Lost Civilizations: Underground Tunnels, Hidden Chambers and More! | Expedition Unknown

It is estimated building and modifying Stonehenge takes over [music] 1,500 years at the hands of a staggering 100 generations. So, if you think a 40-hour work week sounds like a full-time job, think again. At least your great great great great grandchildren don’t need to finish your shift.
[music] One of the very first groups of settlers has just arrived. The good ship Lion, [music] sailing from Plymouth, England, with 115 souls on board, has dropped anchor at Rowan Oak Island off the coast of what today is North Carolina. Led by this man, explorer and artist John White, they are here to establish [music] an English colony. Now, these are not seasoned soldiers, but families.
In fact, John White is even bringing his own pregnant daughter, Eleanor, along on the adventure. But their hopes will soon disappear, and so will they. Within 3 years, every single one of them will vanish without a trace, as if they never existed. These brave settlers risked everything to found our nation. But today, their fate remains tragically unknown.
For hundreds of years, the myth of the Rowan Oak colony has perplexed historians. Were they wiped out by the elements, killed by indigenous tribes?
Did they relocate to somewhere uncharted?
If you ask residents of Rowan Oak today, they’ll tell you the colony was simply lost to time. But history might have gotten this story wrong. as new evidence finally reveals a 450year-old secret.
1937, North Carolina, 50 mi inland from where the lost settlers landed at Rowan Oak Island 350 years ago.
A hiker is walking near the Chawan River when they stumble on a stunning piece of evidence that could unlock the fate of the Rowan Oak settlers.
It is a stone [music] with a remarkable inscription, seemingly written by John White’s daughter, Eleanor, and confirming the sad end of Virginia, the first baby born in the new world.
>> Virginia went hence unto heaven, [music] 1591.
Does this inscription [music] confirm the tragic death of the first English baby born in the new world? John White’s granddaughter, Virginia. [music] And there’s more. On the other side of the stone, Eleanor purportedly writes of the settler’s plight.
>> Father, [music] soon after you left to England, we came here. Only misery and war for 2 years. More than half of us died these two years, mostly from sickness, [music] being 24 in number.
More stones are uncovered as amateur archaeologists scour the woods of the Carolas and northern Georgia.
In all, 48 inscriptions are found.
They come to be known as the Darstones, and they tell a riveting tale of the settller’s journey and resettlement 50 mi west of Roenoke. So, mystery solved, right? Well, not so fast. Four years after the discovery of the Darstones, a journalist from the Saturday Evening Post takes a closer look. The journalist’s conclusion is damning.
The Darstones are not written by the settlers. Rather, they are an elaborate hoax created by a master engraver.
Even the first stone supposedly written by his daughter, Eleanor Dair, turned out to be a fake. But if the settlers didn’t head west as the dare stones suggest, then what happened to them?
In 1845, English ships Arabus and Terror along with 129 men aboard vanished during their Arctic adventure to find the Northwest Passage. But now, a recent discovery is changing the course of this truly chilling mystery.
In 2014, nearly 170 years after it left England, the Arabus is found.
Searchers finally turn to the source they’ve been ignoring, the oral histories of the Inouit. Notably, one concerning, spoiler alert, a giant ship trapped in ice. In the shallow waters off the Canadian mainland, south of the original search area, the Arabus is finally discovered. And it wasn’t long until researchers had a matching set.
Author Ken McGugan has spent over 25 years researching the Franklin expedition.
Now with the shipwrecks found exactly where Inouit’s stories said. Ken is re-examining these tales as key evidence of the expedition’s final days.
>> Going right back to to to the earliest reports. The Inuit described the men trekking along the coast of King William Island delirious and uh you know not making very much sense. So why were they stumbling and delirious? I was trying to piece it together looking for the root cause. Ken examined the popular theory that canned supplies had killed the crew, though perhaps not from [music] the lead lining on the tins, but rather poisoning of the food itself.
Specifically, a deadly bacterial toxin called bachulism.
But botulism alone wouldn’t explain the crew’s strange behavior. Ken suspects another culprit altogether, one native to the Arctic.
>> I think they were killed by polar bears.
Not that they fell victim to an attack, but rather that they ate the polar bears. They ate the polar bears that were infected with Tchinella and they contracted it themselves.
>> This could explain how Captain Franklin and his men fell into a terrifying mental state.
>> What I think happened is that um they panicked because all these men are dying. So they start trekking along King William Island, but many of them are falling more and more sick and dropping down dead, as a matter of fact, and at that point they reach desperation eventually. And uh they do resort to cannibalism.
>> Ken’s theory is compelling. As the crew treks south, unknowingly, the Tchanella parasite is already incubating within them.
Its disease then suddenly flourishes and many become too weak to continue while others are driven insane.
Each year, authorities continue their archaeological excavation of HMS Arabus and Terror, both still submerged in unforgiving Arctic waters. Perhaps they’ll find definitive answers as to [music] the true fate of John Franklin and his men. Although they never managed to find the Northwest Passage, the courage and sacrifice of their expedition inspired others to follow in their wake. And 60 years later, in 1906, [music] Norwegian explorer Rald Almanson became the first to successfully navigate a ship through the Northwest Passage.
Today, due to the changing climate, these waters have become ice-free for several months a year, allowing commercial vessels and even the occasional cruise ship to pass through.
Franklin would be thrilled.
I’m in Mexico where we’ve discovered that the ancient city of Teoti Wakan was more powerful than anyone suspected. But since no royal tomb has ever been found here, it’s unclear who controlled that power.
The answers may lie beneath one of the city’s most important temples, where an archaeologist has discovered a hidden tunnel.
>> Wow. Let’s see what you guys are getting up to down here.
>> My very first step into the tunnel takes my breath away. This is no crawl space.
This is an extensive passage leading deep under the ruins.
>> This is the original tunnel that they dug. This is the original ceiling walls and floors.
In some parts, you can still see the scraping [music] and the holes from the tools they used.
>> Wow. These blocks that are down here, what did they build down here?
>> The Tiwhan people blocked the tunnel by creating these walls. This is why we feel so fortunate to be the first ones to discover this place. after approximately 1,700 years.
>> This is the kind of thing that movies are made of. You know, this is this is Indiana Jones type stuff.
So, it all leads to this. What is this room?
>> You’re standing directly underneath the dead center of the Temple of the Fathered Serpent. The tunnels go out from here alongside the exact axis of the temple.
>> They made this cross- shaped intersection here directly under the center of the pyramid.
How close did they get? [music] >> Millime >> millimeters.
>> See, >> this is the end of the line. A tunnel over a football field long leading to a mysterious room that’s perfectly aligned to the pyramid above.
And And so what what did you find in this room?
>> Yeah, they found thousands and thousands of of objects in this room.
>> Two statues of women. Two statues of women and one of men.
>> Big con shells.
>> And what about bones?
>> They have found jaguar bones.
>> Clearly a sacred space. But I’m most puzzled by the strange design of the chamber itself. This room looks very different than the other rooms. Unlike the smooth tunnel, everywhere you look, there are odd uneven ridges. And within those ridges, Sergio has just made an awesome find.
Oh wow. What is this?
It’s a It’s It’s a ball for the for the Meso American ball game.
>> The ball represents the movement of the sun. The sun comes out facing north and when it starts to set, it goes back down on the underworld.
The Mesoamerican ball game was both entertainment and ritual depicted in murals and carvings alongside human sacrifice.
I >> I just speechless actually. I’ve never seen one of the actual balls that was used in the game.
>> This is the first time they find anything like this in an archaeological research >> anywhere.
>> Never.
>> What What is it made of?
>> The >> It’s rubber. This is extraordinary. Mhm.
>> The Nabotans transformed rock into a living city in one of the driest places on Earth. Construction on Petra began in the 4th century BC. Over the next 300 years, the city grew from desert outpost to engineering marvel, home to as many as 30,000 people. Yet, by some accounts, only 15% of Petra has been excavated.
And the people who built all of this are virtually unknown.
>> So, if I’m being honest, the Nabotians are a mystery to me.
>> Join the club.
>> They are a mystery, right? There’s a lot we don’t know about them.
>> There’s much more we don’t know than we do.
>> Where do they come from? Let’s start with that.
>> I’d love to be able to tell you.
>> Where do we think they come from?
>> We think they came as a confederation of of what we would think of as tribes today from the northern Arabian deserts.
>> Right. So, when the Nabotans come on the scene, who were the [music] big players?
So around the Nabotans in their early history, it’s the Greeks, Alexander the Great, and then you’ve got the Romans coming after that. You’ve got the Talmies in Egypt, and you’ve got a [music] couple of Mesopotamian civilizations.
>> Right in the middle of all of this, out in these deserts are the Nabotans.
>> Yes, the Nabatians are desert people.
They have mastered what it is to cross them, to live in them, to be around them. People just [music] can’t come into their home and do what they do.
Right.
>> So the Nabatians, they’re the highway of the ancient world. And when you want to move things like [music] the frankincense, the myrr, who are you going to call?
>> The nabatans.
>> Obviously, after all the stuff we’ve seen and all the stuff we’ve already talked about.
>> Mhm.
>> In a lot of ways, this is the biggest mystery of Petra, >> which is crazy because it’s the most famous thing here. Like, how can this be the biggest mystery? It’s the postcard.
>> It is, but there’s just so much we don’t know about it.
>> Start with this. Why is it called the Treasury?
>> So, this is called the Treasury because of basically urban legend. The story is that this was a pharaoh’s treasure chamber.
>> But this is a myth, a legend.
>> This is a legend, >> right? Okay. So, what was it for?
>> You look around and even just look directly at it and it gives you a lot of hints.
>> Okay.
>> Caster and Pock, >> the two figures here and here.
>> Yes.
>> This is the Gemini twins. These are the half Roman twins >> and they accompany the dead. And then you [music] see there’s a lot of erns here.
>> Yes.
>> N is the Roman symbol for the dead.
>> So maybe this is [music] a grand tomb.
The problem is we’ve never found any physical evidence inside of the treasury to justify that. There’s no name and there’s no text on here to tell us what’s happening.
>> Isn’t that incredible? All the work to carve this out of solid rock. Yeah.
>> No inscriptions left.
>> Nothing left to us today.
>> That’s right. Like nearly all the other carved structures at Petra, no bodies were found inside. They were likely looted in antiquity. Archaeologists don’t even know when it was built. They guess it was constructed by and for King Aratos IV around 40 BC because he had the means to do it, but they can’t prove it. Okay, so how do we unravel the mystery of one of the most famous buildings in the world?
>> If we’re going to understand this place, we’ve got to get a glimpse at what’s [music] under us. And to do that, we need technology.
We scan the entire room, running the GPR over every square inch, hoping the radar will reveal a void beneath a target that might explain the purpose of the treasury.
>> Okay, so what do we got?
>> So, you know, here’s the ground surface and then rock rock rock rock at least 18 20 feet minimum.
>> I mean, it looks completely solid. So, right here in the Treasury, it looks like there’s absolutely nothing immediately underneath us.
>> The interior of the Treasury is magnificent, but a bust in terms of GPR hits. We expand our search out into the courtyard. We haven’t found any reason to dig yet, but there already appears to be a hole in the ground. All right, so what’s going on out here?
>> About 20 years ago, they came out and excavated this part in front of the treasury.
>> They found what? They found two big chambers almost completely empty.
>> Oh, you can see one right there. But no royal tomb, no writing, no treasure.
>> Nothing under here that would really help us address the questions of the who, what, and when of this fantastic monument.
>> Okay. And what about on the other side of the treasure?
>> Ah, that’s the trick. So, this is why we have Bateshu.
>> And so, I’d like Dicki to come and give us a better idea about what’s going on over here.
>> Let’s do it.
Bates scans the existing cavity to get a baseline reading. Then we pull the GPR scanner across the rocky courtyard looking for evidence of a similar void for us to dig.
>> Something like, >> “Hey guys, come and look at this.” >> No.
>> Something.
>> Yeah. Now, what do you make of that?
>> There is something there.
>> That is the signature that we’ve seen before.
>> That looks exactly like the other side >> where we know there’s a chamber.
>> Yes.
>> That’s a void or I’ll eat my hat.
>> You’re that confident? Absolutely, >> dude. Unbelievable.
So, you’re saying that almost directly in front of this building, there’s some sort of chamber we’ve never seen before.
>> That’s what this says.
>> So, now we’ve got to dig it.
>> Can we do that? I mean, can we put a shovel in the ground in front of one of the most famous buildings in the world?
>> Look, we’ve got permission, but if you don’t want to do it, >> no, I want to. I want to. Let’s see what’s down there.
More than a million tourists visit Petra each year. And as the first wave arrives for the day, we rope off our dig site.
After all, we can’t have a tick tocker falling into an excavation pit. Once the site is secure, PICE calls in his right-hand man here at Petra, archaeologist Matthew Vincent.
>> Josh, nice to meet you.
>> Nice to meet you, man.
>> And Matthew calls in the dig team.
>> Yala shab.
>> Here we go. Hey, guys. The top of the GPR anomaly is 12 ft beneath us. So, for the first time in decades, at the doorstep of a world wonder, we’re breaking ground at Petra. Fingers crossed.
There are no shortcuts to discovery. The dig begins as we claw at the hard earth the old-fashioned way.
digging in front of the treasury. It’s totally totally normal. It’s allowed. We have a permit, I’m told.
The process, break up the dirt, transfer to baskets, dump into wheelbarrows, and transport away from the treasury.
Then repeat over and over and over and over in 100° heat.
The sand filling every wheelbarrow and basket also needs to be carefully sifted for potentially valuable artifacts.
So all this soil has to go through the screen. Yeah, we got to go in, check it out, see what’s in it because we can’t always see everything when we’re taking it out, >> right?
>> So, we take the big pieces out, the big rocks out.
>> I’ll tell you what is tough about this is that because of the redness of the rocks here, it all kind of looks like ceramics at first glance.
>> It does, but there’s a trick for that.
So, you take a piece and >> Why archaeologists are always licking things? What? Why?
>> It’s convenient.
>> What? But what is that doing? So, if you lick the side of it, you can see whether or not it’s rock or ceramic.
>> Definitely rock >> or whether a camel peed on it.
>> God.
>> So, rock or ceramic?
>> That is rock.
>> Good call.
>> See, didn’t even have to lick it.
[laughter] >> Brock or ceramic?
>> That is ceramic.
>> That is ceramic.
>> Look at that piece of rim off of something.
>> Yeah. You know how you go to the grocery store today, get a tin can, and it’s got waves in the side of it.
>> Yeah.
>> This idea is a couple thousand years old. It allows you to make it stronger with less volume of material.
>> That’s why Ruffles potato chips are like that.
>> Probably.
>> That’s why Ruffles have ridges. Who knew? The pottery will be bagged while we find another bucket of sand to run through the sifter. And considering the Navatans were famous for their wealth, it’s important to look for things that shine.
>> Hold on. Hold on.
So, look at that.
>> Oh my word.