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GHF's The Forum on Global Heritage in a Developing World: Focus on Asia in the News

On May 3, 2012 at the Asia Society in New York, GHF hosted "The Forum on Global Heritage in a Developing World: Focus on Asia," a discussion of development challenges facing Asia’s most important and endangered heritage sites. The day-long event featured a diverse program of speakers and panelists, and was well-attended by leading experts in conservation, international development, venture philanthropy, technology, travel, academia and media.

 

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Lost City of Mirador: The "Cradle of Mayan Civilization"

November 2009

GHF Mirador Featured on CNN’s Wolf Blitzer

We’re taking you deep into the jungle of Guatemala in a CNN exclusive challenge of protecting this area, so rich in history from drug traffickers and other threats, that’s next.

BLITZER: Guatemalan archaeologists are making an fascinating discovery. Let’s go to CNN’s Brooke Baldwin. She traveled to Mirador and came back with an amazing story.

Brooke, tell our viewers what’s going on.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I think I’m officially an archaeology geek. Our CNN crew were the first TV camera in the world to shoot the face of what may be the world’s largest pyramid by volume. This pyramid is covered by the canopy of the jungle. It is currently facing several threats.

BALDWIN: From the air, it looks like just jungle. But these forests in Guatemala hide an ancient secret, the city of Mirador, often referred to as the cradle of Mayan civilization, the size of a modern day metropolis. This is no mountain. It’s a pyramid and according to the Mirador base and project, it may be the largest pyramid by volume in the world. CNN is traveling with the project’s director and lead archaeologist Richard Hansen and the founder of the Global Heritage Fund Jeff Morgan.

RICHARD HANSEN, DIR., MIRADOR BASIN PROJECT: The pyramid is a structure the world should know because it represents an investment of labor unprecedented in the world history. Every single stone in that building, from the bottom to the top, was carried by human labor.

BALDWIN: And the work to save this pyramid is delicate, done by hand. Guatemalan archaeologists painstakingly help uncover pieces of history built by their ancestors and the view from the top is spectacular.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is some of the Maya world.

BALDWIN: Here on the top, we’re 72 meters or 224 feet from the forest floor and when we talk about sheer size of this area that is el Mirador, just one single Mayan city, archaeologist Dr. Richard Hansen says its size is larger than all of downtown Los Angeles and he says there are still thousands of pyramids yet to be uncovered.

Then Dr. Hansen shows us something few people have ever seen, a relic that is the Mayan story of creation. Oh, my gosh. CNN cameras are the first to capture this fresh discovery which Hansen says will rewrite Mayan history.

This is the creation story of the Mayan people.

HANSEN: This is the creation story and it goes back to at least 300, 200 B.C.

BALDWIN: For decades, historians believe the pyramid was tainted by the Catholic views of Spanish conquistadors. Finding this freeze changes everything because it predates the Spanish arrival by more than a millennium. The challenge now is preserving this area, a jungle, constantly under threat by narco traffickers, loggers and cattle ranchers. Hansen’s guards are on constant standby to keep looters out.

HANSEN: We have had guards in cities throughout the basin, where we haven’t had the resources for that, we have lost 100 percent.

BALDWIN: Hansen has made Mirador his life’s work and hopes to share these Mayan secrets with Guatemala and the world.

HANSEN: The science for the sake of science is sterile (inaudible) blessing the lives of people. And by conserving this, we’re blessing the lives of an entire nation.

BALDWIN: Gorgeous, isn’t it? The Global Heritage Fund is a nonprofit organization also working to preserve Mirador. They have several sites like this around the world, Laos, Cambodia, Turkey—the goal, to conserve the history of these sites and develop a sustainable tourist industry, Wolf, so that the people closest to the site, including the native Guatemalans in this case, are the ones who will benefit the most.

BLITZER: Amazing stuff, Brooke. Thanks for bringing it to us.