Original subtitles

(narrator) It may be the most sought-after cult object in history:

the Holy Grail.

Christians, crusaders, and Nazis have all tried to find it.

The Grail promises power, influence, and eternal life.

I believe the Holy Grail could exist.

Which cup is the real Grail?

Will the lead take us to King Arthur?

Or is the crucial clue hidden in da Vinci's masterpiece?

Researchers are trying to solve this millennia-old myth.

The great myths of mankind.

Mysteries passed on over thousands of years.

Inexplicable events,

places shrouded in legend,

and superhuman heroes: even scientists are fascinated.

Is there any truth to these ancient legends?

Researchers across the globe work hard to solve

the greatest mysteries of our time.

(mysterious melody)

To Spaniards, this is the Santo Cáliz, the Holy Grail.

Valencia Cathedral has been its home for centuries.

Believers think this vessel

is the cup Jesus Christ handed his disciples at the Last Supper.

But is this truly the real Holy Grail?

Art historian Ana Mafé García is trying to find out.

(García in Spanish)

(dubbed in English) I am convinced it's the chalice of Jesus, the Holy Grail.

She's new to the quest for the Grail,

adopting new approaches, like using images of the Grail.

They inspired me to look for the Holy Grail in art history.

In her search, she pores over paintings featuring the Grail.

Paintings of the Last Supper, the origin of all stories linked to the Holy Grail.

The Bible describes the eve of the crucifixion,

when Jesus asked his disciples to drink from a cup of wine,

saying this was his blood that would be shed for everyone.

A key moment for Christianity.

Jesus promises to remain present in bread and wine.

The supper stands for community.

Those who drink from the cup are part of this community,

and can hope for life after death.

The Holy Grail is like a condensed conduit for the power of creation,

which can be used to heal, to restore sanity.

It comes in the form of a cornucopia, which delivers the sustenance of life,

in the womb from which life comes.

You name it, the Grail, in its essence, represents the source of creation itself.

The chalice disappeared over the centuries.

In medieval times, the Crusaders revive the legend.

They want to conquer the Holy Land and bring relicts to Europe.

The myth of the Holy Grail is born in this era.

(battle cries)

Christian orders of knights travel to Constantinople and Jerusalem

to free the Holy City from Islamic rule.

On their way, they pillage cities and temples.

At the time, relicts, purportedly sacred objects, were highly sought-after items,

like wood splinters or nails said to come from Jesus' cross, or the bones of saints.

One object is particularly coveted: the Grail, the Lord's chalice.

I certainly believe the Holy Grail could exist.

So much associated with Christ was preserved at the time.

The idea that the cup from the Last Supper

is still there is perfectly believable.

But the real question is whether it still actually exists in a private collection,

perhaps even in a museum, and no one knows what it is.

Vessels that prompt speculation surface time and time again.

Which goblet is the real Grail?

Bowls made of wood, or of precious stone?

Celtic cups which allegedly can feed thousands of men, or raise the dead.

Elaborately decorated vessels, laden with ritual significance.

What's fascinating about all of the different cups

that claim to be the Holy Grail is they're all very different

and they're made of different materials.

It makes you wonder what properties you need to have to be the Holy Grail.

Today, we know that the object known as Nanteos Cup from England

is actually a fruit bowl which dates back no more than 600 years.

The Sacro Catino, made from emerald, is a medieval Islamic bowl.

Valencia.

Perhaps this is where the real Grail can be found.

This Spanish seaport was an important trading hub in the Middle Ages.

Could the Holy Grail have ended up here?

July 2006, Pope Benedict XVI presents the mysterious cup

to more than one million worshippers in Valencia.

It is a special moment for Christians from all four corners of the world.

But to this very day, there is no scientific evidence

that the Valencian chalice is the real Holy Grail.

(church bells toll)

This is where the Santo Cáliz has been preserved for the past 600 years,

the Valencia Cathedral.

Closely guarded in a side chapel, behind glass and secured with alarms.

Ana Mafé García and German historian Michael Hesemann

have the chance to look at the cup up close.

Up until now, both have only studied the Grail in theory.

They know how charged the debate is regarding the authenticity of the vessel.

Finding and proving the Holy Grail is real is important,

because it's evidence.

If we find the Holy Grail, it tells us that Jesus was real,

that the stories about him were real.

And that the religions that rely on these stories are not just symbolic,

but can be taken literally.

The Valencian cup can only be observed under strict security measures.

García and Hesemann are looking for clues that have been overlooked.

The cup is definitely old enough.

It was probably made about 2,000 years ago by Middle Eastern craftspeople.

The researchers gather insights and facts to solve the mystery of the Holy Grail.

(soundtrack drowns out speech)

(camera shutter clicks)

The Santo Cáliz from Valencia.

Could it really be the cup from the Last Supper?

Ana Mafé García needs more evidence.

She meets Daniel Benito, an art historian.

He takes her to the Colegio del Patriarca,

a seminary founded hundreds of years ago.

García is looking for representations of the Holy Grail in art.

She wants to trace it back to the artists who saw it.

What did they know about it?

The refectory is decorated with a 1599 depiction of the Last Supper.

It shows a chalice, bearing a striking resemblance to the Santo Cáliz.

(in Spanish)

(dubbed in English) Here we see a conventional depiction of the refectory.

It's the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples before the Passion.

It is usually portrayed from a theological perspective, focusing on the Eucharist.

This is an archaeological, and not theological, reconstruction

of how this supper might really have happened.

Most interesting is that the Valencian chalice

has a central position in this image.

No matter which painting García examines,

if there is a cup on the table,

artists seem to agree as to what the real cup looked like.

500 years ago, there was broad consensus in Christianity

on the Grail's appearance.

From the 16th century onwards in the world of art history,

one single relict is depicted in paintings.

It is the Holy Chalice of Valencia Cathedral.

But how did the Grail travel from Jerusalem to Spain,

across the entire Roman Empire?

García's hypothesis is the cup came to Rome at some point during the 1st century.

There, an early and persecuted Christian community hides it,

maybe in the catacombs beneath the metropolis.

We can still see images of Christian ceremonies on the walls to this day.

And indeed, the catacombs of Rome show a cup

that at least bears some resemblance to the Valencian chalice.

When research of the Holy Grail began, it was fascinating to learn

there was a primitive representation

of the upper part of the Holy Chalice in the catacombs of Rome.

García corroborates her theory that the Grail must have been in Rome

with another piece of evidence.

The first popes used this cup to celebrate Holy Mass in the underground.

It's the era of the persecution of Christians.

An old Latin texts bears witness to how Christians used the cup

for Holy Communion.

In this text, the early Christians refer to the cup literally.

During the ceremony, they say that Jesus used "hunc praeclarum calicem,"

this precious chalice.

They mean the Santo Cáliz.

Could the upper part of the chalice be the original,

with the lower part added at a later date?

And if this is true, how did the cup travel from Rome to Spain?

For 20 years, Michael Hesemann has been looking for evidence.

He believes he is close to a breakthrough.

His key to the Grail: a medieval verse romance about Perceval.

Written in the 12th and 13th century by Chrétien de Troyes in France

and Wolfram von Eschenbach in Germany.

Hesemann is certain these ancient texts will provide crucial clues

in the search of the real Grail.

(in German)

(dubbed in English) Parzival is a treasure map.

Follow it and you will find the Grail.

Perceval's story is unique in Europe.

To fulfil his dream of becoming a knight,

the young hero has to pass countless tests.

One of them is to find the Grail.

Perceval arrives at the Castle of the Grail,

a mysterious place inhabited by the terminally ill Fisher King,

who can only be kept alive by the Grail.

The King invites Perceval to his castle.

(low chatter)

(clink of cutlery)

The young hero witnesses miraculous events.

Food and drinks galore said to be provided by the Grail.

Eventually, he sees the chalice being carried through the room.

The text describes it as a shining star from the heavens.

Is this merely medieval fiction?

Hesemann is convinced there's more to this story.

Reading Parzival, you will find the place where the Grail was hidden

in the 11th or 12th century.

Hesemann has found a suspicious location in the text.

Young Perceval receives a description of the castle

where he will meet both the King and the Grail.

It's called Montsalvatge.

Michael Hesemann seeks to find this legendary castle in Spain.

His quest for the Grail takes him to the Spanish Pyrenees,

where the castle Montsalvatge could be located.

Hesemann wants to retrace the path the Grail has taken.

He thinks that after Jesus died,

the Grail was taken from Jerusalem to Rome,

and later St. Lawrence, a 3rd century deacon, brought it to Spain.

Hesemann drives to an old country house where the family of St. Lawrence lived.

St. Lawrence tried to save the church possessions from Rome

during the persecution of the Christians.

When the Roman Emperor persecuted the Christians

and seized all treasures of the Church,

Lawrence managed to entrust the Grail to a Spanish legionnaire,

who brought it safely to this place, Lawrence's parents' manor.

The Grail remains hidden in the Pyrenees for centuries.

Nobody knows its exact location.

Hesemann believes the guardians of the Grail used landmarks for guidance.

Behind the clouds is the Pico de Gratal,

the mountain of the Grail, 1,563 meters high.

This was their marker. Behind it, the land of the Grail began.

This is where we begin our search.

Hesemann believes Montsalvatge Castle from the Parzival poem

lies behind those mountains.

The serpentines take him deep into the Pyrenees.

Hesemann thinks the Parzival epos is like a treasure map

that just needs to be interpreted properly.

Perceval's first stop in the romance: a river, where he meets the Fisher King.

Hesemann thinks he has located the exact place of the encounter.

We can see the Rio Aragon here. Perceval rode along its shores.

In the background, there is the Mont Salvatoris,

the Pico de Sant Salvador.

In the local Occitan language spoken in Aragon at the time,

it was called Montsalvatge.

And later, this became the name of the Castle of the Grail in Parzival.

The Castle of the Grail.

Does it really exist outside the realm of imagination?

(Hesemann) This is the path Perceval took on his horse.

You can't use today's roads,

but have to investigate historical roads and trails.

Perceval and the Castle of the Grail in north-eastern Spain?

The text comes with directions:

"At the foot of that mountain, turn right."

At the end of the path lies an ancient building, hidden below a ledge.

The monastery of San Juan de la Peña.

It was built in the 10th century, long before Parzival was written.

Today, the monastery is a Spanish national monument.

Hesemann finds depictions of the Last Supper everywhere,

which isn't necessarily unusual for a monastery.

But is this really the place the Grail was hidden?

Hesemann is not the first to follow the clues in Parzival

and to end up in the Pyrenees.

Around 1930, German author Otto Rahn takes the ancient text literally.

His search takes him to the other side of the mountain range, to France.

Rahn believes the Château de Montségur is the Castle of the Grail.

Later he looks for the Grail on behalf of the Nazis.

All sorts of people throughout history have hunted for the Grail,

because it's such a mysterious object.

If you were the people to actually find it after centuries of being lost,

then you prove you've got the power,

you've got the legitimacy, that you were destined to own it.

That's why Hitler and Himmler searched for the Grail

during World War II.

It would prove they had a right to do what they were doing.

Hitler remains skeptical, but Himmler, head of the SS,

is obsessed with occult Germanic rites.

The mass murderer firmly believes he who has the Grail will be invincible.

(Linn) Heinrich Himmler sincerely believed in the occult.

He didn't just want to find occult objects,

he wanted to make a mythic reality.

He wanted there to be Nazi knights

of a kind of new Arthurian order.

Himmler wants the Grail to be at the center of a new Germanic cult.

He invests means and men in the search for the Grail.

But to no avail.

Otto Rahn commits suicide.

The SS largely disregards the monastery San Juan de la Peña.

The Nazis don't want to share the Grail with the Church.

Are they missing out on the most promising lead?

If the Grail used to be here, there could still be traces of it today.

Hesemann wants a closer look at the basement.

A local guide takes him through the monastic maze.

The heroic epic provides an exact account of the rooms

where Perceval sees the Grail.

"In the middle, he saw four pillars, and in between a giant fire was ablaze."

And here, he met the King of the Grail,

and spoke with him. And then he saw

how a procession entered through the door

on the other side of the hall,

carried the grail, carried it through the hall,

and disappeared through another door on the other side of the room.

Perceval witnesses an Easter procession, a mysterious ritual to him.

Hesemann is certain this is the right place.

We can see one, two, three, four large pillars here,

and one, two, three spaces in between

where the braziers were placed, because it was cold down here in April.

The Parzival text also describes how the Grail is retrieved from a chamber.

Hesemann believes he sees evidence pointing to this romance verse, too.

He finds a small side room.

This niche, this chapel, is where the Grail was stored for over 300 years.

The text contains another important detail.

It references a baptism.

What looks like water turned into stone today

are actually calcium deposits of an old spring.

This place was really used for baptisms.

In the epic, the Grail is carried up a flight of stairs.

(Hesemann) From there, the stairs lead up to the church of San Juan de la Peña.

Hesemann climbs to the church of the monastery.

If there is truth to the Perceval story,

this is where the monks must have worshipped the Holy Grail.

It looks like the description of the Castle of the Grail in the poem

matches San Juan de la Peña.

All the places, all the rooms are here, exactly as the text says.

There is some evidence that Hesemann is right

and there was a cup that was worshipped here in the Middle Ages.

Is it the one that's in Valencia today?

Could it be the real Grail?

It will probably be impossible to prove once and for all

that Jesus used this exact chalice.

But the Valencian chalice doesn't look like the Grail described in Parzival.

It is described as a shining stone from the heavens.

How does this relate to the Santo Cáliz?

At the Department of Art History of the University of Valencia,

María Gómez, expert for ancient artwork, is preparing an experiment.

Ana Mafé García wants to know if anything about the Santo Cáliz

could in fact point to a shining star from the heavens.

(low chatter in Spanish)

(García) All literary descriptions of the Holy Chalice or Holy Grail

agree on the upper bowl, the chalice, which is in Valencia.

I hope exposing the agate to light will show us

whether it shines the way it's been described in the medieval texts.

At certain light temperatures, gemstones begin to glow in different colors.

(Gómez in Spanish)

(dubbed in English) The colors vary depending on the light.

Light has a color, Kelvin, degrees Kelvin.

Let me give you an example.

A painting made outside,

like the picture Sorolla painted on the beach,

was painted in daylight.

If we expose this painting to warm light, that is 3,200 degrees Kelvin,

it loses its blue color.

The color spectrum of the color blue varies and changes.

(García) Look, here, the stone has a red shade.

We'll increase the temperature.

We're increasing,

and it seems like it's losing its color,

like it's getting more yellow, opaque.

(Gómez) Browner, even browner.

(García) Even browner.

Is there a stone that shines like the gem mentioned in the medieval texts?

The stone on the light table is an agate.

It glows red like fire.

The women are certain.

(García) We've found the Holy Chalice in this stone.

That's it, look. I can see it.

(García) That's incredible.

-Eureka! -Yes.

The Santo Cáliz.

A chalice made of agate.

In Parzival, the grail is a stone

brought down from the heavens by neutral angels.

The only stone to come from the heavens

is a meteorite.

If it is a meteorite, then it would be the common denominator

between Excalibur and the Grail,

the two most important objects in the Arthurian tradition.

And both are divine right to rule.

And that relates to the meteor, which comes as a light from the heavens

anointing the finder.

Spain isn't the only place where legends about the Grail flourish.

Glastonbury, in the southwest of England.

With numerous myths attached to this region,

many believe the Grail was hidden here in the 1st century.

After Jesus died at the cross, the other legend of the Grail suggests

Joseph of Arimathea collected his blood in a cup and brought it to England.

He's said to have eventually hidden this Grail in Glastonbury.

It is the same place where one of the most influential monasteries

of the Middle Ages emerges: Glastonbury Abbey.

The magical ruins still attract tourists and esoterics alike.

A magnet for myths.

Legendary King Arthur is said to be buried here.

Archaeologist Roberta Gilchrist tries to find out how much truth

there is to the myths linked to Glastonbury.

(Gilchrist) Glastonbury Abbey is a famous medieval monastery.

It's associated with two key legends:

one of them is King Arthur,

the other, Joseph of Arimathea.

Both provide a kind of origin story for the abbey.

And this isn't a new story.

These things have been connected with Glastonbury for about 800 years.

It‘s a huge part of the abbey‘s heritage.

A painting in the chapel of the abbey commemorates Joseph of Arimathea.

It shows how he travelled to England with the Grail.

After arriving in Glastonbury, he sticks his walking staff into the ground

and it turns into a magnificent hawthorn.

To this day, it is a landmark of Glastonbury

and blooms twice a year, once at Christmas.

A divine symbol of the birth of Christ?

There are several of these trees around Glastonbury.

Joseph is said to have buried the Grail somewhere here.

But it has never been found.

The second big story of Glastonbury Abbey revolves around legendary King Arthur.

The myth says he's buried on an island named Avalon.

Some believe Avalon and Glastonbury are the same place.

The legends of King Arthur and his Round Table

are inextricably linked to the Holy Grail.

Finding it is the primary duty of the noble order of knights.

The myth of Arthur being linked with the Holy Grail

is an important part of the Arthur story,

because it makes him more powerful.

It gives him the divine anointment he needs

to make him into a true legend which can withstand the years.

In Glastonbury, ancient legends take shape.

In the 12th century, there are a lot of stories circulating about King Arthur.

And the monks of Glastonbury connected the Arthur story with Avalon.

In their chronicles, the monks documented

how they find a tomb during renovation works.

Inside, they find two skeletons:

a very tall man with strong bones and a woman,

King Arthur and his wife Guinevere.

With this, they find a small cross with the name Arthur,

and make their abbey a place of pilgrimage.

(Gilchrist) We suspect it was a forgery,

something they copied from material culture about a century earlier.

But that gave them a kind of relic,

if you like, of Arthur that people could come and look at on the site.

Roberta Gilchrist knows that after a fire in the Abbey,

the monks were in desperate need for money.

Since then, the story of Arthur's grave has turned Glastonbury

into a tourist magnet, which it remains to this very day.

It would appear once a myth is attached to an area,

other myths start to be attached to it, too.

This is partly due to a coincidence of events.

At Glastonbury, ley lines meet, there's the ancient church on the hilltop,

and there's the burial of the Holy Grail and King Arthur.

Because of this, these places become a place of pilgrimage.

Glastonbury is an Eldorado for all those on the search for life's deeper meaning.

Goddess movement priestesses follow ancient traditions,

which believe in the maternal essence of life and Earth.

(soundtrack drowns out speech)

(woman) People come in search of the Holy Grail,

but in the Goddess tradition, the Holy Grail is far more intimate.

It is really the sacred part in yourself. It's the creation.

So, it's really finding that sacred part in ourselves that we all search for.

The Holy Grail.

Some believe it's an inner state of mind,

but most think it's a real cup.

A cup that has forged legends.

But if King Arthur's tomb is just fictional,

is it possible the king and his quest for the Grail were never real either?

Is the English lead misleading us after all?

Many find this hard to believe.

The search continues, like in Tintagel on the western Atlantic coast

where Arthur was purportedly conceived.

Archaeologist Win Scutt wants to go over to the peninsula.

The bridge stays closed if the winds are too strong.

What does the wind gauge say?

It's between two and three at the moment, so, fine to go over.

According to the legend, this is where King Arthur's castle is located.

It could be true since the oldest remnants date back to the early Middle Ages.

(Scutt) We're crossing to the main part of the castle,

where Richard of Cornwall would have had his feasts.

This was his great feasting hall.

The problem is that the cliff was falling down already in the 13th and 14th century,

so soon after he built this great hall it started to fall down the cliff.

So, the outer building in front of us here is the first one he built.

Part of it fell down the cliff, and then he built a smaller building,

and that started to fall down the cliff.

And then he built a smaller building and that survived.

The hall falls into the sea repeatedly.

Every time, it has to be rebuilt.

So, the medieval people see ruins constantly

and believe they're looking at the ruins of Arthur's castle.

But on the island there really are clues pointing to the ancient royal site.

(Scutt) Once you leave Richard's castle and go out onto the island,

you'll find lots of buildings that have been excavated in the 1930s.

But that's just some of them.

We now know there's roughly 100 buildings across the island.

It's, in fact, bigger than London was at the time.

We don't have a site as big as this

for the post Roman period.

Three of those houses were excavated in 2017

and we found large amounts of pottery there.

And a lot of this pottery is from the Mediterranean.

From Greece, from Tunisia, North Africa,

and also glassware from Spain and France.

It indicates that this site was very prestigious.

It was a very high-status site and really important.

We think it's probably a royal site.

Tintagel was once ruled by a powerful man, possibly a king.

Perhaps it was Arthur, after all?

(Scutt) The first reference of Tintagel in the legend of King Arthur

is when Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century

said that Arthur had been conceived here.

This may be entire fiction made up in the later medieval period

in the 12th century or round about then,

because they knew this was an important ancient site.

They must have been able to see the ruins right across the island.

But maybe there was real folklore that associated King Arthur with this sight.

So, it is possible if King Arthur was a real person,

and lived in the post Roman period,

it's quite possible, since this is such an important, perhaps royal site,

that King Arthur was very closely associated with this.

So the legend might well be true.

King Arthur might have been a Roman commander,

or the chief of a Celtic-Germanic tribe.

But there is no hard evidence confirming his existence or that of the Grail.

Have people been looking for the wrong thing?

What if the Grail is not a chalice, but something completely different?

Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper is said to contain explosive information.

(mysterious melody)

Visitors marvel at the mural in the church Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.

It depicts Jesus and his disciples on the eve of the crucifixion.

Da Vinci lived in Milan at the end of the 15th century.

A universal genius who allegedly put encrypted messages in his art.

Da Vinci is known for hiding messages in his works.

He was much more than an artist:

He was a visionary, an inventor, and an intellectual.

But in doing this, da Vinci is operating a lot like myths.

Myths are not meant to be read literally. They are symbolic.

As we have to decipher the meaning behind a myth,

we also have to decipher the message da Vinci puts in his paintings.

What secret does da Vinci's Last Supper hold?

While it shows bread and wine, there is no chalice.

The Grail should be in front of Jesus, but it isn't.

Instead, Jesus and his disciples all have their own glasses.

Author Dan Brown puts forward a spectacular theory

in his book The Da Vinci Code.

He states that the painting depicts the Holy Grail, but it isn't a cup.

He points to the strikingly female features

and the posture of the disciple next to Jesus.

Could this be someone else other than John the Apostle?

And there's more:

Jesus and the person next to him form a V,

the symbol of femininity and fertility.

Dan Brown concludes the disciple is in fact a woman:

Mary Magdalene.

She's said to be close to Jesus. They even have children.

Is she the Grail?

A scandalous thought for the Church.

If Mary Magdalene is the mother of Jesus' child,

the Catholic Church shouldn't just be afraid of the authority that lineage

might have in competition with their own.

The bigger threat is that it introduces a different path to the heart,

to the divine than is offered by the Catholics.

It's a path of romantic love.

Dan Brown's theories are based on pure fiction,

but he's sold millions of copies.

Mary Magdalene's role, however, is also contested by scientists.

Is it possible to solve the mystery of the Holy Grail?

Many Valencians believe there's no need to since the Santo Cáliz is the Grail.

Historian Michael Hesemann's findings also support this.

He believes he has proven the chalice was kept in San Juan de la Peña.

But Hesemann can't provide more than clues.

The historian returns to Valencia to meet Gabriel Songel.

The design professor has found something that could corroborate the Grail legend.

An 11th century list of all the properties of the monastery.

(soundtrack drowns out speech)

Everybody has already read about it.

What I want to see is what people haven't seen: the design that is inside.

People have known about the list for a long time.

At first glance, it doesn't make mention of the Santo Cáliz.

But Songel has a theory:

A secret encryption code could reveal hidden information.

The bene valete was one of the signals of the popes.

It's a very interesting graphic design based on the big N.

Bene valete, "fare well," is a seal of medieval popes.

A capital N forms the basis.

The other letters are ornately arranged in the N.

How can this key help us find the Grail?

Songel places it on the text.

This is a very important background to understand how they built this acrostic.

You see the big N.

Especially the letters L, I, S are separated.

And what we see here is the C from the letter C on the glossarium.

"Calis."

We build this vertical line towards "Jerusalem"

and then we find lapis excilis.

These are the exact words Wolfram von Eschenbach

uses to describe the Holy Grail in Parzival.

So altogether we're talking about:

calis lapis excilis domini.

That means a cáliz of precious stone from the Lord.

The medieval poet describes a stone from the heavens, bright like fire.

It's a sensational find dating back to the 11th century.

This is not only the earliest document stating how the Chalice of the Lord

was taken from Jerusalem to San Juan de la Peña,

It also features the term “lapis excilis,”

which Wolfram von Eschenbach used in Parzival,

originally a chalice made of precious stone.

But Wolfram continued his poem,

saying that this could also mean a stone from the stars, from the heavens.

This is his interpretation.

But this document is 150 years older than the Parzival romance,

and it contains this term.

The raw material used and its age could indicate that the upper part

of the Santo Cáliz actually comes from Jerusalem.

But is it really the cup Jesus held?

A chalice made of precious stone?

Very few people know as much about the Santo Cáliz as Antonio Piró.

Decades ago, the goldsmith measured the chalice with his own hands.

Since then, he and his sons have been making handmade replicas of the relict.

Now, Ana Mafé García wants him to make an exact copy.

(in Spanish)

(dubbed in English) This is emotional for me.

As a choir boy, I spent a lot of time in the cathedral

and we would also sing in the chapel.

That's how it was brought to my attention.

My dad got married in this cathedral, and so did I,

which is why I have always felt a special affection for the chalice.

Hola, Antonio.

(narrator) The art historian knows what she wants.

To her, only the upper part of the Grail is relevant.

(Piró speaks Spanish)

So this upper part would be the sacred part of the relict.

This here, this is the Holy Chalice.

Right.

Without this part.

I have already inserted this to adjust it.

Fascinating.

The chalice the Lord blessed at the Last Supper is this here.

Making the replicas just like the exact model of the original poses a challenge.

There are two main problems: the material and the measurements.

These are the first sketches from the time when we first started.

Wow.

Piró wasn't allowed to touch the Santo Cáliz when he measured it.

He uses simple tools.

That's the stencil that allows you to see the shape of the bowl perfectly.

(García) Very interesting.

Of course. It's the best way to see if the size is right.

For Ana, it's the volume of the chalice that counts most,

because it sheds light on its origins.

The material is also key.

To comply with Jewish purity laws, the cup has to be made of stone.

Wood is too porous, making it hard to clean

and therefore unsuitable as a ritual vessel.

The properties of the Holy Grail are interesting,

especially because if it was a chalice or a cup

that was used at the Last Supper,

then it would have to be kosher.

Jesus Christ is Jewish.

He and his Apostles follow Jewish laws and rituals.

When Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, he is sentenced to death

and invites his disciples for one last meal:

the Last Supper.

The vessels used for this event are ritual objects

and have to meet certain criteria.

Ana Mafé García checks the volume of the chalice.

Its capacity can tell her whether it was used as a ritual cup.

The chalice of the Holy Grail represents a Jewish supper.

A Passover meal.

2,000 years ago, Jews had a family chalice that had to be filled

with a minimum amount of wine

to allow them to celebrate the rite of Passover,

just like they do to this very day.

This cup holds four fingers,

which is half a span.

And these are Jewish units. 2.5 revi'it.

That's about this much.

The minimum they have to drink is one revi'it, 86 milliliters.

Another revi'it is for the family.

According to García's calculations, the chalice can hold 2.5 revi'it.

So it's possible that the Santo Cáliz was really used as a ritual cup.

Another part of the puzzle.

A valuable ritual cup dating back to Antiquity.

Whether Jesus held it remains unknown.

The longing for the Grail has left its mark on Christian Europe.

It's reflected in myths and legends, in poems and songs.

Is there at least some truth to all this fiction?

In Valencia, people commemorate

the festival of the Santo Cáliz every year.

To many Christians, this stone bowl is nothing less

than the cup of the Last Supper.

Michael Hesemann and Ana Mafé García are convinced of this, too.

The Santo Cáliz is the real chalice used during the Last Supper.

(Hesemann) The Holy Grail is here in Valencia.

(García) The Holy Chalice's message has to be understood by everyone

with their hearts.

The yearning for salvation and an ancient myth.

From a scientific point of view, there's still no evidence.

The search for the Grail will most likely continue.

(narrator) It's the greatest German legend: the saga of the Nibelungs.

Heroes, dragons, and a lot of gold.

I think the treasure's still there.

Researchers and adventurers search for the legendary treasure.

The Nibelung treasure could exist.

(metal detector beeps)

A huge amount of gold and silver. Unfathomable.

How much truth to the myth is there?

What is with Siegfried's wonder sword?

You can tell where it got hit.

Scientists unearth the origins of the saga.

The traces lead them to Scandinavia.

Sigurd's horse Grani with the legendary, cursed treasure on its back.

The search for the Nibelung treasure.

The great myths of mankind.

Mysteries passed on over thousands of years.

Inexplicable events,

places shrouded in legend, and superhuman heroes:

even scientists are fascinated.

Is there any truth to these ancient legends?

Researchers across the globe are working hard to solve

the greatest mysteries of our time.

(mysterious melody)

The Rhine.

Stream of sagas and myths.

And center stage for the tale of the Nibelungs.

Allegedly, their legendary treasure was sunk near the German city of Worms.

Could it still be there today?

Hans Jörg Jacobi is a Nibelung hobbyist.

A former city architect,

he has been looking for the Rhine gold since childhood.

(in German)

(dubbed in English) You have to believe what's in the Nibelungenlied

might be correct.

He believes in the Nibelungenlied, the song of the Nibelungs.

He used to scour the Rhine with his dad. Today, he's following a lead.

We asked ourselves, "How would we pull it off?"

And surprisingly, there is one approach that seems pretty logical.

In my opinion, the treasure's still there.

The legend says the shores of the Rhine were once home

to the mysterious Burgundian kingdom.

One day, an unknown warrior arrives at the royal court of Worms.

It is Siegfried of Xanten,

a legendary warrior.

He is said to have seized the treasure of King Nibelung in the high north.

40 cartloads of gold and silver, and a cloak of invisibility to top it off.

Siegfried kills a dragon with his wonder sword.

He bathes in the dragon's blood and becomes invulnerable.

But a fallen leaf from a lime tree leaves an unprotected spot between his shoulders.

The victorious hero pledges allegiance to King Gunther.

As a reward he can marry Gunther's sister, Kriemhild.

They are the protagonists in this epic poem of love, betrayal, and murder.

Siegfried and his wife Kriemhild, her brother, King Gunther,

and Hagen von Tronje, the King's adviser.

He sees Siegfried as a threat and puts King Gunther at odds with the hero.

In the name of the King, he sets a trap for Siegfried and kills him

by thrusting a spear into the only unprotected part of his skin.

Hagen gets the gold and throws it into the Rhine to hide it from Kriemhild.

The river has kept the secret ever since.

The Nibelung treasure is one of many tales of the Rhine, shrouded in legend.

The Hagen monument in Worms is a reminder of the Nibelungs.

But if the treasure didn't exist and there was no hope to find it,

this tale would have likely been forgotten long ago.

Humans are fascinated by treasure partly because of the monetary value,

but treasures in myth tend to be more than that.

They have a magical value to them.

They have a personality. They're a character in the story.

Take in the Nibelungen Siegfried's invisibility cloak:

we like the idea of there being something

that connects us to a realm beyond our own, so it's a magical power.

The forests along the Rhine are enchanted by the Nibelungs' magic to this day.

Benjamin Czerny is a passionate treasure hunter.

Using a metal detector, he searches for the riches of the past.

(in German)

(dubbed in English) I think there are tons of precious metals buried in Germany,

just waiting to be found.

It is illegal to unearth treasures in Germany without a permit.

If he finds something of value, Czerny needs to report it to the authorities.

But that doesn't stop him.

(metal detector beeps)

It takes you back to childhood. You never know what you'll find.

You could dig up something special any day.

Czerny has made a great find once before.

But he dreams even bigger.

(Czerny) The Nibelungs treasure is one of the biggest myths

a treasure hunter can discover: a mound of gold and silver, cartloads.

You couldn't even fathom that in your wildest dreams.

He, too, thinks the treasure is near the Rhine.

Early settlers lived along its shores, and left behind their chattels.

This is the Old Rhine, running through Speyer and Römerberg

to Germersheim and Neupotz.

This forest area is interesting with a creek running through it.

I think we might be able to find a few things there.

But without a specific lead, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

St. Gall, Switzerland.

There's an important clue here.

The Benedictine monastery is home to one of

the oldest Nibelungenlied manuscripts.

It dates back to the second half of the 13th century.

Medievalist Joachim Heinzle knows the Nibelung saga better than most.

He believes the text is based on events that took place

many centuries before the manuscript was written.

(in German)

(dubbed in English) Heroic legends were considered historical,

a form of passing on history.

To preserve the ancient knowledge, the Nibelungenlied was recited in rhymes.

In Germany, its first lines are legendary:

"Uns ist in alten mæren wunders vil geseit

von helden lobebæren, von grôzer arebeit."

(in German)

(dubbed in English) Narrating is key for humans.

It is a social act that demonstrates our shared identity.

We tell stories not only for entertainment,

but also to share our values and our history,

creating a cultural memory in doing so.

There's truth to heroic legends.

Heinrich Schliemann, a 19th century archaeologist is also convinced.

He analyses locations provided by Greek poet Homer...

and looks for the ancient city of Troy.

Following the leads, he actually manages to find the city ruins.

The discovery of a century.

Does the Nibelungenlied also contain tangible clues

leading to the treasure of the Nibelungs?

After Siegfried's death, his widow Kriemhild seeks revenge.

She turns away from the Burgundians and marries Etzel, king of the Huns.

Kriemhild moves to Etzel's empire by the Danube,

where she plans her vendetta against Siegfried's murderers.

Upon her invitation, Burgundian king Gunther and his entourage

travel to the court of the Hun king.

They all die in an unparalleled bloodbath.

The Burgundians have been eradicated.

Pure legend, or historically accurate?

Truth is, in the Middle Ages, the Nibelungenlied was also popular

beyond German borders.

In Scandinavia, where Siegfried allegedly obtained the Nibelung treasure,

the saga of the dragon slayer has also lived on.

Sigmund Oehrl pours over the story of the Nibelungs on Swedish island Gotland.

The archaeologist knows the Swedish sources like the back of his hand.

It turns out there are astonishing parallels

between the Norse tradition and the Nibelungenlied.

(in German)

(dubbed in English) The main characters are the same in both traditions.

The German name Siegfried is Sigurd in the north.

We also have King Gunther, whose name in Old Norse tradition is Gunnar,

and Hagen von Tronje, who appears as Högni.

An 11th century depiction portrays the details of the Norse saga of Sigurd.

This is clearly Sigurd the dragon slayer.

Old Icelandic sources claim he did not fight against the dragon,

but dug a pit and waited inside until the worm heaved its body across it

and that's when he jerked up his sword and stabbed the dragon.

11th century.

Is this the earliest record of the myth?

There are even older traces in Visby, on the island of Gotland.

During the Viking years, Gotland was a hub for trading goods, news, and legends.

At the Museum Fornsalen, Sigmund Oehrl studies ancient sources.

The famous picture stones of Gotland,

some of them dating back more than 1500 years.

They tell of Viking gods and heroes.

Could they also hold clues to the Nibelungs?

Using photo technology, Sigmund Oehrl examines a stone

dating back to the 5th or 6th century.

Here, we can actually see a depiction of a worm-like, a dragon-like monster,

and a human figure in front of it.

Is it Sigurd, the dragon slayer?

The experts create a computer model of the stone...

bringing invisible parts to light.

The artist may very well have depicted a dragon slayer 1500 years ago.

But he carries an axe.

This doesn't match the legend of Sigurd.

In the Old Norse tradition,

Sigurd does not fight the dragon with a hammer or axe,he stabs it from below.

It turns out the old stone does not show Sigurd, or Siegfried.

The search continues in Bunge, Gotland,

where other picture stones from the 9th century are kept,

some of them in good condition.

The researcher actually finds what he's been looking for:

a picture that could tie into the saga of Sigurd.

Sigurd's horse Grani with the legendary, cursed treasure on its back.

This is the image that became a metaphor in the language of the Vikings.

They called gold “Grani's burden,”

and this is exactly what we see here.

Another detail fits the Norse legend:

Sigurd's death, indicated by the figure underneath the horse.

A crucial sign for Sigmund Oehrl.

If this was really the depiction of the fallen hero Sigurd,

it would mean that we had the earliest record of the Sigurd and Nibelung saga

right here on the Baltic island of Gotland.

The oldest likely source of the Nibelung saga roughly dates back to the year 800,

400 years before the story was written in Germany.

A valuable clue in the search for the true story.

It is during this era

that the serious repercussions of the migration period are seen.

With the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century,

the continent is shaped for generations by the migration of entire tribes.

During this period of transition, it is also the golden age

for the historical inspiration for the Nibelung saga,

the Burgundian Empire on the Rhine.

The first records of the Germanic Burgundians are from the 1st century,

when they were settling in a region now belonging to Poland.

The Burgundians set up on the Rhine at the start of the migration.

And the heart of their Empire is exactly where the Nibelungen saga is set: Worms.

And just as in the saga, the real Burgundians are doomed.

In around 435, they are defeated by Roman troops.

They were forced to flee and resettle.

The name Burgundy now lives on in France.

(battle cries)

(horse neighs)

King Gunther's character is based on an historical figure,

the real Burgundian king Gundahar.

There are more parallels between reality and legend.

According to Roman sources, the Empire got military support from the Huns.

(battle cries)

Etzel, has a real counterpart, too.

Attila...

legendary leader of the Huns.

Like Etzel, Attila is said to have been married to a Germanic woman.

She could be the historical inspiration for Kriemhild.

Her name, Ildico would be Hildchen, little Hild in German.

The Nibelungenlied mixes reality with fiction.

The Burgundians were real people.

This is a story about the fall of those groups of people.

We also have the Hun, who are mythologized as being incredibly scary.

The fact that it has this central core of reality

means we can actually believe all aspects of the myth,

which makes it more powerful.

With so many characters having traceable roots,

it makes it even easier to conclude

that the legendary treasure must truly exist.

The Nibelung treasure can exist.

Between the third and the sixth centuries,

people buried things constantly.

Particularly precious metals, gold, silver, jewelry, dishes, weapons.

They've been found repeatedly over the years.

Hoards of the most majestic treasure.

The idea that the Nibelung treasure is still out there is very real.

For treasure hunter Hans Jörg Jacobi, the traceable roots serve as confirmation.

During the migration period, it was common for each group to carry treasure.

They had to pay their people.

That's why every tribe had treasure.

In the Rhine, countless divers have searched for the treasure to no avail.

Hans Jörg Jacobi is convinced of one thing:

they were looking in the wrong place.

The Nibelungenlied gives the exact location of the sunken treasure.

One line in the Nibelungenlied has caught his attention:

"Hagen sunk the treasure near Loche."

Is this the location of the treasure?

Jacobi studies old maps of the region

and finds a place that has long since disappeared.

Lochheim. Loche.

Not only the name stands up, the location seems perfect, too.

A bit further down the Rhine there is a large bend in the river,

where the water is very deep, down about 16 or 18 meters at average water level.

Today, it is called "The Dark Place".

The bend is still obvious to this day.

But Jacobi has a theory about why divers couldn't find anything.

The river course has changed over the centuries.

Bends have been straightened, tributaries have dried up.

The riverbed has moved many times.

What used to be the bottom of the Rhine is dry land today.

Might this also affect the spot that Hagen once chose?

Benjamin Czerny also searches on land.

The forest he's scouring lies right next to a small tributary of the Rhine.

Unlike in fields and populated areas,

many things remain buried in the ground, untouched.

(metal detector beeps)

(detector continues beeping)

I'm getting a good signal here.

-(detector beeps) -I'm definitely going to dig here.

I've already found something. There it is.

There. Look.

Man, that's crazy.

Look. That's incredible.

An old brooch made of silver.

That's really cool.

It's definitely an art nouveau brooch, dating back to around 1910.

They used to make a lot of things with these flowers.

That‘s beautiful. A great find, for sure.

Not from the time of the Nibelungs,

but the first sign he's on the right track.

The ground is deeper here, which stretches out along this line,

from here to there.

I suppose this used to be a path a long time ago.

There could be more. Let's keep looking.

He follows the former road attentively.

And it's not long before he gets the next signal.

(detector beeps)

Wow, I think that's a coin.

It's tarnished and green, but you can see red at the edges,

so it's probably copper.

It seems pretty old, too.

They had copper coins 2,000 years ago: copper, bronze, and so on.

They had that very early on.

Czerny can only determine the exact age of the coin

and whether it will lead him to the Nibelung treasure once he's home.

While Hans Jörg Jacobi believes he has already found the right place.

We suppose the Rhine used to run closer to here

and moved slowly over time,

maybe even by as much as its own width.

That's when we said, "We actually have to go down there and see what we find."

Jacobi followed his hunch.

In the 1970s, with some heavy machinery, he drills a shaft.

But the treasure hunt proves complicated.

At ten meters down, the drill hits hard rock.

Jacobi orders to stabilize the shaft with pipes.

But the structure isn't safe.

We sent a diver in,

who immediately knocked against the wall,

and we pulled him up again with great effort.

The endeavor is too dangerous, and Jacobi aborts the mission.

The failure still boosts his hopes.

He believes the impermeable layer of rock

could be a cover Hagen placed over the treasure.

He suspects there is a cavity beneath it, filled with the gold of the Nibelungs.

It's possible there are amphoras, standing side by side.

Maybe there is some sort of stone cover on top of them.

Jacobi can't secure any funding for other excavations.

To this day, he hasn't been able to prove his theory.

I think one day, it will be found, but it won't be so easy.

Or was the gold of the Nibelungs already found long ago?

One of the most precious finds from the Rhine lies here,

on Museum Island in Berlin.

The museum is filled with showpieces of centuries past.

And Heino Neumayer, museum curator, has a real sensation in store:

the hoard of Neupotz.

In 1967, the first of these pieces appear in a gravel pit in the Rhine.

A dredger brings them up.

Historians feel incredibly lucky.

Because they were encased in riverbed sand,

large parts have been well preserved over the centuries.

(dubbed in English) It was lucky the workers realized

the importance of their find.

Divers closely examine the ground of the gravel quarry.

They want to make sure they don't miss a single piece.

The treasures unearthed by the dredgers exceed all expectations.

Mirrors, weapons, and vessels brimming with ornaments.

Silver, bronze, copper, iron.

The value of the raw materials alone is quite impressive.

What we have here is extraordinary, unique.

It's the biggest hoard from Roman times ever found north of the Alps.

Together, the objects weigh over 1500 pounds.

A real treasure.

Just like in the Nibelungenlied.

The divers also retrieve military equipment and tools,

and the hinges of rotting cartwheels.

Another consistency, because the treasure of the Nibelungs is loaded on carts, too.

The Nibelungenlied also states bullock carts moved this treasure out of Worms.

There are a few things that add up.

Many details seem fitting.

But there are also some confusing discoveries.

We also discovered skulls, skeleton parts in the Rhine...

although we can never determine for sure if they belong to the treasure.

They could point to a battle.

In Roman times, the Rhine was a demarcation line subject to fighting.

The Romans used battle ships to protect their Empire

against Germanic attacks.

With limited success.

Germanic pillagers incessantly attack wealthy Roman settlements.

(battle cries)

And return east with lots of loot.

(in German)

(dubbed in English) Maybe the Roman fleet intercepted the Teutons on their return.

We know the Romans trapped returning Teutons in Raetia,

but also in Colonia, and defeated them.

But the Teutons can't outrun the fast boats of the Romans.

The treasure of Neupotz might have sunk in the Rhine during one of their battles.

The Roman coins that were found along with the treasure seem to confirm this.

It is striking that there are no coins minted after 260 CE.

We have to assume they all went into the Rhine

before or around the year 260.

This is right when the Teutons launch what was then their most major attack.

Around the year 259, they cross large parts of the Limes

and advance deeply into Roman territory.

Sources document these pillages.

In combination with the series of coins,

this leads us to a very concrete event in 259/260.

It is clear: The hoard of Neupotz can't be the treasure of the Nibelungs.

The Nibelungenlied is set around the year 500,

while this event took place 250 years earlier.

Is the Nibelung treasure still waiting to be found?

Or is it merely a myth?

The treasure hunt begins when old manuscripts were rediscovered.

The Nibelungenlied got hardly any attention for centuries,

but was found again at just the right moment.

The Nibelungenlied had fallen into oblivion until 1755.

That's when it was rediscovered.

That's when the modern history of the Nibelungenlied begins.

Late in the 18th century, medieval legends suddenly become hugely popular.

In the same period, Germany is nothing more than a patchwork

of kingdoms and principalities.

The feeling of a national identity or a common culture is still weak,

and is shaken by an invasion.

Napoleon successfully wages war against Germany's monarchs.

In 1806, he invades Berlin.

Many German cities fall under French military rule.

The Nibelung saga became very important in the 1800s,

because Napoleon was rampaging through Europe.

He was conquering everywhere he went.

When you have conquerors doing that, what happens is there's a real desire

for people to find their own national identity,

especially stories which are all about honor,

all about strength and resistance.

That's why the Nibelung was so important.

Copies of it were given to troops on the battlefront

to inspire them against their new foe.

Composer Richard Wagner takes up the story.

The opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen becomes a worldwide success.

(Richard Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries" plays)

In 1924, cinema legend Fritz Lang creates the first motion picture

of the legendary characters.

In his five-hour-long silent film, he writes cinematographic history,

with the Nibelungs rising to the status of national heroes.

The Nazis use the tale for their own purposes.

It doesn't matter to them that the story depicts the downfall of a tribe.

Siegfried's valor and the Burgundian loyalty until death are idolized.

Nazi propaganda is home to anything that can be presented as "typically German."

For the Nazis, the Nibelungenlied represented real treasure:

something to exploit for their own propaganda.

It features concepts like honor, vengeance, battles, blind loyalty.

These are themes the Nazis often used for their own purposes and their warmongering.

Siegfried becomes the quintessential German hero.

His victory over the dragon fans the flames of the fantasy.

A mysterious sword is said to have led him to triumph.

But is there truth to this part of the Nibelungenlied?

Bladesmith Stefan Roth wants to get to the bottom of this myth.

He has mastered the forging technology that was used more than 1,000 years ago.

(Roth in German)

(dubbed in English) In the Middle Ages, bladesmiths were specialists,

who made every high-tech product of their time,

equal to the weapons that are perhaps manufactured

in hidden laboratories or at Area 51 today.

Back in the early Middle Ages, these smiths did this work.

Back in the 5th century, swords were high-tech weapons,

luxury goods, and status symbols alike.

They are featured in countless legends.

Like in the Norse Thidrekssaga, which has striking parallels to the Nibelungenlied.

Wieland forges a powerful sword by rasping an old sword to powder,

which he mixes with the feed for his geese.

The blacksmith then takes the digested steel

and using a hammer and an anvil, he creates a wonder sword.

Does the legend contain a secret medieval formula?

The transmutation of metallurgical recipes into mythic stories

was common for alchemists of the time.

You might have seen this as more normal

than the writing down of a recipe.

Stefan Roth wants to fact check this.

He and his son Darius make a sword following the ancient instructions

as closely as possible.

We simply mixed the iron ore with dried bird feces.

Bird feces contain a lot of nitrogen, which could make the steal harder.

Does the technique really work?

Using a bloomery, the men set out to produce the medieval wonder steel,

so they can get started with the actual forging process.

They start by tackling the ball of steel with nothing but a hammer.

(Roth) We don't just forge the steel to shape it. It's a purification process.

We want to get rid of the slag, charcoal rests, and the ashes.

After many hours of work, they end up with a rectangular block.

They go on and fold this basic shape several times,

working it again and again with the hammer until they create a long blade.

Stefan Roth forges a second sword to compare with the Wieland sword.

This weapon does not contain bird feces.

Which sword will be better?

They will test both blades in an old factory building.

-Hi, Stefan. -Hi.

(Roth) Here they are, our beautiful swords.

Sixt Wetzler from the German Blade Museum wants to put the Wieland to the test.

(in German)

(dubbed in English) A fascinating experiment:

trying to find out if mixing bird feces into the steel changes its properties.

I'm really excited to see what we'll find.

Wetzler is not only an archaeologist and expert for ancient blade weapons,

he is also an excellent swordsman.

In our experiment, he will wield the conventional sword,

the blade without any bird feces.

Roth brandishes the sword he forged according to Wieland's technique.

He, too, is an experienced swordsman.

What's behind the legend of the wonder weapon?

The two experts put the swords to the test.

Challenge number one:

sever a rope with a two-inch diameter.

A test that only a particularly sharp blade can withstand.

The sword has to rip into the rope, making a clean cut.

If it is too blunt, it will merely displace the rope.

Sixt goes first with the conventional sword.

The test goes off without a hitch.

Next up, the legendary sword.

(he grunts)

The rope stands no chance against Stefan Roth.

Interim conclusion after the first round:

I'd say it's a tie.

It's time to up the game.

Sixt will now have to cut through a steel pipe.

The medieval blade only makes a dent in the modern steel.

Will the alleged wonder sword be more powerful?

Not at first glance.

But the blacksmith detects a visible cut.

The Wieland sword performed better. A clear-cut case.

The final hurdle is a real stress test:

175 pounds of massive ice.

I'm excited.

I don't know what'll happen, how the ice will react, so, we'll see.

Not only is ice extremely hard,

it also poses a risk to the blade,

which can become brittle and break due to the cold.

(he grunts)

The regular sword withstands the test, but not unscathed.

You can see where it got hit.

It's pretty bent right there.

The ice block shows that a sword doesn't just have to be sharp, but stable as well.

Will the nitrogen from the bird feces prove effective once again?

Stefan Roth shows no mercy on the ice.

It takes fewer blows to destroy it.

The crucial question is:

How did his sword withstand exposure to the cold?

The edges are perfectly fine.

I'm surprised myself how much such a sword can withstand.

It's a really brutal test.

And the winner is...

Congratulations. Stefan won two rounds.

The Wieland sword scored slightly better.

As wondrous as the mythical formula sounds,

it seems to have been based on actual knowledge.

Maybe people found out by accident, and the stories lived on in the legend.

Our test has shown legendary swords are more than just a fantasy.

Swords are powerful in myth.

They tend to be associated with power and with a particular hero.

Take for example Excalibur and King Arthur.

These swords were often highly decorated

People wouldn't have seen anything like this.

It made them feel like this was an important, magical symbol.

Siegfried achieves his greatest feat with a sword.

He defeats the dragon, an opponent far superior.

In the Middle Ages, dragons are more than just mythical creatures.

People actually believe that they exist.

They represent the ultimate evil.

(dragon screeches)

Churchgoers believe they have been sent by the devil.

Stories of dragon slayers like St. George depict the victory of good over evil.

The myth is fueled by bones that are inexplicable to our ancestors.

Not until the modern period do researchers start to investigate these bones.

At first, they believe they are elephant femurs

or the teeth of prehistoric giants.

In 1824, British geologist William Buckland is the first to attribute

a jawbone to an entirely new animal species.

He says his find is part of a gigantic reptile that he calls "megalosaurus."

Dinosaur research is born.

Can you imagine finding dinosaur bones?

It happened the world over in ancient times.

They didn't know about dinosaurs or evolution.

It was easy for them to project dragons on them.

The dragon.

The sword.

Siegfried's feat.

If we can find explanations for some of the most fantastic details of the myth,

the gold has to exist for certain.

He also firmly believes the Nibelung treasure is somewhere out there:

Helmut Siegert from Heidelberg.

The former engineer is a real expert when it comes to finding treasure.

(in German)

(dubbed in English) I've known the Nibelungen saga since I was a child.

It's always fascinated me.

Siegert has developed his own method to hunt for treasure.

He has detected hundreds of water sources with a home-made dowsing rod.

Now he believes he has located the Nibelung treasure, too.

He is using a thin wire rod meant to pick up electromagnetic vibrations.

I sat down and I said, "OK, Worms. Where can I find anything?"

And the rod was here, and nothing happened.

That's when I said "OK."

Taking the adjacent map,

and you can already see what is happening:

the rod is moving to the left.

So I drew this line here and turned the map.

And then the rod slowly moves further over here.

There is even a sign on the map marking the location

very close to the Rhine.

Will it lead Siegert to the treasure of the Nibelungs?

His discovery exceeds all of his hopes.

I'm standing in front of ruins of an old fortress.

This used to be a Roman burgus with a harbor

where they loaded stones from the Odenwald mountain range onto ships.

An ideal hiding spot for the Nibelung treasure.

Taking a small tributary, a ship can soon cover the distance

between the Rhine and the castle, even if it's heavily loaded.

The fortress lies protected deep in the woods.

According to Siegert's theory, Hagen loaded the treasure onto two boats,

which then travelled to the former Roman harbor basin,

where they were sunk along with the treasure.

To retrieve it, he would have only needed to drain the basin.

To check his theory, Siegert is using a ground-penetrating radar,

which detects metal in the ground.

The device picks up vibrations exactly where he suspects the treasure to be.

Something seems to be buried four meters beneath the surface.

Siegert is sure it's one of two gold-laden boats.

For him, this is proof that Hagen sunk the Nibelung treasure

in this very location.

It was the most logical thing to do.

You could conduct a clandestine operation at night here:

bring two ships here and sink them.

You could block the branch of the Rhine.

You still could access the treasure, also mentioned in the Nibelungenlied

since they wanted to retrieve it.

Everything fits perfectly. This is where the Nibelung treasure is.

But Siegert can't confirm his theory.

The site is listed as a cultural heritage.

Excavations are prohibited.

At least he has had a notary attest to a finder's fee, just in case.

In 2014, another find near the Rhine makes headlines.

In a forest area in Rülzheim, located in the same region,

a detectorist finds gold and silver jewelry worth more than a million euros.

Is this the Nibelung treasure?

In the Rülzheim forest, Czerny takes us to the place

where he made the find of his life back in 2014.

And this is where we found it.

You can still see a little depression.

Czerny has nearly made his way back home when his detector goes off.

He and his companions immediately take out their spades.

We started digging. First, we found some rods, 50 centimeters deep.

Silver rods that looked like they were from a garden fence.

They unearth more and more pieces, one by one.

We felt a certain adrenaline rush as we found all the individual parts

and saw how they shimmered, all silver and golden.

It's the best outcome for any treasure hunter.

He films the entire hoard at his home and proudly presents his discovery online.

(Czerny) The most beautiful piece.

Unfortunately, the gems are missing, they probably fell out.

The video attracts the attention of the authorities, who then seize the treasure.

The Barbarian treasure of Rülzheim ends up in the State Museum of Koblenz.

What Czerny thought to be a garden fence is a rare Roman folding chair.

But the real sensation is the bowl.

These bowls are typical of treasures linked to the Huns.

It's the archaeological proof that the Huns were near the Rhine

at the same time as the Burgundians.

Is the Barbarian treasure of Rülzheim the legendary Nibelung treasure?

Scientists still haven't been able to answer this.

The problem:

A layman has excavated the pieces.

A lot of important information was lost in the process.

(in German)

(dubbed in English) To archaeologists, a site like this is like a crime scene.

You can find countless pieces of information there:

the way the objects lie next to each other

or scientific samples you can take.

This changes once someone goes digging about with a spade or a hoe.

It's as bad as being a detective arriving at a crime scene

and the cleaner has already tidied up.

While the pieces are clearly from the Burgundian era,

it remains uncertain whether they're part of their treasures.

It's possible this treasure is one of many that went into the ground

during the migration period, and one that laid the groundwork for future legends.

Maybe the Nibelung treasure is already in a museum,

without being labelled as such.

Or the hoard is still in the ground somewhere in Germany,

just waiting to be found by detectorists like Benjamin Czerny.

You only come across a treasure as huge as the Nibelung treasure by chance.

It takes a lot of luck, like winning the lottery.

And so he hopes that one day he will make another sensational find.

Treasure hunter Hans Jörg Jacobi has found bliss in the actual song of the Nibelungs.

He has even composed his own melody.

(sings Niebelungenlied in Middle High German)

The Rhine seems to be the only one that knows for sure

whether the Nibelung treasure has ever existed.

The only certainty we have

is that the old myth is much more than mere fantasy.

It is the dramatic echo of history.

(narrator) The Huns. A symbol of fear and terror.

And their king, Attila.

Many legends and sagas feature the funeral of Attila.

To this day, his death is shrouded in mystery.

They tried to hide the tomb.

(sound of moving slab)

Hungarian scientists are searching for the legendary tomb.

They make fascinating discoveries,

and are getting closer and closer to the Huns.

(dramatic orchestral music)

I'm standing on the wall of Attila's castle.

Will they uncover the secret of the Hun king?

Unbelievable.

Where's Attila's tomb?

(dramatic orchestral music)

The great myths of mankind.

Mysteries passed on over thousands of years.

Inexplicable events, places shrouded in legend,

and superhuman heroes.

Even scientists are fascinated.

Is there any truth to these ancient legends?

Researchers across the globe

are working hard to solve the greatest mysteries of our time.

(dramatic music)

(mysterious melody)

(suspenseful music)

The Hungarian steppe.

Home of the Huns in the fifth century.

From here, they set out to plunder and conquer.

Ghost riders attacking out of nowhere.

Forcing entire tribes to flee.

(horse neighing)

Their greatest leader: Attila,

The King of the Huns.

Who is this legendary ruler,

responsible for instilling fear across Europe?

Ádám Baumgartner is fascinated by the myths surrounding the Huns.

He heads a group south of Budapest

that examines ancient combat techniques.

Equipped with horses, armour and weapons,

they dive deep into the history of the Huns.

(voices and hammering)

(Baumgartner) The most fascinating thing about the Huns is that

they came from nowhere.

They fought with both Roman empires, defeating one of them.

We also wanted to recreate this beautiful period of history,

to recreate the Hunnic lifestyle.

(folk music)

To the group, there's more to it than just the folklore.

Armour, clothes, weapons and combat techniques.

They want everything to be as true to detail as possible.

Attila has become a cult legend to many Hungarians.

(folk music becomes more percussive)

(suspenseful music)

Nobody knows exactly what the Hun king looked like.

His people didn't leave behind written documents.

Only his enemies write about him,

and so Attila is remembered mainly as one thing:

the scourge of God.

The incarnation of the Devil,

spreading doom and disaster across the world.

(suspenseful music)

Psychological warfare works on the basis

that we are hugely intelligent, cognitive beings

with very strong imaginations.

Which means that imagination and our emotions can be manipulated.

It works because it takes some of our attention away from the battlefield.

It was in the Huns' favour to be feared,

because it meant some of the battle had already been won,

even before the actual battle commenced.

(percussive sounds)

(horn rings out)

In the West, in the 4th century CE,

the Huns appear on the world stage for the first time.

As part of bloody campaigns,

martial horsemen advance deep into the heart of Europe.

Their greatest enemies are the Romans,

still ruling over half the continent.

But the empire struggles to fend off

the quick advances of these new opponents.

The Huns overrun and raid vast stretches of land.

(dramatic music)

In the 4th century, the Roman Empire is divided into two separate empires.

One in the West, and one in the East.

After subjecting a large number of Goths to their rule,

the Huns move on to Roman legions.

(suspenseful percussive music)

We don't know exactly why the Huns started to move.

Perhaps it was climate change,

perhaps they were searching for new fertile land

for their growing numbers of horsemen.

We are certain that when they started to move,

they pushed in front of them tens of thousands of people,

and they fought those tribes as well,

pushing them up against the walls of the Roman Empire.

Scientists still debate the origins of the Huns to this day.

The only thing they agree on

is that they came from the huge Asian steppes.

Nomads living off husbandry and hunting.

Their departure to the West is closely tied to one name.

Attila.

Born around 400 CE.

In the 5th century, he and his allies took regions by storm.

To this very day, Hungarians celebrate him

as their national hero.

Myths tend to get exaggerated over time,

as they come from an oral tradition, so that each retelling is different.

Further, many of them were performed, so to hold the audience's attention,

it's important to make them as entertaining as possible.

The heroic become more heroic,

the magic becomes more magical,

and the power becomes more powerful.

His death is shrouded in legends,

helping to solidify his mythical image.

To this day, nobody knows how and where he was buried.

His dead body is said to be protected by three layers of iron,

silver and gold.

Allegedly, Attila's followers cut off their hair

and wounded their faces to mourn his death

with blood in place of tears.

Legend has it that the men who dug the pit were then killed

to ensure the tomb would forever remain undiscovered.

The practical answer for why the undertaking slaves were killed

is that they didn't want anybody to find the treasure or tomb.

But the more religious reason might be

that he wanted to take these people with him.

This was a common motif. This happened worldwide,

where fallen kings would want to leave with their servants.

(quiet, suspenseful music)

Most experts believe Attila was buried in Hungary,

in an undisclosed location near the Danube.

The search for the legendary location inspires researchers

and hobby treasure hunters alike.

Time and time again,

someone claims to have found him.

But they are never right.

Musician Levente Szörényi

has been looking for traces of Attila and the Huns for quite some time.

He's on his way to an excavation site

in the Pilis mountains.

(Levente laughs and grunts)

We are going to hell!

(Levente laughs)

His search for the Hun treasures is financed with private means.

He has had a decade-long fascination with Attila

and a brilliant career as a rock star.

In Hungary, since the 1960s,

Levente Szörényi has been as famous as John Lennon.

(60s Hungarian rock 'n' roll music)

(Levente laughs)

(suspenseful music)

Today, he's visiting the place

where he believes he'll find traces of the Huns.

The Moonshine quarry.

Here, Levente Szörényi and his excavation team

have unearthed several treasures from the Hun era.

Any new discovery

could bring him one step closer to Attila.

Levente Szörényi

thinks the Huns used the area as a burial site.

And he's hoping to find clues

leading to the legendary Hun king.

(suspenseful electronic sounds)

(Levente speaks Hungarian)

(dubbed in English) This used to be a Roman quarry.

When the Huns arrived, they changed everything.

But nobody knows why.

Recently, the team has found some bones

dating back 1500 years.

A first clue as to how the Huns might have used this former quarry.

(suspenseful cello music)

Researchers have found a complete skeleton

beneath this rock.

It belonged to a cow.

They discovered more bones deeper down.

A human skeleton.

This is a typical Pagan burial ritual.

The place seems to be a sacred site to the Huns.

Could Attila's tomb be close?

Levente Szörényi and his team

will continue their search in a few months.

If Attila's tomb was to be found,

it will probably be here in the Hungarian plain.

But without any written clues,

it's nearly impossible to pinpoint exactly where it could be.

Studying the Huns is very difficult, because they were nomadic.

The only way you can find out about them

is to see what other peoples wrote about them when they had contact.

Other peoples like the Romans, who described the Huns in some detail.

Eastern Roman historian Priscus of Panium

describes a visit with Attila.

Based on that, we know what Attila and the court looked like,

and how the traditions of the Huns looked.

So Priscus said that Attila is a very noble man.

And he's very simple, compared to the other Hunnic lords.

Priscus presents Attila in a soft light.

"He showed himself temperate. His cup was made of wood,

while to the guests were given goblets of gold and silver."

But Attila has more than one face.

He kills his brother Bleda to come into power.

Both rule as kings, but Attila is only second in line.

He wants to be the sole ruler,

and bring his brother's devotees into his own army.

It remains unclear whether the fratricide

really took place as recorded,

or if Attila's enemies were merely attempting to slander him.

(sound of metal)

But we know Attila wins the loyalty of the most important tribal chiefs.

Germanic tribes also fight alongside him.

Contemporaries estimate his army consists of half a million warriors,

which is probably exaggerated.

Jointly, they wage war against the Romans.

Attila starts by fighting the Eastern Roman empire.

Emperor Theodosius pays dearly for peace,

and agrees to tribute payments.

Attila goes on to turn against the Western Roman empire.

The empire of the Hun king stretches from the Caspian Sea to the Alps.

(in German)

(dubbed in English) Despite what some historians claim,

Attila wasn't just some ruthless Barbarian.

He must have also possessed some fairly exceptional skills

to have been able to organise a cavalry this large.

He must have spoken several languages,

since the Huns were people of various ethnicities.

So he was knowledgeable, he was strategic,

and he knew how to negotiate with other rulers.

Remains of the Huns are scattered all over Hungary.

Archaeologist Gábor Wilhelm

specialises in excavating antique tools.

To him, each grave is just a piece of the puzzle.

Archaeological finds are crucial sources

when it comes to reconstructing the history of the Huns,

their spread and their wars.

Starting in Central Asia,

a map shows how the Huns

ravaged almost all of Europe and Asia.

Some finds even point to Attila himself.

One particularly spectacular object is here in the Kecskemet Museum.

It is the skull of a warrior whose ostentatious tomb

was only discovered quite recently.

This warrior lived in the first half of the 5th century, just like Attila,

and he was buried in a Hun ritual.

(dramatic strings)

(in Hungarian)

(dubbed in English) This tomb is an important find,

because there are still many unanswered questions about the Huns.

Thanks to written tradition,

we know a few things about Attila,

but finds from this era are rare.

Even the smallest artefacts

help us to complete this mosaic,

this puzzle.

(Bernadett speaks Hungarian)

(dubbed in English) We got the skull back from the anthropologist.

He pointed out that the nasal bridge is very large.

This is a crucial detail.

It's a typical Mongolian feature.

Right after the excavation,

he also said there are traces of the upper bandage up here.

We were also able to see this in the first pictures.

A very particular custom of ancient tribes

is artificial cranial deformations.

To elongate the skull,

the Huns wrapped their babies' heads in bandages

while their bones are still malleable.

These deformations were likely most practised

amongst aristocratic families

to demonstrate their superior status.

(Gábor) Brilliant.

(Bernadett) One of the most deformed skulls he's ever seen.

(Gábor) He must've been handsome.

But who is this mysterious Hun warrior?

The tomb is unusually exquisite. Could this be Attila himself?

Bountiful burial objects could mean Attila is close.

Golden jewellery, belt buckles.

an iron sword:

no doubt this has to be the grave of a powerful man.

But one detail doesn't add up.

This warrior died young.

Attila, however, probably lived till he was about 50.

Nevertheless, the archaeologists link the find directly to Attila.

This young man was part of the Hun elite.

So it's very likely that he knew Attila.

It is quite possible that the young warrior fought alongside Attila.

As the supreme ruler of the Huns,

Attila always leads his people into battle.

It's not only the Huns' legendary morale that gets the Roman rulers

into dire straits.

Ádám Baumgartner's men train with weapons of antiquity.

Swords, spears, arrows and bows.

They're première class, fighting on horseback

like in Attila's time.

(Ádám) The Huns train their whole life.

They train with different weapons.

They train to use the spears and use the bows.

(percussive music)

The bow is the basic weapon,

and it's used to break up the formations of the enemies,

and also strike them from far away.

(percussive music)

(dramatic orchestral music)

(dubbed in English) The Huns are coming!

The Huns are specialised in taking

their opponents by surprise.

Baumgartner's group is rehearsing an attack on a Roman camp.

The secret of Hunnic warfare is that they fight from a running horse,

and they use a very powerful bow.

(dramatic orchestral music swells up and goes silent)

The Huns retreat after every attack,

only to strike again unexpectedly

at a later date.

Everybody fears what they don't understand.

Especially when it can sneak up fast and kill you at a distance.

The Huns were very foreign and somewhat unknown.

And not only that. They had practices of ripping their faces open

when somebody died in battle, as though they felt no pain.

When they rushed into war, they showed no fear.

When you're thinking about having to face that kind of a force,

it might be really scary to think you might not have inside of you

what you need to match it.

(suspenseful music)

The Huns use a new technique to wage war.

Their secret weapon is the Hun bow,

which at the time was unheard of in Europe.

The ancient high-tech bow is made from various materials:

wood, horn, sinew and bone.

Glued together in multiple layers.

(in Hungarian)

(dubbed in English) The inside of the bow is animal horn.

The centre has a wooden core. On the outside there are animal sinews.

Here we see that the horn and the grip

have been reinforced with bone plates.

All these features reinforce the bow

while making it highly flexible.

The bow is drawn further back,

and its various components are able to store more energy.

The composite bow used by the Huns also has a special shape.

The Huns used asymmetrical composite bows

equipped with rigid horns.

We can see that the lower limb is a bit shorter than the upper limb,

making it much easier to move on horseback.

(suspenseful electronic music)

This type of composite bow helps Attila win.

The deadly arrows are accelerated by the horses' speed,

which further increases the force of their impact.

The nimble composite bows allow the Huns to shoot backwards,

even when galloping in the opposite direction,

meaning they can weaken their enemy

even in retreat mode.

(suspenseful music)

We want to put the impact of these ancient arrows to the test.

Our target: two pumpkins.

Our weapons: a longbow.

The typical long-range weapon used in Roman times

and into the Middle Ages.

Next to it: the composite bow of the Huns.

Bows can only be drawn right before they're shot,

otherwise, the force exerted at rest would be too great.

Which type of weapon is more destructive?

The bows are shot from the same distance,

using the same type of arrow.

The longbow's up first.

(Ádám:) The longbow went through.

Next up, the composite bow.

It stores almost twice as much energy when drawn.

Whoa! You smashed it.

(Ádám chuckles)

The result is clear: the arrow from the Hun bow

penetrates the pumpkin almost completely.

The composite bow is the winner.

The composite bow makes the Huns

the superpower of late antiquity.

And their merciless warfare

becomes part of collective memory.

The rumours about the brutal horsemen were quite demoralising.

Their goal is to force the enemy to surrender

and have frightened soldiers join their ranks.

A myth that survives the centuries.

The expression "The Huns are coming"

remains a symbol for calamity

up until the 20th century.

In 1900, German soldiers are deployed

to China to thwart a rebellion.

Emperor Wilhelm II gives his infamous "Hun Speech",

asking his soldiers to show no mercy to their opponents.

He wants the Chinese to fear the Germans

like the world once feared Attila the Hun.

Based on Wilhelm's address,

the Hun becomes the new epithet for the Germans.

British and American newspapers

happily use this image during World War I.

In World War II, Nazi propaganda tries to instrumentalise

the old fear of enemy attacks from the East,

comparing the Soviet Army to the Huns.

In December 1941,

Hitler declares the Soviet Union is trying to destroy Europe

as the Huns once did.

And therefore, to save Europe,

he must invade Russia.

(crowd cheers)

The Huns became a very valuable tool for later propaganda purposes,

because if you needed to label a people

as unpredictable, as violent, as ferocious,

then you simply called them "The Huns".

And to do so brought with it this air of mystery,

of wildness and of violence.

The Huns.

Fearless and merciless warriors.

An image that lives on for over 1500 years.

(suspenseful percussive music)

In another experiment, we are trying to find out from which range

the weapons are effective.

In battles, penetrating power isn't the only deciding factor.

Reach also plays a key role.

On a field near the riding arena, the men mark out 200 metres

by placing a pumpkin on the ground every 20 metres.

The Roman longbow is once again going head to head

with the composite bow.

At 32 metres per second,

the Roman arrow covers 100 metres.

What force will the composite bow unleash?

The Hun arrow reaches a speed of 42 metres per second,

and hits the ground at 170 metres.

A difference of 70 metres.

A clear advantage in attacks on the Romans.

With their superior long-range weapon,

the Huns under Attila weaken the Roman empires

in the East and the West.

They advance by the thousands,

and break their adversaries' line of defence

with a deadly rain of arrows.

(shouts)

The Roman army is helpless.

The Hun arrows decide battle after battle.

The Huns are legendary because of this novel military technique.

Soon, every child in Europe knows Attila's name.

But his death still remains a mystery to this day.

Nobody knows where he was buried.

Some believe Attila's tomb has to be in the riverbed

of the Danube or the Tisa,

one of its tributaries.

The exact location: unknown.

Descriptions only tell us how the burial reportedly took place.

The details bare great resemblance to the funeral of Visigoth King Alaric

who ruled only a few decades before Attila.

Allegedly, he is buried in a drained riverbed as well.

Attila's final resting place is also meant to remain a secret forever.

He is said to have been buried per request

under a river, in a secret ceremony.

So, can we find Attila's tomb in one of the Hungarian rivers?

Attila Tóth is an underwater archaeologist.

The Hungarian rivers are like a second home to him and his team.

If Attila's grave really were to be found on the bottom of the Danube,

or one of its tributaries,

Attila Tóth would be the one to find it.

From his boat, the scientist scours the riverbed

for hidden objects using a side scan sonar.

There are big trees in the water.

It's a bit dangerous today...

not to hit a tree trunk.

Can he find Attila's tomb?

Actually we don't know

where Attila's tomb is.

It is possible that it's under the Danube,

because of course he was a very important person.

The centre of his empire was in present-day Hungary somewhere.

So probably they tried to hide the tomb.

So it could actually be true.

Riverbeds are wonderful locations for preserving historic material.

There is no air, and that means the material can be preserved

for centuries.

So there's every chance that if we found the right place,

then Attila's burial chamber would be preserved just perfectly.

(dramatic orchestral music)

But how could a king be buried under a river?

The Danube or Tisa would have had to be dammed or drained.

The Hun warriors on horseback

could only have achieved this by using topographical features.

With islands to shorten the dam.

A natural barrier would mean

the water only needs to be dammed on one side,

while the other side serves as a natural drain

This way, Attila's men might be able to dig a grave

that could be inundated at a later date.

We found Roman materials and far older relics along the Danube.

I don't see why we wouldn't find memories of the Huns,

if not Attila's grave itself.

Will the underwater archaeologist track down

Attila's hidden tomb?

The Danube is full of cultural remains,

starting from prehistory up to the modern period.

Because this was the highway of Europe.

(suspenseful music)

It's highly likely that it was crossed by a Hun army

1500 years ago.

On the screen we can see what is under the water.

It's like a map, a flat map of the Danube,

right and left of the boat,

and we see everything that emerges from the riverbed just a bit.

(suspenseful electronic music)

Ultrasonic waves and GPS data from the boat

provide researchers with images of what lies beneath the riverbed.

Whatever is hidden down there,

a tomb, ruins, lost treasures, will be visible on the screen.

Suddenly they discover something.

(suspenseful sounds)

We have a very big rock.

Maybe a piece of wall.

(Attila Tóth) We are just going over it.

Two walls forming rectangular structures.

Maybe, maybe... Oh, it's beautiful.

I think it was a Roman tower.

A big tower of fortification.

An old Roman fort on the outer imperial frontier?

So this is the position

where we have to dive.

And I think it's a very good location, because we have no current.

The depth is only 4.7 metres.

Here we saved the position.

So we dive here, and look at what's under the water.

(suspenseful percussive music)

The site is promising.

This is exactly where the river divided the Roman empire

from the great empire of the Huns,

2000 years ago.

The Danubian Limes.

The Romans built a series of forts along the stream

because of the repeated clashes between Huns and Romans.

Attila's looking to raid and force them into making tribute payments.

A business model that submits opponents.

To the Romans, it's the beginning of a long and trying war.

Neither protective walls nor military equipment

can shelter them from the Hun attacks.

(suspenseful music)

The chain mail is a typical piece of Roman armour.

Used for centuries, it protects them against cut and thrust weapons.

But can it also deflect Hun arrows?

This group wants to put it to the test.

From a ten-metre distance,

the penetrating power of an arrow is deadly.

The chain mail does not stop the projectile.

The Huns use another kind of protection.

Lamellar, or scale armour,

which can even withstand arrows.

Hun leaders and tribal chiefs went into battle wearing this armour.

And Attila most probably did too.

The armour is created from thin plates of lamellar.

Made from iron.

It's very light, very moveable.

You could raise your hand, you could use the bows.

This is a very protective layer.

A test will show if the lamellar armour

can really protect against projectiles.

Can the thin iron lamellae deflect an arrow?

The arrow really bounces off.

The energy spreads across the lamellae, weakening the impact.

It's clear. The Hun armour provides better protection.

At least against incoming arrows.

It's also light and flexible.

Ideal for fighting high on horseback.

It went through the chains, and the lamellar blocked it.

Their weapons, armour and combat technique fuel the myth

of the invincible Hun.

The Hun combat technique is superior

thanks to their bowmen and horses.

Together, the rider and his horse form a perfect fighting machine,

nimble and fast.

Contemporaries scoff at them,

claiming the Huns lived their entire lives on horseback,

purportedly even sleeping in the saddle,

and negotiating on horseback.

The Huns train on horseback from early childhood.

The speed of the horse also gives them additional range and power.

Their horses allow the Huns to cover up to 80 kilometres per day,

which makes them more than twice as fast as the Roman legions.

The horseback attacks are also psychologically powerful.

They used the blood of their enemies to warm up the horses.

They put it to their noses,

so they are not afraid of the smell of blood.

Ghost riders attacking their adversaries out of the blue.

Lightly armed, but incredibly fast and nimble.

They instil fear into the hearts of Europeans.

And one man embodies this terror like no other.

Attila.

Almost superhuman. Invincible.

At the peak of his power in 451,

Attila attacks Roman cities in Gaul,

culminating in the decisive Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.

40,000 Roman warriors

against 45,000 Huns

and their devotees.

In ancient times, it's the battle of the nations.

The Roman troops manage to push back and surround Attila.

It's a stalemate.

For the very first time,

the dreaded Hun king is forced to admit defeat.

(tense percussive music)

Attila loses his reputation for being invincible.

The following year he invades Italy,

but can't conquer Rome.

(emotional orchestral music)

In 453,

Germanic princess Ildico arrives at Attila's court.

He marries her and the Huns celebrate all night.

But in the morning, there is silence, the legend goes.

An attendant finds Attila dead in his bed next to his wife.

He is said to have choked on his own blood.

Maybe in a drunken stupor.

Or did Ildico kill him?

So was he poisoned?

Did he die in his sleep?

There would've been motivations to tell a different story if he did.

One, warrior cultures tend to prioritise warrior deaths.

So to die of a murder would've been much better

than to die in your sleep.

At the same time,

people want to blame somebody when something bad happens.

So you can imagine that when you walk in and find your king dead

and a woman cowering there,

it would've been easy to blame her whether she did it or not.

Attila's death is just as mysterious

as the circumstances of his funeral,

shrouded in ancient myths.

The version of the story in which Attila is buried in a river

makes it into the Hungarian history books.

But the tomb still hasn't been found to this very day.

Does it lie on the bottom of the Danube or Tisa?

And why is the uncertainty so tormenting?

When there are knowledge gaps that need filling,

when we aren't able to find out what happened

to the mortal remains of a famous person like Attila,

there's always room for speculation.

There's no tomb we can examine, no skeletons we can look at,

so there's a lot of room for imagination.

(suspenseful percussive music)

Attila Tóth and his team have found the remains

of a Roman fort in the Danube

using a sonar device.

They need special equipment for the dive.

(Attila Tóth) This metal detector is very useful to us.

Because the visibility is very short.

I mean, 20 to 40 centimetres in the Danube.

When we swing it, we are just scanning the riverbed.

And it shows every small metal object,

so you can touch it and look to see

whether it's an archaeological find or not.

Attila Tóth's team is one of the most experienced in Hungary.

They have found many remains from the Huns and Romans.

Discovering Attila's tomb would fulfil their lifelong dream.

Of course everything could be possible,

so we are searching the Danube and the Tisa

and all rivers here in the Carpathian Basin

for cultural heritage.

The divers have reached the site of the former Roman fortifications.

They go down to where there was once dry land.

(sound of diver's oxygen tank)

(water bubbling)

Patience and the right tools are the only way

to find something in the mud.

(water bubbling and quiet, suspenseful music)

The diver passes the Roman walls

once providing protection against the Huns,

diving through the murky water of the Danube.

(beeping)

Suddenly the metal detector starts going off.

There must be an iron object hidden between the stones.

(suspenseful music)

Will the diver manage to retrieve it?

(dramatic orchestral music)

A piece of iron emerges from the Danube.

(suspenseful music)

Looks like a handmade...

ancient iron nail.

A Roman nail.

Not a rare sight for the archaeologists.

They don't discover any Hun remains this time.

If in a day, I find an iron coffin

inside a silver and gold coffin,

of course, naturally, I will not throw it back in the water.

We will excavate it and investigate it.

Everything could be possible.

Until then, the Danube shall keep the secret for herself.

A great hero needs a death shrouded by myths.

(suspenseful, atmospheric music)

To the Hungarians, Attila is like a national myth.

He's become a central figure in Hungarian historiography

because of his power and the way

he was able to intimidate his opponents.

Maybe those wanting to find Attila's tomb have to look elsewhere.

Budapest. Once the heart of Europe.

The once royal city of Hungary back in Medieval times

is now a major tourist attraction.

It is also where the life work of an unknown author is stored.

The Hungarians refer to him as "Anonymous".

His oeuvre is titled the "Gesta Hungarorum".

"The Deeds of the Hungarians."

The 800-year-old manuscript

is kept in the National Library in Buda castle.

Historian László Veszprémy has studied it for years.

It is the first depiction of Hungarian history

that goes back to Attila's time.

Narrations and legends that had previously been passed on orally.

In Hungary, it's a valuable treasure documenting their past.

And it turns out the old text really contains

hidden clues about Attila's tomb.

(in Hungarian)

(dubbed in English) It's one of the library's most valuable manuscripts

Written by Anonymous, a nameless Hungarian chronicler,

and entitled "The Deeds of the Hungarians".

It was written around the year 1200,

and has been preserved in a 13th century manuscript.

The text tells of Arpad, who ruled 450 years after Attila.

Is Arpad the key to Attila's tomb?

To Hungarians, he's the second hero besides Attila.

He frees his people from foreign rule

and secures the region around the Danube.

Before he died in 907,

he made a special request.

When the great prince Arpad died,

which was in 907, according to chronicles,

it was documented that he wanted to be buried in the city of King Attila.

"In civitatem Atillae regis."

But where is this ancient royal city of Attila?

Some think it could be the old Buda, west of Budapest.

On Medieval maps, the place is called Sicambria,

capital of the Hungarians.

Was this the city of the kings Arpad and Attila?

(dramatic orchestral music)

Sicambria is believed to be lost,

but its ruins might be found in the woods of the Pilis mountains.

Just a few kilometres outside Budapest,

near the town of Budakalász,

everything comes together.

Ecologist Imre Lánszki has studied the Medieval maps

and is convinced that the ancient royal city is located in this forest.

(in Hungarian)

(dubbed in English) I can't put it any other way.

This is the atrium of the castle.

And I'll show you where the walls stood.

There we can also see the moat.

Imre Lánszki is sure that he's standing

amidst the ruins of the palace of Hun king Attila.

(Dr Lánszki) This rock and this rock.

I'm standing on the wall of Attila's castle.

The wall was already here back then.

If Imre Lánszki's assumption proves to be true,

Attila's tomb might also be somewhere among these trees and rocks.

This was Sicambria.

Later it was called Attila's Castle.

"Etzelburg" in German.

(dramatic orchestral music)

Attila's life is a source of myths and legends.

The once powerful Hun king also inspired European poets.

Under the name of King Etzel,

he was also featured in a Medieval German saga, "Nibelungenlied".

Joachim Heinzle takes a closer look at this myth

in the monastery library of St Gallen.

He is a Nibelung expert.

He thinks the investigation needs to be conducted using the old text.

(dramatic music)

(in German)

(dubbed in English) In Germanic poetry, Etzel is the name used

to refer to Attila the Hun.

You can tell by the name.

Language historians were able to trace the name Etzel

directly back to Attila.

In the Nibelungenlied,

Etzel marries Burgundian princess Kriemhild.

Etzel is not portrayed as a brutal ruler,

but as an old and mild-mannered king.

His royal city is called Etzelburg,

and lies where old Buda used to be.

This old Buda, Óbuda,

was called Etzelburg in the Middle Ages.

We know this as there are records confirming it.

And in the Nibelungenlied,

the Etzelburg is also referred to as Etzel's residence.

(suspenseful music)

Imre Lánszki believes Attila's grave

lies in an old quarry directly behind the ruins

of the reputed royal city.

An excerpt from the Gesta Hungarorum

serves as his guiding light.

(dubbed in English) This book describes that Arpad

was buried over the source of a small creek running through the rock.

This is why we've come here.

I followed the directions in the Gesta Hungarorum.

(suspenseful orchestral music)

And it is also written that he was buried in a mine.

If it hasn't been pillaged, Arpad and Attila have to be there.

The ecologist has observed

irregularities in the treetops.

Some of the trees have grown in a peculiar way,

which could point to a cavity in the ground.

After eight or ten metres,

the tree, or its main branch, begins tilting to the side,

and cannot continue growing straight.

So it grows sideways.

You can see that perfectly over there.

And over there on the black locust,

we can also see the deformation along the whole tree.

There has got to be a large cavity underneath us.

Between here and there.

Infra-red imaging also points to a cavity.

The cross section of the area reveals a source of heat.

This means there's an air pocket.

Lánszki has the ground drilled and uses an endoscopic camera.

He wants to see if specialists can confirm his suspicion.

Are there man-made cavities beneath the rocks?

(voices)

At about twelve metres down,

there's got to be a crack and the edge of a cavity.

The camera probe slowly makes its way through the ground.

(Lánszki) How many metres down are we?

(man, dubbed in English) Ten metres.

(speaks Hungarian)

(Lánszki) There you go. Here we are.

Slowly, slowly...

This is too straight.

This stone has been worked.

(Lánszki) This is a fragmented stone.

It's pretty smooth over here too.

Go back a bit.

And the rock is not the same.

This shows that we're looking in the right place.

Imre Lánszki has found the cavity.

(Lánszki sighs)

It's fantastic.

(in English) Unbelievable.

Very, very good.

Is this the defining piece of the puzzle

in the search for Attila's tomb?

Imre Lánszki has to be patient,

and raise money to excavate this site.

(dramatic orchestral music)

If we were lucky enough to find the place

where Attila the Hun was buried,

then, and only then, I think, could we say that he'd no longer be a myth.

(dramatic music)

Attila the Hun: feared and admired to this day.

It only seems to be a matter of time

until the mystery surrounding his tomb

will be revealed.