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00:02Tikal, a 2,000-year-old Maya metropolis, buried deep in the Guatemalan rainforest.
00:11This used to be the most important city in all Mesoamerica.
00:16In its day, it was one of the greatest cities of the new world.
00:20How did this once small jungle village rise to become an ancient superpower?
00:25This isn't just about engineering. This is religion.
00:30And what transformed it from a thriving city into a ghost town?
00:34Overnight, tens of thousands of people abandoned it.
00:38Now, a pioneering mission to scan this whole site with lasers is revealing its hidden secrets.
00:45To unearth the truth, we'll strip away the jungle and explode ancient temples stone by stone
00:54to reveal how Tikal became one of the most powerful cities in the Maya world.
01:00And why it suddenly all came crashing down.
01:08Deep inside Guatemala's rainforest lie the remains of a mysterious metropolis, Tikal.
01:20A city of 3,000 structures, including 12 towering temples.
01:29Today, most of Tikal is completely swallowed by jungle.
01:33But 1,200 years ago, it dominated a network of Maya cities that once spanned eastern Mesoamerica.
01:44Tikal's rulers made their city greater than all the others.
01:52Could the answer be locked deep in these magnificent ruins?
01:59Peeling away the foliage reveals the known extent of this once great city.
02:09Incredible limestone palaces sit next to colossal pyramid temples, some towering over 200 feet tall.
02:22Giant stone slabs commemorating Tikal's rulers' border-sweeping plazas.
02:29But what was this city's recipe for domination?
02:34How did its rulers turn Tikal from a jungle village into a Maya superpower?
02:45One way was to build big.
02:49Temples were the focal point of Maya religion.
02:53And Maya kings were the chosen ones who used them to communicate with gods via bloody rituals.
02:59This isn't just about engineering.
03:02This is religion.
03:03You have to imagine this is a setting.
03:06The ruler is coming out of the temple, his hands dripping blood.
03:11And he proceeds with tremendous dignity down these steep steps.
03:19He has to deliver this confidence to the people.
03:23The bigger the temple, the greater the ruler's connection with the divine.
03:29And the more followers he would attract.
03:33The mighty Temple IV stands at the heart of Tikal.
03:39It's the largest of the city's six major buildings.
03:43And the tallest structure ever built by the Maya.
03:47It's Tikal's greatest architectural achievement.
03:51And also, its greatest mystery.
03:55Hidden among the thick jungle.
04:00Temple IV is a wonder of engineering.
04:07Constructed of seven platforms.
04:11Ascended by incredible steep steps.
04:13Climbing over 200 feet.
04:16At its top, a shrine to the gods.
04:20Topped by a distinctive roof cone.
04:24But how this engineering marvel still stands is a mystery.
04:30Constructing such a steep pyramid should be impossible.
04:33So how did the Maya build it so tall without it collapsing?
04:42Archaeologist Arthur Demarest is on a quest to find answers.
04:52What is most impressive about this pyramid is the steepness.
04:56The steepness.
04:56I mean, you'll look at the pyramids in Egypt and other places are sort of like this.
05:00To make something this steep without reinforced steel girders, then it's incredible.
05:13Arthur believes the secret to how the Maya built this temple so tall lies hidden deep inside it.
05:25Going in here now to look at the tunneling excavations to try to figure out how they pulled this off.
05:35It's kind of scary to think that there's like hundreds, thousands of tons of stone over our heads right now.
05:42You can just hope it's stable.
05:47Site director Leopoldo González helps Arthur with the investigation.
05:53His team unearths the Maya secrets that stop this giant pile of stones from falling down.
06:01Inside each of the temple's platforms, they found a number of mysterious chambers.
06:07Giant box-like compartments with stone walls.
06:12To build the temple, the Mayas had this construction system, which is in cajuelado.
06:20They used the argamasa, which is what is the sand or sand with clay,
06:27to put these cut-like blocks.
06:32Leopoldo discovered Temple IV's builders packed these box chambers with rubble.
06:38The Maya knew filling these walled compartments with rock made each platform stronger than if they were made of stones
06:46held together with only mortar.
06:49But with so many of them stacked up, how did the Maya engineers prevent the entire building from crashing down?
06:59Leopoldo finds a special structure, which he believes makes this particular temple super stable.
07:10Leopoldo.
07:22Leopoldo discovers this special core consists of seven raised platforms.
07:28110 feet tall, it runs vertically through the center of the structure.
07:34Leopoldo.
07:35This is all just construction core.
07:37This stairway goes up so they could continue to build up to sustain the rest of the building.
07:44All of it this clever.
07:47The ingenious core stopped Temple IV's layers from moving,
07:51and solves the mystery of how Tikal's kings built the tallest building in the Maya world.
08:02Temple 4 started as a rectangular stone platform made of smaller box rooms
08:07surrounding a stone core that gave the temple strength.
08:15Builders added platforms one on top of the next.
08:20On the last platform, they placed the shrine.
08:24The central core's strength made it possible to position thousands of tons of cut stone
08:30to make large spaces for the veneration of gods and ancestors.
08:35The finishing touch was an elaborate roof comb, 43 feet tall,
08:41intricately carved with hieroglyphs and mythical scenes.
08:49Tikal's rulers built the mega temples as mighty stages for huge rituals.
08:55Arthur thinks these ceremonies helped increase the size and population of Tikal.
09:02Tikal's power during this period came from all of the monumental architecture.
09:08These buildings are settings for gigantic rituals, and that also brings in followers.
09:15And so you just have all of it coming together to create this magnificence.
09:28new arrivals eager to be part of this religious society swelled Tikal's population.
09:36But just how big did the city actually become?
09:40And what transformed this jungle backwater into one of the most important Maya cities in history?
10:01Tikal, Guatemala.
10:061,200 years ago, this was a mighty Maya city.
10:13Its kings built big to honor the gods and draw in devoted citizens to grow their power base.
10:20But Tikal's rulers wanted more.
10:24They had ambitions to turn it into the most powerful of all Maya cities.
10:33The Maya were one of the great ancient civilizations of the Americas, but unlike the later Aztec or Inca, the
10:39Maya never actually had an empire.
10:42The Maya were a collection of dozens of city-states.
10:45Each of these city-states would have had its own local dynasty.
10:48And these kings would have played out this political drama across the landscape, having wars and marriages.
10:56So how did Tikal's rulers emerge from the pack and turn Tikal into a Maya superpower?
11:06Archaeologist Tom Garrison believes the size of Tikal's population holds the key.
11:13In a world with no domesticated animals or machines, people equaled power.
11:19Tikal's kings knew the larger they grew their city's population, the stronger they would become.
11:26So just how many people did they rule?
11:31Tom believes solving this mystery rests on finding the city's long-lost suburbs.
11:39Mapping an ancient transport network could reveal their location.
11:45In the center of the city, carved stone slabs celebrating Tikal's kings frame an open square.
11:54And two great pyramids stare at each other from either end.
12:03The square is large enough for tens of thousands of people to gather for rituals.
12:10They got there via paved causeways, some 200 feet wide, leading from the jungle.
12:18Can following these roads today lead to the lost suburbs and reveal the true size of Tikal's population?
12:29But Tom faces a big problem.
12:31The ancient roads are completely overgrown.
12:35In my archaeology, it's relatively easy to find the cities.
12:39They have these massive pyramids that stick out of the jungle canopy.
12:43But as you move further and further outside of this central area, the city becomes buried under this weight of
12:50jungle.
12:51And it becomes very difficult to determine just how vast and how extensive a place like Tikal really was.
12:59Previous attempts by investigators to look for the suburbs by simply hacking through the jungle proved impossible.
13:07But now, a pioneering new technique gives Tom the edge.
13:12It uses special laser scanning technology called LIDAR to see through the trees.
13:21A plane-mounted sensor shoots laser beams through the jungle canopy to the floor, building a picture of the lost
13:28areas of the city.
13:31What this allows us to do is essentially digitally deforest the jungle.
13:36And this lets us see the Maya ruins underneath in a way that we never thought possible.
13:41So now, we can see more of Tikal.
13:44LIDAR peels back over a thousand years of history to reveal what Tom's been searching for.
13:51We can see the map of the site's core crystal clear.
13:55We can see the distinctive shape of Tikal's road systems.
14:00LIDAR reveals a sprawling road network that encompasses an area of 16 square miles.
14:06The roads lead to previously undiscovered parts of the city.
14:12Temples, fortresses, and residential districts.
14:15There are thousands of structures out there in the jungle that would have been the houses of the everyday people
14:20that made up most of the population.
14:23The LIDAR data over Tikal revealed that the city is even larger and more massive than we previously thought.
14:30Based on Tikal's size, Tom estimates the city's kings likely ruled over more than 100,000 people.
14:38This made Tikal larger and more powerful than almost every city in Maya history.
14:44But that created another problem for Tikal's rulers.
14:49The city is built on raised limestone bedrock covered in very thin soil, which is not ideal to grow arable
14:57crops.
14:58So how did they feed this ever-expanding population?
15:03That's where it gets really challenging.
15:06One of the things that we need to do is look for those agricultural fields and see if we can
15:10figure out how they were able to support such a large population.
15:19Tom discovers unusual linear features hidden in the heavily forested swampy ground outside Tikal.
15:27This doesn't seem to be a natural feature.
15:30And what this makes us wonder is, is this agriculture?
15:34Is this how they're feeding that vast population at Tikal?
15:40To find answers, Tom must investigate in the field.
15:45GPS guides his team to the exact spot identified from the LIDAR scan.
15:52They hack through dense jungle to get to the site.
15:58Well, we're here.
16:01I think what we're seeing, all of these little ridges, these are the subtle features that we must be seeing.
16:06And it goes on for kilometers.
16:09These are going to be the agricultural fields of the people of Tikal.
16:14The ridges suggest Tikal's rulers deforested and drained the only fertile areas close to the city, the swamps.
16:22They then cut a network of terraces to cultivate crops.
16:27And that's what's going to be the lifeblood of the city.
16:30That's what supports this massive population.
16:32And when you have more people, your city has more power.
16:36You have more wealth.
16:37It could be that it's these swampy areas where we can hardly see anything that are actually the key to
16:43understanding Tikal.
16:45Tikal's population burned the jungle to clear it of trees before building the city's terrace system and planting crops in
16:54soil fertilized by the ash.
16:57To get the most out of this precious land, they grew squash on the ground, corn that rose up through
17:04it, and beans that climbed up the corn.
17:08Corn was their most important crop.
17:10As a daily staple, the Maya ate it boiled as gruel or ground into flour to make tamales and tortillas.
17:19This agricultural land was so vital to the Maya that their corn god was one of their chief deities.
17:31Ingenious landscaping was Tikal's ruler's secret for feeding over 100,000 people.
17:37But was it actually the Maya themselves who put Tikal on the road to greatness?
17:43Or did another lost civilization play a decisive role in its meteoric rise?
18:041,200 years ago, Tikal was the premier city of ancient Mesoamerica.
18:14It had the largest population and tallest temple of any city in Maya history.
18:23But Tikal wasn't always so strong.
18:28For centuries, it was a backwater.
18:32Then, 1,200 years after it was founded,
18:38something made it take off.
18:43What was the spark that ignited Tikal's transformation into a Maya superpower?
18:52Mayan hieroglyphic expert Simon Martin hunts for clues.
18:58When Tikal started, it really wasn't anything particularly special.
19:02There were lots of places like it.
19:04But then something changed.
19:06It began to become a much more dynamic and exciting place.
19:10Simon's quest for answers leads him away from the city's largest temples
19:14to one of its smallest.
19:17He believes this building holds the key to understanding Tikal's mysterious rise.
19:25This structure is unlike anything else in the city.
19:30It was a king's palace built just before Tikal took off,
19:34in the 4th century.
19:36It once had two stories,
19:39accessed via grand stairways.
19:43Most of Tikal's temples and palaces from this time were enlarged over the years.
19:48New kings added layers to create the towering monuments we see today.
19:56But this palace was never enlarged.
19:59Why was it preserved?
20:02And could the story of its builder unlock the answer to Tikal's spectacular rise?
20:12Archaeologists know the name of the man who had it built.
20:17Jaguar Paw, 14th king of Tikal.
20:21Why was his palace the only one kept in its original size?
20:26What is its connection to Tikal's dramatic takeoff?
20:34Giant stone inscriptions hold the clues.
20:38But first, Simon must decode their information.
20:43From ancient Mayan.
20:48So this is the hieroglyphic name of Jaguar Paw.
20:54And down here, in 378, he enters the water,
21:00which is a metaphor for death.
21:03Simon spots something unusual chiseled close to the date Jaguar Paw died.
21:10A strange symbol, unlike any other on the stone.
21:16This is not a Maya hieroglyph.
21:18This is actually something completely alien.
21:22It depicts a spear thrower.
21:25Underneath is a phonetic spelling.
21:27And essentially, what it tells us here is the name of Spear Thrower Owl.
21:31The different language reveals that outsiders arrived and took over.
21:37But who were they?
21:40Spear thrower owl.
21:41This is something that we see represented on murals in central Mexico.
21:47And more particularly, at the city of Teotihuacan.
21:54Teotihuacan was the capital of a powerful rival civilization.
21:57600 miles west of Teotihuacan.
22:02Teotihuacan was ruled by Spear Thrower Owl.
22:06It's possible to see him as the guiding authority.
22:10This is the person who everyone works for.
22:12This is the person who is directing events way up at Teotihuacan.
22:17Connecting Jaguar Paw's death with Spear Thrower Owl symbol
22:22reveals an invasion was behind Tikal's meteoric rise.
22:32By the 3rd century, Tikal in the east was trading with Teotihuacan in the west.
22:39Importing ceramics and borrowing its architectural styles.
22:44But in 378 AD, their relationship dramatically changed.
22:49Spear Thrower Owl sent a general to march on Tikal.
22:55The rulers of Tikal were overthrown and its king, Jaguar Paw, was executed
23:00and replaced with a king from Teotihuacan.
23:06With access to Teotihuacan's larger resources,
23:10a succession of new dynasties plotted Tikal's domination of the Maya world.
23:17The date in 378 is the most celebrated in Maya history.
23:22It's recorded multiple times.
23:24They saw it as being a pivotal moment,
23:27which influenced not just Tikal, but the whole of Maya civilization.
23:31The new rulers from Teotihuacan invested in growing Tikal's power and prestige.
23:39New architectural influences led to grander palaces and temples
23:45that transformed the city's skyline, except for one building.
23:52So even after all these changes, and there was a new regime in place,
23:58they nonetheless left Jaguar Paw's palace entirely intact.
24:04Which is obviously a message of some kind.
24:07It's certainly symbolic.
24:09Whatever it is, it's certainly the end of one era and the beginning of the next.
24:21But to cement Tikal's status as the greatest Maya city,
24:25its kings had to control the most precious natural resource.
24:31Water.
24:33Northern Guatemala experiences four months of drought every year.
24:38So how did they ensure Tikal's people didn't die of thirst?
24:43And what caused the city to be abandoned at the height of its power?
25:00Tikal.
25:01An ancient Maya metropolis.
25:06Successive ruling dynasties aimed to transform it into the most powerful city.
25:11In the Maya world.
25:14To realize their dream,
25:16they needed plentiful supplies of the area's most precious resource.
25:22Water.
25:26But they faced a big problem.
25:29Tikal is a massive center,
25:31but it's not located near lakes or rivers.
25:33Yet it had to supply water to tens of thousands of people.
25:37How did they do it?
25:41Professor Lisa Lucero is on a quest to answer how Tikal thrived without a constant water supply.
25:49The site originally had just enough groundwater to support a small population.
25:55But the king's plans for massive growth meant this wasn't enough.
26:013,000 years ago,
26:03the first people came to this area for natural springs.
26:07Soon,
26:08more and more people came.
26:10Then,
26:10the water couldn't supply everyone.
26:12They had to deal with this problem.
26:15The area's climate made the situation even worse.
26:20This part of Central America suffers drought for four months of the year.
26:26With no rain for that long,
26:28and no access to rivers or lakes,
26:32how did Tikal's population thrive?
26:35The Maya must have pioneered a system to supply water for tens of thousands of people,
26:40crops,
26:41and construction materials during the long,
26:43seasonal drought.
26:47Lisa investigates a clue lying hidden in deep jungle close to the city center.
26:54What you see here is a really steep drop-off.
26:58That's about 30 meters deep.
27:01When archaeologists excavate this overgrown giant hole,
27:06they make an unexpected discovery.
27:10Cut stones reveal a lost Maya megastructure
27:13that unlocks the mystery of Tikal's water supply.
27:20Beneath the dense jungle,
27:22inside a deep ravine,
27:26archaeologists unearthed a pavement of flagstones,
27:30covering a vast expanse of the forest floor.
27:34Next to it,
27:35the remnants of a cut stone wall,
27:40filled with rubble,
27:45to create a colossal dam 33 feet tall.
27:50More than 260 feet long,
27:53this reservoir held over 200,000 gallons of water,
27:58the largest ever built by the Maya.
28:04Damning ravines to create giant basins
28:07was just the first step in getting enough water.
28:12Tikal's rulers faced another huge problem.
28:16The entire city of Tikal rests on a limestone bedrock.
28:19Thus, everything around here,
28:21reservoirs, temples,
28:22are made with limestone blocks.
28:24The thing about limestone,
28:25comparable to the cinder block here,
28:26is that it's very porous.
28:29Water goes through it.
28:32Lisa believes the Maya developed a simple solution
28:35to ensure the water in the reservoirs stayed put.
28:39The Maya would line the reservoirs with clay
28:43to seal and prevent water seepage, like this.
28:47As you can see, the water is not seeping through.
28:54Tikal's engineers lined the entire floor of this giant reservoir
28:58with huge amounts of clay to keep it watertight.
29:03To channel rainwater into the reservoirs,
29:06they built a clever innovation onto their towering temples.
29:11While these temples look amazing now,
29:14in the past they would have been completely different,
29:16covered in a thick layer of plaster
29:18and also colored vibrant colors, such as red.
29:22They serve two purposes,
29:24to protect the limestone,
29:26but also to provide a way of draining water
29:29off buildings, onto the plaza,
29:31into the reservoirs like this.
29:33In doing so,
29:35the entire urban layout was a water catchment system.
29:39But the ingenious plaster guttering created a problem.
29:43Dirty water.
29:48Tikal's plastered plazas were built at an angle
29:51so that rainwater ran off into reservoirs.
29:55On its way, it picked up the filth of the busy city.
30:00The Maya devised a clever solution.
30:04First, they collected quartz sand from 20 miles away.
30:10They layered it with silty clay
30:12where the water flowed into their reservoirs,
30:15creating one of the world's first filtration systems.
30:21Water lilies grew in the reservoirs.
30:24To the Maya, they signified royalty,
30:28linking Tikal's rulers to the precious liquid.
30:32The water management system at Tikal and other centers
30:36are major feats of engineering
30:37that are astounding even by today's standards.
30:43Engineers turned Tikal into a giant drain,
30:46filling huge reservoirs with clean water.
30:50The rulers controlled the supply 365 days a year,
30:55cementing their influence over the great city.
30:58The ancient Maya water system at Tikal
31:01grew in leaps and bounds.
31:03It provided water for tens of thousands of people,
31:05which meant more power for Maya kings here.
31:10More power meant more money to build big,
31:13which is exactly what Tikal's kings did,
31:17erecting ever larger and more magnificent temples and palaces.
31:22But how far were the kings here prepared to go
31:25to make Tikal the most powerful Maya city?
31:29And what can these bones reveal
31:31about the ruthless methods they used
31:33to secure their domination?
31:49Tikal, Guatemala, one of the ancient Maya's most powerful cities.
31:57By 800 AD, it had the largest population,
32:01the most magnificent temples,
32:03and the most resources of all Maya settlements.
32:07But if Maya cities were supposed to work together as equals,
32:12how did Tikal manage to dominate all others?
32:18Archaeologist Arthur Demarest believes a grisly discovery
32:21made inside one of Tikal's temples holds the key.
32:26I believe that the ancient Maya society
32:30was far more conflictive than people thought.
32:34Under this temple, they made a discovery
32:38that really shows this darker side of Maya civilization.
32:45Deep within Tikal's Temple I,
32:50investigators unearthed a hidden burial chamber
32:52containing the remains of a great king,
32:56lavishly adorned with exceptional jade jewelry.
33:02Alongside these rich offerings,
33:04a pile of human bones,
33:06carefully inscribed with mythical scenes,
33:10and Mayan hieroglyphs,
33:13dramatically highlighted with red dye.
33:17Could identifying who these carved bones belong to
33:21reveal the shocking secret behind Tikal's success?
33:28To solve this mystery,
33:30Arthur must get a closer look at the bones.
33:33He meets their guardian,
33:39Leopoldo González.
33:42Estos son muy importantes
33:44porque están tallados en huesos humanos.
33:49Estos son los huesos
33:51que fueron encontrados
33:52en la tumba del gobernante
33:55Hazau Chancawil.
33:58Hazau Chancawil ruled Tikal
34:00for over 50 years.
34:03He died in 734 A.D.
34:08These are very intricately carved,
34:11fine line,
34:13cinnabar pigment rubbed in
34:15to make it come out,
34:17and they show the importance
34:20of the great warrior king.
34:26Arthur decodes the complex Mayan symbols
34:29carved into the bones.
34:31He makes a shocking discovery.
34:35This one is really interesting
34:37because it actually shows
34:39the sad king
34:40of another rival city
34:43that was conquered,
34:45and this bone
34:47is from that rival king.
34:52These bones,
34:53they're human trophy bones.
34:56They're actually taken
34:57from conquered kings or lords.
35:01All these bones belong
35:02to the leaders
35:03of other Maya cities.
35:06These are kings
35:07that the rulers of Tikal
35:08should be working with
35:09as partners.
35:11They reveal the dark secret
35:14of how Tikal
35:15stayed top dog
35:16in the region.
35:19Far from being cooperative
35:21and peaceful,
35:23Tikal was bent
35:24on dominating
35:24rival Maya states.
35:27With generations
35:28of bloodthirsty rulers
35:30in charge,
35:31neighboring kings
35:32had to pay Tikal tribute
35:34or face deadly consequences.
35:42The Maya world
35:44consisted of city-states
35:46locked in competition
35:47with each other
35:48to control people
35:49and resources.
35:53When tensions escalated
35:55into war,
35:56Maya kings led raids
35:58against their rivals
35:59and took opponents captive.
36:05prisoners were taken
36:07back to the victor's city
36:08where they were beheaded
36:10and sacrificed
36:11to the gods.
36:13These victories
36:14were then carved
36:15into limestone slabs
36:17in Mayan glyphs
36:18which stood
36:19in the ceremonial centers
36:21for all to see.
36:25Arthur believes
36:26the macabre bones
36:27rewrite the history
36:29of the Maya city-states
36:30All of this evidence
36:32taken together
36:33makes it very clear
36:34that this was
36:35a fundamental
36:36ongoing part
36:37of Maya culture.
36:38Conflict.
36:39And sometimes
36:40it had very serious
36:41consequences.
36:44Rich from conquest,
36:46Tikal's kings
36:47fed the city's
36:48continuous expansion,
36:52enlarging old temples
36:53and building
36:54new palaces.
36:56By 800 AD,
36:58Tikal was one
36:59of the largest
36:59Maya cities ever.
37:02But why was it
37:03abandoned
37:04at the height
37:05of its power?
37:06Did the people
37:07of Tikal bring
37:08disaster upon themselves?
37:23In 800 AD,
37:26Tikal was one
37:26one of the greatest
37:27Maya cities in history.
37:30Successive ruling dynasties
37:32had conquered rival
37:34Maya settlements,
37:35built some of the
37:36grandest palaces
37:37in Mesoamerica,
37:39and engineered year-round
37:41supplies of water
37:42and food.
37:44But by 900 AD,
37:47construction had stopped
37:48and the city was abandoned
37:50forever.
37:54What caused Tikal's
37:56sudden collapse?
38:01Anthropologist Lisa Lucero
38:02hunts for answers.
38:06The classic Maya
38:06were a complex society.
38:08There's likely not one
38:09reason for its demise.
38:12Archaeologists have
38:13presented many ideas
38:14as to why it happened.
38:16Theories range from
38:17invasion and famine
38:19to a rebellion
38:21against the ruling
38:22classes.
38:24Lisa thinks the truth
38:26could lie with the
38:27very buildings
38:27that make Tikal special.
38:30The plaster that covered
38:32them was the problem.
38:34It begins with this,
38:36limestone,
38:36which is found
38:37throughout Tikal.
38:39First, the Maya
38:40would burn limestone
38:41to create lime,
38:42after which they would
38:44add water
38:44and let it ferment
38:46before they would
38:46add sand
38:47to create plaster.
38:50The plaster was then
38:52spread over Tikal's
38:54roads and buildings
38:55and left to dry
38:56before being painted
38:57in vivid colors.
38:59But little did the Maya
39:01realize,
39:02achieving the effect
39:03consumed vital resources.
39:06This stone is about
39:07a meter square.
39:09It would take 20 trees
39:11to burn enough limestone
39:13to create plaster
39:14to cover this
39:14one-meter stone.
39:16Imagine what it would
39:17take to cover
39:18the monumental buildings
39:19of Tikal,
39:20some of which are
39:20over 70 meters tall
39:22and 50 meters wide.
39:23It would take
39:24thousands of trees.
39:31As Tikal grew
39:33and its rulers built
39:35larger and larger
39:36buildings,
39:36the demand for lime
39:38plaster increased
39:39and Tikal's inhabitants
39:41cut down more
39:42and more trees
39:43to make it.
39:45Tikal was occupied
39:46for nearly a thousand years.
39:49But once kings
39:50diverted from
39:51a sustainable path
39:52and increasingly
39:53became addicted
39:54to building monumental
39:55architecture,
39:56they became more vulnerable
39:57to any disruptions
39:59to the system.
40:01Deforestation
40:02unbalanced Tikal's
40:03fragile ecosystem
40:04and magnified
40:06the environmental
40:07changes in Central
40:08America at the time.
40:11There were several
40:13prolonged droughts
40:14lasting anywhere
40:15from 8 to 13 years
40:16between 800 and 900
40:18CE.
40:19This meant that
40:20reservoir levels
40:21were dropping,
40:23crops were decimated,
40:24fewer farmers came,
40:26and kings
40:27increasingly lost power.
40:30Ultimately,
40:31people abandoned
40:32Tikal for good.
40:34With no water
40:35to control,
40:36Tikal's rulers
40:38lost their hold
40:39over the population.
40:40The inhabitants
40:41left the city
40:42to find new opportunities.
40:44The dynasties
40:45collapsed.
40:47And by 950 A.D.,
40:49Tikal was a ghost town.
40:54There might have been
40:55a remnant population
40:56of a hundred or so people,
40:57but it was never
40:58occupied again
40:59to the extent
40:59it had been before.
41:04Today, Tikal's
41:06towering temples,
41:07mighty palaces,
41:09and sweeping causeways
41:11stand as testament
41:12to its rulers'
41:13determination
41:14to triumph
41:15against the odds.
41:17Over the course
41:18of a millennium,
41:19they transformed Tikal
41:21from provincial backwater
41:22to Maya superpower.
41:26Ultimately,
41:27their ambition
41:28to build bigger
41:29sowed the seeds
41:30of their downfall.
41:32But few other civilizations
41:33have ever matched
41:34their achievements.
41:36Its builders
41:37erected the tallest structure
41:39in the ancient Americas,
41:40connected the sprawling
41:42jungle city
41:43via a huge road network,
41:45built giant reservoirs
41:47to hold the millions
41:48of gallons of water
41:49needed to survive drought,
41:51all to grow
41:53and maintain
41:54a mighty Maya city
41:55that thrived
41:56in the toughest environment.
41:58in the ancient Americas.
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