Original subtitles

[rugged music plays]

[low growling]

I'm deep in the jungles of Chiapas, Mexico,

in front of one of the largest stone arches in the world.

It's known as Arco del Tiempo, or the Arch of Time.

Sounds like the title of an Indiana Jones movie,

but by traveling through it, we may be able to solve

a mystery worthy of Indy himself,

the fate of a vanished civilization known as the Zoque.

If you've never heard of the Zoque, you're not alone.

But 3,000 years ago, well before the Aztecs

or the height of the Maya, it was the Zoque that may have

laid the groundwork for their empires,

building monumental temples and cities,

and forging connections to animal spirits in

deep underground caverns they believed were portals

to the underworld.

But then, their civilization collapsed.

Their once magnificent cities abandoned,

their once grand culture reduced to whispered legends,

and no one is sure why.

To modern observers, the Zoque seem to have simply

up and vanished.

But now, an archaeologist is conducting a bold search

near a former Zoque capital for evidence of uncharted ruins.

And an expert researcher and climber is hunting for

lost caves in the dangerous depths

of the Mexican jungle to reveal

where the Zoque went and what became of them.

So join me on an adventure beyond the Arch of Time

and into the distant past as we search for the truth behind

Mexico's mysterious Zoque.

[Josh] The past is all around us.

-[overlapping shouting] -Whoa! It's working!

[Josh] A world of mystery...

This is the Thunderbolt! Yeah!

[Josh] ...danger...

-Fire in the hole! -[explosion blasts]

Whoa!

[Josh] ...and adventure.

That's gold!

Oh! Oh!

Look at this place.

[Josh] I travel to the far corners of the earth

to uncover where legends end... -Yeah!

[indistinct shouting, laughing]

[Josh] ...and history begins.

OK, let's punch it.

I'm Josh Gates, and this is "Expedition Unknown."

My mission to uncover who the Zoque were

and what happened to them, starts in southern Mexico.

While the days of the Zoque erecting massive cities may be

long gone, their descendants are still

very much around.

Over 50,000 modern Zoque live in the state of Chiapas,

many speaking a form of the original Zoque language.

Today, the center of Zoque life is here in the town of

Ocozocoautla de Espinosa, or Coita if you're looking to

save a few vowels.

Established by the Spanish during the Colonial era,

it is now home to the annual Zoque Carnival,

where the old ways of life are still on full display.

And lucky for us, we're here just in time for the party.

As the last day to let loose before the beginning of Lent,

Carnival is celebrated all over the world.

And whether you're in New Orleans or Rio or Chiapas,

there's nothing like Fat Tuesday.

Here in Coita, this Catholic celebration has been

uniquely infused with traditions from a culture

older than Christianity itself.

Each of these dances are tied to a different Catholic saint,

but it's a mishmash of symbolism and cultures,

much of it dating back to a time when

the Zoque were the real power in this region.

Exhibit A is making its way into the plaza now,

and it looks like it means business.

So these performers are dressed as jaguars.

This is the dance of the jaguars and the monkeys.

The dance depicts a fight between good and evil.

Evil in this case is the Jaguar,

a dark cave-dwelling embodiment of the underworld.

The good guys -- those are the monkeys, who, along with

a hunter, are here to take down the big cat.

-[gunshot blasts] -[crowd] Oh!

[Josh] The hunt is a success, and the Jaguar is vanquished

to the underworld.

Another pre-Catholic tradition here honors

the ancient god of corn, Homshuk.

The modern Zoque honor him at Carnival by weaponizing

copious amounts of corn flour,

which quickly gets... -Ahhh!

...off the cob.

Two can play at that game.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah! -[screaming]

[Josh] Actually, it turns out a lot more than two

can play at this game.

[indistinct shouting]

Truce! Truce!

Truce!

[Josh] Hey, all is fair in love and corn.

No, no, no, no, no. Hey!

[overlapping screams]

[Josh] Fortunately, this activity also includes

the consumption of alcohol.

Anyone know what's in these?

Opa!

[Josh] It's joyous, it's colorful, and by the end of it,

I look like an extra on the set of "Scarface."

[indistinct chatter, laughter]

This is brutal.

Total...

[laughter]

...cornage [carnage].

It may seem like chaos, and it is --

I have the laundry bill to prove it.

But it's also tradition,

one with elements that stretch back to

the original ancient Zoque.

But who were they?

Why do we know so little about them?

And where on earth did they go?

The answers to our questions can't be found here.

By the light of a new day, I shake off the dust,

pop a couple of aspirin, and hit the road.

OK, bad news is I have a splitting headache,

but the good news is I have enough corn flour on my body

that I don't think I'm ever gonna sweat again.

But if we're going to crack the mystery of the Zoque,

we have to leave the modern world in the rearview mirror.

Here we go.

It's a nearly three-hour drive 75 miles south

into the Sierra Madre Mountains.

2,300 feet up sits the Zoque's last great city,

home to one of the most significant

Zoque archaeological sites ever discovered.

Iglesia Vieja.

OK...

Things might get a little, uh...

little bumpy.

Whoo-hoo!

And now I'm driving in sand. All right.

Four-wheel drive. Whoo-hoo!

There we go!

Boy, the Zoque really went for some out-of-the-way

real estate here.

Even bad roads must come to an end, and I finally approach

the site of Iglesia Vieja, or in English, "Old Church."

The ruins were actually misnamed during

the Spanish Colonial era, thanks to large blocks

that looked like the foundation of a church.

It was only later that archaeologists realized

they'd stumbled upon something much older

and much, much bigger.

I stare in amazement at not one building or two or three,

but the ruins of a major ancient city.

And here to explain it is an archaeologist who's been

studying the Zoque for years, Arcelia Garcia.

[Arcelia] Welcome to Iglesia Vieja.

-[Josh] It's a jaw-dropper. -[Arcelia] Yeah.

-So this is a Zoque pyramid? -[Arcelia] It is.

This is the largest pyramid in the archaeological site.

-Which is how big? -300 feet long.

That's all, just a 300-foot-long pyramid.

And look at the size of these blocks.

[Arcelia] Yes, this is megalithic construction.

These blocks are made of granite.

Some are as heavy as two tons.

OK, I have a lot of questions about the Zoque.

OK, ask away.

I've just come from Carnival, so the only thing I really know

about them is they know how to throw a party.

But I want to understand the original, the OG Zoque.

Yeah -- to really understand this culture, we have to go

from the modern Zoque to the ancient Zoque.

[Josh] When it comes to the rock stars of Mesoamerica,

nobody has better brand recognition or merch than

the mighty Aztecs.

And hey, we all still marvel at the killer cities of the Maya.

But long before either of them took center stage,

there was one indie band

that deserved to be headlining, the Zoque.

2,000 years before the Aztecs, when the Olmec were busy

turning boulders into giant stone heads on the Gulf Coast,

here on the Pacific side, as early as 1200 BC,

the Zoque were building a civilization of their own.

By 400 BC, the Olmec are in decline --

sorry, guys --

while the Zoque are still going strong.

That's a solid millennium on the world stage.

Hey, even the Roman Empire didn't make it that long.

Yet most people have never heard of the Zoque.

So let's talk about why we should know them.

-Mm-hmm. -You know, when I think about pyramids in the Americas,

I think of the Maya.

But here are the Zoque doing this earlier.

Yes, absolutely.

They're also one of the first cultures to master large-scale

agriculture, meaning corn, cacao, what we know now

as chocolate. -[Josh] Right.

And by the way, cacao is a Zoque word.

-It is? -[Arcelia] Yes.

OK, so every time at the holidays,

I have a hot cup of cocoa, I can thank the Zoque.

You can thank the Zoque.

And there's a lot more here. Let me show you.

[Josh] How many different structures are here at the site?

We have 80 buildings in the archaeological site.

-[Josh] Eight-zero? -[Arcelia] Eight-zero.

[Josh] We move through the ceremonial plazas of the city with

pyramids and terraces that once had huge stone

administrative buildings, temples, and markets.

It's a layout that feels familiar,

and that's because the Maya civilization

adopted it almost identically.

But that's not nearly all the Maya learned

from the Zoque.

This cross in ancient Mexico and Central America represents

the planet Venus. -[Josh] Venus.

[Arcelia] Yes.

When I think about astronomy in this part of the world,

I think about the Maya.

Of course, but here you have one of the earliest

civilizations in Mesoamerica already having a symbol

of a planet. -Insane.

One of the first calendars in Mesoamerica?

Not Maya, it was Zoque.

Not to mention, some of the most sacred symbols

we associate with the Maya seem to have been here first.

This is all carved?

[Arcelia] Yeah, so you can see the fang,

you're seeing the eyes...

[Josh] Oh, right, so two eyes, and then this is the mouth,

and these are fangs? -[Arcelia] Yeah, the nose.

[Josh] And the nose is right there, those are the nostrils.

-[Arcelia] Right, exactly. -[Josh] So what is this?

-Well, we think it's a jaguar. -Jaguar.

I mean, a really fearsome-looking creature.

Animal motifs in general are very important for the Zoque,

but the jaguar was very important because he was

connected to the underworld, to the night, to death,

to fertility, and water.

-He's connected to all of that? -[Arcelia] Yeah.

Kind of a deity for all seasons.

Inclusion of the jaguar demonstrates that the Zoque

purposefully designed every detail of Iglesia Vieja,

right down to the landscaping.

-Watch your head there. -Very dangerous-looking tree.

Yes, this is the Ceiba tree.

-Ceiba? -Yes.

OK.

[Arcelia] It was a very important tree for the Zoque

because it connected the three levels of the cosmos.

The leaves connected to the heavens, the trunk of

the tree connected to Earth,

and the roots go underground to the underworld.

[Josh] The roots go to the underworld because that's where

the water is.

In fact, the Zoque believed that the underworld was the source

of water itself.

The Ceiba tree's resin, called copal,

was sacred as well, burned as incense in their rituals.

And across the plaza is another Zoque design flourish,

this one startlingly personal. -Something here.

-Is that -- is that a hand? -[Arcelia] Yeah.

So somebody put their hand here and then carved out

this print? -Yeah.

That's wild. And why do we think?

We don't know.

Could have been a builder, could have been an important

person to the society. We don't know.

I mean, you talk about reaching into the past, right?

-Right. -[Josh] Wow.

That's really cool.

This handprint is like a long-faded signature of

the once mighty Zoque. But where did they go?

Arcelia brings me to meet an archaeologist who's working

on solving that mystery right at this moment.

And he happens to be an old friend of mine.

-Josuhé! -Hey, yo!

-It's nice to see you again. -[Josh] Great to see you, man.

How are you?

This is the director of the Iglesia Vieja project,

Josuhé Lozada.

Last time I saw you, we found a lost city.

-Sac Balam. -How amazing was that?

An incredible adventure.

[Josh] The last city of the Maya in Mexico,

known as Sac Balam, was lost for hundreds of years,

until Josuhé's team and I rediscovered it.

Hey, stone, right there!

Yes, I think we finding Sac Balam.

-You do? -Yes, for sure.

-Now the Zoque. -That's right.

[Josh] But finding the Zoque won't be easy.

In front of us is a mysterious altar,

along with another jaguar image,

which the Zoque seemed rather obsessed with,

are three enigmatic faces.

So who are these three people?

There is a theory that these faces were related with

the first rulers in Iglesia Vieja.

[Josh] Incredible.

Have any Zoque kings or elite burials been found?

Several years ago, another Zoque site named

Chiapa de Corzo, -Uh-huh.

the archaeologists found an elite burial.

[Josh] Almost 175 miles away and dating to 1200 BC,

Chiapa de Corzo is, in many ways, the birthplace of

the Zoque story.

3,000 years ago, this thriving city was one of the first urban

centers in the Americas, establishing the early Zoque as

a major cultural force.

In the middle of the site sits a now ruined pyramid,

and in 2010, archaeologists there made

a jaw-dropping find, the remains of a couple adorned

with jewelry and surrounded by offerings.

It is the oldest pyramid tomb in Mesoamerica and the only

Zoque royal burial ever discovered.

Back here at Iglesia Vieja, Josuhé has set up

an excavation pit in front of this pyramid.

And while he hasn't yet found a burial, he has uncovered

a crucial clue to what happened to its builders.

-[Josuhé] This is called Fine Orange. -Fine Orange, OK.

-And when does it date to? -It's about 700 AD.

700 AD. OK.

So they've been in Iglesia Vieja for 900 years?

-900 years, yes. -OK.

And there is something very interesting about this pottery

because it's related with the last years of

Iglesia Vieja.

And it's not just in Iglesia Vieja.

Other excavations in the Zoque world

show this apparent expiration date

of around 700 AD.

So no pottery gets made after around 700 AD.

And in the digs here, there's no evidence of

a destruction layer. -Mnh-mnh.

-There's no evidence of burning the city or weapons. -[Arcelia] No.

-[Josuhé] No. -We don't find spear points and things.

-No -- it's like they just disappear. -Wow.

-So this is like the final clue, the final piece... -[Josuhé] The final clue.

-[Arcelia] Yeah. -...of their world before they vanish.

Yes, that is the big mystery of the Zoque.

What happened and where did they go?

[Josh] To unravel that, archaeologists need to

understand how many Zoque were here and how large-scale

this abandonment really was.

Unfortunately, we don't even know the full extent

of the ruins.

So wait, there are parts of this city

that have not been seen?

Only 20% of the ruins are uncovered, and there are maybe

structures that we don't even know about.

-And how do we find those? -Same as we find Sac Balam.

-LIDAR. -That's right.

[Josh] Josuhé is ready to scan, so we summit one peak of

a twin pyramid to meet a team led by Jorge Olivares Rivera.

-Nice to meet you. -Mucho gusto.

-Nice to meet you. -[Josh] Alejandro.

So we have a very impressive-looking drone here.

-And what's the payload? -It's a modular LIDAR unit.

Produces 240,000 lasers per second.

[Josh] LIDAR collects literally hundreds of millions

of data points.

It even allows the team to digitally remove

the jungle canopy to see what's beneath.

Josuhé is hoping the scan will reveal as yet undiscovered

Zoque structures, which may contain clues as to what

happened here around 700 AD and where the people fled to.

Have you done LIDAR here before?

Never before. It's the first time.

-This is the first time ever? -Yes.

OK. And so how much of this site

are you going to be able to scan?

Todos.

Todos. All of it?

-200 acres. -200 acres.

OK. So, should we fly?

-Let's do it. -Let's do it. Come on.

[Josh] For over a thousand years, the true extent of

Iglesia Vieja has been hidden away,

now we're one step closer to unlocking its secrets.

OK -- up, up, and away.

This LIDAR drone is scanning the ruins of Iglesia Vieja,

a one-time capital of the Zoque, who thrived for over

a millennium in western Mexico, until one day

they abandoned their major cities.

-It's going to fly lanes, right? -Yeah.

How many?

-About 30. -[Josh] 30 lanes.

OK. Starting mission. Here we go.

Archaeologist Josuhé Lozada has been exploring and excavating

here for clues about where the Zoque went.

The drone scans down through the foliage for the next hour.

We're hoping it detects undiscovered sections

of the city.

Mission is complete.

-Time to land. -OK, let's land it.

[Josh] Its pre-programmed route finished, Jorge brings

the drone back in for a landing, then transfers

the data onto his laptop for analysis.

OK, so...

did it work? -Oh, yes.

OK, great. What have we got?

Wow. OK, so here's our site.

And when you look at the canopy,

you know, you probably would think there's nothing here.

Yeah, we're right on top of the mountains.

Now for the magic trick. Can you take away the canopy?

-Yeah, just one click. -This is my favorite part.

Yeah.

-Oh, wow! -Come on!

[Josh] Without the trees in the way, the construction is

immediately apparent.

The pyramids and plazas I've walked through

are clearly outlined.

You don't realize it standing here, but these plazas are all

just perched on the edge of these cliffs. -Yeah.

Yes, it's a natural mountain, but modified by the Zoque.

They have taken the tops of these mountains

and planed them off. -To build a city.

[Josh] To build a city.

The engineering is mind-boggling.

But what Josuhé is focused on are the areas outside of

the city center.

How big is Iglesia Vieja really?

-Can we zoom in on that? -Yeah.

-[Josuhé & Arcelia] Wow. -What is that?

This is something new. There are many structures here.

[Josh] Is this a platform?

[Josuhé] Yes, we can see the perfect shape.

[Josh] Right, it's totally squared off on this edge.

-And what is this? -[Josuhé] There are some terraces.

[Josh] So it terraces down here and here.

-I mean, nobody has seen that? -No, nobody.

[Josh] These terraces that once held Zoque structures haven't been

seen since the evacuation of Iglesia Vieja.

Wait, is that a new part of the site?

-This is new structure. -[Arcelia] Wow.

I mean, that's -- that's nuts!

[Josh] This is historic.

New sections of this capital, dozens of acres of it,

finally rediscovered.

And hidden within may be the keys to learning

where the Zoque went.

Can you give us an exact coordinate for these places?

I want to see if there's something here.

We can use the GPS to go to the exact spot.

-Let's do it. -[Arcelia] Oh, yeah.

Let's see what this is.

[Josh] With the GPS coordinates in hand, we hike into

the overgrown jungle.

-How far? -500 feet from here.

-500 feet, OK. -[Josuhé] Yeah.

[Josh] This is tough.

-[blade scraping] -No wonder nobody's found this place.

-[Josuhé] We should be here. -[Josh] OK, eyes open.

[Josuhé] Very close.

[Josh] What is this? Here, here, here, here.

-[Arcelia] Yeah. -[Josuhé] There is something here.

-Look at this -- oh, my God. -[Josh] It's a wall!

[Josh] Look at this!

This is the edge of a terrace, yes?

[Josuhé] Yes, of course.

[Josh] Exactly. Nobody has seen

this construction in, what, 1,300 years?

-[Arcelia] Exactly. -[Josuhé] 1,300 years.

The uncovered part of Iglesia Vieja.

-Yes. -[Josh] This is unbelievable.

Look at this place!

Have you found these before?

It's the first time that we saw something like this.

-Maybe it's the base of a home. -Right.

[Josuhé] It's a domestic area.

[Josh] Here it is.

Proof of more structures in Iglesia Vieja.

Not temples or pyramids, but the actual homes of

Zoque families.

So the theory is that they would have built these

little homes on these terraces, yeah? -[Arcelia] Yeah -- yeah.

-Yes. -They weren't living in the ceremonial center.

They would be living here, outside the city.

Based on the LIDAR, these terraces go

all the way down here. -Yeah.

-That's right. -So there could be countless platforms for homes here.

[Josh] This area would have been covered with Zoque homes,

all surrounding the city center that would have been

the heart of public life.

Finding these homes drastically changes

Josuhé's understanding of Iglesia Vieja.

Before, we estimate about 10,000 people

that live in Iglesia Vieja.

But now, with this new data, I think the number is low.

So you think there may be more people here?

There is so much we still have to find.

[Josh] In fact, with so many terraces surrounding the city,

the population may even be double

what was previously thought.

This also means the abandonment here was major --

a massive emptying of a thriving urban center.

But can this help solve the mystery of why they left,

where they went? -Some of the answers we are

looking for may be buried here in the city.

But it's gonna take generations to excavate

and uncover all of these areas. -So where does that leave us?

There is another place called Rio La Venta Canyon.

And what is this place?

There is evidence of Zoque presence there.

[Josh] La Venta Canyon lies deep in the mountains

northwest of Iglesia Vieja.

Filled with deep ravines and endless caves,

it was a sacred pilgrimage site for the Zoque for more than

a thousand years.

If you wanted to make an entire city disappear, this would be

the place to do it.

And we have some new reports.

Mm! New reports? What do you mean?

So there are some ranchers there, some farmers who live

there, and they informed us that they saw some caves

that have never been explored before.

-OK. -And they might contain artifacts from the Zoque.

This place is near here or far?

-Oh, it's far. -Are you up for it?

With you, Josuhé? Always.

[Josh] The world of the ancient Zoque, once consisted so neatly for me

within Iglesia Vieja, is about to get much, much bigger.

The next morning, Josuhé, Arcelia, and I pack up

the 4x4 to begin a journey into the sacred and unexplored

wilderness of the Zoque.

All right, so we're leaving the coast behind here...

-Mm-hmm. -...and we are headed into the interior.

And what's it like there?

I assume it's more mountainy, yeah?

Yeah, it's very rugged there.

It's a tropical savanna, so it splits between

a very wet season and a very dry season. -OK.

[Josh] The Chiapas region provides a third of all of

Mexico's water, which is one of the reasons this place

was so sacred to the Zoque.

It's the reason we saw so many jaguar images back at

Iglesia Vieja, the fearsome symbol of the underworld,

which the Zoque saw as the source of life-giving water.

Lucky for us, there's no rain in the forecast.

And it's dry now, right? This is the dry season.

Yes, this is the dry season.

And it has been a very dry season.

[Josh] And the drive is about how long?

About three hours in this direction.

[Josh] Three hours into the mountains.

Here we go.

We'll be traveling nearly 80 miles into

the undulating canyons of Chiapas.

At the end of the road, we'll be hiking a day to

the La Venta Canyon,

and then we'll follow the river for another day

toward the location where farmers have reported

uncharted caves.

This is us.

-We're on foot from here. -That's it.

[Josh] We grab our packs and get ready to sweat.

Luckily, Josuhé has arranged for some four-legged backup.

-Hola. -Buenos dias.

-Abraham? Josh. -Como estan?

-Mucho gusto. -Buenos dias.

OK, so does this mean we get to ride there?

-No, for the gear. -It's for the gear.

A guy can dream. All right, we got a lot of gear.

-Should we load it up? -Yeah.

[Josh] OK, let's do it. Come on.

The animals will haul supplies as far as they can and then

leave depots for us to return to on the hike back out.

The jungle immediately envelops us, and for the first time,

I realize just how off the grid we're going to be.

What else is out here with us?

This is a biosphere reserve, so there's a lot of diversity

of animals, anywhere from wild boar to jaguars.

A lot of jaguars here?

Yeah, there's a healthy population of jaguars.

Wow.

But what you really need to worry about is the nauyaca.

It is a very venomous and aggressive snake.

We would call that a fer-de-lance.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

One of them tried to kill me a few years ago.

-Really? -Yeah, yeah, it was great.

That's the only venomous snake here?

-[Arcelia] No, there are others. -[Josuhé] There are more.

There's always others.

-All right, well, here we go. -[Arcelia] OK. Let's go.

I'm always sorry I asked.

[Josh] But here at the start of our hike, it's not the snakes

I need to worry about.

Oh, boy.

[Josuhé] Oh, wow.

Well, we can use the bridge to cross the river.

Sure, yeah, the bridge from "Temple of Doom."

That sounds like a great idea. OK, who's going first?

The heaviest should go first.

All right, move. Out of my way.

Zoque wouldn't have used this bridge.

Oh, boy.

Oh, these boards are sketchy. They are just rotted out.

Got a missing board here in the middle.

Hoo-hoo.

Please don't collapse and fall. Please don't collapse and fall.

I was gonna say it's not the worst bridge

I've ever been on, but it is.

It is the worst bridge.

[Josh] I've joined archaeologists Josuhé Lozada

and Arcelia Garcia on a trek

into sacred Mexican wilderness to find answers about

the Zoque, a once powerful civilization that evacuated

their mighty cities.

Newly reported caves deep in the jungle

may offer clues to their fate.

Prepare to meet Kali.

[Josh] It's a once-in-a-lifetime trip, but hopefully

not because I'm going to die here.

OK, I'm alive, I'm alive. Here we go, we got it.

It turns out there's no shortage of jungle on

the other side of the rickety bridge,

and we trek on for hours,

moving further and further into the possible last refuge

of the Zoque.

-Are we there yet? -[Arcelia] Not even close.

[Josh] It takes the better part of a day,

but we finally reach our first major landmark.

And I do mean major.

-What is that? -That's the Arch of Time.

It is huge!

[Josh] This is Arco del Tiempo, the Arch of Time,

one of the largest rock arches on Earth.

It towers 590 feet above the La Venta River --

a river we'll need to follow to reach the Zoque Caves

deeper in the jungle.

So, how are we getting down there?

[Arcelia] We gotta rappel.

So, how far is that, you think?

-[Arcelia] Looks like 100 feet. -OK.

Luckily, we have an expert climber.

Oh, I don't know about expert. I do OK.

-I mean, you know. -I mean her.

[Josh] Oh, sure. Sorry.

Sorry. Yes, of course.

[Josh] Arcelia is, in fact, a world-class climber

who's scaled El Capitan in Yosemite

and the Cordillera Blanca in Peru.

And now our lives are in her hands.

-We got this -- we got this. -Sure.

Me -- me too. This is easy. Here we go.

[Josh] This is the end of the road for our horses,

but fortunately, they're carrying rappelling gear.

This is going to be a 100-foot drop off a crumbling ledge

perched directly above the rocky riverbank.

So, naturally, they put the harness

on me first.

Why am I going first again?

Well, you wanted to.

I do not remember it that way at all.

OK, here goes nothing.

[Arcelia] Take it nice and easy, Josh.

Looks like a big overhang.

Ah! [bleep]

OK, huge drop!

The walls of this canyon are wet and crumbling, and it goes

without saying that any accident out here

would be a disaster.

We're a day's hike from a road, let alone a hospital.

This is terrifying.

-OK, off rappel. -[Arcelia] I'm coming down, Josh.

OK.

-Oh, you OK? -[Arcelia] Whoa!

-[Josh] Are you OK? -Yeah, that was slippery.

Whoo-hoo-hoo.

-[Arcelia] Whoo! -You scared me there!

[Josh] Arcelia recovers her footing and then, rather effortlessly,

makes her way down into the limestone canyon carved by

the La Venta River over 170 million years.

That makes it over twice as old as the Grand Canyon.

-Good job. -Good job.

I thought you were gonna take the express route down

for a second. -It was slippery.

[Josh] Yeah, very slippery. OK.

Let's walk Josuhé through it.

That part's slippery, so be careful.

You got it.

[Arcelia] Watch out.

[Josuhé] Ah!

-Oh. -Oh [bleep].

Are you OK?

Are you OK?

-[Josuhé] Ugh, I am OK. -[Josh] OK.

-[Arcelia] Don't let go of the rope. -That was scary.

[Josh] Josuhé manages to make it down safely, and all three of us are

reunited on the canyon floor to take in a bucket list view.

Whoo!

-Hey, great job. -Thank you.

-Great job, yeah. -Amazing.

I mean, can we talk about this?

-[Arcelia] Look at this place. -[Josuhé] Yes, of course.

[Josh] I have never seen anything like this in my life.

-So this is the La Venta River? -[Arcelia] This is the La Venta River.

Through the arch is the land of the Zoque.

All right, into the land of the Zoque.

[Josh] Beyond the arch is one of the most sacred regions of

the ancient Zoque world, a world of

jaguars, water, and the underworld,

the holy caves that Josuhé hopes

may hold the key to learning their fate.

We follow the river and work further into the forest,

trying to make as much distance before sunset as possible,

until we stop and make camp for the night.

Josh, what do you think about being here in La Venta Canyon?

Oh, this is another world, right?

I feel like I'm hanging out with the Zoque.

You just imagine, so, them abandoning that city,

they're walking a hundred or more miles through

the jungle, all jungle, to get out to places like this.

That means you're either really desperate,

or this place is that important to you.

All these elements, like the water,

the mountain, the caves, are connected in one place that

is into La Venta Canyon. -[Josh] Right.

-So what's for dinner? -Wild boar, right?

Are you gonna go hunting or what?

Well, I have something for you.

-A spiritual drink. -Oh, boy.

-Oh, boy. -It's posh.

-[Josh] Posh? -Posh.

-Que es posh? -It's a medicine drink.

I'm sure it is. It's used to treat sobriety.

What is it made from?

-It's made with corn. -[Josh] Oh, from corn.

-Well, this is a very Zoque drink then, right? -Yeah.

The local people use the posh to cure the illness

of the soul. Do you want to try?

-Yeah, of course. -[Josuhé] OK.

Here's to our souls and to the Zoque.

-To the Zoque. -To the Zoque. Salud.

Salud.

-Wha -- hoo. -[laughing]

-What do you think? -It's um, it's good.

-Mm. -It's really good.

Do you want more?

-Yeah. -Yes, I want more. Are you kidding?

-Salud. -Salud.

Salud.

All the best.

[Josh] We awaken to a day much like yesterday.

A lot of jungle, a lot of heat, and a lot of one foot

in front of the other.

We spend hours following the river canyon until,

finally, we approach our target zone.

[Arcelia] Should be in the area.

[Josuhé] I think so.

[Arcelia] There's plenty of limestone here.

[Josh] Oh, yeah, look at that. Huge outcropping all in here.

To the Zoque, this was a place of magic.

The cave systems in this region were formed by millennia of

running water channeling through limestone rock.

We've found the limestone.

Now, we just need to find a cave.

Yeah, I mean, there's little overhangs and crevices

all throughout here.

Yeah, I'm sure there's a cave system.

Under all this?

Yes, we just need to find the entrance.

Look towards your left.

[Josh] Yeah, follow this ridge, right?

-[Arcelia] Right. -[Josuhé] Yes.

-There is something here. -[Arcelia] What do you see?

-[Josh] You see something? -I think it's a cave.

-[Josh] You see a cave? -[Josuhé] Yes, for sure.

[Josh] For sure? Where?

-[Arcelia] Yes. -[indistinct]

-[Josh] Oh-ho-ho! It's huge! -[Josuhé] Wow.

-[Josuhé] Wow! Oh, my God. -[Josh] Oh, that is a cave!

Amazing. Hey.

-[Josuhé] It's amazing. -Amazing.

That's a cave for sure.

[Josh] After two days of hiking into the jungles of

Chiapas, Mexico, we finally discovered

the entrance to a cave in a remote and unexplored area

sacred to the ancient Zoque,

a once vibrant civilization that mysteriously abandoned

their cities over 1,300 years ago.

I was picturing some little thing

we were gonna have to crawl into.

That's like, a proper cave.

The question is, is it a Zoque site?

There's only one way to find out.

[Josh] This is the moment of truth.

Josuhé leads the way into the passage.

Into the underworld. Whoa, look at this place!

[Josh] And we fan out to search for signs of the Zoque.

Anything yet? Anything?

-[Josuhé] Not yet. -Nothing here either.

[Josuhé] Oh, wow. Look at this.

[Josh] See something?

-[Josuhé] Wow! -[Josh] Oh, my God.

Ho!

-[Arcelia] Wow. -[Josh] Those are handprints.

Is this Zoque?

-Yes, it is Zoque. -How do we know that?

We have seen other handprints in caves.

This is very special, because the other ones were

made in red color.

Oh, like a red paint. And this is different.

This is what, some like charcoal or something?

Seems to be like charcoal.

[Josh] So this has not been seen before?

This is the very first time a black color painting related

with a handprint. -Wow!

[Josh] This is a major discovery.

The imagery echoes the carved handprint we saw

back in Iglesia Vieja.

These, however, were created by the Zoque holding their hands to

the cave surface and then blowing black carbon powder to

create the outlines.

It is a stunning connection

to the past in a stunning state of preservation.

-And look how clean each of the handprints are. -[Arcelia] Yeah.

Like, if these were done one at a time, then you'd see paint

kind of spilling into the other ones. -[Josuhé] Yes.

-[Arcelia] Yeah. -So it seems like maybe this was all done at one time?

Yes -- it could have been a ritual

in which six people stood with

their and then one person painted on top of them.

-A millennium ago, right here. -[Josuhé] We are here.

Right here.

And so, any idea what the function of this is?

I mean, is it art? Is it communication?

It's a portal where the Zoques could communicate with

the ancestors, with their world of spirits.

These are people that wanted to connect to the powers that

were held in this cave. -And is there more?

Like, what else is even in here?

Oh! Oh, look at this!

-[Josuhé] It's a jaguar! -[Josh] That is a jaguar!

-[Josuhé] Yes. -That is really, really clear.

Like, you can absolutely see the animal's head.

And there is another here. This is a snake.

-[Josh] That's a snake? -[Josuhé] Yes.

[Josh] Oh, is this like, an open mouth?

-[Josuhé] Yes, that is. -[Josh] Aha!

[Josh] Like the jaguar, the snake is an animal avatar of

the Zoque spirits, to whom they prayed for favor in

water and agriculture.

If this is a snake, and I think that's definitely a jaguar,

now we have, like, to, like, really important animals

and symbols for them, right? -[Arcelia] Yes.

And the jaguar has a very important symbolism

throughout Mesoamerica. -Yeah.

It is connected to the underworld,

darkness, night, fertility, and water.

And water.

[Josh] Right.

[Josuhé] Oh, look at that.

-[Josh] It's pottery. -[Josuhé] Wow.

Different colors here, too, right?

-We've got this darker pottery here... -[Josuhé] Yes.

...and then this really bright orange. -[Josuhé] Yes.

[Josh] And look, we have kind of a rim here.

This is like that fine orange pottery we saw at

Iglesia Vieja, yes? -Yes.

So this kind of pottery is dated from 650 to 900 AD.

So this is when they're leaving their cities or after

they've left? -Yes, absolutely.

Wow.

OK, so the question is, why is this pottery here?

Was this a ritual, an offering?

Well, we have to see where it was placed, and it was placed

just beneath the stalactite, where there's dripping water.

Look at that, still dripping today.

It was probably used to capture that dripping water,

that sacred water. -[Josuhé] The sacred water.

-[Josh] Wow. -And used for rituals.

So here we are, like they've abandoned their cities

and they're coming here. -Coming here.

And they're doing these rituals.

-Yes. -Yes.

If we have a cave like this, there are probably more.

-Right. -Yes.

For sure. OK, well, let's keep looking

around and see what else we see.

[Josh] The cave has revealed the presence of the Zoque,

but no answers to their decision to evacuate their cities.

The reports we received suggested there were multiple

caves here, so we head back to the surface to look for more.

So this limestone ridge goes all along here, yeah?

Yes, it does.

-[Josh] Careful, slippery in here. -Yes.

[Arcelia] Watch out for all the thorns.

-Oh, over here? -Oh, there is something here.

-Another cave. -[Josh] Is it?

-[Josuhé] Wow. -[Josh] A huge drop.

-Look at that. -[Josuhé] It's very deep.

[Arcelia] Wow.

Maybe like a 30-foot drop, 40-foot drop?

[Arcelia] Yes. Definitely bigger than the other one.

-[Josh] Yeah, much deeper. -We need ropes.

Let's rig something. Come on.

[Josh] We grab our gear and get ready for a new descent.

This one not into a bright canyon, but into

total darkness.

All right, so what's the plan?

The plan is I'm gonna go down, check it out, and you guys

are right behind me.

-I love this plan. -Sounds good.

Make sure there's no jaguars living down there.

-Oh, hopefully not. -Just let us know.

Just scream if you see anything.

OK, I'm setting my rappel.

-See you there. -[Josh] See you down there.

[Arcelia] Wow. It's big.

-Yeah, it goes further back? -[Arcelia] It goes further back.

It goes further back. OK, great.

[Arcelia] You gotta watch your step.

OK, I'm off belay. You can come down.

OK, off rappel? I'm coming down.

Here we go.

OK.

-OK, coming down. -OK, take it nice and slow.

-Will do, coming down. -[Josuhé] OK.

[Josh] Here we go.

[Josh] From here, the goal is to get to the bottom, just not as fast

as gravity wants me to.

-Deep and dark, OK. -Nice and easy, Josh.

These roots or vines or whatever they are are

super slippery. -To the left now.

-[Josh] To the left? -[Arcelia] You're doing good.

Come over here.

-Be careful on the left. -Hey!

Ooh! Oh!

OK, coming down.

[Josh] I am currently dangling by a thread over 40 feet above

the floor of an unexplored cave deep in the jungles of Mexico.

Why?

To find out what happened to the mysterious ancient Zoque.

-Be careful on the left? -[Arcelia] Be careful on the left.

Ooh! Oh!

-Oh! -[Arcelia] Oh, oh!

-[Josuhé] Are you OK? -I'm OK!

Holy [bleep].

Sorry, I slipped.

-OK. -[Arcelia] OK, we're here.

-All right. -[Arcelia] All right.

Well, that was exciting.

[Josh] Two down, one to go.

OK, nice and slow.

Good, good, good. A little further.

[Josuhé] Here we are.

Good job.

All right, we're down.

Let's see what's down here with us.

[Josuhé] Yeah.

Oh, wow.

[Josh] We're not alone in here, for sure.

-Ah, you can see bats are roosting up there. -[Arcelia] Yeah.

[Josh] Is that a chamber down there or what?

[Josuhé] Oh, it's possible. Oh, wow, there's pottery.

Oh! It's a complete pottery.

-Is it actually complete? -[Josuhé] Yes.

-[Josh] No! -[Josuhé] Oh, wow.

-[Josh] Oh, my God. -[Josuhé] Yes.

There's not a crack in it. That is perfectly preserved.

It's that fine orange Zoque pottery, yes?

Right -- and do you see the decorations?

[Josh] Yes, so this is covered in these small ceramic spikes.

Yes -- these are thorns of the ceiba tree.

Oh, the trees that we saw at --

[Josuhé] Iglesia Vieja. Yes.

[Arcelia] And there was probably here, a big stalactite, and it was

dripping water inside the vessel.

[Josh] Which it's doing still now.

A thousand-plus years later, there's water in here.

[Arcelia] Wow. The ceiba tree connected the three levels

of the universe -- the heavens,

Earth, and the underworld.

And both the ceiba tree and the cave are pathways

to the underworld. -Right.

-And maybe literally, right? -[Arcelia] Maybe.

Because look where we've come to.

-[Arcelia] Yeah. -And where this sits.

And by the way, this looks like it keeps going, like it

is a pathway. Does that go down further?

-[Josuhé] Oh, it continues. -It does?

-Really? -[Josuhé] It's so much deeper.

-[Josh] Is it a passage? -[Josuhé] Yeah, it looks like that.

-[Arcelia] Wow. -[Josh] Oh, it goes way down. Look at that.

And by the way, look at this natural formation here, right?

-[Arcelia] Wow -- yeah. -These stalactites look like fangs.

This looks like a mouth going down into the earth.

[Arcelia] Yes. And the Zoque might have thought the same thing.

[Josh] Right, exactly. Maybe that's why that vessel

is right there.

[Arcelia] Having this shape like the open mouth of the jaguar

symbolizes the entrance to the underworld.

And it really is imposing looking down there into

that darkness.

[Josh] The Zoque put great spiritual value on natural formations

with animalistic shapes.

These stalactites, which look like

open jaws, act as a terrifying portal

into complete darkness below.

The question is, how far does it go?

Should we go into the mouth of the jaguar here?

-[Arcelia] Yes, let's go. -[Josuhé] Let's go to the underworld.

[Josh] Let's go to the underworld.

I feel like I'm climbing into the jaws of death here.

Real muddy and slippery.

Oh, it really does go way down, doesn't it?

Oh [bleep]! Come here!

Hey, come here! Get a camera here!

Come here! Look at this!

-Ho-ho! Oh, my God! -[Arcelia] Wow!

What?

Oh!

-Oh, my! -Oh, wow -- it's a jaguar.

-It's literally a jaguar. -Wow.

[Josh] You can see the tail, and those are the claws.

-[Arcelia] Yeah. -[Josh] And look at his mouth.

-[Arcelia] You can see the fangs. -Absolutely.

I mean, it actually scared me.

Like, I looked over, and it was like this face...

-Yeah, from up close. -...jumping out of the darkness.

It's like he's pouncing out of the dark.

It's the first time that I see something like this.

[Josh] Here, in what the Zoque considered to be the literal

passage to the underworld, we've come face to face with

the avatar of its master, the jaguar.

Why is this on there? What is this for?

-Oh, this would be a funeral urn? -[Arcelia] Yeah.

-Yes, for funeral purposes. -It can be, yes.

Is there anything in there?

[Josh] Yes. It's like three-quarters filled with dark, dark soil.

So you think that's human remains?

Yes, it's possible. And there is something more.

Oh, behind it, there's another vessel.

Oh, wow. Yes.

-Is it another urn? -It's another urn.

Yes. It looks like it's tipped.

Does that also have an animal on it?

-Looks like a bird. -[Josh] Oh, it does look like a bird.

We can see the beak. We can see the feathers.

-[Josh] Is it an eagle? -[Josuhé] It's like, an owl.

Oh, an owl.

An owl is also associated with the cave, with the night,

and with the underworld. -Right.

Looking at these figures, they're animals, but they also

look sort of human.

Like with the jaguar, the way it's standing,

it's almost human.

Yes, because in sacred places like this cave,

the line between humans and animals

get blurred together. -[Josh] Right.

So it is possible for humans to harness the power of animals

like the owl and like the jaguar.

Right. Right.

So if this is a funerary urn, we have someone's remains in

there, and they are now, like, connected to the jaguar.

We're in this, like, nesting doll

of mythology now, right?

We've come into the cave, then into the mouth

of the jaguar.

Now we're looking at the jaguar.

Lord of the underworld. Nice to meet you.

-Should we keep going? -Let's keep going.

[Josuhé] Yeah. Let's see.

[Josh] The Zoque left these offerings here to some of the darkest,

most powerful forces in their world.

And now, 1,300 years later, we have rediscovered them.

But this cave system goes even deeper underground.

-And to find more, so must we. -[Arcelia] Wow.

Tight squeeze. Here we go.

Oh, it's muddy in here.

-[Arcelia] Wow. -[Josh] Look at this hole.

-What is that? -[Arcelia] I don't know.

-There's another chamber. -That looks miserable.

Oh, we're going to get really muddy.

OK, let's do this.

Oh, it's just...

a mud bath.

OK, here we go.

I'm gonna try to back into it.

It's a really low ceiling, and there's some

small stalactites hanging down.

-Oh. -[Arcelia] Watch your head.

[Josh] OK.

Great.

Oh, it's muddy.

[Josh] Let me see.

Oh, it's wet.

Ho -- oh, my God.

Oh, it's muddy and wet.

[Josh] Let me see.

[Josh] We're exploring a Mexican cave system to find artifacts of

the ancient Zoque, who mysteriously abandoned

their cities over 1,300 years ago.

[Josh] Oh, my God.

It's another chamber, but it's flooded.

-It's like a lake. -[Arcelia] Oh, no.

It is incredible in here. It's totally flooded, though.

Come on down. You're gonna love it.

OK, I'm coming down.

Oh.

-It's amazing. -It's amazing.

Arcelia joins me on the banks of a remarkable

underground lake.

But what's on the other side, we don't yet know,

until Josuhé manages to squeeze into the space with us.

[grunts] Oh, wow.

-Oh, my God, what is this? -[Josh] I know, right?

I think most of this is underwater

most of the time, right? -[Arcelia] Yeah.

And I think this is just what's left, the rain that

hasn't evaporated yet.

But it looks like there's kind of a beach up over here almost.

[Josh] The dry season here in Chiapas has been verging on drought.

This chamber, which might well be flooded to the ceiling

during the rainy months, may now be passable.

So we set out for the opposite shore.

-[Arcelia] OK. -[Josh] Watch your head!

-This is very sharp. -There's some rocks.

[sloshing]

OK.

Careful! It's very, very slippery.

-Oh. -[Josuhé] Oh, wow!

-[Arcelia] What a formation! -[Josh] It's a waterfall!

How "Goonies" is this?

Oh, it's amazing!

Just cascading down over this amazing formation.

It is so otherworldly looking.

Imagine being down here and seeing this by torchlight.

-Yeah. -It would be insane!

The question is, where is it coming from?

-Follow the water. -Follow the water.

Absolutely. Let's go! Come on!

Let's see where this leads.

[Josh] First an underground lake, and now

an underground waterfall.

It's like these caves are trying to fulfill every

"Goonies" fantasy I had as a kid.

We struggle up to the water's source to continue chasing

this ancient mystery.

Up, up, up.

Oh, there's an offering.

-There's an offering. -[Josuhé] Oh, my God.

-[Arcelia] Really? -Holy [bleep].

Look at the size of this room!

-[Arcelia] It's incredible. -[Josuhé] It's huge.

[Josh] Oh, my God. This place is enormous.

Look at this.

Look at the size of this curtain formation.

[Arcelia] Wow. It's a beautiful formation.

And again, we have these offerings connected with

a new space that's also flooded and just keeps on going

and going in the darkness, right? -[Josuhé] Yes.

[Josh] Ahead of us is nothing but the purest night,

the underworld itself.

It makes us deeply uneasy to push forward.

How deep is this, is the question, is it --

[Arcelia] Let's see.

-[Josh] Oh, boy. -[Josuhé] Can't see anything there.

-I know. -No, but I feel something.

-It's muddy -- oh. -It's muddy.

[Josuhé] Oh, oh...

It's really cold.

-OK. -You have to find your footing.

[Josh] I know. Be very careful.

It's like almost knee-deep mud.

So hard to move through this.

It's just like an underground river.

Let's just follow it along, see where it goes.

Careful, it gets deep over here.

Another pot here to the left.

[Josh] Greek myths tell of the river Styx,

which ran through their underworld of Hades.

And here is the Zoque's version, just as mythic in its scope,

but eerily real.

Just beckoning us forward.

I mean, just take this in for a second.

Have you ever seen anything like this?

[Josuhé] No, the first time.

[epic music playing]

-Wow. -[Josh] It's amazing, like a cathedral.

-[Josuhé] Spectacular. -[Josh] It is spectacular.

It is absolutely spectacular.

OK, here we go.

OK, it's getting shallower.

It goes up.

[Arcelia] Do you see anything?

I think there's another chamber up here.

-[Josuhé] Another chamber? -[Josh] Maybe the last chamber.

It looks like a dead end. It's a big room.

Careful, there's a drop-off here on the left.

-Oh, my Lord! -Wow, what is that?

-[gasps] -- what a masterpiece! -What on earth?

[Arcelia] Oh!

[Josh] What on earth?

[Josuhé speaking]

[Josh] Look at this.

This is absolutely incredible.

I never seen anything like this.

I don't think anybody has, because it's been hiding down

here for a thousand years. Wow.

Look at all the different types of ceramics here.

And by the way, they're all around us.

-They're behind us. -[Arcelia] They're here...

[Josh] There's pots over here.

There's literally a half a dozen pots behind me.

I mean, they are everywhere you look.

There must be a hundred individual vessels here.

[Josh] This cave is not a mere find, it's a career.

There's enough here to fill a museum, to study

for a lifetime.

The sheer volume of this cave is unlike anything

I have ever experienced.

But even surrounded by priceless relics, there's one

piece of pristine pottery that catches our eye.

Look at how fine the quality is of this.

[indistinct]

-Is it a snake? -[Josuhé] This is a snake.

[Arcelia] Has the fangs.

[Josh] Yes, there are fangs there and almost a horn

on top as well.

[Josh] This is an ancient ceramic incense burner used for

the ritual lighting of copal, the aromatic resin of

the sacred Ceiba tree we saw depicted in jars

near the entrance.

So when they lit this, smoke would have come out

of its mouth.

What's the significance, you think, of the snake?

-The snake is a very lethal animal, and the people -[Josh] Mm-hmm.

could transform into the snake in order to communicate with

the entities of this cave.

The snake is so powerful that it lets you talk to

this other realm. -[Josuhé] Yes, like the jaguar.

Like the jaguar. This belongs in a museum.

This is amazing.

That has to be one of the finest pieces of

Zoque culture I have ever seen. -[Arcelia] Yeah.

[Josuhé] Yes.

[Josh] This burner may be the best preserved example

of its kind ever found.

It will no doubt sit prominently in

a Mexican museum.

But we, and you, are the first people

in over 1,300 years to see it.

This and everything else in this cave of wonders.

Why is all of this here, do you think?

I think it has to do with water.

With water. Certainly, we have seen

connections with water all along the way.

We've seen vessels collecting water.

-We've seen this sacred tree that is connected to water. -Yeah.

-The jaguar connected to the underworld... -[Arcelia] Yes.

...which is connected to water.

So it does seem like there's a link there.

And the thing I can't stop thinking about now

is where we are, right? -[Arcelia] Yeah.

Because that tunnel that we came through that was

flooded, we know that this whole part of the cavern

should be inaccessible. -Absolutely.

If there was any water at all, you would not be able to

get down here. -Yeah.

So the fact that the Zoque made it here, the fact that

they were standing in this room and all these other rooms,

means there was no water here. -Exactly.

-This place must have been bone-dry. -Yeah.

[Josh] This means that the pots we saw near the water line in

the underground river would have originally been placed

someplace dry, maybe at a time

when the river wasn't here at all.

It must have been so dry for them that they were able to

come down here again and again and make these offerings.

[Arcelia] Yes.

[Josuhé] There might have been a drought.

Right.

[Josh] To the Zoque, the caves we're walking through are

literally the underworld.

Josuhé believes the Zoque came here

from stricken cities like Iglesia Vieja

and crawled into death itself to beg for water.

So to come all that way and leave this

big an offering... -You must really need it.

[Josh] Yes, you must really need it.

Is this the evidence of what destroyed them right here

in front of us? A lack of water?

[Josuhé speaking]

That's right, and the minute you don't have that water,

forget your cities, right? -[Josuhé] Forget everything.

Maybe they need to go to the origins.

[Josh] Back to the jungle, back to the canyons,

the rivers, the caves.

[Josh] That's right.

And back to these powerful deities that can hopefully

provide for them. -[Arcelia] Yes.

[Josh] That's right.

You can take all your cities and your civilization and all

of it, and you can kiss it goodbye if Mother Nature

changes the plan.

-[Arcelia] Yes. -That's right.

[Josh] Josuhé, Arcelia, and their colleagues will be

spending years examining these caves to understand the story

they tell about the Zoque's rise and fall.

But here, now, this glimpse has

revealed more than we ever dreamed of.

The caves here in Chiapas are a distress call from the past,

a plea from the Zoque to their guardian spirits to

preserve them and their way of life.

It may seem as if those prayers went unanswered

and their way of life ended, but a funny thing happened on

the way to extinction.

During the drought that Josuhé believes forced the Zoque out

of their major cities, they moved further into

the mountains and adapted, surviving in much

smaller communities.

They endured through the rise of the Aztecs in

the 14th century and even after the arrival of the Spanish in

the 16th, never again becoming the urban powerhouse

they once were, but remaining a distinct people and culture.

Their modern descendants still reside here, the Zoque language

and many of their traditions intact today.

Somewhere, deep in the underworld, even the jaguar

must be smiling.