A 15-year-old boy believes he has discovered a forgotten Mayan city using satellite photos and Mayan astronomy.
William Gadoury of Quebec came up with the theory that the Mayan civilization chose the location of its towns and cities according to its star constellations.
He found that Mayan cities lined up exactly with stars in the civilization’s major constellations.
Studying the star map further, he discovered that one city was missing from a constellation of three stars.
Using satellite images provided by the Canadian Space Agency and then mapped onto Google Earth, he discovered the city where the third star of the constellation suggested it would be.
Gadoury has named the yet-to-be explored city in the Yucatan jungle K’aak Chi, or Mouth of Fire.
Daniel De Lisle, from the Canadian Space Agency, said the area had been difficult to study because of its dense vegetation.
But satellite scans of the area found linear features that “stuck out.”
“There are linear features that would suggest there is something underneath that big canopy,” he told The Independent.
“There are enough items to suggest it could be a man-made structure.”
Dr. Armand LaRocque of the University of New Brunswick said one image showed a street network and a large square that could be a pyramid.
He told The Independent: “A square is not natural — it is mostly artificial and can hardly be attributed to natural phenomena.
“If we add these together, we have a lot of indication there might be a Mayan city in the area.”
LaRocque said Gadoury’s discovery could lead archaeologists to find other Mayan cities using similar techniques.
Gadoury’s discovery will be published in a scientific journal, and he will present his findings at Brazil’s International Science fair in 2017. The Independent
