VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Explorer Albert Lin On His Near-Death Adventures For ‘Lost Cities Revealed’

Explorer Albert Lin shared the craziest adventures he filmed for ​​his latest National Geographic show, Lost Cities Revealed.

Lin described to uInterview founder Erik Meers how he climbed mountains, discovered hieroglyphics, traveled to deserts and came close to death several times in his latest travels.  

He recalled several moments, including one when he and his crew discovered poisonous scorpions in front of them. 

“We’re down in the deserts of Sudan and were camped out in this massive desert and that night we find a bunch of scorpions, they’re called Death Stalkers, I mean they’re one of the most poisonous scorpions in the world,” he explained.

Lin also encountered a lost city unexpectedly while he was in the desert.

“In front of us, right where we’re standing, on what looks like barren sand, the radar reveals we’re standing on these alleyways and buildings and roads to what was most likely the lost capital city of the ancient Kushites,” he said.

Lin said how he could not believe that this was his real life and felt as if he was “living a Hollywood adventure film.”

On one adventure, he and his team explored a pyramid where King Pakal’s tomb lay.

He described how “on the tomb itself are all these glyphs that describe a mythical origin city. A watery land filled with Qurans and these symbols of a mountain that was split with wind moving through it. It’s like I’m following glyphs on the inside of a pyramid built by this ancient king to look for a mythical origin city.”

They also made their way to where the Mayan civilization originated from and where current Mayan people live. One of the local people offered to take the group to the Chaak Tun mountain. 

“We go up to this mountain and this guy leans down over this little cave and the mountain starts breathing,” Lin recalls. “The wind through the lake had pushed through the heart of the mountain this air and all of a sudden his hair.”

Lin also has had some close calls and faced death multiple times – he and his crew have experienced coups, been arrested, tear-gassed and flash-bombed.

One specific moment that was the scariest for Lin was when a boulder almost fell on him. 

“I’m on a huge boulder and all of a sudden it starts to open like a door and I realize that it’s peeling back and I jump out of the way just in time for it to crush my prosthetic foot into smithereens,” he described. 

Lin noted that although these experiences have been terrifying, he has also discovered things about himself throughout them. 

“They’re also these meaningful quests to try to uncover parts of who we are, you know they’re like deeply personal because each time you find something from wherever it is in the world it reveals something deep inside like some philosophy, some understanding, some wisdom,” he added.

The first season of the show will come out Thanksgiving night and be available for streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus.