Maya Underground: Blood Rituals & Collapse | History Documentary (S2 E6)

[00:00:04]like the ancient romans and egyptians  the maya civilization was one of the   most advanced in the world with an empire  that stretched throughout central america   they dominated this region for close to 4  000 years before they mysteriously vanished   today their great empire has been  swallowed up by the jungle but clues   behind their incredible rise and devastating  collapse can still be found underground from the depths of a cave where bloody human  sacrifices were desperate pleas to angry gods   they would take stingray spines and they  would pierce the foreskin of the penis   right down here through evidence of savage warfare  inside tombs of a royal temple the horror of all   of this is incredible wow it really goes down deep  in here to subterranean tunnels where high priests   spoke with gods of the underworld imagine a priest  coming out through there magically appearing   out of the darkness the maya calendar  predicts apocalypse in the year 2012.   for them it happened a thousand years too  early but with 2012 almost upon us the   clues they left behind may hold answers to  the end of their world and possibly to ours   we're peeling back the layers of  time on cities of the underworld underground in 2500 bc the maya civilization  began to take hold in central america   then in the 10th century  the great empire collapsed   the mystery behind the disappearance of the maya  civilization has baffled experts for decades some   believe it was the result of brutal warfare others  think it was natural disasters drought disease   or catastrophic earthquakes and for some the  answer can be found in the ancient maya calendar   it may have predicted their demise in the 10th  century and it ends in the year 2012. today   millions believe that fateful year  marks the end of days the apocalypse   i'm don wildman in western  belize near the guatemalan border   back in the day this was the heart of the mayan  world right now i'm in the middle of nowhere but   look at the buildings and temples they left behind  they're huge this was an advanced civilization   they were geniuses in math astrology and  engineering and then they practically disappeared   and the jungle just swallowed everything  the only way to find ancient mayan sites   was to spot unusual looking hills or mounds from  the air or machete to them right through the   jungle but once they started uncovering sites like  this they found evidence of bloody warfare ritual   sacrifice and a prophecy of doom and the deeper  underground they went the uglier the picture got the modern country of belize is the heart of  the ancient maya world today the population   is only 300 000 making it one of the least  densely populated countries in the world   and the terrain is rugged and remote  but just over a thousand years ago   the population was over a million and  major maya cities dominated the landscape the maya's sudden disappearance has baffled  experts for decades but as they began finding   clues under the jungle floor a terrifying  picture began to reveal itself some of the most   important and gruesome discoveries were made in  a remote cave buried deep in the belizean jungle   where the skeletons of men women and children were  found sacrificed in bizarre and bloody rituals finding ancient underground sites here in belize  isn't like going to paris rome or london it's   always out here in a thick overgrown jungle the  best evidence of ancient mayan sites is always   in really really remote places places i couldn't  find on my own so i got in touch with a top expert   who knows this place ancient mayan sites he's  been every cave in the country aime aowei is   perhaps the most respected maya expert in all of  belize you're ready for a trip to the other world   he was taking me to a remote cave called aktun  tunichill muknow or atm it's a 20-mile drive   from the nearest town of san ignacio then an  additional three-mile hike that crosses the   same river three times and so we're going over  rivers and through the jungle that's right uh   we have three river crossings if it's a little  high it could be exciting because of recent rains   the level of the river has risen dramatically but  crossing these rivers is the only way to see rare   evidence of human sacrifice and find out why the  maya would venture into the dark underworld if   you were to clear this forest there are thousands  of mounds that were the residences of the people   who inhabited this river valley today we know that  there are actually more ancient buildings in this   country than modern houses really okay here we go  again this river's way strong really rough on the we'll be bottom down this little hill to the  entrance of the cave and it's really slippery   so you want to be careful although a thousand  years ago this was a well-populated area   venturing into this cave meant desperate times   if the maya made the treacherous journey  to perform a gruesome human sacrifice   it meant the end was near how are we getting into  this thing well we're gonna have to jump in there   into that pool yeah swim up a  little bit probably about 20 30 feet   and then we'll hike in we're swimming into this  cave that's right after a three mile hike through   the jungle and three river crossings we had  finally reached the heart of the maya underworld into the lair of the gods wow this is a massive  cave the maya considered caves to be the domain   of gods when drought famine and war began to  devastate their cities they had to venture here   to make their painful and often deadly sacrifices  well you can really see why this was the entrance   to hell huh that's right this was the portal  to the underworld look up there look at that   jagged shapes it looks like teeth this may be  why the maya considered places like this the   belly of the earth monster right because we  really are inside the earth here huh and going   further the entrance to the atm cave is through  a small pool fed by a stream that runs from deep   inside the mountains the early maya preferred  to make sacrifices near the mouth of caves   rather than venture inside and anger the gods the  atm cave stretches over three miles beneath the   belizean jungle some of its chambers reach 150  feet high connected by winding narrow passages   we had gone almost 500 yards into the cave up  the river and finally reached a massive central   chamber the scene of a bloody sacrifice space  is insane look at this if you look over here   uh what we have is a grinding stone that's  where it was left by them exactly where we   found it but that's not the only thing they  offered right the maya also conducted auto   sacrifice bloodletting rituals bloodletting that's  right there were various types of bloodletting   they would take obsidian blades or stingray  spines and they would pierce the tongue   and catch the blood and offer the blood  or sometimes they would pierce the thumb   sometimes even the foreskin of the penis often  they would drop this blood onto bark paper and   burn the paper and then the essence of life goes  up with the smoke the maya believed the heart   blood and human breath were sacred substances  that connected them to the spiritual world   so they offered these up to their gods to  ensure the continuation of the cycle of life   piercing the penis was their offering for human  fertility although it was incredibly painful the   maya elite those closest to the gods performed  these rituals on themselves it's an incredible   room here it looks like it was made for this  purpose yes and i think that the same way that   you and i perceive this like an altar room so  the demaio but when bloodletting didn't work   the maya went even further into the cave and  began offering up more than just their blood   don we're in the middle of the underworld and you  got to be very careful where you step what we have   here is the skull of a male individual so why is  he here this guy was a victim of sacrifice the   maya believed that earth spirits fertility gods  and rain gods reside in caves so by sacrificing   a human they're inviting asking begging for the  pity of the gods the their mercy they are and   again you know i often say when is it that you  pray the most you know when things are going bad   it wasn't just men who were sacrificed jaime  found evidence of women who were brutally killed   in fact jaime was the first person  ever to discover this horrifying scene   hold on here's oh wow another one of these that's  amazing she's so complete that's the first thing   and you found this i was the first archaeologist  to ever come into this cave and i still recall   that day walking up this section and looking  at this i mean i was dumbfounded blew your mind   after further investigation i may discover that  this maya woman had been disemboweled with her   entrails offered up to the gods what would drive  anyone to have to do this what kind of desperation   were they feeling around 750 to 800 a.d we know  that maya population has reached sort of a maximum   a lot of the land has been cleared they're  starting to get desperate because their   crops aren't growing people are doing rituals and  ceremonies to the gods petitioning the rains to   come and the rains don't come so you start to get  a little more desperate so you start to go deeper   inside the cave offering your people and sacrifice  so this is what we have when sacrificing their men   and women didn't work the maya went to the most  morbid disturbing measures to appease the gods   in the bowels of the atm cave they resorted to  their last hope the killing of infants if you look   carefully okay up here you can still see some of  the fragments of the skull we know that the maya   whenever they they did any rituals they like to  use things that were pure uncontaminated virginal   if you want sure and what is more uncontaminated  or virginal than a child so this is a gift the   ultimate gift to the gods that's right there's  little doubt in my mind that the reason they're   doing this is because of drought and for this  they made the ultimate sacrifice begging for rain   oh they do and of course it fails and what  happens they leave they abandon this area a great drought could have triggered the end  of the maya but beneath one of the great maya   cities there's evidence that brutal warfare left  its bloody footprint on the maya's final days   belize is home to the second largest  unbroken barrier reef in the world it   stretches nearly 200 miles and has one of the  most diverse ecosystems found anywhere on earth when the great maya civilization vanished a  thousand years ago the jungle swallowed just   about every trace of their empire at the turn  of the century archaeologists adventurers and   treasure hunters began to explore these ancient  maya sites and the race was on to find clues that   would unlock the mystery of their disappearance  what they found revealed to people desperate   to please their gods as famine and drought  devastated the region rival cities began to   fight bloody battles over what dwindling land was  left soon virtually the entire empire was at war   this is caracal one of the biggest and most  important cities of the ancient mayan world   but it wasn't the only city around here see in  those days there wasn't a single mayan nation   there were dozens of city-states battling each  other over territory the bigger the city got   the bloodier the war some say the war fought  between caracal and its arch rival a city called   tikal was one of the bloodiest battles ever  fought here today there's not much evidence of   that war but there is a tomb that paints a pretty  gruesome picture of caracal in its darkest days caracol sits three miles from the guatemalan  border and just 50 miles from its rival   city to calm deep inside caracol's most  sacred temple are lost tombs that were   the site of bloody human sacrifices but these  weren't desperate pleas to the gods for rain   they were cruel warnings to their enemies of war luis zeiden a local guide was going to take me  inside how are you welcome to caracal thank you   that's a big building yeah he just came out of  cana which is the sky place which is where the   elites live the king probably lived up on the  top so we're in the middle of america we're in   the middle of the city eight miles three miles  depending on which direction you're looking at   there were suburbs of karakol and how many people  in the city a hundred and fifty thousand wow   at its height caracol was a bustling city that  stretched out 70 square miles kings watched over   it from on top of the temple of kanawha which  is still the highest structure in all of belize   why did they make these steps so steep well  you know then people were at that time five   feet four inches that was the average height  these steps were villages to keep them humble   the kings live upstairs so this forces you on  all fours yes it does prostrate to the king   but kana the temple to the kings of caracol is  also where the kings and queens of their enemies   were killed and ritualistically sacrificed i  feel like i climbed the mountain but we did   this is on top of the mountain right here  so this is a royal tomb yes this is this is   the entrance to the underworld yeah going  into a a mayan royal tomb right down here caracol's royalty were entombed inside rooms like  these but the people of karakol also used these   dark caverns to perform bloody sacrifices on their  rivals along with the temples the tombs throughout   caracal were built in stages over hundreds of  years the miles would build one building on top of   another like the layers of an onion we're looking  at a layer of one building on top of the next yes   yes this building on top of top of the one here i  see and then you have a tomb here at the top look   at that so each layer is a different time in mayan  history yes these tombs were built along with the   temple itself each generation of maya ruler built  on top of the temple of the previous ruler as each   new temple was erected they left this space hollow  and built around it leaving behind the royal tomb   caracal is dotted with ancient royal crypts but  as the temple of the king none are as sacred as   kana but the tomb wasn't just a resting place  for the bodies of caracols kings and queens   there's evidence that the rulers of caracal  used this space for a much more sinister purpose   i've even heard a story where we're a guy a king  and he would have a cup made out of a human skull   probably a king yeah that he that he captured  he would drink out of it caracal's bloodiest   battles were with its neighbor takal but by 800  a.d wars were breaking out all over the maya world   when prisoners of war were captured especially  royalty sacrificing them to the gods ensured   continued domination over the area this was  the tomb where the gruesome ceremony took place   enemy kings queens and high priests would be cut  up into pieces to be sent back to their cities a   grisly warning that anything goes when it comes to  defending the city not all of it would have been   delivered so maybe your femur bone or your leg  bone or something would have been kept by the by   the by the people that captured you for a trophy  yeah horror of all of us is incredible i mean this   is a society that is unbridled in its violence  drought famine and overpopulation led to chaos   land was scarce times were desperate and this was  an all-out war for survival so terror was often   the most effective weapon but sometimes the most  terrifying tactics weren't saved for the enemy   they were used on their own people heads were  placed like hills really in in the plaza in in   the open area so everybody could see down in this  area here where um we have found two individuals   that were were buried in in a tomb with their  legs cut off why were they done why did they   do that you can um they could be disarters  it would have been very very very symbolic   of don't do this anymore things became so chaotic  in caracal that men began to leave their own army   there was no greater shame than desertion so  military leaders inflicted the greatest suffering   on the deserters but the disgraced warriors  weren't buried in kanawha the temple of the king   they were mutilated and discarded in small dark  tombs there's a lot of tombs around here pretty   much every building has multiple tombs in it but  here we go oh yeah wow there we go that's a dark   and nasty place look how intact it is i've done  a little restoration but the ceiling's still here yeah ah a mayan tomb in 2003 archaeologists  removed mutilated remains from this tomb   possibly belonging to the  shamed warriors of caracol   it was a startling revelation for ancient maya  soldiers to desert their posts meant they truly   believed the end of the world was near that's how  bad things had gotten when honorable men risked   everything to escape to desert their own people  and prevent their own passage into the underworld the horrors of war left a deep  scar in caracal's underworld   but while most of this great empire vanished  another city survived by going underground while the u.s has over 19 000 airports  belize has 43 only five of which are paved i'm on my way to a mayan city called  lamini which roughly translates into   a place of crocodiles we're  hoping to find out clues   as to the disappearance of the mayan culture and  why it is that this place lasted longer than most   where the road up here was washed out by  the rain so we're taking a boat upstream   and keeping an eye out for the crocs located on  the west bank of the new river lagoon laminae was   once one of the largest maya centers in northern  belize it emerged as a regional power in 200 bc   and continued to thrive long after most of the  other maya city-states in the region had collapsed   but why did this place thrive for close to 2000  years while the rest of the maya world disappeared   if we can find out why this city survived we may  find clues that will reveal why others vanished   like other ancient mayan ruins most of the answers  have been swallowed up by the jungle but there's   still evidence of their amazing survival  underground i took a boat up the new river   to meet with jaime away again that is insane that  kind of just rises out of the jungle that's right   and it's one of the tallest structures here at  the site the ruins of lamini stretch over four   and a half square miles less than five percent  of it have been excavated aside from a few major   structures the jungle has consumed the homes  of the thirty-five thousand maya who lived here   lamoni was you know medium-sized city it's like  comparing uh new york city or l.a with let's   say cleveland and this is cleveland yes this this  would be cleveland and what's amazing is that you   know this is just one of many structures just as  big there's several more out there in the forest   so why was such a relatively small city  able to survive for thousands of years   the clues may still be scattered around the forest  but because the jungle has engulfed the city   they're difficult to find just right  fortunately locals tipped off jaime to   the location of this unusual underground  tunnel we're trying to find this chiltoon   this storage place and it's been buried  just like everything else back here antonio hi me are we lost do you know where we are uh  i think we're heading in the right direction   i see the trail continues here all right you  think but um these trails are often misleading   because uh you know they go off in  different directions so we'll keep looking oh my god look down look look you can see it  just disappears i thought it was just this   hole here but it keeps on going down further  finally we had found what we were looking   for the entrance to a maya sister or chilton  well he says there's a lot of bats down there   a thousand years ago this would have been filled  with life-saving water or a stockpile of food   what seems to have happened is that part of  the roof of the chambers have collapsed in oh   okay now are these chambers all over this forest  yes these limestone chambers are called chilton   and there are hundreds of them  scattered beneath the jungle floor   it's thought that they were used by maya families  for either storing food or as water cisterns   while other cities were suffering from drought or  famine the people of lamoni had this secret stash so a 2 000 year old hole in the ground   the maya had abandoned this chiltoon  500 years ago since then it's become   a home for snakes spiders and bats i don't  know what's down there but let's find out   wow this really goes off doesn't it it does ah dang look at that guy that little bat is  actually right where the original entrance of this   chamber might have been think of it like a bottle  you come down the chute right uh or the neck of   the bottle and then you're inside the main chamber  so this this mud and and dirt that's beneath us   this would have been a lot deeper actually oh yeah  yeah and and whenever we've excavated you know   you could go down probably for another you know  four feet okay uh before you hit the the actual   original bottom of this uh chamber what initially  appeared to be a cave was actually an ingenious   storage facility everything was specially designed  to hold and preserve laminized food and water   they were often shaped like clovers located near  the center of a courtyard and placed at a slight   angle so the rain would just filter in filling  the cistern extended families were responsible   for maintaining them when other cities are unable  to to access water and they're going to these   caves to do all these rituals to petition the gods  to make rain and to you know so that things get   better the mildlam and i don't have that problem  lamini survived 500 years longer than the majority   of other maya cities but they still met their  doom sometime around the 1600s no one knows   exactly what happened in lamini's last days but  there may be clues buried under four feet of mud   this one has yet to be excavated oh okay so  i'm sure that if we start to to dig down below   it's likely that you will find skeletons really  but why would skeletons be found at the bottom of   a water cistern jaime has a theory as to why this  cistern would have turned into a sacrificial altar   in my ideology you know the underworld is this  watery place that's where they get life-giving   water and then the underworld is also a place of  death and so it makes a lot of sense that the maya   once these no longer function you know or serve  the purpose of containing water or for food is   that they would convert it to a place of the dead  if lamini never suffered from the harsh droughts   famine and war that other cities did why would  the maya here commit the same gruesome sacrifices   as their desperate neighbors most experts believe  that lamini was eventually terrorized by a far   worse fate the spanish conquistadors who decimated  millions of natives throughout the americas   skeleton still buried under the mud may have been  a mass grave the result of the ruthless spanish   invasion one of the last cities of the great maya  civilization that ruled over this continent for   two thousand years was annihilated what's the real  core reason for the for the disappearance in your   opinion the meyer victims of their own success um  at the time of the decline the population was at   a maximum and it took a lot of work to sustain  this large population they had overdone it they   basically there were too many mayans right yeah  and so eventually the system you know fails the   rulers are the ones that communicate with the gods  to ensure fertility you know bountiful crops and   when you know this starts to fail the people turn  against the elite right and what do rulers often   do you know you have an internal problem you try  to create an external one so warfare increases   yeah yeah i think uh at the core the maya system  failed it no longer was able to sustain it   it's amazing to think of a 1500 year old storage  chiltoon out in the middle of the rainforest   right under the floor i mean the river water  and the thousands of storage still tunes may   have sustained the lamini people longer than most  but it didn't save them from her eventual fate by the time spanish conquistadors swept across  the americas the maya had already been decimated   by centuries of drought famine and war their  civilization had lasted for thousands of years   but how a dark tunnel beneath a long-lost city  may reveal the magic of the maya over 40 percent   of belize is under archeological protection  due to the extensive maya sites found there years of brutal warfare may have caused  the death of the great maya civilization   but war alone doesn't explain the  mystery of its sudden disappearance   some say it was the toppling of the maya  religion that led to mass chaos and rebellion   kings of the maya city-states were considered to  be godly and used terror to control the masses how   did they lose their god-like status and grip on  power today the clues to those mysteries may be   found in recently discovered tunnels buried under  an ancient maya city it's located in the jungle   just outside san ignacio a small city  in the western part of the kaio district i'm going to meet louis zaidan he grew up  in this area knows it like his own backyard   he was telling me he's been to dozens of mayan  sites that are still actually buried by the jungle   they just don't have the money or time to excavate  them all and they're in a constant race against   treasure hunters to get to these sites first  these are huge ancient cities perfectly preserved   and he's going to take me to one  right now hi dom how you doing luis took me 12 miles outside of town  to the isolated maya site of el pilar   which straddles the guatemalan border  spectacular vista so i'm the king of el palar   surveying my kingdom what do i see before  me you see 80 percent of the forest that is   here right now was all gone all clear you see  plazas courtyards farmland one of the biggest   city-states within the belize river valley el  pilar covered more than 5 million square feet   at one point more than 50 000 maya lived  in this area the city consisted of at   least three large sections north south and  west that were connected by wide causeways   the maya began building here in 450 bc and  continued to work and live at il pilar until   1000 a.d some 15 centuries after 1000 a.d the city  simply vanished and the jungle reclaimed the land   so this this is a significant city we're standing  on yes this was like the like your cities of   chicago or all of these in all these metropolitan  cities but chicago is less than 200 years old   el pilar survived for 1500 years and buried  underneath these mounds are clues that reveal how   el pilar remained one of the dominant city-states  in the region a secret tunnel used by the high   priests and kings to inspire awe and fear in the  people look at that it just peaks up what is that   that's a that's definitely a temple when you  see a temple like that you know that it's in a   private area this was where there your trumps  and your these are where these people live   this is where they're the people with the money  a fancy neighborhood yeah it's like buckingham   palace you just don't walk in there this is  like that today howler monkeys rule el pilar   but a thousand years ago the northern section of  the city was home to lplr's vips it was called   jimena or the place of the priests and it used to  be one of the most restricted areas of el pilar   the high priests used the tunnel as a form  of magic appearing and disappearing in and   out of the dreaded underworld all in an  effort to control a population living in an   uncontrollable land this is the house  of the bats you ever been in there nope we're hal deep at this point about 20 feet i  would say this would have been plastered as you   can um there's a little bit of it still  still here and probably even painted it   this thousand-year-old secret tunnel called zotzna   once connected two plazas and was used  by the priests and elite of el pilar   but zotsna may also have been used as another  kind of secret passageway one that led to the   underworld the domain of the gods in some cases  we find where there is a temple they would   hand dig you know they would dig out a a  tunnel or a cave underneath the temple so it   would represent the underworld for them here at  this site maya temples and tunnels beneath them   were made to imitate the natural world so they  were built like mountains places to get close to   the sky gods and the tunnels beneath them were  made like caves entrances to jilbaba the place   where the gods of the underworld lived you see  you we call it a temple today but in those days   they call it a wits which means mountain so it  was the the perfect representation of a mountain   a natural mountain with the with the peak and the  caves beneath it it's a perfect representation of   their religion the maya priests or shamans were  considered intermediaries between the human and   supernatural worlds they would travel deep into  the underworld and then emerge from these secret   tunnels as if by magic to relay the message of  the gods to the people these elaborate ceremonies   also ensure that the rulers maintain their power  over the people after it was abandoned a section   of the tunnel collapsed blocking the passageway of  the high priests but a thousand years ago priests   would have been able to walk beneath the plaza and  exit here unseen so this is the temple right above   the tunnel yes see it would have come out right  here ah interesting right where the population   would have been imagine a a priest coming  out through there yeah magically appearing   out of the darkness because in the tunnel it's  going to be dark sure he coming out of shibalba   the place of fright yes for them he  went there for them he has been in there   probably even for two or three days praying to  their nine gods and then he comes out and then he   reveals whatever the gods told him to the people  and that gives him the authority to lay down the   law yes because the authority of shibala is with  him the people believed their high priests were   responsible for the city's prosperity by pleasing  the gods of the underworld el pilar prospered for   hundred years but in one thousand a d the end  of days fell upon el pilar some speculate it was   drought famine or a massive earthquake like  other maya cities el pilar began to crumble   the high priests were unable to appease the gods  and the people began to abandon their religion   lose faith in their priests and  eventually desert their cities   no one knows for certain what sparked the  catastrophic collapse of this huge metropolis   el palar is still riddled with tunnels tombs and  passageways once used by the elite and there are   more excavations to be made throughout  the site let's see if i can get in there   wow really goes down deep in here oh no i  can't get down that far but this is all tomb   el pilar has barely been excavated and  there's way more to this city under   the jungle most of the excavation on this site has  been done by grave robbers still right beneath me   are more levels littered with artifacts and  ruins but the real story is hidden underground maya high priests couldn't have predicted  the ultimate demise of their great kingdom   but the maya calendar tells a different story  it was the most accurate in the ancient world   and it predicts the apocalypse is just  around the corner the year 2012. clues   to the maya prophecy of doom can be found deep in  a jungle cave a portal to the dreaded underworld   the country of belize could fit inside the state  of new hampshire it's less than 9 000 square miles just over a thousand years ago the mayans began to  deeply enter into caves cenotes and tunnels that   previously they wouldn't be caught dead in now it  seems to me that the mayans had grown desperate   to appease the gods most importantly the gods  of the underworld now there's one cave here   where the evidence shows not just sacrifices  to prevent drought famine and war but a more   desperate sacrifice to prevent the end of the  world 16 miles from san ignacio in the maya   mountains is a recently discovered cave called  chachem ha the cave was found on the property of   william plates a local guide according to william  the cave may hold clues to the maya's bleak view   of the afterlife and an eerie prophecy of doom  the year 2012. oh look i'm just right in the side   of the mountain here this is it the entrance  into the underworld it just drops right down william discovered the cave on his land back  in 1989 when he was out walking his dogs   i saw them coming down in and down to this little  hole i sat and literally disappeared so i started   clear cutting some of the brushes and slowly  moving some of the rocks which as a result of that   i noticed the hole got big an intricate system of  natural caves chechem has stretches for 820 feet   inside the range of limestone hills known as the  maya mountains the cave winds down 120 feet below   the surface like other natural caves the maya  believed this to be a portal to the underworld   and performed ritual sacrifices here a lot of this  here had to do nearly the front had to do so the   like a permission i would call it more as an  entryway into the underworld an offering to   their gods so before they even came in this place  they were asking permission exactly you could see   theirs william found evidence of the bloodlettings  and divination rituals that took place here   offerings to appease the gods below but as william  explored further into the cave he began to realize   it had a vital connection to the ancient maya  myth of the underworld the maya underworld   is divided into several distinct levels each  presided over by its own god it's possible that   when the maya found this cave with its long  dark passageways leading to distinct levels   they immediately made the connection between  the two and believed each section was home   to the gods of jobalba according to maya religion  there are nine levels in the underworld and for   the maya numerology was absolutely essential  they divided the universe into 23 levels   13 above one for daily life and the  dreaded nine levels of the underworld below   the maya also calculated a universal cycle of  creation and destruction they believe the earth   had been created five times and destroyed four  times before currently we are living in the fifth   and final era one that will end in 2012 the date  of the final apocalypse there's so many pots there perfectly intact right where they left  them right where the sacrifices were done   the ceremonial pots found here date back at  least 1200 years they make up what's probably   one of the largest collections of maya pottery  ever discovered they were usually filled with   offerings like water if they were praying  for rain from the god of water called chalk   we're just at the entrance so level  two as we continue deeper down it has a   higher significance the deeper you were going  through the more special you would have to be   in the high ruling system at the time being in  other words you're getting into some serious   stuff down there man take a good look at this  one man you can see a skull there that's this   cold got a little claws this sinister looking  monkey figure is one of a handful found in belize   the maya believed monkeys were messengers to  the gods of the underworld so when this monkey   figure was found on this ceremonial pot it's  possible it is a sign that this was your balba   the place of fear it's like a a perfect  artifact in a museum and it's in a cave   essentially in a man's backyard what's your low  ceiling so we got a rope there you take backwards   now the rope it's to avoid any expressway down  faster in the underworld well done what you sell   there all right welcome to level seven we had  descended nearly 120 feet beneath the jungle   according to william we were in a section of  the cave that represented level seven of the   underworld it's hard to imagine the terror a  mile would have felt here their underworld was   a place of terrible suffering darkness cold  and physical torture perhaps as their empire   crumbled in the 10th century and the real horrors  of famine and war drove them down into this cave   it may have seemed to the maya that the  prophecy regarding the end of the world in 2012   was coming a thousand years too soon an  ancient mayan would only come here would   only dare to come this far down if their  needs were most intense if their they had   an absolute need to talk to the gods exactly  right are you ready for it sure i'm gonna go   wow here we are down at the lowest level of the  underworld level nine we had reached the lowest   level of the cave and for the maya it may have  represented the last level of the underworld   the ninth level of the maya underworld was  the most terrifying of all it was ruled over   by the god apooch he appeared as the head of an  owl on a rotting human body and once you fell   into his clutches there was virtually no escape  for all of eternity where most maya had thought   of the nine levels of jilbaba as a netherworld  these maya had literally climbed down into hell   what is it well what we got here now this is the  ring of stones represents an altar this is the   final place man if you look up above it's one  of the highest points of the whole entire cave   imagine the whole ritual around here the  fire light the smoke the chanting and this   whole entire side would be eliminated you would  probably have a gathering of my five six people   so the priests the priests okay higher rulers  and they're dressed in their formal gear they're   formidable gear burning incense right there  doing bloodlet sacrifices it's been considered   so they are literally bleeding for the gods  here in the depths of the underworld this is   it this is the ultimate we're at the end of  the mayan civilization here at the very end   but what would have driven the maya to venture  this far into the underworld were they hoping   their gods and ancestors could save them from  extinction the mayans had a premonition about   the demise of their own civilization and they were  right and they also predicted very specifically   the demise of all civilizations the year 2012.  and down here i mean their fire went out they   were right about themselves hopefully they weren't  right about us today less than 200 000 descendants   of the maya remain in belize but its jungles and  caves continue to offer up more clues about their   rise and ultimate demise there's more waiting  to be revealed about this amazing civilization   which endured nearly 4 000 years but for  now it all remains buried deep underground you