All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens s20e11 Mysteries of the Maya.eng

NARRATOR: In the jungles
of Central America,

the Maya people thrived
for more than 2,000 years.

The Mayans were very,
very sophisticated.

They built huge pyramid cities.

They created the only writing
system in all of the Americas.

NARRATOR:
The Maya possessed knowledge that defies explanation.

How did they understand
the long, vast orbits

of the Earth
through the Milky Way galaxy?

NARRATOR:
And new evidence has revealed

a civilization
more extraordinary

and more ancient
than we ever imagined.

We have discovered
a lost chapter of human history.

NARRATOR:
But could the Maya's greatest secret

involve contact with visitors
from beyond Earth?

WILLIAM HENRY:
The early Maya themselves said we were taught by

extraterrestrial beings.

NARRATOR:
There is a doorway

in the universe.

Beyond it is
the promise of truth.

It demands
we question everything

we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future is
right before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

♪ ♪

Throughout Central America
stand the ruins of the Maya,

considered by many to be
the greatest civilization

in the history of the Americas.

While archaeologists
and historians have been

studying this ancient culture
for over four centuries,

there are still many questions
left to answer

since much of the Maya's history
is still hidden

within the jungles
of Mexico and Guatemala.

The roots of the Maya
are very obscure,

but traditional
Maya scholarship says

that historically you have

the more primitive
pre-Classical Maya

and then you've got
the Classical Maya,

who are more advanced.

NARRATOR: For centuries,

scholars considered the height
of the Maya civilization

to be during the Classic era,

between roughly 250 and 900 AD.

Before this was
the pre-Classic era,

that began around 2000 BC

and was believed to be
made up of nomadic people

who lived in simple dwellings.

There was a thinking
that the Classic period

was really where
they started building cities.

But then in the '60s and '70s,

as we got deeper
into the jungle,

we realized
there were older cities

that were as big,
and in some cases, bigger

than the Classic ones.

NARRATOR:
Today, archaeologists believe

that the Maya built cities
throughout Central America

and thrived as a civilization
for more than 2,000 years.

They were responsible
for some of the most impressive

architecture in the entire
North American continent,

and this is just one of
their many accomplishments.

The Maya really stand out
among ancient civilizations

in terms of their achievements.

They created
the only writing system

we know in all of the Americas.

And through that writing system,
they were able to conduct

very scientific investigations,

and they became masters
of mathematics and astronomy.

The Maya were arguably
the ancient world's

best astronomers,
even excelling the Greeks.

Many of the Maya sites

all through the Yucatán,
Guatemala, Belize,

and throughout Mexico are
kind of astronomically aligned.

Now, they even have
observatories

as parts of the site,

the most famous being,
really, at Palenque

and at Chichén Itzá,
for instance,

where they have literally places

where they would
observe the stars.

NARRATOR: Why the Maya
were so preoccupied

with tracking the stars
remains a mystery.

But scholars agree
that they possessed

a remarkably advanced
understanding of astronomy,

which is perhaps most evident

within their
highly sophisticated

and complex calendar system.

Librarian Ernst Förstemann
uses his extensive knowledge

of mathematics to decipher
the dots and symbols

of a 12th-century Maya text
known as the Dresden Codex.

In doing so,

he unlocks the secrets
of the Maya calendar.

The Maya have
what's widely understood

as the most sophisticated
ancient calendar ever made.

It involves
so many different cycles.

It's so sophisticated, in fact,

that early scholars thought
that the Maya were,

as they called,
esoteric time worshipers.

The Maya are very interested
in the cycles of life.

So a lot of their calendars
were created

to track those cycles and look
for harmonies between cycles

to better harmonize themselves
with the natural world.

ANDREW COLLINS:
The long count calendar of the Maya

lasted for 5,125 years.

It was backdated to have begun
in 3114 BC,

which meant
that it actually ended

on December 21, 2012.

And many of us will remember
how it was believed

that there was gonna be
a time of great transformation,

possibly the end of the world.

NARRATOR:
In 2012,

over a thousand years

after the fall
of the Maya civilization,

their calendar became known
to people all around the world.

Many believed that
the final date on the calendar

was intended to mark
an apocalyptic event.

BARNHART:
The idea that the Maya predicted the end of the world was really

just a Western misunderstanding
of how their calendar works

and what they were using
their calendar for.

Westerners see time as a line,

it goes back into the past
and forward into the future,

and we're the point
in the middle.

The Maya saw time
as a cycle that kept going

like the hands of a clock.

When it hit 12,
it didn't just explode,

it just went back
around for another loop.

So Maya calendar systems
were set up

to be never-ending cycles.

NARRATOR:
While the Maya were exceptional at tracking time

and observing the heavens,

archaeologists were astounded

when they discovered
that this ancient culture

was tracking what is known
in astronomy as precession.

Precession is the wobbling
of the Earth on its axis

which changes the location of
constellations in the night sky.

It's actually a huge cycle
that lasts 26,000 years.

And the Maya,
without a shadow of a doubt,

were calculating precession.

They were able to say,

back in the distant past,

this planet would've been
in that constellation.

NARRATOR:
Scholars remain mystified

as to how the Maya came to have
such an advanced understanding

of astronomy, mathematics
and timekeeping,

and answers have been
difficult to come by,

since a large portion of
the Maya's writing and artifacts

have been lost or destroyed
over the centuries.

There was a big cultural shift
between about 900 and 1200 AD,

and one of
the prevailing theories

about the end of
Maya civilization was that

basically
they taxed their resources,

that they created
an unstable landscape

that then lent itself
to landslides, to fires,

to floods,

and that can lead
to societal collapse.

NARRATOR:
In the 16 century, Spanish conquistadors arrived

in the Maya cities
of the Yucatán Peninsula.

They found the sites sparsely
populated or even abandoned,

with many structures
already in ruins.

And while Spanish colonizers
were the first Europeans

to record their accounts
of the Maya culture,

they were also responsible
for destroying

much of the Maya's own history.

When the Spanish showed up,

they wanted to
convert them to Christianity.

Step one in that process

is dividing them
from their traditional wisdoms.

And those were
written in the books.

So, the Spanish
on purpose burned

every document they could find.

They destroyed
as much as they could.

Today we have
four surviving books that

at least scholarship has been
able to study and know about.

There are probably more,
almost certainly,

hiding in the mountains
in Guatemala.

And the Maya, for good reason,
hide them.

NARRATOR:
Have the secrets of the Maya

and how they built
such an advanced civilization

more than a thousand years ago
been lost forever?

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest

there are still answers
to be found

in the Maya texts
that have survived,

and their accounts
of powerful beings

who came down from the sky.

NARRATOR: The Getty Museum
opens an exhibition

displaying the oldest book
ever discovered in the Americas,

called the Maya Codex of Mexico.

Like other Maya codices,
the roughly 900-year-old text

consists of illustrations
and hieroglyphs

written on tree bark pages

that were bound together
like a book.

DAVID CHILDRESS:
The Mayans had hundreds, thousands of codexes that were

describing the Mayan history
and the gods

and everything that
they wanted to write down.

And four Mayan codices

are known to exist
and to have survived.

NARRATOR:
In addition to these manuscripts,

archaeologists have found
Maya hieroglyphs

carved on temples
that date to as early as

the third century BC.

But since the great majority
of the Maya codices

have been lost or destroyed,

scholars have only recently
begun to decipher

the ancient writing system.

It's been a long process to

translate Maya hieroglyphs,

and we're not done.

Experts estimate we've got

maybe 80% of it translated,

and there are still
glyphs that elude us.

DAVID CHEETHAM:
About 70 years ago, Maya archaeologists

started to unravel
the Maya hieroglyphic world,

and by the '70s, the '80s,

more and more of the language

was understood in terms of

its interface with the glyphs.

NARRATOR:
As scholars slowly learned how to read Maya hieroglyphs,

they discovered
the codices contain

richly illustrated
astronomical charts,

divination tables

and instructions
for religious ceremonies.

But the most important story
found in the codices

is a historical record
known as the Popol Vuh.

Their creation story
is called Popol Vuh.

And its opening chapters
outlined that the gods,

which they call
the makers and modelers,

set up the world.

But the story
really centers around

two boys, a pair of twins

they call the Hero Twins,
Hunahpu and Xbalanque.

And they battle with
the lords of death,

and they make the world safe

for creation, us, to occur.

NARRATOR:
According to the story, after the Hero Twins

have prepared the Earth
for humanity,

they are followed by
a larger pantheon of gods.

TSOUKALOS:
Their beginning of creation, and they have a date for it,

is the 11th of August,

3114 BC.

The Popol Vuh says
that on that day,

the road of the stars
descended from the sky,

and the gods, 13 of them,

descended from
the heavens down to Earth

and imparted knowledge

to the local population.

NARRATOR:
While researchers have documented more than

250 Maya gods,

this original pantheon
of 13 beings

taught the ancient Maya
agriculture, mathematics

and astronomy.

The most prominent of
all the Maya gods

described in the Popol Vuh

is the flying serpent Kukulkan.

Lofty thinking and knowledge

was a gift from Kukulkan,

who gave them sophistication,

the art of speech,
also mathematics.

Kukulkan was the second deity

in the Maya pantheon.

And the name means
both "wind" and "giver."

You find Kukulkan connected with

a lot of the happenings
in the sky,

whether it's, you know,
thunder, lightning,

storms, rain.

And his appearance
was as a serpent,

which is a very common

symbol for wisdom.

NARRATOR:
What ancient astronaut theorists find particularly intriguing

about Kukulkan is that this god

is not always depicted
as a flying serpent,

but is sometimes shown
as a humanoid face

emerging from
the serpent's mouth.

HENRY:
In Mayan iconography,

Kukulkan is shown as
a serpentine being

with a humanoid head
that flies through the sky.

And it makes you wonder
what is going on here?

It's very possible that

it's some sort of a craft
that is interpreted

as a feathered serpent

and a god being
emerges from that craft

and is a culture bearer.

TSOUKALOS:
Kukulkan looks like a snake shooting across the sky.

If you look at
a modern-day plane,

that looks like a flying snake
if you don't have

the vocabulary
with which to describe

the fuselage and the wings,
for example.

So, of course,
we have stories of flying snakes

because those were
the best terms

with which to describe
what they witnessed.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible that the gods

described in the Maya writings
were otherworldly visitors

witnessed by
their earliest ancestors,

as ancient astronaut
theorists suggest?

The first known Maya codices

containing the Popol Vuh

date to the 16th century AD.

But archaeologists have
clearly identified figures

from the Popol Vuh
featured on Maya temples

that are hundreds
of years older,

and ancient astronaut
theorists suggest

they provide further evidence of
an extraterrestrial influence.

Like the carvings found at

the ruins of Quiriguá
in Guatemala.

TSOUKALOS:
What's interesting is that

often repeated motif

of what seems to be
people in helmets.

In Quiriguá, Guatemala,

there is this helmeted person

sitting in what seems
very reminiscent of

something technological
in nature,

what looks to be some
type of a spacecraft.

NARRATOR:
Perhaps the most extraordinary Maya depiction

of a being that
descended from the heavens

can be found on a pyramid

in the ancient city
of Chichén Itzá.

ERICH VON DÄNIKEN:
The Maya said the guardians of the sky descended.

And they showed it
in their temples.

For example,
the temple of Chichén Itzá,

every year on March 21st,

you can see the descending
of god Kukulkan,

the feathered serpent
coming down.

The sun goes up,

and because of
the astronomical orientation,

because of the steps,

you see a triangle shadow
going down the step,

the step exactly in
the center of the pyramid.

CHILDRESS:
These discoveries support

the Mayan legends of
how the god Itzamná

came down and, and gave
knowledge of writing and books,

while the feathered serpent
Kukulkan came

and he gave them knowledge
of astronomy and agriculture.

It would seem
that the core Mayan knowledge

came from these gods

who were probably
extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR:
Could it be that stories of the Popol Vuh

aren't fictional mythology,

but are, in fact,
recorded history of

ancient Maya interaction

with beings who descended
from the sky?

Perhaps further clues
can be found by

examining a Maya city
in Honduras

that was literally built

to reflect the cosmos.

NARRATOR:
This ancient site,

located deep in the jungle,

served as one of the most
important city centers

of the Maya civilization.

At the peak of its power
in the seventh century AD,

the kingdom of Copán had
a population of at least

20,000 people
and covered an area

of over 100 square miles.

Copán is a Classic Maya city

that sits at the far eastern
edge of the Maya world.

Most of the Maya world
is built out of limestone,

and a lot of those
limestone monuments

have now melted.

But Copán's sculpture,
because it's in volcanic tuff,

is beautiful.

It's deep relief
and still very visible.

DAVID SEDAT:
The city of Copán is probably one of the longest known

and most investigated
Maya city today.

These fantastic
carved stones of Copán

evoke the imagination
and the mystery of this place.

It was called
the Athens of the Maya world.

NARRATOR:
Among the most remarkable carvings discovered at Copán

are the 15 stone statues
known as "stelae"

that connect the city's
ancient rulers with the gods.

CHEETHAM:
The most fantastic part of Copán is

the carved monuments
which are carved in the round.

They're not what
we call plano-convex

like a slab with a, you know,

a low-relief carving.

These are carved in a sort
of Michelangelo way

in the round, and
they're absolutely fantastic.

NARRATOR:
The most well-known of Copán's stelae

were built during
the 36-year reign

of the ruler
Waxaklajuun Ub'aah K'awiil,

better known by
the nickname "18 Rabbit."

SEDAT:
On one of the stelae of Copán,

18 Rabbit portrayed himself

as the foremost
patron god of Copán,

the all-encompassing god
K'intay Ahau.

And on the stelae,

he basically gives
a dissertation on the cosmos.

TSOUKALOS:
For all intents and purposes,

18 Rabbit is depicted
like modern-day astronauts.

You see tubes,
you see weird boxes,

you see weird canisters
and tanks.

You see boots.

It's stuff that looks
more technological in origin.

And what's fascinating
is that in Tikal, in Guatemala,

one of the stelae
shows this being

with a tube that comes
straight down in the front

and then it goes to the left

and it culminates
in some sort of a tank.

It all looks very technological
in origin.

CHILDRESS:
It would seem that these gods

of the ancient Maya

were real physical beings,

and interacting with the Mayans,
giving them knowledge,

and were really instrumental
in creating

this advanced culture
in Central America.

NARRATOR:
Do the incredible ruins of Copán serve to commemorate

the Maya's interactions
with extraterrestrials?

As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

the answer is a resounding yes.

And they suggest
further evidence can be found

by examining the artwork
at another famous Maya site

400 miles to the northwest.

Under a pyramid called
the Temple of Inscriptions

at the ruins of Palenque,

archaeologist
Alberto Ruz Lhuillier

discovers a mysterious
underground stairway

obstructed with large stones.

Over the next three years,

Ruz and his team
carefully clear the stairwell

consisting of 71 steps.

When the door at the base of
the stairwell is finally opened,

they encounter room after room
of skeletons and artifacts.

And in the final room,
they find the tomb

of King K'inich Janaab' Pakal.

One of the best-known
and famous Maya ahau

or "royal lord,"

was Pakal, who ruled
in the seventh century AD.

And he ruled for 68 years
at this site,

thus making him
the longest-lived ruler

in the Americas that we know of.

NARRATOR:
While Pakal became

a famous leader
during his lifetime,

today he remains one of the most
well-known Maya kings

because of the magnificence
of his tomb and sarcophagus.

The tomb of Pakal is one
of the most amazing pieces

of Maya art
that we've ever found.

On the top of the lid
is a very elaborate carving

that we believe
is a depiction of Pakal

falling into the underworld
upon his death.

NARRATOR:
Although many historians and archaeologists

interpret the carving
on Pakal's lid

as the king's descent
into the underworld,

ancient astronaut theorists
suggest

it depicts a very different
type of journey.

The sarcophagus of Lord Pakal
forever will remain

one of the smoking guns
of the ancient astronaut theory.

He is in a reclining position.

He has a breathing apparatus
attached to his nose.

His hands are manipulating
some buttons.

And his feet are on pedals.

It looks as if Pakal
is lifting off into space

inside some type
of a rocket vehicle.

NARRATOR:
As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

the idea that King Pakal's
sarcophagus lid

depicts a journey to space
is supported by Maya writing

that surrounds
the iconic carving.

TSOUKALOS:
Those Maya glyphs say

that this is King Pakal's
journey to Xibalba.

"Xibalba" means "underworld."

Well, archaeologists,
about 15 years ago,

revisited the term "Xibalba"
and concluded

that, actually, "Xibalba"
can also be translated

as "Milky Way."

And all of a sudden,
this depiction makes sense

because what we have here
is a representation

of King Pakal on his journey
to the Milky Way.

NARRATOR:
Could it be that the carving

on King Pakal's sarcophagus

depicts the cockpit
of a spacecraft?

Do the artifacts
of Palenque and Copán

support the notion that the Maya
did not just write stories

about gods
who came down from the sky

but had real encounters
with otherworldly visitors?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

and suggest further evidence
can be found

at the oldest Maya site
ever discovered.

A site that,
until the 20th century,

had remained hidden
in the jungles of Guatemala

for more than 1,000 years.

NARRATOR:
The Mirador Basin,

northern Guatemala, 1978.

A team
of American archaeologists

launches a project to excavate
a mysterious ancient site

that has been discovered
deep in the jungle.

Called El Mirador, it features
two gigantic pyramids

now known as El Tigre
and La Danta.

BARNHART:
The Mirador Basin is very deep in the jungle.

You can fly a plane over it,

but you don't
really see anything.

Everything is covered in trees.

So, we assumed,

if humans were ever in there,

they weren't building
anything of substance.

But as we got in on the ground
and we could see

from the bottom of the trees
instead of on the top,

we realized that a lot
of the things

we mistaked for mountains
were actually gigantic pyramids.

NARRATOR:
Artwork carved on the pyramids

at El Mirador identified them
as belonging to the Maya.

La Danta, the bigger of the two,
is larger in volume

than the Great Pyramid of Giza
in Egypt.

CHEETHAM: La Danta,
it's not just a pyramid,

it's a pyramid
with pyramids on top of it.

I mean, this is
a massive structure

that's rivaling or even bigger

than any other known
Maya temple complex.

NARRATOR:
Researchers for the Mirador Archaeological Project,

which ran from 1978 to 1983,

were astonished to find

such massive Maya structures

in this remote jungle area.

And it begged the question,

could this be one of the oldest
Maya sites ever discovered,

built at a time when the
environment was more hospitable?

The answer would be provided
by archaeologist Richard Hansen,

who was in charge
of the Tigre Complex

in the western sector
of the site.

TSOUKALOS:
In March of 1979,

Richard Hansen was excavating
a room within a structure

called the Jaguar Paw Temple.

At the time,
these structures were understood

to be from what they call
the Classic Maya period,

which dates from
about 250 AD to 900 AD.

And that's because
archaeologists didn't think

the Maya were capable
of building

large structures like this
before that time.

But Hansen came upon
ceramic artifacts

that he immediately recognized
as Chicanel,

which means that these are
artifacts from around 200 BC.

And, of course, he was shocked.

Richard Hansen himself said
that he suddenly realized

the whole evolutionary model
for the Maya was wrong.

And in that moment,
he was the only person

in the world who knew it.

NARRATOR:
Since Hansen's discovery,

other scientific data
has revealed

that El Mirador
dates to at least 600 BC,

and could be even older.

This is long before
the Classic Maya era,

which is the period when
most archaeologists had believed

the Maya started building
monumental structures.

The debate on how
to subdivide Maya history

has actually gone on for as long
as we've been studying the Maya.

But for decades,

there was an understanding

that, before the Classic period,

they had more humble,

village-style living.

CHEETHAM:
It's in the last 50 years or so,

including information
from places like El Mirador,

that we have, as archaeologists,
come to both understand

and appreciate the fact
that a great civilization

actually predates
the Classic period.

NARRATOR:
For ancient astronaut theorists,

the discoveries at El Mirador
support the idea

that the Maya stories
of sky gods are, in fact,

historical accounts
of extraterrestrial visitation.

HENRY: The Maya said
that they were in contact

with the gods and that
they were given this knowledge

directly by these
extraterrestrial beings.

And what we have discovered
is the pyramids

that were constructed,
likely, to honor

these otherworldly beings.

NARRATOR:
In 2003, 24 years

after his first incredible
discovery at El Mirador,

Dr. Richard Hansen
got the opportunity

to conduct a survey of a much
larger area of the basin

using a sophisticated remote
sensing method called lidar.

Lidar is a laser-imaging
detection and ranging device.

It uses light in the same way
a radar uses radio

for detection and ranging.

JUAN CARLOS FERNANDEZ-DIAZ:
A compact system can be flown

on a small airplane.

In four to five hours,

we can map 200 square kilometers

at really high resolution,

something that will take
years or decades

for a ground crew to do
using traditional techniques.

NARRATOR:
Dr. Hansen spent nearly two decades

performing his lidar survey
and what he uncovered was

that the pyramids of El Tigre
and La Danta provide

only a small glimpse

of what is hidden
in the Mirador jungle.

NARRATOR: 19 years
into the vast lidar study

of the Mirador Basin,
Dr. Richard Hansen

and his archaeological team
announce their findings.

Incredibly,
lidar surveys covering

1.6 million acres of the jungle

have revealed nearly
1,000 ancient Maya settlements

including houses, palaces

and colossal pyramids.

And they are believed
to date back

at least 3,000 years--

long before the height
of the Maya civilization.

CHEETHAM:
These are some of the largest buildings

that were ever made by the Maya.

Some of these buildings include

things like ball courts,

temple structures,
palace structures,

residential compounds,
plaza groups.

It boggles the mind.

TAYLOR:
What's amazing is we've found what seems to be

an entire civilization

that's rival
of the Egyptian civilization

that the Mayans had built

a long time ago

we never knew were there.

There are pyramids there

that rival
the pyramids in Egypt.

NARRATOR:
The results of the lidar study established the pre-Classic Maya

as being just as advanced

as other great
early civilizations

like the Egyptians

and the Greeks.

And archaeologists were
astounded

by how much the Maya built.

The data revealed
that hidden within the jungles

of the Mirador Basin

are more than 110,000
ancient structures.

Archaeologists realize

that this area was at one time

densely populated.

And they built
huge pyramid cities.

There were
hundreds of thousands,

if not even millions
of people living there.

FERNANDEZ-DIAZ:
It's really awesome when we can go

and find a city that's
unknown to modern science.

I mean, that's incredible.

And for me, some of the,

like, really cool things,

it's actually being able

to see features that remind us
that the Maya were

just like you and I.

And being able to see
stuff like a market.

I mean, we think about pyramids

and, like, temples
and stuff like that,

but finding some structures

that archaeologists interpret
to be a market

where people came
from different places

to exchange goods
and services, that's amazing.

NARRATOR:
Dr. Hansen's lidar survey

produced one incredible
revelation after another.

But for archaeologists,
the most astonishing of all

was an elaborate
network of causeways

or elevated roads.

HENRY: El Mirador had
these elevated causeways--

superhighways is the way

the archaeologists
described them--

and they were actually
also covered with white plaster

so that they would reflect
the light of the moon

so that then they could travel
during the-the nighttime hours.

These ancient Maya
causeways are considered

more sophisticated than those
of other civilizations

of the time,
like the Greeks and Romans

due to the fact that they were
elevated over many miles.

FERNANDEZ-DIAZ: The longest
causeway that we know

is over a hundred
kilometers long.

The largest portion
of the causeway connects

the site of Mirador
to other sites.

Some of these causeways
were the size

of a four-lane highway.

They are probably between two
and five meters in elevation

with relationship
to the lowlands.

So it was a massive undertaking.

Name another city in 1000 BC

that had elevated roadways

that are as wide
as a four-lane highway.

There is none.

NARRATOR:
The discoveries that continue to be made in the Mirador Basin

are completely upending
our understanding of the Maya,

and present new questions

as to how
this sophisticated culture

emerged seemingly out of nowhere
more than 3,000 years ago.

What we have discovered
right there

is a lost chapter

of human history.

Because they now determined

that even a thousand years
before the Classical Maya period

they had an entire
network of roads

with buildings, with structures.

I mean, my mind is blown

because this is a complete
rewriting of Maya history.

HENRY: We have a whole
new scenario here.

The evolutionary theory
of how the Maya came along

is wrong.

It's completely upset
by this discovery.

NARRATOR: How is it
that the early Maya developed

sophisticated cities
and structures

at a time when it is thought

the entire
North American continent was

populated
by primitive nomadic people?

Could it be that the Maya
creation story is, in fact,

a historical account
of extraterrestrial visitation?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes and suggest

further evidence can be found

by examining
the Maya's connection

with the Pleiades star cluster.

NARRATOR: Located over
400 light-years from Earth,

near the constellation
of Taurus,

is a star cluster known
as the Pleiades.

It is commonly recognized
as seven bright stars

referred to
as the Seven Sisters.

But there are, in fact,
around 3,000 stars

in the Pleiades star cluster.

This area of the night sky
held great significance

for the Maya civilization.

COLLINS:
The Maya themselves associate

the celestial beings
that had contact

with their own ancestors
with the Pleiades constellation.

In more recent years,

this has come through the work

and the teachings

of a writer and researcher

by the name of José Argüelles,

who during the 1970s

spent a long time
in the Maya lands,

having his own experiences

talking to the Maya themselves,

and coming to the conclusion

that the founders
of the Mayan civilization were,

in fact, star beings that had
come down in the distant past.

That had given the Maya
the knowledge and wisdom

to create the foundations
of their civilization.

NARRATOR:
Could it be that the Maya identify

the Pleiades
as the home of the gods

because this was told
to their ancestors

by extraterrestrial visitors?

As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

that question was
answered by the recent

lidar studies at El Mirador.

Because what they revealed
is that, incredibly,

the ancient structures
of El Mirador

appear to have been
intentionally positioned

to mirror the seven
brightest stars of the Pleiades.

Some archaeologists have
suggested that El Mirador is

aligned with the Pleiades

and that the pyramids
and other structures there

are actually recreating
the Pleiades star system

on the grounds
in the El Mirador basin.

TSOUKALOS: In my opinion,
those structures are

calling cards
of our visitors long ago.

NARRATOR:
Does the layout of El Mirador provide the ultimate proof

that Maya society
was the product

of extraterrestrial
intervention?

While ancient astronaut
theorists find

this possibility intriguing,

they believe even more
profound discoveries

are yet to be made.

BARNHART: The things that we've
actually been able to excavate,

it's just a fraction,

a sub-percent of what's actually

out there to see.

I can say with confidence
that we have dug

less than one percent
of the Maya world.

Even in cities we know well,
like Palenque for example,

I made a map of Palenque.

I mapped almost 1,500 buildings.

We've excavated 33.

And that's a well-known city.

We have barely begun to scratch

the surface
of what's still remaining

of ancient Maya society.

CHEETHAM: As a tourist
or an archaeologist going

into the Maya lowland,

it's quite remarkable to see

pyramids sticking out
of the canopy of the jungle.

And you're tempted to think,

"Well, wow, there must be
thousands of sites

that are remaining
to be discovered."

HENRY:
When we look at what is happening in Maya country now,

it's a resurgence
of a civilization long lost,

but that is truly
among the most magnificent

in all human history.

The modern Maya have to be

incredibly proud of this.

This is their lineage.

This is their ancestors

that built
these magnificent cities

that are now being
unveiled and uncovered.

I think what we're
gonna be finding here is

some incredible
new discoveries among the Maya.

And it's ultimately
gonna point to the Pleiades

and extraterrestrials
as the ones that were

the teachers
of this civilization.

NARRATOR:
Could the lost cities of the Mirador Basin--

that archaeologists are
only now beginning to explore--

hold incredible
new evidence about,

not only the Maya

but the origins
of human civilization?

Are the jungles
of Central America hiding

the ultimate proof
of ancient alien visitation?

Perhaps as we continue
to unravel

the mysteries of the Maya,

we will learn that
their stories of sky gods are,

in fact, historical accounts

of our extraterrestrial past.

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