ancient cities

17 Stories

Mayan Capital City Has Been Hiding 'in Plain Sight'

Valeriana in southern Mexico reportedly features 6,764 buildings over 6.5 square miles

(Newser) - A presumed capital city of the Maya has been discovered "hidden in plain sight" under vegetation in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. The hidden complex—showing evidence of pyramids, amphitheaters, sports fields, and causeways connecting districts—is made up of three sites in the southeastern state of Campeche, per...

Ancient City of Bargylia Could Be Yours for $8M

The property includes a theater, fortification walls, acropolis, and necropolis

(Newser) - The ancient Greek city of Bargylia in modern-day Turkey is on the market and could be yours for just $8 million, reports MNN . Located 19 miles from Bodrum on 300 acres overlooking the Gulf of Güllük, the property includes a theatre, fortification walls, acropolis, and necropolis, according to...

Legendary Ancient City Found by Accident

Mardaman in modern-day Iraq is nearly 5K years old

(Newser) - Archaeologists who've spent five years digging up an ancient city in Iraq's Kurdistan region have finally learned its name—and it's legendary. Mardaman, once the capital of a Mesopotamian province and its own independent kingdom, is believed to have begun as early as 4,800 years ago...

Where This Mound Stands Was a City Larger Than Paris

Exploring what remains of Cahokia in modern-day Illinois

(Newser) - What drove the rapid decline of the largest city of North America some seven centuries ago? Annalee Newitz takes an up-close look for Ars Technica after traveling to the outskirts of East St. Louis, Ill., this past summer to help archaeologists dig up what evidence they can of Cahokia, which...

ISIS Images Show Destroyed Ancient Temple

It appears the 2K-year-old temple of Baalshamin is no more

(Newser) - ISIS released propaganda images today that purport to show militants laying explosives in and then blowing up the 2,000-year-old temple of Baalshamin in Syria's ancient caravan city of Palmyra. The images, posted on social media by supporters of the group, showed militants carrying barrels of explosives, and laying...

'Darkest Predictions Taking Place' in Ancient City

ISIS blows up 'extremely important' Palmyra temple

(Newser) - When ISIS first seized the ancient city of Palmyra in May, the group's conduct at first seemed oddly restrained —but now there's death and destruction as usual. In the latest outrage, the militants blew up the 2,000-year-old temple of Baal Shamin, a Roman-era site that, like...

Archaeologists Find the Gate to Goliath's Hometown

The city entrance is one of the largest ever found in Israel

(Newser) - An archaeological dig now in its 20th year has uncovered the entrance gate to Gath, the ancient Biblical city of the Philistines and onetime home of the giant Goliath. Before the king of Damascus destroyed it in 830 BCE, Gath was the largest city in the land for hundreds of...

New Mission in Iraq, Syria: Save Ancient Treasures From ISIS

Precious antiquities being destroyed by militants

(Newser) - ISIS militants have trashed museum pieces in Mosul with sledgehammers, bulldozed the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, and yesterday destroyed the Hatra ruins in Iraq, reports the BBC . But while the New York Times catalogs everything that antiquities ministers and workers are doing to stave off the annihilation of some...

2 Ancient Villages Emerge in Arizona National Park

Dwellings built into sand dunes

(Newser) - An ancient village has come to light in Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park—and it's the second such find in as many years. The villages are some 1,300 years old, dating from between 200 AD and 700 AD, ABC News reports. Archaeologists discovered homes dug into the...

Scientists Say They've Found Atlantis

Mythical, tsunami-swamped city is off the coast of Spain

(Newser) - The mythical, ancient city of Atlantis was probably located just north of what is now Cadiz, on the southern coast of Spain, before it was swamped by a massive tsunami, according to a team of American researchers. Using a satellite photo of the marshlands of Dona Ana Park, along with...

Robot Probes Mexican Ruins
 Robot Probes Mexican Ruins 
Nov 11, 2010 4:13 AM CST

Robot Probes Mexican Ruins

Archeologists send scout into Teotihuacan tunnel

(Newser) - The robot equivalent of Indiana Jones has given archeologists the all-clear to investigate a long-hidden tunnel under the ruins of Teotihuacan, Mexico. The remote-controlled robot—named Tlaloque after the Aztec rain god—was sent through the recently discovered 2,000-year-old tunnel under the temple of Quetzacoatl to determine whether it...

Pair's Remains May Date to Trojan War

Find in ancient Troy could date to 1200 BC

(Newser) - In a discovery one professor calls “electrifying,” archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a couple believed to have lived during the Trojan War era in Turkey’s ancient city of Troy, Reuters reports. “If the remains are confirmed to be from 1200 BC it would coincide with...

In Remote Amazon, Complex Towns Once Flourished

Archaeologists see advanced civilization in areas since overtaken by rain forest

(Newser) - Researchers have unearthed remains of densely populated, complex urban towns in a remote region of the Amazon River Basin, the BBC reports. In an area of western Brazil thought to be virgin forest, researchers found extensive and advanced human activity, including roads, farming, wetland management, and what appear to be...

Sahara Yields Ancient Cemetery
 Sahara Yields Ancient Cemetery 
Aug 15, 2008 2:13 PM CDT

Sahara Yields Ancient Cemetery

Find shows desert was once lush, green, populated

(Newser) - Explorers hunting for dinosaur bones have found a Stone Age cemetery deep in the Sahara desert, National Geographic reports. The team of paleontologists discovered bones from two separate ancient human cultures that lived in the region as long as 10,000 years ago, when monsoon rains turned parts of the...

New Findings Shatter Old Mayan Theories

Decades of local disasters slowly undermined their cities

(Newser) - Some experts want to drain Mayan history of its high drama—the sudden collapse, and desperate migration—to tell a longer, slower story, USA Today reports. Classic history claims that Mayan cities imploded quickly around 900 AD, and their people trekked north to colonize in the Yucatan—but experts now...

Archaeologists Unearth Pre-Inca Temple

'Sacred ceremonial nature' of site surprises researchers

(Newser) - Archaeologists have dug up a pre-Incan temple that sheds light on a lost Peruvian culture, the AP reports. Nestled in a mountain region, the sprawling site housed the Killke people as they fended off an encroaching Spanish empire around 1200 AD. Evidence of mummies and idols shows that the Killke...

Ancient Plaza Found in Peru
Ancient Plaza Found in Peru
Feb 26, 2008 1:50 PM CST

Ancient Plaza Found in Peru

Site may be oldest urban structure in the Americas

(Newser) - Archaeologists in Peru have unearthed one of the oldest structures in the Americas, Reuters reports. Carbon dating indicates the ceremonial plaza in Casma is 5,500 years old, scientists at the dig say. That's 500 years older than the nearby ancient citadel of Caral, previously thought be Peru’s oldest...

17 Stories