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00:00Beneath the surface of our planet lies a vast realm.
00:06Look at this.
00:07Countless caves, hidden tunnels, and submerged rivers.
00:15Now, on a quest for knowledge, expert cavers are descending into the uncharted abyss.
00:22Descending!
00:24Where extraordinary discoveries lie waiting.
00:27Looks like a very kind of violent act.
00:30Armed with the latest scanning technology to penetrate the darkness.
00:35Here it is.
00:37But look at all the detail. This is amazing.
00:40And turn data into accurate 3D images.
00:46This time, a mission in Central America to scan a mysterious Maya cave.
00:53What are they doing creating this incredibly organized space?
00:58I've never seen anything quite like this.
01:00Can the team piece together clues to gruesome rituals?
01:04This individual was sacrificed right here in this chamber.
01:10And uncover an ancient cataclysm.
01:13They were communicating with different deities and spirits.
01:16It's actually like they were seeing one of their gods.
01:19Revealing the human story behind it.
01:23Things on the surface are falling apart.
01:26Cities collapse.
01:27They're struggling for their culture as they know it.
01:30The underworld team is heading to the jungles of Central America and the land of the ancient Maya.
01:48Just south of Mexico, hugging the Caribbean Sea, lies Belize.
01:56Here, steep mountains rise from sweeping lowlands.
02:00All blanketed by thick rainforest.
02:05But it's what lies underground that brings the team here.
02:10Flooded cave systems.
02:12Part of a vast aquifer.
02:15And in places exposed in sinkholes known as cenotes.
02:20It's almost like a place where water is born.
02:24For 3,000 years, this underground water source helped a civilization flourish.
02:34The Maya were one of the most sophisticated societies of the ancient world.
02:40Now, the team's mission is to investigate a cave thought to be of crucial importance to this lost empire.
02:51It lies nearly 30 miles from the nearest city, deep in the Chiquivo forest.
03:00Archaeologist Professor Holly Moyes believes that this cave holds vital clues to Maya history.
03:07Revealing how the underworld shaped an ancient culture.
03:11And shedding light on a catastrophe that triggered its downfall.
03:21To help investigate, she's brought in Rue Walters, one of the world's leading cave surveyors.
03:30Who scanned over 200 caves around the world.
03:35And joining Rue, expert caver Mark Berkey.
03:40To reach the cave that Holly began studying 20 years ago, they're heading deep into the lost Maya world.
03:48It's so overgrown, but these stones are actually ancient structures.
03:53We are surrounded by what used to be an ancient city.
03:57Over a thousand years ago, this would have been a busy Maya neighborhood.
04:03Now, the site has been reclaimed by dense jungle.
04:07Intriguingly, this settlement extends deep underground.
04:13You see this tantalizing little path disappearing down into the forest.
04:20And as a caver, you know, that's just a, you know, beckoning signal.
04:24It's getting cold.
04:26And that's the excitement, because you just know there's a cave coming.
04:29Holly wants the team to scan this extraordinary underworld.
04:36To reveal the full extent of the Maya artifacts inside, and to discover what drew them underground.
04:45Who would have known a few minutes ago, we were walking across the top of it.
04:52It's just completely hidden.
04:54Ready?
04:55Yeah, absolutely.
04:57The entrance opens into a formidable chamber.
05:04Wow, it's a lot bigger than you let me believe.
05:08When Las Cuevas was rediscovered by loggers in 1938, strange constructions were found inside.
05:20Archaeologists were intrigued.
05:26These boulders did not fall here naturally.
05:28No.
05:29It looks like a typical dry stone wall that I might see back home, but there's more to it than that.
05:33It actually held up a plastered platform.
05:35And if you look at the top up there, you can see the plaster.
05:38And this is not the only thing we found in this cave.
05:41Right there, across the way, you can see there's more.
05:46Excavations have unearthed a baffling array of strange walls, platforms, and staircases.
05:55This whole cave has been modified.
05:56Yeah.
05:57I've never seen anything quite like this.
05:59It's absolutely fascinating.
06:01It does look organized, as if there's purpose about it.
06:06We have to wonder, why did they build all this?
06:09What are they doing in here?
06:11Why are they coming into this cave and creating this incredibly organized space?
06:19To investigate the exact purpose of these mysterious constructions, Rue and Mark will scan Las Cuevas using the latest technology in 3D mapping, a laser scanner.
06:32It will provide a virtual model of the cave and its contents in incredible detail.
06:39This kind of scanning is going to change cave archaeology radically.
06:45Putting it into 3D, actually the place comes alive.
06:48You can move around.
06:49You can position yourself anywhere within that space.
06:52A 3D model is the only way to understand what it is like to actually go through this cave and how the Maya themselves may have thought of these spaces.
07:02Las Cuevas is a complex cave with over 1,000 feet of passageway and multiple chambers.
07:09The team will need to scan all of it, starting from its wide entrance and placing the scanner in over 100 positions in order to capture all the strange Maya architecture.
07:23The scanner fires laser beams at over 350,000 pulses a second, reflecting back every detail from every hidden corner to help unravel why the Maya went to such extreme lengths to build underground.
07:53But what is known about the ancient Maya?
08:01Professor Jaime Arwe is one of Belize's leading Maya experts and has spent his career uncovering their lost way of life.
08:10If you want to be a good archaeologist in Belize, it takes quite a bit of effort.
08:15We probably have some of the worst roads in Central America.
08:19Most of our understanding of Maya culture is gleaned from what they left above ground rather than below it.
08:26Nine miles to the west of Las Cuevas, in the foothills of the Maya mountains, lies one of the most famous landmarks in Belize.
08:35See some signs of the Maya underneath the forest.
08:38The ancient city of Caracol.
08:41One of the most important in the Maya empire, famous for its towering stone pyramids like Kana, the sky palace, 139 feet high.
09:01Today, even after more than 1500 years, it continues to be the tallest human-made structure in Belize.
09:09Their pyramids reflected the Maya's hierarchical society, from slaves and farmers up to its noblemen and priests, all ruled over by divine kings.
09:26From up here, we can look down at the temples, ball courts, astronomical buildings.
09:32Over thousands of years, the Maya built a rich culture of art and science with complex celestial calendars, an intricate alphabet, and the most sophisticated mathematical system in the Americas.
09:49At its peak, the Maya empire extended across more than 40 cities, spreading from the southern edge of modern-day Mexico to what is now Honduras, with an estimated population of 5 million.
10:04A population that size, you cannot sustain just using, you know, foraging.
10:09The secret to how their cities thrived lies concealed beneath the canopy.
10:15Aerial laser imaging has revealed the tell-tale outlines of ancient farms, built in steps directly into the hillsides.
10:27If we were to essentially peel off that forest, you see hundreds of kilometers covered in agricultural terraces.
10:37There's simply no way this ancient city would have ever developed to what it did without advanced systems of agriculture.
10:46By building terraces and canals, they were able to farm maize, squash, and beans to feed their large population.
10:56It was a way of life that did not last.
10:59From around 800 A.D., it appears that Maya population levels began to drop.
11:06Over about a hundred years, you know, we see that people have packed up and left.
11:11By 900 A.D., the Maya civilization was no more.
11:20This period of time, we refer to as the Maya collapse.
11:29The Maya collapse was one of the most dramatic declines of a civilization in history.
11:34Despite all their scientific advancements, all we have left are these abandoned buildings and these silent cities.
11:47The question is, what happened to the Maya?
11:51And do the clues inside Las Cuevas have anything to do with the collapse of their society?
11:56Radiocarbon dates have shown that the strange constructions in the cave match the years of the decline.
12:09Between 700 and 900 A.D., the kinds of things they're doing in caves changes considerably.
12:18But how exactly is this underground building work connected to the Maya downfall?
12:25A clue lies at the bottom of the cave.
12:30And it might explain why the Maya ventured underground.
12:35If you look around at the walls, this is a sinkhole.
12:39We're actually in a cenote.
12:41It's an underground river that comes up here.
12:44Cenotes are caves that contain groundwater.
12:49The name means water-filled hole in the Maya language.
12:53And we're not anywhere close to the river.
12:55It's a two-hour walk to get to the river from here.
12:57And there's no lakes in this area.
12:59So when you have water that's coming up from under the ground,
13:03it's important because it's a perpetual water source.
13:08Although today it's shallow, in the past, this cenote would have been a deep pool,
13:13dominating the cave's main chamber.
13:16The water is right in the center of this chamber.
13:19And they're building up all the architecture around it.
13:22There were stairs that came down here.
13:24There were platforms.
13:25There were terracing.
13:27They wanted to get down here to that water.
13:30Cenotes were revered by the Maya.
13:33Caves with access to groundwater, like Las Cuevas,
13:38were seen as vital portals to a watery underworld.
13:43A subterranean landscape that owes its existence to Central America's unique geology.
13:51Cenotes are formed as water dissolves natural weaknesses in limestone bedrock.
13:57You've got a tropical environment, lots of rainfall coming down.
14:01Also, that's a tectonically active area, which breaks fractures and cracks.
14:07So it's the ideal conditions for water to get pushed down into the limestone and eat out these caveways.
14:14Over millions of years, as the water table rises and falls in cycles, it widens each cave, creating an enclosed underground pool.
14:27When the roof caves in, the cenote appears as a sunken lake on the land's surface.
14:33Telltale signs of the aquifer beneath.
14:37The Maya didn't only search for water in exposed cenotes.
14:41There's also evidence that they ventured even deeper underground than they did at Las Cuevas.
14:48To find out how far the Maya dared go, Holly and Jaime are traveling to one of the most archeologically rich caves in Belize.
15:01This cave holds evidence of the Maya's extraordinary beliefs.
15:05Clues that could reveal why they built inside Las Cuevas.
15:18But this cave is even more remote.
15:21Given the location, I'm still amazed that we actually discovered it.
15:26It wasn't until 1989 that Jaime entered Achtun Tunichilmuknau, or ATM.
15:32He was one of only a few archeologists to explore it since the Maya came here over a thousand years ago.
15:39To reach it, the team abandoned their off-road vehicles.
15:45The river leads them to the cave mouth.
15:52You know, you wouldn't think that, you know, from this non-assuming entrance that this cave is one of the most important archeological sites in this area.
16:10Drawn by the water, the Maya would have taken this route into ATM.
16:15We'll walk up the river and go take a look.
16:19The ATM cave system stretches for three miles.
16:24Inside, it's crisscrossed by deep river channels.
16:28From the entrance, the team are heading to a high chamber, which contain vital clues to ancient Maya beliefs.
16:40But it's challenging caving to get there.
16:43Over thousands of years, the river has cut a steep-sided channel into the limestone rock.
16:50And in places, piles of huge collapsed boulders block the way.
16:56You have to contend with fast-moving water and deep pools.
17:02You've got to climb and squeeze through narrow crevices or little nooks and crannies.
17:08It's crucial to monitor water levels.
17:12As it's close to the start of the rainy season, the risk of flooding grows each day.
17:19If water levels rise, the team could get stranded inside.
17:29They are following in the footsteps of the Maya.
17:34I'm wearing my hard hat and raptry-powered lambs.
17:37And the Maya were going in there, in their bare feet, with torches.
17:43It must have taken a very special circumstance for them to go deeper and deeper into these cave sites.
17:52After almost an hour, the team reached the heart of Achtung Tunichilmukna.
18:04It's a cavernous dry chamber high above the river, filled with geological wonders, ancient rimstone dams, and hundreds of stalactites.
18:15ATM is one of those caves that stands above the rest.
18:19It's adventurous. It's beautiful.
18:22And then, you know, this rich archaeological heritage that it contains.
18:28And it always astounds me that when I get there, there is evidence that the Maya were there before I was.
18:41At the center of the chamber, ancient Maya artifacts.
18:46Here we have some of the first clear evidence that the Maya were in this cave.
18:51Large jars placed right on top of this almost sort of flat rock.
18:57We find vessels that still contain preserved remains of corn.
19:02The Maya would bring food offerings to the gods.
19:06They were coming into these caves as part of their religious practices.
19:11The Maya believed in a world ruled by gods, spirits, and powerful magic.
19:18Supernatural forces that controlled everything.
19:21From how their crops grew to the outcome of war.
19:30And by performing elaborate rituals and offering gifts, they believed they could win the gods' favor.
19:40And archaeologists think these offerings were for one Maya spirit in particular.
19:49Chak, the god of rain.
19:52A mythical figure depicted with a thunderbolt coming from his mouth.
19:56He lived in a watery cave, striking clouds with a jade axe to create storms to release rain.
20:03Chak's often shown holding one of these vessels, so this would be a very appropriate offering for him.
20:10It's sympathetic magic.
20:12When you offer the large water jar, you're asking the pot to be filled up.
20:16That's the message.
20:17I think it's the same thing with those big pots.
20:20The Maya knew fresh water came from underground.
20:23So they made their altar here inside the cave, where they prayed for rain.
20:37But ATM isn't the only underworld where they came to summon rain.
20:42Back in Las Cuevas, Rue and Mark discover traces of the same religious rituals.
20:47As you're walking further into this chamber, the floor is just a carpet of broken shards of pottery.
20:53And you have to be really, really careful where you walk and where you tread, and certainly where we place the tripod.
20:59With the nearby cenote, it is thought these are also offerings made to gods like Chak.
21:06So the team must work very carefully in this delicate archaeological site.
21:13The challenge that we're having is just trying to make sure that in the process of working, we don't do any damage to the relics.
21:22There are many more pottery fragments in Las Cuevas than in ATM, and analysis of their styles is revealing.
21:32They suggest that whoever brought offerings here weren't only local to Las Cuevas.
21:41They were also coming from much further afield.
21:44We're seeing a lot of people using this cave coming from southern Belize over the Maya mountains,
21:49because we're finding a certain type of ceramic.
21:52It's so clearly a pilgrimage site.
21:55And could these visiting pilgrims be connected to the reason that Las Cuevas has been so extensively modified?
22:10These walled features continue right into the cave.
22:13Clearly something very, very major is going on in this chamber.
22:16It's absolutely fascinating. I've certainly never seen anything like it before.
22:20Rue's scan could help reveal why so many pilgrims came to Las Cuevas right at the time of the Maya collapse.
22:35Across Central America, archaeologists have documented over 300 Maya cave sites,
22:42filled with evidence that they believed in a vast underground realm.
22:47But these sites weren't only used for worshipping the rain god Chak.
22:51The Maya underworld was a land of many gods, and one cave helps prove this.
22:59It's tucked away in a nature reserve of 6,000 acres of pristine rainforest.
23:07Runaway Creek is a vital sanctuary,
23:12home to hundreds of Belize's rarest species.
23:19But it's not just wildlife this park protects.
23:22Manager Ray Cal has been patrolling the reserve for 20 years,
23:28and has discovered something incredible inside a cave.
23:31That cliff in the distance, that's where we are heading.
23:36That's where the cave is.
23:38What Ray found tells a remarkable story of a place where the Maya could come face to face with one of their most important deities.
23:47It's always exciting to discover a cave. Caves tell stories. You walk in there and you will not know what you'll find.
24:05While patrolling in 2004, Ray made an extraordinary discovery.
24:12A painting of a jaguar.
24:15You can see its head, its tail.
24:20And very importantly, we know that this is a jaguar images because of the spots.
24:26The elusive jaguar is the top predator ruling this jungle.
24:31Ray thought he'd found modern graffiti.
24:34But when archaeologists carbon dated the paint, they found it was 1,700 years old.
24:41One of only a few Maya cave paintings ever discovered.
24:46I am a Maya person, and to see something like this from my ancestors, knowing that this painting has survived hundreds of years.
24:57I really felt like a closeness to them.
25:01A second painting nearby reminds Ray of a Maya legend.
25:06A strange square with dots and circles, thought to symbolize a cave.
25:12The Mayas believed that caves are entrance to the underworld, to Xibalba, the portal to the place of darkness.
25:22Xibalba was the mythical Maya underworld, a place of terror.
25:28It had nine levels, each descending deeper.
25:33Within it lived the gods of pain, starvation, and death.
25:38And the way to reach it was through a cave.
25:43You can see the jaguar here entering this cave to rule in the underworld.
25:50The Maya believed their sun god, Kanichi Ahau, would make a dangerous journey underground every night, transforming into a jaguar and stalking through Xibalba, so he could reemerge at dawn and become the sun once more.
26:07He has to go through nine levels of the underworld, so you count the nine dots on his body.
26:13The orientation of this cave is also symbolic, a tunnel with two entrances, one facing east and one west.
26:23The setting sun shining in each evening, as if passing through the cave itself, to rise again at dawn.
26:31Probably the ancient Mayas believed that this cave was the entrance to the underworld, and they drew this special drawing here.
26:44For biologist Ray, it raised the question, did real jaguars visit this cave?
26:52With the help of visiting photographers, he set up motion-sensitive camera traps in caves across the reserve,
26:59to take photos of anything passing through.
27:02This is very, very helpful to study these very secretive animals.
27:07This camera is a silent sentinel here.
27:14Over several years, the camera traps revealed something that Ray had never seen before.
27:23Magnificent pictures.
27:26Jaguars inside a cave.
27:29This is a young jaguar.
27:32The canines are still white, probably two years old.
27:37Beautiful picture.
27:39It's extremely rare behavior caught on film.
27:43We have a cub here following its mum.
27:48We always think that jaguars spend all their time in the forest, but this is showing that cats are using caves.
28:01Did the Maya also see this unique behavior and build it into their mythology?
28:06They witnessed these jaguars.
28:09It's actually like they were seeing one of their gods.
28:13The cave paintings at Runaway Creek shed more light on the Maya underworld.
28:18They are clues that could help unravel the mystery in Las Cuevas.
28:26Rue and Mark are now scanning in the deepest part of the cave.
28:30But something is wrong.
28:32It's not mythical beings that they've encountered, but a very real danger.
28:38Mark and I just noticed down the slope just over there that we were finding ourselves a bit short of breath and a little bit sort of anxious, which is a sign of poor air quality.
28:49Known as bad air, it's a combination of low oxygen and high carbon dioxide levels, which create a potentially lethal problem.
28:59One that cavers often face.
29:02If we ignore the signs, it sort of creeps up on you fairly insidiously and you can fall into unconsciousness and potentially even die.
29:12The team believe the low oxygen is being caused by the breakdown of organic matter, like bat droppings, inside the narrow passages and dead ends of Las Cuevas.
29:24Without fresh air passing through the cave, the bad air sinks, getting trapped in pockets at the cave's lowest points.
29:33And the only way to finish the scan is to monitor gas levels in every part of the cave.
29:39We're reading oxygen level of between 19.9 and 20 percent, which is fine.
29:46If the oxygen levels get too low, then we'll have to vacate the cave.
30:00Holly and Jaime are still in ATM.
30:03They've traveled further into the cave to find more evidence of Maya rituals.
30:10They've reached a second altar. This one is made of broken stalactites.
30:16Like the constructions at Las Cuevas, it dates to around the 8th century AD, when Maya populations were in dramatic decline.
30:24This is one of the most amazing discoveries in this cave. It's been untouched for 1,200 years, exactly where the Maya left it.
30:37The altar holds two carved stone monuments shaped like ritual knives.
30:42We know that both of those implements were used during Maya ceremonies. One tapers to a point, and the other one has nine notches on either side.
30:56The number is symbolic of the Maya underworld, with its nine descending levels, and hints at how these knives were used.
31:06One of the most important offerings to the gods were not just pots or, you know, food items, but actually blood.
31:15Blood.
31:17Ritual bloodletting was a gory Maya practice. Priests and rulers used special blades to pierce their faces and bodies before offering the blood to gods like Chak.
31:31It was performed at major religious festivals. And this altar suggests it was happening inside this cave.
31:40At the base, we found this. An obsidian blood letter. They came into this chamber, in this location in particular, and let blood here.
31:59Not only were the offerings to Chak becoming more extreme, but carbon dating of ceremonial cave sites across Belize reveal the Maya
32:09were venturing ever deeper into the underworld to perform rituals in the years before the collapse.
32:17The reason was the Chak the rain god was not delivering.
32:25Rain was coming later each year. Water supplies were running out.
32:31Unknown to them, the Maya were at the center of a global climate event.
32:37In the last 30 years, scientists have pieced together clues from lake and ice sediments, chemical traces of past climates, and discovered the smoking gun.
32:51They detected that just when the Maya civilization was at its peak, the northern hemisphere started to cool, triggering a shift in weather patterns at the equator.
33:01Around 700 AD, things start to get dry, and by 820 AD, they are having drought conditions.
33:09Climate records reveal one of the worst droughts for thousands of years.
33:13And for the Maya, it's spelled disaster.
33:17The problem is, if there's no rain, then there's no water to store. Everybody suffers.
33:27All of a sudden, they can't produce enough food. We start to see cities competing for resources. This leads to increased warfare. People are faced with some hard options. If you can't feed yourself, you will pack up and leave.
33:43In the face of failing crops and mass starvation, Maya society began to disintegrate.
33:50The devastating droughts throw a new light on the Maya underground rituals.
34:01These cave ceremonies weren't just prayers for rain. They were a fight for survival.
34:09And in ATM, it seems the greater their need, the more extreme their gifts to the gods.
34:16We're deep inside the cave. And here we have a complete skeleton.
34:28Originally named the Crystal Maiden, although its gender is unclear, these bones have been fused to the cave floor by a thick layer of calcite crystals.
34:39But this is no grave.
34:45If this was somebody's beloved ancestor or relative, you'd expect to see some grave goods and there isn't anything.
34:52You would tend to find some little object accompanying the burial.
34:57The other thing is that the position, this person looks like they were just thrown down and their arm landed out over their head like this.
35:05You would never bury someone in that position. It looks like a very kind of violent act.
35:10Analysis of the bones suggests the person was no older than 20 years old when they died.
35:18And there's a chilling clue in the spine as to how that happened.
35:23Look at the vertebra. This upper section of the vertebra. It's pretty well preserved. But then look right here in the middle.
35:32There is definitely like a space. That could be evidence of trauma from a knife going through.
35:39The archaeologists believe this was the victim of human sacrifice, an ancient Maya practice born of desperation.
35:48They killed their own people in violent rituals to appease the gods.
35:53Some victims were decapitated. Others had their chests cut open and their hearts removed while they were still alive.
36:02They would go in just under the ribcage. I'm pretty much convinced that this individual was sacrificed right here in this chamber.
36:12So the date is that lived within the case.
36:15It's a ritual exchange. So you do something for them and they will take care of you.
36:21Eventually, the growing calcite crystals will consume these bones altogether.
36:27But this could take hundreds or even thousands of years.
36:33A process that over time is responsible for some of the most spectacular cave formations on Earth.
36:421,400 miles north of Belize in New Mexico lies a dazzling crystal underworld.
36:50Not fully explored until 1986, today it is famous for its pristine beauty.
37:05Inside Lechuguilla are some of the rarest cave formations on Earth.
37:10A combination of pure white gypsum and sulfur deposits.
37:15In cave systems, water that's flowing past carrying a cargo of minerals in it.
37:20Those minerals actually come out of the water and attach themselves to the rock surface.
37:24And then you actually start to develop crystals.
37:27In this case, sulfur gives that incredible colour.
37:31That beautiful bright yellow. And they look spectacular.
37:36The real mystery is we have no idea how long they took to form.
37:40Trying to date pure calcium sulfate is actually really difficult.
37:45So we can just harbour a guess that this has been thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years for an individual crystal.
37:51Since they began to form, calcite crystals have held this victim in their dying pose.
38:05And elsewhere in ATM, this process also locks in place the final chilling evidence that proves just how desperate the Maya became.
38:14Scattered across the main chamber are the remains of 13 more victims.
38:20All date to the time of the drought. And all appear to have been sacrificed.
38:26Maya civilization was on the brink of failure.
38:31There is increased ritual cave activity.
38:34It's an attempt by the Maya to petition their gods to make things better.
38:39But a closer look at the skeletons reveals the most disturbing discovery of all.
38:50More than half of the skeletons that we find are those of infants.
38:54In this little alcove in here, there are likely at least three of the youngest, just a few months old.
39:04You can actually see femurs, fragments of skulls with really small little teeth.
39:14The Maya were bringing children into these places and sacrificing them.
39:22It's a shocking revelation.
39:24In Maya folklore, infants were the ultimate offerings to Chak, the rain god.
39:30They're considered very pure and because they're young.
39:35And where the bones rest is significant.
39:39The remains, they're all within little puddles in areas where there's active water flow.
39:46At one time, this was literally a basin. These children were placed in water. This was intentional.
39:53Still in the grip of a water crisis, all their gifts to the gods had failed.
40:00The Maya believed they had no other choice but to offer Chak their own children.
40:06The more important sacrifices are the things that are dearest to us.
40:09What more painful sacrifice, what more important sacrifice could you possibly have than to give your child?
40:18At Las Cuevas II, excavations have unearthed bloodletting tools and children's bones.
40:31Evidence that Las Cuevas was also the site of bloody water rituals for Chak.
40:39But despite their extreme sacrifices, the droughts continued and the cenotes weren't replenished.
40:52It is Las Cuevas that may hold the answers to what the Maya did next.
40:58Rue and Mark have been scanning the huge site for several days.
41:06And deep inside, they come across the most puzzling feature yet.
41:11This wall is not like any of the other walls we've seen. It's blocking the whole passage.
41:17It's like lots of sandbags built on top of each other.
41:21There's a doorway in the middle. There's this tiny little opening, which we're going to have to squeeze through with all our gear.
41:26And it raises the question of what it's for. Why were the Maya building walls and doors inside a cave?
41:32Was it to keep stuff in or was it to keep stuff out?
41:36With just the final section of the cave to scan, could the data help reveal the answer?
41:43The droughts devastated the Maya civilization. By 900 AD, the great rulers had abandoned their palaces.
41:53And although most people fled their cities or died in famines, there were survivors.
42:021100 years on, some of their descendants still worship at Las Cuevas.
42:13Maria Garcia was taught by her uncle to make offerings to Chark.
42:17We are doing a fire ceremony, an offering for rain.
42:22And we believe that when Chark is happy with us, then he sends rain.
42:28Today, there are around 6 million modern Maya, many who still communicate with the gods of the underworld.
42:37We have to show them that we are still here, show them that we still respect them.
42:43Whenever we do a ceremony, it rains the whole night. But when we are disobedient, then no rain.
42:51The rituals Maria learned from her ancestors, she now passes down to her niece.
42:57This is part of our culture, you know, it's from generation to generation.
43:02One day we are gone, you know, and then they have to take over. They have to continue.
43:08Thanks to the dedication of modern Maya like Maria, archaeologists gain a glimpse into the ancient past.
43:16Through practices that could have been forgotten hundreds of years ago.
43:21And now, with the advent of science, laser scanning will preserve every detail of this important religious site.
43:31Rue and Mark have finished their work at Las Cuevas.
43:38With all the data processed, Rue can finally unveil the 3D results to Holly.
43:45Here we go, I just have to press that little light bulb there, and she should just appear. There she is.
43:50Now that looks like a map.
43:51It does, but look at all the detail. That is amazing.
43:57This digital map provides new insight into this important archaeological site.
44:03Oh, you can even see the architecture.
44:06There is the wall. One of the great things about this is you can zoom in on the individual rocks and stones within it.
44:12I never thought that I would see a cave in this kind of detail.
44:16Here is Las Cuevas. Revealed by over a hundred scan positions.
44:26From its entrance chamber and sunken cenote.
44:29To its thread of twisting passageways.
44:36And revealed inside, stone walls.
44:42Platforms.
44:44And stairs.
44:46Stairs.
44:47Seen in its entirety, the cave's ultimate purpose is revealed.
44:53Designed like a stadium, the chamber could accommodate up to 1,300 people.
44:59Positioned across multiple platforms.
45:02And supported by stone walls.
45:05Around the sacred cenote.
45:08The scan reveals Las Cuevas as one of the most elaborate temple complexes ever found in Central America.
45:21The cenote really is dead center.
45:23You can even see where the water comes up.
45:25It's the reason that they chose this cave to do these big performances.
45:31This is a pilgrimage site to get people to pray for rain.
45:35With 1,000, 2,000 people in there.
45:37I mean, the noise must have been absolutely fantastic.
45:42The scan also reveals what made Las Cuevas the perfect stage.
45:46A narrow passage leads to a natural alcove in the cave wall.
45:55Sitting above the amphitheater.
45:58Was this the Maya equivalent of a pulpit?
46:01Where priests perform their ceremonies?
46:06A new way to cope with the unfolding catastrophe.
46:09One of the political strategies that the rulers are coming up with as things begin to change.
46:19As cities begin to collapse.
46:21Is to get people together to do rituals.
46:24And to involve them more.
46:26So that they're part of the process.
46:28Because it brings people together rather than fighting.
46:32As droughts ravaged the Maya empire.
46:35Unrest would have spread.
46:37And Hawley believes the rituals inside Las Cuevas.
46:41Show a deliberate attempt to maintain order.
46:46One intriguing clue in the scan.
46:48Reveals how far rulers went to achieve this.
46:52The only way to reach the pulpit.
46:54Is over a thousand feet long.
46:57And inside.
46:58The purpose of the mysterious walls becomes clear.
47:02They are obstacles.
47:03Leaving just enough space to crawl.
47:07This passage was designed to be a test of faith.
47:10That forced you to kneel in submission.
47:16What's more.
47:17The tunnel has been divided into a number of chambers.
47:21Each designed to mark the journey through the levels of the mythical Shibalba.
47:26As they go through the cave.
47:27They're moving deeper into the underworld.
47:28They're communicating with different deities and with spirits.
47:29That wall.
47:30It's clearly restricting who can go back there.
47:31And do this underworld journey.
47:32It was a rite of passage.
47:33Potential leaders would be forced to crawl through the cave as a mark of respect.
47:35Initiating them as the priests that could save their people from a terrifying drought.
47:42Things on the surface are falling apart.
47:43And this is how they're dealing with it.
47:44Is through these elaborate cave rituals.
47:49If your entire government collapsed.
47:50Think about today.
47:51What that would be like.
47:52What that would be like.
47:53The cave at Las Cuevas has one final surprise.
47:54to save their people from a terrifying drought.
48:00Things on the surface are falling apart,
48:02and this is how they're dealing with it,
48:04is through these elaborate cave rituals.
48:09If your entire government collapsed,
48:12think about today what that would be like.
48:17The cave at Las Cuevas has one final surprise.
48:22The scan reveals a last declaration from the Maya
48:26to their gods of the underworld.
48:30At the back of the cave, piles of stones.
48:34These aren't obstacles to hinder passage through.
48:37They were used to plug the doorways.
48:42It appears the Maya were shutting down
48:45their underground temple as a last act of surrender.
48:51They're saying goodbye, not just to the land,
48:56but to the deities as well that live within these spaces.
49:01These are human reactions.
49:03We're not just looking at data points.
49:05We're looking at human feelings.
49:08I get that sense of crisis that these people, you know,
49:12must have had.
49:13So, you know, I'm finding it quite an emotional journey, really.
49:21The scans of Las Cuevas revealed an extraordinary human story.
49:26The Maya's response to a cataclysm.
49:29It must have seemed like the ultimate betrayal.
49:32The gods that had created their world.
49:37That made the rainfall.
49:39Their crops grow.
49:41And their rulers, all-powerful, had abandoned them.
49:45The story of the Maya collapse is a salutary tale for us today.
49:57A thousand years on, we too are experiencing climate change,
50:02but on a global scale.
50:05In many parts of the world, our planet's aquifers,
50:08plundered for decades for drinking, irrigation, and industry,
50:13are running dry.
50:15We're losing more and more of our surface water.
50:18So, increasingly, humanity is going to depend
50:21on those subsurface sources of fresh water for survival.
50:25Groundwater provides 95% of the world's available fresh water.
50:30But it's estimated half the global population will suffer water shortages by 2050.
50:38We're gradually depleting this hidden resource.
50:41So, this resource that has helped humanity over the centuries and millennia.
50:46So, we might be losing something before we really actually understand how precious it is.
50:51When I look back at this, I think about ourselves, really.
50:55And the kind of drastic changes that we're going to be forced to make.
50:59And how much our cultures are going to change.
51:02Our reliance on science, perhaps, will mitigate a similar situation.
51:08But they didn't have science.
51:11The underworld of the Maya was their life source.
51:15And the realm of their gods lying at the heart of their culture.
51:19Just like their temples and extraordinary art, ATM and Las Cuevas are a legacy of a unique civilization.
51:28The Empire initiates and evil tab .
51:29Father Boaters
51:39The Amen.
51:40Father Boaters
51:43Bible
51:50Madame
51:50Transcription by CastingWords
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