EDITOR’S NOTE: The Mayans did the impossible: They managed to take a beautiful place, a jungle flecked with cenotes and waterfalls, and make it even more beautiful by building some of the world’s most spectacular ancient cities and temples. When filmmaker Joshua Cowan went to Mexico recently, he was in search of two things: waterfalls and temples within the jungle.

He visited the famous Chichen Itza, the ruins at Palenque, the cataracts of Agua Azul; he went to the tall, storybook Misol-Ha falls, to the stunning chasms of Sumidero Canyon. He says, after his trip, “I didn’t expect to find so many of these places all in one country and so close together.” And now, here they all are in a single video: