Josh Gates Discovers The American Atlantis In Lake Titicaca | Expedition Unknown

high in the mountains of Bolivia and Peru  is one of the most intriguing places on the planet Lake titty Kaka it’s the largest lake in  South America and the highest navigable body of water in the world and according to Legend it  might also have been home to one of the most advanced ancient civilizations in the Americas  I’m not talking about the Inca but a far older and more mysterious culture known as the tiwanaku  predating the by more than a thousand years they built massive stone temples that to this day  have barely been excavated the Inca believed the tiwanaku were the first people to walk  the earth and that their capital city was once so massive and so complex it must have  been built by gods or Giants they erected bizarre structures with cryptic symbols that  have given rise to conspiracy theories of alien contact and to this day story persist that  an even more magnificent city is hidden deep

underwater it might sound like fantasy but recent  scans of their ruined Metropolis reveal it might be larger and more advanced than anyone believed  and the discovery of mysterious sunken ruins has some people saying that the so-called Atlantis  of the Andes might actually be real I’ve arranged to meet with archaeologist Alexi ranic one  of the world’s for most authorities on the tiwanaku tiwanaku this is not a household name  to most people this is not something everybody’s heard of so what is tiwanaku it’s a place up at  13,000 ft above sea level right on the shores of Lake titty Kaka but it’s also a people the  people who built it the people who built it you have this megalithic site the scale is so big  some of these stones are tremendous these stones are so large when the first Travelers came  through they referred to it as the American

Stonehenge wow and much like Stonehenge tiwanaku  is one of the world’s greatest Mysteries located about 50 Mi west of laaz tiwanaku was built around  100 BC more than a thousand years before the Ina arrived on the scene the site consists of a  large complex of huge stone structures built near the coast of Lake titty Kaka you look at  it and you think where did this come from why did they build it in this place it’s in the middle  of nowhere you go there and there is just nothing which has given rise to a lot of wild theories  the ruins feature cryptic gateways otherworldly carvings and impossibly large walls leading  conspiracy theorists to claim the site must have been built with alien assistance even the  Inca when they arrived at the ruins 500 years after the tiwanaku collapsed were stunned by the  size and Perfection of the stonework you know in

fact the Inc of justification to rule was based  on the idea that they were the first born the gods made them they went out to conquer then all of a  sudden they get to tanako and they’re like oh no there’s something here that’s clearly older than  us and even better right so what do they do they just changed their history around they said in  fact we were born here so the Inca suddenly were born at tanak rearranged the bit and said look  what we made right explorers have been searching different parts of the lake for the fabled  underwater city for decades in 1968 the great jacqu custo himself spent weeks searching for the  ruins but he never searched the Waters of wi Mara now I’m meeting with underwater archaeologist  marciel medino Wonka who has uncovered the best evidence yet of this Lost [Music] Atlantis  Josh nice to meet you pleasure what is this hi

these are remains of a Lost tiwanaku Temple it  is yes it was a massive structure with the coiled snake carved at its Center perhaps representing  a deity it’s huge martial uncovered these ruins only recently and they’re virtually unknown to the  outside world if they were built by the tiwanaku they would be among the only structures found  outside of their main capital and so do you think there were other tiwanaku buildings here yes  I think this was a city that sank as the level of the lake changed do you think there’s more out  there can you prove it yeah I’d like to see that martiel is confident that the ruins lead out to  an underwater city to test his theory we head to the nearby docks to meet his sonar scanning team  Chris Grine and Rob ve from co-discovery a company specializing in underwater survey Tech we ready to  go we’re all set all the gear set okay to see if

the ruins on sure are just the tip of the iceberg  we’re going to deploy the team’s otherworldly looking secret weapon so the nov was designed  to to be towed or fly under its own power got it I’ve equipped this particular model today with  an exterior forward scan sonar awesome underneath the wing on the skids I have a sides scan sonar  so we can look side to side at the same time as we’re looking forward this thing’s got two sonar  systems and 1 two 3 four cameras on board that’s correct and so are you helping to manage the toe  correct I’ll be on the back of the boat and engine the vehicle and the cable got it all right well  let’s well let’s get into it guys come on let’s do it we get the unit up and running there we go  she’s in and monitor the readings coming in as

the Nova Ray Stitches the data together  painting a detailed picture of the lake bed in real time look at that unbelievable marel  what are we looking for down here we’re looking for stonework under underwater anything  that could connect to the ruins we saw on land at first all we see is  an endless bed of [Music] reads and then we pick up something unusual  something big right there look at that something just went right by the camera yeah that had a nice  straight line there’s something there excellent that could be a stone and those stones would be made out of what  material andita andesite andesite the exact type of stone we saw at tiwanaku this could be a major  breakthrough martiel and I quickly gear up to investigate high altitude diving  though is no joke because we’re 12,500 ft the pressure underwater is three  times more intense which means less time at the

[Music] bottom beneath the boat the water  is clear but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to see we carefully enter an eerie Forest of reeds really spooky in here you have to literally reach down into  darkness to see if there’s anything on the bottom marciel there’s definitely rocks  here what do you think looks natural to me none of the stone SC cut okay hard  to breathe at this altitude let’s keep looking the clock is ticking we have just 20  minutes left before we will be forced to ascend luckily the thick vegetation clears revealing  something truly incredible oh my God Aral look at this incredible is this a wall it looks like  a wall made for a temple the wall stretches out as far as the eye can see we  follow it and reach a far larger structure ruins of something big  perhaps even the remains of a

city there are multiple buildings down here  amazing how old do you think this is by the looks of it tanaku early tanaku we’re both  stunned by the discovery and deeply out of breath from the altitude marciel and I make a  few more laps around the ruins and then return to the [Music] surface wow unbelievable it’s  this huge structure death is so much stuff and you can see all the cut Stones we found  wall after wall it’s crazy Lo yeah you think this could be part of a city see and what what  per percentage of this Lake have you searched 0.01% that’s it nothing a lot of work  left to be done hey great job ah that was awesome woo Lo crazy Loco is right that’s Loco