All language subtitles for Expedition.Files.S01E04.1080p.WEB.h264-FREQUENCY_track3_[eng]

Coming up on
"Expedition Files"...

150 British settlers set up
a colony in the New World,

and then seem to
disappear forever.

-Or did they?
-[distant shouting]

We may finally
know the true story of

the Roanoke Colony,

and a biblical tale
of two cities

wiped off the face
of the Earth.

New evidence suggests we may
have uncovered the true fate of

Sodom and Gomorrah.

And 5,000 years ago,
an enormous monument was

mysteriously constructed.

But now, science may finally
reveal the truth behind

the secrets of Stonehenge.

[distant shout]

[Josh]
In the corridors of time

are mysteries that
defy explanation.

Now, I'm traveling
through history itself

on a search for the truth.

New evidence.

Shocking answers.

I'm Josh Gates,

and these...

are my "Expedition Files."

Where we're from shapes who we
are, but there are some places

that shape us even though
we've never visited them.

Places so strange, so curious,
that they loom large

in our imaginations.

Tonight, we examine the files
of three of the most mysterious

places on the planet,
places we all know,

but paradoxically,
none of us understand.

From a lost New World colony
whose inhabitants vanished

without a trace,
an ancient biblical city that

was said to be brutally wiped
off the map by the hand of God,

and a circle of mystical stones
that has captivated humanity

for millennia.

A single question maps
a path between them.

What is the true story of
these places?

We begin here in 1587.

To the European settlers who
dared to cross the Atlantic,

the so-called New World appears
to be an unexplored wilderness

of limitless opportunity.

One of the very first groups of
settlers has just arrived.

The good ship Lyon,
sailing from Plymouth,

England, with 115 souls on
board, has dropped anchor at

Roanoke Island off the coast of
what today is

North Carolina, led by this man,
explorer and artist John White.

They are here to establish
an English colony.

Now, these are not seasoned
soldiers, but families.

In fact, John White is even
bringing his own pregnant

daughter, Eleanor,
along on the adventure.

But their hopes will soon
disappear, and so will they.

Within three years,
every single one of them will

vanish without a trace,
as if they never existed.

These brave settlers risked
everything to found our nation.

But today, their fate remains
tragically unknown.

For hundreds of years,
the myth of the Roanoke colony

has perplexed historians.

Were they wiped out
by the elements,

killed by indigenous tribes?
-[vocalizing shout]

[Josh] Did they relocate to
somewhere uncharted?

If you ask residents
of Roanoke today,

they'll tell you the colony was
simply lost to time,

but history might have
gotten this story wrong,

as new evidence finally
reveals a 450-year-old secret.

John White first set foot in
the New World two years before

he arrived with his daughter.

In 1585, he was sent with
a battalion of soldiers to

map the area.

He quickly bonded with
the local Croatoans who helped

him navigate this extremely
foreign land.

They built a settlement,
but within a year's time,

relations with another
indigenous tribe

turned violent.

-[vocalizing shouts]
-[grunt]

[Josh] Most of the men,
including John White,
returned to Europe.

But to preserve
an English presence,

15 men are ordered
to remain.

But now, two years later,
White is back with a vengeance,

returning on the orders of
Queen Elizabeth I,

with 115 men, women, and
children to establish England's

first permanent colony
as its governor.

But when they arrive,
they are greeted by

an unsettling scene.

Of the 15 men that had been
left behind, they find bones of

only one settler and no sign of
the rest, perhaps a dark omen

of things to come.

Still, the settlers begin
the hard work of making

the New World
their new home.

[baby mewling]

Within weeks, John White's
daughter, Eleanor, gives birth

to the very first English child
born in North America.

Her name?
Virginia.

But realizing they don't have
enough provisions to face

the coming hardships of winter,
John White makes the difficult

decision to leave his friends
and family behind

and return to England
to resupply.

He is slightly comforted
knowing that he has left behind

his trusty guide from
the Croatoan tribe,

a native named Manteo,
who he hopes will help

the settlers survive.

He doesn't know it, but this is
the last time he will see

his daughter, Eleanor,
his granddaughter, Virginia,

or indeed any of the other
settlers ever again.

On his departure,
he instructs them that if

they come into trouble,
to carve on the trees,

post or doors, a cross,
and the name of the place

where they'll be.

When John gets back to England,
his plans fall apart.

He's prevented from heading
back to the New World

because of
the Anglo-Spanish War.

And what should have been
a three-month trip turns into

an excruciating three years
before he can return to

his family and friends.

Finally, in August of 1590,
White sets foot on the shores

of North America
for the third time.

Yet as he and his crew arrive
on Roanoke,

White is shocked to
find no signs of life.

But mysteriously, there are
no signs of death either.

In his desperate search for
survivors, he finds no bodies,

no evidence of struggle.

When they search
the settlement,

the mystery deepens.

The colony is
completely abandoned.

All the structures have
been dismantled.

But he does locate
one critical clue.

There on a post is
a single word, Croatoan.

White is filled with
a sudden sense of relief.

He knows
what that means.

The settlers must have
abandoned their post to travel

to the island of Croatoan,
50 miles south.

Encouraged, White and his crew
sail to Croatoan, excited to

reconnect with the settlers.

But Mother Nature
has other plans.

[Josh] Hammered by weather
and running desperately low
on supplies,

the ship's captain refuses to
continue on to Croatoan,

and forces White to return
to England

without finding the settlers.

Back in London,
White desperately tries to

raise funds to return to search
for his daughter, Eleanor,

granddaughter, Virginia,
and the other settlers.

But tragedy strikes.

[distant coughing]

John White falls sick and dies,

and with John's death,
he may have sealed the fate

of those he left behind.

[bell tolling]

It isn't until 20 years later
in 1607 that a new group, led by

Captain John Smith, heads to
the so-called New World to

create their own settlement,
the Jamestown Colony.

When they arrive, the search
for Roanoke settlers resumes.

John Smith questions
local indigenous tribes,

searching for answers.

And the tribes provide
encouraging news.

They speak of natives near
Croatoan with blue eyes, wearing

European-style clothing,
and speaking

the local Algonquin language.

But Smith has his own problems
back at Jamestown.

The new settlement is
struggling to survive

and doesn't have the resources
to make the 150-mile journey

to Croatoan.

The Jamestown settlers are
never able to confirm that

these blue-eyed natives might
actually be Roanoke survivors.

Lacking any solid evidence,
the fate of the Roanoke

settlers slips
into the shadows.

Despite all the sacrifices
they made to found what would

become America, it seems
America has forgotten them.

Centuries pass,
and the legend of Roanoke's

missing inhabitants becomes less
a mystery to be solved and more

of an eerie ghost story --
stunningly, it isn't until

350 years after
their disappearance that a dark

and ominous twist emerges in
the Roanoke case,

casting new shadows over
the fate of the lost colony.

[Josh] 1937, North Carolina,
50 miles inland from where

the lost settlers landed at
Roanoke Island 350 years ago.

A hiker is walking near
the Chowan River when

they stumble on a stunning
piece of evidence that could

unlock the fate of
the Roanoke settlers.

It is a stone with a remarkable
inscription, seemingly written

by John White's daughter,
Eleanor, and confirming the sad

end of Virginia, the first baby
born in the New World.

[as Eleanor] Virginia went
hence unto heaven 1591.

[Josh] Does this inscription
confirm the tragic death of

the first English baby born in
the New World, John White's

granddaughter, Virginia?
And there's more.

On the other side of the stone,
Eleanor purportedly

writes of the settlers' plight.

[as Eleanor] Father,
soon after you left for England,

we came here, only misery
and war for two years.

More than half of us died
these two years, mostly from

sickness, being 24 in number.

[Josh] More stones are uncovered
as amateur archeologists scour

the woods of the Carolinas
and northern Georgia.

In all,
48 inscriptions are found.

They come to be known as
the Dare Stones, and they tell

a riveting tale of
the settlers' journey

and resettlement
50 miles west of Roanoke.

So, mystery solved, right?
Well, not so fast.

Four years after the discovery
of the Dare Stones,

A journalist from
the Saturday Evening Post

takes a closer look.

The journalist's conclusion
is damning.

The Dare Stones are not written
by the settlers.

Rather, they are
an elaborate hoax created by

a master engraver.

Even the first stone,
supposedly written by

his daughter, Eleanor Dare,
turned out to be a fake.

But if the settlers didn't head
west as the Dare Stones

suggest, then what
happened to them?

How do 115 souls vanish
without a trace?

Did they perish in
the wilderness due to

starvation or some
hostile force?

Or instead, did they head
south, down the Carolina coast

toward Hatteras Island,
formerly known as Croatoan,

as John White believed to
his dying day?

In 2016, I went to Hatteras
Island myself and met with

an archaeological team led by
Scott Dawson, who has dedicated

his life to searching for any
sign of the lost settlers.

Do you think the Lost Colony
folks came here?

Are you convinced of that?

[Scott] They literally wrote
down, they came here,

they had a relationship
with this tribe.

I mean, those things,
the historical context can't be

thrown out the window.

Right, until we find that one
magical object that seals

the deal,
you'll continue to dig.

Oh, yeah.

Eight years have passed since
I was last on Hatteras Island,

and in that time, Scott and his
team have continued to excavate

the site, and what they've been
finding is remarkable.

[Scott] We're literally finding
artifacts from the colony,

and we're finding them in
a Croatoan village.

With the longhouse post holes,
the Croatoan themselves are

buried there,
the nails, the bricks,

there's hundreds of thousands
of pieces of Croatoan pottery,

and even the guns and swords
and weapons, pipes and tools

and arrows and all that stuff.

And we find all of that,
and it's all together.

The colonists and the Croatoan,
they're living together.

We said before we even started,
the greatest thing we could

possibly find is a Tudor rose.

It's such
a tiny window in time.

It's specifically
Queen Elizabeth's court.

And we found it,
the end of 2021.

So the proof is indisputable.
They're living together.

[Josh] Archeologist Mark Horton
has been working with Scott

and his team, and what
he's discovered is stunning.

Perhaps this is
not a story of tragedy,

but of truly
epic survival.

What we found in
the excavations is that

they're wearing
European clothes.

They have European
technologies,

like they're working copper.

We've also found
clear evidence

of Elizabethan material
in 16th century levels

and remarkable
evidence for this society

surviving into
the 17th century.

The tangible clues that
the archaeologists have

uncovered not only point to
the colonists' presence on

Hatteras Island,
but may finally answer

the question of how
they came to be there.

So when John White did return,
he found nothing

but the abandoned colony,
with the houses all broken down

and partly dismantled.

They'd taken all
their possessions with them.

So he knew that they had left
not under duress,

but entirely voluntarily.

[Scott] They immediately see
Croatoan in all capital letters

on a palisade,
and there's no cross under it.

So they didn't leave
for danger.

And then you add in the fact
that their guide

and interpreter, Manteo,
he's back with them.

It only makes sense that Manteo
would take the colony to

Croatoan,
where he was from.

So what actually happened is
the colony did exactly like

they said,
and they went to Croatoan

and lived there forever.

[Josh]
If this is correct, it seems
this isn't just a story about

the courageous survival of
the Roanoke settlers.

It is also a remarkable tale
about the many people still

living on the island
where they settled.

The mystery is how has
this mystery survived?

Because all the evidence in the
world is pointing to one spot.

But people are like,
"Well, I learned in school..."

And when people learn something
when they're nine years old,

it's hard to change.

And some of it is just money,
because there's so much money

made off of this myth.

So I'm doing this to tell
the truth, because I don't think

the Croatoan people should be
erased from history

just to prop up
some silly myth.

Croatoan is a real place
and a real people.

It's the island that I'm from,
and it's the tribe that

I descend from,
and I want people

to know
that they existed,

and they are a part of
American history.

That's the truth.

Thanks to the team's research,
we may truly be able to

understand the fate of
the Roanoke settlers

for the very first time.

What was always considered
a story of tragedy may be

something completely different.

It appears the settlers
courageously endured.

When the old world abandoned
them, they forged a new home,

assimilating into a completely
different culture by shedding

their old ways and building
a new community together.

Our next file takes us
to Sin City -- no, not Vegas,

the original Sin City.

There's no flashing neon here
because it's 3,500 years ago,

and I'm in the city of Sodom.

You might have heard of it in
the Bible alongside its equally

sinful neighbor, Gomorrah.

-[Middle Eastern style music]
-[distant crowd noise]

Sodom is a place to indulge in,
well, whatever you want,

and have the ultimate
good time.

But here's the thing,
its time is almost up.

If you believe the scripture,
both Sodom and Gomorrah will

soon be completely erased
and lost to history.

And that's because of these two
and the man they're about to

meet, named Lot.

Soon, everything you're looking
at will be destroyed by

the hand of God.

[thunder crashes]

Lot is the lone righteous man
in this city of sin, chosen by

God to be a last-ditch chance
at redemption.

You can't tell from the lack of
wings, but these out-of-towners

walking behind Lot here
are angels.

According to the Old Testament,
their time in Sodom is going to

convince them
and their boss upstairs --

that will rain down literal
fire and brimstone --

creating a story that will echo
across the centuries.

Perhaps it is a myth,
because there is no historical

trace of Sodom and Gomorrah in
the desert sands.

Many other biblical cities have
been discovered

or are still standing today.

But Sodom and Gomorrah,
if they really existed,

truly were wiped off the map.

Now, of course, you'd be
forgiven if you thought

this was all just a fable about
the consequences of

immoral behavior.

After all, there's no
archeological evidence that

Sodom really was destroyed in
biblical hellfire or that it

even existed at all...
or is there?

We can now reveal new evidence
that may bring us closer to

a shocking historical truth.

[Josh] According to the story,
Sodom is a prosperous place.

Some have suggested that
prosperity may have come from

the ancient opium trade.

The Bible hints that its people
were not only well-off,

but wicked and prideful,
with an excess of resources,

yet unwilling
to assist the poor,

perhaps explaining
why God gets so angry.

If the Old Testament is to be
believed, God decides to wipe

Sodom and its similarly
unsavory sister city,

Gomorrah,
clean off the map.

But before God destroys
the cities, he lets Abraham,

his very righteous right-hand
man, in on his plan.

Abraham is worried for
the city's residents,

especially because his nephew
Lot, who we met earlier,

happens to be one of them.

God makes
a deal with Abraham.

He'll spare Sodom
if he can find just

10 righteous residents.

Unfortunately, finding
innocence in Sodom is

tough sledding.

So God sends two of his angels
disguised as travelers to Sodom

for a final walkthrough.

They meet Lot,
allegedly the only good citizen,

who welcomes them
into his home.

That night, an angry mob
surrounds Lot's house

and demands he hand
over his visitors.

[distant, angry crowd noises]

[Josh]
Lot refuses, things escalate,

and the undercover angels
fight back,

striking the crowd blind
with a burst of light.

[gradually intensifying music]

The next morning,
the angels smuggle Lot

and his family out of Sodom.

They literally tell them to
head for the hills,

and whatever they do,
don't look back.

Then, as Lot and his family
escape, fire and brimstone

rain down from the sky,

[explosion blasts]

and Sodom and Gomorrah are said
to be utterly destroyed.

But tragically, Lot's wife
can't help herself.

She looks back,
and as she witnesses her former

home's destruction, she is said
to be instantly turned into

a pillar of salt.

And then, Sodom,
Gomorrah, and all of

their thousands of
citizens are reduced to ash.

Fire raining down from the sky
and destroying an entire city.

It sounds like a Hollywood
disaster movie, and it's hard

to imagine anything like that
happening in real life.

But fascinatingly, we also find
more or less exactly the same

account of a city destroyed by
God in the New Testament,

the Torah, and even the Quran.

With so many supporting
accounts, many have wondered,

could it really have happened?

For thousands of years,
generations of historians have

searched for physical evidence
of the cities of Sodom

and Gomorrah without success.

But now, biblical scholar
and archaeologist

Dr. Stephen Collins
may have made

a mind-blowing discovery --
after years of research,

Dr. Collins believes he's
uncovered the true location of

the ancient cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah.

His search led him to
the northeastern end of

the Dead Sea, where the largest
archeological site in

the entire Jordan Valley is
located, Tall el-Hammam.

[Dr. Collins]
So when you connect
this whole thing together from

the biblical side of things,
Tall el-Hammam is in

the right place for Sodom.

It's in exactly the right
timeframe for Sodom.

It's a massively complex
and fabulous ancient city.

It's huge.

Tall el-Hammam is sitting right
in the very location that

the Bible specifies for Sodom.

[Josh] Based on his research,
in 2005,

Dr. Collins began
a multi-year excavation of

the Tall el-Hammam ruins.

And what he found
was extraordinary.

[Dr. Collins]
The very first season,

we did a 2-by-2 meter
probe excavation

on the lowest part
of the upper city.

So we get a couple meters
underneath, and boom, we're on

top of the destruction matrix
of the Middle Bronze Age.

All of a sudden, staring up at
us was a piece of pottery,

the surface of which looked
like glazed green glass.

[Josh] This green glass pottery
found in the destruction layer

carbon dates back to
approximately 1650 BC,

which may line up with
the biblical account of Sodom.

Collins' further analysis also
confirms it was a single event

involving high heat that
obliterated these ruins.

But hold up a second.

Let's step out from that
sooty air and take a breath.

Just because an ancient city
was destroyed in high heat

doesn't mean it was destroyed
by the wrath of God.

It turns out there's even more
to this story, and it will blow

your mind,
almost like it blew up a city.

[Josh] In 2021,
a group of scientists

build on the work started by

biblical scholar
and archaeologist,

Dr. Stephen Collins.

They analyze the ruins at Tall
el-Hammam, which he believes may

be the actual location of Sodom
and Gomorrah, to try

and pinpoint the cause
of the destruction.

Concentrating on the soil found
in the destructive layer,

they discover tiny, fractured
sand grains called

shocked quartz.

These particles can only form
under extreme pressure of

725,000 pounds
per square inch or more.

Using laboratory furnaces,
researchers also find that

the pottery and mud bricks at
Tall el-Hammam started to

liquefy at temperatures above
2,700 degrees Fahrenheit,

which is hotter than
molten lava.

This research team,
they determined that everything

about the destruction at Tall
el-Hammam is every bit as

unique as what we see in
a nuclear explosion.

But of course, we're not
talking about bombs.

So the only scientific answer
to that question is there was

a cosmic event that exploded
onto this site.

[Josh] This type of cosmic event
is known as an airburst.

Airbursts happen when a meteor
comes into Earth's atmosphere

at tens of thousands of miles
an hour and then explodes.

It is a violent and high heat
event that destroys everything

in its path.

[Dr. Collins]
The resultant destruction

we find at Tall el-Hammam is
exactly what one would predict

if an airburst event
had occurred.

[Josh] So did a meteor really
destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?

And how can
we scientifically be sure

about these cosmic events?

Well, because we've seen them
happen on Earth before.

On the morning of June 30th,
1908, just after 7 AM,

a massive explosion rocks
a remote area in Siberia

near the Tunguska River.

Witnesses report a dazzling
blue light streak across

the sky, followed by
a deafening blast.

Shockwaves break windows
and knock people off their feet

hundreds of miles away.

An area of forest
the size of Rhode Island

is instantly flattened.

Scientists believe the Tunguska
Event, as it becomes known,

is caused when a meteor,
roughly 150 to 200 feet in

diameter, explodes
in the atmosphere,

creating
a devastating fireball.

Luckily, that explosion
occurred in remote Siberia.

The only victims were trees
and an unknown number of

unfortunate reindeer.

But it seems the citizens of
Tall el-Hammam aren't so lucky.

Picture this.

Sometime around 1650 BC,
the people of Tall el-Hammam are

going about their day
blissfully unaware it will

be their last.

Miles above, a 100-foot space
rock is hurtling toward them at

38,000 miles per hour.

When the meteor hits
the atmosphere, it explodes

into a massive fireball.

[explosion blasts]

The blast is a thousand times
more powerful

than the atom bomb
at Hiroshima.

The ground heats up to
3,600 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wood, animals, and people
instantly burst into flame.

Seconds later,
a massive 740-mile-per-hour

shockwave rips through
the city, demolishing every

building, shearing them
off their foundations.

There are no survivors.

The city and its people are
here one moment

and then gone forever.

So could the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah actually have been

Tall el-Hammam?

The pulverized buildings,
the hellish incineration,

even the blinding flash of
light attributed to the angels

could all be explained by
a meteor's blast.

When seen through the prism of
thousands of years, one man's

meteor really could be
another's angry god.

We can't confirm with complete
certainty that the ruins of

Tall el-Hammam and the fabled
Sodom and Gomorrah

are the same place.

But for the first time,
we can say, thanks to

extraordinary evidence,
that 3,500 years ago, a meteor

wiped a vibrant and thriving
city off the map.

And here's the thing.

Meteor strikes like the ones at
Tall el-Hammam could in theory

happen at any time.

There are currently more than
26,000 known

near-Earth asteroids, and if one
were to strike near a big city,

the effects would be
devastating, biblical even.

[explosion blasts]

We now head from two cities
destroyed to a monument that

has stood the test of time.

So this is probably one place
I don't need to introduce,

the world's most famous stone
circle that has been standing

in England long before England
was even a thing.

But today, over 5,000 years
after it was constructed,

much about Stonehenge
remains an enigma.

So let's start
with the basics.

Stonehenge,
huge circle of stones on a hill

88 miles west of London.

And the first of its many
mysteries is how such huge

stones weighing up to 25 tons
and over 20 feet tall could

have been assembled here
5,000 years ago.

Now, new evidence will tell us
where they come from,

how they got there,
and why this wonder of the world

was created.

When we talk about
the Lost Colony of Roanoke,

we're reminded that Native
Americans were instrumental in

helping settlers survive
throughout our history,

but few were as vital
as Sacagawea.

At just 16 years old and having
just given birth, this young

Shoshone woman joined Lewis
and Clark on their epic journey

to explore the uncharted west.

Sacagawea wasn't just a guide,
she was the expedition's

compass, navigating uncharted
territories, negotiating with

tribes, and ensuring everyone
made it through alive.

And she did it all while
carrying a newborn on her back.

Her legacy endures, with more
statues of Sacagawea

across the U.S.
than any other woman.

So while Roanoke may remain
cloaked in mystery,

Sacagawea's story is
literally carved in stone.

[Josh] It seems Stonehenge
is built in two parts.

The first phase, constructed in
approximately 3100 BC,

is the henge,
an elevated bank of dirt.

This henge has two entrances
and an enclosed area longer

than a football field.

Next, about six centuries after
the henge is created,

the builders shape larger
boulders known as sarsens

and erect them using a clever
system of ropes and timber to

leverage their massive weight.

And finally they arrange
the smaller bluestones named

for their bluish tint when wet
or freshly broken.

It is estimated building
and modifying Stonehenge takes

over 1,500 years at the hands of
a staggering 100 generations.

So if you think a 40-hour
work week sounds like

a full-time job, think again.

At least your great-great-great-
great-great-great-grandchildren

don't need to
finish your shift.

But another mystery looms
over Stonehenge.

None of its massive stones are
native to the immediate area.

So where did its extraordinary
megaliths come from?

For centuries, the best answer
to where these monoliths

came from was Merlin,
the mythical wizard.

Just before the time of
King Arthur, Merlin is said to

steal the stones from Ireland
and then enlists giants to

reconstruct them
at Stonehenge.

At least, that's according to
Middle Age legend.

Putting Merlin to the side,
the true origin of Stonehenge

remains unsolved for centuries.

But everything changes in 2020
when geomorphologist David Nash

makes a staggering discovery
about the iconic huge

sarsen stones
and where they came from.

I was contacted by
English Heritage, who manage

the monument, and they had
a core that had been drilled

from the middle of one of
the stones at Stonehenge.

They said, would we like to
have a look at it?

So we analyzed three samples
from that little bit of core

that effectively gave us,
you might think of it as

the fingerprint
of Stonehenge.

Now, on its own, that doesn't
tell you very much,

but where it is useful is if
you then can compare it with

similar chemical signatures
or fingerprints from areas

where sarsen stones
occur naturally.

And we didn't think, I guess,
almost in our wildest dreams

that we would get a direct hit,
but of all of the areas that

we sampled, only one had
a direct chemical match.

And that was an area in
the Marlborough Downs,

a place called West Woods.

[Josh] West Woods is 17 miles
north of Stonehenge.

That's a long way to travel
with 25-ton rocks,

the equivalent of
a humpback whale.

The question
that still remains,

how did they move them?

I think the current consensus
is that they were probably

moved mainly by land.

So the sarsens were loaded onto
some kind of wooden sled.

And that sled would have been
dragged, basically,

to Stonehenge.

[Josh] If you think moving the
sarsen stone 17 miles is far,

wait until you hear how far
the bluestones traveled to get

to Stonehenge.

In comparison to the sarsens,
there's been a lot more work

trying to figure out
whereabouts the bluestones

come from, so the bluestones,
they come from an area called

the Preseli Hills,
which are in West Wales.

So that's about 150 miles west
of Stonehenge.

And in breaking news, it was
recently determined that

the central altar stone came
from the far north of Scotland.

That's a 460-mile journey for
this megalithic monster.

So now that we know where these
stones came from and maybe how

they got here,
the biggest piece of the puzzle

is why -- why were they
brought here at all?

What was the purpose of
this enormous monument?

The builders didn't leave
any written records,

but over the years,
compelling theories

have emerged.

In 2021, I met with
Michael Parker Pearson,

a Stonehenge expert who had
an amazing discovery that might

help explain the purpose
of the monument.

When we dug here, what
we found was human remains.

That was just a fraction of
the number of people

who were buried here.

This place was full of
the cremated remains

of the dead.

It's basically the largest
cemetery within Britain for

the whole of the third
millennium BC.

Incredible.

But then, Pearson came up with
a groundbreaking new finding

that changes much of what
we know about Stonehenge.

His theory suggests that people
journeyed to the monument

because the stones were
a sanctuary for healing,

believed to cure
wounds and illnesses.

Archeologists have suggested
that the bluestones may have

themselves held some kind of
healing properties.

And this isn't just something
from the distant past.

There's pretty good records of
people visiting Stonehenge,

chipping pieces off
the bluestones and then

taking them away with them.

So that might be a reason why
people bothered transporting,

you know, multi-ton boulders,
considerable distances from

West Wales to the site where
the monument was constructed.

If Stonehenge was a place of
healing, the word must have

gotten out, because the people
trying to get healed didn't

only come from Wales,
but from all over.

For example, the remains of
these two men, buried at

Stonehenge around 2300 BC,
offer fascinating insights into

ancient migration.

There's isotopic evidence
showing that the older of

the two men was born in
the Alps in Central Europe,

traveling hundreds of miles
from what would now be known

as Switzerland.

The analysis of the other man
proved that he was a relative

who grew up locally.

Archaeologists have dubbed
the older man

the Amesbury Archer because of
the many arrowheads found

with his skeleton.

This 40-year-old man had
an abscess that had destroyed

part of his jawbone and had
suffered an accident that had

ripped off his left kneecap,
undoubtedly leaving him in

constant pain
and possibly close to death.

It seems that he traveled on
foot to Stonehenge all the way

from the Alps in
Central Europe.

Could this have been one last
desperate roll of the dice to

heal his soon-to-be
fatal injuries?

And even more intriguing is
what was found inside

the ailing man's burial,

fragments of bluestone,
providing more possible

evidence that he was drawn
from a distant land

to the healing stones
of the Henge.

Anyone who sees Stonehenge
knows it was a sacred place.

The vast stones rising up,
standing tall with

a simple beauty.

But thanks to what scientists
have uncovered, we now know it

was also a place of
pilgrimage and healing.

And today, it still is.

Every year, more than a million
people travel from all over

the world, embracing the very
same magic our ancestors felt

5,000 years ago.

I'm Josh Gates.

Until next time,
travel adventurously.