Okay. Here we go.
My missions often start with a legend...
GATES: So if the story is true,
somewhere on this property, Robin Hood is buried.
...that drives me to uncover new evidence...
Oh, my God. Skull, yeah?
...and find the truth...
So if we really want to understand
who D.B. Cooper is,
we have to understand that there is no D.B. Cooper.
...behind the story.
Whoa!
Now I'm taking another look at my investigations
into some of history's most intriguing mysteries...
This is incredible.
...with bonus footage you didn't see
in the original episodes...
This, I could get used to, my own Viking crew out here
on the high seas dying of scurvy.
...as I try to determine once and for all
whether these legends are fact or just pure fiction.
♪♪
My name is Josh Gates.
Look at that!
With a degree in archaeology and a passion for exploration,
I have a tendency to end up in some very strange situations.
This is horrible.
This is officially horrible.
My travels have taken me to the ends of the Earth...
It's flooded! Back it up!
...as I investigate the greatest legends in history.
We're good to fly. Let's go.
This is "Expedition Unknown."
♪♪
Truth is stranger than fiction, as the saying goes.
There's one group of legendary voyagers
that looms large in our imagination
and our history books.
Starting around the 8th century,
the Vikings sail thousands of miles,
conquering and settling lands in Europe
and across the North Atlantic, and they do it all without GPS.
So how exactly do they accomplish such amazing feats?
According to legends, the Vikings used
a mystical navigation crystal called a sunstone.
Even on overcast days, when it's held to the sky,
it can pinpoint the location of the sun.
But the question remains, is the magical sunstone real?
Is it fact or fiction?
♪♪
Viking sunstones appear in Norse legends,
but so far, archaeologists haven't found a real one.
There is a form of calcite crystal
found in Scandinavian countries that might just fit the bill.
Could this calcite be the elusive sunstone?
No one has ever tested the theory on the open seas.
I start my investigation at Viking ground zero, Norway.
Seagull, let's talk about the sunstone.
You're an export navigator.
What are your thoughts?
Real? Legend?
Are you gonna peck my eyes out or vomit all over the place?
Yep. Okay.
I'm out of here.
First, I need to get my hands on some pure Norwegian calcite.
♪♪
At an old mine outside of Oslo,
I meet with experienced miner Christian Berg.
And how do you know when you're chipping away at rock
that the whole thing is not gonna fall down on you?
Pure luck.
I don't think that's true.
I hope that's not true.
Oh, there we go. -Oh.
Got it. Look at that.
We got it. [ Blows ]
Look at that.
That could be a Viking sunstone right there.
Christian, nice work.
Achievement unlocked.
Sunstone acquired.
But in order to test whether the legends are fact or fiction,
I'll also need something called a twilight board.
A twilight board is said to be a sort of ancient sundial,
but instead of showing time, it shows direction.
Using it together with a sunstone,
the Vikings could potentially navigate the seas.
♪♪
I turn to my new friend, Gyra, an accomplished woodworker
and Viking cosplay enthusiast, for help.
Using diagrams based on historical records,
he agrees to carve a replica of a twilight board.
Of course, there's no such thing as a free replica,
so he puts me to work.
You're really good, yes?
-Thank you. -We can employ you here.
All right. Do you pay well?
No. It's a double day, no pay.
Okay. I'm in.
But it's more than worth it.
Once he finishes the twilight board,
I'm stunned by the results.
Let me see.
How about that?
Are you kidding me? Look at that.
It's perfect, man.
Now, in order to determine whether the legend
of the Viking sunstone is fact or fiction,
we'll have to test it and the twilight board on the ocean.
Lucky for me, Gyra has completed
another even more impressive woodworking project,
a fully functional Viking ship.
When you said you had a boat, I didn't picture this.
This is my boat.
♪♪
We set sail on a perfect, gloomy, overcast day,
ideal for testing a sunstone.
All right. This, I could get used to.
My own Viking crew out here on the high seas
dying of scurvy, freezing to death.
Okay, here we go. All right.
Let's do this, sunstone.
Onboard with us is Dr. Balazs Bernath,
an expert on light polarization.
He's prepped the calcite I mined for use as a Viking sunstone.
You have two slits now.
You have to look through this slit,
and you will see two images.
I do. When I look through this,
I see a double image of the slit on the backside.
Exactly.
The sunstone should work like this.
As the calcite refracts light passing through it,
you see two distinct lines inside the stone.
Once you find the angle where the two rays look identical,
then you know you're pointing it at the sun.
You ready?
Oh, I'm really excited.
Sunstone, here we come.
It is really tough. It's very faint.
There. -Okay.
Remember the way, which way,
the arrow is showing this.
The arrow is pointing this way, so this is telling me,
if this is working, that the sun is somewhere this way.
We take a second bearing to hone in on the sun's location.
I'm trying to not drop the sunstone in the sea.
There. Right there.
That's equal.
Now try to estimate the intersection.
Okay.
The first estimation was pointing this way.
The second estimation was pointing this way.
Okay.
So just follow those lines
and try to say where the sun is.
Sun should be here.
Time to break out the twilight board.
It's the moment of truth.
Is the sunstone fact or fiction?
Balazs compares our sunstone bearing
with his modern magnetic compass.
Here, let's line it up.
It works. -It worked.
That is unbelievable.
That's almost a perfect match.
-Yes, it is. -Well, I'm amazed.
North, north. It lines up almost exactly.
It's amazing.
Viking sunstone, check.
Maybe we could sail out to Greenland now.
Oh, you think so? You're feeling confident?
Oh, of course.
Okay. To Greenland, guys.
Let's go. -Okay.
Let's get this thing in gear.
Come on. -Yes.
♪♪
One thing is now crystal clear.
The Vikings were sophisticated engineers
whose brains matched their reputation for brawn.
Viking sunstone is fact.
There's another maritime mystery that I investigate,
the recent discovery of what could be
an ancient lost civilization,
possibly the Atlantis of Asia.
I'm talking about the Yonaguni Ruins.
It's a controversial site with huge underwater rock formations
that resemble walls, steps and other man-made features.
Are these really the remains of an ancient sunken city?
Is Japan's Atlantis fact or fiction?
♪♪
If you are a person that enjoys peace and quiet,
Yonaguni Island may be for you.
By peace and quiet, I mean not seeing a living soul ever.
You'd be forgiven is Yonaguni doesn't ring a bell.
That's because it's a small, remote island
about 70 miles away from the shores of Taiwan.
As peaceful as this is, I'm not here for relaxation.
I'm here to investigate the legend of a lost world.
My lonely bike ride takes me to the docks,
where I'm about to meet up with the man
who first discovered the ruins, Dr. Kihachiro Aratake
and his son Shorty.
Hi, there. I'm Josh. Thanks for having me aboard.
♪♪
When did you first find the Yonaguni Ruins?
When you saw it, what did you think?
It looked like Machu Picchu.
Yeah, yeah. He got goose bumps.
Did you immediately think that it was man-made?
Yes.
INTERPRETER: It's unlike anything
you've ever seen before.
Once I saw the site, there was no doubt in my mind
it must be man-made.
Who do you think made the site?
[ Speaking Japanese ]
Only God knows.
♪♪
GATES: It could be an extraordinary find,
a lost civilization,
maybe thousands of years older than any ever recorded.
It's a controversial claim.
Conducting archaeological research that could verify
the find has proven difficult,
if not nearly impossible.
There are intense rip currents here
and deadly, venomous sea snakes.
But that won't stop yours truly and crew.
So my camera man, Evan, pumps himself up for the dive
in his own unique way.
I got to stay neutral.
Plus, I got to do a lot of camera work,
so it's gonna be real challenging for me,
but I crush it daily.
GATES: So modest.
The best in the biz.
I'm 100% 85% of the time.
Every time.
So this dive is gonna be good.
I mean, it's hard to argue with that.
GATES: It's time to get serious and get in the water.
-Let's go. -Yeah, I'm ready. Let's do it.
♪♪
GATES: I'm off the coast of Japan
investigating what could be the ruins
of one of the oldest civilizations ever recorded.
Are the Yonaguni Ruins fact or fiction?
♪♪
We battle through strong currents.
Then the Yonaguni Ruins come into view.
With so many flat surfaces and right angles,
the structure looks designed by human hands, purposeful.
Holy.
But I'm not done here yet.
Dr. Aratake has one more thing to show me before we surface.
We round the corner, and I am stunned.
As we surface, I'm still shaken by the whole experience.
What is going on down there?
I almost need to talk myself out of what I've just seen
because that looks man-made to me.
But I don't know how the hell that's possible.
So now we just need to figure out what it actually is.
♪♪
Before we can determine if the theory of a lost city here
is fact or fiction, I need more evidence.
♪♪
My next stop is in Osaka,
where I meet with geologist and professor
Masahide Furukawa.
Professor, nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you. -Well, I brought you a present.
I brought you some rocks.
These are from Yonaguni.
I want to understand if you think
that what's at Yonaguni could be man-made,
or if you're convinced that it's natural.
[ Speaks Japanese ]
WOMAN: He believes that the waves hit the sandstone
and overlap on each other and make the stairs.
In every sandstone,
there is a thin layer of mud in between,
and that's where it starts cracking,
and that's where it breaks off.
GATES: The professor believes
that the force of the ocean current
causes the brittle rock formation to break,
sometimes at almost perfect angles.
We decide to take a crack at his theory.
I don't know what's going to happen here, sir.
I'm not authorized to do this.
♪♪
-Oh. -So flat pieces.
We have these 90-degree angles here.
It looks very squared off.
I think you might be onto something here.
GATES: We verified that natural forces
can make sharp angles and flat surfaces
out of this brittle sandstone.
And that underwater face?
It's not clear that the rock was actually carved.
The angles don't line up well enough
to say conclusively that this was carved.
It could just be a random geological occurrence.
As much as I had hoped for the Yonaguni Ruins
to be a forgotten civilization,
the evidence seems to shatter under scrutiny.
I'm sad to say it, but the notion of Yonaguni
as Japan's Atlantis looks like fiction.
In my next investigation, I'm looking for something
that was definitely man-made.
It was crafted by one of the greatest swordsmiths
in the world.
The Honjo Masamune blade,
which Japanese legend says is imbued with magical powers.
Seven decades ago, the blade was handed over
to the occupying U.S. forces at the end of World War II.
Then, the sword vanishes.
Or does it?
Rumors abound that the sword may never have really left Japan.
Is the story behind the loss of the Honjo Masamune
fact or fiction?
♪♪
I start my search for the sword in Tokyo,
a glittering city full of spectacular sights,
sounds and shopping.
The Honjo Masamune is right here in this shop,
and it is $1.20, worth a lot less than I thought.
False alarm, folks.
This one is plastic.
The real Honjo Masamune is forged in the 13th century
by Goro Nyudo Masamune, a highly-renowned sword maker.
For hundreds of years, the famous weapon passes
from one powerful hand to the next,
and finally, to the noble Tokygawa clan.
It is considered a national treasure,
but World War II changes everything.
When Japan surrenders in 1945,
the Allied powers demand Japan's complete disarmament,
including all personal weapons.
The Tokugawa family hands over the sword
at the local police station.
So the real mystery of the Honjo Masamune sword
starts right here, a pretty unlikely spot.
This is the Mejiro Police Station here in Tokyo,
and it was right here
that, maybe, the finest sword ever made was lost.
Official documents prove the blade was received
by the U.S. Army,
but what happened to it after that?
Now, supposedly, the sword was then handed over
to a U.S. sergeant named Coldy Bimore,
but there's just one problem.
He doesn't seem to exist.
The U.S. Armed Forces have no record of any soldier
serving in this area with the name Coldy Bimore.
So if there is no American soldier by that name,
who really took it?
Are the official documents pure fiction, fudged,
so someone could steal the valuable sword
or maybe to keep the revered blade
close to home here in Japan?
♪♪
My investigation takes me down a very dark alley
to Tokyo's black market.
♪♪
This is Golden Gai, a neighborhood of Tokyo rumored
to be run by the Yakuza.
Perhaps the Honjo Masamune has switched hands
in this maze of streets.
♪♪
GATES: I've stepped into the alleys
of underworld Japan investigating
what is fact and what is fiction
in the legends of the missing and mystical 13th century
Honjo Masamune sword that disappeared
at the end of World War II.
The official story that it went to an American soldier
named Coldy Bimore might be pure fiction.
Is it, in fact, still here in Japan?
If it is, the valuable blade is being kept secret.
I meet with a black-market sword dealer
who might have some information on where it's gone.
He's agreed to talk on the condition
that I conceal his identity.
So very, very interested in the Honjo Masamune.
Mm-hmm.
But also in understanding
these valuable swords in general.
-Mm-hmm. -Are they allowed to be traded?
By law, every Japanese sword is given papers of identification,
but if a sword has no documentation,
like the Honjo Masamune,
there's no way to track it.
And what about underground trading?
Is that something that happens?
He has another theory.
Where could that sword have been kept safe at a time
when the Allies were trying to find every sword in Japan?
And so you think it's possible
that the sword could have been
hidden away in one of those imperial tunnels?
♪♪
I travel to Nagano where urban explorer Michael Gakuran
is dedicated to investigating
Japan's forgotten historical sites.
♪♪
Okay. Please.
Could the mystical blade be here?
-This is amazing. -Yeah.
They used just dynamite to blast, blast,
blast really deep into the mountain.
Have the tunnels been widely explored?
Well, certain sections have,
but there's also many, many kilometers of tunnels
that haven't been properly excavated.
We go deep into the winding caverns
with our metal detectors.
[ Beeping ]
-Whoa, big hit. -Yeah.
-Big hit. -Oh, there's a coin.
Oh, look at that, a coin.
-Huh. -Look at that.
Something of value.
We got 10 yen.
10 yen. There it is.
I mean, I'm finding treasure.
I think the Honjo Masamune is worth more than 10 yen.
You're an official treasure hunter now.
But I'm not leaving here empty-handed.
-Right. -Right?
It's something. All right.
I'm claiming this. We can split it.
5 yen for you, 5 yen for me.
GATES: Searching these tunnels is like looking for a needle
in miles of haystack.
♪♪
Then I get word that a private collector
has come into possession of an ancient sword.
I meet the collector, Yoshitaka Shimizu,
as well as British museum curator Paul Martin
in an antique shop to examine the blade.
♪♪
GATES: It's beautiful. It really is.
I mean, when you look at it on the edge,
it's just impossibly sharp.
Could this be the Honjo Masamune?
INTERPRETER: No, it is not the Honjo,
but it is a treasure.
Absolutely stunning.
How old is this blade?
Just over 600 years old.
-And the sword maker? -Masamune.
-This is a Masamune? -Yeah.
-Really? -Yeah.
That's amazing.
That is absolutely incredible.
It is beautiful.
GATES: Holding another sword forged by Masamune
in my own hands convinces me
that the Honjo might also be out there somewhere,
and that it very likely never left Japan.
There are enough historical records of the sword to conclude
that that Honjo Masamune was certainly real.
But the official story that it ended up in the hands
of an American soldier named Coldy Bimore,
that is fiction.
The Honjo Masamune wasn't the only treasure to disappear
in the aftermath of World War II.
As the Nazis rampage across Europe,
they loot gold, artwork and countless other valuables.
But in 1945, when the Allies close in on Axis territory,
desperate S.S. officers ship treasure by secret rail lines
to hide in caves, tunnels and wherever else they can stash it.
Recently, two researchers claimed to have uncovered
hard evidence that deep under a hill in Poland,
there's a whole trainload of buried gold, but is it real?
Is the Nazi gold train fact or fiction?
♪♪
I meet up with another pair of investigators,
Darek Tomalkiewicz and Olek Koper,
right above where the gold train is supposedly buried.
GATES: Thank you for meeting me here.
This is the scene of the crime?
Yeah.
And the police have roped it off,
and, obviously, there's police here now,
so they're just making sure nobody comes in here.
Is that what's happening? -The police secured the place.
Sure, you got a train full of gold under your feet.
People are gonna want to find it.
Yeah, of course.
Are these the same train lines
that were running in the 1940s here?
INTERPRETER: Yes, these are the same tracks
that the Nazis built in 1944
as part of construction for Project Riese.
GATES: Riese means giant in German,
which is all too appropriate for a project of this magnitude.
The scheme was to build six massive,
subterranean complexes all connected by underground rail
and hidden from the eyes of the Allies.
Local legend says that in 1945, just before the end of the war,
a train loaded with gold
is heading down these tracks for Valchek, Poland,
when, suddenly, it vanishes.
♪♪
Is it possible it was rerouted to Project Riese's
subterranean rail line and might be buried right here?
What happened here?
What was discovered here?
Recently, two men used ground-penetrating radar
to search for the train.
They showed some pictures, but nobody is 100% clear...
-Right. -...about is it the train?
GATES: The images could be a train full of gold,
or it could be a train filled with deadly chemicals,
or it could be nothing at all, just a shadow, a false hit.
Finding out which, that's the challenge.
Until the local government decides when or if
to dig up whatever is down there,
the police are keeping people out, but that doesn't stop us.
These guys know other ways to get underground here.
All right. Well, let's go check it out.
Inside these tunnels,
investigators have found guard stations,
Nazi helmets and even weapons.
There's no telling what we'll find as we head
into this newly discovered
and as-yet-unexplored section of the tunnel.
GATES: This is not a tunnel. This is a hole.
Just try to not touch the walls
because, on the entrance, it can...
-Fall and kill you? -Yeah.
Got it. Okay. Got it.
GATES: Very few people know about this hole.
I doubt many folks would attempt to go down here anyway.
It's a tight and very unpleasant squeeze.
Oh, lots of spiders.
♪♪
Wow.
♪♪
We're not here long before we realize how deteriorated
and unsafe these passages have become.
Oh, no.
Whoa.
Oh, my lord.
♪♪
GATES: I'm in Poland about to venture into crumbling
World War II tunnels to determine
if the rumor of a trainload of Nazi gold
buried here is fact or fiction.
One thing that's definitely a fact?
These tunnels are not safe.
Oh, no.
Whoa.
Oh, my lord.
♪♪
Just absolutely flaking apart,
and that's what was holding up the ceiling.
Do you think it's safe?
Middle safe, maybe.
Let's say. -Middle safe.
♪♪
GATES: We carefully trek forward,
despite a tiny voice in the back of my head
that's screaming at me to get out of here,
but we've come too far to stop now.
Oh, God.
And I have to find out what's here.
♪♪
And then, our search comes to an abrupt halt.
It looks flooded out.
There's no gold train in sight,
but maybe there are still other treasures to be found here.
INTERPRETER: For us, these tunnels
are a story that needs to be told.
We have tools used by workers
and hundreds of other artifacts from the war.
These things may not be valuable in terms of money,
but it's really valuable in terms of history.
Right.
I know everybody is so excited about this golden train,
which may or may not even be there.
-Mm-hmm. -But this is the real deal.
It is very important stuff.
It's great work, yeah.
Okay, boys. Let's head for the surface.
♪♪
In the time since our visit, the Polish government further
investigated the site and found no evidence
that a gold train is parked underground here.
Whatever might actually be in those tunnels,
it's not a trainload of Nazi gold.
This legend is fiction.
It may have ended up being a bit of a wild goose chase,
but sometimes that's how it goes
when you're hunting down new leads
and deciphering evidence to get to the truth.
That brings me to a legendary treasure in Virginia
that's worth up to $65 million
for whoever finds the key to cracking Beale's codes.
♪♪
The story goes like this.
In the early 1800s in the countryside
near Bedford, Virginia, explorer Thomas Beale
hides a huge amount of gold, silver and jewels.
Then, he creates three encoded documents as a treasure map,
entrusting them to a local innkeeper as he leaves town.
He never returns, and his treasure is never found.
In 1885, a publisher named James Ward
prints the cracked code for one of the documents.
It turns out it's a book code
that uses another piece of writing as a key,
in this case, the Declaration of Independence.
It says that Beale's fortune is hidden in an underground vault.
This treasure hunter thinks he's got a unique key
to finding the gold.
I'm hoping you're Justin. -Yup.
-How are you? -Pretty good.
-Nice to meet you, man. -Nice to meet you.
GATES: In an old iron box from a flea market,
he found a copy of the Declaration of Independence.
Well, I placed a black light on it and discovered
the initial T.J.B., Thomas Jefferson Beale.
Thomas Jefferson Beale, sure.
He thinks it belonged to Beale himself.
Also, I believe the document is a map.
-A map to the treasure? -Yeah.
Do you want to see it? -I'd love to see it, yeah.
You got it? -Sure.
Look at that.
That is the Declaration of Independence.
Yes, sir.
GATES: Justin believes
the ragged top edge of the document is a guide,
ripped in such a way that it will match up with the horizon
and reveal the location where the treasure is hidden.
♪♪
Okay, ready? Here we go.
Justin and I raft down the James River with our guide, Rob.
Rob, is this a pretty common occurrence for you,
a couple of guys with a copy of the Declaration of Independence
out on your raft looking for treasure?
This is a first for us.
He knows we're not sharing it with him, right?
What was that, boys?
Nothing.
Nothing, just paddling forward, sir.
All right.
♪♪
After hours of searching downstream...
I don't know about finding treasure, Justin,
but I have just about memorized the Declaration of Independence.
Justin finally sees what he's been looking for.
The ridge coming down this way.
That actually looks like it works.
-Here, hold it. -Let me see.
Check it out.
Dude, I got to tell you, that, weirdly, matches up.
Let's get...Come.
Let's get a camera behind this to look at this.
That's pretty wild. Look at that.
I mean, I don't want to say I thought you were nuts.
I mean, now I'm starting to feel like
we're about to find a treasure.
Come on. Let's go. -Let's do it.
♪♪
GATES: We trek through the woods looking for signs
of Beale's vault.
Then, we see it.
-Oh, my God. -Holy.
♪♪
-That is a huge cave. -That's incredible.
Yup. That's a vault.
♪♪
GATES: While treasure hunting in Virginia,
we may have just cracked Beale's code.
-Oh, my God. -Holy.
-That is a huge cave. -That's incredible.
GATES: I mean, the paper just says what?
A vault? -A vault.
And it says underground, right?
-Yeah. -That could be a vault.
Yup. That's a vault.
GATES: I'm pretty excited about the idea
of finding $65 million worth of gold.
Let's do it. I hope that's enough rope.
Excited enough to rappel straight down
into a very dark cave.
-Made it. -All right.
Well, let's see how far back this thing goes, yeah?
Go check it out.
A lot of loose rocks. I got to tell you,
I'm getting more and more confident as we go.
I mean, look at this place.
♪♪
Okay, let's keep moving. -Oh, see something shiny.
-You see something shiny? -Yeah.
GATES: What do you see shining?
That, it looks like the top of a lantern.
Oh, my God. Look at that.
This looks like it's from
one of those old glass oil lamps.
If they were using oil lamps down here,
they were definitely coming through here.
So the question is...
Were they coming through here with an oil lamp
toting a box full of gold?
That is -- That is the question.
We hike further in but hit a wall, literally.
Well, I think it just about peters out here, Justin,
end of the line.
I don't see any other passages or tunnels in here.
JUSTIN: Back to the drawing board.
Yeah.
Of course, now that I've come this far with you,
if you do find it, I get a cut of the treasure, right?
Yeah, I might give you a little something, something.
It's hard to say if the map is a false lead
or if we just haven't found the exact spot it marks yet.
At what point in treasure hunting do we go get a beer?
But maybe the real key to solving the treasure code
is in one of the other two undeciphered
Beale documents.
It's odd that in over 130 years,
no one has ever been able to crack the other two cyphers.
Who better to figure it out than a guy who has literally
made a career out of breaking codes?
I meet with Todd Mateer, a crypt analyst at the NSA.
He's agreed to examine the Beale papers using modern techniques.
What he's found is bizarre.
It seems Beale made a strange mistake, actually, several.
There's about five or six different errors,
but only one of the errors
will throw off the entire message.
So this is a serious problem because the person
that created the message
and the person who recovered the message would have
had to have made the exact same mistakes.
So what's your professional assessment
as a crypt analyst?
I believe it's a hoax.
You believe it's a hoax.
And thereby meaning
that the author of the papers...
Is the same person
as the person who cracked the code.
According to his analysis, it's likely that someone,
maybe the publisher himself, faked the cyphers
and pretended to solve only one of them
in order to cash in on would-be treasure hunters.
♪♪
It was nothing more than a brilliant marketing scam.
It turns out the Beale codes are fiction.
James Ward may have just been a crafty entrepreneur on the make.
Skeptics say that might have been the motivation
behind our next subject, Guillermo Antonio Farini,
who claimed to find an ancient city in the heart of a desert.
But there is some evidence that could back his tall tale,
so I set out to discover once and for all
if the lost city of the Kalahari is fact or fiction.
♪♪
In 1885, Farini, a celebrity circus performer,
goes on a daring expedition into the Kalahari Desert.
When he returns, he begins telling unbelievable stories
about a lost city that he discovered,
complete with stone columns,
ruins, curved walls and even a carved cross.
Farini draws a map showing its location in the desert,
but the map isn't very accurate,
so the lost city has remained, well, lost.
♪♪
I head into the desert
with my new partner in crime, Adam Cruise,
an expert explorer who has a new theory
on the location of the lost city.
Where do you think is the most plausible place
that this city could be?
Let's look at Farini's route where we know he went,
and I think we need to concentrate on areas
that nobody's been to along his route.
So maybe instead of concentrating
in the north area,
let's go a little bit south
and see what we can find over there.
Mm-hmm.
To get a better idea of where to look,
Adam enlists some help from above, a local LIDAR crew.
LIDAR is a laser technology that can scan structures
hidden underneath surface vegetation.
The guys go up covering miles of seemingly empty desert.
♪♪
Once the LIDAR does its job, it's time for the results.
Did the LIDAR turn anything up?
MAN: There was something really interesting
I found just up here.
Ah, now we're talking.
Look at this, Josh.
♪♪
GATES: We're crossing the Kalahari,
following in the footsteps of an explorer
and circus performer named Guillermo Antonio Farini.
We're investigating his claim of finding
a lost city in the desert.
Is it all just part of his act, or is it real?
Is it fact or fiction?
To find out, we're pursuing new evidence found in a LIDAR scan.
Did the LIDAR turn anything up?
MAN: There was something really interesting
I found just up here.
Ah, now we're talking.
Look at this, Josh.
An elliptical shape, okay?
That is wild.
Farini mentioned an elliptical wall,
a circular wall.
That fits this shape over here.
-It totally does. -This is perfect.
-Amazing. -Can you back it up a bit?
-Sure, sure. -I just want to...Whoa.
Stop right there. Look at this.
Farini spoke about the ruins
being at the base of a mountain.
-Right. -Right?
-That's a mountain, right? -That's it, yeah.
This is pretty much what we're looking for.
I don't know if it's a lost city,
but it doesn't look natural.
I think we should go look, Josh.
Yeah.
GATES: Could this be proof that Farini's lost city
is more than fiction?
Now that we've got the coordinates,
we head into the desert.
When we finally arrive at the site,
we behold an amazing find.
Look at that.
CRUISE: Wow.
Huge crescent.
This is it.
This is what we saw on the LIDAR.
It does look like blocks, too.
It's really wild.
It's amazing.
Aye, and look at here, Josh.
Look at this!
♪♪
That's man-made.
That is man-made. Look at that.
This is a wall.
That is a wall.
Signs of civilization, right here.
Absolutely. This could be a hut.
Yeah.
It could be a cattle enclosure.
It's clearly very old. -A couple centuries, at least.
At least a couple of centuries, maybe more.
-Yeah. -Who knows?
What's really crazy is that so much of it
actually matches Farini's description.
This is very good.
♪♪
GATES: We hike further in the sweltering heat
pondering our next steps when, seemingly, out of nowhere,
we spot definite signs of civilization.
Oh, there's people.
-Huh, where? -Yeah, see the guy?
-I know. -Hey.
Hey.
How are you?
Meet Lionel and his friend.
When we explain our mission, they offer to take us to a site
they know of that's a few kilometers away.
-Just climb up, aye? -Yes.
-And we're in. -Yes.
♪♪
This is what we call the Kalahari Ferrari.
I love it.
♪♪
We ride, and then we walk,
and then we spot something startling.
There's something up here.
Yeah, look at this.
That is really weird.
Definitely not natural.
No.
This is totally lined up here.
Yeah, and it's almost like it was...
It's like a piece of road.
...like a floor or a pavement or something.
Yeah, I was gonna say it looks like a piece of road.
It's kind of what Farini described.
Farini wrote about a flat piece of pavement
among crumbled rock structures.
It certainly matches up.
Lionel has one more spot to show us.
Oh, look at this. Josh, look at this.
♪♪
GATES: These -- Wild. These are etchings.
Now, these are etchings, and these are really, really old.
How old do you think these are?
More than a thousand years.
GATES: Later analysis of the etchings show that,
indeed, Lionel was right.
These are at least a thousand years old,
carved by a little-known ancient civilization.
♪♪
Although Farini's map wasn't exact,
and he may have embellished some details of his trip,
there are indications of lost cultures in the Kalahari,
making this story fact.
There's nothing more satisfying than uncovering the truth
behind these legends and myths...
This is a Masamune? -Yes.
GATES: It is beautiful.
...to determine what is ultimately fact...
That is unbelievable.
That's almost a perfect match. -Yes.
...and what it fiction.
I believe it's a hoax.
In the end, all expeditions are a blend of science...
Did the LIDAR turn anything up?
...skepticism....
We have these 90-degree angles here.
I think you might be on to something here.
...and sheer wonder, as in I wonder where we'll go to next?
♪♪