Most Fascinating Ancient Mysteries | Expedition Files

Join Josh Gates on an eye-opening journey through ancient mysteries as he investigates the Shroud of Turin, the ancient curse on King Tut’s tomb, the truth behind the Trojan War, and more.

After a month trekking through the jungle, Faucet’s team arrives at a place known as Dead Horse Camp. Here, he sends a native runner back to civilization with a letter he’s written to his wife, Nenah. He gives the coordinates of the camp and notes that his group has plenty of provisions and remain in good spirits. He signs off, “You need have no fear of any failure.” These are the last written words of Percy Faucet. After he departs Dead Horse Camp, he will never be heard from again.
This is the residence of the Russian Zars, but since this is June of 1941, it’s currently overrun by Nazis. The palace is filled with countless treasures, but the Germans are hunting for the greatest of them all, a masterpiece so valuable, it’s been called the eighth wonder of the world.
But the Soviets have made it disappear.
Or at least they’ve tried to.
>> It’s here.
I found it. It’s here.
Obscured behind wallpaper, the Nazis have discovered their gilded prize. The treasure isn’t something hidden in the room. It is the room. a dazzling chamber made of six tons of handcarved amber, gold leaf, and gemstones worth hundreds of millions of dollars. They will now painstakingly dismantle the world famous amber room, pack it all into crates, and remove it from the palace. But then it will vanish. Some will claim it’s destroyed or perhaps hidden by the Nazis. But threearters of a century later, a new search will give hope that this colossal lost masterpiece might finally be recovered.
Its disappearance is mysterious, but its origins are wellnown.
In 1701, the first king of Prussia, Frederick I, sets out to create a room that will dazzle his guests and cement Prussia’s place among Europe’s great powers.
He chooses a highly priced material, amber, fossilized tree resin millions of years old, that can be worked into a glittering orange gemstone. At the time, highquality amber was more valuable than gold. In the hands of Prussia’s finest artisans, it is transformed into a masterpiece of craftsmanship and imperial power.
In 1716, the room’s 129 panels are gifted to Russia’s Zar Peter the Great, solidifying a diplomatic alliance with Prussia.
The panels arrive in St. Petersburg and are ultimately installed in the Catherine Palace.
The final result is stunning. Amber carvings gilded in gold, accented with mirrors, and inset with precious gems and beautiful Florentine mosaics.
By day, the walls shift in hue from deep honey to fiery gold. And at night, the flicker of 550 candles makes the room glow from within, radiant and alive.
Some believe the room is just as beautiful as Versailles legendary Hall of Mirrors. The goals much the same, to proclaim prestige and sophistication through a theatrical aura of divine power.
But to the Nazis 200 years later, the Amber Room is something else entirely.
They arrogantly believe it’s their birthright.
Prussia would go on to become a part of Germany. And since the Amber Room was created by Prussian craftsmen, the Nazis believe they have a claim to the prized artifact.
And now they’re stealing it.
Within 36 hours of its discovery, the Nazis pack the room’s contents into 27 crates and ship them by rail to Germany.
The Amber Room is then reconstructed at Kunigburg Castle in Nazi occupied territory.
We know it arrives there because the castle’s museum lists it in their records as item 200. It’s even put on display for Nazi officials.
But by August of 1944, the Nazis are on the defensive. British bombers hammer Kunixburg, reducing much of the city, including the castle, to rubble.
Then in April 1945, Soviet troops surround the city. They fight block by block until Germany surrenders.
But in the aftermath, no trace of the treasure-filled crates are discovered.
Just a month later, a secret Soviet investigation is launched to locate the Amber Room.
According to declassified documents from the Russian National Archives, this report concludes that the treasure has most likely been destroyed, consumed by fire during the bombing of Kunigburg Castle. So that’s the end of the story, right? Not quite. No evidence of its destruction is found, but one man doesn’t want to give up easily. Anatoli Kuchimov, a young Russian museum curator desperate to make amends.
It was Cuchimov who made the fateful decision to conceal the amber room behind wallpaper in the Catherine Palace instead of sending it to safety. Now with colleagues already sent to the Gulog for failing to protect Soviet treasures, Cuchimoff is determined to find the remains of the amber panels and save his own skin.
Cuchimov’s team heads straight to the charred ruins of Kunigburg Castle.
Sifting through the rubble, they make a startling discovery.
The damaged remains of three Florentine mosaics that once adorned the amber room’s glowing walls.
They were added to the room by Empress Elizabeth of Russia in the 1750s to replace oil paintings that originally hung there. These colorful mosaics were made from natural minerals and semi-precious stones carefully arranged to resemble detailed paintings. The frames are fashioned from carved and sliced pieces of amber of various shades. Though there were originally four mosaics, the remnants of only three are found among the ruins. But where is the rest of the Amber Room?
While rummaging, Voyage finds a strange book. When he opens it, it’s like traveling into another universe. It contains cryptic diagrams and strange illustrations. The book is written in an unknown language that is so mysterious that for over a century it has defied all attempts to translate it and its author remains unknown.
Now researchers have uncovered new clues that will help reveal whose hands wrote the world’s most enigmatic book and what secrets it contains. Voyage is no amateur when it comes to books. He’s dedicated his life to buying and selling rare and unusual texts. But even with all this expertise, he still can’t make sense of this mysterious tome.
The Voinich manuscript is relatively small, measuring 9x 6 in and 2 in thick with exactly 240 pages. Each page is made of calfskin parchment and is densely covered in cryptic looping script alongside bizarre illustrations.
Depictions of strange plants that don’t match any known species. Peculiar scenes of nude women bathing in pools. Even a six panel foldout that looks like the coolest board game you’ve ever seen.
Though the artwork is vivid and strange, it’s the cryptic, indecipherable script that captures the most attention, eventually becoming known as Voyage Ease. I would love to have a secret language named after me, but Gates doesn’t really roll off the tongue. As for Voyages, I will say that I have spent a fair amount of time with this and well, I’m stumped. It really is as puzzling a text as anything I’ve come across.
Luckily, Voyage finds a clue within the pages of the book. He finds a letter written in Latin that mentions the author was possibly the 13th century philosopher and alchemist Roger Bacon.
Bacon is an interesting guy to put it lightly. He’s a Franciscan frier by day and dabbler in forbidden knowledge by night. Oh, and he’s really into magic and using ciphers to encode texts.
Voinich decides that if Bacon is the author, then he has his hands on a secret manual of alchemy and magic filled with powerful and perhaps forbidden formulas. Voyage is also excited because that’s something he should be able to sell for a significant sum.
With Europe being consumed by World War I, Voyage realizes that if he wants to make a sale, he needs to travel somewhere safer. With book in hand, he heads to the land of opportunity, the United States. Once in America, he opens a bookstore in New York City, and tries to attract wealthy collectors. But he gets little interest in this rare book because, of course, the text is unreadable. So in 1915, Voinage departs on a tour across America, trying to woo top libraries and museums, offering them the book for a special but still expensive price. While this non-stop promotion makes the manuscript one of the most famous books in the world, Voyage realizes that without cracking the code, he will be unable to sell the book.
He knows whatever this book is, he’s got something special on his hands. But all of his efforts to publicize the book unintentionally attract a different audience. After all, World War I is still raging, and the authorities are alerted to this suspicious foreigner.
In 1917, Voyage gets a knock on the door. In walk the feds, the Bureau of Investigation, which would eventually become the FBI, interrogate him, concerned about why he has an unreadable text and whether he could have stolen American codes or be distributing German ones.
>> Hand over the manuscript.
After turning his bookstore inside out and going over Voinich’s story with a fine tooth comb, the US government concludes Voyage isn’t a current threat and doesn’t possess any enemy intelligence. Although cleared by the government, Voyage unfortunately dies in 1930, having failed to unravel the text of the manuscript or sell it. But his constant promotion has given the Voinich manuscript fame and allure.
Over the next several decades, the greatest codereers in the world use increasingly cutting edge technology to decipher the manuscript.
But it remains a mystery.
It’s 1923, about 18 miles from the city of Luxor.
Egyptologist Howard Carter has spent five long years searching for the tomb of King Tut. Time and money are running out.
His financier and business partner, Lord Canarvin, agrees to fund one last season of digging. This is the final chance for this self-taught Egyptologist.
On November 4th, Carter gets lucky at last. He hits pay dirt when a 12-year-old local water boy stumbles over a low hill, dropping his jar but revealing a hidden stair. Over the next 24 hours, Carter and his team uncover 16 steps leading down to a wall.
>> What they find on the other side of the wall is astounding.
A room packed with the treasures of a pharaoh.
Hundreds of artifacts, chariots, and weapons.
Never before has such a complete royal Egyptian tomb been found.
Carter has discovered the anti-chamber containing the pharaoh’s riches. But there is one thing missing. The sarcophagus of the king buried here. He believes the shrine might be behind the next wall.
However, before they continue, Carter, Lord Canarvin, and the crew have a hearty lunch in the tomb of Ramsay’s 11.
The photo of this lunch will take on tremendous significance as the years go by.
Many of the guests at this table will mysteriously die before the decade is through.
After they finish eating, Carter and his team break through another wall in the anti-chamber.
On the other side, there’s an open area leading to the door of a burial chamber.
Carter’s team is ready to break through to the next room.
But in Carter’s way stands a lock made of rope and a clay seal of Anubis, the god of the underworld that hasn’t been touched by human hands in over 3,000 years.
Carter doesn’t think twice about cutting it open.
Under four outer shrines, the crew finds a quartzite sarcophagus. Inside is a series of nested gilded coffins, and at the center lies a mummy hidden behind a now famous golden mask.
King Tut has been found.
The Tuden common discovery makes news around the world, but it doesn’t take long before very bad things start happening.
Just days after the discovery, Lord Canarvin falls ill, developing a nasty blood infection.
His condition worsens.
Less than two months after entering Tut’s burial chamber, Canarvin dies from pneumonia and blood poisoning.
His death makes worldwide headlines.
A new mania takes hold.
Fear of the pharaoh’s curse.
But is it merely a catchy tabloid headline?
One person who promotes the curse is the master of who done it murder mysteries, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes.
For all of Sherlock’s cold, calculating reason, Conan Doyle is a spiritualist and a firm believer in powers beyond the grave, an idea present in some of his short stories.
The day after Canarvin’s death, Conan Doyle tells US reporters the death may have been due to elementals, primitive spirits invoked by ancient Egyptian priests to guard tombs, and that this must have been a peculiar element of an Egyptian curse.
World leaders even get in on the panic.
After reading about Lord Canarvin’s death, Italy’s dictator Bonito Mussolini frantically orders a mummy he had received as a gift to be removed from his private home in Rome.
There is one man who is certainly skeptical of the curse. The man who discovered the tomb, Howard Carter himself. Though Carter is distraught by the death of his friend and patron, he calls the curse Tommy rot. In other words, nonsense.
Carter gets back to work, but then rather inconveniently, other people connected to the discovery of the tomb start dying.
George J. Gould, an American financier and railroad executive, falls sick after visiting the monument and dies from pneumonia one month after Lord Canarvin.
Two other men who helped with the excavation, including Canarvin’s own half-brother, die from pneumonia in the years following.
Newspapers sensationalize Tut’s curse and report when a premature death strikes anyone who enters the tomb.
Multiple men are later killed by gunshot, including an Egyptian prince who was shot in the head by his wife.
One man is smothered to death with a pillow in a gentleman’s club. And archaeologist Hugh Evelyn White dies by suicide, reportedly leaving a note that says, >> “I have succumbed to a curse which forces me to disappear.” The curse of King Tut is one of the great unsolved mysteries of the 20th century. But is the curse real or is it just a series of unfortunate tragedies?
In 2003, two London physicians, Sheree and Tariq Elaw, published a letter in the Lancet Medical Journal proposing a possible origin for the notorious curse.
The unexpected culprit, fungus.
It is believed that a toxic fungus could have festered for centuries in the tomb, just waiting for Carter’s crew to breathe it in.
This could explain the deaths that were caused by respiratory diseases and pneumonia.
Some say that toxic fungus is the true culprit in the curse of King Tut’s tomb.
But there’s one problem with that theory. It doesn’t explain the death of the very first man inside, Howard Carter, who was killed by something more deadly than any curse you could conjure.
According to the story, Sodom is a prosperous place. Some have suggested that prosperity may have come from the ancient opium trade.
The Bible hints that its people were not only welloff, but wicked and prideful with an excess of resources, yet unwilling to assist the poor. Perhaps explaining why God gets so angry.
If the Old Testament is to be believed, God decides to wipe Sodom and its similarly unsavory sister city Gomorrah, clean off the map.
But before God destroys the cities, he lets Abraham, his very righteous right-hand man, in on his plan. Abraham is worried for the city’s residents, especially because his nephew Lot, whom we met earlier, happens to be one of them. God makes a deal with Abraham.
He’ll spare Sodom if he can find just 10 righteous residents. Unfortunately, finding innocents in Sodom is tough sledding. So, God sends two of his angels disguised as travelers to Sodom for a final walkthrough. They meet Lot, allegedly the only good citizen, who welcomes them into his home.
That night, an angry mob surrounds Lot’s house and demands he hand over his visitors.
Lot refuses. Things escalate and the undercover angels fight back, striking the crowd blind with a burst of light.
The next morning, the angels smuggle Lot and his family out of Sodom. They literally tell them to head for the hills. And whatever they do, don’t look back.
Then, as Lot and his family escape, fire and brimstone rain down from the sky, and Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be utterly destroyed.
But tragically, Lot’s wife can’t help herself. She looks back and as she witnesses her former home’s destruction, she is said to be instantly turned into a pillar of salt.
And then Sodom, Gomorrah, and all of their thousands of citizens are reduced to ash.
Fire raining down from the sky and destroying an entire city. It sounds like a Hollywood disaster movie, and it’s hard to imagine anything like that happening in real life. But fascinatingly, we also find more or less exactly the same account of a city destroyed by God in the New Testament, the Torah, and even the Quran. With so many supporting accounts, many have wondered, could it really have happened?
For thousands of years, generations of historians have searched for physical evidence of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah without success.
But now, biblical scholar and archaeologist Dr. Steven Collins may have made a mindblowing discovery. After years of research, Dr. Collins believes he’s uncovered the true location of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
His search led him to the northeastern end of the Dead Sea where the largest archaeological site in the entire Jordan Valley is located. Tal El Ham.
So when you connect this whole thing together from the biblical side of things, Talam is in the right place for Sodom. It’s in exactly the right time frame for Sodom. It’s a massively complex and fabulous ancient city. It’s huge. Talm is sitting right in the very location that the Bible specifies for Sodom.
>> Based on his research in 2005, Dr.
Collins began a multi-year excavation of the Tal El Hamam ruins. And what he found was extraordinary.
>> The very first season, we did a 2×2 meter probe excavation on the lowest part of the upper city. So, we get a couple meters underneath and boom, we’re on top of the destruction matrix of the middle bronze age. All of a sudden, staring up at us was a piece of pottery, the surface of which looked like glazed green glass.
This green glass pottery found in the destruction layer carbon dates back to approximately 1650 BC, which may line up with the biblical account of Sodom. Collins further analysis also confirms it was a single event involving high heat that obliterated these ruins.
2,000 years ago in ancient Turkey, two great armies are battling for dominance.
the Romans and the Pontics. Rome at this time is a mighty republic controlling a vast swath of the globe. Practically every piece of land that touches the Mediterranean Sea is Roman, except for a rather large chunk known as the Pontic Kingdom. For the next several years, the Romans and the Pontics violently clash over this valuable territory under the command of two opposing and legendary leaders.
On one side is Pompy, a notorious general in the Roman army. He cultivates a reputation for ruthlessness and is known as the teenage butcher after winning several great victories as a young man.
On the opposite side is the Pontic King Mithrates, a legend in his own right and not about to go down without a fight. After all, he’s resisted the Romans since before Pompy was born.
But who is Mithrates? To really understand him, we need to rewind a bit.
Mithrates ascends to the throne as a boy after his father’s sudden and suspicious death widely believed to be the work of poison administered by none other than Mithrred’s own mother. Talk about family drama.
With her husband dead, Mithrred’s mom rules in his place until the boy comes of age and claims what is rightfully his. Fearing that his mom might now poison him, he imprisons her where she dies.
With his power secured, King Mithrates becomes famed for his shrewd intelligence, supposedly speaking 22 languages.
He also turns all that poison related childhood trauma into a lifelong project.
Toxicology becomes Mithrred’s true expertise, learning how to create various poisons and measure the perfect dose.
He often tests out deadly ingredients like nightshade, hemlock, arsenic, and lead on criminals, observing their effects and looking for potential antidotes.
Over the years, Mithrates becomes so engrossed with elixirs of death, at times, he even tests them on himself.
Kids, don’t try this at home. But his obsession with poisons doesn’t end there. He also turns his lethal recipes into weapons of war. From venom tipped arrows and flaming oils to unleashing wasps and wild beasts into enemy tunnels, he fights dirty and brilliantly, which brings us back to his war with the Romans and General Pompy and a poisonous plan to take the general out.
In 65 BC, more than a thousand of Pompy’s Roman soldiers trudged through the treacherous Caucus’ mountains on their way to attack the Pontic Kingdom.
Starving and spent, they stumble upon what looks like a gift from the gods.
Bowls of delicious golden honey left out in the open near a quiet village.
Too hungry to question it, the Romans dig in.
But this is no sweet treat. It’s a trap.
And soon the Roman army will be dead.
But how? Modern science finally has the answers.
With the Romans helpless, Mithrates forces face no resistance at all.
Sources say around a thousand legionnaires are all wiped out in a sticky, deadly ambush.
As for their leader, Pompy, he survives the trap, but is purportedly enraged, swearing revenge.
Over the next two years, he unleashes hell, crushing the last of Mithrates forces one by one.
Realizing defeat by Pompy is inevitable, Mithrates decides to take his own life with, you guessed it, poison.
But in a cruel twist, his suicide attempt doesn’t work. Turns out years of testing small doses of poison on himself has made him immune.
With poison off the table, he asks his loyal bodyguard to do what no toxin could. Finish him with a sword.
Despite losing the war and his life, Mithrates honey trap becomes one of his greatest triumphs and an enduring historical mystery. For centuries, experts have wondered exactly how he managed to concoct a honey so deadly that it alone incapacitated the Roman army. But in 2023, historian and emergency doctor Matthew D. Turner discovered the truth about what turned this sweet nectar into a biological weapon.
Given Mithrat’s wide knowledge of poisons and his reputation for poisoning, you might think that he had spiked the honey with something, something like arsenic, which he was fond of using. This was not actually the case. After combing through the historical records, I found that the valley where Mithrates is said to have laid his trap contains a large amount of plants called roodendrum ponicum, also known as mountain rose, a plant which is well known for the poison in its nectar.
And what’s more, the bees in this valley only pollinate a tiny two square miles around their beehive. And what flower do the bees pollinate in this valley?
Mountain rose.
When the bees consume the nectar of the mountain rose plants, the toxins make their way into the honey.
>> Locals call it mad honey, but science calls it granotoxin poisoning. This stuff doesn’t mess around. It hijacks your nervous system, slows your heart, and blurs your vision. The result, up to 24 hours of wild, woozy misery with vomiting and diarrhea. Sounds fun.
From the concrete jungle to the actual jungle. It’s May 30th, 1925, and I am deep in the South American Amazon. That right there is Percy Faucet, a veteran explorer on his seventh expedition into this unforgiving wilderness. Alongside is his son Jack and friend Raleigh.
Together, they’re searching for a fabled lost city rumored to be dripping in gold and jewels. It’s a place hidden deep in the vast Mroso jungles in the interior of Brazil. This city has no name, but Faucet calls it Z. Far from solving this mystery, Percy and his companions will only add to it because all of them are about to disappear without a trace.
In his early career, Faucet goes to work for the Royal Geographical Society to survey and map the jungles near Bolivia.
With accounts of his daring jungle exploits published in newspapers back in England, Faucet’s fame grows and he embraces his celebrity status.
He reports encountering exotic animals unknown to science, including an almost certainly exaggerated account of shooting a 62- foot long anaconda.
But he does accomplish something few other westerners are able to. Navigating dense jungles and maintaining friendly relationships with indigenous tribes, many of whom are known to be hostile to outsiders. Some of these natives whisper stories to Faucet about a sprawling ruined city hidden deep in the jungle.
And soon an obsession begins to take root.
Faucet isn’t the first to follow the siren’s call into the Amazon. Centuries earlier, Spanish concistadors had also pursued rumors of glittering abandoned ruins. Their expeditions to find them ended in failure and death.
Faucett’s own search leads him to the National Library of Brazil where he discovers a weathered parchment known as manuscript 512. It appears to have been written in 1753 and describes a Portuguese expedition into the Brazilian interior which claimed to discover ruins resembling a classical Roman city with stone arches, opulent statues, and enigmatic carved symbols.
This coupled with the native accounts convinces Faucet that a majestic lost civilization is hidden in the depths of the Amazon waiting to be rediscovered.
His research has led him to believe the lost city hides somewhere in the Brazilian state of Matroso, nearly 350,000 square miles of wilderness.
His team heads into the jungle on April 20th, 1925.
Faucet decides to travel light and to make the expedition a family affair, bringing his 21-year-old son, Jack, and Jack’s best friend, Raleigh Rimmel.
The public is fascinated with the quest, but experts are less than enthusiastic.
The overwhelming majority think that Z is just a fantasy. But Faucet is undeterred.
After a month trekking through the jungle, Faucet’s team arrives at a place known as Dead Horse Camp. Here, he sends a native runner back to civilization with a letter he’s written to his wife, Nenah. He gives the coordinates of the camp and notes that his group has plenty of provisions and remain in good spirits. He signs off, “You need have no fear of any failure.” These are the last written words of Percy Faucet. After he departs Dead Horse Camp, he will never be heard from again.
In January 1927, after 18 months with no communication from the expedition, the Royal Geographical Society declares the men lost, presumed dead.
But Faucet’s skill in the wilderness is almost unmatched, and many of his friends and admirers refuse to believe he’s missing and instead think he may have found the city and stayed.
In 1928, a rescue mission led by British aviator GM Diet retraces Faucett’s route through the Amazon.
Although he’s unable to find the men, he does discover a small brass plate bearing Faucet’s name in the possession of a native tribe. Unfortunately, it’s later confirmed that the object was from Faucet’s previous mission 5 years earlier. Later, a compass of faucets is also found in the jungle, but it was one he left behind before his final expedition.
One persistent theory is that Faucet and his companions were killed by a local tribe.
In 1951, the Calipello Indians revealed they were in the possession of bones that they claimed were the remains of Percy Faucet after he was killed by the trib’s chief.
Remember those two doors stops from high school you pretended to read? The Iliad and the Odyssey? Well, they’re the blockbuster epics of the ancient world and the bedrock of Western lit. While they may have originated as an oral tradition, they are credited to a Greek poet named Homer in the 8th century BC.
The Iliad covers the brutal war sparked when Helen, Queen of Sparta, is abducted to the rich and powerful city of Troy.
Greek King Agamemnon then rallies the citystates to help her husband, Menaaus, get her back.
The Odyssey is kind of like the sequel, which follows a hero named Odysius on the worst road trip in history as he tries to get home after the war.
So, what about the city at the center of Homer’s stories?
In the legends, Troy is a rich, status soaked port kingdom near the sea and a gateway to major trade routes.
And it’s a fortress. High walls, strong gates, so formidable, the Greek armies camp outside and supposedly hammer at it for 10 years.
And that’s where the legendary horse comes in. After the Greek soldiers jump out, they set the city ablaze, torching its temples and killing or enslaving its citizens. It’s certainly a vivid story of the cunning and treachery of war. But what are the facts? Here’s what we know. Around 1200 BC in the Bronze Age, civilizations like the Greeks, the Masonans, and the Hittites duke it out all around the Mediterranean.
Cities are raised, alliances forged and broken. War is everywhere.
It’s clear that Homer’s epic story is set in a period just as volatile as this real one. But for centuries, there was no evidence that a war had ever occurred in the city of Troy. And there’s good reason for that. No one knew if Troy was even a real place.
Fast forward a few thousand years because that’s where this guy, Hinrich Schlean, comes in. In the 1870s, this self-taught archaeologist arrives in modern-day Turkey, determined to find Troy. Fueled by a childhood obsession with Homer’s tales, he’s convinced the city lies buried beneath Hisarlic, a flat topped mound in northern Turkey about 4 miles from the Aian Sea.
Using references in Homer’s text like a map, Schllean starts to dig.
And wouldn’t you know it, he actually finds something.
Layer upon layer of ruins.
In ancient times, different cities would be built, destroyed, and rebuilt in the exact same place. Each time piling new structures on top of the old.
Beneath the point where Schlean began his excavation lay nine distinct archaeological layers, each reflecting a different era of habitation. Designated Troy 1 through 9. These strata span from the Stone Age to the Roman era, revealing the site’s deep history.
Driven by his obsession, Schleman attacks the site with shovels, pickaxes, and even dynamite. In his single-minded quest for Troy, he blindly destroys priceless archaeological evidence, leveling centuries of history in his path. Yet, even in the chaos, Schleman strikes gold. Literally, he unears a glittering cache of ancient treasures, golden crowns, bracelets, and a delicate chain he claims belonged to Helen of Troy herself.
In 1873, Schlean declares he’s found Troy, and news of his incredible discovery spreads around the world.
Schleman has seemingly done the impossible, finding the real life foundation of one of our greatest legends. But a big problem is about to be dug up. Decade after decade, archaeological teams return to his Sarlac, leaving the dynamite at home.
They carefully excavate the layer cake structure of the site.
They zero in on the layers Schlean tore through, specifically Troy 6 and 7. What they uncover is stunning. These layers date from the era of the Trojan War as described by Homer, and they reveal the remnants of a grand city with towering fortification walls. All of which suggests the Troy of legend might in fact be real, and that Schlean had dug in the right place, but dug too deep and ended up in the wrong time. But is there any evidence that backs up Homer’s narrative of the Trojan War? Professor Owen Dunan is an archaeologist who has spent 25 years excavating in the region.
>> Archaeology is the most incredibly dynamic field like the question of Troy.
We are always going to be finding shocking and exciting new things. At the site of Troy, there has been evidence found of burning, of destruction that we associate with the time horizon around 1200 BC.
Weapons, burnt buildings, charcoal, burnt bones testify to a fiery destruction within the time associated with the Trojan War. So, not only was Troy a real place, but there is also clear evidence of its catastrophic downfall, but what brought about its destruction? Was it the likes of King Agamemnon and Menaus in their epic quest to rescue Helen? And can we finally say giddy up to a Trojan horse? Well, few historians would argue that such a theatrical ploy could have really happened as described. But with so much of the story of Troy bearing out, some experts believe that Homer described a mythic distortion of something very real. According to the Greek historian Herododus, in 525 BC, an army vanishes without a trace deep in the Egyptian desert. But in the centuries since, many have questioned the account.
Herodotus is considered the world’s first formal historian. But much of what he records in his so-called histories is fantastical to say the least. He writes of gold digging ants in India, a tribe of headless people in Libya, not to mention flying snakes in Arabia.
So, is this army swallowing sandstorm just another brazen fabrication?
Well, in the last few decades, there’s been a flurry of digging to find out.
In 1983, American journalist Gary Sheaffitz spots piles of rocks marking an ancient trail through the Egyptian desert 70 mi south of Siwa Oasis, the army’s supposed destination.
Sheets launches an archaeological search, but comes up empty, finding no evidence of the lost soldiers. But then in 2009, a potentially huge break in the case.
Italian filmmakers, the Castigleioni brothers, claim to uncover human remains, weapons, and jewelry approximately 60 mi south of Siwa, proclaiming they have found the missing army. It’s an incredible revelation.
It turns out maybe too incredible.
Many experts immediately cast doubt on the significance of the brother’s findings, noting that the fragmentaryary skeletal remains could not be identified. Egyptian authorities agree, noting the dig was completely unauthorized.
But now, Egyptology professor Olaf Copper has uncovered groundbreaking evidence that may finally provide answers to this ancient mystery.
So the story of the lost army of the Persians is a fantastic story. It’s a story that has really triggered the imagination of so many people for a long time. I work on excavations and while working in the south of Egypt in the DNA oasis, I found some information that sheds a completely new light on the story of the lost army of Kambis. While we excavated in the Draasis, we found the temple built by Ptoastis IVth.
We have his full name on the facade of that gateway.
During Persia’s invasion of the region in the sixth century, Petubastus was an obscure Egyptian ruler with a kingdom deep in the western desert far from Persian control. He and his people were always considered minor players, nowhere near as menacing as the Siwa forces that the Persian army was, according to Herododus, sent to subjugate. But now, with the discovery of an expansive temple dedicated to Petubastus, Professor Copper believes this minor ruler wasn’t so minor after all. And plot twist, all of this may also finally explain what really happened to those 50,000 Persians.
We see that he builds a temple out in the Dlan Oasis. So what could that possibly mean? And this was to me a kind of Eureka moment that my god it has something to do with the lost army story. I believe was leading an insurrection against Persian rule. The Persians were still in Egypt. They were controlling towns in the delta whereas Tatubastus was trying to control part of the south of Egypt. The oasis provided a inhabited area just outside Egypt that allowed Betubastus to organize his troops.
Professor Copper’s theory is that it’s more likely that King Campbes sent his army of 50,000 soldiers to Dacla Oasis and not to Seiwa Oasis the way the story was originally told.
In the Middle Ages, the Emerald Genoa chalice is considered by many to be the Holy Grail. In the 1800s, when Napoleon annexes Genoa, the French emperor personally demands that the prized chalice is shipped to the Paris Academy of Sciences to verify its authenticity.
But while in transit from Genoa to France, the cup fractures. Upon examination, Parisian scientists determined the dish is not an emerald at all, but Byzantine glass.
That’s a big problem because this particular style of glass was not in use until hundreds of years after Jesus’ death. And so, it becomes another failed contender in the enduring quest for the Holy Grail.
And as it turns out, Napoleon isn’t the only power-hungry authoritarian to seek the Grail.
A century later, Adolf Hitler, becomes fascinated with the Grail and its supposed powers. His most lethal enforcer, Hinrich Himmler, reportedly dispatches the Nazi SS on expeditions across Europe in search of the relic.
For more on this, please see Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade.
And Indy’s Adventure is just one of many modern spins on the Grail legend.
If you look around, Grail mythology is everywhere in pop culture. From Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code to Monty Python to gaming’s Assassin’s Creed franchise, to the faithful, the Holy Grail remains not a thing of fiction, but a divine relic that could still be found. Despite centuries of pursuit, though it has remained elusive. But now, professor of history and folklore Dr. Lynn McNeel claims there may be compelling new evidence for the Grail’s existence.
>> Within the context of Christianity, the Grail is one of the most sacred objects on this planet today. And we’re left wondering what happened. If we still have it, if it is findable, if it exists, if it is extant in the world, this would be magnificent.
Recent research is starting to show that the chalice of Valencia is the historic cup of Christ.
This may be more than just a local belief. This could actually be possible.
The Holy Chalice of Valencia, also known as the Santo Khales, has been protected in the Cathedral of Valencia, Spain, for the last 600 years. Although details are spotty, it is believed the chalice came from the Holy Land to Rome with St.
Peter in the 1st century AD. Later in the 3rd century, St. Lawrence brought the cup to his native Spain, where it has been safeguarded for centuries.
Since arriving in Valencia, religious pilgrims have traveled from all around the world to glimpse what they believe to be the one true cup. But others are unconvinced. After all, it’s kind of hard to imagine Jesus would use something this ornate.
But in 1960, a Spanish archaeologist discovers this chalice is actually three separate pieces. He claims the stand of the cup comes from the medieval period, while the base dates to the 9th century.
But here’s the kicker. The cup itself was crafted between the 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD. And the agot stone it’s made from is only found in the Holy Land. This cup really could date from the time and place of Jesus.
>> The entire cup itself is not what Jesus would have drank out of. Just that top part, that simple stone cup, that would be the grail. The rest of it would be casing placed around it. And this is a common practice of putting sacred objects in an intentionally ornate container to show their importance through the way we display them.
Another interesting element is the idea that this cup would have needed to meet certain ritual requirements. A lot of people forget that the last supper wasn’t just any meal. It was a seder. It was a Passover meal. Any cup used in the Passover meal needs to hold a minimum amount of liquid. And this particular cup is just the right size to hold the required two revits is the Talmudic measurement that’s needed to be held with wine. And this holds 2.5.
So to know that this holy chalice that it’s dated to the right time period that it is ritually correct for a Passover dinner for believers, these elements really just become the final proof that this is not just in our hearts but in history the Holy Grail.
To many, this case is far from closed.
After all, the chalice has many gaps in its history before arriving in Spain.
Like many religious mysteries, this ultimately comes down to a question of faith.
The first recorded encounter with the shroud comes in the year 1354.
It is believed French knight Jaffrey de Charne discovers the fabric when the knight’s templar journey through Constantinople during the 14th century crusades.
The knight finds a burial cloth among the treasures of a Byzantine emperor.
When Des Char looks closer, he’s overcome with emotion because the faint image of the man embedded in the fabric looks like Jesus Christ. Desarn wonders, is this the burial shroud for the son of God?
After Christ’s death, the Bible describes how he is prepared for burial.
His body is first cleansed, then anointed with aloe and expensive perfumes.
He is then wrapped in a white linen that’s covered with resin to hold it close to the flesh.
Embalmed in the burial shroud, Jesus is laid to rest in a tomb.
When Duchney inspects the shroud for more clues, he spots blood stains on the fabric, like the wounds Jesus allegedly suffered during his crucifixion, holes in his wrists, a lance wound to his side, and puncture wounds to his forehead. To Darnney, this is more than mere coincidence. The knight is convinced this is the burial shroud which enveloped the bloody crucified body of Jesus Christ. Joffrey spirits the fabric out of Constantinople to Lir Church in France, believing he has recovered the holiest relic in all of Christianity.
Despite doubts about the fabric’s authenticity, thousands of Christians make the pilgrimage to view what they believe is the image of Jesus. But in 1532, a fire nearly destroys it. The flames are so hot that it melts part of the silver container where the shroud is kept. The sacred relic is then moved to the safety of the Catholic Church’s Turin Cathedral where it becomes known as the Turin Shroud. For the next 400 years, scholars around the world are captivated by one question. Is the shroud real or fake? In the 1980s, advances in radiocarbon dating technology give Vatican officials the opportunity to confirm the shroud’s authenticity once and for all.
Scientists get permission to remove a piece of the shroud’s fabric for carbon 14 testing. Will the ancient mystery of the shroud finally be solved? On October 13th, 1988, at a press conference at the British Museum, the world learns the truth. Radiocarbon dating conducted on the fabric sample indicates the shroud was created between 1260 and 1390 AD.
That’s over,200 years after the death of Jesus. For the faithful, the results call into question the authenticity of the artifact. Yet for others, the findings raise an intriguing question.
If it’s not Jesus, who is the mysterious figure depicted on the shroud?
Some have argued that the shroud in fact captures a soldier from the late Crusades who was crucified in the same manner as Jesus centuries after he died.
This was said to have been done to warn off Christian invaders. If you come to the Holy Land, you will suffer the same fate as your Lord Jesus.
And there were even more sensational theories. Some scholars have proposed that the shroud was made by artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci, asserting the face in the shroud perfectly matches the one depicted in Da Vinci’s famous painting, The Salvador Mundi.
But some experts who analyze the ancient artifact still see compelling signs that the shroud is real. They claim the evidence can be found in the fabric’s markings. Close inspection of the shroud reveals the image is embedded in the fibers, not painted on the surface, which would likely appear in a forgery.
Some have argued that the image is impossible to replicate and was likely created by a powerful burst of ultraviolet light or electromagnetic radiation beyond the capabilities of any technology at the time of Christ.
Experts demand new tests to confirm or dispute the 1988 radiocarbon dating.
Yet, the Vatican refuses to provide any more access to the shroud. Could one of the most powerful religious organizations on Earth be hiding something?
In 2022, archaeologist William Meechum discovers five pieces of fabric cut from the shroud during the 1988 testing and submits the strands to the stable isotopes laboratory at the University of Hong Kong.
Testing the composition of the strands can uncover their geographic origin, determining exactly where in the world the shroud came from. And when the results are revealed, they are stunning.
Historian Joe Marino, one of the foremost experts on the shroud, has studied the isotopic results.
>> This test was one of the most compelling pieces of evidence I’ve seen, especially for the 20th and 21st century. The reason is because the shroud of Churin is made of flax fibers and isotope testing can indicate where the flax had originally been grown. And the results revealed that it came from, you know, Israel, Lebanon, and the or the western parts of Syria. So when I saw the results, I was just absolutely captivated.
For believers, this is the best news possible. The shroud comes from the same place that Jesus lived and died.
And groundbreaking new findings might finally provide the identity of the image on the shroud.