1 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:15,760 [Graham] One of the problems I have 2 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:19,480 with the mainstream view of the development of civilization 3 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:25,120 is the notion that our own civilization in the 21st century 4 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:27,920 is the apex and the pinnacle of human achievement. 5 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:36,880 This makes us very conceited, it makes us very big-headed. 6 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:43,200 We look back on the past, as though our ancestors were always simpler than us, 7 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:45,920 had less knowledge than us, had less ability than us. 8 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:53,720 It hasn't just been a straight-line evolutionary progress 9 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:58,160 from primitive cavemen to anatomically modern humans. 10 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:00,320 It just hasn't been like that. 11 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:08,200 In the story of civilizations, 12 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:13,320 maybe there are ups and downs, civilization rises and falls again, 13 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:17,640 and it is possible to lose entire civilizations. 14 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:22,160 It's happened before, here in the Mediterranean in Malta. 15 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:47,560 Malta, this stunning Mediterranean archipelago, 16 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:49,120 has long fascinated me. 17 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:56,520 Because I suspect almost everything archaeologists have told us about its past 18 00:01:57,240 --> 00:01:58,240 is wrong. 19 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:03,680 And because the truth, if it's allowed to come out, 20 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:08,560 could offer crucial evidence in my search for a lost civilization of prehistory. 21 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:15,120 Malta's two main islands are barely a speck in the Mediterranean. 22 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:19,680 Strategically located between Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, 23 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:24,080 for centuries, it's had an outsized impact on the story of civilization. 24 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:30,680 According to Malta's official timeline, 25 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:35,960 the first people settled here around 7,900 years ago. 26 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:39,960 They were simple Stone Age farmers 27 00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:42,920 who crossed the sea from Italy in wooden rafts. 28 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:45,080 [Katya Stroud] They came probably from Sicily, 29 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:49,600 and they brought with them the first domesticated animals, 30 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:51,480 the first domesticated plants. 31 00:02:55,840 --> 00:03:00,040 And as people settled here, they developed their own culture. 32 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:05,920 [Graham] According to the official timeline, around 5,600 years ago, 33 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:10,680 they then woke up one morning and built this. 34 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:20,080 It's called Ġgantija 35 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:24,520 and it certainly is a giant of a megalithic structure. 36 00:03:27,920 --> 00:03:29,680 For decades, it was thought to be 37 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:33,600 the oldest freestanding monumental structure on Earth. 38 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:43,440 As I walk around Ġgantija, I feel cut down to size, 39 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:46,760 a dwarf in the presence of the work of giants. 40 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:51,240 The construction of these walls 41 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:54,200 required the lifting of hundreds of massive megaliths. 42 00:03:56,560 --> 00:03:58,680 Some weighing up to 50 tons. 43 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:03,560 And what we see today 44 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:06,600 is only roughly half of the temple's original height. 45 00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:08,960 [thunder rumbling] 46 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:18,040 In its prime, Ġgantija was truly gigantic. 47 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:21,720 As tall as a three-story house. 48 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:28,720 The outer walls were constructed from huge stones stacked atop one another. 49 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:36,720 Two connected temples with oval-shaped chambers, 50 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:39,920 their walls painted red. 51 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:42,880 And a series of altars, 52 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:45,800 where charred remains of animal bones were found, 53 00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:49,200 suggesting ritual sacrifices or feasting. 54 00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:57,360 There are no written sources telling us when Ġgantija was built, 55 00:04:57,440 --> 00:04:59,560 and no reliable carbon dates. 56 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:07,480 So how old is this giant temple, really? 57 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:11,880 And does it provide evidence for the lost civilization 58 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:13,560 that I'm convinced flourished 59 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:17,600 long before any kind of civilization is supposed to have begun? 60 00:05:22,840 --> 00:05:28,720 The sole reason that archaeologists claim Ġgantija was built around 5,600 years ago 61 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:31,400 is that some artifacts found in the area 62 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:35,280 match those of other much simpler sites dated to that period, 63 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:40,440 but that doesn't mean that the structure itself is the same age. 64 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,280 The artifacts may have simply been left there at a later date. 65 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:49,040 The truth is that none of the prehistory of Malta stacks up. 66 00:05:50,840 --> 00:05:52,240 Think about it. 67 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:55,080 Could those farmers, who archaeologists tell us 68 00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:57,480 never built anything bigger than a shack, 69 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:00,240 really have achieved all this? 70 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:04,840 When you look at a structure like Ġgantija, 71 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:09,800 you would expect to see evidence of the build-up of skills 72 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:11,800 necessary to create that structure. 73 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:17,240 A culture doesn't just know how to move 20 or 30 ton megaliths. 74 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:18,880 It has to learn how to do it. 75 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:21,640 I see no evidence of the development of those techniques. 76 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:24,200 And here's the thing, 77 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:28,080 Ġgantija isn't Malta's only megalithic temple. 78 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:31,960 Across Malta's two main islands, 79 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:35,960 archaeologists have uncovered 19 such ancient structures, 80 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:40,240 all on a land mass half the size of Chicago, 81 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:45,120 with the oldest, so we are told, being Ġgantija itself. 82 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:52,080 For such tiny islands, that's a lot of temples 83 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:54,160 requiring a lot of man power. 84 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:55,240 Too much. 85 00:06:56,560 --> 00:07:01,360 Which forces me to question who really built Ġgantija and when? 86 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:05,400 Does it make sense that those people with a very simple material culture 87 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:10,240 could have been responsible for creating the largest, most magnificent, 88 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:12,640 most complex structure on Malta? 89 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:22,960 I think the truth is more complicated and far more explosive. 90 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:30,480 We've already seen in Indonesia 91 00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:36,440 and Mexico that ancient myths and legends have something important to teach us. 92 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:40,520 These stories, passed down through generations, 93 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:43,160 shouldn't be overlooked by archaeologists. 94 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:47,640 And if we turn to the ancient lore of Malta, 95 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:49,320 it has a story to tell 96 00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:52,320 about who was responsible for building Ġgantija. 97 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:07,480 There's an intriguing ancient legend here concerning a giantess called Sansuna. 98 00:08:11,520 --> 00:08:13,040 It's said that the giantess 99 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:15,720 had intercourse with one of the men of this land 100 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:19,200 and gave birth to a hybrid child. 101 00:08:21,200 --> 00:08:23,480 Afterwards, to commemorate the event, 102 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:27,480 she built this massive temple in a single day and night, 103 00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:30,800 carrying the child on her shoulder. 104 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:36,920 I'm fascinated by this legend, of course, it could just be a legend. 105 00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:41,520 I certainly don't believe literal giants ever roamed the Earth. 106 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:45,280 But what if she's a human being 107 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:48,440 who has enormous and incredible capacities and skills 108 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:50,720 that could lead her to build a temple such as this? 109 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:55,000 This legend is eerily similar to the story 110 00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:59,560 of the so-called giants who built the Great Pyramid of Cholula in Mexico, 111 00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:03,440 a story connected to a great flood in prehistory. 112 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:10,720 Could these legends of giant builders 113 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:15,760 encode memories of some other more advanced and more ancient culture? 114 00:09:16,560 --> 00:09:19,920 What if the timeline of Malta's prehistory is wrong? 115 00:09:22,720 --> 00:09:25,760 When those farmers arrived by raft from Sicily, 116 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:28,440 what if Ġgantija and the other megalithic temples 117 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:30,200 were already here? 118 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:34,240 What if these extraordinary structures had been built by someone else? 119 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:41,080 A far more advanced society that arrived on Malta long before. 120 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:44,240 It's not only possible... 121 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:48,560 but likely. 122 00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:53,400 And I don't think they sailed here. 123 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:56,120 I think they walked here. 124 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:02,880 You see, Malta wasn't always an island. 125 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:05,840 At the height of the last Ice Age, 126 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:09,680 the level of the world's oceans was about 120 meters, 127 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:12,560 400 feet, lower than it is today. 128 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:17,520 And The Maltese islands used to be hilltops, 129 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:21,360 part of a single continuous landmass that connected Malta 130 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:23,320 all the way to present-day Sicily 131 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:27,360 and from there to the southern end of Italy and the European mainland. 132 00:10:29,200 --> 00:10:31,680 Back then, Europe wasn't a great place to live. 133 00:10:32,480 --> 00:10:35,720 Cold, dry, and inhospitable. 134 00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:41,000 We know Ice Age animals migrated across that ancient land bridge 135 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:46,040 to the warmer, more abundant lands of Malta and flourished here. 136 00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:50,440 Wouldn't humans have followed them? 137 00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:59,920 Archaeologists have found traces of early humans on Sicily from back then. 138 00:11:02,680 --> 00:11:06,000 So why would their migration southwards have stopped there? 139 00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:10,640 To me, the mystery of the sudden appearance out of nowhere 140 00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:13,800 of the Maltese temples 5,000 or 6,000 years ago, 141 00:11:13,880 --> 00:11:15,800 goes away when we accept 142 00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:18,400 that actually, there was a time long before that, 143 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:21,120 during the Ice Age, 12,000, 14,000 years ago, 144 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:22,880 when Malta was part of the mainland. 145 00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:28,080 The problem is archaeologists claim 146 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:32,000 there's simply no evidence of any species of humans on Malta 147 00:11:32,080 --> 00:11:33,640 from that long ago. 148 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:35,560 But that isn't entirely true. 149 00:11:36,840 --> 00:11:39,280 And the proof is in this cave. 150 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:44,440 This is Ghar Dalam, 151 00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:48,240 near the southeast coast of the main island of Malta. 152 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:53,280 A geological time machine 153 00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:56,400 that offers a glimpse back into Malta's prehistory. 154 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:04,560 Here, a series of floods left behind animal bones and fossils 155 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:06,640 dating back thousands of years. 156 00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:14,400 Dr. Anton Mifsud, 157 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:17,320 president of the Prehistoric Society of Malta, 158 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:19,640 has studied this site for decades. 159 00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:20,920 It's really large. 160 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:25,120 [Graham] His independent findings here have caused great controversy. 161 00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:29,520 Ghar Dalam cave is a kind of record in stone 162 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:31,040 of the prehistory of Malta, 163 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:35,560 and I understand that this stalagmite is particularly important in your work. 164 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:39,440 [Dr. Mifsud] Well, starting, well, from where the light brown... 165 00:12:39,520 --> 00:12:41,216 - That's called the cultural layer. - Right. 166 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:42,560 That actually people lived here. 167 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:46,800 - [Graham] Yeah. The last 8,000 years. - The last 8,000 years. Correct. 168 00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:52,080 And there, at the bottom of it, is something called a Pleistocene sheet. 169 00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:53,960 - Once we get below that sheet... - Yes. 170 00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:56,136 - ...we're into an area that is Ice Age... - There was... 171 00:12:56,160 --> 00:12:58,480 ...it contains the remains of Ice Age animals... 172 00:12:58,560 --> 00:13:00,536 - Yes. - ...but they don't call it a cultural layer 173 00:13:00,560 --> 00:13:03,080 because they're convinced there were no human beings here. 174 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:04,240 Exactly, yes. 175 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:10,240 [Graham] Anything found at this depth is at least 11,600 years old. 176 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:13,240 If the official account of Malta's history is correct, 177 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:17,120 no human remains should have been discovered once they dug into it. 178 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:23,720 But over a century ago, archaeologists did find something. 179 00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:26,960 Something no one expected. 180 00:13:28,880 --> 00:13:34,880 In 1917, two Maltese excavators discovered two special teeth. 181 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:35,960 Right. 182 00:13:37,160 --> 00:13:40,400 They had a fossilized color, they had no roots. 183 00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:43,000 The roots were absorbed into the body of the tooth. 184 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:46,000 Yeah. And so these are classic Neanderthal teeth? 185 00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:48,000 - Yes. - And where were these two teeth found? 186 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:51,080 They were found there, at the bottom of the stalagmites, here. 187 00:13:51,160 --> 00:13:53,160 - Right at the bottom. - [Dr. Mifsud] Exactly. 188 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:56,760 [Graham] Experts involved in the dig were convinced they'd found evidence 189 00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:59,360 that would rewrite the story of humans on Malta. 190 00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:08,360 Here was proof that Neanderthals did walk across that Ice Age land bridge. 191 00:14:09,800 --> 00:14:15,120 But sometimes archaeologists dig up things that other people want to bury. 192 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:21,800 In 1952, there were relative dating tests carried out. 193 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:23,960 Yeah. What results were produced from those tests? 194 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:26,200 Well, the results were not published. 195 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:30,440 For some reason, the results were not divulged. 196 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:34,600 [Graham] What we do know is that in the years that followed, 197 00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:38,080 the authenticity of the teeth was officially downplayed. 198 00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:42,400 And to this day, the history books continue to insist 199 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:47,920 that no human species ever reached Malta until around 7,900 years ago. 200 00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:52,720 Why is archaeology so opposed to the notion of earlier humans? 201 00:14:57,360 --> 00:15:00,760 Changing a paradigm is no easy business. 202 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:02,560 When a particular mindset 203 00:15:02,640 --> 00:15:06,480 has become the preoccupation of a group of scholars in a particular field, 204 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:08,560 they are so reluctant to let go of it, 205 00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:11,720 they become existentially attached to it, 206 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:13,200 and an attack on the paradigm 207 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:15,880 becomes an attack on them, and they vigorously defend it. 208 00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:20,240 Curious to mount his own investigation, 209 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:26,240 in 2016, Dr. Mifsud paid for his own state-of-the-art analysis of the teeth. 210 00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:29,720 They've been examined by three top-notch 211 00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:31,520 - physical anthropologists for me... - Yeah. 212 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:33,600 ...and they confirmed they were Neanderthal teeth. 213 00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:34,680 Right. 214 00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:38,640 This is evidence of human activity during the Ice Age. 215 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:43,960 [Graham] What does this do to the whole story of Malta? 216 00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:46,880 It pushes back these dates, way back. 217 00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:48,920 - Far, far back. - Yeah. 218 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:51,200 Another chapter has to be reintroduced. 219 00:15:53,320 --> 00:15:54,320 Yeah. 220 00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:58,680 If our cousins, the Neanderthals, reached Malta, 221 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:02,840 it proves that the land bridge was used by ancient humans 222 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:05,320 and it's possible that another Ice Age culture 223 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:07,200 could have left their mark here too. 224 00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:16,160 In my view, the evidence for a far older civilization here on Malta is compelling 225 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:18,640 and it doesn't just hinge on a couple of teeth. 226 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:27,200 I want to show you something that I saw quarter of a century ago 227 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:29,080 when I first visited Malta, 228 00:16:29,160 --> 00:16:33,400 etched into the bedrock of the island itself. 229 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,960 It's a phenomenon found all over these islands. 230 00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:45,360 Parallel grooved channels carved deep into the ancient limestone. 231 00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:49,800 There are nearly 35 kilometers of these ruts, 232 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:53,680 often crossing one another like train tracks. 233 00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:57,560 Mainstream archaeologists presume them to be 234 00:16:57,640 --> 00:17:00,920 not much more than about 2,600 years old, 235 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:03,960 but they've never been seriously studied. 236 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:08,080 They don't show signs of obvious tool marks 237 00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:11,520 and they also aren't the result of any known natural process. 238 00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:14,440 They're definitely man-made. 239 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:17,440 Though it's not entirely certain what function they serve. 240 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:22,400 They're usually presumed to be some kind of ancient transportation route. 241 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:25,320 Hence, their popular name "cart ruts." 242 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:28,960 But here's what intrigues me. 243 00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:31,720 These ruts don't just appear on land. 244 00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:35,760 Some of them carry right on into the sea. 245 00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:40,280 Here's a pair of them hidden beneath the modern road, 246 00:17:40,360 --> 00:17:44,320 but disappearing on my right beneath the waters of the harbor. 247 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:46,680 Clearly made before rising sea levels covered them. 248 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:54,840 Over the years, I have found and followed more of these man-made grooves underwater, 249 00:17:54,920 --> 00:18:00,440 filming them up to a kilometer offshore and at depths of up to 25 meters. 250 00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:05,200 Whoever created them must have done so 251 00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:08,320 when that part of the sea floor was above water, 252 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:12,640 more than 12,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age. 253 00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:17,240 It makes me wonder how much more of Maltese prehistory 254 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:19,120 lies hidden beneath the waves? 255 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:21,200 How many other man-made structures, 256 00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:24,640 maybe even megalithic temples, still await discovery? 257 00:18:28,360 --> 00:18:31,320 The reason I believe that a deeper ancient intelligence 258 00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:33,760 lies behind these temples on Malta 259 00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:37,360 is that they're far more complex than they first appear. 260 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:42,000 Beneath a canopy that protects it from the elements, 261 00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:47,000 lies one of Malta's most spectacular temples, Mnajdra. 262 00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:55,200 Its futuristic, modern covering cuts it off from the sky, 263 00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:56,680 which is a shame, 264 00:18:57,560 --> 00:18:59,280 because whoever built Mnajdra 265 00:18:59,360 --> 00:19:03,560 had an extraordinarily advanced understanding of the cosmos, 266 00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:07,120 a fact that Malta's archaeologists don't dispute. 267 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:11,400 We know that they observed the rising of the sun, 268 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:14,160 and the position of certain stars. 269 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:17,600 And they have incorporated some of those observations 270 00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:19,400 within the architecture. 271 00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:28,800 [Graham] Mnajdra's builders devised an ingenious way of tracking the heavens. 272 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:32,600 On the spring and fall equinoxes, 273 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:35,920 respectively 21st March and 21st September, 274 00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:41,840 the rays of the rising sun exactly bisect the temple entrance, 275 00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:45,600 flooding the deepest recesses of the inner shrine with light. 276 00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:01,800 On these occasions, the interior of the temple 277 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:04,760 would have glowed and sprung magically to life. 278 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:08,200 And that's not all. 279 00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:10,920 At sunrise on the summer and winter solstices, 280 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:13,440 the longest and shortest days of the year, 281 00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:16,520 a different distinctive projection of light 282 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:19,320 precisely illuminates the edges of the megaliths 283 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:21,400 to the left and right of the doorway. 284 00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:27,680 This phenomenon is far from unique in ancient constructions. 285 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:30,760 In fact, the Great Pyramid of Cholula 286 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:34,240 and the pyramids beneath it, all directly face the setting sun 287 00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:35,800 on the summer solstice. 288 00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:40,440 And other megalithic sites around the world boast similar alignments. 289 00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:42,640 Like Stonehenge, 290 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:45,760 or Egypt's Temple of Karnak. 291 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:52,040 Here at Mnajdra, the ancients created these enormous structures 292 00:20:52,120 --> 00:20:55,160 to celebrate the marriage of Heaven and Earth. 293 00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:58,400 In fact, Mnajdra and the other temples 294 00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:02,680 may be part of a much larger ancient astronomical project. 295 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:05,840 One that, if proven to be true, 296 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:10,200 would rewrite the accepted timeline of Malta's prehistory. 297 00:21:12,120 --> 00:21:14,560 Dutch researcher and author, Lenie Reedijk, 298 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,840 has explored every one of Malta's megalithic temples 299 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:20,760 and made a close study of their alignments. 300 00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:22,640 To her great surprise, 301 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:27,360 none of Malta's other temples line up with any equinoxes or solstices. 302 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:33,200 But they also don't face any particular geographical feature in their area. 303 00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:37,760 In fact, none of them even face the same direction. 304 00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:41,160 No two orientations are the same. 305 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:44,880 - That's quite extraordinary in itself. - That is very, very curious. 306 00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:48,560 You would expect temple culture, 307 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:51,840 like the church or a mosque, to have a preference. 308 00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:58,080 [Graham] Why would Mnajdra be the only temple oriented to the solstices? 309 00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:03,280 Were Malta's other temples also built to aim towards something in the heavens? 310 00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:06,320 If so, what? 311 00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:11,960 You have to look for a principle. 312 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:14,880 So you need to know 313 00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:17,280 - a little bit of archeoastronomy. - Mmm-hmm. 314 00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:20,560 That means the astronomy of the ancients. 315 00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:26,240 There is a fascinating and little-known movement in the sky 316 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:29,640 which has a name, and that is precession. 317 00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:36,440 [Graham] Contrary to what most of us think, 318 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:38,880 the Earth isn't a perfect sphere. 319 00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:41,480 It's actually bulging slightly at the equator. 320 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:43,280 The result? 321 00:22:43,360 --> 00:22:46,400 Because of the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Moon, 322 00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:50,680 the Earth wobbles just slightly as it spins on its axis. 323 00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:54,720 This precession alters our view of the night sky over the years, 324 00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:59,800 making distant constellations appear to shift position in a systematic way. 325 00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:04,080 The whole sky makes this movement, which is very slight. 326 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:07,960 It is only one degree difference 327 00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:14,760 in the rising or setting position of any given star in 72 years. 328 00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:17,800 [Graham] So if you were building these temples 329 00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:21,760 to point at a single specific star, over the centuries, 330 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:26,160 the alignments of those temples would shift, just as we see on Malta. 331 00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:30,760 But there's a problem. 332 00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:34,640 The official timeline claims that all Malta's temples 333 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:39,480 were built between around 5,600 and 4,500 years ago. 334 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:42,720 And in looking at the positions of the brightest stars 335 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,480 visible in the sky during that time frame, 336 00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:47,800 none were a likely possibility. 337 00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:51,080 [Lenie] There was a sort of a strong dislike 338 00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:56,440 to consider anything outside conventional theory. 339 00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:58,240 To go back before the temples 340 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:00,640 - are supposed to have been built. - Exactly. 341 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:05,200 [Graham] But using state-of-the-art software 342 00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:08,480 that tracks the movement of stars over thousands of years, 343 00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:12,880 Lenie was able to rewind the night sky like a clock, 344 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:18,120 looking for a single visible star that aligned with all the temples. 345 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,360 And not just during the time frame when they were supposedly built, 346 00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:26,320 but from any point in the past. 347 00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,240 [Lenie] I have been working to check and check, 348 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:32,920 and then all of a sudden, it appeared. 349 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:36,920 The temples were orientated to one star. 350 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:43,360 [Graham] That one star was Sirius, often called the Dog Star. 351 00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:49,520 [Lenie] It passes all the entrances at some point in time. 352 00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:53,200 All the temples fit it. Every single one. 353 00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:00,760 And Sirius, of course, is a particularly magnificent star. 354 00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:03,080 If I'm correct, it's the brightest star in the sky. 355 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:07,000 The brightest, by far. It is two times as bright as the next brightest. 356 00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:10,800 [Graham] Lenie's theory would also explain 357 00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:14,240 why these early astronomers built so many temples. 358 00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:18,320 As Sirius shifted position over time, 359 00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:21,040 it fell out of each temple's line of sight, 360 00:25:21,120 --> 00:25:26,040 forcing the architects to build a new one with a slightly different orientation. 361 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:33,080 Because of precession, Sirius hadn't been visible from Malta for thousands of years, 362 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:36,880 until the Earth's wobble brought it spectacularly back into view, 363 00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,000 around 11,000 years ago. 364 00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:42,840 And the temple lined up with that spectacular appearance 365 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,840 after a long absence is a simple one called Hagar Qim North. 366 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:50,680 It is also one of the smallest temples. 367 00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:52,200 They started very small, 368 00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:54,760 - and as the millennia passed... - Yeah. 369 00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:58,080 ...they ended up with the largest of all the temples. 370 00:25:58,160 --> 00:25:59,400 You could say, the cathedral, 371 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:02,120 which is Ġgantija. 372 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:05,880 [Graham] But if Lenie is right, 373 00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:10,320 it means that Malta's megalithic project began thousands of years 374 00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:14,480 before those Stone Age farmers from Sicily arrived on the island... 375 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:22,280 and must have been the work of a culture with advanced knowledge of astronomy, 376 00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:26,160 and advanced architectural skills. 377 00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:34,520 As for why they chose to honor Sirius this way... 378 00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:38,400 it might be simply because 379 00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,560 it was the brightest star in the night sky at the time. 380 00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:44,800 But there might be more to it. 381 00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:49,240 The star, Sirius, also plays a prominent role 382 00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:52,120 in the legends of another great culture of antiquity, 383 00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:54,200 ancient Egypt, 384 00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:58,920 where it was associated with the annual flooding of the Nile and the new year 385 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:02,880 and was a symbol of their great goddess, Isis. 386 00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:07,080 And this is not the only curious connection 387 00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,120 between ancient Egypt and ancient Malta. 388 00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:15,880 Maltese fishing boats are traditionally decorated with a prominent symbol... 389 00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:20,000 borrowed from Egyptian mythology... 390 00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:24,120 The Eye of Horus. 391 00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:30,480 The fishermen believe it provides them with good health, prosperity 392 00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:32,400 and above all, protection. 393 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:36,480 The exact same symbol 394 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,320 played the exact same role in ancient Egypt. 395 00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:46,560 Intriguingly, this tradition connects Malta to Egypt's most famous myth, 396 00:27:47,360 --> 00:27:50,240 the story of the parents of that god, Horus... 397 00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:52,160 Osiris and Isis. 398 00:27:56,040 --> 00:28:00,320 In ancient times, the wise God Osiris descended to Egypt 399 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,200 to rule alongside his sister Isis, 400 00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:06,280 but the people were uncivilized and lawless. 401 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:09,680 So Osiris brought them culture, 402 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:13,200 established the rule of law, and taught them agriculture. 403 00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:18,920 Then he left Isis to rule Egypt while he traveled the Earth, 404 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:22,000 teaching people of other nations the same skills. 405 00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:28,080 This myth of a traveling, civilizing hero 406 00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:30,560 is something I recognize from my own travels. 407 00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:36,480 The story of Osiris is similar to that of Quetzalcoatl in Mexico, 408 00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:39,080 and other civilizing heroes from ancient lore. 409 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:44,440 Wise teachers who arrive after an immense cataclysm, 410 00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:46,680 sharing the gifts of civilization, 411 00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:49,840 showing humanity how to build great works in stone, 412 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:54,080 bringing them agriculture and a knowledge of the stars. 413 00:28:56,040 --> 00:29:01,920 Is it possible that such myths so similar in so many different cultures 414 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:05,360 might even be traced back to a single source? 415 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,960 If these bearded robed figures from the near East, 416 00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:13,440 to the Americas, to the Mediterranean, 417 00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:15,760 originate from the same ancient culture, 418 00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:19,640 it means that while our hunter-gatherer ancestors 419 00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:21,520 were busy surviving the Ice Age, 420 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:24,760 someone else was circumnavigating the globe, 421 00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,240 passing on their advanced skills to others. 422 00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:33,680 And I believe there's proof of that on another island, 423 00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:38,640 that, like Malta, was nearly drowned at the end of the last Ice Age, 424 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:43,200 a world away in the blue waters of the Caribbean. 425 00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:51,480 If an advanced civilization was swallowed up by the sea 11,600 years ago, 426 00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:56,520 then perhaps evidence for its existence can still be found underwater. 427 00:29:57,600 --> 00:29:59,680 Let's talk about Atlantis.