Original subtitles

has ties to a storied and infamous mutiny.

- It's incredible that they were able to navigate

these huge distances of open water without any instruments.

But why Pitcairn of all places?

[narrator] A bizarre glowing rainforest in Borneo

has drawn the interest of experts.

- It's an eerie sight, an ethereal neon green

emanating below the dense black canopy.

- It's an incredible thing to witness,

but why does it glow like that?

[narrator] In the Greek isles, archeologists and historians

have been searching for a long lost mythical site.

- Giving it an air of mystery and magic.

It's no surprise that researchers have been fascinated

by this place since the late 1700s.

What was this building?

[narrator] Isolated, scarce on resources, islands are worlds

unto themselves.

Bizarre creatures, ancient gods and haunting ruins,

baffling murders and deadly spirits.

What will be discovered on Earth's mysterious islands?

♪ ♪

[narrator] In the deepest reaches of the South Pacific

lies a collection of four Polynesian islands

known as the Pitcairn Islands.

Their small rugged outcroppings and their palm covered shores

offer shelter from a temperamental ocean.

Only one of them is actually inhabited

and that's Pitcairn Island itself.

Pitcairn Island is the Southern most of this group.

Only this three square mile island

isn't ringed by beautiful Polynesian beaches.

Instead, all it has is steep cliffs and rocky spires.

The island group is actually a British overseas territory,

meaning that the head of state for the Pitcairns

is the British monarch.

It's a long and famous story.

In 1789, a British ship called the HMS Bounty

was carrying a cargo of breadfruit saplings

from Tahiti to the West Indies when its crew mutinied.

Led by the master's mate, a man named Fletcher Christian,

they set the captain adrift on a little boat

and took command of the ship.

After two months at sea, they spotted Pitcairn

and Fletcher Christian decided to go ashore.

When he returned to the Bounty, he told the rest of the crew,

as well as the Tahitian men and women

who had been lured aboard, that there were plenty

of breadfruit trees already planted there,

but that there was no one actually living on the island.

Breadfruit is a staple in Polynesia.

It's a really starchy fruit that can be eaten

tons of different ways.

You can boil it, you can fry it, you can roast it.

It's basically just like a potato.

So the question is, who planted breadfruit

on Pitcairn Island?

[narrator] As the mutineers explore the island,

they came across more evidence of the people

who had preceded them.

Near the north coast of the island,

they found a four-sided enclosed platform.

Each corner of the square featured

a roughly six-foot stone statue with its back towards the sea.

[Anthea Nardi] This square structure is what's known as a marae.

In Polynesian culture, it is both a place for

conducting ceremonies and a place of worship.

It's where the world of the ancestors and gods

intersects with that of the living.

[Anthony Cantor] The mutineers weren't particularly interested

in or curious about the local culture and religion,

so they went about destroying the temple.

While breaking down the platform,

they found and exhumed a skeleton

that was buried underneath the temple.

[narrator] As they were dismantling the marae

and removing the interred body from the premises,

the mutineers noticed that the head itself

was resting on a large pearl shell.

[Anthea Nardi] This is interesting because

black-lipped pearl shells aren't found on Pitcairn.

They're actually from quite far away,

around 400 miles on an island called Mangareva.

This means that there was likely movement of people

and goods from Mangareva to Pitcairn.

But why Pitcairn of all places?

There are over a thousand islands in Polynesia,

quite a large number to choose from.

But the Polynesian people inhabit an area

that stretches from New Zealand to Hawaii

and down to Easter Island.

That's a lot of territory, so you have to wonder not only

why they settled in Pitcairn, but how they got here.

[narrator] The Polynesian people began expanding

across the Pacific Ocean around 4,000 years ago.

For much of the next three millennia,

they used ocean-going canoes and incredible

navigational abilities to settle thousands of islands

that lay several thousands of miles apart.

In fact, Polynesian navigators rank among the most

sophisticated wayfinders that have ever existed.

They used everything available to orient themselves

on the ocean.

For example, the sun and the stars,

the presence of birds, the shape and size of clouds.

And yet, when the European explorers

meet the Polynesians, the Europeans are

just too racist to acknowledge any

ingenuity or skill in the Polynesian people at all.

[narrator] Perhaps most impressively,

the Polynesians navigated by just the feel of the ocean.

They noted that islands reflect and refract waves and swells,

and when they do, they will eventually

meet oncoming swells, creating a distinct pattern.

They could feel these changes in the movement of their canoe

and thereby judge the presence and location

of far away islands.

So this is how they would have gotten

from Mangareva to Pitcairn, and everywhere else

for that matter.

But what was so special about Pitcairn?

It's actually not that hospitable at all.

[narrator] In 1935, a Franco-Belgian archeological

expedition to Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island,

decided to include Pitcairn on their itinerary.

During their two-day stopover, they discovered a

curious stone figure used to keep the veranda

of a house from collapsing.

It was made from a yellowish volcanic rock.

It was about two and a half feet tall,

and its head had been broken off,

but it had its hands folded on its stomach

in a kind of traditional Polynesian posture

we see in other such sculptures.

A villager explained how they found those statues,

so that makes it very likely that this is one of the statues

that the mutineers found when they first got to the island.

What's also interesting is that the stone

used to carve the statue is of a yellowish color,

which you can also see in the volcanic rock on Pitcairn.

Maybe something else other than basic needs

is what brought the Polynesians here.

Think about the fact that they carved their idols

from Pitcairn's volcanic rock.

Maybe that played a special role.

[narrator] Archeological excavations that took place

near Adamstown revealed a stunning array of artifacts.

In an old pit measuring around 50 square feet,

they found awls, fish hooks, and abraders.

[Anthea Nardi] These are flat, usually sandstone tools

that were used for sharpening blades,

in this case, stone blades.

There were also over 5,000 stone flakes,

all of them made from the very same material.

The stone is of a dark gray color,

and although it's very hard, it is also fine-grained.

[Anthony Cantor] This type of rock is actually found in

abundance on Pitcairn in an area called Tautama.

At the southeast end of the island,

between a steep cliff and the seashore,

is an area littered with basalt.

So considering all the artifacts found in the pit

and the fact that basalt is a great material

to make tools with, it might be safe to say

that the pit was the site of an old stone tool workshop.

[narrator] The archeological excavations also revealed basalt tools

that would have been essential for the Polynesian people,

adzes, an ancient cutting tool similar to an ax.

Adzes have thin, sharp blades at one end

that widen at the other.

The wide end is fastened to a handle at a right angle,

making it perfect for scraping and cutting wood.

[narrator] Several excavations have been performed

on the west side of the island, where evidence of

early Polynesian homes have been found.

In this area, several other structures

indicate the presence of fires, as well as workshops for

the processing of basalt and to fine tools.

Not far from these sites is a little unassuming beach,

and it might not seem like a big deal at first,

but when you consider the fact that this island

only has two possible places where you could land a canoe,

it's very important.

It seems that the Polynesians would quarry the

basalt at Tautama, then bring it here to the

west side of the island for processing,

shaping it into adzes.

From here, the stone tools could be more easily loaded

onto canoes, waiting to take them away.

So it seems there was rich trade occurring

between the islands of Pitcairn and Mangreva,

the island a few hundred miles to the west.

Pearl shells and fish hooks would arrive to Pitcairn

in exchange for basalt and adzes.

[narrator] The adze and rock, both originating from Pitcairn,

found on the Austral and Tuamotu archipelagos

indicate that Pitcairn played a vital role in the region.

But it appears that these high-quality adzes

may not have been limited to local trade.

Some adzes found in places as far away as Hawaii and Samoa

resemble those found on Pitcairn,

meaning that Pitcairn itself could have served

as one of Polynesia's major sources of the stone.

The adzes would be used to shape and repair canoes,

which are fundamental to Polynesian life and culture.

So in a sense, you can think of Pitcairn

as having this elemental role in helping the whole

Polynesian world thrive.

But when did all this happen?

The 18th century mutineers arrived on

an uninhabited island.

By that time, the Polynesians had been long gone.

So why did they abandon Pitcairn?

[narrator] Radiocarbon dating indicates that settlement of

Pitcairn and the surrounding islands likely occurred

in the early 10th century, with abandonment taking

place almost 500 years later.

It's hard to say exactly why, after hundreds of years,

they decided to leave Pitcairn.

But as we know, the island didn't offer much

in terms of food.

So in order for the settlement to feed itself,

it would have been reliant on trade.

It's just that these places are small islands,

and because of that, they're way more vulnerable

to resource exhaustion.

Just like Pitcairn was an essential part

of the regional economy, other islands, like Mangareva,

would have been able to provide food

for the people on Pitcairn so they could survive.

So it's possible that one of the other islands

Pitcairn relied on may have suffered a crisis of sorts,

depleting their resources, making life on

Pitcairn untenable, and forcing the

inhabitants to abandon it.

And as for those mutineers who settled on Pitcairn,

their fate was sealed when they burnt the bounty

in an attempt to prevent passing ships from stopping by.

After all, they were mutineers, and if found, they would

have been tried and executed.

[Anthony Cantor] The island eventually descended into anarchy,

with the British sailors killing each other one by one

until only one of them was left alive,

along with 10 Tahitian women and their children.

[narrator] As the small population of Pitcairn

continued to grow, so did the number of British colonies,

and the island was formally incorporated

into the empire in 1838.

Today, descendants of the mutineers of the HMS Bounty

still call Pitcairn Island home.

♪ ♪

[narrator] Spanning an area of roughly 292,000 square miles

in the seas of Southeast Asia, Borneo is the third

largest island on Earth.

The island is politically divided

among the countries of Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

- Borneo's population is just over 23 million,

which may sound like a lot, but when you consider

that the island is roughly twice

the size of Germany, it's actually sparsely populated.

Most of the inhabitants live in cities and towns

along the coastline.

Stretching across a portion of the island's central region

is what's known as the heart of Borneo,

a huge swath of tropical rainforest,

home to one of the most complex ecosystems on the planet,

and an astounding amount of biodiversity.

And there is no better place to see that biodiversity

closeup than Mount Kinabalu.

That's Borneo's tallest peak.

It rises more than 13,000 feet above sea level.

Just that one mountain is believed to contain

between 5,000 and 6,000 different kinds of plants,

including 1,000 kinds of orchids.

And it's also home to hundreds of different bird species

and hundreds of different mammal species,

including pangolins, bats, and clouded leopards.

[narrator] Dutch scientists conducting research

in Malaysia's Mount Kinabalu are out

for a misty evening walk in the lush rainforest,

when in the distance, they see something strange.

Though far away, the forest floor,

which should be dark at this hour, is actually aglow.

It's an eerie sight, an ethereal neon green emanating

below the dense black canopy, where light is scarce,

even during the day.

It might have something to do

with a process called bioluminescence.

Some organisms are able to emit light because of a chemical

reaction within their cells.

[narrator] Bioluminescence is most common among marine life.

From the darkest depths of the seafloor

to the water's surface, this strange phenomenon

can be observed in a wide array of aquatic organisms.

At night, on certain beaches all over the world,

you can see brightly colored waves crashing into the shore

because of glowing cyanobacteria.

Some of these microscopic organisms,

found naturally in all types of water,

light up when the water gets agitated.

It's an incredible thing to witness,

but why does it glow like that?

The prevailing theory is that it's some sort of

defense mechanism.

The light may be used to attract larger predators

that don't prey on them, and these larger

predators scare away the smaller predators that do.

Or the light may just surprise potential predators

and scare them off.

But other species use bioluminescence

for the opposite reason.

[narrator] In the deepest reaches of the world's oceans,

you'll find the anglerfish, one of the most bizarre looking

creatures on the planet.

[Sarah Klassen] These things are grotesque.

They have huge mouths with razor sharp teeth,

beady lifeless eyes, and spiky scales.

Not the kind of fish you'd like to come face to face with

when scuba diving.

[Dan Riskin] The really strange thing about anglerfish

is that they have this rod-like extension

of their dorsal spine called an illicium

that protrudes from their heads.

The tip is called an esca, and that thing lights up

like a lure to attract prey.

But the fish doesn't have the ability to make light itself.

Instead, the lure has a pore that hosts luminescent bacteria,

many of which can't survive anywhere else.

Where this bacteria comes from is a bit of a mystery.

So far, none has been found freely living in the ocean.

Could this bacteria be similar to what we're seeing in

the Borneo rainforest?

[Anthony Cantor] Not likely.

Bacterial bioluminescence is typically

only found in the ocean, and glowing species are

actually quite rare on land.

But that's not to say they don't exist at all.

[narrator] Perhaps the most famous and widely studied

bioluminescent land creature is the firefly.

Firefly is a bit of a misnomer.

They're not really flies, they're beetles.

They're nocturnal members of the family Lampyridae,

and there are about 2,000 different species.

These things prefer moist environments.

They're mostly found in the Americas and Asia.

And that, by the way, does include Borneo.

- Fireflies have light organs that are located

under their abdomens, which are unique

to each species.

They use bioluminescence as a means

to attract mates for the most part,

but some fireflies employ it for deceptive reasons.

- Some females use their lights to lure males

from a different genus and then feed on them,

because the females don't have a defensive

steroidal compound called lucibufagin,

which acts as a deterrent against predators

such as spiders.

So they obtain it by eating their male cousins.

[Sarah Klassen] Fireflies are found in Borneo,

but they mostly favor laying their eggs in

damp places with standing water, like ponds,

mangroves, or swamps.

Environment's not found on the side of this mountain.

However, it could be one of the firefly's

distant relatives, though.

[narrator] Arachnocampa luminosa, also known as

fungus gnats, are bioluminescent glowworms

that are found in dark, damp areas.

What's neat about these creatures

is that they're very territorial,

and that means that in places where large numbers

of them congregate, sometimes they

become cannibalistic.

[Sarah Klassen] The males are capable of glowing,

but it's primarily the females who light up to attract mates.

Once a few males have arrived on the scene,

they battle it out for the right to mate with the female.

So could the glowing on Mount Kinabalu

be arachnocampa luminosa?

Probably not.

Even though the rainforest environment is dark and damp,

which is their preferred habitat,

these glowworms are only found in caves in New Zealand.

They catch prey by creating a sort of

sticky, glowing fishing line that they dangle from

the roof of the cave.

Insects are attracted to the light

and get stuck in the lines, making for an easy meal.

[narrator] As the researchers approach the strange phenomenon

on Mount Kinabalu for a better look,

they notice the glow is not only emanating from the ground,

but seems to be coming from the trunks of fallen trees.

It could be Quantula striata.

That's a species of land snail found in Southeast Asia

that produces light.

Their eggs actually glow in the dark.

And in adults, that light comes from something

called the organ of Haneda which is a bunch of cells

that help produce mucus.

But the thing is, these snails blink.

They don't emit a constant light like what we're

seeing on Borneo.

And they don't produce any light at all when they sleep.

So whatever's glowing in the rainforest, it isn't snails.

It has to be something else.

[narrator] Finally, getting a close-up view

of the source of the light, the researchers are taken aback

when they discover what is glowing in the forest

on Mount Kinabalu.

[Sarah Klassen] They're glow-in-the-dark mushrooms.

This is a very rare discovery.

Out of around 120,000 known species of fungi,

only about 100 are known to be bioluminescent.

This is amazing.

[Alison Leonard] Unlike plants, fungi don't have any chlorophyll,

which can be used in combination with the sun to make food.

So they rely on dead organic materials for their nutrients.

Fungi are vital to the forest ecosystem,

feeding on decaying matter like leaves and fallen trees

and helping the decomposition process.

The glow is the result of a chain of chemical reactions

between a compound called luciferin

and the enzyme luciferase in the presence of oxygen.

This reaction creates energy in the form of light.

[narrator] While other organisms use bioluminescence

to attract prey or mates, or as a defense mechanism,

it's thought that some fungi use it

for a reason unique to them.

[Dan Riskin] Fungi normally rely on the wind to spread their spores,

but there's not much wind in the rainforest.

So these glowing fungi have a different strategy.

They emit light that attracts insects

that end up carrying spores to other places.

It's a brilliant evolutionary trick.

Scientists have developed ways of harnessing bioluminescence

to our advantage.

And it has been used in medical research

for everything from cancer studies to genetic mapping.

Researchers are also exploring its use

as a potential form of green energy,

hoping that one day we can rely less on electric lighting

and build a more sustainable and energy efficient future.

[narrator] Bioluminescence has long fascinated humans

who have witnessed its glow.

Aristotle even wrote about it in 350 BCE.

After seeing the green glow that illuminates the

Borneo rainforest, it appears that no passage of

time will ever change that.

♪ ♪

[narrator] Nestled in the azure waters of the Aegean Sea

is the island of Euboea, a little known gem in the region.

It's the second largest island in Greece

and the sixth largest in the Mediterranean.

Although it's not as well known internationally

as other Greek islands, it's actually a very

busy holiday spot and a favorite for

those in nearby Athens.

Part of the island's allure is that the history of Euboea

is intertwined with Greek mythology,

giving it an air of mystery and magic.

Given this mix, it's no surprise that researchers have been

fascinated by this place since the late 1700s,

and that interest has never faltered.

[narrator] In 2007, when researchers are excavating a

plot at the foot of the Paleochora Hill

in the southern part of the island,

they make a startling discovery.

There are the remains of large stone foundations.

Something of this size is too big

to be part of the structure of an individual residence.

It would likely be part of a large,

formal building of some kind.

Ruins have been found on this island before,

Macedonian, Greek, and Roman, but nothing on this scale.

[Alison Leonard] The excavation continues, and what's discovered

less than seven feet down confirms that this is

something monumental.

It's a large stoa, which is like a covered

portico or walkway, the kind you might see

in a large complex.

What was this building?

[Anthea Nardi] Euboea is very rich, archaeologically speaking,

but there's one search on the island

that has constantly come up empty-handed,

the search for the sanctuary of Artemis.

Could this be it?

- In Greek mythology, Artemis is the virgin

goddess of the hunt and protector of the animals.

She was a pretty popular deity in late antiquity,

and her following, then known as a cult, was huge.

So her sanctuary would have been a pretty big deal.

[narrator] In addition to being a site of worship,

her sanctuary would also have functioned

as a municipal center, a place for meetings and

political administration, where things like treaties

would have been kept.

It was also a destination of the annual

procession for Artemis, essentially a military

parade in her honor, a massive event featuring

3,000 heavily-armed warriors, 600 cavalrymen, and

60 war chariots.

The possibility of finding this site is pretty exciting.

It would likely offer a wealth of information

about her cult, but also about the religious

and political life of the time.

[narrator] Strabo, a Greek historian, geographer,

and philosopher who lived during the first century BCE,

wrote about the Temple of Artemis in his work,

"Geography," stating it was near

the city of Eritrea, on Euboea's southern coast.

He placed it just seven stadia from Eritrea's city wall.

A stade is an ancient Greek unit of length

that is roughly about 600 feet.

Multiply those two numbers together,

and you get 4,200 feet, or about three-quarters of a mile.

With that in mind, if you set up a perimeter

that's three-quarters of a mile, radiating out from the wall,

you have the Sanctuary of Artemis

essentially on the edge of Eritrea, or so you'd think.

Early archaeologists were certain

they'd find the sanctuary without too much trouble,

and they commenced excavations in the immediate vicinity

of the old city walls.

And true enough, they found ruins.

[narrator] A wealth of artifacts from antiquity were unearthed,

but nothing that directly connected to Artemis.

In truth, the experts were chasing their tails

for decades upon decades, and by the late 20th century,

they were kinda tapped out.

But then, a Swiss researcher had the insight

to look in Strabo's 'Geography' for answers to this mystery.

No one had found the sanctuary,

so it's clear that Strabo's numbers were wrong,

but was it because he didn't actually know

where the sanctuary was, or was there something

else at work?

[narrator] Strabo's 'Geography' was written around 1,500 years

before the printing press.

In that time, a scribe would need to rewrite a book

in its entirety to produce a new copy.

Think of the old game of broken telephone.

Every time you pass on the message,

there's a high likelihood it gets garbled up in the process.

Things were misread, notes in the margins

got incorporated into the text, numbers were scrambled,

all sorts of mix-ups.

With this method of reproduction,

a simple error could be propagated

with every copy of that copy, essentially turning one mistake

into the gospel, sometimes literally.

[narrator] One theory is that a scribe made an error

when shifting Strabo's written numbers

to numbers spelled in alphabetical notation.

This is best described visually.

In this alphabetical notation, the number seven is

represented by the letter zeta.

Zeta looks almost exactly like the letter xi ,

which equals 60.

Given the similarities, it's not hard to imagine

that a scribe may have mistaken the 60 for seven.

- With this in mind, it's quite possible

that the distance cited as the sanctuary's distance

from Eritrea wasn't seven stadia.

It was actually 60, or just under seven miles,

which is both a pretty big difference

and the actual distance between Eritrea's east gate

and the western foot of the Palaeochora Hill.

It wasn't just this new math that made people think the

sanctuary was near the hill.

There were also some ancient building materials

in a nearby Byzantine church that lent credence

to the theory.

Unlike our contemporary disposable culture,

in the past, people reused materials.

If you knock down a building, you build another one

with the same stuff.

Waste not, want not.

[narrator] After Roman paganism declined with the rise of Christianity,

temples to the Greek gods eventually fell out of favor.

But that doesn't mean that people wouldn't have used

stones from pagan temples to build other structures.

In this Byzantine church near the Palaeochora Hill,

earlier researchers had found stones

that bore dedications to Artemis.

Given that the site of the church was in the same area

as Strabo's reoriented location for the temple,

these stones are pretty compelling puzzle pieces.

[narrator] So when the monumental foundations in Stoa

are unearthed in 2007, expectations run high.

All that said, the fact that the remains

of a formidable building are precisely where Strabo said

Artemis' sanctuary should be, that makes a pretty

strong argument that the digging

should continue, and perhaps with tools more

advanced than a shovel.

[Amma Wakefield] Modern archeologists have a whole

arsenal of new tech to help them with their search.

And one of the greatest new tools in the field is LIDAR,

which stands for light detection and ranging.

[narrator] LIDAR sends laser pulses from an aircraft

or ground-based equipment and measures the time it takes

for the laser light to bounce back.

This information is then used to create

highly detailed 3D maps of the area,

which could reveal hidden archeological features

like buildings, roadways, and even entire cities.

[Alison Leonard] Thanks to LIDAR and other new technologies,

even more parts of the structure were uncovered,

all of which strengthened the theory

that this was a monumental building,

hopefully the fabled sanctuary of Artemis.

After years of excavation, in 2017,

a series of terracotta tiles are unearthed.

On closer examination, these tiles bear a stamp

that says Artemidos, which means belonging to Artemis.

[Anthea Nardi] So this is it.

It's the temple that has eluded archeology

for well over a century.

The scale of this is hard to express,

but it's a huge triumph for everyone involved.

[narrator] As they continue to excavate the site,

they uncover huge amounts of artifacts

from the 6th to the 2nd century BCE.

There were hundreds of artifacts discovered

in subsequent rounds of excavation,

including an underground fountain

and ceramic and bronze vessels.

[narrator] With the research ongoing and many noteworthy

discoveries that can be linked to the goddess herself,

experts hope to find more of the site

and even fully excavate the road from Eretria to the temple,

where the annual procession for Artemis took place.

It's incredible how much is being found in these sites.

Sometimes we think that all the discoveries

of the ancient world have already been made,

but when you combine passionate researchers

with cutting edge technology like LIDAR,

who knows what other mysteries may be revealed on this island.

♪ ♪

[narrator] Sudan's Suakin Island is a tiny oval landmass

on the Red Sea's West Coast, around 36 miles

south of Port Sudan.

Suakin's about a mile in diameter

and is situated in a lagoon at the Western end

of a long channel.

And there's a short, narrow causeway

connecting it to mainland Sudan.

The island is almost completely devoid

of human habitation, save for a few fishermen

and their families still clinging to an old way

of life in a modern world.

But that wasn't always the case.

[narrator] A curious tourist drawn to Suakin

by tall tales of a legendary ancient city

makes their way across the causeway

and is greeted by a striking sight.

- Built into a stone wall, there's a huge wooden gate

that serves as the entryway to the island.

An arch spans the gate and there are holes on either side

that kind of look like two eyes assessing any visitor

that dares to approach.

[narrator] Drawn onward, the tourist enters the island proper

and begins to explore.

They are immediately taken aback by the scene.

This place is in ruins.

Most of the buildings have all but collapsed

and there's stone and wood debris everywhere.

It looks as though at some point,

Suakin Island was abandoned.

So who lived here and why did they leave?

[Sarah Klassen] Maybe there was some kind of natural disaster.

It sort of looks like the aftermath of an earthquake.

[Alison Leonard] Northeastern Africa is known for some seismic activity.

In fact, in South Sudan's Juba, a 7.1 magnitude event in 1990

left 31 people dead.

[Amma Wakefield] But Juba's over a thousand miles away.

So it's unlikely that Suakin was damaged by that quake.

So maybe another kind of natural disaster

caused the inhabitants of Suakin to leave.

[narrator] Exploring the island further, the tourist is

struck by the beauty of what's left of

some buildings.

Elegant archways, decorative stucco,

intricately carved woodwork, and big block construction

characterize Suakin structures,

many of which sit close to the Red Sea.

Maybe there was a flood.

Suakin's a very low-lying island.

And due to climate change, many African coastal sites

are vulnerable to rising water levels and erosion.

Flood damage does occasionally occur in this region.

Water could have eroded the mud mortar

in the building's lower walls and weakened exposed

wooden support beams, causing the walls to fall in

and the floors to collapse.

[narrator] In 2016, torrential rains coupled with high winds

battered southeastern Egypt and caused widespread flooding,

just up the Red Sea coast from Suakin Island.

[Amma Wakefield] It was a devastating event.

26 people died and over 30,000 were left

without food, shelter, or water.

Houses were swept away, roads badly damaged,

and phone and power lines were cut.

But there's no record of any catastrophic flood

ever taking place on Suakin.

So if water infiltration contributed

to the collapse of these structures,

it likely occurred after Suakin was abandoned.

[James Ellis] So it probably wasn't a natural disaster

that caused the residents on the island to leave.

Maybe the more pertinent question is, who is living here?

From a distance, the buildings appear

to be made of big stone blocks, but up close, it's clear

that they're actually made out of coral.

It's likely that the coral was dredged

from the nearby reef and then cut into blocks

to be used for constructing the buildings.

Finer textured coral was for ornamental

and focal features like door hoods,

which are similar to awnings.

Coraline construction is quite common

in the ancient coastal towns of the Red Sea coast,

with examples found in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Eritrea.

The use of coral is part of what's known

as the Red Sea style of architecture.

[narrator] The Red Sea style emerged at the southern edge

of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century.

[James Ellis] The interesting thing about this style

is that coastal buildings on the Red Sea

have more in common with each other

than they do with inland buildings from their own region.

So a house on the coast of northern Saudi Arabia

may look more similar to a house on Suakin Island

than it does to a house only a few miles inland.

[Sarah Klassen] One of the prevalent features of

Red Sea style architecture

and a detail commonly found on Suakin Island

is what's called a roshan, a kind of small balcony

with hinged wooden windows that were usually

ornately decorated.

They were the focal point of the house

and the most prominent external feature.

The use of roshans and coral construction

emerged in the 16th century at the peak of the

Ottoman Empire, a time when they

controlled most of Arabia and large parts of

Northeastern Africa.

So were the Ottomans the first residents of Suakin Island?

[narrator] An archeology study called the Suakin Project

has been tracing the island's origins.

During one of the project's excavations,

they come across building ruins that may provide the answer

as to who were Suakin's earliest residents.

This structure's layout and that of those nearby

are recognizable as Ottoman, with two or three

stories and stairwells leading up to the rooftops,

courtyards and stores on the main floors.

This design is similar to what's found in buildings

from the 15th and 16th centuries in Istanbul,

the Ottoman capital that was then known as Constantinople.

Locals call the building Beit el-Basha,

or the Pasha House, because it is believed

that the Ottomans built it for a Turkish governor or Pasha

sometime between 1518 and 1520.

It's reputed to be Suakin's oldest structure.

[narrator] At Suakin's mainland port, ferries run daily across

the Red Sea to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Just 43 miles inland from Jeddah,

is Mecca, the Prophet Muhammad's birthplace

and Islam's holiest city.

Since Suakin is on Africa's Red Sea coast,

it's thought to have been a critical gateway

between Eastern Africa and Mecca for centuries.

Based on the discoveries, it's evident that

the Ottomans traded along three major routes,

to Egypt and the rest of the Northern Ottoman Empire,

to South Asia and to the countries now known as China,

Thailand and Vietnam.

Suakin Island became Sudan's busiest port.

It's merchants trading everything from ceramic wares,

cotton and spices to ivory, gold and cattle

from local tribes.

But as the volume of commerce multiplied,

more buildings were needed and fast.

[James Ellis] If you look at Suakin's layout,

haphazardly orientated narrow streets,

irregularly shaped buildings and houses of many sizes,

it's clearly a town that grew rapidly

and kind of out of control, responding to an intense

period of growth.

But if Suakin was so prosperous,

why did everyone leave?

[narrator] Exploring the island further, the team of

archeologists come across one of the more notable

buildings on the island.

It's called Muhafaza, a spacious residential building

designed in Egyptian style.

It has much more elaborate woodwork

than a traditional Ottoman building.

With an intricately carved door hood in the courtyard

and an internal wooden archway built in the same style

that was common in Cairo.

[narrator] Historical records show that the Muhafaza

was built in 1866 by Mumtaz Pasha,

a governor credited with restoring

and enlarging a lot of the houses on Suakin Island

and building many more new ones.

Mumtaz Pasha was Egyptian.

So obviously by 1866, Suakin had fallen

under Egyptian control, was no longer in the

hands of the Ottomans after over 300 years.

The question is why?

There were several factors, but mainly the overall

strength of the Ottoman Empire started to wane by

the early 19th century and their grip on North and

East African trade routes began to loosen as

competition increased.

[narrator] As the Suakin project investigates the island further,

they unearth stoneware that is neither Ottoman

nor Egyptian in origin.

It's a bottle bearing a stamp, identifying the maker as

Port Dundas Pottery Coy, Glasgow.

Given the style of the stoneware,

it looks to be from the late 19th or early 20th century.

[narrator] In 1882, British forces overthrew

the Egyptian government and occupied Egypt and Sudan,

which was under Egyptian control at the time.

Rather than taking over completely,

the British installed themselves in Suakin Island

and assisted the existing Egyptian administration

while looking after their own interests in the region.

So there was a period when the Egyptians and British

jointly controlled Suakin, but it didn't last that long.

Eventually the British took a more hands-on role

in governing Sudan and Suakin.

So now we know why the Ottoman and Egyptian eras

of Suakin Island fizzled out, but why did the British leave?

[Sarah Klassen] Steam ships had begun taking over the shipping

industry after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

That changed everything.

The British evaluated the coral-lined lagoon

surrounding Suakin and deemed it too narrow

and dangerous for larger ships.

[narrator] In 1909, British officials opened a new and deeper port,

30 miles to the north, and christened it the Port of Sudan.

And that marked the end for Suakin.

The island's merchants and traders

moved on to the Port of Sudan, and by 1922, the last

of the British left too, abandoning the magnificent

old coral buildings to the elements.

[narrator] At its peak, Suakin's island town

contained roughly 300 buildings, housing around 3,000 people,

and was known the world over as the Venice of Africa.

As of today, what the island's future looks like

is unclear.

Since April of 2023, Sudan has been locked

in a violent civil war that has killed thousands

and displaced millions.

It's an untold humanitarian crisis

that leaves many Sudanese in and outside of the country

uncertain of their future.

[narrator] Though there are dark times ahead,

the peoples of Sudan are hopeful that they may restore the

island's once-stunning buildings and maybe even return

the Venice of Africa to its former grandeur.