Uncovering an Ancient City’s Secrets

November 10, 2009

AOL News

From a distance, it looks like a mountain overrun by dense growth in the Guatemalan jungle. But researchers who have been exploring the remains of an ancient Mayan city say the massive mound may be the world’s largest pyramid.

In a video posted on CNN’s Web site Sunday, correspondent Brooke Baldwin reported on how scientists working at the site of the Mayan city of El Mirador are trying to preserve the pyramid, called La Danta. You can watch her report below.

“The pyramid is a structure the world should know, because it represents an investment of labor unprecedented in the world’s history. Every single stone in that building, from the bottom to the top, was carried by human labor,” said archaeologist Richard Hansen, director of the Mirador Basin Project.

(According to National Geographic, the Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt, is currently the world’s largest. It consists of 2.3 million stone blocks that weigh 2.5 tons to 15 tons apiece.)

El Mirador covered an area larger than downtown Los Angeles, and Hansen believes it may be home to thousands of other pyramids, Baldwin said. The city was active from about 500 B.C. to A.D. 100.

Hansen showed Baldwin another of the team’s finds: ancient stone carvings that lays out the Mayan creation story. Hansen told Baldwin the discovery could rewrite Mayan history.

Preservationists are trying to save the area in the face of threats that range from drug trafficking to looting and logging, according to the Global Heritage Fund.

Click here for the full report.