for the full story we've got. the biggest issues get human voice face to face with the news makers. this is here in the russian capital and top stories this hour rebels in libya advance west towards the capital claiming they control gadhafi hometown of sirte. prepared to assume full control of operations in the country. russian police make to arrest in connection with airport bombing in moscow. and. republic of. radiation just two hundred thousand times above normal at the fukushima nuclear plant. operator for what it called unacceptable mistakes and handing prices the

earthquake and tsunami disaster has killed ten thousand so far and over sixteen thousand are still missing. well that brings up to take them out i'll be back with more news more developments in essen half an hour from now in the meantime when you need to keep your community from enemy fire there's only one place to go underground and off he now heads for rural ukraine and far eastern russia to explore hundreds of kilometers of water on tunnels. it's always darkest people who come from face things you don't know german grenade go to doesn't work and. rage here a long time ago now they played. on aid. and even perform religious rites. we know is that there is nothing accidental in god's deeds these manmade cade's which are a significant part of russian history attempt to an underground.

adesa a city in the south of ukraine the film assaulted republic. at the weekend local dave has set out on an underground expedition. the most comfortable way to get around the depths of the underground maze because by car. these manmade caves and the world's longest more than two hundred thousand kilometers of what it is will show me the way does it go to the right over to the left normally i go from that side but if you make your choice this is a short because but over there the scenery is more beautiful ok or go to the right . locals call these pits catacombs stone for construction used to be mine kid the first excavation began some two hundred years

ago. the pits stretching over some one and a half thousand kilometers have already been mapped each year research is chock new need to scavenge caves that are schools of kilometers in length. and leg. scottish no longer there is no. hold to tell you about it at all said the other end to the arch. i'm going to meet as that. good luck we're twenty ok thanks the adesa catechumens were home to parties and bases during world war two members of the underground expedition hope to find one of them the scientists who study caves known especially ologists found another passage did they map out the newly found colorado. but they can't go any further to the pits a flooded they can only continue with the help of diving equipment. the water is

too muddy we can't see anything else where is the clear deep water is the bid for the room. the pits all look alike on the water and you can lose your way in one time. they have to tread very carefully to avoid kicking up the line sediment it's next to impossible to find a way back through the muddy water. alexander has been able to determine the pits direction and height. of. the videos i'm freezing. who went out that bit of passage to. we'll have to look for an alternative route now that will discover another bleach bottle of the adesa catacombs. vladivostok the main russian military naval base in russia's far east some eight thousand kilometers from a desolate russian engineers built the fortress here at the beginning of the

twentieth century than time it was the biggest and most modern naval military construction in the world. the sutherland of all stoked defense frontline was located at muskie island the only way to get there was by ferry. it was the military alone which knew about the existence and location of many underground hideouts for many theaters today the island is open for visitors and members from the lot of us don't dig a club off the tally dimitry and alexi carrying out scientific expeditions on the weekends they explore military architecture monuments from different eras the island has them all including fortifications built by the military engineers of the songs as well as soviet underground hideouts. if you keep to the maps directions

and don't lose your way chances are you'll find those installations the problem is that they hate to some way and beyond the woods it would take more than one attempt to find them on. the ferry to the village of on the island of russkie reaches its destination in forty minutes the diggers came here to take a look at a unique fortification the vanishing of battery which for a long time had been a classified facility it was a key element in blood of defenses the purpose of these guns was to protect the city from sea and land assaults their range of fire was thirty five kilometers they were never actually used for military purposes and the last salvo for training was fired in one thousand nine hundred to now the fort is a museum. these guns were cast in the steel works in one nine hundred thirteen. barrels sixteen metres long and weigh about fifty tons.

principle if you really want to. complex of underground structures three stories deep underneath the tower. was the last commander of the battery now retired he's the museums and is only too willing to show guests the underground storage of shells and powder. if you buy me this is the third under ground floor located underneath of the tower it's sixteen meters deep the room was used to store shelves and here the shelves. nearly five hundred kilos a mechanical winch operated by two soldiers was needed to lift them. the soldiers did their job like clockwork. between shots it took them less than two minutes to reload the cannon and fire. it has been loaded the platform to the

next rock show you how it's done. shells of various types are rotating racks which of them is loaded depends on the orders of the commanding officer. if you turn around now you can see a rack containing armor piercing shell. first caves were dug in the late nineteenth century. russian military engineers build the world's most powerful fortifications in blood of all stock after the defeat of the russian naval base at port arthur in one thousand and five during the war with japan. special care was taken to protect personnel from shells the votes were reinforced with for me to think concrete underground passages were also built between the caves. the fortifications cost seventy three tons of gold which equated at the time to approximately two hundred million dollars.

to refer to the cations of the saying every fortification has its unique layout depending on a particular district. the fortifications have been built of the highest points. the garrison of such fortifications could defend independently each holding out for two months of the most vulnerable parts of the fortification where the enemy could dig underneath the buildings dug what are known as counter mine galleries these are the deepest underground vaults of the fortress. soldiers would sit in these. listening to what was happening on the of the sonic the what if they heard someone digging underneath the force these were extended that way everything would collapse because of the explosion rendering this part of the fortress impenetrable to the enemy. the adesa catechumens scattered underground in all directions and the exact

opposite of the straight cemented tunnels of vladivostok the soft calcareous rock allowed the a decimal ainus to extract stone anyway new mines were often connected to the old ones creating a complicated network of underground passages that the but there's not a soul was found in this because of the cancer cures. it still works well it can be used. dark what you can see how it cuts through limestone you can see how it is. until the one nine hundred seventy s. stone was extracted manually with the help of special souls but the process became simpler after a local miner invented a special stem cutting machine. the average depth of the adesa catacombs is twenty five meters but a million years ago it was actually the sea bed the remains of shellfish slowly built under extreme pressure to form a solid but light calcareous rock layer after layer just as they did business there

on new forests around the desa suit to become be used as building material breaks gone be made in the absence of coal that soupy built into limestone and began mining it as soon as address was founded and you constructions in the city are required more limestone. truck stone was used for almost all of the buildings in odessa residential houses and theaters shops and restaurants and even churches. today the vladivostok fortress is abuzz with activity each day scolds tear up the quiet for number seven is passages. going to take a fancy to a central park to come from vacation. to school children on a slab until to perfect their skills by clearing the curtains they've set up.

we know that all grandfathers and grandmothers built before it's part of our history and. we really come here to skate. as a rule we skate here when it's just rainier saw it. but most of the time the faults of the vladivostok fortress a quiet. in the peaceful environment of the central russian panzer region monk seeking silence dug out a small cave in a hillside close to the citizen river. that was in one thousand one. later of the monks turned the cave into russia's largest underground church. in soviet times the structure was almost destroyed and buried. but in two thousand and five excavations began.

later a senior priest restored the church and now services and. people can be present at a service in the temple at the same time because that is why the temples considered the biggest underground temple in russia. the temples history is full of mysteries. according to the legend the cave was the beginning of several underground passages which lead far beyond the monastery territory the passages have not been found and excavation is still ongoing research as think that church items may have been hidden underground from the bolsheviks. excavators have already dug up and restored an underground cell when a homemade monk used to live. it just now we are coming to a special place in our monastery. the old men will have to sit at this spot

he would spend all his time in prayer he would spend ten years here. this is the window he was handed food through from the male monastery on the ground the entrance would be sealed up he would talk only to god and spend ten years here praying. tatiana and then is geophysicists they hope that special equipment will help them locate underground voids to support the rumors which claim the existence of the secret passages. download the official t. application. i pod touch from the top story. on the go. video on demand. costs

and feeds now in the palm of your. question. dot com hungry for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news maker. the adesa catacombs the world's largest manmade underground structure people extracting building stone here for over two centuries often found natural underground cavities filled with clay work was immediately halted in such places because of fears they could collapse local bakers take special care when examining such dangerous sections of the catacombs. the remains of prehistoric animals can be found in the case of a death. more than the. clay preserves bones very well. but

will have a look for in a. red brown clay is a wonderful preserving agent for such bones. the cloth here. at the. knees or fossilized bones. will give them to the museum of paleontology. addresses museum of paleontology is one of the best known museums across the former soviet union nearly one third of its exhibits feature objects found in the catacombs scientists discovered that thousands of years ago the area of what is now a death was inhabited by desert animals such as hyenas and camels there's also a unique exhibit two perfectly intact ostrich eggs they date back to the third century b.c. but the museum boasts even more valuable finds. this. very interesting

elaboration of the buying they ways interesting question is. this little how has been the subject of debate how did it come about was it the result of mechanical treatment someone doubt whether this could have been done by ancient people this is highly unlikely there were no humans of any kind of three to five million years ago . clay helps the paleontologists make discoveries but it makes life much more difficult for geologists looking for an underground passage in the monastery in the pens a region the clay is so thick that it prevents their instruments from examining cavities hidden below. so the geophysicists turned to equipment used for vertical electrical sanding. it can pinpoint underground voids the depths of up to fifteen metres. up already.

let's begin before we're ready just every no. turn here nearly go electric shock. what was the voltage about eight hundred volts i would have thought. scientists gauge the electrical conductivity twice they carry out one test where they think a tunnel might be located. where they don't expect to find any tunnels this is to help make the results more accurate the test revealed. find cavities around the tree. the new shows and tony the churchwarden the outcome of the tests and suggests that excavation work should continue. however have their own version of the underground ministries layout. according to the book. the monastery points east words when we accidentally turned the book upside down the underground

monastery revealed image of the holy mother of. the two entrances look like her legs. the baby's head. is the head of our lady the church and burial are her shoulders and streaming robes we don't know whether it's a coincidence providence. is that there is nothing accidental. these manmade caves attract artists as well as scientists. is a professional photographer and journalist some years ago she often took people on guided tours of the caves of the. us it was then that she came up with the idea of an art project to draw public attention to the neglected. after two years preparations she began taking pictures of red figures wearing long

clothes and standing against the background of forts and underground galleries of the naval fleet. as a result you get something incompatible. you have current realities with those grandiose which is covered with stupid inscriptions like so in sao has been here on the other you have these great. so you get contrasting images and the spiritual as opposed to basic human passion. is now intend to draw attention to another underground object that up until now only special service officers knew about. the facility consists of several long tunnels and is

a former reserve command point for the region's leaders. the facility was declassified in the year two thousand and is now completely abandoned. bigger enthusiastic intent to start a cold war museum in these tunnels and they've already got the first exhibit. this scary figure it is the will to do is call it boria it's me and the guys from the deer club who made it as a sort of sawmill of water long on a it was like joe montana has its roots. nine hundred fifty eight. symbolizes the cold war years a constant readiness for war. very little is known about the facility to this day. that's why. all the equipment and documents they find in the abandoned. ribbon with some text on it still work so we'll have to draw it to find out what it. is riven is

a very important they can help restore of the facilities history. names addresses and other figures we've got a lot to decipher. we've never been past this hatch. let's go. the official blueprints of the facility is still classified so the diggers have to study each room themselves. some dangerous containing worn out electric power lines but that doesn't stop the research is curiosity and they proceed carefully. and there are two rooms there connected by a passage a wooden staircase leading up it's a very old. the bunker was built during the second world war in one thousand nine

hundred two it was intended for use by the primordial regions administration and had all the resources needed to support people over two months. obviously the communications are allowing the inhabitants to receive fresh information make decisions and inform people about their decisions this is over territory would be controls fortunately there was never a real war in these parts so the object was not needed. by contrast severe fighting used to rage in the adesa caves explorers are still finding parties and bases down there. world war two resistance fighters operating here for to german and remaining troops a group of diggers has found the camp ace of one of the potters and units black dust is all that's left of the straw that used to come out one of the beds. here is something big there's a lot of something. i

found. when the partisans were asleep sometimes coins are rolled out of their pockets but. the one nine hundred twenty two. says here once again. the diggers take every object they find to the small museum the cartridges and small coins will be added to the collection. these are the weapons the partisans you they represent the types of armaments you would usually find underground. the germans were aware of the location of the camps but they never ventured into the depths of the stone minds the only exit to the surface was three kilometers from the partisans base camp. to the camp were blocked up undermined sharpshooters carefully protected the main entrance.

normally these barricades were manned by two fighters they were on duty for two hours at a time and it was pitch black here an untrained man found it very difficult to sit here under such conditions very often the partisans saw the light when somebody approached the barricades from the entrances and they targeted it is just not the barricades it had to be unassailably. have never seen real life fighting but today there frequented by members of a reenactment group response team imitate russian marines. was that. do you read me. the role players submachine guns and pistols and exact replicas of real weapons the only difference is that small plastic balls are used instead of live ammunition. and the filters are designed for military operations in the first place second grandfather served here. as

a military spirit and the atmosphere of this place for you. the people working here won't serve with me in the same division of the marines. so we've got a lot in common i'm no good. in this exercise. his soldiers to defend the barracks and follow a path which is seen by. fighting breaks out in the fields on the. russian engineers built before christmas one hundred years ago still be defended against weapons with simply says. focus is going to defend this firing from this nice little full well that we're going to be carted circle in because the corridor is exposed to gunfire. protected

by thick concrete. even a flight of stairs stops attackers in their tracks. if someone appears from that side the defendant first sees his feet and that's to say even if you crawl in all the force of the first film you'll see the defenders go in are. several assault attempts have ended in failure the blood of a stock fortress has proved once again that it cannot be conquered. people have a special fascination with manmade caves the footsteps and flashlights of new explorers and pound to disturb the quiet darkness of the underground labyrinths fifty years to come but those who've experienced the excitement of the trailblazers are almost bound to return to this some world again and again.