The Maya: Engineering an Empire (Full Documentary)

At the height of its glory, this mysterious civilization ruled a territory of 125,000 square miles across parts of Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize. What began as a modest population of hunters and gatherers expanded into more than forty flourishing city-states who engineered sky-high temple-pyramids, ornate palaces and advanced hydraulic systems. Where did they come from and what catastrophes caused the collapse of this innovative civilization? From the Temple-Pyramids at Tikal, to the royal tomb at Palenque, to the star observatory at Chichén Itzá, this episode will examine the architecture and infrastructure that enabled the rise and fall of the ancient Maya civilization.

(2006) History Channel

Deep within the jungle

"We're talking about a civilization discovered in the middle of the rain forest."

Cryptic remains of a lost civilization.

One that spanned a continent for more than a thousand years

"They definitely had attributes of the supernatural"

They were the ancient Maya

Their rulers filled vast cities with sky high pyramids, ornate palaces, and lavish plazas.

They were masters of their environment

"They were very resourceful in figuring out how to harness the energy.

Creating amazingly sophisticated works of art and engineering, and sustaining a civilization for 1,500 years."

Then, after generations of prosperity and innovation, the ancient civilization collapsed.

Turning bustling cities into ghost towns

to be reclaimed by mother nature.

Centuries later, answers to the mysteries surrounding these majestic people and the god-like kings who ruled them

tell a story of conquest, ingenuity and disaster.

869 AD in the lowlands of the Guatemalan jungle

The Maya are becoming desparate.

Food and clean water are dwindling. Thousands of people are starving

and malnutrition and disease are ravaging the population.

The Maya no longer trust their divine rulers to appease their gods.

Political turmoil plagues the kingdoms, and one by one, the great city states are being abandoned.

The ancient Maya civilization is crumbling.

"City after city, area after area begins to fail.

The cities are abandoned, the kings disappear

and what had been Classic Maya culture really comes to an end."

What happened to this great people?

Even today, scholars are still mystified

"We know that the people began to disappear.

The question is: How did this happen?"

The answer may lie in complex hieroglyphics known as the Maya code.

"A hieroglyph is a complex way of conveying all the information

that Maya people could think or express.

And it is the only example in the Americas of a complete complex system of writing."

Today, these cryptic symbols reveal a history of brutal warfare,

larger than life rulers, and the rise and fall of an enigmatic people.

Hi I'm Peter Weller and I'm standing on top of this beautiful temple deep in the rainforest of southern Mexico

near the border with Guatemala, And this was the heart of the civilization of the ancient Maya.

For years, archaeologists believed that the ancient Maya

were peacefully separated into forty or so independent city-states, each with their own dynasty of kings.

From what we could tell, there seemed to be trade, communication,

but there didn't seem to be any particular imperial aggression motivated by a thirst for land power outside of a king's own territory.

But in the last half century these theories are starting to fly in the face of a different story

because hieroglyphics like this one, remnants of the ancient Maya's advanced writing system, are painting a whole new picture.

The touchy feely 1960s new age ideas on a gentle and loving people

are being fast replaced by a much more complex reality of city-states butting heads in bloody clashes.

And now we have evidence that brutal battles and human sacrifice were fundamental components of life among the ancient Maya.

But the evolution of the Maya civilization into this complex network of city-states didn't happen overnight.

"The Maya came into existence probably a couple of thousand years before Christ."

By 500 BC population was on the rise

and small communities were turning into the first major Maya sites located throughout Central America.

Fully organized kingdoms were ruling the region by 250 AD, with mighty rulers at the helm.

"They had powerful rulers.

They were in competition with each other, and sometimes this competition led to war."

For the Maya, it was war led by kings, in the name of the gods.

"Maya kings were people like us

but, for the Maya they definitely had attributes of the.supernatural."

The price of devotion had brutal, and sometimes deadly consequences

"The people owed a blood debt to the gods.

It wasn't that they didn't regard human life or human blood highly, quite the contrary.

Human blood and human life was the most precious, the most sacred thing that could be offered to the gods

in order to repay the blood-debt that was incurred at creation."

Blood-letting and human sacrifice dominated the kings' strategic thinking

They picked allies, and attacked neighbors, all with an eye on appeasing their deities, and staying autonomous.

"Unlike Rome, in the case of the Maya we're not dealing with one empire,

instead, we're dealing with a series of rival kingdoms."

By the third century AD, Maya civilization was flourishing.

No city ever succeeded in dominating all the others

but one seat of power was on the rise. Its name was Tikal.

"Tikal is one of the few cities that goes strong in the pre-classic period, before the time of Christ

and then it just continues, pretty much unabated, all the way until the end of the classical period.

This is a city that never really lost it."

But in the sixth century, a rival power named Calakmul threatened Tikal's success.

"The Maya had these two, great, dynastic capitals. Calakmul and Tikal.

Those two cities essentially locked horns.

It's really Calakmul that seems to engage in this action

in which the engineer alliances all the way around Tikal, essentially boxing in their enemy."

It would be up to an ambitious and visionary leader to build a center of military power.

One that would take on Calakmul.

HIs name was Yikin Chan Kawil.

He would construct one of the most iconic structures of the Maya.

A pyramid that would stand the test of time.

The Temple of the Giant Jaguar.

"The most valuable monument was one that took a lot of effort.

So, a big temple pyramid is an indication of your power, your strength, your prestige.

It is a way of drawing people into your city because it shows what an awesome powerful ruler you are."

Building in a semitropical environments with rudimentary materials was a unique challenge

especially when the goal was to build vertically, using stone age technology

"Most of the technology that we associate with big stone constructions were unknown to the Maya

They did not have beasts of burden.

They didn't have metal tools."

What the Maya did have was a virtually unlimited supply of malleable limestone, and a great deal of manpower.

"Your labor was one of the things that you were required to give to the king on an annual basis."

Blocks of limestone were quarried, and then pushed, pulled, or carried by sheer force to the construction site.

"They used something that we call the tumpline. this is a rope passed around the forehead.

And in that they could carry literally, at times, hundreds of pounds of debris."

Level by level the pyramid was built skyward.

Wooden scaffolding supported the laborers and the structure as it expanded.

Skilled masons shaped the limestone with stone tools and wooden mallets.

Though the interior was filled with unrefined rubble, the exterior was deceivingly manicured.

Covered in a strong mortar known as Mayan stucco, and painted red.

"Even though they knew of the wheel, even though they knew of metal, they elected not to make practical use of either of these things

and I think, in part, it was because in their worldview something was much more valuable if a lot of human labor went into it."

At nearly 150 feet, The Temple of the Giant Jaguar emerged

Facing West toward the setting sun.

The ancient skyscraper would command the attention of all who set foot in Tikal's grand plaza

As symbol of power and redemption.

But Yikin Chan Kawil's engineering marvel was just the beginning.

In 736, Kawil had defeated his ultimate rival, Calakmul.

Then, in 743 and 744, he attacked and eviscerated two critical Calakmul allies that surrounded Tikal

El Peru to the west and Naranjo to the East.

Finally, the suffocating noose that had once strangled Tikal was broken.

"In celebration of this, he built a series of major expansions to the palace, new pyramids.

And when we look at Tikal today

In many cases we're looking at the fruits of that success."

He may have even launched the construction of the tallest of Tikal's structures, Temple Four.

Made of 250 thousand cubic yards of stone

The massive pyramid stretched more than 210 feet, or 22 stories high,

Nearly as tall as the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge.

It jutted far above the dense rainforest canopy, with a 180 degree view of the city.

In the distance, other Maya cities were also ambitiously building toward the sky.

But at that moment, with King Yakin Chan Kawil at the helm

Tikal was the unchallenged powerhouse of the Maya civilization.

But Tikal was not alone.

Out of sight, about 250 miles to the West

Another dynasty is forging the construction of a great acropolis.

There, in the seventh century, a king with a vision would emerge.

He would turn one of the wettest cities in the world into a Mecca of new world architecture.

611 AD. On the outskirts of the Maya world, in Southeast Mexico

A city by the name of Palenque is on the ropes.

It launches a last-ditched defense against regional powerhouse Calakmul.

Pelenque's forces are overwhelmed, and the king is killed, with no male heir to the throne.

Because Maya kings were thought to be divine lords, their lineage is key to survival.

The end of a dynasty usually spelled disaster.

Yet, at this critical moment, one of the greatest building campaigns in Maya history was about to begin in Pelenque

And the king behind it would remain unknown until the middle of the twentieth century.

"In 1949, some of the questions regarding the mysterious dynasty of Palenque are answered

When archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier is excavating this 75 foot high temple now called

The Temple of Inscriptions.

Now, I'm in pretty good shape, but those guys had headdresses, and big robes

Obsidian knives and swords.

I thought I'm in pretty good shape, for an old guy anyway

But I don't know how they did it.

And I don't know how Alberto Ruz Lhullier did it.

But I still got a lot to go.

And when he gets up into the sanctuary, he looks around

And notices on the floor a row of holes covered with stone stoppers

And he figures out that these holes were made for ropes in order to pull up this slab, Just like a modern trapdoor.

So he pulls up the slab. This one exactly.

And he follows a steep staircase filled with dirt and debris.

He's never seen a Maya pyramid like this before.

So his men start digging, and digging, and digging

Into the unknown.

The wet stairs are very slippery from the moisture, and time, and the rain from the forest

And he finally finally gets down to a plateau

And he notices that the whole pathway doubles back and then continues

And he finds hidden doors, secret passageways, signs that a lot of thought and calculation went into building this structure.

Finally, after three years, after three long years

he gets to the bottom of this 80 foot stairway, and there he sees a small corridor

And in the corridor there's a stone box, and in the box are six skeletons.

The remains of souls who were sacrificed to protect the person for whom this temple was built,

But he still doesn't know who that person was, and then he finally sees

A huge door.

A massive triangular stone.

So his men and he open it, and then

They go in.

And behind this huge triangular door, is a vaulted crypt about 30 feet long and 23 feet high.

And inside the crypt is this massive sarcophagus carved from one piece of limestone.

And on top of this sarcophagus is this magnificent lid with these expertly carved images of a king

Along this edge, by the way, which is covered by cinnabar, this red stuff.

It's poison to the touch to keep looters from coming in here and ruining it.

And by the way, if the ancient Egyptians might have used this we might have had more antiquities coming out of that country today.

But along this edge is the image of a shield

and up in the sanctuary is another image of the shield.

And the ancient Maya word for "shield" is pacal.

So Alberto Ruz had discovered the tomb of the most important Maya king.

Pacal the Great."

Pacal's ascension to the throne in 615 AD came during the most critical time for Palenque.

With no direct heir, the elders of Palenque turned to an outsider, a royal who lived outside the kingdom, named lady Sak K'uk.

Now, she returned to Palenque with her adolescent son, Pacal.

The future of Palenque hung in the balance as the young boy was crowned king by his mother.

He was just 12 years old.

"She sort of kept the throne warm for him for over 10 years while he was growing up."

As the young king grew into adulthood, Pacal had to deify himself to legitimize his rule.

He declared his mother to be the living embodiment of the first mother

Who created humans and the gods.

He then was the son of a goddess, an exalted position that removed any question of his legitimacy.

"He was almost certainly a charismatic fellow, he had to have been.

He had no power base. He had to do almost on pure charisma and determination."

"As a Johnny-come-lately, as someone who needs to prove himself, he's going to be as splashy as possible.

So he constructs the most gaudy buildings imaginable.

He is establishing all sorts of new architectural patterns."

To authenticate his lineage, Pacal set off on a building spree

to revitalize his battered kingdom.

One of his first orders of business, the renovation and expansion of the royal palace.

An impressive structure that sits in the heart of the main plaza.

More than 70,000 square feet, the palace would become a maze of galleries, chambers, stairways, courtyards, and tunnels

And was designed to reflect his ideas of grandeur.

At first, Pacal's architects, like those throughout the Maya world, employed what is called the corbeled vault to support their soaring structures.

"Now this was a pretty straightforward structure where

A series, or a line of stones of ever decreasing height are laid on top of each other.

So it forms, really, a kind of inverted V shape, with a row of capstones along the top."

But the corbeled vault left something to be desired.

This basic construction limited interior space and light

And forced architects to build walls wider than even the space it enclosed.

Driven by a determined king, Pacal's engineers now looked for solutions to this problem.

"What the Palenque succeeded in doing was lightening the weight.

They produced sort of honeycomb structures on the top of these buildings.

They could make their spans wider, airier, more light could come in"

These innovations reduced the stress on the load bearing walls

Creating a more open and inviting feel than the traditional Maya buildings.

Over 60 years, Pacal's builders became the best in the new world.

But it wasn't until the end of his rule that Pacal commissioned one of the most complex and imaginative projects

ever attempted by the Maya.

The Temple of the Inscriptions.

"The discovery of The Temple of the Inscriptions changed all our ideas about Maya pyramids.

They weren't supposed to be mortuary shrines."

Inside, along a stairway leading down to the tomb, engineers built a psychoduct, or hollow tube.

"It's a conduit that allows someone on the top of the pyramid to speak into this speaking tube

and eventually you would be able to, presumably, communicate directly with Pacal in his tomb."

This 20 ton sarcophagus was built to last an eternity.

"This actually had a lid which was rolled off to one side, and there was a cavity for his body to be put

So that when he eventually did die, the door was sealed, and the stairway was blocked."

His architects and sculptors designed a coffin rich in symbolism.

Portraying the resurrection of Pacal in the afterworld.

Royal scribes were ordered to draw a grid to accommodate 640 glyphs that would tell the story of Pacal's reign.

"Many Maya pyramids don't leave much textual record on them.

The opposite is the case in the Temple of the Inscriptions.

Everything about it, from these huge tablets on the summit, to the information inside

Proclaims that this is the final resting place of the founder of one of the great Maya dynasties."

In 683, during Pacal's 68th year as king, the 12 year old boy who grew to be one of the great Maya rulers died at the age of 80.

He was covered in red cinnabar, and adorned in lavish jewlery.

A jade mask was placed over his face.

Though the legacy of Pacal the Great would be hard to match

His son had been waiting on the sidelines for nearly 50 years.

With the clock ticking, he would launch a series of building projects

Harnessing the laws of physics, and mother nature.

684 AD. The mighty king Pacal has engineered Palenque

To be one of the finest Maya capitals ever known.

After 68 years on the throne, his body is buried in a tomb that rivals those built for the Egyptian pharaohs.

Now it is up to his son to build upon his fathers's legacy

And cement his own reign.

His name was Kan Bahlam.

"Pacal was the founder of the dynasty, but his son was a great consolidator.

He was someone that was going to make sure that that dynasty would continue."

The 48 year old king immediately threw himself into an ambitious 3 pyramid complex

That would stand as his own monument for the ages.

"He designed and constructed the cross group.

One of the most intricate and beautiful groups of ceremonial temples ever constructed in the Maya world."

"These are his memorial, and they tower above the palace

They look down on the works of his father, and in some ways, I think they represent a statement of individuality

That he himself is going to leave his imprint on the city, just as his father did."

He ordered his engineers to build three intricate structures.

The Temple of the Cross, The Temple of the Foliated Cross, and The Temple of the Sun.

Kan Bahlam's engineers would take a giant leap forward

Using sophisticated geometric calculations, unsurpassed anywhere in the world

Based on the Maya's creation of a complete number system.

"One of the many ways in which the Maya were ahead of their time

Was in the creation of what we would refer to as 'zero'."

"With a simple combination of a shell, which represented zero, or completion

And then a dot, number 1, and then a 5. By just placing them in different positions

They were able to multiply, you know, and reach incredible numbers."

"The Greeks and Romans were tremendous engineers, theologians, historians, and so forth

but were very limited by their mathematical system because they didn't have a zero.

So you have the irony that they were able to produce great public works, philosophy, and what not

But, they were really pretty lousy mathematicians compared to the Maya."

Kan Bahlam's engineers' advanced mathematical observations

May have included the discovery of proportions like the square roots of rectangles

And something called the golden mean

A naturally occurring proportion that can be seen in animals, nature, and even the human body

As 1 to 1.618.

"If you measure a person from his head to his belly-button, and then his belly-button to his feet, you get a proportion

Very close to 1 to 1.618, the golden mean."

Some scholars believe this proportion has been appearing in structures for thousands of years.

In places like the pyramids of Giza in Egypt

And the Parthenon in Greece.

Davinci's Vitruvian Man is a study of this proportion.

And some even say he painted the Mona Lisa using this ratio in her features.

With nothing more than some sticks and a cord

Kan Bahlam's engineers may have been able to measure the square roots of rectangles.

In the Temple of the Cross, these shapes would be used to mark the two main piers of the facade

The width of the medial doorway and the interior walls.

The golden ratio can be seen in the rear chambers and the base of the structure

With the side wall as 1, and the back wall as 1.618.

By using repeated squares and natural proportions in the Temple of the Cross

A beautifully calculated floor-plan took shape.

Full of geometry, mythological history, and a king's own legacy.

But not all engineering in Palenque was done with an eye on the afterlife.

Palenque's engineers also had to focus on more practical needs.

"One of the names of Palenque is Lacamha, which means 'place of great waters'

We have four rivers running through Palenque year-round

We have dozens of springs. We have water everywhere."

These riches came with challenges.

Palenque was surrounded by steep hills

Natural springs and creeks that carved their way through the base of the site

Leaving only bits and pieces of flat, water-free land for building.

"Unlike most Maya cities, the problem facing Palenque wasn't how to store water for the dry season.

It was how to deal with an overabundance of water.

As you can see, everything is green here, it rains every day.

So, to meet this challenge, the city planners devised a unique way of diverting the preexisting streams

By building subterranean aqueducts that would channel the water underground.

Thus, saving more land on top for cultivation.

These tunnels were lined with limestone

And they were covered with our old friend from Egypt and Greece, the corbeled vault.

A series of protruding stones, one on top of the other, formed sort of an arch overhead.

Now these ceilings were so sturdy, they could support the massive weight of Palenque's giant plazas overhead

So the people were walking along with the water rushing underneath them

Being diverted away from the city, Just like it is where I live today, in New York City."

What's even more impressive

Is that there are signs that Maya engineers may have figured out a way to create water pressure.

They built water tunnels that ran through the rugged terrain into the city, often directed uphill.

As they got closer to the main structures, the pipes got incrementally smaller.

Like Roman fountains

The water pressure gained momentum as it coursed through increasingly narrower tunnels.

Eventually allowing for running water throughout Palenque's buildings.

"We have beautiful systems of sweat baths and swimming pools, and aqueducts.

In its day, it would have rivaled any of the roman aqueduct systems.

We don't see this use of water pressure anywhere else. And it doesn't appear again until the Spanish bring the technologies with them."

Together, Kan Bahlam and his father Pacal ruled Palenque for nearly 100 years.

Pushing Maya engineering to a level never seen before.

The future seemed bright for this city on the rise.

But its years of glory are about to come to a sudden end.

Something is happening in the Maya world that will cause the classic city-states

To implode.

By the eighth century Palenque, Tikal and the other kingdoms of the Maya world

were expanding across the continent.

Tall pyramids, unparalleled city planning, and sumptuous royal palaces advertised the glory of the great kings

Then suddenly, these cities began to unravel

One after another.

Royal sculptors stopped carving their monuments with historical information

And kings halted their construction projects.

Maya civilization had plunged into darkness.

"It's not that the entire Maya lowlands is abandoned overnight

It's that one kingdom falls here, another one 10 years later falls over here, then another one over here."

"The causes of the Maya collapse

Remains a great debate among scholars.

We're really talking about a society that was pushing itself to the limits."

"There is no one single explanation for this implosion

but scholars seem to believe that an environmental catastrophe led to a full blown meltdown for the Maya civilization.

The soil no longer produced crops, thus lack of food and polluted water produced malnutrition and disease.

The Mayans could no longer count on their kings to intercede with their gods because their great society was in a death spiral

And their kings, so long counted on for guidance and prosperity, were powerless to stop it.

So, sadly, but slowly and surely, the people voted with their feet, and the ancient Maya left their beautiful cities forever."

There were no signs of mass graves. They did not vanish.

Where did the millions of Mayan go?

"If you wanted to go where it was happening, you moved North.

Go north, young man."

"The cities that die in the south, and that's the only way to describe it is

They just, go into oblivion, are never really replaced.

But there are locations all around the Yucatan Peninsula

Where the cities not only thrived, but they begin to grow explosively."

This growth was enhanced by an elaborate network of causeways called 'sacbes' or white roads

"The sacbes weren't just local transport, they were emblems of the great political power of two allied cities

That had the where-with-all to create this magnificent royal procession-way between their two kingdoms."

As much as 60 miles long in some places

They were a marvel of engineering.

"They would place huge rocks on both sides of the causeway

And then fill in whatever was in between with cobbles and unfinished rocks and stones.

And then they cover all the surface with stucco, nice plaster, and then, on it they create this smooth surface."

In the Yucatan peninsula, the sacbes often charted a course through the rough terrain

In perfectly straight lines

"It's not easy to cut a line 60 miles that doesn't deviate even a degree.

I would really like to know what instruments they used.

We have no record of it."

These causeway systems allowed for rebirth, movement, and trade in the North.

And it is there that the ragged survivors of the southern lowlands hope to find a second chance

In a Yucatan city called Chichén Itzá.

"Chichén Itzá came to be the largest, and most powerful city from about 800-1050 or so

That had a real knack of being a big tent

So it was a very cosmopolitan place

And I'm sure it traded handsomely on that reputation."

One of the buildings unique to the site was El Caracol, an astronomical observatory.

The Maya were obsessed with both time and the stars

And spent centuries looking to the sky for answers.

"The Maya probably had something called a 'noman'

which is a series of two crossed bars

And by looking at the intersection of those two bars

they would be able to focus on something."

With just basic tools, the Maya were able to track the movement of the stars and planets

And the passage of time.

"Like Stonehenge, this was the place where people could make solar and lunar observations."

The staircase in the front of the building faced 27.5 degrees Northwest

Out of line with other structures, but in almost perfect alignment with Venus' most northerly position in the sky.

It was closely aligned with the celestial bodies and occurrences

Such as the movement of Venus, and the solstices.

In the higher tower of the building, three openings survive today.

They are small, narrow, and irregularly placed

But they align along astronomical sight lines.

"In the Caracol, we can see in its orientations, and its peculiar displacements, and its odd alignment of buildings

A focus on what Venus was doing at the time.

Venus is a kind of variable. An actor up there in the skies.

Sometimes it moves in this direction, sometimes it moves in that direction.

The caracol seems to be about looking at Venus when it's come to the end of a certain kind of motion."

This astute astronomical observation allowed the Maya to build their interlocking calendars

That were more accurate than any other used in the ancient world.

"The Maya had two calendars.

One ritual, and then, you know, the solar calendar that is very very similar to what we use in the western world."

The Maya measured the solar year to be 365 days.

Their measurements for the revolution of Venus, and the occurrence of lunar eclipses were equally on target.

In just 200 years, the Maya had achieved a rebirth in the wake of the catastrophic destruction of their southern cities.

But now, the North would face an even deadlier enemy.

One that was capable of annihilating the Maya, while leaving their cities intact.

In the ninth century, the classic Maya cities suddenly and mysteriously collapsed.

Ending the era of greatest prosperity and growth.

Rebirth in the North gave the Maya an opportunity to combine astronomy and engineering

On an unprecedented scale.

At Chichén Itzá, signs of continuing obsession with the skies

Left a permanent mark on Maya architecture.

The cornerstone of Chichén Itzá was the 98 foot El Castillo, or the castle, built in the ninth or tenth century.

The 365 steps equal the number of day in the Maya civil calendar.

52 panels on each side represented the Maya's 52 year cycle.

Nine terraced levels equaled the 18 month Maya solar calendar.

And the temple's axis was perfectly aligned so that specific shadows were cast twice a year.

"For any Maya standing and looking at the northwestern sector of the Castillo

They would see a balustrade, and then

A combination of shadows and the sun hitting that part just before sunset

And then, several triangles form

And then, at the very bottom of this balustrade you have a nice, carved serpent head.

A snake coming down from heaven.

And that is indicating the arrival of the rainy season."

The Maya saw this phenomenon as a manifestation of the deity Kukulkan. The feathered serpent.

"The Mayas were able to actually record, you know, the equinox.

That day in the year where night and day are, you know, last the same.

Every year, March 21, we see the descent of Kukulkan."

Surrounding El Castillo, the civic buildings took on a new characteristic

Spaciousness. With a broad open plaza, temples, marketplaces, a ball court, and colonnades.

"So the colonnade hold, not only house, you know the feasts and events

But maybe individuals were brought into the plaza, you know

The general public was probably invited, depending on the occasion

To come to the plaza, and witness the arrival of these, you know, traders and merchants."

Greek or Roman in appearance, these round columns

Were used as a new type of structural support, and were an architectural first in the Maya world.

"The benefit of a column is that it allows you to create flat roofs.

You're not investing all of your energy in creating stone buildings

that are going to be containing corbel vaults, which may or may not collapse."

The columns were simple in design.

Round drums were placed one on top of the other, filled with rubble in between.

A square section was placed at the top

And then flat rooftops made of stucco and wood were added to form expansive covered interiors.

"It involves people more openly in the life of what, of the building and what's happening within it

Than would have been possible with Maya pyramids of the full classic period.

Those pyramids are mostly about exclusivity. It's about showing a space, holding it up high

But allowing very few people to look into it.

The open column structure's are much more inviting."

But the welcoming atmosphere didn't last long.

After more than 200 years of domination over the Yucatan,

Chichén Itzá suffered a fate similar to its neighbors in the South.

It mysteriously collapsed.

When the Spanish arrived on the shores of the Yucatan peninsula in 1517

Every large cosmopolitan center of the Maya world had been abandoned.

Even so, a splintered Maya civilization, living in small villages across the countryside

Put up a sustained fight against the conquistadors.

"They proved difficult to conquer because

Rather than taking a king captive, or an emperor, as they did with the Aztec

They had to conquer one village at a time, and once they'd moved onto the next village

There'd be one behind them that would then begin to rise and revolt."

Maya warriors killed conquistadors by the thousands

But their weapons proved useless against a more potent enemy: disease.

"Within 100 years, 90% of the population of the new world was gone."

The Maya who survived faced further persecution.

Friar Diego de Landa had been sent from Spain to convert the Maya to Christianity

And he ruthlessly enforced his religious teachings.

"Diego de Landa was a young idealist who came to the new world trying to save souls

Trying to win converts to what he referred to as the 'one true faith'.

But the Maya didn't believe that they should instantly, and forevermore reject all of their own beliefs."

On July 12, 1562, Landa ordered an 'auto de fe' or burning of the Maya texts

Believing they were the writing of the devil.

"This was the end of thousands of years of accumulated knowledge of Maya civilization.

One of the great tragedies of human history."

In a lucky twist of fate, four codices survived the inferno

and wear and tear of time.

"By the nineteenth century, some of these books that happened to escape

The clutches of these friars and their destructive urges

Began to make their way into public attention."

Today, their survival story is just another mystery in the complex history of the Maya.

"The fact that they were able to sustain an urban civilization in the rainforest for 1,500 years

Through all sorts of logistical and other challenges

Is one that we should admire, and one from which we can stand to learn a great deal."

Just as the Maya looked from the ground to the sky for guidance

We are now looking from the sky to the ground for answers.

In recent years, NASA and the University of New Hampshire

Have been experimenting with remote sensing technology

To see if they can determine where undiscovered cities might be hidden.

Mounds of earth covered in trees that appear on readings

May actually be ruins of ancient cities that have not been touched for centuries.

More answers to the Maya mysteries may be right beneath our feet.

"Maya archaeology is just beginning.

There are innumerable cities, innumerable temples, innumerable settlements

That we have not been able to study and excavate.

I think we are entering a golden age of Maya archaeology

And I can only see in the next century a time in which this will become one of the best understood civilizations

Of the ancient world."

"We now know that the Maya were an innovative and creative and majestic people

With their own particular taste for violence

But what is the real allure of the Maya?

What is the mystique that draws generation after generation the world over

To this complex and sophisticated civilization?

Is it the architecture with its serene palaces and temples?

Or the intricacies of hieroglyphics and art in a complex writing system?

Or is it the astounding comprehension of astronomy and mathematics, with a concept of zero, unparalleled in antiquity?

Or is it simply because these remarkable people carved entire cities

Not just villages and towns, but magnificent cities, right out of some of the most inhospitable landscape in the entire world?

In the rainforests between Honduras and the Yucatan

There are literally hundreds and hundreds of Maya sites that are untouched.

In Palenque alone, there are 1,500 buildings that lie unexcavated.

Including temples larger than that one.

And if you consider the archaeological treasures yet to be found in cities like Tikal and Chichen Itza.

I say, and I'm sure I'm not alone

That the real allure of the Maya

The real magic and mystique of this civilization.

Are the mysteries that still lie buried deep within this jungle."