A huge ancient Mayan city called Valeriana has been discovered in the state of Campeche, in southeastern Mexico.
About this Oku.Az TGRT reports with reference to Haber.
Hidden deep in the forest for centuries, this mysterious city was discovered by Tulane University Archeology student Luke Auld-Thomas.
While researching on the Internet, he found interesting information about the region and as a result, this find appeared by chance.
Luke Auld-Thomas came across the results of laser research conducted by an environmental monitoring organization in Mexico. Reviewing this laser pulse study, Thomas saw the silhouette of a lost city in a wooded area. Thomas, who studied the data with his teammates using archaeological methods, managed to reveal traces of the ancient city that others had missed.
The city of Valeriana is considered the second largest Mayan city after Calakmul, the largest Mayan center in Latin America. It is estimated that the city’s population peaked in 750-850 AD and reached between 30 and 50 thousand people. It is also noted that this number is greater than the number of people living in the region.
Although the town of Valeriana, located about 100 kilometers from the Calakmul region, is only a 15-minute walk from the main road of the ancient Xpujil region, which was densely inhabited by Mayan descendants, the locals did not know it. Archaeologists studied a total of three different areas and identified 6,764 buildings of various sizes within the city limits.
Archaeologist Luke Auld-Thomas, who made history with his discovery, and Professor Marcello Canuto, co-author of the study, believe that this new discovery can change the thesis that tropical regions are “the place where civilizations die.”
“This part of the world is home to rich and complex cultures,” said Canuto, highlighting the importance of this discovery.
It is not entirely known what caused the city to be abandoned, but archaeologists believe that climate change may have been an effective factor in this matter.
