All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s03e09 Strangest Places.eng

[Dan narrating]

[enigmatic music]

- What are the most peculiar
places in the world?

How about an island
run by a population

of dangerous predators?

- By all accounts,

it is essentially a
moving carpet of serpents.

- The snakes on that
island have a venom

that is estimated to
be five times as deadly

as the venom for
mainland snakes.

- Or a town that's
a real circus?

- People get tired of
being stared at for money

and they really just
wanna find a place

they can call their own.

- [Paul] Conjoined twins
run the fruit stand.

Grady Stiles, the Lobster
Boy, makes the place his home.

- What about a beach

where the waves deliver
more than just seashells?

- [Dr. Steven] She sees this
large, size 12 men's sneaker

washed up on the beach.

- She looks inside the
sneaker and finds a foot.

[dramatic music]

- These are the tales of the
strangest places on Earth,

so bizarre they're
truly unbelievable.

[dramatic music]

Mexico boasts an abundance
of enchanted wonders,

from the soaring
El Castillo Pyramid

to the Sacred Cenotes of
the Yucatan Peninsula.

But there's another must-see

known for something a
little more unusual.

[rhythmic music]

- Outside of Mexico City

is one of the strangest
places on Earth.

Why?

Because there are over
4,000 mutilated dolls

tied to the fences,
to the trees,

and spread around
everywhere on this island.

- [Dan] But this
area's strange origins

go back long before
the dolls took over.

- It's the 16th century,

and the Spanish conquistadors

are invading the Aztec Empire.

What's called Tenochtitlan,

which would later
become Mexico City,

is the capital of
the Aztec Empire.

And what we think of being
in a high altitude basin

is actually a massive lake
with manmade islands, canals,

and causeways all through it.

[dramatic music]

- So some of the
earliest, darkest tales

about these islands really
emerge in this period,

and they come from
the conquistadors,

who, when they fall
off these islands

because of their heavy armor,
sink, never to be seen again.

And this leads to
some of the mythology

about them being haunted or
spiritually guarded places.

By the 20th century, these
islands are still attractive

to people who wanna
be off the grid.

And that's the case with
Don Julian Santana Barrera,

who has a falling
out with his family

and decides to go to
one of these islands.

- [Dan] And that's when things
start to get a little weird.

- The lore is that
at some point,

he finds the body of a
drowned child, a drowned girl.

But he also finds a doll nearby
that he believes is hers.

And he hangs the doll up
as this way to honor her.

- He doesn't stop
at this one doll.

He decides to pay homage

to the deceased young girl

with a shrine of thousands
upon thousands of dolls.

- [Dan] Thousands of
dolls, hung from trees?

What prompted this
macabre memorial?

- There is this sense
that this discovery

of a deceased child, which
would be harrowing for anyone,

is especially troubling to him

and that this maybe
has caused him

to have some sort of
break with reality

or some sort of issue.

He also is said to hear spirits,
hers and possibly others.

- He is so moved and
scared of the bad omens

that go with this tragedy

that we assume he
went absolutely crazy.

- [Dan] Even stranger is
what happens to Don Julian

in April of 2001.

- His nephew comes to
visit him on the island

and he finds Don Julian
Barrera face down,

drowned in the canal at age 80,

in almost the same
spot that he alleged

that he found the original
girl so many years before.

- [Dan] After Julian's death,

tourists keep his
peculiar tradition alive

by adding their own
dolls to the collection.

- Dolls are created
in our image,

so it doesn't matter what
your belief system is.

To see 4,000 mutilated
dolls hanging from trees,

an island full of that
would drive anybody crazy.

- Today, gondola-like
boats called trajinera

take the curious out
for a closer look,

but only during daylight hours.

The island is strictly off
limits to visitors after dark.

Up next is another place

you probably don't
want to visit at night.

[dramatic music]

- Widow Sarah Winchester had
a particularly bad run of it.

She's lost her child,
her father, her mother,

and her husband William,

who was heir to the massive
Winchester rifle fortune.

[rhythmic music]

- [Dan] The Winchester
1873 repeating rifle

is touted as the rifle
that won the West.

And widow Sarah now
owns 50% of the company.

- Sarah inherits $20 million,

which would be half a billion
dollars in today's terms.

But all these
resources do nothing

to heal the grief in her heart.

- She starts asking
questions of,

why is this happening to me?

What is it about me that has
caused so much loss in my life?

And she starts to worry that
she might even be cursed.

In this moment of vulnerability,

she chooses to consult
a spiritualist.

- This medium tells
her she is cursed

because her fortune
is blood money.

The spirits of all the
Native Americans and others

that were killed by
the Winchester rifles

are essentially
exacting revenge.

[thunder cracking]

- She's told by the
medium that the only way

to lift the curse is to
uproot herself, move west,

and build an enormous
house as an act of tribute

for the lives lost by the
fortune she has inherited.

- [Holly] Sarah moves
out to California

and she buys a pretty
modest farmhouse.

It's eight rooms.

But it's on a massive
tract of land.

And Sarah begins building.

- She employs large carpentry
crews, round the clock,

building room after room,
hallway after hallway.

- She adds hundreds of
rooms to this house.

- [Dan] But it's
not just the size

of the project that's stunning,

it's the bizarre layout.

- There are very tiny doors
that open to huge ballrooms.

And there are massive doors
that just open to a brick wall.

There's skylights in the floor.

- Sarah is doing this
because according to lore,

she's trying to confuse spirits
and send them off track.

[frenzied music]

- Crews work independently.

None of them know what
the other crews are doing.

- This house becomes such a
cockamamie arrangement of rooms

no one can make their
way through the house

except for her.

- It's hard to
even call it a maze

because a maze has a purpose.

You're supposed to
end up somewhere.

This is just
strange and bizarre.

- Workers start
experiencing odd cold spots,

random things moving.

Several workers say
they see the outline

in the shape of Native
American warriors

happening again and again.

[enigmatic music]

Someone says they see the
apparition of an old woman

holding a candle.

Sarah's assertion that this
is about the spirit world

suddenly might hold
a little water.

- [Dan] By 1922, Sarah
has spent $5 million

on this 160-room tribute
to her own torment.

The one thing that
finally halts the project?

Her own mortality.

- Sarah dies in
September of 1922,

and construction
immediately stops.

In fact, there are nails
half banged into walls.

And today, it is one of the
most widely-visited curios

in the California area.

- Take it from me,

outsmarting angry ghosts
is difficult work.

Well done, Sarah.

- Off the coast of Brazil
lies an island so deadly

it's been sealed off
by the government.

No residents, no tourists,

just thousands of venomous
reasons to stay away.

Welcome to Snake Island.

[snakes hissing]

- There's approximately five
snakes per square meter.

That is a ton of snakes.

- By all accounts,
it is essentially

a moving carpet of serpents.

[apprehensive music]

- Snake Island is formed at
the end of the last ice age,

when rising ocean waters isolate
what had been a peninsula

off the coast of Brazil
and they make this island.

And in doing so, they isolate
a population of snakes.

- [Dan] Specifically one
of the most venomous snakes

in the world, the
Golden Lancehead Viper.

- The Golden
Lancehead population

that's left on Snake Island

quickly goes through
all the available prey.

And then the only thing
left to eat are birds,

which they don't normally eat.

And that forces them

into some pretty tremendous
evolutionary pathways.

Now when a Golden Lancehead,
which is a venomous snake,

attacks its normal prey,
a mammal, it bites it,

the mammal walks away,
doesn't get too far,

and the snake can
easily find it.

But with birds, the
bird can fly away

and the snake
doesn't get a meal.

So evolution favors
Golden Lanceheads

with more potent venom so
that they can bite a bird

and have it die instantly.

- The snakes on that
island have a venom

that is estimated to
be five times as deadly

as the venom for
mainland snakes.

- So it's creating this kind
of super snake on this island

that can thrive.

[snake hissing]

- [Dan] You would imagine
no one in their right mind

would ever set foot
on this island.

Rumor has it that sailors
prefer to stay on burning boats

rather than swim ashore here.

But some have tried.

[dramatic music]

- In the early 1900s,

a group of entrepreneurial
banana farmers

go to Snake Island in
the hopes of establishing

a banana plantation.

They burn down a
bunch of vegetation

to plant the banana fields,

and that's when they
see all the snakes.

[snake snarling]
[snakes hissing]

They realized immediately
this is not a place

not only for a
banana plantation,

this is not a place for
human beings to stay.

- So in 1910, they decided
to build a lighthouse

to warn people to steer
clear of this island.

- It's probably a pretty
difficult job description,

in that here you are
invited to inhabit

a very picturesque
lighthouse on an island

inhabited by one of the most
venomous snakes in the world,

and a lot of them.

- So they do find
a lighthouse keeper

who's willing to take this job,

and he brings his
family to Snake Island.

- [Dan] According to local
lore, life on Snake Island

goes about as well as
you think it would.

[apprehensive music]
[snake hissing]

- The legend is one night,

supposedly someone
left a window open,

the snakes slithered in, and
killed the entire family.

[snake snarling]

Snake Island is basically
communicating to mankind,

you are not welcome
here, you will die here.

[snakes hissing]

- The lighthouse on Snake
Island still stands today,

but it is automated so
no human has to set foot

anywhere near it.

[snake snarling]

If snakes don't scare you off,

this next spot just might
freeze you in your tracks.

[enigmatic music]

- As soon as you see
pictures of Lake Natron,

you know that something
strange is happening here.

It seems eerie, dead,
and otherworldly.

- It's 13 miles
away from a volcano.

The locals call it
the Mountain of God.

And it spits out
carbonatite lava.

And that stuff is
pretty extraordinary

because it's calcium,
sodium, and carbon dioxide.

And that's what makes
it so corrosive.

[enigmatic music]

- [Dan] This is currently
the only place on Earth

spewing this particularly
nasty kind of lava.

And much of it makes its
way into Lake Natron.

- So water is constantly
flowing into the lake,

carrying with it minerals.

And then the water
evaporates off the surface,

and it leaves behind
a high concentration

of sodium carbonates.

This makes the lake
extremely alkaline.

It has a similar pH
to straight ammonia.

[enigmatic music]

- Alkaline is the
opposite of acidic,

but the effects that
it'll have on you

are equally corrosive.

If you were to drink
some of that water,

you're gonna feel it
immediately on your lips

as it goes down your tongue
and into your esophagus.

All along the way, nothing
but horror and pain.

[apprehensive music]

Even though most of
the animals avoid it,

sometimes animals
do get in the lake.

And they basically
become petrified.

It's like they looked at Medusa.

- Creatures that
perish in Lake Natron

don't actually turn to stone.

They become calcified,

meaning they are encrusted
in these mineral salts

in such a way that
preserves their bodies.

- There are these pictures
of these birds that are dead.

They look like
they're still alive

but alive like a
zombie is alive.

[enigmatic music]

- [Dan] Incredibly,
not everything

that touches this
strange lake dies.

- Perhaps most marvelous of all,

you have two and a half
million lesser flamingos

who don't just
live at this lake,

but they actually nest there.

- The flamingos are especially
adapted to this environment.

They have thick
scales on their legs

that allow them to withstand

this highly corrosive
environment.

And then all the salts that
they're constantly ingesting,

they have special salt
glands near their beaks

that pull salt out of their
bloodstream and expel it.

- [Dan] The algae they
eat are also peculiar.

- There's a special
kind of algae

that thrives in these conditions

and occasionally
has seasonal blooms

that turn it a very red color,

which actually
provides the pigment

that makes those flamingos pink.

- It's astounding that
this body of water

produces such visions
of beauty and horror.

It just goes to show you
even the most tranquil places

can have a deadly edge.

- If you're drawing a map of
the weirdest places in America,

start with one line,

because along this
stretch of latitude,

the bizarre, unexplained,
and top secret

all seem to collide.

[enigmatic music]

- It is spring of 1975,

and ranchers across Colorado

begin discovering dead
cows in their fields.

- These cows aren't just dead,

they're mutilated in
really bizarre ways.

Ears, eyes, udders, genitals
have all been removed

with surgical precision.

- These cows are typically
found lying on their left side

and there's no blood.

Now we need to
understand that cows

have five gallons
of blood in them.

To find a dead cow
that's been mutilated

with no blood anywhere,
well, that's weird.

- [Dan] Over the
next six months,

the body count
skyrockets to 200,

and local ranchers want answers.

- Game and wildlife
officials are certain

that it must be the
work of scavengers,

and yet there are no footprints.

There is no damage to the
surrounding vegetation.

- There's no claw
marks, or teeth marks,

or any sort of sign that
something was chewing on them.

- [Dan] As similar
reports start pouring in

from 11 other states, the
FBI has no choice but to act.

- A common theory that pops up

is that some sort
of satanic cult

is running around the
country mutilating cows.

- The Feds perform
stakeouts, autopsies.

They look for witnesses.

They come up with nothing.

- [Dan] Meanwhile,
local investigators

come up with their
own unusual theory.

- Most of these deaths cluster

around a single line of latitude

known as the north
37th parallel,

which crosses Kansas, Arizona,
New Mexico, and Colorado.

- One New Mexico deputy sheriff,

a guy by the name
of Chuck Zukowski,

finds something interesting.

The cow mutilations correlate

with known UFO sightings that
have occurred during that time

across this one
line of latitude.

- Also, there are an
awful lot of important

and sometimes secret government
and military facilities

all along that same line,

Fort Knox, Area 51,

Air Force bases, missile silos.

- The 37th parallel correlations

start to engender speculation

that maybe the
cattle mutilations

and some of the related
events, like UFO sightings,

are signs of a
secret government op.

Maybe some strange
airborne weapon

is being tested on
the mutilated cows.

- This theory gets
so serious in fact

that the National Guard
orders their helicopter pilots

to fly above 2,000 feet

when they're flying
over cattle ranches

because of a legitimate
fear that ranchers

will start taking potshots
at US military helicopters

to protect their cattle.

[gun firing]
[enigmatic music]

- In the end, after 50
years of investigation

of this mystery, we
still have no smoking gun

or alien death ray.

What we have is
thousands of dead cows.

- Meanwhile, 7,354 miles away
is another strange location

where dead livestock is the
least of its residents' worries.

[enigmatic music]

- It is a pretty average day

for this young Cameroonian
on his bicycle,

riding from his village
to the village of Nyos.

Well, he's riding down the
road with his wagon behind him,

and he encounters
a dead antelope

right in the middle of the road.

"Great," he thinks, "that's
free meat to feed my family."

Straps it to his wagon,
continues on his way,

only to encounter
another dead antelope,

and then dead rats,
and dead cows,

and all kinds of livestock
are dead all around him.

And this isn't
looking right at all.

- And as he approaches
the village,

he realizes that it
is freakishly silent.

- So he goes into one
of the neighbor's houses

and finds that all
those people are dead.

He goes to another
house, same thing.

- He begins seeing dead
bodies around cooking fires,

dead bodies sitting at tables,
dead bodies in their homes.

- He rides his
bike to Lake Nyos,

where that village is named for,

and finds hundreds
of dead bodies

lying along the lake shore.

- Stranger still, there are
no flies buzzing around.

They're completely gone.

- The buildings are all intact.

Everything looks fine

other than this weird,
silent death scene.

- What you find here
is 1,700 dead people,

thousands of dead livestock.

There's nothing left living.

And even the tiny insects
that feast on the dead

are not even present.

Everything has been killed off.

What can you imagine
is going on here?

Has there been some sort
of new weapon tested

that does not leave a trace

but yet kills
every living thing?

It's the stuff of
science fiction.

- [Dan] Scientists from across
Africa, the US, and France

are sent to investigate.

What could cause
such mass casualties?

- Lake Nyos is sitting
on top of a magma pool,

where carbon dioxide
is venting continuously

into the waters in
the depths of the lake

and reaching super
high concentrations.

- So what happens at Lake Nyos
is that there's a landslide,

and the landslide displaces

some of the water
at the surface,

allowing the carbon dioxide
that's trapped below to escape.

- That's what causes a
limnic eruption to occur,

limnic meaning a lake eruption.

And then all of that trapped
gas surges to the surface

and suffocates any living thing
that's caught in the cloud.

[dreary music]

- [Dan] Even scarier,
experts worry

a tragedy like this
can happen again.

- There's another
lake, Lake Kivu,

that has 2 million
people living around it.

- If a similar
disaster occurs there,

estimates state
that it could result

in the deaths of
4 million people.

[enigmatic music]

Lake Kivu is without question
and in no exaggerated terms,

it's a ticking time bomb.

- With all of the dangerous

and unpredictable
places out there,

it kind of makes you wonder,

how on earth do
people sleep at night?

- Portland, Oregon, New Orleans,
Louisiana, Austin, Texas

all proudly claim the title
of weirdest city in America.

But there's a town in Florida
that might have them all beat,

a place where unusual
individuals are the norm.

[dramatic music]

- In the early and
mid-20th century,

traveling circuses and sideshows

are still a popular form of
entertainment in America.

A caravan can roll into town

and transform a
sleepy neighborhood

into something fantastic
and out of this world.

There are rides,
exotic animal acts,

and of course the freak show.

[rhythmic music]

- These sideshows
highlight dwarves, giants,

bearded ladies, conjoined twins.

For many of these folks,

this is the best opportunity
they have to make a living.

But life is grueling
in the sideshow.

People get tired of
being stared at for money

and they really just
wanna find a place

they can call their own.

- [Dan] Welcome to
Gibsonton, aka Gibtown.

Population, strange.

[upbeat music]

- Gibtown is on the
Gulf Coast of Florida,

and it becomes this place

where a lot of these circus
performers can put down roots.

And it's somewhere
that being atypical

is not perceived as unusual,
it's perfectly normal.

- One of the first
residents of Gibtown

is Al Tomaini, known as
the world's tallest man.

He stands at 7'11".

He becomes the local fire
chief, starts a fishing club,

and even settles down with
Evelyn the Half Woman.

- [Dan] Word spreads on
the sideshow circuit,

and by 1967, more than
100 circus performers

called Gibtown home.

- This is a place

where these circus
performers could thrive,

like Louise Capps
Hill, an armless girl,

is able to drive a
tractor, milk cows,

and raise her kids on her farm.

Conjoined twins run
the fruit stand.

Grady Stiles the Lobster Boy
makes the place his home.

- [Dan] But this utopia
won't last forever.

- The popularity of
traveling sideshows erodes,

and fewer and fewer new
performers move into Gibtown.

By the 1980s, it
pretty much becomes

a circus retirement community.

[dramatic music]

Most of the old guard
has passed away by now.

There are some museums
and a few old timers left,

so if you hurry,
you can still catch

a faded glimpse of the
old glory of Gibtown.

[dramatic music]

- The curtain falls on
one community of wonder

and opens on a tale
that goes even deeper.

[dramatic music]

- It's the 1820s,
we're in Washington DC,

and President John Quincy Adams

is being asked to
fund an expedition

to send search parties deep
beneath the Earth's surface,

hoping to discover
subterranean worlds

and conduct trade

with a race of people
who maybe live there.

According to some, Quincy
Adams is a believer

in what's called the
Hollow Earth theory.

[enigmatic music]

- The idea that the
Earth may be hollow

and hide hidden worlds
is actually a theory

that goes back all the
way to the ancient Greeks,

but in the 1700s
and in the 1800s

is when it really picks up steam
in Europe and the Americas.

There's one man in particular,

a guy by the name of
John Cleves Symmes,

who, in 1818, writes a piece

known as "Circular No. 1."

- Symmes postulates that
there's two pathways

to the hollow
center of the Earth,

one on the North Pole and
one on the South Pole.

And that if we dig deep enough,

we can find those pathways
and get to this new world.

- Symmes is ready
to make this happen.

And so he calls out
for 100 brave souls

to help him dig into the Earth

and to try to find
these hidden worlds

that lie just beneath our feet.

- As an enticement, he tells
these would-be volunteers

they're gonna find worlds
full of men, full of riches,

and full of, this great
phrase, "thrifty vegetables".

I guess this is what
a world looks like

before the discovery of gold,

that the chance for riches

comes in the form of
"thrifty vegetables".

- Now most people
would obviously think

that an idea like this is crazy,

but it's not that far-fetched

to the President of
the United States.

- There's some debate
about whether Adams

was all in on the
Hollow Earth theory

or if he just wanted
to do some exploration

of the North and South Poles.

- Sadly, for Symmes, and Quincy
Adams, and the Mole people,

Adams is voted out in
favor of Andrew Jackson,

who was far too busy
with above ground natives

to bother with any
subterranean natives.

With government funding gone,

Symmes would die
a few years later,

never realizing his dream
of meeting the Mole people

and eating their
"thrifty vegetables".

- While we have yet
to dig 4,000 miles

to the center of the Earth
to uncover a new world,

there are plenty
of unusual places

right here on the surface.

- What does it take to
start your own country?

A good idea, some ambition,

and a decaying
maritime structure.

Welcome to the
self-proclaimed kingdom

that proves anything
is possible.

- Six and a half miles
off the coast of England

is a tiny platform

about 60 feet off of
the ocean's surface.

It looks like, from a distance,

maybe that it's an oil rig.

- This small little speck,

about the size of maybe
two tennis courts,

is the Principality of Sealand.

[dramatic music]

Does the United Kingdom,
the United States,

or the United Nations recognize

this small little micro nation?

No, but its royal family
and small number of citizens

have fought fiercely for
Sealand's independence.

- [Dan] Before asserting
its itty-bitty independence,

Sealand served as an
anti-aircraft post

during World War II.

There were three others like
it, called Maunsell Forts.

- Their job was to
shoot out of the sky

German Luftwaffe bombers.

[suspenseful music]
[bombers rumbling]

And they were pretty successful.

They shot down 22 enemy
aircraft and 30 V-1 rockets.

- [Dan] After the war ends,
the battered British servicemen

leave the post to return to
their families back home,

all except one.

- He's a retired major
named Patrick Roy Bates.

And he and his family take
up permanent residence

on one of these platforms.

- [Dan] Roy isn't just making
this a vacation home getaway.

His grand vision?

To make this tiny fort an
independent and free nation.

- The reason he's able to do
this is that at this point,

a nation's sovereignty ends

at about three nautical
miles out from the coast.

So these forts that have been
built six and a half miles out

puts it beyond the reach
of the United Kingdom.

That puts Roy in
a position to say,

"This is out in
international waters."

- [Dan] That might tell
us how this retired major

claimed this former
fortress for his own,

but it doesn't tell us why.

The answer is pretty unexpected.

- One of Bates' motivations

is that he is a
World War II veteran.

He has fought against fascism,

and now 20 years later,
in the mid-1960s,

he is disgusted with the
way the British government

is repressing freedom of
expression, freedom of speech,

and even different
kinds of music.

- He's dealing with a country

that, because of the Cold
War, censors popular culture.

And from his platform

just outside of the
international limit,

he will broadcast a
pirate radio station.

- Patrick sees the possibilities

beyond just setting up
a pirate radio station.

If he's successful in
creating his own micro-nation,

that means creating
his own constitution,

issuing his own currency.

The possibilities
really are endless.

- The British government
is not happy with Bates,

and they jam his radio station.

Bates resists this, and in 1967,

decides that he's going
to formally announce

the sovereign independence
of this nation.

And he names it the
Principality of Sealand.

[rhythmic music]

And he gives himself
the title of prince

and his wife the
title of princess.

- This is truly a
slap in the face

to the British government.

To show Roy and his family
that they mean business,

the government has
the British Royal Navy

go out and destroy the
other three Maunsell Forts.

- [Dan] The Bates family is
unfazed by this show of force,

so the British Navy tries
a more direct approach.

- The British government
decides to send a message

by sailing around
the Sealand platform,

harassing the family.

- Roy's 16-year-old
son, Michael Bates,

fires a 22-caliber pistol shot

down at the boat as a warning.

That does not sit well with
the British Royal Navy.

- [Dan] You'd think a civilian

firing upon the British
Navy in broad daylight

would be an open and shut case,

but the proceedings take
an unbelievable turn.

- Michael discharged this gun
outside of UK jurisdiction,

meaning that they
can't pursue it.

The showdown with
the Crown government

attracts the attention
of a German businessman

named Alexander Achenbach.

He sees potential for
an offshore enclave

where money can be parked
with no questions asked,

with no taxes being levied.

- Achenbach decides to reach
out to Roy to talk to him

about possibly becoming
a citizen of Sealand.

maybe even buying
the whole place.

And he invites them to meet
him in Austria to discuss it.

But this is all a trick

because while the prince
and princess of Sealand

are on their way to Austria,

Achenbach is flying a helicopter

full of German and
Dutch mercenaries

to go invade Sealand
while they're gone.

- So Achenbach takes the
Bates' son Michael hostage

and declares himself to be
the prime minister of Sealand.

This may be the smallest
coup in recorded history.

- [Dan] The coup may be small,

but they're messing
with the wrong monarch.

- Let's remember that
Achenbach is a businessman

and a scientist, and
Roy is a retired major.

Bates organizes his own
force, which flies in

and air assaults onto
Sealand using helicopters.

- Most of Achenbach's men flee.

However, Roy manages to take
Achenbach as a prisoner.

- [Dan] Bates
allows his prisoner

the proverbial one phone
call while in custody

to contact the German
embassy in London.

This is where things take
another strange turn.

- The German officials contact
their British counterparts,

and the British officials say,

"We don't have any
jurisdiction there,

so you're on your own."

Now the German government
has to negotiate

with this tiny,
little micro-nation

over the release of
a German citizen.

- Incredibly, this coup d'etat

only further demonstrates
the viability

and reality of
Roy's Principality.

- Today, Sealand, like
any other country,

has its own currency
featuring the royal family,

its own stamps, even
its own constitution.

They can also stamp your
passport when you visit.

Though be warned, there's
not a single decent hotel.

- In Canada, off
the Sunshine Coast

in the Strait of Georgia,

one quiet beach has earned
a strange reputation.

And it's not for the views.

[enigmatic music]

- It's 2007.

A little girl is
out on the beach

of Jedediah Island
in British Columbia.

And she sees this large
size 12 men's sneaker

washed up on the beach.

[dramatic music]

- So she runs over.

She sort of looks
inside the sneaker.

[apprehensive music]

- And finds a foot.

[passerby shrieking]

[ominous music]

Was this a murder victim?

Did someone fall off their boat

and get chopped up
by the propeller?

Who knows?

But it's pretty disconcerting.

- [Dan] The only
comfort locals take

is that this horrific discovery

seems to be an
isolated incident,

that is until it's not.

- Less than a week later,
on nearby Gabriola Island,

another sneaker washes up
with another foot inside.

[ominous music]

- But the sneakers don't match,

and both feet are right feet.

So this is a second
person, a second victim.

- You now have a pattern.

- 2008, a size 11 Nike
washes up on Valdes Island,

also with a severed foot.

- In November, 2008, a
woman's New Balance shoe

washes up on Kirkland Island,

also with a severed foot inside.

- November, 2011, men's size
11 hiking boot, foot inside.

- [Dan] Over the next 14 years,

more than 20 severed feet,

complete with late
model athletic footwear,

wash up on nearby beaches.

- This is causing
terror along the coast.

And to make matters worse,

now pranksters are putting
chicken bones inside sneakers

and sending them afloat.

- [Dan] Investigators
are flummoxed.

Could all of these
victims be connected?

- None of them show any evidence
of having been hacked off,

or sawed off, or chopped
off through human action.

All of them are severed
through the ankle joint

by decomposition.

- [Dan] Eager to
calm the public,

forensic investigators
start performing experiments

in deep water decomposition,
with an unusual test dummy.

- Investigators take
some pig cadavers

and sink them to the
bottom of the Salish Sea,

the area where all these
feet are washing up.

And what they note
during these experiments

is that the scavengers,

crabs, lobsters, things
that are down there,

immediately start to
disarticulate the body.

- [Dan] Disarticulating
is a fancy way

of saying pulling the
body apart at the joints,

you know, just like
humans do to crabs

and lobsters when we eat them.

Apparently the feet are
often the first to go.

But why are they only showing up

in this one particular area?

[enigmatic music]

- It turns out the Salish Sea

has these sort of
rotational currents.

As they're circling around,

western and eastern winds
blow them back and forth.

And so rather than stuff
flowing out to sea,

it sort of circles in
a particular region

to push them up
onto these beaches.

[dramatic music]

- The cause of all
these severed feet

is actually natural and
it's not the signature move

of some crazed serial killer.

- Authorities in
British Columbia

are so happy with
this explanation

that they actually tell
the public not to worry

if more dismembered
feet wash up,

because, and I quote, "This
is no cause for alarm."

If that beach scene
isn't unsettling enough,

just wait until you see what
turns up in the basement

of one very surprised homeowner.

[apprehensive music]

- In 1963, in the Turkish
town of Derinkuyu,

a man is doing a home
improvement project.

Now, most of us who do
this kind of DIY stuff,

you expect to find old
stuff in the walls,

you know, old photos,
and maybe some jewelry.

Well, this guy takes
a sledgehammer,

and he hits the wall, and
he hits it again and again,

and he breaks through.

[sledgehammer banging]
[suspenseful music]

What he finds is a passageway,

which, when he crawls into it,

leads to another tunnel, and
another tunnel beyond that.

- [Dan] It's the 2,000-year-old
lost city of Derinkuyu,

one of the largest subterranean
towns in the world.

[enigmatic music]

- What he uncovers is
absolutely unbelievable,

a tunneled city that can
house up to 20,000 people,

animals, livestock,
grain stores.

The first eight stories
have ventilation shafts

that ensure that
fresh air circulates

through the entire
subterranean city.

- [Dan] But why build such an
elaborate city underground?

- The main purpose of
this underground city

is for the people of Derinkuyu

to come in and hide
from outside forces,

from dangerous people who may
have infiltrated the area.

- One of the most amazing sites

is there are these
huge millstones

which are in place
still to this day.

They have a round
hole in the middle,

and you can roll this
millstone into place,

which would then
block the tunnel

and stop the enemy
from going any further.

- This defense
system worked so well

the city remains
in use until 1923,

before it's sealed up and
nearly lost to history.

Good thing for DIY projects.

[dramatic music]

We visited places
that drive people

to the brink of insanity,

others that lead us to question
what else is out there,

and one that has a whole
bunch of venomous snakes.

These are not only the
strangest places on Earth,

they are also the very
best of the unbelievable.

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