On 10 May, James Donaldson, better known as the internet media personality MrBeast, posted a video titled “I Survived 100 Hours In An Ancient Temple” to his Youtube channel, which boasts 394 million subscribers as of this writing. According to a 12 May statement released by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), MrBeast’s filming adventure was all above board, with the exception of a few pieces of “distorted information” the institute took pains to correct.
The video, which has garnered more than 52 million views in three days, is part of a larger series of durational challenges MrBeast and his associates undertake in historical venues all over the world, like Egypt (“I Spent 100 Hours Inside The Pyramids“), Romania (“7 Days Exploring an Underground City“) and Croatia (“I Survived 7 Days in an Abandoned City“). The “ancient temple” in question was comprised of several Mayan sites in Mexico’s Campeche and Yucatán states—including Chichén Itzá, the country’s most-visited archaeological site—all of which are protected and maintained by the INAH.
“The visit and recording of the archaeological sites…were carried out in accordance with formal requests made by the federal Ministry of Tourism and the governments of the two aforementioned states,” INAH’s statement reads. Donaldson worked closely with the Mexican government to obtain permits, conducting his shoots in areas that were publicly accessible without “disrupting visitor access”. In Calakmul, an ancient Mayan lowland city so powerful it was once called the “Kingdom of the Snake”, a substructure known as Building II was also visited by Donaldson’s team, which, while not permanently open to tourists, is often the subject of community tours. Donaldson and INAH coordinated his film crew’s visit far in advance to avoid interruption.
The INAH also corrected a few bits of misinformation cast into circulation by the video. In reference to one of the final segments in the video, the institute “clarif[ied] that no drone flight was carried out inside El Castillo”, one of the most famous structures at Chichén Itzá; rather, “the flight took place outside the structure”. The INAH statement also highlighted the “theatricality” of the video’s “audiovisual post-production work”, claiming that despite Donaldson’s assertions that his producers descended in a helicopter or spent the night inside one of the archaeological sites, neither activity took place.
The institute also addressed a controversial exchange between Donaldson and one of his guides as they descended into a temple. When they reached what Donaldson refers to as “the end” of the temple, the guide hands Donaldson what appears to be an ancient Mayan funerary mask.
“This has been found in the last two decades!” announces the guide. “This is the face of one of the snakes of the Snake Kingdom.” “Can I hold it?” Donaldson asks as a voiceover explains that the artefact is over a thousand years old. As the guide hands the object over, Donaldson jokes: “Why is this not in a museum? Why is a Youtuber holding this? Get this away from me!”
The INAH statement clarifies that MrBeast’s “producers…never possessed a pre-Hispanic mask”, adding that “the one presented is clearly a contemporary reproduction. INAH confirms that at all times during the recordings, institute personnel were monitoring compliance with established safety and security measures.”
Despite these “false assertions”, the INAH maintains in its statement that MrBeast’s videos can “can motivate interest in young audiences in Mexico and around the world” to learn about Mexican history and “ancestral cultures”. This sentiment echoes the response Egyptologists had to Donaldson’s romp in the Giza pyramids, a video that may drive traffic towards the country’s tourism-led economy.
