Many mysteries are hidden just beneath the surface, but today's two stories give that a whole new meaning.
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Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The United States Military is home to some of the most elite fighting forces in the world, from the Army Rangers to the Navy Seals and everything in between. It takes the best of the best to pull off the most dangerous missions. Although some of their exploits have been depicted in films and television shows, the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or dev GREW, carries out many of their assignments and secrets. Hostage rescues, governmental interventions, and helicopter raids are just a few of the ways dev GREW, better known as Seal Team six, gets things done. But some groups are even more elite. They require intense training and the kind of endurance not found in most soldiers, and like Seal Team six, this clandestine organization falls under the purview of the United States Navy and it is tasked with protecting some of the country's most valuable and dangerous assets. They got their start during the early nineteen sixties when they were being trained in underwater mine detection. A facility was built at Point Magoo, California, to train them and monitor their performance. Certain troops had been outfitted with the specially honed sonar that could sniff out and underwater mine better than any submarine. For example, some could identify and mark floating mines in murky waters. These mines were capable of sinking Navy vessels if struck, so clearly it was an important job. Others scoured the bottom of the sea for mines that had been buried beneath the set a mint. A separate group of soldiers was carefully selected due to each member's ability to see well underwater. If they spotted enemy divers approaching their position, they would sneak up behind them and attach an explosive device to their air tank, causing it to explode. Since then, these trained experts have been responsible for protecting U. S. Navy ships, as well as retrieving packages dropped into the ocean from military planes and helicopters. In a way. They were born for this. Their ability to hold their breath for eight or ten or even fifteen minutes can also mean that they can carry out their duties for longer than the average Navy seal. And how is it possible because some of them are actually Navy seals well, Sea lions to be exact, and dolphins. These animals are part of an initiative known as the U. S. Navy Marine Mammal Program, which is run out of San Diego, California. At first, creatures like sharks, birds, and sea turtles were tested for inclusion in the program, but in the end, dolphins and sea lions best suited for the challenge. Dolphins possess a biological sonar or echolocation that is far more advanced than the electronics sonar found on any submarine. They can detect the size and shape of an object, as well as how it moves through the water. If a ping pong ball and a golf ball were thrown at the same time into a dolphins path, it would be able to tell the difference between them based on each ball's density. Sea lions, on the other hand, have an incredible underwater eyesight. In fact, special lenses over their eyes make them very sensitive to the movements of both animals and objects in the water, and the Navy benefits from that sensitivity when teaching them to identify approaching enemies. Today, about seventy dolphins and thirty sea lions work as military marine mammals, and they've gotten quite the promotion too. While they're still used to save lives and detect minds, these uniquely trained animals are also responsible for protecting a major naval base. Just over twenty miles outside of Seattle is Naval Base Kitsap, home to one quarter of America's nuclear weapons, and it's watched at all times by the brave dolphins and sea lions of the United States Navy. If an unauthorized swimmer is spotted in the water surrounding the base, a dolphin outfitted with the bite plates will bump it into the leg of the intruder, clamping it around the limb. The dolphin will then swim back to their handler, with the intruder tethered to their body. One might have thought that such dangerous and destructive weapons would only be secured by human soldiers armed with guns, and they are. But sometimes nature gives you everything you need to fight the enemy, especially when things start to smell kind of fishy. At the height of its power, the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt spanned all the way across the Red Sea into the Arabian Peninsula and ancient Sopotamia. Pharaoh Ramesey's the First ruled for two years from twelve ninety two to twelve nine b C, and although his time upon the throne was short, he helped shape an era that would come to be known as the New Kingdom of Egypt. From the sixth century BC to the eleventh century b C, eleven pharaohs took up the name Ramesey's, yet it was Ramesey's the first son, Ramsey's the second, who managed to expand his empire far beyond Africa and the Middle East. In two a recent film grad named Peter Brosnan was chatting with a friend who had his nose in a historical biography. The friend leaned over and pointed to a single sentence which shocked brasnon. It read, if one thousand years from now archaeologists happened to dig beneath the sands of Guadalupe. I hope they will not rush into print with the amazing news that Egyptian civilization extended all the way to the Pacific coast. The subject of the book was talking about ruins, ancient Egyptian ruins from the days of Rameses the second. They had been part of a settlement called This City of the Pharaoh, which had been erected across twenty two thousand acres of sand dunes along the California coastline. Materials had been shipped in from everywhere, and construction was completed in mere weeks. Among its many wonders was a one twenty foot tall temple measuring eight hundred feet long. Sphinxes had been crafted outside the city and brought in later on. A massive archway known as the Great Gate functioned as the city's entrance. It sort of whopping one nine feet high and featured the giant carvings of two horses and chariots on each of its walls. The gate itself was lifted with the help of several dozen workers to allow the Pharaoh to come and go as he pleased. Once it was completed, the city was populated with five thousand workers who fought the oppressive heat and an even more oppressive leader. Just yards away from the lapping waves of the Pacific Ocean. Brasnan couldn't believe that there were ancient Egyptian ruins in America. He knew he had to find them, and being a film school graduate, he felt it was the perfect opportunity to document his search and build a name for himself in Hollywood. He started by calling a local Air Force base for more information. Unsurprisingly, they told him there was nothing to be found. So he took his hunt to the library, to historians and politicians, anyone who might have information about the Egyptian ruins in their back yard. But no one knew anything about it, that is until he encountered a man who had worked in the area for many years. This man knew the landscape and how it had changed over time. With each new storm came winds that had shifted the sands, making Brosnan's quest more like a hunt for a needle in a very, very large haystack. But the guide had one ace up his sleeve. The locals called it the dune that never moves, a pile of sand so large its stayed put for years, one that was hiding something very very old. Brosnin dug down, and amazingly he found what he had been looking for the sliver of proof he'd uncovered a piece of a statue that had crumbled years earlier. Newspapers and TV journalists interviewed him about his find, which he pitched as only the beginning. There was plenty more beneath the sand, and all he needed was the money to press onward. Soon enough, he brought on an archaeologist from Cambridge University and secured the necessary funding, but the county refused to let him dig. A protected species of bird occupied those lands and any excavation would disturb their nesting grounds. Seven years later, however, he finally had a second chance, but by then the money was all gone. He did manage to raise enough to get the area scanned with ground penetrating radar and low and behold, it was all still there, Sphinx's statues, the towering walls, and all of it intact, despite being made mostly of plaster. And why would the ancient Egyptians have made their city out of plaster instead of limestone like the Great Pyramids? Because the City of the Fair wasn't made by the ancient Egyptians. It was made by contractors working for the acclaimed film director Cecil B. Demill. Demil had chosen the California coastline to be the shooting location for his nineteen twenty three epic The Ten Commandments. When filming completed, the competitive director wanted to make sure that his unique sets could not be used by anyone else's film, and so he had them blown up with dynamite. What little remained was buried in the sand. Over thirty years later, DeMille remade his film this version, starring Charlton Heston, and it went on to become one of the most successful movies of all time, although for that one he stuck to shooting on a paramount lot, along with some location filming in the real Egypt. However, nothing could compare to the sheer magnitude of his original sets, now hidden beneath the California dunes all these years later. Perhaps one day someone will take up the cause and have them restored to their former glory. That you're all stuff as old as that belongs in a museum. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me, Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,