A series of pyramids, temples, houses… and a magnificent city of the Maya civilization have been hidden right next to a densely populated area, unbeknownst to anyone.
According to Heritage Daily, a team of scientists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico, Tulane University, and the University of Houston (USA) discovered up to 6,674 Maya architectural structures in an unexplored area of Campeche City, Mexico.
Part of the surveyed area shows that the hidden structures are the ruins of an ancient Maya city – (Image: Antiquity).
“Ecologists and engineers conducted LiDAR surveys in some areas for unrelated research,” said lead author Luke Auld-Thomas from Tulane University.
Thus, archaeologists hypothesized whether it would reveal hidden structures from centuries ago.
LiDAR is a remote sensing method that uses laser beams to measure distances from the source point to the ground. The differences in response time and wavelength of the laser can be used to compile a 3D digital map of the landscape.
Consequently, ruins that only remain as foundations or are covered by dense foliage may become visible in LiDAR images.
However, researchers could not have anticipated that they would make an astonishing discovery.
This is a densely populated area with 6,674 Maya architectural structures that had never been known before, including pyramids similar to those at Chichén Itzá and Tikal.
Additionally, the research revealed rural areas and small settlements. They even found a large city with many pyramids, located on a hillside near agricultural land.
Notably, this city is very close to the highway that runs through modern Campeche.
The central area of this large city has traces of houses on elevated land, a ball court, and an irrigation structure.
“The ancient world has many examples of cities that are completely different from those we have today,” concluded Dr. Auld-Thomas.
Unlike modern urban areas, the ancient Maya cities often intermixed with vast agricultural regions.
The research on this remarkable discovery has just been published in the scientific journal Antiquity.
