Stories

Top image: A view of the Tikal jungle landscape from Temple IV. It was in this dense forested area that LIDAR amazing found the Teotihuacan replicas hidden from archaeologists working at the famous site for more than 60 years. Source: JuanLuis / Adobe Stock

Smaller copies of faraway buildings

Tikal, Guatemala. the early first millennium AD. Greece and Rome. Debated. Free

A full-size copy of the faraway city was not found.

Debated. Mounds at Tikal hide smaller buildings copied from a city far away.

Tikal is in northern Guatemala. The buildings date to the early first millennium AD. They lay under mounds that looked like hills. They follow the citadel at Teotihuacan, in Mexico, about 1,300 kilometres to the north-west. That citadel may have been a palace area. The copies are smaller, but their angles and facing match. Many were built in mud plaster, not the limestone Maya builders usually used.

Who built them, and why, is still argued.

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/teotihuacan-replica-0015879