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00:00The Greatest Mysteries of Humanity, Inexplicable Events, Places Shrouded in Legend and Superhuman
00:19Heroes.
00:20Many people don't want to believe in a world without miracles because this means that it's
00:25a world without soul.
00:28They are the mysterious legacy of ancient cultures.
00:34Myths come from an oral tradition which means that each retelling is different.
00:38The heroic become more heroic and the power becomes more powerful.
00:44Researchers around the globe are working hard to get to the bottom of these myths.
00:49One thing is certain, so advanced is modern historical research and modern archaeology.
00:54We just need to keep looking and to keep digging.
01:04Another that has provided ample material for myths is the old Egyptian civilization.
01:10Powerful pharaohs ruled the country for over 3,000 years.
01:15They were worshipped as gods by their loyal subjects.
01:18One such pharaoh is particularly mysterious.
01:22Tutankhamun, the king with the golden mask.
01:30The Valley of the Kings, 1922.
01:34Archaeologist Howard Carter conducts large excavation works.
01:39He's looking for treasures, gold, grave offerings, and mummies.
01:44After years of searching, he finally gets lucky.
01:48One of his workers comes across a secret cavity with a stairway.
01:53Right away, Carter sends a telegram to his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon.
01:57At last, I've made wonderful discovery in Valley, stop.
02:01A magnificent tomb with seals intact, stop.
02:04Recovered same for your arrival, stop.
02:07Carter.
02:11Two weeks later, Lord Carnarvon travels through the Valley of the Kings.
02:16It will be his last journey.
02:19Carnarvon and Carter are looking at one of the greatest archaeological finds ever.
02:24But soon, inexplicable events start to unfold.
02:30With every piece they take out of the pharaoh's vault, the golden king's anger appears to increase.
02:40The first casualty shakes the excavation team.
02:44Lord Carnarvon, the financier, dies.
02:49The world press reports the second sensation within a short time.
02:54First the discovery of the tomb, and now the deadly curse of the pharaoh.
03:02The curse gave the press a juicy story.
03:04It led to serious mystery, which excited not just the journalists, but their audiences.
03:09Now if you want a story to be well known, make it a secret.
03:1417 people die, allegedly from the curse of the pharaoh.
03:19Among the dead is Arthur Mace, Carter's right hand.
03:25Is the tomb really the cause of all these deaths?
03:29Does the ancient corpse have sinister powers that haunt us in the present?
03:35The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb unleashed the curse.
03:42The facts surrounding the tomb are somewhat obscure.
03:45The young king was very mysterious.
03:47He took the throne when he was eight or nine years old and died at 18 or 19.
03:54Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten, a revolutionary pharaoh.
04:00He and his spouse, Nefertiti, were to be treated like gods.
04:04After Akhenaten's death, he was succeeded by his young son, Tutankhamun.
04:09Ten years later, he is also dead.
04:12Tutankhamun completely disappeared from the history books after his death.
04:17So without finding his tomb, we'd probably still not know about this pharaoh to this very
04:23day.
04:23The Egyptian museum in Cairo.
04:26Valuable artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb are on display here.
04:30Some are particularly impressive, like these large wooden shrines that Carter found in
04:36the vault.
04:40This shrine was located within the three other shrines, behind a wall in the tomb.
04:44Inside, they found four sarcophagi placed one inside the other, just like the Russian
04:49Matryoshka dolls, where the dolls are placed one inside another.
04:53The same principle was applied here.
04:55Four large rooms, one built into the next, home to those four sarcophagi.
04:59The last one contained the four coffins and was in the shrine back there.
05:04Come on, I'll show you.
05:06This shrine was inside this one, which was inside that one.
05:14And this last shrine is the largest.
05:16It contained all the others.
05:21Carter has to take apart the shrines inside the small tomb.
05:25They were just too large, all tightly placed into one another, barely
05:29an inch apart.
05:31Carter needs to build special tools not to destroy the wooden coffins or the intarsia.
05:40Finally it emerges, the golden mask and the mummy.
05:44But because resin was used to embalm the mummy, the mask stuck to the body.
05:49Carter finally just rips the golden mask off Tutankhamun's face.
05:54The Zurich Institute of Evolutionary Medicine.
05:58Professor Ruhli has examined Tutankhamun's corpse several times.
06:02Howard Carter cut off its entire head, damaging it in the process.
06:11Howard Carter disassembled the mummy into individual parts.
06:14He thought this was the best way to display the treasures.
06:17Some of the parts that were severed have been put back together.
06:23So the damage is only visible to a certain extent.
06:27They wanted to make it look like they left the body more or less intact to future generations.
06:32Time and again scientists have tried to examine the pharaoh.
06:39Why did he have to die so young?
06:42Based on their research, experts agree that Tutankhamun died when he was around 19 years old.
06:48And there were no signs that he was murdered.
06:51So why did he die?
06:55There are various theories saying he was run over by a chariot and got injured in the process.
07:01Based on current findings, however, I believe most of these injuries are unfortunately the
07:06result of handling that took place in the 1920s, but we are unable to prove that.
07:13State-of-the-art methods and DNA analysis reveal sobering facts about the young king, who history
07:22had almost forgotten about.
07:25The beautiful golden mask hides a deformed face marked by disease.
07:33Tutankhamun's body shows clear signs of incest.
07:37The young pharaoh was probably ill from birth.
07:40He had a club foot.
07:42This would explain why archaeologists found around 130 walking canes in his tomb.
07:47In addition, he had an acute malaria infection.
07:53This mixture of disease, genetic defects and a potential accident may have led to his premature death.
08:02Tutankhamun's story is so fascinating to us for several reasons.
08:05Partly because he was such an incredibly young king who died at a very young age.
08:09But also because we are fascinated by Egyptian life, by this amazing civilisation that existed
08:14thousands of years ago and has practically disappeared into the dust.
08:18We love to hear these magical stories of kings and their adventures.
08:22And associate that with the curse and you have an amazing story to hand down the generations.
08:26But what about the mysterious deaths?
08:33In fact, the discoverers of the burial chamber died much less spectacularly than long thought.
08:40The majority died of natural causes.
08:44The curse of the pharaoh.
08:46No magic power, but rather a successful PR stunt.
08:50Humans have always sought explanations for catastrophes and great misfortunes.
09:01And they often find them in myths.
09:04Some of the oldest myths of humanity were written down to teach people a lesson.
09:11In the 4th century BC, Greek philosopher Plato describes Atlantis
09:16as a splendid island nation whose residents were doomed.
09:21Was there actually such a civilisation that was completely wiped out?
09:26What is the myth of the lost island kingdom really trying to tell us?
09:32Atlantis, the magnificent island nation.
09:35It is said to have consisted of several rings.
09:38At its heart, Poseidon's temple.
09:40It was home to the most advanced culture of its time.
09:44But the Atlanteans were also arrogant, so the gods decided to punish them.
09:49Atlantis was completely annihilated in a dramatic catastrophe.
09:53The myth of Atlantis is important to us today because it's the story of a once highly developed
09:59culture which was lost, which has utterly disappeared.
10:02It's a story of hubris.
10:04It's a story of punishment.
10:06And in the modern world in which we think we know so much, we celebrate our achievements.
10:11Well, it serves as a pretty powerful warning.
10:16We can read about the legend in Plato's work.
10:19In 360 BC, he describes Atlantis as a splendid island nation which had ruled over the entire
10:26Mediterranean region 9,000 years earlier with untold wealth and unparalleled power.
10:31The story about the end of this civilization has enthralled generations worldwide.
10:38To this day, many people are not only looking for the location, but also the superhuman power
10:44that Atlantis is said to emit.
10:47SS chief Heinrich Himmler spent large sums trying to prove that the Teutons descended from the Atlanteans.
10:54He hoped archaeologists would find evidence of ancient Aryans in Atlantis.
10:59Their search took them as far as Tibet, but they're left empty-handed.
11:03The search for Atlantis is also fueled by the discovery of another city.
11:08Troy was long thought to be a myth described in the Iliad by the Greek poet Homer.
11:13In 1870, Heinrich Schliemann finds the ancient city in today's Turkey.
11:19Can Atlantis be found too?
11:21We have so many stories about Atlantis. It is a magical undersea world.
11:26And if you were the archaeologist to discover that, like the discovery of Troy, you would go down in history.
11:32But is there any truth to the myth? Did Atlantis really exist? If it did, are there any traces?
11:41Greece, the island of Santorini, this might have been the location of Atlantis.
11:46Its ring-like structure is the result of volcanic activity that has shaped the local landscape for thousands of years.
11:53Geologist Evi Nomiko is familiar with the stories about Atlantis. The island attracts myths like a magnet.
12:01Before 3600 years, at this place, there was a small island with the same geometry, with the same composition, lava composition.
12:10And at the top of this volcano, a city was built on.
12:17Santorini is located on an ancient volcano.
12:20When it erupted thousands of years ago, it wreaked havoc.
12:25The crater became clogged with boulders and eventually exploded.
12:29A natural catastrophe, just like Plato describes.
12:35Scientists are looking for evidence in the sea surrounding the crater.
12:39Using state-of-the-art technology, they're examining the volcanic rocks underwater.
12:44This is a small robot. This is a small ROV. We call it as Jason.
12:49And we will explore the sea floor very close near Akameni, just to see the morphology of the lava that is cooling down on the sea floor.
13:03Eight engines and three cameras. The robot replaces the divers and provides high-resolution images.
13:09It passes by lava solidified a long time ago. Just like the islands themselves, the volcanic eruptions shaped the sea floor around it.
13:24And at last, a discovery.
13:28Underwater stairs. Could they belong to a former harbour?
13:33An entrance to the city of Atlantis?
13:35Avinomico is one step closer to finding Atlantis.
13:40But you will need to conduct more dives to find out whether these steps are man-made or a product of nature.
13:49I believe that there was a magic. There was a magic city just in the middle of the caldera.
13:54And that city has been destroyed completely. But we need to search more and explore more.
14:00And when we find some evidence from the sea floor, not something that we will find on land,
14:06then I will be completely sure that Santorini was Atlantis.
14:12But something doesn't add up in the Santorini theory.
14:16According to Plato, Atlantis is located beyond the pillars of Hercules, behind Gibraltar.
14:22U.S. researcher Richard Freund is convinced that he will be able to unearth Atlantis in this region.
14:33Following Plato's descriptions, he's got his eyes set on southern Spain.
14:37His search takes him to the Doñana National Park.
14:40He believes today's dunes cover the once important harbour and the ring-shaped islands.
14:46He suspects the coastline has shifted over the centuries.
14:49We are at ground zero for Atlantis.
14:57Freund visits a 1920s excavation site. The dig was never finished.
15:02Today, the park is protected. It is impossible to conduct new excavations.
15:09A rock formation is sticking out of the ground, maybe a wall.
15:12We're going to measure this edge, and then I want to just measure this edge.
15:20This is a right angle. There are no right angles in nature. This is something that was man-made.
15:28If his theory is correct, this wall might have once belonged to the powerful city of Atlantis.
15:34There should be no major stone like that in this entire area.
15:48And yet, it's there.
15:52But so far, there's no evidence corroborating Freund's theories.
15:56Maybe Atlantis will be discovered one day. Until then, it remains the great myth of a lost civilisation.
16:07Myths often go hand in hand with faith. The greatest legends, therefore, often have a religious motivation.
16:14Like the famous grail relic that is inextricably linked to Jesus and the idea of redemption and eternal life.
16:22Did the Holy Grail really exist?
16:29The eve of the crucifixion. According to the Bible, Jesus handed his disciples a cup of wine, saying,
16:37This is my blood.
16:42He promises to remain present in bread and wine.
16:45Those who drink from the cup are part of this community and can hope for a life after death.
16:51The Holy Grail is like a condensed conduit for the power of creation, which can be used to heal,
17:00to restore sanity. It comes in the form of a cornucopia, which delivers the sustenance of life
17:06and the womb from which life comes. You name it. The grail, in its essence, represents the source of creation itself.
17:14The chalice is lost for centuries. In medieval times, however, the crusaders revive the legend.
17:23They want to conquer the Holy Land and bring all the relics back to Europe.
17:31Vessels that prompt speculation surface time and time again.
17:35Which goblet is the real Holy Grail?
17:37The Nazis are looking for the grail as well.
17:46Himmler, head of the SS, is obsessed with occult Germanic rites.
17:51The mass murderer firmly believes that he who has the grail will be invincible.
17:57But his search comes up short.
17:58All sorts of people throughout history have been hunting for the grail because
18:04it's such a mysterious object. If you were the people who could actually find it
18:08after centuries of being lost, then you prove that you've got the power,
18:12you've got the legitimacy, that you were destined to own it. And that's exactly why
18:17Hitler and why Himmler searched for the grail during the Second World War.
18:22It would prove that they had a right to be doing what they were doing.
18:27Valencia Cathedral has been the home of the Santo Calis for centuries.
18:33Believers think it is the cup Jesus Christ held in His hands.
18:38But is this the true Holy Grail?
18:43Many details support the theory that the richly ornamented chalice could be the grail.
18:48Examinations have shown it was made about 2000 years ago in the Middle East.
18:53But is that enough to prove its authenticity?
18:58According to one widespread hypothesis, the cup came to Rome at some point during the first century.
19:07There, an early and persecuted Christian community might have hidden it.
19:11Maybe in the catacombs beneath the metropolis.
19:14And indeed, the catacombs of Rome show a cup resembling the Valencian chalice.
19:21The first popes used its cup to celebrate Holy Mass in the underground.
19:25It's the era of Christian persecution.
19:28However, the subsequent path of the chalice remains unclear at first.
19:33Until an ancient Latin text offers a clue.
19:36It says Jesus used honk praeclarum calisem.
19:42This precious chalice.
19:44They probably meant the Santo Calis.
19:49For 20 years, Michael Hesselmann has been looking for evidence.
19:54His key to the grail, the medieval verse romance Percival, written by Wolfram von Eschenbach.
20:02The protagonist allegedly saw the grail with his own eyes.
20:08Percival is a real treasure map.
20:10You just have to follow it and you will find the grail.
20:14Hesselmann stumbles across a suspicious location in the text.
20:18The castle where the grail is kept is referred to as Mont Salvage.
20:23It's a real treasure map.
20:25Michael Hesselmann sets out to find this legendary castle in Spain.
20:30His quest for the grail takes him to the Spanish Pyrenees.
20:35In his theory, the grail was taken from Jerusalem to Rome after Jesus' death
20:40and later brought to Spain by St. Lawrence, a 3rd century deacon.
20:45We can see the Mont Salvatoris here, the Pico de San Salvador.
20:52In the local Occitan language spoken in Aragon at the time, it was called Mont Salvage
20:57and later this became the name of the castle of the grail in Percival.
21:06The text comes with directions.
21:08At the foot of that mountain, turn right.
21:11At the end of the path lies an ancient building hidden under a ledge,
21:16the monastery of San Juan de la Peña.
21:27If the grail had been here, there could still be traces of it today.
21:32Mikhail Hesselmann wants to take a closer look at the monastic maze.
21:36The heroic epic provides an exact account of the rooms where Percival sees the grail.
21:44In the middle, he saw four pillars and in between, a giant fire was ablaze.
21:53We can see one, two, three, four large pillars here
21:58and one, two, three spaces in between where the braziers were placed.
22:03There is some evidence that Mikhail Hesselmann is right and that there was a cup that was
22:09worshipped here in the Middle Ages. But is it the one that's in Valencia today?
22:14Spain isn't the only place where legends about the grail circulate.
22:18Many believe the grail was hidden in Glastonbury in the southwest of England in the first century.
22:24After Jesus died, an old legend of the grail suggests Joseph of Arimathea collected his blood
22:31in a cup and brought it to England. He is said to have eventually hidden it in Glastonbury,
22:37the place where one of the most influential monasteries of the Middle Ages was erected,
22:42Glastonbury Abbey. A painting in the chapel of the Abbey tells how Joseph of Arimathea traveled
22:49to England with the grail, but it has never been found. Another legend revolves around King Arthur,
22:56who is said to have been buried on an island called Avalon. Some believe Avalon and Glastonbury
23:01are the same place. The legends of Arthur and his round table are inextricably linked to the Holy Grail.
23:08Finding it is the top mission of the noble order of knights.
23:11The myth of Arthur being linked with the Holy Grail is a very important part of the Arthur story,
23:17because it makes him more powerful. It gives him the divine anointment he needs to make him into a
23:23true legend which can withstand the years. The only thing that we can be sure of regarding the Holy Grail
23:32is that knowing and believing aren't the same things.
23:35Where things lie hidden, there's a myth waiting to be discovered.
23:46Treasure hunters don't only set their eyes on objects with religious meaning,
23:50but also on places said to hold great riches.
23:55The Song of the Nibelungs is probably the most famous German saga. It tells the story of the
24:00legendary treasure of Siegfried the Dragonslayer. But where is his gold now?
24:10The Rhine, center stage for the tale of the Nibelungs dating back to the late antiquity and the migration
24:17period. It's a saga of greed, treason and murder, and a huge treasure stolen by Siegfried the Dragonslayer.
24:26Legend has it that the Rhine was once the home to the Burgundian Kingdom. There, Siegfried marries
24:34Krimhild, the sister of King Gunther. The King's advisor, Hagen von Trondje, is obsessed with Siegfried's treasure.
24:43Forty cartloads of gold and silver and an invisibility cloak, Hagen turns King Gunther against Siegfried.
24:51At the King's behest, he kills the hero and hides the gold in the Rhine. The river has kept a secret ever since.
25:00The Hagen monument in Worms is a reminder of the Nibelungs. But without the treasure and the hope
25:06to find it, this tale would have likely been forgotten long ago.
25:12Humans are fascinated by treasures partly because of the monetary value, obviously, but the treasures
25:17that we see in myth tend to be more than that. They have a magical value to them. They have a
25:22personality of themselves. They're a character in the story. So, for example, if we think in the
25:27Nibelung of Siegfried's invisibility cloak. And I think we like the idea of there being something in
25:32the world that connects us to a realm beyond our own, so it's a magical power. But how much historical
25:40truth is hidden in the ancient writings?
25:44St. Gall, Switzerland. There's an important clue here. The Benedictine monastery is home to one of
25:51the oldest manuscripts of the Song of the Nibelungs. It dates back to the second half of the 13th century.
25:58Joachim Heinzler knows the Nibelung saga better than most. He believes the text is based on true events
26:05that took place many centuries before the manuscript was written.
26:12Generally speaking, heroic legends were considered historical, a form of passing on history.
26:19According to the saga, Siegfried's widow Klimhild seeks revenge after the death of her husband.
26:26She turns away from the Burgundians and marries Etzel, King of the Huns.
26:31The Burgundians. Upon her invitation, King Gunther and his entire entourage
26:37travel to the court of the Hun king. They all die in an unparalleled bloodbath.
26:49The Burgundians really existed. At the beginning of the migration, the Burgundians established
26:56the country settlements along the Rhine. And the heart of their empire is exactly where the
27:00Nibelungen saga is set. Worms.
27:10And just as in the saga, the real Burgundians are doomed. In around 435, they are defeated by Roman and Hun troops.
27:26King Gunther's character is based on the real Burgundian King Gundahar.
27:34And King Etzel has a real counterpart too, Attila, legendary leader of the Huns.
27:41Like Etzel, Attila is said to have been married to a Germanic woman.
27:45So the Nibelung lead mixes reality with fiction. There were real groups of people called the Burgundians,
27:52and this is a story about the fall of those great groups of people. We also have the Hun, who are
27:58mythologised as being incredibly scary. So the fact that it has this central core of reality means that
28:05we can actually believe all aspects of the myth, which makes them more powerful.
28:09If the protagonists of the saga really existed, then the Nibelung treasure could also be real.
28:16But where is it hidden? The Nibelung treasure can definitely exist. Between the 3rd and the 6th
28:22centuries, people buried things constantly, particularly precious metals, gold, silver,
28:29jewellery, dishes, weapons. And indeed, silent witnesses of the era occasionally emerged from the Rhine.
28:36The last sensational find dates back to 1967, when dredgers came across an incredible treasure
28:44in a gravel pit. Heino Neumeier, curator of the Neues Museum Berlin, safeguards the treasure,
28:52known as the Horde of Neupots. What we have here is really extraordinary, really unique.
28:59It's the biggest horde from Roman times that was ever found north of the Alps.
29:03Goodness. Richly adorned weapons and vessels, silver, bronze, copper, the value of the raw materials
29:10alone is quite impressive. A huge treasure, like the one in the Nibelungenlied. The coin finds
29:18dated relatively clearly to the year 259, 250 years before the events in the Nibelung saga.
29:25It's not Siegfried's gold, but a silver lining nevertheless. The real treasure might still be
29:32out there, waiting to be discovered. The possibilities are unlimited, because the
29:37course of the river has changed over the centuries. What used to be the bottom of the Rhine is dry land
29:42today. Amateur researchers are scouring the woods along the shores of the Rhine with metal detectors,
29:49sometimes with great success. In 2014, Benjamin Chen finds gold and silver jewelry worth more than a
29:56million euros. The find of his life.
30:05Of course, we felt a certain adrenaline rush as we found all the individual parts,
30:10and saw how they shimmered all silver and gold. It's the best outcome for any treasure hunter.
30:20He films the entire hoard at his home and proudly presents his discovery online.
30:26The most beautiful piece. Unfortunately, the gems are missing. They probably fell out.
30:35The video attracts the attention of the authorities, who then seize the treasure. It ends up in the
30:41State Museum of Koblenz. Experts determined that the gold came from the Huns. While it's not the
30:49Nibelung treasure, it is proof that the Huns were near the Rhine, at the same time as the Burgundians.
30:56Another find that keeps the myth of the Nibelung treasure alive, and raises hopes that the Rhine is
31:02yet to reveal its greatest secret.
31:08Myths often revolve around real historical figures. After all, human history has produced legendary rulers
31:15like Attila, the King of the Huns. Feared during his lifetime, he became a myth after his death.
31:23It's the year 453. Although Attila has already suffered his first military defeat, he is still the
31:41powerful ruler of an impressive empire. His marriage to Ildico, a Germanic princess,
31:48is supposed to further stabilize Attila's power. But the honeymoon phase doesn't last long.
31:55Attila dies the night they were married. Was it an accident or murder?
32:00Attila. Today, it seems likely that the King died as a result of his excessive drinking.
32:08The greatest unsolved mystery, where is his tomb?
32:11Attila. His dead body is said to be protected by three layers of iron, silver, and gold. Allegedly,
32:23Attila's followers cut off their hair and scratched their faces to mourn his death with blood instead of
32:29tears. But where could he be buried? It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. The Huns were on the move in almost all of Europe.
32:42In the west, they enter the stage of history in the fifth century AD. In bloody battles,
32:48the warrior horsemen advanced deep into the heart of Europe. Their greatest enemies, the Romans.
32:54We don't know exactly why the Huns started to move. Perhaps it was climate change. Perhaps they were
33:03searching for new fertile land, for their growing numbers of horsemen. But we are certain that when
33:08they started to move, they pushed in front of them tens of thousands of people, and they fought those
33:13tribes as well, pushing them up against the walls of the Roman Empire. Attila was probably the most
33:21successful Hun leader. He knew how to unite the feuding tribes. Today, we don't even know what he
33:29looked like, because there are no written documents. The Huns were an illiterate people. The only reports about
33:37them come from their enemies. The former Hun Empire is mainly located in today's Hungary. Remains of the
33:45warriors on horseback are scattered all across the country. To really understand the Huns, scientists
33:52study their dead. Archaeologist Gabor Wilhelm specializes in excavating antique tools.
34:01Only recently, Wilhelm's team discovered a particularly spectacular object. It is the skull
34:06of a warrior who lived at the same period as Attila. He was buried in a Hun ritual.
34:12This tomb is an important find, because there are still many unanswered questions on the Huns.
34:23Thanks to written tradition, we know a few things about Attila, but finds from this era are rare.
34:33Even the smallest artifacts help us to complete this mosaic, this puzzle.
34:38But who is this mysterious Hun warrior? The tomb is unusually exquisite. Golden jewelry, belt buckles,
34:49an iron sword. No doubt, this has to be the grave of a powerful man.
34:57Unfortunately, it's not Attila. The warrior died young. Attila, however, probably lived until the age of 50.
35:04Attila was buried. He was buried with precious treasures, gold, silver, and invaluable riches for those who find his tomb.
35:16He is said to have been buried under a river in a secret ceremony.
35:20Riverbeds are wonderful locations for preserving historic material. There is no air, and that means that the material can be preserved for centuries.
35:32So there's every chance that if we found the right place, then Attila's burial chamber would be preserved just perfectly.
35:38But how could a king be buried under a river?
35:46With islands to shorten the dam, a natural barrier would mean the water only needs to be dammed on one side,
35:53while the other side serves as a natural drain. Later, a wall can be built on that side too.
36:00This way, Attila's men might have been able to dig a grave that could be flooded afterwards.
36:09But the Danube has changed its course over the centuries. Where are you supposed to start looking?
36:18We found Roman materials and far older relics along the Danube. I don't see why we wouldn't
36:22be able to find memories of the Huns if not Attila's grave itself.
36:26Not all researchers believe in the underwater theory. They are looking somewhere else.
36:34Budapest. This is where the life's work of an unknown author is stored. The Hungarians refer to
36:41him as Anonymous. His work is titled The Gesta Hungarorum, The Deeds of the Hungarians.
36:49The 800-year-old manuscript mentions the city of King Attila.
36:55But where is this ancient royal city? Some think it could be the medieval town of Sicambria.
37:04Sicambria is believed to be lost, but its ruins might be found in the woods of the Piliš mountains.
37:12Ecologist Imri Lansky has followed The Gesta Hungarorum and is convinced that he's found the remains of the
37:18ancient city in this forest. I'm standing on the wall of Attila's castle. The wall was already here back then.
37:29If he is right, Attila's tomb might also be hidden somewhere among these trees and rocks.
37:35Lansky starts drilling into the ground. He hopes to find a cavity hiding the tomb of Attila.
37:45An endoscope camera probe slowly makes its way through the soil.
37:49This is a fragmented stone. And the rock is not the same.
37:59But whether Attila was really buried in this forest remains unclear.
38:04The same goes for the question as to who Attila really was, a cruel barbarian or a skillful negotiator.
38:11The only way to find out is to discover his tomb.
38:16But great myths are more than just windows into the past.
38:22Some ancient myths have stood the test of time and are echoed in urban legends to this day.
38:28The infamous werewolves have become an integral part of today's pop culture.
38:33They are the epitome of evil. We have an innate fear of horrible beasts,
38:38and we crave danger just as much as we are scared of it.
38:4818th century France, an eerie creature wanders the wood of Gervodon in the south of the country.
39:01It is soon dubbed the Beast of Gervodon. It targets women and children.
39:06The victims have one thing in common. They have claw marks.
39:12Bernard Soulier is a writer and an expert in local history.
39:17He knows everything about the documents describing the Beast.
39:23The Beast often attacked people on these paths.
39:26Like the time they found a 16-year-old girl here in 1765.
39:29Her name was Agnès Murk. The Beast decapitated her. They found her dead body and her head,
39:38which had been severed from the rest of the body.
39:41Those beheadings are what the experts find most disturbing.
39:46I think there's some resemblance between this animal and the wolf.
39:49But there's one major difference, and that's its aggressive behavior.
39:57The Beast is said to have killed at least 78 people and beheaded 16 of them.
40:03Some of the victims were naked. People start panicking.
40:07Could the attacker be a werewolf? A creature half-man, half-wolf?
40:11Werewolves. Werewolves. They are the embodiment of evil.
40:16Their transformation begins at full moon.
40:21Fur grows all over the body. Muscles grow beyond human proportions.
40:25Fingernails turn into sharp claws. Hands become paws.
40:30The werewolf has the upright posture and intelligence of a human, but attacks its victims with the force of a predator.
40:45The werewolf is an ideal figure of horror, partly because it reminds us of our animalistic side
40:50and the fact that we are only a few steps from reverting to it. But also, they are the embodiment of evil.
40:56The way we picture werewolves today has primarily been influenced by horror movies.
41:04But the descriptions of shapeshifters are much older.
41:08In about 700 BC, Greek poet Hesiod mentions a man-wolf for the first time.
41:16Zeus is said to have punished King Lycaon by turning his head into that of a wolf.
41:21The Roman author Titus Petronius then adds the full moon as a trigger.
41:28Nordic legends like Egil's saga also feature werewolves.
41:32The Germanic word ver, signifying man, gives them their name, werewolves.
41:39By the early modern period, the concept of werewolves is already widespread.
41:43The church also chases so-called werewolves during the witch hunts.
41:50The witch hunt is based on a book,
41:52Malleus Maleficarum, The Hammer of Witches by Dominican monk Heinrich Kramer.
42:00He declares that witches, magicians and werewolves live right among us.
42:04The church adopted stories of werewolves to try and keep people in line.
42:09So, as a man, if you misbehaved, if you made a pact with the devil,
42:14then you could become a werewolf.
42:16And this was the ultimate sanction to make sure that people stayed in line.
42:23The probably most well-known alleged werewolf comes from Bedburg,
42:27close to the German city of Cologne.
42:30The man is said to have haunted the region in 1589.
42:34Historian Utz-Anhalt knows the details of the case inside out.
42:45Peter Stübe, the most famous werewolf in history,
42:48is said to have committed his atrocious crimes in this forest.
42:51He confessed to killing 16 people, mainly children, and to eating them,
42:56hungry for their flesh.
42:57He also admitted to having killed and eaten livestock,
43:01and to committing incest with his own daughter.
43:08Back in his day, Peter Stübe was seen as the personification of evil.
43:14Keeping a low profile, he lives discreetly among his alleged victims for a long time.
43:19A vigilante group chases a dangerous wolf terrorizing the region.
43:26Before the beast manages to escape, one of the farmers cuts off one of its paws.
43:33Afterwards, Stübe is said to have been missing one of his hands,
43:37like the animal that lost its paw.
43:44He is arrested and confesses to all his crimes under torture.
43:48He admits having received a belt from the devil, allowing him to transform into a wolf.
43:54His fate is sealed.
43:55A court sentences him to death.
44:06A leaflet from London from 1590 tells Stübe's story like a graphic novel.
44:11They broke his arms and legs so they could wind them into the spokes.
44:20They went on and tore pieces of flesh out of his body with red-hot pliers.
44:25They beheaded his mutilated body and in the end, the entire body was burned.
44:39In ancient myths, the lines between dark forces and mythical creatures,
44:43fantastic tales and crimes of cruelty often blur.
44:47Is it possible that a human being was behind the killings in Jeuvaudon?
44:52The mysterious beast is eventually defeated by one of the locals.
44:57His name, Jean Chastel.
45:00One single shot and it's done.
45:03The bullet pierces the animal's heart.
45:08The murders stop, but the story has a dubious hero.
45:13It's the miraculous shot that raises doubts.
45:16Chastel was about 20 meters away from a moving target
45:20and killed the animal with a single shot.
45:23A level of precision nearly impossible to achieve with an 18th century weapon.
45:28Unless the beast didn't move, maybe because it recognized a hunter.
45:35Bernard Soulier has his own theory.
45:40The wolf hunters of the 18th century would catch young wolves and crossbreed them with hounds.
45:46They wanted to breed animals for greater endurance, more resilience, more strength.
45:53Such a hybrid might not fear people and could even readily attack them.
46:01So the murders might really have been committed by a creature, half man, half animal, a hound and its owner.
46:09The greatest myths also emerge in places where inexplicable phenomena cause fear in people.
46:20Bizarre lights in the sky, ships and airplanes disappearing without trace.
46:24Natural events like these are what stories are made of.
46:29People have always found the extreme weather and the ruthless sea in the Bermuda Triangle terrifying.
46:35But what's behind the secrets of the Devil's Triangle?
46:42December 5, 1945, around noon, five U.S. torpedo bombers take off from their base in Florida.
46:53It's a routine training flight.
46:55Targeted bombing and navigating above open water.
46:59Halfway there, the squadron leader reports compass problems.
47:03The pilots are disoriented.
47:06Then radio contact breaks off.
47:09To this day, all 14 crew members and their aircrafts are missing.
47:16Flight 19 became so famous because it wasn't just one plane.
47:19It wasn't just one ship.
47:21It was five planes.
47:22It was an entire squadron and they were never found.
47:25At the time of their disappearance, the men are in the middle of the infamous Bermuda Triangle.
47:33For centuries, the waters between Florida, Puerto Rico and the Bermuda Islands have been shrouded in mysteries.
47:41Over the last 100 years, more than 50 ships and 20 airplanes are said to have vanished here without a trace.
47:48The exact numbers are unknown.
47:51Time and again, eyewitnesses report bizarre phenomena in the area.
47:56Charles Lindbergh, the legendary transatlantic aviator, also had an unusual experience.
48:02On February 13th, 1928, he takes off to a non-stop flight from Havana, Cuba to his home, St. Louis, Missouri.
48:11Both compasses malfunctioned over Florida Strait.
48:16The liquid compass card rotated without stopping.
48:21Could recognize no stars through heavy haze.
48:25Liquid compass card kept rotating until the spirit of St. Louis reached the Florida coast.
48:33So we know that the compass spun around uncontrollably.
48:36He wasn't able to navigate by the stars.
48:39When he finally found out where he was, he was 300 miles off course near Bahama Island.
48:49One of the most spectacular cases is the disappearance of the USS Cyclops in 1918,
48:56a gigantic U.S. Navy vessel.
48:59In their official report, the U.S. Navy concludes,
49:02there has been no more baffling mystery in the annals of the Navy than the disappearance of the
49:07USS Cyclops. No radio messages, no distress signals, no signs of life. How can a ship of that
49:15size just vanish into thin air?
49:18Part of the fame to do with the event was also associated with the war. So she was lost during
49:23the war and there was a great deal of fear over what the Germans might be doing with their U-boats.
49:29And although the Cyclops was not in waters that should have been fought over,
49:32perhaps the Germans were operating U-boats there.
49:36So there's a lot of fear associated with the war which made this myth so powerful.
49:41For the first time, people start talking about the treacherous waters.
49:45Rumors linked German saboteurs, supernatural forces and giant sea monsters to its disappearance.
49:51Author Marvin Barash has been investigating the case for years. He's familiar with the myths surrounding
50:00the ship. However, he does not believe in a miracle. Rather, he is sure to have found a clue in the documents.
50:07There's this U.S. Weather Bureau chart that indicates that there's a large weather system on the east coast of the United States that could have
50:21indeed traveled with this large, low system into the area where the Cyclops was on her way home.
50:29But if the USS Cyclops really was in distress, why didn't she call for help?
50:36I suspect a rogue wave, the type of thing that would not have been anticipated.
50:44Without warning, no time to prepare. And I suspect likely at night.
50:49Monster waves develop when several swells of different lengths overlap.
50:58Long waves travel faster and can overtake shorter waves.
51:02As the wave heights combine, they can reach up to 30 meters.
51:09Did the USS Cyclops fall victim to such a monster wave?
51:16Could the myth of the Bermuda Triangle have a simple explanation?
51:20Like unpredictable weather?
51:22But what about the compass anomalies reported by Charles Lindbergh and others?
51:27The Bermuda Islands are the remnants of an ancient volcano formed more than 30 million years ago.
51:36Witnesses of an apocalyptic moment in the history of the planet.
51:42Nick Hutchins is exploring the underwater rocks.
51:45If we were standing in this exact spot 33 million years ago, we would be under 3,000 feet of lava.
51:54This was a big volcanic island then.
51:56Over millions of years, the volcanic rock is eroded by wind and weather and washed into the sea.
52:03Today, a layer of lava sand 150 meters thick covers the ocean floor around the islands.
52:10Hutchins believes the volcanic floor could explain some of the phenomena observed in the Bermuda Triangle.
52:17Magnetite is the most magnetic naturally occurring mineral on Earth.
52:22And the magnetite in these heavy minerals here, this is enough to affect a compass.
52:29Just this little bit here.
52:31And as you can see, as we move the compass over here,
52:38it moves.
52:40It's not a lot, three or four degrees, but that'd be enough to cause a disaster.
52:45You can imagine what 500 billion tons might do.
52:49According to that, Bermuda is a huge magnet right in the middle of the ocean.
52:55A conventional magnetic compass would suddenly point in a different direction.
52:59This can cause ships and planes to go off course.
53:02The Bermuda Triangle doesn't stand out statistically as much as it stands out in our imaginations.
53:07It becomes a place where we project whatever our myth is.
53:11If your myth is that everything's explainable, you're projecting that onto the Bermuda Triangle.
53:16If your myth is that there are aliens or Atlantis, that also is then going to be what you project onto the Bermuda Triangle.
53:26History's greatest mysteries.
53:30For millennia, they have roused our curiosity, intrigued us, or served as a warning.
53:37And so they will continue to fascinate us in the future.
53:56The Bermuda Triangle
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