The idea that the migration could have been caused by a marked change in climate is well worth considering. But there are no signs to support this view either. How could there be, when the distance covered by the Mayas from the territory of the old to the borders of the new kingdom measures only 220 miles as the crow flies—a distance that would have been inadequate to escape a catastrophical change in climate. The explanation that a devastating epidemic set the Mayas on the move also deserves serious examination. Apart from the fact that this explanation is offered as one of many, there is not the slightest proof of it. Was there a battle between the generations? Did the young revolt against the old? Was there a civil war, a revolution? If we opt for one of these possibilities, it is obvious that only a part of the population, namely the defeated, would have left the country and that the victors would have remained in their old settlements. Investigations of archaeological sites have not produced one proof that even a single Maya remained behind. The whole people suddenly emigrated, leaving their holy places unguarded in the jungle.
I should like to introduce a new note into the concert of opinions, a theory that is not proved any more than the other interpretations are. But regardless of the probability of the other explanations, I venture to make my contribution boldly and with conviction.
At some point in a very early period the Mayas' ancestors were paid a visit by the 'gods' (in whom I suspect space travellers). As a number of factors support the assumption, the ancestors of the American cultural peoples may perhaps have immigrated from the ancient Orient. But in the world of the Mayas there were strictly guarded sacred traditions about astronomy, mathematics and the calendar! The priests guarded the traditional knowledge because the 'gods' had given their word to return one day. They created a grandiose new religion, the religion of Kukulkan, the 'Feathered Serpent'.
According to priestly tradition, the 'gods' would come back from heaven when the vast buildings were completed according to the laws of the calendar cycle. So the people hastened to complete temples and pyramids according to this holy rhythm, because the year of completion was supposed to be a year of rejoicing. Then the god Kukulkan would come from the stars, take possession of the buildings and from then on live among mankind.
The work was finished, the year of the god's return came round—but nothing happened. The people sang, prayed and waited for a whole year. Slaves and jewellery, corn and oil were offered up in vain. But heaven remained dumb and without a sign. No heavenly chariot appeared; they could hear no rushing or distant thunder. Nothing, absolutely nothing happened.
If we give this hypothesis a chance, the disappointment of priests and people must have been tremendous. The work of centuries had been done in vain. Doubts arose. Was there a mistake in the calculation of the calendar? Had the 'gods' landed somewhere else? Had they all made a terrible mistake?
I should mention that the mystical year of the Mayas, in which the calendar began, goes back to 311 B.C. Proofs of this exist in Mayan writings. If we accept this date as proved, then there was only a gap of a few hundred years between it and the beginning of the Egyptian culture. This legendary age seems to be genuine, because the hyper-accurate Mayan calendar says so over and over again. If this is so, the calendar and the national migration are not the only things that make me sceptical. For a comparatively new find starts off nagging doubts, too.
In 1935 a stone relief that very probably represents the god Kukumatz (in Yucatan, Kukulkan) was found in Palenque (Old Kingdom). A genuinely unprejudiced look at this picture would make even the most die-hard sceptic stop and think.
There sits a human being, with the upper part of his body bent forward like a racing motorcyclist; today any child would identify his vehicle as a rocket. It is pointed at the front, then changes to strangely grooved indentations like inlet ports, widens out and terminates at the tail in a darting flame. The crouching being himself is manipulating a number of undefinable controls and has the heel of his left foot on a kind of pedal. His clothing is appropriate: short trousers with a broad belt, a jacket with a modern Japanese opening at the neck and closely fitting bands at arms and legs. With our knowledge of similar pictures, we should be surprised if the complicated headgear were missing. And there it is with the usual indentations and tubes, and something like antennae on top. Our space traveller—he is clearly depicted as one—is not only bent forward tensely, he is also looking intently at an apparatus hanging in front of his face. The astronaut's front seat is separated by struts from the rear portion of the vehicle, in which symmetrically arranged boxes, circles, points and spirals can be seen.
What does this relief have to tell us? Nothing? Is everything that anyone links up with space travel a stupid figment of the imagination?
If the stone relief from Palenque is also rejected from the chain of proofs, one must doubt the integrity which scholars bring to the investigation of outstanding finds. After all, one is not seeing ghosts when one is analysing actual objects.
To continue with our series of hitherto unanswered questions: why did the Mayas build their oldest cities in the jungle, and not on a river, or by the sea? Tikal, for example, lies 109 miles as the crow flies from the Gulf of Honduras, 161 miles north-west of the Bay of Campeche and 236 miles as the crow flies north of the Pacific Ocean. The fact that the Mayas were quite familiar with the sea is shown by the wealth of objects which were made of coral, mussels and shellfish. Why, then, the 'flight' into the jungle? Why did they build water reservoirs when they could have settled by the water? In Tikal alone there are thirteen reservoirs with a capacity of 214,504 cubic yards. Why did they absolutely have to live, build and work here and not in some more 'logically' situated place?
After their long trek the disappointed Mayas founded a new kingdom in the north. And once again cities, temples and pyramids arose according to the dates pre-fixed by the calendar.
To give some idea of the accuracy of the Mayan calendar, here are the periods of time they used:
20 kins = 1 uinal or 20 days
18 uinals = 1 tun or 360 days
20 tuns = 1 katun or 7,200 days
20 katuns = 1 baktun or 144,000 days
20 baktuns = 1 pictun or 21,880,000 days
20 pictuns = 1 calabtun or 571,600,000 days
20 calabtuns = 1 kinchiltun or 12,1521,000,000 days
20 kinchiltuns = 1 atautun or 232,0401,000,000 days
But the stone steps based on calendar dates are not the only things that tower above the green roof of the jungle, for observatories were built, too.
The observatory at Chichen is the first and oldest round building of the Mayas. Even today the restored building looks like an observatory. The circular edifice rises far above the jungle on three terraces; inside it a spiral staircase leads to the uppermost observation post; in the dome there are hatches and openings directed at the stars and giving an impressive picture of the firmament at night. The outer walls bear masks of the rain god ... and the image of a human figure with wings.