Original subtitles

[MUSIC PLAYING]

>> Traces of civilizations that were born, grew,

and then disappeared over the centuries can be found in most

countries around the world.

Sometimes they perished from unknown causes.

Sometimes they were destroyed by the violent onslaughts

of new conquerors.

The ruins we admire today emerge from the mists of time.

Many of them are perfectly aligned astronomically,

with huge stones molded into elaborate forms that

are truly astonishing feats of engineering.

Structures so massive and sophisticated that they

would be a challenge even to modern technology.

Some of the most fascinating archaeological sites

in the world are in Peru.

These have been carefully studied for many years,

leading to the discovery of traces which

range from faint to surprising, impossible to interpret

with the tools and knowledge we currently possess.

Traces can be found in the ancient remains in archaic

myths, in the oral traditions handed down from the lost

people, even in the chronicles of the conquistadores,

gods who mingled with men and built fantastic cities bound

by massive walls, mysterious tunnels that are believed

to have once linked these ancient sites,

bearers of knowledge and civilization,

divinities who travelled the four corners of the Earth

and knew how to fly.

There is a strange similarity between the ruins and myths

found in many parts of the world,

almost an echo of a long-lost forgotten civilization,

a highly developed breed of superior beings who disappeared

thousands of years ago, a mother culture we have no memory of.

Attracted by the mystery and magnetic pull of these places,

we set off to explore them and capture their essence on film.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Lima greeted us in a welter of color and noise.

Founded by Francisco Pizarro in 1535,

Lima is the modern capital of Peru, its largest city,

with a population of almost 8 million.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We were welcomed to the Lima Geographical Society

by the president, Admiral Raul [? Paramasar ?]..

Helped by him and the honorary president, Dr. Santiago Antunez

de Mayolo, we consulted various maps to decide on the best

itineraries and to see what data the Geographical Society had

on the themes we were researching.

We explored their library, looking for further evidence

to back up our own findings.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The Society has some very important historical documents

in its archives.

Founded in 1888, it is in constant touch

with the other Peruvian institutes

and universities it collaborates with.

Much has already being explored, but there is still so much

to discover.

>> There are still unexplored areas in Peru.

For example, I found a reference in a book to a temple.

I think it was called [INAUDIBLE,] above Caraz,

which has two underground tunnels,

but nobody knows exactly where they are,

and nobody has explored them yet.

And many other tunnels have been discovered

in other parts of Peru.

The same goes for Chavin, we don't know all about that

either.

Chavin hasn't been explored.

>> Next we went to see professor Federico Kauffman Doig,

one of Peru's leading archaeologists.

He gave his views on the underground tunnels.

>> There's a book on tunnels, it was published around 1880,

all about the traditions.

Anyway, what's interesting is that today,

but even when I was a child, wherever you go,

you hear about these tunnels.

I think it ought to be looked into, not just at Cusco

because we didn't get very satisfactory results,

but around the country in all those places where people say,

there's a tunnel here, there's the entrance to a tunnel.

We ought put all the information together.

It's very interesting, it's something

that really should be done to make the past come alive again.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

>> Given all the information we had,

we decided to start our adventure in Cusco.

The 600-mile trip in the jeeps from Lima to Cusco isn't easy.

The road runs through a desert, almost

like the surface of the moon.

We feel a bit alienated, even more so

because the plateaus are really high, and the lack of oxygen

makes everything more tiring.

Tiny clumps of houses break the monotony every now and again.

And occasionally, we see the friendly face of a lama,

or something very like it.

Occasionally, unexpected hitchhikers

thumb a lift, ephemeral visions which appear out of nowhere.

On account of various problems, and even some landslides

which had blocked the way, we end up in Cusco

after 27 hours on the road, absolutely exhausted

by the effort and the altitude.

Cusco is 11,200 feet above sea level

and has a population of 300,000.

The ancient Inca empire was called Tawantinsuyu.

Cusco was its capital.

Cusco means navel of the world.

Here, you can still see the remains of ancient Inca

buildings and temples that the Spanish incorporated

into their own buildings.

Some of them are particularly interesting

from a construction point-of-view,

so surprisingly sophisticated that they

would represent a challenge even to modern builders.

This dry stone wall is really astonishing.

Huge blocks of stone weighing hundreds

of pounds in solid granite, delicately

chiseled and fitted one on top of

the other without any mortar, apparently haphazardly,

shaped as if they'd been made of soft plastic clay.

How were these massive stones transported and set in place?

How could the people of this ancient civilization

fit them together so perfectly without the help

of modern technology?

The Incas hadn't discovered the wheel,

but their building techniques bear witness

to an amazing knowledge of engineering and architecture.

This stone has 12 corners and fits perfectly

into the ones around it.

You couldn't get a knife blade between them,

but no mortar has been used.

It weighs hundreds of pounds, but it

isn't one of the largest.

On the other side of the building,

the stones form a pattern representing

the outline of a puma.

Amazingly clever craftsmanship.

There's a stone with 14 corners on the wall

of a nearby building.

It's smaller than the other, but the craftsmanship

and its polygonal shaping is still wonderful.

And there are still plenty of surprises

to see in the Inca capital.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

A promontory rising on the outskirts of the city

dominates Cusco.

This is the site of the ruins of Sacsayhuaman,

said to be a fortress or possibly a temple, or perhaps

both.

We don't really know.

The only sure things are the incredible huge blocks

of stone used to build its massive walls.

Once again, we find shaped stones

which fit perfectly together.

But this time, we're talking about blocks

that are 26 feet high and weigh over 300 tons.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

An impossible giant puzzle, designed by a superman.

Back in the 17th century, the writer Garcilaso de la Vega,

after visiting the walls of Sacsayhuaman,

said in his "Royal Commentaries of the Incas,"

it seems as if they were built by some form of magic,

a work carried out by demons rather than mortal men.

How did the Indios manage to quarry the stones

and transport them, work them, and then build walls

with such precision?

They had no iron nor steel to perforate the rock with

and to cut and smooth the blocks.

They had no carts and no oxen to transport them.

And in truth, there are no carts or oxen anywhere in the world

strong enough to carry out a similar task, given

the huge size of the stones and the difficult mountain

paths they traveled over.

This monolith is amazing.

And this one, it's huge, and fits in perfectly with the ones

around it.

Really breathtaking.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Sacsayhuaman's massive walls are built on three levels.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Each level is a perfectly level terrace.

The wonderful pattern of enormous stone blocks fitting

together perfectly is repeated on each level.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The extremely precise joints are repeated over and over again.

Who designed and built this gate?

They must have been giants.

To make a comparison, we move to a site

a few miles out of Cusco.

We went to see a building that has been historically

identified as a fortress.

It's called Puka Pukara.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Puka Pukara means the red fortress,

so called because of the color of the rock used to build it.

Strategically placed to dominate the surrounding countryside,

the Incas were able to control and defend

one of the approaches to Cusco from here.

The building technique is undoubtedly less sophisticated

here than at Sacsayhuaman at Cusco.

The stones are much smaller.

You can see that an attempt has been

made to copy the polygonal pattern we admired before.

But even if the blocks are much smaller,

the workmanship is rougher, and the stones

don't fit together as well.

Our doubts increase.

Did the Incas really build the walls

we saw in Cusco and the huge structures at Sacsayhuaman?

The discrepancy between the sites makes it seem doubtful.

We walk over the whole complex, but the workmanship

on the walls is the same everywhere.

And we begin to really wonder, who

built the huge constructions at Cusco and Sacsayhuaman?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Here get a helping hand from Inca tradition.

Legend says that these incredible constructions were

already old when they arrived.

In other words, the Incas settled

on preexisting sites, which they restored and enlarged.

Inca tradition also tells us about the original builder.

In ancient days after a terrible cataclysm, which

had reduced men to the levels of beasts,

a being came from the south with superhuman powers.

He founded a new civilization, teaching the sciences,

agriculture, and the arts.

He taught men to live in harmony, animated

by a spirit of altruism, a being accompanied by followers called

the faithful and the shining, a being who

had incredible skills.

He could move in the sky and float on water.

One of his symbols is lightning, and his name

means god of storms.

He had white skin and a beard.

His name was Viracocha.

A divinity who could move in the sky thousands of years ago,

who could fly?

A divinity, or the survivor of an ancient,

highly developed civilization with

sophisticated scientific and technological knowledge.

This is what the legend implies.

And Sacsayhuaman has other surprises for us.

There's a strange construction on the summit of the promontory

with its massive walls.

It is perfectly round with three concentric circles intersected

by walls radiating out in spokes.

The circles are enclosed by another square building

connected to the foundations other square

or rectangular buildings.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

When we check the orientation of the square building enclosing

the circular construction, we found

that the corners were perfectly aligned

with the cardinal points of the compass,

and that the walls intersecting the circles

run northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest--

ideal orientation for determining the summer

and winter solstices.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Are these the ruins of an astronomical observatory?

Who knows, but the concept of the whole building

is extremely advanced.

There are very few similar examples

in the whole of South America.

It is certainly very ancient, older than the Incas.

Everything we'd seen at Sacsayhuaman

seem to belong to a remote age, a time we

have no human memory of, an age lost in the mists of time.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Is this a completely lost story?

Perhaps not.

Descendants of the Incas still live

in the mountains and remote pockets isolated

from white men, groups which escaped

the fury of the conquistadores.

Their leaders are wise old men, custodians

of ancient knowledge.

Some people have talked to them.

We were given a place, Samana Wasi, and a name,

Anton Ponce de Leon.

Anton has written various books on his experiences

in this ancient knowledge.

Inspired by the teaching he has founded and provided funds

for a community where, with the help of his wife,

Regia, abandoned children and old people are looked after--

the rest home, which translated into Samana Wasi.

>> An old man explained this knowledge to me in 10 to 15

minutes, using very simple words.

But I was a very rational man and I didn't believe him.

I couldn't accept that the truth was so simple.

This knowledge is still valid today.

It's still relevant, despite the passing of time.

And I'm talking about thousands of years.

This is an oral tradition, which has been handed down, intact.

These enormous buildings with their huge stone blocks--

yes, some people say they were built

by beings from outer space, but I don't think so.

All the buildings in this world were

built by human beings who certainly

had very wise teachers.

According to what I learned, these teachers

came from a continent which disappeared,

submerged by the Pacific.

It was the biggest continent of all,

called Mu, sometimes erroneously called Lemuria.

It is a continent called Mu, a word that

comes from a very ancient language

and means mother country.

The Murians, who for us are the third race,

were very highly developed physically, psychically,

and spiritually, a level of development

we haven't achieved yet.

Moving large, heavy objects represented

no particular problem for them.

These teachers instructed the people

of the Andes, our ancestors who built

these wonderful constructions.

We believe that the Murian civilization

which had reached the Andes went out west, too, towards Asia.

That's why we find the same knowledge all over the world.

>> Is this the answer?

Was Mu a lost civilization we have no memory of, the mother

of all known civilizations?

According to the wise people of the Andes,

this is the key to many mysteries of the past,

but we have other clues to follow up.

Qenko is a few miles to the east of Sacsayhuaman.

Its name could hardly be more appropriate, given what we saw.

It means intersecting channels.

The huge rock, deeply eroded around its base,

is carved into a very strange shape at its summit.

It's chiseled, carved, and molded

to create an absurd maze of seemingly random shapes

with no apparent meaning.

It's incredible, it almost makes you dizzy.

What's the meaning of those short staircases,

those little platforms, those channels, those balconies?

It's a real puzzle, impossible to guess the answer.

Did the Incas make it?

Was it something to do with their religious functions?

That's what we're told, but we don't really

know what to think.

This disturbing rock puzzle could

have been carved 500 years ago, or 5,000, or 50,000.

Who knows?

We've never seen anything like it.

It seemed to have no logic.

There's a large opening at the base of the massive rock.

We go in.

Inside is a fairly large cave with a carved rock.

It looks like an altar.

Later we're told that the Incas used it

for their religious ceremonies.

This explanation is certainly in keeping with its appearance,

and that of the other carved rocks in the cave.

But the incredible maze outside looks

much older, designed and created by other hands and other minds.

Perhaps the Incas had found these strange ruins

and turned them into a temple, believing them sacred.

That's one explanation.

The style and condition of the stones seem to back it up.

The walls and monolith outside look closer to the Inca style--

but not quite.

We know there's another site a few miles away

with similar carved rock.

We have also found out about a passage

which accesses a network of seemingly

endless underground tunnels.

Many people have ventured in to explore, never to emerge again.

It's called the X-Zone.

Here we get a real surprise.

The rock looks like an exact copy of the one at Qenko,

the same patterns carved in absurd positions.

Stairs that lead to nowhere, completely off center.

Why put steps in that position?

Were they for working on, or what?

On one side, we discover something

that looks like a throne, but it's facing a wall of rock.

It's crazy.

The rocks at Qenko at the X-Zone look out of place,

almost as if they were once part of the same project which

no longer exists.

We search for the entrance to the underground tunnels

and get a nasty surprise.

The local authorities have blocked it

up to stop other people wandering in and getting lost.

We feel like getting down to work with picks and shovels

and opening it up again, but we were repressed the urge

and decide to be patient.

The tunnels exist, all we have to do now is find a way in.

These enigmatic sites are very puzzling,

the discrepancies are unsettling.

We meet someone who has spoken to other wise man.

According to him, direct descendants of the survivors

of the destruction of Mu.

They live in very remote areas in the heart of the Amazon

basin, isolated from white people.

His name is Ruben Iwaki Ordonez.

He has Indio blood in his veins and he tells us

an amazing story about the origins of the rocks at Qenko

and the X-Zone.

>> Right here where the city of Cusco is now,

in ancient times there was a lake.

And under this lake, under its bed,

there was an underground temple, about 250 feet underground.

The wise ones lived down there, the ancient ones who

governed the continent wisely.

And the entrance to this place was

on a hill, the same hill that's called Sacsayhuaman today.

That's where the entrance was.

After 10,000 years, there was a cataclysm on the planet.

It destroyed the temple, and the lake above it flooded.

This cataclysm wasn't an earthquake, it was much more.

There were volcanic eruptions--

here, too.

Here, where the temple was, there

was a volcanic eruption, a terrible explosion.

In Sacsayhuaman, there's an area where the lava has solidified.

But that explosion produced fragments of exploding rock,

too, burning pieces of rock.

The force of the explosion shattered the rooms

of the temple, and fragments were thrown into the air

and fell here, there, and everywhere.

There's one that nowadays is called Qenko.

The Incas found it like that.

They found these wonderful constructions

and they used them for their religious ceremonies.

Because they realized how important they were,

they knew where they came from.

There are other fragments as big as this room in an area

near the solidified lava.

There, you can see upside-down staircases.

Well, these fragments came up from underground

when the disaster happened, and they fell.

They fell haphazardly, upside-down.

And this shows that they were part of what was underground.

>> Once again, ancient traditions insist

on the existence of once great civilizations which have now

disappeared, and Cusco still has some mysteries in store for us.

The most sacred and important temple

in the whole of the Inca empire was at Cusco.

It was dedicated to their culture,

and it was called Coricancha, or the Golden Enclosure.

The Spanish built Santo Domingo Cathedral on its ruins.

But the ancient walls can still be

seen, both from inside and outside the latter day colonial

church.

The walls are still imposing and very cleverly crafted.

But the stones themselves are much smaller

than any other structures we have visited, more a building

that Inca architects might have designed.

There are tunnels under the church.

A story tells of how some boys got lost in them in 1920.

After a whole week, only one of them

re-emerged, injured and confused.

He died soon afterwards, clutching a solid gold

cob of corn.

There are no written records to confirm the story,

but the people of Cusco assure us it's true.

We managed to get permission to visit the digs made

by other researchers who had been trying

to unravel the puzzle of the mysterious tunnels

and climb down under the church.

We follow the tunnel for a while, but it brought up short.

The tunnel is blocked.

Later, we're told that the excavations were stopped

because of the risk of undermining the foundations

of the church above.

We wonder whether the Coricancha tunnels

led to a more impressive network of underground tunnels, perhaps

those that connected Cusco, Sacsayhuaman, and other places

even further away.

But we'll have to wait for answers to these questions.

The fact is, the tunnels exist and their existence

is backed up by ancient traditions.

>> Traditionally, the tunnels are supposed to have gone from

Cusco towards Quito in Ecuador.

And from the south, they went towards what

is today Bolivia, towards Chile, towards the forest,

towards Brazil.

They went everywhere.

Unfortunately, some of them were blocked up for safety reasons

when they were discovered.

So nowadays, it's very difficult to find the entrances.

I know, I'm sure, that they exist.

I saw some of them with my father when I was a child.

And I know that there are tunnels

under the Catholic churches.

>> We discover that another church in Cusco has tunnels,

the Church of the Jesuits.

It was built in 1576 on the foundations of the Amarucancha

Church, the royal palace of the Inca ruler, Huayna Capac.

When the Spanish arrived, Huayna Capac's two sons,

Huascar and Atahualpa, were waging a civil war

for control of the empire.

This helped the Spanish conquer the Inca kingdom.

The church houses some important works of art.

One of the most important pieces is

the altar carved in cedar wood and covered in gold.

It was by the Italian sculptor, Bernardo Bitti.

After long talks, we managed to get permission

to explore underground this church, too.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

There's a small, beautifully decorated chapel

under the altar.

This is where the trapdoor that accesses the tunnels is.

The heavy cover hasn't been lifted for a long time.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We're very excited as we get ready.

This is the first time cameras have been

allowed to film the tunnels.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The entrance is small and difficult to get into.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Once we manage to climb down, we get a disappointment.

The tunnels are blocked after only a few meters.

The ecclesiastical authorities ordered

them to be blocked for security reasons.

The tunnels run under the city, and in the past

have been used by thieves as a way into the church.

But once more, they confirm that the Incas' sacred places

were connected by a network of tunnels.

Did the Incas build them?

Ancient tradition believes not, and we

find echoes in the chronicles of the conquistadores themselves.

In 1571, Juan Polo de Ondegardo wrote, "The city of Cusco

was the home and residence of the gods.

Every fountain, well, and wall concealed a mystery."

We leave Cusco on the trail of more Peruvian mysteries.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The fortress of Ollantaytambo dominates

the Valley of Urubamba.

Clinging to a hill about 300 feet high,

it was the Incas' main fortification

to defend the Sacred Valley.

It was here that Pizarro experienced

one of his few defeats during his campaign

to conquer the huge empire of the sun.

Characterized by its terraces used for farming,

the settlement developed up to the summit of the hill.

It was an important military, religious,

and agricultural center, about 60 miles

to the northwest of Cusco.

About 2/3 of the way up the steep steps

that lead to the top of the hill, the familiar walls

appear with their usual astonishing craftsmanship.

Extremely large, heavy, skillfully

worked polygonal stones fitting perfectly together

with no mortar or any other type of cement.

Again, we wonder, is this Inca work?

The archaeologists say it is.

But on one wall we find a stretch that has been repaired.

It must have been done by the Incas.

But strangely, the repair work has

been carried out using much smaller stones,

and the level of craftsmanship is much rougher.

Why?

Perhaps the Inca architects had forgotten their one

sophisticated techniques.

Or, were the original builders not Incas?

That seems to be the most likely answer.

There are a row of 10 trapezoidal niches

on the wall of the terrace where the main entrance once was.

The joints are incredible, with absurd angles.

They look almost ironical.

Did they have a practical purpose?

Or were they're just showing off the craftsmanship

of the builders?

As we climb higher, the walls still

show the same level of incredible workmanship

as the ones we've just seen.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

On top of the hill, we find the ruins

of the houses which once belonged to the Inca priests

and nobles, while the populace lived in houses further down.

There are other remains on the slopes of the hill in front.

Archaeologists say that they were once

grain storage warehouses.

But although they're very interesting,

our attention is attracted by something else.

On the top of the hill, a series of huge red porphyry monoliths

form a mad puzzle, lying scattered around

on the ground in no apparent order, some of them weighing

dozens of tons.

Some are accurately carved, others

are obviously unfinished.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

An amazing structure rises out of this chaotic scene.

Six enormous monoliths perfectly aligned

along a southeasterly vector, and perhaps uniquely separated

by spaces in the same stone, a unique example

of craftsmanship.

Red porphyry is a very hard stone, as heavy as granite.

The monoliths are about 13 feet high, six and 1/2 feet wide,

and three to six feet thick.

They weigh from 25 to 50 tons.

They were quarried from a nearby mountain,

so obviously they were cut from the rock face,

taken down into the valley, and then dragged 328 feet up

to their destination.

How?

Archaeologists mentioned thousands of workers, ropes,

tree trunks, and potatoes used as lubricant

to help the massive monoliths slide.

That's right, potatoes.

The structure is obviously incomplete,

as the blocks scatter haphazardly around the summit

confirm.

But nobody knows what its intended use was

or why it was never finished.

Another enigma puzzles us in the midst of so many mysteries,

a symbol carved on one of the monoliths.

A pyramid rising in steps, the same symbol

also found in Egypt.

Is it just a coincidence?

The Incas certainly had no knowledge of the Egyptians,

but could both civilizations have been

inspired by the same matrix?

In his book, "Operation Fawcett,"

the legendary explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett wrote,

"The Incas inherited their fortresses in cities

from an earlier civilization."

And Garcilaso de la Vega, in his chronicles,

tells us how they had been erected in the first age,

before the Incas.

The first age-- what does it mean?

Was it the age when the gods could fly?

The age when the survivors of an ancient, highly developed

civilization settled in Peru?

>> We have evidence of this because here in Peru

we've studied the pre-Inca nations.

10,000 years ago, there was the Chimu civilization,

which means those from Mu.

Further south, there was the Moche civilization, sometimes

called Mochica, but the correct name

is Moche, descendants of Mu, coming from Mu.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

>> We leave from the little station at Ollantaytambo.

The train winds its slow way next to the river

through the Urubamba Valley, the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

The countryside is interesting, harsh, and wild.

It gets greener the further we go.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Finally, we arrive in Machu Picchu, sacred myth

of the past and present.

We get over the station in Aguas Calientes.

This little town is at the foot of the mountain

where the lost city of the Incas is sighted.

It has grown rapidly in a chaotic fashion,

thanks to the influx of tourists from all over the world.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We shoulder the equipment we need to film,

and set off towards the archaeological site.

The road we take is the steepest.

It leads to one of the highest points which dominate the city.

The climb is tiring, we still haven't

gotten acclimatized to the altitude here.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

But the magic of the place has already enthralled us.

We're impatient, we can't wait to see the legendary monuments

of one of the most fascinating cities of the ancient world.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Machu Picchu, the lost of the Incas,

emerged from the mists of time in 1911.

The American explorer, Hiram Bingham,

professor at Yale University, is the author of the discovery.

As a matter of fact, the Peruvian archaeologist Agustin

Lizarraga had discovered the ruins before him in 1902.

And two families of campesinas were

found living there, farming the ancient terraces left

by the Incas.

Bingham had the merit of studying

the site scientifically and telling

the world about this amazing urban structure.

>> Without taking any merit away from Bingham,

he was the one who made Machu Picchu world famous.

But it was the Peruvians who guided him to Machu Picchu.

That's important to remember.

There were people here before, and people

came to Machu Picchu from Cusco many years before Mr. Bingham.

>> When was it built?

What was it for?

Was it a fortified settlement?

A refuge for the noble Inca class, or a city

dedicated to the cult of the gods?

There are many theories, but no short answers.

Yet the stones speak.

Machu Picchu is a silent voice with many tales to tell,

if you listen carefully.

Machu Picchu, a saga in stone at 7,800 feet above sea level,

is perfectly integrated with its surroundings.

So much so that it looks almost like a natural feature,

rather than a man-made construction, the logic

behind so many great works.

The sacred rock reproduces the profile of the nearby mountain.

In a fantastic play of light and shadows,

the profile of an Indios emerges from the shape of the mountains

against the skyline.

An incredible coincidence?

In the Condor Temple, sculpted in natural elements

blend to bring the sacred animal to life, its wings of stone

capture a moment of flight for all eternity.

The Water Temple, water another sacred element for the Incas.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The mysterious Mortar Room.

It's in what is known as the Industrial Area.

The Incas were believed to have died material

in the two rocks shaped like mortars, material they then

dried in the cylinders protruding from the walls.

But is this the right explanation?

Magical Machu Picchu, scattered fragments

from a lost, arcane world.

The houses of the ordinary people

were near the agricultural sector.

With its barns and characteristic terraces,

the houses are stone built, small, and simple.

Once through the main gates of the city,

the path winds through some narrow streets,

and then leads to a strangely shaped building.

Bingham called it the Torreon, or Tower.

Today, it's known as the Temple of the Sun.

It's built to a semicircular plan,

with two trapezoidal windows set in the curved wall.

One faces north, and the other faces east.

They can be used to determine the summer and winter

solstices.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

There is a niche with structures carved into the lower

part of the building.

Its purpose was to determine important astronomic events.

The Torreon is more than a temple,

it's an astronomic calendar in stone,

and it's not the only one in Machu Picchu.

The Temple with the Three Windows

is in the mid-level of the city, and the alignment

of the openings enables the equinoxes

to be calculated, the same as the monolithic stones

of Stonehenge in England.

Stone is the great protagonist of the ancient world.

But on a higher level, behind a three-walled building reached

by a flight of roughly hewn steps,

we find an even more sophisticated

astronomic structure.

The Intihuatana is a polygonal structure

cut into the living rock.

The precision is extraordinary.

A spur of rock like a conch on the upper surface

is perfectly aligned to the northeast, southeast,

an accurate sundial for calculating the solstices

and the equinoxes.

Machu Picchu is incredible.

It's more like a huge stone computer

for astronomical calculus, rather than a city.

>> It's true that here at Machu Picchu there are important

structures, both on the lower and higher levels.

The actual position of the city, it

was placed in the best position to receive solar energy.

That's very clear in Machu Picchu.

You can see both the sunrise and the sunset.

It's positioned to receive as much solar energy

as possible all year round.

>> Could the Inca empire have developed such sophisticated

knowledge?

These are precise technical instruments, not

simple ritual symbols.

They're backed up by precise, geometrical calculations,

mathematics, and astronomy.

Only a civilization that developed

over a long period of time could have produced anything

like them.

Machu Picchu means the old mountain.

But how old actually is it?

According to the archaeologists, the city

was built in the 15th century.

But in 1930, Professor Rolf Muller

from the University of Potsdam in Germany

studied the astronomic alignments of the Torreon,

the Temple with the Three Windows, and the Intihuatana,

and established that they had been built sometime

between 4,000 and 2000 BC.

These incredible dates were confirmed by further studies,

carried out by the astronomers Dearborn and White

from Arizona University.

Does this mean that here, as in other sites,

the Incas settled on preexisting structures?

The dates calculated by the astronomers

confirm this theory.

Local oral traditions that have been handed down

to the present day also tell of ancient gods who

initiated civilization and built wonderful cities, gods

who could fly, perhaps the survivors of the highly

developed civilization of Mu.

On the sacred square of Machu Picchu,

the Temple of the Three Windows, the Main Temple,

and the other structures, are all

built from perfectly fitted together polygonal blocks.

The by now familiar joints, already

seen in Cusco and Sacsayhuaman.

We find similar differences in other parts of the city.

The difference in style and technique

used to build Machu Picchu are glaringly obvious.

Carefully crafted monoliths make up the older part and rougher

workmanship on the later parts.

Once more, we find different styles and levels

of technical ability.

Were they built by different people?

How else can we explain the difference?

But we have other mysteries to unravel.

We want to know if there were any underground tunnels

at Machu Picchu.

An we're told that when maintenance work was being done

on the sacred square, where the Main Temple is,

the workmen heard echoes as if the ground below was hollow.

Some digging was done, but only to a depth of a few feet,

without finding anything.

Perhaps the cavities are further down.

A guide who heard about our research

said that there was some tunnels in another area.

He offers to take us there.

After a difficult scramble, we come to the narrow entrance.

The young guide climbs down first.

It's a tight squeeze.

Even passing the equipment, we need to explore,

and film is difficult. We can't really take all we need,

but we decide to make do.

Once we're in, walking isn't easy.

The tunnel is very irregular.

It seems as if it had only been started and not completed.

It's very damp, and the ground underfoot is very slippery,

so we have to be careful.

After a certain distance, the tunnel is blocked

and we can't go any further.

Getting back is even more difficult,

but we have the proof that someone

had created underground tunnels at Machu Picchu, too.

The sun is setting as we emerge from the narrow tunnel.

The ancient city is hauntingly beautiful

and had shared some of its secrets with us.

Our minds are echoing with the words of Colonel Fawcett,

"The Indios tribes inherited the traditions

of a great civilization.

Perhaps they were the ancestors of the Incas,

perhaps a mysterious race who left behind the gigantic

remains that the invading Incas later incorporated

into their own buildings."

Historical civilizations all have a common matrix, albeit a

forgotten one.

Even Colonel Fawcett was convinced of the truth of this.

The huge ruins scattered around Peru and other countries

around the world are an obvious clue,

confirmed by their identical construction technique.

The myths and traditions of many ancient people

have handed down the memory of this civilization.

There are mysterious tunnels at these ancient sites.

Perhaps these clues are still not

enough to prove the existence of a lost civilization which

gave rise to all successive civilizations.

There is still a lot to discover,

and the research goes on.

[MUSIC PLAYING]