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. This can't be.

[ beeping ]

Narrator: an underwater kingdom Emerging from the waves...

Well, I've never seen anything Quite like this.

Doesn't make any sense.

Narrator: ...A miraculous Apparition manifesting

On the plains Of central europe...

People all over the world Go nuts for this thing.

Narrator: ...And an ancient city

Appears to have teleported Across the nile delta.

Dr. Cerveny: if you're Going to move an entire city,

Then you don't get Much better reason

Than the great egyptian plagues.

Narrator: Baffling phenomena...

Mysteries from space...

What on earth are they?

[ beeping ]

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

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

**

July 17, 2014,

Malaysian airlines flight mh17 Takes off from amsterdam

Bound for kuala lumpur.

At 12:01 gmt,

It enters contested airspace Above war-torn eastern ukraine.

On the ground,

Ukrainian forces battle For their country's survival

Against hard-line separatists.

The government claims

The rebels are backed By the russian military.

Russia has consistently denied

That it's actively fighting A military campaign

Inside of eastern ukraine.

Narrator: any evidence of Russian involvement in ukraine

Would be highly embarrassing To moscow.

[ engine roars ]

Above the battlefield, The skies are a no-fly zone.

Most civilian planes are totally Avoiding the area...

But not mh17.

Yes, the plane was flying Over a military zone,

But it was 1,000 feet Above the no-fly zone.

So the pilot And the passengers --

They probably thought They were safe.

Narrator: At 1:20 p.M. Gmt,

The plane explodes somewhere North of the city of donetsk,

Scattering debris Over a 19-square-mile area.

The blast and subsequent crash Kill all 298 people on board.

Porges: This is truly tragic.

When you look At a case like this,

You want to know what happened, Who did it, and why they did it.

Narrator: The ukrainian government claims

That pro-russian separatists Shot down the plane

With a ground-based Russian missile.

Moscow counters that

A ukrainian fighter jet fired The fatal shots.

The russians turn To high-tech satellite imagery

To back up their claim.

[ beeping ]

They release A satellite photograph

Apparently showing The malaysian airliner

Alongside a ukrainian fighter,

Which they say shot it down.

So to clear their name, the Russians release this image,

Which they say clears them Of any wrongdoing.

Russia's our top suspect, For sure, in the shoot-down.

But what's the best way For them to deny it?

Provide another suspect.

If russia could find a way

To pin the shoot-down On someone else,

It's gonna grab it With both hands.

Narrator: and this is exactly What the photo appears to show.

Russia claims that

This image shows mh17 flying Over the ukraine,

Being attacked By the ukrainian air force

Firing an air-to-air missile At the aircraft.

Narrator: on the face of it,

The image appears to be Conclusive proof

That the russian version Of events is true.

When you first see the image, It looks compelling.

It looks to have captured An actual missile

Being fired by a fighter Against an airliner.

Narrator: If the image really is proof

That a ukrainian fighter Attacked the plane,

It absolves russia of blame.

But there are questions about The photograph's authenticity.

Forensic analysts Take a closer look,

Starting with the smaller plane,

Which russian state media Reports

Is a fighter called an su-25.

There's something wrong With that picture.

That's not an su-25 In the picture.

this is an su-27.

Narrator: the su-25 and su-27 Look very different.

[ engine roars ]

Both are russian designs,

So the mistake is a strange one For russian state media to make.

Veteran u.S. Naval aviator James houston

Points out another discrepancy In the russian image.

The fighter is shooting At the airliner from the side,

Something a well-trained pilot Would be unlikely to do.

The perfect angle For an air-to-air shot

Is directly behind the target.

If you're directly behind it,

You can use both a heat-seeking And a radar-guided missile

Without any problem.

So I don't know why You wouldn't just go over

And take the perfect shot.

It makes me skeptical.

Narrator: Analysts are also not convinced

The airliner depicted In the photograph is genuine.

Here's a close-up of that plane.

If you notice, right here, We can see a logo.

There's a problem with that.

Malaysian airlines flight 17

Doesn't have a logo In that place.

[ beeping ]

Narrator: The logo in the image

Is too far forward On the fuselage

For a malaysian airlines plane.

If the lettering Is in the wrong place

For a malaysian airlines jet,

You got to ask yourself, What are we even looking at?

Narrator: The investigation next focuses

On the terrain Beneath the two planes.

D'antonio: there are rumors

That the entire landscape And the aircraft themselves

Are just fake

And that the landscape Was painted

Onto an existing Google earth image.

Narrator: investigative Journalists discover

That the terrain in the inset Showing the fighter

And the terrain In the main image

Come from different sources On different dates.

The main image Comes from google earth.

And the inset is taken from A russian site called yandex.

Taking All these factors into account,

Looking at the evidence, Analyzing the picture,

It is incredibly evident that Something is not right here.

This thing has been doctored. This thing is a fake.

O'connor: forensic examination Of satellite imagery

In a case like this Is obviously important.

It helps us to prove that The ukrainians are, in fact,

Being framed By the russian government.

[ camera shutters clicking ]

Narrator: 11 months after the russians Release the satellite image,

Dutch investigators reconstruct The wreckage of the plane

And publish a detailed report Into the mh17 catastrophe.

They conclude a ground-based Russian-made buk missile

Hit the cockpit And brought the plane down.

They find no evidence Of an air-to-air attack.

I think This aircraft being shot down,

Probably by a russian Surface-to-air missile,

Is something of a smoking gun

Of russia's presence In the ukraine.

Narrator: to date,

President vladimir putin Still denies

That russian troops Are operating on the ground

In the ukraine.

[ choir vocalizes ]

The hunt for who fired The missile

That blew flight mh17 Out of the skies continues.

[ beeping ]

Satellites capture Baffling evidence

That an ancient city has been Relocated within the nile delta.

Why and how Would a whole city even move?

Narrator: could the answer Be found in the bible?

If you're going to move An entire city,

You don't get much better reason Than the great egyptian plagues.

Narrator: or could science Solve the mystery?

**

Narrator: satellites Have become vital tools

For today's archaeologists.

[ camera whirs ]

Dr. Dodson: the importance Of satellite photography

Is it allows us to cover Vastly greater areas

Than was ever possible before.

Narrator: now new techniques, Like infrared satellite imaging,

Are enabling analysts All over the world

To discover structures hidden For millennia.

Baugh: When we switch to infrared,

Which is a type of light That we cannot see,

Suddenly, a pattern pops out.

Narrator: one of the most Exciting infrared discoveries

In recent years

Is the street plan of the Ancient egyptian city of tanis

On the nile delta.

The infrared sees beneath The dirt and dust of centuries

To reveal buried buildings To archaeologists.

Tanis was the capital Of the egyptian pharaohs

From about 1000 b.C. Down to about 700 b.C.

Narrator: in the 1920s, A frenchman, pierre montet,

Came to tanis searching for A lost city called pi-ramesses.

While excavating a plateau Next to the modern city,

He hits the mother lode.

The site is littered With statues of ramesses ii,

The pharaoh who built the city He's hunting.

You're looking for the lost city Of the pharaoh.

And you find a city with His name stamped all over it.

What other conclusion Would you draw?

Narrator: But there's a problem.

Dating tests On some of the remains

Taken from the site near tanis

Reveal that it cannot be The pharaoh's lost city.

Dr. Dodson: Although all this stonework Is inscribed for ramesses ii,

All the actual Archaeological material,

Actually stuff which is from People living and dying there,

Is all From some centuries later.

Narrator: if this city was built In the time of ramesses,

There should be evidence From his time

Buried In the archaeological layers.

So the problem is this --

The city is literally stamped With the name "Ramesses,"

But there is nothing that dates Remotely from his era.

How can that be?

Narrator: the answer comes 40 years later,

When another team Of archaeologists

Discovers the remains Of the pharaoh's lost city

At the modern-day town Of qantir.

The footings of his statues Are still in place

Where they were ripped From the ground and moved.

There can only be One conclusion.

At some point in history,

The lost city of ramesses Was abandoned, dismantled,

And then rebuilt at tanis, 12 miles away.

Why and how Would a whole city even move?

It's just a crazy idea.

Narrator: For some observers, a clue

To why the people of pi-ramesses Deserted their magnificent city

May come from the bible.

In the book of exodus,

God unleashes a series Of terrible plagues on egypt

To persuade the pharaoh

To release the israelites From slavery.

If you're going to move An entire city,

You need a really good reason To do that.

And you don't get Much better reason

Than the great egyptian plagues.

Narrator: Plagues can have

A sudden, devastating effect On cities.

[ flies buzzing ]

History is filled With outbreaks of disease,

Forcing thousands of people To flee their homes.

Gough: This is not unusual at all.

There's many examples, Especially in the mediterranean.

Horton: In croatia, the town of dvigrad,

Which was once A prosperous medieval city,

But was so weakened by probably Both plague and malaria

That, by the 1650s,

There was just a handful Of families still living there,

And by the end Of the 17th century,

Had been abandoned And was just a ruined city.

Narrator: the plagues In the book of exodus

Tell of hailstorms, Day turning to night,

Water turning to blood, And terrifying infestations.

[ insects buzzing ]

Could they have forced The people of pi-ramesses

To move their entire city To a safer location?

Dr. Cerveny: the stories Of the 10 great egyptian plagues

Are some of the most terrifying And dramatic

In the entire bible.

But what if they're more Than just stories?

Over the last couple of decades,

There have been scientists And historians

That have come up With scientific explanations

Of how this series of plagues Could have occurred.

Narrator: Some suggest satellite images

Of an island in the Mediterranean called santorini

Could offer a clue

To the origin of the most Devastating biblical plagues.

The ancient greeks Called the island thera,

And it was the site

Of one of the biggest volcanic Eruptions in known history.

[ choir vocalizes ]

[ rumbling ]

Thera was four times larger

Than the infamous eruption Of krakatau.

[ rumbling ]

Pumice from thera was found At the site of pi-ramesses.

Narrator: The presence of volcanic ash

Leads some to believe

That this mega eruption May have triggered

Some of the plagues described In the bible.

[ rumbling ]

The eruption of this volcano

Could produce ashfalls and rocks

That could literally fall Out of the sky,

Creating that plague of hail That is mentioned in the bible.

The cover of ash Over the entire mediterranean

Would have led to darkness.

Narrator: as the massive plumes Of ash covered egypt,

It could have created The conditions

For the most devastating plague Of all --

The death of the firstborn.

Dr. Cerveny: The volcanic ash

Could actually cause the food Supply to be contaminated.

Since the firstborn

Were the ones that got the best And the first of the food,

They would have eaten That contaminated food

And may have led to the plague The death of the firstborn.

Narrator: on the face of it, The theory

That the mega eruption Could have triggered events

That led to pi-ramesses being Abandoned seems compelling.

But archaeologists discover

That the dates Of the eruption at thera

And the uprooting of pi-ramesses Simply don't match.

The eruption of thera Was roughly 3,600 years ago.

It's happening centuries Before ramesses,

And therefore can have Nothing to do with his time.

Gough: even if The plagues of egypt were real,

They couldn't have triggered The move.

So the question is, what did?

[ beeping ]

Narrator: the archaeologists Who first discovered pi-ramesses

Thought they'd found the reason

When they discovered traces Of an old river

Near the city That had somehow disappeared.

In the 1960s,

The only way to prove A river had once flowed there

Was by painstaking field work And surveys.

Today, scientists need

Only to look at infrared Satellite images of the area.

Old riverbeds contain Mineral deposits,

Which help plants grow.

And because plants reflect light In the infrared spectrum,

Satellites can pick out These ancient waterways

Long after the water Has disappeared.

You can spot old river channels

By the pattern That the vegetation is making

On the ground.

The electromagnetic spectrum Give us the ability

To look beyond What the human eye can see.

Narrator: when observers apply An infrared filter

To the nile delta,

Its ancient channels Should miraculously appear.

And one of those used to run Through pi-ramesses.

But over time, it changed course To run through tanis,

Leaving the pharaoh's city With no water supply.

Dodson: As its river branch dried up,

Pi-ramesses became less and less Viable as a capital city.

And therefore, the pharaohs Moved their residents to tanis.

Put yourself in their shoes.

Their city is dying. What would you do?

Rather than quarrying new stone Hundreds of miles away,

They simply used the ruins Of the now-derelict pi-ramesses

As their quarry.

And therefore, Over a period of --

A period Of a number of centuries,

Blocks, obelisks, Colossal statues

Were all shipped Across to tanis,

Where they form part Of the new city.

Narrator: Satellites have shed new light

On the mysteries of tanis.

And these discoveries Are only the beginning

Of a new era in the exploration Of the ancient world.

Dr. Dodson: what this kind of Remote sensing allows us to do

Is to check sites,

See what may be there Under the ground,

And then target The expensive stuff,

Which is boots-on-the-ground Actual excavation.

So in many ways,

Satellite photography is perhaps The savior of egyptology.

[ beeping ]

Narrator: high above The northern hemisphere,

An orbiting satellite Photographs a haunting face

In the hungarian countryside.

It looks like the portrait Of jesus christ himself.

Narrator: Just who or what created

This giant image Of the son of god?

Is this a natural phenomenon,

Or is this something that might Have been created on purpose?

This really should be explained Before things get out of hand.

Narrator: april 2009.

A new google earth image Appears to show

A giant face Staring up at the heavens

From a farmer's field In hungary.

You can almost see the outline Of some hair and some eyes,

Maybe a nose and mouth.

The image almost looks like

The traditional image Of jesus christ.

Narrator: The sensational photograph Immediately goes viral.

Some suggest That it's evidence of a miracle

Or even a portent Of the second coming of christ.

People all over the world Go nuts for this thing.

It looks just like the face On the turin shroud.

Visser: these phenomena Need to be understood

Because, if they're not, People will actually think

This was the result Of divine intervention.

Narrator: The image comes to the attention

Of satellite analyst Amanda marchetti.

I do see a pattern emerging Within the image

That does resemble a human face.

The question would be, Is this a natural phenomenon,

Or is this something that might Have been created on purpose?

Narrator: Some of the fields in the image

Appear to have been Recently plowed.

Could this be the cause Of the strange shapes?

Marchetti: did somebody Manipulate the crop residue

To actually form a human figure,

To form a piece of art using The earth as their canvas?

Narrator: Artists all over the world

Have used the landscape To create giant images,

Fully visible only from the air.

I think an image like this Is most likely the result

Of a farmer having Some fun in his own field

By cutting One half of the field first,

Then leaving The other half to grow,

Causing the color effect To change.

Narrator: But the hungarian face of christ

Is not as well-defined as known Examples of landscape art.

Marchetti develops An alternative theory.

Marchetti: Digging a little deeper,

I can definitely see areas That are slightly elevated.

I do see areas Of shadowing and relief.

Narrator: the shadows In satellite images

Can be evidence of mounds Or small hills.

But what could've created mounds

On the vast, Flat hungarian plains?

Today, some of the few remnants

Of the ancient peoples Who lived here

Are elevated structures Called kurgans,

Which dot The hungarian countryside.

Kurgans were enormous, Great, big mounds

In which they're burying Their dead.

Some have survived.

But unfortunately, Most have been plowed flat.

So you could only really see Them from the air.

Narrator: whatever The dark patches come from,

The most popular explanation For the appearance of the face

Is that it's an example of A phenomenon called pareidolia.

Pareidolia is what we call it

When the brain sees a pattern Where none exists.

Narrator: Psychologists believe

That pareidolia is the reason Why people see patterns

In things like ink blot tests, Clouds, and rock formations.

Most often, That pattern is a human face.

There's a reason for that.

We're hardwired To recognize people, faces,

Ever since we were in the caves.

Narrator: the miracle Of the hungarian plain

Is nothing more Than a trick of light,

A chance arrangement Of natural features

Shaped to resemble a face

Through the power Of the human mind.

If you look at almost any Assortment of random shapes,

You might be able To pick out something

That looks like two eyes, A nose, and a mouth.

I think this is just another Example of that phenomenon.

D'antonio: there Might be miracles out there.

But this isn't one of them.

[ beeping ]

Narrator: an aerial photographer Spots a strange shape

Off the coast of wales.

This discovery Really knocked us off our feet.

It's fantastic.

Narrator: a giant underwater Structure rises from the waves.

Man: Imagine if we're seeing

The traces of an ancient sunken Civilization on these images.

That would be A discovery of a lifetime.

Narrator: August 1, 2007.

-lovely day for it. -it's glorious, isn't it?

Not much wind. Nice to see you again.

Okay. Let's get up.

Narrator: Archaeologist toby driver

Is working As an aerial investigator

For the british government.

[ radio chatter ]

His job is to find Lost archaeological sites

In the southwestern region Of the country.

Being up in the air

Is a really powerful way To see the landscape.

It's the best way, really, To look down

And spot things that you Just can't see at ground level.

Narrator: As he makes a final pass

Over a beach Near cardigan in north wales,

He spots something unusual And grabs for his camera.

Dr. Driver: we're about To go back to the airport,

And then, bang -- Straight below the plane

Are these lines heading From the beach under the sea.

Astonishing.

**

[ camera shutter clicks ]

[ camera whirs ]

Nelson: this image -- It really is pretty strange.

Basically, what you have

Is this big black "V" In the middle of the ocean.

Well, I've never seen anything Quite like this.

Doesn't make any sense.

Narrator: on its own,

The aerial image can't provide All the answers.

The aerial photograph gives us The first way in,

But to really understand it,

We need to get down on the beach And to study it in more detail.

Narrator: driver heads To the site to investigate.

Dr. Driver: From the position it should be

On the aerial photograph,

This looks like We're actually at the structure.

Incredible. Look at it.

Narrator: driver finds A row of rocks about 2 feet high

That looks man-made.

From right here on, What looks like a tumbled wall,

Covered in seaweed now --

This is all hard stone here.

Big boulders -- Smaller stones are jammed in,

But a very clear, distinct width To it going up the beach here.

So we've got Two huge stone-built walls,

And that's What we're looking at.

Why would you build Two large walls on a beach?

Narrator: This is just a small section

Of a much bigger formation that Stretches out under the sea.

Dr. Driver: it goes out to The "V" point of the structure,

Just where The waves are breaking,

And then back swinging Under the sand.

And I think we're picking it up With this very, very low tide --

That line of rocks In the distance.

It's just -- it's An enormous structure, huge.

Narrator: The giant "V" covers an area

Three times the size Of an american football field.

Dr. Driver: so we see This is a huge building project.

Who has the resources And the power

To put together A structure this size?

Narrator: There are few written records

Of the people who lived here In the distant past,

But there are many stories.

The imposing scale Of the structure

Leads some investigators To suggest

That the walls Could be the traces

Of a legendary lost kingdom Known as the lowland hundred.

The story of the lowland hundred

Is about a kingdom that existed On the welsh coast

In ancient times below the sea.

Narrator: According to legend,

Large areas of today's seabed Were once a fertile land

Ruled over By a king called gwyddno.

His domain was protected by a Series of giant walls and gates

That stopped the sea From flooding in,

But there was a weak link In the sea defenses.

As the story goes, there's A chap by the name of seithenyn

Whose job it is to look After the gate to the dike.

One night, He has too much to drink

And doesn't close the gate. [ rumbling ]

And by morning, The entire kingdom is submerged

And will remain so forever.

Narrator: Most commentators think

The lowland hundred is a myth.

But winter storms Along the coast

Have exposed tantalizing signs That it may contain some truth.

Hughes: the evidence here -- It's quite stunning.

We have footprints That have been found,

Fossilized footprints That the archaeologists said

Was of a young girl --

I think 4,000 or 5,000 years old.

So we know people were here.

Narrator: comparison Of the wall's stonework

With other structures In the area

Seems to indicate It's around 1,000 years old --

Not old enough for it to be part Of the ancient legends.

All available evidence For a land beneath the waves

Dates to the prehistoric era.

If the dates don't match up,

The mystery of who built The giant "V" remains.

Who has that sort of power here 1,000 years ago

To build a structure this big?

Now, we have -- Just up the river here

Are the monks of st. Dogmaels.

They established their abbey In 1115 a.D.

And I think we have to look To the monks nearby

To be the people who built This structure 1,000 years ago.

Narrator: it seems both The abbey and the undersea walls

Were at least built In the same era.

But why would A medieval religious order

Build a giant, v-shaped Structure under the waves?

Investigators come across A surprising answer

In satellite images Of distant seas.

You can see things Like this in the persian gulf --

Dark, walled structures That protrude out of the water.

They're fish traps.

And I think that's what We're looking at here.

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: a fish trap is a kind Of man-made rock pool,

Which catches fish Using the power of the tides.

As the water comes in,

All the fish come Into the large part of the "V."

And then, as the water goes out,

They're funneled Into the small part of the "V,"

And the water can get out, But the fish cannot.

It reaches a point Just out there beyond me.

And that's where, If this is a fish trap,

The fish would've been caught As the tide ran out.

Narrator: if the giant "V" Is a supersized fish trap,

Then the lost kingdom Of the lowland hundred

Remains undiscovered.

[ beeping ]

A reconnaissance satellite Captures a strange black slash

In the remote mountains Of afghanistan.

Gough: it doesn't look Like anything natural.

I wonder If it's hiding something.

Nelson: It doesn't make any sense.

What could the satellite Have found?

Narrator: is this dark scar The mark of a heinous war crime?

[ choir vocalizing ]

Their society was completely Razed to the ground,

Killing millions of people In the process.

[ beeps ]

Narrator: Satellites are changing the face

Of global conflicts.

[ camera whirs ]

Now even The most inaccessible war zones

Can be viewed In astonishing detail.

[ beeps ]

July 17, 2004.

The quickbird ii Reconnaissance satellite

Orbits 250 miles Above war-torn afghanistan.

It beams back a weird image From the hari rud valley.

There's this weird black, Cigar-shaped object

Concealed in the mountains.

And it looks very strange.

Narrator: the thick slash Is more than 200 feet long

And jet-black.

This is one Of the remotest areas

In a country full Of death and secrets.

What could the satellite Have found?

[ beeps ]

Narrator: the first theory Analysts explore

Is that this could be A case of censorship.

The u.S. Military, the nsa,

The cia, And the state department

Will sometimes redact data

For purposes of operational Secrecy or national security.

Ever since wikileaks, We've seen many occasions

Where the u.S. Government Has had to redact images

In order to conceal Their true activities.

Narrator: but when it comes To satellite images...

[ camera whirs ]

...The security services Are more sophisticated.

If they want To redact something,

They copy pixels Or blur entire areas.

D'antonio: if you didn't want To show somebody something,

You must remove it And create a situation

Where you can't tell There was ever anything there.

But this image Shows no evidence of redaction.

Narrator: so what could The black slash be?

Almost 8 years later, in 2012,

A new satellite image Offers a clue.

A picture taken At a different time of day

Shows the black slash Has changed shape.

D'antonio: you see the lit side Of a tall object.

And then, you see its shadow Cast across this river.

It is the shadow Of a tall building.

Narrator: The dark anomaly in the image

Is a 200-foot-high tower.

Archaeologists identify it As a legendary monument...

...The minaret of jam.

Horton: the minaret of jam Is one of the great monuments

Of medieval islam.

It was a myth That this great tower existed.

Narrator: a minaret Is the tower above a mosque,

From which muslim worshipers Are called to prayer.

But this one appears to be Standing in a barren wilderness

With no possible worshipers In sight.

This minaret is out In the middle of nowhere.

There's no city around. Where has the city gone?

Narrator: with the afghan war Still raging,

It's too dangerous To visit the ancient site

And look for the remains Of a city.

[ camera whirs ]

But the lone minaret Reminds some analysts

Of another site on the other Side of the gobi desert

With similarly isolated Structures.

Gough: when we look At the gobi desert

Via satellite images,

What we find

Is that they show traces Of an ancient vanished kingdom.

And when we Examine this up close,

What we realize Is that we're looking

At these peculiar Beehive structures.

Why are they the only things That have survived?

Narrator: 2,000 miles From war-torn afghanistan,

Historian jin xu Examines a series

Of unusual beehive structures Built in northern china

1 1/2 centuries Before the minaret of jam.

Just the imposing And the towering structure

Is the remains Of a huge lost kingdom.

Narrator: the gigantic mounds Form the royal burial site

Of the tangut empire,

A lost medieval civilization

Whose population was once vast.

We know precious little

About their real Social structure

Because all they've left Behind us is ruins.

Narrator: so, does The disappearance of the tanguts

Shed any light On the minaret of jam?

This dead kingdom fell victim To a ferocious warlord

Whose name became synonymous With terror

Across asia and europe --

Genghis khan.

Xu: In order to conquer china,

The mongols had first To conquer tangut kingdom.

Narrator: In the early 13th century,

Genghis khan's army Invaded tangut territory.

The tangut emperor chose To surrender rather than fight.

Horton: He came to genghis' tent

With tokens of all the wealth Of his kingdom,

Seven great horses, Seven great virgins,

Seven great chests of treasure,

To offer his surrender.

The tangut emperor Waits for three days

In front of khan's tent.

He doesn't know that The great khan is mortally ill.

Khan's last words To his sons are chilling.

As genghis was lying On his deathbed,

He instructed his sons,

"Let everyone In this kingdom vanish."

The sad thing Is that the mongols

Took him to his words.

Narrator: the first to be killed Is the tangut emperor himself,

Executed in front Of genghis khan's deathbed.

[ man screams ]

Then, the mass killing begins.

Genghis' successor, ogedei,

Destroyed all their cities,

Literally reduced Their society to ruins,

Killing millions of people In the process.

This is one of the most Tragic chapters

In human history,

In which a great civilization Has disappeared.

Narrator: the destruction Of the tangut empire

Sets the stage for ogedei khan's Bloody campaign of conquest.

Gough: so why were The beehive structures

The only thing remaining?

It's testament.

It's intentionally left in order To preserve the memory

That this is what will happen

If you deny the mongol kingdom.

Narrator: And this isn't the only place

Where ogedei left his mark.

He was also at the head Of an army

That marched into afghanistan.

Horton: so ogedei did Not just destroy the tanguts.

He destroyed the city

That was located Around the minaret of jam,

Just leaving the minaret of jam

Standing as a sole monument To their past.

Narrator: the afghans Who lived here are long dead.

The minaret which once echoed With a call to prayer

For thousands still stands,

Now a silent memorial To a once-great civilization.

[ camera whirs ]

[ rumbling ]

A fearsome earthquake rips

Down the west coast Of north america.

This was An extremely large earthquake.

There was a lot of damage. It was devastating.

Narrator: Investigators turn to satellites

To find out what caused The epic quake.

Something big has happened here, And we don't know what.

Dr. Capps: we're certain That this isn't caused

By any of the faults We know about,

Which means exactly one thing --

It's caused by something We don't know about.

[ beeps ]

Narrator: Easter sunday 2010.

A massive earthquake Devastates towns and cities

In baja california, mexico.

This was the largest earthquake In the last 20 years

In this region.

It caused extensive damage Locally...

[ rumbling ]

...And was felt as far As san diego, 100 miles away.

Dr. Weston: Buildings were damaged, as well,

So it did have an effect On tens of thousands of people.

[ beeps ]

Narrator: to save lives,

Geologists have to find out Where the earthquake originated.

[ camera whirring ]

[ siren wailing, horn honks ]

We need to guide First responders

To the right places To help people right away.

To do that, we need to know -- Where was the rupture,

Where did it begin, And where did it end?

Narrator: earthquakes occur When huge fractures

In the planet's crust, Called fault lines, rupture.

It's important To track fault lines

Because fault lines Are the source of earthquakes.

So what fault has ruptured In this earthquake?

[ rumbling ]

[ beeps ]

Narrator: to find the fault, Geologists turn to the sky.

Dr. Briggs: We can use spaceborne sensors

To figure out Where the fault rupture was.

Narrator: high-resolution images Of the landscape show

How the quake has caused The ground to shift.

We use a "Before" image And an "After" image.

You match the two.

And you see where The earth's surface is deformed.

Narrator: it shades The landscape different colors

To reveal which direction The rock has moved.

It is very good at showing

How the fault ruptured Right at the fault.

Narrator: what they find Is completely unexpected.

None of the known fault lines Have ruptured.

Dr. Weston: we thought it was Another famous fault

In that region called The laguna salada fault.

But the actual location Of the earthquake

Was 60 miles away.

Dr. Wei: We can see the fault rupture

Is not on any of These known active faults.

Narrator: Instead, the contrasting colors

Of the satellite image

Trace a previously unknown fault In the cucapah mountains.

Dr. Wei: it's a surprise.

So we know, "Okay. We saw something new."

[ rumbling ]

Narrator: but the scale Of the quake doesn't make sense.

The new fault line Is just 30 miles long.

It's too small to be responsible For all the damage.

It's very confusing For seismologists.

Something big has happened here, And we don't know what.

Narrator: it appears As if this mystery earthquake

Has come out of nowhere.

We're certain That this isn't caused

By any of the faults We know about,

Which means exactly one thing --

It's caused by something We don't know about.

Narrator: Modern-day scientists struggle

To find a fault line Big enough to explain the quake.

But it would've been no mystery

To the ancient peoples Of this region.

Legends From central american cultures,

Like the aztec,

Speak of apocalyptic earthquakes That end the world.

The aztec believed That the world

Was constantly being destroyed And reborn and reshaped.

Narrator: the aztec held That life on earth

Was tied to the progress Of five cycles, called sols.

Dr. Von grisjeghen: we live Today during the fifth sol --

That according To aztec mythology,

Would be -- destroy --

Would suffer destruction Through cataclysmic earthquakes.

Narrator: Today's geologists don't believe

In supernatural earthquakes.

But conventional science Struggles to prove the existence

Of a rupture big enough To have caused so much damage.

It turns out that looking At the surface of the earth

To understand what happens deep Is a very tricky problem.

Narrator: to solve the puzzle, Geologists switch

To an advanced satellite Technology called insar.

So insar means "Interferometric Synthetic aperture radar."

So it's a radar.

Narrator: insar measures

How the height of the ground Has changed,

Creating colored patterns Called fringes.

Dr. Weston: It's like contours on a map.

When they're really Close together,

That means that the fault Is gonna be nearby.

Narrator: the results of The radar analysis are a shock.

The colored fringes Trace the position

Of a hidden fault line Running all the way from baja

To the gulf of california.

Dr. Weston: part of the rupture Wasn't visible.

It was actually a lot larger.

It ruptured a length Of over 75 miles.

Narrator: This massive fault line,

Which started In the cucapah mountains

And then extended Much farther south,

Unleashed the equivalent energy

Of 40 atomic bombs On the region.

But how could scientists Have not spotted the full length

Of the fault?

You can't map What you can't see.

Narrator: so, What concealed the fault line?

The answer lies in The vast colorado mud flats,

Where the fault lies.

This fault rupture Occurred beneath a big pile

Of fine-grained, wet sediment

Along a large area Of the colorado river delta.

Narrator: the intense shaking From the powerful quake

Caused the soil To act like a liquid,

Filling up cracks in the ground.

Once the shaking Has stopped,

Then everything kind of settles Down into a new place.

And it looks Like solid ground again.

Narrator: the same process Happened during the earthquake

That devastated christchurch, New zealand, in 2011.

Dr. Weston: cars got buried In what was once solid ground.

And they end up Sticking out at 45 degrees.

Narrator: In mexico, the river sediment

Concealed a massive 5-meter-wide rip in the earth,

The source of the violent quake.

And unlike the san andreas,

This fault won't be visible Anytime soon.

Dr. Briggs: it can take Hundreds of thousands

To millions of years

For cumulative earthquakes To create something

That we can see In the landscape that persists.

Narrator: The easter sunday quake

Will not be The last devastating disaster

To hit this region.

The day may yet come

When the aztec predictions Of apocalypse come true.

So many have predicted The date of the apocalypse,

Where it's nostradamus, The aztecs, or the mayans.

But thank goodness They've all been wrong.