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NARRATOR: Under the sea of the Bahamas
are these stones, all that remains
of the lost world of Atlantis.
Silent for 3,000 years, will these colossal heads
reveal the secrets of Central America's first civilization?
Deep in the limestone of the Mediterranean island,
who and what created the mystery tracks of Malta?
Mysteries from the files of Arthur C. Clarke,
author of "2001" and inventor of the communications satellite.
Now in retreat in Sri Lanka, he ponders the riddles
of this and other worlds.
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This is the town of Kandy, the spiritual and cultural capital
of Sri Lanka.
Here many historic traditions are preserved.
Like any ancient settlement-- and this one
dates back at least 700 years-- its modern streets
conceal the ruins of earlier civilizations.
Many of these were founded by warlike kings who
defended this mountain fortress against an invasion
for centuries.
We know a great deal about the kings of Kandy
because they ruled until the 19th century.
This lake was built by the last of them,
before the British took over in 1815.
But throughout the world, countless other civilizations
have also come and gone leaving little
behind them but puzzles and problems
for the archaeologists who probe their secrets.
NARRATOR: Only 30 minutes by air from Miami Beach in Florida,
Bimini calls itself the gateway to the Bahamas.
For tourists, the place is paradise.
But for seekers of lost worlds, Bimini
may be the site of the most alluring lost
civilization of all.
Bill Donato believes that beneath these waves
is evidence which could prove that Atlantis lay here.
The civilization is said to have flourished 10,000 years
ago until the seas rose around it
and swamped the place forever.
In 1926, the American medium, Edgar Cayce,
predicted that the true site of Atlantis
would emerge at Bimini in the Bahamas.
Cayce sent a follower to look for signs under the sea.
In Bimini, he employed a local fisherman,
Pastor "Bonefish" Sam.
Sam gave him all the help he could,
but at first without success.
One day Sam suggested they should look in a place he'd
known about since childhood.
They went to the spot.
And he jumped over the boat.
And when he put his head down like that and raise it up.
And then he jump out of the water and he said, we found it!
Here it is! Here it is!
We found it!
NARRATOR: Under the sea was an extraordinary formation.
Less than 20 feet down, off the Northeast of the island
lies a line of rocks.
Its size and shape have earned the name, The Bimini Road.
Today, Bill Donato is leading a diving expedition.
He's convinced that the so-called Bimini Road will
one day reveal its secrets and prove
that this really was Atlantis.
BILL DONATO (VOICEOVER): When you go overboard,
the first thing you see is this huge arrangement that looks
like a very large underwater pavement
with stones intersecting at right angles,
dead straight alignments.
It's really amazing.
It looks very artificial.
It doesn't look anything like what the beach rock looks like.
I personally think because of the particular shape
that it is some kind of ancient docking facilities.
Every time I see this it's amazing.
It's like I'm looking at something really
ancient, really big, and it's impressive.
Depending on what angle you look at it,
you always see something different.
NARRATOR: Donato's mission is to collect rock samples.
He hopes independent analysis will show that the road is
indeed a man made construction.
BILL DONATO (VOICEOVER): Today we were
taking samples of the stone.
And there seems to be more than one type of stone down there.
And on some of the bigger stones it seems
to be extremely encrusted.
So I'm not sure whether we got what's actually on the inside
or on the outside.
Also, some of the stone appears relatively soft,
other is very hard.
I can't see how nature would place these here.
Nature would not set them down exactly straight
and they wouldn't have right angle orientations to it.
That just doesn't happen.
Especially it wouldn't have equal spacing between them,
which is also a feature.
I wouldn't just bet all my money or my time and effort
that this is Atlantis.
I would bet my life that this is Atlantis.
NARRATOR: At Britain's Building Research Establishment,
Donato's samples from the Bimini Road
are prepared for microscopic examination.
Thin slices of the stone have been
mounted on slides for analysis by Kelvin Pettifer.
Well, it's clearly from the sea bed.
If you look at the hand sample you can
see marine growths on there.
What we say on the upper edge of this sample
is a thin section through these marine growths.
NARRATOR: Pettifer's examination reveals that the rock
is of very poor quality.
If anyone had used it to build a road or a keyside,
it wouldn't have lasted very long.
This is not a particularly good limestone for pavement work
where heavy wear is to be expected.
The individual grains, or the alocams as they're called,
are bonded together so loosely and poorly that heavy wear
rates could be expected very rapidly, especially
if wheeled vehicles were being driven down there
at all or animals like horses. No.
It would wear very quickly and it would not be really
suitable for a wearing surface.
The evidence as far as I can see is that it's
not a suitable rock for a road.
And it makes me believe that this is not a road at all.
Atlantis is still a mystery to me.
I'd love to believe it.
I really would.
But this is not conclusive proof, as far as I'm concerned.
NARRATOR: Atlantis was described by a Greek philosopher, Plato,
in 300 BC.
He wrote of an island surrounded by channels of water.
It lay somewhere beyond the pillars of Hercules,
as the Straits of Gibraltar were known.
He described how Atlantis was swallowed up and destroyed
by a gigantic flood.
Ever since, the mystery of this lost civilization
has enfolded explorers, archaeologists, and mystics.
Above the Aegean Sea of Plato's homeland, Greece,
the dazzling white houses cling to the edge
of a sunken volcano.
This is all that is left of the island of Santorini today.
The islands nearby form the rim of the volcano's crater, or
caldera, as geologists call it.
Santorini is also known as Thira.
It lies 80 miles north of Crete where archaeologists have
proved that a great civilization, the Minoan,
did once flourish.
Tim Druitt it is a geologist who wants to get
to the bottom of the story.
Beneath this landscape of ash lie older and earlier secrets.
In 1600 BC in the Bronze Age, Santorini exploded.
An eruption of this magnitude must've
been a truly awesome event.
And it's not at all unlikely that the memory of it
would've been preserved in some kind of legend.
The discharge of 30 cubic kilometers of molten rock.
At least three times larger than the Krakatoa eruption in 1883.
So this would have been a truly enormous event, which
would have had widespread repercussions
in the Mediterranean area.
NARRATOR: Volcanic dust lay inches thick in Turkey
and settled in the Nile delta of Egypt.
Rivers of hot ash hit the sea.
Tidal waves crashed down to swamp the north coast of Crete.
It was a cataclysm unequaled in human memory.
Druitt and his colleagues have been using ground radar
techniques to establish the lie of the land
before the eruption of 1600 BC.
Under the ash and the volcanic rock,
they're drawing the picture of the island
as it existed more than 100,000 years before.
Druitt's biggest surprise came with a discovery
of pumice solidified on top of the old island rock.
It was found on a cliff face in the caldera,
and proved that even before the Bronze Age eruption,
these steep cliff sides edged a crater.
TIM DRUITT (VOICEOVER): At this location
we're situated about halfway down
the present day caldera cliff beneath the main town of Fira.
And this layer of pumice, which is from the opening phase
of the great Bronze Age eruption,
lies here upon much older deposits.
And between these deposits, which
are about 100,000 years old, and the Bronze Age pumice,
is a layer of soil.
So we know here that this cliff line must've been exposed
and must have existed prior to the onset
of the Bronze Age eruption.
If we trace this old surface along
and we map it geologically, we can, in fact,
show that this ancient cliff line extends
to present day sea level.
And so the entire caldera wall here beneath Fira
was already in existence in the late Bronze Age.
The caldera at that time was flooded,
much like the caldera today.
And there was also at least one entrance to the sea
in the southwest corner.
NARRATOR: And it was when Druitt compared his reconstruction
of the earlier cliff line with the chart of Atlantis
as described by Plato that startling similarities began
to appear.
A central island surrounded by water.
A circular harbor.
And even a channel to the open sea.
TIM DRUITT (VOICEOVER): There are striking similarities
between our reconstruction of Bronze Age Santorini, which
I stress is made entirely on geological evidence
and the description handed down to us by Plato.
Plato describes that the Atlanteans
quarried stones of white, red, and black in color.
And if we look around the present day caldera
wall at Santorini we can see typical volcanic
rocks, white, red, and black.
Another similarity is that on the central island of Atlantis,
Plato described springs of hot and cold water.
And, of course, on the present day central island
there are hot springs where the warm, volcanically heated
water rises to the surface.
It's nice to think that one day we may solve the mystery
of the Atlantis legend.
We can never be sure.
In the meantime, if we assume that the legend that Plato
passed on to us is indeed describing a historical event,
probably the best interpretation we
can give on the basis of the archaeological and volcanic
evidence is that he was describing the civilization
of Minoan Crete.
And, at the same time, the greater Bronze
Age eruption of Santorini.
The legend of Atlantis is puzzling and beguiling,
and one would like to believe that this paradise did
once exist.
But I'm not convinced by the evidence so far.
In my dives around Sri Lanka I've
often seen squared off slabs exactly
like those on the Bimini Road.
But they're completely natural.
They've been formed by the steady action of the waves
over countless generations.
And Plato's account is based only on hearsay,
suggesting that he was retelling a myth, only loosely based
on a real life event, like the eruption
of the volcano at Santorini.
Although I'd like to be proved wrong, for the moment
I agree with the expert who concluded that the millions
of words written about Atlantis are science fiction and not
historical truth.
NARRATOR: The tiny island of Malta,
midway in the Mediterranean between Europe and Africa,
has played host to many civilizations
in its 7,000 year history.
Stone Age farmers, the temple builders, the Bronze Age
settlers, the Phoenicians, the Romans,
the Arabs, and the great crusade culture
of the Knights of Saint John.
But with history has come mystery.
Away from today's roads lie older enigmatic tracks.
Ruts cut deep in the limestone.
They seem to start nowhere and lead nowhere.
From the sky they look like a modern railway system.
Indeed, this place is called Clapham Junction,
after Britain's busiest railway station.
But these date from long before any railway.
Indeed, so ancient is this mystery that archaeologists
and historians cannot agree when the tracks were first created.
Professor Anthony Bonanno has devoted years to the riddle
of the Maltese ruts.
They occur very often in such a great concentration
that they are cut into very hard rock.
And then there are some which seem to vanish into thin air.
Others are even at the very edge of cliffs.
So someone has actually suggested that some flying
objects might have been used.
Someone else has even suggested that they
were designed for visits with extraterrestrial people.
They are so mysterious.
NARRATOR: Other archaeologists link the ruts
with the temple builders.
Bonanno believes they date from Roman times.
He made a crucial discovery while researching
ancient quarries.
Whenever I manage to trace a quarry,
I found cart tracks associated with them.
And to explain the great concentration of cart tracks
in this place, I proposed that they are actually
associated with a huge concentration
of quarries in the area.
NARRATOR: Bonanno's quarrying theory
could explain why so many lines are found in one place.
As stone cutters moved along the rock face,
each line represents the shortest journey
between the quarry and the road.
Here the stone would be carted away to building sites.
And Bonanno believes the quarries
hold the key to which of Malta's ancient civilizations
made the ruts.
The clue is in the size of the blocks quarried here.
61 inches by 21 inches.
If you look at this whole stretch of rock,
you'll find grooves of those same dimensions all over.
This is where blocks of that size
have been extracted to provide building stone.
NARRATOR: And from a wall deep in the Roman foundations
of the present day town, Medina, Bonanno finds an exact match
for his measurements.
This firmly links the quarry at Clapham
Junction with the Roman town.
61 inches by 21 inches.
This is a typical Roman block with those
typical Roman measurements.
This is the solution to the mystery of the cart trusses It
was Romans who produced them to carry the stone from the quarry
face to the road, and from the road to the building site.
NARRATOR: Not everyone agrees with Bonanno's theory.
This man, Frank Ventura, has walked all over the island
investigating the tracks.
He believes they're just simple roadways.
But for him, the real mystery is what made them.
Ventura carried out a detailed study of the ruts at Naxxar.
The measurements tell us that the track
isn't even-- the width of the track isn't even.
There can be a difference of about 10 centimeters.
So a fixed wheel cart would have stuck in these ruts,
because the wheels are not that flexible.
Another thing is that the shape of the rut
itself indicates that it wasn't a wheel with a metal rim.
So definitely it wasn't a cart like the Romans used.
NARRATOR: The two theorists are preparing
for an experiment which they hope will prove
which one of them is right.
Bonanno with his Roman cart theory
or Ventura with a slide car-- a platform
dragged on too long poles.
This needs to be very hard because it
has to run over the softer rock and form the ruts
that we have been seeing. -Ready?
1, 2, 3.
NARRATOR: They've chosen the beach for the test
because the sand will show in a few passes,
ruts that would take thousands of journeys
to gouge from solid rock.
Meanwhile, in the cart corner, Professor Bonanno
prepares to make his tracks.
I have some trepidation as to whether the wheels
will penetrate deeply enough into the sand.
But I think in order to show that it really works,
it needs to be done hundreds if not thousands of times
over the same route.
NARRATOR: In the event, Bonanno's fears
prove justified.
As his tracks cross those of the slide car,
everyone can see which one makes the deeper ruts.
Bonanno is prepared to concede-- partially at least.
He still believes Roman quarry men made the ruts.
But he will reconsider the cart.
Earlier on I showed a certain certainty
about the purpose of the cart ruts
and the vehicle that was used.
As far as the vehicle is concerned,
I would tend to almost concede you in some way a victory.
ARTHUR CLARKE (VOICEOVER): Only slowly do
ancient civilizations give up their treasures
to the archaeologist trowel.
In the 1880's a workman in Mexico
unearthed a colossal stone head almost five feet high.
From time to time, over the century that followed,
others just as astonishing were uncovered.
Gradually, it dawned on the archaeologists
that the swamps of Central America
conceal one of the great civilizations of the world--
the Olmecs.
NARRATOR: Above the plains of Mexico,
the plateau of San Lorenzo rises like any natural formation.
But beneath lie the remains of the Olmec civilization--
3,000 years older than our own.
For archaeologist, Ann Cyphers, every inch conceal secrets
waiting to be uncovered.
The Olmec were a very important civilization.
The first civilization, in fact, in Mesoamerica that really
set the pace and established many traditions
and started the whole trends of cultural evolution here.
To study the Olmec is to study America's first civilization.
NARRATOR: Bit by bit in digs across the plateau,
she's piecing together a picture of a civilization
which is still largely unknown.
The greatest day of her working life came here a year before.
In a ravine she made a find she'll never forget.
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The head she discovered was only the 17th to turn up.
Each of them is colossal.
Each of them is regarded by artists
as well as archaeologists as a masterpiece.
The discovery of the colossal head
occurred when we were doing a prospection
operation in a ravine looking for another rock that
had been reported.
So we never found that rock, but we did find the colossal head.
NARRATOR: The head was lifted carefully from its hiding
place of thousands of years under the watchful eyes
of the villagers.
In the village, the men are preparing its new home.
It'll be the centerpiece of their own museum.
Every other head has been shipped to the capital,
but this one is staying here.
It's even got a nickname.
ANN CYPHERS GUILLEN (VOICEOVER): They noticed
that it looks like somebody that they knew,
so they called it Tabursia.
NARRATOR: Today it's exactly a year since the head was found.
Cause for the villagers to celebrate.
ANN CYPHERS GUILLEN (VOICEOVER): I
think the most important thing about the colossal head
is that they show an image of a particular person.
So even though people in general think a colossal head is
a colossal head, that they all have
certain similar characteristics, each one is very distinct.
The facial features are very, very individual.
The eye of this colossal head very clearly shows
the Asiatic style eyefold.
It also shows the cross-eyed feature.
This is visible in almost all the colossal heads.
This was definitely a mark of beauty for the Olmec.
The eye is slightly sunken here with bags under the eyes,
representing the fact that this is an older or mature man.
The nose of this colossal head is wide and slightly
flattened in the center part.
NARRATOR: Ann Cyphers believes that each of the heads
represents a ruler.
Not only does each have a different face,
but a different headress, too.
ANN CYPHERS GUILLEN (VOICEOVER): This device
that comes down the center of the head
is a claw, three digits, like this.
Here you can see the nails, the claws themselves.
This probably represents the name of the ruler.
Even though the Olmec didn't have writing at this point,
these are the kinds of symbols that identify
the person represented here.
NARRATOR: Some people think the features suggest
the Olmecs came from Africa.
But Ann Cyphers disagrees.
She thinks the faces portray the Asiatic features
of the American Indians who first came to the continent
over the Bering Strait, which links Asia and North America.
ANN CYPHERS GUILLEN (VOICEOVER): The lips vary from head
to head, and the nose, too.
In my opinion, however, I don't think
these are African features.
I think that what predominates in the heads
are Asiatic features.
For example, the eyefold on the colossal
heads that are clearly an Asiatic eyefold.
So I think, in my own view, that we're not
talking about diffusion from another continent to explain
the rise of Olmec civilization.
Olmec civilization arose here in Southern Vera Cruz.
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There's really no words to explain the feeling that you
get when you see for the first time a face
that nobody has seen for 3,000 years.
It's just a thrill that cannot be repeated.
These stories show how hard it is to reconstruct
the histories of civilizations that have flourished
and died centuries ago.
So it's not surprising some cranks resort
to outrageously implausible theories
often invoking aliens from outer space.
How insulting to our ancestors to think
that they were incapable of sculpting those noble
Olmec heads.
Even though their reasons may be inexplicable,
we can be sure that human beings just like us were the creatures
of these great works.
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