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Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production

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Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world

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Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an

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Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there

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Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to

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Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. There are structures in the world

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Speaker 1: that feel like they've been there since the beginning of time.

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Speaker 1: Petra in Jordan's The Great Pyramid of Giza and Italy's

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Speaker 1: Colosseum are so much a part of the fabric of

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Speaker 1: history that it's almost impossible to imagine the world without them.

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Speaker 1: We knowed almost nothing about the individuals who toiled away

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Speaker 1: at their construction. All we have is the evidence of

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Speaker 1: their work incredible achievements in human engineering. But there is

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Speaker 1: an equally amazing achievement that isn't often listed among other wonders. Yet,

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Speaker 1: despite its relative obscurity, its existence has captivated archaeologists for generations,

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Speaker 1: mainly because of how it got there. It's called nan Medol,

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Speaker 1: meaning within the intervals, and it can be found over

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Speaker 1: thirteen hundred miles northeast of Papua New Guinea, in the

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Speaker 1: Pacific Ocean. Nan Medol is just off the eastern coast

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Speaker 1: of pond Pei as part of the Federated States of Micronesia.

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Speaker 1: It is or was, a city that was built inside

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Speaker 1: a lagoon and is comprised of nearly a hundred man

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Speaker 1: made stone islets, all of which are connected by a

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Speaker 1: series of canals. This unique composition has earned at the

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Speaker 1: nickname the Venice of the Pacific. Each stone weighs on

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Speaker 1: average about five tons. There are stones so big they

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Speaker 1: can reach five times that amount, which is what has

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Speaker 1: baffled experts for so long. How were people able to

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Speaker 1: build nan Medol at all. It's possible that the entirety

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Speaker 1: of the island's population was required to move such large stones,

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Speaker 1: but nobody knows for sure. Those who lived near nan

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Speaker 1: Medol believe, however, that the original inhabitants had helped from

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Speaker 1: two sorcerers, Mole Siapa and Olshapa brothers, who had come

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Speaker 1: to the area in a big canoe. They'd wanted to

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Speaker 1: build an altar to the god of agriculture where they

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Speaker 1: could worship. This altar eventually became nan Medol. They were

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Speaker 1: able to move the stones into place, they said, with

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Speaker 1: the help of a flying dragon. Despite the story, no

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Speaker 1: food grows on nan Medol due to the lack of

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Speaker 1: viable soil and fresh water. Instead, everything must be sailed

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Speaker 1: in from the mainland. Another legend claims that the island

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Speaker 1: existed before people ever lived there. It suggests that the

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Speaker 1: giant stones floated into place by themselves, as if they

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Speaker 1: had been moved by spectral hands, hence nan Medol's other nickname,

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Speaker 1: the city of ghosts. Unfortunately, there is no definitive proof

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Speaker 1: of how the island came to be. There are no

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Speaker 1: written historical records, only the stories told by one generation

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Speaker 1: to the next. Scientists believe the truth is far less paranormal,

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Speaker 1: and that the stones were floated from Pompeii to na

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Speaker 1: Medol on bamboo rafts, and searching for historical documents has

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Speaker 1: proven difficult, as a local king once proclaimed that digging

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Speaker 1: on ne Medol would be considered breaking the law, an

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Speaker 1: offense punishable by death. In fact, this declaration has invited

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Speaker 1: speculation about a curse upon the island for anyone who

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Speaker 1: dares disobey it. In nineteen o seven, a German governor

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Speaker 1: named Victor Burgh decided to ignore the king's demand, Berg

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Speaker 1: traveled to Na Mendol and ventured inside a tomb, one

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Speaker 1: that had been said to be the resting place for

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Speaker 1: the remains of several ancient giants. Hours later, after the

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Speaker 1: sun had gone down, the island became a hotbed of

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Speaker 1: spiritual turbulence. Lightning illuminated the sky, heavy rains drenched Burg

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Speaker 1: as the sound of a conk shell blared in the distance.

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Speaker 1: The next day, he was found dead. A German doctor

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Speaker 1: who examined Berg's body could not determine a cause of death,

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Speaker 1: but the locals knew what had happened. Berg had insulted

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Speaker 1: the gods and had paid for it with his life.

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Speaker 1: The mystery surrounding nan Medole has not lessened over the years.

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Speaker 1: If anything, it has only grown, and the island has

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Speaker 1: gone on to inspire musicians, television writers and authors as well,

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Speaker 1: perhaps most notably, HP Lovecraft, creator of the Cthulhu Mythos,

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Speaker 1: based the creature's home of Releia on nan Medol, specifically,

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Speaker 1: the island's origin story. Nan Medole is the stuff of legends.

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Speaker 1: We may never know how it really got here, but

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Speaker 1: one thing is certain, it isn't going anywhere anytime soon,

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Speaker 1: because those stones are really heavy. NASA has captured a

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Speaker 1: lot of strange and interesting things on camera. In the

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Speaker 1: fall of two thousand and fourteen, they released a picture

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Speaker 1: of the Sun with its most active regions highlighted. It

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Speaker 1: happened to form an eerie visage of a jack O lantern.

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Speaker 1: Two years later, the Spitzer space telescope caught a glimpse

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Speaker 1: of too nebulae that bore an uncanny resemblance to the U. S.

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Speaker 1: S Enterprise ships from the original Star Trek series and

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Speaker 1: it's follow up, the next generation. These phenomena can be

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Speaker 1: explained as paradolia, also known as the tendency to see

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Speaker 1: familiar objects or faces in inanimate things. But there was

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Speaker 1: one subject photograph by NASA that defied explanation. It was massive,

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Speaker 1: stretching over two miles long, and nobody knew how it

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Speaker 1: got there. It was first noticed by pilot Trek Smith,

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Speaker 1: who had been flying over southern Australia in June of

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Speaker 1: It was a geoglyph, a design made in the land

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Speaker 1: that could be seen from a distance, and it depicted

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Speaker 1: an Aboriginal man poised to throw a stick or a boomerang.

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Speaker 1: The figure came to be known as the mari Man,

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Speaker 1: named for the township of Marie where it was found.

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Speaker 1: Australians flocked to see the Mari Man for themselves until

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Speaker 1: the local government closed it down, but that didn't stop

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Speaker 1: planes from flying overhead to catch photos for themselves. A

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Speaker 1: picture taken by Nassa's lands At five satellites in May

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Speaker 1: of that year had showed nothing on the plateau, no man,

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Speaker 1: not even a hint of an outline. A few weeks later, though,

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Speaker 1: the satellite snapped another shot, and there it was the

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Speaker 1: Mari Man, in all its glory, as if it had

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Speaker 1: appeared out of thin air. After its discovery, anonymous press

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Speaker 1: releases were distributed to the Australian press. They contained phrases

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Speaker 1: like your state of s A and Queensland Barrier reef,

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Speaker 1: none of which were used by those who lived there.

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Speaker 1: It appeared that the Mari Man had been made by outsiders,

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Speaker 1: namely Americans. How do they know that it had been

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Speaker 1: Americans behind the geoglyph because the releases also mentioned something

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Speaker 1: called the Great Serpent Mound. The Great Serpent Mound was

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Speaker 1: at hundred foot long ancient Native American effigy in Ohio,

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Speaker 1: but although it had been a rich cultural site for Ohioans.

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Speaker 1: A few outside the US were even aware of its existence.

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Speaker 1: From there, things only got stranger. In July, a glass

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Speaker 1: jar was found near the Mari Man. Inside was a

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Speaker 1: satellite image of the site, as well as a United

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Speaker 1: States flag and a note mentioning the Branch Davidian religious group,

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Speaker 1: the same sect that had been involved in a deadly

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Speaker 1: siege with the US government in Waco, Texas, five years earlier.

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Speaker 1: Of course, those things could have been put there to

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Speaker 1: throw authorities off the trail of the real culprit. For

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Speaker 1: a long time, theory swirled around a few individuals who

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Speaker 1: were believed to have been responsible for making the Mari Man.

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Speaker 1: Soldiers in the Australian Army were thought to have left

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Speaker 1: it behind, as were American troops who had been stationed

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Speaker 1: in the area, and honestly, for a long time, the

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Speaker 1: creator's identity wasn't important. The Mari Man had become a

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Speaker 1: tourist destination, and for the next eighteen years it brought

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Speaker 1: fame and business to the own During that time, the

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Speaker 1: landscape of the outback changed as well, and the lines

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Speaker 1: that had made up the figures outline began to fade.

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Speaker 1: Despite being labeled as environmental vandalism by Australia's former environment minister.

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Speaker 1: Most people enjoyed having it around, so in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and sixteen, the locals worked out a plan with the

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Speaker 1: native Arabana people to restore it to its former glory.

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Speaker 1: Precise GPS coordinates and satellite imagery were given to the

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Speaker 1: operators of a construction grader, which replaced the original outline.

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Speaker 1: To restore the Mari Man back to its former glory,

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Speaker 1: a cash reward was offered to anyone who knew anything

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Speaker 1: about the person who originally carved it, but no one

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Speaker 1: stepped forward to the people of Marie. However, that's not important.

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Speaker 1: The Mari Man is part of the town. It's a

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Speaker 1: fixture of the landscape, and the mystery behind its origin

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Speaker 1: only adds to the charm of a very large man

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Speaker 1: who comes from a land down under. I hope you've

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Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe

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Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the

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Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was

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Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.

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Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore which is

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Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show and you can

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Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the world of Lore

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Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious, ye