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Mexican authorities are extremely restrictive when it comes to access to ancient Aztec, Mayan and other archaeological sites. Since COVID, the pyramids have been cordoned off and access to them prohibited. However, and as is typical with the Mexican malinchismo (a term used for locals who give preferential treatment to foreigners), MrBeast was granted unfettered access not only to the pyramids themselves but also permission to enter areas millions of Mexicans have never seen. “I can’t believe the government’s letting us do this,” he said. “Nobody gets to go where we’re going,” he said inside one of the pyramids. He...

Microscopic granules of sweet potato starch (kūmara) have been discovered with Asia-Pacific taro and Pacific yam (uwhi) at Triangle Flat, a site located on the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island, according to an RNZ report. Researchers from the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka determined that the Māori cultivated these crops as early as A.D. 1290 to 1385. "The first people who came here, came here to garden as well as to hunt things and they demonstrated from the outset that they were really sophisticated gardeners and they continued to be sophisticated gardeners over time," said archaeologist...

Scientists have identified what could potentially be the “deepest known blue hole” in the world, extending so far down that the bottom has not yet been reached. Researchers described how the underwater abyss’s extensive depths could harbor a “biodiversity to be explored” in a recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. Indeed, new measurements taken during a December scuba-diving expedition indicate that the Taam Ja’ Blue Hole (TJBH), located in Chetumal Bay off the Yucatan Peninsula, extends at least 1,380 feet (420 meters) below sea level — nearly the height of Trump Tower in Chicago. That’s 480...

Ruins,Of,The,Ancient,Mayan,City,Of,Kabah,In,The Shutterstock/Yucatan Peninsula A team of archaeologists discovered a long-lost Mayan city beneath the jungle in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula in June, filled with pyramids, palaces and even a sports complex. The ancient Mayan ruins, currently named Ocomtun, were identified in the Balamku ecological reserve, which is more than 50 hectares in size, big enough to hide pyramids that rise some 50 feet into the sky, according to a news release from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History. The site is believed to have been built and in use sometime around 250-1,000 A.D. and contained a number of large buildings,...

A team of archaeologists has made a discovery in Mexico, where they have uncovered the remains of a long-lost Maya city hidden within the dense jungle of the Yucatán Peninsula. Upon further investigation, these experts have come across multiple structures that resemble pyramids, towering over 15 meters (50 feet) in height. The archaeologists have given the site a name: Ocomtún, which means “stone column” in the Mayan language. The Maya civilization is one of the most remarkable societies in the Western Hemisphere. They gained renown for their majestic pyramid temples and grand stone structures, which once adorned the regions we...

Mexico’s president posted a photo on his social media accounts Saturday showing what he said appeared to be a mythological woodland spirit similar to an elf. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not seem to be joking when he posted the photo of an “Aluxe,” a mischievous woodland spirit in Mayan folklore. López Obrador wrote the photo “was taken three days ago by an engineer, it appears to be an aluxe,” adding “everything is mystical.”

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not seem to be joking when he posted the photo of an “Aluxe,” a mischievous woodland spirit in Mayan folklore. López Obrador wrote the photo “was taken three days ago by an engineer, it appears to be an aluxe,” adding “everything is mystical.” The nighttime photo shows a tree with a branch forming what looks like a halo of hair, and what may be stars forming the figure’s eyes. López Obrador has long expressed reverence for indigenous cultures and beliefs. Engineers and workers are in the Yucatan peninsula, constructing a tourist train that is...

...The unnamed woman could be seen near the top of El Castillo – or Pyramid of Kukulcán – in the Mexican state of Yucatán dancing while an enraged group of people shouted abuse at her from down below. Ascending the 82-ft pyramid at the Chichen Itza archaeological site – formerly one of the most important centres of the Mayan civilisation – has been prohibited since 2008. ...The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) issued a statement a few hours after the video was released on social media, noting that the monument had not been damaged. Fines for climbing the...

We’ve long known a disaster took place about 66 million years ago, where in a geological instant, 75% of the plants and animals on Earth were wiped out, including all the land-roaming dinosaurs. But here’s a new detail about that event: Even though we can’t pinpoint exactly what year this disaster took place, we now know it happened during the springtime. Most scientists agree the disaster was an asteroid impact, where an asteroid at least 10 kilometers wide struck the Chicxulub region in the present-day Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The impact released 2 million times more energy than the most...

Measuring over 5ft (1.6m), it was found almost completely intact, submerged in a freshwater pool near the ruined Mayan city of Chichen Itza. The rare find came during construction work on a new tourist railway known as the Maya Train. In a statement, the Inah said archaeologists had also discovered ceramics, a ritual knife and painted murals of hands on a rockface in the pool, known as a cenote. Experts from Paris's Sorbonne University have been helping with pin-pointing the canoe's exact age and type, the statement said. A 3D model of it would also be made to allow replicas...

Researchers have discovered nearly 500 ceremonial complexes in Mexico, and they are thought to have been of cosmic importance to Mesoamerican civilizations over 2,000 years ago. The hundreds of sites were discovered using publicly available LIDAR data collected by the Mexican government... ...It is thought they were constructed by diverse groups between 1,050 BC and 400 BC...and, and, based on they way they are facing, many seem to be aligned with the sunrise of a certain date....

<p>Archaeology experts in Mexico say they have detected the ruins of almost 2,500 pre-Hispanic structures and 80 burial sites along a controversial train route project on the Yucatan peninsula. Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History did not say whether any of the remains were disturbed or destroyed by the Maya Train project, which in some places runs alongside existing rail lines. The finds range from simple stone outlines of thatched pre-Hispanic Maya homes to ceremonial platforms. Potential damage to the environment and archaeological sites are some of the reasons why critics oppose the project. The train is intended to connect Caribbean beach resorts to the peninsula’s interior in a bid to stimulate economic development.</p>

The great Maya "white road" that connected the cities of Coba and Yaxuna was an incredible feat of engineering. Built around A.D. 700, the 26-foot-wide road paved in white plaster extended more than 60 miles across the Yucatan Peninsula. Much of this route is today shrouded in thick vegetation, but a new lidar survey has provided researchers with high-quality images of the busy road's path. Using these images, they have detected many lost villages and more than 8,000 hidden structures that once lined the route.

The first settlers of the Yucatán Peninsula built bonfires 10,000 years ago in a cave now flooded with water, studies have confirmed. Charcoal samples from 14 prehistoric bonfires removed from the Ancestors Chamber of the Aktun Ha cenote, or natural sinkhole, in Tulum, Quintana Roo, in 2017 and 2018 were analyzed by scientists from the National Autonomous University (UNAM). They used a range of different methods including controlled heating experiments, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and carbon dating. The scientists determined that the bonfires were lit between 10,250 and 10,750 years ago. Corresponding to the early Holcene period - the current...

Shimmying through a maze of dark tunnels below the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, archaeologists have rediscovered a long-sealed cave brimming with lost treasure. According to an statement from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the cave is stockpiled with more than 150 artifacts, including incense burners, vases, and decorative plates adorned with the faces of ancient gods and other religious icons. The trove is believed to be just one of seven sacred chambers in a network of tunnels known as Balamku — "Jaguar God" — that sits below Chichén Itzá, a city that...

To access just the first of seven ritual offering chambers identified so far within Balamku, archaeologists must crawl flat on their stomachs through hundreds of feet of tortuously narrow passages. In the original report on the cave (recently located by archaeologist and GAM investigator James Brady of California State University, Los Angeles), Segovia identified 155 artifacts, some with faces of Toltec rain god Tláloc, and others with markings of the sacred ceiba tree, a potent representation of the Maya universe. In comparison, the nearby cave of Balankanché, a ritual site excavated in 1959, contains just 70 of these objects. “Balamku...

The eastern coastline of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, a mecca for tourists, may have been walloped by a tsunami between 1,500 and 900 years ago, says a new study involving Mexico’s Centro Ecological Akumal (CEA) and the University of Colorado Boulder. There are several lines of evidence for an ancient tsunami, foremost a large, wedge-shaped berm about 15 feet above sea level paved with washing machine-sized stones, said the researchers. Set back in places more than a quarter of a mile from shore, the berm stretches for at least 30 miles, alternating between rocky headlands and crescent beaches as it tracks...

One of the earliest human skeletons of America, which belonged to a person that lived more than 10,000 years ago, in the Ice Age, was recovered by Mexican specialists from a flooded cave in Quintana Roo. The information it has lodged for centuries will reveal new data regarding the settlement of the Americas. The Young Man of Chan Hol, as the skeleton is known among the scientific community, due to the slight tooth wear it presents, which indicates an early age, is the fourth of our earliest ancestors found in the American Continent, and has been studied as part of...

The Gran Acuifero Maya (GAM), a project dedicated to the study and preservation of the subterranean waters of the Yucatan peninsula, said the 216-mile (347km) cave was identified after months of exploring a maze of underwater channels. Near the beach resort of Tulum, the project found that the cave system known as Sac Actun, once measured at 163 miles, is actually connected with the 53-mile Dos Ojos system. In a statement, GAM said for that reason, Sac Actun now absorbs Dos Ojos. GAM director and underwater archaeologist Guillermo de Anda hailed the discovery as an 'amazing' find. He also said...

Apparently laid to rest more than 10,000 years ago in a fiery ritual, one of the oldest skeletons in the Americas has been retrieved from an undersea cave along Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, researchers say. Dating to a time when the now lush region was a near desert, the "Young Man of Chan Hol" may help uncover how the first Americans arrived—and who they were. About 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Cancún, the cave system of Chan Hol—Maya for "little hole"—is like a deep gouge into the Caribbean coast. In 2006, after entering the cave's opening, about 30 feet (10...