Strangest Things (2021–2022): Season 1, Episode 5 - German Codes, Egyptian Helicopters and the Future Machine - full transcript

[Corey] What made this machine
one of the most

dangerous weapons in the world?

The Germans were convinced
that they had created

the holy grail of cryptography.

[Corey] How could there be
a carving

of a modern helicopter

on an ancient
Egyptian inscription?

[Rebecca] These shapes,
they're instantly recognizable

but they are ancient,

they are thousands of years old.

[Corey] And can this
800-year-old device



covered in strange sayings
really predict the future?

[Kevin] "In me are strange
and hidden things",

I am the revealer of secrets."

[Corey]
These are the most remarkable

and mysterious objects on Earth,

hidden away in museums,

laboratories and storage rooms.

Now, new research and technology

can get under their skin
like never before.

We can rebuild them,

pull them apart, and zoom in

to reveal the unbelievable,

the ancient, and
the truly bizarre.

These are the world's
Strangest Things.



This unassuming
80-year-old device

looks like a typewriter

fitted into a plain wooden box.

But it is one of the greatest
secret weapons in history.

[Sascha] What we are looking at

is one of the most successful

and most powerful
codemaking machines.

[Corey] Now using cutting edge
digital technology,

we can bring it to life.

[dramatic music playing]

[Corey] And reveal
its mystifying inner workings

like never before.

This is the Enigma machine.

Measuring just six inches tall
by eleven inches wide.

Inside is a complex network
of wires

connecting switches and rotors.

Each rotor and plug
can be set in a vast number

of different combinations.

It's a revolutionary technology

built on thousands of years

of codemaking and codebreaking.

An encryption machine
considered uncrackable.

[Andrew] There are
over 150 million,

million, million combinations.

What that means is that
if you could check one

every second,
it would take over 300 times

the age of the universe
to crack the code.

[Corey] How does it work?

What is its fatal flaw?

What is the Enigma machine?

At first glance,
it may not look like much.

[Sascha] But looks
can be deceiving.

This humble little device
was the Nazi secret weapon.

[Corey] It's the end result
of an arms race

that has been going on
for thousands of years.

[Philip] The Enigma machine
uses a cipher

and ciphers are
a very ancient device

for encoding
and hiding information

that you don't want
someone else to read.

[Corey] Two and a half
thousands years ago,

ciphers are already common.

The scytale is a device
believed to have been used

by the Spartans
as early as 400 BCE.

[Tamar] They would wrap
a piece of fabric

around the rod and then
write their message

across the fabric so that
when the fabric was unrolled,

it would just look like
a series of letters.

[Corey] But it's got
a fatal flaw.

If you had a rod
of the same size,

you could then
wrap the fabric around

and you'd be able to read
the coded message.

[Corey] Keeping messages secret

becomes a never ending battle.

[Sascha] You really get
the kind of arms race

where one side or both sides
really are trying to develop

increasingly
sophisticated codes,

while their rivals
are trying to develop

increasingly sophisticated
and effective forms

of breaking those codes.

[Corey]
Five hundred years later,

Julius Caesar is using
a substitution cipher.

[Philip] All the letters
throughout the message

are just shifted by the same
amount through the alphabet.

Let's say they'd go
five letters on,

so all the A's become E's

or B's become the F's,
and so forth.

[Corey] But it also
has a weakness.

The letter substitution rule
is fixed.

Once Caesar's enemies
figure out the rule,

they can break every message.

For 2000 years, the battle rages

between codemakers
and codebreakers,

until the 1920s,

when this strange
and complex device appears.

[Sascha] The Germans
were convinced

that they had created

the holy grail of cryptography,

an unbreakable code.

[Corey] The key to its success
is its simple operation.

[Andrew] You type a letter
on the keyboard,

and then above it
there's a panel of lights

also with every letter
of the alphabet on them.

And when you press a letter
on the keyboard,

a different letter lights up
on that panel of lights.

[Corey] Inside Enigma,
each letter on the keyboard

is connected electronically
to the lightboard

via three rotors.

Within the rotors
are a jumble of tiny wires

that transpose one letter
into another.

This circuit passes
through every rotor

on the way to the lightboard.

What makes Enigma unique

is that every time a letter
is pressed,

the first rotor advances
by one space.

When it has been
all the way around,

the next rotor advances by one
and the process begins again.

[Andrew] As those rotors
keep on moving,

it changes, randomizes the code.

If I pressed A, I might get a Q.

If I pressed A again,
I might get an S.

Press A again, I might get a T.

And that pattern
of apparently random letters

makes it very,
very hard to decode.

[Corey] An electrical
plugboard on the front

adds more ways
to scramble the connections.

Yet despite this complexity,

decoding messages
is child's play.

All you need
is another Enigma machine

set up the same way.

[Andrew] All you have to do
is type it

into your Enigma machine
configured appropriately

and then the plaintext
should appear

flashing on those lights.

You can decode it
one letter at a time.

And you can tell
your superior officer

the coded message
that's been sent.

[Corey] It's the greatest
encryption device

the world has ever seen.

The Germans are convinced
it's uncrackable.

Why have they gone
to so much trouble?

Using weak codes had pretty much

cost the Germans
the First World War.

In January 1917,
German Secretary of State,

Arthur Zimmerman,
sends an encrypted telegram

to the German Embassy in Mexico.

[Sascha] The content
of the telegram

was basically an offer to Mexico

to get on the right side
of the war

while they had the chance
and as a reward,

after the inevitable
German victory,

Mexico would be given New Mexico

and other territorial parts
of the United States.

[Corey] But British codebreakers

intercept the message.

Unknown to the Germans,

they have already broken
the old code

used in the telegram.

They pass the message
to the Americans.

Outraged, the US joins the fight

and the war turns
against Germany.

[explosion]

[Sascha] It's a huge
intelligence failure

and a diplomatic disaster
for the Germans.

So as the war ends,

the Germans felt
highly motivated

to develop a new coding system

and that's where
the Enigma machine comes in.

[Corey] The first people
to spot the arrival of Enigma

are Polish intelligence.

They've been keeping
a close eye on Germany

with very good reason.

[Sascha]
The Treaty of Versailles

that had recreated
the nation of Poland,

part of that was built
on former territory

of the German Empire.

So they were literally sitting

on what many Germans
considered German land.

[Corey] But eight years
after the end of the war,

Polish eavesdropping
runs into trouble.

[Sascha] All of a sudden,
in 1926,

it's like a wall comes down.

They simply can't decipher
the codes

that the Germans
are using anymore.

[Corey] Enigma has arrived.

For two years,
the Polish are deaf

to everything
the German military is saying.

In 1928, they finally
catch a break.

The Warsaw customs office

receives a package labeled
radio parts.

They get an urgent phone call
from the Germans saying,

"Oh, this was sent to you
by accident,

we need it back immediately."

It was really the urgency
of the calls

that alerted them to the fact
that they had something

much more important
than merely radio parts.

[Corey] The package contains
a civilian version of Enigma.

[Sascha] This finally
gives them the opportunity

to look at the interior workings

of this codemaking device

that has been confounding
their best efforts

at decryption for so long.

[Corey] The question is,
can they break the code?

[Corey] The Enigma machine,

Germany believes
it's unbreakable.

That doesn't stop Polish
intelligence from trying.

In 1932, using a captured
civilian Enigma

and other scavenged data,

mathematician Marian Rejewski
figures out

how the military versions
are wired.

The Poles can once again
listen in

on everything the Germans say.

But they are chasing
a moving target.

Enigma is evolving.

[Sascha] The Germans continue

to adapt their Enigma machines.

They add new rotors,
they wire it differently.

They basically make the code
more and more complex,

more and more difficult
to break.

[Corey] In response, Rejewski
devises his own machine

to fight Enigma.

He calls it
the cryptological bomb

or bomba in Polish.

[Sascha]
It's assembled from bits

of the Enigma machine
as they understand it.

And it's a device
that is able to over time

run through the different
possible permutations

that the Enigma machine
is spitting out.

[Corey] But in September 1939,

Rejewski's attack on Enigma
is cut short.

Hitler invades Poland.

[explosion]

[Sascha] The Polish
codebreakers do manage

to escape the invasion
and they turn over

a lot of the notes
they had collected

as well as much
of their equipment

to Bletchley Park,
which is now gonna become

the center of the British
codebreaking efforts.

[Corey] The Germans continue
to evolve Enigma.

It grows increasingly complex.

British efforts failed
to break it fast enough

to be useful.

Meanwhile, German U-boats
are decimating allied ships

carrying vital supplies
from America.

[explosion]

The Germans really have
the advantage.

They have the perfect weapon
for stopping those convoys

and for choking off
this vital supply line.

The Unterseeboot, the U-boat,

an invisible, implacable,
deadly enemy.

[Corey] They have to break
the Enigma messages

sent to the U-boats

before the Atlantic
supply line is cut off

and the war is lost.

One man thinks he knows how.

[dramatic music playing]

[Sascha] Alan Turing
is really one of the great

mathematical geniuses
of the age.

He is a Cambridge graduate.

Absolutely brilliant guy,
very eccentric,

and it is into his hands

that this all important mission

of cracking
the Enigma code falls.

[Corey] Turing supersizes
as the Polish ideas

and builds a mega bomba.

[Andrew] This was an absolutely

incredible computing machine,

rotating drums, miles of wire,

and able to crunch
through far more combinations

of Enigma codes
than any individual human

could possibly manage.

[Corey] Turing knows
that even his huge bombs

can't crack Enigma fast enough.

His genius is to combine them

with the crucial flaw
he spotted.

Not in the machine
but in the operators.

[Andrew] The human flaw was that

humans sent
predictable messages.

For example, one of the most
common types of message

was a weather report.

And that means
if you get a message

you think might be
a weather report,

you've got a word that
you can look for inside it,

at a very minimum "wetter",
the German word for weather.

[Corey] These known
or probable words

are called cribs.

Turing combines them
with a second flaw,

and this one
is in the supposedly

unbreakable
Enigma machine itself.

A letter can never be
encrypted to itself.

So I press the letter A,

it goes through this
whole tangle of wires

because the A has to be
connected to something,

it can never actually come back

and become a letter A
in the ciphertext.

[Corey] Turing can now
narrow the search for solutions,

using the cribs as a guide.

[Andrew] So you're looking
for the word wetter,

you can slide through your text.

And if you find
any of the letters

in the right place,
you know that isn't your word

and so you can keep on looking.

And once you found this tiny
little chink in the armor,

you can use this to decode
the rest of the message.

[intense music playing]

[Corey] Now that Turing's bombs

don't have to test
every possible solution,

they quickly churn through
the remaining possibilities.

Enigma is broken.

Some experts claim
that cracking Enigma

shortens the war
by up to two years.

[intense music playing]

[Corey] Germany fails to produce

an unbreakable code.

But Enigma starts something big.

[Sascha] In many ways,
the Enigma contest,

the contest
between the codemakers

and the codebreakers

is the beginning
of the information age.

It's the first time
that intelligence

and access to intelligence
have become the absolute focus

of a major military effort.

[Corey] Even 80 years later,

the lessons of Enigma
still apply.

The German military
added more rotors

to multiply the complexity
in Enigma.

Technology today
still does the same thing.

[Andrew] The modern analog
of that is the 128

or 256 bit encryption.

Every time you add an extra bit,

you add twice as many patterns

that have to be
searched through.

[Corey] But as Turing
shows with Enigma,

there's still one flaw
no one can avoid...

humans.

[Andrew] All it takes
is one person in your company

to click on a dodgy link
or open a dodgy attachment

and enter their password
and suddenly

hackers can now have access
to your network.

It's the human beings
who are an inescapable part

of the equation that mean
the codes get cracked.

[Corey] So the incredible
Enigma machine

and the battle to break it
is still teaching us

vital lessons
in the modern world.

Even if the computers
have gotten a tiny bit faster.

[intense music playing]

[Corey] This is the ancient
Egyptian city of Abydos,

almost 300 miles south of Cairo.

Here in the ruins
of a 3,000-year-old temple

to the god Osiris
stands a stone door lintel,

carved into its surface
is an impossible image.

A helicopter.

What's going on?

Now using the latest
imaging technology,

we're reconstructing
this bizarre artifact

in minute detail.

[intense music playing]

[Corey] The lintel
is around six feet long

and two feet high.

Its sandstone surface is carved

with cryptic hieroglyphs,

celebrating the reign
of the mighty Pharaoh Seti I.

But amongst them is what clearly

looks like a modern
attack helicopter,

with rotor blades,
a slick body, and a tail boom.

And even stranger,
it's not unique.

Sixty miles away
in the Temple of Hathor

at Dendera is a carving
that looks strikingly similar

to an electric light bulb.

It has a glass globe,
a filament,

and even a set
of electrical cables.

There are no shortage
of extraordinary theories

which believe that these
really represent

advanced technology.

Ancient Egypt is, uh, often
a magnet for fringe ideas

and people who, uh, attribute
the origin

of these ancient objects
to someone else.

[Corey] Aliens and time travel
feature prominently

in such wild theories.

But despite appearances,
experts are certain

these do not represent
modern technologies.

[Rebecca] These shapes look
instantly recognizable to us

as modern viewers.

But in fact, they are ancient,

they are thousands
of years older.

So the question really
becomes what could they be?

[Corey] What do these
bizarre carvings mean?

Who made them?

Why is there a modern aircraft

on a 3,000-year-old temple wall?

[Corey] An image
carved in the wall

of an ancient Egyptian temple

appears to show
a modern helicopter.

This temple
was the mortuary temple

of the pharaoh Seti I.

Seti I may not be
a household name

in the same way
that Tutankhamun is,

nevertheless he achieved
a huge amount.

He really stabilized
the country after a period

of fragmentation and difficulty.

He achieved a number
of military victories

which he then carved
on his amazing temples

up and down Egypt.

[Corey] Despite the apparent
evidence in the carving,

experts are confident
that helicopters

are not one of his tools of war.

The problem for them is that

you can't simply conjure up
a helicopter out of thin air.

[Tim] A helicopter requires
a number of innovations

in order to literally
get off the ground,

understanding the aerodynamics
for building the rotor.

You need to have
an energy source

that can provide enough power.

You also need
some notion of control.

[Corey] And evidence of
other essential technologies

from precision metal
engineering to lubricants,

gears and engines are notable
in Egyptian archeology

only by their absence.

A light bulb is no easier.

You need to generate
electricity,

you need cables.

And to make the bulb,
you require a key skill,

glass blowing,
which is a problem.

[Anna] The ancient Egyptians
didn't do glass blowing,

that was a technology
that was invented

by the Romans.

[Corey] But if this
isn't a light bulb

and this isn't a helicopter,

then what on Earth are they?

[upbeat music playing]

[Corey]
Solving the mystery means

diving into
the dog-eat-dog world

of the ancient pharaohs.

The so called
helicopter inscription

appears at the temple
of Osiris in Abydos.

This temple
was the mortuary temple

of the pharaoh called Seti I,

that's where everything
about this pharaoh

was meant to be immortalized,
written for the ages

in the most
perfect way possible.

[Corey] The carvings
in the temple

tell a story of Seti as a mighty

all conquering king.

The helicopter carving
starts life

as one of these
gushing inscriptions.

[Rebecca] It reads,
he who renews the births,

strong with the sword
who subjugates the nine bows,

and the nine bows
was a sort of shorthand

to refer to Egypt's enemies.

[Corey]
The inscription celebrates

Seti's great achievements
for eternity.

At least it does until he dies.

And then his son Ramesses II
comes along.

Ramesses II is known
as Ramesses the Great.

He's a huge deal when it comes
to new kingdom pharaohs.

And certainly
at this point in time,

he is second to none.

[Corey] But along with
Ramesses' undoubted ability

comes a sizeable ego.

He decides
that all the dedications

to his father's greatness
will look much better

with his name on them instead.

[Rebecca] So what Ramesses II
does is that he comes in,

he fills in the name
of his father Seti I

with plaster and then
carves in his own name.

[Corey] On the helicopter
lintel, it no longer proclaims

Seti as the great leader
that crushes Egypt's enemies

but Ramesses.

But the 3,000 years since then

has taken its toll
on Ramesses' updates.

Some plaster has fallen out

of one of the pieces of writing.

[Corey] What we see today
is a combination

of one hieroglyph
carved on top of another.

[Rebecca] So together,
they look like a helicopter,

when apart, actually
they look quite distinct.

[Corey]
So this astonishing carving

has a very human origin.

[Rebecca] These symbols
are not in fact evidence

of advanced technologies
years before we realized

or alien cultures coming down
and building the pyramids.

If anything these symbols

are evidence of the ego
of pharaoh.

[Corey]
That's one mystery solved.

But the carving at Dendera
is in its original state

with no alterations
after it is first carved.

So if it's not a light bulb,
what exactly is it?

[suspenseful music playing]

[Corey] Despite appearances,
Egyptologists are confident

this incredible carving
in the Temple of Hathor

is not an electric light.

Because they've seen it before.

[Rebecca]
Ancient Egyptian people

of the upper classes certainly
would have been able

to look at these images
and understand instantly

what they were about.

This is actually
a very traditional

and, um, central motif
to ancient Egyptian religion.

The filament is actually a snake

which we think represents
the god Atum.

The socket is actually
a lotus flower

which stands for rebirth.

The glass bulb itself
seems to be representative

of the air bubble
that is the sky.

And finally at the bottom,

there is actually something
that looks like a cable

but it's actually a barque

and this is representative
of the barque

that would have carried
the sun across the sky.

So you put all
of these elements together,

surprise, surprise,
the set of carvings

is not actually a light bulb

but it actually tells us
a huge amount

about ancient Egyptian theology.

[Corey] So why is it
that we can convince ourselves

we see things in these carvings

that just aren't there?

It's not even limited
to monumental Egyptian works.

We see strange things
everywhere.

We see Jesus
in a slice of toast,

faces on rocks,

ducks in clouds.

Even faces on the surface
of Mars.

We just keep seeing stuff
that isn't there.

What's going on?

[intense music playing]

[Corey] To find out,
scientists have used

Magnetoencephalography
to directly measure

electrical activity
in our brains.

They've discovered that we often

identify these images
before we're even conscious

of what we're looking at.

So we recognize the face
before the slice of toast

or the helicopter
before the ancient carving.

The technical term
for this ability

to conjure up images
that aren't there

is pareidolia.

[Tim] Pareidolia is a way
our brain operates

to efficiently come up
with patterns

and recognize patterns.

But at the same time,

it can end up creating flaws,
and we'll see patterns

where they don't
necessarily exist.

[Corey] But this strange effect

actually keeps us alive.

[Dr. Boll] Part of this
is about sheer survival.

Because if we see
some ambiguous shape

or shadow amongst the leaves

and we think
that's the head of a tiger,

then we run.

If we're wrong
in that interpretation,

we haven't really lost anything.

But if we didn't make it

and it really was a tiger
then we're done for.

[Corey] Pareidolia
relies on spotting things

that are familiar to us,
which explains a lot.

Nobody bats an eyelid
over the carvings at Dendera

until after the invention

of the electrical light in 1878.

Only then do visitors
spot the similarities.

Which also explains why
no one notices the helicopter

until the 1980s.

Someday we may see something
even more extraordinary

in these hieroglyphs.

We just haven't invented it yet.

Locked away in a glass cabinet
in the British Museum

is a mysterious metal mechanism

covered in strange sayings.

[Kevin] "I am the revealer
of secrets,

in me are marvels of wisdom

and strange and hidden things."

[Corey] This is a machine
from the past

created to tell the future.

Now using cutting edge
technology...

we can examine
this mysterious device

with forensic precision...

the Geomancy machine.

In all of human civilization,

there is nothing even vaguely
similar to this.

There isn't
a single reference to it

in any book or manuscript.

It's roughly twice the size
of an iPad

and strikingly beautiful.

[Mark] It has this
intricate metalwork

with inlays of gold and silver.

[Kevin] This complex item
features a range of sliders

and dials and Arabic writing.

[Corey]
This extraordinary object

is nearly 800 years old.

It holds the key
to mysteries lost to the ages.

What secrets is it hiding?

How does it work?

What exactly is it?

[dramatic music playing]

[Corey] This strange
medieval device

is 800 years old.

But what is it?

Written on its front
is an Arabic inscription

describing it,
but it reads like a riddle.

[Kevin] "The possessor
of eloquence"

and the silent speaker

and through my speech
arise desires and fears.

The judicious one
hides their secret thoughts,

"but I reveal them."

[Corey] What does it all mean?

The inscriptions may be obscure,

but there are other markings
on the face of the machine

that do offer clues.

[Kevin] On the sliders
and dials,

we find matrices of dots,

which correspond
to similar matrices of dots,

which we see in books
about divination.

[Corey] These patterns of dots
appear in texts

from Spain, Africa, and England

as far back as the 12th century.

All of them are about
an ancient practice

called geomancy.

[Kevin] The practice of geomancy

is the prediction of fate
or the future

from the study
of the casting of objects

onto the ground
and looking at how they fall.

[Corey] So this
is a geomancy device

for telling the future.

But how on Earth
does it all work?

[Kevin] If we look
at the origins

of the term geomancy,

it comes from the Greek.

Gaia for Earth,
Manteia for prophecy.

[Corey] Geomancy
is a form of divination,

that's fortune telling
or prophecy derived

from natural phenomena
or objects.

[Kevin] There is pyromancy,

the study of the patterns
of flames

to foretell the future,
or hydromancy,

looking at patterns
on still bodies of water,

or even crystalmancy,
the looking into crystal balls

to tell the future.

[dramatic music playing]

[Corey] Geomancy uses sand
or soil for the same purpose.

[Mark] Geomancy was practiced
throughout the Islamic world.

They had a name for it,
which was ilm al-raml,

basically literally
the science of sand

or the knowledge of sand
to tell the future.

[Kevin] With the expansion
of Islam,

this form of geomancy reaches
into the European world.

Richard II had a text
on geomancy.

[Corey] And he isn't alone.

Several European monarchs

have books on geomancy
in their libraries.

[Mark] European politics
in the medieval period

was quite volatile,
so they certainly wanted

to read the future and determine

what their fate might be
including their kingdom.

[Corey] It probably makes sense

to the rulers of the land
to incorporate the land itself

in predicting the future.

But the basic method of geomancy

can be practiced by anyone,

from a prince to a pauper.

[Andrew] You start by casting,

you draw a seemingly
random collection of dots

whilst holding an idea
in your mind

the question
that you want to ask.

You eventually come up
with all these dots.

[Corey] After each cast,

you add up the total number
of dots produced.

[Andrew] And if it comes out
as an odd number,

you just draw one dot,

and if it's an even number,
you draw two dots.

[Corey] It takes four casts
to produce

one geomantic column,
called a mother.

Each row contains either one
or two dots.

Then you repeat this
entire process three times.

You end up
with four mother patterns.

[Andrew] It's a lot like
binary mathematics,

but instead of one and zero,
you're using odd and even,

and you just carry on
through those calculations

using those two different states

to generate a whole load
of new states.

[Corey] Next,
you take the pattern of dots

from the top row of mothers

and from this,
you generate a daughter.

Each row of mother dots
produces another daughter

for a total of four patterns.

Then from each pair
of mothers and daughters,

you create nieces.

[Andrew]
You move across those rows

and if you got an even number,
you put a two-dot symbol.

If you got an odd number,
you just put a single dot.

[Corey] You end up
with 16 characters.

This is called
a geomantic tableau.

It's the job of the geomancer

to read the future
by interpreting it.

Generating the tableau
is simple math

that looks much more complex
than it actually is,

perhaps intentionally.

[Andrew] Sixteen times sixteen
times sixteen times sixteen,

means you've got
sixty-five thousand

five hundred and thirty-six
combinations in total.

[Corey] It seems like
an enormously complex task

for a device
built almost 700 years

before the first computer.

So how does
the Geomancy machine work?

[dramatic music playing]

[Corey] This bizarre object
is the Geomancy machine.

How does it work?

The answer lies behind its
highly decorated back cover.

Now, all the individual knobs

and sliders of the mechanism
are visible.

And one thing
is immediately clear,

none of them are connected
to each other.

Turning one setting
has no effect

on any of the others.

[Kevin] The Geomancy machine
is in some senses,

not a machine at all.

What it is is a set
of disconnected dials

and levers which are there
to act as a kind of

object of reference
or aide memoire.

[Corey] The Geomancy machine

doesn't calculate your fortune.

It's just a fancy upgrade

to scratching marks
in the ground

based on your casts.

Not that it matters
because it's how you interpret

the tableau that really counts.

[Andrew] It's not as though they
have a really standard interpretation,

you go away,
and there are literally books

and books of information
about how to interpret

every possible outcome.

[Corey] It's the geomancer's job

to produce a prediction
from the calculated symbols.

[Andrew] The problem
with this process is although

it seems very mathematical
and rigorous,

it's actually just
a very elaborate way

of generating one
of 65,536 random numbers

and then assigning some
kind of deeper meaning to it.

[Mark] The whole
combination allows you

to have a wide range
of interpretations.

The actual interpretation
effectively seems made up.

It seems that
it could be anything.

[Corey] So, the machine
is just geomancy

without getting
your hands dirty.

It says as much
in its own inscriptions.

[Kevin] "I have spread out
the surface of my face

out of humility,
and have prepared it

as a substitute for earth."

[Corey] Making this
the ultimate deluxe accessory

for an A-list geomancer,

the only one of its kind
in the world.

So where does such a unique

and extraordinary device
come from

and who made it?

[Mark] The creator
of the Geomancy machine

is actually inscribed.
His name is given,

Muhammad Khutlukh al-Mawsili.

So, this is a person
actually telling us

where he comes from.

[Corey] That name
translates as Muhammad

son of Khutlukh from al-Mawsili

or to use its modern name,
Mosul in what is now Iraq.

[Kevin] In the 13th century,
Mosul was one

of the great Islamic cities
of the world.

It was a great commercial center

connected to the Silk Road,

rich in its commercial resources

and also an intellectual center.

[Mark] So, it's a place that
we would expect craftsmen

like Muhammad ibn Khutlukh
to have been located.

[Corey] One of medieval
Mosul's signature trades

is the skillful crafting
of one metal into another,

exactly the techniques visible
on the Geomancy machine.

[Mark] It's a very highly
developed piece

with multiple metals
mixed together

and worked in high detail.

So, clearly whoever made it

had a lot of expertise
and Mosul was a perfect place

where such a device
could have been made.

[Corey] But what inspires them
to produce a Geomancy machine

instead of more
decorative vases?

The device is really
trying to be showy.

It's trying to elevate
geomancy practice

to effectively take it
from a, kind of,

back alley practice
to a, kind of,

scientific professional
practice.

[Corey] And that
makes perfect sense

because 1,200 years ago,

science is flourishing
in the Arabic world.

[Kevin] The 8th
through the 13th centuries

were the Islamic Golden Age,

we see the invention
of the syringe,

of forceps, of surgery
to remove cataracts,

we see an enhancement
of knowledge in astronomy.

We see mathematic advances
including things like

the decimal point
and more complex fractions,

as well as
algebraic innovations.

Algebra in fact
is an Arabic word.

The word algorithm
is another word

that we use today
that is also an Arabic word.

And all these developed

during the time
of the Islamic Golden Age.

[Kevin] This is the world
that gives birth

to the Geomancy machine.

[Corey] But given
the popularity of geomancy

in the Arabic world,

why has just one machine
ever been found?

The clue may be in the date
of the machine's manufacture,

engraved on it
is the Muslim years 639

or 1241 to 1242
in the Christian calendar.

Just 16 years later in 1258,

the Golden Age of Islam
is snuffed out.

[Mark] The real big blow
occurred with the invasion

of the Mongols to the East.

[Kevin] The Mongol Hordes
led by the grandson

of the great Genghis Khan

destroyed the accumulated
knowledge of Baghdad.

Mosques are destroyed,
hospitals are destroyed.

They cast so many books
into the river.

It was said to run black
with ink.

[Corey] So,
this device is produced

during the last hurrah

of the great Islamic Golden Age.

Everything about it
is extraordinary,

from its craftsmanship

to its function and its history.

It's a window
into the incredible creativity

and energy of the medieval
Islamic world.

It's just a shame
it completely fails to predict

the coming of the Mongols
that ends it all.

[dramatic music playing]