they began some excavations
around here and they found no

this is 2000 years
earlier than the earliest
phase of the Great Wall.

ALLAN [off-screen]: These walls
are incredibly well preserved,

yet they'’re
over 4,000 years old!

That means Shimao is
built at the same time
as Stonehenge in Britain

and thrived more than 2000
years before the Roman empire.

ALLAN: I'’ve been to a lot of
ancient cities and you don'’t

actually feel like you are in
a city because they are ruins

but this, in this place
I feel like I am there.

ALLAN [off-screen]: This would
be an extraordinary discovery

anywhere but to understand why
this is so ground-breaking,

we need to see it, from space.

The stepped structure at the
center of the city is built

into a hillside, high above the
meeting point of two rivers.

It'’s in dusty, rugged terrain
that borders the sparsely

populated Ordos desert.

Experts never expected to find
a major ancient city here.

It was long thought that
Chinese civilization began

much later, and hundreds of
miles to the south in the

fertile plains of
the Yellow River.

ALLAN: A stone walled
settlement is totally

unexpected at this time period
and this place but I want to

know what kind of society
built something so large and

so sophisticated.

ALLAN [off-screen]: I'’m
lucky to have been invited to

explore the latest
discoveries with Shao Jing,

one the lead
archaeologists at Shimao.

SHAO: This is the path up to
the giant central platform.

ALLAN: This is an
immense amount of labor here.

This is not rammed earth.

This is not mud brick.

This is stone that had to be
brought up here to the site.

It looks like
nothing I'’ve ever seen.

SHAO: It'’s the first time in the
history of Chinese archaeology

we have found a 4000 year old
structure built this way.

ALLAN: I know that I had never
expected to see anything like

this but it'’s amazing to hear
that you all had never expected

to find anything this
far north at this time.

ALLAN [off-screen]: This vast
stepped structure is at the

center of the city.

The team is currently
excavating the remains of

buildings that once
stood at the top.

They'’re trying to figure
out how this society worked.

SHAO: This is the top of
the giant central platform.

The whole area covers
20,000 square meters.

In this prosperous city

the high-class people
would live here.

It included the King'’s palace,
his administration and large

scale artisan'’s workshops.

ALLAN: Okay, so all
of the elites were
here living, working.

The king was here.

ALLAN [off-screen]: From
the latest excavation data
we can recreate what

Shimao might'’ve looked
like 4000 years ago.

A series of stone platforms
with restricted access

to each higher level.

Right at the top, the
palaces of the city'’s rulers.

ALLAN: There'’s clearly a
well-defined hierarchy here.

This huge structure, this
palace dominates the

entire area, it'’s
visible for miles.

So this thing is a constant
reminder of the power of the

people who governed here.

One of the crazy things is
that archaeologists have only

excavated a fraction of this
which makes me wonder how much

is out there in
the surrounding area?

ALLAN [off-screen]: Chinese
researchers are discovering

ruins spread all over the
rugged terrain by combining

drone sensing
with excavations.

Now, my tech specialist
Ryan Kastner and drone pilot

William Luo are going to
create a photogrammetry model

so I can understand just
how large this city was.

RYAN: Ideally what we want to
do is we want to pop it up.

WILLIAM: Okay.

RYAN: And we want to try to
see where the wall'’s going.

ALLAN [off-screen]:
My team engineer Eric Lo
combines thousands of images

to create a 3D
view of the terrain,

called a Digital
Elevation Model or DEM.

RYAN: So let'’s have
a look at the data.

ERIC: So these are the three
multi spectral flights that
we did this morning.

RYAN: Mm-hmm.

ERIC: And then we can see
hints of the wall here.

But let'’s switch over
to the DEM so we have a
bit of clearer view.

RYAN: Yeah. It'’s a lot
easier to see on this, huh?

So we can see the wall
we were focusing on.

Right on the ridge which
makes a whole lot of sense.

ALLAN [off-screen]: The 3D
reconstruction clearly brings

out the remains of a city wall
that follows the ridgeline.

In all, 6 miles of these
walls have been identified
hidden in this landscape.

They mark out an enclosed inner
city and an additional ring

of outer wall surrounds
1,000 acre site,

an area the size of about
200 New York city blocks.

That means that 4000 years
ago this could'’ve been the

biggest city on the planet.

The scale of this place
is unprecedented...

but even the smallest
artifacts being found here

are transforming our
understanding of how

civilization develops in China.

ALLAN: Ahh, this is a
lot of material here.

You guys have been busy.

ALLAN [off-screen]: This
incredibly fragile jade

scepter is a symbol of power,
carried by rulers of Shimao.

ALLAN: It'’s very light,
it'’s very light weight!

It would sit on
a staff, right?

It'’s amazing to me how
thin they could cut it.

I mean, you can see you
can see my hand behind
here in the light.

SHAO: Only the son of the
god, the emperor held this.

He held this to
pray to the god,

to tell the god that he
was the rightful ruler.

ALLAN [off-screen]: This is
the earliest example of a jade

scepter ever found.

Even the most ordinary looking
objects are ground-breaking.

These burn holes show that
these are what'’s known as

oracle bones, a means
of divining the future.

The very first Chinese writing
will later appear on just this

kind of fortune
telling device.

And one crucial find gives
its name to an entire age
of human development...

bronze.

SHAO: This is a knife.

ALLAN: This would
have been the edge.

SHAO: Huh. We only
have a few dozen.

These date to around 2000 BC.

They are some of the
earliest bronzes ever found.

ALLAN: Wow this is incredible.

ALLAN [off-screen]: All
these amazing finds are
revealing that many of the

foundations of Chinese
civilization appear
here at Shimao,

centuries earlier than
anyone ever expected.

But the team has just made
an astonishing discovery like

nothing ever seen
in China before.

I'’m one of the first
outsiders allowed to see it.

SHAO: This is a very
important discovery.

The people of Shimao have left
us a gift from 4000 years ago.

ALLAN: Wow!

ALLAN [off-screen]:
Archaeologists excavating
the ancient megacity

at Shimao have just
discovered incredible

4000 year old carvings in
the central palace area.

ALLAN: Congratulations!
This is unbelievable.

This looks like like
the ancient Mayan city
of Copan in Honduras

from the 6th century
A.D., 2500 years later.

As an archaeologist, does
it get better than this?

SHAO: Not that I know of.

ALLAN [off-screen]: There
are faces that look half
human half animal;

strange hybrids and
familiar creatures are

all carved into the walls
of the giant platform.

It'’s a unique insight into
the beliefs of the people

who built this city.

SHAO: These aren'’t
images of people.

They are all
representations of gods.

ALLAN: This is amazing and that
there is also such variety,

so for example
what is this?

I mean, it almost looks
like maybe some kind of
a sea creature.

SHAO: This is similar
to a find called the
Green Pine Dragon

from Erlitou city, the home
of a later dynasty, the Xia.

ALLAN [off-screen]: This
later dynasty of the central
Yellow River Plains

was thought to have founded
Chinese civilization,

but Shimao is rewriting history.

So far the team here have
excavated just one side

of the giant central platform.

Much still remains buried.

But already, the skill
and complexity of this lost

society is vividly emerging.

ALLAN: The carved stone
facades of this building are

incredible I mean this is
4,000 years ago.

And you'’ve got images of gods,
images of animals like snakes,

you even have a dragon which
becomes a formative symbol in

Chinese dynasties.

ALLAN [off-screen]: Everything
about Shimao is more advanced,

much earlier and far bigger
than anyone thought possible.

And all in this
unlikeliest of places.

ALLAN: Yet there'’s a
huge mystery here.

ALLAN [off-screen]:
Archaeologists have dated
artifacts found here

to between 4,300 and
3,800 years ago...

but after that, there'’s nothing.

This means that after
500 years of occupation,

the entire city of Shimao
seems to be abandoned.

ALLAN: Something happened
here that forced these people

to relocate or
wiped them out entirely.

The question is what?

ALLAN [off-screen]: I'’m
heading across China to see if

the latest discoveries about
the collapse of other ancient

societies can offer clues
to what happened at Shimao.

First, I'’m heading to the
mountainous upper reaches of

the Yellow River, to the
site of an ancient apocalypse.

ALLAN: This horrible event
took place 3,900 years ago.

But being here and
seeing it myself,

there'’s an immediacy
like this just happened.

ALLAN [off-screen]:
The village of Lajia was home

to a thriving early bronze-age
community that developed

at the same time as Shimao.

ALLAN: There'’s at
least 14 individuals here.

They all died at once.

You can see women with their
children as young as perhaps

two or three or
four years old,

huddled together around
the cooking fire and

clearly this was a family.

It'’s clear to me that the
people here had no time

whatsoever to get out.

All they could do was huddle
the young together and hope

and pray that
they would survive.

ALLAN [off-screen]: This
frozen, cataclysmic moment

has been compared to
Pompeii, near ancient Rome.

But this family is not
entombed in volcanic ash,

but thick mud.

ALLAN: This is such a striking
moment of death here at Lajia,

this adult protecting
the child from harm while

seemingly looking up.

What happened here?

ALLAN [off-screen]:
Archaeologist, Ye Maolin
and his team

first discovered the bodies and

they'’ve spent years trying
to piece together how this

tragedy unfolded.

And they'’ve
found a vital clue.

YE: Look at the
big crack here.

It'’s from an earthquake.

A crack this big shows how
powerful the earthquake was.

ALLAN: OK wow, so this whole,
this whole thing was just

completely cracked open.

ALLAN [off-screen]: The
massive earthquake demolished

these houses
trapping the families.

But these people
are buried in mud.

Where did it come from?

The latest Chinese research
suggests the earthquake

triggered a cataclysmic
chain of events.

ALLAN [off-screen]: I'’m
investigating what happened to

an ancient village
known as China'’s Pompeii,

that left its people buried
in mud and frozen in time.

The answer could be
visible from space,

even after almost 4000 years.

My team'’s
satellite archaeologist,

Sarah Klassen, is looking at
data from a mountainous gorge

25 miles upstream from Lajia.

She'’s been told about a
mysterious gap in a mountain

ridge overlooking
the Yellow river.

SARAH: There is this one
large area that looks
like it'’s been erased.

It'’s almost as though someone
has come through and wiped it

off the landscape.

What we are looking at
here is actually a landslide.

ALLAN [off-screen]:
The devastating
earthquake that hit Lajia

would have set off landslides
across a huge area.

Some experts believe
one of them buried the
people of Lajia in mud.

But the latest research
suggests a new theory.

That this landslide further
upstream was so massive,

that it set off a chain
reaction that led to disaster

on a biblical scale.

To understand what
happened, I'’m heading
high above the gorge.

Geoarchaeologist, Wu Qinglong
believes the landslide caused

one of the biggest disasters
ever to hit China and that

it'’s linked to a phenomenon
known as a quake lake.

WU: The landslide
happened over there.

We can see there is a huge
part missing from the ridge.

At the end of the
Neolithic period,

there was a terrible
earthquake here,

it was so destructive that
this entire ridge fell down.

And the rocks blocked
the Yellow River.

ALLAN [off-screen]: The
massive shockwaves send an

entire mountain tumbling
into the gorge.

Creating a 200 meter
tall dam across the river,

its remains are still visible
nearly 4000 years later.

The dammed river begins to
form one of the biggest

"quake lakes" ever discovered.

Dr. Wu calculates that after
several months it would have

stretched 50 miles upstream,

holding over 12 billion
cubic meters of water.

The pressure builds as the
waters continue to rise...

Until the dam... breaks.

WU: Within 12 hours 90%
of the water burst out.

ALLAN: That'’s insanely fast.

WU: That'’s catastrophic.
ALLAN: No question. Yeah.

ALLAN [off-screen]:
If Dr. Wu is right,

this is one of the biggest
freshwater floods ever studied

and bigger than any in
China'’s recorded history.

It would have wrought
devastation for hundreds
of miles downstream.

So, back at Shimao, might
this city have been hit by a

similar cataclysmic
natural disaster?

The city is surrounded
on 2 sides by rivers.

But it'’s hundreds of feet
above the valley floor,

which rules out
catastrophic flood.

What about an earthquake?

Devastating quakes have struck
China throughout its history.

One of the deadliest of all
time ravaged this part of

China 500 years ago.

But Shimao'’s amazingly
preserved walls show no sign

of earthquake damage.

So what did happen here?

I'’m heading to investigate
the disappearance of another

remarkable ancient
civilization 600 miles

southwest in Guanghan
in Sichuan province.

30 years ago, a
discovery was made here
that stunned the world.

I'’ve been given special
access to one of China'’s

most extraordinary
archaeological treasures.

ALLAN: Incredible!

Could this amazing find help
answer the mystery of what

happened at Shimao?

ALLAN [off-screen]: I'’ve been
allowed privileged access to

an amazing relic of an ancient
Chinese civilization that

I hope could hold clues to
the abandonment of Shimao.

ALLAN: When I see this, when
I'’m confronted with this,

I feel like I'’m in the presence
of something other-worldly.

ALLAN [off-screen]: This
astonishing bronze mask is

evidence that there was
another completely unknown

Chinese civilization
that existed about
500 years after Shimao.

ALLAN: This is like nothing
else I have seen in China.

And when this was found this
was like nothing anyone had

ever seen in the world.

ALLAN [off-screen]: It'’s just
one of a treasure trove of

precious objects found at
the site of an ancient
city called Sanxingdui.

There are scores
of giant faces,

striking bronze heads with
golden masks,

and humanlike sculptures

performing mysterious rituals.

ALLAN: I just can'’t believe
how many bronze objects there

are, and the
variety is extraordinary.

ALLAN [off-screen]: The
world'’s leading expert on

Sanxingdui believes the
giant masks depict gods,

and the bronze heads represent
the rulers of the city.

SUN: We'’ve found many
bronze heads in Sanxingdui.

But we can divide
them into two types.

Some of them have long braided
hair and some of them don'’t,

they tie their
hair up instead.

ALLAN [off-screen]: Professor
Sun believes these masks,

with two distinctive
hair styles,

represent the two different
clans who ruled the city.

And his theory could
help answer Sanxingdui'’s
most puzzling question.

Just like at Shimao, the city
seemed to suddenly disappear.

The clue to what happened lies
30 miles south in Chengdu,

the site of another ancient
city, called Jinsha.

It emerged around the same
time as Sanxingdui'’s demise

and archaeologists have found
hundreds of objects here,

evidence that the two cities
belonged to the same culture.

But Professor Sun
believes there'’s one
crucial thing missing.

Archaeologists here have only
found figures from one of the

two clans: those
with braided hair.

SUN: The people who had braids
became the rulers of Jinsha.

ALLAN: So what happened to
the people that had no braid?

The people with
their hair pinned up?

SUN: My theory is that
at the end of Sanxingdui,

there was a great conflict
between the clan without braids

and those with braids and the
whole city was destroyed.

ALLAN [off-screen]:
Professor Sun'’s theory,

of a city torn apart when
one clan destroys another in a

violent civil war, would
explain why Sanxingdui was

suddenly abandoned.

So could something similar
have happened at Shimao?

It seems possible.

Because excavations are
uncovering grizzly evidence

of brutal killing.

ALLAN: Look at this.
It'’s just heads.

SHAO: Yeah.

ALLAN: Looking at the skulls, I
can tell that some of the bones

are not yet fused,
so they'’re very young.

SHAO: Teenager.
ALLAN: Teenagers.

SHAO: Yeah.
ALLAN: OK.

SHAO: We can tell that these
heads were cut off because on

many we found
incision marks here.

ALLAN [off-screen]: But these
are not the victims of a
power-struggle within the city.

Examination of the skulls
shows they are all young women

and chemical analysis of their
teeth reveals they'’re not from

here, but from more than 100
miles away to the northwest.

So, how did their
remains end up here?

SHAO: It could be because
Shimao was involved in
some violence.

Like wars with
other territories.

ALLAN [off-screen]: It seems
these young women were captives.

Victims of human sacrifice.

It appears to be gruesome
evidence of conflict with a

rival, enemy kingdom.

So, could Shimao'’s downfall
have been caused by war?

ALLAN [off-screen]: I'’m
investigating the abandonment

of the colossal
ancient city of Shimao.

There'’s no evidence here
for the natural disasters and

internal conflict that destroyed
other ancient civilizations.

I want to know, could war with
undiscovered rival kingdoms

have caused its downfall?

To find out, I'’m going to
analyze the city'’s defenses

and investigate if
they were ever breached.

Starting with the main gateway
through the city'’s outer wall,

the formidable East Gate.

My tech experts Ryan Kastner
and Eric Lo are using laser

scanning, called LiDAR,
to reveal its structure.

ERIC: So what the LiDAR is
going to produce is a 3D model

that we can move around, look
at from different angles and

take measurements of, as if
we had it in real life

but we can do it
on the computer.

ALLAN: Hey guys.

RYAN: Hey Al, we'’ve got some
good stuff to show you man.

ALLAN: Alright, East Gate?

RYAN: Yeah so we'’ve been
Lidaring round the East Gate

the past couple of days,
we were able to scan the
entire thing.

ALLAN: Wow.

RYAN: Yeah this is a combination
of about 100 different scans.

ALLAN [off-screen]: The scans
reveal advanced defenses.

The outer walls
include bastions,

protrusions at regular
intervals that allow archers

to fire on the flanks
of an enemy attack.

And the gateway itself is
also ingeniously designed.

ALLAN: This is the main
entrance to the gate here but

the entire structure is built
on the edge of a steep cliff.

Now if an invading army had
managed to climb all the way

to the top of the cliff they
are confronted first by this

U shaped structure which means
they are going to have to

divide their force to get in
through the gate entrance.

And what would be
waiting for them here?

Probably hundreds of soldiers
as the first line of defense.

ALLAN [off-screen]:
The main gateway is
protected by guardhouses

and two massive
towers overlooking an
L-shaped passageway.

It forces attackers through
a right-angled turn and into

more concealed
defensive positions.

And these fortifications are
just protecting the outer city.

There'’s a further inner wall
and a mile of jagged terrain

to cross even to reach
the towering walls of
the palace area itself.

ALLAN: There'’s something
fundamentally important about

the idea of defense at Shimao.

ALLAN [off-screen]: The
city was prepared for an
attack on a massive scale.

But archaeologists have found
no evidence of destruction or

any sign that these magnificent
defenses were ever breached.

So war did not
destroy this city.

But perhaps, there'’s just
one more possibility...

that might finally
explain Shimao'’s downfall.

My team archaeologist Sarah
Klassen is heading 800 miles

southeast of Shimao, to
the Yangtze river delta.

She'’s investigating some
recently discovered ancient

structures that succumbed to
a final destructive force.

She starts by examining a
Digital Elevation Model or DEM,

a relief map, made from
multiple satellite images.

SARAH: With the DEM, I'’m
looking for things that you

wouldn'’t necessarily expect
to see in nature because it'’s

too, too perfect
or too engineered.

To the north up here,
this is really interesting.

There are two kind of
linear embankments with a

depressed area in the middle.

ALLAN [off-screen]:
Archaeologist Wang
Ningyuan leads a team

revealing that these banks are
ancient manmade earthworks...

SARAH: Oh wow, you can really
get a sense of how big this

feature was and how many
people would have been

necessary to build it.

WANG: From there to there
it'’s about 100 meters across.

ALLAN [off-screen]:
This massive earth wall
is built between two hills

to create an ancient
man-made dam and reservoir.

And from the satellite data,
Wang Ningyuan'’s team have

discovered this is just
one tiny part of a massive

water control system.

Miles of artificial waterways
that provided transport and

control of agriculture over an
area nearly twice the size of

Manhattan island.

Amazingly, the ongoing
excavations here have dated

this to over 5000 years ago.

It'’s the oldest evidence
of humans harnessing water
ever discovered.

Chinese experts believe it
allowed an earth-walled city

of more than 30,000 people to
flourish in these flood prone

coastal lowlands.

That means that
this new discovery,

called Liangzhu, is the oldest
city ever found in China!

But Like Shimao, this
city was also abandoned
after 800 years.

And here, the latest
excavation is finding
evidence of why.

ALLAN [off-screen]: In my
quest to find out why the

ancient stone city at Shimao
vanished 3800 years ago,

I'’ve ruled out the
earthquakes, floods and

wars that destroyed
other ancient civilizations.

But Sarah'’s investigating
one more possibility.

She'’s looking for answers in
the demise of the oldest city

ever found in China.

Here, Wang Ningyuan and his
team are finding evidence that

the city'’s agriculture was
hit by an unstoppable force,

climate change.

WANG: The layers below
here belong to the final
period of Liangzhu.

This is all manmade.

The thick layer on top
has accumulated from

repeated seawater floods.

ALLAN [off-screen]: The
team'’s evidence suggests that

prolonged heavy
rains destroyed the
city'’s agriculture.

Dwindling food supplies forced
the population to move away

and then silt left by
centuries of rising sea-levels

buried what remained.

WANG: It'’s amazing that Liangzhu
could support such a big city.

But when the climate
changed and big floods came,

this city was helpless
in the face of nature.

So the environment forged this
civilization but also somehow,

decided its end.

ALLAN [off-screen]: If a
dramatic shift in the climate

could destroy a city the
size of Liangzhu could

something similar have
happened at Shimao?

Recent analysis of ancient
pollen grains found across

northern China reveals that
when Shimao was at its peak,

it was much warmer and wetter.

But 3800 years ago, just
when the city declined,

the monsoon weather
patterns changed abruptly.

This area became
drier and colder.

ALLAN: The climate change
evidence makes perfect sense.

If you look at the landscape,
look at the soils,

it just doesn'’t seem that
this area could have sustained

such large numbers of
people in ancient times.

ALLAN [off-screen]: This is
the best explanation so far

for the demise of Shimao.

That sudden climate change
transformed this region
into a cold semi-desert,

ravaging the civilization
with famine and drought.

ALLAN: All the things
that sustained life
were no longer possible

and when you'’ve got
people that aren'’t satisfied

you get flight and
you get abandonment.

ALLAN [off-screen]: The
people of Shimao deserted
their once great city,

leaving it to disappear
beneath the windblown silt.

Lost for millennia until now.

ALLAN: It'’s so exciting.

These discoveries are
changing everything.

The where and when of how it
all began has typically been

lost to the mists of time
but now we have real evidence.

ALLAN [off-screen]:
Right now, all across China,

cutting edge archaeology is
uncovering an entirely new

chapter in the story
of human civilization.

ALLAN: I'’m amazed to learn how
these lost cultures struggled

to survive in the face of
earthquakes and landslides,

floods and war, catastrophes
with the power to destroy.

ALLAN [off-screen]: It'’s a
reminder that great empires

rise and can be wiped out
again in the blink of an eye.

But what they'’ve left behind
has laid the foundations

for all the wonders to come.

The new beliefs, architecture,
art, and hierarchies

that would lead to thousands of
years of civilization in China.

Captioned by Cotter
Captioning Services.