Ancient Apocalypse (2022) s01e07 Episode Script

1
What I'm suggesting is that
something that we would recognize
as an advanced civilization
existed during the Ice Age.
I'm not saying that they flew to the moon.
But what I'm saying is that they were
far, far, far more advanced
in terms of scientific knowledge.
Knowledge of the Earth,
knowledge of the universe,
than we're taught.
And capable of
astounding feats of engineering,
like the site I'm heading to
in Turkey's Cappadocia region.
There's an ancient survival bunker
deep underground
built not just to shelter a few people,
but to shelter thousands.
Mainstream historians
have long debated its purpose,
but I believe it might just explain
how this lost ancient civilization
I've been looking for became lost.
This is the story of Derinkuyu.
I've come to a region of Turkey
known as Cappadocia.
About 240 miles northwest of those
mysterious enclosures of Göbekli Tepe
that were intentionally buried,
memorializing a time of great cataclysms
at the end of the Ice Age.
Millions of years ago,
this region's landscape was transformed
by a series of volcanic eruptions,
leaving layer upon layer of ash,
which compressed over millennia
into a soft stone called tuff.
A stone easily shaped by the elements,
creating what locals call
"fairy chimneys."
But a stone that also
allowed the construction
of one of the most remarkable
large-scale projects
humanity has ever embarked upon
deep beneath this soft rock.
Just a few miles from where I stand,
the mysterious hidden city created
thousands of years ago has been revealed.
It's the work of
an as-yet unidentified civilization
that was clearly motivated by fear.
The big question therefore is,
fear of what?
The closest town,
Derinkuyu, seems unremarkable.
But in 1963, developers renovating
a house here knocked through a floor,
only to discover a deep tunnel,
one that led to a forgotten world.
It's hard to believe, as you walk
the dusty streets of this small town,
that carved out of the living bedrock
right beneath my feet
is an ancient, immense
and mysterious subterranean complex.
If you're claustrophobic,
consider yourself warned.
We're headed underground.
This is the underground city of Derinkuyu.
A series of stone tunnels and chambers
plunging as deep
as 85 meters below the surface
creating 18 levels of rooms and tunnels.
The entire complex
was hacked out of the rock with hand axes.
A disorientating warren
that occasionally widens
into large open spaces.
From inside, it's virtually impossible
to get a sense of the scale of the place.
But most of this underground city
has been mapped,
and if we take away the rock
between the spaces,
we can see a cross section of the city,
and it's utterly astounding.
It's an ant farm built human size,
with subterranean caves and tunnels
extending over an area
of four square kilometers.
To keep it well-ventilated,
Derinkuyu has upwards of 15,000 air ducts
connecting the upper levels
to the surface
and more than 50 vertical shafts,
some stretching all the way down to the
water table 85 meters below the surface
giving the complex its name.
Derinkuyu means, "deep well."
Stunning in its ingenuity
and architectural complexity,
it's calculated that Derinkuyu
could shelter up to 20,000 people.
But questions remain.
Which people, when and why?
It's hard to know precisely,
because Derinkuyu is like a crime scene
that's been trampled on for generations.
Many cultures have passed through
this part of Turkey.
For centuries, Cappadocia occupied
a place of strategic importance,
along the legendary Silk Road
that connected Asia to Europe,
going back to the time
of Alexander the Great.
Turkish scholar, Sevim Tunçdemir,
is an expert on the Derinkuyu tunnels
and their various occupants.
This region has been home
to many civilizations.
If we count them
starting from the beginning,
there were the Hittites,
then there were the Phrygians,
then the Persians,
the Cappadocian kingdom,
the Roman Empire.
All the people
who passed through used them.
They were even in use
up until the Ottoman period.
When the tunnels
were first discovered,
archaeologists found artifacts
left by early Christians,
and in the deepest levels,
secret meeting rooms
carved out with
vaulted ceilings like churches.
So the original theory,
which many historians
still cling to today,
was that the tunnels beneath Derinkuyu
were carved out by Christians
in the 7th century AD,
trying to hide from Arab raiding parties.
It's a tale
that appeals to Western tourists.
Also, it's totally wrong.
Later excavations found evidence
of people using this underground city
as early as the 8th century BC,
hundreds of years before
the Christians were here.
We encounter this again and again
on archaeological sites around the world.
There's a big notice based on
the received wisdom of archaeologists,
and again and again that notice is wrong.
Factually wrong.
Proved to be wrong
by later excavations and yet not changed.
Don't trust the noticeboards.
Do the legwork yourself.
Don't rely on the so-called experts.
There were many cultures
who used these tunnels over centuries,
but what I want to know
is who began this remarkable project.
How far back does it go?
Historian Hüsam Süleymangil has been
investigating this site for decades,
trying to unlock its mysterious origins.
So, when I look at Derinkuyu
and the complexity of it, I am mystified.
When do you think
that this project started?
There are several
different theories about it
and none of them
is really proven by science.
Right.
They couldn't find
any written information.
They couldn't find any organic material
to use to carbon date.
Are there any carbon dates at all?
As far as I know,
there is no carbon dating.
That's extraordinary.
So, the date is still a big mystery.
I have my own theories,
but Hüsam proposes a date
based on the oldest known culture
to use these caves.
Most plausible theory,
according to my mind,
is actually about the 8th century BC.
At that time,
this part of the world
was inhabited by a people
known as the Phrygians,
who were under threat
from another empire, the Assyrians.
We know that there was a big Assyrian army
coming from southeast.
The Phrygians would've viewed
the invading army with sheer terror.
The Assyrians were notorious
for skinning prisoners,
impaling them and burning children alive.
According to later accounts,
when the Assyrian invaders
marched against the people in this valley,
they were surprised
by the defenders' innovative tactics.
The Phrygians were fighting
against the Assyrian army
in the guerilla type of warfare,
attacking the army
in sort of unexpected places.
When the army start to chase them,
they would come
and use these as hideout places.
It's a time-honored strategy
in guerrilla warfare.
Similar tunnels were dug out
by the Viet Cong in South Vietnam.
And Afghan rebels did the same
to hide from superior Soviet
and then American invading forces.
This official position,
that the Phrygians dug out these tunnels
as a secret military base,
seems to be supported by
one of the complex's more clever features
massive stone discs
that can be rolled into place,
sealing up the passageways.
These rolling doors
have a diameter of up to five feet
and can weigh up to half a ton.
On the inside surface,
the disc has a hole.
Insert a smaller locking stone as a handle
and you can roll the door shut,
creating a smooth, formidable barrier
for anyone on the other side.
But did the Phrygians
really make these ingenious doors,
or were they already here?
They're carved
from the same compressed ash
that made the fairy chimneys.
The same soft rock that allowed someone
to dig all this out in the first place.
They're certainly sealable doors,
separating the levels from each other,
requiring sophisticated engineering
to fit in place.
But the stone is soft
and determined attackers
armed with sledgehammers and chisels
could easily have broken through,
rendering all the effort to make
these megaliths completely useless.
I'm beginning to wonder if they were
designed to deter human attackers at all.
To me, these look less
like defensive fortifications
and more like a clever way
to allow privacy between sections,
or to prevent fires from spreading.
Even if this place was originally built
as a military installation,
why dig it out here?
There was nothing here to defend.
There were no settlements
above ground in Derinkuyu until 1830.
The notion that these are places where
people went to hide from invading armies
makes very little sense to me.
When an invading army
comes into a territory,
they come to take,
possess and occupy that territory.
All they have to do is block the entrances
and wait till you die of starvation.
So that idea
just doesn't make any sense at all.
See, in my opinion,
I think scholarship is going too far
to say this was the 8th century BC
because those are the earliest dates
that we find people using it.
Right.
But that we don't necessarily know
that they made it then.
Maybe it was already made.
Quite possible, as it's still a mystery.
- It's just the most plausible theory
- Yes.
not the only correct theory.
The dating
of this underground city
is about as insecure as it's possible
for archaeological dating to be.
All the proposed dates derive from
use of the structure at different periods.
The fact that I live in a house today
doesn't mean it was built
immediately before I moved in.
It's a notion that leads me to question
the official dating of these tunnels.
Could they be older,
much older, than the accepted theory says?
And was the reason for their construction
not to hide from an invading army
but to hide from something else?
In the most ancient levels,
the ones closest to the surface,
the chambers seem
not to be designed for defense
but for everyday living.
The underground cities were
organized to cater for human living.
In other words, for daily life.
And for this,
all the resources were available.
Starting with the kitchen,
to the pantry, to the living spaces.
There are sections
we know that they would use as cooking
and we know
that they created small chimneys.
Mmm-hmm.
At the entrance floors, there are
some rooms that's named as stables.
Animals would be the most valuable
belongings of those people.
One area has even been identified
as an ancient winery
where grapes were crushed.
Indeed, the tunnels
would make a great wine cellar.
The temperature stays quite comfortable,
no matter how hot or cold
it gets on the surface.
Food would've stayed fresh
longer down here.
It's clear that Derinkuyu was created
to be used by a substantial population.
An underground bunker.
Think about all the modern examples
where humans have created
vast underground living spaces.
The Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado.
The Dixia Cheng network of tunnels
dug out beneath Beijing.
The Presidential Emergency
Operations Center under the White House.
None of these were built
to defend against invading armies.
They were built as places of refuge,
to preserve life in the event
of some kind of threat from above.
I think that's exactly what's going on
at Derinkuyu.
But I also believe this bunker
was created much longer ago
than archaeologists
are willing to consider.
There is evidence that suggests
that Derinkuyu may go back
as far as the last Ice Age.
It concerns those telltale marks
left by hand axes
on the walls of Derinkuyu.
Just a mile outside Derinkuyu,
Turkish archaeologists
exploring an ancient riverbed
found several hand axes and stone tools
dating back to around 9500 BC,
the end of the last Ice Age.
The same sort of tools
that shaped Derinkuyu's
shallowest and oldest chambers.
Think about the semi-subterranean chamber
at Karahan Tepe,
less than 300 miles from here,
with its columns that closely resemble
the natural fairy chimney formations
of Cappadocia.
Since no one disputes
that this chamber was carved out
at the end of the last Ice Age,
there's no reason why Derinkuyu
couldn't have been made
at around the same time.
As Derinkuyu reveals
its depth and complexity,
what's hard to ignore
is the vast scale of the enterprise
and the enormous effort involved
in tunneling it out in the first place.
What makes this feat of engineering
even more remarkable
is that this isn't the only
underground city in Cappadocia.
In 2013,
construction workers stumbled across
another series of tunnels at Nevşehir,
17 miles away.
What they found was an underground city
that's even larger than Derinkuyu.
Since then, more underground cities
have been discovered.
The stunning truth is here in Cappadocia,
archaeologists have identified
36 such underground cities.
And if we count the ones
with just two levels,
that number balloons to 200.
One of these underground cities,
just five miles away from Derinkuyu,
holds an incredible secret.
The tunnels at Kaymakli
run eight stories deep
over an area wider than Derinkuyu.
Based on the number of storage chambers
carved into the walls,
archaeologists think this bunker
could've supported up to 3,500 people.
But Kaymakli's most mind-blowing feature
can be found here on the third level down.
An underground tunnel
that runs far into the distance.
It's impassable today,
but this blocked tunnel is claimed by some
to connect Kaymakli to Derinkuyu.
A straight-line distance
of about five miles.
In fact, archaeologists have confirmed
that at least six other
underground complexes in Cappadocia
are connected to one another
by similar underground passages.
To my thinking, this changes everything.
These underground labyrinths
aren't just isolated, individual bunkers.
They're part of
a massive and widespread project
involving dozens of similar sites
scattered across the region.
Only a highly motivated culture
would have undertaken such a task.
What kind of threat
would have been so devastating
that it could compel an entire people,
possibly hundreds of thousands of them,
to carve out a new life underground?
There has to be another explanation
for why these places were made
which makes better sense
than hiding from invading armies.
The answer might lie
in one of the region's very oldest myths,
one that dates back thousands of years
to the Zoroastrians.
These are some of Cappadocia's
famous whirling dervishes.
Devout followers
of a religion called Sufism.
One of the few remnants
of the ancient culture of Zoroastrianism.
The ancient Persian prophet, Zoroaster,
founded what's claimed by some
to be the world's oldest
continuously practiced religion.
Its sacred texts refer to
an underground city just like Derinkuyu,
telling us exactly
why it was made and by whom.
Zoroaster spoke of the first king
and founder of civilization,
a man named Yima.
One day, as Yima was beside a river,
the great god Ahura Mazda
appeared to him with an ominous warning.
Not of a flood, but of a fatal winter.
And he told Yima to build a vara,
an immense underground shelter.
Into it, he must bring the best
of men and women, and animals,
two of every kind.
Yima must store seeds
of every tree and fruit,
creating an inexhaustible supply
until the fatal winter had passed.
Oh, and the sacred texts also tell us
that the onset of this fatal winter
would be heralded by a serpent in the sky.
The supposedly mythical vara
sounds a lot like the underground cities
we find here in Cappadocia.
But mainstream historians
refuse to see the connection.
The Yima myth
is just another one of those myths
that archaeology assumes
don't mean anything,
and yet it speaks of
a terrible freezing winter descending.
And just as geologists have confirmed
that there was a period of great floods
during the Younger Dryas,
much resembling those described in myths,
they've also noted that afterward,
temperatures around the planet plummeted.
A fatal winter indeed.
And then there's that detail
linking the onset of the fatal winter
to the arrival
of a great snake out of the sky,
just like the snakes we've encountered
in the myths of the ancient Aztecs,
or of the Iroquois.
Serpents always
associated with cataclysms.
I'm also reminded
of those pillars at Göbekli Tepe
covered in carved depictions of snakes
seemingly raining down from the sky.
Or of the snake etched into
Malta's great temple of Ġgantija.
Or of Serpent Mound in North America.
Of course, archaeologists don't connect
these ancient symbols and traditions
from opposite sides of the planet
to one another at all,
let alone to a singular event.
But we've now seen how different
and supposedly unrelated structures
all around the world
seem to have benefitted from a legacy
of very ancient knowledge.
A shared legacy of unknown origin.
The stunning implication
is that during the Ice Age,
an advanced civilization,
whose influence spanned the globe,
coexisted with the hunter-gatherers who
we know were also present at that time.
A civilization that was destroyed
in the mysterious cataclysms
of the Younger Dryas.
Could all these references to serpents
also be part of that legacy?
A warning left behind by survivors.
What it comes down to, for me, is that
we humans are a species with amnesia.
So badly knocked on the head
by the cataclysms that occurred
at the end of the last Ice Age,
that we've forgotten
an important chapter of our own story.
And that can be a big problem
because as with so many of these myths,
a later story about Yima
ends with a clear warning from the gods
that one day,
a similar catastrophe would return.
Could it?
For a long time, it remained a mystery
as to what triggered the floods,
fires and plunging temperatures
of the Younger Dryas,
but new geological evidence
has suggested a terrible possibility.
Evidence still visible today
in the scarred landscape
of prehistoric America,
where I'm headed next.
I'm quite persuaded
that the origin of serpent symbolism
has to do precisely
with those serpents in the sky
that we call comets.