These precious stones are the most expensive
5. Colombian Green Emeralds ($10,000)
4. Burmese Red Rubies of Myanmar ($15,000)
3. Greenish Imperials ($20,000)
2. Colored Diamonds ($25,000)
1. Madagascar Padparadshca Pink Sapphires ($35,000)
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The ancient Maya city of Palenque has been studied for over a century, yet its largest building remained hidden from researchers until 1999. In this video, I share the story of how a local guide led me to Templo Escondido (the Hidden Temple), a massive structure larger than the famous Palace in the city center. The Discovery & The Dimensions While mapping the western edge of the site in an area called La Kota, I was approached by a local man who offered to show me a building "100 meters tall". What we found was a gargantuan platform: Massive Scale: The building measures approximately 70m by 150m. The Drop: While the southern approach is only 10m high, the northern edge drops nearly 100m down a cliffside. Royal Residence?: The top features a 50m x 50m area once used as a cornfield, along with an L-shaped building that may have been a royal residence. Why This Building Matters I believe Templo Escondido is the key to Palenque’s earliest history. My theory is that this massive platform encapsulates the city’s first palace. The Elevation Mystery: Mapping reveals the base of Templo Escondido is at the exact same elevation as the Palace a kilometer away—suggesting the Palace was built to emulate this older site. Oldest Ceramics: Studies in the 1970s found the site's oldest ceramics—dating back to the 400s CE—in the river right next to this building. The Forgotten Connection: King Pakal built the "Olvido" temple nearby, likely to link his lineage to the ancient authority of this area.
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Why Coins are Treasures for Archaeologists
Dive into the world of archaeology and discover why ancient coins are so important! Learn how these small artifacts unlock big secrets about history, trade, and daily life in ancient civilizations.
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On this episode of The First Explorers: we dive into the discovery of the Olmec civilization just ~100 years ago.
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Join Dave's Multiverse for an explosive return with Raul Bilecky of Pillars of the Past! Fresh off a grueling 42-day, 5-terabyte expedition across Peru's remotest corners, Raul drops mind-blowing footage and stories of undocumented megalithic sites, massive circular settlements, deadly tunnel crawls, 50-foot-deep precision-cut tombs with mummies, desecrated Nazca graves packed with elongated skulls, and heartbreaking evidence of rampant looting. From heart-pounding climbs at 14,000 feet to claustrophobic underground networks symbolizing ancient fertility rites, this is raw adventure meets devastating reality—forgotten pyramids, polygonal wonders, and sites so remote they have no names! Raul pulls no punches on the black-market mummy controversy, the "Mummy Mafia" business model, confirmation bias, and why extraordinary claims still require extraordinary proof. If you love ancient mysteries, lost civilizations, alternative history, or just epic exploration, this episode will leave you speechless. Huge thanks to Raul for sharing the unfiltered truth—support his mission to document and preserve these treasures before they're gone forever!
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(Please Scroll to 20:00 in video, the Taraqchullu site in Peru was built by the Chachapoyas-Inca civilization that consist of mainly circular stone structures strongly resembling Galician circular structures located in northwestern Spain.)
Kuelap built by the Chachapoyas in Peru
A Guarda built by Galicians located in Pontevedra Province, Galicia, Spain (2,100 year old Celtic Village)
Chachapoyas construction (c. 800–1452 AD), particularly at Kuélap, features massive stone-walled, high-altitude fortresses with hundreds of circular, rustic stone houses. While not directly linked, this architecture—defined by circular stone dwellings and cliffside funerary monuments—shares a "primitive" yet sophisticated dry-stone aesthetic similar to Celtic-influenced, rustic, and circular stone structures found in Galicia, Spain.Key features of Chachapoyas construction comparable to traditional European stone building:
- Circular Stone Houses: Similar to the Galician castros (fortified settlements) which often contain round stone dwellings.
- Defensive Dry-Stone Walls: Large-scale, dry-stone construction (without mortar) is central to both cultures.
- Rugged Landscape Integration: Built on mountain peaks and ridges, mirroring the elevated, defensive positions of many Galician and Celtic settlements.
- Stone Mosaic Decoration: The Chachapoyas used zigzag and diamond patterns on stone friezes to decorate their circular structures.
(Scroll to 39:00 in video, the Vinyaque site contains precise stone structures that goes down 50 feet deep located in Peru that was attributed to the Wari culture)
