Archaeologists discovered Valeriana - the latest Maya city found in Campeche, Mexico! Researchers mapped this huge settlement using LiDAR data (repurposed forest-monitoring scans). LiDAR & local knowledge are revealing major Maya centers hiding in plain sight. The city features pyramids, plazas, reservoirs, and more than 6,500 structures.
LiDAR Reveals Massive Maya City Valeriana in Campeche, Mexico
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📍 Valeriana🌍 Show on the globe
Key facts
- Valeriana is a newly identified Maya city in Campeche, Mexico
- Discovered using LiDAR technology (repurposed forest-monitoring scans)
- The city has pyramids, a ballcourt, reservoirs, and an estimated 6,000 buildings
- Valeriana rivals the great city of Calakmul in size
- Located north of the known city of Ban (Balam)
- Local people knew of its existence but it remained unmapped by archaeologists
- Archaeologist Thomas (likely Ivan Sprock) mapped the site
Sources
Lost Mayan City Hidden in the Mexican Jungle Revealed Using LiDARnews.artnet.com
Researchers at Tulane University discovered the lost Mayan city of Valeriana in an area previously believed uninhabited.
PhD student finds lost city in Mexico jungle by accident - BBCbbc.com
A huge Maya city has been discovered centuries after it disappeared under jungle canopy in Mexico. Archaeologists found pyramids, sports fields, causeways ...
How a PhD Student Discovered a Lost Mayan City From ... - WIREDwired.com
A new Mayan city, lost in the dense jungle of southern Mexico for centuries, has been discovered from the computer of a PhD student hundreds of miles away.
Running out of empty space: environmental lidar and the crowded ...cambridge.org
Here, the authors present their analysis of an environmental lidar dataset from Campeche, Mexico, which reveals previously unrecorded urbanism ...
'Found' Dataset Reveals Lost Maya City Full of Pyramids and Plazas ...smithsonianmag.com
By analyzing an old lidar survey, researchers found evidence of more than 6,500 ancient structures in a previously unexplored area of Campeche.
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