Yeah. Alright. Let's go.
STEL PAVLOU Our hunt for Atlantis takes us
to Croatia on the Adriatic Sea.
Croatia is just completely untouched.
Where mysterious prehistoric highways,
sunk beneath the waves, lead us to relics lost 8,000 years.
The design on that, it's amazing.
And to a network of sinkholes... Wow!
It's taller than the Empire State building.
This is not a normal sinkhole.
..bit enough to swallow an ancient city whole.
It's not stable at all.
Oh, god.
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 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 9600 BC.
But I have a new theory that says that date is completely wrong.
I believe the real date is 5,000 years later.
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.
Plato describes Atlantis as being a huge empire
made up of ten kingdoms.
And sandwiched between the Black Sea and the Adriatic,
we have the Balkan Peninsula
which was filled with societies acting as one at my timeline.
So, if Atlantis isn't here in the Black Sea,
maybe it's here off the coast of Croatia.
Thousands of years ago when the sea level was much lower,
the Strait of Otranto
which leads into the Adriatic was much narrower
with imposing mountains on either side
and could easily have been
the original Pillars of Hercules that Plato spoke about.
Croatia has more hidden prehistoric sites
than anywhere else in Europe
and if we're on the right track, the next big one might be Atlantis.
Jess and I are heading to the island of Korcula
off the central coast of Croatia
to investigate some new archaeological findings
at the Vela Spila cave.
People have been using this cave for most of the past 20,000 years.
If Atlantis was from around here,
we need evidence from my time period around 5000 BC.
Oh, my god, this trench is magnificent.
That's a lot of dirt.
I mean, this is going back tens of thousands of years.
I mean, that's like a calendar.
It's like date, date, date, date, date.
I just wanna know what the dates are.
Well, let's go closer.
Hello.
Dinko, how are you?
I'm good, excellent.
Dinko Radic is the lead archaeologist
overseeing excavations at Vela Spila.
What are you working on?
Cleaning profile.
Wow, what are the dates on these?
About four before ---,
five, six and between six and eight.
Oh, yeah... Oh, wow, so...
..this goes back quite a ways.
..that's the area I'm interested in, 5000.
But then you've got all the way down to...
These about 6000 Before ---.
What time do you start seeing artwork or pottery or any,
anything where they're creative.
I have something very special.
Not only on island of Korcula but in Europe.
Something unique.
I like that word. Unique in a... Europe unique.
In the world, really. Oh, really?
Yes. Unique in the whole world.
OK, this is cool. OK.
This is really exciting.
Look.
This is made by clay.
Oh. It's beautiful.
So, someone put little holes in it?
Yes. And how old is this.
About 12000 year Before ---.
12000 BC. Yes. Yes.
They didn't... not supposed to be using clay
for a few more thousand years.
So... So, this is really special.
This is really... That's...
that's in the wrong period.
I show you another one.
There's more? Yes.
We found about 40 pieces.
40 pieces? Yes.
But I think this one is the most important.
OK. You can see animal body.
It has a little head.
Wow! Can I... can I touch it?
Is it... Yes. But carefully.
Very, very carefully. Oh, my...
OK.
This is...
To you.
..amazing. I have palm there.
I'm not touching the leg...
the leg is very delicate. This is my hand.
My hand... Holy... Whoa!
That is unbelievable.
I'm trying to wrap my brain around this.
I'm gonna give this back to you before I...
uh, well, actually no, I'll take it with me.
No. Do not take it.
Put it back.
There you go. OK, guys.
You gotta tell me, 'cause I do rocks not human stuff.
Right, right.
Why is it so interesting that it's that old?
Because it's pottery.
No-one does it till 6000 BC.
This really does change everything. So, this...
So, these people were like highly, highly
advanced thinkers.
Six thousand years earlier than they're supposed to be.
This just rewrote history right here in his hand.
That's... that's how important that is.
Can I see that one more time?
Wow.
I mean, that's just...
They're thinking way ahead of anybody else
and by my timeline, 5000 BC,
just imagine what they could've been doing.
So, when we read about Plato saying
there was this very advanced society at this time period,
he's not being wild and crazy.
He is saying, this could realistically happen.
So, he was onto something.
Yeah. Yeah.
I...I mean, this is mind-blowing.
I mean, you...you got anything else up your sleeve?
Yes, I will show you something more amazing.
Come with me. OK.
What have we got here?
This is a burial base. A burial chamber?
Yes. OK.
We found skeletons of four child here.
This is the oldest and unique grave in this part of the world.
How old do you think this is?
7 to 8000 BC.
Oh, that's very old.
OK. That's really old.
And we found one special object
close to one of the grave.
You are geologist,
please tell me something about this stone.
Yep, OK.
This is a volcanic rock.
And not only volcanic, this is gabbro.
This is something that cooled underground.
OK, so, is there a volcano on this island?
No.
Could it have got thrown here from the eruption?
No, 'cause it doesn't come out of the ground,
it cools underground.
So, where did it come from?
Well, somebody brought it here.
Well, how far away is the closest source?
I know, that there is a small island with gabbro stone.
So, it's, so the... How far...
how far away is that from here?
45, 50 miles.
Sea miles.
So, OK. OK.
Wait... Yeah. There's evidence of seafaring.
Is this like the earliest evidence of seafaring?
Yes, that is the first evidence,
the earliest, you know, that we have.
And this is before your timeline.
It's 2,000 years earlier
which means,
just think what they were achieving 2,000 years later.
At that time it was normal to sail across the Adriatic.
People bring a lot of things from the opposite side.
So, this was big trading.
Wow.
I'm... I'm a little mind-blown right now.
But thank you very much. Which is good.
This is really cool.
But what I'm also interested in is the settlements
that may be now underwater.
Yes, there is a lot of very interesting settlement
close to the city of Zadar.
Zadar.
Five metres under water.
OK. Thank you so much, Dinko.
This has been amazing.
People here were clearly thousands of years
ahead of their time.
Let's try to find their city.
We head 100 miles north to the Pashman Channel
just off the coast from the city of Zadar
where Dinko connects us with a team of researchers diving this area.
Well... Yeah.
..there's definitely a lot of islands.
There's a lot... I mean, look 'em,
they're like dotted all the way down.
Yeah.
I'm not seeing anything that looks like concentric circles but...
I'm wondering if this was all connected land.
Yeah, well, if the sea level was quite a bit lower then...
that would make sense. Yeah.
Come on, let's get out and meet the underwater researchers.
Hey, how are you doing?
Hello. Hello.
Hey.
We need to confirm that people actually lived here
around your timeframe.
At the end of the Ice Age,
the whole of the north of the Adriatic was land.
I mean... Yeah.
We had a lot of pulses of water coming in.
Yeah, there would've been... A lot of it
would've been just large hills
and this is actually like the perfect area
to have a settlement
because you've got good vantage points.
Our destination is the tiny island called Ricul
where Mate Parica is leading an investigation
of the area's ancient underwater settlements.
So, tell me a bit about this site.
We working on this site six years. OK.
And we find many things.
We find wooden structures.
We find all sorts, stone and wooden structures.
That's interesting. Then we find lots of olive pits.
Like what we spit out...
when we're done eating the olives... Right.
OK. Yes, yes.
And we make radio carbon date directly on a olive pit.
OK. Yeah...
the result was 1400 BC.
OK, yeah, yeah, alright. OK. So, alright.
And is there anything that might be older than that?
The latest thing that we found is connection road...
OK.
..between this island and that island.
But interesting is that this road is at a depth of six metres.
About 18ft. It's much...
It's a lot deeper. Yeah.
Yes, it's much deeper than this...
this Ricul site. So, yeah.
Based on sea level rise, it's gotta be older.
Yes, yes. Yeah, OK.
Oh, that's... that's exciting. OK, alright.
We have a mystery.
You've got olive pits from that row...
Yeah. ..and how do you think...
you're gonna date this older one.
Yeah, we need something else from... to...to get from the other.
I think we should dive and find something.
What...what are you looking for,
do you think would help?
Ah, probably pottery. Pottery.
OK. OK. OK.
Well, shall we try it. Let's go.
Right, come on then. Alright.
If you wind back the clock 7,000 years,
the Adriatic Sea would be around 15ft lower.
So, these two islands would be two high points connected by a road.
Plato said Atlantis had rings of land connected by bridges.
If this road is as old as my timeline for Atlantis
this would be a lot more than coincidence.
Can you show me where the road was in relation
to where we are right now?
This road connecting this island to that island.
Where abouts? Does it comes straight through here?
Straight here. Yeah. OK.
Was it dry land or where they islands?
No. This was dry land...
Huh-huh. OK.
..and right was island. OK.
Oh, so there's road... so it was a bridge?
Yeah. Bridge, yeah. Yeah, OK.
So, that's cool. So, it's a bridge...
see that's really important for me...
because that's what Plato describes.
He describes bridging... Yeah.
..water and land. Oh, there you go.
And I don't know of many places
where that happened in this area.
So, that's totally new for me.
Let's go! Yeah, alright.
OK, let's get in the water.
This is small scooter and it... Scooter?
..go fast because it's a pretty strong current.
OK. Sounds a bit dangerous.
Yes.
In you go.
Let's go. Yeah. Alright.
Off the coast of Zadar, Croatia,
Jess and I are exploring a sunken road that matches
Plato's description of Atlantis.
Our goal is to find an artefact
from when this road was in use
to see if it fits my Atlantis timeline of 5,000 BC.
You're kidding, this current is really strong.
Yeah, it is.
Come to the bottom, it's really strong.
Oh, yeah.
OK, look at this.
This is the road.
You see the stones?
Yeah. This is not natural.
This is a man-made road.
How long is this road?
This road is about 100 metres long.
300 foot-long road.
How wide?
Maybe six metres.
That's a lot.
15 to 20ft. Yeah.
Let's try to find something.
No, that's just a stone.
Jess, look.
I find something.
We're on our way.
Can you see that?
That's amazing.
Look at that! That is really old pottery!
Let's go back to the boat.
That's incredible.
The, design on that is amazing.
I think it is much older than the Bronze Age.
Much older.
Let's take it to the university lab and analyse this.
Oh, get some hard data. Yeah.
Alright. Fantastic.
I really wanna know how old this thing really is.
Oh. Wow!
So, basically you play with jigsaw puzzles all day.
Yes. Wow.
You remember the, this piece? Yeah.
Can I look at it, I got my magnifying lens here.
That's how I'd love to see it.
Oh, yeah, they're... look like they were made by the same tool.
Yes, usually they are using the shells to do that.
That's so cool.
It's really cool.
So, how are we gonna date this?
We will try and find the same, the same pattern.
Excellent. Alright. Cool.
And they've already been dated those samples?
Yeah, yes.
So, we're looking for a little half-moon shapes.
Yeah.
Here we go, here are some examples.
This pottery is around 3000 BC.
OK. OK.
But I think it's not here.
Yeah, this is a different style. There are some good samples.
Even the darker the stuff, no.
Yeah, this is... this is specific encrustation.
Yeah. It's whiting crustacean.
Yeah, it's nothing. It's not the same.
Yeah. OK.
That's very distinctive. Yeah.
OK, this is around five. Ooh, that's pretty.
5000 BC? Yeah. So...
That's 5000 BC, wow. That's 5000...
Look at the pattern! Yes.
Well, that's definitely... definitely different.
It's different, yeah.
That's so intricate. Yeah.
Yes, yes. Very nice... Yeah.
very... Yeah.
Very good. But... Not the same.
Not even close. Not the same.
What about this one here? Not the same.
That one.
This is it!
Yeah, that's the one.
Wait, so how old is this?
How old is this one? Yeah.
This...this pottery is dated with the carbon dates
around 6000 BC.
6000 BC? Yes.
That is amazing.
What's the name of this pottery?
This is compresso pottery.
Does anyone else know about this?
Yes, yes.
Wow!
OK, now, does that make you excited?
'Cause I'm excited. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
OK. But now...
we can date this connecting road.
So, the road is about 6000 BC?
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Can I give you a high five?
That's awesome.
Oh, god, so wow.
So, now we... we have dated the roads
are there any other ruins that
you're aware of underwater that we could go to that
might be around this time?
We need a direction.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
OK. OK.
OK, alright. Underwater.
Just like there, alright. Sounds good.
Thank you for everything. Yeah, thank you very much.
Yeah, yeah. This is amazing.
South we go. Thank you.
Thank you, very much. Bye, Mate.
Bye-bye.
We now have evidence...
of an advanced seafaring culture
that built land bridges
between islands.
This was a thousand years before my timeline for Atlantis.
The lost city they built next
might be south of here
near the modern Croatian city of Split.
So, that's where we go next.
So, we now have ancient civilisation bridges,
rising water levels.
OK, yes.
Yes. But... Yes, but.
I know, you love it when I dump cold water...
all over your enthusiasm. Yes.
But what we don't have is the cataclysm.
We don't have a gigantic catastrophe that is,
you know, civilisation ending.
Yeah. Right. Sea level rise is not fast.
That's what we've going against us...
for sea-level rise. Yeah.
And I don't see any signs of volcanism.
The area does have earthquakes.
I mean, there's periodically
good sized quakes all throughout the Adriatic.
But what I saw when we were diving...
was a lot of limestone. OK.
And in the hills that I'm seeing,
also look like limestone.
Limestone is a relatively...
soft material... OK.
..and it gets eaten away by the ground water.
Oh. So...
you get a series of caverns, caves, underground rivers.
Oh, I see. And the big, big, big thing.
The thing that I'm now super interested in.
Because again, you need a catastrophe.
Yeah.
I am thinking about sinkholes. OK.
Because a sinkhole is something that...
they open up and there is no way to predict
when or where they'll open.
If Atlantis exists... Yeah.
..the people would be living their lives, being happy,
doing their thing and then out of nowhere, boom.
Right.
A giant sinkhole opens up
or even several moderately sized sinkholes...
Yeah.
..and it might not have destroyed
everything they'd ever built,
but it definitely would've taken a big,
significant chunk out of it.
The story talks about Atlantis disappearing in a...
in a day and night. Yeah.
So, it's...it's perfectly plausible
that like a sinkhole opens up...
and takes a section of the city... Yeah.
..and then over the next 24 hours it just expands.
It widens.
And more buildings fall in and everybody's running away
until eventually it's...
it's a much larger sinkhole than originally opened up.
Yeah. And then the whole...
the whole area's gone.
There's a local legend from... OK.
from...from around this area...
and... legend talks... OK.
..about an ancient wealthy city
by the coast that sank.
And I've got the name of it written here.
So, the name of this place was Pelegrin.
I don't know when the legend occurred.
I don't know how long this myth has been passed
from generation to generation.
But I'd really like to talk to somebody local
who can fill me in on more of the details of the myth.
Plato goes to great lengths
to tell us that the story of Atlantis
was passed down generation to generation in oral history.
That's how the story stayed alive for thousands of years.
For instance the aboriginal story
of a fiery meteorite impact in Australia
has been proven to date back 5,000 years.
And that's why I'm really interested in local legends
that may still be alive that aren't known to the wider world.
And so I did some digging
and I found a small town called Omis
and the legend is all about a sunken city.
So, that's where we need to go next.
We track down a local historian
who knows the legend.
Hey.
Hi. Pleased to meet you.
I'm Stel. Hello.
I'm Dominik.
Hello. I'm Jess. Lovely.
I'm glad to see you, yes. Pleased to meet you.
Huh-huh.
OK.
I'm really excited about this story.
OK.
You can't break it.
Did they have a name for this special metal?
Oh, copper mix. Copper...
Wow. That's exciting, though.
That's really exciting.
Plato said that Atlantis was famous for a metal
called Orichalcum or mountain copper.
It's citadel gleamed red with it at the heart of the city.
OK.
Ah, so, it dropped?
Yes, yes, yes.
Sinkhole collapse.
Off the coast, here?
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Nobody ever found it?
So, it's lost? Nobody.
Wow. Wow.
But what about this old fisherman? Yeah.
Did he, did he tell you who told him about the story?
OK. Oh, generational.
Yeah.
Oh, wow! So, it's a really old legend.
This is... I don't think anyone else out of Croatia knows this story.
We need to find out when this collapse happened.
I mean, this could be a legitimate oral history of Atlantis.
Yeah, we need some hard data
from the local geology.
I'm gonna find some climbers.
Climbers? Oh, boy.
So, I did a little bit of research and turns out
Croatia is home to the third largest sinkhole on the planet.
Yeah. Oh.
How... On the plant.
Wow! And...
and right now we're on our way to Red Lake.
We get to look at it and see if that area...
this...this whole area where we're gonna be
is a likely candidate for catastrophic collapse.
Yeah, I... I'm glad you're bring us.
I think that's... I think it's a really smart idea.
Yeah, and it's not too far from the coast.
So, if this happened there it could quite easily have
happened closer to the coast as well.
Look at these limestone cliffs. Look at them!
You're right, the whole place. Yeah.
I mean, it's just limestone...
limestone, limestone. It's just limestone, limestone.
You weren't kidding. Yeah.
So, I mean, for me...
I mean, that's why I... I insisted on taking this drive.
Like, we really need to go and see Red Lake for ourselves.
I...I want you to understand the scale of this...
and...and also for me, right. Right.
Like, I can read about how big it is.
But there's something about going there in person
and then also seeing if there's a way to nail down
the likelihood of it being
civilisation altering.
After the last Ice Age
the sea level steadily rose for 5,000 years
infiltrating the porous limestone rock underground,
even far inland, setting the stage to sinkholes.
Red Lake is just 20 miles inland from Omis.
The question is...
Did these collapses happen close to my timeline for Atlantis?
And that's what Jess is gonna find out
at Red Lake.
Bloody hell! Wow!
This is incredible!
They said it was big but they didn't say it was this big.
How, how... Sinkholes are normal.
This is not a normal sinkhole.
How big is this one?
From the...the top over there
to the very bottom of the water.
It's 1,732ft.
It's nearly 300ft taller than the Empire State building.
How much of its underwater?
Most of it. Oh.
Yeah, we're seeing a really good chunk.
I mean, this is 700ft. Yeah.
But what is beneath the surface is even deeper.
There's like a series of caves and...and waterways...
Oh, wow.
..connecting this sinkhole to other ones in the area.
Oh, so... So, it's not just this.
Oh, so this whole region's got stuff like this?
Yep, the thing is though,
I don't know when this happened.
Right.
So, I need to actually...
to go get samples of the walls of this thing.
'Cause I mean, it may fit your timeline, it may now.
But we won't know until we try. Yeah.
Are you sure about this?
100%.
This is why I called the climbers.
Hey, guys! Hi, guys.
So, glad to meet you here.
Hi. I need your skills.
OK.
I know, the rocks but I need you guys to help
with the actual getting up and down the rocks.
So, what are the main hazards to you guys?
The main hazard here is those loosened rocks...
which go down there. Oh, OK.
So, we have found you the best line here.
Well, I just wanna get a couple of samples
just to try to get a date on this.
So, I need to get up close and personal with it.
So, you will need some gear.
Yeah, I think so. So, let's begin.
If the sample dates to around 5000 BC
we'll have a major cataclysm in my timeline
and a compelling case that the oral history of Pelegrin
could be a memory of Atlantis.
Nice and tight, so it's... Yes. So, now you'll close it.
Yeah. OK, let's see.
How does it feel?
Feels pretty good.
Alright.
Well, time to go get some samples.
Alright.
OK, let's see where we're going.
How stable is this thing?
It's not stable at all.
---. Rock!
Jess, are you OK?
Oh, god!
At Red Lake, near the Croatian coast,
Jess is repelling down what remains of a massive like cataclysm.
The things I do for science.
One of multiple sinkholes in this area,
big enough to swallow a city.
Oh, god.
There's a rock fall going on.
Wow, the rocks are falling into the water.
Oh, I just heard it but I didn't see it.
That's why I have a helmet on.
I'm gonna hurry up.
Yes, please.
There could be another rock fall any minute.
It has a leg! Wow!
We found evidence that and advanced
Atlantis-like civilisation lived along the coast of Croatia
from at least 6000 BC.
What we still need to find is evidence of a catastrophe
that could've destroyed this city around 5000 BC.
Dating the collapse of this sinkhole
could give us the connection we need.
OK, I think I've found
my first location for a sample.
I'm ready, go ahead.
Our way point is gonna be 43 degrees,
27 minutes, 13 seconds.
So, what we have is the coordinates
and then we've gotta figure out
the shielding that would've blocked cosmic rays
going to the cliff face.
We're gonna measure how much cosmic radiation
these rocks have absorbed.
The rock face itself can shield the bombardment
and that's what allows us to figure out
an accurate date for the rock.
So, I understood.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. So, go ahead.
A 141 degrees.
Copy.
72 degree angle.
Copy.
So, right now I'm actually
looking at a fracture in the rocks.
Off to my right there's this slab
that has kinda separated
from the cliff face,
it's vertical and it definitely looks to me
like something that would've happened
because of plates moving around, earthquakes.
That is incredible.
Between the rising water level,
the Karst topography and the seismic activity
we're not only just looking at sinkholes in this region
but gigantic sinkholes.
Is that correct?
I mean, I'm looking at one
but would that be common around here?
I mean, yeah, I know this is the third largest
one in the world
but I was looking in the geology records
and there's like 18 other sinkholes
right in this area
and this type of rock is found all the way up to the coast.
So, you're saying a gigantic sinkhole
that could swallow and entire city?
Yes. It could be.
I mean, this...this would've been
absolutely devastating to ancient people.
Anybody living around here that saw that would've been
talking about that for generations.
That would've become oral history,
if a whole city just slides into the ground around here.
That is catastrophic
and...and absolutely nobody has put this piece together.
I'm gonna hurry up because the wind is picking up
and that rock fall made me wanna
get done with this as soon as possible.
Yeah, copy that.
That's really concerning.
Alright, I got myself where I wanna be
for the second sample.
It's gonna be a little tricky.
Oh, wow.
You should see the colours under there.
This sample is huge and it came off really easily
so I'm just gonna bag the whole thing.
OK.
Alright, Stel, well, I got two samples.
I am happy with what I got.
It's gonna tell us a lot more about the...
the story that happened here.
Thank you for risking your neck just to find that answer.
Hey, Stel.
I got the data from my colleague, from the sinkhole.
Alright.
Unfortunately for your timeline, this is older.
This sinkhole collapse event. Yeah.
But it's not a complete loss so don't look too glum
because the whole area is still full of sinkholes.
Like this is Karst topography and it all adds up to being
a lot of potential spots for things to have collapsed in the past
and even more recently than...than this.
That...that actually makes some sense.
That legend at Pelegrin is so close to the sinkhole
we were talking about and the description of it
is that it just suddenly just sank, boom, right down into the water.
Which sounds like a city being swallowed up by a sinkhole.
Yeah, and people don't make stuff like that up.
No. Right. I mean, it just dropped down.
So, the last Ice Age ends like 10000 BC,
8000 BC, somewhere in there
but it's still flooding
and it's pumping out these pulses of water.
So, it's being eaten away.
Sinkhole activity. Yeah.
So, we've got sinkhole there.
You say there are other sinkholes.
We have the story of Pelegrin is here.
So, this entire area around Split is really,
sort of screaming to me to go and look at it further.
I think we need to get in the water.
I think so too. Alright.
Right, let's go.
Jess and I are heading just north
of the city of Split
where underwater archaeologist, Mate Parica, told us
there is a newly discovered site similar to the one we dived on.
Hello.
Hey, guys.
Hi. You must be Eddie.
Eduard Viskovic is just beginning and underwater
excavation of a site that is at least 2,000 years old
but may be a lot older.
So, what are you excavating here?
We had some report that there's some possible
part of the harbour here.
Huh-huh.
So, we're now searching around,
seeing what we can find.
So, how long have you been
working here?
Two weeks, more or less.
Just a couple of weeks? Yeah, weeks.
This is brand new. Yeah.
We have a lot of finds.
So, I'm watching them play
with this piece of equipment over there.
What is that exactly?
So, my colleagues are setting up the Mammoth.
Huh-huh, the Mammoth. Yeah.
It's a... That sounds impressive.
It's archaeological term for basically a big vacuum cleaner.
Oh, OK. OK.
Yeah, but underwater.
But if you do it without it then it will get very murky.
The forecast may be murky,
but I'm hoping we can find some evidence
of the lost city of Pelegrin
which could be the local name for Atlantis.
Visibility is very bad so stay close to me,
I will guide you to the site.
OK.
OK, you see we started digging a few days ago.
Probably the harbour.
OK, push the silt in front of the Mammoth
and then we'll vacuum it.
Don't do big movements.
Copy that.
Oh, look.
A piece of the Roman opera.
OK, we'll put that in safe place
and we will dig for more.
Oh, look!
It's a very good find.
Oh, what's that?
It's a oil lamp, a lantern.
Oh, wow!
It was in use for a long time
because we have burned edge on it.
Oh, my god.
You wanna have a look?
That is incredible!
Wow, look at that. Oo.
What is that?
It's a oil lamp, a lantern. Oh, wow.
We're diving off the coast of Split in Croatia
on the trail of a city that disappeared into a sinkhole
thousands of years ago.
That is incredible!
The locals call it Pelegrin
but I think it might be Atlantis.
Let's go up.
That is cool.
I can't believe that, two. Whoa.
Just like half intact in flora right.
There's pottery everywhere down there.
And what is that?
Oh, that's so cool.
That thing is beautiful. This is very nice, yeah.
So, about how many years old would that be then?
4th century or there abouts.
4th century, 1600 year old...
little lamp. ..1600 year old lamp.
But not old enough, right?
Nowhere near old enough.
But we need probably further out.
With sea level rise,
if we wanna go older we have to search in deeper waters.
We'll need to have a sonar.
Oh, we can some bathymetry. Yeah.
I have to call a... a guy who has a sonar.
OK, so what... Great.
..tomorrow morning meet back here?
Yeah. We can do that. Alright.
Come on? Yeah, OK. Yeah.
This my expert. Hey.
My name is Ivor.
Alright, let's go. Let's hit it.
Day two in Split,
we're heading out to deeper waters
where the ruins should be thousands of years older
than what we found yesterday.
How do we know where to look?
OK, so we have some people that working...
shell digging here. Huh-huh.
And then they found pottery.
Digging for shells and found pottery.
Other pottery. Ancient pottery?
Yeah, ancient pottery. OK, great.
So, you're gonna take us into that general area.
We have general area but we have sonar here
so we will pinpoint the location.
Excellent. Oh, right. Awesome.
OK, so, this is the area
where the divers told us to look close.
Right here? Yeah.
Alright, so can we get the sonar in? Yes, we can.
OK. Ivor! Alright.
Coming.
Guys, come and take a look.
Hey, what have we got here? Alright.
Ah. Oh, yes.
So, now, we are looking at the sea bed.
Now, you can see all the features,
it's all level
because nothing's happening.
But hopefully we'll find
some anomalies.
We looking for something man-made,
some part of roads or some part of the harbours.
Alright, well, I've seen several ridges that,
you know, those are clearly natural.
I'm not seeing anything yet that looks unnatural, you know?
Alright.
So, I...I'm still waiting for the man-made stuff.
Yeah.
Wait. Wait.
We have something here.
You see, you see this ridge?
Huh-huh. Yeah.
That looks something man-made.
Really?
Maybe this is a sea wall from here to the city.
I just wanna get down there and take a look.
So, this...
this is the place where we will dive.
Great. Alright.
Stay close to me.
This is the place where sonar pinpointed.
Look on the ground for any kind of pottery.
Oh, look.
A bit of flint, ancient flint.
Wow! This is really finely made.
I wonder how far back that goes.
Let's move on.
Let's go a bit further around.
Wait, wait. I see something.
Don't push too much silt.
Yes, look, a piece of pottery.
Amazing.
This is almost exactly those same markings as we saw in Zadar.
Wow! And that was from 6000 BC.
This must be a really old settlement.
Unbelievable.
This is just amazing.
A piece of flint and pottery that could go back to at least 5000 BC.
We got some good finds.
Let's go up.
Whoa!
Oh, my gosh.
Did you see that?
Visibility was not good but that was incredible.
See this.
So, impressed with... so that's the same as the other one,
it's about 6000 BC.
Yeah. So, that's the right timeframe.
Yeah.
What is that? A little cutting thing?
It's a chip stone.
Chip stone? Ah.
Yeah, it's definitely sharp.
Even through the gloves I can tell.
So, there were people living here...
Well. ..and it's not flooded...
and... Yeah.
No wonder they moved.
Yeah. But this whole area...
I mean, you've only just begun...
looking at this area, right? Yeah.
There could be a lot more. So, there could be...
a lot more out there.
Generally we are finding new sites daily.
Wow. Wow...
so Croatia is just completely untouched.
Just waiting for you.
Yes, so...
So, we've established people were here,
it could be a settlement.
We know there are roads.
We know that they were built up because of sea level rise.
Yes.
We have a mechanism...
for a catastrophe with sinkholes. Yeah.
It's the right time period when people are here.
But what else is out there underwater,
I mean, heaven alone knows.
We'll come back. Right.
I have never thought of Croatia
as a leading candidate for Atlantis...
This trench is magnificent.
..but this investigation
has definitely changed my mind.
12000 BC.
It has some of the oldest
known pottery in the world.
This just rewrote history right there in his hand.
It has roads that link islands in 6000 BC...
just like Plato said Atlantis did. This is the road.
And it has a landscape that's prone to forming sinkholes...
Bloody hell!
Big enough to swallow a city.
And it's oral history
of a sunken town
has led us to underwater relics
going back to before my date
for Atlantis's destruction.
Croatia is on my map now.
Atlantis could be under this very bay.
Captioned by Ai-Media ai-media.tv