NARRATOR: They're watching you.
More than 6,000 satellites circle the Earth.
Every day, they uncover new, mysterious phenomena
that defy explanation.
The mystery of the king,
the cult, and the hunt for the Lost Ark.
HORTON: This is one of the most bizarre
things I've ever come across.
NARRATOR: World War Weird.
These lines are part of the battle against
the deadliest foe that the world has ever faced.
NARRATOR: And revealed from the skies,
the ghost town that helped build America.
The entire town was left to nature to completely
reclaim it.
NARRATOR: Baffling phenomena, mysteries from space.
What on Earth are they?
[theme music playing]
February 2022.
Mark Horton is journeying through Ireland,
hooked by something bizarre seen from space.
I'm well intrigued by this image,
and that's why we have to go and investigate.
NARRATOR: The image, captured over County Meath,
reveals a code etched into the landscape.
The hills of Ireland are known for being green and lush.
But here, we have some very unusual
structure hiding in those beautiful rolling hills.
You have these two circles, and they look
like they're sort of raised out of the earth.
NARRATOR: The weird structure appears to be ancient
and measures around 500 feet in diameter.
We know that circular earthen structures built by ancient
peoples have been found elsewhere in Ireland
and Britain,
but what's really weird about these circles is
that they're conjoined in a figure of eight.
NARRATOR: Tales of mysterious rituals in
these lands stretched back for millennia,
a clue, Horton believes, that
the structures once served a ceremonial purpose.
This part of Ireland is absolutely steeped in history,
and I'm really keen
to find out how our site might fit in.
NARRATOR: Horton approaches the site from the north
through two 750-foot-long parallel banks
visible in the image.
These go on and on, as if it's drawing
me up to the center of this sacred site.
NARRATOR: Yet when the archaeologist reaches
the figure eight feature, it's not what he expected.
What I saw in the image was two
neat, intersecting circles,
but it's so much more complicated,
with humps and bumps absolutely everywhere,
kind of like waves in the sea.
NARRATOR: The shapes seen from space are,
it turns out, two mounds surrounded by several deep
ditches and banks of earth.
And at the center of the larger hill
is something not visible in the image.
HORTON: It seems to be a stone.
It's completely smooth.
It's almost...
dare one say it, slightly phallic in shape.
NARRATOR: The monolith has been worn smooth by centuries of
human hands.
And it reminds me a bit of storrs like this on the coast
of Scotland, which were used for inauguration
of their chiefs and their kings.
NARRATOR: Historical records confirm that the structure
was once one of the most important inauguration sites
of prehistoric Europe.
For millennia, it played a key role in the lives
of legendary figures called the High Kings of Ireland.
The High Kings of Ireland are shrouded in mythology
and mystery,
but the evidence suggests that this was a site of supreme
importance for a phenomenal length of time.
NARRATOR: Legend states that some of the earliest High Kings
were crowned here in the 15th century BCE
and that they gained their power by
marrying a goddess.
But it's not until centuries later that
verifiable evidence of these inauguration rituals emerges.
In the early centuries of the first millennium CE,
we know that there were over 100 kingdoms in Ireland,
each competing with one another for power.
NARRATOR: Out of these warring states
rose five principal kingdoms.
A court would then select a chieftain from one
of these realms to be the supreme leader of Ireland,
the so-called High King.
They didn't inherit the throne
or assume it through any divine right.
WALTERS: The evidence suggests that they were often symbolic
figures with this almost kind of godly status.
NARRATOR: The coronation ceremony for each new king
takes place on the site in the image,
called the Hill of Tara.
Before being inaugurated, he must touch the pillar
at its center known as the Stone of Destiny.
Legend has it that the stone would cry out if it was
touched by a true High King,
and that this cry would be heard all over
the Emerald Isles.
HORTON: All these
amazing earthworks on top of the hill
must have underpinned the power and authority
of the High Kings of Ireland.
NARRATOR: For 2,500 years,
the Hill of Tara is one of the most hallowed sites
in Ireland,
where over 140 kings are crowned.
Yet, as Horton consults recent geological surveys of the site,
he spots something close to the giant rings
that doesn't fit with this sacred landscape.
This is
an incredible image.
Most of the site has nice, rounded mounds,
but this bit is quite different.
Something really odd has been going on here.
NARRATOR: The image reveals that, at some point in
the past, part of the site has been repeatedly excavated.
Somebody's come in
and essentially desecrated this sacred place.
I mean, it's all very peculiar.
NARRATOR: An early 20th century photograph of
the event offers a bizarre and disturbing clue.
The people that were digging here was a cultish
group who believed that underneath the Hill of Tara
was buried the Ark of the Covenant, and it's one
of the most extraordinary, weird stories I've ever heard.
NARRATOR: Coming up, the hunt for the Lost Ark.
The Egyptian princess carried it with her from Egypt,
and it was buried on this hill.
NARRATOR: And kill or cure -- history's mystery medicines.
Some of the treatments ranged from
eating spiders to drinking your own urine.
NARRATOR: Lured by mysterious structures captured
from space, archaeologist Mark Horton
is at the Hill of Tara,
the coronation sight for the High Kings of Ireland.
This is the sacred heart of the island of Ireland.
NARRATOR: A 120-year-old photograph reveals that part of
the sacred site has been desecrated by a mysterious cult.
JANULIS: The desecration was actually done
by the British Israelites, who believed
that this was the location of the famed Ark of the Covenant.
NARRATOR: The British Israelites is a movement
founded in the 1840s.
Its members believe that they are direct descendants
of one of the lost tribes of Israel,
as documented in biblical texts.
JANULIS: It's a Christian movement formed by
British people who looked for evidence
to prove that they were one of
God's chosen people.
NARRATOR: The cult's beliefs
appeal to groups of white nationalists
and soon grows in numbers and power.
This idea that the Anglo-Saxons were descended from
a favored Israelite tribe caught on
in the United States, and the impact of this movement
is still being felt today.
NARRATOR: As the cult grows, it creates its own mythology
based on pseudo history and elements of Irish folklore.
In the 1890s, it proclaims that the Hill of Tara
is, in fact, a spiritual capital of the British Empire,
and within it is buried the Ark
of the Covenant and the Ten Commandments.
They had this strange myth that an Egyptian princess
carried it with her from
Egypt, and then she married
a chieftain, and then it was buried on this hill.
NARRATOR: In 1899, the group begins to excavate the site,
creating scars visible in the satellite image.
The desecration enrages many Irish and fuels
resentment of British rule of their country.
HORTON: The sheer arrogance of the British Israelites,
to think that they could come over from Britain
and desecrate one of Ireland's
most sacred and ancient sites.
And so what this did was helped reawaken
Irish Celtic nationalism,
and this led to the Irish revolution.
NARRATOR: The cult's vandalism of the Hill of Tara
ultimately helps Ireland gain its independence.
But the role this extraordinary place played
in this country's history doesn't end there.
There is, of course, no connection whatsoever
between the Ark of the Covenant and the Hill of Tara.
But there is another story, which might
well have a grain of truth in it.
The Hill of Tara also has
an important role to play in
the story of the man credited with bringing Christianity to
Ireland, St. Patrick.
NARRATOR: The story begins in the early 5th century CE.
St. Patrick was a Roman citizen who was captured and sold into
slavery in Ireland, but he was able to escape
and go to Britain.
In Britain,
he studied to become a priest, and when he returned
to Ireland, it was as a missionary.
NARRATOR: In March 433 CE,
Patrick travels to the Hill of Tara
hoping to convert the High King and his subjects
to Christianity.
In defiance of pagan tradition,
he lights a bonfire on the nearby Hill of Slane.
By placing his Easter fire up here,
he was making a statement about the arrival of
Christianity in opposition
to the pagan fires that were burning on the Hill of Tara.
NARRATOR: The fire enrages the High King,
who dispatches warriors to arrest St. Patrick.
Well, St. Patrick's powers of persuasion are so good,
he actually converts some of
the king's warriors to Christianity.
HUNT: St. Patrick's conversion of many of the Irish
from Tara is the advent of Christianity in Ireland.
NARRATOR: Now, the site seen from space represents
the link between pagan and Christian Ireland.
And it's also a symbol of the country's
journey from British rule to freedom and independence.
What this place tells me is how the past
shapes the present and probably also will forge the future.
NARRATOR: Coming up,
the bug that fought for America's freedom.
America might owe its very independence to this disease.
NARRATOR: And Putin's secret death squads.
There is really no oversight of this group
and what they get up to.
NARRATOR: August 2018 -- aerial surveys of
the coastline near Barnstable, Massachusetts, spot
something unusual.
We're clearly looking at what appears to be a wetland region,
but alongside these meandering waterways,
you can see these dead straight lines carved out in
perfectly symmetrical rows.
Some of them are vertical, some are horizontal.
There seems to be no rhyme
or reason to the pattern of these lines.
NARRATOR: The strange carvings stretch out across
50 miles of the semi-submerged landscape.
To have this level of construction
in a marshland region, I would assume that this must
be some sort of government initiative.
NARRATOR: Analysts use Maxar's SecureWatch technology
to scan other U.S. wetlands for clues.
This site in Louisiana has very similar-looking parallel
lines, interconnecting with more natural waterways
in the area.
We know these waterways were constructed
during World War II for the war effort.
NARRATOR: Louisiana's bayous ran slow and silent for
countless millennia.
That changes in the 1940s, when they become
a focal point of U.S. efforts to power its war machine.
One of the things we see in the Second World War
is this massive uptick in consumption of oil.
This is what's driving the jeeps
and the trucks and tanks and the planes across Europe.
NARRATOR: During World War II, the U.S. produces around
300,000 aircraft,
90,000 tanks, and two million army trucks.
To fuel them,
the military needs 100 times more gasoline
than it did during the First World War.
That increased demand for gas led oil companies to seek out
new fields, and one of the places they searched
was Louisiana.
NARRATOR: Over the course of the war,
prospectors discovered 29 oil fields in the state,
helping to increase national production by 30 percent.
These companies dug canals through the marshlands.
The idea was that this would allow transport ships to
get more easily from the source of the oil
to where it was being refined.
NARRATOR: Historical records reveal the waterways in
the Massachusetts image are indeed
the legacy of warfare,
but one waged against an enemy that
has killed many more people than the Nazis.
These lines are trenches dug as part of the battle against
the deadliest foe that America and the world has ever faced,
the mosquito.
NARRATOR: Some scientists estimate that over history,
malaria-carrying mosquitoes have killed 52 billion people,
half of all human deaths.
The disease reportedly afflicted Tutankhamun,
Alexander the Great,
and may have even contributed to
the collapse of Rome and its empire.
Back in the day,
they didn't have a very good way of dealing with malaria.
In fact, they didn't even know it was caused by mosquitoes.
They thought it was caused by bad air.
In fact, the name malaria means bad air.
KOUROUNIS: Some of the treatments ranged from
eating spiders to drinking your own urine
to draining your blood.
Needless to say,
these treatments weren't very effective.
NARRATOR: It's believed that malaria was brought
to North America by colonists
and enslaved Africans in the 17th century.
After feasting on settlers' infected blood,
it takes hold in local mosquito populations before
spreading down the east coast.
The first western settlers in America
had a terrible time with malaria.
One of the earliest towns in
the Americas had repeated outbreaks of the disease.
Over the following decades and centuries,
malaria decimates both indigenous
and settler populations...
[gunshot blasts]
...and even plays a defining role
in the War of Independence.
The American victory at the Battle of Yorktown is,
in part, attributable to the fact
that only about half of the British troops were
considered combat effective,
the rest suffering from the debilitating effects
of malaria.
America might owe its very independence to this disease.
NARRATOR: In 1897, a British scientist
makes a discovery that ultimately
leads to the strange patterns in the image.
While dissecting a mosquito,
Sir Ronald Ross identifies the malarial parasite,
the first time a link is
established between the insect and the disease.
This allowed us to suddenly have
an opportunity to control the disease.
If we could figure out a way to control the insects.
[insects buzzing]
NARRATOR: Malaria is only carried by female mosquitoes
who breed in stagnant water.
In the early 20th century,
authorities formulate an ambitious plan to eradicate
them from vast swaths of the continental U.S.
The government decided to invest in building giant
mosquito trenches in America's wetlands,
and that's what we're looking at in this image right here.
The idea was to drain stagnant water,
taking away any type of breeding environment for
the mosquitoes to procreate.
NARRATOR: To drain the stagnant water,
562,000 acres of trenches are excavated
in salt marshes along the Atlantic coast.
The laborers are one of many groups the government puts to
work on different projects to combat
soaring unemployment across the nation.
These projects involved a huge amount of manual labor,
so it was actually a great way to keep people
employed during the Great Depression.
NARRATOR: Thanks to the trenches and the use of insecticides,
malaria is all but eradicated in the U.S. within 16 years.
Today, these scars, relics of the country's 350-year war
with the disease, are still visible from space.
It's absolutely incredible to think that something as simple
as a trench could all but rid the country
of one of history's most deadly diseases.
NARRATOR: Coming up, the Saharan riddle.
OKEREKE: It looks like the sort of thing
you would see in Star Wars, not in the African sands.
NARRATOR: And the town that became a tomb.
There wouldn't even be any time to get out of your home.
NARRATOR: January 2021.
Satellites flying over North Africa
study the desert sands below.
This photo is taken way out in the middle of nowhere in
the Libyan desert, and yet here's this enormous,
mysterious structure.
OKEREKE: It almost looks like the sort of thing
you expect to see in Star Wars,
but not in the African sands.
NARRATOR: Scans of the wider area yield a possible clue.
The structure sits alongside a 43-mile-long trench
penetrating deep into the desert.
This desert is home to the pipelines for former
Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's infamous
grand Man-Made River Project.
Perhaps this is part of that.
NARRATOR: The murderous dictator, Muammar Gaddafi,
rises to power in 1969,
appointing himself as the king of kings of Africa.
Gaddafi was seen as a madman and a tyrant, not just by
the international community,
but by his own people over whom he exerted
absolute control.
NARRATOR: To bolster his domestic power base,
Gaddafi sets out to solve a major problem facing
his country, a lack of water.
So when Gaddafi came to power,
it was his dream to exploit an aquifer that had been hiding
beneath Libya for millions of years.
NARRATOR: In 1983, Gaddafi launches the $25 billion
Great Man-Made River Project to
tap into the 36,000 cubic miles of water
hidden under the Libyan sands.
This project is the world's largest irrigation
project -- essentially,
it's a network of pipes pumping water out of the desert
reserve and sending it over to the big cities.
NARRATOR: Yet while pipelines do run through this region,
military experts reveal the trench and structure in
the image serve a very different purpose.
JANULIS: This image seems to have a sort of tactical makeup.
You've got areas where you could put defensive positions.
It's hard to tell, but I'd suggest
this is some form of military installation.
NARRATOR: Libya has been embroiled in conflict
since 2011, when a series of uprisings
known as the Arab Spring
engulfs the Middle East and North Africa.
In Libya, Gaddafi is overthrown and beaten to death.
His killing ends 42 years of tyranny.
But the country's troubles are far from over.
MUNOZ: Once Gaddafi died, you sort of ripped the lid
off of this Pandora's box of Libyan leaders
and exiles who are all sort of jockeying for position
of power in the country.
NARRATOR: In 2014, a disputed election
results in two rival factions
battling for control of Libya,
with each based on either side of the trench in the image.
As the country descends into chaos,
it begins to attract the attention of predatory
foreign powers.
Libya is a really attractive country
because of its massive oil reserves.
It has the largest in Africa
and the ninth largest reserves in the world.
NARRATOR: With some 48 billion barrels of oil reserves,
the Libyan sands have recently become a target for Russian
President Vladimir Putin.
Russia derives a lot of its income from oil,
and it's in their interest to control as much
of the oil supply in the world as possible.
This, frankly, makes Libya a great prize for the Kremlin.
NARRATOR: Intelligence reports suggest
Putin is using the site in the image to support
the Libyan National Army,
one of two forces vying for control of the country.
So what's important to know is that there are no Russian
government soldiers in the area,
but there is a private military group called
the Wagner Group, made up of
really highly trained Russian ex-servicemen.
Putin has a long history of using private security firms
like the Wagner Group to do his dirty work.
It enables him plausible deniability among world leaders.
NARRATOR: The Wagner Group is shrouded in secrecy,
but it's believed to employ 6,000 highly trained
Russian mercenaries.
[rapid gunfire]
It has been linked to atrocities in Syria
and tasked with assassinating Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky.
They rely on intimidation and terror
and have been known to torture and murder people.
But as a private secretive organization,
there is really no oversight of this group
and what they get up to.
NARRATOR: As well as gaining control of oil supplies,
the fear is Libya could give Putin
a base to launch attacks across the Mediterranean.
Having a military presence here allows Russia easy access
to the southern side of Europe and, for Putin,
the potential to surround his NATO rivals.
NARRATOR: What's more, Putin appears to have recently
established 30 other military installations
in Libya.
Satellites continue to play a key role in
monitoring his next move.
MORAN: The scale of these fortifications
shows just how seriously Putin takes
keeping Russia involved in Libya.
NARRATOR: Coming up, the white wall of terror.
Think of it as a steam train, completely unstoppable.
NARRATOR: And the river of gold.
This is truly precious stuff.
NARRATOR: July 2021.
In the skies over Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
aerial archaeologists using Lidar discover ghostly
structures hidden beneath the tree line.
If we look under this layer of vegetation,
what we can see is roads,
maybe remnants of buildings, like an abandoned town.
It's just super weird to me.
NARRATOR: The ghost town appears to house
the remains of over 30 buildings.
There's no immediate signs around here that tell me
why it was abandoned,
but it certainly was at some point, and the entire town was
left to nature to completely reclaim it.
NARRATOR: Analysts turn to local archives for clues.
KOUROUNIS: Looking at the historical records,
this town has a name -- Safe Harbor.
KAYS: Documents showed that this town was
part of the industry that really built Pennsylvania.
It was part of the iron industry.
NARRATOR: The town has its origins in the 19th century,
when the state's newly formed Pennsylvania Railroad Company
begins expanding at a frenzied pace.
[train whistle blows]
It's part of a national explosion in rail use,
which will see more than 200,000 miles of track
laid down in a little over five decades.
Each mile needs 50 tons of iron,
so the company builds an ironworks
and town for 250 workers on the Susquehanna River.
Obviously, you need a tremendous amount
of iron to build a railroad.
And the town of Safe Harbor
and the ironworks there were perfectly positioned
to provide that.
NARRATOR: Iron produced at Safe Harbor helps
the company form a 2,600-mile rail network
in just 15 years.
It will go on to carry 20 percent
of all passengers in the US.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company grew so large
and so fast that it became the largest railroad
in the entire, world with over 11,000 miles worth of tracks up
and down the eastern seaboard.
Without company towns like Safe Harbor,
none of it would have been possible.
NARRATOR: As the railroad expands, so does the town,
with new schools,
beer halls, and homes built with the money
made from making iron.
But in 1861,
its residents play a role
in a very different chapter of U.S. history.
When the American Civil War broke out,
the town of Safe Harbor was perfectly positioned
to transition from making rail lines to making gun barrels
and weapons for the Union forces.
NARRATOR: The ironworks produces the newly designed
Dahlgren guns for use on the conflict's
revolutionary ironclad warships.
The money generated from making weapons means the town
escapes the economic ravages of war,
but it turns out that there are other forces
it cannot withstand.
DENNIE: In 1904, this area experienced a winter
unlike any it had ever experienced before.
Not only did the river freeze over,
but we had up to two-feet-thick ice.
NARRATOR: Production at the ironworks grinds to a halt,
as Safe Harbor's inhabitants battled temperatures of
minus 42 degrees Fahrenheit.
The subzero conditions freeze the Susquehanna upriver
from the town, creating a giant dam of ice.
Any time you block a river,
water pressure is gonna build up behind it, and the pressure
continued to increase until eventually, the ice smashed,
and the result is
an avalanche of ice and water racing downstream,
destroying anything that it hits.
There wouldn't even be any time to react.
The water is rising so quickly,
you wouldn't even be able to get out of your home.
NARRATOR: Buildings are obliterated
by the enormous chunks of ice,
leaving survivors of the floodwaters homeless.
We completely underestimate the power of moving ice
and water.
Think of it as a steam train, completely unstoppable.
NARRATOR: In just 15 minutes, the town is wiped from the map.
Over the next 100 years, its ruins are swallowed by forest,
but today, they are being revealed
once again from the skies.
KOUROUNIS: Even though the town of Safe Harbor no longer exists,
it's amazing how much history went through this little
speck that most people have never even heard of.
NARRATOR: Coming up, the Himalayas' mystery cipher.
It looks like Lego bricks pressed into the earth.
NARRATOR: May 2020.
A satellite passing over
the Himalayas spots something strange hidden
between its peaks.
DENNIE: When you look at this image,
the first thing your eye is drawn to is this river kind of
snaking through the middle.
But if you look again,
you see these unusual-looking structures.
NARDI: There seems to be hundreds,
and they're lined up along the water's edge
along the length of the river.
RODRIGUEZ McROBBIE: It almost looks like a whole bunch of
Lego bricks have been pressed into the earth.
NARRATOR: The structures sit in a remote, steep valley,
7,500 feet above sea level.
It would be very treacherous to access.
You have to wonder what's motivating people
to go down there.
NARRATOR: Analysts wonder if the color of the structures
offers a clue.
The significance of red in Tibet is sacred.
It has to do with power and authority.
So red is confined to religious architecture
and symbolism.
NARRATOR: Nearly 80 percent of the population
follows Buddhism,
a faith that reaches Tibet in the 7th century CE
and governs almost every aspect of life here.
Buddhism is the main faith in Tibet.
So it's possible that these structures are a sacred
site where Tibetans come to meditate and seek nirvana.
NARRATOR: But more detailed analysis of the aerial images
reveals the structures don't serve a spiritual purpose.
KOUROUNIS: These aren't buildings at all.
There are thousands of salt pans,
evidence of an ancient method of
salt production that's still going strong today.
NARRATOR: There are 3,000 pans along the Lancang River,
with each one producing 1,000 pounds of salt a year.
To harvest it,
locals used techniques that have been perfected for
more than 40 generations,
using briny water stored in wells along the river.
AUERBACH: The brine is collected from the wells
and then transported to these salt pans
spread out, and then the water evaporates,
leaving the salt behind.
NARRATOR: Salt's ability to preserve food
and its use in medicines and religious rituals
made it one of the most valuable commodities of antiquity.
That meant the structures in the image were a focal
point for one of the superhighways
of the ancient world, the Tea Horse Road.
HUNT: The Tea Horse Road rivals the Silk Road
in economic importance and geographic importance.
Salt was part of the wealth brought
along that, because salt was good as money.
NARRATOR: Founded in the sixth century,
this 1,500-mile route guides caravans of horses on
a perilous six-month journey through the Himalayas,
linking China to Tibet and India.
The road is one of the riskiest trade routes in
the world.
Not only did you have to negotiate high,
unscalable mountains
and the raging rivers running through the bottoms of those
steep valleys,
bandits are everywhere waiting to take your goods from you.
NARRATOR: The salt produced in Tibet
is traded in both China and India,
earning vast riches
for those who complete the dangerous journey.
Such trade routes, or salt roads, are also vital to
the success of other great civilizations,
including the Egyptians, Romans, and Phoenicians.
The trade of salt has been fundamental throughout the ages.
We've seen it traded throughout various empires
in our history.
Roman soldiers were paid in salt.
This was called a salarium.
This is also where we get our modern word, "salary."
AUERBACH: There have been periods in history where salt
has traded for nearly twice its weight in gold.
This is truly precious stuff.
NARRATOR: In more recent times, salt produced
along the Tea Horse Road
played a role in one of the defining moments of
Asian history.
So during the British occupation of India,
there was the Salt Act of 1882, and what that meant was salt
could not be bought from anyone
else but the British rulers at the time.
AUERBACH: To add insult to injury, the British levied
an extortionate salt tax,
which inflicted tremendous suffering on
the poorest of Indians.
NARRATOR: The 1882 Act also bans the production and collection of
salt in the region,
fueling the already growing bitterness between the Indian
population towards British rule.
In 1930, this simmering resentment
reaches a boiling point.
Mohandas Gandhi, before we know him as Mahatma Gandhi, was
really anti-colonial, and he decides to stage a protest.
What Mohandas Gandhi realized is that going against
the salt tax was one of the perfect ways
to break the bonds of British authority, to protest
their colonial rule, without resorting to violence.
NARRATOR: On March 12th, Gandhi gathers his followers
and walks 241 miles toward the Indian coast.
His plan is to openly defy the 1882 Act by making salt
from seawater.
Tens of thousands joined the March along the route,
sparking peaceful protests throughout the region.
And this started the ball rolling on
what culminated in Indian independence from British rule.
NARRATOR: Today, India is one of the world's
most industrialized nations and a military superpower.
Back along the winding Tea Horse Road,
these 1,000-year-old pans continue to produce
the commodity that helped
the country gain its independence,
a reminder of the incredible role salt has played in
the rise and fall of nations, visible from the skies.
HUNT: Whether as a currency or as a commodity
or as a culinary spice,
salt again and again touches upon all of human history.