Original subtitles

Gates: So Atahualpa

Really Is The Last Of The Great Incan Emperors?

Exactly, Yes.

♪♪

If We're Looking For Atahualpa, That's The Place To Look?

That's The Place.

The Jungles Swallow Everything.

[ Whispers ] Oh, Man. Look At This.

This Is Some Indiana Jones [Bleep] Right Here.

Feels Like The Top Of The World.

The Mummy Of Atahualpa Could've Been Right Here.

That's Right.

♪♪

-Josh, Come Here! -What Do You Got?

-I Don't Know What It Is! -Ooh.

[ Bleep ]

♪♪

♪♪

When You Think Of A Mummy,

You Might Envision A Dusty, Cloth-Wrapped Monster

Dragging Itself Through A Torch-Lit Tomb.

In Hollywood, These Undead Rulers

Are Always On The Move.

But It Turns Out There's One Real-Life Mummy

That Also Refuses To Stay In One Place.

His Name Is Atahualpa.

He Was The Last King Of The Inca Empire.

His Reign Ended When Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro

Murdered Him And Brought The Inca Civilization

To Its Knees.

But Atahualpa Retained Great Power And Wealth,

Even In Death.

Like All Incan Kings, His Body Was Mummified

In A Sacred Ritual Designed

To Give Him Supernatural Sway Over The World Of The Living.

And Then His Body Vanished.

♪♪

It Was Long Believed That Atahualpa Was Buried

Where He Died In Peru.

But Recently Unearthed Documents Suggest That His Body

Was Secretly Carried Back To Ecuador

To Empower An Incan Army.

In The Ecuadorian Highlands, A Team Of Archaeologists

Are Investigating Forgotten Ruins

That May Be Linked To The Mummy's Tomb.

And, For The First Time,

They're Using Aerial Scanning Technology

To Hunt For Answers In Some Of The Densest Jungles On Earth.

They Say You Can Rest When You're Dead,

But Not If You're An Incan Mummy.

I'm Heading To South America To Join The Search

For The Last Great King Of The Inca

And A Legend That Refuses To Die.

♪♪

My Name Is Josh Gates.

With A Degree In Archaeology And A Passion For Exploration,

I Have A Tendency To End Up In Some Very Strange Situations.

Good Lord!

Aah! [ Laughs ]

My Travels Have Taken Me To The Ends Of The Earth

As I Investigate The Greatest Legends In History.

We're Good To Fly. Let's Go.

This Is...

--Captions By Vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions Paid For By Discovery Communications

[ Blows Air ]

So This Is Where Our Story Begins.

We Are In Ecuador, And I'm Standing In The Palace

Of The Last Of The Great Incan Kings, Atahualpa.

But You Won't Find Any Stately Ruins

To Admire Here Today.

The Only Thing Down Here Now Are Ghosts.

What Was Once A Palace Is Now A Tomb.

This Is A Catacomb.

But The Only Remains Of Atahualpa's Palace

Come In The Form Of Broken Bricks.

And As For The Mummy Of The Great Leader,

It Is Nowhere To Be Found.

Trust Me. I've Looked.

The Bones That You See Down Here,

Those Are The Remains Of Spanish Priests.

And, 500 Years Ago, The Spanish

Transformed This Incan World Above Into A Catholic Empire.

[ Blows Air ]

This Is The San Francisco Church.

♪♪

It Was Built By The Spanish In 1534

On The Still-Smoking Ruins Of Atahualpa's Throne.

13 Cloisters, 3 Churches, Sprawling Courtyards.

There's Even A Winery In Here Somewhere.

As For The Decorations, Well,

They're Not Exactly Understated --

Gold Upon Gold.

But Atahualpa's Mother

And His Son Are Both Entombed Here.

And Among The 3,000 Or So Paintings

Are Depictions Of Incas Converting To Christianity...

...Voluntarily, I'm Sure.

When Conquistador Francisco Pizarro First Met The Inca,

They Were The Largest Empire In The Americas.

They Were Advanced In Mathematics And Astronomy,

Master Road-Builders Of The Andes.

Yet, Pizarro Decimated Their Entire Empire

In Less Than 2 Years.

Now, Standing On Top Of One Culture

And Within Another...

I'm About To Emerge Into A Third.

[ People Singing In Native Language ]

♪♪

Incredible Quito, The Beating Heart Of Ecuador,

Cradled In A Valley

Nearly 10,000 Feet Up In The Andes.

♪♪

It's Incan Roots May Be Buried,

But Its Spanish Overlay Is Nothing Short Of Breathtaking.

This Is, Bar None,

The Best Preserved Colonial City On The Continent.

♪♪

And Maybe It's The Lack Of Oxygen,

But The Atmosphere In Quito Feels Utterly Relaxed.

♪♪

Folks Here Truly Aren't Afraid To Have Fun.

Sir, Please. I'm A Visitor In This Country.

Yes. Okay. He Won't Let Go.

Seriously, He Won't Let Go Of Me.

♪♪

Once I Managed To Escape,

I Beelined For The City's True Claim To Fame.

This Is Probably The Most Famous Site In Ecuador.

And It's A Memorial

That Commemorates The 1739 French Geodesic Expedition

That Mapped The Circumference Of The World,

Established The Meter As A Unit Of Measurement

And Declared This Place What We Now Know As The Equator.

Welcome To Mitad Del Mundo, Or The Center Of The World.

The Monument Is Modeled After An Inca Temple.

On One Side, The Northern Hemisphere.

On The Other, The Southern.

A Breathtaking View Of The Middle Of The Planet.

Oh, Just One Thing.

It Is Slightly In The Wrong Place.

Wait, What? That Can't Be True. Is That True?

Yeah, It's Down The Street.

[ Sighs ] Okay. Pack It Up, Boys. Come On.

♪♪

Let's Try This Again.

[ Music Rewinding ]

I Walk 787 Feet To Meet Mayra, A Park Ranger

And Educator At The Place Global Positioning Satellites

Say Is The Actual Zero-Zero-Zero.

This Is The Real Equator?

-This Is The Real Equator. -Mm-Hmm.

Because I've Been -- I've Been Lied To Before.

-Did You Go To The Monument? -I Did.

-That's The Old Equator. -Right.

-And This Is The New... -Right.

-...More Accurate Equator Line. -That's The Fake-Quator.

Fake Equator.

No, I'm Tryin' To Sell You On One Word Here -- Fake-Quator.

Fake-Quator. All Right. Yeah, That Can Be, Uh...

-Did I Just Come Up With That? -Yes.

#Fakequator.

[ Giggles ]

Both Monuments Are Pretty Awesome, Actually.

This One Is Decidedly Kitschier,

Complete With Supposedly Scientific Demonstrations

Of Water Draining Clockwise In The Southern Hemisphere

And The Other Way In The North.

Mayra Also Claims That, At The Truequator,

You Can Balance An Egg Upright On A Nail.

Ah, There You Go. Very Good.

Huh? Huh? How 'Bout That? I Have To Say,

That Was Eggs-Tremely Difficult. I Mean, That Was...

-You Did An Awesome Job. -Thank You.

That Was Not Over Easy.

Seriously, I Could Do These Yolks All Day.

Along With These Modern Monuments,

There Are Also Ruins In The Nearby Hills.

Turns Out The Inca Managed To Find The Equator

Without Satellites 500 Years Ago.

To Learn More About Them

And About Their Powerful Missing Mummy,

I'm Heading For A Meeting At Quito's Ministry Of Culture.

Very Recently, A Trove Of Previously Unknown Documents

Was Discovered Here.

And Historian Pablo Garcia Believes They May Hold The Key

To Finding The Last Great King Of The Inca.

This Is An -- An Incredible Archive.

Yes, And This Institution

We Hold 1,500,000, Uh, Documents

From The History Of Ecuador.

And Have You Read Through All Of Them?

-I Wish I Had The Time. No. -[ Laughs ]

So Atahualpa Really Is The Last Of The Great Incan Emperors?

Exactly, Yes, Definitely.

When Did They Come To Ecuador?

Early 1500S.

-Why Did They Come Here? -The Equator.

Closer To The Sun To Worship Their Most Important God.

In 1532, Atahualpa Has Just Killed His Own Brother

To Unite The Inca Kingdoms

And Is Now Emperor Of A Newly Consolidated Incan Empire.

And Then What Happens?Pizarro Happens.

While Atahualpa Takes Power, Conquistador Francisco Pizarro

Sails To South America With Only 200 Spanish Soldiers.

Atahualpa, On The Other Hand, Has 80,000 Men At His Command.

He Invites Pizarro To Meet In The Town Of Cajamarca, Peru.

However, Pizarro Arrives First

And With The Benefit Of Spanish Guns,

Ambushes The Incan King.

♪♪

Atahualpa Is Kidnapped And Locked

In A So-Called Ransom Room.

Pizarro Promises To Release Him

Only If He Can Fill The Chamber Twice Over

With Pure Gold And Silver.

Amazingly, Atahualpa Fulfills The Request And Then,

In One Of History's Most Appalling Double Crosses,

Pizarro Sentences Him To Death By Burning.

Atahualpa Begs The Spaniards Not To Be Burned.

Every Dynasty,

Their Remains Had To Be Maintained And Mummified.

They Would Dress Them. They Would Feed Them.

They -- Their Palaces Were Kept.

-Were They Seen As Magical? -Supernatural, Yes, Sir.

So He Requested To Be Killed In A Different Way.

If Atahualpa Leaves No Mummy,

He'll Have No Power In The Afterlife.

So He Agrees To Convert To Christianity.

And, In Return, Pizarro Grants Him Bizarre Mercy --

A Death By Strangulation.

Atahualpa Will Remain All Powerful.

His Mummy Is Buried Where He Fell In Cajamarca,

Or So It's Been Thought For The Last 450 Years.

In The History Books, I've Read

That The Body Gets Buried In Peru.

-Yes. -So Why Am I In Ecuador?

'Cause There's A Different Version Of The Story.

♪♪

A Curator Carries In A Box From Deep In The Archives.

Inside Is Something That Could Change History As We Know It

And Perhaps Lead To A Supernatural Mummy.

♪♪

Gates: In Ecuador's National Archives,

Historian Pablo Garcia Shows Me Newly Found Documents

That May Point The Way To The Lost Mummy

Of The Emperor, Atahualpa.

Garcia: We Are Looking Right At The Moment

At 500-Year-Old Documents.

-Wow. -This Is Astounding.

This Is A Chronicle By One Of The Sailors

That Came Along With Francisco Pizarro

Along The Conquest In 1500S.

He Was The Witness Of A Great Procession

Carrying This, Uh, Remains Of A Dead Person.

Does He Mention Atahualpa By Name?

No, He Doesn't, But It Must've Been Him Because,

After The Murder Of Atahualpa In Cajamarca,

One Of The Generals Of The Empire, Rumiñawi,

Went To Recuperate His Remains.

Since The Mummy Was Believed

To Have Supernatural Powers,

Rumiñawi Likely Wanted It To Help Command His Army.

The Procession Would Have Traveled

More Than 600 Miles Toward Quito.

But Where The Remains Were Entombed --

Well, That's The Mystery.

Originally, Uh, Historians Discovered The Will

Of Atahualpa's Son.

Wow. And What Is The Date Of This Document?

1583.

How Astounding Is It To See Something Like This

From The 16Th Century.

What Does The Will Of Atahualpa's Son Reveal?

It Shows Where This Family Maintained Property.

There Is A Possibility

That This, Uh, Section Of Ecuador

Is The Place Where The, Uh, Remains Were Buried.

Would It Have Been Common To Put A Sacred Mummy

On Family Land Like This? -For Sure.

Atahualpa Was Born In The Kingdom Of Quito,

So It Was The Ideal Place

To Go And Hide The Remains Of The King Of The Empire.

Gates: Even More Intriguing,

Archaeologists Have Identified A Set Of Ruins

Within This Land Known As Malqui-Machay

That Appear To Be Incan In Origin.

Could This Be The Final Resting Place

Of Atahualpa's Divine Mummy?

These Are The Pieces Of The Puzzle

That Will Lead To The Remains Of Atahualpa.

♪♪

I Grab A 4X4 And Head To The Ruins Of Malqui-Machay

Where A Team Of Archaeologists Are Investigating The Lead.

Considering I'm Headed Well Off The Grid

In The Ecuadorian Highlands,

I'll Need To Make A Pit Stop To Grab Some Supplies.

[ People Singing In Native Language ]

Just Outside Of Quito Is Saquisilí,

And Every Thursday, There's A Market In Town.

Or, More Accurately, The Entire Town

Turns Into A Market --

A Giant, Open-Air Department Store.

First Priority Is, As Always, Food.

Buenos Días. ¿Cuánto Cuesta? How Much?

$1.

-For All This? -Todo.

Man, I'm Gettin' Totally Ripped Off On Bananas

Back At Home, It Turns Out.

♪♪

The Market Offers A Lot On The Menu,

Some Of It Unusual...

I May Need A Toilet In The Next 35 Seconds.

Some Of It Downright Adorable.

Ma'am, How Much For All Of Them?

I'm Setting You Free.[ Laughs ]

I Quickly Grab Some Gear For Jungle Trekking.

-How Much Is The Backpack? -Veinte Dólares.

$20? Okay. I'll Take It.

Can You Throw In The Toilet Paper, Too?

Sí.

I'm Gonna Need Every Roll, Ma'am.

It's Been A Good Haul.

Papa's Got A Brand-New Bag, A Bunch Of Bananas

And A [Bleep]-Load Of Tp.

Time To Hit The Highway...

Or What Passes For A Highway Up Here.

♪♪

A Few Hours South Of The Capital

And The Landscape Turns Positively Prehistoric.

Man: ♪ Can You See The Sunrise ♪

♪ Goin' Through The Trees ♪

Gates: I Climb Past Vertical Rain Forests,

Spectacular Lagoons,

And Dodge Some Of The More Than 30 Active Volcanoes Here.

Man: ♪ I Can Hear The Mountains Callin' Me ♪

Gates: And Then The Road Climbs Into An Ethereal Mist.

These Are Ecuador's Cloud Forests --

Foggy, High-Altitude Jungles

And Places Of Untold Mystery.

Man: ♪ Callin' Me ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

Gates: Finally, The Vapor Clears,

And I Approach The Archaeological Site

Of Malqui-Machay,

Where I've Arranged To Meet With Researcher, German Molina.

With Him Is His Colleague And Translator, Cale Rodriguez.

-Hola. -Hola.

Hola. ¿Qué Tal? Hi. How Are You?

-Hola. Soycale. -I'm Josh.

Welcome To The Middle Of Nowhere.

I Know. I-I Used The Gps,

And I Sort Of Thought This Must Be Wrong.

So -- So What -- What Is This Place?

Es Un Lugar Inca Ceremonial.

It's A Ceremonial Inca Place.

♪♪

The Jungles Swallow Everything.

Little By Little, We Are Realizing

That There Are More Inca Sites In Ecuador

Than We Ever Suspected.

German Believes That The Documents

In Quito Are Correct

And That Atahualpa's Mummy Was Not Only Brought Back To Ecuador

But May Have Been Hidden Here At Malqui-Machay.

♪♪

We Walk Even Deeper Into The Jungle.

Here, The Land Looks Much The Same

As It Would Have When The Inca Ruled The Continent

Or When King Kong Battled That T-Rex.

What Do You Think The Weight Rating Is On This Thing?

-Oh, We Are Over It. -[ Laughs ]

Gates: We Cross Rivers And Climb Into The Chilly Hills.

Eventually, Though, Signs Of Inca Civilization

Start To Come Into View.

♪♪

♪♪

All Of This Is Incan, German?

And This Too, This Road?

[ Speaking Spanish ]

You Can Tell Because The Fact That It's 2 Meters Wide...

Right.

As All The Inca Road In The Whole Empire.

So This Is Inca, 100%

Really Amazing Thing Is That It's In Near-Perfect Condition.

I Mean, You Could -- You Could Drive A Car Up This.

-[ Laughs ] -How Old Is This Construction?

[ Speaks Spanish ]

Around 500 Years.

We Have Roads In New Jersey That Are 50 Years Old

That Look Like They Got Hit With A Missile.

[ Laughs ] If The Inca Didn't Build This For Last,

They Cut Their Heads Off. So...

Yeah, The Union Guys Don't Have That Same Kind Of Pressure.

It's True. And It Continues Up?

Yep.

-Yeah? -Let's Go Up.

Wow. There's A Ton Of Stonework Here.

Look At This, An Aqueduct.

An Incan Aqueduct.

♪♪

You've Got Construction Here That's Half A Millennia Old.

It's Still Working Perfectly.

Rodriquez: Water Was Holy. Mother Nature Is Holy.

So It Could Mean That A Very Important Thing Happened Here.

[ Speaks Spanish ]

-There's Other Canals Up There? -Mm-Hmm.

-Can You Show Me? -Yeah.

Gates: The Dense Jungle Growth Has Covered Everything Here,

An Inca Settlement Beautifully Preserved Beneath It.

And If You Move Any Of This Away, You See...

-The Rocks. -The Rocks.

Yeah.

Just Hidden Underneath It Like A Perfect Cobblestone.

Further Up The Hill, Though,

Is A Structure That Indicates To German

That Atahualpa's Mummy May Very Well Have Been Here.

Look At That.

Wow, Big Blocks.

This Structure Here Is Not Part Of The Inca Road.

This Is Other Kind Of Structure.

Look At That. The Tree Is Just Growing Right Out Of It

And All Back Here, Too.

[ Speaks Spanish ]

It's Square-Shaped, Carved Stone, Which Is Imperial.

It Means That We May Find An Imperial Construction Here.

Underneath All The Moss, Underneath All The Grass,

There Could Be Actually A Temple Here Of Some Kind?

This Is Run By Nature Now.

But It Could Be A Whole Complex Here, Undiscovered.

This Is Some Indiana Jones [Bleep] Right Here.

This Is, Like, Undiscovered Country.

♪♪

We Step Further Down Into The Ruins

Into An Even More Impressive Discovery.

What Is This?

[ Speaks Spanish ]

This Is The Most Important Building

Of The Whole Complex.

We Believe That This Is The Place

Where Atahualpa's Mummy Was Kept Every Night.

-Right Here? -Yeah.

So The Mummy Of Atahualpa

Literally Could've Been Right Here?

Laying Seated, How Would He Have Been Positioned?

He Would Be In A Seated Position

Like The Inca King Was, Uh, On His Throne.

The Problem, Though, Is That He's Not Here Now.

So, If They Took The Mummy, Where Would They Have Taken It?

The Inca Were Fleeing From The Spaniards.

And Whoever Has The Mummy Possessed The Power Of The Inca.

They Needed To Protect This Mummy.

They Knew How To Get In Higher Land.

Up There? Up There Looks Difficult.

Yeah, That's The Point.

So, If We're Looking For Atahualpa,

That's The Place To Look? -That's The Place.

♪♪

♪♪

Gates: In The Jungle Highlands Of Ecuador,

I've Been Led To A Remote Ruin That May Have Once Housed

The Reportedly Supernatural Mummy Of The Last Incan King.

But Since Spanish Conquistadors Were On A Quest

To Eradicate His Empire, The Mummy Was Likely Moved.

But To Where?

It Should Then Be Over There.

Up There? Up There Looks Difficult.

We Actually Have Colleagues

That Are Working There In The Highlands In The North.

And They Are Looking For Inca Trails

That May Lead To A Complex, A-A Place Like This.

German And Cale Are Part Of A Larger Team.

While We've Been Busy Investigating The Ruins

At Malqui-Machay,

The Rest Of His Group Has Been Exploring Inca Trails

In The Jungles To The East.

Their Plan Is To Map This Network Of Roads

And Determine If It Leads To Any Significant Sites.

And Have They Found Anything Yet?

A Farmer Up There In The Highlands

Who Have Found Some Inca Stones.

We Just Don't Know What It Is.

But We Wanna Go There And Take A Look.

-Could Be An Incan Site? -Yeah.

Gates: If This Farmer Has Found Inca Stones In The Same Area

Where Atahualpa's Mummy Was Likely Taken,

Then We Need To Get There Fast.

But With No Proper Roads Ahead,

This Is The End Of The Line For My 4X4.

Lucky For Me, My Companions Thought Ahead.

[ Engines Start ]

[ Engines Revving ]

It Might Seem Weird That We're Trying To Track Down A Farmer.

But, In Fact, People Who Live Up Here

Are Often The Ones Who Find These Ruins First.

I'm Really Intrigued To See What It Is That This Guy Found.

Tree.

♪♪

It's Incredible -- The Higher We Go,

We're Literally Getting Into The Clouds.

♪♪

Pretty Sure I Have Cow Poop In My Mouth.

Here's An Expert Travel Tip -- Always Pack An Extra Toothbrush.

Eventually, We Arrive At The Farm

But Don't Exactly Receive A Warm Welcome.

-Buenos Días. -Buenos Días.

Hola. Buenos Días.

Cameras? No. No Cameras.

All Right, Guys. Camera Down. Camera Down.

[ Lowered Voice ] If He Has Found Something,

And It's Archaeological, Artifact Or -- Or A Site,

And The Government Finds Out About That,

You Can Go To Prison For Three Years.

So He May Be Worried About That.

...Al Diferente Partes.

Hola.It's Possible? Can We Chat With Him Or No?

Cale: Uh, I Think It's Possible.

If He's Comfortable Kind Of Showing Us What He's Found

Or Pointing Us In The Direction Of Where He's Found It,

We Can Keep Him Totally Anonymous.

That's Easy.

Gates: Cale And German Manage

To Convince The Farmer To Share What He's Found With Us.

And I Can Hardly Wait To See It.

Oh, My God.

Look At That. [ Laughs ]

Are You Kidding Me?

This Is Beautiful.

Oh, My God. [ Exhales Deeply ]

I Thought That He Was Gonna Have Found

Some Bricks Or Ceramic, Maybe.

This Is Unbelievable.

This Is A Remarkable Find In And Of Itself.

But It Could Also Mark The Way To The Jackpot --

The Mummy Of Atahualpa.

[ Man Speaking Spanish ]

This Is, Uh, For The Chiefs.

It's Like A -- Like A Chest Plate?

...Representación Del Sol.

It Is From The People Of The Sun.

From The People Of The Sun? From The Inca?

What Is It Made Of? It Looks Like Copper.

-Tumbaga. Tumbaga. -It's A Material

They Called Tumbaga, Made From Gold And Copper.

-It's A Mix. -And Do You Think

This Is The Right Time Period For Atahualpa?

[ Speaking Spanish ]

It's Amazing. Where Did He Find It Exactly?

[ Speaks Spanish ]

It's A Mountain With A -- Another Mountain On The Top.

It's A Hill Over A Mountain.

It Has A Trail, Like, A Path That Goes Like A Spiral,

He Says, Like A Snail.

Gates: The Farmer Describes

A Strange, Conical Hill Due East Of His Farm.

But Even The Atvs Aren't Going To Make It There.

♪♪

We're Now On Foot.

And, Unfortunately For Us, The Weather Is Taking A Turn.

We Are Literally In A Cloud,

So Maybe Not Surprising That It Is Raining.

Cale: If It Wasn't For The Compass,

We Can Be Easily Lost.

Gates: In A Matter Of Minutes,

The Fog Comes Down Like A Blanket

And Smothers Our Visibility,

Which Is Probably For The Best,

Since It Means That No One Can See Me Panting.

We Are Now Above 12,000 Feet,

So The Air Up Here -- Little Thin.

♪♪

Aquí Está. Mira.

[ Speaks Spanish ]

That's It! That Is A Hill And A Hill.

And It Looks Like A -- A Circular Trail.

Yeah. Goes In Spiral.

Gates: We Forge Ahead Toward The Peak

When, Suddenly, The Ground

Seems To Drop Away In Front Of Us.

Whoa. What Is That?

[ Speaking Spanish ]

He Thinks It's An Incan Trail.

This Ditch Is The Secret Path

That They Used To Go Up And Down.

Gates: We Descend Into The Strange Gully

And Begin To Follow It Uphill.

♪♪

We Push Through Several Overgrown Sections

And Eventually Emerge To A Promising Site.

-Loose Stonework Here. -Yeah.

This Looks Like Construction All In Here.

It's Roughly Cut, But Something Was Here.

¿German, Qué Es Esto? What Do You Think All This Is?

[ Speaks Spanish ]

¿Pucara? ¿Qué Es Pucara?

It's An Incan Watchtower.

Gates: Pucaraswere A Kind Of Incan Fort.

They Were Placed In The Hills Within Earshot Of One Another,

Blasting Out A Warning

To Other Watchtowers In The Event Of Danger.

♪♪

As A Cold Rain Begins To Fall,

We Break Out Metal Detectors And Scan The Hillside.

If The Farmer's Incan Relic Was Found Here,

Could Atahualpa's Mummy Be Stashed Nearby?

What? Oh, My God!

You Found Something?!

Josh! Come Here!

What Do You Got?

Cale: I Don't Know What It Is!

[Bleep]

Whoa! Watch It!

It's A Big Hole.

-You Found A Hole. -[ Laughs ]

Maybe You Could've Opened With That.

-Are You Okay? -I'd Be A Lot Worse

If I Was Down There.

-How Far Down Does That Go? -I Don't Know. 15 Feet?

[ Exhales Deeply ] Okay. What The Hell Is That?

[ Speaking Spanish ]

German Believes It's A Tomb.

Why Would There Be A Tomb Here At A Fortress, Do You Think?

[ Speaks Spanish ]

Maybe It's A Huge Offering.

[ Speaks Spanish ]

This Was An Important Pucara.

Do You Think It Could've Been The Mummy?

Who Knows? Who Can Say?

Let's See If We Can Get Eyes Down To The Bottom.

♪♪

Gates: Though I'm Not Entirely Confident

About The Rigging Of Our Wet Rope,

I Eagerly Descend Into The Pit,

Hopeful To Discover What's Hiding At The Bottom.

[ Panting ]

Okay. I'm Down.

This Has All Been Carved Out,

And Then They Went In A Little Bit.

Loose Debris Down Here. Some Stone, As Well.

Could Someone Run Back And Grab Me That Metal Detector?

Here It Is.

[ Pinging ]

Yeah, I Got A Hit Down Here.

There's Something In This Corner, I Think.

Shovel? Thanks.

I Got A Hit Over Here A Minute Ago.

Just Seein' What It Is. May Be A False Hit.

No, I Got Somethin'! Oh, Man.

Look At This.

♪♪

Gates: Deep Inside The Cloud Forests Of Ecuador,

Archaeologist German Molina And I

Discover A Strange, Man-Made Hole

At The Ruins Of An Incan Fort,

Known As A Pucara.

Could This Be The Final Resting Place

Of Their Last Emperor, The Mighty Atahualpa?

No, I Got Somethin'!

-Oh, Man. Look At This. -What Is It?

I Don't Know What It Is. It Looks Very Old.

Oh, My God. Ha! Beautiful.

-Oh, My God. -What Is That?

-[ Speaks Spanish ] -[ Speaks Spanish ]

A Thing They Use To Clip Their Clothes Together.

What's It Made Of?

-Tumbaga. Cobre Y Oro. -Copper And Gold.

Copper And Gold. [ Laughs ]

-Unbelievable! -This Is Surreal.

-Whoo! -That's Incredible!

[ Speaks Spanish ]

-Should Be Something More. -Okay. I'll Keep Looking.

Gates: I Spend The Next Soggy Hour Carefully

Exploring The Bottom Of The Pit...

♪♪

...But To No Avail.

Not One Other Hit Down Here.

-Guys, I'm Comin' Back Up. -All Right.

[ Panting ]

-Hey. Awesome, Awesome Job. -[ Laughs ]

Gates: Unearthing A 500-Year-Old Artifact

In The Remnants Of An Incan Fort Is A Major Thrill.

But We're Left With More Questions Than Answers.

Why Was This Watchtower Built In Such A Remote Location?

And What Was It Guarding?

We Should Meet With The Rest Of Our Team.

-It's A Few Hours Away. -You Can Find Them From Here?

-We Can Find Them With Gps. -Please.

♪♪

Gates: This Entire Area Is Riddled With Incan Trails.

And About 4 Miles From Our Location,

The Rest Of German And Cale's Team

Has Been Busy Mapping Each And Every One.

Now We Just Need To Reach Them.

We Descend To Their Location, And, Soon, The Sun Follows Suit.

Honestly, It's Spooky As Hell Out Here,

Which Is Why, After 4 Hours Of Stumbling Around In The Dark,

I'm More Than A Little Relieved

To Spot Some Light In The Distance.

-I See A Fire. -Here They Are.

Benoit, Diego!

[ Speaking Spanish ]

-I'm Josh. -Benoit.

Nice To Meet You. How Are You?

Gates: Benoit Duverneuil Is A Trailblazer In A New Field --

Aerial Archaeology.

And He's Dedicated His Mastery Over Drones

To Studying The Inca Civilization.

Really Crazy Day. Went To Machay, Started There.

We Have A Lead On A Farmer Who Found...

[ Speaks Native Language ] -Oh, Wow.

Right. So We Went Up From Where The Farmer Had Found This,

And It's A Pucara.

Yeah, An Inca Fortress With This Trench Trail

Going Up To The Summit, Totally Un-Excavated Place.

What We Came Across Today,

How Does That Fit Into Your Mission Here?

Gates: Benoit Has Been Undertaking

Complex Aerial Mapping Of The Region.

And What He's Uncovering Is Unprecedented.

His Drones Have Snapped Countless Terabytes Of Photos,

Which Have Been Stitched Together

To Reveal A Network Of Incan Trails

And Un-Excavated Pucaras,

Incan Watchtowers Arranged In A Perimeter.

Could It Be That They're Protecting

An Undiscovered Sacred Site And The Remains Of Atahualpa?

Do You Buy Into This Idea

That His Mummy Came From Peru Into Ecuador?

So Where Do You Think The Mummy Went?

Gates: Tomorrow, We'll Continue The Hunt.

But, For Tonight, We Need To Rest And Get Warm.

However, These Guys Aren't Serving Hot Cocoa.

[ Sniffs ] Whew.

-Cale, What -- What Is This? -[ Laughs ]

It's Canelazo. It's A Local Liquor

Made With Fruits And Cinnamon And A Lot Of Sugar.

-It's Good For The Altitude? -Yeah.

Because It Kills You?

[ Laughter ] Perfect. Well, Cheers, Boys.

-Cheers. -Bottoms Up.

-Salud. -Cheers.

Here We Go.

-Hold On. That's Great. -[ Laughs ]

It's Like A Warm Margarita. How Strong Is This?

-Very Strong. -I'm Gonna Be So

[Bleep]-Faced In, Like, 10 Minutes.

♪♪

[ Horse Whinnies ]

[ Snoring ]

Does Anybody Have Any Aspirin?

[ Exhales Deeply ]

Gates: The Previous Night's Revelry Blurs Away.

And After A Little Housekeeping And About 10 Cups Of Coffee,

We Get Back To Work.

All Right. Let's Do It.[ Horse Whinnies ]

Gates: Llamas Are Packed Up With Supplies,

And We Mount Up On Horseback

To Head Even Higher Into The Hills.

Our Plan Is To Explore Unmapped Incan Trails...

And To Investigate The Area Inside The Perimeter

Of The Ruined Pucarafortresses.

Are We On A Trail Here?

You Think It's Conceivable That The Mummy Followed This Route?

[ Horse Whinnies ]

And Now It's Raining.

That's The Problem With A Wet-Air Cloud Forest --

Very Unpredictable.

We Keep Passing Through Different Environments

As We Get Up Here To The Clouds.

It's Just Turned Into A Thick Jungle.

The Wall Of Fog Has Gotten The Better

Of My Sense Of Direction.

It's Just Like Being Inside A Cloud Here.

You Can't See Anything.

But It's Not A Problem For Benoit.

Yeah, Let It -- Let It Look Ahead Of Us.

Sounds Like A Good Idea.

Gates: Benoit's Plan Is Both High-Tech And Yet Simple --

Send Up An Aerial Camera

To Take Photos Of Incan Trails From Above

And Then Use Computers To Stitch The Images

Into A 3-D Road Map Of The Unknown.

Also, We're Basically Lost Out Here,

So, Hopefully, We'll Be Able

To Kill Two Birds With One Drone.

♪♪

Up And Away. Here We Go.

So, Heading Uphill. Misty.

Gates: The Drone Peers Down Through The Fog

And Quickly Spots Trails.

-So We've Got Terraces In Here? -Yep.

Gates: And Also Something Else.

Ooh! Right There! Look At That!

What Is That?

I Mean, This Definitely Does Not Look Natural.

Gates: On A Rainy Mountain In Ecuador,

Explorer Benoit Duverneuil Has Sent Up An Aerial Camera

To Get Us A Lay Of The Land.

Through The Thickening Fog, We Spot One Hill

That Looks Strangely Different Than The Rest.

Ooh! Right There!

It's Huge.

I Mean, This Definitely Does Not Look Natural.

It's Weird You Can't See It From Down Here.

It's Blocked By -- By All The Vegetation.

How Far Is That From Us?

Yeah, Let's Check It Out.

[ Whirring ]

Gates: Too Steep And Muddy For The Animals,

We Have To Hoof It To The Site Ourselves,

An Undertaking Made All The More Difficult

By The Thin Air And Wet Conditions.

But Soon, We're Standing At The Foot Of The Rise.

Well, There It Is.

It Does Have A Strange Shape.

Yeah, It Looks Like It Flattens Out.

This Hill Is Curious, To Say The Least.

Steep Sections Lead To Flattened Terraces.

Is This Natural Or Something Else?

A Trench.

-It's Like The Other Site, Yeah? -Yeah.

I Mean, It's Really Uniform.

Let's See Where It Goes.

Like The Trench We Saw Yesterday,

This Path Wraps Around The Hill Almost All The Way To The Top.

♪♪

Another Flat Layer.

It Looks Completely Leveled Off Just Like The One Below It.

It's Almost Like It's Stepping Up.

Where Does It All Lead, Is The Question.

Yeah, For Sure. Let's Keep Looking.

♪♪

Look At This.

Whew! That's Breathtaking.

Feels Like The Top Of The World. Look At That.

From The Peak, We Look Down Through A World Of Vapor

To Seemingly Endless Jungles Below.

Incredible. Really Has A 360-Degree View.

Yeah.

Unbelievable.

Clouds Are Starting To Sock Us In On This Back Side.

-Look At That. -Yeah.

Huge Stones.

Right. Let's Get Those Tools,

See If We Can Dig Around A Little Bit

And, Uh, Reveal Anything.

Gates: The Path, The Stones,

The Oddly Shaped Terraces --

This Hill Appears To Have Been Engineered,

And Exploring The Peak Reveals Even More Mysteries.

-Drop Over Here. -Yeah.

Oh, Look At That! Guys, Come Here! Come Here!

Gates: We've Spotted An Opening In The Ground --

One That Definitely Doesn't Look Natural.

Oh, My God...

You Think It Could Be Part Of The Trench System?

Well, I'll Grab A Couple Tools And The Metal Detector.

Let's Check It Out.

Gates: While I Gather Some Equipment,

Benoit Wastes No Time And Jumps Down Into The Pit.

-Here You Go. Tool. -Right.

He's Looking To See If There's Any Actual Masonry

Or Whether It's Just A Raw Pit.

Any Stones?

Can You Go Forward At All?

There's No Way We're Gonna Get Further In That

Without Some Serious Equipment

And Some Way To Buttress That Thing.

All Right. Come On. [ Grunts ]

This Is The First Thing That I've Seen That Says To Me,

This Is Not Just A Farming Site.

Something Else Is Going On Here.

Okay. So What Do You Think? Could -- It Could Be A Passage?

Uh-Huh.

So What's Our Move?

Sure. Let's Break It Out. Come On.

Gates: The Inca Sun God Is Clearly Not On Our Side.

Above Us Is A Ceiling Of Concrete,

And Heavier Rain And Darkness Are Moving In Fast.

Hopefully, The Camera Can Cut Through The Fog In Time.

You Ready?

Gates: Beneath Our Feet Is A Massive Mystery --

One That's About To Be Solved.

♪♪

Want Even More "Expedition Unknown"?

You Can Dig Deeper Into Each Expedition

With Behind-The-Scenes Photos, Deleted Scenes, And More

At Travelchannel.Com

♪♪

Gates: We're Racing Against Daylight And Weather

To Scan A Massive Hill Beneath Our Feet

That Might Be An Important Incan Site.

To Find Out, Benoit Unleashes A Drone,

Connected To State-Of-The-Art Mapping Software.

Walk Me Through This. How Does This Work?

Okay, Wow.[ Camera Shutter Clicking ]

[ Camera Shutter Clicking ]

Look At That.

♪♪

Oh, My God. Look At It. You Can See The Whole Thing.

-Yep. -It's Enormous.

I Mean, You Can Clearly See The Shape Of It.

There's Symmetry. There's Terraces.

You Can See How It Steps Up. It's Definitely Man-Made.

Gates: The Drone Struggles In The Rain

But Still Manages To Snap Thousands Of Photos...

Which Are Digitally Woven Together Into A 3-D Image

That Renders In Real-Time.

It Is A Structure.

It's So Big, It Looks Like A Temple.

And So In Terms Of Atahualpa,

In Terms Of The Mummy, You Think It's Possible

That It Could've Come Here?

If The Mummy Was Brought Here, It Could've Been Removed.

Or Who Knows? It Could Be Interred Here

Or At One Of The Other Sites.

Right. It's -- It's Incredible.

Thank You, Guys, So Much. Benoit.

-Thank You, Josh. Good Job. -Thank You Very Much.

Gates: The Puzzle Pieces To The Location

Of Atahualpa's Mummy Are Falling Into Place.

Faded Documents Reveal It Was Brought To Ecuador

Where There Are Ceremonial Sites Fit For An Incan King

And Imperial Treasures Recovered Far From Civilization.

In This Untouched Wilderness Are Overgrown Trails

Leading To Long-Abandoned Incan Ruins.

These Battlements Must Have Guarded Something

And Seem To Encircle Our Final Destination,

A Massive Hill That Eagle-Eye Technology Has Revealed

Is Actually A Towering, Undiscovered Incan Fortress.

The Next Step Is To Peel Back The Vegetation

And Explore What's Underneath.

Until Then, Atahualpa Will Keep Us Frantically Searching,

Proving That He Still Retains Power

Nearly 500 Years After His Death.