Lost Mayan city discovered by chance in Mexico jungle

The city was discovered by chance through Lidar, or Light Detection and Ranging.

Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered a huge Mayan city, which they have named Valeriana, Reuters has reported.

A man walks past a mural decorated with Mayan characters at Morazan Boulevard in Tegucigalpa on October 29, 2024. (AFP)

The city is hidden deep in the southern jungle of the Campeche region and is a sprawling urban settlement replete with architectural marvels and agricultural infrastructure.

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

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

A composite of Lidar images shows what archaeologists in Mexico say is a newly discovered lost Mayan city, which they named Valeriana, hidden deep in the southern jungle of Campeche, Mexico, in this undated handout released October 29.

"We argue that the Alianza data demonstrate a range of ancient settlement densities comparable to those documented by site-focused archaeological surveys in the region, from nearly vacant rural landscapes to dense urban areas," said the researchers in their study, which was published by Cambridge University Press.

"The discovery of Valeriana highlights the fact that there are still major gaps in our knowledge of the existence or absence of large sites within as-yet unmapped areas of the Maya Lowlands," it added.

The classical-era Maya civilization dates back to the period between 250 and 900 AD, when it extended its dominion over present-day southern Mexico and what are now Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

(Inputs from Reuters)