An archaeological team has discovered two lost cities in a jungle in La Mosquitia, Honduras.
The team emerged from the rainforest with evidence of pyramids, plazas and artifacts including the effigy of a half-human, half-jaguar spirit, according to The Guardian. The site seemed to have gone untouched by humans for 600 years, said Chris Fisher, the lead US archaeologist.
Fisher and the team arrived by helicopter to explore what an aerial survey revealed in 2012. The surveying technology Lidar showed a human-created landscape with houses, plazas, structures, orchards, house gardens, fields of crops and roads, Fisher said.
Archaeologists found stone structures that resembled Mayan culture. However, these were not Mayan people. The team found 52 artifacts that suggested this culture was different from the Mayan civilization. The site dates back to 1000 AD and 1400 AD, and Fisher believes European diseases contributed to the culture's disappearance.
Some experts believe that this site might be part of the legendary "White City," also known as "City of the Monkey God," the Huffington Post reported. National Geographic sent a reporter and a photographer along on the expedition.
"For a hundred years, explorers and prospectors told tales of the white ramparts of a lost city glimpsed above the jungle foliage," National Geographic said. "Indigenous stories speak of a 'white house' or a 'place of cacao' where Indians took refuge from Spanish conquistadores - a mystical, Eden-like paradise from which no one ever returned."
