SF News – A light detection technology that uses laser light sent downward from a slow moving plane to capture pictures of the rainforest under vegetation, revealed images of a possible lost city deep inside the Honduran rainforests. The images of the city show canals, roads, building foundations and agricultural land in the surrounding.
The ruins are thought to be of the la Ciudad Blanca or “The White City” which is a legendary city believed to have been hidden in the Mosquitias rainforests for centuries. The legend says la Ciudad Blanca was a metropolis full of gold.
In the early 15 century Spanish conquistadors searched for the city in the rainforests and in the 19 century archeologists found many sings showing existence of the ancient civilization but the city itself was never found.
It is not yet known that what the images show are from la Ciudad Blanca but they undoubtedly show the ruins of some civilization. Teams of archeologists are planning to go to the location to examine the ruins first hand.
For many centuries, the archeologists though that rainforests in the Central and South America were too harsh to allow for communities to take shape. But during the past decade many researchers have found indications showing that these forests have had inhabitants.
The original laser light mapping of the rainforest was done by the Archeologist and filmmaker Steven Elkins and his colleague Bill Benenson last year. But it took many months of research before the results were presented last week in Cancun, Mexico organized by the American Geophysical Union.
“We can’t show the overall place because we’d like to protect the site” from treasure hunters and looters, Elkins explained in the AGU’s news release. The team plans to examine the site later this year and produce a documentary about the la Ciudad Blanca.
