Ancient Maya cities found in jungle

http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/three-ancient-maya-cities-found-in-jungle-140815.htm

by jdmitch • 12 years ago

83 19 12 years ago

news.discovery.com

smackfu• 12 years ago

That's got to suck finding an undiscovered Mayan city, and then it turns out to actually be a discovered-but-lost Mayan city.

Sure makes you appreciate GPS though.

jacobolus• 12 years ago

By the way, the “Maya” in the article’s original title is correct. There’s no reason to change it to the incorrect “Mayan”.

dang• 12 years ago

Thanks. We missed that one.

(If anyone is wondering, as I was, the convention is to use "Mayan" for the language and "Maya" for the people.)

ar-jan• 12 years ago

Yes - but note that there are about 30 Mayan languages, not just one.

jdmitch• 12 years ago

Sorry - that was my fault putting in the "n" in the posting - here is a particularly elucidating article on the linguistic/ethnic/geographical differences of the use of the word Maya/Mayan: http://www.osea-cite.org/program/maya_or_mayans.php

slivvy• 12 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb4n8Cl3leg

brianbreslin• 12 years ago

I grew up reading stories of lost cities of gold and all that, so when satellite maps became more common in the 2000s I thought for sure we would find tons of lost cities. Unfortunately you can't get much off of even infrared scans of these areas as the buildings are rock and wouldn't have heat signatures any different from their surroundings.

One day I bet we will see more emerge from faster scanning tech.

vpb• 12 years ago

Back when I was remote sensing, I remember some talk of people using SAR images (Synthetic Aperture Radar??) to search for Maya roads. I imagine something was found since then but I didn't kept up with the literature on the subject.

nathancahill• 12 years ago

The title and article are a little sensationalized. I grew up in Guatemala, and the entire Yucatan peninsula, along with Guatemala, Belize and Honduras, are covered in "undiscovered" cities. I'd regularly dig up pottery and carved stones in fields and garden beds.

The Calakmul area is especially dense in ruins. Most xateros (rubber tappers) know them all and can guide you to them for a couple bucks. Very few of them are surveyed or even mentioned in literature.

hemancuso• 12 years ago

This hit front page on reddit today, much more interesting comments. Mostly noting that there are lots and lots of "undiscovered" cities because it's extremely expensive to unearth and preserve them. The yucatan largely is flat, not unlike Florida. Most hills in the jungle are sites. "Undiscovered" sites.

http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/2e2il8/maya_citie...

nevster• 12 years ago

When I saw the title, the first thing to come in to my mind was: Dun da duh daaaa, dun da daaaaaaa....

funkyy• 12 years ago

This bring memories:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq5Y_ogiyi0

josephyu0305• 12 years ago

This is great and very historical, I am very interesting with this article. I love historic place.

edwardballard• 12 years ago

True, exactly this article are very interesting.

howardlet03• 12 years ago

Exactly joseph, for me this the most interesting one from this article, a monster mouth doorway, ruined pyramid temples

josealicarte• 12 years ago

If you check this one, kinda interesting to read which is one of the cities featured an extraordinary facade with an entrance representing the open jaws of an earth monster.

Ancient Maya cities found in jungle

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