All language subtitles for Lost.Temple.of.the.Inca.2020.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG2_English

NARRATOR:
The Andes Mountains, Peru:

towering, inhospitable peaks
that push the limits of the human body.

But one lost civilization was notorious
for their connection to this rarefied air:

the Inca,

the largest, most expansive empire
in the history of the Americas.

In just 100 years, the empire spread
across South America,

building elaborate cities and temples,
incorporating over 10 million people.

But it disappeared in a matter of years,

leaving mysteries that have puzzled
archaeologists for decades.

Now, a scientist is searching
for one of their last missing temples,

at a cold and isolated lake,
high in the Peruvian Andes.

These sacred waters will push him
to the cutting edge of exploration.

♪ ♪

-(vehicle rumbling)
-(tires screech)

(men cheer)

In Southeast Peru,
a team of scientists are en route

to a remote corner
of the country to conduct

the first-ever archaeological survey
of Lake Sibinacocha.

Leading the expedition is National
Geographic Explorer Preston Sowell,

who's been studying
this exotic watershed for nearly 20 years.

PRESTON SOWELL: We're at our base camp
elevation... 16,000 feet.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Lake Sibinacocha lies
at the headwaters of the Amazon River,

surrounded by enormous, glaciated peaks
and abundant wildlife.

SOWELL: You never know
what you're going to run into

when you take people
into the mountains here.

NARRATOR:
It's a difficult place to reach,

which has kept out all
but the most intrepid scientists.

They've departed from Cusco,
the capital city of the Inca empire,

which is still a thriving hub to this day.

From the 1430s, for nearly 100 years,
the Inca spread out from Cusco.

They conquered the many existing
ethnic groups that spanned

from modern-day Colombia to central Chile,

incorporating their beliefs and temples
into a cohesive empire.

But their most important sites are found
in the Cusco region.

Places like the ceremonial
center of Ollantaytambo,

the spectacular ruins
of Sacsayhuaman,

and Machu Picchu,
the royal estate of an Inca emperor,

perched atop a sacred mountain,
with some of the most precise

and astounding architecture
found anywhere in the world.

However, despite its
relatively close proximity to Cusco,

Lake Sibinacocha
and its surrounding watershed,

have remained largely
overlooked by archaeologists,

with little known
about its ties to the Inca,

leaving us to wonder
what secrets they might have hidden here.

(speaking indistinctly)

Preston Sowell has brought together
a group of Peruvian archaeologists

to investigate the lake and its watershed.

They're joined by professional
mountain climbers and scuba divers

to navigate the difficult terrain
above and below the water.

SOWELL (speaking Spanish):
Vamos a Sibinacocha!

NARRATOR:
This expedition marks the first time

that trained archaeologists
have visited here,

where they will look for structures
and artifacts from the past,

exploring the watershed's ridges,
peaks, and shoreline

to try and learn what the area
might have meant to the Inca.

SOWELL: To convince archaeologists
that we might have something special here,

it's really the first step
in protecting this place.

-MAN: Beautiful. Man, it's pretty.
-TEAM: Woo!

NARRATOR: Arriving at the lake,
Preston and the team could finally unlock

the mysteries of this forgotten landscape.

♪ ♪

(birds singing)

At home in Boulder, Colorado,

Preston works as
an environmental consultant,

helping corporations
and the US government

prevent and clean up
environmental contamination.

And for nearly 20 years, he's had his eye
on the Sibinacocha watershed,

where he's developed a deep appreciation
for the landscape, its wildlife,

and potential significance to the Incas.

SOWELL:
I'm not an archaeologist.

My goal is really to use this as a tool
to help protect this watershed.

NARRATOR: It all started on
an expedition in the early 2000s,

when Preston was studying
an emerging frog disease

that was decimating local populations,

and he spotted a surprising
species in the water.

SOWELL: I lifted up a rock
and a much larger frog took off.

NARRATOR: To Preston, it resembled
the critically endangered

Telmatobius Culeus,
or Titicaca water frog,

that was known to reside
only in the Lake Titicaca watershed,

more than 200 kilometers away.

Titicaca was one of the most sacred places
in the world for the Inca,

and if the frog was brought to Sibinacocha
for ceremonial purposes,

it could indicate a sacred connection
between the two lakes.

SOWELL:
It sort of became the thorn in my side.

I spent three expeditions in the lake
just trying to find this damn frog.

NARRATOR:
During his search for the elusive frog,

Preston made an even more
unexpected discovery.

He noticed two strange
artifacts in the water,

surrounded by algae and weeds:

a ceramic pot

and what appeared to be a long,
zigzagging wall,

built with golden yellow stones,
that looked like a giant snake.

He didn't know it yet,
but these artifacts would go on to define

the next 20 years of his life.

He had been pulled into a fantastic
new world, rich with myths and legends,

and began researching
the many mysteries of the Inca,

who left few historical records

after they were overthrown
by Spanish conquistadors.

He looked into the Inca's
religious beliefs:

that the landscape was alive
with gods and spirits,

and that unique alignments
of geographical features,

such as the position of different
mountains, rivers, and lakes

were considered sacred.

And the thing that interested
the Inca most was the high altitude peaks,

where their most important gods resided.

Next, Preston learned that zigzag walls,
like the one found at Sibinacocha,

are actually quite rare
in the Andean cultural realm,

and almost always discovered
near an important place,

like a shrine or temple,
often near bodies of water.

In fact, some lakes were considered
especially important,

and were called paqarinas,

which means "sacred place of origin"
in the Inca's language.

SOWELL: They were not only
where people were born from,

but where their souls went when they died.

NARRATOR: The Inca believed that the whole
world floated on a body of water,

and each lake was an entry point
into a spirit world beneath the surface.

Could Lake Sibinacocha possibly be
one of these paqarinas?

SOWELL: At that moment, I thought,
we were really on to something.

NARRATOR: As he continued his research,
Preston found one name in every turn:

world famous archaeologist,
anthropologist,

and National Geographic Explorer
Johan Reinhard.

Johan has spent much of his career
locating the Inca's

most significant ceremonial sites,
at some of the world's highest locations.

JOHAN REINHARD: Probably the biggest
driving force in my own life

would be the attraction to mysteries,
solving mysteries.

NARRATOR:
Johan developed an elite skill set

to help him explore the planet's
most hard-to-reach locations,

becoming an expert in climbing,
skydiving, and scuba diving.

He used these skills in the highest
mountain ranges around the world,

including Peru.

SOWELL: That dude has been everywhere;
his shadow just covers the Andes.

REINHARD: One of the reasons
the Incas seem so mysterious to us is

because we simply don't have any written
language before the Spanish arrived.

That creates a mystery.

NARRATOR: Spanish chroniclers tried
to document the Inca's customs,

but their understanding was incomplete,

leaving Johan to figure out for himself

why the Incas were drawn
to the highest places.

REINHARD: These were altitudes
where they thought the gods resided.

NARRATOR:
But these high areas were not always kind,

visiting biblical devastation
upon the Inca,

like earthquakes, long droughts,
and torrential storms.

So they would appeal to their
mountain gods for good will,

making offerings on the summits.

To study these sacred mountains,
Johan Reinhard made more than 200 ascents

above 5,000 meters,
in five Andean countries,

discovering more than
50 archaeological sites.

But in all of his expeditions,
one site eluded him:

The temple of Ausangate, built to worship
one of the Inca's most sacred peaks,

6,400 meters above sea level,
nearly 100 kilometers from Cusco.

Ausangate is also visible
from Lake Sibinacocha,

over 16 kilometers to the east.

According to the mythology,
this temple was built in ancient times,

long before the Inca empire,

beside a large lake
at the base of Ausangate,

by the people of the Vilcanota Valley.

The Incas conquered the Valley,

and the temple remained
one of the most important in the region.

REINHARD: A great temple,
that, to this day, nobody's found.

NARRATOR: To better explore alpine lakes,
Johan helped pioneer the practice

of underwater archaeology,

and then brought it to the high mountains.

REINHARD:
Scuba diving, at altitude.

NARRATOR:
Johan reached submerged sites

that were previously beyond
the limits of human exploration.

But to this day, he has not found
the lost temple of Ausangate.

REINHARD:
Feels like unfinished business.

Although I think Preston's
kind of got that terrain... covered.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Preston begins to wonder

if the lost temple could be
at Sibinacocha,

so he sets out to finish
what Johan had started.

But first, he'll have to learn
how to scuba dive.

SOWELL: I found a technical diver named
George Watson, who is a cave diver.

When I told him about the project,
he jumped right in and agreed to train me.

GEORGE WATSON:
I've been diving since 1974,

and I'd done good deal of high-altitude
lake diving here in Colorado.

NARRATOR: Diving at altitude
is especially dangerous,

because the thin air creates
a greater difference

between the atmospheric pressure
above and below the water.

Without proper breathing
mixtures and decompression,

this can lead to crippling pain,
paralysis, and death.

SOWELL: It's all theoretical,
the dive tables don't go that high,

so nobody really knows
what happens to you.

WATSON: Diving at 16,000 feet is
pretty much unheard of,

it's unique in the diving world.

NARRATOR: Add that
to the thermal challenge of staying warm

in water only a few degrees
above freezing,

and it becomes
a very formidable undertaking.

REINHARD: The truth is, you're working
at those altitudes blind.

SOWELL:
Aah, this is such a bad idea.

(chuckles)

REINHARD: What Preston's done is
exactly what should be done.

Taken a really more difficult
and dangerous aspect of the research,

which is searching underwater as well.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
After months of training,

Preston and George finally
make it to Sibinacocha,

along with a team of world-class divers,

to examine the artifacts
and explore deeper within the lake.

But the expedition ends in tragedy,

when a member of the team perishes
during a world record dive.

WATSON: During the dive,
something went terribly wrong.

NARRATOR:
George and his dive partner, Geoff Belter,

are suddenly out of air and separated.

George shoots to the surface
in an uncontrolled ascent,

expecting to die
from decompression sickness.

His partner Geoff never surfaces
and can't be recovered.

George survives, but his rapid ascent
and failed decompression injure

his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed
from the waist down for nine months.

It would take three years of rehab
to regain his strength.

SOWELL: I had a rough couple years
after that, you know,

understanding I had some responsibility
in this man's death.

NARRATOR: The memory has haunted
Preston ever since

and given him a better reason than ever

to protect what is now
his friend's final resting place.

♪ ♪

(flamingo trills)

NARRATOR: A year after the accident,
Preston is back at the lake

to finally show his underwater discoveries
to Peruvian archaeologists,

but this place carries
a new weight for him now.

SOWELL:
Geoff's body is right there.

I'm confident we won't have
any more accidents,

but, um... I don't know
if I have PTSD or what,

it's causing some... a little anxiety.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
After dark, a local shaman performs

a special ritual offering
to the gods of the area.

ARTURO RIVERA:
It's called despacho.

This ritual will be like asking for

permission the Pachamama,
to the Mother Earth,

and the sacred mountains here
around Sibinacocha lake.

SOWELL: An offering to the Apus,
to the local gods,

to help protect us as we work here,

and to show respect to Geoff
who lost his life here last year.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The people who live around Sibinacocha

have been here for generations,

living off of the land...

and carrying on the Inca's beliefs,
traditions, and language.

Severino Crispin has lived
near Sibinacocha his whole life.

He's been the leader of this team
of horse wranglers

since Preston's first visit to Peru.

SEVERINO CRISPIN (in foreign language):
All villagers in this community

have a lot of respect for this lake.

It is not an ordinary lake,

do not approach without permission.

NARRATOR:
Severino and the rest of the wranglers

still believe in the concept
of sacred landscape--

that the gods and spirits
live within the land,

resting in boulders and other
natural features called Huacas.

This gives Preston
and his team a direct link

to their ancestral knowledge.

PEDRO GODFREDO (in Spanish):
No, no, it is always here.

NARRATOR: He tells Preston
about the legend of Sibinacocha,

and what happened here,
hundreds of years ago.

CRISPIN (speaking foreign language):
By this lake there was a big town.

NARRATOR: According to the legend,
there was once a large city

on an island, in the lake.

One day, an old beggar
showed up at a wedding,

and called upon the lake
to swallow the town.

CRISPIN (speaking foreign language):
Boom!

There was an explosion, and the city
had been submerged in the lake.

SOWELL: It really makes me wonder
what's out there under the water.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The legend corresponds
with a scientific theory for the lake,

that the water level rose
sometime during the Inca empire,

due to a change in climate
or natural disaster.

This would have submerged the shoreline,

including the artifacts that Preston
discovered in the water,

which he is finally ready
to show to Carlos Ausejo,

who will be the first archaeologist
to examine them up close.

CARLOS AUSEJO:
This is what I've been waiting for,

since the first time I talked to Preston
about it, it's pretty exciting.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Under water,
the pot appears intact,

perfectly preserved by the cold water
and protected from looters.

Carlos also examines the golden,
zigzagging, snake-like structure,

and at this point, is well convinced
of the site's significance

and that the pot may
have been left there as an offering

by Inca or pre-Inca people.

SOWELL:
Good job, Carlos.

NARRATOR:
But why?

SOWELL:
You could really see its... its shape.

AUSEJO (speaking Spanish):
I want to take it out.

(Sowell laughs)

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The next step will be to recover
the pot from the water...

SOWELL:
It's so cold.

...carefully, and determine its origin.

AUSEJO:
Well, we have a lot of work to do.

SOWELL: We have some boxes
to check before we can claim

it's the temple of Ausangate,

but it fits with the legend
and history of the site.

NARRATOR: They'll need permits to recover
the pot, so that will have to wait.

In the meantime, they surround
the pot with sandbags

to protect it until they can return.

SOWELL:
The thing that really terrifies me now

is that we won't get this done in time.

NARRATOR:
Constantino Aucca is a co-founder

of the Association of Andean Ecosystems,

and one of the first conservationists
to visit Sibinacocha.

CONSTANTINO AUCCA:
The lake of Sibinacocha is

one of the most important
wetlands in the world.

NARRATOR: Constantino is
most concerned about mining,

which has been edging
closer and closer to the watershed.

AUCCA: From Patagonia to Venezuela,
all the Andes, they are full of minerals.

NARRATOR: This region is very high
in gold, silver, copper, and lithium,

but extracting these minerals
would be devastating,

poisoning the Vilcanota River,
the Inca's most sacred waterway,

which flows directly out of Sibinacocha,

feeding millions of people,
and wildlife, downstream.

AUCCA:
The landscape is going to disappear.

NARRATOR: Not only that,
mining could destroy the cultural features

and natural history of the area,
before it has been properly studied.

SOWELL: We have so much to lose
if this place is destroyed,

but Peru has a law that will allow you
to protect a cultural landscape.

So we're sort of in a race with the mining
companies now to try to prove

that it is this sacred ceremonial site.

♪ ♪

(indistinct announcement over PA)

NARRATOR:
Before Preston can return to Sibinacocha,

he must get through his next assignment:

to guide a scientific expedition
to the far reaches of the Inca empire,

in the Atacama Desert of central Chile
the driest place on Earth.

SOWELL: Part of why I'm going
is to try to understand

this dedication to high places.

I think it will really help me understand
what's going on at Sibinacocha.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The Atacama Desert
is the home of the highest

archaeological site in the world,

created by the Inca 500 years ago.

Priests trekked, on foot,
from their capital in Cusco,

almost 1,600 kilometers miles,
to Mt. Llullaillaco,

near the edge of their known world.

They used their extensive road systems,

through some of the harshest
conditions on the planet,

to climb this sacred peak and perform
a special ceremony on the summit.

Hundreds of years later,
Johan Reinhard traveled to Llullaillaco

to excavate on the summit.

His findings would become
one of the most significant

archaeological discoveries in history.

REINHARD: We knew it was an important site
because there were ruins at the base

and because there were ruins
all the way to the top.

You're not gonna find that

unless there had been
some kind of offerings made there.

NARRATOR: The Inca's climbing was
far ahead of its time.

They were the first to use
modern mountaineering strategies,

establishing camps
at key points along their routes,

and braving the thin air
to build ceremonial sites

on more than 100 mountains,
above 5,000 meters,

the only society in history known
to make offerings at that altitude.

In fact, no other culture in the world
had reached those vertiginous heights,

and after the Inca, no one would reach

the summit of Mt. Llullaillaco
until the 1950s.

♪ ♪

Preston is here to guide
a team of microbial biologists

from the University of Colorado
to their site halfway up the mountain.

But he has a secondary motive:
to follow in the footsteps

of Johan Reinhard
and increase his understanding

of how the Inca lived
and died in the mountains.

♪ ♪

Preston and his team find life
on the mountain challenging,

which makes the Inca's accomplishments
here that much harder to conceive.

SOWELL: It's just hard to be here,
much less work here.

NARRATOR: At Mt. Llullaillaco's altitude,
towering over 6,000 meters,

altitude sickness can cause fluid to leak
from blood vessels into the brain,

which can be totally debilitating
and even deadly.

So what could have compelled the Inca
to make such an arduous pilgrimage?

When they climbed this peak 500 years ago,

they likely thought the effects
of the altitude were symptoms

of the mountain gods expressing
their influence,

and climbed through the pain,
to the very summit,

where they performed their sacred
ceremony of human sacrifice.

In 1999, Johan ascended
the Inca's path to the summit

and made an archaeological discovery
like no other in history.

A ceremonial platform, ritual offerings,
and three perfectly preserved mummies,

aged six, seven, and 15.

The Inca selected the children
for their beauty,

from all corners of the empire,

who accepted their sacrifice
as a great honor,

to go and live forever with the gods.

♪ ♪

Human sacrifices were
sometimes executed by strangulation,

a blow to the head, or as in this case,
they were drugged and buried alive.

ARCHAEOLOGIST (off screen, in Spanish):
Look at the little hand.

The hand, Johan.

REINHARD (in hoarse, whispering voice):
As you can see, the hands, the arms,

you can't see the legs,
but they're very well preserved.

It was a powerful moment for me.

You have this feeling
like you've just snapped back in time.

You could turn around
and see an Inca priest,

you know, it's that kind of feeling.

NARRATOR: Although this practice
seems horrific today,

human sacrifice was essential to the Inca,

and Johan's discovery provided
a major breakthrough

in our understanding
of their mountain worship,

adaptation to altitude,
and Inca genealogy.

And even though Preston
did not reach the summit,

he still felt the profound effects
of Mt. Llullaillaco's thin air

and gruesome history.

SOWELL: I certainly came down with
a better perspective on mountain worship,

and sort of a renewed
respect for these people

that saw these landscapes as sacred.

It just reaffirmed what I already believed
about Sibinacocha.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Leaving Mt. Llullaillaco,
Preston drives past a Chilean copper mine,

one of the largest in the world,
which gives him the idea

of the environmental devastation
caused by mineral extraction.

SOWELL: This can't be allowed
at Sibinacocha, absolutely not.

(truck alarm beeping)

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Back in Peru, Preston has returned...

-How are you?
-(man laughs)

...to finally recover the ceramic pot,

from the freezing water
of Lake Sibinacocha.

But that's not all,
he's joined by George Watson,

who spent the last three years
rehabilitating his legs,

so he could return to that fateful site
and help with the recovery.

WATSON: I've done an awful lot
of rehab and a lot of training,

with one goal in mind
and that was coming back.

NARRATOR: And this year,
they aren't taking any chances.

SOWELL: There are a few things I want
to go over just to get us started...

NARRATOR: They've assembled a crack team
of divers to assist in the recovery.

SOWELL:
These guys have been my dive mentors

since I had to learn to dive
to do the work up here.

NARRATOR: The team also includes
archaeologist Martin Polo,

and conservation specialist
Alexandra Gambetta,

who will manage the recovery of the pot
once it is out of the water,

and look for ceremonial offerings,

which were often placed
inside ceramic vessels.

ALEXANDRA GAMBETTA:
What is inside? We don't know.

That's what we are going to find out.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
On the hike in to Sibinacocha,

emotions are running high,

especially for George.

-SOWELL: Welcome back.
-WATSON: Thank you for that.

(Watson sighs)

-SOWELL: You walked in.
-WATSON: Yeah.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity.

-Thanks for believing I could.
-SOWELL: Yeah.

WATSON: It's beautiful.
It's like I remember.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The next morning,
the dive team prepares their equipment

for the pot recovery.

They make a plan that involves
each member of the team:

to transfer the pot to a basket,

and transport it with a lift bag
to the shore.

And their work must be impeccable:

one mistake could cost them dearly

and damage this
one-of-a-kind piece of history.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Below the surface, George and Preston
think of their friend, Geoff,

who cared so much
about protecting this place.

First, Preston leads
the divers to the pot,

and removes the sandbags
they placed to protect it from weeds.

SOWELL: To my relief,
the pot looked untouched, it was intact,

and then the next team took over.

NARRATOR:
As they transfer the pot to the basket,

sediment from
the lake bottom is disturbed...

SOWELL: By that time,
visibility was almost zero.

NARRATOR:
...but they are prepared for that.

Momentarily blinded,
George pulls out the lift bag,

secures it to the basket,

and just as planned,
the pot floats off the lake bottom,

moving for the first time
in hundreds of years.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

-(water burbling)
-(horse whinnying)

GAMBETTA: Wow.

-FELIPE (laughing): Ah!
-SOWELL: Hey!

FELIPE: Yeah.
(in Spanish): Un photo, un photo!

♪ ♪

SOWELL:
Been a long time coming.

I learned how to dive just to go down
and prove what that pot was,

what this place was.

Pretty profound feeling.

(sighs)

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
For George, it is an incredible catharsis,

coming full circle on the thing
that brought him to this lake years ago.

And for Preston,
he can finally sleep,

knowing that this important artifact
will get the attention it deserves.

SOWELL (off screen):
I need bigger tweezers.

NARRATOR: Back at camp,
examination of the pot begins immediately,

to remove the sediments
for analysis, clean the ceramic,

and finally see what,
if anything, is inside.

MARTIN POLO: This in Peru is
the first time we can recover

an intact pot from a submerged area.

NARRATOR:
Digging out the sediment,

Alexandra feels
something solid within the pot.

GAMBETTA:
It feels like a stone or something.

NARRATOR: Offerings could tell
Alexandra and Martin

why the pot was placed underwater.

GAMBETTA (off screen):
I've never seen something like this.

NARRATOR: She unearths
the pot's unusual contents:

three polished stones,
which Martin believes are ceremonial.

POLO: I'm guessing
it's an offering to the lake.

GAMBETTA: I've seen pots with leaves,

organic material, textiles, offerings,

but never with three stones
inside of the pot.

It's... It's fantastic.

NARRATOR: Expert analysis reveals that
the pot is 600 to a thousand years old,

and archaeologists believe
that this vessel, and the stones inside,

were part of an offering,
supporting the theory

that this site did indeed have
ceremonial significance.

♪ ♪

With the recovery complete,
Preston has one more goal to accomplish,

so he moves the team around the lake,
to the base of Yayamari,

the sacred mountain
that looms over Sibinacocha

like an ancient pyramid,
to conduct a survey from the summit.

Before long, a peculiar storm blows in,

bringing snow, hail,
thunder and lightning.

Weather events were seen as acts
of the gods by the Inca,

and thunder was how the mountains
communicated with one another.

SOWELL: You can see how vulnerable
you feel up here in the mountains,

and how profound lightning must have been

if you didn't understand what that was
and what was causing it.

NARRATOR: It is an ominous welcome
to their camp below Yayamari.

NARRATOR: The next morning, they head
up the mountain for their summit attempt.

SOWELL:
Our goal is to survey the landscape,

take a better look at how all
the landscape features might fit together.

NARRATOR: As Preston climbs, he starts
to notice certain geographical features

aligning in ways he hadn't seen before--

alignments that were only
now becoming clear to him,

but must have been obvious to the Inca.

SOWELL: The juxtaposition
of that landscape with mountains,

with celestial bodies, with the rising
and setting of the moon

and the sun and stars
at certain times of the year,

the glaciers, the lake, the rivers,
it's all right there.

NARRATOR: Suddenly,
he realizes that perhaps the temple

he had been looking for
all these years was there all along,

composed of the landscape
that surrounds him.

For Preston, nothing could be more sacred.

But the team has one more
revelation waiting for them,

something tangible,
that could tie everything together.

During the descent of Yayamari,

they arrive at what looks like
the ruins of a large complex.

-POLO: An Inca structure.
-SOWELL: You think it's Inca?

POLO: Yeah, because there are
like four or five rectangular buildings

around a patio, a central patio,

and the buildings around it
are often sacred places.

NARRATOR: Martin describes
how the Inca would conduct

ceremonies in plazas like these,

using the different rooms to prepare
offerings for the gods.

POLO:
Maybe here were some stairs.

Just using the imagination,
the rock kind of looks like it was shaped

to be the same as Yayamari.

NARRATOR: Location was very important
for the placement of ceremonial sites,

and this new complex is
directly below Yayamari,

with a direct view of Ausangate,

making it an ideal place
to worship the mountains.

Boulder fields like this were often
considered sacred on their own,

and used as the groundwork
for larger ceremonial centers,

built into the landscape.

SOWELL:
It's just perfect for a site like that.

POLO:
This could be like a temple.

♪ ♪

REINHARD: It does look like there's a base
of an Inca complex near the lake,

but whether it is the temple of Ausangate,

it still seems unclear to me.

SOWELL:
Everyone wants to excavate there to gather

more data on what that complex could be.

NARRATOR:
At the end of this expedition,

Preston has fulfilled the dream
he's had for so many years,

but he's created some new ones,
so his work is not done.

SOWELL: All of the effort
just to bring this thing up,

and the prices that we paid.

I think it's another
magic piece in the puzzle

that is Sibinacocha and that watershed.

But we're not there yet.

Mining companies could apply
for new permits tomorrow.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Before long,
Preston returns, yet again,

to help with the archaeological excavation
of the Yayamari complex.

The stakes for this expedition
have never been higher,

and for Preston,
it is somewhat bittersweet.

He is finally passing the torch
to archaeologists who will take the lead

in determining the past
and future of Sibinacocha.

Six archaeologists from all over the world
are led by Arturo Rivera

to the Yayamari site
and get to work immediately.

RIVERA: Each time we walk by,
we can find something new.

NARRATOR: He is joined
by his wife, Sarah Baitzel,

a mortuary archaeologist from Germany.

SARAH BAITZEL: It really gives you the
sense of an archaeological Disneyland.

This is a site where you can spend
many, many years digging.

SOWELL: Now we've got
academic archaeologists involved

that are best qualified to manage
this thing going forward.

NARRATOR: They find signs
of habitation by Inca and pre-Inca people,

who adapted dwellings
and ceremonial structures

to the landscape beneath Yayamari,
including irrigation canals,

and modification of
sacred springs and boulders.

SOWELL:
These sites were placed in juxtaposition

to the mountains and the natural
features around them.

REINHARD: That verifies to me
that it was an important Inca site.

So there's no doubt
that the lake was considered sacred,

SOWELL:
I'm so excited right now.

BAITZEL: This is a place
that's sort of drawing people to it.

The landscape is alive.

RIVERA:
It's a place that has to be protected.

It's part of our past as Peruvians.

POLO:
It's our history, our heritage.

NARRATOR: With the archaeology underway,
Preston is free to return

to his study of the Sibinacocha habitat.

He treks around the lake
to retrieve camera traps,

which he hopes have captured photographs
of the endangered Andean mountain cat.

SOWELL: The Andean mountain cat is
the most endangered cat in the Americas.

NARRATOR: He finds
historic photographs of the elusive cat,

proving for the first time
that it lives in the watershed.

SOWELL: That will act as an ambassador
species for the ecosystem,

and help us protect the area.

NARRATOR:
Preston knows better than anyone

how much there is
to protect at Sibinacocha:

the history, the wildlife, and the people
that live here and downstream.

And now, with the archaeological findings,

photographic proof
of the Andean mountain cat,

and everything that is
still left to discover,

Lake Sibinacocha is on the verge
of being protected as a sacred landscape.

♪ ♪

REINHARD: I think what distinguishes
sacred landscape from landscape

is that it's come alive for the people.

SOWELL: It's so encouraging
that an entire culture,

an entire people can see
the world that way, and I think

it gives me some optimism
for the rest of the world.

NARRATOR:
And as for the lost temple of Ausangate,

they've got more work to do.

REINHARD: You know,
it's still left to be determined.

NARRATOR: For now, Preston's search
at Sibinacocha continues.

And he may never know
if this really is the lost temple,

but if he can at least protect it
for the future, anything is possible.

♪ ♪