All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S03E19.1080p.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 --

Whatever it is
Can't be good news.

It's suspicious.

Narrator: a teenage
Indiana jones tracks down

Ancient treasures
On a laptop in his bedroom...

How on earth
Could this guy find out

What no one else was able to?

Narrator: ...Mounds of doom,

The creepy corpse houses
In the city of death.

It's incredible really --
A kingdom of the dead

That you can
Actually see from space.

Narrator: ...The spying game --
A journalist spies on the spies.

Just occasionally,
The dark world emerges.

Narrator: strange marks
On the seabed

And the blood-sucking vampires
From the deep.

Kind of creepy fish, something
That you probably don't want

To have dreams about.

Narrator: baffling phenomena,
Mysteries from space --

What on earth are they?

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

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

[ keyboard clacking ]
Narrator: summer 2014 --

13-year-old canadian schoolboy
William gadoury

Is in his bedroom online,

But he's not looking
At the usual teenage stuff.

William is analyzing
Satellite imagery.

Like a cyber detective,

He's looking for clues
Which might lead him

To the ancient secrets
Of the maya.

Bracken:
He's sitting at his computer.

He's looking over
Satellite imagery.

He's looking
At the maya civilization

And trying to find things
That no one's seen before.

Narrator: the maya dominated
The yucatán peninsula

Around 2,000 years ago.

Famous for
Their brutal blood sacrifices

And their magnificent
Stone buildings...

[ thunder crashes, rumbles ]
The siting of their cities

In the most inhospitable
Regions of central america

Has long baffled archaeologists.

Bracken:
Some of their sites were built

In the middle
Of the thick jungle.

[ thunder rumbling ]

When you look at a map,

If you plot out
Where all these maya cities are,

It doesn't make
A lot of sense --

Places that are
Just extremely isolated.

Narrator: decades of research
At ground level

Have failed
To solve this mystery,

But the ingenious teenager
Takes a completely new approach.

He looks to the stars.

William was trying to see if
There was some sort of pattern

He could pull out of there,
Some sort of explanation

For why they were arranged
The way that they were.

The maya were basically
Obsessed with calendars

And dates
And the tracking of time.

Dr. Van gijseghem: william
Was inspired by a book

We know as the madrid codex,

Which is an ancient
Maya record of their zodiac.

Narrator: the madrid codex
Contains a depiction

Of the constellations.

These stars were central
To the maya belief system.

William compares the layout
Of the mayan constellations

With the locations
Of known mayan settlements.

Bracken:
He took a satellite image
Of the maya region,

And on that image, there were
All the major sites indicated.

And what he did was he overlayed
A map of the constellations.

He started to see
All these stars

Just matched up perfectly
To major maya sites.

It was over 100.
It was, I think, 142 of them.

He appeared to have unlocked
The secret of maya settlements

And basically identified
A master plan

For the location of maya sites
Over the landscape.

Narrator: it seems
The resourceful teen has solved

An age-old mystery,

But one star defies his theory.

One of the very brightest stars
In the constellations

That he studied did not match
To any known maya settlement.

Narrator: for william's star map
To hold true,

There should be an as-yet
Undiscovered mayan settlement

In the isolated campeche region
Of the yucatán peninsula.

Dr. Sprajc: the area
That we are talking about

Is located within the so-called
Calakmul biosphere reserve.

[ birds chirping ]

It is really a remote,
Hardly-accessible region

Overgrown with tropical forest.

Narrator: unable to explore
The site at ground level,

The young investigator turns

To professional archaeologists
For help.

William's results
Got released to the world,

And it caused a big stir.

Narrator: the canadian
Space agency steps in

To offer the teenager help

With his
Groundbreaking research.

They program
Their radarsat-2 satellite

To scan the location
Pinpointed by his star map.

Using powerful radar,

It can peer
Beneath the jungle canopy.

The result is incredible.

Bracken: what william had found
Was something

Very clearly quadrilateral,
Four-sided.

It defied anything
That nature would create.

It had to be man-made.

It must have been -- bingo.

This is what
We're looking at.

This is huge and significant.

It's absolutely great
That a teenager

Might have discovered
A new mayan city

In the central american jungle.

This is an archaeologist's
Dream come true.

Narrator:
Scale analysis reveals

The shape is roughly
700 feet square.

It could be the base
Of a pyramid structure

Towering over 280 feet high.

The mayan pyramids
Were imposing monuments.

What went on there was
Magical and blood-curdling.

Sacrificial human victims
Were painted blue

And led to a stone altar.

The priest would
Then rip them apart,

Reach in,
And remove their hearts,

Which would be offered dripping
To appease their savage gods.

[ people screaming ]

The discovery sets
The archaeological world alight.

William even names
The site k'aak chi,

Or "Fire mouth."

But for established academics,
It's tough to accept

That a teenager
Might have unlocked

The secrets of the maya
From his bedroom

By simply studying
Satellite images.

For a number of reasons,

A lot of people
Just don't buy it.

Horton: to just see
A single rectangle like that

Suggests to me that it's
A modern area of cultivation

That's been cleared
Out of the rainforest

Maybe some 50 years ago,

And the rainforest
Has simply marched over it

And reclaimed it.

Ultimately, the only way that
We can ever finally be certain

Is to actually ground truth it,

To go out there on the site

And to see
What one is looking at.

Narrator: whether or not
The gifted teenager

Has made
An astonishing discovery,

His theory has opened intriguing
New avenues of research.

Bracken: it's really great
That william's work

Has put the maya back out there,

Gotten everyone
Talking about them.

But there are
Still quite large blanks

On the archaeological map
Of the maya areas.

Narrator: one thing is clear --
Satellite are revolutionizing

The hunt
For historical treasures.

Horton: we can
Totally transform the way

In which we understand
Ancient civilization

Through this remote sensing,
This satellite imagery.

Narrator: coming up...

Strange mounds in the desert,
A portal back in time...

There are literally
Hundreds of thousands of mounds

In the sand.

Is this man-made,
Or is it natural?

Narrator:
...And the mysterious mega grid

That could spell armageddon.

Driscoll: you have to wonder,
"What are they planning?"

It is a strategic point
To launch

Into the neighboring countries,
And you should beware.

Narrator: december 2015 --

480 miles
Above the persian gulf,

The worldview-2 satellite
Photographs

A strange desert landscape.

Looking at this image, actually,
Although it's from space,

It looks like you're looking
At the surface of pimpled skin.

Dr. Krueger:
If you take a closer look,

There seems to be
A pattern here.

Gough:
It's like a honeycomb design.

Is this man-made,
Or is it natural?

Narrator: the mounds are located

In the small island kingdom
Of bahrain,

14 miles off the coast
Of the arabian peninsula.

If you want to work out
What's going on here,

You've got to look
At the surrounding area.

Narrator: by zooming out,
It's clear the strange mounds

Are surrounded
By a major settlement,

And the activity
That goes on here

Might provide a clue
To their purpose.

In the town
Around the strange mounds,

Pottery has been
The primary industry

For thousands of years.

Bahrain's pottery
Is world-famous.

The potters claim
The craft originated

In the country 5,000 years ago.

Today's pots are finished off
Just like they were

For thousands of years
In traditional earth kilns.

The kilns themselves
Are fairly large.

Essentially, they look kind of
Like ovens almost

With many chambers.

Some kilns were created
Out of mud brick.

Other kilns were simply
Just earth cobbled together

In a kind of mound
With a chamber hollowed out.

These traditional earth kilns
Bear a striking resemblance

To the mounds
That we're looking at.

Might this be our smoking gun?

Narrator:
But the sheer number of mounds

Makes this theory unlikely.

According to legend,

There are 350,000 of them
In this region of bahrain.

There are literally hundreds
Of thousands of mounds

In the sand.

They simply cannot all be kilns.

Narrator: a clue
To their true function comes

When investigators
Excavate one of the mounds.

They uncover human remains.

Human remains in these mounds
Seem to be ancient.

Horton: they're actually tombs

Which contain copper
And bronze objects --

Weapons and so forth.

This is obviously
A very large cemetery,

An incredible
Archaeological site.

Narrator: the pottery
And grave goods

Found with the bodies
Date the mounds back 4,000 years

To the enigmatic
Dilmun civilization.

The dilmuns' heyday
Is around 4,000 years ago,

Around 2,000 b.C.

We know that
This bronze-age civilization

Had a big population

And they undertook all sorts
Of craft activity,

Particularly ceramics.

Narrator: among the artifacts
Found in the graves

Are a number of ancient seals

Bearing the cuneiform script
Of ancient mesopotamia

Along with weights
And measures from india.

It suggest that the people
Buried in these strange mounds

Gained their wealth
Trading ivory,

Lapis lazuli,

Gold, and copper ingots

Between the earliest
Civilizations in persia

And the first great cities
Of the indus valley.

These burial mounds
Are the merchants of dilmun

That are being buried
Out there in the desert.

Narrator: more than 170,000
Grave sites have been counted

In this kingdom of the dead.

This vast necropolis covers
An incredible 5% of the island.

Imagine an entire country,
And 5% of it is tombs.

It's amazing.

Narrator: it's one of
The largest ancient burial sites

On the planet.

It's incredible really --
A kingdom of the dead

That you can
Actually see from space.

Narrator: up next...

The secret super spy station...

This thing can pick up
Almost anything they want.

It's basically a god-like
Power of surveillance.

[ keyboard clacks ]

Narrator: ...And the journalist
Who exposed it.

They had me arrested
And charged with espionage.

Narrator: satellite data impacts
Every aspect of our lives,

From family photos
On social media

To multi-billion-dollar
Business deals.

Our most intimate data
Is relayed

Across the globe by satellites.

Whatever we do or say,
Someone is listening,

And much of that listening
Happens here,

The site known as menwith hill

Is located
In rural yorkshire, england.

From space, these objects
Look like giant golf balls.

They're actually part
Of a colossal

Intelligence-gathering
Operation.

Carter: every single e-mail,
Phone call --

Anything
That you do electronically

Can be intercepted
At that station.

Porges: this thing can pick up
E-mails, phone calls --

Almost anything they want.

It's basically a god-like
Power of surveillance.

Narrator:
Officially, the purpose
Of these giant white balls...

Is to protect the u.S.
And its allies

Against its enemies.

Moran: the monitoring
Of satellite communications

Exists to protect us

Not just from the most
Nefarious characters

Such as terrorists
But also to keep an eye

On other foreign
Intelligence threats

Or possibly
Global criminal activity.

But british investigative
Journalist duncan campbell

Believes there is more
To the secretive activities

At menwith hill.

Just occasionally,
The dark world emerges,

And journalists
Are able to play a role

In getting it dealt with.

Narrator: campbell believes
He's uncovered evidence

That menwith hill
Isn't just spying

On the enemies of the u.S.A.

He believes
It's spying on all of us.

Campbell: the nsa and its
Counterparts in britain built

A secret network
Of satellite stations

To spy on their own countries.

The power to reach
Into all communications...

[ devices warbling ]

Is what menwith hill
Is there to provide.

This isn't just about protecting
Your national security.

This is about having access
To things

That nobody
Should have access to.

Narrator: campbell's
Investigations are so sensitive

That they prompted
An extreme reaction

From the security services.

Campbell: the very first time
I was writing

About the secret
Electronic world of listening,

They had me arrested
And charged with espionage

For being a journalist.

That was how hard
The game was played

In the 1970s and 1980s.

Narrator: campbell
Has explored the site

Using a drone operated
From private land nearby.

Campbell:
I'm just very carefully
Taking it into the air,

Staying away
From their boundary,

And having a look
At what we can see.

I'm getting a look
At the new operations building.

It's huge.

This is giving me
Superb pictures

That I've never seen before.

Narrator: his most recent visit
Suggests the vast radar domes

Used to intercept
Satellite transmissions

Are being scaled up.

Porges:
There are several of these
Golf-ball shaped structures.

We know what they are.

They're microwave antennae.
That's not the mystery.

The mystery is who are
They listening to and why?

From that location,
Any kind of communication

That goes anywhere through
Europe can be intercepted.

[ devices beeping, warbling ]

Narrator: classified documents
Released by edward snowden

Show the vast extent
Of menwith hill's operations.

Edward snowden's revelations
Have shown

That these listening agencies
Are not simply

Acquiring information
Against military targets.

They spy on everyone
All the time.

The papers that you see
From inside menwith hill

Talk about targeting gmail
Or hotmail or facebook.

Nothing is off limits.

Porges: the u.S. Government
Wasn't just spying

And gathering
Intelligence information

From our enemies,
But from our allies, too,

And just about
Everyone they could.

Narrator: campbell is concerned
That governments have

The ability
To collect commercial data,

Which could be of use
To private companies.

Campbell:
Commercial information

Is at least
As important a target

As military
And intelligence information.

[ indistinct conversations ]

Narrator: the nsa makes
No secret of the fact

That it collects commercial data
As a routine part

Of its day-to-day
Surveillance operations.

It claims that
Such intelligence-gathering

Is necessary
Since surveillance targets

Are sometimes known

To use corporate channels
Of communication.

Moran: of course,
The notion that we have

A u.S.-controlled
Intelligence-gathering apparatus

In europe --
Yeah, it's not very fair,

But in the world
Of intelligence and espionage,

Nothing is ever very fair.

Narrator: the covert operations
At menwith hill

Remain unconfirmed.

But according to reports,
$68 million is being spent

On new supercomputers
At the base.

Many analysts fear
This is the start

Of an aggressive expansion

In satellite
And internet surveillance.

Porges: a lot people still talk
About the idea

Of big brother listening in,

Of some sort of hypothetical
Nightmare scenario,

But the truth is
This happens every day.

Carter: we are actually living
In the brave new world.

We are actually living
In the time

That people
Once warned us about.

Moran: what really does happen
At menwith hill is probably

One of the most closely guarded
Government secrets,

And there's a chance
That we might never find out.

Narrator: still to come...

The mad-killer colonel
And the mysterious grid...

Gaddafi was a very strange
Character and very unstable.

He made a lot of threats
In many directions.

Narrator: ...Monstrous marks
In the caspian sea...

Marchetti: something has scoured
Through the vegetation

Or the sea bottom
And turned sediment upwards.

What's interesting
Is the quantity of scouring

That I'm seeing.

I'm wondering
What on earth could cause that.

Narrator:
...And fear in the forest --
A warning written in trees.

Why would someone
Go to the trouble

Of trying to spell, "Run fast,"
Using trees

In the middle of a remote part
Of the chinese wilderness?

Narrator: february 2015 --

The landsat 8 satellite
Captures an image

Of strange marks
In the libyan desert.

Driscoll:
It makes you wonder, "Why?"

Is this truly on the ground?

Narrator: it looks like the grid
Has been digitally added.

But close inspection
Of the image reveals

That it's real,

A physical phenomenon carved
Into the desert floor.

The fact that these lines
And this grid

Is visible from space

Would certainly indicate
That they're very large.

It really asks the question
Of why these have been created.

And what is the purpose of them?

[ gunfire ]

Narrator: libya is still reeling
From the devastating civil war

That ended the reign
Of its feared dictator,

Muammar gaddafi.

Gaddafi was
A very strange character

And very unstable.

Narrator: colonel gaddafi
Seized control of libya in 1969

And turned against the west.

He became increasingly unstable,
Surrounding himself

With an amazon guard
Of beautiful women,

Holding court
In a bulletproof bedouin tent,

And even keeping the head of one
Of his enemies in the freezer.

In rambling speeches
That went on for hours,

He ranted against america.

He wanted to be a thorn

In the side of the u.S.
And its allies.

Driscoll: he knew the important,
Strategic location

Of his country.

He made a lot of threats
In many directions.

Narrator: in 1999,
Gaddafi purchased

50 medium-ranged missiles
From north korea.

Perhaps this grid was used

To test guidance systems
For these missiles.

One of the reasons
That countries test missiles

Is to show they have the
Capability to other countries.

You're saying,
"I am ready," you know,

"To potentially strike you."

"Look out, world.
Here I come."

Narrator:
This is the man responsible

For the infamous
Lockerbie bombing

Of pan am flight 103 in 1988.

Much of southern europe
Is within range of libya.

It would be the perfect place
To strike from.

Driscoll: you have to wonder
What are they planning?

It is a strategic point
To be able to launch

Into the neighboring countries,
And you should beware.

Narrator:
But just before his fall,

Colonel gaddafi was trying
To get back in the good books

Of the western powers,

So building a missile silo
Simply doesn't make sense.

If gaddafi wasn't
Sending things up,

Then maybe he was looking down.

Analysts investigate
Whether the strange patterns

Are calibration markings
For eyes in the sky.

I know back towards the latter
Half of last century --

1960s, 1970s -- they used
To calibrate u.S. Spy satellites

By making marks
On desert surfaces

So that they know where they are

And they can calibrate
Their movements thereafter.

In order to calibrate
The satellite,

They used to make
Big marking areas,

Big enough that a satellite
Could see it.

They would actually
Make grid patterns on the ground

To allow the satellites
To calibrate

And make good pictures
And marking points.

Narrator: but intelligence
Sources reveal

That gaddafi didn't have
Any spy satellites to calibrate.

The libyans didn't invest
Any serious money

In satellite technology.

And as far as grid markings
Like they used to do

In the '60s with satellites --

We don't have
To do that anymore.

That level of calibration
Is not necessary.

Narrator: instead, gaddafi's
New friendship with the west

May provide a clue
To what is really going on.

This being in libya,
It's probable

That they're looking
For oil or for gas.

Narrator: in recent years,
Libya has reopened its borders

To western oil companies,

Allowing them to search
For black gold

In the rich oil and gas fields
Of the desert.

Before drilling a new site,

Prospectors send in
Seismic scanners

To analyze its potential,

And they are very methodical.

What we see in this image
Is a grid pattern

Of route ways driven
By so-called thumper trucks,

Which send waves down
Beneath the earth's surface,

And that gives
A geologist some idea

Of where they might find
Oil or gas.

Narrator: linked
To gps satellites high above,

The trucks can hammer out
A perfect grid pattern

No matter what the terrain.

The precision of their
Technology is breathtaking.

It's a bit like an mri scan.

The more detail they have

Of the structure
Inside the earth,

Where the oil deposit
Or the oil might be,

The better chance
They've got of drilling in

And getting it out effectively.

Narrator: libya is believed
To be sitting

On the largest oil reserves
In africa --

Over 48 billion barrels.

In 2008, the occidental
Petroleum company

Bought a license
To prospect for oil

In this exact region,

But with the nation torn apart
By war,

Much of it could remain buried
For a long time to come.

[ explosion ]

Up next...

Blood-sucking monsters
In the caspian sea...

And it latches on
And eats its prey

With this giant jaw of teeth.

Narrator: ...The giant marks
Suggest a giant cause...

These marks are several meters
To tens of meters across

And very, very long.

Narrator: april 2016 --

Orbiting more than 430 miles
Above the earth,

Nasa's landsat 8 satellite

Captures a strange set
Of markings

In the shallows
Of the caspian sea.

It's really hard to know
What these marks are.

Are they grooves?

Are they even underwater
Or are they just reflections

Off the top of the surface
Of the water?

It's almost like something
Is digging into the sea bottom.

Narrator:
The photograph is captured
Over the tyuleniy archipelago

In the north caspian sea.

This is the largest
Inland sea in the world,

A sea steeped in legend,

A sea full of monsters.

Marchetti:
Something has scoured

Through the vegetation
Or the sea bottom

And turned sediment upwards.

What's interesting is
The quantity of scouring

That I'm seeing.

I'm wondering
What on earth could cause that.

Narrator: scientists
Immediately start looking

For a natural explanation.

One of the things
My mind instantly goes to --

Is this some form
Of, you know, fish event?

Mass spawning events,

When thousands of fish
Come together in one place,

And the males and females
Get together to mate.

Narrator: huge, writhing masses
Of spawning fish

Have been known
To disturb the seafloor,

Throwing up sediment that leaves
Trails across the water.

One such spawning sea creature

Is a truly horrific monster
Of the deep,

The blood-sucking lamprey.

If you've ever seen a lamprey,
You'll probably never forget it.

A kind of creepy fish,
Something that you probably

Don't want to have dreams about.

Narrator: lamprey's are
Like aquatic vampires.

They bite and bore
Into the flesh of their victims

To suck their blood.

And the caspian sea is
Their gruesome breeding ground.

Lamprey's look
A little bit like aliens.

Either that, or we base all
Of our aliens off of lampreys.

They have these giants mouths

With backwards-pointing teeth
All rimmed around in a circle.

And it latches on
And eats its prey

With this giant jaw of teeth.

Dr. Kays: if these marks are
The remnants of a fish spawn,

That must've been

One of the biggest
Fish-breeding events ever.

Nelson: the only problem
With these caspian lampreys

Is that there's actually
Not that many of them left.

They've been overfished.

Dams are blocking
Their spawning ground.

And so it's unusual to see
That many of them.

It's highly unlikely
That it's a lamprey.

It's got to be something else.

Narrator: investigators
Consider that the marks

Are more likely
To have a human origin.

It looks like
Something came along

And just, you know,
Made a cut along the ocean floor

In repeated places.

Actually, on closer inspection,

The one thing that it really
Looks like is that it's scoured.

You know, almost like
You take a brillo pad

And you're scraping a pan --
Putting marks in the seafloor.

Narrator: the fact the sea
In this area is so shallow

Raises the possibility

That the marks could've been
Caused by speedboats.

Marchetti: if there's a lot
Of boating activity,

The propellers could be going in
And just chopping

The aquatic vegetation,
The sea grass,

In a way that might be
Causing this pattern.

Now, this image
Actually reminds me

Of a place that I know
Really well

Just off of the tip of florida
In florida bay.

Narrator: florida bay lies
Just south of the everglades.

It has a giant bed of sea grass
Growing in shallow water

Less than 10 feet deep.

Boats have been cutting
Across there for years,

Scarring the sea grass beds.

And when you look
At it from space,

It looks very similar to this --

All from boat propellers.

Narrator: but the sheer size
Of these marks suggests

They are being made
By something more massive

Than a mere boat.

These marks are several meters
To tens of meters across

And very, very long.

Propeller marks tend
To be just a few feet long,

Maybe a few meters long,
But not kilometers long.

So, I think if we want
To get to the bottom of this

As to why
These streaks were occurring,

We have to look
Backwards in time.

Narrator: oceanographers
Believe that these marks

Come from an ice age,

But that ice age is more recent
Than you might think.

Muller-karger: if you look
At the satellite picture

From six months earlier,

You will see that these is
Quite a bit of ice cover

Over the northern caspian sea.

This ice is not static.

You can have
Either water currents,

Or you can have tides,

Or you can have wind
Pushing the ice along.

Dr. Miller: the coastal ocean
There in the caspian sea

Is rather shallow,
About three-meters depth.

And in a shallow region
Like that,

The ice could
Actually touch the bottom.

If the wind starts blowing,
It'll move it,

And that'll drag
The bottom of the ice,

And potentially form
These types of streaks.

Narrator: the ice forms
A temporary kind of glacier,

Gouging great chunks
Out of the sea bottom.

When it melts
Into crystal-clear water,

The destruction it has caused
Is visible from space.

I'm blown away
That it's sea ice actually.

I've never sean sea ice
Scour sea grass beds like that,

So this is
A really unusual find.

Narrator: still to come...

Strange symbols
In a chinese forest

Spell out words of warning...

Kourounis: it looks like
The character for, "Run fast."

We know the symbol is there,

But we don't know
Who put it there or why.

Narrator:
Sichuan province, china --

In 2005, wildlife enthusiast
Gao shuxian hikes

Through the woodlands
On tiantai mountain.

He climbs a telecom tower
To take photos

And captures a bizarre shape
In the surrounding trees.

There's definitely
Something strange

Going on in this image.

We've got lines of trees

That are
A little lighter in color

And a little higher than
All of the surrounding trees.

And it seems to be making up
Some kind of a pattern.

Narrator: it's only
When gao shuxian uses a drone

To capture a view
Of the whole pattern

That he discovers the startling
Full extent of his discovery.

[ speaking chinese ]

The pattern appears
To be chinese writing.

[ laughs ]

Narrator: gao shares his
Findings with a local reporter,

Who publishes a story
About the strange symbol.

The piece goes viral,

Getting more
Than 120 million hits.

Kourounis: it looks like
The character for, "Run fast."

We know the symbol is there,

But we don't know
Who put it there or why.

Narrator: some commentators
Have even claimed

To see the shape
Of an extraterrestrial being

In the lines of the symbol.

Exactly who would see this,
Apart from a passing satellite,

Is very unlikely.

Narrator: this natural platform
Provides a clue

To scientists looking
For a more earthly explanation

For the phenomenon.

When we see things
Like this, it's easy to say,

"Wow, this is really weird.
What's doing this?"

But nature has a tendency
To, in many cases,

Produce regular patterns.

Well, it really does make sense
To have a closer look

To see if this might've
Occurred naturally.

Narrator: weird growth patterns
Can sometimes reveal

The presence of something
Unusual in the soil below.

When reviewing
Aerial photographs

Of landscapes of vegetation,

It's not uncommon
To see regular features

Showing up that reflect
The underlying soil.

Let's say you have
An uneven topography in an area,

And you have plants that grow
At slightly different altitudes.

They might be a slightly
Different color.

And of course, they'll stand out
A little bit more.

Narrator: the area
Where the image was taken

Is notorious
For its bizarre geology.

These ridge lines
Are not far at all

From a crazy-looking place
Called the stone forest,

Where the underlying bedrock
Is actually exposed.

Narrator: the stone forest
In shilin's national park

Is a striking jungle
Of limestone formations

That jut out of
The earth's surface.

The kind of erosion that created
This strange landscape

Can also take place underground.

Lester: limestone bedrock tends
To dissolve over time.

And it doesn't
Just dissolve downward.

It dissolves in the subsurface,
Into caves and caverns,

And then those caves
And caverns collapse

Due to the weight
Of the overlying material.

Narrator: could this kind
Of subterranean erosion

Be creating
The mysterious pattern?

It seems to me
That a pattern like this

Would be just what you'd expect

From some kind
Of linear breaking planes

In the limestone bedrock.

Narrator: if this
Is what's happened here,

There should be
Similar marks and symbols

Across the rest
Of the mountain...

But there are none.

It's only happening
In one sort of isolated area.

It seems very unlikely
That it's due

To the local geology
Of the area.

Narrator: there's no obvious
Natural cause for this symbol.

But then, how did it get here?

Someone has gone
To a lot of trouble

To make their mark
On the landscape.

Why would someone
Go to the trouble

Of trying to spell, "Run fast,"
Using trees

In the middle of a remote part
Of the chinese wilderness?

Narrator: "Run fast" --
Is it a warning?

Is it a command?

Does it mark the territory
Of some mysterious tribe?

Narrator: but the qiong were
An ancient people.

The size of these trees suggest

They were planted
In the last 50 years.

Someone in recent history
May have shaped the forest

To serve some unknown purpose.

French: there's two ways
In which this happens.

The first is weddings.

And people in the countryside
Have carved into hillsides,

Or painted on hillsides,
Or carved into the fields,

The symbol for --
Chinese character

For "Double happiness."

And the other are
Communist-party slogans,

Slogans praising the party,

Praising chairman mao.

Narrator: the size of the trees
Suggests they were planted

Between the 1960s
And the late '80s,

The right timeframe
For a tribute to mao zedong.

But there is no record
Of, "Run fast,"

Ever being used as a slogan
By chinese communists.

A possible breakthrough comes

When journalists
Investigating the mystery

Discover records of strange
Scientific experiments

Carried out in the region.

This area is actually an
Agricultural experimental forest

Where they're planting
Different kinds of trees.

Liriodendrons,
A cousin to the magnolia,

Was planted in lines
To divide up

The different kinds
Of cedar trees

That were growing
In the area.

Joe deming was part
Of the team involved.

Mousseau: when you look at the
Patterns that are generated

By these two species of trees
In the area,

It does appear like
They spell out, "Run fast."

Nobody really knows
Why they would spell out

These words in trees.

Perhaps it was just
The agricultural scientists,

The foresters, were having
A little fun with this, I think.

Narrator: deming claims
That he had no idea

He'd spelled out, "Run fast,"

Until the story hit the internet
Years later.

But he's happy
To take the credit.