Original subtitles

[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.