588: COMPILATION: Hole Stories and Underground Mysteries

A construction worker discovers a massive tunnel system while breaking ground for a new building. Meanwhile, deep in the Nevada desert, scientists detect unusual seismic activity that doesn't match any known geological patterns. These events might seem unconnected, but they're part of humanity's complex relationship with what lies beneath. Throughout history, people have built elaborate underground networks - from ancient catacombs to modern military bunkers. Even now, mysterious tunnels are being discovered under cities worldwide, their purposes unknown. Some say they're remnants of lost civilizations. Others claim they're proof of secret government projects. Scientists continue mapping the vast caverns and passages honeycombing Earth's crust, finding new mysteries with each expedition. As we dig deeper into our planet's hidden spaces, we uncover evidence that challenges our understanding of human history. What secrets still wait to be discovered in the darkness below? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone. And including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save, too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 0:31AJ Gentile?

  Hey, thanks for clicking. Today, we're doing a hole compilation. Someone mentioned it on the livestream a couple of weeks ago, that we've done so many stories about holes, we should do a compilation of them. And I was like, "We have?" And then I went back and looked at the catalog, and we've got something like 10 or 11 stories about holes and underground mysteries and all that stuff. So we're not going to do all of them, but I picked seven, six or seven of my favorites. And really, the only way to kick off a good hole compilation is with the classic Mel's Hole.

• 1:08Speaker 00

  Network freedom and flexibility, that's what you want in a healthcare plan. With a Humana Medicare Advantage PPO plan, you can see any doctor in the country who accepts Medicare, including specialists. No referrals, no kidding. Learn more at gethumana.com. See any doctor who accepts Medicare and is willing to build Humana. Humana PPOs may not be available in all areas. Benefits and costs share may vary. Humana is a Medicare Advantage PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 1:41AJ Gentile?

  On Mel Waters' property in the Manastash Ridge, west of Ellensburg, Washington, there's a hole in the ground that looks like a well, but it's not a well. Like the owners of the property before him, Mel used the hole as a trash dump. His neighbors used it, too. Garbage, broken appliances, old tires. Everything went into the hole. After a while, Mel started to wonder, "Why doesn't it fill up?" And then he started to notice other strange things about the hole. His dogs wouldn't go near it. It caused his radio to pick up strange signals, and it didn't seem to have a bottom. Mel's curiosity became an obsession. Well, let's see if we can get to the bottom of Mel's Hole.

• 2:24AJ Gentile?

  Mel's Hole is a round pit 9 feet 9 inches in diameter. There's a stone retaining wall built around it that goes down about 15 feet. After that, the hole extends down into darkness. Well, not only did Mel Waters and his wife dump everything in the hole, but so did his neighbors. And this has been going on for a long time. For years before Mel even moved in, Mel's neighbors said they couldn't remember a time when the hole wasn't there. So why can't you hear objects hitting the bottom? Why can't you hear your own echo? Mel set out to determine exactly how far down this hole goes. An avid fisherman, Mel had spools of fishing line on hand. So he attached a one-pound weight to the line and sent it down the hole. It went 4,500 feet, the full length of the reel, and didn't hit bottom.

• 3:07AJ Gentile?

  He reeled the line up, attached a roll of lifesavers, and sent it all the way down again. Mel wanted to see if there was water at the bottom. And if there was, the lifesavers would come up dissolved. But they came up dry. And Mel had more spools of fishing line, each one 5,000 feet. He attached another spool, now down almost 10,000 feet, and still no bottom. Spool after spool of fishing line went down the hole. He could not reach the bottom. By the time Mel ran out of line, he was 80,000 feet down, over 15 miles, and still no bottom. While experimenting, Mel noticed that his dogs wouldn't come anywhere near the hole. Even when forced, the dogs would dig their feet in. There were no animals of any kind near the hole. No wildlife, no insects. Birds even flew around it.

• 3:52AJ Gentile?

  And since the hole was known to his neighbors, Mel asked around if anyone noticed their dogs feeling uneasy by the hole. And they all said yes. Then one of his neighbors said, "Speaking of dogs, not too long ago, his dog died, so he threw its body into the hole." A few days later, that dog came back.

• 4:13AJ Gentile?

  After Mel's neighbor threw his dead dog into the hole...

• 4:16Speaker 02

  Why? Just why?

• 4:18AJ Gentile?

  I don't know.

• 4:19Speaker 02

  You can't bury it?

• 4:21AJ Gentile?

  I really, I really don't know.

• 4:22Speaker 02

  Sometimes humans are very disappointing.

• 4:25AJ Gentile?

  They certainly can be. Anyway, a couple of days after disposing of his dog's body down the hole, he saw it running through a wooded area near the property. Now, he knew it was his dog because it was wearing the same collar. But for some reason, the dog didn't come when he called. The dog acted like he didn't know his owner at all.

• 4:42Speaker 02

  Ooh, maybe it's a version of his dog from another dimension.

• 4:45AJ Gentile?

  Well, that's definitely a theory. Now, as the weird stories piled up and the fishing line kept going down, Mel was at a loss. He was...

• 4:53Speaker 02

  Out of his depth?

• 4:55AJ Gentile?

  Right. Mel needed help figuring out exactly what this hole was. And in 1997, there's only one place to discuss the strange and mysterious and be taken seriously. Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell.

• 5:08Speaker 03

  From the high desert in the great American Southwest. Good evening and/or good morning, wherever you may be across this great land of ours.

• 5:15AJ Gentile?

  Coast to Coast was on hundreds of stations around the world and had 10 million listeners. If anyone could help Mel, it was Art Bell and his audience. Mel sent Art a message on February 21st, 1997. Art called him, and Mel's hole became known to the world. Over the course of several shows, Mel Waters would reveal more and more details about the mysterious hole. The good news is Mel was getting really good advice from people all around the world, like use a laser to measure or use radar to check the distance. The bad news is now millions of people knew about this hole. And from clues given by Mel on the radio, you can get a pretty good idea of where it was. The day after the first broadcast, Mel was returning to his property, but the entrance was blocked.

• 5:58Speaker 02

  They got him in.

• 5:59AJ Gentile?

  Yep. The US military was now aware of the hole, and they wanted it all to themselves.

• 6:14Speaker 04

  After the show on Friday night, I went out there and and noticed there were some helicopter activity around the property. There was further helicopter activity the next day. And so I figured that clearly somebody out there listens to your program. Oh, yes.

• 6:39AJ Gentile?

  Mel said that the hole could affect things in the environment around it. Animals avoided it, but plants seemed to grow extremely well. Radios acted weird. If Mel brought a radio near the hole, the signal would get very staticky and then start picking up broadcasts from somewhere else. One day, his radio started picking up what he describes as old-time music.

• 7:02AJ Gentile?

  So he goes to change the channel and tunes into a baseball game.

• 7:09AJ Gentile?

  This is fine until he learns the game was played in 1967, 30 years ago. Art's first call with Mel goes on for about an hour and then they wrap up. Mel was staying in Ellensburg for a couple of days and hadn't made the call from there. When Mel Waters returned from town, the access road to his property was blocked by armed military personnel. And there was evidence that heavy machinery had been brought in. Mel was told there was a plane crash on the property. But there was no report of a crash, no fire, no smoke. Still, Mel was told he couldn't access the property until the crash was completely investigated. When Mel asked to speak to the person in charge, a man in civilian clothes told him that the land was not necessarily his anymore.

• 7:51AJ Gentile?

  And it would be very easy to find a drug lab on the property if he didn't leave. Mel threatened to go to the press. The man in charge, Man in black. The man in black told him, "Go ahead and talk. Nobody would believe it." But Art Bell and his audience would believe it. And a few days later, Art called Mel for an update. Mel said that a neighbor saw a dark beam coming out of the hole and up through the clouds, darker than anything he'd ever seen. Now, Mel admitted he didn't see this himself, but Art Bell... And several callers said that this part of Washington has a lot of UFO sightings, disappearances, and other paranormal activity. Callers had their own theories. Maybe the hole was sitting on a ley line and there was a portal to another dimension.

• 8:33AJ Gentile?

  Or it was a portal through time, and that's why everything thrown into it disappeared. Maybe somewhere in an alternate reality, there's a big pile of garbage, old appliances, and dead animals just piling up, who knows? One caller thought this could be a tunnel to the hollow earth.

• 8:48Speaker 02

  Ooh, like a subway for lizard people.

• 8:51AJ Gentile?

  Something like that. There were a lot of theories. And since Mel couldn't access his property anymore, he talked to other locals trying to get more information. An elderly neighbor said that many years ago, there was a series of stone columns around the hole.

• 9:05Speaker 02

  Like stone inch?

• 9:06AJ Gentile?

  Right, but without the crossbeams, which are called lintels.

• 9:09Speaker 02

  Lintels?

• 9:10AJ Gentile?

  Lintels.

• 9:11Speaker 02

  What'd I say?

• 9:12AJ Gentile?

  Someone from the audience reminded Mel that calling into the show is a big mistake because obviously the government is listening. So the show ends and Mel agrees to come back for an update. On the day Mel is scheduled to reappear, he's a no-show, and not picking up his phone.

• 9:39Speaker 04

  Maybe my audience is not aware, but a television crew went up to Ellensburg after we did the last program and researched this. And obi-dag on, they didn't find the hole, but they did find near the area where you were talking about, a lot of military boot prints and all kinds of information that would indicate the military in fact had been there or was there. Oh, they would have probably seen a lot of yellow gear tread marks on the ground. Yup, yup, yup, yup.

• 10:09AJ Gentile?

  It would be three years before Mel resurfaces. He said he was offered $3 million a year to lease his property to somebody. But the deal was, sign a non-disclosure agreement, leave the country immediately, and never come back. So Mel takes the deal, and he lives in Australia for two years, but he's missing his family and decides to come back. To the States for a visit. Not smart. It wasn't. Mel was warned not to do this, but he does it anyway. And during this time, he gets in touch with Art Bell and agrees to come on the radio. But he never shows up. Mel said on the day he was supposed to come on, he was on a bus to visit his nephew. On the bus, there was some kind of altercation and the police were called. All the passengers are questioned and put on a different bus. Then Mel blacks out.

• 11:01AJ Gentile?

  And the next thing he remembers is that he's in San Francisco and 12 days have passed. Mel woke up in an alley. His wallet and keys were missing. He realizes his arm hurts. He rolls up his sleeve and there are needle holes and tape marks from an IV. And as he becomes more lucid, he tastes blood in his mouth. His back teeth are missing. Whoa. Mel never makes it back to the property. There was legal action taken against him for illegal construction. Power lines, septic tanks, paved roads. Of course, he didn't build these. The government had occupied the property for two years. Still, Mel lost everything. And a day or two after calling into Art's show, his bank account was emptied. Now, to be fair, plenty of people are calling in saying that this is all a hoax.

• 11:46AJ Gentile?

  But Art Bell is the master. Hoax or not, it's a great story, so he lets Mel continue. But Art does say that a TV crew was in the area looking for the hole. They didn't find it, but they did find evidence of a lot of military activity. And the no-fly zone has been mysteriously expanded to cover the area. In fact, TerraServer, which was a mapping site before Google Earth, showed that the whole area was blacked out, and this was confirmed. Skeptical callers said that Mel could have found the blacked-out part of the map and pretended his property was there. The problem with that is TerraServer launched six months after Mel made the first phone call. He couldn't have known. Soon, we learn that a Native American tribe had contacted Mel and asked him if he wanted

• 12:30AJ Gentile?

  to come to Nevada and help them research. Research what? Another bottomless hole.

• 12:45Speaker 04

  They took you to it? They took me there. I was not, I did not go all the way up to the hole, but there was conversations between the Native Americans and the Basque and blah blah blah. They basically agreed that, you know, everything was as it should be, that I wasn't, you know, from CNN or the FBI or CIA or whatever. Right, right, right. And so I went there and I got to see the hole. All right, what's there?

• 13:13AJ Gentile?

  The second hole wasn't located on the Indian Reservation where they lived. It was actually on public land that was used by Basques. The Basque are an ethnic group that comes from a small region between France and Spain. The Basque settled a couple of areas in the United States, including Nevada, in the mid-1800s. And they were using this land to herd sheep. They told Mel that the hole was there for as long as their people were, so at least 200 years. And they consider the hole and the land around it sacred. This hole was just over nine feet wide, just like Mel's. But where Mel's hole had a stone retaining wall of a few feet, the second hole had a metal collar and metal lining down as far as the eye can see. And this hole was warm to the touch. You could feel heat all around it.

• 13:58AJ Gentile?

  And the metal wouldn't make any sound or vibrate at all. Mel accidentally dropped a tool on the metal collar and the impact was completely silent. So Mel and the Basque begin their experiments. The first test was, they lowered a bucket of ice down into the hole about 1,000 feet. And they kept some ice at the surface as a control. When the surface ice was melted, they brought the bucket back up. That ice didn't melt at all. And even stranger, the ice was no longer cold to the touch. And it wasn't wet. The ice felt like large pieces of salt. So they tried to melt the ice over an open flame.

• 14:33Speaker 02

  It didn't melt, did it?

• 14:34AJ Gentile?

  Nope. It caught fire.

• 14:36Speaker 02

  Ah!

• 14:36AJ Gentile?

  Not only that, it continued to burn for months. So they continued sending different amounts of ice down the hole. About two-thirds of the time, it melted normally. But one-third of the time, it was transformed. Now at this point, one of the braver Basque volunteered to go down the hole himself.

• 14:52Speaker 02

  What? Is he nuts?

• 14:54AJ Gentile?

  Yeah, everyone agrees that that's not a good idea. So, they decided to send down a sheep.

• 14:59Speaker 02

  A sheep? Ooh, what happened to the sheep? Oh no!

• 15:13Speaker 04

  Well, I just felt I was in the presence of something extraordinary, something beyond extraordinary, something like in that category of having a religious thing there. This was just such a stunning thing to witness.

• 15:25AJ Gentile?

  The sheep did not want to go in the hole. The closer it got, the more it tried to kick its way out of its crate. They lowered the crate down the hole to 1,000 feet. At that point, it stopped moving, and they felt a humming sensation. They left the sheep down there for 30 minutes and then brought it back up. There was no movement. The crate was unchanged, and the sheep looked fine, but it was dead. The Basque, being shepherds, knew how to butcher a sheep, so they brought it to a table for a quick autopsy.

• 15:53Speaker 02

  Oh, for crying out loud, what are they doing?

• 15:55AJ Gentile?

  The first thing that they noticed is that the sheep looked like it was cooked from the inside, and taking up almost the entire cavity of the sheep's body was what Mel described as a giant tumor.

• 16:06Speaker 02

  Ugh!

• 16:07AJ Gentile?

  Then the tumor starts moving.

• 16:09Speaker 02

  What in the [bleep] is going on with this [bleep] story?

• 16:13AJ Gentile?

  Oh!

• 16:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm sorry. This is intense.

• 16:16AJ Gentile?

  Then, they cut the tumor open.

• 16:18Speaker 02

  Ooh!

• 16:19AJ Gentile?

  Inside the tumor is what Mel describes as a fetal seal.

• 16:24Speaker 02

  Wait, wait, wait. Did you just say a fetal seal?

• 16:27AJ Gentile?

  Yeah, like a baby seal. It was attached to the tumor by an umbilical cord, but this seal-like creature had the eyes of a human. They watched the creature for a while as it crawled to the end of the table, and Mel felt like it wanted to get back to the hole, so he picked it up and set it near the edge. Of course, the creature was slimy, and Mel said that the fluid had the smell of ozone. So the men studied the creature, and it seemed to study the men for about two hours. Then the seal creature gave them a final look and jumped in the hole. Now, before Mel went to Nevada, he was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer. He had only six months to live, but after this experience, Mel was cancer-free. He thinks he was cured by the-

• 17:10Speaker 02

  Magic seal!

• 17:12AJ Gentile?

  Yep. Mel felt like he had a transcendent experience. He was completely changed after this. And just then, the radio show runs out of time.

• 17:21Speaker 02

  No!

• 17:30Speaker 05

  Across from me over here is the actual roadway into Mel's Hole. Don't go up that road. Out there, a ways is a fence. But you get across that fence, you're in a deep bunch of trouble. It might be that you simply disappear, period.

• 17:49AJ Gentile?

  A few months later, Mel returned coast to coast. Something crazy happened with that bucket of ice. Remember one of the Basque took the burning ice to his cabin to keep warm? He had it in a stove. It burned for months, and it was pulling all the moisture out of the air. The air in the cabin was always dry. The owner's skin was always dry, he was constantly thirsty. When boiling water, the steam would be pulled into the stove. One day, the stove crashed through the floor and into the ground under the cabin. But it was still warm, so he patched up the floor and used the hole for warmth. A couple of weeks later, he's returning home and his entire cabin has collapsed and turned to dust. He moves in with his brother for a while.

• 18:30AJ Gentile?

  A month later, he comes back to the cabin and sees that the stove is now five feet underground, and the hole made by the stove was perfectly smooth.

• 18:38Speaker 02

  It was making a new baby bottomless hole!

• 18:41AJ Gentile?

  It was, and they couldn't get the stove back up. It took a giant crane to finally get the stove out of the hole. And at this point, the Basque said they were sometimes visited by the entity that they discovered in the hole.

• 18:52Speaker 02

  The magic seal?

• 18:54AJ Gentile?

  Yes, the magic seal. They felt it was a benevolent presence and considered the whole experience to be very spiritual. There are now brightly colored birds circling the hole. Birds that seem to be immune to bullets.

• 19:07Speaker 02

  That's how they respond to a spiritual experience? Shoot the birds?

• 19:12AJ Gentile?

  I guess.

• 19:13Speaker 02

  Freaking Basque.

• 19:14AJ Gentile?

  The Basque even believe the magic seal is communicating with them over the radio using a system of beeps and clicks as language which they can understand. The creature warns the Basque that the ice is dangerous and can't fall into the wrong hands, and would lead to the destruction of the planet. Art asks if there's a recording of this language. There is. The Basque recorded everything. For the next hour, a few more theories are considered, and Art finally gets Mel to agree to come back on the show. But this time, he would bring the recording, photos, video, and everything he can get his hands on. Mel agrees to go back to Nevada and gather all the evidence. He hangs up, and the show ends. Mel is never heard from again. He doesn't respond to Art's calls,

• 19:59AJ Gentile?

  and eventually, the line is disconnected. So after five years, the story of Mel's hole finally comes to an end. But it left so many questions.

• 20:11AJ Gentile?

  There are a lot of Art Bell highlights, and Mel's hole is right near the top. So how much of the story can we confirm? First, the location of the hole. TerraServer did blackout that part of Washington, but on Google Earth, it showed back up. But if the military really had taken over the property, they would have covered up the hole. People have been searching for it for years. And of the many locations I found, there was one that was really compelling. This is the Google map.

• 20:40AJ Gentile?

  Someone actually went to the location to see what was there. These are the pictures. During one of his phone calls, Mel said there were two old buildings on the property, and one of them eventually collapsed under snow. This fits the description pretty well. And also on the property is this. Yep, a hole about nine feet wide with a stone retaining wall. Exactly how Mel described. Now, this caused quite a stir online, but the hole turned out to be an old well and definitely had a bottom. If you search the Internet, you'll find a lot of people claiming they found Mel's hole. They haven't. It's never been found, at least, not yet. As for Mel, he's a complicated character. There's no record of a Mel or Melvin Waters living in the area,

• 21:23AJ Gentile?

  but some have claimed he was using a pseudonym to protect his identity. That makes sense. Now, something that really hurts the credibility of the story is the lack of pictures. In every call, Art asks for photographs, but sometimes, Mel just doesn't think to take a picture. He forgets, which is ridiculous. Another time, he says cameras don't work near the hole because of interference. Or he does have pictures and recordings, but they're not handy, so he'll send them when he can. But in Mel's defense, he never plugs anything. Even if this is a hoax, he could have made a fortune selling T-shirts, books, phony photographs, anything. People would buy that stuff just because it's cool. I would buy a Mel's Hole T-shirt.

• 22:04Speaker 02

  I went to Mel's Hole, and all I got was this magic seal fetus.

• 22:08AJ Gentile?

  Yeah, that part of the story was pretty wild. And that's a common argument, that Mel's story got crazier and crazier, and eventually he just couldn't keep up with it, so he bailed on the hoax. But he was pretty consistent with the facts over five years. And Art Bell tried many, many times to trip him up, and he couldn't do it. Now, the hole itself just isn't geologically possible. A hole many miles deep would be unstable and collapse in on itself.

• 22:32Speaker 02

  Unless it was a bottomless hole to another dimension.

• 22:35AJ Gentile?

  Right, unless it's that. But I don't think we'll ever know. Mel's Hole has many believers, but I don't think Art Bell was one of them. But Art was an entertainer, and this is the type of story that his listeners loved. It's a legend that people still talk about 30 years later. But for me in this channel, this was a masterclass on how to present an urban legend. Let the story breathe, but still challenge the specifics. Explore the mystery, but keep it grounded. Be critical, but compassionate. I try to approach topics this way. But very few others do. A channel that tells mysterious stories without giving all the facts will get more clicks, and it will get more subscribers. But that's a shame, because it's dishonest, and you deserve better. We all do.

• 23:24AJ Gentile?

  I think that episode still holds up. And they don't all hold up. That was, uh, episode 73. And, what year? Uh, yeah. That was a time, uh, we're at this, in this history of the channel.

• 23:41AJ Gentile?

  I think that episode still holds up. And they don't all hold up. That was, um, number 73. That was a point in the channel where I was really frustrated. Uh, it was two years into this, 73 episodes, and nobody was watching. It was like 2,500 people, uh, subscribers, and they weren't watching. It would get like 500 views. And so I still get annoyed when I see comments online about how the Wi-Fi was just turned on a channel and just exploded out of nowhere. That's, that's not what happened. But I made videos for two years that nobody watched, unless you're one of those 50 people, and I appreciate it. Um, 2022, that was, that was when Mel's Hole came out, and that was like our breakout year.

• 24:25AJ Gentile?

  2022 was our breakout year. 23 was a growth year. And 2024 was a lessons learned year. Like I, I called it a setback year, and Jen didn't like that. She said, oh, you learned some lessons. Um, maybe I'll do a backstage, uh, about, about that, uh, when we get into the next year. Anyway, next up on our whole compilation is episode 122, Finding Agartha: The Search for the Hidden City in the Center of the Earth. Um, this is a long episode. Hope you stick around.

• 24:57Speaker 00

  At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet, like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone, and including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save, too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage, HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 25:33AJ Gentile?

  Cultures around the world have myths that speak of a mysterious underground kingdom that exists deep within the Earth, hidden away from the primitive and violent surface dwellers, which is us. Picture a society untouched by time, unscathed by war, and unaffected by natural disasters, a culture thriving in the vast open spaces inside the Earth. Throughout history, many have looked for physical evidence of its existence, tempted by stories of a peaceful but powerful subterranean civilization with advanced technology and ancient knowledge long forgotten by modern man. This is the story of the Underground Kingdom of Agartha, and the explorers who've said that not only is it a real place, but they know where it is.

• 26:25AJ Gentile?

  Stories of a hollow Earth have existed in cultures for thousands of years. Nearly every ancient society has stories about an underground realm, often inhabited by superior beings. Buddhists firmly believe in the subterranean kingdom of Agartha, ruled by the mysterious King of the World.

• 26:42Speaker 02

  Ooh, Leonardo DiCaprio?

• 26:44AJ Gentile?

  No. Agartha is said to be home to millions, and connected to the surface by a vast tunnel network within the planet's crust. Indian religions speak of a place called Patala, which translates to "that which is below the feet." Patala is described as a beautiful land full of rolling green hills and crystal-clear lakes. Agartha is described the same way. Some believe this is the real Garden of Eden, that when God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden, he actually sent them to the surface. In an ancient Mayan text called the Popol Vuh, there is the story of Shababa, an underworld civilization, and from Shababa, twin brothers emerge and, like Adam and Eve, they became the first people above ground.

• 27:26AJ Gentile?

  Chico Maztoch is the place where the Aztecs emerged to live on the surface of the Earth. It translates to "seven caves," and researchers are actually looking for it, and some think they've found it. African and other Native American legends also mention subterranean realms and cavern spirits. The most The existence story is that of an advanced inner-earth civilization, isolated from surface humanity. The Sumerians knew it as Kher, a void space or home of the dead. The Babylonians called it Urkalla, another world ruled by gods. The Chinese call this underworld Diu, and the Japanese call it Yomi. Ancient Egypt, Islam, Greek, Rome, even Celtic Irish, they all have myths of an underground world. More modern myths may call this place hell,

• 28:10AJ Gentile?

  but it could be argued that hell is a relatively new concept, that it's a construct designed to create fear and inspire good behavior. But before the concept of hell, the underworld was inhabited by advanced, god-like people who came to the surface of the earth. Once on the surface, they either created humanity or taught civilization to primitive humans. It's easy enough to interpret those as the same thing. And like the flood myth, which is present in every ancient culture, the inner-earth story also appears over and over again. Recent discoveries are starting to point to the fact that a great flood did really happen. So when cultures from all over the world share the same myth, we have to start looking at all those myths as maybe more than just a story. Those myths may be referring to actual history.

• 28:55AJ Gentile?

  But to prove the existence of Agartha, an underground civilization, and the Hollow Earth, we'll need more than stories. We need scientific evidence and eyewitness testimony. Fortunately, we have both.

• 29:12AJ Gentile?

  The Hollow Earth theory proposes that our planet is not a solid sphere, but a hollow one, with vast, unexplored spaces within. In 1692, astronomer Edmund Halley proposed a hollow earth consisting of a shell about 500 miles thick. Within that shell are two concentric spheres and a central core about the diameter of Venus. Halley said the spaces in between the shells could support life with light provided by a luminous atmosphere. In the late 18th century, mathematician Leonard Euler used physics calculations to hypothesize a hollow earth with a central sun. Euler's calculations suggested that gravity would propel matter equally in all directions, forming spheres with hollow interiors.

• 29:55Speaker 02

  Oh, wait, wait, wait. How can the earth be hollow and flat at the same time?

• 29:59AJ Gentile?

  Well, the earth isn't flat.

• 30:00Speaker 02

  Planes always fly in a straight line. If the earth was round, they would have to adjust for that.

• 30:06AJ Gentile?

  Yeah, that's not how that works.

• 30:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, speaking of planes, if the Earth was a spinning ball, you'd be able to fly a helicopter straight up in the air, wait for the ball to spin, and then land on the other side of the planet.

• 30:17AJ Gentile?

  Yeah, the atmosphere spins too.

• 30:19Speaker 02

  The air.

• 30:20AJ Gentile?

  Yeah.

• 30:20Speaker 02

  Right. How fast does the Earth spin?

• 30:23AJ Gentile?

  Well, that depends on the latitude.

• 30:24Speaker 02

  How fast?

• 30:25AJ Gentile?

  Between 300 and 1,000 miles an hour.

• 30:28Speaker 02

  Okay, so, empty air, stick to the ground, moving at 1,000 miles an hour.

• 30:33AJ Gentile?

  Yup.

• 30:33Speaker 02

  In perfect sync, everywhere on a big round ball.

• 30:37AJ Gentile?

  Yes.

• 30:38Speaker 02

  Agree to disagree.

• 30:42AJ Gentile?

  But what does modern science have to say about the hollow Earth? On the surface, the hollow Earth theory seems to defy basic geological understanding. Seismic data and the study of Earth's gravitational field suggest that our planet is composed of several layers: the crust, the mantle, and the core. However, proponents of the hollow Earth theory argue that the data are open to interpretation. They point to anomalies in seismic readings, which they claim could be indicative of large, empty spaces within the Earth. They also cite the existence of vast underground caves as evidence of the Earth's hollowness. And if the Earth is hollow, it could support the large population of Agartha. Even if the Earth isn't completely hollow, if there are vast hollow areas within the Earth,

• 31:27AJ Gentile?

  why couldn't they house a hidden civilization? Some trace the story of Agartha back to ancient Buddhist texts, where it's described as a paradise, a place of pure harmony and advanced knowledge. In the Western world, what we know about Agartha mostly comes from Alexandre Santiéf Delvedre. He was a French intellectual and occultist. He spoke of Agartha as a secret civilization, its people possessing wisdom and technology far beyond our understanding. Santiéf learned of Agartha through his Sanskrit teacher, who insisted it was a real geographic place. Santiéf's descriptions of Agartha were vivid and detailed. He spoke of grand palaces illuminated by magical light and of advanced technologies that harness the Earth's magnetic field.

• 32:09AJ Gentile?

  In the 19th century, Agartha's already had citywide lighting, railways, and even air travel. Santive believed that the Agarthans were the guardians of sacred knowledge, a knowledge that can bring about a golden age of peace and enlightenment on the surface world. Others would continue the search for Agartha. Occultist Eleanor Blavatsky searched for evidence of a hollow Earth and the secret tunnels that Agarthans used to travel all over the planet. But as far as we know, Santive and Madame Blavatsky didn't find Agartha. But not because it doesn't exist, because they didn't know where to look. But we do.

• 32:48AJ Gentile?

  The reason Edmund Halley started exploring the idea that the Earth was hollow was because of strange compass readings in the Atlantic. He believed that the aurora borealis resulted from gases escaping from the inner spheres inside the Earth. This suggested there were entrances at the north and south pole, and once inside, you can navigate the inner shells through vast cave and tunnel systems. The hollow Earth theory fell out of favor for a while but gained new life in 1818. American John Sims launched the notorious Sims Hole Theory. He declared that the Earth was hollow and habitable. He said the inner Earth is comprised of four nested shells with openings at the poles. And Sims dedicated much of his life to promoting this theory by trying to put together a polar

• 33:32AJ Gentile?

  expedition, though that never happened. In 1829, Norwegian fisherman Olaf Jansson claimed that he and his father sailed through a polar opening and into the planet's interior. There, they spent two years among a race of giants before exiting through the south pole. His story is documented in the book "The Smoky God" by Willis George Emerson, which is a fun read. But probably the most famous and detailed account of the world inside the Earth comes from Admiral Richard E. Byrd. Admiral Byrd was an aviation pioneer, polar explorer, and one of the most decorated and celebrated officers in the history of the American military. So, a serious guy. Byrd took his plane out on a quick survey mission of the north pole.

• 34:16AJ Gentile?

  As he was flying over ice and snow, he noticed the sunlight changed. Then, it got warmer. A few minutes later, he was flying over fields of green grass and forests and rivers. He even saw a woolly mammoth grazing in one of those fields. Then he no longer had control of his plane, and suddenly, two craft came up beside him.

• 34:37Speaker 06

  Off our port in starboard wings are a strange type of aircraft. They are closing rapidly alongside. They are disc-shaped and have a radiant quality to them. They are close enough now to see the markings on them. It is a type of swastika. This is fantastic! Where are we? What has happened? I tug at the controls again. They will not respond. We are caught in an invisible vice grip of some type.

• 35:01AJ Gentile?

  Admiral Byrd lands and is escorted by tall blond men to an underground city. There, the admiral meets someone called "the master." Now, I linked to an episode where I go into a lot of detail about what Admiral Byrd found, so check that out if you want to learn more. I'll try not to spoil too much here. So Admiral Byrd found a way to the Hollow Earth in the North Pole. Others have found their way in through the South Pole. The South Pole is often connected to Nazi Germany. Hitler was an occultist and was famously fascinated by the possibility that the Hollow Earth could be accessed through Antarctica. Germany did make an expedition to Antarctica in 1938. I theorized in the Operation High Jump episode that this was the reason the United States

• 35:42AJ Gentile?

  sent its large, well-armed task force down there in 1946. The Germans had maps of the area, including a cave system underneath the surface. They even had step-by-step directions on how to get into the Hollow Earth. The directions are very specific. Distance is right down to the meter. After you follow the first eight steps, the ninth step is interesting.

• 36:05Speaker 07

  Proceed to Agatha, full speed. Process straight ahead until the new light can be seen. Change of magnetic poles, the changes of the compass needle and instruments are to be disregarded.

• 36:17AJ Gentile?

  German U-boat 209, commanded by Heinrich Broda, said he reached the interior of the Earth and found a vast network of tunnels. There are rumors that, after Germany surrendered, some Nazis fled to Antarctica and hid in these tunnels. And other rumors say they're still there. But the poles aren't the only way to get into the cave system that leads to Agatha. There are entrances all over the world. And chances are, there's one near you.

• 36:54AJ Gentile?

  The planetary grid system is a network of energy lines crisscrossing the planet. These lines are said to influence everything, from ancient monument placement to the patterns of animal migration. The idea of a planetary grid goes back to the ancient Greeks, who believed in a concept called "emphalos," the Earth's central point. And you can see this concept expressed in places like the oracle at Delphi, said to be the center of the ancient world. A few centuries later, in the 1920s, Alfred Watkins noticed that ancient sites seemed to line up along straight paths. He termed these "laylines." And while some considered his theory a coincidence, others saw a pattern connected to the Earth's geography.

• 37:35AJ Gentile?

  More recently, the Unified Vector Geometry Theory was proposed by Buckminster Fuller, and later developed by scientists like William Becker and Beth Haggins. According to this theory, the Earth is covered by an invisible grid formed by 120 identical triangles. This grid supposedly aligns with significant geographical and historical points across the globe. Take the Great Pyramid of Giza. According to the Unified Vector Geometry Theory, it isn't randomly placed, but occupies a crucial point on this global energy grid. The same applies to other ancient landmarks like Stonehenge and Machu Picchu, the Nazca Lines, and even the Bermuda Triangle. In addition to the North and South Poles, entrances to the Kingdom of Garthah are also

• 38:19AJ Gentile?

  found on some of these planetary grid points. Let's take a quick trip around the world and look for a way in.

• 38:30AJ Gentile?

  The first way into the Hollow Earth is in the caves of Deros in Greece. This entrance is closely connected to Plato and the story of Atlantis. From Greece across the Mediterranean to Mount Epi Male in Italy. For centuries, this has been called "a portal to the inner Earth." Now going south across the Mediterranean is the Pyramid of Giza.

• 38:56AJ Gentile?

  Giza doesn't seem like it would have access to the Hollow Earth, but we now know that underneath the pyramids is a vast cave system, underground rivers, reservoirs, and tunnels. With modern technology like ground-penetrating radar, new caverns and chambers are discovered all the time. Another entrance to the Earth is said to be within King Solomon's mines. Solomon, a king of Israel and son of King David, was known for his wisdom, power, and his personal fortune, described as one of the largest on Earth. King Solomon's mines became known to the world because of the famous novel featuring the character Alan Quartermain, an adventurer you might remember from the movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." Quartermain was played by Sean Connery.

• 39:44Speaker 02

  Underrated movie.

• 39:46AJ Gentile?

  Yeah, I think so too. Wealth is usually associated with gold, but King Solomon's wealth is thought to have come from the mining of copper. And these mines would have been operating around the 13th century B.C. Now, even though the legend of King Solomon's mines comes from a fictional novel, treasure hunters believe this is a real place and have been searching for it for a long time. In 2008, there might have been a breakthrough. An ancient mining city was discovered in Kerbat el-Nahas in Jordan. There, archaeologists discovered a copper mine and a copper smelting camp, which seemed to be operational in the 13th century B.C. The team also found a lot of personal items, including clothing, ceramics, fabric, even tools,

• 40:29AJ Gentile?

  all indicating a highly-developed, long-term settlement at the site. And these objects have been dated to the same period as King Solomon's mines.

• 40:40AJ Gentile?

  The next entrance is said to be in Rama, India, where an ancient subterranean city was recently discovered.

• 40:51AJ Gentile?

  Tibet is home to many stories about Hollow Earth, so it's not surprising that there are entrances underneath the Himalayas. One of these is in the underground city of Shonshay, which, according to legend, has been guarded by monks for thousands of years. But there are entrances to the Inner Earth in the West too.

• 41:16AJ Gentile?

  Iguazu, en Argentina, se supone que tiene una entrada escondida en algún lugar debajo de los famosos agujeros.

• 41:27AJ Gentile?

  Debajo de Mato Grosso, en Brasil, se dice que es la ciudad de Posit, que fue construida por atlánticos después de la destrucción de Atlantis. Incluso Estados Unidos tiene puertas de entrada a la Tierra Hollow.

• 41:42AJ Gentile?

  Mammoth Cave, en Kentucky, se ha conocido como una entrada desde que llegaron las primeras tribus nativas a allí hace miles de años.

• 41:50AJ Gentile?

  La entrada más famosa a la Tierra Hollow en Estados Unidos es probablemente el Monte Shasta.

• 41:58AJ Gentile?

  Es aquí donde se dice que la ciudad de Telos fue construida y sigue siendo ocupada. Y hay mucho evidencia de que algo está pasando allí. Envié un episodio donde llamamos el Monte Shasta "el lugar más paranormal de la Tierra", y absolutamente lo es. Y estas son solo algunas entradas al Reino de Gartha en América del Norte. Hay otras en Arkansas, California y otros estados, y varias locaciones en Canadá. Incluso el sitio de la base secreta bajo el terreno en Dulce, Nuevo México, se dice que fue elegido debido a su proximidad a una entrada a la Tierra interior. Y hicimos un episodio sobre la base de Dulce también. Y podrías haber notado que muchas de las supuestas entradas a la Tierra Hollow coinciden con los lugares famosos para encuentros de UFOs. Y esto puede no ser coincidencia.

• 42:42AJ Gentile?

  Cada vez que alguien menciona un UFO, nuestro instinto es mirar hacia arriba, hacia el cielo, hacia el espacio. Resulta que tal vez estemos mirando en la dirección equivocada.

• 42:54AJ Gentile?

  Cuando pensamos en UFOs, pensamos en extraterrestres de una estrella distante. Y eso podría ser cierto. Pero también hay la teoría de que los UFOs no vienen de un planeta diferente, sino de dentro de nuestro planeta. Es ciencia que habla, más sentido es que hay una raza de seres humanos viviendo dentro de la Tierra, en lugar de una raza de seres humanos que han de alguna manera descubierto cómo cruzar las vastas distancias del espacio. Y no es extraño que los aliens de los que hablamos sean todos humanos? Whether they're the small grays, the tall whites, or even the goblin-type aliens, they all kinda look like us. Two eyes, nose, mouth, two legs with feet and toes, two arms with hands and fingers. Even the size of the beings is close to the size of humans.

• 43:38AJ Gentile?

  Now, maybe all-intelligent life in the universe evolves this way, but I would expect life in different biomes, in different ecosystems, on different planets, light-years away, to look radically different than humans. But they don't. So it's possible that they're from here, just in places we can't normally see. We see a lot of UFOs coming out of the ocean, but we haven't found any type of base, at least not a confirmed sighting. So what if the base is inside the hollow Earth, under the ocean? I can think of no better hiding place. Far side of the moon. Yeah, that would be a good hiding place. And there are crazy things happening on the far side of the moon, and an episode on that is coming up. There have been many UFO sightings around Mount Shasta, where the object flies into the mountain and then disappears.

• 44:23AJ Gentile?

  Now, assuming the witnesses are telling the truth, and I believe they are, the objects are going somewhere. In the Arctic, near the North Pole, the earliest-reported UFO sightings go back to the year 1850. Captain De Haven and his medical officer saw what they thought was a balloon, but then a second object appeared, and suddenly both objects vanished. Around midnight on January 22, 1952, a strange object was tracked on radar at a military outpost in northern Alaska. It was moving at 1,500 miles per hour, which no aircraft on Earth could do. Three jets were sent to investigate, and as the jets approached, the radar blip slowed down and just hovered. A few seconds later, it streaked out of sight, heading to the North Pole, moving even faster

• 45:08AJ Gentile?

  than before. On October 5, 1960, the Ballistic Missile Early Warning Station at Thule, Greenland, thought World War III had started. Radar was tracking multiple objects moving at speeds too fast to be anything except a Soviet missile attack. Within minutes, US bases in England and Canada were mobilized, and NORAD and the Strategic Air Command were alerted. A few minutes later, the radar signals changed course and disappeared somewhere near the North Pole. The military has been dealing with Arctic UFOs since 1945. The first UFO in Alaska emerged from the sea in March of that year. Fourteen crew members on an Army transport ship witnessed the object. It approached the ship, circled it, and then flew away.

• 45:52AJ Gentile?

  And there are many more sightings in the Arctic during this time. Inuits in the Arctic regions have encountered UFOs in the past and included them in their myths. Once a man from the Buckland River tribe discovered what appeared to be a UFO landing site, two strips of land approximately two feet wide had been burned all the way down to the ground. On Sledge Island, Inuits have a legend of a massive ball of fire resembling the moon that descended from the sky. Shortly after the object was spotted, a creature described as "a human skeleton" appeared in the village. According to the legend, this visitor was not friendly and killed most of the people it encountered. These are just a small fraction of the stories about UFOs and visitors coming from the ocean,

• 46:36AJ Gentile?

  from the poles, or the middle of the Earth. So we've covered the eyewitness accounts. The next piece of the Hollow Earth puzzle is scientific evidence. We have that too.

• 46:50AJ Gentile?

  The Kola Superdeep borehole was just nine inches in diameter, and at 40,230 feet, it's the deepest hole on Earth. It took almost 20 years to reach its depth of 7.5 miles.

• 47:02Speaker 02

  Mel's Hole is deep in the net.

• 47:04AJ Gentile?

  Well, that's true, but that's another episode.

• 47:06Speaker 02

  They pulled some crazy stuff out of Mel's Hole.

• 47:09AJ Gentile?

  Kola Superdeep was abandoned in 1992 when the drillers encountered higher-than-expected temperatures, over 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The drill just couldn't handle the heat. 7.5 miles is a deep hole, but it's 4,000 miles to the Earth's core, so the Kola Superdeep is nothing. And since grade school, we've been taught that the Earth is made up of the crust, the mantle, and the core. And the core is two layers. The outer core is almost 1,400 miles thick and mostly made of liquid iron and nickel. The inner core is a solid sphere with a radius of about 750 miles. And the inner core is thought to be comprised mostly of iron and some nickel. But if we've only dug 7.5 miles down, how do we know for sure what's down there?

• 47:54AJ Gentile?

  Well, we don't. But by using different methods, scientists can take a guess. The primary way we've learned about the Earth's core is through the study of seismic waves. These are waves of energy that travel through the Earth's layers. They move at different speeds depending on the density and the composition of the layer they're passing through. Further evidence comes from the Earth's magnetic field, which is best explained by a dynamo effect. This is the spinning motion of the liquid iron and nickel which generates the field. But something strange happened at the beginning of this year. The Earth's inner core stopped spinning. Now it's believed that the core started spinning again, but in a different direction. And nobody really knows what caused this, we can only guess.

• 48:37AJ Gentile?

  A few months later, it was determined that the Earth has an inner... ...inner core of solid iron about 400 miles wide. So new discoveries are always being made, and everything we know about the inner Earth is just educated guesses. Why couldn't the Earth be hollow? Or at least have enormous hollowed-out spaces that could support life? Now skeptics have argued that you can't have life inside the Earth. The main reason: there's no water. Well, when the Cola Superdeep borehole was being drilled, fossilized plankton were found miles below the surface. Still, those are fossils, maybe millions of years old. What about now? Well, in 2014, scientists discovered water hundreds of miles below the Earth's surface. Not just a little water.

• 49:22AJ Gentile?

  They found so much water, you can fill all the Earth's oceans with it. Three times.

• 49:33AJ Gentile?

  Most of the Earth's water is not on the surface, it's inside. This water exists between 250 and 410 miles under the surface in an area called a transition zone, a buffer layer that separates the upper from the lower mantle. Now if there's water down there, I wonder what else could be down there? Well, in 2019, geologists from Princeton University published a study that surprised everyone. They used supercomputers to analyze seismic data from some of the largest earthquakes ever recorded, including the 8.2 magnitude quake that hit Bolivia in 1994. Earthquakes that big reverberate through the entire planet. We may not feel them, but seismographs can detect them.

• 50:15AJ Gentile?

  Analysis showed that beneath the surface of the Earth are vast plains and mountains taller than the Himalayas, all deep within the Earth. How deep? 410 miles, the same depth as where the water is found, the transition zone. So what about the entrances at the poles? Well, pictures are hard to find, and they're allegedly all altered by NASA, which we know they do. But there are a few photos and videos out there of the poles that show something strange. These photos were taken by the SIS7 satellite in 1968. In one photograph, the North Pole was covered by clouds. In another photograph, the same area had no clouds, revealing a massive hole where the pole would be.

• 51:01AJ Gentile?

  This was taken from the ISS in March of 2015. NASA says that's a typhoon, fair enough. But in 1987, the Russian space station Mir recorded something at the North Pole that is definitely not a typhoon. What is this?

• 51:27AJ Gentile?

  The Hollow Earth theory has been around for centuries. At one point in history, it was the mainstream scientific view. But is there really evidence to support the Hollow Earth theory? Well, yes and no. Modern Hollow Earth theory always starts with Edmund Halley. He's a famous astronomer, which gives the theory some legitimacy. Halley put forth the idea because he couldn't explain why magnetic poles were moving. He figured there were shells inside the Earth that moved independently of each other. And he was almost right. During Halley's time, it wasn't yet known that the Earth's core spins, which creates the magnetic field. But he was correct that sections of the inner Earth can move independently of each other, including the core, as we only recently discovered.

• 52:11AJ Gentile?

  Mathematician Leonard Euler gets credit for pushing the Hollow Earth theory in the 18th century. Now, I'm not sure how he became attached to the theory. There's no evidence he ever said anything about it. And the concept of Agartha as a legendary subterranean world was first mentioned in the late 19th century. French occultist and esoteric writer Alexandre Santive introduced the idea in a book he published in 1885. And according to his writing, Agartha was a place of ancient wisdom and spiritual enlightenment. But he never found actual hard evidence that it was a real place. He actually never looked. The idea caught on with other occultists and theosophists like Madame Blavatsky. But the only evidence they provide of the Hollow Earth comes from visions and telepathic communication.

• 52:55AJ Gentile?

  And I'll leave it to you to determine if that's proof enough. Most modern Hollow Earth myths come from the Jules Verne novel Journey to the Center of the Earth. When this story was published in 1864, it was a phenomenon and made Jules Verne one of the most famous authors in the world. Before there were blockbuster films, there was Jules Verne. Now Admiral Byrd's diary describes how he flew into the Hollow Earth and had a meeting with an advanced race of beings who warned him about war and nuclear weapons. And this is a common theme in science fiction in the 1950s and 1960s. Admiral Byrd's story is basically the same plot as The Day the Earth Stood Still. It just takes place in Agartha. I covered Admiral Byrd's diary in the other episode. I also explain whether the diary is real or not.

• 53:40AJ Gentile?

  Spoiler alert: it's not. Now, the water found inside the Earth is real. And when the discovery was made, we were clickbaited into thinking there are these vast oceans inside the Earth. And there may be, but that's not what this discovery showed. There is a massive amount of water in the Earth's mantle, but it's trapped inside rocks and minerals.

• 54:01Speaker 02

  Ooh, you rocks can hold water?

• 54:03AJ Gentile?

  Yep, lots of it. It's a process called mineral hydration. It's a good way to lock water in in a dry environment. For example, the surface of the Moon is covered in water. The water is just embedded in the lunar soil. So the water inside the Earth is real, just not in a way that's obvious. And the mountains inside the Earth are also real, but also not how we might think. Again, we were clickbaited into thinking there are huge, open spaces underground with mountain ranges. And you can't help but picture scenes from Godzilla vs. Kong.

• 54:38AJ Gentile?

  But that's not what they found. There are mountains of material that are denser than the material around them. It's still solid-ish material, just of different densities. The NASA video is a typhoon, and the video taken from Mir was a hoax, but you probably knew that. Now, it's true, there aren't a lot of satellite pictures of the poles, and there is a lot of speculation about this. The truth is, there aren't a lot of satellites there. It's not worth taking a lot of photographs of the poles, because not much changes. And photos that are almost pure white are hard to analyze. Now, there are a couple of satellites in polar orbit that measure how much the ice caps are melting. They're not. Well, a few years ago, you can maybe make that argument, but NASA reports that Antarctica

• 55:21AJ Gentile?

  is losing around 150 billion tons of ice per year. Yeah, but when does NASA ever tell the truth, eh? Now, that's a fair point. But just last week, it was reported that Antarctica is experiencing a Six Sigma event, which happens every seven and a half million years. Oh, this sounds bad. Well, it ain't good, but assuming we're not all underwater, I'll get into that in a future episode. As for things I can explain, there are witness reports of UFOs flying into Mount Shasta. No video that I can find, but multiple witnesses have seen this, and I think they're probably telling the truth. UFOs are coming out of the ocean, we've all seen video of that. And if the aliens landed tomorrow and held a press conference, where they said, "We're

• 56:04AJ Gentile?

  not from another planet, but we're from inside this planet," well, that would make sense to me. Scientifically speaking, that's more plausible than creating wormholes and bending spacetime to travel through space. But until the aliens announce themselves, or until our government starts telling the truth, we're just not gonna know for sure. And there are many, many interesting stories about the hollow Earth, and there's no way to cover them in one episode, so keep an eye out for more on this topic. Now, it's true, we can't prove the Earth is hollow. It's also true, we can't prove it's not. If you follow this channel, you know I try to find as much truth in these mysteries as I can. But the real truth is, some mysteries just can't be solved. And those are my favorite.

• 56:49AJ Gentile?

  I say it over and over. I try to be very honest because I get lots of things wrong. So, someone sent in a Gartha. That was the request. I had no idea what it was. But, this was a week where I didn't have any topics and it was getting kind of down to the wire. And when that happens, I just go back to the tips line and I just look through like, what do we have that could possibly work? And, um, I came across a Gartha. I'm like, what is this? And it's like, okay, it's Hollow Earth. That could be fun. And then, um, I start researching it and it's super fun. You could tell in the episode that I'm really excited about it.

• 57:27AJ Gentile?

  And that's just, that's gold. When I go into a topic and I have no idea what it is and then I start researching, I'm like, this is perfect. So, uh, that's what happened with a Gartha. That was a lot of fun. Um, next up is 62, episode 62, the borehole drilling project that went very wrong.

• 57:48AJ Gentile?

  I should go and update some of these titles. Little clickbaity. Um, alright, so before you say it, I am aware that I have put on a weight in this video. Okay, that is my COVID weight. And,

• 58:05AJ Gentile?

  I don't know, it's hard to watch my big round face, um, but I'm aware of it and I fixed it. So, go easy on me in the comments. Um, but if you can get past the fat guy, it's another Art Bell story. Um, at least that's where I learned about it. It was, uh, someone had discovered like the deepest hole in the world and they put a microphone down there and they heard the sounds of hell. It's only 11 minutes. I'll see you afterwards.

• 58:34AJ Gentile?

  When the drill reached 14.4 kilometers, it had broken through solid rock and into a large cavern. That wasn't supposed to be there. From the surface, scientists could hear something coming from the hole. They lowered down an instrument array, including a microphone. There was air in the cavern nine miles beneath the surface, but it was mostly toxic gas. And the air temperature was over a thousand degrees. None of this made sense. They turned on the microphone. What they heard caused most of the crew to quit on the spot. For the few that remained, it only got worse. They called it the Well to Hell.

• 59:17AJ Gentile?

  When the Allies won the Second World War, they quickly scrambled to claim their share of the Nazi resources. Gold, weapons, and oil were highly prized, but no resource was as valuable as the Nazi scientific community. The United States launched Operation Paperclip, which brought over 1,600 Nazi scientists, engineers, and technicians to the US for government employment. The Soviets had Operation Osavichim, where over 2,500 scientists were recruited by the Soviet Union.

• 59:47Speaker 02

  Ahem, recruited?

• 59:49AJ Gentile?

  Uh, abducted.

• 59:50Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 59:51AJ Gentile?

  This influx of talent kicked off a scientific rivalry that would last the next half-century. Nuclear technology was, of course, a priority, for weapons and for energy. The most high-profile competition was the space race. The Soviets were the first to launch a satellite into orbit, the first to land an object on the moon, the first to put a human in orbit, and the first spacewalk. The United States had its own list of firsts, the big one being the first man on the moon.

• 1:00:17Speaker 02

  Faked.

• 1:00:18AJ Gentile?

  Not this again.

• 1:00:19Speaker 02

  No impact crater. The shadows don't line up. Pictures use the same backdrop. You can't get through the Van Allen radiation belt. You want more?

• 1:00:26AJ Gentile?

  I can't do this today.

• 1:00:28Speaker 02

  If you think the moon landing was real, I have a few NFTs to sell ya.

• 1:00:33AJ Gentile?

  Okay, whether the moon landing was real or fake...

• 1:00:35Speaker 02

  Fake.

• 1:00:36AJ Gentile?

  ...these achievements pushed both countries to explore further and higher than ever before. It also pushed them to explore deeper, a new competition: the race to the center of the Earth. The American program was called Project Mohol. The first borehole was drilled in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico in 1961. But the program suffered from poor management and lack of funding. The Russian drilling program was more focused. They chose a location on the Kola Peninsula for their hole. The Kola super-deep borehole penetrated one-third of the way through the Earth's crust, over 12 kilometers down. And these are the public projects. The Soviets also had a secret drilling project. The world finally learned about it

• 1:01:21AJ Gentile?

  when a whistleblower came forward in 1989. He claimed that buried deep beneath the Earth was hell.

• 1:01:27Speaker 02

  Actual hell?

• 1:01:29AJ Gentile?

  Actual hell. He said the Russians accidentally discovered it deep beneath Siberia. And he said there was proof.

• 1:01:39Speaker 03

  To those who discounted the Siberia sounds from Hell's story, it is true, and I for one, wish it wasn't.

• 1:01:47AJ Gentile?

  In 1989, Dr. Dmitry Azakov and a group of scientists were working on a borehole drilling project in Siberia. When the drill reached 14.4 kilometers, or nine miles deep, the drill bit started rotating wildly. It had somehow broken through solid rock and into a hollow area under the Earth's crust. This cavity wasn't supposed to be there. When the drill returned to the surface, it was literally glowing red hot. This also was unexpected. The temperatures at these depths should be about 100 degrees, 150 degrees at most. Instruments were reading temperatures of over 1,100 degrees. Dr. Azakov said, "It seems like an inferno is in the center of the Earth."

• 1:02:30AJ Gentile?

  The next discovery, according to Dr. Azakov, was the most shocking and caused some people to leave the project. At the surface, they heard strange sounds coming from the hole. At first, the engineers thought it was their equipment, so they shut down all the machinery, but the sound was still there. Part of the research done at the site was recording the sound of the movement of the Earth using specialized microphones. So, they lowered one of these microphones into the hole. Even though it was designed to operate at high temperatures, it overheated in just a few seconds. But, a few seconds was enough to prove the sound was definitely coming from the Earth's interior, and it was unsettling. Nine miles below the surface, in a superheated cavern,

• 1:03:13AJ Gentile?

  they heard humans screaming in pain. Dr. Azakov is quoted as saying,

• 1:03:19Speaker 08

  "We could hear thousands, perhaps millions, in the background of suffering souls screaming. Hopefully, that which is down there will stay there."

• 1:03:26AJ Gentile?

  Azakov believed they drilled into Hell itself. Half of the scientists immediately quit. Those who stayed at the job site were in for more of a shock. Later that night, a plume of gas burst out of the borehole and took the shape of a large bat or winged demon. And in the gas, three words were written: "I have conquered." The whole job site erupted into pandemonium. Then the medical staff received a call from someone, we really don't know who.

• 1:03:54Speaker 02

  KGB.

• 1:03:55AJ Gentile?

  Probably. The medics were told to give everyone a type of sedative which would erase their short-term memories. The Soviets used drugs like this for victims in shock. This account comes from one of those medics who blew the whistle on the operation.

• 1:04:08Speaker 02

  Hey, uh...

• 1:04:09AJ Gentile?

  Yeah?

• 1:04:09Speaker 02

  Look, I don't want to spoil the mood or nothing. This is a good story.

• 1:04:13AJ Gentile?

  Thanks.

• 1:04:13Speaker 02

  Some history, some science, demons, even men in black erasing memories. It has it all.

• 1:04:19AJ Gentile?

  I feel a butt coming.

• 1:04:21Speaker 02

  Butt? Is there any proof of any of this?

• 1:04:23AJ Gentile?

  Well, what kind of proof would make you happy?

• 1:04:25Speaker 02

  A picture of a demon would be nice.

• 1:04:27AJ Gentile?

  We don't have that.

• 1:04:27Speaker 02

  Oh, well, any chance, and I know I'm asking a lot of you, any chance someone recorded all those screaming souls?

• 1:04:34AJ Gentile?

  Yep. A seventeen-second recording has been found.

• 1:04:38Speaker 02

  Woohoo, okay, on with the show!

• 1:04:44Speaker 03

  And I'm not going to read the full article about the Nine Mile Hole. I'm not going to do it. I'm just going to read the email that I got last night, along with what I received. This horrendous sound. Now, I've got a clean copy of it now, and I warn you, this could scare you.

• 1:05:06AJ Gentile?

  The story of the Russian Well to Hell circulated for years. And even though it was reported by a few major news sources who claimed it was real, nobody had actually heard the audio. Without evidence, it's pretty easy to dismiss this story as nothing more than an urban legend. But, in 1998, Art Bell, host of the Coast to Coast AM radio show, received an email. The email said that there is an effort to discredit the story, but it's definitely true. His uncle had a friend at the BBC who had a copy of the recording. He attached the audio to the email. After giving his listeners fair warning, he played the infamous audio that was allegedly recorded from the Hole to Hell.

• 1:05:47Speaker 03

  I warn you, what you are about to hear is very disturbing indeed.

• 1:06:15Speaker 02

  Uh...

• 1:06:16AJ Gentile?

  What?

• 1:06:16Speaker 02

  You know where we can score some Russian sedatives? I don't feel so good.

• 1:06:25AJ Gentile?

  "The Well to Hell" is one of my all-time favorite urban legends. I first heard it on Art Bell's show. But how much of it is true and where did it come from? The story was first released by the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and TBN is a Christian network that operates television stations and publishes newsletters. In 1989, TBN ran the story "Scientists Discover Hell", in both print and on television. The story was a hit. Rich Bueller, a radio host for Christianity Today, was getting so many calls about the story, he decided to track down the origin. When he contacted Trinity, they said the story was absolutely true.

• 1:07:02Speaker 02

  They doubled down!

• 1:07:04AJ Gentile?

  They did. TBN said their source was the Finnish publication Amenussastia, which was, they said, a widely respected scientific journal.

• 1:07:13Speaker 02

  Was it?

• 1:07:13AJ Gentile?

  No. It was a small evangelical Lutheran magazine. So, Rich Bueller contacted them. They said a staff member wrote the story from memory.

• 1:07:22Speaker 02

  Oh, boy, journalism.

• 1:07:24AJ Gentile?

  And that person remembered seeing it in a magazine where readers could submit any stories they wanted without sources or fact-checking.

• 1:07:31Speaker 02

  Oh, the New York Times?

• 1:07:33AJ Gentile?

  Uh, no, this was another Finnish paper.

• 1:07:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:07:36AJ Gentile?

  The reader who submitted it read it in a Finnish newsletter that covered paranormal stories. Before that, the story was in another religious newsletter out of California, and on and on and on. The story was just hearsay and exaggeration, but the companies who published the story kept defending it.

• 1:07:53Speaker 02

  You sure this wasn't the New York Times?

• 1:07:55AJ Gentile?

  I'm sure.

• 1:07:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:07:56AJ Gentile?

  To make matters worse, a Norwegian teacher named Augen Rendawen heard the original TBN story when he was visiting California. He was so amazed that Americans were gullible enough to believe it, he conducted an experiment. He got back to Norway and found some boring newspaper article and sent it to TBN, but he included a fake translation. This is how the Hole to Hell story picked up the details about the demon. It was a prank made up by someone just to see if TGN would fall for it. And they did. TGN didn't fact check, didn't do their own translation. They just saw a great story and ran with it.

• 1:08:31Speaker 02

  The media issue publishes a lot of intentional hoaxes, don't they?

• 1:08:35AJ Gentile?

  If they get clicks, they sure do. Anyway, the story has been resurfacing every few years ever since. Sometimes the hole is in Alaska, sometimes it's in Norway. Sometimes the demon is just a big bat. But that audio clip is always included, which adds a little extra eeriness to it. And no, those aren't the screams of millions of souls in hell. It's actually a layered and looped audio section from a horror movie.

• 1:08:58Speaker 02

  Shrek?

• 1:08:59AJ Gentile?

  No, most people think it's from the 1972 B-horror movie, Barren Blood. No! Beware of barren blood. As much as I love the Hole to Hell story, I think we can call this one debunked. These days, there aren't too many deep-drilling projects still operating. As of now, the Kola Super Deep borehole in Russia is still the deepest at 12 kilometers. Kola Super Deep has made some interesting discoveries, like fossilized plankton and huge amounts of mineralized water buried deep beneath the surface.

• 1:09:28Speaker 02

  But no demons?

• 1:09:29AJ Gentile?

  No demons.

• 1:09:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:30AJ Gentile?

  At least, not yet. But if they keep drilling, who knows what they'll find?

• 1:09:38AJ Gentile?

  Yep, yeah, I, I, I was chubby. You know, they say during COVID, you either got fit, you got fat. I opted for the latter.

• 1:09:48AJ Gentile?

  But, look, I knew I was, like, not staying in shape, but it wasn't till I stepped on the scale and saw the numbers, which I won't tell you about, that I went, oh, we gotta fix that. So, um, so the weight came off fast. So how did I do that? I did 30 days where I only ate... Canned tuna fish, that's it. That was my meals for 30 days. And then the next 30 days, I had tuna with celery and onion for the next 30. And I think maybe 30 days after that, it was tuna with, maybe I'll add myself some mayo.

• 1:10:28AJ Gentile?

  But that's, yeah, so that's how I lose weight. It take all the pleasure out of food. So that just eating a meal is just energy to keep going. Because I was just getting excited for meals. That's dangerous, especially when you're not allowed out. I mean, they let you out, but I'm not going anywhere. I gotta put a mask on. Anyway, let's not get into that. Next up, we got Operation Sunray. This is the story of a classified Soviet mission in Zaričnja, I think is how you say it. They were looking, the Soviet military was looking for a powerful ancient artifact. They called Object Number One. Now, they found the object and it was ancient and powerful.

• 1:11:12AJ Gentile?

  But they didn't make it out with the object. Most people didn't make it out at all. This is a wild story, but it's a fun one. Check it out.

• 1:11:26AJ Gentile?

  In early December 1990, military vehicles and heavy machinery flooded Zaričnja, a small village in Bulgaria. Soldiers set up a perimeter as workers started digging. This was Operation Sunray. In the 11th century, Czar Samuel of Bulgaria buried huge amounts of gold and treasure somewhere under the village. The goal of Operation Sunray was to find the treasure and return the struggling nation to glory. But that was just the cover story. Colonel Peter Canav and a few officers knew the truth. There was no treasure. They were after something far more valuable. Object Number One. Some said it was the lost Ark of the Covenant. Others said it was advanced alien technology that could bend spacetime.

• 1:12:11AJ Gentile?

  Whatever it was, it was buried deep underground near the village. Canav thought the mission was a long shot. How is he supposed to find some object underground when nobody knew exactly what it was or where to find it? He had no idea that Object Number One knew they were coming and it wanted to be found.

• 1:12:40AJ Gentile?

  As Operation Sunrise began, Drujčnja's quiet nights were shattered by round-the-clock digging. It was December in Bulgaria and the soil was like cement. The treasure story didn't add up. Why so many soldiers? What's with the hazmat suits? Locals were told there was nothing to be afraid of, but something felt off.

• 1:13:00AJ Gentile?

  Colonel Kanaev led the project and brought in a few other officers. But one stood out: Colonel Delcho Naplatanov, a scientist specializing in advanced technology and paranormal research. Whenever the military faced something unexplainable, they called him.

• 1:13:14Speaker 02

  Ooh, he sounds like one of the Ghostbusters.

• 1:13:16AJ Gentile?

  From which movie?

• 1:13:17Speaker 02

  There was only one Ghostbusters movie, and I'll hear no more about it!

• 1:13:21AJ Gentile?

  Fine. Anyway, Naplatanov was in charge of all scientific aspects of the project. And it was a good thing he was a paranormal investigator.

• 1:13:33AJ Gentile?

  As soon as the digging began, strange things started happening. Equipment that had worked fine suddenly behaved erratically.

• 1:13:42AJ Gentile?

  As the weeks passed, soldiers grew more anxious. They felt a presence that grew stronger the deeper they went. They sensed that someone or something didn't want them there.

• 1:13:56AJ Gentile?

  Colonel Kanaev dismissed their fears as superstition, too many Bulgarian folktales growing up. Though he didn't admit it, he couldn't deny there were things happening that he couldn't explain. The villagers also experienced strange phenomena. Glowing spheres hovered above the dig site, moving in formation as if guided by intelligence. The air around Drujčnja crackled with a static electricity, and then the humming started.

• 1:14:23AJ Gentile?

  At first, it was a faint vibration, barely noticeable. But every day, it got stronger. It was a very low frequency, not quite audible, but it caused headaches, nausea, insomnia, and a general feeling of dread. People heard whispering, and they started seeing things. Shadows in the corner of their eyes, but when they turned to look, nothing was there.

• 1:14:46AJ Gentile?

  Nothing except that feeling. They weren't welcome in this place.

• 1:14:53AJ Gentile?

  The mood darkened further when a young lieutenant disappeared. He went to check the perimeter and never returned. A search party scoured the area, but he was gone. No body was found. Discreetly, Colonel Naplatanov told Kenev, "There were dark forces at work. If they were gonna locate object number one, they had to take this seriously." Naplatanov was a paranormal researcher, but he was also a serious scientist and a colonel. Kenev trusted him. The situation with the soldiers, villagers, and workers was getting out of hand. Conventional methods failed. Kenev turned to an unconventional solution. He brought in psychics. One was world famous for accurate predictions. She was called the modern-day Nostradamus. When the Bulgarian military runs out of options,

• 1:15:39AJ Gentile?

  who are you gonna call? They called Babavanga.

• 1:15:42Speaker 02

  Oh, they called in John Wick?

• 1:15:44AJ Gentile?

  You just stepped on my cliffhanger.

• 1:15:46Speaker 02

  I'm sorry, I got excited. They say Babavanga can kill three men with a [bleep] pencil.

• 1:15:53AJ Gentile?

  No, they called John Wick Babayega. Babavanga was a famous Bulgarian psychic.

• 1:15:58Speaker 02

  A [bleep] pencil.

• 1:16:11AJ Gentile?

  Operation Sunray was unraveling. Equipment malfunctions, shadowy figures, voices, and a missing soldier left Colonel Kenev grasping at straws. But calling in psychics just made his men more anxious. Marina Naplatanov, the colonel's daughter and a well-known psychic, arrived first.

• 1:16:29Speaker 02

  Ah, he brought in a nepo baby, eh?

• 1:16:32AJ Gentile?

  No, she really was a well-known psychic.

• 1:16:34Speaker 02

  Ah, convenient that his kid gets the gig.

• 1:16:37AJ Gentile?

  You wanna know what's in the hole or not? Her reputation was built on a series of accurate predictions about political events, including the fall of the Berlin Wall.

• 1:16:45Speaker 02

  Fine, fine, you happy? Yes, I wanna know what's in the hole. It might be a baby seal fetus or something. Please, continue.

• 1:16:56AJ Gentile?

  As a child, Marina's visions were dismissed as an overactive imagination, until they started coming true. Now her memories came flooding back. As a girl, she had visions of this place, and this very moment. She made telepathic contact with ancient entities called the Guardians. They warned her that something dangerous was buried here that should never be disturbed. Then Marina felt another presence. Older, darker, it wanted something from her.

• 1:17:27AJ Gentile?

  Ellie Lagunova arrived next. She was in contact with an ancient being, one of the first humans on Earth. Ellie was-

• 1:17:34Speaker 02

  Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up.

• 1:17:35AJ Gentile?

  What?

• 1:17:36Speaker 02

  You can't just say "one of the first humans on Earth", and continue like that's not important. I thought the first humans were like monkeys or whatever.

• 1:17:44AJ Gentile?

  Nope, they were told the humans were created by ultra-terrestrials.

• 1:17:48Speaker 02

  Extraterrestrials?

• 1:17:49AJ Gentile?

  Ultra-terrestrials.

• 1:17:50Speaker 02

  What'd I say?

• 1:17:51AJ Gentile?

  ETs are aliens. UTs exist in a dimension we can't perceive. They genetically engineered early humans.

• 1:17:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, Nuenaki.

• 1:18:00AJ Gentile?

  Yeah, it kinda lines up with that story. Ellie was shown visions of ancient humans with advanced technology, fighting an entity of darkness.

• 1:18:09Speaker 02

  Who won the battle?

• 1:18:11AJ Gentile?

  Don't, don't get ahead of me.

• 1:18:12Speaker 02

  Sorry, I'm excited. This story is my kinda bananas.

• 1:18:18AJ Gentile?

  Ellie saw a massive underground structure, a portal under Tarichnia linking our world to others. And powerful beings were warning her: "Stop digging." But like Marina, Ellie felt pulled in two directions. One entity begged her to turn back, another promised ancient knowledge if she would just go forward. But it was the words of Babavanga who shook the team.

• 1:18:42Speaker 09

  Leave it buried. The truth about the origins of humanity is a burden too heavy for mortal minds to bear. Do not seek answers to questions we were never meant to ask. There are truths that belong only to the gods. To seek them is to invite your own destruction. Man was not meant to know everything. There is wisdom in ignorance, and safety in silence.

• 1:19:10AJ Gentile?

  Drawing Baba Vanga's attention made the soldiers feel even worse. They knew her predictions came true.

• 1:19:17Speaker 09

  Turn back now while you still can. These truths are better left forgotten, hidden deep within the earth. If you dare to uncover them, only death will follow.

• 1:19:30AJ Gentile?

  Several psychics, including one of the most famous in the world, was warning the team to turn back. But the Colonel had a mission to accomplish. He wasn't going anywhere. But he should have listened to her, because Baba Vanga was right again.

• 1:19:55AJ Gentile?

  Marina directed the excavation, having workers dig a long spiral tunnel deeper into the earth. The ground seemed alive, responding to them, helping them even. Their equipment now worked perfectly. They didn't realize they were no longer in control. Marina and Ellie's visions began to synchronize. The guardians Marina saw were protecting the portal that Ellie saw. And behind it was an ancient evil presence, imprisoned for thousands of years. They were getting closer, and they could feel it.

• 1:20:27AJ Gentile?

  Conflicted by warnings to stop, and entities urging them forward with promises of truth, they shared their thoughts with Colonel Canav. He didn't care about portals, or aliens, or interdimensional beings. He just wanted to find object number one.

• 1:20:43AJ Gentile?

  The soldiers were tired. They felt like Marina had them digging a giant circle, until Marina said, "Here." Ellie heard a voice say, "Do not continue. What lies beyond is not your kind." Then she had a vision of a large rectangular stone emitting a soft blue light. Find the stone, find the truth. They dug. Five feet down, nothing. Ten feet down, still nothing. The soldiers were exhausted and skeptical, but the women insisted, something was there. Fifteen feet, nothing. Twenty feet, they hit something solid.

• 1:21:19AJ Gentile?

  They cleared the soil and saw a stone barrier carved perfectly smooth and was gently vibrating. Marina knew the Guardians put this barrier here for a reason, but she couldn't resist. She had to know what was behind it.

• 1:21:34AJ Gentile?

  But their tools were useless. They couldn't even chip the thing. And going around it wasn't an option. It seemed to cover the entire area like a shell.

• 1:21:42Speaker 02

  Or a cage.

• 1:21:43AJ Gentile?

  Right. Colonel Caniff said the mission had to continue. He ordered explosives.

• 1:21:48Speaker 02

  This is a terrible idea.

• 1:21:53AJ Gentile?

  The detonation shook the earth. Dust hung in the air for what felt like forever. But when it finally cleared, they saw they had broken through the barrier. But this only created another unsettling mystery. They'd uncovered an entrance to a dark spiral tunnel descending deep into the earth. This was not a natural formation. Its walls were smooth and polished. Steps were carved into the tunnel floor. Soldiers, workers, and officers stared in awe and terror. Marina was quiet and still. Her eyes followed the steps, down, down, till they disappeared into the darkness. Without looking up, she said, "It's awake."

• 1:22:45AJ Gentile?

  Marina Naplatanov stood at the top of the staircase, staring into the void. The whispers in her mind became screams. Her childhood visions had come true, leading her to this moment.

• 1:22:58AJ Gentile?

  The Guardians were terrified, begging her to stay away, but she felt compelled to go, as if she were being dragged there.

• 1:23:08AJ Gentile?

  Eliy洛genova felt the same pressure from the ultra-terrestrial beings. Then she remembered something Babavanga said about what she would find.

• 1:23:17Speaker 09

  You will find a yellow monkey, neither man nor woman, in a capsule. If you open it, the air might revive it. What will you do when it starts talking?

• 1:23:29AJ Gentile?

  She had seen the chamber in a vision, a shell made of rounded metal with markings on it. Inside was something extremely powerful and important. The beings begged her to turn back, but Eli had no choice. Ancient knowledge was down there.

• 1:23:46AJ Gentile?

  She took the first step. Marina followed.

• 1:23:51AJ Gentile?

  Their footsteps echoed as they descended. The uneasy soldiers looked at each other. Every instinct told them to stay put. This wasn't what they signed up for. But orders are orders. So down they went. A few more soldiers followed. They walked cautiously down the steps into the darkness. They didn't know it at the time, but they weren't coming back.

• 1:24:13AJ Gentile?

  The smooth walls of the tunnel were covered in symbols they didn't recognize. They weren't sloppy scratches in stone, but deliberate and precise, as if carved with a tool. Scientists later said they resembled ancient cuneiform, but they were much older than anything ever found on Earth. The soldiers crept down the spiral staircase, weapons raised. The air got heavier and colder. Their flashlights were flickering candles. They couldn't penetrate the darkness. They didn't feel like they were being watched. They knew it.

• 1:24:45AJ Gentile?

  Marina was bombarded with chaotic commands from the entity, growing stronger with each step. She tried to resist, but was powerless. Ellie was also struggling. She saw ancient people performing rituals here to seal the portal. The symbols on the walls were changing, and she wondered if she was the only one who could see it. The rest of the team was on edge. Shadows flickered at the edges of their vision, never quite in focus. The walls seemed to shift. They were disoriented, unsure if they were going straight or in circles.

• 1:25:19AJ Gentile?

  Colonel Kenev, the skeptic, was experiencing something he hadn't felt in a long time: fear.

• 1:25:27AJ Gentile?

  Halfway down, the staircase opened into a chamber. The air had the sickening sweet smell of death and decay.

• 1:25:36AJ Gentile?

  One of the soldiers swung his flashlight and caught a reflection. Set in the wall was a large rectangular slab of stone, glowing with bluish light. The stone was an intentional barrier. They all felt it. But as they got closer, the light revealed something more disturbing: the stone was alive.

• 1:26:05AJ Gentile?

  The group cautiously approached the glowing stone, covered in thick, slimy, pulsing organisms. Marina reached out, but Ellie held her back. This was the stone from her vision. The organisms were aware of them. They reacted to them. They warned them to turn back. Then Marina felt eyes on her and turned. In the far wall was a thin humanoid figure, bigger than any man, with long limbs and sharp alien features. Its red skin emitted a faint glow. The guardians had warned her. It was the Sentinel. Though fused with the wall, it was alive and watching. Nobody knew what to do. They looked at Marina, but she was lost in the Sentinel's gaze.

• 1:26:50AJ Gentile?

  Then came the first death. A young soldier suddenly collapsed, convulsing violently before falling still, his eyes frozen wide in a final moment of terror.

• 1:27:03AJ Gentile?

  The men panicked. They were spinning around, shouting and aiming their weapons, searching for a target. Colonel Caniff tried to calm them, and then another man fell. And then another. Ellie sensed the entity's satisfaction, feeding off their fear. Marina walked slowly toward the Sentinel, arms outstretched. Ellie called out, but Marina just kept walking.

• 1:27:26AJ Gentile?

  As she approached the Sentinel, there was a rumble somewhere deep in the ground, getting louder and closer. And suddenly, the entire cavern was trembling, and men struggled to stay on their feet. Caniff was surprised when he heard himself order "A retreat." If object number one was here, he wanted no part of it. Orders be damned. He shouted to fall back, but the staircase had vanished. The room had shifted somehow. Nothing looked familiar, except for the glowing blue slab. That was still there. That was the only way out. He ordered his men to put charges on it.

• 1:27:59Speaker 02

  Doesn't this guy learn every time he blows something up, things get worse?

• 1:28:04AJ Gentile?

  Nope. Ellie was screaming "No!" But that was just in her mind. She didn't make a sound. She sensed something behind the stone, and she had to see it. Marina touched the wall near the sentinel. She looked into its eyes and saw them move, watching her. Then its eyes looked up, past her. Marina turned and saw the men setting up explosives. She started to call to them, to warn them. And then there was a flash of light. Marina didn't hear the blast, but she felt it. Once the dust settled, the team rushed to the stone, praying it had been destroyed. It hadn't. It was cracked, but not broken through. And it wasn't empty. They had broken the seal. The trap was set, and they walked right into it.

• 1:29:01AJ Gentile?

  Canav and the remaining men rushed toward the breach stumbling over bodies. The blue stone was cracked, pulsing with blinding light. Behind it was a smooth metal chamber. Whatever was trapped inside was now awake and angry. There was an energy field humming around it.

• 1:29:19AJ Gentile?

  One man got too close and was thrown across the chamber and crushed against the cavern wall. Soldiers opened fire, but bullets couldn't get through. Then a black mist started pouring out, and there was the smell of sulfur. Men clawed at their throats, grasping for air, before collapsing one by one. Marina fell to her knees, overwhelmed by chaotic visions of death. Or was it reality? She couldn't distinguish one from the other.

• 1:29:48AJ Gentile?

  A soldier rushed over and grabbed her arm to help, and he was dead before he hit the ground. Canav's mind raced, his heart pounding in his ears. He had to find a way out. Two dozen people went in, and there were now, what, six or seven left? Ellie stood over the broken stone, staring at the capsule Babavanga warned about. It was covered in symbols she didn't recognize. Then a flash of light transported her to a bright, quiet place. The symbols floated before her, and she understood everything. They told a story of creation, of beings beyond the stars who had come to Earth long ago, bringing knowledge of civilization. They designed our DNA and guided our development, a truth we were never meant to know.

• 1:30:33AJ Gentile?

  The capsule contained a creature that wasn't quite human and wasn't quite an animal. It wasn't male or female, it wasn't anything, but it was everything. The creature was the seed, the starting point. Its DNA was part of the recipe that created Homo sapiens.

• 1:30:52AJ Gentile?

  That's why it was hidden and protected by all these violent forces. This device could be used to create anything from a man to a monster. It could not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.

• 1:31:03AJ Gentile?

  Ellie realized the blue stone was more than a barrier, it was a warning. A distant voice whispered, "It's us."

• 1:31:13AJ Gentile?

  Canav grabbed Ellie, who was in a daze and mumbling "It's us" over and over again. He realized it too late. The entity wasn't protecting the capsule, it was using it as bait. The entire dig was a trap.

• 1:31:26AJ Gentile?

  Another man fell. Canav, fighting against the pulling mist, grabbed Marina and Ellie, dragging them toward what he desperately hoped was the exit. The tunnel was twisted, everything around him was distorted and chaotic. Canav was sure he was losing his mind. Every step was agony, and then he heard it.

• 1:31:46AJ Gentile?

  The entity laughing in his mind, urging him to let go. The voice promised peace, knowledge and truth, if he just let go. And he wanted to. He almost gave in when he saw a thin strip of light. The entrance, still open, still reachable. He pushed harder.

• 1:32:05AJ Gentile?

  The entity's grip weakened as they neared the light. Finally, Canav and the few survivors spilled out onto the cold ground. The tunnel sealed itself behind them as the scream of the entity's rage slowly faded.

• 1:32:19AJ Gentile?

  Marina was unconscious, her mind shattered. Ellie was trembling and still muttering "It's us, it's us." Canav coughed and tasted sulfur as he gassed for air. He stared at the sealed entrance. The entity was still in there, waiting for the next fool to take the bait.

• 1:32:37AJ Gentile?

  Canav gave the orders. No more digging, no more object number one, no more mission. The entity claimed eighteen lives, bodies that would never come home. He called for cement mixers to fill the hole with every bit of concrete they had.

• 1:32:53AJ Gentile?

  The Zarichina Hole, once a site for discovery and hope, had become a place of horror. Kana felt lucky that a few had escaped, but the entity wasn't finished with them just yet.

• 1:33:11AJ Gentile?

  On December 6th, 1990, the Bulgarian military launched a secret mission in Zarichina to hunt for alien artifacts. They dug a hole 200 feet deep and over 500 feet long. The work continued steadily for almost two years.

• 1:33:26AJ Gentile?

  Then, on November 19th, 1992, the military suddenly gathered their people, tents, and equipment, and poured concrete into the hole, sealing it forever. Operation Sunray was over, but its effects lingered. UFO sightings increased. Glowing spheres returned. Strange, threatening notes appeared around town. People experienced psychological trauma and physical illness. There are reports of poltergeists, energy fields, cryptid sightings, strange weather, time distortions, and bad luck.

• 1:33:54Speaker 02

  That covers just about everything except for maybe crop circles.

• 1:33:58AJ Gentile?

  Oh, those happen too.

• 1:34:00Speaker 02

  Well, this place has got more weird stuff than Mount Shasta or Mount Mother Haze.

• 1:34:06AJ Gentile?

  It's either the most paranormal place on Earth, or it's not. Most details of the Zarichina story come from Colonel Kana's book, "The Zarichina Phenomenon."

• 1:34:15Speaker 02

  There's always a book.

• 1:34:17AJ Gentile?

  There's always a book. He talked about the energy fields, the alien technology, and the metal object that blinded them with light.

• 1:34:25Speaker 02

  Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.

• 1:34:33Speaker 02

  Blinded by the light.

• 1:34:38AJ Gentile?

  After his book was published in 1992, the story evolved, with new details replacing the old ones. Today was a moderate version. Some people get really creative with this one. Hundreds of podcasts, videos, and articles about the Zarichina Hole incident are floating around. All tell a different story. All tell a good story. None of them are the truth. Here's what really happened.

• 1:35:00Speaker 02

  And thousands of people just left to go watch a different video.

• 1:35:06AJ Gentile?

  General Radnu Minchev was convinced by psychics that Tsar Samuel's treasure was hidden under Zerichina. Nobody bothered to check that at the time, Zerichina was part of the Byzantine Empire, making it unlikely they'd find any treasure there. But Eli Loganova was convincing. She channeled a superintelligent being named Roro, who confirmed the visions and promised to guide them.

• 1:35:27Speaker 02

  Uh, did you just say Roro?

• 1:35:30AJ Gentile?

  Yep, that was the name of the interdimensional being talking to Eli: Roro.

• 1:35:34Speaker 02

  I guess you'd think a superintelligent, hyperdimensional being would have a cooler name than the way Scooby Doo says "Uh-oh."

• 1:35:45AJ Gentile?

  Minchev, suffering from prolonged cancer at the time, was in a weakened state and vulnerable to influence. Plus, in 1990, Bulgaria was chaos. The psychics convinced him that this operation would bring glory to Bulgaria, so he approved it and launched Operation Glory.

• 1:36:00Speaker 02

  Well, Operation Glory? What about sunbeam? Sunray? Light beam? Star beam? Moonshine?

• 1:36:08AJ Gentile?

  Well, Kenev's book calls it "sunbeam", but eventually it became "sunray", but officially it was "Operation Glory". Colonel Naplatanov was put in charge, but he didn't trust the psychics. He felt that they were using the general.

• 1:36:20Speaker 02

  Uh, hang on, I thought Colonel Kenev was in charge.

• 1:36:24AJ Gentile?

  No, Kirill Kenev was just a researcher. The internet might be confusing him with General Dinev, who was in charge of the logistics, but Kenev wasn't even there. Yet in his book, he claims he was, and portrays himself as a hero. As soon as Colonel Naplatanov's daughter Marina was brought in, they both started having headaches and feeling sick. Because Colonel Naplatanov was against the operation and very vocal about it, he believed that he and his daughter were being targeted by a psychotronic weapon.

• 1:36:51Speaker 02

  Did you just make that word up?

• 1:36:53AJ Gentile?

  No. Psychotronic weapons influence someone's mind and behavior. The colonel said that he and his daughter were being targeted by a weapon developed by the Soviets. They were being told to jump off a building. He suspected that General Minchev was ordering the attacks. Midway through the project, Marina left, and shortly after, she jumped off a 10-story building.

• 1:37:13Speaker 02

  Whoa, you kidding me?

• 1:37:16AJ Gentile?

  Afterward, the Colonel lost it and filed a formal complaint with the Ministry of Defense. He blamed General Minchev and then left the project. His complaint reads like a man losing his mind. The military tried to have him committed for these wild allegations. Eighteen months later, he jumped off a bridge.

• 1:37:32Speaker 02

  There is no such thing as a coincidence.

• 1:37:35AJ Gentile?

  There's not. But those are the only juicy parts of the story. That's it. The dig didn't turn up anything, and it came under public scrutiny. A commission was sent to investigate, and they were not impressed. The geologist on the team, Dr. Jivko Ivanov, testified the only thing he found odd was: "The military was hiring psychics."

• 1:37:53Speaker 10

  There are no materials of non-natural origin. No radiation, no gas, no danger for the population of the area. Psychic guides attempt to suggest the presence of some supernatural corridor or a passage, and a complicated search for an object for which there is no data.

• 1:38:11AJ Gentile?

  He was asked what about all the strange activity in the area?

• 1:38:13Speaker 10

  The idea that the area was prone to catastrophe is false. Nothing like this is known to us.

• 1:38:27AJ Gentile?

  What we do know is that a lot of government money disappeared during this project. Millions of dollars. Many witnesses said this project was a scam perpetrated by General Minchev. They got caught, the project was shut down in a hurry, and all documents were destroyed. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the entire Eastern Bloc fell apart. Bulgaria's communist government ended in November 1990, and the democratic constitution wasn't passed until July 1991. So for a year, there was essentially no government in Bulgaria. With no law, the powerful took advantage. Operation Glory was launched just a few weeks after the communist government fell.

• 1:39:03Speaker 02

  So who is in charge?

• 1:39:05AJ Gentile?

  The same people who are always in charge when there's no democracy.

• 1:39:08Speaker 02

  The guys with the most guns.

• 1:39:10AJ Gentile?

  Right. Military leaders with troops and weapons at their disposal, like General Minchev. Corruption was rampant in Bulgaria during this time. It still is. Bulgaria is notorious for having crooked politicians, judges, and law enforcement at the highest levels. It's still like that today.

• 1:39:26Speaker 02

  Oh, Bulgaria should look at the United States. Our legal system provides equal justice for all. Our federal law enforcement agencies are incorruptible. The FBI's leadership exemplifies honor and integrity in an unwavering deference and respect for the Constitution of these great United States.

• 1:39:44AJ Gentile?

  Are you being sarcastic?

• 1:39:45Speaker 02

  I'm not being sarcastic!

• 1:39:47AJ Gentile?

  Now, on this channel, we have nothing but respect for the agents and officers in the field.

• 1:39:51Speaker 02

  True, fair enough, but their bosses are more crooked than a dog's hind leg.

• 1:39:55AJ Gentile?

  That was a weird metaphor.

• 1:39:56Speaker 02

  We were talking about crooked cops, so I think I got that one from Sheriff Roscoe Pico Train.

• 1:40:02AJ Gentile?

  I was more of an Ennis fan.

• 1:40:06AJ Gentile?

  Eldiaga Olva's still around, and she tells a version similar to the one in Kana's book. She had four notebooks that documented everything, the proof, but they were confiscated by the military. And now she's selling her own book that talks about this story.

• 1:40:18Speaker 02

  There's always a book.

• 1:40:20AJ Gentile?

  So, Operation Sunray, Light Beam, Glory, people were there. Whether or not you believe these things happened to them is up to you. But before you make a decision, here's something. In 1981, the Bulgarians launched the Gulyamo Gradist Expedition in the mountains near the border with Turkey. At Gulyamo, they were searching for buried treasure, but they were really looking for ancient artifacts or alien technology. They brought psychics with them. They were told the location by Babavanga.

• 1:40:46Speaker 02

  Yeah,骗钱.

• 1:40:48AJ Gentile?

  They had an encounter with aliens and dark forces. A couple of people died. Some managed to escape. They sealed the cave and left in a hurry. And that project was also covered up.

• 1:40:58AJ Gentile?

  I listen to lots of podcasts about how the people in the area feel like there's a special energy there. It's a paranormal hotspot. There's a vortex. It's on a ley line, all that stuff. That may be what the young people say, because it's fun. But the older folks who were there for the dig said nothing strange happened, and they'd like to be left alone. But they never will be. Stories like this resonate because we know there's more to reality than we understand, so we keep asking questions. But it warns us we might not like the answers, and some mysteries are better left unsolved.

• 1:41:31AJ Gentile?

  This story has been told forever. Pandora's Box, the Tower of Babel, Faust, the Fisher King, The Matrix, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

• 1:41:40Speaker 05

  It wants to give us a gift.

• 1:41:44AJ Gentile?

  The Three-Body Problem.

• 1:41:45Speaker 06

  There are those who say we should not inquire too closely into who else might be living in that darkness. Better not to know.

• 1:41:55AJ Gentile?

  And hundreds more.

• 1:41:57Speaker 05

  I've got a bad feeling about this.

• 1:41:59AJ Gentile?

  All stories about pushing boundaries in search of hidden knowledge that lead to unintended and often disastrous consequences. This is a theme that's gonna keep turning up until we finally understand the universe and our place in it. That's gonna take a while. So we're gonna keep seeing variations of this classic story again and again. And you know what? That's fine with me. Just leave Indiana Jones alone.

• 1:42:26AJ Gentile?

  That was a fun episode to produce. But I'm always nervous with those kinds of stories. Because they're obviously fake and they're easily debunked. But where I get nervous is I take creative license with those.

• 1:42:43AJ Gentile?

  And, you know, it feels dishonest. Like, when I'm covering a story, I don't wanna add to the lore.

• 1:42:53AJ Gentile?

  Because I see that happening now with the channel being a little bit bigger. I'll see some details introduced to like an urban legend that I added. And I don't, I kinda don't wanna do that. But there are some stories that are so fake that they, there's like gaps in the narrative. So I just kinda fill it in to make it work. And, I don't know, I'm kinda torn. Because I don't want to contribute to the urban legend, but at the same time, they're super fun to write and watch and, you know, and produce.

• 1:43:25AJ Gentile?

  So you tell me, let me know what you think. And that's not me fishing for comments. You can email me or send a chat during one of the live streams. When I say I'd like your opinion, I actually would. So, um, okay. Now we'll go back to episode 50, Darren Kuyu. So that's the huge underground city in Turkey discovered by a man who was renovating his basement. He just kinda put the hammer against the wall and just opened up this cavern to an underground city. It's, it's a fun episode, only 11 minutes, so stick around.

• 1:44:00AJ Gentile?

  A man from Darren Kuyu in the Nevershire province of Turkey was renovating his basement. Using only a sledgehammer, he broke through one of his walls. He felt cool air coming in from the other side. When the hole was large enough to squeeze through, he decided to investigate. And inside, he found a small, room-sized cave. And at first, he was excited. This could save him a lot of work. This area of Turkey has a complex cave system, so he thought he accidentally stumbled into one. He didn't. When he turned on his flashlight, he saw writing on the walls. Roman, Greek, and languages he didn't recognize. That first small room was only the beginning. Let's find out why.

• 1:44:45AJ Gentile?

  Flashlight in hand, he followed the narrow stone hallway. At first glance, this looked like a natural cave formation. But upon closer inspection, he wasn't so sure. The stone ceiling was rough, like you'd expect to see in a cave, but the walls were smooth. Over hundreds or thousands of years, an underground river could have eroded away the stone, but there was something eerie about this place. It was as if he could feel a human presence. The hallway continued for some ways, eventually spilling into a large room that could fit dozens of people. And from here, he found a system of passageways. And here and there were more small rooms, and some looked like storage areas, with crevices that could have acted as shelves. And around every corner, he found more rooms.

• 1:45:28AJ Gentile?

  First, he thought this was some kind of hideout, but it was just too big. Nobody could have built this. So after exploring a few hours, he thought he finally reached the end of the structure. But after making a sharp turn, he saw actual carved stairs, which led down even further into the darkness. If there was any question before, now it was clear. This wasn't a natural structure. It was built by people. But it was too massive for him to explore on his own. So when he made it back through the hole in his basement wall, he called the Turkish authorities and described to them what he'd found. They told him he was describing the myth of the hidden city of Darren Kuyu. And the man knew the story well. He'd heard it since he was a boy. The myth of Darren Kuyu talked of an ancient city which provided refuge to every citizen in the area,

• 1:46:12AJ Gentile?

  built thousands of years ago, hidden beneath the surface. He knew the myth of Darren Kuyu very well. He then said, "Sir, with all due respect, it's not a myth."

• 1:46:25AJ Gentile?

  Darren Kuyu is in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey, which has very distinct geology. Millions of years ago volcanoes covered the area. When ash is ejected during a volcanic eruption, it solidifies into a type of rock called "tuff", and "tuff" is a relatively soft and porous rock found all over the region.

• 1:46:42Speaker 02

  Well, why the hell did they name "soft rock" "tuff"?

• 1:46:45AJ Gentile?

  Well, it comes from the Latin word "topas", meaning "sandstone".

• 1:46:48Speaker 02

  Lousy name for marketing. They should have named it something like a mushy rock or easy chisel.

• 1:46:54AJ Gentile?

  We're not selling this stuff.

• 1:46:56Speaker 02

  Everything is for sale, my friend.

• 1:46:58AJ Gentile?

  May I continue?

• 1:46:59Speaker 02

  Not by all means.

• 1:47:01AJ Gentile?

  Because "tuff" is so pliable...

• 1:47:02Speaker 02

  Easy chisel.

• 1:47:04AJ Gentile?

  It's been used for construction since ancient times. Romans used it all over the empire, and the statues on Easter Island are also made of "tuff", so it's not surprising that people in Turkey have been building with this material since prehistory. But rather than mine the stone and build up, the people in Darren Kuyu built down. There are hundreds of subterranean houses in Cappadocia, and some even go down two stories. But there's nothing quite like Darren Kuyu. The underground city of Darren Kuyu goes down over 250 feet. In the first few years of exploration, experts went 18 stories down, and since then, two more levels have been discovered. It might go down even further. Archaeologists are still excavating. The total area of the city discovered is five square miles, or 13 square kilometers,

• 1:47:47AJ Gentile?

  and housed over 22,000 people. The upper floors were used as apartments, closest to the fresh air. But Darren Kuyu has a complex system of over 16,000 ventilation shafts that allow air to circulate through every room in the city. It also has a fresh water supply. At the lowest levels of Darren Kuyu is a series of underwater rivers, and wells were centrally located to bring water to the entire city. In fact, people living on the surface above Darren Kuyu have been using wells originally intended for the underground city. They just didn't realize what was underneath them. Incidentally, Darren Kuyu is Turkish for "deep well".

• 1:48:23Speaker 02

  See? That name makes sense. "Tuff" not so much.

• 1:48:27AJ Gentile?

  You need to get past the names, pal.

• 1:48:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:48:29AJ Gentile?

  The tunnels seem to go on forever. To walk from one end of Darren Kuyu to the other is a seven-kilometer walk, or four miles of tunnels. As you move further down the structure, you'll find areas that meet every need of a self-contained city. There are dining halls, churches, schools. There are rooms for pressing and storing olive oil. There are markets, bakeries, wineries, libraries, and storage for vast amounts of food. A few more levels down are areas for keeping livestock, and stables for horses. There are areas for butchering, curing, and storing meat. Thousands of people could survive for a very long time, completely underground. But who would build a giant subterranean city? And why?

• 1:49:12AJ Gentile?

  The land in the Cappadocia region of Turkey is extremely fertile, ideal for farming. So, why go through the trouble of building such an elaborate underground city? Well, most archaeologists agree that Darren Kuyu was built for protection. But it's more than a bunker. It's an underground fortress. There are about sixty surface entrances to Darren Kuyu. And these doors are hidden in buildings, in courtyards, and parks all over the town. But when the doors are closed, they're just part of the landscape. And there was only a single main entrance into the city. And when under attack, residents would retreat underground using one of the many hidden doors. And the doorways were protected by massive circular stones that could retract, and could only be opened from the inside. And these doors weighed a thousand pounds each or more.

• 1:49:57AJ Gentile?

  And the main gate was even heavier. The access tunnels at the surface are very narrow, requiring people to enter single file. And this was intentional. It would force invaders into choke points to make the city easier to defend. And most levels had armories to allow soldiers and citizens easy access to weapons. Even the local militia had dedicated stables to maintain horses for a small cavalry. They could ride out through a secret exit and take invaders by surprise. And Darren Kuyu's multi-level cave system wasn't designed randomly. It was well thought out. All of the city's levels are interconnected, but they could individually be sealed off from one another, preventing enemies from going any further into the structure, or sealing them in. was designed with defense in mind.

• 1:50:41AJ Gentile?

  It could only be controlled by the bottom up. So if invaders breached the upper levels, their water would be cut off. And this system helped prevent the water supply from being poisoned. And as a last resort, there are dozens of hidden passageways that led out of Darren Kuyu. And a passageway that leads to Kaimakli, another underground city that is about four miles away. And you can travel there completely underground.

• 1:51:04Speaker 02

  Is that what a big city too?

• 1:51:05AJ Gentile?

  Well, Kaimakli is still being excavated, but some say it may turn out to be even bigger than Darren Kuyu. It's thought that there could be an entire series of interconnected cities all around this area, completely underground. So we know why this huge subterranean city was built. But who built it? Well, that's where there's some disagreement. But we do have some clues.

• 1:51:28AJ Gentile?

  So who built Darren Kuyu? Well, the structure is made of stone, so carbon dating is no help. But there are a few theories. Some believe construction started with the Hittites between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago. And a few Hittite artifacts have been recovered, which make this case. The Anatolian Hittites controlled a large portion of Asia Minor, reaching all the way to upper Mesopotamia. And Cappadocia and Darren Kuyu were right in the middle of Hittite territory. And this region of Turkey was a main corridor for trade. So in the ancient world, whoever controlled the trade routes would be able to impose their will on the entire region.

• 1:52:04AJ Gentile?

  That's right. This was very desirable real estate. And Hittite cities were under constant attack from outside forces. An underground fortress would have been very useful to protect this land and its people. And the Hittites had enemies on all sides. They were constantly at war with the Assyrians, the Thracians, and of course, the Egyptians. And the people that gave the Hittites a lot of trouble and may even have been responsible for their eventual demise were the Phrygians. And the Phrygians inhabited central western Anatolia in ancient times and were related to the Greeks. We all know the story of the Midas Touch. No, Midas was a Phrygian king who, according to legend, could turn anything into gold.

• 1:52:42Speaker 02

  I think he also invented the muffler.

• 1:52:44AJ Gentile?

  Uh, he didn't. Some believe the Phrygians constructed, or at least expanded and improved, the city of Daren Kuyu. And the Phrygian people were talented engineers and architects. They undertook large, complex building projects all over their territory. Considered some of the greatest builders of the Iron Age, the Phrygians had the skill, knowledge, and ingenuity to create an elaborate subterranean city. Several of the rooms in Daren Kuyu have been determined to be ancient chapels, and on the chapel walls are inscriptions written in Greek. Now, the Hittites wouldn't do this, but the Phrygians would, and they controlled the area until about the 6th century B.C., when they were conquered by the Persians. There are even written records that may support this.

• 1:53:25AJ Gentile?

  Xenophon of Athens wrote Anabasis in 370 B.C., documenting a Greek army expedition to Persia. He mentions a people in Anatolia and Cappadocia who lived underground in dwellings large enough for entire families. Now, though they didn't build Daren Kuyu, early Christians occupied it in the 1st century A.D. Within the complex are several Christian churches, and there are Christian symbols and writing all over the upper floors. They also added vaulted ceilings and other structural features found in Christian architecture. And Daren Kuyu was a place for Christians to hide from Roman soldiers and practice their faith in secret, avoiding persecution from the Roman Empire. And during the Arab Byzantine Wars from 780 to 1180, Muslim Arabs used Daren Kuyu.

• 1:54:08AJ Gentile?

  They also expanded the structure and inscribed the walls. Now, there's no consensus on who built Daren Kuyu, but it's Roman history is undisputed. It was a shelter from attacking armies, refuge from raiding tribes, and sanctuary to the faithful who feared religious persecution. I like to think that if the first builders knew how many thousands of people would use this city to protect their faith and their families, those builders would be proud. Daren Kuyu is an important discovery, and I hope it inspires others to explore. Undiscovered secrets are all around us. Now, sometimes the walls that obscure the truth are miles thick, but other times they're paper-thin. But whether by innovation, persistence, or sheer luck, those walls can be breached.

• 1:54:50AJ Gentile?

  It's at that point that a wardrobe becomes a gateway to Narnia. Platform 9 and 3/4 opens up a world of magic, and a few inches of stone in a humble Turkish basement reveals an ancient underground city. I encourage you to break down these walls wherever you find them, whether it's a literal wall, as in this story, or a wall in your mind holding you back from an adventure. Break down that wall. You never know what hidden world you might discover.

• 1:55:18AJ Gentile?

  Next up is number 157 about the hypogeeum in Malta, allegedly built by giants.

• 1:55:28AJ Gentile?

  In 1985, Maltese pediatrician Anton Mifsud got a frantic call from his contractor. He was clearing a piece of land for a new medical clinic. Dr. Mifsud was hoping they didn't need more equipment. They were isolated on Gozo, one of the islands of Malta. The nearest mainland was the Italian coast, 60 miles away by boat. But Mifsud quickly realized this wasn't about equipment. The contractor sounded worried, afraid even. Mifsud wondered if someone had been hurt. He got the contractor to calm down and tell him what had happened. While digging, workers found human bones. The doctor said they should just call the police. But the contractor said there was more to it. The skeleton they found was 10 feet long. Dr. Mifsud said that was impossible.

• 1:56:13AJ Gentile?

  No human ever lived that was that enormous. Then he remembered the legend.

• 1:56:30AJ Gentile?

  It was a late winter night on the island of Malta many thousands of years ago.

• 1:56:36AJ Gentile?

  A farmer was awakened by a strange rumbling sound. It sounded like wind, but deeper. His family was still asleep. No need to wake them until he figured out what this was.

• 1:56:49AJ Gentile?

  The farmer stepped through the low entrance of his hut and stood at the edge of his wheat field. It was just a day or two after the new moon. It should have been pitch black. But an eerie orange light washed over the field. And it was getting brighter, and the sound was getting louder. It wasn't wind.

• 1:57:09AJ Gentile?

  He'd seen meteors before, but they were small and came in bunches. This was a single, large object blazing a path through the night sky. Then he became afraid. It was getting bigger.

• 1:57:23AJ Gentile?

  This fiery object, whatever it was, was headed straight for the island. He wanted to warn his family, but there was no time. Seconds later, it roared past.

• 1:57:34AJ Gentile?

  It left a trail of fire in the sky above his hut, his field, and then into a valley nearby. A bright flash lit up the island and the sea beyond. Then, just as quickly, the darkness returned. The farmer's wife stepped out of the hut, afraid. He turned to comfort her. Whatever it was, it crashed. The danger was over. But she wasn't looking at him. She was staring at something behind him in the direction of the crash.

• 1:58:03AJ Gentile?

  The farmer turned around and saw a huge figure emerge from the woods. A dark silhouette that stood higher than the trees. The giant, called Sansuna, had arrived.

• 1:58:21AJ Gentile?

  When Sansuna emerged from the woods on Gozo, the locals were terrified. But despite her overwhelming size and strength, she eventually earned their trust. She claimed to be from a race of beings called the Nephilim, and she promised to protect them. The farmers and the islands were in constant danger from raiders and pirates. But now, with the arrival of this giantess, the Maltese had a powerful guardian. The islands were abundant with huge limestones, some weighing 20 tons and stood 20 feet high. To the Maltese people, the stones were too large to be useful. This was thousands of years ago. They had no metal tools. They hadn't yet discovered the wheel.

• 1:59:01AJ Gentile?

  But Sansuna was able to pick up even the largest stones and carefully place them one by one. Soon, enormous temples were assembled. Some had walls three stories high. She built 30 different megalithic temples across the islands. The most impressive temple is on the island of Gozo. The farmers named it Gigantia, the Maltese word for giant. Gigantia is made of two separate buildings, built using enormous limestone blocks, and it still stands to this day. But as the centuries passed, Sansuna became nothing more than a local legend, a myth. No one believed these enormous stone blocks were carried by a giant. No one believed in giants. Until they found the bones.

• 1:59:53AJ Gentile?

  The Maltese islands have been continuously occupied for thousands of years. They're strategically important. They're 60 miles from Italy and 180 miles from North Africa, right in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The Phoenicians were the first empire to claim Malta. Then came the Romans, then the Byzantines, the Arabs, and the Christians. In 1530, Malta was governed by a nobleman named John Abella. He was the first person in a long time to take interest in the temples on the islands. He collected artifacts and documented ancient buildings. Most were buried in debris from centuries of neglect, but a little digging revealed the structures were enormous.

• 2:00:34AJ Gentile?

  Abella didn't understand how these huge temples could be built by ancient farmers. One day, a worker found something wedged in a rock fissure. When Abella saw it, the answer to who built the huge structures was clear: They were built by a giant. The worker handed Abella a femur, the largest bone in the human leg. Except this femur was twice as large as a normal human's. A person with a femur this big would be about 10 feet tall.

• 2:01:00Speaker 02

  San Shinga!

• 2:01:02AJ Gentile?

  Yep. Soon, Abella had workers all over the island hunting. And by 1647, he had enough bones to publish a pioneering book that made him famous. He's been called the father of Maltese history.

• 2:01:15Speaker 02

  Ah, tell the people the name of his famous book, dear.

• 2:01:18AJ Gentile?

  It's not really important to the story.

• 2:01:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can't pronounce it.

• 2:01:21AJ Gentile?

  It's Italian. I can pronounce it.

• 2:01:23Speaker 02

  Go ahead, then. 20 bucks says you can't do it.

• 2:01:27AJ Gentile?

  Abella's book was titled Della descrizioni di Malta Isola nel mare siciliano con le sue antichità e altre notizie.

• 2:01:37Speaker 02

  Take it.

• 2:01:40AJ Gentile?

  Grazie mille.

• 2:01:41Speaker 02

  Show off.

• 2:01:43AJ Gentile?

  The book documented skull fragments, giant femurs and tibias, and possibly large vertebrae and enormous pelvic bones. Abayla concluded that the Maltese temples were built by a prehistoric race of giants that lived on the islands. Abayla turned his home into Malta's first museum. He put the bones on display and opened the museum to the public. Anatomists and naturalists who saw the large bones agreed. They must have belonged to giants. Skeptics said they were animal bones, and until the sites were fully cleared, there is no way to know for sure. Then centuries later, proper archaeological excavations were done. But what they uncovered didn't solve the mystery. It added to it.

• 2:02:33AJ Gentile?

  In 1915, a Maltese farmer kept hitting large stone blocks while plowing his field, so he contacted the Malta museum director, Sir Tenny Zamet. Expecting more temple remains, Zamet instead found something quite different: a massive statue. The top had been destroyed, but the bottom remained: two giant legs and feet. The statue was over 10 feet tall.

• 2:02:58AJ Gentile?

  Workers kept digging, and what was a buried statue turned out to be much more. The statue was in the middle of a complex group of megalithic temples. Zamet uncovered one of the most significant and impressive archaeological sites in Malta. They're known as the Tarsian temples. Four structures in all are arranged in a cloverleaf pattern only visible from above. The temples were made from limestone blocks. Some are 20 feet tall and weigh over 50 tons. Walls, doorways, even floors, made of enormous stones that fit together perfectly. He kept digging. Zamet oversaw the excavation of nearly 30 different sites. All megalithic, all made with enormous limestone, stacked in close-fitting slabs.

• 2:03:44AJ Gentile?

  The obvious question plaguing Zammatt was, "How could Stone Age farmers on a remote island build these things?" The temple excavated at Amnidra is even more mysterious. It might be the world's oldest calendar. On the equinoxes, the sun hits the main axis of the temple. On the solstices, the sun hits the opposite axis. The alignment is perfect. Almost. Now, it might seem odd that a culture that could build a site with such precision would be off by a few degrees. So what went wrong? Well, nothing. As you know, the Earth slowly wobbles on its axis, and the position of the stars changes over time. This is called precession.

• 2:04:25AJ Gentile?

  There was a time when the Temple of Amnidra was in perfect alignment with these celestial events. 10,200 B.C.

• 2:04:33Speaker 02

  You know what that means?

• 2:04:35AJ Gentile?

  Yep.

• 2:04:35Speaker 02

  The Younger Dryas.

• 2:04:37AJ Gentile?

  10,200 B.C. is just after the end of the Younger Dryas, when the ice sheets melted and a great flood rushed over the Earth. The flood was quick, and it was merciless. Coastal cities were gone, shredded by a mile-high tsunami moving at the speed of sound. The remains scattered at the bottom of the sea. The only human survivors were the ones on higher ground. The entire landscape of the Earth was changed. The cause of the flood is still being debated. Some say it was caused by the impact of a giant asteroid, while others believe it was a massive solar event. But Zammatt was exploring Amnidra in the early 1900s. He didn't know anything about asteroids or solar storms, but he did know the story of the Great Flood.

• 2:05:22AJ Gentile?

  The flood was the wrath of God, meant to destroy the Nephilim. The flood was meant to kill the giants.

• 2:05:37AJ Gentile?

  The Nephilim are mentioned in the Book of Genesis. They're described as warriors who are large and strong. The Bible doesn't go into much more detail than that. But if we look to holy texts outside the Bible, we get the full story. The Book of Enoch is not included in the canonical Bible for most Jews and Christians, but it's an important work, especially within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and among scholars of early Judaism and Christianity.

• 2:06:01Speaker 02

  Book of Enoch, link below.

• 2:06:03AJ Gentile?

  The book tells a story about the origins of evil. It starts with a group of angels called the Watchers. God entrusted them with the task of overseeing mankind, and they provided order and guidance. Eventually, the angels rebelled. They took human wives, which was forbidden. The watchers were cast out from heaven and forced to live in the underworld. But their evil remained on earth. The watchers and their human wives had offspring. These hybrid beings were mighty giants called the Nephilim. According to the Book of Enoch, these giants wreaked havoc on earth and are the reason God created the flood. He meant to destroy the children of the watchers from amongst men.

• 2:06:47AJ Gentile?

  Of course, if the Nephilim were destroyed in the flood, they'd be long gone before the early Maltese farmers settled on the island. But in the Book of Numbers, there's more to the story. Moses sends spies to explore the land of Canaan. They report that some giants may have survived the flood.

• 2:07:05Speaker 11

  The land through which we have gone to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim, and we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seem to them.

• 2:07:26AJ Gentile?

  The Maltese legend of Sansuna goes back thousands of years before the Bible was written. Yet that legend aligns perfectly with what's told in the Book of Enoch. Sansuna was a demigod stranded on the island, a giant who survived the flood, and she wanted to continue her species.

• 2:07:43Speaker 02

  Bad idea!

• 2:07:44AJ Gentile?

  But there were no other giants on the island.

• 2:07:46Speaker 02

  Ah, okay.

• 2:07:48AJ Gentile?

  But she might have taken a human male as a mate. That would explain the skulls.

• 2:07:53Speaker 02

  Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, skulls? What skulls? What skull? No, no, no, no! Don't show the logo! Don't show the logo! Crib.

• 2:08:08AJ Gentile?

  In 1902, the British Navy expanded its base in Malta, and new housing developments started popping up all over the islands. On one job site, workers were digging out an area for a large water tank. Suddenly, the ground gave way, exposing an enormous underground chamber. Excavations revealed a subterranean maze of rooms and burial chambers. Zammatt named the site the hypogium, the Greek word for "underground." What Zammatt found near the megalithic temples above ground: There are limestone walls and doorways, the same slate floors. The stonework is precise and massive. Zammatt and his team were stunned by the size of this underground world. Then they discovered this was just the first level.

• 2:08:52AJ Gentile?

  There were two more levels below, maybe more, and the hypogium was full of well-preserved artifacts. The most common design was the same found everywhere on the island: The figure of a giantess.

• 2:09:06AJ Gentile?

  Many parts of the hypogium were used as a burial site. That meant there would be bones.

• 2:09:12AJ Gentile?

  Zammatt recovered the remains of more than 7,000 people. Some of the bodies date back to the Neolithic period. He documented every bone he found, until he got to a group of skulls he couldn't quite explain. Both of them, the skulls were elongated.

• 2:09:28Speaker 02

  Ah, like alien heads.

• 2:09:30AJ Gentile?

  Well, they do look like that. But Zammatt knew many cultures around the world used head binding to stretch their skulls. So Zammatt had scientists examine them. And they confirmed that the long cranium was natural, not the result of bonding or boards. But it gets even stranger. Every human skull has a seam between the two parietal bones. It's called the sagittal suture. When we're born, our skulls are flexible. That makes it easier for our big head to, uh...

• 2:09:59Speaker 02

  Squirt out the baby shoot.

• 2:10:01AJ Gentile?

  Right. As we grow, the two halves of our skull fuse together, forming that seam. But these elongated skulls had no seam at all. That's impossible. That seam is a key part of human development.

• 2:10:14Speaker 02

  Ah, so these skulls aren't human?

• 2:10:16AJ Gentile?

  Nope, they didn't seem human. Well, not completely human. In 1920, National Geographic magazine reported that the first inhabitants of Malta were an alien race with elongated skulls. Now, Zabid would've called that crazy, except he couldn't explain the skulls otherwise. Then he remembered the story of Sansuna.

• 2:10:36Speaker 02

  Sansu! Nah.

• 2:10:41AJ Gentile?

  Part of the Sansuna legend is that she carried stones under one arm while cradling a baby in the other. The child was a Nephilim-human hybrid. So, let's go back to the skull for a second. For a child to be born with a fully-formed skull, it would have to travel through a very large...

• 2:10:58Speaker 02

  Baby chute.

• 2:10:59AJ Gentile?

  Yes, like that of a giant. Now, maybe these skulls belonged to the descendants of Sansuna. If they were human-Nephilim hybrid children, they would have the size and strength to carve and build the hypogeeum. Now, it's a fun story and adds to the legend, but still, this was conjecture. There's no proof of giants living underground in the hypogeeum. Until 1940, when someone saw them.

• 2:11:30AJ Gentile?

  In August 1940, National Geographic magazine printed an interesting and disturbing story about Malta and the hypogeeum.

• 2:11:40AJ Gentile?

  First, the article reported that excavators discovered the bones of over 33,000 people who'd been sacrificed by an ancient pagan cult. Then there was a story of the children who went to the hypogeeum on a school trip.

• 2:11:53Speaker 02

  A school-field trip to an underground cave with thousands of people who were sacrificed in the cult?

• 2:11:59AJ Gentile?

  Yep.

• 2:11:59Speaker 02

  Ah, they must've signed one hell of a waiver with that permission slip, eh?

• 2:12:03AJ Gentile?

  Well, I hope so, because the children went in and never came out.

• 2:12:06Speaker 02

  Wha-what?

• 2:12:07AJ Gentile?

  Yep. Thirty schoolchildren and their teacher went down a passage. They either got lost or stuck behind a cave-in because they were never seen again.

• 2:12:18Speaker 12

  For weeks, mothers declared that they had heard wailing and screaming from underground. But numerous excavations and searching parties brought no trace of the lost souls. After three weeks, they were finally given up for dead.

• 2:12:32AJ Gentile?

  To this day, the children have never been found, which brings us to the story of Lois Jessup.

• 2:12:46AJ Gentile?

  She was in Malta with a few friends touring the various historical sites. It was a hot summer afternoon, so a local suggested they go see the Hypogeeum. Not only was it an amazing historical location, it was underground. It would be nice to get out of the Mediterranean sun. When they found the entrance, they hired a guide named Joe to give them a tour.

• 2:13:10AJ Gentile?

  They weaved through various passageways and found the entrance to a mysterious-looking cave. On the walls were ancient carvings and designs painted with red ochre.

• 2:13:23AJ Gentile?

  The entrance smelled damp and moldy, but once they entered, the air felt clean and dry. Their guide Joe told them there were three floors of underground rooms. Joe gave Lois and each of her friends a single-lighted candle. One by one, Lois and her friends entered the cave. The passage was narrow, so they had to crouch and walk single file.

• 2:13:46AJ Gentile?

  They emerged into a large room with smooth limestone walls. The women laughed and talked, and they noticed their voices were echoing and creating a strange humming sound. Joe said the room was built thousands of years ago for a powerful oracle. The oracle would perform miracles using certain sounds. Joe said the room would still work today if anyone knew the correct sound to use.

• 2:14:14AJ Gentile?

  Lois and her friends followed Joe through another narrow passage. The ground was steep. They were going down, very far down, into the deepest part of the hypogeen.

• 2:14:24Speaker 02

  I don't like where this is going.

• 2:14:26AJ Gentile?

  Do you mind?

• 2:14:26Speaker 02

  Sorry, sorry. I'm just trying to break the tension.

• 2:14:30AJ Gentile?

  Yeah, I was building tension on purpose.

• 2:14:32Speaker 02

  Oh, oops.

• 2:14:34AJ Gentile?

  Lois wasn't sure how far down they went, but her senses told her it must have been 20 or 30 feet.

• 2:14:41AJ Gentile?

  The tunnel opened up to another large room. Cut into the walls were shelves. Lois thought they looked like beds or resting places. She got a closer look. They were shaped like coffins. Joe said they buried their dead in here. He gestured to a slit in the wall, and Lois realized there were slits carved all around the room evenly spaced. She looked through one and saw skeletons.

• 2:15:07AJ Gentile?

  Lois asked about them and Joe said they were prisoners and their remains could not be disturbed.

• 2:15:16AJ Gentile?

  They looked around for a few more minutes, then Joe said this is the end of the tour. It's time to go back. Then Lois asked Joe, "What's down there?"

• 2:15:25AJ Gentile?

  She was pointing at a small square doorway, maybe three feet wide. Joe said, "If you go in there, you go at your own risk, and you won't go far."

• 2:15:35AJ Gentile?

  Now Lois felt like this was a challenge. She grabbed the length of rope and tied it around her waist. She passed the rope to another friend who did the same, and then another, and another. Lois and her three friends squeezed through the small opening.

• 2:15:48Speaker 02

  Oh, like a baby shoot. Sorry, sorry. Go ahead.

• 2:15:56AJ Gentile?

  The four women disappeared down the dark chamber. The other two stayed behind and waited with Joe.

• 2:16:02AJ Gentile?

  It was dark, but the women still had their candles and they were having fun. This type of adventure was exactly what they were looking for.

• 2:16:10AJ Gentile?

  Finally, the passage opened up and Lois was able to stand. When she got to her feet, she felt herself leaning forward. She was starting to fall.

• 2:16:21AJ Gentile?

  A rush of cold air hit her in the face and she was yanked back. Now it's a good thing they used the rope. Lois was on a ledge no more than two feet wide, then it was a sheer drop fifty feet down. And from behind, Lois heard a friend tell her to keep going. They were getting claustrophobic in the tunnel, but Lois was frozen. Here's what she saw in her own words.

• 2:16:46Speaker 13

  There, across the cave, from an opening deep below me, emerged twenty persons of giant stature.

• 2:16:57Speaker 13

  In single file, they walked along a narrow ledge.

• 2:17:03Speaker 13

  Their height I judged to be about twenty-five feet, since their heads came about halfway up the opposite wall.

• 2:17:12Speaker 13

  They walked very slowly, taking long strides. Then they all stopped, turned and raised their heads in my direction.

• 2:17:23Speaker 13

  All simultaneously raised their arms and with their hands beckoned me. Terror rooted me to the spot.

• 2:17:37AJ Gentile?

  Another gust of wind rushed up from the cavern, this time blowing out Lois's candle, and everything went black.

• 2:17:46AJ Gentile?

  And then, she started screaming.

• 2:17:51AJ Gentile?

  She was in pure panic. She heard herself yelling, "Go back, go back," as she shoved her friends back the way they came.

• 2:17:59AJ Gentile?

  The women spilled back into the room where Joe and the other two friends were waiting, and Joe said nothing, but Lois was suspicious.

• 2:18:09Speaker 13

  I looked up at him, eyes met. I knew that at one time, he had seen what I had seen. There was an expression of caution in his eyes, adding to my reluctance to tell anyone. I decided not to.

• 2:18:24AJ Gentile?

  Lois turned to head back to the surface when Joe grabbed her arm. He said, "If you're interested in exploring further, you should join a group. Soon I'll be taking a teacher and her students down there. I'm sure they'd enjoy the company."

• 2:18:37Speaker 13

  I left my address with him and asked him to have the schoolteacher get in touch with me, but I never heard any more about it until one of my friends told me to read the paper.

• 2:18:50AJ Gentile?

  A few months later, Lois returned to the hypogeenium and found another guide. She wanted to know about the teacher and the children, but the guide shrugged and said he couldn't talk about it. Lois still wanted answers. She asked, "Where's Joe?", the other guide. The man said, "Ma'am, I alone have been the guide of this catacomb for years. I don't know anyone named Joe."

• 2:19:14AJ Gentile?

  Lois went to respond, but something about this man frightened her, so she left. And though it had been her favorite place in the world to visit, she never went back to Malta. Never again.

• 2:19:31AJ Gentile?

  The islands of Malta are steeped in legends. Giants riding comets and building huge temples. Underground cities were the descendants of the Nephilim hide, capturing any human who wanders a bit too far. Elongated skulls that appear more alien than human. But how much of this is true? Quite a lot of it, actually. But not all of it. The temples on Malta and Gozo remain a mystery. No one knows for sure who built these structures or why. They remain among the earliest freestanding structures in the world. Mainstream archaeology debated the age of the temples for years, saying they couldn't be older than 2,600 B.C., the Bronze Age. But carbon dating shows they're at least 1,000 years older than that. That's a proven fact.

• 2:20:14AJ Gentile?

  As to whether they go back to the Younger Dryas, there's no physical evidence. But the solar alignment theory about Amnidra is true. It would align perfectly if it was built between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago. We just can't prove it. But for years, mainstream science did get the age of these sites wrong. They were built during a time before humans had the tools to work stones so precisely. They were built before the wheel. They were built before writing. But there they are. You couldn't build these things without very advanced engineering and logistics. Nobody has yet to explain how this could have been achieved. As for the giants...

• 2:20:52AJ Gentile?

  The giant bones Abela found in the 1600s turned out to be from elephants, not actual giants. So above ground, there's no evidence of giants. Below ground, things get a little more complicated.

• 2:21:05AJ Gentile?

  But let's clear up a few things first.

• 2:21:06Speaker 02

  Ow!

• 2:21:07AJ Gentile?

  Zammatt didn't find 7,000 skeletons. He found about 7,000 bones. And all about 120 individual skeletons have been identified. As for the 33,000 sacrifices, there's no evidence of that. 120 people, that's all we got. As for the missing children, that's an urban legend. Locals think it was a story parents told their children to keep them out of the hypogeeum. In fact, in the catacombs under St. Paul's Basilica in Robert Malta, there's a wall painting that tells a story of a group of children disappearing in the caves underground, as a warning.

• 2:21:42AJ Gentile?

  Now Lois Jessup's story is interesting. She was a real person, and she really did write that story. I quoted some of it, but it's probably just a story. The types of rooms she describes don't exist in the lower levels of the hypogeeum. Now sure, she might have stumbled into a secret level known only to giants, but you can't get much lower before you're underwater. The curators of the hypogeeum said that if she was in a flooded chamber with a candle, reflections might have disoriented her. Now that could be true, but the fact that her story includes the missing children is what debunks it. If a whole group of children went missing in the 20th century, there'd be reports of it, and there aren't. And in 1940, National Geographic magazine wasn't as mainstream as it is today.

• 2:22:25AJ Gentile?

  It often included stories of the fantastic and the bizarre.

• 2:22:28Speaker 02

  I wish they'd go back to that.

• 2:22:30AJ Gentile?

  Me too. Now, the elongated skulls are a bit of a conundrum.

• 2:22:34Speaker 02

  Ah-ha!

• 2:22:36AJ Gentile?

  Sir Temi Zammatt was actually trained as a doctor, so he knew a lot about anatomy, physiology, and craniology. He documented the skulls as being "of the long-headed type", and that's about all he said. The skulls were hidden from the public for years, which only fueled speculation. But they were finally put on display just a couple of years ago. They are long-headed, but at least one of them appears to have been artificially lengthened by binding, like many cultures do. But not all the skulls. Now, the skeptics will say that elongation is genetic.

• 2:23:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, alien genetics.

• 2:23:08AJ Gentile?

  Or were the skulls elongated as a way of worshiping a prehistoric god who is actually an alien?

• 2:23:14Speaker 02

  Ancient astronaut theorists say yes.

• 2:23:17AJ Gentile?

  Maybe. They're still being studied. Now, I didn't know much about the mysteries of Malta before researching this episode. And stories about giants, I do those because people like them, not because I believe them.

• 2:23:27Speaker 02

  But...

• 2:23:28AJ Gentile?

  But the Temple of Am-Nidjar really threw me off. The sun really would line up with the structure perfectly at the end of the Younger Dryas over 12,000 years ago. Now, I don't know how many times the Younger Dryas and the Great Flood have come up on this channel, but we're three years in and they've come up a lot. When I first started the Y-Files, I believed almost none of these stories, and most of them are still bunk. They're fun, but they're bunk. But there have been a few episodes that, after researching, made me a little bit of a believer. Not a full believer, but much more open-minded. I don't know, maybe I've been doing this too long and the tinfoil is seeping into my brain.

• 2:24:07Speaker 02

  Ah, you get used to it.

• 2:24:08AJ Gentile?

  I was once a complete non-believer, but now, after years of research, I believe the moon might be hollow. Prop circles are real, and I'm starting to believe that maybe, at one point very long ago, great megalithic structures were built by a race of giants. But if that's true, where's the evidence? Well, there wouldn't be any, because when the Great Flood came, the giants boarded their chariots, took to the sky, and went back home.

• 2:24:44AJ Gentile?

  Now, I know the AI annoys some people, but this year, some of the tools have been really good. Uh, like, when I watch that episode, that was from seven months ago, I see some of those shots, I'm like, "Oh, I'd love to go back and redo some of those. I wish YouTube would let us do that." Did you see the sexy lizard girl that we did this week? I think one of my guys is in love with her. Uh, she came out really good. Um, all right, we'll end the whole compilation with the first successful video on the channel that got 50,000 views in its first day. It was mind-blown. It was episode 64, "Operation High Jump," and this is the story about the US Navy's task force that went down to Antarctica after World War II, looking for Nazi UFOs.

• 2:25:30AJ Gentile?

  Yeah, it's a wild story. But the twist is Admiral Byrd is leading the mission, and he flies over the continent of Antarctica looking for Nazi UFOs, and he finds an entrance to the Hollow Earth.

• 2:25:45AJ Gentile?

  And I don't want to spoil the ending, but it was mission accomplished.

• 2:25:52AJ Gentile?

  Operation High Jump commenced in August 1946. It was the largest, most heavily armed naval task force ever sent to Antarctica. Leading the mission was Admiral Richard E. Byrd, one of the most famous naval officers in history. The official purpose for the expedition was scientific research and military training. But that was just a cover story. Operation High Jump had other goals. One was to extend American sovereignty over Antarctica, something that was denied many times by the US government. Another was to locate and destroy a secret Nazi base and capture the Nazis' new secret weapon, the flying saucer. UFOs were seen all over the area, suspected to be Nazi test flights. Admiral Byrd was sent to find out.

• 2:26:37Speaker 02

  Did they find flying saucers?

• 2:26:39AJ Gentile?

  Oh, they found a lot more than that.

• 2:26:46AJ Gentile?

  In December 1938, aware that he was on the brink of war, Hitler dedicated considerable resources to searching for mysterious ancient artifacts said to have incredible power.

• 2:27:01AJ Gentile?

  One of these expeditions launched on December 17, 1938. The SS Schwabenland was sent on a secret mission to Antarctica. Onboard were scientists and engineers, but also members of the Thule Society, a German occultist group. The Thule Society believed that a highly advanced race of human-like beings called Aryans existed somewhere deep inside the Earth, and the entrance to their world was at the South Pole. The classified mission of the SS Schwabenland was to find a location for a secret underground base and make contact with the Aryans living in the Hollow Earth. And once contact was made, negotiate for access. to their technology. The ship reached the Antarctic coast a month later.

• 2:27:43AJ Gentile?

  For the next three weeks, they mapped hundreds of thousands of square miles of the continent. About 150 miles inland, aerial reconnaissance found what is described as an Arctic oasis, an area about 300 square miles that was free of ice, filled with warm water, and even contained plant life. In the ocean beneath the oasis was a geothermal vent that kept the area relatively warm. This was the ideal place for a base, especially for U-boats. This is where the Nazis would establish the infamous underground facility known as Base 211. Over the course of World War II, Base 211 became a massive complex, as large as a small city. Initially, it was designed as an offensive structure where U-boats and missiles could

• 2:28:28AJ Gentile?

  be deployed, but as the tide of war turned against the Axis powers, it became clear that the base would be an ideal way to escape. In the final months of the war, huge amounts of equipment, supplies, and personnel were transported to Antarctica. At the same time, thousands of Nazis escaped justice and were smuggled to South America, with most of them hiding in Argentina. One of the infamous German officers to disappear was Hans Kamler. Kamler was in charge of Hitler's secret weapons program. Kamler's engineers had created a prototype long-distance supply plane with a range of over 4,000 miles called the JU-390. Only two of these were made. One of them belonged to Kamler.

• 2:29:08AJ Gentile?

  And as of April 1945, neither Kamler nor his plane have ever been found. And just a few months later, thousands of UFO sightings were reported all over South America. The American government feared that Kamler and his scientists had escaped to Antarctica, where they were continuing their work, operating out of a secret military base hidden deep underground. But these were just rumors. There was only one way to find out: go to Antarctica.

• 2:29:41AJ Gentile?

  Okay, before we talk about what Admiral Byrd saw in Antarctica...

• 2:29:44Speaker 02

  No, come on, just get to the weird stuff.

• 2:29:47AJ Gentile?

  I will, but it's important that you understand what kind of man Richard Byrd was. He was not some pseudoscience conspiracy theorist kook. He was a legitimate badass. Here are the bullet points. Richard Byrd reached the rank of Rear Admiral by the age of 41, the youngest Admiral in Navy history. Now that by itself is impressive, but how about this? He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross, the Flying Cross, and the Silver Life Saving Medal. In all, he received 22 citations and commendations, including nine for bravery and two for extraordinary heroism. He was, to this day, one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the Navy. Now, his resume goes on, but I think you get the point.

• 2:30:29AJ Gentile?

  If Admiral Byrd says he wants to be the first man to fly over the North Pole, he does it. And if the United States sends a major expedition to the South Pole to conduct a top-secret mission, well, there's no more qualified person on the face of the earth to lead it than Admiral Richard E. Byrd. Operation High Jump commenced in August 1946. The official purpose of the mission was to train personnel and test equipment in cold temperatures, to explore Arctic geology, study the weather, and develop techniques for establishing air bases in frigid climates. Admiral Byrd led a Navy task force of almost 5,000 men aboard 13 ships, including a brand-new state-of-the-art aircraft carrier loaded with dozens of planes, bombers, and helicopters.

• 2:31:14AJ Gentile?

  This task force was armed to the teeth. There were two destroyers, tankers, supply ships, icebreakers, two heavily armed seaplanes, and an attack submarine, all fully stocked with the best weapons in the entire Navy.

• 2:31:28Speaker 02

  That's a lot of firepower for training exercises and studying the weather.

• 2:31:32AJ Gentile?

  Right? That mission was the cover story. No personnel training or equipment testing ever took place. No practice maneuvers, no military exercises, no scientific study of any kind was ever done. According to eyewitness testimony, declassified records, and Byrd's own journal, Operation High Jump had other purposes. One goal was to extend American sovereignty over the Antarctic continent, something that was denied many times publicly by the US government. The other goal was to locate and destroy the secret Nazi military complex known as Base 211. And to capture any flying saucers they could. The armada arrived on January 15th and immediately started building a base called Little America.

• 2:32:18AJ Gentile?

  But then the Operation High Jump story takes a turn. Originally meant to be a six to eight month mission, after just 40 days, the base is evacuated and the task force withdraws. This massive, expensive, and important mission is suddenly terminated. So, what happened? And this is where Admiral Byrd, a legend in his own time, becomes a legend for all time.

• 2:32:47AJ Gentile?

  The Navy task force retreated to Chile. And as soon as they made port, rumors spread about strange findings and disasters that forced the mission to be cut short. Admiral Byrd himself spoke to the media. And rather than deny the stories, he expressed deep concern about the real possibilities of devastating aerial attacks on the US.

• 2:33:08Speaker 02

  This doesn't sound like a guy on a scientific mission.

• 2:33:11AJ Gentile?

  It sure doesn't. Byrd warned that it was imperative for the United States to take immediate defensive measures against hostile forces in the Arctic and Antarctic. The admiral went on to say that he wasn't trying to alarm anyone.

• 2:33:24Speaker 02

  Too late.

• 2:33:25AJ Gentile?

  But the cruel reality is that in case of a new war, the United States could be attacked by flying objects that had the ability to move from pole to pole at incredible speeds. Admiral Byrd reiterated this in a few different statements. He warned that there was a new enemy that could attack any country at any time, anywhere, no matter the distance. When Admiral Byrd got back to Washington, he was immediately debriefed. And though he had just spent two weeks making statements in the press, after a lengthy interrogation, Admiral Byrd never uttered another word about Operation High Jump. The mission was immediately classified top secret. And any sailor who spoke about the mission would be arrested and imprisoned.

• 2:34:07AJ Gentile?

  The Navy then published a brief summary of the mission's achievements and admitted some sailors... were killed, but they didn't say how many. And officially, all the deaths were accidents. And the bodies were buried there, not brought home. During one of his flights, Admiral Byrd was missing for three hours in an episode of lost time. But that was officially blamed on radio failure. The official reason for terminating the mission early was poor weather conditions, and that was that. However, you know how Admiral Byrd was missing for three hours and experienced lost time? Yeah. Well, Byrd was meticulous at documenting everything. But when he returned to the States, his journals were confiscated and classified. But the government didn't get everything.

• 2:34:51AJ Gentile?

  He had a secret diary that he gave to his son right before he died. And if any of what he claims to have seen is true, well, it changes everything. According to Admiral Byrd's diary, he fuels up for a flight early in the morning. The weather is clear and mechanically, the plane checks out. At 8:15, at an altitude of 2,300 feet, he checks in.

• 2:35:17Speaker 08

  0815 hours. Radio check with base camp. Situation normal.

• 2:35:22AJ Gentile?

  At 10 after 9, he notices a color pattern in the snow. Nothing extreme, but he circles the area to get a closer look. He makes visual contact with camp and radios in his findings. Then, his instruments start to act strange. He writes that both his compasses are gyrating so much that he can't even use them. So he uses the sun to navigate and maintains a visual of camp. He reports that his controls are feeling sluggish. He's concerned about the wings icing up. There's a little ice, but no indication of a problem, so he continues flying toward what he perceives as a mountain range.

• 2:35:57Speaker 08

  0949 hours. 29 minutes elapsed flight time from the first sighting of the mountains. It is no illusion. They are mountains and consisting of a small range that I have never seen before.

• 2:36:08AJ Gentile?

  He crosses the mountain range and descends toward what he describes as a green valley with a small river running through it.

• 2:36:15Speaker 08

  There should be no green valley below. Something is definitely wrong and abnormal here. We should be over ice and snow. To the port side are great forests growing on the mountain slopes. Our navigation instruments are still spinning. The gyroscope is oscillating back and forth.

• 2:36:30AJ Gentile?

  He drops down a bit and circles back for a closer look. He reports the green as being moss or tight grass. The light seems different here. He can see the ground easily, but he can no longer see the sun. Now this starts to worry him because he's using the sun to navigate. But he gets distracted by something he didn't expect. On the green valley below, a large animal is grazing.

• 2:36:53Speaker 08

  It appears to be an elephant. No, it looks more like a mammoth. This is incredible, yet there it is. Decrease altitude to 1,000 feet and take binoculars to better examine the animal. It is confirmed, it is definitely a mammoth-like animal. Report this to base cam.

• 2:37:09AJ Gentile?

  Admiral Byrd flies over green pastures that stretch for miles. And he's so amazed by what he's seeing, it takes him almost 30 minutes to realize, it's not cold anymore. Frost on his forward window is gone. Same with the bits of ice that were on the wings. He removes his gloves. The window of the canopy is warm to the touch. He records an external air temperature of 74 degrees Fahrenheit. His instruments are now back online, but his radio is out. And remember, in the official report, Admiral Byrd was out of radio contact for three hours. So he flies for another hour over what looks to be a countryside or a pasture. On the horizon, he sees the impossible. A large, shining city.

• 2:37:54AJ Gentile?

  The plane shudders. Admiral Byrd grabs the controls, but they're not responding. He notices the plane feels light and buoyant. Then, on both sides of the plane, strange aircraft are rapidly closing in. They're disk-shaped and seem to be radiating light. And somehow, they're running completely silent. Now thinking this is now a really good time to head back, Admiral Byrd tries the controls again. No luck. The plane's engine suddenly cuts out, but somehow continues flying, controlled by some unseen force. The craft are right up alongside his plane now. Close enough that Admiral Byrd can see markings. In that instant, his wonder turns to terror. The markings are swastikas.

• 2:38:43AJ Gentile?

  According to documents leaked in 1991, things back at Camp Little America take a strange turn. Just two days after arriving, bright lights were seen on the horizon. The sailors thought it was another ship, but they were below the Antarctic Circle in uncharted waters. The lights then ascended at a 45-degree angle into the sky very quickly. They tried to make radar contact but were out of range. Three hours later, five more lights appeared in the sky and began flying directly toward the ships. Anti-aircraft guns and 20-millimeter cannons were fired but had no effect. A radio operator stationed on the USS Brownson gave testimony of how strange crafts suddenly appeared from the ocean. This is corroborated

• 2:39:26AJ Gentile?

  by Lieutenant John Sayerson, who said "objects shot vertically out of the water at tremendous speeds." One object flew between the masts of a ship with such force that the radio antenna oscillated back and forth from the turbulence. An aircraft from the USS Kurutuk took to the sky but was immediately struck by a beam of energy and destroyed. About 10 miles away, the torpedo boat USS Maddox burst into flames and began to sink. According to the report, this was the first attack of several that would occur over the next few weeks. February 26 would be the last engagement with the unknown craft. The Navy Task Force ordered retreat and left the area, a full six months before their mission was supposed to end.

• 2:40:07AJ Gentile?

  Although Lieutenant Sayerson couldn't identify the lights, he wondered if they were what he called "German wonder weapons," being operated by survivors of the recently defeated Third Reich, operating out of a secret base under Antarctica. His testimony has fueled speculation that still exists, and to this day, investigators are trying to determine what really happened during Operation Highjump.

• 2:40:38AJ Gentile?

  Admiral Byrd's radio, which hadn't been working for at least an hour, suddenly comes back to life. Though the signal was distorted, a voice starts speaking English with a slightly German accent.

• 2:40:50Speaker 08

  Welcome Admiral, to our domain. We shall land you in exactly seven minutes. Relax Admiral, you are in good hands.

• 2:40:57AJ Gentile?

  The plane gently lands itself, and Admiral Byrd is met by several men, all tall with blond hair.

• 2:41:03Speaker 02

  Aryans?

• 2:41:05AJ Gentile?

  Sounds like it. Byrd joins the strangers on a platform that levitates and rushes them toward the city at great speed. He's directed to an elevator that takes him quickly and silently deep underground. He is to have an audience with the Master. Admiral Byrd is led into another room where an older man is seated at a long table. Admiral Byrd is asked to sit down. The Master says his people are called the Ariani, and they've been observing humans for a long time. But only now are they choosing to interfere. The Master says that Admiral Byrd's race is too immature for atomic energy, and are at risk of destroying themselves. The Master says every time they try to make contact, their ships are fired upon and pursued by fighter planes.

• 2:41:48AJ Gentile?

  So instead, they chose Admiral Byrd to carry this message. Because he's a famous and well-respected figure, the Master hopes that the world will believe him. After the meeting, the Admiral is escorted back to his plane. And after flying for a few minutes, a voice comes through the radio that control of the aircraft is now his. A voice says "Alfreda Sane" and disconnects.

• 2:42:08Speaker 02

  Definitely Aryans.

• 2:42:10AJ Gentile?

  When Admiral Byrd arrives at the Pentagon in March 1947, he is debriefed and interrogated for hours. He relays the message from the Master and advises the President. He's ordered to remain silent about the operation. And indeed, Admiral Richard E. Byrd never spoke a word about this mission again. The final entry in his diary is a number of years later. Admiral Byrd feels what he calls "the long night coming", but doesn't want this knowledge to die with him.

• 2:42:36Speaker 14

  Just as the long night of the Arctic ends, the brilliant sunshine of truth shall come again. And those who are of darkness shall fall in its light, for I have seen that land beyond the pole, that center, of the great unknown. Admiral Richard E. Byrd, United States Navy, 24th of December, 1956.

• 2:42:56AJ Gentile?

  Admiral Byrd passed away three months later. This secret diary was found by his son, Richard Byrd Jr., and subsequently released, as was his father's wish. And 18 months after that, the Antarctic Treaty was signed, forbidding anyone from going to Antarctica without special permission from one of 12 signatory governments. And even with special permission, you may only go in a few small designated areas. Antarctica is bigger than Europe, bigger than Australia, bigger than the entire United States. Yet, all that land is off limits. Why? Was there a secret Nazi base? Is there a civilization living underground? The UFOs described by the sailors in 1947 behave an awful lot like UFOs we're seeing right now.

• 2:43:40AJ Gentile?

  Since we can't go to their world, they could be trying to come to us with the same warning they gave Admiral Byrd. So maybe, instead of trying to destroy these craft and destroy each other, we might want to listen to what they have to say. And who knows? The entire fate of the world may depend on it.

• 2:44:04AJ Gentile?

  Okay, talk about a story having it all. UFOs, Nazi bases, government cover-ups, even Hollow Earth. And I've done a lot of research on Hollow Earth, so if you want to see that video, let me know in the comments. Anyway, I'll tell you right up front. There's a lot of the story that can be debunked. But not all of it. Let's start with Admiral Byrd's secret diary. It's not real. First of all, the flight in the diary takes place in the North Pole. So we're already off to a rocky start, since Antarctica is as far south as you can get. And some of the log entries are almost identical to actual published log entries from the admiral. The same types of instrument failures. Engine issues show up in both places, for some reason. Also, whole paragraphs of what the master said to Admiral Byrd

• 2:44:49AJ Gentile?

  seem to be plagiarized from the 1937 film, Lost Horizon, where the main character is talking to the Dalai Lama who issues the same kind of warning. In 1964, a book about the Hollow Earth was released by Walter Siegmeister, under the pen name Raymond Bernard. Admiral Byrd is mentioned quite a bit in the book. Bernard went on to write lots of books about UFOs and Hollow Earth. And later, when Byrd's secret diary appeared, guess who wrote the foreword? Yep, Raymond Bernard. But the dead giveaway for me, the secret diary is full of exclamation points. Like, lots of them. If you read any of Byrd's other logs, no matter how excited he gets, he doesn't write like he's posting on Reddit. He writes like a gentleman. So, what about the Nazis?

• 2:45:33AJ Gentile?

  Here's where it gets tricky. The Schwabland did go to Antarctica in 1938, but its mission was to secure new ports for whaling to supply Germany with its own whale oil for margarine.

• 2:45:44Speaker 02

  Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. A Nazi mission to the South Pole for a delicious buttery spread?

• 2:45:49AJ Gentile?

  Exactly. Germany wasn't at war yet, but Hitler was planning it. A lot of oil and fat-based products were imported. Hitler wanted to make sure that these industries could continue and his army could be fed in case foreign supplies were cut off. The Nazi mission did claim some land for Germany, and it's widely thought that they did look for a location for a base and maybe even tried to build one, but no evidence of a base has been found. However, Nazi artifacts have been found in the Arctic, in the north, which could be why this story continues to circulate, but so far, nothing in the south.

• 2:46:23Speaker 02

  Could be underground.

• 2:46:25AJ Gentile?

  It could be. I'm not saying nothing's there, I'm just saying we haven't found it yet.

• 2:46:30Speaker 02

  Boy, they found it and aren't telling anybody.

• 2:46:32AJ Gentile?

  Well, that's always a possibility. The US government did lie about the real purpose of Operation High Jump, and it's true Admiral Byrd never spoke about it publicly, except for those cryptic comments in the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio. El Mercurio is a real paper, and Admiral Byrd did give them an interview. Obviously, the article was released in Spanish, but when it was translated back to English, his words were twisted around to make the story sound more dramatic.

• 2:46:58Speaker 02

  Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

• 2:47:01AJ Gentile?

  Right. Byrd never said there are ships that can fly pole-to-pole at tremendous speeds. He said the United States could be attacked by planes coming from the poles, and it should be ready for that. And Operation High Jump had a press contingent about a dozen reporters giving daily reports. There really wasn't much going on, so rather than send back a three-word story, "Lots of ice," the reporters added their own flair. For example, Byrd did find a small lake that had uniquely warm temperatures with algae growing in it, but it was reported as "a land of blue and green lakes and brown hills in an otherwise limitless expanse of ice."

• 2:47:41Speaker 02

  And the UFO attack.

• 2:47:42AJ Gentile?

  Right. In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, millions of secret documents were released. And one of those, written in 1947, was a description of Operation High Jump. And in 2006, a Russian documentary was released based on that secret intelligence report. The Soviets did believe that Operation High Jump was a mission to find and destroy a Nazi base. And look, with all that firepower, I don't think that's a stretch. The reports of the battle with UFOs comes from the Soviet documents. But it's iffy on the facts, and they got some of the names of the ships wrong. But they did get some right. And the US military has a history of changing a ship's name and rewriting the ship's story if it serves Navy policy.

• 2:48:25Speaker 02

  Provocanda.

• 2:48:26AJ Gentile?

  Always. The Soviet report said that UFOs weren't trying to destroy the American ships, which they easily could have done. They just wanted the ships to turn back. The mission was cut way short. The official reason for that is weather. But that's a lot of resources wasted because of weather. Were there really UFOs protecting something down there? Or is this disinformation deliberately leaked to the Soviets by US intelligence? I don't know. I've debunked as much as I can for you. Even though a lot of this story is false, not all of it is. And it seems as the only way we'll get answers is to go to Antarctica. But if there's one thing that every government in the world agrees on, it's that whatever is down there, needs to stay there. But I'll leave you with these final thoughts.

• 2:49:10AJ Gentile?

  Just a few months after Operation High Jump, a UFO allegedly crashed in Roswell, New Mexico. The location of the crash is only a few miles from the world's first nuclear explosion. And Admiral Byrd did go missing for three hours and arrived back at camp three hours late. He was in a small, short-range airplane. So, why didn't he run out of fuel?

• 2:49:36AJ Gentile?

  Don't forget to download War Thunder for free on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, or mobile. Use the links in the description. New and returning PC and console players can also claim a huge bonus pack. But it's only for a limited time, so act fast.

• 2:49:52AJ Gentile?

  Thank you so much for hanging out with the...

• 2:49:56AJ Gentile?

  Sorry, hang on.

• 2:50:00AJ Gentile?

  Now you call, I'm almost finished.

• 2:50:01Speaker 02

  Ah, you... I'm sorry I didn't make it. I had an emergency.

• 2:50:05AJ Gentile?

  Really?

• 2:50:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, the CIB were asking about Gertie.

• 2:50:08AJ Gentile?

  The CIB?

• 2:50:09Speaker 02

  Camels in black.

• 2:50:10AJ Gentile?

  Ah.

• 2:50:11Speaker 02

  She never told me she was abducted by aliens. That would explain why she-

• 2:50:15AJ Gentile?

  You know what? We saved this setup for a sponsor ad.

• 2:50:17Speaker 02

  A good idea. Go ahead with the plugs.

• 2:50:21AJ Gentile?

  This has been a Y Files compilation episode. I hope you had some fun, maybe learned something new, got caught up in an episode that you didn't see, and, um, all those episodes were recommendations from you. So, if there's something you'd like me to cover, go to the Yfiles.com/tips. And remember, the Y Files is also allegedly a podcast. That's the Y Files Operation Podcast, and it's available everywhere. And, uh, I'm just, the plug's here. Oh, if you want to make a few new friends, check out the Y Files on Discord. I think we've got 60,000 members on there. So, there's always someone hanging out, talking about crazy stuff, 24/7. It's a fun community, it's really supportive. You're feeling down, you're feeling blue, just hop in Discord. It's totally free, and, um, it's a lot of

• 2:51:06AJ Gentile?

  fun. If you want to know what's going on with the channel, you can check out our production calendar. We post our episode schedule, live streams, podcasts, all that stuff is up there. Special thanks to our Patreon members. You guys keep the channel going. I can't say it enough, I can't say it loud enough. You keep me brave, because I know if I get demonetized, you got me covered. And, uh, and you keep me motivated. I'm just, the community that we've built, I'm just, I'm just really proud of it. And if you'd like to be a part of the community, help out the channel, help out yourself, help out, you know, all of us, uh, consider becoming a member. It's as little as three bucks a month to support the channel, and- You get all kinds of free stuff with it. Access to members only merch, access to videos early without commercials.

• 2:51:51AJ Gentile?

  You get two private live streams every week that are just for members. And those are super fun because there's not a lot of people in there. You know, when I do a live stream, like on a Thursday night, we might have 15,000 people in the chat. Like, I can't really, I can't really read everything or keep up with it. But on Discord, it's me and the whole team. And there's only a few people hanging out. So you put your camera on, jump up on stage and talk to all of us. You know, suggest something, tell a joke, tell a story, you know, whatever you want to do. I think it's the best perk there is, you know, for as little mon- as money as it costs. Uh, another great way to support the channel is grab something from the Waffle House store.

• 2:52:29Speaker 02

  Grab yourself a Hecklefish t-shirt or one of these fistful of coffee mugs. You can stuff your fist in or your hoof or your fin or your flipper, whatever you got hanging off your arm there. Stick it in that mug or grab one of these haunted voodoo human dolls. One of these squeaky stuffed animal Hecklefish tug and fish toy.

• 2:52:45AJ Gentile?

  Those are the plugs and that's gonna do it. Until next time, be safe, be kind, know that you are appreciated.

• 2:53:47Speaker 15

  I fear the crap cat and got stuck inside Mel's hole with MKL truck I'm being only too aware Did Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing alone? On a film set, were the shadows people there? The Roswell aliens just fought the smiling man I'm told, and his name was Cole And I can't believe, I'm dancing with the fish Head to fish on Thursday nights when they change And one more love will be all through the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth

• 2:54:30Speaker 15

  So one more love will be all through the night

• 2:54:52Speaker 15

  The muff man sightings and the solar storm still come To a god that the secret city underground Mysterious number stations, planets circle to Project Stargate And what the dark watchers found In a simulation, don't you worry though The black nights had a lot of tone It's so, I can't believe, I'm dancing with the fish Head to fish on Thursday nights when they change And one more love will be all through the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth

• 2:55:36Speaker 15

  So one more love will be all through the night Head to fish on Thursday nights when they change And one more love will be all through the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So one more love will be all through the night

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