William Gadoury, 15-year-old Canadian boy genius interested in ancient Mayan civilization, was studying maps of Mayan cities and comparing them to constellations when he noticed that the constellations appeared very similar to the maps, according to The Telegraph.
The correlation he found, that the location of ancient Mayan cities were linked to the stars, was a discovery that no other scholar had made in years of research and one that lead to the discovery of a long-lost Mayan city.
“I was really surprised and excited when I realized that the most brilliant stars of the constellations matched the largest Maya cities,” he told the Journal de Montréal.
Once he found the correlation, he realized that one of the constellations did not having a linked city. Gadoury found the projected location on Google Maps and saw that the city would have been in dense Mexican jungle.
He contacted the Canadian Space Agency, who decided to take satellite photos of the site—And what they found was striking. There did indeed appear to be pyramids and structures at the location. In fact, the city might have been one of the largest Mayan cities.
In honor of his unbelievable discovery, Goudry was given the opportunity to name the city. He decided on K’aak Chi, which means Fire Mouth.
Goudry, along with many interested archeologists, hopes to one day visit the city. A journey to such a remote part of the jungle would be costly, but the historic knowledge gained would be well worth the effort.