This 2020 National Geographic documentary explains very recent discoveries in the Guatemalan Yucatan Peninsula showing that the Mayan societies were much more widespread than previously thought.

Following are points made in the documentary:

— New technologies are allowing people to see underneath jungle canopies from the air to detect ancient abandoned Mayan structures.

— It shows the uncovering of a royal palace that existed hundreds of years earlier than previously thought.

— A large amount of well-drawn Mayan cave paintings have been painted in 100 BC.

— It shown an uncovering of another structure that is shown to be an estate of a wealthy resident where a human body was buried underneath it. 

— Evidence is shown that a large proportion of people lived as middle class residents in the northern Yucatan, rather than as peasants as they did elsewhere.

— It shows how sophisticated underground caverns were created as cisterns to store water that was collected from rooftops and patios during the rainy seasons due to rivers and lakes not existing in that region.

— It explains that royal palaces are still being discovered in that area.

— A Mayan religious and political cult that uses a snake as its totem is explained.

— The newly discovered northern Mayan cities were abandoned at about the same time as the more southern ones, likely because of a drought.