Giant ancient city found in the Amazon in Ecuador

Archaeologists have uncovered a cluster of lost cities in the Amazon rainforest that were home to at least 10,000 farmers about 2,000 years ago.

Recent mapping by laser-sensor technology revealed those sites to be part of a dense network of settlements and connecting roadways, tucked into the forested foothills of the Andes, that lasted about 1,000 years.

According to scientists, the settlements were occupied by the Upano people between around 500 BC and 300 AD to 600 AD – a period roughly contemporaneous with the Roman Empire, the researchers found.