All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S03E18.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

Narrator: they're watching you.

More than 4,000
Satellites circle the earth.

Every day,
They uncover new,

Mysterious phenomena
That defy explanation.

There's something
Weird going on here.

Something out of
"The twilight zone."

Narrator: a lost city
Revealed from space.

Satellite imagery has revealed
Something hugely important.

Narrator: a detective story
That leads from the nazis...

"Bad things happened,
And they happened here."

Narrator: ...Back to the age
Of the warlords.

The most famous
Of these barbarian warlords,

Attila the hun.

Narrator:
The mystery of the mummies,

And the place of no return.

Lane: the mummies
Still have hair on them

And very, very clear features.

Narrator:
A terrifying desert tsunami
The size of a skyscraper.

It's like something
You'd see in the end times.

Narrator: baffling phenomena,
Mysteries from space --

What on earth are they?

**

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

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

Venice --
Considered by many

The most beautiful
Place on earth.

The origin of this
Strange city,

Built on a watery lagoon,

Is a mystery lost in time.

Now aerial photography
May be shedding light

On the city's
Violent beginnings.

Those lines just
Jump out at you.

"Bad things happened,,
And they happened here."

Imagery has revealed
Something hugely important.

Narrator:
July 2007 -- northern italy.

An infrared aerial photograph

Of an area just outside
The city reveals

An unusual pattern on the land,

Which is invisible to
Conventional satellite cameras.

So, when I look at this image,

What I'm seeing is just normal,
Everyday agriculture.

However, if I look
At this same area

Using infrared light,

A whole new world appears.

Those lines just
Jump out at you.

Narrator: the infrared
Image shows an area

That lies around eight miles
Northeast of venice.

Italian geologist paolo mozzi
Goes to investigate.

When mozzi arrives,

He immediately notices

Something unusual about
The crops growing here.

You can see that the soy
On the right is very green.

Here, it is growing much,
Much worse.

Narrator: there's no obvious
Cause for this --

No record
Of recent construction,

No signs of blight.

Something under the ground
Is doing this,

And whatever's down there,
It's been there for some time.

Mozzi: so, we know that
Underneath the ground,

Something is preserved.

Something enormous
Is buried here,

But what could this be?

If you want to understand
What's going on here,

It makes sense to look
At the history

Of this part of the world.

Some of it is
Pretty dark stuff.

Narrator: could this structure
Be a relic

Of italy's terrifying,
Fascist past?

Benito mussolini came to power
Nearly 10 years before hitler.

His crimes are often overlooked.

Robertshaw: most people think
About nazi era,

They know about the holocaust.

Well, actually, italy has
Exactly the same thing going on.

Pavelec:
A lot of people don't realize
That in the 1930s,

Leading up
To the second world war,

The italian fascists
Also constructed

Political prisoner camps.

Could this image show
The outlines,

The remnants,
Of concentration camps

From the second world war?

Narrator: italy's fascists built
More than 100 camps,

Prisons for political opponents.

In 1943, the nazis took control
Of northern italy.

The camps became holding bays

For italian jews
Before they were taken

To the extermination
Camps of auschwitz.

If we're looking at traces
Of a concentration camp,

You can understand
Why some people

Would want to cover it up.

Narrator:
But far from covering up
Their existence,

Italy has preserved
Fascist concentration camps,

Like risiera san sabba,

As a reminder
Of fascist barbarism.

Robertshaw:
After the world, the italians
Were not frightened of saying,

"Look, bad things happened,
And they happened here."

So it's not the sort of thing
I would expect them

To simply airbrush out
Of history.

Narrator:
At the site of the image,

Paolo mozzi starts
Scouring the earth.

Scattered among the rocks
Are valuable clues.

Here, we can see
All these fragments

Have just been broken
By the tillage,

By the agricultural activity.

For example, here,
I see pieces of marble,

And, of course, marble
Comes from far away.

There's no marble
In the area.

Narrator: to find stone which
Is not local suggests

Some kind of
Advanced civilization,

One which disappeared long ago.

Marchetti:
Now, when I look here,
I see a semicircular structure,

And that's interesting,
Because in antiquity,

This almost looks like
What could be

An ancient arena of some sort.

Here, for example,
We have a polished rock,

And it's coming from egypt,

And it was used
For decorating.

Here, there's these
Little bits here.

These are pieces of mosaic.

It was normally used
For making floors.

If you know what you're
Looking for, it's all there.

There's the shape
Of an amphitheater,

An odeon,
A forum, and a basilica --

All the characteristics
Of a major roman city.

Narrator:
The historical record shows
That an ancient city

Thrived close to
Where the image was taken.

Horton: there's one particular
Lost city

Called altinum that we know
Was located close

To the modern city
Of venice.

Van gijseghem:
Altinum, it would have been
One of the largest cities

In the empire,
Larger than pompeii,

Home to upwards
To 20,000 people.

Narrator: but in a.D. 452,
Disaster strikes.

Horton: this particular city,
We think, was actually sacked

By the most famous
Of these barbarian warlords,

Attila the hun.

Mozzi: attila was the head
Of the huns,

And the huns were people
Coming from central asia.

They used to rob everything
And destroy the city

And burn the cities.

Van gijseghem:
That would have been
One of the largest cities

In the roman empire,

And it's been completely
Wiped off the map,

And that's a huge deal,

And that's a huge event
Of unprecedented importance.

Narrator:
After it is razed to the ground,

The city enters
The realm of legend.

Now infrared imaging
And archeological excavation

Are bringing this
Mysterious place

Back into the light.

Mozzi:
We can see the main roads.

This is the via annia
That crosses the city.

If you were here on a hot
Summer day 2,000 years ago,

What would you see?

You would see a city,
You would see many houses,

With streets that would be
Running in this direction.

Then, in the background,
You would see the theaters.

The theaters were something
Like 40 meters tall,

Probably, so they're
Really sticking out,

And they were making
The skyline of altinum.

Van gijseghem:
Satellite imagery has revealed
Something hugely important,

But now there's a lot
Of things left

To uncover,
Quite literally,

By archaeological excavation

To verify the claims
That have been made.

Narrator: archaeologists
Are just beginning

To uncover the secrets
Of this lost city,

But already, something is clear.

It seems that the survivors
Of attila's apocalypse

Took refuge amongst the islands
Of this watery lagoon.

There, they founded a settlement

That reminded them
Of their lost home.

Krueger:
A lot of what we're discovering
About altinum,

Including the canals
And the drainage system,

Suggests that altinum
Could have been a prototype

For the city of venice.

There's just so much more
To find out about this site now.

Narrator: coming up...

Cerveny: these kind of storms
Invoke memories

Of biblical catastrophe.

This storm is the size
Of the united states.

Narrator: and witches
Conducting unnatural acts.

Some pretty crazy stuff
Happened there.

Narrator: april 2, 2015.

Satellite images show
What appears to be

A gigantic storm cloud
Engulfing the arab peninsula,

Threatening populated areas.

Cerveny:
Dust storms can be mammoth,

But to see one that encompasses

Almost the entire area
Of saudi arabia

Is mind-boggling.

This storm is the size
Of the united states.

Narrator: the storm is so huge,
It looks like an error,

But then, residents in riyadh,
The capital of saudi arabia,

Notice something
On the horizon --

A gigantic tsunami of sand
Is heading their way,

Many miles wide
And the height of a skyscraper.

As the huge wall of sand
Heads towards the city,

People flee for cover,

Cars try to outrun the storm,

Aircraft are forced to land
Or alter their routes.

Terrified residents capture

What's happening
On their phones.

Arabian desert storms
Can be killers,

The sharp sand
Damaging eyes,

Leaving people
Gasping for breath.

Kourounis: storms like this can
Absolutely be fatal.

We need to know
What's going on.

Narrator:
The region is accustomed
To desert sandstorms,

Known as haboobs,

But the size and ferocity

Of this onslaught
Is extraordinary.

Satellite images reveal
That it covers

A staggering
Two million square miles.

It's like something out of
The bible, just apocalyptic.

It's kind of like something
You'd see in the end times.

Cerveny: these kind of storms
Kind of invoke memories

Of biblical catastrophe

Associated
With the plagues of egypt.

Narrator:
Such a storm is prophesied
In the bible,

Divine punishment
For the sins of humans.

There's a passage in deuteronomy

Where god says that he will
Turn the country

Into dust and powder

And send down scorching heat
From the sky.

Narrator:
"The lord will turn the rain

Of your country
Into dust and powder.

It will come down from the skies
Until you are destroyed."

Those are really
Quite powerful words.

It describes what we're
Seeing here in this video.

Narrator:
In recent times in the middle
East and across the arab world,

Inhuman acts
Of unspeakable savagery

Have been carried out,
Often in the name of god.

In just the days
Leading up to the storm,

Islamic state leaves
More than 140 dead

After a suicide bomb
Attack at sana'a, yemen.

It's the job of scientists
To try to find logical,

Rational reasons for the forces
At work around us,

But to some,
The scale of this storm

Is not so easy to explain.

Cerveny:
We have been able to link

Bigger dust storms
To human activity.

When humans break up
The desert,

The broken-up land provides
The perfect breeding ground

For big dust storms
And big sandstorms.

Narrator:
Large dust storms afflicted
The midwest in the 1930s.

The infamous dust bowl
Was the result of aggressive

Farming methods encouraged
By government price fixing.

We've had some
In the united states

That have been over a mile high
And 100 miles long.

Narrator: but there is little
Or no agricultural activity

In the desert lands

Where this giant
Sandstorm originated.

Cerveny: the big reason
Why farming is

Probably not one
Of the primary causes

Of what we're seeing
Going on in middle east today

Is simply that there's not that
Much farming that's going on.

Narrator:
Months later, it happens again.

Another biblical-scale desert
Storm hits the middle east.

This time, it's even
More devastating.

At least five people
Are killed,

Hundreds of people injured.

These giant desert storms
Have been described

As freak weather events,

Which means that scientists have
No easy explanation for them.

Kourounis: whenever you have
A disaster like this,

Especially on the proportions

And scale of something
Like this,

You're gonna have people
Who say, "This is sent by god.

This is the end
Of the world."

Narrator: this satellite image,
It turns out,

Was terrifyingly accurate.

Coming up, the locals call it
"The sea of death,"

"The place of no return."

Porges: these marks look like
They could be

Some sort of ancient
Burial site.

Narrator: mummies, mongols
And mystery holes.

What they are,
I have no idea.

Narrator:
The ghostly taklimakan desert,

Cut off from the world
By mountains

To the north, south, and west

And by the vast
Gobi desert to the east.

The tribes who live beyond
These mountains

Call this empty, waterless hell
"The sea of death."

And yet, when the
Geoeye satellite flies

Over this desolate land,

It captures an image
Which perplexes analysts.

It appears to be
Some sort of grid,

But why would you put a grid
Like this in the desert?

Who built it?
Why did they build it?

And why did they build it
In such an inhospitable place?

Narrator: scale analysis reveals
Each grid covers

A third of an acre.

More than 100 of these
Squares are photographed,

Stretching over five miles.

It's like a series
Of teenage spots

On the surface of the earth.

It's like little pock marks.

They're almost like
Squares or diamond shapes

With strange patterns,
Almost pixilated.

What they are,
I have no idea.

Narrator: the desert is
Freezing cold,

Blasted by chilling
Siberian winds from the north.

And thousands of miles
From open water,

This desert is also
Extraordinarily dry,

Deadly to cross.

It's no surprise that its name
Means "The abandoned place,"

Or "The place of no return."

The sea of death
Is so unfriendly to humans,

Analysts expect to see
Untouched wilderness, not this.

It doesn't look like
A natural formation.

It's far too symmetrical.

They seem to be joined
Along a central line,

Which gives you the impression

That people are getting
To these areas.

So, you immediately think,

"Well, that's
Probably man-made."

Narrator: there are humans
In this place of no return.

The only problem is,
They're dead.

In 1914, archeologist
Sir aurel stein leads

One of several teams
Into the desert.

Just 100 miles
From the mysterious marks,

At a place known
As the tarim basin,

The explorers discover
The mummified remains of humans.

Some of the desert mummies
Date back 4,000 years.

Lane:
The mummies were uncovered

In the north
Of the desert region.

Narrator:
But there is something weird
About these ancient mummies.

They look almost alive.

Lane: their clothes look as if
They could have come straight

From the local clothes store.

The colors are bright
And very vivid

And in perfect condition.

The mummies still
Have hair on them,

They've still got wispy beards
And very, very clear features.

They're beautifully preserved.

Narrator: closer inspection of
The photograph reveals the grids

Are made up
Of hundreds of holes.

A satellite image of similar,

Weird desert holes on
The other side of the globe

Could offer a clue.

There are satellite images
Of a desert area in peru

That has very similar
Markings on the ground.

Lane:
They bring to mind the pisco
Holes in south american peru,

Which is a possibility.

But, yet again,
Another reason

Why these are
Such fascinating images.

Narrator: over 5,000 holes,

Each large enough
For a mummified corpse,

Litter the floor
Of pisco valley,

140 miles south
Of the peruvian capital, lima.

Some suspect they were
Created 500 years ago

By the incas,
Some kind of necropolis,

A place for the dead.

Porges: these marks look like
They could be

Some sort of ancient
Burial site.

Narrator: this is, after all,
The sea of death.

Its very name means
"The place of no return."

If this is a necropolis
Of mummies, it's huge.

There are 13,000 pits.

That's a lot
Of bodies to bury.

This is a very remote area.

It's unclear whether
Than many people

Actually ever lived here.

Narrator: the discovery
Of mummies tells us something.

If there are dead people here,

It means that once,
There were live people.

Despite the terrible reputation
Of this sea of death,

The fearless mongols
Regularly passed across it.

The ancient silk road
Passed through here.

Could these markings
Have anything to do with that?

Lane: the silk road
Is a trade road

Connecting china in the east
With, say, initially,

The islamic world
In the west.

Narrator:
Caravans laden with spices,
Silks, and other goods passed

Through this arid terrain
On the way to europe.

Lane:
The movement of manpower,

The movement of people,
Was unprecedented.

Narrator:
This silk road flourished
In the 13th century

Under the control
Of genghis khan.

Genghis khan, even though
He's known as a conqueror --

And he did conquer --
He was a trader.

It was under genghis khan

And his successors
That silk road

Grew to its greatest extent.

Narrator:
To travel the mighty silk road,
Over 4,000 miles long,

Could take as long
As two years.

Could the markings be
Remnants of a staging post?

Just like a modern highway,
Which has restaurants

And inns and gas stations,

The silk road had places
For people to stay,

Places for people to shop,
Fortifications.

Lane:
In iran, to this day,

You can still see some of those
Original fortified settlements.

Narrator: but despite
All this activity,

It seems most likely
That these mysterious mummies

Are even more ancient
Than the mongols.

Lane: if the image was connected
To the medieval period

And to the silk road,
We would have known about it.

There'd have been
Documentary evidence.

Narrator:
There are almost certainly
More mummies lying concealed

In the place of no return.

And there are no doubt many more
Treasures of the mongols

Still to be discovered.

But some geologists believe

These strange marks
May be evidence

Of a different kind
Of treasure hunt.

This part of china
Does have precious minerals,

Heavy metals, nickel, cobalt,

Perhaps some platinum.

Sometimes you get heavy minerals
Concentrated in sandstones.

You can even get diamonds.

It is possible that the pattern
Of squares that we're seeing,

Because it's so regular
And set out on a grid,

Spaced very evenly,

Could be related
To some kind of survey

For minerals or mining.

Narrator: whatever the cause
Of these marks,

This remote desert,
The sea of death,

Remains a place of mystery,

As fascinating as it
Is frighteningly inhospitable.

Still to come...

The devil, unnatural sex acts,

And the top-secret
American base.

That's an important thing,
To be able to talk

To your nuclear guys.

Narrator: methods of torture
And execution too horrific

To describe on tv.

Some of the worst human rights
Abuses on this planet right now.

Narrator:
And the mountain in the sky.

It's insane.

How do you do that in
Secret without anybody knowing?

Narrator:
A satellite image of a remote
Patch of australian desert

Reveals a giant satanic symbol.

Why would anyone create
A hexagon a mile wide

In the middle of the desert?

One doesn't really
Think of australia

As a hotbed of witchcraft
Or satanism.

Narrator: november 2014.

The worldview-3 satellite is
Passing over the vast,

Empty wilderness of australia's
North west cape

When it captures a huge symbol
Etched onto the earth.

The strangest thing
About this image

Is its geometric regularity.

These lines are very straight.
The markings are very clear.

Narrator: the shape covers
Over 1 1/2 square miles.

A hexagon a mile wide
In the middle of the desert.

This site is one
Of the furthest points west

On the australian continent.

It's miles from anything.

Narrator: this area contains
Some of the world's largest

Examples of ancient
Cave paintings.

Close to the hexagon
Are markings

Dating back
To prehistoric times.

The carvings on
The burrup peninsula

Were created
10,000 years ago.

Nelson: some of them are
Geometric shapes,

Some of them are images
Of animals and humans.

Narrator: but neither the design
Nor the size of this symbol

Resembles the work
Of prehistoric cavemen.

There is very ancient
Aboriginal rock art

All across australia,
But nothing on this scale.

Narrator:
The geometry of the hexagon is
Fascinating to mathematicians.

Due to its peculiar properties,

It occurs naturally
In honeycombs

And geological structures

Like the so-called
Giant's causeway.

But the shape also has cultural
And mystical significance.

Capps: the shape forms
A six-sided hexagram,

Which is a classic
Occult symbol.

Is that related somehow?

Narrator: according to the book
Of revelations,

666 is the number of the beast,
A signature of satan.

His symbol is
The six-sided hexagram.

It has six points on six
Equilateral triangles

Surrounding a six-sided shape.

This so-called
"Star of lucifer"

Is to devil worshippers
What the cross is to christians.

One doesn't really
Think of australia

As a hotbed of witchcraft
Or satanism.

But some pretty crazy stuff
Happened there

In the '40s and '50s.

Narrator: in the 1940s,
The teachings

Of the infamous british
Occultist aleister crowley

Gained a following
In australia.

His leading acolyte was
A notorious witch.

Australia is infamous
For its pagan roots,

And its most famous witch

Is a woman by the name
Of rosaleen norton,

Who exhibited her work
In the '40s,

And she has this
Sexually provocative

Satanic imagery in her work.

Narrator:
Norton was accused by police
Of committing unnatural sex acts

And possessing blasphemous
And obscene photographs.

But norton claimed
To be a pagan,

Not a devil worshipper.

Analysts look for other
Explanations for the image.

Petford:
A lot of work has been done
And continues to be done

Looking for uranium
Deposits in australia.

Narrator:
Enriched uranium is the vital
Ingredient in nuclear weapons,

And geologists believe that
There are huge deposits buried

Beneath the sun-baked
Ground here --

Almost two million
Tons of uranium,

Enough to make
100,000 nuclear warheads.

Enough to destroy the planet.

Petford:
We have to consider this
As a very real possibility,

As a mining structure
Or something related

To metal prospecting.

Oftentimes,
Exploration for minerals

Is done in
A very systematic way.

Trying to determine what's
Underneath the ground

From the surface,

We lay things out
In orderly patterns

So that we can make grids

And do calculations
That are rigorous.

So, there are lots of shapes

That you can trace out
In terms of doing the survey,

But the most effective
One is a hexagon.

Narrator: similar shapes visible
In satellite images

Of the utah desert are remnants
Of uranium prospecting.

Nelson: uranium processing
In the u.S.A.,

Especially after world war ii,

Was a vigorous,
Frenzied activity.

The most vigorous
Uranium prospecting

Was in an area
Called the colorado plateau,

Which overlaps western colorado,
Eastern utah,

And portions of northern
New mexico and arizona.

Narrator: but key details
Of the image don't fit.

I don't think this is related
To uranium prospecting,

Because, first,
It's a very large feature.

If this were for prospecting,

The individual points
Would be closer together.

Second, it's not in an area
Of australia, the west coast,

That really has large
Uranium deposits.

Narrator: close analysis
Of the image reveals

That at the points
Of the hexagram, there are thin,

Spike-like structures
Casting long shadows.

Zooming in on this image,

We see a massive array
Of antennae.

So, the original pattern
We saw was actually roads

Connecting all these antennae
For servicing.

Narrator: this is no mine.

The worldview-3
Satellite has captured

An aerial image
Of the most secretive

And controversial military
Site in australia,

A site established
By the u.S. Military.

It's called base harold holt,

And it's a u.S. Navy/
Australian navy collaboration.

They use it to communicate
With ships all over the world.

Narrator: the base is rumored
To operate

Top-secret
Space surveillance systems

Developed at
White sands missile range.

People believe that
These hexagon antennae

Transmit very
Low-frequency radio waves.

These are used,
Among other things,

To issue orders to submerged
Nuclear submarines.

An extreme low-frequency --
E.L.F. --

Penetrates into the water

Because it's got
A long wavelength.

It's hard to communicate
To submarines.

Really hard.

And that's an important thing,

To be able to talk
To your nuclear guys.

Narrator: some people believe
That signals

From the hexagon interfered

With the controls
Of a civilian plane in 2008...

...Forcing it to make
An emergency landing

And injuring over 70 people.

The incident
Provoked speculation

That the site could be part

Of a secret radio wave
Weapons program.

The international pilots
Association

Has called for
Commercial aircraft

To be barred from
The area as a precaution.

Access to the harold e. Holt
Facility is highly restricted.

Even today, the secrets

Of what goes on here
Remain classified.

Coming up,
The prison of terror

That can only be
Seen from space.

Even the united nations doesn't
Have the ability to go in.

They are completely off limits.

Narrator: april 7, 2011.

A satellite orbiting above
North korea

Takes a photograph
Of a structure

That officially
Does not exist.

Hansen:
You have these huge areas,

Electric fences with guard posts
Around them,

And it's a very clear indication

That there's some people
That they want to keep in.

Pavelec: looking at the imagery,
You can see walls

And barbed wire
And watch towers.

Out in the middle of nowhere?

Narrator: the structure
Is in a remote,

Mountainous region northeast
Of the capital, pyongyang.

North koreans
Who have escaped to the south

Claim it is
A brutal concentration camp.

The methods of torture
And execution

Allegedly conducted here
Are so horrific,

They cannot be described
On television.

One of the best human
Intelligence sources we have

Is a by the name
Of kang chol-hwan,

Who was able to defect
From north korea through china

To south korea.

Narrator:
The socialist government
Of north korea, naturally,

Dismisses the defector's
Claims as propaganda.

Pavelec:
The north korean party line

Is that these images
Have been fabricated,

C.G.I. Or whatever,

And that someone is trying
To discredit their regime.

So, their reaction was typical.

They basically just denied
Everything and said

It's just a big plot
Against the country.

Narrator: north korea is
A closed society.

Gathering evidence
Of the state's crimes

Is an almost impossible task.

Even the united nations
Doesn't have the ability

To go in and examine
These camps,

To see what conditions
For prisoners are.

There are no inquiries
Taking place into these camps.

They are completely off limits.

Narrator: kang claims that
The mysterious structure

Is known as camp 15,

And it holds more than
50,000 enemies of the state.

I don't know of any other
Country in the world

That has these enormous
Prison encampments.

I don't know of
Anywhere else like that.

Narrator: the satellite images
Are undeniable.

And yet, the north korean
Government insists

That the concentration camp
Does no exist.

When confronted with evidence
Of their prison-camp system,

North korean officials,
First of all,

Say that all
Defector testimonies is lies,

That these people are traitors.

Narrator: but the testimony of
Survivors is harrowing.

[ gunshot, bird cawing ]

In 1992, kang escapes
By bribing his guards

And getting across
The frontier to china.

It's very hard to get
Out of north korea,

Especially if you're
A north korean.

Narrator: in the face
Of mounting evidence,

Including satellite imagery,
North korean officials

Finally admit
That camp 15 exists.

It is described as
A re-education center,

Which is now being shut down.

More recent imagery
Shows that, in fact,

It's not being shut down --
It's being expanded.

Narrator: there could be as many
As 200,000 enemies of the state

In north korea's horrific
Torture camps.

Pavelec:
Kang's story tells us

That this is
Political prison camp number 15.

You can immediately assume
That there's a 1 through 14,

And there's probably
A couple of dozen

Of these places yet to be found.

On a political level,
The camps are actually expanding

Because the number of people
Who have fallen out of favor

Seems to be greater

As kim jong-un
Consolidates his regime.

We've seen unprecedented
Levels of purging

Within the party itself.

Hanham:
I'm not a psychologist,

But I sure would like
Kim jong un to see one.

He is, in many ways,

More dangerous
Than his father or grandfather.

Narrator:
Today, kang risks his life

Trying to smuggle information
into north korea.

The north korean
Socialist government

Is known for having its critics
And opponents killed.

The package contained
An ax and a death threat

Written in blood-red ink.

Satellite images
Are revealing atrocities

The north korean state
Would prefer to keep hidden.

Pavelec:
North korea's perpetuating
Some of the worst

Human rights abuses
On this planet right now,

And something really needs
To be done about them.

Narrator: still to come...
Big trouble in little china.

The towering terror in beijing.

A lot of people thought
He was absolutely bonkers

And it was quite dangerous.

Narrator: september 2010.

The geoeye-1 satellite
Captures photographs

Of the chinese capital, beijing.

One image shows a cluster

Of apartment blocks
Next to a lake.

But one of the towers
Doesn't look right.

It appears to be
Half skyscraper, half mountain.

French:
We see this one skyscraper
That is covered

With what appears to be
An enormous rockery.

Blasina:
I think that's pretty awesome.

I mean, that's one of
The craziest skyscrapers

I've ever seen.

Narrator: the image is captured
In the haidian district

Of beijing, eastern china.

The address
Of this apartment block

Appears in several reports
To local authorities

Of strange activities
On the roof.

Local residents started
Complaining about noise,

About weird objects being
Hoisted up to the roof,

Very long waits
For the elevator.

Leaks and cracks
Are starting to form all over.

Narrator:
A local drone operator flies
A camera over the rooftop

To get a better look at what
Could be causing the problems.

The drone spots
An artificial mountain

On top of this building...

...With shrubs,
A swimming pool.

It's the size of two
Basketball courts.

This is totally crazy.

Narrator:
The aerial footage reveals

The huge mountain-like structure
Is two stories high,

Has its own sun terrace
And even a vineyard.

This is incredible to me,

That this luxury
Mountain retreat

Went unnoticed for so long.

Blasina:
I want to know how he did it.

Like, did he, you know,
Climb up every day

With a few rocks
In his pockets?

[ chuckles ]
Like, I mean, it's insane.

Like, how do you do that in
Secret without anybody knowing?

Capps: this was a huge
Amount of work.

You see these massive
Metal structures

On the sides of the towers
To hold it all together.

This is no roof garden.

Narrator:
The drone footage goes viral,

And the beijing morning post
Launches an investigation

Into who built
The bizarre rooftop mountain.

Fletcher:
So, who is this guy?

How did he get away
With this building project?

A lot of people thought
He was absolutely bonkers

And it was quite dangerous
In what he'd done.

But other people thought
That what he'd done

Was actually beautify the city.

Narrator: but local residents
Aren't convinced.

All this adverse publicity
Comes home to roost,

And the authorities
Finally decide to act.

Narrator:
Officials give the owner of the
Top-floor penthouse two weeks

To remove his rooftop mountain.

Days later, workers start
To remove the weird mountain.

Its owner was given
Just 15 days to dismantle

What took
More than six years to build.

Rumor has it that one year on,

They're still struggling
To take it down.

But the homemade mountain

Is not the strangest thing
On this skyline.

Since the 1980s,
The cities in the region

Have been transformed
From low-rise peasant dwellings

To amazing flights of fancy
As their residents get creative.

Blasina:
There are replicas of the
Eiffel tower that's been built

That stands at 108 meters high,

There's a church
That's been built recently

That's actually in the shape
Of a giant, glass,

High-heel shoe.

Narrator:
Even ordinary streets like these
Are not quite as they seem.

Some enterprising entrepreneurs

Have started
Constructing housing

And entire street complexes
On top of china's towers.