In 2024, the Mayan giant was discovered in Campeche, Mexico. Swallowed by the rainforest, this lost city centre contained pyramids, squares, amphitheater and highways. However, the discovery was not made by a team of veteran explorers hacking rainforests with machetes. Made by a PhD. Student. And he accidentally found it.
“I found a laser survey conducted by a Mexican organization for environmental monitoring, like 16 pages of Google Search,” says Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD from Tulane University. I explained it I went to the BBC in October. Often overlooked, a survey from 10 years ago contained groundbreaking information hidden in front of you.
Investigations used Light detection and range (LIDAR) technology, a remote sensing method that transmits thousands of laser pulses from an aircraft to map objects buried underneath the vegetation. The system measures how long it takes for a signal to bounce back and creates a detailed 3D image of the landscape.
Today, named Valeriana, this lost metropolis is considered to be one of the most dense Mayan cities ever discovered. At its peak (between 740 and 850 AD), there could be 30,000-50,000 people living there than the population of today’s region. More than 6,000 buildings have been identified, ranging from the house to the towering pyramids. “Most of the two monumental precincts of Valeriana have all the features of the classic Mayan political capital: a wide, fundamental plaza, a temple pyramid, a ball court and a reservoir formed by damming the arroyo (seasonal waterways). Published In the journal Ancient.
Lidar revolutionizes archaeology, allowing researchers to peer into the thick rainforest canopy without stepping into the jungle. The technology was helpful Identify Hundreds Thousands of structure Mayan cities in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala.
Not only will it reveal the lost city, but these discoveries Challenge A long-standing belief that the Mayan civilization was primarily composed of small, isolated villages. Instead, Lidar discovers vast, interrelated networks of cities, roads and infrastructure, suggesting a developed society with extensive trade routes and economic cooperation.
Rider also revealed some of the wide network of heights Highway– Causeways that existed for centuries before modern roads. Some stretched up to 131 feet wide, connecting cities over vast distances. “They are the world’s first super highway system we have.” I said Richard D. Hansen, an archaeologist and currently an adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Utah.
These long-distance trade routes can be tracked by “tracking the cities that interact and exchange not only with goods but also ideas,” says Christa Schieber de Lavarreda, head of the Tak’alik Ab’aj National Archaeological Park in Guatemala.
One such route extended from Tabasco in the Gulf of Mexico, wrapped around Tehantepec and Chiapas, continuing along Guatemala’s Pacific coast, reaching El Salvador. According to Schieber, “These routes that ran for centuries can be compared to the Silk Road during the Roman Empire.”
But trade did not just move goods from one city to another. “There are also “invisible” traces of raw materials used in products that combine multiple components. This comes from a different location than the production location,” explains Schieber. “These traces reveal the whole Chine Opera Toilet (Production Chain) Involved in creating the final product. ”
One example comes from Jade Production In Guatemala. Archaeology evidence Cancuén suggests that raw jades will be transported over hundreds of kilometers and processed into “preforms.” This was particularly a work piece, and was exported somewhere else with refinement. Cancunn is not just a city, but a hub of a wider regional trade network where valuable material has been moved and converted before reaching its final destination.
Discoveries reconstruct our understanding of Mayan civilization. The settlement, once considered the regional capital, has been revealed as merely a suburb of even larger metropolitan cities. What seemed like a natural hill turned out to be a pyramid that has been lost for a long time. The valley has been identified as a remains of ancient human structures. And what was considered simple trade has emerged as a wide range of import/export systems.
However, these findings only suggest a full scale. The vastness of Mayan cities, the refinement of their infrastructure, and the complexity of their trade networks suggest that much of their world remains hidden under overgrowth for centuries. As researchers continue to scan unexplored areas, they hope to find more lost cities, rewrite what we know about one of the most advanced civilizations of pre-modern history.
This article was originally printed under the heading “The Lost City of the Jungle.”
