[music playing]
NARRATOR: Russia.
Spanning a staggering
6.6 million square miles,
it is the largest
country on Earth.
Its massive territory is
also the most geographically
diverse, consisting
of some of the most
extreme terrain on the planet--
including dense forests, frozen
tundra, remote mountains,
and barren deserts.
Despite its physical size,
as much as 50% of Russia
remains uninhabited and
largely unexplored by mankind.
Russia is almost twice the
size of the United States.
Just to compare,
the United States
expands over four time
zones, while Russia
expands over 11 time zones.
The size of Russia, its
harsh climate, especially
in the northern parts
of Russia, makes
it very difficult to explore.
NARRATOR: One of Russia's
most mysterious areas
is a valley just
north of Kazakhstan,
where in 1987 archaeologists
from the University
of Chelyabinsk
discovered the remains
of an ancient settlement
which they were able to date
back to between the 17th
and 20th centuries BC.
Much of the original structures
of this megalithic site known
as Arkaim no longer exist,
but scientists have mapped
out its original design, which
includes massive circular walls
similar to Stonehenge.
So Arkaim has been described
as Russia's Stonehenge.
Now, this is quite intriguing
because it's a very
similar latitude to Stonehenge.
So it's been suggested
that it could
have been put there for
astronomical and surveying
purposes.
It seems that
Arkaim at some point
was some type of
observatory, which I think
is incredibly fascinating.
Because it means that
worldwide, our ancestors
witnessed other
things that would
explain this long-held
fascination with the stars.
The way the city was built,
it was a circular structure.
It had a very interesting
central square.
Basically, it was an
interior circle surrounded
by a circle, which to
many means the mandala
principle of Buddhism--
or a depiction of the universe
in a very miniaturized way.
NARRATOR: Incredibly,
archaeologists have found
that Arkaim was built with
features aligned to measure
as many as 18
astronomical events,
such as the solstices
and equinoxes.
And discovered among the
ruins was an ancient statue
of a man looking up to the sky.
Adding to the mystery are
reports of strange anomalies
in the region that continue
to this day, which include
magnetic inconsistencies,
strange lights,
and curious fog formations.
When you consider the
strange lights, the weird fog,
the magnetic anomalies,
the unusual hallucinations
and things that have
happened to people there,
it appears that this is some
sort of energy node or vortex
point on the Earth
that was actually
utilized by extraterrestrials
when this was constructed.
If you actually look
at the shape of Arkaim,
it could have been the platform
for a spacecraft like a rocket
to launch off from.
