Original subtitles

may have ties to a dark past.

-It appears some seriously horrific research was

going on here.

-This place is getting really creepy.

[Narrator] A volatile Italian island conceals mysteries

within its soil.

-It’s actually one of the most active volcanoes on earth!

-Now things get dramatic.

[Narrator] A bizarre, abandoned Caribbean site

may have infamous origins.

-This is not a place you can navigate to with Google Maps,

and it’s no easy journey.

-What is it?

[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?

Straddling the border between

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan lies what remains

of Vozrozhdeniya Island,

a sliver of water to its west,

what is left of the Aral Sea.

-The Aral Sea derives its name from

the Kyrgyz expression,

Aral-denghiz, meaning “Sea of Islands,” but today,

the Aral Sea boasts neither water nor islands.

-The environment here doesn’t look or feel natural.

It's strangely quiet,

the only sound comes from the wind blowing

across the desert flats.

And like a desert, it doesn’t seem like anything

actually lives here.

-But it wasn’t always this way.

Littering the landscape are the rusted-out hulks of ships

and decaying piers,

all pointing to a remarkably different time

in the region's history.

-This was when Vozrozhdeniya Island was,

well, an island.

So what happened between then and now?

[Narrator] To the south of Vozrozhdeniya Island lies the

Uzbek province of Karakalpakstan famous for its

cotton, rice, and melon crops, all three of which play a vital

role in its economy.

-These crops are highly water intensive,

especially cotton, it guzzles water.

So it isn’t so surprising that they focused on these crops,

considering that they had a bounty of freshwater

right next door.

[Narrator] In the 1960s,

when Uzbekistan was still part of the Soviet Union,

the decision was made to divert the two rivers

flowing into the Aral Sea into irrigation canals

feeding the surrounding desert.

-By the 1980s,

the two rivers were so depleted that during the summer,

they no longer flowed into the lake.

Then, as the lake’s water levels continued to drop,

its salinity rose, making life unsustainable,

killing off not just all the aquatic life,

but also the communities that relied on it.

-Not only did the remaining water in the Aral Sea become

more salty,

but endless amounts of pesticides

and chemical fertilizer ran off into the

lake into the surrounding lands,

further poisoning the water and the soil,

all of which was gradually becoming a toxic dust bowl.

It’s so bad now that the region has one of the highest

rates of infant mortality anywhere in the world.

[Narrator] The Uzbek and Kazakh governments took

over the management of the Aral Sea,

but their policies couldn't reverse the damage done.

-And so now what we have left of the Aral Sea are

names like Vozrozhdeniya Island,

although it’s now is no longer an island.

It’s connected to the mainland via an exposed toxic lakebed.

-This area is by definition a wasteland.

To make it even more certain,

there is a ghost town on the northeast side of the island.

It's called Kantubek.

[Narrator] In the town of Kantubek a yellow sign greets

visitors with the National Anthem of the Soviet Union.

-So, this place was deserted around the time of the collapse

of the Soviet Union in late 1991.

If the Kazakhs or Uzbeks had been using

the island post-collapse,

surely, they would have brought this sign down.

So this must be a Soviet era ghost town,

but what were they actually doing here?

-Kantubek is defined by large buildings built next to

what you could imagine were once very orderly,

well-kept streets.

Inside these buildings are apartments that don't seem as

if they’ve been touched since the day their occupants left.

-There are street signs giving parking directions and

marking pedestrian crossings.

There’s a soccer field, all of which has been completely

unused since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

-There's even a school,

which means people were really living here,

they weren't just stationed here,

or forced to spend time here,

they brought their families.

So Kantubek was a permanent settlement on this island,

a home for many people.

-Oddly enough, it seems as though the people living here

had some sort of ties to or need for the military.

There are two

Soviet-era T-52 tanks abandoned for years.

[Narrator] During the Cold War,

America’s foreign intelligence agency,

the CIA, used its spy satellites to observe

Soviet military installations,

in order to assess their capabilities.

-These satellites provided a whole trove of information,

all of it analyzed by the CIA.

And there are a number of disturbing reports from the

1950s discussing the possibility that the Soviets

were using Vozrozhdeniya Island

for bioweapons testing!

-Bioweapons, that’s when you take some horrific virus

or disease and use a bomb,

or some other delivery method to infect and kill

an enemy population.

But the CIA reports are pretty inconclusive.

One from 1953 states that bioweapons testing was

conducted there in 1936 and ‘37,

but that they weren’t able to determine if it was

still going on.

-What appears to be certain though,

is that some top-secret stuff was happening here,

and the Soviet government didn’t want anyone to know who

didn’t need to know!

[Narrator] By 1962 the CIA concluded that this site had a

military purpose.

And the CIA report also referred to buildings about

two miles south of Kantubek.

-Now this area has an entirely different feel to it.

You know how certain places just don’t feel right?

Well this is one of those places.

The first thing you notice when you approach one

of the buildings is an off-putting smell,

like that of a corrosive or toxic chemical just

hanging in the air.

-There are rusted out trucks, including an ambulance,

all left to the elements.

They’re all in the distinctive olive drab of the military.

So it definitely corresponds with the CIA reports

from the Cold War.

-That being said, the personnel needed to use and maintain all

the infrastructure on this island appears to be much more

significant than some Soviet nuclear weapons bases,

where they had on average 140 soldiers on each base.

[Narrator] Close to one of the blockhouses is a building.

one with stables and hundreds of metal cages

piled into corners.

-These cages are for holding animals,

small ones like rabbits, and guinea pigs.

[Narrator] Inside the blockhouse are long corridors

with many darkened rooms.

There’s debris and broken glass everywhere,

and some rooms contain several dozen cages designed

for holding primates.

-There are big boxes with a single window.

Several trays are inside each of them.

These are probably fridges meant for storing samples like

you would have in a laboratory.

-Another room has fixtures coming down from the ceiling.

They probably attached microscopes to the end of them.

And there are also old vials and small bottles that likely

had some form of solution or chemical inside them.

-Even though the CIA’s report from

60 odd years ago was inconclusive,

this is starting to look more and more like a

research lab for bioweapons.

[Narrator] One room has a large chamber,

on it there is a plaque with the year 1974,

as well as characters written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

-The Cyrillic letters listed next to the

chamber type are 5K-NZh.

These indicate that it’s a very specific model

of protective chamber.

The little holes are meant to put your hands through,

and you would observe whatever it is you’re working

on through the now broken glass.

This chamber would have been intended for working

with hazardous substances.

-If you look at this contraption closely,

you’ll see a universal symbol that

indicates radioactive substances!

[Narrator] A little further south from

the research facility,

an otherwise entirely vacant plot of land is

punctuated by slabs of concrete with

curved metal posts.

-These are posts you would use to hitch animals to.

So the animals next to the research lab were probably led

here and tied to these posts.

-This reminds me of something similar that

took place on Gruinard Island,

an uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland.

[Narrator] During the Second World War,

the British and Americans were testing anthrax on

animals to determine how effective it would be

as a weapon used against the enemy.

To prevent the animals from running away,

they would fix them to post-drilled

into the ground.

-Anthrax is a particularly nasty infectious disease that's

caused by the bacteria Bacillus Anthracis.

It exists naturally in soil, however,

when harnessed for such malicious purposes it

can be extremely deadly.

If anthrax spores are inhaled and left untreated,

they can lead to death in 85 to 90% of human cases.

Needless to say,

the animals on Gruinard also met the same fate.

-That use of animal testing is remarkably similar

to the evidence we have seen here on

Vozrozhdeniya Island.

During the Cold War,

the West and the Soviets indulged in

this collective madness of striving to create the most

efficient and destructive weapon.

So was this island the ground zero

for this effort?

[Narrator] In the research building,

down the eerie, darkened halls is a thick,

metal door that greets all those who dare to enter.

Although now it stands ajar allowing anyone curious enough

to step into the room beyond.

It bears a warning that whatever is inside is something

dangerous and meant to be kept from getting out!

-Just being here is bad enough,

but that symbol you see on the front of the door,

in dark yellow.

That's the symbol for biological weapons.

In a way it's similar to the radioactive symbol

we saw earlier,

but its shape is quite distinct.

-It appears some seriously horrific research

was going on here,

and that the Soviets were testing whatever horrible

biological agents they came up with on these animals.

The cruelty and suffering is impossible to quantify.

-The abandoned tank at the research site was likely used

during these tests to simulate the effect on troops

inside the tank when a bomb containing one of

these pathogens went off.

Considering its location as well as what

was being done here,

there is only one thing this place could be, Aralsk-7.

[Narrator] Aralsk-7 was the Soviet Union’s preeminent

biological weapons testing site,

where final tests were conducted before

the weapons were greenlit.

-It was here where they genetically modify some of

these diseases so that they were resistant to antibiotics,

making them, of course, even more deadly.

The goal was to see how effective they would

be in times of war.

[Narrator] Vozrozhdeniya Island was initially chosen

as a test site because it was considered

isolated enough from the mainland to protect

the civilian population.

The Soviets were successful in their research so much

so that they managed to put a price on murder.

-In their experiments,

they calculated how much it would cost

to kill half the population residing in about

a half-square mile area,

they concluded that it would cost

$2,000 to do so with normal bombs,

$800 with a nuke,

and only $1 with a biological weapon.

So in the event of war,

you can guess which option governments and

militaries might choose.

-After the collapse of the Soviet Union,

Vozrozhdeniya was abandoned by the scientists and soldiers

who presided over these nightmare trials.

They went home,

but a poisoned legacy remained.

-Essentially one toxic wasteland appeared

within another,

and it had disastrous long-term consequences for the

animals and people who call this region home.

[Narrator] The destruction of the Aral Sea is a testament

to the folly of human ambition.

While Vozrozhdeniya Island represents the levels of

cruelty and short-sightedness that characterizes

the human thirst for power.

Off the coast of mainland Italy lies the

Aeolian Archipelago, a chain of seven,

main volcanic islands that stretch out in a large Y shape.

An hour from Sicily, the islands run north through the

deep crystal blue waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

-This archipelago has been formed by consistent

underwater volcanic activity.

It’s what’s called a volcanic arch.

Over the course of hundreds of thousands of years,

lava bubbling up from the bottom of the sea piles up

enough to eventually form these beautiful, cone shaped islands.

-So for this reason the region is a hotbed of volcanic

activity and no more so than on Stromboli,

the easternmost of the Aeolian islands.

Stromboli is famous for its temperamental volcano,

which is consistently erupting.

-So, the island has been given a nickname,

“the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean.”

This is because you can see the

3,000-foot volcano illuminating the night

sky on a regular basis.

[Susan Leonard] Stromboli is an exceptionally beautiful place.

The Tyrrhenian Sea is warm and blue,

and the volcanic soil is fertile,

the climate is mild.

But despite the idyllic setting,

the few hundred people who do live here do so

under the permission of the volcano.

[Narrator] At the northeast end of the island,

where the steep volcanic terrain gives way

to relatively flat ground,

lives a small population of around 500 people.

It’s here where a volcanologist is digging a

few feet into the earth.

-Almost 500 feet inland from the shore and about

three feet below the surface

he finds highly rounded pebbles mixed with

dark loose sand.

-They are found directly above a layer of volcanic ash.

So could it be that the volcano’s eruption

triggered a tsunami?

The pebbles and sand this far from the shore certainly

indicate that this could be the case.

-This volcano erupts all the time.

In fact, it erupted in August 2023,

and that was a small one,

because in 2019 there was this sudden explosion

that sent burning rock and ash flying all across Stromboli.

It killed one person and it injured several others.

[Narrator] A few weeks after this initial eruption in 2019,

the volcano erupted again.

This time lava was sent flowing down what is known as

the Sciara del Fuoco, meaning the Stream of Fire.

It’s a trough gouged out of the northwest side

of the island,

where lava has been flowing into the

sea for centuries.

-This second eruption created a tsunami that luckily

didn't cause any harm.

But the volcano is obviously causing some serious changes to

the island’s topography and the geological makeup

of the landscape.

[Narrator] To solve the historical mystery posed

by the layers of sand and rounded pebbles,

a team of experts continues to excavate the site.

-Starting at around four and a half feet below the surface,

they find this pink layer that’s totally different from

everything above it.

This first pink layer is actually fine ash,

probably from a volcanic eruption,

and near the bottom of the trough,

there is another layer of ash that’s grey.

-Above this layer is a bed of black sand, beach pebbles,

and even the remains of ceramic tiles.

But considering that the excavation is a

few hundred feet from the sea,

it makes little sense that you'd have

beach pebbles lying here, unless of course,

they were carried here by water.

-If a tsunami were to have hit the island,

it would have been way bigger than the

little one from 2019,

which didn’t really cause any damage.

[Narrator] The beach pebbles and black sand are a sign that

a significant tsunami event occurred on the

island of Stromboli.

But it wasn’t just one.

Above the deepest layer of ash and beach pebbles

lies several other layers of the same materials,

meaning that several tsunami events would have

also occurred many years after the first one.

-Beneath the deepest layers of ash,

and amongst the shallower layers, are charcoal deposits.

Now this is a really important find because charcoal

can be dated.

[Narrator] Using radiocarbon dating,

the volcanologists are able to place the first eruption

in the mid to late 13th century,

whereas the subsequent eruptions,

represented by the shallower layers of ash and

volcanic debris,

are placed in the 15th to mid-17th century.

-So we do know roughly when these eruptions

and tsunamis occurred.

But what we don’t know is what happened to all the

people who lived here and experienced those events.

-Despite having experienced hundreds of years

of human activity,

and the fact that the geological record shows that a

tsunami hit the island,

there is nothing in the historical record indicating

that a tsunami devastated the island of Stromboli.

[Narrator] Roughly 150 miles to the north of Stromboli

lies an ancient city that has witnessed many

of the defining historical events of the

last two millennia.

-The port city of Naples is kind of like Stromboli in the

sense that it sits directly beneath a volcano,

this one is Vesuvius,

and you’ve heard of Vesuvius because that’s the

one that blew its lid in 79 AD,

instantly burying the nearby town of Pompeii.

Pompeii didn’t see the light of day again for almost

2,000 years when excavations finally began

around the mid -18th century.

-Petrarch, an Italian poet and the Pope’s ambassador

to Naples wrote of an interesting event

in November 1343.

-He wrote that between November 24 and 25th,

an unprecedented storm devastated large parts of the

city’s port infrastructure.

Not only was its harbor destroyed,

but several others along the Amalfi coast were

laid to waste, hundreds, were killed.

-This places us around the timeline provided

by the charcoal deposits.

And Petrarch refers to a storm,

not a massive tsunami.

There’s a big difference there.

But with that being said,

it would take quite the storm to destroy that much infrastructure

and kill that many people.

[Narrator] Hoping to find more evidence indicating

what may have happened to the people of Stromboli,

the team excavates an area known as San Vincenzo,

not too far from the initial trench.

-Around 10 feet beneath the surface are stone blocks

arranged in a semicircle.

And inside this semi-circle are big flat stones.

-These flat stones have obviously been placed here with

intent and are the remains of what formed a floor.

And this stone semicircle, this is what we call an apse.

-An apse is usually built as a semicircular

extension to a building,

with a dome constructed on top.

The apse is often where you would place an altar.

So what we’re looking at here is actually an old church!

[Narrator] Scattered on the floor of the apse are

tiles that would have covered the church’s roof.

And both inside the apse and surrounding area

there appear to be pits dug into the earth.

-Now things get dramatic.

In these pits are three skeletons!

They’re buried with their heads oriented west and their

legs to the east.

And there’s a collapsed gravestone marks that they’re

lying exactly where they were originally buried.

-But what's important to note here is that the skeletons have

been buried through the tiles.

Meaning that the church roof must have collapsed first,

then the graves were dug and the bodies were

buried immediately after.

-The fact that the tiles were never cleaned up,

also indicates that this was a job that was done with speed in

mind, whoever did it didn't want to be hanging around.

-So it appears that the church suffered a sudden collapse.

People who were killed during the event,

whether they were inside or outside of the building,

were then hastily buried in what remained of the church.

-Radiocarbon dating of the skeletons reveals that

they are from the late 13th to 15th centuries,

also placing them in the timeline of the tsunami that

hit Naples in 1343.

-We don’t have direct evidence indicating that

these people died in the exact year that

Petrarch is talking about when he mentions

that huge storm, but it seems pretty plausible

that these events are connected.

-It’s entirely possible that the volcanic eruption led

immediately to a landslide, which in turn

triggered a tsunami.

So the current theory is that an absolutely massive eruption

on Stromboli in the late 13th century led to the

eventual breaking off of a big section of the

Sciara del Fuoco,

that large trough that we can see today on the

northwest section of the volcano.

-When all this rock hit the water,

it created an enormous tsunami, which very well may have been

what Petrarch described as being a storm that destroyed

the port of Naples.

-The eruption and the tsunami also led to the destruction of

the church and to the deaths of the people who

were buried there.

So you can understand why this probably resulted in most,

if not all, of the island’s residents leaving

for safer places.

-It seems possible that the answer to the mystery

of what devastated the port of Naples and

the Amalfi Coast on that fateful day

in 1343 can now be said to reside in the bowels of

the volcano on Stromboli!

[Narrator] Although much time has passed since this disaster,

the volcano on Stromboli remains as

temperamental as ever,

meaning that not just the residents on the island,

but those of the entire region remain vulnerable to

another large tsunami event.

When that might happen,

only the island of Stromboli knows.

[Narrator] Yonaguni Island, at the southwestern tip of Japan’s

700-mile-long archipelago known as the Ryukyu Islands,

is around 70 miles from Taiwan.

-Yonaguni Island is quite small,

just six miles long.

-It’s also the site of one of the earth’s most intriguing

underwater mysteries.

[Narrator] In 1986, the owner and operator

of a local dive center, Kihachiro Aratake,

is diving around 325 feet off the island’s southern coast,

looking for new places to take

his clients to view hammerhead sharks.

-He can’t believe what he sees.

About 16 feet deep, there’s a massive

underwater rock formation.

It’s so huge that it reminds him of Machu Picchu,

the lost city of the Incas in Peru.

-Moving around the mammoth rock structure,

and swimming along its sides, flat platform-like surfaces and

sharp right-angled corners are clearly visible.

Could they be ancient stone steps?

[Narrator] Photographs are taken,

but the encrusted coral makes it impossible to further

identify the mysterious discovery.

-The story and its accompanying photos make waves

in the Japanese media.

-Some people refer to it as the “Japanese Atlantis.”

But is the structure truly the remains of a

long-lost underwater city or

is it simply a natural rock formation?

[Narrator] The myth of the city of Atlantis,

originating in Plato’s Timaeus in 360 BCE,

tells the legend of a once powerful empire that runs afoul

of the Gods and is cast into the Atlantic Ocean

around 9600 BCE.

-The Pacific counterpart to Atlantis is the mythical

ancient civilization of Mu.

“The Land of Mu” was said to be a thriving continent in the

midst of the Pacific Ocean until a cataclysm broke it into

pieces, sending them crashing into the sea.

-While many academics scoff at the notion of Mu and Atlantis,

new discoveries like the structure off Yonaguni Island

reignite speculation that a remnant of these societies

has come to light.

[Narrator] Professor Masaaki Kimura,

a marine geologist from Ryukyu University

on Okinawa Island,

is inspired by images of the site,

something he presumes to be a natural formation,

and decides to go investigate.

-It’s immense, like this mammoth rectangular pyramid,

an estimated 85 feet tall, 130 yards wide,

and nearly 300 yards long.

-The investigation confirms what appear to be giant steps,

and while some portions are rounded and smooth like you

would expect natural rock formations to be,

there’s also other features that look like flat terraces,

retaining walls, and drainage canals.

-These are fascinating features,

but the biggest observations are scrapes, indentations,

and scuffs on the rock surfaces that look like tool marks.

-If they are tool marks,

it’s evidence of the presence of humans.

Is it possible this was built by an ancient civilization?

If so, could it be a remnant of Mu itself?

[Narrator] Collecting data from dozens of dive expeditions,

Kimura maps out the phenomenal structure and

builds a realistic scale model.

But not everyone believes it’s conclusive evidence

of an ancient civilization.

Robert Schoch,

a professor of Natural Sciences at Boston University,

conducts his own dives at the underwater

structure to draw his own conclusions.

-The thing is that all of the marks that have been cited are

easily classified as scratches made by the erosion process.

There is also no signs that massive rock blocks have been

fitted into position.

-It’s usually pretty obvious.

At the Mayan ruins,

you can see the lines and seams between the huge bricks

and blocks of stone.

But what about its giant steps and the flat terraces?

-If they were steps created by humans,

they’d be at intervals that would allow for easy navigation.

-It’s true. Most of them are feet apart.

You just can’t do it.

So could something natural have formed these features?

[Narrator] Searching for more answers,

rock samples from the formation are collected for study.

They show that its primary composition is sandstone,

dated to 20 million years ago.

-This is a big clue because sandstone of this age breaks

naturally along “horizontal bedding planes.”

Straight edges and angles that look like the flat terraces

present at the formation.

-These same sandstone step-like shapes and terraces

have also been seen on land on Yonaguni Island.

The resemblance is remarkable.

There are also features similar to the supposed retaining walls

and drainage canals on the formation.

[Narrator] After his analysis,

Schoch’s conclusion that the structure is a

natural formation fractures the scientific community

into two camps.

-The natural formation camp claims that there are

simply no verifiable signs that it has been constructed.

So, is the structure now known as the Yonaguni Monument

made by humans or is it a natural formation?

-Now this debate might seem academic, but it matters!

Because of the contradicting evidence,

the Japanese government refuses to recognize this monument

as a cultural property of Japan.

That means no research and no preservation.

Meanwhile the debate rages on.

[Narrator] Professor Kimura continues his mission to prove

the monument was created by an ancient civilization.

-Further study at the monument reveals a smooth area at its

base over six yards wide which nearly surrounds

the entire formation.

Labeled the “Loop Road,” the ocean floor looks like it has

been swept clear here.

-This is important because if the Loop Road had been formed

naturally by erosion, you’d see rock fragments as heavy as

ten tons all over the place.

And the current definitely wouldn’t be powerful enough to

carry all that rubble away.

-There are also similarly wide and long cleared pathways on

the ocean floor between the main structure and the other

smaller structures nearby.

These are labeled streets.

-Then, geologists find what look like post holes in the

monument plus a suspected gate,

a tunnel opening about three feet wide

and six and a half feet high

leading out to the Loop Road.

[Narrator] Excited by these new developments and discoveries,

the team looks to other known megalithic sites for answers.

In Okinawa, stone structures dating back to

between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago,

may offer clues as to the Yonaguni Monument’s time period.

-When compared to the monument’s terraces and walls,

there are structural similarities and nearly

identical surface weathering.

So does it mean the monument is also at least 10,000 years old

and if so, how was it submerged?

-Archaeological studies cite glacial periods as a source for

much of the change in the land masses on Earth.

The last glacial period was, significantly, 10,000 years ago.

As the climate around the world warmed,

it resulted in melting ice and rising oceans.

Of course, this would have happened in the seas

surrounding Yonaguni Island as well.

[Narrator] Kimura now believes he has the evidence to conclude

that the Yonaguni Monument was a ceremonial structure built by

an ancient civilization around 10,000 years ago.

However, once again, his theory is hotly debated.

-Monumental architecture is typically only found in

agricultural societies.

Farming didn’t even begin in Japan until the latter stages

of the Jomon Period, 3000 years ago,

when Japan started cultivating rice.

-Another possible factor here is a phenomena called

pareidolia, where the human eye sees shapes in otherwise

everyday objects, things like clouds, and yes,

rock formations.

-It’s worth noting, however, that Kimura’s critics haven’t

dedicated their life to the monument’s study like he has.

They review the data for a few weeks, days, or even hours.

He has studied the monument for decades.

-Kimura now believes the Yonaguni Monument and its

related structures were catapulted into the sea by a

massive earthquake 2000 years ago,

with their origin dating back around 5000 years.

Could this finally be enough evidence to put the human-made

or natural formation debate to rest?

[Narrator] Nearly 40 years after its discovery,

the Yonaguni monument continues to fascinate divers and

scientists from all over the world.

Perhaps one day someone will actually solve the murky

mystery of its origin, until then, happy diving.

Wrapped in the blue-green waters of the Caribbean Sea is

the archipelago of Islas Rosario,

27 small islands just southwest of the coastal city of

Cartagena, Colombia.

-Given its location, it's to be expected that these islands are

gorgeous, filled with sandy beaches,

crystalline waters and beautiful coral reefs.

[Narrator] Isla Grande is the jewel of this

cluster of islands.

As the name suggests, it’s the largest of them and

one of the most beautiful.

One of its biggest draws is Laguna Encantada,

the enchanted lagoon

-If you go to the lagoon during the day,

it’s a magical place to swim or just hang out.

But if you go at night,

it has a completely different vibe,

it’s both beautiful and unnerving,

the water, it glows.

-While the blue-green light that fills the lagoon

may feel mystical, it’s actually luminescent plankton or algae

that has molecules called luciferins that help

it light up.

[Narrator] The glowing algae makes this place feel magical.

but it’s definitely not the only mysterious thing

about this island.

-Because it’s known as a snorkeler's paradise,

many visitors head out to the water with masks and fins,

but once they get under the surface,

they might see a lot more than coral.

-Just off the island about 20 feet down is something that you

just won't find in most tourist locales.

It’s hard to see what it is from the surface.

But it’s large and seemingly made of metal.

What is it?

-When you get close you can see that it’s a small plane.

There’s not even an airport here.

You have to take a boat or ferry from the mainland

to get here.

[Narrator] The answer may lie several miles away on

the west side of the island,

through dense and sweltering jungle.

-This is not a place you can navigate to with Google Maps,

and it’s no easy journey.

You have to hike through the jungle,

then take a canoe through swamps,

then hike again to get a glimpse of the thing that might

explain the plane at the bottom of the sea.

-As you get closer to what appears to be some kind of

complex, you'll find yourself on a tiled pathway.

It's oddly beautiful and kind of eerie.

[Narrator] The buildings themselves aren’t unusual.

The island does have about 800 residents.

But this is no ordinary home.

-The interior is decorated with beautiful tile and marble with

faded pastel walls.

-Beyond the lobby is a large courtyard with an abandoned

pool and a series of decaying chalets.

The area is filled with animal droppings,

specifically pig droppings.

It’s a jarring juxtaposition, a grand and extravagant cluster

of buildings with giant wild pigs as the only residents.

-But who would have built and abandoned a

huge mansion complex,

and how does it connect to the sunken plane?

The answer could possibly be traced back to the ‘80s,

and the power of a plant.

[Narrator] Colombia has faced many challenges over the years,

from colonization and civil war to cocaine.

-It’s the world's leading producer of coca,

the plant from which cocaine is made.

While this country has a rich and vibrant culture,

most of the world knows it for its drug cartels,

and how they essentially ruled the country in the late

‘70s and ‘80s.

[Narrator] For five decades, Colombia was known for

assassinations, kidnappings, and widespread violence.

Between the drug trade and the civil war,

hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives.

-Back in the day, small planes were the lifeblood of cocaine

operations in the country, allowing the cartels to move

drugs by literally flying under the radar.

-So this downed plane off of Isla Grande might be a drug

plane that the Colombian government seized from

imprisoned dealers,

planes that were then used to create artificial reefs.

-Some People believe that the plane crashed after taking off

from the mysterious complex.

It makes sense if the place was owned by a drug lord,

maybe even the most famous of all,

Pablo Escobar.

[Narrator] Escobar wasn’t just the richest drug lord in

Colombia, he was one of the richest men in the world!

He was actually on Forbes’ Billionaires list for seven

years in a row.

-It’s said that at its peak his empire was bringing in $420

million US a week and that they spent $2500 a month on rubber

bands just to hold their money together.

-It’s not just his bank account that boasted

staggering numbers, it’s also his body count.

Escobar is said to have been involved directly or

indirectly, in the deaths of up to 10,000 people.

That’s a dozen times the population of the entire island!

[James Ellis] Surprisingly, this violent and ruthless narco

was also a canny businessman.

One of the ways Pablo hid the proceeds from his illicit

empire was to invest in art and high-end properties,

just like this one.

[Narrator] The complex was Pablo’s prized party mansion

and in its prime featured about 300 guest rooms,

a massive swimming pool and party deck,

and even a private helicopter landing pad.

-With a building like this,

you can imagine that the insides would be as

excessive as the outside.

According to lore, some of the bathrooms were tricked out

with gold shower heads, not golden, solid gold.

Escobar was not a man known for restraint.

[Narrator] The remains of Escobar’s secret getaway serve

as a sobering emblem of what happened to the man himself.

After members of his own operation betrayed him,

he was gunned down in 1993, and after his death,

the government of Colombia expropriated his wealth.

The mysteries held within this island mansion will continue to

attract the attention of those near and far.