Ancient Mayan city discovered via Google, page 16

Go even to the second page of results Google search It’s quite strange, but going to page 16 and then selecting the entry leading to the discovery of a huge Mayan city that had been lost under the jungle canopy for centuries… Well, that’s really something.

“I was on page 16 of a Google search and found a laser study done by a Mexican environmental monitoring organization,” Luke Old-Thomas, a graduate student at Tulane University in Louisiana, told the BBC.

The research was carried out using lidar, a remote sensing technology that uses laser pulses to measure distances and create precise 3D maps of surfaces. In this case, it was launched from an aircraft to map objects on the ground.

Old Thomas decided to process the data using the system used by archaeologists and, to his great surprise, discovered the remains of a large ancient city in which around 800 AD. could accommodate up to 50,000 people.

After the findings were handed over to archaeologists, further research revealed pyramids, sports fields, dams connecting areas and amphitheatres, reports the BBC.

The town, now named Valeriana after a nearby lagoon, is located in the southeastern state of Campeche, about 965 kilometers (600 miles) east of Mexico City.

Analysis of aerial photographs showed that Valeriana covers an area of ​​about 6.4 square miles (16.6 square kilometers) and has two main centers with densely populated residential buildings and roads connecting them. In total there are about 6800 buildings. Two squares with temple pyramids for worship are also part of the landscape of the ancient city. The images even show a court where city residents played ball.

It is unclear why the city did not survive, although it is believed that drought caused by climate change may have forced residents to move to more fertile areas.

As noted in the BBC report, lidar technology completely changed the approach of archaeologists to inspecting overgrown sites: previous studies carried out on foot required much more time.

These are certainly exciting times for archaeologists, although Old-Thomas noted that “one of the downsides of discovering many new Maya cities in the lidar era is that there are more of them than we can hope to study.”

Although in this case, the Google search and Old Thomas’ decision to look beyond the first page of results also played a major role in the discovery of Valerian.