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Gain a greater understanding of New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, one of the most elaborate and mysterious of ancient Native-American ruins.
Chaco Canyon, located in northwest New Mexico, is perhaps the
only site in the world constructed in an elaborate pattern that
mirrors the yearly cycle of the sun and the 19-year cycle of the
moon. How did an ancient civilization, with no known written
language, arrange its buildings into a virtual celestial calendar,
spanning an area roughly the size of Ireland? Why did this society,
ancestors of today's Pueblo Indians, choose to establish the center
of their world in the middle of such an arid, barren land? And why,
after constructing buildings the size of the Roman Coliseum, did
these same people deliberately seal them and abruptly leave?
These
enigmas have puzzled archaeologists for centuries. This program
presents substantial evidence that the Chacoan people expressed a
complex solar and lunar cosmology in their magnificent
architecture. The discoveries documented in the film have
transformed scientific understanding of this site - one of the
most elaborate and mysterious of ancient Native-American
ruins - and are revolutionizing perceptions of the Chacoan
civilization. Robert Redford narrates.