Lost Mayan city discovered by chance in Mexican jungle | World News

According to Reuters, archaeologists in Mexico discovered a huge Mayan city they named Valeriana.

The city is hidden deep in the southern forests of the Campeche region and is a sprawling urban settlement filled with architectural wonders and agricultural infrastructure.

The discovery challenges current knowledge about the prevalence and density of ancient Maya settlements. It also serves as a stepping stone in our understanding of Maya urbanization and settlement patterns.

The city was discovered by chance through Lidar or Light Detection and Ranging. The technology uses lasers to map and analyze archaeological landscapes, according to Reuters.

The study’s dataset came from approximately 122 square kilometers of high-quality airborne Lidar data collected in 2013 as part of a forest monitoring project called Alianza.

“We argue that the Alianza data show a range of ancient settlement densities comparable to those documented by field-focused archaeological surveys in the region, from nearly empty rural areas to dense urban areas,” the researchers wrote in their study. Cambridge University Press.

“Valeriana’s discovery highlights the fact that there are still large gaps in our knowledge regarding the existence or non-existence of large areas in as yet uncharted areas of the Maya Lowlands,” he added.

The Classic period Maya civilization dates back to the period between 250 and 900 AD; During this period, it extended its rule to present-day southern Mexico and what is now Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

(Entries from Reuters)