WILLIAM SHATNER: A Utopian kingdom
hidden in the Himalayas...
A city of gold, concealed in South America...
And a massive metropolis
that was found in the middle of the desert.
For centuries, archaeologists and explorers have been obsessed
with locating ancient cities that have been lost to time.
Some of these places are recorded in historical texts,
while others are simply part of oral traditions and folklore.
How does a once-thriving community become a lost city?
And if their ruins are found,
what secrets about our past might be revealed?
Well, that is what we'll try and find out.
♪ ♪
In Central Asia, along the southern border
of Tibet and China, lie the Himalayas.
The Himalayas are approximately 1,500 miles long,
and include Mount Everest,
the highest peak on Earth.
According to Buddhist spiritual beliefs
that go back thousands of years,
this vast mountain range conceals a hidden valley,
within which there is a sacred city
known as the Kingdom of Shambhala.
Shambhala has occupied people's thoughts
and dreams for centuries.
Supposedly, there is a lotus-shaped city
somewhere in the Himalayas in Tibet...
...which is Shambhala, where people live for centuries.
Where everyone is noble, everyone is good,
and everyone lives a perfect life.
Buddhism arose, roughly speaking,
about 2,500 years ago.
And there's this belief that has a long history in Buddhism
that Shambala is an almost magical hidden city
tucked away in the recesses of the mountain,
in which you have beings of incredible spiritual power
and accomplishment that reside there.
♪ ♪
CLEMENTS: If you are a citizen of Shambhala,
you are likely to end your life by achieving Buddhahood.
And you will elevate yourself
along the cycle of reincarnation.
And so Shambhala has this kind of mystic,
uh... allure attached to it.
The fact that it's perfect,
the fact that if you live there, you will elevate yourself,
has meant that many Tibetan Buddhists
are desperate to find it.
SHATNER: For more than 2,000 years, Buddhists have believed
that the Kingdom of Shambhala is a true utopia on Earth.
And then, in the early 20th century,
Shambhala was introduced to the wider world
in a book that fictionalized but also popularized the city
by giving it a new name--
Shangri-La.
PETER ATHANS: The Legend of Shangri-La
as we know it in the West
is from the book
called Lost Horizon by James Hilton...
...written in 1933.
It largely refers to a sacred
and a hidden or concealed landscape or city.
To Western audiences,
Lost Horizon was a media phenomenon.
There was a film that was released in 1937, from his book.
It really captured the imagination
to the point where
our presidential retreat that's now known as Camp David
was at one time known as Shangri-La.
CLEMENTS: The legend of Shangri-La is itself a myth.
There was no legend of Shangri-La
until 1933 when James Hilton invented it in his book.
So Shangri-La never existed.
But the inspiration to Shangri-La, Shambhala,
there's no proof that that didn't exist.
SHATNER: For centuries,
historians and religious scholars have wondered
whether Shambhala was just a myth,
or whether this lost paradise actually existed.
In modern times,
some of the first clues were documented by an explorer
named Joseph Rock,
who led a series of famous expeditions
throughout the Himalayas in the 1920s and 1930s.
Joseph Rock, in 1920, started traveling
to these tribal areas of Eastern Tibet,
the Tibetan borderlands and Western China.
And Joseph Rock, in traveling in some of
the Buddhist spiritual areas,
believed he had located something
like Shambhala
in the kingdom of what they called Muli.
There was a peak that was called Mount Yangjiang,
and Yangjiang means "wisdom" in Tibetan.
The travels Joseph Rock did in the Tibetan borderlands
and Western China really captured the imagination
of people in the West,
because there's this enchantment of humanity
for finding these
utopian, spiritual, perfect places.
SHATNER: Ultimately, Joseph Rock was not able
to find the actual ruins of Shambhala.
But in the decades since his groundbreaking expedition,
archaeologists have been inspired
to continue to search the Himalayas
for clues that this hidden utopia was,
in fact, a real place.
The Mustang Valley, Nepal.
At an elevation of more than 13,000 feet,
this green valley
that is tucked away in the Himalayas stands
in stark contrast
to the mountain peaks that surround it.
ATHANS: The Mustang Valley
runs north and south with the Himalaya
on either sides of it,
a beautiful landscape.
And for many people's appreciation,
it could resemble something like Shambala,
which might have existed millennia before.
There's an ancient walled city of Lo Manthang
in the valley,
one of the most beautiful
surviving walled cities that still exist,
and there is so much mystery about it,
so little that's really understood
because the people who currently reside there
don't have real origin stories.
SHATNER: Given the fact that Lo Manthang is
an ancient city located in a remote valley
high in the Himalayas,
some archaeologists have suggested that this area
matches the historical description of Shambhala.
And for further evidence
that this site is linked to Shambhala,
they point to a series of nearby caves
carved into the mountainside, that are referred to
as the Sky Caves.
ATHANS: Mustang's chief mystery is the Sky Caves
because there are thousands of these hand-carved
cave edifices that are in this place.
Some of them are
hundreds of feet above the ground
with no easy access apparent to anyone looking from the ground.
SHATNER: In 2008,
mountaineer Peter Athans led a team of archaeologists
on an unprecedented investigation
to explore how the Sky Caves
may be connected to Shambhala.
I was very excited about getting into some of the caves
that were higher up and more difficult to access.
We had to work with the local people
to be able to explore them.
In some cases, we found remarkable artwork.
In other cases, we found human remains.
We also found Buddhist materials,
sculptures...
...writings that indicated that some of these
early cave uses were upwards of 1000 BC.
It's a very, very deep antiquity.
The great lamas or clerics of Mustang,
all believe that it's like
a sanctuary for people to go
to gain access to the spiritual power of this environment.
So, could Mustang be something like a Shangri-La?
Could it be the mythical Shambala?
Mustang might be part of that origin story.
SHATNER: Is it possible that the ruins of Shambhala
have been found in the Mustang Valley?
And if so, was it truly an earthly kingdom,
whose inhabitants lived in paradise?
Questions like these are why Shambhala continues to
inspire fascination and wonder to this day.
If Shambala is indeed found one day,
it would open up an exciting world of possibilities
because the discovery of such a wonderous ancient city
would certainly support the possibility that others
actually exist, as well.
Including one of the most storied locations in history.
A place rumored to be filled with gold--
the lost city of El Dorado.
SHATNER: Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro
capture the Incan Emperor Atahualpa,
and kill 5,000 of his men in the course of just one hour.
Pizarro is on a quest to both
conquer the New World
and plunder as much gold as he can find.
Pizarro starts to take these gold and riches
from the kingdoms of the Andes.
And this really starts a precedent for conquistadors
trying to take riches and send them back to Europe.
This quest for gold is what drives them.
BELLINGER: From the European point of view,
once there was the hint of gold
up in the hills of South America,
it was an absolute frenzy.
The Indigenous people all around them were
literally draped in gold,
the likes of which Europeans never would see back at home.
SHATNER: As the Spanish conquistadors encountered
Indigenous people throughout South America,
they heard stories of a vast city made entirely
out of gold.
In fact, the Spanish came up with a name for the golden city.
They called it El Dorado.
The name El Dorado comes from the words,
the golden.
That's literally what it translates to.
The Spanish trekked through rain forests,
and across swollen rivers and up icy mountains
in search of what they assumed had to be
a hidden city of gold.
A place of untold riches just waiting to be plundered.
There were similarities to all of these stories
and that kept the Spaniards thinking,
"Well, maybe there's something to this.
Maybe it's not a myth."
And because they don't know exactly where it is,
it starts to be thought of as a lost city.
SHATNER: The Spanish belief that El Dorado was
a real lost city of gold
was reinforced when they came into contact
with a mysterious civilization known
as the Muisca people.
The Muisca were the Indigenous people who occupied
this particular highland area of the Andes,
which is today Colombia.
And they occupied this area for about a thousand years,
beginning in 600 AD, and in fact,
they were so sophisticated
that they really take their place alongside
better known empires in the region, such as the Inca.
LEVY: The Muisca were incredible goldsmiths.
They were really skilled
craftsmen at goldwork, finely wrought,
thinly pounded gold.
They made animals.
They made gold that was depictions of their deities.
SHATNER: Spanish conquistadors searching for El Dorado
came to believe that it was built by the Muisca,
because of a curious ritual they supposedly performed
high in the mountains, at a body of water known
as Lake Guatavita.
When the Muisca initiated a new leader,
there was a very specific ceremony that they performed...
...on Lake Guatavita.
The leader would plaster his body in gold dust.
He would climb into a raft surrounded by priests.
At his feet was a pile of offerings, gold and jewels.
Once they had paddled out to the middle of the lake,
he would make his offering to the god.
And that involved dropping all of the valuables
off the raft into the water,
and then diving in himself, so that the gold dust
would be washed from his body.
LEVY: When the conquistadors begin to hear about these rituals
that involve gold and a golden man,
it stood to reason that this place,
El Dorado,
a lost city, is going to be somewhere out there.
SHATNER: The Spanish heard rumors that the Muisca had performed
this golden ceremony at Lake Guatavita
for a thousand years,
since the beginning of their civilization.
The conquistadors believed that El Dorado must be an ancient,
hidden city where centuries earlier
the ancestors of the Muisca had stockpiled vast amounts of gold
to be used in the sacred ritual.
LEVY: As conquistadores kept trying to find El Dorado,
they found a lot of gold,
they found goldwork made by the Muisca
that was really, really elaborate.
And they kept getting just enough
to sort of tantalize them
to know or believe that there would be more,
but... they never quite found
the El Dorado that they had been looking for.
SHATNER: Although the Spanish failed in their quest to find El Dorado,
for centuries, treasure hunters from around the world
journeyed to South America in search of the lost city.
And then, in 1912, an incredible discovery was made
at the bottom of Lake Guatavita.
LEVY: Hartley Knowles, a British engineer, came
to Lake Guatavita and with a mining company
was able to completely drain the lake to the bottom.
He found gold rumored to be about $20,000 worth,
but what happened was as the lake went down,
all the silt and mud at the bottom
hardened in the sun until it was like concrete,
and they couldn't get any more gold out of the bottom.
COOPER: They cut a notch out of the side of the hill
and drained the lake.
But it only remained drained for about 24 hours
before the lake refilled.
But what they found were some objects
that sort of showed that this idea of offerings
being thrown into the lake was true.
SHATNER: Even more incredible evidence of the Muisca rituals
was found later in 1969, in a nearby cave.
BELLINGER: In 1969, some villagers stumbled upon
an absolutely spectacular find,
in a ceramic jar.
They found an exquisite raft,
crafted all out of gold.
The workmanship was incredible.
But even more exciting,
is that it corroborated
everything that had been written down
about the Muisca rituals in Lake Guatavita,
when they were initiating a new ruler.
SHATNER: Since the story of the ritual performed
by the Muisca chief was proven to be true,
does that suggest that the tales of El Dorado,
the lost city of gold, could also be true?
And if so, where might it be hidden?
LEVY: Cities in the Amazonian region over time have a tendency
to become absorbed and enveloped by the jungle.
If you think about the discovery of Machu Picchu,
which had lain covered in vine
and undetectable even by air,
you've got this city that's complex and tiered
and so, why would that be the only one?
South America is an incredible place
to keep secrets
and for a lost city like El Dorado to dwell.
There's no doubt that fame and perhaps fortune awaits
anyone who's able to uncover the city of El Dorado.
But there's another mysterious place
that has captivated scholars and explorers since 300 BC--
a land of fire and ice that is said to be located
beyond the borders of the known world.
SHATNER: This historic port city has been
a capital of culture and commerce
since it was founded by the ancient Greeks in 600 BC.
Standing high above one of Marseille's main streets
is a statue
of an influential Greek geographer known as Pytheas.
Pytheas lived in Marseille in about 320s BC.
And he was an explorer, he was a writer,
and a scientist,
and all of these things show in his writing.
He was a brilliant man of his time.
He really had this urge to know and to travel, to find out.
SHATNER: In ancient times,
explorers like Pytheas went on long, dangerous voyages
to the edge of the known world,
that could last for several months,
or sometimes even years.
Of all the travels of Pytheas, perhaps the most fascinating
is a journey he made to the North Atlantic Ocean.
CUNLIFFE: What Pytheas did
was to make a remarkable journey.
He set off from Marseille...
...and then he made this trip
all along the northwest of Europe,
traveling up around Brittany,
around Britain,
possibly going further north to Iceland,
and then having done this, successfully,
and observed a huge amount, he came back and wrote a book
called On the Ocean, and that book was absolutely
central to the development of knowledge in the Greek world.
SHATNER: According to Pytheas, when he got to the far reaches
of the North Atlantic,
he discovered a mysterious island
that was unlike any other on Earth.
He called it Thule,
or as it's more commonly known today, Thule.
Pytheas wrote about Thule, and he said it is north of Britain,
six days by sea, north of Britain.
The most northern part of the known world,
and it was a land where there was congealed ice
around part of it,
and where the sun barely never set.
It was the edge of the world.
Pytheas gives us this really strange account of
his approach to this mysterious island called Thule.
It's said that neither by foot...
...or by ship could you pass through
this realm that he refers to as the "sea-lung."
So, what could this refer to, a sea-lung?
Well, he was encountering these thick, frozen fogs,
where the ground, the sea,
and the air all became one together.
SHATNER: For centuries, Pytheas' description of
the strange fog surrounding Thule has intrigued historians.
But was this unusual island actually inhabited by people?
Well, unfortunately, many of Pytheas' writings
were destroyed in a fire in the year 48 BC,
and crucial portions of his original account were lost.
However, some of his descriptions of Thule
were recorded by other Greek scholars,
and they wrote that the island was home
to a mysterious civilization.
We have the accounts of several other
classical writers that talk about Thule,
and all sorts of stories
start building this incredible picture of what Thule is,
almost to the point that it becomes
this incredible place of as many as 25 tribes,
making it into this realm,
similar to that of the mythical island Atlantis.
But the big difference between Atlantis and Thule
is that Atlantis is said to have sank beneath the waves,
whereas Thule did not.
They were different places,
and because of that,
it's almost like the influence of it is still upon us today.
Who lives there?
What is its mysterious society?
SHATNER: Ever since Pytheas first wrote about Thule,
historians have wondered where this lost island is located,
and what happened to the civilization
that was said to live there.
In modern times, archaeologists have proposed
numerous potential locations that may be Thule
and some of these places
are known today by different names.
The big question that's always been asked
of this journey of Pytheas
is where really was Thule.
There have been many theories.
Iceland is one of the obvious places,
but people have argued that it was the coast of Norway
or possibly in the Baltics.
So we have various views.
SHATNER: Curiously, in 2010,
researchers at the Technical University of Berlin
used a combination of ancient and modern techniques
to pinpoint what they believe is the actual island
that Pytheas called Thule.
They used a map
that was created by the geographer Ptolemy
in the 2nd century AD,
to try and project outwards,
the different distances and latitudes
that had been used to create this famous world map.
And they were able to determine
to their own satisfaction, that Thule corresponded with
the Norwegian island of Smola.
And they also point out that
you can see the midnight sun from there,
which is what Pytheas described seeing from Thule.
CUNLIFFE: German scientists came up with a possibility that it was Smola
and it certainly could be.
But unless one found an inscription saying,
"I was here. Signed, Pytheas," which is so unlikely,
the evidence just wouldn't be there.
It's very difficult to know
how you could go out and prove where Thule is located.
When you stop and think about it,
it's really quite incredible that the search for Thule
has been going on for more than 2,000 years,
and continues to this very day.
But as daunting as that quest has been,
perhaps not all lost cities are so elusive.
In fact, archaeologists believe
they've uncovered the ruins of temples and palaces built by
an infamous Mongolian warlord,
in a city known as Xanadu.
SHATNER: Three merchants depart from the city
and embark on an incredible trek along the Silk Road,
a 4,000-mile trade route that links Europe and Asia.
The purpose of their historic journey is to explore
the Far East, and establish trade relations with China.
The youngest member of this traveling party
is none other than Marco Polo,
whose chronicles of their travels shed new light
on the mysteries of Asia.
Marco Polo's accounts are absolutely invaluable
because he reportedly spent
17 years on the Asian continent, and he wrote in his travelogues
about their traditional practices and economic systems,
and it did, at its time,
open Western eyes to the Far East for the first time.
SHATNER: Marco Polo's writings offered European readers
vivid descriptions of the geography and people of Asia.
He also introduced the Western world to gunpowder, paper money,
porcelain, and other modern inventions of the Far East.
But the most dazzling story from the travels of Marco Polo
is his encounter with Kublai Khan
the ruler of an immense empire that was centered in China.
Kublai Khan was the grandson of Genghis Khan.
And he became the Great Khan, the Khan of Khans,
when he was 35 years old.
He ruled over a vast Mongol Empire, which stretched
all the way to Europe on one side and China on the other.
BELLINGER: In 1275, word of Marco Polo's expedition
had reached the Khan,
and he sent his envoys out to meet Marco Polo to escort them
the remainder of the way to his summer capital at Xanadu,
a place of lavish luxury
and splendor and easy living.
SHATNER: Xanadu.
According to Marco Polo, this city was more than
just a summer retreat for Kublai Khan.
Reportedly, the opulence of Xanadu
surpassed anything the world had ever seen before, or since.
Within Xanadu's extravagant palaces,
Kublai Khan and his subjects were said
to have enjoyed a level of luxury
that was almost unimaginable.
♪ ♪
Marco Polo describes this absolutely astonishing scenario
in which the Khan would host parties of 40,000 guests,
and one in which he was presented with the gift of
100,000 beautiful white horses.
He also had exotic cats wandering the grounds,
5,000 elephants dressed in beautiful clothing,
and a dining area alone that could seat 6,000 people
surrounded by a four-mile fence.
Marco Polo's fantastic stories
of larger-than-life entertainment
just fuel the imagination.
SHATNER: For centuries, people have wondered whether Marco Polo's
incredible tales of Xanadu were actually true.
Xanadu is an Eden-like city of the past.
The reason why Xanadu has remained
one of the most enigmatic
cities of the world is because
it was eventually abandoned by the Mongols.
Kublai Khan himself died,
and it then fades from history completely.
SHATNER: While other explorers were unable to locate the ruins
of the lost city,
thanks to the writings of Marco Polo,
Xanadu continued for centuries
to be a place of intrigue and speculation.
Part of what makes Xanadu of interest
is this report from Marco Polo.
He was a reliable witness
and he said the place existed and described
an emperor's resort with the most elegant buildings.
That's gone.
Not a trace.
Is it just a story? Or did we really have something?
Where did the city go?
SHATNER: Over time, the extravagant depictions of Xanadu led some
to believe that the opulent city should be relegated to myth.
But then, in the early 1990s, archaeologists investigating
ruins located in Inner Mongolia were able to confirm
that the lost city of Xanadu had, in fact, been found.
BELLINGER: The physical remains were lost for a time under grasslands,
but archaeologists excavating the site of Xanadu
have found over a thousand building sites,
about 700 building foundations and at least 29 major roads.
The place was astonishing in its scope and it was massive.
SHATNER: While it's extraordinary that the size
and sophistication of Xanadu
have been confirmed,
an important question still remains.
What about the extravagant opulence of Xanadu?
Is there any evidence to suggest that Kublai Khan actually
received a gift of 100,000 horses,
as Marco Polo reported?
It's a significant find
to explore the actual ruins
of Xanadu for the priceless information
it can give us about this place.
Because we just want to know, are these fabulous stories true?
Will further excavations of Xanadu prove
that it was indeed a vast paradise,
as the fantastic accounts from history suggest?
Well, there's another ancient city
archaeologists are searching for
that is perhaps even more intriguing.
Because there's evidence to suggest that it was not lost
but rather intentionally hidden.
SHATNER: Swiss explorer and geographer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
sets off on an incredible journey across the desert,
to uncover the secrets of the Middle East.
COLLINS: Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
was quite an extraordinary character.
He traveled throughout
Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and eventually into Egypt.
He also practiced the Islamic faith.
And the reason for this was that
he didn't want to be seen as a Western treasure hunter.
SHATNER: During his travels, Burckhardt heard rumors
of a mysterious ancient city known as Petra
that was hidden somewhere in the deserts of Jordan.
For centuries, the exact location of Petra
was kept secret from foreigners.
But Johann Burckhardt was determined to see Petra
with his own eyes, and so he hatched a wild plan.
PARADISE: The area had always shown conflict,
it had always shown a certain amount of hostility
to European visitors.
And so Burckhardt spent months in the region,
learning the local dialect of Arabic.
And then perfected a Bedouin outfit
to look like a local
or something close.
The disguise was needed to get him in the door.
SHATNER: After spending months following clues in search of the city,
Burckhardt traveled through a dark, narrow desert canyon,
and to his astonishment,
stumbled upon the stunning ruins of Petra,
which were even more impressive than he had imagined.
Burckhardt was the first European to lay eyes on Petra
in more than 500 years,
and his vivid account of the city
made headlines around the world.
Suddenly, the world reads about Petra.
The entrance into Petra is this magnificent
carved structure about 140 feet high.
And it was carved, it was hewn directly out of the rock.
And that's the beginning.
Petra was a large, large city of 30,000 to 50,000 people,
that was thriving between about
500 BC and about 500 AD.
It had a city center, it had a main street,
it had everything you would think of,
even to this day, that a large city would have.
The builders of Petra were the Nabataeans.
They were a culture in their own right, who adopted
the art and architecture of the Greek Hellenic world...
the Greco-Roman world,
but also had influences from Syria
in what is today Iraq.
And they blended all of this together
to create the incredible
carved architecture that you see at Petra.
SHATNER: The more than 800 carved structures at Petra
are so iconic,
that in 2007, the site was named
one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Ever since Petra was revealed in 1812,
historians have wondered
what could have caused the collapse
of such a prosperous city.
For decades, it was thought
that shifting trade routes were responsible,
but research conducted by archaeologist Thomas Paradise
has revealed new information regarding the downfall of Petra.
PARADISE: We're really fortunate
that we keep putting pieces of the puzzle together.
Using archaeological excavation,
using GIS and laser technology,
we're starting to put these pieces together
to understand Petra.
New research is indicating that a large flood hit
in the 5th century, that wiped out the downtown
for at least a year or so.
The city rebuilds after that flood,
but it marks the beginning of the decline from its golden age.
SHATNER: The rediscovery of Petra
has revealed that the city was important,
not just historically, but also spiritually.
Because as it turns out,
this ancient city has a connection to the Bible.
PARADISE: Up above Petra,
and it's visible from most parts of Petra,
is a mountain called Jebel Haroun.
Jebel Haroun means the Mountain of Aaron.
And we do know legend says
that's where Moses' brother, Aaron, is buried
below a large tomb on the top of the mountain.
The keeper of the holy site at Jebel Haroun,
over the years, I came to know his family.
So he invited us up there
to go into the building itself
and then the climb into the tomb.
That gets you excited 'cause you realize
you're part of a tradition from 3,000 years
of pilgrimage.
Petra's been called the Lost City of Stone because
here we see a city of 30,000 to 50,000 people
that slowly fades from the history books over time.
And what we're going to find out about Petra in the future
is probably more incredible
than what we already have uncovered.
The discovery of Petra is an extraordinary find
of both spiritual and archaeological significance,
and one that rewrites the history books.
And that was also the case
with some massive ruins that were found
at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
SHATNER: Just off the coast of Alexandria,
in the Abu Qir Bay...
...a team of underwater archaeologists
begin the hunt for a lost Egyptian city known as Thonis.
CHRIS NAUNTON: Thonis was known,
in only the sort of sparsest detail thanks to a few
ancient sources in which it's mentioned,
but it had for a very long time
not been identified archaeologically.
So we knew it must have existed because
text told us so, just had no idea where it was.
SHATNER: Then, in the year 2000,
at a depth of some 30 feet,
divers found ancient Egyptian statues,
hoards of gold coins and jewelry,
and even the ruins of buildings and roads--
all part of the massive city of Thonis,
that was rediscovered at last.
One of the most amazing discoveries made
was the Temple of Amun.
And this temple was absolutely vast,
constructed of these incredibly big stone blocks.
So we have a really visceral idea
of the size and the monumentality of this temple.
We also have an enormous colossal statue
of the god Hapi...
...who's a kind of personification of the Nile.
It's appropriate that you would have a god like this present
at the-- sort of entrance, if you'd like--
the Mediterranean entrance to the Nile delta region
and the Nile River itself.
SHATNER: Thousands of artifacts have been recovered from Thonis,
and archaeologists estimate
that it was three times the size
of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.
But how did this vast, remarkable city
sink beneath the waves?
BRADSHAW: What we think happened with Thonis is,
an earthquake in around the 2nd century BC,
caused the city to sink into the water.
And Thonis was lost to history.
But we've really only scratched the surface
in terms of what we know about this city.
A huge mystery still remains and in large part,
that's because 95% of the city
remains underwater and remains in need of investigation.
Only five percent seems to have been discovered.
So the questions remain.
While the full excavation of Thonis will take decades...
...archaeologists and explorers continue to scour the globe
in search of other lost cities
that capture people's imaginations.
The reason why people look for lost cities like
Xanadu,
or Petra or anywhere else is because we want to be
the next discoverers of this incredible lost realm
that nobody has set their eyes on
perhaps for thousands of years.
Because you just don't know
exactly what you're gonna discover.
♪ ♪
Imagine how many lost cities there must be
hidden all around the world.
It's a mystery as old as mankind.
Epic legends, myths and folklore compel us to search
for the truth behind these fantastic stories.
Because discovering a long-forgotten ancient city
could rewrite our human history and answer important questions
that, for the moment, remain...
unexplained.
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