Caracol, Belize

So we're at Caracol, looking at structure A6. The guide is telling us how the Maya used this as an astronomical observatory. He mentions that liquid mercury was found here, and how archeologists speculate that the Maya might have used it in a primitive spirit level sort of device.

The spirit level idea was absurd: mercury does nothing that plain water wouldn't do. But, if we're going to play "guess the use of an ancient object," I figure you put the mercury in a bowl, spin it to form a paraboloid reflector, and you've got the primary lens of a telescope. That's no more absurd than a spirit level, and at least it works in the idea of astronomy.

While the evidence for this theory was a bit on the thin side, and the guide didn't know how much mercury was found, I liked it enough to tell the guide his archeologists were wrong, the Maya had a telescope, and he was lucky to be the second person alive to know this. My wife looked at me witheringly.