Lost Kingdoms of the Maya.

• Author: Rothenberg, Robert S.

The crumbling pyramids and other buildings painstakingly being restored in the jungles of Mexico and Central America slowly are yielding the secrets of what destroyed the Mayan civilization that dominated the region for centuries before Columbus first set foot in the New World. This fascinating National Geographic video follows the archaeologists, linguists, and social scientists struggling to re-create the towering, sophisticated structures the Maya erected, and nature reclaimed when these bustling cities ultimately were abandoned.

As with most archaeological digs, discovering what happened to such thriving communities as Copan, Caracol, Tikal, and Dos Pilas is as much a detective story as it is a scientific expedition. Making the task even more difficult is the fact that Spanish priests destroyed the codices which explained the meaning of the hieroglyphics that ascend the...