All language subtitles for Tulum - A Última Cidade do Império Maia_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: In Mexico,

archaeological studies of Maya cities
continue to reveal secrets

about the history and culture
of the people who built them

and live there.

There are constant new discoveries
being made in the Maya area.

And really, of the sites
that we've found,

we've only excavated 5 per cent.

In the north
of the Yucatan Peninsula,

the cities of Tulum, Mayapan and Coba

saw the end of the golden age
of a civilisation

that was among the most advanced
in the New World.

One of the things that the ancient
Maya are best known for

is their work as astronomers.

From the year 900 of our era,

the Maya experienced a period

of flourishing cultural
and commercial exchanges

with all of Mesoamerica.

Their edifices, from the more modest
to the most imposing,

continued to evolve,

displaying the skills
of Maya builders

and the political power of kings

who commissioned
such monumental works.

The analysis of these structures
allowed archaeologists to identify

the materials and techniques used.

From the layout
of the corbelled vaults

to the system of imbrication
and piling of the edifices,

the experts have pierced all
the mysteries of Maya architecture.

Political lords had subjects
who owed them corvee service

as a form of taxation,

so periodically Maya pyramids

would get
another construction phase.

Today, technological innovations such
as photogrammetry and LiDAR records

can reveal what is invisible

to understand how the Maya societies
functioned, and to take

into consideration the full extent
of their great capitals.

Maya civilisation is as fascinating
as it is intriguing.

Ahead of its time
in many scientific fields,

it was also filled with ancestral
beliefs and occult rituals.

So they'll punch holes in their
earlobe or through their nose.

And that royal blood

was categorically different
than commoner blood.

What did Tulum, Mayapan and Coba

tell us about the last hours
of the Maya era?

From the Caribbean coast
to the heart of the Yucatan jungle,

let's take a look back
over a thousand years ago

at the discovery
of the last Maya cities.

Central America is the cradle
of Maya civilisation,

and the Yucatan Peninsula,
located in the south of Mexico,

can be viewed as the recipient
of its last hours.

Bordered by the Gulf of Mexico
to the north

and the Caribbean Sea to the east,

it spans over 300km long
and 250km wide

for a surface area
of around 70,000 square kilometres,

which is similar to the size
of a country like Ireland.

At the tip of this peninsula,

three cities experienced
the end of the Maya era.

Coba, which was a major
cultural and religious site

until the Spanish conquistadors
arrived.

Mayapan, the last great
Mayan capital.

And Tulum, considered
as the very last inhabited city

since it was only deserted
in the 16th century.

With different scopes and functions,

these three cities shared the fact
that they all experienced the fall

of a civilisation that was among
the most renowned

and oldest of America.

Famed for their skills and knowledge
in many different fields

such as astronomy, mathematics,
agriculture and art in all its forms,

the ancient Maya
remain a fascinating people

in every respect.

The field of Maya archaeology
continues to capture the public

as well as academic interest,

primarily because it was

one of the most literate
civilisations in the New World,

with their own writing system.

The Maya era
lasted around 3,500 years,

divided into three great periods.

The first period,
known as the Preclassic one,

which spreads from 2000 BC to 250 AD,

when the Maya population
became sedentary

and founded their first
great cities around 1000 BC.

The second period of time
is the so-called Classic era,

the apex of the Maya civilisation.

It spans from 250 to 900 AD,

and saw the imposing cities
like Tikal and Palenque

rise and disappear.

Lastly, the Postclassic period,

from 900 to 1500 AD.

This marks a shift for the Maya,
who migrated towards Yucatan.

It was during this time
that they founded Tulum and Mayapan,

which was their last great capital.

The Maya were a people of builders,
craftsmen and merchants,

but above all, farmers.

Throughout their history,
they chose to settle on land

where maize farming was favoured by
fertile land and regular rainfall.

This is how, until the
Classic period, the Maya settled

on a territory that spanned
over the current countries

of Guatemala, Honduras,
El Salvador, Belize and Mexico.

All of this land added up to about
310,000 square kilometres,

which is a surface area
comparable to that of current Italy.

But at the end of the Classic period
in the southern lowlands

at around the 900s AD,

the number of political centres
collapse.

What actually happens is,

there's a period of probably
drought-driven social disruption

in one particular portion
of the Maya area,

because when people can't eat,
they overthrow their rulerships,

they throw them out
and they move out.

And what we see
is a rise of settlements

toward the coastal zones

and in northern Yucatan
between 900 and 1000 AD.

Fleeing from bad crops
and shortages,

the Maya migrated massively
towards Yucatan,

a region which they very soon viewed
as a real El Dorado.

There are approximately
7,500 cenotes in Yucatan.

These inexhaustible, drinkable water
sources are the main reason why

the Maya settled in Yucatan
during the Postclassic period.

On this vast peninsula,

the ultimate traces of the Maya era
remain today,

vestiges of the last inhabited cities
like Coba, Mayapan and Tulum.

Situated on the east coast
of the Yucatan Peninsula,

130km to the south of Cancun,

Tulum is an unmissable
archaeological site today

for tourists from all over the world.

Its closeness to the sea
has made it famous both nowadays

and during the Postclassic
Maya period.

Perched at 12m of altitude on its
impressive white limestone cliff,

the heart of the city of Tulum
is laid out on a rectangular space

of 380m from north to south
and 170m from east to west.

Its total surface area is a little
less than 65,000 square metres,

the equivalent
to eight soccer fields.

Indeed, Tulum was only abandoned
at the end of the 16th century.

Built during the Postclassic period
around 1200 AD,

the city quickly rose
as a strategic place,

open onto the world and displaying
great cultural diversity.

Its architecture draws inspiration

from other
pre-Columbian civilisations

contemporary of the Maya,

such as the Zapotecs, the Mixtecs,

the Toltecs and the Aztecs.

These people from central Mexico,

although almost 1,500km away,

regularly interacted with the Maya
from Yucatan.

Among the architectural codes shared
with the Toltecs, for instance,

we can see in Tulum many alcoves
decorated with bas-relief,

or these so-called serpentine columns

that highlight the entrance
to the main temple.

The influence on the architecture
of Tulum is certainly part

of an interaction sphere.

This wide world of commerce
and exchange of ideology,

of elite traders
communicating with one another,

they were outward looking.

They had an international
perspective.

This open-mindedness can also be seen
in the adoption of shared gods,

the most obvious example of which
is the feathered serpent god,

divinity of resurrection
and reincarnation

originally worshipped by the people
of central Mexico.

The Maya made it their creator god,
going by the name of Kukulkan.

But the choice of adopting
a so-called international religion

also concealed
a more materialistic goal.

The port of Tulum
was a hub for trade by the sea.

For the great cities located inland,

this was the gateway for goods
such as ceramics, jade and obsidian,

a volcanic rock
essential to produce stone tools.

In exchange, the Yucatan Maya
exported their salt,

cocoa and honey.

Before reaching Tulum, all
of these goods were painstakingly

transported by men on their backs
along paved stone tracks

typical of Maya architecture
called 'sacbeob'.

All over Yucatan, these paved roads
formed a huge network that connected

the great Maya cities
between one another.

Tulum was one of the final
destinations of these terrestrial

trade ways that crossed
the territory inland.

From this port,

the goods then travelled by sea
towards the north or the south

to join the coastal cities
of the Gulf of Mexico

or those of the
Central American Plateau.

These maritime ways enabled cities

separated by enemy regions and tribes

to trade without having to go through

hostile territories.

And I think what is the biggest
benefit to coastal trade

is that you can simply move
much, much heavier burdens by water,

by canoe.

You could move much larger loads
of goods much larger distances

for less labour investment,
and faster.

As such, Tulum was
an essential strategic ally

for the great Maya cities in Yucatan.

In that respect, the city
was very quickly considered

as a true fortress of tradesmen.

Tulum is one of the few
fortified Maya cities.

To protect the main buildings
of the city,

all gathered inside
a 65,000-square-metre quadrilateral,

a gigantic stone wall
was built around it.

Its walls were 3m thick
and about 6m tall.

They only spanned across three sides
of the quadrilateral,

the fourth wall of the fortress
being the limestone cliff,

that towered at 12m high, creating
a natural wall on the sea side.

All along the fortification
there was a rampart wall

and what seemed to be watchtowers.

The wall at Tulum restricts access
to the central precinct

where the elites lived, and
this was probably its primary goal.

But there certainly would
have been probably guards

and controlled entry ports.

If there are markets that are taking
place inside the central precinct,

one way that you can tax goods
that are being distributed

through that market system

is to be able to control
the movement of those goods

through the various gates
and that was a checkpoint.

So these walls are complicated.

They have a lot
of potential functions.

To go through this wall,

rare openings
were created in the fortification.

These were decorated with particular
vaults known as corbelled ones,

more commonly known as false arches.

If people are talking about sort of
a false vault versus a true vault,

the distinction
is the corbelled arch

versus the rounded Roman-style arch.

Classic vaults were generally built
in semicircles

with stones carved
into a truncated pyramid shape.

This layout allowed the weight
of the construction to be redirected

towards the adjacent walls.

The vault
thus ensured great stability

to the edifice it supported.

Maya vaults, corbelled arches,

did not have this semicircle shape.

They were built with blocks of stone

stacked on top of each other,

and slightly shifted
so that the top foundation

was systematically overhanging
over the lower base.

The assembly was simpler,

as they didn't use wooden supports

to withhold the edifice.

At the top,

one last flat stone rested on
both piles that grew closer together,

thus creating the final cover.

The forces
were directed vertically here

and weren't redirected
towards the side walls.

To avoid any instability,

the corbelled vault could only
cover much narrower openings

than those opened
by semicircle vaults.

So what you have is a very narrow
room, and if you need more internal

space, you make another arch next
to that, another arch next to that,

another arch next to that.

And you can build a series
of rooms that way.

These narrow and dark inside spaces
were not an issue for the Maya.

In fact, they were in perfect harmony
with their religion,

for their temples
are the houses of gods.

These were sacred places,

and they weren't intended
for public view.

They were meant for the restricted
and privileged few,

for lords undergoing initiation
ceremonies,

or conjuring of ancestors

or other kinds of communicative
rituals with deities.

Maya temples display relatively
modest and narrow interior designs.

This applies to the main building
in Tulum, El Castillo.

The temple positioned at the top

contains only two confined
vaulted rooms,

two little dormers
at the back of the building,

and three openings on the facade
separated by two columns.

From the outside,
El Castillo remains monumental,

culminating
at 24m above the Caribbean Sea.

El Castillo also served
as a landmark for Maya navigators

who wanted to gain access
to the harbour of Tulum.

As such, it had to be built
as high up as possible on the cliff.

Over the centuries, its architecture
evolved as the city grew prosperous

and unavoidable,

for, at the beginning, El Castillo

was just a small religious building
of very modest proportions.

Originally, El Castillo in Tulum
was already 25m wide,

but it didn't go much higher
than eight metres.

To raise it, the builders added
contention walls in the centre

and an inclined abutment plane
at the rear.

These additions filled in
the central part of the old temple

with stone and earth to ensure solid
foundations for the extra height.

On this base, the new construction
rose up to around 12m high,

adorned with a stairway
of about 20 or so steps

leading to the sacred part,
the temple at the summit.

The edifice, decorated with bright
colours and numerous sculptures,

adopted monumental architecture.

Facing the temple,

a square-shaped platform
of about 10 metres was also built,

probably to host dances
and religious rituals.

Due to this sometimes hostile
coastal climate,

edifices were often positioned
with their backs to the sea,

with only a few openings
on the eastern facade.

Another characteristic
of the east coast style

is its particular aesthetics.

Many walls were intentionally
inclined towards the outside,

giving the building a trapezoid shape

whose flat roofs were decorated

with alcoves, sculptures,
and mouldings.

The east coast also really embraced
the mural tradition.

So it's another frustrating thing
about the east coast centres

is that the murals have not survived
well in the tropical environment,

but they would have been
resplendently painted and decorated.

If Tulum displays
a rather sober style, it is probably

because the city was not really
a centre of power,

but a fishing port
and a city of merchants above all.

Its style contrasts sharply
with the one found inland.

In the central part of the peninsula,

the great political capitals used
architecture to display their power.

In Mayapan, for example,

a monument characterises in itself
the ambition of the city.

This is the pyramid of Kukulkan.

With its square base
of around 30m on each side,

it towers up to 15m high,

which is the equivalent
of a five-floor building.

In 1150 AD, the Maya founded a new
capital around this majestic edifice,

whose political system contrasted
radically with the previous periods.

And the goal of the Mayapan elites
are to form essentially

a confederacy, where they are
bringing the elites from sites

all over the Yucatan Peninsula.

You can think of it
as a council of rulers

who were themselves
kings in their own city states.

We also have a mat symbol
woven into the bench

that runs the length
of the council house.

The mat symbol is a symbol
of Maya royalty, of Maya rulership.

This collegial government

made the cult of the feathered
serpent god persist.

The great pyramid
is a temple devoted to Kukulkan.

Kukulkan was associated
with prosperity and jewels

and wealth, so merchants loved him,

and he was conceived of as a founder

of many Maya political centres
throughout Mesoamerica.

And so he's a hero.

The Temple of Kukulkan is not
a revolution of Maya architecture

or of its dimensions,

but it bears testimony to the skills
of Maya builders.

Here they used building processes
proper to their civilisation,

which allowed them to erect pyramids
up to several dozen metres

in record timing.

Political lords had subjects
who owed them corvee service,

or obligatory service,
as a form of taxation.

The workforce, often led by priests,
was colossal.

The workmen extracted and carved
the limestone,

highly abundant in Yucatan,

with simple tools
made in obsidian or flint,

two very sharp rocks.

These blocks of limestone, some
of which weighed around 50 kilos,

were transported to the work sites
in the simplest possible way.

In the Maya area, there were
no large beasts of burden.

They didn't have cattle
or horses or anything like that.

So everything was being carried
by people,

kind of with their hands
behind their back

and carry things straight up,

straight up the steps
of the temple.

So it's all hard manual labour.

The manual labour was exhausting,
but not very complicated,

for the technique to raise such
pyramids was surprisingly simple.

The structure of a pyramid,
like the one in Mayapan,

is made up of backfill
of rough stones and mortar.

To do so, spaces were divided
by walls to create multiple cells.

Each group of workmen
filled their cells as they pleased

with mud, sand, gravel or lime.

It was then entirely covered
with a siding of well-carved stones

followed by a mortar coating.

This base served as a platform
for the upper levels

that were built in the same way.

Once the edifice was finished,

it was covered in whitewash

to give it a smooth aspect
and make it waterproof.

Finally, the pyramid was covered
with a new coating with red pigments

added to it, giving the building
the colour of the rising sun.

For the Maya,

building such a pyramid was also
a way to get closer to the gods

with whom they wanted
to get in contact.

In fact, this obsession
with the relationship

between the heavens and the earth
was a very strong influence

on the layouts of edifices.

One of the things that the ancient
Maya are best known for

is their work as astronomers.

They clearly spent literally
generations, hundreds of years

observing the night sky

and understanding that certain
objects in the night sky

occurred on regular cycles.

They predicted eclipse cycles.

They were very concerned
with movement of planetary bodies.

And how this translates
into architectural alignments

is an interesting question that
archaeoastronomers have identified.

At Mayapan, one major way you see
this is that the temple of Kukulkan

is oriented in such a way that
at the winter and summer solstice,

you get a shadow cast
by the corner of the pyramid

that runs down the balustrade
of the main staircase

and forms what looks like a serpent

moving down the stairs over time.

This phenomenon clearly marked
a privileged moment of connection

with the gods.

Maya priests studied astronomy
for religious reasons, orienting

temples in such a way as to make
them offerings to the deities

supposed to protect them
and bring them prosperity.

But studying the stars
didn't only have this ritual goal.

The Maya managed to decipher
the natural cycles of the Earth

thanks to a thorough study
of the celestial vault.

They were then able to make up
a disconcertingly precise calendar.

In effect, it is composed
of two main calendars

that make up the calendar wheel.

The first one is the religious
calendar called 'tzolkin'.

It is made up of a wheel
with 20 names

of days associated
with the wheel of 13 numbers.

It counts 260 days,
divided into 13 periods of 20 days,

and was used
for all religious activities.

The third wheel represents
the second calendar,

a solar and civil calendar
called 'haab'.

It includes 365 signs

representing the 365 days
of the cycle of the sun,

and is divided into 18 months
of 20 days each.

At the end of the year
comes a period of five days.

This calendar was very useful
for farming activities.

It is only every 52 years

that both calendars realign
on the shared starting point.

The Maya called this period of
52 years the cycle of the Pleiades.

Perfect indeed, because the Maya
had understood that a sidereal year,

which is the time the Earth
takes to go around the sun,

is actually 365 days and 6 hours.

Although our Gregorian calendar

sorts this out with a leap year

every four years,

the Maya astronomers compensated

this slight gap at the end

of each cycle of the Pleiades.

With these 13 days of celebrations
added every 52 years,

the correction of the Maya calendar

matches precisely the one we do

every four years nowadays.

And Maya priesthood
during the Postclassic

was intensely interested
in controlling the calendar.

Like, they would divine

when were good days to plant,

when were good days to hunt,

good days for making war,

good days to name children,
and so on.

And the people
occupying those positions

were influential in politics.

In the Postclassic period, Mayapan
was the epicentre of the Maya world.

Consequently, the entire city
was organised around its main temple,

viewed as the centre of the cosmos.

Around the pyramid of Kukulkan,

the heart of the city
was home to all the religious

and administrative buildings
of Mayapan.

To the west, the Temple of Venus,

to the east, the Caracol,
devoted to the wind god,

and the complex
dedicated to the god of rain, Chaac.

To the north,
the Temple of Warriors,

the Temple of Painted Alcoves,

the Temple of Fishing,
and the Northwest Temple.

In the middle of all these places
of worship came the residences

of the ruling class.

Already densely packed, this main
square only represented a tiny part

of what the city of Mayapan was
at its peak.

Thanks to laser tele-detection
technology,

archaeologists managed to reveal
what was invisible.

In recent years,

they discovered to what extent
the city spread out

far beyond its political
and religious centre.

In 2013, we performed a LiDAR
survey that allowed us to map

all the houses located
under the forest around Mayapan

within a 40 square kilometre area.

So what we're doing is we're
flying over the jungle canopy,

and we're sending down
millions of pulses of laser light

into the jungle.

And most of those
will hit leaves and trees.

But a bunch of those will manage
to get between the leaves,

hit the real ground surface
and bounce back.

And then we can digitally
literally just hit a button

and delete all the vegetation,

and all you see is what's
at that bare ground surface.

And to our surprise, we realised
that this area was completely

covered in house mounds and
outlying minor political centres.

We were able to look at
a complete map

that show us all the architecture,

the stone walls,

you know, trails, cenotes,

all of that.

And it 100% changed

the way we were
doing archaeology at Mayapan.

LiDAR technology allowed
archaeologists to confirm

the existence
of an 8km-long surrounding wall,

inside of which more than
4,000 structures were recorded

on a surface area of hardly
more than 4 square kilometres.

It's dense and it's walled,

and there clearly
was a concern for defence.

This was a contentious period
and there were rivals and warfare

and raids were a part
of the political landscape

in the Postclassic.

So you have both an external defence

and a way to keep an eye
on the local population

who might, you know, want to rise up
and cause you problems.

Again, city walls
are more complicated, I think,

than a lot of people
give them credit for.

Although it was fortified,

Mayapan took up
a hierarchical organisation of space

specific to Maya civilisation.

In the centre of the city,

the religious edifices and housing
of upper classes co-existed,

whereas the rest of the population

was organised
around this nerve centre.

The first ring around it was where
the merchants and craftsmen lived.

Then came the farmers who lived
the furthest out of the city.

What the 2013 LiDAR study revealed

is that the city spread
far beyond the surrounding wall.

The city itself spans 4.2 square
kilometres within the wall,

and then it goes another
half kilometre in all directions

outside the wall.

So stand on the top of the temple
of Kukulcan,

as far as the eye can see,

and that will be Mayapan,

the residential zone
of one of the most urban cities

ever to have existed
in the Maya realm.

We had originally had
a population estimate of 12,000

based on existing maps of Mayapan.

Now that we have the LiDAR, it looks
like maybe 20,000 or 25,000.

So it's been absolutely critical
in our understanding of the city.

Although Mayapan
is considered to be

the last great political capital
of the Yucatan Maya,

the essential cultural and religious
centre of the Postclassic period

remains Coba.

The city is 200km
to the east of Mayapan,

and about 50 or so kilometres
northwest of Tulum.

Its ruins, today shrouded
in thick tropical rainforest,

was revealed by archaeologists
in the 1920s.

Coba is a wonderful city, in part
because it was so long lived.

You see the first occupation there
in probably about 100 AD,

and it had time to develop,
you know, both size and scale.

It probably had 50,000 people
in its height.

Around 650 AD,

Coba was the most important city
of the Yucatan Peninsula,

a major political
and religious capital.

But from the year 1000 AD on,

its influence declined severely

with the rise in power of its rival
Chichen Itza.

These new complexes
were erected around 1200 AD

and display
all the architectural codes

typical of the east coast style -

small rectangular constructions,
narrow vaulted rooms,

and very few openings
bordered by columns

and decorated
with ornamental friezes.

The presence of such ensembles

confirms the thesis
of a renewal in Coba at the time.

On this huge site
of 70 square kilometres,

which is twice the surface area
of a city like Lyon in France,

these modest buildings
brush shoulders

with the imposing pyramid temples
of the previous period.

So you've got different
architectural styles present, right?

So you see sort of Classic period
tall, vertical temples

that then are topped by Postclassic
Tulum style shrines

to reflect the changing times.

This little temple that towers
over the canopy is at the summit

of the highest edifice in Yucatan,
the pyramid of Nohoch Mul.

It stands on seven levels
with rounded sides,

and measures 42m high.

The stairway leading to the top
counts 113 steps, and its slope

is famous for being particularly
steep and difficult to climb.

In Mayan language,
'Nohoch Mul' means 'Great Hill'.

In the scenery, this pyramid
has the appearance of a craggy cliff

dominating the jungle,

and it's exactly what the Maya wanted
when they built such a huge temple.

The ideology ties very closely
to the cosmology,

the idea that there's an upper world
and there's an underworld,

and that we're somewhere
in the middle of it.

And there's various ways
to reach the gods

who live in the upper world.

One of those
is to ascend the mountain.

So, in the Yucatan,
where it's relatively flat,

building your own mountain
is one way to get a mountain.

And it was from the top
of this sacred artificial mountain,

visible by all, that the Maya priests
and kings ran the city.

Maya kings were divine messengers,

the only ones who could interact with
the gods and obtain their favours.

During periods of drought and famine,

their political legitimacy
could very quickly be questioned.

To preserve it, leaders
had to use propaganda constantly.

This is what the many stelae found
all over the city revealed.

Highly eroded today,

most of them are very difficult
to interpret with the naked eye.

Archaeologists often use
photogrammetry to create

a more legible version of these
testimonies in three dimensions.

By assembling hundreds of photos
taken in the field,

this technique amplifies
all the reliefs of a sculpted scene

and reveals the invisible.

These prisoners of war could at any
moment be sacrificed as offerings

to the Maya gods.

Nobody knows how often the temples
were used as stages

to these macabre scenes.

Yet once again, the architecture
of the place informs the experts

about their unfolding and the places
where the ceremonies occurred.

These sacrifices of prisoners
were not the only blood offerings

which the Maya people attended to.

Self-sacrifice rituals
were also very frequent.

Perched on their pyramid,

the Maya kings or priests practised
spectacular bleedings on themselves.

So they'll punch holes
in their earlobe

or through their nose or into
the fleshy parts of their penis,

things like that.

That would obviously
have been very painful.

So it was a real commitment
on the part of the elites as well.

And that royal blood

was categorically different
than commoner blood.

These blood offerings were directly
connected to the myth of rebirth,

and their goal was to ensure
fertile crops for the people.

As proof,

this bas-relief
represents a decapitated victim

from which a long plant is growing,
loaded with fruit and flowers.

The victim bears all the attributes
of a Maya pelota player.

This traditional ball game,
widespread in Mesoamerica,

took place on courts built in stone,

some of which
are still almost intact today.

In the one in Coba,

a stone skull marks the centre
of the playing area.

The ball court, whose size varies
according to cities,

is rectangular.

It is bordered by walls
often inclined,

going up to 10 metres high
approximately.

At the top of each of these walls,

a particularly inaccessible ring
serves as a goal.

During this ritual game,

two teams of 2 to 7 players
faced off

and exchanged a rubber ball
that could weigh up to three kilos.

To do so, they were not allowed
to use their hands and feet.

The contact area
seemed to be the hip.

Many of the ball courts
have large ball court rings,

so it seems like if the ball
went through the ring,

you automatically won.

It was a one-off situation.

It wasn't like
they were scoring points

by repeatedly
getting the ball through the ring.

If it got up there, that was
a good sign that the gods

were pleased with you and
that was it, you were done.

Surely, ball players would have been
heroes who sacrificed themselves.

So there was probably
a gladiatorial aspect.

There needed to have been a winner,

and the price needed to be
the ultimate price.

The people watched these battles
from the top of the stands,

above the players.

In the representation of the universe
as the Maya conceived it,

the ball-playing court
constituted a passage

towards the world of the dead.

Its rounded shape and the presence
of sculptures of skulls

and supernatural beings
in the construction

leave no doubt for the experts.

It's definitely an access point
to the underworld,

a cleft in the earth, so that
you are going down to the realm

of the Lords of Death.

This underworld was not considered
to be like the hell

that some other religions envision.

In this respect, the Maya people
were not afraid of it.

They saw it as both the place
where water comes from,

a source of life, but also the place
where their deceased ancestors lived.

The Maya devoted a highly particular
cult to caves and cenotes,

the natural geological formations
found abundantly in the area.

When you see the formations,
the stalactites, the stalagmites,

when you see the flowstones,

especially if you imagine them
being lit

by torchlight and camp fires,

it's the kind of place
when you think

"Where would the gods live?",
and you've been down there,

that's a pretty good choice.

They're so impressive
and they're so intimidating

that it makes absolute sense to me,
as a researcher,

why the Maya considered them
sacred and important.

Although the end of the Maya era

is often attributed
to the Spanish conquest,

the historical truth
is a little more complex.

On October 12th, 1492,

Christopher Columbus first set foot
on the American continent,

but it wasn't until March 1517

that the Spanish reached
the Yucatan Peninsula.

When they reached Maya land,

they found a civilisation
that was already declining.

Power was no longer centralised
in Mayapan,

which had already been deserted
for several decades.

Mayapan collapsed around 1450 AD

as a result of political revolt

led by members
of its internal council.

So the confederacy dissolved,

and at this point every lord
went back to their home territory.

When the Spanish conquistadors
invaded the areas inland,

the great Coba was also unoccupied.

Tulum, however,
remained inhabited until 1544,

when the Spanish spread
their conquest to the northeast

of the peninsula.

Thousands of Maya were killed

or forced to flee the cities
they had founded.

Never again would they build cities
like Tulum.

The heyday of the Yucatan Maya
ends here,

in this small harbour city
that managed to survive

over the years and eras to become
the last city of the Maya era.

However, this great civilisation
is still very much alive today.

It's an incredibly resilient
culture.

They've been through severe droughts
and things over the years

to the point
where entire cities have fallen

and new ones have been formed,

and they always have found a way
to reorganise,

to adapt and to survive.

For anthropologists
and archaeologists alike,

the investigation work
is only just beginning.

Of the sites that exist,
we've probably found 5%.

Of the sites that we've found,
we've only excavated 5%.

And as the technology advances,

there are constant new discoveries

being made in the Maya area.

And really,
it's a fascinating place to work,

and we're going to be learning
more about the ancient Maya

for many years to come.

Tulum. Mayapan. Coba.

These three cities were the home

to the last moments of the apex
of this civilisation

that is as fascinating
as it is mysterious.

The architectural and cultural
testimony that they leave

is a synthesis of the beliefs,
knowledge and skills

of the Maya people,

the achievement of around 4,000 years
of existence and evolution

in the Central American forest.

If the Maya
haven't totally disappeared today,

it's also thanks to the longevity
of these vestiges of limestone

whose beauty
is universal and eternal.

Captions by Red Bee Media
(c) SBS Australia 2024