NARRATOR: They're watching you.
More than 6,000 satellites circle the Earth.
Every day, they uncover new, mysterious phenomena
that defy explanation.
Terror in the Florida swamps.
What happened was probably one of
the most shameful events in American history.
NARRATOR: The lost temple of the demigod.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.
NARRATOR: And the mystery of the bullet-proof warriors.
They believed that martial arts
could actually make them invincible.
NARRATOR: Baffling phenomena, mysteries from space.
What on Earth are they?
[theme music playing]
October 2021.
Aerial archaeologists take to the skies
over the swamps of Franklin County, Florida.
On-board lasers scan the canopy below
to reveal what the human eye cannot see.
WALTERS: What we've got here is a kind of really swampy area,
and there is what looks like, frankly, a star shape
built into the swamp.
CAVELL: The interesting thing is that it's really distinct.
I mean, it is quite clearly
carved out of the environment around it.
NARRATOR: The aerial data has revealed
a massive structure swallowed by the forest,
and that's not all.
Upon looking a little closer,
you can actually see that there's
a structure within a structure.
It's one thing to have a star in the middle of the swamp.
But you've now got a star inside another star.
NARRATOR: The structure resembles the outline of a fort,
but something about it doesn't make sense.
If this is a fort, why would you
have a smaller fort inside of a larger fort?
JANULIS: This seems like overkill.
We're on a river miles inland. Why build this?
NARRATOR: Military historian Martin Morgan is
heading into the Florida wetlands
to study the mystery structure up close.
Now, the shape that's up here,
it really has me sort of confused,
because I've seen just about every fort in this country,
and this doesn't look like any that I've ever seen.
NARRATOR: Morgan's journey takes him down
the 112-mile-long Apalachicola River.
The waterway could offer a clue to the purpose of
the lost fort in the image.
The possibility I'm considering is that
this fortification was constructed by the Confederacy,
because this was
a strategically important waterway during the Civil War.
The fact that the star shape is located right here on
the Apalachicola River lends
itself to the idea that it could have been part of
Confederate defenses in the region.
NARRATOR: On April 19th, 1861,
President Abraham Lincoln orders
the blockading of southern ports,
hoping to suffocate the Confederate economies.
The so-called Anaconda Plan will see
the Union Navy patrol 3,500 miles of coastline
and estuaries,
including those down river from the site in the image.
During the Civil war, the North tried to shut off
this river to prevent the South
from being able to resupply their troops.
Stopping the flow of Confederate trade is
how they make economic war against the South.
[explosions blasting]
NARRATOR: The patrols mean that cotton exports
from the southern states fall by 95 percent,
starving Confederate forces of money
to buy food and weapons.
In response, the Confederates dispatch runners to smuggle
supplies past the Union ships and up rivers
like the Apalachicola.
This river meant you could avoid all those Union gunships
and sneak supplies right to the heart of the Confederacy.
Ah, you're a legend.
I'm not even gonna get wet. Thank you.
NARRATOR: The aerial image guides Morgan to a patch of
woodland some 15 miles from the mouth of the river.
I think I must be getting closer,
because the terrain is rising.
Makes sense.
You choose the high ground.
It's sort of military engineering 101.
NARRATOR: When Morgan reaches the site,
he discovers nature has reclaimed almost
all of the structure.
The ditch comes along that way,
and then it comes back this way.
That's the tip of the star shape right there.
It's not much, but it's something.
NARRATOR: Tracing what's left of the larger fort's walls,
Morgan discovers that it covers more than 16 acres of the swamp.
The absence of visible remains suggests
his Civil War theory was wrong.
What's apparent is that there's a lack of brickwork.
So that means that this fort would have been made of wood,
and by the Civil War, what we know is
almost all forts were made of brick.
So this fort must be older.
MORGAN: Since it's not
a masonry fortification,
I'm beginning to think that this might have
been built even before Florida was a state.
NARRATOR: Florida becomes a state in 1845,
16 years before the outbreak of the Civil War.
Before Florida becomes a state,
it's actually owned by Spain, and it was
the Spanish who conquered it in the 1500s.
NARRATOR: The Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon
reaches Florida in 1513, searching,
it's said for the fabled Fountain of Youth.
Over the following decades,
the conquistador struggled to establish a foothold here,
with many succumbing to disease
and attacks from local tribes.
It's kind of a no man's land in many respects.
Lots of swamps, lots of heavy forests, and it's
a very hard place to hang on to militarily.
[horse neighing]
NARRATOR: The Spanish finally establish control
of Florida in 1783,
but by the turn of the 19th century,
bankrupted by wars elsewhere in their empire,
the state descends into chaos.
[cannon blasting]
Spain had run out of cash,
and they were having trouble governing
such a huge place.
WALTERS: The Spanish are basically turning a blind eye
to anything that's going on.
It's almost lawless.
NARRATOR: The lack of Spanish military presence means other
foreign powers begin to vie for control of Florida.
It's a contested space between Britain, who wants to grab
a piece of it, and also America,
who are desperate to try and get a hold of the region to
complete their continental United States.
NARRATOR: Events then unfold that lead to
the creation of the shapes in the images,
ones which leave a terrible mark on both
these lands and the heart of the American people.
What happened next was probably one of
the most shameful events in American history.
JANULIS: This is a difficult topic to discuss,
because no matter how you look at it,
we were the instigators of a horrible tragedy.
NARRATOR: Coming up, Florida's long-forgotten heroes.
They serve as stark reminders that
we should never forget what happened.
NARRATOR: And slayers of the righteous.
They would roam the countryside,
inflicting their vigilante justice wherever they could.
NARRATOR: An aerial scan of Florida has
revealed a strange fort within a fort
hidden in the swamps.
To learn more, Martin Morgan is meeting with
Dawn Lawrence,
an archaeologist with the Forest Service.
-Hey. -Hello, you must be Dawn.
I am. Nice to meet you, Marty.
NARRATOR: Lawrence has spent years surveying land
around the structures.
Discoveries made nearby reveal they are the legacy of
a cataclysmic event that took place here more than
two centuries ago.
Take a look at these.
Are these bullets?
They are, but they're not just bullets,
they're melted bullets, and it's a clue to the catastrophe
that happened here.
NARRATOR: The catastrophe has its origin in
escalating trade disputes between America and Britain
in the early 19th century.
When the Royal Navy starts capturing U.S. sailors
and forcing them to work on British ships,
these hostilities reach a boiling point.
The search and seizure of American vessels is
a signal that something big is really about to kick off.
JANULIS: That's the tipping point.
We're going to war.
[gunshots blasting, shouting]
NARRATOR: On June 18th, 1812,
the U.S. declares war on the most powerful
militarized empire in human history.
JANULIS: The British rule the waves,
and our first few battles were so bad,
the British were able to march right to
the White House and burn it to the ground.
NARRATOR: After taking Washington and Detroit,
the British turn their attention to
Spanish-controlled Florida.
What the British are trying to do is
take advantage of Spanish weakness in the area.
They just don't have the manpower that they
would need to be able to repel the British.
To add to that, Florida is a huge strategic advantage,
because it's the best access point to the Gulf of Mexico.
NARRATOR: In 1814, the British constructed the larger fort in
the image, hoping to use it
as a base to assault key southern cities.
The British chose this spot for
their fort, because it was incredibly tactical.
This was where they launched a lot
of their attacks on New Orleans and Mobile.
NARRATOR: The British also used the force to recruit indigenous
warriors and escaped slaves to help them attack
U.S. targets.
They are known as colonial marines.
The British realized that slaves in the American South
would be more than happy to fight against their owners.
WALTERS: Over time, the number of free people
living here gets larger and larger,
and it becomes this real beacon of hope
and resistance.
BROWN: This fort was full of not only militia men,
but it was also a place where
women and children could exist, as well.
NARRATOR: At the height of the war,
more than 1,000 soldiers and their families live in
and around the fort.
This location was a shining example of black people
fighting to emancipate themselves
from white slave owners.
It became a symbol of that, embodied in a star.
NARRATOR: In 1815, the British suffer a catastrophic
defeat during the Battle of New Orleans,
an engagement which cements America's victory.
When they withdraw from Florida,
many freed slaves choose to remain at the fort,
[shouting]
a decision that infuriates plantation owners
across the South.
[shouting]
They felt like it was really an affront to have all of these
free black militarized people living right on the other side
of the border.
This fort is a huge threat to
the white plantation owners in the region.
According to them, it has to go.
[horse neighing]
NARRATOR: In July 1816, future president, Andrew Jackson,
orders an assault on the fort.
A few days later, a gunboat steals up
the Apalachicola River and unleashes
a superheated cannonball known as a hot shot.
So that heated cannonball struck the worst place possible.
It hit the powder magazine, and it caused a massive explosion
that some people say you could feel a hundred miles away
in Pensacola.
NARRATOR: The explosion vaporizes the fort and kills
around 270 people.
The place that had become such a powerful
symbol of freedom and resistance for so many
was taken out with one single cannonball.
A. MORGAN: There were body parts and limbs
scattered throughout the trees in the area.
It caused even the most hardened
soldiers to break down in tears.
What happened to the survivors after the explosion?
Those who did survive were sold back into enslavement.
So it was really the end of
this community in the worst way possible.
NARRATOR: In 1818, U.S. forces construct a second,
smaller stronghold where the larger fort once stood.
It is abandoned three years later.
Today, the shadows of the terrible events witnessed
here are revealed once again from the skies.
These images trace the scars of some of the darkest parts of
American history,
and they serve as stark reminders that we should never
forget what happened here.
NARRATOR: Coming up, tombs of the blood kings.
They were a remarkable culture,
but there was a dark side to them, as well.
NARRATOR: And the lost temple
of the ancient super warrior.
He was one of the greatest generals
in the history of the world.
NARRATOR: October 30th, 2021.
A satellite flying over eastern China captures
something extraordinary concealed
in the landscape below.
There's about half a dozen of these unusual shapes,
with a central area that is much larger.
WALTERS: They're etched, or built, into the ground,
and there's no clear reason as to why they're here.
NARRATOR: The giant symbols appear to be made from stone.
NARDI: Given that they're cross-shaped,
perhaps there's some link to Christianity.
However, they would only be something
you could really see from the air.
NARRATOR: Christians in China have long been persecuted for
their faith.
So if they are related to religious worship,
then that would make sense to have them
hidden from normal sight.
NARRATOR: Chinese emperors first banned Christianity in 845 CE,
decreeing that it is a dangerous foreign ideology.
During the 19th century,
it makes a return when thousands
of missionaries travel to the country.
China was seen as a possible
fertile new ground for Christian conversion.
[church bell tolling]
The number of Anglican missionaries
from Britain went up a hundredfold.
NARRATOR: Around the same time,
economic disputes lead to conflict between
London and Beijing.
The so-called Opium Wars end in a British victory
and result in waves of persecution against Westerners
in China.
There was a group of rebels that became known as
the Boxers that led a violent uprising
against this western intrusion.
KOUROUNIS: They would roam the countryside,
inflicting their vigilante justice wherever they could on
Chinese Christians and any
Christian missionaries that they happen to come across.
NARRATOR: The boxers believe themselves to be bulletproof.
Between 1899 and 1901, they slaughter over
30,000 Christians and forced countless others into hiding.
Is it possible that this is some way that Christians were
able to display their faith in a manner that wouldn't be
immediately obvious to the oppressors?
NARRATOR: When investigators excavate
the structures, they discover that they are indeed connected
to a period of extreme bloodshed,
but one from an earlier time in China's past.
Archaeological investigations have shown that they're far, far
older and have nothing to do with Christianity.
In fact, what they are, are the royal tombs
of the Shang dynasty.
NARRATOR: The Shang dynasty rises to power in 1600 BCE.
They are pioneers in the fields of math
and astronomy and invent the first form of
Chinese writing.
HORTON: In many ways, the Shang are the founders
of Chinese cultural identity,
but there was a dark side to them, as well.
NARRATOR: Much of the Shangs' history is recorded in
the blood they spilled during their long military campaigns.
The Shang kept a very large, standing army
and were very successful in the field of battle.
KOUROUNIS: Their military might was unparalleled.
They developed things such as horse-drawn chariots.
Then they developed the compound bow.
At the time,
these were absolutely revolutionary technologies.
NARRATOR: The Shang go on to rule
a 480,000-square-mile empire,
a territory larger than Texas.
They construct the monumental tombs in the image
to honor the kings that have brought them glory.
HUNT: These structures tell us how powerful the Shang were
and how they wanted to manifest
their power by these massive tombs.
NARRATOR: Excavations of the tombs reveal that the Shang
did not restrict their bloodshed to the battlefield.
HORTON: Within these tombs, we find sacrificed bodies
literally stacked up
in the corridors leading to the main burial chambers.
NARRATOR: The Shang believe that supernatural beings
govern natural phenomena, like drought and storms.
To appease these spirits,
their kings slay up to 300 people at
a time and inter them in the tombs.
[distant screaming]
Not only were people sacrificed, but the manner
in which they were sacrificed was absolutely horrific.
WALTERS: I mean, you've got things like
beheading, dismembering, and even being buried alive.
NARRATOR: As the Shangs' power grows,
so does the amount of ritual
slaughter witnessed at the royal tombs.
Over a 200-year period,
some 13,000 people meet their end here.
Ruling class families became more
and more competitive with each other.
And war parties were sent out to
bring back victims specifically for
sacrificial burials -- this is insane.
NARRATOR: In 1046 BCE,
the neighboring Zhou dynasty invades and overthrows
the Shang, ending their five-century rule.
More than 3,000 years later, satellites are
helping to uncover its long-buried secrets.
AUERBACH: What we find in these tombs is really a testament
to both the brilliance of this dynasty,
but also its brutality.
NARRATOR: Coming up, a 3000 year old mystery
rises from the depths.
It could represent one of
the biggest archaeological finds of the century.
NARRATOR: And the miracle of Easter Island.
This was a godsend, because it kept these people alive.
NARRATOR: December 21st, 2021.
A satellite orbits over Cadiz in Spain,
one of the oldest cities in Europe.
When researchers combine aerial images of its historic
port with radar data,
they discover something that intrigues archaeologists.
To the untrained eye,
there may not seem like much to see here,
but just off the coast, there's some kind of structure.
HORTON: This is a massive building,
which is now underneath the water.
NARRATOR: The 500,000-square-foot structure
has apparently been submerged for many centuries.
A building on that scale from
the ancient world was very, very rarely discovered.
HUNT: Whatever this structure is,
it has the potential to be a spectacular
archaeological find.
NARRATOR: Analysts study the city's archives.
It transpires that the structure's outline
matches that of a legendary temple
lost to history 1,500 years ago.
The temple is mentioned in multiple ancient sources,
but the exact location of it has remained a mystery.
WALTERS: This temple has
an absolutely fascinating history.
I mean, it's one that kind of
charts the course of the ancient world.
NARRATOR: The temple's story begins
more than 3,500 years ago,
when the Phoenician civilization
emerges from the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Phoenicians were the best traders of the ancient world.
The Phoenicians have a very great
influence on the development of the Mediterranean
in ancient times.
NARRATOR: The Phoenicians establish trade routes
across Europe and West Africa,
and, according to some sources, even reach the Americas.
In the 12th century BCE,
they found the city of Cadiz,
and on its shores, construct
a huge temple to their god, Melqart.
One of Melqart's duties was to protect from attack.
so it makes sense that a temple of Melqart
would be built here, on the edge of the
Phoenician Empire, an area most under threat.
NARRATOR: By the third century BCE,
the Phoenicians are known as the Carthaginians,
and a threat rises from the east that
will test all of Melqart's powers of protection.
In the 3rd century BC,
there were two competing global
powers for control of the Mediterranean.
On the one side, there was Rome,
and on the other side was Carthage.
NARRATOR: Rome and Carthage meet on the battlefield
during the First Punic War,
with the Romans ultimately emerging victorious.
Two decades later, when the Carthaginians
plot their revenge,
the temple plays a role in one of the most incredible military
campaigns in history.
One very famous Carthaginian general makes a stop here
before he begins his campaign
through Spain to attack Italy, and that,
of course, is Hannibal.
HORTON: Before he embarked on this expedition,
he went to provide offerings to
the gods there that his mission would be successful.
NARRATOR: Hannibal then assembles his forces
and war elephants and marches towards Rome,
hoping to attack Italy's poorly-defended
northern border.
AUERBACH: He takes his entire army and several dozen elephants
and does at the time was considered the impossible.
He marches them across the greatest
natural barrier known in the ancient world, the Alps.
Hannibal's epic march sees 30,000 soldiers,
15,000 horses, and around 40 war elephants
scale mountain passes more than 6,000 feet high.
It is an incredibly arduous passage.
He loses thousands of men,
but he retains the element of surprise.
HUNT: The Romans thought they could handle Hannibal.
Well, they were wrong.
He marches into Italy and beats
the Romans decisively at four battles.
NARRATOR: Despite his initial successes,
Hannibal fails to defeat Rome itself.
While his army remains deadlocked in Italy,
more Roman forces head for Cadiz under the command of
General Scipio Africanus.
The Romans were able to counterattack and captured
Spain, and when they did that,
they renamed their temple and dedicated it to a demigod,
Hercules.
Hercules was worshiped a lot around
the Roman Empire, because he represented strength,
and as a result, this temple becomes really important.
NARRATOR: In 202 BCE,
as Scipio prepares to meet Hannibal in battle,
he reportedly visits the temple to seek
Hercules blessing.
[war cry]
Once again, the gods oblige,
and the Roman general slaughters 20,000
of Hannibal's troops, ending Carthaginian resistance.
In the period that follows, it becomes a go-to spot
for those seeking Hercules's blessing
and it's visited by some of the most famous figures
in the ancient world.
HORTON: The most famous was Julius Caesar, who had reputedly
wept in front of the statue of Alexander the Great
that was located there.
NARRATOR: The temple remains a focal point for Roman worship
for two centuries before it is swallowed by the seas.
Investigations are ongoing, and archaeologists plan to
explore the site to uncover its lost secrets.
If this is it, we've discovered not only
an incredible ancient structure,
but a link to all these fascinating histories that
spanned generations and empires.
NARRATOR: Coming up, something big and weird in Canada.
For some reason, they're in almost a perfect circle.
NARRATOR: And the island of a thousand mysteries.
There's a lot about it that we find strange and inexplicable.
NARRATOR: April 2019.
Eyes in the sky scan Canada's vast, verdant interior.
We're looking here at the Ontario forests.
And it's really strange, because in
the midst of the forest are these circles.
SPICER RICE: This is really odd.
It doesn't seem to be like there's any clear pattern
to them,
and if you look at the scale, they're huge.
NARRATOR: The mystery rings range from about
160 feet to one mile in diameter.
The other thing is that there's
no human infrastructure in view, right?
There's not even a road.
And so, you know, this looks like
it must be some kind of natural phenomenon.
One possibility is that these are meteor impacts,
where rocks have come through the atmosphere and smashed into
this surface, creating craters.
NARRATOR: During its 4.5-billion-year history,
over 100 large asteroids have punctured the Earth's surface.
Some have created giant circular patterns in
the Canadian forests,
such as the 200-million-year-old Lake Manicouagan.
Is it possible that these rings could actually
be defining the edges of craters
out in the middle of this forest?
NARRATOR: Investigations on the ground revealed
this can't be the case.
What we see is that these rings
are formed because of stunted trees.
KAYS: There are some trees that grow less than other trees,
and for some reason, they're doing it
in almost a perfect circle.
NARRATOR: A clue to the weird forest circles could come
from further aerial images captured
more than 7,000 miles away.
As strange as this is,
it's not a phenomenon unique to this spot.
There are areas near the border of Namibia
and South Africa that also contain circles.
They're called fairy circles.
NARRATOR: Fairy circles are rings of vegetation found in
arid, sandy soil and have long baffled scientists.
Like the forest rings in Canada,
they are spread over thousands of square miles.
In Africa, the local Himba tribe
brought their cattle to these circles,
believing that their ancestors had filled them with magic
powers to protect the cattle from predators.
SPICER RICE: Scientists used to think that it was caused
by termites, but at present,
the best explanation that we can find is toxic sap.
NARRATOR: Some desert plants contain poisonous sap,
which local tribes use to tip their hunting arrows.
According to research, the sap also repels water.
So in the ground, it creates barren
patches of soil surrounded by healthy vegetation.
These dead zones are devoid of plant life,
but the areas around them aren't.
So they create these strange circle shapes.
NARRATOR: In Canada, researchers take
samples of soil from beneath the forest rings.
Instead of toxic sap, they discover
something shocking.
The ground is inhabited by a bacteria
that can generate electricity,
and these bacteria are the root cause
for the forest rings.
NARRATOR: The bacteria are called geobacter,
and they appear to exist
in giant circular subterranean colonies.
Studies suggest that geobacter at the edge of the colony
generate an acid,
which changes the composition of the surrounding soil.
KAYS: This unusual combination of elements
in the ground causes something extraordinary,
a kind of natural battery.
NARRATOR: As the subterranean battery eats away at the soil,
it creates a ring-shaped depression in the forest.
CERVENY: The depression becomes swampy,
creating a distinct ring pattern
when you view it from the air.
NARRATOR: What puzzles scientists is that geobacter
are found all over the world,
but only here have such vast numbers
been captured from space,
creating patterns that stretch over huge distances.
The idea that microscopic bacteria can create not only
a mile-wide forest ring,
but thousands of these rings, is really quite amazing.
NARRATOR: Coming up, land of the disappeared.
SALAITA: When the Europeans first arrived,
they witnessed something completely baffling.
NARRATOR: September 27th, 2021.
A satellite above the south pacific scans Easter Island,
some 2,400 miles from civilization.
Easter Island is one of the most isolated
inhabited places in the world,
and it's had a long and strange history.
The most famous element of the island and one of
the most mysterious are the giant stone statues
that dot it,
and we're still not entirely sure why they
were created or how they were put in place either.
NARRATOR: The 887 stone monoliths are known as Moai.
They were erected by the Rapa Nui,
a civilization who ruled the seas here
until the 19th century.
What intrigues archaeologists isn't just why they created
the Moai, but how they prospered
on this remote barren outcrop for so long.
Easter Island is not a lush tropical island.
It's dry and volcanic.
But somehow, the indigenous people
who lived here thrived for centuries.
NARRATOR: At one stage, it's believed Easter Island
supported up to 20,000 Rapa Nui,
but aerial images reveal the 64-square-mile landmass
has no rivers, streams, or permanent lakes.
One of the questions has been,
where did this ancient culture get its drinking water?
How could they support a huge
population with very limited water resources?
NARRATOR: A bizarre clue comes from accounts written
by European explorers in the 18th century.
When the Europeans first arrived in the 1700s,
they witnessed something completely baffling.
They were amazed to observe that the Easter Islanders
collected their water from the sea and drank it,
and we all know that sea water is a terribly dangerous
and toxic thing to drink.
NARRATOR: Historians have long dismissed these accounts.
But in June 2021, when researchers conduct
infrared drone scans of the same coastal waters,
they discover something strange.
SALAITA: This is really weird.
We would expect that the thermal imaging would show
us that the ocean would be
roughly the same temperature and therefore the same color,
but what we're seeing is that in these inlets,
it's substantially cooler than the ambient ocean.
It doesn't make sense that
the sea is just chilling in those places.
Where is that cold water coming from?
NARRATOR: Samples taken from the cooler blue patches of
ocean revealed they contain pools of drinkable water,
pools large enough to sustain thousands of people.
The drone imagery has helped to answer the mystery
of what the Europeans thought
the ancient Easter Island people were doing,
drinking salt water.
NARRATOR: Geologists believe these pools of fresh water have
been created by rare phenomena called freshwater seeps.
The land that makes up this island is volcanic
and porous rock,
and what happens when the rainwater drips down,
it seeps into this porous rock and slowly
starts to bubble up right at the coastline where these
people were able to drink it.
These freshwater seeps were salty,
but it was still drinkable.
NARRATOR: Around 22 million Olympic swimming pools
of fresh water percolates through the island
and into the inlets around the coast each year
On an island where there are
no permanent surface rivers or streams,
this strange sort of quirk of the island was
actually a godsend, because it kept these people alive.
NARRATOR: What's more, when scientists study
the location of the freshwater pools,
they discover something extraordinary.
These researchers found that there's even a correlation
between freshwater sources
and where the inhabitants placed the large Moai statues.
NARRATOR: Studies found that all the Moai stand near
freshwater sources, like those revealed
by the infrared imaging.
RUBEN: For centuries,
visitors to this island have wondered what the giant statues
are doing there, and now, it seems we may finally understand
that perhaps they're guarding these sources of fresh water,
or at least marking where they are.
NARRATOR: During the 19th century, the Rapa Nui
civilization collapses,
and many of the Moai topple over.
Some speculate that these events could be linked to
changes in the freshwater seeps revealed from the skies.
The answer, like much of this island,
remains shrouded in mystery.
Perhaps these seeping aquifers
were unable to produce
enough water to sustain the population.
It's likely that the local inhabitants became angry
at these ancestral gods and toppled these statues over.