01x06 - Miracle in the Desert

[bunniefuu]

Abdullah, roll the sails.

Like the first time?

Yes, yes, okay.

Over here, this one?

Yeah!

History often shows us

the most dominant civilizations

are those

with the sharpest blades.

Got a little wind under us now.

But sometimes the most powerful

are those with

the sharpest minds.

This way, yeah?

5,000 years ago, these waters

were part of a vast

trading network

ruled by the mysterious

Lords of Magan.

The Magani were pioneers

of the international

copper industry

during a period of unprecedented

technological innovation

called the Bronze Age.

They were legendary

for having access to copper

in a quantity and quality

that nobody had

ever seen before.

Some of the very first texts

in human history

describe these

mysterious traders

on blackened boats.

But they don't tell

where those boats came from.

Where did these bold pioneers,

who helped fuel an era

that gave the world writing,

the wheel and irrigation,

come from?

And what did their forgotten

desert world look like?

You guys ready?

-Testing, yeah.

-Yeah.

-Yalla yalla.

-Yalla.

Let's do it.

Around 3000 BC

the ancient civilizations

of Egypt, Mesopotamia

and the Indus valley

mastered the power of bronze,

changing the world forever.

To make bronze, you need copper.

And the best copper

was produced in Magan,

an area believed to cover parts

of modern-day Oman and the UAE.

My quest begins at Ras Al Jinz,

on Oman's exposed

northeast coast.

There's a dig up here

on the beach somewhere,

should tell us more

about the Magani.

You lead the way!

The engineer in me

is fascinated

by how the Magani ran

an operation on this scale.

It must have taken

thousands of people

living and working together.

I like your office.

Yeah,

it's fantastic, right?

This is the dream place

where I work with my team.

Archeologist Valentina Azzarà,

from the University of Leiden,

has been excavating ruins

on this beach for over a decade.

All this

is about 5,000 years old.

Wow!

She's discovered evidence

of Magani activity

and hopes our

scanning technology

will reveal more clues

about what went on here.

I know that from the texts

of Mesopotamia,

they describe blackened boats

and copper.

Are you finding anything that

might fit that description here?

Oh, yes.

We found quite a few things

that would fit that description.

Oh!

I will show you.

While I explore

the boatyard,

Joe and Duncan launch

a drone-mounted thermal camera

to scan beneath the sand.

It's just

the mountain, isn't it?

'Cause that's

over the top there.

I think it's

the props, actually.

We realized that

these walls were probably used

as a structure

for waterproofing the boats.

So, they were putting

their boats upside down, here.

Like this?

Yes, like this,

and they would waterproof them

with bitumen.

Bitumen!

It's kind of like a tar,

black, right?

It is black, yes.

Blackened boats!

Exactly.

What's incredible is

that all the ancient texts

from Mesopotamia,

they end with just

the, the description

of these blackened boats

carrying copper.

But here, you're showing me

the boatyard

where the blackened boats

might have been maintained

or even built.

Yes.

Valentina's discoveries

prove Magani traders

used this beach.

But was this just

an isolated boatyard

or part of something

more significant?

How was the scanning out there?

It must have been hot.

It was brutal.

Basically,

it's like a big heat camera

of the whole site.

So, the different colors

show a difference

in temperature.

Stone produces

a different heat signal to sand.

So, any stone structure hidden

underneath the sand will show up

as a lighter color on our scan.

If I load up your previous

excavations, we can see,

so here you

previously excavated

Mm-hmm, yes.

and also, here.

What's that right there?

You see that?

It's very faint.

I can highlight it.

There's a big square here,

and then there's one here.

Okay, yes.

So, we can highlight that

so you can see it

a little bit clearer.

Alright,

but that's definitely

something different there.

It's definitely something.

Given the shape,

it might be some buildings.

Yeah.

That's like literally,

that's right here,

that's like literally

a few feet away!

Exactly!

And that's great.

That's just really fantastic.

5,000 or so years ago,

the sea level was

much higher, right?

It was higher, yes.

We can bring

the sea level up

to what the climate data says

the sea level would have been.

Suddenly the buildings are much

closer to the ancient shoreline.

That's incredible.

Honestly, because evidence

of this natural harbor

is what we've been looking for,

for quite some time.

I mean, if you're

building boatyards

and you're building

permanent structures,

to me that

that sounds like a port.

It does.

And this is incredibly exciting,

because evidence of a port

is what we've been looking for.

I see the blackened ships

that the Mesopotamians spoke of,

sailing off in every direction

from these little

buildings here.

When we see it like this,

we discover more things.

Thank you for, you know,

showing us everything here.

Thank you.

Thank you, all of you.

It's a really

big deal for us.

All this data are making me

very, very happy!

Ahhhhh, nice work,

everybody, nice.

Our scans have convinced me

that this 5,000-year-old port

played an important role

in the Magani copper trade.

But it feels like an outpost.

Nothing discovered here suggests

a base for thousands of people.

To find the Magani civilization,

we need to explore the mountains

where the copper was mined.

To reach them, we need

to navigate the giant dunes

of the Sharqiya Sands.

Let's go!

♪

Radio check, do you hear me?

Good check.

Unlike the great cities

of Egypt and Mesopotamia

built along fertile

river valleys,

conditions in Magan

were far more extreme.

Our journey will take us inland,

across the Sharqiya Sands

over 4,800 square miles

of punishing, stunning desert.

Temperatures here regularly soar

above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

And less than an inch of rain

falls each year.

But somehow life finds a way.

Watch out for the camels.

Oh, agh,

look at the camels!

You're herding goats now, Albert.

I've found

a new calling.

Explorer and farmer.

This is what you think

of when you think of Arabia.

The dunes.

Our Bedouin guide, Nabhan,

knows this area intimately.

The deserts of Arabia.

What do they call it in Arabic?

Ramla du Sharqiya.

I'm in the Ramla du Sharqiya.

Pull left, pull left.

But shifting sands

make driving unpredictable

and dangerous.

Up, up, up, up.

-Alright!

-Yep.

Joe, Duncan,

do you copy?

You guys okay?

We're just

a little bit behind you.

What was that, my tire?

Yeah.

Yeah, stop, stop.

Yeah, I'm just

getting up here.

Okay, go, go, go.

Oh, you guys got a flat!

The tire popped. Ugghh.

So, when he came down

off the dune,

the weight went on this tire.

Oh,.

We heard it pop.

Sorry, bro.

That's the last thing

we need out here.

It's about to get dark as well.

You guys have water?

Gonna need a,

need a bottle soon.

Sun's about to set,

and look where we are.

This is not

a good situation at all.

Let's see if we can get

some air into this tire again.

Agh.

Is that good?

Yup.

There we go,

it's gonna pop.

Three, two

Oh!

That was a better pop. Nice.

Good job, man, thank you.

Alright.

Alright.

You said there's a well

around here, right?

With no roads or signposts,

it's too dangerous

to travel after dark.

We'll stop for the night

and take on some water.

Is this the well?

Yeah, this is

the well here.

Look at that.

Wow, look

at these camels.

Beautiful.

How are you?

Water?

Look at this, we found water

in the desert.

How do you say water

in Arabic?

-Mai.

-Mai?

-Yeah.

-Mai.

My friend.

-I'm Albert.

-Albert.

Joe, Duncan.

-Nabhan.

-Nabhan.

Saeed.

-Saeed?

-Saeed.

You live here?

Yes.

The Bedouin are the only

people who live in this desert.

But water supplies are extremely

scarce and slow to replenish.

So, they never stay long

in any one place.

Yeah?

He invited us

over to his house.

Let's go check it out.

We got to go

as the Bedouins go, right?

Okay.

Move yourself

to the back

and you know the technique, yeah,

it goes front, back, front, yep.

I'll meet you

back at the house. Follow us.

Good luck.

Rather him than me.

Yep.

I am now on a camel

riding through

the deserts of Arabia.

This is a feast!

Mmm.

Excellent.

-Good.

-That means good, right?

-Kwayes.

-Delicious?

Kwayes, kwayes.

- Delicious.

- Delicious.

Tasty.

What are the knives

on their bellies?

This is the Omani daggers.

-Omani daggers?

-Yeah.

Who has the oldest dagger?

Oh!

No, it's yours.

From his great-grandfather.

Wow, look at the detail.

After him

it will go to his sons.

This is called, uh, Saidiyah.

And it's all silver.

Wow.

Passing down one generation

to the next in the desert.

I have a knife.

Try to put it in your case.

Are you trading, Albert?

Try to put this one

in your case.

Yeah, put it here.

Yes, yes.

For many years,

historians assumed the Magani,

like the Bedouin,

were a nomadic culture.

But I'm convinced the scale

of their industry

would have demanded

a large, permanent settlement.

We're looking for the people

that traded copper

5,000 years ago

and trying to find evidence

of a city maybe,

where they might have lived.

Do they know of anything

like this?

Do you know

of any city or village

that goes back 5,000 years old?

The Bedouin are

great collectors of stories.

Maybe the Magani feature

in their cultural memory.

He says

not around this area.

But if you drive across

the dunes, there is mountain.

Mountains?

In the old days, they

used to do it with, on camel.

We better get good

at riding camels

if you can't learn

how to drive better, Joe.

Ha ha, I'm working on it,

I'm working on it.

Hearing those Bedouins

tell their stories tonight,

stories that have been

passed down

from generation to generation,

it made me see the desert

in a whole new way.

Tomorrow we head

into the mountains,

the source of the Maganis'

precious copper.

But was that where these

forgotten people lived?

These switchbacks

are getting tighter.

Let's take 'em all real slow.

Copy that.

-The extraordinary

Hajar Mountain range

in the north of Oman

stretches for over 400 miles.

Millions of years ago

rare minerals, like copper,

were forced to the surface

of these mountains

from deep within

the earth's crust.

This is like a geological

wonderland, huh?

Yes, definitely.

The geology of Oman

made its fortune.

Archeologist Dennys Frenez

has spent years digging

into the history

of Bronze Age trading networks.

Minerals like copper

were available

almost on the surface.

And so the ancient people, they

were able to mine the mineral,

copper minerals,

without digging deep shafts

or complex mine sites.

So, what's

the tell-tale signs?

How do we find copper

in the stone?

Color.

If you want, I can

show you something,

it's a geological sample,

this is a piece of

-Oh, wow, oh!

-chrysocolla.

-Chrysocolla?

-Yeah.

This is copper ore?

Yes. And you can see

how dramatic the color is.

There were veins

on the mountains of that color.

That's gorgeous.

Looks like it's

from a different planet.

Yeah.

Imagine seeing this

on the side of a hill.

It would be beautiful,

wouldn't it?

Definitely.

The oldest evidence we have for

exploitation of this material

is for cosmetic.

So, they probably were attracted

at first for the shiny color.

And they eventually discovered

that it may be turned

into something very hard.

Are these hills

filled with copper?

They used to be.

Nothing of the good materials

is left.

They mined out

all the good stuff they had.

It was like a copper rush.

The international

Magani copper trade lasted

for around 1,000 years.

Look at that ridge right there!

It's like temples of stone.

With no copper left

and with no written historical

record of their own,

there's very little evidence

of the Magani people

or their culture.

And this is where

my children grew up,

just jumping from

boulder to boulder.

We've been hiking

for about an hour now,

up through this canyon.

Maybe this is the same canyon

that Maganian footsteps walked

thousands and thousands

of years ago.

Local climber and explorer

Khaled Abdul Malak knows a place

where at least one Magani

is believed

to have left their mark.

Look up there.

You see there?

What am I looking at? What?

Oh, look at that.

This is rock art

from the Bronze Age.

Oh, wow.

We've got to scan this.

-Alright?

-Yep.

This is the most

significant and elaborate

Magani artwork

ever found in Oman.

The images are faint,

but by capturing hundreds

of high-definition photos,

we can create a scan

that might reveal clues

about how and where

the artist lived.

Is it working, Albert?

I can't quite tell.

I'm in the footsteps

of the artist.

Wow.

This is pretty magical.

This is as close as we can get

to getting into their minds.

Yep.

So, we put

the whole scan

into an augmented

reality platform.

Look at that!

It's like a whole world.

Wow!

When we move the contrast up,

you can see so much more.

Look at that.

Wow.

The enhanced image

clearly reveals

an ancient trinity.

I've seen this before.

Archeologists call this motif

Master of the Animals.

This is a similar image

from Mesopotamia.

A man between two lions.

Okay, with two lions. Okay.

-Right?

-Right.

Links to this major

Bronze Age civilization

shows us that this was

created by the Magani.

Our super high-definition scans

allow us to enhance

other potential clues.

I can almost make out everything.

But what are, what is that?

This one looks

like a beehive tomb.

A, a what?

You know,

they have these tombs

that look like a beehive.

There's one actually

up the mountain.

-A Maganian tomb?

-Yes. Bronze Age.

-Can you take me there?

-Yeah, for sure.

If the Magani

buried their dead here,

maybe they lived nearby.

Just check

every single rock

because in some places

it's very loose.

It's hot.

Now the frying

in the sun starts.

Wow, it's hard, huh?

Yeah.

I think if we make

our way up through here

Whew.

Okay.

Well done.

Hey, hey! Well done, man.

You, too. Whew!

Alright.

Ah!

Wow, look at this.

Unbelievable.

It's so beautiful.

It's perfect.

How much time they spent

to build such a thing.

Amazing, my friend.

It is.

Archeologists

believe that this tomb

could be older

than the pyramids of Egypt.

Some 5,000 years ago,

hands of the Magani

put this tomb together.

Can you imagine this being

the final resting place,

to look out at that view

and watch time pass by?

I feel like I'm getting closer

to the Magani.

But a solitary tomb does not

suggest a large settlement.

And there's another problem:

Where's the water?

Okay.

So, this is it, huh?

Yep.

♪

-I'll take that,

yeah, the ASAP.

Okay, you're double-backed,

I'm double-backed.

Yes.

Rising to over 9,000 feet,

these mountains

have a different climate

to the arid deserts below.

During the monsoon season,

rainstorms can lead

to flash floods,

creating a significant impact

on anyone living here.

And, Khaled tells me,

on the mountains themselves.

To understand

these mountains,

you have to go down there.

You have to go inside.

Okay,

so who's going first?

You're going first.

No, no, you go first.

You don't trust me?

Okay, I'm going first.

You are set there?

Yeah.

Climb in.

Door unlocked?

-The harness is good.

-Yeah.

Double-backed.

I'm ready.

-Let's do it.

-Let's do it.

On the,

walk on the same line.

Oh, my god.

Give me a little slack.

Ah!

Happy to be the first?

No!

Enjoy the descent!

Waaah.

Oh, man.

Wow!

This cavern is

over 300 feet deep

and hundreds of feet wide.

Wow.

Look at this.

It's like

an underground cathedral.

Yeeww!

Oh, man.

Albert, are you down?

Awooo! I made it!

I'm gonna get out of the way,

and then make your way down.

Look at this place!

Ah!

Yee-ha!

Khaled!

He's a little speck.

Wow.

You never would have imagined

standing on the top

that this was down here.

What a place!

Hey, hey!

I've been in many caves.

Yeah.

But nothing like this.

It's not only

desert here,

this is all the work

of the water.

-What?

-Yes.

This is limestone, of course.

And, uh, it was practically

carved by water, you know,

raining water.

I mean, this takes

a lot of water

to make something this big.

-Oh, god, yeah.

-Eating away over time.

Oh, yes, yes.

There are so many others.

It's like Swiss cheese.

You have holes everywhere.

Some of them are

broken and empty,

and the other ones

are still full.

Wow! That's amazing.

It is

an underground canyon.

When it rains,

the water can reach

perhaps six, seven meters.

We better get out of here.

Nicely done, Joe.

What a day, huh?

Oh, yeah.

I don't think

I drank enough water.

I mean, all this talk of water,

and I didn't drink

any water today.

Khaled told me that there are

underground reservoirs,

just like the one I saw today,

hidden all over

this part of Oman.

Can you imagine that?

Now, if the Magani people

figured out

how to tap into them,

it seems likely they would

have had enough water

to support a large population

in a permanent settlement.

I'm kind of convinced

that these remarkable people

would have found a way.

But where?

I'm leading

the team west now,

down towards the foothills where

the mountain floodwaters empty

onto the more fertile plains.

What is that?

Look at that.

Wow.

We are walking

on sacred grounds now.

♪

Just being here, you can kind of

feel the vibrations, the echoes,

the reverberation

of the emotion

that would have been felt

right here at the threshold

of this tomb.

Getting these feelings

of what it would have been like

to be a person living

in this harsh desert,

searching for water, breaking

rocks to try to find that ore.

Wow.

If this is where

they put the dead,

and there's so many of them,

then the living must be close.

We must be getting close.

Close to the heart

of the land of Magan.

I see tombs

in every single ridge!

This area is very rich

for archeology.

There are hundreds,

thousands of tombs.

Thousands?

All around, yes.

Archeologist Mathilde Jean

from Sorbonne University

in Paris

has only been working here

for a couple of years,

but she's already very excited

about what are believed to be

Magani structures.

I will show you here

the tower.

You have a tower?

Yes.

Wow!

And this is the inside.

Look at this.

It's huge, right?

I haven't seen

anything like this out here.

This is incredible!

What is it?

This is one of the monumental

buildings of the Magan culture.

We call it a tower because

you see it's a round building.

Wow!

Made of stones

and probably mud brick.

These towers were probably

partly for managing water.

So, we may have a well

in the center

and structures for water

management all around as well.

Do you think

that the site extends

around this main feature?

Possibly, because we found

ditches around the towers

to collect water.

Wow! Look at this!

We think that the towers

of Magan

are somehow connected

to water management.

The ditch itself is dug

into the bedrock.

Even now when it rains,

the ditches are filled in

with water.

This fills with water.

To the top, yes.

And when you dig

in the bedrock,

you collect the water

from the bedrock.

It's a humbling moment.

Hard evidence that the Magani

not only figured out

how to manage and store water

during the rainy season,

they also engineered a way

to access water

trapped in the bedrock

beneath the ground.

It's possible that we had

at this moment

the first agricultural

exploitation of palm trees.

Wow.

Would there be palm trees

all around this?

Yes, proto-palm plantations.

This is

water harvesting?

Yes.

It's amazing.

And it feels like this was

a moment of great innovation.

Yes.

I thought I was looking

for the copper miners,

but you're showing me

the hydraulic engineers

of the ancient past.

There must have been

a lot of people here.

We believe there could be

a settlement.

I would like to know what is

the extent of this site,

maybe there is stuff elsewhere

and we don't see it now.

Mathilde,

this is incredible!

Yeah.

I'm glad you like it.

Joe, Duncan,

you got to see this.

It's this tower.

This site's it might be it.

Let's bring the GPR,

thermal imaging,

the drones, our LiDAR.

Let's just get it all out here.

We'll throw everything

we have at it.

Copy that.

Thanks, Albert.

Good for a takeoff.

Joe and Duncan launch

the very first aerial

scanning survey of the site.

Yes, you can go there.

-Yeah?

-Yes.

Perfect. Perfect.

Using LiDAR technology

to scan and model structures

above the ground,

while ground-penetrating radar

hunts for evidence of structures

beneath the surface.

This site is extraordinary,

but it's not a vast settlement.

I think there's more

to this story.

We're standing over here

somewhere on the map.

Yes.

I think that in this

satellite image right here,

that it looks

like another tower.

What do you guys,

what do you think?

It looks pretty big, though.

Big yeah, but we are not sure

if it's a tower or not.

Maybe I head out there

and see what it is.

Is the bike ready?

Great, we are at the location

waiting for you.

-He's got it?

-Yeah, he got it.

Nabhan's friend

has a motorbike.

I'm gonna take the bike.

Riding across this desert,

I feel like every pile of rocks

could be the remains

of an ancient structure

built by the Magani engineers.

Look at that.

Wow.

It's a big circular structure

just like the one I saw before.

See this?

Cut bricks.

Cut bricks.

Wow.

Look at that, look at that.

That, that's one of the towers.

That's a Magan-period tower.

What is it, what is this?

Look at this.

Ah-ha, look at that.

It's copper, right there!

Copper.

Mathilde, this is Albert.

Do you copy?

Yes.

I really think

I've found another one.

Amazing.

It's a testament to how

unexplored this country is

that sites like this one

have not been studied.

As the sun sets, and with

the scanning data processed,

it's time for answers.

We know the Magani

harvested water here,

but how are these towers

connected?

If the Magani lived here,

what did their city look like?

It took Joe

a lot of processing, but

Great.

we've got

some nice stuff to show.

You can see both the geology

and the archeology

really clearly.

Wow.

LiDAR picks out

the remains of structures

barely visible to the naked eye.

It looks like

there's so many walls.

It really looks like

there's buildings

all along the side of this hill.

There's buildings everywhere.

Wow.

Wow.

Now we go underground

with ground-penetrating radar.

What we're literally looking for

is any kind of geometric shapes

that don't look natural,

like right angles or rectangles.

As we're, we're dropping

through the levels

underneath the ground,

it's about like

about 50 centimeters each time.

Any of the red areas is

basically a sort of detection.

Red should be more solid

than the silts.

Yes.

Red would probably be

rock or some kind of stone.

Straightaway,

we get a big result here.

The red marks indicate

something solid under the sand.

Oh, my god.

That's amazing.

The area below the tower

reveals strong evidence

of multiple ancient buildings.

It could be

that the settlement

was probably even more extended.

It is one of the main centers

of Magan for sure.

It's really exciting.

It's just gone up

a scale, hasn't it?

Yeah. Thank you

very much, guys, for the job.

Amazing.

So could this be

the first oases?

It could be the first oasis.

It's incredible. It's amazing.

The first oases.

Palm trees in the desert!

Yep.

I came looking

for the copper.

But I think what I found

were the engineers.

That's what this story

really is about.

The legendary land of Magan

was only possible

because the people here

figured out

how to craft a world

out of the desert.

The Maganis' imagination enabled

them to thrive in the desert.

By engineering pioneering

water-harvesting technology,

the Magani were able to support

large human settlements here

for the very first time,

allowing them to irrigate

and farm the lands

around the Hajar Mountains,

while mining the copper

they traded overseas.

I believe the mysterious land

of Magan

was made up of multiple

permanent oasis communities.

A cutting-edge 5,000-year-old

society in the desert.

Proving that while Magani copper

provided the fuel

for the Bronze Age,

the Magani people

were the flame

that brought the deserts

of Arabia to life.

♪

That's what's incredible

about an idea.

Ideas outlive all of us.

That's the power of imagination.

♪