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Ancient Mayan City, Lost For Centuries, Discoverd By 15-Year-Old Schoolboy

William Gadoury has just uncovered what may be the archeological find of the century

A Mayan temple in Belieze, similar to the one discovered by 15 year old William Gadoury – Photo: iStock

What’s the greatest thing you’d discovered by the age of 15? For most of us, it’s either how to get out of PE at school (fake letter from mum) how to buy booze (fake ID from the local Working Men’s Club) or how to get the hottie from number 32 to put-out (actually, we never discovered that).

However, Canadian school child and mild-genius, William Gadoury from Quebec, Canada is kind of ahead of the curve. He’s only gone and discovered a lost city, that was once inhabited by the ancient Mayan people of South America.

Historians and geological experts alike have been searching for the lost city since before Indiana Jones was a twinkle in Sean Connery’s Eye, all to no avail. But their failings only serve to highlight just how brilliant young William’s discovery is.

Gadoury, who’s already won competitions with the Canadian Space Agency for his work and study into the cosmos, used star charts to track down the site for the long-lost city. The 15-year-old is a bit of a buff when it comes to all things Mayan, having became fascinated with the ancient civilisation when they predicted (SPOILER ALERT – incorrectly) the end of the universe in 2012.

Photo: iStock

“What appears to be the lost ancient city was found”

Gadoury noticed that Mayans didn’t build cities near rivers, unlike virtually all other early civilisations (it’s no coincidence that most major cities are near a stretch of water). He hit upon the idea that the Mayans may have been using the stars when in the town planing stages of construction.

While his mates were probably over the park drinking cider and kicking a ball at a daft kid called Adam, Gadoury analysed 22 ancient Mayan star maps (known, rather sexily as The Madrid Codex) overlaid them against images from Google Earth, and soon worked out that 117 known Mayan cities correspond with the constellations, the cities matching the exact location of the brightest star in each.

William then overlaid a 23rd star map, and sure enough, two known cities matched two of the stars, but the there was a third star and no known city. So, he got in touch with his old pals at the Canadian Space Agency who provided him with up-to-date satellite photos of the area, and sure enough, what appears to be the lost ancient city, complete with full pyramid, were spotted.

The site of the lost Mayan city – Photo: Canadian Space Agency

However, before you change your summer travel plans from Magaluf to the hip new Mayan pad, the site of the discovery is said to be in one of the most remote and inaccessible areas of Mexico (which has led for calls for it to be twinned with Stoke-on-Trent). As such, any archeological exploration will be incredibly costly.

However, this doesn’t take any of the shine of young William Gadoury incredible discovery.

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