All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S09E07.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[und]

[narrator]
Rusting relics
that helped build America.

The structure was home
to revolutionary technologies,

ones that would go on to help
save countless lives.

[narrator]
Ancient technology
in a lost world.

[Lynette]
It's like being in a sundial.

These guys
are mathematical geniuses.

These guys
are mathematical geniuses.

[narrator]
And the training ground
for elite communists.

The men who passed
through here

went on
to prominent positions.

[narrator] Decaying relics,

ruins of lost worlds,

sites haunted by the past,

sites haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

[narrator]
In Wales, at the end
of a blustery beach,

an imposing ruin sits atop
a jagged, rocky outcrop.

[Dougal]
You're sort of at this
idyllic British beach.

And you look over
and you've got
this rocky island.

And you look over
and you've got
this rocky island.

[Rob] During high tide,
this place is entirely
cut off,

trapping anyone on the island.

As the tide drains away,
slowly the bottom steps
of the staircase are revealed.

[narrator]
Battered by the elements,

it's a daunting place.

[Rob]
When you've made it
all the way to the top,

you arrive at this huge,
solid steel door
secured by a big bolt.

And it makes you wonder
what's inside.

And it makes you wonder
what's inside.

[Dougal] It's a sort of place
as a kid you'd think

it'd be really fun
to get on to,

but also you'd be
quite worried about it

being some kind
of strange lair in there.

[narrator]
The locals remember
less permanent structures

added to the roof of the fort.

These are very basic
wooden structures
covered with wire netting.

[Rob] They also had some
open-air cages up on the top.

Who or what was living here
that had to be kept
on the island

Who or what was living here
that had to be kept
on the island

with the help
of this high tide?

[narrator]
Local conservationist

Ginny Batt knows more
about this island than most.

[Ginny speaking]

[narrator]
This windswept outpost

sits at the junction
of the Celtic
and the Irish seas.

[Ginny speaking]

The little promontory itself
is about 600-odd feet

in one direction,
200 in the other.

And it's a limestone
bit of rock, very easily
weathered away with water,

so you get
all of these sea caves.

[narrator] Humans have
inhabited this island
for 1,000 years,

[narrator] Humans have
inhabited this island
for 1,000 years,

when religious hermits
started to use the caves here.

The island got its name
after a chapel was built there

dedicated to St. Catherine.

[narrator]
But traces of the chapel
are long gone.

No one's lived here
since Ginny Batt
and her parents left.

[Ginny speaking]

[narrator] The Batt family
once lived in the cavernous
concrete structure

that dominates
St. Catherine's Island.

When you look
at the structure,
the purpose is clear.

This is a fortification
that has fallen
into disrepair.

There's more here
than meets the eye.

[narrator]
In the mid-19th century,

the British feared
naval attack from France,

and built a series
of fortifications
along the coast.

and built a series
of fortifications
along the coast.

It was built here
because of its prominence

and its proximity
to other ports in the region.

[narrator]
But even before
the fort was finished,

international relations
had improved.

And by 1901,
it had been mothballed.

But the story
of this windswept place
didn't end there.

[Ginny speaking]

[narrator] The Batt family
were the last of a series
of private occupants

to take over the fort.

The first owner had
decorated the interior
with no expense spared.

But by the time
Ginny's family arrived,

the strange fortress home
was already a wreck.

[Ginny speaking]

[narrator]
But back in the 1960s,

it was perfect
for what her parents
had in mind.

[Ginny speaking]

They needed somewhere to live,
but not just for themselves.

In tow, they had
something quite unusual,

which meant
that the only place suitable
for them to live

which meant
that the only place suitable
for them to live

was the fort out
on those craggy rocks
down by the beach.

[narrator] Ginny's parents
had long dreamed
of opening a zoo

and had already started
collecting animals.

[Sascha] They bring in
a lot of exotic animals,
and they open a zoo

in this abandoned
coastal fortress.

[Ginny speaking]

[narrator] There was nothing
conventional about
the Batt family life here.

[narrator] There was nothing
conventional about
the Batt family life here.

[Ginny speaking]

[narrator] In March 1968,

St. Catherine's Zoo opened.

[Ginny speaking]

The zoo was filled
with all sorts of animals,

from badgers and foxes
to bats and birds,

even exotic monkeys
and alligators.

even exotic monkeys
and alligators.

[narrator]
Ginny Batt and her family

shared this place
with more than 100 animals.

So all parts of the fort
had to be put to use.

They've had some open-air, um,

sort of cages up on the top
where the gun turrets
used to be.

[Ginny speaking]

One can only imagine

being...
being one of the children

living in this,
in this family.

You've got this wonderland,
that's your house,

You've got this wonderland,
that's your house,

which is a little zoo
and you've got
all these animals.

It must have been a crazy
and wild time for them.

[narrator]
For Ginny, living here
was a huge adventure.

[Ginny speaking]

[narrator]
But for Ginny's parents,

life in the fortress zoo
was becoming a struggle.

Because even though
the island is cut off
twice a day by the tide,

Because even though
the island is cut off
twice a day by the tide,

not all the animals
stayed put.

[narrator]
By the late 1960s,
on the coast of Wales,

a drafty Victorian fortress

had been turned
into a private zoo.

Ginny Batt remembers
how the challenges
of this derelict place

began to tarnish
her parents' dream.

[Ginny speaking]

[Ginny speaking]

[Sascha]
It's certainly charming,

but there are
inherent difficulties

living on a tidal island
like this.

[narrator]
Ginny's parents struggled on,

but when her mother
fell pregnant unexpectedly,

life in the isolated ruin
was no longer viable.

life in the isolated ruin
was no longer viable.

[Ginny speaking]

[narrator] Eventually, running
the zoo became too much
for the Batt family,

and they handed on the baton.

It was not the end of the line
for the zoo,

but as new owners took over,

but as new owners took over,

things started to change.

[Sascha]
Monkeys would escape
their enclosures

and climb down
the side of the island

and end up marauding
around the beach.

[narrator]
But by the mid-1970s,

Britain passed new laws
that required dangerous
wild animals

to be kept
in large enclosures.

And the strange configuration
of St. Catherine's Island

was no longer fit for purpose.

was no longer fit for purpose.

In the end,
the zoo was shut down
for animal welfare purposes,

but the animals themselves
were actually
rehoused elsewhere.

[narrator]
And the fortress zoo
was left to rot.

[Sascha] You can't argue
with the grandeur
of the location,

how well-suited this place
is to house these animals,

well, that's another question.

There are plans in the works

to refurbish the fort a bit,
turn it into more
of a tourist destination,

but those are still
in the future.

The monkeys
that used to roam the beach

are now just a distant memory
of a bygone era.

[narrator] And Ginny

is left with memories
of that special family time.

[Ginny speaking]

[narrator]
In the Croatian countryside,

an incongruous structure lurks
in the landscape.

[Geoff]
We're in a beautiful,
lush corner of the Balkans,

right along the frontier
of Croatia and Slovenia,

a beautiful spot once prized
for its good farmland.

a beautiful spot once prized
for its good farmland.

[Sascha] But this building
does not fit in
with this bucolic landscape.

It's sharply angular with
these steep sloping sides.

[narrator]
And the size of this building

makes little sense.

[Michele]
As you walk in,
there's this huge lobby area

and there's also
this amazing bar area
with fixed wooden stools.

[Geoff]
You're struck
by the sheer extent

of the place
and long corridors,

of the place
and long corridors,

dormitories on either side,
big conference rooms.

[Sasha]
There is a huge room
that seems like a cinema.

It's dark
and kind of oppressive.

It's completely rotted out
with seats that are just
destroyed by water.

[narrator] The derelict
structure also conceals
some kind of library.

The ground is littered
with books and pamphlets
and other detritus.

It's really interesting
to look at what's there now

because you do see
scattered amongst it
volumes of...

because you do see
scattered amongst it
volumes of...

of Marxist thought.

[narrator]
These books could be key
to understanding

what this place once was

and why the world
no longer has any use for it.

[narrator]
It's almost 50 years

since Branko Pratengratzer
first set foot
in this building,

which dominates
the tiny Croatian village
of Kumrovec.

which dominates
the tiny Croatian village
of Kumrovec.

[Branko
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter]
Today, when I'm standing
in front of this building,

I feel nostalgia,
strong nostalgia.

Looking at it now,
my heart aches.

I'd really like for this
to change what has happened
during the last 40 years.

[narrator] Back then,

[narrator] Back then,

Croatia was part
of the Federal People's
Republic of Yugoslavia,

formed at the end
of the Second World War.

This union
of fractious Balkan states

was headed up
by communist leader

Josip Broz Tito.

Tito's brand of communism,
which was known as Titoism,

had a pragmatic approach,

and it didn't try to achieve
the level of purity

that the ideology coming out
of the Soviet Union possessed.

that the ideology coming out
of the Soviet Union possessed.

[Geoff] Tito realizes
that there's a real,
you know, lack of solid

theoretical education
inside Yugoslavia.

People all say,
"Oh, we're communists,"

but they don't understand
why they're communists.

So Tito wanted
to set up a school

where they would learn
communist theory

and explain why communism
was necessary for Yugoslavia.

[narrator]
This is the Josip Broz Tito
Political School.

[narrator]
This is the Josip Broz Tito
Political School.

But why is it built here
in the backwoods of Croatia?

Town of Kumrovec was chosen
because it was Josip Broz
Tito's birthplace.

And in the 1970s,

Tito undertook
to transform Kumrovec

into a center

of Yugoslavian
political thought
and education.

[narrator] In 1981,

Tito's prized
political school opened.

Branko
and the rest of the students

would learn
their leader's philosophy

on how to keep the peace
in the Balkans.

[Michele]
And so it was a school
that was meant

to deepen people's knowledge.

It was one of the most
prestigious schools
of political learning.

[Branko
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter] I'm coming in
through the students'
entrance.

Here, on the right,
we would drop by
the reception desk.

This foyer,
or this space here,
was used for entertainment.

Dances were held here,
as well as cultural
and artistic events.

This is what remains
of the bar,

a cafe bar from another era

where wonderful stories
were told.

[narrator]
Yugoslavia's brightest minds
were trained here.

[Branko
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter]
This smaller room
is used for general studying,

[interpreter]
This smaller room
is used for general studying,

and if a few students wanted
to discuss specific topics,

these booths here
were used for that.

We jokingly called them
The Confessionals.

[narrator]
The students had
privileged access to resources

that were denied to many
in Yugoslavia at that time.

[Branko
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter]
We are now in the great hall,

which was used for lectures
and film screenings.

Here, we can see
a big pile of books.

It is mainly
Marxist literature.

We studied them all.

By finishing
at the political school,

you didn't formally get
a higher degree,

you were simply
trained to work
for the Communist Party.

[Sascha] The men
who passed through here

[Sascha] The men
who passed through here

went on to prominent positions
in the Yugoslav
political apparatus.

[narrator] This place
started out with the intention
to keep the peace.

So how did it get embroiled
in a bitter war?

[narrator] In Croatia,

a dilapidated, hollow shell
was once a political school

for Yugoslavia's
elite communists.

[Branko
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter]
We lived in an era
when we didn't know

there were any other options.

However, injustice
has always existed.

However, injustice
has always existed.

[narrator]
The school's founder,
dictator Josip Tito,

didn't live to see
his dream play out.

Tito died a year
before the school opened.

And with Tito's death,

this idea
of a Yugoslavia united
under the rule

of this communist strongman
started to decline.

And the school
was also beginning to wither.

[narrator] With Tito gone,

Yugoslavia's member states
no longer wanted to fund
his political school.

Yugoslavia's member states
no longer wanted to fund
his political school.

But like Yugoslavia itself,

it managed to survive
another decade.

After the school shut in 1990,
it was first taken over
by the interior ministry

and subsequently
by the defense ministry.

[Branko
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter]
In the autumn of 1990,

soldiers started coming here
to be trained
into elite Croatian troops.

soldiers started coming here
to be trained
into elite Croatian troops.

[Geoff]
This is a time when
Yugoslavia is breaking up,

it's being torn
by these ethnic fissures

between its groups,
the Serbs, the Croats,
the Slovenes and others,

and particularly in Croatia.

[narrator] In 1991,
a bitter war broke out.

[Geoff]
Things get rapidly worse
when the civil war spreads

into Croatia.

There's a huge battle
at a place called Vukovar,
the Serbs take it.

There's a huge battle
at a place called Vukovar,
the Serbs take it.

The Croatian population
then migrates back here,

and they use
this political school

as essentially a refugee camp

during
this Yugoslav civil war.

All of these dormitories
that were created
for political cadres

are now used as...
as bedrooms for refugees.

[narrator]
When the refugees
finally left in 2003,

the Croatian authorities
no longer wanted
to celebrate Titoism.

the Croatian authorities
no longer wanted
to celebrate Titoism.

And the once
prestigious school

fell into disrepair.

[Branko
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter] I'm extremely
sad that this building
is in its current state.

As we have mostly cut ties
with our communist past,
we have renounced it, too.

[Sascha] This building
and what happened in it

[Sascha] This building
and what happened in it

influenced the minds
of hundreds,
perhaps thousands,

many of whom still occupy
positions of power
in the former Yugoslavia.

So its influence continues
to live on even
after the building

itself had been abandoned.

[narrator] In a suburb
of New York City,

a boarded-up building hides
an illustrious past.

There's this well-designed
red brick building.

It looks pretty
self-contained.

[Jim] It could be a factory
or maybe even some kind
of old Victorian workhouse

out of a Dickens novel.

[Alicia] There was
a lot of care that went
into these beautiful arches

and lovely brick design.
So there was obviously
something

that was really
important here.

[narrator] The surrounding
geography could help
to unlock this site.

[narrator] The surrounding
geography could help
to unlock this site.

The rivers actually run
on both sides of all
of these structures.

So these structures
essentially form
their own little island.

It looks like some
of the areas are flooded,

almost as if the site
was designed to be flooded.

[narrator] Inside is even
more confounding.

[Alicia] There's this chaotic
industrial mix of things,

you have these pipes
and... and machines that seem
to be all over the place.

you have these pipes
and... and machines that seem
to be all over the place.

[Jim] Everything
appears oversized.

This place was the target
of an awful lot of ambitious
engineering.

This facility was
at the vanguard
of technology at a time

when these advances really
could save thousands of lives.

[narrator] How did this
collection of ruined
structures keep

the residents of this whole
region healthy and safe...

the residents of this whole
region healthy and safe...

...and also
enable the creation
of a process

that would save countless
lives around the world?

[narrator] In Hackensack,
New Jersey,

a derelict complex is crammed
with rusting technology.

Local historian Elaine Gold
knows that the two rivers
flowing round

this site have long dictated
its function.

this site have long dictated
its function.

[Elaine] This was a mill site
from even pre-rev war era

that had several iterations
as a mill.

It would have been
a flour mill, sawmill,

and it was purchased
specifically for the purposes
of this facility.

[narrator] In the late
19th century, infrastructure
burgeoned across America.

And this site became
a valuable resource.

[Jim] Hackensack, New Jersey
is pretty close
to New York City,

[Jim] Hackensack, New Jersey
is pretty close
to New York City,

so as the economy boomed
after the Civil War,

the population here
boomed as well.

[Alicia] There are successive
waves of immigration,

and these people are filtering
to big cities like New York
and Hoboken, New Jersey,

and they're settling
in the outlying areas.

[narrator] With the growth
of New York, this area's
population more than doubled

in the first decade
of the 20th century.

And this was made possible
by facilities like this one.

And this was made possible
by facilities like this one.

This is the New Milford Plant
of the Hackensack
Water Company.

It was built as a result
of a contract that was signed
with the city of Hoboken

and the Hackensack Water
Company to provide water
to that city directly.

[narrator] It would mean
the expanding population
no longer had to collect

their water from local wells
or rivers.

The purpose of this facility
was to pump water
from the Hackensack River

The purpose of this facility
was to pump water
from the Hackensack River

and to service the city
of Hackensack, as well as
the city of Hoboken.

[narrator] The steam-powered
pumping station began
by siphoning water

directly from the river
and sending it straight
on to the local population.

[Elaine] We're inside
the 1882 pump house,

so this was the first
pump house constructed
on the site.

[Jim] The system contained
large pumps that could pump
a lot of water,

[Jim] The system contained
large pumps that could pump
a lot of water,

but demand kept increasing.

[narrator] It was a constant
race to build bigger
and better pumps.

This is the later part
of the additions
to the Hackensack Waterworks,

as the service area
expanded and demand increased,

height was added
to accommodate these pumps,

because they were equivalent
of a three-story building.

In 1911, the company
installed pump number seven.

This was a vertical
high service pump

This was a vertical
high service pump

and could pump as much as
20 million gallons
every single day.

[Elaine] With each rotation
of the pistons,

that was six million gallons
of water pumped.

[Alicia]
You can almost imagine

how loud this place would
have been during work time.

I mean, you would
have the clanking
of machinery,

the hissing of steam
and the sounds
of all of these pumps

running at capacity.

running at capacity.

This plant was operating
at a phenomenal scale.

[narrator]
But there was a problem.

In the early years
of the plant's operation,

there were lots of complaints
about the quality
of the water.

Newspapers stated
that the water was discolored
and also tasted fishy.

[narrator]
The company had to act.

The Board of Health actually
went upstream to investigate,

and they found chicken yards
and pig farms.
And they realized that

and they found chicken yards
and pig farms.
And they realized that

all of this excrement
and material was making
its way into the river.

[narrator]
The issue of contamination
didn't stop there

as an influx of immigration

caused overcrowding
in and around
the New York City area.

In every major city
in history,
diseases have spread

because of contamination
of the water.

Cholera, typhus
and other diseases killed
an enormous number of people.

[narrator]
The Hackensack Water Company
had to figure out

how to prevent this
from happening
to their water supply.

[Alicia] It's really
impossible to overestimate

how important water treatment
was to Americans at this time.

This place is really
a time capsule

to that
kind of scientific innovation.

[narrator] This neglected site
would be forced
to break new ground

[narrator] This neglected site
would be forced
to break new ground

and become more
than just a pumping station.

[Jaega] The laboratories here
would come up with a solution,

and these processes
would be used all
around the world.

[narrator] At the turn
of the 20th century,

the Hackensack Water Company
was struggling to keep
its water supply clean.

One building on the site shows
how water engineers came up
with a revolutionary

treatment process
to deal with this.

[Elaine] This is
the filtration building.

Water would have traveled
through sand pits
and filtered down

Water would have traveled
through sand pits
and filtered down

into holding tanks and then
been pumped out
for general public use.

[narrator] Unseen bacteria
in the water
could prove deadly.

So in 1908, the Hackensack
Plant became one of the first
in the U.S.

to use chlorine to disinfect
its water.

But it didn't really do
anything to solve the issue
of the bad taste

and odor of this water.

[narrator] Another process
had to be added.

[Jaega] The chief scientist
for the Hackensack company

knew that activated carbon
had the ability to remove

contaminants in a process
called absorption.

[narrator] When any form
of carbon is heated
to a high temperature,

it leaves a very fine powder
called activated carbon.

It would remove
a lot of the contaminants

that caused bad odor
and bad taste.

that caused bad odor
and bad taste.

In 1931, this water treatment
plant was the first to use

this activated carbon
in a municipal water supply.

By 1943, there were over 1,200
water treatment plants,

around the world
using this technique.

[narrator] Over the following
decades, the waterworks
continued to expand.

By the 1960s, the Hackensack
Water Company was actually
putting out a maximum

By the 1960s, the Hackensack
Water Company was actually
putting out a maximum

output of 100 trillion gallons
of water per year.

[narrator] But
Hackensack's New Milford Plant

eventually fell victim
to its own success.

To meet the ever-increasing
demand for clean water,

they had to build a larger
facility that wouldn't fit
on the original site.

In May of 1990, all treatment
and pumping at the New Milford
Plant had ceased.

[narrator] Elaine Gold
wants to commemorate
Hackensack's role

in building the modern world.

We are eager to reactivate
the site in a combination
of both

museum and public park.

[Jaega] This building really
is a testament to what
can be achieved

when you trust science
and technology and put
people's health

and wellbeing first.

[narrator] In Mexico,
an extensive collection
of ruins

juts through dense jungle.

[Lynette]
You've got to break through
that rainforest canopy

and only then can you start
to see signs of human
habitation.

[narrator] As you explore
this site, it soon
becomes apparent

that this was once
an extensive city.

that this was once
an extensive city.

[Lynette] Thousands of people,
tens of thousands of people,
interacted here day by day.

But when they left,
the forest returned.

[narrator] Traces of former
residents hint
at a complex society.

[Alicia] All over this place,
you can find these epitaphs,

but it's almost impossible
to decipher them.

[narrator] This remote,
overgrown site lay hidden
for centuries.

[narrator] This remote,
overgrown site lay hidden
for centuries.

And even today,
it's slow to yield
its secrets.

But all around are hints
of sacrifice,
violence and conflict.

When did the last person leave
and why did they go?

[narrator]
Today, archeologists like
Adriana Velázquez Morlet

decode the secrets
of this place,

decode the secrets
of this place,

which was abandoned
more than 1,000 years ago.

It's the work of the ancient
Mayan civilization.

[Adriana
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter]
Mayan cities had great
technicians,

who strived for architectural
and stylistic perfection.

[narrator] Despite its size,
this far away city was not
rediscovered until 1931,

when an American biologist
spotted it from the air.

when an American biologist
spotted it from the air.

This lost world is Calakmul,

one of the largest
and most powerful
Mayan cities.

[Adriana
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter] Calakmul was
a vast city with as many as
30,000 or 40,000,

maybe even 50,000 people.

[narrator] As the early
archeologists cut through
the jungle,

they came across
Calakmul's pyramid,

they came across
Calakmul's pyramid,

the highest
in the Mayan world.

[Adriana
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter] These very tall
buildings were built
to validate

and legitimize
the power of royal rulers.

So this became
the center of political power,

but it didn't only
have a religious
and commemorative function.

They are also necropolises,
because they are the burial
place of rulers.

Several graves have been found
here.

The most important one
was Yuknoom Yich'aak K'aak,

one of the most important
rulers of Calakmul.

one of the most important
rulers of Calakmul.

This king's name translates
to "Claw of Fire".

And at the age of 36,
he took possession
of the throne.

When Claw of Fire took over,

he inherited the really
rather large and powerful
Snake Kingdom.

This kingdom,
this Snake Kingdom, extended
for miles around this place.

[narrator] Claw of Fire
ascended to the throne
of the Snake Kingdom

[narrator] Claw of Fire
ascended to the throne
of the Snake Kingdom

in 686 A.D.

So what happened to put
an end to his vast
and powerful dominion?

[narrator]
A lost world in the Mexican
rainforest was once

the thriving capital
of the legendary Mayan king,
Claw of Fire.

Here, a series of engraved
stelae could help
archeologists figure out

what happened
to this once mighty kingdom.

what happened
to this once mighty kingdom.

[Adriana
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter] These are five
out of almost 120 stelae

that have been recorded
here at Calakmul so far.

They're important because
they record moments in
political life of the rulers,

as well as those of the divine
lords of Calakmul.

[narrator] Further ruins
unearthed at the site

reveal more about
how the Calakmul kings
governed their people.

reveal more about
how the Calakmul kings
governed their people.

Two structures work in tandem
to track the sun and identify

significant dates
in a sophisticated calendar.

[Adriana
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter]
The Mayans are well-known

for their excellent knowledge
of both time and stars.

[Lynette] You are effectively
in an enormous astronomical
observatory.

These guys are mathematical
geniuses.

[narrator] But unlike those
at any other Mayan site,
the murals of Calakmul

[narrator] But unlike those
at any other Mayan site,
the murals of Calakmul

gave archeologists unique
insight into what went
on here.

[Alicia] Some of the ornate
murals and decorations that
are inside these structures,

they are depicting
the everyday life of ordinary
citizens of Calakmul.

[Adriana
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter]
Calakmul is the only place

where wall paintings
have been found

talking about daily life
and everyday life at a market.

So that's why Calakmul's
murals are so unique.

So that's why Calakmul's
murals are so unique.

[narrator] They help decode
one set of Calakmul's ruins

that, before the discovery,
made little sense.

[Adriana
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter] Archeological
research conducted here
seems to indicate

that this place known
as Chiik Nahb may
have been a marketplace.

[narrator] The Mayans used
trade to keep the peace,

along with a more savage
form of diplomacy.

[Adriana
speaking in foreign language]

[Adriana
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter] We are
at the ballgame court,

the only one we know about
in the city.

They played ball
when there was a victory
during a war.

That's to say, it was not just
amusement or sport,

it was a very important ritual
for the political
and social life of the city.

[Lynette]
This game was very energetic,
very vigorous, very colorful,

and quite possibly, deadly.

[narrator] Yet despite
its violent nature,

the Mayans used the game
to diffuse conflict.

But in the late 1990s,
at the edge of the site,

archeologists discovered
something troubling.

[Lynette] There is a defensive
wall built around this place.

You don't build a wall
like this unless you're really
trying to keep people out

because they are coming
to kill you and burn
your town.

because they are coming
to kill you and burn
your town.

This wall is there to stop

this city from going up
in flames.

[narrator] For more than
100 years, Claw of Fire's
predecessors had consistently

won battles against
Calakmul's main rival,
the city of Tikal.

[Adriana
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter]
Tikal and Calakmul
were two rival cities

because they were the two
superpowers of the Mayan
classical era.

because they were the two
superpowers of the Mayan
classical era.

They rivaled each other
in political power,
territorial control,

alliances and architectural
grandiosity.

There were many wars
between Tikal and Calakmul.

The relationship between
these two cities has always
been one of conflict.

[narrator]
And in the late 7th century,
in Calakmul,

the young Claw of Fire
was flexing his muscles.

His opposite number
was another young gun,

His opposite number
was another young gun,

the king of Tikal known
as God That Clears the Sky.

They were both relatively
young rulers when they came
into power,

and they had a lot to prove,
but they also potentially
had quite a lot to lose.

[narrator] In 695, they faced
each other in battle.

These two cities are going
to try to destroy one another.

[narrator]
In previous conflicts,
Calakmul had been victorious.

But this time, Claw of Fire's
warriors were beaten by Tikal.

[Adriana
speaking in foreign language]

[interpreter]
I believe this was definitive
in beginning to define

the destiny of Calakmul.

Because it was a severe defeat
that started to change

the political landscape
in the Mayan region.

[narrator] Archeologists
now believe that Claw of Fire

[narrator] Archeologists
now believe that Claw of Fire

lived out the rest of his days
in Calakmul.

The city itself continued
to grow,

but it never ended
its rivalry with Tikal.

And in the 8th century,
the population began to wane.

And soon after 900 A.D.,
it lay abandoned.

Archeologists remain
convinced

Archeologists remain
convinced

that many of Calakmul's
secrets are still hidden.

Their hope is that what lies
beneath the teeming jungle
could hold the key

to understanding
how Claw of Fire's
Snake Kingdom died out.