Discovering the pyramid growing in the middle of a 1,500-year-old city in the middle of the Amazon forest

According to Sci-Newa group of scientists led by professor Jose Iriate of the University of Exeter (UK) used LiDAR, a laser detection technique, to detect a great city in the middle of the Amazon forest, in the area of ​​Llanos de Llanos. Mojos – present day Bolivia.

It was a major metropolis of the Casarabe culture, which flourished in the area between AD 500 and 1400.

“We have long suspected that the most complex pre-Columbian societies developed in this part of the Bolivian Amazon, but direct evidence is hidden under the canopy and difficult to access directly.”, Sci-News quoted Professor Iriate.

The state-of-the-art remote sensing tool LiDAR has enabled them to identify a series of structures of unprecedented complexity, unlike any other previously discovered, including houses, temples, steps and buildings. especially the 222 m high conical pyramids standing tall in the middle of the city.

According to the above publication Nature, In the past, this contemporaneous low-density site has been reported to exist beneath the rainforests of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, and parts of Central America. However, there is no direct evidence for the Bolivian Amazon.

The new relic area appears in the middle of a desert forest, including public ceremonial architecture including monumental pedestals and steps, topped by U-shaped structures; rectangular mounds and pedestals; conical pyramids…

Large settlements surround the ceremonial site in a concentric polygon. The most remarkable point is that the entire municipality has a huge water management infrastructure, including large-scale canals and reservoirs, built on a well-drained and extremely favorable soil for agriculture. .

Remote sensing images have revealed a total of 189 large monuments (temples, public buildings), 273 smaller structures, 957 km of canals and dikes… indicating that this is not a ceremonial site. deserted but inhabited year-round by people, spread over an area of ​​4,500 square kilometers.

For a long time, civilizations in Central and South America have surprised archaeologists with their high level of construction and application infrastructure. technology which would have appeared centuries later. Among them, prominent are water distribution, filtration and collection systems, helping the people of these ancient cities to have a comfortable life and easily develop agriculture.