NARRATOR: The Valley of
Death...
Suicide Forest...
the Mountain of the Dead...
For thousands of years, there
have been places on Earth
believed to be cursed and evil.
And those who chose to ignore
the warnings are said to have
mysteriously disappeared... or
died horrible deaths.
PAUL STONEHILL: The locals
are very reluctant to speak
about what's going on.
They don't want people to go
there.
GEORGE NOORY: There is an
area some people believe
possesses some form of
negative energy.
Almost as if there's a curse.
NARRATOR: But what is it
about these various sites
throughout the world that
makes them so perilous that only
a brave few have ever been
there, and fewer still have
lived to tell the tale of what
they've seen?
BILL BIRNES: This is a
warning to people, don't go to
the place where these
extraterrestrials come and
inhabit 'cause they will destroy
you.
NARRATOR: Millions of
people around the world believe
we have been visited in the past
by extraterrestrial beings.
What if it were true?
Did ancient aliens really help
to shape our history?
And are they responsible for
creating some of the world's
most evil places?
NARRATOR: Yamanashi
Prefecture, Japan.
Here, 60 miles southwest of
Tokyo, at the base of Mount
Fuji, lies the Aokigahara
Forest.
Each year nearly 100
Japanese citizens come to these
lush woods not to hike or
explore, but to commit suicide.
SANTIAGO STELLEY: Just about
anywhere you are in the middle
of Japan you always see
Mount Fuji, it's always in
the distance.
So even when you're approaching
the region, when you're getting
there by train or by car it has
this kind of ominous feeling.
Then when you finally enter the
forest at the base of the
mountain, it's super silent.
It's really quiet.
It's so spooky.
NARRATOR: Known to locals as
"The Suicide Forest," officials
have long ago posted signs
warning those who enter to turn
back and seek help.
AZUSA HAYANO (translated):
There's a car that's been
abandoned for a few months.
I'm assuming the owner of the
car went in from here and never
came out.
I guess they went into the
forest with troubled thoughts.
STELLEY: The Japanese have a
very close-knit relationship
with nature.
I think a lot of people go in
and they're undecided.
And they have the ribbons so
that they can find their way
back.
There's something about it
that's so like appealing and
visually it's such a strong
thing, but then you always know
that at the end of that there's
somebody's bag or there's
somebody's tent, or there's
somebody who spent a lot of time
trying to figure out what to do
with their lives.
They do an annual sweep and they
usually find between
70, 150 bodies.
They find a lot of bodies.
And the number has been
increasing over the years.
NARRATOR: Geologist and
environmental researcher Azusa
Hayano has been studying
this phenomenon for the past 20
years.
HAYANO: Locals don't come
here to commit suicide.
As children, they're told not to
come near here.
They're told it's a scary
forest.
Yes, we did find a skeleton
today.
I think it's about a year or two
old.
It makes me feel sorry for
them, seeing how humans
decompose.
I think it's impossible to die
heroically by committing
suicide.
The overwhelming majority
of suicides are by hanging.
Some people who decide to
kill themselves come here fast
and hang a rope from a tree
then commit suicide quickly.
This is a farewell note written
on May 18 about a year before.
His name is also written here.
He wrote "I came here, because
there is nothing except bad
things in my life until now.
Please do not search for me.
12:45 p.m."
He came in the afternoon.
Leaving a name is a little
bit creepy.
But the dead body should be
around here if the suicide was
only last year.
STELLEY: We actually spent
two days there walking through
the forest, and we did find
everything from places where
people had obviously attempted
to commit suicide or had
thought about committing
suicide.
HAYANO: We accidentally
found this, but it's not a
prank.
They nailed this character
upside down as a symbol of
contempt for society.
No, it's more like a curse.
The curse is nailed in.
I think this person was tortured
by society.
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: There
is no question that according
to tradition, there are places
that over time have become
evil, that there is some
type of a mystique going on
there that is not good nature,
but rather evil.
NARRATOR: According to local
legends, people wishing to end
their lives have been drawn to
Aokigahara Forest for hundreds,
if not thousands, of years.
But why?
What is it about this particular
region of Japan that could
account for this strange, morbid
behavior?
PETER FIEBAG (translated):
Mount Fuji is so named for a
reason.
It is the holy mountain of the
goddess Fuji, who once came to
the Ainu... the original
inhabitants of Japan.
She visited them and brought
knowledge, so it's a place of
deep reverence.
BILL BIRNES: Mount Fuji in
Japan is called a world navel.
It is one of the many places on
planet Earth where according to
legend, the Earth meets the sky,
and where the Earth meets the
sky is known as a heaven's gate.
It is a place where human beings
pass from Earth to the heavens,
and a place where otherworldly
entities, extraterrestrials,
pass from the heavens to
Earth.
People go to Mount
Fuji for the express purpose of
committing suicide to release
themselves from this life to
pass through the axis mundi...
the world navel... into the next
life, into a higher plane.
And that would explain the high
level of suicides at Mount Fuji.
NARRATOR: Like the Bermuda
Triangle off the coast of North
America, Aokigahara Forest is
also said to contain high levels
of electromagnetic energy.
If so, might numerous recent
sightings of UFOs near Mount
Fuji be an indication that some
sort of dimensional time-space
portal might exist here... as
ancient astronaut theorists
believe?
PHILIP IMBROGNO: In many
areas where dimensional portals
may exist, we see magnetic
anomalies.
In various places around the
world, in ancient sacred places
they always show certain types
of magnetic anomalies, either
negative or positive.
PHILIP COPPENS: What we have
are mountains where somehow
the energy seems to be of such
a nature that it transforms
human consciousness and makes it
really impossible for us to
live there.
These are power places where
weird things happen.
And the suicides are not
necessarily related to the fact
that ancient aliens are
potentially there in the past or
that modern UFO phenomena are
happening there in the present.
But it goes to show that these
are powerful places where weird
things happen and where things
out of the ordinary happen in
the past and are happening
today.
NARRATOR: Could there really
be a portal or star gate
through which the souls of the
deceased can journey to a new
dimension?
And might this explain why
people seeking death have been
drawn to this forest for so many
years?
Some researchers and ancient
astronaut theorists believe
such an outrageous idea is
entirely possible.
But further evidence also
suggests that some humans are
not so willing to give up their
lives without a fight.
And that their journey to an
alien dimension may not be a
positive one, after all.
NARRATOR: February, 1959.
A group of nine mountaineers
embark on a winter trek
into Russia's Ural Mountains.
Their destination: a mountain
called Otorten, which in the
local Mansi language means,
"Do not go there."
STONEHILL: Among them were
three experienced engineers:,
the rest were students.
They were all young.
I think the oldest was, like,
37 years old.
They had conducted other hard
treks to the area.
They were all experienced,
strong-willed, determined
people.
(wind whistling)
NARRATOR: On their fourth
night out, bad weather forces
the hikers to camp atop an area
called Kholate Syakhal, which in
Mansi translates to
"The Mountain of the Dead."
STONEHILL: it was a very
inhospitable, very strange,
very, very hard place to be.
Snow, cold, freezing winds,
and very few living
things around.
They decided that they would
spend the night of February 1
in an open area not too far away
from the top of the mountain.
They didn't want to go back to
the forest, one and a half
kilometers, because it would
take them too much time, and
they would lose the day.
NARRATOR: Ten days later
when the nine adventurers fail
to show up at their destination,
military rescue teams search
the area.
They find the hikers' camp
abandoned and a tent that is
badly damaged.
The investigators determine that
the tent has been cut and ripped
open from the inside...
and the hikers appeared to have
fled the area in only socks
or bare feet.
MIKHAIL GERSHTEIN
(translated): This tent had been
cut with knives from the
interior.
It was absolutely obvious that
neither animals nor people had
approached the tent to break in,
meaning that nothing from this
Earth had approached them.
STONEHILL: Something was
pushing them to run away
without taking any clothing with
them, without taking
any supplies.
They were behaving like they
were in a daze, confused.
NARRATOR: The investigators
follow the trail to the edge
of the forest.
But what they eventually find...
is beyond belief.
BIRNES: All nine hikers died.
They were discovered by Soviet
troops in various stages of what
can only be described as being
mutilated.
Their bodies were burned.
Some suffered radiation
poisoning.
In one case, a hiker's tongue
was missing.
They had prematurely aged.
Their skin was orange, their
hair had turned gray.
What could've explained this?
STONEHILL: Three of them had
injuries that could be sustained
when somebody is hit by a
speeding car, except the
injuries were inside.
Their ribs were crushed, like
eggshells.
Some of them entered their
hearts, but there was no effect
on their skin.
It was like a force was
directed at all of them.
GERSHTEIN: An unknown force
had hit the hikers, and it was
very selective in hitting only
the hikers, leaving untouched
the snow, the trees and
everything else around.
NARRATOR: The official
explanation was that the nine
died from hypothermia.
But the chief investigator
refused to sign off on the
report, and instead resigned
from the inquiry.
STONEHILL: When the
investigation was taking place
by the local officials, one of
the people in charge was removed
quite quickly from the very
investigation because he was
very thorough.
And local officials didn't want
this to come out.
GERSHTEIN: The authorities
did their best to cover
the whole thing up.
It was practically forbidden
to mention it.
STONEHILL: At the end, the
bodies were buried in zinc
coffins, I believe, so nobody
would see.
But there was enough of the
investigation, enough people
had seen what had been going on
and were amazed at what the
found, including the coloration
of the corpses when they were
found, and other things, that
news broke out.
And this is one of the most
mysterious murder cases in the
former Soviet Union.
I am convinced it was a murder.
But they were not killed by
anything we know.
They were killed by an
unknown force.
NARRATOR: Years later,
members of the search party
spoke out.
According to their testimony,
at the time of the incident,
strange orange spheres or orbs
were seen floating in the sky.
GERSHTEIN: These observations
are from local people who saw
some unidentified flying
objects during the night of the
hikers' deaths.
I think there is a clear
connection.
BIRNES: This is a red flag.
The orbs themselves could've
been a life form, the orbs
themselves could have been
extraterrestrial probes.
STONEHILL: Based on my
research of different parts of
Russia in history, fiery
spheres have been ever present,
including desolate areas
like this.
Locals know they exist.
It's like a part of life.
They don't put too much
attention to them, and they hope
and pray that the fiery spheres
don't bother them, because
throughout the ages, most of the
encounters were peaceful
everywhere.
But once in a while, like here,
something goes very bad.
NARRATOR: But what could have
compelled nine experienced
mountaineers to flee their camp
and run for their lives?
And what strange forces could
have caused such violence
and death?
Could the hikers have been
attacked by something
extraterrestrial, as ancient
astronaut theorists believe?
LMBROGNO: During my research
in my 30-plus years of
investigating UFO sightings in
particular, I've only come
across several cases in which
aliens have actually attacked
people like wild animals.
And some of these creatures had
claws and teeth, and they would
jump on people and scratch 'em,
and create claw marks in them.
But most of the time these
encounters, the aliens or the
creatures just want to get away
from humans.
There's no interaction
whatsoever.
BIRNES: it could've been
inadvertent.
The orbs, in probing the area
where the human beings were,
created collateral damage.
Maybe they didn't mean to harm
human beings.
Maybe it wasn't an attack as
much as the power of these orbs,
the energy was so intense that
human beings were prematurely
aged, irradiated, and suffered
all kinds of lethal biological
symptoms.
LMBROGNO: it's not a
coincidence that UFOs were
reported by these hikers in the
Ural Mountains in the Place of
the Dead, "Do not go there," or
so on 'cause I believe that
many UFO sightings come in
here from a parallel reality,
and they come through portals.
And this area may be
a hot portal.
NARRATOR: According to
ancient Mansi legend, the
Mountain of the Dead, where the
nine hikers' mutilated bodies
were found, was named after a
similar incident in which nine
Mansi men were also found dead
while seeking salvation from a
flood during ancient times.
But is it really possible that
the Mansi... and the doomed
expedition... were attacked and
killed by otherworldly forces?
Perhaps further evidence can be
found deep underground...
not in the Russian wilderness,
but half a hemisphere away
on an Australian mountaintop.
NARRATOR: The continent of
Australia.
16 miles south of Cooktown
near the northeastern coastline
sits one of the world's most
mysterious and menacing geologic
features... Black Mountain.
Standing nearly 1,400 feet high,
the mountain consists of
enormous black granite boulders
piled precariously one on top of
the other.
Called, "Kalkajaka" or
"Mountain of Death" by the local
Aborigines, Black Mountain...
with its numerous dark
passageways and caverns... is
considered a cursed and evil
place.
RACHEL FRIDAY: What the old
people told us when me and
my brother, Sam, when we were
growing up, not to go into the
mountains.
We wanted to go and have a look
into the mountains to see if
there was a cave where you could
walk in.
But they said no, if you do go
in, you-you won't come back.
IVAN MACKERLE (translated):
Black Mountain is the most
fearful place in the north
Queensland area of Australia.
The local residents fear to go
there, because many people have
disappeared, as if the Earth
or the mountain itself swallowed
them up.
NARRATOR: The first
documented disappearance
involving European settlers
occurred in 1877, when a rancher
searching for a lost bull
near the mountain was reported
missing.
Since then, there have been
numerous stories of people,
horses and even herds of cattle
disappearing into the labyrinth
of rocks... never to be seen
again.
Local police and trackers
looking for the missing have
also vanished.
And pilots flying over the
mountain have reported strange
occurrences.
JONATHAN YOUNG: Pilots
flying over the Black
Mountains have commented that
there is unusual turbulence.
Of course they have magnetic
problems, they have navigational
problems.
They've heard loud noises,
cracking noises, explosive
noises.
They've heard sort of mournful
moaning sounds.
So this is a very strange area.
MACKERLE: Some UFO-ologists
in Australia say that this is
the entrance to an underground
empire, inhabited by an
unearthly race of lizard
creatures and evil monsters.
The Aborigines don't call them
aliens, they call them demons
or spirits.
YOUNG: The Tales of the
Rainbow Serpent are among the
most important of the Aboriginal
lore in Australia.
It can be a punisher of those
who are out of line.
It sometimes swallows people.
It can bring chaos and
destruction.
So it's a very awesome force.
MARILYN WALLACE: The Rainbow
Serpent is a creator for us.
And it was told by our people
that the Rainbow Serpent
created everything for us.
It's a giver of life for us.
And this boulder rock here,
Kalkajaka, is very important
because the Rainbow Serpent
lives in the mountains here.
FRIDAY: The Rainbow Serpent...
I believe if you disturb her or
do something wrong that you're
not supposed to, I feel that's
when she turns against you.
NARRATOR: To ward off any
evil forces from the mountain,
the Aboriginal people perform a
sacred warming and smoking
ceremony.
WALLACE: The warming and
smoking is for us to introduce
people on our country.
And it's also significant to let
the spirit know that we're
bringing somebody to come and
visit.
So the Rainbow Serpent that
lives here, he smells us and
he knows the tribal people
from here.
MACKERLE: We went there to
look for all the mysteries
connected to this area.
And because this was a very
abnormal place, where people
are disappearing, we wanted to
find an explanation.
So we entered this mountain and
there was a labyrinth of holes.
So we used rope in order not
to lose our way.
And when we came into the middle
of the mountain, we could go up,
or down, or to the sides, but
each time our path was blocked
with sand and rocks, and we
could not continue.
It's difficult to say if there
are any chambers or vaults with
any monsters, or a gateway into
a different time.
NARRATOR: Although mainstream
scientists believe the strange
disappearances at Black Mountain
are most likely due to the
area's unique and dangerous
terrain, ancient astronaut
theorists have another, more
otherworldly, explanation.
TSOUKALOS: The moment I
hear about giant snakes and
serpents, my mind immediately
goes to all the other
cultures around the world that
talk about similar imagery.
In the Hindu world, for example,
we have the stories about flying
serpents, just like we have the
similar stories in South America
with Kukulkan and Quetzalcoatl,
this winged serpent flying
around in the sky which also
were described as having been
enormous in size.
So the Rainbow Serpent at Black
Mountain, was that really a
biological entity?
Or was it some type of an
extraterrestrial flying machine,
a machine that when people came
too close to it they fell ill or
died because of the fumes or
radioactivity?
NARRATOR: Might the
Australian Rainbow Serpent
really have been some sort of an
ancient alien spacecraft...
guarding Black Mountain from
intruders?
If so, what might it have been
protecting?
In 1872, an expedition led by
William Hann discovered gold in
the nearby Palmer River.
Within 20 years, 55 tons of gold
had been removed.
ERICH VON DANIKEN: Gold was
important to every society,
throughout centuries
until today.
Gold does not rust.
Gold cannot be disturbed, except
you melt it, etcetera.
Gold is very, very important.
Gold shines wonderful.
In antiquity, the
extraterrestrials, the gods,
they asked human for gold.
Humans had to produce in gold
mines, gold and make offerings
to the god.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that
Black Mountain is not a natural
geologic formation, but was
constructed to hide debris from
an ancient mining operation?
BIRNES: This could have been
a place where thousands of years
ago, ancient aliens might've
landed.
And the radiation deep inside
the Earth is so intense, that
people are dying from
radiation poisoning.
And that might well explain why
the Black Mountain in the
Outback in Australia is
considered an evil place.
FRIDAY: I really believe that
it should be really left alone.
Because they are real.
They do exist.
And I feel that it should be
left alone.
NARRATOR: if extraterrestrial
visitors really did leave behind
high concentrations of alien
contaminants at Black
Mountain, wouldn't there be
other, presumably more
conclusive, examples?
Perhaps there are.
And one of them is believed to
be located deep inside Siberia,
in an area known as "The Valley
of Death."
NARRATOR: Yakutia, Russia.
This vast region in
north-central Siberia is one of
the most remote and least
explored in the world.
Here, deep within the dense
forests and thick marshlands
along the Vilyuy River
is an area many refer to
as "The Valley of Death".
LMBROGNO: The Valley of Death
in Siberia is a place where
local people will not venture
because they say no one comes
out alive.
STONEHILL: The locals are
very reluctant to speak about
what's going on and
they don't want people
to go there.
BIRNES: it's an area of such
quote, unquote "evil" that the
people who live there, the
Yakutsk tribe, describe it as a
place that's almost
uninhabitable.
(eerie whispering voices)
NARRATOR: In 1854, geographer
and natural scientist Richard
Karl Maak was appointed by the
Russian Geographical Society to
lead a scientific expedition
into the dreaded Vilyuy River
basin.
In his journal, Maak wrote of
several large and mysterious
metallic objects that the local
hunters referred to as
"cauldrons."
MACKERLE (translated):
These pictures illustrate what
people claimed the cauldrons had
looked like.
The first picture shows a
cauldron upside down with an
open entrance where even a man
on his reindeer can enter it.
The second one shows another
cauldron with some side
supports.
NARRATOR: The existence of
the metal structures was
confirmed on three separate
occasions between 1933 and 1947
by Mikhail Koretsky of
Vladivostok who had traveled to
the Valley of Death to pan
for gold.
He claimed to have seen seven
dome-shaped cauldrons, each
measuring 20 to 30 feet in
diameter, with odd and
unnatural vegetation growing
around them.
STONEHILL: Some of the
people later reported loss of
hair, strange sickness affecting
them, strange condition of the
skin that would never go away.
NARRATOR: But what could
explain such a toxic reaction?
And where might the dangerous
cauldrons have come from?
In search of answers, UFO
researcher lvan Mackerle
and a team of scientists
traveled to the Valley
of Death to try and locate
the strange metal objects.
MACKERLE: I didn't know if
it was just a legend or if it
was real, so I wanted first of
all to find this place and
investigate it to make up my
own opinion.
NARRATOR: Using a
motor-assisted parachute to
search the expansive valley, the
researchers eventually spotted
an odd circular pattern in a
marshland.
When the team explored on foot,
they found the ground under the
strange marsh area to be very
unusual.
(thudding)
MACKERLE: it sounded metallic
and hollow, so we thought that
we found the sunken cauldrons.
Then we found another
place like it...
and even a third that had
higher magnetic variations.
All seemed like evidence
of caldrons sunken into
the earth.
(speaking Russian)
NARRATOR: But before they
could explore the site any
further, members of the
exploration suddenly began to
complain of strange, even
bizarre, symptoms similar to
those described in local
legends.
MACKERLE: I felt very dizzy
all of a sudden, lost my
balance, threw up and had
a fever.
And I didn't know why.
I could not walk.
I was losing sight.
I could not drink or swallow,
and the pupils in my eyes were
dilating fast.
So I thought maybe I got some
poisoning.
When I came home, I had a
thorough checkup and the doctors
couldn't find any reason for
my illness.
NARRATOR: Had the explorers
actually found the location of
the metal cauldrons?
And what was the cause of
Mackerle's strange and sudden
symptoms?
Could it have been from some
sort of radiation deep beneath
the ground?
According to local Yakutia
legends, the metal cauldrons
were part of a powerful weapon
left behind after a great battle
between extraterrestrial beings.
MACKERLE: According to old
legends, there was an epic
battle between the forest demons
named Niurgun Bootur and
Tong Duurai.
During the battle, fireballs
were shooting up from the Earth.
There was a horrible sound, and
all the forest area was
destroyed, trees were upside
down and rocks smashed.
STONEHILL: And when
everything cleared out, the
locals found a vertical
structure that stayed there
for a while, until it sunk into
the permafrost.
The Valley of Death is said to
contain strange objects
embedded in the permafrost that
are activated through the ages,
through the centuries, and
basically shoot out fiery
objects that intercept incoming
objects that are out to harm
the planet.
CHILDRESS: The local people
there say it is some kind ofle
alien underground installation
that comes active, and will
shoot comets or meteors or
aerial craft that are in
the area.
And, in fact, this may
have been what caused the
Tunguska explosion.
COPPENS: Approximately a
century ago, relatively nearby
the Valley of Death, we had a
very enigmatic event happening,
the so-called Tunguska
explosion.
An explosion of such
extraordinary mass and
extraordinary impact that it
wiped out almost an entire area
of Siberia.
TSOUKALOS: it was some type
of an explosion that happened in
midair above the ground
at Tunguska.
So is it possible that a weapon
was deployed, maybe?
The only way that such a thing
is in fact possible is if
extraterrestrials had their
hands in it.
Our ancestors could never have
built a defense system
like that.
So if such a defense system
really existed, then it would
have had to have been 100%
extraterrestrial in origin.
COPPENS: This is such an
extraordinary story, that really
we have to wonder whether it
could potentially be real.
If it is real, then we are
really confronted with evidence
that at some point in the past,
something was going on on this
planet which is really ancient
aliens in its most physical form
with ancient remains which could
still be seen there.
NARRATOR: Might the so-called
"Valley of Death" really be the
site of an underground
radioactive defense system, as
ancient astronaut theorists
believe?
And might this help to explain
the numerous accounts of
sickness and death arising from
that region of Siberia?
Perhaps further evidence can be
found deep underground, not in
the Russian wilderness, but
half a hemisphere away...
in the New Mexico desert.
NARRATOR: The Valley of
Death...
Black Mountain...
Suicide Forest...
The Mountain of the Dead...
Just what could be responsible
for the strange and deadly
occurrences at these and other
so-called "evil places"?
NOORY: There are some
cursed places on this planet
that are very strange.
And when you go there, things
can happen to you.
Maybe it was always that way.
But there are just some areas
there that you just don't feel
right.
COPPENS: There's one specific
case in France whereby a very
powerful place which is actually
called Perilous, because it is a
perilous place to go.
It was said that this was a
place where God had been seen.
So what we have here is
something which happened for
generations, and really warned
off the next generation not to
go there.
NOORY: There is an area that
they talk about in Lebanon
called Baalbek.
It's reported to be a landing
site for extraterrestrials.
Some people also believe
it possesses some form of
negative energy.
Almost as if there's a curse.
You can feel it.
It looms over you if you're out
there.
There are some areas on this
planet that seem to have an
increase in radioactivity.
What caused that?
What happened?
Was there an explosion?
Was there something from outer
space?
Was there some kind of a craft
that landed that creates
radioactivity?
Who knows?
But these are areas that we
human beings ought not go.
CHILDRESS: There seem to be
certain areas around the world
where there have been some
kind of nuclear conflict, or
radiation weapons used,
or that are some kind of
dumping ground for radioactive
waste.
You have places like
Mohenjo-Daro in Pakistan, where
certain skeletons are
radioactive.
You have got areas of
southwest Egypt that are sheets
of glass, as if from some
nuclear explosion.
VON DANIKEN: In ancient lndia
you have wars between gigantic
tribes, sometimes the gods... the
so-called extraterrestrials...
interfere.
And you can read definitely,
in the Mahabharata that
gigantic armies are killed.
You have some atomic bomb, or
something like atomic bomb,
because it is described that the
sun went up shining brighter
than the normal sun.
It was a gigantic lightning.
Then they describe in a circle
of about 20 kilometer everything
was dead.
And the ones who survived had
all kind of new sickness
which were never seen before.
Like the teeth falling out.
Today we call these kind of
sickness radiation sickness.
COPPENS: In a number of
occasions, you will probably
find that an evil place is a
very dangerous place because
what is happening there might be
the remnants of some kind of
ancient technology which was in
operation there.
We know that, for example, in
the mountains of Libya, there
are actually places where
uranium was mined 8,000 years
ago.
And in those places, clearly it
is an evil place.
It should be avoided at all
costs.
NARRATOR: Might
radioactivity, or some other
unknown type of energy left
behind by extraterrestrial
visitors, really be the cause
of Earth's existing "evil
places," as ancient astronaut
theorists believe?
Eddy County, New Mexico.
The Waste isolation Pilot Plant.
Here, since 1999, the United
States Department of Energy has
been storing radioactive and
nuclear waste inside a salt mine
more than 2,000 feet
underground.
Computer projections estimate
that the walls and ceiling of
this "geologic lockbox" will
collapse and entomb the toxic
refuse in about 1,000 years.
CHRISTOPHER BUSBY: There
have been all sorts of
calculations about... well, it
can stay there forever and this
sort of rock strata is quite
safe and, you know, it's
geologically faultless and so
forth.
But over the kind of life span
of these substances, the
half-life of uranium is 4.5
billion years, and
plutonium is 25,000 years.
So in 50,000 years still half of
the plutonium will be there.
And there's no way over that
period of time that this stuff
won't become a very, very
serious hazard for the human
race.
NARRATOR: But what if a
nuclear waste disposal site
becomes compromised hundreds if
not thousands of years from
now, and toxic radiation leaks
into the surrounding environment
causing serious illness and
even death?
Might future generations of
humans also consider these
deadly sites to be cursed or
evil as a result?
Are the Earth's so-called "evil
places" really evidence of
extraterrestrial activity
thousands of years ago?
Could they be a type of
intergalactic "no trespassing"
sign, intended to protect us,
to frighten us, or to keep us
from discovering the truth
about our origins?
Or, perhaps, prepare us for our
future?
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