The White City or the City of the Monkey God, which could be up to 1,000 years old, has mysteriously emerged from the dense jungles of Honduras thanks to laser imaging satellites.
Previously, this “legendary city” had been sought after by numerous explorers and archaeologists for hundreds of years without success. The surveying satellites have discovered mysterious ruins that closely resemble descriptions found in ancient texts within the La Mosquitia region, which spans 3,500 km2 in Honduras—a mysterious area covered by pristine forests, according to Live Science.
According to descriptions by explorer Doug Elkins and his team, which includes scientists, explorers, and soldiers from various countries, the site they suspect to be the White City – City of the Monkey God – is threatened by illegal logging and wildlife trafficking.
Graphic depiction of the “White City” – (Image: Science Channel)
A recent documentary aired on the Science Channel indicated that scientists combined various clues from ground expeditions to conduct extensive terrestrial surveys using laser technology, which led to the discovery of structures and artifacts long swallowed by the jungle, believed to belong to a 1,000-year-old indigenous culture.
The research team revealed that the first discovery was a massive rock with a carving depicting a man wearing a mask, holding a staff and a sack, in a place where the dense tropical rainforest obscured visibility beyond six meters.
Subsequently, the LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology finally revealed the “ghost” of structures resembling pyramids, terraced fields, roads, and canals. According to Dr. Osca Castro, head of archaeology at the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH), these structures date back 1,000 to 1,400 years. The team is currently seeking ways to access and excavate the site directly.
Previously, in 1940, an American explorer named Theodore Morde returned from an expedition to La Mosquitia with thousands of artifacts and claimed he had discovered the White City, according to National Geographic. However, this expedition, like others that followed, failed to identify any permanent structures that would definitively prove the existence of a city.
The White City, according to legend, is characterized by towering white stone columns and many massive temples constructed from white stone, along with a gigantic statue of the Monkey God that has inspired numerous books and films, such as Disney’s “The Jungle Book.”
However, the area believed to host the city has been “swallowed” by dense primary forests that are nearly impossible to survey from satellites and are dangerous to access by land. Many expeditions have failed to return, with some even resulting in loss of life in the quest for this mythical city.
