It was founded about 2500 years ago
While artificial intelligence is helping to revolutionize forensic science, good old lidar has helped scientists discover the remains of an ancient city in the Amazon jungle that could have been home to up to 100,000 people.
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a complex that in some sense could be called a single city in the Upano Valley in Ecuador in the eastern foothills of the Andes. Scientists have been interested in these places for a very long time, but the lidar made it possible to see what was hidden under dense vegetation and could hardly be fully discovered by another method.
The scale of the city, given its approximate age, is truly amazing. There were more than 6,000 buildings on an area of about 300 sq. km. Now, of course, all that remains of them are platforms. Presumably, we are talking about at least 15 separate settlements, but connected by a system of large straight roads. What’s interesting is that, despite the difficult terrain, the roads are straight and often intersect at right angles, that is, they were built according to some plan, regardless of the complexity of the work. Moreover, the fact that scientists previously believed that the ancient South Americans in this region were nomads or lived in tiny settlements adds additional importance to the find. The huge city shows that this was definitely not the case.
According to the conclusion of scientists, the complex was probably inhabited by people of the Kilamope and Upano cultures from about 500 BC. to 300–600 AD Of course, it is impossible to determine the population of the city, but, according to archaeologists, we are talking about a minimum of 10,000 people and a maximum of 100,000.