CHAPTER XII
YUCATAN'S PLACE AMONG THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

On leaving Niven's treasures, I shall proceed to that part of Mexico called Yucatan.

Yucatan is situated in the southeastern part of Mexico and forms a peninsula stretching out from the mainland in an easterly direction. It is bounded on the north by the Gulf of Mexico and on the east and southeast by the Caribbean Sea.

Yucatan is literally filled with the remains of ancient civilizations, although none are as old as Niven's buried cities. Central America and Yucatan formed one of the first colonies established from the Motherland. Eventually it became an empire and was called Mayax.

I shall deal first with what are thought to be the most ancient of these ruins. They consist of temples, tombs and government buildings, all of stone, and are either partially or completely covered with earth. Next I shall take the structures completely above the ground, the ages of which have been variously estimated to be from 2000 to 15,000 years.

Quotings from ancient writings would seem to show that the youngest of these structures is at least 15,000 years old, and there is every reason to believe that most of them are more than 15,000 years old; some of them are, I am sure.

I think my readers will agree that it was not the hand of man that caused the walls of these massive buildings to crack and split and the stones to fall. It was the result of volcanic workings when the great central gas belt was forging its way under Yucatan. Up to that time these buildings stood intact.

As a guide, every building that has carvings on it of the feathered serpent (Kukul Khan) is 15,000 or more years old. These buildings were erected during the Can (serpent) Dynasty. The Can Dynasty ended with Queen Moo. Queen Moo lived during the first century of Egyptian history.

Dr. Le Plongeon and his wife, Alice D. Le Plongeon, dear friends of the writer, were the first archaeological explorers to delve among the buried parts of Yucatan ruins. Their published works give many interesting details of their discoveries. Not one-half of their discoveries, however, were published. Before the death of Dr. Le Plongeon, he gave the writer his unpublished notes and translations for copy; so that what I say about Yucatan comes principally from the result of Dr. Le Plongeon's twelve years among the ruins, much of which, however, I have corroborated by a personal examination.

My first notes on Yucatan remains will concern some archaeological records unearthed by Le Plongeon.

The Temple of Sacred Mysteries. At Uxmal there is an ancient Maya temple which Le Plongeon in his works, has called "The Temple of Sacred Mysteries."

The inscriptions on the walls, combined with the profusion of sacred symbols carved thereon, are themselves a chapter of prehistoric history. They connect ancient man with the early history of Babylonia and Egypt.

This building, an emblem of the Lands of the West, is composed of three compartments. The door of the central chamber, the Holv of Holies, faced west, in the direction where once the Motherland stood; corresponding in this respect to the temples and statuary found at Angkor, Cambodia, which all face east, towards the vanished land. From the central chamber a small stairway led to a terrace formed by this sanctuary. The doors of the other two rooms faced east.

The ceilings formed a triangular arch. Inside the triangle, formed at each end of the two rooms facing east by the converging lines of the arch, are semispheres. Those of the north room, three in number, form a triangle, as shown in Chapter 8, page 139, Fig. 7. Those in the south room consisted of five, as shown on page 139, Fig. 8. A few centimeters above the lintel of the entrance to the sanctuary is a cornice that surrounds the whole edifice.

On it are sculptured and many times repeated the skeleton with cross-bones shown in Chapter 8, page 145, Fig. 14.

The most remarkable of all the symbols found in the Temple of Sacred Mysteries is the cosmogonic diagram of Mu (Chapter 9, page 173), the diagram of man's first religion, which I have already shown. The Temple of Sacred Mysteries is more than 11,500 years old, and this age is verified by the following:

Plutarch relates that the priests of Egypt told Solon that communications with the Lands of the West had been interrupted 9000 years before, in consequence of the sinking of Atlantis, which made the Atlantic impassable on account of the mud and seaweed and the destruction of the country beyond by overwhelming cataclysms.

Solon visited Egypt in 600 B. C. Atlantis sank 9000 years previous to this. Thus, by adding A. D. 2000 to 600, plus 9000, we get a date of 11,600 years ago.

Further proofs of this destructive cataclysm are given in the writings of the Spanish historian, Dr. Aguilar, who relates:

"In a book which I took from the idolaters there was an account of an inundation to which they gave the name Unuycit (flooding)" and this is geologically further confirmed by the strata around the bases of these old structures.

How long the Temple of Sacred Mysteries had been standing beyond the period I have assigned to it no one can say, but certainly not long, because this temple was a memorial commemorating the loss of the Lands of the West and they disappeared only a short time before the disappearance of Atlantis.

Le Plongeon found an inscription on the temple walls, which reads as follows:

"This edifice is a memorial commemorating the destruction of Mu, the Lands of the West, whence came our sacred mysteries."

This inscription I had verified by a native gentleman who thoroughly understood the Maya writings.

Being a memorial, emblem or monument to the Lands of the West, it follows that this temple was erected after the Lands of the West had disappeared.

Le Plongeon also found an inscription on one of the buildings saying that,

"Uxmal had been destroyed by earthquakes three times and had been three times rebuilt."

It is today known among the educated natives as the "Thrice Built City".

Niven's Mexican buried cities are, comparatively speaking, only a few miles away from Uxmal, so that there remains the possibility that the disturbances which caused the ruin of Niven's upper cities might, and probably did, extend as far as Uxmal.

Some of our scientists who have been picnicking at Chichen Itza come back with the tale that these old structures were built only 1500 years ago.

As a matter of fact, most of them were standing 11,500 years ago and some of them are certainly older than that.

I refer to those built during the PPeu Dynasty, which immediately preceded the Can Dynasty.

One great authority on the antiquity of the Yucatan-Maya ruins was Bishop Landa, who accompanied the Spanish under Cortez in the sixteenth century.

Landa, in his work, written 400 years ago, "Relacion de las Cosas," page 328, says:

"The ancient buildings of the Mayas at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards were already heaps of ruins, objects of awe and veneration to the aborigines who lived in their neighborhood.

"They had lost the memory of who built them and the object for which they were created.

"The Maya priests wrote books about their sciences and imparted their knowledge to others whom they considered worthy of enlightenment.

"They had books containing the early history of their own nation and that of other people with whom they had friendly intercourse or war.

"In these volumes there were complete records of what had taken place in different epochs, of the various wars, inundations, epidemics, plagues, famines and every important event."

Landa burnt thousands of these books and twenty-seven large manuscripts on parchment. He destroyed 5000 statues and 197 vases.

Cogolludo, in " Historia de Yucathan," Book IV, Chapter III, page 177, says:

"Of the people who first settled in this Kingdom of Yucathan, or their ancient history, I have been unable to obtain any other data than those which follow:

"The Spanish chronicles do not give one reliable word about the manners and customs of the builders of the grand antique edifices that were objects of admiration to mem, as they are now to modern travelers.

"The only answer of the natives to the inquiries of the Spaniards as to who the builders were invariably was, 'We do not know.' It is not known who the builders were and the Indians themselves have no traditions on the subject."

Lizana ("Historia de Nuestra Seflora de Ytzamal," Chapter II):

"When the Spaniards came to this country, notwithstanding that some of the monuments appeared new, as if they had been built only twenty years, the Indians did not live in them, but used them as temples and sanctuaries, offering in them sacrifices sometimes of men, women and children, and that their construction dates back to great antiquity."

Le Plongeon says:

"These buildings were neither constructed by the present race nor their ancestors."

Pedro Beltram ("Arte del Idioma Maya 4"):

"In the Maya sculptures, particularly on the trunks of the mastodon heads that adorn the most ancient buildings, the name is written 'that which is necessary.' "

Le Plongeon:

"Among the symbols sculptured on the mastodon's trunks that at a very remote period in Maya history embellished the facades of all sacred and public edifices, these signs are occasionally seen: (See page 268). Taken collectively they read, Chaac ('Thunder')."

The great Maya edifices did not totter and fall from age and decay, nor was their ruin wrought by the hand of man. Their destruction was first due to volcanic workings and was completed by water.

During the forging of the great central gas belt under Central America and Yucatan 11,500 years ago, huge cataclysmic waves were formed. These rolled in over the land. All during the time of the splitting and rending of the rocks in forming the belt, "earthquakes shook the land like the leaves of a tree in a storm," the "land rose and rolled like ocean waves."

The shocks and rolls from the quakes shook the Maya structures into ruins. The great waves of water following blotted out all life (including the white Mayas of Yucatan).

Thus not only were the structures destroyed, but the builders as well.

Mayan Carving of Mastodons.

The work of these cataclysmic waves is to be seen today in the form of sand, gravel, and small boulders around and against the old ruins, and in some cases, where the buildings were completely shaken down, this specialized stratum covers them.

Some old Egyptian papyri refer to these cataclysms, which are confirmed by the Greek philosophers, Plato and Plutarch (Plutarch's Life of Solon).

After these cataclysms had passed over Central America and Yucatan, wrecking the structures and wiping out the whole population, the country for a long time was uninhabitable. As soon as the land became fit for man again, surrounding peoples drifted in and took possession of it. These were brown races speaking the Maya language.

These brown races were not a part of the white Mayas. Although they spoke the Maya tongue, they were totally different, and without doubt came from a long way off. They were a new set of colonizers. This would account for there being no traditions found among them at the time the Spaniards conquered the country.

These newcomers were neither Nahuatls nor Aztecs.

The Nahuatls came from the south and conquered them. The Aztecs also came from the south and in turn conquered the country.

The brown races of Central America and Yucatan of today are the descendants of these various peoples, a mixture of the three tribes, mostly Mongol.

The forefathers of the present people who call themselves Mayas were not the builders of the old Yucatan structures. The principal structures at Chichen Itza are still standing, but in ruins. These were built during the Can Dynasty and the PPeu Dynasty.

The structures of the PPeu Dynasty are easily recognizable by their having in some prominent position the PPeu totem, which was an elephant, or, as shown on the structures, the head of an elephant.

Prince Coh in Battle surrounded and protected by the Feathered Serpent
(From a mural in his burial chamber, Yucatan)
 

Pedro Beltram in "Arte del Idioma Maya":

"In the Maya sculpture, particularly on the trunks of the mastodon heads that adorn the most ancient buildings."

On all buildings erected during the Can Dynasty their emblem, the feathered serpent, was many times carved upon its stones. This accounts for the numberless feathered serpents found on the buildings at Chichen Itza.

In battle and on state occasions the feathered serpent appeared on the royal banner. As an example, on page 270 is a drawing of Prince Coh, the youngest son of the last King Can, in battle, with the royal emblem surrounding and protecting him.

This is one of the murals in Prince Coh's funeral chamber, Memorial Hall, Chichen Itza. In this chamber the life of Prince Coh is shown in pictures from his boyhood to the day of his death.

Here in Yucatan, tens of thousands of years afterwards, we find a custom retained which was observed in Niven's lowest buried city, described by him as the life of a "shepherd."

Wherever the feathered serpent is seen carved or painted, it will always be found to be in some way connected with the royal family of Can. The Can Dynasty was the last reigning line of Maya monarchs of Mayax. The last of the dynasty was Queen Moo. She visited the Maya Nile colony in Egypt during the first century of its existence, 16,000 years ago, as related in the Troano Manuscript.

The present natives of Yucatan are not pure-blooded. What remained of the Maya stock after the great cataclysm had destroyed the country were conquered by a Mongol race. The men were put to the sword and the women enslaved, and the forced marriages that followed introduced the Mongol blood in their veins. Thus when the land was again settled, after the cataclysm, it was by races that knew nothing of the builders of the vast structures which lay all about.

This is verified by the fact that when Cortez invaded Yucatan, Bishop Landa, who accompanied him, asked the natives,

"Who built the old ruins?"

The answer he received was, "The Toltecs." Toltec is a Maya word meaning "builder." Therefore their answer was "The builders."

But who the builders were they knew not, as Landa has stated in his writings. It will be interesting to note here that the word Toltec means not a race, but a builder.

In Mexico there is a very ancient Aztec tradition which says that "the first settlers in Mexico were a white race."

The tradition continues, saying:

"This white race was conquered by a race with darker skins, and the darker skinned race drove the white race from the land. The white people then took their ships and sailed to a far-off land in the East, towards the rising sun, and there settled."

A prophecy accompanies the tradition, which is:

"At some future time this white race will return and claim and reconquer the land."

Rider Haggard must have found this same tradition, for in Montezuma's Daughter he says:

"Quetzal, or more properly, Quetzalcoatl, was the divinity who is fabled to have taught the natives of Anahuac all the useful arts, including those of government and policy. He was white-skinned and light-haired. Finally he sailed from the shores of Anahuac for the fabulous country of Hapallan in a bark of serpent skins."

The Guatemalan tradition about the blond-white race, the first inhabitants of America, is without doubt the clearest of all, because in Guatemala was Quetzal's capital city.

The Guatemalan tradition is as follows:

"When King Quetzalcoatl, with the very white race, was conquered by the invading darker race, he refused to surrender, saying that he could not live in captivity; he could not survive. He then, with as many of his people as his ships could carry, sailed to a far-off land in the direction of the rising sun. He reached, with his people, this far-off land, and there settled. They prospered and became a great people.

"During the great battle many escaped and fled into the forests and were never heard of again. The rest were taken prisoners and enslaved by the conquerors."

The Quetzal today is the national bird of Guatemala. The name Quetzal was given to it in memory of their last white king, Quetzalcoatl. This bird was selected because, like King Quetzal, it cannot be made to survive in captivity.

The wonderful old sacred book of the Quiches, the Popol Vuh, was written in Guatemala.

The Aztec tradition about the white race, like all Aztec traditions, is very much garbled and filled in with priestly myths and inventions. I will point out a few prominent inventions and additions. I say they are inventions and additions because they do not appear in any of the other, dozen at least, traditions. All, with this exception, agree with each other in all material points.

These Aztec changes have been the cause of leading some of our prominent archaeologists away from the straight and narrow path of truth and reason.

The Aztecs began to drift into the Mexican Valley about A.D. 1090, but it was not until about the year A.D. 1216 that they made an actual settlement in the valley.

The Aztecs originally formed a part of the Empire of Mayax and Kukul Khan, the feathered serpent, was their symbol for the Deity. It was also the symbol of the Quiches, who were their neighbors.

The exact date of Quetzal's reign is unknown, because he was driven out by the darker people, whom we know as Mayas. Evidences seem to show that he lived more than 34,000 years ago. Again, other evidences would seem to point him out as belonging to one of the eleven dynasties. Whichever way it is taken, it answers my purpose, as it shows Quetzal to have lived far back beyond 16,000 years, ago.

One of the Aztec changes was made in their southern home, before they settled in the Mexican Valley. They abandoned a symbol used for the Deity and adopted the great white King Quetzal as their god. They then invented a son for him, whom they called Tescat.

The said Tescat was then made to escape with his father, Quetzal. The next step was to invent a prophecy, so one was invented which ran:

"Tescat's spirit will return in the body of a white man with many soldiers. He will conquer and retake the country, putting the men to the sword and enslaving the women."

With this they proceeded to awe the people from the king down.

Constant sacrifices were demanded to propitiate Tescat; human sacrifices commenced, then the priestly power was complete - priesthood was in absolute control.

The people lived in dread, for anyone might be the next one called upon to stretch upon the bloody stone.

At the time Cortez invaded Mexico, the Aztec human sacrifices were going on at the rate of from 30,000 to 40,000 a year, if we can believe Spanish writers.

This spark of savagery flew to all parts of the world - Egypt, India, Phoenicia, etc.

Our archaeologists have apparently found something Aztec dating 1100-1200 A.D. (the period during which Quetzal was made the god of the Aztecs), and have published the erroneous statement that Quetzal lived only a few hundreds of years ago.

The name Quetzal is much intertwined with the very ancient history of Mexico and Central America. It even extends to our southwestern states, Arizona and New Mexico, for there the Pueblo Indians used in their religious rites and ceremonies the feathered or bearded serpent and called it Quetzalcoatl.

Joining and comparing the various traditions, it would appear that far back there was a white people dominating Mexico and Central America; that they formed a kingdom and the name of their last king was Quetzal. Why Quetzalcoatl was used in their religious ceremonies and rites, the Pueblo Indians of today apparently cannot tell. Each one has a different tale. The true import has been lost, it is now solely traditional.

The Empire of Mayax was made up of at least seven distinct peoples, all coming from the Motherland and apparently all speaking the Maya tongue. All the kings and queens of Mayax during the twelve dynasties were of the white race.

The last white race was the forerunner of the Latins.

The forefathers of the white Polynesians of today, the forefathers of the white Mayas of Yucatan and the forefathers of all our white races were one and the same.
 

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