600-year-old lost city found in Mexico jungle frozen in time

An archaeologist has found a lost city dating back to the 15th century in the jungles of Mexico. For a long time, it was considered just a garrison for soldiers.

However, using laser scanning technology, Pedro Guillermo Ramón Celis of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, discovered the true extent of the forested city of Guiengola while flying over the site in an airplane. It was built by the Zapotec indigenous people and is located in the south of Oaxaca, about 27 kilometers from the Pacific coast, Newsweek reports.

According to the scientist's research, the fortified city covers a whopping 360 hectares and contained more than 1,100 structures, including temples, ball courts, and various areas for commoners and the elite, as well as 4 kilometers of walls.

"Because the city is only between 500 and 600 years old, it is amazingly well preserved. You can walk there in the jungle, and you find that houses are still standing—you can see the doors, the hallways, the fences that split them from other houses," the archaeologist said, adding that his evidence suggests that the fortified city was abandoned shortly before the Spaniards arrived in Mexico, and its inhabitants moved to nearby Tehuantepec, a small town where their descendants still live.

In his opinion, the Zapotecs did not return to the city because they were able to defend this region of southern Mesoamerica, managing to both gain almost complete control over the Pacific Ocean and resist the aggressive late postclassical expansion of Mexico (the Aztec Empire).

"While living in a mountainous area had its advantages, access to running water and more fertile land were likely more important for a large population, and the site of Tehuantepec had this advantage over Guiengola," Celis added.

Nowadays, the city looks like it was frozen in time, before any profound cultural changes brought about by the arrival of the Spanish.

The expert also said that the city was hidden under the canopy of trees and thus couldn't have been spotted. But in fact, it can be reached by a hiking trail.

"Until very recently, there would have been no way for anyone to discover the full extent of the site without spending years on the ground walking and searching. We were able to do it within two hours by using remote sensing equipment and scanning from a plane," the scientist said.

Based on his scans, Ramón mapped the remaining structures in the city and, based on the artifacts found in certain places, concluded how they were used by the inhabitants.

This is just the beginning of the analysis, and the archaeologist hopes that future research of Guiengola will provide a fresh insight into the social and political organization of the locals and shed light on their relationship with the Spaniards.

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