All language subtitles for Forbidden.History.S07E06.Mystery.of.the.Hypogeum.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

[narrator] The island of Malta

is home to one of
the world's greatest
ancient mysteries,

a 5,000-year-old temple
dug deep into the Earth.

According to some, it was once
home to an advanced culture,

capable of
engineering marvels.

When you go down there
in the dark,

you feel like
you're connecting

with the origins
of civilization itself.

[narrator] Inside,
archeologists discovered
the fragmented

remains of thousands
of human bodies,
including 11 bizarre skulls.

[woman] There was elongation.

Some were missing
the cranial knitting.

[narrator]
Since their discovery,

authorities have seemingly
tried to hide the skulls
from public view,

leading to some wild theories.

It makes you wonder why.

What makes them different?
Are they from another world?

[narrator] What is the truth
behind these mysterious skulls

found in one of the oldest
structures in the world?

And who did they belong to?

[Tony]
These small islands

hold one of the greatest
ancient enigmas.

[theme music playing]

[narrator]
These islands are home

to one of the strangest
ancient temples
ever discovered.

On the Maltese archipelago,
formed by the islands
of Malta, Gozo and Comino.

The town of Paola is
a few miles outside
the capital city.

In 1903, archeologists,
led by Emmanuel Magri,

begin excavating
a newly discovered
buried structure.

Inside, they unearth
a set of 11 strange skulls.

There must have been a shiver
that went down their spine

when they found themselves
in this very strange,
odd underground place.

But then in their hands,
they were holding a skull
that barely looked human.

[narrator] But it wasn't just
the discovery of the skulls

that had
archeologists perplexed.

The underground complex
in which they were found
was also groundbreaking.

They named it
the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum.

The hypogeum
is a real mystery, you know,

beginning with
how it was even created
by this Neolithic culture

that just had stone tools,
essentially.

[narrator] Today,
the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum,

which means underground
temple or tomb,

is a UNESCO
World Heritage Site,

and despite a century
of investigations,

little is known about
this impressive
subterranean complex.

Historian Silvia Debono
has lived on the island
of Malta

for the last 20 years
and has closely studied
the hypogeum and its secrets.

Just underneath these normal
houses lies the hypogeum,
11 meters underground.

A series of caves and tunnels.

So if you were to drive
by without knowing

that the hypogeum was here,
you wouldn't even notice.

[narrator]
Yet its true purpose
remains a mystery,

and very little is known
about the people who built it.

[Tony] The first thing
that really strikes you
about the hypogeum

is just how modern it looks.

I mean, it could almost
be some kind of
weird art deco building.

It just doesn't look like
it was built by people
in the Stone Age

with antlers and chisels
made out of stone.

The hypogeum is built
on three underground levels,

and as you descend downwards,
it's like going into
the belly of the world.

It's incredibly
claustrophobic.

It's an ancient labyrinth
with dozens of small chambers
radiating off it,

many of which are decorated
with intricate

and mysterious symbols
that we still
haven't deciphered.

The discovery of the hypogeum
have found that

this was
a highly sophisticated,
advanced civilization

who incorporated
not only brilliant stone
carving techniques,

but also acoustics into
the design of their temples.

[Janina] Within the hypogeum,
there is the oracle room
where the acoustics,

um, are so carefully
refined that
if you whisper in the center,

it amplifies the sound.

[Tony] Some people believe
that it's built to generate
111 hertz to be exact,

which is the kind of frequency

that apparently produces
endorphins in human beings.

[Dominic] This has been
proven scientifically

that actually affects
your consciousness.

And so was that the purpose?

[narrator]
Yet few people get the chance

to experience this
astonishing structure.

Access to the hypogeum
is so limited

and restricted that
it's impossible

to walk in from the street
to the site.

The official reason given
is that it's to protect
the microclimate within it

and the wall paintings,
but it has made
a lot of people wonder

if there's something
that's been kept secret.

[narrator] While limited
access to the hypogeum

has added a layer of mystery
to the structure,

it's what's inside
that's baffled scholars
for a century.

The thing that struck
archeologists straightaway
was this film of red,

and it's covered
the whole space.

When archeologists started
to get down into this red soil

and investigate it,
what they found
were the skeletal

remains of 7,000 people.

The remains puzzled them
because the bones weren't
arranged as bodies.

They seem to be distributed
around the caves in
a completely random way,

as if there were
no logic to it.

And among them
is a group of 11 skulls

which really defy explanation
to some people's minds.

[narrator] In 1903,
archeologist Emmanuel Magri

and his team were
able to salvage
the 11 near-complete skulls,

but soon after research
was brought to a halt.

Sharon Sultana
is the senior curator

at the Museum of Archeology
in Malta,

which houses
the mysterious skulls.

Whilst, um, Magri
was excavating
the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum,

he was sent to Tunisia
on another expedition.

And unfortunately, for us,
Magri died there

and none of
the excavation notebooks
were ever found.

It is quite a problem that
we don't have Emmanuel
Magri's original notebook

because those would have
been the first excavations
that were carried out,

so giving an insight
of how things were
really, really found.

[narrator] In 1907,
archeologist Temi Zammit

takes over Magri's excavation
and makes
a startling discovery.

All the ancient skulls
were long-headed.

[Karen] What do we mean
when we say
long-headed skulls?

It's when the width
of a skull is less than 75% of
the length of the skull,

and it's actually
a very rare proportion

found in the human
population overall.

[Peggy] The Maltese skulls,
mathematically,

they are so long
that they are unusual

because we know
what the human skull
looks like

or should look like.

It is off-putting
for many people

to come across
a unique version
of that skull.

It makes you wonder why.
What makes them different?

Are they actually not like us?
Are they from another world?

Unusually shaped skulls
of itself
is not actually unique.

Cultures have performed
head binding around the world,

right up until
the 20th century.

[narrator] Head binding
or artificial cranial
modification

has been seen across
the globe throughout history.

It might sound barbaric.

In fact, it was a practice

that had to be performed
in the first
two years of life,

and the skull would be
essentially compressed

between boards perhaps
and bound tightly
with a piece of fabric.

And this wasn't done
as a punishment.

In fact, it was generally done
to distinguish the individual
as special.

[narrator] Head binding
might be a perfectly

rational explanation
for long-headedness,

although only one
of the 11 skulls shows
a squash-like shape,

a possible sign
of having been head bound.

The rare skull structure
could be a clue

as to what long-headedness
represented to this
lost culture.

[Karen] Given that
one of these skulls shows
an artificial manipulation

to achieve
the long-headed look,

it raises the possibility
that the skulls that
are present in the hypogeum

were associated
with high status individuals
in this society.

We know that many cultures
around the world,

this was linked with elites,

but also it could have
had a practical purpose

and this could have been
to affect the brain chemistry
and the pineal gland.

If you're stretching
it and moving things
around in the head,

it could produce
different psychic abilities.

It proves you're
a semi-divine being.

[narrator]
More elongated skulls

have been found
across these islands.

Further evidence for their
purpose could lie in the sites

where these
anomalies were found,

including one of the oldest
structures on Earth.

What can these
mysterious skulls

reveal about this
lost civilization?

[narrator] In Malta's
5,000-year-old
Hal Saflieni Hypogeum,

11 strange elongated skulls
have been found.

Who they belong
to is a mystery.

But they aren't
the only remains left behind
by a lost civilization.

Other traces of these
ancient inhabitants

can be found across
the Maltese islands.

Malta is actually home
to some of the very oldest
ritual building

that we've ever
identified in the world.

Temples that stretch
back to 6,000 years

and are incredibly
sophisticated
in their construction.

[narrator] Although
a handful of
the ancient megalithic temples

have been identified,
remains from dozens
more structures

can be found across
Malta and Gozo.

There are megalithic
structures all over Europe,

but it's the fact that
there's so many on Malta

in such a small space
that makes one wonder

whether this island has some
kind of sacred significance.

[narrator] Ggantija
on the small island of Gozo

is the oldest recorded temple
on the Maltese archipelago.

[Silvia] This temple was built
by the same people

who built the hypogeum,
and these are what we call
the "temple people."

These temples, they are older
than the pyramids of Egypt.

They are older
than Stonehenge in England.

And at that time,
there were no tools,

no machinery that
we know today.

We have to remember
we're just seeing virtually
nothing of what was there.

They would have been
much grander,

much more
precision engineered.

[narrator]
Erected with nothing more than
wood and stone tools,

these buildings would
have required a mass effort
from the population.

Relatively speaking,
Gozo is pretty small.

The population today
is only 32,000 people.

So if we go back to
when the temple was built,

it would almost certainly
have been a communal effort

of virtually everybody
on the island.

[narrator] Although built
hundreds of years earlier,

the layout of Ggantija
seems to have inspired

the curved configuration
of the hypogeum,

one of the last temples
to be built on these islands.

[Karen] There's a walkway,
there's chambers,

there's an altar
in a very regular location.

And what's really fascinating
is when researchers examined
the hypogeum,

in comparison,
there were a lot of similar
features found.

[Silvia] You can find here
some of the spiral decorations
carved out by these people.

These spiral decorations
are also found in the
hypogeum in Hal Saflieni,

and probably
they are symbolizing
the continuity of life.

[narrator] A serpent depiction

was originally found
at the entrance to Ggantija.

In fact, these
snake-like spirals adorn

all of the remaining
Maltese temples.

Perhaps it was
an important symbol
to this ancient culture.

Because written
documentation doesn't exist
from this time period,

clues found inside
the temple walls are open
to interpretation.

There are some evidence found
around some other temples

that might shed light
on these rituals
performed here.

[Karen] Artifacts that were
found in the hypogeum

include a beautiful statue
of a woman reclining
as if she were sleeping.

[narrator] The sleeping lady
has often been interpreted

as representing
the goddess of fertility,

an important deity
for the temple people.

We can always imagine that
if these people at one point,

they were worshiping
the goddess of fertility,

most probably they would
have performed such rituals
as orgies in these temples.

[narrator]
Another common hypothesis

is that the sleeping lady
personifies death
and the eternal.

This might explain
the ancient remains found

near the temple site
of Ggantija.

Five hundred yards
away from the temple,

30 more long-headed
skulls were found.

That goes to show
that long-headed people

probably were
around everywhere
in this archipelago.

[narrator] So who was this
ancient population that built
these astonishing structures?

And were they all long-headed?

[Karen] The human cranium
has a general shape,
which is universal.

Within the human population
at large,

that's going to vary
between extremes,

with certain shapes prevailing

and having
a genetic propensity

to be passed on
in a given community.

And to me, that's enough
to explain the presence
of these long-headed skulls.

[Janina] Malta, of course,
is an island

that would have created
a population
that was relatively inbred.

So if there was
a characteristic trait,

it would be accentuated
in that sort
of an environment.

[narrator]
But many people in Malta
believe there's more to it.

Taxi driver Emilio Persiano
knows every corner
of these islands.

According to him, some claim
that the sophistication
of the temple structures,

along with the skulls
found at the hypogeum,

can only be attributed
to otherworldly beings.

[Emilio speaking]

[narrator] Hoping to solve
this mystery once
and for all, Dr. Anton Mifsud,

a pediatrician by profession,
has spent the last 36 years

investigating the hypogeum's
elongated skulls.

It all started when one skull,
named Saflieni 11,
sparked his interest.

When I saw the skulls for the
first time, I was fascinated
by Saflieni number 11.

The skull number 11
was a mystery to me

because I could not
explain it.

[narrator] For over a century,

the discovery in Malta
of 11 strange skulls

dating back 5,000 years
has confounded experts.

Dr. Anton Mifsud
has been researching
the skulls for four decades.

He's one of few people
to have attempted

to provide an explanation
for their strange appearance.

In 1985, my father
gave me a camera

and I wanted to try it on
and I was interested
in the museums, so I went.

There were six skulls
being displayed,

and there was this
particular one which...
which struck me.

It had these huge
orbital bosses here,

and I photographed it
from all angles

and then thought
I would study it.

I was a medical doctor.

We're different
from archeologists.

We spend about two years
of our lives

just studying the anatomy,
so we know the skull
inside out.

So whenever I see something

that is far out
of the ordinary,
I mean, you're...

you're amazed.

Why were our ancestors
in this shape?

What... what's made them
have this shape?

I mean, why are their
foreheads so pronounced?

[narrator]
Today, the skulls are housed

at the Museum of Archeology,
but that's not the full story.

[Anton] Initially,
there were 11 skulls,

so we don't know
when their numbers started
to dwindle,

but certainly between 1955
and between '59,

there was no real Museum
of Archeology.

There was no
transitional phase.

During that time,
five went missing.

We don't know why.

In my view, there were
a lot of undesirable specimens

that were taken off
of the radar.

They just disappeared.

[narrator] Anton has
never had the chance

to study
the five missing skulls.

Just getting access
to the remaining six
was difficult

and required him
to work around years
of red tape.

After the photographs
I had taken,

they were taken off
the shelves of the museum
where they were displayed.

Access was totally impossible.

There was this whole debate
going on about having,

um, human remains
on display in museums.

So I think the authorities
back then wanted
to be cautious,

and they, you know,
removed all
the skeleton material,

which was on display
and they put it in storage.

I published this photograph
of these skulls in 1999,

and after that there were
a number of people
who were interested

and who tried to get
access to them to see
this long-headed skull.

[narrator] It was clear from
the photos published by Anton

that the skulls look
strangely elongated,

combined with limited access,
it added fuel to the fire.

Theories started to come up.

They were...
were they aliens?

Were they from
another continent?

The Maltese authorities
have been very protective,

shall we say,
about these skulls.

I mean, really,
the more they do that,

the more they're engendering
suspicion and mistrust.

That was disturbing
the prevailing paradigm
of the time,

and they wouldn't
have that happening.

So could it be that
the authorities are
just too terrified

to find out that human history
may have to be rewritten?

Could these skulls be
an absolute revelation

as to who we are
and where we came from?

[narrator] It's only
been in the past decade

that the skulls have
been made accessible
for viewing,

but speculation continued.

People coming to the museum
to see these
Hal Saflieni Hypogeum skulls

were expecting to see
long head bound skulls.

But in reality,
the skulls are what they are.

So people started
saying that the museum

was hiding the real skulls
from the hypogeum,

and the government
is making us hide them
for security reasons.

What we have tried to do
is study these skulls

and give access to the public
so that then people
can decide for themselves.

[narrator]
Today, Anton is working

with the National Museum
of Archeology in Malta

to further scientific research
into the skulls

and get to the bottom
of who their Maltese ancestors
really were.

But why are these
remains so strange?

Anton's medical background
has helped him uncover

some of the truth
behind their appearance.

Now this is
Saflieni number 11,

and I think it was responsible
for all the various
theories of aliens.

It possesses certain
anatomical features,

which are not usually
present on a human.

Now chief among
which was
the long-headedness,

it's one of the most
long heads
of the hypogeum skulls.

Apart from that,
it does not possess
a sagittal suture here,

which is normally
present on skulls.

[Dominic] Because the skull
develops at the same rate
over the person's lifetime,

it's very odd
to find the skull

with one suture
still prominent,
but the other not visible.

[narrator]
How is this possible?

Are there any scientific
explanations for this
strange skull?

[narrator] Dr. Anton Mifsud
has spent
the last four decades

researching the strange
Hal Saflieni Hypogeum skulls.

His medical background has
helped him uncover the truth
behind their appearance.

One of them,
named Saflieni 11,

is missing
the sagittal suture,
a seemingly impossible trait.

On a skull,
the cranial sutures
are the lines

that one usually seeds.

One goes from left to right
over the top of the skull,

and the other goes from
that line all the way down
to the back.

[narrator]
When a baby is born,

the plates that
form the cranium

have not yet fused,
making the sutures
very visible.

[Dominic]
But as the plates fuse,

the lines become
less and less distinct.

So in much older people,
the lines could almost
have disappeared.

[narrator] Remarkably,
on skull number 11,

the coronal suture,
from left to right,

is evidently open,
but the sagittal suture
is absent.

In rare instances,
one suture
can fuse prematurely,

such as when a skull
is head bound in infancy.

But head binding only accounts
for some of the skulls'
anomalies.

For the rest,
Anton has another explanation,

which lies
in a medical condition
called thalassemia.

Thalassemia, it means anemia
of the Mediterranean.

It's a disease in
response to malaria.

What happens in malaria
is that a mosquito bites
the human being

and injects
the baby malaria parasites
inside the bloodstream

and they mature inside
the red cells of the human.

A red cell will last 120 days
before it's destroyed.

So that gives the parasite
sufficient time
to grow, mature, burst

and then cause the malaria.

[narrator]
To counter this process,

the body has adapted
and produced another
sort of red blood cell,

known as hemoglobin F.

It will cause blood cells
to break up earlier,

preventing the parasite
from maturing inside them

and killing
the infected individual.

But to counterbalance
the rapid destruction
of blood cells,

the body has to produce
more and more of them.

This process takes place
inside the bone marrow.

[Anton] If you go
to the front of the skull,

you will see that there are
very prominent eyebrows there,

which reflect a higher degree
of blood regeneration.

[narrator] Because
the increase of blood cells
in the bone marrow

causes it to expand
and thicken,

some of the facial features
will become more prominent.

According
to Anton's observations,

all the remaining skulls
from the hypogeum
show evidence of thalassemia.

Although thalassemia does
not explain long-headedness,

it does explain some
of the features of the skulls,

particularly on
skull number 11.

It would certainly
have had an appearance
that was really noticeable.

He would have a high,
a large skull.

It would have
very prominent eyebrows here,
a very high cheekbones.

The eyes would
therefore be deeply inset

because of
the jaundice associated

with the breakdown
of the red cells.

He would also be yellow.

He would have been weak
because of the rapid
turnover of red cells.

[narrator]
Further scientific analysis

carried out
on a Neolithic skull

confirmed Anton's theory
that the disease

was present on the islands
at the time.

Now we're looking here
at a skull,

a normal skull,
of a 5,000-year-old
individual.

Now this is where
the blood is formed.

But with
a thalassemic patient,

the width is
comparatively larger.

[narrator] Surprisingly,
Anton believes
that this disease

may have been an asset
for these
affected individuals.

They had no physical strength,
but they had the brains.

Their brains were
receiving a lot of blood,

and they might have been
in a better position
to use their brains.

So they were the...
the masterminds.

I believe that the people
with thalassemia,

with their striking features,
were enrolled
as serpent priests.

The serpent priest was
basically the communication

between the divine
and the human.

They were the intermediaries.

[narrator] According to Anton,
these highly intelligent
serpent priests,

with their supposed
reptilian appearance,

would have been
the ruling elite

of the ancient people
of Malta.

So what these serpent priests
would have looked
like is really interesting.

We see some figurines
that are actually on display
in certain museums

that show a kind of snake-like
appearance on their face.

So what I'm holding here

is actually a part
of the skull
of a serpent priest

of late Neolithic Malta,
5,000 years ago.

I made a study
of all the remains
of Neolithic people

and I managed to find now,
97% of them were long-headed.

But the elite,
I consider the ones
who had the thalassemia,

because apart from
being long-headed,

they had these
striking features.

[Hugh]
They had a mastery of things
like medicine, astronomy.

If we actually look at
some of the carvings,

even the 3D relief carvings
we find all over
Malta and Gozo,

we see serpents
depicted everywhere.

They were called
serpent priests

because part of their
function was healing.

[Dominic] To pretty much
as long as we know,

the snake has been
a symbol of healing,

and it's even today
used around the world

as a symbol of medicine
and pharmacies.

[Anton] It's also symbolized
the link between us

and the world underground
because the snake slithers.

[narrator] Were these
serpent priests really
as advanced as experts say?

According to Anton,
one of the hypogeum skulls

still bears evidence
of these highly-skilled
healers.

One of these skulls
demonstrated signs
of a successful operation,

and this sounds
incredibly frightening
for this time period.

The operation
is known as trepanation.

Trepanation
is a hole in the skull.

Trepanning would
be carried out

because there was maybe
some kind of pressure

that had built up in the head
that the person was
experiencing enormous pain.

They may even have been having
fits of some kind, epilepsy,

and there was just a belief
that by boring into the head,

they may have relieved
physical pressure
or they may have released,

they felt, some kind of demon
that was lurking
within the patient.

[Anton] As you can see,
the defect here

is underlined by growth
of bone here.

So this shows that
the individual
survived an operation

that is considered today
to be a dangerous one.

Just imagine, no anesthetic,
no surgical conditions,

somebody drilling
into your head with
a Stone Age tool of flint

or obsidian knife or something
like that, and you survive.

[narrator]
These risky operations
would have been conducted

by the serpent priests
inside the temple,

up until it was
mysteriously abandoned.

[Anton]
So from the earliest times,

the temple was used
by the serpent priests

to affect healing procedures
on late Neolithic Maltese

and also interpret
dreams maybe,

perform surgery
like trepanation.

This serpent elite,
these were the designers

and the instigators
of creating all these
ancient temples.

They may not have
built them themselves,

they may have got
other people involved.

They may have got
the local populace.

The hypogeum is the last
megalithic temple to be built.

There were three zones.

There was the zone
for the public.

Then there was
intermediate zone

where the public communicated
with the priests.

And there was the third zone
which only confined
to the priests.

[narrator]
So if Anton is correct,

these skulls belong
to the serpent priests
who ruled over the population.

But why were no more temples
built after the hypogeum
was completed,

and what happened
to the serpent priests
and the temple people?

[narrator]
Five thousand years ago,
an advanced culture

was thriving
on the island of Malta.

The remains of the temples
they left behind

demonstrate
a sophistication beyond

what modern-day experts
would have expected
for that time period.

But this civilization seems
to have vanished
without a trace.

The Neolithic people
built the temples
around about 2600 BC.

These structures were
used for over 1,000 years.

Then something happened.

These temples stopped
being used, completely,

and there was a period
on the islands

where we think that
there was no population.

It could be that they
depleted the resources

and they probably
had to move on,
or a catastrophe

of some sort happened
on the island and they died.

[narrator] Discoveries made
at Hal Saflieni Hypogeum

might give us an insight
into what really happened.

They found
a fascinating collection
of Neolithic artifacts,

but also the bones
of what they thought were
around 7,000 people.

[Anton] It was just a whole
jumble of bones, human bones,

implements, pottery,
all mixed together

with no anatomical
relationship between parts.

So how is it that the remains
of potentially 7,000 people,

plus these elongated skulls
were found in the hypogeum?

The jury's out as to
what really happened to them.

Now, even the archeologists
themselves admit

there was no evidence
of warfare.

There was no evidence
of any disease

that wiped them out,
like COVID.

[narrator] In 1907,
when the excavation
was carried out,

archeologist Temi Zammit
determined that

it was impossible to calculate
the true number of bodies
due to the deterioration.

Yet based on the number
of bones found,

he estimated there could be
7,000 disjointed bodies
inside the hypogeum,

but to Zammit's trained eye,
the space was too small

for that number of people
to be buried.

You don't even think
it was a primary burial site.

We probably think that
the bodies were placed
there afterwards.

It was probably
an underground sanctuary,

which was then used
as a burial place.

Since the place has
three different levels,

probably each level was
used for a different purpose.

[narrator] For Anton,
the random layout
of human bones

and pottery might be a clue as
to how the population
disappeared.

During the excavation,
there was only one skeleton

that was anatomically aligned.

Now, Temi Zammit described
the posture of the person.

He was not buried on his
left side as is traditional
Maltese Neolithic burials,

but he's laying
on his right side

and his hand is right up here
was clenched,

was flexed
and in this position.

Now that
in medical forensic medicine

is known as cadaveric spasm
and implies a very
emotional death,

and it's typically
by drowning.

So that was implied that
the person was the only one

who was anatomically disposed
was at the time
inside the hypogeum

when flood waters came down.

[narrator]
So could the drowned man
be the key

to how the whole
population disappeared?

[Anton] There's evidence
for a tsunami.

About 4,200 years ago
there was a tsunami

which came from the northeast

and that is attested to
by modern geologists.

The tsunami came
and whatever
was inside the hypogeum

went down to the lower layers
and the people on the ground
were wiped out.

There was no trace.

Now we have to imagine
that person in the hypogeum
at the point

at which it was filling
with seawater,

as the tsunami crashed
across Malta,

the terror, the realization
you're going to die,

the inability to escape
from this space.

[Anton] Dr. Zammit in 1907,
he described it as
a homogenous mass of red soil

that contained all these
various objects of human bones

and instruments
and pottery,
and that indicated

what is called
an alluvial deposit.

An alluvial deposit
is a deposit
that's created by water,

and that could explain
why we see
the motley collection

of bones and pottery
in the hypogeum,

because if they
built up over time,

we would expect
to see them layered.

[narrator] According to Anton,

the bones of ancestors would
have been initially displayed

in the upper level
of the hypogeum,

placed in a specific formation
and exposed to the worshipers
visiting the temple.

The floodwaters carried
the soil from the surface.

There were bones at the top,
being displayed there.

The whole thing came down

and the person was down
in the second layer

and was obviously
flooded and drowned.

[narrator]
Despite rational explanations,

over the past century,
legends surrounding
the hypogeum

have added to the mystery
of ancient Malta.

[narrator] Since the discovery
of the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum

at the turn
of the 20th century,
strange stories

and eyewitness
accounts have circulated,

adding an aura of mystery
to the ancient temple.

[Tony] There's a story
told on Malta about
a group of schoolkids

who went with their teacher
to visit the hypogeum
in the 1940s.

Now this is the time
when it wasn't
as well-organized

with all the health
and safety stuff
that you get there today,

and they ventured
deeper and deeper down

into the hypogeum
until they disappeared.

Nobody was able to see them,
calling out to them
resulted in nothing.

They simply vanished.

And yet some people say
that for weeks afterwards,

they were able to hear
the cries of the children
crying out for help,

but nobody knew
how to get to them.

It sounds
a little bit embellished,
if you ask me.

You can't just have
a number of schoolchildren

and their teachers disappear
in your heritage site

without an investigation
properly being made.

[narrator] From the lack
of eyewitness accounts,

it's hard to know what really
happened to these children,

and whether
this is an urban legend.

But this is not the only claim
about strange things
happening inside the hypogeum.

Around the same time,
a woman named Lois Jessup
told a chilling story.

Lois Jessup, who was involved
in exploring some
of the underground caverns,

which go further beyond
the hypogeum
that you see today,

and the story she claims
were witnessed these
kind of fair-skinned,

blond-haired giants
inside the hypogeum,

who scared her so much,
she ran out.

So these are kind of
connected these stories

that not only are there kind
of potentially humanoid beings

who were giants
living in the hypogeum,

but also kids have
disappeared in there
and never to be found again.

So what do we
make of these stories?

I think these kind
of legends or stories

are made as to stop people
in that time
to go down the hypogeum.

[narrator]
These tales and legends

might live on
for years to come.

But for most experts,
credit should really be given

to the ancient Maltese
who built these
long-lasting temples.

All of these speculations
about other worldly
influence aside,

these temples
and the hypogeum,
I mean, they...

they are absolute
wonders of the world.

There is something quite
mysterious about the hypogeum.

The way that this space
has been created to house
extraordinary human bones,

these elongated skulls,

they do tap
into our innate desire

for unsolved mysteries.

It's human nature to ponder
about these mysteries,

particularly when it's about
our ancient ancestors

that don't look
like us anymore.

People tend to associate
prehistoric people
with savage cavemen,

but from what we have
on the islands,
dating to that period,

we have a completely
different picture.

These people were people
like us with needs like us,

with feelings like us,
you know?

They just didn't
have the resources
that we have nowadays.

But in my opinion,
they left us,
Maltese, a legacy

which we should
all really be proud of.

Malta deserves more credit

and more acknowledgment
of its ancient culture.

But the extinction
of the Maltese temple culture

was so massive that
it's been totally
forgotten and...

and cast into oblivion.

[Dominic] Details of lives
that long ago can seem
very out of reach,

but archeology,
in fact moves very quickly,

and it only takes
a few discoveries

to unlock far richer contexts
around things

that happened in the past.

So although we may
not know much
about them now,

it is very likely that
in the future we will
get a lot closer to them

and understand far more
about their world.

[narrator] With ongoing
scientific research

and recent
technological advances,

experts might soon be
able to unlock some
of Malta's ancient secrets.

Until then,
debates surrounding
the mystical hypogeum

and the Neolithic human
remains will continue.