-All right. You ready, Stel? -I'm ready.
The hunt for Atlantis leads us to the coast
...of the Black Sea in Bulgaria.
-I see gold. -Where we're uncovering
...mysterious gold treasure from a lost people.
-Whoa. -Is this the only one?
Only one in the world.
And evidence of an ancient catastrophe.
This area is extremely geologically active.
A massive geological event
...that could be the basis for Noah's flood.
I can't believe what I'm seeing.
And the disappearance of the most legendary lost city of all time.
-It's amazing. -It's like right on the money.
The story of Atlantis is the greatest
...historical mystery of all time.
And nobody can find any evidence for it
...because they're all looking in the wrong era.
I'm Stel Pavlou and I've been obsessed
...with Atlantis my entire life.
Greek philosopher Plato wrote that Atlantis
...was the biggest super power of its age,
but a natural disaster caused it to sink
...beneath the waves in a single day.
Around 9,600 BC.
But I have a new theory that says that date is completely wrong.
You see, ancient Egyptians measure time by using king lists
...that kept track of the years that each pharaoh ruled.
The problem is, often two people would rule at the same time.
Remove those double -counted years,
and suddenly, the timeline shrinks
...to Atlantis disappearing in the 5th millennium BC,
and it changes everything.
-Oh, my God. Amazing. -That's it.
I'm teaming up with geologist and explorer Jess Phoenix.
Oh, yeah.
Together, we're gonna follow the trail of evidence
...to some of the most legendary locations around the world.
This is the most comprehensive search for Atlantis ever.
Whoa.
And we're gonna find it.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
Hey, Stel and Jess take a road trip
...in a really loud **** Russian Jeep. (LAUGHS)
-Warp factor three. Engage. -Oh, my God.
We're heading for the modern port city of Varna, Bulgaria,
along the Black Sea coast.
It's home to a mysterious ancient graveyard full of gold.
But this people's city has never been found.
-Varna gold was 4600 BC, right? -Yeah.
We know there were 300 graves,
a bunch of them have not been excavated,
but we can't find any sign of the town.
And the Varna culture seems to match what Plato
...says about Atlantis, right?
They had gold and other metals,
they were master metal workers.
They had advanced knowledge of geometry.
-So that's what we're gonna go have a look at? -All right.
-Yes. -Let's get there.
All right.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
At the Varna Archaeological Museum,
Professor Hristo Smolenov is giving us special access
...to the gold artifacts from the Varna graves.
-Oh. -I see gold.
Oh, my God.
He certainly went to the afterlife with a lot of stuff,
a lot of really amazing stuff.
Wow. Look at the workmanship.
I've seen Middle Kingdom gold, I've seen King Tut's gold.
And this is absolutely on the same level.
-But this is -Right.
...two and a half thousand years earlier.
-This is 4600 BC. -And look at the bracelet.
Look at how perfect
-Yeah. -...these circles are.
-Hi. -Dr. Smolenov?
-Yes.
Okay, okay. Now, what can you tell us about this?
Well, he's the boss,
he's the king and high priest of his community
...which is responsible for the making
...of the oldest processed gold on earth.
-Wow. -That's incredible.
In this grave alone, there is more gold
...than elsewhere in the world from that period of time.
-Oh, my God. -The people responsible for this
...are also the sublime producers of copper.
One thousand tons of pure copper during...
-A thousand tons? -That's so much.
Thousand tons of pure copper here in Varna.
-The whole region... -That's industrial scale.
Yeah. This is all very advanced-looking to me.
So how does this fit into your hypothesis about Atlantis?
Well, they had to be advanced metal workers.
-Yes. -They had to be warriors.
Right.
It looks calculated, which you would need for
-Yeah. I mean, -...an Atlantean.
-I'm seeing some geometric shapes. -Yes.
All those tiny gold circles
-...are of exactly equal diameters. -Wow.
Geometry meant a lot to those people.
-How do we know that? -Can you show us?
-Show us? -Follow me.
-Over here? -Yes.
This is the famous, symbolic grave number four
...from the Varna necropolis.
There is a gold-plated bowl which is fantastic.
First of all, the design is something very special.
-Then the size and proportions of this are remarkable. -Okay.
But the diameter of this bowl
...is exactly 52.4 centimeters
...which is a match for the royal cubit
...and the sacred measure of ancient Egypt.
That's absolutely the same diameter
-Yeah. -...as a royal cubit in Egypt.
-Absolutely. -But it's way older.
Two thousand years at least.
Two thousand years before the pyramids?
-Absolutely. -Yeah. Okay.
But I want to show you something even more astonishing.
It's a pure gold cast plate.
-Gold, gold, gold. -Yeah. Of fantastic proportions.
You see? Measuring
-One seventy-three. -...here, 173.81.
Look, if we measure it from the other side
-Are you serious? -...and again, yes.
-That is absolutely identical. -It's dead... It's dead on.
It's interesting to me because
...you're talking about sacred geometry.
-Yes. -Plato talks about sacred geometry.
It refers to a specific Atlantean proportion,
-six to five, six to five. -Six out of five.
The diameter between the holes
-Okay. -Uh-huh.
...over the distance between the holes
-...is six to five. -Right.
-And moreover, -Uh-huh.
-Oh, my God. -this diameter
-...over this perpendicular -Uh-huh.
...is 22 over 14.
This is the main proportion of the Great Pyramid.
-Wow. -That's incredible.
Is there another example?
Oh yes. Of course. Look now.
-It looks like a flying saucer. -Wow. Yeah.
-A UFO. -But it is a bioconic bracelet.
Which doesn't seem to have any signs of being welded together.
-Right. Impressive. -It is one piece.
It is fantastic.
Its diameter from the inside
...exactly fits this fantastic cylinder.
-Oh it sits right in there. -Magic.
-That's the diameter of the bracelet. -Exactly the same.
-Wow. -Mind you. Those
...gold masterpieces
...are almost 7000 years old.
When you see 2000 years later,
Egyptians gods and pharaoh
...holding this cylinder like this,
please remember the mother civilisation
...borne by the Black Sea 7000 years before present.
Or maybe even before.
Thank you so much for educating us on this. It's really fascinating.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
This Varna king looks a whole lot like a king of Atlantis.
As great as these artifacts are,
the really interesting part for me is where they were found.
First of all, we have the Bosphorus Strait right here.
This leads in to the Black Sea,
and there are theories that this area
...was the original Pillars of Hercules.
But Plato says that Atlantis was beyond the Pillars of Hercules,
and most importantly, they were destroyed in a flood.
Geologists now know that at some point in the past,
the Black Sea was a freshwater lake.
There was an earthquake that allowed the Mediterranean
...to flow straight into the Black Sea
...changing the coastline.
The original coastline to the western Black Sea is here.
It's about 10 or 20 miles from where it is today.
Nobody has ever found the Varna City.
If the Varna City was hit by this flood,
then their city is somewhere out here.
If we can find the Varna City, then maybe we can find Atlantis.
So next stop is a couple of hundred yards
...off the Black Sea coast.
Wow.
Yes. This is beautiful.
What a great day for a dive.
Local diver Nayden Nedev
...is gonna show us the remains of an ancient settlement
...that he's only just found.
So tell us about what you found out here.
-So we got three shipwrecks. -Wait.
-Yeah. -Wow.
And then we've got a village.
-Yes. -Village is older?
Oh, yes. Layers.
I really hope it's as old as the Varna gold.
-Let's see. Oh, this is fantastic. -Yeah. Let's go do it.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
Oh. Only 30 feet down, and I can't see more than 10 feet.
Getting a little murky.
We got some debris here.
Looks like it's part of a shipwreck.
Stel. Look at this.
What is that?
Looks like an anchor.
So that's at least 500 years old?
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
Looks like we got something, Jess.
On my way.
We found a post hole.
Kind of a wooden post coming out of it.
Jess. This here.
What do you make of this?
Yes. That looks like it was put there on purpose.
It's about the size of the span of my hand.
There's a pretty substantial log driven into the ground here.
So this is part of a structure.
If that's part of the dwelling, then there should be more.
I think I found another one.
This is another post.
Wow. Yeah.
That's definitely a post.
A really old one.
So we've got two so far, they're very close together.
This is fantastic.
Here's another one. Look.
Yeah. They're all over.
This must have been a big settlement.
Okay. Let's go up and try to figure this out.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
(STEL LAUGHS)
That was incredible.
-I lost count of how many post holes we saw. -(LAUGHS)
I know. There were so many.
I mean, some of those post holes were, like,
or the post themselves are, like, that big.
-Yeah. They're huge. -I mean, there's so much activity here.
We have to go find out exactly what we saw
...because it's just a big jumble.
Yeah. We need an archaeologist to go talk to,
to bounce this off of.
South of Varna is the Port of Sozopol
...where preeminent Black Sea archaeologist,
Dr. Kalin Dimitrov operates a research vessel.
Ah, what a nice boat.
-Oh, that is an incredible boat. -Yeah. So excited.
May we come aboard?
-Yes. Welcome. -All right.
We just went diving in a spot that a local diver took us to.
There were some archaeological
...finds on the seabed.
And I need to make
...sense of what we saw.
So is it okay if I show you a video?
Yeah. A bit curious.
I don't understand the context, and maybe you do, but...
So this is what we saw.
This area here,
it looks to me like a post that is sort of driven into the ground,
and there were a few more around,
and I was thinking maybe it was for a dwelling.
Would that be correct?
Prehistoric sites?
What were the ages on the ones that you did actually look at?
-Oh. Okay. Yeah. -So, that's in the ballpark, yeah?
Yeah, it's in the ballpark,
that means what we saw then, if that's the same as the others,
then we're looking at a post that's like
-Yeah. -...6,000 years old?
So whatever they built in these houses on stilts.
So the stilts were an adaptation
...to sea level rise of its happening you think.
I am really curious as to what your thoughts are
...about how rapidly the Black Sea may have risen,
um, if it was all one big event,
if it was a slow process over many years.
-Right. -Okay.
There was flooding but it's
...smaller and more gradual and...
So, no huge catastrophe
...crashing through the Bosphorus,
no, like, world cataclysm, no Noah's flood,
nothing like that?
Well, thank you, Dr. Dimitrov,
for blowing a huge hole in my theory.
Um, Dr. Dimitrov
...said that the freshwater lake that was the Black Sea
...flooded gradually
...over the span of about 200 years
...which is, you know,
all well and good, but it doesn't help me.
Because anyone who's read Plato's story
...knows this happened in 24 hours,
a day and a night, and Atlantis was gone.
It really does come down to this
...unless I can find a catastrophe here
...with hard data to support it,
then
...the hunt for Atlantis in the Black Sea is
...dead in the water.
Dimitrov has thrown a quick spanner in the works.
-Uh. -Yeah. (LAUGHS)
I wasn't sure how you would... You would take that meeting.
It's not kind to that hypothesis of the flood.
So we now know
...that there's no cataclysmic singular,
-Noah's event. -Yeah.
There's not one great big flood.
In a way actually it makes sense what Dimitrov said.
Because Atlantis was first of all, it's a confederation of 10 states.
Okay.
-Groups that worked together -Yeah.
...with Atlantis as the primary hub
...and you can only trade with them
...once the Black Sea is flooded.
-Right, because you need that shipping channel. -So.
Without the Bosphorus being navigable.
So that now makes sense
-...that the flood would have come first. -Yes.
Atlantis comes second and then something else
-...washed out Atlantis. -Something else.
-Afterwards. -Okay. Okay.
Something else is my specialty,
I mean, like the tsunami, the earthquake,
landslide, debris flow, mudslide,
all of these things are connected to earth movement.
All right. So I know I kinda said, "Hey, get in the car, Stel."
Uh, which can be a little bit shady.
All you said was mysterious sand.
-Yeah. And okay. Let me clarify what that meant. -Right.
There is this deposit of sand.
I wanna go check it out.
Because if you find something like that, it can indicate
...there is a tsunami.
You know, there was an event that caused
...a really quick incursion of sand.
...in a place where it shouldn't be.
Or it could just be an ancient shoreline.
We arrive in Budjaka.
Just a few miles north of Sozopol.
-This way. -Okay.
This mysterious sand deposit
...is now surrounded by a housing development.
But what's weird is it's more than a hundred feet above sealevel.
So something really interesting about this site
...is that it actually contained graves of
-...ancient people. We are talking like copper age. -Uh huh.
Burials of humans.
It was kind of like an acropolis.
-So... -4000 or 5000 BC.
-Exactly and -Okay.
...I mean as you can see, this stuff is not hard rock here.
We are looking at sand.
You know, I mean this is
-...pretty standard beach sand right here. -Right.
This is on top of the copper age grave.
Yeah. Several. And they are not exactly sure why that is.
-Huh? -Yeah.
So when we look at how sand gets moved,
it's basically wind or water.
-Those are things that put sand in different places. -Right.
Um, wind. I would expect to see dunes all the place here.
And I just don't find that.
It's only right around here.
-Right. -It's like this kind of
...weird sort of spot where this is giant sand pile.
And it doesn't like anyone's put it here
...intentionally at least not recently.
So water... I mean we'd see more.
If it was like a tsumani, we'd see just so much more sand
...than we actually do.
-So it's not a tsunami. -Right.
It's not wind.
Exactly. And that's the big thing.
I am sitting here trying to go hmm what could have done that.
I mean, is there anything about geology or the rest
...of the region that could explain it?
(SIGHS) Not that comes to mind like really easily.
So this one... I mean I don't know what it is.
And it may be an example of the
...ancient people interacting with the landscape.
But gathering sand here for maybe to bury their dead but
...I mean we don't really know.
So I think we need to go and try to find
...contact clues in the landscape.
From the surrounding area.
-Yeah. Let's get out of here. -All right.
(SIGHS)
So where are we going now?
Well, I've heard from some local folks
...that there's, uh, sort of a geologic anomaly,
we've got possible evidence of a fault
...in a cliff face that is above the current shoreline
...so that's what we need to go look at because it could be,
uh, evidence of something cataclysmic.
Now we are heading 50 miles off the coast from Varna
...Cape Kaliakra.
With the help of a climbing team,
Jess is gonna look up close for fault
...that could have caused the destruction of
...Atlantis around 5000 BC.
So this is what I heard about. You see those layers?
-You see how most of them are horizontal? -Uh-huh.
And you see how some of them look like they're just not,
they're like kinda dipping a little?
-Right. Mmm-hmm. -Maybe a little crunched up?
That could be either something
...that's localized just to this area
...like a small landslide or it could be something that's bigger
...like a regional event like an earthquake.
-Uh huh. -So, I would like to get a closer look,
-so would you want to be my eyes on the ground here and... -Sure.
-Okay. -(LAUGHS)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
This is the lift, this is the brake.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
Here goes nothing.
Here she comes.
All right. We are gonna look at some stuff here.
So, we have some layers and we are seeing deformation.
-All right, Stel, you copy? -I'm here.
Am I at that layer that we initially talked about?
Because I can kinda see that V.
Uh, yeah. The V is like directly to your right.
Okay.
Getting some really nice limestone here,
stuff's really weak.
Also, really bad
...in big earthquakes or landslides.
Oh, yeah, that... Look at that.
To me, this shows us that we're on the right track
...about something bigger
...having an impact in this area, like,
something that would not just mess up the local geology,
but would have regional catastrophic effects.
It just confirms that this area is extremely geologically active.
-I mean, this is great. -That is fantastic news.
Okay. Sounds like we've got what we need,
so, uh, if you get down, and we'll get going.
All right. Well, I'll see you on the ground.
Wow, this is awesome.
So we have clear evidence of seismic activity
...within 50 miles of the Varna gulf.
We still need evidence that earthquakes in this region
...could cause a city to sink into the sea.
But Jess has a lead.
A Bulgarian geology colleague
...asked to meet us just a few miles away
...from Cape Kaliakra at Cape Chirakman.
Professor, thanks for inviting us here.
What is so exciting about this area for you?
-Why we are here -Mmm-hmm.
...is because this is a very active landslide area
...and it was activated very much by the seismic activity
-Mmm-hmm. -...which is generated by a source inside the sea.
-So there's a big fault down there? -Exactly.
How strongly can that fault rupture, what magnitude?
Can generate earthquakes with
...a Richter magnitude about 8.
That's extremely strong.
-Eight? -Yeah.
-Right. -Yeah.
So, that's why we're here, right?
-Because we can see the landslides. -Yeah.
Exactly. They were activated by the seismic activity.
Well, I don't know about you guys,
but I really wanna see this via drone, so.
-Let's do it. -All right.
Wow, a beautiful limestone.
Oh, right there, look at, you can see that.
We've got the curve of the slide.
-And you see where they all detach. -Yeah.
This direction.
It's just landslide after landslide after landslide here.
Oh, yeah, right into the water.
That is massive.
What is the history of activity here?
I mean, is there anything recorded from,
uh, any settlements here?
-That's big. -Strong, yeah, yeah.
That will wake you up.
-When in the past? -Yeah. How long ago?
-So there was a Greek colony here. -Exactly.
There was a huge earthquake and it just slid off into the sea?
How much earlier?b
-Oh. -Oh.
-BC. -Oh, BC.
-All right. -Okay.
Okay. So, that fits the bill, right?
-We needed... -That fits everything.
Yeah, we needed a major cataclysmic event,
that has the strength to wipe out
...a pretty established and accomplished settlement.
Okay. I'm gonna go jump and be all excited.
(LAUGHTER)
Thank you so much.
-Yeah, that's pretty much all the money. -Yeah.
We need to go to Durankulak.
Next stop, Durankulak,
25 miles north of Cape Kaliakra on the Black Sea Coast.
If we can show that Durankulak
...was hit by a devastating earthquake,
and that it's connected to the Varna king,
we may be one step closer to its capital
...and we may be closer than ever to finding Atlantis.
This is actually how I imagine Atlantis would look.
Plato said it was on a fertile plain.
Whoa. Oh, that's so cool.
Wow. This is huge.
It is, it's got little avenues here.
-This is... -It's a proper town.
The excavation at Durankulak is brand new,
and the archeologist leading it,
Dr. Vladimir Slavchev has agreed to let us study the site.
-Hi, nice to meet you. -Thanks for having us.
-Nice to meet you. -Welcome.
-Thanks for, uh, coming. -Let's go now.
I mean, the buildings are like this right angles and
...there's a street layer.
We are standing on the earliest, uh, corner of,
uh, the ancient cities.
So, this is the oldest street corner in Europe?
So is it like Times Square?
Yes or somewhere on the cross land of the Broadway Street.
I need I need a hotdog stand.
(LAUGHTER)
Did you say it's the oldest stone structure,
so how old is that?
About, uh, 4000 to 900 years BC.
-Wow. -Right on target.
-Yeah, yeah. -And this is like Varna culture, is that correct?
Uh-huh.
So everything that we see here
...is the beginning of the civilization,
beginning of the culture as we know it today.
Because I read that, like, street planning like
...this didn't occur till about 3000 BC.
So you just rewrote the history books.
Yes, but, uh...
That's great. I had a question, though.
We're looking for any evidence of catastrophic events like
...earthquakes, or landslides, tsunami, anything like that.
Uh-huh, let me show you.
-Oh, awesome. -Yeah, right.
All right, here we go.
I can't wait to see this.
So, there we are.
-Oh, wow. -It's collapsed.
This... Oh, this is cool.
This is super cool.
We wanted a catastrophe.
-Yeah. -Earthquake.
Yes, you're absolutely right.
-The wall, uh, splitted in two. -Uh-huh.
We can see the falling of the wall in two different directions.
You can split the wall only when you have a shake.
It's the way the waves move
...through the surface layer of the ground,
you get side-to-side and you get wavy and so
-Absolutely. -...that would do this.
Absolutely.
This is substantial stones as well.
-Yeah. -That could be a real good shake here.
There's nobody under them, right?
-We don't know but we will see. -That we don't know yet?
Okay. No, seriously, what happened to the people?
And because of the earthquake,
everything here fell down, it was damaged
...and fire starts, and because of this fire,
everything was left on the same places that it was.
Oh, because it was such a quick evacuation?
When did this happen?
It happened a little bit earlier than the middle
...of the 5th millennium BC.
So what kind of date?
-4600 years BC. -4650?
-I mean that's like -That's amazing.
...right on the money.
How did you guys find that out?
Because of the study of the samples of,
uh, wheat that we found there.
And, uh, radiocarbon dates
-...that we found in there. -Radiocarbon date.
Okay. Now I can get excited because that is hard data.
-That is... -Like, that's awesome.
Dr. Slavchev's team is digging up evidence
...of a highly advanced society at Durankulak,
a place where the Varna king could've lived.
One house contains an oven used for smelting copper and gold,
another find suggest they had priests or kings.
For the very first time in human history,
we have the first chiefs.
All right.
-What? -So looks like coffee grounds.
-Oh yeah. -These are the seeds of wheat.
So those are ancient wheat grains?
-This is where you get the carbon-14 dating. -Look at that.
-Yeah. -Absolutely. So this is the proof first of all.
Of agriculture second of all.
Of radiocarbon dating that we know already come from there.
And third of all, as you see,
a bit charcoal.
-Yeah. -Yeah. Yeah.
-Yeah. -Because of the fire.
-Carbon. -Right.
-Okay. -So that you dated to 4600 BC.
Absolutely. And you ask why we are sure?
These people left the houses
-...so quickly. -Yeah.
-So not only because of the fire, -Yeah.
-Okay. -but...
-This is a pin for tattoo. -Okay.
It's a tattoo needle.
-Oh, yikes. -Yes.
I have tattoos and that looks a little bit...
That looks a little more unpleasant but wow.
So that was for making the ink?
So, is that the color itself still?
-Yes. Absolutely. -So like a red ochre.
So they, like, wiped it on there to pick up the ink?
-Absolutely. -Wow.
Ancient tattooing.
The tattoo is a symbol also of, uh, social ranking,
this is something that is very special.
They're building houses, they're building streets,
and they're getting tattoos.
That's a... That's an advanced society.
If you're getting tattoos, right?
Yeah. Tats are pretty advanced.
Okay. So I really need to just take a minute and, like,
organize all of the different pieces of this puzzle.
We have a settlement that was destroyed
...by an earthquake and fire
...at around 4650 BC.
-Right. -Okay.
There were lots of people here, you had Varna.
-Right, exactly. -They had metal workings
...so they were highly advanced,
I mean, these are straight,
-Yeah. -you know, 90-degree walls.
To my mind, the geology actually
-...works for this spot, so. -Yeah.
Yeah. It was this What's now a lake was a...
-Was a river but then -Mmm-hmm.
...then it flooded and became an island
...and there's a really fertile plain,
all around and then on top of that,
-we're only about two miles from the sea. -I know.
-You could see it from here. -I mean, it's...
It checks so many of the boxes and it is really,
really close.
-But having said all of that and how so close we are, -Yeah.
there's one big key problem,
can you figure it out?
Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I think I can.
We're too far above the sea level.
-We're not underwater. -Exactly. So people...
There's a bit of a problem there.
The real Atlantis is gonna be something like this.
Yes.
-But out to sea. -But further that way.
Okay. It feels like we're on the right track.
The only thing we're missing,
we're not underwater.
What Plato described is a river that comes down
...through the mountains to a fertile plain behind the city.
In ancient times, the Danube came down to this point
...east of Varna.
And I think if we look in this area,
we've got a really good shot at finding Atlantis
...but there are two major problems.
The first one is this area is massive
...and the second problem is, is that the Danube
...could well have silted over anything that remains
...of the original settlement.
So we need a really large boat that can scan the sea floor,
and it also needs to be able to take core samples.
If we're gonna find Atlantis,
we're gonna need a bigger boat.
We found an ancient city on the Black Sea coast
...that was once home to one of the most
...advanced societies on Earth.
Wow. This is huge.
It was abandoned after a massive earthquake
...around 4650 BC.
We wanted a catastrophe.
Exactly when I believe Atlantis was destroyed.
The only problem, it's above water.
-Ahoy. -Oh, hello.
-Permission to come aboard. -Come aboard.
So we're heading out on a specially designed research boat.
Konstantin Chterev is a geologist and the founder
...of the Black Sea Research Fund.
His passion is the same as ours
...to find the lost city on the seabed.
-We just came from Durankulak. -Yeah.
And we're starting to think, uh,
there were more settlements further out to sea.
So it is, uh, difficult
...to search for a submerged, uh,
-settlement right now in the Black Sea. -Okay.
Because the Black Sea is very muddy,
it's, uh, the sediments are salty,
even you have a settlement,
you'll not be able to see anything.
So, uh, what we do is do... We do corralling.
-Okay. -And we try and we hope
...to find in the coral remains of human activities.
So how does corralling work?
Well, corralling works, uh,
you have a steel tube and you put the tube on the seabed
...but the area we are interested in is,
uh, very hard, you're looking out for rocks and sand.
-Yes. -And shells. So you need a fiber core.
You need something that actually hammers the tube down.
-Okay. -Awesome.
-All right. -I'm so excited.
Konstantin heads to a site about half a mile out to sea
...at a high point on the ancient shoreline,
an ideal spot for a city like Atlantis.
This is our boat here.
We're very close to the point where we wanna drill
...because this is sort of a high ground.
-Uh-huh. -Underwater.
Obviously we are looking for something like that.
-Right. -A high ground
...then the normal surrounding seabed.
So we're right on top of it?
-Yeah. -Okay.
So we will anchor and we'll start pouring.
Let's get on it.
-Let's get on it. -All right.
(FOREIGN DIALOGUE)
We're trying to clear the fan tail
...because it keeps hitting the back of the boat.
And the waves, the way they are,
we just keep bobbing up and down and it keeps slamming back.
So hopefully in a minute they can get it clear
...and then they can drop it down.
So we are setting the frequency for 50 hertz
...and the test one was fine.
So we are ready.
-All right. Let's do it. -Let's do it.
All right. Let's get some core.
They're going. They got it.
-Yay. -Good job.
So it's going down about 15 meters which,
uh, in American is, uh, about 50 feet.
Cables.
Stop.
Okay.
Now you can start operating the machine.
-All right. You ready, Stel? -I'm ready.
All right. It's 50.00.
-Okay. -All looks good, here we go.
(INDISTINCT DIALOGUE)
There we go. Yeah.
-It just made a little noise. -Okay.
-Yeah. -Five minutes to go.
We're looking for fragments of pottery,
or any other evidence that people lived on this site
...which would've been on the ancient coast in 5000 BC.
Four and a half minutes.
So 30 seconds left.
-Right. -We're almost there.
Five, four, three, two, one. Stop.
And stop.
Okay.
We need some help.
Stay clear. Stay clear. Yeah.
-I think the mouth's... -Ready?
All right. Let's go.
All right.
Whoa.
Okay.
Oh, look at that, little fragments.
-Shells. -Yeah. Yeah. Shells, shells, and more shells.
And, uh, no gold.
Yeah, no gold, no pottery fragments
-...that we could see. -And no pottery.
-No pottery. -Yeah,
-unfortunately. -But, Unfortunately, yeah.
Yeah.
-Yeah. -The shells are pretty.
Yeah, but look at the... Look at the actual sand.
Welcome to Atlantis.
Over the next hour, we send the rig back down twice more
...probing other parts of this ancient hilltop.
-Off you go. -There we go.
This is what we've got.
-Yeah. I mean, hey, science is a process. -And this is...
-It is a process. It's a process. -Yeah.
-This time we didn't have, uh, enough luck. -Sorry.
Sorry about this.
-Uh, we'll leave it here. -Yeah, leave that there.
That was, uh, anticlimactic.
Yeah. I mean we'd get something better but hopefully we can,
you know, find some more clues that will help us
-...keep going forward with this. -Yeah. Yeah. It's, um, I mean,
there is so much out there.
As the sun sets on the last day of our investigation in Bulgaria,
Konstantin gets a tip from a colleague
...about an incredible artifact
...he's just pulled off the Black Sea floor.
Dr. Georgiev.
-Hi, Stel and Jess. -Yes.
Welcome.
All of these were found off the coast here?
Yes. But here is the very, uh, strange artifact.
Holy cow.
That's an oxide ingot.
This is the mix of metals.
-Uh-huh. -Gold, and silver, and copper.
Wow.
This is the pre-coins form of trading.
-So before money? This is pre-money. -Before money.
-This is pre-money. -Pre-money.
Yeah, and it's shaped like, uh, leather.
Is this the only one?
Only one in the... In the world.
This is from here or did this come to here?
-This is from Egypt. -It's Egypt?
-Oh. -Yes, Egyptian.
Ooh. So
The plot thickens.
Well yeah, I mean, we're looking for trade,
-we're looking for trade roots that go -Yeah.
...from this part of the world
...to Egypt and back
...because I'm trying to work out how the story got from
...wherever Atlantis was.
To Egypt, and who is Egypt trading with?
-To Varna? -Yes, I think to the Varna civilization.
Okay. So this is a definite link?
Yeah. This is exciting.
This is a really... This is huge.
That oxide metal ingot really gets me thinking.
It came from Egypt, and Egypt
...is how Plato learned of the story of Atlantis.
So we're looking for these trading connections.
But there's one other thing that Plato talks about.
Atlantis was part of a conglomerate
...of 10 other kingdoms that worked together as a huge empire.
And the thing about this region is
...I think that's what was going on here.
See, look at this.
This is the Balkan Peninsula.
Varna's here, you go further up the Danube,
and the Vinca are there.
They make these incredible metal objects.
They also made some very peculiar fish head statues.
There are all sorts of other settlements,
and cultures in between, but overall,
you have got one large area
...in a huge band from the Black Sea to the Adriatic,
that acts just like the empire that Plato describes.
And the top half of the Adriatic
...used to be above ground
...until around 5000 BC,
and they are pulling extraordinary things out
...of the ocean right off the coast of Croatia.
And this, I really believe,
is where we need to go next.