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00:02Chichen Itza, a spectacular ancient Maya city shrouded in mystery and myths.
00:09It's the greatest ancient city in the world.
00:14It's a jungle metropolis with a hidden underworld and dark secrets.
00:20What happened to this lost civilization?
00:23The big question that drives us is why people were here.
00:28How and why was this vast city built?
00:32And did the people living here practice human sacrifice?
00:37The 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.
01:02Chichen Itza, Mexico.
01:05A thousand years ago this was a powerful working city.
01:09Home to 30,000 people.
01:11The ancient Maya.
01:14A civilization known for their remarkable skill in astronomy, mathematics and architecture.
01:22And for their blood-curdling religious rites.
01:30Archeologist Memo Deanda has spent much of his lifetime trying to make sense of this mysterious jungle city.
01:36And its awe-inspiring buildings.
01:40We are scratching the surface.
01:42That's literally what we're doing.
01:44I'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.
01:56Including this immense pyramid.
02:00The Castillo, or Temple of Kukulkan.
02:03One of the new Seven Wonders of the World.
02:06Built from tens of thousands of limestone blocks.
02:10It towers 100 feet high.
02:13As tall as a 10-story building.
02:15At its peak, a sacred temple dedicated to the serpent god Kukulkan.
02:25On each side, steep steps that reflect the Maya calendar.
02:31And at the base, serpent heads linked to the equinox.
02:37This 60,000-ton structure is a marvel of ancient engineering.
02:44This is one of the most wonderful buildings from the ancient world.
02:48It's a demonstration of power.
02:51A demonstration of spirituality.
02:54A demonstration of science.
02:56It's an important building.
02:58Why did the ancient Maya build this spectacular city in the jungle?
03:03And how did they source the many thousands of tons of stone needed to build huge temples and pyramids like
03:10this?
03:15One third of a mile from the main pyramid, Memo is searching for clues.
03:22It seems this is no ordinary jungle.
03:26The Maya didn't have to really go far away to find the material to build their big cities.
03:35Limestone. It's everywhere.
03:37The material is beneath their feet.
03:39All this material is right there.
03:42The limestone lay within very easy reach.
03:45The soil is very, very thin.
03:47It's not even two centimeters of soil.
03:50That's laying over the huge limestone bedrock.
03:55It's limestone all around us.
03:58It's actually the whole peninsula.
04:00It'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.
04:17Memo uncovers some extraordinary evidence to prove it.
04:21Right here, we can see a reform.
04:25It's a huge piece of rock, of limestone, that they started working.
04:32You can see this is perfectly round.
04:35And we can see on one side the start of the formation of a mouth of a snake.
04:42But somehow they leave it here.
04:45Maybe because it got broken.
04:49A remarkable clue carved by a Maya craftsman a thousand years ago.
04:55And it shows us by being here is that they obtain the material and they work it right here.
05:01They take it when it was finished up to the city.
05:06So that's pretty amazing.
05:09The local geology provided Chichen Itza's builders with an endless supply of limestone.
05:15But there's a further mystery.
05:17The ancient Maya had no access to metal tools.
05:21How did they get the stone out of the ground?
05:25It is interesting and it's amazing at the same time.
05:28How can they build these fantastic cities only with stone tools?
05:34The resourceful Maya came up with an ingenious solution.
05:40They used shards of razor sharp stones, like chert, sometimes attaching them to wooden sticks.
05:51They gouged deep channels into the ground, carving a checkerboard pattern into the limestone rocks.
06:02The 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.
06:14Then they used wooden levers to pry the blocks out.
06:23How much effort did it take to remove heavy limestone blocks without modern machinery?
06:29To find out, Memo is heading to a stonemason's yard in Merida, about 70 miles from Chichen Itza.
06:38The stonemasons attempt an experiment.
06:45They use wooden levers to try to extract a two-ton limestone block, just as the ancient Maya would have
06:52done.
06:56All the stones they put there to make liver, I think we put a little bit too many, so we
07:03need space for the big liver.
07:08These guys are extraordinarily skillful and strong. I mean, they're great.
07:12These guys, so fast.
07:18Shifting the limestone the old-fashioned way clearly required both technique and plenty of manpower.
07:25Today that I have the opportunity to move this relatively small stone, it was so hard.
07:32And there were 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. It's amazing.
07:44Wow! That was great! These guys are great!
07:52Wow!
07:54Moving one stone was back-breaking work.
07:57Yet this pyramid is made of tens of thousands of limestone blocks.
08:02How 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.
08:17Concealed beneath the smooth facade is a layer of rubble.
08:23Under that, an older pyramid, roughly half the Castillo's size.
08:29Its 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.
08:44And a mysterious reclining statue known as a Chakmul.
08:50Building on top of this existing temple was an ingenious way to build big, as a new era in the
08:57life of the city dawned.
09:00The ancient Maya, they did not destroy a building to build another one.
09:05They just go ahead and build on top of the old building, and build something majestic like this.
09:11But why did the ancient Maya build a great city here, in the middle of dense jungle?
09:24In the vast landscape of the Yucatan, why did the ancient Maya choose this location for their city?
09:31To find out, geophysicist Rene Chavez is 75 miles west of Chichen Itza city.
09:38Using a new technique to see beneath ancient Maya pyramids, he believes the answer may lie underground.
09:45This is one of dozens of ancient pyramids hidden in the Mexican jungle.
09:51It may look very different from the famous Castillo.
09:55But it's what many Maya pyramids look like before archaeologists restore them.
10:00We have to deploy the electrodes on top of the pyramid, and this is going to be more than an
10:07adventure.
10:08Rene's team lays a web of electrodes, which they will use to send an electrical current through the ground.
10:15The team will measure how easily the current travels.
10:19Their readings will reveal if any structures or strange natural formations lie beneath the rocks and soil.
10:26We can find water, we can find different conditions of the limestone, which is all this area is composed of.
10:35The model will also give us some sort of geometry.
10:38And from that, we can interpret data and say, well, we have a cavity, we have a tunnel.
10:45We never know.
10:52Okay, cross your fingers.
10:55Hope everything is going to work well.
10:58It takes time to process the data from today's survey.
11:04Rene can only hope it provides results as spectacular as his recent findings from a similar investigation at Chichen Itza's
11:11Great Castillo Pyramid.
11:14We did experiment, we process all the data, and after that, oh, surprise.
11:21In this model, each color represents a different geological material.
11:25Green colors, for instance, corresponds to the limestone.
11:29In blue colors, you are going to see structures with very low resistivity value, which means that the current flows
11:38with no problem within the structure.
11:41What kind of elements produce that?
11:46Rene's results revealed something extraordinary.
11:53Hidden directly beneath the Castillo Pyramid, below a five-yard thick layer of limestone, sits a giant underground cave full
12:04of water, a formation known as a cenote.
12:08The cave contains as much water as six Olympic swimming pools.
12:14It extends over 65 feet underground.
12:18Building a pyramid right on top of a cave full of water might seem surprising,
12:24but its existence here has dramatic implications for our understanding of this iconic temple.
12:35The amazing thing is not finding this cavity. The fantastic thing, the awesome thing, is that there is a pyramid
12:43on top of it.
12:44And not any pyramid. You are not going to believe us, but we were just jumping, laughing. We'll find it.
12:53Without digging, there's no way to access the cenote hidden under the Castillo.
13:00So archaeologist Memo de Anda is visiting another nearby cenote to investigate what may lie beneath the pyramid.
13:07Isn't this wonderful? It's one of the many cenotes we have in the Yucatan Peninsula.
13:14It's a wonder of nature.
13:18Huge cavern. This is essentially what cenotes are.
13:21It's a huge cavern that got flooded with lots of rain for thousands of years.
13:27And you can really feel the magic of being here.
13:32There's one crucial difference between this cenote and the one under the Castillo.
13:38At 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.
13:48We don't know when. It has been there for centuries.
13:52So hopefully not for a long time.
14:00Underground lakes like this are the reason the great city of Chichen Itza was built in this area.
14:06There are no surface rivers in this part of Mexico.
14:11The only source of drinking water was hidden underground in cenotes.
14:17But these weren't just a source of water.
14:23They were places for worship.
14:26And sometimes people don't understand.
14:28But when you stand here and see this beauty and feel this magic, you understand.
14:37Cenotes had deep religious significance and were seen as a physical link to the Maya underworld.
14:45Is it possible the ancient Maya knew about the cenote hidden under the Castillo?
14:51Did they build on top of it on purpose?
14:56Memo believes they must have.
14:58Because the Castillo has a remarkable relationship with four other important underground lakes that are visible on the Chichen Itza
15:04site.
15:06This is El Castillo or Kukulkan temple.
15:11One of the things that's amazing about this building is that it's situated right in the middle of four cenotes.
15:18It's the sacred cenote to the north, the Istolok cenote to the south,
15:26Shkanyuyum cenote to the east, and Joltun cenote to the west.
15:32The ancient Maya divided their universe into quadrants.
15:37These were aligned with the four points of the compass.
15:41Could 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.
15:55El Castillo was built there because the orientation of those four cenotes.
16:01How those ancient Maya knew about the fifth cenote under the Castillo remains a mystery.
16:06But Memo believes they did.
16:09And that the Great Pyramid was built on this site because it symbolized the center of the Maya universe.
16:15When they said there is a cenote under the Castillo, and you see it's the center of this sacred alignment,
16:23it makes a lot of sense.
16:26The layout of these cenotes created a location with deep religious meaning.
16:33But the sacred significance doesn't end here.
16:39During excavations at the Castillo Pyramid, archaeologists make an astonishing discovery.
16:51At the base of the Castillo Pyramid, archaeologists make a surprising discovery.
17:05Digging more than six feet underground, they unearthed a dark secret.
17:12Amongst their rubble, they found shards of bone, skull fragments, and even teeth that prove these remains are human.
17:24Archaeologists unearthed over 900 pieces belonging to over 100 different individuals.
17:30Who were these people?
17:33And why were they buried here?
17:42These mysterious finds tell an extraordinary story.
17:47At 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
18:11nutritional deprivation.
18:13Everything that has to do with suffering hunger, not being nourished adequately, or suffering from many, many episodes of infectious
18:21disease, for example.
18:24These bones come from people on the fringes of society.
18:28Individuals in poor health, who were not valued, or who were expendable.
18:34In this skull cap, what we see are these distinctive pores.
18:39They mostly stem from episodes of anemia during infancy.
18:44If I take a closer look at these teeth, we can see these distinctive grooves that cross over the surface.
18:54And these basically tell us that a person suffered from several episodes of physiological stress.
19:04Vera finds evidence that the surrounding flesh was deliberately removed from some of these bones.
19:13The bony remnants that we recovered around El Castillo show distinctive cut marks.
19:20It's no normal burial.
19:22What these remains show is basically different practices that relate to flaying, to defleshing body processing, so to speak.
19:35Vera believes these bones are evidence of gruesome sacrificial rituals.
19:41There are remnants that probably stem from ritual actions involving animal and human sacrifice.
19:50These were part of practices conducted by elite practitioners, elite priests from Chichen.
20:02This is a remarkable claim.
20:04How can Vera even be certain that remains like these belong to the ancient Maya?
20:12Some truly compelling evidence comes from the sacred cenote.
20:16One of the four underground lakes that surround the Castillo.
20:20This skull comes from the sacred cenote of Chichen Itza.
20:25It's a cast from a child skull.
20:31One crucial clue reveals that this cannot be a modern skull.
20:36Its shape.
20:38This head form has been called top flattening.
20:42It's a sort of artificial shape that has been produced with cords and adapted to make the top of the
20:51head more flattened.
20:53Head shaping was a common Maya practice.
20:56And archaeologists have found many more skulls like this in the sacred cenote.
21:01This head is one out of more than 100 infant galatas that were found in the sacred cenote.
21:08The presence of so many bones can be no accident.
21:12They must have been placed in the cenote intentionally, probably as offerings to the Maya gods.
21:20Archaeologist Mamo Deanda is now investigating this astonishing theory.
21:25Why would a sophisticated society like the ancient Maya have practiced human sacrifice?
21:30New clues lie at the bottom of this deep abyss.
21:38Chichen Itza, this mysterious ancient city is slowly giving up its secrets.
21:46Investigations 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.
22:02Could this dark practice have happened at other cenotes too?
22:13Archaeologist Mamo Deanda is conducting a major new investigation at underground lakes across the Yucatan Peninsula.
22:22He's investigated hundreds of cenotes over his 25-year career.
22:28Mamo wants to know more about the part human sacrifice played in Maya sacred rites.
22:34He's creating three-dimensional modeling of the offerings he finds to hunt for clues.
22:40Today this work has brought him to another of the four cenotes that surround the Castillo pyramid.
22:47We are at Cenote Joltun, inside Chichen Itza.
22:52And the ancient Maya carved the entrance.
22:56It's spectacular, it's so beautiful. It's a huge dome.
23:00Ready to go.
23:00The only way to explore this hidden lake is to dive.
23:06But the only way to reach the water is a nearly 80-foot vertical abseil into the dark.
23:13This is not for the faint hearted.
23:17This vast cavern extends over 225 feet down.
23:22It contains a large underground lake over 160 feet deep.
23:27Going down in Cenote is one of the best experiences in the world.
23:41Rainwater carved this immense cavern into the limestone bedrock over thousands of years.
23:48We're about eight, nine meters down and can see the cultural richness of this place.
24:00And I don't want to approach too close because it can destroy everything in a second.
24:08Memo is making some shocking discoveries.
24:11Ceramic offerings.
24:13A knife.
24:15Animal bones.
24:18And human remains.
24:21Each time he dives into this Cenote, Memo takes high resolution photographs of his finds from all angles.
24:27But exactly what happened in this mysterious cavern?
24:32Memo has found a remarkable clue.
24:35Right in front of me you can see a shelf.
24:38It's a natural shelf.
24:40Ideal to make a ritual deposit.
24:43More bones.
24:45Other offerings.
24:46And even traces of charcoal remain on this shelf.
24:50Amazingly it appears this platform was once a sacred altar.
24:55This is part of the spiritual world.
24:59Cenotes are silent witnesses of very important part of the ancient Maya life.
25:05This is a very important part of their universe.
25:13Memo has found some truly extraordinary evidence about the rights conducted in this Cenote.
25:21It was a very organized life.
25:24And I think we get what we needed.
25:28Memo has been photographing this site for five years.
25:33A custom-made computer program has processed the photos taken so far.
25:37And turned them into amazing three-dimensional models of his discoveries.
25:42What I'm looking at right now, it's a bird-eye view of the whole shelf.
25:46This is an amazing, amazing image.
25:49I can tell you without any doubt, it's unique in the world.
25:53There's no other archaeological project that is doing this.
25:57The models provide an incredible permanent record of the Cenote's mysterious contents.
26:04It's the next best thing of having an object in my hand.
26:08And the beauty of this is that we leave them there.
26:13This model allows Memo to study the shelf in more detail.
26:16It even shows stingray spines, another item associated with Maya religious rituals.
26:23Stingray spines were used in ceremonies, rituals.
26:27Rituals to attract rain.
26:29They used to be like self-sacrifice.
26:32Bloodletting. A lot of blood could mean a lot of fertility, especially if this blood comes from the penis.
26:39Is it possible rituals like bloodletting were carried out here?
26:44And if so, how did the Maya utilize this underwater place without modern diving equipment?
26:57Archaeologist Memo de Anda is uncovering how the Maya constructed a sacred altar on a shelf deep underwater without the
27:04use of diving equipment.
27:06Perhaps they didn't have to.
27:09Memo believes the water level in the Cenote must have been much lower when the offerings were left here,
27:14thanks to a terrible natural phenomenon that threatened the entire future of Chichen Itza.
27:19Drought.
27:20This shelf probably was above water some 1,200 years ago when this place was dry.
27:30And maybe it was dry because of these big droughts.
27:35So this shelf, this ledge, should have been exposed.
27:42The shelf lies nearly 100 feet down, tucked away at the far edge of the cavern.
27:47As droughts hit, the water level in this cenote dropped, exposing the shelf.
27:54The Maya probably climbed down into the cenote using a ladder built from pieces of tree trunk tied together with
28:00flexible branches.
28:06They could descend into the cenote to leave their offerings, perhaps reaching the shelf by canoe.
28:16Many years later, with the droughts over, the water level rose again, covering the artifacts and preserving them to this
28:22day.
28:25Why did the ancient Maya conduct these elaborate rituals?
28:29The most likely god that they were offered to was Chak, the rain god.
28:35I think they make the sufferings to encourage rains.
28:41Cenotes lay at the heart of Chichen Itza.
28:46They provided life-giving water.
28:50They had immense religious importance, especially when drought hit.
28:57And they even dictated the location of the great Castillo pyramid.
29:02But could the Castillo's distinctive shape hold hidden meaning, too?
29:06Could there be more to its outer appearance than first meets the eye?
29:12It's much more than a building.
29:14You see the perfection on the lines.
29:17But when you know a little bit more about it, you know it's a mathematical building.
29:23It's related to astronomy.
29:26It's related to the agricultural cycles.
29:34This pyramid contains another secret.
29:37It's also a monumental calendar for the city.
29:4218 stone terraces represent the 18 Maya months of the year.
29:4791 steps on each side, plus the top platform.
29:51Give 365 steps, one for each day of the year.
29:57And twice a year on the equinox, the sun casts a shadow so perfectly aligned,
30:02an immense snake appears to slither down the main steps.
30:07This is the serpent god Kukulkan, to whom the temple is dedicated.
30:15It's hard to understand how they could master the technique,
30:19not only to build this fantastic building,
30:22but to make it so beautiful, so interesting,
30:25and related to the sun, related to the changes of seasons.
30:30It's great.
30:36The ancient Maya were so dedicated to tracking the movements of the planets and stars,
30:41that they even constructed this building, an extraordinary observatory.
30:46Well, this is El Caracol.
30:49It's a wonderful building.
30:52It received that name because of the spiral form.
30:56Caracol means snail or seashell in Spanish,
31:00because hidden inside the observatory is a spiral staircase.
31:07This one in particular served the purpose of gazing the skies and mapping them.
31:14And there were very good astronomers.
31:17They have a very good knowledge of the movement of the celestial bodies.
31:24The ancient Maya didn't have telescopes,
31:27but that didn't stop them from making incredibly detailed observations with the naked eye.
31:32This building, it's on top of several platforms,
31:36and stands out maybe to avoid the canopy of trees,
31:42just high enough for the ancient Maya astronomers to look all around,
31:48even when the sun is rising or it's setting.
31:53Due to the Caracol's ruined condition, few of the observatory windows remain.
32:01There's actually three of them.
32:03They are very interestingly aligned.
32:09The Maya aligned the Caracol with the heavens.
32:13The main staircase faces the setting point of Venus,
32:16one 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,
32:28and a third window is aligned with astronomical south.
32:33The corners of the base platform align with the sun's shadow on the solstice sunrise and sunset.
32:45Incredibly, at least 20 astronomical events are incorporated into this structure.
32:51The Maya used their observations to predict harvests, deaths, and even good times to go to war.
33:01Chichen Itza, a city shaped by the earth, by water, and by the movements of the planets,
33:09where the buildings are molded by beliefs, where sacred meaning is never far away.
33:16But how did this city become so successful and so powerful?
33:20An investigation 125 miles away reveals startling clues.
33:31Chichen Itza, Mexico.
33:34This abandoned city was once one of the most powerful political and religious centers in the Americas.
33:42Drawing pilgrims from far and wide to its sacred sites.
33:47How did people travel across the city through dense jungle and sometimes waterlogged ground?
33:55The solution?
33:57SAC bays.
33:58A unique kind of road.
34:01This amazing road we're walking on now, it's one of the SAC bays, or wide roads.
34:09You can see it's pretty wide, and it's high.
34:13This 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,
34:28these sophisticated causeways are a marvel of ancient engineering.
34:34At the base, large stones are fixed in place with ancient mortar to create a solid foundation.
34:41Tiny stones level the surface, and masonry walls enclose the sides.
34:49Ancient plaster made from powdered limestone forms the top layer,
34:54creating a fortified smooth path to allow Chichen Itza citizens to travel across this city with ease.
35:06I think they had a lot of functions.
35:09Communicating, that's for sure one of them.
35:12That's the main use of roads.
35:14This is like a umbilical cord, just putting the side together.
35:19But there were a lot of reasons, just practically or symbolically, or to extend the political boundaries.
35:30Archaeologists are constantly finding new causeways.
35:34The scale of those discovered so far at Chichen Itza is vast.
35:43Sakbe's causeways criss-crossed over the city connecting the main temples with quarries and outlying communities.
35:52One led to the sacred cenote, over 300 yards away through the jungle.
35:58Others even stretched out of Chichen Itza to distant settlements over four miles away.
36:05More than 90 of these white roads have been discovered, revealing the complex network of this great metropolis.
36:14They all led back to the center of Chichen Itza.
36:18In its prime, a bustling city with a population of more than 30,000.
36:25These sakbes were really important, and they really helped the cities to thrive.
36:31But causeways on their own were not enough to ensure Chichen Itza's success.
36:37There were no nearby rivers.
36:39It would be hundreds of years before the first horses arrived in Mexico,
36:44and the Maya had not invented the wheel.
36:47How could people travel longer distances or move goods fast?
36:57125 miles northwest of Chichen Itza, archaeologist Jeffrey Glover and his team are searching for clues.
37:06Water became the highway.
37:09You know, you would have hundreds, thousands of these canoes annually traveling up and down the coast.
37:16Home sweet home.
37:19This is Vista Alegre, the site of a mysterious long-abandoned coastal settlement.
37:26Geoffrey believes Vista Alegre was once a seaport with connections to Chichen Itza.
37:32He's trying to find evidence to link the two sites.
37:38So far, Geoffrey and his team have found the remains of ancient structures,
37:43shards of obsidian, a rock used in tools, and fragments of pottery.
37:49But a key clue comes from a particular variety of pottery, known as Balantun black-on-slate.
37:58So this is Balantun black-on-slate.
38:04It has that lovely trickle design that was really popular across the Yucatan from the classic period.
38:10You know, the cool thing about this, right, is that it's a domestic ware that's very common at Chichen.
38:18It's what you typically would find in households at Chichen.
38:21Yeah. I mean, it doesn't seem like much. It's just a bit of broken pottery.
38:25But it clearly demonstrates a link between our region and the Chichen region.
38:32From the pottery evidence, we know that this settlement was linked to Chichen Itza.
38:37But what exactly was this place?
38:40A port to provide traders en route to Chichen with food and provisions?
38:45Or something more?
38:46An official outpost of Chichen Itza created to control sea trade?
38:52Geoffrey hopes his work here will one day solve this riddle.
38:56Either way, it appears Vista Alegre was one cog in a highly efficient trading machine that served the great city
39:02of Chichen Itza.
39:06Long-distance trade was conducted by sea.
39:11And based around the Maya canoe.
39:14Each canoe was up to 60 feet long and could carry several tons of cargo.
39:23Each port was about 25 miles from the next.
39:26The distance that could be traveled by canoe in one day.
39:33This powerful trade network stretched all around the coast.
39:37The stepping stones led to Chichen Itza's main port, Isla Cerritos.
39:45Up to 400 canoes traded here at one time.
39:49This lucrative port strengthened Chichen Itza's power over the whole peninsula.
39:55That's what would have really fueled the city.
39:57That it grew into a huge city, I think, through the religious significance as a pilgrimage center was important.
40:04But it being an economic juggernaut was, I think, probably more important to its success.
40:13Trade helped Chichen Itza to thrive.
40:16The city grew rich selling salt, cacao and textiles.
40:21And brought in precious stones such as obsidian used to create tools.
40:28But soon the mighty would fall.
40:32By the end of the 11th century, Chichen Itza was in major decline.
40:39What could have caused this powerful city state to collapse?
40:46Memo believes the answer lies in the cenotes that were so important to the ancient people of this region.
40:52And in the evidence they contain of drought.
40:57We had found that the site had to overcome a huge drought, 5, 10 or maybe 15 years without rain.
41:07They had no agriculture, so no way to feed the people.
41:11We had found this evidence in cenotes, where we could see how the water level lowered.
41:19Underground lakes, with their seemingly bottomless supply of fresh water, had been the key to Chichen Itza's success.
41:29Now, as that water ran low and the harvests failed, Chichen Itza's glory days had come to an end.
41:36The rulers, the kings of the Mayan area, they called themselves descendants of the gods.
41:45So, they attribute themselves a divine origin.
41:51So, when they could not produce water, people must have been very, very angry.
41:58Some people moving away, some others trying to get the power into control.
42:04Chichen Itza was gradually abandoned and reclaimed by the jungle.
42:09Its secrets were almost lost forever.
42:14But thanks to investigations by archeologists and scientists, the mysterious city of Chichen Itza is beginning, little by little, to
42:26give up its best kept secrets.
42:30The ingenious structure of its sakbe's causeways, the ancient pyramid hidden inside the Castillo, and the human remains in its
42:41very foundations.
42:44These make Chichen Itza one of the most awe-inspiring ancient wonders ever built.
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