All language subtitles for What.on.Earth.S03E20.1080p.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.

Bam. There's something
Weird going on here.

It's suspicious.

Narrator: the magic mountain
From beneath the sea...

...Mystical marks
Seen from space....

These stones
Are roman soldiers

Who were turned into stone
By the great wizard merlin.

Narrator:
...The city of ghosts,

The american town
That turned invisible...

Something major, some sort
Of catastrophe happened.

Narrator:
...And the world turns weird.

Gravity is bending
In the gulf of mexico.

Distortion in the gravitational
Field of the earth.

It's astonishing.

Things that no one
Has ever seen before.

Narrator: baffling phenomena --
Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

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

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

Nasa's eo-1 satellite
Photographs a baffling phenomena

Off the remote southwest
Coast of pakistan.

A dark, circular
Blob has appeared

Where nothing existed before.

Porges: that's kind of strange.

Whatever it is,
It just kind of popped up

In the middle of the sea.

Green:
If suddenly the waves part,

If something suddenly pops up,

Then that could send
A few alarm bells ringing.

Narrator: the unidentified
Object could not have surfaced

In a more politically
Volatile region.

Green: this is
An incredibly sensitive area,

Right on the border
Between pakistan and iran.

It's a center of huge amounts
Of geopolitical intrigue.

You'll have
Intelligence agencies

From many countries

Who are gonna be
Extremely concerned

About knowing exactly
What's going on.

Narrator: the sensitive location
Arouses fears

The object visible in the image

Could be part of a covert
Surveillance vessel.

Porges: underwater surveillance
Is not a new idea.

Lots of countries have been
Doing this for years.

Narrator: iran and pakistan both
Possess powerful militaries,

And both are capable
Of deploying submarines

For surveillance operations.

But the object appears too round
To match any known sub design.

Stories about
The mysterious object

Reach journalist bahram baloch.

He hears rumors
Of local reports

That a burning island
Has risen above the waves

With flames licking
From its rocks,

Spreading terror
Among the locals.

Bahram joins local biologist
Abdul rahim on a journey

To the isolated southwest coast

To find out what's going on.

Green:
Southwest pakistan, an area

That's virtually sealed off
To the outside world.

It's extremely difficult

For certainly
Journalists to visit.

It's a kind of hidden
Realm within pakistan.

Narrator: when bahram and abdul
Arrive at the coast,

The locals insist that
The mysterious mass rose

From the sea overnight.

A mountain appears from nowhere.

The result perhaps
Of some kind of eruption?

Brand: as a volcanologist,

When we see an island
Pop out of nowhere,

The first thing we think
Is it might be volcanic.

Narrator: but in this part
Of the world, that's impossible.

Petford:
Where this image was taken,

There are no active volcanoes

At all in that particular area.

Brand: the next question
Is if it's not volcanic,

Then what other process allowed
For this island to emerge?

Narrator: although there aren't
Any known active volcanoes here,

Pakistan sits on the fault line

Between the indian
And eurasian tectonic plates.

It suffers cataclysmic
Earthquakes,

Which have killed
Thousands of people

And left millions
More homeless.

Bahram's investigation discovers

That only about 48 hours

Before the satellite
Image was taken,

An earthquake struck
230 miles inland

Inland with devastating
Consequences.

Soon after, the new island
Rose above the waves.

Porges: a giant earthquake
And then an island appearing --

There's got to be
Some sort of connection.

Narrator: astonished local
Fishermen raise the alarm.

Word spread quickly
Of the magic mountain

Which had appeared
From beneath the waves.

Some feared it.

Others went to see
For themselves.

Their amateur
Footage provides

Vital clues
To the investigators.

Geologists begin to put
The clues together.

The most important observation

To me is that it looks
Like this jumbled up,

Broken up rock,

And the pieces are big,

And that's characteristic
Of mud volcanoes.

Narrator: a mud volcano
Is not a lava volcano.

It's a cataclysmic eruption

Of mud punched through
The earth's surface

By a sudden release of gas.

Brand:
It's not uncommon, actually,

For earthquakes to trigger
The eruption of mud volcanoes,

Either because they disrupt
The pressurized mixture,

Initiating its buoyant rise,

Or because they just
Create cracks

For this mixture
To rise up through.

Petford: and that may well be
The explanation for the island

Appearing off
The coast of pakistan.

Narrator: according to
This theory,

Hundreds of thousands
Of tons of mud

Were thrust violently
Out of the earth,

Rising up from the sea bed

To form a mountain-like
Structure above the waves,

Spewing methane gas

And causing terror
Among local fishermen.

Abdul and bahram want to see

This new mud volcano
For themselves.

But when they reach it,

The island has
Almost disappeared.

The strange island

That appeared from nowhere

Is crumbling back into the sea.

Whatever the true story
Behind the magic mountain,

It's something the locals
Will speak about

For generations to come.

Brand: an island that pops up
Out of nowhere,

And then within a year,
Can almost completely disappear,

It's just another example
Of how dynamic our planet

Is and how quickly it changes.

Narrator: up next, patterns
Of dots seen from space

Turn out to be stone monuments
From the dawn

Of human civilization.

Narrator:
High above northwest france,

The geoeye-1
Satellite photographs

A pattern of dots.

The nearest settlement
Is the french town of carnac.

Gijesghem: we're looking
At thousands of stones

Perfectly aligned
In very formal ways.

Nobody knows where they came
From or who built them.

Krueger: these patterns
Must mean something,

But we just don't know what.

Narrator: the stones are located
In a region known as brittany.

Here, archaeologists
Have also found

An artificial stone structure

Built more than
400,000 years ago,

Long before the first
Homo sapiens walked the earth.

When the locals look
At the stones,

They see something sacred,
Even magical.

Crowhurst: there are still a lot
Of druids in brittany

Who use these sites for healing.

They perceive them
As places of spiritual strength.

These stones have given rise

To a lot of mystery and legend

Because there is no actual
Written history about it.

Narrator: from space,
Patterns emerge

Which are not visible
From the ground.

The scale of the site
Is impressive,

And seen from above,

It looks like there
Is some plan or meaning

In the layout of the stones.

Roughley: you get a much clearer
Picture of the layout,

The shapes, the geometry,
The patterns in the landscape.

It's a paradox that the people

Who made it never actually
Had the luxury

Of seeing it from a bird's
Eye view like we do.

Many thousands of people

Must've taken part
To build these monuments.

There must've been some
Very good reason to do that.

Narrator: according to legend,
The carnac monument

Was not built at all.

It was created
By an act of magic.

One of the theories
Is that these stones

Are actually roman soldiers

Who were turned into stone
By the great wizard merlin.

The stones are arranged
In parallel,

Straight-ish lines,

And that's what
Inspired people to think

That they were the petrified
Remains of the roman legion.

Narrator:
In early medieval mythology,

Merlin became entwined
With the legend of king arthur

And the end
Of roman britain.

But modern forensic techniques
Show something remarkable.

This strange monument was built

Significantly further
Back in time.

We are assuming now
That they're neolithic,

Much older than the romans.

We think that they're
Probably in that period

Between 3,000
And 4,000 years b.C.,

But we actually have very
Little firm evidence at all,

So it is a big mystery.

Narrator:
This site has been a place

Of great spiritual power
For millennia.

Who or whatever put
These stones here did

So thousands of years
Before christ,

Long before the druids
Encountered the romans.

Carnac is one of the largest
Ritual landscapes in europe.

Narrator: the men who built
This massive monument

Believed the stones
Had a kind of magic power,

Which is hard
For us to comprehend.

I think people
Walked along the lines,

Possibly as part of
Some important procession,

At a particular
Time of year,

Or at a particular time
In their own life cycle.

Narrator: ancient cults used
The movement of the sun

And stars to chart
Passing seasons.

Perhaps that could explain
The precision of the alignments.

These lines are perfectly
Oriented on an east-west axis.

So, what that means
Is that equinox,

So the 21st of march
Or the 23rd of september,

The sun comes down and sets
Exactly along this line,

And all the shadows,
The shadows of each stone,

All line up.

Narrator: but when modern
Satellite images

Are compared with 19th century
Plans of the site,

The mystery deepens.

So, now overlaying on
The aerial photography

Is an 1833 plan
Of the carnac area.

We can see how much the stones

Have been moved and rearranged.

Narrator: the stones may line up
With astronomical bodies now,

But they certainly
Didn't 200 years ago.

The astronomical interpretation

Is based on
The tidied up version

And not the neolithic
Site itself.

Narrator: these stones are not
About time keeping.

But they may
Be about death.

The larger pillars
Have the characteristics

Of ancient tombs.

Roughley:
Inside the burial mounds,

You don't actually find
Any of the human remains

Because the acid soil means
That human bone doesn't survive.

But we do find pottery,
Jewelry, beautiful,

Polished stone axes.

Narrator:
It seems these great stones

Were once part of mausoleums --

Mounds for the dead.

And to the ancient people
Who built them,

The avenues formed
Some kind of portal

Between the spirit worlds
They inhabited.

From space, the grandeur
Of these avenues

Becomes all the more apparent.

Thousands of years after

A mysterious people
Constructed it,

This legacy from a dark past,

This neolithic gateway
To the afterlife,

Is still standing.

Roughley: we have
This amazing ritual landscape,

But we'll never
Really understand

Why people built it.

It will always remain
A bit of a mystery.

Narrator: coming up, the
Incredible disappearing town

Right out of
"The twilight zone."

One house could've been here

And another house there
And over there,

And maybe one there.

Narrator: an imaging aircraft
Scans one of the driest

And hottest locations
In north america.

It captures a series
Of strange lines

Seemingly etched into
The scorched earth.

Somebody went through
A lot of trouble

To make this pattern
In the dirt.

Narrator:
The mystery markings are located
In the mojave desert,

Southern california.

Today, journalist
Misty hickok is heading

To the heart of this
Inhospitable terrain.

So, here we are in the middle
Of the mojave desert,

And you come up and you
Find these clearings.

Some are straight,
Some are curved, some are round,

And you have to wonder exactly
What is going on in this area.

Narrator:
Examination of the intricate
Geometric pattern

Seen from space reveals

It covers a massive
200 square miles.

But there's no obvious clue
To its purpose.

When I look at
The satellite images,

I see an urban neighborhood
With a lot of winding

Roads and streets.

Hickok: this could've possibly
Been a cul-de-sac.

And, like, one house
Could've been here

And another house there

And over there
And maybe one there.

Narrator:
Hickok discovers white posts
Lining several of the avenues.

They're street signs.

This is a city,

But where did
All the buildings go?

It looks like
The remains of a city

That's been wiped off the map.

Hickok:
You could definitely think

That it was once
A thriving city

And that something major,

Some sort of
Catastrophe happened.

Narrator:
Someone or something has erased
Almost all traces of it.

Analysts consider whether
Nearby military installations

Are responsible
For the ghost city.

The area, more than likely,
Is probably somehow

Connected to the
U.S. Military installation.

You're not far from
An air force base.

It really could be a great place
To go test weapons.

Narrator: just 20 miles south
Is edwards air force base,

One of the most secretive
Military facilities

In the united states.

It is famous for testing
All kinds of strange weapons,

Including america's
Nuclear arsenal.

Documentary narrator:
More atomic bombs have
Been exploded

On these few
Hundred square miles of desert

Than on any other spot
On the globe.

Krueger: in the early days
Of atomic testing,

The united states government
Would create

These whole towns
Of buildings and mannequins,

And they would detonate
Atomic explosions

To discover how these towns
Would react to the explosions.

Narrator: the u.S. Government
Called these eerie sites

Doom town and survival city.

During the 1950s,

When the soviets were
Threatening armageddon,

Over 100 atomic weapons
Were tested on sites

Like these in the nevada desert.

If you drop a
Large nuke on a city,

All you're gonna see
In the aftermath

Is an outline of foundations

And perhaps the street patterns
That were laid out.

Narrator:
Officially, there's never been

An atomic weapon test
In california,

But declassified documents
Reveal the air force

Used the salton sea,

150 miles to the southeast,

To practice
Dropping nuclear bombs

During world war ii.

Perhaps the ghost city

Is more evidence of california's

Forgotten atomic past.

This area is empty desert,
So in many ways,

It's a perfect place
To do weapons tests.

That said, it's not far
From los angeles.

You wouldn't want to test
Anything that had far-reaching,

Destructive capabilities

That close
To a major population center.

Narrator:
If the ghost city wasn't
Destroyed by an atomic bomb,

Perhaps it was abandoned

Due to something
Equally sinister --

A deadly toxic leak.

This wouldn't be
The first time that a u.S. City

Has been turned
Into a ghost town.

Narrator: aerial footage of
The town of picher in oklahoma

Is a startling example
Of how a city

Can be wiped off the map.

Moran: picher had to be
Completely abandoned due

To dangerously
High levels of lead

That were exposed
During the mining process.

Narrator: in 2011,
The entire town was demolished

After a third of the children
Were poisoned with lead

From a local mine.

Satellite images show
Several abandoned

And active mines to the south,

But analysts find no link
Between these mines

And the ghost city.

There's no evidence that there's
Any kind of biohazard lake

Or anything that would've
Kept people from this city.

Narrator:
If this place was a city,

But wasn't destroyed
Or abandoned,

What happened?

Investigators turn
To land registry records

In search of the key
To the mystery.

Moran: if you look at
Local land records,

You find out that
This entire area

Is registered as a city.

It's called california city.

Narrator: california city was
Registered over 50 years ago

By entrepreneur nat mendelsohn,

And he had
An incredible plan for it.

In 1958, mendelsohn

Bought up an enormous
Swath of land.

He thought he could exploit
The housing shortage in l.A.

And make a fortune.

Narrator: in the 1950s,

California's economy
And population were booming.

L.A.'s housing supply

Struggled to keep pace.

Mendelsohn's solution --

Build a brand-new city
For millions

In the wastelands
Of the mojave dessert.

Hickok: nate mendelsohn's
Dream was to create

A little bit of heaven
In the middle of the dirt.

It's such an eccentric idea,
It's got to be up there

With anything
Howard hughes thought of.

Narrator: after purchasing
82,000 acres of desert,

Mendelsohn carved out
Hundreds of miles of roads,

Installed street signs,

And began selling off
Plots to investors.

Hickok: in the beginning,
People were buying like crazy.

It's kind of a big boom
With the prices being so low

'cause lots were
Under $1,000,

So people bought,
Bought, bought.

Buyers come by the bus load,
Plots are sold,

And all of a sudden,
The dream is becoming a reality.

Narrator:
But within a few years,

Mendelsohn's dream
Turned into one

Of the biggest real-estate
Nightmares of the 20th century.

The buyers are speculators.

They mostly sell
The plots on.

Moran: houses don't get built,
People don't move in.

The bubble finally bursts.

Narrator: by land area,
This city

From "The twilight zone"

Is the third largest
Metropolis in the state.

This could've been a major
Metropolis like l.A.

Or san diego,

But it's simply just
Some marks in the ground.

Narrator: mendelsohn's
Grand vision relegated

To a footnote in history
Visible from space.

Still to come --
Forget the flintstones.

It's "Star trek" in the jungle.

It turns out that
The tribal chief's

Actually a big fan
Of technology.

Narrator: something weird is
Bending the ocean...

There's a distortion in
The earth's gravitational field.

Narrator:
...And spooky lines at the
Southern tip of the americas.

There's nothing in nature

That could produce
Patterns like this.

Narrator: the landsat 8
Earth observation satellite

Passes high above brazil.

Over the amazon jungle,

It captures images
Of deforestation.

One stands out.

Something is keeping loggers

Out of this area,
But what is it?

Narrator:
The image shows a curious,

Deliberately shaped
1,000-square-mile

Area of untouched forest.

Super well-defined borders

That are clearly designated
Artificially somehow.

Kournounis:
There's a mystery here
That needs to be unraveled.

Something's going on
In this forest.

Why has this particular

Patch not been logged at all?

Narrator: the photograph
Was taken above

The rondônia region
Of western brazil.

These are the ancestral lands

Of an ancient amazonian tribe.

The indigenous people
Called the surui --

This is their territory,

And the outline
Of the forested area

Perfectly matches
Their territory.

Narrator: the straight edges
Mark the frontline

In a brutal war
That has dragged on for decades.

When the first loggers visited

And saw the surui people,

They were shot at
By bows and arrows.

Narrator: in the space
Of just five terrible years,

No fewer than 11 tribal leaders

Were killed in clashes
With loggers and miners.

The surui are fighting
For their homeland.

But this is a tribe
Of primitive jungle dwellers

Fighting a messy, scrappy war

With desperate,
Illegal loggers.

Why are there neat, straight
Lines visible from space?

There really is no explanation

Based on the geology
Or the topography of the area

Why this particular spot
Has been protected.

Kays: what is it about this
Land that's different?

What's saving this land
From the logger's blade?

Narrator: these tribes people
First had contact

With the modern world in 1969.

The viruses they didn't like,

But there was one thing
They couldn't get enough of.

It turns out that
The tribal chief's

Actually a big fan
Of technology.

Narrator:
Forget the flintstones.

These bronze-age geeks
Have blowpipes with bluetooth.

They'll trade
Anything for tech.

They still have
Their old weapons

And tribal survival skills,

But now they're pretty good
At programming, too.

This tribe isn't
Just using bows and arrows

To protect their land.

They're using smartphones.

Narrator: the loggers hated it

When they were attacked
With bows and arrows,

But against these
Natives turned nerds,

They've met their match.

Now the tribal warriors,

Armed to the teeth
With high-tech gadgets,

Patrol the borders
Of their territory.

Thanks to gps, they know down
To the last inch

What land is theirs.

They still hunt
Like ancient warriors.

They look at
The birds for signs.

They can see from their behavior
There have been people here,

And even the direction
They should be looking.

When they reach the spot,

They find evidence
Of illegal logging.

But the loggers have fled,
And who can blame them?

A well-aimed arrow is
As lethal as a bullet.

These space-age warriors

Are hard to beat.

Loggers are now terrified

Of straying
Onto surui territory,

Which is why the lines
Are so straight

In the satellite image.

"Stay off our land,
And we'll leave you alone.

Stray one inch onto our land,

And you take your life
In your hands."

This tribe's land is
Basically the frontline

When it comes to
Deforestation in the amazon,

And the interesting part
Is that it's not

Just something that
We're seeing from satellite.

They're actually using
The satellites

To help defend their area.

These lines are there
Because of the satellites.

Narrator: still to come --
Whatever it is,

It's big, it's invisible,

And it's bending the sea.

What's probably
Down there in big,

Irregular mass is moving around.

Narrator: the cryosat-2 --

One of the most advanced
Research satellites ever built.

It weighs not much
More than a golf cart

And could easily
Fit in your garage,

But it cost a staggering
$145 million.

What it does is
Measure gravity.

It's basically measuring tiny,

Tiny variations in
The pull of gravity.

So, by looking
At the sea surface,

We're in effect
Looking at the sea floor.

So, it's like draining
The ocean basins.

The cryosat-2 satellite is
A technological marvel.

We are able to
Analyze the elevation

Of the sea surface

To incredible levels
Of precision --

Just a few centimeters.

Narrator:
But when professor sandwell
Looks at the ocean surface,

He finds something bizarre.

In the great gulf of mexico

To the south
Of the united states,

The ocean is bending.

An invisible force
Is changing the shape

Of the earth's seas,

Warping the planet's
Gravitational field.

Whatever's bending the ocean

Is hidden beneath
The waves in the gulf.

On closer investigation,

Sandwell discovers
Strange shapes.

In the center
Of the gulf of mexico,

We see some
Interesting structures --

This orthogonal pattern
Of gray-ish

Black continues up here

Into the northern part
Of the gulf of mexico.

Narrator:
The strange anomaly is vast,

Zig-zagging 600 miles
Across the ocean floor.

It can only be detected
By the effect

It's exerting
On earth's gravity.

On the surface, it's invisible.

Sandwell: these are structures
That are buried

By thick sediments
Beneath the sea floor,

So they only shine through
In the gravity maps,

And you sit there just for days

And days trying to understand
What's going on.

Narrator: to find out what's
Causing this anomaly,

The investigators
Need to figure out

What could be
Under the sea floor.

The most obvious
Possibility is oil.

Sandwell:
This is where you find all
The oil in the gulf of mexico.

You wouldn't see
The oil directly,

But you would see the structure

That's holding the oil
In the reservoir for the oil.

Narrator:
All that oil is thrusting

Towards the surface
Under extreme pressure.

In 2010, this pressure
Cooker exploded --

One of the worst marine
Disasters in history.

Recent deepwater horizon spill
In the gulf of mexico --

It was a catastrophic accident.

Narrator: the explosion on the
Deepwater horizon drilling rig

Triggers an accidental spill
Like no other.

Giant underwater oil plumes

Spew out up to 22 miles long.

Nelson: 11 people were killed,

And something like 4 million
Barrels of oil were discharged.

A lot of that oil is still
Somewhere under the sea.

It's probably
Down there in big,

Irregular masses moving around.

There's been speculation
That a mass of oil

This size around
The mid of the sea

Could cause a distortion in
The earth's gravitational field.

Fletcher: we've seen this
Happen before.

The oil stays
There permanently,

Becoming part of the
Ocean floor's geological record.

Narrator:
But even though you could see

The deepwater oil spill
From space,

It's simply not big enough
To affect the earth's gravity.

Nelson: it's unlikely
It would cause a distortion

In the gravitational field
Of the earth.

You can't see the oil directly
In the cryosat gravity field

Because it's just
Not massive enough.

Narrator: if the feature isn't
A giant morphing mass of oil,

Some suggest a clue could come
From the gulf of mexico's

Nautical past.

Gulf of mexico
Is so full of shipwrecks --

Could this be a series of wrecks

Which have not been
Discovered before

And have just been picked up
By satellite image?

Narrator:
Every year, these azure waters

Become a 600,000-square-mile
Ship graveyard.

Nobody knows exactly
How many wrecks there are,

But 2,000's probably
A good estimate.

Fletcher: could this vast
Array of detritus

Sitting on the floor
Explain the anomaly?

Narrator:
Ships weighing thousands of tons

Have sunk in these waters.

But most shipwrecks
In the gulf occur

Within 50 miles of land.

this feature lies 150 miles

Off the coast in deep ocean.

It's just too far out
Into the ocean.

Too deep.
It'd be much more random.

You only get that sort of shape

If you're really
Close to the coast.

Narrator: to get to the bottom
Of the mystery,

Sandwell has to delve
Further back in time.

He turns to earth
Scientists for help.

I guess you might have to be
A bit of a geologist to see it,

But you can see definitely
These fracture zones

Running all the way
Across the ocean.

So, this is a spreading area,

Sea floor spreading area.

Narrator: it looks
Like sandwell has discovered

The site of an ancient
Split in the sea floor

Where tectonic plates
Once pulled apart.

These two continental
Pieces were together

About 200 million years ago.

We started at sea floor
Between 200 million

And about 150 million years ago,

And eventually it left behind

The sea floor-spreading
Ridge here.

Narrator: magma from deep inside
The earth spewed up

Between the plates,

Forming an enormous
Underwater mountain range.

Sandwell: you had spreading
Between the two continents here,

Active sea floor spreading.

And then, it stopped
About 150 million

Or 200 million years ago.

It left behind this pattern
On the sea floor.

Narrator:
Over millions of years,

This 600-mile-long
Mountain ridge

Became buried under billions
Of tons of sand and mud.

But the underlying
Rock structure remains,

Distorting the earth's
Gravitational field.

When you look at
The sea floor today,

It's pretty flat,
But the gravity field

Then reveals these structures
Beneath the sediments.

It's astonishing.
You sit in your lab

And you see all kinds
Of new structures,

Things that no one
Has ever seen before.

Narrator: still to come,

A network of lines
In the land of the nazca.

The fact that we're
In south america,

One is immediately drawn

To ancient civilizations.

Narrator:
The quickbird-2 satellite passes

280 miles above
Patagonia, central argentina.

It captures a geometric pattern

Etched into the arid terrain.

Petford:
This is quite a striking image.

It's very vivid, very bold.

You've got these
Very straight,

Very regular lines forming
A kind of matrix structure.

Narrator: the image comes
From the remote

Desert plains of patagonia's
Río negro province.

Gijesghem: what we're looking at
Is fairly evidently human made,

That there's nothing
That I know in nature

That can produce patterns
Like this.

Narrator:
Analysis reveals the web-like
Network covers a vast area --

More than 100 square miles.

We know there are large, manmade
Features in south america

That seem to be
Decorative or ritual.

The fact that we're
In south america,

One is immediately drawn
To ancient civilizations.

Societies that produce lines
On the ground --

The nazca lines are perhaps
The most famous example.

Narrator: 2,000 years ago,

The nazca civilization carved
Hundreds of enormous shapes

Into the peruvian desert.

Nelson: we didn't even know
They were there

Until someone flew over the area

And saw them.

So the question is,
Is this a similar feature?

Horton:
Maybe this is a completely
Unknown group of lines

That have hitherto been

Not recognized
By archaeologists.

The question is now
Who made them,

And at which point in history.

Narrator:
A strikingly similar network
Of crisscrossing lines

Has been discovered
In sajama, bolivia.

The sajama lines cover an area
Of close to 9,000 square miles,

Which is considerable.

They're located
In very high altitudes

Near bolivia's highest peak --

An ancient volcano.

Narrator:
The lines cover an area

15 times larger
Than the nazca lines.

And archaeological evidence
Suggests

They were created
Over 900 years ago

By a previously
Unknown civilization.

The sajama cultures
Seem to be drawing lines

On the surface of the desert

As a way of marking

Some form of pilgrimage routes.

Some of these lines
Connect things

That appear to be shrines
Or burial towers.

Narrator: the lines
In the image could be evidence

The same people once lived
And thrived in patagonia.

The sajama lines do have
That kind of crisscross pattern

That we see in
This particular image,

But they tend to be
Considerably longer.

Narrator:
And the lines in the pattern

Are too evenly spaced for there

To be a connection.

The fact that they're evenly
Spaced really makes me think

That this is not an ancient
Network or structure.

We have to consider some
Other kind of human activity.

Narrator:
Details in the image lead

Some to look into
The unlikely idea

That this could be some kind
Of desert leisure complex.

The dots do pose
An interesting thought.

Because of the spacing
And the dimension of the dots,

It could look like
An irrigation line

For a fairway site.

Narrator: one of argentina's
Top golf destinations

is just 90 miles
From where the image was taken.

Perhaps the satellite
Has spied another golf course

Under construction
In the desert.

On a desert golf course,
You'd probably have

About 20 to 30 miles
Of irrigation

Piped under the ground.

You need high-tech
Pumping systems

To make sure the exact amount
Of water is delivered.

Narrator: the deserts
Of california, nevada,

And dubai have
All been transformed

Into lush golf courses

By sophisticated
Water-management systems.

It's possible this could be
A big irrigation system

Being installed.

We see the network
For the pipes and so on.

Narrator:
But if these nodes are greens,

There are simply too many here

For a traditional
18-hole course.

The lines are
Quite randomly placed

Without a continuous flow.

It doesn't look like
A golf course to me.

Narrator:
Zooming in reveals structures
That could offer clues

To the nature
Of the bizarre markings.

To me, looking at this image,

I think it's pretty clear that

We're looking at some kind
Of extractive technology.

We can see there's some kind
Of equipment down in there.

A lot of the dots have some
Mechanical structure by them,

Probably an oil derrick.

One interesting feature
Of the patagonian area

Is that it has been a target
Over the last decade

Or so for oil exploration.

Narrator: the final clue
To the mysterious shape --

Records indicate that a
State-controlled energy company

Recently discovered
Oil reserves in this region

In excess of 40 million barrels.

That's significant and indicates
There will probably

Be more exploration
And production

In this remote
Part of the world.