[rising mysterious drone]
- Tonight, long lost relics believed to be buried
and hidden from sight.
- The LiDAR reveals a few new things
that have never been seen before.
- [Dennis] From Christianity's most sacred tomb...
- Constantine and his mother assume
that the worshipers have in fact,
found the long lost tomb of Jesus.
What if Constantine got it wrong?
- To the discovery of a mystifying ancient temple.
- The Hypogeum could potentially predate
the first Egyptian pyramid by over 1300 years,
making it the oldest prehistoric underground temple
in the world.
- We'll uncover the secrets
behind the world's most elusive underground wonders.
- The tunnel leads to the Mediterranean Sea.
You load treasure onto a ship
and you could take it anywhere.
- When it comes to the underground secrets
of the Knights Templar treasure,
we've barely scratched the surface.
- These sacred objects have inspired awe
for thousands of years.
Now, the remarkable stories behind history's
most compelling "Holy Marvels".
[uplifting music]
Many of Christianity's most holy
and powerful places lie in plain sight above ground,
able to be seen, felt and explored, but not all of them.
Take for example, one nondescript tomb in Jerusalem
hidden just below the surface.
- The tomb belongs to a wealthy man named Joseph
of Arimathea, who had been planning to be buried there
whenever he died,
but instead, he's decided to give it away to a close friend
who's recently been killed, Jesus of Nazareth.
Joseph's tomb is very close to the crucifixion site,
which is an area just outside the current city walls
called the Hill of Golgotha,
which roughly translates to the Hill of the Skull.
- This event is described in all four gospels
of the New Testament.
Joseph is a prominent member of the Sanhedrin,
the court that sentences Jesus to death.
As such, he's one of the city's elites,
but in a secret double life, he also is a disciple of Jesus.
And so after the crucifixion, Joseph wants to make sure
that Jesus receives a proper Jewish burial.
So he talks Pontius Pilate into letting him take
the body off the cross.
- Joseph tries to properly clean and prepare Jesus' body.
It's wrapped in strips of linen soaked with aloes and myrrh
and buried in the tomb.
It's not what you'd think of as a tomb today.
The tomb is described in the Bible
as being a hole cut from the rock
with a limestone shelf used as a burial bed
and there's no gravestone.
There's not even a door.
- After Joseph lays Jesus to rest,
he seals the entrance with a large heavy stone.
- We can imagine that right away,
the site of the tomb becomes a place of holy significance
where Jesus' disciples come to worship.
- [Dennis] But two days after his burial,
followers are met with a big surprise.
- A group of women go to visit the tomb,
including Mary Magdalene,
and they're shocked to find out that it's empty.
- According to the gospels of Mark and Luke,
the stone has been rolled away from the entrance
and an angel is there and instead of Jesus' body.
- Mary Magdalene hurries to tell the male disciples
and the stories of Jesus' resurrection begins
to quickly spread among Jesus' followers
and soon the story begins to attract new believers.
Over time, these Christians come to see
the site of the empty tomb as a holy place.
- [Dennis] But by 66 AD growing tensions with the Romans
turned the area from a place of worship into a war zone.
- Judea has been a Roman province since 6 AD.
For nearly 60 years, the Jews and Romans lived together
in a tense coexistence.
As time goes on, Jews become
very unhappy living under Roman rule.
And in 66 AD, a faction of Jews rebel against the Romans
leading to a massive war.
- [Dennis] Then in 70 AD,
the conflict reaches a boiling point.
- [Robert] The Romans entered Jerusalem
and set the city ablaze.
Jerusalem is reduced to rubble.
- [Dennis] The destroyed city sits untouched for 60 years.
But in 130 AD, Roman Emperor Hadrian decides to rebuild it.
- He calls the new city Aelia Capitolina.
Aelia for his family name and Capitolina, meaning,
the god Jupiter.
- Hadrian's empire is still facing resistance from Jews
and from this new sect that has become known as Christians.
Their religious fervor is a thorn in his side.
His spies tell him of the holy sites they revere,
including the place where Jesus was crucified and buried.
So he decides to build a new temple over the side
of the tomb, effectively to wipe it out
and instead pay tribute to one of his family deities,
most likely the pagan god, Venus,
or perhaps the pagan god, Jupiter.
- Scholars from the time suggested Hadrian
is trying to show the dominance of Roman religion.
[soldiers marching]
- [Dennis] The pagan Romans rule Judea until 324 AD
when after a series of civil wars,
Constantine becomes the sole emperor.
- Constantine had been born into the Pagan religion,
but encounters Christianity during his travels in the East.
In 312 AD, while fighting for the right to sit upon
the Roman throne, Constantine sees a sign.
Some accounts say a cross of fire in the heavens,
followed by a vision of Jesus promising victory in battle
if he converts to Christianity. He does and he wins.
- Consequently, Constantine credits much of his success
in this battle to the Christian God.
- After that, Christians are no longer persecuted
in the holy city
and the religion is legalized making it possible
for the followers of Jesus to worship openly.
One of the first places they start to return to
is this temple Hadrian built.
- [Dennis] Even Emperor Constantine's mother,
Helena makes a pilgrimage to the area in 326 AD.
- Helena is surprised to see all these Christians gathering
and worshiping at a pagan temple from Hadrian's era.
So she asks around and she's told,
well, we're not doing this because of the temple.
We're here for what we believe is underneath.
This is the tomb where our Lord was resurrected.
Constantine and his mother assume
that the worshipers have in fact found
the long lost tomb of Jesus.
- Constantine orders Hadrian's temple torn down.
Just as he hoped
an excavation of the site reveals a rock-cut tomb
beneath the rubble.
[upbeat music]
- [Dennis] Constantine declares this location,
a holy landmark and builds a new place of worship
on the grounds called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
- It contains both the alleged tomb of Jesus
and the site of the crucifixion,
and it's still standing today.
The complex covers over 50,000 square feet.
It's comprised of several connected
chapels and a courtyard.
- The biggest draws for the devout are the Martyrium
and the Aedicule.
- The Martyrium in the great Basilica
is the most extravagantly decorated section of the church.
The name Martyrium, of course, refers to the place
where Jesus was martyred.
This section encloses the supposed site
where the crucifixion took place on the hill of Golgotha.
- [Dennis] The Aedicule, an ancient Roman term
for a small shrine is even more revered.
- In the front room is a fragment
known as the Angel Stone.
This piece of rock is believed to come from the door
that sealed the tomb.
In the other room, stands the tomb itself.
- Christ's tomb has now been encased in a marble shrine.
They've made very sure the whole church
and everything inside are incredibly well protected.
[solemn music]
- Services are still held near the tomb by the Catholics,
the Greek Orthodox and the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The most well known occurs on Easter which is
the day that commemorates the resurrection of Jesus
that many people believe happened right here.
- [Dennis] But not everyone is convinced this actually
is the correct tomb.
- Throughout the years, many researchers have asked,
what if Constantine got it wrong?
- [Dennis] Influenced by the Roman Emperor Constantine,
many Christians believe the tomb of Jesus Christ
lies inside Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
- Constantine bases his opinion on the fact that
Christians were found worshiping at the site in 326 AD,
but this is the 4th century,
almost 300 years after Jesus' death.
So how did the Christians know that this is the right place?
How does Constantine know?
- Jerusalem has been occupied.
It's been attacked multiple times.
It's been destroyed twice.
The city plans have changed,
the locations have been forgotten and obscured.
Even with today's technology, it's very difficult
to determine precisely what was where during Jesus' time.
- A number of Protestant scholars start questioning
the Holy Sepulchre site throughout the 1800s.
- [Dennis] This uncertainty gives rise
to a number of other ideas on where the tomb could be,
including a location just outside
the walls of Jerusalem's old city,
it's known as the Garden Tomb.
- Located close to the city's northwest gate,
the Garden Tomb was first excavated in 1867
by a local landowner from Jerusalem.
- At first this isn't thought to be Jesus's tomb,
just an interesting archaeological find.
- [Dennis] Then in 1883, a British officer finds evidence,
he believes connects the tomb to Jesus.
- General Charles Gordon comes upon the Garden Tomb
while he's stationed in Jerusalem.
In his book "Reflections in Palestine," he proposes
that this is the actual final resting place of Christ.
- The prevailing Christian viewpoint as well
as the historical record suggests that
Jesus would've been crucified outside the city walls.
And the Bible states that his tomb is right nearby
the crucifixion site.
The tomb at the Holy Sepulchre is inside the city walls.
Now, many scholars believe that wasn't always the case
that the walls were extended,
and if that's true, then the Holy Sepulchre tomb
was once also outside the city walls.
But since we don't know for sure, it plants a seed of doubt.
- [Dennis] General Gordon finds another piece
of compelling evidence in the area to make his case.
- Just past the garden wall that houses the tomb,
there's an outcropping of rock
and it features a naturally occurring formation
in the shape of a skull.
This feature is what convinces General Gordon
that he's found the right spot since in the Bible it says
that Jesus is crucified on the Hill of Golgotha,
known in English as Skull Hill.
Many Christian scholars believe
that this is the actual location of the crucifixion.
- [Dennis] Despite this,
experts have not yet conclusively proven
that this is where Jesus was buried.
- Scholars have found that this tomb doesn't have
the normal features of a 1st century tomb.
It seems much older.
Depending on which archaeologists you ask,
the Garden Tomb could date back anywhere
between the 2nd century and the 8th century BC.
This of course, is way before the crucifixion of Jesus.
- Now tombs were often reused
and maybe that's what happened,
but the Bible states that Jesus was buried
in a brand new unused tomb that Joseph of Arimathea
had set aside for himself.
- [Dennis] Even so, the Garden Tomb retains
its fair share of believers.
- While the Catholic church
doesn't recognize it as the real deal,
many Evangelical and Protestant churches do.
And it manages to draw hundreds of thousands
of visitors annually.
- [Dennis] But there's another potential site
to consider nearby.
In 1980, a mysterious rock-cut tomb
is discovered three miles south of Jerusalem's old city.
- In the Talpiot region in East Jerusalem,
workers building an apartment complex find an ancient tomb.
It contains an 8 x 8 foot square central room
with an entrance on one side
and body length burial niches cut perpendicularly
into three other sides.
- In total, the Talpiot tomb contains 10 burial spaces
or called ossuaries,
six of which contain inscribed epigraphs.
One of the epigraphs says "Yeshua Bar Yehosef,"
which is "Jesus, Son of Joseph" in the Aramaic language
and another epigraph says "Mariamne E Mara,"
which means, "Mary known as the Master."
- [Dennis] There are a few other notable names as well.
- Three of the other stone burial boxes are marked,
Matthew, Joseph and Judas.
There is also an additional box marked
with the name of Mary.
- This leads some scholars to believe
that Jesus was not in fact buried
in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb,
but was instead interred here with his entire family,
where nearly 2,000 years later they might still be found.
- The ossuaries contain bones,
but they're in an advanced state of deterioration
and they're also all kind of jumbled up.
So it seems that the site was previously disturbed
at some point in antiquity.
And soon after the discovery, the bones were given over
to Jewish religious authorities for reburial.
So we can only speculate as to who these people were.
- Until we can find some hard evidence
that supports Jesus being buried
in one of these alternate tombs in Jerusalem,
I think most Christians will continue to stick by
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
- [Dennis] Then in 1933, another possible location comes
to the forefront and this one is nowhere near Jerusalem.
- [Varun] One of the most surprising claims
to the final resting place of Jesus
is almost halfway around the world from where he was born
in the town of Shingo, Japan.
- It sounds crazy to think
that Jesus might actually be buried 5,600 miles away
from Jerusalem, especially in a tiny Japanese village
with a population of just 2,200 people.
Shingo is known for its cattle ranches and yam production,
and it's also home to the only family in the world
that claims to be descendants of Jesus.
- There's a set of religious texts called
the Takenouchi Documents, and these are discovered in 1933
and they say that Jesus did not die on Golgotha Hill.
Instead, he flees from Roman persecution in Jerusalem,
taking with him a lock of the Virgin Mary's hair
and an ear that belonged to his younger brother
who is named Isukiri.
- The texts say that Isukiri took Jesus' place on the cross
and that it was he not Jesus who died that day in 33 AD,
and it's also Isukiri who is buried in Jerusalem.
- [Dennis] This means,
according to the Takenouchi Documents,
there is no resurrection.
- In this story, Jesus manages to leave Jerusalem.
He travels up to Siberia across to Alaska
and then by ship back over to Asia landing
in northeastern Japan.
- Once he's in Japan, Jesus changes his name
to Daitenku Tora Torai and settles in the Aomori province
in the village of Shingo.
He becomes a rice farmer.
He marries a 20-year-old Japanese woman named Miyuko.
The couple goes on to have three children
and at least one grandchild before Jesus dies
at the very old age of 106.
When he dies, his family takes his bones
and buries them in a pit in the center of the village,
marking it with a cross.
- The Sawaguchi family lives in Shingo claim
that they are the direct descendants
of one of Jesus' daughters.
It's interesting that, although
the family has lived in the village for centuries,
they do possess some non-Japanese features,
but there's no proof that their Western ancestor is Jesus.
- One footnote worth mentioning after being transferred
to Tokyo during World War II,
the Takenouchi Documents disappear.
So there's no longer any written verification
that this story is true.
Of course, there's nothing to prove
that it isn't true either.
- In the northwest of Israel
sits the ancient port city of Acre.
Dating back to the Bronze Age, it's known
as the oldest continuously inhabited city
in the world and it's a city with secrets.
- From the Egyptians and the Phoenicians to the Ottomans
and the Israelis, Acre has been ruled by many
of the greatest empires.
It's chock full of celebrated religious sites
and in a place with this much history
the cool thing is that there are still many new discoveries
being made each year,
- [Dennis] Including one sacred site
that's found completely by accident.
- In 1994, a resident of Acre's old city discovers
that one of the drains beneath his house is all blocked up.
This regular run-of-the-mill plumber shows up
to check the drain
and makes one of the most shocking archaeological
discoveries in recent history.
Right beneath the resident's house,
the plumber finds a medieval stone tunnel filled
with sea water.
- An archaeological team is called in
and they determined that not only does the tunnel date
all the way back to the 12th century,
but it's been built by a group
of the most famous residents of the city,
the Knights Templar.
- [Dennis] The famed military order is created
by the Roman Catholic Church in the 12th century.
- The Templars are founded on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
and they are a highly- skilled group of fighters.
They travel far and wide across Europe and the Middle East.
They also help to protect pilgrims
who are traveling to and from Jerusalem
- Due to pirate and marauder attacks from Muslim raiders,
traveling is especially dangerous for people
of means and wealth,
so the Knights Templar also rent their ships out for hire
to help rich people get around.
- [Dennis] But the Templars guard more than just people.
- They transport valuables and important goods
like wine and horses or large sums of money.
They even broker trade deals on behalf of sovereigns,
foreign merchants and pilgrims.
- The interesting thing about this
is that despite handling vast amounts of wealth
for other people, the Knights Templar are technically
a monastic group, so they've sworn an oath of poverty.
- But the oath of poverty doesn't stop them
from accepting tips.
Over the years, the group collects
a vast amount of money given to them
by charitable Christians grateful for their protection.
- [Dennis] As the Templars wealth grows,
so does their reputation as clever financiers.
- Apparently, the oath of poverty also doesn't apply
to cheating the taxmen.
They devise a system
to circumvent certain medieval laws.
This enables them to levy interest on loans
and they continue to expand their fortune.
- But they can't just carry this fortune around with them
that would be extremely impractical and dangerous,
and so they begin to build heavily-guarded castles
in order to protect their wealth.
- Everything they collect is originally stored
at their headquarters on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem,
but when the Muslim Sultan Saladin conquers Jerusalem
in 1187, the Templars are forced out.
- [Dennis] According to a 13th century journal written
by a former knight, the Templars retreat
to a fortress by the sea.
- The journal belongs to a Templar named Pierre.
He doesn't give us his last name.
He says that within their seaside fortress
is a tower where the knights keep the treasure.
He doesn't say where this fortress is located,
probably on purpose so nobody will come and steal from them.
- When this tunnel is discovered by the plumber in Acre
in 1994, people begin to put two and two together.
The tunnel starts at the sea at Acres port
on the east side of the city.
It runs from there to the southwestern tip
where the Templars built a fortress,
some of which still stands today.
- The tunnel cuts across the old city's Pisan quarter.
It is at least 500 feet in length, though some sources say
it could have originally been nearly 1000 feet.
The lower part of the tunnel is carved out of natural rock.
While the upper section is a semi-barrelled dome
made out of hewn stones.
- Its entrance is protected by two soaring towers
with 28-foot thick walls flanked by two smaller towers,
each adorned with a huge gilded ox.
- [Dennis] Could this tunnel and fortress
have housed a vast hoard of treasure?
- We know for sure that the Templars use
the tunnel as a strategic underground passageway
from the fort to the port,
as well as an escape route during battle.
There's no reason why they couldn't also have brought goods
and supplies and, for that matter,
a giant sacred treasure through there, too.
- As soon as the tunnel is discovered,
the press runs with this idea and begins
to even call this the treasure tunnel.
- But the vast fortune of the Knights Templar,
if it exists, has never been found.
It's certainly not still sitting in this tunnel,
and the fortress has been over the years
extensively explored and excavated,
and it's not there either.
- [Dennis] Historians and treasure hunters
have long questioned
where else the alleged Templar fortune might be?
- Like many ancient cities in Israel,
Acre is like a massive sandwich of archaeological layers.
It's got thousands of years of construction
built all on top of itself.
- Finding this tunnel and fortress
are really just the tip of the iceberg
compared to all that's hidden down below.
[dark drone builds to crescendo]
- [Dennis] Throughout history, there have been vast
and mysterious treasures hidden below the surface,
and when a secret Knights Templar tunnel
is unearthed in Israel in 1994,
many believe it could contain an incredible payload.
- The Templars are headquartered in Acre
for nearly a hundred years,
and some historians have suggested
that they brought a large amount of riches
through this tunnel to a rumored treasure tower
within a large fortress.
- [Dennis] But after an extensive search,
archaeologists come up empty.
A conflict in 1291 could explain why.
- The Mamluks, a Muslim Sultanate that rules Egypt
and the surrounding area calls upon members
of their empire across the Middle East
to help them battle the Christian Crusaders.
- Men come all the way from Egypt,
from Syria and Lebanon to amass an army
of nearly 100,000 volunteer fighters.
It's the largest collection of soldiers
they have had in their 200-year existence.
- The Mamluk army attacks the city of Acre.
[tense dramatic music]
Their goal is to destroy the city walls,
the Templar fortress, and anything else they can
so that the city could never be used by Christians again.
This isn't just the last stand of Acre,
it's the last stand of all the Crusader states.
- Most of the city is captured by the Mamluks
in a matter of hours,
but the Templar fortress holds out for 10 more days.
It's finally taken on May 28th, 1291,
and the Mamluks used explosives
to destroy one of the towers.
[explosion]
This is pretty much the end of the Crusades
and a stunning defeat for the Knights Templar.
- In the aftermath of the battle,
which is written about quite extensively.
No mention is made of a large treasure hoard being captured.
- [Dennis] This leads many to believe it's lost somewhere
in the bowels of the fortress.
- In 1840, the remains of the former Templar complex
is used for ammunition storage.
During a battle with the British army,
the fortress is hit by enemy fire and it explodes.
[cannon fires]
It's pretty much in ruins for decades after that.
- In 1912, a modern lighthouse is built on the western edge
and people continue to visit the ruins
of the once magnificent Templar stronghold.
But in the aftermath of all that destruction
and occupation, there's just no way
to properly explore the site and to see what's down there.
- [Dennis] Until the tunnel is rediscovered in 1994.
- After its initial discovery by the plumber,
the Acre Development company in collaboration
with Israel's antiquities authority spends several years
exploring the tunnel and fixing it up
as a tourist attraction.
The entire tunnel is finally opened to the public in 2007.
- They don't find any treasure
while they're doing this work,
but they do open up a new avenue for exploration.
Once the tunnels are fixed up, it allows better access
to anything that might be hidden even further beneath them,
including perhaps the Knights Templar treasure.
- [Dennis] In 2019, an American archeologist
uses state-of-the-art technology
to scan the area underneath.
- During the filming of a documentary in an effort
to discover anything that remains
of the Knights Templar era,
archaeologist, Albert Lin uses LiDAR technology
to scan the tunnel from above.
- The LiDAR reveals a few new things
that have never been seen before.
There's an additional sprawling network of tunnels
as well as what appears to be a guardhouse
buried underneath the city.
It doesn't specifically reveal the location of any gold,
but these new tunnels and chamber
are still a promising find.
They haven't been excavated yet,
but who knows what might be in there.
[tense pulsating music]
- [Dennis] There could be another reason
the treasure hasn't been found yet.
- So look, they had this tunnel, right?
And if it brought the treasure into Acre,
could it have also taken the treasure out?
It's definitely possible.
In advance of the Mamluk attack in 1291,
the Templars have time to prepare.
Before storming the city,
the Mamluks hold it under siege for about five weeks.
Plus, even after the attack begins,
the Templars have that 10-day period
where they're holding out inside the fortress.
That's plenty of time to pack up
and escape through their secret tunnel with their treasure.
- We know for sure that some Templars escaped in this way.
We have an account of one of the battle's survivors,
a knight named Thibaud Gaudin, who's able to sneak away
to Lebanon, and he's not the only one.
There are stories of Templar survivors all across Europe.
- [Dennis] If the treasure is in fact carried out of Acre,
the possibilities for its whereabouts are endless.
- The tunnel leads to the Mediterranean Sea.
Now you load treasure onto a ship
and you could take it anywhere.
- There are all kinds of rumors
as to where the Templar treasure ends up,
the north of Scotland or Portugal, or Italy,
even as far away as Oak Island in Nova Scotia.
- The reach of the Knights Templar was vast.
They had over a hundred castles
and fortresses across nearly 20 countries.
Many feature underground vaults, chambers
and tunnels just like the one in Acre.
- [Dennis] And not all of them have been fully explored.
- Remember, this tunnel wasn't even found until 1994.
As recently as 2023, researcher Edward Spencer Dyas
finds an 800-year-old Templar cemetery
all the way up in Enville, England.
- It just goes to show that when it comes
to the underground secrets of the Knights Templar treasure,
we've barely scratched the surface.
- 1902, Paola, Malta.
Workers digging a cistern for a housing development make
an unexpected find 30 feet beneath the surface.
- They break through the roof of a large chamber,
and when they look inside, they realize
that there's some kind of manmade temple in there.
- At first, the workers tried to hide what they found.
They worry that this could sidetrack
the construction project.
- Eventually, someone else sees what they've uncovered
and reports it to the local authorities.
By November of 1903,
archaeologists are called in to investigate.
Once the experts have a look, they're shocked,
absolutely dumbfounded
because the sacred space dates back
to between 4000 and 2000 BC.
- That means it could potentially predate
the first Egyptian pyramid by over 1,300 years, making it
the oldest prehistoric underground temple in the world.
[dark suspenseful drone]
- The cavern is named the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum.
Hypogeum is a Greek word
that just literally means under the earth,
while Hal Saflieni is the name of the village
where it's found.
- [Dennis] But the roots of this civilization
go back much further.
Malta is first settled around 5000 BC by fishermen,
farmers, and hunters
who make the journey from nearby Sicily.
- These folks weren't considered an advanced civilization,
not that many cultures were in 5000 BC,
but once they find the Hypogeum, researchers realize
that these early settlers to Malta
might have been a whole lot brighter than we thought.
- To put the Hypogeum into some kind of comparison,
you know something else that was built
around the same time, Stonehenge.
Now look at the kind of rough- hewn nature of Stonehenge
versus the refinement of this structure.
The Hypogeum looks like it would fit in pretty well
alongside a temple in ancient Greece,
and that's pretty incredible.
- [Dennis] Since there are no written records from the time,
little is known about exactly who built the Hypogeum
and more importantly, why?
For clues, archaeologists start by looking
at its construction.
- They have a level of wisdom
and engineering prowess unparalleled
by any other prehistoric people.
They include ceilings with one ring of carved stone,
overhanging the one below
to imitate a roof of corbelled masonry.
- The structure also includes trilithon doorways
and windows. There are two upright pillars supporting
a cross piece that goes along the top.
The most famous example
of prehistoric trilithon architecture is Stonehenge.
It almost makes you wonder if the builders
of Stonehenge ever saw the Hypogeum of Malta
and used some of its architectural style.
We have absolutely no proof
that anything like that ever happened,
but the parallels are pretty amazing.
- [Dennis] Once archaeologists understand how it was built,
they turn their attention to why?
- The temple's builders lay out these chambers
so that the sunlight reaches the middle of the Hypogeum
and on the winter solstice,
the main temple chamber is illuminated in holy splendor.
This is somewhat reminiscent of once again, Stonehenge,
which is also thought to be built
to align with the solstice.
- Due to the solstice alignment,
some archaeologists think that the Hal Saflieni people
practice nature-oriented rituals,
worshiping the divine cycles
and rhythms of the moon and the sun.
- They also seem to revere the earth or the soil.
A red ocher clay found on the island is used to adorn
the inside walls of the chamber
with spiral and honeycomb designs.
Funerary goods such as pottery and beads
are also discovered suggesting this might have been
an underground cemetery.
- [Dennis] Adding further proof,
they also find bodies and lots of them.
- It's estimated that at least 7,000 people are buried
in the Hypogeum over the course of about 2,500 years.
When the archaeologists gather
and analyze some of these bones,
they discover that the bones are also covered with traces
of the very same red clay that's used on the walls.
- We can't be sure why the red ocher is used,
but one possibility is that the red color
is part of a religious ritual
that infuses the bones with the color of life.
- Unfortunately, out of the 7,000 bodies in the Hypogeum,
only six remain intact.
It seems that while their pre-burial rituals
might have been careful,
when it came time to lay the bodies to rest,
they just kind of chucked them down there.
After all the effort that they took
to build this incredible structure
and then to bathe the bodies in red clay,
and just toss them in afterwards seems a little bit strange.
To give you an kind of an example
of how much is down there in the space
of about four cubic yards, archaeologists find the remains
of no less than 120 individuals.
- It seems like the actual depositing of human remains
is more of an afterthought here than the main event.
Maybe it's not just a cemetery.
[dramatic music]
- [Dennis] Built deep beneath the surface of Malta,
the 5000-year-old Hal Saflieni Hypogeum features
some of the most advanced building techniques
ever found from its era,
but why it was built remains a mystery.
- There are many bodies buried here,
but they aren't buried very carefully.
This suggests that maybe there was another function
for this space as well.
- [Dennis] In 2007, a local composer develops a hunch
as to what that might be.
- There's a Maltese composer, Ruben Zahra,
and he visits the Hypogeum
and he learns more about its incredible acoustic properties
because if somebody speaks in the central oblong chamber,
the building creates an echoing acoustic effect
that's amplified nearly a hundred times
and you can hear it throughout the entire Hypogeum.
- Because of the booming voice it creates,
they refer to this room as the oracle room.
Standing in the Hypogeum
is like being inside a giant bell.
At certain pitches, you can even feel
the sound vibrating inside your bone and tissue
as much as hearing it in the ear.
- [Dennis] Intrigued, Zahra conducts more in-depth research.
- Zahra and a research team from Italy find
that the reverberating sound in the oracle chamber resonates
at precisely 110 hertz.
This gets the attention of many other researchers worldwide
because 110 hertz has already become a well-known frequency.
In acoustical science, it's known as the holy frequency
or the divine frequency.
- Now it's unknown who first studies the divine frequency,
but it pops up at least as far back
as the ancient Greek Pythagoras in 500 BC.
His musical scale starts with the note A
that resonates at 110 hertz.
- [Dennis] Modern science has proven that exposure
to this frequency can have remarkable benefits.
- In 2008, a team at UCLA study
how the brain is impacted when exposed
to this wavelength of sound.
And during the study, MRIs conducted
on healthy volunteers exposed to the divine frequency
appear to show that the brain's prefrontal cortex
and language centers actually shut down
and switch from left-side to right-side dominance.
- Those affected by this divine frequency report feelings
of creativity and intuition
unlike anything they felt before.
Believers even go so far as to proclaim
that the sound can heal and rejuvenate the body.
It leaves the listener with a sensation similar
to a runner's high.
- [Dennis] The frequency has reportedly been discovered
in several other important spiritual sites,
including Newgrange in Ireland and Cairn's Burial Mounds.
- This divine frequency isn't just found
in one room of the Hypogeum.
The Saflieni-era builders created a series
of underground catacombs all resonating
at between 110 and 111 hertz.
- [Dennis] Is it possible this was done intentionally?
- So it would be a pretty big leap to assume
that these people in 3000 BC knew how sound waves work,
but they still might have heard these reverberations
and felt something special going on
without fully understanding what it was,
and they might have sought to recreate it
as they continued building.
- The Italian researcher, Paolo Debertolis believes
the acoustic properties are no accident,
and in 2015 he sets out to prove it.
- So ultrasensitive microphones are placed
in the oracle chamber of the Hypogeum,
and digital recorders are used to test
the response of the chamber by different voices and
different musical instruments that were similar to ones
that might have been available to the ancient Maltese
who built the structure.
What they discover is that both
a male human voice chanting... [chants]
and a drum both created a strong simulation of resonance
very close to the divine frequency.
- So perhaps this is what the Maltese were doing
in the space.
Maybe it wasn't just a place for the dead after all,
but a place for the living
to come in and perform chanting rituals
during which they'd feel a deeply powerful sensation
rush through their bodies.
- [Dennis] Today, a select number of visitors
are allowed to enter the Hypogeum
and experience the feeling for themselves.
- Tourists are currently capped at 80 per day
in an attempt to protect and preserve
this incredible structure.
But if you can score one of those coveted slots,
you may be able to have a religious experience
of your own comparable to the one
that ancient Maltins had 5,000 years ago.
- Sacred tombs, lost Templar treasures,
miraculous frequencies,
all remind us that ancient and powerful treasures
can be found not just on the surface, but underground.
I'm Dennis Quaid and thank you for watching "Holy Marvels."