All language subtitles for Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo S01E03 1080p WEB h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[tense music]

- Mysteries can be
buried anywhere.

Under the Earth,

[deep rumble]

[engine whirs]

[radar beeping]
beneath the sea,

[plane whooshing]

or even right
under our own feet.

And when we stumble upon them,

sometimes what we find
can change history.

[dramatic music]

Tonight, curious
"Chambers of Secrets".

From a strange hole
under a living room...

- This chamber may
actually have been

a waystation for bootleggers.

- To a classified
government base

uncovered by a deadly tragedy.

- This horrible crash has
unearthed one of a series

of undisclosed
underground bunkers,

which is definitely not the
norm in Northern Virginia.

- To a prehistoric tomb,
concealing a modern secret.

- When they open the coffin,

they are stunned
by what they find.

- Join us now,

because nothing
stays hidden forever.

[tense music]

Let's say you're a guy who hunts

to put food on your
family's dinner table.

When one young man heads
into Colombia's jungle,

he uncovers something
completely unexpected.

- Julio Cesar
Sepulveda is hunting

for game along the
Guajataca River

on the northern
coast of Colombia.

In the distance, he spots
a crown of feathers.

It's a wild turkey.

He takes aim.

[turkey squawking]
[gunshot]

- Bam!

Although his shot
hits the turkey,

it doesn't kill it.

- The bird gets back up and
starts to hobble and jump.

Sepulveda chases after it,

but somehow the bird keeps
jumping up higher and higher,

and then suddenly,
Julio tilts his head up

and sees a sort
of stone staircase

in the middle of the jungle.

[curious music]

- He follows the staircase up

wondering where it might lead.

50 steps, 100 steps,

200 steps, 300 steps.

- When he finally
reaches the top,

he's crossed 1,200 stairs.

- At this point, he's
high above the jungle.

He looks around below him,

and he simply can't
believe his eyes.

[dramatic music]

- There in the
middle of the jungle,

he believes he just
rediscovered a place

he only knows from legends,

and if he's right, this is
the fabled Ciudad Perdida,

the Lost City.

- [Narrator] Local
legend claims the city

was built by people
called the Tairona,

who lived around 800 AD,

and supposedly, they buried a
huge collection of gold here.

So, of course, Julio can't wait

to share the find
with his family.

- Sepulveda leads
his family back

through the jungle to
the site of the steps.

A sweltering heat simmers
as they ascend the stairs.

They struggle to breathe,

so they dub this place
"Infierno Verde",

the Green Hell.

- [Narrator] They find the
remains of an ancient cemetery.

What's inside the tombs is
beyond their wildest dreams.

- There's gold jewelry, urns,

statues littering the floor.

There's even solid gold
sheets attached to the walls.

- The Sepulveda's
take these objects

and stuff their pockets,

so they can be sold
on the black market.

- [Narrator] But the
family's discovery

doesn't stay secret for long.

Ciudad Perdida is
quickly overrun

by competing treasure hunters.

[gunfire blasting]

- Rivalries form over
who controls the turf,

and inevitably, disputes
between looters

lead to gun battles,
stabbings, and bloodshed.

Tragically, in one
of those fights,

[gunfire blasting]
Julio Sepulveda is killed.

- [Narrator] It takes a year,
but Colombian authorities

finally gain
control of the site,

and it's not the first time
it's seen such violence.

- Turns out people have
been murdering each other

over this gold for centuries.

- The Lost City, originally
known as Teyuna,

dates back about 1,200 years,

when the ancestors of
the Tairona people began

settling on the slopes
of the Sierra Nevada.

But in the early 1500s,

the Spanish arrive

and establish the nearby
coastal city of Santa Marta.

- For the next century, the
Spanish brutally colonize

the Indigenous culture,
plundering them

for their gold and their silver.

- [Narrator] Along
with brutality,

the Spanish bring disease.

By 1570, 80% of the
Indigenous people are dead.

Those still alive
head into the wild.

- The survivors
abandoned their towns,

leaving behind their precious
gold and silver objects

as they flee deeper and
deeper into the jungle,

beyond the colonial reach.

Gradually over time,

the mountainsides reforest,

and the Tairona's deserted
villages and cities

are lost to history.

- [Narrator] Julio Sepulveda's
find changes all that.

- Now following this discovery,

the Indigenous people
of the region petition

the government to reclaim
this land for themselves.

- After cataloging the
massive treasure trove,

the items are put on display

in museums all around the world,

and the Indigenous
communities are once again

caretakers of the Green Hell.

- Next, imagine uncovering

a different kind of secret Hell.

That's exactly what happened

on a beautiful Greek island.

[tense music]

- In 1860, thousands of
laborers from around the world

are carving out the Suez Canal.

It's an unprecedented
engineering feat,

spanning 120 miles,

connecting the Mediterranean
Sea to the Gulf of Suez.

- On Santorini island in Greece,

workers were assigned to
excavate a volcanic material

that was gonna be transported
and used in the Suez Canal.

- As the workers
are quarrying away

digging up volcanic
ash and dirt,

one of them stumbles
on something hard.

[pickaxe clanking]
[tense music]

The worker gets down
on his hands and knees,

and he starts digging this out.

He's found stone,
a lot of stone,

so he calls over all
the other workers

to help him out.

It turns out to
be an entire wall.

- Soon, they've uncovered
several more stone walls

as well as some broken pottery
and rusted metal tools.

These things look ancient.

- The workers realize that they
found an ancient building,

but it's not their
job to excavate it.

- They set the artifacts aside

and get back to work on
this Suez quarrying.

- [Narrator] It takes
another 100 years

for the true importance of
this find to come to light.

[pensive music]

- In 1967,

Spyridon Marinatos, a
Greek archaeologist,

heard the stories
about this ancient wall

and went out to investigate.

- He quickly realizes that
this isn't just one building.

This is an entire city,

and it's gigantic.

- Slowly but surely,

over the next 10 years
of careful excavation,

buildings, chambers, artifacts

all appear out of this rubble.

Some of these buildings
are several stories tall.

- And the archaeologists
were fascinated

with what they were seeing.

They discovered toilets,
baths, hot and cold water,

and an underfloor
system for heating.

- His team also finds a
large variety of pottery

and furniture in all
shapes, sizes, and colors.

He finds large colorful murals
that are better preserved

than the frescoes found
on other Greek Islands,

and it's not just the art's
pristine preservation

that excites Marinatos, he
recognizes this art as Minoan.

- [Narrator] The Minoans
were a mysterious people

based on the island of Crete,

in what's now Greece.

They built
sophisticated buildings

and created spectacular art

before vanishing without
a trace 4,000 years ago.

So how did so many Minoan
objects wind up here?

- In the 16th century BC,

this region was hit by one

of the largest volcanic
eruptions in human history.

[eruption booming]

The nearby Thera volcano
spewed up as much as

14 billion tons of
volcanic debris and lava

in an explosion that could be
heard up to 3,000 miles away.

- The eruption is so huge
that it would've buried

all of the Minoan
settlements on Santorini

and on the coast of the
neighboring island of Crete.

- Which means that this site
is actually the legendary

lost Minoan city of Akrotiri.

- [Narrator] This
discovery gives

new insight into the Minoans,

but there's much more to learn.

- We have questions about
how their society functioned,

what were the roles of women
and men in their society,

and the undiscovered things
that we see at Akrotiri

are capable of answering
some of those questions.

In this case, they
got really lucky,

because the reason this site

is so incredibly well preserved

is because of this
volcanic ash and lava,

but that's also the reason

for the disappearance
of this civilization.

- [Narrator] Some
archaeologists think

many people fled the site

thanks to warning signs
before the giant explosion.

Regardless, what the
Suez worker stumbled on

is a truly remarkable window
into an important lost world.

- Today, only about 25% of
the site has been excavated,

and more research and funding
are needed to finish the job.

It's already clear that this
was a remarkable civilization,

and it's a remarkable site,

but who knows how many chambers

and artifacts have
yet to be revealed?

[pensive music]

- We all have bad habits,
but over 100 years ago,

a Chinese monk's bad habit

led to a great discovery.

[tense music]

- In 1900, you
have a Daoist monk

by the name of Wang Yuanlu.

He has decided that he is
going to be the caretaker

of the Mogao caves
in Dunhuang China.

- The Mogao caves
were once an important

Buddhist religious site
along the Silk Road.

- But that time has long passed,

and the caves have fallen
into a state of disrepair.

- Wang Yuanlu wants to
protect the caves to preserve

this rich history that's in
danger of being forgotten.

- And then one day, while
Wang is sweeping sand

out of a cave, he decides
to take a smoke break.

[tense music]

[breath whooshing]

He notices his cigarette smoke

drifts towards an
old crackling wall,

and then suddenly
disappears behind the wall.

He wonders where
the smoke's going,

and what might be
behind the wall.

- Wang carefully removes
part of the wall,

and behind it,

[tense music]

he finds a hidden chamber.

Inside is a tower
of manuscripts,

paintings, holy relics.

- There are literally thousands
of these well-preserved books

and manuscripts all
at his fingertips.

There's a problem.

The monk is illiterate,

so he has this amazing
find in front of him

and no clue as to what
it's worth, what it means.

- He takes some
of the manuscripts

to various local officials,

but over the next few years,

rumors of the discovery
swirl through Europe

causing several collectors
to travel to Dunhuang.

- Now the monk, Wang, sells off

thousands of these manuscripts,

but only for a few
hundred dollars.

- The books make their way
to France, England, Germany.

After they're studied,
it's clear that they're

far more valuable than
the monk ever imagined.

- They include the earliest
known complete star chart,

Buddhist and
Christian paintings,

even the earliest known
instruction manual

for the board game Go.

- But one manuscript
stands out above the rest.

It's a Buddhist scripture

that teaches about
the nature of reality

and how to reach enlightenment
known as the "Diamond Sutra".

[pensive music]

- What makes this book
even more important

is that it's the world's
oldest known example

of a dated, printed book.

- [Narrator] The date it's
written is May 11, 868.

- That's almost 600 years before

the Gutenberg Bible was printed.

- Today, the "Diamond Sutra"

is housed in the
British library,

and other works
have made their way

into museums and libraries
around the world.

- Check out the next story

about an even more surprising
discovery in Russia.

- In 1993, on the
Altai Mountains,

near the Russia-China border,

you have grave robbers

who have been looting burial
mounds in the region.

- This has been
going on for years.

The local Altaian tribe,

they consider these
mounds sacred,

so they've had enough.

- They decide that
they wanna take action,

so they call on the
Russian border patrol.

[guns clicking]
[tense music]

- By the time Russian
border patrol arrives,

the thieves are long gone,
but they wanna make sure that

the site is handled
respectfully.

So they call in Dr.
Natalia Polosmak,

who is a renowned archaeologist

that specializes in
these ancient cultures.

- There's one large burial mound

that has clearly
been vandalized.

So Polosmak and her
team investigate,

and they find that
one shallow grave

has been robbed.

- But what was
interesting is that

she found a shaft
below that grave,

and it was obvious
to her that the shaft

wasn't something
from recent times.

[tense music]

- So she suspects
that this grave

might have been
robbed years ago,

but she also suspects that it

might sit on top
of something else.

So the team keeps digging,

and eventually hits
a huge block of ice.

They've uncovered a layer of
permafrost underneath the dirt.

- [Narrator] The team carefully

melts the ice with
boiling water,

hoping to preserve
whatever they find beneath.

- As they continued
working their way through,

they find something astounding,

the frozen remains of
six ancient horses.

- In elite burials, they
would sacrifice the horses

that belonged to
the person who died

and bury them around the grave,

and so finding these
horse carcasses

means they've stumbled on a
really prestigious burial.

- [Narrator]
Alongside the horses,

the team uncovers a
large wooden chamber

with an ornate coffin inside.

But who is the very
important person buried here?

- When they open the coffin,

Dr. Polosmak and her team

are stunned by what they find.

[tense music]

A perfectly preserved
mummified woman.

- One of the team
members calls her,

"The Siberian Ice Princess,"

and the name sticks.

- Researchers estimate
that the Ice Princess

lived about 2,600 years ago.

- She has this
elaborate headdress

with carved wooden animals
on it covered in gold leaf.

- On the surface of her skin,

they discovered very
detailed tattoos.

- [Sami] And even
more incredibly,

the ink still looks fresh,

like she almost had this
work done yesterday.

- [Narrator] The tattoos,
horses, and grand burial

suggest the princess may have
served a religious purpose

as a tribal priestess.

- Against the wishes
of the Altaian tribe,

Polosmak and her team
decide to move the body

to university for further study.

They perform an MRI on the body,

and they conclude that
the princess died young,

anywhere between the
ages of 25 and 28,

and they find that the cause
of death was breast cancer.

- [Narrator] Although the
Altaians are unhappy,

the Ice Princess
gets moved again,

this time, to a museum.

- The Altaian tribe believe
that removing mummies

from their resting place
is a terrible omen.

They even blame the
removal of the mummy

for causing a series of
local floods and earthquakes.

- [Narrator] Eventually,
Russian authorities

send the Ice Princess
back to her homeland.

- They restrict anymore digging,

and they declare the area
to be a Zone of Peace,

so that the dead
may finally rest.

- It's 1902, on
the Isle of Malta,

you're on a construction
team in an ancient town

when your dig hits something
that shouldn't be there.

[tense music]

- It's a hard surface.

They dig a little more,

and then break through
what seems to be

the ceiling of some
sort of stone chamber.

- Afraid it could derail
their construction project,

the workers scramble to cover
up any signs of the discovery,

but secrets on the small island
don't stay buried for long.

And rumors about the find swirl

until they reach
local archaeologists.

- [Narrator] By
November of 1903,

a full archaeological
investigation is underway,

and they quickly realize this
minor construction mistake

has uncovered
something important:

A three-level, ancient
complex with a secret.

- As they explore, they
find a temple, a cemetery,

funeral halls all carved
directly into the limestone.

The whole thing was
constructed over a period

of a few thousand years,
starting in 4,000 BC.

That means it's
1,200 years older

than the first pyramid in Egypt.

- [Narrator] Who could have
built this so long ago and how?

- This is pre-Bronze
Age architecture.

This was before
the people of Malta

had access to any
kind of metal tools,

which means this whole
complex was created

from raw limestone
using just other stone,

antlers, sticks, and
just sheer human power.

- They called it the
Hal Saflieni Hypogeum,

Hal Saflieni after a
nearby Neolithic village,

and Hypogeum, which
is the Greek word

for an underground temple.

- [Narrator] But a discovery
inside the chambers

leads some to question the
temple's true purpose.

- Researchers discover
over 7,000 human remains

scattered throughout
the complex,

and this leads them to believe

that this was a
special burial place.

- But as they explore
further, they find

sophisticated engineering
features that suggest

this is much more than an
underground burial vault.

The chambers are laid out

so that on the winter
solstice, sunlight reaches

the center of the structure,
illuminating the main temple.

- But it's the
acoustic properties

that are really significant.

The temple was
constructed in such a way

that sound resonates
throughout the entire complex.

[pensive music]

- Given its unique
light and sound effects,

it's been speculated by
researchers that this site

could have been used
for religious rituals,

and with 7,000 human
remains on the site,

those rituals might have even
included human sacrifice.

- It took just one
guy with a shovel

to unearth something
remarkable in Malta.

Now imagine what an entire
Bulgarian Army can dig out.

[cannonfire blasting]

- It's April 1944,

World War II is
raging across Europe,

and some of the countries that
are allied with Adolf Hitler

and the Nazis are just getting
hammered by the Allies.

- One of those Axis
powers is Bulgaria,

which is under attack from
two different directions.

It's being bombed by the
Americans and the British

from the west and the
Soviets from the east.

- The Bulgarian
Army is desperate,

so they start building a series

of underground bomb
shelters and trenches

surrounding the central
city of Kazanlak.

- [Sami] As they dig,

a few of the soldiers
hit something hard.

- The men chisel a
hole in the wall,

and when they bust through,

on the other side they find
an underground chamber.

They go through, and they
find themselves in a tunnel.

- One of the men flicks
on his flashlight.

He's surrounded by
richly colored frescoes,

depicting men in battle.

The soldiers call the director
of a local history museum,

who realizes this is
an important discovery.

- [Narrator] Learning
more will have to wait.

As the Soviets bear down,

Bulgaria switches sides

and declares war on Germany.

This stops the Allied bombing

and very possibly saves
the mysterious tunnels.

But after the war, experts
return to open the site.

- The passageways
with the frescoes

lead to a round, domed chamber

with even more murals.

It turns out this accidental
find is an ancient tomb.

- But not just any tomb,

they find fragments of a crown.

This is a royal tomb.

- Further exploration
research of this one tomb

actually suggests
that it's a small part

of a much larger
underground royal cemetery.

- [Narrator] Experts soon
realize this incredible find

includes tombs belonging
to the rulers of Thrace,

a famous kingdom known
for its fierce warriors.

- Thrace is a big deal to those
who study ancient history.

Thrace covered modern day
Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania,

and Serbia from the fifth
century to the third century BC.

- Eventually, Thrace
is conquered by Rome,

but some of Rome's
most famous warriors,

like Spartacus, were Thracian,
as were a few Roman Emperors.

So the discovery of a vast

Thracian tomb is
really exciting.

But the real treasures of
the tombs are the frescoes

which adorn the
walls and ceilings.

- They include a couple
seated at a banquet table

preparing to enter
the underworld.

You've got another one
depicting a chariot race,

which is part of
the funeral games,

when a member of the elite died.

- We don't have much from
the Thracians themselves.

We know a bit about
their language,

but we don't have any
extended texts in it.

So when you find
direct evidence of what

the rich and powerful
in Thrace were doing

and what they valued,

that's incredibly rare
and incredibly valuable.

- When people think of
pyramids, they think of Egypt,

but believe it or not,

there there are more
pyramids in South America,

and at least one of them
holds a few secrets.

- It's the fall of 2003,

several days of heavy
rain sweep through

the Mexican National
Park of Teotihuacan,

also known as the
City of the Gods.

Located 30 miles
northeast of Mexico City,

the site is most
famous for its pyramids

and pre-Aztec ruins.

- When the storm passes,

workers survey the
site for the damage,

and at the base of
a large pyramid,

known as the Temple of
the Feathered Serpent,

they find something surprising,

a three foot wide sinkhole.

- The workers call the
park's archaeologist,

Sergio Gomez Chavez,
out to investigate.

He hurries down to the site,

looks inside, and sees a
shaft that looks like a well,

but as he stares into this
dark, mysterious chamber

that shouldn't be there,
he knows he has to go in.

[tense music]

- So his colleagues
tie a rope around him,

give him a flashlight,

and they lower
him into the hole.

- When his feet hit the ground,

he's surprised to
land, not on dirt,

but on a solid floor.

- He takes the flashlight
and he looks around,

and he realizes he's
in a manmade hallway,

- But there are stones
that are blocking him off

from going too far in.

But since he physically
can't go any further,

he brings in a laser 3D scanner,

and what he ends up finding

just blows him away.

- [Narrator] The scanner
reveals a web of tunnels

underneath the pyramid leading
to several larger chambers.

- Inside, they find
precise arrangements

of things like bones,
jewelry, pottery,

golden orb-like balls,
and other relics,

suggesting use in ceremonies

and animal sacrifice
rituals to the gods.

- [Narrator] But the most
incredible discovery of all

lies in a secret chamber just
below the pyramid's center.

- Here, they discover a
miniature landscape with a ball,

pools of liquid mercury
representing lakes,

and four greenstone statues.

- The walls and
ceiling of the chamber

are covered in minerals.

They glitter like stars when
you shine a light on them.

- [Narrator] Many
scholars believe

these underground
chambers were created

by a mysterious people
called the Teotihuacan,

and that it represents
the underworld.

- Unfortunately,
little is known about

the Teotihuacan
civilization other than

the vast temples and cities
they built and inhabited.

- But around 750 AD,

the inhabitants of
the city vanished.

Today, all that remains
of this once formidable

and incredible culture
are the structures

and the sacred marvels
that they left behind.

- Sometimes it takes
a stroke of good luck

to make a discovery,

but other times, a tragedy
can bring a secret to light.

[plane whooshing]
[tense music]

- It's December 1, 1974,

and TWA Flight 514 is en route

from Indianapolis
to Washington DC.

[thunder crashing]

It's a cold and stormy day
with very high crosswinds,

and so the flight
is diverted from

Washington National
Airport to Dulles.

- The pilot changes course
to make the adjustment,

but between the weather

and a miscommunication with
the air traffic controller,

the plane descends
below the ridgeline

of the towering Blue
Ridge Mountains.

[radar beeping]
- At 11:10 a.m.,

they lose contact
with the plane.

[plane whooshing]

[crash booming]

- [Narrator] 30 miles
outside of Washington DC,

TWA Flight 514 tragically
collides with a mountain

known as Mount Weather.

- According to a
local fire chief,

the plane explodes
into a fireball

and takes the lives of all
92 passengers and crew.

- Bodies were all
over the place.

The plane was scattered maybe
two or three miles apart,

and I didn't see nobody alive,

nobody living nowhere,
no moving nowhere.

- The crash immediately
draws press to the scene,

and when the journalists
begin to arrive,

they quickly notice
that several things

are out of the ordinary.

One of the reporters
on the scene notes

how quickly professional
first responders arrive

with state-of-the-art
gear and vehicles.

- Even stranger,
these first responders

are accompanied by the military,

which is not the
usual occurrence

in a plane crash
in rural Virginia.

- [Narrator] Next, high-ranking
government officials arrive,

and the area is cleared
in a five mile radius.

- It becomes obvious
that this horrible crash

has unearthed something
very important.

- [Narrator] Eventually,
a government spokesperson

addresses the media,

and lets out one curious
piece of information.

- The spokesperson
says that this location

houses a facility
that's associated

with the Office of
Emergency Preparedness,

whose responsibilities include

continuity of government in
a time of national disaster.

- Investigative journalists
begin to dig into the story,

and they uncover a
shocking government secret.

- They discover that
Mount Weather is just one

of a series of undisclosed
underground bunkers

that are maintained by the U.S.

for continuity of
operations planning.

- [Narrator] Continuity
of operations planning

ensures procedures are in place

for essential government
agencies to continue operating

in the case of a national
security emergency.

- These secure facilities
are where high ranking

government officials would
relocate during a crisis.

- [Narrator] The true
scale of Mount Weather

remains a secret
for over a decade.

- It takes years and multiple
Freedom of Information Act

requests until the public
learns that Mount Weather holds

a 600,000 square foot
Cold War era bunker

that could house up to
200 people for a month.

- It includes offices,
sleeping quarters, a hospital,

its own utilities and
communication systems.

- But to this day, the entire
site remains highly classified

with high security
and restricted access,

preserving secrets that
may never come to light.

Secret spaces may be anywhere.

As one Michigan
couple found out,

they can even be in
your own living room.

[tense music]

- It's April 2024, on the
shores of the Lake Huron

and St. Clair River near
the Canadian border.

Trevor and Hayley Gilmartin
are starting renovations

on their newly purchased home,

and they're both
in agreement that

the first job on their list
is removing this hot tub

that's sitting in the
middle of their living room.

- [Narrator] As they
rip out the tub,

they find a strange hatch

that leads to something
completely surprising.

- It appears to be a hidden
room filled with water,

and they are totally confused,
because they've been told

the house sits on a solid,
three-foot concrete foundation.

- It just so happens that Trevor

and Hayley are
certified scuba divers,

so they suit up and dive in.

- The water inside is cloudy,

but it's clear enough
that they can see

that the room extends
two stories deep.

The water seems to be coming
from behind the wooden wall,

which is facing in the
direction of Lake Huron.

- With no other clues, they
prepare for a second dive,

this time directly
into Lake Huron itself.

- Just under the waterline,

they find a metal grate

that is blocking a
six-foot-wide tunnel

that's heading in the
direction of their living room.

- [Narrator] Why would
someone build a tunnel

to connect Lake Huron to a
secret room under their house?

A local journalist has a hunch.

- Back in the
1920s, at the height

of the Prohibition era
in the United States,

the Canadian border becomes
a hotbed of activity

for liquor trafficking
into the United States.

- About 75% of illegal
alcohol that came to the U.S.

went directly through this
Lake Huron-St. Clair shoreline,

and the Gilmartin's
house sits right

in the middle of that route.

- So reporters speculate
that this chamber

under the Gilmartin's
living room may actually

have been used as a
waystation for bootleggers,

an easy way to
clandestinely import alcohol

into the United States.

- [Narrator] After the
end of Prohibition,

the passage is
sealed and forgotten

until the couple
posts their underwater

adventure online and
get millions of views.

- And, hey, if they ever wanna
take a scuba dive in Lake Huron,

they got a shortcut.

- [Narrator] Finding
a secret chamber

under your house is fascinating,

but imagine
discovering something

equally amazing on a tiger hunt.

[tense music]

- In the summer of 1819,

a British hunting party
led by Captain John Smith,

is tracking and hunting tigers

throughout the Sahyadri
Hills in India.

- Suddenly, a voice calls out.

It's a young shepherd boy.

He is looking to make some money
by showing the British officers

where they can find tigers.

- The boy points to
the top of the hill

where the animals
roam in the distance.

[tiger snarling]

But as Smith looks
across a large ravine

to a horseshoe shaped hill,

something else catches his eye.

- But he notices this gleam

from some kind of stone
halfway up the hill,

and he thinks he sees
something resembling columns.

- He signals the men to
follow him down the ravine

and up the thick overgrowth
on the other side.

As they climb, they
realize that a large ledge

is carved directly
into the mountainside.

- The slope has been cut
away to create a portico.

Between the columns, is
an entrance to a cave.

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] The tiger
hunt is quickly abandoned,

so the team can explore
their new discovery.

- Smith and his men arm
themselves with torches

and head inside.

They follow this large hallway

carved out of the mountain rock.

- And they pass hand-carved
columns, murals.

They find some human remains,

and eventually they come
to a chamber with a dome,

and Smith quickly realizes

he's found something
absolutely incredible.

[bright music]

The murals on the
walls tell the story

of the life of Buddha,
and really showcase,

not just beautiful and
devout religious piety,

but an incredible array
of artistic techniques.

- [Narrator] But
it's not just the art

that makes these
caves so impressive.

All 30 chambers are
an amazing feat,

each one dug by hand
out of the mountain.

- As the group
marvels at the site,

Captain Smith pulls
out his hunting knife

and carves his name and
the date into the wall.

- Eventually, archaeologists
and historians swarm the site,

and they refer to the entire
site as the Ajanta Caves.

- Originally a sanctuary
and a monastery for monks,

these cavernous chambers are one

of the most important
monuments of the era

when Buddhism thrived in
India 2,000 years ago.

And though we have Captain
John Smith to thank

for bringing global
awareness of the caves,

his name would be
more fondly remembered

if he hadn't decided
to crudely carve it

into a priceless relic.

- It is 1986 in Scotland,

and a rugby player
turned pub owner

is about to stumble
unto something

that will start an
international incident.

[tense music]

- Norrie Rowan is a 35-year-old
Scottish rugby player,

who also happens to
own The Tron tavern

in Old Town Edinburgh.

It's a popular hangout for
rugby players and their fans.

- Norrie has big
plans for the tavern,

and part of those plans
include expanding down

into the basement to
create a themed restaurant.

- One day, Rowan is
down in the basement

tearing off the grille
of an old fireplace,

but instead of finding
a flue behind it,

he finds something
else, a tunnel.

- Curious, Rowan
crawls into the tunnel.

It's dark and full of debris,

but he can see that it
connects to another tunnel

that ends in a small vault.

- Rowan does a little
bit of research

and he finds that
back in the 1800s,

there was a whole
network of storage spaces

built beneath this
part of the city.

- [Narrator] In time, the
tunnels are taken over by

the criminal underworld,
housing a red-light district,

illegal gambling clubs,

and as a place to
store stolen corpses.

Finally, authorities
seal them off,

and they're forgotten
for over a hundred years.

- Rowan hopes the
tunnels are the answer

to his expansion dreams,

but he can't get funding,

so he puts the tunnels
out of his mind.

- [Narrator] The infamous
vaults remain shuttered

until three years later when
he hosts a party at his pub

in honor of the Rugby
World Championship games

taking place in Edinburgh.

His guests of honor are
players from Romania,

then ruled by a
communist dictator.

- While abroad in Scotland,

the players have been
under constant surveillance

by the Romanian secret police.

- The secret police are
following their every move.

They're monitoring
their phone calls.

They're even following them
into their locker rooms.

- It's no surprise that
while the rugby team

is attending this
party at The Tron,

the secret police are outside
guarding the entrance.

- One of the players,
the team's forward,

Cristian Raducanu, tells
Rowan that he's made

the decision to defect
from the Romanians

and seek political
asylum here in the UK.

That's when the pub's
owner remembers

the tunnels beneath his bar.

- So he takes Raducanu
downstairs to the sub-basement,

thinking perhaps that
this may be a way

that he could assist him
in his efforts to defect.

- The barkeeper leads
the rugby player

through the back
of the fireplace

and into the maze of tunnels.

Raducanu heads off

and follows the tunnels
until he finds an exit.

- [Narrator] Once outside,

he finds a Scottish police
officer and requests asylum.

- Not surprisingly,

the Romanian secret
police were not happy,

and since they were monitoring
the outside of the bar,

they got it in their heads
that somebody inside the bar

was likely to have assisted
Raducanu in his escape.

- Journalists come and
ask Rowan about it,

and when he's pressed, he
admits that he had taken

Raducanu down into the tunnels.

This reignites a
whole wave of interest

into this lost history
of the city of Edinburgh,

into these tunnels that
everybody had forgotten about.

- [Narrator] The publicity leads

to a surge of
business at the pub,

enabling Rowan to turn the
once criminally run tunnels

into a bustling
destination spot.

- Now dubbed Edinburgh Vaults,

today, these once
shuttered passages

are buzzing with activity.

Boasting bars, restaurants,
and nightclubs,

they're a must see
destination for tourists

as well as a magnet
for ghost tours,

paranormal sleuths,
and private events.

- And The Tron tavern,
where it all began,

it's still right there
at the center of it.

[dramatic music]

- From Scottish tunnels

offering the perfect
escape route,

to the frozen tomb of
an ancient princess,

our world is filled
with secret chambers

just waiting to be found.

I'm Danny Trejo.

Thanks for watching
"Mysteries Unearthed".