Plan B Forum

A Canadian schoolboy appears to have discovered a lost Mayan city hidden deep in the jungles of Mexico using a new method of matching stars to the location of temples on earth.

William Gadoury, 15, was fascinated by the ancient Central American civilization and spent hours poring over diagrams of constellations and maps of known Mayan cities.

And then he made a startling realisation: the two appeared to be linked.

“I was really surprised and excited when I realised that the most brilliant stars of the constellations matched the largest Maya cities,” he told the Journal de Montréal.

In hundreds of years of scholarship, no other scientist had ever found such a correlation.

Studying 22 different constellations, William found that they matched the location of 117 Mayan cities scattered throughout Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
"I was really surprised and excited when I realised that the most brilliant stars of the constellations matched the largest Maya cities"William Gadoury

When he applied his theory to a 23rd constellation, he found that two of the stars already had cities linked to them but that the third star was unmatched.

William took to Google Maps and projected that there must be another city hidden deep in the thick jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

The Canadian Space Agency agreed to train its satellite telescopes on the spot and returned with striking pictures: what appears to be an ancient Mayan pyramid and dozens of smaller structures around it.

If the satellite photographs are verified, the city would be among the largest Mayan population centers ever discovered.

A Canadian teen's claimed discovery of a lost, ancient Mayan city in the middle of a Mexican jungle could actually be nothing more than a pot field, say scientists.

William Gadoury, 15, of Montreal, shot to fame this week with reports he had stumbled on what he believed to be a lost city. His theory was that the Mayans might have built their cities so they lined up with major constellations.

But the work - despite having the helping hand of the Canadian Space Agency - has not yet been peer-reviewed, and scientists who have taken a look so far have not been sold.

Although nobody has visited the remote site since the teen's find, a satellite image making the rounds online, which claims to show a possible pyramid base, is likely nothing more than a fallow corn field, say many scientists.

One such expert, Geoffrey Braswell, from the University of San Diego, believes Gadoury may have found a marijuana field. He should know: he's visited the area in the past.

"The fields may be fallow or may be active marijuana fields, which are common in the area. There is no important archaeological site there," he wrote to the Washington Post in an e-mail.

But he encouraged Gadoury to keep trying, and he hopes to see the young man apply to USC-San Diego.

One such expert, Geoffrey Braswell, from the University of San Diego, believes Gadoury may have found a marijuana field. He should know: he's visited the area in the past.

Although nobody has visited the remote site since the teen's find,

despite having the helping hand of the Canadian Space Agency