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(Sergio)
(Rhoda)
(Sergio)
for generations and generations.
Anybody passing this by would just think:
That is just a heap of rocks.
(Rhoda)
And it's not the heap that you think something was here.
It's just really like regular, formless rocks.
- You know what I mean? - Yeah.
That's what it looks like, until somebody, not that long ago,
flew above this place and saw something very unique.
Let's take a look, shall we?
Today, we're visiting the Stonehenge of the Middle East.
It is the largest monolithic structure in this region.
Five concentric circles built of 42,000 rocks,
and an ancient chamber in the middle of it all.
Whoa! How did they get this rock here?
And a window with a mysterious cosmic purpose.
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The terrain here is so rocky that we can barely pass with our SUV.
Oh. Whoa, whoa, whoa! Look at those rocks. Yo!
So, how in the world did they transfer 42,000 rocks
with the limited technology they had 5,000 years ago?
And even more interesting...
you can't see this place from a human height.
There are no hills around, no mountains.
So, whoever built it, they couldn't see the circles.
So, how did they construct them in such a perfect radius,
and who did they do it for?
What was the purpose of this place?
In this episode, we go on a quest to find the answers
to one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of the Middle East.
GILGAL REPHAIM
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It's about a kilometer and a half from the main road,
but all of it is on a rocky, bumpy ground like this one,
and there are some big holes in it.
So, if you come in a small vehicle, it's possible but extremely challenging.
(Rhoda)
This car was not made for this.
(Sergio)
We actually wanted to come here for quite a while now,
but we couldn't because this place is located in the military training zone
in the Golan Heights.
So you can't just come here at any time.
Entrance is allowed only on the weekends.
And, even then, if you want to fly your drone here
so you could see those beautiful circles from above...
you can't.
You need to have an Israeli drone license, an operator's permit.
You need to have permission from the military.
So, luckily for us, today we joined the Israeli Drone Association
which collaborated with the idea to close the airspace
so that a few of us can fly our drones here.
(drone blades whirring)
(indistinct speech)
(Rhoda)
which means the "stone heap of the wild cat."
Nobody really knows why it was called this way,
but that's how it appears on the ancient Syrian maps.
(Sergio)
literally means the "wheel of giants,"
and it brought a lot of attention to this place
because "Rephaim" is mentioned in the Bible
in relation to the race of a very tall people...
the giants.
It is very important to understand
that this name was given recently to this site,
so it cannot be used as evidence to prove anything.
Because I've seen a lot of videos out there online
which take the name for this place,
and that's how they connect this place to biblical accounts about Rephaim.
But that cannot be used as evidence.
We need to rely on archaeological and historical evidence
to find out the truth.
This place is a subject to much dispute and opinion.
There is only about one thing that scientists agree on.
It was built around the year 3,000 BC.
This ancient structure is built of five concentric circles.
The outer circle has a diameter of 156 meters,
roughly 500 feet.
That makes it the largest megalithic structure in the Middle East.
It is estimated to have about 42,000 rocks
weighing up to 40,000 tons.
Here is a really cool thing about this place.
In the center of all the circles,
there is a large heap of stones
about 13 feet high.
From the side, it doesn't look very impressive.
But, once you climb on top of it you realize...
that's not just a heap of stones.
It is some type of a building with a chamber inside.
It has a window, and it has steps leading toward some type of an entrance,
so we can actually go inside of it.
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(exhales)
- Wow! - (Rhoda)
Watch your head.
Oh my gosh.
Oh, this is not a place I want to be in.
This place looks like it has a lot of spiders.
I do not like spiders.
Whoa!
This is... Wow!
(Rhoda)
I think people did here some sort of ceremonies,
and I see a star.
So, you see, this is the window from where the ray of the sun
comes in only once a year.
Any other time of year... it's like this.
See, the sun is up there.
In this window you have sun here, but not inside the chamber.
But only once a year, the sun goes through.
In the center chamber of the Gilgal Rephaim,
archaeologists found a window which has a very unique purpose.
It only allows the sun rays to enter on the longest day in the year...
the summer solstice.
And here is how it works.
The window is built in a very specific angle,
with very thick walls,
so that the sun rays are blocked from entering the chamber
on all days of the year except just one...
the solstice day,
in which the Earth achieves its maximum axial tilt
and thus lets the sun shine through the window and into the chamber.
That's incredible that they had the knowledge.
I don't have the knowledge how to do that, actually.
If I wanted to, I would want to know where to put the window,
at what day of the year, and how to build this.
There's no way, in my lifetime, I'd be able to figure it out by myself.
How did they know this?
We gave it a farther thought.
To build this window,
one would need to know which day of the year is the longest.
And since a clock that would measure the hours and minutes of the day
was not invented yet for another millennia,
they would have to use something different yet very precise.
So, imagine this is our plateau.
This is the ground in the mountain.
The easiest way to find the longest day in the year
would be to take a pole, stick it in the ground.
And then, when the sun rises,
it would cast a shadow.
When the sun reaches its midday,
you'll just trace the shadow until it's the shortest in that day,
and you mark it on the ground.
So, let's say the shadow gets up to here.
The next day, the sun is gonna go a little bit farther into the horizon
as the Earth tilts...
and now the shadow goes over here.
So, now we've got another line a little farther during the new day.
And as it continues doing so,
you can measure, throughout the entire year, your shadows.
And you can find when the shadow is the longest and the shortest,
and that would be an indication what is the longest day
and the shortest day in that year.
This is actually how the Egyptian people had their first
kind of a time-measuring device
where they would divide the day into two sections:
before the noon and after noon.
This actually takes quite some intelligence to figure out.
Another proof that the people that lived there 5,000 years ago
were not as primitive as one would assume.
So, here is the greatest mystery about this place.
It is built on a very large plateau.
There are no hills or mountains anywhere close.
So, it's not like you can go up on some hill and look down and say:
Ooh, look how pretty this thing looks.
Whoever built it knew that the regular human
cannot see the formation from the ground.
It is hard to speculate,
but there are two main theories explaining the purpose of the circles.
One interesting theory suggests
the circles were built for the purpose of idol worship--
like the Tammuz and Ishtar, the gods of fertility--
believing that the gods could see the circles from above.
The other theory, that is very interesting,
suggests that this structure was built with the help of a very tall people
who could see the circles much better than an average person.
In the book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 3,
the Bible tells us about Og, King of Bashan,
being a very tall person.
The text says that his bed was 13 and 1/2 feet long.
That's 4 meters.
Now, Bashan, the area, is actually today's Golan Heights,
so he lived here.
And then the text goes on saying
that he was the last descendant of the Rephaim.
The Rephaim is the race of exceptionally tall people.
So, if Og, King of Bashan, was to stand next to these circles,
would he be able to see them all from his height?
So, we decided to conduct a test.
We raised the drone to my height,
6 feet and 3 inches, roughly 1.9 meters.
At this height, you can't see any circles, just a heap of stones.
Next, let's raise the drone to the altitude of 13 feet,
that's 4 meters in elevation,
and see how it would look like from the eyes of Og.
This is really, really cool
because we can actually start seeing the circles from this height.
And imagine if cut down the weeds.
You'd be able to see them even in a better way.
One could argue that Og lived 2,000 years after the structure was built.
But that's actually good for this theory because it is very plausible
that Og's great, great, great, great-grandpa was a little taller than him,
and he would even be able to see this place better.
And there is also another biblical text in the Book of Numbers
that says that the Israelites seem to themselves as grasshoppers
in front of these giants.
That's how I feel next to you, always needing to look up like that.
- It gives me neck cramps sometimes. - I'm not that tall.
Mm-hmm.
(chuckles)
Cute.
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(Sergio)
This place has so many mysteries,
like the small hatch in the mount
that points to specific coordinates on Mount Hermon,
a place that we are yet to explore.
In the end of the day, we're leaving here with one conclusion...
that we must return,
for we have only scratched the surface behind the mysteries of Gilgal Rephaim.
I can't believe you don't like spiders.
Spiders are actually nice, you know.
They live in king's palaces. I read this today.
- Where did you read it? - In Proverbs.
- Oh, it's true. - Spiders live in king's palaces.
Because nobody can get up there with a broom.
(laughs)