Laser scan reveals 18th century ghost town in the middle of the Amazon rainforest

The "ghost" of a ruined city suddenly appeared when scientists scanned a tropical rainforest with LiDAR.

According to Newsweek, a research team led by Dr. Eduardo Neves, director of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at the University of São Paulo (Brazil), discovered a "lost city" in the Amazon rainforest.

The city is known in some ancient maps but its exact location is unknown.

The ruins of a city hundreds of years ago have been found in the middle of the Amazon rainforest - (Illustration by AI: ANH THU).

"The city was abandoned, the forest had invaded and the stones had been moved… We were able to determine the layout of the streets in this city," Dr Neves told Brazil's Metrópoles news agency.

From the 1500s, the Portuguese invaded the area, establishing a colonial government that lasted for three centuries, exploiting the natural resources of the Amazon.

It was not until the early 19th century, under the leadership of Prince Dom Pedro I, that Brazil declared independence, ending more than 300 years of colonial rule.

The newly discovered "ghost town" in the middle of the forest is an important relic that records this historical period. Preliminary research shows that it was built around the 18th century.

Further field excavations will be needed to better understand this site.

The discovery is part of the Amazonia Revelada project, which aims to identify archaeological sites hidden deep beneath the jungle canopy.

This major project used LiDAR to survey many areas, a remote sensing tool that uses lasers to create three-dimensional maps of the ground, in search of hidden structures.

Several excavations based on unusual structures previously detected by LiDAR have brought back artifacts from ancient settlements that are thousands of years old.

The Amazon region is believed to have been inhabited for at least 11,000-12,000 years, although some artifacts have led scientists to suspect the first prehistoric settlements appeared as early as 13,000 years ago.