the city of holmul dates back to 800 bc. it was abandoned 1,700 years later.s mysteries that estrada belli has been trying to solve — its empty tomb. i think i know why they abandoned it, because the date of the building matches with a guy who's supposed to be from here, being sacrificed at tikal, in the year 748. 0k... and after that, pretty much all monumental construction stopped here. so, tell me what that would have meant. so, tikal was defeating its archenemy, the snake kingdom, and they already defeated the actual snake kings and now they were going after its former allies. this is historical archaeology. we don'tjust talk about processes any more and theories, now we talk about specific events, specific people. because we can read the inscription. and yet, this tomb was almost destroyed before estrada belli, or any another archaeologist, were able to discover it. and here is the tomb chamber. wow. looters came and dug a hole right behind this doorway. and they missed by the structure with the freeze by 27 metres, i'll show you. so that's the freeze rig

we're fortunate here in holmul.d airstrip from columbia, to go across from mexico and there from the us. and they burnt all the forest in the process. whereas this area has done much better because it was given concession to local communities for sustainable logging. in the last 20 years, the local communities have stopped the drug trafficking, the land invasions, the deforestation, and that's why sites like this are still covered by forest. we think what we have in place here works much better because the local communities are empowered and have an incentive to protect the forest. which is the sustainable logging. for as long as they can continue, they will protect the forest. this man is vice president of the arbol verde concession which has been given to local residents for sustainable logging. like logging might seem an anathema to the forest, it turns out that concessions like these can have quite the opposite effect. by being run with strict adherence to sustainable management principles. community concessions

the maya city of holmul has been an obsession of archaeologist francisco estrada—belli for the last 20he calls it the gift that keeps on giving. trying not to get stuck. in recent years, his work has been aided by the use of lidar, a technology currently transforming archaeology. i have come here, on the border with belize, to learn more about what estrada—belli has discovered. this was one of the most populous places on earth 1,000 years ago. if you think about it. we are estimating 8—11 million people in an area of 90,000 square kilometres. and yet they were using very sustainable practices so they could do this for 2,000 years. and so you started excavating in 2000? that was our first season. it was very adventurous. we worked for two weeks and then it started raining. we did not have any cars and the roads were all flooded so we got out on horses. this city dates back to 800 bc. it was abandoned 1,700 years later. one of its mysteries that estrada—belli has been trying to solve — its empty tomb. i think i know why they abandoned it. because the date of the building matches with a g

an archaeologist from harvard first came to holmul and discovered these temples, but he missed the oldesthe way back to 350 bc. the notes were rather incomplete because the archaeologist died shortly after working here. by a mysterious disease that he contracted here. he returned from here with this massive sore on his nose that never healed. that is what happens with this bug. he died and never finished his reports. it was actually published by one of his friends at harvard. posthumously. they forgot to mention this tunnel. he had found a window of an earlier pyramid and stopped. so we kept digging and there is this massive carving that explained what the temple is all about. are these beetles still around? yes. it is called the assassin bug. good, i am glad we are going in now. welcome to the underworld. let me see if i can turn the light on. watch your step. we are going to walk around the exterior and go to the front. and this is the front of the building. whoa! god, it is a lot bigger than i was expecting. yep, all perfectly preserved for 2&00 years. what you have is the massive head