Archaeologists discover pyramids and sports fields in newly found Maya city

A remarkable discovery has been made in the jungles of Mexico, unveiling a vast ancient Maya city that had been hidden for centuries. 

Archaeologists uncovered pyramids, sports fields, causeways linking various districts, and amphitheaters in the southeastern state of Campeche, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

They discovered this hidden complex, which they named Valeriana, using Lidar - a laser survey method that reveals structures concealed by vegetation. They believe it ranks second in density only to Calakmul, regarded as the largest Maya site in ancient Latin America.  

The team found three sites in total, each comparable in size to Edinburgh, Scotland, “by accident” when one archaeologist searched for data online.  

“I was on something like page 16 of Google search and found a laser survey done by a Mexican organisation for environmental monitoring,” explains Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane University in the US. It was a Lidar survey, a remote sensing technique that sends thousands of laser pulses from an aircraft and maps objects below based on the time it takes for the signal to return. 

However, when Mr. Auld-Thomas analyzed the data using archaeological methods, he discovered what others had overlooked - a massive ancient city that may have housed 30,000 to 50,000 people at its peak from 750 to 850 AD. This figure exceeds the current population of the region, the researchers note. Mr. Auld-Thomas and his colleagues named the city Valeriana after a nearby lagoon.  

This discovery challenges the prevailing Western notion that the Tropics were where “civilisations went to die,” according to Professor Marcello Canuto, a co-author of the research. Instead, he explains, this region was home to rich and complex cultures. While the exact reasons for the city's decline and eventual abandonment remain uncertain, the archaeologists believe that climate change played a significant role.  

Valeriana exhibits the “hallmarks of a capital city” and is second only in building density to the impressive Calakmul site, located approximately 100 km (62 miles) away. The archaeologists describe it as being “hidden in plain sight,” as it is merely a 15-minute hike from a major road near Xpujil, where primarily Maya people reside today. There are no known images of the lost city because “no one has ever been there,” according to the researchers, although locals might have suspected that ruins lay beneath the earth mounds.  

The city spanned about 16.6 square kilometres and featured two major centers with large structures situated around 2 km (1.2 miles) apart, connected by dense housing and causeways. It included two plazas with temple pyramids, where Maya people would have worshipped, hidden treasures like jade masks, and burial sites. 

Moreover, there was a court for playing an ancient ball game. Evidence of a reservoir suggests that the inhabitants utilized the landscape to sustain a large population.   In total, Mr. Auld-Thomas and Prof. Canuto surveyed three distinct sites in the jungle, uncovering 6,764 buildings of varying sizes.

By Naila Huseynova