Original subtitles

Narrator: eyes in the sky Watching us from space,

Hundreds of satellites Showing us

The world Like we've never seen it before,

Capturing images which Are breathtaking but bizarre,

Objects and phenomena Which defy explanation.

What is that?

Narrator: A weird line of holes in peru

Stretching a mile Through the andes.

These wholes were put there For a reason.

What are they for?

Narrator: In war-torn baghdad,

A sinister red lake -- Evidence of mass slaughter?

It really looks like blood.

Narrator: or is this An horrific war crime?

Baker: Could it be a toxic issue?

Is there chemical weapons Involved?

Narrator: one of the biggest Tsunamis ever.

Gough: looking at this image, My first reaction --

This is gonna cause Complete and utter devastation.

Narrator: And have satellites discovered China's doomsday weapon?

They know that we're not In a position to stop them.

Baffling objects Seen from space --

What on earth are they?

-- captions by vitac -- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

[ radio chatter ]

February 11, 2000 --

Nasa launches space shuttle endeavour.

Armed with state-of-the-art Imaging instruments,

It embarks on the shuttle Radar-topography mission.

Using a radar pulse,

It scans mountains and valleys, Picking up scars and marks

Even beneath the surface Of the earth.

When you combine radar imagery, Infrared imagery,

And photographic imagery,

You can see through foliage, Through sand.

You can form a picture That you otherwise

Would never Be able to understand.

Narrator: During its 11-day mission,

endeavour passes over arabia.

Seen through satellite cameras, And with the human eye,

It looks like a desert Should look.

But when the shuttle uses Its radar imaging,

Something else is revealed...

Something which Some scholars believe

May lead us To the actual location

Of the biblical garden of eden.

We've been guessing About this location

For the last 2,000 years.

Huston: the garden of eden is Described as a beautiful place

Which contains Not only adam and eve,

But it contains the tree of life

And the tree of the knowledge Of good and evil.

It was lush. It was green.

It had everything That they needed to survive.

Narrator: the garden of eden Is thought by many

To be an allegory,

A story dreamed up To teach us a moral lesson.

But there are many who say There are clues in the bible

Which suggest the garden of eden Was a real place.

It talks about a garden With a river running through it,

Breaking into four rivers When it comes out of the garden.

The euphrates, the tigris, The pishon, and the gihon.

Collins: since ancient people Don't tend to invent

Fictitious geographies,

The writer of this story has A particular location in mind

That either he has seen himself,

Or that geographical information Has been passed down

From generation to generation.

Narrator: To find the garden of eden,

Archaeologists need to follow The rivers described in genesis.

Together, they would lead To its true location.

But there's a problem.

Of the four rivers Named in the bible,

Only two of them Currently exist.

The tigris and the euphrates, Both ancient rivers, still flow

From the mountain peaks Of turkey

Down into the persian gulf.

But where Are the other two rivers --

The pishon and gihon?

Were they just works of fiction, As some have suggested?

The radar-topography instruments on endeavour

See things the human eye cannot.

And incredibly, They reveal long-extinct rivers

Invisible from the ground.

We've created this image Of all of the ancient rivers

That once could have flowed On the arabian peninsula.

We can see The current river systems

That are still active In the euphrates and the tigris,

And we can also see All of the relict

Ancient drainage systems Across the peninsula.

We've got at least Two big rivers,

And these could be The candidates

For those other lost rivers

That are associated With the garden of eden.

If you follow the rivers That we know of,

The tigris and euphrates,

They both end In the persian gulf,

So that's the area In which you would look.

Narrator: but which of these Extinct rivers

Are the pishon and gihon, As described in the bible?

Scholars first examined Two extinct rivers

That run in parallel,

But they're 470 miles south Of the spot

Where the tigris And euphrates meet.

Next, they turned to another Large, lost waterway

Cutting straight across arabia,

Snaking through the desert

Towards the tigris And euphrates.

It's a perfect match For either the pishon or gihon.

But what about the fourth river?

The trail appears to go dead.

Is the garden of eden Just a story after all?

Analysts widen their search.

To the north, Radar reveals a tangle

Of extinct streams And tributaries

That once fed Into the euphrates.

Further south, There are more still --

Arterial waterways, But no river.

Did this network of streams And creeks once feed

Another fourth river, No longer visible on dry land?

Either the pishon or the gihon May now be underwater.

Scholars now follow the leads.

Two active rivers, one extinct,

And another Which is buried beneath water.

The meeting place Described in the bible

Appears to be Beneath the persian gulf.

10,000 years ago, The gulf would have been a basin

Which probably had A freshwater lake in it,

And people Would have been living

Around that freshwater lake.

Collins: we have the tigris, The euphrates,

And two other rivers That you can see on satellite

That you cannot see On the ground,

Which are probably The pishon and the gihon

Coming together At the southern end,

Near the persian gulf, Forming one river.

And topographically, Geographically,

I think that makes Perfect sense.

Narrator: If the garden of paradise

Is located Beneath the waters of the gulf,

Satellites may find it.

They're already being used To map the ocean floor.

It may only be a matter of time

Before satellites Reveal the place

Where the four Ancient rivers meet --

The location Of paradise on earth

And the fall of man,

The garden of eden.

A giant tsunami Is spotted from space.

Cerveny: To see a wave on a satellite,

Even with modern technology About satellites,

Means that wave has to be Pretty darn big.

Narrator: and it's headed

For one of the most populated Places on the planet.

This is gonna cause Complete and utter devastation.

Narrator: april 18, 2003 --

Nasa's flagship Terra research satellite

Picks up a frightening image In the south china sea.

It looks like one of the largest Tsunamis ever,

And it's headed Straight for hong kong,

A city of seven million people.

Cerveny: To see a wave on a satellite,

Even with modern technology About satellites,

Means that wave Has to be pretty darn big.

Narrator: And there isn't one mega-wave --

There's a whole series of them.

They're gargantuan.

They span, like, An entire ocean.

I mean, these things are huge.

This is gonna cause Complete and utter devastation.

Narrator: Experts measure the wave.

This image is taken from Over 400 miles above the earth.

Each pixel is 800 feet across.

By crunching the numbers,

Analysts calculate the waves Are over 500 feet tall...

[ indistinct shouting ]

Narrator: ...10 times the size

Of the tsunami In the indian ocean

That in 2004 killed A quarter of a million people.

We think of a big tsunami As tens of feet, you know?

A big one would be 30 or 50 feet Or something like that.

We have waves in the ocean That are up to 2,000 feet high.

That's as big as skyscrapers.

Narrator: then something Extraordinary happens --

It never hits land.

The giant tsunami disappears.

It vanishes From satellite images.

Which leaves A baffling question --

What on earth just happened?

Was this just a technical error?

Hill: Modern weather satellites carry

A huge number Of very sensitive instruments,

So when you go through The process

Of launching them into space And bringing them online,

A lot of things can happen.

When I see these pictures, It looks to me

As if they're simply Computer glitches.

Narrator: but systems On the terra satellite

Are constantly being checked, And all are working fine.

Wild speculation Starts to spread.

Could the huge waves Be man-made?

A test, perhaps, Of some exotic marine weapon?

Some claim that such a weapon Has been used before

To attack japan.

There are even those who believe That the 2011 tsunami

That knocked out the fukushima Nuclear power plants

May have been generated.

You use it as a weapon.

Narrator: weird as it sounds, A devastating tsunami weapon

Is something military Researchers have explored.

During the second world war,

Scientists from the u.S. And new new zealand

Conducted a series of tests

In which underwater explosions Were used to trigger

Giant tidal waves capable Of destroying coastal cities.

They called it project seal.

Are these mid-ocean tsunamis

The terrifying realization Of that prototype weapon?

Pope: There are certainly a number

Of secret military facilities In this area.

Narrator: if these giant waves Were the result

Of a weapons test So close to china,

Was it meant to be a secret, Or was meant to be seen?

Pavelec: it's all part Of the games that countries play

To try to keep other countries Guessing at their capabilities.

Narrator: but these waves Tower hundreds of feet

And stretch For hundreds of miles.

The total mass of water Would weight billions of tons.

To generate such a wave Would be a huge operation,

Involving one or more nuclear Devices placed in the sea.

And, even more puzzling,

A tsunami Tends to increase in velocity

Until it smashes into land.

Why did this one vanish?

Oceanographer dr. Matt alford Has a theory --

The giant waves seen from space Are real enough,

But they're traveling

Beneath the surface Of the ocean.

Alford: these waves,

Compared to the surface waves We can see breaking on beaches,

Are absolutely enormous.

They break underneath the sea And they create

A lot of turbulence When they do that.

Narrator: the facts seem To support alfred's theory.

The waves On the satellite cameras

Measure over 500 feet high.

If they were above the surface,

It's inconceivable hong kong's Coast guard didn't spot them.

Oceanographers are only now Beginning to explore

The phenomenon Of underwater waves,

But mariners have known About them for years.

According to old sailors' tales, Monsters from the deep

Would appear from nowhere And swallow whole ships.

Are the underwater tsunamis Caught on camera

The real monsters?

There were forces That ancient mariners knew about

But couldn't understand.

They called it dead water.

A ship might be in full sail, But it still wouldn't move.

This could be the first Description of underwater waves.

Alford: they can have Really, really fast speeds --

About four knots --

Which is enough To carry a ship backwards

When it's trying to go forwards.

Narrator: it's tempting to blame Monster underwater waves

For unexplained shipwrecks, But that doesn't add up.

For all their gigantic size, Oceanographers believe

That underwater tsunamis Barely break the surface.

Alford: you'd almost never Be able to see

An internal wave from a ship.

You can't tell When they're going underneath.

Although, sometimes you can.

If they're very strong,

They'll actually drag the ship Along with them.

Narrator: However, there are reports

From submariners Who've encountered

Terrifying forces That may be underwater waves.

Alford: in theory, they could Actually sweep a sub downwards

To where it could be damaged.

When a wave comes, All of a sudden,

The layers of the ocean Can be swept downwards

In 2 minutes From, say, 60 feet to 600 feet,

And that would certainly be A big concern for a submarine.

[ cheers and applause ]

Narrator: these giant Underwater waves seen from space

May hold the clue To one of the greatest

Sub-maritime mysteries --

The sinking of the u.S.S. Thresher.

Miller: in 1960, when The thresher was launched,

It was the new, cutting-edge Generation of submarine.

It was designed strictly For depth, for high pressure.

Narrator: the super-strong sub Was built to operate

At 2,000 feet Beneath the surface,

But at only 1,300 feet, It suffered

Sudden, unexplained Catastrophic failure.

[ alarms blaring ]

[ hull creaking ]

Danny miller was part Of a surface support crew

When she lost contact.

The last sound they heard from the thresher was a sound

Of a submarine breaking up.

[ hull creaking ]

We circled for a day And we finally found a glove.

129 people died.

That's a large sacrifice.

Narrator: the navy report into the thresher disaster

Was inconclusive.

No one knows what happened.

At the time of the thresher incident,

Nobody had ever seen One of these waves.

It wasn't until photographed By astronauts

That they were actually Caught on camera.

Alford: ironically, To really get our minds

Wrapped around what's happening In the deep sea,

It's really, really helpful To zoom out

And have great images From space.

Narrator: scientists Are only beginning to make sense

Of the phenomenon Of undersea tsunamis.

It may be some time Before we can fully understand

What the terra satellite Recorded on april 18, 2004.

A satellite over south america

Reveals something carved Into the landscape.

Capps: Looking at the satellite image,

You see these hundreds Of what look like

Little pinpricks or pockmarks In the earth.

Dixon: these holes Were put there for a reason.

What are they for?

Narrator: quickbird,

A commercial Earth-observation satellite

Used to create accurate maps.

As it passes over mountains In south america,

It captures this.

Capps: Looking at the satellite image,

You see these hundreds Of what look like

Little pinpricks or pockmarks In the earth.

Narrator: the mountain range In the image is the andes.

Stretching 4,500 miles,

It's the longest Mountain range on earth.

And outside asia, It's also the highest.

It is in peru,

Where the andes reaches a peak Of 20,000 feet above sea level,

That the long snake of Honeycomb craters is captured.

Dixon: they're systematic.

That's what makes them Truly intriguing.

That's what makes it mysterious.

Narrator: analysis Of the satellite image reveals

That each hole is between Four and six feet wide,

And there are Around 7,000 holes

Stretching a mile Along the side of one mountain.

Huston: when you look at this, You don't think,

"Oh, well, This is a natural occurrence.

This is caused by rain Or water runoff."

We've all been around the world Long enough to know

It doesn't happen like that.

This was ground out of the rock By somebody.

Narrator: But who? And why?

That can't be answered From space,

So johnny isla,

From peru's institute Of archeological research,

Is traveling up into the andes

To investigate the holes Close up.

From ground level, isla finds

That the holes Are not just hand-dug pits.

They've actually been built With some skill and care.

[ isla speaking spanish ]

Narrator: and closer examination Reveals that they have been here

For a very long time.

[ isla speaking spanish ]

Narrator: the holes were created Long before columbus set sail --

Possibly Before the time of christ.

As for why they were built, Isla is searching for clues.

[ isla speaking spanish ]

Narrator: but these don't appear To be food stores.

There are no traces Of ancient food remains here.

There's no evidence Of agriculture.

There aren't even signs Of human settlement nearby.

There is nothing there That can indicate

What they were used for.

Narrator: but the image Of the holes taken from space

May offer a vital clue.

Archeologist dr. Peters Points out

It bears a striking resemblance

To the snaking dotted lines In the artwork

Of an ancient peruvian people Called the paracas.

Peters: the supernatural figures That they depicted

Have long, snakelike appendages That are divided into segments,

And I look at those and I think,

"Well, possibly Something like this imitates

One of those images."

Narrator: the pattern of holes Is best seen from space.

Was it meant to be seen From above?

75 miles away, On the side of a mountain,

Sits another Extraordinary image,

Carved by the nasca people Into the mountainside,

Pointing skywards.

Could the pattern In this satellite image

Be a message To some deity in the sky?

It seems unlikely.

The nasca lines are shallow -- Around five inches deep.

But the thousands of holes In the satellite image

Are more like pits.

These holes were used For something.

Huston: these are deep.

I think the average Is eight feet deep.

Which makes you think,

"Well, that's big enough To put a person in."

So perhaps it's a burial ground Of some kind.

Narrator: It's an attractive theory,

But archaeologist isla Isn't convinced.

[ isla speaking spanish ]

Narrator: what's more, As the satellite image shows,

This would be a burial plot Of staggering proportions.

Huston: If, in fact, it is a graveyard

With 7,000 graves, That's a lot of graves.

Narrator: so many tombs laid out In such a regimented way

Makes little sense,

Unless these Are no ordinary tombs.

Could this be a burial ground For warriors,

A terrifying army of the dead?

There are parallels.

The first emperor of china Was entombed

With an army Of 8,000 clay warriors,

Ready to rise and fight From the grave.

The incas, Whose empire stretched

As far as these mountains, Carried mummies

Of their dead warlords Into battle.

The strange holes Come from a time

When the line between Life and death was blurred.

Pagan tribes of the andes Practiced black magic

And human sacrifice.

The incas left infants to freeze In the mountains here.

Other victims Had their throats cut

And hearts ripped out.

And the paracas Had their own gruesome rituals.

Peters: the paracas people Are known for their images

Of figures holding A severed human head.

Narrator: did this bloody people Bury a legion of warriors

Expected to rise from the dead And fight?

And if so, where is it now?

Peters: because we have no Physical evidence, no ceramics,

No agricultural refuse,

No bits of textiles, No human remains,

We don't know Why they were made.

Narrator: investigations Of this extraordinary

Band of holes in the andes Have failed to find an answer.

This bizarre honeycomb Remains a mystery

As impenetrable from the ground As it is from space.

A red lake in baghdad Photographed from space.

It really looks like blood.

Narrator: Have satellites uncovered

Mass slaughter On a biblical scale?

It makes your blood run cold.

Narrator: or have scientists Detected alien life on earth?

This is an alien cell Raining down from space.

[ gunfire ]

Narrator: baghdad, 2004 --

Hell on earth.

Hundreds of miles Above the smoke and death,

The quickbird satellite

Is photographing earth For mapping software

And captures a terrifying image.

On the northeastern Outskirts of the city,

A series of lakes.

One stands out.

It's crimson red.

When the image is made public, Rumors quickly spread.

This is a region torn apart

By murderous tribal And religious divisions.

The red area in the image Becomes known as blood lake.

Baker: I was in baghdad.

We had a lot of people In baghdad.

By the end of 2003, And then moving into 2004,

When this picture was taken,

Things had already started To head south.

[ gunfire ]

A lot of -- a lot of killing.

And it was a pretty ugly scene, And it continued to get worse.

Pavelec: blood literally ran In the streets

As the allies and the americans

Tried to fight Against the insurgents in iraq.

Narrator: is this an horrific War crime exposed from space?

Capps: if this were st. Louis We're talking about,

I'd be worried It's maybe pollution,

Or there'd be some Innocent explanation,

But this is baghdad.

I've got to start thinking Of something sinister.

Narrator: If this is a lake of blood,

Is it the result Of mass slaughter

On a terrifying scale?

The satellite image indicates That blood lake is 500 feet wide

And more than a half mile long.

Kays: The first thing I thought

When I saw this satellite view Of the red lake in baghdad --

It would have to be millions

And millions and millions Of people

All drained of their blood And put into one lake.

Nelson: assuming that the lake Is a foot deep,

You can do the math. You can figure it out.

Nine million gallons --

That would be the blood Of seven million people.

Narrator: even if this water Is just stained by blood,

It would take many thousands Of victims to turn it red.

Weekly casualties in baghdad Are in the hundreds,

Not thousands.

So if it isn't blood In the satellite image,

What is it?

Baker: Is this proof of something?

Is there chemical weapons Involved?

Pope: could there be A connection with the infamous

Weapons of mass destruction

That we went to war over And never found?

Is this where they ended up -- Blood lake?

Narrator: in april 2003,

Coalition forces In the iraqi city of nasiriyah

Found mustard gas and cyanide In the euphrates river.

It is believed That these chemical weapons

Had been dumped in an effort to Hide them from western forces.

Mustard gas Wouldn't color water red,

But cyanide could.

But if members Of saddam hussein's regime

Were attempting to hide

The evidence Of chemical weapons,

It makes no sense to dispose Of them in the iraqi capital,

Under the nose Of coalition troops

And the gaze Of the world's media.

But if it isn't chemicals, Then what is it?

There have been several Documented incidents

Of so-called blood rain,

Often thought to be A sign from god.

Blood rain fell in sri lanka In 2012.

The scientist who investigated This bizarre phenomenon

Is professor Chandra wickramasinghe.

I've talked to many people In sri lanka

Who experienced these events,

And they tell me how horrified And how terrified they were.

They thought It was the end of the world.

Any lake that suddenly turns red

Is a strong candidate For red-rain phenomenon.

Narrator: Professor wickramasinghe

Was unable to enter The iraqi war zone

To conduct tests on blood lake.

But he has analyzed samples From other incidents

Of so-called blood rain, And the results are shocking.

Wickramasinghe: I put them under a microscope,

And I was really stunned to see

The sight of these little Red cells drifting along.

They were so uncannily Like living cells.

Narrator: living cells, But not like any found on earth.

This is an alien cell Raining down from space,

And it's different From every life-form

That is here on the earth.

Narrator: scientists Have speculated before

About the possibility That life-forms

Could travel through space.

But if red rain Is some kind of alien invasion,

How did the cells Enter the rain?

Wickramasinghe: people reported The sighting of fireballs.

I think these were meteors That exploded in the sky.

And that was followed by A torrential shower of red rain.

It was as red as blood.

Narrator: but there were No reports of meteors

Or fireballs In war-torn baghdad --

Only bombs and guns.

Nor does the theory of red rain

Seem to fit The case of blood lake.

There are several bodies Of water in the satellite image.

All but one are green.

Red rain over baghdad should Have colored all three lakes.

What do you do if you go through Every possible explanation,

Every possible theory, And none of them work?

Narrator: when more recent Satellite images

Are taken of the area, The red has vanished.

Scientists now Have little to go on

Except this mystifying snapshot Taken from space.

A black hole Punched into the earth.

This looks really weird.

Narrator: just what has This satellite photographed?

There are definitely Human remains down there.

Some of the discoveries Are breathtaking.

It's like diving On the dark side of the moon.

Narrator: 2014.

A satellite above florida

Is looking for warning signs On the earth's surface

That might predict a sinkhole.

A sinkhole is where The roof of a cave,

An underground cave, Has collapsed in on itself.

Lester: florida is the capital Of sinkholes.

There are literally thousands Of these things dropping

And collapsing each year.

Brand: because we can now use Satellite technology

To image deformation Of the surface,

We can use it As an early warning

For something like a sinkhole,

Which may start to deform A little bit, or sink,

Before it Catastrophically collapses.

Narrator: Scanning for the signatures Of an impending collapse,

The satellite comes across Something bizarre --

A black circle, Like a bullet hole in the earth.

Its shape suggests a sinkhole,

And at 240 feet in diameter, It's the right size.

But this hole is full of water.

From space, it's impossible To measure the depth,

But thermal imaging would reveal Something unusual.

The surface Is a constant temperature.

It measures 73 degrees All year 'round,

Unlike a lake,

Where water temperature varies With the season.

This is a mystery That someone's got to solve.

Narrator: the only place To learn more is on the ground.

Scientist steve koski And his team set out to explore.

Pitch-black, nothing but rocks And barren landscape.

Broad: You're only a few feet under,

And you start getting To very low visibility.

Narrator: Koski discovers the circle

Photographed from space Is indeed a sinkhole --

But much bigger than it looks.

Spreading out like an hourglass Beneath the surface

And sinking Hundreds of feet down.

When they analyze the water,

They realize this sinkhole Is like nowhere else on earth.

Gifford: the most important Characteristic that makes

A little salt spring so special Is the water chemistry.

Narrator: The hole is incredibly old,

Dating back millions of years,

And it's fed by an ancient Subterranean source.

Gifford: Below about 15 or 20 feet,

The water has no oxygen Dissolved in it.

That's important, Because it means

That everything is preserved.

Narrator: No oxygen means no microbes,

Which means virtually no decay.

This hole is like a portal

To another time In earth's history.

Koski: Some of the discoveries

That we've made At little salt spring

Are breathtaking.

You never know What you're gonna find.

Narrator: Underwater archaeologists Have so far explored

Only a tiny section Of this time hole,

But have already discovered

The remains Of long-extinct creatures.

There are extinct tortoises, Giant ground sloth.

You're looking at this animal That died,

That fell in this spring More than 12,000 years ago.

[ trumpeting ]

Narrator: Mammoths and mastodons,

Sabertooth cats, And giant sloths

Once roamed florida.

These creatures Have been preserved down here.

And that's not all.

There are definitely Human remains down there.

Narrator: Up to 1,000 human bodies Are lying inside the hole

Seen in the satellite image.

How did they come to be there?

Sinkholes do open Without warning

And with deadly consequences.

That's guatemala city, 2010.

This opened up In about 30 minutes.

It's 200 feet deep.

People fell in.

Narrator: but no sinkhole Incident in recorded history

Has claimed more than 20 lives.

It doesn't seem possible

That one hole Could swallow 1,000 humans.

Steve koski has a theory.

Koski: sometime around 7,500 to 8,000 years ago,

People began to bury their dead In the edges of the spring

And in the adjacent slough,

So little salt spring Is actually a mortuary pond.

Gifford: it was normal for them, You know,

Just the way we bury people In the ground,

The people here 6,000 or 7,000 years ago

Would bury their dead In shallow water.

Narrator: But this strange time hole

May also have been the site Of ritual slaughter.

The sinkhole bears Close resemblance

To the sacred cenotes Of the mayans,

Into which priests Threw sacrificial victims

To appease their gods.

However they got here, What excites scientists

Is that the bodies in this hole Date back to the stone age.

There are some remarkably Well-preserved burials.

There's brain tissue preserved In some of these burials --

You know, actual brain material.

Narrator: Thanks to this time hole,

We now possess the dna Of our ancient ancestors.

Koski: the dna studies That could be done

On the human remains Could help address

Some of the significant Mysteries in the new world --

Where our earliest ancestors Came from.

Gifford: in theory, We could reconstruct

The genetic lineage

Of the first people Into the western hemisphere.

Narrator: Scientists are talking about

The possibility of cloning A woolly mammoth.

Could the dna From this time hole

Be used to bring back Prehistoric man?

[ calls ]

Huston: it's some Of the earliest discoveries

Of any human beings On the north american continent.

That's an extraordinary Discovery

That needs to be explored more.

Narrator: A u.S. Observation satellite

Photographs construction work Off a chinese island.

Something is going on there That they want to hide.

Narrator: The images ring alarm bells

For military analysts.

Hansen: They are digging something,

And what they're digging Is very huge.

Narrator: is china building A doomsday weapon?

Narrator: hainan --

A tourist destination In communist china,

And an island That could easily be

The bad guy's secret hideout In a james bond movie.

In 2005, A commercial satellite captures

An image Of a construction project

That spectre would be proud of.

Hansen: First time I saw the image,

It was obviously construction Of a massive scale.

Pavelec: if you look closely At the pictures,

It shows what looks like barges,

Ships that are used For construction at sea.

Narrator: But construction of what?

What are the chinese up to?

More recent Satellite images show

The engineering vessels gone, But at the water's edge,

There's now what appears to be A gaping tunnel entrance.

Hansen: They are digging something,

And what they're digging Is very huge.

Pavelec: from the images, It appears as if it might be

A chinese military complex

Built into the side Of a mountain at sea level.

Narrator: What makes the satellite image

More worrying Is that hainan island

Is being visited regularly

By china's fleet Of nuclear submarines.

A semi-submerged tunnel Is being built right next door

To a chinese Nuclear-submarine base.

You do the math.

Hansen: there's only one reason, In my opinion,

To have a tunnel system That goes below the water,

Into a mountain,

And that is basically For submarines.

Narrator: whatever it is The chinese are building,

The satellite image Doesn't give much away.

Pavelec: satellite imagery Can only see the entrance.

This could be An enormous cave complex

Underneath the mountain Where the chinese

Are hiding Something incredibly nefarious.

Narrator: as china's wealth Has rapidly grown,

So has its military budget.

At $170 billion a year, It's second only to the u.S.,

And rising fast.

It is estimated that china Has an arsenal

Of almost 200 active Nuclear-weapon warheads

And three fleets of submarines.

Hansen: the chinese are building Their second generation

Of nuclear Ballistic-missile submarines.

Jin submarine, As they're called,

Is a very big game changer.

Narrator: like the united states And britain,

China may already have

A mobile-nuclear-attack Capability

That is almost impossible To defend against.

The big military powers Try to keep track

Of each other's Nuclear submarines,

But with this new facility,

China may be taking theirs Underground.

Pavelec: submarines could Come and go through this tunnel

And the complex behind it

Without ever being seen By satellite imagery.

Narrator: More worrying still,

The hainan island underground Complex isn't the only one.

According to a former Pentagon defense analyst,

There are others located Across mainland china.

Karber: we found Over 800 tunnel complexes.

In talking to other experts,

People who know Better than we do,

They say, "Well, Maybe you've got half of them."

Narrator: The chinese communist government Has officially confirmed

That they have been Digging tunnels.

Karber: the chinese have said They have 3,000 miles --

5,000 kilometers -- of tunnels,

And that's a lot of tunnels.

Our estimate is they've moved More dirt than the panama canal.

So that would put it, Certainly, in one of the highest

Engineering projects In recorded human history.

Narrator: The chinese government must know

That this construction project Is visible from space.

But it's the belief Of some military analysts

That they just don't care.

Baker: the chinese Aren't really in the game

Of having to hide much, right?

I mean, they're a world power. There's a lot of capability.

They don't necessarily care That we're watching,

'cause they assume That's gonna be the case.

And they know that we're not In a position to stop them.

Narrator: If you want to worry your enemy,

Building an underground base Is a clever tactic.

We can see they're there, But we don't know what's inside.

Gough: underground facilities Are the only things

That satellite cannot penetrate.

Narrator: And until satellites can see Inside these tunnel complexes,

We can only guess just how Powerful china has become.

If there's gonna be a cataclysm Or some sort of nuclear war,

Which, in all likelihood, Would be the next world war iii,

Then he who has the best Underground facilities wins.