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[Graham] Are we a species with amnesia?
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Could we have forgotten
a vital part of our own story?
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I'm Graham Hancock,
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and many archaeologists
hate me for trying to find out.
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The notion of a lost
advanced civilization of the Ice Age
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is extremely threatening
to mainstream archaeology
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because it rips the ground out
from under that entire discipline.
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It removes the foundation.
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I don't care about that.
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There's people that come along
and because of their impact,
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it changes the way people look at things.
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Graham Hancock is a man who,
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despite all of the insults,
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and all of the people disparaging his work
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he has trekked on and on and on.
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What I care about
is learning the lessons of the past
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in order to clear away that fog
that surrounds prehistory.
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And it's a fog
because there's no documents.
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We have to build our picture of the past
from fragmentary evidence.
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Folk stories, legends, myths.
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These for me are all important evidence.
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And one of the most mysterious
and revealing mythologies in prehistory
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comes down to us
through the ancient cultures of Mexico.
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[Graham] In my search
for a lost civilization,
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I've come to a land of fertile valleys
and simmering volcanoes.
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This is the Puebla region,
east of Mexico City.
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The site of this country's oldest
continuously inhabited city, Cholula.
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Today, a modern metropolis
of over 100,000 people,
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it holds an ancient secret at its heart.
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History is written by the victors.
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That's especially true in Mexico.
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When the Spanish conquistadors
arrived in Cholula in 1519,
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they massacred its inhabitants,
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obliterating not only their culture,
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but also almost all traces
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of the more ancient cultures
that had preceded them.
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But the invaders
couldn't erase everything.
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The conquistadors had first assumed
this hill was just that, a hill,
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and they built a church on top of it.
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But this hill isn't the natural feature
it's often mistaken for.
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In fact, it's the most massive monument
ever built anywhere in the world.
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And yet, chances are
you've never heard of it.
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This is the Great Pyramid of Cholula.
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After centuries of neglect and pillaging,
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it's impossible to understand
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the sheer enormity
of what once stood here.
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But we do have some idea of what
it must have looked like in its prime.
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It's estimated that
the Great Pyramid of Cholula
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rose to at least 213 feet, 65 meters.
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Evidence suggests
it was originally dedicated
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to the ancient Mexican god
of rain and floods,
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whom the Aztecs
knew by the name of Tlaloc.
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Built mostly with
mud and straw adobe bricks,
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it wasn't as tall
as Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza,
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but it was larger
with nearly three times the footprint,
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measuring 400 by 400 meters at its base,
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roughly 30 football fields,
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making this the largest monument
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ever constructed
by any civilization anywhere.
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Archaeologists quickly established
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that work on the pyramid
was completed around eight centuries ago,
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1200 AD or thereabouts.
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But when they began cutting tunnels
through the body of the structure,
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they were stunned
by what they discovered inside.
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It's a surreal feeling
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descending into
the largest pyramid on Earth.
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Within are beautiful murals
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depicting mythological scenes
and creatures...
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and tantalizing glimpses
of many layers of construction.
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Do they offer clues
to this site's biggest mystery?
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Could it be part of a global legacy
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left behind by an ancient,
advanced civilization of prehistory?
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I'm joined by one of the world's leading
experts on the Great Pyramid of Cholula,
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University of Calgary anthropologist
and archaeologist, Geoff McCafferty.
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We're in the heart
of the most massive monument
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ever built anywhere in the ancient world.
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You get almost the same sense
as when you go into a church.
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You know, there is a tangible sense
of an aura of that power.
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These tunnels were excavated
by Mexican archaeologists.
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There are a total of
eight kilometers of tunnels.
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- That's extraordinary. Eight kilometers?
- Yeah.
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[Graham] Using these tunnels,
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archaeologists made
an astounding discovery.
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The Pyramid of Cholula
is simply the latest
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in a whole series of
more ancient pyramids hidden beneath.
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Inside is an even older pyramid,
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dating back to 800 AD or so,
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and beneath that, another one
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dating at least 200 to 500 years earlier.
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Until like a series
of Russian nesting dolls,
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we get to what's thought to be
the first and oldest pyramid built here,
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still an impressive 120 meters square
and 17 meters or 56 feet high.
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When did construction first begin here?
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So, the earliest evidence
of construction of the ceremonial zone
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dates to about 500 BC.
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It was a good size pyramid.
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Then, over time, it was expanded,
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sort of larger construction
over the top of the other.
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[Graham] So this pyramid-building project
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must have been carried out
by multiple generations
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over a span of 1,700 years,
and possibly longer,
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a fact now acknowledged by archaeologists.
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Yet modern scholarship
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knows next to nothing
about the original architects
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or why they chose to build a pyramid here.
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Precisely the mysteries
that most interest me.
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Do you get the sense
that something may be missing
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from the archaeological
and historical story of ancient Mexico?
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[Geoffrey]
Well, not to be overly dramatic,
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but I think that
a better understanding of Cholula
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would fundamentally change
the perception of Mesoamerican history.
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It is a black hole.
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It is a black hole in Mexican history.
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Do you think there was something here
before that first pyramid was built?
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The pyramid was built over
an important spring.
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[Graham] Yeah.
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The spring represents
a passageway into the underworld...
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- Mmm.
- ...so it was clearly an important
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sacred space
as well as a ceremonial focus.
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The fact that
the pyramid was the structure
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that was chosen to be
built upon that site is not accidental.
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On the contrary,
I believe it's a critical clue
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to understanding the motivations
of the original builders,
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because that repeats a theme
that we find all around the world.
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We've already uncovered evidence
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of a similar terraced pyramid
in Indonesia at Gunung Padang
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that also has
a sacred spring at its heart.
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It's a pattern found
not just in Mexico or Indonesia.
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That's the case
with the subterranean chamber
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beneath the Great Pyramid of Giza.
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In my view, that is the first sacred place
on the Giza plateau,
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and the pyramids are later
built on top of it to honor it.
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The Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán
sits on top of a natural cavern.
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They modified it somewhat
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and then,
they built a pyramid on top of it.
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But the first thing was the place itself,
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the sacred place,
and the pyramids mark this.
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You start off with a place
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that for one reason or another
is regarded as sacred,
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that had a special magnetism
that people could sense
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that made it important
and that made it matter.
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The Great Pyramid of Cholula
shares another key feature
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with ancient pyramids
all around the world.
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Hints of hidden chambers.
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Not long after
the Spanish conquest of Mexico,
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a reliable eyewitness,
Father Bernardino de Sahagún,
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reported that the Great Pyramid of Cholula
was full of mines and caves within.
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Today, modern investigators
have confirmed that observation.
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One of the former archaeologists found,
somewhere inside the pyramid,
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an open room.
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And there were tunnels leading into it.
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It's never been published.
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I don't know
what the current situation is.
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- That's a very tantalizing hint.
- You think so?
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Has that room ever been excavated?
Has it ever been revisited?
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Not that I know of.
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[Graham] Why hasn't this inner chamber
ever been revisited?
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What secrets could it hold
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about the intentions
of the original builders?
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Regardless, the fact that
the Great Pyramid of Cholula
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has a hidden inner chamber at all,
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like its cousins
in Gunung Padang and Giza,
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is yet another striking feature
shared by these structures.
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And there's more.
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So it's pretty well established
that the structure
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is oriented to the setting sun
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- on the summer solstice.
- That's correct.
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The sun is setting
between the two volcanoes to the west,
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so it's very much
a solstice-related orientation.
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We know that the indigenous Mesoamericans
were very clued into astronomical cycles.
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[Graham] As were the ancient Egyptians,
who built their Great Pyramid of Giza
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to align precisely
to true astronomical north.
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The fact that these ancient pyramids,
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whose builders supposedly
had no contact with one another,
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have so much in common is a mystery.
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Is it just coincidence?
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I don't think so.
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The general view
that archaeology puts forward,
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is that pyramids
were built in the form that they have
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'cause that's the easiest way
to make a high building.
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The problem is that these structures
are universally associated
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with very specific spiritual ideas.
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What happens to us after death?
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This is always connected
with pyramid structures,
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and that's the case
whether you find them in Mexico
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or whether you find them in ancient Egypt
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or whether you find them in Cambodia
or whether you find them in India.
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It's a detail that defies
the accepted mainstream view
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that various human civilizations
around the world,
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independently invented pyramids.
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What it suggests to me
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is that something else
was going on behind the scenes.
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Could we be witnessing the unfolding
of some extraordinary master plan?
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A shared legacy
from a lost global civilization
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that provided the seeds
and the spark of inspiration
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from which many later civilizations grew.
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It's a possibility that leads me to ask
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whether the pyramid-building project
at Cholula
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could have much older origins
than most archaeologists want to believe.
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What about the dating of the structure?
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Are there carbon dates
from the earliest phases?
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No. We've had ceramics that are similar
to ceramics from the basin of Mexico
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dating to, like, 1000 BC.
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Does that give us enough
to be confident about the whole story?
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No. No, I would say absolutely not.
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And there's a tremendous amount of work
that needs to be done
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- throughout the prehistory of Mexico.
- Yeah.
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I'm not disputing
the archaeological evidence
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that dates
the first monumental construction
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on the site of
the Great Pyramid of Cholula
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to around 2,300 years ago,
but there are older pyramids in Mexico.
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And what really interests me
are the ideas that underpin them all.
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By 1519,
when the Spanish conquistadors arrived,
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Cholula's Great Pyramid
had fallen into disrepair.
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But when they realized
it was much more than just a hill,
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and asked who built it,
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the locals regaled them
with a fascinating legend.
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According to myth,
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the Great Pyramid of Cholula
was the work of a race of giants.
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Once upon a time,
there were giants in ancient Mexico,
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until the rain god Tlaloc grew angry
and sent a great flood to destroy them.
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Only seven survived the cataclysm.
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Fearing that a second deluge might follow,
the giant Xelhua, known as the architect,
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went to Cholula,
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and with the help of its people
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built a massive artificial mountain
out of bricks,
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a pyramid,
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and dedicated it
to the worship of Tlaloc, the rain god.
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Archaeologists regard this
as just a fanciful tale,
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but I think
that by ignoring it completely,
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we're in danger of missing
some important clues
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to the origins of this incredible place.
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Perhaps that architect
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who appeared in Cholula
after a great flood,
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wasn't a physical giant,
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but one of the intellectual giants
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of an advanced civilization
lost to history.
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We shouldn't expect
the evidence to be easy to find,
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precisely because, as at Cholula,
ancient monuments are often located
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directly on top of
still older constructions,
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obscuring their origins.
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About a two-hour drive to the northwest,
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another remarkable site
offers me my next clue.
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Perched atop this uniquely-shaped hill
245
00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:11,160
is an ancient Aztec complex
known as Texcotzingo.
246
00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:23,079
Here at Texcotzingo,
we encounter a pyramid again,
247
00:17:23,680 --> 00:17:26,560
this time a creation of the Earth herself.
248
00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:29,880
It's easy to understand why this place
249
00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:33,160
could have exerted
a powerful magnetism on the ancients.
250
00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:38,000
Pyramids clearly mattered
in ancient Mexico.
251
00:17:39,360 --> 00:17:41,520
Here, in the 15th century,
252
00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:46,080
the Aztecs built a remarkable network
of garden terraces and pools
253
00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:50,160
fed by cleverly constructed aqueducts
254
00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:54,480
that carried water down
from a reservoir at the mountain's top.
255
00:17:56,200 --> 00:18:00,640
It's like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,
Mesoamerican style.
256
00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:05,960
But intriguingly, from my investigations,
257
00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:09,560
all of it was dedicated
to the same ancient god
258
00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:12,720
associated with
the earliest pyramid at Cholula...
259
00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:21,080
Tlaloc, the god of rains and floods,
whose cult long predated the Aztecs.
260
00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:25,920
Archaeologists believe that the Aztecs
261
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:28,880
were the first
to pay attention to Texcotzingo,
262
00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:32,440
but could this incredible site
be much older?
263
00:18:36,760 --> 00:18:39,120
The Spanish conquistadors
took it for granted
264
00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:42,520
that Texcotzingo was entirely
the work of the Aztecs,
265
00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:47,560
and that is what
most archaeologists will tell you too.
266
00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:53,480
But what if the Aztecs
simply renovated and added to a site
267
00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:56,760
originally created
by a much older civilization?
268
00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:05,360
Author Marco Vigato believes the evidence
suggests that's exactly what happened.
269
00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:10,280
This site was clearly reworked
over a very long period of time.
270
00:19:10,360 --> 00:19:13,320
The rock was
a very hard type of porphyry stone.
271
00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:15,440
If you look around at the site here,
272
00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:18,920
you see that some of the stone surfaces
are very heavily weathered.
273
00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:22,640
Some parts of the site
that clearly show evidence of erosion
274
00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:24,640
must have continued
for thousands of years,
275
00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:28,120
taking into account
this is an extremely hard type of stone.
276
00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:32,080
[Graham] Right.
So in your view, the Aztecs,
277
00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:34,080
well, we know they were latecomers,
278
00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:39,360
but they found this site
at least partially worked already
279
00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:40,960
and they took it over
280
00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:42,800
- and developed it further.
- Right.
281
00:19:43,680 --> 00:19:45,400
[Graham] It's a radical thought.
282
00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:49,680
Could a much older culture have carved out
283
00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:53,240
some of the more unusual features
on the side of the hill?
284
00:19:55,560 --> 00:19:58,640
Like these deeply-weathered megaliths
strewn on the ground.
285
00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:04,880
And this chamber
carved out of the bedrock.
286
00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:09,840
This was almost certainly
a pre-Aztec site.
287
00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:12,800
- Mmm-hmm.
- It was simply reoccupied and reused.
288
00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:17,840
[Graham] It's a conclusion
archaeologists would dispute,
289
00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:20,240
but there's some
relevant evidence to consider.
290
00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:26,400
Not far away, in a dried-up riverbed
at the foot of a mountain,
291
00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:29,920
a huge statue
of the rain god Tlaloc was uncovered.
292
00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:35,880
The largest single cut stone
in the entire Americas.
293
00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:44,040
Archaeologists have dated it
to around 700 AD,
294
00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:48,560
long before
the Aztecs dominated these lands.
295
00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:53,920
It's proof that Tlaloc, the rain god,
296
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:57,640
had already been worshipped
in this area by earlier cultures,
297
00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:00,560
perhaps under several different names,
298
00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:04,120
for nearly a thousand years,
and maybe longer.
299
00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:12,320
In fact, Tlaloc,
as a mythological character,
300
00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:13,760
goes back all the way
301
00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:16,760
to the earliest known cultures
of prehistoric Mexico.
302
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:21,480
And he's not alone.
303
00:21:23,280 --> 00:21:26,840
The global floods
sent by the rain god sets the stage
304
00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:31,000
for the appearance of the most intriguing
character in Mexican mythology...
305
00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:34,360
Quetzalcoatl.
306
00:21:38,120 --> 00:21:39,840
After the Great Flood,
307
00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:43,400
a stranger from the east
landed on Mexico's shores
308
00:21:44,120 --> 00:21:49,120
riding on a boat with no paddles,
said to be carried by serpents.
309
00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:53,080
His name was Quetzalcoatl,
310
00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:55,560
meaning, "the feathered serpent."
311
00:21:56,360 --> 00:22:00,960
He and his followers taught the locals
how to grow crops and domesticate animals.
312
00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:04,360
He gave them laws
313
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:08,080
and instructed them in the ways
of architecture, astronomy and the arts.
314
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:10,480
They worshipped him as a deity.
315
00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:17,160
But after being violently ousted
by the followers of a Mexican war god,
316
00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:23,400
Quetzalcoatl sailed away towards the east,
promising one day to return.
317
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,000
[drums beating]
318
00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:29,280
[native music playing]
319
00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:35,160
The legend of Quetzalcoatl has been told
for generations, even down to today.
320
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:37,960
[man singing in Nahuatl language]
321
00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:41,400
We get a description
of a heavily bearded individual.
322
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:46,000
He sounds a bit like a foreigner
from across the ocean,
323
00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:49,320
and he brings the gifts of civilization.
324
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:53,280
[man continues singing]
325
00:22:53,360 --> 00:22:57,600
[Graham] What I find so astonishing
is how often we've heard this story
326
00:22:58,440 --> 00:23:02,480
from cultures that supposedly
had no connection with ancient Mexico.
327
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:04,600
[blowing conch shell]
328
00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:10,840
The setting is always the same.
There has been a giant cataclysm.
329
00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:17,600
The world has been plunged into darkness,
floods, chaos everywhere.
330
00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:19,120
Society is collapsing.
331
00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:21,360
[thunder rumbling]
332
00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:27,680
And then out of the darkness
appears a figure who has knowledge
333
00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:31,000
of what is necessary
to make a civilization.
334
00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:35,600
And that figure teaches
the demoralized survivors of the cataclysm
335
00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:37,560
how to start civilization again.
336
00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:43,840
In ancient Greek mythology,
it's the Titan Prometheus
337
00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:48,720
who, after a great flood,
shares with humans the secret of fire.
338
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:53,080
In the South American Andes,
339
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:58,120
pre-Inca civilizations describe a robed,
bearded figure named Viracocha,
340
00:23:59,120 --> 00:24:01,240
who emerged from a great lake
341
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:05,360
and taught the local people
how to create amazing works of masonry
342
00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:07,120
that still exist today.
343
00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:12,920
Even in the Pacific,
Polynesian legends talk of Maui,
344
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:16,720
who created their islands
by pulling them up from the ocean floor,
345
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:21,200
and then taught the islanders
to work with stone tools
346
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:23,280
and to cook their food.
347
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:29,680
Archaeologists say
that these civilizing heroes
348
00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:33,880
are just inventions
of the ancients' elaborate fictions,
349
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:37,440
but I find the similarities
hard to ignore.
350
00:24:38,120 --> 00:24:42,640
What if these accounts describe
the survivors of an advanced civilization
351
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,520
that was lost in the great cataclysms
of flood and fire
352
00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:48,000
that we know occurred
near the end of the last Ice Age?
353
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:57,280
The myths of Mexico
354
00:24:57,360 --> 00:24:59,920
and the story
of Quetzalcoatl in particular,
355
00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:03,680
are tied to
just such an apocalyptic moment.
356
00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:08,200
And Marco believes there's a record of it
357
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:10,800
just a few hours' drive
south of Mexico City,
358
00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:14,880
amongst the ancient temples of Xochicalco.
359
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:22,720
Like Cholula, this city was
originally built by an indigenous culture
360
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:26,440
we know little about
in the 7th century AD.
361
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:30,880
Here, you'll find the remains
of two large pyramids.
362
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:34,440
One dedicated to the rain god,
363
00:25:35,120 --> 00:25:41,320
and the other dedicated
to Mexico's civilizing hero, Quetzalcoatl.
364
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:49,000
I've come here to learn more
about these so-called mythical characters.
365
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:55,200
For archaeologists,
myths are fanciful and fragmentary.
366
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,480
They ignore them completely
in their attempts to reconstruct the past.
367
00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:03,920
But here at Xochicalco,
some researchers see an attempt
368
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:05,640
to create a permanent record
369
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:08,680
of one of the most important myths
in ancient Mexico.
370
00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:13,800
A record they believe that preserves
a forgotten episode in prehistory.
371
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:20,040
Wrapped around the four sides
of Quetzalcoatl's temple
372
00:26:20,120 --> 00:26:22,440
are intricate carvings of this deity
373
00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:25,280
in his manifestation
as the feathered serpent.
374
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:32,360
Clearly, he was an important figure
even back in 700 AD.
375
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:39,000
But Marco believes
these glyphs carved in stone
376
00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,480
may reveal missing details
from his origin story.
377
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:45,400
What's special about this temple?
378
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:48,840
So what you have
on the lower tier of the pyramid
379
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:52,880
is really a representation
of the arrival of Quetzalcoatl
380
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:55,400
that unfolds on the three sides...
381
00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:57,040
- Yeah.
- ...of the pyramid
382
00:26:57,120 --> 00:27:01,360
until we get here
to the first significant glyph, here.
383
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:04,680
And what you see there
is a flaming temple.
384
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,080
You have these scrolls of smoke or fire.
385
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,600
- [Graham] As though it's on fire.
- Right. Exactly.
386
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,040
What about the coils
of the serpent around it?
387
00:27:12,120 --> 00:27:14,320
How do you read those in this context?
388
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:16,640
[Marco] Right, well, this is
the tail of the serpent.
389
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:19,560
- Yeah.
- So, it wraps around this flaming temple.
390
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:22,160
It almost looks like a wave hitting...
391
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:24,560
- Okay.
- ...the temple from the side.
392
00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:28,520
You could almost see that
as a representation of an island.
393
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:31,800
So, we have a temple which is on fire
394
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:34,000
and waves are
washing over it in your reading?
395
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:35,400
- Exactly.
- Yeah.
396
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:40,640
Give me your interpretation
of this scene, Marco.
397
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:43,680
[Marco] Well, you have this
clearly powerful sitting figure
398
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:46,480
who looks like on a raft of snakes
399
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:51,080
that's almost heading away
from the direction of this flaming temple.
400
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:54,920
[Graham] What you're seeing here
is the depiction of a cataclysm
401
00:27:55,000 --> 00:28:00,360
which occurs in a certain place,
which Quetzalcoatl then is a survivor of.
402
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:05,440
You have this idea of the god
coming from a land that was destroyed.
403
00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:09,720
And what you have is the arrival
of the god Quetzalcoatl here in Mexico
404
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:12,320
as a founder of Mesoamerican civilization.
405
00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:16,400
It's a chronicle that goes back
to a very remote past.
406
00:28:22,360 --> 00:28:24,960
[Graham] Marco's reading
of the temple's glyphs
407
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:27,640
as a depiction of an ancient apocalypse
408
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:30,240
flies in the face
of all archaeological opinion.
409
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:34,600
But that doesn't
necessarily mean he's wrong.
410
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:40,200
The Temple of The Feathered Serpent
is about 1,300 years old,
411
00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:42,600
and archaeologists are right to say
412
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:45,680
that there was
no global cataclysm in that epoch
413
00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:48,360
that could have inspired
the Quetzalcoatl myth.
414
00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:50,720
This misses the point.
415
00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:53,960
The tradition is certainly
much older than the temple.
416
00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:56,000
How much older? No one knows.
417
00:28:56,080 --> 00:29:00,200
But there's one period of prehistory
that fits the bill perfectly.
418
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:06,640
Geologists have confirmed that there was
an ancient apocalypse of some kind.
419
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:10,080
A period of great cataclysms and floods
420
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:14,640
that had as big an impact here as it did
nearly everywhere else in the world...
421
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:22,760
sometime at the end of the last Ice Age,
around 12,800 years ago.
422
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:28,480
Could the story of Quetzalcoatl's arrival
date back as far as that?
423
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:38,440
I do not question
the age of the structure itself.
424
00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:42,920
What you have here is just the telling
of a story that is in fact much older.
425
00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:46,040
So, perhaps
what's sadly lacking in archaeology
426
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:47,560
is an archaeology of ideas.
427
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:51,280
Perhaps they focus too much
on the dates of a particular construction
428
00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:53,360
and don't consider the ideas
that it's expressing.
429
00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:54,440
[Marco] Right.
430
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,520
[Graham] If we're willing to look back
beyond the artificial horizons
431
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:01,640
that archeology sets,
432
00:30:01,720 --> 00:30:04,480
then the myth at once
begins to make sense,
433
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:07,240
not as a fanciful account
of imagined events,
434
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:10,240
but as a true record
of a lost and forgotten past.
435
00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:17,880
Archaeologists reject any such suggestion,
436
00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:21,880
but I find it impossible to ignore
437
00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:25,840
how widespread
these tales of civilizing heroes are.
438
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:29,800
Sometimes speaking of gods,
sometimes of humans,
439
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:33,840
who come in a time of chaos
after the great cataclysm.
440
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:37,240
Teaching the skills of agriculture,
441
00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:40,800
architecture, engineering
and astronomy to the survivors.
442
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:43,480
In these traditions,
443
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:47,360
I believe the fingerprints
of a lost civilization are to be found.
444
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:54,440
So, where was this lost civilization based
before the cataclysm that destroyed it?
445
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:59,360
There are many possibilities
that have never been properly considered.
446
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:02,760
Because, as we've seen,
at the height of the last Ice Age,
447
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:05,720
the planet looked very different.
448
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:10,600
But further clues await us
a quarter of the way around the world.
449
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:13,960
There, just as in Cholula,
450
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:17,120
dozens of immense temples
were believed to have been built
451
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:18,960
by an ancient race of giants,
452
00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:26,120
on islands that once weren't islands,
in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea.
453
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:28,880
And that's where my journey takes me next,
454
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:31,440
to a gigantic riddle in stone.
455
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:35,240
The mysterious megaliths of Malta.