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.

Objects and phenomena Which defy explanation.

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

Narrator: Mysterious arrows tracking Across the deserts

Of the american west.

What are they there for?

Why were they built In the first place?

Narrator: a blood-red waterfall Stains the antarctic snows.

This looks like A horror movie gone mad.

Narrator: an outbreak Of smooth, round holes

Across the siberian wilderness.

What kind of force is powerful Enough to create these craters

In the middle of nowhere?

Narrator: baffling phenomena, Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

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

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

August, 2014,

An airbus surveillance satellite Studying contested waters

300 miles southeast of vietnam

Captures Something extraordinary.

One moment, there's empty sea

Then bam, There's something there.

When you first look at it, You're like, "What is that?"

It seems like it's come Out of nowhere.

Narrator: The image shows something Difficult to explain,

A brand-new island in a patch Of what was once empty sea.

It comes to the attention Of technology journalist

Seth porges who looks Into the weird phenomenon.

What's strange about it Is how sudden it is,

How quick it is for an island To just appear

In the middle of the ocean,

Especially A hotly contested piece

Of the ocean almost over night.

Narrator: He begins his investigation

By consulting historic images Of the area.

They show empty sea At the coordinates

Just a month ago.

Scientists examining The phenomenon

First consider Possible natural explanations.

If you're going To all of a sudden see

A brand-new island Popping out of the sea,

Volcanism comes to mind.

Undersea volcanoes Can create entire islands.

In 2015, for example, Off the coast of tonga,

There was actually A fairly large volcanic island

That was formed From an undersea volcano.

Narrator: the mystery island Sits on the edge

Of an area geologists

Call the ring of fire,

Which is home to 75% Of the world's active volcanoes.

Seth turns to seismology Reports of the area

To see if they back up The volcano theory.

If a new island popped up Due to volcanic activity,

We would see it in the readings.

We would see it in the data.

When you look at When this island appeared,

There's no data Of that sort.

Narrator: Further surveillance shows that The island is the wrong shape

For one made by a volcano.

I would expect a more Rounded sort of shape to it

As opposed to this Square-like or linear

Kind of island that we see here.

Narrator: if the island is not A natural formation,

It must be man-made.

But who would build an island In a far eastern sea?

Capps: this almost feels like James bond stuff,

Like dr. No is building A new lair.

I've heard it called Super villain island.

But it's real, And it's happening.

Narrator: Only a bond-style super villain Would have the wealth

To build a private complex On this scale.

But building an island In the middle of nowhere

Would be a strange move For any real-life super villain.

Somebody went to a lot of effort

To make this island huge and in A very short period of time.

The question is, Who did this and why?

Narrator: To build something like this

Would take the power Of a country.

Investigators look at which Countries claim ownership

Of the area and discover

That no less Than six nations

Are battling over This patch of ocean.

Porges: Some want the area for fishing. Some want it for oils.

Others want it just So the other guy can't have it.

No matter what, you throw A new island in the mix,

It is going to rock the boat.

Narrator: On closer examination, the image Clearly shows a large runway

On the north side Of the island.

Investigators realize this is A vital clue to the mystery.

The size of the runway Can give us indications

Of what it's intended To be used for.

The construction itself suggests

That it's possibly Military aircraft.

Narrator: At just under 2 miles,

The runway is long enough To accommodate

The biggest bombers In the world.

Porges: this isn't near Any civilian population base,

Which makes you think It's almost certainly

For military use.

Narrator: so if this could be A military base,

Who built it?

Who has the means and the motive

To put up such A massive structure?

This represents Enormous financial undertaking.

If we look around the area At who it could be,

Probably not vietnam, Probably not the philippines,

Taiwan maybe.

But china has the motivation

And the ability To be able to do this.

China fits the profile. They've got the money.

They've got the resources.

They got the ability To pull off an operation

Of this size very quickly.

But that leaves a lot Of unanswered questions

About what exactly they want To do with their military

In the region.

Narrator: in september, 2015,

As speculation mounts About activities

On the mystery island,

Barack obama confronts

The chinese president Over the issue.

Xi jinping denies

Any plans to establish A military stronghold there.

But further analysis Of satellite imagery

Reveals that the island's harbor Is so big,

It can handle the largest ships

In the chinese navy.

China is establishing outposts On nine islands.

Huston: this island is like An unsinkable aircraft carrier.

It vastly extends its ability To project aircraft power

And land and control The airspace in the area.

Narrator: The latest satellite images Of the region

Show evidence That this is just the beginning.

The mystery island Is not just a land grab.

It's a strategic piece In a high-stakes power play.

Pavelec: the chinese are making Overt advances

Into the south china sea.

It's obvious that they want To push the boundaries

Of the power play for the area.

But they also want To establish dominance

To make sure That everybody knows,

Including the united states And japan specifically,

That they are in charge Of that part of the world.

This isn't just saber rattling.

This could be the flash point For the next global conflict.

If anything bad happens here,

It could be bad For the entire world.

Narrator: Satellites reveal a series Of perfectly round holes

Appearing out of nowhere In the siberian tundra.

These things are huge.

Narrator: There is only darkness within.

It looks like you're Staring into the abyss.

Kourounis: What kind of force is powerful Enough to create these craters

In the middle of nowhere?

Narrator: siberia 2014,

An mi-8 transport helicopter Is on a routine flight

Over one of the most Remote places on earth.

The locals call it yamal, The end of the world.

They don't call this place

The end of the world For nothing.

It's complete desolation In almost every direction.

Narrator: The pilot sees something Totally unexpected,

A huge, round void

Almost as wide As a football field

That looks like something Just punched through the earth.

What caused it? How deep does it go?

And is it something We should be worried about?

Narrator: Days later, reindeer herders Discover a second hole.

Analysis Of further satellite imagery

Reveals several more holes Emerging in the vicinity.

When one of these appears Out of the blue,

It's worth investigating.

When nearly 10 of them show up,

You got to wonder What's going on.

Narrator: investigators Consider the possibility

That the mysterious holes Could be related

To a strange geological feature

Unique to siberia, the pingo.

Jerram: pingos are circular, Ice-cored growth

Where concentrations of ice Have built up

And pushed up The land around them.

Lester: Pingos are a unique feature To these polar regions

That undergo freezing During the winters,

Thawing during the summers.

Beneath everything Is a permafrost

That's always frozen,

Always below The freezing point of water.

Narrator: but closer images Of the strange holes

Show a crucial difference From the pingos.

The holes Are surrounded by debris,

Thrown up by some great force.

What caused this?

What kind of force is powerful Enough to create these craters

In the middle of nowhere?

Narrator: the holes seem Too large to be natural.

But there's no suggestion They're man-made.

The search for an answer Goes extraterrestrial.

Could a storm of meteors Have blitzed siberia?

Kourounis: when meteors hit, They're gonna leave a crater.

Could this be one of them?

Siberia has a long history Of meteors.

In 1908, the famous Tunguska event happened.

And this was the largest Air-burst explosion in history.

And it flattened Millions of trees.

It was like An atomic bomb going off.

The size, shape and depth of These holes found in siberia

Are similar to the morphology Of impact craters.

Narrator: When russian investigators Arrive at the scene,

They find none Of the tell-tale scars

Of a meteor strike.

Brand: when you have an impacter That hits the ground,

It can overturn Entire layers of rock.

And, sometimes, You'll even have a peak

In the center of it That's kind of shattered.

And none of those features Are consistent

With this particular hole.

Narrator: but there's no record Of recent strikes

To support the theory.

When a meteor comes Into the earth's atmosphere,

We can detect that.

We have satellites. We have radar.

You're not gonna have a big Event like that go unnoticed.

It's got to be From some other force.

Narrator: Investigators take a closer look

At marks visible At the edge of the holes.

There are scattered bits Of debris and rock

And soil around these things,

As if there might have been Some kind of explosion.

Those holes happened in Some type of violent release.

Narrator: the russian government Doesn't admit to conducting

Any weapons testing In the yamal region.

The earth itself seems To be spontaneously exploding

With no obvious cause.

A possible clue Comes when the investigators

In the nearby arctic ocean

Spot plumes of gas rising From the ocean floor.

The bubbles Are explosive methane.

If the frozen earth Is releasing methane,

It could turn siberia Into a giant gas leak.

In permafrost regions Like siberia, there's also a lot

Of methane that's also Frozen within the ground,

Pressurized beneath the surface.

As we warm our atmosphere,

That atmosphere Is warming the permafrost.

And as the permafrost melts,

It's releasing Trapped methane gas.

Narrator: so is it possible

That these holes were caused By an eruption of methane gas?

The problem with this theory

Is that the permafrost In the region

Is not melting fast enough To cause such a blowout.

Something else must be going on.

The most likely scenario Would be

For these to be melt-outs Of the pingo

Above the pockets of methane.

And it's a problem.

And when they melt, It's catastrophic.

Brand: it's gonna lower The pressure on that gas,

Allowing that gas to expand.

But if it's not able To expand where it is,

It'll eventually pressurize To the point

Where it can actually Blow out the surface.

Narrator: Not everyone is convinced By this theory.

What's bizarre or strange About this image

Is that it's showing us Something

That didn't exist before.

So there's never been a case

Of a pingo spontaneously Combusting.

Something has happened. Something has changed.

We don't know exactly what.

Narrator: It's impossible to be certain

Whether this is what truly Caused the holes.

But if methane is now escaping Through the permafrost,

It could have Devastating consequences.

Drillers here are tapping down Into larger reservoirs of gas

Commonly have to deal With methane escaping

Through their bore holes From the permafrost region.

So we know that there's a lot

Of methane stored In the permafrost.

Kourounis: That methane gas that's trapped In the permafrost is flammable.

All it takes is a spark Or some source

Of combustion and ka-pow.

Imagine one of these happening Underneath a city or a town

Or even a small village.

A hole like this in a town

Could have devastated An entire square block.

Narrator: a satellite spots A set of huge arrows

In the badlands Of the american west.

What are they there for?

Why were they built In the first place?

Narrator: The shapes can only be seen Clearly from high in the air.

Is this pattern carrying Some sort of message?

These arrows are clearly Part of something important.

Narrator: may, 2014,

Retired cop brian smith And his wife, charlotte,

Are spending their vacation Exploring the nevada wilderness.

25 miles from the nearest town,

They stumble Across something extraordinary.

Look at that.

Among the rocks And the rattlesnakes,

They find a massive Concrete arrow

About 60-feet long With a head 4-feet wide.

At ground level, it's hard To see the whole structure.

But from above, It's unmistakable.

Pavelec: Looking at these pictures, You see enormous arrows

Seemingly pointing to nothing.

Narrator: Brian and charlotte head In the direction

The arrow points.

Six miles from the first arrow, They find another.

But they're not easy to spot Amongst the sage brush.

Charlotte takes Her search online

To see if Satellite imagery can help.

What she uncovers is baffling.

They're all over the place.

A series of arrows

Spreads across The entire state of nevada.

These arrows are clearly Part of something important.

But the question is, Who or what had the resources

To do something on this scale?

It's really hard For me to tell right now.

They're really old.

And I can't think Of anything really old

That would use An arrow other than maybe

The pioneers coming across.

But I don't think they had Cement to make arrows

To follow a trail back then.

Narrator: the early pioneers May not have had the resources

To build arrows like these,

But just a few decades later Another group of adventurers

Set off for the west coast.

The trail from salt lake city To san francisco

Where they find a lot Of these arrows

Was the path Of the famous gold rush.

In the 1840s, it brought

Thousands upon thousands Of people

Across the country to california To search for gold.

Gough: could these arrows Have been a mechanism

To show them the way?

Narrator: The theory has one obvious flaw.

No, they're facing The wrong way.

So that wouldn't have Worked.

Yeah. They're facing Towards the east.

Yeah, because all the pioneers Came from the east.

That isn't gonna work.

All of the arrows brian And charlotte

Have found point west To east against the flow

Of the gold rush.

And historians find it hard To believe that the 49ers

Would have been so helpful To their competition.

Why would miners Tell other miners

Where their gold was?

Gough: These people were cut-throat.

This was a chance Of a lifetime to become rich.

They're not gonna help anyone

But themselves find out How to get there.

Narrator: but could the arrows Have a different connection

To the gold rush?

Many of the miners Were freemasons.

Marrs: history tells us That the united states

Was founded by freemasons.

Narrator: Some believe secret societies

Like the masons still Control much of our world.

The masonic influence Is just overwhelming.

Narrator: For believers, the evidence Is in plain sight.

The freemasons use A number of symbols.

But their meaning is known only To their inner circle.

We see masonic symbology On our dollar bill.

Narrator: The freemasons undoubtedly Left their mark

On the american landscape.

One designed mount rushmore.

There is even a theory

That the entire city plan Of washington, d.C.,

Is one giant masonic symbol.

Gough: if this is all connected With freemasonry,

Then the question We have to ask is,

What message might it conceal?

Narrator: If there is a masonic meaning To the arrows,

The secret society Hasn't revealed it yet.

Charlotte's online research Shows that these arrows are part

Of something far bigger

Than she and brian Had first imagined.

89 locations I found on the internet.

Narrator: the arrows are not Just in nevada.

They cross the whole Of the american west.

Putting together the resources To build something on this scale

Would need a group with Commitment and organization.

The pony express had both,

And their routes stretched All across nevada.

Pavelec: the pony express was A mail-delivery system,

Riders on horseback taking Mail thousands of miles

Across vast expanses Of the united states.

Narrator: in the 1860s, There was no easy ride

For these heroic horsemen.

An average rider Could ride 250 miles.

They rode day and night.

Narrator: they battled outlaws, Native americans

And wild animals.

Navigation was key.

Gough: the western frontier Was a really dangerous place.

So you really just had to know Where you were going.

But when investigators compare The satellite map of the arrows

To the pony express' route, There's no match.

Gough: the arrows cover A truly vast amount

Of the western region Of the united states.

The pony express does not.

Narrator: then, as brian smith Scours the u.S. For more arrows,

He makes a surprising discovery.

Some of the arrows Have towers above them.

We've started to discover Some of these beacons

Are located Over the concrete arrows.

What are these beacons used for?

Why were they over the arrow?

The beacons were metal towers

That were built with Rotating lights on the top.

Narrator: He also finds traces of color On the concrete.

They painted the arrows Yellow or sometimes orange.

The only reason You would do that

Is if you wanted Them to be visible from the air.

Narrator: Whoever built these things Needed bright yellow arrows

That can only be Seen from above.

Pilots and planes, that's What they were designed for.

Pavelec: in the days Before navigational aids,

There was no radio navigation.

Maps were very primitive.

These were a fantastic solution

For the problem of pilots

Finding their way Through the air.

Narrator: the logical conclusion Is that the arrows

Must have been built In the early days of aviation.

There weren't many planes In the air in those days.

Narrator: investigators looked To the early history

Of transcontinental flying.

So you have to ask yourself,

What institution is best suited

To build These enormous structures?

Narrator: the sheer scale Of the construction at a time

When aviation had not yet Become big business

Points towards The u.S. Government.

After world war I,

They had a surplus of aircraft Left over from the war.

Rather than scrapping them, they Created a new postal service

Using planes instead Of ponies...

The air mail.

So, guess what, it was The postal service

That created these arrows.

Narrator: The u.S. Postal service was one Of the first institutions

To fly regularly across america.

But it wasn't easy.

The problem is, how can The postal service ensure

That its product gets delivered

When there's bad weather, Good weather,

There's night-time traffic, There's fog?

Narrator: Air mail pilots were Nicknamed the suicide club

After 31 of the first 40 Died in crashes.

In an era before radio And satellite navigation,

They needed a simple way To navigate by eye.

So they had to pour These concrete arrows

With rotating lighted beacons

Next to them to guide pilots.

Narrator: these arrows weren't Just navigational aides,

They were lifesavers.

Pilots just had to follow The yellow concrete road.

The brilliance Of the postal service solution

Is that it's so simple.

Bright yellow arrows Illuminated at night,

What could go wrong?

Narrator: the arrows faded from Use within a few years,

Replaced by radio navigation.

Now they remain as a snapshot Of the moment in history

When america learned to fly.

A research satellite discovers A sinister stain in antarctica.

Nelson: the first thing That comes to mind

Is blood and lots of it.

Narrator: It defies explanation.

Why have you got this blood-red Material coming out?

Lester: this is, clearly, An unusual thing to happen.

Is it human-induced?

So you wonder, what kind Of massacre happened there?

Narrator: november, 2000.

High above antarctica,

Nasa's terra satellite measures

The growth of glaciers In the remote wastelands below.

It captures an image That stuns scientists.

This looks like A horror movie gone mad.

Narrator: The satellite has found a livid,

Scarlet waterfall Five stories high.

The first thing That comes to mind

Is blood and lots of it.

Narrator: The bright-red fluid is spewing

From the 34-mile-long Taylor glacier

In an area known As the mcmurdo dry valleys.

This is crazy.

It's blood red coming Out of the side of a glacier.

You wonder, What kind of massacre

Must have just happened there?

Narrator: the disturbing feature Becomes known as blood falls.

It's like nothing Found in nature.

Nelson: It definitely looks like blood.

But is that even possible?

Narrator: Surely the nauseating color

Isn't evidence Of a sickening slaughter?

I've seen images similar To this of blood on the snow,

For example, When humans kill a whale

And butcher it on the shore.

Narrator: In the past, man's lust For whale and seal meat

Has transformed Miles of coastline

Into gory killing fields.

But even butchery On an inhuman scale

Cannot explain This crimson tide.

Whale hunting is illegal.

And even if it wasn't, This is much too big

Of an area, much Too much blood,

Even for a whale.

If it's not blood, Then you have to ask yourself,

What could it be?

With unusual things Like this, we might ask,

Is this human-induced?

Narrator: Fears arise that the waterfall Might be the product

Of illegal ore extraction.

Nelson: In other parts of the world, When you see this effluent,

This bright-red colored Or different colored,

It's usually A tell-tale sign of mining.

Narrator: Investigation of the area Around the satellite image

Doesn't show Any mining infrastructure.

There's clearly nothing of any Industrial activity

Going on in that area.

Narrator: If blood falls is not man-made, What could have created it?

Scientists venture Into the desolate region

To try to find out.

Jerram: I've been to the dry valleys.

And there's this sort of frozen Antarctic wilderness everywhere.

Narrator: In ferocious conditions, they Use an airborne radar scanner

To probe beneath the ice.

What they find Is totally unexpected.

The source of the red ooze is An ancient underground reservoir

Hidden from view For millions of years.

That water has been stewing

Down there as water Around it freezes

And thaws and freezes and thaws

And cryogenically Enhances the water in iron.

Narrator: iron, the same element That makes blood red

Could be coloring the waterfall.

But the iron is not The most disturbing thing

Scientists find.

Strange creatures are thriving In the hostile conditions

Deep underground.

It's life but not as we know it.

Lester: iron-rich water That is getting tapped

By microbes that live in This dark, cold environment.

Narrator: the weird bacteria Live off the iron

That produces The bright-red color.

Lester: they are spewing Out a kind of rust,

Very, very fine-grained, Insoluble iron

That pours out of this hole In the glacier.

Narrator: Astonishingly, researchers Think these hardy critters

Could be linked To extraterrestrial life

Far out in our solar system.

These are microbes We want to know about.

Narrator: Red scars found on the surface

Of jupiter's icy moon, europa,

Could be caused by alien germs.

Lester: anything that can live Underneath the ice

Trapped from air and sunlight

Is just the kind of thing

We might possibly find

When we go visit Worlds like europa.

Narrator: the creatures lurking Beneath the ice at blood falls

Could have cousins Out in space.

A surveillance satellite Spots a huge structure

In the depths of libyan desert.

It looks like An underground tunnel complex.

Hanson: how did something That significant and substantial

Get built in a pretty arid, Remote area?

Narrator: The sahara hides many secrets From the country's dark past.

Petricevic: we know for sure That gaddafi built

Massive underground complexes.

What if this is one of them?

What or who might be down there?

Narrator: libya, 2011,

A g.O.I. Satellite spots A mysterious installation

In the middle of the desert

500 miles south of libya's Capital, tripoli.

The discovery Sparks numerous theories

About what it could be.

Eland: Given where it is in libya,

It could definitely be

Some sort of remote Weapons facility.

Narrator: The mysterious structure is 1,400 feet by 500 feet across.

The shape gives rise to thoughts

It could be a secret base

Of libya's ruthless dictator, Colonel muammar gaddafi.

There is a pretty Significant outline of a wall.

And there are parapets Along the outside of the wall

That are defensive positions.

They could be guard towers.

Or they could be towers For anti-aircraft weapons.

If this really is one Of gaddafi's bunkers,

Then the question is, What's down there?

This man was a dictator.

He had many Very, very dark secrets.

Narrator: libya had an active Nuclear program until 2003.

Gaddafi claimed to have Dismantled his weapons.

No one can be certain He was telling the truth.

He had reason to hide things From the west.

There was a lot of hostility,

Animosity built up Over the years with gaddafi.

Narrator: gaddafi's arsenal Of weapons of mass destruction

Included 24 tons Of deadly mustard gas.

Weapons inspectors destroyed Whatever they could find.

But much is unaccounted for.

It could be some sort Of an underground facility

For a biological Or weapons program.

They buried a lot Of the facilities

To guard them from air attack.

Narrator: For years, there were rumors

That gaddafi had a network Of tunnels under tripoli

Wide enough for a small car.

When the city Fell to rebels in 2011,

They discovered The rumors were true.

But the shifting sands Of the desert

Would make a complex tunnel System hard to maintain.

Unlike tripoli, where We do actually see a number

Of tunnels that gaddafi used,

If you try to tunnel Into the region,

The tunnel Will simply collapse on itself.

Narrator: there is no record Of anyone building

Substantial structures Above ground around here.

This doesn't look decades Old or years old.

This looks extremely old.

Hanson: It doesn't look like a modern Military structure to me.

It looks like It'll be ancient

Because it has Those central turrets,

Because it has the spaces

For residential habitation Outside and pens for animals.

Narrator: When ancient historians Are shown the satellite image,

The investigation takes a step Back into the past.

At first glance, well, We'll probably say

This looks like a roman Military installation.

Narrator: Could this fortress in the sand

Be an ancient Roman frontier post?

Hanson: romans were interested In expanding their empire.

They'd have natural resources

And populations and trade routes

That they would be interested In controlling

And getting access to.

Narrator: The nearest known roman fort

Is more than 300 miles To the north.

This mysterious structure Lies outside of roman territory.

Hanson: This looks like a roman fort.

It has all the hallmarks Of a roman fort.

But the problem is the romans Never made it this far.

Narrator: There's no easy answer.

The structure may be ancient, But it's not roman.

The only way To solve the mystery

Is to go there in person.

A team of archaeologists goes To investigate the structure.

They discover that what looked Like a simple fort

Is actually a whole settlement.

This isn't a simple structure.

This looks to be A sophisticated city.

Narrator: it seems That the g.O.I. Satellite

Has unearthed a settlement Built by a lost civilization,

A race of nomads Called the garamantes.

The garamantes are a local Political power in libya

Who were contemporaries With the romans.

We know that The ancient garamantes

Were extremely advanced.

They created complex cities.

Narrator: Yet how could the garamantes Sustain a large settlement

In the middle Of a bone-dry desert?

Close analysis Of the satellite image

Shows traces of water channels And agriculture

That has long since dried up.

The garamantes Must have devised a method

For irrigating this ground.

They weren't just simply Living off herding.

But they actually were able To utilize

The few water resources Found in north africa

As a way to irrigate And conduct agriculture

And actually have a level Of urban civilization.

Narrator: excavations reveal An elaborate network

Of ditches and wells

Which tapped into vast Underground reservoirs.

Today, the water is gone.

The only memory of the green Oasis city of the garamantes

Is the marks It's left in the sand.

Just imagine that if You were actually standing

At this site in 200 a.D.,

What you would see here Are palm trees, people,

Merchants, trade,

A whole complex society Going on there.

Narrator: By a.D. 600, the garamantes

Had disappeared into the desert From which they came.

No one's quite sure what Happened to their civilization.

But the mark They left on the landscape

Can still be seen from space.

A new mexico news Reporter discovers

Strange symbols in the desert.

Gough: These are absolutely huge.

What are they doing there? Who put them there and why?

No one will tell you What it stands for,

What the signs are, And you can't go there.

Narrator: the investigation Leads to a powerful,

Highly secretive organization.

It's very sinister And very creepy.

No question about it.

Narrator: Albuquerque, 2005,

A television news reporter Gets a lead

That will put her station In the headlines.

She gets a phone call saying That there is some weird signs

In this mountain.

She gets in a car. She checks it out.

Narrator: The location is 150 miles north

Of roswell near A ghost town called trementina.

She sees fences going on For miles and miles and miles.

And there's nobody around.

Narrator: The reporter doesn't get in.

Whoever owns this patch Of desert,

It doesn't look Like visitors are welcome.

The news reporter checks Satellite images of the site.

What she finds is astounding.

Two enormous rings With diamonds inside them,

And the two rings intersect.

Narrator: The trementina circles are more Than 1,000 feet in diameter.

These are absolutely huge.

What are they doing there? Who put them there and why?

Narrator: The satellite image confirms

The news team Has a story on their hands.

But shortly before the story Is due to air,

The television station Has unexpected visitors.

Sweeney: the station is invaded By men in dark suits.

And their message is simple, Do not broadcast this piece.

Gough: These are google earth images.

So there's no transgression Of anything legal whatsoever.

So they run with the story.

Narrator: The provincial news station Has just crossed a powerful

And secretive organization,

The church of scientology.

Domingo: The church gets really itchy About their secrets.

The first thing when you talk About scientology

Is their legal team comes in.

Sweeney: When the church comes after you,

It's scary, No question about it.

Narrator: Bbc journalist john sweeney

Has conducted his own Investigation into trementina.

It was as creepy and frightening

As going to north korea.

Cctv cameras Are slowly tracking me.

And I walk up the intercom, I press a button.

What happens next Is even more peculiar.

[ pulsing tone ]

That doesn't sound very helpful.

Perhaps that's The church of scientology

Trying to communicate with us.

Narrator: despite the church's Notorious closed-door policy,

Ex-scientologists offer An explanation for the symbols

Etched into the desert floor

And what lies beneath.

The facility is An underground bomb shelter

Where they're gonna preserve Their most sacred texts.

Narrator: a secondary structure May house the opening

To these supposed Subterranean vaults.

Sweeney: there's a house Which backs onto the mountain.

Behind that, there are The secret vaults.

Narrator: Investigators can only speculate About what may be hidden

Inside the secret base.

Sweeney: the word is that Inside trementina base

Are discs of gold.

And on them are the speeches

And talks and wisdom Of the church of scientology.

Narrator: The founder of scientology,

L. Ron hubbard was obsessed With his legacy.

L. Ron hubbard, According to scientologists,

Is one of The greatest human beings

That ever lived.

The critics of l ron hubbard

Say that he wrote Bad science fiction.

And then one day, He wrote a bad religion.

Hubbard warned About a nuclear war.

And he said he wanted Scientologists to survive.

If the world ends, This weird symbol in the desert

Would mark where you Could still find scientology.

Narrator: this explanation for The purpose of trementina base

Raises more questions Than it answers.

Even if this is gonna Be a repository

For all of Their teachings, fine.

But why do you need This gargantuan symbol?

Narrator: A faint line next to the image,

Although easily missed, Could provide the solution.

Next to the sign, There's a zig-zag.

That's a road. And that leads to an air strip.

Narrator: The air strip is registered With the authorities

But doesn't appear on any maps.

Could the strange symbols Be giant markers

To lead pilots to the runway?

You can only see this thing From high, high up.

Gough: so having these symbols On the ground

Are gonna alert Those in the know

That there is An air strip there.

Narrator: If they are location markers, Just who are they guiding in?

Perhaps the most intriguing idea

Is that trementina could be A secret training facility

Where scientologists Attempt to gain

And master superhuman powers.

Hubbard says there are 57 senses, not 5.

When you heighten your awareness Of these senses,

You will, literally, be elevated

To the status Of magic super spirit.

Sweeney: You become a superhuman.

You have powers over matter, Energy, space and time.

Narrator: As strange as it might sound,

The church has already built One training complex

Called the super power building In clearwater, florida.

Domingo: The super power building Took 13 years to build.

And it looks like A space ship inside.

Gough: The rumors just run rampant As to what goes on there.

Everything from A wellness center

To something called an orbitron.

Sweeney: People say the orbitron

Can change your state Into a higher being.

To outsiders, talk Of superpowers sounds insane.

To scientologists, These abilities are very real.

The beliefs are a product Of scientology's strange

And complex mythology.

75 million year ago,

A space alien called lord xenu,

A warlord, Brought space aliens to earth

And massacred them with Hydrogen bombs inside volcanoes.

And then the souls of these dead Space aliens have stuck to us.

Domingo: the core of scientology Is releasing

These trapped space alien Entities from your body.

Narrator: when scientology's Most dedicated disciples

Shed their alien souls,

They die peacefully And fly into space

But only after Signing a contract

Pledging to return In the next billion years

Whenever the earth is in peril.

Domingo: The billion-year contract Is basically the idea

That we die, and we come back.

And we carry on the battle To save the planet.

Narrator: The theory goes that trementina Could become a base

For scientology's super men When they come back to earth.

Sweeney: this is a kind Of space alien cathedral.

It's like a sign To space aliens

Or space travelers, come here.

Domingo: hubbard certainly Talked about

All the space adventures We'd have together.

So for him to put tracks On the ground

For space ships to see Would be completely normal.