Laser Mapping Uncovers a 2,500-Year-Old Lost Amazonian Cities--Older Than the Roman Empire!

Buried beneath the dense Amazon rainforest, an ancient secret has just been uncovered. Using laser mapping, researchers have revealed something far older and more complex than expected. The discovery is reshaping everything we thought we knew about early civilizations in the Americas.

Arezki Amiri
Published on February 25, 2025
Read : 3 min



Laser Mapping Uncovers a 2,500-Year-Old Lost Amazonian Cities—Older Than the Roman Empire! | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel


For centuries, the Amazon rainforest was thought to be a vast, untouched wilderness, inhabited only by scattered hunter-gatherer societies. But cutting-edge Lidar technology has just shattered that idea—revealing an ancient network of massive Amazonian cities that existed more than 2,500 years ago.

These lost settlements, buried beneath thick jungle in Ecuador’s Upano Valley, were home to tens of thousands of people, boasting wide roads, ceremonial centers, and sophisticated agricultural systems. The findings rewrite pre-Columbian history and prove that the Amazon was once the heart of a thriving civilization.

A Lost Urban World Beneath the Jungle

Using laser pulses that penetrate dense vegetation, archaeologists discovered an intricate network of ancient cities spanning 300 square kilometers. The settlements, described today in Science, which predate even Roman London, included five major cities and ten smaller settlements.

The roads that connected them stretched for over 12 miles, some as wide as 33 feet, showing a high level of urban planning. At the heart of these cities stood massive earthen mounds, likely used for ceremonial or communal gatherings, demonstrating an advanced level of societal organization.

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A lidar map of the city of Kunguints in the Ecuadorian Amazon reveals ancient streets lined with houses. Antoine Dorison and Stéphen Rostain

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