Three unmanned flights lasting four hours over the dense Campeche jungle on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula have revealed a lost city that may have been abandoned over 1,000 years ago, a hidden “gem” beneath the earth.
Juan Carlos Fernandez-Diaz, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Houston, USA, discovered this mysterious city last March during an aerial archaeological survey.
LiDAR Technology
Aerial images captured by drones have helped archaeologists find an ancient Maya city buried underground for over 1,000 years.
For the past decade, he has pioneered the application of archaeology using LiDAR, a light detection and ranging device that, along with various other tools, can detect structures hidden beneath dense canopies and vegetation—often revealing traces of a lost civilization.
Archaeologists subsequently surveyed the site, named Ocomtun, for six weeks in May and June, uncovering 15.2-meter tall pyramid-like structures, pottery, and carvings that they believe date from 600 to 900 AD—known as the Late Classic period in Maya civilization.
Fernandez-Diaz, a co-investigator at the National Center for Laser Mapping, stated: “When we looked at the images (LiDAR), we could see something amazing, but the real discovery happened after a lot of investigation.”
While LiDAR revealed the locations of structures, archaeologist Ivan Šprajc—a researcher at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU)—still faced a significant challenge as he and his team surveyed the area.
Remote sensing technology, first used in archaeology in the early 21st century, has revolutionized the field, especially for researchers working in dense jungle areas that are hard to access on foot, such as in Central America, Šprajc noted. Now, archaeologists can see through the vegetation.
From aircraft or in some cases drones, LiDAR sensors measure the time it takes for each laser pulse to return, using that information to create a three-dimensional map of the environment below.
The “Unique Features” of Ocomtun, the Abandoned City
Researchers had to navigate through the dense jungle, using machetes and chainsaws to cut through the vegetation to reach what Šprajc described as the “main site.”
“When we got there, we saw really massive buildings,” he said.
The Maya Civilization is best known for its pyramid temples and impressive stone structures found throughout southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Šprajc and his team discovered three complete plazas with large buildings and a ball court. He mentioned that the city resembles other Maya cities from the same period but has “certain unique features,” such as some very unusual architectural complexes arranged in nearly concentric circles, which they speculate could be a marketplace.
During the six-week survey, Šprajc and his colleagues conducted archaeological investigations and dug a 2m x 2m test pit, with the pottery fragments they found helping them understand the age of the site. They plan to return next year for further investigation.
