Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin (2023) s01e01 Episode Script
Cradle of the Maya
1
The sun is coming.
The Gods won't stop him.
Your smoke will go with them.
At the dawn
of one of the Americas'
greatest civilizations
lies a mystery I've been trying
to solve for more than a decade.
Whispers of a mythical city,
lost in the jungles of Mexico,
home to the origins of the Maya.
No harm will come to him.
My search
for this forgotten city
begins at one of the Maya's
most iconic sites, Palenque.
I want to discover
where the people
who built Palenque came from,
and maybe shed new light
on the birth
of the Maya civilization itself.
♪
One more turn down here?
Oh, there it is.
Wow.
Wow.
The tomb of one
of the most important kings
of the entire Maya world.
What are these symbols
representing?
It's like a map of the creation
of the Maya world.
It represents the origins
of Palenque and of the Mayas.
But we don't know exactly where
is the place of the origins.
It's a mystery.
Archaeologist Josuhé Lozada,
from the National Institute
of Anthropology and History,
is an expert
in interpreting Maya symbols,
also called glyphs.
I better start scanning.
My handheld LiDAR scanner uses
laser technology to gather data,
allowing us to create
a high-definition 3D model
of the glyphs
and search for clues
to the location
of this lost origin city.
This is the search
I've always been waiting for.
The place of the origins.
The beginning.
600 AD.
The Maya civilization
is at its peak,
stretching across parts
of Central America
and into southern Mexico,
where the regional
capital of Palenque
is home to around
20,000 inhabitants.
This was the Maya's golden age,
but I want to explore
their origins.
Where did these ancient masters
of mathematics,
astronomy and writing come from?
How did the remarkable story
of the Maya begin?
Hey, this is Josuhé.
My technology team,
Joe and Duncan,
are using advanced 3D software
to enhance the LiDAR scans
we made in the tomb,
so that we can examine
the glyphs in forensic detail.
We processed
your scans inside the tomb.
Amazing.
Wow.
I want to see any symbols
that might be describing
this mythical city.
Let's see, let's see.
Ah, this one.
It is a shell with
the emblem glyph
of the place of the origins.
It say "mat,"
and "mat" in Maya
is cormorant.
A cormorant is like
a fishing kind of bird?
Yes.
It's the land
of the cormorants.
The Cormorant City.
What else do you see in here?
We can see the split mountain
with many caves.
It's the mountain
of the origins.
The sacred hollow mountain
that emerged
from the primordial water,
and here is the water.
Like a lake.
Okay.
So, there's a mythical city
somewhere where
there's cormorants,
a hollow or split mountain,
and water.
Palenque lies on the edge
of Mexico's largest
tropical rain forest.
Let's see if we can find
anything nearby.
We'll focus on isolating the
closest viable locations first.
This looks like
mountains down here.
And a lot of water, too.
There is a very important river
that is in the south
of Palenque,
the Tulijá river,
and it's connected
with the lakes
of the Lacandon Jungle.
The lakes
of the Lacandon Jungle.
That's where we got to go.
Hey, Joe and Duncan. How are
you guys doing back there?
Hey, Albert, yeah,
doing good. We're on your six.
We're traveling
around 60 miles southeast
from Palenque, searching for
the source of the Tulijá River,
believed to be in a remote
lake district called Mensabak,
in the heart of
the Lacandon Jungle.
Looks like this route
follows pretty much
the path of the river, so
just follow it
all the way upstream.
Get as close as we can
to its source.
Yeah, sounds good, Albert.
The oldest
Maya settlements date
from around 1,000 years
before Palenque.
The most important of these,
sometimes called origin cities,
were built around
sacred natural features
like lakes and mountains.
The ancient Maya
would often follow rivers
back to their source,
to find them.
This looks promising.
This must be it.
We got here.
Right before dark.
Josuhé believes that
the Tulijá River originates
at a series of pools,
about a two-mile hike from here,
but through
thick jungle wetlands.
So, tomorrow's gonna be
a long, tough day.
Time to get some sleep.
Agh!
Lot of spikes. Lot of spikes.
Look at this.
Wow.
That's a cenote.
Wow.
It's beautiful.
During the rainy season,
this whole area floods.
Pools, or cenotes,
like this one,
become part of a larger system
that feeds the Tulijá River.
If the Maya believed that
this was the sacred source,
there could be clues
in the water.
We got to go inside, right?
Yes, we need to explore.
As we scan the water,
our eyes are drawn to something
totally unexpected.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow, it's right over here.
You see the stones there.
It follows the whole line.
Okay, let's take a look.
Huge hand-carved stone blocks,
one on top of the other,
rising 20 feet
up from the floor.
It's an artificial cenote.
I think that it's a quarry.
A quarry?
For finding rocks
to build structures.
Mm-hmm.
How old do you
think this is?
The bigger the blocks,
the older they are.
I think they are from the times
before Palenque.
Wow.
The beginning
of the Maya civilization.
They obtained the rocks
to build their pyramids.
So, if these rocks
were pulled from this cenote
to build something, that
something must be close by.
Yes.
Hauling huge blocks
through this terrain
would have been brutal.
So where were they taking them?
From here we go up.
Okay.
It definitely feels like
I'm seeing blue
above that line there.
Yes.
Let's send the drone up.
Let's see if we can get a view.
Look at this.
Wow.
The lake.
It's just like in that glyph.
Could this be the lake we saw
on the glyphs back at Palenque?
Is the origin city
we're searching for
hidden somewhere out there?
Joe, Duncan.
Do you guys copy?
Copy you, Albert.
The jungle
is super dense up here.
Hold your position,
and I'll update you
when we reach the spot.
We've traveled
from the flooded quarry
to Noh K'uh, a remote
archaeological site
on the southern side
of the lake.
Santiago, are there a lot
of snakes out here?
Yes, so just be careful
where you step on the ground.
Archaeology professors
Santiago Juarez and Joel Palka
have discovered evidence
of an early
Maya settlement here.
Agh.
Looks like it clears out
a little bit up here.
Look, there's definitely
something here.
Definitely
a change in elevation.
What is this?
What's this ledge?
Wow, yeah.
Is that all
is this, uh
Is this shaped?
It's, uh,
made from a quarry.
There you go,
you got a corner right there.
So, this is the corner
of a, of what?
Of the top of the building.
Oh, you're kidding me?
So, we got
like a step here.
Wow.
Yeah, they're
starting here, too.
Looks like they leveled off
this structure.
Yeah, let me
clear it out a little.
Wow.
Yeah, see, a nice
little rectangular line
over here.
Keeps going here,
then comes back this way.
Oh, you can barely
make it out, huh?
When did this get built?
Uh, 2,500 years ago.
2,500 years ago.
People lived here?
Yes.
So, this is
way before Palenque?
Exactly.
So, we're looking at something
that predates Palenque
by at least 1,000 years.
This site and the
flooded quarry we discovered
suggest there was significant
Maya activity in this area,
right at the beginning
of the Maya era.
What do you think
this building was?
Oh, so if we're
looking at the way
the sun is rising,
this would have been a platform
to welcome the rising sun.
Wow.
Basically an observatory?
Yes.
From this plateau,
they would have mapped the stars
and the movement of the sun?
Yes, exactly.
We're looking at
ancient astronomers.
Joel and Santiago
believe that this site
could be part
of a much larger settlement,
reaching deeper into the jungle.
But the only way to see
if they're right
is by launching the drone
and scanning the whole area.
Hey, Joe, Duncan.
How's it going?
Yeah, I got one
for you guys.
Let's get the drone up,
and I'll send you
the GPS coordinates
of where to send it, okay?
Okay, drone's going up.
Okay, start motors.
The drone carries
state-of-the-art
LiDAR technology,
which beams light signals
through the canopy
to the jungle floor.
So, you can see the drone
there, it's just starting.
But the thickness
of this canopy means
an accurate scan of Noh K'uh
will take several days.
We've arranged to base ourselves
in the nearby village
of Mensabak,
home to the Lacandon Maya,
where the team can
charge their batteries
and process our LiDAR data.
The Lacandon were never truly
colonized by the Spanish,
making them almost unique
in the Maya world.
Today they are the guardians
of this highly protected
lake district.
I'm Albert.
Ah, your name is Albert.
Very well.
Let's go?
Yeah?
I'll gladly accompany you.
Mincho is one
of the community leaders.
This way?
I want to see if
the local people recognize
any of the symbols
that we scanned at Palenque.
Wow, this is incredible,
everybody's here.
You guys want to pull
those glyphs up?
Wow.
Wow.
Look at that.
So, zoom in
on that one.
Are there cormorants
around here?
Well, yes, there is a zone
in the area of the lagoon
where lots of cormorants
have been seen.
There's another symbol
that we found,
which shows a split mountain.
Can we pull that up?
Yep.
Are there big mountains
around the lake
that might have, I don't know,
like, uh, caves or?
Well, the one that we know
when we have traveled
to the area
is the mountain of Chak Aktun.
It's split.
Chak Aktun.
It's a mountain that's got
a split down the middle?
Yes.
Can somebody help
guide us there to Chak Aktun?
Yes, yes, we could go.
Wow.
This landscape is
sacred to the Maya.
Agreeing to lead us through it
is a deep show of trust in us.
I hope we don't let them down.
Look at this.
It's amazing, isn't it?
Through here?
Sí.
First we have to cross the lake.
Maya guides
K'in and Bor
will lead us to the mountain.
And Mexican archaeologist
and climber Arcelia García
will help me explore it.
That's got to be
the Red Mountain.
Looks like it.
Chak Aktun.
Chak Aktun, or Red Mountain,
lies around two miles
to the northwest
of the archaeological site
of Noh K'uh.
I think I see some cormorants.
Are those cormorants
right there?
Yeah.
Just like in the glyphs!
Can I pass you that rope?
Yeah.
Let's go.
Okay.
Looks like there's
a little trail up here.
You need to hit this
to tell the Lord that
you are coming to his house.
To tell the mountain?
Uh-huh.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
The ancient Maya believed
that a powerful god
split a mountain with an axe,
releasing sacred seeds
from which human life originated.
This is a powerful place.
I can feel it in my bones.
What is this? Oh!
What?!
You got to see this.
What is this?
Wow.
A hole into the mountain.
The wind comes out of here.
Here it breathes.
Mountains are
living, breathing things.
Wow.
It's unique, there is
no other place like it.
I mean, a mountain
with a hollow core.
This has to be this symbol
that's being referred to
at Palenque.
You think this is what this is?
Sí.
The split mountain.
That's incredible.
Let's go.
Vamos, vamos.
Wow.
Hey, Albert!
Yeah.
There's another one over here.
Another entrance.
There's got to be
a connected cave system, right?
Right.
If this is
the hollow mountain,
these tunnels could be
the entry point.
We'll take one each.
You take those.
Yeah.
You have a radio?
When the ancient Maya
discovered mountains
like those described
in their origin myths,
they became the center
of their spiritual world.
We're going into a place
that's reserved for the gods
or the souls of the dead.
Hope the gods are with us.
I'm in another world
right now.
Alright, Arcelia, how are you
doing on your end?
This rock is razor-sharp.
Yeah, the rock is
pretty sharp here also.
But all good.
Arcelia,
I'm at the bottom
of this first section
of the cave.
It's beautiful.
Hey, Albert,
if you see any stalagmites
or stalactites,
look around there.
Oh, look.
There's a stalactite
right there.
For the Maya,
those were sacred spaces.
So, see if you see
anything around them.
Ah, anything in here.
Looking in all the cracks.
Not sure I want to know
what I'm gonna to find.
What is that?
Oh, I'm finding something!
Hey, I've got pottery.
I've really got pottery,
right here.
Are you serious?
Ha ha, right where
you said beneath the stalactite.
I've got a piece of pottery.
I think I can see your light,
is that, is that you?
Hey.
Hey.
The tunnels are connected.
That's incredible.
This must be a whole system.
But right where you were
saying to look,
directly below the stalactite,
look at this.
I mean, that's clearly pottery,
isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
Look at this piece.
This looks pre-Palenque.
I can tell because it's thicker.
This is like waxy.
Can you feel it?
Yeah,
and you can almost see
that there was paint there.
Yeah.
I've seen pottery like this,
like this color, in Noh K'uh.
In Noh K'uh?
Yeah.
Wow.
Do you think this was put here
by the people of Noh K'uh?
Yeah, most likely.
Oh, my gosh.
I mean, that's 2,500 years ago.
I can picture them,
coming down from there
with the ropes
all the way here
with their torches,
carefully placing the pottery
just in the right spot.
Alright,
I'm going to get down
to the second level now, okay?
2,500 years ago, the people who
climbed inside this mountain
believed they were entering
a living being.
A powerful, sacred entity.
Imagine how they must have felt.
It's overwhelming, really.
Wow.
I mean, look at this place.
Wow.
What a chamber.
Look, there's bats.
Here there's no sunlight.
So, the deeper it is, the closer
we are to the deities.
To the gods.
Exactly.
Wow.
We're really in the heart
of the mountain.
This is a split mountain.
It feels like the glyphs
that we scanned in Palenque
are coming to life here.
The cormorants, the lake,
and now this incredible
split mountain
suggest this could be the site
of the lost origin city.
But it's just so vast.
Over on the other side
of the lake,
Joe and Duncan have been
carefully scanning the area
around Noh K'uh to try and
find out how big it really is.
How are you guys doing?
Hey, Albert,
it's Duncan here.
I think we're
onto a good thing.
You wouldn't believe
what we found up here.
Make your way over
to Chak Aktun.
Let's do a scan
of the whole mountain.
The LiDAR scanner
beams 400,000 lasers
towards the ground every second.
The canopy's so dense.
Yeah.
While many beams reflect
off the top of the trees,
some make it all the way down
to the jungle floor,
allowing the team
to build a 3D model,
which may reveal
any human-made features.
Wow, look at that.
With over 150 acres of
jungle to cover at Red Mountain,
there's a long night of scanning
and data processing ahead.
You guys get some
of the data in?
Just looking
at the point cloud now
for the, from the aerial LiDAR
of the whole
of the Red Mountain, so.
Okay, so this is
the top-down aerial view, right?
Oh, my gosh!
What is that?
Can we remove
the trees off the mountain?
Of course.
Unbelievable.
Look how the, the Maya
flattened the mountain.
It's a four-sided pyramid.
The entire mountain's modified.
Like, how special is that?
We can use the algorithm
to pull out the features.
Oh, wow,
look at that.
Look at everything here.
That looks like
a massive temple
Yes.
formed out
of the mountain itself.
It's almost like whoever drew
this symbol at Palenque
was literally drawing a diagram,
a schematic diagram,
of this exact place.
Yes.
Exactly.
Our scans have
revealed details
of an enormous pyramid temple
site at Red Mountain.
But there is no evidence
of a human settlement there.
If this really is
the split mountain
described in the glyphs,
we must figure out where the
people who worshipped it lived.
You guys also did a bit more
at Noh K'uh, right?
Let's fly over there.
Okay,
let's strip away the trees.
Whoa.
They leveled
everything off.
See this
gigantic rectangle here?
Oh, and there's another one
there and another one there.
It's rectangle
on top of rectangle.
These are all artificially
constructed hills.
That's something
I never saw before.
This is an urban community.
Wow.
I mean, it almost
looks like a modern city system,
doesn't it?
It does, but
at the time that this was built,
what, almost 2,500, 3,000
years ago, is that right?
Right, right.
Did the Maya
have large cities?
No, so this is
a first-generation city.
So, the idea of even having
a city is completely new.
Based on the scale of this
and what I already know,
I would say it's one
of the earliest cities
in the Maya region,
around 800 BC.
Wow.
How many people do you think
made up this city?
Oh, gosh. I wouldn't
be surprised if this city,
at its peak,
was about 20,000 people.
20,000 people
at the time
when the Maya civilization
was just beginning?
Yes.
It is a sacred city space.
Do you think
that the mountain
was part of what attracted them?
I think that's
definitely the big draw here.
This is a powerful place.
Now you got me wondering if
the site just keeps connecting.
I mean, based
we haven't seen the boundaries
of Noh K'uh there.
I just got to get
back out on that lake,
find out if that
human settlement at Noh K'uh
and the temple site
at Chak Aktun are connected.
If they are, and this is
one giant sacred city,
this could be one of the most
extraordinary discoveries
in the Maya world.
You guys pair off.
We'll keep going,
and then try to make a base.
Did we bring enough machetes?
Alright, here we go.
We're splitting
our search team into two.
Josuhé, Mincho and I
are headed to an area
on the western side of the lake
between Noh K'uh
and Red Mountain,
where our earlier scans
picked up
some interesting results,
while Joe and Duncan
will focus their attention
on an unexplored area
in the east.
We must be getting close now.
Yes.
Look at this, Albert.
See this shape,
the perfect shape of that rock.
You can see the angles here.
It must have come
from uphill somewhere.
So, let's keep going up.
I think so.
Cut rocks!
Ah, look at this.
There are a lot of rocks
here in a line.
It looks like a platform.
Yes.
Maybe it's an observatory,
because in a high position,
and face to the lake.
Another observatory.
Their world begins and falls
with the sun.
We found something all the way
out here. Incredible.
Incredible.
Ah.
Could this observatory
be connected in some way
to the one we saw at Noh K'uh?
We need to get the LiDAR team
over here now.
Hey, Joe, uh, Duncan,
do you guys copy?
I'll send you our coordinates.
Let's scan this area.
Wow, this jungle is dense.
GPS is good.
Start motors.
How are you guys doing?
Yeah, good, I'm just
mapping the perimeter here
at the moment.
Will our data show us
how the sacred mountain
Chak Aktun
is connected
to the city of Noh K'uh
and finally reveal
the true scale
of this extraordinary
lost Maya world?
Thank you
for hosting us
over this last couple of weeks.
It's been so wonderful.
So how was the scanning?
How is the processing?
With the city of Noh K'uh
in the south
and the sacred temple site
of Chak Aktun in the north,
we can now examine the new data
to reveal whether the two sites
are connected.
Alright, let's see what
you guys got in the west.
Wow, another structure.
Yeah, it's a site.
Yeah.
So, what do you think this is?
There's pyramids,
there's temples,
there's a rectangular
palace complex maybe.
A palace emerging
in the jungle.
You guys scanned this whole area
on the east of the lake,
too, right?
Yeah that shouldn't
be level. Oh, wow.
All that's all modified.
Oh, this wholeoh!
Wow, it looks like, like a,
like a structure,
like a platforms for the Mayas.
You can see the perfect shape
of the three mounds.
I just thought
of something
really, really,
really interesting.
This is really, like,
blowing me away right now.
In Palenque there's
three temples side by side
with a plaza in the middle.
You go to that east site,
and it's the same plan,
but 1,000 years earlier.
So maybe
the very same people
that are building this
are building Palenque?
Yes.
Wow.
A pre-Palenque!
The scale of what we're
revealing here is breathtaking.
The links between Palenque
and Noh K'uh feel undeniable.
Could this really be
the origin city
we've been searching for?
Let's turn on
all the different features
that have been identified.
I think you're gonna be
amazed at what we've picked up.
Oh, wow.
It's just everywhere we look.
Oh, wow.
Wow.
I mean,
the whole lake system
is one massive complex.
So, here's Noh K'uh.
It's a really big city.
What is this?
There's like
an alignment of the buildings
at Noh K'uh that's all
pointing the same way.
Wow.
It aligns almost like an arrow
to the split mountain.
What is happening there?
Many Maya cities
are built
according
to different orientations.
This one's oriented
to the sacred Red Mountain,
and maybe the pathway
of the sun.
It seems to me that they
are standing in Noh K'uh
and tracking
the movements of the sun
at different times of the year.
The sun?
What would be the most important
dates along their calendar?
August 13th.
The start of the Maya calendar
and the creation
of the current world.
August 13th, let's see
what the sun looks like.
Oh, my gosh!
Are you kidding me?
The sun sets on the very top
of the split mountain,
on the beginning day
of their calendar.
Their origin day.
It's a connection
between the people
and their city and the landscape
and the sun.
It's all connected.
It's quite amazing.
The sacred mountain
of Chak Aktun
is the spiritual hub
of a vast lost city,
wrapping right around the lake.
Do you think that it's
the origin place for Palenque,
or possibly more?
More, more.
It's a very, very important city
in the Maya world.
Could we be looking at
the, the cradle of the Maya
civilization itself?
It's a cradle.
It definitely is.
It's a large city on a lake
with a split mountain.
And it's so early.
It is definitely
an origin place.
The land of the origins.
We've looked
for a lot of lost cities before,
but right now
what it feels like
is that we're looking
at more than a city,
we're looking at the beginning
of an idea,
the beginning of a people,
a civilization.
I set out in search
of a mythical city,
home to the origins of the Maya.
I found a split mountain,
carved into a massive
temple site.
A sacred lake surrounded
by countless houses,
home to tens of thousands
of people.
Palaces and observatories
aligned to the pathways
of the sun.
A cradle of the ancient Maya.
This lost city provides
a tangible link to the origins
of one
of the Western Hemisphere's
most important civilizations.
Our technology has
illuminated a world
that had become blurred
by myth and legend.
But it was the modern Maya
who helped us understand
the origins of their ancestors
were intrinsically linked
to the natural world
they worshipped
and added a new chapter
to the origin story of the Maya
and the history of all of us.
The sun is coming.
The Gods won't stop him.
Your smoke will go with them.
At the dawn
of one of the Americas'
greatest civilizations
lies a mystery I've been trying
to solve for more than a decade.
Whispers of a mythical city,
lost in the jungles of Mexico,
home to the origins of the Maya.
No harm will come to him.
My search
for this forgotten city
begins at one of the Maya's
most iconic sites, Palenque.
I want to discover
where the people
who built Palenque came from,
and maybe shed new light
on the birth
of the Maya civilization itself.
♪
One more turn down here?
Oh, there it is.
Wow.
Wow.
The tomb of one
of the most important kings
of the entire Maya world.
What are these symbols
representing?
It's like a map of the creation
of the Maya world.
It represents the origins
of Palenque and of the Mayas.
But we don't know exactly where
is the place of the origins.
It's a mystery.
Archaeologist Josuhé Lozada,
from the National Institute
of Anthropology and History,
is an expert
in interpreting Maya symbols,
also called glyphs.
I better start scanning.
My handheld LiDAR scanner uses
laser technology to gather data,
allowing us to create
a high-definition 3D model
of the glyphs
and search for clues
to the location
of this lost origin city.
This is the search
I've always been waiting for.
The place of the origins.
The beginning.
600 AD.
The Maya civilization
is at its peak,
stretching across parts
of Central America
and into southern Mexico,
where the regional
capital of Palenque
is home to around
20,000 inhabitants.
This was the Maya's golden age,
but I want to explore
their origins.
Where did these ancient masters
of mathematics,
astronomy and writing come from?
How did the remarkable story
of the Maya begin?
Hey, this is Josuhé.
My technology team,
Joe and Duncan,
are using advanced 3D software
to enhance the LiDAR scans
we made in the tomb,
so that we can examine
the glyphs in forensic detail.
We processed
your scans inside the tomb.
Amazing.
Wow.
I want to see any symbols
that might be describing
this mythical city.
Let's see, let's see.
Ah, this one.
It is a shell with
the emblem glyph
of the place of the origins.
It say "mat,"
and "mat" in Maya
is cormorant.
A cormorant is like
a fishing kind of bird?
Yes.
It's the land
of the cormorants.
The Cormorant City.
What else do you see in here?
We can see the split mountain
with many caves.
It's the mountain
of the origins.
The sacred hollow mountain
that emerged
from the primordial water,
and here is the water.
Like a lake.
Okay.
So, there's a mythical city
somewhere where
there's cormorants,
a hollow or split mountain,
and water.
Palenque lies on the edge
of Mexico's largest
tropical rain forest.
Let's see if we can find
anything nearby.
We'll focus on isolating the
closest viable locations first.
This looks like
mountains down here.
And a lot of water, too.
There is a very important river
that is in the south
of Palenque,
the Tulijá river,
and it's connected
with the lakes
of the Lacandon Jungle.
The lakes
of the Lacandon Jungle.
That's where we got to go.
Hey, Joe and Duncan. How are
you guys doing back there?
Hey, Albert, yeah,
doing good. We're on your six.
We're traveling
around 60 miles southeast
from Palenque, searching for
the source of the Tulijá River,
believed to be in a remote
lake district called Mensabak,
in the heart of
the Lacandon Jungle.
Looks like this route
follows pretty much
the path of the river, so
just follow it
all the way upstream.
Get as close as we can
to its source.
Yeah, sounds good, Albert.
The oldest
Maya settlements date
from around 1,000 years
before Palenque.
The most important of these,
sometimes called origin cities,
were built around
sacred natural features
like lakes and mountains.
The ancient Maya
would often follow rivers
back to their source,
to find them.
This looks promising.
This must be it.
We got here.
Right before dark.
Josuhé believes that
the Tulijá River originates
at a series of pools,
about a two-mile hike from here,
but through
thick jungle wetlands.
So, tomorrow's gonna be
a long, tough day.
Time to get some sleep.
Agh!
Lot of spikes. Lot of spikes.
Look at this.
Wow.
That's a cenote.
Wow.
It's beautiful.
During the rainy season,
this whole area floods.
Pools, or cenotes,
like this one,
become part of a larger system
that feeds the Tulijá River.
If the Maya believed that
this was the sacred source,
there could be clues
in the water.
We got to go inside, right?
Yes, we need to explore.
As we scan the water,
our eyes are drawn to something
totally unexpected.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow, it's right over here.
You see the stones there.
It follows the whole line.
Okay, let's take a look.
Huge hand-carved stone blocks,
one on top of the other,
rising 20 feet
up from the floor.
It's an artificial cenote.
I think that it's a quarry.
A quarry?
For finding rocks
to build structures.
Mm-hmm.
How old do you
think this is?
The bigger the blocks,
the older they are.
I think they are from the times
before Palenque.
Wow.
The beginning
of the Maya civilization.
They obtained the rocks
to build their pyramids.
So, if these rocks
were pulled from this cenote
to build something, that
something must be close by.
Yes.
Hauling huge blocks
through this terrain
would have been brutal.
So where were they taking them?
From here we go up.
Okay.
It definitely feels like
I'm seeing blue
above that line there.
Yes.
Let's send the drone up.
Let's see if we can get a view.
Look at this.
Wow.
The lake.
It's just like in that glyph.
Could this be the lake we saw
on the glyphs back at Palenque?
Is the origin city
we're searching for
hidden somewhere out there?
Joe, Duncan.
Do you guys copy?
Copy you, Albert.
The jungle
is super dense up here.
Hold your position,
and I'll update you
when we reach the spot.
We've traveled
from the flooded quarry
to Noh K'uh, a remote
archaeological site
on the southern side
of the lake.
Santiago, are there a lot
of snakes out here?
Yes, so just be careful
where you step on the ground.
Archaeology professors
Santiago Juarez and Joel Palka
have discovered evidence
of an early
Maya settlement here.
Agh.
Looks like it clears out
a little bit up here.
Look, there's definitely
something here.
Definitely
a change in elevation.
What is this?
What's this ledge?
Wow, yeah.
Is that all
is this, uh
Is this shaped?
It's, uh,
made from a quarry.
There you go,
you got a corner right there.
So, this is the corner
of a, of what?
Of the top of the building.
Oh, you're kidding me?
So, we got
like a step here.
Wow.
Yeah, they're
starting here, too.
Looks like they leveled off
this structure.
Yeah, let me
clear it out a little.
Wow.
Yeah, see, a nice
little rectangular line
over here.
Keeps going here,
then comes back this way.
Oh, you can barely
make it out, huh?
When did this get built?
Uh, 2,500 years ago.
2,500 years ago.
People lived here?
Yes.
So, this is
way before Palenque?
Exactly.
So, we're looking at something
that predates Palenque
by at least 1,000 years.
This site and the
flooded quarry we discovered
suggest there was significant
Maya activity in this area,
right at the beginning
of the Maya era.
What do you think
this building was?
Oh, so if we're
looking at the way
the sun is rising,
this would have been a platform
to welcome the rising sun.
Wow.
Basically an observatory?
Yes.
From this plateau,
they would have mapped the stars
and the movement of the sun?
Yes, exactly.
We're looking at
ancient astronomers.
Joel and Santiago
believe that this site
could be part
of a much larger settlement,
reaching deeper into the jungle.
But the only way to see
if they're right
is by launching the drone
and scanning the whole area.
Hey, Joe, Duncan.
How's it going?
Yeah, I got one
for you guys.
Let's get the drone up,
and I'll send you
the GPS coordinates
of where to send it, okay?
Okay, drone's going up.
Okay, start motors.
The drone carries
state-of-the-art
LiDAR technology,
which beams light signals
through the canopy
to the jungle floor.
So, you can see the drone
there, it's just starting.
But the thickness
of this canopy means
an accurate scan of Noh K'uh
will take several days.
We've arranged to base ourselves
in the nearby village
of Mensabak,
home to the Lacandon Maya,
where the team can
charge their batteries
and process our LiDAR data.
The Lacandon were never truly
colonized by the Spanish,
making them almost unique
in the Maya world.
Today they are the guardians
of this highly protected
lake district.
I'm Albert.
Ah, your name is Albert.
Very well.
Let's go?
Yeah?
I'll gladly accompany you.
Mincho is one
of the community leaders.
This way?
I want to see if
the local people recognize
any of the symbols
that we scanned at Palenque.
Wow, this is incredible,
everybody's here.
You guys want to pull
those glyphs up?
Wow.
Wow.
Look at that.
So, zoom in
on that one.
Are there cormorants
around here?
Well, yes, there is a zone
in the area of the lagoon
where lots of cormorants
have been seen.
There's another symbol
that we found,
which shows a split mountain.
Can we pull that up?
Yep.
Are there big mountains
around the lake
that might have, I don't know,
like, uh, caves or?
Well, the one that we know
when we have traveled
to the area
is the mountain of Chak Aktun.
It's split.
Chak Aktun.
It's a mountain that's got
a split down the middle?
Yes.
Can somebody help
guide us there to Chak Aktun?
Yes, yes, we could go.
Wow.
This landscape is
sacred to the Maya.
Agreeing to lead us through it
is a deep show of trust in us.
I hope we don't let them down.
Look at this.
It's amazing, isn't it?
Through here?
Sí.
First we have to cross the lake.
Maya guides
K'in and Bor
will lead us to the mountain.
And Mexican archaeologist
and climber Arcelia García
will help me explore it.
That's got to be
the Red Mountain.
Looks like it.
Chak Aktun.
Chak Aktun, or Red Mountain,
lies around two miles
to the northwest
of the archaeological site
of Noh K'uh.
I think I see some cormorants.
Are those cormorants
right there?
Yeah.
Just like in the glyphs!
Can I pass you that rope?
Yeah.
Let's go.
Okay.
Looks like there's
a little trail up here.
You need to hit this
to tell the Lord that
you are coming to his house.
To tell the mountain?
Uh-huh.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
The ancient Maya believed
that a powerful god
split a mountain with an axe,
releasing sacred seeds
from which human life originated.
This is a powerful place.
I can feel it in my bones.
What is this? Oh!
What?!
You got to see this.
What is this?
Wow.
A hole into the mountain.
The wind comes out of here.
Here it breathes.
Mountains are
living, breathing things.
Wow.
It's unique, there is
no other place like it.
I mean, a mountain
with a hollow core.
This has to be this symbol
that's being referred to
at Palenque.
You think this is what this is?
Sí.
The split mountain.
That's incredible.
Let's go.
Vamos, vamos.
Wow.
Hey, Albert!
Yeah.
There's another one over here.
Another entrance.
There's got to be
a connected cave system, right?
Right.
If this is
the hollow mountain,
these tunnels could be
the entry point.
We'll take one each.
You take those.
Yeah.
You have a radio?
When the ancient Maya
discovered mountains
like those described
in their origin myths,
they became the center
of their spiritual world.
We're going into a place
that's reserved for the gods
or the souls of the dead.
Hope the gods are with us.
I'm in another world
right now.
Alright, Arcelia, how are you
doing on your end?
This rock is razor-sharp.
Yeah, the rock is
pretty sharp here also.
But all good.
Arcelia,
I'm at the bottom
of this first section
of the cave.
It's beautiful.
Hey, Albert,
if you see any stalagmites
or stalactites,
look around there.
Oh, look.
There's a stalactite
right there.
For the Maya,
those were sacred spaces.
So, see if you see
anything around them.
Ah, anything in here.
Looking in all the cracks.
Not sure I want to know
what I'm gonna to find.
What is that?
Oh, I'm finding something!
Hey, I've got pottery.
I've really got pottery,
right here.
Are you serious?
Ha ha, right where
you said beneath the stalactite.
I've got a piece of pottery.
I think I can see your light,
is that, is that you?
Hey.
Hey.
The tunnels are connected.
That's incredible.
This must be a whole system.
But right where you were
saying to look,
directly below the stalactite,
look at this.
I mean, that's clearly pottery,
isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
Look at this piece.
This looks pre-Palenque.
I can tell because it's thicker.
This is like waxy.
Can you feel it?
Yeah,
and you can almost see
that there was paint there.
Yeah.
I've seen pottery like this,
like this color, in Noh K'uh.
In Noh K'uh?
Yeah.
Wow.
Do you think this was put here
by the people of Noh K'uh?
Yeah, most likely.
Oh, my gosh.
I mean, that's 2,500 years ago.
I can picture them,
coming down from there
with the ropes
all the way here
with their torches,
carefully placing the pottery
just in the right spot.
Alright,
I'm going to get down
to the second level now, okay?
2,500 years ago, the people who
climbed inside this mountain
believed they were entering
a living being.
A powerful, sacred entity.
Imagine how they must have felt.
It's overwhelming, really.
Wow.
I mean, look at this place.
Wow.
What a chamber.
Look, there's bats.
Here there's no sunlight.
So, the deeper it is, the closer
we are to the deities.
To the gods.
Exactly.
Wow.
We're really in the heart
of the mountain.
This is a split mountain.
It feels like the glyphs
that we scanned in Palenque
are coming to life here.
The cormorants, the lake,
and now this incredible
split mountain
suggest this could be the site
of the lost origin city.
But it's just so vast.
Over on the other side
of the lake,
Joe and Duncan have been
carefully scanning the area
around Noh K'uh to try and
find out how big it really is.
How are you guys doing?
Hey, Albert,
it's Duncan here.
I think we're
onto a good thing.
You wouldn't believe
what we found up here.
Make your way over
to Chak Aktun.
Let's do a scan
of the whole mountain.
The LiDAR scanner
beams 400,000 lasers
towards the ground every second.
The canopy's so dense.
Yeah.
While many beams reflect
off the top of the trees,
some make it all the way down
to the jungle floor,
allowing the team
to build a 3D model,
which may reveal
any human-made features.
Wow, look at that.
With over 150 acres of
jungle to cover at Red Mountain,
there's a long night of scanning
and data processing ahead.
You guys get some
of the data in?
Just looking
at the point cloud now
for the, from the aerial LiDAR
of the whole
of the Red Mountain, so.
Okay, so this is
the top-down aerial view, right?
Oh, my gosh!
What is that?
Can we remove
the trees off the mountain?
Of course.
Unbelievable.
Look how the, the Maya
flattened the mountain.
It's a four-sided pyramid.
The entire mountain's modified.
Like, how special is that?
We can use the algorithm
to pull out the features.
Oh, wow,
look at that.
Look at everything here.
That looks like
a massive temple
Yes.
formed out
of the mountain itself.
It's almost like whoever drew
this symbol at Palenque
was literally drawing a diagram,
a schematic diagram,
of this exact place.
Yes.
Exactly.
Our scans have
revealed details
of an enormous pyramid temple
site at Red Mountain.
But there is no evidence
of a human settlement there.
If this really is
the split mountain
described in the glyphs,
we must figure out where the
people who worshipped it lived.
You guys also did a bit more
at Noh K'uh, right?
Let's fly over there.
Okay,
let's strip away the trees.
Whoa.
They leveled
everything off.
See this
gigantic rectangle here?
Oh, and there's another one
there and another one there.
It's rectangle
on top of rectangle.
These are all artificially
constructed hills.
That's something
I never saw before.
This is an urban community.
Wow.
I mean, it almost
looks like a modern city system,
doesn't it?
It does, but
at the time that this was built,
what, almost 2,500, 3,000
years ago, is that right?
Right, right.
Did the Maya
have large cities?
No, so this is
a first-generation city.
So, the idea of even having
a city is completely new.
Based on the scale of this
and what I already know,
I would say it's one
of the earliest cities
in the Maya region,
around 800 BC.
Wow.
How many people do you think
made up this city?
Oh, gosh. I wouldn't
be surprised if this city,
at its peak,
was about 20,000 people.
20,000 people
at the time
when the Maya civilization
was just beginning?
Yes.
It is a sacred city space.
Do you think
that the mountain
was part of what attracted them?
I think that's
definitely the big draw here.
This is a powerful place.
Now you got me wondering if
the site just keeps connecting.
I mean, based
we haven't seen the boundaries
of Noh K'uh there.
I just got to get
back out on that lake,
find out if that
human settlement at Noh K'uh
and the temple site
at Chak Aktun are connected.
If they are, and this is
one giant sacred city,
this could be one of the most
extraordinary discoveries
in the Maya world.
You guys pair off.
We'll keep going,
and then try to make a base.
Did we bring enough machetes?
Alright, here we go.
We're splitting
our search team into two.
Josuhé, Mincho and I
are headed to an area
on the western side of the lake
between Noh K'uh
and Red Mountain,
where our earlier scans
picked up
some interesting results,
while Joe and Duncan
will focus their attention
on an unexplored area
in the east.
We must be getting close now.
Yes.
Look at this, Albert.
See this shape,
the perfect shape of that rock.
You can see the angles here.
It must have come
from uphill somewhere.
So, let's keep going up.
I think so.
Cut rocks!
Ah, look at this.
There are a lot of rocks
here in a line.
It looks like a platform.
Yes.
Maybe it's an observatory,
because in a high position,
and face to the lake.
Another observatory.
Their world begins and falls
with the sun.
We found something all the way
out here. Incredible.
Incredible.
Ah.
Could this observatory
be connected in some way
to the one we saw at Noh K'uh?
We need to get the LiDAR team
over here now.
Hey, Joe, uh, Duncan,
do you guys copy?
I'll send you our coordinates.
Let's scan this area.
Wow, this jungle is dense.
GPS is good.
Start motors.
How are you guys doing?
Yeah, good, I'm just
mapping the perimeter here
at the moment.
Will our data show us
how the sacred mountain
Chak Aktun
is connected
to the city of Noh K'uh
and finally reveal
the true scale
of this extraordinary
lost Maya world?
Thank you
for hosting us
over this last couple of weeks.
It's been so wonderful.
So how was the scanning?
How is the processing?
With the city of Noh K'uh
in the south
and the sacred temple site
of Chak Aktun in the north,
we can now examine the new data
to reveal whether the two sites
are connected.
Alright, let's see what
you guys got in the west.
Wow, another structure.
Yeah, it's a site.
Yeah.
So, what do you think this is?
There's pyramids,
there's temples,
there's a rectangular
palace complex maybe.
A palace emerging
in the jungle.
You guys scanned this whole area
on the east of the lake,
too, right?
Yeah that shouldn't
be level. Oh, wow.
All that's all modified.
Oh, this wholeoh!
Wow, it looks like, like a,
like a structure,
like a platforms for the Mayas.
You can see the perfect shape
of the three mounds.
I just thought
of something
really, really,
really interesting.
This is really, like,
blowing me away right now.
In Palenque there's
three temples side by side
with a plaza in the middle.
You go to that east site,
and it's the same plan,
but 1,000 years earlier.
So maybe
the very same people
that are building this
are building Palenque?
Yes.
Wow.
A pre-Palenque!
The scale of what we're
revealing here is breathtaking.
The links between Palenque
and Noh K'uh feel undeniable.
Could this really be
the origin city
we've been searching for?
Let's turn on
all the different features
that have been identified.
I think you're gonna be
amazed at what we've picked up.
Oh, wow.
It's just everywhere we look.
Oh, wow.
Wow.
I mean,
the whole lake system
is one massive complex.
So, here's Noh K'uh.
It's a really big city.
What is this?
There's like
an alignment of the buildings
at Noh K'uh that's all
pointing the same way.
Wow.
It aligns almost like an arrow
to the split mountain.
What is happening there?
Many Maya cities
are built
according
to different orientations.
This one's oriented
to the sacred Red Mountain,
and maybe the pathway
of the sun.
It seems to me that they
are standing in Noh K'uh
and tracking
the movements of the sun
at different times of the year.
The sun?
What would be the most important
dates along their calendar?
August 13th.
The start of the Maya calendar
and the creation
of the current world.
August 13th, let's see
what the sun looks like.
Oh, my gosh!
Are you kidding me?
The sun sets on the very top
of the split mountain,
on the beginning day
of their calendar.
Their origin day.
It's a connection
between the people
and their city and the landscape
and the sun.
It's all connected.
It's quite amazing.
The sacred mountain
of Chak Aktun
is the spiritual hub
of a vast lost city,
wrapping right around the lake.
Do you think that it's
the origin place for Palenque,
or possibly more?
More, more.
It's a very, very important city
in the Maya world.
Could we be looking at
the, the cradle of the Maya
civilization itself?
It's a cradle.
It definitely is.
It's a large city on a lake
with a split mountain.
And it's so early.
It is definitely
an origin place.
The land of the origins.
We've looked
for a lot of lost cities before,
but right now
what it feels like
is that we're looking
at more than a city,
we're looking at the beginning
of an idea,
the beginning of a people,
a civilization.
I set out in search
of a mythical city,
home to the origins of the Maya.
I found a split mountain,
carved into a massive
temple site.
A sacred lake surrounded
by countless houses,
home to tens of thousands
of people.
Palaces and observatories
aligned to the pathways
of the sun.
A cradle of the ancient Maya.
This lost city provides
a tangible link to the origins
of one
of the Western Hemisphere's
most important civilizations.
Our technology has
illuminated a world
that had become blurred
by myth and legend.
But it was the modern Maya
who helped us understand
the origins of their ancestors
were intrinsically linked
to the natural world
they worshipped
and added a new chapter
to the origin story of the Maya
and the history of all of us.