CNN crews were the first cameras to record what may be the largest pyramid by volume.
El Mirador was an immense metropolis during the height of the Maya Classic Period, around 500 BCE. It was larger than Downtown Los Angeles and there are still thousands of pyramids yet to be discovered.
The bonus discovery of a frieze of the “Popul Vuh,” the Maya creation myth; the Maya cultural equivalent of the Book of Genesis. Long thought to be tainted by Christian views, these large carvings of the “popol Vuh” predate the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors by more than a millennium and any differences noted in this version could fundamentally alter our understanding of the Maya worldview.
“By conserving this, we’re blessing the lives of an entire nation,” says Jeff Morgan of the World Heritage Fund.
