Laser scanning reveals 'ghost valley' of 30,000 people in the middle of the Amazon rainforest

Described as an "unbelievable" discovery, the giant "ghost" of the Amazon rainforest is a valley of 2,500-year-old cities .

According to AP, the shocking discovery of this "ghost valley" came from a suspicion two decades ago by archaeologist Stephen Rostain (French National Center for Scientific Research) while exploring the Amazon forest.

These are buried mounds and roads found scattered across the Ecuadorian part of the Amazon.

"Valley of Lost Cities" in the middle of the Amazon forest through LiDAR images - (Photo: SCIENCE).

To uncover the secrets of one of the world's densest and most difficult-to-survey forests, Dr. Rostain and his colleagues used LiDAR, a remote sensing tool that uses lasers to create 3D maps of hidden structures.

What emerged from the forest was absolutely stunning: an ancient settlement network of interconnected cities.

These settlements were occupied by the Upano people between 500 BC and around 300-600 AD.

According to archaeologist Antonie Dorison, co-author, the structures suggest that the entire Ghost Valley was home to at least 10,000 people for about 1,000 years. At its peak, the population may have reached 15,000-30,000 people.

Dr Rostain called the find "incredible", while archaeologist Michael Heckenberger from the University of Florida, who was not involved in the research, commented: "For the site, it's really in a class of its own, given its era."

Dr. Heckenberger's comments imply that the level of construction and social organization of the cities in the "ghost valley of the Amazon forest" is far superior to that of civilizations in the region and even in the world.

The surviving evidence suggests that they had dense occupational networks and an extremely complex society.

Archaeologist Jose Irarte, who was also involved in the study, explains that a complex and organized labor system would have been needed to build a network of roads within and connecting the cities as well as various other structures.

Not to mention, these people also faced a bigger challenge, which was building cities with mud bricks because there was not an abundant amount of stone available like where the Maya or Inca lived.

All of this has completely overturned the long-held view that the Amazon was a pristine wilderness, inhabited only by small tribes in the past.