The Forest of Statues

"" is the twenty-eighth episode from the first season of The Mysterious Cities of Gold.

Summary
The party leave the city, heading north. The Doctor and his associates escape, but without the second manuscript they don't realise that they're heading the wrong way. The party trek through more forest, until Kukapetl finds them a river. Mendoza has them build a raft to take them north more quickly. They manage to ride through a stretch of rapids, but the raft begins to break up. Moments later they realise that they're heading towards a waterfall. As they try to paddle to the riverbank, the raft breaks up completely. Sancho & Pedro make it out of the water. Zia is carried off, clinging to a log, while the others try to rescue her. They're carried over the edge but survive, emerging from the water at the bottom of the fall. In the forest nearby they see terracotta statues. Sancho & Pedro, meanwhile, have found a stream of water laden with golden sand, coming from a cave which leads to the underground third ruined city. There too is a statue of the winged serpent, but like the rest of the city it has been damaged by intense heat. Esteban uses his medallion once again to reflect sunlight onto a pair of doors, which try to open but collapse due to their damaged state. Behind them, a gold statue holds the third manuscript, which reads: "That day, the sky began to blaze. Clouds of dust fell back on the earth, and greater clouds sprang up over the sea, on that day". The message seems to make no sense, but when a frustrated Tao throws the manuscripts away they get wet, and they realise that certain letters are written in waterproof ink. When they wash away the rest, a new message is formed: "To the west of the land of the Mayas, look for the Burning Shield".

Plot
1x28