00:00You are lost in the depths of the jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula, in Mexico.
00:05Mysterious sounds resonate around you, and to wrap it all up, the twilight settles little by little.
00:11Soon, you will find yourself alone in the heart of an unexplored tropical forest.
00:16It must be admitted that undertaking the quest for Eldorado alone was not the brightest idea.
00:22You continue to move forward as quickly as possible, when suddenly...
00:26Wait, what do you see over there? It looks like huge stone stairs.
00:31All this is not natural, so you grab your camera to take a picture of it.
00:36Maybe you haven't unleashed the gold, but you may have made an inestimable discovery.
00:42Congratulations, you have just discovered Ocumtun, a Mayan city forgotten for centuries.
00:48Hidden about sixty kilometers in the heart of the jungle, its name literally translates as...
00:54The stone had to be taken at the time, because its builders used it abundantly to build their pyramids, their dwellings, and even their ball games.
01:03If you thought that Europeans held the exclusivity of the round ball, you are wrong.
01:08The Mayans were amateurs of these games, which they practiced for pleasure and competition.
01:14Ocumtun is part of a series of other Mayan cities once lost, which are now rediscovered thanks to the current technological advances.
01:22We will address the others in a moment.
01:25The most amazing feature of this city is undoubtedly its location in the middle of swampy areas, which explains why it was built on an overgrown field.
01:35This city, of monumental magnitude, stretched over more than 50 hectares, the equivalent of 90 football fields.
01:44Researchers have discovered clues indicating that Ocumtun had pyramids that could reach 15 meters in height,
01:51and that it was probably a major social center between 250 and 1,000 AD.
01:57It is certainly a major upheaval.
02:00However, the exploration of the Mayan cities that have disappeared dates back to the 19th century.
02:05Modern technologies, such as LiDAR imaging, allow archaeologists to scrutinize dense forests without being trapped by vegetation.
02:14This means that it is no longer necessary to venture into the tropical jungle at the risk of getting lost, as you did at the beginning of this video.
02:21LiDAR works a bit like a radiography.
02:24It projects laser beams that detect traces of ruins or old buildings.
02:30According to Sarah Parkak, an archaeologist specializing in space teledetection,
02:34satellite images have played a crucial role in the discovery of ancient cities in South America, Egypt and elsewhere.
02:41She devotes most of her days to carefully analyzing these images to locate possible traces of ancient cities.
02:49According to her, the ruins are often buried under vegetation, earth or sand, making their identification particularly complex.
02:57However, thanks to these remarkable tools,
03:00researchers have also discovered ancient Mayan slopes that crossed the ancient territories of this civilization.
03:07So admire these ancient passages.
03:09We are more used to seeing such ruins in countries of the old continent.
03:13But imagine roads 40 meters wide, whitewashed in the heat, to guide travelers in the dark.
03:20Scientists have recently developed a network of more than 170 kilometers of these roads,
03:25which they consider to be prior to the first officially listed Mayan roads to date.
03:32These roads, which sometimes crossed swampy terrain and were even overgrown by places,
03:37are now considered the world's first superhighway.
03:41Although no animal traction index has been found,
03:45it is likely that the Mayans used them to move within a network,
03:49counting up to 964 settlements.
03:52Built in the form of a vast spider web,
03:55these slopes, according to the information collected by archaeologists,
03:59served to form an extensive system of economic and social exchanges between the different cities.
04:04This discovery completely questions the idea that the pre-classic Mayan period,
04:09which dates back to 2000 BC, was limited to small tribal villages.
04:14Imagine the extent of human resources and engineering expertise
04:18that had to be mobilized to build these huge white roads.
04:21Archaeologists believe that the construction of these roads followed a process similar to that used for the pyramids,
04:27an amalgam of mud and quarry stones,
04:29completed by several layers of limestone to give them this brilliant hue.
04:35Impressive enough, isn't it?
04:37However, let's take a step back to better understand the context.
04:40The Mayans represented one of the largest pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas.
04:45Until now, specialists estimated that at its peak,
04:49the Mayan civilization included more than 40 cities,
04:52grouping millions of inhabitants.
04:54It is a considerable population.
04:56Their empire extended from the Mexican peninsula of Yucatan to Guatemala and Belize,
05:01with an economy based mainly on agriculture.
05:04However, the peninsula presented a particularly hostile environment for culture.
05:09The Mayans therefore had to design sophisticated irrigation systems in most of their cities.
05:14In addition to the construction of pyramids, ceremonial buildings and squares,
05:19they also developed an astronomical system like no other.
05:23Thanks to the ancient technologies they had,
05:26they were able to accurately predict the position of planets such as Venus and Mars,
05:31as well as the exact dates of the eclipses.
05:34If you have never seen examples of ancient Mayan cities, here is Tikal.
05:39Located in the heart of the Guatemalan jungle,
05:41Tikal is reputed to have been the capital of an ancient conquering Mayan state.
05:45At its peak, this city was as influential as metropolises like London or New York are today.
05:51It is made up of a set of complex monuments,
05:54including the North Acropolis, one of the oldest in Tikal.
05:57Designed exclusively by human hands around 350 BC,
06:02it served as a sepulcher for kings and dignitaries.
06:05The monuments, which could reach up to 60 meters in height,
06:08were once adorned with a splendid red paint, a color dear to the Mayans.
06:13But nowadays, only limestone remains.
06:19Chichen Itza, meanwhile, houses one of the best preserved pyramids in the world.
06:23Located in the state of Yucatan, this Mayan city dates back more than 1,500 years.
06:28At its peak, it had about 35,000 inhabitants and stretched over an area of 10 square kilometers.
06:35The site is dominated by El Castillo, a majestic pyramidal temple 24 meters high.
06:41What distinguishes it particularly are the 91 steps of each of its four faces,
06:46which, by adding the upper platform,
06:49totals 365 steps, corresponding to the number of days of the solar year.
06:56It is obvious that it was a large-scale civilization, isn't it?
07:00It is for this reason that the mystery of its decline remains so difficult to elucidate.
07:05The clues relating to the collapse of this once powerful empire are rare.
07:10What could have been the cause? A devastating drought, perhaps?
07:14Research carried out in 2017 brought some new elements likely to clarify this mystery.
07:21From the data collected on the site of Ceibal, southwest of Tikal,
07:26researchers examined the results of radiocarbon analysis,
07:29as well as the discoveries from archaeological excavations and ceramics,
07:33to obtain new information on the unexpected decline of this great civilization.
07:38The results indicate that the Mayans probably did not suffer a sudden collapse,
07:43but rather a series of waves of social instability and political crisis.
07:47These upheavals would have led to the degradation of urban centers
07:51and started the dispersion of the Mayan population.
07:54Nevertheless, it remains difficult to determine with precision the exact causes of this decline.
08:00That said, recent discoveries bring important enlightenment on the history of humanity,
08:05affecting not only the Mayan Empire, but also other disappeared civilizations in South America.
08:10A major discovery in Brazil, carried out thanks to satellite imaging,
08:14also arouses the astonishment of scientists.
08:17Images taken near the Rio Chengu, in the Amazon region,
08:21suggest that cities populated by millions of people could not have existed in the heart of the jungle,
08:27long before the emergence of our modern civilization.
08:30If this does not surprise you, it is difficult to say what would.
08:36Satellite images have also revealed a network of trenches dating from 200 to 1200 AD,
08:43within the Bolivian forest.
08:45These traces suggest the presence of communities
08:48that could have sheltered about 60,000 people in the heart of the jungle.
08:52When researchers from the University of Florida went out into the field to check the satellite data,
08:57they were surprised to discover several hills, accompanied by ditches and geoglyphs.
09:03Archaeologists have also discovered carefully crafted wall remains,
09:07organized around places and recalling the typical constructions of the ancient Mayans.
09:13NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
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