The UnXplained - First Season

Hidden churches...

cut from the depths of the earth.

Staircases that defy the laws of physics.

And mansions where visitors become lost

in an endless maze.

Mysterious structures fascinate us because

they're like puzzles...

waiting to be solved.

What appears on the surface to be...

a church...

or a mansion...

...can actually be more than that.

Could a pyramid have been a power plant, for example?

Well...

that is what we'll try and find out.

High in the mountains of Northern Ethiopia,

a mile and a half above sea level,

lies the city of Lalibela.

Each year, tens of thousands of worshippers

make the arduous journey here,

despite its remote location,

to visit 11 of the strangest holy places on Earth.

Lalibela is one of Africa's most mysterious sites.

It's a complex of 11 monolithic churches

that are hewn right out of the bedrock.

Most churches are built on the surface

and they're built from the bottom up.

Whereas, in Lalibela, they're built from the top down.

It's the only place on the Earth that has cathedrals

that are built underground as opposed to being

built on the surface.

What makes the Lalibela churches

so unique...

is not just their building construction,

which is unlike anything else in the world.

But also the otherworldly feel of the complexes

where these different monuments can be found.

Entering into the complex of churches

was almost like entering another realm.

Almost as if those who constructed Lalibela

had a ritual function.

And that was to bring themselves closer to God.

It's an incredible piece of engineering--

this idea that you build 11 churches below ground.

But it creates its own unique problems.

How do people get down there?

Uh, how did they move all of the rock out and where did it go?

Uh, those are the things that start running through my mind.

Dating back to the 12th century AD,

each of Lalibela's 11 churches was painstakingly

carved by hand--

and from the outside--

like enormous sculptures.

The complex also includes an extensive system of tunnels,

catacombs all carved out of solid bedrock.

But why?

Why build a magnificent series of structures

in the toughest way possible?

The builder of Lalibela

was a king by this very name, Lalibela.

And it is said that in the 12th century,

he was living in Jerusalem

and decided to come back into Ethiopia

and create these monolithic churches.

And it's very clear

that Lalibela, uh, in the design

of these different churches,

was trying to replicate Jerusalem.

Indeed, he was trying to create a new Jerusalem.

So by entering into this complex,

it's almost like you were entering into Jerusalem itself,

which was considered to be the most holy shrine in the world.

It is described that

Lalibela had a dream

and in the dream, he was instructed by God

to go back and make a copy of Jerusalem...

at the site.

And in order to fulfill God's request,

King Lalibela and others who were involved

worked night and day for 20 years.

So in their minds, right at the beginning,

they had a three-dimensional structure in mind.

'Cause when they started, it was just a big piece of rock.

And how did they know that if they were going

to go 150 feet down into the ground,

that everything was okay?

Because the worst possible thing would be

that you'd almost finished and then you found

that there was a massive problem at the bottom.

11 underground churches.

Some over 100 feet deep.

Each carved from a single block of stone

in only 20 years' time.

Archeologists date the churches back nearly a thousand years.

But even with today's modern technology,

such an incredible architectural feat

would be considered impossible.

So how was it accomplished?

If we go and build

a big structure today, a skyscraper,

we have blueprints, we have engineering

design pathways and we have a construction plan.

It tells us how we would do every step

of the way; where every screw, nut, bolt,

weld, poured concrete goes.

None of that exists for these large, ancient structures.

So we really got to think outside the box

and try to find how they were done,

why they were done

and who built them.

A very curious thing

at Lalibela is that there are some very unique carvings there.

There's very interesting symbols

that are carved into these churches.

Do they mean something if you put them together?

In the church of St. Mary at Lalibela,

there is the Star of David.

And this, along with a number of other mementos

and designs are extremely indicative

of the presence of the Knights Templar.

This has suggested to many

that they may well have been present

during the construction

of the churches at Lalibela.

Now the Knights Templar were a very interesting

religious order that became

very powerful during the Middle Ages.

But what people don't often realize is

they were very interested in building,

in, uh, geometry, in, uh, numerology.

Uh, and so they were at once very practical

and pragmatic and then also very spiritual and mystic.

The Knights Templar had

a great amount of knowledge in masonry

and architecture and building structures.

Now, it's debated as to whether or not

the Knights Templar would have been in Ethiopia at this time.

But there's some interesting evidence

that an Armenian geographer at the time

documented seeing men with red and white regalia,

blond or reddish hair, long hair,

which could indicate that he's talking about Templars.

So, it could be that the Templars themselves

were the ones that built Lalibela,

or that they helped King Lalibela build the site.

Could Templar stonemasons have

influenced the construction of the churches at Lalibela?

And if so, for what purpose?

If you look around Lalibela,

there are altars there

that have spaces in them that would

precisely fit the Ark of the Covenant,

which was approximately four feet in length,

two feet wide and around two feet in height.

It has been suggested that the rock-cut churches

at Lalibela were built to house the Ark of the Covenant.

The lost Ark of the Covenant,

the gold box which contained the original Ten Commandments--

could it have been hidden at Lalibela centuries ago?

During the Crusades, we know that the Templars

occupied the Temple of Solomon.

And so, it could be that they were

the keepers of the Ark of the Covenant.

And the more you look at Lalibela, and given the fact

that we see that it's built underground,

you start to think, here we have these churches

that are hewn out of these megalithic rocks.

They're built like defensive structures.

They have all kinds of interesting symbolism there

that indicate Templars.

And you start getting the impression that this is actually

some kind of defensive fortress

to protect... something.

Was Lalibela originally built

to house and hide the Ark of the Covenant?

And if so, why only 11 churches?

Jesus had 12 apostles.

So wouldn't it seem likely that there were

12 churches built, one for each of them?

There are many who believe

the answer to that question is yes,

and that the Ark is still hidden in an undiscovered church.

Incredible, you say?

Perhaps not as incredible as a stairway in New Mexico

whose builder wasn't only divinely inspired

but may have actually been sent...

directly from heaven.

February 11, 2019.

Investigative journalist and radio host

David Whitehead travels to the Loretto Chapel

in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I'm here to investigate a really mysterious structure,

the famous Loretto staircase.

We don't know who built it, we don't understand

the physics behind it and we don't even have

a good indication as to what it's made of.

Oh, wow.

This place is beautiful.

Meeting with David is chapel curator Richard Lindsley.

So this is it. Absolutely.