Going all the way to the second page of Google search results is pretty rare, but going all the way to page 16 and then selecting an entry that leads to the discovery of a massive Mayan city lost for centuries beneath the jungle canopy …well, that’s really something.

“I was on something like page 16 of the Google search and found a laser survey done by a Mexican environmental monitoring organization,” said Luke Auld-Thomas, a doctoral student at the University of Tulane, Louisiana, in comments. reported by the BBC.

The survey was carried out using Lidar, remote sensing technology which uses laser pulses to measure distances and create precise 3D maps of surfaces. In this case, it was deployed from an aircraft to map objects on the ground.

Auld-Thomas decided to process the data using a system used by archaeologists and, to his amazement, he discovered the remains of a large ancient city that could have been populated by up to 50,000 people around 800 AD.

After handing over his findings to archaeologists, further investigation uncovered pyramids, sports fields, roadways connecting neighborhoods and amphitheatres, the BBC reported.

The city, now named Valeriana after a nearby lagoon, is in the southeastern state of Campeche, about 965 kilometers east of Mexico City.

Analysis of aerial images revealed that Valeriana covers an area of ​​approximately 6.4 square miles (16.6 square kilometers) and includes two major centers, with densely populated settlements and roadways connecting them together. Nearly 6,800 buildings have been identified in total. Two squares with pyramid temples intended for worship are also part of the landscape of the ancient city. The footage even reveals a playground where town residents are said to have played ball games.

It is unclear why the city did not survive, although it is suggested that drought conditions brought on by climate change may have forced residents to move to more fertile areas.

As the BBC report points out, Lidar technology has completely transformed the way archaeologists study places covered in vegetation, with early surveys being carried out on foot and taking much longer.

This is certainly an exciting time for archaeologists, although Auld-Thomas commented that “one of the downsides of discovering many new Mayan cities in the Lidar era is that there are more of them than we know can never hope to study.”

However, in this case, the Google search – and Auld-Thomas’ decision to look beyond the first page of results – also played a major role in Valeriana’s discovery.