Original subtitles

Narrator: They're watching you.

More than 4,000 satellites Circle the earth.

Every day, they uncover new, Mysterious phenomena

That defy explanation.

[ beeping, distorted music ]

Toxic hailstorms and the mystery Of the vanishing lake...

Chamberlain: that's insane.

It really does look like You're standing on the moon.

Narrator: ...The walking dead Seen from the skies...

Something is wrong here,

Really, horribly wrong.

Narrator: ...And space diamonds In the sahara.

It looks as though There was a giant claw

Tearing the desert floor.

Narrator: baffling phenomena.

Mysteries from space.

What on earth are they?

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

[ beeping ] [ camera shutter clicking ]

[ whirring ]

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

**

[ frequency warbles ] [ whirring ]

July 3rd, 2016.

A satellite 380 miles above California captures an image

Of strange patterns In a valley below.

Schuttler: This image is truly bizarre.

I've never seen anything Like it before.

This looks a lot like a giant Bird dropped its feathers,

And that makes No sense at all.

Narrator: analysis of the wider Area adds to the mystery.

Let's zoom out.

And, whoa.

Looks like it's kind of A post-apocalyptic environment.

You have pinks and maroons.

This almost looks like A wastewater pond

For a chemical plant.

Narrator: The weird shapes, colors,

And evidence of desolation

Are being investigated By science journalist

Haley chamberlain.

Well, an area like this,

That looks like it has So many things going on,

Raises concern because it's sort Of turning into this wasteland.

Narrator: Chamberlain travels towards The sierra nevada mountains.

**

Across these peaks, 150 years ago,

Came scores of prospectors In a lawless,

Desperate hunt for riches -- The great gold rush.

It looks like the wild west.

There's literally tumbleweed On the side of the road.

Narrator: chamberlain Has traveled far across

The sierra nevada gold fields When she spots something --

A ghost town.

**

It's a little bit eerie.

It looks like this Maybe was once

Kind of a bustling community.

**

Very desolate-looking All around here.

Narrator: many dwellings appear To have been suddenly abandoned,

Once-valuable machines Left to decay.

It looks like the people here Were forced to leave town fast.

**

Chamberlain continues towards The weird shapes and colors

In the image.

**

What she finds stuns her.

Chamberlain: wow!

Narrator: a seemingly endless Expanse of barren land

Covered in some strange Substance, encrusted and white.

**

Chamberlain: And it just goes on and on.

**

As far as the eye can see Is crusty, flat, dry land.

Narrator: chamberlain struggles To think of anything else

On earth That looks like this.

Chamberlain: I have to wonder What's going on here.

It really does look like You're standing on the moon.

Narrator: The cracked surface suggests The historic presence of water.

If this was a lake, It was truly gigantic.

**

It covered perhaps 100 square miles.

Yet it seems some unknown force Has made it disappear.

From the satellite image, I know that this lake

Used to be absolutely massive.

That's pretty incredible.

What happened to this lake?

**

Narrator: As chamberlain heads out across The moonlike landscape,

She discovers something Even more puzzling.

Chamberlain: Oh, take a look at that.

Looks like the ground Is bleeding.

That's insane.

**

The effect is really Kind of eerie and beautiful.

Narrator: in the far distance, Chamberlain sees something...

...A tornado making its way Steadily across the flat ground.

This valley sits in between Two escarpments of mountains

That are both wedge-shaped, Creating this tunnel of wind

That just gets filtered Right through here.

Narrator: over a dry lunar Landscape like this,

Dust devils can grow Into dangerous twisters.

With all this wind kicking up, It's really easy to imagine

All this really fine dust Being kicked up into the air,

Swirled around, and making A jagged, hellish sandstorm.

Narrator: local medical records Reveal that the area

Has experienced infernal Dust storms for decades,

Many so fierce they rip The skin from your face.

What's more, they can kill.

This dust is laden with heavy Metals and toxic minerals,

And it's such a fine particulate That once you inhale it,

It embeds in the lungs,

Forming all kinds of issues, Even cancer.

Narrator: The records confirm that levels

Of atmospheric pollution Around the dried lake bed

Can be 240 times higher than Statewide safety limits.

The hell happened here?

Whatever it was left All this salt and dust

All over the place,

And these towns were laid To waste because of it.

Narrator: chamberlain returns to The satellite image for clues.

She spots what looks like A partly dried up river

And heads there To investigate.

This is the dried up riverbed That I saw

In the satellite image, And I can see that it was once

Really wide from side To side here.

Narrator: As chamberlain rounds one bend,

She discovers the reason For the lake's disappearance.

To think that all of this Was a huge river.

Wow.

**

[ whirring ]

Narrator: coming up...

A cold snap at the ends Of the earth...

Walters: one of the crew members Developed gangrene

In both his feet,

And they actually fall off Inside his boots.

Narrator: ...And the battle For los angeles.

Merrit: What we're seeing in this image,

That's the cost of saving l.A.

**

[ whirring ]

[ whirring ]

**

Narrator: Haley chamberlain is in gold Rush territory, california,

Investigating a ghost town And a moonscape

With a blood-red substance Beneath the surface.

She realizes that a vast lake

Must have stood here In the past.

Following the route of a dried Riverbed that once fed the lake,

She discovers the cause Of its disappearance.

Chamberlain: that's insane.

Holy cow.

This water here Is being diverted.

Most of it is heading off In this direction,

Which, if my calculations Are correct, is los angeles.

**

Narrator: The diversion of a river can Have devastating consequences,

Destroying livelihoods

And laying waste To whole communities.

Returning to the image,

Chamberlain discovers Not all human presence

Has been wiped out here.

It looks like it still has A little bit of life.

It's not completely abandoned.

I think this is where I need To go to find more answers.

Narrator: chamberlain Arrives to discover

Some signs Of scattered habitation.

Exploring one street, she finds A home that's still occupied.

Hi, there!

There she meets a man Calling himself zippy.

Hello. Hi!

How's it going?

Zippy confirms that on The apocalyptic lunar landscape

Once stood a lake Called owens lake,

After one of The first prospectors here.

So this entire area Was a lake.

This was right on the beach.

This is where the beach was. The beach was right there.

Yeah. This place used to...

Chamberlain learns that The man who locals blame

For the lake's disappearance Is one william mulholland.

He was a business guy, You know, like,

What we call A modern-day ceo.

L.A. Was growing back then

And, you know, They were looking for water.

In 1886, mulholland becomes head

Of the los angeles city Water company.

At this time, l.A. Is a small Town of just 50,000,

But over the following 30 years, It expands more than tenfold.

This is where The movie industry begins.

This is eventually where the Aviation industry calls home,

And as people flood in, not only Do these industries thrive,

But so does the need for water.

Narrator: to grow further, This boomtown needs water.

So mulholland and mayor fred Eaton scour california

For a body of water big enough To quench l.A.'s thirst.

They find owens lake.

Morgan: mulholland feels this Pressure to solve this crisis,

And so he's going to use Any means necessary

To obtain access To the water from owens lake.

Narrator: newspaper articles Reveal that

During the early years Of the 20th century,

Mulholland and his men Stealthily buy up tracts of land

And water rights Around owens lake.

They came about 1910 and betting People against each other,

Buying the land, you know.

Mulholland, eaton, And their cronies

Went and gobbled up this land.

They posed as ranchers.

They tried to pass themselves Off as people

That were going to move To the valley and live there.

Narrator: in 1907, mulholland Begins construction

Of a mammoth 233 mile long aqueduct,

Which, by 1913, Starts diverting the river

That feeds owens lake To los angeles.

How much of the water Was taken to l.A.?

All of it.

Mulholland's aqueduct starves Owens lake of water,

And by 1926 the lake is gone.

It leaves behind a vast bed Of dust and salt.

One of the few things That can survive here

Is a kind of red bacteria That feeds off salt.

This, it turns out, Is the reason for the appearance

Of bleeding In the satellite image.

Merrit: so what we're seeing In this image,

That's the cost of saving l.A.

Narrator: with their lake dry,

Local ranchers take the law Into their own hands.

Morgan: these people are seeing Their livelihoods

Literally running dry,

And that desperation will Ultimately lead to violence.

Narrator: Over the following years,

Ranchers repeatedly Dynamite mulholland's aqueduct.

**

The battle for control Of owens lake

Is known as the california Water wars,

Immortalized in the movie "Chinatown."

Mulholland and his associates Get together an armed mob

And give them Shoot-to-kill orders.

Things got ugly. We're talking About the most savage water war

In american history.

Narrator: mulholland And his gang prevail.

The people of l.A. Get their water,

Their lawns, And swimming pools,

But meanwhile, the valley That once held owens lake

Turns into an otherworldly Toxic dust bowl.

Ever since they did this, There was dust storms

So thick that I couldn't See you standing here.

**

For chamberlain, One mystery remains --

The origin and function

Of the strange feather shapes In the satellite image.

She heads to the southern end Of the lake bed to investigate.

Chamberlain: oh, wow.

These are the patterns that We're seeing in the sat image.

Narrator: the weird patterns Are feather-shaped islands

Sitting in recently irrigated Pools of shallow water.

Chamberlain believes They are designed

To help encourage bird life

And to contain the toxic Remains of owens lake.

Chamberlain: The only thing I can really Think of is that they want

To keep the bottom Of the lake bed in one place.

Dennie: this is a simple But ingenious

Solution to their dust problem.

If they can wet the soil And slow down the wind.

That will help reduce the amount Of dust in the atmosphere.

Narrator: After a century of devastation,

This dead zone is starting To breathe once more.

[ bird crying ]

Chamberlain: This is absolutely incredible.

You can see life is returning To this area

As the water is coming back.

It's ironic that we took all of The water out of the lake

And created this problem,

And now the solution Is to put the water back in

And essentially let nature Take its natural course.

**

[ whirring ]

Narrator: coming up...

Seen from the skies Over texas...

Dr. Albertson: they're clearly Trying to send a message here.

They're trying to tell somebody, "Hey. We're after you."

Narrator: ...And today's Special -- ice pilots.

If you find yourself In this part of the world,

You are now part of the food Chain and not at the top.

[ growls ]

[ whirring ]

[ whirring ]

**

Narrator: may 1st, 2014.

A nasa plane is monitoring ice Thickness over greenland,

An arctic wilderness more than Twice the size of texas.

Below them, the crew notices Something unusual.

We have this wide expanse, But then there's an object.

It appears to be this blackened Arm coming out of the ice.

**

Narrator: image analyst Mark d'antonio dials up

The magnification and discovers Something disturbing.

You can see a little bit more Detail about what we have here.

This is actually An aircraft wing

And part Of an aircraft fuselage.

Kourounis: the idea of being in A plane crash is scary enough,

But then imagining crashing In a place like this

That's so desolate, So remote,

That's got to be one of the most Frightening things imaginable.

Narrator: but not as frightening As what the team spots

In the snow Next to the plane.

These are big animal tracks, And in this part of greenland,

There's only one thing That could make them --

Polar bears.

Narrator: polar bears can Consume over 300 pounds of meat

In a single sitting.

That's roughly 1 1/2 pilots.

If you find yourself In this part of the world,

Especially if you Are sick or injured,

You are now part of the food Chain and not at the top.

Narrator: aviation records Reveal that there have been

No large plane crashes In this area for decades.

A search of world war ii Accidents yields

A possible clue.

There was a b-17 that was Dispatched during world war ii

Looking for a cargo plane That went missing.

That b-17 crashed In this general area.

Baker: could this be it?

Is this the plane That went down?

**

Narrator: On november 9th, 1942,

A b-17 flying fortress takes off From one of the u.S. Military's

World war ii air bases In greenland

To search for a cargo plane That crashed 4 days earlier,

But the b-17 also crashes.

The plane crashes, But it's a controlled crash,

And the nine crewmen survive.

Narrator: the military Dispatches a seaplane

Which rescues Two of the stranded crewmen

Before returning To pick up one more.

And then you're not going To believe what happens.

That plane then crashes, and all Three men onboard are killed.

Narrator: Over the following weeks,

The military Launches several attempts

To rescue the remaining Stranded airmen.

All fail.

The six crew members And a rescue sled driver

Who had managed to reach them

Must face the onslaught Of an arctic winter

Protected only by the wrecked Fuselage of their b-17.

They're there For an entire month.

Now, what's it like being For a month on the arctic?

It's hell.

Pappalardo: It's minus-40 degrees.

You are in a world of hurt.

One of the crew members Developed gangrene

In both his feet,

And they actually fall off Inside his boots.

Narrator: tormented by hunger, Frostbite, and delirium,

On january 4th, 1943, The team splits up.

A month later, a search team Finds three of them alive,

And on march 18th, After 133 days alone on the ice,

The remaining crew Find sanctuary.

Their absolutely Remarkable survival

Is one of the great Endurance stories of all time.

Narrator: analysts consider If the image has captured

The crew's wrecked plane locked In the ice for over 70 years.

Yet when d'antonio Carefully studies its wing,

He casts doubt on this idea.

When you look at the size Of the wingspan

From wing tip to wing tip, This distance is about 140 feet.

That's too large for a b-17.

I would bank on this being A b-29 superfortress crash.

[ engine roars ]

Narrator: aviation journalist Joe pappalardo confirms

That b-29 superfortresses made Frequent flights over greenland

As part of the united states Cold war surveillance campaign.

They were dubbed ferret flights Because they were trying

To ferret out information About the soviet union

And all of their clandestine Airfields.

Narrator: pappalardo learns That in 1947, one of these

Superfortresses, Called the kee bird,

Crashes near the site In the aerial image.

This 11-man crew Hits a very bad storm.

The b-29 comes down, But everyone on board survives.

Narrator: the b-29 remains Untouched for 47 years.

In 1994, a team of engineers Arrive at the crash site,

Determined To make her airworthy again

And spend months fitting new Engines, propellers, and wheels.

Great idea, I suppose.

I don't know that I'd want To spend 10 months

In those conditions Rekitting engines on a b-29,

But that's what they did.

Narrator: on may 21st, 1995,

The team fires up The superfortress' engines,

And she prepares To take to the skies

For the first time In half a century,

But then a fuel leak In the fuselage starts a fire

That quickly engulfs the plane, Destroying it in minutes.

D'antonio: that had to Be heart-wrenching.

I can't even imagine What they felt.

Baker: it's like greenland might Be cursed, right?

I mean, you couldn't Write that ending.

Narrator: Today, the kee bird remains Locked in the greenland ice,

A haunting relic Of the cold war frozen in time.

Walters: in a way, I think it's Fitting that she didn't fly off.

She's like a memorial To all those brave men

Who flew those missions Over that part of the world.

**

[ whirring ]

Narrator: coming up...

The cia parachutes Warrior monks

Onto the roof of the world...

When you look at this thing, It makes me think

That it was designed To be seen easily from the air.

Narrator: ...And the lake That time forgot.

It's basically impossible. It shouldn't exist.

[ whirring ]

[ whirring ]

**

Narrator: november 14th, 2009.

The $150 billion International space station

Orbits our planet at speeds of Over 4 1/2 miles per second.

[ whirring ]

As it passes over a remote Region of the sahara desert

In chad, It captures a striking image.

[ whirring, beeping ]

This shape is bizarre, This dark figure,

Almost like it's bursting Out of the desert.

It looks as though There was a giant claw

Tearing the desert floor.

**

Narrator: image analyst Bronwyn agrios considers

If the black elongated shapes Are a trick of the light.

Agrios: This could just be shadows.

This is common, that we capture Shadows in images

That come from space.

Narrator: Eyes in the sky have captured Bizarre optical illusions

Created by the setting Saharan sun before,

Yet historical images reveal This cannot account

For the mystery object Captured by satellite.

We see that the dark areas Don't change,

And that tells us That they're not shadows

Because the shadows would move From different times of the day.

Narrator: explorer George kourounis has a theory.

Looking at these dark Streak patterns,

I wonder if maybe they're caused By a low-angle impact

Of something big Crashing into the desert.

Narrator: kourounis Searches for possible clues

As to what could have Crashed here in the sahara.

He learns that in 2008, A series of meteorites

Hit the desert In neighboring sudan.

Kourounis: meteor impacts can Happen anywhere in the world,

But when they happen In the desert,

The dark color of the meteor Really stands out

Against the surrounding sands.

Narrator: Geologist devin dennie reveals

These were no Ordinary meteorites.

Usually, the only ones That are excited

About a strange new rock Are us geologists,

But in this case, Everyone got excited.

They're full of diamonds.

Narrator: analysis of the Diamonds' composition

Suggests they formed Deep inside a planet

That once circled the sun At the dawn of our solar system.

Dennie: these came from The ghost planet,

Our missing planet That left our solar system

Many billions of years ago And has been lost ever since.

Narrator: the sudanese Meteorites raise

An intriguing possibility.

Could this be a whole pile Of space diamonds?

Narrator: in 2010, a team of Scientists heads into the sahara

To investigate the mystery Objects in the image.

Their journey takes them across Some of the most inhospitable

Terrain on earth And through violent sandstorms.

Kourounis: the center Of the sahara desert

Is as close to being An alien world

As you can experience Anywhere on earth.

Narrator: On arrival, the team is greeted By an astonishing sight.

The weird shapes seen From space are lakes.

**

Why is there a body of water In the middle of this

Really dry desert region?

Narrator: the lakes cover Several square miles.

They're deep, clear, and filled With fresh water,

Yet in this part of the sahara,

Less than 1/10 inch of rain Falls each year.

It's basically impossible.

It shouldn't exist.

Lester: one of the puzzles here

Is that these lakes Are not highly saline.

So clearly there's a source Of fresh water,

But exactly where That fresh water is coming from,

None of that is really clear.

Narrator: the team Heads out onto the water

To study the lake bed.

It provides a vital clue.

What we've got here is just The perfect set of conditions --

Groundwater percolating up, Protected by sand dunes

And reeds Floating at the surface,

And as the water evaporates Ever so slowly,

It's replenished from below.

Narrator: scientists take core Samples from the bedrock.

Like time capsules, they provide A record of what the sahara

Was like thousands of years ago.

They reveal it was Very different

From the desolation We see today.

The world of 8,000 years ago Was one of lush,

Tropical paradise.

There were lakes. There were rivers.

There was lush vegetation.

Narrator: to the southwest Of the site in the image,

A mighty lake rises, Lake mega chad,

Which is four times the size

Of the largest Of north america's great lakes.

Cerveny: this area was covered By a mammoth sea, an inland sea.

There was actually a pretty Thriving population

That existed in this area.

Narrator: Around 6,000 years ago,

The lush sahara begins To turn to desert.

Cerveny: it forced the people Of that time

To places like the nile river,

Where they had consistent water That they could grow crops,

And it eventually Became the forerunner

To the egyptian Civilization.

Narrator: today, winds carry Millions of tons of dust

From the sahara Across the atlantic ocean

Every year,

Dust laden with nutrients From the desert's lush past,

Which now fertilize The amazon rain forest.

But these lakes captured From space

Are themselves relics Of the sahara's former glory.

What blows me away is that even With seven billion

People on planet earth,

There are little corners that we Still know almost nothing about.

Who knows what else Is out there?

**

[ whirring ]

Narrator: coming up...

America's secret war In the land of the sky gods...

The cia uses old world War ii planes

To carry out drops of weapons

To keep the guerrilla Movement going.

Narrator: ...And dead bodies on the move.

This might seem totally weird, But it is cutting-edge science.

[ whirring ]

[ whirring ]

Narrator: november 2017.

Aerial images taken over A remote field in texas

Reveal something chilling.

**

Odell: something is wrong here,

Really, horribly wrong.

Human bodies strewn everywhere.

This is beyond unusual.

It's frightening.

Narrator: former intelligence Officer trevor albertson

Considers if texas' location On the u.S.-mexico border

Could explain This human carnage.

Mexican drug cartels Do have a growing presence

In the united states.

With all the drug cartel Activity in the area,

I'm really not surprised To see something like this.

Narrator: Border states such as texas

Have witnessed Many cartel-related killings

In recent years.

Victims are often dumped In the open.

Dr. Albertson: they're clearly Trying to send a message here.

They're trying to tell somebody, "Hey. We're after you."

Narrator: yet closer analysis Of the cadavers

Suggests this Is no random killing.

Faylor: what seems strange to me

Is the exactness of how The bodies are placed.

They're spread out, Laid down, and arranged.

There's something Very methodical.

Narrator: the deliberate Arrangement of the bodies

Leads scientist reid faylor

To consider if a clue Can be found in a mass death

In a neighboring state 2 decades ago.

[ siren wails ]

In march 1997, police officers Entering a mansion

In rancho santa fe, california,

Find dozens of dead bodies Neatly laid out on beds.

Faylor: everyone is dressed In identical black jumpsuits,

And they're all arranged Lying down.

Amid all of this Horrible stench,

There's this willingness, Like a voluntary massacre.

Narrator: officers discover they Are members of heaven's gate,

A cult who believed That their suicides

Would release their souls To join the hale-bopp comet,

Which was about to pass the Earth at 100,000 miles per hour.

They were basically A sci-fi-obsessed cult.

Faylor: Out of all your suicide cults,

The heaven's gate is One of the nerdier ones.

Narrator: to release their Souls, the cult's leader,

Marshall applewhite, instructs His followers to consume

Applesauce laced with lethal Doses of barbiturates,

Place shrouds over their bodies, And await their grisly fate.

**

The neat arrangement Of their corpses

Has eerie parallels With those in the aerial image.

Where they were positioned, What clothes they were wearing,

How they were facing Relating to each other

Was all part of The necessary steps

They believed were going to Get them to the next plane.

Narrator: yet analysis Of historical images

Shows this is no cult killing And throws the mystery open.

The corpses are on the move.

Odell: someone is moving These bodies around,

So this is a very active scene.

Someone is still here In this area

Doing something With these bodies.

Narrator: biologist eleanor Spicer rice investigates.

In records from the nearby Texas state university,

She discovers the site Is called a body farm,

And there is method to This apparent macabre madness.

At a body farm, what researchers Do is they place human corpses

Into various places Under various conditions

And observe how they decompose, From the initial bloat phase

All the way Until it's nothing but bones.

Narrator: spicer rice learns That the university's forensic

Anthropology department

Scatter corpses Around the body farm

And leave them to rot In the name of science.

They place them In trunks of cars.

They submerge them in water.

They cover them in brush.

They observe them Across the seasons.

Narrator: scientists have Learned that decay begins

Just a few minutes after death,

And bodies decompose twice As fast in air than in water.

This might seem totally weird, But it is cutting-edge science.

They're helping to paint A very clear and interesting

And complicated picture of The way that humans decompose.

Narrator: now the dead Are fighting crime.

Scientists at the farm Have learned

That as a body rots,

Nutrients leach into the ground, Making the area more fertile.

This knowledge combined With new drone technology

Can help police Find buried bodies.

A decomposing body underneath The ground actually shows

Different reflectance On these infrared cameras.

Narrator: eyes in the sky could Soon identify bodies

That murderers have hidden In the ground for years,

Possibly decades, and help bring The perps to justice.

They could just zoom one of These drones over the area,

And they could Find bodies faster.

This type of research Is so important

In order to save lives, Ultimately.

Narrator: in the u.S., More than 5,000 people

Are registered body farm donors.

This is one retirement home

People are literally Dying to get into.

There is a chance That you could end up being part

Of this scientific research.

You've got a future In law enforcement.

**

[ whirring ]

Narrator: coming up...

Something big, Round, and weird.

I haven't really got The faintest idea what it is.

It's completely baffling.

[ whirring ]

[ whirring ]

Narrator: december 16th, 2013.

High above sichuan, near the Border between china and tibet,

A satellite captures this image.

Bellinger: this is really weird.

It's a bunch of circles Within circles

With nothing else around it.

Narrator: Analysis reveals the structure Is over 200 feet in diameter.

I haven't really got The faintest idea what it is.

It's completely baffling.

Narrator: archaeologist Karen bellinger studies

The weird circular object.

One thing that comes to mind Is a similar structure

That was discovered In northwest china.

Narrator: in june 2017,

Archaeologists Near tian shan mountain

Uncover a giant 3,000-year-old circular

Altar built to honor A solar deity.

A sun altar is basically Just a set of stone circles.

It is a shrine dedicated To the worship of the sun god.

Narrator: According to chinese mythology,

The world was created With 10 suns in the sky.

They scorched our planet, And nothing would grow.

A hero named hou yi shoots down Nine of them and saves humanity.

The practice of honoring The sun god in china

Dates to 1,500 years Before the birth of christ.

Bellinger: so the sun altar at The foot of mount tian shan

Is really quite similar to what We're seeing in this image.

Is this another Sun altar located

In a part of northwest china

Where we haven't seen Sun altars before?

Narrator: ex-cia officer Lindsay moran isn't convinced.

To her, the mystery structure Appears to have

A more recent origin.

When you look at this thing, It makes me think

That it was designed To be seen easily from the air

And potentially could be some Kind of target or landing zone.

[ cheers and applause ]

Narrator: with over two million Active duty troops,

China has the largest Standing army in the world.

Yet a wider search of the area

Reveals there are no chinese Military bases

Within hundreds of miles of The site in the satellite image.

We have to consider who might Require an air-drop site

In such a location.

There's no surrounding Infrastructure,

Which makes me think

That it might not be Functioning currently,

But it could be Some sort of historic site.

Narrator: moran searches through Declassified military records.

She discovers that a clandestine Conflict took place here

Following china's invasion Of tibet in 1950,

One that had covert Cia involvement.

Moran: china invades tibet,

Expecting to be able To take over it very easily.

What they don't count on

Is a group of influential Tibetan traders

Who come together And essentially mobilize

Into a guerrilla army.

Narrator: Following the invasion,

The guerrilla fighters, Known as warrior monks,

Launch a series of attacks On their communist invaders.

**

Their daring raids attract The attention

Of intelligence officers In the u.S.

Now the cia see an opportunity

To work With the tibetan guerrillas

To fight against The communist chinese.

The cia uses old world war ii Planes to carry out

Secret drops of weapons And materials

To essentially keep The guerrilla movement going.

Narrator: in the spring of 1958,

The cia's special activities Division

Begins to extract groups Of tibetan rebels

And train them back in the u.S.

Not long ago, the warrior monks Had never seen a plane.

Now they're parachuting Into the mountains

To kill communists.

Moran: it's an incredibly Risky operation.

Drop zones and sites Are very hard to maintain

And to see In the mountainous terrain,

And the chinese army Is always on high alert.

Narrator: the killer monk army Swells to 80,000.

But in 1972, president nixon Cuts all support

For the brave warrior monks,

Leaving them to face The full force of red terror,

All so that nixon can win favor With his new friend,

Communist dictator mao zedong.

It was an incredibly bloody And brutal war of resistance,

And almost no one Knows about it.

It makes me wonder if this Could have been a cia drop zone.

Narrator: but mike baker doesn't Think this is a legacy

Of the agency's covert Warrior monk program.

I don't think it's a landing Zone of any sort

For this conflict.

It's too noticeable.

When you're going to mark Out a zone,

It's a very quick process,

And you don't want Any trace of it.

Narrator: historian mark horton Returns to the image.

He wonders if the structure Is linked to a nearby site

Which has strong Tibetan buddhist significance,

One which is made from stones Inscribed with prayers.

Horton: When I look at this circle with All these different colors,

It reminds me of structures Where people inscribe prayers.

One local tradition is that It was established

After a battle That took place in this valley,

And the first stones Were placed there

To release the souls Of the fallen out of purgatory.

Narrator: the prayers are Offerings to spirits.

Horton considers if The colorful structure

In the satellite image fulfills A similar religious function.

The feature of tibetan buddhism Is the use of many colors,

Textiles of all sorts of really Bright fluorescent colors.

Narrator: for now This is just a theory.

Until investigators journey To the remote mountain location,

The origin and purpose Of the structure

Captured by satellite Remains unknown.