old Canadian kid has managed to accurately locate a previously unknown
ancient Mayan city, hidden deep in the Yucatan jungle of southeastern
Mexico, without having to leave his house. William Gadoury, a high-school
student from Quebec, has now named his discovery ‘K’aak Chi’, which
means ‘Mouth of Fire’.
It all started three years ago, when William read about the Mayan calendar
predicting the end of the world in 2012. That obviously didn’t happen, but
his interest in the subject didn’t wane and he soon realised that the
ancient Mayan people always built their cities far away from rivers, in
inhospitable mountain ranges. Wanting to find the reason behind this, he
looked up to the sky for answers, because he knew that the Mayans had
worshipped stars. And it wasn’t long before he recognised a pattern – all
their cities were built to line up with star constellations.
By analysing 23 Mayan star constellations, William figured out that when
connected, the 142 stars indeed corresponded to the locations of 177
Mayan cities. No one had pieced together such information before. But he
was stuck on the 23rd constellation because he could only find two cities
to match its three stars. That’s when he realised that there had to be a
Mayan city that had not yet been discovered. His research now had a new
mission – to find that lost city.
“I did not understand why the Maya built their cities away from rivers, on
marginal lands and in the mountains,” William said, speaking to Journal de
Montréal . “They had to have another reason, and as they worshipped the
stars, the idea came to me to verify my hypothesis. I was really surprised
and excited when I realised that the most brilliant stars of the
constellations matched the largest Mayan cities.”
Using satellite images from the Canadian Space Agency and Google Earth,
William began to search the dense Yucatan jungle for signs of ancient
Mayan buildings. And just as he predicted, the images revealed the
remnants of what could indeed be a forgotten Mayan city. In fact, the site
could be one of the five largest Mayan cities known to archaeologists so
far, with 30 buildings accompanying an impressive pyramid.
Archaeologists and space scientists across the world have displayed a lot
of interest in William’s findings. “The photographs revealed linear features
that ‘stuck out’,” said Daniel De Lisle, from the Canadian Space Agency.
“There are linear features that would suggest there is something
underneath that big canopy. What is fascinating about the project of
William, is the depth of his research. Linking the position of stars and the
location of a lost city and the use of satellite images on a tiny territory to
identify the remains buried under dense vegetation, is quite exceptional.”
Armand La Rocque, from the University of New Brunswick, said that one of
the images could be depicting a network of streets leading to a large
square, which might be a pyramid. “A square is not natural, it is mostly
artificial and can hardly be attributed to natural phenomena,” he said,
adding that William’s technique could help archaeologists to pinpoint the
locations of other lost Mayan cities.
All the speculation so far has taken place on the basis of satellite imagery;
no one has actually ventured into the jungle so far to confirm William’s
theory. For now, his findings will be presented at Brazil’s International
Science fair in 2017, and will also be published in a journal. Meanwhile, a
team of archeologists is now trying to find a way to raise the funds
needed to organise an excavation in the jungle.
William is, of course, very excited about the possibility of actually finding
the city in the spot predicted by him. “It would be the culmination of my
three years of work and the dream of my life,” he said. Remember, this kid
is only 15!
Culled from boredpanda
No comments:
Post a Comment