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Sink or Swim · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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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. The United States Military is home
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  Speaker 1: to some of the most elite fighting forces in the world,
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  Speaker 1: from the Army Rangers to the Navy Seals and everything
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  Speaker 1: in between. It takes the best of the best to
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  Speaker 1: pull off the most dangerous missions. Although some of their
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  Speaker 1: exploits have been depicted in films and television shows, the
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  Speaker 1: United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or dev GREW,
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  Speaker 1: carries out many of their assignments and secrets. Hostage rescues,
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  Speaker 1: governmental interventions, and helicopter raids are just a few of
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  Speaker 1: the ways dev GREW, better known as Seal Team six,
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  Speaker 1: gets things done. But some groups are even more elite.
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  Speaker 1: They require intense training and the kind of endurance not
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  Speaker 1: found in most soldiers, and like Seal Team six, this
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  Speaker 1: clandestine organization falls under the purview of the United States
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  Speaker 1: Navy and it is tasked with protecting some of the
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  Speaker 1: country's most valuable and dangerous assets. They got their start
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  Speaker 1: during the early nineteen sixties when they were being trained
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  Speaker 1: in underwater mine detection. A facility was built at Point Magoo, California,
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  Speaker 1: to train them and monitor their performance. Certain troops had
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  Speaker 1: been outfitted with the specially honed sonar that could sniff
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  Speaker 1: out and underwater mine better than any submarine. For example,
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  Speaker 1: some could identify and mark floating mines in murky waters.
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  Speaker 1: These mines were capable of sinking Navy vessels if struck,
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  Speaker 1: so clearly it was an important job. Others scoured the
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  Speaker 1: bottom of the sea for mines that had been buried
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  Speaker 1: beneath the set a mint. A separate group of soldiers
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  Speaker 1: was carefully selected due to each member's ability to see
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  Speaker 1: well underwater. If they spotted enemy divers approaching their position,
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  Speaker 1: they would sneak up behind them and attach an explosive
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  Speaker 1: device to their air tank, causing it to explode. Since then,
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  Speaker 1: these trained experts have been responsible for protecting U. S.
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  Speaker 1: Navy ships, as well as retrieving packages dropped into the
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  Speaker 1: ocean from military planes and helicopters. In a way. They
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  Speaker 1: were born for this. Their ability to hold their breath
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  Speaker 1: for eight or ten or even fifteen minutes can also
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  Speaker 1: mean that they can carry out their duties for longer
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  Speaker 1: than the average Navy seal. And how is it possible
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  Speaker 1: because some of them are actually Navy seals well, Sea
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  Speaker 1: lions to be exact, and dolphins. These animals are part
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  Speaker 1: of an initiative known as the U. S. Navy Marine
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  Speaker 1: Mammal Program, which is run out of San Diego, California.
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  Speaker 1: At first, creatures like sharks, birds, and sea turtles were
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  Speaker 1: tested for inclusion in the program, but in the end,
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  Speaker 1: dolphins and sea lions best suited for the challenge. Dolphins
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  Speaker 1: possess a biological sonar or echolocation that is far more
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  Speaker 1: advanced than the electronics sonar found on any submarine. They
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  Speaker 1: can detect the size and shape of an object, as
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  Speaker 1: well as how it moves through the water. If a
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  Speaker 1: ping pong ball and a golf ball were thrown at
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  Speaker 1: the same time into a dolphins path, it would be
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  Speaker 1: able to tell the difference between them based on each
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  Speaker 1: ball's density. Sea lions, on the other hand, have an
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  Speaker 1: incredible underwater eyesight. In fact, special lenses over their eyes
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  Speaker 1: make them very sensitive to the movements of both animals
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  Speaker 1: and objects in the water, and the Navy benefits from
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  Speaker 1: that sensitivity when teaching them to identify approaching enemies. Today,
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  Speaker 1: about seventy dolphins and thirty sea lions work as military
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  Speaker 1: marine mammals, and they've gotten quite the promotion too. While
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  Speaker 1: they're still used to save lives and detect minds, these
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  Speaker 1: uniquely trained animals are also responsible for protecting a major
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  Speaker 1: naval base. Just over twenty miles outside of Seattle is
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  Speaker 1: Naval Base Kitsap, home to one quarter of America's nuclear weapons,
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  Speaker 1: and it's watched at all times by the brave dolphins
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  Speaker 1: and sea lions of the United States Navy. If an
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  Speaker 1: unauthorized swimmer is spotted in the water surrounding the base,
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  Speaker 1: a dolphin outfitted with the bite plates will bump it
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  Speaker 1: into the leg of the intruder, clamping it around the limb.
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  Speaker 1: The dolphin will then swim back to their handler, with
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  Speaker 1: the intruder tethered to their body. One might have thought
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  Speaker 1: that such dangerous and destructive weapons would only be secured
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  Speaker 1: by human soldiers armed with guns, and they are. But
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  Speaker 1: sometimes nature gives you everything you need to fight the enemy,
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  Speaker 1: especially when things start to smell kind of fishy. At
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  Speaker 1: the height of its power, the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt
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  Speaker 1: spanned all the way across the Red Sea into the
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  Speaker 1: Arabian Peninsula and ancient Sopotamia. Pharaoh Ramesey's the First ruled
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  Speaker 1: for two years from twelve ninety two to twelve nine
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  Speaker 1: b C, and although his time upon the throne was short,
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  Speaker 1: he helped shape an era that would come to be
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  Speaker 1: known as the New Kingdom of Egypt. From the sixth
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  Speaker 1: century BC to the eleventh century b C, eleven pharaohs
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  Speaker 1: took up the name Ramesey's, yet it was Ramesey's the
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  Speaker 1: first son, Ramsey's the second, who managed to expand his
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  Speaker 1: empire far beyond Africa and the Middle East. In two
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  Speaker 1: a recent film grad named Peter Brosnan was chatting with
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  Speaker 1: a friend who had his nose in a historical biography.
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  Speaker 1: The friend leaned over and pointed to a single sentence
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  Speaker 1: which shocked brasnon. It read, if one thousand years from
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  Speaker 1: now archaeologists happened to dig beneath the sands of Guadalupe.
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  Speaker 1: I hope they will not rush into print with the
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  Speaker 1: amazing news that Egyptian civilization extended all the way to
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  Speaker 1: the Pacific coast. The subject of the book was talking
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  Speaker 1: about ruins, ancient Egyptian ruins from the days of Rameses
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  Speaker 1: the second. They had been part of a settlement called
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  Speaker 1: This City of the Pharaoh, which had been erected across
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  Speaker 1: twenty two thousand acres of sand dunes along the California coastline.
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  Speaker 1: Materials had been shipped in from everywhere, and construction was
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  Speaker 1: completed in mere weeks. Among its many wonders was a
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  Speaker 1: one twenty foot tall temple measuring eight hundred feet long.
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  Speaker 1: Sphinxes had been crafted outside the city and brought in
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  Speaker 1: later on. A massive archway known as the Great Gate
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  Speaker 1: functioned as the city's entrance. It sort of whopping one
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  Speaker 1: nine feet high and featured the giant carvings of two
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  Speaker 1: horses and chariots on each of its walls. The gate
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  Speaker 1: itself was lifted with the help of several dozen workers
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  Speaker 1: to allow the Pharaoh to come and go as he pleased.
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  Speaker 1: Once it was completed, the city was populated with five
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  Speaker 1: thousand workers who fought the oppressive heat and an even
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  Speaker 1: more oppressive leader. Just yards away from the lapping waves
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  Speaker 1: of the Pacific Ocean. Brasnan couldn't believe that there were
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  Speaker 1: ancient Egyptian ruins in America. He knew he had to
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  Speaker 1: find them, and being a film school graduate, he felt
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  Speaker 1: it was the perfect opportunity to document his search and
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  Speaker 1: build a name for himself in Hollywood. He started by
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  Speaker 1: calling a local Air Force base for more information. Unsurprisingly,
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  Speaker 1: they told him there was nothing to be found. So
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  Speaker 1: he took his hunt to the library, to historians and politicians,
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  Speaker 1: anyone who might have information about the Egyptian ruins in
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  Speaker 1: their back yard. But no one knew anything about it,
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  Speaker 1: that is until he encountered a man who had worked
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  Speaker 1: in the area for many years. This man knew the
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  Speaker 1: landscape and how it had changed over time. With each
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  Speaker 1: new storm came winds that had shifted the sands, making
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  Speaker 1: Brosnan's quest more like a hunt for a needle in
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  Speaker 1: a very, very large haystack. But the guide had one
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  Speaker 1: ace up his sleeve. The locals called it the dune
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  Speaker 1: that never moves, a pile of sand so large its
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  Speaker 1: stayed put for years, one that was hiding something very
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  Speaker 1: very old. Brosnin dug down, and amazingly he found what
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  Speaker 1: he had been looking for the sliver of proof he'd
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  Speaker 1: uncovered a piece of a statue that had crumbled years earlier.
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  Speaker 1: Newspapers and TV journalists interviewed him about his find, which
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  Speaker 1: he pitched as only the beginning. There was plenty more
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  Speaker 1: beneath the sand, and all he needed was the money
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  Speaker 1: to press onward. Soon enough, he brought on an archaeologist
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  Speaker 1: from Cambridge University and secured the necessary funding, but the
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  Speaker 1: county refused to let him dig. A protected species of
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  Speaker 1: bird occupied those lands and any excavation would disturb their
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  Speaker 1: nesting grounds. Seven years later, however, he finally had a
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  Speaker 1: second chance, but by then the money was all gone.
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  Speaker 1: He did manage to raise enough to get the area
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  Speaker 1: scanned with ground penetrating radar and low and behold, it
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  Speaker 1: was all still there, Sphinx's statues, the towering walls, and
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  Speaker 1: all of it intact, despite being made mostly of plaster.
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  Speaker 1: And why would the ancient Egyptians have made their city
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  Speaker 1: out of plaster instead of limestone like the Great Pyramids?
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  Speaker 1: Because the City of the Fair wasn't made by the
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  Speaker 1: ancient Egyptians. It was made by contractors working for the
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  Speaker 1: acclaimed film director Cecil B. Demill. Demil had chosen the
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  Speaker 1: California coastline to be the shooting location for his nineteen
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  Speaker 1: twenty three epic The Ten Commandments. When filming completed, the
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  Speaker 1: competitive director wanted to make sure that his unique sets
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  Speaker 1: could not be used by anyone else's film, and so
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  Speaker 1: he had them blown up with dynamite. What little remained
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  Speaker 1: was buried in the sand. Over thirty years later, DeMille
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  Speaker 1: remade his film this version, starring Charlton Heston, and it
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  Speaker 1: went on to become one of the most successful movies
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  Speaker 1: of all time, although for that one he stuck to
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  Speaker 1: shooting on a paramount lot, along with some location filming
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  Speaker 1: in the real Egypt. However, nothing could compare to the
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  Speaker 1: sheer magnitude of his original sets, now hidden beneath the
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  Speaker 1: California dunes all these years later. Perhaps one day someone
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  Speaker 1: will take up the cause and have them restored to
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  Speaker 1: their former glory. That you're all stuff as old as
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  Speaker 1: that belongs in a museum. I hope you've enjoyed today's
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  Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
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  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
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  Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me,
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
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  Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,