- 6 days ago
S1 E1: Mayan City of Blood (Premiered 07/05/2016)
The city of Chichen Itza contains secrets of a mysterious civilization.
The city of Chichen Itza contains secrets of a mysterious civilization.
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00:00Chichen Itza, a spectacular ancient Maya city shrouded in mystery and myths.
00:10It's the greatest ancient city in the world.
00:14It's a jungle metropolis with a hidden underworld and dark secrets.
00:19What happened to this lost civilization?
00:24The big question that drives us is why people were here.
00:28How and why was this vast city built?
00:33And did the people living here practice human sacrifice?
00:38The only way to solve these mysteries is to go deep into the heart of the Mayan city.
00:46Exploring its structures stone by stone will help us unearth the astonishing secrets at the heart of this ancient wonder.
00:58Chichen Itza, Mexico.
01:05A thousand years ago, this was a powerful working city.
01:10Home to 30,000 people.
01:13The ancient Maya.
01:15A civilization known for their remarkable skill in astronomy, mathematics and architecture.
01:24And for their blood-curdling religious rites.
01:30Archaeologist Memo de Anda has spent much of his lifetime trying to make sense of this mysterious jungle city and its awe-inspiring buildings.
01:40We are scratching the surface.
01:42That's literally what we're doing.
01:45I'm sure this building is still hiding many, many secrets inside.
01:50The ruins of more than 30 ancient structures and temples lie hidden here amongst the trees, including this immense pyramid.
01:59The Castillo, or Temple of Kukulkan, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.
02:06Built from tens of thousands of limestone blocks, it towers 100 feet high, as tall as a 10-story building.
02:16At its peak, a sacred temple dedicated to the serpent god Kukulkan.
02:26On each side, steep steps that reflect the Maya calendar.
02:31And at the base, serpent heads linked to the equinox.
02:38This 60,000-ton structure is a marvel of ancient engineering.
02:44This is one of the most wonderful buildings from the ancient world.
02:49This is a demonstration of power, a demonstration of spirituality, a demonstration of science.
02:57It's an important building.
02:59Why did the ancient Maya build this spectacular city in the jungle?
03:04And how did they source the many thousands of tons of stone needed to build huge temples and pyramids like this?
03:16One third of a mile from the main pyramid, Memo is searching for clues.
03:22It seems this is no ordinary jungle.
03:27The Maya didn't have to really go far away to find the material to build their big cities.
03:36Limestone is everywhere.
03:38The material is beneath their feet.
03:40All this material is right there.
03:43The limestone lay within very easy reach.
03:46The soil is very, very thin.
03:48It's not even two centimeters of soil that's laying over the huge limestone bedrock.
03:56It's limestone all around us.
03:59It's actually the whole peninsula.
04:02It's a big limestone platform.
04:05Limestone was the crucial ingredient that allowed the Maya to construct Chichen Itza's great buildings.
04:12Workers mined it in this quarry just 500 yards from the Castillo pyramid.
04:18Memo uncovers some extraordinary evidence to prove it.
04:22Right here, we can see a reform.
04:27It's a huge piece of rock, of limestone, that they started working.
04:33You can see this is perfectly round.
04:36And we can see on one side the start of the formation of a mouth of a snake.
04:43But somehow they leave it here.
04:46Maybe because it got broken.
04:50A remarkable clue carved by a Maya craftsman a thousand years ago.
04:56And it shows us by being here is that they obtain the material and they work it right here.
05:02They take it when it was finished to the city.
05:07So that's pretty amazing.
05:09The local geology provided Chichen Itza's builders with an endless supply of limestone.
05:16But there's a further mystery.
05:18The ancient Maya had no access to metal tools.
05:22How did they get the stone out of the ground?
05:26It is interesting and it's amazing at the same time.
05:29How can they build these fantastic cities only with stone tools?
05:35The resourceful Maya came up with an ingenious solution.
05:38They used shards of razor sharp stones, like chert, sometimes attaching them to wooden sticks.
05:52They gouged deep channels into the ground, carving a checkerboard pattern into the limestone rocks.
05:59The workers dug down until they reached a natural break in the limestone bedrock.
06:08This way the checkerboard blocks would crack away from the ground.
06:13Then they used wooden levers to pry the blocks out.
06:17How much effort did it take to remove heavy limestone blocks without modern machinery?
06:30To find out, Memo is heading to a stonemason's yard in Merida, about 70 miles from Chichen Itza.
06:37The stonemasons attempt an experiment.
06:46They use wooden levers to try to extract a two-ton limestone block, just as the ancient Maya would have done.
06:53All the stones they put there to make liver, I think we put a little bit too many, so we need space for the big liver.
07:08These guys are extraordinarily skillful and strong. I mean, they're great.
07:13So far so good.
07:19Shifting the limestone the old-fashioned way clearly required both technique and plenty of manpower.
07:26Today that I have the opportunity to move this relatively small stone, it was so hard.
07:33And with a lot of people, I realized how hard it was.
07:37And I'm getting more and more and more respect for the Maya for what they do.
07:44It's amazing.
07:45Wow! That was great!
07:48These guys are great!
07:53Wow.
07:55Moving one stone was backbreaking work.
07:58Yet this pyramid is made of tens of thousands of limestone blocks.
08:03How did the ancient Maya build it?
08:05The secret to constructing this amazing temple lies hidden inside.
08:11Because this pyramid isn't quite what it seems.
08:18Concealed beneath the smooth facade is a layer of rubble.
08:24Under that, an older pyramid roughly half the Castillo's size.
08:28Its staircase leads to a sacred temple with two chambers.
08:35At their heart, a throne in the shape of a jaguar with jade stone eyes and white flint teeth.
08:42And a mysterious reclining statue known as a Chakmul.
08:47Building on top of this existing temple was an ingenious way to build big, as a new era in the life of the city dawned.
09:00The ancient Maya, they did not destroy a building to build another one.
09:06They just go ahead and build on top of the old building and build something majestic like this.
09:12But why did the ancient Maya build a great city here, in the middle of dense jungle?
09:26In the vast landscape of the Yucatan, why did the ancient Maya choose this location for their city?
09:31To find out, geophysicist René Chavez is 75 miles west of Chichen Itza City, using a new technique to see beneath ancient Maya pyramids.
09:43He believes the answer may lie underground.
09:46This is one of dozens of ancient pyramids hidden in the Mexican jungle.
09:52It may look very different from the famous Castillo, but it's what many Maya pyramids look like before archaeologists restore them.
10:02We have to deploy the electrodes on top of the pyramid, and this is going to be more than an adventure.
10:09René's team lays a web of electrodes, which they will use to send an electrical current through the ground.
10:16The team will measure how easily the current travels.
10:20Their readings will reveal if any structures or strange natural formations lie beneath the rocks and soil.
10:27We can find water, we can find different conditions of the limestone, which all this area is composed of.
10:36The model will also give us some sort of geometry, and from that we can interpret data and see, well, we have a cavity, we have a tunnel.
10:46We never know.
10:54Okay, cross your fingers.
10:57Hope everything is going to work well.
10:59It takes time to process the data from today's survey.
11:02René can only hope it provides results as spectacular as his recent findings from a similar investigation at Chichen Itza's Great Castillo Pyramid.
11:15We did experiment, we process all the data, and after that, oh, surprise.
11:23In this model, each color represents a different geological material.
11:26Green colors, for instance, corresponds to the limestone.
11:31In blue colors, you are going to see structures with very low resistivity value, which means that the current flows with no problem within the structure.
11:44What kind of elements produce that?
11:48René's results reveal something extraordinary.
11:50Hidden directly beneath the Castillo Pyramid, below a five-yard thick layer of limestone, sits a giant underground cave full of water, a formation known as a cenote.
12:10The cave contains as much water as six Olympic swimming pools.
12:14It extends over 65 feet underground.
12:19Building a pyramid right on top of a cave full of water might seem surprising.
12:26But its existence here has dramatic implications for our understanding of this iconic temple.
12:36The amazing thing is not finding this cavity.
12:40The fantastic thing, the awesome thing, is that there is a pyramid on top of it.
12:46And not any pyramid.
12:48You are not going to believe us, but we were just jumping, laughing.
12:53We find it.
12:55Without digging, there's no way to access the cenote hidden under the Castillo.
12:59So archaeologist Memo de Anda is visiting another nearby cenote to investigate what may lie beneath the pyramid.
13:09Isn't this wonderful?
13:11It's one of the many cenotes we have in the Yucatan Peninsula.
13:16It's a wonder of nature.
13:19A huge cavern.
13:20This is essentially what cenotes are.
13:23It's a huge cavern that got flooded with lots of rain for thousands of years.
13:29And you can really feel the magic of being here.
13:33There's one crucial difference between this cenote and the one under the Castillo.
13:39At this cenote, the roof has fallen in, making it look more like a lake than a cave.
13:44The one below El Castillo probably is going to collapse one day.
13:50We don't know when.
13:52It has been there for centuries.
13:54So hopefully not for a long time.
14:01Underground lakes like this are the reason the great city of Chichen Itza was built in this area.
14:07There are no surface rivers in this part of Mexico.
14:10The only source of drinking water was hidden underground in cenotes.
14:17But these weren't just a source of water.
14:25They were places for worship.
14:27And sometimes people don't understand.
14:30But when you stand here and see this beauty and feel this magic, you understand.
14:36Cenotes had deep religious significance and were seen as a physical link to the Maya underworld.
14:46Is it possible the ancient Maya knew about the cenote hidden under the Castillo?
14:52Did they build on top of it on purpose?
14:55Memo believes they must have.
14:59Because the Castillo has a remarkable relationship with four other important underground lakes that are visible on the Chichen Itza site.
15:05This is El Castillo, or Kukulkan Temple.
15:09One of the things that's amazing about this building is that it's situated right in the middle of four cenotes.
15:19It's the sacred cenote to the north, the Istolok cenote to the south, Shkanyuyum cenote to the east, and Holtun cenote to the west.
15:32The ancient Maya divided their universe into quadrants.
15:38These were aligned with the four points of the compass.
15:42Could Chichen Itza's layout be a physical representation of the Maya universe?
15:47So if you draw two lines, the center of those lines is El Castillo.
15:53El Castillo was built there because the orientation of those four cenotes.
16:03How those ancient Maya knew about the fifth cenote under the Castillo remains a mystery.
16:07But Memo believes they did, and that the Great Pyramid was built on this site because it symbolized the center of the Maya universe.
16:17When they said there is a cenote under El Castillo, and you see it's the center of this sacred alignment, it makes a lot of sense.
16:26The layout of these cenotes created a location with deep religious meaning.
16:34But the sacred significance doesn't end here.
16:40During excavations at the Castillo Pyramid, archaeologists make an astonishing discovery.
16:45At the base of the Castillo Pyramid, archaeologists make a surprising discovery.
17:06Digging more than six feet underground, they unearthed a dark secret.
17:11Amongst their rubble, they found shards of bone, skull fragments, and even teeth that prove these remains are human.
17:26Archaeologists unearthed over 900 pieces belonging to over 100 different individuals.
17:32Who were these people?
17:35And why were they buried here?
17:42These mysterious finds tell an extraordinary story.
17:48At her lab in Merida, bioarchaeologist Vera Teessler forensically analyzes the bones.
17:56She's uncovering the remarkable secrets of who these people were, and why they weren't given a proper burial or cremated.
18:04These remains were found at one side of the Castillos, and there is a high incidence of different forms of nutritional deprivation.
18:15Everything that has to do with suffering hunger, not being nourished adequately, or suffering from many, many episodes of infectious disease, for example.
18:24These bones come from people on the fringes of society, individuals in poor health, who were not valued, or who were expendable.
18:35In this skullcap, what we see are these distinctive pores.
18:41They mostly stem from episodes of anemia during infancy.
18:46If I take a closer look at these teeth, we can see these distinctive grooves that cross over the surface.
18:55And these basically tell us that a person suffered from several episodes of physiological stress.
19:07Vera finds evidence that the surrounding flesh was deliberately removed from some of these bones.
19:15The bony remnants that we recovered around El Castillo show distinctive cut marks.
19:21It's no normal burial.
19:24What these remains show is basically different practices that relate to flaying, to defleshing, body processing, so to speak.
19:37Vera believes these bones are evidence of gruesome sacrificial rituals.
19:43They're remnants that probably stem from ritual actions involving animal and human sacrifice.
19:51These were part of practices conducted by elite practitioners, elite priests from Chichen.
20:02This is a remarkable claim.
20:07How can Vera even be certain that remains like these belong to the ancient Maya?
20:11Some truly compelling evidence comes from the sacred cenote, one of the four underground lakes that surround the Castillo.
20:22This skull comes from the sacred cenote of Chichen Itza.
20:28It's cast from a child's skull.
20:34One crucial clue reveals that this cannot be a modern skull.
20:38It's shape.
20:40This head form has been called top flattening.
20:45It's a sort of artificial shape that has been produced with quartz and adapted to make the top of the head more flattened.
20:56Head shaping was a common Maya practice, and archaeologists have found many more skulls like this in the sacred cenote.
21:02This head is one out of more than 100 infant galatas that were found in the sacred cenote.
21:10The presence of so many bones can be no accident.
21:14They must have been placed in the cenote intentionally, probably as offerings to the Maya gods.
21:19Archaeologist Mamo Deanda is now investigating this astonishing theory.
21:26Why would a sophisticated society like the ancient Maya have practiced human sacrifice?
21:33New clues lie at the bottom of this deep abyss.
21:36Chichen Itza, this mysterious ancient city is slowly giving up its secrets.
21:48Investigations are shedding dramatic new light on its spectacular buildings and religious rituals.
21:54The remains of hundreds of victims of human sacrifice have been found inside Chichen Itza's sacred cenote.
22:04Could this dark practice have happened at other cenotes too?
22:08Archaeologist Mamo Deanda is conducting a major new investigation at underground lakes across the Yucatan Peninsula.
22:23He's investigated hundreds of cenotes over his 25-year career.
22:29Mamo wants to know more about the part human sacrifice played in Maya sacred rites.
22:35He's creating three-dimensional modeling of the offerings he finds to hunt for clues.
22:42Today, this work has brought him to another of the four cenotes that surround the Castillo pyramid.
22:49We are at Cenote Joltun inside Chichen Itza.
22:55And the ancient Maya carved the entrance.
22:58It's spectacular. It's so beautiful. It's a huge dome.
23:02Ready to go.
23:03The only way to explore this hidden lake is to dive.
23:09But the only way to reach the water is a nearly 80-foot vertical abseil into the dark.
23:16This is not for the faint-hearted.
23:20This vast cavern extends over 225 feet down.
23:24It contains a large underground lake over 160 feet deep.
23:30Going down in Cenote is one of the best experiences in the world.
23:35Rainwater carved this immense cavern into the limestone bedrock over thousands of years.
23:49We're about eight, nine meters down and can see the cultural richness of this place.
24:03And I don't want to approach too close because it can destroy everything in a second.
24:09Memo is making some shocking discoveries.
24:14Ceramic offerings.
24:16A knife.
24:18Animal bones.
24:20And human remains.
24:23Each time he dives into this Cenote, Memo takes high-resolution photographs of his finds from all angles.
24:29But exactly what happened in this mysterious cavern?
24:34Memo has found a remarkable clue.
24:37Right in front of me you can see a shelf.
24:41It's a natural shelf.
24:43Ideal to make a ritual deposit.
24:45More bones.
24:47Other offerings.
24:49And even traces of charcoal remain on this shelf.
24:52Amazingly, it appears this platform was once a sacred altar.
24:58This is part of the spiritual world.
25:01Cenotes are silent witnesses of a very important part of the ancient Maya life.
25:08This is a very important part of their universe.
25:11Memo has found some truly extraordinary evidence about the rites conducted in this Cenote.
25:21It was a very organized life.
25:26And I think we get what we needed.
25:29Memo has been photographing this site for five years.
25:34A custom-made computer program has processed the photos taken so far.
25:40And turned them into amazing three-dimensional models of his discoveries.
25:45What I'm looking at right now, it's a bird-eye view of the whole shelf.
25:49This is an amazing, amazing image.
25:52I can tell you without any doubt, it's unique in the world.
25:56There's no other archaeological project that is doing this.
26:00The models provide an incredible permanent record of the Cenote's mysterious contents.
26:06It's the next best thing of having an object in my hand.
26:11And the beauty of this is that we leave them there.
26:15This model allows Memo to study the shelf in more detail.
26:19It even shows stingray spines, another item associated with Maya religious rituals.
26:25Stingray spines were used in ceremonies, rituals.
26:30Rituals to attract rain.
26:32They used to be like self-sacrifice.
26:34Bloodletting.
26:36A lot of blood could mean a lot of fertility, especially if this blood comes from the penis.
26:41Is it possible rituals like bloodletting were carried out here?
26:47And if so, how did the Maya utilize this underwater place without modern diving equipment?
27:00Archaeologist Memo de Anda is uncovering how the Maya constructed a sacred altar on a shelf deep underwater without the use of diving equipment.
27:08Perhaps they didn't have to.
27:12Memo believes the water level in the Cenote must have been much lower when the offerings were left here,
27:17thanks to a terrible natural phenomenon that threatened the entire future of Chichen Itza.
27:22Drought.
27:24This shelf probably was above water some 1,200 years ago when this place was dry.
27:34And maybe it was dry because of these big droughts.
27:39So this shelf, this ledge, should have been exposed.
27:46The shelf lies nearly 100 feet down, tucked away at the far edge of the cavern.
27:50As droughts hit, the water level in the Cenote dropped, exposing the shelf.
27:57The Maya probably climbed down into the Cenote using a ladder built from pieces of tree trunk tied together with flexible branches.
28:04They could descend into the Cenote to leave their offerings, perhaps reaching the shelf by canoe.
28:19Many years later, with the droughts over, the water level rose again, covering the artifacts and preserving them to this day.
28:26Why did the ancient Maya conduct these elaborate rituals?
28:32The most likely god that they were offered to was Chak, the rain god.
28:38I think they make these offerings to encourage rains.
28:44Cenotes lay at the heart of Chichen Itza.
28:47They provided life-giving water.
28:53They had immense religious importance, especially when drought hit.
29:00And they even dictated the location of the great Castillo pyramid.
29:04But could the Castillo's distinctive shape hold hidden meaning, too?
29:08Could there be more to its outer appearance than first meets the eye?
29:15It's much more than a building.
29:18You see the perfection on the lines.
29:20But when you know a little bit more about it, you know it's a mathematical building.
29:27It's related to astronomy.
29:30It's related to the agricultural cycles.
29:33This pyramid contains another secret.
29:37It's also a monumental calendar for the city.
29:4318 stone terraces represent the 18 Maya months of the year.
29:5091 steps on each side, plus the top platform, give 365 steps, one for each day of the year.
29:59And twice a year on the equinox, the sun casts a shadow so perfectly aligned, an immense snake appears to slither down the main steps.
30:10This is the serpent god Kukulkan, to whom the temple is dedicated.
30:18It's hard to understand how they could master the technique, not only to build this fantastic building, but to make it so beautiful, so interesting.
30:28And related to the sun, related to the changes of seasons, it's great.
30:39The ancient Maya were so dedicated to tracking the movements of the planets and stars, that they even constructed this building, an extraordinary observatory.
30:50Well, this is El Caracol.
30:52It's a wonderful building, and it received that name because of the spiral form.
30:59Caracol means snail, or seashell in Spanish, because hidden inside the observatory is a spiral staircase.
31:07This one, in particular, served the purpose of gazing the skies and mapping them.
31:18And there were very good astronomers.
31:21They have a very good knowledge of the movement of the celestial bodies.
31:26The ancient Maya didn't have telescopes, but that didn't stop them from making incredibly detailed observations with the naked eye.
31:36This building, it's on top of several platforms, and stands out maybe to avoid the canopy of trees.
31:46Just high enough for the ancient Maya astronomers to look all around, even when the sun is rising or it's setting.
31:56Due to the Caracol's ruined condition, few of the observatory windows remain.
32:04There is actually three of them. They are very interestingly aligned.
32:13The Maya aligned the Caracol with the heavens.
32:16The main staircase faces the setting point of Venus, one of the most important objects in the Maya sky.
32:22The tower on the top has windows that line up with Venus's northern and southernmost positions, and a third window is aligned with astronomical south.
32:37The corners of the base platform align with the sun's shadow on the solstice sunrise and sunset.
32:42Incredibly, at least 20 astronomical events are incorporated into this structure.
32:53The Maya used their observations to predict harvests, deaths, and even good times to go to war.
33:00Chichen Itza, a city shaped by the earth, by water, and by the movements of the planets.
33:12Where the buildings are molded by beliefs, where sacred meaning is never far away.
33:18But how did this city become so successful and so powerful?
33:24An investigation 125 miles away reveals startling clues.
33:35Chichen Itza, Mexico.
33:36This abandoned city was once one of the most powerful political and religious centers in the Americas.
33:46Drawing pilgrims from far and wide to its sacred sites.
33:51How did people travel across the city through dense jungle and sometimes waterlogged ground?
33:57The solution?
34:01SAC bays.
34:03A unique kind of road.
34:05This amazing road we're walking on now, it's one of the SAC bays, or wide roads.
34:13You can see it's pretty wide and it's high.
34:16This might not look like anything special, but a miracle of engineering lies hidden beneath the surface.
34:23Raised high above the jungle floor to escape the swampy ground of the rainy season,
34:33these sophisticated causeways are a marvel of ancient engineering.
34:38At the base, large stones are fixed in place with ancient mortar to create a solid foundation.
34:46Tiny stones level the surface.
34:49And masonry walls enclose the sides.
34:53Ancient plaster made from powdered limestone forms the top layer,
34:56creating a fortified smooth path to allow Chichen Itza citizens to travel across this city with ease.
35:10I think they had a lot of functions.
35:13Communicating, that's for sure one of them.
35:15That's the main use of roads.
35:18This is like a umbilical cord, just putting the side together.
35:24But there were a lot of reasons, just practically or symbolically or to extend the political boundaries.
35:34Archaeologists are constantly finding new causeways.
35:37The scale of those discovered so far at Chichen Itza is vast.
35:46Sakbe's causeways criss-crossed over the city, connecting the main temples with quarries and outlying communities.
35:53One led to the sacred cenote, over 300 yards away through the jungle.
36:01Others even stretched out of Chichen Itza to distant settlements over four miles away.
36:06More than 90 of these white roads have been discovered, revealing the complex network of this great metropolis.
36:19They all led back to the center of Chichen Itza.
36:22In its prime, a bustling city with a population of more than 30,000.
36:27These sakbe's were really important, and they really helped the cities to thrive.
36:35But causeways on their own were not enough to ensure Chichen Itza's success.
36:40There were no nearby rivers.
36:43It would be hundreds of years before the first horses arrived in Mexico, and the Maya had not invented the wheel.
36:51How could people travel longer distances or move goods fast?
36:55125 miles northwest of Chichen Itza, archaeologist Jeffrey Glover and his team are searching for clues.
37:11Water became the highway, you know.
37:14You would have hundreds, thousands of these canoes annually traveling up and down the coast.
37:21Home sweet home.
37:23This is Vista Alegre, the site of a mysterious long abandoned coastal settlement.
37:29Jeffrey believes Vista Alegre was once a seaport with connections to Chichen Itza.
37:35He's trying to find evidence to link the two sites.
37:39So far, Jeffrey and his team have found the remains of ancient structures, shards of obsidian, a rock used in tools, and fragments of pottery.
37:52But a key clue comes from a particular variety of pottery, known as Balantun black-on-slate.
38:02So this is Balantun black-on-slate.
38:06It has that lovely trickle design that was really popular across the Yucatan from the classic period.
38:14You know, the cool thing about this, right, is that it's a domestic ware that's very common at Chichen.
38:22It's what you typically would find in households at Chichen.
38:24Yeah.
38:25I mean, it doesn't seem like much.
38:27It's just a bit of broken pottery.
38:29But it clearly demonstrates a link between our region and the Chichen region.
38:36From the pottery evidence, we know that this settlement was linked to Chichen Itza.
38:40But what exactly was this place?
38:44A port to provide traders en route to Chichen with food and provisions?
38:49Or something more?
38:51An official outpost of Chichen Itza created to control sea trade?
38:56Jeffrey hopes his work here will one day solve this riddle.
39:00Either way, it appears Vista Alegre was one cog in a highly efficient trading machine that served the great city of Chichen Itza.
39:10Long-distance trade was conducted by sea and based around the Maya canoe.
39:18Each canoe was up to 60 feet long and could carry several tons of cargo.
39:27Each port was about 25 miles from the next, the distance that could be traveled by canoe in one day.
39:34This powerful trade network stretched all around the coast.
39:41The stepping stones led to Chichen Itza's main port, Isla Cerritos.
39:49Up to 400 canoes traded here at one time.
39:53This lucrative port strengthened Chichen Itza's power over the whole peninsula.
39:57That's what would have really fueled the city.
40:01That it grew into a huge city, I think, through the religious significance as a pilgrimage center was important.
40:08But it being an economic juggernaut was, I think, probably more important to its success.
40:14Trade helped Chichen Itza to thrive.
40:20The city grew rich selling salt, cacao, and textiles.
40:25And brought in precious stones such as obsidian used to create tools.
40:30But soon the mighty would fall.
40:33By the end of the 11th century, Chichen Itza was in major decline.
40:43What could have caused this powerful city-state to collapse?
40:50Memo believes the answer lies in the cenotes that were so important to the ancient people of this region.
40:56And in the evidence they contain of drought.
40:59We had found that the site had to overcome a huge drought, 5, 10 or maybe 15 years without rain.
41:11They had no agriculture, so no way to feed the people.
41:16We had found this evidence in cenotes, where we could see how the water level lowered.
41:23Underground lakes with their seemingly bottomless supply of fresh water
41:27had been the key to Chichen Itza's success.
41:33Now, as that water ran low and the harvests failed, Chichen Itza's glory days had come to an end.
41:40The rulers, the kings on the Mayan area, they call themselves descendants of the gods.
41:50So they attribute themselves a divine origin.
41:56So when they could not produce water, people must have been very, very angry.
42:02Some people moving away, some others trying to get the power into control.
42:08Chichen Itza was gradually abandoned and reclaimed by the jungle.
42:13Its secrets were almost lost forever.
42:15But thanks to investigations by archaeologists and scientists, the mysterious city of Chichen Itza is beginning,
42:28little by little, to give up its best kept secrets.
42:31The ingenious structure of its Sokbe's causeways, the ancient pyramid hidden inside the Castillo,
42:44and the human remains in its very foundations.
42:48These make Chichen Itza one of the most awe-inspiring ancient wonders ever built.
42:55Sanctilee has been built.
42:57Sanctuary has been built by the
43:21You
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