Dracula's TERRIFYING Castle Uncovered | Cities of the Underworld *2 Hour Marathon*

Eerie castles and Jagged Mountains make Romania the perfect setting for vampire tales but look beneath the winding trails and crumbling fortresses and you'll find the story of the real Dracula it's creepy from prisons where his victims would await their deaths I don't think I would want to spend a day of my life in prison by Vlad the Impaler to the cell in which Vlad himself was held hostage and pass the time by impaling mice dark and dank baby and even the bat caves where the legend was born look at them they're all over the place Romania's underground is filled with secrets of its past we're peeling back the layers of time on cities of the underworld Dracula [Music] Underground [Music] Romania is the largest country in Southeastern Europe it's a country with a long and bloody past I'm Don Wildman I'm in Romania home of Dracula both the legendary vampire and the real life ruler but where does fact meet fiction the clues are buried beneath the imposing castles medieval Villages and mysterious hillsides of wakia and Transylvania we're headed for a Subterranean world where fact is far more terrifying Than Fiction today we know the name from The Vampire monster in Bram Stoker's Dracula but in real life Vlad Dracula was a 15th century Prince at only 17 years old Dracula took the throne and went on to become one of the most notorious rulers in history few realized that although he was actually in power for only 7even years he managed to unite the province of vakia for the first time in centuries and how did he do it by using the most brutal and barbaric punishment ever seen which in turn earned him the new name Vlad the Impaler today much of his legacy and the kingdom he helped to build have been destroyed but clues that reveal who he was and evidence of his rain of terror still remain buried beneath the ground just 215 M from the capital city of Bucharest lies a massive bat cave it's among the largest in Romania and it's where the legend of Dracula Begins the kid is on that way he not far away we have five minutes spelunker Vadim bondar knows these caves like the back of his hand he was taking me down into this cave system that's home to several species of bats it's a world which has never been fully explored it's hard to believe but in all there are 12,500 caves beneath this Romanian landscape the cave we were heading into is part of a 15m network that descends more than 300 ft below the surface okay done now we prepare to come in yeah okay this is our suit okay yeah it's okay you have comfortable here right let's go okay let's go okay this is the gate reservation here the lamp please down into this [Music] cave [Music] it's really kind of spooky what is it oh wow look at the sound oh yeah yeah sound of the back oh there they at the look at them they're all over the place all of them vadin believes there's more than 10,000 bats living in here they hibernate in the winter and in the summer they leave the caves to feed these bats only come out under the cover of darkness and while on the prow they actually eat the equivalent of their body weight in insects every day this underworld was created more than 60 million years ago now how far down does this cave go uh the system the all the system have 25 kilm 25 km is the entire system this entire system yes so there's many different explor exploring system because maybe at another few kilometers is unexplored yet wow and so it it branches off in the many different tunnels and everything this is just one of the many and the different different levels okay and something like that big jump going further down into this cave it's so cool okay don't be very careful here oh yeah always slippery huh okay this massive cave we were exploring stretched down four four levels so the best way to get into it was to repel my favorite part of Adventure so we can't get there by the trail so harnessing up professionally harnessed these guys are good okay it was a 120t drop that would lead to the deepest Cavern in this [Music] system you have another 15 M this is the last level of that cave man this is beautiful wow listen the echo hello Jesus this place is Big you got a lot of caves you got a lot of bats yes it's kind of understandable how people could make the connection between Romania and vampires yeah yes yeah admit good so there could be vampires in here who knows why do you think Romania has such a reputation for mystery and Legend I mean what gives the place that quality in my opinion the first reason is the jack right the book the book yes the book was written by Bram Stoker in 1897 over 400 years after Vlad Dracula died and the setting for the book's famous no Fatu is modern-day Romania the landscape of which is filled with caves like the one I was exploring so who was this real life prince who in seven short years left behind a legacy of Terror His Story begins in 1431 when Vlad was born it was the 15th century an incredibly tumultuous and brutal time in the region Dracula got his name from his father who was a member of an elite society called the order of the Dragon it was an elusive fraternity founded by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1408 in Romanian dracul means Dragon so his father adopted that as his nickname and Dracula literally means son of the dragon or son of the devil the Ottoman Empire and the Hungarian empire were the major powers and the province of alakia sat in the middle of the two Arch enemies the hungarians and the Ottomans both used bakia as a pawn and Vlad became a crucial piece in their game when young Vlad was only 12 the Turks helped to get his father back onto the Throne of vakia but to repay them vlad's father had to send Vlad and his brother to the Turks as hostages if their father tried to double cross the Turks the boys would likely have been killed but the hungarians were circling vakia just waiting to attack and to make matter worse vlad's father was hated by those he ruled so in 1447 his subjects joined with the hungarians and went in for the kill Dracula's oldest brother was buried alive and his father was assassinated by his own people after his father's death the Turks released Vlad with their own agenda they appointed him officer of a Turkish Army to help him avenge his father's murder and claim the throne just 17 years old what Vlad Dracula was about to do is far more terrifying Than [Music] Fiction Romania's landscape is as rugged as its history castles and fortresses are everywhere but none are more for boing than those inhabited by Vlad Dracula in the 15th century valia's relationship with its neighbors the Ottoman Empire and Hungary was volatile alliances constantly shifted with the wind and the backstabbing continued even while Vlad was in power he returned to vakia in 1447 his reign of terror soon began and for the next 30 Years the vachan throne changed hands several times while the myth of Count Dracula is frightening the story of the real man is downright terrifying and it all started Inova Prince Vlad Dracula returned home his father assassinated and his brother buried alive he was surrounded by enemies Ottomans in the South the hungarians in the west and always assassins operated from within to defend his title he fortified his Capital to Goa against attack and plotted a Revenge so bloody so gruesome that it would one day earn the Young Prince a new title Vlad the Impaler at the time to Goa was the capital of vakia which is now part of modern day Romania and was the site of Vlad Dracula's family Fortress parts of the castle at toova still exist today it's just a shell of what it once was but what happened here would cement Dracula's Grim Legacy and today the evidence is 30 ft beneath the castle Petra Vil diaconescu is an underground expert who could take me down into vlad's secret world and Ramona naaku came along to translate hi we started at one of the most intact parts of the Fortress the tower so this is vlad's Tower huh yes man it's beautiful before we went underground okay we can climb if wish we needed to go up oh yeah wow wow this is it huh this is where Vlad teer stood looking over his lands of vaka wow amazing in 1462 15 years after his return to vakia alliances had changed again and Vlad was against the Turks the Turks counterattacked entering vakia with an army three times as large as vlad's he retreated to toova leaving a path of destruction in his own Homeland he burned his own Villages and poisoned his own Wells along the way so that the advancing armies would have nothing to eat or drink but the worst was yet to come when the starving Turkish Army finally arrived at the doorstep to Dracula's Fortress a scene from a horror film lay before them Vlad had impaled 10,000 people including women and children he watched from the tower where we were now standing as the impaled slowly died incredibly he actually made the stakes out of the trees they were the actual trees Were Trees The Roots yes it was a tree with bodies in it oh my God so he left these bodies on these Spears for months his tactic worked the Turks were horrified and retreated crying along the way that the Devil Himself was at turova but this wasn't the first time vad caved into his blood lust he used torture and impalement as an effective tool to keep order in his kingdom he routinely rounded up enemies and brought them to a secret prison that secret Prison still exists it's actually located 30 ft beneath this Castle it's off limits to the public but I was going in oh wow look at [Music] this [Music] so this is the actual prison cell for his prisoners this the prison cell yes here were held until they were convicted I see but here we have two rooms uh two identical rooms yes from here we we are entering another room let me go in here yeah oh yeah it's about the same size as the other one this is Vlad the impaler's jail cell I don't think I would want to spend a day of my life in prison by Vlad the Impaler yeah not a lot of room but here it is this is the original walls right yeah original Foundation this is the original Foundation we are standing beneath the palace we are underneath the palace here B the room I was in is thought to be one of the prison cells beneath turova it was part of a massive underground complex of dark Dungeons and elaborate torture rooms and 30 ft Above This complex would have been tooa Castle itself at its peak the castle was an imposing and impressive structure towering 88 ft into the sky and the Subterranean prison I was exploring was built to withstand the pressure from this massive Castle up above while the castle has crumbled today thanks to the simple Roman Arch these dungeons have remained the prisoners who were brought here knew what might be coming they could be impaled on a stake alive and left to die you know it's one thing to hear about these guys how vicious they were it's a whole another thing to see where he kept his prisoners it's creepy to be thinking about being down here by yourself in the dark condemned to death there's no way around it it is a bizarre feeling these dungeons hidden deep below the castle were strictly off limits to anyone except Vlad and the few he trusted in fact most had no idea these rooms even existed Vlad didn't want any of the prisoners relatives or friends to know where the dungeons were in order to prevent rescue attempts Prince Vlad kept the prisoners here until their trials were over he was the judge at these trials and for those who were found guilty the end result was often impalement they were held here for two or three days until the Judgment was uh pronounced by the prince okay and during this this time they were uh interrogated and um I have a feeling he didn't find many people innocent we don't know that we don't have many documents that say Vlad sees was an unfair man he was a very just man you could be in prison down here for anything from lying to stealing to infidelity vlad's goal was to keep a tight grip on order in his kingdom and it worked during his Reign crime and Corruption were wiped out that's why even today many Romanians remember Vlad as a hero and not a murderous madman Vlad punished these Crimes by cutting off limbs skinning boiling or roasting people alive but impalement was his method of choice and it was a slow death that could last days the steak was usually oiled and Vlad made sure the point wasn't too sharp so the victim Wouldn't Die immediately the stake was inserted into the victim and their own weight would slowly send the stake through their body but vlad's victims didn't always know they were about to meet their debts he once invited the sick and poor to toova for dinner he then locked the doors of the hall and set the room on fire essentially ER iting poverty in bakia at this very Castle but this underground prison was just the first of many strongholds Dracula built both above ground and below in 1457 Dracula built another Fortress 40 Mi Northeast even more imposing than the first it was called panari Fortress and it was the next stop in Dracula's blood soaked underworld oh wow look at that he was a guy who took it to extremes look at that right there on the hill amazing it's a 1500 step climb up the Steep Hillside just to get to the entrance oh my God look at this oh he could rule he could command he could do everything from up here man on both sides it's amazing the Ares River and the valley and if any Turks come up that Valley man you know it my guides Adrian Sandu and Cataline stoan were waiting for me at the end of my Ascent that's quite a climb yes how you doing fine thank you and you thank you hello hello welcome to ponari thank you it's incredible after years of earthquakes panari is now in Ruins but in the 15th century it was a formidable structure when he came to power at tooa vlad's first order of business was to avenge the death of his father and older brother but it would take over a decade to carry out his master plan one Easter Sunday Vlad served a feast to his own subjects some of which had helped to murder his family he then impaled the old and weak Vlad ordered the able-bodied men to March 40 mil from toova to panari and forced them into labor to expand his Fortress in the end after months of slave labor no one survived many of the nobles were literally worked to death and those left breathing were impaled what is this oh man this was a dungeon the dungeon of the Fortress yes okay part of what vlad's captives built is a dungeon 12T beneath the surface usually it's off limits but I was given special access down be careful yes down in Dracula's dungeon you really feel like you're uh jailed for life down here yes so how many people did he keep down in this place just a few people yeah just a few prisoners because he used to impale them very quickly he didn't have that many prisoners cuz he impaled him before he put them down here wow but there's more though today this dungeon is in Ruins 500 years ago it would have been under four levels of the castle and directly above this room would have been Dracula's master bedroom where he could hear the cries and pleas of his prisoners only a few feet below him panari was one of Dracula's strongest fortresses but it was also the sight of one of his greatest tragedies vlad's Mass impalement didn't keep the Turks away for long and in 1462 they retaliated this time they came prepared they put Dracula's own brother Radu in charge of a massive Army and surrounded this Castle there seemed no way out for Dracula his wife refused to be taken alive and threw herself off the tower to her death but Dracula would not surrender he vanished into the Romanian underground according to Legend Vlad Dracula disappeared into Escape tunnels carved into the side of the mountain and with the help of local peasants fled to a nearby Province called [Music] Transylvania in 1462 the Turks led by vlad's Brother Radu took control of vakia Vlad fled via underground tunnels to the province of Transylvania in Hungary to ask the king for protection but instead of a helping hand Vlad suddenly found himself in prison Vlad the Impaler terrorized his people for five long years until 1462 when he was the one running for his life he was captured and held for years as a political prisoner but even the thick walls of this Fortress couldn't contain Dracula's evil ways his blood lust continued in the dark dungeons of this medieval castle it is called hundor Castle the original Fortress was built here during the Roman times and over the centuries was transformed into the castle that held Dracula it has seen sieges with stood cannon fire and was even burnt to the ground many times but despite its active past the skeleton of the castle is still here and my guide seren tinu knew exactly where the off liit places were this is only original door that we have this is the so original door wow it's made from Oak with uh iron that's beautiful this is another area that we are not showing to the tourists okay private access yeah what you can see in here is the wall from 14th century I was getting special access into the 14th century Fortress believed to have held The Man Behind the myth between his second and third Reigns but seven centuries ago this Castle would have looked much different the old fortress had only a single Tower and was built on a solid Bedrock foundation with stones gathered from nearby mountains but in the 15th century it began the transformation into both stronghold and palace with tensions still high with the Turks it needed to be safe but it also needed to be a castle Fit For A King in 1441 the Hungarian King added seven Towers he also added Grand Halls guest rooms and a chapel the unique engineering combined late Gothic styles with early Renaissance making this castle and Architectural Marvel but that's not all by building a castle on top of an existing Fort he created an interior and an underground sine led me to these restricted passages deep below the castle hey look at that wow how cool oh it keeps on going this underground tunnel was quickly put to use to defend the castle in the brutal Middle Ages during a Siege these Subterranean spaces allowed the king to live comfortably up above while his loyal Army was down below defending him so this is where the battle is waged yes yes the gunfighters standing here with a gun hanging on this wall because was very heavy uhhuh we are now facing the first guns in the history and this one uh is a hole for ventilation because it was a lot of smoke and they could die in here yeah yeah this Maze of military tunnels snaked all through the castle let me show you another part of that tunnel but this palace's underground is an important part of Dracula's darker days let me show you the dungeon of the castle the dungeon at Hodor Castle is one of the few prisons to have ever held Vlad the Impaler wow so this is cool this is the prison cell yes Jesus these were not nice places to be dark and dank baby I'm pretty cold wow you just don't want to be held prisoner in a place like this do you know for sure this prison cell was small and Made of Stone there was no heat and during the cold Transylvanian Winters the temperature could fall well below freezing Vlad ended up in here as a result of the constant power struggle in the region his brother Radu who held the throne in vakia was allied with the Turks and vlad's imprisonment secured radu's place of power much like when he was a child Vlad was still a valuable Pawn so when he came to the Hungarian King for help he was [Music] imprison like most dungeons in medieval Europe this isn't someplace you want to spend the night it's a dark and Eerie Subterranean space experts believe Dracula spent 12 years in prison here and while confined to a cell the former Prince kept up with the impaling he would stake spiders roaches and even mice according to prison guards he skewered the pests with slivers of wood peeled from the floorboards and displayed the impaled like trophies on his window sill supposedly Dracula was mesmerized after impaling his victims they say he would fixate on their Tiny Death Twitches until they finally stopped moving in prison Vlad remained the Impaler and outside alliances shifted once again after 12 years of captivity here the hungarians set Dracula free in 1475 he got his chance to reclaim the throne when his brother Rob Vu died of syphilis a year later Vlad reconquered vakia today few realize that beneath this Castle sits a Subterranean space that once imprisoned one of the world's most ruthless [Music] leaders vlad's rign of Terror wasn't the only treacherous period in Romania during World War II Romania found itself making and betraying alliances once again in 1940 Romania joined sides with the Axis powers supplying the axis with oil grain and other Industrial Products to fuel the war machine because of this Romania became a main target of the Allied Forces by 1944 Romania switched sides and then it was a Luft wafa targeting Romanian soil but regardless of alliances during World War II bombs were a constant threat the Romanians needed some place safe to hide and that place was underground I was heading to a little known treasure buried beneath Transylvania to a massive salt mine that could provide salt to the entire world for 100 more years and was the perfect spot for a bomb [Music] shelter [Music] this is a long and mysterious passageway isn't it yes it is my guide Don Mera knew the salt mine story better than anyone and could easily navigate these immense dark tunnels how long is this 526 M we will pass through this tunnel and then we will enter the salt mine so 1500 ft this is yes it and how far below the ground are we about uh right now we are about uh 5 M and then we will be 10 15 and most about 50 m 50 m down this mine is among the largest in Europe covering almost 54,000 square ft that's more than an acre and it's among the oldest and most important in Transylvania the color is surprising of this I mean it's quite Yes actually the walls are black um natural color of salt is white and the and massive salt is translucent but in the second world war the salt m was used as a shelter huh and that is why the worlds are black they made fire here to get warm and to prepare food during World War II Romania lost much of its land and blad's former Empire was essentially cut up into pieces Romania sustained heavy bombing throughout the war thousands sought refuge in the empty salt mines like this one throughout the country this empty cavity in particular was the perfect bunker it was 150 ft below the surface and could sustain massive bombings and its Arch supported ceilings ensured the shock waves from bombs couldn't destroy it when the war was over and people moved back to the surface Romania was under communist rule the Iron Curtain wouldn't be lifted until 1989 but the history of this salt mine goes back much further than World War II in fact this natural salt deposit is 135 million years old so you're saying this solid wall is all salt yes it is all salt it is tasted you can you can tast I'll take that little piece there that's salt yes it is how much salt is down here still there's about uh 38 billion tons of salt 38 billion tons of salt still remaining in these mines yes exactly I can't even conceive how much that really is on this site in the second century the Romans began mining this precious commodity a process that would continue to be done here by hand until the 20th century today the mine is made up of several large rooms some over 100 ft deep all the salt mine was done by hand so only hand tools nothing no explosives or uh other machines or mechanical machines so are we seeing pickaxes yes exactly huh everything and how many people were working down here uh the most uh were about uh 300 long before the salt mines provided safety to Romanians they were seen as a source of income for the different generations and civilizations that lived here salt was as good as gold and was used as currency in the ancient world Roman soldiers were paid with salt or salarium argentum the root of the English word salary the Greeks even traded salt for slaves creating the expression not worth his salt down this way huh so the person with the salt was the one with the power that meant I was walking in an ancient gold mine look how huge this place is unbelievable how high is that that is 40 m 40 m 120 ft and if I was up there what year would that have been 1868 1868 and we're standing where 1932 so they did all that in about yes may 50 years amazing when Vlad came to power the Abundant salt deposits of Transylvania were still being mined Vlad Dracula also used the seemingly innocent commodity for more Sinister actions it is said that he would skin the feet of his prisoners coat the wounds in salt and let goats lick it off just another way to keep order in his volatile Land from the Romans paying their soldiers to vlad's use of salt for punishment to saving lives in World War II these salt mines have always been an important life blood in Romania Vlad Dracula ruled the province of vakia three separate times for a total of nearly seven years but it's what he left below the ground that's most impressive over the years Vlad had gained himself many enemies but some of his greatest enemies were members of his own family at the time there was no clear plan for succession of the throne which meant that all princes within the dynasty had the right to rule so brother fought brother for power during the height of his second Reign Vlad built a new Palace on the outskirts of the province it was a fortress that would solidify his power in 1459 Vlad turned a small fort in the remote town of Bucharest into a princely palace now called C he built a massive Citadel and surrounded it with his loyal subjects and wealthy merchants and Bucharest soon grew into a political and economic power unfortunately like a lot of medieval buildings the palace was ravaged by constant Warfare and fires and today much of C is in Ruins but deep beneath the ground a small piece of vlad's grand palace Still Remains Gabrielle Constantine was my key to getting into one of vlad's most famous fortresses and Monica Finlay would translate and vad to welcome us GL yes he's our friend he looks very stately today okay let's go inside today the entrance is easy to miss but just 10 ft beneath our feet lies the very Foundation that established a new [Music] capital [Music] oh it's amazing it's huge huh this Subterranean space is All That Remains of the Fortress responsible for the development of modern-day Bucharest long before the bustling Metropolis existed here this area was a sleepy Village of farmers and small Merchants pedaling their handicrafts when Vlad arrived he took an ordinary observation tower and transformed it into a 10,000 ft Fortress complete with a royal residence and Marketplace but this was more than just a place for local farmers to sell their crops it was where Vlad Dracula established his slave trade Vlad allowed non-christians criminals and captured Turks to be sold as slaves and soon this area began to thrive but little do they know that this boom in economic and cultural development would eventually light the spark for the founding of modern day Romania's Capital City traces of Vlad Dracula's original designs still remain if you know where to look so I can see the wall the original wall well yes is from that time but this is different here yes all right so we have the different eras of construction this being Vlad tsh's Fortress with the Riverstone and the mortar and this is a newer construction and that's much newer over there for almost two centuries vlad's successors built their own extravagant castles right on top of the existing structure essentially buing all that remained of Vlad Dracula's original design today these passageways SN beneath the streets but in Dracula's days this would have been the ground floor of his Palace and Marketplace to later rulers it would have been the basement they expanded vlad's Palace creating a structure even larger than his 10,000 ft complex it contained a private Garden in the middle and administration buildings and living quarters would have been directly above the rooms I was in in the late 18th century a new Castle was built not far away and eventually this Castle fell into disrepair and homes were built around it until finally during the Communist era buildings covered the entire area effectively Paving over Romania's dark past most have no idea that this piece of Dracula's life still exists but if he had never built this Retreat Romania's capital city of Bucharest might never have [Music] been Vlad Dracula built ctia at the height of his power but just a few short years later his final Reign would come to an end but not even his death could bring an end to his legacy ask any Romanian where Vlad the Impaler is buried and they'll tell you about a darkened Church on a remote island accessible only by boat but like his life vlad's death is shrouded in mystery some say his skeletal remains were stolen others say he's buried near his Treasure of gold or in a tunnel that runs beneath the lake whatever the case Vlad seems to have eluded his fate once again by Going Underground in ancient myths Souls often have to cross a body of water to reach the afterlife the underworld so somehow it seems fitting that we have to cross a lake to reach what Legend says is the Romanian burial site of Vlad Dracula approaching it you wouldn't think that this deserted looking Island could be just 25 mil north of Bucharest snagov island is so secluded it's easy to imagine vad Dracula wanting to spend eternity here but much of his medieval island retreat has crumbled with time Donna matache is a guide trying to get to the bottom of vlad's Legend she agreed to take me to see the real life Dracula that is really something oh yeah yeah it was built by Dracula by his order this well here this one here yes so is from 15th century middle of the 15th century yeah there's water down here there is and it's very good first of all Dracula buil a prison mhm and with the prisoners he built this Fountain I see really they dug with their hands during the construction of this well Dracula is rumored to have placed a bag of gold next to it as a symbol of his power he claimed that as long as he lived no one would touch the gold and he was right Legend says the gold remained there until the day he died but the the gold isn't here anymore ah he died unfortunately he's no more living that's true yeah but there's one structure on the island that has lasted Through The Years an 11th century Church vlad's chosen burial [Music] site wow you can feel his presence oh here we go there he is look at him look at him pleas hello hello yes he is here Vlad the Impaler yes this is his Tom this is his Tom yes this his his remains are under here now we think so this is the mystery some of the people says that he couldn't have been buried in a church after many things he did just about every aspect of Vlad Dracula's death and burial remains a mystery most sources say that he was finally killed in battle and beheaded by the Turks in 1476 the Turkish version ends with vlad's head displayed on a stake in Istanbul as visible proof of Vlad the impaler's eyes but those who rever his legacy say that his friends buried his head on Athos mountain in modern-day Greece so why not put these rumors to rest in 1935 a group of archaeologists tried to do just that but what they found buried beneath the site where I was standing brought more questions than answers they discovered some rich clothes very fitted for a prince they discovered a special ring with uh the coat of arms of Dracula but vlad's bones were never found much like the many myths inspired by Bram Stoker's vampire Count Dracula many Mysteries surround the fate of the real life Vlad the [Music] Impaler today Dracula's regions of vakia and Transylvania are part of modern day Romania and Vlad Dracula has left a lasting impression there but his legacy goes well beyond the fortresses churches and even the capital city he helped to create Vlad ruled for a short span of nearly 7 years it's hard to Fathom but during that time it said he killed between 40 and 100,000 people mystery will always surround the real life Prince called Dracula and who knows what other Secrets he's left for us in the underground in the middle of modern-day turkey lies a region that was under siege for centuries this lunar landscape is called capid doia jeezus Magnificent and beneath its quaint Villages roads and farmlands is one of the largest Subterranean battlefields in the world first carved out by the Pagan Hittites over 3,000 years ago hundreds of underground cities Spann for miles and have endured the bloody wars religious battles and constant conflict that have always threatened to destroy them from tunnels rigged with booby traps those are for the spears they kill the Enemy by the head o and that's not going to be pretty to the clandestin roots of Christianity this is the first Monastery of the world and it's huge there are approximately couple hundred churches around around this area and the remains of an advanced Pagan civilization that mysteriously disappeared capid doia has Secrets inside every cave let's go up here and take a look and around every corner it's like a a beehive it's a honeycomb of tunnels that just go in every direction signs of the evolution of Ancient Warfare have been buried for more than 3,000 years we're peeling back the layers of time on cities of the underworld Secret Pagan [Music] underground for thousands of years this mysterious region has been a battlefield for invading Empires but hidden beneath its quaint Villages and bizarre terrains lie massive underground cities and traces of a mysterious Pagan Empire dating back 4,000 years I'm Don Wildman I'm in capadia Turkey land of Lost Cities this lunar landscape was created millions of years ago by the eruption of three huge volcanoes and it is unlike any in the world for thousands of years people here have been digging in the soft volcanic rock creating a vast Mega Metropolis below ground there's over 100 square miles filled with heavily fortified castles secret churches dungeons entire underground cities built to defend the locals against the armies of history's most powerful Empires for Generations villagers have guarded the secrets of capid do's underworld but as the modern world collides with the Ancient One those dark secrets are revealed the region of capid toia is located 200 M south of anara the capital of the modern Republic of Turkey it sits in the center of the high desert of central Anatolia a nearly 300,000 squ m Peninsula that encompasses most of the country this region has always been the center of mysterious activity from supposed magnetic fields with healing powers that locals swear by to a history of UFO sightings going back thousands of years today its unique landscape makes it a popular tourist destination but it's dramatic terrain conceals a hidden world throughout the region hundreds of underground cities and fortresses dug into the mountains connect to create one of the most massive Subterranean networks in the world where entire civilizations fought their bloody last stands and secret religions were spawned I was on a quest to find the Mysteries that lay hidden in this otherworldly region my first stop was a towering Rock column called uchisar I've been told this is one of the most important and oldest citadels this huge Rock right here it's all dug out with tunnels all throughout man it's incredible look at this I mean it's just like this over here all the tunnels all throughout and this entire Valley is just like one huge underground let's go up here and take a look oh yeah you can see how much they've dug out here whatever this was just a huge amount of effort gone into this incredible look at this it smells so good in here 3500 years ago this was one of the three major citadels in the region for the Pagan tribes that lived here these Rock fortresses were the key to survival in those brutal days a time when tribal Warfare could wipe out entire villages it's like a a beehive it's a honeycomb of of tunnels that just go in every direction wow as a natural high point overlooking the valley uchisar made for the perfect defensive location but how did primitive ancient people dig this massive structure out of solid rock to find out you have to jump back millions of years to when volcanic eruptions created this totally unique moonscape here on Earth over millions of years the three major volcanoes surrounding the region spewed volcanic materials across the land the first eruptions left a layer of soft rock called Tua the subsequent eruptions left a much harder layer of balt this dense material created a protective surface that slowed the erosion of the underlying Tua eventually rain and wind blowing sand into the Tua Rock began to erode it creating these huge plateaus and fairy chimney rock formations that span for Miles the Tua was soft and easy to carve but why go through the trouble of digging a city out of the earth instead of building one up above kadok's long and bloody history may give us a clue capid doia was always a highly coveted and equally dangerous piece of real estate it sat directly in the center of the major trade routes that connected the world's great Empires from China India and Egypt in the East to Greece and Rome in the west that meant whoever controlled capid doia controlled the trade routes and was guaranteed a hefty share of all the riches carried along it everyone from the Romans to the Persians to the Mongols fought bloody battles to control it that and tribal Warfare made this a dangerous place to call home often times the local Pagan population found themselves drastically outnumbered and outgunned so to defend themselves they had to create another world below the ground the soft twof for rock left behind by the volcanic ash that blanketed the region 10 million years before was easy to C and the hard basal layer on top provided protection so the capid doans started to dig they began with simple Rock shelters and eventually transform those into huge underground cities and fortresses like here at uar some of these Subterranean cities could support as many as 20,000 people and did so for 25 centuries up until the 1300s locals relied on their underground cities to keep them alive but when the Ottoman Empire finally stabilized this region in the 14th Century Villages began to to thrive on top and some of these cities that saved their ancestors were sealed up and forgotten in the 1960s locals started to explore the closed off tunnels beneath their homes they had heard rumors of their ancestors Subterranean existence but no one could imagine how vast these cities were today over 200 cities have been found intact beneath capid doia experts believe there are hundreds more just waiting to be [Music] discovered I'm in Arup the main city in this area there's one woman here who knows everything there is to know about capid doia I'm going to go see her now Elon hi Don how are you hi good so this is your hometown huh yes this is zip one of the main towns of uh capid doia I can see there's a rock formation right here in town they're everywhere this is just the beginning elvon OSB has been exploring this underground for nearly 20 years and no one knows capid Do's hidden secrets like her she wanted to take me to a place you couldn't find on any tourist map it was an untouched underground city belonging to the Region's First Empire the mighty Hittites the Hittites are considered to be one of the most advanced empires of the ancient world they rained from 1700 BC to 1190 BC and are thought to be the first capid doans to start living underground but what did they have to be afraid of no one knows for sure but their ancient writings reference a time of troubles from Invaders they called the sea people the Pagan Hittites appear to have flourished in the region for over 500 years but in the 12th century BC like another great and mysterious civilization the Mayans they vanished without a trace the underground of capid doia was their last refuge and I was going to see one of their very first Subterranean cities elvon was taking me to go topre a place few Outsiders have ever seen villagers have only always known of its existence but the rest of the world is just now learning about it where are we going here well we're going up there that's the original entrance of the underground city oh really so these caves go throughout this entire face of actually yes and the villagers say all around wherever you see this rock formation there are caves and tunnels cool so this is the entrance here this is the entrance here and this is the original very rare mostly the original entrance is collapsed you know [Music] uhhuh watch the spider web there yeah this is not open I'm telling you yes oh but it's a big room in here wow look at this look at the bats right there amazing with the exception of treasure Hunters who scour this region looking for Treasures Left Behind from the mysterious Hittites the underground city here has been mostly untouched elvon said its crude construction meant it was one of the first and oldest cities capid doans became more advanced in underground living as the threat up above forced them deeper and deeper into the ground as rival tribes or the mysterious sea people approached these villagers abandoned their lives up above and prepared to wait it out down below what are these holes over here they're the wells for water storage there are two kinds of Wells uhhuh these are called dry Wells this is where you store the water okay so the water was brought here yeah brought here and stored in here poured right in yeah and there's another system which is called the wet well and they grew these waterways and then direct the water inside the underground city and then directly into the well so it was like a an aqu A Primitive Aqueduct system yeah they had water specially carved out ventilation shafts and months supplies of food but that wasn't enough they needed protection throughout these narrow tunnels snaking from room to room in the underground city were remnants of an ancient defensive system used during time times of Siege they've got another defense here another Millstone to roll into place cuz I guess there's an important room down this way millstones weighing up to a ton were rolled in front of the entrances to shut off access into parts of the city it was simple and genius because the stones were round inside the rooms just a few men could easily roll one of these stones into place but from the other side even an army couldn't budge it this was the first evidence evidence of the complexity of life in these underground cities and who knows how many ancient people died right here fighting in these tunnels here's this millstone's actually in place it's been rolled into block way and I mean this has been here for 3,000 years cuz no mortal man certainly not me can move it you can see oh yeah down this hole the tunnel just continues on but we ain't going there I had already found evidence of an underground Battlefield and advanced engineering left behind by the Pagan Hittites but what I had just seen was only the beginning 4,000 years ago the Hittites a powerful and advanced Pagan Empire arrived in capid doia and around 1200 BC dug into this volcanic soil to create lethal military forts they lived like ants in their Subterranean cities warding off Invaders when they mysteriously vanished in the 12th century BC they left massive handcarved cavities beneath the ground cavities that would become increasingly useful in the first century ad when another persecuted group the Christians came to town and in oano a small village in the northern region of capid doia this exotic new religion was able to take root and flourish [Music] underground I met up again with elvon who knows the underground of capid doia better than anyone else because osano is the third largest underground city in capid doia the local government installed a secure entrance to prevent treasure hunters from stealing any precious artifacts this is the entrance excellent let's go but I was granted special access inside and once in I knew exactly what they were [Music] protecting wow so this is the carved out Stone see yes and we're at the first floor of this underground city which was used as a stable they were bringing their animals in with them and tying them here oh I see so they actually roped them up roped them up and they carved them right out of the rock what is this uh these openings long these openings are for their eating oh I see this is their dish so this is totally functional there's just a bunch of there this is where they eat oh my god look there so there's a space above space above space everywhere yeah ventilation keeps going on and on we were standing on the first level of a multi-level City the animals occupied the first level and the villagers took cover on the second level 18 ft beneath the ground in fact over 3,000 people could live in this massive complex for months at a time it was essentially an ancient version of a modern bomb shelter if they went to all this trouble to build something so far underground and so vast the threat they were facing must have been enormous when they were first attacked by the Arabs they were throwing burning bushes through the shafts ventilation sh and people were in the first wars were dying because of the smoke so they decided to go deeper and wider they needed more protection every year as the military threat grew so did the undergrounds that's exactly what happened it all started in the first century ad when Christians began to use the underground to escape persecution from Roman soldiers in the year 303 the last and most aggressive persecution was launched thousands of Christians throughout the empire were hunted and killed but it didn't end there Muslim Arab armies continued the Christian persecution but when they arrived in The Villages up above they found a ghost town three secret tunnels in the village and passageways underneath homes allowed the Christians to quickly Retreat to safety once the invading armies realized the Villager were sitting ducks beneath their feet the real battle began but little did they know the Christians were ready in the underground cities you have very narrow and winding slopey tunnels okay the first reason is air circulation when you have these slopes the air circulates much faster and better so it compresses the air compresses the air and directs to all around the underground city the second purpose is for the enemy yeah you cannot go all together you and I cannot walk in there together we need to go one by one and we need to bend down and if we have weapons we need to put them down and like walking like this okay so this disarms the enemy yes this arms the enemy interesting that's why oh that's cool the narrow tunnel would slow the enemy assault to a crawl and for those determined enough to go through there were more surprises ahead what are these those are for the spears the spears yeah just in case the enemy gets all the way here oh my God so they're act oh I can see all the way up here yes so they kill the Enemy by the head so if if you've gotten this far in your attack you're not going to go any farther cuz they got they got you this way wow o and that's not going to be pretty but the defensive traps didn't end there yeah all right even if you were saved from the spears you can't go any further further because of this the door will be closed in front of you this door comes in into play it was a millstone used to trap an enemy just like the ones I had seen at go topre and while the Christians have the Hittites to thank for first carving out these fortresses centuries before they deserve the credit for taking the idea of a Subterranean booby trap Battlefield to a whole new level one of the new tactics they came up with was to let the invading armies enter a main room roll the mill stones to cover the only two entrances and essentially tra the Army inside until they died as if that wasn't enough just beyond the door was yet another deadly obstacle in this room up here this is a very famous Byzantine system pour hot oil over the enemy so you've managed to get inside this room inside now you're killed by the oil oh my God yes if the Christian villagers had retreated this far into their under ground it meant they were desperate and we were standing in the last room carved out in this complex it was the war room for the defending Army the room from where the battle between 3,000 villagers and their heavily armed enemies was run but how what are these holes up here well these echo my voice this is the only underground city where you see telecommunication system the echo in this room is much better than the other rooms and it's gathered and through this hole up here uhhuh carried to the other floors like an acoustic theater this room was built to reverberate sound waves and channel them into a single area a person in the room above could hear instructions given below even when spoken at a whisper orders and enemy positions and movements could be communicated throughout the complex a last line of defense against a determined enemy but even after the threat of an attack passed locals would wait down here until they were absolutely sure the coast was clear that meant living underground for months at a time so preparation was key this is the most important thing in an underground city they need to store food even if they're not using the even if they're up up there in their houses they store the food okay and because they need it when they stay here and it's a very good cold Celler essentially yes the temperature is perfect in these underground cities the temperature down here was always the same 15 to 16° it was the perfect temperature to keep food fresh centuries before the Advent of refrigeration but the Christians went one step further than just storing their food they knew any kind of contamination could quickly turn a Subterranean City into a mass grave for 3,000 people this is chalk uh most of the underground cities had used this system to paint the walls with chalk paint most of the places like storages kitchens and uh places where they need hygiene they had Chalk Paints on the walls and this is a underground city where you can see the chalk the volcanic tofa rock that created the landscape of capid doia flakes off easily its particles fill the air and cover everything in a layer of thick Tua dust so coating the walls of their Subterranean food storage areas wineries kitchens even hospitals with chalk was considered hygienic and helped to prevent contamination the size and scope of osano illustrates just how deadly the threat of attack was and building this massive complex wasn't easy in one day it is estimated that one man using a chisel could only carve a 5tx 5T area so an entire city 2 and 1/2 floors deep and 1 mile long was Quite a feat but for those whose lives it saved it was time well [Music] spent [Music] in the 4th Century emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and after centuries of hiding out in these Subterranean cities Christians could finally come out of the underworld even though the Christians were finally free to practice out in the open they chose to stay underground expanding on the subterranean cities and creating a Christian stronghold away from the eyes of the world right here in G I was about to see the evolution of Christianity hidden inside the caves of capid doia jeez it's magnificent it was hard to imagine that this Valley was hiding hundreds of churches from crude caves to intricate basilicas that rival the great cathedrals of Rome but even more amazing is that this very site was one of the first Christian educ education centers in the world this is the first Monastery of the world and it's huge there are approximately a couple hundred churches around this area these caves were used to create the first Monastery of the official religion of the largest Empire in the world monks ate slept and prayed in seclusion here a solitary yet communal lifestyle like this had never happened before the idea of monastic life came from St basil in the 4th Century Christianity was at its peak and he was alarmed by his own materialism he had lived with hermit monks in Egypt and expanded on the idea so here in capid doia he created a massive self-sufficient community of monks the world's first Monastery they lived here until the 14th century when the Ottomans took control this Subterranean solitary world is the basis of monastic Life as we know it today but that's not all St basil did here he was actually able to excommunicate those involved in prostitution trafficking so common along major trade routes like capadia essentially cleaning up the remnants of the area's Pagan past but of the hundreds of churches and dwellings here in this monastic complex one specific underground structure stands apart from the rest it is believed to be one of the earliest dwellings here in G dating back over 1,000 years today it's a Christian world of the dead that's been dubbed the snake Church by this one is a very good example to the Primitive church this is a burial place so watch your steps don't fall into the grave [Music] okay these are are Graves here huh yes these are the graves jeez there were bones found inside these Graves and and these too these small ones yeah they're children's Graves oh wow it's proof that an entire community of Christians men women and children lived in this very spot 10 centuries ago but how is it still standing just like today the 11th century Christians knew they couldn't just dig haphazardly into the hillside so throughout the every 18 ft of digging required a supporting wall or column and this Monastery was no exception this medieval form of building codes helped ensure the world's first Monastery could survive 10 centuries later when the ottoman Turks conquered capid doia and stumbled upon this Subterranean World they were impressed with the engineering that kept these structures standing and even more impressive was that the ancient Fresco on the walls hadn't been exposed to the elements preserving the stories of the world's first First Christians underground we have these famous capan stories painted on the wall they are from the Bible of course but uh these are local stories all right someone tried to do a fresco but you can't even see the face you know very primitive but Graves and crude frescos are only just the beginning not far from the snake Church there's another church with even more elaborate frescos oh yeah is beautiful it's gorgeous this church was built around the same time as the snake church but its frescos came later showing just how much more advanced the Christian artists had become these are local artists painting these churches the intermediate ones but very skilled hand very skilled hand but you really don't see lots of color combination Reds and blues basically natural colors and these churches were normally used to teach Christianity to illiterate people that means this 1,000 year old room was much more than a church it actually doubled as a school of Christianity in the Middle Ages it was very rare to find people who could read so these intricate frescos were used like a textbook telling the stories of the Bible in pictures if this church was a message to the local people the next one was a tribute to God himself it was the biggest and most ornate of all the churches in G and for seven centuries it has remained intact thanks to the strong twofa walls into which it was [Music] carved wow oh it's really amazing yeah you can see the difference in sophistication detail the color and ceilings are high how beautiful this is spectacular so this is the first part of the church from 11 12 centuries and these are the frescos about the biblical stories so this is the life of Jesus from his birth to his crucifixion there so much detail so much work isol the Fresco on the ceilings and walls of this cave church rivaled that of any church throughout the Byzantine Empire some of the world's finest artists were sent from Constantinople to paint these spectacular murals a sign of capid do's importance to this emerging religion but it was the engineering used to build this church that was even more amazing this is Cathedral architecture I mean the depth and the height and there double layers of columns and inner niches and they've gone to the trouble of the details details this church resembles the L layout of those of the Eastern Roman Empire it had an apps at one end to symbolize an opening to the kingdom of God a main Central prayer area supported by four columns and two smaller prayer areas to the sides the design is similar to the churches found in Constantinople but this one was carved into the ground entirely by hand driving by G Valley in capid doia few realize the holes in the Hills lead to a massive Monastery the first of its kind in the world from Christian classrooms and massive basilicas hidden inside caves to blood drenched Pagan battlefields more than 18 ft beneath the ground centuries of constant digging created another world here and I had barely scratched the [Music] surface the Hittites the early Christians the Romans and Mongols had all ruled capid doia adding their own layers to its massive underground today every house shop or Road here could hide an entrance into one of these lost worlds and elvon was taking me to a town that sits on top of a five level Subterranean City extending nearly 4 miles but it's not the size that's most impressive the 1900 year-old architecture sits 20 ft beneath the ground and actually in inspired some of the greatest engineering Feats on the [Music] planet mehmed azman bashu the mayor of ionus a small village outside the city of kaiseri agreed to take me into the bowels of the sealed off underworld let's go down it just so happens that the best way to get down is through the basement of the childhood home of one of the world's most influential Architects down here his name is mimar sinan after to you oh thank you thank you wow [Music] so we are entering into his house here this is where he lived they say this is the place when he opened his eyes as a baby he saw these arches these arches here wow yes so these were actually features of the house these arches are very important because those are the influence to his uh later life mimar sinan born in 1489 right here in this house went on to build some of the most impressive monuments of the Ottoman Empire his most famous was the sulimania mosque it was built for sultan sulan and standing 170 ft tall it's the largest mosque in Istanbul it has one of the biggest unsupported domes in the world amazing amazingly a building of this size could never have been built without the engineering feet found right beneath sinan's childhood home it's a triple Arch system this system Builds on the same idea as the simple Roman Arch the weight from above is distributed throughout the sides so with three arches sharing a central axis the load bearing capacity triples as well it's a simple but ingenious way to make the most of a single column but why was the triple Arch used here in the first place this underground city is believed to have been one of the newer ones in the region first inhabited by the Romans in the 2 Century as each new generation moved in they expanded the city both above ground and Below nervous that the world up above could cave into the one below they put triple arches throughout the Underworld the technique worked 1900 years later these second century War walls can still hold up the thousands of pounds bearing Down On It from the modern town that continues to grow above and we go this way but there's something else that sets this city apart from the rest man look at these little amazing spaces I mean it's like a set piece today homeowners have blocked off spaces beneath their homes for storage but 500 years ago during cenon's time this system was an uninterrupted 3 and2 m long Subterranean Factory I cannot get over how vast this whole underground of this house is I mean and this is what kind of room here they are making iron utensils in this room over here they melt the iron in that hole wow the Terracotta molds Left Behind were once used to make tools out of iron but what was created in the next room was a matter of life and death now what is this room what was this used for it's a workshop and it's also interesting because there is a pigeon house inside the workshop really you know why why because they're making gunpowder out of the pigeon poop many ancient civilizations considered pigeon droppings a precious commodity capid doans had known for centuries that this bird experiment was high in nitrates and they often used it as fertilizer but after the invention of firearms they realized this highly explosive substance was perfect for making homemade gunpowder and over 500 years later I was standing in the middle of a Subterranean weapons Factory so sinan lived above this a whole working complex down whole working complex they believe living here and not being an architect is not possible this was a perfect laboratory for a great architect to be raised among amazing this perfect laboratory for me Maran is an invaluable Time Capsule today and few people know that everything from the beginning of ancient factories to arches that inspired the world are all right here buried 20 ft beneath this Village in capid [Music] doia in the last 50 years around 200 underground cities have been found throughout capid and new ones are found all the time in fact just recently archaeologists discovered another lost city but this was no ordinary find it may be the largest and most sophisticated underground city in all of turkey it's still being excavated today but it may rewrite history this latest Discovery buried beneath capid doia is unlike any other it's located in the town of gazir on the western edge of the region the locals always believed they lived on top of another world but they had nothing to prove it so the government gave them 3 weeks to start digging and see what they could find a group of villagers got together and no sooner had they Broken Ground than they uncovered a time capsule dating back seven centuries to the dangerous days of the Silk Road wow there's just new excavation everywhere here everywhere yes there there there I can see all this excavation going on archaeologist guine Carro is in charge of this one-of-a-kind dig so this is the new underground city they found the Silk Road was the major freeway of the ancient world it was the lifeline that allowed people to get from one place to another transporting everything under the sun incredibly it extended 7,000 Mi which meant that rest stops were needed and when it came to rest stops the Turks went big here beneath gazir sits a caravan Saray or a fortif ified four seasons of the ancient world experts believe this complex might go back 800 years this restop fell out of favor in the 14th century and hundreds of years of dirt and debris buried it beneath the ground until 3 months ago when they cleared away the mud all right and exposed the newest piece of capid do's past so all of this was underground before today we were the first to ever be given access into this unseen underworld off we go oh my God it's a whole world in here isn't this beautiful I'm so surprised to see a place like this it's G gigantic but what was such a massive Caravan Saray doing beneath gazir this Village sat strategically on the busy 7,000 M Silk Road Caravan sis like this one were built every 18 to 25 miles the distance a camel could cover in a day's travel it's hard to tell today but 800 years ago this would have been an impressive sight travelers from all over the world would have entered through a massive guarded gate security was always a major concern once inside there were stables for their animals storage room for their goods sleeping quarters baths wineries a central room where food was served and areas for doing business in essence it was a city of its own Caravan sis like this one cover 50,000 ft more than an acre without these Caravan sis longdistance tra would have been virtually impossible fountains baths and wineries where guests could unwind after a long day of travel made it well worth the Hefty price guests paid to stay here what is this here that's that's the cork so this kept the wine safe yeah that's the cork how beautiful but the luxurious life the inke keepers provided their guests was only a temporary escape from the outside world in fact in the 13th century this entire region was sketchy this four-star hotel was smack dab in the middle of a war zone most of the local villagers took refuge in the underground cities I had already seen Travelers on the Silk Road needed security too the Eastern Roman Empire was left weak and vulnerable by the fourth Crusades in 124 Muslim Turkish tribes had infiltrated the area and were constantly at war with each other and anyone in their path and brutal Mongol invasions were always a threat not to mention gangs of thugs and thieves trolling for victims looking to steal the expense of camels and their cargo wow Don look at this yeah this is not like the tunnels we've been to no not at all it's huge for one thing I mean literally the tunnels are big the tunnels were used as corridors to get from room to room at 10 ft tall they were larger than most but they had to be Asian camels used on the Silk Road could be as tall as 7 ft and weigh as much as500 lb oh I see it splits off in two here the camels the the animals were taken out this way the slope the big wide tunnel here travelers from all over the world mostly Rich Merchants carrying their goods camel back would have stopped here to rest after a long day of travel and trade in this Courtyard they would unload their goods everything from silk to spices and tie up their animals animals were precious cargo and they were well cared for at the Caravan sis a staff of veterinarians saddle makers blacksmiths and stable hands would have been on site so this entire room is filled with camels I guess so I guess so oh well this looks like a bone God that's a jaw that's an ancient camel jaw and a top hey oh my God that's a little gruesome isn't it from the 13th century yeah most probably I'm going to leave it right there in fact this archaeological site here is the only one in capid doia to have ever Unearthed camel bones just 3 months into this dig the archaeologists have already Unearthed unprecedented relics from the ancient world but they've only dug out a fraction of this Caravan Saray buried here beneath gazir as they continue to excavate who knows what else they'll find for now the mud is the only thing separating the past from the present like ancient time capsules these underground cities preserve capid doia dark and mysterious past from the harsh existence of the Neolithic era to the brutal Warfare of the Dark Ages today like their ancestors locals are once again moving back into these ancient caves turning them into boutique hotels and luxury homes but next time they want to renovate they knock down a wall or dig a new well who knows what Secrets they'll find hidden in the caves of capid doia at the turn of the 20th century America was home to one of the most dangerous Vice build cities in the world Portland Oregon today it's among the country's most desirable places but it secretly Harbors an underworld darker than you could possibly imagine whether it's trap doors used to kidnap unsuspecting victims ye they fell right into a holding cell the Eerie recesses of a drug Utopia so this is an actual opium den huh the Lost stash of the city bootlegging Queen you can see there's plenty of stuff still in there there old whiskey bottles or even an illegal underground fight club Portland has more dark Corners than any medieval dungeon and danger looms around every corner we are in a hazardous atmosphere right now we we need to vacate this hole right the sins of Portland's past are alive and well they're just buried beneath the surface we're peeling back the layers of time on cities of the underworld underground [Music] Bootleggers I'm Don Wildman I'm in Portland Oregon and for nearly a century this was America's vice city walking around today you'd never know it a Portland's seedy past is buried just below its streets 100 years ago this was a wild Westport town where you could be kidnapped and sold into slavery where gambling drugs prostitution and murder were on every street corner today Portland is a model City Clean safe Progressive but look beneath its Cosmopolitan coffee houses and bookstores and Portland's sorted dark past is soon revealed America's Wild West has numerous Tales to tell but few are more shocking than the story of the tiny settlement originally known simply as the clearing this no man's land would quickly flourish into a thriving Port but the Civilized face of the streets above was only a mask for what was really going on down below in the late 1800s Portland was known as one of the most dangerous ports in the world for Sailors coming into the city it was easy to find a good time speak s easys drug dens and brel operated right under the nose of the local police but for the Rough and Tumble Mariners The Lure of a good time could turn deadly they'd wander into a bar or bravel and suddenly a trap door would drop open and they'd plumet into a dark underground they didn't know yet but they just been shanghaied the practice of shanghaiing was all too common among the shipping ports of the West Coast the term comes of course from Shanghai ch largest city and it all goes back to the Opium Wars in the 19th century opium was illegal the Chinese emperor had it outlawed a century earlier but the Western Powers hungry for a healthy profit paid no attention the British imported massive amounts of the drug into China getting the Chinese hooked in 1839 when The Irate Chinese emperor seized more than 20,000 chests of opium Britain fought back with a stronger Army and forced China to turn over several ports to British control soon other Western Nations like France and the US gained access to the coveted Chinese ports Shanghai now controlled by the West became a den of vice and Corruption and its popularity skyrocketed so how did Portland connect to this International drug war with China now open for business to the West ship captains needed Sailors and lots of them for these lucrative Journeys to the Orient but they had trouble convincing men to ditch the Allure of the gold rush to set sail for Shanghai the trips could take years to complete pay was notoriously low and living conditions aboard the vessels were deplorable ship owners hired local thugs to drug or kidnap able-bodied men and Stow them away on their ships when the men came to they found themselves in the middle of the Pacific with two choices work as a slave or be tossed overboard I met up with Michael Jones hey Michael an expert on Portland Shanghai Tunnels and he was going to take me down into the expansive underworld of this City's sailor slave trade all right this is where you get Shanghai this is where you still get Shanghai few people realize it but right in the middle of a modern-day Street an inconspicuous opening actually leads to the off-limit network of tunnels and Michael is one of the few who has a key to this sub terranean door now you're venturing into places that a lot of people went into and never came back up through this section there was no other place like this through the entire United [Music] States oh wow so we are underneath of a working restaurant yes this is Hobo's storage space but once you reach the dirt when you cross from the concrete to the dirt you officially in the Shanghai Tunnels I see these tunnels stretch for 5 miles underneath the city so this is all this is the tunnel that that we're talking about here this is it this is a real McCoy and can be found lying dormant beneath modern-day homes and businesses they were constructed of both brick archways and wood support beams simple and practical designs that would keep the world above from ever knowing that the ground beneath its feet was being hollowed out these tunnels first appeared in 1850 before the city was officially Incorporated the official version is that they were constructed strictly to transport goods from the ships at Port to the hotels and saloons scattered throughout Portland but the real story is much seedier in 1870 these tunnels became Infamous and for nearly 50 years an entire industry of human trafficking was just below the unsuspecting public above did they actually construct it for that purpose I yes yes you know some people like can say it was used to bring Goods in from the from the Waterfront so you didn't have have to go above ground but it was actually for Shanghai so right above our heads is a bar and was in those days too a saloon Lazo Saloon was one of Portland's most popular Hangouts today lazos is known as Hobo's restaurant but more than 130 years ago it was in places like lazzos where unsuspecting men would get sucked down to the underground guys were were assaulted upstairs and brought down into this space here yeah generally they did it a little bit nicer they uh they utiliz the drinks in the bar spiked them with knockout drops when they were wooy dropped and through a trap door on the floor wait so you're just standing in a bar doing nothing and all of a sudden the bottom drops out on you and down you come right but you're drunk and everybody else is drunk around you and they don't know what's going on so this whole thing was a setup I mean the BART tender was involved the owner of the place the whole thing and a lot of times the shangh highers were the secret owners of those saloons okay so everybody was making money I see and how much money were they making $50 a man with that type of price per man making it out of the saloon didn't mean you were safe the tunnels took us beyond the limits of the saloon underneath the actual streets of Portland and just around the corner from lazzos was an alley with a nasty surprise this trapo here is actually in a dead end alley that mean at the far end of the alley you forced your victim into that section and then Jesus they fell down here they fell right into a holding cell Christ but the captains needed healthy men for their long voyages so every precaution was taken to deliver a good product wow what are these things here these are Victorian mattresses they were used in the houses of prostitution when they wore out they brought him into the underground put him beneath the trap doors so when the victims fell through the trapo they were not injured occasionally they died but it wasn't generally on purpose right well that's nice the shanghaiers needed to be careful themselves the strong men they kidnapped wouldn't be in the best of moods when they came too underground this is where they held them these are the actual bars they're very unique they're not made with round stock at Square stock and if you notice these bars are deep and they're tapered that way if the Shanghai is standing behind these this cell the victim can't reach through and grab them cuz if they can grab them they're not going to turn loose so how many men would be in a cell like this like sardin really and if a prisoner actually managed to escape well the shanghaiers were more than prepared for that look at all the stuff what is this when they grabbed their victims and brought them to the underground they took their shoes really because the shanghaiers broke glass and spread throughout the underground so if you escape they can always follow the trail of blood so this is a logger who came in for a drink and ended up on a boat shipped out around the world exactly but he left his shoes behind just another Eerie reminder from Portland's seedy days left underground a century ago just beneath the freewheeling Portland streets a coiled Labyrinth of tunnels was home to the ruthless shanghaiers locals who would drug unsuspecting men and drop them into cells built in Portland's Underground before long these unlucky loggers and cowboys found themselves swapping the decks on the high seas shangh highers were brutal and unpredictable sometimes they would pack as many men as possible into these tiny cells their victims would wake up completely unaware of what had happened or where they were it's hard to imagine and yet countless people were put through this and I had just seen this vast complex of tunnels beneath Portland but there was more this place is so vast I mean it keeps going every direction yeah it makes you believe it goes on forever and if you haven't been here in the darkness in Shadows by your you haven't experienced what you need to experience pretty Eerie I guess huh so you need to go on down here and all right this is more of the Shanghai Tunnels huh look at this I mean it goes out this way as well and then down below us is two more floors wow you can just imagine I mean all the terrifying things that happen down here there was one area in particular where the original cells are still still intact what do you find over here this is a u a holding cell and it's very small it actually goes between the buildings this craw space up here you mean exactly can you get up here yes there's a ladder over here all right let's go get it this was in an area that they had to share with rats rats this was the worst place to be and that's why they kept these men pretty well drugged up right above me is a working Church in the middle of its service right now and down here below all this is a holding cell a holding area for for kidna men Shanghai men in the 1800s they would be stashed in here like sardines I mean just smashed in and held for however long it took to get them on board a ship the whole town is filled with these these small crawl spaces these tunnels it is awful to think of this fate most likely you'd be dragged to the river just three blocks away and sold but there were other places and other people hiding in the Shanghai Tunnels we' started in the basement of an old west Saloon and found ourselves winding beneath the alleys and streets of Portland about 50 ft from the shanghaiers prisons was a secret room 9 ft below the surface and what went on down there was even more profitable than shanghaiing where does this go we're going into a completely different building in fact every time you go through an archway you're in a between buildings or in a new building I see what is this place well you've stumbled onto a white slaver cell cuz white slavery was big business here in Portland white slavery was the cleaned up term for something far worse sexual slavery and it began in these claustrophobic cells measuring only 14 Square ft in the 19th century prostitution was running rampant in some places the age of consent was just 13 and young girls were often forced into a life where they sold themselves on a daily basis these women were grabbed from restaurants dances and right off the street brought into the underground locked up what was nothing more than a a very tiny double walled closet logs lining the outer Corners so they couldn't kick their way out or beat their way out and they kept him total darkness total isolation with the objected break their Spirit in order to break the women down why slavers would degrade and torture them but not physically the slavers like the shanghaiers needed their product to be in good physical condition their torture was purely psychological the young girls and women would then be sold as prostitutes or shipped off as sex slaves to places like Chicago New York or even foreign ports overseas oh man is so sad these girls were forced into the bowels of Portland but not not everyone came down here against their will just 60 ft away from the sex slave cells we stumbled upon yet another use for these passages oh cool wow so this is an actual opium den huh yes it is Jee this is this is the real thing they came down into the Opium Den they would purchase their opium here which they were going to smoke in pipes and go on their opium dreams opium dens were another constant in Portland's Underground and in many port cities along the west coast they were designed exactly like this one with numerous bunks patrons would Lounge here and smoke for hours on end without ever leaving this tiny 100 ft room and because they needed a relatively safe place to smoke they would rent themselves a bunk uhhuh sure this is an opium bunk the bunk that was closest to the ground was the most expensive because when you fell out of bed you didn't have far to go I see well you can understand the Comfort yeah yes from kidnapped men to sex slaves and opium dens the hidden horrors of the Shanghai Tunnels are only a few feet beneath the streets of Portland with all the dangers lurking in any common Hotel Alleyway or Saloon what kept the fast blooming rose City so popular this port had a reputation for keeping its Secrets at the turn of the century what happened in Portland stayed in Portland and it would need to this salacious town along with much of the United States would soon find itself mired in a struggle that would erupt into one of the most crimer ridden and hard living periods in the nation's history above ground the town remained high class but that prim and proper image was just a front in reality this city was supplied with more booze than it could handle Hand by a secret world of Smugglers and Bootleggers hidden in the city's vast underground these thugs were rampant throughout the city and across the country and it was all a result of a battle of morals that started over 50 years earlier prohibition began in 1920 but its roots stretch back to the mid 1800s when religious groups formed to combat social drunkenness they preached and protested in nearly every state and their one and only solution was to outlaw alcohol entirely but the plan to Outlaw booze backfired the crime syndicates in places like New York Chicago and of course Portland hit Pay Dirt gangs thrived and liquor flowed underground I met up with James Louie the president of Portland's oldest restaurant Hubers and it was his great uncle Jim who ran it nearly 90 years ago during prohibition this is the original room yes going back to 1910 we're on the national register of historic places uh we've been in business for 128 years now originally this place was an old west Saloon but when prohibition began in 1920 a new chapter in Huber's history was written instead of closing up shop they converted the saloon above into a restaurant and the real action happened down below through an off-limits door we descended 10 ft and headed nearly 90 years back in time to an illegal Speak [Music] Easy I see so this was where the Speak Easy would operate that's correct Don now do you know what it looked like like I mean well the uh from what I understand the walls were painted in kind of a tropical scene oh really kind of like the Caribbean because of no without any Windows oh okay uh you had to make it look Lively and inviting right oh yes exactly so it was a fully operating bar scene absolutely today this area is just used for storage for the modern restaurant up above but nearly 90 years ago this tiny Corridor would have led to a parallel undergound round World devoted to keeping Jim's most important customers fully satisfied but getting into this secret world wasn't easy first if you managed to find the entrance you'd be asked for a password or a secret knock once you'd given up the correct code only then would you be allowed access to a paradise of Music women and booze so these places had to operate in secret I mean these they had to find places that the law wouldn't find them and store their booze down here as well Supply was the most important part of maintaining a lucrative Speak Easy with alcohol banned across the entire country an owner needed a connection someone to keep the glasses full and the Taps from running dry How could a place like Hubers continue to serve a steady stream of alcohol and keep its reputation intact enter the Bootleggers bootlegging was the trade dour during the Roaring 20s and it made gangsters like Al Capone and Bugs Moran millionaires Imports of Caribbean rum Canadian whiskey English gin and French champagne could bring in as much as $200,000 per shipload at a time when $50 was considered a good weekly wage in Portland most of the alcohol would arrived via large mother ships just outside of us Waters smaller ships or contact boats would dock with them and buy their Spirits after loading up these small ships would have to evade the coast guard on the lookout for illegal smugg but with smaller and faster boats the Bootleggers wouldn't have a problem and they made sure their valuable merchandise was well protected the mother ships were known to have machine guns mounted on their decks and on land trucks were closely watched by men armed with knives pistols and tommy guns but in Portland it wasn't a king who ruled the Bootleggers it was a queen and she reigned Supreme Over the city's underground today few people know that beneath this unassuming modern-day Graphics house rests the secret sanctuary of one of America's wildest Bootleggers come on in let's show you around Dave Campa owns the graphics business that now runs up above but in 2004 he discovered that nearly 80 years ago it was another business that had set up shop down below 10 ft beneath the ground floor was a nerve center of one of Portland's most notorious bootlegging operations oh wow so this is the newest part of the building here this whole section here was actually added on in the late 40s we believe it was originally built as a a retail Marketplace it was an Italian Market this was a big Italian neighborhood back then um it had a full service uh meat market in fact you can see the original uh sign is still here on the back door Jack Sprat says it takes good meat to make a good meal that's been here as long as we have really that's pretty Snappy so that was what was going on upstairs yes but something altogether different down absolutely let me show you that we're going to need these flashlights okay it's pretty dark down there all right Welcome to our dungeon and be careful walking down it was awful dark so just 10 ft below the streets are the leftovers of a bootlegging stronghold known as the [Music] dungeon [Music] and this is the old Boiler Room in its Heyday this Subterranean space would have been overflowing with Stacks and stacks of whiskey piled to the ceiling back in the 20s this is where the old building ended the staircase we were climbing down didn't exist instead a concealed back door would have opened up to a tiny closet and inside was a trap door and a ladder leading down into the bootlegger Subterranean Lair The Boiler Room was the perfect place to store the booze that quenched the city's thirst this thing's been around here a while since the 27 when they built it kind of f man that is a relic isn't it Not only was it concealed beneath the busy trade of the market above but it also provided a quick and effective solution for getting rid of the booze in case of a raid this incinerator would have held more than 25 whiskey bottles and if things got really bad all it would have taken was a flip of a switch and any trace of the alcohol would have gone up in Flames but you can see there's plenty of stuff still in there there old whiskey bottles who knows who knows and then there was another one down here also so who was it that kept this place stock to the ceiling it wasn't a gangster or a hard-nosed mob boss Instead This was the dangerous den of prohibition Rose she started as a mad operating several houses of prostitution and when other avenues opened up during prohibition she seized the opportunity she earned her name by coordinating uh the transportation and the distribution of a lot of alcohol in the Portland choose her own micro Brewery pretty much she was the first micro Brewery in this area Rose's type of whiskey was typically made in a large continuous still a device specially designed to distill whiskey without ever stopping the First Column Heats fermented grain by Steam resulting in a semi lior gas that is fed to a second column inside this second column the alcohol Rich Vapors rise through perforated plates once they cool the stripped water flows to the bottom while the alcohol is collected at the top the result an alcohol concentration nearly 50% higher than other common Stills so above our heads a teing Italian Market correct down here Stacks and stacks of whiskey boxes of whiskey she had cashes all over the city she also had inside information on when raids were coming through payoffs and she made sure that all her brothel had booze all the time uhhuh so she was a one woman operation almost she was she was making it and delivering it and distributing it even though Rose was careful to pay off the local authorities occasionally even she had close calls one of the most famous stories was she was in one of her brothel uhuh the police were raiding the place the men were running around trying to figure out what to do do with the booze so Rose said stack all the booze in the center of the of the floor there when they did that she lifted up her dress pulled it over and stood on top of it when the police broke down the door they found nothing except Rose in the center of the room reading the Bible one of the reasons I don't think there's not a lot of history on her cuz she never got busted 13 years after prohibition Sheriff pulls up to her house up in Alder Creek and rolls down the window she was out front and says time to get give it up Rose times are changed shut her down wow and she did she they tore the steel apart closed all over houses of prostitution and she lived for quite a few years up on M Hood wow good [Music] life the days of rampant crime and corruption in the city of Portland are long gone its once seedy Waterfront is now lined with multi-million dollar highrises but Portland is a big city and crime isn't entirely a thing of the past in fact if you know where to look evidence of Portland's criminal activity is still flowing underground today Portland's waste flows like any other cities through the sewer but mixed in with the water and sewage are signs that an illegal drug world still exists underground after all these years the city's sewer system began as a small wooden trough built in 1864 to collect the waste along montgomry street but as bootlegging and the drug trade took over the underground the sewers became overridden with disease and [Music] pollution and today things aren't much different I met up with Chris Shindler one of Portland's finest but he's not a police officer yeah day I work down the hole huh another day in the hole he's a sewer maintenance technician equipped for everything here well equipped I can't say for everything but he try and he was about to show me a world where innumerable dangers could claim your life on a daily basis all right we're going down there that's where we're going can I get ready let's do it there's your gear right there let's let's hop in the hole there's a lot of gear to prep and it's all for a very good reason Chris has had more than one close call down here today Portland sewers have expanded to over 2200 Mi of tunnels 4,400 catch basins and several thousand manholes it's gone from serving a few businesses and homes in the mid 1800s to over half a million people and if the waste was a problem over a 100 years ago the trouble has increased exponentially with the city's growth up above what's the worst stuff you've ever seen down there high flows are the scariest yeah um pump stations that turn on there's rats there's vandalism which could be shopping carts wire um shopping carts it it amazes me how they get a shopping cart in a 24-in manhole but but they do it and then it's my problem to get it out but that's not the half of it every day he's down here to make sure that Portland's Underground keeps the world up above safe and operational that can mean anything from repairing damaged sewer pipes with brick and cement to building dams or even thawing blocks of ice that have lodged in the lines but the worst dangers are unseen all right so you're telling this what to test for so this tests the four known gases we have H2S carbon monoxide oxygen and lower explosive limit that is the gasoline solvents okay so when it reaches a dangerous level this thing goes off and it will sound like this this is the sound that we do not want to hear all right cool these gases come from a mixture of human waste chemicals and bacteria ah there we go good morning if their concentrations are too high it can knock you out or Worse down and once all the precautions were in place I dropped down into an underworld where danger exists every day it looks deep and it looks dirty and very very [Music] tight [Music] coming down we headed 30 ft beneath Portland streets into the middle of a 2200 mile network of waste and refu all right so we ready to go we are what's rock according to Chris one of the most destructive and deadly forces in the sewer is drug trafficking mainly of a drug called crystal meth when you say dangerous what happens down here so meth labs they're getting raided by the police and they dump them down the toilet usually if they're getting raided they're running and they're not worried about dumping it um it's the operating meth lab that I worry about most the one that flushes all their their bad stuff down the toilet meth labs are a constant problem Oregon is struggling with meth trafficking more so than any other state today the drug is easy to create and can be made in nearly any type of environment but while easy the process is extremely dangerous and toxic the chemical gases are so dangerous that you can die just from inhaling them but even worse when extracting the chemical the solvents needed can easily explode so fires and Powerful explosions are a frequent side effect Chris not only has to worry about the poisonous gases and contaminants from home meth labs above but also needles glass tu tubes and wires that are flushed down as well a single cut or wound exposed to the bacteria down here could be deadly and we got a taste of the danger that Lies Beneath the streets you can see the water perking through here you know this is this is going this is clean groundwater we're not too worried about this as a contaminated Source but what we do worry about is the mortar I see what's up beeping we're getting a a level L level which is a lower explosive liit so somewhere up there must be a a chemical of some type coming through we can't smell anything ourselves uh I I can't smell it right now um canar is singing Chris decided not to risk it we are in a hazardous atmosphere right now even though we're on air mass we we should not not to be in here we we need to vacate this hole right we immediately went up to the surface and once back above ground we had to be hosed off as an extra precautionary measure but that was only the beginning well that's a bit cleaner there are a lot more of Portland sewers to explore my next stop was called the big pipe the project would clean up the river in the city and help prevent catastrophic environmental damage from future flooding I met up with Greg kolani who was going to take me down into this massive project I was getting an exclusive look I'm just come over the Sha here all right man look at this Greg is the construction manager for Environmental Services the big pipe is their pet project and it's a monster it's part of a 20-year process that will cost the city of Portland over a billion dollars a gigantic tunnel will run for 6 miles over 100 ft below the ground by 2011 this wastewater treatment system will help reduce sewage overflow by a whopping 96% hold on to your hat you don't want to send it now down the roof that is a huge hole why is it so big we have to support the mining operation as you can see the tunnel Boring Machine down in the shaft just the magn the size of it there will be seven of these giant shafts throughout Portland but they're only temporary they're here simply to provide access for the drilling process for a 6mile Subterranean Mega pipe but to really understand this engineering Marvel I had to go down way down so we get lifted by the crane yes the crane will pick us up swing us over and lower us down the shaft just digging this shaft has taken nearly a year to complete but now comes the hard [Music] part wow great view up this the best perspective Jesus this is a big place God so I mean this is a huge project even in the big scheme of construction yeah so this is the wall that you're going to drill correct we're going to mine about 4 and2 miles to the to the north we'll take the machine apart bring it back launch it and finish the rest of the tunnel in order to stop its toxic pollution and to help prevent disastrous floods the city came up with this state-of-the-art engineering stunner the big pipe will be created by a tunnel Boring Machine it Burrows through the Earth and at the same time leaves behind it a concrete lining with the segments bolted together in seven different sections in order to lift each piece which weigh over a ton they use a vacuum erector that sucks the segments up moves them to the correct position and stacks them into place once all seven pieces are bolted together a segment of the pipe has been completed 6 M and 4 years later it will be finished and ready to save the city from future catastrophes nearly a century ago Portland ignored the drugs booze and human trafficking spread throughout its underworld but today in the same soil where Vice and Corruption were the norm Portland Subterranean is helping bring the city into the future by correcting the mistakes of its past throughout the US prohibition unknowingly created an overnight Syndicate filled with booze hounds and Bootleggers gangsters and corrupt officials instead of curbing the drinking it created a seedy subculture hidden behind the facades of soda shops restaurants and hotels and here in Portland the dry movement actually had the opposite effect effect it opened up the floodgates prohibition never slowed down the business of booze it just sent it underground truth is Portland's hardcore criminals never had it so good the sale of moonshine only fueled the city's other illicit activities speak EES became places to satisfy your every desire from drugs gambling prostitution even to watch a brutal form of bare knuckle boxing boxing is the oldest sport known to the world dating back to the noan civilization in 1500 BC it's believed that hand-to-hand combat may go back as far as 3000 BC to both ancient Egypt and Samaria but the violent competition is best known from the ancient Olympic games where it first appeared in 688 BC the matches were originally a way to honor Fallen Warriors and required the use of thick leather straps around the palm of the hand but by the time of prohibition bare knuckle fighting had become a drunken slugfest where the Only Rule was anything goes and in Portland and there was one place where it all went down today this apartment complex sits on top of what was The Ultimate Fight Club where Only the Strong survived few people know what used to happen down here and it's off limits to the public but Loretta Turner the building's manager knows all of its old secrets and she was giving me exclusive access into this world of Blood Sweat and probably not tears this complex used to be the Kenton Hotel built in 1905 it was created specifically for the cattle buyers who came from all across the country to purchase their cattle but while they stayed in comfort in the rooms up above the real action was down [Music] below wow so Jesus place is a huge basement it is is isn't it that's amazing so this is as it was in its original state pretty much yes mhm in the early 1900s and throughout prohibition just 8 ft beneath the ground floor was a classic Speak Easy accessible by secret doors But as time pass and the fight club was shut down this Subterranean space was locked up and forgotten what do you know what went on down here they had uh bare neckel fighting down here in the uh 1900s uh 1920s they'd come down here and they' uh they have their booze over here and they had the boxing in the dirt area I see hundreds of men and women would cram down here and though this 6,000 ft space was large they'd all be crowded around the main event even in those days Fighters made their entrance a showcase this is how they got down here on these stairs oh these are the original stairs these are the original stairs they would come down here from the uh Pub upstairs okay but there's a ceiling there now huh well right but this was at one time as a matter of fact I think you can still see the um the uh where they had the door up there I see so this is quite a grand little entrance they had so there's a lot of cheering there's a lot of screaming and down comes the big star boxers although these fights could draw a crowd they were held in secret and were illegal and for good reason the fights were often bloody and ruthless and could last for as many as 100 rounds or until one of the boxers was knocked out but this Savage sport wasn't just for the entertainment of the locals it was also good for business the cattle buyers were important to Portland's economy and uh they wanted to keep it out of sight of the law they wanted to provide this entertainment for these guys cuz they were they were important people and with their rooms right above it would be easy to come down for a fight or a drink but there was one man who the cattle buyers and the locals all came to the Kenton to see mysterious Billy Smith was our our primary boxer here he was a mean guy this one time he boxed himself out basically he couldn't lift his arms anymore and uh his opponent was still standing so what he did rumor has it he jumped up and bit off the guy's ear it's the event that may have earned mysterious Billy Smith the title of dirtiest fighter of all time this ultimate Fighter's reputation grew in the 1890s when he became the welterweight champion he was fueled by raw rage and his rise to the top was helped Along by his brutal tactics of elbowing thumbing and gouging his opponents by the time he came to Portland in the early 1900s he was Notorious he fit right in with a town already overrun with shanghaiers and opium dens that was teetering on the edge of prohibition and the bootlegging explosion but the dirty fights weren't the half of it amazingly this entire neighborhood may have been connected with underground tunnels there were other speakes in in the area and locals speculate this bricked up passageway may have linked up to an entire underground den of Vice speak easys brothel gambling all leading to this fight club this is the um entrance to the tunnels that uh went across the street over there really so they had a lot to do with the operations here oh yeah definitely well their clientele would come down through there you know avoid all the the hassle the law and everything and so it's a really Secret World down here oh yeah very very how cool less than 100 years ago in Portland shanghaiers kidnapped men and women opium dens hooked the poor sewers polluted the rivers and Bootleggers were running all the alcohol they could muster but today Portland is working hard to clean up the image of its past over the last century Portland has changed from America's vice city to America's City on a Hill the Shanghai Tunnels broel and speak easys of its path are now sunk beneath an ultramodern Metropolis that's an example for the rest of the country but as the people of Portland move into the 21st century they should never forget that their dark past is always there buried just below their feet

Channel: HISTORY

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Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, the history channel, documentary history channel, history documentary, documentary, history channel full episodes, documentaries, history channel documentaries, Cities of the Underworld, Cities of the Underworld streaming, Cities of the Underworld full episodes, Cities of the Underworld marathons, Cities of the Underworld scenes, Uncovering Dracula's SECRET Castle, secret castles, dracula, dracula's secret castle

Id: Jn0WH0tPaJg

Length: 128min 9sec (7689 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 31 2024