Mapping a Mayan Crypt | Lost Cities with Albert Lin

2m read

·Nov 11, 2024

I'm deep inside an ancient pyramid on the trail of a mysterious Maya dynasty called the Snake Kings. I'm so far into the heart of the pyramid my radio doesn't work. Within these twisting tunnels, it's impossible to know just how deep I am. But if my team can scan it, we'll find out for the first time whether it still holds undiscovered depths for Sandra and Francisco to explore.

It's so humid in here and muggy I can barely breathe. [Music] Eventually, the tunnel ends. Feels like I'm inside the center of a mountain, and yet here are these crypts. Somebody's life was lived, and then this place was built to honor their life after they died. Wow, this wasn't meant for the living. This is a chamber for the dead. Feels like we shouldn't be here.

Well, come on guys, let's get out of here!

Hey, you made it! It was just like nothing I've ever seen before! You know, like a spiral staircase descending all the way to the bottom. What an experience! Inside, my team are already at work scanning the tunnel system. A series of revolving lasers fire millions of beams of light every second, reaching every last square inch of the tunnel.

Later, with the scan complete, I show Francisco and Sandra the results.

"You ready for this? This is the front!"

"Yes, basically it's an x-ray of the whole thing."

"Yeah, this is really exciting for us!"

The new scans reveal a massive surprise. Looks like we're 2-3 meters above bedrock. Typically, the first king gets buried in the bedrock, and then whoever comes after gets buried in the building above it. And so, if this is not in bedrock, it means there's another building below it.

The new data that we just collected shows that Sandra and Francisco still have further to go to investigate the origins of this mysterious city. [Music]

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Mapping a Mayan Crypt | Lost Cities with Albert Lin

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