Subterranean Strategy - Underground Worlds - Documentary

a vast Nationwide network of subterranean fortresses it's really huge actually you can get lost designed to stop a German invasion the soldiers were shooting blind I'm proud because they fight like lions a 2,000-year-old City without water water is crucial for the lives of the people what Subterranean secrets are being revealed it was totally crazy finding something totally unexpected and deep beneath a mountain a new discovery after 150 years wow this is like a geologist toy shop and I got all the toys beneath our feet lie extraordinary spaces caves and tunnels the span and the size is just crazy they've been designed and built by us this is the only one with the castle as well as formed by nature but how were they created and adapted by who and why you've got to face your fears throughout history Subterranean life has captured our imagination feel so privileged we're going further and deeper to unearth the Mysteries the stories and the secrets of underground worlds France a country Shattered by by many of world war I's bloodiest battles when the war ended the French became obsessed with being prepared for future conflicts during the 1920s and 30s as Germany rearmed and World War II was looming the French government decided to build the largest network of subterranean fortresses the world had ever seen the Arenberg is called the monster it's the biggest fought it's huge what 1930s Cutting Edge military technology lay in wait for any potential enemy Invaders they could move the turret 360° and stop it at the exact location they needed to and what is still hidden from view to this day this part is Secret in 1929 Andre majino a World War I veteran who was now the French Minister for war convinced the French government to build a defensive line of 142 Subterranean forts 352 gun encasements 78 shelters 17 observatories and 5,000 fortified concrete bunkers along its entire eastern border its construction began in 1930 and was largely completed by 1939 at a cost of 3 billion Franks this state-of-the-art massive military Marvel was designed to deter and slow down any direct German invasion across its border with France it became known as the majino line the largest Subterranean Fortress along France's 450 km border with Germany is at its most Northerly point it's called hackenburg Fort or uage [Music] Aur hackenburg is 20 km from the French German border at the highest point in the region Elise David is an expert on hackenberg's history the Arenberg is called the monster of the marinal line because it's the biggest fort of all the line uh it was one of the first to be built so they put a lot of effort and money into it it's more than 80 years old and still here it's huge 1,800 people took 6 years to build the hackenburg fort between 1929 and 1935 this vast 10 km complex of tunnels up to 90 M below ground was built to house 42 officers and 1,040 soldiers there are two main entrances one for ammunition the other for soldiers it's so large that it has its own train Network and stations the trains were used uh to carry all uh the tools the Munitions water water food all the supplies for the soldiers and they used this trend only inside it works with electricity we have the trolley here with have the CER on the roof we still use it around 300 M from the ammunition entrance to hackenburg is the main ammunition store known as M1 around 400 tons of ammunition was kept here before being distributed to the 17 combat blocks further inside the underground Fortress so now you are inside the Gary of the ammunition store M1 it was used by the soldiers to stock all the ammunitions in the different cells M1 was the biggest inside this fort and even inside the whole marginal line it's really huge actually you can almost get lost the M1 ammunition store was built in a u shape on one side empty trains would wait to be loaded by soldiers and on the other side fully loaded trains with ammunition would be wheeled out of the exit but moving ammunition inside M1 had to be done by hand the train couldn't work with electricity inside which was too dangerous in case of any spark the soldiers had to push the vagons they were helped by a winch they enrolled the cables around here to pull the vagons inside and after to unload the vagons inside all the cells in here once inside the store soldiers used a specially designed ammunition transportation system this is the monare system it's one of the Rolling Bridge as we call it in French overhead monoral tracks would allow soldiers to lift heavy ammunition from the store storage area onto the wagons still works but yes it works these are the originals the same change the same monem we haven't changed it at all so yeah the soldiers touched this and handled this chains 70 years ago and more M1 was built with safety in mind here you have three cells only for the gunpowder they had fire alarm inside here they had big tanks filled with water so when the alarm rank the tanks that were used directly it was an automatic system to shower all the cells to flood this area in case of fire the entrance and exit to M1 were also built with safety in mind they're curved so if anything exploded inside the ammunition store the blast would be directed out of hackenburg rather than in towards the rest of the complex when the ammunition left the M1 store it was destined for one of the 17 combat blocks deep inside the 10 km Fortress Elise is on her way to combat block 9 in the Western Wing 1 km from the M1 store we are still 30 m in the ground at the bottom of the block 9 and the firing rooms are just near the surface so they needed to get everything up the vors were used only for the ammunition cages that's why you have a part of the monoral system that goes directly inside the soldiers were not allowed to take the elevator they had to climb the stairs every time same for the officers there are 143 steps to climb at the top of the tower is one of hackenberg's big surprises which is an ingenious feat of engineering a large counterweight system operates a 163 T retractable artillery Tower it houses two 135 mm Howard cannons should the Germans attack Two Soldiers From Below could fire six rounds each per minute at a range of 6 km the soldiers were shooting blind they were waiting for the orders from the command post downstair and thanks to the two Observatory blocks they had all their coordinates could move the turret to 360° and stop it at the exact location they needed to they had to believe and trust uh the coordinates they were here just to [Music] fire the soldiers didn't have any protection for their ears after a while they used what they had papers tissues anything and even for the two soldiers were inside the turret it's like inside a bell so they had the vibration the sound the smoke when they fired so it would have been really difficult Hackenberg was the first and the largest of France's Subterranean fortifications its construction informed how many other underground forts were to be built and lived in 955 km to hackenberg's East is France's second most powerful fort on the majino line simoff simoff is located 4 km west of bisha in the northeast of France facing the German border it's built 30 M below the surface and like Hackenberg has separate ammunition and Personnel entrances it has its own power utility plant and Main ammunition store with a capacity of 33,600 artillery shells that served eight combat blocks Sims of Hof took 9 years to build completed in 1939 on the 21st of August that year the entire majino line including ssaha Fort was brought to a state of Readiness for war 876 soldiers were Now hidden underground Betty Bru is an expert on sahw and how military personnel lived in this Subterranean Fortress while waiting for the Germans to invade this part is secret visitors could not see this part here you you feel really how it was because it looked like yesterday solar bedroom there was uh between 25 for at 36 soldier in a bedroom one bed for three persons but they didn't slept together they walking in shift like in a submarine so it was hot Bank y never could be alone so you could not relax if soldiers from outside have to come inside there was no enough beds they could made HCK that they could sleep this was an officer bedroom and you see there is decoration painting on the wall it's beautiful if soldiers were asleep in the dark depths of simoff and the Germans attacked they could be certain of finding their way to their combat blocks quickly and easily you see above doors are s exit s there is a glowing Arrow showing the way of man entrance so if enemy coming and switch out the light you just have to following the glowing arrows and you could find exit in comparison to the horrific trenches of World War I living conditions for soldiers in forts like sahof were significantly better here they even had a Lounge Bar which was designed to be a refuge for soldiers they could pick up mail they could listening music play cards drink something smoke and on the wall you have Snow White and the Seven dwars this was paint by Roman Simo soier in the simov and he decide to paint paint Snow White because the cartoon from W Disney coming in 1937 in France first one in color so very very famous this is the only room they could relax and feel like at home soldiers living in ssof spent much of their time waiting for German invasion they brought many elements of their lives above ground into the Subterranean Fortress this is the chapel each Sunday they had holy ceremony in this part of France religion was very important for Demand on Christmas the whole crew 876 persons coming here they had a special lunch with fagra with champagne with cigar and they sing Ste I you know it was in German because in this era we speaking dialect finally on the 10th of May 1940 the Germans launched their Blitz C against the west simoff and the majino line initially remained calm but deadly exchanges were inevitable from the 21st of June 1940 sahof fired 13,500 shells in Just 4 days as it defended itself and surrounding fortifications you could feel how hard the saru was fighting despite the strength and elaborate design of the majino line fortification they weren't able to stop the German troops entering France who invaded via Belgium in the North however the immense Firepower and impenetrable design of these major Subterranean fortresses me the Germans didn't capture a single one of them I'm proud because they fight like lions it's our story you feel something not hear and see but feel the French surrendered to Germany on June the 25th 1940 it wasn't until the 30th of June and only when directly ordered by commander-in-chief of the French forces that sahof finally relinquished control to the Germans the underground fortresses that continue to line these borders are a constant reminder of the threat France faced during World War II beneath the Rolling Hills of darbishire in England after 150 years of searching a surprise Discovery the saw started to plunge into the wall wow that is quite outstanding wonderful piece of blue John quite exceptional how has this Subterranean space produced a precious mineral found nowhere else in the world we believe that treat Cliff Cavern is formed in a rather special way so precious that it's owned and cherished by British royalty and American Presidents darbishire Britain the small town of Castleton sits in the northern part of the [Music] county Vicky Turner's family have been at the heart of blue John Mining and production here since her Father Peter Harrison took over Tre Cliff Cavern in 1945 growing up as a little kid well I was brought up here I used to come up on the winch as a baby in a carot so I've grown up here all my life I can't remember not knowing about blue John not knowing about tree Cliffe because it is my life I grew up here and I um third generation tree Cliff Cavern so from 1945 the family have been here consistently on still [Music] are Vicki's son John is also part of the family business I have been working with blue John professionally for about six years but as a hobby probably the best part of 20 years but it's amazing cutting the stone open seeing it go from raw to the the finished product as in jewelry or as an [Music] ornament so what I'm looking for now is I'm looking to keep the stone right up against the silver creating a nice Dome and that looks like we've got no floors we've got a Flawless pattern Stone one of my favorite bits is cutting the stone open doesn't matter if there's clay covered on the outside once you've cut the stone open it's clean you can see all the patterns all the colors just revealed to you it's [Music] amazing blue John was formed around 300 million years ago when this landscape was buried 3 km beneath the earth's surface liquid minerals at a heat of about 120° Centigrade were deposited and crystallized as veins in the cavities within Carboniferous Limestone Dr No Wy is a geologist and expert on Blue John blue John is calcium fluoride which is a mineral called fluorite despite much investigation geologists remain uncertain of the origin of blue Jon's color one hypothesis suggests that atoms in the fluoride molecules May somehow have been Disturbed to create this unique color we believe that the blue color here has been produced as a consequence of the irradiation of the layers of fluorite within the cavities the origin of blue John's name is also shrouded in mystery some believe it comes from when it was exported to France in the 18th century the colors of the mineral blue and yellow when said in French being BL je wow well this is like a geologist toy shop and I've got all the toys wonderful piece of blue John beautiful that is quite outstanding I can see that this material is going to be quite exceptional It is believed the blue JN was first discovered by accident in the mid 18th century Gary Ridley is tree Cliff's Cavern manager and is a blue John Miner the original miners that discover these caves were actually lead miners looking for lead and when they broke through into these caves he found very little lead at all nowadays we can see just these empty passageways back then they would have been absolutely full of blue JN and I would imagine for the first few years it would hardly doing any mining just picking the stuff off the floor around them so much blue J there would have been in these in these caves in 300 years of mining on tree Cliff Hill about 2,000 tons of blue JN has been extracted from 15 so-called veins they all vary in color and form most of the blue JN veins are are very different from each other and nine times out of 10 when you see a piece of blue John jewelry or an ornament you can tell exactly which vein it's come from just by looking at it tree Cliff caverns and its blue John deposits only run about 150 MERS into the Limestone Rock mining here has never been on a large scale requiring explosives each piece of blue John has carefully been extracted in the same way for centuries the mining methods would have been called plug and feather until quite recently we used to still use the plug and feather method you would have had two Miners and one would have had a a drill bit quite a long drill steel and he would have held it on his shoulder and the other Miner would stand behind and he'd whack the end of the steel and every time he whacked it the guy in front would twist the steel and this must have taken absolutely hours to drill these holes the busiest period of blue John mining was in the 18th century when about 20 tons per year was extracted once the blue John industry had taken off of course everybody wants to get in on the ACT especially if you're a local so you could walk the hills and you might find some of this vein uh coming out on the surface in little outcrops so you could uh dig some of the blue Jon out from there probably at its height there would have been as many as 20 little operations going on on the just one little Hillside today there are only two working blue John Minds when tree Cliff was taken over by the Harrison family in 1945 the previous tenant John Roy who was unwell at the time showed Peter Harrison Around The Witch's cave and suggested he had discovered an unmined part of the upper tree Cliff blue vein he was told by John Roy there was a a vein of stone that he wanted to to dig out but John Roy died before Peter found out anymore Granddad was never told whether it was a vein still in the the wall or loose Rock ready to be carried out despite huge efforts Peter couldn't find the mysterious blue John deposit it became known as The Lost vein but then 68 years later in 2013 Gary Ridley with showing Peter's grandson John how to search for new veins using hand tools on the soft clay when they stumbled across something exciting about half an hour into digging I discovered this vein in the wall which was it telltale signs of hidden vein there was carpet sticks stones to hide it they rediscovered the Lost blue John deposit he hid it and he hid it a little bit too well and yeah we had about four or five tons of stone out of it 2 years later in 2015 Gary was testing out a new way of mining using a stone chainsaw in an area of the cavern he'd never dug before at first I was drilling into limestone uh it was quite hard to drill and the water that was coming back from the chain was very white so I knew we were in Limestone and then after a few minutes the color of the Water started to change and the saw started to plunge quite quickly into the wall so I knew we were in blue JN unlike the discovery of the Lost vein Gary had found an entirely new variety of blue JN and the first for over 150 years I then thought well how much is this we brought a jet wash in we started clean the walls down and then we could see the vein itself is traveling into the Rock and it was twisting up and around the corner so there's a fair bit to go out and it should keep us going for quite a few years and once I got a piece outside and cleaned it up realized what we got was a a completely new vein and uh Vicki the owner decided to name it after himself having a vein named after myself it feels a bit weird at times but keeps your memory going long after you've gone I suppose so having that knowledge is quite satisfying Gary's meeting geologist no Wy to show him an example of his ridly vein beautiful piece of ridly vein with particularly characteristic yellowy Orange color alternating with the deep blue and purple you can see there's a lot more yellow in this vein than the other veins as well and we got these two close bands about halfway down the first time it's seen the light of day in probably 300 million years the Ridley vein is the 15th to have been discovered and only the second to have been named after a person blue John and tree Cliff Cavern aren't just of interest to geology s professor John gun from Birmingham University is a speedlist a cave scientist he's fascinated by how these caves were formed we believe that treat Cliff Cavern is formed in a rather special way not by water descending but by water actually coming up and we call this hypogenic spelio Genesis so the Water Rising up is forming the Cave the very earliest phases of developing a cave in this area occurred over 300 million years ago then we had a phase when the rising fluids were mineralizing fluids and they brought in the fluorite minerals one of which is blue JN John is here to explore a recently discovered series of caves named The Hidden depths he wants to see what traces of blue JN there might be in the this newly found space he's agreed to film his journey down through the rock with a small camera there was always a thrill in going into somewhere that very few people have been in some newly discovered cave from a scientific point of view I was particularly interested there is no question about it those chambers down there are hypogenic you can see uh that there's been rising water in [Music] there they're also really interesting because they've got the blue jum mineralization so this is some of the lowest elevation blue J mineralization we've got in the area great so it's absolutely pristine down there absolutely beautiful you know one of the uh really amazing things about a place like this is how few people have been down there and we reckon that less than 20 people have ever been down in that part of the cave more people have been to the [Music] moon less than one ton of blue JN is mined from tree Cliff Cavern every year and there's no need or intention to prospect for blue JN within the hidden depths for the time being the demand for blue JN as an ornamental Stone diminished throughout the 20th century but with the turn of the 21st century and the new veins being found it's experiencing something of a Renaissance it's a great vein to work with and the pattern really stands out mat whatever you put it in there are very few areas is in the British Isles that you can see geology so clearly displayed this is a a superb example people like John Turner are working with the mineral a new and large old vases have realized enormous prices at auction houses blue JN is rare enough that it will never support a major industry but its role within the decorative Arts continues to evolve I'm 30 now and you know I've been running around here for the last 11 years like a child loving it love the [Music] place Istanbul Turkey a transcontinental City straddling the boss a straight where Europe and Asia meet for more than two Millennia its location has been strategically important but without one thing it couldn't survive water is the key strategic point in the surviving of the city and crucial for the lives of the people and there is no uh freshwater sources what extraordinary Feats of underground engineering meant this city could Thrive for nearly 2,000 years I'm looking at it like wow how the hell did they think about this we're sitting on top of history and what Subterranean secrets are still being uncovered today it was totally crazy finding something totally unexpected in the year 395 ad Istanbul then known as Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire but this was a city with no fresh fresh water source with people flocking here from all over Europe and Asia an ingenious solution was needed in the 6th Century ad during the reign of Emperor Justinian water was transported 19 km by a series of aqueducts from the Belgrade Forest and stored in underground system in the city center over the centuries as the city is being redeveloped Istanbul's hidden past is being revealed one assistant at a time when redeveloping an old site for his latest shop in 2004 Jen Tuton of a local carpet store got more than he bargained for there were three houses double floors above the escavador hit and that was one of the doors that led us under those houses thanks to the scaver that's how the whole thing started Jen's Builders had uncovered a Subterranean secret this whole place was covered up with my dirt and water and a bit of everything it was totally crazy finding something totally unexpected what they' found was a assistant about 1700 years old [Music] Jen's carpet shop is on the site of a very important ancient Palace this was the water for the upper class they were using it to shower they were using it to cook their meal they were using it to drink it this system and its 18 marble columns would have provided water to the great palace of Constantinople during the rain of Emperor Justinian can you imagine the water that was that was preserved in here was actually drank by the uh royal families he has invited Dr Karam alog to his carpet Shop's restored Subterranean secret to see if he can reveal anything more about it Dr Kum is an archaeologist and historian and has been researching Istanbul systems for more than 20 years is this is the original staircase you can still still see the the the steps yeah so that was the entrance what's the stone made out of this is a brick built structure okay brick brick and mortar okay you can see a TI layer of plaster this is the waterproof hydraulic plaster original bantine plaster when the plaster ends this indicates the maximum storage level for the sister these are monolithic marble columns and these are reinforcement built during the later period in the ottoman era okay so this is not the actual original one that's the original one that's the original exactly [Music] fantastic I find this system beautiful to me it's it's an art to me it's history I'm looking at it like wow how the hell did they think about this and what made them do this but whoever did it I'm happy because this is history beneath the city of Istanbul there are reportedly a staggering 200 ancient Subterranean systems Professor faridan o gumus is an archaeologist and bantine expert he was charged with restoring the oldest system ever discovered it's called Theodosia [Music] system 2009 I was appointed for the restoration consultant of the substructure it's very important for us because this is one of the few butin subst structures very well preserved to our days theod I system was discovered under a 20th century mansion and a municipal building that was constructed in the 1950s it is 45 m x 25 in size and has 32 marble columns 9 m in height so how were these robust Subterranean structures built before the construction Engineers dug the ground and all the height and the width and the length of the structure fixed by the engineers and then they put this column shafts the walls of system were typically made from brick 4 M thick Builders then needed to guarantee they were watertight they plastered the walls those plaster is waterproof and if you look at the corner there you can see the corner is rounded if the corners of systems were not like this the water itself could go out of the system easily through the joint or the walls when we excavate a big empty space like this if we see the corners surrounded then we we assume that this must have been a system water system once used in Antiquity the 8-year renovation of theodosius has been true to its original design the plaster on the wols the restoration plaster from 200 16 it has the same ingredients in it lime and CR bricks that's it the lime gets solid in 15 days but it can stand 5,000 years maybe if you cement it gets hard 3 hours but that destroys the fabric of the wall because it has salt in it that one has no salt across the ceiling are holes leading to the surface above meaning water was available to everyone those holes are used for taking water by buckets uh from the system some of the systems have uh fountains outside the building and uh this was the main source of water uh for the public use the people of Constantinople had perfected the design and construction of system there are remarkable similarities between all of them those are original Steps From the fth century belong to that system hidden underneath This Modern plaster all of the systems in Istanbul from the byzantin period have steps on one of the walls of them those those steps may have been used for cleanic purpose but we don't know for sure their original function what is clear from the design and construction of these 1700 year old structures is that they were built to last even through natural disasters although many earthquakes hit this city and a lot of buildings were damaged badly some of the ancient buildings including this one remain to our days almost without any damage so this tells us that good engineering good calculation good workmanship thanks to all those three things uh beautiful ancient buildings remain to our days without any damage the most famous system known to have survived beneath Istanbul is known as Basilica system the Basilica sstn is is the biggest of the systemns in in the city and it's it's an enormous engineering achievement it was built in the 6th Century to supply water for the great palace and the nearby buildings during the reign of Justinian it is very sophisticated system of water supply it's definitely one of the most important uh monuments of bantin Constantinople this vast Cavern measuring 138 M by 65 M could be filled with 8,000 cubic M of water its ceiling is supported by 336 marble columns each measuring 9 M High many were recycled here we can see one of the reused architectural elements here a stilized wood trun manufactured in in fourth Century the decoration on this column resembles others found elsewhere in the city ancient texts suggest that the tear-like decoration pays tribute to the hundreds of slaves who died during the construction of the Basilica system in the northwest corner there are two striking columns standing on the heads of Medusa that's probably from the 4th Century Roman there's a second one you can see which is up upside down it's not known where these came from but the significance of their use and orientation is clear in a newly christianized City characters like these that were associated with previous belief systems would have been scrapped these are also reused in this structure a local tradition also suggests that the faces were positioned sideways and upside down to eliminate the petrifying power of Medusa's stare Basilica sstn is one of the kind and biggest in in here in this land there's nowhere we can have a bigger example of raran structure like this systems aren't needed for water supply today but experts and passionate locals are determined to make sure they're preserved for generations to come this had to be preserved and had to be um refurbished we're trying to provide people the information and the history that they're actually stepping out Chen and his colleagues have taken extraordinary steps to ensure that NAA system is preserved in order to protect and presume the whole beautiful history under this building we have a huge steel construction that carries the weight of the main building and this way doesn't give any pressure to the sist itself the waiters pushed out many of Istanbul's Subterranean systems have been transformed giving them relevance to life in the 21st century most of these things are privately owned one of them is a restaurant of a beautiful hotel some of them are museums some like this is exhibition Hall we've had painters from around the world coming we had musicians there are a lot of things to be discovered in Istanbul most of these buildings in Istanbul have Mysteries we're sitting on top of History you know if we drilled at the moment on these roads over here we' probably find more sist there is no other Roman city to compare with this size and number of the water storage units as Constantinople [Music] w

Channel: Banijay Adventure

Views: 8,303

Keywords: Defensive Underworld, Fortress Complexes, Fortress Network, Military Tunnels, adventure, archaeology, bunkers, caves, discovery, documentary, educational, engineering, exploration, exploration documentary, exploration series, geology, history, nature, subterranean, travel, tunnels, underground worlds

Id: BxYvKcgymUY

Length: 44min 29sec (2669 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 08 2024