PhD student finds lost city in Mexico jungle

&gt; “I was on something like page 16 of Google search and found a laser survey done by a Mexican organisation for environmental monitoring,” explains Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane university in the US.<p>Oh, I thought he’s just gotten lost deep in the jungle (presumably looking for the free pizza that was left over from the undergrads’ seminar). But wow, 16’th page of Google, that really is uncharted territory.

The actual journal article is here (open access): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cambridge.org&#x2F;core&#x2F;journals&#x2F;antiquity&#x2F;article&#x2F;running-out-of-empty-space-environmental-lidar-and-the-crowded-ancient-landscape-of-campeche-mexico&#x2F;FFDB435047017853F26CFC5D8804B08D" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cambridge.org&#x2F;core&#x2F;journals&#x2F;antiquity&#x2F;article&#x2F;ru...</a><p>Based on the images, I think that the largest structure is about here: 18.891548°N, -89.323622°E. But you can&#x27;t see anything in google earth (otherwise why would he have had to traverse 16 pages of google search results).

Throw a stone and you&#x27;ll find a lost city in Mexico. Lost cities found so far: Acanceh, Aguada Fénix, Aké, Balamku, Balankanche, Becan, Bonampak, Calakmul, Chacchoben, Chactún, Chicanná, Chinkultic, Chichen Itza, Chunchucmil, Chunhuhub, Chunlimón, Coba, Comalcalco, Dzibanche, Dzibilchaltun, Edzna, Ekʼ Balam, Hormiguero, Izama, lIzapa, Jaina, Joljaʼ, Kabah, Kiuic, Kohunlich, Komchen, Labna, La Mar, Mayapan, Maní, Moral Reforma, Muyil, Ocomtún, Oxkintok, Palenque, Plan de Ayutla, Pomona, Punta Sur, Río Bec, San Gervasio, Sayil, Tamchen, Toniná, Tortuguero, Tulum, Uxmal, Uxul, Valeriana, Xcaret, Xelha, Xlapak, Xpuhil, Xtampak, Yaxchilan, Yaxuná, Yula, Yoʼokop.

This link: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.redd.it&#x2F;gm8273jvjrk71.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.redd.it&#x2F;gm8273jvjrk71.jpg</a> is an map (outdated though, it dates to 2019 AFAIK) of how much of the Earth&#x27;s surface has been mapped by google street view.<p>Is there a similar map product that shows how much of the Earth&#x27;s surface has yet to be surveyed with lidar (or a suitable equivalent)? I would assume that areas with zero vegetation can be covered by satellite imagery but it is possible that the resolution is poor (for example, SRTM had a 30m resolution).

Please don&#x27;t tell Graham Hancock[0]. He&#x27;ll claim this as more proof for his ancient ice age civilisation (for which there is no evidence).<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Graham_Hancock" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Graham_Hancock</a>

Lidar has been finding a lot of lost cities.<p>Not discounting this finding. It&#x27;s just becoming more common.

<i>&quot;It is just 15 minutes hike from a major road near Xpujil where mostly Maya people now live.&quot;</i><p>And nobody sent a drone yet? The BBC has a jungle drone team.[1]<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.co.uk&#x2F;programmes&#x2F;articles&#x2F;3P6MX7bbl0Y5SSnvJWPM4PP&#x2F;drones-in-the-jungle" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.co.uk&#x2F;programmes&#x2F;articles&#x2F;3P6MX7bbl0Y5SSnvJW...</a>

for a $500 plane ticket and a 4 hour drive, seems like someone has surely gone there by now, just to ground-truth this. Otherwise, seems like a fun (with plenty of risks, obvs) way of being &quot;the first&quot; to lay eyes on this.

I love the idea that there might have been fully technological civilizations of humans on earth that have been totally lost to time. I know that the Maya were not that, but go back 10,000 years maybe, who knows?

I wonder if tomb raiders and other artifact thieves are using the same methods and arriving faster.

“I was on something like page 16 of Google search &quot;<p>whoa, I had no idea there were that many pages in a google search. that&#x27;s some serious googlefu to get that kind of a result. I guess it definitely says something about the researcher too to continue on that deep.<p>I&#x27;m expecting that comment to have been hyperbolic though

Imagine putting that on a resume for a postdoc<p>- discovered lost Mayan city

<i>Sighs and resets the &#x27;Days since we discovered a lost city using LiDAR&#x27; counter back to zero.</i>

How is this by accident? He was specifically looking for datasets for this purpose and found a good one, then loaded it into a program to find man-made structures.

How many cities are lost every year? Can finding those cities help alleviate the housing crisis? Won&#x27;t the inhabitants of those cities complain about disrupted postal service? I have so many questions!

Once again, the sensationalized &quot;discovery&quot; of a &quot;lost&quot; by people that fly over with lidar and never talk to the locals.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.smithsonianmag.com&#x2F;smart-news&#x2F;did-recent-expedition-really-discover-lost-city-honduras-180954559&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.smithsonianmag.com&#x2F;smart-news&#x2F;did-recent-expedit...</a>