Have archaeologists discovered the 'Lost City of the Monkey God?'
Have archaeologists discovered the 'Lost City of the Monkey God?'
The team was led to the remote, uninhabited region by long-standing rumors that it was the site of a storied White City, also referred to in legend as the City of the Monkey God,'" according to National Geographic, which first reported the story on Monday and furnished these amazing photos.
In contrast to the nearby Maya, this vanished culture has been scarcely studied and it remains virtually unknown. Archaeologists don't even have a name for it.
One of the leaders of the expedition, Bill Benenson, saysits quite amazing to be able to say [the words]finding a lost city. Its not something that rolls off your lips, or you often get a chance to say.
The site was first spotted from the air in 2012 during a survey that used Lidar a kind oflaser-based radarto spot man-made anomalies beneath the jungle canopy.
"Using the Lidar as a map, we went in, and went up to various buildings," Benenson says. "At the base of an earthen pyramid [we] found a cache, or a kind of intact ceremonial site, with over 50 pieces of art or artifacts left on the ground somehow for the last 400 to600 years.
The survey also revealedthis was not just a single town or temple complex: Theentire valley was once densely populated by people.The explorers are calling it a lost civilization.
Honduras is full of ancient legends relating to lost cities in the Mosquitia region, the area where the ruined city was discovered. The two major onesare the White City [or Ciudad Blanca,]and the City of the Monkey God," Benenson says. The former would have been made of blinding marble or limestone, while the latter would have featured a Monkey God statue atop a temple.
The only way in and out of the site was by helicopter. Benenson says the expedition hired three ex-British special forces soldiers to rappelinto the brush andhack out a space for the helicopter to land. There was absolutely no other way to get in or out,Benenson says. The ocean was probably 50 miles away through one of the densest jungles any of our people had ever encountered, filled with way too many snakes of a highly deadly nature.
The region today is uninhabited, among the most pristine ecosystems on the planet. It appears that there have been no human beings out there for 400 to800 years, because the animals that we encountered or rather, who encountered us, like the monkeys ...just wandered into our camp," Benenson says. "The hummingbirds flew around the heads of our first group there, and the monkeys came down and kind of looked at us, and were throwing things at us. They had not seen or encountered human beings before.
The sites precise location is not being disclosed to protect it from looters, but that's not the only threat to the site.Loggers and ranchers are encroaching on the Mosquitia region, and the Honduran government hopes to get international assistance to halt the process of deforestation.
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Amazing discovery. A whole civilization that we know nothing about.
I keep telling Matthew that he doesn't have to go to China to find neat archaeology, he can stay right here... There is so little that we known about this-- it would be fabulous to discover more!
It's an amazing discovery Dowser.
A culture/people that we know nothing about. We don't even have a name for these people.
Matthew could stay at this site for the next 20 years.
He certainly could-- and add valuable information to what we know, which is nothing...
There is so much yet, to excavate and discover. How wonderful it would be to be a part of it!
It should be declared a World Heritage site or given some archeologically protected designation.
Very interesting, Kavika.
I agree pat, this site needs protection as does the surrounding jungle.
And there so many more sites yet to be discovered using lipor - absolutely thrilling.
What I found really intriguing was that it isn't just a single temple, but that the whole valley was populated. This has to be a really exciting discovery.
The old Indian myths all seem to be based in fact, as we found out once again, with this discovery.
I hope that more is published on this ''find''.
I'm wondering if that flat space, the one with the meandering stream in the middle, (top picture), is natural for a mountainous spot like that... That little stream couldn't have carved that out. I hope that they do some test drilling to see if it has been flattened by man, or is natural.
I wonder if it was a "playing field" kind of thing...
I think the old myths were founded on fact... I mean, why wouldn't they be? Let's face it, Arthur is considered to be a mythical character, but now, the archaeologists think he was a real person. Maybe he didn't do all the things that myth says he did-- but there was a king who fought 7 battles against the Saxon hordes.
Don't you think that handed down stories are true? I mean, when I think about Grandpa's stories about Henrietta, the Hickory worm moth, it was all true, told in story form. Of course, it was easy to be true-- with Grandpa, it was only 2 generations. But still-- it feels like our collective conscious would hear this stuff and know it's real.
As your aware of Dowser, most of your history is oral. This was not considered relevant by the Europeans. What they are finding out today, is that our oral history is very accurate as compared to written history.
A friend of mine is doing some work/study right now on this. There are a couple of universities that are working with him in the oral history and how it can be used to really give insight into the ancient past.
Like you Feronia, I would love to see it in person.
The ability to ''see from above'' is opening up a whole new world for us. Recently this drone capability was able to uncover two town in the SW that were 1,000 years old, and those are leading to even more discoveries that are really changing the ''history'' of what was thought to be gospel.
I just love this stuff.
I was wondering the same thing Dowser, Feronia. It will be interesting what they learn as this project moves forward.
By all means, this area must be protected for the future.
''But to find a lost civilzation''. That is just so damn cool flame.
How many more like this are there? Just whenwe claim everything has been discovered, something like this pops up.
This is great, K.! Love this real life Indiana Jones discoveries. More to come about this I am sure. Would love to be there to 'explore', but am not ashamed to say, I hate snakes, and would be shaking in my boots constantly.
LOL, Indiana Jones wasn't afraid of snakes dd...
I was looking around to see if I could find any video. NatGeo probably has some, if I find it I'll post it.
Pretty cool, for sure Wayfarer.
Yes, it must!
I'm hoping they can halt the logging-- until then, the underbrush seems to be taking care of the casual visitors.
There is so much we don't know! I am amazed that we think we have all the answers, when we're just now beginning to understand some of the questions...
What? They found my city? Rats. I'm going to have to move back to Quintana Roo.
Extremely cool.
''You can run, but you can't hide'', Grump.
It really is extremely cool. I'm hoping for more information as the process moves forward.
Back to Costa Rica BF?
There is an amazing amount of history there, much of it still to be discovered. But there is here as well, and it's waiting to be discovered as well.