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In this video, you will learn how a Canadian teenager named William Gadoury used star maps and satellite images to locate a hidden ancient city in the Mexican jungle. You will also discover the fascinating history and culture of the Maya civilization and their connection to the stars. Besides that, you'll see stories about the other 6 lost cities. #brightside #brightsideglobal TIMESTAMPS: 0:22 The birth of the idea 2:00 A big discovery 5:23 Attempts to debunking the idea 08:51 A man finds a city renovating his house This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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00:00So, imagine you're 15 and you get bored of playing video games.
00:04Instead, to pass the time, you decide to give some attention to an old hobby of yours,
00:10tracking down lost Mayan cities.
00:12You've heard that some ancient civilizations are said to have built entire cities based on constellations.
00:18So, you decide to check out whether that was true for the Mayans.
00:22You find a book containing all the constellations the Mayan civilization believed to exist.
00:27You open good old Google Maps and map every ancient Mayan city discovered to date.
00:33You start seeing that this information actually matches.
00:37And truly, the biggest ancient Mayan cities correspond to the brightest and biggest stars of the Mayan constellations.
00:45Okay, this is getting interesting.
00:47You manage to map out over 100 ancient cities when you suddenly notice something strange.
00:53There's an area in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico where archaeologists have unearthed two Mayan cities.
01:00But on the constellation map, there are three stars.
01:04Could this mean there is a long-lost city waiting to be discovered nearby?
01:09You might think this sounds too daydreaming.
01:12But the story is actually true.
01:14The previous account happened to a Canadian teenager named William Gaddery.
01:19The boy is known as a science genius and had even won an award for the constellation theory we presented
01:25just now.
01:26When he noticed that a third city was missing from the 23rd constellation he was examining,
01:31he began to scour the internet for satellite pictures that could help him solve this mystery.
01:36He looked into images from NASA, JAXA, a Japan-based satellite company, and Google Earth.
01:43These images were still insufficient to answer his questions.
01:47So he reached out to a friend inside the Canadian Space Agency.
01:51His friend provided him with state-of-the-art satellite imagery that gave him the answer he was looking for.
01:58According to the images, there is a large square area right on the border of Mexico and Belize,
02:04which looks like the remains of a city.
02:06William took the images to a remote sensing expert known as Dr. Armin LaRocque from the University of New Brunswick.
02:14They studied the images thoroughly and concluded that the area could be housing 30 buildings and even a large pyramid.
02:21The scientific and archaeological community went crazy with the 15-year-old's discovery.
02:27Could this really be true?
02:29Some background.
02:31Lost Mayan cities began to be unearthed in the mid-20th century.
02:35Since then, ruins from cities such as Ticol, Palanique, and Uxmal have been rediscovered.
02:41The Mayans were one of the biggest pre-Columbian civilizations living in the Americas.
02:46They began to settle in the area as early as 1500 BCE.
02:51Experts believe that, at its height, the Mayan civilization consisted of over 40 cities with a population of millions of
02:59people.
02:59That's a crowd.
03:01And their cities were pretty interesting.
03:03Their civilization spanned over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, and Belize.
03:09They survived mainly on agriculture.
03:11So they developed a complex irrigation system in most of their cities.
03:16They built a series of ceremonial buildings, pyramids, plazas, and even courts for ballgames.
03:21The Mayans were keen pyramid builders, but they also developed an advanced astronomical system.
03:28With whatever ancient technology they had, they were able to predict the exact location of planets, such as Venus and
03:35Mars,
03:36and they were able to predict the exact dates of eclipses.
03:39That's why the methodology William used to discover this long-lost Mayan city was unusual, but not completely surreal.
03:48The Mayans were keen astronomers, so it wouldn't be too strange that they built their major architectural feats in relation
03:55to the sky, would it?
03:57And they wouldn't be the first ones to be doing so.
04:00There is a famous fringe of Egyptology dedicated to studying how the Giza pyramids were built in perfect alignment with
04:08the Orion constellation.
04:09Meaning that each pyramid was purposely built to align with one of the major stars of Orion's belt.
04:16According to William, he first had the idea to look at the Mayan constellations
04:21because he couldn't understand why the Mayans built their cities where they built them.
04:26Most major cities, such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal, aren't near any rivers or significant bodies of water.
04:33Instead, they're built on marginal lands and on top of mountains, which confused the 15-year-old.
04:38His next thought was that it might have something to do with astronomy.
04:43William named the new city he discovered Mouth of Fire, which is also my nickname, and he even won a
04:49merit award for his hard work.
04:51However, his theory was very much contested inside the archaeological community, and many Mayan experts worked to debunk William's findings.
05:00Some archaeologists say that constellation theories are too unscientific.
05:05Anthony Aveni, a renowned anthropologist and astronomer, referred to William's methodology as an act of creative imagination.
05:14He explained that there is no way to be sure what the Mayan constellations really were.
05:19It's all just hypothetical.
05:21Another debunking of William's findings came from Mayanist David Stewart, who said that the object identified on the satellite imagery
05:30is nothing but an old cornfield.
05:32His claim was supported by an expedition that took place near the area in 2021,
05:37when the archaeologists present reported there was nothing at all in this area.
05:42Still, a 15-year-old boy almost found a long-lost Mayan city, which is pretty exciting if you ask
05:49me.
05:50Similar techniques, as those used by William, are actually being used to unearth lost civilizations all over the world.
05:57According to space archaeologist Sarah Parquet, satellite imagery has been a key player in discovering ancient cities in Egypt and
06:05other places.
06:06Sarah herself spends most of her days scouring images for any sign of where there could have been cities long
06:12ago.
06:13What happens, she says, is that any time you have something buried, it's going to be covered either by vegetation,
06:20soil or sand, or some other modern construction on top of it.
06:24In order to assess whether there is something hidden under large canopies of vegetation or not, she uses infrared technology,
06:32for instance.
06:33A major recent discovery in Brazil was done in a similar way.
06:38Satellite imagery detected a network of trenches dating back to 200 to 1200 CE.
06:44These suggest settlements that could have supported around 60,000 people.
06:49But in this case, the satellite imagery did indeed correspond to what was on the ground.
06:55Researchers from the University of Florida found several mountains that were accompanied by ditches and geoglyphs.
07:01Archaeologists also found remnants of carefully designed walls centered around closets, much like the type of construction done by the
07:10ancient Mayans.
07:11Advances in satellite tech have also shed new light on long-discovered ancient Mayan cities, such as Tikal.
07:19Located in the heart of the Guatemalan jungle, Tikal is believed to have been the capital of the ancient Mayan
07:25empire.
07:25At its height, it was comparable in importance to cities such as London or New York in today's world.
07:32It was composed of a series of complex monuments, many of them believed to have been the resting places of
07:38kings and chiefs.
07:40Tikal is already known to have been big, but recent discoveries show it could have been even three times larger
07:47than what scientists originally believed.
07:49The main discovery revolves around a fortification on the outskirts of the city, indicating how far the original city stretched.
07:57And new discoveries still take place.
08:00In 2017, researchers also unearthed new clues regarding the potential causes of the decline of the Mayan civilization.
08:08Using data from a site in Siewold, located 62 miles southwest of Tikal, scientists analyzed radiocarbon data from ceramics and
08:18archaeological excavations to extract new information about the sudden demise of this great civilization.
08:24The information shows that, instead of a sudden collapse, the Mayans most likely collapsed in waves of social instability and
08:32political crises.
08:33These events are believed to have deteriorated Mayan city centers and began causing the dispersion of the Mayan population.
08:42Well, it seems like it's a prime time to uncover ancient ruins.
08:46What do you say? Will you give it a try as well?
08:50Imagine discovering an ancient city without leaving the comfort of your home.
08:55In 1963, a man in the Nevzahir province of Turkey did exactly that.
09:01He was renovating his house.
09:03He knocked down a wall in his basement and found a mysterious room.
09:07He continued digging and saw a tunnel.
09:11This is how Derinkuyu Underground City was found.
09:16Derinkuyu is one of the deepest multi-level underground settlements of Cappadocia and in all of Turkey.
09:22This engineering masterpiece has eight levels.
09:25The inhabitants living on those floors had access to cellars, storage areas, chapels, a school, a study room, and other
09:33structures.
09:35All floors are connected by an extensive network of tunnels.
09:38It's believed that the underground city was built as a shelter.
09:43You can't see the construction from the outside.
09:45Its depth is approximately 279 feet.
09:49The complex was large enough to shelter about 20,000 people, plus their livestock and food supplies.
09:55There's also a 180-foot ventilation shaft.
09:59People used it both for ventilation and as a well.
10:02The well supplied water both to the villagers living on the surface and to those hiding in the underground city.
10:10Interestingly, those living on the bottom levels were able to cut off the water supply for the upper and ground
10:16levels.
10:16This kept the water safe from potential poisoning.
10:21The place was designed for protection.
10:23The tunnels could be blocked from the inside with huge round rolling stone doors.
10:28The passageways were extremely narrow.
10:31Potential invaders had to enter the tunnels one at a time.
10:34Seems like they thought of everything in the 7th century BCE.
10:39Archaeologists believed the Phrygians were the ones who first built the levels.
10:43After them, the structure was used and enhanced in Roman times.
10:48This was when the chapels were added.
10:50The golden time of Derinkuyu, however, was during the Byzantine era.
10:56But how did these people manage to create such tunnels?
10:59Well, the rock they carved them into wasn't usual.
11:03It was soft volcanic rock.
11:05It appeared due to a geological process that began millions of years ago.
11:10Volcanic eruptions covered the area in thick ash.
11:13It then solidified into this soft rock.
11:15When the natural forces of wind and water eroded softer parts, only hard elements remained.
11:23Fun fact!
11:24Fairy chimneys are also made of intricately shaped volcanic soft rock.
11:29But they formed naturally without any human intervention.
11:34I'm still in Turkey, but this time, my destination is Kanekale, where a myth came to life.
11:41For 3,000 years, people believed that Homer's Iliad was fiction and that Troy never existed.
11:47In 1863, everything changed.
11:52Expatriate Frank Calvert discovered ancient ruins in western Turkey.
11:56He was convinced they belonged to the ancient city of Troy.
12:00Heinrich Schliemann examined this area in 1868.
12:04That's when Troy saw sunlight again after all those centuries.
12:08Troy has complex layers.
12:10Over the years, nine ancient cities were built on top of one another.
12:16Historians say that the area was strategically located between Europe and Asia, so it became
12:21a prosperous trade and cultural center.
12:24This strategic position made Troy attractive throughout history.
12:29After the Trojan conflict, the city was abandoned between the years 1100 to 700 BCE.
12:36Then, Greek settlers rediscovered the area, and Alexander the Great ruled there.
12:41The Romans then invaded the city.
12:43Speaking of this event, the first thing you would see when visiting the site is a replica
12:48of the wooden Trojan horse from a movie shot in 2004.
12:53The next stop is Lothal.
12:56In the 1950s, Lothal and several other Harappan sites were discovered in India.
13:01These new provinces extended the boundaries of the Indus Valley civilization.
13:07Lothal was an important part of the Harappan civilization.
13:11It had vast cotton and rice fields.
13:13Plus, it had a bead-making factory.
13:17Beads were made from semi-precious stones, like agate.
13:20Many of these beads were later found in Mesopotamia, which serves as evidence that Lothal was a
13:26thriving trading port.
13:29Archaeologists believe that the city was part of an ancient trade route.
13:33Traces of agriculture?
13:34Check.
13:35Traces of trade?
13:36Check.
13:37What else?
13:37The remains of residential buildings, streets, bathing pavements, and drains.
13:43Some real city planning.
13:44And impressive examples of early urbanization.
13:49The town was well constructed.
13:51There were modern houses.
13:53Some of them had six rooms, bathrooms, a large courtyard, and even a veranda.
13:58Lothal also had the world's oldest known dock.
14:01It linked the city with the Sabarmati River and the trade route.
14:07The ancient Mayan city of Calakmul is located in southern Mexico in the tropical forest of
14:13the Tierra's Bajas.
14:14From 500 CE to 800 CE, Calakmul was home to over 50,000 people.
14:20There was a central plaza surrounded by outer districts.
14:24And if we count both the inhabitants of all those outer areas and those who lived in the
14:28center, Calakmul had a population of more than 1.5 million people.
14:35It was a city that was habitable for 12 centuries.
14:38It's believed that the place had more constructions than any other excavated Maya settlements in
14:44the region.
14:44After 1,000 CE, the Maya civilization there faced a downfall.
14:49The settlement that was once the center of Mesoamerica was almost completely abandoned.
14:55The ancient city was at the heart of the second-largest tropical forest in America.
15:00The site is well-preserved, so today, if you were to visit it, you would be able to picture
15:06what life looked like in ancient Mayan times.
15:09The city remains include architectural complexes and sculpted monuments, defensive systems,
15:16quarries, water management features, agricultural terraces, massive temple pyramids, and palaces.
15:22Not to mention a variety of body ornaments and other accompanying objects.
15:26It proves that complex, state-organized societies lived in this tropical forest.
15:32The Mayans depicted nature in their paintings, pottery, sculptures, rituals, and even food.
15:41I'm moving on to a place people thought didn't really exist.
15:44The city of Thonis Heracleion appeared only in a few inscriptions and ancient texts.
15:51Turns out, it was waiting to be discovered for thousands of years.
15:54Scientists searched the majority of the coast of Egypt.
15:58But then, archaeologist Frank Gaudio and his team detected a colossal face looking at them from under the water.
16:05The ancient city of Heracleion was discovered completely submerged four miles off Alexandria's coast.
16:13In the ruins of the lost city, there were 64 shifts, 700 anchors, and a treasure trove of gold coins.
16:21Archaeologists consider a 16-foot-tall statue and the temple remains the most important findings discovered by the expedition.
16:29Back then, the city had ceremonies and celebrations that took place in the Temple of Amun.
16:36The ruins and artifacts were made from granite and diorite, so they were in good condition even after having been
16:43in contact with water for centuries.
16:45They give people a glimpse into what life was like 2300 years ago in one of the most important trade
16:51ports of the world.
16:53The city had a network of canals.
16:56You can think of it as an ancient Egyptian Venice.
16:59The canals linked many separate harbors and anchorages.
17:03Towers, temples, houses, and other structures were also linked by bridges.
17:08Thonis Heracleion was the country's main port for international trade and the collection of taxes.
17:15No one really knows how the city ended up submerged, but archaeologists connect it with natural causes.
17:22At the end of the 2nd century BCE, most probably after a flood, Heracleion got covered with water.
17:31Then, Alexandria, the city founded by Alexander the Great, became more glorious than Heracleion.
17:37Before Alexandria's fame, Heracleion was the main port of entry to Egypt.
17:42So, after the disaster, many ships heading for Heracleion had to change their route and go to Alexandria.
17:49Heracleion lost its glory until its rediscovery in 1933.
17:56Mesa Verde is an American national park in Colorado.
18:00The park is the largest archaeological preserve in the U.S., with more than 5,000 sites, including 600 cliff
18:07dwellings.
18:08Mesa Verde means green table in Spanish.
18:12The name comes from the shape of the mountains in the area, with flat tops and steep sides.
18:17The park is an ancestral Puebloan archaeological site.
18:22Starting from 7500 BCE, a group of nomadic Paleo-Indians seasonally lived in Mesa Verde.
18:29They were hunters, gatherers, and crop farmers built the first Pueblos in the region.
18:36By the end of the 12th century, the Mesa Verdeans began constructing massive cliff dwellings, which are now the best
18:43-known structures in the park.
18:44The Mesa Verdeans began constructing a new place of the Mesa Verde.
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