Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered an untouched Maya city hidden deep in the jungles of Campeche, complete with pyramids, palace complexes, and carved stone monuments that sat undisturbed for more than a thousand years.
Researchers named the site Minanbé, a Maya Yucatec phrase meaning “there is no road,” after the dense forest that kept it hidden for centuries.
A team of Mexican and Slovenian researchers, led by archaeologist Ivan Šprajc, found the city inside the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. The discovery caps a three-decade project to map the central Maya lowlands, a region that once held between 9 and 11 million people during the Late Classic period, between 600 and 900 A.D.
A hidden Maya city found untouched in Mexico’s jungle
Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) approved the field season. The team returned to the reserve’s northern section to survey land west of Chactún, a major Maya center first reported 13 years ago. Researchers had already collected laser scan data from the air, known as LiDAR, before heading into the field.
Workers from the nearby community of Constitución helped clear a path with machetes across five kilometers (3.1 miles). The crew then rode all-terrain vehicles before walking a similar distance on foot under the sun.
Šprajc said the lack of old logging roads, which usually guide researchers to other sites, turned out to be a good sign. He said access proved far harder than at other locations, but the site showed no signs of looting, unlike anything his team had found in three years. He called it a major surprise.
Pyramid temple reveals rare architectural style
Archaeologists Atasta Flores Esquivel, Israel Chato López, Quintín Hernández Gómez, and Vitan Vujanović led the ground survey. They confirmed a 15-hectare urban center with plazas, palace buildings, religious structures, terraces, and wetlands with water channels.
The tallest structure, a pyramid temple rising more than 13 meters (42 feet), shows features of the Río Bec architectural style, including fine stonework and a steep staircase.
Vujanović said it marks the first time he has documented a temple in such good condition, along with a stone monument that still bears readable glyphs.
Carved stones point to final years of the Classic Maya era
The team also found Stela 1, which shows a beheading scene, along with 14 other monuments carved with symbols and hieroglyphic text. Epigrapher Octavio Esparza Olguín studied 3D models built from roughly 500 photographs of the carvings.
He identified a calendar date on Stela 1 corresponding to the year 849 A.D., suggesting the monuments were raised near the end of the Classic period, shortly before the region’s cities were abandoned in the 10th century.
Researchers also found altars that appear to have been deliberately broken, including one bearing hieroglyphic text that may date to the late 7th century, potentially the oldest carving found at the site.
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