Broadcast TV

Lost King of the Maya

Release Date

2001

Client

NOVA/PBS

His name is Yax K'uk Mo'. He is the legendary founder of Copan, a Mayan city abandoned over 1000 years ago. Here a dynasty of powerful lords maintained their power through sacred blood rituals. For generations, scholars thought Yax K'uk Mo' to be a Maya god. But now archaeologists believe they may have found his tomb. Narrated by Hector Elizondo.

Lost King of the Maya

Sixteen hundred years ago, a mysterious warrior seized control of the Mayan city of Copán, founding a dynasty that would last for 400 years. Eventually the Maya abandoned Copán and all other Mayan cities, which lay undisturbed for over 1,000 years. Then, in the 19th century, explorers John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood stumbled on the vine-strangled remains of huge complexes of temples and monuments covered with strange portraits and hieroglyphs. In this program, Providence Pictures takes viewers deep into the Central American rain forest to the resurrected ruins of Copán, a once majestic jewel of Mayan civilization which was inexplicably abandoned over a thousand years ago.