00:00:03.920 --> 00:00:06.047
The Andes Mountains.

00:00:06.047 --> 00:00:07.841
Peru.

00:00:07.841 --> 00:00:12.470
Towering inhospitable peaks
that push the limits of the human body.

00:00:13.430 --> 00:00:18.476
But one lost civilization was notorious
for their connection to this rarefied air.

00:00:19.811 --> 00:00:21.271
The Inca,

00:00:21.271 --> 00:00:21.980
the largest,

00:00:21.980 --> 00:00:25.483
most expansive empire
in the history of the Americas.

00:00:26.776 --> 00:00:30.989
In just 100 years,
the empire spread across South America,

00:00:31.614 --> 00:00:34.117
building elaborate cities and temples,

00:00:34.117 --> 00:00:37.537
incorporating over 10 million people.

00:00:39.122 --> 00:00:41.708
But it disappeared in a matter of years,

00:00:41.708 --> 00:00:45.462
leaving mysteries
that have puzzled archeologists for decades.

00:00:47.881 --> 00:00:52.177
Now, a scientist is searching
for one of their last missing temples

00:00:53.136 --> 00:00:57.182
at a cold and isolated
lake high in the Peruvian Andes.

00:00:58.391 --> 00:01:01.644
These sacred waters will push him
to the cutting edge

00:01:01.644 --> 00:01:04.647
of exploration.

00:01:21.081 --> 00:01:22.707
In southeast Peru,

00:01:22.707 --> 00:01:26.461
a team of scientists are en route
to a remote corner of the country

00:01:26.878 --> 00:01:29.756
to conduct the first ever archeological survey

00:01:29.756 --> 00:01:31.716
of Lake Sibinacocha.

00:01:35.011 --> 00:01:38.431
Leading the expedition is National Geographic explorer

00:01:38.431 --> 00:01:43.728
Preston Sowell, who's been studying
this exotic watershed for nearly 20 years.

00:01:45.188 --> 00:01:48.108
We're at our base camp elevation

00:01:48.108 --> 00:01:51.611
16,000 feet.

00:01:54.405 --> 00:01:55.949
Lake Sibinacocha

00:01:55.949 --> 00:01:58.660
lies at the headwaters of the Amazon River,

00:01:59.661 --> 00:02:03.832
surrounded by enormous glaciated peaks

00:02:03.832 --> 00:02:05.792
and abundant wildlife.

00:02:05.875 --> 00:02:09.921
You never know what you're going to run into
when you take people into the mountains here.

00:02:11.589 --> 00:02:13.716
It's a difficult place to reach,

00:02:13.716 --> 00:02:17.220
which has kept out all
but the most intrepid scientists.

00:02:19.055 --> 00:02:21.057
They've departed from Cusco,

00:02:21.057 --> 00:02:27.063
the capital city of the Inca Empire,
which is still a thriving hub to this day.

00:02:27.897 --> 00:02:31.151
From the 1430s, for nearly 100 years,

00:02:31.151 --> 00:02:34.863
the Inca spread out from Cusco
for thousands of miles.

00:02:36.156 --> 00:02:39.951
They conquered the many existing ethnic groups
that spanned from modern day

00:02:39.951 --> 00:02:44.497
Colombia to central Chile,
incorporating their beliefs and temples

00:02:44.789 --> 00:02:50.211
into a cohesive empire
united by more than 20,000 miles of road.

00:02:52.463 --> 00:02:56.593
But their important sites are found in the Cusco region.

00:02:57.385 --> 00:03:00.889
Places like the ceremonial center of Ollantaytambo,

00:03:01.472 --> 00:03:04.976
the spectacular ruins of Saksaywaman,

00:03:04.976 --> 00:03:07.353
and Machu Picchu, the royal estate

00:03:07.353 --> 00:03:12.609
of an Inca emperor perched atop
a sacred mountain with some of the most precise

00:03:12.609 --> 00:03:16.112
and astounding architecture
found anywhere in the world.

00:03:18.698 --> 00:03:19.657
However,

00:03:19.657 --> 00:03:24.162
despite its relatively close proximity
to Cusco, Lake Sibinacocha

00:03:24.162 --> 00:03:29.751
and its surrounding watershed
have remained largely overlooked by archeologists,

00:03:29.751 --> 00:03:33.087
with little known about its ties to the Inca,

00:03:33.087 --> 00:03:35.757
leaving us to wonder what secrets
they might have

00:03:35.757 --> 00:03:38.051
hidden here.

00:03:43.097 --> 00:03:47.143
Preston Sowell has brought together
a group of Peruvian archeologists

00:03:47.143 --> 00:03:50.730
to investigate the lake and its watershed.

00:03:50.730 --> 00:03:54.776
They're joined by professional mountain
climbers and scuba divers

00:03:54.776 --> 00:03:58.655
to navigate the difficult terrain
above and below the water.

00:03:58.655 --> 00:04:01.407
Vamos a Sibinacocha!

00:04:01.783 --> 00:04:05.787
This expedition marks
the first time that trained archeologists

00:04:05.787 --> 00:04:10.875
have visited here, where they will look
for structures and artifacts from the past.

00:04:10.875 --> 00:04:14.754
Exploring the watershed's ridges, peaks and shoreline

00:04:15.463 --> 00:04:18.967
to try and learn
what the area might have meant to the Inca.

00:04:19.592 --> 00:04:23.680
To convince archeologists that, you know,
we might have something special here.

00:04:23.930 --> 00:04:26.391
It's really
the first step in protecting this place.

00:04:26.391 --> 00:04:27.809
Beautiful.

00:04:27.976 --> 00:04:29.894
Really impressive.

00:04:29.978 --> 00:04:31.479
Arriving at the lake,

00:04:31.479 --> 00:04:34.691
Preston and the team could finally unlock the mysteries

00:04:34.691 --> 00:04:37.151
of this forgotten landscape.

00:04:46.119 --> 00:04:49.622
The Inca formed their belief structure
around the natural world,

00:04:50.248 --> 00:04:53.751
worshiping a variety of natural features:

00:04:53.835 --> 00:04:56.254
Inti, god of the sun;

00:04:56.254 --> 00:04:58.631
Viracocha, the creator;

00:04:58.631 --> 00:05:02.343
and Pachamama, goddess of the Earth.

00:05:02.969 --> 00:05:05.305
Even individual mountains were gods

00:05:05.305 --> 00:05:09.600
called "apus" and large
lakes such as Lake Titicaca

00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:14.397
on the southern border of Peru
were seen as gateways to the spirit world.

00:05:15.565 --> 00:05:16.316
But scientists

00:05:16.316 --> 00:05:20.153
don't yet know how Sibinacocha fits
into that belief structure,

00:05:20.695 --> 00:05:25.533
which could reveal more about the Inca's unique
spiritual connection to nature.

00:05:26.659 --> 00:05:30.413
On this expedition, Preston
and his team will look for clues.

00:05:30.580 --> 00:05:31.581
These guys are going to go up,

00:05:31.581 --> 00:05:34.083
not only explore that mountain
and try to find this feature,

00:05:34.083 --> 00:05:37.378
but see what else they can find
as they're moving down the ridge here.

00:05:37.378 --> 00:05:39.339
The terrestrial archeology team

00:05:39.339 --> 00:05:43.551
is led by Peruvian archeologist
and Inca specialist Martín Polo.

00:05:43.885 --> 00:05:47.513
I have not seen in Peru something like this.

00:05:47.513 --> 00:05:52.435
And Arturo Rivera, who has worked on archeological sites
all over the Andes.

00:05:52.977 --> 00:05:55.146
This field work is one of the most exciting

00:05:55.146 --> 00:05:56.481
things that I've really done.

00:05:57.732 --> 00:06:02.487
They immediately find evidence of the Incas,
including ancient structures.

00:06:03.571 --> 00:06:06.449
Something more than a house, like,

00:06:06.449 --> 00:06:08.284
I'm not sure.

00:06:08.284 --> 00:06:12.330
Ancient ruins along the shoreline appear
to be more than simple dwellings,

00:06:12.622 --> 00:06:16.125
and are perhaps important ceremonial centers.

00:06:17.543 --> 00:06:20.963
They find Apachetas, sacred rock towers,

00:06:20.963 --> 00:06:24.467
which the Inca believed held
the spirits of their ancestors.

00:06:26.135 --> 00:06:31.432
Pottery sherds and other ceramics
that may also have ceremonial origins.

00:06:31.432 --> 00:06:34.394
Take a look at this: often important vessels

00:06:34.394 --> 00:06:37.021
once they were broken,
they were actually repaired.

00:06:37.021 --> 00:06:39.440
This might be some kind of offering.

00:06:39.440 --> 00:06:41.734
This is pretty interesting.

00:06:41.734 --> 00:06:46.364
Like other civilizations,
the Incas offered gifts to appease their gods,

00:06:47.031 --> 00:06:51.911
and some of the artifacts at Sibinacocha
resemble these kinds of offerings.

00:06:51.911 --> 00:06:55.415
which supports
the theory that this was a sacred place.

00:06:56.874 --> 00:06:59.544
Leading the underwater archeological team

00:06:59.544 --> 00:07:04.048
is Carlos Ausejo,
an expert in aquatic archeological sites.

00:07:04.340 --> 00:07:06.801
This lake has a role to fulfill,

00:07:06.801 --> 00:07:08.678
on this system of beliefs.

00:07:10.138 --> 00:07:11.722
The shoreline also reveals

00:07:11.722 --> 00:07:15.852
stone tools made of obsidian, quartz, and chirt,

00:07:16.477 --> 00:07:18.813
a work surface used for grinding.

00:07:18.813 --> 00:07:20.022
Well done Preston!

00:07:20.022 --> 00:07:21.524
Shells from the ocean,

00:07:21.524 --> 00:07:25.027
and signs of human occupation everywhere
they look.

00:07:27.780 --> 00:07:31.742
This place is very,
very special in so many different ways.

00:07:31.742 --> 00:07:34.829
I feel I am in a sacred place.

00:07:37.373 --> 00:07:42.962
The land survey uncovers more artifacts than the team
expected, which will be instrumental

00:07:42.962 --> 00:07:48.384
for the archeologists
to determine who lived here, when and why.

00:07:49.760 --> 00:07:52.180
All of these things are pointing to the fact
that we have

00:07:52.180 --> 00:07:55.683
some site of ceremonial significance.

00:07:55.892 --> 00:07:59.479
It will take years of research
and many more expeditions

00:07:59.729 --> 00:08:03.649
to determine if this landscape
was truly sacred for the Inca.

00:08:05.651 --> 00:08:09.322
But for Preston, this trip is a major success

00:08:09.322 --> 00:08:13.284
as all of the evidence moves
him towards his primary goal:

00:08:13.826 --> 00:08:17.079
protecting the area and its cultural features

00:08:17.079 --> 00:08:19.916
from environmental destruction.

00:08:28.299 --> 00:08:30.218
At home in Boulder, Colorado,

00:08:30.218 --> 00:08:33.679
Preston works as an environmental consultant,

00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:35.473
helping corporations and the U.S.

00:08:35.473 --> 00:08:39.185
government prevent and clean up
environmental contamination.

00:08:40.561 --> 00:08:45.274
And for nearly 20 years, he has had his eye
on the Sibinacocha watershed,

00:08:45.983 --> 00:08:49.612
where he's developed a deep appreciation
for the landscape,

00:08:49.612 --> 00:08:53.449
its wildlife,
and potential significance to the Incas.

00:08:55.284 --> 00:08:56.869
I'm not an archeologist.

00:08:56.869 --> 00:08:59.956
My goal is really to use this as a tool
to help protect

00:08:59.956 --> 00:09:01.499
this watershed.

00:09:04.502 --> 00:09:09.423
It all started on an expedition
in the early 2000s, when Preston was studying

00:09:09.423 --> 00:09:13.594
an emerging frog disease
that was decimating local populations,

00:09:14.136 --> 00:09:17.640
and he spotted a surprising species
in the water.

00:09:18.224 --> 00:09:20.851
I lifted up a rock
and a much larger frog took off.

00:09:23.062 --> 00:09:28.401
It resembled the critically endangered
Telmatobius Culeus, or Titicaca water frog,

00:09:28.401 --> 00:09:32.488
that was known to reside
only in the Lake Titicaca watershed,

00:09:32.488 --> 00:09:35.616
more than 125 miles away.

00:09:37.076 --> 00:09:40.746
Titicaca was one of the most sacred places
in the world for the Inca,

00:09:41.455 --> 00:09:45.209
and if the frog was brought to Sibinacocha
for ceremonial purposes,

00:09:45.626 --> 00:09:49.171
it could indicate a sacred connection
between the two lakes.

00:09:50.965 --> 00:09:53.384
It sort of became a thorn in my side.

00:09:53.384 --> 00:09:57.179
I spent three expeditions in the lake
just trying to find this damn frog.

00:10:02.018 --> 00:10:04.228
During his search for the elusive frog,

00:10:04.228 --> 00:10:07.732
Preston made an even more unexpected discovery.

00:10:08.816 --> 00:10:11.611
He noticed two strange artifacts in the water,

00:10:11.611 --> 00:10:13.946
surrounded by algae and weeds.

00:10:15.448 --> 00:10:18.659
A ceramic pot, and what appeared to be a long,

00:10:18.659 --> 00:10:24.081
zigzagging wall built with golden yellow stones
that looked like a giant snake.

00:10:25.291 --> 00:10:27.001
He didn't know it yet,

00:10:27.001 --> 00:10:29.879
but these artifacts would go on to define
the next

00:10:29.879 --> 00:10:32.048
20 years of his life.

00:10:34.383 --> 00:10:35.217
He'd been pulled

00:10:35.217 --> 00:10:39.472
into a fantastic new world,
rich with myths and legends,

00:10:39.472 --> 00:10:44.935
and began researching the many mysteries
of the Inca, who left few historical records

00:10:44.935 --> 00:10:48.439
after they were overthrown
by Spanish conquistadors.

00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:54.654
He looked into the Inca's
religious beliefs: that the landscape was alive

00:10:54.654 --> 00:10:59.909
with gods and spirits, and that unique
alignments of geographical features

00:10:59.909 --> 00:11:03.537
such as the position of different mountains,
rivers and lakes

00:11:03.537 --> 00:11:05.790
were considered sacred.

00:11:09.543 --> 00:11:14.006
And the thing that interested
the Inca most was the high altitude peaks,

00:11:14.006 --> 00:11:17.510
where their most important gods resided.

00:11:19.136 --> 00:11:19.929
Next,

00:11:19.929 --> 00:11:24.433
Preston learned that zigzag walls
like the one found at Sibinacocha

00:11:24.433 --> 00:11:27.269
are actually quite rare
in the Andean cultural realm

00:11:28.521 --> 00:11:31.857
and almost
always discovered near an important place

00:11:31.857 --> 00:11:35.361
like a shrine or temple, often
near bodies of water.

00:11:36.654 --> 00:11:40.491
In fact,
some lakes were considered especially important

00:11:40.491 --> 00:11:46.455
and were called Paqarinas, which means "sacred
place of origin" in the Inca's language.

00:11:47.164 --> 00:11:50.501
They were not only
where people were born from, but

00:11:50.501 --> 00:11:53.754
where their souls went when they died.

00:11:54.004 --> 00:11:58.050
The Inca believed that the whole world
floated on a body of water,

00:11:58.050 --> 00:12:03.097
and each lake was an entry point
into a spirit world beneath the surface.

00:12:04.348 --> 00:12:08.436
Could Lake Sibinacocha
possibly be one of these paqarinas?

00:12:09.270 --> 00:12:12.773
At that moment, I thought we were really on to something.

00:12:14.233 --> 00:12:15.151
As he continued

00:12:15.151 --> 00:12:18.654
his research,
Preston found one name in every turn.

00:12:19.113 --> 00:12:24.160
World famous archeologist,
anthropologist and National Geographic explorer

00:12:24.535 --> 00:12:27.204
Johan Reinhard.

00:12:29.415 --> 00:12:32.585
Johan has spent much of his career
locating the Inca's

00:12:32.585 --> 00:12:37.465
most significant ceremonial sites
at some of the world's highest locations.

00:12:39.341 --> 00:12:42.762
Probably
the biggest driving force in my own life

00:12:42.762 --> 00:12:46.265
would be the attraction to mysteries, solving mysteries.

00:12:47.433 --> 00:12:50.269
Johan developed an elite skill set to help him

00:12:50.269 --> 00:12:53.773
explore
the planet's most hard to reach locations,

00:12:54.148 --> 00:12:57.318
becoming an expert in climbing, sky diving

00:12:57.318 --> 00:13:00.237
and scuba diving.

00:13:01.697 --> 00:13:03.824
He used these skills in the highest mountain

00:13:03.824 --> 00:13:07.328
ranges around the world, including Peru.

00:13:08.370 --> 00:13:10.122
That dude has been everywhere.

00:13:10.122 --> 00:13:13.626
His shadow just covers the Andes.

00:13:14.502 --> 00:13:17.546
One of the reasons
the Incas seemed so mysterious to us,

00:13:17.546 --> 00:13:23.010
is because we simply don't have any
written language before the Spanish arrived.

00:13:23.928 --> 00:13:26.931
That creates a mystery.

00:13:27.264 --> 00:13:29.558
Spanish chroniclers tried to document

00:13:29.558 --> 00:13:33.187
the Inca's customs,
but their understanding was incomplete,

00:13:33.938 --> 00:13:37.858
leaving Johan to figure out for himself
why the Incas were drawn

00:13:37.858 --> 00:13:40.820
to the highest places.

00:13:41.654 --> 00:13:44.698
These were altitudes
where they thought the gods resided.

00:13:46.700 --> 00:13:49.620
But these high areas were not always kind,

00:13:49.620 --> 00:13:53.916
visiting biblical devastation
upon the Inca, like earthquakes,

00:13:53.916 --> 00:13:57.419
long droughts, and torrential storms.

00:13:57.920 --> 00:14:01.465
So they would appeal to their mountain gods
for good will,

00:14:01.465 --> 00:14:04.176
making offerings on the summits.

00:14:05.761 --> 00:14:07.972
To study these sacred mountains,

00:14:07.972 --> 00:14:10.641
Johan Reinhard made more than 200 ascents

00:14:10.641 --> 00:14:14.728
above 17,000 feet in five Andean countries,

00:14:15.437 --> 00:14:18.941
discovering more than 50 archeological sites.

00:14:21.151 --> 00:14:24.613
But in all of his expeditions,
one site eluded him:

00:14:25.281 --> 00:14:27.616
The Temple of Ausangate,

00:14:27.616 --> 00:14:30.536
built to worship one of the Incas most sacred peaks,

00:14:31.620 --> 00:14:34.540
21,000 feet above sea level,

00:14:34.540 --> 00:14:37.293
60 miles from Cusco.

00:14:38.586 --> 00:14:42.089
Ausangate is also visible
from Lake Sibinacocha,

00:14:42.423 --> 00:14:44.925
10 miles to the east.

00:14:46.135 --> 00:14:50.472
According to the mythology,
this temple was built in ancient times,

00:14:50.472 --> 00:14:52.349
long before the Inca Empire,

00:14:52.349 --> 00:14:58.147
beside a large lake at the base of Ausangate,
by the people of the Vilcanota Valley.

00:14:59.273 --> 00:15:01.108
The Incas conquered the valley,

00:15:01.108 --> 00:15:04.361
and the temple remained
one of the most important in the region.

00:15:04.361 --> 00:15:07.865
A great temple that to this day
nobody's found.

00:15:12.953 --> 00:15:15.122
To better explore alpine lakes.

00:15:15.122 --> 00:15:18.751
Johan helped pioneered
the practice of underwater archeology,

00:15:19.627 --> 00:15:22.463
and then brought it to the high mountains.

00:15:22.922 --> 00:15:26.425
Scuba diving at altitude.

00:15:26.926 --> 00:15:31.138
Johan reached submerged sites
that were previously beyond the limits

00:15:31.138 --> 00:15:33.682
of human exploration.

00:15:33.682 --> 00:15:36.143
But to this day he has not found

00:15:36.143 --> 00:15:39.146
the lost temple of Ausangate.

00:15:39.813 --> 00:15:42.358
It feels like unfinished business.

00:15:42.358 --> 00:15:47.696
Although I think Preston's got that terrain covered.

00:15:49.782 --> 00:15:52.117
Intrigued, Preston begins to wonder

00:15:52.117 --> 00:15:54.703
if the lost temple could be at Sibinacocha.

00:15:55.496 --> 00:15:58.999
So he sets out to finish
what Johann had started.

00:16:00.084 --> 00:16:03.420
But first
he'll have to learn how to scuba dive.

00:16:03.629 --> 00:16:07.132
I found a technical diver named George Watson,
he's a cave diver,

00:16:07.466 --> 00:16:08.759
and I told him about the project.

00:16:08.759 --> 00:16:11.428
He jumped right in and agreed to train me.

00:16:15.307 --> 00:16:17.393
I've been diving since 1974,

00:16:17.393 --> 00:16:19.812
and I've done a good deal of high altitude lake diving

00:16:19.812 --> 00:16:21.355
here in Colorado.

00:16:22.731 --> 00:16:27.236
Diving at altitude is especially dangerous
because the thin air creates a greater

00:16:27.236 --> 00:16:31.490
difference between the atmospheric pressure
above and below the water.

00:16:32.616 --> 00:16:35.536
Without proper
breathing mixtures and decompression,

00:16:35.536 --> 00:16:39.748
this can lead to crippling pain, paralysis,
and death.

00:16:40.958 --> 00:16:42.418
It's all theoretical.

00:16:42.418 --> 00:16:47.214
The dive tables don't go that high,
so nobody really knows what happens to you.

00:16:47.715 --> 00:16:51.176
Diving at 16,000 feet is pretty much unheard of.

00:16:51.176 --> 00:16:53.637
It's unique in the diving world.

00:16:55.014 --> 00:16:57.933
Add that to the thermal challenge
of staying warm

00:16:57.933 --> 00:17:01.353
in water only a few degrees above freezing,
and it becomes

00:17:01.353 --> 00:17:04.023
a very formidable undertaking.

00:17:05.024 --> 00:17:08.527
The truth is,
you're working at those altitudes blind.

00:17:09.653 --> 00:17:11.572
This is such a bad idea.

00:17:13.949 --> 00:17:16.618
What Preston's done is exactly what should be done,

00:17:16.618 --> 00:17:20.998
taking on the really more difficult and dangerous
aspect of the research

00:17:20.998 --> 00:17:24.501
of searching underwater as well.

00:17:32.468 --> 00:17:34.011
After months of training,

00:17:34.011 --> 00:17:37.514
Preston and George finally make it to Sibinacocha,

00:17:37.514 --> 00:17:40.434
along with a team of world of world class divers,

00:17:40.434 --> 00:17:42.686
to examine the artifacts and explore

00:17:42.686 --> 00:17:44.646
deeper within the lake.

00:17:46.982 --> 00:17:50.819
But the expedition ends in tragedy
when a member of the team

00:17:50.819 --> 00:17:54.281
perishes during a world record dive.

00:17:56.283 --> 00:17:59.787
During the dive, something went terribly wrong.

00:18:00.954 --> 00:18:03.624
At a depth of 160 feet,

00:18:03.624 --> 00:18:09.129
George and his dive partner Geoff Belter
are suddenly out of air—and separated.

00:18:10.130 --> 00:18:13.967
George shoots to the surface
in an uncontrolled ascent,

00:18:13.967 --> 00:18:17.471
expecting to die from decompression sickness.

00:18:19.264 --> 00:18:22.309
His partner Geoff never surfaces

00:18:22.309 --> 00:18:24.895
and can't be recovered.

00:18:26.313 --> 00:18:30.776
George survives,
but his rapid ascent and failed decompression

00:18:30.776 --> 00:18:35.572
injure his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed
from the waist down for nine months.

00:18:37.866 --> 00:18:39.952
It would take three years of rehab

00:18:39.952 --> 00:18:43.455
to regain his strength.

00:18:44.998 --> 00:18:47.209
I had a rough couple of years

00:18:47.209 --> 00:18:50.462
after that, understanding
I had some responsibility

00:18:50.462 --> 00:18:53.298
in this man's death.

00:18:54.883 --> 00:18:57.803
The memory has haunted Preston ever since,

00:18:57.803 --> 00:19:01.557
and given him a better reason
than ever to protect what is now

00:19:01.557 --> 00:19:05.060
his friend's final resting place.

00:19:17.072 --> 00:19:20.200
A year after the accident,
Preston is back at the lake

00:19:20.200 --> 00:19:24.288
to finally show his underwater discoveries
to Peruvian archeologists.

00:19:25.372 --> 00:19:28.876
But this place carries
a new weight for him now.

00:19:31.044 --> 00:19:34.548
Geoff's body is right there.

00:19:36.800 --> 00:19:39.928
I'm confident
we won't have any more accidents, but

00:19:39.928 --> 00:19:41.680
I don't know if I have PTSD or what.

00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:44.766
It's causing some a little anxiety.

00:19:48.145 --> 00:19:49.438
After dark,

00:19:49.438 --> 00:19:53.567
a local shaman performs a special ritual
offering to the gods of the area.

00:19:54.943 --> 00:19:56.820
It's called despacho.

00:19:56.820 --> 00:19:59.573
This ritual will be like asking for permission

00:19:59.573 --> 00:20:02.117
to the Pachamama, to Mother Earth

00:20:02.117 --> 00:20:05.621
and sacred mountains here around Sibinacocha Lake.

00:20:07.080 --> 00:20:10.167
An offering to the Apus, to the local gods,

00:20:10.167 --> 00:20:14.046
to help protect us as we work here

00:20:14.046 --> 00:20:17.382
and to show respect to Geoff, who lost his life

00:20:17.382 --> 00:20:19.468
here last year.

00:20:23.472 --> 00:20:25.933
The people who live around Sibinacocha

00:20:25.933 --> 00:20:28.101
have been here for generations,

00:20:28.727 --> 00:20:30.312
living off of the land,

00:20:31.897 --> 00:20:33.774
and carrying on the Incas beliefs,

00:20:33.774 --> 00:20:36.360
traditions and language.

00:20:38.070 --> 00:20:39.947
Severino Crispin has lived

00:20:39.947 --> 00:20:43.450
near Sibinacocha his whole life.

00:20:45.869 --> 00:20:48.497
He's been the leader of this team
of horse wranglers

00:20:48.497 --> 00:20:51.667
since Preston's first visit to Peru.

00:20:52.918 --> 00:20:58.173
All villagers in this community
have a lot of respect for this lake.

00:20:58.173 --> 00:21:04.638
It is not an ordinary lake,
do not approach without permission.

00:21:08.392 --> 00:21:10.686
Severino and the rest of the wranglers

00:21:10.686 --> 00:21:15.983
still believe in the concept of sacred
landscape, that the gods and spirits live

00:21:15.983 --> 00:21:21.780
within the land, resting in boulders
and other natural features called "huacas."

00:21:21.780 --> 00:21:26.702
This gives Preston and his team
a direct link to their ancestral knowledge.

00:21:28.954 --> 00:21:32.708
He tells Preston
about the legend of Sibinacocha

00:21:32.708 --> 00:21:35.419
and what happened here hundreds of years ago.

00:21:36.503 --> 00:21:40.007
By this lake there was a big town.

00:21:40.424 --> 00:21:41.925
According to the legend,

00:21:41.925 --> 00:21:45.429
there was once a large city on an island
in the lake.

00:21:46.013 --> 00:21:49.141
One day, an old beggar showed up at a wedding

00:21:49.141 --> 00:21:52.644
and called upon the lake to swallow the town.

00:21:52.644 --> 00:21:57.149
Boom, there was an explosion,
and the city was submerged in the lake.

00:21:58.817 --> 00:22:00.861
Really makes me wonder

00:22:00.861 --> 00:22:03.739
what's out there under the water.

00:22:06.158 --> 00:22:07.492
The legend corresponds

00:22:07.492 --> 00:22:12.080
with a scientific theory
for the lake that the water level rose sometime

00:22:12.080 --> 00:22:17.085
during the Inca Empire, due
to a change in climate or natural disaster.

00:22:18.712 --> 00:22:20.839
This would have submerged the shoreline,

00:22:20.839 --> 00:22:24.343
including the artifacts
that Preston discovered in the water,

00:22:26.303 --> 00:22:30.057
which he is finally ready
to show to Carlos Ausejo,

00:22:30.057 --> 00:22:34.186
who will be the first archeologist
to examine them up close.

00:22:38.523 --> 00:22:41.443
This is what I have been waiting for

00:22:41.443 --> 00:22:44.821
since the first time
I talked to Preston about it.

00:22:44.821 --> 00:22:46.698
It's pretty exciting.

00:22:53.538 --> 00:22:56.666
Underwater, the pot appears intact,

00:22:56.666 --> 00:23:00.420
perfectly preserved by the cold water,
and protected from looters.

00:23:02.130 --> 00:23:04.174
Carlos also examines the golden

00:23:04.174 --> 00:23:07.677
zigzagging, snake-like structure.

00:23:08.095 --> 00:23:12.057
And at this point, is well convinced
of the site's significance

00:23:12.057 --> 00:23:16.353
and that the pot may have been left there as an offering by Inca

00:23:16.353 --> 00:23:18.021
or pre-Inca people.

00:23:18.021 --> 00:23:19.481
Good job Carlos!

00:23:19.481 --> 00:23:21.066
But why?

00:23:21.066 --> 00:23:24.152
You could really see its shape.

00:23:24.569 --> 00:23:26.738
I want to take it out.

00:23:31.743 --> 00:23:34.413
The next step will be to recover the pot
from the water,

00:23:34.413 --> 00:23:35.539
So cold!

00:23:35.539 --> 00:23:37.874
carefully, and determine its origin.

00:23:38.625 --> 00:23:40.585
Well, we have a lot of work to do.

00:23:40.585 --> 00:23:42.796
We have some boxes to check
before we can claim

00:23:42.796 --> 00:23:44.381
it's the Temple of Ausangate.

00:23:44.381 --> 00:23:49.594
But it fits with the legend
and the history of the site.

00:23:50.512 --> 00:23:55.016
They'll need permits
to recover the pot, so that will have to wait.

00:23:56.393 --> 00:23:57.602
In the meantime,

00:23:57.602 --> 00:24:01.690
they surround the pot with sandbags
to protect it until they can return.

00:24:02.816 --> 00:24:06.653
The thing that really terrifies me now
is that we won't get this done in time.

00:24:10.449 --> 00:24:11.450
Sibinacocha

00:24:11.450 --> 00:24:14.953
and the rest of Peru are in a crisis.

00:24:15.328 --> 00:24:18.415
Climate change is hitting these mountains hard.

00:24:18.415 --> 00:24:23.044
With glaciers receding over ten feet
every year, threatening to disrupt

00:24:23.044 --> 00:24:28.925
the delicate harmony of this area's unique
wildlife that relies on the lake for survival,

00:24:29.968 --> 00:24:32.804
including over 70 species of birds,

00:24:32.804 --> 00:24:36.183
like the Andean condor.

00:24:36.183 --> 00:24:40.854
Vicuña, the national animal of Peru,
and populations

00:24:40.854 --> 00:24:45.650
of amphibians and reptiles living at world
record altitudes.

00:24:45.650 --> 00:24:49.946
Pretty amazing to see lizards above 16,000 feet.

00:24:54.159 --> 00:24:59.414
Constantino Aucca is a co-founder
of the Association of Andean Ecosystems

00:24:59.414 --> 00:25:03.043
and one of the first conservationists
to visit Sibinacocha.

00:25:04.085 --> 00:25:05.670
The Lake of Sibinacocha

00:25:05.670 --> 00:25:09.132
is one of the most important wetlands

00:25:09.591 --> 00:25:11.843
in the world.

00:25:13.428 --> 00:25:16.681
Constantino is most concerned about mining,

00:25:16.681 --> 00:25:20.185
which has been edging closer and closer
to the watershed.

00:25:22.229 --> 00:25:24.564
From Patagonia to Venezuela,

00:25:24.564 --> 00:25:28.068
all these Andes, they are full of minerals.

00:25:28.902 --> 00:25:33.573
This region is very high
in gold, silver, copper and lithium.

00:25:33.573 --> 00:25:37.077
But extracting
these minerals would be devastating,

00:25:37.077 --> 00:25:39.037
poisoning the Vilcanota River,

00:25:39.037 --> 00:25:44.084
the Inca's most sacred waterway,
which flows directly out of Sibinacocha,

00:25:44.084 --> 00:25:48.338
feeding millions of people and wildlife downstream.

00:25:49.256 --> 00:25:52.050
The landscape is going to disappear.

00:25:52.384 --> 00:25:56.221
Not only that, mining
could destroy the cultural features

00:25:56.221 --> 00:26:01.226
and natural history of the area
before it has been properly studied.

00:26:03.687 --> 00:26:05.730
We have so much to lose

00:26:05.730 --> 00:26:07.983
if this place is destroyed.

00:26:10.402 --> 00:26:14.030
But Peru has a law that will allow you
to protect a cultural landscape.

00:26:15.323 --> 00:26:17.367
So we're sort of in a race
with the mining companies now,

00:26:17.367 --> 00:26:21.162
to try to prove
that it is this sacred ceremonial site.

00:26:29.796 --> 00:26:32.465
Before Preston can return to Sibinacocha,

00:26:32.465 --> 00:26:35.343
he must get through his next assignment:

00:26:35.343 --> 00:26:39.639
to guide a scientific expedition
to the far reaches of the Inca Empire

00:26:40.015 --> 00:26:45.186
in the Atacama Desert of central Chile,
the driest place on earth.

00:26:48.148 --> 00:26:50.900
Part of why I'm going is to try to understand

00:26:50.900 --> 00:26:53.486
this dedication to high places,

00:26:54.154 --> 00:26:57.657
I think it will really help me understand
what's going on at Sibinacocha.

00:27:00.660 --> 00:27:05.248
The Atacama Desert is the home of the
highest archeological site in the world,

00:27:05.248 --> 00:27:08.209
created by the Inca 500 years ago.

00:27:09.836 --> 00:27:13.632
Priests trekked, on foot, from their capital
in Cusco,

00:27:13.632 --> 00:27:19.346
over one thousand miles to Mount Llullaillaco,
near the edge of their known world.

00:27:20.347 --> 00:27:22.932
They use their extensive road systems,

00:27:22.932 --> 00:27:27.520
through some of the harshest conditions
on the planet, to climb this sacred peak,

00:27:27.520 --> 00:27:30.774
and perform a special ceremony on the summit.

00:27:34.194 --> 00:27:35.695
Hundreds of years later,

00:27:35.695 --> 00:27:40.325
Johan Reinhard
traveled to Llullaillaco to excavate on the summit.

00:27:41.409 --> 00:27:43.912
His findings
would become one of the most significant

00:27:43.912 --> 00:27:47.415
archeological discoveries in history.

00:27:48.416 --> 00:27:51.836
We knew it was an important site
because there were ruins at the base

00:27:51.836 --> 00:27:54.756
and because there were ruins
all the way to the top.

00:27:55.340 --> 00:27:58.843
You're not going to find that unless
there had been some kind of offerings made there.

00:28:00.970 --> 00:28:03.932
The Incas climbing was far ahead of its time.

00:28:04.891 --> 00:28:08.269
They were the first to use
modern mountaineering strategies,

00:28:08.269 --> 00:28:12.982
establishing camps at key points
along their routes, and braving the thin air

00:28:12.982 --> 00:28:18.446
to build ceremonial sites
on more than 100 mountains above 17,000 feet.

00:28:20.115 --> 00:28:21.199
The only society

00:28:21.199 --> 00:28:24.703
in history known to make offerings
at that altitude.

00:28:25.412 --> 00:28:29.833
In fact, no other culture in the world
had reached those vertiginous heights.

00:28:30.875 --> 00:28:35.213
And after the Inca,
no one would reach the summit of Mount Llullaillaco

00:28:35.213 --> 00:28:37.841
until the 1950s.

00:28:41.678 --> 00:28:43.430
Preston is here to guide a team

00:28:43.430 --> 00:28:48.101
of microbial biologists
from the University of Colorado to their site

00:28:48.101 --> 00:28:50.228
halfway up the mountain.

00:28:51.354 --> 00:28:54.023
But he has a secondary motive

00:28:54.023 --> 00:28:58.695
to follow in the footsteps of Johan Reinhard
and increase his understanding

00:28:58.695 --> 00:29:02.532
of how the Inca lived—and died—
in the mountains.

00:29:07.912 --> 00:29:11.583
Preston and his team
find life on the mountain challenging,

00:29:11.583 --> 00:29:16.045
which makes the Inca's accomplishments here
that much harder to conceive.

00:29:17.464 --> 00:29:20.967
It's just hard to be here, much less work here.

00:29:22.260 --> 00:29:26.431
At Mount Llullaillaco's altitude, towering over 20,000 feet,

00:29:26.931 --> 00:29:30.977
altitude sickness can cause fluid
to leak from blood vessels into the brain,

00:29:31.686 --> 00:29:35.231
which can be totally
debilitating—and even deadly.

00:29:36.191 --> 00:29:38.234
So what could have compelled the Inca

00:29:38.234 --> 00:29:41.738
to make such an arduous pilgrimage?

00:29:44.407 --> 00:29:47.243
When they climbed this peak 500 years ago,

00:29:47.243 --> 00:29:51.331
they likely thought the effects of the altitude
were symptoms of the mountain gods

00:29:51.331 --> 00:29:56.795
expressing their influence,
and climbed through the pain to the very summit

00:29:56.795 --> 00:30:01.716
where they performed their sacred ceremony
of human sacrifice.

00:30:04.844 --> 00:30:09.265
In 1999,
Johan ascended the Inca's path to the summit

00:30:09.265 --> 00:30:13.394
and made an archeological discovery
like no other in history.

00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:18.983
A ceremonial platform, ritual offerings,

00:30:19.484 --> 00:30:23.905
and three perfectly preserved mummies aged six,

00:30:23.905 --> 00:30:27.408
seven and 15.

00:30:28.034 --> 00:30:29.661
The Incas selected the children

00:30:29.661 --> 00:30:33.164
for their beauty,
from all corners of the empire,

00:30:33.373 --> 00:30:38.002
who accepted their sacrifice
as a great honor to go and live forever

00:30:38.002 --> 00:30:40.129
with the gods.

00:30:43.383 --> 00:30:49.013
Human sacrifices were sometimes executed
by strangulation, a blow to the head,

00:30:49.013 --> 00:30:53.434
or, as in this case,
they were drugged and buried alive.

00:30:55.520 --> 00:30:59.023
Look at the little hand. The hand, Johan.

00:30:59.649 --> 00:31:02.735
As you can see, the hands, the arms,
you can't see the legs

00:31:02.735 --> 00:31:05.572
but they're very well preserved.

00:31:06.865 --> 00:31:08.741
It was a powerful moment for me.

00:31:08.741 --> 00:31:12.078
You have this feeling
like you've just snapped back in time.

00:31:12.078 --> 00:31:13.037
You could turn around and see

00:31:13.037 --> 00:31:16.541
an Inca priest, you know,
just that kind of feeling.

00:31:17.792 --> 00:31:20.837
Although this practice seems horrific today,

00:31:20.837 --> 00:31:25.300
human sacrifice was essential to the Inca,
and Johan's discovery

00:31:25.300 --> 00:31:28.803
provided a major breakthrough
in our understanding of their mountain worship,

00:31:29.762 --> 00:31:33.975
adaptation to altitude and Inca genealogy.

00:31:39.272 --> 00:31:42.191
And even though Preston
did not reach the summit,

00:31:42.191 --> 00:31:45.862
he still felt the profound effects of Mount
Llullaillaco's thin air

00:31:46.195 --> 00:31:48.656
and gruesome history.

00:31:50.116 --> 00:31:51.826
I certainly came down

00:31:51.826 --> 00:31:55.413
with a better perspective on mountain worship

00:31:55.413 --> 00:32:02.462
and sort of a renewed respect for these people
that saw these landscapes as sacred.

00:32:02.462 --> 00:32:04.964
It just reaffirmed what I already believed

00:32:04.964 --> 00:32:07.133
about Sibinacocha.

00:32:10.553 --> 00:32:12.805
Leaving Mount Llullaillaco,

00:32:12.805 --> 00:32:17.393
Preston, drives past a Chilean copper mine,
one of the largest in the world,

00:32:18.019 --> 00:32:21.272
which gives him an idea
of the environmental devastation

00:32:21.272 --> 00:32:23.983
caused by mineral extraction.

00:32:24.567 --> 00:32:26.069
This can't be allowed at Sibinacocha.

00:32:26.069 --> 00:32:28.154
Absolutely not.

00:32:37.622 --> 00:32:41.084
Back in Peru, Preston has returned

00:32:41.376 --> 00:32:43.711
to finally recovered the ceramic pot

00:32:43.711 --> 00:32:46.798
from the freezing water of Lake Sibinacocha.

00:32:48.383 --> 00:32:50.009
But that's not all.

00:32:50.009 --> 00:32:55.598
He's joined by George Watson, who spent
the last three years rehabilitating his legs

00:32:55.598 --> 00:33:00.311
so he could return to that fateful site
and help with the recovery.

00:33:00.603 --> 00:33:03.356
I've done an awful lot of rehab
and a lot of training,

00:33:03.356 --> 00:33:06.567
with one goal in mind, and that was coming back.

00:33:06.567 --> 00:33:09.570
And this year they aren't taking any chances.

00:33:09.570 --> 00:33:11.280
This one's got a bad valve.

00:33:11.280 --> 00:33:13.366
Did you check the o-rings? All of them?

00:33:13.616 --> 00:33:16.160
We're doing dives that are all experimental.

00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:18.496
You just can't cut corners.

00:33:18.871 --> 00:33:22.000
There are a few things I want to go over
just to get us started, because we got...

00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:25.503
They've assembled a crack team of divers
to assist in the recovery.

00:33:25.962 --> 00:33:30.842
These guys have been my dive mentors since
I had to learn to dive to do the work up here.

00:33:31.801 --> 00:33:38.891
The team also includes archeologist Martín Polo
and conservation specialist Alexandra Gambetta,

00:33:38.891 --> 00:33:42.437
who will manage the recovery
of the pot once it is out of the water

00:33:43.229 --> 00:33:48.526
and look for ceremonial offerings,
which were often placed inside ceramic vessels.

00:33:49.193 --> 00:33:51.779
What is inside? We don't know.

00:33:51.779 --> 00:33:54.824
That's what we are going to find out.

00:34:03.958 --> 00:34:06.210
On the hike into Sibinacocha

00:34:06.210 --> 00:34:08.296
emotions are running high,

00:34:09.213 --> 00:34:11.007
especially for George.

00:34:12.175 --> 00:34:13.217
You're back.

00:34:13.217 --> 00:34:14.677
Yeah man.

00:34:17.346 --> 00:34:19.182
You walked in.

00:34:19.182 --> 00:34:21.559
Thanks for giving me the opportunity.

00:34:21.559 --> 00:34:24.270
Thanks for believing I could.

00:34:24.270 --> 00:34:26.022
It's beautiful.

00:34:26.022 --> 00:34:28.441
It's like I remember.

00:34:38.910 --> 00:34:39.827
The next morning,

00:34:39.827 --> 00:34:43.331
the dive team prepares their equipment
for the pot recovery.

00:34:44.248 --> 00:34:47.085
They make a plan that involves
each member of the team

00:34:47.085 --> 00:34:51.964
to transfer the pot to a basket
and transport it with a lift bag to the shore.

00:34:52.924 --> 00:34:55.968
And their work must be impeccable.

00:34:55.968 --> 00:34:59.388
One mistake could cost them dearly and damage

00:34:59.388 --> 00:35:01.974
this one of a kind piece of history.

00:35:25.373 --> 00:35:26.874
Below the surface,

00:35:26.874 --> 00:35:29.836
George and Preston think of their friend Geoff,

00:35:29.836 --> 00:35:31.587
who cared so much about protecting

00:35:31.587 --> 00:35:33.422
this place.

00:35:35.466 --> 00:35:38.469
First, Preston leads the divers to the pot

00:35:38.469 --> 00:35:41.973
and removes the sandbags
they place to protect it from weeds.

00:35:45.268 --> 00:35:47.895
To my relief, the pot looked untouched.

00:35:47.895 --> 00:35:49.772
It was intact.

00:35:49.772 --> 00:35:52.316
And then the next team took over.

00:35:52.608 --> 00:35:54.902
As they transfer the pot to the basket,

00:35:54.902 --> 00:35:57.446
sediment from the lake bottom is disturbed.

00:35:57.446 --> 00:36:00.658
By that time, our visibility was almost zero.

00:36:05.997 --> 00:36:07.748
Momentarily blinded,

00:36:07.748 --> 00:36:10.376
George pulls out the lift bag,

00:36:10.376 --> 00:36:13.254
secures it to the basket,

00:36:13.254 --> 00:36:16.757
and just as planned,
the pot floats off the lake bottom,

00:36:17.592 --> 00:36:21.345
moving for the first time in hundreds of years.

00:36:47.205 --> 00:36:49.165
Wow.

00:36:51.626 --> 00:36:52.919
Hey! Jorge!

00:36:52.919 --> 00:36:53.586
Yeah!

00:36:53.586 --> 00:36:55.796
A picture, a picture!

00:37:00.343 --> 00:37:02.511
Been a long time coming.

00:37:03.888 --> 00:37:07.516
I learned how to dive
just to go down and prove what that pot was.

00:37:07.516 --> 00:37:09.977
What this place was.

00:37:11.604 --> 00:37:13.689
Pretty profound feeling.

00:37:21.155 --> 00:37:22.490
For George,

00:37:22.490 --> 00:37:25.201
it's an incredible catharsis.

00:37:27.078 --> 00:37:29.247
Coming full circle on the thing that brought him

00:37:29.247 --> 00:37:32.208
to this lake years ago.

00:37:33.960 --> 00:37:37.296
And for Preston, he can finally sleep

00:37:37.296 --> 00:37:40.591
knowing that this important artifact
will get the attention

00:37:40.591 --> 00:37:42.802
it deserves.

00:37:45.221 --> 00:37:47.515
The bigger tweezers.

00:37:47.515 --> 00:37:48.557
Back at camp,

00:37:48.557 --> 00:37:53.854
examination of the pot begins immediately
to remove the sediments for analysis,

00:37:53.854 --> 00:37:58.901
clean the ceramic, and finally see
what, if anything, is inside.

00:38:03.572 --> 00:38:07.576
This, in Peru, is the first time we can recover
an intact pot

00:38:07.576 --> 00:38:10.830
from a submerged area.

00:38:12.790 --> 00:38:14.041
Digging out the sediment,

00:38:14.041 --> 00:38:16.919
Alexandra feels something solid within the pot.

00:38:16.919 --> 00:38:19.338
It feels like a stone or something.

00:38:21.716 --> 00:38:22.883
Offerings could tell

00:38:22.883 --> 00:38:26.470
Alexandra and Martín
why the pot was placed under water.

00:38:27.138 --> 00:38:29.181
I've never seen something like this.

00:38:29.181 --> 00:38:32.601
She unearths the pot's unusual contents.

00:38:32.935 --> 00:38:37.064
Three polished stones,
which Martín believes are ceremonial.

00:38:37.773 --> 00:38:40.860
I'm guessing it's an offering to the lake.

00:38:40.860 --> 00:38:42.945
I've seen pots with

00:38:43.654 --> 00:38:50.161
leaves, organic material, textiles,
offerings, but never with three stones

00:38:51.037 --> 00:38:52.997
inside of the pot.

00:38:52.997 --> 00:38:55.374
It's fantastic.

00:38:58.836 --> 00:39:00.504
Expert analysis reveals

00:39:00.504 --> 00:39:05.593
that the pot is 600 to 1,000 years
old, and archeologists

00:39:05.593 --> 00:39:10.389
believe that this vessel
and the stones inside were part of an offering.

00:39:19.315 --> 00:39:21.108
With the recovery complete,

00:39:21.108 --> 00:39:23.694
Preston has one more goal to accomplish,

00:39:24.403 --> 00:39:28.574
so he moves the team around
the lake to the base of Yayamari,

00:39:28.574 --> 00:39:33.162
the sacred mountain that looms over
Sibinacocha like an ancient pyramid,

00:39:33.162 --> 00:39:36.248
to conduct a survey from the summit.

00:39:37.666 --> 00:39:39.752
The locals around Sibinacocha believe

00:39:39.752 --> 00:39:43.130
that Yayamari is much more than a mountain.

00:40:03.192 --> 00:40:04.193
Before long,

00:40:04.193 --> 00:40:08.155
a peculiar storm blows in, bringing snow, hail,

00:40:08.155 --> 00:40:10.533
thunder and lightning.

00:40:12.701 --> 00:40:16.622
Weather events were seen
as acts of the gods by the Inca,

00:40:16.622 --> 00:40:20.126
and thunder was how the mountains
communicated with one another.

00:40:20.584 --> 00:40:24.505
You can see how vulnerable you feel up here
in the mountains,

00:40:24.505 --> 00:40:27.716
and how profound lightning,
what lightning must have been,

00:40:27.716 --> 00:40:31.303
if you didn't understand what that
was, what was causing it.

00:40:31.303 --> 00:40:35.433
It is an ominous welcome to their camp below Yayamari.

00:40:46.777 --> 00:40:50.781
The next morning, they head up the mountain
for their summit attempt.

00:40:52.491 --> 00:40:54.368
And at 18,000 feet,

00:40:54.368 --> 00:40:56.912
the climb will not be easy.

00:40:56.912 --> 00:41:00.916
Our goal is to survey the landscape
and take a better look at how

00:41:00.916 --> 00:41:03.919
all the landscape features might fit together.

00:41:05.379 --> 00:41:08.090
As Preston climbs, he starts to notice certain

00:41:08.090 --> 00:41:11.927
geographical features aligning in ways
he hadn't seen before,

00:41:13.095 --> 00:41:16.307
alignments
that were only now becoming clear to him,

00:41:16.307 --> 00:41:19.602
but must have been obvious to the Inca.

00:41:25.316 --> 00:41:31.280
When you're perched on the summit of the Yayamari,
and you can see everything around you,

00:41:31.280 --> 00:41:32.781
Sibinacocha's just laid out,

00:41:32.781 --> 00:41:35.910
you can really see the entire lake at one time.

00:41:36.076 --> 00:41:37.411
This is incredible.

00:41:39.288 --> 00:41:41.957
And of course,
you know, you look off to the west and

00:41:41.957 --> 00:41:46.962
Ausangate is just this massive dominating force
in the landscape.

00:41:49.089 --> 00:41:52.593
The puzzle pieces were starting to fall into place.

00:41:54.970 --> 00:41:56.889
It seems obvious

00:41:56.889 --> 00:41:59.808
this is a sacred landscape.

00:42:00.935 --> 00:42:02.144
From the summit,

00:42:02.144 --> 00:42:05.648
Preston finally sees all the features in context.

00:42:06.482 --> 00:42:11.570
The juxtaposition of that landscape
with mountains, with celestial bodies,

00:42:11.570 --> 00:42:16.242
the rising and setting of the moon
and the sun and stars at certain times of the year,

00:42:16.242 --> 00:42:18.619
the glaciers and the lake and rivers...

00:42:18.619 --> 00:42:21.330
It's all right there.

00:42:21.330 --> 00:42:26.961
Suddenly he realizes that perhaps the temple
he had been looking for all these years

00:42:26.961 --> 00:42:32.174
was there all along, composed of the landscape
that surrounds him.

00:42:33.092 --> 00:42:37.137
For Preston, nothing could be more sacred.

00:42:43.227 --> 00:42:46.730
But the team has one more revelation
waiting for them.

00:42:47.022 --> 00:42:50.234
Something tangible
that could tie everything together.

00:42:53.112 --> 00:42:55.197
During the descent of Yayamari,

00:42:55.197 --> 00:42:59.034
they arrive at what looks like
the ruins of a large complex.

00:42:59.994 --> 00:43:01.161
An Inca structure.

00:43:01.161 --> 00:43:01.954
You think it's Inca?

00:43:01.954 --> 00:43:08.627
Yeah, because there are like 4
or 5 rectangular buildings around a patio.

00:43:08.627 --> 00:43:09.962
A central patio.

00:43:09.962 --> 00:43:13.674
And the buildings around it are often

00:43:13.674 --> 00:43:15.843
sacred places.

00:43:17.052 --> 00:43:21.307
Martín describes how the Inca would conduct
ceremonies in plazas like these,

00:43:21.640 --> 00:43:25.144
using the different rooms
to prepare offerings for the gods.

00:43:26.437 --> 00:43:29.940
Maybe here were some stairs.

00:43:30.774 --> 00:43:31.900
Just using the imagination,

00:43:31.900 --> 00:43:36.405
the rock kind of looks like it was shaped to be
the same as Yayamari.

00:43:38.449 --> 00:43:42.453
Location was very important
for the placement of ceremonial sites,

00:43:42.453 --> 00:43:48.709
and this new complex is directly below
Yayamari, with a direct view of Ausangate,

00:43:48.709 --> 00:43:52.421
making it
an ideal place to worship the mountains.

00:43:53.631 --> 00:43:55.132
Bolder fields like this

00:43:55.132 --> 00:43:59.595
were often considered
sacred on their own, and used as the groundwork

00:43:59.595 --> 00:44:03.849
for larger ceremonial centers
built into the landscape.

00:44:05.893 --> 00:44:09.396
It's just perfect for a site like that.

00:44:09.897 --> 00:44:12.358
This could be like a temple.

00:44:18.238 --> 00:44:19.156
It does look like

00:44:19.156 --> 00:44:23.243
there's the base of an Inca complex near the lake.

00:44:23.243 --> 00:44:26.121
But whether it's the Temple of Ausangate,

00:44:26.121 --> 00:44:28.207
it still seems unclear to me.

00:44:30.292 --> 00:44:34.004
Everyone wants to excavate there
to gather more data

00:44:34.004 --> 00:44:37.216
on what that complex could be.

00:44:41.387 --> 00:44:43.430
At the end of this expedition,

00:44:43.430 --> 00:44:46.934
Preston has fulfilled
the dream he's had for so many years.

00:44:48.060 --> 00:44:50.729
But he's created some new ones,

00:44:51.146 --> 00:44:53.732
so his work is not done.

00:44:55.693 --> 00:44:59.196
All of the effort just to bring this thing up

00:44:59.196 --> 00:45:01.740
and the prices that we paid.

00:45:04.243 --> 00:45:06.078
I think it's another

00:45:06.078 --> 00:45:10.958
magic piece in the puzzle
that is Sibinacocha and that watershed.

00:45:12.751 --> 00:45:15.045
But we're not there yet.

00:45:15.045 --> 00:45:18.841
Mining companies could apply for new permits tomorrow.

00:45:32.688 --> 00:45:33.897
Before long,

00:45:33.897 --> 00:45:38.235
Preston returns yet again
to help with the archeological excavation

00:45:38.235 --> 00:45:43.031
of the Yayamari complex
and check in on the conservation effort.

00:45:43.490 --> 00:45:46.952
This is my 14th expedition to Sibinacocha.

00:45:47.745 --> 00:45:50.998
There's no walking away from it now.

00:45:52.124 --> 00:45:55.961
In the last year,
mining operations have moved into the region,

00:45:55.961 --> 00:45:58.088
just over the pass.

00:45:58.380 --> 00:46:00.674
We're running out of time.

00:46:02.050 --> 00:46:02.926
In Cusco,

00:46:02.926 --> 00:46:05.471
Preston meets with Constantino Aucca.

00:46:05.888 --> 00:46:09.349
For Incas, they cast a balance

00:46:09.349 --> 00:46:12.853
and lives in agreement with the environment.

00:46:12.853 --> 00:46:15.939
Constantino hopes
that we can return to the Inca's

00:46:15.939 --> 00:46:19.610
relationship with the land
before it's too late.

00:46:20.027 --> 00:46:22.988
Wetlands can disappear in less than five years.

00:46:22.988 --> 00:46:26.492
Those glaciers
disappear, that propagates downstream.

00:46:26.617 --> 00:46:31.455
If something is going to happen here, it's
going to affect the entire continent.

00:46:33.832 --> 00:46:35.584
The stakes for this expedition

00:46:35.584 --> 00:46:37.169
have never been higher,

00:46:38.587 --> 00:46:41.715
and for Preston it is somewhat bittersweet.

00:46:42.633 --> 00:46:46.011
He is finally passing the torch
to archeologists

00:46:46.011 --> 00:46:49.640
who will take the lead in determining the past
and future

00:46:49.640 --> 00:46:52.309
of Sibinacocha.

00:46:54.394 --> 00:46:59.650
Six archeologists from all over
the world are led by Arturo Rivera

00:46:59.650 --> 00:47:03.237
to the Yayamari site,
and get to work immediately.

00:47:04.530 --> 00:47:08.033
Each time we walk by, we can find something new.

00:47:08.575 --> 00:47:13.956
He is joined by his wife, Sara Baitzel,
a mortuary archeologist from Germany.

00:47:14.456 --> 00:47:17.960
It really gives you the sense of an archeological Disneyland.

00:47:18.293 --> 00:47:21.755
This is a site where you can spend
many, many years digging.

00:47:23.423 --> 00:47:25.884
Now we've got academic archeologists involved

00:47:25.884 --> 00:47:29.346
that are best qualified to manage this thing
going forward.

00:47:34.393 --> 00:47:38.397
They find signs of habitation
by Inca and pre-Inca people,

00:47:38.397 --> 00:47:44.194
who adapted dwellings and ceremonial structures
to the landscape beneath Yayamari,

00:47:44.194 --> 00:47:49.449
including irrigation canals and modification
of sacred springs and boulders.

00:47:50.784 --> 00:47:53.161
These sites were placed in juxtaposition

00:47:53.161 --> 00:47:56.665
to the mountains
and the natural features around them.

00:47:58.375 --> 00:47:59.501
That verifies to me

00:47:59.501 --> 00:48:03.005
that it was an important Inca site.

00:48:03.714 --> 00:48:07.175
So there's no doubt
that the lake was considered sacred.

00:48:08.093 --> 00:48:09.970
I'm so excited right now.

00:48:10.554 --> 00:48:13.599
This is a place
that's sort of drawing people to it.

00:48:14.057 --> 00:48:16.018
The landscape is alive.

00:48:16.018 --> 00:48:19.062
It's a place that has to be protected.

00:48:19.396 --> 00:48:22.649
It's part of our past, as Peruvians.

00:48:22.649 --> 00:48:26.153
It's our history, our heritage.

00:48:31.700 --> 00:48:33.785
With the archeology underway,

00:48:33.785 --> 00:48:38.040
Preston is free to return to his study
of the Sibinacocha habitat.

00:48:40.459 --> 00:48:43.795
He treks around the lake to retrieve
camera traps,

00:48:43.795 --> 00:48:46.882
which he hopes have captured
photographs of the endangered

00:48:46.882 --> 00:48:49.134
Andean mountain cat.

00:48:51.303 --> 00:48:52.679
The Andean Mountain Cat is

00:48:52.679 --> 00:48:55.182
the most endangered cat in the Americas.

00:48:55.891 --> 00:48:59.353
He finds historic photographs
of the elusive cat,

00:48:59.353 --> 00:49:03.315
proving for the first time
that it lives in the watershed,

00:49:04.149 --> 00:49:08.820
That will act as an ambassador species
for the ecosystem

00:49:08.820 --> 00:49:11.406
and help us protect the area.

00:49:12.658 --> 00:49:17.245
Preston knows better than anyone
how much there is to protect at Sibinacocha,

00:49:17.871 --> 00:49:20.958
the history, the wildlife

00:49:20.958 --> 00:49:24.461
and the people that live here and downstream.

00:49:25.045 --> 00:49:28.090
And now with the archeological findings,

00:49:28.090 --> 00:49:34.221
photographic proof of the Andean mountain cat
and everything that is still left to discover.

00:49:34.221 --> 00:49:38.183
Lake Sibinacocha is on the verge
of being protected

00:49:38.183 --> 00:49:40.936
as a sacred landscape.

00:49:45.983 --> 00:49:49.861
I think what distinguishes sacred
landscape from landscape

00:49:49.861 --> 00:49:53.740
is that it's come alive for the people.

00:49:55.575 --> 00:49:58.036
It's so encouraging that an entire culture,

00:49:58.036 --> 00:50:00.247
an entire people,
can see the world that way,

00:50:00.247 --> 00:50:04.751
and I think it gives me some optimism
for the rest of the world.

00:50:10.424 --> 00:50:13.760
And as for the Lost Temple of Ausangate,

00:50:13.760 --> 00:50:15.721
they've got more work to do.

00:50:16.221 --> 00:50:19.349
You know, still left to be determined.

00:50:22.811 --> 00:50:23.687
For now,

00:50:23.687 --> 00:50:27.774
Preston's search at Sibinacocha continues.

00:50:27.774 --> 00:50:31.528
And he may never know
if this really is the lost temple,

00:50:32.029 --> 00:50:37.284
but if he can at least protect it for the
future, anything is possible.