Ruins of Massive Mayan City with Pyramids Discovered in Mexican Jungle

LiDAR technology—utilizing precise laser pulses to map landscapes—recently led to the groundbreaking discovery of an enormous ancient Mayan city hidden beneath dense jungle in Campeche, Mexico.

This previously unknown site, named Valeriana, spans approximately 21 square kilometers and includes over 6,500 structures. Among the many buildings, archaeologists identified a prominent 15-meter-high pyramid, suggesting that Valeriana was once a major urban center before it was abandoned and overtaken by the jungle some 1,500 years ago.

This discovery underscores the potential of advanced technologies like LiDAR to reveal complex archaeological sites entirely camouflaged by dense vegetation, proving that substantial archaeological mysteries remain undiscovered.

“We’ve uncovered not only rural areas and small settlements but a large city with pyramids, incredibly situated right next to the only highway in this remote area. Local farmers have been cultivating the land here, unaware of the historic treasure beneath,” explains Luke Auld-Thomas from Tulane University.

Auld-Thomas’s team first took aerial LiDAR scans, capturing the landscape in minute detail, before analyzing the images in their laboratory.

“We started spotting rectangular structures almost immediately,” he notes.

“LiDAR allows us to scan extensive areas swiftly, providing high-resolution maps that reveal intricate details of forgotten structures. Our reaction was, ‘Wow, there’s an entire city here we knew nothing about—there must have been a significant population here.’ Both the government and the scientific community were unaware of its existence, which really emphasizes that we are far from having uncovered all there is to know,” he adds.

Just two years prior, a similar discovery was made in Guatemala’s rainforests, where LiDAR exposed another expansive Mayan city dating back approximately 2,000 years.

This city stretches across a staggering 1,000 square kilometers, revealing not only residential buildings but also intricate pyramids, water reservoirs, and canals for irrigation and water management.

The ongoing use of LiDAR in archaeology is transforming our understanding of ancient civilizations, allowing scientists to unearth monumental discoveries that were once thought lost to history.