Original subtitles

Narrator: They're watching you.

More than 4,000 satellites Circle the earth.

Every day, they uncover new, Mysterious phenomenon.

Some defy explanation.

You certainly don't expect To see that every day.

Whatever it is, It can't be good.

Narrator: blood-red scars ooze Across the chinese desert.

I'm not sure the chinese Government would be delighted

That we have this image.

Narrator: Giant worm-like shapes emerge

From the wild canadian forests.

Is this some sort of Freak of nature?

Narrator: And an ominous circle appears

In a field in germany.

Could this be the remains Of a nazi concentration camp?

Narrator: baffling phenomena, Mysteries from space,

What on earth are they?

**

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

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Narrator: june 2006, Amateur sleuths discover

An unusual Satellite photograph online.

Their investigation creates A storm of controversy.

The image shows what appears To be a mountain range,

Complete with rivers and lakes,

Surrounded by a fence

In an otherwise Featureless desert.

The entire mountain range Is inside a perfect rectangle.

How can that be?

Narrator: mountain ranges Don't end in straight lines.

The image also shows Nearby buildings

Bigger than many of the peaks Within the fenced area.

The only possible conclusion

Is that the mountains Are very small.

It's almost as if someone Has cut out a picture,

Maybe a piece of the himalayas,

And has stuck it Onto this satellite image.

Narrator: the photo was taken Over the yinchuan district

In the gobi desert, Central china.

This particular feature suggests

To me some kind Of control over nature.

Narrator: Scale analysis of the photograph

Reveals the area Of the fenced-off rectangle

Is just A quarter square mile.

It looks right. Uh, but the scale is all wrong.

This mountain range Must be really tiny.

Narrator: Using the satellite photograph,

Investigators also gauge The height of the mountains.

But the data raises More questions.

The image data tells us

That these mountains all sit At the same elevation.

That makes them Effectively flat.

Now, how can you Have flat mountains?

Narrator: Why would anyone fence

Off a range Of miniature mountains?

Perhaps the weirdest theory Anyone's come up with is

That this could be A chinese theme park.

Sites all over the world Feature miniature settings.

Disney's small world And legoland come to mind,

Entire cities of mountain ranges

And lakes reproduced for The enjoyment of the tourist.

Narrator: But the area in question

Is on the edge Of the gobi desert,

570 miles west of beijing,

Hardly a place For a tourist attraction.

This is a desolate region Of northern china.

There are no tourists here.

It makes no sense

To build some cutesy Small world attraction.

Who's gonna come?

This is a really Curious situation.

What're they trying to do Inside this rectangle?

Narrator: experts consider Whether the site

Could be a pattern

Used to calibrate Chinese spy satellites.

China has more spy satellites

Than the rest Of the world combined,

Most of which are run

By the military For the military.

And they're taking Pictures of things

That they consider Military important.

Narrator: to calibrate The satellite's

On-board cameras,

Their lenses are trained

On special symbols On the ground.

In the 1960s,

The cia's corona spy Satellite program

Constructing huge concrete Crosses

Across the arizona desert

For exactly this purpose.

Imaging satellites Are calibrated

By having permanent targets

That they shoot at all the time

Just so they can check The camera performance.

Those targets are laid out In the fields

With things painted on them Like scales and circles

And all kinds of stuff.

Narrator: The high-performance cameras

On satellites need clear shapes

And regular lines to check focus And image quality.

This haphazard pattern Of mountains and valleys

Would make a poor Calibration target.

It does not have the -- The normal things,

You know, marks on the ground That are measured and all that.

There's nothing in this image, To me, that says,

"This is for Calibration purposes."

Narrator: The official explanation

From the chinese government

For the weird rectangle Of apparently flat mountains

Is that it's a tank Training site.

Every military on the planet

Needs to train up Their personnel.

They train up the new recruits.

They maintain discipline And qualifications

For their existing soldiers.

When you're blowing things up,

You wanna be well Away from urban centers.

So it's remoteness Would make sense.

Narrator: closer analysis of The image reveals

That something doesn't fit With the official explanation.

You're not driving a tank

Without leaving Tread marks, right?

So this is gonna be A pretty churned up area,

Uh, for -- for part of this.

The roads are much Smaller than you'd think.

So it's not a full tank Training area, by any means.

If the official explanation

From the chinese government

Is that it's a tank Training site attached

To a military facility,

Then you would take that With a grain of salt

And assume it's probably not.

And you would look For other purposes.

Narrator: an anonymous post On an internet discussion group

Provides A potential breakthrough.

Painstaking searches reveal

The rectangular area In the photograph

Is an exact match For a mountain range

In a disputed border province.

This area is called aksai chin,

1,500 miles away On the china/india border.

The presence of this Precise miniature replica

Arouses fears That china could be

Preparing to reignite A long-running border conflict

With neighboring india.

Militaries all over the world

Build replicas of things

That they're going To potentially have to --

Have to face.

If you're preparing For an operation,

Then it is very typical To create mock-ups.

And those mock-ups Can be extremely detailed.

Narrator: china and india Have fought a war once

Before over this border region.

And the two opposing Military forces

Are the largest in the world.

It's been a longstanding Point of contention

Between the two nations.

The area was originally Given, uh, to pakistan.

And pakistan gave to china.

Right now, India wants it back.

If you're gonna fight With the indians

Up in the high mountains Of tibet,

You'd wanna know What you're gonna face.

Narrator: both sides also have A powerful nuclear capability.

If those two militaries, Chinese military,

Indian military, Actually did clash,

It would be catastrophic.

It would not just be A regional concern.

That -- that's a global issue.

Narrator: to date, chinese Officials continue to deny

That the weird Miniature mountain site

In the gobi desert is anything

More than an ordinary Military training ground.

But both china and india Maintain

A constant vigil along The disputed border.

A giant letter "Z" appears In satellite images

Of a hilltop in northern mexico.

Could this be some Sort of zorro fanboy

Making a giant homage To his hero?

When you see this big letter Zed on the side of the mountain,

That is something intimidating.

Narrator: the mark appears In an area torn apart

By fierce gang warfare.

I've been into the region, Covering stories

And it's, uh, it's really Quite frightening.

Narrator: may 2012, The goi-1 satellite captures

An image of a strange scar Carved into a hilltop

In a region of mexico torn Apart by gang wars.

It's something which stands out

Very clearly From the mountain.

It looks very clearly marked.

Narrator: the image comes from

Just outside the town Of torreon,

In northern mexico.

The sudden appearance Of the letter-shaped scar

On the hill causes Widespread confusion.

I don't know what to make of it.

Nobody's quite sure Exactly where it came from.

Narrator: scientists assess Whether there could be

A natural explanation

For the bizarre-shaped scar.

There are natural features

On the surface of the earth,

Particularly ones We can see from space,

That look like things,

That look like things We recognize

And are familiar to us

From our cultural experiences,

Including letters.

Narrator: Certain geological processes

Can naturally create Weird-shaped anomalies.

It could be An erosional feature,

Like a river running Straight downhill.

It could be a fault line. It could be a ridgeline.

Narrator: detailed examination Of the satellite image

Reveals that the "Z" symbol Is inside another shape,

An almost-perfect rectangle.

Things that are natural Are never this straight,

Never this perfect.

It just doesn't fit With the natural phenomena.

It makes me wonder What's goin' on here?

Narrator: the hill's location Forces analysts to conclude

That this shape Is most likely man-made.

When you zoom out of the image,

You see it's right Next to a major highway.

That is way too convenient.

Somebody wants this to be seen.

Narrator: A photograph taken from the road

Reveals that the carved shape

Is clearly visible As a giant "Z."

It's the call sign of one Well-known mexican legend.

When you see a giant Letter "Z" in mexico,

How can you not think Of the legendary zorro?

Narrator: The heroic masked bandit zorro

Made his first appearance In a 1919 action novel

And has gone on to spawn Countless movies and tv shows.

Take care of this. [ speaks indistinctly ]

...Attempted an attack.

But I managed To drive them off.

It would be just So amazing and miraculous

If the zeta On the hillside belonged

To this masked man named zorro.

He is certainly A romantic figure,

A little bit of a robin hood.

Zorro was a hero

Who would mark his letter Zed where he went.

Could this be some Sort of zorro fanboy

Making a giant homage To his hero?

Narrator: the "Z" extends over 100 feet across the hillside,

Too big to be the work Of a lone artist.

Whoever created this had help.

But who from and why?

One possible motivation Behind the symbol is politics.

In mexico, political campaigning

Is highly visible At street level,

With signs and walls

Often used as makeshift Election posters.

The thing you see Most often is graffiti,

Painted or scrolled onto walls.

And usually, it's the initials Of the candidate.

Narrator: The name of a recent politician

Running for state governor In this area

Could provide an explanation For the mysterious "Z."

One of the candidates In this election

Goes by the name zermeno.

There's your "Z" right there.

Narrator: But in 2016, investigators

On the ground Go to re-examine the "Z."

They discover the sign Has been removed.

The investigation Turns to the area's

Recent troubled history For clues

To who may have Carved the huge "Z."

What it uncovers Is far more sinister

Than any political connection.

There is a gang Called the los zetas.

And they use the "Z" As their symbol.

Los zetas is probably One of the most deadly,

Vicious drug cartels in mexico.

These are monsters. They really are monsters.

Narrator: Members of los zetas

Were trained in The mexican special forces

Before becoming a powerful And violent cartel.

They rule the region With an iron fist.

I've been into the region.

I've been in there a number Of times covering stories.

And it's, uh, it's really Quite frightening.

There's a saying in mexico -- ¿plata o plomo?

So, "Silver or lead."

You know, "You either pay me,

Or I kill you."

Narrator: For the past six years,

Los zetas have been involved In a bloody turf war

Against other drug cartels To claim the lucrative

Trafficking routes into the u.S.

They committed some Of the worst atrocities

In the mexican drug war.

They left 49 decapitated Corpses on the side of a road.

They left a field With 193 bodies.

In this bloodshed, They became so notorious,

That their letter, their symbol Was known by everybody.

And it became like They owned the letter zed.

If that letter was mentioned, You thought of the zetas.

Narrator: This is a cartel with the funds

And resources Of a small country.

That means weapons,

Satellite capabilities,

Um, drones,

Uh, the ability to listen in On radio calls.

Narrator: is it possible The giant "Z" visible from space

Could be a territorial mark

In the turf war Between rival cartels?

The zetas were saying, "This is our territory."

You know, we battled for it. We won it.

And now, we're just gonna Stick it in your face.

Los zetas is known to carve Z's into their victims.

So it shouldn't surprise us In the least

That they could carve A "Z" into the hill.

Narrator: If the mystery "Z" was the work

Of a gang marking its territory,

That would provide a motive For local people to remove it.

You don't want gang graffiti.

It's intimidating to people.

So many people Would have a motive

For that symbol not to be seen

Every time you drive Past on a road.

Narrator: los zetas have never Claimed responsibility

For the hillside "Z."

But for the local people Living in fear of the cartel,

It doesn't matter.

Whether this big zed On the side of the mountain

Was a natural formation

Or done for political campaigns

Or some old sign of a bandit,

The vast majority of people

When they see it will Right away think,

"The zetas cartel."

Narrator: flying high over India, a satellite captures

The image of a lake covered In strange rings.

Some of them appear To be moving.

They actually look too round To really be natural.

It's a baffling mystery.

These look like they were Carefully placed by someone.

Narrator: february 2012, The quickbird-2

Imaging satellite Is orbiting 300 miles

Above a remote corner of india

When it photographs a bizarre Lake covered in circles.

Looking down at this from space,

It looks like some kind Of sci-fi movie

Or almost like looking Through a microscope.

They're all slightly different.

So it's really hard to tell If they're man-made.

Or if there's some Sort of natural formation.

Narrator: the lake is near The city of moreh,

Manipur state,

40 miles from india's Remote frontier with burma.

The unusual body of water Is known locally as loktak lake,

Which means stream end.

These formations are unique To this one lake in the world.

Narrator: The local people live in fear

Of a powerful water deity Who inhabits the lake.

If you lose your boat,

If you lose a day's fishing,

The river god is angry with you.

The river is a being.

It gives you life or it Takes your life.

They all worship it so that

They're not swept away By its rage.

Narrator: the ancient legends Of the local water god

Shed no light On the strange circles.

But the traditions of the people

Who live here Could offer a clue.

For hundreds of years, The lake dwellers

Have survived by fishing.

When we've seen circles

Like this before In satellite footage,

It's often fish farming.

And that would be a guess here.

Fish farms are a way To grow lots

And lots of fish For human consumption.

Oftentimes, they are Built in a circle

Because that's the easiest way

To get the largest Amount of fish.

Narrator: but closer analysis of The satellite image

Reveals something green

Growing across many Of the circles.

The green growths arouse fears

The lake is being overrun

By a plague of toxic lifeforms.

Could these circles be a sign

Of a some sort of pollution In the lake?

Narrator: microscopic blue/green Algae called cyanobacteria

Can multiply uncontrollably,

Turning clean water Into a toxic green sludge.

Cyanobacteria have been around Since the precambrian era.

If they have the right Environmental conditions

And the right nutrient Conditions,

These species can Divide very rapidly.

Big blooms of cyanobacteria Can actually be dangerous.

A bloom in the river Darling in australia

Actually killed 1,600 sheep.

The toxins from cyanobacteria Can affect human health,

Animal health, And environmental health.

Narrator: Although cyanobacteria are tiny,

Single-celled organisms,

They can clump together

To form massive Floating islands.

But it's unheard of for them To form perfectly shaped rings

Like the ones visible In the image.

I think it's fair to say That, uh, the --

The algal blooms wouldn't form Perfect, uh concentric circles.

Uh, that'd be very unusual.

And that is a very large Area for an algal bloom.

Narrator: Ground-level investigation

Reveals the circles

Are made of long strands Of plant-like material.

We're just looking at the top

Of this spongy Vegetable growth that

Goes all the way Underneath the surface.

It's like the tip Of a massive iceberg.

Narrator: the local people Call the strange blobs

Phumdis, Meaning floating mats.

Analyzing satellite imagery Over the course of a year

Reveals something bizarre.

At certain times, The phumdis appear to move.

And the neat thing is that a lot Of them are actually attached

To the ground via roots.

When the monsoons come, The water levels go up.

And then when they leave, The water level goes down.

These phumdis float in The water.

And in theory, They move up and down

As the monsoons come and go.

Narrator: The locals are known to shape

The spongy plants into circles

And even use them As floating living spaces.

There is a thriving community That lives on the phumdis.

They make their huts out of it.

It's something that's been Going on and a tradition

That's handed down from father To daughter to son to mother.

And it goes on.

Narrator: scientists have yet To discover why

The phumdis form.

Research into the phenomenon Is ongoing.

It really is astonishing

That these are Natural formations.

I have never seen Anything like it.

I definitely think It's a wonder of the world.

Narrator: Government inspectors flying

Over central germany spot

Something strange On the ground --

A large, circular shadow hidden Beneath a field of wheat.

The site is located right In what was the heartland of --

Of -- of the nazi movement.

Narrator: excavations Reveal what could be

A gruesome legacy Of germany's dark past.

Could this be the remains Of a nazi concentration camp?

It has three Prominent entryways.

Inside here, we have bones.

Narrator: june 1999,

Government inspectors Conducting an aerial survey

Over central germany spot Something on the ground --

A faint circular shadow

Just visible beneath A field of wheat.

It doesn't look like It's cut into the earth.

So maybe it's -- It's built up, uh,

In some fashion, hard to say.

Narrator: Closer inspection of the image

Reveals key details.

Altaweel: it has three Prominent entryways.

Um, they're very clearly And distinct on the image.

Narrator: the weird circle Was spotted

Near the town of goseck, Central germany.

Its location raises The possibility it

Could be a relic Of the cold war.

During the cold war, What was significant

About the area of goseck

Is that, actually, It's on the iron curtain.

It's close by boundary Between east and west germany.

Narrator: Communist forces patrolled

The border areas With helicopters.

Could this be a landing site For russian security forces?

We have to remember That border wasn't --

It's a massive wall

With security outposts every, You know, hundred meters.

A lot of that border Was nothing.

There was nothing there. So they used patrols.

They used helicopters To cover all that territory.

In order to be able to patrol

From the air, You would need bases.

And they would need Landing areas.

And they'd obviously Need supplies and fuel

And everything else That you'd need to have.

Narrator: scale analysis of The image reveals the circle

Is 250 feet wide,

The width of a soccer field.

The theory that This could be a helipad

Used by the soviets During the cold war,

Nah, you know, I'm not buying it.

It just -- the -- The site seems way too large

For that purpose.

Narrator: Investigators look further back

Into germany's history for clues

To what this strange Shape could be.

The site is located right In what was the heartland of --

Of -- of the nazi movement.

That gives you possibly A direction to go.

Could this be the remains Of a nazi concentration camp?

Narrator: this circle lies close To the site of one

Of the most feared concentration Camps in nazi germany

Known as mittelbau-dora.

Over the course of three years,

Thousands of jews And other so-called undesirables

Were sent here For horrific forced labor.

Mittelbau-dora was largely Used for forced labor,

Building underground facilities For the nazi movement,

Particularly manufacture of fuel And aircraft parts.

Between 1943 and 1945,

Deportees arrived at the camp,

Up to 60,000 of them,

Living under Horrendous conditions.

One in three of them Simply were worked to death.

Narrator: dora was so large,

It had a network Of 30 additional sub-camps

In the surrounding countryside.

Is this one of those camps

That was actually used as a way

Of holding the inmates?

Narrator: As germany faced defeat,

The nazi forces tried To destroy all evidence

Of their concentration Camp system.

But the speed of The allied advance

Took them by surprise.

The advance was moving So fast that typically,

The german military Just left the camp standing.

They didn't have time To destroy them.

Robertshaw: Dora was evacuated.

But only the inmates Were removed.

The allies found the buildings.

And this camp, If it was a camp,

Would have been identified At the end of the war.

It wasn't.

Narrator: for years after Its discovery,

The mystery of the circle Remains unsolved.

Then, in 2002, guided by The aerial photos,

A team of archaeologists Move onto the site.

Excavations find no trace Of wartime buildings.

But what they do discover shocks The archaeological community.

Within the circle, They unearth remains

Of human and animal bones

That date back to 4900 b.C.,

Millennia before stonehenge Or the great pyramids of egypt.

The team is lead By françois bertemes.

The people who built this place

Were the first agriculturalists Coming to europe.

They were no traces Of buildings,

No traces of settlements.

It was an open space Without any roof.

Narrator: using clues unearthed During the excavation,

Bertemes is now Restoring the site

To its original appearance.

So we do not know if this was The center of a new cult

In, uh, the neolithic period All over europe.

But we can say, uh, it's one Of the oldest settlements

Of this type we know.

Narrator: the ancient people That built this site left

Behind fragments of pottery

And a grizzly collection Of animal and human remains.

Inside here, within the ditch

And within the pits, We have bones.

We find skeletons, for example, Also in the ditch

And, uh, in special pits.

Next to the entrance Over there,

We have another pit With the right hand.

But not from the same person.

Narrator: the discovery of body Parts triggers speculation

That this site was the venue For ritualized murders.

Many civilizations Sacrifice humans

As a way to placate the gods.

Narrator: the three openings Seen on the aerial image

Have now been reconstructed On the ground as gateways.

Their orientation suggests The ritual activities

May have been guided by the sun.

Two of the gates seem to be Pointing towards the direction

Of where the sun rises and sets,

Suggesting it might Be associated

With some kind of seasonable Calendar kind of system.

You can observe the sun rise

And the sun down During the solstices

In the winter And, uh, the summer.

And also for the first may.

And the first may, finally, Is a very important,

Uh, uh, festivity,

What are very important today For germanic religions.

Narrator: archaeologists now Believe this site could've been

Used as a portal or gateway To the spirit world.

Maybe one of the reasons

They had to build These kind of sanctuaries

Was, uh, to try To bring a new balance

Between the other world

And, uh, our world,

To have a better contact Or balance between the --

The deities and their Actual, uh, life.

Narrator: this 7,000-year-old Site predates written history.

And little is known About its mysterious creators.

The secrets of their gruesome Rituals are lost to history.

Passing over western china,

The goi-1 imaging satellite

Captures a scene Of blood red scars

Cut into the desert landscape.

Whatever that is, It doesn't look good.

Narrator: the red shapes appear In a dangerous region

Of china plagued By violence and unrest.

The area is, uh, Very heavily

Policed by chinese police

And a very large presence

Of the chinese people's Liberation army as well.

Looks to me like The ground is bleeding.

Narrator: october 2015, The goi-1 imaging satellite

Passes high above western china.

It captures A disturbing image.

The ground below Is covered with large,

Blood-red scars.

I'm not sure what those are.

These red marks?

No, they don't Look good at all.

Looks to me like The ground is bleeding.

Narrator: The arid landscape in the image

Is in the xinjiang province

At the edge of china's Taklamakan desert.

This region is a volatile And dangerous place,

A site of fierce uprisings By the local uyghur people

And brutal crackdowns From the chinese authorities.

Tight controls over information And travel in the region

Make it difficult For international observers

To assess the situation On the ground.

There is a certain, uh, Restive element

That would like to see the area Become independent of --

Of the rest of china.

There's heavy chinese Army presence there.

And so journalist access to --

To the country, like tibet, Is very limited.

And we don't always have a --

A great sense of What's going on there.

Narrator: the massive red marks Arouse fears

Of a devastating Industrial accident.

When we look at china, One of the first things we --

We always think of When we see a great,

Big red patch or something Like this is pollution.

What sort of pollution Turns a place blood red?

Narrator: Industrial incidents in china

Have seen cities engulfed By huge chemical explosions

And rivers run red With toxic pollutants.

Several years ago, In the jianhe river

In northern china,

A chemical works did spill Large amounts of red dye,

Which turned the entire river And all the tributaries

From it a very bright Shade of red.

I've heard of rivers Running red but never deserts.

This is weird.

What we could be Looking at here

Is illegal mining For nickel or rare earths.

And as the earth is churned up Through open cask mining,

Which of course Destroy the landscape

So large amounts of red earth

Are spilled across the land.

Narrator: Could the chinese government

Be using its control Of information

Coming out of the region To cover up something

They don't want The international community

To know about?

The chinese government Has the ability

To switch off The internet in xinjiang

So as to prevent any news

That they don't like Filtering in or filtering out

Of the country.

If what we're looking at was Actually due to pollution,

That would not Necessarily be news

That they would want to get out.

Narrator: But when image analysts look

At satellite imagery

Taken at different Times of the year,

They discover The blood red scars

Come and go At regular intervals.

The regulation makes The chemical spill

Theory seem unlikely.

The fact that these Red patches appear

And then disappear,

It's baffling, I have to say.

Narrator: The red patches are only present

For a few months each year.

But their seasonal appearance Could be an indicator

That the satellite Has captured evidence

Of china's illegal Narcotics trade.

Perhaps these are fields Of red poppies.

Narrator: interpol gateway Reports that the xinjiang region

Has become a gateway for heroin Entering the country.

For drug traffickers, Growing opium poppies locally

Would eliminate the need For risky importation.

But poppies blossom In spring and summer,

Not in the autumn When the image was taken.

Poppies do grow in xinjiang.

But I don't think They are grown

On an industrial Sort of agricultural scale.

So I don't think It can be poppies.

Narrator: zooming in further On the image reveals

That the red patches Are divided into distinct rows.

Ground level investigation Finally reveals the answer

To the mystery.

And it's red hot.

The region is famous

For its hot peppers and chiles.

Xinjiang cuisine is very spicy.

It's very hot.

Narrator: the rows seen in The image are millions of chiles

Drying out in The hot desert air.

Throughout the fall, The hillsides of xinjiang become

Bright red as the chiles Are laid out to dry.

The chilis are not Indigenous to china.

But for the last 300 years or so,

They have been increasingly Used as an ingredient

In all sorts of cuisines To add flavor and spice.

And the demand for them Is extremely high.

Chiles have to dry in the sun,

Preferably at temperatures Around 90 degrees,

Which is certainly what The temperature is out

In that part of xinjiang.

That's a whole lotta chiles.

French: so what the satellite Image is actually showing us

Is that china's national taste

Now can be seen from space.

Narrator: a satellite orbiting Above canada spots

Giant worm-like shapes emerging

From the forest wilderness.

The shadows being casts By these mounts are larger

Than the shadow being cast By the building.

These things are massive.

It looks like some Writhing mass of white worms.

Narrator: september 2006,

The quickbird-2 satellite Is orbiting over

The canadian wilderness

When it captures An image of giant,

Worm-like shapes Emerging from the forest.

It really looks like some Writhing mass of white worms.

There's no obvious Beginning or end,

Just how big are they?

It doesn't show anything that Makes any logical sense.

What could have formed These strange shapes?

Narrator: the image was captured 4 miles east of the isolated

Town of dawson city In yukon territory, canada.

Image analyst Amanda marchetti examines

The photo to get an idea Of their size and scale.

The shadows being casts By these mounds are larger

Than the shadow being cast By the building.

And that tells me That that feature

Is much larger Than the building.

These things are massive.

What on earth could cause

This type of a feature To occur at such a scale?

It looks like a worm cast You get on the beach.

But it's far too big.

Unless it's absolutely An enormous worm.

Narrator: legends of giant worms Are found throughout history.

Could any of these Stories offer a clue

To the strange shapes In the image?

Tall tales of giant, Monstrous worms like

The norse jormungandr Or the inuit sikusi

Have been around for centuries.

But a 2011 discovery off

The coast of australia Makes the old stories

Look a whole lot Less far-fetched.

This whale-size monster Is called a pyrosome

And measures up To 100 feet long.

Is this some sort of Freak of nature?

Narrator: the good news is, You only get worm-like creatures

This big in the ocean.

But this remote Region of canada

Has its own legendary worm.

Dawson city here Is actually famous

For some real-life Bizarre creatures --

Ice worms.

Narrator: In 1898, a local journalist

Called ej stroller white Made a startling claim.

He published an article In the "Klondike nugget"

Newspaper announcing The discovery of a worm emerging

From the ice of a glacier.

He called it an ice worm.

They live in glaciers

And in other permanent Sources of ice.

Has our planet been Invaded by ice worms?

Narrator: But the dawson city ice worm

Comes up short As an answer to the mystery.

Ice worms are little Tiny earthworm-like creatures.

Basically, imagine The earthworm in your yard,

But little tiny things

That live completely On glaciers.

Narrator: The legendary ice worms

Are not the monsters of myth

And were even used By pubs and bars

To add a kick To the local moonshine.

To make an ice worm cocktail, You're gonna need a glass,

Some hooch, and an ice worm.

Apparently, the locals use

These ice worms much In the same way

That mexicans use The mexican tequila worm.

You would never see Ice worms from space.

So what is showing up On this image?

I suspect some pretty frenzied Human activity at some point.

Narrator: ground-level Inspection of the site reveals

The worm-like Shapes seen from space

Are massive piles Of rock and gravel.

One intriguing possibility Is that these stones

Could be part of The u.S. Military's plans

To defeat an invasion by japan During world war ii.

In 1942, in response To a potential japanese invasion

Of america's western coast,

The american army Built a completely new road

Right across alaska,

Linking east to west,

Allowing troops to deal

With any potential Japanese threat.

Narrator: in the dark days After pearl harbor,

The u.S. Navy was crippled.

Key islands In the north pacific

Fell to the japanese,

Leaving the alaskan shoreline Wide-open to invasion.

U.S. Military engineers Built a huge highway

Stretching 1,500 miles Across canada

And into alaska To allow rapid access

To airfields Within range of japan.

This could be the remains Of the material used,

Perhaps part of the extraction.

We're talking about Moving material,

The amount of which Was equivalent to building

Another panama canal.

Narrator: if these bizarre Shapes really are the leftovers

From world war ii excavations,

It would be logical To expect them

To be close To the alaska highway.

The problem is that The actual highway itself

Is 100 miles away.

Why would you travel Cross-country

Just to dump the rubble?

Narrator: The answer to the mystery

Of the snaking heaps of rock Could lie further back

In dawson city's Turbulent history.

In 1896, uh, in a river valley, Uh, they found gold.

Start of the klondike gold rush Was a phenomenon

Never before seen by man.

There was so much Fever-pitch excitement,

Uh, people coming up here Looking for gold,

Expecting, uh, More than they found.

And some found more Than they expected.

The klondike was Absolute wild west.

It's dangerous. But you can make your fortune.

Narrator: but the sheer size Of these massive piles

Of rubble rules Out the possibility

They were made By lone prospectors

Chasing a dream of gold.

We're not talking About panning

For gold in a stream here.

To leave behind huge piles Of gravel

Like this would require A monster machine.

This is gold mining In a huge, industrial scale.

The satellite image contains

The key to the mystery.

Close to the gravel piles

Is a large Rectangular structure.

What looks like a building Is revealed at ground level

To be a vast mobile gold dredge

Standing eight stories high.

Dredge number four is Like a giant gold pan

On a floating barge

Where it picks up The gold-bearing gravel.

It sorts them with water.

The gold would settle In the bottom.

And the waste would Go out the back.

You can gauge out enormous Quantities of earth with trucks

That are the size of houses,

Extracting gold From huge piles of material

And then dump the remnants,

Which are called the tailings.

It generates piles Of material on the surface

That are hundreds of feet long

And many tens of feet high.

Narrator: the massive dredging Machines would move along,

Digging out the earth, Extracting the gold,

And then leave a long pile Of leftover rubble behind them,

Creating the worm-like shapes.

These dredges were Very efficient

At extracting that fine Flour gold or sugar gold.

And they could do the work Of several hundred men.

We're talking about one machine On one occasion

Recovering something Like 9 tons of gold.

Narrator: the bizarre worm-like Gravel piles

Are a striking reminder Of a bygone era

Of hope and desperation,

The history Of canada's gold rush,

Visible from space.