All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S01E01.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

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.