All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S02E01.1080p.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.

Objects and phenomena
Which defy explanation.

I can't believe this.
This can't be.

Narrator: a fleet of ghost ships
Stranded in the desert.

Looks like something you might
See in a "Mad max" movie.

Narrator: a mysterious haze
Covers half of north america.

There is some kind of

Major disaster that has
Taken place in the midwest.

Narrator: a desperate sign from
P.O.W.S left behind in vietnam.

Could it be a missing in action
Serviceman trying to communicate

That he needs to be rescued?

Narrator: baffling phenomenon,
Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

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

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

Laos, 1988.

15 years after the vietnam war,

A spy satellite spots
Something mysterious

In the middle of the jungle.

What you have a 37-foot high,
12-foot long symbol

That is three letters --
"U.S.A."

And under it is
The letter "K" with little feet

On all the ends of the "K,"
Which is called a walking "K."

A walking "K" was a known signal
For downed aviators.

Somebody's writing these for
Satellite and aerial imagery

To pick up and read.

The question is, who's placing
These messages on the ground

And what are they for?

Narrator: what is a u.S.
Military emergency signal doing

In the southeast asian jungle

15 years after america withdrew
From the vietnam war?

Former republican congressman
John leboutillier

Believes he has the answer.

There's no question
These symbols

Were deliberately put down,
Both in vietnam and laos,

By american missing p.O.W.S.

Narrator: if missing p.O.W.S
Were at this location,

What are they doing in laos?

Before the americans
Withdrew from vietnam

In january 1973,
The u.S. Air force flew

More than five million sorties.

Many crossed
Into neighboring countries.

Eland:
This was not a declared war.

This crossed
International borders.

Richard nixon kept the war
In cambodia secret

From the american public,

And I think the same
Was true in laos.

Narrator: satellites
Were crucial in this secret war.

Nasa's defense satellites
Would drop footage from orbit

In airtight canisters.

These gave the u.S. High command
An unprecedented view

Of the combat zone.

Hansen: the technology that was
Evolving in the early '70s

Was game-changing technology,
Both in imagery

And in satellite communications.

The environment
In southeast asia makes it

Very, very difficult to see
What's going on on the ground

Because of the jungles
And the dense forest

That are there.

So the use of satellite imagery

And aerial recognizance imagery
Was very, very important

In determining what was
Happening during a war.

Narrator: the satellites
Could also help ensure

That no man was left behind.

More than 1,600 aircraft
Were blown out of the sky

In this secret war.

At least 800 pilots and air crew

Bailed out of their
Burning planes

And parachuted
Behind enemy lines.

All of them had been trained
To leave signs

That they were alive, which
Could be spotted from above.

In my experience
As a naval aviator,

One of the things you're
Told to do is to have some way

Of signaling to others
That you are around,

Because it will mean that
Near that signal or that symbol

Is some american
That needs help or rescue.

Could it be a missing in action
Or presumed dead serviceman

Trying to communicate
That he needs to be rescued?

Narrator: only problem is,

There shouldn't be
Any u.S. Servicemen

Calling for help in 1988.

America's part
In the vietnam war

Supposedly ended
In january 1973.

As part of the peace deal
With the north vietnamese,

President nixon negotiated
The return of all u.S. P.O.W.S

At the end of the war.

Secretly done, president nixon
Sends to pham van dong,

The premiere of vietnam,
A letter in which he promises

To pay vietnam $4.75 billion

In return for north vietnam
Gathering up all the p.O.W.S

Throughout southeast asia,

Returning them
To the united states.

Narrator:
If the 1988 signal was made

After american p.O.W.S
Returned home,

Does it mean that nixon's secret
Cash-for-prisoners deal failed?

The single best piece
Of evidence

That prisoners are still there
Are these satellite images.

Narrator: the u.S. Government
Has never accepted the claim

That the 1988 image
Shows the distress signal

Of a downed aviator.

Four years later, in 1992,
Newly declassified images

Fuel fears that there could
Still be american p.O.W.S

In southeast asia.

Among them is a photo taken

Just months after
The war officially ended.

The numbers "1973"
And the initials "T.H."

Appear carved in two-yard-high
Letters on the ground.

It's captured twice in 1973,
Supposedly after

All the prisoners of war
Had been returned

To the united states.

Narrator: officially,
U.S. Military aircraft

Should not have been operating
Over laos

After america ended
Its involvement in the war.

But there may have been
Secret operations taking place.

Lynch: the c.I.A. Was flying
Airplanes in that area.

One was shot down
Within eight kilometers

Of where that symbol was.

There's speculation that maybe
The "T.H." was the initials

Of the major
That was with the aircraft.

Narrator: the declassified
Images provoke an uproar

That forces the government
To take action.

In 1992, 19 years after
The photo was taken,

A senate select committee on
P.O.W.-m.I.A. Affairs reviews

The 1973 "T.H." image.

They conclude that it is not
A signal from a downed airman.

It's amazing that
The u.S. Government

Has come up with
Every excuse in the book.

They've said, "Oh, yeah,
Those are shadows,

Those are naturally
Occurring vegetation."

There's no way that shadows
Could create numbers and letters

The correlate
To one missing man.

Narrator:
The committee also dismisses

The "U.S.A. Walking 'k'"
Discovered in 1988.

The walking "K"
Was investigated,

And we discovered
That the landowner's son

Liked the shape of the "U.S.,"

And he put that
Out in hay straw in the field.

The "K" image was his attempt

To make what he described
As an airplane,

So it looks like a "K,"
But it probably wasn't.

Leboutillier:
Why would a 12-year-old boy

Go outside and draw something
37 feet high and 12 feet wide?

Why?

How would he know
About the walking "K"?

Why would he want the satellite
To see this thing?

It's an absurd debunking
Of a piece of serious evidence.

Narrator: for john leboutillier,
This is clear evidence

That american servicemen
Were left behind.

Leboutillier: I have been there
And seen the rice paddy

That this thing was put in.

And right next to it is
A p.O.W. Camp that's now

No longer operational,
Within 500 yards of where

The walking "K" was.

And, yes,
I do find it very worrisome.

I think it's part
Of a massive u. S. Government

Intelligence community cover-up
Of this issue.

Huston: if they knew about
Some survivors

But didn't really
Vigorously pursue that,

That would be a real disgrace,
And it would be epic.

It would be
Of watergate proportions.

Narrator: but not all
Military analysts agree.

Eland: I'm a little skeptical
That there's a cover-up.

I think in warfare,
There's just friction.

That's an unfortunate term
For it,

But people get left behind.

Narrator: the congressional
Committee says

It has investigated
All suspected m.I.A. Signals,

Describing them as
Either natural formations,

Tricks of the light,
Photographic glitches,

Or marks made by locals.

But john leboutillier believes

That the mystery still needs
Investigation.

If the u.S. Government
Wanted to solve this problem,

Satellites and drones
Could solve the problem today.

There is no question you can
Prove there are prisoners there

With technology
That's existent today.

Narrator:
1,626 u.S. Military personnel

Remain missing in action
In southeast asia.

Huston: it seems to me some
Percentage of those lived.

And the question is, where are
They and what happened to them?

And have we still to this day
Looked hard enough?

Narrator: a satellite monitoring
The deserts of central asia

Spots something in the sands.

It really looks like
A post-apocalyptic world.

Narrator: in the middle
Of a vast arid landscape

Is a fleet of rusting ships.

Looks like it's ships on waves,

But then you realize the waves
Are just sand dunes,

So that's impossible.

There is literally
A fleet of boats

In the middle of the desert
With no water anywhere nearby.

What's going on?

Narrator: october 2005.

As the quick bird
Earth observation satellite

Orbits 280 miles
Above kazakhstan,

It captures something unusual.

Kourounis: it's hard to
Wrap your head around

What's going on in this image.

You've got a vast desert

Where you would expect there
To be no water whatsoever.

And yet in the middle,
Is a fleet of rusting ships.

What's going on?

Narrator: the picture
Clearly shows four ships

Stranded in the desert.

Analysis of the image
Begins with a scale comparison

Of the vessels.

So, when you look at
This image, you see these dots

That are obviously boats,

But then when you analyze it
And look at the scale,

These are enormous ships.

They're not just little boats.

Middleton: they're obviously
Fair-sized vessels

Designed to sail in deep water.

And yet they're miles and miles
And miles from any water at all.

Narrator:
The nearest body of water

Capable of sustaining
Such large vessels

Is the aral sea,
But it's miles away.

How and why could these ships

Have been transported
To the middle of the desert?

It seems impossible.

And yet this is not
The first instance

Of ships appearing to defy
The laws of physics.

Could it be possible
That these ships disappeared

And reappeared somewhere else?

Narrator: reports of ships
Disappearing and reappearing

Go back for centuries.

In 1943, the u.S. Navy
Is alleged to have teleported

A 1,600-ton ship

In an exercise code named
"The philadelphia experiment."

Other ship disappearances

Have been blamed
On the bermuda triangle.

The bermuda triangle is a region
Of the western atlantic

Where there have been
A large number

Of unexplained disappearances
Of sailing ships,

Ocean-going vessels, aircraft,

Basically anything that transits
Through this region on the map.

Narrator:
The aral sea has no record

Of strange happenings
Like the bermuda triangle,

So investigators start looking
For a natural cause.

Is there a really,
Truly rational explanation

For why this
Could have happened?

What force could possibly
Make a ship this big

End up so far from the sea?

Narrator: thanks
To a quirk of history,

This particular region
Has been the focus

Of c.I.A. Satellite recognizance
Of decades.

O'connor: due to the substantial
Interest in kazakhstan

As part of the soviet union
During the cold war,

There's a substantial amount
Of catalogued information

Analysts can go back to.

Narrator: analysis
Of the cold war images

Reveals that this area was once
Covered by a massive sea.

But that sea has disappeared.

The speed at which the water
On the aral sea has disappeared

Has been unprecedented.

If you look at the last three
Decades, it's gone from this

To, like, this.

Narrator: it makes
Some commentators wonder,

Could global warming
Have evaporated an entire sea?

Global warming
Can definitely affect sea level.

Kays: the scale of the change
Is just so massive

That it's got to be
Something else.

Narrator: climate change
Cannot be responsible

For the rapid disappearance
Of the aral sea.

Studying the cold war data
Reveals another chilling clue

To the mystery
Of the desert ships.

The thing that's really unique
About this place, though,

Is that in the middle of the sea
Is this island, voz island.

It was the site
Of bio-weapons testing

By the russians back in the day.

Cerveny: what could they have
Been doing to cause a whole sea

To almost completely disappear?

Narrator: voz island.

Soviet bio-weapons central.

Brewing toxic substances
Since 1948.

Explorer nick middleton
Knows all about this place.

After the fall
Of the iron curtain,

He managed to gain access
To the highly-restricted area.

There's no question in my mind
It was the spookiest,

Most mysterious, most
Scary place I've ever been to.

They called it
"The place of howling darkness."

I could understand why.

Narrator: when middleton
Explored the area,

He discovered
Disturbing evidence

Of bio-weapons experiments
On a massive scale.

I saw shells
Of unexplained ammunitions,

I saw test tubes
And petri dishes.

It was an odd, eerie,

Sort of sci-fi-wacko-film-type
Atmosphere.

Some of the most lethal weapons
They experimented with

Would have been variants
Of things like ebola, anthrax,

Smallpox, ricin,

And a number of other
Biological toxins.

Narrator: tests reveal
That just one teaspoon

Of the most potent bio-weapon
From voz island

Could kill
Over one billion people.

The soviet union was testing
The most deadly bacteria

And viruses
That you could possibly imagine.

This was
Biological weapons central.

Narrator: the destructive power
Of the weapons

Developed at voz island
Is chilling.

Could they have turned
One of the largest lakes

On the planet
Into a desolate wilderness?

Narrator: ships in the desert
Caught on camera from space.

In the dead zone
That was once the aral sea,

Local teacher akmaral utemisova
Has her own personal reasons

For wanting to find out
What's going on in this region.

Narrator:
Could the contamination

That caused these deaths somehow
Be killing the aral sea, too?

We know that the study
Of bio-weaponry

And the use of bio-weaponry

Can have a huge effect
On the environment.

We have to ask ourselves,
Could this be connected

With what's going on?

And it's true that these weapons
Can destroy life,

They can destroy
Plants and animals,

But they can't cause
The dehydration on a scale

That we see here.

Narrator: voz island is unlikely
To be the reason

For the disappearance
Of the aral sea.

To get to the bottom
Of the mystery,

Akmaral utemisova has
Tracked down an old man

Who claims he once worked
On one of the desert ships.

Narrator: soon after the water
Levels started to drop,

He heard stories
Of massive construction projects

To the south.

When he investigated,

He learned of a colossal
Soviet engineering project

To transform lifeless desert
Into farm land.

They wanted to expand irrigation
And agriculture

To grow lots of cotton
In soviet central asia.

And that's what they did.

They took lots of water
Off the two main rivers

That flow into the aral sea.

Narrator: the russians
Built dams to diver

The two main rivers
Feeding the aral sea.

The water level began to drop
At up to one meter per year.

The result --
Environment catastrophe.

Middleton: less and less water
Going into the aral sea

From these two rivers,

And slowly, slowly, slowly,
The aral sea contracts,

Leaving these trawlers
High and dry.

Narrator:
Today, the desert ships

Stand as rusted sentinels
On a post-apocalyptic wasteland,

Ghostly reminders of one of
The most costly experiments

Ever undertaken by man.

In the middle of the dry sea

Is the ticking time bomb
Of voz island.

Middleton: this place
Is no longer an island.

It's completely accessible now
In a way that it never was

As a bio-weapons testing site.

And the fact that anthrax can
Last a hundred years and more

Is rather a scary prospect.

Narrator: a mapping
Satellite spots strange walls

Across northern california.

There is no record of who
Built them or what they're for.

These structures
Are a total mystery.

Narrator: and the investigation
Threatens to rewrite history.

Phillips: this has a potential
To change the history

Of the entire united states.

Narrator: may 2014.

Amateur archeologist
Olav phillips

Researches satellite maps
Of california.

He's looking for
Elusive stone structures

Known as the east bay walls.

I'd long heard rumors
That there was some sort of

A structure high up in the hills

Above the san francisco bay
Area.

Narrator: the fabled walls
Are hard to find.

Phillips: when you're looking
For a wall,

You find a lot of fences.

Narrator: at first,
Phillips sees only faint lines

In the satellite imagery,
Which could just be more fences.

But when he zooms in,

The picture
Tells a different story.

Bam.
There it was.

Narrator: he spots what looks
Like a line of walls

Running to nowhere
Across sutter buttes

In the sacramento valley.

Phillips:
It could have potentially been
Some sort of a defensive barrier

Or some sort of a barrier

To tell an opposing group,
"Don't come here."

We really
Can't rule anything out.

Narrator: phillips
Uses the satellite coordinates

To guide him
To the wall's location.

Phillips:
They're not easy to get to.

When I first saw them,

I started to think about
Who could have built them.

Narrator: archeologists
Have been wondering

Who built the east bay walls
For at least a century.

They're basically simple walls

With no more mortar or anything,
Just piles of rocks.

Narrator:
The weathering on the rocks

Shows the walls cannot be
A recent construction.

Measuring the radioactive decay
Of the rock

Can tell investigators
About the materials used,

But it doesn't shed any light
On when the walls were built.

Measuring the age of the rocks
Is not gonna help us.

These boulders have been
Lying there for millennia,

So we have no idea when
They were formulated into walls.

Narrator: some of these walls
Stretch 50 miles long.

Building them clearly required

A great deal of manpower
And organization.

Phillips: some of the rocks
Are over a ton.

So how do people move a rock
That's a ton into position?

Was machinery used?

Narrator: so who had the ability

And the will
To build such walls?

Phillips' investigation
First turns

To the original inhabitants.

He finds similar structures
On two mountains

Sacred to native american tribes
In other parts of the u.S.

So, could they have built
These walls?

As early as
The 12th century b.C.,

A native american culture
By the name of

The ancestral puebloans
Were building stone walls

And sophisticated cave villages

In utah, arizona, colorado,
And new mexico.

The question is, could they have
Done the same in california?

Narrator: anyone suggesting
That ancient native americans

Built these walls needs to
Answer a fundamental question --

What were they for?

Satellite analysis of the layout
Of the walls

Provides a new lead.

One of the more shocking things
That I found

Was that in some places,

Those walls would actually
Ring small hills.

Why would they do that?

And the only thing I
Can think of is,

Was it some sort of celestial
Alignment like a stonehenge?

They seem to be more symbolic
Than defensive.

So maybe they're a form
Of land expression

That native californians
Would have been engaged in.

Narrator: but archeologists
Can't find any evidence

That native americans
In california

Were interested in these kinds
Of ceremonial constructions.

Native american people
Did not build substantial walls

Running hundreds of feet,
Three or four feet high.

It was simply not part
Of their culture,

There was no need for that.

Narrator: if native americans
Didn't build the walls,

Someone else did.

The investigation turns
In an unexpected direction

When 500-year-old
Chinese pottery

Washes up
Near san francisco bay.

In 1405, a chinese admiral
By the name of zheng he

Departed china with 62 ships
And nearly 30,000 men

In what would become the first

Of many massive exploratory
Missions.

Legend has it that
He circumnavigated the globe,

And even discovered america.

Narrator: the chinese
Have a history

Of building monumental walls.

In 221 b.C.,
Emperor qin shi huangdi

Ordered construction
Of the great wall of china

As a way of guarding
His borders.

Could admiral zheng he's men

Have built chinese walls
In california

Almost a century before

Christopher columbus
Found the americas?

We take
A very western-centric view

Of history and of archeology
And exploration.

But what if the chinese
Were the first to come here?

Narrator: but the known history
Of zheng he's fleet

Suggests that even if
They did reach america,

His men would not have built
The walls in california.

There was some speculation
That they went on around africa

And ended up in the americas.

But they would have ended up
On the east coast of america,

Not the west coast.

Narrator:
Even if they are not ancient,

These walls might still
Be chinese.

450 years
After zheng he set sail,

The chinese did show up
In california,

In numbers large enough to build
Some impressive structures.

The chinese did build rock walls
In california -- extensively.

In the 1800s after
The gold rush,

To build railroads,
The chinese people built

Rock embankments, rock walls.

They blasted the tunnels

Through the sierra nevada
Mountains here.

Narrator:
Analysis of historical records

Reveals the nearest railway
Said to have been built

By chinese laborers
Is 40 miles from the walls,

Making it unlikely they were
Involved in their construction.

Phillips has to look
Further back in history

To find other possible people

Who could have built
Such structures.

There are stories
That I've heard

About spanish missionaries
That did travel inland

And potentially
Came to this area.

Narrator: long before colonists
Arrived from the east,

Spanish missionaries had been
Quietly trailblazing north

From the spanish colonies
Of central america.

Europeans first came
To california in the 1770s

When the spanish built a series
Of missions,

Catholic churches, and forts.

They built small walls around
The missions and the forts.

So those were the first walls
In california.

But there were very few spanish,

And their activities were
Centered around the missions.

So it's unlikely that the walls
We see extending on the hills

Here in the bay area
Were built by them.

Narrator: there is
No conclusive evidence

Showing who could have
Built these walls.

With so amy suspects
From so many different nations

And different moments
In history,

The mystery of who built them
May remain unsolved.

Guseghem: we know that history
Is very complex,

And so these walls may have
Evolved through time,

Been expanded, and served
A diversity of functions

For different people.

Phillips:
We can't really rule anybody
Out as having built the wall.

There's just no evidence
Of who built it.

It really is an enigma.

Narrator: the global ozone
Monitoring experiment

Is a cutting-edge instrument

That surveys our atmosphere
From above.

It's known as gome.

Their main mission is to monitor
Ozone, as its name suggests,

But also to monitor

Other pollutant gases
In the atmosphere.

Narrator: in 2014,
Nasa releases an image

Captured by gome's sensors,

An image that looks like
Some strange, unearthly force

Has spread across america.

It shows
An enormous cloud-like mass

So vast it covers
Half the united states.

But this is no rain cloud.

It's constant.

The only movement,
A gentle pulsing.

When I see this image,
My thought is that there is

Some kind of major disaster

That has taken place
In the midwest.

Nelson: what we have to
Figure out here is,

What is the satellite
Picking up?

Is it carbon dioxide, oxygen,
A greenhouse gas,

Or something
Completely different?

Looking at the image,
You'd think that

Half the u.S. Was on fire.

Narrator: in recent years,
America has experienced

Some of the worst wildfires
In its history.

The idea that they may have
Caused this image is disturbing.

Marchetti: if I were seeing that
Occurring on a satellite image

In relation to a wildfire,

I wouldn't be
Sitting here with you,

I would probably
Be running for cover.

Narrator: the sheer scale
Of the cloud

Casts doubt on this idea.

I've never seen
A satellite image

Of a fire that was
That dramatically large.

The fuel to support
Such a fire doesn't even exist.

Narrator:
If fire is not the answer,

What other natural phenomenon

Could occur
On such a wide scale?

Volcanic eruptions
Can send vast clouds

Of pulverized rock
High into the atmosphere.

A volcano is going to put out
A plume of ash and smoke

From a point source,
From the volcano itself,

And then spread out.

When we look at this image,

We see more
Of a globular type of pattern,

And that tells us
That it's not likely

Going to be associated
With a single volcano.

If a volcano were to erupt
In north america,

We'd all know about it.

So what's going on?

So, it's not a volcano.

It's not a wildfire.

But whatever's going on,

It's happening on a massive,
Colossal scale.

It's big.

Narrator:
It's something strange,

And it doesn't look good.

And to solve it,
Investigators are gonna call on

Some very weird science.

Narrator: the ethereal glow
Captured by a satellite

Hovering over middle america
Has experts baffled.

The location
Of the mystery cloud

Could provide a clue
To its origin.

Its epicenter lies
In big sky country...

...Farmland stretching as far
As the eye can see,

Most of it filled with corn.

America's epic corn belt
Spreads to 100 million acres.

The man walking through them

With the ghostbuster-style
Gadgets

Is nasa scientist
Karl fred huemmerich.

Despite appearances,
He's not hunting

For anything supernatural
In the cornfields.

He's looking
For invisible light.

Huemmerich: this is
A portable spectrometer,

The same type of instrument
That's on the satellite.

The measurements
We see in this cornfield

Are similar to the measurements

We see from gome
Over the entire corn belt.

So from space, with gome,
We can actually see signals

From the leaves
Photosynthesizing.

Narrator: incredibly, gome
Has captured visual evidence

Of america's cornfields at work.

They are literally
Glowing with productivity.

Joiner: what we're seeing
Over the corn belt

Is a result of photosynthesis,

And it's happening
On a massive scale.

Narrator: experts are astounded.

Through a satellite
Orbiting the earth,

We are now able to see
Workings of the natural world

That would be invisible
To the naked eye.

The amount of light
That is generated by plants

Undergoing photosynthesis,

This so-called
Photosynthetic fluorescence,

Is a very tiny amount of light.

It has to be, otherwise,

When we walk out
In a forest at night,

You'd see the trees
And plants glowing.

This image is a testimony

To a great
Technological achievement.

Narrator:
Thanks to this image,

We can now see the planet
In a whole new light.

And the data from gome shows
That at its peak,

The u.S. Corn belt
Produces 40% more oxygen

Than the amazon rain forest.

With this instrument, I can only
Measure a few plants at a time.

With the satellite,
We're able to measure

The agricultural productivity
Of the entire world.

Narrator: and perhaps one day,

The data it produces will help
Feed the world, too.

Peru, 2012.

Archeologist bob benfer
Has a puzzle to solve.

Benfer:
This site was occupied for
About two and a half centuries.

Narrator: he's looking
At a 4,000-year-old temple site

Outside lima that has
Two ritual mounds

Facing one another.

Everything he knows
Tells him the temple

Should sit in the middle
Between the mounds,

But it's way off to one side.

Why?

Unable to find answers
On the ground,

Bob turns to space
To get a new perspective.

It seamed to me that one
Possible solution to this puzzle

Would be that somehow,
Astronomical alignments

Were involved
In the location of the arm.

I decided to use google earth
To investigate them,

And I focused down on the area
I was interested in, and, wow!

That was astonishing
Because I immediately saw

That they were
Two animal figures.

Narrator: stylized animals
Figure strongly

In the art of the ancient people
Who built these mounds.

And benfer believes that he can
See such animals on the ground.

One appears to be a bird,
Possibly a condor.

The other, a mythical beast
Known as a monstro.

They're only visible from space.

On the ground, there's no
Indication that they're there.

You can see from here that
It does not resemble a bird.

It's only from above
That you can see the outline,

Which is clearly that of a bird.

Narrator: when benfer
Checks satellite images

Of other sites in the area,
He is amazed to discover

That these are also built
In the shape of animals.

Why did the ancient peoples
Who lived here

Build giant animals that
Can only be seen from space?

Narrator: satellites
Reveal the existence

Of strange animal-shaped mounds

That would not be visible
To anyone at ground level.

Their sheer numbers
Baffle archeologists.

One shape
Can definitely be a coincidence.

But two, three,
Even four shapes,

There's definitely
Some planning here.

Whatever purpose these served,
There was a lot of work

And a lot of collaboration

Between a lot of people
Involved in these things,

So that really testifies
To their importance.

Narrator: not everyone
Agrees with benfer's findings,

But the veteran archeologist
Is undeterred.

One particular feature
Of the giant condor mound

Merits further investigation.

This circular structure
Has at its center mud plaster,

And all around it is
Burned earth and ash.

And from above,
It's very visible as a circle.

And as a circle,
It's exactly in the right place

To be the eye of this bird,
With the beak right behind us.

Narrator: from the way
It's constructed,

It's clear to him that
This is not a natural formation.

Here in the wall, you can see
Hand prints of people.

This is how they
Pushed the mud plaster on.

Rocks are a base,
Then mud plaster,

And then mud plaster
Polish to make floors.

And that makes platforms
That overlook this eye.

Narrator: standing at the eye
Of the condor,

Bob benfer is convinced

That it's somehow
Linked to the stars.

This figure captures the power

Of the mythical animal
In the sky

For the people who lived here.

My hypothesis is,
The orientation of this one

Is to the milky way
At its most vivid

On a day that's the most
Important day in the year.

Narrator: the crucial day
Is the solstice,

Around december 21 --
The shortest day of the year,

When the stars are at their
Brightest above the mounds.

I found that before sunrise
On december 21, on the solstice,

The milky way
Is pointed directly overhead.

Narrator:
Not everyone is convinced

By this potentially
Random coincidence.

Many things appear to
Align with the stars

Given the number of stars
That are out there.

So what specific star is part of
The question, obviously.

If it's the north star,
Maybe that might mean something.

But, oftentimes,
It's just aligning of the stars,

It doesn't mean much, because,
Frankly, there are many stars.

Narrator: for benfer, the need
To align with the stars

Explains the unusual orientation
Of the temple on this site.

He believes that it's lined up
With the eye of the condor

For a very particular reason.

I drew a line
Between the offering chamber,

Through the entryway,

Through this bird,
Through this eye.

And I found it was 30 degrees,

Which is the orientation
Of the milky way before sunrise

On december 21st.

Narrator: on this most ritually
Significant day of the year,

The high priest would stand
On top of the temple

And welcome the milky way

As it reached
That crucial point.

But why was this date

So significant
To the mound-builders?

The december 21st solstice
Was very important

For everyone
Who lived in this valley,

Whether fisherman or farmer,

Because it was the time when
They would know whether it was

Going to be an el niño year
Or not.

Narrator: el niño --

The name strikes fear
Into the hearts

Of all who live in its shadow.

The fearsome tempest

Is the great grandaddy
Of all storms.

El niño is
A global climatic phenomenon

That's centered
In the pacific basin,

And it involves warming of water
In the eastern pacific.

This changes many different
Climatological conditions.

In peru, the warming water
Causes torrential rainfall.

Lots of things get washed away.

With all of the water that comes
In with the el niño rainfall,

You get plagues of insects
And diseases,

Crops rot in the fields.

And so it's largely disaster.

Narrator: el niño is a creature
Of habit...

Formed by the buildup
Of warm water in the pacific.

If it had not struck by the time

The milky way lined up
With the condor,

It meant the buildup
Of warm water had not happened

And the storms
Would not come that year.

Benfer believes that timing is
What made this site

Important to the people
Who built it.

That solstice was probably

The most important
Day of the year.

When that day passed,
If there was no el niño,

They knew they could plan

The rest of the year
To be normal.

But until that moment,
They wouldn't know.

Narrator: the coastal peoples
Who built the mounds

Would have seen condors
Above the waves

And orcas swimming below them.

Both were intimately connected
With the sea.

And some believe they are
Represented in these mounds

Because what happened
In the ocean

Was crucial to el niño.

Sandweiss: when el niño
Occurs on the coast of peru,

It drives south those animals
That can swim, like fish.

And those, like mollusks,
That can't swim, tend to die.

There's a little bit
Of replacement of species

From the north, but largely,
You just have a lot less things

In the ocean you can fish for.

Narrator: the fact
That it's impossible

To see the animal shapes
From ground level

Has led some to suggest

They could have served
Other purposes.

Sandweiss:
How are you gonna see the mounds
Unless you were in space?

They might, however,
Built them as part of the system

For trying to convince
The supernatural beings

Not to send el niño back.

Narrator: in an age
When el niño only appeared

Every 50 or 100 years,

Mounds such as this
May have seemed

An effective defense against
Nature's devastating power.

Sandweiss: maybe early on,
Faced with these el niño events

That were occurring,
But not very frequently,

The religious entrepreneurs

Who were emerging
In these societies said,

"Look, build me this mound.
I'll make it go away."

Narrator: as long as the mounds
Appeared to stave off el niño,

They continued to be built.

But as the climate changed,
Their influence began to wane.

It's very interesting that
About 2,800 to 2,900 years ago,

They suddenly stopped
Building these mounds,

And they don't build new mounds
For a couple of hundred years,

And that's exactly
When el niño's frequency

Suddenly picked up.

Narrator:
Bob benfer doesn't agree.

He believes the link between
These creatures and the stars

Remains the most compelling.

I think this figure,
This bird

Represents a figure
They saw in the sky

And that was seen most vividly

On the most auspicious day
Of the year.

Narrator: but even today,
It's impossible to be certain

Why these mounds were built.