All language subtitles for Truthseekers.S01E07.Chichen.Itza.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track4_[eng]

[sound of flames crackling]

[majestic music playing]

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] A team of
truthseekers is on a mission.

Scientists.

Historians.

Archaeologists.

All on the trail
of history's enigmas.

[mysterious whooshing sound]

Searching for the truth
behind the greatest mysteries

known to humanity.

[dramatic music playing]

Chichén Itzá,

the lost metropolis of
the ancient Mayan civilization

of Central America.

A vast temple complex abandoned,

sacrificed to the jungle.

[dramatic music playing]

But what caused
the fall of the Maya

has long been a mystery.

Was it overpopulation,

a natural disaster,

or a catastrophic war?

In London,
our team assemble.

Our four truthseekers
combine decades of experience

in different fields.

But they all have one goal:

to apply their knowledge
and reveal the truth.

There are mysteries,

and then there are mysteries.

[Fern] I have always loved

uncovering the secrets
of the past.

We need to go back

and unpick the untruths
from the truths.

[Mark] Age-old problems that
we've been asking ourselves

for over 100 years, really,
can now be solved.

[narrator] They'll follow
the clues left behind.

Unravel the secrets
of the past.

Separate fact from fiction.

And together,
they'll uncover the truth...

...behind the greatest
mysteries ever.

[dramatic music playing]

[lock tumbler-like clicking]

[soft music playing]

It was 1531,
deep in Central America.

A group of Spanish soldiers

were hacking their way
through the dense rainforest

when they stumbled
on to something

that seemed impossible.

Carving through the trees
was a paved road.

As night fell,
they followed it.

[suspenseful music playing]

The path led them
to a lost city,

where ancient ruins

half-covered
in trees and vines

towered over their heads.

There were pyramids
and grand temples

built of limestone

that glowed white
in the moonlight.

The Spanish soldiers had found

one of the last
great strongholds

of the Maya civilization.

They found Chichén Itzá.

[insects chirring]

[mysterious music playing]

For centuries,

the Maya dominated
the lands of Yucatan

and further south.

[mysterious music playing]

They traded, fought wars,

and sacrificed to their gods.

[percussive music playing]

But one by one,

the cities of the Maya
were abandoned.

[dramatic music playing]

A highly developed culture
seemed to just fall apart.

[thunder rumbling, rain pouring]

[dramatic music playing]

By the time the Spanish arrived
in the 16th century,

even once-bustling cities
like Chichén Itzá

had fallen silent

as the jungles
reclaimed their stones.

What caused the fall
of the Maya civilization

has long been a mystery.

[Fern] I find the Mayan
absolutely fascinating,

because this is such
an incredible civilization

that we know
just disappears,

and that mystery is one

I really hope
we get to answer.

[dramatic music playing]

[Tony] The glorious
past of the Maya

was simply airbrushed out.

[narrator] Our truthseekers
will review the record

to try to discover
the real reason

for one of history's
great unanswered questions.

[dramatic music playing]

[suspenseful music playing]

[Tony] What really strikes you
about Chichén Itzá

when you go there

is the sheer scale of
the building and its vastness.

And this is something
that was constructed

over a thousand years ago
by the Maya,

that were building
these enormous structures

when Europe was in
the so-called Dark Ages.

[Karen] They were
expert farmers

and mathematicians
and astronomers,

and they built massive cities.

And yet by 900 AD,

Chichén Itzá, its capital,
was abandoned.

Why?

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] Historians
Dr. Fern Riddell

and Tony McMahon

have been tracing
how the cities of the Maya

were rediscovered
after so long,

and what those early
investigations might tell us

about why they were
so suddenly abandoned.

[Tony] When
the Spanish arrived

in the 16th
and 17th centuries,

they found these rural Maya.

They also saw
the ruins they created

600 years earlier.

And they couldn't
in any way conceive

that the people
they saw in front of them

had anything to do
with those pyramids,

with those buildings.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] The Spanish
showed little interest

in finding out more.

The Maya were regarded
as pagan,

and too much interest would
bring on accusations of heresy.

But in the late 1700s,
that began to change.

The Spanish had completed
their conquest

of Central America.

The power of the church
and the fear of the Inquisition

were receding.

An age of scientific
and technological development

had begun.

The time was finally right

for new expeditions
into the rainforest

to track down
the ancient lost cities.

[mysterious music playing]

Two American explorers,

John Lloyd Stephens
and Frederick Catherwood,

began to document
the Mayan civilization.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] John Lloyd Stephens
was a young American lawyer

who met English artist and
architect Frederick Catherwood

in the 1830s in London.

Both men had read an account
of the mysterious stone cities

in the jungles
of Central America

and resolved to journey there

and find the cities
for themselves.

[mysterious music playing]

[suspenseful music playing]

They began
at the Maya city of Copán

in modern-day Honduras
in 1840.

Over the next two years,

they then moved
in a great semi-circle

through the region.

Hacking their way
through the hot jungle,

they discovered wonders.

Stone cities
with intricate carvings,

sculptures covered
with hieroglyphs.

Remnants of a powerful
and sophisticated civilization.

[Tony] It wasn't
that people didn't know

these pyramids were there,

but nobody had bothered
to go and map them out,

to really study
this long-lost civilization.

[suspenseful music playing]

[soft music playing]

[narrator] While Stephens
wrote down his impressions,

Catherwood used
a special device

to draw pictures
of what they found.

The "camera lucida" was
portable and lightweight

and was able
to transpose images

directly onto the page,

making precise recreations
of the great monuments

he and Stephens had found.

After leaving Central America,

Stephens and Catherwood
produced two books

about their travels.

Both were hugely successful.

[soft music playing]

[suspenseful music playing]

[Fern] The books really captured
the public's imagination.

Between Stephens's
vivid text

and Catherwood's romanticized
yet precise pictures,

the world was given a glimpse
of a lost civilization.

The books sparked a new interest
in Maya culture.

People began to ask

who built these incredible
cities in the jungle,

and what made
these people abandon

such a seemingly idyllic life?

[narrator] Stephens
and Catherwood

opened the way
for future generations

of explorers
and archaeologists.

Those scholars would go
looking for the answers,

armed with new tools
and new knowledge.

[soft music playing]

[Fern] And by
the late 19th century,

new advances in archaeological
science and photography

allowed even more precise
records to be made.

Maya sites were
once again visited

by scientists and explorers,

and they used
the maps and pictures

drawn by Stephens
and Catherwood.

[soft music playing]

[narrator] Foremost
among the pioneering

generation of explorers

was the British archaeologist
Alfred Maudslay.

He would spend two decades
in Central America

recording the ruins
of the Maya.

He was the first scholar
to make a detailed record

of Chichén Itzá.

[Tony] He first came
to Chichén Itzá in 1889.

With a team of local laborers,

he cleared away tree roots,
earth, and rubble

that covered
much of the monuments.

Battling intense heat
and bouts of fever,

he not only produced

an extensive photographic
survey of the site,

he also pioneered
the use of plaster casts

to make perfect copies
of the sculptures he found.

[percussive music playing]

[narrator] Chichén Itzá
is located

in what is now
southern Mexico,

at the tip
of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Fifty kilometers
inland from the coast,

the city is nestled
deep in the rainforest.

[Tony] What the 19th-century
archaeologists uncovered

was a vast site with more than
30 ancient structures.

Chichén Itzá was
dominated by a temple,

a stepped pyramid
a clear 30 meters high.

The Spaniards were so impressed
they called it "El Castillo,"

the castle.

Surrounding it were terraces

with monumental complexes

of platforms, walls,
and temples.

[voices raised in worship]

But Chichén Itzá wasn't only

a religious
and ceremonial site.

It was also an urban center
and hub of regional trade,

connected to other settlements
by paved causeways

that stretched out
into the rainforest.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] Piece by piece,

scholars and explorers
like Maudslay

built up a picture
of this lost civilization.

A sophisticated
and advanced people,

whose roots
in Central America

stretched back
almost 4,000 years.

But early archaeologists came
no closer to discovering

why Chichén Itzá and the
other cities of the Maya

had been abandoned
and forgotten.

They knew clues
might be found

in the thousands
of inscriptions

carved into the walls
of the lost cities.

But there was a problem.

Nobody could translate them.

[mysterious music playing]

[Tony] Many of the carvings
had been eroded or damaged.

And thanks
to a 16th-century effort

by the Catholic Church

to eradicate
the traditional practices

of the indigenous population,

most Mayan texts and those
who could decipher them

no longer existed.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] But the Spanish
did not destroy

all examples of Mayan text.

Four books survived
the purge,

as well as
a rudimentary transcription

of Mayan into Spanish,

letters created in the 1500s.

Using these in the 19th century
and early 20th century,

scholars were
first able to decipher

the Maya number system.

These inscriptions
revealed the Maya were

even more sophisticated
than previously thought.

[Tony] The Maya had
an advanced understanding

of mathematics.

This included the number zero,

a key to higher maths

and a concept
unknown in Europe.

The bulk of the non-mathematical
Mayan texts, however,

remained mysterious
for decades more.

It wasn't until the middle
of the 20th century

that their mysteries
began to be revealed.

[narrator] Deciphering
the rest of the Maya Code

would be the challenge
of a new generation,

scholars and archaeologists
searching for clues

as to why the Maya left
these cities in the jungle.

Breaking the code
was the only way forward,

but could it be deciphered

and what would it teach us?

[mysterious music playing]

At the tip of
the Yucatan Peninsula,

the city of Chichén Itzá looms
over the ancient rainforest.

With more than two million
visitors a year,

today, it is one of the most
popular tourist sites

in Mexico.

But for hundreds of years,

the world forgot it existed.

[mysterious music playing]

Chichén Itzá was once
one of the great cities

of the Maya civilization,

which flourished
in Central America

more than a thousand years ago.

But steadily,

their cities were
abandoned to the jungle

and the last memories
of these ancient people

were swept away.

Ever since then,

historians and archaeologists
have puzzled over

the mysteries
that the Maya left behind.

How did they live?

And why did they leave?

[mysterious music playing]

[soft music playing]

[Karen] The Maya and
Chichén Itzá in particular

demands our attention

for what these
ancient people achieved

in such a short time.

The Maya were literally one of
the most

sophisticated civilizations
the ancient world has known.

[soft music playing]

[narrator] Anthropologist
Dr. Karen Bellinger

has been finding out more
about the Maya people

and the way they lived.

[Karen] The Maya
reached their golden age

between about 250 and 900 AD.

They became expert farmers,

mathematicians,
and astronomers.

[soft music playing]

[narrator] This was
an era of intellectual

and artistic flowering.

An era that saw
the Maya build

cities of over
a hundred thousand people

and create trade routes

spanning across
Central America.

In addition to Chichén Itzá,

the Maya developed
power centers

about 400 kilometers away

in the southern lowlands
at Tikal and Calakmul,

which were previously thought
to be ceremonial centers only.

But now we know
that's not the case.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] This shift was driven
by a dramatic breakthrough.

The Maya Code, which had
baffled scholars for decades,

was finally cracked.

[Karen] It was discovered
that the Maya language

combined two approaches.

One, single symbols,
which represented entire words;

the other, syllabic symbols,

which represented sounds
which could be combined

to form words and sentences.

Put them all together
and you've got a full language.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator]
With this breakthrough,

the Maya entered
the written record,

and our whole understanding
of them changed.

[mysterious music playing]

The idea of
a peaceful population

ruled by astronomer-priests
was gone.

The translated
inscriptions revealed

a very different picture
of Maya life,

one that was more
violent and complex

than was ever suspected.

[Karen] As of now, we have
the capacity to decipher

approximately 90 percent
of Maya writings.

Some mysteries still remain,

but this is a spectacular
move forward.

[mysterious music playing]

We speak of the Maya Empire,

but it's not like we would
think about the Roman Empire.

For example, there was
no single emperor.

It was a bunch
of different rival states,

all with their own rulers...

[mysterious music playing]

...some more powerful
than others.

But what bound them all together
was a common language,

a set of belief systems
and practices.

With these new advances

in understanding
the Maya glyphs,

it opens up a whole world
of specific stories.

[mysterious music playing]

[chant-like music playing]

[narrator] Maya society
was strictly divided

between different classes:

the elites whose names
were carved into stone,

and the commoners
whose fates are forgotten.

[chant-like music playing]

Ruling above them all
in each city was a king.

[chant-like music playing]

[mysterious music playing]

[Karen] In the Maya world,

political power was linked
to divine power,

and the kings ruled
by right of the divine power

ascribed to them
by the gods.

They were viewed
as the very link

between the human realm
and that of the gods.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] The decoded
inscriptions told us

the names and achievements
of these kings.

For the first time,

individuals in Maya history

could be identified
and their stories told.

[Karen] Deciphering
the Maya Code

makes it possible
to distill individuals

from this mass of leaders

that we know about
in the Maya world

to the reigns
of individual kings,

their births, their deaths,

what they actually did
when they ruled.

Now, that's incredible,
but it's just the elites.

And in fact, the language
does not refer to the commoners,

who made up about 90 percent
of the population.

And there's nothing at all
about women.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] Unless they were
part of the ruling elites,

as there were
some Maya queens.

The so-called Lady of Tikal
ruled for 16 years

in the early 6th century.

And in the city of Waka
in modern day Guatemala,

archaeologists have recently
uncovered the tomb

of a great queen
called Lady K'abel.

[Karen] Late in
the 7th century,

Lady K'abel of the powerful
ruling dynasty of Kalakmul

was sent by her parents
to the community of Waka

on her parents' behalf

in order to rule
the Waka people.

This obviously is
an unusual case,

a woman in charge.

The lives of the average woman
remain shrouded in mystery.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] Cracking
the Maya Code has revealed

these stories
of individual lives.

But could it also
contain clues

about why their
civilization declined

and their cities fell?

[Karen] You might
think that now that

we've cracked the Maya Code,

we would find insight into
what caused the collapse.

But in fact, there's nothing
explicitly written down.

Perhaps there's some way
to read between the lines.

[Fern] We know that
throughout the 8th century,

the Mayan had
a thriving civilization.

And we have fantastic
records from then,

dates written
on their buildings,

so we can really
pinpoint them in time.

But then in 904,

right at the start
of the 10th century,

everything goes silent.

[narrator] The inscriptions
also suggest

that in the mid-
to late 8th century AD,

relations between
the different Maya city-states

deteriorated rapidly.

[Karen] The Maya states
were always characterized

by competition,

which often escalated
to warfare.

But in the 9th century,

we really start to see a whole
new level in the warfare,

in its intensity,
its frequency,

in the number
of captives taken.

And what were they doing
with all those captives?

[narrator] Human sacrifice
was the ultimate offering

to the gods of the Maya.

All of their most important
religious rituals

ended in bloodshed.

[Karen] The coronation
of a new king,

the building
of a new temple,

or any other major
building project,

all called
for human sacrifice.

And what exactly
was the ritual?

It could have
involved decapitation,

removal of the heart,

even removal of the skin,

which the priest
performing the ritual

would then wear.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] The higher
the status of the victim,

the more value they had
as a sacrifice.

An enemy king would be
most prized of all.

[Karen] Spiritual
life was key

to all aspects
of Maya daily life,

from agriculture,
to warfare, to politics,

to religious practice itself,

and the gods had to be
placated regularly

to ensure their favor.

The 9th century sees
an acceleration

in human sacrifice.

And from this,
one might infer

that the Maya were feeling
more anxious than usual

and were seeking the gods
to bolster their side.

[narrator] But however many
victims the Maya sacrificed,

it seems their gods
were not listening.

The Maya world became
more and more unstable.

[dramatic music playing]

Trade routes collapsed.

Wars broke out.

The golden age
was coming to an end.

And nowhere was this more
evident than in Tikal.

[Karen] The city of Tikal
traditionally had dominated

the southern lowlands.

But over the course
of the 9th century,

its population dwindled,

its ruling dynasty collapsed,

its palaces were burned,

and by the end
of the 10th century,

the city was abandoned.

[narrator] But this was not
the end of the Maya story.

Survivors migrated north.

There, new powers rose,

cities like Chichén Itzá,

the place
that holds the key

to unraveling the mysteries
of the Maya

and the disappearance
of an entire civilization.

[mysterious music playing]

Thousands of years ago,

the Maya dominated lands
in what we now call

Guatemala, Belize, Honduras,

Mexico, and El Salvador.

They built enormous
cities of stone,

with pyramids stretching
up to the sky.

And they grew rich
through trade routes

that crisscrossed
the entire region.

But by the 11th century,

their great cities
were being abandoned,

their languages
steadily forgotten,

and their secrets lost.

[mysterious music playing]

The fall of the Maya
did not happen all at once.

The southern kingdoms
were the first to fail.

But this created
a power vacuum.

It allowed another
Maya city further north

to rise in their stead,

and that city

was Chichén Itzá.

[dramatic music playing]

[mysterious music playing]

Archaeologist
Dr. Mark Altaweel

has been examining
what modern excavations

have uncovered at the city

to see what might have caused
their sudden abandonment.

[Mark] It was a city
during the so-called

Classic Maya phase,

prior to the collapse
of the Maya

or decline
of the Maya urban centers.

So it was sort of
relatively late

in this classical Maya phase

that it was occupied
as a major urban site.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] Since the early
exploration and surveys

in the 19th century,

archaeologists have
learned a great deal

about the history
of Chichén Itzá.

[Mark] Chichén Itzá was
a relatively latecomer

in terms of when it becomes
a true city.

Around 832 is the earliest
inscription we have

of when it was a city.

However, the site was certainly
occupied much earlier.

There's radiocarbon or charcoal
evidence that indicates

that the area was occupied
about a thousand years earlier.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] Over time, people
from all over Central America

came to the city,

either as immigrants
or conquerors.

And they left their mark
on Chichén Itzá

in its buildings.

The earlier structures
are to the south

of the Grand Plaza.

They are in the Puuc style
common to the Yucatan region,

with a distinct
lattice of stone

decorating building facades.

Chichén Itzá
reached its zenith

between the 10th
and 12th centuries.

By then, its buildings
were more influenced

by the designs
of the Toltec people

from a thousand kilometers
further north,

who were noted for being
master craftsmen

and skilled builders.

These included
the great pyramids

and the gigantic court

where the ancient Maya
played their popular

and often violent ball game.

We see a lot of similarities
between the northern Maya,

specifically in Chichén Itzá,

with the Toltec civilizations
and cultures.

So there's been debate
among archaeologists

if the Toltecs perhaps had
invaded the Yucatan Peninsula

and perhaps even influenced the
sites through their conquest,

or even just through
sort of cultural exchange,

trade, and other kinds of
more subtle influences,

may have affected
how Chichén Itzá looked like.

[soft music playing]

What is clear
is that Chichén Itzá

was an attractive place
to live in.

The region had abundant,

or at least
very fertile soils,

it had good stone materials
for building.

But perhaps most importantly,

the region has
good water resources,

which makes settlements
very attractive.

[soft music playing]

[narrator] There are
no rivers to be seen

around Chichén Itzá,

and where there are
lakes and swamps,

their water is not drinkable.

But looks can be deceiving.

[Mark] What it does have
is limestone.

And limestone is
a very porous rock.

It's very soluble as well.

So, beneath Chichén Itzá,

there are great
abundant water resources

which can be used for irrigation
and drinking water.

[narrator] Hidden beneath
the ground is a great system

of underground caves,
rivers, and reservoirs,

hundreds of kilometers
in length.

[soft music playing]

These are mostly inaccessible,

except where the roof
of an underground cave

has collapsed,

creating a sinkhole

that reveals the freshwater
to the open air.

The Spanish invaders
of the 16th century

called these sinkholes cenotes.

[soft music playing]

[Mark] Now, in Chichén Itzá,

there are four main cenotes
which surround the site.

So it's very clear
that these cenotes,

these water holes, effectively,

were quite attractive
for settlement.

[soft music playing]

[narrator] Two of
these cenotes,

the Sacred Cenote and
the Xtoloc or Iguana Cenote,

are located
in the temple site

directly north and south
of El Castillo,

with Kanjuyum in the east
and Holtún in the west

and still more
in the surrounding jungle.

[Mark] The cenotes had a both
sort of practical use

in terms of the water
they provided to the people.

However, there's also
a spiritual element.

Cenotes are sacred areas,

and particularly
this sacred cenote,

which served as a conduit
to the underworld

as a place of worship,

a place of pilgrimage,

a place of sacrifice.

[soft music playing]

[narrator] In the 16th century,

a Spanish bishop in the region
named Diego de Landa

recorded the deep connection
the Maya had with water

and the offerings
they gave to their gods

via the cenote.

Not just precious items
and jewels,

but people as well.

Human sacrifices
to the Maya gods.

In 1904, an American
archaeologist decided

to find out whether
the bishop's story was true.

[Mark] In the early
20th century,

Thompson goes to Chichén Itzá

and decides to investigate
the cenotes.

So he actually brings in
a dredging machine

and begins to empty out
the Sacred Cenote,

looking for the kinds
of descriptions

that were provided by the monks
in the 17th century.

[soft music playing]

[narrator] With the help
of two experienced divers

from the Bahamas,

Thompson swam
five meters down

to the bottom
of the Sacred Cenote.

Just as the Spanish bishop
had claimed,

Thompson found ornaments
made of gold and jade,

countless copper bells,

and human skulls.

[soft music playing]

[Mark] Now, many of these
objects were not found

locally to Chichén Itzá.

Rather, they were found
in many areas.

For instance,
gold comes from the south,

obsidian comes
from the farther north.

So it shows the sort of role
that Chichén Itzá played--

that is,
it was a central trading hub.

It was a place that had powerful
kind of trade relationships

with a variety
of centers and regions,

but also brought
these elements together

and often offered them
as sacrifices

so that water would continue
to be provided for the city

through its connections
with the metaphysical world.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] But
the Sacred Cenote

was not the only holy place
in Chichén Itzá.

At the heart of the city
was a great pyramid.

Finished sometime
in the 10th century,

this was the monument the
Spaniards called El Castillo.

In fact, it was a temple
dedicated to Kukulcán,

the feathered serpent god.

[soft music playing]

For years,
it's been known

that the pyramid was built
at the center of four cenotes.

But new archaeological
investigations have revealed

that there may be
a fifth cenote,

one hidden underneath
the pyramid itself.

[mysterious music playing]

[Mark] More recent investigations

since the mid-2010s,

archaeologists have used
non-invasive techniques

to understand or study
this pyramid.

And so, using
the sort of electrodes

placed at various locations

would then create an image
of the underground features,

what they determined is that

there's actually
two older pyramids

underneath the more recent,

or the temple
that we see today.

What's even more interesting
is that underneath all that,

you have a five-meter slab of
limestone and below that,

you have another cenote,
a hidden cenote,

that was located
underneath the temple.

So, effectively,

the most sacred site
on Chichén Itzá

sits on top of a cenote,
of a water hole.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] The hidden
sinkhole appeared

similar in scale
to the Sacred Cenote.

And it would have been similarly
important to the Maya,

providing critical supplies
of fresh water

while also providing a gateway
to the spirit realm.

[mysterious music playing]

[Mark] We see this temple
as a kind of

what we call axis mundi.

A connection between
the underworld,

land of the cenotes,

the sort of underworld
of some of the gods,

but also the heavens where
other gods or other mysteries

might be located,
and that would be represented

through the pyramid itself,

which connects us
to the heavens.

[narrator] The Maya must have
known the cenote was there

and it's likely
they had access to it.

But if the path exists,

for now, it remains hidden.

Archaeologists are
still searching

through the cave system
below Chichén Itzá

to find it.

[Mark] We've realized
the importance of caves

to the Mayan cultures.

Since the discovery of this
underground or hidden cenote,

there have been
further exploration

as to how this cenote
was accessed,

perhaps through
other hidden caves

or other chambers
underneath Chichén Itzá.

[soft music playing]

[narrator] In 2019,
a team of scientists

mapping the cave system made
an extraordinary discovery.

[soft music playing]

Squeezing through
tiny tunnels beneath the city,

they found a series
of seven underground chambers.

They were filled with treasures
untouched for a thousand years.

These were objects
that look like as if

they literally were
placed there yesterday.

They found incense burners, vases,

and other kinds of household
as well as more elaborate

or even elite
kinds of objects.

But perhaps more interestingly,

they found also the objects
were dedicated to Tlaloc,

a god from the Toltec
civilization as well.

So that indicates that they
actually worshipped a god

that specifically relates
to water and rain.

[narrator] These offerings
were pleas for water.

These caves were
not just a time capsule

of how the Maya lived.

They offered clues as to why
their civilization fell apart.

Water was at the heart
of Maya existence.

Could it also hold the key
to their demise?

[percussive music playing]

It's the spring equinox
at Chichén Itzá,

one of the last great cities
of the Maya civilization.

Thousands of tourists
descend on the site

to witness a phenomenon that
happens only twice a year.

[mysterious music playing]

As the sun sets
on El Castillo,

the Temple of Kukulcán,

it casts shadows
on the ancient stones,

shadows that look
like a serpent,

like Kukulcán himself,

crawling down the side
of the pyramid.

[Tony] It's hard
to believe today,

but Chichén Itzá was a city
of tens of thousands of people.

And the city they lived in

evidenced great knowledge
of architecture.

And those buildings,
those structures,

also show us
that the Maya understood

the cosmos above them.

And that's reflected in
the mighty structures below.

But at some point,
for whatever reason,

the Maya abandoned
Chichén Itzá.

[mysterious music playing]

[narrator] Historians Tony
McMahon and Dr. Fern Riddell

have been evaluating
all the evidence

the truthseekers have gathered.

[Fern] So here's
what we do know.

By the mid-
to late 8th century,

we know that relationships
between the city-states

had really started
to deteriorate.

Trade has gone down,
war and death is going up,

and there are
no new buildings.

They're not
constructing anything.

But why?

There's no archaeological
evidence to support the idea

that the Mayan were wiped out by
some massive foreign invasion.

The cities aren't demolished,
they're not destroyed.

[narrator] The cities
might be standing,

but we now know that
the people living there

were living ever more
difficult and desperate lives.

[soft music playing]

[Tony] The increasing
conflict between city-states

in the Maya civilization,

the growing incidence
of gruesome human sacrifice,

suggest a civilization
that was having issues

about resources,

in particular, water,

and this may have brought down
the Maya civilization.

[Fern] In recent years,

there's been a renewed
scientific focus

on why the Mayan disappeared.

In 2018, scientists
from Cambridge University

finally believed
they had proof

for one of the most
widely known theories

of the Mayan disappearance.

[soft music playing]

[narrator] The team from
Cambridge were joined

by researchers from
the University of Florida.

Together, they drilled into
the thick layer of sediment

at the bottom of the lake.

By analyzing
the layers of dirt,

the scientists were
able to establish

environmental conditions

hundreds of years before
written records began.

[Tony] What they
were able to show

was that at the time
that we know

the Maya civilization was
entering a period of crisis,

there was a dramatic fall
in the amount of rainfall,

something like half.

[Fern] And not only did annual
rainfall dramatically decrease,

we also know
that humidity dropped.

So the Mayans' ability
to grow food for agriculture

and support their population

was seriously affected.

These droughts are
so extensive and so severe

that the Mayan
would have been unable

to replenish
their food stocks,

and this would have
increased instability.

But would this instability
lead to war?

[suspenseful music playing]

[tense music playing]

[narrator] This could easily
have been the spark

behind the surge in fighting
recorded in Mayan texts,

as rival city-states
fought for territory

and access to reliable
supplies of water.

[Tony] There is increasing
tension, there is war.

People from the rural areas
pour into the cities

looking for protection,

looking for food,
looking for shelter.

But the cities can't absorb
this number of people.

They are placed
under huge strains,

and ultimately,
the cracks start to appear.

[narrator] It would
have been an ongoing

and deepening crisis,

and the actions
of the Maya themselves

may even have made
the drought worse.

As their cities grew,

more and more of
the surrounding rainforest

was cut back for farming
and for construction.

[tense music playing]

[Tony] In order to create
these structures,

the lime kilns have to be fed
to create all that plaster

that's going to make them
look beautiful.

And to build a square meter
of one of these structures

required something like
20 trees to feed the fires.

[flames crackling]

[narrator] This rapid deforestation

in the Maya
southern lowlands

was an environmental catastrophe.

The cleared lands retained
less of the sun's heat,

reducing water evaporation,

causing fewer clouds to form,

and producing less rain.

The drought became even worse.

The Maya were caught

in a vicious
and unsustainable cycle

of failing crops,
disease, and war.

[tense music playing]

[Tony] The Maya kings
were supposed to have

a kind of hotline
to the gods.

And it was the gods that were
denying the Maya people rain.

So what were the kings
going to do about it?

They embarked on a program
of human sacrifice.

But that in turn

meant war to find
the sacrificial victims,

which in turn
ate up more resources,

and that exacerbated
the crisis of Mayan society

even more.

[narrator] And it
wasn't just the kings'

divine authority
that was undermined.

Constant warfare,
repeated crop failure,

and the collapse
of trade routes

all sapped
the wealth of the Maya.

That wealth had cemented
the position of the kings

and the other Maya elites
for generations.

Without it, their grip on power
weakened even further.

The ties that held Maya society
together were fraying.

Life in the great cities
of the south

was becoming precarious.

[tense music]

[Fern] So if you destroy
your ecosystem,

and you're in
a period of drought

and you have to go to war,

your civilization is really
going to struggle to survive.

[Tony] Mayan society was
locked into a deadly spiral

of drought, competition,
and scarcity,

and it hit the southern parts
of the Maya civilization first.

Now, this kind of benefited
Chichén Itzá in some ways.

It became the focal point
of the Maya civilization.

It had a kind of golden age.

The underlying tensions
were going to grow and grow

to the point where they would
swallow the Maya civilization.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] For a century
or more,

Chichén Itzá became
the most important

and most powerful
of the Maya kingdoms.

But the problems faced
by the southern cities

followed the Maya north.

Drought spread
to Chichén Itzá as well.

[dramatic music playing]

The proof can be found

in one of those
all-important cenotes.

[dramatic music playing]

[Tony] In one
of these cenotes,

a naturally occurring ledge

was discovered
by an archaeologist,

which seems to have served
as an altar for the Maya.

Now, there were traces
of charcoal on the walls,

there were stingray spines

that were clearly
part of a Maya ritual.

But what was unusual
about this temple of sorts

was that it was under water.

Now, at the time of the Maya,

it would not have
been under water.

And that evidences the fact

that the water level
was far lower

at the time of the Maya
than it is today.

And that, in turn,
shows drought conditions.

[soft, tense music playing]

[narrator] Chichén Itzá entered
the same cycle of decline.

By the 13th century,

it had been eclipsed
by the city of Mayapán

a hundred kilometers
to the west.

But in time,
that city also fell.

[soft, tense music playing]

In the 16th century,

the Spanish arrived
and found most

of the once-powerful
cities of the Maya

abandoned to the jungle.

The mystery of the great
civilization that vanished

was born.

[soft, tense music playing]

[Tony] But the Maya
hadn't vanished at all.

The glorious past of the Maya
was simply airbrushed out,

demeaned even,
by the Spanish.

It suited their propaganda
to present the Maya

as utterly uncivilized, savage,

and therefore worthy
of being colonized,

so the Maya civilization
was simply forgotten.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] The descendants
of the people of Chichén Itzá

and the other great cities
of the Maya

still live in the region.

Despite the efforts of the
colonial Spanish authorities

to stamp out
the Maya way of life,

many old traditions
and languages survived.

Their spectacular cities
may now belong

to the tourists
and the archaeologists,

but the vibrant culture
that once echoed

through the stone streets
of Chichén Itzá

still lives on in the hearts
of the Maya people

and the lifeblood
of Mexico today.

[dramatic music playing]

[mysterious music playing]

[Karen] I don't think
drought on its own

is enough to explain
the collapse

of this sophisticated civilization.

But the fact is that the Maya
deforested their own land

just at a time when drought
was rearing its ugly head.

[Fern] What's clear is
there's not one single factor

that would lead
to the Mayan collapse.

It's a combination
of drought creating scarcity

and then warfare.

So all of these
factors combined

took the Mayan
from a very plentiful,

exciting civilization

to one of warfare,
need, and desperation.

[Tony] You almost have
to imagine a Maya villager

walking through the jungle
in the 1500s or 1600s,

and chancing upon
a huge pyramid

overgrown in the middle
of the jungle

and wondering,
"What is that?"

[narrator] Chichén Itzá
must once have seemed

as vivid and secure

as any of the great cities
of the modern world.

Now, however, its stones stand
lonely in the rainforest,

a museum, not a home.

The Maya saw a crisis
engulf them.

But they proved unable to take
the action needed to stop it.

It led to disaster.

As modern societies
face the challenges

of climate change
on a global scale,

the fall of the Maya offers
a lesson from history.

It is a lesson
the world should not forget.

[soft, tense music playing]

[dramatic music playing]